Guild Wars 2

Awesome, thank you Tron for voicing this issue as I was just at this moment perusing the forum for this answer before starting a thread with same topic of my own. And thank you Athidae for providing that link.

Much appreciated to both of you. I haven’t bought the first centimeter of extra personal bank space so it stays at a premium and getting even a single item out of there is very helpful.

I concur with the OP and it needed to be said. I’ll be the first to admit I’ve made some posts concerning some bugs / issues that I’m sure came off a bit more emotionally charged than I had intended. The ongoing “Invulnerable” mob glitch so prevalent in under water battles leaps to mind, heh. Often I intend ironic or sardonic humor in the form of flatly ridiculous over reaction but that doesn’t always translate to everyone with the written word, especially amongst total strangers. I do try to express that I haven’t lost all realistic perspective and am aware that I’m really just speaking about a video game though.

To put myself in the shoes of an A-Net Rep. whose job may be to engage in dialog with consumers on these forums (if there even is such a job description at A-Net) I have to wonder how I could respectfully respond to a post stating something along the lines that:

“A-Net has irretrievably and permanantly shattered all faith and trust in the company’s name and that a full on campaign of life long sanction and boycott is being leveled against it because they released two rings, 1 backpack and an upgrade slot which has been determined to be a stark violation (or at least clearly portend of one) of some perceived iron clad oath against any and all ‘vertical progression’, along with a new ‘end game’ 5 man dungeon with a tiered progress structure.”

Personally, I just can’t fathom how I could treat such a discussion point and the person who is spun up into such an emotional torrent over it with an honest reciprocation of a similar level of dire seriousness. I think I’d be stifling laughter at such unbelievably gross over reaction and melodrama (much as many people with an appropriate perspective on something like relatively minor changes to a video game).

Such seemingly visceral and venom filled posts pop up on the forums of every on-line game I can recall being interested enough to visit the forums of in the past several years though. These kinds of posts have progressively grown more and more dire and fatalistic though, today and in the recent past. To the point where these days people are jumping right out there with in a month or two of release and swearing that they will never patronize whoever the offending game producer du jour is because their evil and egregious outright lies were obviously engineered solely to fleece their consumers.

That taken with the observation that when an A-Net Representative does make an announcement or public response, a very measured and cautious statement, as the OP correctly points out. Literally the content volume of a novel or text book is composed in the aggregate by nearly every ‘voice on the forums’ with in 24 hours. Filled with almost nothing but pure venom for the OP and then among the community members in disagreement as well.

Take the WvW “night capping” issue for example. A-Net responded after due consideration that there would be no adjustment made to the “weight” of any players accomplishments no matter their playing “prime time”. You had two groups of players with polar opposite points of view yet equivalently strong feelings about their differing perspectives. A decision had to be made one way or the other and there was no room for any “political” comprimise. As sure as the Sun rises in the East too, one of those two strongly commited groups was going to be pleased and one displeased. Every bit as certain, a vocal portion of those displeased were going to launch a bitter and scathing verbal campaign in response.

It’s really obvious, to me at least, why as a mouthpiece for A-Net on these forums any response here would be handled as briefly and delicately as a Faberge Egg, and only when absolutely necessary. Otherwise, no matter how benign A-Net’s intent, any “contact” on the open community forums would just be kicking a hornet’s nest. Hornets who nit pick, “research” and cast conjecture on every syllable and utterance until the original statement and it’s intent is so twisted up and spun that the person who wrote it probably can’t even tell what they were trying to say anymore.

Crater.1625:

Increasing the level cap shares some qualities with adding a new gear tier, but it’s also different in a number of ways that make it a lot more palatable.

- First: Increasing the level cap changes the game. Going from level 80 to 90 means every character has 10 more Trait Points. This changes the game already on its own – and it doesn’t stretch the imagination to think that it might come with more traits. Adding gear with better stats just makes the numbers go up, and doesn’t change anything.

- Second: Guild Wars 2 has a flat experience curve for leveling. If it only took as long to go from 80-90 as it did from 70-80 (or at the least, only took marginally longer), then that would be palatable (though again, only because the game is actually changing – if there were no trait points from 80-90 and all that happened was that the numbers went up, then it once again becomes unacceptable). If it suddenly took 5 million experience points to go up a level, the reaction would be very different.

- Third: Increasing the level cap, but not adding new tiers, would presumably mean that the rarity of ‘top level’ items would remain the same. If a level 90 Exotic is only as hard to get (at level 90) as a level 80 Exotic is to get (at level 80), then I think most people could deal with that. If it suddenly takes 15g and/or ten hours of grinding just to get one equipment piece, this suddenly becomes a lot less okay.

- Fourth: In the scenario described, the level cap comes along with an expansion. Generally speaking, I think people are more likely to give a developer more latitude to make game-changing design decisions when they’re coupled to a major, boxed expansion. In particular, a player is free to look at the features and content of an expansion, and say “Yes, I want that” or “No, I’m not interested”, and either buy or not buy the expansion pack based on what they think of the content it contains.

If a level cap increase can justify itself, and it comes at a point (an expansion pack) where people are already expecting to either re-commit, jump on, or jump off of the game, and it’s not too egregious of a grind, then I’m willing to give it a chance. If it’s just there to be a bullet point on the back of the box and to extend the amount of time that people have to play before they get to the fun part, then no thanks.

BINGO!

Essentially my sentiments exactly. Vertical Progression in and of it’s self is not “evil” or “anti-casual”. What and How it’s implemented along with the context in which it is presented and it’s “ratio” to Horizontal Progression is where it’s defined as lending it’s self more to the casual or hardcore player.

P.S Anyone with any critically thinking inclination saw the potential for GW2 to become a pay-to-win game from the instant it’s revenue model was announced. No matter who or what accused “Antichrist” of a company has their hands on the wheel the temptation is gonna just… BE THERE.

That “article” is little more than the “Left Behind” series of how it could happen in GW2. It assumes A WHOLE LOT, establishes nothing, and isn’t much more than fiction with a REALLY loose premise whose only real goal is to stir up some kind of reaction. The fact is we’ll all have to sit here and see what develops. I guess with a few blogging on-lookers attempting to identify any ‘Nostradamus-like’ conspiracy instead of fringe anthropologists drawing loose “conclusions” about Mayan calendars and what not.

cesmode.4257:

…..

-Arenanet is catering more towards hardcores, but will quickly learn that lesson

I am done with the game for at least a while, and if they don’t fix the fractal level system(at least), I will be done for good….

…..Instead of Guild Wars 2, I am playing WoW for at least the next month.

I’m sorry. not that I want to specifically call anyone out or anything but this just lept at me like those infant Aliens that attatch to your face in that movie, well… Alien heh.
No one needs take anything personal here, we’re just having a discussion. We’re all independant, mature gamers who know what we want in a game and will of course gravitate to the game that best suits that.

It just appears to me from the above that the poster is inferring that a more casual game is what they are looking for (and that they already feel that an inferred promise by the producers of GW2 to be that casual MMO has been broken), especially in terms of gear and content progression. From either the recent addition of rings, a backpack, and an upgrade slot that slightly excede the stats of similar exotic items along with one, tiered, 5 man dungeon, and / or from the “facts” hinted at in the blog that the OP has linked, in favor of a more casual friendly game, someone is leaving GW2 to go back to playing WoW?

Are some players, who appear to be seeking a “casual friendly” MMO abandoning GW2 for WoW and other MMOs because they already believe WoW and others are more casual now? Or are people shelving GW2 currently to play other games just doing so for reasons completely outside of and seperate from the “casual vs. hardcore” reasons? I mean is it simple protest and boycott or is WoW and other MMOs like it really already seen as the more casual game(s) compared to GW2?

Either there’s a very drastic change to GW2 that I’ve completely over looked or my understanding of the definitions of casual and hardcore games is extremely flawed and skewed. By my current understanding, despite the new rings, backpack and tiered dungeon, games like WoW and those similar are light years more hardcore, particularly in their gear progression and time demands to stay on par with the rest of the community.

Likewise by my current understanding, choosing WoW over GW2 because of those recent highlighted events, as the more casual game isn’t just jumping the gun its, well… it’s way beyond any addage anyone has coined so far in humanity’s history of pithy adages!

I dunno, I’m just not getting it from that viewpoint. If someone wants to go check out the new expansion because the commercials look cool and it’s already turning into a REALLY boring Winter for them too? That makes perfect sense to me. I didn’t think I’d want to but I think I might check it out. I’m even thinking about frapsing it as a satirical piece – I’D BE LOGGING IN WEARING THE SHAMAN TIER 2 GEAR – TEN STORMS SET LOL!!! I’m going straight into a BG too! That my friends is gonna be comedy! I don’t see any possibility of getting back into WoW though because I have NO WHERE NEAR the time needed to be competitive there, it would just be a novelty. That’s what I’m getting at when I wonder why someone might attempt to return to WoW seeking a more casual game than GW2 though.

/shrug

To each their own.

I tried to formulate a meaningful post to get down my take on all this but honestly I couldn’t keep it with in a reasonable length (or cohesion really LOL ;P). I really don’t wanna tread these waters right now anyway after reading the proceeding. I would like to however thank some of the above posters above for giving a fairly succinct clarification of what is horizontal and vertical progression though. Especially the video on “Power-creep”, thank you very much Azjenco for finding and posting that for us all. Very informative my friend.

