Guild Wars 2

Sorry, this doesn’t involve SAB, so no reason to attend

It’s still 100% optional. It is required for a skin, which isn’t gear, so still optional. Also, patient effort applies to this puzzle, how do you think people get good at this. Determining the pattern and following it until you can do it consistently.

I’m super into this, but I already bought the chest, I’m not buying the box too. If it were possible to get the box without gems I would go all in for this.

dyna.6805:

i think everyone who has a continue coin should go to lions arch and ping them every week, devs dont notice unless loads of ppl complain, so lets make em complain. ping wars 2 PPL!! PING WARS 2!!!

To what end? I’m not against the act, but what is the goal?

It is only a grind if you make it a grind. I am not grinding the JP for presents to get things. I’m doing the JP because I love the JP and am good at it. The fact that it also hands out the best rate of presents it secondary. If it only dropped two presents a run I would still do it to the exclusion of all else because I enjoy it. The point where I grind is when I open those presents to get the alcohol to work toward the absurd goal of 10k. A goal I’m pretty sure I can’t meet by the end of the event in order to get a skin I’ll never use because it takes up the shoulder spot.

I’m also not grinding for mithril. I’m playing the game the way I normally do and gradually accruing mithril by salvaging junk, since I get a lot of junk in HoT. Once I’ve gotten enough mithril, something to the effect of 2500 ore, I’ll move forward in my efforts to craft Inferno through the new system.

If you don’t want to grind, don’t grind. If you want the skin more than you want to not grind, then maybe grinding isn’t a problem. It is entirely up to you. But no one, not a single person, not a dev and not a player, is making you grind.

And then you post the same thing, expecting a different result? Did you use you ICC? Did you continue even once? If you did, then you don’t deserve a refund. Your expectations may have been the decider in your choice to purchase, but they are irrelevant to what you are entitled. You purchased an item that fulfills a service. You made use of the service. End of story.

Yarrmor.8406:

Kal Spiro.9745:

Yarrmor.8406:

Kal Spiro.9745:

Yarrmor.8406:

Kal Spiro.9745:

Yarrmor.8406:

Kal Spiro.9745:

I’m happy they made it harder. It’s still absurdly easy and significantly easier than the clocktower, but the increased damage means there is more possibility of failure and that recovering from a mistake is highly improbable.

What other mistake is there you can make, besides falling off? Which has nothing to do with the frostbite, since it’s insta death.

During the first part of the jump it’s sometimes possible to save yourself on a part of the jump below you. Also during the last part of the run getting hit by the snowbolder or the skritt wasn’t a guaranteed lose, just a likely one, now it’s significantly more likely.

You mean, falling on one of the towers? That’s the same as falling of the course. End of the line. Also, I think the snowboulder actually insta killed you before. And the snowboulder and the skritt (didn’t even notice it was a skritt that threw the stuff) are tied to a pattern. Study it. You have enough time to wait one cycle of them.

Also, if you have time to look around and see that it’s a skritt you waste time not running.

It has nothing to do with looking around, they’re talk throughout the run about trying to hit the runners. Also during the last section of the run, just before you turn off the path to jump into the box, you can see some of them in the distance on a platform.

I don’t mean falling on the platform, I mean falling from one level to a level below. I saw it just yesterday, in fact, then watched the character run out of health well before the end.

The boulders MAY have been an instakill the first year, but I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure they always knocked you back. As for the pattern of the snowballs, they’re not consistent from one run to the next. Sometimes they’re timed very poorly for actually traversing that part of the puzzle.

I’m 100% sure the snowballs are patterned and tied to the snowboulder. And if you fall off, and happened to land on a snowflake below you, you still fell off, though luck and try again. I hate to be the one to say it, but get good?

Don’t stop running, use action camera, learn the pattern and timing, and have good luck on the presents. That are all the tips I can give you guys, and frankly that’s all there is to the JP. And if you really can’t do it, ask a friend to do it for you. I’ve done it a few times for my friends previous years. And I know of other people that ask friends too.

I assume you’re trying to teach me how to do it for some reason. I don’t need to be taught. Any time I fail it’s because of stupid mistakes more related to my mouse and keyboard not doing what I meant for them to do when I did. I can do the snowflakes without the snowflakes actually being there before I jump.

The snow balls are on a pattern, they will always land at the same time in relation to the passing of the boulders. What they won’t do is follow that pattern consistently from zone instance to zone instance. While it will be the same for every run within an instance, when you get moved to a new instance after the timer runs out it will most likely be slightly or significantly different.

The thing that isn’t consistent from run to run, however, is the pattern of presents popping. Even if you get used to the pattern you want, they will shift to a different pattern, for no apparent reason.

I’m in this thread advocating for harsher time restrictions, not for an easier run.

I guess the “get good” and tips parts were more directed to the amount of people that browse these forums for an answer.

I’ve never noticed a difference in the snowballs for each instance. I’ve always had them appear on the exact same timing. And I’ve been in multiple instances across multiple days. I even remembered the pattern from previous years. So highly unlikely that I got lucky and had the same pattern all these times, if there were different ones.

Between three separate timers yesterday I got three completely different timings. During the first run they were slow, meaning the last boulder was already past the peppermint before the snowball even hit. During the last timer it landed before the Boulder reached it, allowing me to jump behind the boulder without waiting for it.

