Guild Wars 2

Very possible, but considering the xpac was only a couple of days old, I kind of figured I’d see more people in general. Even map chat was quiet, which I thought was odd.

quaniesan.8497:

Phy.2913:

Stop trying to rush them.

It’s not rushing. You DO realize even early in the story they demand us to have rank 5 in certain mastery line, do you even know how long it is to get even 1 level?

This gate was removed (and we’ve seen people talking about completing the story since yesterday morning):

MatthewMedina.5419:

Hey all,

I just wanted to pop in here real briefly to let you all know that the team discussed the complaints we’ve been seeing here about the masteries gating story progression, and with tomorrow’s patch we’ll be removing the Itzel Poison mastery gate from chapter 14 “Sign Cutting”. If you were already on this step, when you next log in, your story step should automatically advance as though you had earned the mastery. If you haven’t reached this point, you shouldn’t notice anything different (apart from the fact that you can progress the story faster). If you’ve already advanced past this point by earning the mastery, well there’s just no other way to say it: you’re a rock star, and you deserve an ice cold beverage and a toast from the story team at Arenanet! :-)

I don’t have an exact ETA on when this fix will go Live, but we just wanted to get the word out there ASAP so that if you’re currently on this step, you might want to wait as you will have the ability to bypass this gate sometime tomorrow.

We wanted to use mastery gating as a way to try and prepare you for the challenges ahead the deeper into the Maguuma that you went, but we realize that in this particular scenario, it ended up not being the experience we wanted for all of you and we wanted to correct it.

See you in the jungle!

So, there really isn’t any reason to grind out all of the mastery levels “right now” except that you choose to. They were intended (to an extent) as long term busy work.

I think I agree with most of what the OP is saying. Not verbatim, but the general points at least. It’s an absolute shame, the nerfs that they recent did to the core game.

I’m sorry, Anet, but you really should not make the claim that you’re comfortable going free to play because you know people will love the game so much that they will buy it. Then follow up with ripping that core game to shreds so that they really have no choice but to buy it. Its just low.

I just figured people were doing Halloween stuff, or grinding xp for masteries. But I found VB very…quiet..Sunday night while I was there (between like 6 and 8 pm eastern time).

Its also very disheartening that none of my guild mates have returned for HoT.

PetboyJoshua.3108:

LanfearShadowflame > Seeing that there’s a different amount of monsters if you’re less than 10, I actually think that they changed their mind about that.
The only thing that’s really gonna be a pain if you’re a small guild, is farming for the different guild features. But I totally understand why they couldn’t change the numbers depending of the size of your guild for that : people would have just abused it.

They’ve stated that the minimum size to do the claiming is 5 people, which I don’t have an issue with, honestly. It’s more the overall attitude regarding guilds less than 10 people and the progression after the initial claiming. This disregard for “small” guilds (not one person bank guilds, mind you) started back with the initial implementation of guild missions. At least with influence we could work towards building our guild just by playing together. Those days are gone now.

Proofs of Heroics are a currency, I can see them going into the wallet.

Black Lion Ticket scraps, I’m still iffy on. They technically aren’t, though the tickets they become most certainly are and should be in the wallet.

All manner of keys and lockpicks; however, are not currencies. You don’t purchase items from vendors with them, you open chests. Not the same thing. So, they don’t belong in the wallet.

influence has been retired. it is no longer obtainable

Victuswolf.5286:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

TheRandomGuy.7246:

Cerbeius.7129:

Seeing as Labyrinth ain’t no Central Tyria nor Maguuma Jungle…

Fractals are located outside of our space-time yet they give exp.

To add to this, WvW is in the mists too, yet you can still build mastery xp there as well.

So…its not an excuse.

This is why I’m cynical of the entire thing.

They say it’s dangerous to try enable mastery experience gain in a Halloween instance yet all the other instances work fine. If all instances were affected I could believe it but since it’s only the Halloween one I think it was intended to be that way to extend the life of the HOT content.

I’m going to take them at their word that it’s a bug. How potentially dangerous it is to try and fix depends solely on how stringy their code is. I get the distinct impression it’s very stringy, which yeah, could make trying to hunt down that bug not only time consuming but it could also potentially screw up our ability to partake of the Halloween events. I’m not precisely pleased about it, but it’s not the end of the world.

Has anyone tried using the frames from the craftable backpacks, or perhaps the simple/sturdy/etc ‘x’ tools?

Hiccup was a tinker/inventor. In the movie he was apprenticed to Gobber, who was a smith of some sort. So we could have ties to either weapon or armor smithing crafting components.

