Guild Wars 2

Zalladi.4652:

They converted Skill Points into Spirit Shards, and Skill Point challenges into Hero Point challenges, so you still have Hero Points which you will be using to unlock and complete your Elite Specialization.

Since you are given enough Hero Points at level 80 to maximize your core Training, any extra Hero Point challenges you complete will go forward to unlocking your Elite Speciliazation come the release of HoT.

And if I’d already done everything do I have the hero points I’ll need?

If we can still fall so far, how is it that we are on the ground level?

So when HoT comes out, if we’ve already done all the map hero points before the patch, how do we level up the new elite specs?

I’m out of town right now and can’t check my characters, but didn’t they convert all excess hero points to spirit shards? Or did they leave enough equal to the account
Amount earned by the map exploration? What about people who spent a ton of skill points prior to they update?

I could probably answer my own question by logging in and looking at my characters, but as I said, out of town.

Me too, it was great

I’ve now encountered several instances of Mordrem-on-Mordrem violence. They will often have conditions on each other, but not taking any actual damage.

It always involves a Mordrem wolf, but haven’t been able to identify other common elements yet.

While it would be cool to think this is a story element, I’m assuming this is a bug.

That is kind of odd, because at first my experiences of the break bars were they too hard to break. My biggest observation for that was with the wyvern, at the start of the fight we couldn’t break its break bar no matter how hard we tried, we’d get it low, but not actually break it. And then suddenly couple minutes into the fight it became dirt easy to break his break bar, it would just go straight to 0 without hardly any effort. This was both in the same fight. So I’m not sure what was going on.

Meanwhile we fought some champion hylek of some sort and it’s break bar took forever to reduce. We hammered on him for minute after minute after minute and its break bar barely budged. Now of course his break bar had a different effect than the wyvern’s, his said that he became vulnerable when it was broken, & I suppose the whole point was that champion was supposed to be very hard to kill but once his break bar was brought down, he become much more easy to DPS.

So I guess what I’m saying is, I’m not sure whether the break bar needs to be buffed. I think there’s something going on with balance when sometimes its too tough and other times it’s too easy. Especially in that or wyvern fight where apparently both was happening.

The only thing that makes me pause to consider, is whether in that fight the real issue with the break bar was initially few people using ccs that they started using later, or perhaps the break bar did become more vulnerable because maybe other people showed up that I didn’t notice. I’m just not sure yet it was late I was very tired and I went to bed immediately after lol

This seems to indicate to me that less Bock and more balance is what is needed. However I will say, that if the break Barb doesn’t scale to the size of the group, it needs to.

Raven.9603:

AlphatheWhite.9351:

To sum: “KILL THE MESMER”

Short response: you’re very, very wrong.

ill give you that he basically wanted to gut your class.

AlphatheWhite.9351:

“Prismatic Understanding needs to be removed”:

• Let’s do a comparison.
• Mesmer:
  Max Stealth: 22s with PU, but not The Pledge
  Investment: 1 weapon skill, 1 utility, 1 elite.
  Side benefits: Some boons while stealthed; 1 Aoe Blind/burn; 1 clone; 10s ally stealth, no catch;
  Uptime: total stealth uptime of mesmer with torch, decoy and MI is 50%, so the mesmer can be stealthed 50% of the time.
  ….

• Thieves have more stealth uptime, more side benefits to stealth, more continuous stealth potential, the option to invest more heavily in stealth, and the ability to stealth themselves and allies indefinitely. Attacking from stealth gives thieves extra combat bonuses, including extra power and heavier burst from stealth.

• PU mesmers without The Pledge, meanwhile, have a max of 50% stealth uptime, less continuous uptime, fewer side benefits, less ability to stealth allies, with the advantage that their stealth requires fewer positioning tricks to pull off. Condition mesmers have demonstrably lower burst potential than power mesmers and thieves, and power mesmers running PU are so glass they are countered by D/D eles and guardians in addition to their usual thief/necro/condi mes soft counters.

The problem is not PU, the problem is the bugged trait The Pledge…

On the comparison:
Mesmers are not thieves. What might be OP for one may not necessarily be OP for the other.
On PU:
Double stealth duration is a problem regardless of The Pledge. Its not just about % uptime, its about how it plays. 3-4 second stealth means a player can ride out a stealth-to-shatter by tossing up a block, or a leap, or a well timed dodge, or going stealth himself. With 6 sec stealth per skill, classes have to daisy-chain 2 of their cooldowns together to counter just one stealth skill from the mesmer and avoid the shatter. The only other abilities that give stealth for that long are combo fields (which can at least be countered in a way that often exposes the thief) or Refuge on its 60sec cd (which can also be countered). In gameplay that is play / counterplay, longer stealth from a single move means more counterplay is needed by your opponents and it doesn’t take long to exhaust their cooldowns with 6sec of stealth per skill.

AlphatheWhite.9351:

3. No, condition damage is not broken. There’s a reason condi builds don’t have a strong presence in pro tournament play. The issue is that poor critical thinkers like yourself haven’t gotten off their lazy duffs to learn the weakness of condi builds: cleanse. Smart cleansing and/or plentiful cleansing neuters condi builds. The June patch made condis viable where they barely were before, it’s gonna take a while before people get adjusted to the new tactics required.

Bad example on your end. Dire and perplexity were removed from sPvP and tournament play specifically because they were too strong. Plentiful cleansing can neuter condi builds, but how much cleansing does it actually take to get to that state in a game where cover conditions are so abundant?