The fact that you haven’t noticed it is either a failure to notice, or luck. Regardless of your assertion to the contrary.

Yarrmor.8406:

Kal Spiro.9745:

Yarrmor.8406:

Kal Spiro.9745:

Yarrmor.8406:

Kal Spiro.9745:

I’m happy they made it harder. It’s still absurdly easy and significantly easier than the clocktower, but the increased damage means there is more possibility of failure and that recovering from a mistake is highly improbable.

What other mistake is there you can make, besides falling off? Which has nothing to do with the frostbite, since it’s insta death.

During the first part of the jump it’s sometimes possible to save yourself on a part of the jump below you. Also during the last part of the run getting hit by the snowbolder or the skritt wasn’t a guaranteed lose, just a likely one, now it’s significantly more likely.

You mean, falling on one of the towers? That’s the same as falling of the course. End of the line. Also, I think the snowboulder actually insta killed you before. And the snowboulder and the skritt (didn’t even notice it was a skritt that threw the stuff) are tied to a pattern. Study it. You have enough time to wait one cycle of them.

Also, if you have time to look around and see that it’s a skritt you waste time not running.

It has nothing to do with looking around, they’re talk throughout the run about trying to hit the runners. Also during the last section of the run, just before you turn off the path to jump into the box, you can see some of them in the distance on a platform.

I don’t mean falling on the platform, I mean falling from one level to a level below. I saw it just yesterday, in fact, then watched the character run out of health well before the end.

The boulders MAY have been an instakill the first year, but I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure they always knocked you back. As for the pattern of the snowballs, they’re not consistent from one run to the next. Sometimes they’re timed very poorly for actually traversing that part of the puzzle.

I’m 100% sure the snowballs are patterned and tied to the snowboulder. And if you fall off, and happened to land on a snowflake below you, you still fell off, though luck and try again. I hate to be the one to say it, but get good?

Don’t stop running, use action camera, learn the pattern and timing, and have good luck on the presents. That are all the tips I can give you guys, and frankly that’s all there is to the JP. And if you really can’t do it, ask a friend to do it for you. I’ve done it a few times for my friends previous years. And I know of other people that ask friends too.

I assume you’re trying to teach me how to do it for some reason. I don’t need to be taught. Any time I fail it’s because of stupid mistakes more related to my mouse and keyboard not doing what I meant for them to do when I did. I can do the snowflakes without the snowflakes actually being there before I jump.

The snow balls are on a pattern, they will always land at the same time in relation to the passing of the boulders. What they won’t do is follow that pattern consistently from zone instance to zone instance. While it will be the same for every run within an instance, when you get moved to a new instance after the timer runs out it will most likely be slightly or significantly different.

The thing that isn’t consistent from run to run, however, is the pattern of presents popping. Even if you get used to the pattern you want, they will shift to a different pattern, for no apparent reason.

I’m in this thread advocating for harsher time restrictions, not for an easier run.

Yarrmor.8406:

Kal Spiro.9745:

Yarrmor.8406:

Kal Spiro.9745:

I’m happy they made it harder. It’s still absurdly easy and significantly easier than the clocktower, but the increased damage means there is more possibility of failure and that recovering from a mistake is highly improbable.

What other mistake is there you can make, besides falling off? Which has nothing to do with the frostbite, since it’s insta death.

During the first part of the jump it’s sometimes possible to save yourself on a part of the jump below you. Also during the last part of the run getting hit by the snowbolder or the skritt wasn’t a guaranteed lose, just a likely one, now it’s significantly more likely.

You mean, falling on one of the towers? That’s the same as falling of the course. End of the line. Also, I think the snowboulder actually insta killed you before. And the snowboulder and the skritt (didn’t even notice it was a skritt that threw the stuff) are tied to a pattern. Study it. You have enough time to wait one cycle of them.

Also, if you have time to look around and see that it’s a skritt you waste time not running.

It has nothing to do with looking around, they’re talk throughout the run about trying to hit the runners. Also during the last section of the run, just before you turn off the path to jump into the box, you can see some of them in the distance on a platform.

I don’t mean falling on the platform, I mean falling from one level to a level below. I saw it just yesterday, in fact, then watched the character run out of health well before the end.

The boulders MAY have been an instakill the first year, but I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure they always knocked you back. As for the pattern of the snowballs, they’re not consistent from one run to the next. Sometimes they’re timed very poorly for actually traversing that part of the puzzle.

Yarrmor.8406:

Kal Spiro.9745:

I’m happy they made it harder. It’s still absurdly easy and significantly easier than the clocktower, but the increased damage means there is more possibility of failure and that recovering from a mistake is highly improbable.

What other mistake is there you can make, besides falling off? Which has nothing to do with the frostbite, since it’s insta death.

During the first part of the jump it’s sometimes possible to save yourself on a part of the jump below you. Also during the last part of the run getting hit by the snowbolder or the skritt wasn’t a guaranteed lose, just a likely one, now it’s significantly more likely.

Yarrmor.8406:

Actually, it’s been a lot easier than the last time I did the JP (which was the very first Wintersday). Back then the snowflakes would disappear behind you, causing it to catch up to you if you even stood still for 0.5 sec. You had to keep running in order to make it. I always have 2k-2.5k ish health over when I reach Tixx.

So, don’t stop running and I find using Action Camera really helpful.

