Guild Wars 2

Swift.1930:

Honestly, obtaining legendary weapons should be a hunting process, not a gathering process. I’m 100% sure my input is too late (Anet won’t rework the system this much at this stage), but here’s what I see: crafting ascended equipment is a mark of personal prowess, and as such should be a crafting experience. Legendaries, on the other hand, simply can’t be crafted. Look up “legendary” in the dictionary. There should be other processes for obtaining legendary weapons; there should be rumors about them, maps to last known locations, battles, quests, ghosts of previous owners, battles with current owners, and more. Maybe obscenely long and challenging tasks that require groups to complete. But not crafting. Unless, of course, the hunt was to lead us to multiple pieces of the legendary item and the crafting side of things was finding materials strong enough to repair it.

I’ve never really understood the crafting process for legendary equipment, and this system (while interesting and useful for some people) seems to make it even less motivating. By all means, give us “highly-ascended” or “ultra-cool” weapon types to craft, but if it’s legendary it shouldn’t be something we craft ourselves.

(Note: don’t actually give us weapon types of “highly-ascended” or “ultra-cool”.)

The trouble is, it’s obvious that in their minds, the game design benefits of turning legendaries into a grindfest far outweighs the “fun” you might get from an off-beat way of obtaining them.

After something like a year or two, they added to the legendary system and basically added a scavenger hunt on top of a grindfest. They just can’t let go of the grindfest aspect of it. In fact, they can’t let go of the grindfest aspect of the game in general. Just about every item in this game is a matter of repeat gather/currency-gain times a thousand.

That’s their style and it’s the style of most MMOs, and it’s clear that despite some of their brave design moments early in the game’s history, they are very fearful of breaking convention this late in the game. I can’t say I blame them for being afraid, as they do have a lot to lose, but it is kind of sad to me that they seem stuck spinning their wheels on a lot of fundamental design principles.

I see a lot of potential in this game, but there is risk in the way you go about tapping into that potential. It’s a tough thing to manage.

Hmm, now I’m getting in. Server hiccup I guess?

Getting the same error. DC’d out of nowhere, now I can’t get back in. Tried a different character too. Making no difference.

The thing is, the cost isn’t absurd for one. It’s not even absurd for all of them together.

But only in the context of those being the only skins you are trying to get. The more skins you are going for in this game, the faster it adds up, until you are looking at basically playing the game until you’re dead to get everything you want.

Khisanth.2948:

Superfrick.1536:

Labjax.2465:

I’ve not finished a collection yet, but from the sound of it, it’s more like “here’s a scavenger hunt (the crust of the pie) and beneath that crust… voila! More of the stuff you said you didn’t want.”

Yep. I wish I hadn’t spent mastery points on the first two lines before discovering this. Now not only do I have an aborted attempt at a Precursor craft, I also get to bear the weight of having less Mastery Points to work with.

There are more points available than things to spend it on.

Some of them are a pain to get though, depending on what you completed prior to HoT. Some of are even bugged, from what I am told.

HoT event chains are like SW on crack. Which is good.

We don’t need to go back to content where 50 people are trying to tag a mob that has 5k HP.

For instance, the rally points, you can defend with one person if you’re really good and pretty easily with two. Much like in SW, there is a lot of convergence design. You start spread out, working together but physically apart, and then eventually you reach big boss(es) that many or most of you fight together.

It has been a great way to solve the problem of tagging issues and, on top of that, add to the experience of working together. I hope it continues.

Chaba.5410:

Labjax.2465:

Chaba.5410:

LOL I read “running hot” and thought this thread was about computer temperatures.

It is though? I mean, partly anyway. Like my machine does get really hot when running the game most of the time, even on low settings.

Well, assuming you are performing some basic monthly maintenance of cleaning dust out of your computer case, you might have some bad fans or inadequate cooling in general.

Well like I said in the OP, my computer could probably use a dusting. And yeah, the fans could, plausibly, be inadequate, but given some of the things I’ve heard about GW2 specifically, I wanted to ascertain if there’s more to it than that.

As it is, I’m getting the sense from this thread that my CPU is being asked to do more at once than its hardware capabilities were intended for. Which could explain the computer temp, I would think.

I mean, it’s not like I can’t run the game. It just sounds like, and the temp feels like, I’m killing my machine when I do.

Loli Ruri.8307:

Before you go out shopping for a CPU, please consider if you want to keep your motherboard and possibly even the RAM. A CPU has a socket type, and certain motherboards have supported socket types to match that CPU. Think of it like how a triangle won’t normally fit into a circle. Has to be compatible parts. Easy to work out, and in fact, some websites make it super easy to see what works with what.

Good point.

Honestly, that’s the main reason I’ve been reluctant to shop for upgrades in the first place. Cause I know one upgrade can lead to another. But I’ve had this comp for like 5-7 years now and only ever upgraded the graphics card. It’s reaching the point where if I don’t upgrade, with all the intense gaming I do, I could wind up killing the thing anyway.

I’m kinda amazed at how well it’s held up tbh (of course, now I’ve gone and jinxed myself :P).

Infusion.7149:

Labjax, you should list what you have now in detail.

