Guild Wars 2

Probably mesmer for me, and mainly because it does not function anything like the mesmer in the original game. Just have to wrap my brain around the new play style. It’s fun, just…not what I expected.

Edit: Sort of chuckling at all the PvE Ele votes. I just don’t understand I guess. Staff ele is my main, and I found it a cake walk to level. I’ve also tried out all of the available weapons at one point or another. I don’t see the survivability issue, but perhaps I’m just a little more ‘in tune’ with that class.

Many thanks to you, Colin, for all the updates and clarification offered. Always good to see questions being addressed.

@Pifil – The first half gives them until the end of June. Which is still a month. If they don’t update the blog in July (after the ‘first half of the year’) then grump.

daimasei.4091:

I remember when they cap the MM. I was so angry I bashed Anet in a forum I used to visit (I thought the MM was finished). Then I started to play and found a build with Aura of the Lich (the original) and Dark Bond and IT WAS AWESOME! The closes thing to Grenth the world as ever know.
Seriously, I remember people asking for a 3rd monk to complete the then-apparently-hard-to-beat Vizunah Square and my MM just going there killing everything without a scratch.
Then Anet change AotL, cap Soul Reaping and nerf the necro over and over and still, the necro remained as the undoubtedly king of PvE.

I thought Vizunah was hard the first time I did it, but then I realized my husband could go run 1 team and I could sync the 2nd. Cakewalk then. After heroes….MM on both sides, oh yeah. Technically enough bodies to run 3 full MMs. Just remember to turn off BoM. lol

I actually liked the change to AotL, made running a MM in FoW and UW, much easier (and yes, I do it). So much fun.

Didn’t have an issue with the SR change either, always had full energy.

I’d love to see them throw something the equivalent of Skeletons of Dhuum into that path..unavoidable, with unblock-able, undodge-able attacks. It wouldn’t kill the speedclear, but it would sure as heck slow it down a bit.

Maverick.6053:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Hmmm monk…or mes…. choices choices

Monk, of course! Jesus Beam on carriers and camps FTW!

Oh no, when I monk…..I heal/prot. It’s ever so delightful to have 75% of the opposing team trying to beat my kitten so they can take the shrine I’m defending. [and makes me laugh until it hurts when they don’t succeed]

And in the mean time, the rest of my team is taking, and retaking, the other 2 shrines. =D

Ah how I miss true MMs. I was a little bummed by the minions in GW2 as well.

Of course, being capped at 10 minions [in GW1] (you could only run 16 death magic between with runes, to get higher you needed boosters like the +1 on a weapon and consumables) after the change to MMs was a bummer too. Still was a blast in AB, FA, and JQ though. Until people started bringing Verata’s Gaze and Verata’s Aura to screw with the MMs. -scowl-

I don’t mind the skins for the minions in GW2, and I like having death nova built in as well, but I definitely don’t feel like a ‘minion master’ anymore.

Sovta.4719:

How are they awesome? Only reason to “seemingly” have crap gear or a crap build is if i want some challenge, but then i don’t want to bring my whole PuG down cause of it. Challenge brought by content – Yes
Challenge brought by players (not including pvp ofc) – No

Because it works for them and they make it through the content without feeling the need to upgrade? Why the heck would you make it easier? Again with the facerolling. This is a game, you play it for the enjoyment. We don’t all ‘conform’ just because some idiot thinks we should.

Once again skill > gear / build. A GOOD player can make ANY armor and ANY build work. (Even the crappiest ones) Efficiency is not the be all, end all, of game play.

Sovta.4719:

Guardian without wall of reflection in fotm 30+ (or any) is not skill, MF warrior in CoF farming is not skill, ranger/thief/ele dying (not downed) once every 3-4 min is not skill. If you are not skilled go with soldier gear, after you learn switch to zerker (or else) for more DPS. Eventually if you are really skilled you will go full DPS (with some defensive traits if needed) So it is skill>gear but you need gear in order to get to that skill.

