Guild Wars 2

Hmmm…. I have a lot of npcs that I like. Some of the snippets of conversation are just humorous…

Faren… and his “manly panties”…
“Did you bring the delightful Baroness Jasmina? You romantic. Are you trying to get us back together?”
Really Faren, really? sigh Like my character doesn’t have better things to do…

Marjory, although not so much Kasmeer. She’s too flaky for my taste.

Braham and Rox
Rox: It’s as if this place knows my darkest fears.
Braham: You have fears?
Rox: You tell anyone, and I’ll shave your head while you’re sleeping.
That might actually be an improvement for him….

Tybalt. Something about Charr and apples…. does no one else find this unnatural?

I’m going to have to add meteor shower, in it’s true form. The watered down version in GW2 makes me sad. I want my knock downs back!

Brando.3891:

So let me get this straight, NCsoft is like a film producer and Anet is like the director (as Carbine). Carbine is funded by NCsoft with money earned thanks to Anet, but Anet has nothing to do with this new game wildstar. Is that correct?
if it is, is comforting i was scared that after all the effort that i put in this game they just abandon the game.

Basically, although I always looked at this similar to book publication…

1 Publisher → Many Authors
NCSoft → Anet, Carbine, etc.

nods understandingly at OP

Yup, I remember what you’re talking about. I’m on Anvil Rock myself and sometimes I run across some people doing events out in some of the maps, but usually its just my husband and myself. Which isn’t always bad, I suppose, since we can easily jump from event to event to speed the leveling some. Still, it is nice to do some of them with more people.

Occasionally, we’ll grab 2 or 3 other guild members, find a map that is all orange with events, and see how quickly we can clear them. Makes for some interesting fun.

Congrats to Anet, always nice to have another award to add to the list. I feel it’s deserved, but whether others feel the same or not, it’s all personal opinion.

“My friends don’t have that kind of time…” or patience it seems.

So, why are you playing a MMO again? They are time sinks. Although, admittedly GW2 can be less of a time hog than many sub based mmos, because it’s ok to walk away from it when you need to.

Still, the open world is the main part of the pve. You’re supposed to take the time to explore it, to talk to the npcs in order to find some of the ‘hidden’ things like the open world dungeons or certain jumping puzzles. You asked how you would find such things without a wiki…by exploring. I found several of the previously mentioned by doing exactly that.

Hmmm…. top 5

Ele
Mes
Necro
Ranger

Uh…..

hmmmm …

ponders

… maybe Thief

Lostwingman.5034:

On this note, anyone else notice the creepy Quaggan dialogue behind the tent?

chuckle

That was interesting…. I wonder if that is typical quaggan mating procedure…

“Hey lets move to LA and start a family”
“Sure”

Wait….what?

Still, the second time I heard it (stayed so I could catch the whole thing), it did give me a chuckle.

Nike.2631:

skullmount.1758:

You forgot we deserve something for being Trahearne’s Kitten/lackey.

Ok… “Trehearne’s Kitten” (not an artifact of the filter, I actually said the word’s you’re seeing) is the MUST-HAVE mini-pet of the season.

Make it so.

While we’re at it…. how about minis of our GW1 characters, which vets can unlock through epic quests and tasks. Something scavenger like…like the black moa chick event line. Although, this might make non-vets feel left out… hmmm

Edit: Yes, the suggestion is intentionally out in left field. But I’d be game for more minis….that could be earned, like the baby black moa in gw1.

skullmount.1758:

I still would like the AP rewards panel thing (zenith/radiant/hellfire spot) to be implemented more. Let us pull any of the skins/minis from the Meta achievements from them as many times as we want. It should also include previous skins we got before the implementation of the meta achievements (mad king memories, etc.).

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

The crafting idea is sort of nifty when added to that. It would make for some interesting customization, and definitely a more visual ‘I have accomplished ’x’’ feeling.

To me, having something similar to hom is only logically.
- I killed Zaitan…. of course I’m keeping a kitten trophy!
- I have completed exploration 100%, I should have little tid bits kept from my travels for display
- I helped defeat Scarlet and save the queen, I should have something to display for that
- I played shrink for Destiny’s Edge, I sure as heck deserve something for that!
Etc Etc

Lots of options…

You forgot we deserve something for being Trahearne’s Kitten/lackey.

