Guild Wars 2

Technically you can get HoT at a discount now if you have enough disposable income for it.

Currently Ultimate edition offers US$70 worth of gem store items ($20 in character slots and $50 in gems) for $100, so you’d only be paying $30 for the expansion itself. Based on the core’s pricing it will be almost 2 years before you have an opportunity to buy it at that price range, so if you think it’s likely you would use cash to buy at least 5600 gems in that time then you would be better off getting HoT Ultimate now.

If you have no intention of buying gems with cash then you might just have to wait 9 months for the first permanent price drop.

I’m one of those people who were (and still am) skeptical about the $50 price tag (though the Ultimate edition lets me pay $30, so I’m satisfied with that), but asking for key features to be free is just ridiculous.

Might depend on the state you live in, I know a few have taxes for digital sales, but not all.

Golly, that call for respect sure didn’t last long.

Honestly, I think this post is completely pointless.

There’s nothing wrong with the message itself, but the problem is the audience it reaches, because I think most people who would read this topic on the General Discussions forum already respect the LFG tool (with the exception of the people who advocate pinging fake zerger gear to troll speed run groups). You’re basically preaching to the choir.

Maybe you should post in the Dungeon/Fractals forum instead.

Wait, wait, wait.

So some guy was going to tell the whole community that you were publicly advertising to the whole community that you were selling spots?

Wouldn’t that be free marketing?

Oldirtbeard.9834:

@Crossaber Incorrect Backpieces are Accessories not Armor, nice try though.

Actually, if you die enough times to see all of your armor damaged, you’ll notice that backpieces also get damaged.

They may sit in the same area of the UI as trinkets and don’t accept runes, but actual game behavior makes them more like armor.

• GW2 is now in maintenance mode, now announcing GW3 beta!

Brother Dulfite.5793:

Zalladi.4652:

Brother Dulfite.5793:

Ugh, Best buy isn’t on that list. So basically I either save money by buying from Best Buy and lose out on pre purchase rewards or lose more money by buying from gamestop?

Unfortunately, that will be the most likely outcome. You can of course regularly check Gamestop to see if they put any flash discounts on it. I know AmazonUK had one distributor that sold Heart of Thorns at a great discount and was legitimate.

I just don’t understand why a massive chain like Best Buy isn’t on that list? I mean, it’s not like Anet is going to lose money from the sale (I’m sure that would be out of Best Buy’s cut of the game).

Probably just couldn’t come to an agreement, it happens in business. Just because a store has high exposure doesn’t mean NCsoft is going to bend over backwards to accommodate that store’s terms if they demand too much.

Looks like a stained glass four leaf clover to me.

Well, if you regularly buy gems with cash then the $100 pack is reasonable. You’re basically buying $50 in gems and two character slots at regular pricing, which means you’re really only paying $30 for the expansion (leaving the mini, decoration, glider skin, and beta access as the only benefits for prepurchasing). Obviously not that great a deal if you prefer to buy gems with gold, naturally.

That being said, a second account isn’t bad. I snagged one during the 75% off sales and use it to farm login rewards, JP chests, and PvP reward tracks.

Just do what all college students/responsible adults do and play at school/work. I suggest the back row of the class if you’re a student (or, hey, just skip classes that day, crib notes off a friend) or use those dodging skills you’ve developed in GW2 to quickly alt-tab out of the game when the boss rolls by if you’re at work (also if you have a window behind you, pull the curtains so they can’t see the reflection of your screen).

I’m not actually suggesting you do this.

Also don’t tell my boss.

Yes, it will be just like any regular account that hasn’t prepurchased HoT yet.

OtakuModeEngage.8679:

Pandaman.4758:

OtakuModeEngage.8679:

Believe me, I understand that the value of a product decreases over time, and i dont have a problem with that. However, there is a difference between the prise dropping over time, and dissapearing all together. you can’t go to a computor store and buy a brand new lap top and get all previous generations of the brand for free. which is essentially what gw2 is offering.

Except when you but a brand new laptop you get all the functionalities of previous generations of laptops with it and said previous generations are discontinued. This is what GW2 is essentially doing: they’re discontinuing GW2 Core and making HoT this generation’s product, which includes all functionalities up until now.

My real isue is purely on the matter of principle, the favoring of new players with this great deal, while doing nothing for vets in return. how is it that new players don’t have to face the pay wall, while old players do, why does that policy only service them? in that matter, they are being treated better than current players. that is a fact. if anets policy is to not create a paywall, it should go benifet the entire comunity, not just the newest addition.

Then stop playing.