I miss the first version. You had to keep moving, but you also didn’t have to sit around waiting for the snowflakes in front of you to return. Also you didn’t have to hope to catch the present jump at the right moment because someone else did it a split second before you were ready.

I’m happy they made it harder. It’s still absurdly easy and significantly easier than the clocktower, but the increased damage means there is more possibility of failure and that recovering from a mistake is highly improbable.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

RoseofGilead.8907:

We haven’t seen it in over a year because it’s basically broken. It’ll have to be re-done before it can be playable in the game as it is now.

As I recall, what the devs said was that SAB was designed (originally) for April Fool’s and built on top of the existing game engine, meaning SAB has to be adjusted any time there are adjustments to the physics (and various other mechanics) of Tyria…and there have been lots and lots of adjustments.

Accordingly, (again, based on what I recall the devs saying), SAB would be have to redesigned from the ground up in order to be a permanent part of the game. Given the priorities of the current game, that doesn’t seem likely to happen any time soon.

tl;dr we won’t see SAB for a long time.

SAB was made of a sort of play thing by Josh Foreman and a group of no more than 7 other devs. It was just a thing to see if they could do it, and they cheated and broke whatever they could get away with in the original build of the game to make it work the way it does. So it’s true that it won’t function in the current build.

It is also definitely true, though, that things that were designed in SAB have became standard parts of the current game. While the whole thing has to be rebuilt, it is probably easier to do now than we might think because those things exist now in the current build.

Guhracie.3419:

I think it’s weird that they are churning out so many black lion weapon sets and yet their expansion shipped with three legendary weapons and an appallingly low number of new in-game skins overall.

Then again, they’re pushing microtransactions so hard you wouldn’t think they’d just released an expansion pack valued at $50.

All that being said, I’m not a fan of excluding weapons from skin sets.

Weapon skins are incredibly easy for them to churn out. Armor is much harder and more involved. Legendaries are significantly more than just a skin now that there is a whole story, of sorts, behind their production.

It costs 50 Flawless to make 25 Pristine. How many Flawless do you get from 1 Pristine?

I got one drop of them so far. But then I still have a crap ton of them from last year taking up space.

Go to the new Vendor in DR. Buy gift wrap for karma. Wrap ugly sweaters, hats and socks in gift wrap. Give to orphan for larger karma return.

You can now buy gifts directly from this same vendor for karma

There, it’s gone. Other stuff is there now, but that one’s gone. Better?

Nothing changed ingame three days ago. Updates are done on Tuesdays. That would seem to indicate that the problem is on your end.

Firewall and blocking aren’t the only things you need to look for. It’s also necessary to see what you’re bandwidth usage is at your modem. A few months ago I was suddenly getting ridiculous lag and we couldn’t figure out why. I got a program for monitoring in and out bandwidth on the routers WAN port and realized something was using all the upload bandwidth. It turned out that a backup program was not working correctly and was constantly uploading a file that didn’t actually exist, using all the bandwidth and disabling anything else from uploading anything.

Manasa Devi.7958:

Opinions aren’t welcome here. Didn’t you know?

People will always either try to talk you out of them, berate you for character flaws implied by holding said opinion, or go off on tangents where they push straw men off of slippery slopes. The conclusion is always that you’re being unreasonable.

Or maybe people actually are just unreasonable?

Phantasm Mesmer is also not improved by the elite.

Personal preference seems like more than a good enough reason to me, though.

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Kal Spiro.9745:

Is it ruining your play experience having a single line of text on your screen that can be easily ignored? It will probably stay up there for a while. What does it matter?

It matters that there’s an ad for the raid, an ad for the ESL and other pvp stuff – and at one point it was also showing my pvp rank up there. I have no interest in these things, yet I have no option to hide them.

Do you use any ad blockers when you browse the net? Or doesn’t it matter?

I don’t, and it doesn’t. Sounds like a whole lot of salty QQ. But maybe it’s only me who doesn’t actually notice them while I’m playing.

Is it ruining your play experience having a single line of text on your screen that can be easily ignored? It will probably stay up there for a while. What does it matter?

IndigoSundown.5419:

As far as I’m concerned, GW2 has already taken too much from WoW. I’d like the game to be less like WoW than it is. Unfortunately, GW2 seems to be moving closer to WoW, rather than further away.

Why does GW2 copy stuff from WoW? Because MMO consumers demand these things. Remember when GW2 launched with an in-game LFG that was not useful, and players used a 3rd party site to party up? Remember the demand for in-game LFG? Remember the players saying that, “No MMO should be without this feature.” Get enough people saying that about enough features, and enough developers listening, and you start to get MMO’s that are converging to be more like each other, rather than diverging to be something novel and different. I can empathize with the guy who posted the video Doggie linked to. MMO’s ain’t what they used to be. GW2 is a better game for me than most others, but it’s not as good a game for me as it was when it came out.

I’m sorry, what? GW2 is too much like WoW because they fixed a feature that was in the game at launch so that it actually is functional and useful? The LFG tool did need to be fixed, because you shouldn’t have to rely on a third party program in order to use a function that actually exists in game. That would be like getting upset that they fixed the search function on these forums when google works just fine for that purpose.

It’s hard to equate that to something like adding mounts and trinity, though, or even any of the stuff the OP is talking about.

I feel the need to go at this point for point.

InsidiousWaffle.7086:

Ok, so after playing this game for two years, I decided to give WoW a shot. I did the free trial to level 20, and it was a blast.

