Guild Wars 2

Vayne.8563:

Guess your friend didn’t bother to tell you what the text said when he hit F because you do get a window and it does have text and the text tells you you can’t do it right now.

I wonder why that would have been omitted from your description. Because I’ve been with people who tried to get a skill point and didn’t have to explain anything to them.

I don’t know. I guess he was just confused because he saw me do it but he couldn’t do it despite being the same level as me. That’s what confused both of us.

maddoctor.2738:

What happens if you add a trinity? Let’s take a Guardian example, the Damage Guardian will use X build, the Healer Guardian will use Y build and the Tank Guardian will use Z build. So instead of using all of them at the same time and switch to what is needed in the specific situation you will use only a small subset of what’s available to you for the entire run.

How is that better?

It’s better because you can then choose between 3 different playstyles for your class and switch between them when desired or needed, instead of being forced to stick to just 1 role and 1 playstyle.

But that’s just the start of it. When you finally have a holy trinity, you can finally design deep and interesting raids. No longer would you have to stick to the idea that all content should be doable with every class and every build with every group comp, now you can actually design raids with more complex mechanics where taunting, kiting, tanking, healing and bursting is all part of the battle. We only have to look at Wildstar to see how much more interesting dungeons and raids can be when you have a holy trinity. The PvE content of that game are far deeper and far more interesting because it didn’t have to stick to the “it should be doable by everyone in every group comp” philosophy.

If I have to look at GW2 itself and point out what I think is one of the better encounters, I’d say Tequatl The Sunless comes close to what I’d like to see more of. Ironically, Tequatl actually makes use of a trinity of sorts (the zerg being DPS, defense being the tanks and the turrets being the “healers”). But even Teq is too easy and boring these days.

Another encounter I really really like is Triple Trouble, but the problem with that is that it’s open-world and therefor really easy to screw up by PuGs who don’t know what they’re doing. Triple Trouble would have been so much better as an instanced raid. I’d really like to see more stuff like Triple Trouble and Teq but then instanced instead of open-world. But I guess I’m getting off-topic now.

Vayne.8563:

LucosTheDutch.4819:

Vayne.8563:

LucosTheDutch.4819:

Vayne.8563:

LucosTheDutch.4819:

Vayne.8563:

Gene Archer.8560:

Ayrilana.1396:

Again. Read the manifesto blog and listen to what he says in the video.

So Colin is lying in his quote. Okay.

I’m sure you and Vayne know better than Colin what they meant.

I’m sure Colin didn’t write the manifesto. He performed it. What he said was very likely what someone wrote. It’s clear from the words at least what isn’t being talked about.

More to the point, I’m sure Colin after five years of not thinking about it knows exactly what he meant five years ago. Hell most people don’t know what they meant a year later never mind five.

Imagine that someone asked you what you meant when you said something five years ago. Like you’d even remember. To a fan who listened to the manifesto this was a major thing and it’s ingrained in their psyche. To Colin it was one day out of many days making a game. What makes you think this is something so important to him he even remembers it.

Good to know that you can read Colin’s mind and know exactly what he thinks, what he feels and what he might or might not have forgotten.

Since you can read Colin’s mind you can probably also see the release date of HoT. Can you tell us? Will it be before or after August?

I don’t need to read someone’s mind to know the liklihood of ANYONE remembering exactly what they meant exactly five years later is unlikely. Unless it’s a hot button issue for them, why would they? It’s not normal to remember exactly what you meant five years ago.

All you need is the most basic knowledge of the human brain to understand this. Saying otherwise, shows a lack of understanding of how memory works.

It’s also not normal to forget about core design principles that shape the rest of your game. Stuff like this is not something you easily forget, ESPECIALLY not as a director or a designer.

Not to mention that Colin has come back on the issue and cleared up that the no-grind philosophy was about GEAR grind, not combat grind. Golin is the director of GW2 so when it comes to this his word is God’s and we can assume he knows best what is or isn’t meant with the no-grind philosophy.

So where in the manifesto did you get the idea it spoke about gear. What word in it besides grind lead you to believe that? Just curious.

What in the manifesto did you get the idea that it spoke specifically about combat and about combat only? What word in it besides grind lead you to believe that? Just curious.

And what part of “Word of God” do you not understand? Colin said that the manifesto was about gear grind, so we can all just assume that’s what it is. There is really no point to debating over how to interpret the manifesto, Colin already explained how to interpret the manifesto.

The part of the manifesto that made me think it was about combat were the words “we want to change the way people think about combat.”

What do you think that sentence means and how can you possibly reconcile it to mean that it’s about gear?

Because gear and leveling up is just as much a part of combat as anything else, at least in other MMOs.

I don’t know if you ever played other MMOs but in most of them you have to kill countless of monsters to level-up (grind) and then when you reach max level you have to do the same specific content over and over again to get raid gear (grind) otherwise you won’t be able to do those specific raids.

I have 3 questions for you:

1) What do you think “grind” means and how does it translate to combat according to you?

2) Could it be that the “no-grind philosophy” was meant to be applied to grind in general, which includes grinding for gear?

3) If the answer to question 2 is “yes” then why are we even arguing about this?

maddoctor.2738:

Who is pigeon-holed into one specific type of build? When the good players are in a group, they adapt and change their build every 2 minutes. Want some extra reflects? Got it. Want some extra stealth? Got it. Want some extra condition cleaning? Got it. The good players are changing their utilities, traits and weapons very often in groups, in order to provide the best for their group.

I know that. I’m a good (or at least decent) player too you know. But having to change your traits and utility multiple times in some of the dungeon paths for the most optimal run doesn’t change the fact that these players are still pigeon-holed into running these builds if they want to have an optimal experience that is.

As a guardian myself I’m always burned with carrying my team through fights. It’s always my job to make sure everyone is still standing at the end of the fight. I have to provide the blocks, blinds and condi-cleanses. No matter what group comp I run with, if we’re running meta and I’m the only guardian then I’m pigeon-holed into this role. Swapping out a stab for a reflect from time to time doesn’t change that. If I don’t want to be the carrier of the group I’m forced to play a different class or let another guardian do the carrying. But then again the guardian will never be the best DPSer and so having anything else than just 1 guardian who does the carrying will be sub-optimal.

maddoctor.2738:

The actually good players don’t run the same set-up everywhere, that’s not the “meta”. For example, Thief and Guardian weapons all have all their uses in a group (maybe except for Guardian Shield) , having all the weapons at hand is important for a smooth experience. There is “build to rule them all” that people are using to win everything. Versatility, variety and a lot of build making is there, for some reason the “anti-meta” people don’t see it.

