Guild Wars 2

Suffer now, for salvation later – maybe.

Sounds like religion to me.

Menaka.5092:

Lianna.6980:

Watching all the others killing the mobs 10x times faster.
Asking yourself: where is my loot?

“let me setup my shatter combo while this warrior mindlessly hacks at the npc…” “aaaaaand it’s gone”

And so are all your clones. The irony.

I am aware of what the OP is looking for.
But if he has ever touched any other class, he will not enjoy leveling a mesmer solo in open world, unless he is a masochist.

DD is too low, without traits phantasm skills take forever to recharge and getting anywhere is a chore. Shatters hit like a wet noodle and no matter what you do, it takes forever to kill anything.
There is no real build variety, and if you want to tag anything in DE’s, you are pretty much kitten’d.

Meanwhile a necro kills mobs in three hits with daggers and can do absolutely insane AoE damage both with weapons and utility.
You can level as DD, with minions, as DS or even with a condition build.

Variety and power is fun in GW2.
Do not level a mesmer if you are looking for that.

Vikkela.7261:

That’s definitely just a bug/forgetfulness, no question about it.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs

If they fix those bugs as fast as the mesmer ones this will soon be a feature.

The “everything is fine in PvE” argument is such bullkitten.

It is like in other games, where it takes healers forever to level, and people tell them, that’s fine.
That’s called ignorance. Then noone levels healers and everyone complains about there being no healers.

Now, GW2 does not have a trinity, so noone needs a mesmer for anything. So with this argument, it is ok that there are no mesmers, because noone complains about the lack of them.

And the playing with others thing: Sure, other classes are capable of doing the stuff alone and fast, but as a mesmer you are better off finding support for you.
Again, we had the same discussion years ago with the healers in other mmos. If you can’t do the stuff solo just find a group. Sure, I can do everything fine on my [insert class here] but that’s totally ok in my books. Ignorance at its finest.

The class is broken and weak compared to all other classes while leveling. It needs to be fixed.

If you level in open world, it is a fairly long lesson in frustration.

It is like cutting a tough steak. While all other classes are knifes (some of them are sharper than others) you as a mesmer are a spoon.

Good luck.

- A great evil noone has seen since forever is getting stronger and with his power spreads his threat all over the world.
- This great evil send out his minions to cast fear and destruction all over the place.
- A fellowship.
- Freeing a big bunch of trapped ghosts.

Am I the only one who is curious what will be the one ring and where we will find mount doom in GW2?

No GS bashing?

Playing a mesmer is like:

“Kitten, I logged in on my wrong char…”

Mordremoth must be french.

A second melee weapon set. So I can equip two weapon sets for melee
Dagger would work for mainhand, dagger would also work for offhand.

And the classic, pistol mainhand. I think this has the highest chance to get patched in one day.

If you run this build in high level fractals, you want less agony resistance to make it more efficient. Which is cool, this way you can avoid the horrible ascended grind.

You could probably solo Tequatl, but at least it is a warranted win, as long as a mesmer with your build is participating.

Step 1: Mordremoth destroys all waypoints
Step 2: …
Step 3: Profit!

Want to see how people will act about mounts when all WPs are gone… ^^

shogei.8015:

BrunoBRS.5178:

though i find it kinda hilarious, the idea of writing a letter to the pale tree.

I imagine you need to be careful what to write it on. Need to find yourself some parchment as paper would likely be offensive.

Just write it on human skin.

Yeah, mesmer would still be my first class to start with.

I’d just switch to necro as my main faster.

I run this in PvE now.

Mesmer is abysmally bad compared to my necro in open world.

I love my mesmer and stuff, but we have one setup left for PvE (phantasm) and it fails in matters of DPS and utility in open world.

On my necro, I can play DS, non-DS-power build, minion or even condition, and I will still clear everything faster than with a phantasm mesmer.

People should face the truth, the mesmer profession in its current incarnation is just bad.

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

It’s good to be the Boss of Destiny’s Edge 2.0 the Biconics.
I’m the Hero of Shaemoor, the Commander of the Pact, one of the heroes that destroyed Zhaitan and Savior of Lions Arch. I’m not some cog in someone’s machine.

Yes, we are Trahearne’s poodle, noone can take that away from us!

If I was their boss, I’d fire them all.

End of Story.

If ANet only gave me a choice to kill off those lousy written characters and do the stuff by myself, I could live with a permanent irremovable titel “Insane” all day.

Give me Trahearne back, one annoying NPC is better than five.

Iron Man anyone?

Obvious redshirt was obvious.

How can anyone be surprised? ANet is not willing to kill off their new Destiny’s Edge 2.0 members, so they introduced a disposable character.
The first time I saw Jory’s sister, I knew she would die a horrible death.

