They really need to balance Antitoxin Spray well. If it heals for a decent amount AND cures conditions on all nearby allies, it will blow just about any other healing skill away if it’s used by all 5 party members in coordination (unless the cooldown is excessive).
That’s my worry. I really want new skills for more diversity, but as a heal it needs to be decent on it’s own or it is pointless to use. Coupling it with AE cleanse is likely to leave it too weak as a heal or too strong as a cleanse.
I think during F&F Scarlet didnt even exist in their plans, she’s a midsummer addition that was attributed all the previous LS updates because at the time players complained that there is no rhyme or reason to the living story, no overarching connection. Enter Scarlet as the deus ex solution to every non-dragon evil in the world. Urgh
Toxin is going to the open-world equivalent of Agony. That’s why we get a cleanse first, because you cannot guarantee that everyone has anti-toxic infusions in their ascended armor for the new underwater zone coming early next year.
Universal healing skill?
Cures you and all nearby allies of several critical conditions?Anyone else see the forming of the trinity here? Someone will have to carry this healing skill in groups, being the “healer” so to speak.
Not saying this is a bad thing, I think GW2 could seriously benefit from a trinity, but it’s funny that they sell the game on having no trinity, then start slowly working it in later because it allows for more interesting fights.
I think you are overestimating the implications. Several professions already have the means to regularly cleanse their group and had it since the betas. So this is nothing new.
Moreso, I would see this as a start of the Anet slowly going back to GW1 skill diversity by giving people more build and skill options. For example I usually run a cleanse in my “general use” setup, if I like the heal I might that and free up a utility slot for something else.
Thirdly, if when you missed an episode you could never see it again, it wouldn’t take too many episodes before you became entirely apathetic and checked out of the show altogether. This is what the OP’s post illustrates and is the most concrete and obvious reason why the LW is bad for the game.
This has to be quoted so it sinks in.
That’s a good suggestion to help players set up for the encounter. I like the Karka queen setup because if you fail but gained more players towards the end you can try again right away.
Karma is definitely slower but does it matter much? You can spend karma on your first exotic set (if you even want to, mismatched stats and all), later on buy some obsidian shards for ascended. There arent that many uses for it and most older players had millions of karma with no use for it except orrian boxes.
The only big sink is legendary, and there karma is a footnote compared to the other requirements.
It’s no different than the guy who spends an extra $60,000 to buy a luxury sportscar over a family sedan.
ah, but driving a sportscar is way different than driving a family sedan. Hell, even looking at it is way different. A legendary? most of them are horrible, out of character, there’s no difference in performance compared to a cheap exotic, and they are just certificate stating either that:
a) you don’t know how to put 600 USD to good use (which is really sad)
b) you don’t have anything better to do with your time (which is really really sad).
I would say the legendaries certainly have their own specific look, how you can claim otherwise I dont know. Whether someone likes it or not depends on the individual.
I would also say there is a difference in performance compared to a cheap exotic, since legendaries have ascended weapon stats and the added benefit of switching the stat selection when you change your gear/trait setup.
Maybe you should think about the points you want to make before posting.
His rewards are good enough and he does indeed drop some specific items, including ascended weapons with a unique skin.
The area is usually deserted because by design the encounter now requires a large force of players organizing to take him down and considerable prep-work. Since the dragon spawns randomly with little warning or pre-event it is pointless going there just because he pops up in the event timer. I think this is the remaining flaw in the encounter, it should be triggered with a chain of pre-events that are difficult enough that he really only spawns when there’s a force able to challenge him.
I bet like 60%+ of the player base would sign it ……
well at least those who read the forums……..
Which cuts it down to 2% of the playerbase (give or take 50%). I dont think any online petition is going to sway them in this regard (I also think they would like to do one but dont get the funding greenlit).
It just seems like a pathetic attempt to push more people into the Tequatl encounter, because they know that there is a large playerbase that pursues every single achievement every day.
You give them too much credit. They most likely forgot to remove the boss week dailies in this case.
Whatever reason for it, I dont see a point in removing them, just like a whole bag of other dailies you either do them or you dont, no harm done. Someone will be happy about it at some point so why take that away?
