Guild Wars 2

You are asking the wrong player here. I was not one of the players that this was targeted for.

As a player who has been “loyal” and here since GW1 and the betas of GW2, I felt sad, angry, and bit insulted by the change. I would have rather have seen the resources and time devoted spent on other things improving the core of the game rather than hitting the “reset” button in such a poorly designed way. There are so many new bugs and plot holes that they should be taking no pride in this kitten move.

I would love to hear the response from a new player. This was for them. It was to make them feel better, not veteran players. If it accomplished that, then I would feel better about this. So new players, what do you have to say? Do you feel confused about anything?

This zerker thing saddens me greatly. It encourages less diversity of game play and builds. With all this variety of new stats and new ones coming out (like Sinister’s) it makes me wonder why Anet devotes time to making new stat combos. I like the simplified game play GW2 brings for casual players, but I’d also don’t mind some thinking and creativity which is what PvE doesn’t even come close to requiring – at least most of the time.

Why not just add the glow affect when they make it available again and then make it retroactive for anyone who bought it prior. They’ve done stuff like this before like that Flame-Kissed armor fiasco.

If I had this sort of work ethic at my job I would have been fired years ago.

I know that the equivalent here would be: “Well, just stop playing the game, moron!”, but I don’t get it. If you work hard and devote a lot of time to making something, why then make it available to the public as anything less than the best representative of your work?

Maybe I’m comparing apples to oranges here, but if the product I turned out was regularly flawed and not working as advertised than there would not be much of future for me or the company I worked for. I’ll never understand why executives and supervisors consider this acceptable. It goes a long way to eroding trust and optimism in the player community which seems to be their life’s blood. Don’t they take pride in their work?

Gaile Gray.6029:

Is it even possible, given the changes that came about in the world?

First off I was under the assumption that at some time before LS2 was coming that there was some official word on that they were working on bring back LS1. it wasn’t high priority, but it would comeback like the LS2 format. I don’t remember where I read this, but I do believe it’s out there.

Second, why the heck not? I don’t believe that those old maps have been deleted, and that it would be a simple matter to make them a new instance. I think that most players are intelligent enough to realize that these events, if played again happened in the past and are not part of the current LS. Isn’t that the same philosophy when we are playing LS3 and someone goes back to replay a LS2 episode?

Regarding major changes to places like LA. Wouldn’t it be better for the overall story-telling experience to have those accessible again. With all this talk these days about “new player experience” hasn’t anyone considered that they will not see LA back in it’s heyday? They will never have seen it in it’s original splendor and have no idea the significance of LS1.

Speaking of which on the flip side, won’t the new player be confused when they are kicked pack to a destroyed LA during their PS. Wouldn’t it make much more sense to have new players playing their PS have maps pre LS1. It brings a lot more significance to the Claw Island chapter. It also helps to establish continuity which is the number one thing that has been lost (the Fear plot line of the PS) of late. Wouldn’t it just make much more sense to add instances of old maps and events to emphasize how much of a “living” world that Anet is striving for?

TL;DR: Not making LS1, or even original maps of the world like LA accessible again degrades the overall quality and significance of the story you are trying to tell especially for new players.

PS. I almost forgot. It also offers an excellent opportunity to sell gems.

It’s simple Anet. The only way to get the Ancient Stone Summit Shoulder Spike for the Treasure Hunter achievement is to have the event Protect Krewe Leader Dobbs finish successfully. However the quest is bugged and has been bugged for over a year. After searching through the forums there is evidence of this since March 2013. Maybe the quest was fixed temporarily, but this sort of problem has happened again.

Last night, I waited at Dobbs for over an hour thinking that this event would fire at some moment. Myself and about 5-6 others were in the same boat. Wanting that SSSS for the TH achievement. There may have been others, because plenty of other players came zipping through the spot several times. After awhile I went back to the wiki and then read the bottom notes section and that’s when I realized it’s been bugged since Oct. I then went to the forums and then found the history for this bug.

I know about programming and bugs. I know that it’s not possible to squash them all, and it’s not possible to fix them quickly. Shouldn’t this one though, be somewhat of a high priority? I know that the accepted work around is to wait for a patch or for a new map to spawn, but this has been the case for over a month. I also realize that this is not the only item collection bugged and I have to wonder why they’re still broken after being implemented since the feature patch.

Why put something in and then leave it broken? Is it really that hard of a fix or do you have other priorities right now that you can’t divert resources to fixing it. So why then why remain mute on the subject when everyone knows this one and others regarding item collection bugs are still broken? Is it disdain for us, the players?

I’d ask you to fix this, but I would have to believe that you are more than aware of this problem. I’ll keep checking back and hopefully I’ll get lucky. I still have to ask though, I know you have a tight-lip policy regarding this game, but do you try to fix bugs in a timely and quick manner, or are they put in a “pile” to be dealt with when there is time? I mean in some regards, you’ve been able to fix popular dynamic event “bugs” seemingly overnight when they were considered exploits, why not this one, then?

fizban.1852:

Pandaman.4758:

I’m curious if Sondor will be updated to accept nougats/skulls/teeth given we now have a year-round source for said items (from the maize balm recipe).

