Guild Wars 2

Leto Atreides II.2153:

I suggest you go read:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernoulli_trial

It’s sickening me how many people complain about the fact that a lottery turned out to be a lottery. If you go buy a physical lottery ticket, do you spit out bile each time you do not win? You chose to try this COMPLETELY optional activity, don’t get too emotional over this.

It’s totally reasonable that 2 portals drop for 1 person (it would be statistically improbable if noone got any duplicate worldwide). Also, it’s totally unreasonable to expect ArenaNet to limit portals to one per account, and for at least one reason: it’s simplier to leave it like that, rather than employ additional limitations which their framework might not even be flexible enough to support. Get reasonable.

I think what kittenes people off isn’t the fact that this is a lottery (because it actually really isn’t), but that it’s a lottery that requires grinding.

I didn’t mind how Anet chose to select their stress testers during the first closed-Beta round because I didn’t have to do anything for it and whether I got selected or not was completely out of my control.

However, right now, you are required to grind your kitten off to get Beta access, and even when you do grind your kitten off it’s not guaranteed that you’ll get a Beta portal. I personally spend my fair share in SW this week and didn’t get jack. It wasn’t worth my time at all, so I simply gave up on it.

Having a lottery is one thing. Having a lottery where you have to grind in order to have a chance to win the price is not something I’m willing to commit myself to. I absolutely loathe how GW2’s RNG works and how you have to grind to extreme lengths in order to get anything of value. It’s one thing to grind for a legendary weapon, but for a temporary Beta access? No thank you.

That’s why I’m okay with a real lottery (handing out Beta access to players who subscribed to the newsletter) but I’m not okay with this current “lottery”.

Yukiatsuruko.3784:

Can the underwear/spandex things on female characters be affected by one of the dye channels or be changed to a more neutral black, please? The green color on Norn women can really clash with some dye combinations.

Who cares? There is no reason to ever run without a full armor set on, unless you’re some kind of weird (erotic) roleplayer who likes to run around half-naked for whatever reason?

Dinks.2478:

Based on these traits I see Hammer becoming new meta.

Hammer is already the meta in PvP and WvW frontline and for PvE there is also a hammer variant within the meta (mostly used in Fractals). But yeah, the hammer will become even better and I’m looking forward to using it even more after the traits revamp.

I wonder if longbow + hammer will become a viable option for the dragonhunter. I can see it working out in PvP, maybe even WvW, but for PvE (dungeons and fractals) I can already say with 99% certainty that the dragonhunter specialization will be useless. Which is a shame, really.

I really hope Anet will add some traits that make traps undodgeable and unblockable. Without such a trait the traps on the dragonhunter will be as useless as they are on ranger currently, which is the biggest reason why I’m so super disappointed in the dragonhunter specialization.

I still haven’t gotten a portal drop, which kittenes me off but I’m not gonna lose any sleep over it. It’s just a frikkin beta and judging by the previous beta it’s probably just going to be a very small insignificant portion of HoT that’s gonna be playable. It’s really not worth the trouble or stress that some people are going through to get a portal drop.

EdgarMTanaka.7291:

LucosTheDutch.4819:

PookieDaWombat.6209:

And traps.

Traps.

Nothing screams “knock me back, fear me out of, of evade through this space and render this skill more useless” than the word “trap”. Tying that to the HEALING skill? Now you’re just trolling us. At least that’s how i feel so far.

Maybe that will change once we see more, but for now, this new spec isn’t seeming like one that will get lots of play.

Yeah the more I think about this the more I’m starting to hate it. At first I was pretty excited about the dragonhunter because I always wanted a good two-handed ranged weapon for my guardian. But that’s honestly the only good thing we’ll get with the dragonhunter. The new virtues sound bad. Traps sound horrible and the #6 healing skill being a trap sounds particularly terrible.

If I could play a dragonhunter minus the new virtues and minus the traps I’d probably consider it. I want that longbow, but I want to keep my old virtues and my old utility skills.

I am pretty sure you can go Dragon Hunter without the trap skills. I Though assume that most traits in the Elite specialization is tied to traps.

Hopefully they’ll also give us trait options that aren’t related to traps at all.

I can see potential for the dragonhunter in PvP, but only if we can ditch the traps and pick some other good traits that will buff up our longbow and virtues.

I’m really sad that Anet chose traps as the dragonhunter’s weapon type. Like, really sad. I’ll probably never play dragonhunter in PvE and WvW. Only in PvP might I give it a shot but probably without using any traps…

nolop.8095:

HoT is the perfect opportunity to up the stats of exotics to be on par with ascended items.

No, why should they?

If you care so much about that +5% then you better work for it. Stop demanding stuff for free and therefor devaluing other people’s hard work and ruining their experience.

How do you think people who worked hard to get their ascended gear would respond if Anet would actually listen to your horrible suggestion? You might not realize it, but your request is very selfish.

PookieDaWombat.6209:

And traps.

