Guild Wars 2

anzenketh:

Honest question: Are you sure you could craft before level 12? My test toon last night got to the crafting tables (Level 8 area) and was level 10. I asked to become a leatherworker and then went straight to the table to make a few bags and…I couldn’t see my materials. Nothing was there.

I also was wondering what you thought of certain hearts not being there anymore while others were moved. (For the Norn area for instance the heart with the dredge in the lower part of wayfarers is gone and the rabbit one was moved down to the path leading to Twinspur.)

Vayne.8563:

Galphar.3901:

eyestrain.3056:

So… the CDI didn’t happen?
For a thread called “communicating with you”, a notice of it not happening would be a responsible step towards said communication.
I get that it must be pandemonium but if I have learned nothing else as a professional, I know that when you can’t commit to an appointment, you give notice of the change in plans, even if you can’t explain. This is pretty basic and critical to trustworthiness…

What I like the best is the LACK of communication we had after the patch yesterday. With multiple threads saying how much people dislike the new leveling system, many threads having over 100 posts, there was not a single dev brave enough to post in ANY of them.

Pretty sure they wouldn’t know what to post. Maybe they’re, I don’t know…fixing bugs and having meetings to decide what to say?

They can’t just come on here and say hi, we know you’re mad, I got nothing. lol

Yah, on this one i agree with Vayne. There has been A LOT of venting and Anet is looking to have to head right into a kittenstorm no matter what they say so they want to make sure their first words are chosen well. Add to that that I think a few of them might even side with us on some of whats been said, but their jobs might preclude them from saying so publicly and you have another issue entirely for them to deal with.

A part of me felt obligated to scream at obvious low level non guild having players to get out of the circles before they died.

Yeah, and the one thing i was kind of hopeful for (the dodging training they talked about) turned out to be the biggest fail in my book.

I literally stood in the red circle and laughed for a good minute at how horribly bad of a lesson it was. Imagine training your dog to use the bathroom in the middle of a highway with no cars coming by and then send him out into the world to do his business in the middle of the day. its the same thing.

anzenketh.3759:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Many if not most of the GW2 weapons contain 1-2 skills that “just” do damage with the rest being a situational skill that does damage and something else (chill, interrupt, PBAoE buff or mitigation, etc.). One observation I’ve made about GW2 is that some players just seem to use their skills whenever they’re off CD, with no thought to whether using the skill right then makes any sense. So, sarcastic or not, Xar is correct that the NPE has taught these people to mash buttons when available with no thought, regardless of weapons slotted.

But that is not the way the game was designed to be played. The old skill unlock system was much better. If the speed that the skills were unlocked at was too fast for new players to learn. Adjusting the speed would work better then the level gated system though skills. It also does not teach you about the skills for the additional weapons you get. You just have those skills unlocked.

And that would be my point there. Take thieves for example. They have one of the more convoluted skill breakouts given how the number 3 skill changes on weapon sets, but now new players will have no chance to learn what is going on. Just, here’s your skills. Good luck.

Vayne:

I agree that leveling had very little meaning for new players outside of a plume of light most of the time, and to that end giving actual meaningful rewards and alerts to changes upon leveling was a good move on their part.

gating my SKILLS to levels instead of letting me see myself learning them as i used and got familiar with a skill, and actually learning all of my weapon skills in this way was a poor choice. Gating simple things like level appropriate skill point acquisition was a poor choice. Gating things like crafting behind a level higher than the actual MAP SPOT that you could get to and see the crafting tables was a poor choice. Calling any of this a tutorial for new players and then explicitly teaching them a bad habit (dodging INTO a red circle and standing there) was a poor choice. Implementing a compass direction system that can and will direct new players to severely overpowered enemies was a poor choice. Gating the downed skills themselves behind levels without any way to learn them by looking over them was a poor choice.

This update had far more poor choices with regard to this leveling system than good ones.

