Guild Wars 2

Thanks for your replies, everyone. Glad to hear this would help you as well! I am with you guys, I want a chance to enjoy the story and experience the lore for myself.

Kaimick, I appreciate your thoughts and the suggestion about the lfg site. Too bad a lot of us are not having any luck with it. I feel like the lfg site assumes there are actually people who want to do a particular story mode, but you need help finding them. But if no one on your server who’s on when you are wants to do them, all the great group finding tools will not help. Sometimes it’s not an issue with connecting people so much as it is an issue of there not being enough people for whatever reason.

I definitely agree with OP and am in exactly the same situation. I love the idea of story mode dungeons scaling to the number of players.

I made a thread about that in the suggestions subforum if anyone would like to reply or upvote to let Anet know we would like to see this implemented:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Please-scale-story-mode-dungeons/first#post939791

It’s getting harder and harder to find a group for story mode dungeons, as many players have pointed out here on the forums. There are a number of solutions to this problem that players can try, which are often suggested when this topic comes up, but these suggestions don’t always work, such as:
- Use the third party lfg site. Some players still have trouble finding a group for story mode, even after using the site. (For example: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Story-Mode-Dungeons-1)
- Join a guild. There are a lot of reasons why this may not guarantee you a group for story mode either. Maybe you are already in a guild that isn’t coming through for you, maybe your guild died, maybe you don’t have the time to devote to a guild and all the expectations and responsibilities that entails. For whatever reason, sometimes people still need to PUG for story mode instead of relying on their guildies and friends.

One suggestion that some of us have come up with in the various threads about this issue is a request that story mode dungeons scale to the number of players.

The difficulty of the dungeon, in story mode only (not explorable) should adjust according to how many people are in the party, from one to five, making it possible to do solo, with just a couple of friends, or with a full group.

This is a good idea for a lot of reasons:
– If Anet implemented this for story mode only, not explorable, it would not kill the dungeon running scene or destroy the need to cooperate with your fellow players.
– Players who like to group could still do so.
– Players who prefer to solo would have more to do in the game.
– Allowing players to do story dungeons alone or with a smaller group would uphold the emphasis on personal story, not only in the actual personal storyline, but in the storyline dungeons as well. This would help preserve the feeling that your character is the hero.
– This would solve the frustration that many players experience when they find out they can’t complete the personal story solo (because you have to do Arah story mode with a group to finish the personal story).

I know this suggestions won’t be popular with everyone, and I respect that, but it’s an idea many of us would love to see implemented. I believe it gives a lot to players who are frustrated with the current situation without taking away anything from players who like it as it is.

Would anyone else like to add their support to this idea?

Thanks for the responses, everyone.

Clark, I know what you mean about the monthly achievement not being required, and if it was only that, I wouldn’t be as concerned about this. But the fact remains, PvE players can’t ever get the world exploration achievement, either, unless they force themselves to WvW. I think 100% world completion is an extremely desirable goal for PvE players, one that caters to their urge to see every corner of the world, one that seems at first designed with the obsessive PvE explorer in mind. Then you finish every vista and POI in Orr only to discover that you aren’t done unless you enter competitive play. On a side note, it also makes no sense from a lore standpoint that the Mists are considered part of Tyria…that’s like saying you have to explore the moon to get credit for fully exploring the earth.

I would really like to see the WvW maps removed from world exploration and a separate reward introduced just for finishing all vistas and POIs in the Mists. WvW players, what kind of reward would you like to see for that? Another chance to get badges, maybe?

Culwenimos.1594:

Whilst I understand your issue and this is about major divisions of playing style. There are some PvE aspects that have been put into WvW so it’s not entirely two separate divisions.

You’re right that they do have a lot in common, except that in WvW, I am supposed to do everything possible to defeat my fellow players. Which I simply won’t ever be willing to do, for any reason. Despite similarities in gameplay mechanic, the goal and spirit of the two formats are entirely different, cooperative play versus competitive play. It goes against my grain to compete against my fellow members of the GW2 community.

I strongly agree with this suggestion, as do many others. There have been multiple threads about this issue ever since the forums launched. Let’s keep the constructive feedback coming and try to keep this issue visible here in the Suggestions area.

