Guild Wars 2

Oh look, a camouflaged new race thread.

Hammer Mesmer: similar to GS, an originally melee weapon working as a ranged weapon.

Skill 1: Smash your hammer to fix one random mesmer bug.

Skill 1: Hammerball.

• 1) Use your hammer to launch at your foe a ball of chaos energy, which bounces up to 2 times between foes and causes damage and confusion.
• 2) Send one more bouncing ball of chaos energy which causes damage and chill.
• 3) Send a larger ball of chaos energy which explodes for AoE damage in 240 radius with increased damage per each target for each foe present in this range (limit of 5 targets).
• 30% chance of projectile finisher.

Skill 2: Chaosshift.

• Smash the ground with the hammer at current location, leaving behind a clone and a ring of chaos energy uncrossable to foes for a short time while teleporting to target location.
• Blast finisher.
• No combo field type.

Skill 3: Phantasmal Hammerknight.

• Summon a Phantasm which drops on foe from above, causing AoE damage, vulnerability and daze.
• Affects up to 5 targets in a small radius.
• Phantasm is rooted until its skill is recharged, then it gives a visual cue and repeats the drop attack.

Skill 4: Triwhirl.

• 1) Summon 3 stationery whirling illusionary hammers in a large triangle form around you, which last for 10 seconds each but knockback touching foes at a cost of 1 second in duration.
• Allies in the triangle receive protection boon. If one of the hammers vanishes, the triangle effect is gone.
• 2) Counter by exploding hammers, dealing AoE damage and ripping stability and swiftness. 20% chance of blast finisher per hammer.

Skill 5: Illusionary Fortress.

• 33% reduced movement speed while casting.
• Block up to 5 attacks or projectiles while casting.
• First 2 blocked attacks cause cripple on attacker.
• Next 2 blocked attacks cause weakness.
• Last blocked attack rips stability off nearby foes, launches them (limit of 5 targets) and grants 2 seconds of distortion.

joshc.3129:

The games been out for over 2 years. Wait until you been around for a year and you realize LS is really the only thing you’ll get out of the game.

Been around for a year. I still enjoy older content, and every now and then I think that new LS releases are interfering with my favourite playtime.

This.

GW2 maps feel small because there’re too many things in them. Orr feels most epic because of some empty territories and gigantic architecture, but that’s it. I’ve also thought about it recently and would like to see large maps which feel, well, large: a forest as large as a map, a city as large as a map…

HHR LostProphet.4801:

The only argument for Mesmer GS is laziness. For everything else there are other weapon choices which are more effective, even at tagging.

Please record a non-GS mesmer video of “more effective, even at tagging” from Melandru 2nd beacon, Grenth final phase, Arah defence (unfortunately Arah pre farm has been bug-nerfed).

HHR LostProphet.4801:

So it’s more important to tag all mobs and let them get killed by someone else instead of killing them by yourself?
Yeah…

Indeed, killing mobs which die under 1 second due to massive AoEs should be a higher priority. Oh, wait…

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Go play as you like, everything is ok in open world was the argument of the dungeoneers anyway. But just don’t spread misinformation. 1h/x is just not as efficient in tagging and therefore in open world as GS.

This. I would even go as far as saying that using non-GS builds in open world events like Orr temples is counter-productive. While other players spam lower-damage, wide area attacks, but you focus a single mob for higher numbers, you’re a liability because you simply waste your DPS.

If 10 people spam 1k hit AoEs on 5 mobs with 10k hp each, then in one second these mobs will die and everyone will get loot. If 9 people spam AoEs and someone spammed a 5k phantasm on a single target, then in one second 4 mobs are still alive, one mob is dead but was overDPSed for -4k, and one smart person got loot from only 1 mob.

GrimmR.3541:

Yeah Spoj, l2p necro..

“Learning to play” kinda means finding the most efficient ways of reaching your goal in different scenarios, not sticking to a single scenario and finding the ultimate build for it. And killing mobs for loot in large groups is also a very important goal for many, many players.

