Guild Wars 2

Meanwhile, as a bored Lion’s Arch Harbor Master blithely types tweets into his iPhone, something dark, menacing and enormous stirs in the deep…

Mark my words, fellow Tyrians, for you have been warned: none shall survive the wrath of Quagzilla!

CHIPS.6018:

Maybe it is indeed a reference to the Battle of Los Angeles (Battle of LA). We got UFOs. We got airships. We got search lights.

What Lion’s Arch needs now is a hero…

Oh no, the moas!

Won’t somebirdy please think of the moas?

Sitael.4680:

Can you please explain, what do you mean with America?

America = the world, and Seattle is its capital. Every American knows this, because it is taught in our schools, along with how to dodge bullets and eat too many Freedom Fries.

Rumors of strange foreign countries outside America are greatly exaggerated…

Fire and brimstone coming down from the sky! Rivers and seas boiling!
Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes!
The dead rising from the grave!
Human sacrifice! Dogs and cats living together…
Mass hysteria!

It’s almost as if they’re trying to surprise us or something.

Turtle Dragon.9241:

Will One-handed Weapons be compensated?

No.

All combat skills for both one- and two-handed weapons have already been balanced around the current values. There is no reason or need to throw a wrench into all the work that has been (and still needs to be) put into that.

I thus assert they will not change them from the unassailable position of authority that comes from being a Guild Wars 2 player in good standing, which means I cannot possibly be wrong about this or anything else related to the game.

Five is a sensible number because it is equal to the number of fingers on one hand.

Above that, the math gets complicated.

Try it. If it’s fun, keep playing.

If it’s not, play something else.

All For One And One For All

LOTRO used to have this problem. The epic story lines were mostly soloable with occasional group-only steps.

At first, things were fine, because everyone was new and most of the player base was leveling up and doing the content together. As time passed, and the majority of players advanced beyond those stages of the story line, fewer players became available to help, even in large guilds, transforming the group-only stages of the story into dead ends for new players.

Eventually, Turbine, which is well-known for its data-mining prowess, dedicated a significant amount of manpower (that could have been used to develop new content instead) to go back and add solo-only options to all the group-only steps of the epic story. But they didn’t stop there; they were apparently so struck by the numbers they saw that they made most of the subsequent epic content solo only. You literally couldn’t do most of it with a group, whether you wanted to or not.

That’s a pretty revealing statement for an MMO developer to make.

Overkill, in my opinion, but a de facto acknowledgement of an often overlooked fact: for all the attention group content gets in MMOs, the majority of players spend the majority of their time quietly doing solo content.

Guild Wars 2, through a variety of clever design choices, has managed to bridge the gap between solo and group content better than any other game I’ve played, and deserves to be commended for that.

Unfortunately, ArenaNet’s spotlight on ever-more-epic massive-group-only now-or-never marquee events ultimately neglects players who would rather relax and play noncommittal soloable content at their own pace. Many gamers, especially adults with jobs and precious little free time, prefer options after a hard day’s work that don’t involve standing around looking/waiting/begging for groups and dealing with sometimes unpleasant strangers.

Some will complain if GW2 doesn’t offer what they want, but most will move on to other games without a word of comment, and with no subscription to cancel or exit interview offered, no feedback as to why they don’t play anymore.

Granted, this observation runs somewhat afield of the specific issue of Zhaitan, but I strongly suspect the final step of the personal story is as much of a dead end for many GW2 players as group-only content was for many LOTRO players, and ArenaNet’s data mining will reflect it.

Given that, I imagine the Zhaitan encounter will eventually be scaled to allow solo completion, though I have no idea how long that will take.

When/if they do open it up, however, then maybe I’ll finally get around to facing Zhaitan myself.

Maybe.

Alissah.9281:

I didnt miss a single southsun story :o

Wait… there’s a Southsun story? I went down there and all I got was a really bad case of crabs — and a lousy tee shirt.

Risingashes.8694:

How good would it be if when the update goes live the Black Lion Trading post UI is changed to the Consortium Trading Post.

Would be an awesome little touch.

With a 50% price increase on all gem store items to “cover expenses related to recent events”, of course.

Suddenly, it all makes sense…

The Tengu will swoop in and rescue Ellen Kiel right after she casts Scarlet’s Ring into the Mystic Forge.

If the election wasn’t rigged, the Skritt King would have won, and the people of Lion’s Arch would have many safe burrows to hide in. But bad people stole election, and now the Skritt King can’t help. Now many bad things happen.

So very sad. But maybe that means many shinies to gather after fighting, yes? Hmm, maybe the election went okay after all.