Traps.

Nothing screams “knock me back, fear me out of, of evade through this space and render this skill more useless” than the word “trap”. Tying that to the HEALING skill? Now you’re just trolling us. At least that’s how i feel so far.

Maybe that will change once we see more, but for now, this new spec isn’t seeming like one that will get lots of play.

Yeah the more I think about this the more I’m starting to hate it. At first I was pretty excited about the dragonhunter because I always wanted a good two-handed ranged weapon for my guardian. But that’s honestly the only good thing we’ll get with the dragonhunter. The new virtues sound bad. Traps sound horrible and the #6 healing skill being a trap sounds particularly terrible.

If I could play a dragonhunter minus the new virtues and minus the traps I’d probably consider it. I want that longbow, but I want to keep my old virtues and my old utility skills.

Drael.2015:

If ranger has taught me anything in PvP is that there is definitely a place for longbows for the guardian. If rangers have taught me anything else, it;s that in PvP there is definitely not a place for traps for the guardian.

I hope it’s possible to use the dragonhunter specialization without the traps. I’d rather use meditations or consecrations or maybe even shouts if I decide to play a more tanky dragonhunter. But traps is not something I want to use, especially not the #6 healing skill trap. That sound like an absolutely horrible, terrible healing skill. I’d rather keep using shelter.

So yeah, I hope I’ll be able to try a dragonhunter without the traps while sticking to shelter and my meditations/consecrations/shouts.

MorganLeFay.5816:

Till now we were warriors wannabe with the difference that warriors were doing it better anyway.
As frontliner, guard will have to take a step back

If that’s how you feel about guardians you really need to learn your class.

The only place in GW2 where guardians and warriors seem to overlap each other is PvP and yes in many cases warrior does outperform guardian in there, though with the recent meta changes guardian has found its own niche that is quite different from any warrior build. With the DPS medihammer guardian being the meta now, the guardian brings a unique mix of DPS and support to the table and is also capable of pinning down enemy players and preventing them from ressing their buddies among other things.

With this new meta build for the guardian, the guardian is different enough from the warrior to warrant a place in the team alongside a warrior.

In any other game mode the guardian was already vastly different from the warrior. Comparing a guardian to a warrior in PvE of WvW is like comparing apples to oranges. To say one class outperforms the other is just ignorant.

If anything, guardians are actually more sought after in both PvE and WvW than warriors. Guardians are the absolute masters of frontline WvW combat and guardians are also the foundation of every good PvE dungeon party (the guardian literally keeps the other classes alive and healthy). So yeah, go figure.

I love the concept of a long-range support class with some condi pressure. This is exactly what I wanted for my guardian.

But the name… I dunno…. could you perhaps change it Anet? Dragonhunter sounds really dumb to be honest.

Honestly they should have named the guardian elite spec ‘archer’ because it seems so similar to this: http://typemoon.wikia.com/wiki/Archer

Archer would actually fit with both the guardian theme and his specialization theme, at least that’s what I think. But I suppose ‘archer’ sounds too similar to ‘ranger’, which could be confusing.

ronpierce.2760:

glock.6590:

Medi guard is countered by all 3 celestial classes and many other builds that arent meta. It dosent need nerf because as Sorel said it does have an advantage vs thief/mes so you shouldnt be screaming OP when it happens to be your counter.

I don’t really….. See a good Medi Guardian being overly “countered” by a shout warrior. They shout be able to out-pace them, I would think… I could see the other two.

Shoutbow hardcounters mediguard, like, really hard, actually you just need to bait the mediguard’s burst and pay attention to which weapons the mediguard is using. If he switches to hammer, use bow. If he switches to scepter/focus, use sword/warhorn. If you get captured by his Ring of Warding, throw a firefield underneath you and force the guardian to distance himself from you. If you can’t, use sword/warhorn until you can.
As long as you keep the guardian at a distance and save your condi-cleanses for when he uses Chains of Light or his Zealot’s Embrance, you should have no issue to out-sustain him. Eventually the guardian will run out of skills to use and that’s when you will peel his health and eventually kill him.
It also really helps if you interrupt his no. 6 heal. Shelter is pretty easy to interrupt so as soon as you see him pop it, make sure you interrupt it.

As long as you do the above, you should never lose to a mediguardian as a shoutbow warrior, never ever.

Idea Of Evil.1845:

Hello guys i play gw2 for like 5 months and i only play pvp as thief and mesmer and i can say 1 thing the Medi dps guards are cancer if the guardian knows what to do vs a class they can easily kill everything and i mean everything from condition builds to zerker
when they will get nerfed kitten

Highlighted the important part of your post there.

The guardian does not need a nerf. It’s in a very good spot now. It’s good enough to be in the meta, but not at all overpowered. The DPS mediguard is a build that is as good as the user is. It’s not overpowered and it’s not easymode cancer like for example the turret engineer used to be.