• Added 15. BAN FOR DUNGEON SELLING
• Made alterations to 14 based on a recent thread.

spoj.9672:

You guys are still getting hung up on it. Tagging is a niche.

In a game with no gear treadmill where endgame is cool skins and you need tons of high-tier mats for those and where those drop in both old and newly added maps, of course tagging is more niche than one-per-day dungeons. /sarcasm

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Tagging stuff in PvE is hard enough for mesmers, but tagging with S/F – why would anyone do that? Because you want to avoid any loot at all?

Probably. I guess they’ve never been to Orr temple events where mobs die faster than your Warden can say “whirl”.

drowze.3709:

Doing my harvesting runs also doesn’t require GS tagging, even when I’m in Orr and killing a group of mobs here and there for the extra drops.

And then people come here and tell us that the game isn’t rewarding. I once believed that a staff Carrion mesmer was cool in lvl 80 maps, but then thought a bit and started facerolling mobs with Berserker’s and GS before they even come close to me. You might notice a positive change in your game if you step out of your beliefs, too.

Kaldrys.1978:

Only in GW2 would a weapon set be judged on its ability to tag mobs over its actual contribution to a fight.

“Only in a game with independent per-player loot would a weapon set be judged on its ability to tag mobs over its actual contribution to a fight.” FTFY

Iris Ng.9845:

For those who enjoy Silverwaste like me, iDuelist is pretty sick with its safe-ish unloading range, iSwordman has a dodge and both weapons provide solid block/CC skills. They are particularly good against Mordrem Wolves who come in pack and constantly jump on you.

“I see a group of enemies coming, so I use two single-target skills which lose their effect once one of the targets die.” Logic? Tip: you don’t need any CC and blocks if a group of mobs have been mowed down by iZerker and Mind Stab before they even reach you, and if you do, you group them with Curtain pull, immobilize with iLeap and Blurred Frenzy to finish off.

spoj.9672:

Probably because mesmer gs is a pretty poor weapon for PvE except in extremely niche situations.

Lendruil.9061:

Dont use greatsword on mesmer.

Lendruil.9061:

greatsword on mesmer is really bad dps, you should use sword instead

If you guys stick your heads out of speedcleared dungeons, you might see that GS is a great weapon for 90% of Tyria for 90% of players. Dungeons = PvE, but PvE =/= dungeons, even if you solehandedly write a “Dungeon class guide” and call it “PvE class guide”. I’ve seen players who are looking at metabattle builds and dulfy.net guides and thinking those will make them happy, while in practice more AoE and skill spam is better for what these players actually play most of the time. In short:

• If you’re speedclearing dungeons in a balanced organised group which knows all encounters, stacks, fights in melee and pre-stacks might, you as a mesmer with GS are a liability and should feel bad. That way you use sword + offhands, help your team and enjoy the game.
• If you’re running a dungeon with pugs who are very likely to range and you’re not a pro with some 1k+ hours on the class, you use GS and enjoy the game.
• If you’re running around the world tagging mobs for loot, you use GS because it’s fast and efficient since it provides good AoE and cannot be reflected, which lets you enjoy the game.

Been trying to use “next enemy” instead of “nearest enemy” in PvE and PvP.

It’s still not always working as I want it to. Like selecting Tequatl instead of the finger in front of me because it’s definitely larger and more important, or selecting a random yellow moa to the side of the screen when there’s a red enemy approaching who’s closer to me.

Wanze.8410:

Lishtenbird.2814:

And why should bags with crafting mats not be affected by MF in the first place, since they make up a considerable portion of drops?

Because they are tradeable on the TP. Therefore their potential value is far higher for people with maxed mf than new players.

Which redirects us to the initial post suggesting different ways to deal with tradeable containers but applying MF to them.

It is not, it is LFG system abuse and can be reported by players.

