Guild Wars 2

I’ll agree with the sentiment about deadly arts. I play a condi thief and have since launch. The only two good reasons to take DA were mug and lotus, mug got an interesting rework (that just so happenned to buff my SoM passive heal build) but lotus was straight up nerfed when our poison uptime was increased, presumably to keep us from perma-weakening stuff along with easily perma poisoning it.

I use and LIKE improvisation (I actually use it for the RNG in my build) but I agree that it needs to, at the very least, count stolen items as a bundle for the purposes of the damage bonus.

After the update to the GM Trickery finally got the love it needed to be a viable 30-pointer but deadly arts still has several traits that are just “meh” and need to be addressed.

In addition, the range on our venom share and trickery’s group buffs should be increased to at least match that of warrior banners. I mean we have group utility on paper, but in practice the range makes it nearly impossible to apply.

I’d like to see Deadly arts:
Buff traps and venoms by adding a second use, drasitcally lowered cooldown, or heck, have traits for both so you can actually set up for effective non-shared venom builds or trap builds that don’t just suck.

Give us a worthwhile condition proc on crit or like every other class so we have more gear options.

Give us bonus procs on bleed application (+X damage for each stack of bleeding on the target would be a good start and fit with the tree and class)

Otherwise I think our trait lines are in a pretty good place as a whole, although there are some individual traits that need looked at.

So like optional stealth attacks?

I mean its an interesting thought, maybe if they had a polar opposite effect from the #1 “free” stealth attack. For instance dagger dual stealths would be positioning rather than damage based, SB would be a damage rather than an immob, pistol would have a debuff/snare, etc.

It would create some more diverse gameplay for stealthy builds and increase the usefulness of stolen or other stealths for evasion based builds for sure.

I started running this one when they screwed up P/D timing a while back. When they undid the nerf in PvE (where I felt it and was annoyed) I just stuck with it and started using it to PvP so I didn’t have to trait swap and worked around it.

It takes a lot of timing and quick reaction time to play effectively, but I discovered that when I played it right it was both more damage and more survivability than P/D. The tradeoff, of course, is that it’s much MUCH harder to play than P/D due to the need to time DB evades and manage initiative and condition clears.

This is why you don’t see quite as many D/D condi builds. The twitch guys often don’t like the slow damage and would rather get the upfront damage and less survivability that you’ll get from sword or D/P builds. The condi guys like being in that secure sweetspot that P/D gives you of having near total control of every fight.

However, if played perfectly, D/D evasion/condition is the single most survivable and difficult to counter thief build there is, but also the hardest build to get all the potential out of.

I retrofitted it to 30 trickery after the changes to the GM trait and the buff to Signet of Malice and I just can’t play anything else in GW2 and have fun any more. It just feels like anything else is “going through the motions” in comparison to perfectly timed DB, Steal interrupts, dodgetrops positioning, and splitsecond decisions on when to hit 3 or use 2 to close to get a full 3 strikes again.

I’ve been begging for this spread since forever. On my trickery/deathblossom/signet of malice “totally annoying bleed bunker jerk” build I’ve often wanted more ways to add a touch of survivability, so a few pieces of dire to replace carrion will help reinforce the heals and evades nicely.

It’s really nice to have an option to mix up some numbers for power versus toughness finally as until now carrion has been the only really good non-ascended stat spread for condi thieves.

What you need to know:

D/D lolbackstab is dead. You can still run burst, but due to changes to several traits you can’t faceplant full HP people. If you’re going to run glass burst DD you’ll need a soft target.

Shadow trap is now amazing.

Trickery builds, thanks to the GM trait rework, are now viable. Trickery builds will have a 20 sec steal CD, which functions as an interrupt, and can still proc whatever other steal traits you like. Personally I run a tanky D/D evasive brawler with Signet of Malice to passively heal while I evade. Wheras before this build was fun, it’s now completely viable when put next to dagger/pistol or sword/x as a solid 1v1 or 1vx

Also, take a moment to play with S/D and check out the boon stealing awesome in that set now, as well as looking over changes to mug and some other traits that have opened up our build options.

What you’re not going to be as a thief any more is a 1shot wonder, however, you’ve been given a lot more tools to evade, tank, and heal to run a more balanced build and survive fights, or function as an extreme boon ripper or unstealthed point holder in team settings.