I’m serious. If you want to get the same great deal as future players, stop playing. Wait until all the expansions are out, ANet announces that GW2 is going into maintenance mode like GW1, and pick everything up at a single low price of $50. By your arguments you would have absolutely nothing to complain about if you did that, because you’re getting a much better deal than everyone else.

But I shouldn’t have to quit playing just to get a fair deal…

So are you saying it’s unfair that you should miss out on all those years of gaming just to save on the box price, but it’s fair that future players miss out on all those years of gaming and get to save on the box price?

OtakuModeEngage.8679:

Pandaman.4758:

OtakuModeEngage.8679:

Pandaman.4758:

OtakuModeEngage.8679:

Pandaman.4758:

OtakuModeEngage.8679:

Very well, it seems I’m the minority, and my opinion falls on death ears, anet hates my topic so much they decided to silence me, because my opinion is apparently not worth discussing. very well, I won’t post here any more.

“Deaf ears” and it really isn’t.

Can I have your stuff?

I didnt say i was quitting, just that i wouldnt post anymore… Yep just like colin said during the stream, ‘the friendliest online gaming community’…

Oh, but it is, provided you don’t make nonsensical rants, ignore perfectly logical counterarguments, then circumvent a post lock to continue ranting. There’s a difference between being friendly and being saintly, you’re expecting people to be saints.

Counter arguements that I in turn rebuffed. as for circumventing a lock post, I would like to know for what reason this topic must be censored? is hiding unpopular opinions gw2s new business modle too? if we don’t like what you say, you have no right to voice it?

No, as Gaile pointed out, you’re essentially complaining about something that’s been the norm since before MMOs were even a thing.

You get a VHS of a movie, do you complain that someone paid for less to watch it in a theater? Or that the didn’t pay to watch it on broadcast television (with restrictions, such as commercials)? Or that someone later paid the same amount to get a higher quality DVD? Blu-ray?

You paid more, but you got to play longer. That’s fair. Future customers have the same access to content, but nothing will ever make up for all the extra years you have on top of them.

You paid more for more copies, your whole family got to play. That’s also fair. There will also be future customers who potentially shell out $300 for six copies for their family, they also won’t have all that play time your family has on top of them as well.

If you want things to be absolutely fair, either don’t play MMOs or only get into them once they’ve been sunsetted and won’t have any new content.

No actually, there have been sales and combo packs, but this is the first mmo that gives absolutely everything for free, so long as you ONLY buy the last expansion pack.

Also, other games that have bundled the expansions, have offered discounts to vets

Wasn’t there an entire week or two when people were complaining that GW2 was basically aping WoW’s model? Y’know, the one where getting the latest $50 expansion also gives you everything else for free?

That aside, how many of those MMOs with discounted expansion bundles also have a B2P model rather than a subscription model? If you’re going to argue equivalences based on cost, you have to take that into consideration as well.

OtakuModeEngage.8679:

Believe me, I understand that the value of a product decreases over time, and i dont have a problem with that. However, there is a difference between the prise dropping over time, and dissapearing all together. you can’t go to a computor store and buy a brand new lap top and get all previous generations of the brand for free. which is essentially what gw2 is offering.

Except when you but a brand new laptop you get all the functionalities of previous generations of laptops with it and said previous generations are discontinued. This is what GW2 is essentially doing: they’re discontinuing GW2 Core and making HoT this generation’s product, which includes all functionalities up until now.

My real isue is purely on the matter of principle, the favoring of new players with this great deal, while doing nothing for vets in return. how is it that new players don’t have to face the pay wall, while old players do, why does that policy only service them? in that matter, they are being treated better than current players. that is a fact. if anets policy is to not create a paywall, it should go benifet the entire comunity, not just the newest addition.

Then stop playing.

I’m serious. If you want to get the same great deal as future players, stop playing. Wait until all the expansions are out, ANet announces that GW2 is going into maintenance mode like GW1, and pick everything up at a single low price of $50. By your arguments you would have absolutely nothing to complain about if you did that, because you’re getting a much better deal than everyone else.

OtakuModeEngage.8679:

Pandaman.4758:

OtakuModeEngage.8679:

Pandaman.4758:

OtakuModeEngage.8679:

Very well, it seems I’m the minority, and my opinion falls on death ears, anet hates my topic so much they decided to silence me, because my opinion is apparently not worth discussing. very well, I won’t post here any more.

“Deaf ears” and it really isn’t.

Can I have your stuff?

I didnt say i was quitting, just that i wouldnt post anymore… Yep just like colin said during the stream, ‘the friendliest online gaming community’…

Oh, but it is, provided you don’t make nonsensical rants, ignore perfectly logical counterarguments, then circumvent a post lock to continue ranting. There’s a difference between being friendly and being saintly, you’re expecting people to be saints.

