Guild Wars 2

There are no words…. there just aren’t.

NO they aren’t “refunding” your armor
NO they aren’t “replacing” anyones armor
NO they aren’t going to give everyone a free stat reroll.

How do you know your gear is “soon to be useless”? Have you seen the finalized changes? Do share.

A wise man once said “Nothing lasts forever” and it’s completely true, for every aspect of life.

OP, I’ve been playing since the beta weekends, and I don’t find that I have your issue. I still have plenty to keep me entertained. Yes, occasionally some content seems too easy; however I am also well aware that I have done that content multiple times across a multitude of characters so I know what to expect. Thus it gives the perception it’s easier, when nothing has actually changed on the game’s side. I do feel that downscaling needs a bit of a balance pass since the introduction of ascended, but that’s not precisely the issue you were referring to.

Honestly, it just sounds like you’re burnt out and unhappy with the rewards. Yes, you’re playing for the rewards, not for the fun of it, based on your assorted comments. I agree with others there. Take a break and play something else for a bit. Come back for the open betas and see if some of the new content suits your fancy.

Derenek.8931:

Gibson.4036:

Derenek.8931:

Most of these posts sound like “I got a level 80 guy, so I shouldn’t have to play anymore to unlock all the cool stuff from the expansion!”

I haven’t seen anyone asking for enough Hero Points to unlock the new elite specializations from the expansion. We just don’t want to lose access to core game stuff we already have because there’s a shiny new way to earn them.

but seriously if you never did any skill challenges and stopped playing once you hit lvl 80, your toon wouldn’t have all the core skills, elite skills, and traits unlocked anyway. So why should a character who didn’t have enough skill points to even be maxed out in the first place suddenly get enough points to get all the expansion skills as well?

Because people who have leveled in ways other than open world exploration were given skill point scrolls they used to unlock skills. If our characters were created before the new trait system, they unlocked traits by purchasing trait manuals from their profession trainer. If they were created after, they either went and did things like specific events to unlock them or paid more skill points and gold to unlock them.

It’s very possible to have characters who are max unlocked in the current system, without having done a single skill challenge.

And to repeat, I haven’t seen anyone expecting to be given enough Hero Points to unlock expansion content.

Just buy the expansion and play it. You’ll get to unlock all the traits at the same rate as everyone else who plays, so it shouldn’t be that big of a deal.

That’s not true.

About half my characters have enough skill challenges done that when the system changes they will still have access to all core skills and traits. On day one of HoT launch they will be ready to start getting Hero Points toward elite specializations.

On the other half, however, I will need to go back and re-earn some of the trait unlocks and skill unlocks they already have.

That’s why people are unhappy.

It’s not a matter of wanting the new content for free. We just don’t want the old content we already earned taken away.

No matter how your characters got those skill and trait points, whether it was from skill challenges or tomes, those points will be on their character. So when those points are refunded into hero points those should still be there. I’m not sure how anyone would lose any skill points that they actually have.

So basically saying, you got your guy to level 80 through PvP and crafting. That gives him 400 points. Then he unlocked the rest of his skills using scrolls and tomes. The end result is exactly the same. You have a character with X skill+trait points. Those points are then converted to hero points. Nothing is lost. How your toon got their skills isn’t as important as how many skills and traits they actually have when the refund happens.

In actuality, those characters who leveled up with books actually have an advantage over regular characters. While the res of us have to search through all the maps looking for the skill points we might have somehow missed along the way, scroll and PvP leveled characters will not only have all their points converted to hero points, they also have the entire game’s worth of skill challenges to ramp themselves up even faster and easier than normal players.

The only reason that a character would have to do extra skill challenges is if they weren’t maxed out to begin with. So it’s just a matter of leveling up like any other expansion pack for any game.

I’m not precisely sure that’s how it will work. Because it does give certain characters a bit of an unfair advantage. It also sort of breaks the point of hero points being a limited resource, since those people would potentially end up with the ability to have more than the definitive cap anet set in place.

My best guess is that some people are going to end up having to go out and do skill challenges to get those 65 points back or the first 65 challenges they do won’t actually reward hero points, but mats instead as the work off their ‘debt.’