We’ve had a similar question not that long ago and got a dev’s response that it isn’t okay.

Beldin.5498:

Lishtenbird.2814:

When doing dailies on my alts – which means the usual exploration, quests and events around the map – I’m always left with “daily recycler” still not finished, but a considerable amount of bags in inventory.

Those bags however only drop crafting mats that are not influenced by MF. As long
as we not talk about Dry Top or Silverwastes.

And why should bags with crafting mats not be affected by MF in the first place, since they make up a considerable portion of drops?

• Salvager’s Supplies (1 Copper-Fed Salvage-o-Matic, 1 Silver-Fed Salvage-o-Matic, 3 Upgrade Extractors, 3 Black Lion Claim Ticket Scraps, 25 Salvageable Hides, 25 Valuable Metal Scraps, 25 Discarded Garments, 25 Equipment Bags) 2720 -> 1360
• Banker Golem (2 weeks) 500 -> 150
• Name Change Contract 800 -> 400

TheBlackLeech.9360:

Stooperdale.3560:

You’re a bit slow cottoning on to this nearest target problem. A few people posted immediately on the forum after the problems started (a few months ago) and I raised a bug report on the forum. Maybe the OP should write a bug report too instead of a community complaint since nearest target function is broken compared to its previous state.

Except that its not a bug…. and it is a fix for hundreds of issues.

You’re fixing a specific Z-axis issue in the 180 frontal cone by turning it into a 360 sphere. Is that really a “fix”? At best, an undocumented change of functionality. Can’t it be “fixed” by turning the frontal 180 cone into a frontal 180 semisphere, and using “next enemy” for targeting thieves behind you?

Filaha.1678:

There’s really only one song that could be used for the BGM for their starting zone.

That’s totally not the song I expected.

Pray For Kosmos.5849:

duel: a thief appears directly behind you (you hear him on your headphones), you press the closest target button and use greatsword rush and force him to waste dodge or other evade.

Does it actually work that way? If it actually rotated the character and attacked, that might’ve been acceptable, but in my scenario skills just won’t cast. Hm, let me guess: you’re not holding right mouse for navigating?

GrandmaFunk.3052:

and here’s a good example of why Anet can simply never win with the community.

this is something that a lot of people complained about before.. that “nearest” shouldn’t depend on which direction you’re facing, that nearest should literally be the nearest enemy, period.

they’ve now fixed it so of course people are now complaining about wanting it reverted.

I don’t really have an opinion on which it should be.. but it’s important to remember that for every complaint you have about the game, there’s plenty of people that want the very opposite.

I do not remember people ever asking for Centaur Supplies being targeted behind your back when you’re heading towards a Veteran Centaur to make a ranged interrupt opening.

What I do remember is people asking for the enemy to be targeted if you killed the guy in the front and there’s still someone really close to you to the side or back who’s attacking you, especially if you know it since your view is zoomed out.

I agree that tweaking such things for everyone’s taste is tricky, but manual options and common sense make far more sense than iterating in a radius around your character.

fireflyry.7023:

All human = boring.

5 sylvari, 2 humans, 1 asura.

…but it doesn’t mean I will be playing Tengu straight away. I don’t like birds, they have no appeal in my view (just as Kodan). I deleted charr and norn (too bulky and brute for me) and rerolled sylvari for that reason. I would instead prefer another “exquisite” race, and some oriental agile animal people fill that role perfectly for me.

Targeting has always had issues in GW2,

• Targeting Still Broken Please Fix It!
• Improve Ground Targeting system
• Ctrl + click = target

but it looks like recently it’s become even more of a problem:

• New targeting a pain

It looks like after the September Feature Pack targeting is selecting literally the closest target even if it’s to the side, completely behind, behind a door/wall, or is a structure. It leads to a lot, a lot of frustrating situations where I appear to be trying (and failing) to attack something completely different instead of the enemy which is in front and trying to kill me.