Counter arguements that I in turn rebuffed. as for circumventing a lock post, I would like to know for what reason this topic must be censored? is hiding unpopular opinions gw2s new business modle too? if we don’t like what you say, you have no right to voice it?

No, as Gaile pointed out, you’re essentially complaining about something that’s been the norm since before MMOs were even a thing.

You get a VHS of a movie, do you complain that someone paid for less to watch it in a theater? Or that the didn’t pay to watch it on broadcast television (with restrictions, such as commercials)? Or that someone later paid the same amount to get a higher quality DVD? Blu-ray?

You paid more, but you got to play longer. That’s fair. Future customers have the same access to content, but nothing will ever make up for all the extra years you have on top of them.

You paid more for more copies, your whole family got to play. That’s also fair. There will also be future customers who potentially shell out $300 for six copies for their family, they also won’t have all that play time your family has on top of them as well.

If you want things to be absolutely fair, either don’t play MMOs or only get into them once they’ve been sunsetted and won’t have any new content.

OtakuModeEngage.8679:

Pandaman.4758:

OtakuModeEngage.8679:

Very well, it seems I’m the minority, and my opinion falls on death ears, anet hates my topic so much they decided to silence me, because my opinion is apparently not worth discussing. very well, I won’t post here any more.

“Deaf ears” and it really isn’t.

Can I have your stuff?

I didnt say i was quitting, just that i wouldnt post anymore… Yep just like colin said during the stream, ‘the friendliest online gaming community’…

Oh, but it is, provided you don’t make nonsensical rants, ignore perfectly logical counterarguments, then circumvent a post lock to continue ranting. There’s a difference between being friendly and being saintly, you’re expecting people to be saints.

OtakuModeEngage.8679:

Very well, it seems I’m the minority, and my opinion falls on death ears, anet hates my topic so much they decided to silence me, because my opinion is apparently not worth discussing. very well, I won’t post here any more.

“Deaf ears” and it really isn’t.

Can I have your stuff?

I, too, would like to receive the same deal that future customers get. I mean, it’s totally unfair that they get a time machine that lets them zip back to launch and play more of the game than I did totally for free! Why is time machine functionality not available for veterans, ANet? Whhhhhhhyyyyyy.

Disclaimer: this poster is being facetious in his mockery of individuals who fail to understand that the value they received is measured in time already spent in the game, which no future player will ever be able to replicate without the use of Temporal Law-violating devices.

ANet doesn’t support the use of third party applications, so it’s use at your own risk, but Multiwars is a launcher that lets you run multiple instances of GW2 without the use of a virtual machine.

Welcome to the internet, you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.

In all seriousness what you’ve described is nothing new, much less unique to GW2’s community. A lot of people behave extremely poorly when given anonymity and enjoy little to no real consequences for their actions, this is true whether someone is telling you how to play, who to vote for, or even what to eat.

I think OP may be referring to retailers who still sell copies of GW2 Core.

If that’s the case then, yes, GW2 Core still has value as a restriction-free option for getting an alt account. With a paid version of GW2 core you would be able to collect daily login rewards and send things (gold, mystic coins, T6 mats bought with laurels, etc.) to your main account, whereas F2P accounts would be completely worthless for this purpose due to mailing restrictions.

Since GW2 has gone F2P and ANet is pursuing the single-price-point model with HoT, retailers may begin to offer their remaining stock of GW2 Core at discount as well.

I believe the presence of GW1 on Steam is already serving the purpose of advertising for GW2. GW1 is frankly overpriced for such an old game, but that might actually be a strategy to pique interest and lead people to find out it has a much prettier sequel.

ham.8209:

SwiftXShadow.4236:

BrotherBelial.3094:

So you want some “free” HoM skins? I can’t see this happening, as the HoM skins are the hook to get people to buy GW1. ANet are a business, they want your money. That’s why the game is heavily restricted in F2P. ANet want those people to buy the game. The same reason we get “free” updates. They want us to keep playing, if we are playing we might buy gems. If we buy gems once the are we would buy them again. As much as I think the people at ANet are good people, it’s still a business, and they want our money. They are not doing things because they are nice people.

Wait u can get something for owning Guild wars 1 and the expansions?
I own them all but i never knew i could get something with that? what do they unlock and where to i enter the GW1 serial keys to unlock them?

yup you can and i will tell you how to do it.. only little problem with it right now tho is the hom in GW2 is not working. they got that disabled till they can get it fixed . but you can still do it . and how you do it is you link your GW1 account with your GW2 account . and once you do that and Anet fixes GW2 hom and turns it back on you get your rewards . and right now just waiting for them to fix the GW2 hom some time just not sure when it will be tho

HoM was fixed last week.