Yeah. After i get through starter toon test number 2 tonight I might just jump into WvW and start testing the skill changes on my level 80s.

Jeffrey Vaughn.1793:

It will unlock at L60. No progress has been lost. The L48 step used to be the start of a storyline that ran from L48-L59, but they’re all now part of the L60 chapter unlock, so you don’t have to level up between every step.

Bad design, plain and simple. I was having fun (re-read that part HAVING FUN) by giving myself the challenge of playing story steps well above my level to see how well i could survive. It was making leveling my toon engaging and interesting and this patch has stolen that from me because Anet has decided to dictate how I should play the game. You know, the thing that you all said you wouldn’t do.

If there was ever a bait and switch this is a big one.

It is taking all of my self control to not be nasty on the forums right now, but lord knows Anet deserves to hear it as harshly as possible after this update.

wompwomp

Yeah, i wonder if they will listen to that? i wonder if it needs to happen in more places. I wonder if Wooden Potatoes and Matt Visual will have the testicular fortitude to speak honestly about this update.

Tavastia.6527:

ITT: people who grossley mismanage their money.

Not at all.

I manage it quite well. I was also a big proponent of wanting to financially support a game and company I believed in and wanted to succeed/bring us new content.

Then all this happened and made it so they will not get anymore money from me. In essence they’ve lost me as a consumer and any potential new consumers i might have tried to convince to come to this game. Instead they are making more of us drive people actively AWAY from the game, which in turn will hurt their bottom line.

Well yes, i know the REAL answers, but i wanted to see if anyone from Anet would actually give the real answers or at least TRY to come up with an answer that might make sense from their design perspective that wasn’t “We has focus groops of 10,000 saying MOAR ICONS and slow skills plz”.

So many things keep coming up that i forgot about from last night.

Scouts:
When I first played through this game with my wife, we were directed to that first scout who showed us hearts and places to go to on the map. From that point on we excitedly (no joke, and not waxing poetic, we really were excited) ran to new scouts we found on maps to help us find other hearts we might have missed. It map map exploration both neat and kind of organic.

Now, the alert to see that first scout is barely visible on the map and every time I get near a scout I have that that annoy compass nag me to go see the scout. I don’t need a reminder as a new player to see the scout for the first time i go through the map. I learned that pretty easily from the first direction to the scout.

Why do you insist on sucking out the joy from the organic learning experience? That is honestly what it feels like.

More to come tonight hopefully when i make one more newbie in the one slot i used to use for key farming because…yeah. Thats no longer a thing either.

But hey, remember what they said: they wanted to make sure they made a system that was better at directing new players to relevant content. :/

Facerolled by a dolyak. Yup. Sad Anet, just sad.

Yep, I’ve spent a good amount of money for gems in this game over the last 2 years, but since april they’ve gotten nothing from me and have ensured they will continue to get nothing from me.

Paradox.1380:

i’m confused? It took me maybe 30 minutes max to hit level ten (the level at which at you unlock all your basic weapon skills) getting to 15 where the rest of it and a utility unlock took me another 20ish minute because the way the personal story steps are now that got me almost all the way to 15, and finishing dailies pushed me over. I had no problems with this system at all and the best part is I don’t have to go back and kill 20-30 monsters for every weapon. I just go and they are all unlocked.

Yes, but if you are completely brand new to the game you now have a tons of skills you’ve not practiced with or learned along the way. How is that helpful for new players if that was one of Anet’s goals? I can also just as easily argue that I could get my dailies done within those same 30 minutes and get through my first story step AND unlock all or most of my weapon skills while learning them AND have already started learning about my utilities and some of my other heal skills.

Theundersigned.4761:

What makes you think that the increased grind is a cash shop move? It’s pretty annoying, sure, but I don’t see how the extra time spent leveling serves to benefit ArenaNet at all.

When Anet starts sticking scrolls of jumping to level 30 or 40 for vet players or players that just want to get those skills and utilities unlocked sooner, because those scroll WILL be coming. Anet already has a history of doing stuff like this.

