Guild Wars 2

Larger races would then be better for the classes that can take the hit, such as Warrior and Guardian. Smaller races would be better for the classes that need to dodge due to lighter armor, such as Mesmers.

Short version: I’d like to suggest that, as weapons are added to the classes, some of the weapons can only be equipped if you have a specific trait for it on that character.

Long version: Given that ANet will be bringing more of the available weapons to each class, I think it would be a good idea to have some weapons locked off of each class, and then add traits that can be taken to unlock said weapons. Why? Three reasons:

1. Some weapons simply don’t seem to fit the role of the class. If you want, for example, an engineer to use a great sword, it’s natural that they’d have to spend some extra time training with a weapon that’s so unusual for the class.

2. By requiring traits, you gain an extra way to balance the weapons. For example, let’s create the trait of “Druidic” for Rangers. Having this trait allows them to equip a staff, and do some more nature magic-style skills. If that’s an adept trait, they give up a little to get it. But if it’s a grandmaster trait, then they have to give up far more to get it, justifying more powerful skills with the staff.

3. By using weapon access traits, you can restrict or prevent certain weapon combinations. Going back to point #2, let’s say “Druidic” is a master level trait. Now, let’s also make a scepter access trait, “Summoner”. If this is also a master trait in the same line, then having both traits on one character will use up a master and a grand master trait in that line. Create a grand master trait in that same line that boosts staff and scepter use, and you have an even harder choice. Putting Druidic and Summoner into separate trait lines can still make people reluctant to go after both, especially if they’re moved to grand master level.

ANet has said that they’re going to bring more (all?) weapons to all classes, and add traits as well. I think this would be a way to do both that will allow more flexible characters, but provide some balancing tools as well. You’ll be able to have your great sword wielding engineer, or your rat swarm summoning ranger, but you’ll have to give up something to do it.

With the Living Story, part of the problem is that they only have 10 levels to focus on any part of the story you chose. That’s only 5 or so missions where ANY NPC (including villains) can be introduced, explored, and dealt with. It’s no surprise that the middle part, exploring the characters, is pretty much skipped.

It looks like they’re trying to get past that with the Living Story, but that’s pretty slow. And it does nothing for most of the rest of the game.

kokiman.2364:

Noobkaka.5067:

Go to the part of hell where Trahernes cutscenes never ends Kokiman!

Jokes on you, I like Trahearne!

I guess someone has to.

But seriously, I’m pretty sure such threads exist in the Living Story and/or suggestions area. Might be better to add your voice there, instead of making a new thread here.

Klawlyt.6507:

Cheap Logitech garbage keyboard.
Cheap Logitech garbage mouse.

No negative side effects.

Ditto this.

I agree that it’s good that the Gauntlet is tough. It’s good, because they made it tough AND made it nicely separate from the rest of the Jubilee achievements. Someone that wishes to have nothing to do with it can easily avoid it (save for those annoying tickets showing up, but they’re easy to delete).

Some people want a real challenge, others don’t. As a casual “don’t”, I still like the fact that they put in something for the people that want it, but in such a way that it doesn’t mess with casual content of the Jubilee.

I have heard some honest complaints about the floor and the domes messing with the camera, and those need to be addressed. Other than that, though, I’d call the Gauntlet a win.

TehPwnerer.7215:

Gele.2048:

MOUNTSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS i love mounts

Lol they’re not adding mounts.

I want them to add in a new Skritt minipet. When you summon it, it grabs a hold of your back and starts saying “Gettyup!” and “Go faster!”

Personally, I think some maps could use a few more nodes.

I think that the idea is that it’s a prestige item/skill. They’re not supposed to be used save by those that are showing off.

The OTHER reason they’re there and so expensive is so we can surprise the Devs with them. Any MMO Developer with any experience on a live game has seen something they thought was “harmless” suddenly turn into a broken nightmare in the hands of players. They made it expensive, now they’re waiting to see what we find that cost justifies the use of it.

Have you attempted to guest to another server where you might have more luck with the main instance?

Ranger here, same problem with the Point Blank Shot. It’s made the skill pretty worthless.

Yeah, this has gotten pretty miserable.

Any chance you can undo this change until you find a way to make it work right?

Kenage Achalarus.4276:

AnthonyOdon: We will not make both fractals.