Edit: dont get me wrong more different dialies instead would be great too… I’m in favor of adding things to the game. The general tone of the posts are more in favor of removing something and I find Anet removes or temps enough stuff in this game, no need for the players to push that even more.
(edited by Mastruq.2463)
while roaming to get more Trick or Treat bags in the open world is a boss that I cannot beat alone (and in the Horror’s case, can’t outrun either) popping out and slaughtering me in 2 hits.
Imagine this scenario but have him yell “Happy halloween, <appropriate expletive>” with each attack. Hilarious, just the thing we need for this holiday.
Another puggy that doesnt take the time to learn the encounter and cries nerf instead. Same situation every two weeks.
The guy plays WvW every day according to his own post.. probably has done so for months. I’d call that a WvW regular. Who cares about his reason as long as he pulls his weight? He certainly seems goal-oriented enough to contribute in whatever part of the map he is.
Or keep the current method and if you want different weapon stats, buy the different recipes. It’s not like they require the sacrifice of your first-born, you CAN buy several recipes.
I mean, taking your example to the extreme means asking why we need laurels or gold at all, getting to 500 was expensive enough, and why cant I just discover it at 450 already, I can make all sub-components by then. Spin this further and you ask “why isnt everything in the game in my bank when I make a new character”. Yea it’s very silly, but that where is entitlement requests lead to. People are never content and always want it easier.
I don’t believe “you can do other ones” is a good reason for this one to exist. It needs to justify itself. Any daily that is just off the table for lots of players just shouldn’t be a daily. I’m not saying they should remove Teq entirely or anything, just remove the “fight him today” thing from the daily achievements list so that it can be replaced by something achievable on a daily basis.
Every fractal, WvW and activity daily is a “point I am missing”. I suggest we remove them all from the daily because they dont suit my interest and are a waste of time to me but I must have that achievement point.
Maybe add a feature where you can “opt out” of a daily or monthly part but still get the achievement point? After all that is what it’s all about.
Now on the more serious side, the fact that there is a list of other options is the best reason for this daily entry to exist – I wish they would add more specific entries or split the “any meta boss” one into several regional ones like “a meta in shiverpeaks” etc like they do for veterans.
I was pretty happy when I think two days ago I got several daily steps done just from killing Tequatl. If its not for you, skip it, if you cannot skip it, learn to deal with that on your own terms instead of trying to cut stuff away from the game that other people might like.
The achievements don’t feel like achievements anymore, they feel like chores, or like those quests in other games Arena net said they abhorred, “Go kill 50 of this mob” “Go kill enough mobs to get this many trick-or-treat bags,”
Without getting into the rest of the post, I feel this is spot on. We dont have boring fetch/kill quests like many contemporary MMOs, but the living story achievements copy them pretty well. Now, that doesnt apply to every living story achievement, but still they need to dial back on the “kill 300 aetherblades, touch 100 torches/fireworks/holograms/etc” achievements.
Examples for achievements that were basically the same but didnt feel like a chore to me are the crystals you had to figure out how reach during Zephyr sanctum, or the scavenger hunt for dragon bits (although some clues would be nice for scavenger hunts, had to resort to a guide for the last 1-2 in each zone). The scavenger hunt last halloween was perfect btw, shame it didnt return for newer players.
Agreed with Astralporing, that’s what I meant by “might buy”. I definitely hope some classic MMO features like reputation/faction can be brought back. Something akin to Defender of Ascalon for those that want to dedicate the time would be nice.
I might buy it, but Cantha is not a plus for that decision. I want to see new lands not retreads, and the world is much larger then the currently known portion of it. And even if it has to be a repeat of previously known areas, I would prefer Elona.
Once they make a living story, I might care more for your defense. With very few exceptions we have only have ‘story’ … there’s nothing that makes it feel alive. And the story recently jumped over a shark, too.
Every two weeks a carnival pitches down tents in one zone or area, or maybe several, we are taken for a ride for two weeks and then the carnival is gone and the zone is back to it’s old self, without changes.
That is how I view this stream of updates. That is ok for themed holiday content. But for the living story that is the focus of several teams and seemingly most of their production effort, the results are weak.