If you’re a thief it’s only natural you get countered hard by good guardians. That’s just how this game is. It’s not made for 1v1s and you can’t expect to always be able to win any 1v1 against any class against any build. GW2 is like rock-paper-scissors. A good guardian might counter a thief, but the thief counters a mesmer and the mesmer does well against other classes, etc. etc. etc.

Please Anet, don’t listen to the OP, don’t nerf DPS mediguard, they’re in a really good and balanced spot right now. If anything I’d say guardian is a little UNDERpowered, but only a little.

Random Weird Guy.3528:

Timer isn’t the issue, ready up button is. If I know the team I’m against is strong, then I’ll want to take time to discuss things. On the other hand, they should really put the button in the middle of the screen or something so people actually notice it.

That’s a good point. Maybe if Anet moves the ‘Change Status’ button to the middle of the screen so it blocks your view in a somewhat obnoxious way until you press it, maybe then more people will actually press it.

Shylock.4653:

LucosTheDutch.4819:

or maybe quickly discuss some tactics before the match, but that actually rarely happens.

If this happens rarely on your matches you are doing something wrong.

OK, sometimes nobody answers but you should at least try to discuss about tactics, builds, split and so on with your team. In my experience in the most cases at least some answer you. In a full premade team there is no need for this as roles and builds are well known.

So when I ask people about their build and who goes where or who takes treb and nobody answers I am doing something wrong? What kind of backwards logic is that?

Obviously I don’t have these issues in premades. I have a PvP guild and we use TS3. But sadly I’m European playing in an NA server so when I’m playing in the afternoon (my time) my guildies aren’t online to play with and then I’m stuck doing solo-queues.

Even in the odd occasion that we do discuss tactics at the start of a match, it usually doesn’t take the full 1:20 minutes to setup a plan. Yet people still refuse to press that ‘Change Status’ button even after we’re done discussing tactics (it’s usually the same people who don’t even answer who also refuse to press that ‘Change Status’ button, making me wonder what the hell they’re actually doing).

This is the reason why I stopped playing thief.

I’m still annoyed though when I’m teamed up with more than 1 ranger or 1 thief.

Rangers are usually pretty useless though they have their niche if they’re played well. Most rangers aren’t playing well though, they just camp on a ledge and pew-pew instead of actually trying to cap or decap points, which I don’t mind if there is just 1 ranger doing that, but when you have 2 or more it’s gonna make you lose the match.

Thieves can be incredibly useful if played well and again, you guessed it, most thieves don’t play their class well. So often I see thieves being hell-bend on capping far, even when they’re being steamrolled over and over again and never manage to decap far, nevermind actually cap it and they just keep going at far like a stubborn fool, even after I ask them in team-chat to leave far alone and help at mid.
Again, if it’s just 1 thief doing this it’s manageable, but when you have 2 or more thieves on your team just staggering far and getting themselves killed one by one it’s gonna make you lose the match.

To most ranger and thief players out there: Please, for the love of Dwayna, get your act together and learn how to play this game.

So this has been annoying me for a while now: the fact that I always have to wait the full 1:20 minutes at the start of a PvP match because there are always a bunch of people who refuse to press ‘Change Status’.

With the queues already being long, it’s just really annoying to wait another 1:20 minutes for no apparent reason.

Why? Why are there always people who don’t press the ‘Change Status’ button? I understand that sometimes you want to make some last-minute changes to your build or maybe quickly discuss some tactics before the match, but that actually rarely happens. So often I see people on my own team not changing their status while just jumping around doing nothing that would justify them not pressing that ‘Change Status’ button.

So my suggestion to Anet is to please make the ‘Waiting for Players’ time shorter. make it 1:00 minute at most, preferably even shorter, or just remove it altogether (maybe a little extreme but I wouldn’t mind).

What does the rest of the PvP community think about this?

Leonhardt.8164:

the trinity sucks, it’s the main reason i play gw2 and quit WoW, i cant stand the whole tank and healer aspect, if you got a kitten healer, the group is done for, if the tank sucks, the group is done for, i hate having to rely on one person, if they bring in the trinity, im quitting gw2

How is GW2 any different though? We might not have a dedicated trinity but essentially we do the same stuff: damage, control and support.

If the guardian sucks and doesn’t properly apply aegis and blinds, the group is done for. If the ele sucks and doesn’t properly stack might, there is not enough DPS and the group is done for. If the mesmer doesn’t throw down his reflect in time the group is done for, etc. etc. etc.

Unless you’re good at solo-ing dungeons and use a build for that, you’re still gonna need and have to rely on your party members to complete a dungeon in GW2, adding a more traditional trinity would not change that.

dietzero.3514:

It cannot be anything BUT a loss to build flecibility.

False.

The fact that Anet merges a lot of traits means that certain builds that required multiple very specific traits will now only need 1 grandmaster trait that has it all, meaning you have 2 extra traits up for grabs.