Oh, i also forgot to add the level up window pop up thing:

It actually took me a few times of it coming up to realize that the things that popped up were clickable to get more details about each of those things. New players will also probably miss a lot of info if that isn’t cleaned up and made more obvious.

Vayne.8563:

The skill point challenges are irrelevant since you can’t use the skills to later anyway. They unlock when you need them.

I’m just stunned this is so painful for some people.

The problem is when I am map opening an area, i want to do the content that is there. I don’t want to wait until some later level and have to go back to an area to do a skill point that is either a communing in a super safe spot (Issomir) or a skill challenge meant for level FIVE players. That’s nonsense. I don’t care if they want to gate my using them until level 13, but let me earn them on the map. its bad enough this method also means I’m not losing some skill point gains from just leveling.

OK, so I’m putting a response in here as a bump and also to outline my first test of this new system.

Caveat: I have many level 80s so some of the things that would have been locked out for me weren’t while other things were.

Starter Area Tutorial:
I first tested a norn ranger last night and I was not too happy to see that I was now starting with a long bow. In part because that isn’t usually my weapon of choice, and in part because i always loved the axe for the low level stuff. Fighting Issomir was a joke. I just stood well out of its range, clicked on it and walked away from my keyboard. Literally. My toon plinked away unharmed while i got a drink and used the bathroom. Great tutorial.

Starting Area:
Two skills now on a weapon I dislike, but i decided to turn around and map open Hoelbrek. Thank god i could see Vistas since i was upset i couldn’t get the super easy communing skill point yet. After opening the Norn home area I went back out into the world. Intentionally fell from a great enough height to hurt myself and sure enough…big arrow to tell me to use my heal skill. O.o Really? OK. (Side note: If i were a new player and ran into Hoelbrek and saw the message telling me to go into Dredgehaunt for further adventure and then went in there and died, I might be a bit miffed. Might want to fix that helpful little compass.)

Leveling in this first part of the map flew by since they now give us 1000000000000 xp for opening a poi and twice that for doing a heart. Not sure why the dredge heart was removed, but whatever. its going to make map opening a nightmare for brand new players since as i pointed out above the direction/suggestions are goofy.

Not bothering to go into the water until all my water skill are open and not going to both trying to do the downed state stuff until THOSE are unlocked. Still didn’t see them in skills panel.

WHY could i get to level 9 and 10, stand at Twinspur, look at crafting tables, but not use them? If you’re going to gate crafting at least gate it at the level for the area on the map (level. Seriously. I wanted to make a kitten BAG.

Level 10:
Got to level 10, all my skills slots open and i had almost all my possible weapons sitting in my inventory. And ALL of my weapon skills now unlocked with no time to really practice with them. Sure good i know how they already work. Would be horrible for a first time player though since they will have no idea. Good job. Its broken IMO.

Dodging Training:
This made me laugh so hard. Yes, i get it. Dodge through the ring to get to the chest EXCEPT all you are teaching new players is to dodge INTO a red circle and stand there. you know. Red circles. Stand IN them. Yup. That’s what we need to teach them.

I’ll be doing more class tests tonight, but something tells me they are going to be just as laughable. Anet, please have someone answer my questions if possible.

Yeah, when you start in WvW that is exactly what its like. My first time in WvW i was walking around the map just for a looksie and got too close to a camp and was ganked by the NPCs. Next time i was there for map complete and I came across a roamer who wrecked me just outside my spawn.

Now i spend 5+minutes some days fighting 1v3 on my engie and laughing as they can’t kill me, then squirrel on them and make them chase me across the map until i can pick them off. Good times.

(Caveat: I still get caught out there too and get facerolled. Its part of the game mode. have fun.)

I will be testing this out tonight. i will really want to see how fast the 1-15 leveling is now, but I also want to honestly ask these questions of Anet and I want straight forward answers to each bullet point. Not rhetoric or some company line.