Unfortunately, guilds like yours (and mine, and many others), by Colin’s own words, are not guilds. The ‘small’ guilds they mention not abandoning are those with 10+ active people. We have the choice to grow (if we can, but I’ve had 0 luck) or abandon guilds that we have honored and cherished for years.

Voluptus.3509:

You thought you were just going to be handed a whole trait line and elite spec?

Nope, fully expected to have to do “something” for it, given that is was labeled as “character progression.” Just wasn’t expecting it to be quite so steeply priced. Add to that the fact that a good 50% of the hero challenges aren’t actually soloable (from what I’m reading), tends to be mildly annoying.

Voluptus.3509:

You thought that you would be able to go and craft a legendary without having to run all over the place, gather mats and do tasks?

Again, fully expected this (asked for it actually). Didn’t expect it to be more expensive than just straight up buying the precursor though. Granted, prices of the base materials do fluctuate and they did want to have that time factor, but they might have overshot the mark by just hair.

Voluptus.3509:

You thought that you would be able to walk right on through the heart of what is supposed to be the enemy’s home turf without having to worry about LOTS of really, really big bad nasties trying to kill you?

You didn’t realize that the neighborhood was going to be so bad that you’d have to walk the streets in groups or get mugged?

No, but many weren’t expecting it to be almost completely non-solo friendly. Not the open world and story portions, anyway. More difficult yet. Impossible, no.

Voluptus.3509:

You didn’t realize that challenging GROUP content meant all over the new zones, not simply in dungeons and fractals?

Sorry, but the last time I checked, the only ‘content’ that they had slapped the “challenging group” keywords on were raids (and high end fractals). Not the open world. Not the story. Anet stated that these components of the game were intended for everyone. Not just the hardcore or the ‘elite’ players.

I’m not against haven’t a bit more difficulty in the open world. However, if they want to make open world “challenging” content with a body count requirement, then they need to make it instanced, and they need to give us back our heroes and hench. The ‘challenging’ part of content should not be trying to find ‘x’ number of competent people just so we can experience it, let alone complete it.

PopeUrban.2578:

The central tyria masteries can only be progressed in central tyria, but as “core” masteries, their effects apply everywhere.

The Hot masteries don’t apply in central tyria because their effects mostly address things that don’t exist there, and it would have broken old content to allow gliders to function there.

You should be able to wear your mentor tag and run your loot vaccum in magumma

Now I want a “Hoover” title for that track lol.

TheRandomGuy.7246:

Cerbeius.7129:

Seeing as Labyrinth ain’t no Central Tyria nor Maguuma Jungle…

Fractals are located outside of our space-time yet they give exp.

To add to this, WvW is in the mists too, yet you can still build mastery xp there as well.

So…its not an excuse.

The functionality of that track is supposed to work everywhere, from my understanding. How you earn xp for it is simply limited to core zones. I do believe it may be bugged though. Some people were reporting that the loot vacuum was not working in wvw as it should have been, so it’s possible it may not be working as planned in other areas as well.

I believe Rubi said (in that same stream) that these guys move around and we’ll have to find them.

Kind of makes me think of Nicolas the Traveler …. for Karma. We might need to enlist help finding these depending on if (and how often) they move.

gaspara.4079:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

So, it completely sounds like those of us that have..well.. lives/jobs/families/etc, are totally kittened when it comes to making this holiday item. Great, thanks Anet.

Its a very special, ascended item. It should clearly cost more to make than ascended shoulders do from crafting. So I don’t see whats wrong with this and I say that as someone who may not be able to afford it.

Yes, because ascended crafting isn’t a kittening joke when it comes to costs to begin with.

Still, as a holiday item, it should come from doing holiday things. Doing the achievements, playing the labyrinth, doing the jumping puzzle (how I loath this jp), etc. Not be something exclusive to people that can play for 12 hours a day and horde like there is no tomorrow.

From the sounds of things, only the bat wings are holiday related, everything else is grind your life away ‘normal’ play. And those are a time gated PITA or yet another gold sink.

sigh

TheFibrewire.6845:

all the things in HOT is perfect.

Alright, I’ll bite.

I defend Anet quite a bit. Of course, I also criticize them (a lot) too. I haven’t even played HoT significantly yet (been busy with Halloween), but I can already agree with others that HoT is a far cry from perfect.

I don’t think it’s necessarily the end of the world, but it’s definitely not perfect. There are some thins I’m ok with, others I’m not. However, that’s going to vary (sometimes drastically) from person to person.

