Guild Wars 2

PopeUrban.2578:

Technically that’s not a treadmill as all new stat sets are sidegrades, not upgrades. They’re preventing you from losing a specific amount of one stat to gain a specific amount of another stat, but they’re not actually giving a raw stat increase.

Just like the elite specializations were sidegrades also?

But you’re right, not a treadmill, but rather p2w.

The fact that their maps got busier and busier, with more and more PvE — from the bloodlust ruins to EotM to the fail BL — despite players telling them not to do that tells us they don’t understand how players enjoy the game mode.

They can promise to put 100% of their dev time on WvW, but this fact means that time will be wasted on “fixes” that will likely make things even worse.

Though it’s tough to get worse than it is now. (Maybe introduce golem rush month?)

ArchonWing.9480:

• The new HoT stats have 4 stats and seem to give more overall points, and also you can’t get them if you’re not HoT. I mean if it were just a color stat like Nomad I wouldn’t care. As an aside, I am very disappointed that non-HOT’ers have been put behind in terms of actual material differences such as the fact that they lost guild boosts. (I have HoT, but it seems lame)

Regardless whether they give more stats, the fact that there are stat sets completely unaccessible to non-HoT players means GW2 is pay-to-win. You must pay for HoT to get these new stats. At least previously with nomads and sinister, you had the option of trading gold to gems to unlock the LS

The game mode is very close to dead; don’t waste your gems transferring.

People are always quick to blame NCSoft for all of Anet’s failings. While there may be some truth to it, the primary source of GW2’s problems is that Anet does not understand its own players — leading to the waste of dev time that they do have.

Just look at the new borderlands for WvW. Clearly Anet had some time and resources to put into it. Yet they completely and utterly failed to deliver a map that WvW players wanted to play. That’s 100% on Anet.

Considering how the raids turned out, I’m sure those buckets are filled with dev tears. How ironic.

Extreme.8350:

Lord Kuru.3685:

VaaCrow.3076:

msalakka.4653:

Svarty.8019:

Straegen.2938:

Now that the HoT meta is starting to settle anyone else notice that a handful of elites have become nearly unkillable in skirmish without heavy focus and many of these builds maintain a solid DPS?

Sustain has become too prolific in my opinion at least on builds that can output decent DPS. I have completely stopped engaging Dragon Hunters, Tempests and Scrappers. Any of the bunker Chronomancers also get a pass.

Not sure if this is a good or bad thing but a lot of fights have become an exercise in futility or a bring three friends sort of deal.

This is where being rubbish at 1v1 has it’s benefits. I can’t tell if someone amazing killed me or whether is was an OP class. I’ll always say it’s an OP class tbh.

No one has to be rubbish at 1v1 anymore.

If you are, just pick up one of the pay2win elites.

Nothing in this game is pay2win, quit misusing the term.

Considering the balance between elite specializations and core, the game absolutely is P2W.

Now you are just grasping for straws try playing actual p2w games like aion or archage.
The grind is like doing dungeon master
every week for years.

The balance is such that elite specializations have enormous advantages over those with only core. That’s P2W — pay (for HoT) to win (over those who didn’t pay for HoT).

VaaCrow.3076:

msalakka.4653:

Svarty.8019:

Straegen.2938:

Now that the HoT meta is starting to settle anyone else notice that a handful of elites have become nearly unkillable in skirmish without heavy focus and many of these builds maintain a solid DPS?

Sustain has become too prolific in my opinion at least on builds that can output decent DPS. I have completely stopped engaging Dragon Hunters, Tempests and Scrappers. Any of the bunker Chronomancers also get a pass.

Not sure if this is a good or bad thing but a lot of fights have become an exercise in futility or a bring three friends sort of deal.

This is where being rubbish at 1v1 has it’s benefits. I can’t tell if someone amazing killed me or whether is was an OP class. I’ll always say it’s an OP class tbh.

No one has to be rubbish at 1v1 anymore.

If you are, just pick up one of the pay2win elites.

Nothing in this game is pay2win, quit misusing the term.

Considering the balance between elite specializations and core, the game absolutely is P2W.

Watching Papers Please streamed is more fun than you’d think. Wonderful game, btw.

Razzafrazza.7815:

Lord Kuru.3685:

…but I had to kill her.

Winner!

LOL… great song.

Fellfoot.8156:

Straegen.2938:

I cannot even imagine what non-HoT players are doing because the bunker elite specs are miles better than anything out there right now.

..we’re dying… actually, I’m dying a lot, lol. Doesn’t bother me though. It’s more fun when they’re chasing you down to kill you because you keep flipping their camps >:D

Edit: and they always know that even though they’ve killed you over and over, you’re going to keep taking their camps just as soon as they leave the map or log off. #patienceftw

They’re probably just there to farm you, not protect their camps.