While I definitely support the concept of limited-duration rewards, such as the recipes and all that, I find that (as Pandaman states here) the nougats, skulls, and fangs should definitely be added back into Sonder’s repertoire of exchangeable goods (for their higher quality versions at least). I find that I don’t actually want to use my Maize Balm now simply because I don’t want my bank to overflow with items that can’t be condensed.

I completely agree with the idea of keeping cobs, nougats, skulls, and fangs tradeable for their upgraded counterparts, Gaile. I also agree with you, when you say those holiday specific vendors shouldn’t stick around.

True, I’m sitting on a bunch of these things and I like to upgrade and I wasn’t able to due to RL stuff. Now, we have the maize balm we can craft through recipe potentially allowing us to get more ToT bags. It would then seem logical to allow players to upgrade those components if they so choose to continue to farm those bags.

I know this is not an original idea, I’ve seen it mentioned a bunch of times before. I know the current server setup has been a bit of a worry and eventually it just simply won’t work the way it is structured now especially as servers continue to shrink.

Those of us who are familiar with GW1, Factions understand how they have implemented the faction system before. Your guild or yourself would pick a side that you would represent (Luxon/Kurzick would obviously not work it would have to be something more neutral)You would fight for your side through a variety of means earning faction points for your chosen side (including exclusive 12man dungeons). After a fashion you would turn in your earned faction to the benefit of your guild and be able to earn a variety of rewards including new skills, armor, consumables, etc. . .

1. If they were to implement something like that again, do you think it would work?

2. Is it even possible to smoothly implement a faction system the current way WvW is structured or would it need a complete overhaul?

3. So what would/could it look like?

4. If there was a factions system would it be necessary for Anet to have a paywall to transfer (like with current server transfers) or just switch sides freely?

5. Do you think that players would rage over this final nail in the coffin that would be server identity?

Danikat.8537:

I really don’t believe the changes to the story were intended to make it less confusing. If so it was a big mistake because there are a lot more plot holes now.

I’ve been wondering why they’ve changed the order, I really thought it was to make things less “confusing”. Has their been any official word why they did this then?

I think banning is all bark, no bite from ANET.

Reporting siege tho is probably the simplest most efficte way. To bad there’s no follow through.

Most likely solution that will be implemented will be some kind of nerf making siege irrelevant.

Seriously players, this is real life. Players play unfair. They play to win. Deal with it. I don’t like it either, I try to play honorably, but realize I won’t win – much like Ed Stark. When Anet listens to us about something unfair it will most likely end up as a nerf with loss of content and simplified gameplay.

I know how it sounds but I’m really hoping that if they solve this issue it offers greater diversity of gameplay in WvW. That is what we need. If you look at their first post regarding this problem you can see what I mean. They tend to solve issues with limits and locks simplifying gameplay eliminating their original intent.

It was easy. Five events in less than five minutes 1/week.

Easy? Yes

Fun? Not so much.

Rewarding? I’d say a slight yes to this one. I did get 2 Hero’s MF weapon skins out of it.

How was your experience? Did you like the way they implemented the achievements this time?

Cassandra Nea.2507:

My confusion is now complete. I have reached level 80 and thereby advanced to the “Temple of the Forgotten God”. Before I can go there though, I must meet with Trahearne at Fort Trinity. The Marshal greets me with a speech about the inconsolable Ceera and her husband Tonn, who gave his life for the Pact. I am told I cannot take this tragedy on my own shoulders – their sacrifice was needed (I am paraphrasing here).
I go “Huh? Who the heck is Tonn or Ceera?”. I have never met these people before, and now it seems I never will….
Moving on – Trahearne beckons me to a distant corner of the fort and bursts out: “It is now safe to show yourself”. Out pop Sayeh al’Rajihd, who I am politely introduced to. She says she is honoured to meet me (or something similar) and that she has heard a lot about me. I am confused, since I met her at the end of chapter 7 (I was confused then too since she said it was good to see me again, while I hadn’t met her at that point).
Sayeh and I go to the Temple of the Forgotten God, where we meet a Mouth and Eye of Zhaitan. I am astonished again at the idea of Zaitan having eyes and mouths, even though I killed one of those eyes in chapter 7.

I haven’t gone any further – at this point the plot holes are so glaring that I just don’t know how anyone can overlook them.

I have to ask. Are you one of the “new players” that they made these changes for in the first place? If so, I believe they did this to make the game less confusing, or so I think. If you are saying it’s confusing now, then I still have to ask Anet what justification did they use to make these changes?

True they have released a “ton” of new content, but the fact is that a lot of players like adventure and exploring. That’s why when Dry Top opened up a lot of enthusiasm and excitement was all over the place both around the web and in game.

The LS had many purposes, one to introduce expansion like content in small chunks which it did. It just doesn’t keep up tho with our appetite so we feel starved for new content.

I’m kinda on both sides here. One, I see what they have done and how it’s different than typical MMO stuff, but on the other I see all the potential they could’ve fulfilled , but haven’t yet. It was a gamble for them to put so much focus on the LS. Now that it had it’s strong moments and we are now in the middle of a dry spell I hope they didn’t make the wrong decision to begin with.