The issue of achievements that require both WvW and PvE points to a larger, very important issue: for the benefit of WvW-focused and PvE-focused players, there needs to be a strong division between the two formats.

This division should be observed in required activities, for example, obtaining gear that is necessary to play. For example, there should be more armor options for WvW players to get without having to do PvE content.

This division should also be observed in at least some optional aspects of the game, such as achievements, including daily, monthly and the world exploration achievement.

I know it is meant to encourage PvE players to try out something new, but I don’t think it works that way in reality for the majority of players. For some people, maybe it makes them give WvW a chance and they decide they like it. However, I think in most cases PvE players who already dislike PvP formats of any kind only go in WvW to get their achievement. For the most part, people already know their play style and want to stick to it; some aspects of GW2 force them to go against their playstyle and do content they don’t find fun, at which point the game becomes work, which defeats the purpose of the game entirely.

This is also a problem for WvW players. They have to put up with PvE players who don’t know what they’re doing and won’t pull their weight in the match. Also WvW fans who want to be there wait in queue because their slot on the map is taken up by someone who doesn’t want to be there. I’m sure there are lots of other considerations for WvW players that I can’t think of, because I fall in the PvE-focused category. If I were a WvW-focused player, I would be feeling like my favorite part of the game is a bit of a stepchild at this point, since sPvP and PvE get their own achievements, while my area does not.

No one is asking for achievements to be easier. I think most of us agree that we want a challenge and a sense of accomplishment from having worked hard for our monthly reward or the “Been There Done That” star.

We are asking that WvW and PvE be kept separate to support all players’ preferred styles.

dalendria.3762:

Me too.

Loved their end game approach and was not getting bored. I read their Endgame Imagined article, understood and agreed with it.

Saw some weird bot chains and just laughed at them.

Loot Diminishing Returns bothered me especially because people how love to farm were getting real upset. But I accepted it and never considered leaving the game.

Bugs. Yes, they are bad because they deny me access to their fun content. But I believed and still do that they will get them resolved.

Introduction of Ascended and the approach to Fractals. Yep that was a dealbreaker.

Yep, you’re describing my experience exactly. Especially what they were doing with the endgame, that was totally working for me. Because the game was such a perfect fit for those of us who have that playstyle, the turnaround is especially hard.

Still hoping Anet believes in their original vision as much as we do.

mulch.2586:

Right now if you got all 3 of the new items, you’ll experience just over 1% increase in damage, for example.

I agree it’s important to do the math and be realistic about must how much of a different we’re talking about here, but I’m worried about how much this number will change when every gear piece is available in ascended form. I’m thinking the difference will be more noticeable when it’s not just back slots and rings anymore, but full armor sets and weapons as well.

mulch.2586:

So if you’re a casual gamer and don’t want to do what it takes to get it, you’ll be fine.

That 1% increase in performance will neither trivialize old content, nor lock you out of doing content from being underpowered, except for Agony.

You’re making a good point here, and I wish I could feel reassured about this. But even if the stat difference does not affect gameplay as much as we fear, I still feel that casuals are being left out in the cold here. Even if it is mostly symbolic, casuals or even hardcore players who have limits on their time will play the game knowing that max stat gear is unobtainable for them, that their characters will not be able to achieve their full potential. In some games, this is normal and okay, and you expect what you can achieve to scale according to your time investment. You go into it knowing you won’t achieve X goal because that’s just not how much you can put into the game. But GW2 was not supposed to be like that, at least not when X goal is max stat gear.

Great post, OP. I also still have faith in Anet. I am usually that person in the argument who does her best to defend their actions, not in a “fangirl” way, but rather with logical arguments about why things aren’t as bad as they seem or why we can expect them to get better. None of the “scandals” that have gotten the forums up in arms so far—Black Lion chests, lack of end game, botting, etc etc etc—have really made me upset at Anet. None of them ruined my enjoyment of the game.