I had an ‘etc’ on there chuckle

Skritt possess a ‘hive-mind,’ or so we are lead to believe. We are told as much during one of the personal story missions (think I was vigil when I did it, lots and lots of destroyer eggs are involved). Our character points out that the village leader is more intelligent after the scouting party is returned to the fold, and he tells us that skritt are smarter in greater numbers. So I don’t think it’s just that the skritt are around large groups of intelligent people, when it comes to the intelligent ones in LA. I would not be surprised if there were large numbers of skritt in or under LA that we just can’t see, considering (as someone else said) it is a large, prosperous city.

“larger groups of skritt are capable of expressing a greater number of ideas and making a greater number of decisions in a shorter amount of time, so despite the short attention span of an individual skritt, a large group can collectively possess a formidable intellect, and a full-fledged colony can rival even the asura for cunning” – from the wiki

VOLKON.1290:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Let us rebuild our HoM, or build it for the first time for new players.

Or, take it’s general idea and add some of it to the home instances. After all, its our ‘home’ instance and we’re ‘heroes’ so why wouldn’t we have things like a shrine to show off our minis, or armor (which could potentially double as a wardrobe), or titles. This gives us no only incentive to earn some of the existing horizontal features, but gives us a place to show them off as well, just like with the original HoM.

I’d love this personally. It would also be nice to craft things to put in there utilizing unique things found in the world… a scale from Zhaitan, for example into a table or wall hanging. Things that are hard to come by and give you a few options to craft with. (A scale won’t always be a table, for example… you could choose a table, a wall hanging, maybe even a hammock.)

The crafting idea is sort of nifty when added to that. It would make for some interesting customization, and definitely a more visual ‘I have accomplished ’x’’ feeling.

To me, having something similar to hom is only logically.
- I killed Zaitan…. of course I’m keeping a kitten trophy!
- I have completed exploration 100%, I should have little tid bits kept from my travels for display
- I helped defeat Scarlet and save the queen, I should have something to display for that
- I played shrink for Destiny’s Edge, I sure as heck deserve something for that!
Etc Etc

Lots of options…

Let us rebuild our HoM, or build it for the first time for new players.

Or, take it’s general idea and add some of it to the home instances. After all, its our ‘home’ instance and we’re ‘heroes’ so why wouldn’t we have things like a shrine to show off our minis, or armor (which could potentially double as a wardrobe), or titles. This gives us no only incentive to earn some of the existing horizontal features, but gives us a place to show them off as well, just like with the original HoM.

BeoErgon.9107:

Of course! Human factor is something to take in account! In fact it is the more important factor.
But!
5% in stats might mean receiving one more blow, or needing one less hit to down your enemy, having a bigger chance to get that critical hit that turns the match around… It is not decisive, far from it, but it counts. Trying to deny it is useless.

I don’t want to say that getting your 5% means everyone has to fear you, I just wanted to point that it is far from being ‘nothing’.
If I gained 5% serve speed in tennis I don’t think I would be a challenge to any pro (even if I gained 100% speed in facct) . But 5% increase for pros is huge. The more skilled players are, the more this 5% is meaningful.

We aren’t denying that it is a factor. We’re simply saying it’s not so much of a factor as to be as important as many make it out to be. Pro or otherwise. It is not a defining factor.

Sure, someone with ascended has more hp and more dmg than someone in exotics, but the skilled player than knows how to use his rolls and his environment to his advantage offsets that advantage. How to make even another skilled player commit to an action, and then evade while countering.

I don’t think I could pick just one… too many synergies…

Like wreckless haste + price of failure….

BeoErgon.9107:

I find it hard when people start arguing that 5% stat increase is nothing.
It is. In a game driven by numerical calculations it can make a difference.

Sure, a bad player in ascended will never win against a good player in exotics. But what about equally skilled players? 5% MAKES a difference.

And this is where all your 5% increase is nothing fails. It will never give power to bad players over good, but among equally good players, ascended gives an edge. Whoever tries to deny this is simply a fool.