Stealth is now optional rather than mandatory, basically, so you’ve got several build options depending on what you’re up to.

Shortbow utility is hard to pass up for a lot of thieves. The mobility and AoE it provdes are pretty boss. Compared to every other thief setup you can’t hit more targets at once than shotgunning clusterbomb, and having that shadowstep up your sleeve when you need it has secured me kills and escapes on too many occasions to count.

That said, very few thieves use it as a main weapon, but a large number of us use it as a swap specifically for that utility, as well as the fact that it, along with the dagger is one of the few weapons that can perform well on both burst and evasive condition builds.

AlexMc.2083:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Nageth.5648:

Eh, Logan just needs to loosen up a bit (which is why I like Anise constantly mocking him).

Isn’t it weird his male ancestor used to keep saying that to his female ancestor?

. . . no I’m not going to drop it. Keiran was much better a Thackeray

Keiran gave up being a Ranger to throw things and shout at people, ew.

How can you say that sentence and call it a negative?

“Gave up being a X to throw things and shout at people”

Replace X with any job a person could possibly do… and you still have a person I like better than Logan. Here are a few to try:

Farmer
Brain Surgeon
Ritualist
Airplane Captain
Mortician
Itinerant Shock Trooper
King of the Known Universe
Lead Developer
Truck Driver

Or my personal favorite

Comedian

Sandman.7019:

the reward system for the birthday gifts is kind of….well, REALLY stupid. I’ve been here since the early release in August, but I sure as hell don’t have any characters that survived that long (especially with my constant remaking with no makeover kits or name changes back then). So I do hope they will somehow make it when the account was “born” rather than a character that comes and goes.

The character birthday system was used in GW1, and I would be quite suprised if this wasn’t the exact same model (well, an improved model really, the first game just gave you a mini) It’s no more stupid than telling you that you need to level up new characters, or buy them new gear.

Don’t call out the system as problematic because you won’t have a thing RIGHT NOW. Those characters that you got “finished” will get presents on their birthdays too. Characters made today will get presents one year from today.

It’s a per character birthday present

She’s pregnant.

With Rytlock’s baby.

Drama bomb!

Wallace MacBix.2089:

My impossible dream, would be your “ancestor” from gw1

Are you kidding? My SoS ranger would ANNIHILATE my GW2 characters while playing an invisible flute and putting on a minipet fashion show.

I mean, this is a guy that successfully solo farmed 8 man instances while only half paying attention. That’s too much power to be unleashed in this day and age.

Daecollo.9578:

I just don’t like that they are ruining the open world environment, I can’t take caledon seriously anymore with the circus crap thrown around.

You mean the forest with houses made of flowers, quests that turn you in to a giant tree, and the meta that makes you participate in hot crab battle action?

Yeah. That balloon stand sure did ruin the somber and thought provoking content there.

I predict…

Dynamic Champion Scaling.

It’s going to be glorious!

Dagraan.2854:

i can’t tell if troll or if stupid elitist.

“elitist”

I hear that word more on these forums than anywhere else. As if it’s a crime to actually BE GOOD at video games and desire challenges that require you to BE GOOD too complete them.

For the record, I like the Liandri fight. I feel that the mechanics being essentially oneshot was a bit heavy handed (fight could have still been plenty challenging if they were all 2-shots) I felt that the timers were unecessary added difficulty. I felt that anet needs to take even more notes on how hard it is to see r5ed circles on certain types of floors. I feel that once again the camera is proving a hindrance rather than a help in tight spaces.

It was not without its problems, but it WAS fun for me, and it was fun for a lot of other people. GW2 does a very good job of catering to social and low-twitch players, but is still pretty far behind on the “stuff you should actually get a title for” fare.

The game needs more hard stuff, and this was pretty hard, Felt good to finish it and I’m pretty proud of my new mini.

Oh look, this thread again.

The one that never happens when things are semi-accurate representations of male anatomy. (unless it’s genitals of course. everybody gets mad about genitals!)

You know, all thre threads that go “OH MY, Look at those pecs and abs, that’s extremely sexist and I should make a thread about it.”

“Oh my look at how the new Braham armor skin reveals half of the chest of those player characters!”

