I think the original system was fine. Certainly fine enough for the game to be incredibly popular and sell like hot cakes.
Revert to that.
I agree. The original system was so much better. I really want to support Arenanet and pickup the expansion and new character slot for the new class. However, I really, really dislike this trait system. I will not roll a new character till this is fixed. This reduces my desire for the expansion quite a bit.
That’s where I’m at too. And I agree the original game, before these changes, was much better.
Old lady reflexes here. I love mesmers – have 3 level 80s (only have 1 of each of the others). My current favorite weapons are Greatsword and sword/focus although I had fun before with a staff shatter build. Edit: yes definitely try out using a sword main hand. Love ranged with the GS but even more using sword for melee.
What has helped me was remapping the keys. I find the F keys (used for shatters on mesmers) very inconvenient on my keyboard. So moved them to x, c, v and b. Moved swap to z (since tlde is configured for speak on my Teamspeak 3 and ventrillo). Moved dodge from v to g but use double-tap w, a, s and d for dodging. Dodging is very important for my mesmers since I have them traited to create a clone on dodge.
Edit2: Also I use w, a, s and d with the right mouse button for movement, although I’m not sure if that’s optimal or not. Just what I got used to and can’t change now.
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They’re only simplifying this terrible system in which traits are arbitrarily acquired by means which are often level-inappropriate. I’d also like to point out that the trait system that was initially released with the game was far simpler than what we have now and probably also simpler than the newly simplified version will be.
Your game “was” brilliant. Now, it is becoming like every other dumbed down one button point and click game out there.
It was brilliant until they screwed it up with this alt-unfriendly trait system. I’m optimistic that it will be brilliant again.
I also loved the original game but these changes starting last April have almost ruined it. It appears like the original creators were all fired and those in charge now don’t really understand how the game works but they keep tinkering with it anyway.
Does the new expansion not require this trait system but uses something else for acquiring traits? If so, not fixing this current trait mess could be intentional to encourage buying the new expansion.
I don’t understand the huge desire for more playable races (Tengu, Kodan, etc). They are nothing more than different looks since all of the racial skills are crap. What would really be interesting would be new professions and weapons instead! I would love to learn a new class with new weapons instead of the same old professions with a new species.
Is there something I am missing?
Yes, with a new race it is logical to assume there would be a new map region including race city, starting area etc. Even if they added it onto an existing region similar to how Asura and Sylvarie are part of Maguma region Anet should include a city, begining zone and 2nd zone with a new race.
Here’s my human thief SHINOBI with what I dubbed the “Shadow of Ebonhawke” armor combo – which is kind of like a black ops version of the regular gear Ebon Vanguard soldiers usually wore: (also added Ebon Vanguard pic for comparison)
I made this Thread on the General discussion forum about why people dont like SPvP, Most the people in there are PvE’ers or WvW’ers… anyways what im trying to get at is that it looks like Guildwars2’s player base consist of a whole bunch of “kitten”… so to say.
(Snip)
Interesting to learn that he thinks the Guild Wars 2’s player base consists of a whole bunch of “kitten” (no telling what that was a euphemism for).
He asks people who don’t like PvP why they don’t, then in another thread characterizes the people who answer as a bunch of “kittens”.
Imo, OP is typical of many PvP players.
Exactly.
I don’t enjoy playing with others who need to beat down and criticize others in order to feel good about themselves. So I’m glad that PvP exists so that those types of players can flock together there and can be avoided.
I have to add my voice to this.
I am so very thankful that I made most of my functional characters before the new trait system was introduced.
Good idea, HORRIBLE execution.
Idea as a part of the initial game – acceptable
Idea as a more restrictive rewrite to a game functioning fine for years – terrible
Execution of said rewrite – horrible
…
I also hate the NPE, now giving out skill points and attribute increases in batches, or sometimes just gear for leveling up (who thought that was a good idea?), giving skills at level unlocks facepalms (like just about every other fricking MMO out there), and generally destroying the leveling experience/NPE that I really, really enjoyed when I first came to the game.
