Guild Wars 2

ozmaniandevil.6805:

I will just add that while many people would “oh shame on you” the idea of using gems to buy levels, we already do that. You can buy BL keys, to open BL chests, which may contain an experience scroll. I would simply suggest to take the chance part out and just let us buy the things.

Or just let us buy tomes of experience with skill points. I’d gladly pay 10-20 skill points per tome to level my most unplayed alts, and it would give me something non-legendary and non-siege related to do with them.

Terrifying thought:

What if the center orb is us, and the breaking orb is zhaitan?

We killed zhaitan, and if his essence had to go somewhere, it would make sense that it went in to beings nearby, namely ourselves and destiny’s edge.

Not a lot to support this interpretation, but it would certainly make for an interesting story. Us having plot armor would probably be somehow stabalized by a taimi invention, but we’d have to confront DE who may have been undermining the foundations of the five races, and defeat their dragon-amped selves to save them from it, and we, DE, and the biconics all merrily march on Mordy alone with our dragon-power, because he already dismantled the pact while we were dealing with all that.

Then we’d probably seal the whole bit in a bloodstone or magic doohickey at the end, and use that as the defacto place to put defeated dragons so that we wouldn’t get to keep the awesome power that let like 9 people take down a dragon.

Then, of course, after we put all the dragons in doohickeys someone shows up to try and steal them/use them for evil, like the white mantle or that jerk in the floating tower.

DeWolfe.2174:

Or, at least give us a funny “Meh” vocal for our character as we toss aside stolen skills so we ckittene steal again.

+1 OP

That’s funny, but it makes me wonder:

What if f3 just discarded the stolen item and reduced the steal cooldown in stead? Kinda like how engineers can pack up turrets when they’re not tactically sound. This would mean you could use steal (and its associated traits) more often but not actually get more stolen items, which might actually open up some more viable all-tricks sorts of builds as a better thief support spec. (e.g. stealing reduces recharge on all traps or something)

Shardelyss.4807:

PopeUrban.2578:

Or he can’t, which isn’t unprecedented. Jora couldn’t become the bear in EOTN because of the influence on her of a certain dragon champion. It’s entirely possible that Braham’s inability to transform comes from an outside source, and might even be a future plot thread. Aside from where he used to live, and his relationship to Eir, we really don’t know much about his past at all.

I was thinking of something along the same lines. It might be a mental block of sorts, something that he will have to overcome in the future. It also could be how he was raised and the importance of those transformations figuring in. Perhaps he thinks he’s good “enough” just being a guardian.

Then again, taking animal form doesn’t seem to be as important to norn as it used to, I think this is because they wanted to make racial skills kinda suck, and thus thought it would be weird if the NPCs made like those forms were a big part of being norn when to players they were just kinda meh.

I still sort of wish they’d buff all of the racial skills. I mean, I understand the logic of not having a “this race is the best at this class” dynamic, but maybe if they added a way to learn mechanically identical, but visually different skills from other races similar to the titles in EOTN it wouldn’t be an issue.

For instance, in EOTN humans could learn to take on aspects of spirit animals that gave them shapeshift-style powers, but they didn’t actually shapeshift. Similarly, a lot of the asura skills are just devices, or sylvari skills are mostly just a bit of magic. Stuff like “hounds of balthazar” could just be a pair of golems for asura, or just calling two wolves for norn, etc.

Thus you could have the “flashy version” on the original race, but you could get a “inspired by lessons learned from race X” version on everyone else.

Iavra.8510:

Conditions as a weakness could be fine, but Cleansing Ire kind of totally removes that. Seeing how fast adrenaline regenerates and how LB burst does not need to hit anything for the cleanse, that’s an easy 3 cleanses every 7 seconds.

Also, at least in WvW, since warriors can be built to be practically immune against soft CC, cleansing ire will almost always cleanse something that’s actually damaging.

Right, which isn’t a BIG deal until you factor in classes with mono-condition build options, or copius untargeted condition removal, coupled with ire’s mechanics always functioning better in group fights (because they get hit a lot more) it kind of doubles up on the issues conditions already have in groupfights.

Turamarth.3248:

PopeUrban.2578:

Unless I’ve missed something, my thief only has access to stability from daggerstorm or from taking the new assassin’s equilibrium trait. I’d like to know how I can get more stability without investing a GM trait in to it, what’s the deal?

Since he was talking about steal I assumed he meant Consume Plasma the item you steal from mesmers which grant you all boons.

Yeah, I thought about that and I guess you replied as i was editing

Plasma is pretty fly, I’ll admit that, and it is a thing that is specific to fighting mesmers.

Turamarth.3248:

PopeUrban.2578:

TyPin.9860:

@OP:
I personally have not many issues fighting thieves in WvW or sPvP (neither on shatter, condition nor phantasm builds).

The only thing that throws me always off is the Stability they get from steal. That has nothing to do with the mesmer profession, because we have barely access to stability. We have some, but it is clearly not a typical boon for mesmers.

To be fair, that stability requires GM in acrobatics, which means burst builds don’t usually have access to it, and taking it means you either lose damage or stealth traits.

No points in acrobatics are necessary for that.

Unless I’ve missed something, my thief only has access to stability from daggerstorm or from taking the new assassin’s equilibrium trait. I’d like to know how I can get more stability without investing a GM trait in to it, unless you mean the stability from the mes stolen item?

Carighan.6758:

I think as far as design goals go, Warriors are pretty good as a target.
They have:

• Ability to scale themselves all the way from very high damage to very tanky.
• Multiple ranged and melee options.
• Strong group support.
• Strong selfish setups.
• Useful in sPvP, WvW, PvE, open world, dungeons, everything. Never the wrong profession to bring.
• Stack well with themselves.
• Stack well with external support.

The only think missing is a clearly defined weakness for PvP reasons, IMO. Like Mesmers being rubbish around lots of AE because the illusions won’t even really spawn, Warriors need something to define their achilles heel. Doesn’t have to be terminal and doesn’t have to always be an issue (only in select cases), but yeah, something minor.