It would be nice to have it at least reverted to the behaviour which limited closest target to the viewable screen, and preferably to have outstanding targeting changes to be made, such as:

Lishtenbird.2814:

1. Improved targeting system: option to display and cast AoE skills at max (“green”) distance even if cursor is out of range (particularly useful for shadowstep skills);

2. option to exclude yellow mobs from closest targets;

3. option to limit closest target to a narrow cone in front of the character (say hello to white moa at Jormag);

4. option to prioritize heaviest mobs over trash;

5. separate key to target heaviest mob (not bound by default);

6. option to always cast AoE on selected target (if it is in range);

7. option to prioritise enemies over allies when clicking to select target (Lyssa surrounded by trash and players);

8. retaining target marker on reappearing targets (Lyssa, Inquest Golem Mk II, Shatterer);

9. reworking the way in which large targets with high target point are losing focus when camera is tilted towards the ground a bit.

Lishtenbird.2814:

141. Official version of “Combat Mode” – a crosshair which targets anything under it and makes AoEs cast at where crosshair points, plus various rebinds. Thread on reddit, video demo.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

I spend far more time in situations in which MF does apply; I can’t imagine that most people with high MF spend a lot of time in PS or LS.

I’ve been paying attention to drop types lately, and I can say that I see a lot of containers outside of PS and LS.

When doing dailies on my alts – which means the usual exploration, quests and events around the map – I’m always left with “daily recycler” still not finished, but a considerable amount of bags in inventory.

When daily dungeons and fractals on my mains, I get a bunch of drops from dungeon chests and a bunch of champ bags.

When doing the non-instanced parts of the Living World (new zones), I’m also getting bags on the side of the screen, champ bags from champion events and loot chests in Labyrinth.

I’d say all these things are what people are “supposed” to be playing – not exploits and mindless farming. Still, a considerable amount of rewards from it is immune to MF.

TheBlackLeech.9360:

All of those responses were in regards to percent-off sales, which is not what I’m talking about in this thread.

Look closer.

• “Do longtime players get free items too? (Wizard Hat; Merged)”
• “plus a digital item not available to current players.”

Gaile Gray.6029:

Edited title from: “ArenaNet punishes every existing player.”

When you buy jeans, and the store puts them on sale the next month, do you accuse them of “hating” you? Is that “slapping every single” shopper?

Every seller of any kind of merchandise — from games to jeans to automobiles to burgers — runs limited-time promotions. Those who purchased three months ago had the advantage of playing the game for three months, of leveling characters, of attending the Halloween and Lost Shores event, getting more drops, earning more gold, maybe getting early access or special items with the release products… and on and on. Those coming along later will never be able to go back in time to do those things.

So while I understand you would like to have the lower price, I think you should recognize that you have gained advantages with your earlier purchase.

Gaile Gray.6029:

This is for new accounts.

Don’t forget, those who purchased previously had other opportunities: Beta access, Head-start access, digital items, the post-trial offer, event participation, etc. With each promotion there are different incentives.

maddoctor.2738:

Why do people want “marriage” to have in-game benefits?

I think the same reason why they want marriage at all: recognition. Being lvl 80 is better than being upscaled. Having 10k AP is better than having 1k AP. Being married in the game is better than being single in the game (even if you’re single IRL).

But without any benefits, if it’s only an icon in the hero’s panel with a name no one else can see, marriage will have little point. Marriage should have in-game benefits so that the married status gives you more recognition.

There are skills which can be cast while moving and skills which cannot. Skills like these will get interrupted:

• Blurred Frenzy
• Hundred Blades
• Meteor Shower
• Whirling Defense

Still, there is no information about it in the tooltips, so the only option is to try it and memorise it. I suggest adding “Stationary”, “Requires root” or a similar tooltip to skills which are interrupted by moving.

BL keys, mystic forge stones and transmutation charges on sale for today only. Will most likely have something new every day till Monday.