Yeah, I’m calling bull on that right now.

To offer both, they would have needed to do some preliminary work on both. Enough to know that they could do what they wanted to do, AND have it done by the end of the year. You don’t think they’re going to just throw half of that work away, do you?

The only way they haven’t done work on it yet is if they had no intention of letting that fractal win the vote. Given that we only have their word on the results, I guess that could be possible, but I’d prefer to not think so.

We’ll see it, eventually*. It won’t be this year, but sooner or later they’ll find an excuse to offer it up again in another choice, or just deliver it as a companion piece to something in the Living Story.

• Barring ANet getting shut down by NCSoft.

Carzor Stelatis.9435:

That “protect yourself from… yourself” quote shows either stunning arrogance or an inability to understand the question (not aimed at you personally btw, but at the dev who said it). It’s not about buying ‘too much’ on one character, it’s about the fact that gold is the most basic measure of character progression (well, until you’re 80 and fully geared anyway). This honestly destroys any idea of roleplay for me, and though I’m not normally prone to such feelings it really would kill off most of the enjoyment I get from GW2. It basically means that your characters have no greater individual identity than the buttons to ‘choose class to spawn as’ in Battlefield or CoD.

I would suggest that you deposit your gold in an individual guild bank, save some small amount to start. When you finish that character, record how much they had on a notepad somewhere. Next time you log in as them, deposit all but that amount. (Or withdraw, if you’re below the amount.)

It’s annoying, yes, but it will allow you to keep the correct amount on that character.

Oh, I’m sure the Devs hear voices. All the time.

JustTrogdor.7892:

Awe.1096:

That is not the issue. Of course if someone realizes that GW2 is taking control over his life, the conclusion of reevalution can only be one. He needs to quit playing GW2. But is this the answer? Should games be designed in a way that they are pushing some people into that reevaluation? And to regain their sanity those people must quit playing this game? By same standard you could say that cigarettes are 100% fine and the only problem is that some people are willing to smoke them. Sure, some people may support such viewpoint but I for one strongly disagree with it.

If people feel like video games are affecting their mental health, then yes they should indeed quit playing video games, not just GW2 but all of them. I can understand that dailies can influence people to spend more time in a game. If a person is so wrapped up in it because they feel the need to acquire items as soon as possible then I would suggest that taking a break is a good idea.

I have nothing against people that want to play everyday. It is the idea that they are feeling forced to do so to acquire a certain item faster that I think is the issue. If it is impacting someone to the point is seeps into their quality of life it isn’t the game, it is the priorities of the person playing. In this situation I would even question if changing certain aspects of the game, including eliminating dailies, would really change how the game is affecting them. I think at that point the issue is bigger than that.

While I’m sure this doesn’t apply to everything in this conversation, I think it’s worth tossing the link up here: http://www.penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/game-compulsion-part-3

Assyrian.4827:

I assume both of you don’t have alts.

Let’s see…

36 Norn Warrior
05 Asura Necromancer
80 Human Elementalist
22 Charr Ranger
10 Norn Warrior
80 Norn Ranger
56 Charr Engineer
42 Charr Guardian
23 Sylvari Mesmer
25 Human Thief
39 Human Ranger
48 Human Warrior
56 Charr Necromancer

… I may have one or two alts.

SirDrygan.1823:

Just want to ask, why do you all want the Queen to die so much? So that your Warrior Genes can snicker away with glee? Why stop there? Lets burn Divinity’s Reach to the ground while we are at it.

No survivors. Period.

I don’t want her to die. I want her to do something that earns our respect, and maybe a bit of fear. I want to see her do something that makes everyone say “Holy kitten!”, and quickly rethink any plans they had to mess with her.

I want her to prove that she didn’t call Logan back to Ebonhawke because she was a scared little princess. I want it to be clear that she’d only do something like that if she felt it was a sound tactical decision, even knowing what it might cost.

We have Trahearne, we don’t need a second worthless figurehead.

JustTrogdor.7892:

I miss dailies all the time and I certainly don’t feel forced to do them. Sometimes I’ll have 4 out of 5 done from normal game play and don’t bother to do the last one because I don’t feel like playing anymore that day. I don’t feel like missing out on a few laurels is going to destroy my game play. I log out come back in a few days and my characters are still there with all their stuff and I go about my business playing as usual.