But it’s not like you can freely choose which weapon to use whenever. You don’t carry around those weapons for the lulz. You carry them around because you need specific weapons for specific parts of specific dungeon paths. A good guardian player will always have a GS / Sw+F on any path and occasionally swap to GS / Sc+F for ranged encounters and GS / H for most fractals.

Just because you have to take more than 1 weapon set with you doesn’t mean there isn’t pigeon-holing in GW2.

You assume I’m anti-meta. I’m not. I just think the meta of GW2 is one-sided and boring. The PvE content is not deep and challenging enough for me. It’s just not fun.

I love GW2 in almost every way but god do I miss the good old WoW raids. If GW2 had raids like that it really would be the perfect MMO in my books.

Star Ace.5207:

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

With no grind, they mean no mandatory grind. There is no gear threadmill.
You don’t have to grind in order to keep up. All the grind in this game is just for cosmetics. Sure there is ascended, but that’s only like 5% better than exotic so you don’t really need it.

This post-the second one-was all that was needed to end the thread.

In this game you set your own “grind”. There’s actually zero grind for me, for example, and whenever I take a break, I am never really “behind” anyone, nor do I care if someone has more AP than I do (etc.) I “grinded” (a very tiny bit, actually, compared to other games) for an “useless” but pretty Light of Dwayna for my Guardian because it fit her character concept, but I didn’t need it AT ALL, nor did the stat “benefits” were of any real practical consequence for my purposes.

Unless you start doing fractals, then all of the sudden that grind is no longer optional, since you need at the very least ascended trinkets and then you need to get enough AR infused into them, which is all rather grindy to get.

And don’t say “but you don’t HAVE to do fractals” because that would be a BS argument. No grind means no grind, it shouldn’t mean “no grind in most cases except for some parts of the game”.

Samhaim.8956:

The idea of giving every class the ability to perform every role is interesting but it would end up backfiring as eventually people would learn which class ‘x’ does ‘z’ role the best and that’s what would become required on group content and if class ‘y’ tried to perform the same role they’d just be kicked or flamed for not being efficient enough at it and being told to switch to ‘v’ role which their class can do much better or smth.

Yes, ofcourse with that idea you’d still get a meta eventually. But I’m sure a party or raid-group prefers having a sub-optimal but still decent healer over having no healer at all. So in the case your group can’t find a healer you’d always be able to spec your own class into a healer build and take role of healer for that run. It might not be optimal, but it would still get the job done. It would be no different than GW2 is now, where running more than 1 warrior in your party is sub-optimal, but still doable, hence when a 2nd warrior joins a party he’ll not just automatically get kicked, even in a “80s exp zerker only” run.

Rasimir.6239:

There’s a recent game out there that works just like this, to the point where every class can even use every weapon and every armor skill. Theoretically, you should be able to fill every role with every class.

Which game if I may ask?

Rasimir.6239:

Practically, classes are pretty much pigeon-holed into one of the roles, since the ways each class can tank/heal are vastly different and the large majority of players can’t deal with it.
It’s not much differend than the “zerker problem” some people see in GW2: if you want different classes to fulfill the same roles, you need people to adjust to the different playstyles of the classes. Most people can’t handle that, thus there’s a specific class combination considered “meta” and only the best actually understand enough of the system to be able to play with other group set-ups, because they understand that there’s more to it than just doing damage the same old way every fight.

You mean just like how in GW2 every class is pigeon-holed into one specific set of gear with a specific type of build or else be a burden to the team? Just like how specific class combinations and builds are considered “meta” in GW2?

No matter what kind of game you make and what kind of roles your classes have, people will always find the best, fastest or most optimal way of doing things and then that will be considered “the meta”.

My suggestion might not fix that “meta” phenomenon and that wasn’t my intention. My intention was to offer a more engaging, more complex and better-designed PvE experience with a trinity where everyone can be every role. This way you can have a trinity without the burden of the trinity: a shortage of healers.

Sure, with my idea a thief might never be the best healer in the game, a guardian might be better, but he’d still be good enough to get the job done.

Rasimir.6239:

Trinity takes the responsibility of adjusting to everybody’s build/playstyle away for a large part by letting people concentrate on a single aspect of the fight (damage, tanking, healing) and keeps most people from taking in the whole picture, thus making just a few class/role combinations really viable, no matter how many the game theoretically offered.

How is that different in GW2? In GW2’s PvE meta players also concentrate on just a single aspect of the fight. All you need to know in GW2’s PvE meta is your own class and that’s it. And in GW2 you also have just a few classes/role combinations being really viable, that’s not different in GW2. Necros are always a burden and having more than 1 warrior in your party will also slow you down while eles are always desirable and guardians are almost a must for any good party comp.

The “problems” you describe aren’t exclusive to trinity-models, they’re also very present in GW2’s model.

Rasimir.6239:

I used to play a trinity MMO with two tank and two healing classes, one each mainly reactive, the other mostly proactive. You could easily do all content with either class, but you’d be surprised at how little people were actually able to do it. Even many of the good (not best) raids were unable to substitute one class for the other, because they couldn’t adjust their strategies to the different playstyles the classes required. There are a ton of people out there thinking they are good at this type of game but effectively just following strategies they’ve seen on youtube without really understanding them, and those will fail when faced with different abilities that don’t work with their prefered strategies.

And again that is not different in GW2. Most people are not able to survive without a guardian in their group and most warriors don’t know how to adjust their builds to be more optimal when they’re with multiple warriors in a group. People who run the meta but don’t really understand it will fail just as hard in GW2.

Samhaim.8956:

You do realize that it has nothing to do with anet the fact that you gave your friend wrong information because you were not aware of the changes and that if you had decided to just follow him around and kept on your way none of that would’ve happened right?