You people are telling me that you finished the whole kitten story in just 3 days?

Ugh

So, it completely sounds like those of us that have..well.. lives/jobs/families/etc, are totally kittened when it comes to making this holiday item. Great, thanks Anet.

So..this is equates to: Paid $50+ for the base game, kittened off that I paid $50+ more for the expansion.

This is different than other MMOs how exactly? People that bought Vanilla WoW when it launched paid that much. Then they forked over $40-$50 more for Burning Crusade. Then another $40-$50 for WotLK. And again for Cata. Sooo…uh, where’s the issue here?

You do realize that it’s not any cheaper to get into WoW currently? The WoD expansion is 49.99 for the standard, plus you need to spent the extra $10 for the vanilla game (because it’s not included). And if you want the other existing expansions, you have to buy those too. You get a discount if you buy multiples, but if you opt to buy them one at a time, they are still close to full price. (Been here, done this)

Yes the core game is now essentially an extensive free trial. WoW has a similar option – play for free up to level 20. Granted its not as extentive as GW2 version, but with all the restrictions (and recent nerfs) the P4F really isn’t all that great of an option. However, on the flip side of the coin, more people may be likely to actually purchase the game considering there isn’t the additional paywall for the base game, that other games have.

I still find myself looking for the blue icons for these things, oddly enough. But yes, even after I kick myself and remind myself to look for yellow, sometimes its hard to discern (at a glance) which are waiting to be done, and which are done. A slightly more distinct appearance between the two icons would be nice.

winterchillz.2564:

StaticX.7695:

PvP? Yea, well, you should know Masteries apply in there too, so have fun being underpowered as opposed to a HoT player;

Mastery in PvP? Of what do you speak? Are you talking about the couple of champions that are expac only? Do gliders and mushroom jumping even work in PvP? Res speed mod doesn’t, speed boosts don’t either, legendary crafting I doubt makes a single bit of difference… Please do elaborate.

I believe he’s referring to Elite Specs, not masteries here. And he’s correct, in that at the present time, the new elite specs are a bit over powered.

However, most of us expected this and are aware that they should be toned down over in a relatively short span of time. Its precisely for this reason (new spec imbalance and meta shake up) that Anet isn’t opening pvp leagues until the end of next month. It gives them time to balance things, and time for things to settle back into a semblance of normality.

Honestly though, this is a normal for any expansion ever. I remember when Factions was released, the kitten storm about how Sin and Rit were OP, and then when Nightfall came out, it was Derv and Para. Sin and Derv OPness lasted a bit longer than the other 2, but that was also sort of expected considering they where the Dev’s “favored” classes at the time. Still, it did eventually all get sorted. Granted it was never perfect, but it was better.

winterchillz.2564:

But you’re not. Dungeons, Fractal 1-50, open world, world bosses, etc have not hampered your abilities at all to do what you previously did. The rewards have been nerfed, but that has not locked you out of content, that’s de-centified it.

I would say that Fractal’s are indeed an issue presently. There are several complaints about people getting kicked (pre lvl 50) because they don’t have masteries, and this should not be happening. Considering Fractals are considered ‘core’ content, any masteries for them should have been non-combat affecting, so this type of issue didn’t arise.

Any skill challenges that you did out in the world (now Hero Challenges), those points where converted into the new HP (not shards).

Essentially the only existing skill points that got converted into spirit shards were those “in excess” of the calculation for the HPs given to you for your current level + challenges completed. So, any you got from “leveling” after 80, or from popping skill point scrolls were what got converted.

People felt similarly in GW1 when Faction, and then Nightfall, first came out OP. Rit, Sin, Derv, and Para were all OP when they started out, but it did get ironed out over a bit of time (not well, but that’s not the point).

Give them a little bit of time to gather the larger dataset on which to do their tweaking, and we’ll see a balance patch in a few weeks. This is exactly why the new league/ladder thing doesn’t start until mid to end of November. So they can get this stuff tweaked, and let things settle.

MirrorOfNature.4279:

if he was kicked for lacking masteries.

This right here is an issue, and it’s a player mindset issue at that. You should not get kicked because you don’t have masteries, given that fractals are core game content. Yes, they got upgraded with the expansion, but they are not expansion content.

CuteLilKittenHugz.2064:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

It has other means of income. That was the entire point of the gem store, and now having a paid expansion.