1- How does slowing down skill progression thus teach new players about fields and combos?

2- Will there also be tutorials for Necro shroud skills, underwater combat, ranger pets, Engie Toolbelts, Ele conjured weapons, Engie kits? If not, why?

3- Once a new player reaches level 10 (and say only has their first weapons) and they get a new one (with all the skills now unlocked) how does that teach the new player how to suddenly use 5 new skills they never practiced with? Specifically how does this not fly in the face of the very reasons you’ve stated in these forums for that slowed skill progression.

4- How does slowing Utility acquisition until almost half way through the leveling experience benefit a player in areas that less utilities means higher chance of death? Were those higher areas also made easier to accommodate this change?

I honestly would like to know the answers to these questions.

yup its about time they fixed that.

I know. THIS is something that has been needed and wanted for some time. (The only downside is I can’t instantly get my rez daily by finding large groups of downed NPCs on my warrior, hehe)

I guess its pretty much going to be all WvW all the time until i grow tired of that too, or they nerf it into the ground like they have done PvE.

EVERYTHING is now going to be a slog fest. i was willing to concede certain things about the trait changes because it made me refocus more on skills and learning those better. Now? Even skills are gated horribly and the changes to the 1-15 areas are laughably sad.

So many missteps on this one Anet. So many. Seriously. i say that as someone who loves this game and who is saddened to see it hurt in this way.

Xar.6185:

Just wait. Watch the predicable unfold.

Anet: “We’ve made leveling easier for new players!”
Forums: “You mean more tedious…”
Anet: “Well if you think that way we are sorry, but you are welcome to buy the instant leveling scrolls that grant you 40 or 60 levels in the gem store.”

*Anet: “Well if you think that way we are sorry, but you can all write about the issues you have with it in excruciating detail for 50+ pages for the next 5 months and barely acknowledge the thread exists until the the next feature pack rolls around.”

Fixed that for ya.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

PookieDaWombat.6209:

What they really need to do is make it so if you already have level 80s that you can get an option to jump your toon to level 30 or 40 if you don’t want to replay that initial content, or a toggle for you to have it not be so dumbed down.

Weren’t those types of scrolls datamined? I can see these becoming available for purchase in the store eventually, for exactly your reasoning – vets that want to skip the tutorial hassle.

Yeah, see thats the other problem. you just KNOW they are going to put them in the gem store and coyly say “you can just buy them for XXX gems or XXXX gems for 5” which would go further to putting me off from this game. Sad part is i already told someone that I had been trying to come over to the game to just pass it by. Now i have good reason to tell them to keep moving.

Anyone following the info regarding this latest patch might want to make note of how severely this game is being watered down since i think it directly correlates to how much this trait system will not be altered.

What they really need to do is make it so if you already have level 80s that you can get an option to jump your toon to level 30 or 40 if you don’t want to replay that initial content, or a toggle for you to have it not be so dumbed down.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

PookieDaWombat.6209:

I’ll have to watch it at home, but….GAH! dfguiosevn0 48956y3en 0v89drgyn e

ok.

Yeah.

Anet. I just…

So much hate right now.

Breathe Pook, it might not be…. so bad.

Oh hell, who am I kidding.

Anet, put the bundles and the gathering back in. Just give us some pop ups and tool tips that tell morons what to do! Just use simple terms!

Yeah, because reading the heart flavor text must have been HORRIBLE. I mean, they could have just put a big glowing red box around it to make sure people read things. and then did them. sigh

I’m with ya on this. i just don’t know what Anet was thinking here. This makes the trait nonsense pale in comparison.

So are they taking SB out of the swamp or just not giving it AOE? Or making it hit like a wet noodle? Metrica Fire Elemental is going to be even goofier.

I’ll have to watch it at home, but….GAH! dfguiosevn0 48956y3en 0v89drgyn e

ok.

Yeah.

Anet. I just…

So much hate right now.

