Guild Wars 2

For you personally. Not the rest of us. While some of the rewards are ok, most of the time it is something you’ll quickly outlevel or otherwise not need, especially if you craft as well. And once again, locking abilities like the downed state/skills, profession mechanics, and other abilities we either had right from the beginning or shortly after was a stupid decision that should’ve never been done.

What they should’ve done is made WvW map completion and PvE map completion separate, with each giving a Gift of Exploration. This way PvE’rs don’t have to deal with WvW, nor would WvW’ers have to fill up the entire map of Tyria as well.

I sympathize with the topic poster, as way back before I had ever completed the map, I wanted to do it just because I felt like having a full map and feeling like I accomplished something. Oh the frustration when I discovered that it just had to include WvW as well.

Now I’m told that this is a way to entice people to WvW, and that they may like it afterwards. In my case (and the topic creator’s as well), it couldn’t have backfired harder.

The only real misconceptions regarding level gating are those that suggest the level gating is a good or beneficial change. While some may have exaggerated about the badness of the changes, it doesn’t change that they are bad, and do not improve but rather degrade the quality and fun of this game.

Crimson Clouds.4853:

@Nilkemia, regarding how Charged Quartz Crystal would affect ingame economy…

Firstly, during the Labyrinthine Cliffs LS (and Wintersday) Quartz was ridiculously easy to come by. Comparing 25 Quartz to one T6 Mat would be crazy as people would get Quartz by the hundreds even in casual play and low level areas. It takes a lot more effort to get the equal amount of T6 Materials for 1 exotic weapon, for example.

Many people still have a large stash of Quartz because of how easy it was to come by and that it’s not really implemented much (also consider that T6 materials have a wide variety of uses in game and in big quantities, like MF weapons/Legendary Gifts). Another side note is that people who have the Quartz Crystal Formation in their home instance are being guaranteed a few quartz crystals every day.

So if people were allowed to make as many Charged Quartz as they wanted, it’d be very easy to make cheap exotics to throw into the Mystic Toilet- no level 80 farming required. People would end up receiving comparatively “cheap” precursors and the market would flood with them. I am no financial/economics expert, but it seems to me that the in-game market is closely tied to Precursors/Legendaries. If a bunch of people make easy money, then would it not change the purchasing power of gold?

While I appreciate your elaborating, both I and Wanze have covered this point. Even with Charged Quartz being easier to obtain compared to other materials for exotic crafting, the fact remains that you still need orichalcum, ectoplasm, and ancient wood for the process, either costing you money and/or time gathering those. It might be cheaper than the other exotics, but not by much. And again, since the precursor chances out of the Mystic Forge are utterly negligible and complete RNG, having more cheap exotics to throw in does not guarantee more (or cheaper) precursors.

And even then, if it caused the prices of precursors to take a nosedive, then all the better. Have you seen the ridiculous prices for them nowadays? And if the in-game market is somehow tied mainly to these in particular, then that’s a bad market already.

Well, congratulations to whatever morons green-lighted and enacted this change to the Personal Story. I now have no desire to play through it again.

Granted, I didn’t care to play through it again for a while after having done so several times already by this point. But I would at least consider it every once in a while and even run a few missions on some of my alts. Now, I’m not even going to do that. Until you fix this problem, either by putting the missions back (and in proper order, too), or fix the new storyline to work with the changes you made, I’m not going to bother with it anymore. At best, I might consider playing up to the order arcs and stopping right after helping a minor race, since that wasn’t screwed up by this change.

But this? Seriously, who among you thought this was a good plan?

“I know, let’s remove one of the few really good parts of the Personal Story post Claw Island and throw the Orr arc almost completely out of order! That’ll make things better for the newbies!”

I can’t believe the money I spent on Gem Cards to support this game went towards garbage changes like this, which do nothing to improve the game, but the exact opposite.

So, until you get your act together and fix this mess, or if Season 2 is really good when you decide to eventually continue it…I think I’m taking a break from supporting the game. I’m still playing, since for all the flaws, I still like this game, and I don’t really feel like trying to find another MMO at this point.

But I’m not spending money on gems unless there’s something I really really want, because these kinds of changes are just unacceptable. No one with half a brain should consider these changes to the Personal story ( along with many of the leveling changes and gating introduced in the feature pack) to be good or beneficial.