Motherboard: socket, model, brand?
Processor: socket, model, brand?
CPU cooler & thermal paste: if overclocked
RAM: type (DDR2/DDR3/DDR4), speed? , timing?
HDD/SSD: brand and model (if SSD), capacity, speed & cache (if HDD)
Graphics card : GTX 560 , brand , is it overclocked?
PSU: wattage, power connectors , is it a reputable brand where the wattage and amperage on the +12V is adequate
Case: only important if you are buying a long graphics card
OS: Only important if you are using anything non 64-bit and older than Windows 7

How much are you willing to spend before taxes?

I’ve run GW2 on a dual core (with hyperthreading) Haswell ultrabook before. I don’t recommend pumping up the settings if you use a dual core.

I will look into the details when I get some time for it.

Chaba.5410:

LOL I read “running hot” and thought this thread was about computer temperatures.

It is though? I mean, partly anyway. Like my machine does get really hot when running the game most of the time, even on low settings.

Superfrick.1536:

Labjax.2465:

I’ve not finished a collection yet, but from the sound of it, it’s more like “here’s a scavenger hunt (the crust of the pie) and beneath that crust… voila! More of the stuff you said you didn’t want.”

Yep. I wish I hadn’t spent mastery points on the first two lines before discovering this. Now not only do I have an aborted attempt at a Precursor craft, I also get to bear the weight of having less Mastery Points to work with.

Sorry to hear that.

I’m glad I read this though. This and everything else I’ve seen so far is making me realize it’d be a waste to spend points on the second tier. I was originally going to unlock the tiers slowly over time, but I think I’m going to focus on the commander line instead. Get the mentor tag and all that.

Infusion.7149:

Your dual core CPU is the problem , even more so if it is an AMD dual core. A GTX 560 is plenty for this game.

My advice is to get an i5 or i7 unlocked CPU if you can , and overclock to 4.0Ghz or more.

Ok, thanks. I take it the main benefit of that would be taking pressure off background processes, such as the running of Windows itself, to put the sufficient amount into the game?

Also, I haven’t researched power costs in ages. Do you know if the power draw for a higher core CPU is significantly more? I can’t remember what the power on my current one is off-hand, but I know it’s not high end. I’m thinking I may need to upgrade my power supply in the process.

I’m running Windows 7 64-bit, with a 3.0 GHz dual-core and a GTX 560 (I think — have to check the box to be certain on that) graphics card.

I have my settings pretty much as low as they can go. I updated my drivers recently (Nvidia) and it’s possible it’s doing some overriding of the game settings, making the performance cost higher. I can check that pretty easily and my computer could probably use a dusting, BUT…

Every so often, I read something about how GW2 uses outdated software and even high-end machines can’t get the most out of it.

So I wanted to ask around and see if there’s anything I can do to reduce the stress on my machine, short of running the game on such low settings that it’s butt ugly to look at. I’ve been thinking about upgrading my machine for a while, but I’m in no rush to drop the cash on upgrades and I’d prefer if I can at least get my machine to sound less like it’s killing itself while it’s running the game.

Blaine Tog.8304:

Labjax.2465:

The negativity does not overwrite the helpfulness.

Yet it can, and often does. I would even say “usually.”

No, it doesn’t.

(This disagreement is surely going places.)

Zexall.6305:

so much this
the forum is not a place to seek answer and tips anymore . its just a big website filled with cry babies
.. its really annoying.

I don’t know what you’re talking about.

If you ask for advice, people are pretty helpful.

The negativity does not overwrite the helpfulness. They can, and do, coexist.

Zania.8461:

While I certainly do not claim to be able to read developers minds, I suspect that they did not want people tagging a single mob in a long event and going AFK, then collecting full rewards. That is what has been happening during Vinewrath event and it caused a lot of complaining.

This is a case where the solution hurts the well-intentioned more than it does the badly-intentioned. It’s almost a spiteful solution in a way. Like, “neener, neener, if you’re going to go AFK, we’ll take away your loot!”

But what it misses entirely is that if someone is going to AFK or not pay attention, they are going to do it and a spiteful penalty that is only noticeable after you’ve gone AFK is not going to stop people.

The current “solution” has authoritarian mindset written all over it.

To those saying “go grind the gold”:

As I said, the gem store has no permanence, so it is not as simple as that. It is sort of like a seasonal event going on for each new item, except instead of there being a special currency and unique content to go do to get that currency, it’s either pull out your wallet or farm gold.

With most items in the game, especially the ones that cost a lot of currency, they are on a merchant (or earned through a process) that never goes away or changes. You could take a year to get the currency for the item and have nothing to worry about.

The gem store, due to them wanting to entice customers, build desirability for various items, and avoid an overfilled store, does not work that way. Very few items are permanently in the store, especially when it comes to skins.

And that is setting aside the blandness inherent in grinding out gold for a new skin. Why should it surprise you that people don’t like that? It’s a theme that runs through most of the “earning” processes in this game. When the process is mostly a gold grind, people tend not to like it, even if the item in question is permanently available.

Probably because farming gold is not a question of skill, of completing challenges, or anything like that. Farming gold is a question of being good at farming gold. That’s it.

The negativity does have a lot of usefulness in it, but it doesn’t come in quite the way you might realize. Setting aside the rare occasions where most of the people posting are on the same page and tens are coming out of the woodwork at a time to complain about the same thing… most of it is useful as a way of widening the perspective of the devs and keeping them in touch with the game on an intuitive level.

