Guild Wars 2

If they designed the game to, one day, increase in level cap, why start with 80? Why not 40, 50, 60 so it had somewhere to grow? Are we seriously looking at 90? 100?

Kitten. Kitten. Kitten. Kitten.

No, I actually typed kitten four times. I’m trying hard to not release my inner quaggan rage for this treadmill to be expanded one day.

Future thanks for ruining our current gear we work (yes, work, not all fun) hard for.

Seen a lot of attention to this topic, and there have been interesting takes on it, like OP and others.

How would I have done Legendaries, hmm.

Material cost + better ways to get precursor.

Require several categories of achievements.

Legendary Deeds – Special Legendary achievements. Complete and get a token, convert to a relic.

Decipher secret language on it and start a scavenge hunt. Gain access to solo instances with puzzles/lore/challenges/riddles.

Ends with a doppelganger who holds the Legendary you’re after. Beat the incarnation and it drops your Legendary. Grats.

I honestly came up with this in like ten minutes. What happened, ArenaNet?

The cap should have been 60 or less. 80 is a needlessly high amount of levels for a game that professed anti-grind philosophy. Along with dynamic scaling there was no reason for making it as high as it is now.

There is an issue when two different items that need the same materials are priced differently. How does this make sense?

There’s no consistency when half the insignias I’m working with are cheaper to buy than to craft. Material costs are way out of balance, too, with iron/steel/leather being way cheaper than wood (seasoned wood log = 75c, 3 per plank!).

It wouldn’t be an issue if costs weren’t so high but from my data it appears the greater the value and complexity the bigger the variance.

I really don’t know where the issues lie but it is a pay-to-play system, or else you need a good trade network, otherwise grind.

I would have liked to see crafted components made account bound. I know that doesn’t make sense but the entire point of crafting is that your character learns how to craft, not slap together some pre-made parts.

The other problem is on items that need to come from salvage or as drops, but I digress to the issue that the Trade Post is just a mess of pricing that makes no sense.

xanthic.9478:

If you are trying to level a craft, might I suggest following one of my guides? It will make the decisions for you.

If you are merely trying to craft specific items http://www.gw2spidy.com/ (search by recipe) is a great resource for that.

I see your guide is updated frequently which could be very useful indeed. I’ve tried a guide in the past but when I stopped and did the math it was clearly obsolete.

Going item by item lately, it has been a toss-up as to what is an efficient way to craft and I would wager time-savings is a bigger factor to most people than wasting a few gold which they will earn back.

I would hope for changes to come that bring in management tools, cost analysis or streamlining purchases, but those are words just about the exact opposite of things that rhyme with “fun”.

While Tailoring I’ve had issues where Trade Post values between material cost and crafted components are in a mess.

Server: Stormbluff Isle
Material costs:
Bolt of Cotton – 1.75s|Cured Coarse Leather Square – 60c
Spool of Cotton Thread (NPC, 2.4s per 10)

[Component – Resources (Cost of Materials vs. Component Cost)]

Example 1:
Cotton Coat Lining – 1 bolt (1.75s vs. 68c)
Cotton Coat Panel – 4 bolt + 1 leather + 3 spool (8.32s vs. 10.38s)

Here one component is sold for well below material value while the other, its mate, costs far more than material value.

Example 2:
Cotton Epaulet Panel – 1 leather (60c vs. 14c)
Cotton Epaulet Padding – 2 bolt + 1 spool ( 3.74s vs. 3.10s)

The shoulder is more costly to craft from materials, but there’s a stark difference when components are compared. Leather components don’t appear to hold value while cotton-made components are competitive or held at premium. This is curious when it seems to me they are both required to make the same item.

Example 3:
Cotton Pants Lining – 1 bolt (1.75s vs. 1.89s)
Cotton Pants Panel – 4 bolt + 3 spool (7.72s vs. 9.97s)

Look again in #1 and compare linings, as well as leather in #2. Also note the simple calculation of the lining above has a narrow margin while the pants panel, which requires a bit of mental math to calculate, is valued much higher than its materials.

To summarize the current tier I’m on:
It’s more expensive to craft your own coat lining, shoes and shoulders.
It’s more expensive to buy coat panel, gloves, pants, helm components.

Are there reasons why this is so complicated? The tedium needed to combat this, on top of the actual process of crafting, turns me off.

The Guild Wars novels also took to killing characters, though Snaff has pretty significant meaning.

In this Personal Story? Highly. Highly unnecessary deaths. That I even need to pluralize it is a sign that it was not done in good conscience.

Let me tell you what you did in Guild Wars, ArenaNet. You gave us a band of heroes and great adventurers, great figures that needed little ovation. All along, they were there with us. Gwen. Mhenlo. Devona. Aidan. Cynn. Eve. And a great leader who stood up for his people: Prince Rurik.

Yes, we lost Rurik, and yes it was tragic. But what tugged at our heart strings even more was the final mission and our final duty to our Prince. For Ascalon. For Tyria.