And katana + tentacle sound like two things going well together…

They did this for three reasons:

1. Cliffhanger: They needed a reason to pause the story and give an outlook.
2. Artificially stretch the next LS episode: We no longer can go to the pale tree directly it seems, so we will need to “wind-up” our way there.
3. Reintroduce Trahearne: Who would you better ask for help getting an audience with the pale tree than Trahearne. It will reintroduce the pact to the story too. Brace yourselves, this won’t end well.

Taygus.4571:

MiloSales.8560:

It’s an older game, half off sales are common for older games. Maybe it means we’re getting an expansion soon?

they already said there won’t be an “expansion” this year.
However LS2 is meant to bring in(in total) an expansions worth of content.

Brace yourselves, another expansions worth of content incoming.

Déjà-vu anyone?

Nah, go with the focus, it has so much more utility while leveling.
The speed buff alone is worth it. I explained it in my leveling guide a bit.

If you want to level fast, follow the zerg in Edge of the Mist (WvWvW).
If you want to level in the open world, I still recommend my leveling guide (even though it got hit hard with the feature patch thanks to the totally ridiculous changes to the trait system).

Maybe a corrupted game file. As long as it works again, everything is fine.

No patch here, something on your side is broken… ^^

For the birthday event, I want some real drama.

Make a member of the new Destiny’s Edge 2.0 die. Or even better, let them all die.

Maybe then we can go back to the orders and the pact. Honestly, I prefer one annoying Trahearne over a group of five useless NPCs.

What many people don’t get is that actual quests (even though heart quests are a mediocre example) create a personal atmosphere.

No real quests in the area just means, that all NPCs are totally useless (except the miner guy you have to find at the end).
They miss personality and a reason to exist, and so does the area in the end.

Right now, I do not know the name of a single NPC at Dry Top, do you?
This game misses immersion. A lot.

How about DEs then?

You know, like chains, that alter the balance in an area. Not just single events.
I thought this game was all about that, especially the level 80 zones. Like Orr.

This game is trying hard to remove all content, that set it apart from other games in the first place.

Lord Kuru.3685:

Remember when they advertised Canach’s Lair as a dungeon? This time we get a new (mini-me) map.

Yeah, most MMOs have dungeons bigger than this open world map…

Well, if you want, you can wait another week to get the next update, and than you can be disappointed every two weeks by the little content you get.

That is just how the LS is designed to be.

I think this sums it up pretty well.

Got a key once out of the sand.

To be honest, it is a fairly obvious way to introduce low chance RNG drops by implementing just another grind.
Grind sand so you can eventually have a chance to get the reward. My guess is that the new fashionable stuff is hidden somwhere in the RNG desert we now fill our pockets with.

GW2, the game that actually let’s you play, but if you want any reward for doing so, you have to buy the reward off the store, or be friend with the RNG gods…

This is in fact the least rewarding game I have ever played. ANet knows how to not motivate their players…

Shufflepants.9785:

Kaiyanwan.8521:

BobbyStein.2315:

Kaiyanwan.8521:

BobbyStein.2315:

Thalador.4218:

BobbyStein.2315:

The best is yet to come.

So more massacres, mayhem, and destruction in your words. Why is that since the start of this Living World (although I may risk saying that there were signs of this in the vanilla game as well) the only way you guys seem to be able to drive the story forward is through mass killings and calamities (that often draw parallels with real life modern attacks on innocents)?

Remember this picture attached to the Story Journal reveal page? I can’t decide whether it’s hilarious, ridiculous, or outrageously imbecile and depressing that it’s a spot-on summary of your entire storytelling to date…

What sort of stories would you like to see?

Tell us a story, that is worth telling. Ah, and don’t hold back on new maps, like real ones, not map teasers…

Vague answer is vague.

Want me to write you a story? Hire me.
If you are good at something never do it for free.

No, they want you to tell them what would make a story “worth telling”. Basically all you told them is make it good, but you didn’t tell them what ‘good’ is to you. There are stories that you might find good that other people will hate and vice versa. What you said isn’t actionable. It’s like if you said “bring me shoes that are my favorite color” only you refused to tell them what your favorite color is.

Hey, you did not like my job application? Neither did Bobby Stein it seems.
You got to be creative to apply for a creative position, but maybe calling out the guy you want to hire you is not the way to go.

Kudos to the guy who got the batman reference.

And by the way, you should read the posts that are not directly related to a red dev post – like the longish feedback I gave just a bit later on.
You could have saved yourself the trouble of writing the one I am qouting in the first place…

OK, things that have to happen to make story telling bearable:

1. Don’t make your players ingame characters feel dumb

Like we all know there is a new dragon. But our characters do not. This creates a big disconnect between the player and the character, breaking immersion non-stop.
A story writer could fall into the trap to think that most players are curious to learn how the character ingame discovers the truth (about the dragon), but in the end, now that the players knows about the dragon, they more likely feel like all content up to the “reveal” of the dragon is just filler content.
Actually, nothing but the dragon itself will satisfy many players. No need to defeat him, just meeting him would be enough to close the former LS1 storyline (awakening of the dragon) and offer some new chance for suspense and curiousity, instead of feeling like killing time.