OK, so I just finished the personal story for my alt with this new patch. I had gotten 4 other characters to Zhaitan pre patch so I was familiar with the correct order. I know this thread is mostly about Apatia, but has since revolved more over the entirety of the changes to the PS.

I for one do not understand why they moved the Source of Orr before the invasion. I guess I can kinda get it that they wanted a “cleansed Orr” before we invade by choosing a Pact invasion plan.

I suppose that this way they can be lazy about it and those new players arriving in Orr can see it after the cleanse and not fully realize that what they are seeing is what Orr always looked like before cleanse. That’s what most of were used to before patch. I just dunno, because really no other reason I can think of makes sense.

I know they’ve said they will plug these plot holes, but when? Do we really want to keep fixing what’s there and not move on to other things. If they are still unhappy with the personal story after two years, then let it go instead of investing resources and time in something that is already established.

I dunno, it seems to me that if for some reason they tried to change story chapter placements to make things easier for new players, these plot holes now make things worse. Any self-respecting new player following the story has to be WTF by the end because of all these vague references that were somewhat clearer before. If they do get around fixing it, I can’t imagine it will be this year. So that seems to me like an effort wasted that those new players in this time frame are left with such confusion. Very, very, very poorly done IMO.

It would be very interesting to poll these new players and find out from them at the end of their personal story how confusing things were for them. If the story does cause them a lot of confusion then maybe Anet will take greater care next time before they try to fix something that’s not really broken.

So, I’ve been playing through the personal stories again on an alt. If Anet added a feature similar to GW1’s model where you could replay “missions” with a bonus stage and harder difficulty, would you do it? I don’t really want to complain about the new and “improved” rewards, but the various crafting bags were sure nice.

So, if they added one-time better rewards, would you be willing to play through harder personal story missions? They could add bonuses which provide better rewards too. It’s kind of like what they did with the LS and being able to go back and complete extra challenges.

For example, I was playing the mission “Close the Eye” where you had to defend while Trahearne performed his ritual to open it There were tendrils catapulting stuff at you and a small pact squad trying to survive that and the risen army coming for you. There’s all sorts of things that could be added to make things a bit more challenging and forcing the player to be more intentional about their builds and play style. They could make a challenge to not let a single pact soldier go down, or you need to destroy all three catapults before they kill Trahearne, or keep the risen army for crossing some line or the ritual automatically fails, etc.. You get the idea

If they ever improve the AI then maybe they could add a hard mode too. That would also make bonus objectives even harder and maybe more rewarding. Might even put more meaning into some of these PS instead of being able to just auto attack through most of it.

Good guess!

So, what does the supply going down for the past few days mean? I’m severely trading graph challenged.

Ok, I guess I don’t understand those websites much. I thought they only posted the prices that were the player’s buy/sell orders. I did not know that those sites showed the price an item was sold/bought for.

IoW, if I posted an item for 600g that would reflect on those websites, but that would not necessarily be the price it sold at.

Have I been confused all this time?

So, I have an extra weapon I’d like that sells for around 650g. What tends to be the quickest route to sell it to the flippers for 540g or post at 650g and wait. The difference is about 100g, but I’m more interested in the amount of time something in the gold range sells.

It’s my first high priced item and I’m not sure how long it takes something like this to sell for. Would I be better off selling it outright or listing it if I was impatient for the gold??

Wow!!

I had no idea a simple question would get such input.

I guess quite a few people would like more difficult content and and have quite a few opinions about what that would look like.

Glad to know we can have an almost civil conversation about it too. Wonder what Anet thinks tho?

Hi,

I play with either a USB 7.1 Digital headset or 4.1 surround sound speakers off of a Creative X-Fi sound card. I have absolutely no problems with this arrangement with any other application whether it be music, movie or another game.

With GW2 though I am thouroughly disappointed by the lack of rear channel sound and I cannot tell if it is default or if something is wrong. Most notable it happens with shouts and other dialogues. If I am moving forward I will hear one of those sounds playing fine in front of me, but when I move through a certain position, I can hear that sound move directly to the sides, but then all but vanish behind me. It’s very noticeable in mid sentence. I can have the same affect with other ambient sounds. I can put a waterfall directly infront of me and then move my position with my back to the waterfall and hear sound cut out. I have put my ear directly to rear speakers and can hear the sounds, but they are very faint. So, I’ve increased my settings so my rear speakers are turned all the way up, and it’s more noticeable but still something is wrong. If I play something else tho, I have to turn them way down back to normal.

I also have a USB headset and it has the same issues. I can hear more positional sound if I tell the headset program that the source is 2.1 then it will output to 7.1, but it’s of course artificial and not true 7.1.

Anyone know if these are normal issues or if there is a fix?? Thanks!

It makes total sense for Anet not to allow this and block this functionality with trial accounts. They probably thought some daring and nefarious would find a way to exploit and they try to plug any possible hole allowing so.

