Guild Wars 2

The game and its art assets are primarily focused on Humans; all craftable armour has obviously been made to fit a Human model, then stretched to fit other races.

In addition, while Charr look utterly awesome when running with weapons sheathed, when they draw said weapon, the running animation is more of a waddling one.
They lose all felince grace as soon as they enter combat.
The female Charr in particular, while they did an awesome job at making them discernible from male Charr, looks awkward and gangly when in combat.

Male Charr can get away with looking hulking, but female Charr, not so much.

ArenaNet need to do some serious polishing of Charr, in particular their armours, in order for them to get to a place I’d be happy with them.
There is no difference between male and female Charr armours, so they cheaped out here, halving the amount of assets they had to create.
And for the Gods’ sake, the Charr tier 3 light cultural armour doesn’t even take the tail into account, so it clips through the skirt.

So if you want a warrior that doesn’t feel like ArenaNet only made a half-baked effort, go Human.

I’m against using Guild Missions as a gate for WvW commander status. Why should purely PvE activities affect an individual’s ability to command in PvP?
And as others have mentioned, Dungeon Commander isn’t really necessary, but I understand that SKiNBuS was trying to cover all potential bases.
Otherwise, good stuff.

A friend’s just made a good suggestion for the WvW commander side. Tie it into the WXP system so that you can buy "Ranks"with WvW ability points you earn as you play.
Still have a price on the initial purchase, but at least only those really wanting to command will pursue the higher ranks.

Malafide:
I know a lot of people have bought it for PvE means; the wonderful Rezzah on Ring of Fire does tireless tours of Southsun, taking everyone around the island on repeat cycles getting them their achievements.
I didn’t say that there was a use for them in PvE, I just stated that the problem is that as gold is becoming more available, more people ARE buying the compendium purely for posing.
As it stands at the moment, and increasingly this WILL be the case in the future, a commander icon on the minimap is no guarantee of that person’s actual ABILITY to command.
I’d like to know that the commander I’m following actually got the status through ability rather than a fat wallet.

The suggestion above for a PvE commander icon purchasable with a Gift of Exploration is actually a good one, especially if it’s kept separate from WvW so it’s not useable there.

I’m aware there are flaws in my initial suggestion, which is why I opened the floor to comment.

That works too, but the Adrenaline gain isn’t quite as good as it is with Longbow.

Go adrenaline build, Hammer main, Longbow off.
Combustive Shot the resser & ressee, then Earthshaker.

So I’ve finally made a build that I feel works very well in WvW and evens things out for me versus other classes when roaming. I’m not the greatest WvW player, but I’ve been using this build to take on thieves and DD eles at the same time, and as a bonus, it CRUSHES in a zerg situation.
It’s also an incredible front line vanguard build, and I’ve been using it to break enemy lines and turn the tide of battle. It’s also great at holding choke points.
And best of all, it’s Hammer, so it justifies my Juggernaut.

Let’s get the boring stuff out of the way first: gear.
I’m sure people may be able to improve on its damage with different gear configurations.
The basic idea is P/v/t EVERYTHING.
Trinkets, armour and weapons. ALL P/v/t.
The hammer being Juggernaut means it’s P/v/t by default. The only change I’ve made there is to add a Superior Sigil of Force instead of the Superior Sigil of Sanctuary it came with.
The only exception at the moment is my secondary weapon, the Longbow. That’s currently Knight’s stats (T/p/p), with a Superior Sigil of Perception. It’s a holdover from when my main armour set was all Knights. Still, it works quite nicely, and the added Precision helps crit rate. I’m umming and aahing over whether to get a P/v/t bow.
Runes are Soldier to compliment the amount of shouting you’ll be doing.

Here’s the fun stuff though, the traits:
Strength, 0
Arms, 15: Unsuspecting Foe
Defense, 25: Embrace the Pain, Merciless Hammer
Tactics, 0
Discipline, 30: Inspiring Shouts, Sweet Revenge, Burst Mastery

15 in Arms gives a very nice crit % on a build with no access to crit otherwise; this build relies on Earthshaker, so that’s a guaranteed +60% from the traits here to start with.