2. Make me a hero

You know, your new group of random heroes (Destiny’s Edge 2.0) is OK. I do not care about them too much, but hey, variation is good. Unfortunately, the story writers have decided, that variety is no longer needed.
Every. Single. Living. Story you introduce includes them. I am as tired of dumb Braham as I was of Scarlet.

I am a Commander of the Pact, second in command (until I get a chance to feed Trahearne to the rabbits, which will make me number one), and so is every other player who has finished the Personal Story (which is sort of the story line you expect people to have completed). Now that we know, there is a new dragon (see 1. Don’t make your players ingame characters feel dumb) it is time to mobilize the troops and confront the new evil before he gets too strong.

Put the “personal” part back into the story. Make it about me, not about a brain-amputeed norn, two girls who actually need a time out and have some serious fun desperately, a nerdy kid and a pet with a pet. Let them be part of the story, but not the story itself. And give the player the illusion, that he/she is discovering things, and pushing the story forward.

3. Give me back my cut scenes

Let my character actually talk to people, like in the Personal Story. Give my character some character. Why did you get rid of the conversation cut scenes anyway? Are the voice actors too expensive?
This was a really cool feature, which I am very sorry that it is gone. Monologue and dialogue are very strong vehicles to transport a story. Giving it enough room to happen sets the important parts of it apart from the random chatter.

I could go on, but hey, I was very generous already…

BobbyStein.2315:

Kaiyanwan.8521:

BobbyStein.2315:

Thalador.4218:

BobbyStein.2315:

The best is yet to come.

So more massacres, mayhem, and destruction in your words. Why is that since the start of this Living World (although I may risk saying that there were signs of this in the vanilla game as well) the only way you guys seem to be able to drive the story forward is through mass killings and calamities (that often draw parallels with real life modern attacks on innocents)?

Remember this picture attached to the Story Journal reveal page? I can’t decide whether it’s hilarious, ridiculous, or outrageously imbecile and depressing that it’s a spot-on summary of your entire storytelling to date…

What sort of stories would you like to see?

Tell us a story, that is worth telling. Ah, and don’t hold back on new maps, like real ones, not map teasers…

Vague answer is vague.

Want me to write you a story? Hire me.
If you are good at something never do it for free.

BobbyStein.2315:

Thalador.4218:

BobbyStein.2315:

The best is yet to come.

So more massacres, mayhem, and destruction in your words. Why is that since the start of this Living World (although I may risk saying that there were signs of this in the vanilla game as well) the only way you guys seem to be able to drive the story forward is through mass killings and calamities (that often draw parallels with real life modern attacks on innocents)?

Remember this picture attached to the Story Journal reveal page? I can’t decide whether it’s hilarious, ridiculous, or outrageously imbecile and depressing that it’s a spot-on summary of your entire storytelling to date…

What sort of stories would you like to see?

Tell us a story, that is worth telling. Ah, and don’t hold back on new maps, like real ones, not map teasers…

Light.7493:

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Zalladi.4652:

given as reward for the completion of a certain episode

Ahahahahahaha, wait wait wait, ahahahahahaha.

Nope. Nice things will go to the gem store. When was the last time we got any new decently looking item as reward for playing the game? And when was the last time this item was a weapon?

On second thought, nope.

There have constantly been vanity items added for playing the game. Recently it was scarlets head, WvW item sets, PvP exclusive items, Various back items, Buffable vanity items like halo/horns,Quaggan and countless other tonics. Mini rewards and so forth. Too many to remember.
Are we playing the same game?

In regards to playing the game, you get one of the following (equipable) item as reward if lucky:

- Backpack (skins nowadays), they just fill up your bank
- Head item (skin), like gas mask, scarlets helm (which was one third of a set, two items were on the gem store)
- Gloves (got those molten ones), don’t think we get gloves anymore.

Since the LS has been introduces, that’s pretty much it. Every newly created other skin goes straight to the gem store (ascended skins are an exception as they were an update themselves).

-

Zalladi.4652:

given as reward for the completion of a certain episode

Ahahahahahaha, wait wait wait, ahahahahahaha.

Nope. Nice things will go to the gem store. When was the last time we got any new decently looking item as reward for playing the game? And when was the last time this item was a weapon?