For example the meditation guardian: being a useful meditation guardian means you have to use up the entire Valor tree just to make your meditations shine. As a mediguard you are stuck to picking Meditation Mastery, Focused Mind and Monk’s focus to get the best out of your meditations, leaving you with little else to choose.
With the new system, I only have to pick the Meditation Mastery grandmaster trait at the end of the Valor tree and still have 2 other traits in the Valor tree up for grabs. So in this case and probably many other cases the new system adds flexibility.

Dikeido.8436:

LucosTheDutch.4819:

Aidan Savage.2078:

I stopped reading fairly quickly when you assume other stats are irrelevant. GW2 is a game that does not have the “holy” trinity. It never will, the vast majority of players dont want it.

Gear stats other than Berserker and Assassin are indeed irrelevant in GW2’s PvE whether you like it or not.

GW2 most certainly does have a trinity, it’s just not the same as other MMOs have. GW2’s trinity is: damage, control, support. The problem is though that with the right traits and the right skills selected we already have all the control and support we need, we don’t need gear for that, our capability to do support and control doesn’t rely on gear stats.
Aegis will always block an enemy’s attack regardless of your gear.
Blindness will always make the enemy miss his attack regardless of your gear.
Protection will always lower your damage income with 33% regardless of your gear.
Etc. etc. etc. you get the gist.
Meaning we are expected to focus our gear on DPS to maximize your potential and efficiency. Getting gear with any other stats than power, precision and ferocity is a waste of time (in PvE that is, obviously for WvW and PvP it’s a different story).

And please speak for yourself. You don’t speak for “the vast majority of players”. I think just as many players are unhappy with the zerker meta and would like to see a change or a return to a more traditional trinity. Personally I’m on the fence about it. I don’t mind the zerker meta but sometimes I would like to change it up and play a tank or healer for a change, but this game doesn’t allow me to do that sadly enough.

Well then I’ll help you get off the fence.
1. Do you enjoy spamming LF Tank/Heal for 10/20/30 min sometime even hour?
2. Do you enjoy forcing yourself to roll a Tank/Heal just so you can get in to group?
3. Do you enjoy fighting in your own guild for a place, be it a 5 man or raid. Because there is already to many DPS and not enough Tank/Heal?

1. A non-issue for me, as I have a guild and friends to play with.
2. A non-issue for me, as I don’t mind playing a tank or healer. I just said that I like to change it up and play a tank/healer from time to time.
3. A non-issue for me as my guild members are also my friends and unlike you I’m not hellbent on playing DPS, I like playing tank or healer too.

Sorry, you didn’t help me get off the fence at all.

My builds are actually going to be BETTER.

Aidan Savage.2078:

I stopped reading fairly quickly when you assume other stats are irrelevant. GW2 is a game that does not have the “holy” trinity. It never will, the vast majority of players dont want it.

Gear stats other than Berserker and Assassin are indeed irrelevant in GW2’s PvE whether you like it or not.

GW2 most certainly does have a trinity, it’s just not the same as other MMOs have. GW2’s trinity is: damage, control, support. The problem is though that with the right traits and the right skills selected we already have all the control and support we need, we don’t need gear for that, our capability to do support and control doesn’t rely on gear stats.
Aegis will always block an enemy’s attack regardless of your gear.
Blindness will always make the enemy miss his attack regardless of your gear.
Protection will always lower your damage income with 33% regardless of your gear.
Etc. etc. etc. you get the gist.
Meaning we are expected to focus our gear on DPS to maximize your potential and efficiency. Getting gear with any other stats than power, precision and ferocity is a waste of time (in PvE that is, obviously for WvW and PvP it’s a different story).

And please speak for yourself. You don’t speak for “the vast majority of players”. I think just as many players are unhappy with the zerker meta and would like to see a change or a return to a more traditional trinity. Personally I’m on the fence about it. I don’t mind the zerker meta but sometimes I would like to change it up and play a tank or healer for a change, but this game doesn’t allow me to do that sadly enough.

Rin.1046:

the zerker meta, in PvE at least, is merely a perception, that has come from the speed run mindset.

It’s not just merely a perception. It is factually the best stat combination for the smoothest and most optimal dungeon runs, assuming you have a decent party comp and everyone in the party knows how to play their class and how to handle the encounters.

That doesn’t mean you can’t do decently smooth dungeon runs in Valkyrie armor or Knights armor, if you know how to play your class and how to handle the encounters then most certainly you can do smooth dungeon runs in almost any stat-combination, but,

the less your DPS, the slower your dungeon run will be and if the party DPS is really low you will get in trouble with some encounters (for example in AC p1 with the burrows where you have to protect Hodgin, if your party DPS really sucks you will have a lot of trouble with that encounter).

In Guild Wars 2 PvE, when it comes to stats, a good offense is the best defense.

I’m from Europe and though I like it here I would definitely wanna trade places with you and go to New Zealand to live there for a while. New Zealand is so beautiful!