It’s like pieces to a puzzle that has no set final form. The form is constantly shifting and the pieces can be shaped like anything, but the more you see, the stronger your sense is of what the final form can look like at any given moment. Tapping into the minds of disenfranchised players is highly important because it gives you insight into where the harder numbers of players may be getting lost.

You might have 20 people leave the game tomorrow and out of those 20 only 1 talks about why. You might even get a guy who doesn’t leave, but ends up voicing the concerns that caused those 20 to leave silently.

The game itself is the puzzle and the pieces are anything from the mechanics to player feedback, good and bad. Every piece of information is a potential insight into how to continue the success of the game.

The reason fanboy-dominated communities get in a bad way is the same reason hater-dominated communities get in a bad way. You need the story of why people are leaving, and the story of why they’re sticking around, in equal measure. Otherwise, you are likely to miss the big picture and get mired in trying to please too many parties on the one end or ignore the sense that anything could possibly be amiss on the other end.

It is just as easy to get diverted and confused by a minority (albeit passionate) crowd of fans, as it is to get diverted and confused by a minority (albeit passionate) crowd of haters. Reason being that fan love is like a blinding drug and hateful criticism is like a paranoia-inducing drug. Nothing is wrong or everything is wrong.

Vayne.8563:

Farm gold, buy the skins. The solution is already in the game. I’d rather pay the cash because I can, and I like the game and support it. Either way, it’s available for people if they want it.

Pretty sure everyone in this thread is aware you can use the exchange to get them for gold. For one, it’s the principle of the thing. For another, the exchange rate is awful and many gem store items are not permanently kept in stock, so it’s not like you can lackadaisically farm the 80-160 gold (per skin) at your own pace and know that the items will always be there.

If no gem store item ever left circulation, I might be singing a different tune.

Also, I supported the game when I paid for the full version of the expansion. Comeatmebro.

Iason Evan.3806:

there should have been more of this type of thing released with the $50 spent. I expect this kind of thing with f2p titles. you get the content for free and buy cosmetic stuff if you want it. the game maker theoretically gets a more populated game and player’s get a good value. When you pay money for an expansion the players should get “expansion like content” bundled in with the purchase price. In GW2’s case that should include multiple armor sets, different weapon sets, backpieces, and gliders to name a few. They released very few to be earned.

Where are the weapon sets at karma vendors in HoT like the ones in the base game? You know, the weapon sets you could make with beads? The grawl sets for skulls? Where are the karma armor sets? Where are new cultural sets? What about faction weapon sets like the ones in all the major towns? Do the major towns in HoT have these? There were also very cool “map” sets of armor that were great for mixing and matching.

^This type of stuff lends itself to replayability and long term play. Unlocking all sorts of sets allows players to make their characters feel unique and also shows off where they EARNED their rewards. Other players see certain skins and immediately know where and how you acquired what you are wielding or wearing.

ArenaNet knows this and chooses to completely ignore it.

Pretty much this. If the expansion was free, I would not blink an eye, but it rubs me the wrong way that they are doing this with a flagship expansion feature (gliding), as part of a paid expansion.

(I’m on Sorrow’s Furnace, if that matters)

I’m in a bit of a quandary. I’d like to participate in the guild content, to a point, but I don’t really want to be committed to a guild right now, at the point I am in my life. I take commitments seriously when I make them.

What I’m looking for (if such a thing exists) is a guild that is basically cool with taking on a sporadically interested loner, who may do anything from participating in guild activities every day for a month to ignoring the guild entirely for a month while playing the game.

Preferably a guild that has a generally positive and upbeat outlook (not to be confused with a guild that has no drama — I’m not asking for a unicorn).

Presumably this would be found in some massive sized guilds? I’m not really into the idea of being selectively deadweight for a guild that can use every body available.

I could join a big guild under the pretense of contributing and then be sporadically useless, but I’d rather be upfront about how it’s going to be with me. So if you’re interested in taking on somebody like that, let me know, please.

Thanks.

P. S. How does it work with alts? Do you have to be invited on each one or can you choose to represent on any once you’ve been invited on one?

P. P. S. I mostly do open world PvE. I do PvP when the mood takes me and am lost in WvW due to never having played this game with a guild. EotM and map completion are as far as my WvW familiarity goes. My dungeon experience is close to nil.

That said, I can pick up any game type relatively easily. I am not a stranger to the concepts themselves, for the most part. Just some of the mechanics in this particular game.

Yeah, cause everyone who plays the game does CoF over and over. Would totally ruin everything.

I get the reasons for keeping it this way in the beginning, but after a month or two, the reasons will falter and fall apart.

slamfunction.7462:

Its a lost point, dependent on point of view. Thus, why you are having issues with getting your point across. “Legendary journey” means what? Did they specifically define it, in great detail? No, they gave vague details. If you are going to point out a fault here, its that ANet did not expressly outline the fine print details of the feature. This is a golden standard for ANet, as they try to avoid discussing paywalls and the such. Is it a BIG, game-shattering issue that is going to make most people quit? Nope.

What i was addressing here, was the fact that people keep calling it a “grind”. Again, this is purely “User perception”. Eating a cake could be a grind. Sleeping for 8 hours could be a grind. Anything, can be a "grind’. However, this is a game, and as such, no one is forcing your hand to play it, and make decisions on doing whatever content. Thus, by calling precursor crafting a grind, it means that you’ve grown a perception of the feature, that is both incorrect, and negative.

