Guild Wars 2

This topic is probably going to draw some passionate debate, and a lot of people will shoot it down, but I think it needs to be discussed.

Two times in the first Guild Wars, ArenaNet backtracked on implementing stealth and removed the mechanic entirely, coming to the conclusion that it was overpowered.

In the original public beta, the Ranger profession had a Stealth attribute and line of skills, but this was eventually removed due to giving one class a hefty advantage.

With the release of Factions, ArenaNet toyed with the idea of giving Assassins stealth, but again, remembered the imbalance inherent in the mechanic and so created the shadow step mechanic as an alternative.

Fast forward to GW2 and they seem to have forgotten those lessons.
We now have thieves with both the shadow step mechanic, and the one it was meant to replace, Stealth.
This is made worse by stealth not being dependent on environmental conditions such as shadow or cover, instead being an unconditional invisibility.

It’s quite telling when you look at the forums for professions other than Thief and notice that every one has one or more topics asking how to deal with them.

So ArenaNet, as per the topic title, why implement stealth, and additionally are you considering changing it?

Our nickname for Thackeray is Thickeray. Simple, stupid, but it gets the job done.

I did have an interesting thought regarding soul-bond vs. account bound. What if all equipment was account bound?
I’m guessing the argument against would be that there would be more money floating around as there would be less for people to spend said money on.
But it would be an intriguing experiment.

Personally, I find the whole idea of any type of binding ridiculous in the first place, and I wish some developer in this space would one day be brave enough to abandon the concept.

JSmooth.7654:

Please be careful when using this term. Your post actually defines the idea you are trying to dispute.

Please describe how.
I’m intrigued.

Notice I’m arguing against the addition of raid-style content. Nowhere have I expounded on how I believe the game should develop.
Without knowing that, you cannot say that my ideas are the beginning of a slippery slope.

I played original GW from the first public beta, yes.
But it was never an MMO, and I never considered any of the high level content to be raids.
Indeed, neither did ArenaNet.
They were never called raids, and their party sizes were dramatically smaller than those of traditional MMO raids.
Even so, they were still very much the domain of elitists with annoyingly particular reliance on cookie cutter builds (another thing I despise about raids – reliance on set-in-stone builds).

You’re trying to confuse the issue by implying GW had raids when it never did.

I’ve been a reluctant raider in various other games, and they were all the same, and always the same, content never changing. The builds you used to play them were always the same. The enemies always performed the same actions, never varying from script.

And again, only the minority got to experience them.

Be content that the dungeons and fractals are already here and that they will be tweaking them. There’s your instanced content. It’s already far too much in my eyes.

@Conwolv:
Because adding raids would be the first step on a slippery slope.
Once raiders have raids, the vocal ones would then ask for better rewards for raids.
Then raids of different tiers with further better rewards.

This is what raiders have played in all other raid focussed games and what they will therefore expect if raids are implemented in GW2.

Let alone which, in all games that have chosen to include raids as a form of end game content, the developers have eventually ended up pouring the obvious majority of resources into further developing more raid content.

I don’t want to see development resources poured in to something I or the majority of the community will never experience.

Oh yeah, that’s the other problem. I’d guess that less than 10% of the population in most MMOs ever get to experience the highest level raid tier.
Probably less.

Raids are worthless, not utilising the resources of MMOs to their potential and explicitly tailored for a minority audience.

Again, go play one of the dozens of other games that do raids rather than trying to force them on GW2.

Ah sorry, didn’t see your thread.
Anyway, nice to know others have noticed and that I’m not going bonkers

I still think they need to work on making all stat combinations for gear available through crafting. For example, only being able to get 5 out of 6 Power/Vitality/Toughness armour pieces from the Orrian karma vendors is a PITA.

But more specifically for alts, a shared pool of town gear / outfits / tonics (everlasting and otherwise), and minipets that is quickly accessible to all alts without having to go to the bank would be great.
At the moment, my Witch outfit lives on my Elementalist, but I’d like some sort of drop-down menu available on all Hero windows so I could use it on all characters. Same goes for minipets, although they also really need a slot on your paperdoll, where any minipet in that slot is permanently displayed.

