Guild Wars 2

Does GW2 have a future?

Yes, yes it does.

For completeness, both the elementalist and the engineer have no weapon swap slots.

For the elementalist, this is because the attunements have basically the same function (only better).
For the engineer, this is because the weapon kits (which can mostly be picked as utility skills) serve the same purpose, with no cooldown.

Apart from Ascended equipment (which was introduced over the course of 2013), Guild Wars 2 is not expected to have a “gear treadmill”. This means that your Exotic equipment should always remain viable.

As mentioned before, Ascended equipment is only slightly better than Exotic. (Actually, the difference is closer to 5%, not 10%.)

One thing ArenaNet does do, however, is to create more options. The number of combinations of stats on equipment is gradually increasing. (For example, the recent updates added the Toughness/Vitality/Healing Power set to the game.)

Also, bear in mind that “Critical Damage %” has been replaced with “Ferocity” in April 2014. Ferocity does the same thing it, but uses a slightly different formula to calculate your critical damage bonus.

The only way to receive a penalty is by doing something that is against the Terms of Service. Completing events is not against the Terms of Service.

Knowingly reporting another player for no reason is against the Terms of Service.

Harassing another player (either by threatening to report them or excessively mocking them because their event got finished early) is against the Terms of Service.

Inciting other players to harass or report a player is against the Terms of Service.

It does not matter how many times you get reported. If you did nothing wrong, you will not receive a penalty from ArenaNet. Every single report will be evaluated by an ArenaNet employee. Account suspensions and terminations are never automated; they are always reviewed by a real person.
(Still, sometimes they make a mistake – apparently as in the case of Malediktus – but contacting Support to appeal the decision apparently worked there.)

“And it is, it is a glorious thing to be a pirate king!”
- Gilbert & Sullivan

Note that the “story mode” for all dungeons has a lower level threshold than the “explorable mode”. You only unlock explorable mode after completing story mode for the first time.

Note that most people want to do explorable mode with a party of level 80s only, because it is generally harder and more challenging than story mode.
Story mode, however, is very much doable at lower levels. All you need is a group of other players, and you don’t need to someone to explain every encounter (although it does help).

If you advertise to find a party, make sure to list whether you want to do “story” or one of the explorable paths (“p1”, “p2”, “p3”, “p4”).

If you are a seller, you pay 5% of the sell price when you list the item. This is taken from your wallet immediately, and it is non-refundable – even if you cancel the trade.
(If you cancel and re-list the item, you will have to pay it again.)

If your listed item is sold, you pay 10% of the sell price. This is deducted from the revenue that the Trade Post gives you back.

If you are buying an item, you pay no fees or taxes at all.

Example:
- You have an item that you want to sell for 1 gold.
- Upon listing the item, you pay 5 silver (5% of 1 gold) out of your wallet.
- (If you cancel the trade before it sells, you get your item back, but the 5s is lost.)
- When the item is sold, 10 silver (10% of 1 gold) is deducted from the revenue.
- When you pick up your revenue, you receive 90 silver from the Trade Post.
The net result for you is that you end up 85 silver richer.

The buyer in this example simply pays 1 gold to the Trade Post, and receives the item.

Yes, it would be possible. This does not mean it will also be done.

I am not quite sure why you posted this in the “players helping players” subforum, though, because ArenaNet does not typically post here.
After all, this is the place where players answer other players’ questions.

This is currently not possible.

However, ArenaNet have not entirely ruled out the possibility to make the Personal Story instances replayable. Living Story Season 1 will receive a higher priority for that, though. (And it is uncertain if even that is feasible from a design point of view.)

My human and sylvari characters are also affected by this bug. My guess is not all humans or sylvari are affected, as it may depend on character height. (My male sylvari is relatively tall.)

Referring to the merging of topics: This is done by forum moderators, not developers. Forum moderators can manage, merge, lock and delete threads. What they cannot do is answer any questions about the game.
The actions of the moderators can, however, increase the chance that a developer notices and reads the thread.