I never said that it was true in EVERY case. However, there are PLENTY of players that seemingly have crap gear, or a crap build, that are actually awesome players. Simply being able to ‘inspect’ someone’s gear/traits/build is not going to tell you if they are good or not, period. Judge not the book by it’s cover

Guardian without wall of reflection in fotm 30+ (or any) is not skill – and i bet there are those that take it and STILL suck

MF warrior in CoF farming is not skill – Gimmick builds so you can face roll don’t denote skill either. Just means you can follow a 1-2-3 template and are trainable.

ranger/thief/ele dying once every 3-4 min is not skill – true, but in a lot of these instances, even gear wouldn’t help them…. these people fall into 1 of several categories:
a) genuinely terrible players (they do exist, but aren’t really that numerous. most quit)
b) still playing under the assumption that some healer is going to save their kitten
c) haven’t quite got their class or the mechanics down
d) could be their first time through specific content, which (for some) tends to mean higher casualties
With the exception of A, this doesn’t mean that they are bad players necessarily. Also doesn’t mean that slapping them in another gear type would help either.

So it is skill>gear but you need gear in order to get to that skill – lol tell that to the people that have done the dungeons naked to prove that they were too easy (after the changes)….. Wonder if I can still find that youtube vid…

Ooo…I guess I update my GW1 and hop on there tonight. Unlike some…I never uninstalled it, since I still actually play every couple of weeks or so. XD

Hmmm monk…or mes…. choices choices

Meh, doesn’t bother me in the slightest to be honest. I’m used to my normal sickle using the mining pick animation (and the mining pick skin at times), same with the ax. It’ll get adjusted in time, until then, well, patience is a virtue. They have better things to implement/fix.

Zoldyck.6241:

I have no good words for those who require “berserker/exotic/ascended ping gear” when doing runs. It is a game not some kitten heart surgery where you need everything and everyone perfect.

This…

Vayne.8563:

Because builds don’t equal skill. And in PVe, even if my build isn’t a “standard” build, it works quite well for me.

In Guild Wars 1, people used to ask me to ping my build, after which they wouldn’t accept me in their groups. So I’d go solo the content with heroes, come back and wave at them, trying to build their group.

A lot more people out there think they have a clue than actually have one.

And this…..

Herr der Friedhoefe.2490:

Because my gear is none of your frigging business.

And so this….

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Because people will use it to demand you have the right build, which is stupid. We should be able to use whatever build we want. Being able to turn it off doesn’t help either because they will simply require you to turn it on.

And this…

penatbater.4710:

it’ll lead to elitism.

And sadly, we’re already to this…
.
To wrap it all up… Skill > Gear / Build. Just because someone isn’t specced how you THINK they should be specced doesn’t automatically mean they suck, aren’t good enough, wtfe. It means that they play how they want to play, and if it works for them, that’s all that should matter. We are more than just the gear we wear, the traits we spec, and the weapon we bring. Good players could do it naked. Been there, done that. Moving on…..

It’s an A-line style dress. It cinches tight below the bust. How does the top stay up? Stiffeners in the fabric. Same concept as underwire in bras – for support. (Hey, you asked).

Still, I like Conncept’s answer. Thumbs up for that one. =)

Calae.1738:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Calae.1738:

Anything that is easy is not worth doing.
Anything that is difficult is worth doing.

Difficulty should not be the stick by which you measure worth, as this is a game. FUN should be.

As such, easy things can be fun, and hard things may not be, thus making the easy things ‘worth’ doing and the hard things ‘not’ worth doing. It’s all personal perception.

If your statements were ‘always true’ no parent would ever play with their child. No person would ever buy games like Epic Mickey or Skylanders, which are easy (rather cheesy) and yet …wait for it…. still enjoyable.

Just doing something for the sake of difficulty is boring, and uninspiring.

I have a 5 year old nephew who got bored of Skylanders in less than a month.

I’ve installed an SNES emulator and downloaded the hardest SNES games I could find. Today I play with him from time to time and we solve puzzles together. Hard puzzles. Puzzles that even I have a hard time with. He thinks the games are too hard but I’m teaching him the value of hard work and effort. “Keep trying and you’ll eventually find the solution” I tell him.

I’ve already made the mistake of buying him easy games. I can already see behavioral trends steering him towards instant gratification. I’m working on reversing that.

He’s too young to fully understand the benefits of what I’m teaching him; one day when he gets older he will.

And I have a 12 yr old that loves Skylanders and Skylanders Giants. And he loves math a science, things that make him think and put forth an effort to solve, too. You can find enjoyment in both. Its about finding the balance, not about pushing 1 over the other.

Calae.1738:

Anything that is easy is not worth doing.
Anything that is difficult is worth doing.

Difficulty should not be the stick by which you measure worth, as this is a game. FUN should be.

