Guild Wars 2

Not true… but point taken.

Truly impressive. Thanks for sharing that.

OriOri.8724:

Are those techniques not “taught” now because fractals were made easier? Either way can you go into detail as to what some of the techniques that you don’t see newer players using are?

Well, just my opinion, but there are a few factors that have contributed to this.

Firstly, fractals were made easier. No doubt there. Easily up until the mid 50s, the typical, zerg in and kill everything will work, regardless of composition. This can be seen most readily on Snowblind, Mai, Duo and Shaman. Often, Elemental Source in snowblind will die before new players realize what’s happening. Only later when the elementals aren’t taken care of, they’re wiping players, along with frostbite. Duo is another offender – newer players expect the burn, but when he doesn’t go down, often shockwaves aren’t jumped, and claps are jumped into – simply because they never got to experience them in earlier tiers.

The viper necro build also has helped to nullify many of the dangers of fractals. Allowing for the compete facetanking of anything in fotm short of Mai’s cannons.

Molten furnace is another offender. The AOE fire phase, as well as the fire traversals can be reflected. The corner stack is a poor substitute. A number of classes can stand center and protect the entire party through those phases. Just a bit further, how many can identify the attacks the Boss Dredge can do at the end of the tests? Doubt many newer players even notice them he often dies so fast.

I can go into other examples, but the idea is mainly that the easing up of the difficulty, along with the power-creep of the HOT builds have made many strategies unnecessary. However, having that basic understanding does allow the more experienced players an edge and allow them to spot less experienced members in the group.

Hope that helps clarify what I meant.

No offense, BV, but I think some of your experience stems from, well, lack of experience. And while my initial response was sarcastic, it bore some degree of truth – application of your suggestions would really neuter fractals to triviality,

For example the Harpy knock back is completely neutralized by reflects, stability, or projectile destruction. Dodging is irrelevant. Old tom’s gas attack is also easily neutralized from heals, damage reduction and/or condi clear/transfer, a body block for his projectiles and good old quick DPS.

I think many of your concerns, mainly those around respawns, and enviornmental dangers will be alleviated with more experience.

Feel free to hit me up in game to run some fractals if you wish.
———————

Edit – As an aside, my viewpoint stems from seeing many newer fractals players, who started them after the change to 1-100, weren’t exposed to many of the strategies used (and to some degree needed) to complete the older/original fractals. For veterans, those many of those strategies completely trivialize the current fractals, and in many cases can be ignored/modified to the new format. However, without that original understanding many of the newer runners encounter issues that the veterans take for granted. Not their fault entirely, but also to a fault that those techniques are less taught/shared now.

Jerus.4350:

Mourningcry.9428:

So, in summary, basically a room with a boss across the board?

Naw, see I’m going to kill the boss, so why should I even have to, that’s just a waste of time. I should just zone into fractals, boss does some weird animation to summon a chest, I open the chest and boom done.

Wait, no! better yet, Fractal reward chests that spawn in home instances! no need to ever waste time again.

I’d reply to this, but Anet should really implement some functionality to do that for me.

So, in summary, basically a room with a boss across the board?

Firstly, I avoid WvW to the greatest extent that I can, so this change impacts me as much as anyone else of similar mind.

That being said, in all fairness, ANet doesn’t really need to address this any further.

As has been said, they made the announcement well in advance.More than a little bit of onus lies on the player to keep abreast of any announced changes given the history of like changes that have taken place. If a player chooses not to inform themselves, or is unable to for whatever reason, that’s on the player. Personal responsibility and liability for their own (in)action.

For what it’s worth, and for those that have been around since the start, this isn’t the first time WvW changes have impacted Legendaries. And, unless I’m mistaken, this is the first time any pre-announcement was given.

• World complete previously required WvW maps. That was a lot of fun for those of us that had to venture into a vastly different WvW environment where being on a low WvW participation server could mean days to weeks of waiting for an area to become accessible without having to transfer. If you were lucky, you could swap to alts to map those areas before they were overtaken. Granted, this could be seen as a positive for those of my mindset, yet was a bit of an affront with no compensation, given how much time, effort, and in some cases expense, was done to meet the previous requirements.

• Gift of Battle required rank 30 in order to purchase.
  https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/updates/Game-Update-Notes-February-4-2014/first#post3591492

Which was temporarily revoked, to the misfortune of those that ranked up based on that, until:

• Gift of Battle required rank 14in order to purchase.
  https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/updates/Game-Update-Notes-March-18-2014/first#post3772979

Could they have made the announcement more visible? Of course.

Was it necessary for them to do so? No, based on their previous protocols of not pre-announcing such changes. This time they did so well in advance.

Could they again temporarily revoke the change? Perhaps. They have shown in the past that they are willing to revisit their decisions. But unlike in the past, this was an announced change prior to it going live.

We’ll have to see how they handle this. But just wanted to put it out there that this was not something that should have blindsided players that, by the very fact they’re reading this, had every opportunity to inform themselves.

