Guild Wars 2

Rauderi.8706:

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

In highly scripted content, active defense means you don’t need passive defense from armor if you’re good. That’s how the game was built. If people want to make defensive roles more important in PvE scripted encounters, one needs to remove the party’s ability to negate damage from active dodging or from skills that cause aegis, blind, block etc.

Which is why, in other threads that address gearing issues like this, we’ve seen others request for faster-attacking creatures, instead of a lumber once/3-sec that we see on most of them. Lower the damage of each hit, obviously, but guarantee some damage and let players decide how to manage it.

There is content like this in the game. Think Old Tom on the asura fractal. What is the simplest way to deal with all those tiny poison bolts? An ele with an earth elemental or a ranger with a bear pet.

My point is if you want to change the zerk meta, you have to change the fundamentals of the game.

Another example are the giant husks for the triple wurm event. Usually organized groups will form a team of condi players to take care of those.

But in instanced content you’ll max out most conditions with one or two players, leaving the other party members feeling redundant.

I think the easiest thing to do to at least encourage dedicated condition players is to remove the condition cap and adjust a number of condi build ramp up times so it doesn’t take so long to actually start doing DoT.

For example, the fastest engineer solos are with Sinister gear. For enemies with a decent health bar, a condition engineer with sinister stats will do more net DPS with sinister than a zerk engineer. But that’s almost entirely useless in a full party because of condition cap and ramp up time.

But even if people get condi armor, their place in the party is still fundamentally going to be dependent on DPS, because that’s how the game was fundamentally designed.

IllegalChocolate.6938:

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

Honestly if you want armor diversity (IDK why you would), get rid of dodging, get rid of all forms of passive defense, make mobs have more clear-cut agro rules.

I don’t agree, active defense and dodging should be integral to gameplay regardless of how tanky you are.

Back when hard bunker was still a thing in sPvP(still is to an extent), active defense was an integral part of combat play.

As a matter of fact, I think active defense should play an even bigger importance if you decide to run any form of toughness heavy build.

Well in PvP hardly anyone is running all zerker.

I thought we were talking about PvE here.

In highly scripted content, active defense means you don’t need passive defense from armor if you’re good. That’s how the game was built. If people want to make defensive roles more important in PvE scripted encounters, one needs to remove the party’s ability to negate damage from active dodging or from skills that cause aegis, blind, block etc.

Nyx.7342:

@dlonie
That thread was gold

Honestly if you want armor diversity (IDK why you would), get rid of dodging, get rid of all forms of passive defense, make mobs have more clear-cut agro rules.

Ugh this thread again.

Guys, google FOTM Nomad Solos. People can literally facetank Mossman with defense and healing armor. Defense and healing are OP, not power armors.

KaosNinja.4967:

2 days in a row now my 50 tier daily chest only contained: 1 Pristine Relic and 39 Empyreal Fragments. the equivalent of a nice big middle finger. no skin, no gear, not even another useless ring that i could pawn for 5 silver. just emptiness and a sense that getting to 50 was a huge waist of my time. i miss the days of guaranteed loot past level 35.

Pretty sure your odds of getting nothing are around 50%, so two days in a row is not even that big of a deal.

I of course agree that rewards should be fixed.

mage.3570:

The fractal tonic…………..

WTB 10k gold

WhimsicalWalrus.9760:

fractal leaderboard

OPs first forum post was March 2nd. Might be new?

Nilgoow.1037:

Zwieger.3428:

Insensitive? Really? The world today is ridiculous. Every time I turn around something is either racist or insensitive or rude or hurtful. People that want to stop racist, sexist and insensitive things need to stop pointing out every kitten thing that isn’t this. You are leading people to believe things that are harmless are really racist/sexist/insensitive when they are truly not. At all. Get over it. kitten .

check your privilege thanks

Vomits

Seems Arah story mode was a bug that is now being removed.