NTDK.4897:

I made a warrior for wvw and a warrior for dungeons/pve

…..because I was too lazy to switch traits, armors, weapons… everytime

….dont judge me X_X

No judgement here… I’ve had similar thoughts for my alts

HyruleanHyroe.1473:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Since many of the complaints I’ve seen in the 2 recent rng threads have simply been “my younger second account gets better drops” I’m just going to try it for myself.

When the game goes on sale again, I’ll purchase a new account and I will try recording footage as I play either account, and then compare.

My wife’s new account doesn’t seem to get anything better than mine. In fact, it seems like I get much better loot, though that may be due to the account-wide magic find boost. I’d be interested to hear what your findings are, though I just can’t believe that the folks at Anet are all sitting in their giant armchairs, stroking one-eyed cats and “MUAHAHAHAHAAAA”-ing all day about how they kittened over veteran players with bad RNG for no reason.

shrug I don’t think Anet would intentionally shaft vets either, but I also won’t discount that a flaw/bug could potentially exist. I don’t really put much stock in the claims that younger accounts get distinctly better loot, or that certain accounts are destined to be lucky or unlucky. My personal experience does not support such observations. However, there seem to be several on this forum that swear up and down that it is so (yet seem to be unwilling to provide actual evidence), so I’ll give it a try myself and see if I see a similar pattern. Of course, this alone isn’t conclusive by any means, but perhaps others will join me, and if we do find an issue, then we can present Anet with data (that they have asked for) regarding the issue.

Since many of the complaints I’ve seen in the 2 recent rng threads have simply been “my younger second account gets better drops” I’m just going to try it for myself.

When the game goes on sale again, I’ll purchase a new account and I will try recording footage as I play either account, and then compare.

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Different builds/race/looks for the same class. Why? Because I like it.

<3

offers cookie

My husband and I are in our 30s. We have guildies in their teens and early 20s. We’ve had guildies in their 40s and 50s. I have two guildies that where mere pups when I met them in GW1 and have watched them grow into fine young adults over the course of our time gaming together. (Wow, got teary eyed there for a moment) So.. yeah..we have pretty decent spread of gamers when it comes to age.

Work for free? No, absolutely not.

Volunteer to help out with something I’m passionate about? Yes, most definitely.

A gamer volunteering to help with an expansion’s beta testing is no different than someone passionate about animals volunteering at their local shelter or humane society.

Why multiple alts of the same class? Uhm…

Well, when I decided to get GW2, I made the decision to make 1 human of each profession in order to get a feel for the different professions. Long story short, humans are what I relate to and I feel they give me a better baseline.

Additionally, I decided I wanted one of each weight class, for each additional race. This way I could explore the assorted story branches and lore, and play with looks on the various races. Since this means 7 characters per weight class (3 human + 1 of each of the other 4 races), duplicate professions are unavoidable.

Given that I’m prone to exploration and alt-a-holic-ness in general, it works out pretty well for me.

As others have pointed out GW2 is buy to play. It was never a free to play. It didn’t “go” buy to play. That’s always been the model, all the way back to GW1.

Beyond that, you definitely need to take what you read on forums with a very large grain of salt. If you’d ever read any other gaming forum, you’d think they were all big steaming piles, but they aren’t. They all have their good components and their bad components. Some people enjoy playing them and never say a peep. Others hate absolutely everything about them, but seem to lack the common sense to move on. And of course you have every shade in between.

OP, the best thing you can do is ignore what everyone else has said, and just give it a go with an open mind. That’s the only way to know if you like it, if it’s a game the suits your needs, whatever they may be. And if it turns out that it isn’t your cup of tea, well, it happens.

I don’t do them for the gold now….so I guess it wouldn’t be a huge difference for me.
Of course…I don’t typically do them at all because it requires me to deal with people. Many of which turn out to be a bunch of kittens.

I miss my heroes more and more every day.

Ever seen a weeping willow? I’d love a couple of hair styles like that….just long and flowy

Personally, I’m figuring 50$ for the expansion, and that’s what I have set aside. (100$ actually, since I desire 2 copies). It was the “standard” cost for a WoW expansion, or GW1 campaign, so I don’t figure it’ll be more than that. Seems like its a logical guess at future pricing.

If it turns out to be less, well go me. I can spend the left over on gems.