Crovax.7854:

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Logos.1306:

guys new info

some Renown Hearts will change after patch.

Taking food to feed cows were too complex, so now you only have to F-click the cows.
Taking water buckets were too complex, now you only F-click the plants.
and so on..

so yeah no more fun thinks like running with water and other like that. Now we just F-click everything because this game want to be PEGI 3

I would really laugh my kitten off if they actually did this.

Newsflash: “That’s actually what they did – for real.”

Nope. No. Just no. That has to be a joke. Not, please let this be a joke, but more it HAS to be a joke. I cannot accept that someone thought that it was too hard to learn that you had to pick up a bundle and use it so they just did away with that.

Belenwyn.8674:

Many people seem to forget the flood of posts everywhere with titles like “Where should I go?”, “I feel lost.”; “I am too low”, “Mobs are too high.” or “I am dying all the time” whenever we have a great influx into the game. A large number of players needs more hand holding. Each player lost due to bad guidance and introductions it is potential loss of money. The data showed Arenanet the bitter truth. In China Arenanet heard the same complaints. They had to react. The data mined free trials forces further adjustments to the level experience. The free trial accounts probably will cause the biggest influx since launch. The goial of Arenaet will be to keep as many players as possible in the game who will buy the game afterwards.

As a side effect the new leveling system creates much more challenging content on the way to level 80. You can even say the care bear mode is over. Play the story path of Ascalonian Catacombs with a level 30 character and you will have a real hard mode. Same is valid for the other paths at level 35.

You’re assuming that a) anyone/everyone did the dungeons at the suggested levels or b) most people waited until they were level 80 before doing the dungeons

I admit those dungeons would be more challenging when done at level, but that isn’t how many people play the game (from my experiences and from posts I’ve seen here and elsewhere.)

Xillllix.3485:

You can still use those level-up scrolls or craft your way up.

Last character I made I used 1 scroll, levelled up from 20 to 40, then crafted 6 professions.
Took 2 days for the levelling, 3 hours for the crafting.

I agree however that is seems like they are dumbing the game down.

the problem here is that I used to LIKE going back through those early areas and stories and leveling that way. I dislike having to now level through crafting just so I can PLAY the game with a proper set of skills.

Roybe.5896:

LOL! I guess CC IS dead in PvP/WvW!

CC was dead on Warriors AGES ago.

Fact is warriors can spec for so much CC removal that trying to keep on in any given place with CC or conditions is laughable. This is all while still decked out in Zerk gear for supreme facerolling.

All that being said, there are still ways to get them to go down. If all they are set to do is run away though, then you can go all Jason Voorhees on them and just whittle them down until you spike them or make them go to a different map. Anet isn’t going to fix these issues with Warriors since they have been around since launch. Sure the adrenaline thing will be nice, but given how quickly you can get it back as a warrior it really won’t matter in the long run.

sigh

I am hoping that this will feel ok for new players. I really do. I hope they get from this all that they want and need because if not, Anet will be killing their own game. A game i looked forward to for years. A game I enjoyed playing and defending since beta, but which has recently soured me in the worse way.

I hope their new players like it. I hope their new players will get access to the drytop content without having to pay for episodes they missed simply because they started after they were first released. I hope Anet listens.

Honesty: First and foremost, I am not one of the happier players of the game. i want to tell you that up front so you understand anything the light in which i might say anything here.

That being said, you are new here and have your own adventures in front of you and your own opinions to make regarding the game. Tyria is a huge place with A LOT of places to explore, and if you like a well rounded gaming experience you will have A LOT to do. I’m not kidding. There is always something going on in PvE, PvP, or WvW and the community is one of the best for any MMO I’ve ever played. The fun thing is that any class can be a healer, a DPS, a tank, or anything else in between. As you go into other aspects of the game that require more team play like dungeons and fractals you might need to look into the meta if you want to get all serious biz about them, but if you want to play them casually you can do that as well with the right people.