Throughout the entire series we felt we moved on from challenge and adversity of losing good people, but we became stronger because of it. We united closer with those who shared in our loss. But it’s because we still had people, characters we moved on with, that gave us a sense of purpose and meaning to the world. We shared our glory, pain, loss and adventure. We grew with them. Thousands of us could go on about how much we love or revered NPCs, especially when they became heroes for our party.

Didn’t feel any of that in this story.

How about a cape back item for guilds?

And since when did clipping ever stop anything? Clipping is astoundingly prevalent from big coats and fantastical armor pieces.

People will always be outrageous and even annoying, especially in large social settings like LA.

The best solution would be, as in Guild Wars, the ability to manually select one’s district. Was so nice to be able to get away from unpleasant people. Just ignore those that suggest muting your sound or leaving town, they’re being childish in that they want you to “deal with them”. That’s what I liked about Guild Wars, had a menu to stay where you are and leave them out.

Logged off until something kicks my interest back. Spent a good few months devoting free time to my ranger and perhaps that, among other things like the personal story, left me too disappointed to continue. I’ve tried elementalist, guardian, engineer and a necro and can’t even break into the 20s. It’s a mountain to 80 I don’t care what anyone says, and it’s boring to do it alone in zones that feel dead with general PvE giving virtually zero rare drops (I’m that special kind of player).

Fractals/dungeons are ok but really nothing has created an itch. Never going to get the gold/karma/sooper rare mats for cosmetic appeal. My main is a medium, not gonna chase after coats. Cap and grind. I’m not doing this again.

Besides, there’s nothing I feel like chasing, so why force myself to play? Fun game, but honestly PvE is just too prosaic to invest in. The charm of GW was completely lost on GW2 for many reasons (few skills/ tight bar/no heroes/no secondary profession/level req/high cap, etc.)

I will hold on and play new content, probably, but like my FL and guild, I’ve gone dark.

Bring back /boo !

How am I supposed to run up behind someone now? /threaten? Feh! Was awesome for any occasion.

I’ve experienced this on my female ranger, but don’t just a want “skimpy” it needs to be form-fitting armor with variety of styles.

While considering a light class I found there to be skimpiness for the girls yet the males are the complete opposite. Males are forced into many space suits that look multiple sizes too large and are almost exclusively covered head-to-toe in thickness.

Sumo Suit Male vs. Female
http://www.gw2armorgallery.com/armour/sylvari/sylvari-light-legacy-heritage-male.jpg
http://www.gw2armorgallery.com/armour/sylvari/sylvari-light-legacy-heritage-female.jpg

http://www.gw2armorgallery.com/armour/sylvari/sylvari-light-cult-3-male.jpg
http://www.gw2armorgallery.com/armour/sylvari/sylvari-light-cult-3-female.jpg

It’s all pets. Most F2 skills are not very powerful, it’s just insanely long warm-up periods for no good reason.

You do not get to play without a pet. This was very similar to the way people wanted elementalists to focus on one element and get bonuses for that rather than use all four.

People who followed development would know they once had an archer and a warden (nature magic) profession, and at one point there was no ranger at all. This is the final profession Anet felt had brought enough uniqueness and value to the game—the archer did not.

“Petless bow-wielder” was probably dull as dirt and didn’t offer anything warrior/thief weren’t already doing and loads more that come with those professions.

The only reason rangers in GW dominated with the bow was because no other profession had the lead attribute, Expertise, to take advantage of ranger skills.

The companion stays. It needs reworking and I have a healthy amount of skepticism, but if you pull the pet out of the equation, might as well delete the ranger and be done with it.

Useless? I agree, busted. They will keep aggro off you, especially when you need to high-tail it. Combined with traps I can power-run through almost everything. I even used the bear to keep the Champ in Southsun occupied while I mined the rich ori. You can’t tell me that’s useless.

The weaker ones don’t do very well in a fight, but the tougher ones make PvE very easy. Dungeons are certainly a thing but I do recommend ranger as a first class even with the questionable idiosyncrasies.

Effective is perhaps a better word to analyze, and for that I would say no, the pet is not very effective, even a disadvantage in some ways. My main grief is that, unlike every other profession, this is the only unique mechanic that can be defeated.

You can’t stop a thief from stealing, an elementalist from chaining with attunements or an engineer from swapping kits. You can shut down a ranger’s unique mechanic and halve their effectiveness: knock the pet out.

And here’s my suggestion: pets can rally the player, rangers should be able to rally their pets. A bond is a two-way street, Anet, we support one another.

Dasenthal.6520:

Even though the orders are joined in a war effort they are different groups, just because the U.S. and Russia were allies during WW2 didn’t mean we shared all our technology like we were just one big happy family. Because we weren’t and we knew as soon as the war was over we would be back to our own lives. Same with the orders, if you were the OoW would you want people just roaming around your secret cave just because they helped you fight the dragons.

That’s nice and all, but this is a game, not a real war and never were the Orders at war with each other.

There’s really no excuse for this other than Anet has not had the time to give this attention, like many other parts of the game. The first few months of bugs, patches and seasonal events and even new content haven’t allowed for it so I’m expecting changes in the future.

