Guild Wars 2

videoboy.4162:

This is a horrible reason. GW2 has never had a class that could use a weapon with two completely different skill sets. They haven’t even hinted at doing this. You’re basing your entire argument off of zero evidence.

Yeah. They have. This entire conversation took place with Devs actively participating and SET THE COURSE OF THE GW2’s DESIGN GOING FORWARD about 21 months ago. Please: go read the thread. It takes a while but you’ll see the arguments laid out long form and understand why we are where we are today.

The game is constantly about things “GW2 has never had”. That’s how adding new stuff works. And people good at adding new stuff leave themselves room to work within in the future. This structure we see now was specifically proposed so that existing weapons could have their skills replaced with a different set without crashing the game. I know — I proposed the solution they went with.

I think the idea of unlocking the Revenant a few days early for folks who own HoT at that point could be a surprisingly good idea. I don’t think they’ll do it, but spreading out the shockwave of bug reports as new content goes live could actually be a plus on the practical side along with allowing folks to level them up traditionally for a few days before the new zones open.

As to technical difficulty, the revenant (in its current form – more tuning to be expected) is in the system now. It’s essentially flipping a bit to enable it for general use. The bit may be entangled with all of the HoT content, but all signs are they can turn parts on and off independently (each has it’s own bit).

Black Box.9312:

Name 3 things in the Guardian’s base traitlines that effectively synergize with the Dragonhunter spec, or vice versa. It has to be at least equally effective in comparison to a non-Dragonhunter (i.e. Absolute Resolution doesn’t count because it’s not nearly as reliable on a DH).

Before I start, would you mind telling me how many/which different builds you use on a Guardian? Not much point in me explaining how 75% of the traits work with range if you already believe 90% of Guard traits aren’t worth taking…

Does ANYONE think a plea like this has any impact on their decision making or scheduling process?

These things are picked out days if not weeks in advance. And frankly they aren’t primarily concerned with advertising to us here on the forums. They’re picking their battles in the videogames news cycle to bring in new players.

I decided to use one of my extra character slots today (had a fun idea for a Chronmancer and thought I’d get them set up now). I ran into FOUR other people in the tutorial. That’s a crazy high number for people still making characters on a Sunday afternoon un the US. Seems like they’ve managed to rope in some new players with the pre-purchase and people — even the slightly bored ones — are still playing the game.

Black Box.9312:

Bingo. The entirety of Dragonhunter is about as disjointed from the rest of the class as it can be without being two entirely separate entities.

And yet about half of my Guardians are gonna be rockin’ variations using this spec. It’s almost like some people have a broader vision of what the class could mean or be used for. It’s already proven good fun on my zerg-leader for WvW. As the changes get patched in it’s just gonna get better.

Angel.7294:

Thats a good point, but i dont see why they cant add different weapon skill sets without locking them behind the Elite Trait Line ? I get you’re point of view though they didn’t look at them as will add a new weapon and new utility skills for the class but went for picking Reaper gives you access to Reaper skills. Which indeed keeps the skills more thematic , but i still don’t like the aproach they took it just feels like too many skills locked behind the elite specialization.

The horizontal progression CDI included a long, LONG discussion about sub-classes and how they could work (or wreck things) in GW2. If you want to see why we have what we have coming in HoT, you really should take the time to read it. Sub-classes (what became elite specs) starts on about page 40.

videoboy.4162:

You just made my point for me. You’re not required to use it, so why is it locked?

Its locked for the reasons I mentioned and your desire to use it or not doesn’t override that consideration.

Ominous.7583:

Its because they are so cliche and badly done they look like ripped off bird wings taped on your back look out of place and everyone has them. When everyone has them they just are not as cool and again gemstore. The other wings u speak of at least look decent and I don’t see them as much as the lame angel demon wings. But whatever I’m enjoying my synergetic spinal blades still which I crafted so :p

I’m sure every person wearing them just waits with baited breath to hear if their appearance meets with your approval. And the pile of broken farming equipment hanging off your back is so amazing… I mean, nobody’s every thought of a design ethic like that. Lets call it… I dunno, how about steampunk maybe? Nothing cliché about that. And look at the way it flaps in tune with your movements like it did on the NPCs that originally had them. So cool.

Glass houses much?

And there’s no other weapons on Elementalists you just ignore? That some sets of weapon skills don’t work for you really has no bearing on whether or not another weapon that doesn’t work for you is locked or not. Your not required to use the new weapon.