I am not an alt! At least I wasn’t in the beginning; although, now perhaps I am…

In the beginning some might have called me a red-headed devil, for truly it’s what I was. A bane to the indigenous critters of Tyria as my master traversed the world through me. We did it all… we saw it all, even going so far as to traverse the Mist War. I am Lanfear, and I am forsaken…again.

At first, it was just I and the master. I was the favorite, I was the one that garnered her affection. Sure, the master had…others that she enjoyed from time to time, but it was always I that she returned to. Even when that red-headed witch of a mesmer started encroaching on my time, I still held the prized title of ‘favorite’ and most time with the master. Still, I figured it would only be a matter of time before the chit replaced me if something wasn’t done to make me desirable again.

But alas, it was not the mesmer that dethroned me. Nor the dark hearted little necro that is as old as I. Instead we have all been displaced for a ranger! Of all the atrocities and wicked possibilities, it was the plain, mousy haired zookeeper that rose to best us all!

However, I have not given up the fight to reclaim my title. There is hope on the horizon with the coming of new lands to traverse.

Personally?

Convert all the standing SP to the new currency. Wipe the slate, and tabulate how many hero points each of my chars has. Then let me go through and select what I want with the hero points I have available.

Since I have plenty of time before this is implemented, I can take my assorted characters out around the world and do enough skill challenges to make sure I have all 465 points when the patch hits. It’s really not that hard, or time consuming (this coming from someone that has extremely limited time to play…and a dozen 80s to take out to gather points). It’s not a big deal.

Slalom.3174:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

lol not sure where you got ‘small and dainty’ from. I have rather large hands for a female, with long fingers.

LOLOL, my stereotypical myopic male assumption, I guess.
Just as, in my world, “All men” have big, clumsy, man-hands. Thanks for the awakening.

Anyway, the G600 still feels small just like most every mouse I have used.
But I can learn and adjust.

I completely understand on the ‘all mice feel small’ thing. Considering I can palm a basketball without issue…yeah, mice are all tiny. XD

Hope the G600 works out for you though.

Slalom.3174:

@Lanfear, good to hear that the G600 is not suited to small, dainty hands. I went by TigerDirect to check the size, but those folks are closing their stores! What!
And thank you for the confirmation about on-board profile. One video said they were buggy.

@GummiBear, the ring-click is the finger finger button. Some people say it is troublesome, but I hope it might be useful.
Also my right pinky has nothing to do; just waving in the wind. What about that?

FYI, I ordered the G600 from Amazon. 2-day delivery. Can’t Wait.

lol not sure where you got ‘small and dainty’ from. I have rather large hands for a female, with long fingers. Generally speaking I find most mice too small for me hand size, though that’s not why I hold my mouse with my thumb and pinky fingers, and entirely to with the fact that I regularly lift my mouse off my desk to reposition lol.

While I understand the general sense of concern here, I have to wonder from which it stems precisely. Thus far, Anet’s track record has been to “grandfather in” existing 80s for these types of changes. Low level alts might get a little shafted, but we’ll see. Maybe I missed a red post or a blog somewhere stating that the slate will be wiped completely clean on all of us?

/no thanks

Honestly if I wanted a game where race mattered and being a certain race / profession combo was desirable….oh lookie that….I’d go back to WoW.

I really like that GW2 didn’t follow that recipe. I like that it doesn’t matter what race I am (except to me).

You know what content I miss playing?

CANTHA!
CRYSTAL DESERT!
ELONA!

(in that order)

Me hopes they bring them back.

I don’t particularly like the 600, but that’s due to how I hold my mouse. I pinch with my thumb and pinky, which results in all those little buttons getting mashed. My husband seems to like it though, but I don’t know how he has his binds set.

I did enjoy my 700 for a while, but the on-board profiles can be buggy (which I only found out after the fact). I had to save my profiles to my machine in order for my binds to work (and the rest of my system not go completely haywire on me).

I swapped to a G503 recently, and I enjoy being able to adjust the weight of it. I have my strafes bound to G4 and G5 (because I mouse move). I don’t have dodge bound as yet

Been playing SW since patch (shhh, don’t tell my boss), no drops have been seen as yet.

Oooo I LIKE that one. Looks kinda snazzy on my necro…

I’d really like to see it as an armor skin instread of an outfit. It looks like it should fit the existing ‘light’ mesh. But maybe that’s why they are doing it as an outfit…so other armor weights can wear it too.