Draygo.9473:

You see but this is why the gem price is inflating. If people can and are buying gold from gold sellers to buy gems at a cheaper rate, that increases the demand on the gems spiking the price, until the price point is reasonable enough that people will stop using gold sellers all together.

No matter how you look at it, when demand goes up for gems it does for gold. When everyone flocks to buy gems, gold buys you fewer and fewer of them. There will only be so many people that are willing to (only then, not counting those that have already) turn to Anet to buy gems directly without a strong incentive to do so (sales/new items).

Konig Des Todes.2086:

At best, we’ll begin getting more dervish-related skills as human racial skills.

That the racial skills exist strongly indicates to me that is all that remains of the dervish and about all we will see of them without Elona content.

Still, another topic got me on this subject and really quick I’m curious to know why, given the Gods are greatly disconnected from Tyria and how impressive the dervish was, that its forms (Melandru, Reaper of Grenth) have become something every human hero can do, regardless of profession, in addition to Hounds of Balthazar. Not only that, but asura managed to transform the player (even a non-human) into an Avatar of Balthazar. Is any of this explainable by lore or just waxing nostalgia?

Write-up for the dervish added for reference:

Serving the gods as holy warriors, dervishes stand confidently in the whirlwind of conflict. Martial techniques perfected in the deserts of Elona allow a Dervish’s scythe to lash out quickly at multiple opponents, surrounding the holy warrior with a swath of destruction. Initiates often learn spells of self-protection, prayers that rush a combatant into battle, and invocations that empower attacks with elemental fury. Masters of the profession can assume the form of a god, enacting divine will with holy blessings. Keenly aware of the conditions of a fight, a Dervish can reap great benefits by using multiple Enchantments. Wandering the savannahs and deserts of Elona, the faithful Dervish chants prayers to the earth and wind… and the fury of the sandstorm answers in response.

— The Guild Wars Nightfall Manuscripts

Bolstered by the blessings of the gods, these holy warriors reap the benefits of multiple Enchantments. With a sharpened scythe, the Dervish can unleash a whirlwind of destruction.

— In-game description

Draygo.9473:

People will always seek to get a good bang for their buck, and if gem prices remain low people turn to the ‘black market’ to buy gold. Gem prices need to continue to go up to a reasonable level where it would be sane to transfer $$ -> Gold.

As the price of gems increases people be seeing the gems->gold side of the market as viable, and might actually buy gems for gold instead of seeking 3rd party sellers.

I was with you up until these points which do not make sense. This is the proposition I was given over a month ago:

1 bank tab = 4.6g

And this is roughly what it looks like today:

1 bank tab = 12g.

The exchange rate has seen a 5-fold increase over the life of the game. What was once a favorable proposition turned fair, and since then we’ve seen it go to crazy. If I’m not buying gems directly from Anet, my choices are straightforward: earn it honestly in-game or pay a gold seller.

Yes they are account thieves. Yes they ruin the game. But as the cost to acquire gems using gold goes up, opportunity blossoms. That’s rising demand for gold and they are more than happy to help. By contrast, when the trade rate becomes more favorable, players see that Anet gives them a better deal. In sum, as the buying power of gold goes down, the more that’s needed, the better business gets for gold sellers.

Bartho.7896:

Word. If you enjoy the game, you could support it now and then by buying a few gems. And if you dont like the game why do you want gems in first place.
Truth is at the game launch the price of gems was ridiculously low and everyone was suddenly so surprised when the price gone up…
And no I am no big spender, I spend like 10EUR per event.

Criticism isn’t black and white; it’s healthy to enjoy something yet be able to critique it and see its flaws. If no one spoke up for changes or offered ideas, where would we be? If you care about something you want to see it improve.

Rocklin.4106:

every Human can Shapeshift into an Avatar of the Gods? I thought they could just shapeshift into a tiny little bush or get a small useless stinky aura around them… :p

Not shapeshifting, transforming. I don’t understand the inconsistencies, either (lack of other Gods influence, turning every player into an Avatar of Balthazar at one point).

I’d like to think that the norn retain a primitive, animal mind that’s still their own when they shapeshift, whereas transformation takes over the human (possession). Again just more speculation.

And yes I understand sarcasm :P

Oglaf.1074:

P.S Don’t tell me that they are “lycans” or whatever. They’re not. The ability to change into animal form is granted to them from the Spirits, just as the ability to change into a tree is granted to Humans by their Deity Melandru.

Never heard the lycan argument, and while I would agree they derive the ability to transform from the Spirits of the Wild (their guides), it’s actually not cited in the official GW2 wiki. On the other hand it’s very clear that the Spirits of the Wild and the Six Human Gods are not on the same level; it’s a totally different relationship.

It really makes no sense why the norn shapeshifting was converted to work more like the avatars of the dervish from GW, which is further bizarre that every human can now do this, even with the gods being pretty much AWOL since Nightfall. It took the power of lifelong devotees (dervish) to be blessed with the avatar form, it totally distorts the power of the Six in current lore and norn, apparently to maintain skill-balance, have their shapeshifting neutered.