In theory they’re supposed to be very vulnerable to conditions, but in practice they’re only “slightly less than awesome” against conditions. This is more a symptom of the problems gamewide with conditions as a whole than anyhing.

Conditions have:

PvE: Too-limited stacking against too-low HP enemies to be as effective as alternatives

WvW/sPvP: Too much aoe/passive condition removal to be a real factor in group fights.

So, really, I think Warriors are a good balance target. They have a number of roles they can perform, can perform all of those roles well when specced for them, and do those roles in a unique way for their class. The only problem is that their designed weakness has fundamental issues when interacting with allies, because conditions simply break down as a concept when allies are present.

TyPin.9860:

@OP:
I personally have not many issues fighting thieves in WvW or sPvP (neither on shatter, condition nor phantasm builds).

The only thing that throws me always off is the Stability they get from steal. That has nothing to do with the mesmer profession, because we have barely access to stability. We have some, but it is clearly not a typical boon for mesmers.

To be fair, that stability requires GM in acrobatics, which means burst builds don’t usually have access to it, and taking it means you either lose damage or stealth traits.

Or he can’t, which isn’t unprecedented. Jora couldn’t become the bear in EOTN because of the influence on her of a certain dragon champion. It’s entirely possible that Braham’s inability to transform comes from an outside source, and might even be a future plot thread. Aside from where he used to live, and his relationship to Eir, we really don’t know much about his past at all.

Oh man, they totally forgot the credits song for LS1. Wait… I got this!

(wooo-ooo-ooo)

Elestian.6134:

PopeUrban.2578:

That’s the beauty of it, you can’t do anything but help other players by taking on events as every event contributes to favor…

I disagree. There is some potential for a new/inexperienced player happening into an organized zone and contributing to the loss of the bonus favor available from several events. The two tendril events are the best example of this, where killing the main tendril first results in the failure of the bonus. Yes, this objective is indicated in the event description, but not all players are equally attentive.

Luckily there’s some leniency, and missing out on a bonus once or twice still puts the map in range of T5. However, earned favor and losses all add up, and that event could have been what tipped the meta. There is some risk, even if very slight.

Fair point there, but I think they’ve done a decent job designing the favor requirements in a manner that one person deciding to start an event can’t just tank the whole thing. If you don’t make, say, T5, it’s not going to be because one guy missed a bonus, it’s going to be because the whole map missed a lot of events.

If fact, as these events spread out I hope we see a much larger spread of small/soloable events that aggregate in to good progress rather than just a small number of zerg/group events that you virtually have to train between.

In this manner the events would work like they were originally intended, where players see something going on nearby, and help out with it, and the whole map working together separately has the same shot as the map that zerg up and runs a train.

DarcShriek.5829:

PopeUrban.2578:

Not going to flame you about it, but requesting gamewide feature changes for edge cases (like motion sickness or lag) that are outside the median experience (the game is designed around users connecting at a good rate, that are reasonably tolerant of rapid camera movements like those found in virtually all modern video games) Isn’t really a great idea.

The “average player” is what the cooldown and mechanics were designed around. Your particular issues creat difficulties with it, and I’m sorry for you, but these issues aren’t the game’s problem, or the problem of the medikittener, they are very specific edge cases that fall outside the expected user experience.

You simply can’t design around every single outlier. It’s impossible.

I take it you disagree with the Americans with Disabilities Act also. I can hear you now, “It’s not the door’s fault your wheelchair is too wide to get through. You can’t expect us to put in a new door just for the one or two people out there that might need it do you?”

Your hostility aside, let me try and explain this point more clearly.

These two points of view are in no way related. It’s like you’re saying video games shouldn’t have minimum requirements, or that the developer should ship free consoles to everyone so nobody is excluded from playing their games.

People don’t choose to be disabled in real life. This is not an analagous argument. People choose to play a given piece of entertainment software with given characteristics. Should we add a mode for the blind to GW2? How would that even work? There are simply limitations in terms of design. If you had to design the game around a dialup connection and fixed camera angles, for instance, you’d have a completely different game. If you were to design an MMO for the blind, you’d have a completely different game. If you were to design a game around players with motion sickness issues and extremely high latency connections, you’d have a completely different game.

I work in software design every day, and every project I’ve worked on counts “target user” as a very important metric before a single line of code is written or a single object modeled. GW2 has certain characteristic expectations of the default user, namely, that they can handle rapid camera movements, and that their ping is within an expected threshold, and that the user can read and speak one of the languages the game ships in. That’s not an unreasonable set of expectations by any means, and it allows them to design more action-focused combat in a 3d world with free user camera control and text based information fields.

I hope that’s a little more clear. It’s not a matter of being hostile toward outliers in a given system, but rather, there are sets of practical limitations that can’t necessarily always be catered to. The wider you make those limits, the narrower the scope of content you can actually create. The aspect jumping was wildly popular, so it’s no wonder arenanet chose to expand the mechanic, and use it in different ways. If they removed it or signifiantly altered the timing for a small subset of players, the impact would be a significant limit on how they could design zones and encounters with that mechanic.

Filaha.1678:

Dwaynas Avatar.1562:

Filaha.1678:

Why should they risk displeasing 85% of the game in order to satisfy 15%?

Ok, this is like talking against a wall.
Maybe the anet devs understand it, if they read this thread.

Funny, I was thinking the same thing, except I’m sure that Arenanet won’t see it your way.

Despite what you seem to want to think, I’m quite well aware that you’re not saying they should make EVERYTHING hard.

However, you’re not getting what I’m saying. If most people want to do the achievements and get the rewards, making it so that most people can’t do the achievements and get the rewards is displeasing.

Again, why should they attempt to please a significant minority which may or may not be pleased with their attempts anyways, just to risk displeasing a majority who may or may not be able to do the achievements but want them?

That’s just illogical and bad business.

