Guild Wars 2

Ok, playing the numbers game.

If you devide the playerbase by casual and hardcore right in the middle, everyone below 800 (actually closer 770) achievment points is casual.
If you belong to the 50% of players that have more than 800 achievement points, you are a hardcore player.

But we can split that up, so it feels less artificial. The 50% of players below 800 AP are casuals, the 40% of players between 800 and 3500 AP are core players and the 10% of players above 3500 AP are the true hardcore players (including me).

Or you could split it up by time. Let’s say a casual player plays 5h a week and some time more in the honeymoon phase. So people that started at release and have less than 200 hours played are casuals. Players between 200 and 1000 hours are core players and everyone over 1000 hours (including me) is a hardcore player.

Check your achievement points and type /age for your playtime.

So here we go. The difference between a casual and a hardcore is, that they spend less time in game and therefore have less achievement points.

BUT, this tells you nothing about what kind of content they want. Casual does not mean, this player does not want challenging content. The players just do not want to spend hours and hours and hours to get to the challenging content. Or that this players want to grind hours and hours and hours to get BiS items.

If a player is casual or not will not tell you how skilled the player is. Otherwise, anyone who plays soccer 24/7 would be a Ronaldo at one point. They just do not want to play stuff that they find boring.

That is where the ANets marketing set in before release, and that is where the game has failed in the end. We get tons and tons of new content that is not challenging (The Zerg) and grindy (check the achievement of the LS), or totally out of place (Tequatl) instead of quality content that is challenging and entertaining.

People feel not entertained, people leave.

Xae Isareth.1364:

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Honestly, if casuals are ok to be second grade citizens, they can play whatever game they want.

If they do not need the best gear in game, they can play any other MMO.
If they do not need to be at level cap, they can play any other MMO.
If they do not need the to see all content, they can play any other MMO.

What is the point in playing GW2? They expected GW2 to be different, and now it is like all those other games.

Ok, brace yourselves for a post typed with frowning eyebrows and clinched lips.

The difference here is that you can hit 80 very quickly and the road to 80 on your first character isn’t a case of ‘oh, you actually want to play the game? Get max level and we’ll talk) like in other games.

You don’t need BiS gear to see all the content nor to be competitive or to not feel like dead weight. I challenge you to name one area of the game that needs Ascended gear to do.

My Mes is the one responsible for most of my BoHs, the character I got world comp on, and the character that have my Guardian full dungeon armour the moment he hit 80. Yet you could say she was my abandoned stepchild because she was in exotic gear with rare trinklets until very recently because all the good stuff went to her younger Guardian brother (yes, I feel guilty).

I don’t understand all this complaint about farming resources. Load yourself with salvage kits and you’ll drown in ori and ancients for doing anything in PvE. Ive maybe went and bought/farmed 100 bars/planks during my entire playtime and I’ve made Sunrise, 3 Ascended weapons etc, etc.

Want challenging content? Try Arah, TA Aether, some hair losing JPs or high levelled fractals, amongst a list of whole load of other stuff. I see everyone complaining the game’s too shallow and easy…. whilst they spam CoF P1 and champ trains. If there’s so many pros out there why are we still having problems following instructions like ’don’t aggro the cultist’?

Sorry for the wall of rant-ish text but complaints like those just get on my nerves.

You sir are a hardcore player, why would you think your playstyle would work for casuals to enjoy the game?

Qaelyn.7612:

If you have to ask the question, then for you it probably has no answer, and you might be better off playing something else.

I’m new and recognize that I’m still in the ‘honeymoon’ period of the game, but I’ll never get to the point where I feel I have to grind junk. I’ll do stuff I find fun, and if I no longer find it fun, I’ll leave.

The problem is that people get attached to a game and feel like it’s a marriage or something. If you don’t enjoy it, do something else. That doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with the game itself.

Look, I am not a casual player. Why would I care?

The problem is that all those non-hardcore players I liked to play with decided to do just what you said, they left.

They get out of honeymoon (enjoy it while you can) and than see that brick wall of grind to get anywhere near the content offered. They already missed out achievements, which sets them further back (AP farming is a progression after all with the bonuses offered).
It starts to look and feel futile to even try to catch up. So they stop.

If this is the aim of ANet, they did a good job. Otherwise they have to rethink what they are doing here…

Qaelyn.7612:

Ghostwolf.9863:

Nowadays GW2 is all about grinding.

Only if all you care about is having the best ‘stuff’.