Maybe I’m odd but I never feel forced to play a video game. If I start feeling that way at some point I’ll probably reevaluate what I’m doing with my expendable time.

Well said!

Swagg.9236:

Did someone say Monk? GW2 Monk? You mean a D&D-style fisticuffs guy in light armor that goes around at high-speeds with leaps, charges and dashes in order to beat foes up with his bare hands Monk?

Yeah, sounds good.

THAT is what I want as well!

Kantos.1730:

kokimom.3197:

There’s a character from the Sea Of Sorrows book who uses martial arts moves.
“Pugilist” as he is known.
Would be nice to have ingame

Yes, having a pugilist type would be nice. Maybe a warrior variant similar to the elite skill Rampage but with a toggle and new animations (or same ones, its still fun beating things down with bare hands).

I’d suggest light armor for them, and a name other than “Monk”.

Give them a few weapons. Maybe: Sword, Dagger, Staff. Make the dagger the ranged weapon by having them throw daggers when they’re equipped. NO weapon swap.

Then, give them various “style” skills. Much like the Elementalist conjured weapons and the Engineer kits, they’ll replace the weapon skills with new ones, in this case unarmed attacks. Each style also adjusts your stats (like the conjured weapons do), making some styles more offensive and others more defensive. A solid mix of other skills that add to the martial arts feel of the class would round them out nicely.

Craptrain.7203:

Oh, I’m sorry, were we not talking about dailies? Of course I’m only looking at the daily rewards, that’s what this discussion is about.

Craptrain.7203:

I have not seen a single good answer to the question “Why should 30 minutes a day for 7 days be rewarded more than 3.5 hours a day for one day?”

I was answering your question, which has to do with far more than just dailies. Ignoring other rewards and asking for the same time played to give the same daily rewards is like me asking why I’m not getting dungeon tokens at the same rate per hour as the people that are running dungeons. (Feel free to find the thread where I suggested trading in laurels for dungeon tokens, and see how well THAT went.)

Any system they set up is going to be bad for someone. It can’t be avoided. If they change dailies to weeklies, then some poor guy that only has 30 minutes a couple times a week to play loses out on his chance to advance. If you let dailies build up over the week, then missing a day or two may make a person feel even more stressed about logging in and getting caught up. It also removes the option of logging in and saying “None of that looks fun to me. Screw it, I’ll pass today.”

No system is perfect. Between dailies and monthlies, I think they’ve got a good balance here.

KotCR.6024:

It’s not dailies that are the problem. It’s the rewards they offer.

Dailies are a great idea to encourage people to play every day, and offer people a little extra bonus incentive for doing something in particular.

The problem with dailies in GW2, is that they award laurels (they didn’t always and nobody disliked the concept of dailies too much before they did), and laurels are time-gated, with no catch-up option. Laurels are important because they are the only way to acquire certain objects – objects that improve your character’s power. This makes people feel forced to do their daily every day or be left behind.

If their was other options for acquiring Ascended Amulets, and an alternative non-time-gated way to acquire Ascended Earrings (Guild Merits are even worse than laurels when it comes to time-gated design), I think having to worry about finishing your daily every day would be alot less of a concern.

THIS, however, I’ll agree is a problem. A real problem. Laurels should be the casual answer, not the only (practical) one. When laurels are the only way to go, that creates casual-unfriendly pressure to do dailies/monthlies.

Craptrain.7203:

I have not seen a single good answer to the question “Why should 30 minutes a day for 7 days be rewarded more than 3.5 hours a day for one day?”

There are things you can do in that 3.5 hours that you can’t do in 7 half hour sessions. There are things you can do in those 7 half hour sessions that you can’t do in one 3.5 hour session.

The rewards are different between the two. You’re looking at only the daily rewards, and not taking into account what else you can do with that 3.5 hours.

Jared.8497:

I think it’d be cool if the number of time you could complete your dailies stacked each time you didn’t do them, stacking up to 5 or so (instead of being fixed at 1/day). That way one could still do one’s dailies after a break, work week, whatever, and still be putting in the same effort to garner them as folks who are able to log in every day religiously.