I loved unlocking skills as you went. It made sense to learn how to do more with the weapon the more you used it. Now? Being unable to go underwater until… level 7 or 12 or something? Really?
/end rant
Agree
I just felt like I had to add my voice to this. Please, A-Net, don’t try to fix what isn’t broken. With the addition of free re-traits, I WANT MY OLD SYSTEM BACK!
Free re-traits, yes. pats on the back You did good there. The rest of the changes to leveling, traits, etc? grabs a sledgehammer
Those who only play for the rewards don’t seem to understand those who play for the fun of it. They give advice equivalent to “It’s not so bad, just close your eyes and think of England, it’ll be over quickly.” They don’t understand that some are not willing to prostitute themselves.
So what are you playing for, rewards or fun? …
I guess like most people I used to play for both under the old system. Under the new system last night I played strictly for fun … in another game.
I logged in, got my reward, looked at the pve dailies (I don’t do pvp or wvw. I don’t find them fun.) Decided I didn’t really want to get events in PoA or do the SB in Queensdale. So I logged out and played another game. So last night I played for fun.
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Really, don’t bother. They’re not missing the point. They’re obviously being disingenuous. It’s been explained so many times before, they get it.
The pvp’ers seem to be desperate for pve’rs to join their ranks. Also Anet seems to be pushing pve’ers toward pvp more and more. If pvp was doing OK on its own why would they need to do that?
Those who only play for the rewards don’t seem to understand those who play for the fun of it. They give advice equivalent to “It’s not so bad, just close your eyes and think of England, it’ll be over quickly.” They don’t understand that some are not willing to prostitute themselves.
Some players may have their characters wear backpacks for their status symbols (look how great I am to have gotten/created this) even though they find them aesthetically displeasing or don’t really like them.
What’s the back pack called that looks like three globes of chemicals? I have that on my engineer and it’s well suited for when she uses the elixir gun.
I don’t really like that one but would fit with your engineer. I think it’s called toxic something or another.
I don’t care for most backpacks that I have. There are some not so bad ones that I don’t have.
I hide my spinal blade ones on my main Human female mesmer and my Human male warrior and pretend they’re not there. I think they would be incredibly heavy and cumbersome in any fighting. Besides they’re ugly.
I hide the Fervid Censor on my Sylvari thief and my sneaky Asura mesmer. How stealthy can they be with a bright shiny yellow flower on their back?
I like and display the Fervid Censor on my flamboyant fire female Human elementalist and my flowery female Sylvari mesmer.
Don’t like the crafter’s backpacks so don’t display them on my Norn male guardian, my female Charr engineer or my male Asura necro.
Love the Quiver of Swift Flight for my female Norn ranger.
Great sword is fun. If you are in melee, with either the warrior or guardian, she will need to refrain from using GS-5. Also GS -1 does more damage the farther away the target is. So if they close in on her then switch to sword. Melee is also really fun with a mesmer, especially with a guardian standing by her side buffing her.
Mesmer is my favorite. When I started playing GW2 the only other game remotely similar was Diablo, Diablo 2 and Diablo 3 where I played the ranged classes – rogue and sorcerer (really disliked the melee classes). So I started with a ranger, liked and still like ranger. I saw my friend doing incredible things with an elementalist so tried that next. Liked and still like it. For my third character I decided to try something different so went for mesmer. Loved it and still do. I tried warrior next and surprisingly had fun with it and still do. Now I have all professions plus 2 extra mesmers. My least favorite are thief and necro but that’s probably because I don’t know how to play them well.
I didn’t realize it was supposed to be hard to level a mesmer so just enjoyed it since it was so much fun. On my second mesmer I realized that the real fun started when I got some traits so was very impatient to reach level 40 so I could use Master traits. My third mesmer was only in her 20’s or 30’s when the trait system got reworked this past April. Even though she had all her traits unlocked it was pure agony to wait until level 60 to get the masters traits unlocked.