MMOs aren’t designed to please everybody. MMOs are designed to please the majority.

Let me put it this way:

Filaha.1678:

How does not having a specific skin prevent someone from enjoying the content?

Also, it’s nobody’s fault but one’s own if one did not level one’s crafting while on one’s way to 80.

Now, take the word “skin” or “title” and say that’s a reward for a completely optional achievement that, like our current LS achievements, only requires doing something extraordinary in existing content.

It’s not an instance of Arenanet actively hurting the populace, it’s an instance of creating a tough challenge with a unique reward. Similarly, very few people got access to a lite of things in past releases, like the monocle, holo wings, jetpack, etc. etc.

The difference is that those who got those rewards quite literally lucked in to it. My thinking is that a “very rare” reward should be a lot more about the play that went in to it than whether or not someone got lucky.

Yes, it’s a badge for people, but it’s not so they can “lord it over” others. It’s giving them a trophy for what was a difficult undertaking. The implementation of the liadri mini and title are great examples of this. It didn’t lock players out of content, and it was very, very light on development time, but it gave the players a unique reward befitting a unique and difficult task.

And that’s all people really want. I’m sure every single person that’s ever solo’d lupi would love to have a title or mini or skin rather than nothing. It’s not about creating a walled garden of content like some irritating raid progression that only a small portion of the player base will ever experience. It’s about rewarding players for their play.

The current achievement setup is a big step in that direction, and it does reward well, but what it doesn’t do is create that “I walked naked in to the monster’s lair, destroyed him with my bare hands, and here’s the scar to prove it” feeling.

We play story content to experience the story, we play zones for bulk acquisition and occasionally getting lucky, but we have precious few things in the game that carry the expectation and corresponding reward for doing something truly above and beyond.

Couch it however you want, the reward system in this game is by and large completely cosmetic, however the vast majority of cosmetic rewards are handed out wither for repeating a relatively simple task a large number of times, or for just stumbling in to a run of good luck. Why shouldn’t those who want to take on tough challenges rather than farm or RNG rewards have a spot at that table as well? It’s a small spot, for a small amount of effort, for a small amount of players.

Filaha.1678:

PopeUrban.2578:

Filaha.1678:

Smokey.7652:

While what you are saying is true right now you have to consider long term. What happens when a season five instance affects a season three instance that affects a personal story instance. That is where the amount of data starts to pile up. While your idea might work as a stop gap I would rather have them put resources into a long-term fix rather then a stop gap.

I’m thinking long-term. What happens when a season five instance affects a season three instance that affects a personal story instance under the current system?
Let’s say that after season 2, Primordus decides to burn away the vines at Concordia?
Then not only do you have charred remains of vines in your personal story, but in the season 2 stuff as well!

Under the current system, they’re limited in what they can do later. You can’t clean up Fort Salma or Concordia now, because then it’d affect how the season 2 instance looks. Would have an even larger disconnect if you’re running through the attack on Fort Salma while there’s evidence of Jormag’s minions running about.

The general, outside-instance world map already forces a huge disconnect on having a solid living world, because as soon as you enter Orr, you’re suddenly fighting Zhaitan again. We’re in season 2 now, Zhaitan has been dead for a while, and yet running into Orr suddenly flings you back into the past because everything is still about killing Zhaitan and fighting back the corruption which is supposed to have been cleansed.

It pretty much precludes anything from happening in Orr now, unless they retrofit the entire zones to have the corruption be gone and Zhaitan out of the picture, except then when you go do the personal story, suddenly it’s not corrupted and you’re fighting corruption that’s not there.

You’re never actually fighting Zhaitan. You’re fighting risen, and pushing toward arah. The personal story was pretty clear that cleansing Orr and killing Zhaitan doesn’t magically make all the risen explode, but rather that it creates the possibility that eventually, one day, the pact can actually destroy them all.

Incorrect.

NPCs still refer to Zhaitan as an active force, as well as referring to the lands you’re trying to take as belonging to Zhaitan. For example, the attached screenshot was just taken. Notice the present tense. Zhaitan “sends”, not “used to send”. If Zhaitan is dead according to the general world map, then someone should inform the guys still here trying to fight him.

By running around on the Orr maps, you are, effectively, running around in an undetermined time before the end of the personal story, while only a couple zones away, Zhaitan is dead and Mordremoth is in your base, killing your dudes.

That’s not the first, and probably won’t be the last asynchronous NPC side-dialogue. Game is riddled with them. However what I stated is the official explanation for old forum topics like “Why doesn’t Zhaitan fly over Orr” or “Why isn’t Zhaitan a world boss” as well as “Where the heck was the pact during season 1?”

The pact is still quite busy killing risen. In Orr. In The official timeline.

Absconditus.6804:

PopeUrban.2578:

Sweetblue Huntress.9856:

On a related note, when I received my reward after Belinda died and I’m feeling sad watching Kas and Jory cry, there goes my character:

<cue maniacal laughter> Mine, alll mine!

I actually cringed.

Same here, the whole sad scene played out… my character remaining appropriately and stoically silent… Kasmeer looks at me as i clikc on her to try and say something, and then I come up with:

“YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MUCH TREASURE!”

I laughed, then felt a little guilty.

All I could come up with was.. “Soooo… about that sword. Could I have it? What..? Too soon?”—On a related note, I really liked the cutscene itself though, there was a good amount of custom animations in it which was really nice to see, so good job to whoever did that cutscene. Keep the cutscenes coming, yay for cutscenes!

You misunderstand sir. My character literally said those exact words without my prompting him to do so (because he looted a rare from the reward) It’s one of the male human “rare loot” voice lines.

Xiahou Mao.9701:

PopeUrban.2578:

True, however the tradable rewards are in no way unique (aside from ambrite, which is an example of a better design specifically because it is tradable) and in order to leverage geodes you’re_ forcing_ players in to a content loop of geodes>keys>chests rather than encouraging that loop because it’s cheaper than buying the geodes or keys from others.