For example, I often run this build because the condi cancer wvw meta is just so bad right now: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJATRnUqAtCi1CC+rActgBGh6fiSI17xdDyAOc/2A4kX1oVA-TlCFABt9AAA4IAclSQBuAAOpMKJlOGq+DBHCgi2fINdBkBYZLA-w

That can remove 4 condis per 10sec passively, 1 per 10sec from generosity, it has on-demand 2 condition clear every 20sec from bear, on-demand 1 condition clear on 4 utility skills, and an on-demand full clear from SoR, and uses minus condi duration food. I have been dueling and roaming since beta, and am smart about my cleansing. I still lose fights to good condi eles, necros and mesmers everyday, and I’d put my win % in current meta is around 33% chance to beat a good condi ele, 70% to beat a good condi necro, and 40% on condi mesmers, even bad ones. Why?

Dire and the lack of a need for more than one offensive stat is obviously a big part. Mesmers and eles require immediate, on-demand cleansing of certain bursted conditions (burning/chill and confusion, respectively), and there are only so many on-demand clears. With cover conditions, many little clears just dont cut it. Necros rely more on pressure over time and can be countered better with the passive clearing. While necros have a very long reserve of health to burn through, the ability to the ele to constantly heal and the ability of the mesmer to constantly restealth mean they can outlast their opponent no matter how many clears they bring to the table.

AlphatheWhite.9351:

“Although PU might be only good in small scale fights, it is way too good for those scenarios.”
Your response is to kill the value of mesmer stealth in every scenario for the sake of “small scale fights”, which is Bad Design. Your suggestion as a whole is Bad Design, and you should be ashamed of making it.

“It shall remain a roaming build, but a lot turned down in strength.”
No, it would not be a viable roaming build, taking your suggestions. Mesmers can’t bunker and dps at the same time like ele and guardian, so taking away their stealth would have the same effect as taking it away from thief would: they would no longer be viable in WvW outside the zerg, because they wouldn’t stay alive.

“Everything else is madness”
A nice bit of extreme hyperbole from someone who has demonstrated a very, very poor understanding of design.

There used to be a time when PU stealth didn’t last 6 seconds per skill, and mesmers were still the pinnacle of duelists and roamers. Nerfing PU and fixing The Pledge bug would still leave mesmers as THE apex roaming class, barring some huge HoT specialization upset.

Are you saying mesmers are superior to thieves in roaming?

I think the problem is what happens when you shatter them? What are they going to target and shatter on?

I think a better idea would be to have some of them automatically fire their first shot at yourself or an ally rather than an enemy, but still have an enemy target.

Actually, I’ve been giving this a lot of thought recently. If you target an enemy, perhaps you can have some of the phantasms have a default AI where the bounces favor for example allies with the most conditions, or yourself, or enemies with the most boons on them, talking about the disenchanter here of course. As one example. We could possibly even have a phantasm management panel that we could open up or we could define what is going to be favored for various phantasms into bouncing attacks and things like that.

Another possibility would be to just make some of them more stronger, at least in the beginning. In the example of bouncing attacks for example take a cue from magic bullet and a have the bounces have stronger effects in the beginning. Perhaps they could give some kind of a stacking effect, like the first time you get hit with a bounce you get 3 stacks of something then two stacks then one stack. Possibly some kind of unique effects.

Just off the top of my head, as a possible example, perhaps you could have the disenchanter whenever hit the target ithe first time grants three stacks of something called disenchanter’s boon or disenchanter’s curse depending on the target, it has its effect equal to the number of stacks, for example removing three boons or three conditions, and if you don’t have the full amount of boons or conditions removed, then perhaps it could add 10% boon or condition duration for a few seconds for each booner condition it didn’t remove.

Then it would lose one stack, the next bounce it would only add to stacks to the target only if it didn’t already have any stacks at all.

And the mage then for example would be able to stack more burning, and stack might instead of fury at three stacks then two stacks than one stack, etcetera etcetera

I only mention all this because I think you would still need a target for shattering purposes.

Sorry if this is disjointed, I am driving and using a voice translator program.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Morfedel.4165:

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Morfedel.4165:

I like bouncing attacks. I don’t think the bouncing is the problem, I think the problem is several of the bounces are simply lackluster at best.

I will be honest with you, I think the shield phantasm is just fine, but I do agree that the torch phantasm and disenchanter are both extremely weak.

The problem with bounces is that all of the bouncing attacks are two-fold. This means you have to rely on it hitting the opponent in order to have a chance at getting the benefit. So if I want alacrity from iAvenger I need to make sure:

• I’m not blinded on summon.
• Phantasm isn’t blinded when it casts
• The projectile isn’t blocked.
• The projectile isn’t dodged.
• The projectile isn’t absorbed.
• The projectile isn’t evaded/invulned.
• The projectile isn’t reflected.
• The projectile doesn’t get body-blocked.
• I’m in range to receive the bounce.

They’re just way too situational, and the odds get lower and lower as more people join the fight.

To my utter and complete shock, especially considering how that other thread was just going, I find myself agreeing with you on this. But I think they can be improved by just making them more powerful, to address those other issues. I would have to think about it.

I like Kool’aid though. =P

The one thing I think would really help bounce projectiles (besides reworking the entire bounce mechanic) is to make them unblockable, or have the projectile burst a little AoE on each bounce. OR Be able to target allies with these phantasms.