#TeamShinies

Coenraad.8302:

If you don’t have the time, then why not just get a few pvp matches inn instead?

Indeed. How unreasonable of other players to not want to play the way you want them to play!

Xia.3485:

Besides, why do you want to play a massively multi-player online game solo?

Ah, but we wouldn’t be solo. We would have heroes, and never be alone.

As for why that would be better than grouping with other players, the answer to that question can be found in countless posts throughout these forums, and even some in this thread.

There’s… a… new… sheriff… in… town…

Just wait ’til you see the next trailer showing Zomorros being marched away in chains while the Mystic Forge burns in the background. No more Mystic Forge!

Oops… did I just say that?

Scarlet’s Last Stand™

The final chapter of Scarlet’s living story arc will take the form of a dungeon instance that can only be entered by players who have completed every single achievement (not just the meta) of every episode so far.

The instance will feature the most epic encounter ever seen in the game, in which no more nor less than 100 players will automatically assume the form of various Scarlet’s minions (Aetherblades, Molten Alliance, Toxic Alliance, et al), each with five unique skills, and all 100 players must attack her using precisely the same skills at precisely the same time 100 times in a row to defeat her. Failure of any player to use the correct skill at the correct time at any step of the process will result in immediate failure of the encounter and instant death and breakage of all armor for all participants.

Successful completion of the encounter will grant Scarlet’s Special Chest, which will contain various green and blue items, some dragonite and a small chance to obtain a unique soulbound-on-acquire legendary item: Scarlet’s Superior Speargun.

Players who have not completed every achievement won’t be able to enter or participate in the final battle, but will be able to purchase new and exciting Scarlet-themed items (including new infinite tools that offer a small chance to yield unique rewards unavailable anywhere else) from the gem store.

Jski.6180:

I do not get the WHY for all of this is it realty that much of a rush to troll? Is empathy no longer with the human races?

These are not humans we’re dealing with. They are kittens.

That’s why they call themselves “KittenTrolling”.

And as everykitten knows, kittens have no empathy.

Competent commanders know what they’re doing, are always polite and professional, stay calm when things get tough and inspire others to succeed through the example of their own success. The best commanders in this game have more trouble getting people to stop following them than convincing them to listen.

Incompetent commanders insult and denigrate others, then whine, complain and point fingers when they fail. They are invariably unreceptive to honest appraisals of their obvious shortcomings, which is why they do not improve and remain perpetually frustrated and unsuccessful.

Failures of leadership are failures to lead.

Those who fail to lead are not leaders.

Keeping these things in mind makes discussions like these more contructive.

Throwing more insults usually brings people around.

Because you’re not the boss of me, I’m the boss of YOU!

Deified.7520:

That being said, I’m probably 50% sure that Anet has some projects going on that may help with the open world population problem, so we may see something about it after march.

They could solve the problem quite easily by having a common “underflow” system shared by all the servers. The technology is already in place.

I think that would be the simplest way to handle it, but I can understand why they are reluctant to do something that might look like instancing. We’ll see.

As for map completion, I have found GW2State.com to be very handy for locating servers to guest to with temples open, which makes Orr completion a LOT easier. There are some skill point communes in Orr that cannot be completed unless certain temples are player-controlled, which is rare on less active servers (i.e., most of them).

Also, though I find the need for it annoying, it’s possible to commune with almost all skill points guarded by champs with careful timing and without spy kits.

Delvoire.8930:

I guess all that’s missing is a transgendered person and we’ll have everything tied up neatly in a bow

You mean “Lady” Kasmeer?

Oops! Spoiler alert…

I’ve been a very harsh critic of the Living World and its time-gated, slapdash implementation, but this latest installment really exemplifies the power and potential of the format.

Introducing new permanent content and features in the context of an evolving story is exactly how it should be done. The fact that the new EotM map is awesome further highlights the contrast between it and the hurried, “throwaway content” that nearly pushed me away from the game for good.

Granted, ArenaNet can’t be expected to crank out something like EotM every two weeks, and the nature of a truly Living World will necessarily mean some things will be temporary, but releases like this are precisely the sort of thing that add long-term value to the game and will keep players coming back for more.

Here’s to seeing this sort of excellence become the norm.

Mesmer: I’m over here! Or am I over HERE? Ouch! You called target, didn’t you?

You Can Change The World!™

For about five minutes…

KarateKid.5648:

When you see My Little Pony-themed weapons as raid loot, that will be the sign.

Indeed. That will be the sign that I’ll start raiding — if ArenaNet also offers armor sets that make players look like cute pastel-colored ponies with brushable manes.

Rainbow Dash™ Multichromatic Pegasus Armor Of Hyperspeed for the win, baby!