Actually, there are unique tradable rewards from the buried chests in Dry Top. The Adventurer’s Scarf and Adventurer’s Spectacles are new armour skins that are only available in those chests, and can be traded if you get them.

I’m aware of that, but it doesn’t change the fact that hte majority are not. Heck, the food is account bound. That’s just weird.

I’ve got this one guys.

Believe it or not, contemporary last names are used all over. Open a family tree and you’re sure to find something that works really well. There’s no shortage of “normal human” names “Smith” “Thackery” “Meade” “Delequa” are a few notables.

Most players try to make themselves sound more important (and for some reason asian) as far as I can tell, so if you want to go for 99% of the roleplaying community try something like:

“Miso Lightsoup” or “Kayomi Nightravager”

Just make sure your first name sounds vaguely japanese that you heard in your favorite anime show (despite having an obviously non-canthan character) and your last name is a combination of two words.

Or give yourself a title! That way you sound really important despite having achieved nothing important!

Remember, it’s important to have an abnormal name, that way everyone knows how heroic you are!

My name is Mac Twinsong. I’m only halfway there, sadly. Stupid tyrian heritage.

I concur, Though I’d also like to note that Elonian humans don’t necessarily have naturally curly hair, and some canthans/tyrians DO have naturally curly hair!

As far as I can tell from looking at NPCs in GW1 and GW2, in tyria, hair is much more flexible a genetic marker than on earth, and thus, dark skin and african-looking features don’t automatically equate to tightly curled hair, but rather hair is more like eye color, in that it’s far more genetically isolated.

That said, I’d love to see some more tight curls, relaxed curls, dredlocks, afros, braids, and other options avaliable for humans to give us the sort of “hair type” diversity asura enjoy.

Filaha.1678:

Smokey.7652:

While what you are saying is true right now you have to consider long term. What happens when a season five instance affects a season three instance that affects a personal story instance. That is where the amount of data starts to pile up. While your idea might work as a stop gap I would rather have them put resources into a long-term fix rather then a stop gap.

I’m thinking long-term. What happens when a season five instance affects a season three instance that affects a personal story instance under the current system?
Let’s say that after season 2, Primordus decides to burn away the vines at Concordia?
Then not only do you have charred remains of vines in your personal story, but in the season 2 stuff as well!

Under the current system, they’re limited in what they can do later. You can’t clean up Fort Salma or Concordia now, because then it’d affect how the season 2 instance looks. Would have an even larger disconnect if you’re running through the attack on Fort Salma while there’s evidence of Jormag’s minions running about.

The general, outside-instance world map already forces a huge disconnect on having a solid living world, because as soon as you enter Orr, you’re suddenly fighting Zhaitan again. We’re in season 2 now, Zhaitan has been dead for a while, and yet running into Orr suddenly flings you back into the past because everything is still about killing Zhaitan and fighting back the corruption which is supposed to have been cleansed.

It pretty much precludes anything from happening in Orr now, unless they retrofit the entire zones to have the corruption be gone and Zhaitan out of the picture, except then when you go do the personal story, suddenly it’s not corrupted and you’re fighting corruption that’s not there.

You’re never actually fighting Zhaitan. You’re fighting risen, and pushing toward arah. The personal story was pretty clear that cleansing Orr and killing Zhaitan doesn’t magically make all the risen explode, but rather that it creates the possibility that eventually, one day, the pact can actually destroy them all.

Filaha.1678:

PopeUrban.2578:

It’s not at all suprising. GW2 is based around a crafting materials economy, and expects all players noncombat play to be involved in that aspect of the game. It doesn’t have systems for crafters to turn crafting in to income, but rather assumes everyone is crafting everything (because they let you do that easily), and that the base materials are all of the value.

In addition, because everyone has easy access to crafting, adding craftable rewards without requiring them to be crafted would just make crafting, and thus the economy redundant and a waste of time.

Anet wants everyone to craft, and always has. It’s the most reliable source of stats, and is extremely quick to do for that reason. The entire ingame economy is built around it on purpose, and as a result new rewards will always include some crafting.

If you’re not a crafter, however, the LS rewards being account bound is a huge problem. I believe anet should stop making every single thing account bound, allowing players who choose not to craft to benefit from the crafting economy of new rewards by selling things. Not being able to sell geodes, keys, or recipies doesn’t encourage people to play content, it forces them to. That’s a perfect implementation for time limited content, but for permanent content it’s bad for the overall longevity of new zones.

Or you could use the geodes on lockpicks and use the lockpicks to open chests which give you a bunch of rewards, including champ bags. I got Lord Taeres’s Shadow from one of them. You also get Ambrite, which you can sell.

True, however the tradable rewards are in no way unique (aside from ambrite, which is an example of a better design specifically because it is tradable) and in order to leverage geodes you’re_ forcing_ players in to a content loop of geodes>keys>chests rather than encouraging that loop because it’s cheaper than buying the geodes or keys from others.

Personally, I like getting my own stuff, but I don’t think that in the long term, as the new LS format adds more and more to the world having the majority of unique zone rewards being account bound is a good thing. “old zone syndrome” is already going to ensure players are most heavily concentrated in newer zones, but by making so many things account bound you’re requiring players who may want rewards from other zones, but don’t want to play year old content to get them to abandon their preferred method, and making play for those players who genuinely like to populate those older zones less profitable.

After all, once I unlock the recipies, they may as well not be on the vendor for all the good they would do me, and if I’m a new player a year from now that wants them I’m going to have a really long and drawn out process to get them despite the fact that I may otherwise prefer to do other content I enjoy to trade for rewards with a player that enjoys the dry top content.

See, if more things were tradable, it’s a win for everyone. I can play dry top, and someone else can play, say, Janthir, and we both benefit from each others play and help to ensure it remains rewarding. The account bound system means I get to enjoy myself, but consistantly lose reward potential, and the Janthir guy has to do something he may not enjoy.