An increase is an increase whatever you think about it. 5 will ALWAYS be more than 0 and you can play semantics as much as you like , this will never change. Even 1% is an increase and something that might help to differentiate two equally skilled players. See? It’s called an advantage.

There is more to any fight than just the base math though.

Yes, any way you look at it, 5 is more than 0. However for 2 equally skilled players, there is more to be factored in than just the armor.

Even if they are the exact same class, running the exact same build down to the traits and utilities, you simply cannot remove the basic ‘human factor’ from any given equation, and that can make all the difference.

Besides, on top of that, there are things we have absolutely no control over that factor in as well.

The point – a 5% different in stats is not a defining factor.

Nike.2631:

Lord Kuru.3685:

Adding more and more skills will inevitably lead to balance disaster — unless all old skills are obsoleted by power creep. But no one wants power creep.

So copy Magic: the Gathering’s Type II/Standard play: have a regular schedule where old skills expire and new skills are introduced to replace them. The number of skills available to each player is always constant, and thus easier to balance.

I think if you’re gonna borrow from the best in their field, you need to look at their model completely – and one of the things that makes Type II work is that it’s only one mode of play out of many.

If Guildwars 2 added a category of PvP that introduced special rules (similar to Mistlock Instabilities) or build-limitations (strangely reminiscent of some sub-class proposals…) that periodically rotated (say, every two months) like Type II’s blocks I think you’d be on to a great new toy. Something eternally fresh for the competitive crowd to wrestle with. New pressures with every cycle, and its changing pressures that drive evolution.

But I would be very hesitant about making anything like that the default framework of the game, rippling out into all modes.

This seems reminiscent of GW1 Codex Arena. General principles anyway.

nowitsawn.1276:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

And yet there are people that have already crafted their first entire set of ascended gear….without spending a dime of real life money….

Sure, real life money can speed up the process by giving you gold which you can use to purchase:
- the materials needed to level your crafting up
- some of the ascended materials

For a single set of ascended gear, you still have to play to acquire the 1500 bloodstone dust, 1500 dragonite ore, and 1500 empyreal shards. You need laurels, fractals, or karma for shards. You also need skill points ( few ways to get obviously) None of which can be acquired via a credit card, not to mention the conversions of the first three are timegated, which also cannot be bypassed by a credit card.

Having the convenience of a credit card only helps people with less time keep on par with the people that play extensively.

I think you missed the last line of my post there.

People having already crafted an entire set of ascended armor without using real money doesn’t really matter in this case because you had plenty of time to stockpile materials/gold beforehand. Fact is, if you’re making it from scratch, using real money will make it a bit easier.

But is the difference big enough to matter or not? Well, that’s up to you to decide. I’m a bit in the middle myself.

Sorry wasn’t ranting at you. More, trying to expound on your thoughts, but yeah missed the last line.

The only people the credit card option will appeal to are new players, and those that even knowing ascended was coming, don’t play enough to stockpile everything they need. It is a convenience for these two groups, so they don’t feel “left behind” and that’s Anets precise intention. Is does not give them an advantage, simply an option. Options are good things.

We have threads on dueling. In the suggestions forum, where they belong. We’ve hashed, and rehashed this topic.

My vote is still no.

nowitsawn.1276:

This is just one of those arguments where nobody really wins (or pays to win, har har) because both sides have a point. I’ve seen some games that are undenyably p2w (perfect world, maplestory…), but I feel that in GW2 it’s a bit more nuanced (for now).
Let’s take a look:

Objectively,…
…money gets you gold, and gold gets you equipment. Therefore someone with money can get more (different sets)/better (ascended) equipment easier. Therefore, real money gives you an edge.

…money gets you special services that take non-cash players too long to grind to effectively make use of (e.g. grinding gold for an hour to buy a single repair canister). Therefore, real money gives you an edge.

…money gets you gold, and this gives you an edge in general.

Subjectively…
…the difference between exotic & ascended is quite small and not very noticeable. It is also obtainable for regular players, given enough time.

…these services are rarely useful or even needed. Res orbs tend to be useless for ressing in the heat of battle due to revival sickness, instead of a repair canister there tends to be a repair station within reach (except fractals, which you leave and rejoin by relogging). You also get a fair stash for emergencies from achievement chests.