Oh well, I guess it’s true what they say; the grass is always greener on the other side.

Cheers mate!

tramwajarz.2369:

If you want healers to matter, remove all skills number 6

Even then healers would still not matter in good parties.

If you want healers to truly matter you need to bring back the traditional “holy trinity” (which is still being used in modern games for a reason).

fuzdragonwind.7219:

playing support is indeed passive even in an active game,

You don’t understand how this game works if you think playing support is passive. The fact that you don’t know how reflects work and think that aegis on a guardian “is just a bonus” confirms this.

What makes a support class such as the guardian really strong is the vast amount of active defenses that the class offers to the party. These active defenses are the very reason the Berserker meta exists. Without them we’d need more passive defenses (toughness/vitality/healingpower) and the Berserker meta wouldn’t exist, but because we have blocks, blinds, reflects and dodges (and plenty of them) we don’t need toughness/vitality/healingpower, meaning we can put all our stats in power/precision/ferocity for more DPS and better results.

Blocks, blinds and reflects are the bread-and-butter of any guardian and if you’re not using them to their fullest potential you’re doing it wrong.

Zaklex.6308:

First let’s get something straight, for everyone that keeps bringing up the Guild in Guild Wars title, even in the first game, though it did include GvG, the title referred to the Guild Wars in Tyria’s past, it was lore, nothing more.

Which is dumb. Why name a game after some event in the long distant past that nobody cares about anymore?

I never understood why Anet chose the name Guild Wars for a game that doesn’t revolve around actual guild wars. The closest thing we had to actual guild wars were GvGs in GW1 and we don’t actually have that anymore in GW2, making the title even more silly.

They should have renamed Guild Wars to Dragon Wars. As stupid as that might sound, it would make more sense than the current game title.

laokoko.7403:

The problem is speed run is pretty much the standard today. If you can’t clear the dungeon in full berserker max dps build, you get frowned on.

And for all the right reasons, because when the whole party plays full berserker/assassins and works well together, you absolutely do -not- need any extra toughness, vitality or healing power. This is because almost all damage from mobs can be avoided through active defenses that don’t rely on toughness/vitality/healingpower. In a full DPS team the boss will get bursted down so fast that during the brief encounter 90% of all his damage can be avoided through blocks, blinds, reflects, weakness and protection, making toughness/vitality/healingpower absolutely redundant and making builds that focus on those stats rather than DPS stats a burden to the team rather than an asset to the team.

Don’t blame the players for the Berserker speedrun meta, blame Anet for designing the game in such a way that would inevitably lead to a DPS-oriented meta.

How in the world is GW2 too dark of a game? It’s one of the more vibrant and saturated MMOs I’ve ever played (only topped by WoW and Wildstar).

And lol, Maplestory…

SHM.7628:

LucosTheDutch.4819:

Well there is only so much you can do in GW2 before the game becomes incredibly stale and boring, especially with the lack of any real content updates. Personally I just log in to do my dailies and then I’m off again (sometimes I don’t even bother to do even that and just log in to get the daily reward).

I won’t be really playing GW2 until HoT comes out. I expect a lot of people feel the same way.

They made the game stale by

1) funneling everyone off the maps to World bosses for chests.

2) taking loot drops away from mobs

3) further killing loot with the gem store model.

Are you really excited about HoT? I’m not. The only thing i saw thus far is a promise to make more hoops to jump through (likely on an even more congested map.)

Oh yeah, They’re going to over haul traits. from past experiences that leaves me more nervous than excited.

Sure, Revenent , new skills/weapons and Guild halls could be may be fun for a short while. I’m not excited about HoT though. It’s like trying to season tasteless food in hopes of making it a a yummy delicacy.

I fully agree. GW2’s PvE has been stale for a long time. There is so much I dislike about GW2’s PvE.

1) I never liked how they drip-fed us content through the Living Story. Each chapter and the content that came with it usually could only keep me interested for a week at most.

2) No new dungeons after the TA Aetherblade path. We’re still stuck with the same 8 dungeons which I can speedrun with my eyes closed in full Berserker gear and never die. I get the feeling Anet merely added dungeons to GW2 because they felt obligated to do so, as an MMO without dungeons would probably not appeal to many people. But I don’t think Anet gives a crap about dungeons or instanced content.

3) All the cosmetics and stuff I like can be bought on the gemstore, which means I can just buy whatever I want (either with gold or irl money) and then I don’t know what to do because I already have everything that I want. There is nothing awesome to work for in GW2 other than grinding your kitten off for legendaries, which I already did, multiple times, I got the legendaries I want.

4) Worldbosses are a boring zergfest, even more so after the introduction of megaservers and the worldboss schedules. Even Tequatl has been reduced to farm-status.

5) There is nothing challenging left in GW2’s PvE other than Fractals, which get stale and boring after a while as well.