By the way, have you also posted an in-game bug report?

Orpheal.8263:

They haven’t heard for over 2 years now on the massive QQ from all of the russians, dutchs, portuguese and what not all others out there.
Why should they hear on now for your QQ about arabian language ??

As a Dutch player, I can tell you that the Dutch generally do not actively petition for Dutch language versions of PC games. I can give a number of possible reasons:

- The Dutch are not used to localized games, so expectations of the possibility are low. (We are well aware that our country is small, and our language area not much larger – i.e. encompassing The Netherlands, half of Belgium, Suriname, and rather-close-but-really-not South Africa.)

- Many Dutch people are proficient in at least some basic English. Gamers especially so. You can blame American popular culture for that. In fact, quite a number of gamers (myself among them) would find Dutch language versions of fantasy and science fiction content jarring and banal.

- The Netherlands and Belgium do not have a tradition of dubbing foreign movies and TV shows. Instead, we use subtitles. This increases exposure to (especially) the English language.
(This development is diminishing, as increasingly more foreign cartoons and children’s shows are being dubbed in Dutch.)

- In the case of Belgium (which consists of about 50% Dutch speakers and 50% French speakers), the native Dutch speakers are quite used to reverting to either English or French anyway when dealing with the French-speaking population. They can do the same in Guild Wars 2.

The Dutch know – as well as ArenaNet – that the Dutch-speaking gaming market is simply too small to justify a localized version of any PC game. And we are (generally) fine with that. Therefore, I find it highly unlikely that there would be droves of Dutch gamers demanding their own language versions. (Similarly, how many claims for Norwegian or Swedish localization have you ever seen?)

In the case of both the Russian and Arab languages, I can imagine that there are more legitimate claims for localized versions of Guild Wars 2. Many more people speak these languages than the Dutch language, after all. (Although the ratio of native speakers of these language who would consider buying games like Guild Wars 2 could be different.)
However, since these languages have their own script, it would require technical investments in the game UI and software, in addition to simply tranlating. This raises the threshold to implement such localization, as the number of people who buy the game as a result of Arab or Russian language support has to be quite high to justify the cost of not only translating all in-game text into Arab or Russian, but also enabling the Arab or Cyrilllic scripts in the game interface.

It is unreasonable for any QA department to demand a 100% result rate of finding bugs (because that would require an astronomical amount of both time and money). Thus, there must be a trade-off for time and costs. So a compromise must be found. ArenaNet decided on a ratio of time-and-money versus quality of bug-finding. The compass exhibits a bug. It is likely that the QA department did not encounter or identify the bug during testing. The bug slipped through the cracks. A certain amount of bugs that slip through the cracks is unavoidable, and they can get fixed by patches afterwards.

Players who demand zero bugs upon release of an update are unreasonable, because some bugs are so unexpected that they are unavoidable. What is reasonable, however, is for players to expect that any bugs that do appear can be fixed later, within a reasonable timeframe.
(What is a “reasonable timeframe” depends on the severity of the bug. A client crash bug must be fixed very quickly. An in-game marker that provides misleading information can get a little more time than that. An event with an unintended difficulty level has a longer timeframe. A minor typo in an item description has very low priority.)

These are my assumptions. I challenge you to challenge them.

XApocalypse.8739:

People like you are the reason nothing ever gets fixed, and always agree with everything the devs do. For once stop being a white night and try to help the game instead of killing it even further.

Your post makes no sense.

The person you quote agrees with some things in the update, and disagrees with other things in the update. There is no “always agreeing with everything the devs do” there.

Also, while you make a valid point about critical player feedback being important for improving the quality of the game, you make it sound as if agreeing with anything that is changed in the game is a bad thing. People like different things. Is enjoying something that you don’t appear to enjoy “killing the game further”? So who made you the expert?