About all I am reasonably sure of so far is this:

ALL MMOs require a “balance” (for lack of a better term, mix didn’t seem to fit right either) of both vertical and horizontal progression / content to remain relevant and have any factor of longevity. I believe it is the ratio of this “balance” between the two and the speed and style with which it is integrated that mostly define a game as more “hardcore” or “casual” friendly.

cegorach.5624:

Well, I think you may be missing my point.

I agree that the ‘elitist’ people are likely to be those who lack the time in real life to put in the ‘hard work’ to get ‘rewards’.

My question is though whether that is how they think – particularly in relation to others.

That kind of cognitive dissonance operation is very common in extreme viewpoints – for example, you don’t need to look far in terms of political views to see that most people advocating extremes on either side are horrendously hypocritical.

Latte-sipping communists and Tea Party hoverround dwellers ranting about healthcare are both clear examples of people preaching ideals they are a lot happier to impose on others than take on themselves.

And I’d argue that games are a great enabler of this, given the disconnect from reality.

If you’re a basement dwelling neckbearded l88tist who would rather raid all day than get a job, it’s not a stretch to imagine the cognitive rebound of you pouring scorn on others who refuse to do the ‘work’ to have uber gear like you do, for example.

And I wonder about the other direction – are those in-game egalitarian folks exactly the same outside?

Jeebus man! I’m starting get the idea that you may be either a sadist or masochist who gets a kick out of either (or both) suffering or imposing carpal tunnel syndrome! You trying to bounce around term paper ideas or something LOL!

Well anyway, while I still have some sensation in my fingertips, I’d offer up the idea of compartmentalization. A psychological idea that probably plays a noticeable roll in such behavior or, more specifically, the ability to behave seemingly ‘hypocritically’ in two separate arenas of one’s life without having to deal with the normal internal struggles that would otherwise result. Additionally, I think the relative anonymity everyone enjoys from behind their monitor and keyboard over the internet makes it even easier to quell one’s normal internal conflict.

I guess (and I stress – guess) that this interpretation of psychological compartmentalization is an extrapolation (loose one) of the theory of Gestaltism, if you subscribe to it. Basically that one’s psyche, behavior and personality are always a part of the psychological interplay of personalities in a group and so the individual is influenced by and reactive to the presence of and interaction with other’s psyches and personalities. In a brutally crude example; you’re going to behave differently in the presence of your boss than that of your co-workers, likewise you’d behave differently at the birthday party of peers than at the birthday party of a 12 year old. I’m sure I’m not doing the concept justice but hopefully that makes some sense. Heh, if not it’s because clearly I’m not nearly sharp enough with words to express what I’m getting at without writing a book here ;P.

Keep in mind I’m not hardly any kind of trained psychological doctor so you’re getting “the lay man’s best stab” at how people are able to behave so contrary, even polar opposite, in different area’s of their lives with out cracking their very emotional bedrock. I’m also sure there are other reasons at play here. I think I’m at least getting across that yes, I do think people are fully capable and probably usually do, have a seemingly “antithetic” point of view in MMOs compared to their real life ideals and morals. They can do so with ease too by seperating their on-line gaming “me”, from their public, I fit in with this group because I behave in a way that pleases them “me”.

And hey, if nothing else, the easiest reasoning for such behavior is probably as simple as, “this is just a game with no real consequences.” In a similar vein you have the role play crowd to whom the fun and entertainment it’s self is in behaving like an entirely different person with different morals and ideals.

Anyway, good luck with your paper Bro!

And if this was a troll, Bravo Sir! I can’t believe I just put that much thought into why and how people behave differently in games opposed to real life! Impressive ;P!

Couple things I wanted to point out.

First, unless there is some place that the exact definition of the simile that the term “treadmill” is meant to describe here then it’s wide open to subjective interpretation. What exactly is meant by the term in relation to MMOs and the process of progressing in them isn’t set in stone anywhere that I’ve run across. I always took it to mean that while I am in fact putting forth effort and achieving something by that effort, in a strictly physical sense of progress or forward movement I’m not in fact “moving” anywhere but, in the strictest technical sense, remaining in the same place. In correlation to gearing up in MMOs, I’m in fact putting forth the effort to progress my character through aqcuiring better gear but in a setting where everything (other players as well as NPCs and general PvE content) are keeping, more or less, exact pace with me. So in the sense of practical application we aren’t progressing relative to our setting. Kind of like we’re all in a bus and the bus is progressing forward but inside the bus no one is progressing beyond anyone or anything else inside the bus. I have a feeling I may be ‘over-explaining’ that but I think everyone gets the point. And as I said that’s my subjective opinion on the definiton of the vernacular MMO specific reference. In general agreement with the above poster, Crater, but with some variation on some details. I guess? Well, whatever, that’s niether here nor there really.

Second, I think it’s the rate at which new gear (as well as new dungeons, events and yes, higher levels even) is introduced that will make it either casual or hardcore friendly. From the way they’ve so far implemented such a small segment of Ascended items I don’t see any cause for alarm at all. Maybe a suspicious, watchful eye but I don’t think we’re quite to the point for open revolt in the streets and the torching of Dwayna in effigy on the door step of A-Net HQ.

Lastly, from the relatively slight increase in stats offered by the new Ascended accessories and Infusion upgrade slots I feel fully confident in saying that, if an opponent with those items were able to easily smash me with only my exotics still in PvP, it wasn’t the gear discrepancy that gave them the ‘W’. They’re better than me and were going to beat me with or without the new rings and Infusions. There may be an extremely small fraction of players whose skills match up so closely to mine that the extra dozen points in PWR or whatever tipped the scale but the likelyhood of us meeting 1 vs. 1 on a WvW map and duking it out uninterrupted is even smaller still that it’s not even worth considering, much less worth using my GW2 DVD for a clay pigeon at the skeet shooting range.

I feel as the OP generally, let’s not jump the gun and take action on an assumption arrived at by A-Net releasing such a small amount and relevance of new gear. In the past, other games have gotten to the point that I didn’t feel I could put in enough time to remain competitive. When I stopped feeling competitive I stopped having fun and, not having fun I stopped playing (and paying). It’s happened many times in the past and I’m pretty sure not just to me (or we’d all still be in DAoC or WoW or – well you get the point). Also, I never took it personally when a game changed (or my circumstance changed) to a point that I stopped having fun. At the end of the day they’re a multi-million dollar, multi-national media company(s) and I’m a gamer. When our goals stopped lining up and serving each other’s purpose we stopped our business relationship. C’est la vie.

P.S I’m also of the opinion (about 99.9% sure of it) that any MMO requires both ‘vertical’ and ‘horizontal’ progression for longevity if nothing else. I feel it’s the balance between these two types of progress (along with the speed at which new content is released) that generally determine and identify a game as more of a ‘hard-core’ or ‘casual’ game.

Jski.6180:

It sound like this is going to turn into a self fulfilled prophecy. Ppl are going to point out small flaw all the time to the point of them not making much money off the game then they MUST get others to buy parts them or the game will die as they are being bought by others the way the game MAY play or will be blamed on for having this small flaw or another will keep pushing the game away from its old ideas.

Simply put the fans them self are killing the game by endless complaining this is just one of them and should be treating as such.

I agree with the sentiment here. All that has occurred is a single tiered dungeon, not a 40 man soul crushing series of raids that can only be mastered with weekly ventures that drone on for hours and hours week after week, month after month to obtain the new best in slot and generally replace every item on your character with every expansion, endlessly. So far as I’m aware it’s some new accessories with stats just a few points above exotic and a new upgrade slot that provides a few more points in conjunction with the new ‘Agony’ resistance that has no bearing on the game outside of FotM.

I don’t seem to ever see anyone simply post anything like, “Hey guys at A-Net. We see you put in some new jewelry and this new upgrade slot. Most of us are really hoping this isn’t a sign of rapid, massive, sweeping changes to gear in this game becoming more like the treadmill style we’ve left behind in other games. Just hoping you keep in mind what the majority of your consumer base wants out of this game.”

It’s almost always along the lines of, “YOU ARE DEAD TO ME A-NET!!! YOU’VE IRRETRIEVABLY SHATTERED MY TRUST AND FAITH IN YOU BECAUSE OF WHAT THIS SMALL GEAR UPGRADE MAY PORTEND!!! I DON’T THINK I CAN EVER FORGIVE THIS AND I THINK WE SHOULD GET SEPERATE APARTMENTS AND START SEEING OTHER GAMES!!!”

Just saying, I see where measured suspicion may be warranted of the recent action of adding these few ‘Ascended accessories’ and upgrade slots. Mainly because of how many of the recent MMO title’s launched with such majestic expectations and then quickly went over the falls in titanic, catastrophic fashion. A Boston Tea Party style boycott may be jumping the gun just a tad though. IF GW2 IS going to kitten the bed though? At least let em do it first before we call in the lawyers and file for restraining orders.

If the point is reached where I feel left behind and not a ‘competitive’ player anymore? I’ll just stop playing. Done it before with plenty of other games and never took it personally. Heck Bioware has made plenty of fun games for me, Funcom may surprise us someday too (well, maybe ;P). I never felt I had to swear a blood oath to never patronize them again in my life either though.

I still have high hopes for GW2 as well until I’m given an actual, confirmed reason not to. Not just assumptions and conjecture about what may happen in the future from the industry experts and pontificators. That’s just me and my subjective opinion though – every single one of us is entitled to our own as well. That’s my two copper anyway.