Filaha.1678:

PopeUrban.2578:

Rainin.9812:

Achievements only attainable by a small percentage of players are annoying.. Just my honest opinion. You are discouraging players who may have a hard time with some stuff skill wise, but still try hard to complete all event achievements. Go try to solo Arah or take a Fort in WvW by yourself. You may like beating your head against a wall, but not everyone does.

Let’s rename the whole system “handouts” then. In fact, why bother requiring anyone to do anything to get them at all? Just fill in the blanks of the character sheet when you log in. Actually, that would exclude people on vacations. Just automatically attribute them to accounts! But then what about people who don’t have accounts yet? Actually, we’d better just give them credit when they establish the account too.

In fact, why is there a losing team in sPvP? Why are there TWO losing teams in WvW? We should probably change those systems too, so that the rewards are fair for everyone that tried.

You see what I’m getting at?

Extraordinary effort or skill should absolutely rewarded with extraordinary rewards. That content should exist, and certain rewards should absolutely be reserved for those who go above and beyond to get them. That’s a large part of the problem with GW2. It does a great job of adding inclusive content, but it doesn’t implement any sort of enhanced risk/reward mechanics to give people any reason to attempt to improve.

“Trying” should never be grounds for completely optional and supposedly “elite skill based” content. Just because it’s PvE doesn’t automatically entitle every single player to every single reward. Just as PvP, there should be variant levels of challenge with corresponding levels of reward. Doing well should confer greater rewards.

The achievements are permanent now, so there’s no applicable excuse outside player ability, which can be practiced and improved upon, for those who want an achievement to not, uh, achieve that goal.

The problem is with players that feel they deserve every achievement, and drop, and rare thing in the game simply because they tried to get it. Achievements are not and never should have been things people deserve but rather things people have to make a concerted effort to earn

And at the end of the day, excluding a majority of the game because a handful of elitists think the game should give them things only they can get is just plain bad business.

Especially in a game which relies on people to actively WANT to spend money on the game, and isn’t subscription based.

I’ve already pointed out how you can get extra challenge if you desire challenge. That way, you get the challenge you want, everyone gets the rewards they are willing to try for.

You’ve also pointed out why you don’t think that extra challenge should be rewarded in any way

That’s extremely bad business. it’s the same reason people complain about “two blues and a green”

This is why dungeons have chests at the end, and why mobs drop loot. Effort+skill=reward.

When the rewards don’t match the challenge, it creates a loop of unfulfilling content that drives a static game with nothing to strive for, and nothing to do but grind uninteresting content aimed at the lowest common denominator.

Of course the core story and zone content should be as accessible as possible, and it should be the majority of the game, but the game also needs world bosses, and elite achievements, and other really difficult content with unique rewards in order to create rewarding play for those that do go above and beyond.

Rainin.9812:

Achievements only attainable by a small percentage of players are annoying.. Just my honest opinion. You are discouraging players who may have a hard time with some stuff skill wise, but still try hard to complete all event achievements. Go try to solo Arah or take a Fort in WvW by yourself. You may like beating your head against a wall, but not everyone does.

Let’s rename the whole system “handouts” then. In fact, why bother requiring anyone to do anything to get them at all? Just fill in the blanks of the character sheet when you log in. Actually, that would exclude people on vacations. Just automatically attribute them to accounts! But then what about people who don’t have accounts yet? Actually, we’d better just give them credit when they establish the account too.

In fact, why is there a losing team in sPvP? Why are there TWO losing teams in WvW? We should probably change those systems too, so that the rewards are fair for everyone that tried.

You see what I’m getting at?

Extraordinary effort or skill should absolutely rewarded with extraordinary rewards. That content should exist, and certain rewards should absolutely be reserved for those who go above and beyond to get them. That’s a large part of the problem with GW2. It does a great job of adding inclusive content, but it doesn’t implement any sort of enhanced risk/reward mechanics to give people any reason to attempt to improve.

“Trying” should never be grounds for completely optional and supposedly “elite skill based” content. Just because it’s PvE doesn’t automatically entitle every single player to every single reward. Just as PvP, there should be variant levels of challenge with corresponding levels of reward. Doing well should confer greater rewards.

The achievements are permanent now, so there’s no applicable excuse outside player ability, which can be practiced and improved upon, for those who want an achievement to not, uh, achieve that goal.

The problem is with players that feel they deserve every achievement, and drop, and rare thing in the game simply because they tried to get it. Achievements are not and never should have been things people deserve but rather things people have to make a concerted effort to earn

It’s not at all suprising. GW2 is based around a crafting materials economy, and expects all players noncombat play to be involved in that aspect of the game. It doesn’t have systems for crafters to turn crafting in to income, but rather assumes everyone is crafting everything (because they let you do that easily), and that the base materials are all of the value.

In addition, because everyone has easy access to crafting, adding craftable rewards without requiring them to be crafted would just make crafting, and thus the economy redundant and a waste of time.

Anet wants everyone to craft, and always has. It’s the most reliable source of stats, and is extremely quick to do for that reason. The entire ingame economy is built around it on purpose, and as a result new rewards will always include some crafting.

If you’re not a crafter, however, the LS rewards being account bound is a huge problem. I believe anet should stop making every single thing account bound, allowing players who choose not to craft to benefit from the crafting economy of new rewards by selling things. Not being able to sell geodes, keys, or recipies doesn’t encourage people to play content, it forces them to. That’s a perfect implementation for time limited content, but for permanent content it’s bad for the overall longevity of new zones.

Shiren.9532:

Crossplay.2067:

I agree that the group needs more conflict amongst themselves. They don’t have to be full-on dysfunctional but isn’t it about time Brahm got into an argument with Rox over being over-protective?

I would argue that wouldn’t be enough. The overall tone, right down to the core values of the group, is too similar. Even the very easy to believe, difficult to dismiss racial prejudice between charr and humans was thrown out the window with Kasmeer, Marjory and Rox. The Camdens from 7th Heaven (a soppy family drama that took on contemporary moral issues in the 90s and 00s from a Christian and famliy values perspective, usually ending with feel good fuzzies, love and justice * Sailor Moon pose *) had more conflict than the biconics.