No I do not realize that because that’s not true. I was following my friend and while doing to I took that skillpoint outside of the garrison, which started the confusion because my friend couldn’t do it and neither of us knew why.

Same thing with Vistas. He asked me: “What is this?” when he saw the actual vista-flag in the physical space, but nothing on the map and no way to interact with it. I told him it was Vista which would trigger a panoramic cutscene and give you some exp. afterwards. I also told him that like the skillpoint he first had to be a high-enough level before he could see it. To which he asked: “Then how come YOU are interacting with it? Aren’t we the same level?” To which I replied: "Yes we are, but you are a new player and I’m not, that’s why you have some restrictions that I don’t have. To which he replied: “That’s stupid. Does Anet think I’m a moron or something?”

So yeah, go figure. Even after we both understood why he couldn’t get skillpoints/vistas yet I could we still thought it was ridiculously stupid and absolutely unnecessary.

Samhaim.8956:

A week to level 20 is like way over exaggerating, every new account gets exp boosters and it takes around an hour to reach lv 10 if you follow the hearts and do events normally, from there on you can the first PS chapter, which shouldn’t take too long and it leaves you at ~13/15 and from then on you can finish your first map and move to the second one and by then you’ll be 20 or really close to it. All of that can be done in 2-3 days if you play a couple or hours daily.

For us experienced players maybe. But not for actual new players such as my friend. We played for almost 5 hours today at his pace and we just reached lvl 10.

Samhaim.8956:

Though if you’re really not enjoying the game on your first hours in, i doubt it has to do with anything NPE related and i’m inclined to think you wouldn’t enjoy it back at launch either, where it took way longer to level/unlock skills/unlock all of the weapon skills.

And why do you think that? The only frustrations my friend experienced were NPE related. So that quite contracts your opinion.

The statement that it supposedly took longer to reach lvl 20 and unlock your weapon skills before the NPE is also factually not true. Before the NPE we could do the Personal Story right away. The Personal Story used to give you the biggest bulk of exp while leveling and by the time I completed my first map (Queensdale) I was already lvl 26. I’ve leveled 2 new characters after the NPE introduction and neither where higher than lvl 20 when I completed the first map. I believe both where around lvl 15 when I completed the first map on them.

The reason why leveling in the NPE isn’t faster is because of the gating of the Personal Story.

Samhaim.8956:

New players don’t need to hear about veterans biased comments about the NPE, all they need is the occasional steering in the right direction, and after that whether they’ll enjoy the game or not is purely a matter of personal taste.

I agree. Which is why I didn’t say anything about the NPE to my friend on purpose when we were playing. Only after we ran into confusion and frustration did I tell him about the NPE to which his only reaction was: “that’s stupid, they didn’t do that nonsense in GW1” (my friend was a hardcore GW1 player btw).

exii.8913:

LucosTheDutch.4819:

What if we’re stuck at the last boss of a dungeon for 20 minutes because one or two people in the party keep screwing up and just won’t listen? I want to be able to kick those people so I can actually finish the dungeon with others who aren’t completely kittened. Your suggestion would prevent me from kicking such players and force me to restart the dungeon in the hope that this time I’m not grouped up with morons. Why should I have to suffer so you can have your way?

This is what we have guilds for. Pugs often have very limited teamplay skills and you have to deal with this when you enter those.
Also, what if when you kicked 2 ppl from a 3rd fractals and he decided to take revenge, get the other player, set an order which chars getting kicked and close it after (or sell it)?

No, this is not what I have guilds for. It’s a bad argument. I could say the same thing to you. Why don’t you get a guild for dungeon buying and selling? This is what you have guilds for.

The latter situation you described never ever happened to me and I’ve done countless of PuG runs, so I’m not really concerned about that. The current vote-kick system works just fine.

What if we’re stuck at the last boss of a dungeon for 20 minutes because one or two people in the party keep screwing up and just won’t listen? I want to be able to kick those people so I can actually finish the dungeon with others who aren’t completely kittened. Your suggestion would prevent me from kicking such players and force me to restart the dungeon in the hope that this time I’m not grouped up with morons. Why should I have to suffer so you can be greedy?

ketchup.2783:

erm, guys. you know you can play it like a holy trinity if you want to. it’s not that difficult to do…but ok.

No you can’t. There is absolutely no way to reliably tank a boss in this game. There are no taunts or other ways to keep the aggro of the boss.

Ayrilana.1396:

It’s about what was explicitly stated in their manifesto blog/video leading up to the post a month or so ago. They’re were not talking about gear.

Yes, they were talking about gear grind. They where talking about grind in general, which includes gear grind. Colin himself said that their no-grind philosophy also extends to gear grind.

Ayrilana.1396:

In regards to the second part of your post, do you really want content like the Ancient Karka? They have to allow bosses to respawn and be played again at a frequency so that all players can experience them again or for the first time. Many of the bosses do help evolve a map before the event chain resets which was part of their dynamic world concept.

What I want doesn’t matter. What matters is that Anet makes big claims, big statements and big promises and then doesn’t deliver. If you can’t deliver, then don’t promise it. It’s that simple.

And yes I actually would like to see more stuff like the Ancient Karka.

Ayrilana.1396:

I’d also venture to say that a lot of what we did in the Living Story has affected Tyria in a permanent way.

But not by me. I didn’t affect those things. It happened regardless of whether I was there or not.

Don’t get me wrong, I honestly don’t mind that. I actually think the permanent changes to Tyria are cool (though it’s nothing new, WoW already did this). But again, it’s not about what I think, it’s about Anet promising our actions would have permanent effects on the world which just isn’t true. In fact Archeage did a better job at keeping this promise than Guild Wars 2 did, despite Archeage being a lackluster MMO in my opinion.

Yes, the holy trinity and content developed around that concept would add more diversity and more complexity to GW2’s PvE than it currently has. The PvE content of GW2 is too monotone and straight-forward now. Instead of having DPSers, tanks and healers, GW2 just has DPSers who can heal themselves.

What I would propose might not be possible for GW2, but it could be taken in consideration for GW3.

My proposition:

Reintroduce the holy trinity, but make it so that every class/profession can fill in every trinity role in their own way if they are specced for it. So for example a thief can be a healer by getting healer gear and choosing healer traits, but then you can also have another thief who is a tank with tanky gear and tank traits. They’re both thieves and both have their thief abilities, but both play in a vastly different way and fill in a different role of the trinity.