Many might bag on the story, but i find it to be both engaging and fun to play through and map opening can be a blast your first or even second time through though I will say put some time between your first and second map opening or it might get dull for you.

For starting classes I would say guardian or necro to be honest. Warriors are “easy mode” and can be fun, but i don’t think they are as engaging. (Granted Guardians can also be “easy mode” once you know them well enough.) Engies are super fun, but they are also one of the harder classes to get down, but once you do they are absolute beasts. There are pluses and minuses to all classes in the game mind you, but I’d suggest making one of each class eventually just so you know their strengths and weaknesses.

Most importantly, take your time to get to know your skills early on and realize that if you are already in the game right now some major changes will be hitting today that you might experience/feel if your toon(s) are lower than level 15. Also, ask people on the maps you’re on for help if you get stuck. Plenty of us like to help new players find their way. Don’t stress about endgame nonsense. There has been a ton of new content added lately for level 80s that I hope you’ll be able to get access to once you get to level 80.

Also, if you need or want help with getting traits in Tyria, don’t hesitate to ask people on map. If you want to, you can even add me and if i’m on and in PvE I’d be more than happy to help. Unfortunately I can’t help you in WvW unless you were on Sorrow’s Furnace. All in all i will say that you made a good purchase regardless of my current misgivings with things in game. I just hope you can look past it and enjoy your time here while some of us try to be the sand in Anet’s britches.

NNYinsanenature.5684:

Yeah because in GW1 when they introduced hard mode/vanquishing it was all new maps and enemies right? No, it wasn’t.

No, but amazingly it was WAY more re-playable and (here’s the key word) challenging.

Since the open world map is not instanced though, they can’t do something like this, so their only option is to deliver higher level maps with new enemies with different and possibly harder dynamics. OR open up the weapons to different classes and thereby get us new skills to learn and play with.

Instead all its been is, “hey new players! We’re going to hold your hands a bit more through this so you know exactly what a blast and whirl finisher is instead of you taking it upon yourself to learn this when you’re ready or want to. Oh and we are going to lengthen the time it takes for you to do anything in the game, but thats ok because you can collect spoons and craft more along the way to get random items.” Vet players just get to re-craft, and re-explorer the same maps and dungeons to collect things too, and have an easier time trading them I guess while the have a random mini pace around them. yay?

Right. So it wasn’t broken. Its been made prettier for people who live in the trading post. fair enough. Call a spade a spade.

Please explain to me, as someone who never had any issues opening and using the trading post to find or sell items what exactly was broken about it? All I’ve seen was a post that was one page long from 5 months ago regarding the TP. There is a post that is over 40 pages long with a litany of issues with the new trait system and how if hurts both veteran and new players alike. I’d love to know what is so very confusing about using new gear as you get it and learning how to use FOUR skills when downed. Its not like its that hard to get after the 3rd or 4th time it happens. same with everything from fields and blasting, etc. Could they stand to explain things a bit better in the game? Sure. Do they need to slow down character progression EVEN MORE than it is now just so someone learns where they should or should not go on a map? Or waiting until level 10 to even start your personal story??? That’s utter nonsense. I’ve never heard of ANY player having issues with these things in game, and if someone was struggling and asked a question in game (as with most MMOs I’ve played) people tend to answer their questions. To be honest GW and GW2 were always better about not trolling people on this front as well. This is just a bigger skinner box. nothing more.

lordkrall.7241:

Why would anyone wait for CONTENT in a FEATURE patch? They made it rather clear that there is a rather big difference between the two, which is also the very reason why they have split them up.

Yeah, you’re missing the point that we know the difference and what we want are things which are actually broken to be fixed in feature patches and maybe someday soon REAL content for the game that cannot be completed in just over an hour spoon fed to us over weeks that amounts to 90% reading dialog on the screen between npcs and an occasional fight.