Some people called WoW’s LFR a “Grind”, when they could spend 45 minutes into a raid, and get 2-3 epics.

Its all perception, and I, for one, UTTERLY REFUSE to believe the feature is a “grind”.

If it’s all perception, then it’s ill-advised to call somebody else’s perception “incorrect” and “negative,” since that is just your perception of their perception, put across in a way that sounds like you believe you are speaking fact.

Silvatar.5379:

So this question has been asked before but with the increase in the number of possible character slots, I am curious to learn whether anyone actually has 69 characters now. I am also assuming that with the passage of time, people may have created more alts so I anticipate some changes from last time this got asked.

Someone had a lot of fun choosing that number.

Anywho, I have 9 that I play — one of each class. Technically 10 and 11 slots, but the 10th is a throwaway character and the 11th is currently unused.

quaniesan.8497:

oh good god, people like to be spoon-fed everything these days. There’s a reason legendary weapon being called ‘legendary’: it’s rare, it’s worth alot of effort, else they are no different than the starter weapons if everyone has one.
Ok, first you were yelling “it’s too rare, give a way to make one, I’m ENTITLED to a precursor”. Now you got a sure way to make one, now it’s “NOT FUN, TOO HARD!” , give me a break. If you are not willing to do all the work, then you are not deserved to wield one, simple as that. Do me a favor, recite the word “legendary” 1000 times before bed each night and contemplate what it means and then make a demand for your… entitlement.
Regarding the TP, no one forces you to use it. If other people do it the TP way, it’s their problem. You have the free will of doing it the “right” way. Don’t make the fake argument that you are forced to use the TP to make a legendary. If you don’t make a legendary effort, no legendary for you. Stop being a spoiled kid at everything, be glad that there is a SURE way at all that you can obtain one without touching the TP. If you resort to the quick way with the TP, it’s your own free-will and laziness, don’t blame on the game mechanics.

Work.

Recite the word legendary 1000 times to get it through my head.

Is this is a video game or affirmation therapy.

But seriously, some people like it. I’m one who doesn’t. Nor do I feel particularly legendary farming mats, or putting myself through the ringer in content that I don’t care about. I’ve done a lot of grocery shopping in my life and legendaries, to me, feels like grocery shopping. Strangely, grocery shopping itself does not feel remotely legendary to me. It feels like a Friday.

I’ll save you the complex logical arguments and make it simple: Very little about the legendary system feels interesting to me. Even the scavenger hunt design… that was actually really fun, until I hit a part where I had to get some piece from a Dwayna event that virtually nobody runs anymore. Up until that point, I’d been able to use the hints to find most everything on my own. Like a scavenger hunt.

I even ran around the Dwayna area for a while, trying to find an object I could interact with. It was only by giving up and looking up a guide that I realized I needed a frikkin event to get the item. That took the wind right out of my sails.

And it’s not like I couldn’t ask around for help or wait around for the event and watch timers, but nothing about that feels like a scavenger hunt to me. The exploration and discovery part is great. That’s what makes it fun for me. Waiting around for special events does not.

The thing about it is, I want to enjoy the process of getting a legendary. Otherwise, it is barely worth it to me. There are much more productive things I could do in life that give me what I want and are extremely painful in the process. I see no reason to do it to the maximum in a video game.

Been there, done that, in the past. It didn’t fulfill me and I’ve got nothing to show it. At best, it gave me a temporary feeling of confidence in my ability to accomplish painful goals.

News flash: People are different and have different preferences. Shocking, I know.

Thanks again for your entries! They were all a joy to review. And thank you to my two volunteers, Moonlit and Chesh, for helping judge as well as advise.

The results are in. Drumroll please…

1st place goes to Rauven!

2nd place to Zelda!

3rd to Streamstrider!

Your prizes will be mailed to you shortly. If you don’t see your prize(s) within 24 hours, please send me a PM and we’ll see what’s what.

Makes a big difference if you manage to break his bar a couple times. I saw him go down today, but we had something like 30-40 people from the look of it and it was pretty close. We broke his bar 1 or 2 times.

I saw it get a hair’s breath away from T4 once, by being in a map dedicated to the cause for a couple hours from day through night.

Another time, we tried to be ready and taxi people and stuff, but there was a lot of awful gameplay at defending rally points and people didn’t want to spread out to defend points, or they would help take back a lost point, but then not stick around to defend.

You have to get a map of people who care and who know what they’re doing a little bit, too.

DavyMcB.1603:

I know. I got carried away. But I mean, some people are really refusing to understand even if you shove it in their throat.

To be fair, you may have an aptitude for economics where others don’t. I took 2 classes in it in college to fill electives and I learned virtually nothing that I can still remember haha. Something about supply/demand, is more or less what I remember. Oh and something about there being no free lunch. I probably know enough to get the gist of what you’ve said about precursor costs. But not enough to say much on the subject myself, without risking looking like an idiot.

DavyMcB.1603:

God, I explained it once, hopefully you will understand unlike the rest.