Omg. I agree with you.

I think the apocalypse just started. Lol!

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Morfedel.4165:

I like bouncing attacks. I don’t think the bouncing is the problem, I think the problem is several of the bounces are simply lackluster at best.

I will be honest with you, I think the shield phantasm is just fine, but I do agree that the torch phantasm and disenchanter are both extremely weak.

The problem with bounces is that all of the bouncing attacks are two-fold. This means you have to rely on it hitting the opponent in order to have a chance at getting the benefit. So if I want alacrity from iAvenger I need to make sure:

• I’m not blinded on summon.
• Phantasm isn’t blinded when it casts
• The projectile isn’t blocked.
• The projectile isn’t dodged.
• The projectile isn’t absorbed.
• The projectile isn’t evaded/invulned.
• The projectile isn’t reflected.
• The projectile doesn’t get body-blocked.
• I’m in range to receive the bounce.

They’re just way too situational, and the odds get lower and lower as more people join the fight.

To my utter and complete shock, especially considering how that other thread was just going, I find myself agreeing with you on this. But I think they can be improved by just making them more powerful, to address those other issues. I would have to think about it.

Fay.2357:

Morfedel.4165:

Fay.2357:

Morfedel.4165:

Zenith.7301:

Morfedel.4165:

Fay.2357:

Morfedel.4165:

I plan to use the shield a lot thank you very much. And yes, in PVE.

Feel free, but the fact that you plan to use it doesn’t change the fact that its current form is really awful for PvE, and using it will be a mistake.

I disagree. Used it often with success in pve during the betas. It’s a nice weapon. I’m sure you’re the type who thinks if people disagree with you they are playing wrong, but no amount of such statements can discount my actual experience.

To success WHERE? Are you in a dungeon running guild or plan to do any raiding? What’s your higher level PvE experience?

Some people would say they run cleric staff guardians to success in PvE, doesn’t make them any less a hindrance to an optimized group.

I’ve been playing since the core games bwe1. I’ve done everything except craft a legendary. Multiple times.

And yes it was just fine. Sorry your experience differed, but that’s no call for condescension. Maybe try asking how mine differed without the implied insults would be better.

For the nth time, successfully completing PvE content is in no way, shape, or form a proof of good play. Observe the similarity here:

Morfedel: I’ve successfully completed PvE content with a shield. This means the shield is good weapon to use.

Me: I’ve successfully completed most dungeons in the game with less than 5 people in my party. This means that doing dungeons with less than 5 people is a good way to play.

Obviously the second statement is absurd, and it’s very clear that the first statement is ridiculous as well. Your use of shield has less than zero bearing on whether or not it’s a good weapon.

Additionally, you’ve only completed existing PvE content, all of which is brain dead easy. Raids are promised to be drastically more challenging, and challenging environments don’t always have room for absurdly ineffective builds like the ones you run.

You know which builds I’m running? Go ahead and tell me then what they are.

Or shut your ignorant mouth. Going around calling my builds ridiculous and ineffective when you have no idea what I’m even running is not only absurd and insulting but moronic as well.

Well, I have a fairly solid memory, and I remember quite a few times in the past where you attempted to defend running an obviously bad build with the ’I’ve completed dungeons, so it must be good’ defense. It’s not worth the effort to actually dig them up, but this encounter and interchange has happened before, multiple times.

Now, I could be wrong, and you could be running meta builds that are properly thought out these days, but the rather absurd aggressiveness of your response says somewhat otherwise.

That’s funny. I’m aggressive. And you’re an angel :-)

And you’ve reused the same arguments too. Welcome to the club. The difference being that I don’t go around telling people they suck because they disagree with me.

Not all of us are mindless kool-aid drinkers who can’t think outside the box. You go ahead and stay in your box if that’s all you can handle, but after starting and deleting a more hostile response, I decided to drop out of this pointless argument. It’s not worth the effort

Fay.2357:

Morfedel.4165:

Zenith.7301:

Morfedel.4165:

Fay.2357:

Morfedel.4165:

I plan to use the shield a lot thank you very much. And yes, in PVE.

Feel free, but the fact that you plan to use it doesn’t change the fact that its current form is really awful for PvE, and using it will be a mistake.

I disagree. Used it often with success in pve during the betas. It’s a nice weapon. I’m sure you’re the type who thinks if people disagree with you they are playing wrong, but no amount of such statements can discount my actual experience.

To success WHERE? Are you in a dungeon running guild or plan to do any raiding? What’s your higher level PvE experience?

Some people would say they run cleric staff guardians to success in PvE, doesn’t make them any less a hindrance to an optimized group.

I’ve been playing since the core games bwe1. I’ve done everything except craft a legendary. Multiple times.

And yes it was just fine. Sorry your experience differed, but that’s no call for condescension. Maybe try asking how mine differed without the implied insults would be better.

For the nth time, successfully completing PvE content is in no way, shape, or form a proof of good play. Observe the similarity here:

Morfedel: I’ve successfully completed PvE content with a shield. This means the shield is good weapon to use.

Me: I’ve successfully completed most dungeons in the game with less than 5 people in my party. This means that doing dungeons with less than 5 people is a good way to play.

Obviously the second statement is absurd, and it’s very clear that the first statement is ridiculous as well. Your use of shield has less than zero bearing on whether or not it’s a good weapon.