…playing the game normally tends to make you enough gold to be self-sufficient (without being incredibly inferior to someone who has a lot of gold).

By saying these are objective or subjective I’m not implying one is less valid than the other, however. So which side is right? Both, I guess. But I’m not sure what the purpose of trying to convince others is.

And yet there are people that have already crafted their first entire set of ascended gear….without spending a dime of real life money….

Sure, real life money can speed up the process by giving you gold which you can use to purchase:
- the materials needed to level your crafting up
- some of the ascended materials

For a single set of ascended gear, you still have to play to acquire the 1500 bloodstone dust, 1500 dragonite ore, and 1500 empyreal shards. You need laurels, fractals, or karma for shards. You also need skill points ( few ways to get obviously) None of which can be acquired via a credit card, not to mention the conversions of the first three are timegated, which also cannot be bypassed by a credit card.

Having the convenience of a credit card only helps people with less time keep on par with the people that play extensively.

LordByron.8369:

You can buy gold…and that is what happening with ascnded armors and legendaries….

Skill is not involved

We can say that GW2 PvE and WWW are P2W.
PvP is not….(well glory boosters aside)

You can buy gold in every MMO. Thank you gold farmers. Therefore, by your logic every MMO is pay to win.

Although, purchasing gems and converting to gold that way is actually the least efficient way of obtaining gold in this game. Go Figure.

By your definition of pay to win, pretty much everything, is pay to win. Real life or otherwise.

" pay-to-win

Games that let you buy better gear or allow you to make better items then everyone else at a faster rate and then makes the game largely unbalanced even for people who have skill in the game without paying."

Real money is a convenience in GW2, because people with skill are easily on par or still better than those that play via their credit card. Cash cannot give you the skill to be good, and the various boosters et all that you can purchase are not enough to bridge the gap between a truly skilled and good player, vs the convenience player.

Cash can make you look pretty though, but that’s not ‘p2w.’

you get a +1 from me. i did like the spectacles head gear in gw1, would love to see it here (as more than just ’town clothes)

I see nothing wrong with having a ‘donate gold’ option. It mimics real life relief efforts, (just as many other things in the game mimic real life things) and really should not be a surprise, nor so controversial an issue. Some people prefer to show their ‘support’ of humanitarian efforts through the use of their pocketbook vs thru donations of used items. In some instances money is more versatile, but that’s beside the point here.

To each their own.

“But you are buying AP!” Technically, anytime you complete any type of achievement that requires the gathering, donating, or slaughter of items/critters… you are “buying” AP. This one just give you the option of using hard currency (gold), while the others use a goods bartering system (donate sweaters). In the end, the person that chooses to go the sock route gets them amount of AP as the person that opts to go the gold route….

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Hi All,

This is my last day at work before the holiday season and I am going to be very busy!

Once I am on vacation I will have more time to respond and engage.

I am therefore going to postpone the focused discussion on Horizontal Progression until tomorrow. I will catch up post page 36 today (or at least try).

Meanwhile I have a question. This thread is BIG. Would the folks who have already commented on Horizontal want a new thread which is just based on Horizontal or should we just carry on with this thread?

Regarding my reminders from you about comments on some kind of reward for the Fractal reset, I am still thinking about feelings around it.

Chris

I’ve been holding off on posting my thoughts on HP until I knew which option we were going with.

Personally, it’s just as easy for me to post here as it is to post elsewhere; however, since you guys are the ones reading and compiling the information, which would be easier for you? I’m good either way.

Astral Projections.7320:

I think it wouldn’t hurt to bring back the guild wars 1 book system for the DEs.

Each map has a book available for it from an NPC. Inside each book is a list of each DE for that area. People take these books, do DEs and turn the full or partially filled books in for money and karma, maybe laurels, and  progress towards a new skin for gear or progress towards a piece of ascended armor. Perhaps an NPC can carry one of each type of armor and weapons. When X number of points/tokens/laurels are reached from turning in books, a player can choose an item from the NPC.  The more of the book that is filled in, the better the rewards are.
-snip-

I like this general idea. They could apply this to dungeons as well.