Maybe Destiny’s Edge relied too much on monotone internal drama, but the biconics have gone the other direction with the “we are a loving supporting family, each one of us is beautiful no matter what the world says, boo prejudice lets all drink milk at a bar” * Sailor Moon pose.. in a wheel chair because yay representation *. All jokes aside, having softer characters that can be feminine and strong, that don’t approach everything filled with testosterone and explosions, that can love each other etc, all of that is good, but I feel like the biconics are all in that same basket. Sure you won’t see Rox care about her “dress” as much as Kasmeer and Braham can be aggressive when protecting someone, but the entire group is motivated by love… except Taimi (kinda, she differs from most asura in that she willingly and actively chases out the company of non-asura). When you have charr rejecting warbands, norn not prioritising their legends and asura not condescending everyone, calling them bookahs and talking about cuteness, you’ve lost a lot of the edge those races had.

They have moments of aggression, brutishness, ruthlessness, but not one of them frequently displays or represents that, not even the norn, charr or asura. Any moments where it does pop up (Marjory’s ruthless demeaner in the Breachmaker) is washed away by an Tequatl Wave of ‘feels’ (every other moment in the history of these characters ever). Small moments or changes won’t be enough, it’d be like trying to make a member of the Tea Party appealing to someone on the far left.

Nilkemia.8507:

Crossplay.2067:

I agree that the group needs more conflict amongst themselves. They don’t have to be full-on dysfunctional but isn’t it about time Brahm got into an argument with Rox over being over-protective?

We had that with the original Destiny’s Edge, and it was annoying.

It was annoying in excess. It solely defined the groups presence in the game (they were iconic of their races and typical traits of those races, but their group dynamic was all about the angst). Had Desinty’s Edge been explored in-game at a different point in time (say, when the group formed during the novel) we would have seen them as a functional team. Arguably we can still have that if they return (after their reunion in Arah). I personally find the general tone of the biconics to be annoying. It’d be nice to see some lasting conflict in the group and a general evolution away from bright eyed, naive love warriors. Racial conflict, philosophically different characters (not a monotone theme of “family is important”), moral complexity – these things are healthy. Snaff’s death resulting in a break up was good, almost 80 levels of dealing with that fall out (and very little else) was bad.

Give season 2 some time. We’re already seeing Taimi reaching to potentially dangerous levels of curiosity, which could cause a conflict of opinions between Braham and Rox. Belinda’s death seems primed to drive a wedge between Marjory and Kasmeer. We got in scarlet’s go-crazy machine and might start seeing others view us with a more suspicious eye. If the first dragon story was any indication, things will probably get a lot worse before they get better. If anything this has the potential to be a more effective story because we were there for the formation of this new band, any may be much more directly responsible for helping them work through dark times.

Sweetblue Huntress.9856:

On a related note, when I received my reward after Belinda died and I’m feeling sad watching Kas and Jory cry, there goes my character:

<cue maniacal laughter> Mine, alll mine!

I actually cringed.

Same here, the whole sad scene played out… my character remaining appropriately and stoically silent… Kasmeer looks at me as i clikc on her to try and say something, and then I come up with:

“YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MUCH TREASURE!”

I laughed, then felt a little guilty.

I think underwater combat having unique weapons and profession mechanics is a good one, but that properly balancing it is simply going to have to wait until there’s a compelling reason to do so (e.g. completely underwater zones/maps)

I would expect a full balance pass and probably new GM traits, gear, etc. when this happens, likely as part of a LS arc dealing with bubbles. That way they can get it all in one go, working on the pvp and pve implications of the system at one time.

Anet knows that underwater combat is a mess (they pretty much removed it from PvP) but it isn’t a big enough issue right now to bother with. I wouldn’t be surprised if the next big feature pack release was all about underwater mechanics though.

Not going to flame you about it, but requesting gamewide feature changes for edge cases (like motion sickness or lag) that are outside the median experience (the game is designed around users connecting at a good rate, that are reasonably tolerant of rapid camera movements like those found in virtually all modern video games) Isn’t really a great idea.

The “average player” is what the cooldown and mechanics were designed around. Your particular issues creat difficulties with it, and I’m sorry for you, but these issues aren’t the game’s problem, or the problem of the medikittener, they are very specific edge cases that fall outside the expected user experience.

You simply can’t design around every single outlier. It’s impossible.

So, by your logic people should never die, or become sick, or experience any kind of adversity in a fantasy setting because it echoes horrible and uncomfortable things that happen in reality?

Stop and consider that you are projecting your own issues outward on to:

A character that isn’t defined by her handicap.
A grieving loner that is learning that friendships may be more powerful than muscle.
A couple that is… okay, they talk about their feelings bit much. I’ll give you that one.

You’re suggesting that we should never make war movies because veterans exist, that we should never make murder mysteries because people actually get murdered. You’re suggesting that an uplifting story about overcoming adversity, predjudice, social stigma, and global terror is somehow a negative thing.

I’m sure you have your own issues, but being hypersensitive about them and expecting the world to revolve around you is not only unrealistic, it’s offensive. You could have looked at taimi and seen a shining example of someone overcoming personal issues, and being defined by what she’s good at rather than her handicap. In stead you chose to see it as an attack directed at you.

I hope you work through your own personal difficulties, I really do, but suggesting that a positive message is somehow negatively resonant is just a marker of your own bitterness and pessimism, and doesn’t at all represent the tone or content of the story as presented. it’s not the greatest story ever told, but it’s certainly not being told in a way that intentionally or even passively offensive.

Palador.2170:

Shiren.9532:

Personally I think co-ordination of the dynamic events and the need to time and plan for the whole phase detracts from the open world experience. Dynamic events which occur on a timer and encourage players to “learn the map” and trigger things en mass is such a huge departure from one of the great things about dynamic events – they are dynamic!