Which is simply NOT TRUE. There ARE boots and they look very, very different from the banded boots on Norn. Just like the shoulders are similar to the banded set shoulders but not inflated like balloons on a Norn.

Ominous.7583:

Because everyone and there mother has them for the lolzimanageldemon look how cool I am for looking like everyone else. And they don’t flap and look stupid not to mention they are gemstore skins

Yeah, I mean really how dare anyone have tastes other than mine. Or spend money on this game I enjoy. You tell ’em!

So obviously weapon diversity wasn’t a goal.

Amongst other things, isolating weapons in an elite spec allows them to use the same additional weapon more than once (a real issue for Warriors who already use almost everything) & it allows them to create elite-Specs that overwrite an existing weapon’s skills with new skills. Structure creates opportunity in design.

I have two characters named Nike who mostly spec for team buffs/support. Feathered wings go with that. I have a necro with the Tequatl pet and the teq-wings. Flapping bits of rotting meat just kinda work on necros.

The feathered wings are also fun on bunkers because haters come right at you, which is what you want. They are ok on a couple other builds because the wings do a great job of obscuring your animations.

Hmmm. I think you left out an area… Range. As in higher than all other weapons we have, considering how bad scepter is. I’m also told True shot is our single most damaging hit and it’s going to hit even harder soon. So now we’re talking range and spike (and stability every time your use it).

• Direct Damage- 8. They’re upping the projectiles speed of #1 and the damage of #2. It’s gonna let us hit folks we’ve never had a shot at before.
• Condition Damage- 5. Its not really a condi weapon other than #4 (which is also being buffed) and the occasional burn from VoJustice.
• Support- 3. Symbol of energy giving vigor does not get me exited. But the front-liner it lands on might like it.
• Defense- 3. The missile canceling shot is interesting on paper, but it needs a lot of work to be usable by more than coincidence. Perma-Stability on #2 won’t suck though.
• Control- 6. People will scatter when you drop the ward (area denial is still control). And those that don’t are gonna get shredded while they’re penned in. Cooldown is far too long and we need a 20% cooldown trait above and beyond that. Have to see where things go.

I kinda look forward to matching up against all the folks who looked at the early beta version of this weapon and expect it to be a pushover/never followed up on the changes on the Live servers. There will be some sweet, sweet tears.

Wells-necros set up for power-based damage can be very good team support. Almost all wells skills offer strong party-wide benefits and traited they give protection to all teammates in them when they are cast. It just seems to be a somewhat uncommon build so they get a bad rep.

It seems pretty obvious they’re pulling an ‘all hands on deck’ sprint to get HoT done before the holiday shopping season passes them by. Don’t expect to see a lot of anything other than them grinding through the work in front of them relating to HoT. Even the usually clockwork-like Black Lion RMT team has been skipping weekly releases — almost certainly so they can pitch in on the big push.

Black Box.9312:

You are literally sacrificing valuable utility skills from your utility skill slots to take traps. This couldn’t be more false.

Then stick with what you know & are comfortable with because they aren’t going to give you that and more. Elite-specs are not an upgrade… Dragonhunter is an under-tuned alternative that’s still being hammered out.

Something people really don’t get: If the Devs feel Guardians are “in a good place” there is ZERO chance that the new alternative is going to be better. And realistically it SHOULDN’T BE EVEN AS GOOD as a Guard meta-build. They’re aiming for “just about as good, though definitely a little less” because frankly what we do with Dragonhunter in the first 2-3 months is gonna be nothing like what evolves over the course of a half-a-year of hard evolution. Same as the current cluster of tricks that make up the Meditation-Meta builds took time to refine.

Hiyas ,

When the wardrobe system was introduce the ‘guild defender boots’ were left out of the wardrobe. They are NOT the same as the Banded heavy boots skin and I was very pleased to have acquired them. Please restore this option to the wardrobe and credit folks who had them.

Thanks!

Karl McLain.5604:

Thanks for your constructive feedback, everyone. I’ve got to head out for now. We’ll be back with more stuff, like traits, soon.

-Karl

Karl, not sure if you’re still scanning this thread but I thought I’d mention this here. A lot of discontent with the traps arises from losing some important sustain. A few thoughts on making traps more appealing when your bar is heavily made up of trap skills.

Purification. Add the following: When this trap is placed cleanse 1 condition on yourself. When this trap is triggered convert 2 conditions on you to boons.

Light’s Judgment. Add the following: When this trap is triggered the pulses also cleanse blindness and confusion from up to 5 allies in the trap radius.