Leveling was fun, and not only did it not feel like a grind(as a new player to gw2 the first 20 levels took ages) but there were diverse quests, such as doing wave-defense missions, and there was an on-rails shooter section too.

I’m curious what you did to level in GW2, because it’s increadily easy to do. Hell, you can level to ten just by map completing the six cities in about an hour. By the time you’ve map completed any of the starter zones, presumably doing the events in the areas too, you should be level 15-20. It takes no time at all.

On top of that, quests interacted with each other. For example, I did a quest for a demon, and then I had to do another quest to kill that demon, in order to atone for my sins.
Another thing to note is the detail involved in the questing. Quests have tons of flavor text, and directly relate to the world around you. Guild wars 2 hearts give you maybe 2 sentences, and even then, most people miss out, because you are never required to go talk to the person giving the quest.

It also gives you a chance to experience a wide variety of different events in the area, some of which play off each other and include a variety of interesting lore. Not just flavor text, but actually interactions with characters explaining the world around you. It’s also possible to talk with many of the different characters involved in events to get even more information.

For me, a part that stood out to me especially was the rate of gear acquisition. From questing, you frequently received new gear that looked different from what you already had.

Gear acquisition has to be fast paced because every five levels you require an entirely new set of gear or else you can’t actually compete at your level. This is not the case in GW2. There is also a vast array of different gear looks in the game, as indicated by the size of the wardrobe, part of the point of the game, in fact, is to come up with the look that appeals to you most. I haven’t played WoW in a long time, but I was under the impression that wasn’t the case there. There isn’t a lot of room to define your appearance, you look like whatever the best gear for your level is and that’s it.

Another thing that WoW has is tangible class roles. I know, none of us want the holy trinity, but currently, the split between heavy, medium, and light classes feel pretty weak. Guardians and warriors lack active defenses, besides the occasional shield block or agis proc, healing doesn’t feel rewarding, and you rarely ever have the thrill of seeing big numbers flash onto your screen from damage(besides DH or Reaper).

Healing and Tanking were never intended to be roles in GW2, thus is makes sense that they’re not rewarding. I will grant that the two roles that were supposed to exist aren’t necessarily rewarding either, but they’re more so than those. Damage, Support (not healing, support) and Control were supposed to be the roles.

WoW also has far more spells, allowing you to have more options, as well as adding more flavor to each class. Not that guild wars needs to add more slots for skills, but a few added skills to replace what we currently have would be nice. Maybe fighting techniques that you get when you equip a new set of traits?

And how many do you actually use? What is the point of five bars full of garbage powers you don’t even use or need? I would like to have a little more options, I would like to be able to swap out weapon powers, or just have more weapons, but I don’t need more active skills than what I currently have.

While we are on the concept of traits, wow does them better. Each line that you choose to go down greatly impacts your play style, allowing you to have a real sense of uniqueness. For example, nobody in a WoW plays a warrior. Anyone who plays identifies as a fury warrior, an arms warrior, or a protection warrior. Currently, none of the base classes without elite specs have this. A good solution might be linking utility skills to traits, either adding new skills based on traits you take, or linking utility families to trait families, for example, linking confederations to zeal for guardians. This would make it so that you would only be able to take confederations if you spec into the zeal trait line. This would shake up the meta extremely, I know, but it would force players to be creative, and add identity to the build that you run.

This is actually the very real idea behind the current trait system. Not that last part, though, that last part is a bad idea. Each trait line is already linked to a weapon and a skill group, it doesn’t need to also restrict them. Base traits aren’t elites.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Daver.9548:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

PyrateSilly.4710:

They were there last year too. Did you complain last year too?

And the year before, and the year before that, as well. Kind of a tradition of being in the Gem Store, since inception.

Who knows? Maybe they will be on in-game vendors, as well, this year. /shrug

Yep, here’s Dulfy’s 2012 wintersday guide for the minis:

http://dulfy.net/2012/12/14/gw2-wintersday-minis-outfits-and-weapons-skins/

“All of these minis can be either brought in the gemstore for 350 gems or crafted using the toy frame and components acquired from Tixx’s infinirarium dungeons.”

Yep. And now it’s

“All of these minis can be either brought in the gemstore for 350 gems or crafted using the toy frame and components acquired from Tixx’s infinirarium dungeons.”

Maybe some people are happy with removal of ingame rewards and restricting access to the gemstore but I’m not personally seeing this as a positive feature.

However, if people are happy with this and don’t see a reason to complain about it, I’m sure ANet will be glad to continue removing ingame rewards to the gemstore, for your future shopping delight.

I’m with you. Each year I’ve managed to pick up another of the minis without buying them, but I’m very disappointed that they used the crafting idea once and then threw it away. Now it’s possible to get the newest minis just by opening presents, which is cool, but I want the original events back, just like I want the original Halloween quest event back.

Nekomi.9562:

moonstarmac.4603:

Sadly, from my understanding of what was said during Guild Chat, the Wonderland JP is a required part of this piece. Each item in the collection sounds as if it is bound by event and you must complete the event successfully 3 times to get the item.

Honestly, I really, really, really hope I this is not the case. If it is get an item every 3 successful completions it isn’t so bad, but if it is every 3 times for every event…it’ll be just like Nightfury for a lot of players.

I don’t see the problem.