Get over it. Sometimes people are sexy. Sometimes, as an extension, representations of people are sexy. I’m hella sexy. Right now I’m not wearing a shirt. AND I EXIST!

Threads like this one are indicative of not only an extremely sexist double standard, but a general lack of ability to separate your giving a kitten in to appropriate proportions for appropriate parts of your life.

It’s a kittening 9 foot tall battle robot that pretends to be giant cats and horse people and other stuff. Is this really where you want to spend your time? Really?

I have it on good authority that the OP is a watchknight.

SpeedFiend.4521:

Staves? Daggers? I wish you had to walk a mile in… shoes made entirely of pistols.

The investigation is still ongoing, a cobbler has been hauled in for questioning but no one has been charged in the shooting of.. well pretty much everybody within a mile of Divinty’s Reach.

Because you can’t wage war for hundreds of years using simple machines without eventually coming up with more complex machines.

Because the entire basis for your society and its primacy (divine magic) is increasingly absent in the day to day lives of its people, and they’re looking for a way to maintain the status quo without it.

Because a recent alliance has created opportunities and discourse with other, more technically adept races.

Because you already had the victorian clothing as a racial aesthetic anyway.

Really, just pick one or any combination of the above.

Please, it doesn’t matter who the queen is or was. Logan is a whiny embarassment to humankind and would have found some other woman to go rescue at a critical moment for plot and backstory reasons.

We’re having a party because stuff sucks for humanity right now, but we managed to not die for ten years under Jennah. LIVING is something worth partying when your race is and has been in a constant spiral of loss and despair for the last few hundred years.

Armor: yes
Masks: no

use them, and they leave your inventory and live as a stack in the new finisher panel on your character.

You can then activate them from there for the same durations they had previously.

For example: I had some stacks of SAB and snowman finishers, I clicked through them. For each one used in the inventory, it added one to the interface. The interface shows a count and timers.

Whooo is the man… that no one understaaaands but his partyyyy?

KOSS!

No fair with no Koss voiceovers though.

Close second: A gang of grentches.

Thief, using the same no-stealth trickery daggers build I use for everything.

20/0/0/20/30

D/D
Signet of Malice, Signet of Shadows, Caltrops, Shadowstep, Daggerstorm (with mad king birds)

I competed the whole fight wielding two daggers, maliciously assasinating orbs as soon as they spawned, and executing drive by Deathblossoms and caltrops drops in phase 2. Daggerstorm was a pre-emptive ace in the hole for a full heal and breathing room, shadowstep and my 20s cooldown steals were used for mobility and to eliminate orbs before they could fire, and caltrops was used to slow down clones and liadri in phase 1, and to hammer home damage in phase 2.

Took about 40 tries before I nailed a skill selection. Putting away the shortbow and swapping shadow refuge for SoS finally enabled me to pull it off. Turns out just plain using better timing and maneuvering was more effective than attempting to kite or waste my timer on stealthing. Good fun, and never let some guide tell you how to finish content XD

D/D evasive tends to benefit better than P/D stealth from apothecary in my experience, while carrion is still a much better pick on P/D. That said I tend to gravitate toward a mixture of both.

Positives

• Deathblossom procs 3x signet of malice per activation on every target it hits up to 5, potentially 15x activations per actiavtion.
• Melee means dodgetrops nearly always hit the target for at least one stack of bleeds and one proc of SoM. If fighting mobs, many ranged mobs will just stand in it.
• Free permanent poison/weakness on dagger auto.
• Toughness means SoM heals buffed by healing power are more mathematically effective.
• Naturally higher white damage means more damage without +power as a stat.
• Naturally higher attack frequency means more SoM heals

Negatives

• Higher skillcap due to melee and lower HP pool
• Very limited stealth
• Will require a SB swap for any encounter forced to range
• All active defenses.

I have no legs, the fact that my character has legs reminds me of my disability. Can you give me an ingame wheelchair option?

No, actually, i think I’ll just deal with it

Look, I understand you’re red-green colorblind. This very minor and not at all life altering disability is suffered by my father and brother. They think you’re being kind of silly. There are things which will be mildly inconvenient, with which you will have to deal in your life. This is one of those things.