They don’t need a token system; they already have karma which is criminally under-utilised. The just need to add more things that can be bought with karma, such as exotic trinkets, more weapons & armour, town clothes, etc.

Because the gemstore is tied to real money, and you’re able to convert gold into gems, ArenaNet perceive that it would be very easy for people to completely bypass the real world cash to gems aspect of the store by converting karma goods to gems.
To be honest, I think they’ve been a little heavy handed with this and chose a knee-jerk reaction in making it this way. They should have let the market balance itself out over time.
After all, what’s the difference between earning gold and earning karma when we really get down to it?
Both are simply expenditures of player time.
In fact, you could argue that it’s easier to make gold than karma, hence all the bots out there.

Drapar.1589:

No. its nice how it is. im just asking , it would be nice to have something ELSE.

Your first comment implied all there was to do at endgame was sit in Lion’s Arch.
Now you’re saying that’s not the case. Could it be you were being argumentative for the sake of being argumentative and were actually painting a false picture of the game?

Then you’re playing a different game to me. I’m always exploring, making alts, playing a little WvW, doing a dungeon here and there, crafting gear, etc.
There’s plenty to keep me occupied.

Your endgame is not my endgame.
Your idea of what endgame should be is close-minded and conservative and guided by your experiences with other games which you’d rather GW2 was.

Kyosji.8961:

Evning.8495:

Caithe and Faolain,

Some one has to complete destiny’s edge =p

Oh yes, bow-wow-chika-wow-wow

Which by coincidence is my Lynx’s name

Well, Bow Chick A Wow Wow to be precise.

Oh yeah, OT:
Weirdo googly eyed Sylvari gal in Southsun Cove?

Positive. Head on over yourself and take a gander. It’s right next to the vista I mentioned.

I hate seeing this stuff in threads related to GW2.
It’s as bad as people crying for mounts.

Raids aren’t needed.
Instances have virtually nothing to do with a game being MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER.
You want raids, there are plenty of games that already provide you with sticks to scratch that itch.
Please do not continue trying to turn GW2 into something it shouldn’t be. You’ve already had your way with Ascended Gear.

Oh and as for the massive open-world meta events being easy and uncoordinated messes, yeah, that’s why Cathedral of Eternal Radiance is never contested. Oh, wait.

More stuff like this please.
No raid content thanks.

wildcode.5403:

Unfortunately I think they already missed the mark because one of the main reasons areas do not maintain a population is it is just not advantageous to stay in some areas when it requires coin/upgraded equipment to progress. People are going to eventually congregate in areas that provide the most benefit to them. To keep people in an area you need to make it just as attractive to stay as any other area, and currently the unresolved loot issues make a small number of areas more attractive than others. Sure initially you will have people explore the new content, but after the novelty wears off we will be back to where it is now unless loot issues are resolved.

I’m beginning to realise that this is a problem of perception.
While mapping Fireheart Rise last night, a 60-70 area, I received 4 level 80 rares as drops from mobs and was able to salvage a reasonable amount of orichalcum and gossamer from other levelled loot. Granted, they could afford to be a little more generous, as this rare drop rate is the highest I’ve seen for weeks, but I think they are gradually making earlier areas more rewarding.

I think one of the problems is that we, as Sylvari players, like seeing the glowy bits in our hair. They’re a major feature of the character design, and as ArenaNet seem to have a problem displaying a character’s hair and a helmet at the same time, we resent the headpieces because they take away that sense of personalisation we got when creating the character.

My gorgeous Sylvari Ranger “Wildheart” in her wonderful tier 3 outfit. I love how it glows, although dye previews and how they appear in the world are a right bugger with this set. Mind you, almost any colour combo looks great on this set, so no wukkas.

So I logged on this morning to do my daily, and was pleasantly surprised to hear a tune I couldn’t recall hearing before.
I’ve previously bemoaned the lack of variety in GW2’s tunes and the recycling of GW1 ones, so new things to hear are a very welcome addition!

So, as per the thread title, has new music been added?

Actually, reading this thread, one thing that occurs that might help, and has bugged me since beta:
Would it be possible to allow party sizes of more than 5 in open-world PvE?
I know you don’t have to be in a party to participate in an event, but it would greatly help guild groups coordinating some of the larger world events.
12 would be a good start.