And yet you, the people behind the making of this game, somehow deemed it so.

Just why?

Depending on what precursor you’re after, if you choose to go the buying route, it will either be long, very long, or very very long.

If you go by hoping it’ll be a random drop…well…unless you have an insane amount of luck, never.

nekretaal.6485:

That wasn’t the reason at all.

If quartz wasn’t time gated, players would buy up all of the cheap quartz and throw it into the mystic toilet for cheap precursor attempts.

Mind explaining how? The only way what you’re suggesting would work is if people basically used Charged Quartz Crystals to make exotics (while cheaper, would still be costly due to still requiring ectoplasm, orichalcum plated dowels, etc) and using those to attempt forging precursors instead. Even then, due to the process relying almost entirely on luck/RNG, it would not likely cause the huge effects you are suggesting.

Oh, and I checked, you can’t put Quartz/Charged Quartz in the Mystic Forge itself.

This would crash the prices for precursors, exotic weapons, rare weapons, masterwork weapons, T6 materials, legendary weapons, T5 materials… Basically all markets.

Again, mind explaining in detail how? And, unless a “crash” means a dramatic price increase for everything, then I don’t see what the problem is.

The way it is now, people who want celestial can get celestial and all of the other markets aren’t affected.

Except they have to get it at a slower pace than other stat combinations. Although, since celestial is only really good for 2 or 3 professions anyway, most probably don’t care that much.

Zaxares.5419:

You can already harvest Quartz Crystals every day by going to Dry Top. There’s also plentiful supply of it on the TP, so acquiring Quartz itself shouldn’t be a problem.

He’s not complaining about the lack of quartz, but rather the limit to making the Charged Quartz Crystals once a day. And even then their reason for time-gating it seemed to be so that people couldn’t get that achievement for charging a certain number of them right away during the Bazaar Living Story, which was not a worthwhile reason to me. The only other reason for keeping them time gated seems to be because they can be used for the Grow Lamps as part of growing the Vine/Mawdrey backpiece, which itself is time gated too. It’s really annoying.

Warning : Complaining (justified in my opinion, but still)

I think I’ve made this topic before…but, I really don’t feel like trying to search for it again.

I wanted to make an Immobulus because I did a preview for it on my asuran mesmer, and it would fit rather well with one of her armor sets.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Immobulus

Eldritch Scroll is fine. Mystic Coins are fine. The Pile of Crystalline Dust would be a big problem, but being able to salvage Globs of Ectoplasm makes that doable too with some saving up.

But 250 Giant Eyes is absurd. Everything else I can get with some effort, but this one thing is just ridiculous.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Giant_Eye

Farming these is almost impossible and unreasonable to do, since you deal with two layers of RNG : Hoping the Risen drop the Heavy Moldy Bags and not other things, and getting any Giant Eyes out of them. And just how rare are they? The drop research indicates less than a 1% chance of getting one from a bag.

And from my own experience, I once saved up to 312 Heavy Moldy Bags before deciding to open them all—and only got one.

“You want to build this scepter? Hah! Have fun farming Orr non-stop for the next year or so…oh wait, you can’t because of diminishing returns. We’re so clever.”

Here’s a thought : Make Giant Eyes droppable from certain Risen like the Risen Giants and Abominations, or even the Eyes of Zhaitan! Seeing as the giants have eyes, while the Eyes are…actual eyes, that would make sense, right? I’m not sure if the abominations really have eyes or not, but they could too…

I mean, as it stands, the only decent way to do this is to grind nonstop for gold to buy the Giant Eyes. And, at that point I may as well just grind to buy the weapon itself. That’s just not fun for me.

Okay, rant over. Discuss.

Yes, it is. Not so much early on, but it is useful for some very nice things later.

1 : Dungeon Chests in Crucible of Eternity(rarely). However, you can only run each path once a day for these, the chests won’t be there if you run them again before the reset.

2: Rare drop from high level Sparks in Malchor’s Leap and the Cursed Shore (only present when the Dwayna Temple is uncontested)

3 : Bags of Alchemical Materials, dropped from high level Inquest (Lv75 to 80, I think), have a rare chance of Charged Cores/Lodestones within them as well. Plenty of Inquest to slaughter in Dry Top.

