Guild Wars 2

It depends quite a bit on what you’re going to do with them build-wise.

Context maybe?

What is it?

If “I hate long term goals” players were the game’s core demographic at launch (and having spent 9 months building my Infinite Light I don’t believe that was actually true for a second…) then I’m glad the game’s emphasis has changed.

HoT has delivered dozens of ongoing projects to inch towards. Some of which, shockingly, don’t involve gold farming in the Silverwastes .

The one to Rule.2593:

Anything other than zerker exists?

Actually, if Giver was weighted properly at 10 stat points = +1% boon duration, a ratio well established in profession stat lines, the Givers would create an actual meaningful choice other that Berserker. There are slots in competitive compositions where that would contribute to total party effectiveness more that ’Zerker.

Which is probably why the Devs are terrified of it.

Stand The Wall.6987:

Its not too important how many there are. They are way too overpriced for what they are and thats that.

They CAN’T be overpriced. That’s the price other people who want them more than you are paying.

Randulf.7614:

Question, can you wear it with an outfit on and still have the bat effects?

Have you ever been able to see your armor shoulders while wearing an outfit?

I believe all skills have a built in 10% slack to help the game’s behavior with moving targets. When your base is 1200, 10% gets pretty noticeable.

Why do you think its in a pack to begin with?

They make it incredibly easy to just log in and bang out the dailies .

Slowpokeking.8720:

I mean this is the epic end and why can’t ANET do it right? The reset bug was terrible and there were a dozen more.

Because it was untested?

DeadlySynz.3471:

The problem with your rational of thinking OP is that much like you, ANET still does not understand of the concept of not locking most people out of content.

No. The problem is most people think ANet is their friend.

ArenaNet is you pusher and they want you to be unsatisfied.

Fully content players LEAVE.

AndyJo.8794:

Endless Batwing Brew is the ONLY item hidden behind pure RNG, and even the price of those will drop before long.

Well… that statement is pure fantasy.

Axialbloom.8109:

So I have farmed 6k bags, and no bat tonic yet. Am I not RNGing hard enough?

Estimates are that its about 1 in 40,000. You tell me if you’re RNGing hard enough.

I have a bunch of XP in a fractal mastery line I’ve never trained. I assume my overflow from when I finished a line and didn’t notice went there.

Better signaling would be nice, but I don’t think it’s just vanishing.

Try Braham’s armor (from the gemstore). If you are a Norn the tier one cultural armor coat is also completely medium looking (minus the trench coat tails).

Aggrostemma.1703:

Nike:

I did say a few month ago:

…only thing we need is an offensive rune set with +25% movement speed…

…the forumers beated me to death

Only the ones who were WRONG .

Mahou.3924:

It’s QoL improvement, has nothing to do at all with GW2 being a social game or not. So just disable it in PvP and WvW if it were too “unfair” for Guardians to have the boost.

Speed in this game is not QoL. Its a primary advantage and every competitive mode treats it like what it is — a powerful tool for scoring.

My personal hope is we get a wider array of runes that have a speed capstone benefit.

I would not at all be surprised if it’s required as part of the quest to craft Moot.

Did you sleep through the changes to shield?

Because bare bones don’t flex like a fluffy curtain?

Actually feather don’t either, but it’s obviously too much like logic to point out a surface designed to support your entire bodyweight by trapping something as thin as air probably shouldn’t flex much…

Firebird Gomer.9563:

Nike.2631:

If events are going to have any challenge at all, people have to not be able to casually self-rez by popping back to the WP.

Can’t say I see how you get to it promoting Not doing events, since doing the events is how you keep the points open…

The first part of your statement is is true enough you do want it to be a challenge.

But the second point is if people die they wont want to run all the way back from the opposite side of the map because thats the closest point.

Which means in the Jungle if you die wait to get rez’d. If you all die, get good… ’Cause that sucked .

Kravick.4906:

I found it rather confusing that ANet would add PVP to precursor crafting. Especially after they went and removed the PVP zones from world completion so people could finish that part of the legendary more reliably. Its almost like they didn’t learn from their previous mistake and went ahead and backtracked on it. Do they even know what they want at this point?

The point was PvP was always intended to be part of the “mastery of all aspects of play” imagined as part of the legendary journey AND adding a sellable item to PvP tracks moves some of the Silverwaste gold out of the hands of the PvE crowd and into the hands of the sPvP players. Win-Win from a design perspective.

Aidenwolf.5964:

Nike.2631:

Aidenwolf.5964:

I’ve hated the loot system since launch, it’s incredibly bad design.

You might do better with it if you realize its not designed to make you happy, it’s designed to make you keep playing. Consistent satisfaction is actually something it actively avoids delivering.

GW2 is one of the most naked skinner boxes I’ve ever encountered. And in that light it’s also an incredibly well designed and financially successful system.