Hi;

I did /bug this when I found it last night, but figured it would be best to post it here too.

There’s an overlap between difficulty zones in Fireheart Rise right next to the vista outside the entrance to Vexa’s Lab.
At level 80, I was down-levelled to 61 or 63 (can’t quite remember) while the Lava Elementals were 69.

I was just a little surprised when mobs I’d been tearing through were all of a sudden tearing me apart.

Hey all!

[NI] is looking to expand.
We’re a small guild of middle-aged misanthropes with a focus on exploration and open-world PvE. We’re not so much about the gear rather than having fun and chatting to like-minded people, and are fully supportive of people with alt-itis. We’re not hard-core dungeon runners, but we do enjoy the occasional dungeon jaunt.

We don’t really PvP, what with never having played SPvP and mostly doing WvW to get our monthly achievements and exploration. That being said, a few of us do enjoy it when we play it, so if you fancy dipping your toe into WvW, someone will usually tag along.

We’re mostly from the UK, but welcome guildies from anywhere.

We operate a free-to use Mumble server, and encourage anyone joining to make use of this. It makes things a lot easier and it helps build guild community a lot quicker.
The Mumble client can be downloaded here, and connection details can be found in the guild Message of the Day, accessible through the Guild (G) window.

For guild upgrades, we’re almost fully kitted out, with only the WvW upgrade tree to go. Guild Deep Cave (bank) access is free once you’re no longer a “New Member”, although with that comes the realisation that anything you put in can be taken by anyone. It’s not really there to be used as extra storage, rather for sharing things with the guild.

If you’re interested, contact either myself (usually on Wildheart or Beowulf Wyrmslayer), or Gobhoblin.
We’re available week-nights after 6PM or usually all weekend.

Looking forward to seeing you in the game!

I’m hoping that strengthening existing areas means more stuff like the Modus Sceleris content littered around the world. That continues to be a pleasant surprise when revisiting already explored areas only to find dashes of new content.
I’ve found them at two places in Lornar’s Pass so far and last night in Fireheart Rise. I know there’s a wiki entry detailing where they can be found, but it’s been great just stumbling across them with my ranger who’s on course to be my second “World Complete” character.

I’d argue that one of the reasons we’re not seeing masses of players regularly doing the big world events is that at 80, it costs too much in teleport fees to get to the next big event, you’ll stick to things close to where you currently are.
It’s definitely a barrier to my friends and I, and given how sparsely populated most areas of the game are now, I’d be willing to wager a majority of other people feel the same way.

So people are picking and choosing what they perceive to be the most rewarding events to ensure their teleport fees aren’t wasted and letting the others go ignored.

To be honest, his voice in GW2 is less grating than I usually find it, as it’s less recognisable than his usual characters.

I find that the core “Superstar” voice actors can actually damage immersion in games now with their presence. Recognising them tears me out of the game.

Steve Blum & Nolan North being the most recognisable. They’ve been in so many games I’ve played, I no longer hear the character, I hear the actor.

Jennifer Hale does just as many voices (including the lovely female Sylvari player character), but I find her far less grating, as she is much more of a vocal chameleon.

But the thing is, I know what they’re capable of, and while Steve’s pretty good in GW2, Nolan’s performance pales when compared with some of his other performances, the most notable of which being Nathan Drake, Arkham City Penguin, Alpha Protocol’s Heck and Captain Walker from Spec Ops.

This is something I’ve touched on briefly before, but I honestly think that instanced content with a lower player limit is the very antithesis of MMO.
MMOs should be about experiences with massive amounts of players and leveraging the advantages such quantities provide you with.
If you’re playing instances with limited numbers of players, you may as well being playing any other co-operative online game, from the original Guild Wars to Left 4 Dead.

This is the reason Fractals and Dungeons turn me off. They never change, they tell a set story, and playing them more than once offers ever decreasing returns in the enjoyment stakes.
Note however that this is purely my opinion and that I understand a lot of people enjoy repeating the same small amount of content with the same players over and over again.

So I say “Nay” to raids, and I’d go further and tell ArenaNet to reduce the amount of instanced content they’re planning to offer; try something that gets server populations involved instead. Something innovative, not iterative.

Don’t the recipes for the gifts also cost gold?