Fractal Attunement Mastery if a core mastery. Only available as part of the HOT expansion.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Central_Tyria_mastery_tracks#Fractal_Attunement

Osu.6307:

NovaanVerdiano.6174:

What are you on about lmao
All of those classes do fine in fractals…

I meant VANILLA classes. Elites are fine.

NV is still right. They may not be optimal, but they were perfectly fine when fractals were (more) challenging.

14. Be specific when posting the LFG

15. Respect the LFG when joining

Don’t agree with using fractal pages as the sole currency as they’re typically T1/T2 at this point.

At the least, the ability to buy them should be locked behind personal level 100, or at least completion of fractal 100 (similar to regular fractal weapons).

I would have to say FoTM is now more accessible, forgiving and accommodating than ever before….. perhaps too much so judging by some of these discussions.

Simple notions of gratitude and courtesy are sadly a rare thing around here.

Say thank you, or don’t, and go on your way if you can’t appreciate a gift freely given for what it is.

Astralporing.1957:

TheRandomGuy.7246:

Astralporing.1957:

It was still the longest and most tedious of all fractals, and consequently least liked.

Molten Furnace Fractal would like to disagree.

…you’re joking, right?

TRG has a valid point. As far as the records went, I believe Cliffside was faster by w couple of minutes … Molten is just one tedious time gate after the next.

Would love to see a 2 min clear on 90 or 99…

Thanks in advance.

Spoken like someone who never had the pleasure to roll for swamp….

Just being able to choose a specific island is the bee’s knees…

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Agony_Infusion

Gaile Gray.6029:

We’re looking into it.

I expect excuses like lost luggage, delayed flights, and inedible airport food.

More likely being detained in connection with gold laundering.

The difference is that the current COF “farm” is that it is finite – once all the masteries are complete, it’s done. At which point they go merrily on their way.

Previously, there was no discernible end despite diminishing returns.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Fractal-Master-Collection-Bug/first#post5642862

Probably related…

Dara Potocska.8196:

6. Queue what you can!
Anything in your queue will be auto completed. This counts for your guild’s currently building upgrades and your items further back in the queue.

Hi Dara. My guild had upgrades building in queue which would have completed before HoT release. Checking earlier, the queue is now empty, and the upgrades have not completed.

The log does not indicate any cancellations or completions.

Is this working as intended? Or should I submit a bug report.

Thanks in advance.

So, essentially you dreamed of new content that crashed before you got to play it?

Hardly precognizant

Korga can take a while to solo.

Thanks for the clarification.

Rising Dusk.2408:

1. Pristine Fractal Relics become the exclusive reward dungeon currency for Fractals. You will be able to purchase Fractal weapons and more using these relics. There will still be some RNG, but it’s my understanding that with this change you can actually make progress towards tangible rewards that you’d actually want.

Hi. Could you elaborate a bit on this with respect to regular fractal relics vs pristine? What about regular relics?

@OP,

I completely understand your position, and can’t deny how beneficial it would be to players just starting out, or working on their AR.

However, how do you propose players with literally hundreds worth of AR spread across multiple armor/weapons/trinket sets be compensated for the time, effort, and/or gold they’ve already put in which would be marginalized? Not to mention non-AR infused loadouts they have as well….

It’s fine to have a view point, but I don’t see you taking into account the segment of the player base that would gain little to no benefit from what you propose, and in fact, void their (considerable) commitment they’ve shown.

Edit: Also, proposing gold/relic/infusion refunds is meaningless as it’s highly likely this segment of the player base has already exhibited that they value the AR more.

Plenty of ways to get enough points to get a descent build to finish leveling. Craft a few levels, do hero challenges in the lower level zones, use tomes/writs to level faster.

Yes, the auto-assignment was an impediment to a lot of players, but it really isn’t insurmountable. Plenty of previous discussions on this already.

Linfang.1087:

In terms of the mechanics of each profession, regardless of which game type, or traits, equipment etc..

Difficult: Elementalist, Engineer, Mesmer.
Easy: Warrior, Ranger

Everyone else in between.

In terms of available mechanics, yes, I’d agree.

But after suffering flamethrower camping Engineers, GS camping mesmers, and Fire Staff camping Eles, the available mechanics become moot and you now have easy mode for the difficult classes…

So, yes, all things should be taken into consideration.

In which game mode (PvP, WvW, Open world, Instanced)?

Using which gear? Which weapons? Which build? Advanced rotations or just spam auto?

I think you get the idea… these kind of generalizations often lend to misinformed people making unwarranted assumptions about a class and those playing them.

Just try to avoid doing runs within the same tier (1-10, 11-20, 21-30, 31-40, 41-50) and see if the problem persists.

Out of curiosity, what’s your personal fractal level?

Teofa Tsavo.9863:

Mourningcry.9428:

Am I the only one that found OP’s signature amusingly appropriate for this post?

As predicted.

The lack of sympathy comes not from them being either new or FTP, it comes from the abundant number of (un)official posts spelling out the limitations, restrictions, and options for F2P accounts.

And from the arrogant presumption that ANet would intentionally give FTP players Daily tasks they couldn’t complete.