A dungeon guide book to complete as they run the various paths. This could reward the bearer a certain number of dungeon tokens (perhaps of the bearer’s choice?) and some money.

Additionally, I had considered adding ascended armor boxes and weapons to dungeon merchants. Then people that liked dungeoning could then work towards the gear that way, by playing what they enjoy playing.

I specifically note an armor ‘box’ simply due to my feeling that being able to purchase the gear piecemeal with various tokens would speed the process up too much and potential make it ‘too easy.’ Having to purchase the entire set with a single token type requires a little more focus and effort, imo.

There are gaps in my thought process, but it’s a start.

Some of those I can see as having a collections spot, others not so much. Generally though, collections have a common them. Some of those would fit with the themes we have. Some of the others are just bric a brac, and we don’t really need a ‘catch all’ collection (imo).

One issue I see though is that Philosopher’s Stones, and Crystals that are used for the mystic forge are soulbound on acquire. I don’t believe they should be, account bound would be nice, but because they are, a collection spot is pointless as they wouldn’t stack if you got them on different characters.

In theory it would be awesome to have collection space for anything that was even remotely associated with crafting, but the list of spaces we’d be asking for them to add would be insane.

I had that issue once… made me roll my eyes, and I took the time to delete them all one by one (kittening loudly the whole time).

Now, I simply delete the notifications after I check them. So my box stays pretty clean.

We definitely should have typical ‘mailbox’ operations, such as mark as read, or delete all. Maybe this forum software doesn’t provide it though.

Awww that’s quite nice of them.

Now I’m going to have to check my mail when I get home XD

No to mounts….
No to waypoint removal…

If you desire that much of a time sink, do go play those other games that suit your tastes. Please do not try to make this game into those games. If we wanted to play those games, then we would not be here.

I think part of the issue is that GW2 may be too far outside of the comfort zone for some of the more ‘traditional’ gamers. Players who have played MMOs for a long time and are ‘set in their ways.’ They just aren’t as flexible or as accepting of change. You can see a lot of it in the loud calls for the ‘tried and true’ in the threads.

Its a common issue, and not just with gaming. People become ‘conditioned’ to expect certain things, to act in certain ways. When something comes along that changes these conditioned expectations, it makes people uncomfortable. They don’t ‘like’ it, its not ‘right.’ Etc Etc.

Vertical Progression (general)

I am not a fan of extensive vertical progression, honestly. While it is true that all games have it, each game is a little different in its application. I find it is the ones where it never seems to end that I hate the most. I do not want to see GW2 become another of these never ending gear slog games. As a GW1 vet, I honestly miss the cap to stats and the ability to simply play without worrying about that next ‘better tier.’ I dislike the ‘prepare to play’ mentality.

Vertical progression, in its purest form, is simply power creep. This does not; in itself, offer us any interesting play. Bigger numbers, sure, but nothing truly interesting. This boils down to ‘I swung a sword, I swung a sword again.’ Sound familiar? We don’t want this. To me, there is more to a character’s “growth” than just bigger numbers, and typical VP trivializes this. There are better ways to more ‘organically’ grow your character. To make their existence meaningful, enjoyable, and feel like they are going somewhere. Without simply making them hit harder and have bigger health pools…

Isaiah Cartwright.8569:

As for crafting your first set of ascended gear we want this to take a bit of time before you get to our horizontal progression systems.

I do not get a good feeling from this statement, because it is precisely part of the issue that tends to occur with vertical progression – locking people out of content. What happened to letting us play, rather than making us spend time preparing to play?

With the introduction of ascended gear, this type of scenario was a fear many people expressed, since content locking is common and is typically done via gear gating. In this instance you are gear gating the horizontal progression we so desire behind the vertical progression that is ascended gear. What happens to those that have no desire to and / or never obtain ascended gear? Do they then never get access to the horizontal progression content? These are things that Anet has said they would not do, had no desire to do, from the beginning, and now seems to be doing a drastic about face on. This is not ok.

While some VP is going to happen, that is expected and even acceptable; however the concern is that GW2 is turning into every other VP type game out there. We don’t want to ‘prepare to play.’ We do not want to ‘swing a sword, swing a sword again’ meaninglessly. That is not what we came to this game for.