The encounter and rewards are fine imo. I’m ok with content that isnt for everyone but that finds its niche.
The annoying part of the encounter is the waiting. The only change I want is an added pre-event that takes a bit or is triggered, so the players spend less time waiting.
There is really no need to break GW2s goal of having a lively open world by instancing everything. Please note that none of the guild missions are instanced either. Tequatl doesnt need and should not be instanced.
How about you? Do you have any ideas on how to make it better? Would the monthly schedule I suggested work better for you, or do you have other ideas?
For me the problem with the living story is that I dont think it is actually living. There is very little change happening as a prelude or consequence of the living story.
As such, my suggestion to make it better is to make it matter. And to make it leave behind more then it takes away, instead of being a zero sum solution (adding a path to a dungeon? Better to also take one out!!). Both Southsun events did that well, but were hamstrung by other issues. I want them to look what F&F and the Southsuns did well and build on that.
That’s a good story outline, hope somebody from Anet takes notice.
I like the new magic find, and I especially like that it’s not a “work on it for a week and cap it” deal… it’s a longterm goal, treat it as such.
They can create meaningful teamwork without rebuilding the professions into a trinity. I think combos are far too weak and many of them barely matter, for exmple.
I do think that they should emphasize roles more, but without forcing specific prefessions into them. For that to work they just need to make something besides dps actually matter, which is mostly not the case.
Konig, you’re pretty much right with that. Maybe copy it to e-mail and send to every Anet adress you can find =)
Although I would still be fine with dropping to once per month if it means more polish and variety in each of the releases. After all you can just put in both of those 2 week patches into one patch, with the advantage being that the one that would’ve come first gains 2 weeks of polish and fine-tuning.
If guesting is restricted people will clear those events on their home server more often instead of taking the easy solo way of guesting – the bigger events that are meant for servers/guilds to coordinate are being undermined by guesting.
I’d like something to be done to limit guesting without stopping friends from playing together.
Imo all champs should get a random factor added to their spawns, or a bigger one if they aready have random timers.
I think Karka queen, Fire elemental and Mark II are in a good spot now. Shadow behemoth, Maw and some others are still too kitten , those should be made more interesting and challenging similar to Mark II (not Tequatl-level). The other dragon minions should get the Tequatl treatment imo (Shatterer, Claw and Mega destroyer).
I see no problem with Teq not being done. The encounter is clearly defined, people know how to beat him and have beaten him. Most importantly, people are beating him (done it twice since patch).
You want a go at his unique drops, organize with others and take him down. Overflow issues are mostly gone as expected so any server that wants to work on and beat the encounter can do so.
However, going there alone with the expectation of a an assembled and prepared force just waiting for you to come to loot is… that is pointless, and that’s what most of you are doing.
Not what you want to hear but you left one option out: Decide if you would rather have access to more content, which leads to moving to a different server where your playtime falls into the servers prime time.
Whether you prefer to play with your existing friends and skip some content or have more content while having to make more friends on a new server is your choice.
I dont like the idea of adding gambits to dungeons. People will demand and receive increased rewards for it and discover some Dunwell combination for dungeons that ignores the added risk for free extra rewards.
I think the champs just need a healthy random spawn timer, like spawning between 15 and 35 minutes. They’ll frequently be up for players to kill that play through the zone, but you cannot really make a good farm train with that random timer.
Killed him like an hour ago on Millers – people that want the kill enough will organize and do it, those that would like it but say meh to effort will not get it and post on forums. Working as intended if I judge the Anet correctly.
Have you met Scarlet? Excellent voice actress but still a terrible character. I’d say it’s at least partially a writing problem and not a voice talent problem.
Even the Evon/Keil challenges which were basically this were frustrating (I guess they were fine as a change of pace but then we had to grind them at least 8 times for the achievements).
Do you know how ridiculous that statement is?
I dont think the game needs mounts in the traditional sense, i.e. faster-faster travel. WPs cover that pretty well.
I would like mounts as another option for cosmetics and collecting, though. As such they dont need to give a speed boost, but I would go with permanent Swiftness on mounts because it makes sense and doesnt make them faster then players can achieve on their own. However given that I want them as a cosmetic reward or goal, some of them should be hard to get same as some skins, titles or minis.