People should realize that those precursors on TP, what you see is just their FACE VALUE. The precursors of the old system were purely RNG based in term of their generation, meaning your 1000g spark possibly and probably came from 2000g worth of opportunity cost from throwing rares, dungeon boxes wasted, etc. etc. Normally this difference was absorbed by other people who were involved with the generation of that precursors: i.e. people who spent 1000g and still didn’t get the precursors.

When the RNG is gone, the TRUE value of the precursors appears, meaning, there is no one else to help absorbed the cost of the precursors but only the crafter himself. THE SYSTEM COMPENSATES FOR THE LOSS OF RNG by pushing EVERYTHING that used to constitute the value of the precursors through crafting.

ECONOMICS people, it’s not THAT HARD.

Anyone who think precursor crafting would make precursors equal or cheaper than the ones in TP must never have taken or slept through their economics class… or got an F.

Economics is gated behind classes that cost money. They are P2W.

In all seriousness though, it is absolutely, positively ridiculous to expect a bunch of people playing an MMO to understand how economies work. People come from all walks of life and all jobs and talents. No doubt the people who are ignorant of economics have some skill or talent that you don’t.

Be proud of your knowledge of economics, but don’t put down others for not knowing, is what I’m driving at.

TexZero.7910:

So let me get this straight you really don’t get that if you have friends you can get those “Hard Hero Points” done ?

Gotcha, funny how people want hard content then are so very quick to want it nerfed to the floor. Either get friends or get good enough to solo the content

Somehow I don’t believe that you read a single word I said.

It’s never been the “grind” itself that was the issue. It’s the idea that they gated really fun stuff behind arbitrary horizontal walls and nobody likes to wait to have fun.

A segment of the community asked for this, in one sense… they asked for horizontal progression. Masteries are that horizontal progression. Elite specs are that horizontal progression.

But something went wrong with another segment of the playerbase. Either this segment never wanted horizontal progression and got it due to the desires of another segment. Or they never actually understood what horizontal progression might look like and thought, “Ooh, shiny, yes, I want,” without understanding the time sinks it would entail.

That said, some of the masteries are far too vital for getting around the complex zone design and should never have been masteries in the first place. Glider basics should have been handed to you after completing the first story mission in Maguuma. Bouncing Mushrooms should have been handed out like candy, same with Exalted Markings and Nunoch Wallows. Even Updraft Use… it’s questionable whether that should have ever been a mastery.

Parts of map completion should never have been locked behind masteries, period.

In fact, while I’m on this subject and got some steam going, here’s a quick and dirty list of my opinions on the masteries and their order (setting aside the ones I already mentioned above):

Lean Techniques – Perfect for a first mastery. XP cost could have been as is, with Basics and Updraft handed out.

Stealth Gliding and Ley-Line Gliding next because they are the most auxiliary. THEN you get Advanced Gliding at the end with the endurance bar thing to show that you are a master of Gliding.

And finally, you add in a new one: Expert Gliding. Doesn’t even use endurance for lean techniques.

Itzel… first one, Language. Then Poison Lore, Blazing Speed, Adrenal, and finally, you challenge the champ with Leadership, capping it off with a sense of Mastery of Itzel stuff.

Exalted… acceptance, then Gathering, Purfication, and finally Assistance, sine you’ve now proven you can beat their champ.

Nuhoch… language first. Rest of the order is prob fine.

General idea is… focus coulda shoulda woulda been more on 1) fun (yay) and 2) the feeling of becoming more powerful, even though your power isn’t necessarily in the form of combat prowess. They sorta did that, but dropped the ball on things like turning basic navigational stuff into masteries.

Mastery, imo, should be MASTERY. As in, you are more powerful, more strong, at something, even if it is a horizontal kind of strength. It is little more than a magic trick to create a so-called “mastery” that pretends like it is making you more powerful, but is only making you average because it’s a basic ability that you need to get around. Even the language masteries are a cheap joke, since every other zone in the game allows you to buy from relevant zone vendors without an arbitrary gate. If the language masteries opened you up to MORE stuff beyond what you can see at a basic level (which you are provided with from the start) that would make it actually worthy of being called a mastery.

Perhaps there’s a lesson to be learned here. It is probably too late to fix this stuff now. And I know I’m being a bit arrogant about this, but I do believe that being only a player of the game puts things in perspective in a way that being a dev fails to do.

Thanks for the info on this. Was really throwing me off.

TexZero.7910:

Get friends, do the hero points.

Maybe, who knows you’ll actually find someone or a group of people you enjoy playing with. Which is the entire point of those challenges. They aren’t designed as solo content. The jungle was designed as group content from the group up.

Oh, put a sock in the passive-aggressive “be more social” mantra. I’ve been playing this game for over a year now (albeit with a few breaks), I’ve done almost entirely open world content, and in all of that “group” content, I probably have an actual conversation 1 out of every 1,000 events, if that.

Most of it is “thanks” for rezzes, if that, or “thanks for the help” (and variations of) if people help each other out on a HP. Unless you go out of your way to go in teamspeak or something, the game isn’t even friendly for getting to know people in open world because the nature of event chains means that much of your time spent is killing, surviving, and running to the next event. Time for typing out words for long conversations is rare. Voice chat is far easier to talk in while playing, but the game itself does not encourage this in any way.

So don’t give people crap about making friends, as if they are asocial losers. The so-called “group” content (90% of the events and virtually every HP) doesn’t even require social interaction. It just requires the presence of other players.