Stormcrow.7513:

I think that better enemy AI in PVE would create harder content and actually make the game play the way it was intended. No more stack and smack would be a good thing.
The game needs high risk high reward content and it needed it a very long time ago.
People want a challenge but also a good reward. GW1 did this very well with HM instanced dungeons like UW and DoA.
I just logged in after a month break and found myself doing Teq then pretty much getting bored again and started playing another game.
Maybe difficult content might be too little too late for many

I guess that’s my point exactly. Maybe all those who like that sort of challenge have moved on making it not worth their while to develop it. This leaves the majority of the player base liking the zerg style simplified approach so Anet would dare not make things more challenging otherwise they might alienate those players too.

Lately a lot of vocal players have expressed frustrations with things like NPE, saying it doesn’t address the veteran players. Others have expressed frustrations with the direction of the game moving towards more overly-casual and simplistic game play experience. I have to wonder if there is even enough of us active to justify Anet even feeling the need to do something for those wanting something more. What would more difficult content even look like? Would it just be greater enemy hp pools and less player damage or would it require thinking from the players and coordination as a team? Do you even think that there are enough active players who are ready for more difficult content?

I was reading a thread by another player who was lamenting on the lack of coordinated tactics and strategy in WvW. They had hoped that WvW would be comparable to DAoC. I had never played it but apparently there was lots of defense strategies and coordination required. Apparently it was really challenging requiring some thought instead of mindless zerg like combat. Apparently WvW was heading that way with the introduction of Orbs, but then removed due to exploitation – didn’t know that.

So then I began to wonder about direction of the game. It’s no secret that zerg combat seems to be very normal. Just watch world boss train, EotM, and I suppose WvW combat (our server is small, so no large zergs there) Coordination can be brought in, but most of the time the zerg mentality wins out over commanders who are trying to be clever. I don’t know how many times in EotM I’ve seen the zerg train split because the commander wanted to try something different. Most of the players seem to like the zerg mentality and the relative few that didn’t have either left or put up with it. Not surprising, since the game is designed to be casual.

So, what could Anet do? I’m no expert in game design for MMO’s, but I would think more difficult content can take a variety of forms. Currently we have Teq and Triple Threat Jungle Wurm. We have dungeons and fractals for the player wanting more difficult content, but do you think there could be more? Do you think there’s room for a Hard Mode like in GW1, even though it’s probably impossible to implement due to lack of instanced combat. Maybe they could bring in 8 – 10 man dungeons, rework WvW to be more rewarding for defense, or different PvP game modes like they had in GW1?

So here are some final questions:

1. Do you think there is already enough challenging content that requires strategy and coordination in this game?

2. If Anet did design more challenging content, would there even be enough players to play it?

3. Is the zerg mentality too strong to even prevent some development?

4. What would more challenging content in GW2 look like?

Thanks for reading.

Yes EotM is NOT WvW. However if you’ve earned a lot of rank through EotM, I still think you know a thing or two. You probably have even played quite a bit of REAL WvW. What they need to do is increase the WXP for normal WvW. If Anet was to change this system, they’d most likely nerf WXP for EotM anyhow. Not a pretty option.

Regarding switching on/off tags, I think they might be suggesting if you have high enough rank you can “command” other commander tags. You’d have the option of switching off other tags. Quite the “Supreme” Commander role! I think that option is NOT a good idea because the community would abuse it. Sorry I have little faith in the “good will” of a few with that kind of power at their fingertips.

So this morning we had some commander egos battling it out in WvW. It was pathetic, afterall we are supposed to be fighting the otherside not each other. Well a lot of us left, we had better things to do.

So I had this thought, probably not a good one, but a thought anyway. For the most part our WvW ranks are spread out all over the place. Not all of us are Diamond yet. Maybe it would be rewarding for commanders who have WvW a lot to have reserved color tags that only they have access to because they have achieved a certain WvW rank.

I would not lock away the 4 current colors though. I would allow players to keep those 4 choices and use as they needed. Maybe, there could be a special metallic colored set of commander tags that are only available when they have achieved ranks bronze, silver, gold, platinum, mithril, and diamond? So obviously the colors would be bronze, silver, gold, no idea for platinum and mitrhril, and white for diamond.

This way it’s just another way to award players who have invested too much time and energy in this game. When they flip on their tag they are immediately recognized as someone who has spent some time in WvW and immediately sets them apart from the huge recent influx of commanders. If commander have to battle for who has better strategy, maybe it could just be settled by pulling rank. Of course they could just discuss rank as easily, but having nice visual representation which is available to all is much simpler and rewarding for the one who has achieved it.

This could also be taken one step further, which I don’t think is necessary, but still a thought. To indicate the specific rank rather than the tier, a system of shapes like stripes, outlines, chevrons, and dots could be implemented. A general could have 3 chevrons under their tag, while a squire has a stripe and two dots, and a legend had a triple outline. It would get confusing and probably not a good idea, but something nonetheless to help quickly separate those who have spent for time and money from those that haven’t, while giving an exclusive visual reward.

And before anyone suggests it, I also realize that such a system is not foolproof. Time spent in WvW does not equal skill with tactics and strategy.

Redenaz.8631:

You mention trial accounts—Have they announced some kind of free trial to the game that I haven’t heard about?

I wouldn’t say that the game as a whole is being made easier, just the beginning, which is where they were finding problems with new player retention.