Was the trading post THAT broken that it needed an all hands on deck overhaul? Was/is it more broken than the new traits system? Was leveling in this game so hard to learn that they have put bigger training wheels on this “bike”? Seriously, these feature updates are nonsense meant to lengthen gameplay for new players while holding their hands longer and making them take longer to get through the game so there is a loner period for them to potentially buy more gems as they play.

Argon.1563:

I can’t help but be worried about the big “BUY MOAR GOLD!” Button at the top. Im hoping its just a link to the Currency Converter though.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAhoooboy, oh my…HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

TheBlackLeech.9360:

tofumon.5924:

TheBlackLeech.9360:

Jagdfygar.1394:

I didn’t play before that patch. Many players in this thread didn’t play before that patch. There have been 2 sales since then, and a lot of new players leveling for the first time. Your theory is unfounded.

You are telling me that, you are complaining that something was changed, and you would rather have it be the way it used to be…. when you had no idea how boring and dull it was before? Usually people make a choice after they have experienced both options. Sounds like you have a typical case of “the grass always being greener,” imho.

Old players want the old system back . New players want the old system back. Pretty good hint that nobody likes this new system.

The thing is….. if the whole notion of “the old system” didn’t exist….. nobody would even be complaining.

Imagine…..
Filling your car at the station was completely free for the longest time….
Then someone comes along and says….
From this moment onward, you need to pay for your gasoline.
Imagine the uproar.

back to reality…. if you did the same thing…. asked the same question in the world today….. nobody would be complaining about having to pay, since it has always been this way… and nobody knows what it is like to get free gas. Of course everyone is going to want to get it for free….. but they aren’t going to think that paying for it is so absolutely horrible that they need to complain about it (and sure people will complain about the price…. but they never knew a world where it would be free…. so the notion of paying is already normal)

Same exact thing here.

The only reason anyone is complaining about this is the notion that it used to be given away before.

Oh boy, car metaphors, here we go:

No, what this new system is saying is "Hey you want that gas over there? OK, you just need to take your prius off roading for about 200 miles up that steep incline for 2 gallons of gas. But hey, if there are others out there they can help you up that hill and if not you could always just buy those 2 gallons from me for 50 dollars and one of those rare coins you found. Also, for each gallon over 2 you have to pay me an additional 50 dollars and 3 more of those rare coins, BUT you won’t get to start buying more gas until you’ve driven at least 30,000 miles and then again at the 60,000 mile mark. Oh, and this off road thing is just the beginning. Near the end you’ll have to pull that ptrain on a hitch in your prius, but don’t worry, there should be more people there to help you haul it. Or you know, you can just be lazy and buy the gas with money and coins you probably don’t have.

The system is broken. Strictly from a game design perspective, it is inherently broken as it is now. It is cost prohibitive and does the exact OPPOSITE of what Anet said they intended it for, which was to encourage build diversity. it also highly discourages the creation of alts by new and veteran players alike.

Serbianwolf.1652:

Stephane Lo Presti.7258:

The Feature Pack announcements will continue next week and some of them will definitely contain information that’s relevant to those of you who’ve been playing the game for long. We won’t tell you about them until the articles are live though, to keep the element of surprise!

I can’t be the only one who trusted this, and who got really really mad when they posted Spoon™ rubbish.

No, you’re not alone. We just get shouted down by those that love themselves some spoon collecting.

Here’s the thing: I used to be a HUGE Anet cheerleader. Seriously. I would spend time in the forums tearing down all of the naysayers about a good many things they were saying at the time, mostly because the game was new and as anyone knows, all new games go through growing pains.

Problem here is that these aren’t growing pains. These are real concerns about actual game hurting design and decisions that give the impression of placation and catering to a new lowest common denominator. The people that have been in since beta and playing WvW almost religiously, and the PvE players that want to see more of Tyria and have more challenging open world content are not Anet’s audience anymore. We’re not the ones that they want to hook.

tigirius.9014:

Nope because those of us who stopped playing a while back because of the constant lack of features and imbalance, requested in the suggestions forum multiple times, for non-violent activities that would sit well with the casual and RP crowd. And while players like the OP often forget that we are here and are a large part of the community, the developers haven’t forgotten that and I for one am thankful they added this activity and new skins two things this game has needed for some time now.