They would need some pretty severe restrictions, like no access to supplies, siege, and picking upgrade options for towers/garrison/camps.

Kirnale.5914:

Yes, but it have been 3 years already ! They create all kind of backpieces in the meantime, starting with fracs until now with the wings. But none are capes ! And I think they refused to do it once, because of some asura logic(I think), that a cape might be in the way while fighting. I mean, aren’t all backpieces kind of in the way when fighting ?

Colin actually discussed this in an interview almost two years ago, simply put it’s because long flowing capes are a lot more complex than they anticipated, they do have people working on their free time, but they would rather invest official company time into other projects like the Living Story.

Ging.6485:

Forge is one of the more obscure members of the X-men.

Forge is an obscure member now?

Good lord, next you’re going to tell me that nobody knows Gambit raised an age-reversed Storm and that she sported a mohawk for a while.

Zaron.1987:

Bloodlust.3672:

The “invisible, away, online” status should always be obviously visible and immediately accessible in the interface—both in game and in the character select screen. We shouldn’t have to open the “contacts” window to see/change the status. Please improve this.

atm the invisible status is worth nothing

every guildie and on your friendslist can see your location when you are on inv status

That’s incorrect, I’m testing that right now with my alt account that’s also in my bank guild, set it to invisible status and it shows as being completely offline.

DevilLordLaser.8619:

You do know that every gem you buy with gold is a gem some other player purchased with real money and converted into gold, right? Gold-to-gem conversion isn’t magically producing gems out of thin air – you’re selling your gold in a marketplace to people with gems, who have in turn given money to ArenaNet for those gems.

Well, there’s two problems with that:

First is that ANet, like any other MMO developer, is expected to report higher earnings associated with a release of an expansion. All the money made from gem sales are reported on the month they’re made, so if they let players spend gems on the expansion that can’t be reported as an earning (not legally, anyway) and would mute expansion earnings. The players aren’t the only people that ANet has to keep happy and poor expansion revenue could be very bad for the prospects of any future expansions.

Second is that the gem-gold exchange would be insane. Gold-gem exchange already spiked to near 100g from wings alone, think about how bad it would be if the entire expansion was made available in the gem store; can you imagine what kind of impression that would leave on new players who were lured in by HoT if they see exchange rates at 100, 200, 300 gold per 400 gems? That would price them (and a lot of existing players) out of pretty much everything in the gem store and effectively make it a cash-only shop (gold-gem rates only go down if someone sells gems for gold, not if they buy gems with cash and spends it on store items directly, which is dumb but apparently how it works). Customer acquisition is just as important as customer retention, a hyperinflated gem exchange wouldn’t help the former and only a part of the latter, so the drawback outweighs the benefit.

Making the expansion available on the gem store would be more bad than good, for both ANet and players in general.

Hate it when I’m wrong, but I’ll freely admit it when I am.

It’s disappointing, the update clearly states that purchased boosters should continue to work, it shouldn’t matter if they were consolidated into another form via enchantment powders. Removing karma boosts from the enchantment boosters is contradictory to the patch notes, given the lack of any warning everyone who bought karma boosters directly from the gem store and subsequently used enchantment powders on them are entitled to a refund.

It’s entirely possible that ANet is staggering Elite betas to be of equal length, so as the Beta progresses they’ll remove Elites that received enough testing to give the other Elites enough player attention.

You have a perfectly legitimate concern, just don’t jump the gun about being shafted until it looks like you actually will be.

I think a /sitchair emote or gem store item that spawns a chair (maybe the type of chair would be determined by what map you’re on as well) scaled to your character would be the best compromise, though I have no idea how financially viable that idea would be.

It could be neat though, you type /sitchair or use the item, your character players an animation where they look around for a second while little Quaggan/Skritt ninjas appear in a puff of smoke, scurry to put a chair behind you, and vanish as you take a seat.

Kaleban.9834:

Do yourself a favor and stop playing forum cop. There are mods for that after all.

No, it’s not the moderator’s job to point out you’re not making sense. They ignore you when you don’t make sense and close your thread if you get toxic. I’m not doing either, I’m pointing out the flaws in your argument, that’s more like an editor.

You can either take my criticism of your complaint and use it to improve your argument, or you can do what you’re doing now and…

I didn’t ask anyone to read my mind, you and others failed to grasp the simple point because you didn’t bother to read, which is OBVIOUS by your inability to grasp what is being said.

… charge on ahead in blind ignorance, blaming everyone else for failing to understand the point you didn’t make. Before demanding everyone to learn to read, how about you learn to write first?