However, Lost Shores and ascended gear is the first thing that has put me on the other side of the fence with the people who are very unhappy and disappointed. If we look at the costs of one ascended back slot item, then Anet is now telling me that if I want a full set of max stat gear, ever, then I have to get more ecto than I needed in GW1 for a set of Obsidian armor (which, by the way, was only cosmetically elite; its stats were the same as the max armor you could get for 5 plat at level 2). It is safe for me to say, with these requirements, I will NEVER have max stat gear, and all my characters will be sub-par for the life of the game, because I am not made of hardcore leetsauce. This daunting prospect, plus the grueling Lost Shores events, have left a bad taste in my mouth. For the first time since I started playing GW with Factions, I am voluntarily taking a break from a Guild Wars game to give myself time to feel better. Right now, GW2 does not feel like my game anymore.

That said, I have not given up. Taking a break and waiting for news is different from quitting, which I honestly don’t think I could ever do. Tyria has been a very dear part of my gaming life for too long.

I do feel that Anet’s actions until now have built up a relationship of trust with me as their customer over many years. Every time I was skeptical about their decisions, they surprised me and it turned out to be much better than I expected. That could be the case now. Or probably they just made a real mistake of epic proportions. But I do trust them to make it right.

DevilLordLaser made a very important point in his post that we should absolutely keep in mind. “Vanilla Prophecies,” as much as we nostalgiacally love it, was not a particularly spectacular game. It had all the ingredients for the awesome GW1 we came to know, but it was not there yet. In fact, it was quite a ways off. But look how amazing it became.

A lot of people will disagree with me, and I don’t blame you, but I personally do trust Anet’s good intentions. They are artists who care about making a quality game. I also trust their iteration process. Sometimes their grand artistic ideas don’t work out so well in reality, but they evaluate themselves about this and are open about their desire to make the game better. They have stated again and again, and shown in their actions regarding GW1 and earlier GW2 content, that they are not only willing for their game to evolve, they are determined to make sure it does.

I say, lets be patient and not give up on the potential of this beautiful game yet. And especially let’s try to be patient with each other, even if we fiercely disagree. We are all in this together, and all the shouting at each other on the forums as well as the shouting at the devs will only make a depressing time worse, not get anything done about it. Courtesy and a refusal to back down from one’s opinions are not mutually exclusive.

This is the best post yet in the Ascended gear debate. Very well said, OP, and said with intelligence and respect for both sides of the argument. I wish everyone could express their heartfelt opinions in such a thoughtful and courteous manner.

I hope everyone reads and emulates this post, whatever side they are on. And I hope Anet will read it, too, and keep in mind all of us who loved the horizontal progression of GW1 or who came to GW2 from vertical progression games hoping for something different.

Thanks so much for the personal response, Gaile! I really appreciate you letting the team know about the login issues. And it’s great to know all signs point to the survey being the real thing.

I was worried about that too, but it redirected me to the real NCSoft site when I clicked the link in the email, complete with the secure https url. So it seems legit.

However, when I clicked it again just now to try one more time, it said the survey was already submitted, even though I never succeeded in signing in. So I guess it went through? Either way, it won’t let me try again to fill it out, even if I do find the right login…so it’s a moot point now.

Thanks for your replies! I appreciate the help.

Edit: I did go change my password, just in case!

Same here, callidus!! My eight alts aren’t level 80 yet…so much to do, so little time….

I love the smell of pixels. Your signature says it well.

Hi Zaken, thanks for the suggestion. I went and checked, but unfortunately there’s no such login info in the email. Still confused.

What login do I need to use to submit the NCSoft Support Survey?

I got a request from NCsoft to rate the Guild Wars 2 support team and filled out the survey. It won’t let me submit it until I login. However, the username and password for my old NCSoft master account from Guild Wars 1 doesn’t work, and neither does my new login info for my account here at Guild Wars 2.

I had a very positive experience with the support team and want to tell NCSoft what a great job the Guild Wars 2 team is doing. Any help on the login issue would be appreciated.

Okay, first of all…

Major content update! Eeeeeee! So excited!!

However, I’m not one of those players who is sitting around at 80 with nothing to do. I just barely reached 80 and am still looking at a mountain of wonderful content I have not even begun to climb—a chapter or two left of my personal story plus only ~35% world completion, and no way have I caught every DE in the zones I have finished. I’m one of those stop and smell the roses people who takes forever to finish stuff.