As such, easy things can be fun, and hard things may not be, thus making the easy things ‘worth’ doing and the hard things ‘not’ worth doing. It’s all personal perception.

If your statements were ‘always true’ no parent would ever play with their child. No person would ever buy games like Epic Mickey or Skylanders, which are easy (rather cheesy) and yet …wait for it…. still enjoyable.

Just doing something for the sake of difficulty is boring, and uninspiring.

cesmode.4257:

@swordfish: Regarding the weather, if you got that information on the internet, it has to be true. They can’t put anything that isnt true on the internet.

:)

lol and are you a French model too? ~.^

Congratulations….you win my ‘WTF’ moment for today…..(and its only just after Noon at that!)

On the other hand, I’m glad you like the game, but kitten … was that whole spiel really necessary?

Whiners will whine, ‘fanbois’ (oh how i hate labels) will crow, etc, etc. Short of, well…gagging everyone (in a manner of speaking) there isn’t anything you can do about it (as much as you may like to).

Blaeys.3102:

-snip-

So your answer is ‘if you aren’t big enough to do it yourself go join someone else.’ Gotcha. Because we’re small (4-8 people as you called out in another post) we shouldn’t have the right to do it on our own, even if we do unlock it. (Yes, any size guild can earn enough influence to unlock them, given time. I’m not arguing that) We should ‘have’ to go join someone bigger. How is that not ‘small guilds go home’ again?

Basically this boils down to ‘small guilds go home.’ Any type of argument supporting that small guilds should be on equal footing with large guilds is met with disdain because ‘this is a MMO’ ‘its a social game’ and ‘little guilds defeat the point/purpose of a guild’

Now, mind you if you look up the definition of a MMO, is says nothing about it HAVING to be social. In fact, some MMO types are NOT necessarily social (MMORTS, MMOFPS) Teaming is an option, a byproduct, of a multi-player game. (Keep in mind that you find far more head-to-head type multiplayer games, than co-op). It is not the rule. Thus why we have content that allows for multiple play styles.

Yes, it does state " most MMOs require some degree of teamwork for parts of the game. " However, the keywords here are ’ some degree’ and ‘parts.’ ‘Required for parts’ of the play supports my statement about team play being the option, not the rule, because you can choose not to complete these things. You can choose to do all solo content. Now, should you choose to do parts that require team play, this is where the ‘some degree’ keywords come into play. There is no reason why a small guild should not be able to viable do the same things are large guild can do, within reason. If they can build the influence (which will take much longer) why should they not have the accessibility to the missions and bounties? Like DE’s it should scale.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massively_multiplayer_online_game
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massively_multiplayer_online_role-playing_game

Saldonus Darkholme.5680:

BTW, Vayne: when the hell DO you play??? Looking at the timestamps on your LONG list of posts, I don’t see where you get time to sleep, post, and PLAY!!!

He’s stated in another post (saw it somewhere, don’t recall where) that he don’t sleep much. Comes with being old (no offense to anyone here), you just don’t sleep as much. At least the older people I know never seem to.

@OP

I find him annoying, but I don’t hate him. Granted, I’m a little peeved at play second fiddle once he waltzes in, but I can deal. Its more his design is flawed. They were going for sort of a ‘Data’ (Star Trek) like character (always curious, smart, learning human emotions, etc) but sort of fell flat with it. Not enough ‘growth’ to him.

Laughing so hard I’m crying…..

Sadly, some women will be offended by that, but I just find it too funny….and then to read all the double entendre remarks in response…priceless….

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

You can always report the incident. ArenaNet has logs of what you do, and who you speak to, even if you don’t have the names. If this is a common practice of these individuals, there may be consequences.

This ^

If you did nothing wrong and where booted, report them for poor conduct / unsportsmanlike play. They’ll be dealt with if its a habit for them. (Once upon a time, poor conduct was grounds for a 24 hour ban, don’t know if it still is though)

@maddoctor – having the boss move around the zone / spawn in a slightly different area might be interesting. could cause havoc too. might be nifty, but people would still whine

@cesmode – people complain that we already have too many currencies. instead of zone specific currency, why not just zone specific skins as drops, specific bosses drop a specific unique named exotic (something similar to greens in gw1), increase the likeliness of getting materials for that zone level from kills, that sort of thing. Would see an upswing in farming, if nothing else.