Swizzle.7982:

Jornophelanthas.1475:

That means it is an assumption by Vayne, and not actual (or factual) knowledge.

Exactly, as I said at the start, he’s just making kitten up.

Assuming things is not (always) nonsense. If you disagree with someone’s assumptions, you can challenge them by giving arguments why they are based on unsound reasoning.

For example, I am assuming that Vayne is not a time travelling dolphin from the year 4149. I have no way of knowing this for a fact about Vayne (or anyone on this forum), but am I making stuff up just by assuming that you are all non-time travelling humans using computers (or phones)?

The same goes for Vayne’s assumption. I tend to accept the assumption that the compass was working well enough in ArenaNet’s testing environment for it to be deemed worthy of inclusion in the update. Because I believe ArenaNet’s posts where they explain their “When It’s Ready” policy of talking about future content.

You can challenge Vayne’s assumption by refusing any of the premises I gave or alluded to, or even any that I forgot to mention. For example:
- You can claim that ArenaNet’s testing procedures are insufficient.
- You can refuse to believe ArenaNet’s explanation for why the “When It’s Ready” policy exists.
- You can claim that ArenaNet does things entirely differently than how Vayne is assuming it to be.

However, you need to back up your own claims as well, because they are also based on assumptions. (E.g. how much time and effort is reasonable for ArenaNet to put into testing, why ArenaNet’s explanations of their “When It’s Ready” policy would be unreliable, or what would be a more plausible way for how ArenaNet is really doing things.) And your assumptions can also be attacked if they are not strong enough.

This is how intelligent debate works. Simply saying: “Nuh-uh!” does not win an argument.

This is the part of a post by Vayne that refers to test servers (emphasis added by me):

As an example, the compass works perfectly in China, apparently works on the test server but didn’t work properly when the game went live.

Note the word “apparently” there? That means it is an assumption by Vayne, and not actual (or factual) knowledge. Vayne apparently made the assumption that the compass worked fine on the ArenaNet test server, because otherwise the compass would not have made it into the game.
ArenaNet developers do not discuss future content, because that way it can be cancelled if it’s not working without having to explain it to the player base. This has been often mentioned in developer posts, and apparently, Vayne remembered this.

(Note that I made a few assumptions here too, because I can’t look into Vayne’s head. I used the word “apparently” to indicate that. Because for all I know, he/she could be a time travelling dolphin from the year 4149, who travelled back to 2014 after reading the Complete and Unabridged History of Guild Wars 2. I can’t prove that he/she isn’t.)

TL;DR:
Comprehensive reading skill is your friend. Vayne claims no knowledge of ArenaNet’s test server(s).

@phys:
Your point about leveling speed balancing out against Personal Story delay is valid.

Regarding the rest of your post:
Colin Johansson already said that skill slot unlocks (especially utility and elite skills)have been put in too late in the leveling progression.

As for when this could be changed:

Hi there,

As a follow-up to Colin’s post, we want you to know that we’re working kitten fixing bugs in the New Player Experience system. We’re also using this opportunity to make a few changes to its design to take into account the feedback we’ve been reading. We’re aiming to deploy the fixes early next week.

As Colin explained (make sure to read this post and that one if you haven’t!), this is a complex, “big picture” system that has a lot of components. We want it to benefit all players and improve your game experience overall.

We understand that this is an important topic for the community and appreciate that players have been talking about it. We’ve been triaging bug reports, developing fixes for them and discussing what design changes we will bring to you next week. We’ll continue to both work on the next updates and read the feedback from the community on this topic!

Thank you

Source: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Misconceptions-regarding-Level-gating/page/8#post4398760

To the poster who claimed that he/she leveled too slowly:
According to the patch notes, the leveling speed through levels 1-15 was accelerated greatly compared to before. A guildmate of mine has already started a new character and claimed he hit level 13 within an hour. This effectively means that the unlocks at those lowest levels can all be attained very swiftly, to the point that they barely count as limitations.
(I have yet to see it with my own eyes, though.)