Ascended Gear

I do not hate it; however, conversely I do no love it. It sets a precedent that Colin’s statements at PAX did little to ease my worries.

Once upon a time, it was stated that Anet did not want to become a game that negated its players’ time and effort. Ascended did precisely this. Once upon a time, it was stated that it was desirable for players to have best in slot gear by the time they attained max level, yet we cannot even begin working on BiS gear until we are max level. Once upon a time it was stated that BiS gear should be relatively easily obtainable, and yet ascended is nowhere close.

I understand that things change, and while some things are understandable and acceptable, some of them are hard to swallow. With the current state of ascended gear, many feel betrayed. Many have left. Many will not bother with it at all. These are not the feelings, actions, or reactions you were after, I am sure. So how can we fix it? How can we assuage some of the hurt?

First, many of us would like to see a definitive end point for ‘gear grind.’ Colin has said that Anet does not want to fall into the trap of pushing out a new level of gear every 6 months to a year, and I’d say most of us don’t want that either. It has also been said that there will be a slow power curve going forward, in the form of more powerful infusions. Ideally, we’d like there to be a definitive end to that arc at some point. GW1 has shown that you do not need a continued power creep, subtle or otherwise, to be an enjoyable game. The feel of progression can be achieved in other ways. Additionally, GW2 wanted to be ‘different’ than other MMOs ‘once upon a time.’ If you follow the same cadence of gear grind, no matter how subtle that grind, then how are you truly any different? There are plenty of games out there for people that want to grind gear.

Second, you asked if we would like to see more ways to obtain Ascended gear. HELL YES There are not enough ways for me to stress the affirmative to that. You tout the ‘play your way’ motto (within reason obviously), yet you strictly limit how one can play to obtain the final tier of gear. You make it so a player absolutely must craft. Why? Let dungeon runners use their tokens. Let WvWer’s use their badges. Let the crafters craft. Let Karma offer its holder the whole shebang is they can collect enough of it. Variety is the spice of life. Make it expensive, that’s fine. So it costs 10k dungeons tokens and 60 gold to outfit a character in ascended (the whole kit and caboodle…armor, single weapon set, trinkets, back piece), people would do it… because that is their choice. Let them have that ability to choose though.

Third, for those that choose to craft, let us collect bloodstone, dragonite, etc. prior to being max level. Lock the crafting from 400 to 500 behind the requirement of being level 80, but let us at least collect the materials. People with many characters are looking at loads of those materials and having to focus on collecting them after maxing one’s level does become a bit of a grind. Let us obtain them as we level our characters, as we play through the game that we enjoy, this way the creation of ascended at 80 becomes more of a ‘progress’ feel, and less of a tedious chore.

Forth, time gating is annoying, but some of us understand. Still, the limit of 1 per day is a bit much. If we have 3 maxed crafts that can make elder spiritwood residue (for example), then let us make 3. There are then several ways to handle it, but I’d say leave it at 1 per profession. It’s a hassle, but some people will bother with the swapping to make the others, some won’t. Still keeps the supply under control, and the price reasonably stable. Additionally, it might help ease some of the ‘I must log in’ pressure that some have expressed concern with. “Having to keep up” was another thing that was once expressed by the devs as an undesirable feeling in the playerbase, yet the extremes in some of the time gating creates precisely this feeling.

Finally, the costs of ascended are inhibiting to build diversity and experimentation. True, maybe not for some people, but for those with much less time, the costs of having to make multiple sets is a discouragement to the desire to upgrade. While I do not necessarily agree with offering the stat swapping that legendaries enjoy, I could go for the ability to change insignia on armor. Something similar to GW1 insignia would be nice, and you could offer a variety of acquisition methods, from crafting, to guild commendations, to karma, to discovery (remember discovering components via identification and salvaging in GW1?).

So, I’ve read through most of the thread and I figure it’s about time I add my voice to the pool. Some of this will coincide with others’ thoughts, some may not. I think most of it is on the last summary, but I’d still like to add my 2 cents for the various things.

For ease of coherent thought and following, I am going to break this into 3 sections: Ascended gear, Vertical Progression (general), and Horizontal Progression. So bear with me….