I’d say the application of the two ideas is mutually exclusive if we’re speaking of MMOs in general. Just by the simple laws of nature one who puts in the “work” to be the top dog rarely also has the resources (mainly time) to do so in real life. This isn’t always the case but in general.

As far as options allowing one to be rewarded without hard work? Well I suppose they would be the exceptions to that rule. I suppose one could be a Columbian drug lord or the next Bernie Madoff and be “top dog” financially and what not in real life and still have the spare time to do the same in MMOs. People with disabilities I guess? I had a broken back a couple years ago and had nothing to do but play games most of my day (especially in the winter).

I wouldn’t say this could really be the case in GW2 though, at least in today’s incarnation. We aren’t required to rope together 40 people at the same time and march them into some raid dugeon for hours every week and for month after month to complete that “best in slot” gear set up to be the e-bully on the e-block. Oh, and only so that they can do so again a few more months down the road to get the next “best gear set up”.

I don’t know maybe some can pull that off, in my experience though, putting in that amount of time and effort in a game invariably meant other facets of my life were neglected. In your early 20’s though, going to school, working a kitteny monotonous job, living on ramen and beer and a girlfriend who is in pretty much the same situation in life and doesn’t expect much from you, there isn’t a lot to neglect anyway!

I tried that. I set it for Consumables —→ Food --→ LvL range varied 5 – 80 up to 75 – 80. Nothing showed up though.

Did you just set it for Consumables —→ Level 60 – 80? Leaving the field where I had selected Food blank?

So I’ve been attempting to search the foods on the Trading Post to get a good idea of what may be more profitable, available or which may be better sold as it’s raw materials.

So I click on the Search tab, select Consumable, the Food, leaving the Level Range set at 0 – 80 with no other search fields defined and click Submit. For some reason the only products that show up in that list so defined, is alcoholic beverages (that offer no buffs what so ever outside of intoxication, yay -_-). No foods ever show up in that list as defined above. However, if I am to type in the specific name a particular food it will show up. Of course leading me to believe that various player crafted foods are in fact on the TP.

Am I making some mistake in how I’m defining the search fields perhaps? Or is this another relatively small but greatly annoying glitch in the Trading Post and specifically I guess it’s search function.

Please, someone with more experience using the TP let me know. In general I haven’t used the TP very much at all as I leveled, mainly only to sell stacks of un-needed materials when they maxed out in my bank at 250. Now that I’m 80 though and have maxed Chef and Jewel Crafting to 400 I’m keenly interested in marketing what I can and maximizing the profits from those as now my focus has shifted to building specific gear sets to hone my build .

I can’t see myself taking time out of my chosen liesure activity to type in one specific food product after another attempting to isolate the most profitable. I dearly hope I’m making a mistake somewhere in my use of the TP search function. If it is a glitch I seriously have no intent on spending great amounts of time working around it in the only manner I’ve found because of the level of labor involved in searching each food, material, etc. and jotting them down to mathematically arive at the greatest profit / time invested.

Likewise, I don’t see many consumers who don’t already know the specific food they want spending that much time either to compare and contrast all the different consumables, buffs and prices. Which would further impact the market negatively I would guess.

Thank you in advance. I’m very much looking forward to knowing exactly what went wrong where and sincerely hope it’s my fault with but a simple fix needed to get the TP to work like I suspect it should.

DesertRose.2031:

In my experience mobs prioritize the target they can kill the quickest; this not only includes the HPs and armor but also the time it would take to be in attack range of a potential new target. Once mobs have decided on a target this target will get an “aggro bonus” so another target must be significant easier to kill than the current target before they switch aggro. In addition mobs seem to evaluate their target priorities every couple of seconds or so.
Some bosses seem to have two or more preferable targets at once, one for their melee attacks and one for their ranged attacks.

This explains most of the behavior I’ve seen from mobs but sometimes they do something completely unexpected. I assume each mobs adds a randomly generated number to each potential target’s “time I would need to kill it” to keep things unpredictable.

Yes, what this person said about how bosses prioritize their “hate list” is pretty much what I’ve surmized through observation. This person just said it a lot more clearly and succinctly than I could.

What the poster above me said about the Dev’s answer is very interesting though and I can see how this could in fact be the case. Does anyone have a link for this quote by any chance? Or was it from a twitter comunique or something?

Yes it’s always the Shoulders, 100% of the time. I’m a stickler about having it repaired immediately so I don’t even really know what might break next. To be completely honest though I just kind of assumed that when a piece breaks, the stats and bonuses from it are then not effecting you until repaired. So, at the very least, thank you all for opening my eyes to that fact. Heh, if this post ends up serving only one purpose, thank God I’ve now learned that. Who knows how long I would have gone on believing that a piece’s stats are gone as soon as that piece breaks.

Another facet of my question though is the fact that it always and invariably takes one and only one death and like clockwork – Shoulders are broken. One single death seems like a fairly weak measure of durability, especially for an exotic piece. I guess it just makes practical sense to me that the better the armor the more durable it should be. But no, it’s not 2 deaths nor 5, nor 105, it’s just one death and it breaks every time. Again though, I guess I just made an assumption based on what seems common sense to me that they should last more than just 1 death. We all know what they say about assuming though…

In everyone elses experience though, does at least 1 piece of your armor always break after just one death?

I’ve finally farmed out a full set of exotics – weps, accessories, and most importantly armor.

I’m a Warrior (with Heavy Armor of course) using the Heavy Arcon Pauldron’s of Dwayna having replaced it’s stock Rune with a Superior Rune of the Warrior. So, generally speaking, I have about the best Shoulder Armor you can put on a Warrior currently.

Why then, this being about the tip of the top of the line in Heavy Shoulder Armor, is it that EVERY TIME I DIE this piece (and this piece alone mind you) breaks and must be fixed? That’s every death, every single one, I have to immediately go find a Repair NPC (usually one near by to any given Way Point though) and plunk down 1s 64c to repair this, and ONLY this piece of armor.

Is this really the way you intentionally designed this? I’m honestly hoping this was an oversight of some sort. I mean it’s just this one single lone piece of armor that breaks. It’s the top of the line in heavy, spiky, metal alloy plating that’s sole function is to withstand literal deathblows from every mob in Tyria from Zombie Chickens to Ogres to Dragons and now up to Ancient Crab-like Beasties that take dozens of Tyria’s best geared and skilled heros the better part of 30 – 45 minutes to kill! Yet somehow the instant any opponent manages to knock off my 32k Hit Pints +1 it crumbles faster than an intellectually impaired (a “-tar +d of the re- designation” is censored?!?!) Silverback Gorilla playing handball with a Faberge Egg!!!

Please, enlighten me. I’m on the edge of my seat, breathless and chewing off my finger nails in anticipation of the reasoning for this. Please commence…

When I really pile on the regen I use the Signet, Adrenal Health, Mango Pie, and Inspiring Banners. That with various +Healing buffs – Tactics Banner, etc. So far as I’ve noticed they all function reliably but honestly I’ve never made it a point to watch closely to be sure they are all ticking and for the commensurate amounts. They are indeed buffs, aside from poison that is that completely STOP all healing. There’s a debuff called “Dwayna’s Misery” or something like that near Arah in Cursed Shore and I’m pretty sure there are some others that effect similarly though I’m, not 100% on that.

Just to be clear though, you’re saying that the Green numbers that normally tick by over your player’s “health Orb” (for lack of a better term) in the “Scrolling Combat Text” when you have an HP deficit STOP, as in they cease to scroll by at all on your screen? The only times I’ve noticed that occur are when a debuff like the “Dwayna’s Misery” are applied to my Character. I’ll keep a closer eye on it now though, it’s very possible there may be a bug that I just haven’t noticed before.

With all those regen buffs though I can generally stand there and let 1- 3 (sometimes, depending) regular mobs in Orr just swing away without my HP ever dropping. If that regen suddenly stoipped mid combat it seems I’d notice it P.D.Q. Then again though, enough mobs on me with all my regens not funtioning I may actually die to quick to notice if they’re working or not though. For general farming though I can’t believe I ever tried to do it without the regen active though (and with gear a WHOLE lot poopier than the set I use these days).

Will keep an eye out and report back here if I notice they are not functioning inexplicably at times.

Anecdotally I’ve observed that mobs tend to prioritze their “hate list” more like an actual human player would. Meaning that, say one member has much less HP’s than the others, that seems to place them toward’s the top of the boss’ hate list (observed when for example a player is rezzed, they get up with about half their HP while the other group is still mostly full – the boss seems to immediatley turn attention back on them). Exaclty how it does actually work I’m not sure but the above example kind of illustrates the way I think it’s prioritzed.

Incidentally though, as a Warrior if you seem to just somehow automatically default to the top of a boss’ hate list then I’d consider that extraordinarily lucky. Despite a conventional Tank / DPS / Healer trinity mechanic in GW2 PvE, as a Warrior I still strive to get the aggro on me because I’m generally the least squishy. The more I try to build my Warrior to be less squishy the more resources I take away from my DPS capability as well, meaning that the squishy glass cannons are the one’s we’d like to keep the aggro off even more so.

This of course assuming your group doesn’t have a Guardian that is built to tank even more so than your Warrior that is. Generally I am the “tankiest” guy in the group though and it would be a HUGE weight off my shoulders to have the mob’s / boss’ aggro just automatically default to me. Aggro seems to be such an esoteric and capricious mechanic in this game that, at least for myself and my very limited dungeon experience so far, I struggle to pull and keep the aggro on myself reliably and I’m hardly sure of any “sure fire” ways to get the aggro on me. If I had it like you do with acquiring aggro so easily (automatically even) I’d consider myself pretty kitten great at being a Warrior.