I for one have worked 12 hour shifts before. Between the shift’s length and the commute, I literally spent more time at work than I did at home, and some of that time needs to be sleep, showering, etc. So time to play vidya games got flushed. That is – until my 3-day weekend would begin, then I could play as much as I wanted.

I too work 12 hour shifts, sometimes 5 days of the week. (Monday-Tuesday, Friday-Sunday.)

On those days, I sometimes do the dailies, and sometimes I don’t. I like that in the end it doesn’t matter if I do them or not. Yes, not doing them slows down the earning of the rewards I’m after, but I can still earn it. I don’t miss out on anything.

I like that.

I predict that the Aetherblades will attack the party and try to kidnap the Queen.

They’ll show up, their ships appearing in the skies over Divinity’s Reach. The captain of one of the ships will appear before Jenna and demand her surrender. I expect the conversation will go something like this:

Captain: “Congratulations, your Majesty. However, you seem to have forgotten to invite us to your party. So, if you don’t mind, you’ll be joining us instead.”

Jenna: “How DARE you!”

Captain: “Oh now, don’t be like that, your Highness. I’m sure you’ll be returned to your little party soon enough, once the people of this fair city give us what we want.”

Jenna: “Miserable cretins! You’ve knocked over the table with the food, broken the glass roof over my new stadium, and worst of all, you’re thirty minutes late!”

Captain: “Typical. We’re here to kidnap you, and all you care about is… wait…. what? Late?”

Jenna: “Well, yes. I expected you lot to show up half an hour ago, and I’m paying charr cannon crews by the hour.”

Logan makes a signal, and false fronts fall away from several buildings on the walls of Divinity’s Reach, revealing charr with turrets ready to blast the Aetherblade ships out of the sky

Captain: “Ummm… hell.”

At that point, the new mini-game is revealed to be a shooting game to see how many Aetherblades you can gun down with a spare turret.

Shiren.9532:

I don’t think the story is going to matter much.

It’s not.

If Evon wins, then Kiel will still be a lionguard at the command of the council. Evon will continue to focus on making a profit and preserving Lion’s Arch as a council member and because he needs it to make his business work. Kiel will be sent to defend the best interests of Lion’s Arch whenever there’s need.

If Kiel wins, then Evon will still be running the Black Lion. He’ll continue to focus on making a profit and preserving Lion’s Arch because he needs it to make his business work. Kiel will throw herself into defending the best interests of Lion’s Arch whenever there’s need.

They’ll both continue to play the same roles, the only small difference will be which one will be telling the other to do what they would normally do anyway.

Titan.3472:

City of Heroes… wait… NCSOft closed it without any consideration to their community…

This one, right here.

CoH had started something they called “Signature Story Arcs”. They were, basically, CoH’s version of the Living Story. First one out? “Who Will Die?” They killed the daughter of the main character, Statesman. Then they killed Statesman himself, causing a HUGE upset in the established lore of the game. Then, when everyone thought they knew the answer to “Who Will Die”, they went and killed Sister Psyche, ANOTHER of the big signature characters! In GW2 terms, this would be like killing off Trahearne’s best friend, then Trahearne, and THEN killing off Ritlock.

Were the SSAs perfect? No, but they were on only the second one when the game was killed. First one out, they made important changes that were NOT going to go away. ANet doesn’t have the nerve to do that. Second one was already showing an improvement over the first, because they learned from their mistakes as they went, and they tried to learn quickly.

Arena Net could do a lot worse than to look at City of Heroes and see what lessons they can learn from it, both from successes and from failures. CoH had a lot of both, but it kept going on and growing better. I’m sure that can be said of a lot of games, though.

Hell, even CoH’s RNG “boxes” (actually 5 card “Super Booster” packs) were better than GW2’s chests.

philmosk.3420:

Only if I get to roll an Ascalonian plumber…

Engineer with a tool kit, or this ( http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fixer_Upper ) might help.

skullmount.1758:

Teofa Tsavo.9863:

Where do you think they came from? Hmm?

crap, someone beat me to it. I’m sure there’s a whole Asura empire out there in the universe, just waiting for the right time to fully take over Tyria.

Nah, skritt empire. They had a starbase, but it fell. That’s why there’s remains of the same structures in skritt tunnels all over Tyria, they’re all parts of the space station. With technology to connect them over any distance, skritt become as terrifyingly powerful as the borg.