This is an MMO called: Guild WARS. WARS. There is fighting. Lots of it. You want to run around and collect things? Pokemon. oh wait, no that has violence in it too. What’s the other one? The farm game, harvest Moon? I think you collect stuff there too. Seriously. There are PLENTY of non-violent things to do in this game already. We don’t need to run around and collect things to get titles in this game. i bought it to run around n Tyria and fight things, preferably harder and harder things as maps open up. Instead there is still tons of map hidden and unreachable 2 years into this game. Its bad enough I am going to have to sit out of most of the rest of this Living Story when it comes back up again just so I can play it all in one go so it feels like a substantial bit of new content.

skullmount.1758:

Astral Projections.7320:

Izaya.2906:

It would be interesting to see what they award for collecting all legendaries lol.

2 greens. 1 blue. ^^

Oh, this is probably going to be the truth. Thats all we normally get.

No, they will also give you a title. maybe. That no one will know what its for but you.

Vayne.8563:

Bleu.5079:

All these new stuff is fancy and all but the point for us vets is, it’s not retroactive! So the super rare and expensive items that I acquired through hard work, sweat and blood all those years/months ago do not apply now?
ANet apparently do not care about vets and long term players. They just want to cater to the new blood and milk their cash.
I wasn’t so concerned when ANet content updates is not as fabulous as the other MMOs out there, but now with the feature updates lacking as well, I’m starting to lose faith in ANet.
It doesn’t help at all that the moment I decided to buy gems from ANet and spend it on an item, it goes on sale the very next day. It doesn’t help at all.
converts to the dark side

What makes you think the game even remember everything a character once owned? Do you know how much wasted space that would take up on servers?

The fact that if you have the achievement already unlocked for say owning cultural armor pieces. i know a few people that bought and owned all of the tiers of human cultural armor, but don’t have it anymore, and when the wardrobe came out they weren’t given the skins for it even though their account clearly shows they bought and wore all three sets. That’s a lot of gold for Anet to ignore.

it means buy more bag and bank space from Anet and hope the final AP also comes with an item or skin, but hey if it doesn’t don’t worry since you’ll have a shiny achievement to look at in your hero panel when you get bored looking for pokemo…I mean spoons or whatever.

Yeah. Good job Anet. Bug fixes, hobo sacks, broken Trait system, a “promise” that this week was going to have stuff “for those veteran players”, and we are greeted with a wardrobe change and collecting stuff.

Or in the case of many things for many veterans, RE-collecting or RE-crafting stuff and RE-exploring maps. For what? A random shiny on a menu only we see? Yay? So, we’re Skritt or something? Is that it?

I don’t like doing dungeons. Never have. I’ve only ever enjoyed myself a handful of times with very specific people and its not like we are all ever on at the same time to do them. I’ve not done about half of them to date and I’ve been here since beta. There are maps I just dislike being on. Period. I disliked slogging through crafting the FIRST time I had to do it, but hey now I get to do it again just to unlock some skins and APs.

None of this is for veteran players that have played this content. Coming up with new “things” for me to keep me occupied is frankly insulting and more importantly just shows Anet is more interested in trying to create the perfect skinner box and not actually deliver content. And before anyone says “Living Story”, just no. Those or small book chapters with an occasional fight thrown in so feel like you are playing a game for a few minutes as opposed to reading a story. You know what would have been awesome? Getting all of Maguuma opened up so we could explorer and map open that with little mordrem events popping up out there and Vistas to get. Not a single map opened up slowly over the course of a few weeks while hoping to already opened maps just to read/hear some more exposition.

I was waiting for these updates to see if i was ever going to buy another gem card. Guess not.