Then design content around the trinity where a dedicated tank, dedicated healer and dedicated DPSer are required.

I believe that this way you’ll get a very interesting game where everyone can fill in every role by merely swapping gear and traits. That way you avoid having a shortage of healers because everyone can be a healer with the right gear and traits.

Ayrilana.1396:

LucosTheDutch.4819:

Guys does it really matter though? Grind is grind.

Grind isn’t an end, grind is a means to an end. it doesn’t matter what that end is. Whether you try to level up, get new gear or get a new rare skin, if you have to do the same repetitive stuff over and over and over again to get what you want (level-up, gear, skin) it is per definition a grind.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grinding_%28video_gaming%29

When talking about any form of grind within the game in general, no.

So why then are some people arguing whether the “no-grind philosophy” applies to gear or not? No grind means no grind, that includes no grind for gear, a promise Anet broke.

Then again, Anet broke so many promises. The manifesto video is just too painful too watch. So many promises and statements that Anet pulled a complete 180 on. The most painful part is when Ree Soesbee says: “As a structure, the MMO has lost the ability to make the player feel like a hero. Everybody around you is doing the same thing you’re doing, the boss you just killed just respawns 10 minutes later, it doesn’t care that I’m there. We do not want to build that same MMO everyone else is building. In GW2 it’s your world, it’s your story. You will affect things around you in a very permanent way.”

Ouch, just, ouch…

Guys does it really matter though? Grind is grind.

Grind isn’t an end, grind is a means to an end. it doesn’t matter what that end is. Whether you try to level up, get new gear or get a new rare skin, if you have to do the same repetitive stuff over and over and over again to get what you want (level-up, gear, skin) it is per definition a grind.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grinding_%28video_gaming%29

Vayne.8563:

LucosTheDutch.4819:

Vayne.8563:

LucosTheDutch.4819:

Vayne.8563:

Gene Archer.8560:

Ayrilana.1396:

Again. Read the manifesto blog and listen to what he says in the video.

So Colin is lying in his quote. Okay.

I’m sure you and Vayne know better than Colin what they meant.

I’m sure Colin didn’t write the manifesto. He performed it. What he said was very likely what someone wrote. It’s clear from the words at least what isn’t being talked about.

More to the point, I’m sure Colin after five years of not thinking about it knows exactly what he meant five years ago. Hell most people don’t know what they meant a year later never mind five.

Imagine that someone asked you what you meant when you said something five years ago. Like you’d even remember. To a fan who listened to the manifesto this was a major thing and it’s ingrained in their psyche. To Colin it was one day out of many days making a game. What makes you think this is something so important to him he even remembers it.

Good to know that you can read Colin’s mind and know exactly what he thinks, what he feels and what he might or might not have forgotten.

Since you can read Colin’s mind you can probably also see the release date of HoT. Can you tell us? Will it be before or after August?

I don’t need to read someone’s mind to know the liklihood of ANYONE remembering exactly what they meant exactly five years later is unlikely. Unless it’s a hot button issue for them, why would they? It’s not normal to remember exactly what you meant five years ago.

All you need is the most basic knowledge of the human brain to understand this. Saying otherwise, shows a lack of understanding of how memory works.

It’s also not normal to forget about core design principles that shape the rest of your game. Stuff like this is not something you easily forget, ESPECIALLY not as a director or a designer.

Not to mention that Colin has come back on the issue and cleared up that the no-grind philosophy was about GEAR grind, not combat grind. Golin is the director of GW2 so when it comes to this his word is God’s and we can assume he knows best what is or isn’t meant with the no-grind philosophy.

So where in the manifesto did you get the idea it spoke about gear. What word in it besides grind lead you to believe that? Just curious.

What in the manifesto did you get the idea that it spoke specifically about combat and about combat only? What word in it besides grind lead you to believe that? Just curious.

And what part of “Word of God” do you not understand? Colin said that the manifesto was about gear grind, so we can all just assume that’s what it is. There is really no point to debating over how to interpret the manifesto, Colin already explained how to interpret the manifesto.

Vayne.8563:

LucosTheDutch.4819:

Vayne.8563:

Gene Archer.8560:

Ayrilana.1396:

Again. Read the manifesto blog and listen to what he says in the video.

So Colin is lying in his quote. Okay.

I’m sure you and Vayne know better than Colin what they meant.

I’m sure Colin didn’t write the manifesto. He performed it. What he said was very likely what someone wrote. It’s clear from the words at least what isn’t being talked about.

More to the point, I’m sure Colin after five years of not thinking about it knows exactly what he meant five years ago. Hell most people don’t know what they meant a year later never mind five.

Imagine that someone asked you what you meant when you said something five years ago. Like you’d even remember. To a fan who listened to the manifesto this was a major thing and it’s ingrained in their psyche. To Colin it was one day out of many days making a game. What makes you think this is something so important to him he even remembers it.

Good to know that you can read Colin’s mind and know exactly what he thinks, what he feels and what he might or might not have forgotten.

Since you can read Colin’s mind you can probably also see the release date of HoT. Can you tell us? Will it be before or after August?

I don’t need to read someone’s mind to know the liklihood of ANYONE remembering exactly what they meant exactly five years later is unlikely. Unless it’s a hot button issue for them, why would they? It’s not normal to remember exactly what you meant five years ago.

All you need is the most basic knowledge of the human brain to understand this. Saying otherwise, shows a lack of understanding of how memory works.

It’s also not normal to forget about core design principles that shape the rest of your game. Stuff like this is not something you easily forget, ESPECIALLY not as a director or a designer.

Not to mention that Colin has come back on the issue and cleared up that the no-grind philosophy was about GEAR grind, not combat grind. Golin is the director of GW2 so when it comes to this his word is God’s and we can assume he knows best what is or isn’t meant with the no-grind philosophy. What was written in the manifesto and by who doesn’t matter. Colin said here and now that the no-grind philosophy is about gear grind, so that’s what it is.

Vayne.8563:

Gene Archer.8560:

Ayrilana.1396:

Again. Read the manifesto blog and listen to what he says in the video.