Yalora Istairiea.6287:

Quoted from a previous post of 3+ months ago:

Yalora Istairiea.6287:

As I wrack my memory from GW1 I recall my displeasure of; if I wanted to take on a particular boss, lets say Borrguus Blisterbark, who was located at the bottom of Sacnoth Valley, you had to:

1. Map Travel to Longeye’s Ledge
2. Run to the gate to Grothmar Wardowns
3. Run all the way to the other corner of Grothmar Wardowns
4. Enter the gate to Sacnoth Valley
5. Run all the way to the other corner of Scanoth Valley
6. And then finely, I am able to get my whooping from Borrguus Blisterbark

My recollection of that experience was took forever(insert drama here) which meant that I rarely did it.

I remember that run….. and if you were doing it in HM and got 60dp all around you got to do the run all over again to get back to the spot.

I agree that using your own two feet has its charm, but sometimes you just want the option to get where you’re going a little more quickly….

Lord Kuru.3685:

If you’re falling behind gold-wise or are far underpowered in WvW, it gets closer to being a necessity.

In the zerg, you aren’t going to notice the difference. You’re just going to roll through like you always do.

In small group play, its not about the armor. Just because you can do more damage, does not mean you will. It does not guarantee the win. Sure, it helps, but it alone will not be the deciding factor. A well coordinated team in exotics can outmaneuver a team in ascended and still win.

In 1v1 play…. chuckle People in exotics still beat people in ascended. Unlike some other games, the armor gap between exotic to ascended really is not so great, and not the key factor in a fight. It helps, but it will not hold you up.

All I can say is ‘gosh I hope so’

I’d love to have the first 2 for my mes….

And just pants for light armor in general…

sigh

I can keep dreaming

Since he’s dead…and so is Yakkington….

How about his descendant perhaps? Carrying on the family tradition kind of thing? With some solid back story to support it, I think it would be pretty cool.

Waypointing is completely an optional thing. It is your choice to do it, and should not be taken away imo.

If you don’t like waypoints, then simply don’t use them. Use your own two feet instead. No one has taken that ability or choice away from you by making the alternative available should you so choose.

ozmaniandevil.6805:

So by most posters’ interjections, it seems you’d all be ok with those who only want to WvW to only have to get those areas for 100% world completion. Correct? I mean, they don’t like to do that, so they shouldn’t have to, right?

No. World Completion is a pve thing, and should require pve play. WvW, by almost unanimous player opinion, is not pve. WvW is pvp play, with pve elements within it.

Besides, most WvW players don’t want “pve players” anywhere near their precious game mode. We just “take up space that a real player could have.”

Lord Kuru.3685:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

(And let’s face it folks, ascended armor and weapons are not necessities, even in WvW)

Ascended gear, especially weapons do make a difference in WvW. Just the damage numbers from weapons make a HUGE difference if you have zerker gear; power, crit chance, and crit damage come together to make seemingly small numbers quite significant.

In PvE these numbers add up even more as full zerker gear is much more prevalent.

Here’s an interesting thought:

A group that does more damage due to Ascended gear finishes dungeons faster, so does more dungeon runs, and thus makes more gold than they did when they wore exotics. So more gold is entering the economy than before, raising prices in the TP. But that gold is not uniformly distributed. Those with Ascended get more of it, so those with exotics are left with rising prices, but the same income as before. Of course this is rough and theoretical, but I think it’s something to think about.

I did not say that they did not make a ‘difference.’ I said they are not necessities. There is a difference.

Hmmm… here’s my 2 cents….

1) Add some type of hero or hench for dungeons and other 5 man req instances. Not all players are extroverts, and sometimes find it difficult to interact with others. During off peak hours, it can be a long time to find people for specific content. Having this option for instanced content, such as dungeons, opens up this content to more people.

2) Let characters earn ascended materials (dragonite, bloodstone, empereal, etc) prior to hitting 80. We still won’t be able to craft ascended items until we’re 80, but it will reduce the feeling of grind that many are feeling, while still allowing for a longer acquisition time than exotics (since we have to wait on the time gating anyway). This might make ascended feel slightly more obtainable for a lot of people.

3) Optimize the game for a balance between gpu and cpu usage. Right now you’re beating heck out of my poor cpu and my shiny new graphics card is feeling neglected. Leverage the components available to you!