This game actually has a huge variety of things you can do. Grinding is a choice.

Ghostwolf.9863:

Crafting is a pain and isn’t rewarding enough, I worked really hard and even spent irl money to buy gems to convert to gold to level up huntsman from 400 to 500, just to get a slight touch in stats and getting the same items as everyone else.

Well there you go. So if it doesn’t make a big difference, why bother grinding it? Just do what you enjoy.

Or if you’re burned out, take a break. Happens with most people in every game after a while.

What can you do that is rewarding and not related to a grind at 80?

Honestly, if casuals are ok to be second grade citizens, they can play whatever game they want.

If they do not need the best gear in game, they can play any other MMO.
If they do not need to be at level cap, they can play any other MMO.
If they do not need the to see all content, they can play any other MMO.

What is the point in playing GW2? They expected GW2 to be different, and now it is like all those other games.

I have a friend who stopped playing. She is what I would call casual.

She plays for having fun. She can not find fun lately.

- I showed her the labyrinth and she told me, this content is so stupid, she will never play it again.
- She thinks in general, that zerging is stupid, challenge-free and no fun.
- Crafting with a guide or wasting tons of resources? That is no fun.
- She likes, if I give her free items, but as ascended stuff is not tradeable, she thinks that stuff is not fun, as she will not be able to obtain it (grinding ressources is no fun for her).
- She likes to stay on a map and finish it. She does not like to be forced to go to special maps and do time gated events aka LS or missing out story.
- She likes challenge, so we go against champions together. She does not like, that challenge is not rewarded, but super easy farming is.
- She doesn’t like the story, as most of the time, there is no story, just events that are overfarmed and mindlessly boring.
- For her, Dailies are no fun, she does not want to be forced in doing content to get rewards that are necessary for other rewards. For her it feels like a grind in a grind in a grind.
.
.
.

I could go on. But for the idea of GW2 to be a fun game even for casuals, the content added is mostly not fun (subjective) for many players (educated guess).

Soul Reaping II: Vital Persistence

Increased reduction of life force drain from 25% to 50%. Additionally, you take 15% less damage on life force.

This would make the trait at least worth thinking about taking it in PvE, besides the fact, that with the PvP mechanics added to PvE (finishing moves), DS sort of fails.

Let us finish those mobs while in DS, just in PvE pretty please.

As a general statement I would say:

I prefer a good trinity game over a bad non-trinity one.

Barbed Precision lasts 3sec (trait +30% trait line), and will be applied about 1.5 times in the chain of 2.1s just by auto-attack. Let’s just say, in 2 attack chains (about 4s), you apply three 3s bleeds.
Add the fact, that the dagger hits three times as hard in 2/3 of the timeframe of a scepter chain, those 2 bleeds for 6s every 3 secs are not going to outdamage the dagger in matters of auto-attack with rampager gear in open world PvE.

I do not refer to dungeons though, open world is what I am talking about.

Linguistically Inept.6583:

LoRdZeRo.5364:

it depends on how you prefer to play and game mode

for me,
Dungeons: 30/10/0/0/30 Full zerker

why not 30/25/0/0/15?

Kaiyanwan.8521:

my necro runs a 30/30/0/10/0 dual dagger build in full rampager in PvE and is a blast.

why rampager with mainhand dagger? its only worth it with scepter or staff offhand

The attack rotation of the dagger is faster (2.1s vs. 3.0s) and the base damage is higher. With rampager gear, I get more bleed proccs over time from dagger and while I won’t get the additional bleed on every attack, I hit harder (about 9 hits in 6s versus only 6 times with a scepter) with every singe attack.

Maybe I am wrong, but it feels like more damage over all. If I have time, I will run the numbers.

PvE:

Normally I would say zerker for every class. But my necro runs a 30/30/0/10/0 dual dagger build in full rampager in PvE and is a blast.

I do not have as many hours on him as on my mesmer (full zerker) and probably never will, so I might still be lacking enough experience to see all constrains, but on the other hand, mobs melt like butter in the sun.

I see a bad story plot with Scarlet, that’s about to drop from the sky.

Jski.6180:

TooBz.3065:

Jski.6180:

Spiral Architect.6540:

Jski.6180:

Spiral Architect.6540:

Jski.6180:

The truth is they do not stop playing they take time off and that is by design of the game. If a person say they are quitting but are not giving up there code etc.. things that let you back into the game then they are not truly quitting.