So Colin is lying in his quote. Okay.

I’m sure you and Vayne know better than Colin what they meant.

I’m sure Colin didn’t write the manifesto. He performed it. What he said was very likely what someone wrote. It’s clear from the words at least what isn’t being talked about.

More to the point, I’m sure Colin after five years of not thinking about it knows exactly what he meant five years ago. Hell most people don’t know what they meant a year later never mind five.

Imagine that someone asked you what you meant when you said something five years ago. Like you’d even remember. To a fan who listened to the manifesto this was a major thing and it’s ingrained in their psyche. To Colin it was one day out of many days making a game. What makes you think this is something so important to him he even remembers it.

Good to know that you can read Colin’s mind and know exactly what he thinks, what he feels and what he might or might not have forgotten.

Since you can read Colin’s mind you can probably also see the release date of HoT. Can you tell us? Will it be before or after August?

Soren.9316:

Pretty sure if you turn down player instrument volume that will turn off hobo-tron’s voice… at least that what I think I did =p

Sadly enough this isn’t the case. The ho-ho-tron mini and job-o-tron backpack always make sound even when you turn down the player instrument volume. In order to get rid of the ho-ho-tron and job-o-tron (or any other -tron) sounds you have to turn down the FX volume, which also turns down all the player- and enemy skill sounds, which most of us obviously do not want.

Zahld.4956:

a skill that causes a player or group of players to be momentarily lose their gravitational pull to the ground an float around where other players could knock them into other directions for a short distance. they could also be enveloped in a bubble also as a similar skill where projectiles, physical damage or anything else may not cause them to lose health. this would sort of be an anti-gravity skill.

I don’t see this being possible with the GW2 engine and it also sounds rather unbalanced.

Zahld.4956:

another skill would be one that envelopes a player or players in a casing (bubble, box, etc) where other players could not see what the player is doing. only that player or allies can see within that casing. all skills would function normally in and outside of this encasement. this casing could be of substantial size where players could move around to avoid positional detection. players may move in or out of this area too. enemies may not enter this area though. this skill would be a skill of concealment, kind of like stealth or cloaking but only within a limit space.

So basically an even more OP version of Shadow Refuge? No thank you.

Shadow Refuge is already OP enough as it is. If you really don’t want other players to walk into your SR for whatever reason, ask a guardian in your team to drop a Ring of Warding on top of your SR.

My best friend bought GW2 this weekend. He created his first character and I decided to join his adventure by making a new character as well.

We happily started completing Queensdale until we ran into the first skillpoint in front of the garrison. I communed with the place of power to get my first skillpoint while my friend was just standing there. He was confused and asked me what I just did. I explained to him that he had to stand in the glowing beam of light, press ‘F’ and that would give him a skillpoint for later use. He was just standing there, nothing happened. So I asked him why he wasn’t pressing ‘F’. He said “I am pressing ‘F’ but nothing is happening!”. I got really confused and asked him if he was lagging. He said he wasn’t. He then tried logging out and logging back in. Nothing changed. I told him to send a support ticket to notify Anet of a bug.

It took us literally 20 minutes of fooling around at the skillpoint before I finally found through using Google that the skillpoints are now locked for new players until level 10.

So far this NPE has caused both me and my friend nothing but frustration and it almost made my friend rage-quit on several occasions. But this super confusing moment at the garrison skillpoint was probably the worst NPE moment for both of us.

What the hell Anet?

Cazamar.7148:

I don’t get all the hate. It takes like a week to get level 20 and that’s taking your time and being a completionist. A little patience would have served you and your friend well. It is a great game.

A week is too much if you don’t actually enjoy yourself, way too much.

Grats on getting one of the uglier hammers in the game.

I’m gonna give my revenant a Genesis and call it a day. \o

I get my daily 10 AP on a regular basis and I never even pay attention to the daily achievement list. So go figure.

Wolfield.9812:

Leaked info, jewel crafting to 500. It has something to do with the new precursors, and are getting it in place early. They didn’t want a massive market shift so its been kept hush hush.

Also, SAB is 100% back after last year revolt against it being removed.

True story bro, heard it here first.

And then you found 50 bucks.

Test.8734:

Kedarrian.2905:

GW2 is a game that has attracted people that weren’t previous veteran mmo players.

I think that was the original goal (with the whole “we don’t want players to grind” thing), but I believe ArenaNet has changed their minds. They probably realized it’s easier to appeal to veteran MMO players, who want more of the same, than to players who actually want good content.

It paints a very bad picture for the expansion.

As if “more of the same” and “good content” are mutually exclusive. You almost make it sound as if veteran MMO players don’t want good content. How does that even remotely make sense?

Unless with “good content” you actually mean “stuff I personally like”. Then your comment makes sense. But if you meant that then you should just have said that instead of “good content”.

EDIT: So what exactly do you think Anet will add in the expansion that you won’t like and what do you think they won’t add that you would have liked? What would you want in an expansion that you think HoT won’t have?

zenleto.6179:

And I stand by what I said. Including the find your own fun bit.

This is the biggest nonsense ever. I can’t believe people actually defend this NPE monstrosity. With such nonsense arguments too. “Find your own fun bit”? What part of “the leveling with the NPE is not fun” do you not understand? How can we find “our own fun bit” when the entire thing just isn’t fun?

OP, I did find a solution to circumvent this NPE nonsense, even on a new 2nd account: sPvP.

I got myself a 2nd account and after rage quitting the game several times because of the NPE I decided to just level up my toon through sPvP with the ‘tomes of knowledge’ that the PvP reward tracks keep handing out. Leveling will be slower that way, but a lot less tedious.

Obviously unlocking your traits for PvE/WvW is still going to be a hellish grind, but that’s not something that can be circumvented sadly enough.

Algreg.3629:

CulturedMind.9768:

but the loot was glorious.

they cannot do this. They can add elite zones, we already have harder content in game, like fractals. But they cannot add noteworthy or even exclusive loot.

Euhm, what? Why?

Bloodtide Coast ToT bag farm. It will make you 10g for every 30 minutes of farming. I can easily make 30g in an evening there while having time to spare for actual fun stuff.