Additionally, you’ve only completed existing PvE content, all of which is brain dead easy. Raids are promised to be drastically more challenging, and challenging environments don’t always have room for absurdly ineffective builds like the ones you run.

You know which builds I’m running? Go ahead and tell me then what they are.

Or shut your ignorant mouth. Going around calling my builds ridiculous and ineffective when you have no idea what I’m even running is not only absurd and insulting but moronic as well.

I like bouncing attacks. I don’t think the bouncing is the problem, I think the problem is several of the bounces are simply lackluster at best.

I will be honest with you, I think the shield phantasm is just fine, but I do agree that the torch phantasm and disenchanter are both extremely weak.

Zenith.7301:

Morfedel.4165:

Fay.2357:

Morfedel.4165:

I plan to use the shield a lot thank you very much. And yes, in PVE.

Feel free, but the fact that you plan to use it doesn’t change the fact that its current form is really awful for PvE, and using it will be a mistake.

I disagree. Used it often with success in pve during the betas. It’s a nice weapon. I’m sure you’re the type who thinks if people disagree with you they are playing wrong, but no amount of such statements can discount my actual experience.

To success WHERE? Are you in a dungeon running guild or plan to do any raiding? What’s your higher level PvE experience?

Some people would say they run cleric staff guardians to success in PvE, doesn’t make them any less a hindrance to an optimized group.

I’ve been playing since the core games bwe1. I’ve done everything except craft a legendary. Multiple times.

And yes it was just fine. Sorry your experience differed, but that’s no call for condescension. Maybe try asking how mine differed without the implied insults would be better.

Fay.2357:

Morfedel.4165:

I plan to use the shield a lot thank you very much. And yes, in PVE.

Feel free, but the fact that you plan to use it doesn’t change the fact that its current form is really awful for PvE, and using it will be a mistake.

I disagree. Used it often with success in pve during the betas. It’s a nice weapon. I’m sure you’re the type who thinks if people disagree with you they are playing wrong, but no amount of such statements can discount my actual experience.

Divorced dad here, getting my kids for the weekend. They come first, of course, but still, I won’t get much beta testing in, darn it.

Ah well. Such is life. My kids are worth it, but still… lol

Anyone else missing out due to real life?

Solomon Darkfury.3729:

I get how the mastery system would be beneficial… Especially one based upon progressing within the raid. My issue is Gliding and mushroom mastery can only be earned via HoT. Therefore excluding all core players from being able to progress past certain points within raids.

They want to sell their expansion. the expansion needs selling points for people to buy it. There you go. Its a business decision, and an appropriate one – people who want to raid need to buy HoT, just as people who want to play in Verdant Brink need to buy HoT. Nothing whatsoever unreasonable about it.

Tongku.5326:

Hi guys

Ok, so this a bit of a weird topic, but, I just had to bring this up after playing a mesmer x years and months.

I love my mesmer because it is by far the most original class I have played in any MMO, but also, because it is one of the few classes that you can play where you play against and try to confuse your opponent, not the character, but the actual person behind the screen controlling that character.

And I personally have taken the whole “playing against another player instead of their toon” theme a notch or two further.

What I have been doing lately both in SPVP as well as WvWvW, is that when I down someone, I don’t kill them, don’t stomp. Instead, I put a single clone on them, not a phantasm (because I dont want them to die too soon), just a regular dinky clone. My preferred is the staff 2 clone, but sometimes I use others as well.

Then, I stand quite a bit aways, stealth up when I need to so they can’t hit me with their downed skills, and I watch. I watch as they very slowly, painfully and in vein try to struggle.

then sometimes on top of that, I get out of range or shatter the clone on a different target so they can use their bandage skill, and when they are around 80% health to get up, I put the clone back on them, and I watch, again.

All of this of course is very limited as other people come by and either finish off my target, or put pressure on me so I have to do it, but I still get plenty of occasions to do this.

And as for the reason why ? Well, I do it purely for the funnies. Thats right. I like to do it just for kittens and giggles. Perhaps I should not find this humorous, but I do.

So just out of curiosity, how many of you mesmers here are like me, or have some similar things to share ?

There is actually some sound tactical reasons for this. As long as they are downed they aren’t really fighting, and as long as they arent defeated they arent respawning. Its an incredibly irritating way to keep someone out of the fight essentially, until they grasp what you are doing and just stop trying to heal themselves

Zenith.7301:

Since nobody is likely going to be using this shield in PvE thus far because of its terrible damage and delayed phantasm cast:

1- Buff the damage to compete with iduelist/iswordsman. Make iswordsman cleave 3 targets on its attack (it’s been a long time coming, mesmer needs more cleaving phantasms than just iwarden or iberserker for PvE)

2- Make the phantasm spawn after 1 second of channeling the block. This would put it in line with the other 1 sec cast phantasm summons instead of laying around useless channeling a block hoping some mob hits you in PvE while you do no damage.

Voila, PvE mesmers will now use their shield instead of the usual sw/sw+sw/pistol that they will use if you don’t implement these changes.

You need to realize that the damage of mesmer autoattacks and blurred frenzy is so pitifully low, that we depend on 3x phantasms to sustain “competitive” DPS. Until you buff autoattacks/blurred frenzy damage coefficients, we cannot afford to use low damage phantasms.