Test of Faith. Add the following: Setting this trap is a stunbreak. When this trap is triggered it creates a light field.

Procession of Blades. Add the following: When this trap is triggered it pulses whirl finishers.

Dragon’s Maw. Add the following: Setting this trap also creates a water field for 10 seconds.

Liewec.2896:

The Tribal set is one of the few things that i’m happy i have because of its scarcity.

“I take pleasure in other people not having things” is one of the most loathsome of all human traits.

You folks just want everything to be worthless and commonpool.

No, I want it’s value to come from people appreciating what it is, rather than how it promotes ‘special snowflake’ self-aggrandizement.

Hundreds of Good Ideas they’ve had for over a year.

I won’t say ’you’re wasting your breath,’ but you’re wasting your breath.

Ark Bladesteele.2943:

How it’s possible to completely misunderstand why instant cast Virtues are a staple of the class is completely beyond me.

Ok, really its not THAT hard to figure out: Right now Renewed Focus is our absolute staple Elite choice. In no small part because you can dump all your virtues mid-channel and have them refresh at the end. Making the virtues have cast time makes RF less appealing and is a direct attempt to wean us off of the one-and-only and make the other Guardian Elite skills more desirable/relevant.

Its not gonna work for many, because like every complaint about traps not giving sustain/cleanses/teleports people don’t want to try something new, they want all their old advantages plus a little more. Horizontal progression is about trade-offs and people already in a good place don’t want to move sideways, they just want to move up.

Karl McLain.5604:

While the changes listed are the ones you’ll be seeing in the next beta weekend, we haven’t stopped making changes as we work to improve the Dragonhunter specialization.

Excellent.

Puncture Shot: Arrow velocity is slow! We’re looking at increasing it so that it’s less strafe-able. What we’ve got it at is ~66% increase, putting it at around Hip Shot (engineer rifle) velocity. We’re also looking at the base and bounce functionality.

Perfect — these may not be all that we want, but it’s definitely what we NEED. Looking forward to testing/playing with the new values.

(and not directly your department, I know, but please consider a more mystical FX projectile to cement that the Dragonhunter is not your ordinary archer. I’d still love to see their auto-attack leave trails behind the arrows more akin to the Guardian’s Focus #4 FX… Would look exceptionally awesome when you have the aether bow equipped as suggested by the class art)

True Shot: To make this ability more rewarding for stopping you in place, we’re looking at further increasing the damage.

I know a lot of people want it fully mobile, but I LIKE the trade-off of having to consider your placement carefully before pulling the trigger, rewarded by a shot that’s a BEAST.

Deflecting Shot: We’re looking at increasing the damage values of this ability, so that it has a bit more impact to it.

While I won’t say no to it being a non-stupid part of a damage rotation compared to auto-attacking, I do hope we can see something done to improve it’s usability as a weird counter-play anti-missile. Part of the problem is you have a ton of ranged attacks in the game that’ll drill right through it regardless, things like Mesmer GS #1.

Symbol of Energy: It’s really hard to place this in a position on allies/enemies without them being gone by the time the arrow gets there. Upping the missile velocity by ~60% and allowing it to be fired behind you.

Excellent changes. Bump up the size of the hotspot just a little and call it glorious.

Thanks for your constructive feedback, everyone. I’ve got to head out for now. We’ll be back with more stuff, like traits, soon.

Looking forward to it. I don’t mind getting the changes in smallish chunks as long as we have a sense of communication.

It is good to hear from you .

There are no signs of any of that being part of HoT’s features.

Silhouette.5631:

Also Nike. Other traps don’t have ground targeting after specializations patch.

Fair enough. They were moving the other direction last I looked .

I’ll continue to look forward to Rune of the Trapper tricks over having wells.

Swiftness exists to make most concepts for mounts blatant power creep . It exists to acknowledge that relative overland speed is a huge advantage and should carry similarly huge opportunity costs.

The only advantage of wells over our current traps is that wells can be cast by ground targeting. Give Guardian traps ground targeting and they will be superior to wells in every way.

Traps are wells, only they can’t be seen until you are in them and don’t start expending working duration until there is a target present. In exchange for that you have to lead your opponent, you have to anticipate a full second into the future to put the trap where it’ll be needed after it’s 1 second arming cycle. That requires skill, but in general that skill is rewarded.

Lets not completely redesign something that basically only needs a single bit flipped, enabling ground targeting like all other traps.