Warrior if you want easy-mode, ele if you want semi-hard-mode.

Snow.2048:

Lucos, you are confusing trinity with good design.

No I’m not. The trinity is a good design that has proven to work well in many MMOs. Anet tried to step outside of the trinity design and I can nothing but praise Anet for doing that, but sadly they failed with their experiment and now we’re stuck with a zergfest in open-world PvE/WvW and a zerker-fest in instanced dungeons. People either play full Berserker in dungeons or they’re a burden to the team. How is that good design?

Snow.2048:

You don’t need a trinity to have a good fight design.

It doesn’t matter what you think is good design, the majority of gamers think the trinity is a good design and it works well in both offline RPGs and online MMORPGs, therefor it’s factually a good design.

Basically it comes down to not trying to fix something that isn’t broken. Anet could have come up with a ton of different ways to encourage build variety and build flexibility while keeping the trinity. A good example would be Wildstar Online, where every class can take on every role of the trinity (a Warrior in Wildstar can either be specced as a tank, or as a DPSer, or as a healer, just like every other class in Wildstar). You still need a tank, a healer and a DPSer in Wildstar’s raids, but you’re no longer stuck with certain classes filling certain roles.

There are things to be said about Wildstar, but one thing everyone who played the game agrees on: the raids are well-designed and the way the trinity is implemented in that game is new, refreshing and works well.

What Anet did wrong is that they got rid of the trinity without thinking through the consequences of getting rid of the trinity. They took away the trinity but didn’t replace it with another system. The only thing they kept in mind is that they wanted the content in GW2 to be beatable by every type of build. Because of that we’re now stuck with the zerker meta. If can choose between this zerker meta we have now or the good old holy trinity, I’d choose the trinity over this zerker mess every time every day of the week.

Snow.2048:

Easier to design with does not make it better designed by default, it just makes it easier to achieve a base level of difficulty.

Which makes it automatically better. Because right now with the system we have in GW2 (or lack of a system tbh) everything must be designed around the idea that every type of build and every type of group composition should be able to beat the content, which automatically always makes an all-DPS group the best choice (because more DPS = killing the mobs faster = beating the content faster and more easily).

Snow.2048:

The gw2 “raids” have many flaws but lack of the trinity is not one of them.

What raids? We don’t even have raids, lol.

Snow.2048:

The dungeons are being speedrun in full dps armor because it has been run hundreds of times before and everyone knows or can look up how to do it.
The problem is not that there is no trinity, it is that the design needs to be better.

That is an automatic result when you design content with the premise that everything should be beatable with every type of build and every type of group composition. To avoid the zerker meta, we need some sort of trinity, there is no way around it.

Snow.2048:

Trinity design can fail too against the test of time. In WoW I could solo the dungeons until level 60 with an underleveled tankadin. Trinity didn’t do much anymore in the outdated content. Even once you got to the point you were forced into it, trinity isn’t amazing fun either. Tank and spank may have 3 flavors, but it doesn’t stop it from being tedious. There is a shortage of healers because of how boring it is for many people. Heal flavor is wack-a-moling health bars, tank flavor is using tank skill rotation, dps flavor is using dps rotation. Don’t think, don’t react, learn your rotation. You know your rotation? Good, let’s add moving out of harm’s way while doing rotation, or memorizing patrol routes.

Sure, if you describe it like that you can make everything sound boring. At least in WoW you can choose if you want to be a tank, DPSer or healer. In GW2 it’s just DPS DPS DPS while the guardian provides the only protection you need and the elementalists or warrior provides you with boons for even more DPS. It’s all about the DPS in GW2.

So basically GW2 suffers from the same issues you just mentioned (being able to solo content, content being too easy once you know how the content works, etc.) while being more monotone (DPS or GTFO) and having even more issues because of the way the GW2 content is designed.

Outdated content in WoW might not survive the test of time, but that doesn’t have anything to do with the trinity at all.

tier 1:
4 skilled people who can carry me.

tier 2:
myself.

I kid, I kid…

…or am I?

Behellagh.1468:

There is little to gain in feeding the traditional MMO player wishes who are coming from other MMOs.

But Guild Wars 2 is already a themepark MMO like WoW with some sandbox elements like Ultima Online.

Between GW1 and GW2 it’s obvious that Anet took a lot of inspiration from WoW already. GW2 is not as unique as you think it is, it’s just another themepark MMO but without a proper trinity and without a real endgame. GW2 is not the sandbox MMO that you want it to be. It has elements from a sandbox MMO, yes, but it also took just as many elements from the themepark MMO genre.

Behellagh.1468:

It will cause GW2 to lose it’s uniqueness in a world where planting and face tanking while another just heals while a third does the bulk of damage is considered the “right way” to do MMO combat with raids for BIS being to sole end game.

What uniqueness? Not having a trinity? You’re right, GW2 doesn’t have a tank, healer and DPSer, instead GW2 has a DPSer, DPSer and a DPSer. It’s even more monotone and straight-forward than the holy trinity you complain about. At leats WoW’s raids are properly balanced and can’t be rushed to the end in mere 10 minutes. The fact that speedrunning dungeons in full DPS gear is the meta in GW2 already shows how trivial and unbalanced the PvE content of GW2 is. How is that better than well-designed and well-balanced raids?

Behellagh.1468:

10 years of exposing players new to MMOs (after all why not try the biggest, the one that RLF may be already playing), WoW has created a generation of MMO players who know no other mechanic and are far too easy in rejecting anything different, or in our case ask repeatedly for similar mechanics to be inserted into a game that actively tried to break out of the WoW mold.

GW2 tried to break the WoW mold and failed at it. That’s why people are asking for the holy trinity or similar mechanics to be inserted in GW2, because that mechanic actually worked!

Behellagh.1468:

Edit: Found the article I wanted to link to, it’s on Engadget now.

http://www.engadget.com/2014/03/14/working-as-intended-endgame-is-the-worst-thing-that-ever-happen/

You and the article seem to think endgame is a bad thing. I disagree. Endgame gives people a purpose after they reach the level cap and finished their personal story. Else you’ll have nothing to do in a themepark MMO like WoW or GW2.