I’d rather like to hear from a loremaster (cough Konig) or Anet to explain these anomalies.

penatbater.4710:

Is it reasonable to assume that generally gem prices will go down? Or are they always on an upward scale? Esp after wintersday event? I’m expecting them to go up even more (2-3g+ = 100 gems) but I’m not sure if after the event, will it go back down or retain at that level until we get more people to cash in on gems.

Announced changes
Content updates, including ones in January and February that will be bigger than previous updates. The February update will include changes to World versus World.

I can see a surge of gems coming into the market as people want to treat themselves (not to mention the Christmas inflow of new players). It still leaves demand sky high, so I wouldn’t hold your breath.

Honestly without major improvements to the game or worthwhile items to buy gems, I just won’t do it, and I know I’m not alone. What I’m concerned about is gold-mining to meet demand for gems; inflation is not good for any economy.

Astraea.6075:

And both bag space and (free) bank storage were more limited in GW1 despite the lack of account/soul bound items… I was always struggling for bank space in GW1, so I definitely didn’t “enjoy” the free storage you allude to.

I’m not sure what these limitations are, but we can contrast further. In addition to having more freedom of where you put your items, Xunlai Agents/Chests were everywhere. What happened to them? In GW2, unless you enjoy sinking silver into waypoints to swap inventory, it’s generally wiser to use your character’s inventory for items they may need infrequently, because the only bank access is in the racial cities and crafting stations. Hurting your character’s space? There’s a gem store for that.

This is about a basic need, and the cost to get that need is perhaps a bit too much. I would buy gems now if I could get a tab for 6-7 gold. It’s double that, and it won’t be the last one I need. The market will see a surge in monetary sales from Christmas but Anet cannot expect people to just pick up their wallets when gold buys them too few gems.

Briefly back to GW, there were plenty of reasons you’d want to buy tabs, even with the freedom to make mule accounts, yet I have only one character in GW2, yet while I start on my first alt I’ve already had to make storage sacrifices (from my main), and I’m obsessive about micromanaging and getting rid of junk. I have four characters left to play around on; if you feel hitting the wall by the first character is fair, I will respectfully disagree to the Nth degree.

We’re not unwilling to pay real money to support our game, many of us simply didn’t feel these tabs are worth extra cost and now we’re saying this (wonderful) gold option is past its range of sanity and indeed hurts trade.

Sales, price cuts or maybe scale the cost for tabs (first costs 250, then 450, then 600 after that). There are lots of possibilities.

marnick.4305:

In guild wars 1 you didn’t even have the option of buying it with gold. No one complained. It was RL money or no extra bank slot. This thread just proves what cheapskates most elitists are. You want the bank slot, you don’t want to pay RL money for it and you don’t even want to pay gold for it. Seriously???

Excuse me, but in Guild Wars, there were no soulbound/account bound items. Every item could be transferred and stored. It was inconvenient to keep things on other characters and for the convenience of having it all readily accessible, it cost real money. The current system artificially inflates the need to use the bank by preventing another character from holding a soulbound item or another account from holding an account bound item. That is a gimmick to drive people to buy gems in order to meet basic needs.

It’s sensible to create incentive for people to buy gems, but when they do things like that it is no longer just about convenience. Consider an engineer’s space needs compared to a warrior. Nobody is demanding free tabs, we’d like the ability to store our stuff without being forced to trash it because of the excessive cost just to have the ability to keep what we earn.

Don’t forget the gems prices are so high because people are unwilling to pay money to a company that provides them fun. There’s only 1 way to get the prices down, and that’s buy supporting your favourite video game. In my opinion not really a bad thing since this support is completely voluntary.

We did pay money to the company. I paid $60 USD for my fun. Read other forums (DE, dungeon and ranger for starters) and take a guess why some of us feel just a bit displeased to face the reality of putting down more cash or dedicate massive amounts of time we don’t have and use so much of our game resources to get a fraction of something we used to enjoy for free.

Is that clear now?

Numot.3965:

Not really, guild wars one was a weapon of your choice, same thing here, just its transmute bait, I like the look of the pact weapons.

And we have dungeons, karma, and crafting, or you can buy stuff to get some exotics.

In Guild Wars the end-game item was a unique weapon of choice and came fully loaded with max stats. Early on, before the expansions and the advent of websites that greatly facilitated trade, I remember being overjoyed to get that reward, which I believe had a whopping HP and energy bonus. It completely improved my character and looked better than what I had. To the end of the game’s lifespan uniques remained perfectly great choices unless you wanted to customize stats/skins. GW was not about numbers on your gear, but what you did with it.

Disruptive.2509:

After all the hype about GW2 not being about gear or it’s progression, why Arenanet are you being so stingy about gear.