OPs views on religion are just being used as a vehicle to discuss the nature of free speech irrespective of offense. This is probably in response to Gaile’s (silly, imo) comments in the other thread.

It’s not a thread about religion guys.

Thiefz.3695:

HGH uses 6 in Alchemy, all day every day.

Ok, but why would anyone use HGH?

Not saying you CAN’T go 6 in alchemy, just saying that the OPs claim “every engie build would involve going 6 deep into alchemy” is ridiculous and no meta build in any game type to my knowledge goes 6 deep in that line.

Sarcasm, right? I don’t know of a single build that goes 6 deep in alchemy.

This feature was promised to us during the Fractured! patch when they reset all our personal reward levels.

After a few weeks nobody had gotten a box. Then ANET came out and said, ‘lel jk guyz da boxes actually only drop above level 50 which we made sure you can’t access anymore kekeke.’

Part of me thinks the only dungeon content that will be released with this expansion was already largely built when Fractured! was released.

Well that’s an interesting bug.

I wonder what causes it.

Was one of the rings uninfused and then upgraded via the forge?

Taku.6352:

From 360g (medium) to 470g (light) and heavy is in between according to gw2spidy prices.

Well then it seems the costs are about equal. But you get the extra damage and defense from the armor set obviously.

fishball.7204:

Isn’t it cheaper to make a few pieces of ascended armor with +5 than going up to +15 lol.

What’s cheaper, 2 +15s or three full zerker ascended armor sets (heavy, medium, light to cover all classes)?

Pugged this last night with two rangers and was expecting the worst. But it went smoothly! Succeeded on torches the first try, had a blast barely scraping by the defend event, a few died on bomb run but not too bad, then boss was a piece of cake.

I do think the end reward should be buffed a bit. Not because the path takes any longer, but it does take coordination which is why most pugs avoid it.

Yeah, engineer blasts are pretty awesome. Focus on might and stealth potential. So many people ignore both.

Thumper turret alone is 3 blast finishers in one

LucosTheDutch.4819:

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

They said they’ve announced all the major features in the game when directly asked about whether dungeons will be making an appearance. It really seems like they won’t be.

There were some other comments here about bundling already designed content together and calling it an expansion – that this was being done as an afterthought.

It certainly makes sense. The new PvP mode has been in the works for years, the new fractal content was likely somewhat designed by the time Fractured! came out, the new story instances were probably being worked on as part of LWS3, Guild Halls have been asked for since the game released.

I’m being cynical here, yes. But it really seems like they saw a drop in gem store sales and decided to quickly throw together all that content and call it an expansion. The stuff that isn’t done they’re just saving for “later.”

Seems like goal posts are being moved.

Even if that was true (and I’m very skeptical about that), I honestly don’t see the problem. What part of “Anet is a business, not a charity” do you not understand? You can’t honestly expect Anet to keep handing out new content and features for free forever.

I’m probably one of the most pro-profit, pro-selfishness people you will ever meet. I am well aware companies need to make money and I hope that good companies will make lots and lots and lots of it.

oxtred.7658:

You got lucky finding 4 experienced guys then :>

LEL!

Raven, thanks for that Medley. Absolutely beautiful.

lordkrall.7241:

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

Alright, then what’s your explanation for why all of the legendaries won’t be released at launch? This is the first indication they’re giving us that some will be held off until later.

Can you please give me a plausible reason why they’re only now telling us this?

Because they want to ease us into the new system instead of dumping it all on us at once?

Because they want to see how well the new system will work before they spend loads of time and resources on it and it ends up being hated?

Because purely cosmetic items (that needs to have a “legendary” and unique feel) takes massive amount of times to come up with and aren’t really that high of a priority, thus they decided on a specific number to release with the expansion and to release the rest later. Because not doing that could potentially hold up the whole expansion for something that most people might not even care about.

Sure, those are all possible explanations. They don’t address why goal posts were moved directly, but they do address why content is not being included at release.