Gregorius.1024:

Prophecies and Factions happened because of Abaddon’s machinations for Nightfall. That’s 2 whole games retconned to make the lore more simple, like The fall of Orr was retconned to make the charr seem more important than they were directly to the third.

Rose colored glasses aside, the writing of prophecies was pretty good, Factions was completely awful and nonsense from start to finish (but a visually stunning campaign with some interesting mechanics, which was somewhat redeemed by the beyond content) and Nightfall was an extremely well conceived and told story, as was EoTN.

GW2’s overall writing stretches form really good (certain racial storylines and even certain pact mission choices) to just plain awful (Traherne…)

What’s important to note is that GW2 is a much larger game than prophecies was at release, and had just as much ADD. It’s not really fair to judge the breadth and depth of the living stroy against the aggregate total of GW1’s entire breadth of content.

Personally, I like southsun, and although the delivery of the story has been kinda ham-handed both times, the factions and characters are nice break from black-and-white definitions of good and evil that are too often prevalent in this type of game. I hope to see more of them and get better look under the hood at what makes them tick in the future when something really nasty rears its head.

Remember, not every arc of a story can be an epic third act. Flame and Frost was a good pilot, but the entire southsun arc this time around feels like filler because, honestly, it’s filler. The world can’t always be in 100% mortal peril (any more than the survivng dragons make it anyway) and there will necessarily be periods of the stroy of the world in which things that aren’t globally important but rather regionally important happen.

I think that feels better, even if the delivery of that story is sometimes a bit off the mark.

I can confirm that the condition immunity is a bug from today’s patch.

Yesterday he was taking conditions just fine when the shield was down. Today he takes none whatsoever after the first shield.

This bug pretty much auto-failed three groups today :P

if you’re looking for a 1v1 thief build, backstab is not for you. GC backstab is good in teams as a finisher and to cvatch runners but in a straight up fight it’s pretty bad as everyone in PvP now knows exactly how to reflexively stunbreak and dodge your alpha chain, which with the rework of mug doesn’t do enough damage to kill even squishies from full any more anyway.

For 1v1 you might want to try D/D deathblossom/evasion, P/D rabid or carrion, or S/D balanced. These are builds with a lot of evasion, stealth, or otherwise long duration sustain in fights which is what you need to win 1v1s with full Hp opponents.

Shadow refuge (or, as you call it, “hut”) has always applied revealed if exited before it runs out no matter where your stealth started. If you are ever inside Sahdow refuge, and leave it by any means before the skill field expires on its own, you will be revealed.

It’s always been this way, and is why people are always trying to pull and launch at the refuge, to reveal you.

Unless I’m misunderstanding what you’re talking about you simply never noticed it before.

Blaeys.3102:

To me, it feels like we are in the middle of an enjoyable experiment – one in which the developers are trying to find the right balance between top notch content and the time it takes to develop/release that content.

That they are willing to take chances and tweak how (and how fast) they develop content bodes well (at least in my eyes) for the game’s future. You don’t build something unique by doing things the same every time. And, taking chances sometimes means missing the mark.

Personally, I am enjoying the content they released this week, even though I do understand some of the counter arguments.

As far as the disconnect between development and marketing, I definitely agree that is something they should look into fixing. The patch notes and pre-publicity ended up causing a fair bit of confusion and angst among players.

I agree. if GW2 was a subscription based game I’d be a bit miffed at being part of this experiment, but considering it costs me literally nothing to experience and give feedback on what I do and don’t like with each leg of the living story and its releases I’m just thrilled to see the vast quantity of content that’s been pushed in such a short time, despite the fact that some of it is better than other bits.

I think they’re figuring out all of the nuts and bolts, and considering it doesn’t cost me anything to NOT log in I’m perfectly happy to play only when the game is interesting… Which is a few hours a day for dailies, a bit more for living story content or when the guild gets together for missions, instances, or WvW.

IDK, this sort of pace fits my lifestyle and play patterns I suppose

style.6173:

Rexatyr.2893:

Imo, thieves are in a decent spot right now. D/D needs some QoL changes (so it can somehow compete with D/P’s utility), D/P permastealth needs to go and S/P could use some buffs. Other than that, it feels mostly alright. (I play a thief, so don’t even try to pull any arguments regarding that…). Just my humble opinion, though.