Digital Deluxe upgrade -50%.

Leo G.4501:

The OP cannot include all the ‘arguments for’ because it would be too much work

I’ve already suggested that knowledgeable people add their pros and cons here, but I’ve majorly seen bashing and nothing new really since. That makes me feel that the listed pro arguments are all that exist.

Leo G.4501:

since it’s only explaining the status quo and attempting to crowd all the topics into one for discussion when much of these topics need their own thread.

I’ve already suggested creating/merging megathreads for each of the respective subjects which could work as a non-dev CDI. Since threads of no new considerable value keep appearing (“people are leaving, give expansion because reasons!”), I feel that this thread has its purpose.

Leo G.4501:

If I posted some idea for mounts that doesn’t file into the OP’s standard categories listed, how will my idea get any attention? It won’t, which feels a waste.

We have just had an expansion thread based on the observation of 5 Asura Gates in LA being destroyed. It got attention because at least that part was unique. If you do come up with a unique idea, people will see it and discuss regardless of whether my thread exists or not.

Yoroiookami.3485:

Lishtenbird.2814:

Oh, nice. I will put this thread as a reference in this list.

Nice list. There are several things that are wrong with it.

I’ll refer you to this part:

Lishtenbird.2814:

— I do not agree with your pros and cons.

• These are not mine pros and cons; pros and cons listed here are aggregated from what is usually said in threads on the respective topics.

If you look closely at this thread, you can see most of the points from the list outright mentioned.

Cheers.

narwhalsbend.7059:

It’s bad enough that Norn, Asura, and Kodan exist at all; we don’t need anime catgirls to de-class the game any further.

“It’s bad enough that boring unimaginative generic humans and boring giant humans with ugly medieval brute force and no pretty looking magic exist at all; the game has been declassed by warrior profession and absence of elegant cat-people and fox-people already.”

See what I did there?

Oh, nice. I will put this thread as a reference in this list.

The worst known effect of sales is that people stop buying outright and wait for sales; this is especially dangerous for vanity items which people do not need “right now” to survive – which is 95% of gemstore. So putting gems on sales is a very hazardous move which may result in long-term losses.

I’m all for proper catgirls, not the hunchback cowgirls GW2 has!

Don’t think they’ll ever be added before the lore-friendly races, though. Heck, we don’t even get cat ears and tails – only bunny ones! Still, a nice post to read

Reviewed points 6-14, added formatting, added THREAD FAQ.

I’m looking into adding links to representative threads so that people can refer to them and draw their own conclusions, but I would prefer that knowledgeable players provide them in this thread.

More topics will get covered when I have time for them. Stacking, dungeon selling, instant lvl80 and race change sound nice; precursor crafting is under question.

Let’s push all features into Living Story releases, and all content into Feature Packs!

Makes perfect sense, yes.

Had it listed about 8 months ago as 28. Ability to pin a bag/several items from it to be always visible – especially useful for nourishments, consumables, weapons, minis. and 134. “Nourishment slots”: stacks of food from this slot are automatically consumed when expired (not likely as conflicts with Metabolic Primer from gemstore). in this list of QoL features

I recommend you to check this post and this post.

HHR LostProphet.4801:

I would much more appreciate links to the last threads of each topics, since the search function isn’t working.

Threads are all over the forum, with some new threads having far less value then older ones, and those who are most interested in the topics should have them at hand or be able to find relatively easily. In this post I encouraged players to provide links to the best threads on their favourite subjects so that I can add them.

Revised points 1-5, started adding some extra formatting.

Valandil Dragonhart.2371:

One more to add to the list:

• Precursor Crafting

Long overdue and plenty of debate on it from hoarders, TP ‘gurus’ and people who legitimately want a non-RNG way to obtain the hardest-to-get item(s) in the game.

Could you provide some links to representative threads?

luzt.7692:

But interesting point you make about the asura gates.