That in part contributed to losing half the players who bought the game at launch. GG

All MMOs lose about half their players after launch. But ArenaNet still seems to be making 10s of millions per quarter three years later. GG indeed.

Geshque.1326:

Nike.2631:

But mostly I was mocking the preposterous melodrama being dished in the post I quoted.

So you’re quite mediocre at mockering.

You’re welcome to think that. But I’m pretty sure anyone who cares about game design rather than driving a single-profession agenda had a good chuckle. Hint: if there’s white foam on your screen, you probably shouldn’t press the ‘Reply’ button.

I didn’t mean this specific skill – I talked about everything that happened to ranger during last years. You may regard my thoughts as “prepostreous melodrama” but this is just how I feel after being gutted for 3 years. And finally when I thought that Ranger will have a decent place in the game – they gutted it again. With this dumb pet, with silly nerfs to CA, with nerfs to traits and nerfs that are to come.

You’ve been here 3 years and still haven’t learned which way the wind blows?

Ranger is never going to be “good” because ranger does everything this game intends to be bad. It relies on AI, which is crap in every case. It focuses on ranged damage, which is crap for EVERY PROFESSION.

The very idea that there was one skill that somehow shined a light in the darkness should tell you that skill was grossly out of line. And after 3 years you ought to have a pretty good idea of what comes next.

I’d love to see Rangers inch up to respectability. I spent a LOT of time pitching ideas in the Ranger CDI. But a savior-pet is NOT the solution. And having one over-tuned skill get nerfed isn’t a bad thing. What Ranger needs is a lot more general improvement, not bemoaning the balance team doing part of their job.

Aidenwolf.5964:

I’ve hated the loot system since launch, it’s incredibly bad design.

You might do better with it if you realize its not designed to make you happy, it’s designed to make you keep playing. Consistent satisfaction is actually something it actively avoids delivering.

GW2 is one of the most naked skinner boxes I’ve ever encountered. And in that light it’s also an incredibly well designed and financially successful system.

LucosTheDutch.4819:

You really don’t understand economics at all, do you?

In complete seriousness why would you say that to me? Economics is a branch of game theory and game theory is pretty much the whole of my professional life.

You think people who sell stuff on the TP just make up a price out of thin air?

Not at all. Do you see me at any point saying what’s going on in that market is wrong? I don’t hate flippers. BUT, it’s nice that when you look at a game you don’t care to play you have the option not to (while still reaching the goal). I choose to not play the “hand money to the guy with the precursor” game and now I can still reliably get one. Mission accomplished for the precursor collections. It’s the people that thought it was supposed to screw those nasty flippers directly by being cheaper that are complaining.

ArchonWing.9480:

I’m not sure why this sentiment keeps getting tossed out when it’s shown that Anet will make changes as needed. 400 —--> 250 HP for elites anyone?

Its getting tossed around because of the HARD REALITY that there was more flex and give when the class was in development than after release.

The change to 250 points from 400 its the perfect example — making changes after you go live infuriates some people. Issuing errata inflicts creditability damage. It is a tool of last resort, not some willy-nilly free spirited chaos festival. Changes don’t have to just be good, they have to be good enough to be worth the cost of making any change. MMO gamers don’t generally respond well to instability of any sort .

We know for fact that the lack of native speed buff is one of the prices the Guardian profession pays for it’s all around good performance. There was some question if it might become part of the Dragonhunter. It didn’t. And now that the Dragonhunter is live, while it’s not “set in stone”, it’s such an infinitesimal likelihood that begging for it is not just a waste of time, it s a good way to get something that’s working quite nicely nerfed, because Dragonhunter is not exactly ‘failing to perform’ by the metrics ANet relies on.

eleshazar.6902:

Nike.2631:

Please direct your gaze to the horizon.
You see that dot out there?
That’s the ship.

It has sailed.

Do you ever have anything positive to say on the forums? I read your posts all over the place, and I can say that I wholeheartedly disagree with every single one of them.

Good. There should be some contrast .

Paffus Piffus.9430:

False sense of pride in not ‘feeding the evil flippers’.

Its not false pride to recognize that the TP is a competitive environment. If the only thing that matters to a player is get it cheaply then by all means follow that muse. Do it the cheapest way you can. But recognize that sometimes when you’re staring at an Endless Batwing Tonic you want but can’t afford, you had a hand in arming the person who is setting that price.

Shoe.5821:

@Nike: even if you view this as a better method for you – even though its extremely expensive – surely you must recognize that the general population will be using the TP if its cheaper than crafting.

Then they were already well served. Because you’ve been able to buy your way to a precursor since launch.

How is this hard to grasp? The new system is not a coupon. It’s not a discount ticket. It’s just a way to go about your business and eventually get a precursor without relying on RNG or handing cash to other people who relied on RNG.