The threads will be just as funny when the Taimi kits come out again and the people holding the stock scream bloody murder at ANet making their investment “worthless”…

It’s gambling. Only the house wins.

Maybe they are announcing something about crafting systems.

Or monetization schemes.

Or new armor skins earned through in-game activities.

And I suspect you’ll find none of those thrusting-only ones are 1-handed except in fantasy novels . I mentioned pikes because they are a type of spear NOT meant to ever be thrown, but they are 10-20 feet long and very definitely 2-handed. In any event, the original point remains at least some of us asking for spears to be used in terrestrial weapon slots mean the ones we already have.

((Entire Guardian community just stares with jaw slightly agape))

CandyHearts.6025:

Except a javelin and a 1-hand spear are completely two different things. One is meant to throw at foes while the other is a 2-handed spear with its handle cut shorter for easier 1-handed combat.

The only time I’ve heard of the ‘land spear’ you are describing is the fictional Aiel from Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time setting. Every other “spear” (not to be confused with pike) can be and regularly IS thrown. Can you point me to some reading on the cultures that do this thing you describe?

Uh, the announced legendary backpacks would be new types of Legendary gear.

Zev.3407:

i really wish people would stop saying “land spear” when they mean 1 handed spear.

Um, when I say “land spear” I mean the existing spears with the existing Two-Handed stats being used on land as a 2-handed weapon.

I’m pretty sure if I meant ‘a 1-handed spear’ I’d call it a javelin to avoid confusion and I’d recognize it’s never gonna happen before the servers go dark because of the amount of art department time required backfilling existing sets to put a new weapon type into the game.

We have what we have. But we can use what we have in new ways. That means allowing folks to slot the existing spear into their terrestrial weapons slots if the option is opened up by an Elite Spec.

Who should go last? Unquestionably Revenant – this is the one profession no one has thousands of hours invested in yet.

Warrior. The golden child class is not going to stop being golden just because it’s Elite gets the least time on the open polishing rotation

Then probably Guardian. Being in a good place means your elite isn’t actually an attempt to fix something. And the new variant was never going to be as potent as the alpha predator that’s evolved over years of careful tinkering.

By the same logic Ranger and then Necromancer should have gone first – these are troubled classes and their Elites are a major opportunity to breath life back into them. Reaper is succeeding in improving the Necromancer’s visibility and appeal. Ranger needed that shot at the limelight even more so.

Instead we’re pretty much seeing them in t he order they figure them out, meaning the ones that need the most time to resolve are getting the least time in open review.

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

A large chunk of comments we read centered on the new virtues being good, but not quite good enough to be left without the virtue passives.

You and I… we remember the threads this last week very differently .

• F2 Wings of Resolve: Increased heal value by up to 50%.

Wrong problem being addressed. Range and chunkiness are the issues. You guys have spent about 2 years trying to incentivize with “moar healz!” in a game where you made dang sure everyone was self-sufficient. Switch bait already. The fish ain’t biting.

The longbow skills were generally well received, but Symbol of Energy felt on the weak side compared to the rest of the weapon skills.

• Symbol of Energy: Increased burning duration from 4 seconds to 5 seconds and Vigor duration from 1 second to 3 seconds.

More of that mnemonic dissonance again. Every single button on the bow has issues. Projectile speed, poor payoff for immobility, difficulty to use, tiny area of effect. In fact you buffed pretty much the one thing people weren’t worried about – the magnitude of effect on a sluggish, tiny radius skill.

Traps were another area of concern that we’re addressing with the following modifications:

• Purification: Increased bonus healing based upon level by 50%.
• Test of Faith: Increased the damage multiplier on this ability by 20%.
• Fragments of Faith: Decreased the duration that fragments remained on the ground from 15 seconds to 10 seconds. Increased the duration of the aegis granted from fragments from 5 seconds to 8 seconds.
• Procession of Blades: Increased the base damage by 36%.
• Dragon’s Maw: Increased the maw trapping duration from 4 seconds to 6 seconds. Damage increased by 20%.

A straight nerf to the best of them and buffs to the ones that are iffy not because of how good or bad the effect is but because they are excessively telegraphed by the animation and lack of ground targeting.

Lastly the elite specialization traits needed a little more love to really drive the defining components of the Dragonhunter.

• Piercing Light: Added a 20% recharge reduction to Traps.

Ok, I’m simultaneously glad to see this and wanting the balance team to line up in a circle to apply mutual Gibbs-head-slaps that this ever saw the light of public scrutiny without cooldown reduction.