How about they change the way stability works, so that it works more like the way it does on bosses?
The skill grants you a stack of immunities to CC, decreasing by one every time a CC hits you, and when they’re all depleted you can be CCed again?

PS: I hate that bosses can only be CCed one in 6 times. It feels like a cheap way of increasing difficulty and makes certain weapons simply not viable for boss fights, further increasing the gap between GS and everything else.

While I’d like to agree to the gem store conspiracy, I honestly think it’s intended as a simple gold sink.
But for the type of player I am, it doesn’t work either way.
I never buy dyes from the gemstore.
I very, very rarely buy dyes from the BLTC.
I will once in a blue moon, when I have the mats, craft a dye.

But after recent changes in the direction of the game, I’ve completely sworn off of buying gems with cash. I will now only ever buy gems with in-game currency, if at all.
Once they get rid of any stupid ideas of vertical progression, they will once more start receiving cash from me.

Given you can buy the Digital Deluxe upgrade with gems, I’m going to assume that any expansions will also be purchasable with gems, so I’ll regularly start converting gold to gems so that I can buy them without giving ArenaNet a penny.

Nope, that’s not it either, although I can see where you’re coming from. The one I’m talking about was an amateur video and the moves were exactly the same as the Sylvari dance. I’m positive that the developers must have used it as a reference, it’s that similar.

I have 4 eighties.
Warrior was my first and is my main.
Ranger was my second and is close to eclipsing my Warrior as my main.
Mesmer was my third and I only really started enjoying it once I had him geared at 80.
Engineer is my fourth and is the least well geared currently.

The first three I really enjoy.

Warrior is still my first choice for harder scenarios such as dungeons & fractals, as I know he’s got the survivability combined with excellent support and control. I would also argue that playing a warrior well is far from faceroll. With hammer or x/shield in particular, you have to watch the enemy like a hawk to best time your attacks.

My Mesmer I initially hated. It couldn’t kill anything and spent a lot of time running away from things, abusing all of the stealth options available to it.
However, that all changed at 80 when I made my own illusion bomber build, and now he’s awesome. Durable because of constant dodging thanks to almost permanent vigor, an almost infinite supply of illusions to explode and he annoys everyone on Mumble because he pulls EVERYTHING

My Ranger, Wildheart, is very close to eclipsing my warrior as my main. While not as durable, I run a condition build mainly focussing on sword/torch & traps, and she kills things incredibly quickly. I can get bleeds, fire, poison, vulnerability, cold and cripple onto enemies incredibly quickly all at the same time with a startling degree of frequency, and that many conditions ticking away destroys enemies.
Plus, she looks fab in her Sylvari tier 3 (see attached).

My engineer has only recently hit 80, and while I like him, he’s the weakest of the four at the moment. There’s just something a little boring about him. He doesn’t seem quite as reactive as my other classes, but as his gear’s not yet finished, that may all change.

It really comes down to different strokes for different folks, and different tools for different situations.
I fully intend to get one of every class to 80 however, and am currently working on a thief. He’s 45 and was suffering from the same thing as my mesmer for a while, but is now coming into his own. Sword & Dagger for the dazing win!

skullmount: It’s character locked, so you get a “point” for discovering the same puzzle with different characters, so if you have the default 5 characters, you can “discover” the same jumping puzzle 5 times.

Others are also recommending exploiting the Overflow mechanic to get these points quickly and easily. That’s not really in the spirit of the achievement, but there’s nothing stopping you from doing it.

Ah, now THAT’s a good suggestion Chuo!
There’s an unescapable gap between the boat and a cliffside by the easier jumping puzzle in Southsun Cove; the boat with the champion skelk on it. I may give that a try, see if the HoM stone trick works.

You got that first link from the GW2 wiki, which is what I meant by incomplete. Your second link is also completely wrong, and one of the many I’ve watched trying to find the one that I specified quite clearly in my post. I’m getting tired of people reading post titles and not actual posts.

To further clarify, the dance I refer to didn’t simply “influence” the Sylvari dance; it WAS the Syvlari dance, exactly.

Hey;

This one’s got stuck in my noggin recently, with even an incomplete entry in the Wiki regarding the origin of this dance. I’ve been to various other sites and forums over the past couple of days, all claiming that their example is the original dance that inspired the Sylvari dance, but all of which have been wrong.