Don’t conflate social and group because, believe it or not, they are not the same thing in this context. Raids will be a different story, I’m sure, and raids are true social group content. Open world content in this game provides a feeling of solidarity. That’s most of what it does.

Grim Jr.8946:

precursor crafting was never meant to be a way to get the precursor cheaper than the tp it is just a way to get a precursor out of RNG something you can work towards rather than hoping it would randomly drop.

get it through your thick skulls devs never ever mentioned it to be cheap or free it was stated multiple times it will retain the cost of the precursor in the market.

I’m pretty sure the general sentiment was “give us a way to get precursors that we can do in our own time/way, preferably with a scavenger hunt feel to it.”

I’ve not finished a collection yet, but from the sound of it, it’s more like “here’s a scavenger hunt (the crust of the pie) and beneath that crust… voila! More of the stuff you said you didn’t want.”

All I can say is, I like the idea of legendaries and it would be cool to get one someday, but I don’t get why the precursor itself has to be such a mind-boggling task. It’s not even the legendary itself, which is already costly enough as it is. When I look at the time investment, I shake my head and go do other things. If that means I’ll never have a legendary, then so be it, I guess. A few sparkly effects for an insane amount of effort. Why should I bother when there are countless skins in this game, many of which look plenty cool, if not more cool?

I’m in this weird limbo with legendaries where I’d like to go for one, but the barrier is so intense that I’m immediately put off.

I wish it was a thing where I could just play the game and stockpile the mats over time, but 1) precursors are either RNG or a scavenger hunt interspersed with (apparently) costly and gated materials, many of which you aren’t likely to stumble into easily. And 2) many of the legendary recipes themselves require components that make you go into aspects of the game you never go into. So if I never play X, I’ll never get Y component. OK.

Tie me to a tree and spray me with a firehose… that would be more pleasant than the prospect I face, I think. I guess legendaries are not made for people like me.

bLind.6278:

It took me 8 days to finish my Berserker spec, and I noticed a SUBSTANTIAL decline in the amount of people actively working on HP’s throughout that time. It got to the point where it was actually faster to run EotM and grind WvW levels for HP than to actually go to the new zones and get groups for them.

I will NEVER level any of my alts in this game because of this system.

Out of curiosity, how is EotM in general now for rewards? I saw some nerfs in HoT patch notes, but I haven’t checked it out since.

I haven’t reached the point of desperation yet, but I’m getting close. Like you, I have 3 done. I have a 4th almost done and with 9 characters in total, 5 more to go.

Just tonight, I wanted to do Chak HP and asked in map chat while meta event was going on. Didn’t get any responses other than someone saying that more are needed at meta event. Like a passive-aggressive way of saying, “Don’t help with HP, come help with events.”

One other guy was around though and LFG search got two more, so we pulled it off with 4 and it wasn’t too bad, since the respawn is right nearby. Right now, I’m focusing almost entirely on elite specs, hoping I can get them done before the disinterest reaches its peak. I’m not relying on Anet to help me on this one. Their “compromise” was helpful, but not nearly enough to address the alt pain.

As it is, I find myself crawling back to old zones on alts when the pressure of Champ HPs bears down on me. But the pace of the old zone HPs, with each of them giving 1 per, is such a staggering contrast in time spent, especially when I have to run around a large map tracking down each one (on top of the fact that I’d rather be progressing maguuma masteries with the XP gain)… I’d almost rather stand around waiting for a group to do a +10 challenge.

Wish I had advice for ya. Spider grind is the only fast way I’ve heard of. Perhaps you could try placing your focus in a different direction. For example, you could aim to get the Bladed Armor pieces and then you would be doing VB events as a result and getting decent XP in the process. Once you’re done with that, you could move onto Auric Basin and go for the currency and mats to get Auric Weapon Core recipes bought and made by doing Tarir event chain successfully.

I find that focusing on other Maguuma-related goals for the most part makes the mastery progression feel much less overwhelming and much more ignorable.

People being asocial in map chat is not evidence of a map with few people on it. In fact, the only times I can recall map chat being active is 1) when there’s a taxi’d event chain going on, in which it’s mostly people calling stuff out and 2) when there’s a disagreement about something.

City chat is usually more active, but that’s because a lot of people hanging out in the city aren’t doing anything that occupies their attention.

Keep in mind, too, that when you ask a question, it’s possible you’re surrounded by people who don’t have the answer. They may be as new to the content as yourself.

It’s too bad I can’t do anything with my one-man guild. I would have to beg myself for contributions all the time.

Test.8734:

I’m not sure about the future of GW2 for different reasons, actually.

It looks like ArenaNet doesn’t know what they’re doing.

First, they would continue GW2 with the model of a Living World, telling a story in real time as the world would change to make players feel like they saw history as it happened. They even said that, if they did the LW right, GW2 would not have an expansion. Yet the season 1 was a failure, after players complained about all the temporary content that made people feel nothing had really been added to the game.

Then ArenaNet tried a different model with Season 2; it was far more timid, world-changing wise (other than adding a couple new maps, it didn’t really change the existing GW2 world that much), and was focused on instanced, soloable content. They also monetized it more, by making people to have to buy it if they didn’t log-in when the content was released.

Yet, that also failed to increase GW2’s earnings. Not only it didn’t increase the earnings like the spike of an expansion sale, but it also barely stopped the earnings from falling.