Now where’s to one for longbows?

• Soaring Devastation: Increased the duration of the immobilize from 1.5s to 3s.

Wrong problem again… Range. Clunkiness. Fix.

• Hunter’s Determination: Increased the duration of stability gained from 4s to 6s.

Hey, if you think perma-stability on a weapon skill isn’t gonna start a riot in the other profession forums, go for it, but I’d still rather have more damage on True Shot for having to risk pausing to fire.

• Dulled Senses: Added that when you apply cripple you also apply 3 stacks of vulnerability for 5 seconds.

Just one question: In what way do you see “Dulled senses” and the crippled condition being related? Did this used to blind enemies and someone forgot to change the name?

• Heavy Light: Increased the internal cooldown from 7 seconds to 10 seconds. Increased the knockback distance from 120 to 240.

Put the 20% cooldown for longbows here and maybe this trait becomes a thing. Maybe.

We’ll be keeping a watchful eye for your impressions and constructive feedback from the Beta Weekend!

We, uh, kinda gave it already. I wish I was more convinced you had read it.

Arricson Krei.9560:

merchantchuck.4875:

These were not the changes I was looking forward to. =(

Then tell them what you were looking forward to – in detail – and how to get there.

This may come as a surprise but many of us have been doing that for a week or more and the claims they made about feedback they read vs. what you can see here on the forums are so wildly divergent as to invite phrases like “bald-faced lie” to describe the discrepancy.

They weakened what I would classify as the best of the traps and buffed the others. fine, I can see the baseline they’re trying to move them towards but I’m unconvinced that baseline will be high enough to dislodge the huge amount of prejudice towards traps, and until they are ground targeted instead of “its right here duh” they’re never going to be taken seriously even it they one-shot players walking over them.

Longbow… I promise NO ONE thought #4 was the only skill that needed changes. And they change they made wasn’t particularly the issue. Time to deliver, microscopic area of effect… these are issues. An autoattack that looks like it was designed before they learned the Ranger Longbow needed projectile speed to work and that they are still somehow overlooking why the Guardian Scepter is considered a joke. Undertuned payoff for a immobile attack (the trait helps with sustained stability, but still – its gotta hit harder.

The traits are better. I’ll have to think on them a bit, but they are better. Kudos.

This is a start, and it’s a better start than the Tempest got, but pretending everyone and their brother didn’t ask for insta-cast on the virtues is a fast path to destroying your credibility as the newly revealed class developer. Explain why we aren’t getting it — crediblity building. Ignoring the issue? Not helping.

Or it could be this was just much more specific.

I would support this and look forward to buying some that fit/enhanced the themes of any of my several Necros.

“Not fully ready”

TRAITS
The traits are like pre-trait-line-implosion Traits – underpowered, bad, and needing to be merged and/or replaced to bring their value up to the new par, but that can be done. Leaving out the two OBVIOUS 20% cooldown traits is not acceptable. The sooner they recognize that, the sooner they can get started. Some of the names are full on nonsensical. Obvious holdovers from when they did something else entirely and they didn’t get re-checked as the mechanics evolved.

TRAPS
People can scream “OMG traps suxors” but they’re not going away. So its more a relevant question is ‘how good to traps have to be to be a fair opportunity cost to reward ratio?’ I doubt even ANet will have clear idea of that before the first 6 months later balance patch, but there you go. Ground targeting instead of “duh it’s right here” is a fine place to start.

LONGBOW
I like the themes and I think the “can’t move during/self root” create interesting decisions and a level of skillful prepositioning that other weapons don’t demand… and should be compensated accordingly with substantial bumps to damage (#2) and control (#5). The missile-erasing shot needs about three iterations of QoL applied to it and they need to be applied before HoT launches, but again it’s doable starting as soon as they recognize the issue.

This profession is going to polish up nicely. The question is whether it gets that polish now or 10 months from now. I know which I’d prefer…

Darknicrofia.2604:

Post here if you disagree with this.

skill #1 literally couldn’t hit a fish in a barrel in pvp
skill #3 can’t be fired behind you and is about as practical as trying to stop a gunman by shooting his bullets with your own bullets in actual application.
skill #4 can’t be fired behind you and takes entirely too long to land.
skill #5 has way too long of a root for the ward effect to take effect in the last shot.

not to mention all the under 500 range “obstructed” errors with all the skills.