We don’t know the real reasons and ANET won’t come here and state them. I’m pessimistic. After a few years of observing inner turmoil in the company and various release fiascos, I just don’t have much optimism for the game anymore.

You, clearly, do.

We’ll just have to disagree.

lordkrall.7241:

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

They haven’t but they’re moving quickly and are in Beta mode (stress-test mode, whatever) very shortly after announcing it.

Yes, they started Closed Beta quite recently. There are games that takes over a year between start of closed beta to actual release.

They have even stated multiple times that they will not give a release date until they have had a bunch of betas, in order to make sure it is not rushed out.

Alright, then what’s your explanation for why all of the legendaries won’t be released at launch? This is the first indication they’re giving us that some will be held off until later.

Can you please give me a plausible reason why they’re only now telling us this?

Can you tell me why in the next year of Betas the full set couldn’t be finished and included at release?

@Krall

They haven’t but they’re moving quickly and are in Beta mode (stress-test mode, whatever) very shortly after announcing it.

@ Lucos

They said they’ve announced all the major features in the game when directly asked about whether dungeons will be making an appearance. It really seems like they won’t be.

There were some other comments here about bundling already designed content together and calling it an expansion – that this was being done as an afterthought.

It certainly makes sense. The new PvP mode has been in the works for years, the new fractal content was likely somewhat designed by the time Fractured! came out, the new story instances were probably being worked on as part of LWS3, Guild Halls have been asked for since the game released.

I’m being cynical here, yes. But it really seems like they saw a drop in gem store sales and decided to quickly throw together all that content and call it an expansion. The stuff that isn’t done they’re just saving for “later.”

Seems like goal posts are being moved.

I too always enjoyed that last boss fight. I think it’s one of the better ones in the game.

BobbyStein.2315:

Malkavian.4516:

The end of the month draws near. Any updates yet?

The messaging has been approved and edited. It’s now getting localized. The post should go live sometime on Tuesday if all goes well.

Cheers!

I know you’re all dying for more information on new legendary weapons, but we’d like to delve into them more with a dedicated blog post in the future. For now, I’ll say that we’ve been working kitten new legendary weapons, the first handful of which will be introduced in Heart of Thorns, with more to come in subsequent updates.

This game is being rushed out the door so hard lol.

Probs why they didn’t have time to develop dungeons.

As a GW1 player and a purchaser of the CE of GW2, I’m with the OP. It seems like there will be no instanced group content in the expansion. I think ANET as a studio just is not capable of it anymore. They lack the developer talent or the desire to build instanced group content.

So, that said, if the fractal mastery system isn’t appealing, I won’t be buying the expansion either.

Benson.9063:

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

1 Mastery Point: Follows Advice – Details are obscured by the Mists
2 Mastery Points: Agony Channeler – Details are obscured by the Mists
3 Mastery Points: Mistlock Singularities – Details are obscured by the Mists
5 Mastery Points: Recursive Resourcing – Details are obscured by the Mists
8 Mastery Points: Essential Singularities – Details are obscured by the Mists
10 Mastery Points: Hyperactive Singularities – Details are obscured by the Mists

Thanks!! where did you see that? in the video in the article?? I still can’t find it. sorry i fail.

I like the idea of agony channeler being some way to give extra AR to someone lower, like a mentoring system. And recursive resourcing i HOPE is a way to get rid of our rings. PLEASE! but most likely a way to deal with the vial and shards etc. Hyperactive singularities could be harder fractals but i’d think it is more to do with a fractal that keeps recurring – such as a way to stop rolling a fractal you hate if you keep getting it.

Don’t know where I saw it originally, but a source with video is here:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2xshqw/complete_text_guide_of_every_mastery_description/

hybrid.5027:

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

Iris Ng.9845:

RIP Icebow

---

What happened?

Guessing Deep Freeze does not work so hot with the new breakbar system?

Oh. Duh.

Sigh.

Also no access to fractal masteries in the beta.

Are any of the specializations available?

Iris Ng.9845:

RIP Icebow

---

What happened?