It loses the feel of exploring the world and performing random acts of heroism and replaces it with timetables and planning.

While looking around Dry Top, I find myself asking “Wait, will I hurt other players by doing this event?” That’s a question we should NEVER have to ask ourselves. I won’t be surprised if it starts to turn Dry Top as toxic as Queensdale occasionally used to be during the champ train days.

That’s the beauty of it, you can’t do anything but help other players by taking on events as every event contributes to favor, and there are, since the new section of the map was revealed, more events present than are required to reach T5.

At worst you’ll make someone complain that they missed a few geodes, but that’s no more important than someone complaining they missed karma as you can get more geodes from chest hunting than you’ll get from doing events in the first place.

Personally, i’ve been running d/d+SB hybrid with the new lifesteal trait, signet of malice, mad king runes, and carrion gear, and fire and condi transfer sigils.

It takes a lot of situational play to make effective, but I’ve found it capable of staying up in most situations from high sustain combined damage types. The mad king runes turn basilisk venom in a to pretty nice heal + instant ranged stun (for 1v1), or an uninterrupted daggestorm in to an extremely awesome zerg-sustain, as well as buffing both damage types in a way that really helps the hybrid damage.

It’s not going to win any DPS races, but its got a good selection of evades, heals, stealth, condi clears. And melee/ranged heal over time to do pretty well in most sectors of play. The spammable whirl and blast combos it puts out make it valuable in group play, and it’s got enough damage to keep pressure on targets on all sizes and numbers.

Personally, I just use 6 for it, but I use an aftermarket keyboard and mouse with a lot of thumb buttons:

Merc stealth (I’ve been in love with this keyboard layout since the original zboard merc)
http://content.hwigroup.net/images/products/xl/070993/steelseries_merc_stealth_illuminated.jpg
The smallish space/c buttons and double-row arced number keys give great access to hotkeys, and it’s easy to use the hotkeys while moving because of the oversized WASD

I use 1-5 as normal, steal on 6 (and the other f keys on RFV for other classes) and then 7-0 for heals-elite, and c for “show ally nametags” so that I never lose red names but can easily see green names whenever I want.

Madcatz MMO7
http://cdn.eteknix.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/cyborg_rat7mmo_featured.jpg

The high concentration of thumb buttons with big surfaces and easy to learn positions I use to bind dodge, stow weapon, weapon swap, walk, ventrilo push to talk, etc. I use several of the other buttons for inventory, map, etc. I like dodge and swap on the mouse as it makes it very easy to swap/dodge any direction at a moment’s notice and it becomes impossible to fat finger and screw it up.

I’ve used this setup for a couple years now and I find I can’t play games without them any more. Pricey peripherals, but they’re well built and give great ergonomic and intuitive layouts that are easy to learn and give you quick access to all the buttons you’re likely to need for any game.

Also, they’re both black with blue LEDs in them which matches my other gear, and that makes be happy

Kain Francois.4328:

PopeUrban.2578:

Kain Francois.4328:

Air Magick.

/thread

hush, you’re ruining the fun.

Centaurs are also known for being masters of the Earth Element, and this is highlighted by both the Human tutorial boss, and Ulgoth fight.

If anything, Centaurs probably just make stone bridges for themselves.

Or conjuring giant stone hands that just throw them places.

I think it’s possible that our PC will experience flashes/visions as a result of our exposure to the machine, and that will place us more central to the plot, like were were in EOTN.

I don’t thinking locking the LS content behind dungeons is a great idea, but I do think that a new dungeon or two every season is a good call.

Basically, have the LS bit be the “story mode” only a little easier like the solo story instances, and use the explorable paths as more classic dungeon content.

Obviously it’s a mundane sword of family lineage destined to become a thing of legend when it is used to avenge Belinda’s death by slaying Mordremoth.

Marjory will wield it as a new symbol of krytan office when she ascends to the krytan throne as the hidden heir after Mordy kills jennah. Greatsword necros are all legendary heroes.

She’ll let you borrow it though.

Kain Francois.4328:

Air Magick.

/thread

hush, you’re ruining the fun.

Kalavier.1097:

PopeUrban.2578:

Kalavier.1097:

A: The centaurs and the camp (and everywhere we see them in really) are ALL accessible by ramps and walking. The one place that isn’t just needs a vine bridge.
B: They’ve been there a good while. They likely just lived up there the entire time in the first place.

You’re telling me the centaurs on the high ledges around the raptor area, with no caves or natural steps, that can only be reached by a series of crystal jumps lived up there alone their whole lives?

Also, I’ll remind you again of the fact that tyrian centaurs can’t cross a shallow creek without a bridge. in fact, blowing up a single bridge is the only thing that has stopped them from completely overrunning fort salma in the first place.

The magumma centaurs don’t look particularly differently adapted.

There’s no good explanation for it, it’s simply video game logic which can’t be rationally explained.

The Maguuma Centaurs have been living in the region for 250+ years at the least, likely longer.

Gameplay. As you said, video game logic. So why are you trying to force it in?

ALSO, talking to a Seraph near the bridge, her comment was “To win this, we have to control how the Centaurs move supplies” (Also the fact Salma has two fronts, the bridge merely is one…)

Ever thing the reason the bridge is so important is because it’d let the centaurs move supplies to set up siege weapons across the river easier? Because that stream does move along and the only true ‘ramp’ of good size up from it is on the Salma side, not the Centaur side.

Oh I assure you, I’m aware of the state of magumma centaurs in ancient times, and have credible information handed down from ancient tyrians to whom I am closely related that they couldn’t jump or climb back then either. In fact, nobody did, really, Tyria was conveniently separated in to a series of flat corridors. It was really convenient! There were a LOT more giant vines then though.

Also, they were kinda big jerks back then.

Djinn.9245:

Mountain Goats are not only a lot lighter but they have a much lower center of gravity and split hooves. All make a HUGE difference.