I wish they would annouce that future legendary weapons will be account bound starting Dec 1st. or a similar date. Enough time for people to get their affairs in order and not feel shafted (whether they be buying or selling). I definitely want this change before they introduce more legendaries.
I would prefer that ascended armor follow a similar pattern to ascended weapons instead of diverting from it like the OP and first reply suggest.
It maintains the patterns the game has set forth and (with few exceptions) followed so far, which is a good thing. And even more importantly it leaves the door open for legendary armor in future updates (even if they dont have plans for that now).
There was a youtube interview mentioning ascended armor crafting “before the end of the year” according to a thread in the subforum crafting. I would assume that people finishing their ascended weapons are now making it their next goal to be ready for ascended armor, and bought the lower-priced supplies.
I think changes in the game due to Living Story arcs are greatly exaggerated. If you view the base game Guild Wars 2 as a group photo, all the living story does is adding a different funny hat to one guy in the background every two weeks.
They could have done the LA part of that story as an ingame cutscene like they did during F&F or at some points during the summer.
Why didnt they?
I think that is an important question. Mostly because one reason I can think of “its cheaper to put it on the website”. And that is a terrible reason that highlights the loss of quality we’ve seen all summer.
Truth be told all other reasons I thought of seem very contrived and trying too hard to see it in a more positive light. But maybe someone can think of another plausible explanation here?
Not sure I like the need to do 5(?) dailies for a 2 week LS meta achievement. I would prefer if you could technically do it on specific achievements alone and the daily ones were used to pad up your total as a replacement for specific achievements (maybe the harder or more random ones).
I got 9 in one clear of the dungeon so even half of that is most of a key, and my understanding is you only get to use 1 key per run. Or can you use several if you get to the chests in time?
How does your example solve this general problem? In a group of 5 people 4 of them depend on the whim and patience of the one player that started the group. That person leaves the group for whatever reason, the other 4 people are screwed out of their progress in the dungeon.
That’s an issue, always has been. It might be discussed more for this week because the LS deals with a dungeon, but it isnt new.
The game should simply give the group leader status to another person in the group so the party can seek a replacement for the leaver and carry on if they want to.
The game’s been out a year now, you people had plenty of time to realize it’s GW1 with modern graphics but a different game, so why do you still bring up how GW1 did some things?
Hmm that came out all wrong, let me rephrase: Why do you bring up irrelevant things like this trivial fee and near-useless gemstore item, or waypoints, or repair costs? Of all the things wrong with the direction this game is going that is what you go on about?
I would complain louder about the cop-out birthday present we had if I compare it to the way GW1 did those, and a whole list of other things, before a few silver for retraiting enters my mind.
This topics resurface every now and then… and is completely wrong at its base. New content is not made every two week, they are “released” every two weeks.
They said that there are many teams (I’m guessing at least 4) that work for at least two months on each release, and they are synced so the deadline for each team is two weeks from the previous team. That means that the team that released today will work on December content.
That’s all nice and well, and The last two patches have been an improvement on the content, but all of 2013 had issues and flaws, imo moreso then the early releases.
Like many here I would prefer one monthly release that is rock solid instead two that are shaky.
Your summary of their design process is right, but that doesnt change anything. That they worked on all these summer releases for two or more months each doesnt really matter, the results were shaky and could’ve used a couple more weeks of work. That doesnt apply only two one or two of the patches but pretty much ALL of them. So take that extra time, Anet. One solid release per month is still far ahead of any competition and will guarantee you happier customers that will throw money your way for years and their word of mouth will bring more box sales.
P.S. If you do that and find you have a leftover team with nothing to do, I and probably many other players would like you to get back to increasing DE density and adding mini-dungeons to all outdoor zones as you planned to a year ago.
A refund for the price you paid for this content pack has been added to you account.
Sorry, for the inconvenience.
Yes that is $30 for one hour of my time wasted. Thanks.
Sarcasm and entitlement, the dark side of the forums are they. Easily they flow, quick to write in a reply.
Your frustration is understandable. However, I would remind you that ArenaNet’s playerbase currently outnumbers its employees at better than one million to one.
Lol could I see the math on that?