Benson.9063:

where does it say fractals are a whole path of masteries in the article?? It does say: “You’ll even be able to use some of them in the Fractals dungeons.” That quote seems to imply the opposite though… that you can use masteries not intended specifically for fractals in fractals.

I posted them on the first page of this thread. You can see them there.

Rising Dusk.2408:

Can anyone tell me if last night’s patch fixed Thaumanova’s turrets? The bug fix only specifically called out that Skill Point that was broken, but I want to verify the Thaumanova issue as well.

When was the patch? I did Thaumanova just after reset last night and it was NOT fixed.

I had another thought today. You guys know how the Thaumanova fractal dorm room has been broken for a while and the turret room broke in a recent patch? What if those are supposed to be part of the mastery effects?

Ravion Hawk.4736:

RavenRecoil.6103:

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

RavenRecoil.6103:

You guys are crazy to think $20-$30 for HoT. Since when is an expansion only $20?
I want to say I payed $50 each for factions and nightfall and $40 Eye of the north. I’m planning on a 50 price tag, which I will gladly pay, but not be surprised if it’s $40.
I’m assuming they will do a sale of the base game for $10 to give people the chance to buy both at the same time. $10+$40=$50 or $10+$50=$60. Perfectly priced in my opinion.
And for all you people saying it should be free kitten. You have no idea of what an awesome game this is and how it broke the mold of a mmo. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt that you are a child with no job.

And what makes your rude self think that this game will have even a third of the content EoTN, Factions, or Nighfall had?

From the looks of it we get 1 new professions, 1 new weapon for each existing profession, a handful of maps, masteries.

Can you list the content that makes this purchase worth what any of the GW1 expansions cost?

Edit: And 1 new WvW and 1 new PvP map.

I don’t care if it has the same content amount or not. I will blindly pay the money and enjoy every moment of it.

Why do I get the feeling you’d be the first one to the forums after you completed it in the span of 24-48 hours….

Complaining that you paid too much.

I bought the CE of the main game. It was an awesome value. I took some time off and quit for a bit, but I have been playing since betas.

HoT by contrast seems to have very little content, that’s all.

RavenRecoil.6103:

You guys are crazy to think $20-$30 for HoT. Since when is an expansion only $20?
I want to say I payed $50 each for factions and nightfall and $40 Eye of the north. I’m planning on a 50 price tag, which I will gladly pay, but not be surprised if it’s $40.
I’m assuming they will do a sale of the base game for $10 to give people the chance to buy both at the same time. $10+$40=$50 or $10+$50=$60. Perfectly priced in my opinion.
And for all you people saying it should be free kitten. You have no idea of what an awesome game this is and how it broke the mold of a mmo. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt that you are a child with no job.

And what makes your rude self think that this game will have even a third of the content EoTN, Factions, or Nighfall had?

From the looks of it we get 1 new professions, 1 new weapon for each existing profession, a handful of maps, masteries.

Can you list the content that makes this purchase worth what any of the GW1 expansions cost?

Edit: And 1 new WvW and 1 new PvP map.

Ravion Hawk.4736:

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

The base game had 8 professions, 5 races, lots of maps, multiple weapons per profession, lots of dungeons, WvW, PvP.

The new game has 1 profession, 0 races, a handful (probably) of maps, 1 new weapon per profession, 0 new dungeons, 1 new WvW map, 1 new PvP map and some masteries.

If we’re making proportional comparisons, this expansion should be worth $5-$10, or about the cost of your average gem store outfit.

When you tally in everything then divide it up, you are probably closer to the mark than I was.

Guessing it’s going to be at LEAST $20 though. My point was really just to underscore what a fantastic deal the original game was on a per dollar basis, and what a terrible deal all the gem store crap is on a per dollar basis.

HoT will most likely be between base game and gem store crap in terms of per dollar value.

The base game had 8 professions, 5 races, lots of maps, multiple weapons per profession, lots of dungeons, WvW, PvP.