25 in Defense is in order to give a nice +100 boost in power thanks to Toughness being 2008.

30 in Discipline gives excellent additional utility through weapon swapping which you’ll be doing a LOT of. It also enables Inspiring Shouts which is pretty critical to the build.

Utilities are Healing Surge, “For Great Justice!”, “Shake It Off!”, “On My Mark!” and Signet of Rage.

Basically, it’s a high adrenaline build relying on constant weapon swapping in order to use burst after burst.
Lead with the Longbow until you have enough Adrenaline for Combustive Shot, then use it and quickly switch to hammer; you’ll already have at least one bar of adrenaline, but using your shouts, damage from the enemy and maybe an auto-attack or three, you should have 3 bars in no time, at which point you Earthshaker into the Combustive Shot in order to generate a nasty, almost guaranteed AoE critical as well as an Area Might combo.
Rinse and repeat.
It’s a really aggressive, smashy style of play with a massive sense of achievement.

Sure, it may not be a huge amount of damage, but the shock attack factor is insane, AND IT’S NOT A GREATSWORD OR AXE BUILD.

A couple of more points: the Longbow should be used as if it’s a melee weapon with this build, and really abuse the omnidirectional aiming nature of Combustive Shot. Also, instant cast AoE is essential for this build, as you don’t want to be double-tapping F1 to get your burst on.

Oh, and it works great in PvE as well

If they rebuffed +Burst Damage on Discipline, this build would destroy everything.

Fixy.6193:

May be they could simply add an option to hide the commander icon when you right-click on it, this way anyone can simply hide icons they don’t want to see. As a side effect it will help people trying to follow their commander when there’s more than one.
The upvote downvote idea is like you said too much open to griefing or manipulating votes…

That’s a really elegant solution; definitely like that!

Having the Commander Compendium available for 100 gold has always been problematic, but now I’m beginning to see the more unsavoury side effects.
As players begin to accumulate more gold, I’m beginning to see people buying the Commander Compendium in order to treat it like some sort of extended, glorified title.
They’re obviously buying it for the attention it gets them, and they’re not doing any actual commanding at all.

I’d like to open up this topic as a sounding board for ways to improve Commanders and how they’re assigned.

With that in mind, let me make a few suggestions:

Commanders should be subject to peer review, with players able to up or downvote them. If a particular Commander receives too many downvotes, they have their Commander status revoked. This is open to all sorts of problems, where people may end up grief-downvoting one Commander in order to promote their own agenda, but something like this is needed. Suggestions on how to minimise the opportunity for griefing are welcome.
Up or downvotes should be applied by simply right-clicking the Commander’s icon on the minimap.

Players should be able to see a Commander’s peer review status so they can tell which Commander they should be following the orders of.

There should be a pool of coloured icons and different icons to choose from, so that different Commanders are more easily differentiated between on the minimap.

Acquisition of the Commander’s Compendium should be changed from 100g. A high amount of Badges of Honor initially strikes me as a good idea.

Of course, another method of acquiring it could be that if a player excels at leadership during normal play, people can give them an upvote and at a certain total, they gain their Commander’s privileges. Again, open to abuse, so some balancing is probably in order.

Any additional thoughts?

To answer the question, unfortunately not. You’re best off keeping an eye on the thread in the Dynamic Events forum to see when the Cathedral of Silence (Grenth) is uncontested. There are various sites out there now that the APIs have been released that will tell you the status of that temple.
If one’s free on another server, just guest to it.