I know you’re worried about chronomancer spike, but at some point you’re going to need to do something about the way mesmers do spike so that their terrible sustained damage can be buffed for PvE.

Being a buff/portal/veil bot with terrible damage in PvE just isn’t fun.

I plan to use the shield a lot thank you very much. And yes, in PVE.

Robert Gee.9246:

Even if you don’t consider the phantasm, the chronomancer’s shield 5 skill alone has higher damage output than the shield skills of any other profession. In general shields aren’t intended to be high DPS weapons. If the utility of the skills is lacking, that’s an area that can be tuned, but we don’t have any plans to really increase the damage that much.

Possible two blocks with two phantasms? Either or shattering or using their slow effect? Not to mention a double stun? I think that the shield is just fine.

Personally I think all offhand skills are just fine including sword #4. Only exception is torch #5. PMage is just too weak, and what’s up with that fury?

Aidenwolf.5964:

And this hasn’t been merged into the main thread, I wonder why? I also bought the game 3 years ago and that granted lifetime ownership of my game key necessary to play GW2 and while I welcome all new players to the game I’m not happy my B2P game is F2P

Gosh, if only those free accounts only had some restrictions that b2p doesn’t have.

Oh wait: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/play-for-free-today/

And that doesnt even address the fact that veterans were able to play ls1, play ls2 for free, have 3 years more experience….

The other factor of course is the reality that ALL video games see their prices reduce and, eventually, go free (or die off). All those old bargain bins. All those once-pricey games on steam. Should all those customers who originally bought those games also be angry?

This is what all the complainers of the cheaper core game don’t get. Thats a part of life of a game! Over time they get cheaper. Period. SURPRISE!

Like World of Warcraft. Which is now free to play. Welcome to the real world.

Azumi.9572:

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Don’t really want to get into an argument with a fanboy but meh.

There isn’t anything subjective about it. GW2 is boring. The best part of the game ends when you are finished the story and exploring the maps (This includes Jumping Puzzles).

After that, or rather at ‘end game’ there isn’t anything to do.

You can only do the same exact world bosses over and over so many times before you’re bored to tears. I reached that point a year ago with them.

You can only do the same exact dungeons over and over so many times before you’re bored to tears. The dungeons themselves are boring as hell, too. Stack in corner, kill boss. Run past trash mobs. Stack in corner kill boss. Wake me up. Please.

WvW is probably the single most boring thing I have ever done in my life. You know what an average WvW playtime consists of? Following a bunch of other people in a big zerg for about 20 minutes, run into en equally large zerg and then just spam buttons. No skill required – there is far too many people around for skill to mean anything. And the action is over and done with so quickly you’re back to running around maps looking for something to do. Boring.

sPvP? Meh. It’s alright. Same maps over and over again though makes it stale. Everyone uses the exact same builds now. You played 1 match you’ve played them all.

Be honest. Game is boring. I don’t want it to be – I just bought HoT after all and I’m still around. But it’s the truth.

I’ve played since launch. I took a break 8 months ago. I just came back around a week ago. I’m doing the EXACT same things now as I was then (Silverwastes, sPvP, Dungeons). Nothing has changed.

So now I’m trying to collect dyes. How joyful.

Oh and Fractals? Basically Dungeons, just takes longer.

“If it’s that boring, why do you still play?”

No idea. I don’t log in much anymore as it is.

Anyway. Convo over.

Pretty arrogant for you to presume to talk for everybody. And yes, it is very subjective. You mention that the game is boring, but only after you also mentioned you basically done everything you can in the game. A lot of people haven’t done that yet.

For example, the game has gotten boring for me, but only after I’m done everything over and over, just like you. Until that point I really love the game. Which is why I am excited about the new expansion, I expect it will revitalize my interest. Don’t go around saying the game is boring and it’s not subjective because you’re not taking into account all the people who haven’t played everything yet.

RoffleMyWaffles.1295:

Ephemiel.5694:

…..you’re lv 10 and you’re complaining that the game is too easy? That’s like saying a game is too easy when you only played the tutorial, what the heck did you expect?

MMOs aren’t for you OP, it’s as simple as that if you think this game is too easy when you pretty much did nothing but a tutorial.

I wasn’t aware that when I was lvl 9, I was still undergoing a “tutorial”, nor was there anything to bring awareness to that fact either. At level 9 in most other games, you’re actually “doing something” and not being tutored still. Just thought I’d state that fact.

I was level 6 in ESO when I died for the first time from a boss. I needed to party up with someone in the same quest/dungeon to defeat the guy. Just a little help to get over the hump. I met a friend that day. We partied up from time to time to overcome challenges. It was fun.

As it stands in GW2 at my current level, if it continues on this track I’ll never need to group up with another soul to overcome any challenge, and neither will it be encouraged. You catch my jist and my frustration?

There is hard content, but it isn’t in the beginning. Furthermore this is standard for a lot of mmos, to start off simple and let you build up.

For example, many dungeons are hard… sort of.

Let me explain the sort of. People have found ways to exploit weaknesses in the AI to make dungeons a lot easier. For one, a tactic called stacking. Against some bosses, who are usually pretty tough, they found if the entire party stacks at one of a couple points, the fight becomes a lot easier. People are hoping the errors in this AI is corrected, but as long as you play a dungeon as intended and not do the stacking, it becomes much more challenging.