So then ArenaNet went in a third, different direction, and stopped releasing new content for the core game while working on an expansion. We are seeing the results of that now, with HoT…

…But the expansion hasn’t been all flowers, either. It’s clearly unfinished – content ArenaNet said would be there at release isn’t (the first three new legendary weapons, the new squad system, the Fractal leaderboard), not to mention the content that ArenaNet promised would come “later” without any tangible release date (raids, the full set of new legendary weapons, and etc).

The hurried release of an unfinished expansion, together with how they began to sell HoT – before even announcing a release date, asking people to pay full money for it, and before they actually made most of the announcements that would later make the community erupt into surges of rage – hint that ArenaNet was kinda desperate for money.

Now, we don’t know what will be the result of this third model (after the LW season 1 model and the LW season 2 model). The empty HoT maps are not encouraging.

Now, what else do we know?

• ArenaNet had basically to make server merges with the megaserver thing, due to how empty the maps were. This doesn’t exactly scream “look how healthy the game is!”.

• GW2 became free to play, and we know that no MMORPG went free to play when its previous business model was being a success. This is a big hint that GW2 wasn’t being that successful as Buy to Play.

• NCSoft, which completely owns ArenaNet, has distanced itself from GW2. We have been told that it’s ArenaNet who’s publishing GW2 now, instead of NCSoft; the lack of advertisement about HoT is a very clear sign of how few resources ArenaNet has as far as publishing goes when compared to NCSoft itself. And when you go to the NCSoft website and hover over the “Games” title in the site’s top bar, the site shows Aion, Blade & Soul, Lineage 2, WildStar… But no GW2.

• Lots of important people have left ArenaNet this year:

Jon Peters, former Game Design Lead? Left ArenaNet a few months ago to join Amazon.

Eric Flannum, former Lead Designer for GW2? Left ArenaNet to also join Amazon.

Kristen Perry, the main artist behind the Sylvary look? Left ArenaNet a couple months ago.

Not to mention Chris Whiteside, who was the one doing all the CDIs with the community. Notice how many of those left ArenaNet a few months ago. Does this hint that everything inside ArenaNet is sunny and happy? Nope, it doesn’t.

• There are many complains about how empty the HoT maps are, just 2 weeks after release.

We will see what happens after HoT. It’s possible that ArenaNet will grow with the earnings from the expansion… Or it’s possible that HoT won’t be big enough to fill the hole in the sinking ship, and soon the layoffs will begin. Time will tell. But really, I wouldn’t be exactly hopeful about the future of GW2 right now.

On the less pessimistic side:

1) A lot of people are enjoying the expansion thoroughly.

2) The GW2 team is not only communicating regularly, but has already made a quick change based on feedback (e.g. the elite spec debacle).

3) The mastery system and elite spec both put a framework in place for a lot of cool features down the road that would be relatively easy to add.

Sure, I’ll grant you that the direction of the game is up for question when 2 or 3 high up in the chain employees leave the company. But when you’ve been updating an MMO for, what is it now, 3 years? I don’t think it’s gonna be that hard to stick to the direction you’ve been going in for so long.

I get that some say this expansion diverges from their manifesto, but people have been saying that about a number of features (particularly legendaries, IIRC) since I joined this game over a year ago.

One could argue they are diverging more intensely from the manifesto, but I wasn’t around for the original Cursed Shore either, and it is my understanding that that was as intense in mob density and type as the HoT zones are.

Teq is puggable, but requires a bit of prep and organization from people. As with many of the tougher open world things in this game, I’m guessing it only requires around 10-30 who truly know what they’re doing and the rest can kind of zergling their way to victory.

Plus, the fact that someone has completed it is going to make a huge difference to a lot of people. It’s like I used to say about raid bosses in another game… once you’ve got that first kill, peoples’ attitudes do a 180 because they now know that 1) the boss can be killed and 2) there’s a strategy for doing it that works.

Up until that first kill, every strategy in the book is up for scrutiny, but once you’ve got it, there’s confidence to go around.

Synthic.2894:

People can still just join in the last minute of a 15 min event and get as much reward for their 1 minute as those who dedicated the full 15 minutes.

^This right here highlights the main reason why the frustration of some well-intentioned people is not worth it.

This feature is a situation where, to me, it’s difficult to argue that the benefits outweigh the cost. Perhaps I missed it, but I don’t remember seeing a lot of complaints about people tagging events and running off. Yet you are definitely seeing some complaints about this penalty feature.

If you have some reason, Anet, that you really want to keep this feature in place, then I suggest a compromise, such as this: Any contribution to an event nets you Bronze status. If you are inactive for too long, your status goes down one level (e.g. if it’s Gold, it goes to Silver and if it’s Silver it goes to Bronze) BUT it can’t reduce past Bronze. I think that would be much less frustrating and would avoid impacting the spirit of GW2 having “dynamic” events. (I have already felt the frustration with this system a couple of times and it gives events a different feeling… stumbling across an event, contributing some, and then moving on, was something I used to do on occasion while exploring; it gave me the sense that the game world was alive. But now that all of them have a timer, I feel trapped and tied to an event. The feeling of a dynamic system is replaced with a feeling of anxiety that I need to make sure I contribute enough and do it often enough.)

Thanks for reading, if you do.