So needless to say I’m wondering, will this one time event that changes Tyria forever actually make it impossible to complete content that’s currently in the game? Will it only add content, or will some of the DEs, etc. currently available become obsolete?

Maybe this seems like a weird question, but I just don’t want to miss out on anything!

I know a lot of this info is new and we are all still guessing, but has anyone seen any info about this in podcasts from the devs, etc? Any idea if there is stuff we absolutely MUST finish now or miss out on once Lost Shores is released?

It made me smile that we got the witch hat (chest) and devil horns (free from gem store) this year. Those always seemed like two of the most popular designs from GW1. As others here have said, a nice continuation of tradition.

For those who don’t have the hat yet, it works just like any other town clothes headpiece, and yes, like the top hat and celebration hat, it does make your hair disappear. But it still looks really cool and can be dyed!

Colin just answered this in another thread:
“The event will continue to run every few minutes all day long so everyone can get their hat and achievement, no worries.”

Thanks for the confirmation, Colin, that’s great to know!

Thanks so much for the info, everyone. That’s great to know! I also won’t be able to finish during the event and wanted to find out if we’ll have a chance later. Looks like we will.

I LOVE touring Tyria on a broomstick! I bought all the GW1 costumes just because they looked awesome, but now costumes actually DO things?! XD It just gets better.

The witch costume is enough to make the event for me, and it is just one small part of it. So much to do! And all of it a delight!

Thank you Anet!

Does anyone know if the new mini-dungeon is permanent content, or is it also a part of the festival that will end when Halloween is over? I wasn’t sure, since this update included a lot of stuff that was not tied to the event.

Anet, please also accept my thanks for a fantastic holiday and a beautiful game! All your years of hard work and long nights at the office really show. My whole experience with Guild Wars 2 has just been spectacular so far, including Halloween.

Ever since Factions release, I’ve been playing Guild Wars and soaking up the spirit of fun that in-game holidays bring. It’s amazing that through all the stressful events of my life over the past 6 years, something as simple as a video game holiday would provide so much joy and become a part of my real holiday experience. My mom and I (her adult daughter) are both gamers, and Guild Wars festivals have become one of the things we enjoy sharing during holidays.

We knew Guild Wars 2 holidays would take this to a whole new level, and we have not been disappointed. We spent the evening yesterday going on a carving pumpkin scavenger hunt all across Lion’s Arch, Shaemoor, and beyond for some “quality family time”. XD

I also want to thank the OP for starting this thread and providing a place for us to share our positive thoughts with Anet and express our thanks. I think the point made in some of the posts here about the happy players not being as vocal is valid—we are off enjoying the game, while people who are not happy are making their voices heard. So it’s great to have a chance to sound off and say how delighted we are with our GW2 experience.

I have also been disappointed in the community for the negative attitude here on the forums and on map chat on my server. I hardly read the forums anymore, but took a chance and stopped in today—and found this thread! Thanks everyone for your great attitude and for recognizing this fest isn’t about making money or getting loot…it’s about having a great experience. You’ve all made my day. ^^

I definitely agree with the OP. In fact there is a very active thread on this subject here:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/100-Map-Completion-Requires-PvP/first

Lots of very good arguments there pointing out how this change could benefit PvE and PvP players.

I love this idea and really hope it gets added at some point. Why don’t you start a thread in the Suggestions forum?

We have a thread going for this in the bugs forum, too.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/Flame-Eye-Appearance-Transmutation-bug/first#post303977

A reply from support said they are aware of the issues and working on it. So I think we can expect a fix eventually, even if it may take awhile.

Thanks for posting the reply you got from support, amaginon. That’s encouraging! Even though we don’t have an ETA yet, we know they’re working on it!

Great, I’m so glad the instructions helped and it worked!

Agreed, Passiflora I’m looking forward to a bug fix for that so I can see my flame eye again. Sigh!

Don’t forget to post in the bugs forum and/or submit an in-game bug report. The best thing we can do is communicate to Anet that multiple people are affected by and concerned about the bug.

Naw Solbrio it’s not your fault, how would you know you would run into a bug? I wouldn’t reroll just for the headpiece though ^^ the effort you put into the character and that nice dye are probably worth more than a headpiece! Besides, when (I’m going to be optimistic ) they fix this bug, you can create a new ele and steal the headpiece off of him/her and give to your old character.