Wintersday is the BEST holiday with catchy music (I normally have my sounds muted) but I’ve always lvoed wintersday where Halloween felt so… eh…

Wintersday actually has a form of… jolly festive feels to it as it should where as the other seasonal events just again feel empty and not at all thought out just mindless zerging through the mad kings lab.

3 Jumping puzzle runs is very simple that’s about 3 items per run which is 20 mins per instance? Choir bell is a nice break and Wintersday pvp (if they fixed the multiple presents bugs aww…) can be fun if ran with friends or just running as a present snatching troll.

It has nothing to do with joy, it has to do with an entire subset of the population being unable to manage 1, let alone 3, successful run of the JP. Some people are simply ill equipped to handle them.

MithranArkanere.8957:

Those should go in a separate ‘effects’ section in the wardrobe, not using up gear skins.

Same for other visuals that are potions now, like the Selfless halo. There should be a way to unlock them as effects.

+1 for truth

No body cares. No body has ever cared.
You’re bad against Mesmers. Learn to be better, don’t come on the forums expecting closure.
Besides Spoookie vs Team PZ had identical make up with hugely different results. It’s because PvP teams are good, not because Mesmers are all that.

Longbow, Rifle and Warhorn

Palador.2170:

Kal Spiro.9745:

The only person who could possibly have told anyone anything was knocked out before the pact even mobilized.

Caithe?

Actually was talking about the Pale Tree, but yeah, that is true too.

Palador.2170:

Mez Koo.9510:

How would people not trust us? (Only Cera hates me because of Tonn) We do have the most experience against the dragons (with Destiny ’s Edge broken).

How would people not trust the one that went mind to mind with the ELDER DRAGON of MIND, and somehow came out and said they beat it with no side effects? Easily.

More to the point, though, is that Trahearne was appointed in part because he knew so much about Orr. Part of the reason the Pact got torn apart is because they kept following him, and he knew next to nothing about Mordremoth.

What I expect is that each order will appoint one person that knows the most about whatever dragon we face next, and have them in a council to lead what’s left of the Pact. We might be the highest ranking person in the field, but we’ll still have orders coming to us from this council. Only when they can’t agree will we be the ones to make the final choice. (Or when we ignore them and act on our own.)

Actually, they appointed Trahearne because the player said, you should appoint him cause reasons. They accepted because he knew about Orr and they respected him. He proved himself as leader, which is why they followed him against Mordremoth. There was no Trahearne version intellect for Mordremoth anyway, no one knew about the jungle, nor the dragon. The only person who could possibly have told anyone anything was knocked out before the pact even mobilized.

Dresdoe.7503:

PyrateSilly.4710:

This has been answered so many times as it is now ridiculous to even think about bringing up something that was just a “this is what we would like” and as things change and grow things get cut and added.
As for the grinding …… I have been playing since head-start/beta and I have yet to grind. Not once have I grinded and I have played just about every day. I am not only doing the old Bolt but also every other new legendary weapon in the game at the moment. I am collecting as I go and not worrying about how fast I get them done. For me it is not a contest to see how fast I get them done. I am just letting the pieces come when they come. Having too much fun just playing to think about “oh crap I don’t have this legendary yet”

I call bs, you can’t play this game without grinding for something, anyone who claims otherwise has a faulty definition of a grind.

Or, possibly, you do.

eldrin.6471:

manifesto is public declaration of policy and aims. and in my book if you change them after taking my money on false pretenses you a lair/fraudster/cheet

That sounds like a you problem, not an ANet or anybody else problem. You should work on that.

Shen Slayer.3058:

Tommyknocker.6089:

Sicarius.4639:

Nauticus.5769:

I would like to see also open world content, which encourages the use of any other gear except zerker.

Right after they introduce a working builds system.

So Soon™ right, right?!?

Depends on our definition of soon or Anets? If it’s Anet, use dog years.

-> The joke <-
-wif- —-——>

->Your head <-

Thaddeus.4891:

HtFde.3856:

Just out of interest … how did you get your sets then – apart from buying the materials from the TP which somehow requires RL money or a lot of ingame gold (and requires people to actually farm the items for you to buy)?

Well I had 8 characters before HoT and now 9 with the revenants. I had all of them next to a Iron or Platinum rich vein and everyday I took 5-10min to gather all 8/9 of them. So for me Deldrimar Ingot where pretty much free with Mithril being so abundant.

With HoT I had 2 characters slot, but only 1 character left to make so I use the 2nd one to create a low level character that open Green Bags of gear so I get Tier 3-4 of Leather and Cloth.

CM is pretty great for low level leather and cloth. Yes right now less people are doing fractal and it’s harder to get a party. But it’s so much faster now with the power creep from HoT that the reward is pretty great. Maybe a bit less than before, but still great.

I did a bit of WvW zerg bursting with a guild for sometimes and got 2-3 Chest of ascended from that.

I also like to do PvP and also got maybe 5-6 ascended chest from just playing pvp.

Now fractal is useless for that, but I got about 12 ascended chest from fractals.

Oh and I’m an achievement kitten and I think 2-3 achievement give you ascended chest.

I got some ascended boots from raid and I have almost enough shards for 2 small pieces of ascended.

I crafted I think 2 ascended armors and about 10 ascended weapons. With my rich iron and platinum vein gathered 8 times each day, weapons where pretty easy to make actually. The remaining was from ascended drop in WvW, PvP and Fractals.