Mostly agree with this. My changes would be the following:
1. D/D Fine as is
2. D/P Heartseeker stealth shouldn’t stack
3. P/D Could use about a 10% damage increase on bleed conditions
4. S/D Fine as is
5. S/P Could use a buff on pistol whip, or a reduction in cast time
6. P/P Needs a lot of help.
7. Shortbow Fine as is

I disagree with P/D being fine. Body Shot is still a waste of bar space, and is even more of a waste on the condition reliant p/d that doesn’t benefit from the vuln that it grants.

Otherwise, I think we need a warrior-like look at our traits as a large number of them are just such underperformers that they need to be rethought or combined. There are very few meaningful or hard choices in thief traits that aren’t in Shadow Arts. And not all thieves actually use Shadow Arts.

I just figured out why shadow steps were useful in GW1 and aren’t quite as useful here.

1. They worked every time because pathing was simpler
2. They had “max” range, meaning if they wouldn’t go where you pointed them, they wouldn’t activate.
3. No ground targeting, only your current location and target enemies/allies

QoL fix some people might not like:

If you have a shadowstep that can’t reach its intended destination, don’t allow the ability to function.

Treat shadowsteps as flippin’ teleports. Yes, OMG, we’ll teleport over gaps. Big deal. Let everyone else do it too. There are already enough leaps that can do similar tricks.

This lets you actually use SR skills a bit more intuitively because you know the exact point of destination every time which is the overall intent of the mark/return skills anyway. Range limiting them will be much less of a hassle if you don’t waste a skill activation because the only way to figure out if you’re within range is to “eyeball it” and guess.

I don’t know, I’ve managed to survive and out-tank and out-passive heal pretty much everything on my “evade bunker” d/d setup.

We sort of build for roles in my group though, so our DPS is slower but we generally complete everything with minimal risk to anyone. My role is the tank, and I tank while evading and constantly applying 110-130 damage bleeds (which nobody else in the group does)

I don’t think thief is the “worst” class, but I don’t think it has as big of a toolbox as other classes do. When you build a thief you’re really putting all of your eggs in one basket to do what it does. Thieves can build control, tank, and DPS, but when you’re in one role you’re not just mediocre at the other two roles like most other classes, you’re actually horrible at it.

aelflune.8590:

I love this thread.

Yes, I do feel like the stuff we do are highly morally dubious. But the way I see it, we’re playing the role of silly archetypal heroes who have no clue (with the lines our toons spout, what else can we be?) and the devs are being ironic and subtly poking fun at fantasy RPG tropes. #hipstergamer

Or maybe our characters KNOW how horrible all the things we do are, but do them anyway whilst feigning heroic ignorance because they need a plausibly deniable alibi if they’re ever brought up on charges.

At least I like to think so. #everyoneishorrible

FateOmega.9601:

But but .. the instigators have chests!

That’s honestly where I draw the line.

“Adventurer, we need you to slay a great evil…”

“This guy doesn’t look Evil. Maybe a little upset, but not, you know, evil evil”

“He’s rich”

“IN THE NAME OF JUSTICE I STRIKE AT THINE FOUL BLACK HEART EVILDOER!”

As I understand it, Canach, working alone, rubbed his magic flower juice on the consortium contracts so the local wildlife would go ape and destroy them, which is why they’re losing it and specifically why they’re attacking settlements.

If Canach had access to the contracts to spray them with Censer-goo why didn’t he just destroy them himself?

Or did he just grow censers and “plan” for the whole thing to be resolved because wild animals commonly attack large stacks of paper?

I don’t get it. Someone explain this to me would you?

In case you were’nt aware, every ground targeted skill in the game has a red crosshair on its skill icon. I understand people that haven’t reeally played a character that uses such skills may not be aware of this, but someone who plays such a character enough to have made the descision to turn on quick ground target, I’d have expected you to have picked this up instantly.

As a person who uses quick ground targeting I’m extremely aware of these icons with environmental weapons. of course, as a thief who runs improvisation…. I might be a bit more “in-tune” with using environmental weapons and quick-scanning new skill icons than average too.

I really think this works best mechanically as a group fight, since there’s usually one guy who actually likes being the “buttons and utility mechanics guy” in groups. Solo, a lot of people just hate being forced off their weapon skills.