I agree. I don’t think it’s right to ask that a player pay out of pocket for an exo and a Fine t-stone if they want a piece of gear equivalent to what most worked for at the end of the story. In fact I was very surprised at the rewards throughout the last third of the story, which was still serving up blues and greens, with rare exception (pun intended). There’s way too much grind for numbers to be stingy with rewards. This is where we get zergs rather than a community jumping to help others with their personal stories.

I really wish they didn’t tie rare/exo to ecto and MF, it totally jacks up their values and makes it hard for everyone to get on the same basic level. They should have just left ecto as rare drops in hard areas and used them and trophies and other items for the MF (you know, those otherwise useless items every player has to dump out of their inventory). No one should be complaining that everyone gets to look exotic, we did not care in GW save for the really expensive sets and the best mix/match+ dye combinations.

I feel this is bigger than gate access, it’s an example of the big issue: the Orders are an incomplete part of the game. I explain why below.

I’m hopeful we see Orders get the attention with fixes, features and content.

So many great points by everyone, I’m glad I waited to finish and wrote down my own thoughts before reading these threads, because so many posts sum up how I feel.

Alorix.7460:

What I don’t understand is why make such great characters with huge personalities, only to kill them off so early in the story and give you Trahearne.

I agree we’re given a taste of something great and then it’s taken away. By Orr it’s depressing, yet it continues even there. One of the worst deathswas a tiny blossom of love blooming on the battlefields in Orr between two asura. Just before they kiss, he takes an arrow in the back.. You just don’t introduce characters to show the reason we’re fighting and then stomp on our feelings before they even have a chance to develop. I mean that was just cruel and amateurish.

The severing ties with your culture/home is also appalling. What happened to home instances being these locations that really reflect your personal story? You have no way to get there from any point in the world, you’re never really told to go there, you don’t do anything there. I honestly can’t remember what mine looks like nor did I ever have a reason to venture back home.

Perhaps the same could be said for Ascalon in Guild Wars, but the Searing really changed what home was, it wasn’t exactly home anymore and that’s part of what made moving on easier to live with. Your battles with the charr were small potatoes, you had bigger things to do. Well as a norn, I could think of no greater legend for myself than slaying Jormag. Instead I abandoned my home and my people to join an Order, help with bizarre research and defend Lion’s Arch before going to Orr.

Huh?

Dixa.6017:

there is precedent, and this game can not be taken seriously by the major league gaming circuits until it is taken care of. the circuits don’t abide by rock-paper-scissors mmorpg arenas which is why wow was almost entirely dropped. at the same time nobody is going to take the game seriously if an 8 man warrior team is just steam rolling another 8 man warrior team because meta-wise, that’s all that works properly here.

Maybe there’s precedent for change in other games, but I’ve stuck around for ~7 years with this series… game-changers (profession-based) came, but few and not for the better. Some become OP while others were left to rot. To the last day I kept a line dropped on the official wiki, years after the last expansion and after many free content updates, the ranger update never came.

There were two big reasons for this. First, the difference in GW was that the ranger was actually good in PvP, though terribly antiquated in PvE. Secondly, what truly masked PvE skill-balancing were a secondary profession and PvE-only skills (if you’re not familiar, imagine if the Orders taught skills, and any class could slot them). The bar itself was so open it allowed for all kinds of nutty builds; now the profession needs to pull its full weight, it cannot outsource for its lack of viability. Improving one profession does not create opportunities for others.

I honestly thought that the removal of secondaries and having distinction (races) and a compact and organized skill bar would make for much more streamlined balance corrections. As it seems I was woefully mistaken, I’d at least like to hear transparency from the folks working on skill-balancing. What do they see as issues? Which solutions have they tried? What are their goals? What is preventing them from reaching them? What is the state of the ranger and where do they want it to be?

I don’t need a timeline or promises, I’d just like to know what the devs think of today’s ranger and, if anything, where are they going with it?

Auberon.4653:

Spirits are absolutely useless, do not even lern them. Have you seen other classes which have skills that works with 35% chance, or if be traited max 50%? Say another way: have you seen DaggerStorm of Thief that works 50/50? Or Illusions of mesmer that can be summoned with 50% on cast? Or guardian buffs ally with chance 35%? No? But why rangers have such stuped skills? )

It may be going to an extreme end, but rolling a guardian (just hit 17) I’ve been floored at the scope of its viability, especially with support. My 80 ranger feels totally outclassed before another hits 20. Keep in mind this barely touches traits. Ouch.

NaturalPortman.9562:

I never understood why people expect every single class to be on par with eachother, that would make the game boring and lackluster.

Verbatim was that all classes were to be OP, which theoretically creates a climate where every profession can do things very well (though inherently some will excel in specific areas) and go about them in different ways. What we have now is a ranger that, while technically viable, fails to meet basic standards and is held back by its own mechanics (pet, spirits, etc.). The pet even holds utility hostage (signets, shouts); it really is dead weight on the profession’s back and needs to be completely overhauled if not entirely reworked, and at this point I’m willing to take major concessions to put quality on the table.

kingslayer.1342:

To keep this thread constructive, what kind of personality would you have liked to see in Trahearne? Personally I almost wish he really was an arrogant glory hog, or on the other side of the spectrum, someone who acts tough in front of the military but quietly pulls you aside and tells you he’s terrified and has no idea what he’s doing and wants you to decide what to do because he’s a nervous wreck. Basically what’s already in the game, but it’s so much more interesting with personality and humour!