Your wife won’t realize how things used to be so won’t feel thwarted in her leveling but since traits are very important to a mesmer’s build and how she uses her illusions she will need to get most of her traits eventually so she can try the different fun ways to play a mesmer.
Since she won’t have gold or skill points that means going out to unlock them on a sub-par build. But with you two working together it can be fun. You might even try two mesmers so you know exactly what she’s going through and can compare notes. In one wvw encounter with another team it was very frustrating because they had 3 mesmers dressed and equiped almost exactly the same. Two were exactly the same. With 3 clones out for each of them it was very hard finding the real mesmers to target.
Checked it out myself. The issue is that it looks far too small for a charr. Rox’s Quiver is just the right size, but this will have to do as I do feel annoyed that I am just magically pulling arrows out of my kitten while I use my skills. :P
Looking back, the quivers themselves are all the same if I forge em.
The look of Rox’s Quiver does seem like a better fit for a Charr but I like the inconspicuous style of her quiver for my Norn hunter. The image of a Charr pulling arrows out of his kitten is imbedded in my mind now. Thanks a lot. lol
Would be a much better alternative to the NPE we have now, frankly.
Totally agree with OP and your comment here. Also with a tutorial that included info about traits they wouldn’t have had to screw with a perfectly good trait system either.
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If you don’t care about achievement points, this is more freedom. Just don’t do the daily you get the old rewards for the most part anyway.
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You’re right. With this new system I’ve had the freedom to log in and get my freebies every night. Got dailies 3 or 4 times. Got Wintersday dailies a bit more because I like to play Bell Choir. Did 100% Blazeridge on my engineer. That’s all Ive done in GW2. Instead played “Oh He11” card game with family. Many games of Settlers of Katan in several versions. Started watching “Firefly” episodes with family since by brother had never seen all of it. Watched several movies. Created some sims, designed some houses and built towns to play Sims 3 and talk about our games with my sister. Read and posted on the forums.
Currently I’m visiting family so not sure if this pattern will continue when I go back home but I doubt I will be playing as much as pre-daily change.
I’d just like to point out a few things that seems to have been glossed over in this thread, at least so far as I can tell.
Firstly, a lot of people who do not like this but aren’t complaining about it, are refraining from doing so because they don’t give a flying crap about AP. I don’t care about AP and I have 11500, I know only one guy in game who cares about getting every last piece of AP, only one. Most players do not care about these new dailies since all they really give is AP, but that does not mean they enjoy this system or that it is a good idea, because…
Second, I have so much AP because the old way of gaining it rewarded you for having fun, and set a reward to ‘kickstart’ your playtime. I almost always wound up having fun getting the dailies and then playing even more after my dailies were done. Under this new system, dailies are for AP chasers and no one else, and I can’t get myself to do them, let alone much of anything after them.
I hate this system. And ever since this nonsense started, I’ve been playing less and less. Why on earth was this changed for such a tiny portion for the playerbase as those players who are competitively seeking AP is beyond my comprehension. Players want to play the game, but it can be a bit daunting when you first log in, and broad but clearly rewarding dailies helped players past that, this new system fails to do that.
TLDR: The old system got people playing, this new one does not. And hardly anyone cares about AP anyway.
Although I don’t have as much AP (8770, had to look it up) I’m right there with you. The previous dailies were more fun and I played much more.
Beyond my comprehension are those who actually hated the old dailies but would grind through every possible task to get more AP.
I think the difference is between those who “play” and those who compete.
Dailies work slightly differently for new players/accounts -
The number of available achievements per day is based on the highest-level character on an account:
Levels 1–10: 1 achievement per category
Levels 11–30: 3 achievements per category
Levels 31–80: 4 achievements per category
So those players who already have a level 80 and are using the dailies as a way to level up an alt, the way I used to play ( no longer – I refuse to level a character under the new trait system) are out of luck.