For one example, watch this youtube video; its a parody about how hard subject alpha was to fight in the beginning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAbaKWJ1CTc Subject Alpha was considered pretty challenging when fought the “normal” way; when people discovered stacking, he suddenly became much more trivial.

There are also some content that is always challenging. I’ve seen a few dungeons and fractals fail from time to time.

Triple Threat, vinewrath, and Tequatl always have a chance of failure.

But the standard pve world content, no, not really, though some content is intended for groups and without that you won’t be able to succeed.

Human opponents are always better than artificial ones, so pvp and wvw will always be more challenging.

However HoT has apparently introduced much tougher opponents with much better AI. The hope amongst some of us is that if the AI improvement is significant enough, it will be propogated through the rest of the game – at least some of the more challenging content such as dungeons.

You WILL find your first forays into dungeons and fractals challenging if you havent done them before, if you don’t go read tactics about it online, and if you aren’t with a group that hand holds you the entire way.

And yes, things DO get more difficult than at level 9; they handle you with kids gloves in the beginning. Its intended to allow people to learn their character and the mechanics in a less stressful environment before it ramps up.

But this game doesn’t currently have any kind of serious hard-mode content to it – yet. If that’s what you’re looking for, well, maybe this game isn’t for you.

Levetty.1279:

I think we just have to accept that they don’t care about these professions. 2 Months out from launch and they still aren’t ready? Not good.

oh come on. Some specs HAD to be last. So because these two are last means they don’t care? Where the hell do you get that?

There are a lot of reasons for why they are last. The fact they dont care isn’t one of them. I mean, where the hell do you even that crap of an idea anyway?

Kobra X.6903:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

If you didn’t try a beta, wait till you try the gliding before you have an opinion on it. It’s not a “silly little gimmick.” It opens the map up to you like never before and quickly becomes an important aspect of travel in the zone.

By the way, source on the game numbers being scary low, since it seems you have access to those.

Listen, I was very excited about the game before having played it pre-launch just from things i saw with my eyes. I’m not impressed. Its just way for them to go back on the “no flying mounts, it kills scale”. Again, people are going to like it. I’m sure the majority of people that care enough to get on the forums and waste their time here are among them. I myself am not among them.

And you still havent given us the source of your “scary low” numbers. We are all waiting breathlessly for your proof on this.

Levetty.1279:

You just need to accept that Anet doesn’t give a kitten about Forge and Druid, we will be lucky if they are actually available at hot launch let alone in a viable state.

Seriously? rolls eyes

Gilgamesh.1025:

Morfedel.4165:

Gilgamesh.1025:

a lot of angry veterans have already left. Some are still around.

How do you define a lot. I’ve been playing since BWE1 of the core game, 3 years ago, and I don’t know even one “angry veteran” who’s left because of this. Not one. And I know a lot of people.

Your “lot of angry veterans” is very subjective methinks. I also watch map chat and while I do see a few complaints about the f2p thing, not one that decided they were leaving.

I been playing guild wars since way back guild wars 1 days. Early start and everything. I use the word “a lot” because I don’t want to sit there and count how many there really is in my head. My definition of “a lot” is any number that is more than 10+. I see that as “a lot.”

I also did not say anything about f2p. I think f2p is a good thing for this game. Bring in new players and such. Most of my friends left due to HoT. They are long gone already when HoT was “hot topic”…still is, I am sure. I don’t think anyone of my guild wars friend that is gone already know anything about this f2p thing. I don’t think they care anymore.

Well then, we have had completely different experiences.

eisberg.2379:

Gilgamesh.1025:

a lot of angry veterans have already left. Some are still around. I know I am not buying HoT. I can wait 4 or 5 years if I have to until the price is $10. Or when they announce the next xpac and HoT is free. I just get it for free, but who knows.

as far as I know, I am only into this game due to PvE and I will not pay $60 for 4 maps. I don’t care about skins. I have never care what my toons look like. I do not own a guild (I use one for extra storage). I don’t care much about legendary (takes months to make one). All these new specializations don’t change the characters too much. They just get new skills (at lest that’s how I see it). That raid seem cool, but it is not even 1 finish raid. Just half of one…

so, bottom line for me is $10 for HoT. If HoT is anything like guild war 1 add ons. I be more than happy to pay $60. Even EoTN was $40…was it $40? Too lazy to check source…lol

Calling it 4 maps really is misleading. Since each map has 3 biomes, it is effectively 12 maps. Maps in the core game really are just 1 biomes, with an occasional jaunt underground. Plus no doubt they will most likely add more maps over time.
HoT is $49.99 right now, when pre-purchasing you get an extra character slot, which effectively makes the expansion $39.99 for 12 maps, mastery system, another class, elite specializations, and more.

Be aware though that one of their people said not all 4 maps will have 3 biomes. But still, you have a good point.

Straylight.7529:

Gilgamesh.1025:

as far as I know, I am only into this game due to PvE and I will not pay $60 for 4 maps.

It’s not really the number of the maps that matters but rather how much content and replayability they offer. Everything we’ve seen so far in the beta points towards those new maps being densely filled with content. Even the part of the first map which was accessible during the beta puts the old vanilla maps to shame when it comes to volume of exploration.

You can dislike the expansion for other reasons, sure, but basing your decision whether you’re going to buy it or not on the number of maps would be an unreasonable thing to do.

And thats a big point a lot of the naysayers are missing. A lot of the maps in traditional gw2 are now fairly empty with a handful of obvious exceptions.