Uh, no. On September 3rd, I quit the game. “Quit,” as in “not coming back.”

The only way I would consider coming back would be if they rolled the game back to what it was at launch (and we all know they will never do that). I tolerated ascended jewelry, though only begrudgingly so. Once ascended weapons came out, and I saw what ANet intends for “progression” in this game, I was done. I had enough problems with the game before September 3rd; you can look at my post on page one of this thread to see what some of them are, if you care to. Ascended gear progression was the icing on the cake for me.

Do I miss the game? Not at all.

So by posting here your trying to achieve what? You know coming to these forums IS still part of the GW2 game in a way more so then other mmorpgs. If you can still come here and post and can still start the game up and play you not realty quit the game.

How is posting here akin to playing the game? Your logic (or lack thereof) escapes me. This thread is about why people quit the game. I posted, saying why I quit. That’s all.

Ok so to truly quit something you must remove your self comply from that game. When it comes to these online games you have another spaces to play that game the web. Now this is most of the time done in community build forums by going to these forums your still part of that community and if that group is still playing though games then these forums are still part of that game. What we have here is the official forums for GW2 it is a build in part of the GW2 game a places where we can talk to the makers of the game and tell them what we think about it. There are no general discussion about other games here nor are there forums about other things then just games this is a pure GW2 spaces. By coming here your engaging in GW2.

IMO, if you visit the forums but do not log into the game, you still have quit. To me, quitting is logging out with the intention of not logging in again.

The thing is by paying for the game of GW2 you get to post on these forums. To me that makes these forums an inseparable part of GW2.

You have this right for the rest of the existance of the game. If someone posts once after years, he has been playing the game all the time?

Don’t get me wrong, I still play the game from time to time.
But I see no problem in missing a game and still quit it for good.

Maybe you miss a girl you once dated, but you decided to never date her again. With your argument, you would still be in a relationship. That makes no sense.

There is a fair difference between playing a game and posting on the forums.

It would be the same to say, if you read the critics of a movie it is the same as watching it…

Xae Isareth.1364:

TooBz.3065:

eisberg.2379:

McSlappy.1372:

xiv.7136:

GW2 players can leave and come back any time and do so constantly without being “left behind” on the gear treadmill.

This is a 100% false statement. If you left when ascended gear came out and recently came back there is nothing to catch you up to Ascended gear that has been ground out by other players. You get to start in and try to catch up which is good luck. Other games like WoW if I start playing now I can start getting the base tier of this seasons gear in an hour or two. WoW has what you just said. Not GW2.

Difference is that WoWs gear is absolutely required to complete all content they have, Guild Wars 2, ascended gear is not required, exotics not even required, and the one place that you need ascended gear for Agony Resistance, you’ll get it anyways while doing the Fractals without having to repeat the same level over and over again to get that required AR to move on to the next level.

So no, you are not left behind if you do not play for 6 months or even a year.
In WoW you still have to keep up with the gear treadmill if you do not want to be left behind, if you want to do all the content that will be released, with Guild Wars 2, you can stay in Rares if you want and will never be undergeared to complete the content.

I have never played WoW, so I don’t know what I’m talking about, but that has never stopped me before.

I would much rather have required gear that is easy to obtain that not-required but better stat gear that is a pain in the kitten to obtain.

I’m just inferring here, but you sound (as am i) to be one of those players who just want BiS gear just because you want the best.

The question is, what’s after getting it? During the process you had something to progress towards, and there’s nothing you can’t do without BiS gear in the game. So is there really a point to getting it ASAP?

But with this argumentation, what is the reason to get it at all. And as a logical consequence you have to ask, why does it exist at all. If the progress is futile, why have progression?

Xae Isareth.1364:

Shahiel.8342:

I don’t play because there is very little interesting PvE content, you just spam your auto attack and dodge the bad things. Also the main focus now seems to be on grinding (ascended gear, temporary meta achievements etc).

This is something that’s quite interesting. There’s plenty of challenging content in the game, ranging from stuff like the new Aetherpath for combatants to some very tough jumping puzzles for the non-combatants.

It’s just that no one ever does them, ever, then complain that the game is too easy or shallow. It’s not that they aren’t there, it’s more so that hard content isn’t rewarding enough. There needs to be rewards which, apologies of I sound elitist, the pros from the noobs.

It’s because people who want jumping puzzles can play awesome platformers instead and players who like dungeons have other games with way better and more frequently new dungeons.
People wanted open world stuff and story, both have been a disappointment for many.