Arguing about logical fallacies and other ephemera misses the point that players are not required to act like robots.

If players feel like they’re being played, they will react in whatever fashion they will.

Logic need not apply, nor will sophistry of any form change anyone’s minds about what they will accept or not accept in an MMO.

Mine Kampf

Alas, I can’t offer links, but I’m pretty sure I saw some player reports showing that they did get both bonus items (gems) and bonus pulls (extra ore) in their tests with the Watchwork Mining Pick. Sorry I can’t offer something more concrete or direct (I don’t have one), but I’m pretty sure the pick’s sprocket bonus does not replace any existing tool mechanic.

And even if it did, it wouldn’t calm the “rage storm”, because that’s not what it’s about. The primary complaints are store-only in-game advantages (e.g. “P2W”, though not in the strictest sense) and effective obsolescence of other store-only infinite gathering tools (with the presumption that more examples will follow).

My own theory is that this isn’t some sinister plan, but a desire on the part of designers to offer something “thematic” to the Watchwork Mining Pick, and extend that concept to other gathering tool motifs in the form of modest bonuses.

The problem, of course, is that offering any form of advantage exclusively through gem purchases opens a very nasty Pandora’s Box far too many of us have seen opened before in other MMOs.

So while I don’t see a conspiracy here, I do see an innocent miscalculation that has the potential to snowball into Very Bad Things if it becomes a trend — just as it has in other games such as LOTRO and STO.

I suspect the silence on this issue has more to do with ArenaNet having to get people from different departments to come to some sort of consensus, rather than stonewalling. They really do try to be as upfront as they can, but they can’t tell us anything definitive if they’re not sure themselves.

So here’s hoping we’ll see a decision and announcement sooner, rather than later, and hopefully they will reassure us by backing out this disturbing feature and affirming sensible policies on store-only items, rather than alarming us.

AcidicVision.5498:

All because you fools chose to bicker on the forums and left me to very very slowly gather items, worth a whole 30c, one at a time. HAHAHAHA!

And then it hit me: somehow Scarlet ties into all this.

There’s just no stopping that girl!

I’m hoping “riots” aren’t needed to make the point that this is an extremely bad idea and needs to be backed out.

It’s a small thing, really, but that’s exactly how it started in LOTRO. Now the LOTRO Store is loaded with P2W items, including many they specifically promised would never appear there, such as armor. You can also buy special items and skills there now that give advantages in PvMP.

Now I can’t stand the game I loved for five years and cannot bring myself to ever log in again.

Please, PLEASE, don’t do such a terrible thing to Guild Wars 2. It’s the only MMO I have left.

PLEASE turn back now. Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny.

RuneCrimson.7380:

If you say so….I saw My wifes loot and to prove to her I could take it took it from her. But its a pointless thing to go over and over. I know what I saw.

Apparently not.

What you are describing is the sort of thing I used to hate about LOTRO, but bears absolutely no resemblance whatsoever to Guild Wars 2. It is, ironically enough, the exact opposite of what you’re describing, and that’s one of the main reasons I simply cannot play any MMOs except GW2 anymore (though sometimes I wish I could).

Loot

Each player who participates in killing a monster will have the opportunity to loot the body. Each monster has a damage table and a threshold value of damage done to it by the player before it will give full credit for the kill. This value is about 5% to 10% of the monster’s health.³ The loot dropped is unique to the player, and loot received by one player does not affect what another player receives. One monster may drop the same rare item for multiple players.

Experience

The article explains how experience is awarded. There are not mechanics that “split” or reduce experience awarded for anything, whether kills, events or any other activity.

And for good measure…

Gathering

Gathering is the act of collecting crafting materials from resource nodes, which are marked on the compass. General types of gathering resources include ore veins (metal), trees (wood), and non-tree plants (cooking ingredients). Once used, the node is temporarily exhausted for that character, but remains available to other characters.

All of this has been this way at least since BWE2 when I started playing, and has stayed that way ever since.

If GW2 isn’t appealing to you or you don’t like group-only content, there’s nothing wrong with that. Gods know I have plenty of complaints myself.

But rejecting the game on the basis of demonstrable falsehoods that are obvious to anyone who plays the game is unnecessary and just plain silly.

But then, maybe that’s the real point of this thread, after all.

Suddenflame.2601:

At this point I question your knowledge on your classes along with your combat ability. I have never died to her even once.

For whatever it’s worth, this thread is the first thing that pops up when searching for “gw2 vilnia shadowsong”, and this particular skill challenge is considered one of the toughest at any level by many players. Thus the fact that this is the top search result on google makes this comment one of the more infamous examples of kitten wagging in the game.