If GW2 didn’t have PvE and WvW I would have quit GW2 a long time ago. PvP and WvW kept me playing GW2. But playing against the same 2 servers in WvW and playing against the same people in PvP is only fun for so long. Even those two game-modes which I used to enjoy quite a lot have gotten boring and stale for me. Hence I’m taking a hiatus from GW2 right now and only log in ever so often to get my daily reward chest.

Pfff OP you only have 2x GTX 980 in two-way SLI? What a peasant. Real gamers play with 3x GTX 990 in three-way SLI at the very minimum!

8^)

#yolo #sweg

Hannelore.8153:

Its also a common misconception that all Asura are smart and build things, otherwise the Vigil would not have any Asura in it.

>implying that Vigil members aren’t smart nor build things.

My guardian feels insulted and would like a word with you!

Kuess.1842:

This whole asura females getting male armors is a bit discriminating.

I get your complaint OP, but how in the world is this discriminating?

If anything, it’s the opposite! I think giving females different (and usually more skimpy) armor skins for the same armor is more “discriminating” than giving females the exact same armor skins as males.

I came up with a similar theory when I tried explaining WvW to a friend of mine and she asked me if there was a lore reason for different servers to be fighting each other on the Eternal Battlegrounds.

I said: I’m not sure if there is actual lore behind WvW, other than that it’s supposedly in The Mists, which is a supernatural realm that connects multiple realities to each other and it’s also where the deceased people go to. Wouldn’t it be awesome if the servers we are matched up against in WvW are other versions of Tyria fighting against our version of Tyria over resources that The Mists have to offer?

Well there is only so much you can do in GW2 before the game becomes incredibly stale and boring, especially with the lack of any real content updates. Personally I just log in to do my dailies and then I’m off again (sometimes I don’t even bother to do even that and just log in to get the daily reward).

I won’t be really playing GW2 until HoT comes out. I expect a lot of people feel the same way.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

I think it’s about time Anet introduce a new tier of Gem Store goodies for the players. Right now, we have a lot of low cost cosmetic add-ons that we can purchase with Gems. Nice weapons and armors, unique finishers, and even minis. Everything we see in the store is affordable. So now, after 3 years, maybe Anet should think about the players who like to spend their discretionary income on this game we all love.

Now I’m not here to suggest a VIP subscription or anything. What I think would be good, however, is the introduction of more expensive, premium items. An example could be armor skins with unique auras, or existing armor skins with additional auras to make them stand out in a crowd. Imagine wearing the Flamekissed skin, but now you give off a Sunrise/Twilight type fire trail behind your body as you move. I’m sure people would be willing to pay 4,000 Gems to get this upgraded skin version. Or how about an adorable Mini Penguin that waddles as you walk, and slides on it’s belly as you run? I’d so pay upwards of 8,000 Gems for this.

Basically, the Gem Store would still offer everything that’s currently there. Nothing would be taken away. The only change would be a section that sells higher end items or skins for higher end prices. The key here is that absolutely nothing in the premium section would give any statistical advantages what-so-ever to prevent the potential “P2W” criticism. It would appeal to a wider range of players, and also open up new revenue streams for NC Soft.

Great suggestions for cool items, but I don’t like the idea of putting them behind a hefty pay wall. Instead of paying 50 or 100 bucks for an digital cosmetic item I’d rather earn legitimately in-game through dedication and/or skill.

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely hate grinding and that’s not what I want when I say “dedication”. What I would like to see is Anet adding cool items that are legit hard to get and doesn’t require an insane amount of grinding to get but instead requires player skills to get them.

Doggie.3184:

Cuz too much of the gaming community simply isn’t as intelligent or patient enough to understand GW2. They tried to give the game lots of freedom but too many people were easily lost in it because they either never played an MMO or were too spoiled by handholding in other ones. Many people are apparently too shy to join a guild and ask questions instead of figuring out things on their own as well and I guess Anet wants to tie a leash (of love) around them somehow.

So basically, the entire human race as a whole have failed you, not Anet. =/ Giving people nearly everything at the get-go and sending them into a free world is too much for an innocent sheep to handle.

I find it baffling that you think you can speak for the entire GW2 community – no – for the entire human race. I’m not sure if you’re serious or not but what you said is completely unfounded and quite frankly ridiculous…

Gamers are among the most intelligent bunch I’ve ever met, more so when we’re talking about (MMO)RPG players. Real gamers (e.g. someone who has gaming as a major hobby and identifies himself as a gamer) don’t need hand-holding and in fact hate it, as is clearly demonstrated with all the hate and vitriol that is spewed on the forums and in-game about the NPE.

I don’t think anyone who played at least some videogames before GW2 was actually confused with GW2 (other than that some gamers who came from other MMOs to GW2 might have been a little confused about certain things because GW2 does things differently from other MMOs, but the NPE didn’t change that).