I’m wondering if Anet is trying to discourage the creation of alts. Most things they have changed in the game from the new trait system to this daily rework is detrimental to alts.
How can I unlock some traits if there is no way to know when the connected event start?
Thanks
Use the GW2 wiki shown above to look up any info and/or use google. If it is a world boss event then you can find what its time table is. If not go to the zone and spot where the event occurs and wait for it. Either way it could be a long wait.
Thanks for such a well thought out and detailed post, but…
I play mostly open world pve and I love using the sigil of speed on the focus of one of my mesmers. I keep her in her melee gear (sword and focus) most of the time and kill most every mob in her way. After big fights she’s usually carrying 3 + min of swiftness. My main, a mesmer with superior traveler runes, seems so much slower in comparison.
And you’re right. I corrected it, hope you are satisfied with my additional comment.
I thought boons only stack for 5 or 10 times max though so 3 min could be a bit much?
Superior sigils of speed gives 20 seconds of swiftness (+33% to speed) for each kill. All you need to do is edit: 10 kill to get three minutes +. These big fights with many mobs don’t come around that often but I have stacked over 3 minutes regularly, not every day but it’s not unusual. Mostly I just run along until I’m about out of swiftness and just look for some random something to kill along the way to keep up the speed. When I run out I then use focus 4.
I’m considering putting a sigil of speed on a profession that has aoe damage and could really stack up some time, maybe a longbow ranger or a staff guardian. Then I wouldn’t have to use a utility slot for a speed boost on them.
And I didn’t mean to criticize what you had posted. I just wanted to point out that some sigils that may not be that great in general can be useful in certain situations.
I have a female Charr engineer (Charr armor is the same for both genders) and had to use lower level skins to get away from the trench coat look of medium armor.
My favorite is mesmer. I also have 3 while only 1 of each of the others. Since I have trouble with the F1 – F4 keys on my keyboard I have remapped them to x ,c v and b. I also have swap remapped to z so it doesn’t conflict with my “speak” key on ventrillo and teamspeak. I have remapped dodge from v to g (I think). I use double tap w, a, s and d for dodging, which I do a lot (I have my mesmers traited to create a clone on dodge).
Thanks for such a well thought out and detailed post, but…
I play mostly open world pve and I love using the sigil of speed on the focus of one of my mesmers. I keep her in her melee gear (sword and focus) most of the time and kill most every mob in her way. After big fights she’s usually carrying 3 + min of swiftness. My main, a mesmer with superior traveler runes, seems so much slower in comparison.
It’s easy to miss beautiful views in the midst of playing. Recently one of the daily tasks was to view a vista in Maguuma. I decided on an easy one in the Grove that I have done on all 10 of my characters. This time I saw scenery I really hadn’t noticed before:
Pretty much the question in the title. I’ve played this game for quite a while(since release, with like a 2 year break), and i only really played PvE, and a little bit of sPvP(which i hated), but I never really tried WvW. Obiovusly one of the reasons is that i hate PvP in this game but I also have this feeling that when i’ll try it, I’ll be just running around pointlessly and be getting owned by people who actually know what they’re doing. So I want to ask: is there A LOT os PvP’ing, does it actually yield any good loot, and is it overall worth getting into if I’ve already done most of the PvE stuff.
Any answers much appreciated
I think Spvp and WvW appeal to a different personality type then pve does. Spvp and Wvw is more competition and less play than pve.
What did you expect would happen when Anet thought of a way to force us PvEers into a game mode we despise? Honestly, 2 fractals today left so many casual players scrambling for a quick way to finish their dailies without too much grief in the PvP worlds.
A fix you might want to support to maybe get your PvP back to how you like it: separating PvE into two groups as well (Explorable/Instance).
No one has made a single bit of effort to force anyone into a game mode.
OP, report them and let Anet sort it out. Hopefully a few bans will be handed out to discourage this sort of behavior.