I knew F2P would bite us in the kitten , just for the wrong reasons. sigh

Oh Lanfear. I happen to run across one of your posts after a very long time and nothing has changed. One day you will stop saying things verbatim of what I’m thinking and then I’ll know you’ve finally quit your Unholy Black Satan Magic for good. :P

Unholy Black Satan Magic?

pokes bones, incense and other brick-a-brack further under the carpet out of sight

Whatever could you mean?

Very glad to hear this is a bug. While it’s extremely disappointing (almost tears worthy), I’ll survive. Thank you immensely for letting us know, Gaile.

DarcShriek.5829:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

This….again?

I srsly need to break out the alcohol and take a shot for every time someone goes off about this…

I’d be comfortably numb several times over by now

I’d be passed out.

Light weight :p

Don’t have time? Does HoT or the elites expire in a certain time period and I missed that memo? Last time I checked, time was something we had lots of in this particular game. Just work at it a little bit as you have the ability to.

This….again?

I srsly need to break out the alcohol and take a shot for every time someone goes off about this…

I’d be comfortably numb several times over by now

Ranatoa.4869:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Ranatoa.4869:

The discussions said that they were reducing liquid rewards from dungeons (and confirmed loot from mobs/bosses would not be changed) and moved to fractals/raids, so if anything, fractals should have increased.

That was my general understanding too. shrug Must be they changed thier minds and didn’t bother to say thing.

It might just not be obvious. I haven’t played yet so I don’t know what has changed, but since 1 island = 1 fractal now, the reward per fractal might be less (I would expect this) but if you do 4 you’ll end up with more than you would have in the old system.

I haven’t been on yet today either. My concern is with those reporting not only the gold decrease, but loot and xp decrease from standard dungeon runs. Which, based on what was said, wasn’t supposed to be changed.

However, it also sounds like some of the fractal loot is locked behind the fractal masteries, but I have no confirmation of that as yet. Just what others are bouncing around, around here. If that is actually the case (and not an accident/bug) it’s a low blow.

Ranatoa.4869:

The discussions said that they were reducing liquid rewards from dungeons (and confirmed loot from mobs/bosses would not be changed) and moved to fractals/raids, so if anything, fractals should have increased.

That was my general understanding too. shrug Must be they changed thier minds and didn’t bother to say thing.

It has other means of income. That was the entire point of the gem store, and now having a paid expansion.

I knew F2P would bite us in the kitten , just for the wrong reasons. sigh

ArchonWing.9480:

So to clarify, existing fractal rewards are now locked behind masteries? That doesn’t sound very cool.

Is that what the fractal mastery line is? If so, I agree. Very cheap move.

Zaron.1987:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Jahroots.6791:

People cried for the end of the berserker meta, Anet took it a step further and straight up killed dungeons. Lol.

Not precisely what people desired. However, this is more just a ploy to make more people purchase HoT, and is just a very cheap tactic.

but the tactic works …. on first examination :/

Only because people are stupid. Sadly.

I know that will likely get me infracted, but sometimes the truth just needs to be put bluntly.

Jahroots.6791:

People cried for the end of the berserker meta, Anet took it a step further and straight up killed dungeons. Lol.

Not precisely what people desired. However, this is more just a ploy to make more people purchase HoT, and is just a very cheap tactic.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Whaaaaaaaat? Can’t use Halloween Lab to lvl masteries?

Ugh. ANET!

So much shiney….so little time…

Ikr? I’m kind of disappointed, but I guess it makes sense that they are not part of Tyria but are a separate instance (though I wish they would reconsider and let us progress Tyrian Masteries).

Don’t get me started on that logic.

Could always do a dungeon instead. ^^

chuckle Sure… for that uh….what 66%? reduction in like everything. They may as well have just removed them from the game and told all of us that didn’t have the paths done to kitten off.

Yahhhhh. I’m can’t follow what they’re thinking, unless they are trying to stomp on gold inflation pretty hard. Fractals got a hard nerf too reward wise, from what I’ve read, yet that’s what they want people to do. They may have tightened the screws on rewards and the elites a trifle too hard.

I can understand them wanting to reduce the “liquid” assets of dungeons (which is what was claimed, along with that being redistributed to other parts of the game); however, I don’t recall anything being said about nerfing loot,xp etc. So maybe its a bug? And fractal’s weren’t mentioned at all during that long conversation, just dungeons. (While I’m aware fractals are also a dungeon, they typically refer to them specifically as fractals and dungeons as dungeons) But it’s in the patch notes..sooooo…yeah bit conflicting in the info we had.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Whaaaaaaaat? Can’t use Halloween Lab to lvl masteries?