It,s been more than 2 years so I slowly accumulated ascended chests.

I hate to break it to you, but most of these manifesto people would probably consider that grinding.

Broom.2561:

Maris.3164:

Terrahero.9358:

Maris.3164:

Nope, HoT maps aren’t solo friendly. What do you want Anet to do about it? “Hardcore” players have asked for harder content for two years or so. To nerf the content now would be letting down the players who wanted harder content and were also promised it by Anet. The very people who bought HoT because harder content was promised.

Should Anet make more casual friendly content then? They have already catered for casuals for 3 years now but sure, why not. When they have the time.

Honestly though, I wouldn’t say the actual content on the maps is hard aside from maybe King of the jungle in TD. Some or most of the content just isn’t soloable. Joining or creating a guild (maybe just for casual players?) isn’t a bad idea.

Hmm, its almost like when you cater to one kind of demographic that that demographic grows larger. Then you switch it up, charge people full price for an expansion that is suddenly tailored for the minority of players, and act surprised that people are kittened?

They released an expansion that went directly against what they’ve been building up over the years and hyped their game to be before it even came out. It’s stupid to say “well, you got yours now we hardcore player tiny minority deserve to get ours”, because the hardcore crowd doesnt pay the bills.
If all the “casual” players would up and leave, and just the “hardcore” players would stick around, i can promise you GW2 will be shut down before Q3 2016.

You are right, the majority of the players are casual.

However, everybody knew that HoT content would be slightly more challenging than the central Tyrian content as Anet was very much open about it. It wasn’t “suddenly” tailored to “hardcore” players, this was known all along. This is what was asked of them. Players demanded it and Anet delivered. I didn’t see anyone complaining back then when it was announced that the expansion content would be more challenging.

Furthermore I find it shortsighted and well, selfish to say ‘because we are the majority, we should always get what we want regardless of what others want.’ Anet is trying to cater to both types of players. I don’t see an issue with that.

I personally don’t think the content in HoT is really that hard. The difficulty comes in when you want to solo absolutely everything. You cannot and you should accept it. For random exploring and story all you need is one friend to help you out if you really are struggling.

Would it be too much of a trouble to ask a friend to join in and help with hero points? Or wait around for others to show up? I highly doubt people will stop running the events or doing the hero points on HoT maps anytime soon and there’s always someone willing to help if you do find yourself alone.

There’s one gigantic flaw here. The casual player base too wanted an expansion, because frankly, not much has been added to the game since launch, content wise. What little things were added, were usually either a smallish zone or temporary in nature. Many stopped playing for lack of new things to do.

It’s my assumption this casual player base is the majority. So why have an expansion that caters to a minority, unless you are actually aiming to get NEW players with different preferences. Which, historically, hasn’t exactly been proven the best idea ever for MMOs.

Why was the casual player base running out of things to do? I’m a casual, I never ran out of things to do in central Tyria, for three plus years. Hell, I still have things to do, and I’ve still been running characters around in there along with playing in HoT. Casuals get by, Hardcore without much time burn through things, Hardcore with too much time burn through things immediately. Those are the people who demanded an expansion, and those are the people who got one.

Broom.2561:

Kal Spiro.9745:

eldrin.6471:

TD meta is a pushover compared to raids. and when did the people that played this game since launch ask for this crap? Anet decided to screw over there own player base to draw in a few raiders from wow.

That’s easy, since launch. People have been asking for Hardcore since launch. It became Hardcore when ANet decided to make an expansion, because people have been begging for Hardcore since launch. There are a lot of casuals and just bads who aren’t going to like it, but then there are also a lot of other people who want to be challenged and have not been since launch. Those people have been begging for and demanding this, and this is the result of that desire.

If you do not enjoy hardcore, or even just challenging, then I pity you. It’s your own fault, though, for not paying enough attention. They said it repeatedly. They told you it was coming. They never claimed it would be business as usual, they said it would be harder. That the entire point was endgame content for all those people than felt Orr wasn’t endgame enough and thought Liadri was the bomb. You were warned. It’s not ANet’s fault if you missed the warning, didn’t understand it, or ignored it.

Correction. In my experience, most people were fine with the core game as it was. A group of people of indeterminate size wanted ‘hard’ content, but I don’t think anyone ever did a poll of the game population to find out how large that group was. Personally, I THINK it wasn’t all that large, just very vocal.

It’s nice to shout ‘everyone was begging for it’, but that statement is not substantiated by numbers in any way. WHAT percentage of the population wanted this? And how wise is it to have a core game that specifically aims at casual gameplay and then turn around and to make an expansion that does anything but?

And worst of all, the expansion does it rather badly. It’s truly unwise to have complicated map metas and then not allow people who want to make a serious effort at it to select their own map. It’s just about as stupid as it gets to shove a raid gateway into a zone that depends on active participation to get a meta done. And forcing people to constantly use a badly designed LFG tool to get NORMAL map progression done is beyond words.

At what point did I ever say everyone? At what point did I even make an attempt to size the population. I said people, because that is the information I have. I don’t know, nor care, what the size was, what mattered was how long it had been a thing.

NayNay.7680:

Kal Spiro.9745:

The game is not a grind, unless you choose to grind. The game does not force you to do it, you force yourself.

yeah… No. Other players are imposing the grind upon us due to raid dps requirements. In order for any player to enjoy the endgame content that has been decided upon for our future, they will have to grind.