While real new players (who aren’t just new to GW2 but also rather new to gaming in general) might be fine with the NPE, older players and more experienced gamers are not. I’m pretty sure the latter group is in the vast majority and so I have no clue why Anet thought the NPE would be a good idea…

lordkrall.7241:

Offair.2563:

Press B ( opens wvw panel ) Join your Home borderland, once there go south from that waypoint to the big pink/purple portal which takes you to Lion’s Arch. Once there you can take portal to other cities including divinity reach ( human city ). GL and have fun!

That doesn’t work until level 18 though, I believe.
At least not for completely new accounts.

Correct. The best way to do it is as others said, go to DR, take the portal to LA, then take the portal to RS and from there walk to the Asura starter area.

Jourgound Meister.8561:

(I’ve seen the combat mod people had/have for this game which we aren’t allowed to use… sadly)

You actually ARE allowed to use that combat mod, Anet said so themselves on several occasions.

OP what you are doing is LFG abuse, not those who join your party and leave right after.

Recently Anet had clearly stated that selling things through LFG is considered LFG abuse and is against the terms of service. Using LFG to sell things is a bannable offense now and can get your account temporarily suspended.

OP if I were you I would stop doing what you’re doing. You are in the wrong here, not the people you’re complaining about.

Kasemdria.7138:

In all seriousness though…there are plenty of other games offering an assortment of mounts.

But we’re not playing those other games, we’re playing GW2 and some of us would like to see something along the lines of mounts in GW2. I can only speak for myself but I think most of us would be happy with just cosmetic mounts because it looks cool and could add to the immersion of the game if they don’t look ridiculous (like the “mounts” we have now, they suck in my opinion).

yolo swaggins.2570:

The reason why people are saying no is because the existence of waypoints turns mounts into an aesthetic item and those items could be used to grief.

Wut? How in the world could aesthetic items be used to grief?

We already have aesthetic “mounts” and I don’t see those being used to grief. How would riding the back of a dolyak, horse or mini-dragon be any different from riding a flying carpet – which isn’t and can’t be used to grief?

Linthenius.3704:

This is the main reason I left WoW for this game. Mounts ruined exploration in quite a few ways. Don’t even get me started on flying mounts in that game…

I agree on the flying mounts, but I don’t see how regular mounts ruined exploration in WoW. I always loved mounts in WoW all the way up to BC (yes, even the flying mounts in the Outland were awesome, because the Outland was designed with flying mounts in mind). Only when they decided to add flying mounts to Azeroth did the game start to suck because Azeroth was never designed for flying mounts.

Cazamar.7148:

Your point about it being immersion breaking makes no sense. You can only see the square shapes of the zones from the map. You can’t tell while running around the zones.

I can definitely tell while running around the zones, but it’s most apparent when opening the map.

chemiclord.3978:

LucosTheDutch.4819:

In fact GW2 is one of the few games I know where most maps are (near) perfect squares and the game doesn’t even do a good job at hiding that fact. The fact that most mountains look perfectly straight and form perfect squares has always bothered me, but I’ve learned to live with it in the past 2 years.

Well, that’s a separate argument that I’d actually agree with. But the question from the OP as I read it was “why are the maps all square?” to which the fairly simple answer is, “because all game maps are square, some are better at hiding that fact better than others.”

Now, I won’t argue that Arena.net is very lackluster at hiding it.

I don’t think it’s a separate argument. As I understood the OP he was actually complaining about the exact same thing I just complained about in my post you replied to.

And again, not all game maps are square. Many are, but an equal amount are not. There are multiple ways of designing a game map and sometimes they’re square and sometimes they’re not.

If you’re going to do everything then I advice to roll warrior cause that is the only class in this game that is literally good at everything the game has to offer. Thief is great too but has a higher learning curve and they’re near useless in huge WvW group fights.

Want to do quick map exploration in PvE? Warriors got you covered.
Want to do a dungeon fast and easy? Warrior has you covered.
Want to be a good solo-roamer in WvW? Warrior has you covered.
Want to be part of the giant group fights in WvW? Warrior has you covered.
Want to be a great asset to your team in PvP with minimal effort? Warrior has you covered.

Want to be good at dealing damage? Warrior has you covered.
Want to be a great tank/bunker? Warrior has you covered.
Want to support your team? Warrior has you covered.

There is literally nothing in this game were a warrior isn’t a good choice. Warrior is great at everything and you don’t even need to be really good at the game to excel as a warrior.

Cazamar.7148:

Who cares???

I do. It makes GW2’s world look overly artificial which breaks my immersion quite a bit.

It’s not so bad that it makes GW2 unplayable for me, especially since I spend most of my time in PvP or WvW, but it does bother me a tiny bit every single time I press ‘m’ in PvE.

I don’t understand why the artists at Anet decided to make all their maps rectangular. Not only that, but why did they make all the natural borders (mountains etc.) rectangular as well? It looks artificial, ugly, fake and for some people it’s immersion-breaking.

chemiclord.3978:

LucosTheDutch.4819:

That is factually not true. How many games have you played to think this?