Ugh. ANET!

So much shiney….so little time…

Ikr? I’m kind of disappointed, but I guess it makes sense that they are not part of Tyria but are a separate instance (though I wish they would reconsider and let us progress Tyrian Masteries).

Don’t get me started on that logic.

Could always do a dungeon instead. ^^

chuckle Sure… for that uh….what 66%? reduction in like everything. They may as well have just removed them from the game and told all of us that didn’t have the paths done to kitten off.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Whaaaaaaaat? Can’t use Halloween Lab to lvl masteries?

Ugh. ANET!

So much shiney….so little time…

Ikr? I’m kind of disappointed, but I guess it makes sense that they are not part of Tyria but are a separate instance (though I wish they would reconsider and let us progress Tyrian Masteries).

Don’t get me started on that logic.

Mmm I see. So John Smith meant “completely kill” when he said “deincentivize”

Zaron.1987:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Serophous.9085:

stop skirting around the answer when you already know it.

Its farmed for a reason with its volume of mobs and events. Now add the xp you get from it to masteries and you can see the problems. So they just ommited it

The flaw with this general logic is that the same can be achieved by speed clearing dungeon paths. Was that also omitted?

dungeon paths experienced was also nerfed today ( with the gold nerf)

hmm id heard about the gold and loot, but not the xp.

We have known since they announced the core tyrian masteries, that they would require core play to level them. Some of us held off doing exploration (for example) because of the significant chunks of xp that gives on an 80, in order to level these. The map bonus system now makes farming events more desirable which would also generate some healthy xp numbers. My understanding is that people are also presently rushing dungeon paths (a quick 70% of a level scratch that, not sure what they give right now, but people are still doing them) for xp gain.

Serophous.9085:

stop skirting around the answer when you already know it.

Its farmed for a reason with its volume of mobs and events. Now add the xp you get from it to masteries and you can see the problems. So they just ommited it

The flaw with this general logic is that the same can be achieved by speed clearing dungeon paths. Was that also omitted?

Dean Calaway.9718:

PyrateSilly.4710:

Umm …. it was explained that this was gonna happen ….

Well excuse me for not looking at the website everyday to see the latest news and making sure my stuff in game is not gonna get changed for something else.

These types of things tend to happen when they make system changes. It’s something you should have made sure to check.

Granted, they could have sent everyone an in-game mail early this week, but even then, someone would still be doing exactly what you’re doing…

Goatjugsoup.8637:

maybe directly but can you not craft maize balm?

You can, but is 100 corn, 5 skulls, and 5 nougats per balm worth the trade off? Debatable.

These keys will run you 20 silver and one fractal relic each, but wait, it gets better… So far in my experience 90% of the time the contents of these boxes are worth less than the 20 silver you paid for the key to open it, and god forbid you have to sell the contents on the Trading Post, because then you will get hit for yet another 15%.

This actually reminds me of keys in GW1. Generally speaking it was a complete waste of money to purchase chest keys, because you wouldn’t recoup what you spent on them from the chest drops.

sigh

Sad really. At least let them be 30s, which is the timer on jaggeds.

zaced.7948:

-snip-

“I play for the game mechanics”

Except what are HPCs? Game mechanics. Specifically the mechanic designed to earn you character progression through game play.

sigh

Whaaaaaaaat? Can’t use Halloween Lab to lvl masteries?

Ugh. ANET!

So much shiney….so little time…

zaced.7948:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

zaced.7948:

yes pls. i’d even drop 20-30 bucks for that.

No, the gem store only offers cosmetics and convenience items. Changing that would change the game and not in a good way.

if exp boost is a convenience, how is a masteries unlock not? it only cuts the time. i’ve been told by everyone on this forum for the last 3 years that this is not pay to win whenever i brought it up.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

sigh

Why do you bother playing if you just want to purchase your way to the end? You miss everything.

So..no.

what you miss is tons of pointless grind that has no substance to it. for me this game begins at the moment that everything is unlocked and i can start playing at full efficiency. everything before that is a chore.

Yes… because absolutely nothing is happening around you as you make your way to that HPC. Gotcha…

i’d rather experience that with my masteries unlocked. not everybody enjoys your particular play style.

Yes, I’m well aware that not everyone enjoys playing the game that they purchased to play. They just expect everything to be handed to them right at the start. Specs. Masteries. Legendaries. And then they kitten that they have nothing to do.

Go figure.