Not really, no. It’s still a choice you make.

Astralporing.1957:

Kal Spiro.9745:

It has been three years now, they’ve learned and grown with the community.

You mean, against the community, right?

You, whoever you are, are not the community. I am not the community. Being part of something doesn’t make you the soul and voice for that thing.

eldrin.6471:

TD meta is a pushover compared to raids. and when did the people that played this game since launch ask for this crap? Anet decided to screw over there own player base to draw in a few raiders from wow.

That’s easy, since launch. People have been asking for Hardcore since launch. It became Hardcore when ANet decided to make an expansion, because people have been begging for Hardcore since launch. There are a lot of casuals and just bads who aren’t going to like it, but then there are also a lot of other people who want to be challenged and have not been since launch. Those people have been begging for and demanding this, and this is the result of that desire.

If you do not enjoy hardcore, or even just challenging, then I pity you. It’s your own fault, though, for not paying enough attention. They said it repeatedly. They told you it was coming. They never claimed it would be business as usual, they said it would be harder. That the entire point was endgame content for all those people than felt Orr wasn’t endgame enough and thought Liadri was the bomb. You were warned. It’s not ANet’s fault if you missed the warning, didn’t understand it, or ignored it.

The throne was always intended to change over time. This is something that the Devs mentioned in hushcited tones.

Looks like a Bear Shaman to me… but I’ll take your word for it. I don’t suppose you have a before picture to compare.

Goldberg.4831:

Yelloweyedemon.2860:

Palador.2170:

Yelloweyedemon.2860:

There was no real point to begin with. OP has no clue what grinding really means. He also does not seem to understand that end-game rewards do not come easy.

The previous LI system was a problematic system that required RNG drop and tons of actual grinding. Running each and every dungeon every day, doing the exact same thing as fast as possible, repeating it for months and months with your only goal the reward, is the definition of grind.

If you fail to see that, you never played a serious MMO before, and you just cry on the forums because with HoT, you can’t just finish all the content the game has to offer within 3 hours of release while pressing #1. Something you could totally do in the vanilla version of the game.

The core GW2 was not an MMO able to keep players playing for a decent amount of time. It was so facerolling easy that an enormous amount of the total population was taking huge breaks very often out of boredom and lack of end-game content. A big percentage of the population was just logging in to do the daily (or just logged-in since they changed the system to give you rewards for logging in…), and logged out right after because there was literally nothing else to do.
In addition to that every single Living world episode could be completed within 2 hours from release.

Grind is relative.

You’re basing your standards of “grind” off of other games. EQ, WoW, and the like, I’m guessing. They’re basing their standards of “grind” off of the rest of GW2. There’s a rather huge difference between the two, but both are correct from their own point of view.

The problem is, this is not one of those other games, and it is GW2. GW2 was supposed to be different, not just a copy of other MMORPGs. The grind may be small by the standards of other games, but those are not the standards we should be using. If GW2 is meant to stand as its own thing, we should measure it as such.

That model of GW2 was obviously not working out well and that’s why they felt the need to change it. As I mentioned above, the game could not sustain a healthy population.

Also, I’m not comparing the game with EQ/WoW/RIFT etc… I’m just saying that grind means repeating the same content countless times with your only goal the reward.
In HoT you get the rewards by exploring/playing the content new maps have to offer. It’s a different thing completely.

So they chose the f2p route, brilliant.
They went against their manifesto, simple as that. And who says the original manifesto wasn’t working, you? That makes me want to spend more money on gems, now that you have cleared this up for us.

We don’t make grindy games, we leave that to the other companies.

Not only was that their statement, it also had a condescending tone to it.

Now if GW2 is not the grindiest game one the market, please show me one that is worse.

Wait wait wait. So you can’t compair GW2 to other games, despite the specific line in the manifesto being a comparison to other games? Don’t compare it to GW2, because it is no more or less grindy than it ever was. Because they, in the manifesto, are defining Grind as repeating content repeatedly for the chance at obtaining the specific goal. Then moving on to the next task and repeating. That is the kind of grind you get out of “other games” -with a condescending tone-

No, instead you get a grind like Farmville, in which you will always be making progress toward your goal. You will know exactly how much you need to do to achieve your goal. You aren’t hoping for a chance of success, you will succeed, it may just take a while.

See that’s the problem with the old way of making legendaries. It actually did go against the manifesto, because precursors were RNG. You couldn’t guarantee one. Therefore it made no difference how much you worked toward the goal because it might never come. Instead you would have to go back to your Farmville grind for gold to buy one from someone else who lucked out.

I know it’s been answered, and answered and argued and answered. And it’s got three pages still of answers, but I’m going to answer anyway.

The manifesto is not a gospel path that the Devs are beholden to. It was a guide for how the game would be made at launch. After that point it ceased being more than a concept. It has been three years now, they’ve learned and grown with the community. The Manifesto is no longer relevant to maintaining the game, nor allowing it to move forward. Despite that, they have still maintained the more important ideas within it, if not perfectly.