I haven’t read a lot of threads for any specific class, but yes many of the ones you will find are very ’why’d you nerf me’ ‘we suck’ whine whine whine. Very disheartening. Personally, I see ‘nerfs’ as a challenge, not a reason to whine. ‘Ok, they changed it, how I can make this build better’

Yes, in some instances there are legitimate gripes, with solid examples to support the gripe. These types of threads offer valid discussion and are helpful to the devs should they opt to read them.

That said, I am happy with my ele, at this point. I havent tried a bunch of builds on her, but what I do have works. I stay alive in solo, duo, and team play. I do decent damage, and above all, I enjoy myself. I can play open world, I can do dungeons (with the right people) and WvW w/o too much of an issue. Am I spectacular player? Haha, nope, not by any means, but as long as I’m having fun, it really dont matter.

GW2 is probably getting to a state where it could potentially be its own producer, cutting NCSoft out of the picture, which would give them more freedom. However, whether or not this happens is not something anyone has discussed publicly, and probably won’t unless something major happens.

As such, for as long as NCSoft is publishing Anet’s games, they will take a % of all sales, probably the lion’s share, so to speak, to cover production of the boxes and such. So, while Dontain is not wrong, he is not completely correct either in stating that gem store purchases go to NCSoft.

Now, his ‘assumption’ that all the funds get pooled and then they decide what to spend it on is not accurate either, unless NCSoft is very broken. Generally speaking, a company tracks how much it is making from which product, and then turns around and uses the funds from that product to reinvest in it…to expand, to ‘better’ it, etc. That’s just the general strategy of ‘business.’

Edit: It should probably also be pointed out (again) that after the NCSoft release that is being discussed, both Regina and Martin have stated that it is inaccurate. Anet is not looking at an expansion [at this time], they are still focused on the core game.

Minis – I can go for all mini’s being tradeable. Even the rarest ones in GW1 could be traded, IF you were willing to pay the cost for one. (Why, hello mini Polar Bear)

Dyes – Should go back to being account wide. Not character specific. People will still develop a look for each character, they just wont be roped and held at gunpoint into recollecting the colors again. THEN the RNG dye packs won’t be so darn bad.

Item increases – just increase the darn drop rate. If it’s a stpre only item, they just put it on sale

Gemstore buybacks – no. too easily abused. People with limited real life funds (like myself) have the option of converting gold to gems to access gem store purchases

Account Closure Recycling – so what happens when they close an account by accident (we know its happened) and their stuff gets auctioned off, and the account get restored? They take the item back from the person they sold it to? Or the account is restored and now the item is duplicated so the new purchaser and the old account now have it? I’d say no to this one, too much room for error/issues and no good way to really address it.

Rereleasing limited items – we may see this anyway. They never said that they would be gone forever, but I don’t see mass circulation of items that are supposed to ‘unique’ happening.

I’ve bought bank tabs, character slots, and the mining pick from the store. Mostly from converting gold to gems, but I’ve spent a few dollars as well.

I don’t buy boosts and such, simply because I have a bunch from playing the game, and I don’t use them as it is. So, don’t need more of them laying around.

I do agree that the gold to gem ratio is currently insane and needs some adjusting. I also agree that some of the costs in the store are out of balance as well. $10 for the unlimiting mining pick, sure. COsts for bank tabs and char slots are pretty much the same as what they were in GW1, so I’m good with that. Some of the littler things…meh. If I feel it costs too much, I just dont buy it. It’ll go on sale eventually

I’m laughing so hard I’m crying…..

You know, I generally like Dontain’s videos (they make me laugh), but this one….yeah he’s just grumpy.

I don’t bother trying to track the timers. If I’m in the area and the event is happening, I join in. If I miss it, no big deal. I don’t farm the daily chests for those bosses. It would get redundant and boring in a very short time.

I’m not around in GW1 much, but if I am, feel free to hit me up

<——Names over there

You would think after half a dozen HoM’s I’d be bored with it, but I never mind helping. I’m just gold defunct there days ~.^

Galtrix.7369:

Mm, I’ll have to disagree with you. The game is dying. It’s just dying at a snail’s pace with more people leaving than people joining. Most level 80’s, including myself, saw that there was no point in continuing to play after the player got the strongest gear in the game. Some players will come back for the temporary events, but rarely do they stay on for more than a day or two because they remembered why they left. Other than that, I agree with everything else you said. You have to play for yourself to see if you like the direction the game is taking. Right now, it seems like Anet is slowly, very very slowly, edging its way to the “pay to enjoy” type of game. With the last event, Southsun, there were two options to get a Southsun weapon skin: Grind, or buy it with gems. I stopped trying to persuade people to leave while they had the chance, so I’m just going to say: watch the gem store closely. See what types of items Anet implements and watch your desire for those items rise. Those items will not be available anywhere except the gem store.