I feel there’s plenty of comic relief in the story.

To address a point about whether starting a sylvari helps, I can honestly say no to that. My first alt is a sylvari and I’m loving Tegwen and Carys; Trahearne just doesn’t have influence with me.

I think what would have helped Trahearne was another NPC, a proper Commander, to balance him out and give him some contrast. The player character didn’t accomplish that, and rightly so. We’re not there to be integral to a character or something conventional like the Pact, the key is to transcend.

xCrusadentx.2784:

Sorry, I’m the 1% who actually likes him. Fix amnesia and I’m good.

He’s not great, but the majority of ‘dislike’ comes not from him, but how he dominates the narrative and displaces the player as his subordinate.

Prophecies, Factions, Nightfall and Eye of the North placed you in a traditional role of a hero that earns the respect and trust of those in power, that you come to their aid, win over allies, adventure and become something bigger than you imagined doing. It’s quite a departure to go from that level of imagination to basically joining the military.

Tarang.7562:

So let me get this straight, you think forcing people to play in a certain way is a good move?

Cause I sure as hell know I hate PvE and all it entails, the mere thought of playing any more against crappy AI makes me want to throw up. But you wan’t to force that on me cause it’s so much more fun?

This is exactly the problem with the ascended gear right now, it is essentially forcing people to go through a dungeon even if they don’t want to, to get that kind of gear.

I’m not sure where tightening up the market forces you to change how you play. If you have a problem with Ascended gear, then that’s a separate issue. Believe me. I’m a strong advocate for having two distinct communities and Gods above that don’t try to get us all to trade hats for our rewards.

BUTTERBLUME.3217:

If I were a player farming a lot

And that already excludes me. Done the “zerg” (zzz), it’s overrated and not for casuals, and I’ve never farmed a mob. That’s for serious players, I work on my goals and grind is not worth my time. You do make a good point, high prices have benefits to those that find themselves on the right side (supply). However, if you’re on the wrong end of price swings, you hurt, and casuals don’t sit on items waiting for the market to pop one way or the other (as I’ve mentioned, I have enough space issues with only one bank tab, to say nothing of the need to invest time watching and documenting market trends).

The fact is when I need something, I want to buy it, and timing can be everything. Something like chocolate should be stable. Candy corn, that was a thing.

I agree with you about bots and gambling, undoubtedly the former has a disastrous effect on the economy, and I’ve read those pre-cursor and Halloween threads of angry and disillusioned players. These are all very serious issues, but as this isn’t so much a topic about macroeconomics but wealth-earning, I suppose it’s outside the scope of discussion. Still, valid points, and boiled down it comes back to Anet. Their game, their issues and us players have to live in their world and abide.

Logun.5360:

1. A free character slot, 80 slots with 4 15 slot bags (2.6g or 3.25s per slot)
2. Guild Bank, 50 slots (5g or 10s per slot)
3. Purchased character slot, 80 slots (16g or 20s per slot)
4. One Bank space, 30 slots (10g or 33s per slot)
5. One Bag space with 15 slot bag (7g35s or 49s per slot)

Believe me I won’t touch gems-for-gold with a longbow (spikes have been over the 2g mark per 100 gems) I’ve been making use of a mule for all I can, but soulbound items are not allowed to leave your inventory or your bank account as far as I know. Still, how do you receive #1 on your list?

Tarang.7562:

So, essentially what you want is for this to be a grinders/farmers market where you make the most gold by contributing the most raw material to the tradingpost?

If by “grinders/farmers” you mean a player generally has to play to earn and market price manipulation is much less feasible and profitable, yes, I want that economy.

BUTTERBLUME.3217:

If buying chocolate bars for that price gets you depressed, you should stop playing the game before you reach level 80

You missed my point. Consider not only creations it takes to level the craft but the indefinite use in food. It’s not like smithing where you really have no use for piles of low level mats; the use of chocolate starts early and stays a constant.

By the way, judgment of what is/isn’t a lot of money is entirely relative. We’re still talking about manipulating prices on orders of magnitude (1,667% by one example). Do you at least find that wrong on principle?

Animal forms…make them viable or perma.

I don’t know if this is norn-specific, but weapons are too big. I know I’m 9 meters tall but no one could swing around a 100kg greatsword that’s almost as big as I am like it’s a cricket bat. Many long weapons also go through the ground (to say nothing of the soul-crushing amount of clipping with armor).

My gold/hour starts with a zero and sometimes needs three decimal places…when I’m playing.

All I want is enough market stability so I, as a casual player, can buy something for a fair price, but there are no guarantees with volatility, fake demand and other market manipulation.