ReV.6097:

What about the skill challenges, Points of Interest (level 7), Gathering Nodes (Level 9), Vista (level 10)

I haven’t tried leveling a new character yet, but I was led to believe that harvesting was still possible at lower levels. Isn’t it so that the nodes just don’t show up on the minimap yet?

I am going to try a new character later tonight or tomorrow. I will reserve judgment on the NPE until afterwards.

ipan.4356:

It’s 15+ where things get really terrible – second utility slot at 24? Third at 35? Elite at 40?

No thanks.

I believe Colin Johansson’s recent post said this was not what they intended, and that it would be adjusted.

- There are some things happening at the wrong levels. Things like utility skills and elites are intended to come at approx. the same time they used to in actual game time, we sped up leveling for levels 1-15 and had them slide back in levels a bit to offset that pacing, they are not currently where we want them to be in the level up system. This was an oversight, and will absolutely be fixed.

Source: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Misconceptions-regarding-Level-gating/page/4#post4396936

@Novaan Verdiano:
I found a recent developer post on this topic in another thread.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Dungeon-owner-sometimes-required/page/2#post4398351

Not sure if you’ve seen it yet, but I am guessing it is about the same issue, and it already has a thread dedicated to it (in the Dungeon subforum).

ReV.6097:

1. Being told where to go and what to do is not what GW2 was meant to be about.

If you are referring to the compass, it can be turned off. In the options menu.

ReV.6097:

2. Skills that need to be unlocked during a lengthy leveling proccess, is insulting to anyone who has played a long time, let alone to new players who have watched the early GW2 promotion videos and then buy this game, just to find this bag of bullkittens have been implemented.

I believe that Colin Johansson said in a recent post that the opening up of some skills (I believe he said the utility skills and elite skill slots) are mistimed, and will be reviewed. For the moment, I will postpone judgment on that.

I really cannot comment on your third point, as I haven’t tried Personal Story yet in the new system. I understand what you mean by challenging yourself, and I agree it is a valid play option that was removed.
However, I have no problem at all with this system being a nerf to key farming.

I agree. We go to Mamnoon Lagoon, not Amnoon Oasis.

Here is my prediction for upcoming content:

- WvW Fall Tournament running from September 12 – October 10 (also allowing fine tuning and bugfixing on the new features);
- Halloween content starting on October 14th (possibly leaving its permanent mark on Lion’s Arch);
- Episode 5 on November 4th, Halloween event ends, a new zone opens in Maguuma Wastes;
- Episode 6 on November 18th, the new zone is expanded;
- Episode 7 on December 1st, the new zone is expanded;
- Wintersday starts on December 15th (possibly merged with Episode 8 and another update of the state of Lion’s Arch);
- No new content on December 29th (ArenaNet staff has time off for the holidays too);
- Living Story continues on January 5th, opening another new zone in the Maguuma Wastes.
- Living Story concludes in Spring 2015, possibly with Dragon Bash celebrating the new and rebuilt Lion’s Arch.
- Shortly afterwards, the Spring 2015 Feature Update will be introduced, bringing Jewelcrafting and Cooking to level 500.
- The WvW Spring Tournament 2015 will start afterwards.

By the end of Season 2, I am rooting for the following:
- At least three zones in Maguuma Wastes (including Dry Top);
- A new dungeon in Maguuma Wastes featuring Mordrem-based enemies;
- Lion’s arch fully rebuilt (now with Zephyrites);

Finally, if the Super Adventure Box content has not been retired, it could make its return either during Wintersday, or at the end of Season 2.
Crown Pavillion may open up again during the summer of 2015.
Labyrinthine Cliffs will likely be retired.

It looks like ArenaNet does not want the Living Story releases to coincide with either the WvW Tournaments or the festival contents (unless the festival can be incorporated into the story).