I mean no insult but honestly, if your group doesn’t have a “tankier” Guardian or Warrior along who would you and your group prefer the aggro to be on? I mean at the very least, keeping the aggro on one person (and hopefully it’s at least a Heavy Armor wearer – one with some melee range damage mitigating abilities too even better) makes it easier strategize and manage the encounter. A boss switching aggro willy nilly and bouncing from party member to party member is generally pure chaos and a “skin of your teeth” situation in my experience.

I’d be stoked if I was you!

Good question. ‘Last stand’ still doesn’t work either, at least not in the way it’s described to and definitely not in any way that’s useful. Among many other bugs that is.

I was just reflecting on the fact that none of our real issues has recieved any treatment in our stickied bugs thread at the top of our forum earlier today relative to another trait skill. Thankfully, our Warrior community came out and helped me understand where I was mistaken concerning that trait skill but your point still remains. The 15th was supposed to be a “big build / patch / whatever they call it”, however none of the bugs really important to us were addressed at all. That’s a tad concerning to say the least given that we’re roughly three months in to the final product’s release now. Doesn’t seem we should be dealing with issues as large as skills completely and utterly broken at this point given the 3 months live along with the open and closed betas, internal QA, etc. To be fair we are just players on the outside looking in. Some kind of official comment, maybe even a loose timeline at least would be great though in my humble opinion.

Personally, I still have faith though. In the “big picture”, there are other Classes and issues that need A-Nets resources first in my opinion. If their resources are that limited I suppose we have to take a number and stand in line. If that’s the case they may want to consider rethinking the allocation of their resources though. On a player to player basis there is a lot of “high priority” issues that should really be gotten to sooner than later in the interest of customer retention, or at least in my humble opinion that is.

Oh, at this point is pure theory but based on what I’ve learned here from the folks that have so far posted. I’ve begun thinking on the setup loosely outlined below. I’d very much appreciate anyone’s comments, ideas or critques on it.

Throw the Superior Sigil on your wep(s) that gives a 5% flat damage increase too and it starts looking even sexier. An axe / axe combo immediately lept to mind personally. With such a weapon combo we’re talking about lightning fast adrenaline production, far better Adrenal ability, much more flexiblity and mobility over the GS, and now possibly DPS that matches or maybe even slightly exceeds the GS with use of this trait skill coupled with two of those Superior Sigils. It appears to me as a pretty big step up in damage output that doesn’t hinge on one attack which is fairly well dependant on several cooldowns and roots you for it’s duration as well. At least in my estimation that is.

Currently in WvW I use either a GS, when I’m in a group with members properly set up to take advantage of 100 Blades, for example a Thief with Caltrops and a Guardian with a Hammer, or something along those lines (otherwise it seems like a GS Warrior in PvP may as well have a neon sign over their head listing pretty much their exact build, skills on their hotkeys, and generally their exact strategy and lone tactic – Charge / Root you, pop Frenzy and maybe Endure Pain, probably Sigil of Rage, and then of course 100 Blades.

Failing a proper group to set up the super 100 Blades combo proc and support when conditions aren’t right to launch 100 Blades – because really, a fully dedicated GS 100 Blades Warrior doesn’t have much room for Shouts or Banners, or Stances other than Frenzy and possibly Endure Pain to prop them selves up with between 100 Blades set ups (let alone the trait setup to utilize any support form shouts, banners, etc.) I use a 2 hand Hammer for great CC (relatively) and decent damage.

With a Rifle as my alternate. I know many say a Long Bow is more appropriate to WvW but I just can’t get a feel for it and feel far more useful still with a Rifle despite the situation. Although honestly, I’ve hardly given the Long Bow a fair shot. Even knowing full well it has obvious benefits over the Rifle in WvW.

I leveled from 1 to 80 pretty much exclusively with Axe / Axe though and have searched desperately since hitting 80 and gearing out for the right build to bring them back out. One hand Swords and Maces, along with Warhorns and Shields have their obvious niches, benefits and circumstances where they shine but for my money? The speed with which I could front load damage while also running down an opponent just plain “makes my pants feel tighter!” If you know what I’m getting at there.

I felt like and hoped that this skill might be the key that lets me break my favorite weps back out. Was kinda discouraged until I came here and you guys set me straight about the ‘Empowered’ skill trait. We’ll see, I’ll come back and let you all know how the experimenting turns out.

I retract the above but I’ve left it in should anyone happen in here asking the same questions. Thank you very much to the Warrior communtiy for helping me to understand this skill and it’s implementation. As it turns out it seems an even more powerful trait skill than I was guessing. On the order of potential for a 2 – 10% flat damage increase – pretty huge in my humble opinion.

Throw the Superior Sigil on your wep(s) that gives a 5% flat damage increase too and it starts looking even sexier. An axe / axe combo immediately lept to mind personally. With such a weapon combo we’re talking about lightning fast adrenaline production, far better Adrenal ability, much more flexiblity and mobility over the GS, and now possibly DPS that matches or maybe even slightly exceeds the GS with use of this trait skill. It appears to me as a pretty big step up in damage output that doesn’t hinge on one attack that depends on several cooldowns and roots you for it’s duration as well. At least in my estimation that is (and that may be an understatement to be honest).

So thanks again to our Warrior community here and it appears that this trait skill is indeed fully functioning as described.

Ah AWESOME! Thank you all very much. This “steady weapon” mechanic sounds like a really useful testing tool, I wish I had known sooner! I’m glad to hear the wiki is beginning to be filled in now too. It’s been some time since I visited it looking for game related facts and such. It was really early in the games final live product “life” back then though to be fair. I’m overjoyed to see that this trait skill works, the potential for traited flat damage percentage increase seems like a pretty big skill we’re offered with this.

Again thank you all, and to anyone yet unaware of the actual numbers involved in this trait skill, it may definitely be worth another look and evaluation for you and certain builds you may run.

Okay, thank you both so much for your replies and I will go and test your suggestions A.S.A.P. Just one question though, what do you mean by “stability” or “steady” weapon? Generally, my go to weapons, both in and out of PvP these days, are a Great Sword, Two Hand Hammer, and a Rifle – do any of those qualify?

Also, do either of you use this trait skill for any purpose in any of your build’s? Knowing that 1 – 2% per boon, a flat DMG increase, makes me even more excited for this to work. So far I’ve just been considering a build including this trait skill for solo PvE pretty much. A flat DMG increase between 2 – 10% though is pretty kittened significant though and I may start thinking of other ways to work this in to other builds. Man, I really hope this one isn’t broken!

Thanks again! And please, anyone else with anything relevant to this topic to add, by all means do so. I will report back the results of the suggested experiment as soon as I can attempt it (and as soon as I figure out what a “stable / steady” weapon is). Woohoo! Hope is yet alive still!

Okay, I VERY SINCERELY hope I am just missing or overlooking something because the way the bugs seem to be piling up as I’ve now begun to be really focused on the finer details of various builds for various purposes and these bugs just keep shutting down potential builds, combos, etc., and it’s REALLY starting to kitten me off! So here’s another ‘questionable’ ability I’ve run across:

Trait Tactics: Numeral VI – Empowered
- Increases damage for every Boon on you

Alright, so it doesn’t specify exactly how much damage is increased per boon but that isn’t new to A-Net’s style of tooltips and descriptions. We can of course assume there is some increase in damage though, on that much at least the description is clear. Here in lies the problem though, after activating this trait skill, no where on the Hero tab that outlines your stats is ANY amount of increase in damage reflected, numerically or otherwise. If your PWR, Attack, Weapon Damage and Conditional Damage are W, X, Y and Z respectively before activating this trait skill, they remain exactly W, X, Y and Z after activating this trait skill. There is no stat or point value anywhere that I could find that changes AT ALL. No observable feedback demonstrating ANY change from this trait’s activation. And of course, due to however attack damage is ultimately figured (the product of which we see on our “scrolling combat text”) from strike to strike, there is then NO POSSIBLE WAY to confirm if this trait skill is or is not indeed active and effecting your damage.

Please, someone tell me I’m wrong. That I’m missing or overlooking something. PLEASE SOMEONE TELL ME THIS ONE ISN’T BROKEN TOO. I’m honestly getting pretty fed up with this. It’s enough that they are so ambiguous in our tooltips and descriptions of a majority of our skills but then to have so many of them not only completely broken, but broken in such a way that subtleties of the tooltips and feedback, in the form of hard numerical representation, causes difficulty just realizing they’re broken.

Oh yeah, and if it’s occured to you that maybe you could use the trait skill ‘Empower Allies (Tactics Numeral II)’ as a less effective option until ‘VI’ is fixed like it did me? Uh yeah, same deal, either that doesn’t effect you the caster of said skill (and who knows if it even effects our allies now that I think of it) or there is no feedback reporting that it has increased your damage and so no way to know if that one is working at all either.

Unless someone can point out where I’m mistaken, throw this one on the pile too then I guess.

P.S Above all though, WHAT IS REALLY SO GAWD KITTEN FRUSTRATING ABOUT ALL THIS? They have yet, 3 months into the live release of the game, to make any attempt at fixing even the first of these actually meaningful bugs for us. Let alone even acknowledge them. The “BIG PATCH? They fixed some icons. Icons! EFFIN ICONS!!!!!!!!!!