So if you leave the map for 10 minutes, they’ll probably get bored and log off. Then you come back and cap the camps; saving yourself a lot of deaths and permanently capping the camps a lot earlier.

Ithilwen.1529:

The Stanford Prison Experiment. This is another true story. Allegedly “normal” college students were placed in a simulated prison. Some were guards others prisoners. Given power over there fellow students, the “guards” rapidly became as abusive as anyone at abu graihb. People in a position of power to abuse, do abuse.

There’s a really interesting Radiolab where they discuss this experiment and how the results are often misinterpreted.

Metridium.2391:

It’s lame how people turned something that could’ve been another source of PvP into yet another mindless PvE grindfest…

No one turned it into a PvE grindfest.

Real WvW players didn’t want to play the map because of its terrible design.

At the same time, PvE players wanted to grind it to level. Without the PvE players there, the map would be completely empty — they didn’t push out the WvW players.

It’s all very much like the new BL — except the new BL is in even worse shape because PvE players have no reason to play there.

…but I had to kill her.

Revert and delete the new BL. But given that they changed catapult costs specifically for the benefit of the new BL, we all know that won’t happen.

misterman.1530:

So…wait…cata cost was a main complaint on this forum? Really? I think if we rank the complaints, it wouldn’t even hit the top 20 let alone be one of the top 5 that are being addressed. Sigh.

Cat cost change indicates they’re sticking with the desert BL. Even at the cost of unbalancing EB gameplay. It’s a good sign they’re not listening at all.

They tried this already. It was called EotM and was an epic fail.

If they balance cats to the fail BL, that’ll unbalance them in EB.

But EB is the only place where people play now, so this will actually hurt the game.

Gaile Gray.6029:

• Supply cost for all catapults are being reduced by ten supply. The layout of the Desert Borderlands map has increased the number of catapults required to take some objectives. We agree with your feedback that also increasing the cost of catapults pushed the balance too far towards defense so we are tuning that more towards offense.

So this means you won’t be deleting the new BL. So you haven’t been listening because 95% of WvW’s fail right now is the new BL.

No. They said something about a “rotation” but that was just lip service: like SAB coming back.

They’re too stubborn/proud to admit their new BL is a total failure.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Lord Kuru.3685:

In the context of the OP (in other words PvP): absolutely pay to win. The new specializations are must-haves in PvP: just look at the latest tournaments.

WvW also, but that game mode is pretty much dead.

So, for PvP when they balance the new professions so they match the old, then the game becomes no longer pay to win. But if a new meta arises and one of the elite professions becomes OP again then it’s pay to win again, until it’s nerfed and isn’t pay to win anymore.

Sounds like it’s more a balancing issue and that people are throwing p2w around way to easily.

LOL. As if the problem was one OP build.

Just look at the recent tournaments. You’re lucky to see one player playing core.

Absolutely pay to win.

In the context of the OP (in other words PvP): absolutely pay to win. The new specializations are must-haves in PvP: just look at the latest tournaments.

WvW also, but that game mode is pretty much dead.

Pensadora.9478:

@Kuru – Support your position with something other than what is intended as an insult to me and to ANet developers if you want to be taken seriously.

Read the proposal. Resorting to exaggeration is no way to counter it. It’s out there for discussion. I asked for ideas. Please don’t waste your time in a discussion if you aren’t interested in having a discussion, or in offering ideas.

No exaggeration.

People already hate the new BL and avoid it like the plague. Now you want to lock them in if they enter? You think that’s, in any way, a good idea?

No. Only veteran players have to buy the game AND HoT.

Forcing players to play on a failed map by not letting them off of it? Are you an Anet dev? Because the idea is that bad.

Anet’s P2W all the way to the bank.

Asato.5479:

SlayerSixx.5763:

They screwed up wildstar. I’m guessing whoever managed wildstar is working on GW2 as well, so……

ahaha I remember after like 2 or 3 months, (or less?) they did a major patch… and kittened up everything. And everyone quit… xD

And when I saw the devs… stream on twitch…. man the dude was playing a stalker with the worst build ever and he was the worst player ever…. Imagine a guy like that balancing the game? I quit directly. NO way.

I take it you haven’t seen videos of GW2 devs playing?

Matthew Pennebaker.7921:

It is always our goal to get everything in the release notes, in spite of what the last few updates may have led you to believe

Last few updates? Seriously? Every single update for years has had stealth changes. From past history, I think it’s safe to say there is no goal to get everything in the release notes (either that or you are MASSIVELY failing at this goal.)

Normally ragequitting is absolutely unsportmanlike, but drastic times call for drastic measures.