The point about the gates was indeed interesting. The conclusion was justifiable: change of plans behind the scenes (though I don’t think it indeed happened; I believe that the gates will be rebuilt and can eventually lead to distant areas, like the 2nd Pale Tree, or the Tengu capital, or a new Pact base at the location of defeated Mordremoth, or a Dwarf’s underground city). The follow-up, though, just made the interesting part feel like an excuse.

RoseofGilead.8907:

They’re not ambients.

Oh, so you can charm them as a Ranger pet? Nice, nice!

Oh! If those are ambients, you can maizebalmfarm them

Ok… That title indeed tricked me into opening and starting to read, but hey, it’s yet another Expansion thread.

Lishtenbird.2814:

• Variety is a balancing nightmare. It is twice a balancing nightmare since ANet insists on not splitting skills for PvP and PvE. It leads to some classes being nerfed from a PvP point and becoming frustrating and unrewarding to play in PvE. Imagine what will become with balancing if new skills and weapons are constantly added? This might be too much to handle for a game with no subscription fee – two years into the game, old classes, old weapons and old skills are still being balanced.
• Not all people like variety that much. Ever wondered why so many people bought iPhones? Answer: because variety is confusing and overwhelming. For casual players (and GW2 is aiming towards casuals with its B2P model), taking it to the extreme, 10 rows of 12 skills can pretty much mean “No thank you, I’ll go play an Android game instead (of learning all that stuff only no-lifers can handle)”.
• People coming back to the game (and they’re supposed to since it’s “pay once, play whenever you want”) will feel left behind if they have to adapt “too much”. Changing traits and utility skills to play in a new map is one thing, recrafting gear for new stats and weapon types is another thing.
• Not everyone likes to change the build they have invested time and gold into with every update. Some people prefer stability to novelty.

This will especially apply to casual players – those who are not interested in visiting forums and voicing there opinion in threads like this one

Disagreed. I’m happy that I can farm Silverwastes and still work slowly on my ambrite collection from another zone.

Regarding expansions: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/List-of-Common-Controversial-Forum-Topics/first#post4584452

Now to answer the questions/criticism.

You said it’s commonly discussed, but X and Y are not on the list.

I think I’ve determined what the criteria is: controversy within the community itself. Like, whether there are considerable amounts of people who have opposite opinions on the subject. So, if there is no large group of people saying “NO to Cantha, we hate Asian designs!” or “NO to SAB, don’t ever put it back!” or “DO NOT change hobosacks, they are canon!” or “YES, we want to unlock traits for every alt by going over the same things all over again, don’t change it!” – then this topic is not going to be on the list. WvW map completion and gemstore gambling may be good topics to add, though.

I may change the name of the thread to “List of Common Controversial Forum Topics” – how about that one?

It’s “your own opinion”, not a “consensus”.

Even here, some people agree and some don’t. Here’s the best way to prove me wrong: provide links to the most valuable threads on the topic, as I will also be able to add them to the respective topics for other people to refer to. And as I said earlier to Gaile, how about necroing/merging/creating separate megathreads so that we have a definite place for new people to start?

I will also look into ways of eliminating subjective remarks like “inner Scrooge”.

I like the idea of renaming “consensus” to “current state of affairs”, too. Will do. The “I think…” part was supposed to be perceived as separate since it starts with “I think”, but meh.

Your “pro” reasoning is shorter than “con”, so it’s biased.

As said earlier in this thread, isn’t it usually like that in real life? Everyone already knows why something is good. Look, you say:

- Let’s get a cat! I love cats, cats are cool!

…and then your opponent goes into details on why you shouldn’t. You don’t say:

- Let’s get a cat! I love cats, because their bodylines are very elegant, and their ears are nice to touch, and their tails are so fluffy, and they drink milk with their pink tongue in a cute way, and they go “meow!” and “purr”, and my favourite color is red so we should get a red cat with darker stripes, so it looks like a tiger, and I like tigers too! My grandma gave me a cat when I was little and I had a very emotional moment with it, and that cat looked like a small tiger and went “meow!” and “purr” and drank milk!