I remember seeing the original dance shortly after release when someone linked to it. It was two non-Asian kids on a dark stage doing the exact dance, but for the life of me, I can’t find the video again.
Does anyone here have a link, or would even a dev involved in the implementation of the dance animations care to contribute?
If nothing else, it would be nice to have a link to the original on the Wiki

Hey, no need to jump on me. I love the jumping puzzles in this game, and am going to do it the “hard” way, even when I don’t have to. I hate the Fractals part of the monthly, but I’m going to bite down and do it no matter my feelings. If I want the jugs, I need to do the chores.
To be completely honest, if they don’t change the way monthlies are structured, it won’t stop me doing them.
But again, in my previous post, I do suggest something that ArenaNet may want to consider adding to lower the amount of angst that is generated every time they release new monthly requirements.

I get the feeling that a lot of people are more interested in forum one-upmanship than actually reading that which has gone before.

People telling others that jumping puzzles are easy and how to use exploits to get the achievement are missing the point.
Some people aren’t interested in that content, no matter how “Easy” it may be to get.
Offering viable alternatives would be a much more elegant solution, hence my previous suggestion.

I’m pretty sure that the only reason they set the level at 80 was to attract the traditional MMO audience. I remember seeing hundreds of posts in other Guild Wars forums from newer players constantly complaining about the low level cap. They didn’t understand it, but it wasn’t what they were used to, so they complained.
With Guild Wars 2, ArenaNet sought to appease those people.

Their heart was in the right place, especially with the inclusion of auto-levelling. But the more I play, the more problems I see with such a large level range.

If they add even more levels, the entire game’s balance gets thrown out of whack.
That’s the core argument I’ve got against Ascended gear too; just playing, you can see that the game was balanced with the idea that Exotics would be top tier; you get a feel for it, no matter what ArenaNet’s recent PR may say.

What SpyderArachnid said. I /bug reported this back in beta, as I’m sure thousands of others did, but nada.
Mind you, the UI as a whole needs more customisation options, as it’s a lot larger than necessary with silly amounts of superfluous artistic details that simply get in the way.
I’ve gotten used to the UI now, but that doesn’t mean it’s good. If GW2 supported UI mods like other MMOs, I’d download an alternative in a heartbeat.
Heck, I’d even try programming one myself.
I’s weird, as the GW1 UI was elegant and sublime, with most of the customisation options you needed built in.

Goettel.4389:

That’s bunk ofc, you ALWAYS have a free option: go into the mists, use the LA portal and carry on from there.

Glad to help out. ^^

Yes, really helpful if you get stuck by a vista in Cursed Shore!
To get back to that vista you’re either going to have to spend hours running back there from LA or money teleporting back to the nearest waypoint.

Glad to help out indeed.

You know, reading this, I realised they should do monthly achievements the same way they do the major event ones (like Halloween, Southsun Cove & Wintersday).
Some people don’t want to do jumping puzzles, some don’t like fractals and others can’t stand WvWvW. So why not make more achievement tracks for monthlies, yet require less than all? That way people could choose which ones they want to do.

For example, there could be 6 achievement tracks:
50 kills in Wuvwuv.
15 Fractals.
30 Jumpin Puzzles.
100 Events.
100 People ressed.
5 maps completed.

Yet only 4 of those would need to be done to get the achievement.

Thoughts?

And I’m a nutter for JPs. Love ‘em. I have a reputation in my guild for “Accidentally” finding them when helping people map areas.
A guild member and I had a fantastic time last night doing the one in Eternal Battlegrounds, and it was a great guild experience. I’d done it lots of times before, but the achievement gave us an excuse to go back there. While many people hate the PvP aspect of that one, I find it adds a vital frisson to the game.
My very good friend even suspects I had something to do with the implementation of this monthly achievement, stating he “Doesn’t know how you managed it, but you’re an evil, evil man”.

That said, while I found fractals fun the first time around, I can’t stand the mentality of wanting to do them over and over again and really hate having to play those same maps more than a few times, so that’s my personal bugbear with this achievement.
Really can’t stand them and what they represent.