The game’s balance is in a horrible state and it’s gone full P2W. Absolutely nothing is getting through to the devs.

It’s definitely time for drastic measures.

Why they changed swords from having to damage a wall/gate to just aggroing guards, I have no idea.

No. Which is why the game is now P2W.

Nice and subtle, unlike the abomination that’s Dreamer. Please don’t change it.

Aidenwolf.5964:

Boysenberry.1869:

Underwater combat is all but abandoned.

Like dungeons, Buy To Play, and the Manifesto.

Don’t forget WvW.

10pm pacific time Friday Dec, 11: the difference between first and third place was 6000 points. We were in 2nd place. Fewer than 10 of us (our main force LOL) PvD’d two towers in one of the server’s BL. One tower was fully upgraded. The other was fully T2.

Pretty sad.

So how did the devs react to the NGE? Sounds like the changes were so big that it was impossible to quickly fix/revert. Or did they just stay the course, hoping it would turn out ok? Or maybe they didn’t even realize there was a problem?

They didn’t have any player testing?

Thrumdi.9216:

Yes, yes there is.

It was called the New Game Enhancement.

Anyone here experience this firsthand?

I agree with this idea. Except the other way around: make EU the megaserver.

spoj.3175:

Lord Kuru.3685:

If you give casuals enough content of their own, they wouldn’t be insisting on doing raids. That’s the real problem here.

That doesnt really apply here since this is the first piece of content that isnt aimed at them in over 3 years.

What does it matter whether this is the first piece of content aimed at them or not?

They feel like there isn’t enough content, so they are “forced” to play content that clearly isn’t designed for them. It’s that simple.

If you give casuals enough content of their own, they wouldn’t be insisting on doing raids. That’s the real problem here.

Has anyone else seen a gaming company destroy their product so quickly with one single move? After that disaster, what did they do to recover/rebuild? Did they succeed?

One thing a lot of people have asked for is a reversion back to the old BL. But do companies ever do something that so highlights their failure — even if the benefits are great?

Perhaps Anet can learn something from the experiences of others?

Causing a lot of NA players transferring to EU is the perfect recipe for creating the nightcapping problem that we see right now in NA. And don’t forget the SEA and Oceanics transferring in.

It’s the global nature of the NA servers that makes it the way it is, and all this idea would do is make the EU servers global.

If you want EU to stay somewhat like it is now, it might be a good idea to delete the thread before Anet gets a look at it.

Those BLs sloppily dropped into the map says everything you need to know about Anet’s stance towards WvW.

Grind Wars 2 is the most descriptive.

It’s always been like this. Was a great way to tap towers/keeps. Of course, now you just shoot a guard.

This seems to be their line of thought:

1. The target audience for raids are for guild groups.
2. They’re supposed to be too hard for pugs.
3. LFGs are for bringing together pugs. Guild groups have no need for it.
4. So creating LFG for raids is a waste of time.

The reality, however is different as raids have turned out much easier than Anet anticipated.

Friday night

Now: exactly what Thursday night used to be: meaningless karma train, except without even the karma train because no one is online (this is the 10-12pm time slot pacific time).

Before: same time slot, sometimes queues (10 people or so) in EB or home BL depending on where the action is, with plenty of people on the other map.

Saturday night

Now: 9-10pm time slot: 20-30 man queues in EB. BLs empty. 10-12pm: either short queues in EB or none (definitely none by 12pm). BLs empty.

Before: Same as friday nights before: 10 or so queues on either EB or home BL, plenty of people on the non-queued map.

This is T4.

1. 3 people
2. .
3. none have HoT so we lost all the abilities to upgrade that we previously had (Art of War level 6).
4. see #2.
5. no more ninjaing towers (no +5 at camps), so more of just roaming and looking for fights.
6. make upgrades accessible: to those without HoT, to those who don’t want to farm their balls off in PvE, and make upgrades obtainable through playing WvW.

No matter what you do, don’t buy HoT without checking out WvW first.

If you buy and WvW turns out not to be of your liking (extremely likely), that’s $50 down the drain.

Mysticjedi.6053:

It’s more than just causal. Though we may be using different definitions. My win percentage floats between 50- 60% and I’m getting frustrated with the system. I soloq a lot so that is probably most of the problem.

With a 50% win/lose chance I’ll never get past the first tier of Emerald. If that is the point of Emerald to keep 50%ers out, cool. I can deal with that, but they need to make that clear.

The idea is exactly to slow your progress. It’s very much in line with what they’ve been all over the rest of the game: grind, grind, and more grind.

TerminalMontage.5693:

It would be nice if I could tell what type of aura is on a person.

It would be nice if I could tell there was an aura on a person.