…because “cats are cool” pretty much sums it up, and there’s little point in going into detail. Even if you’re a dog person, you already know what cat people find in cats. Discussing “why not”, though, always requires more detail:

- Children can be allergic to cats, you have to clean the house a lot if you have a cat, cats can get ill, feeding them is quite costly, you won’t be able to go on a vacation without leaving the cat to someone, meowing can get annoying, cats can damage furniture, you can’t leave small stuff around or the cat can eat it and get ill…

Let’s expand “pros” nevertheless.

Okay. You can suggest the “pros” in the same bullet form to your favourite topics. Still, I would ask you to look for a good reasoning which is not going into excessive details and is not already included into the shorter versions. Here’s what I mean:

• “Many people enjoy riding horses IRL or like the looks but can’t do it IRL, so they can enjoy it in GW2 if we get mounts” = “Mounts are cool”
• “Riding a mount in a videogame makes your hero better, as it shows he was able to tame a mighty creature” = “Mounts are cool”

Your “con” for the topic is wrong, here’s why…

It may even be wrong in my opinion, but it is an opinion I have heard quite a lot. If you wish to discuss it, it’s better to direct it to those who voiced it, not me. And in the respective threads.

Why so many “that other game”? Why not name it?

As said earlier in this thread, “I saw it in another game and want it here” is a popular reasoning just because people use it as such. Showing what you like is faster than describing it. If you wish to add specific games to each topic’s reasoning, you can suggest them in this thread – best examples in each field are always good.

Gaile Gray.6029:

This is a very helpful post, Lishtenbird. Naturally, given the pros and cons of any subject is difficult; in fact it may be impossible given that of 1,000 forum members, 994.2 have different opinions on the same subject. Nonetheless, I think you’ve made a great start, and I commend you both for your energy and for the thoughtfulness that prompted you to start this thread.

Those who feel differently about a specific area of player interest are welcome to present their thoughts in this thread. But the objective would be — in my mind’s eye at least — to be objective, to be as neutral and unbiased as possible.

The dev team can derive the most benefit from this thread (and from pretty much any compilation thread) when they can review a calm, concise, equal-minded presentation of the opinions of our players.

Thank you again!

Thanks for pitching in, Gaile! I appreciate it. Red posts do attract attention to threads.

I will try to polish the topic to be more neutral; I think some players can help me in providing concise summaries of pros/cons I’ve missed.

I believe this thread will be most useful for players who are interested in discussing these topics, not devs themselves (especially since the non-working search function gives the misleading impression that these topics have never been discussed); still, it cannot pretty much link them to anything since there are many different threads on the subject, but no centralized places to discuss these topics. How would moderators feel about merging some most valuable threads and bringing them back to player’s attention? Or maybe creating new megathreads and merging the newly emerging threads back into those?

StinVec.3621:

As a bit of a tip, in case you would be interested in it:

Oh, that’s great! I was under the impression that this forum’s textile only supports the very basic stuff. Will try to put in some changes.

Note: I’ll answer most concerns with another post later.

Creativity like this one here is awesome <3

Neb.4170:

I am glad you took the time to take an extremely balanced approach to the pros and cons.

Naturally, saying “why yes” is easy, saying “why no” is harder.

• This car looks cool.
• It’s fast!
• I’ll get more girls if I buy it!

• Cool-looking cars are not always comfortable to use. The removable roof is not practical in your climate zone. You will attract too much attention from other drivers, and since your country isn’t that civil, you’ll have problems on the road. Red cars require more washing compared to silver and beige cars. Cool cars are too expensive to repair.
• Driving fast will take 10% of your time if you have time to go on a ride on weekends, while 90% of your time you’ll be standing in traffic jams.
• You won’t have time or money for girls because you’ll be working like a mule to pay for this car.