• I’ve also reported this in our stickied ‘Bugs Thread’ at the top of our Forum but figured that many more of my fellow Warriors are likely to see my post here rather than at the tail end of that thread. I dearly hope one of you can point out where I’m mistaken concerning this traited skill.

Okay, I very SINCERELY hope I am just missing or overlooking something because the way the bugs seem to be piling up as I’ve now begun to be really focused on the finer details of various builds for various purposes and these bugs just keep shutting down potential builds, combos, etc., and it’s REALLY starting to kitten me off! So here’s another ‘questionable’ ability I’ve run across:

Trait Tactics: Numeral VI – Empowered
Increases damage for every Boon on you

Alright, so it doesn’t specify how much damage is increased per boon but this isn’t new to A-Net’s style of tooltips and descriptions. We can of course assume their is some increase in damage though, on that much at least the description is clear. Here in lies the problem though; After activating this trait skill no where on the Hero tab that outlines your stats is ANY amount of increase in damage reflected. If your PWR, Attack, Weapon Damage and Conditional Damage are W, X, Y and Z respectively before activating this trait skill they remain exactly W, X, Y and Z after activating the trait skill. There is no stat or point value anywhere that I could find that changes AT ALL. No observable feedback demonstrating ANY change from this traits activation. And of course due to however attack damage is figured from strike to strike there is then NO POSSIBLE WAY to confirm if this trait skill is or is not indeed active and effecting your damage.

Please, someone tell me I’m wrong, that I’m missing or overlooking something. PLEASE SOMEONE TELL ME THIS ONE ISN’T BROKEN TOO. I’m really honestly getting so fed up with this. It’s enough that they are so ambiguous in our tooltips and descriptions of a majority of our skills but then to have so many of them not only completely broken, but broken in such a way that it’s so subtle to be hard to realize they’re broken.

Again, PLEASE tell me I’m wrong about this one being broken. Sadly I have a sneaky suspicion I’m not though. Oh yeah, and if it’s occured to you that maybe you could use the ‘Empower Allies’ trait skill like it did me? Uh yeah, same deal, either that doesn’t effect you the caster of said skill (and who knows if it even effects our allies now that I think of it) or there is no feedback reporting that it has increased your damage and so no way to know if it’s working at all of course.

Unless someone can point out where I’m mistaken throw this one on the pile to then I guess.

P.S Above all though, what is REALLY SO GAWD KITTEN FRUSTRATING ABOUT ALL THIS THOUGH? They have yet, 3 months into the game made no attempt at fixing even the first of these actually meaningful bugs for us. Let alone even acknowledge them. The “BIG PATCH? They fixed some icons. Icons! EFFIN ICONS!!!!!!!!!!

*_Being that I doubt anyone has bothered to glance at this thread in probably weeks at least, players or developers. I’ll be making a post in our forum proper as well in the dire hope that someone can point out where I’m mistaken. Fingers crossed!_

ScorpionX.6938:

disagree on point 1. can change my mind though. all players regardless of timezone, etc. should have the opportunity to participate in the event AND have opportunity at the best rewards. this event did not fit that bill, but future ones should. * note that it would be very easy to have the ancient karka re-spawn, however only give the “good rewards” one time for each player/account.

the massive rewards i have no problem with. massive rewards to a select group of players in certain timezones i DO have a problem with. this tips the economy in exactly the wrong direction ANET was supposedly trying to prevent.

i really hope ANET learns from these mistakes otherwise they will lose players.

I hope I’m not being counter to what I just posted but yes, I have to agree whole heartedly. To me, the gold standard of a “lay person” when it comes to computer programming (especially concerning an international MMO designed for 1,000s upon 1000’s), it doesn’t seem too difficult to put in the design feature that no matter how many times one character or one account (whichever way they want to go there), they get to loot the chest once. Sounds pretty similar to a “cookie” for web sites to me. If they have to maybe offer a few gold and a nice chunk of karma in liu of more items for repeating? Two gold and 1,000 karma maybe – even if I despised the event (which I didn’t, I loved playing it even in spite of the technical problems) I’d definitely do it again for that kind of reward. People who loved playing the event would probably happily repeat it for less even.

If that IS the case then by all means, give a fair and large enough window for this event to take place as much as is decided or neccessary. Everyone gets a shot, everyone gets loot, everyone gets to play and experience the content. So may protest on “philosophical” principles like, one time means one time, it was announced in advance or whatever, and that’s fine for an academic argument of ideals. In the real world of business though? There is really only ONE practical business “philosophy” – Keep a smile on the faces of as many customers as possible to ensure repeat business, good word of mouth advertisement and ultimately the greatest revenue and profit. Plain and simple.

I’m definitely willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that much was learned from this event’s implementation as well. It’s only been a few months since release and the future changes that would make these kinds of events more fun for the players also have the benefit of making A-Net more money and a wider player base.

Oh yeah, and as far the potential for new tiers of loot (along with the already implemented in Ascended gear), I understand there are some complaints about a deviation from the stated goal of, “no vertical progression.” Honestly, I’m not exactly clear on this and I’m not sure many are. As I understand it, Vertical progress, gear wise at least, is tiers of gear progressing by having more powerful and greater stats.

What exactly is Horizontal gear progression though? Same level of stats but new skins? What else is left to progress through or to change? For my money and the over all guiding design principle of “casual friendly” though, progressing to new tiers of gear with greater stats is perfectly fine. In fact I’d say neccessary and expected because cosmetics just will not hold my interest for very long and I suspect I’m hardly alone in that.

In that spirit of “casual friendly” just make the new tiers attainable by the casual as well. If I can collect some karma and get with some groups doing DE chains in Orr, then I have a fair, easy, and “casual” way of attaining a full set of exotics. Or do some dungeons, farm mats and craft, so on and so forth. If from there we jump to 40 man 8 hour raids that have to be run week after week for months on end for the new tier above exotics then yeah, that presents an obviously “non-casual” path to the next tier and we’ve gone WAY outside of the “casual friendly” design goal. New tier above exotic is as easy to aqcuire as exotic though? What we have there is new gear content that remains “casual friendly” and I see no problem there or anything opposite of A-Nets stated design principles.

Additionally, this is the only type of REAL progress, at least as far as gear is concerned, that I can imagine. New skins? Not progress and not exciting, it’s simple CHANGE. It’s the difference between painting your Ford Focus a new color or buying a Cobra Mustang. I want the Mustang, not the paint job, as long as I can afford the Mustang. That’s just my opinion though of course.

Gee, that turned out a little long. I’ll try and sum up a little.

TO SUMMARIZE:

1. One Time events are fun and shouldn’t cease.

2. Clearly they can’t be stress tested in an open beta style, so maybe keep the hardware resource demand WELL WITH IN known and acceptable limits (assuming that is why so many DC’s, lag, bugs, etc. occured or at least was a major contributor to)

3. Keep the rewards with in reason. Mad King back piece – perfect. 20 slot bag and mediocre exotic accesory – perfectly reasonable. Items worth literally hundreds of gold (especially introduced into an economy were 10 gold, for those who don’t purchase gems at least, is a pretty comfortable amount), not so much. UNLESS the event and those items is also being used as a “clearing house” of sorts to make way and prepare for new gear.

4. If you are so inclined, take as much and as many of these major community impacting decisions (like when a “one time” event will occur) and put them in the hands of the community. It promotes the community actually behaving as a community and also pretty well squashes potential for massive revolt (as we’re seeing here) and removes your heads from the guillotine. Not saying people won’t complain (it’s an age old business axiom that, in general, the only time you’ll ever hear from a customer is when there’s a problem) but it’ll pretty much remove the teeth from the bite, well at least in the mind of most critically thinking people.

Keep in mind though, “you can’t please all the people all the time, yadda, yadda, etc. and so forth…”

At least for myself, this is an isolated event in the life of an MMO that has been around for about 3 months and is hardly an Earth (or Tyria rather ;P) shattering event. In general, most of the people claiming it was are either REALLY unrealistic in their expectations or are, at the least, engaging in hyperbole or extreme melodrama.

It happened, it’s over, it’s hardly beyond repair, and there’s a lot to be learned and applied to make such future events much better.

I’ve been thumbing through threads here to see if there was any news. I’m pretty much done with that though. I think I’ve read enough to firmly establish my opinion around.

BACKGROUND:
I got to do the event by hopping through overflows and ultimately catching up with someone who posted here in a seperate thread advertising invites to an overflow where it was about to kick off (thank you again TangyOrange). In the course of this third phase I DC’d 3 seperate times but kept trying to get back in and finally, following the third (which was a massive crash for multiple players in the event) I was able to get back in and haul kitten to the site of the final battle with the Ancient Karka at a mere 5%. We struggled to NOT kill it and allow for as many if not all to make it back in but ultimately it died and some missed out. The sheer frustration I experienced throughout this event has left me almost entirely without finger nails and has probably stressed me enough to take years off my cardiovascular life (kidding of course ;P). I did however have a ball though. Got my first 20 slot bag, made a little under 2 gold and 5 – 6 Ectoplasm.

OPINION FORMULATED:
One time events are fine and fun for those who can attend but certain things, as should be learned from this one, must be taken into account in the design.