Banono.4597:

I wouldn’t say Scrambles was putting his best foot forward because like many people in this thread (On both sides.) he couldn’t really care less about what the other side thinks.

While he did exaggerate and generalize, you are kinda doing the same thing. He thinks people who are against dueling are cowardly care bears and you think people for dueling are kitten-sphincters.

To be honest, I’ve used 1v1 and group PvP as part of RP events in other games. When done well, it’s a great addition to it. So, I know for a fact that not all people that would want or use dueling are kitten-sphincters.

However, I’m not the one here asking for something. They are. They’re trying to claim that it won’t have a negative impact on the community to add it, but they can’t seem to do so without some of them throwing insults around. It really says something, doesn’t it?

Still… if the stuff I spelled out in my first post in this thread is followed, I guess it won’t kill me to go back to being neutral on the idea. You’re right that there’s bad stuff coming from both sides, and maybe being able to bash on each other will distracts some of the more annoying ones that currently bother people.

I’ll give it a reserved “maybe”, and likely exit this thread for good, now.

Olba.5376:

Vol.5241:

We just had an assassination already, I doubt they’d do it again so quickly.

A kidnapping? That I could see.

Considering that Jennah is a Mesmer and can apparently use telepathy with Logan, I don’t think a kidnapping plot against her would last very long. Like, maybe 20 minutes?

Nah. One of the dragons kidnaps her and goes into the Collapse with her. The chase to rescue her is on a long jumping puzzle were you have to jump around on bits of old brick walls and sewer pipes while avoiding the dragon’s minions. And when we finally get to the end, Logan’s there to tell us that he got there first and discovered that THAT Jennah was only an illusion, the real Jennah must be elsewhere down there and we have to keep going.

I came back to this thread to make a suggestion that I think would remove several of the problems people have with the side effects of the duel going on.

Instead, I find this:

Scrambles.2604:

dueling would be sweet. But too many people in this game cant be bothered to interact with others and would prefer it to be a single player game under the veil of MMO.

All the arguments against dueling can be attributed to carebears, who’s roots can be traced back to that one time an undead rogue ganked them in STV and now they get PTSD flashbacks whenever confronted with any form of competition in an MMO.

It’s sad but it seems people would rather play with each other less and just spend money on a cash shop in order to also play the game less.

If THIS is the kind of stuff we’re getting when the pro-duelers are trying to put their best foot forward, then it’s clear they’ll be total kitten-sphincters should dueling ever go live. This isn’t the first such insult in the thread, either.

Change my vote to a very strong “NO” to the idea. If they’re not staying civil here when they need to make a good impression, there’s no hope they’ll behave when they’ve gotten what they wanted.

DiogoSilva.7089:

The removal of jugs of karma was just a suggestion. Nothing has been said about these.

I’m pretty sure the jugs of karma are going nowhere.

If they DID remove them, they’d have to find replacement effects for all of the karma boosters you can get in the game. This includes ones you can buy from the gem store, food bonuses (that require crafting to make) and guild banner bonuses (that have to be earned and paid for by the guild).

This would create a huge mess and a ton of extra work that will, no matter what they do, kitten off a lot of people. The easy answer is to just leave things as they are, and keep the jugs.

Player Character.9467:

Rangers get bows, axes, swords, torches, pets, spirits.

And spear guns.

I know it’s in part due to the limited weapons GW2 has for underwater use, but that doesn’t change the fact that they DO get a gun and use it. It makes a lot of the arguments against them having rifles fall flat, too.

I think Rangers will get rifles in due time. It seems like it would make sense for an asura ranger to have a rifle over a bow, anyway. Ditto that for a charr ranger. Any pet living around those cities would soon be used to strangeness and explosions, anyway.

Tolmos.8395:

Palador.2170:

Personally, I think this would be a waste of time to add.

I, personally, would say the exact same thing about raiding.

As would I.

However, you’ll note the words “I think”, and that I’m okay if they do it anyway, as long as they take the steps to keep it from becoming a problem for others.

I like it when they spend time on stuff that I like, but I know they’re going to work on other things as well. I don’t have to like it, but I accept it.