You and the article compare modern MMOs such as EverQuest and later games to Ultima Online. And there lies the problem. UO is a completely different game. It was 100% a sandbox game. UO didn’t even have leveling or content gating.

It seems you want GW2 to be like UO, but it isn’t and will never be. GW2 isn’t a sandbox MMO, it’s a themepark MMO with some sandbox elements. A themepark MMO needs an endgame to stay fun and relevant. GW2, which is a themepark MMO, doesn’t really have much of an endgame and that’s why players feel lost and bored once they reach lvl 80 and finished the personal story and explored every nook and cranny of the world. Because that that point there is no way to progress your character in any meaningful way. A lot of people will then start to work on their first legendary weapon, which is a fun goal to work towards too for many players. Sadly, the road to that goal is tedious, repetitive, trivial and boring. There are no challenging raids in this game so instead you’re doing the same trivial world bosses over and over, farm the same Silverwastes map over and over, do the same trivial dungeons over and over or do high-level Fractals (the only challenging PvE content in GW2).

With Fractals being the only challenging PvE endgame content in GW2, I can safely say that GW2’s endgame is severely lacking and seriously needs more stuff added to it, while at the same time revamping the endgame content we already have.

Yeah WoW has a ton of apps like these. GW2 has none… and I don’t think we’ll ever get such apps. Anet is already iffy about simple add-ons for GW2 (basic mods that gives you some extra UI panels with more info such as a DPS meter) nevermind apps like these.

If you hate leveling in PvE (which most people do after Anet made some huge changes to how leveling up works) then you can always just play sPvP and level up that way. That’s what I do these days. I play sPvP and all the ‘tomes of knowledge’ (gives you 1 level up on consumption) I get from doing sPvP I’ll save up to level up my character.

In sPvP you’ll automatically be on par with everyone else. You’ll be lvl 80 and you’ll have access to the same PvP amulets as everyone else (in PvP your PvE gear doesn’t matter, you’ll get your stats from the PvP amulet you’re wearing).

I feel that raising the votes needed for a kick to 3 votes should solve most of the issues. It would at least make it less attractive for leeching sellers to kick you at the end to sell the dungeon (because now they would only have 2 spots to sell instead of 3, which they then have to share the profit between 3 players instead of 2).

cowtiiper.8094:

I just bought this game and I am level 17 but all the hearts I have left are mostly level 19! Why is this and how can I get caught up?

Try doing your story quests first (follow the green star on your map).

If that doesn’t work for you, going to a different staring zone and doing the quests there might help.

You can go to a different starting zone by going to the capital city of your race, take the Asura gate (purple portal on the map) to Lion’s Arch and then take a different Asura gate to a different capital city and walk to the nearest starting zone from there.

RoseofGilead.8907:

LucosTheDutch.4819:

Test.8734:

Go guardian. Mesmer is a bit complex for a new player, and guardian is one of the easiest professions to level up with.

Not after the NPE. Guardian is pretty tricky right now until you unlocked all your class abilities (virtues).

If you want true easy-mode, go Warrior.

I just finished leveling a guardian. It’s still one of the easiest classes to level.

Did you lvl from 1 to 80 though or from 20 to 80? Because that makes a huge difference. Like I said, until you unlocked your virtues, guardian is tricky, because of your low health pool and relatively weak attacks. But after you got all 3 of your virtues, leveling a guardian is as easy as ever.

Test.8734:

Go guardian. Mesmer is a bit complex for a new player, and guardian is one of the easiest professions to level up with.

Not after the NPE. Guardian is pretty tricky right now until you unlocked all your class abilities (virtues).

If you want true easy-mode, go Warrior.

Eidolonemesis.5640:

Do you really think I am the only one who is like this? If so, you’re wrong, because I am looking at it in such a way where if I was one of the developers of the game, I consider all aspects and preferences much as possible. Does that mean what I talk about will be utilized by people like you? Absolutely not, yet that is besides the point.

Are you really looking at this from all aspects though? One aspect I see is that you want developers to waste time and money on a mostly meaningless feature because you and a bunch of other people are lazy and/or suck at inventory management. That’s one aspect you seem to have overlooked, which seems to be the most important aspect.

Eidolonemesis.5640:

Not everyone wants to consult the Gemstore to buy stuff with real-world-money, like Copper-Fed Salvage Kits, as you suggested. You’re not looking at what I am talking about from all aspects like I am, which is exactly my point.

You’re right, real-world money solves a lot of problems, yet not everyone’s got the money to spend like that, that or they just don’t prefer to.

So? You don’t need to spend a single penny. You didn’t even think of the option to convert gold to gems? Seems you’re doing a pretty poor job at that “looking from all aspects” mate.

Ravenmoon.5318:

I do this for a living…

Wait… what? You do what for a living? Playing GW2 for a living? How?

Eidolonemesis.5640:

Because not everyone is ‘neat’ and ‘exact’ so as to always use the same Salvage Kit in which players like me tend to use whatever Salvage Kit is closest to the cursor upon opening the inventory, especially when players like me are salvaging items quite frequently and fast.

Sounds like your problem is you, not the game or how it works.

Just get 1 Mystic Salvage Kit and/or buy the Copper-Fed Salvage-o-Matic, that way you don’t need to carry around multiple salvage kits. Problem solved.

Eidolonemesis.5640:

Because perhaps not everyone, especially new players, want to travel all the way to the Mystic Forge to carry out such a thing as you speak (something I already knew about). I think some (not all players) would want what I am talking about because what I am talking about, if implemented, would be possible to do at any time, and in some cases, save inventory space.

Because taking the Asura Gate from your race’s capital to Lion’s Arch and walk to the Mystic Forge is such a hard, long, tedious and difficult talk for new players, right?

There are multiple reasons why what you’re asking for most likely will never happen:

1) We already have Mystic Salvage Kits.

2) We have the Copper-Fed Salvage-o-Matic and the Silver-Fed Salvage-o-Matic. Both gemstore items which would become less desirable if what you ask for gets implemented, not something Anet wants probably.

3) Technical limitations and programming difficulties, probably the most likely reason why your request might never happen.

Why is it so difficult for you to just manage your Salvage Kits better, or simply create a Mystic Salvage Kit?