Canach himself was stupidly easy, just flip 5 or 6 #2 mines and you’re done (even got the second achievement)

Null was… interesting. Sadly I couldn’t solo him because of the turrets, but I do think he has a great set of boss mechanics. Just wish he had a dungeon in front of him.

I understand your opinion, I don’t agree with it but I understand where you’re coming from. We’ll just agree to disagree on this one I suppose.

Schedule updated to 7PM server time mondays to accomodate guild members with a new baby.

Thanks to the regulars and not-so regulars that have made these so much fun!

Cheers!

Zaxares.5419:

As far as having unique rewards to show off your participation, we can use titles or badges like the 100% completion badge to showcase player accomplishments. It doesn’t need to be armor or weapon skins.

You’re missing the point. Armor and weapon skins serve the exact same putpose as the titles or badges do. The difference is that they are far more satisfying rewards for content than a string of text or a small icon. Suggestiong that rewards shouldn’t be implicitly tied to content in some ways is a lot like suggesting that loot should be removed altogether, all mobs should just drop silver, and we should just buy whatever we want with that.

That’s a very boring system. That’s a system that completely divorces loot from the actual acquisition of loot. The current laurel system is quite good. It afford players of any skill level the ability to easily reach the highest level of mechanical power, and I see no reason to doubt that some version of ascended armor and weapons will end up on the laurel merchant as well.

However, consider that there’s a reason you can’t put dungeon armor and weapons on the trading post. It’s not because they’re exotics that weren’t crafted with mats. Its because the ability to just buy them makes them lose the entire reason they exist. They’re rewards for completing a specific piece of content, and they’re themed relative to that content. Same with the molten gauntlets, scelerite backpieces, etc.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think trophy items should be the majority of all loot (And especially not when they’re trophies for getting lucky with cash shop boxes, but that’s another discussion) They should be in the vast minority, and there should absolutely be a massive selection of easily acquired skins. This was something GW1 did excessively well with weapon skins specifically, there were rare skins, but there was a massive pool of more common skins, and even those common skins dropped specifically in areas where they were visually appropriate.

Paying x gold or gems for a legendary or dungeon skin is equivalent to just plain buying a title or badge. Some loot needs to be hard to get simply because that is what makes it worth getting This isn’t a game where you’ll ever use something ugly because the stats were better. Even the casual player can easily get their hands of a few transmutes and dyes to get exactly the look they want. This isn’t a game where you end up gear gates to get to the next chunk of content. Your stats are easy to come by and anyone can do it easily. That’s great. However, you also need a darn good reward for doing stuff and if you design a game around a shallow stat ceiling, then the stats on gear aren’t ever going to be rewarding. What you’re left with to use as rewards is entirely cosmetic. That’s awesome because it means you can actually go and do that content at any time to try and get that thing you want, and more importantly when you get it, people will know you earned it, and so will you

If the reward was only avaliable for a limited time, then you’re just not going to get it. I see this as a good thing. It means, over time, you’ll end up seeing a lot less cookie cutter clones of the same character, and more importantly because those items denote a period in time and a history that your character took part in. It doesn’t seem like much now, but two or three years down the line you might actually look at that item and appreciate them for what they represent as much as what they look like.

That’s really the point of cosmetic items in the first place, isn’t it? What do they represent? What do you represent as a character? Do you want to look cute, or threatening, or noble, or colorblind? Cosmetic items are all about the representation of that character and in the case of the living story, dungeon items, and other trophies they represent something memorable.

When you can just pick them up on every corner they lose that. I played and loved CoV for ages. That game had great character customization, but nothing any of my chracters ever wore meant anything to me or anyone else. That’s fine, they weren’t meant to, it was all a costume anyway.

I don’t think items in a persistant world with real and tangible loot should be costumes. I think they should be objects with history and meaning in the context of that world.

Applicable previous post is Applicable

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/southsun/Wild-guessing-game-Come-play-along/first#post1989923

Hurtappl.6405:

so in other mmo’s if you get hit in stealth you lose stealth lol they usually have CD’s of like 90 seconds or until you get out of combat! in this game you can get back into stealth after 3 seconds and ppl are complaining that my idea will break it! HAHAHA its already broken guys! i just tryed to came up with a way to tone down stealth abuse, without abusing the revealed debuff! and for all you stealth abusing thieves i got traps!!!!! and i can out run you all <3 good game!