Can I opt for both Anet? An armor skin and an outfit skin?

Killing build diversity? No…not any more than the meta does, if you think about it.

Does it reduce the overall number of options? Just based on the math yes, there will be fewer total options. Doesn’t necessarily mean anything though.

lordkrall.7241:

Interestingly enough Mesmer was the last to be revealed before release.
I wonder if it is a coincidence or if they are doing it the other way around for the specializations. That would mean Mesmer followed by Engineer and then Thief.

I had this thought too.

Then ranger (which we know the name of) and ele (also now know the name of) come close to the end. Revenant could be slotted in and the very end, as it’s the ‘newbie’.

It would be interesting if they did the Elite Specializations in reverse order that they announced the classes to begin with. Wasn’t Mesmer the last one they confirmed as a class prior to launch?

Well kitten…. I guess I’m going to be logging on every night this week and farming my keester off!

I agree that it’s like to be Tempest, since they let that one slip in the blogs and twitch.

I am hoping we get the blog tomorrow (“Tuesday News Day” as some call it), but wouldn’t be surprised if they pushed it out til Thursday.

I’m bummed about a few of the changes (and I’ve said as such in a few threads), especially with ele, but it happens. Happened a lot in GW1, so you’d think I’d be used to it. I’m hoping they might change a bit more before the final stages (like mes greatword as a grandmater…ugh, please no), but yes I’m not going to start screeching bloody murder until the “final” (loose term, since it could always be retuned) versions go live, and I can actually play with them.

I do look forward to playing with the new options though. Already building some options out on paper to try.

It was stated that they would start giving us info on the elite lines next week, and the fitst one would not be druid. And it won’t be revenant.

My bet is probably ‘tempest,’ but we’ll see.

There are components of my builds that get shafted with how traits currently stand. For example, I run arcane lighting and elemental attunement on my ele. Won’t even be an option with arcane lightning rolled into elemental surge – a competing grandmaster. I also use bolt to the heart in conjunction with lightning rod. Again, no longer even an option as they are both grandmaster traits.

I haven’t really gone through the others as yet. Between ele and mesmer, I’m a very sad puppy. I’m downright terrified to read the other professions.

I am in agreement that weapon specific traits are a hindrance. I wouldn’t necessarily go so far as to say they are “bad” necessarily, but there is truth in saying that some people feel locked into choosing a line because they desire the weapon bonus contained within it.

Right now I’m looking at the proposed mesmer trait changes, and the change of greatsword to grandmaster while all the rest of the weapon traits are simply master level is frustrating and saddening. I play with a greatsword, because I enjoy the range. However, it really doesn’t have much in common with the domination line…as it stands, or what they seek to turn it into. Add to that the traits its theoretically in contention with – if I’m running shatter, I’d take Mental Toment, if I’m aiming for interrupt, I’d take Power Block. How does greatsword training even begin to compete? I hit a little bit harder and my cooldowns are potentially lower? It’s not even a contender, which is saddening.

Narum.7402:

RapidSausage.4620:

You guys complain too much.

ANet said that this is all work in progress, and if there is a build that will be ruined by the changes you should let them know, they said that multiple times during the stream.

And assuming a build gets ruined, so what??, you’re not meant to be playing the same build for years, for a bunch of people talking about diversity you cling too much to your builds.

Games change, you can either help make the change, adapt to the change, or keep complaining about the change while clinging to the past, and i’d rather be the former.

All classes are getting things shifted and modified, what makes you think YOUR current build will be balanced when thrown into the mix of all other classes and builds??, it’s not like only your own air or arcane ele builds are getting changed, EVERYONE’S builds are getting changed.

/thread.

Seriously, if you guys are that overly concerned about something that we really don’t know anything about still, read some other threads instead of making another one of the many just whining.

Well, actually now we do know. That was the whole point of the 4 hour long twitch stream. So they could go over what the traits are looking like in the current development iteration, what they are trying to achieve with their changes, and to open up the floor to feedback regarding their changes. Now is precisely the time to offer them our feedback, what we like, dislike, and why. True, we don’t need to whine about it. However, saying that we ’don’t know’ isn’t precisely true anymore.