Yeah I fully expect to get glider skins. That said it would be nice if the black wings could be converted to a glider skin. It would be super nice if these big wings could actually be useful in the future.

Eidolonemesis.5640:

LucosTheDutch.4819:

Eidolonemesis.5640:

LucosTheDutch.4819:

Eidolonemesis.5640:

That makes sense, yet even so… Perhaps the developers can make it where, yes, Salvage Kits are treated as single items with charges (as you explained), yet when trying to drag one on top of another in such cases where a player may not always use the same Kit, you can still combine Salvage Kits together, and any other item with charges like this.

Therefore, instead of calling it ‘item stacking’ when it comes to Salvage Kits, it would instead be called ‘charge stacking’. That would be interesting to see if made possible.

And again you’re asking for something that can already be done: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mystic_Salvage_Kit

Nothing in that Wiki link states that charge-based items (like with Salvage Kits) can be combined…

Yes it does. The Mystic Salvage kit is exactly that. You combine 3 salvage kits and 3 mystic stones in the mystic forge to create a Mystic Salvage Kit, which is basically a Master Salvage Kit but with 250 charges instead of 25.

You completely missed the point of my post… I am talking about any salvage kit that has x amount of kit charges used already. We are not talking about Salvage Kit upgrading here where the amount of charges become greater.

I did get your point. I just don’t see why you want this. The end result of creating a Mystic Salvage Kit is exactly what you want, but even better. throwing together 3 kits with a charge of 25 uses basically gives you a better kit with 250 charges. Why would anyone want what you’re asking for if you already have this what I just explained?

Leming.8436:

Best tip i can give you. Join Piken square server, trust me.

Or join Tarnished Coast if you’re going to play on an NA server.

Though I think the OP already chose a server.

Eidolonemesis.5640:

LucosTheDutch.4819:

Eidolonemesis.5640:

That makes sense, yet even so… Perhaps the developers can make it where, yes, Salvage Kits are treated as single items with charges (as you explained), yet when trying to drag one on top of another in such cases where a player may not always use the same Kit, you can still combine Salvage Kits together, and any other item with charges like this.

Therefore, instead of calling it ‘item stacking’ when it comes to Salvage Kits, it would instead be called ‘charge stacking’. That would be interesting to see if made possible.

And again you’re asking for something that can already be done: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mystic_Salvage_Kit

Nothing in that Wiki link states that charge-based items (like with Salvage Kits) can be combined…

Yes it does. The Mystic Salvage kit is exactly that. You combine 3 salvage kits and 3 mystic stones in the mystic forge to create a Mystic Salvage Kit, which is basically a Master Salvage Kit but with 250 charges instead of 25.

NGoHT.1932:

was thinking of elementalist too.
leveled a guardian to lvl 10 after my necro reached lvl 14ish (was a bit boring). trying out every class as suggested till lvl 10ish b4 i pick a “main” one

Keep in mind that the progression in this game is really stupid and weird since an update from a year ago. You won’t really get to experience much of your class at all before at least level 20. All your abilities, spells and skills are all locked and gated between levels and only after lvl 30 will you start unlocking Traits (which is similar to Talents in WoW).

If you really want to test out a class and see what a class truly has to offer, jump into the PvP lobby, check out all the fancy stuff that your class has there and then test out the class by joining a casual practice match. That right now is really the best way to quickly see what a class truly has to offer.

Red Queen.7915:

Classes here can’t be really compared to classic RPGs because GW2 doesn’t have the classic trinity.

Despite GW2 not having the traditional trinity, the classes can still be very much compared to traditional RPG classes, and I will do so here.

Since the OP seems to have (at least some) experience with WoW, I will compare each GW2 class to a WoW class that is most similar, that way the OP has a better grasp of what classes can do in general:

1. Warrior = Warrior:
Pretty straight forward and not that different from WoW’s warrior, except that GW2’s warrior can be build to be more supportive.

2. Guardian = Paladin:
Lots of boons, lots of heals and lots of support, but the mechanics of the Guardian are completely different from the Paladin though. You don’t have a big health pool so you’re going to have to rely on boons and active defenses (blocks and blinds mostly) to keep yourself and your party alive.

3. Engineer = Shaman:
What the totems do for a Shaman is more or less what the turrets do for an Engineer and like the Shaman there are a ton of build varieties for the Engineer to fill in different roles. The Engineer also takes elements from WoW’s Druid , except the Engineer doesn’t shapeshift between different forms but instead swaps between different toolkits.

4. Ranger = Hunter:
Both primarily ranged classes with pets and traps.

5. Thief = Rogue:
They’re pretty much the same except you have a ton of teleport skills at your disposal and the way stealth works in GW2 is pretty different. Don’t expect to sneak around in stealth for a long period of time as a Thief in GW2.

6. Elementalist = Mage:
If you play an Elementalist with a staff she will mostly feel like a traditional Mage, but things get pretty different if you swap to a dagger/dagger build. The switching between different elements is more similar to WoW’s Shaman though.

7. Necromancer = Warlock:
Necromancer is almost exactly the same as a Warlock in WoW. The one unique thing about the Necromancer in GW2 is his Death Shroud ability, which temporarily gives the Necromancer access to a 2nd health pool and a new set of spells.

8. Mesmer = ???:
Okay, granted, this class is so weird and unique that I really cannot compare the Mesmer to any WoW class. It uses melee weapons as ranged weapons, it can access stealth, the Mesmer can create magical clones of herself and use those clones in multiple ways to deal with the enemy. If you really want t play an unique class that isn’t anything like what you’ve seen in WoW, give the Mesmer a try.

Vexander.9850:

Or maybe they’ll make it possible to dye back items and weapons. I’d love that.

The change of that ever happening is probably less than 0,001%.

Eidolonemesis.5640:

That makes sense, yet even so… Perhaps the developers can make it where, yes, Salvage Kits are treated as single items with charges (as you explained), yet when trying to drag one on top of another in such cases where a player may not always use the same Kit, you can still combine Salvage Kits together, and any other item with charges like this.

Therefore, instead of calling it ‘item stacking’ when it comes to Salvage Kits, it would instead be called ‘charge stacking’. That would be interesting to see if made possible.

And again you’re asking for something that can already be done: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mystic_Salvage_Kit