Disagree all you want, but the fact remains that it is not dying. IF it were, you would see several things happening – larger discounts and pushes on box sales, massive advertising and more frequent trial weekends, server merges, less work on new monthly content as focus would shift to an expansion in the hopes of renewing interest, percentage discounts on buying gems to increase gem sales, etc. None of these things are happening, or are prevalent. Yes, we have had…I think, 2 trial weekends since the game’s launch. This is normal, it is a means for new people to ‘try it before buying it’ to determine if it’s worth the investment. In addition to this, NCSoft and Anet have both stated that the game is healthy, and the earning statement released recently supports these statements, and those statements (if I recall correctly) don’t include gemstore sales. I could be wrong, I don’t rightly remember. Also, Anet would not still be hiring if the game was doing poorly, they simply would not have the forecasted funding to do so.

Has the game lost some people? Sure. Has it gained new people? Yeah. Are all of the people that ‘left’ gone for good? Obviously not, since there’s been several threads about people coming back, and since the forum is only a SMALL percentage of the actual player base, how many others that we don’t know have come back and decided they like they changes? We honestly don’t know, and there isn’t any way to know unless Anet releases numbers to us, which is never going to happen.

People have claimed for years that GW1 was dying too, and now it’s 8 years old. People have cried for years that WoW is dying too…and you can see where that monster is at. Yes, the perception may be that the game is dying, but with some knowledge of company ‘tactics’ in regards to failing products and some research into company status, you’ll see that it really isn’t.

In regards to Anet moving towards more of a ‘pay to enjoy it’ type of game, yes and no. There will always be rare, desirable cosmetics in the gem shop. There have to be in order to keep people buying gems. Do I think they are pushing the gem shop a little much? Sure. I feel they could tone it down a bit. The store they implemented in GW1 had things that you could only get through real money (ie costumes) and that was/is fine. They just need to find a balance between what can only be obtained via gem purchase and what is farmable, which I can only hope will come in time.

Jazzabelle.6531:

People complain about the temporary content that brings us new and exciting stuff to do on a roster system to keep the game from being too boring. People complain about the game having no end game but then whinge about a possible upgrade in lvl and or needing to buy new armour/weapons. If there is no new stuff to motivate people to work for those things then why do we need this mysterious and hidden endgame for?

People crying on almost every game forum the game is dying maybe…. just maybe…. the games aren’t dying cos they do magically hang around for many years, just maybe its not the game that is dying but this new entitled gamer attitude is wishing it would. Old time players aren’t crying the game is too grindy they don’t cry that every bug isn’t fixed in the first 10 minutes in fact we just worked with what we had and had fun doing it.

GW2 has its problems but none of them are game breaking, how much fun you have playing the game is determined not by the content the game gives you but by how entitled you think you are. If you are the new breed of gamer who thinks the gaming company is your own personal kindergarten and its their duty to amuse and keep you happy then nah GW2 isnt for you

+1 for you bud

Saldonus Darkholme.5680:

The OP asked if it was worth coming back. If nothing has changed since he decided to quit, why blow smoke up his kitten and tell him to come back?

You missed the OTHER responses, the ones that kiss ANet’s butt:

- OMG, YES! This game is amazing!
- OMG, YES! Don’t mind the grind!
- OMG, YES! Everything wrong with the game is present in every OTHER game, so you should just suck it up and LOVE it!

OP: it should take you about 10 minutes to sign on and see if you want to waste your time with it. Give it a shot and make your OWN determination.

Yes there were a few overly ‘love love love’ but they are far, far outweighed by the ‘this game is dying’ ‘if you play x class dont bother’ crap.

The game is not ‘dying’. Yes, some zones aren’t jam packed with people. Yes, some servers seem to have less population. Yes, most people are trying out the new content so the majority of the player base can be found there. My point was that there are very few mid-range HELPFUL responses to threads like this. Generally speaking its either gloom and doom (which is usually the majority) or rainbows and lollipops. When the fact is that the OP could totally disagree with either spectrum, but he won’t know unless he opts to try it. The most helpful responses are ‘here are the changes, make your own decision’ which [if you look] most (probably 90%) of these are not, which was my whole point.