This suggests that Season Two will probably also take a break during December (Wintersday). This means:
- Episode 5 on November 4th;
- Episode 6 on November 18th;
- Episode 7 on December 1st;
- Wintersday starts on December 15th (possibly merged with Episode 8);
- No new content on December 29th (ArenaNet staff has time off for the holidays too);
- Living Story continues on January 12th.

My expectation is that Season 2 will not be finished by the end of 2014, but will continue through spring 2015. It may conclude in time for the start of the next WvW Spring Tournament. I expect about 10-13 episodes in total.

Also, the zone portal image in the announcement suggests the opening of a new explorable zone, which will probably complete before the Wintersday intermission.

Finally, I predict the return of Dragon Bash in Spring 2015, celebrating both the end of Season 2 and the grand reopening of the new and rebuilt Lion’s Arch.

I think you may be better off linking to the post directly:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Misconceptions-regarding-Level-gating/page/4#post4396936

Getting paid for saying nice things about the game? Where do I sign up?

Getting paid for complaining about the game? Where do I sign up?

The engineer’s flamethrower received a few boosts in the September 9th update:
- The #1 skill’s damage was boosted by 33%
- The #2 skill’s projectile detonation is now a Blast Finisher
- The #4 skill now pulses damage to foes standing inside its field
(A disadvantage is that the casting time for the #3 skill was increased to give it a clearer tell for PvP.)

What has not changed, is that the #1 skill generates a very fast sequence of hits, so any “on critical hit” effects could work well with flamethrower. For example, there are engineer traits and weapon sigils that deal out conditions on a critical hit. Therefore, both Berserker (Power, Precision, Ferocity) and Rampager (Power, Precision, Condition Damage) could work well.

We might be seeing more flamethrower engineers in the near future. At the very least least, the kit is worth another look.

I believe that most of the Temple events that give a trait unlock will also grant the trait if you successfully complete the “Defend the Temple from Risen” event.

I’m not sure if this also counts for Grenth, but I know for a fact that both the Temple of Lyssa and the Gates of Arah work this way.

Due to legal drinking age restrictions, alcoholic beverages in Guild Wars 2 will no longer be sold to characters below level 21.
(insert smilie here)

I don’t know if you are new to the game, so I’m not sure if this helps you.

If you reach certain milestones in Achievement Points, you get a free Total Makeover Kit (as well as 400 gems). I believe this is at every 5,000 Achievement Points.

Furthermore, you can buy gems for in-game gold (rather than real money). The exchange rate is volatile, and it’s not cheap, but it may be interesting for you if you accumulate enough gold.

Atlas.9704:

I’ll just go with “The B Team”.

“In 1327 AE, a fearless hero was sent to take down Scarlet. A small team of adventurers tagged along for glory on something they didn’t commit. These people promptly escaped from a Season one stockade to the Living Story. Today, still updated by the server they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them….maybe you can hire The B-Team.”

If you follow this reasoning, “The E-Team” would fit much better, given their mysterious contact.

Alternatively, they could be “Mister E Incorporated”, although someone else already made a Scooby Doo reference.

Personally, I would favour a name that emphasizes how all members do not fit well with their respective societies (which is also why Canach would fit in well). The previous suggestion “Destiny’s Orphans” would fit with this, and my own contribution here would be “The Misfits” (although it may conjure unfortunate associations with a 1980s cartoon about girl bands). Or something like the “Dead End Regulars” (which is a reference to nothing but the bar where they first assembled.

Still, the only semi-official name that appears to exist at the moment is “Delaqua Investigations”, consisting of Marjory and Kasmeer. So that would make them “Delaqua Investigations and Friends” (South Park reference not intended.)

I truly expected that ArenaNet would introduce an official name for the group at the end of Season 1, during the bar scene.

The Avatar does not “fade away” because it is an actual physical body that the Pale Tree grew for herself, in order to communicate with her children more directly.