The game is not a grind, unless you choose to grind. The game does not force you to do it, you force yourself. I’m making Inferno for my fire themed Ranger. Tier 1 took me a while since I hadn’t been crafting Ascended mats up to this point. But it wasn’t bad. Tier 2 took me by surprise, because it requires a lot of mithril, like a LOT of mithril. So I stepped back. I don’t feel like buying it, which means I’ll have to earn it, and that’s going to take a long time. I choose not to grind, and so my experience isn’t grindy, it’s just longer.

What is your favorite part in the HoT Personal Story? (Spoiler tags please!)

What Specialization have you tried so far? Which is your favorite? What one will you try next?
My first completed elite was Daredevil, which I enjoyed a lot. It makes my Dagger/Dagger thief that much more knifey. I also made a Berserker, Scrapper, Dragonhunter and Herald, but I haven’t finished any of them. I have no interest in Druid, Reaper, Tempest, nor Chronomancer. Even though it isn’t finished, Herald is still my favorite. Revenant is ok, but Herald is best.

What is your favorite event or map in HoT?
Lord Faren, of course Lord Faren. He’s absurd and delightful. I’m just happy that I made a noble, because if I hadn’t had the opportunity to adventure with him, I might not care about him nearly as much.

Are there any other areas you are excited by? PvP? Fractals? WvW? Guild Halls? Masteries? Raids?
One thing I did like is that Guild Halls allowed me to get all of my characters into HoT without doing the prequel to the story. Other than that, nothing.

What are you most looking forward to now?
I’m looking forward to LW3, but I am kind of looking forward to whatever the next expansion is. I want to see how they’ll use these features they spent so much time on moving forward.

I’ve been playing this game since early access. I bought the $100 expansion, because I felt it was the best price for what you get. I enjoy the game. I enjoy HoT. I don’t buy Gems if I can help it. I don’t need, nor usually like, the things in the Gem store. I’m not going to buy Gems to have them, I would buy them to get something specific. Also, if I can help it, I’d rather convert gold to Gems instead.

Nothing they have done, so far, has put me off their game. I’m not disenfranchised. I just don’t want to buy Gems because I don’t equate spending more money on the product as an indication that I like it. All that matters to me is if I think it’s money well spent, and when I do spend the money, I usually do think so.

Todd.6573:

Gaile Gray.6029:

Hey all,

Just a note to say that we’ve disabled one of the hero points in Auric Basin for a little while to allow the team to fix an exploit with—of all things—poisoned bacon.

The devs will get a fix in very soon and you’ll soon be able to acquire that hero point soon.

Thanks for your understanding.

Its been more than 6 days now. For a bugged Hero Point. It doesnt even take my ordered merchandise from the other side of the globe 6 days to arrive.
Hotfix it already.

I feel you don’t understand what a Hotfix is. A Hotfix is a fix that is implemented while the game is still running, aka hot. It is not a fix that is magically created instantly at the leisure of the programmers. If it is taking them days to complete it, taking in mind that four of those days were effectively the holiday weekend, then it is obviously difficult and more complicated than they expected.

This seems to be another instance of people not having the right mentality for the material. Rather than just playing the game and gaining Masteries in a fluid and gradual manner, they grind them out to complete them as fast as possible, then get frustrated when there is nothing left to do.

Rasimir.6239:

Kraggy.4169:

Ayrilana.1396:

Kraggy.4169:

TexZero.7910:

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

TexZero.7910:

Celtic Lady.3729:

Lord Cody.5237:

Guild Wars 2 is a mmo

This means nothing other than massively multiple players are all playing the same game. Doesn’t mean they’re all doing the same things at the same time in the same place.

It does however mean if you want a single player experience you’re better off alt-f4’ing and playing the legendary game of Solitaire instead.

So, you’re saying those looking for a multiplayer experience would be better off trying Poker or Go Fish?

It’s more logical than coming on a forum to complain that a game built upon playing with a large number of people is somehow, not upto your standards of playing solo.

Honestly, it’s pretty sad how many players do not fundamentally realize that MMO’s at their core are about co-operative play. This includes the open world. If it was meant to be a single player experience you’d be in instances scaled for exactly 1 person.

Except you’re posting on a forum of a game that before the exansion WAS JUST THAT TYPE OF GAME, where instances were side-issues and totally avoidable if you chose and group event were likewise.

HOT changed GW2 into a group-or-die game where simply progressing one’s character by unlocking skills is no longer doable without HAVING to ‘group up’, GW2 pre-HOT WAS NOT LIKE THAT!

ANET took our money without ever telling us they were changing it from a solo-friendly, group optional game, to a solo-hostile 1990s group-or-die one.

GW2 after HOT is really GW3, a throwback to the last century’s idea of what ‘playing other people’ means.

You can still progress your character (unlocking elite spec) without needing anyone.

Unlocking and capping are two different things, I have it unlocked, I’m nowhere near capping it and need HPs only doable with groups, either to do the challenge itself or simply to unlock access to the challenge in the first place.

Sounds like an interesting challenge: Unlock your elite spec in HoT only -> do 25 HoT hero challenges.

I’ve actually got a lvl 80 ranger who has done nothing beyond unlocking all core tyria waypoints (to see how long it would take -> slightly less than 10 hours) and full core personal story (again to see the length -> again around 10 hours, although that was just before the latest story revision, so I’d expect it to take a bit longer nowadays). I might just take her into HoT next weekend to see how far I’ll get with her druid spec playing solo. Does showing up at hero points others are calling out in map chat count as “solo”?

I would say no, solo denotes a lack of other people.