I do agree with you that he should sign on, play for a bit and evaluate himself. That’s the only way he’s going to get a clear picture of whether he’s going to enjoy it or not. However if he takes any of the majority of the comments here, well, he may as well go fishing.

So what I’m gathering from this post is

-Person is interested in possible coming back to the game

-Most responses warn away because:
-game is dying
-zones are dead
-new content sucks

This seems pretty on par for the responses around here it seems. You people won’t be happy until we’re all on 1 server, with only 1 town, and only 1 zone (with all permanent static content), with dungeons/pvp/wvw removed because gods forbid anything segregate the population. Cause if you can’t see the other players, the game is obviously dying and they don’t exist right?

Yup, probably pre-purchase (2 copies) even.

Why? Because I like the game and see a lot of potential. I’m here for the long haul, even if I can’t spend 6 hours a day playing like I could in GW1.

As I said in the other thread calling for ‘harder’ content, we don’t need hard content for the simple sake of being hard. Its not even what we’re really after, since ‘hard’ content will simply result in some new gimmicky speed clear so people can get through it in what they feel is a ‘reasonable’ amount of time. They aren’t actually ‘playing’ the content, they are just racing to the shiney. Then they will just kitten some more that they need something ‘harder’ or just something ‘more.’ Because the beat the new ‘thing’ into the ground.

What we ‘want’ are things that inspire out of the box thinking, things that are ‘fun’ (and I use the term loosely), that inspire camaraderie, that invite us to group up and enjoy being with each other. Yes, SOME people find this enjoyment in speed clears, but not most. For most, imo, its about ATMOSPHERE, and that’s what we’re really missing. Some of our best memories come from group play…sometimes good, sometimes terrible. Some of the best times have come from failing, but having fun doing it with some great people made it worthwhile.

In GW1, this ‘idea’ might have worked. Although….I did just fine with 7 skills, and the 8th always a rez.

Here, I don’t think rez ‘skills’ would work all that well. Sure, rezzing from a distance might be nice, but if you can’t get in there to rez them, how likely are they going to be to get OUT if you rez them from afar. Rez skills (to be balanced) wouldn’t bring the player up with anymore health than normal rezzing would, which (in a lot of instances) may just result in the player being downed again. Very frustrating. Not only that, but the necessary cool down on a ‘hard rez’ might not make it worthwhile, in order to avoid griefing (rez, die, rez, die, rez….yeah you get the picture)

I thought we did have 1 or 2 [utility] skills that did rez, but those might have been changed. One was an ele skill, but I think got ‘adjusted’ in one of the recent balances. (I remember because I used it on my husband’s character to get his butt back into the fight, sort of hmphed when it got changed)

Maybe just making rezzing in battle a touch faster might be a better tradeoff.

Just some food for thought.

Devils.3679:

Thank you for correcting me, She is 100% correct. and added a point i was missing. FUN! god i remember when i first started tanking FoW there was a lot of yelling for a res lol, could we have an 11th skill for ressing. This would give so much more depth into what Anet could put out in the way of content.

A lot of people ‘neglect’ the fun factor. Games have turned into jobs these days. Its about how efficient you can be, how fast you can get the shiney (oooo shiney), no longer really about the teamwork or about just having a laugh with random people or just enjoying yourself as you find new things. There have been any number of occasions (in both GW1 and GW2) where the group I was with has completely died and it was FUN. More of a ‘what the heck just happened’ moment then a ‘its so-and-so’s fault’ moment. Pure, simple, and enjoyable. I think we need more of this, things that inspire these types of moments rather than something hard for the sake of being hard.

Oh, and I forgot to add…tanks are so overrated :p I think we did FoW (even in the old days) without a tank 95% of the time. Uber monkage ftw!

Player: -dies- Where’d my bond go?
Monk: I removed it
Player: WHAT? Why?
Monk: Because you’re a moron
Player: Rez me!
Monk: Why?
Player: …

Ah, the good old days….

Devils.3679:

LanfearShadowflame.3189 does have a good point, But i remember really enjoying FoW UW in the early days of GW1. I stopped playing GW1 short time after eotn gave us an “easy mode” because A) why would you do something in 2 hours you could do in less than 1. couldn’t get players to do non-easy mode due to ^A^..
but yes she has a point making us grind a dungeon for 2 hours isn’t hard content.
maybe a solo dungeon. I really do not know however.