First, keep them on the low end of server stress tolerance. Bare in mind that I am in no wise a computer programmer, I’m barely consider myself qualified to install a new graphics card or even format and re-install my hard drive. This just seems a no brainer to me though. Work well with in what you know 100% the servers can tolerate. For as many DC’s and issues had on this end, has anyone thought about what it may have been like IF even 25 – 50% more players had showed up than were able too? If too many more showed up we could have had a Tyria wide armageddon on our hands. I’m sure there’s an answer for this but I’m equally sure I’m not the one who knows it. A-Net surely has learned this lesson though and they have people who can provide the answer to this problem.

Second, the rewards were pretty out of line UNLESS there are events and tiers of loot soon to follow that will pretty much knock those exotics and precursors acquired down a peg or two from there current standing of top of line gear. If that’s the case then this was a fine idea as it allows the populations to approach a new tier of gear on pretty well the same footing. In that case though, there should be ways to advance gear to this level to follow in the very near future with at most a similar level of trials to acquire it. If that isn’t the case though, then you’re just bound to have a dividing line of haves and have nots drawn here, which, surprise!, is exactly what we have right now. Exotics are easy enough to aqcuire though, 20 slot bags are pretty huge for those who do not purchase gems but not that big of a deal, but Precursors? Ehh… maybe not so much (unless as stated above there is a new tier coming soon or if, in general, precursors are going to be easier to aqcuire in ways other than the one time event).

Finally, and I REALLY hate to say this but, there is an excellent lesson to be learned here from WoW – particularly the Ahn Quirag gate opening event. To sum it up, what they did there was put the burdon of deciding when this event would take place COMPLETELY on the player base. If anyone had any issue with the time of the event there was no one to kitten at but the community. It was one of those extremely rare instances of pure democracy. The community, divided on when and why they thought what time was best, made their cases and then the community as a whole got behind the time best for them as a whole. For the unholy abomination that game has since become since it’s “hey day” that was one place that head the nail squarely on the head.

My Gawd! I’d like to formally and sincerely apologize to the Aussies and Oceanic players among us as well as those who had to work and fulfil other obligations. I honestly had no clue they were gonna put multiple exotics, rares, a guaranteed 20 slot bag and exotic accessory and above all, the chance for Legendary precursors no less, at the culmination of this weekend’s event. Seriously, that’s pretty huge to exclude so many players from for the sole reason that their schedule just simply won’t allow it. I truly believed that, #1; like the Mad King event, there wouldn’t be literally just one single solitary shot at the climax event, and #2: that they would tack on items that could at the very least produce a very noticeable chunk of change (at least for those who can’t / won’t sling their disposable income at purchasing their gems) and at the most huge upgrades and a VERY LARGE step toward crafting a legendary. The games that are subscription based with the classic raiding end game structure and as a matter of course, the high-end loot gaining mechanic that is part and parcel there of, don’t (and likely would never) offer any event (“one time” or otherwise) that would just fling the doors wide open to allow such a quick advance in loot upgrades. MOST importantly though, only for the few who’s schedules would allow it.

This event is, to me at least now, plain mind boggling in it’s concept alone, to say nothing of it’s implementation. I mean… WOW! Legendary precursors that generally go for 100’s of gold? Even a 20 slot bag – they’re genrally what, 10g at least? Then add a few rares and exotics and a high end amulet to garnish this “amazing dish of WTF”. I’m truly baffled.

If it’s any consolation though, you did miss a dose of frustration the likes of which I never dreamed could occur in a video game! I had a power surge just before it kicked off, then crashed 3 times throughout the day trying to get this thing done. In the end I lucked out literally by the skin of my teeth. Roughly HALF of the others in attendance who also crashed with like 5% to go weren’t so lucky though. Even if the concept of this farce could be explained, it’s implementation was a God kittened Greek tragedy!

You probably can’t tell from my above comments but I like this gaming company more than any others pumping MMO’s out at present and I DO still have faith in them to make this work and be the casual gamer’s salvation. This abomination though… I just… um… yeah, WOW! Hopefully, an olive branch will be offered though and lesson learned. Then back on track for developing this grind-lite game with fun and challenging dungeons, a great crafting system that’s just ripe for all kinds of cool additions and stuff, and a PvP / WvW game that’s, at the very least, on the “rightest” track to true balance, competition, and outright fun than any prior (including ’ol man WoW – EASILY too).

Again my apologies, I spoke before I truly knew what I was speaking about. Here’s hoping that ALL of us, despite geography, schedules, etc. can just move on and move past, well… whatever this was, and enjoy this game for years to come.

I don’t know, I feel for your plight but it just doesn’t seem like a big deal at all really. I caught it today, we killed some new mobs for 30 minutes then talked to some NPC’s then bugs prevented much more progress than that. It was nothing “mind blowing”. I’ll likely miss tomorrow’s, and probably Sunday’s. I could reschedule around it and play hookie if I REALLY wanted to see it but meh. In the grand scheme of things (my life that is, not my choice in leisure activity), it ranks pretty low on the priority scale of my weekend.

I guess I’m wondering what the people unable to attend these one-time events want? To have them just eliminated from here on out? If we can’t all attend none of us should? Maybe a server or three dedicated exclusively to Oceanic players? Maybe instances set up for a short time after the initial server wide event so those that missed it can enter the instance to experience it? One time events that last a minimum of 24 hours each to give everyone a fair shot to at least show up even if they can’t be there for when it kicks off?

As they stated though, they selected the time when, statistically, the most players would be on line. Geography and time zones weren’t a part of that criteria and to put it simply – couldn’t be, because as it so happens the target audience of MOST players, by definition, included a majority of players in the North American time zones.

Like I said though, this would be the time and place for suggestions for criteria and implementation for future one time events that would be more inclusive of the Oceanic community.

P.S You didn’t miss much today anyway. We killed some new mobs for about 30 minutes, spoke to a few NPC’s in LA and beyond that there wasn’t much else as bugged story NPCs pretty much halted any further progression than that. Minus the 30 minutes of insanely lagged out mob killing, all the content will be there when you can log in.

These concerns were voiced pretty much immediately after release. At that time however, if I recall correctly, there wasn’t even a minimum price of at least the Vendor’s value then. Any item could be listed well below vendor pricing making the items you speak of an actual loss of profit yet still people put such items up on the TP. It wasn’t until a few weeks post launch that A-Net issued a fix requiring at least a minimum equal to a vendor’s pricing. Believe it or not, people were flamed for pointing out the idiocy in that even.

Now a days, if there isn’t a sigil or rune I want off the item in question, I will look first for someone who can actually use the item and mail it to them no charge (even a complete stranger), failing that, it gets vendored. After a little time observing the market you’ll quickly figure out what items it’s worth bothering to post on the TP (in a really obtuse generic sense, rare items for high level players are all that it’s really even worth posting).

Not exactly on point but relative is the fact that, in most cases, you’ll make a greater profit selling materials than final products from crafting. It’s likely that (even though you may have leveled your craft to 400 and collected the purchased recipes) you may be able to sell your mats, buy the product you intended to craft with them, and still walk away with a profit. How’s that for a big, “WTF went wrong here?” observation of this games current implementation of player driven auction mechanics?

I didn’t read all 9 previous pages but I just wanted to throw my 2c worth out there (so it can disappear in sea of complaints, QQ, and the rare pat on the back – I’m assuming but I feel pretty confident in that assumption).

My main is a Warrior, has been since launch. I’ve played around with alts but I haven’t put anywhere close to the amount of time and dedication (what little I have to spend) that I’ve put in my Warrior.

Overall I’ve been very well pleased with the class. There’s a couple skill / trait / gear builds we have the option of for that “one trick pony”, “please God I hope this kills my opponent because if not I’m gonna have to run like my kitten’s on fire” massive damage avenues. More so though a well balanced Warrior with a well balanced and thought out skill / trait / gear build is just that – Well Balanced. I’m no programmer by anyone’s estimation to be sure but it seems that a Well Balanced class and build (that remains highly effective that is) is a hard thing to pull off. Not just in this game but in this game genre. Most of GW2 predecessor’s couldn’t produce even one class that the previous could be said about. Given that I feel that A-Net has done a great job with GW2, balancing, and the classes in general. Before anyone ignites the flame thrower, I’m in NO WAY insinuating perfection, only a great job so far relative to the a large majority of it’s competition. Only a few months post launch though and they seem to have their head screwed on straight and I confidently look forward to improvements mostly judging from their history, all be it a brief one still.

Now, for my criticism; As far as it concerns the Warrior class in general this patch may very well not even happened. Despite a stickied compiled list of dozens upon dozens of bugs that DO have a noticeable impact on the game play of the Warriors. Literally NONE of them were addressed. Skills, that due to bugs have been pretty well unused by the entire class community since launch weren’t addressed or even acknowledged. I mean, of the short list of what was addressed for the Warrior class some of the changes are as insignificant as mere ICON CHANGES! We still have skill tool tips that need no more than simple clarification in their wording that weren’t even glanced at. Not to mention skills that are just outright broken and so useless.

For example Last Stand; it’s simply supposed to proc our skill to quickly recover from certain forms of CC – straight forward, simple, and useful as it’s described that is. Unfortunately, this skill doesn’t proc when the CC’s to which it applies are administered. When does it proc? AFTER we suffer through the entire duration of the CC – then it procs . That’s so ridiculous its downright comical. It’s like an airbag that deploys only after those in the car are launched through the windshield and smeared across the road face first.