Just look at this map from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and tell me that’s square (the bright green lines are the borders of the maps):

In a programming sense, it’s absolutely true. The “map” as far as the files are concerned, would be that entire image. If you could “break” through the walls, you’d be able to explore that empty space until you hit one of the edges.

I just so happen to be a game dev myself and I can tell from experience that you’re still wrong. Map design isn’t even a programming thing, it’s an art and design thing.

I’m 100% sure if you break out of the map borders in Zelda you’d not end up in a square map. Same goes for many many games.

In fact GW2 is one of the few games I know where most maps are (near) perfect squares and the game doesn’t even do a good job at hiding that fact. The fact that most mountains look perfectly straight and form perfect squares has always bothered me, but I’ve learned to live with it in the past 2 years.

GrandmaFunk.3052:

breaking news: every map/zone/world in every 3d video game ever created is defined by a rectangular volume.

every.single.one.

some hide it by using decor to cut the space into a smaller, less even shape, others do it with invisible walls.. but they are all “square”.

That is factually not true. How many games have you played to think this?

Just look at this map from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and tell me that’s square (the bright green lines are the borders of the maps):

Obtena.7952:

LucosTheDutch.4819:

Obtena.7952:

I would recommend against using Guardian. Yes you CAN get perma swiftness with staff but it’s … not fun. If you can choose your class for open world completions, Guardian would not be it. Other than the perma swiftness, which requires you to constantly stand around in symbols (and slows you down consequently), staff is perma crap damage. No sane person would recommend you use that weapon it for open world completion. It’s use is VERY limited in PVE.

You don’t have to stand still to get the perma-swiftness at all. If you combine it with the ‘retreat!’ shout you can just keep running while throwing symbols in front of yourself and spamming ‘retreat!’ whenever it comes off cooldown.

It is true that the DPS of a staff is bad, but you have a 2nd weapon for that. Whenever you’re engaging in a fight, just throw down your staff 5 wall in front of the mobs, then throw your staff 3 symbol on them, use staff 4 to give yourself 12 stacks of might and then just burst them down with your greatsword or sword/focus (I prefer greatsword for open-world PvE).

You might not like guardians for open-world PvE and that’s fine but the complaints you wrote down here are simply invalid or not true.

So you need to use staff AND have retreat for your perma-swiftness scheme? Begging my pardon, that’s an even worse proposal. At least you acknowledged staff has junk damage.

The fact that there is a compromise to achieve swiftness on Guardian is why it’s not my top choice and never should anyone recommend using staff for openworld map completion. Seriously, what ARE you thinking? The time you save with the perma swiftness is more than lost because the damage is just that bad.

Thief I believe is best. Getting speed does not impact my build choice, it’s damage is excellent, it has amazing opener with #3 or #5 in a D/P build and with the proper adept trait and heal choice, some cleanse ability to leave a fight ready for the next.

Warrior is quite good as well but I haven’t spent enough time with it to rank it properly. It doesn’t seems to have an effective opener which is not good.

Ranger is also quite good but it’s opener is clever use of its pet, requiring using ranged weapon to avoid aggro. It has some cleansing issues as well.

If you can’t tell, my openworld strategy is big damage and speed (these should be obvious), as well as how you start a fight, avoid damage and how you leave a fight to minimize downtime (these things people ignore, but are important because for the same reasons you want big damage and speed). If it wasn’t for the limitations to get speed on Guardian, it would be my first choice.

Retreat is a very useful shout and the damage you’ll do with your greatsword + the 12 might stacks you get from staff 4 will be more than enough to deal with almost any mob in open-world PvE. Don’t forget we’re talking about open-world PvE here, which isn’t exactly difficult. You could do it naked without armor and only 1 weapon and still never die and complete your hearts with relative ease.

There is also no other class than can deal with trash mobs as quickly and easily as guardians, even with a staff as one of your weapons. Simply stack might with staff 4, switch to greatsword, use ‘Save Yourselves!’ to buff up yourself even more and quickly press 5, 5, 4, 2 and you’re done. This will usually kill all the mobs around you in 1 swoop. Open-world PvE is really that simple.

Again, we’re talking about open-world PvE here, literally the easiest game-mode in GW2. It’s so frikkin easy that you really don’t need much to blast through it other than a ton of swiftness (which guardians can have permanently) and some decent CC + burst (which guardians have plenty with their greatsword).

Honestly, ANYTHING will do for open-world PvE. If I was the OP I’d base my decision on which class travels the fastest from point A to point B while also doing decent enough burst damage to kill groups of mobs relatively fast (e.g. decent AOE burst and/or cleave). Guardians have perma-swiftness, amazing CC and great burst potential, making them one of the more ideal classes for open-world PvE.

The only class I’d advice against using is mesmers because they’re so frikkin slow and they have no way of speeding themselves up other than using focus 4. As a mesmer you’re forced to use Traveler runes (which I do) and even then they’re not that fast.