I’ve gotten 3 weapon skins (no hammer), one of them twice, and 3 devil dogs. Out of around 1,000. Experiences will vary.

LucosTheDutch.4819:

Let me enlighten you:

Let me enlighten you. I know perfectly well how precursor generation works. Been here for years. If there were a VENDOR offering precursors for 500 gold I’d buy in a heartbeat because that takes 100% of that mud coin out of the system.

Given the option to work a little harder (and I have level 500 crafters in all professions so I’m quite capable of fabricating the ascended mats from their basest, cheapest components) to NOT push 90% of that money into the hands of another player, I’m willing to pay a modest premium.

Frankly I’d sooner be the person dumping yellows/oranges into the mystic forge over buying a precursor. Because buying other people’s risk rarely is a good deal in the long run and I expect to be here a few years more.

I played for 3 years without the expansion. Odds are good you’ll be able to find things to amuse yourself for quite a while yet without the new toys.

Preparation-wise you’ll want to do Core Tyria hero challenges and generally pile up a decent warchest of gold.

LucosTheDutch.4819:

And once again you’re completely missing the point.

Because of the insane amount of mats needed to craft a precursor, you’re literally better off buying a pre from the TP. I don’t get how you don’t understand this/ But let me spell it out once more:

Lets say I’d need 1000g worth of mats to craft The Chosen, and instead of buying the mats from the TP I’d farm and gather all of them myself.

So here I am, farmed and gathered my butt off. Now I have mats with a total value of 1000g in my bank and I didn’t spend a single dime for it. All is good right? Nope! Not all is good! Because here is the problem:

Why would I use those mats to craft The Chosen, if I could also sell them, turn them into 1000g liquid gold, the buy The Chosen from the TP for 500g and actually have an additional 500g to spare? I’d be frikkin stupid to waste my 1000g worth of mats on crafting The Chosen if I could just sell my mats and get The Chosen cheaper!

And again your focus is on the TP as if its a place everyone WANTS to be.

What’s terrifying is how much people hate “those evil flippers”, and yet are so incredibly EAGER to give them 500g to screw you over with again in the future.

Utilizing 1,000g worth of mats to reach a goal while NOT give 500g to your economic pvp opponent is entirely worth it to some people.

Not feeding your enemy is hardly ‘stupid’. It’s fiercely gratifying in fact.

Nike.2631:

Wow. Because if the WHOLE CLASS hinged on one f2 skill, then that’s pretty much proof positive that skill is busted. Thanks for clarifying that this absolutely needed to get changed, likely for the weaker.

Man, think of all those poor useless rangers out there who don’t even have the stupid pet.

Tigaseye.2047:

No.

That is not how this works.

Evidently it is .

If the whole class hinged on that F2 skill, that is pretty much proof positive that the whole class is in desperate need of attention.

Broken, out of scale skill is broken, no matter where the class’s baseline is floating in the stack. You see the same sort of obsessing over the grossly overpowered skill-of-the-month on EVERY profession. If anything, leaving one in play makes the situation worse for under-performing classes because you start getting some numbers that show maybe the class is doing ok, when its actually just one skill everyone is gravitating to because it’s the singular best option available.

It doesn’t mean you take, even the very little that Ranger has (or did have), away until you can do that.

You don’t let them start building a dependency on something you know has to be trimmed, either.

But mostly I was mocking the preposterous melodrama being dished in the post I quoted.

Conncept.7638:

Well honestly, pervious to the dragon hunter they were right.

‘Right’ in the sense of claiming that a one-egg omelet isn’t that filling when the person talking to you is holding an ostrich egg in their hand . It was totally inapplicable experience being waved around (sometimes with eyes clenched tightly shut…) instead of looking at the new data.

It is really annoying hitting people with the existing ranger and thief traps.

No class with Signet of Stone (or prolonged stealth) is going to be able to claim they can’t put traps wherever they dang well please. It’s that Ranger traps don’t provide a tangible move-or-die threat. Thief traps are just plain weird in their payload. Maybe that’ll change one day with a balance pass.

LucosTheDutch.4819:

When gathering the materials needed for precursor crafting takes a lot more time than farming for gold to buy one off the TP, then there is no reason to bother with the precursor crafting. Just farm gold and buy a pre from the TP.

Oh for pitty’s sake. You CANNOT say “oh, just farm the gold” and then be kittened off about the price being asked by people who actually generated the mats!

Someone has to actually put the real goods with actual value into the system. People generating piles of trash gold need to recognize they are the ones causing the mudflation.

When the sum total of the materials’ value needed to craft a precursor is higher than the price of the precursor on the TP, then there is no reason to bother with precursor crafting. Just sell your mats and buy a pre from the TP.