On a related note, I was looking at the Ascended P/v/t trinkets in WvW earlier, and it really wound me up.
It really highlighted how they left the previous tier of gear unfinished, as there’s no P/v/t exotic gem, just the Crest of the Soldier.
This means that the Ascended trinkets bestow a significant advantage over those with just Exotics:

Exotic Amulet with Rare Crest: 110/78/78
Ascended Amulet: 126/85/85

Exotic Accessory with Rare Crest: 76/54/54
Ascended Accessory: 91/60/60

Exotic Ring with Rare Crest: 77/62/62
Ascended Ring: 103/68/68

I have been trying to ignore Ascended, fooling myself that it doesn’t really make a difference and that it was a token gesture by ArenaNet to placate the gear grind crowd, but I realise now that if they continue this trend with armour, they’ll completely unbalance WvW, ostracising new players as they realise they have to grind for months just to get optimum gear.

This is really not on ArenaNet.

I really wish you could just roll back Ascended gear.
It was a terrible, knee-jerk decision, and in the long term, the player-base will become divided between the haves and the have-nots.

If you have alts, well good luck getting all of them geared. It’ll take years to even just get the trinkets. Tough luck if you like playing different professions; you’re better off just deleting all of your alts and sticking with one character.

I’m truly disgusted.

Broadicea.8294:

Hammer animation. Come on…

It’s definitely better, but don’t go congratulating them on creating a new animation; it’s the Warrior’s hammer No.2 attack.
Yet again recycling old animations instead of creating new ones.

McFribble.2349:

I find it very hard to believe that Warriors are putting themselves in a potision to have their Boons taken from them in the first place. A S/D Thief is designed to steal boons. He does little else. So a common sense counter to this is to NOT use skills that offer boons against a build designed to steal them.

I’ve always ran my Thief as S/D, and there’s something else you’re neglecting to mention about them.
They have the best, most frequent access to stun in the entire game, especially when combined with Runes of the Mesmer and Sleight of Hand, which stuns on steal.
So no, deciding not to use your Signet of Rage doesn’t counter that thief.

Thieves are full out broken OP.
I know; I play one.

Farming is unhealthy gaming.

Do you “Farm” when you play a beat ‘em up? A first-person-shooter? A platformer?
No; you’re playing for the challenge.

Farming is the player mistaking “play” and “profit”.

It’s not all the players’ fault though; too many companies, ArenaNet included and MMO companies in general, encourage farming. They’ve learned the psychological hooks that’ll encourage people to farm. It’s easier than developing real gameplay and keeps players playing for longer, meaning more profits.

If you find yourself obsessed with farming and getting upset, take a break from GW2. Maybe an hour, maybe a weekend, maybe a month.
In that time, play something from a completely different genre.
A puzzle game, an RTS, a shooter or a classic shmup maybe.
And realise gaming is about the games, not the farming.

I do this every once in a while to “cleanse the palate”.

Vayne.8563:

I dislike what raids have done to the MMORPG community. Games that center on raids tend to be more about the MMO part and less about the RPG part.

I’d even argue that point, as in a Raid it’s not really “Massively” multiplayer. I’ve played Wolfenstein Enemy Territory matches with more players.

But I’m one of those people who thinks that instances have little to no place in MMOs in the first place. They defeat the object.

No, just no.
Every kitten ed Monk in GW1 had Chaos Gloves, Obsidian Armour and either the Bandana or Blindfold. It was ridiculous. It didn’t look good, but I suppose it did help identify people you probably were better off not playing with.

CoF armour was GW2’s equivalent for a while, as the average Joe seems to go crazy for spikes and shiny things, but I’d argue that Twilight is probably more equivalent.
It’s the Legendary of Choice for everyone who thinks dark & evil = cool.

GET SOME TASTE PEOPLE.

I logged on to GW1 for the first time in ages the other day to check my birthday presents, and I was stunned by just how much better the entire guild interface was in GW1.

Last online, recruitment date, ranks split into sections, separate Guest and Invitee sections and a guild announcement that’s editable without losing the current text and that appears on log-on. Hell, in the History section, I could even see when a current member was invited and when they actually joined. It recognises that distinction!