Your argument is only obvious in your own mind, if you don’t explain your argument clear then you are asking people to read your mind.

I never once said I wanted a lore explanation for elite specs. Not Once.

Here’s where the impression you were talking about lore came from:

“My whole point, which many seemed to have missed, is the lack of a conceptual thread that ties professions and the new specs together.”

That could either refer to a thematic disconnect between profession and specialization, or it could refer to how elite specializations seem to come out of nowhere lore-wise. If you don’t establish you’re talking about the former, anyone who doesn’t think there’s a thematic disconnect would default to the latter.

What I mentioned, by way of the Bender concept, and comparing the design of the Berserker to that of the Tempest, is that ANet doesn’t have a coherent design system. I.E. non-magical warriors summoning rocks, Torch slams causing earth ripples etc.

All of which would make much more sense on an Ele. Quite simple, but in the rush to be first to defend ANet while simultaneously being a smart alec, most of you missed this obvious issue.

Aha, actual meat to your argument! Hallelujah! There is hope after all!

Torch Slam is consistent with warrior base skills because they already had access to shockwave though Hammer Shock, Stomp, and Seismic Leap. That just makes it a bad example of the “lack of coherent design” as the common theme between Torch Slam and Shattering Blow is… they punch the ground (the former horizontally while the latter vertically), which is also thematically appropriate for warriors.

You should have referred to Flaming Flurry as your second example instead, because even without having to explain yourself practically everyone recognizes flinging fireballs with a sword is not very Warrior-like at all; that would naturally lead to people focusing more on the summoning aspect of Shattering Blow rather than the physical aspect.

Your criticism is that warriors are summoning stuff, to make it constructive you have to suggest something more substantial that “eles should have it, ANet is incompetent”; there are other threads that have already suggested the skill should have an animation of pulling the rock from the ground or using a stomp to kick up a slab of rock instead of summoning, which is a relatively simple fix to make it thematically appropriate.

There isn’t really anything that can be done about Warriors slinging fireballs with swords though.

As for my statement regarding the forums being designed for criticism, that wasn’t a critique of ANet’s policy, that was a condemnation of the various forum warriors taking it upon themselves to defend ANet from said criticism. Despite it kind of being the whole point for having forums and feedback in the first place. Doubly so when you consider the x-pack currently in development and ongoing betas.

There’s a difference between defending ANet and pointing out you’re not making sense.

Kaleban.9834:

My whole point, which many seemed to have missed, is the lack of a conceptual thread that ties professions and the new specs together.

Many missed your point because you didn’t make it. It’s shocking, I know, but we can’t read your mind, so we’re not going to understand what you mean when you fail to make any mention wanting a lore explanation for why the professions are getting their elite specs.

On the bright side we’re finally getting somewhere, because now we know what you’re talking about when you talk about coherence. Up until now you mangled your own point by first bringing up Elementalist Air Bender concept, then seemingly claiming the design isn’t coherent because it doesn’t match your concept.

What I am pointing out is the lack of coherent design, the hodge podge of ideas, and the lackluster implementation. Will ANet tie it all together for an awesome expansion? Possibly, but history has shown otherwise.

[…]

You’d THINK ANet setup forums such as this for constructive feedback regarding their game, and currently in-beta x-pack, but I guess according to the respondents ANet can’t handle criticism of any sort.

Look, those two paragraphs pretty much highlight everything that’s been wrong with your posts: you make generalized claims without providing any details (so there’s absolutely nothing constructive about the criticism), then you can’t seem to resist taking a potshot at ANet’s competence (they can’t deliver, they can’t take criticism), despite claiming you’re not kittened at them.

Do yourself a favor and leave out the personal commentary if you want to provide good feedback.

I’m sympathetic, I do agree that anyone should be able to wear anything they want, but at the risk of sounding callous that sympathy ends with reality.

This is a game, you have to accept no everything is going to be represented in a game – not because of any political or social reasons, but simply because there are limitations in how much humans can create while being hunched in front of computers all day. Crossdressing isn’t represented, but neither are vegans, pacifists, polygamists, monotheists, democratic values, left handed people, amputees, or any number of groups/beliefs that are left out of the game because it would be massively unreasonable to expect ANet to try to be all inclusive.

I know you’re not asking for everyone to be represented, but what I’m saying is you’re not special. You’re not supposed to be special. You shouldn’t be treated differently for crossdressing, but neither should you ask for special treatment for crossdressing. You should be treated like everyone else.

And most everyone else has some aspect about themselves that isn’t represented. >raises left hand<

The outfit has a unique model per race. That’s five times (x5) the amount of work put into the outfit compared to other outfits and they’re charging an extra 48% (x1.48) for it.