On the gems side, I chipped away in PvE until I had a small fortune, enough to snag the 600 I need for another Bank tab; it’s getting awfully crowded in there. I’ve watched in horror as the exchange has skyrocketed over 230%. Lost Shores. Black Friday. Makeovers. Wintersday is coming and it’s highly dubious that there will be any significant drop as casuals like me enter the fray and realize how sorely indifferent the market is to our needs (quite the contrary, we are marks).

Still, I can accept that side of the market, and if gems were cheap, that’s not good for the health of the game in the long-term because there’s a real dollar value attached to them, and that’s the basis of the game’s business model.

Loot is not. Loot is the virtual economy, and while the S/D of gems and its price is important to the virtual economy, supply of game items can be regulated and the market can be controlled.

I respect what Logun and others do, they’re clearly very savvy, do their homework and earn their “pay”. I simply feel manipulation is wrong and should be looked at by ArenaNet. If these people are needed to keep the market from crashing, it shows its deep flaws.

The boom/bust periods they create also make it extremely hostile for players who are not market gurus (i.e. they’re busy playing the game) to get their items without becoming collateral damage (e.g. unknowingly buying an item that a week ago was valued magnitudes cheaper).

In other ways, manipulation will alienate players. I’ll take the example of chocolate and how shocking prices have been forced to swing. A new player that sees 10c chocolate for their cooking skills will probably have a good experience. Now consider it at 10x value. That’s some sticker shock, depressing, and I know I’ve had this encounter as I leveled my own crafting as I navigate the “bubbles”.

I know inflation is bad but neither is volatility. It promotes wild speculation, fears and the market becomes wide open for middle-men to who launder everything and reap profits. They get while the getting is good and cash out when they want to get paid. To those that really need the items, they better find themselves on the ground floor because the marketeers will get there early.

I’ll say again I have nothing but praise for those that do this intelligently and don’t go on forums dropping false speculation and lie to people, and use their skills wisely. But this is why there are regulations in the real world that would (I hope) prevent the level of exploitation as seen in this thread.

At the end of the day players will find a way, it is the developer that needs to set the rules. Swings from 6c to >1s are totally unacceptable. Create stability on our market, Anet.

Sidebar: I liked the Guild Wars economy a lot because the majority of the market was easily accessible to all players. Power trading didn’t really have an adverse effect on the average player because the big money was made on the super high-end (that casuals were out of anyway). Manipulation of this economy absolutely hurts everyone but those that do it well. It honestly feels like management is outsourced to profiteers.

Aiglos, you may want to ask for a mod to relabel this thread as a bug.

Lovely stuff here, thanks Kestrel.

One thing I’m missing: is there the “named” armor theme somewhere? (Devona’s, Zho’s, etc.) All I know is that it’s exotic and only gotten through loot.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Armor_set#Named_armor_sets

I was considering pointing this out, myself, as I just completed the personal story.

Being Commander of the Pact, killing Zhaitan and then visiting the Order of Whispers only to be treated like an intruder (the leader basically tells you to get out before you’re seen as a threat) is just ridiculous. To then bar players from using the very gate they came in to leave adds insult. How did this happen?

Please allow full access to asura gates to each Order after the player becomes Commander and provide basic NPC services to everyone no matter which Order they joined.

As for the NPC dialogue, I’d like to see it reflect who you are rather than be treated like an adventurer that lost its way and is not welcome.

He’s…passable, especially for the figurehead of a group that can’t work together. I mean they all could agree on something and that would be he’s no threat to them, he’s pretty dull and uninteresting. Still, he could at least be inspiring with some great power, instead he didn’t seem all that worthy of the role.

But there was an easy solution and that would have been to focus much less on him and give time to develop the many, many, many other likable characters. Two totally unnecessary character deaths (endearing people at that) certainly raises the whiskey-tango-foxtrot level to new heights.

In all he made it out to be his journey, his Wyld Hunt. Probably why he just up and leaves you to finish the job after he got what he came for. Well I have tough skin so I don’t mind the cold but I think he’d make fine kindling for Hoelbrak if that’s all he was after.

There were a few points that were challenging, but what I noticed is that even if I did die, it didn’t seem to matter. I never had to start over, I would just pick up where I left off.

-At the end of my Order quest line the NPC I had to protect died—no failure/restart.
-Battle of Claw Island: died at the end, completed mission anyway.

I’m not knocking anyone that can’t complete the quests, but it just goes to show how useful a difficulty switch is.

The best I can say is that the story rarely made me rethink what I’m doing. There was a certain, annoying archer boss in Orr who for no good reason had to be solo’d and was difficult out of purely poor design, but the rest was just..meh.

Consider the certain spy in the Pact that you confront. This was the saddest minion ever. The location seemed random, the intensity zero and the fight was a joke. Come on, all we could ask for is a great boss fight. Karka are more deadly. I wanted to see the mesmer get shown off here (I haven’t played one yet), instead it just looked embarrassing and no one else in the encampment seemed to care.

Still, difficulty I can excuse, but the design needs to be there first.

Those that remember Ring of Fire Island missions before Factions (or if they had no other content to access skills/heroes) and long before they updated henchmen, those were tough missions so people grouped for them. However, you at least had the option to grab your simpleton crew of AI and enjoy your story.