Seriously, GW2’s engine is just an updated version of the GW1 engine. How the hell did all this stuff get stripped out in the transition from 1 to 2?!
It’s an embarrassment.

Be aware however that Orrian Temple vendors will only be able to supply you with a total of five pieces of P/v/t armour. The sixth piece you’ll either have to get from dungeons or WvW.

And the level 80 rare P/v/t Soldier’s Spineguard that can be bought from the BLTC for 1 or 2 silver has the following stats:
Power 20
Toughness 14
Vitality 14

Where the exotic one from the Cathedral of Silence has these stats:
Power 22
Toughness 16
Vitality 16

You won’t be missing out on much if you get all the other trinkets as exotic and keep the backpiece rare.

I’m guessing that, lke Ascended gear, they’ll keep it lazy and just re-use Orrian temple karma armour skins with Settler’s stats (Toughness, Condition Damage, Healing Power).

There’s a reason they made the first Ascended gear trinkets you know; It meant that the art assets they needed to create were minimal, as trinkets aren’t visible on player characters.

It’s disgusting that these cost-cutting and time-saving measures are so blatantly obvious.

I’ve done this 3 times with Warrior and all I used was “Shake it off!” to break the occasional knockdown. The rest of the time, I’d just stand there and take my punishment while waiting for the bomb trap to recharge.
Takes less than 5 minutes.

When you get to Canach himself, there’s one bomb trap just to the left of the main arena. Switch it to green with skill 2, run into its AoE circle and wait for Canach to follow you. He’ll blow up, at which point just run up against the right wall well out of the range of other traps. Wait for him to either blow his traps or recharge them and rinse/repeat.

This is good to have as an option.
What really boggles the mind, seeing that this is the same engine albeit updated, is that GW1 had this option, with multiple choices.

I’ve completed it on three of my nine characters, but I’ve seen everything I want to see from it now and I wikitten would just SOD OFF.

Gods, I used to love running Mesmer in JQ.
Wastrel’s Worry / Demise, Empathy, Chaos Storm, Backfire, Diversion, Power Block and Guilt or Shame for energy management.
Huge spike on the actual quarry guards thanks to the Wastrel’s and Chaos Storm, with an interrupt from Guilt / Diversion / Power Block to ensure they had the full effect.

For other players, there was the classic “kitten ed if you do, kitten ed if you don’t” conundrum of the Wastrel’s skills combined with Backfire, Power Block and Guilt/Shame. Many a monk or necro bomber would rage-quit under my tender ministrations.

Finished off with a little Empathy to keep those ever persistent sins and wammos in line.

And people think Mesmer is OP in PvP here. Imagine the crying if they were even half as competent as they were in the original game.
Confusion has nothing on the Wastrel’s / Backfire combo of the original game.
Diversion mixed with Power Block ensured that if you got the right skill, you could end up crippling most gimmick builds completely, insuring they couldn’t fire off any skills, leaving them ripe for the Wastrel’s combo again.

It was truly a thing of beauty.

Unfortunately, while still reasonably effective in PvE, Mesmer didn’t have that same kick behind it when there weren’t real people getting upset at you shutting them down.
It was the ultimate trolling class

I’m more for an option to either turn these interface elements on and off as the user desires.
For example, I hate my Achievements pane minimising whenever I successfully complete an event.
I hate that I can only display 5 achievements; I’d like the “Slayer” ones I’m tracking to remain on screen permanently whilst I am also tracking my Daily.
I absolutely despise the fact that the only way to get rid of the Personal Story tracker is to complete the kitten ed story!

I admire that their intent is to reduce screen clutter, but I would go the other way and say that if there are people who LIKE screen clutter, they should be allowed to see as much or as little of it as they like!

Personally, I think they should put it back to the way it was.
This was a knee-jerk nerf based on limited beta exposure. There’s no way they could have properly judged this trait bonus properly in the the amount of play time offered by one beta weekend.