It is not some kind of ghostly apparition.

To me, the argument “we all know why” automatically disqualifies anything that follows.

Manasa Devi.7958:

Jornophelanthas.1475:

@Redenaz:
Also, don’t forget that a specific subset of supposedly veteran players also believes it is perfectly okay to haze new players, and to heavily intimidate them into staying out of their dungeon parties.

Which has only been exacerbated by the new trait system which mostly just changed badly traited new players into untraited new players.

I agree that the trait unlocking system needs to be looked at again, although its general idea is nice in theory. But discussing that in detail would be off-topic for this discussion.

The cost of crafting a single Ascended weapon is manageable, and your playstyle could accommodate that over time.

HOWEVER, the cost of raising even a crafting discipline (Weaponsmith, Huntsman or Artificer) to 500 is quite steep. I have strong reservations about whether this would be a worthwhile investment for you, as it requires making multiple discoveries of exotic recipes. In other words, expect to spend large amounts of Orichalcum, Ancient Wood and the highest tier Fine Materials (Powerful Blood, Armored Scales, Piles of Crystalline Dust, etc.), as well as Ectoplasm.

I cannot tell you whether this investment will be worth it for your playstyle, especially if you have little to no interest in crafting. I can only advise you to read up on the subject and make up your own mind.

Warning: spoilers ahead.

Currently, Hero-Tron appears to have a new job as an official representative of Lion’s Arch. As such, I will expect to see him again the next time Captains Magnus the Bloody-Handed and Ellen Kiel make a new appearance in the Living Story.

This could take a while, though, because Lion’s Arch is no longer one of the “great nations of Tyria” due to being in ruins. The best indication of this (temporary?) reduction in status is that no representatives from Lion’s Arch were present – or even invited – for the World Summit.

@Redenaz:
Also, don’t forget that a specific subset of supposedly veteran players also believes it is perfectly okay to haze new players, and to heavily intimidate them into staying out of their dungeon parties.

Thieves have an advantage at the start of combat, because they start with a full initiative bar.

Warriors gain an advantage as combat draws on, because they start with an empty adrenaline bar.

This is intended. Do not blame players for playing in the spirit of their professions.

If Guild Wars 2 ever stops trying to attract new players, the number of players is only likely to go down. An environment of only “veterans” can get stale very quickly.

If you want to play a different character with the (exact) same name, this is still possible without deleting the character. Only slightly more expensive.

- Buy a Name Change Contracts from the Gemstore.
- Use the first Name Change Contract to change your main character’s name to something else. (For example, change “ABCD” to “ABCD the Elder”)
- Create a new character, and give it the name you prefer. It will remain reserved for your account for 24 hours.

I have no issues at all with the Skillbar or Karl McLain, except one.

I have absolutely NO interest in PvP, but I am VERY interested in changes to skills and traits (from a PvE perspective). However, I still have to dig through a half hour of chatter in order to find the Skillbar segment. Which is prerecorded and not even a true part of the rest of the show.

So please publish any future Skillbar segments (whenever new upcoming changes appear) as independent videos.
That way, I can find the information I need, and can continue to ignore Ready Up, like I prefer.

To be frank, many short-lived MMOs are hype games with a good start, but rapidly declining interest after a few months. Age of Conan comes to mind, but also World of Warcraft – but only if you consider every expansion to be a separate “hype game”.
What I mean to say is that there are plenty of games whose continued existence is tied to how long they can prolong their “hype” status.

Leggendalex.4659:

just found 1, magic find boost is the answer

You don’t know that. Maybe you still would have gotten the drop despite the magic find boost.

But congratulations.

@Gibson:
Agreed, if being presented with content that disappoints can be considered “to be bitten”.