A little research goes a long way. A lot of lazy, not so much.

Am I the only one that found OP’s signature amusingly appropriate for this post?

Simple solution for new players, or those hurting on waypoint fees – do a little harvesting between ports. I think many would be surprised how easily this subsides, if not entire covers, waypoint expenses (in addition to tool costs).

Nemesis.8593:

…

I took a very big chunk out of this video, the initial size was 37 minutes… that chunk along more things will be in part 2… and now that i have your attention… ohhhh… part II…

It’s going to be beeeaaauuuutiful

Is there a Korga solo in part 2?

Been discussed before. There are options to get ascended trinkets/weapons/armor without any use of laurels.

Sorry to hear it…

In the future, maybe consider making a couple of F2P slots as place holders. Log em out as people join and after they pay to free up paying slots.

It may be a reach, but it would be nice if the armor was also omni-class (i.e. Heavy/Medium/Light). So, in addition to it being account bound, or could truly be usable across all characters on an account.

I suppose, at worst, it would only need to be acquired three times. Only……

Edit: I am aware that the presentation indicated sets of armor. But there’s always hope

Wanze.8410:

Mourningcry.9428:

Technically, the only piece of Ascended gear obtainable only through laurels are the amulets.

Granted, it may be a tedious undetaking, but everything else can be gotten through other means.

An Amulet can be bought without laurels with bandit crests.

Nice catch. Forgot about those two.

Technically, the only piece of Ascended gear obtainable only through laurels are the amulets.

Granted, it may be a tedious undetaking, but everything else can be gotten through other means.

Just had a new one on Grawl scale 50.

Opening cinema never happened. Grawl invulnerable. No apparent way to reset it (mass suicide, new character entrance, etc.).

Fix.

Ciome.1075:

With the new sales of today, am I the only one
1) thinking that the price of gems is reaching a scam level and
2) wondering how anet can be at loss or near it with the price increasing by something like 47500% from the release of the game?

Gem prices have not changed since release.

The conversion rate of Gold to Gems is dependent entirely on player conversions. .

Branden Gee.2150:

So, essentially what you are asking for is a way to have options like “Receive Whispers”:

• From All
• From Friends and Guild Members
• From Friends
• None

This seems like a reasonable feature request.
If Player A is on Player B’s friends list, but Player B isn’t on Player A’s friends list, how does that interaction work out?

Would this also extend out to things like mail?

(Please note this does not mean that this will happen, won’t happen, is planned to happen, and or not planned to happen)

Hi Branden,

Perhaps implement as inclusive checkboxes, instead of a single option, with no selection indicating “none”?

Whisper Settings:
[ ] – Public (receipt from any one, selecting this would check all the others)
[ ] – Friends (people on my friends list)
[ ] – Guild Members (should include all guilds, not just the active one)
[ ] – Party Members (as they may be neither friends nor guildies)
[ ] – Team Members (for PvP)
[ ] – Squad Members (maybe unnecessary)

And then add:
[ ] – Apply Whisper settings to Mail

In your example, player B having added A is inconsequential with respect to player A’s settings. Just because B considers A as a friend shouldn’t grant them rights to circumvent A’s settings.

Blaine Tog.8304:

You know “slippery slope” is a logical fallacy, right?

It’s one thing for there to be a top DPS option, and it’s another entirely for it to be head-and-shoulders beyond everything else. Like, if the top DPS option is only a few percent higher than the average, then maybe really hardcore speedrunners might prefer it, but realistically nobody else is going to care. You don’t have to be an obscenely hardcore player to see how strong a skill with a cumulative damage coefficient of up to 21.12 is. That’s a completely insane amount of damage.

Then treat it as a simple euphemism for what you know I was alluding to if you prefer.

There has already been considerable discussion regarding lesser degrees of power creep (i.e. Ascended over Exotic) in the general community (both PvE and WvW), not even from the hardcore minority. Take away icebow, and it’s only a matter of time before the next best option becomes the norm. Even if it’s a marginal gap, it’d be enough of an enticement to attract the same attention this discussion has.

In the simplest case, all attacks would do the same damage. As soon as one attack does more damage, this is now the more desirable one, and any who don’t wish to use it will fall into discord.

Is Icebow over the top? Take it away, and something else will take it place. Still over the top, but maybe just not as overly over…..

Slippery slope… there will always be a top dps option in game….

Why not cut to the chase and just tell us what skill/utility you want to be highest DPS.

Magic 8 Ball says…. “Cannot predict now”.

Bummer.

Check your Options settings.

upsdn.5426:

Basically the only reason I purchased and used the candy corn gobbler on my second account was to increase WXP gain, since that’s a pain to level up.

The boosts were absolutely worth it, since WXP boosts were higher duration and much more common than the other random boosts you’d get from the gobbler.

Now, you get a boost that gives +50% (despite not being in the tooltip) WXP for much less time, and it comes much less often than the transformations.

I’ll be getting a refund on this ASAP I think.

Refunds are definitely in order – as long as they can also revoke all experience, karma, rewards and everything else gained while under the affect of a gobbler boost.