Holy mother of a necro!

People leave because they get bored. I blame it on the zerg.

Phantasm cooldowns are fairly long until you can get both, the weapon trait and 25 in Illusions. The problem is, that most mobs die so fast, that the phantasm won’t manage more than one attack most of the times while leveling.

I could offer you my shatter leveling guide, and a variation from lvl 60 maybe. Before that, the phantasms are a bit weak, imho.

Hey there.

I for one got the impression, that the new PvE meta has become zerging around over certain maps.

While the Living Story has certainly introduced “zerg-friendly” events, like Invasions, Labyrinth, the Queen’s Hall of Zergination etc, and is promoting it with achievements,
the open world has also been altered to support this kind of gameplay.

Tequalt needs a giant zerg to even have a chance to be defeated (sort of LS content though), champion trains are popular and still rewarding.

The new LS encourages zerging for possible champion spawns and even marks the zerg spots on the map (sort of like with invasions).

Even Wv3 is mostly zerg content, at least if you want the most reward for your time.

So is this intended to be the meta design of PvE and Wv3? Is this the endgame that will be polished over the years?
The Zerg is surely entertaining for some time, but gets boring pretty fast afterwards. I fear I might get a bore out at one point. Challenging content on the other hand can be a pain in the kitten, causing burn out left and right. But as for the LS, challenge is mostly not part of the design, and I think, a bit of it would not hurt too much.

Maybe, it is all just my personal impression, so feel free to share your 2c.

Everything in this game is a waste, be it it time, resources or money.

I for one would go for the look. In dungeon PvE, staff is not necessarily part of the meta (as melee is king), and Wv3, run what you want in a zerg…

I for one would go with Sunrise, but hey, GS is just good in open world anyway.

For general information I recommend you to visit this guide:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-Lyssa-s-Grimoire-The-Mesmer-Handbook/first#post2916342

For leveling in general, I can offer you my advice, that can be found in the Grimoire or directly at:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-Kai-s-Complete-PvE-Compendium/first#post2848334

I hope this helps. ^^

Now I have to rewrite my leveling guide AGAIN.
Time to get back on the white board…

I need to see the complete set of changes first though, who knows what will get changed beside these things…

Here is the point:

ANet did not end the trinity. They just made healing and tanking not viable even though we have the options in most classes trait and weapon choices, leaving DPS the only role left for everyone in PvE.

People ask why other people would like a system like the trinity, but honestly, people just like to play different roles. Every class plays more or less the same in GW2:

Auto-attack, dodge, random-attack, dodge… The variety is very slim, and it gets fairly stale at some point. It doesn’t matter if you are a warrior in heavy armor or a elementalist in cloth, the mantra is damage to the face and dodge like a bunny.
With the melee/berserker meta in PvE, things get only worse. Everyone is a glass cannon melee class…

There is only only role to be played in this role playing game. How is that fun in the long run?

She is a dragon champion. She is corrupted and therefore crazy and powerful.

Spoiled the plot, sorry…

Philip Pullman Northen Lights anyone? That is where we find god.

Feel free to explore some of my builds, they are all made for (solo-)PvE. Maybe a Phantastic Phantasm variant would fit for you.

Just check my signature.

Uh, I feel honored. Thank you guys for promoting my guide. ^^

I would keep feedback on cooldown. It causes a lot of damage on ranged mobs, so it would be a waste if it was on cooldown for a combo. Half of the enemies out there are ranged ones anyway, give them back some of their own! ^^

Open world: Shatter, it’s simply the best.
Dungeons: I have not been in a dungeon for a long time. If I would, phantasm.
PvP: I do not care.
Wv3: Whatever trait setup I just use, so mostly shatter.

Pifil.5193:

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Fire and ice won’t go together too well…

More steampunk then, eh? Eh? EH?

Oh well, suit yourself.

How about: “Nothing but hot air” alliance.

Destroyers and Svanirs:

The Self-Destruction Alliance.

Fire and ice won’t go together too well…

The living story just feels not epic. I as a player feel like a merc instead of a hero.
I feel replaceable, in a world that is endangered by dragons, I run around and do useless stuff. Why ain’t we going to confront them now, they will only get stronger.

Scarlet is a weak villain, she just feels random. Her character does not fit to the mastermind she is sold as. And she is no dragon. That is a weakness too.