Khisanth.2948:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

However we know that some traits are getting merged. Other traits are getting dropped and having their functionality implemented directly into the game. The perfect example of this is the one they gave with Necro wells. Wells will now be ground target by default, because that trait no longer exists.

That sort of change isn’t necessarily good or bad but you seem to be trying to paint it as a positive thing. I currently use the ground targeted trait for wells on my necromancer but when experimenting the other day I found it played smoother without that trait on a different build. Better for one build, worse for another(no impact on the numbers, just playstyle).

I’m trying to look at it from a practical stand point. There have been times where I’ve sat there looking at my traits wondering why some of there weren’t just merged. Or wishing I could take “just one more” to round out what I was trying to do. So you’re right, the change itself isn’t necessarily good or bad. It could be either. Sadly I’ve missed a good chunk of the stream thus far and don’t have a better feel for the new traits as yet. Hopefully I can rewatch it later. The little I have caught doesn’t sound horrible, and they have said repeatedly that this is just the current iteration. These can/will still change and they want our feedback on it.

Khisanth.2948:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

I could see them doing something similar with Warden’s Feedback. Merge the cool down reduction with a different trait, and let the focus 4 and 5 reflect naturally by default. I could also see them taking Glamour Mastery and Temporal Enchanter and rolling it into a single trait. Which, depending on how they shuffle all that around, I could still end up with all the current build functionality that I use when reflecting.

Maybe after all this will finally be a mesmer build that I can enjoy.
Mesmer is the only class in the game where there isn’t any build I like.

I like running phants and reflects personally. I’m quite terrible with shatters, but maybe I just haven’t played with it enough, not sure.

Don’t worry about it though, if you can’t find one you like. My husband doesn’t like mes for basically the same reason – can’t find a build he likes. So his mes only gets pulled of the moth balls for jumping puzzles (we chain portals incase we fall, cause we’re just bad at them lol).

Donari.5237:

I think this is another way of saying you want build templates. Which even ANet agrees would be lovely, but for whatever reason are not including in HoT. (If I want to lawyer that I could say “soooo … coming before HoT, is it?” but I know better). Perhaps there are technical problems, perhaps it simply is too big a coding/art task to be doable simultaneously with the other coming features.

I wonder if the reason they put off build templates prior to HoT is because of the trait and skill system changes. What they would have built may not have been compatible with the overhaul to the system, thus requiring an overhaul to the build templates. Thus…more work. It makes sense to wait to work on the templates after the system overhaul is done.

Wallace MacBix.2089:

@Forgotten Legend and LanfearShadowflame

“Each Mastery track is tied to a region of Tyria—they must be unlocked with Mastery points gained in that region and can only be trained in that region.”

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/reimagining-progression-the-mastery-system/

Thanks for the quote, I had a feeling I should have reread the article. I just missed that “points gained in that region bit”, thanks for clearing up my confusion.

Honestly, with that I don’t see how people care if we get some core region mastery points before others if we’ve already done that work. It can’t affect HoT play in any way, and people who want to will still be playing content in the base game (both to train the masteries they can unlock from the start, and to get the new map rewards if they want thme). So far all we know about them is precursor crafting and a fractal line (with no real info besides the names).

I can’t wait to dive into the legendary masteries. All other core lines be kitten ed until those are done!

Kaleban.9834:

The main point as I see it is that this flowchart style of trait selection won’t allow players to “double up” on traits as we’ve done in the past. Slotting a Master level trait in a Grandmaster slot has been common practice because many traits are useless, non-functional, or both. Players also tend to spread out trait points, for the express purpose of maxing DPS, survivability or both, usually ending up with builds that max one line at 6, have another (or two) at 4, and a couple with 2. Sometimes going 1, 3 or 5 points is also acceptable, and even optimal based on what traits are selected.

The doubling up of certain trait tiers is one of my concerns as well. However, if done properly, this could easily become a moot point if they take say…3 adepts that are ‘standard’ in a specific build and make the one adept trait. Or even 2 as 1 adept, and the 3rd gets some tweaks and becomes a master. This opens up the ability to now add a synergetic master and grandmaster in the first example, or at least a grandmaster in the second. Until we know what’s getting axed, what’s getting merged, etc it’s hard to really get a feel for the system. There is no point in getting worked up over potentially nothing. Concerned, yes. Panties in a bunch, no. That’s my issue with the OP and many other complaint threads. The sheer overreaction when there is so much we do not know.