I also reported the bug through the support website and got a very kind response thanking us for bringing it to the team’s attention. The problem seems to be they can’t replace individual lost items, but they do want to hear about the problem in general.

They also suggested that in future, we report this and any other bugs using the in-game bug report feature, so they get sent the technical details that the game automatically attaches to such bug reports. This helped me because I haven’t been able to find bug report since beta, doh. Instructions are at the bottom of my post in case others share my confusion.

I agree, the more of us who post here and send in in-game bug reports, the better we can communicate that people care about the issue!

“Next time that you’re in-game and you find a bug, you can do us a favor by submitting the bug report in-game. This will send detailed information about your character and your position directly to our Quality Assurance team.

To submit a bug report in game, simply bring up your “Game Menu” located in the upper left hand corner, and then choose the lifesaver icon for “Support.” From the “Support” menu, you can either click “Report a Bug” or just go directly the Ladybug Icon in the support menu to enter your submission."

Hi skullmount I haven’t experimented with anything other than the item the character actually chose, but in theory it should work for anything, including your goggles. Sorry if I misunderstood, but did you transmute the item before you put it in the bank for your older character to take out and use?

Here’s a step-by-step explanation of what to do, in case our earlier posts were confusing:
1) Create a new character and choose the armor piece you want during character creation.
2) Get through tutorial, etc with the new character and run him/her to the nearest bank.
3) Grab the two items you need: a transmutation stone and a new, clean piece of armor that is not soulbound. This should be the same type of armor piece obviously (i.e. a helm if you are transmuting the goggles, shoulder armor if you are transmuting a guardian’s pauldrons).
4) Transmute the new biography armor piece onto the clean armor piece.
5) The resulting transmuted item will be labeled as “soulbound” but it isn’t actually. Put it in your bank.
6) Sign in as your other character. Go to the bank and remove the transmuted item. You should have no problems removing it from the bank even though it says it’s soulbound.
7) Equip your new item with the biography skin, and you’re done!

If this is exactly what you tried and it didn’t work, let us know. Maybe we can figure it out.

Same here akamon, I saw the soulbound label and just didn’t keep trying after that. Now I’ll know to double-check when I run into something like this again!

What? But this isn’t a case of replacing an individual item. It’s a case of fixing a bug that affects many people playing elementalists.

Maybe they will roll out a fix for the bug eventually, even if they can’t replace individual players’ headgears? I can understand why a cosmetic issue might not be high on the priority list right now, when Anet has botting, gold sellers, and hacked accounts to deal with, and I definitely understand that.

But I would really like to see this fixed eventually down the road. New elementalists should at least be spared from dealing with it, even if the fix is not retroactive for those of us who already lost our headpieces.

Every other profession can transmute and keep their biography headpiece. We should get to as well. Otherwise, what’s the point of getting a special item at character creation if it will go by the wayside automatically the first time you upgrade your armor?

Looks like we have a lot of diversity of opinion on this issue. The same dialogues some people love are driving others bonkers. I would have to agree with these two suggestions:

- Toggle voices in sound control
- Crafting stations in the home instance

I think those might provide the frustrated players with a respite/refuge while preserving the city atmosphere that the game designers invested so much effort in creating. And letting those of us who like hearing, “My ears, how are you?” get to keep listening to cute Asura tailors.

That said, tweaking a few of the timers on repeating dialogues might be easier from a programming perspective (?) since it isn’t a structural change and if that is easier for the devs, I would support that first and foremost.

After giving it some thought, I actually don’t think instanced greets are a great idea. That would be weird from a real life perspective. When someone at the cash register in a grocery store asks the customer in front of you, “How are you today?” you can hear it Doesn’t it destroy some realism to change this in the game?

Thanks for the suggestion Szar, but I have toggled it off, on, off, on unequipped and re-equipped, closed the game and relogged, everything. Nothing made it appear.

Prophet, congratulations on making it to 400! I agree, it seemed really strange, and I had never seen anything do that. I can confirm that in the crafting window before making the item, the description says “soulbound on acquire.” As soon as I crafted it and it appeared in my inventory, it was labeled as “soulbound” before I even touched it. I definitely didn’t equip or upgrade it.