…and watch the prices climb to equilibrium…

Precursor crafting as it is right now is literally a waste of time and money.

No. BUYING the mats is a waste of time. Being able to realistically produce a precursor without feeding coin to your economic pvp opponents is priceless. Literally.

MauricioCezar.2673:

It will not.

I just scrolled through that page. Is there someone official on there that doesn’t have a proper ANet tag? Because we’ve seen them get pretty non-plussed with blatant abuse of rapid spawn rates in the past…

Nevermind. Found the reference.

Care to place bets on if it’s still possible in a week?

Wow.

That’s gonna earn some bans.

You know, months ago I pointed out the easiest way to normalize the cost of the three armor weights was to bring the cost of medium and heavy up to that of light… But people really weren’t interested in fairness. They just wanted their stuff.

Hokeypokey.2135:

I know right. My worse of all my druid specialization gets nerfed every other day

Ok, you might be new to MMOs, but let me share a little secret:

When a new class gets announced and EVERYONE is all “whoa, that’s amazingly powerful” like a certain Ranger Espec you KNOW it’s gonna get nerfed, and nerfed repeatedly.

It said ‘bah-roh-ken’ on it in GIANT LETTERS and with only one testing weekend it’s no surprise the rest of the nerfing has to happen on the Live servers.

The question was NEVER going to be “will it stay as powerful as it was on reveal?” The real question is “Is it still a strong enough healer to hold a treasured seat at the table for raid compositions?” and I don’t think any of the nerfs we’ve seen are coming even close to knocking it off that throne.

Geshque.1326:

Wtf are you investigating? Is it hard to understand that u just ruined the class completely?

Wow. Because if the WHOLE CLASS hinged on one f2 skill, then that’s pretty much proof positive that skill is busted. Thanks for clarifying that this absolutely needed to get changed, likely for the weaker.

Man, think of all those poor useless rangers out there who don’t even have the stupid pet.

Vikkela.7261:

Drekor.5217:

or just pull people onto your traps to trigger them.

I believe that is the sole reason why the pull was created.

Well, the fact that we had a big glowy chain connecting them to us did sort of suggest we ought to be able to tug on said chain…

Zenguy.6421:

p.s. Why the protectionism around precursor prices?
That doesn’t seem to help anyone except precursor speculators, TP farmers and the few random players who got a precursor drop by pure chance; and it disadvantages the rest of the GW2 player community.

So stop looking at it as a player and look at it as a designer. Because the two outlooks do NOT share goals.

If they wanted cheaper precursors in the game they’d have upped the drop rates taking a couple days tops to implement. Instead they spent two years working out complex multilayer tasks that required coding in dozens of new items and locations.

Evidently “boring farm” is actually a code phrase for “want it right now, more than I want to do a variety of things for fun”.

To be completely honest the drive for this to happen was GUTTED when they dropped the requirement to complete an Espec track to 250. Now you only need between 4 and 25 out of 40 challenges. It may become an issue they swing back around to look at in 6 months, but right now you don’t need very many challenges to max out a character. Its fairly easy to pick and choose your points to avoid champions entirely.

Account bound, soul bound on equip please.

But at least now I know this is an issue and will only accept the chests on a heavy armor character.

Ohoni.6057:

Now, I hated them in the first beta, but this is not a gut reaction, this is after fighting almost every enemy in the game, beating the final boss, etc. I just really hate the Modrem Snipers and would like to see them changed.

They hate you back .

They are definitely thrilling to fight. They require attention, spatial awareness, an understanding of anti-stealth tactics, and if you’re in a big furball they even require teamwork (sometimes in the form of your allies picking your broken body back up after you get nuked by one you missed)

Conceptually/Mechanically I enjoy them. I could see their ground strip attack damage being reduced slightly so you get maybe 1-2 more ticks to get out of it, but beyond that I approve of there being enemies you have to respect.

Ehra.5240:

elite skills are powerful, unique skills without being “superior” to normal utility skills.

Did you really just type that with a straight face?

I follow the argument you’re trying to make, but don’t blow it to pieces with a stray comment like that that’s outright laughable.

Ohoni.6057:

And yet, the TP is still far and away the most effective way of doing it.

Point ENTIRELY missed. If you just want to buy it you’ve ALWAYS had the option to do so. They are not unhappy with the prices of precursors. Universal player satisfaction is NOT one of ANet’s goals. Collections being cheaper than buying one is also not a goal.

They didn’t add collections so you could buy a precursor. They added them so there was a non-RNG way of introducing them into the system.

There was never any doubt I was going to love Dragonhunter, but Reaper came out of nowhere to say “I am fun incarnate”. I am shocked how giddy the greatsword skills make me. I don’t even bother with the shouts. Just GS and a wall of hungry minions…