I really want to know where Anet is getting these “well received” feedbacks from, happy go lucky PvE streamers that only roleplay and farm silverwastes?

So, basically we were looking at a slightly buggy beta-test weapon and plenty of folks could see the intent through the minutia.

The auto-facing will get fixed. That’s like 1/50 the magnitude of change that was giving Revenants weapon swap this late in the development cycle. The obstructed messages were obviously a bug. The damage is undertuned — likely deliberately — so they could make adjustments up, rather than down depending on if somebody surprised them with an unexpectedly powerful build/rotation.

So I can agree with your list and still “receive the weapon well” because the design of the weapon shines through and when it’s been debuged and some numbers tweaked the actual effects will still be the same and they will offer some very interesting gameplay.

And like all the other regalia it’ll be an outfit and from this customer’s perspective a complete waste of art team man hours, but they seem to be happy with the outfit profits, so sure, why not?

Are you aware there is a bugs forum on these boards?

CandyHearts.6025:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/hidden-arcana-developer-spotlight-on-crystin-cox/

“During Living World Season 2, Crystin took charge of a new team that was organized to improve in-game rewards in Guild Wars 2. Previously, no single dedicated team handled in-game rewards, and individual content teams were responsible for deciding how players would be rewarded. Crystin felt there should be a greater balance between Gem Store item offerings and in-game rewards, and she and the rewards and commerce teams have worked on creating a clear division so that items will fit their method of distribution. For example, armor sets are now exclusively designed as in-game rewards while outfits are primarily Gem Store offerings.”

And this is why I love Anet. Well one of the reasons. They care about the player experience much over exact profit.

Sure. It’s a clear decision, but that doesn’t make it a good one. They can call putting a new outfit in the store every month and a new armor set in the game once a year “a greater balance between Gem Store item offerings and in-game rewards” but that doesn’t make it true. Plus I can’t be alone in being perfectly happy to pay for gemstore armor skins (I own all but the zodiac skins) and refusing to buy even a single locked-together do-it-their-way-or-not-at-all outfit.

I read it and re-read it and all I could do was stare.

I have an icebrood-corrupted Guard going dragonhunter (Coldsnap is amazing) who will be using Wintersbite. Hail Jormag and what a fun elite for that.

I have a Chaos Longbow for my white outfit Guardian, and an Azureflame for the traditional Guardian blue-flame look.

Diovid.9506:

Repeat after me: They will be released when Anet is ready to release them.

This is not precisely true.

They will be released when they are ABLE to. All signs are the remaining Elite Specs aren’t complete enough yet to show publicly. You can bet good money they aren’t sitting on finished, high octane fuel for the hype train and not using it when they’ve had high visibility events like Gamescon just begging to be exploited. Letting that show go by with nothing new to tickle the vast majority of established players and prospective players who just don’t see GW2 as a e-sport powerhouse was not something they did by choice. And when the highlight of a week is telling us, ‘hey, there’s a big con coming and we’ll announce some stuff there (DUH)‘, you’re looking at a warchest they’ve emptied of good talking points.

toaster messiah.7320:

NO OFFHAND OPTION / where we get 2 skills; they act the same for all MH weapons but they get different secondary effects for each of them.

How do you propose to make up the loss of stat points/armor and broken rune-sets from an empty slot?

Iason Evan.3806:

I feel like such an idiot for thinking it was coming on the 3 year anniversary of GW2.

Oh, have no doubt that’s when they wanted to release it too, when they first white-boarded a timeline for this project. They probably thought that could happen even as recently as when they made the first public announcements of HoT.

The signs that its running late vs. internal expectations are EVERYWHERE.

But now they have a publicly announced deadline. That’s half talking to us and half upper management putting the spurs to the designer/coders: Get. It. Done.

Or. Heads. Will. Roll.

There is a finite amount of gamer money floating around at any moment and the pool basically refreshes on a monthly basis. They know that a lot of that money will be hotly contested in November and December which is why they launched a Pre-PURCHASE program long beforehand. So they don’t have to compete as much in the most competitive months. But they still need product on the shelves in that period.

Wwefan.4982:

Pifil.5193:

October 15 is a Thursday. I’d expect a Tuesday release.

Just because tuesday is normally patch day it doesn’t mean Anet needs to release the game then they can release it when they feel its ready.

Just because ANet explicitly told us that they’ll tell us the release date the same time the retailers find out doesn’t mean we can’t keep fantasizing about a date some third party marketing wonk picked out of a hat…