While I echo the dissent over forced grouping, I think there’s a bigger point to be made. The final mission in the personal story is actually lopped off at the end and literally stitched together with a separate storyline: Destiny’s Edge and their reuniting. That is the real tragedy here. I have not done every dungeon, I don’t think many people ever did by the end of their story yet the player is put at the conclusion and redemption of DE likely without ever experiencing that story arc.

It was a mistake to link the two; it cheapened them both. Well as I go back and start working on dungeons, I guess I know how it ends, because I just read the last chapter!

I like the Carlton dance. I like Carlton. I don’t like how my female norn looks doing it (nor can I say the same for anyone else). He pretty much owns it, everyone else is just a (bad) imitator.

Martin! Das Technoviking? Why you no make happen? Seriously though, the man and the moves are epic-looking, had norn written all over it.

Rarely I pull out the owl to stack bleed. Wurm is ok, but as a ranger it’s less useful (can still draw aggro in PvE).

Forms: Rarely. Easily defeated by Control; nothing like one little enemy knocking your butt off a cliff to make you rip them right off your bar. They’re not that tough, either. Make perma or gain Unshakable and I’ll have a reason to reach for them.

notebene.3190:

Daily and Monthly achievements should be a grab bag of items, and you choose a subset to complete it. Here’s 10 things you could do, finish any 5 and you are done. Mix and match things you enjoy doing.

Ding-ding. This is not about feeling obligated to earn extra rewards, it’s having to trudge through game play modes you do not like or want to do in order to earn them. While things like salvage are common to all players, dungeons/WvW are absolutely personal. Woe to those that see 75% completion and debate participating in activity that otherwise provides zero benefit or fun. Telling people they then don’t “need” that reward is just adding insult to dilemma.

Every player should be able to play “their” game and have it contribute to rewards.

Sidebar: As much as people want WvW to blend PvE and PvP, this will never happen and I do have sympathy for hardcore PvPers who have to suck it up and play through content that offers them nothing. I groan over the thought of running around like a fiend for my “world” while hardcore players agonize over my noob experience in WvW. I say let the people who want to be there play it; the required achievement throws in people that have no dedication to the objectives and are there because Kill 10 rats.

I understand the intent is to get everyone jumping across content, but instead it comes off to many as having a nice meal with a certain food they dislike, yet have to eat before dessert. Come on, now. Give up the notion that any participation is good participation.

Third month in, first class I played through, never giving it up. Ranger always will be my main, just as it was in GW for years; I’m used to a class that is lowly, nothing to brag about, but that is sort of how I am: I don’t need to be the best at anything, I need to be the best I can be.

Sol.4310:

Rangers own in PvP guys, don’t listen to everyone saying they under powered cause I can’t be only person facerolling every single class I come up against.

This is reminiscent of the way it worked in Guild Wars, with PvP being the benchmark for a profession’s viability. PvE was largely argued as a faceroll and so a ranger update (to the last day I followed the game) never came. The ranger of GW2 is far more viable in PvE than its predecessor but is woefully suffering from similar inadequacies and downright flawed mechanics.

This should come with little surprise if you know the ranger was, at one point, split into an archer and warden in an early game build, and at one point did not even exist. Closer to release, I believe Jon himself called the profession “one of the biggest failures” they had to face. It’s not a fail class, but they must still face the issues it has.

Rather easy to solo PvE. Mobs will have a hard time bringing you down, unless your pet is downed, but there are play styles and builds to make things a bit more cherry and have fun, for what it’s worth.

If you can get over lackluster damage, clumsy, ineffective pets and an overall shoddy utility skill set, there is enough to enjoy, but you better play it because you love it unconditionally, not because it’s superior.

I’m being fair to everyone at Anet that busts their humps to deliver us the best experience possible when I say thank you. I know they work long hours and pour their heart and soul into this game, to which if they did not they would probably not be employed.

I do register my share of complaints, but I’m extremely tolerant about performance (connectivity, lag, bugs, etc.). They happen, they get worked out, things go back to normal (mostly).

There is no going back on a one-time event.

Players have every right to be upset, but also to be very worried right now. This was the opportunity to relieve lingering frustrations, refresh player morale and leave the impression that the state of the game is strong. Unfortunately, if the game was in a hole with its existing issues, it now more closely resembles a foxhole.

Long before release I told myself that a brand new MMO, especially one so highly anticipated, would best be enjoyed after months of tempering and refining. As my receipt would tell you, I just couldn’t wait, and as my friend who joined me that very night with her own purchase has had utterly no time in RL to continue past the first week or so, I cannot muster the courage to tell her that the game is currently in a poor state, even for casuals like us.

As much as it would pain me to miss out on great content and experiences that will surely be missed if I don’t stay committed, I’m in a rare state of mind to put this game down and let it mature. It just hurts too much to watch it struggle, and to put myself through disappointment is making less and less sense.

Best wishes all, this is a rough road to be on.