Thanks for your reply Khisanth. Glad to know I’m not the only one who’s run into this problem. That is weird that another vendor, also in a starter zone, had a recipe that worked in a similar way.

Since this seems to be the exception rather than the rule, I’m guessing it’s a bug and not intentional?

Recently I used my low-level alt to buy a jeweler recipe from a karma vendor in Caledon Forest. Now that recipes are account bound again (big thank you, Anet!) I was able to toss it in my storage, pull the recipe out and learn it on my main, who is a jeweler. I then proceeded to use my main to craft the low-level accessory, planning to put it in my storage, let the alt take it out and equip it. But the item I crafted was soulbound to the jeweler character, who is way higher level and doesn’t need it.

Has anyone else experienced this with similar items? As far as we know, is it designed to work this way or could it be a bug? I have successfully made other items from recipes before, for example, the Moogooloo trident, and I was able to craft it on one character and hand it off to an alt. But this is the first time I’ve tried it with jewelry.

Any thoughts or input would be appreciated.

I can also confirm this bug. Several other people have also reported having the issue and are discussing it in the elementalist forum:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Flame-Eye-of-Life-gem-transmuted-and-gone/first#post258469

So taking all this info together, the issue has been reported with glacial, flame, and storm eyes and on elementalists of different races (Sylvari and human confirmed).

I hope we get a fix soon. I love my flame eye because it reminds me of my GW1 armor. Also it’s one of the few headgears that doesn’t clip with the high-maintenance hairstyle I chose haha.

Today I transmuted my flame eye and have the exact same problem! Glad to hear it’s not just me, but sorry to find we don’t have a fix yet. Please let us know here if any of you find a solution or hear back from support.

Edit: FYI there is also a thread about this in the bugs forum. Maybe we will hear something from the devs!
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/Flame-Eye-Appearance-Transmutation-bug/first#post248612

Ah!! It worked!! Thank you SO much everyone. Just like you said, despite the “soulbound” label, the item worked like it was actually account bound. I took it out of the bank and transmuted it onto my high-stat headgear!

You guys rock.

The only issue I’m having now is that the new transmuted item is…um…invisible. I have it equipped and checked to display, but…I can’t see it. Not in the hero panel and not on my character. I think thus must be a separate issue, clipping with my hair maybe?? I’m not sure, I’ll try to figure it out. Did anyone else have this problem with the starter flame eye for elementalists?

Edit: Nevermind about the dissappearing ele headpiece bug, it is an issue with all transmuted “eyes” regardless of whether they are your original headgear or a new one. I found the thread:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Flame-Eye-of-Life-gem-transmuted-and-gone/first#post258469

Thanks for your reply Akamon!

I think your suggestion is what I tried, but maybe I’m wrong. What I did was grab a new piece of gear (not soulbound to anyone). I logged in with the new character and transmuted her flame eye onto the brand new, un-soulbound item. But the resulting transmuted item was soulbound to the new character.

Is that what you meant? If not and there’s a way to transmute a soulbound item and get a non-soulbound item in return, please let me know.

I would also appreciate a solution to this. Has anyone further in the game found a way to obtain the biography armor piece again?

I made the bad decision to get rid of my elementalist’s flame eye, but I had no idea that unlike the rest of her starter armor, the biography armor piece was not easily obtainable again.

As Arcturus said, creating a new character does not work, because the new char’s armor piece is soulbound, making it impossible to transmute it for another character.

Also I want to add big thanks to Mr. Medina. We appreciate your interest and patience with all our suggestions!

The Master Tailor in LA? Really? Sorry to be the one dissident here but I think she’s adorable. ^^ She says her lines with so much personality, it makes me grin every time.

That said I agree that instanced greet dialogue, if not too much of a headache for the programmers, would be a great solution. It keeps the vibrancy of the world, because the NPC responds when you interact, but spares nearby players from hearing it over and over.

And perhaps we could also stand to hear the idle scene about the sewers a little less often.

Also want to add, many thank to Mr. Medina! We appreciate your interest and patience with our suggestions. Those of you who worked to create such life and ambiance in the towns did an amazing job.