If enough pve players decide to do this I don’t think that Anet is going to suspend so many players. Bad for their metrics after all.
Today’s PvE of Fractals or Fractals is kinda bs. There’s no other word for it. Instances play like that shouldn’t even be considered PvE. Make Dungeons and FotM another category all together because they are certainly different game modes.
While I still dislike the restrictions placed upon PvE players, and like that I can get 3 Pristine Relics and 9 +1 infusions and 1 Tome of Knowledge for doing Fractals lvl 1, and still think that fractals/dungeons should be extra to the 3 easy achievements, just like Wurm, I can tell you that Fractals level 1 is faceroll. Especially after level 50/49. Especially since “Daily Fractal” requires only 1 fractal from the subset of 4, and can be done faster than CoF p1.
Can the fractal lvl 1 be done solo? If so I may give it a try.
EDIT: OK I see from the poster about they can be. May give it a try later today if I can find the time.
The most fun for me is mesmer. I like the variety of weapons to choose from and the variety of builds/traits although lately I’ve used GS for ranged and sword/focus for melee mostly.
After mesmer I’d say ranger then elementalist. Like ranged with LB and melee with GS on my ranger. Like her cats and her loner personality fits more with mine. I like dealing damage with my elementalist using staff and using d/d. Recently I’ve been playing my engineer and having fun using kits. I especially like using bombs. But engineer hasn’t quite edged out elementalist for third place.
..You can now treat the daily the same way you treat any other PvE achievement that awards 10 achievement points. Arenanet has given us more freedom by removing the laurel reward from dailies….
edit especially veteran players
No they haven’t given me any more freedom. I could have always not done them before but because they could be blended into other goals I used the daily requirements to direct where I would play. Now I am exercising my freedom to not do the dailies and to play GW2 less, but I could always have done that before.
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Obviously, you will counter that there are fewer PvE-centric options and you would be correct. However, the stated purpose of the new daily system is to get players to explore new game modes.
I already tried spvp and wvw. Don’t like them. Won’t play them. If spvp and wvw were all that great to play they wouldn’t need to push people to play them.
Mesmer is very fun to play. They’re my favorite. I’ve got 3, where as I only have 1 of each of the other professions. Some people say that leveling a mesmer is too hard. I had fun leveling mine except my last one was not as much fun.
Mesmers are very dependent on traits. My first 2 were already at level 80 when the infamous cluster kitten of the trait system happened in April. My 3rd one was only at level 30 or 40 something so although she had her traits grandfathered in it still seemed to take forever for her to be able to use them.
Although I think mesmer is the most fun to play, given the current trait and leveling situation I don’t think they would be much fun until level 80 and with many if not most traits available to experiment with.
I really enjoy using a GS for ranged and a sword and focus for melee. I’ve also enjoyed playing a staff wielding shatter mesmer. However you play one though you must learn how to use your illusions and trait accordingly.
…You’re more than welcome to complain but the limiting of achievements isn’t Anet’s fault as there are still 12 achievements and you only need to do 3 of them.
Actually it is Anet’s fault. They are the ones that made the change to a perfectly functioning dailies/monthlies system for no apparent reason except to force pvp/wvw down players’ throats and/or to generate more revenue through WP usage.
There are plenty of choices. You have the same number of achievement that you had before the recent update. You’re making the choice by disregarding 8+ achievements because you don’t want to do them. This game is more than just PvE and the purpose of the dailies is to give players an incentive to try other game modes. Most people can do the dailies within 5-10 minutes to get their 10 AP which used to take an hour to do before (to get 10 AP).
Actually the new dailies have removed my incentive to play the game half the time. I log in to get the laurel (my main reason for dong dailies before). I’ve done about half the new dailies because I don’t play pvp or wvw (I have already tried them) or dungeons or fractals (I mainly play solo or with my sister). Dailies in the past used to provide incentive to actually play the game. Now I find myself preferring to do other things. I have been doing the Wintersday dailies though because I like playing Choir Bells.