4 : Dust Mites (and maybe Twisters) can drop Charged (and Onyx) Lodestones as well. Uncertain if they can drop Cores. (I suspect they can, but don’t because they’re in a Lv80 zone) Once again, in Dry Top.

5 : Champion Loot Bags can produce Cores and Lodestones of all kinds, so obviously a chance of them there.

While it’s a nice looking sword, I feel it’s a bit ruined by the fact that quite a few NPCs, bosses, and even generic enemies like harpies and fleshreavers have it. Seriously, do they have access to a dimension of Charged Lodestones?

Yes, I’ve noticed this too. Malign, Vital, and Mighty Bronze Spears are uncraftable even now, and seem to have been so since the Sept 2014 feature patch. Of course, with all the other bad ideas, part of me can’t help but wonder if this was intended too. Sigh.

Answer: No. Went in, did it so I got “participation” for the tickets (as well as some mapping for an alt or two), then back to better things.

Answer: Barely.

Until November 4, anyway. Sigh…the one time they got me interested to see what’s next, and…better wait till November to see if we’ll save the Pale Tree or not.

Instead of just doing that until Halloween, we have another WvW tournament that’s only good for the tickets (for those WvW exclusive skins), and maybe a PvP tournament or contest…meh..

After the first Blood and Madness, I’ve little interest in the second one. Maybe if they actually make the craftable skins reasonable to get this time around. And maybe bring back some of the old ones.

So, thoughts?

Ever since this morning, I’ve been getting these constant lag hiccups/rubberbands pretty much wherever I am. This makes fighting in PvE annoying, and PvP is barely playable at all. And this is despite playing on mainly low settings, and it was fine until just recently. I suspect the last patch messed something up. Anyone else experiencing this?

Wrong. WvW is only useful for map completion (because someone decided it’d be a great idea to throw that in), and cheaper ascended trinkets (saving you some laurels).

PvE is the only good mode, since even if you get bored of one thing, there’s usually something else to do that won’t bore you for a while. Except dungeons and Fractals. Only run those for the tokens/skins.

The separate titles you get for each profession aren’t enough?

More people seem to go to solo queue for now (queue ups were quicker for me a few hours back), but no, nothing changed.

Narkodx.1472:

You must also be the player who pushes far when they’re on my team at the beginning of the match causing us to be down 150-50

On a serious note why did you make this thread – pointless

Wrong.

Also, I made this thread because I felt like it. So there’s a point. For me anyways.

oxtred.7658:

“I don’t like a game mode, so i’ll make a thread about it on the specific subforum where people are only discussing it, because i will look smart.”

Yep. Nothing to do with the fact that it’s discussing PvP specifically, and would get moved to this subforum anyway if I put it elsewhere. Definitely not that. (/sarcasm)

And two dailies and at least one monthly. But nothing else, really.

Still, I have to give kudos to however at ArenaNet came up with the idea of the reward tracks. No, really. You found a way to entice someone like me, who would otherwise not bother with PvP at all to grind through it.

Well…discuss? (shrugs)

At first glance, it seems good…unless you’ve actually been in an 8v8. It’s basically Mini WvW. And that’s a bad thing.

E-sports potential? None.

PvP is only good for reward tracks, 2 dailies, and a monthly. Nothing else.

Oh noes, you can’t guarantee an insta pull to death anymore! It’s broken, ahhhhhh!

Please.

No. Every time I hear the “prestige” argument, it’s basically saying: “I got this, now I don’t want anyone else to have a chance at it!” Selfish, petty, stupid.

You know what’ll be good? A Halloween event that brings back the old content and has new content as well. Unfortunately, after how they screwed up the last Blood and Madness, I have no hopes for this one.

More bad changes. Sigh.

Answer: No. Removing champion loot bags without an adequate replacement for guaranteed loot from them will make things worse.

Answer: No. You’re better off making an engineer or mesmer instead.

As of the last big patch, necromancer is in a terrible spot now. Plague and Lich are now even bigger jokes than they already were, and Flesh Golem can’t even do decent damage with its Charge anymore. While we got a few neat little changes (dagger cleave and Spectral Armor’s faster recharge as examples), they couldn’t be bothered to fix some of the issues we already have.