In other games stealth is an endless toggle which completely defines the class and forces them to be scavengers with no other role options.

This game is a bit different, and stealth works differently. It’s okay.

Sure, why not. Looks cool when people use it with dancing dagger.

That’s an idea that has come up multiple times and I think it’s a good one. basically just modify the dungeon down to a “condensed” version for fractals. Like for the MWF maybe cut out the drill and spiral and have it be the weapons test, maybe two of the large trash rooms, the cold section, and the bosses. Chest becomes a fractal chest with (maybe?) a low chance for a soulbound random molten weapon (not a skin, a weapon that rolls with random stats, making it slightly less useful than the skin tickets) at uber-high fractal levels (30+ or so?) in addition to the normal fractal rewards.

Zaxares.5419:

PopeUrban.2578

The idea that the “main reward” should be overcoming it is a silly one. If that were true then how about giving no reward at all for the solo instance? I mean, if the “main reward” is overcoming it and unlocking the group instance.

In fact, I’m absolutely a believer in unique looking loot for harder difficulties, like the fractal weapon drops. You shouldn’t be required to do harder content to get mechanical power just to do harder content (AKA the raid progression/annoyance model) but there should absolutely exist status symbols that can only be obtained by doing difficult things, whether they be skins, titles, whatever.

The pervading concept that everyone should have easy access to every reward ever is flawed. Everyone should have easy access to power but cosmetic rewards are a different matter. There should exist shinies that are only obtainable by a few players, as long as these aren’t the majority of all items in the game.

I actually wouldn’t mind getting no reward at all except an achievement for completing the solo instance (outside of standard drops from mobs, of course). It’s obviously something that’s meant to be played for the story.

As to the rest of your stance, we’ll just have to agree to disagree. I believe that every player should have the opportunity to obtain any type of cosmetic skin in the game. If the skin is locked behind difficult content/RNG, then the player should also be able to buy it outright from the gem store or off the TP. If Legendaries, the supposed ultimate trophy for players, can be bought on the TP, why not anything else? More skilled or dedicated players will probably obtain the skin FASTER, but I believe a casual player should be able to obtain a Legendary through, say, 1 – 3 years of playing. (And in all honesty, they probably can, if they save wisely. I’m slowly saving up for a Legendary one day, but I don’t expect to get one for at least a few years.)

The SAB did an excellent job of offering multiple avenues to obtain the Super skins; you can try and get lucky from the chests, buy it off the TP, or just accumulate tokens to buy an account-bound version. I would prefer it if other cosmetic skins were to receive the same treatment.

Honestly I think this is a problem with the acquisition model of legendaries as a whole. Specifically, the idea that they can be sold on the AH and are not account bound on acquire.

However, legendaries do require a very long laundry list of stuff that isn’t just mat farming. Stuff like WvW badges and dungeon tokens for instance. If every player had to earn their legendary, and there was a skill-based avenue to hit for precursors rather than solely relying on RNG with a very low chance of success I think legendaries would be a lot better off.

Cosmetic rewards are Trophies. Difficulty should exclude people from a limited selection of trophy items. These items don’t affect your build, and only serve as an indication that you were able to complete some of the most challenging content in the game. I don’t see why people have a problem with that. What’s so horrible about people having things you don’t? What’s so bad about having an incentive to improve if you really really want that particular cosmetic thing? Why is “Just buy gems” a suitable alternative to getting better at the game? That’s like buying a professional championship trophy and skipping the season altogether. Sure, you have the trophy, but it’s lost all of its meaning.

Again, the majority of cosmetics should be easily acquired, but hard content should have at least one unique award (like they are adding for SAB hard mode FYI)

Firebaall.5127:

It’s funny how the crap toss conflicts with Anet’s stated “Anti-griefing design”.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Event

What? No it doesn’t. Crab Toss is a PvP activity, not a PvE event :P

That’s like saying tPvP conflicts with the “Anti-griefing design” of events.

Captain.1348:

Don’t be a sad little rage bunny Pope. If you have a problem with my post report it. I promise I won’t judge you for it.