Also this!

Honestly, I’m of the opinion that the trees, and sylvari, aren’t as fundamentally connected to the dragons as that, but rather that they were engineered as weapons, specifically by those who may have revered mord or an enlightened champion of mord in the same way that the zephyrites revere glint.

Think about it, why would an entity that can crush its enemies from the very earth bother with such a convoluted scheme? He’s obviously more than capable of conjuring all manner of perfectly good minions without a secondary 20-year gestation vector.

In short, the terrible secret of the sylvari isn’t that they’re supposed to be dragon minions, but that they are tyria’s equivalent of a chemical weapon. A thing designed only for violence. The pale tree we know, thanks to ventari’s teachings, found this an abhorrent destiny, and sought to change it before she birthed her own litter of carpet bombs.

Kalavier.1097:

A: The centaurs and the camp (and everywhere we see them in really) are ALL accessible by ramps and walking. The one place that isn’t just needs a vine bridge.
B: They’ve been there a good while. They likely just lived up there the entire time in the first place.

You’re telling me the centaurs on the high ledges around the raptor area, with no caves or natural steps, that can only be reached by a series of crystal jumps lived up there alone their whole lives?

Also, I’ll remind you again of the fact that tyrian centaurs can’t cross a shallow creek without a bridge. in fact, blowing up a single bridge is the only thing that has stopped them from completely overrunning fort salma in the first place.

The magumma centaurs don’t look particularly differently adapted.

There’s no good explanation for it, it’s simply video game logic which can’t be rationally explained.

There are no original ideas, just well concealed plagarism

The tree (and those like it) came from a seed. A better question is where the seed came from.

Xukavi.4320:

I was with the idea of balance of the eternal alchemy and the elder dragons but something just came to mind. If the pale tree knows of this balance and how critical it is to the world, why would Sylvari be fighting the elder dragons? Why would any Sylvari’s mission in life (like Caithe and the PC if Sylvari) be to kill Zhaitan.

It’s entirely possible that the tree didn’t actually KNOW this information, but rather that the dragons are a threat to her personally (being a thing full of magic)

Episode 3 should shine some light on the subject, assuming we get that audience and get to ask her about it.

We need a set of chicken runes that imbue your elite with chicken power. The added effects are the same for all elites, but differ by class.

Like so!

Guardian Elites (Spirit Chicken)
Your elite skill also summons a spirit chicken which will fight for you for X seconds. You may use the elite skill button again while this chicken is active to detonate the chicken, healing all allies in range for Y and granting them Z seconds of aegis.

Warrior Elites (Banner of Poultry)
When using your elite skill, you also plant a Banner of Poultry. While planted, this banner summons one chicken every three seconds. This banner has similar skills to other banners, but wielding it will cause all summoned chickens to attack your primary target, inflicting minor damage, blindness, and bleeding.

Engineer Elites (Hyperstable Hatchery)
When using your elite skill, you also summon a hyperstable hatchery at your location containing a single elite chicken. This hatchery generates one egg every two seconds while active. Allies may pick up these eggs and consume them for X health and remove a condition, or throw them at enemies to inflict Y damage and inflict 5 stacks of a random condition.

Ranger Elites (Call of Poultry)
When you use your elite skill, you also summon a single chicken. This chicken is invincible, and deals no autoattack damage, however this chicken counts as a pet for the purpose of all pet-based attacks and effects, effectively making these skills twice as effective for its duration. While call of poultry is active, you suffer no ill effects from pets being incapacitated.

Thief Elites (Chickens of Shadow)
When you use your elite, you summon five stealthed Chickens of Shadow. These chickens can not attack or be attacked, but when picked up may be used as environmental weapons by allies. Chickens of shadow have two skills when weilded, and once a skill is used the chicken will flee:
Squawk – The noisy chicken Dazes up to 5 opponents within 600 range of the caster for 1 second
Flap – Attempts to take flight, pulling the user 800 units forward while evading for 3/4 a second

Elementalist Elites (Chickenado)
When you use your elite skill, you also summon a Chickenado at your location, the chickenado persists for 20 seconds, moving in random directions and knocking back nearby enemies.

Mesmer Elites (Phantasmal Chickens)
When you use your elite skill, you also summon five phantasmal chickens. These chickens can not attack or be attacked, but count as phantasms for the purpose of all skills and shatters.

Necromancer Elites (Well of Chickens)
When you use your elite skill, you also summon a well of chickens (literally, a shallow well full of chickens) at your location. Enemies caught within the well are blinded and crippled, and take damage each second they remain within the well.

You changed VAs in GW1 and nobody cared much. In addition, it’s not as if only one actor ever can do a suitable impression of a specific voice.

Remove waypoints, give me my own pact airship. Surely I’ve earned it by now, right?

They’re grey trash items that you can actually get good loot from occasionally. I fail to see the problem.

Yes, however I’m not familiar with the concept of the mountain horse. Centaurs are easily as big/weigh as much as horses and as a basic function of physics need space to accelerate to propel that much mass. Mountain goats are much smaller, lighter, and as a result also have far less dense bones.

Okay, yeah, too much physics, but my point is you don’t usually see centaurs as mountain folk, because it seems a little out of place. In all of GW history the centaurs have been traditionally unable to do certain fine work or acrobatic feats (which is why they bother to enslave humans, to do jobs they are physically incapable of (like climbing scaffolds and cliffsides) or find difficult due to their size.

In fact, Tyrian centaurs can’t even cross a meandering stream without getting someone to build a bridge over it. You’re telling me a race that is completely isolated from a geographical area by a shallow creek is somehow capable of scaling sheer cliffs that your everyday human requires a special crystal full of ancient dragon magic to navigate?

I don’t buy it!

More importantly, I want to know how all of these centaurs get to the impossibly high ledges we need to use zephyrite crystals for. They’re centaurs, right? Climbing, jumping, and tightrope walking are not among the centaur’s skillset as far as we know.