On top of that, this is still the only profession that has no reflects/blocks, or any form of nullifying projectiles, while the Ranger got theirs buffed. Guess what happens most of the time those two get in a fight?

Add that to the subpar status we have in dungeons, and it’s a waste of time bothering with one. You might as well roll an engineer or mesmer now, they can dish out conditions even better than necromancers can at this point and are far more versatile/support for groups.

It’s all one terrible joke after another.

Your reward for completing the first quest? A weapon you can’t off-hand wield until Lv7.

Just…why?

Because we’d rather not reference bad things…I hope.

To try to prove that I an see the good through the bad ankitten ot a total whiner, here’s the good things that were in the patch.

That’s the sad thing. There are good things that were in this patch, but the awful level gating, messing up a system that worked just fine before, and wrecking part of the Personal Story has all but overshadowed them.

Still, here they are:

-New icons. I’ll admit, making new icons or improving on the old ones is a neat little touch.

-The new Glorious armor set. You can get it by playing!…I think.

-Some of the other skill tweaks, like giving daggers some cleave, giving the warrior’s greatsword burst more usability, things that actually improved the professions. Not the nerfs though.

- The new collections…some of them.

Um…drat. Those are the only ones that come to mind right now.

I wouldn’t care about the queen dying.

Kasmeer being next in line? No. That would raise far more questions than answers, and make no sense considering her backstory. She’s just fine with Marjory.

Besides, given how ArenaNet loves to bring up interesting things (The White Stag, Malyck, OoW still being able to get to Elona) and then forget about them later, I’m doubting this will go anywhere either.

Apatia. Tonn. Even Syska/Labwan.

Never forget.

Because ArenaNet’s blundering has managed to kill them a second time, by removing them flat out. Never again…

narwhalsbend.7059:

Crixler.2857:

I’m glad I’ve already done the personal story three times and already experienced all three different fears, but I want to experience that again on my other characters, and I want everyone who hasn’t done them yet to do it as well.

This. These personal story changes are probably the worst part of this patch.

This and the stupid level gating.

Plus 100 to this topic’s poster. Oh wait, that’s not unlocked until Lv90. Brambles…guess I’ll give you plus 1 then.

Sigh…

No longer can you unlock your first three weapon skills by killing things in the starting area, to have to level to Lv2 and Lv4, meaning you might as well run past everything straight to the boss.

Your reward for reaching Lv5? The downed state and profession mechanic, which were available from the beginning before this!

Speaking of downed state, the #2 and #3 downed skills are also locked until later levels…why?

Also, rangers are still stuck with their pets, although now they can’t control them until Lv5, cause that apparently would’ve been “too confusing” from the start..

Sigh…rangers still getting screwed over more.

Weapon swapping? Not so fast! Better wait till Lv15!

Underwater combat, not until Lv8, are you insane?

Your first utility is now unlocked at Lv13 instead of Lv5, since that was clearly too soon for you to understand utilities. And it just goes on….Actually, here’s a list, from another poster:

The following are level gated items:

-Weapon skill 2 (Unlocked at level 2)
-Weapon skill 3 (Unlocked at level 3)
-Profession skill F1 (Unlocked at level 4)
-Rally(downstate) (Unlocked at level 5)
-Off-hand weapon slot (Unlocked at level 7)
-Weapon skill 4 (Unlocked at level 7)
-Underwater Combat (Unlocked at level 8 with underwater weapon skills 1 and 2)
-Personal story (Unlocked at level 10 in chapters every 10 levels)
-Weapon skill 5 (Unlocked at level 10)
-Utility Skill 1 (Unlocked at level 13)
-Underwater skill 3 (Unlocked at level 14)
-Weapon Swap (Unlocked at level 15)
-Down Skill 3 (Unlocked at level 19)
-Profession skill F3 (Unlocked at level 22)
-Underwater skill 5 (Unlocked at level 23
-Utility Skill 2 (Unlocked at level 24)
-Profession skill F4 (Unlocked at level 24)
-Adapt Tier Traits (Unlocked at level 30)
-Elite Skill (Unlocked at level 40)
-Master Traits (Unlocked at level 60)
-Grandmaster Traits (Unlocked at level 80)

The following items are not locked but do not appear on the minimap until the specified level.