The change to the WvW tournament achievements seems unrelated to me, considering they consider WvW complicated enough that you have to be a certain level before it appears on the game menu. (Even though it remains accessible via Lion’s Arch.)

While I know not everyone is happy with the new early game, I’d be wary about extending that “fear of the game being watered down” to every change or new thing that seems simpler than you expected. Watch out for the Fear Goggles.

Jessica Boettiger

For the fall tournament, participating players will earn a weekly achievement based on completing a small number of events in World vs. World. This differs a bit from previous tournament achievements in which players were required to complete several of each event, such as capturing keeps and supply camps. We wanted to experiment with a simplified version of the achievements to encourage players to focus more on playing WvW, rather than checking off an objective checklist. Siege objectives, defend your land, and you’ll be rewarded!

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/announcing-the-world-vs-world-fall-tournament-2014/

Regarding trial accounts I saw this:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2g6std/gw2_china_72_h_trial_accounts_officially_launched/

and this:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2g5aix/psa_you_can_register_trial_account_to_play_for/

With the changes to NPE and WvW tournament achievements I have to wonder why they are trying to make things easier. It did not seem all that hard before. After all it was a casual MMO, now it seems even more casual.

If you trust that Anet knows what they are doing (just for a moment – some of you), one could assume that based on some statistics (China maybe??) that they needed to increase new player retention. Because with all these changes for NPE seems to focus on keeping new players around. Supposedly these new changes were implemented with the thought that new players would enjoy them and make them stay around a bit more. At least that the thought the way I understand it.

So now with that trial accounts are becoming a real things. That makes sense to emphasize NPE with the expected increase of that player base. Of course, I cannot imagine why there would be such an influx of new players just because they have a trial account, but I’m not an expert with these things. Who knows, maybe trial accounts will bring the largest amount of new players to this game has ever seen at one time. They’ll enjoy their NPE so much that they’ll stick around and bring all their friends. Hmmmm. . maybe? maybe not?

Logically then at some point in the future they will have to worry about all these new players that do stick around and hopefully release something to keep them around. Seems to me (and maybe I’m wrong) that a lot of people leave after they feel they’ve done all they can and are bored. The feeling of no end game content, I suppose.

Now we have a new WvW tournament, and only 4, four, FOUR achievements to get meta reward. It seems so easy because each of those only take 5 event to get that one achievement. Now it is a lot nicer than the massive AP list we had before, but doesn’t it seem that they let the pendulum swing too far the other way in making things easier. Afterall I got my round 1 AP in under 15 min. Now I have to wait for round 2.

What I don’t get is why the sudden change to make things easier. I have to wonder if they are seriously worried about losing players and they’ve put veteran retention on the back burner and trying to breathe new life into this game. I wonder just how big of a problem there is to justify these changes. I think any game developer knows, you can’t make everyone happy. So it seems like to me they’re listening to a particular group and trying to make them happy by making things easier and more causal.

I mean how much easier can you get???

TL;DR: Things seem too easy and I have to wonder if they’re unusually worried about player numbers and their turning their focus to appease that crowd. The problem is you can’t make everyone happy and in trying so, you risk upsetting the players on the other side of that fence.

Auto-login unlocks when you reach a higher level. It was too confusing for new players

Vayne.8563:

I love how people keep bringing up a four year old video (four years!) and still not understand what Colin is talking about.

Taking lines from the middle of a paragraph out of context in the process and trying to make it say something other than it was intended to say.

Well, actually sir I did quote most of the paragraph. I only left out the final sentence, because I liked ending on the No one finds it fun. The last sentence being: “We want to change the way that people view combat.”

Still don’t see how it is out of context. Because the new locks to weapons, skills, traits, changes to mobs, events, and personal story are all very much combat related. It is all very much a new grind introduced with the appearance of being more “user-friendly”. Which is what he was referring too as being different with this game orignally. Which, indeed, it was when I began playing 2 years ago.

So yes, even tho it was four whole years ago, and yes I excluded that wee little bit of sentence from the entire paragraph, it is still relevant. If you have a vision to do something different, and you make a “manifesto” ( a declaration of claim, a mission) you should stick with it.

Peow peow.2189:

can alts not require level gating?
completely ridiculous as this is to support new players

They should bring back the old system and call it “Hard Mode”

Remember this: “‘Wow, that’s incredible. I’ve never seen anything like that.’ In most games, you go out, and you have really fun tasks, occasionally, that you get to do, and the rest of the game is this boring grind to get to the fun stuff. ‘I swung a sword. I swung a sword again. Hey! I swung it again.’ That’s great. We just don’t want players to grind in Guild Wars 2. No one enjoys that. No one finds it fun.” ~Colin Johanson from the GW2 Manifesto

Well, he kinda did honor his word, after we swung the sword now we get to wait 3 whole levels before we can swing it again. Otherwise it would have been too confusing.

The trial thing makes sense. I remember something about that from a data mine by that_shaman. Then if they do get a bunch of new players, retaining would be useful. Still, seems a huge waste of time and resources to focus on the retaining a possible future new player base rather than not alienating the existing veteran player base. They should reinstate the old system and call it Hard Mode since it was “so confusing”. Still, don’t know how I made it through my first character.