Well I didn’t plan for this to end up this as a lengthy ramp so I just leave it on that note as a perfect example as the kinds of things that COULD have and SHOULD have been fixed in this new build you guys have advertising as a “Big Patch”. Surely you can understand how we had high hopes for many of our bugs like the Last Stand mentioned above to finally get fixed and open new doors in spec and build customization for us. Likewise you should be able to see why this “Big Patch” was big disappointment, at least for the Warriors.

Essentially we got nothing out of this patch, no nerfs, but no buffs (which I don’t feel we need), and not a single significant bug addressed. Essentially its as though there was no patch at all as it applies to the Warrior class. We got some new PvE, PvP, and item content added, just like every other player. It’s nothing but business as usual though for us. Everything that was broken on day one for us remains exactly as it was on day one. We remain a class that wasn’t and still isn’t broken. With the same broken skills, the same everything pretty much.

Nothing to kitten about, nothing to celebrate. To sum up this patch in one word – NOTHING. At least in my humble opinion.

In my personal opinion, Warrior’s weren’t suffering from any “game breaking” or sever impediments in PvE or PvP. I feel in a general all around sense we are in pretty good shape. Not vastly OP or UP though capable of some very specific builds / gear sets for some pretty beastly “one trick pony” attacks and combos. As the saying goes though, “A Jack of all trades is a master of none”, is an axiom that cuts both ways. Which is to say a master of one trade (read: specific build / gear for one specific overwhelming attack) is nearly ineffective outside of that one specific “trick”. If we spec’d for that overwhelming 100 Blades 1-shot combo, you better pray it does the job because if not, running like kitten is about all you got. Ditto essentially for that crazy powerful Rifle Kill Shot.

For the above reasoning I didn’t think we needed any drastic retooling of our skills, traits, etc. So I wasn’t expecting to see any even prior to the patch note’s release, nor did I think one was justified.

HOWEVER! There is a stickied thread at the top of this forum that’s been there pretty much since this forum when live. There is no shortage of bugs to be fixed found in that thread. Not ONE of those bugs appear to have been addressed here in this first “Big Patch” which I find disheartening. Like I said I haven’t felt there was any “game breakers” in dire need of being addressed but there’s still a scale of importance and priority for what Warrior bugs DO need fixing. In that area they didn’t just hit wide of the Bull’s Eye, they missed the kittening target completely. There’s plenty of Warrior bugs that, while they weren’t wrecking the class, they were making more than a couple potential builds so useless no one had any reason to attempt them for sake of the broken skills that, still after this first “Big Patch”, remain not just untouched but still entirely unacknowledged by the A-Net.

Game wasn’t, and still isn’t, “broken” for the Warrior class but many potential builds remain worthless to even attempt or give any thought to. It’s our customization as a class that’s “broken”. Literally NOTHING has changed for us. We have the same skills with the same few viable builds. Pick one out of the few we have working and get in there as a carbon copy of all the other Warriors.

I mean really, this “Big Patch” and you guys fixed some icons for us? Couldn’t have fixed ‘Last Stand’ or ‘Inspiring Banner’, ’Quick Breathing, etc., etc., etc. Icons?!?! You fixed some icons?!?!? ICONS?!?!

As far as the Warrior class is concerned this patch was utterly meaningless for us and it’s essentially as though no patch even occured. The vast majority of these changes could have been easily ninja’d in on the back of some run of the mill patch and would have gone pretty much completely un-noticed for most of the changes to our class implemented in this “Big Patch”.

Nothing to celebrate here and nothing to kitten about. It’s business as usual for the Warriors in my humble opinion.

psirca.9452:

Email in the game probably isn’t real email.
I imagine it to be just a database table row of information.
It probably doesn’t have headers and such because it never passed thru the net technically, it just went thru an internal network and became a database record.

That’s my guess of how I would implement it. I haven’t made a large scale MMO though.

Thank you for your response. I also assumed that the system implementation you described is in essentially how in-game “e-mail” is handled as well. That’s why it makes perfect sense to me that “tracking” and refernecing the details of any players sent “e-mails” should be a basic function and very easily implemented and why I’m sincerely hoping there is such a function – just that I’ve failed to find it in the UI (in the ‘Options’ Menu or something). It’s gotta be somewhere

Thanks again for your response and if you or anyone else who reads this thread knows the answer I would appreciate it VERY MUCH if you’d post it here for me. I’ll check back soon, thanks guys for your replies thus far and thanks in advance to anyone who can help me with this.

applekwisp.2139:

no mmo i can think of off the top of my head has the ability to track mail

Sorry, I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer. I’m not seeing how this relates to my question about how sent mail can be reviewed or tracked. I thank you for your response and don’t want to be a pain in the neck but if you could clarify for me your advice or suggestion concerning tracking or discovering the “addressed to” field of the mail they sent intended for me it would be very much appreciated

I don’t recall the details and specifics of any other MMO’s in-game “e-mail” system either. My current concern is limited exclusively to GW2’s system and the fact that any player interaction involving items or currency in game can ONLY be achieved through the in-game mail. It’s that detail leading me to believe that it’s just blaringly obvious that a mail tracking function would of course have been included by the Developers at A-Net.

Again, I thank you for your response and will be looking forward to your clarification. There was a fair amount of in-game value in the form of those materials in that “e-mail” and the longer I wait for a response (I contacted Tech Supp. but so far it’s taken around 3 days for them to respond to me concerning any issue) the more concerned I’m becoming that they’re just lost.

A guild member of mine mailed me some rather expensive materials for an exotic piece of Jewelry I crafted for them. As of about 30 minutes now since mailing the items I have yet to receive it. We were fairly certain there had to be some function in game to track mail sent. It just seems like such a “no brainer” of a function to be included in any game. A LOT more so in a game where there is no way to trade items between players OTHER than by mail. We have yet to find this function however…

So, is there such a function (HAS to be…. RIGHT)? If not there has to be some way to cancel it and have the items returned if it was mistakenly sent to the wrong player (HAS to be…. RIGHT)? Please let us know. The item has been crafted, sent, and received. It’s the mats sent by my guildy that are just… floating in the nether?

P.S Before anyone makes the suggestion. We are a guild of players than has been together over 15 years now, since the days of MUDs no less. This isn’t some weak veiled attempt to “get over on me”. This member WILL repay me despite me demanding that they not do so. I don’t consider this anyone’s “fault”, just a lack of the “tools and resources” built into a game that only allows player to trade anything by mail alone. I’m sure that’s not the case though…. surely the capability to at the very least track the address to where one has sent mail is in game, we’ve just failed to discover it thus far… Right? RIGHT????

Djinn.7213:

This is quite overpowered but it’s not going to get nerfed.

It’s getting fixed.

Piercing and warrior bug(same as bladetrail).

So yeah, bugs will be bugs.

Can you cite where you found this info please? Quite a few things I’ve been waiting to see fixed, did they announce any other fixes?

I just re did my trait build to include this skill. Orr especially is a real joy for mob CC and all and this skill just looked like a no brainer. Turns out it was a “no brainer” to an extent.

So I’m running around thinking this wonderful, this is gonna save me from some crucial time on the ground! Right?!? WRONG!!!

After 20 – 30 minutes of running around, eventually even seeking situations to see if this thing would proc I was convinced something had gone wrong. Maybe a bug? Maybe if I log out and back in the damage “calculator” or w/e you wanna call it will kick in and start proccing this gem? Sure it will, of course!!! Nope…

So I came to the Warrior forums to see if anyone else had this issue. Checked around a bit and finally checked out the stickied Warrior Bug List. Wow, seriously guys?!?! It doesn’t proc until after you’ve absorbed the duration of the CC?!?! Really?!?!

That’s not a questionable design feature guys… It’s a practical joke. It’s like an airbag that only deploys after you’ve been flung through the windshield and smeared across the street like peanut butter.

In fact that’s quite a hefty list all together. What’s the hold up?!?! There’s some REAL serious issues that you guys have let fly since launch. Taken altogether it’s like buying a sports car with a V-8 until be informed after purchase that only 2 cylinders function and we’re fully aware the other 6 don’t. We’ll happily write down all your complaints and offer you this to look forward to… We may or may not fix these issues, someday.

Really guys, WTH? Is any of this gonna be dealt with? As it stands now, we’re short a WHOLE LOT of features that were listed on the features sticker. I mean to really build a well balanced warrior in this state one has to begin knowing the VAST list of what’s broken before you really even begin. Otherwise you’ll be out there getting stomped into the ground waiting for abilities to proc and skills to function that, short of coming to the forums and memorizing that several pages long list, you would have no clue that never will proc or function as advertised.

I think we’re well enough post launch now that you guys could at least prioritize and assign a lot of these issues to be slated for a fix in the near future. Tighten up now, come on!

Corew.8932:

I think it’s because of sucky pathing, a mob can’t find a path to get at you and anti-exploit code kicks in and makes them invulnerable.

In many instances this is obvious and I think this may be the initial cause of it but I think it’s the implementation of the mechanic that’s making it foul up so many times and kitten us out of legitimately fought wins. More times than not (under water primarily as this is where the large majority of this bug’s occurrences are) the mob is but a few steps away with not a thing between myself and them. Just out of the blue, they turn swim back a few feet to the origination point, sit there for a few seconds, heal to full, turn and attack again like nothing happened again. And I just sit completely still the whole time watching this occur, unable to see anything that can even be misconstrued as something that could potentially spawn a pathing exploit and the mechanic to prevent it.