It’s also not very helpful, aside from the tip about taking out Noxia first, because the ravens spam AoE confusion and the condition-stacking autoattack Vilnia and her phantasms use against you cannot be side-stepped. Try it: they home in on you. I just tested it.

Thankfully, the wiki page for this fight (Slay the evil Raven shaman, Vilnia Shadowsong, and her helper) does offer some useful tips, the most important being the safe area behind the column to the left of the gate at the north end of the chamber.

Whenever a player gets get condition stacked, the column offers a safe place to heal up before stepping back in. While it’s also possible to hop up the rocks on the south end (where you enter the encounter), doing so takes time and exposes you to attacks. The column is usually a better choice.

The second most important thing to be prepared for is to immediately stop attacking when the ravens stack confusion with their barrage attacks. The amount of confusion they stack can down any player in seconds if they don’t back off and either clear them with a skill or allow them to time out while evading or hiding behind the column.

Third is to be prepared to take a lot of damage, because there is no profession in the game that has enough endurance to dodge everything that’s going to be thrown at you, condition damage isn’t mitigated by armor, and circle-strafing won’t protect you from homing ranged attacks. I strongly recommend using some sort of regeneration food before the battle.

Fourth is to focus on one enemy at a time, because they all have ranged attacks, and the more enemies shooting at you at once, the less likely you can dodge them all. A Guardian with a lot of condition removal and AoE spam may be able to burn everything down quickly, but for most professions, a conservative, methodical approach is most likely to succeed.

This is NOT an easy fight, especially for a level 25 encounter, and great care and patience are needed to solo it. If simply completing it is the goal, it’s much better to bring friends for this one if at all possible.

To anyone who may be reading this as a result of googling for it, I hope this post may help, and I urge anyone attempting this not to be discouraged by some of the less helpful comments this thread contains.

It’s not easy, but it’s possible.

Good luck!

I find the lack of cannibalism in this game disturbing…

VOLKON.1290:

Fungalfoot.7213:

It won’t change. Tequatl has been dead for months on just about every single server and nothing has changed there. They’re too stubborn to admit when they’ve kittened up.

Tequatl dead? Wow, JQ usually overflows that place, sometimes a couple overflows deep.

Therefore, the same must be true of all servers.

/logic

Psyx.7368:

When I’m downed my instinct is to press all of the buttons as fast as I can

Ironically, that’s one of the very few situations where pressing all of the buttons as fast as you can isn’t the best strategy.

Anger and frustration are the inevitable consequences of putting the fates of players in the hands of other players they don’t know and have no control over.

These epic world boss events may be interesting experiments for the devs, but are ultimately tedious games of roulette for individual players who can spend inordinate amounts of time trying to complete an event only to lose everything because someone else fails.

As long as the design of the game guarantees frustration, players will become angry, and they will take it out on whoever is closest.

For that reason, as well as the fact that these events are so inexcusably BORING, I haven’t set foot near Tequatl in months, haven’t gone anywhere near Bloodtide Coast or Lornar’s Pass, and don’t intend to until these sorts of events are retooled to actually be fun.

I’m not “boycotting” them, because that implies I would otherwise play them.

I just don’t play them.

Flytrap.8075:

What this game really needs is more temporary world bosses that I can mindlessly zerg down for a few green items.

Fair warning: I am dangerously close to making that my new sig.

Whether it’s “P2W” or not is a semantic red herring.

It’s a very, very bad idea.

Store-only advantages are not just dangerous, but game-breaking.

ArenaNet, please abandon this madness, lest ye be abandoned in kind — and richly deserve it.

Add me to the list who wants 1st-person view capability.

It’s not that I would normally use it, it’s just that there are some situations where 3rd-person is a huge (“immersion-breaking”) liability, and a feeble left-right slider doesn’t cut it.

I think this kind of content is more fun to design than to play. I’ve been sitting it out because it truly has no appeal to me whatsoever.

Meanwhile, its effect on the community seems to be to fragment it into ever smaller and increasingly contentious factions.

Is this really fun?

Now this is the sort of content that really brings players together.

I’d buy THAT for a dollar!

(Actually, a lot more than a dollar)

Great idea.

As other players have suggested, I think the underlying motive is to prop up some of the lowest-end prices for food items.

But yeah, it’s still kind of silly.

Oh wow, another Queensdale Champ Train thread. Let’s see… any new ground not covered by the dozens of other Queensdale Champ Train threads?

Nope. They are virtually interchangeable.

I think I’ll stick with the one that had better jokes.

I don’t mind open-world zerg content, I just wish it wasn’t the only new content being offered.