As for the spreading of points for dps or suvivability, same general concept. We don’t know which traits (minor or major) are simply being rolled into base functionality. We don’t know if / how many are remaining the same or how the new layout may be affected. I do agree with others in that locking us to 3 lines makes us think about 1) what we need personally a bit more (survivability vs dps for example) and 2) how we can synergize with our teammates in the most optimal fashion available.

The twitch today should be quite interesting. Sadly, I have a freaking meeting about 30 minutes in and wont be able to catch it. I freaking hate my new project

I have both. I use the copper on anything green and below, and save the silver for rares and exotics. It typically balances out for me at the end of the day. Depends on what I get that’s worth selling (that isn’t on my ‘to be horded’ list).

I can understand the OP’s (and many others’) concern regarding the trait changes. On some classes, it’s not an issue for me, for other classes it’s a concern.

For example, on my mesmer, when I’m going to be doing a lot of reflecting, it’s not uncommon for me to spec 6 points in Inspiration and take Glamour Mastery, Warden’s Feedback, and Temporal Enchanter. Which is an adept and two master traits. So being forced to use one and only one of each tier is a cause for concern.

However we know that some traits are getting merged. Other traits are getting dropped and having their functionality implemented directly into the game. The perfect example of this is the one they gave with Necro wells. Wells will now be ground target by default, because that trait no longer exists. I could see them doing something similar with Warden’s Feedback. Merge the cool down reduction with a different trait, and let the focus 4 and 5 reflect naturally by default. I could also see them taking Glamour Mastery and Temporal Enchanter and rolling it into a single trait. Which, depending on how they shuffle all that around, I could still end up with all the current build functionality that I use when reflecting.

Until we know for certain how things are actually changing, it might be a bit premature to start having fits. Be concerned; I’m definitely concerned. However, don’t overreact regarding it. Anet is more likely to listen if we present our concerns in a logical and rational way. They have stated that they are trying to preserve as many of the currently used builds as possible, so lets give them a chance to show us what they’ve come up with, and then we can offer our thoughts and suggestions on how we might like to see it tweaked (cause there’s still time, they’ve told us what we see today isn’t set in stone).

Khisanth.2948:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Honestly, in order to overcome the base issue here (people) the only way to curb abuse would be to start imposing stricter limitations on what players can and cant do. To better control what is considered acceptable behavior. At which point we start straying into other issues…

If the problem is people the perfect solution would be to remove them …(GW1 heroes/mercenaries).

That is correct; however, we know that isn’t likely to happen. Though many of us have been asking for heroes for instanced content for a very long time, and have cited these types of issues / reasons as to why we desire them.

ShroomOneUp.6913:

WHY do you want exchange Skillpoints on toons and in scrolls JUST with Mysticforge mats, which have no banks slot to this day btw, and some unexplained currency we have no idea what we can with it? Why can´t you just exchange them to the hero points you want to introduce?

Because Hero Points are supposed to be a limited number, per character, obtained only through leveling and what are currently skill challenges. My understanding is that with the new system, being 80 and completing all the challenges should be “just enough” to unlock everything. Which should make them feel more weighty, and give us more meaning in using them.

Something they failed with, with skill points. Skill points in this game have the same issue they do in GW1. They mean nothing because we have oodles of them, and nothing really amazing to use them on.

Eolirin.1830:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Simplification does seem to be the path most games are taking these days. I’m guessing its because it just makes the game easier to manage overall, but who knows.

It’s also because the complexity ends up generating useless builds that no one ever uses if they know how to play the game, resulting in options that present only the illusion of choice, while complicating balance, and screwing over less savvy players.

There are currently only a handful of viable builds per profession, and using anything else isn’t just mildly suboptimal, it’s generally massively suboptimal. After a game’s been out for a while and those better options are clearly understood it makes sense to pare the system down to something that’s built off the scaffold of what works with some additions to round out viable builds to cover the design intent for that profession.

So easier to manage, yes, but also much better for players; tighter build focuses, better signaling of intent, etc.

Tell that to all of the people already griping about the death of diversity with this change.