They have said that with these maps they are working hard at adding significant replay value that most of the current maps are missing. If they succeed, the entire “only four maps” complaints will be empty and meaningless.

Gilgamesh.1025:

a lot of angry veterans have already left. Some are still around.

How do you define a lot. I’ve been playing since BWE1 of the core game, 3 years ago, and I don’t know even one “angry veteran” who’s left because of this. Not one. And I know a lot of people.

Your “lot of angry veterans” is very subjective methinks. I also watch map chat and while I do see a few complaints about the f2p thing, not one that decided they were leaving.

Ardenwolfe.8590:

Morfedel.4165:

They aren’t? That’s weird. Most of the zones I go to are always well populated. Must be me.

Yes, because the world is so populated and full, they’ve decided to offer the game for free in an attempt to tempt more people, and sales, into the game because giving it away makes oh so much sense with a robust community.

And yet there are still lots of people online. Explain that.

I think what the situation is is that they’re population GROWTH stagnated, and they are trying to jumpstart that again. But a lack of population growth is far different from saying no one is playing it.

If no one was playing it, the servers would be empty. They aren’t. Not even close.

Ardenwolfe.8590:

Most of the people ‘boycotting’ aren’t playing the game anyway and aren’t entertaining the notion of an ‘expansion’ with four maps total. There’s a reason the core game went free-to-play, and it’s not because people are boycotting.

It’s because they aren’t playing. Period. Don’t get that twisted.

They aren’t? That’s weird. Most of the zones I go to are always well populated. Must be me.

SamuelV.7486:

So i’ve played over 740 hours and just bought HOT. I’m very mad because they made gw2 f2p. So it’s like i’ve paid twice as much as new f2p players. I don’t think 740 hours is worth 60$. plz reimburse me plz. I did not enjoy any of those 740 hours u know. its like im getting rekt by anet. dont rekt me moar plz. 60$ for full expac + new content and new living story pretty much too high. i get moar value playing single player rpg for 20 hours. i dont get to play with friends in gw2. where is the fun? id rather pay 15 bucks a month to play WoW + 60$ each new expac. this is dumb. or id rather play ESO and having new dlc each 6 month for over 30$. my god. i feel betrayed for playing 3 years before it went f2p. ONLY 3 years. wow! You know, i wish anet would be working for free. PLZ.

Seriously, it is a very good move by anet. New players means more fun for everyone. Restriction seems to be well though too, limiting how it will affect existing players. I was afraid new expac would split playerbase like in gw1. But this announcement made me prepurchance HOT. Now I just wish they nerf DD ele. Cya ingame.

So wait, are you complaining or calling this a good move? I cant tell if you are just being sarcastic the first part the second part, joking serious, or what? Because you seem to be contradicting yourself.

There are other games that have gone free to play over time. Even WoW, I think. Evolution happens. Welcome to life.

wasted.6817:

Lol, this gets even better. There are only 2 armor sets and 5 weapon sets. So there are 4 new same themed maps, that in terms of art created and used are probably more of a 2 maps equivalent, 3 legendaries, 1 raid, 2 (!!!!!!!!) new armor sets and 5 weapon sets. AND they charge 50 bucks for that. How was it… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmqJUkdyRz0

Did you miss the rest of it? The wvw, spvp, new class, 9 new elites, etc etc? IT sure does seem too expensive when you conveniently leave out all that other stuff.

As for the maps, you really need to stop focusing on the number, and start focusing on the combination of verticality and density.

They have said there will be three biomes. So when you look at that datamined map, even if its accurate, thats just one of three levels.

Secondly the maps’ events are much denser than in the other maps. In many of those maps in the current game you spent a lot of time running to get anywhere, do anything etc, and unless its a world boss event going on, most of those maps are usually pretty empty. There are exceptions, such as the orr zones with the temples, but those are exceptions.

Meanwhile, drytop and silverwastes are usually fairly well populated. Lots more going on. Much DENSER.

Additionally, the night and daytime events will be different.

Plus there are the new adventures system.

Plus the lores from the masteries that are said to unlock more events and activities.

It sure is easy to make the xpac seem not worth it when you cherry pick your complaints and leave the rest out.

Straylight.7529:

Simzani.4318:

There are 4 mini-maps, the total is equal to one normal map. Discard their pr speak about layers, it’s not innocent that in their beta week ends they only show a tiny part of their mini-maps. Given all the problems they had with this tiny demonstrations, it should be normal that they want to beta test all the mini-maps before the launch, wich is near. But they don’t, they only show a little part of a little map. Prepare to be disapointed.

If you truly believe that the content of the HoT-maps are equal to one normal map then you’re awfully misinformed.

And yet, you, having not seen the entire map in game play yourself, are well informed?

Ardenwolfe.8590:

Called it. Glorified Living World updates you’re paying for. Hope those who screamed for an expansion are happy now. And the cherry on top? Free-to-play.

Wonderful.

I’m not going to even humor that three levels means more ‘maps’ nonsense. That’s just white knight stretching.

So three levels on a map being more real estate than one level doesnt count, but if was three separate maps they would?

You know, you may call it white knighting, but it sure is black knighting to go with all this venom when you havent even SEEN the entirety of one of these maps yet.

Yunielesca.2850:

They’re working on another expansion, that’s the only explanation I see.

300 persons, 3 years, 3 YEARS to make 4 maps and 1 raid?
How on earth is it possible?