Fixed that for you ~.^

I enjoyed doing FoW and UW ‘old school’ and really the only ‘speed clear’ that I enjoyed was Ursanway, mainly because I could take anybody I wanted to. No one was excluded because they weren’t the right class. Although, I played those things because they required teamwork, and because generally just being with the people made them fun. Hell, failing was even fun in the right group. It wasn’t all about how quickly you could get to the cookie.

I tried the other speed clears….even did glaiveway to make some cash on my ele (them torment weapons aint cheap), but they always lacked the camaraderie you found in ‘balanced’ groups.

So maybe partly what we’re missing isn’t so much ‘difficulty’ as that ‘feeling’…

Although, I’d love to see them throw something the equivalent of Skellies of Dhuum into CoF P1 just to see those speed clear groups crap themselves. hehehehehehehe

While I am not against harder content that requires skill and time to complete, I don’t think the community wants more ‘time consuming’ content. Sure, we have people calling for ‘more content’ and ‘harder content’ left, right, and center, but when they get it, they aren’t happy with it. No matter the shape, size, or difficulty.

For those calling for harder content, I don’t think that’s what the majority really honestly want. And I’m not talking about just the people that can only play maybe an hour a day either. The hard core players don’t like ‘time consuming’ which is why things like speed clears exist. Even hard core players want to ‘faceroll’ through the content so they can get their quick rewards. Gotta have that instant gratification.

Prime examples – We had hard content in GW1 – FoW, UW, DoA – but people complained that they took ‘too long’ that they ’couldn’t be completed with pugs’ etc and so on. It took time, skill, and teamwork to complete those things. If you got a bad player, you were NOT going to make it through. If someone screwed up and you wiped, you started OVER.
…Until gimmicky speed clears came along – and ‘easy mode’ was born:
DoA – Glaiveway
FoW – Manlywway
UW – Sinway or w/e it was called
People don’t want ‘time consuming’
They don’t want ‘challenging’
They want to be able to spam a specific rotation and waltz through the content for their pretties, and CoF P1 is becoming an excellent example of this crap in GW2.

People are calling for things that make them work to achieve it, and when they get even something slightly inconvenient, they explode into a torrent of whining on the forums.

I feel really sorry for Anet at times. They are kittened if they do, kittened if they don’t.

I’m also on Anvil Rock, although I can’t say that I’ve encountered your issue. I generally don’t have a hard time getting people to talk to me, I mean they say thanks if I pop in to rez them, or save their hide. Normally breaks the ice and strikes up a conversation. I’ve also said completely random (and sometimes very whacky) crap in map chat just to stir some conversation.

Although, sometimes my luck is as bad as it is good. Sometimes, I help someone or make a comment and I get my head ripped off. You just can’t ever tell what you’re going to get.

An example….yesterday I opted to try a couple of jumping puzzles. [Those that know me, know where this is going] Anywho, I told people in map chat to grab a beer and some popcorn and to come watch me make an idiot of myself. 30 minutes of razzing later, I have a couple of new buddies (and a mesmer that pities me and has offered to port my sorry butt through the JPs hahahahaha)

Then give us heroes. In GW1 all of the main content was designed for groups of 8. However, those that chose not to PuG or just couldn’t find enough to fill out their group (how many hours did people sit spamming ‘lg monk to go’ ?), had the option to take hench and eventually heroes so that they could complete it too.

If you are in a larger guild, or have enough ingame friends to fill out a 5-man dungeon group, kudos for you. We’re glad. We shouldn’t be excluded simply because we don’t.

And it some cases, it has nothing to do with ‘not wanting’ to make new friends. Or with not being social. Some people have no luck finding groups. Others dont like having to deal with kittens (and more often than not, my pug experiences have been nightmares, which really turns off the desire to play with randoms).

At the risk of sounding cliche here….equal rights between the play styles. Options are a GOOD thing.

While I liked the MF dungeon from the F&F arc, I would like to make it a ‘group optional’ kind of dungeon. Before you all go batty on me, here’s my thoughts:

I generally play with my husband. We bought GW1, and then GW2 as a game we could play together. Not head to head. Not FPS. An rpg type game with co-op capability. Other avid gaming couples will probably share my sentiment that there aren’t a heck of a lot of options out there for people like us. Console games? Mainly single player. Multiplayer are generally FPS and/or head to head combat. Not co-op. Other computer games? Not a ton of LAN based games out there that you can co-op, not rpg with storyline anyway. MMOs are usually a solidly viable option.