See?

VodCom.6924:

While you suffer from an atrocious bias in the way you describe controversies,

= “I’m on the other side of the fence.”

VodCom.6924:

Though I really think the gear check and berserker meta should require an entire page worth of explanation without the trolling and name calling nonsense.

That’s why I left out the “zerker” topic itself. It’s about the gearcheck effect the feature will have on players and how they can misuse it and why it’s “misusing” in the first place.

Wolfheart.1879:

That’s not to criticise the contents of the list, I just like wondering about how they are arrived at.

This is a collection of topics I found to appear a lot during the last year, in which the reasoning was fairly consistent, as well as the community’s reaction to them. Apart from some small realistic stuff (capes, wings etc.), these are more or less “eternal” debates which are raised to argue on the fundamental basics of the game, usually those aspects which make it really different from other MMOs.

Wolfheart.1879:

My own suggestion for an addition would be Traits.

Traits are an actual concern which requires attention, has it and will most likely see some changes in the nearest future. Just like many other actual problems which are likely to see some attention in the future, they were excluded from the “eternal” list which is very likely to stay here for as long as new players join GW2 from other MMOs.

[~] Threads for reference:

• Precursor Rage
• Precursor Bull Kitten
• Is precursor crafting going to happen or not?
• Is this a fair fix for precursors?
• GW2 precursor recipe/scavanger hunt news?
• The living story and Precursor

[+] Arguments in favour:

• Obtaining a Legendary should be a result of legendary feats, not legendary grind. Buying a precursor from a random lucky guy makes no sense, you should have a reliable way of obtaining it by playing the game itself.
• There is nothing legendary about cashing the credit card to get a precursor or a whole legendary.
• Precursor drops are full RNG, and the current RNG is bad as it allows for statistically justified streaks of misfortune. You can play for thousands of hours before getting a precursor, and never even get the precursor you need.
• Gambling in Mystic Forge is full RNG, and the current RNG is bad. As the most viable way of obtaining a precursor apart from buying, it is simply frustration and not fun.
• Precursor scavenger hunt is playable content. Being rewarded for playing the game is what GW2 needs.
• Crafted precursors can be account-bound, but random drops still sellable.
• Precursor crafting will punish TP barons who are manipulating the precursor market. It will revitalise the economy.
• Devs have mentioned that precursor crafting is coming soon, and some parts of it have even been datamined.
• New legendaries can have craftable precursors since it won’t hurt the old system.

[-] Arguments against:

• Easily obtainable precursors will further devalue legendaries, and legendaries are already common enough.
• Buying precursors (and legendaries) with money-to-gems-to-gold is an important part of the Buy-2-Play concept of GW2. GW2 needs money for new content, and since legendaries are vanity items with no stat advantage, it is still a rather fair non-pay-to-win strategy.
• There is no guarantee that the crafting procedure will be easier and cost less than grinding gold and buying from TP. People will be unhappy if the grind is too high.
• Precursor crafting means less RNG drops to outbalance supply which means less chance of hitting the jackpot.
• Any scavenger hunt will be trivialised by guides. Time-gating, high skill-gating or gold-gating (such as separate precursor crafting disciplines) will balance it out but devalue the idea and make people unhappy.
• Implementing a new system for old content will cost development resources. Creating new unique content – doubly so, while this content will be played by a limited amount of people.
• Easily obtainable precursors will have a very high impact on the economy, not always positive to a usual player (for example, you won’t be able to get ~40-70s anymore for yellow gear which is used for forging precursors). Virtually unobtainable precursors will make people unhappy as they won’t remove the grind.

[=] Current state of affairs:

• Most people want reliable ways of obtaining precursors and believe it’s long overdue, especially since it’s been on developer’s roadmap since 2013. Some people voice concerns that this will lead to unpredictable negative shifts in the economy, which might be the main reason precursor crafting hasn’t been put in yet.

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