I don’t have a problem with your post, and I’m not at all filled with rage. This is simply an honest opinion. Imagine hotjoining sPvP, killing some guy, standing on a point, and then getting yelled at by all the other players for “Trolling” because they were trading kills for gladiator titles.

People get disciplined for that behavior.

This is essentially the same thing. You’re rigging for achievements, and disrupting play for people that actually want to play the game.

LameFox.6349:

Zaxares.5419:

PopeUrban.2578:

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

timidobserver.7925:

Sounds good to me as long as the reward for the harder version is better. It would kind of make the group dungeon pointless if you could just go solo easy mode through it alone and get the same rewards.

go away elitist :P

I don’t think that’s elitist. I think that makes sense. Harder content should, logically, equal better rewards. Without increased rewards there is no point in increased difficulty.

Not true. The main reward for increased difficulty should be the satisfaction in successfully challenging yourself and overcoming it. I’m not saying that beating Hard Mode shouldn’t give greater rewards, but it should be in the form of increased Flowers/Karka Shells/coin, and not in the form of a unique skin that isn’t obtainable otherwise.

In any event, I’m looking forward to Last Stand, both the solo and group dungeons. I’m a little concerned about the “big monster” on June 5th though. Is this going to be another one-time event similar to the Lost Shores finale, Robert? I’m hoping it isn’t, because I imagine there will be many players worldwide who will miss out on it due to scheduling conflicts.

I don’t see why you’re equating a ‘better’ reward with an exclusive one. Yours is the first post in this quote pyramid to suggest that was the intended meaning…

QFT. I like the exclusive easily gained rewards “just for showing up” and the “uber rare drop” rewards. Obviously group content should have a higher payoff in “common” event rewards (I guess flowers or karka shells or whatever for this event) and a better drop chance for whatever “rare” loot there is. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be rewarded for a solo instance, but you shouldn’t be rewarded as well for content that’s easier. Otherwise you’re just shafting the peple in the group instance.

The idea that the “main reward” should be overcoming it is a silly one. If that were true then how about giving no reward at all for the solo instance? I mean, if the “main reward” is overcoming it and unlocking the group instance.

In fact, I’m absolutely a believer in unique looking loot for harder difficulties, like the fractal weapon drops. You shouldn’t be required to do harder content to get mechanical power just to do harder content (AKA the raid progression/annoyance model) but there should absolutely exist status symbols that can only be obtained by doing difficult things, whether they be skins, titles, whatever.

The pervading concept that everyone should have easy access to every reward ever is flawed. Everyone should have easy access to power but cosmetic rewards are a different matter. There should exist shinies that are only obtainable by a few players, as long as these aren’t the majority of all items in the game.

Zyphent.2967:

PopeUrban.2578:

SmartBobby.6283:

Ahh, okay thank you, that’s really interesting. But honestly, is there really an event or item which isn’t discovered until now? :P

I flippin’ hope so.

If there are no secrets in Tyria, only things that haven’t been implemented, That’s kind of sad.

You’ve got to realize over 3 million people have bought and played this game, that number is mind bogglingly massive.

If you combine the experience of 3 million people and have not seen everything in the game, I’d be floored. The only example I can think of is the 2nd door to the right of the Organ in Ebonhawke that nobody has opened yet.

You underestimate how easy it is to design a nearly unsolvable puzzle, simply by never advertising its existence or giving any hint as to how it is solved. You also vastly underestimate the scarcity of goods if assigned an abysmally low drop chance. Remember Final Rest? Remember how long it took anyone to discover the secret WvW kitten room that was there since release?

Designing secrets is actually really easy if you don’t also design hints to them.

It’s simple really. When they put items in gambling boxes, people complain, but people also keep buying the boxes.

When they put items in a chest a player isn’t skilled enough to reach or open, the player gives up after a few tries and complains that the game is too hard.

The people actually developing the game can only fix one of these complaints by themselves.

With the RNG boxes, there’s a shield wherin developers can point at the monetization management, but still keep that management happy because monetization managers don’t really care if players are having fun. That’s the developer’s job. if it makes money, it’ll get sold, unless Developers also make financial decisions for the company. As far as I know Developers don’t make the financial decisions at Arenanet, so the contents of the gem store and stuff like gambling boxes are implemented by people who aren’t concerned with fun, while the developers try as hard as they can to make up for that feeling of exploitation.