You don’t need to use Shield to get benefits from Chrono traits and utilities. In fact, unless you are going full melee (sword in both swaps), a shield is inferior to the alternatives. OH sword is best damage still, as far as I can tell. Focus is best utility.

What I’m running atm, which I slapped together through a combination of old guides, personal preference, and theory, is Dueling (up, down, down), Illusions (mid, mid, mid), and Chronomancer (down, down, down).

I’m using GS and Sword/Sword. I’m gonna try switching from Illusions to Domination next time I’m out, for Imagined Burden, and do up, mid, up, in Domination (that reduced recharge and might gain seems too good to pass up since I’m using half-ranged, compared to a few shatter bonuses).

For utility, I’m doing Signet of Ether, Well of Recall (which I usually pop in melee as I’m about to swap to Sword and run in — that way I get Alacrity when it triggers and any mobs in melee get hit with a chill), Mantra of Distraction for breaking bars, Feedback for nasty ranged mobs, and Time Warp for its obvious boost to group and personal damage in long fights.

Really breathed life into Mesmer for me. With a fresh spec and some Chronomancer love, I’m really having a blast playing my Mesmer. It feels more robust with such a simple added mechanic like Alacrity.

Very cool. Keep up the good work. +1

Seem to be having a bug with HPs where some of them show up as complete on the map for me and count toward map completion, and others don’t. I’ve been doing them on a number of alts, so maybe that has something to do with it?

Currently, on my warrior, the HP straight east of Faren Flyer’s says I’ve already got it when I interact with it, but it shows up with the incomplete icon on the map and I only have 10/11 HP in the map. I count 10 that are showing up as complete. The East of Faren Flyer’s is not.

It does show as complete if I’m standing right next to it, but doesn’t appear to be counting toward map completion.

Also, this one is showing up on my map as being in slightly different a place than it actually is. When I’m standing directly on top of it, the mini-map says I’m 957 away. I’m guessing this has something to do with the slanted nature of the busted up air structure that houses it.

Submissions are closed. Once again, thank you for your entries. Results will be in a couple of days, assuming judge availability does not pose any problems.

Thanks.

Eh, the danger factor isn’t that important. Melee is always going to be more dangerous, due to the way most mobs are designed. That’s just something that comes with the territory.

I’ve run into maybe two scenarios so far where I was severely kitten by not having a ranged weapon equipped. One is a Champ vine thing in one of the Auric Basin events (it places ground AoE for like a minute at a time, making it nearly impossible to attack in melee range).

Another was Legendary Vinetooth in Auric Basin. I imagine if you stun him, he’ll stay still a bit, but otherwise he moves around so much it’s nearly impossible to get hits on him without dying.

Oh and I guess some of the HP champs, if you’re solo or very few people, it can be hard to get hits in. Like the Mushroom King in AB.

But if you prep for those bosses in particular by equipping a ranged beforehand, you should be fine.

My question is, what are your expectations for a GW2 expansion? Or expansions in general? Heart of Thorns offers many things, but it’s impossible to say whether it will meet your standards without knowing what those standards are.

I suppose that doesn’t make it sound like a very good expansion, but it really does seem to be hit or miss for people. They either love most of it or hate most of it.

If there’s one thing Anet is a little too good at future-proofing, it’s achievement goals.

Firelysm.4967:

Don’t downscale the damage.
Don’t change, specially don’t change snipers, because they are how every mob should be, they shoot arrows that matter, they dodge, they reposition with stealth and they defend themselves in melee range.
Don’t change anything.
Let them people stop the afk habit.
Let them force to dodge, move around and think.
Let them think what builds they bring.
Let them be forced to help others to succeed.
This is challenging group content that requires you to think.
So many people complain because they cannot slack, and that’s.
This is not by any mean a troll post, i’m serious because i see so many kids renting about content that should hit changes to entire Tyria.

Welcome to content where your actions matter.
I personally think, that GW2 did start a new chapter of quality with HoT!

Imagine if this was:

Don’t increase the damage.
Don’t change, specially don’t change snipers, because they are how every mob should be, their arrows are not too difficult to dodge, their stealth is interesting but doesn’t happen too often and their melee knockbacks are telegraphed.
Don’t change anything.
Let them people stop stressing so hard.
Let them force to calm down and enjoy the game for what it is.
Let them have the freedom to play what build they want for the sheer joy of it.
Let them be forced to put in the effort they want to on their own time.
This is casual group content that lets you chill and relax.
So many people complain because they cannot get a thrill from intense combat, and that’s.
This is not by any mean a troll post, i’m serious because i see so many kids renting about content that should hit changes to entire Tyria.

Welcome to content where the game is your playground.
I personally think, that GW2 did start a new chapter of quality with HoT!

I’m not by any means a player with a casual mindset, but I wanted to take a moment to show you how this could look from the other end. Maybe it will help you understand where these people are coming from.

Arionell.3574:

Malediktus.9250:

Easy fix: Instead of pact mastery 1 auto unlocking the mentor tag, it allows you to unlock it at a vendor for 300g.

This. If someone really wants to help people, like REALLY, then they should get their kitten up and farm 300g for Mentor Tag. Its not that hard… I would gladly buy it for 300g.

That would utterly defeat the point of it being a mastery. Anet clearly wanted to give people a way better help out other players that was not high in cost.