What many of these angry, disappointed or scared people are claiming is also that [NEW HYPE GAME X] will “kill” Guild Wars 2. However, what they fail to realize is that Guild Wars 2 does not aim to be the next “hype game” the way other MMOs are with all their annual expansions.
Instead, Guild Wars 2 tries to be the “home game” where players can safely return to when whatever hype they have been following recently runs dry. After all, it’s easy to just start up Guild Wars 2 again. You’ve already paid for it, and due to the gradual but continuous addition of new content, there will always be new stuff to discover if you haven’t logged on in a while.
So Guild Wars 2 does not try to shackle its players as frantically as the “hype games” do, but instead tries to create a memorable enough impression that the players will return later. Do not underestimate the “I’m bored. Oh yeah, I still have GW2 installed. I guess I’ll check it out again” vibe.

(Meanwhile, Guild Wars 2 also continually tries to attract new players, because ArenaNet knows that not every player will return from any given “hype”. Which is why much effort is expended to keep the game accessible and welcoming to new players, perhaps even moreso than it was at launch.)

Well, at least parts of Molten Facility and Aetherblade Retreat are still in the game (as Fractals).

Personally, I believe a lot of the groaning and moaning going on in these forums at the moment is a case of fear of the unknown.

Players become worried because feature patches promise change, and they’re not sure if they’re going to like it, so they prepare by assuming the worst. Then they read the pessimistic ramblings of others, and these posts amplify each other.

Feature patches are especially prone to these behavioural patterns, because they promise actual changes (“improvements”) to the base workings of the game, rather than just the addition of new stuff, or the tweaking of balance issues and bugs. No, things that exist now may actually work differently or not at all after the update. People are afraid that their favourite toys will be broken or taken away by the big bad company, while they are powerless to stop it.

So they threaten to quit, say they don’t like it in advance, complain about everything they can think of. It’s a coping mechanism. If they decide in advance to not like the update, or to disavow the entire game, that gives them back the sense of control that they lost when ArenaNet first announced that a new Feature Update was coming that could change the things they know.

If you throw away the toy before the big bad company can break it, then the big bad company can’t hurt you. Even if the toy ends up unbroken, or improved. You can always pick it up again afterwards (without making a peep on the forums).

Don’t hunt for it. Just do the fractals, and enjoy the ride and the rewards. Eventually you’ll get lucky.

If you actually want to farm a fractal, advertise that in your LFG, instead of blindly joining others. You can use the “Out Of Cluck” achievement as an argument to convince others to kill Ascalonian soldiers.

I have no signature, but I still agree with Listenbird.

Opinions are personal, they don’t apply to “the” playerbase.

The only way to get those is by random drops inside the fractals. The drop rate is low, so be prepared that it may take some time.

At higher fractal levels, you can also get the higher tiers of mist essence. Note that you can also downgrade those in the Mystic Forge in order to get Vials. (And you can also upgrade Vials to the higher tiers.)

For specifics, look at this page:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Vial_of_Condensed_Mists_Essence

Majic.4801:

It’s Been Worse

I think it’s getting better, but that never happens as fast as we want it to.

ArenaNet is still digging out from the disastrous decision to build Living World Season One as one-time-only “throwaway” content and leave little more than some torn up landscape, novelty backpieces and fond memories to show for it in the end.

Replayability suffered almost to the point of permadeath as a result.

However, they have learned from the experience and will hopefully start making up for lost time with a more aggressive pace for new replayable content in Season Two — and perhaps some separate parallel content initiatives to shake some of the cobwebs off of Jolly Old Tyria.

Either way, I think GW2 is going to continue to improve and be around for a quite a long time to come. Or I may be smoking crack.

You decide.

I also subscribe to this opinion. (With the added sentiment that even during the “worst” parts, I still found the game fun and engaging. And things have improved for me.)