“Say, we have a game that’s all about massive amounts of players getting together and gameplay evolving through the interactions of those players! Let’s ignore that whole idea and reduce the game to something that really doesn’t play to the strengths of the genre!”

Seriously, instanced dungeons completely remove the first M from MMO.

Ramble over.

Nah, they’d rather you spend the cash and teleport out. No way are they going to give you a free teleport option.

Just a thought, and mainly regarding the fact that you get 2 Gifts of Exploration for map completion.
Let’s face it, the likelihood of getting 2 legendaries for one character that’s completed the map is incredibly low. And as it stands, the gifts have no use besides crafting a legendary.

So how about letting us trade one of those gifts for a precursor of our choice?

When I first received my two gifts, I was incredibly excited, until I found out that they only have one very specific use. Since then they’ve been sat in my bank doing nothing.

Heck, even if the above idea goes unimplemented (and I already know that the suggestion will get a lot of people’s backs up), give us SOMETHING else to do with Gifts other than craft legendaries.

I really hope they don’t raise the cap in a traditional sense, as it would break trait trees and the balancing act that is character building.
I think it’s regrettable they got rid of one of the most interesting mechanics of the first game, that of Skill Capping.
For a lot of us, Skill Capping was the prime example of excellent horizontal progression in GW1.
So I think they should maybe look at reintroducing that mechanic and also introduce a lot more skills for people to play with, expanding the amount of viable builds.
Hunting particular bosses in order to capture a specific skill was fantastic in the first game.
In GW2 they could even make it event based.

Edit: also, more affordable armours and weapons with clean, nice skins rather than the current tendency towards spiky & glowy sets.
Armour with lots of spikes and bits on fire may be popular, but that doesn’t mean it’s not terribly gaudy and gauche.
We need more elegant styles that feel crafted rather than in-your-face.
That’s why Krytan weapons are some of my favourites in the game.

Oh, and while I’m bouncing ideas around, this game could learn a thing or two from DCUO when it comes to styles. Make them collectible and re-usable, allowing characters to build up massive wardrobes without filling up bank space. You’d see people experimenting with different styles for different pieces resulting in a much wider range of diversity. Core stats on armour should remain the same, but appearance should be something the player can change at will.
Of course, this will never happen as ArenaNet have successfully and somewhat disappointingly monetised style in this game through the implementation of Fine Transmutation Stones.

The ranged cripple’s as much a gap closer as the leap really, just inverted.
Personally, I find the axe suits my very active movement style more than the sword. It’s quick, and all moves can be used very effectively while moving around the enemy.

Then again, I don’t really play enough with sword to know it as intimately as I do the axe, but whenever I try to use it, the slower swing speed and the less solid sound effects do nothing to endear it to me.

Much like Thief main-hand sword, the feeling of the weapon is off due to wimpy sound effects resulting in a lack of physicality which the axe and hammer possess in spades. Technically, sword may very well be just as effective as axe, but the feeling of connection just isn’t there for me.

One thing that would help us players:
The first game would let you know when DR was kicking in (or “Anti-Farm Code” as it was called in those less spin-controlled days).
So how about GW2 flashing up a message to let you know that DR is kicking in and that you should maybe move on to something else?

Or maybe you’re scared players will quickly realise exactly how aggressive your DR algorithms currently are?

Erm, no; Frenzy in the first game was functionally identical to how it is now, except it could be kept up permanently as the stance lasted 8 seconds yet the cooldown was 4 seconds. So by the time the stance ran out, you could immediately activate it again.
They didn’t get Frenzy in GW2 from WoW; they already had it.

I does have a little something; a PBAoE effect. But I agree, it’s not really enough.

“Know the unknowable”.
And whenever I hear it, my mind spools “Dream the Impossible Dream!”

I’ve always been disappointed with the cooldown on Frenzy, especially when compared to the first game. The skill has balance baked in, what with taking double damage while it’s active, so the long cooldown seems arbitrary and actively dissuades me from ever taking the skill. Heck, sigils of rage proc more and don’t have the double damage downside.

It was one of the things that first made me realise that a lot of the skills in GW2 are poor relations to those in the first game, stinking of traditional MMO punitive cooldowns with subdued effects in order to stretch out encounter length.