Honestly tho, if I was a new player with an open mind and no previous experience, I’d think I’d hate this new leveling system. Maybe because I’m not Chineese??? 0_o

Of course not to be all conspiracy like. I have to wonder how much of this came down the pipeline from the higher ups like NCSoft. If I remember correctly, didn’t some Korean MMO produce buy a large chunk of their stock or something like that. Maybe they’re steering this train wreck.

Ben K.6238:

Well, you’re still talking about guild management so it could be worse.

I’d be rather surprised if guild halls / GvG aren’t in the pipeline by now, but building GW1-style halls may take a long time. CDI will still be a useful resource for ANet to compare what they’re working on with what players are asking for. They just can’t comment on progress.

I see your point, but it seems to me the majority of the community assumed that halls and GvG was in the pipeline two years ago.

As I read through all the Sept Patch stuff, all the criticism on various game sites like Dulfy, Reddit, Guru, PC mag, etc. . . I can’t keep myself from wondering why all the changes for New Player Experience (NPE). I’m confused and I’m wondering if I missed something, somewhere.

I know that a common theme for the changes was to simplify things and to bring this MMO for in-line with the Eastern (China and such) counterpart. But, it seems so odd to focus so much dev time and resources on something that seems so irrelevant unless they are expecting a bunch of people to rush to the game.

I am familiar with all the theories floating around about the possibility of an expansion to justify this expected influx. I do not think that is the case tho. I really don’t think they will ever develop one because it forfeits their direction for a living world through the LS. It also moves players away from existing content, which again is something I think they do not want or intend in any such way. Also with all of their talk about moving towards releasing expansion like content through LS, also indicates that is something they have no desire to do.

I really would not be surprised at all, if in five years, we still have the same Tyria, the same dungeons, the same WvW maps, etc. . . However, I do expect that the way that Tyria functions will be different as they add their QoL updates. Oh yeah, but there will be plenty of gem store additions. Of that I’m positive.

So are they expecting a large influx of players, and why? After two whole years with little permanent changes, do they expect people to flock to this game? They did open up the game to China and beyond and that in itself brought new players, but that was months ago. I’m sure that some of those have moved on too. Are there other markets they hope release the game to?

Do they think the LS in itself is enough of a draw for new players. The LS, while an awesome concept, has yet to really satisfy players. Lots of temporary content in LS 1, but LS 2 seems to be headed in the right direction. After 4 updates tho, the content still seems minimal.

Maybe I expect too much.

Maybe they expect more players to come from GW1? After 5 years of GW1, tho I guess most of them already have. At least in that game we had more content added, more maps, more stuff to do rather than these fundamental game changes that are mostly done through gates, locked away, or just simply nerfed. Don’t get me wrong, they did those things too in GW1, but that was more towards the end of that 5 year span. Maybe that’s my other problem, I need to stop comparing this to GW1.

TL;DR: So are they expecting a huge influx of players to justify this NPE (after a 2 year launch), and if so – from where??

Sorry, I know this doesn’t fit in with the CDI, but I still feel it needs to be addressed. After the last few CDI’s and seeing the results of those (not all bad). I just don’t see the point. I’ve lost faith that the studio is taking us seriously and just paying lip service.

I sincerely hope that you improve guilds by adding GvG, Guild Halls, Alliances, and larger roster size. I’d really like to see the word Guild in Guild Wars to really mean something then it does now.

I hope things are changed in the right direction without the need for gates, locks, and nerfs. But I won’t get my hopes up.

Next it will be jumping puzzles.

I can see it now. As a new player, You spend a few pain stakingly minutes getting up that really hard puzzle. You finally make it to the top waiting to get your chest, but wait! Instead you are greeted with a message: “Sorry, you cannot get this reward right now, try back when you are a higher level”

When does all this stuff about the game being too complicated/confusing for new players end? It’s a wonder how some of us made it through the first two years 0_o. If things need to be simplified that much for new players, I feel pretty special right now.

Ltomato.8649:

Kythan Myr.4719:

I’m rather new to ranger, and this thread has me slightly confused.

I know the OP said about 2 days ago there was a change to FS, from the latest patch. He is referring to the patch on Aug 25th or the upcoming feature patch. I had the idea that it happened and was not in the patch notes, not that it was upcoming.

All the guides I’ve read recently in the past week or so have always said to keep FS on the bar. I have nothing to compare it too, since I’m starting to spend some quality time with it. So for you veterans, what am I missing out on? Did the spirit give a flat 3.5% for 10 seconds untraited before?

I looked at the preview for the upcoming patch that Dulfy has posted and I didn’t see anything about spirits mentioned. I also have the idea from reading these posts that FS was originally a bit different than the other spirits and now is more in-line. If I seem way off with what I am thinking please steer me right.

Is this likely intentional or not? Anet makes ninja changes all the times and everyone knows if it becomes meta it becomes more likely to be nerfed.

Thanks for making things clear.

Before hand, Frost Spirit’s 10% damage increase (whether 35% or 70% from traits) had no internal cooldown. The math from that means untraited is approximately 3.5% damage increase or 7% damage increase traited.