Because they werent working on it for 3 years.

What they were doing was experimenting, with living story in different ways, trying different things, seeing what worked, and what didn’t. At some point, they said “aha, this methodology seems successful, so let’s do that!”

Also, and I don’t know if this is true, but from what I understand they had a major release involving another mmo, and the owners of anet didn’t want GW2 competing with… hm.. was it Aion? I can’t recall off hand. Anyway, so the GW2 team was told to hold off on anything major until whatever other mmo that was had a chance to get its footing.

That last bit is hearsay btw. I can’t say its true.

Anyway, as I was saying though, I don’t believe they were working on this until they got what was working best. I think marionette, the LA invasion, and drytop/silverwastes were the final tests that made them decide they were on the right track. By the time of silverwastes they were probably in full swing with the development cycle.

all guesses of course.

Chronomancer and Daredevil.

Sicarius.4639:

Speaking of which, when will we hear reviews, are they likely to be from a broad range of sources?

sure, but the formal release is still 2 months away.

OP:to answer your question, there isn’t a boycott. there isn’t even a massive attempt by people to not pre order it. Some people are choosing not to pre order it because they want to know more details before they do.

Others are choosing not to preorder it because they think from what they have heard its over priced.

But a lot of people are pre ordering it too.

The real problem is people aren’t really sure just how much and how good the content is. Do you have faith anet will do it right, or not? There are naysayers here who say they won’t do it right and others that say they will.

For me, I have faith in them. no game is perfect, but this ha been IMHO the best mmo in a long time, and they have also delivered some substantial content completely for free so far. So, I am willing toput my faith n them.

If they screw this up, then next time I may not bother… or may stop playing. But thus far, as I said, I think they will do right by us.

Simzani.4318:

45E for this dlc that contain 4 mini-maps (= 1 normal map) and some ui tweaks is way overpriced. My perceveid value of the dlc is 15E, and even at that price I’d have waited for a cheap key because I don’t want to reward lazy work.

Again no. It isnt 4 mini maps. Its four maps containing as much as three levels each. You people sure know how to pick and choose your facts and ignore those that counter your toxic vehemence.

Test.8734:

Aramil.9503:

Is it true that people are boycotting this because it is overpriced?

No, people are simply not buying because it’s overpriced.

HoT will come with:

• Only 4 new PvE maps. This is almost nothing.

Consisting of as many as three biomes, which means each map can potentially equate as three maps each.

• Only 2 new armor skins per weight, plus legendary armor. This is less than the number of outfits they have released in the Gem Store since they announced HoT.
• Only 5 new weapon skins. Again, they have released more skins in the Gem Store than this.
• Only 3 new legendary weapons. Because ArenaNet says they will add more “soon” (last time they said that, it was more than 2 years ago and we’re still waiting)

So what? They are also releasing legendary armor, a new profession, and 9 elite specializations. Quit leaving out pertinent details.

• Only part of a single raid. They will release more “soon” (current bets say in 2017)

They said it would be a matter of a couple weeks for the first wing to come out, and a few more weeks for the next two. It isn’t going to be 2017. I could imaging 2016 but stop exaggerating.

Really, it’s DLC-worth content. The kind of thing people would pay at most $10 for.

Don’t buy it right now. Wait, and, considering how starved for money ArenaNet is (free to play game, rushing to release an obviously unfinished “expansion”), they will reduce the price as soon as the poor reviews start pouring in.

Your above summations are patently ridiculous. You left out important details, you are making some vast assumptions on the rate of release on the raids, and then you say this is worth only $10? thats utterly ridiculous. I could possibly imagine someone saying this was $30. But $10? good lord.

And poor reviews. What are you going to say if the reviews are excellent rather than poor?

That would have been funny though. “What the heck, I’m in verdant brink!”

Purecura.1795:

Welcome NEW PLAYERS!

I will do whatever I can to help you ALL OUT!

Add me in Game. My character’s name is Vanity Roseheart! I’am the most beautiful Mesmer in all of Tyria!

Also the most modest! :-)

IgnisVulpesXI.3015:

Thaddeus.4891:

You gonna need 3 builds then.

Depends on how effective he wants to be in each mode.

If you want speedrun dungeon clears then you will need a build for PvE and possibly a different one for WvW depending on your playstyle of choice.

(Or you could run the same build everywhere like I do for good (not optimal) results, though I rarely WvW)

@GrandHaven:
Good catch on Kinetic Battery/Lock-On interaction. Knowledge makes us stronger !

I don’t need speedrun dungeons, just successful runs

Ayrilana.1396:

Morfedel.4165:

My only concern is all the breaking events. LOTS of those broke. I have every confidence it will be ready, but still, it’s on my list.

Technically only two events broke. The south meta chain had an escort event stall and the north meta chain stalled when more than one person puts the larva in the basket or something. All of the other events worked perfectly.

Well, technically yes, but when that happened, it stalled the entire chain following too.

GrandHaven.1052:

You used the word “just” implying only…
Anyway. The lockdown trait is more reliable and is more than enough to counter invis heavy builds if you can time it right, however for a damage heavy sd build, utiliy goggles is still pretty good.

Sooo pvp or wvw? Ill cook up a build once i have that.

Both actually. PVE as well. And sorry I blew my top.

Thaddeus, Ignis, thanks for the suggestions, I looked them up and it does look like the direction I want to go. Thanks!