Under water especially I find myself treading water stark still and just eating damage for fear of “bugging the mob” out. Of course this just isn’t a survivable notion when facing any kind of Vet. or “boss” or even a pack of several mobs underwater. Even sitting still there’s still a chance for “invulnerability” to occur though.

Result – Under Water combat avoided as much as possible. Game content avoided because of poor design / implementation, plain and simple.

Any news on a fix?

New patch, same issue.

Not sure how to post my Game Advisor results due to it’s insane length.

It appears my topic has been merged with this one. I knew there had to be multiple posts on this already but I was hoping to refresh their memories with a new post. Anyhow, although this problem has occurred several times on land as well it’s the under water game that has been pretty well completely ruined for me, especially in Orr and Frostgorge. I avoid ANY under water gameplay like the plague as a result.

For as long as this issue has gone on now untouched with hardly a mention I’m starting to fear it’s just gonna slip into permanence here. Most of us I believe are not addressing this issue here to just “vent” frustration. We want it fixed. It affects too much of the game to just be a minor annoyance.

Players, please refer to the TL;DR version at the bottom if you’d like and post in support of getting this issue, which has persisted far too long now, fixed. Thank you all in advance.

I know this poor horse hasn’t been beaten to death, many times over by now to be sure. I won’t belabor the issue with details I’m sure anyone familiar with the issue is keenly aware of. I just wanted to mention it to keep the topic fresh in your minds as the endless endeavor to fix bugs continues, at a way more than satisfactory rate I’d like to add, especially in comparison to any of your MMO competition (the quick and decisive response to the “Orb hacking” and server band-wagoning in WvW are perfect examples of this in my opinion).

Anyway, it’s just as annoying as ever and makes any under water fighting, quests, dynamic events, etc. just as miserable and off putting as it has since the very beginning. You guys developed the first broad market MMO to actually try to incorporate under water experiences as much a of part of the game as on land (relatively) , in my opinion at least. In the broad generic sense I’d say you met that goal and then some as well.

In all seriousness though this “invulnerability” bug pretty much completely wrecks all your efforts. Sadly all the effort and resources invested in this aspect of the game are mostly wasted so long as this bug persists. Especially being that, while one can mostly compensate through their game play tactics and strategy thorugh most of the content, once one hits Orr (or Frostgorge Sound and the like) especially, this bug becomes a huge and very noticeable impediment. A great deal of battles, time, reapir fees, etc. are caused directly by 1 or more mobs turning “invulnerable” for some (illegitimate and mysterious) reason, they return to their point of origin, heal fully, and most times immediately return and begin the attack again on the same player’s character who often still has a large HP deficit and abilities on various states of cooldown. The battle, and potential SP, DE, or whatever reward lost and cost solely by this “bug” which has remained intact, untouched, and causing the exact same issues it did on day 1 of the game to present.

I don’t know how you all prioritize urgency in terms of a fixing schedule and I’m sure there is more urgent issues demanding your attention aside form this bug. It’s really ruining a large amount of PvE (and PvP to a much lesser extent as it relates to Quaggan control on the WvW map, but that’s nearly an entirely separate issue altogether that isn’t worth making a big deal of here for the purposes of this threads gist.) Considering these facts (among others) and the amount of time this “bug” has been allowed to negatively impact all underwater activity in game, I think it deserves a reasonably high spot on the “to be fixed list”. I certainly don’t think I’m the only one sick of this issue continuing for as long as it has either. After release I was fairly confidant it would be fixed PDQ and I wouldn’t be surprised if that sentiment was widely shared.

Anyhow, I just wanted to remind the Devs that this issue still persists and is just as annoying and ruining as many under water objectives as it did on day 1. Here’s hoping it gets due attention sooner rather than later. Thank you for reading and thanks in advance for squaring this annoyance away for us.

Players, please post in this thread to signify your support in hopes of this “bug” soon to be rectified. Thank you in advance as well for voicing your support here.

TL;DR:
The “invulnerability bug” that has been around from the very start (noticeable primarily under water but occuring all over the map as well) remains in game and untouched ruining any fun for the most part from under water activities of any kind and making them something to be avoided generally. While the issue, in and of it’s self, doesn’t appear to urgent on a “game breaking” level, we feel it ruins the enjoyment of a lot of, primarily, PvE content and the amount of time it’s been allowed to continue abated makes this a pressing issue that should be near the top of the “To be Fixed List”.

Primarily this thread is to convey the fact that the bug still very much exists and has only grown more frustrating. We, the player base, would like this to be fixed A.S.A.P and consider it’s fixing to be rather important. Thank you in advance for your attention in this matter.

I’ve recently tried changing my Proxy DNS and it’s alternative as well. Still no luck

As the title states. Since this most recent patch (I guess, it had to be a patch occuring between roughly now and the early morning of today, the 28th) the down loader reached 1 file remaining, 12 KB into said file, then the transfer rate dwindles over a matter of seconds to 0 KB per sec and just sits there. I’ve disabled my firewall completely. Tried running the “-repair” tag, specifying “-assetsrv 173.223.232.138”, running in Comp. Mode as well as not, ran as server admin (always do typically) and not, yadda, yadda.

Please someone tell me how to get this last file. PLEASE!

I ran across a player’s “blog” (I guess it could be considered) named Dulfy. He seemed to have a pretty extensive data base of the different armors. Lost the exact link but it popped right up when I put in a search for “Charr” cultural heavy armor. That wasn’t the only set he had cataloged though. There appeared to be all the cultural and dungeon sets listed of light, medium, and heavy inclusive, PvP and PvE. Give it a shot. It IS out there on google, I can assure you of that much. If I recall correctly though, the sets and skins reached as far back as BWE3 when the armor “preview” feature was first unveiled.

I’ll check around for it if I remember and re post when I get to my home computer and find it but trust me it wasn’t hard to find just try adding that name “Dulfy” to your search.

Oh awesome. Okay, thank you I’ll check that web site.

This may have been covered elsewhere but I didn’t uncover anything on a quit check through recent posts here but I’ve been wondering (since the game launched and still)…

Has anyone found any crafted items worth actually crafting, aside from the benefit to themselves or friends and guildies who will use them, or do selling the mats for the various crafts still yield a noticeably greater profit?

I know the Trading Post had a rough start after launch and was off kilter for a while because of it but this aspect in particular doesn’t appear to have recovered or really changed at all. Hawking the mats seems to be the way to go to make cash still. I mean I’ll cook up some snacks for me and the guild and whatnot but generally, just selling the Omnomberries or whatever is the way to go to turn some raw cash. Once pretty much everyone maxes out on all of the crafts who’s even gonna be buying these mats at that point aside from people with money to burn buying gems who want to just save the time otherwise used farming them?

I see the potential for the only real way of making a decent stack of coin to eventually either be by purchasing gems with real cash (or the shadier illegitimate black market version there of) or plain old farming the meager coin drops from mobs. Anyone else have a perspective on this that I’m hopefully missing? Maybe even a lucrative crafted product market I’ve overlooked?

Excuses aside, there still remains plenty of time left in this match. We’ll see how it turns out soon enough here. Best of luck to the three servers in tier 1 still fighting what is a competitive match with none of us guaranteed a victory yet.

Let’s try and keep the sour grapes out of this thread so it doesn’t get locked.

There’ll be plenty of time to explain to the victor why they did or didn’t deserve to win or how they were allowed to win or whatever after the fact if anyone still feels like persuing it. (I’m betting no one will though and will just be hoping the particulars of the hardest fought match yet will just fade from memory ASAP).

A quick lesson on good sportsmanship probably wouldn’t be out of place here but if that’s a lesson anyone here has yet to learn then some random guy on an MMO forum probably won’t be the one to manage to teach it.

Okay, fair enough. I’d heard anecdotally (which is to say, you know, not reliable) that there was an issue with restart lag, meaning that some servers were restarting noticeably quicker than some others. Maybe it did maybe work to JQ’s advantage maybe it didn’t. Also, I’ve seen several friends playing using the “guesting” feature but I heard its still borked as of a couple weeks ago so okay, maybe that’s why free transfers yet remain.

I’d really just hate to see other servers throwing in the towel on Wed. night. Well, to say “other servers” isn’t at all fair. It just appears there are a few individuals popping in here to lay the foundation for an “excuse” because they seem convinced it’s already over.

“It was Halloween, we gave up fighting arguably the best and closest matchup so far to enjoy the GW2 Halloween stuff.” And now this soon to be classic: “Well, we could win if we wanted to but (and this is where it becomes a classic: we’ve all, as a server apparently, made the community decision to NOT win so) we don’t have to deal with the pain in the neck of being winners so we’re choosing to lose.” Wow…

Whatever though. I’m just trying to reiterate the obvious point that the match is far from over nor is there a discrepancy of points large enough to already be proclaiming anything like, “Oh yeah?!?! Well we didn’t want to win anyway!!!”

Come on everyone, get in there and keep swinging. I don’t know, I’m starting to be swayed some that maybe the matches do last too long. Maybe there shouild be a weekend circuit and a weekday circuit. It seems even in some of the closer matches once one horse seems to pull ahead about mid week (sometimes earlier though even). Some people (at least some of the more vocal ones, which doesn’t even hardly represent a majority) are already prep to throw it in and provide some kind of “excuse”.

Meh, at this precise moment there is a point difference of 25 and 45k respectively. On Wenesday evening, 6PM server time. All I’m trying to get across is it ain’t over yet. Been a great fight this week all. Week isn’t over yet though, and the match doesn’t need to be either…