I don’t mind the time gating, but I hope they do NOT require you to track down a recipe for each and every item you can make, like they did with the stuff introduced with Zephyr Sanctum. If I can make the insignia, I should be able to figure out the stuff it’s used on, the same as I do with any other insignia.

Nor should they require you to be level 80 to craft them. That’s just pointless.

Im Mudbone.1437:

Deamhan.9538:

I don’t get this nonsense anyway? Are we voting on something because if we are it should be 1 person = 1 vote.

I agree with this statement 1000%. +1

This isn’t actually an election. This is showing support for the candidates to tell the Zepherites which one they should make the trade agreement with. As such, it’s perfectly logical that some supporters will go out of their way to show more support than other people will.

The one that makes the trade agreement is very likely to win the spot on the Captains’ Council. We’re not actually voting for that, we’re just trying to sway an event that will give one of them a HUGE advantage in gaining that open seat.

Personally, I think this would be a waste of time to add. I think the devs could spend their time better by working on a dozen different other things. I doubt I’d ever use it.

All that said… if they did the following things, I wouldn’t actually be opposed to it.

• Auto-decline option, defaults to ‘on’.
• No dueling in cities.
• A separate “Dueling” or PvP channel, zone wide like map chat.
• A statement by the devs that classes will NOT be balanced around 1v1 due to this.
• A policy by ANet that badgering someone to duel you after they’ve refused/auto-refused is harassment. (Asking once is okay.)

I think that would keep the negative impacts down, and help to make what dueling DOES happen more fun for the decent players involved.

L Step.8659:

For the people saying they like hearts since they don’t have to kill 20 or so things of something..yes you do. Most of my hearts are completed by just killing harpies or charr or wahtever the heart is by. So hearts are essentially kill 20 of these, or you have some like the jotun one in Wayferer where you run back and forth spamming F buying and selling. They’re essentially the old quests the more you think about it.

But hey, good for you if you like them, map completion multiple times will be much easier :p

Some of the better ones give you multiple ways to get them, though. Those are the ones I prefer.

Teofa Tsavo.9863:

Well, I hate JPs, Minigames, Dungeons and meaningless living stories, and people that like those got tons. And they happily tell me.. if I don’t like them, don’t do them.

So, in that spirit, I would love hearts in Southsun and new areas. And.. if you don’t like them, don’t do them.

Also, very much this.

I like them. I think every zone should have a few, at least. They add story to the zones, and give a sense of progression as you move through an area. The fact that they become merchants you can sell junk to and sometimes buy useful supplies from means can become a secondary reason to unlock them if there’s few merchants in the area.

If Southsun gets another reworking, I hope they add a few in there. (And let’s be honest, Southsun NEEDS another reworking.)

I have to agree, this is hardly a “rare” item. And the kite fortunes were at least useful even if you weren’t really into the event, because they gave small buffs. Not to mention, you can just BUY the support tickets from a vendor.

I know it won’t be changed for this event, but in the future can you PLEASE not do this again?

tattyana.2356:

What guarantee do we have that now or in the future ,Ncsoft won’t do the same with this game regardless if there making money or not ?

You have none. Even if NCSoft said they wouldn’t do it, that’s a promise they’ll hold to only so long as they want to.

Right now, Guild Wars 2 is about to release in China (as I recall). The Asian market is huge, and I think that’s where NCSoft is looking to make most of their money. If GW2 doesn’t do well over there, then they’ll consider shutting it down to put more of their money behind a game that does.

In theory, Arena Net has things set up so that they can buy themselves out, and become separate from NCSoft. Paragon Studios (the group behind City of Heroes) was trying to do the same thing, though, and some people think that’s part of the reason why NCSoft just walked in and shut them down. If NCSoft does the same “walk in and fire everyone” move on ANet, then they’ll have no chance to split off and survive.

So, there you go. No promises at all, but it’s far more likely to be axed if it doesn’t do well in Asia. Keep that in mind whenever you think about spending further money on the game in the form of gems or a second account.

Orpheal.8263:

Currently the personal Story is divided up in just 3 Story Arcs that work like “Chapters”

- Race Arc
- Order Arc
- Pact Arc

That right there is the biggest thing I’d like to change, the neat dividing lines between the parts of the personal story.