I’ve always been vocal about my feelings over the pricing of gem store items, but in this case ANet is being very generous with pricing. It’s basically 5 cultural outfit skins for 200 gems each, which is a great deal – and this is coming from a guy who thinks outfits are only worth 400 gems due to lack of mix-and-match options.

Isn’t it just horrible? Now people can just make a throwaway character and get super expensive dyes by only waiting three years, then they can repeat the process all over again until they get all 64 dyes in… 192 years!

Seasoning intensifies!

As others have already stated, it’s a problem created by people. Even if the system were somehow changed to force some sort of unity, other forms of exclusion and toxicity will appear.

The only way you can eliminate stat discrimination is by making all the stats the same, but then people would discriminate based on class utilities; if you make all the class utilities the same to eliminate that discrimination, then people will continue to discriminate based on AP; if you hide AP then people will just start making black lists of “bad” players they happen to have a bad run with one day.

If you want to remove the motivation for this discrimination then you either have to make dungeons take a fixed amount of time to finish (so it cannot be rushed) or remove the incentive to rush by making all items free .

A perfectly egalitarian game is not a game anyone would want to play.

BrokenGlass.9356:

now, speedrunners…. please go ride the train down there, and make like 5x the gold. and let me run dungeons with a group that wants to have fun.

I understand you don’t like seeing speedrun groups and fully support you if you’re complaining about wannabe speedrunners crashing your party and ruining your fun, but suggesting they should just GTFO of dungeons completely? Are you seriously asking people to stop playing where and how they want to play just so it’s a little more convenient for you to join PUGs in dungeons?

Please tell me that’s not the case, because if it was that would be alarmingly hypocritical of you.

oh, and I’m not redefining fun… btw. I’m clarifying that being yelled at, or yelling at people for screwing up your gaming all night, isn’t fun

Ah, my apologies then. When you started the post with “At what point did the fun become secondary to the money we can make?” it framed my perception of you argument as speed runners weren’t having the proper type of fun.

I’m a fairly flexible player, if my friends want to spend an hour doing one explorable path then I’m more than willing to do it, but if I join a group that wants to speed clear then I’m up for that too. That being said, I have to point out a few flaws in your rant:

BrokenGlass.9356:

At what point did we start logging on to “clear content as fast as possible”?

At what point did the fun become secondary to the money we can make?

And what the kitten are we making money for? If not to play the game then what?

Your making money from speed running dungeons, to get better gear, to super speed run dungeons…. for…. what?

I can’t speak for everyone, obviously, but if you consider how much it costs to buy materials for ascended and legendary gear, or to buy rare skins from the TP, or to convert gold to gems, then it’s not hard to imagine that there is a great incentive to collect a large quantity of gold.

Ascended and legendary gear are fairly static costs, but that’s untrue for rare skins and gem prices, both which go up fairly rapidly over time.

I often hear, “yeah, but I just don’t wanna spend all night trying to clear this.”

What they are saying is “I’d rather be doing something else with my time.”

Like what? Like playing some other aspect of this game? If you have things going on in your life…. then log off mid run. Really. It’s ok. We’ve all had random’s drop out, and we have a pretty darn good LFG tool…. its fine. You want to go live your life? Do it. You wanna play the game? Please loose this “clear it fast” mentality.

This sounds more like a specific problem regarding illiterate people who join casual groups with the expectation of speed clearing rather than an issue about speed clearing in general. As annoying as that is, do keep in mind the opposite is just as true: if people want to speed clear, don’t join them with the expectation of doing a casual run. Give as much respect as you ask for, right?

These elitists have forgotten that they play a game, and have signed on for a second JOB. They clear as fast as possible without seeing that its all circular… they clear fast to get faster at clearing fast. I wonder… do they get a warm fuzzy sense of accomplishment?

Actually, I’d argue they’re more aware of it being a game than you seem to, because they just log on, play, and then buzz off to do whatever, whereas you’re taking things far too seriously if the length of your rant is any indicator.

“Yeah man, we all like stacked in a corner, and cced the boss so he couldn’t even like hit us and stuff, man…. then we did it again… […]

Y’know, yeah, it’s a rant and not some opinion piece on a respected journal, but like I said above: “Give as much respect as you ask for.” Characterizing speed runners like rejects from Wayne’s World isn’t going to win you any points.

Unless you’re a massive fan of Wayne’s World and are actually being flattering in that characterization, that is. In which case carry on, dude!

I’m sorry to say, that all of you “meta” do it fast, in all ’zerk, link gear on joining, perfect speed runners…. are highly skilled players, who are wrong about why one plays a game at all.