The new game has 1 profession, 0 races, a handful (probably) of maps, 1 new weapon per profession, 0 new dungeons, 1 new WvW map, 1 new PvP map and some masteries.

If we’re making proportional comparisons, this expansion should be worth $5-$10, or about the cost of your average gem store outfit.

So I was looking at some of the instabilities which aren’t in the game yet:

http://dulfy.net/2013/11/26/gw2-mistlock-instabilities/

Some could be interesting. I think “Hardcore” probably should have been how the game was designed from the get-go, because as of right now dying has hardly any effect on gameplay.

What do you guys think about only letting people progress on their PRL if they beat each respective tier? Now that the levels are account bound it wouldn’t be nearly as tedious as it was before, and would make each individual earn their way to higher tiers. No more joining a party on 40 or 50 and doing that 10x to skip all of the instabilities.

Jerus.4350:

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

1 Mastery Point: Follows Advice – Details are obscured by the Mists
2 Mastery Points: Agony Channeler – Details are obscured by the Mists
3 Mastery Points: Mistlock Singularities – Details are obscured by the Mists
5 Mastery Points: Recursive Resourcing – Details are obscured by the Mists
8 Mastery Points: Essential Singularities – Details are obscured by the Mists
10 Mastery Points: Hyperactive Singularities – Details are obscured by the Mists

I’m thinking agony channeler will either allow us to take less damage from agony at a given AR or will allow us to use boss agony to damage foes around us.

Recursive resourcing might finally allow us to do something with the resources we’ve gathered in droves – ie excess skins or rings.

Hyperactive singularities could be a hard mode?

I was thinking channeler might be a “mentor” system where we could “channel” our AR to other players who may lack it. Using it as an offensive means sounds cool though.

My main fear in all this is power creep though.

Reallllllllyyyy hoping hyperactive singularities will be hard mode with better rewards.

Jerus.4350:

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

Sarahfull.4930:

Yesterday me and my sister went for a swim after jade maw. Sadly no one was around when we went visting..

I doubt there will be new shards altogether. It seems like we’ll just be seeing changes in how the shards are going to be played.

What I find sort of depressing is that the vast majority of the fractal content that may come with HoT may have already been designed and completed by the time the Fractured! patch rolled out.

At that time instabilities for levels far beyond 50 were datamined. Also, the fractal weapon boxes that they said were supposed to be a part of Fractured! were probably chosen to be held back at the last moment went some higher up probably said, “wait, don’t release that content yet we can save it for HoT.”

This of course assumes they knew they’d be working on an expansion at that point, but it certainly makes sense.

if it adds new fun though… /shrug whatever I’m down.

I mean, the whole idea of cutting out content from a game and releasing it as a “dlc” isn’t new or anything. It’s just bullkitten business tricks and one more reason why I laugh at those who try to talk about how good ANet is.

I mean they need to make money, I don’t begrudge them that. But if they announce they are giving us nice content at no cost, walk back on their word, and then try to advertise it as “new, never-before-seen, awesome content” for purchase later down the line, it kind of makes you go -.-

Windsagio.1340:

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

Windsagio.1340:

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

HawkMeister.4758:

To me no dungeon means the expansion is 5$ less worth than the 40$ that seems to be the end price rumor.
Thus if the expansion costs more than 35 bucks I won´t buy it.
It´s that simple.

And as the expansion is the main reason I came back, this will free up some of my time for another game.

Yeah. Unless the fractals mastery system is any good, I won’t be buying it.

Maybe a year or two down the line when they have a 75% off sale or something.

Which is fine, if a product isn’t for you you shouldn’t buy it.

Gamers say this all the frickin’ time though, we’ll see what happens

Do you think the mastery system will be available to the beta testers? If so, I’ll let you know my decision then.

I’d bet money it is (although subject to a huge amount of tuning, beta and all), I hope you like it, more people is good

The fractal mastery system even? I mean they released information about many of the other masteries but for whatever reason have kept the fractal mastery “obscured by the Mists.”