However, now, the internal cooldown seems to be enforced, which means you can only hit the bonus 10% once every ten seconds. This also means that the 35/70% chance trait is useless, since the chances of you rolling 35% in 10 seconds is extremely high.

As a result, this means that depending on attack speed, frost spirit (traited) is about a .3-.7% damage increase, which is less than a stack of vulnerability (1%).

Chances are, the fix for the effect to match the tooltip was intended, but due to miscommunication, the fix was incorrect- the 7% damage increase is the intended effect, as shown in the official developer’s guide video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Y8uGM1CGV8g#t=820

so as of now, spirit of frost is literally one of the worst skills for a ranger to take now.

Hopefully that answers things.

Thanks,

I’m mostly been playing a signet of beast master build for pve. I’ve also tried my luck at a 4/5/0/5/0 build. What would you guys suggest I put in its place?

I’m rather new to ranger, and this thread has me slightly confused.

I know the OP said about 2 days ago there was a change to FS, from the latest patch. He is referring to the patch on Aug 25th or the upcoming feature patch. I had the idea that it happened and was not in the patch notes, not that it was upcoming.

All the guides I’ve read recently in the past week or so have always said to keep FS on the bar. I have nothing to compare it too, since I’m starting to spend some quality time with it. So for you veterans, what am I missing out on? Did the spirit give a flat 3.5% for 10 seconds untraited before?

I looked at the preview for the upcoming patch that Dulfy has posted and I didn’t see anything about spirits mentioned. I also have the idea from reading these posts that FS was originally a bit different than the other spirits and now is more in-line. If I seem way off with what I am thinking please steer me right.

Is this likely intentional or not? Anet makes ninja changes all the times and everyone knows if it becomes meta it becomes more likely to be nerfed.

Thanks for making things clear.

Here’s my two cents.

Trait unlocks should never require a huge time investment or an organizational component. They should be simple and efficient. For example, in the GW1 system, if you wanted to learn a skill there would be quest associated with that. Some were very quick to complete and usually offered by a NPC in your chosen profession. That was a wonderful way for new players to learn how to play their character in the early stages of the game.

Now such a system here in GW2 would not work so well without creating new content. With the discussion of resetting/revamping heart tasks: this may be something to consider. I don’t think it would be too hard to tie some/most of those traits with hearts. They are easily soloed, and don’t require time or organizational components just to succeed.

It would be especially helpful to create NEW content relevant to trait. For example, want to learn how to increase damage to burning foes? Talk to NPC, event begins where you have to kill burning foes. Want to learn how to take reduced damage from falling? Accept quest from NPC and go fall off of specified ledge. I think you get the point. I think forcing players to explore obscure parts of map and doing mini-dungeons can apply for higher-tiered traits. Other than that, for those earlier traits, they should be simple and take no longer than five minutes to complete.

Ultimately, trait unlocks shouldn’t be crippled by time or organization.

For those of us who want to buy traits. I think the cost should be reduced by 30% to 50%, and skill scrolls should be made tradeable. Those scrolls drop like crazy and it would be a good way to let veterans get another gain from those. Also, for veterans, why not make a way for us to turn our skill points into scrolls and then sell them on TP. Just another way to reward those who have been around awhile, parting some our skill on to the newer generation of players.

Just my two cents

Stephane Lo Presti.7258:

The Feature Pack announcements will continue next week and some of them will definitely contain information that’s relevant to those of you who’ve been playing the game for long. We won’t tell you about them until the articles are live though, to keep the element of surprise!

So, today we find out that veteran players get to see our finishers and minis in the wardrobe. Surprise!!

Hope more “surprisingly relevant” stuff comes this week. /sigh

Seriously, how could this “feature” patch get any better?? They don’t seem really all that invested at keeping us around.

In regards to Sept patch mostly.

It seems like you can’t go on forums or reddit these days to be flooded with so many unhappy posts. I get it too, a lot of these changes are disappointing. Still, it’s not often I see positive, thankful posts. Is this an accurate “thermometer” check of the community or is it just that negative players are more vocal?

After two whole years it’s still pretty much the same games with a few major changes. Sure there has been loads of revamps and nerfs, but 2 new PVE maps and LS chapters, and a handful of other additions haven’t done much to expand the game. Sure it does a little, but after two years, wouldn’t there be more stuff by now in the average mainstream MMO?

Anet cannot be blind/deaf to these gripes, so it makes me wonder if they are truly that out of touch. I have to wonder how much the NA community is shrinking and how much money they are losing from the NA players.

TL;DR: So are you happy with the state of changes in GW2 for the past two years? Sure there has been some good, but it seems most people are just unhappy overall.

Olvendred.3027:

Evans.6347:

I wholeheartedly agree that any MMO needs to keep attracting new players. I just don’t think they need to have the mental capabilities of a chicken, that’s all.

I asked the question before, last QoL-update, if people were really struggling so much with traits. Apparently even back then new players couldn’t count to five anymore.

And now people are so confused about the downed state that they even removed it for the first five levels.

I’m sorry, what? How does this in any way make it more simple to understand?

What level of quality end game players are we raising with this, I wonder.