It’s similar to major traits now being split in to Adept’s, Master’s and Grandmaster’s.
Back in beta, you could have any major trait in a traitline occupying any slot, but they nerfed it because some people came up with good builds.
Instead of waiting to see if others came up with effective counters, they hastily implemented the poorly thought out trait tier system.
You can tell that all of the major traits weren’t originally designed with tiered power scaling in mind.

I was also disappointed the Divine Aura wasn’t implemented again for GW2. In fact, a lot of the CE bonuses for GW2 were a bit weak. Insultingly so in the case of the influence tome, glory booster and golem banker.

I don’t think it’s easy, I KNOW it’s easy. I’ve done it on 2 characters. That’s what I mean by the word “proven”. It’s not theory. It’s fact.

And how does it remove any effort whatsoever? You still need to make the money to afford to buy the materials you need to craft.

By the way, I don’t know if you realise, but getting a Legendary requires map completion. By the time you’ve done that, you’ll have more than enough skillpoints for a Bloodstone. They already ARE trivial.

You are approaching this from a standpoint that it removes all effort necessary to gain skillpoints, which is simply false. It just opens up another method of gaining them, which still requires an investment on the player’s part, and in all likelihood will also serve to act as another gold sink.

Sorry Lodovicus, but your argument against this idea makes no sense whatsoever.
At the moment, once you’ve got a Legendary, all professions at 80 and all crafting trades at 400, the scenario you outline is exactly what happens.
I do stack up materials, as I have nothing to spend them on.

And what is so abusive about gaining extra skill points anyway?

Explain to me how a surplus of skillpoints or experience can result in an abuse. I’m still confused at this point, as I’m having trouble working out how I can make thousands of gold out of skillpoints and experience.

Please, enlighten me.

I’ve proven that at the moment it’s entirely possible to level a character to level 80 in less than one day through the use of crafting alone. Where is the “Abuse” in being able to earn further skill points? Who is it harming? How is it breaking the economy? It certainly can’t make your character any more powerful than any other character, so there’s no abuse there.
I’m genuinely mystified.

And I’ll be buggered if I can figure out how you’re linking increased consumption of materials to a decrease in the price of those materials. If anything, increased demand for those materials would drive the price UP.

Look, if people get a skillpoint from crafting, they’ll be more inclined to do it. Demand for materials will go up and supply of exotic gear will increase. The market will ensure that the cost of the materials used to make an item will never exceed the final price of the crafted goods. How do I know that?
It’s what happens at the moment.
People don’t routinely sell gear they make for less than it cost to make it in the first place.

More ways to find or advertise guilds are always good, and while you may not want to be in a guild, it would appear the majority disagree with you.

I’m biased as my Warrior’s my main, but I don’t find it boring. A little frustrating as the builds are currently very limited with poor synergy, but definitely not boring.

Also, a lot of people say it’s the easiest class, but I’d argue that’s Guardian.
Guardians rarely have to worry about anything at all in open world PvE.

So should we just remove XP from crafting as a whole because the materials market may crash and people would be able to get to 80 quickly?
If not, then why shouldn’t we add XP as a reward for crafting level 400 recipes?

So you’re saying that in all likelihood, T6 materials WILL at some point in the future be less expensive than any other tier of material?
Because that’s what would need to happen for this suggestion to be exploitable.

There was a nifty feature in Age of Conan where you could bring up a window and search a guild directory.
You could see how many members guilds had, whether they were recruiting or not and the name of the recruiting officer you needed to contact if you were interested in joining.
Would it be possible to get something similar in GW2?

How so? In all likelihood, they’ll still be more expensive than the other tiers, therefore it would still be cheaper and take just as long to level through crafting by getting one craft to 400 then starting another!
I mean this is the core point you guys don’t seem to understand:
At the moment in Guild Wars 2, you can craft your way to 80 in less than a day using no tier 6 materials at all.
Crafting with tier 6 materials at the moment yields no XP.
If it did yield XP, it would, at the moment and probably in the future still cost more to gain levels through crafting exotics.