I wasn’t going to broach the topic of useless builds or bloated skills due to the volatility of that general conversation. I get that people like having hundreds of skills, I’m a GW1 vet too. However, I also understand that like 90% of them were worthless

Khisanth.2948:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Short of simply removing the ability to kick people all together, there isn’t really an abuse-free method available.

removing the ability to kick would allow plenty of opportunities to be a jerk without risk. I wouldn’t call that abuse-free.

i never said that that specific method would be abuse free either, honestly. but looking at just the available methods of implementing a kick system, there is no abuse free method. be it party leader, majority vote, or w/e. yes removing kicking all together is abuseable too, because now your only option is to leave when someone is being a kitten.

though, I suppose my wording can be misleading. I should have qualified that there would have to be a serious amount of limitations imposed in a no-kick system to make it even remotely non-abuseable. Honestly, in order to overcome the base issue here (people) the only way to curb abuse would be to start imposing stricter limitations on what players can and cant do. To better control what is considered acceptable behavior. At which point we start straying into other issues…

Simplification does seem to be the path most games are taking these days. I’m guessing its because it just makes the game easier to manage overall, but who knows.

The “adjustments” to the trait and skill acquisition was an interesting read. I’m guessing mastery/reward tracks are a popular thing., thus the influence here. We’ll see how it plays out I guess, though it doesn’t really ‘feel’ overly different than what we had to begin with, just buying all our skills with skill points and traits just being available after unlocking the specific tier. I’m going to wait to give it a whirl before I judge it too harshly though.

I do like the ‘specializations’ change, or at least it sounds like I will. Depends on what the ele grand master traits end up being when they are done ‘cleaning up.’

Kumion.7580:

In an interview at MassivelyOverpowered (reference: http://massivelyop.net/2015/04/23/exclusive-guild-wars-2-heart-of-thorns-interview-unwraps-specializations-and-traits/), Jon Peters said:

“If you already have Scrolls of Knowledge and a bunch of existing skill points, you will end up with a lot of crafting material that converts into a new currency that will be used in the Mystic Forge. We will be talking more about how that works and how you acquire that currency in the future.”

That seems terribly vague to me but it sounds like scrolls will become utterly obsolete. Random mats could be very bad, but a new currency… leaves a lot for speculation. Whatever it is, it had kitten well better go into the wallet.

kitten it.

I agree, it had better freaking end up in the wallet if it’s a new currency.

The blog states thus"Old skill points in excess of those earned by leveling and skill challenges will be converted into crafting materials for the Mystic Forge. Items and activities that were previously repeatable sources of skill points will now also provide that same crafting material."

For clarification:

• Are the mystic forge materials mentioned the same items that Miyani currently sells for skill points?
• If yes, how will things like Eldrich Scrolls, Bloodstone Shards, and Augur’s Stones be obtained after this change?
• Assuming skill point scrolls are one of the ‘items’ that will give a MF crafting material, will what we get from them be random or will they all give the same material (ie all crystals)?
• If random, will it be limited to the single point value items (crystals, stones, seige guides)?

• Since you’re going to be giving some of us a kitten load of MF materials, could we a material storage tab for them please? (with a spot for things like blade shards, pretty please)

I’m not certain how I feel about having my skill points transitioned over to mystic forge crafting items. I’m assuming they are referring to the things Miyani currently sells – crystals, philosopher’s stone, etc. Will eldrich scroll and bloodstone shards be among the items the skill point challenges reward? Somehow I doubt it.

What about Augur’s Stones? These aren’t a mystic forge material; however they are purchased with skill points. They are required for ascended crafting, how will we acquire them after this change to skill points? Will they simply cost coin instead? Will they now cost Hero Points? Not enough information in that section imo.

Um…. I think my list is relatively short…

• Build Templates
• Light armor PANTS
• More armor skins in general
• Cooking and Jewelcrafting to 500

thinking …. thinking … thinking …

I think that’s about it right now. Generally speaking, I’m relatively content.

Wallace MacBix.2089:

Where is everyone getting the information (or why are they assuming) that any MP earned from the core game wouldn’t be spendable for any mastery line?

“Each Mastery track is tied to a region of Tyria—they must be unlocked with Mastery points gained in that region and can only be trained in that region.”

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/reimagining-progression-the-mastery-system/

Paragraph right before the “What Can I Get From Masteries?” section.