4) Give us more skill options. I realize this takes time since the skill first needs to be developed, and then rigorously tested for balance; however we need more diversity. Not just utility skills, but weapon skills as well. There were many good skills in GW1, but only a fraction of skills here. Leverage those original skills, and give us more weapon skill sets. (And make us earn the unlock of those sets in some way)

5) Create some type of “living story” historian, so that new players, or players that missed arcs can catch up on the story. This also might make it a little more coherent for some, depending on how it’s presented. (Yes, some people care about the story that is happening)

I’m not sure what my 6th and 7th options would be. Have to put some thought into it and edit this later.

Everyone’s opinion of how ‘grindy’ the game is will vary. Why? Because we’re all different. We enjoy different things. What one person calls ‘grind’ another may call ‘fun.’

For Example:
To me, running the same dungeon again and again is boring and grindy, yet for my guildie, it’s her ideal day. She did CM like a dozen times yesterday, and loved every minute of it. Me on the other hand, I’ll do a run of story mode, and then 1 of each path and that’s it for me.
End Example

GW2 is not grindy to me. I played WoW for 7 or so months before GW2 released, and after having played that, I don’t find GW2 grindy at all. However, I play a little differently now as well. I am much more laid back, and simply don’t do things I don’t enjoy doing, which probably helps immensely.

Yes, ascended does strike me as quite a bit of work. Yeah, it would become a grind if that was my main goal and that’s what I set my mind on achieving asap, but then it’s a self imposed grind that I chose to undertake. I am making the choice to do it. I am not being forced by anyone except myself, and I can stop at any point.

Such “self imposed grind” for a “want” that is not a “necessity” means the person making the choice really has no one to whine at, except themself, for making that choice. (And let’s face it folks, ascended armor and weapons are not necessities, even in WvW)

Personally, I don’t agree with having WvW a required part of the map completion. It’s fine having PoI’s, and Vistas, and skill points in its maps, after all dungeons have PoIs too, but those aren’t required for map completion. Generally speaking, unless you’re on a strong, wvw-centric server, trying to get all the necessary wvw exploration requirements would be a nightmare.

So, my vote would be to dis-associate the two. No WvW for map completion, that’s my vote.

Yes, and yes….

The only toys I seem to have an issue with, would be the golems. Just ugh.

My husband and I play together 95% of the time, and we’ve been opening the gifts we run across together (makes sense right?). We can handle pretty much anything else that comes out of the presents…but half a dozen of those golems…..just ugh! Constant stun, and not enough ways to break it.

10 minutes? Are you on dial up?

I have crap dsl (sharing my connection with my husband), and most of my system’s components are 4 to 5 years old, yet I think my longest load screen is roughly 60 seconds…

I got the distinct impression that a 9th class was ‘not likley’ from Colin, although I do agree with pretty much all here that it has been said that if such were to ever occur, it would be a heavy class (the devs have said as such). However, I can’t really come up with any heavy options that aren’t covered with the current warrior and guardian heavy options.

Obviously, with Zhaitan’s fall, they could mimic WoW’s Death Knight idea, and open up an additional ‘corrupted’ profession, which has now been returned to the side of ‘good.’ I don’t think they could really do it in any fashion that wouldn’t come off as a knock off though, and we’d be less than pleased. For a variety of reasons, which I don’t think I need to go into.

Honestly, I would prefer to see the base 8 classes balanced, and have more skill and weapon options opened up to them before the insertion of a new class (or even race) to the game.

I caught this conversation too the other day and I fell over laughing. Would explain why that poor npc is always dead (at least for me)…

…Would also explain why they target her first…. hmmmm….

angelpaladin.7921:

Phy.2913:

angelpaladin.7921:

Go back to the dragons
and focus on us being the hero…. no one wants to be the side kick.

You can’t be the hero, because then everyone is the hero and that’s just as pointless.

Umm every game I have ever played I am the hero… World of Warcraft a direct competitor to GW2 I was the hero. In a 10/25 man raid I was the main hero in my eyes and mind.

chuckle

A ‘hero’ that requires 9/24 ‘sidekicks’ is not a hero imo….