And Lodovicus:
Open to abuse? Really? If that’s the case, then are you saying the current method of levelling through crafting is an abuse of crafting?

My point being, it’s not ridiculously easy, as it would potentially be more expensive than the current method of levelling through crafting. Tier 6 materials cost a huge amount more than any other tier, up to ten times more. It would take just as long and be more expensive. It’s just another way of gaining XP, and if you have Master Crafter and all professions at 80, a welcome additional way of gaining skill points.

Have you seen how expensive tier 6 rare materials are?!
I would have thought that would be barrier enough to stop people “bashing out” items!
And if anything, people being able to gain XP post 400 would increase the price of these materials on the trading post, as they would be more in demand!
But again, there’s this underlying idea in your post that you should have to work for top level, something completely foreign to me as an original Guild Wars player.

Perhaps ArenaNet should look at moving the Warrior class mechanic back to something more closely resembling GW1’s Warrior.
In GW1, a lot of Warrior skills (which would be considered both weapon and utility skills) didn’t use cooldowns at all, but rather used Adrenaline.
Here’s the GW1 Wiki link describing how Adrenaline used to work.
Personally, I never understood why ArenaNet moved away from this mechanic, and I think the class suffered as a whole.

Old school Adrenaline had excellent risk/reward built in, as it built quicker the more you hit and the more you got hit. It encouraged the player to be on the frontline in the thick of things in order to keep pumping out the skills.

So I say, bring back the original Guild Wars Adrenaline mechanic.
Imagine if “Shake it off!” relied on Adrenaline instead of cooldowns.
The more you’re in the front line taking and dishing out damage, the more you’ll be removing conditions!
How Warrior is that?!

By the way, I have all professions at level 80, so I’m not suggesting this to make my life easier in regards to levelling characters. I think it would be nice for crafting post-400 to remain a source of skillpoints.

Also, why does everyone have such a problem with levelling being easier?
The last two characters I levelled, I did in less than a day each by levelling one trade to 400 then swapping to the next.
It’s already possible to level quickly through crafting, so complaining this makes it easier is kind of a non sequitur.

Levelling to top level SHOULD be quick and easy. It’s very hard to fully understand how a profession works before you’re top level in this game thanks to the broken implementation of traits. Handicapping a profession and the player behind it purely because you think people should have to work for top level strikes me as being quite petty.

This one’s bugged me for a while now.
I find it strange that when crafting the best equipment in the game, you get no XP for it.
I propose that all level 400 recipes beyond refinement be assigned an XP reward value.
This ensures that while crafting will still reward the player with XP, it can’t be abused due to the prohibitive costs of tier 6 materials.

Sorry, not a programmer at all, but I’m wondering if it would be possible using these tools to make something that tracks the status of Orrian temples and notifies you when a particular Karma vendor is available and what server they’re available on?

No.
When they started adding PvE only skills to GW and title tracks that affected their power, that’s when things started getting crappy.
Titles should be exactly what they are right now: a way to identify people who like to boast about something meaningless so you don’t have to group with them.

Maximum Potato.5923:

SafeFatNoob.3156:

Senitel should be better than PVT.

I thought sentinel was PVT?

Soldier’s is traditionally P/v/t, whereas Sentinel’s is V/p/t, where the capitalised stat is the primary.

I went human male, ‘cos that’s what he was in the first game.
I’ve recently been trying to get out of the habit of going for armour sets and have settled on something I think looks quite nice. The important thing is that my Juggernaut’s shine looks consistent.

Also, having chosen human and now having seen all the other races as warriors, I’m happy with my choice. Charr have some “interesting” tiered gear, but in general just look awkward to me when wielding melee weapons.
And as I’ve said before, all big fat Norns are Guardians. My big fat Norn’s a Guardian too.
Once they’re in heavy armour, it’s almost impossible to tell a Sylvari from a human, and Asura lose too much detail. Plus, I’m disappointed they didn’t keep the weapons ridiculously over-sized with Asuran warriors.