The weird thing with that approach is how inconsistent they are about it. At the same time as “we have to slowly ease you into the downed state mechanic”, they remove the thing where you have to unlock weapon skills one by one. Which I always thought was to let new players understand/get used to the individual skills of each weapon through use, rather than throwing them 5 new skills all at once.

I’m not saying that the weapon skill unlock system wasn’t also annoyingly slow, just that that change is completely against their prevailing approach to new players.

It’s almost like they are trying to address many of the complaints from launch. Like, leveling was too fast, not enough understanding of skills and mechanics and such. Maybe in two years they will address these new complaints?

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

More information will be released next week about features that are more suited to veteran players.

Has anyone else lost faith in that those “features” will be small, minimal, and kinda nerf like?

I always thought it should reward karma. Since it would be “good” karma to bring someone back from the brink of death.

For Pete’s sake!

Please, include those missing armor sets that are in game but no longer obtainable due the shift of PvP rewards. Some of those armor sets have pieces that are rewarded at end of personal story.

For example, the Apostle armor, the Stalwart armor, the Maruader armor, etc. . . (don’t know them all, sorry) each have pieces you can obtain as rewards at the end of a PS, but NOT THE ENTIRE SET! The beautifully made and much coveted Tribal armor is completely unobtainable at the moment.

So since you guys are restructuring the awards we get for leveling, why not include those full armor sets. It can’t be too hard to assign those armor pieces as a reward. Just make sure the whole set is there. That is something I think would be much appreciated. Seriously, why go to the trouble to make those armor sets and then make it impossible to get full sets??

Stephane Lo Presti.7258:

Puddles.6385:

Follow up question: What use is it to make a blog post that only really affects people who don’t yet play the game?

Hi Puddles,

First of all, we at ArenaNet very much appreciate the support that all players that have played the game for so long have given us. Without you guys, your love of the game and how you spread the word around you, things would clearly not be the same.

Today’s blogpost about the New Player Experience will not have as many visible effects to you specifically as it would have for a brand new player, that knows very little about the game. The new direction system should help you get a clearer and more useful top-tight UI, but also give your new characters better rewards.

As you noted, it is mainly targeted at new players, those that need it the most. We want their learning experience to be better so that they, too, can become veteran players of Guild Wars 2 one day! Learning to play a brand new game, and MMOs tend to be more on the more complex side of videogames, can be a daunting and hard task.

We want more people to be able to walk this path you walked and this is why we implemented the New Player Experience system, to create a route that new players can walk and feel rewarded along the way.

Again, thanks for your support!

With all due respect. We know you have to focus on new players because that brings in guaranteed money. We “veteran” players do not. Some, I’m sure, drop regular amounts of $$ on gem store purchases, but some of us (perhaps most) do not.

So you cannot obviously say that, “no, our primary focus is not on retainment of loyal players” because that would further alienate an already alienated player base. We would expect polite, tactful, and vague responses from PR to “assure” us that we are not neglected.

However, actions do speak louder than words, and this feature patch is sending a pretty loud message to us veterans.

Seriously, if you look at the exciting, galore-filled, rich, new features coming our way this September it’s obvious they are not so concerned about 2yr players.

Why?

My thoughts is that we are not guaranteed to bring money in through gem store purchases. Of course some of us do, but I don’t make regular gem store purchases. New players, tho have to buy the game, so that’s guaranteed money for them.

Blix.8021:

I’ve heard in china you unlock the first story arc at level 10, so even if you do get a key you have to grind for 10 levels. So you could still technically farm keys, but it will be vastly less efficient.

While I think it most likely they will do this, and it’s a chicken kitten way to do it, it doesn’t make much sense. After you complete your tutorial it seems natural to jump right in with the personal story. For example, with the human commoner story. You rescue shaemoor and then wait for ten levels (likely not so quick) before you visit Petra in the inn after she visited you while you recover from the Shaemoor attack. Why?? It was one of those things that felt somewhat natural. You’re injured, a friend visits you while unconscious, you wake up, and you visit them.

I can’t say much for the other story arcs, but what do you think? Would it feel “right” or make no difference to force you to grind 10 levels before starting the story?

Besides, if memory serves me correctly didn’t they tout that as one of their major benefits when the game started 2 yrs ago? You didn’t NEED to go up levels during the personal story arcs. That by doing personal story you would naturally progress levels and if the content was too hard, you might need to go and level up a bit. You could play at your own pace, do things you wanted to. Sure they had suggested levels for story events, but we all know you could easily do many of those at early levels and not the levels they suggested.

I guess we will have to wait and see what the rewards will be for level ups. Not so optimistic, because very rarely do the rewards align with the event. I don’t think they will move away from that formula ever.

Hey, at least that’s something we KNOW they are working on.

That is making the negative threads disappear.

Events like these mix things up and just add fun. Sure if you key farm it can be boring as hell, but it finally made opening those chests a little more exciting. Those that didn’t key farm probably dropped some money on gems.

This event was reminiscent of gw1’s weekend bonuses. Hope you have more events like these coming up.

< Not expecting much anything awesome for 2nd birthday.

Why?

Their track record so far and if you set your expectations too high you can be sorely disappointed. If they DO come up with something awesome then all the much better.