The point is to have fun… its to get online with friends… or PUGs, and to escape into a fantasy world for while.

Yes, having fun is the point of a game. For each individual there are varying definitions of fun. For some people it’s a form of escapism, for others it’s a fantasy-themed Barbie (or Ken) simulator, and for others yet it’s setting personal records and beating them.

Don’t try to redefine other people’s definition of fun to suit your own needs. That’s just as toxic as people telling you how to play the game.

Then the rest of us, the non-followers, we get upset, because your passing down high skill level play and calling it the only way. You attack everyone who isn’t doing it your way… you come on these forums and chew up and spit out anyone who thinks that your way is “lazy” or “un-fun” or “cheap”, even folks trying to propose alternatives without insult. You spend time chastising people who want to have fun. (when you could be speed running dungeons)

I’m not pointing out flaws here, I’m just honestly surprised by this. Does this happen a lot in the dungeon forums? I don’t pay much attention to that section of the forums, which is where I assume this happens because the only time I see chastising on the general discussions forum is in response to anti-meta rants like this one.

I’m sure that the next 100 posts will be short, brainless responses tearing me down, cause I hit way to close to home.

To reiterate: give as much respect as you ask for.

But ya know what? I hope that some percentage of them see what they did, and go post a LFG saying all classes welcome, bring support please and watch how the groups that they get change.

Er, okay, here’s the funny thing: you’re asking people who are in a rush to take their time and read a long rant filled with backhanded insults and unfair assumptions about them to fairly consider what you’re trying to say.

That ain’t gonna happen (on the other hand, 0% is a percentage).

Kaleban.9834:

Funny.

Obviously, most of the “don’t let the door hit you on the way out” crowd couldn’t be bothered to read.

I’m also quite obviously not saying that this one skill is the whole reason, but it IS the final nail in the coffin. It showcases a lack of consistency and planning. The icing on the cake of disillusionment.

Heck, has it occurred to no one that the Elite torch is named after RODGORT, yet Elementalists cannot use it?

As I laid out in my OP, I’m not asking ANet to cater to me specifically, simply that their current and ongoing direction does not fill me with a desire to play, and not just my Ele, but any of my characters.

What ANet does with information like that is of course up to them. I may continue to play or I might not, all I was doing was pointing out how ridiculous the Berserker is relative to the Tempest (not in power, but in concept and design), and that it does not fill me with hope for the future of the game.

If you simply said “I don’t agree with these aesthetic decisions, here are some reasons why” (liking Air Bender is not a valid reason, by the by), then people would take your post more seriously and be willing to have a discussion with you.

But you didn’t. Instead you went “I don’t agree with these aesthetic decisions, it must be because ANet is incompetent, if you don’t listen to me I might leave”. It doesn’t matter if you claim it’s not a “listen to me or I leave” post if you follow it up with “listen to me or I might leave.”

Mortifer.2946:

You forgot you actually get your eyes bleed out by mindlessly hoarding gold through farming 8 hours a day. I am not a kid to afford that.

I actually didn’t use gold for buying gems, ever.

I bought the gems, I want to spend them, Anet already has my money, but I don’t like the shop. Do you get it boys?

I understand your frustration, but you have to realize that there’s a fair chunk of the player base who does use gold to buy gems, ANet’s strategy of flash sales and artificial scarcity is to target a segment of those players who don’t hoard gold/grind gold quickly to encourage them to buy gems with cash instead. Leaving store items up permanently would mean that segment has time to gather gold to buy gems, thus losing them as a potential source of revenue.

Sure, it would be nice if everything was up all the time and ANet could just subside off the subset of players who voluntarily roll their credit cards, but that really isn’t possible unless the company is completely self-contained and self-publishing with no shareholders to placate every month.

Kaleban.9834:

I main Ele.

An easy conceptual idea for Eles are the Benders from Avatar.

Earth Benders summon rocks and hurl them at opponents.

But instead of the cool as kitten skills we see on the Berserker that thematically might fit on Ele, we got Tempest.

This isn’t Air Bender nor is it a martial arts MMO, why are you basing expectations on a completely unrelated franchise that bears no resemblance to GW2? If you want Elementalists that practice martial arts then wait for Blade and Soul, Black Desert, any other martial arts MMO, or possibly a Canthan expansion where it would be thematically appropriate.

Warrior gets new utility skill type, Ele gets shouts.

“Warriors get new utility skills of a type they didn’t have before, while Elementalists get new utility skills of a type they didn’t have before.”