On second thought, nope.

nexxe.7081:

spiritus.7983:

Every major villain wannabe in gw2 is a sylvari, Canach, Scarlet now another one A… something < already forgot his name as I write here. Seems like Pale Tree is losing his flock

Not to mention that I hope anet is learning something by now, Canach was a miserable fail to portrayal a villian, Scarlet was a mary sue… now lets see this one how they fail him. Apparently this new villian lost his mind too, verry original, we just get rid of the last crazy silvary two months ago. Clearly the grove needs a mental institution in the next patch

You forgot Faolain, Caithe’s lesbian lover, because you know, we need more lesbian love plots! And not exactly a villain, but Trahearne was a major character.

Anet is obsessed with Sylvari. It’s disappointing.

Guild Wars 2 is the story of the Sylvari. Of course it is all about the Sylvari. Ever played a Sylvaris personal story? Play a Sylvari, and the story makes sense from the first mission up to Zhaitan.
Play another race, and suddenly, a wild Trahearne appears…

GW: Story of humans
GW2: Story of the Sylvari, with the possibilty to play other races and miss the story…

They got a salad instead of a brain, what did you expect?

Well just look at the current update.

People expected a new map, and actually got one. Unfortunately the map has the size of the interior of a japanese student apartment. Of course people that like MMOs for their freedom and vast landscapes will not be happy about this. If we had mounts in GW2, you could cross the new map in approx. 10 seconds.

And the whole design of the map is a super mario platformer death trap. Really? The whole map is a single jumping puzzle. Is that what the community was asking for?
What is next? I just hope Norns get a new transformation:

Kangaroo-Form: Makes you jump twice as high and far, taking less falling damage.

Finally a useful transformation.

In the end, the start of LS2 just shows even more how far the DEVs have seperated themselves from their playerbase. They live in an Ivory Tower.

We got a new map? I thought that shoe-box sized desert was just the personal story instance. If the maps get any smaller, my character won’t fit in anymore.

The whole micro map is nothing else but a jumping puzzle, and to be honest, I do not play MMOs for jumping puzzles…

I pretty much stopped GW2 (but I tried the new update and I feel like playing Super Mario, clearly not what I was looking for as an MMO player).
One day ANet might give us a reasonable sized map to explore, maybe then I will try GW2 again.

On my name, it is pretty simple. Just pronounce it:

Kai-Yan-Wan

or just skip the Yan-Wan part, and call me Kai, as all do anyway (in that case, the “ai” is pronounced like “eye”).

Always happy to help. ^^

Riox.6129:

My maker never hears me
My opponent never finds me
And
My player never plays me
What am I?
A mesmer!

I think the true makers of the mesmer profession have long left ANet. Those who try to somehow sustain the profession are vision and clueless.

My mesmer has been shelved, the rare occasions I play GW2, I play on my necro.

Barquiel.5610:

If you want a class that’s easy to learn easy to master take the Warrior. […]

I fixed that for you.

PvE: Warrior, closely followed by guardian.
WvW: The Zerg
PvP: Classes that fit into the meta

Read the quarterly NCSoft reports, and you will get your answers.

The game is pretty much dying in Europe (financially) after a massive loss in the last quarter, in the US it was at least stable but the numbers are less than satisfying.

The big hope is/was the china release, but we will have to wait a bit longer for the second quarter report.

kokiman.2364:

Kaiyanwan.8521:

You can avoid spoilers if you really want to anyway.

Now I’m interessted, how would you avoid spoilers if you want to test big boss fights (maybe smth like the marionette)? You know the stuff that actually needs testing with lots of people.

You simply do not play on the PTS. Maybe avoid the PTS forum too.

So no spoilers if you want to avoid them. Someone else will test the content, someone who is not caring about spoilers.

On the other hand, if you really want to test an encounter, why would you worry about spoilers. You cannot have the cake and eat it.

I never play on any PTS, as my time is very limited. Nontheless, I think that a PTS is a great idea and a must for any AAA multiplayer titel.

lordkrall.7241:

Having it publicly available would most likely end up hurting the game in the long run, since
1: there would be no surprises because the story would already be spoiled by the PTS.
2: the economy would become completely unstable due to people outright knowing that a certain item would increase in demand before the patch is released.

1. People want working content more than surprises. You can avoid spoilers if you really want to anyway.
If we get any more fiascos like the broken final, people will not care about any surprises anyway because they will rage quit.
2. The economy in this game is as broken as it can be. How could it become worse? The ones manipulating the TP would get any richer? Those who do not play the TP won’t see much gold anyway. And it is easy for ANet to implement changes on the PTS and not actually taking those changes over, this way, speculating with futures might be a risky task and could possibly ruin you.

For me at least:

Working content is better than bugged surprises.
The economy of GW2 is broken to the point that I do not care about some people possibly making more profit.

Personally, I think the reason for not having a PTS is, that people would know in advance how little content we would get with the updates and burn through the very limited stuff in like a few minutes.
It is an artificial way to keep the very limited content alive a little bit longer.