Let’s look at a charr’s personal story, for example. The very first arc centers around your choice of legion. During that arc, I’d have each of the three legions’ stories have you run into one of the three Order representatives that you have to work with later. Ash legion runs into the rep from the Order of Whispers, Iron gets Priory, and Blood gets Vigil. They don’t have to steal the show, just show up and show some personality, so that when they show up again later they’re SOMEONE to you.

During the Order arcs, have Trahearne show up some. He’s supposed to have good friends in each order, and have the respect of the leaders, right? Let’s see it, then. That way, he doesn’t just appear out of nowhere later, we already know who he is and we’ve seen some of what he can do. (And please, have him actually DO SOMETHING, even if it’s just provide research!)

During the Pact arcs, have the early arcs come back. Your father returns, or the artifact your father left you is something you can actually put to good use now. Add in an arc where we get to honor the memory of our fallen mentor, as well. Let us feel the weight and importance of our earlier actions now.

Second thing I would fix is Trahearne. He needs more emotion, let the calm act be just that, an act. Let’s see him weep for the loss of his friend, your mentor. And when the Pale Tree shows him his destiny and gives him the sword, have him REFUSE! Have him flee the thought of leading all those people into battle, possibly to their deaths. This leaves it to you to bring the orders together, and get things off to a shaky start. Then, have Trahearne start to poke in around the edges, torn between fear of his destiny and desire to help with the knowledge he has. Let us see him come to terms with his fears, and slowly step into the role, and let US give him the sword that people rally around. And then, when nobody’s around to hear, have him voice his doubts to us, and ask us for advice. He’s a figurehead, immune to dragon corruption and dangerous due to the sword and his knowledge. He knows this, but he accepts it because it’s what works, and we have his back.

Finally, I would remove the dungeon from the end of the story. Make our last mission one where we drive the dragon back to his lair, and make it clear that the Pact WILL go in and end him once and for all. But do NOT make the dungeon a part of the personal story, our personal part ends just before then. (Having never done the final fight, I’ll resist commenting on it.)

I’d say it sounds more like player activated content.

Nothing says that you get to pick where the “X” goes, just that you create it. I kind of expect that each zone will have a few set “Treasure X” spots in it, and when you use this the events stuff starts at one of them at random.

Jski.6180:

You can still get the items from you know running the event that is going on in the living story. Ppl should have a chose to buy them with gems if they do not want to run the event that is HOW F2P games should be made.

Ah, but there’s no promise that you WILL get them, even if you run the event until your fingers bleed and short out your keyboard.

There’s three in Lion’s Arch. Unless you’re playing a charr or norn, all three of them are pretty easy once you memorize them. I’ll frequently do all three.

I think the best one is Shaman’s Rookery, though.

I solo my rangers a lot in PvE, and I find it fun. I’m not a hard core player, I take my time and level slowly. But I enjoy playing rangers. Just remember that different weapons are good for different things, so it’s important to consider what two weapons/weapon sets you’re using. It’s also important to remember that pets are the same, different ones do different things. Get several right away, and think about what you want them to do. Fern Hounds are great, they have an AoE regen buff that I love. Bears can tank. Canines knock down. Felines cause bleeding. Moas…. do something that I’m sure would be useful if I ever got around to trying them. But you get the idea.

The important thing, though, is that they can be FUN. That’s more important than if they’re the best or not. If you want solo play, I do suggest trying them.

Player Character.9467:

Hammerguard.9834:

As with canceling all skills, you have to dodge.

Protip, sheath not dodge.

There are times I can dodge by simply running, which is good when I’ve used up my endurance for the moment. But I have to admit, I never thought about putting the weapons away to turn off a skill.

Still, I think the “can’t move” part of those skills will stay. I think the idea is that you have to accept the risk of standing still and possibly wasting the skill by moving in order to use them.

Leo G.4501:

Palador.2170:

They can stab you with it.

Sword.

Offhand, it could be used to parry attacks. Give it a couple of defensive skills different from the shield skills. Two parry skills, for example. One that counters with a stun (you knock their weapon into a bad position), and one that causes vulnerability (they’re a bit off balance). That would make it useful in melee, but pretty worthless if they’re attacked at range.

Redundant.

But what’s wrong with redundant? Think of it as having more options for weapon skins to get the same basic effect.

Smurf them. Clear the event.