That being said, when I did the F&F dungeon the first time, it was just me. So I had no issue joining some randoms and getting through it. I’m a social person usually, I just tend to have kitten luck with people…. A couple days later, I gather a group and take my husband through it. He is not social. He has a very hard time trying to play and chat. We’re about half way through the dungeon and 1 of my teammates wspers me ‘You know, your husband sucks’ Yeah…how am I supposed to respond to that? Instantly POed, that’s how.

I would MUCH prefer if we could have just done it ourselves, but no it was a 5 man dungeon and we didn’t have a choice. It was…take randoms…or don’t do it. Doesn’t really sound like any option at all. As I said in another post, I’m not saying to make the final content solo-able, but I am saying make it group optional, or give us heroes at the very least.

(and before someone says ‘take your guildies’ my husband and i ARE our guild, just the two of us)

Some of the background between the Flame Legion and Dredge was discussed in a video tour of the dungeon (twitch) and there was some information on the wiki about it. I think I’d heard a little bit in another vid, but I can’t place where atm.

Yes, all of this is outside the game, none of it was glaringly obvious in the text or the dungeon, but the overall feel was that none of the NPCs knew why, and by the end, they hadn’t discovered why. At the end, it also states that ‘they’ (the npcs) would be keeping an eye on the remnants of the alliance. This leaves an open ending, allowing the storytellers to come back to it, to build upon it, or have it tie in other ways. There is a decent chance that we have not heard the end of that alliance.

Also keep in mind the F&F was the ‘initial’ phase, so it might have some loose ends when all is said and done. Nothing is perfect the first time you attempt it.

overall, i’m pleased with the living story. I agree with Vayne that it started off a little slow.

teeth grindingly slow, but patience is a virtue (that many of us seem to lack)

now, it seems like things might move along at a better pace and possibly a little more smoothly. i’m enjoying myself, and [to me] that’s all that matters ^.^

eberkain.1472:

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. We have setup a guild (first game we have both liked that let us make a two person guild) and I’m building the first bank tab there right now. I’m not really wanting to start a debate on the prices of the stuff in the store, just wanting peoples opinions from what they have bought and if they felt like the value was there. I had not planned on spending any money beyond buying the box, but the game is so great and I want to support it to make it better!

My husband and I share a similar view. We like to find games we can play together and if we enjoy it, we show our support by providing some ‘extra funding’ through purchases. Depending on what’s available.

Nuka Cola.8520:

The only thing worth buying from their overpriced store is fine transmute stones on which i would never spend real dollars but trade in game gold for gems.

I’ll agree that a lot of the stuff is over priced. But things like character slots and bank tabs are the same price as the previous game and I think it’s a fair price for those.

oh berries! om nom nom nom! what were you asking again? I got distracted, bad me…
Maybe they are like pineberries (the pineapple – strawberry hybrid things)

As for Orrian truffles….since a truffle is a type of mushroom…ie a fungus AND that area is pretty water logged, not to mention full of rotting undead… Yeah, I don’t want to speculate…

Character slots (for your alts),
bank tabs (more space is almost always good),
and if you have a ‘dedicated’ main (or a dedicated farmer) possible the additional bag slots on it.

Personally:
I also like to get the holiday hats and stuff too when they come around.
I also got the molten mining pick (not having to buy mining picks all the time, woohoo!) but thats gone now I believe. If they come out with a similar unlimited gathering tools, id look at those too. Just handy to not have to keep buying them and/or carry spares on me.
Just food for thought

In the twitch video yesterday, I recall them saying that SSC arc would leave behind a large event chain. I would assume it would be on the island. I was sort of working while trying to watch the video, so I don’t remember much. Can check it out on their Twitch channel though. I’ll go fetch the link….

GW2 channel/vids:
http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2/videos

You want the Team Spring Break tour of Southsun Cove

A lot of the items aren’t cost effective for small guilds, as you’ve noted. In a lot of ways GW2 is not really as ‘small guild friendly’ as its predecessor. A lot of times it really feels like its ‘join a big guild or get out’ if you’re really trying to level the guild. IN our case, we simply said kitten it.

/Agree many thanks for this nice addition to the ‘new’ southsun cove. I had no luck with the flowers before, now I have several. =)