1 Mastery Point: Follows Advice – Details are obscured by the Mists
2 Mastery Points: Agony Channeler – Details are obscured by the Mists
3 Mastery Points: Mistlock Singularities – Details are obscured by the Mists
5 Mastery Points: Recursive Resourcing – Details are obscured by the Mists
8 Mastery Points: Essential Singularities – Details are obscured by the Mists
10 Mastery Points: Hyperactive Singularities – Details are obscured by the Mists

Sarahfull.4930:

Yesterday me and my sister went for a swim after jade maw. Sadly no one was around when we went visting..

I doubt there will be new shards altogether. It seems like we’ll just be seeing changes in how the shards are going to be played.

What I find sort of depressing is that the vast majority of the fractal content that may come with HoT may have already been designed and completed by the time the Fractured! patch rolled out.

At that time instabilities for levels far beyond 50 were datamined. Also, the fractal weapon boxes that they said were supposed to be a part of Fractured! were probably chosen to be held back at the last moment when some higher up probably said, “wait, don’t release that content yet we can save it for HoT.”

This of course assumes they knew they’d be working on an expansion at that point, but it certainly makes sense.

1 Mastery Point: Follows Advice – Details are obscured by the Mists
2 Mastery Points: Agony Channeler – Details are obscured by the Mists
3 Mastery Points: Mistlock Singularities – Details are obscured by the Mists
5 Mastery Points: Recursive Resourcing – Details are obscured by the Mists
8 Mastery Points: Essential Singularities – Details are obscured by the Mists
10 Mastery Points: Hyperactive Singularities – Details are obscured by the Mists

I’m thinking agony channeler will either allow us to take less damage from agony at a given AR or will allow us to use boss agony to damage foes around us.

Recursive resourcing might finally allow us to do something with the resources we’ve gathered in droves – ie excess skins or rings.

Hyperactive singularities could be a hard mode?

Windsagio.1340:

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

HawkMeister.4758:

To me no dungeon means the expansion is 5$ less worth than the 40$ that seems to be the end price rumor.
Thus if the expansion costs more than 35 bucks I won´t buy it.
It´s that simple.

And as the expansion is the main reason I came back, this will free up some of my time for another game.

Yeah. Unless the fractals mastery system is any good, I won’t be buying it.

Maybe a year or two down the line when they have a 75% off sale or something.

Which is fine, if a product isn’t for you you shouldn’t buy it.

Gamers say this all the frickin’ time though, we’ll see what happens

Do you think the mastery system will be available to the beta testers? If so, I’ll let you know my decision then.

Frieza’s space ship. Or so I heard.

HawkMeister.4758:

To me no dungeon means the expansion is 5$ less worth than the 40$ that seems to be the end price rumor.
Thus if the expansion costs more than 35 bucks I won´t buy it.
It´s that simple.

And as the expansion is the main reason I came back, this will free up some of my time for another game.

Yeah. Unless the fractals mastery system is any good, I won’t be buying it.

Maybe a year or two down the line when they have a 75% off sale or something.

spoj.9672:

Both of them only require 4. For CoF p1 you can use a ranger pet to kill the control. For the other you can just make the guy on the door platform kill the aetherblade (pull it over with scorpion wire or something or stealth the other people). You dont need the extra 5th man to do it.

I stand corrected!

That said, I think my original point is still valid. When you are dependent on the rest of your team, it’s really easy for one newbie to screw everything up.

Still talking about instances, ofc.

Malediktus.3740:

I agree with Obtena. Group content that can be soloed (or with significantly less people than suggested) is designed badly.

Completely disagree. Group content that CAN’T be done with less than the maximum amount is designed badly IMO.

I think the ONLY part of the instanced game which REQUIRES 5 players is the electric room in TA aetherpath.

This part of the game is also a complete nightmare for pugs and is probably part of the many reasons why aetherpath is rarely pugged.