So yeah, my Warrior’s a male human.

My Mesmer, Nexus Icon.

Head: Starter Fanged Dread Mask, Wine / Sand / Black Cherry
Shoulders: Heritage Mantle, Sand / Black Cherry / Evening Wine
Chest: Human Tier 1 Light Researcher’s Coat, Black Cherry / Calfskin / Sand
Gloves: Acolyte Gloves, Sand / Calfskin / Evening Wine
Legs: Student Pants, Sand / Black Cherry / Calfskin
Feet: Caudecus’ Manor Light Noble’s Shoes, Sand / Evening Wine / Black Cherry

PS: Like your Necro Serelisk

I just wish the Skritt IQ test subjects were voiced.
My favourites are:

Skritt: I answer right, you give me treat? It good deal.
Player: I will now attempt to read your mind! There. All done.
Skritt: What? No! You can’t read minds. It not possible!
Player: I just did, and I saw everything. All your thoughts.
Skritt: No, it not possible! If you read my mind, what you see there, hmm? What you see?
Player: Shinies.
Skritt: (gasp) You read miiiinds!

And:
Skritt: Ahhh! Not more questions. Why? Why? Did questions yesterday.
Player: Let’s say apples cost 10 coins each and I have 60 coins in my pocket-
Skritt: Shinies! Shinies in pocket! Give me shinies in pocket! Shinies! Give give.
Player: We’ll try something different. Dolyak A leaves Muridian Uplands heading east-
Skritt: Shinies! Shinies in pocket! Give me shinies! Pocket shinies! Shinies, shinies, shinies, shinies!
Player: I don’t have any shinies in my pocket! None! Zero! Zilch!
Skritt: Ooooh. Then, no apples.

Henge.3907:

Stooperdale.3560:

It is very sad when you play a game knowing an NPC is going to betray you but the game forces you to progress the plot anyway by helping them. That really does make everything seem scripted, phoney, and pointless. I’d rather not see any betrayal than see it done badly.

My first play through on prophecies, I had no idea I was going to be betrayed on any of it. The vizier seemed sketchy but I still trusted him.

Yeah, this.
Even given some of the awful voice acting, the actual story in Prophecies was pretty darned good for a hero fantasy.

There are great parts of the GW2 Personal Story, but they come early on. Highlights for me have been the Asuran Infinity Ball story line and finding out who’s responsible for the Steam Creatures in Lornar’s Pass and the Sylvari story that hints at the existence of another tree that other Sylvari are coming from. While the former ends quite satisfactorily, the Sylvari one abruptly ends without fulfilment, hinting at a greater adventure into the Maguuma Jungle, but not delivering.
Similarly, the human Circus story is great fun, and ends quite satisfactorily, but from that point on, choices lessen as you’re gradually filtered into the Trahearne lane.

I still contend that the original intention was to have the whole storyline retain its branching structure all the way through, with different dragons at the end of each storyline, but time constraints and money limited their ambition.

‘tis a shame, because as it stands, the story ends up not feeling as if it’s your own, where it started strong and showed great potential.

And there’s a good bit of moral ambiguity about the end of the Prophecies storyline too. The Mursaat may be evil, but through their actions they were keeping the Titans contained.
Essentially, in killing them you’re responsible for unleashing the Titans on Tyria.
The player-character’s a jerk.

It’s times like this I wish there was a downvote feature on these forums.

Don’t click on Kiena’s link; it’s not what it appears to be.

No.
I hate that we have Ascended trinkets in the first place.
I’ve managed to basically ignore it and continue playing with all exotics. But if they add Ascended, they’ll eventually look at balancing any additional content around that gear instead of exotic.
I play this game to have end gear easily attainable so that I can then concentrate on refining my skill rather than chasing a carrot on a stick.
Gear is not an indication of how good a player you are. It’s an indication of how much free time you have, nothing more.
Skill should be the thing that separates the wheat from the chaff.