-Points of Interest (level 7)
-Gathering Nodes (Level 9) – Nodes may have been removed in areas before this level. No there is no potato famine there is plenty of potato in Metrica Province.
-Vista (level 10)

Seriously, who decided on these changes? Who came up with the concept of these stupid ides and how did they pass testing and scrutiny? Whoever was responsible should’ve been told to immediately scrap the level gating or get fired.

This is even worse than the big trait change, which had potential but as executed badly. This level gating is just plain bad.

McBearson.3412:

Whose amazing idea was it to gate all your down skills? Have they been fired yet?

They should’ve been fired out of sheer principle, or simply for stupidity. How these ridiculous changes got past testing is beyond me…oh wait, they probably didn’t test them!

Yep…I only watched a little, but I agreed with the gist of it.

The pretentiousness is strong with this topic poster.

Oh, and I’ve just looked through the Options menu. There is no means of reverting to the previous leveling system.

…Bookah.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Fernling.1729:

This type of gating is never a good thing imo. It feels like a cheesy asian mmo.

Final Fantasy 14: ARR does it, honestly, for the first 15 or so levels. Heck, one of the big things (changing classes) is locked until level 10.

And yet . . . it works.

Well, it doesn’t work or fit here. And they could’ve left this stupid level gating in the Chinese version without making us deal with it.

Thanks for the list. However, my stance on the level gating remains the same. It’s a garbage idea that should’ve never been done.

Who among the players demanded all this increased level gating? Who?

Seriously, couldn’t that have been left for the Chinese version and not ours? Couldn’t we have just gotten the actual improvements (new backpacks, new compass detector, new icons, etc) and not more pointless level gating? This has gotten ridiculous.

Kamui.4038:

Paradox.1380:

1. They tested it in China. Works great for them.
2. Do NOT place your knowledge base/experience on others in shoddy “Everyone Knows” science.
3. ANet has more metrics and more information than you ever will about the over-all feeling of the start of the early game.
4. I am sorry you don’t like this change/idea but its already coming, adapt or move on is all I can tell ya.

1. I’m not Chinese. I don’t live in China. I don’t have the same personality, ideals, or anything like them.
2. It’s not an ad populum argument like you assume. The average player is not a braindead imbecile. The AVERAGE player knows what they are getting into when they see “MMORPG.” I paid for an MMO, not an iPhone game. Tetris is far more interesting at this point.
3. Assuming that’s true in any way, they sure as hell are doing a great job at alienating everyone they claim to be working for. Your benevolent metrics don’t take players into account because they don’t exist or don’t represent the actual players. It’s like having a politician as a middleman, one we didn’t choose or vote for but one that is there talking for us nonetheless. This is killing the product, plain and simple.
4. This is not an issue of adaptability. Adaptation is what makes things interesting. Adaptation is what we had before this patch: now we are reduced to children sitting on Santa’s lap and asking him ‘how does snow happen.’ The only thing to do at this point is for people to take their business elsewhere. I personally am not going to spend another dime on this game until they do something about what they have done to it.

This. +50 if I could…but I have to stick with just 1.

Yep. Plus 1 to the opening post.

An awkward moment with a Black Lion Chest, of all things. Use one key, and it gives me two back. o.O

Well..this is another odd one. Not bad, just odd.

It might’ve been fixed by this point, but I’m not sure.

No idea what causes it, but the orange “event cogs” just appear randomly over NPCs and even players.

Vet Sub: Hey! Stop chopping my trees! Death, goo—-Ahh, Arrrrgh! Stop it, stop melting me! AAAAAAHHHHHHH!

Specific ones like the Jotun, Lich form, and Bjarl the Rampager come to mind. Now certain areas on their extremities stretch into these spikes whenever they move around…

#1: Look closely at the kodan’s hands, her hands are impaling her!

#2: An autopsy reveals this jotun was affected by the “Spikening” before he died.

#3: Bjarl the Rampager, a notable victim of this phenomenon.

Time for another revival.

During a sandstorm, I found Ms. Three-Tees taking a break from her routine jog. She was kind enough to let me sit by her to shield against the sandstorm a bit.

I guess this is more of an adorable moment, no? :P