How is that unfair? The name of the utility type is meaningless, it only exists as a descriptor of the mechanic that locks types of skills to specialization lines. If they renamed Elementalist shouts to “Incantations” it would be just as extensive and “new” a change as “Rage” was.

I’m not kitten, as I realize that the creative juices might be lacking at times. But balance and concept seem to be moving ever further away from logic or consistency, and the various development and balance teams seem to be completely cut off from each other.

I mean, how else to explain the Berserker and probable upcoming Ninja/Daredevil on Thief, and then compare it to the Tempest and Dragonhunter?

And you’re complaining about the non-existent balance issues of two elite specializations that are still in beta versus two elite specializations that aren’t even in beta yet. Do you honestly expect anyone to take you seriously?

But before a bunch of rage posts follow, I’m not doing the “do what I say or I leave” threat post so common these days. I’m just saying that the game’s current direction doesn’t fill me with a desire to play, and I am honestly hoping that ANet gets its act together because I DO like the concept of the game, but it just gets more and more difficult to want to login and actually do anything.

Can I have your stuff?

To put things in perspective, a lot of speed runners have been playing the game for a long time. They’ve already enjoyed the game when they started, so it’s all repetitive now – so it’s going to be a chore either way, the only difference it how long that chore takes.

The most common advice here is simply for you to form a group with like-minded people – either through advertising casual runs in LFG or finding a casual guild – and have fun with them.

Forum bug, begone!

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Pandaman.4758:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Today’s items are the molten pick, molten sickle and the molten logging axe for 1000 gems each.

I was wondering why they pulled those while leaving the other gathering tools in the store.

Ah, and now that I look at the store I realize they pulled the undead-themed gathering tools as well. Guess I know what one of the other sale items will be.

If I remember correctly they were the first gemstore harvesting tools. It’s been a long time, but I guess they pulled them when they made the second set. At any rate, there are several that are not available.

Such as these: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Gem_Store/historical
Tireless Harvesting Minion
Tireless Logging Minion
Bone Pick

The molten pick is definitely one of the first infinite gathering tools and is as old as the consortium harvesting sickle and chop-it-all logging axe (which are still available), but the fused axe and sickle came out much later (around the end of Season 1), so they were pulled due to common theme rather than age.

And, yep, those three gathering tools you pointed out are the three undead-themed tools I mentioned.

Although I do see the frost wasp logging tool is the odd man out there.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Today’s items are the molten pick, molten sickle and the molten logging axe for 1000 gems each.

I was wondering why they pulled those while leaving the other gathering tools in the store.

Ah, and now that I look at the store I realize they pulled the undead-themed gathering tools as well. Guess I know what one of the other sale items will be.

Julie Yann.5379:

Pandaman.4758:

Ardenwolfe.8590:

Apparently, I need to play Mass Effect.

First two installments of the franchise are excellent, but the third game threw away all the promises they made over the five years of development and Bioware played the “Artistic License” and “You Just Don’t Understand Our Vision” cards in defense.

To be fair, if you get over the fact that the decisions you made through 1 and 2 have no real impact besides a few side missions and cut scenes MS3 is still a pretty awesome game with an epic story and is definitely worth playing.

To answer OPs question. I would cheer on while Shepard beats the crap out of that leafy bag of chlorophyll.

The thing is it wasn’t just the lack of meaningful choices that spoiled the game. ME’s story was 95% epic, but the remaining 5% was so god-awful terrible that it managed to drag the rest of the work down with it. It not only employed a McGuffin, but it pulled a Deus Ex Machina on top of that, then proceeded to retroactively ruin the mystery of the Reapers by revealing their motivation to be completely illogical and contradictory.

I’d go into a long rant about it, but this is the GW2 discussion forums, so instead I’ll just say I hope we’ll never have to divert Pact resources to build a presumed dragon kill-switch based on schematics created through some weird hand-me-down collaboration of hundreds of extinct civilizations that never communicated with each other (much less shared a common language or metric system), and that we have absolutely no idea how it works, what it does, or how to even activate it (but decide to bring it to the final battle anyway); I also hope there will never be a holographic Scarlet that appears at the hour of our defeat to explain that dragons were created to save us from developing magics that will wind up causing our extinction… by preemptively committing genocide on us; additionally I hope said holographic Scarlet never gives us the option to instantly win by committing suicide in a red, blue, or green pillar of light that ultimately just affects what color filter we get for the exact same ending cutscene.

Unlike some other game. >cough<

Ardenwolfe.8590:

Apparently, I need to play Mass Effect.

First two installments of the franchise are excellent, but the third game threw away all the promises they made over the five years of development and Bioware played the “Artistic License” and “You Just Don’t Understand Our Vision” cards in defense.