The problem is that once certain people are disappointed with an addition to the game, they appear to have decided that everything that comes after it will make everything even worse, unless it is the direct removal of the part that disappointed them.
Unfortunately, game design and storytelling do not work that way. You can’t take it back, but you can tweak it, or start adding more stuff that hopefully more people will like better. In this way at least, ArenaNet’s frequent comparisons between the Guild Wars 2 Living World and TV series make sense. If a certain character, mood or plotline in a TV series is unpopular, you can’t just erase it and pretend it never existed, or you will lose the entire audience. No, the solution is to quickly resolve the offending piece of the story, and then move on into a more pleasing direction. This is what ArenaNet has done and is doing in their writing and implementation of Living World Season 2.

Meanwhile, these dissatisfied players become embittered and actually offended by the game developer’s refusal to “apologize and take it all back”, while they fail to see that their concerns are slowly but surely being addressed in the game world. For them, the name “Living World” has become synonymous with “bad content”, and they fail to see how Season 2 tries not only to avoid the pitfalls from Season 1, but to be a good and memorable product in its own right.

Sola.7250:

Your not going to get new levels, new races or professions without an expansion.

Why not? If a zone like Dry Top can be introduced through Living Story, why not a zone like the Dominion of Winds, with playable Tengu? If ArenaNet is truly committed to the Living World way of delivering new content, then the things you suggest can also be deliverd in this way.
(Although I believe a new level cap, at least, is not going to happen. Because that’s the kind of vertical progression ArenaNet does not want.)

Sola.7250:

The Living Story stuff is just lame,

This is an opinion, not a fact. Other people may actually like the current Living Story.

Sola.7250:

the events in season 2 don’t even scale, once the mobs are gone, so is any gameplay!

The open world parts of Dragon’s Reach Part 1 appeared to be a hastily implemented, yes. But these events can still be upgraded if necessary. After all, they’re permanent.

Or were you talking about the story instances? Those are balanced for solo play (although you can bring a small group), and are not just meant to challenge your play skills, but also to tell a story.

Sola.7250:

You just don’t see design like that with an expansion. All the Living Story together so far wouldn’t make a good expansion.

Have you ever worked in the game industry, and on designing game expansions in particular? Neither have I. Then how come you can talk about it as if you’re an expert? Because you’re just guessing.
Take EVERYTHING that was added to the game between launch and the April 2014 feature update. Include the temporary content, like Scarlet’s Marionnette and the Escape from Lion’s Arch. Don’t forget Southsun Cove, the minigames, guild missions, the Queen’s Pavillion, the Mad King’s Domain, ascended crafting, champion loot bags, the Fractals, the new item stat combination (e.g. Dire, Sentinel, Celestial) and the new healing skills. Bundle it all together, wrap it in ribbons, and slap an “Expansion” label on it.
As a consumer, I don’t see a lot of difference, except that it was free. Of course, if you believe that free stuff can’t be as good as stuff that they would ask money for, then that’s your problem.

Sola.7250:

Living Story Season 1 – a one trick pony.

Living Story Season 2 – a one trick pony x 2, you have to do the same content twice, LOL!

Living Story Season 1: Too much temporary content, not enough permanent content. ArenaNet took that in, and are making amends in Season 2. I don’t see a lot of temporary content there.

Living Story Season 2: The format of redoing the content for bonus achievements is heavily inspired by the Missions in Guild Wars 1. Its intent is to increase the replayability of the story instances, much like how that worked in Guild Wars 1. Many players complained that Guild Wars 2 should be more like Guild Wars 1, and ArenaNet obliged.
Of course, there’s nobody forcing you to replay something you don’t like doing. Achievements (and achievement rewards) are just an encouragement, not an obligation.
And if you don’t like repetition, I guess you also don’t like playing Fractals, or Champion trains, or festival events, or Daily achievements, or leveling a second character, or visiting any zone for the second time.

I can recommend playing the Guild Wars: Nightfall campaign. You will unlock many heroes, which make playing other areas of the game significantly easier. Don’t forget to unlock skills for your heroes to use, to make them that much stronger. (Nightfall offers far better opportunities for this than Eye of the North.)