For a year, Zhaitan is dead, for a year the Pact is rotting in fort trinity. Why did the living story ignore everything that was built up by the personal story. It does not feel like a new arc, but like a different game. I do not miss Trahearne, but I miss to be in a cutscene, being part of the story, not just part of the events.

The personal story was sold as one of the pillars, but it is gone, nothing personal at all with the living story.

If you have limited time and want to get an ascended weapon, you will have to join the “do it the efficient way” zergs, otherwise you might never get the best loot.

DEs are just not rewarding enough for any progression in this game. Little coin, no mats. I wish they would give the living world some meaning again, but I fear this will take at least forever.

If I find the motivation to log in, I will just hang out somewhere and maybe go to a place I want. I got 110 laurels left over anyway, so I do not care about dailies. Rarely they get done by just playing, most of the time, I log out without finishing the dailies.

I am tired of grinding in this game, and grinding dailies is no exception.

You cannot push all classes to the level of warriors without destroying any challenge in PvE. They are simply that overpowered.
You would have to buff all classes and than raise the difficulty level of all PvE content, which would just be the same as simply nerfing warriors.

On the other hand, I am OK with anet fixing useless skills and traits first for other classes and see how close we get to warriors, than balancing them down to where PvE is more balanced for everyone.

I liked temple events and the old Orr. But they sort of got old. At least you can go there with a small number of players and win.

The new and shiny Tequatl though, that got redone for the better is a horrible zerg fest, which you can only win with a zerg of around 100 people…

Players set a clear signal to ANet: The new Tequatl is a failure.

Most of the time (on my server all of the time) he is sitting in his cage for 15 minutes untouched.

I am all for harder boss fights, but with proper scaling and an event chain (and probably kicking all the afker around)…

If you want to stay at range and want to try both, shatter and phantasm, try my builds with their variations (Lazy Kai and Go Go Power Ranger).

For shatter you want (Dom I)Mental Torment, (Duel X)Deceptive Evasion, (Illu I)Precise Wrack and (Illu XI)Illusionary Persona for sure.

For phantasm it is (Dom III)Empowered Illusions, (Duel II)Phantasmal Fury, (Insp 25)Phantasmal Strength, (Illu 25)Illusionists Celerity

All of them are pushing you into one of the two directions, so you should try to build around them.

Yeah, have been there some times. It is very easy to get there and you can even leave the cave again without porting. Would be nice if you could interact with it though.

We have our private instances, and we get stuff for there, it is a start.

Yeah, reached 80 with my necro today with grinding the labyrinth… ^^
I will probably expand my leveling guide with the hint, that people should simply follow the zerg train of whatever event is active.

Berserker gear I would say if you play a lot of PvE.

Seriously people, what did I just read.

Obviously, the Guardian is better than the Mesmer, with the one exception, that the Mesmer is better than the Guardian.

So it is a simple choice.

Let all that stuff in, just give people that want real content some real content. And I am not talking about the abyssmal LS.

Give us some new playfield, some new real story missions (you know, where players are in the cutscenes and feel like a part of it) or at least some new DE’s. And fix Tequatl, we do not need more deserted places in the open world.

But while Mesmers seems strong, they are the least played class in game (10%) and warrior is the most played (16%). Guardian is somewhere in the middle.
Mesmers are not the stronges class in PvE by some extend and need way more button bashing than other classes.

Warriors on the otherhand, you can get good results with just randomly hitting 1,2,3 and 4 and never touching your utility and getting rewarded for it.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/guild-wars-2-the-first-year/

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/ for some lore.

Tips and tricks, hmm, which class?

If you want to level, and phantasms are what you are looking for, I would got with the following possibilities (I just copy myself from an other thread):

At 60 you should go 10/15/0/25/0
At 65 10/20/0/25/0

Like this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQBYk4MjovcSFUdJF4m3A traitwise

You could also trait pistol instead of sword, as it is your source of phantasm damage.

Alternatively:

At 60: 10/15/0/0/25
At 65: 10/20/0/0/25

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQBYkANDs7dSFUdJF4O3A

Which I would prefer due to faster phantasms.

For shatter, use the leveling guide in my signature or in the Grimoire.

If I need to go EGO away from keyboard, I just leave my computer and go to my beautiful girl. ^^

If they want to get away from the trinity, why did they give warriors the highest HP and armor class? This is making that class the most tanky class by base stats.

And yeah, they dish out damage like berserkers, which would fit too.

BlackDevil.9268:

Casuals Win

I wish this game was as “casual win” as it was adverised.