Yep, too many bugged hints. I actually have different ones than those mentioned. Looking forward to them fixing this achievement.
It’s interesting in that it seems that very good players succeed about 25% of the time against this boss. That would indicate that there is a factor beyond player skill at work here. And, it would seem to be the Anet factor: luck. Sometimes, with Anet, the only error that you made was entering combat. Hopefully, this dynamic will work itself out of the game as the average age of developers increases naturally over time.
I listened to the video above and it sounds, to me, exactly like a Giant Sewer Rat. This may be the first more or less official confirmation that they do, in fact, plan to add Fishing to the game sooner rather than later.
Troll thread? I certainly don’t know that they intend to raise the level cap. It has been discussed as a possibility. Personally, I believe it would be a misstep comparable to the Lost Souls (sic) misstep. It’s entirely within the realm of possibility, but the misstep hasn’t been confirmed.
Berserker overbuffed in terms of damage? No, therein lies the tradeoff between damage and survivability. There has been the possibility of glass cannons in every major game I’ve played. There is nothing wrong with berserker stats at all.
It’s not particularly about the amount of buff and tradeoff, but relative opportunity cost.
Is Rampager or Cleric as viable to Berserker’s in as many situations? Dismiss what each are used for and look only at what advantage they give to a build and count how often that benefit pays off.
Not saying Berserker stats are overpowered or even that the other stat combos should get a buff in some way, but more content situations should happen where different varieties shine. Because that is part of the problem: it’s just always better to take things out fast with direct damage.
I’m glad you mentioned “rampagers”. All condition stats are kitten in pve by the fact that conditions are accounted for as stacks on a mob rather than damage by player as it is in other games. If you were to add 5 more condition builds to a group you would not be adding materially to the damage output of the group. Compare that to adding 5 zerker warriors. Therein lies the problem. The problem here is how DoT is managed in the game and not so much around the existence or OPness of direct damage gear.
There are many problems with combat and I’m not saying its fine. It does indicate a problem when it’s all about damage in a game. What I am saying is that there is no problem with zerker stats per se. You’ll find the fix to the zerker problem elsewhere.
Ah ok, that makes sense.
Does anyone actually agree with the condition cap/ think it’s a good thing?
Around here you are likely to get someone who thinks it’s great. However, it’s not. If you were to add 5 more condition builds to a group you would not be significantly increasing the damage output of the group. Compare that to adding 5 more zerker warriors. There’s the problem. Damage, being done, is not appropriately accounted for in the game.
They initially played the “I’m sorry the computer can’t do that” card when people noted the obvious problem of maintaining damage by stacks on a mob instead of by player. After it was fully processed (as in how come it works fine by player in other games) Anet acknowledged the problem and said they are working on fixing it. No ETA was given.
It certainly helps to have witnessed combat with 2 legendary greatswords out to understand the problem legendary weapons bring to the visual aspect of combat. The principle is that visibility (animations, etc.) is good. It’s obverse is that anything that obscures visibility in combat is bad. Enter the legendary and it’s particle effects. It simply must be toned down. Combat, even without legendary weapons, verges on a blur when enough people are present. Anet must do something about this and the legendary should not be immune as it is a major contributor.
I recognize issues where by account limits the viability of alts in the game. With 15 character slots, I am quite sensitive to that. I hope Anet uses the alt filter more, i.e., asking “what would this be like for a player with all the professions maxed?”, when making decisions.
That said, I think the wallet itself is the largest quality of life improvement since launch. No more juggling currencies and, say, locating the character with 64k karma for a T3 weapon purchase, then buy an level 0 item and tranmute it, and then put it in the bank for the character that really wanted it. I like the wallet.
Berserker overbuffed in terms of damage? No, therein lies the tradeoff between damage and survivability. There has been the possibility of glass cannons in every major game I’ve played. There is nothing wrong with berserker stats at all.
Attitudes around MF have nothing to do with zerker gear…period. You find the same problems in other games with MF and the same solution (cf. D3 which also solved the problem by removing it from gear).
Remove MF from gear; problem solved. Interesting attempt at linking it up with zerker gear, but no, it has nothing to do with any gear type other than gear with meaningful stats, whatever that is.
I was just wondering this, condition builds suffer heavily outside of PvP due to their nature of the damage going to whomever in group has the highest condition damage (so having two condition players would always be a waste).
Would it really hurt balance if some, if not all, damage conditions were applied personally. That is, one person can apply 25 bleeds, and another person can apply their own 25? It seriously stifles build creativity when players are locked out of an entire component.
A better way to say it is that the only thing that fix condition damage in the game is to account for it by player. This is where all games end up when they finally bite the bullet and fix it. Direct damage is now properly accounted for by player, however condition damage is accounted for by stacks on a mob. For this reason, if you add 5 more condition players you haven’t really increased the groups damage output. This is the problem. Account for condition damage by player (damage per tick times a number of ticks) and the problem is solved. Anet played the technical difficulties card and that may be an aspect of their current implementation, but all major games do it this way—there are no technical difficulties in doing it the correct way.
Alts were definitely not one of the things they thought of when they decided to add vertical progression to the game. Managing VP is costly on many levels. I do wish they would spend more time on the “and what would this be like with 8 alts” filter as it could save us a lot of grief. I will say the wallet was a nice quality of life feature for altoholics as, at least, we don’t need to juggle karma anymore.
1-80 in 4-6 hours takes around ~60g depending on what you have accumulated mat-wise. http://gw2crafts.net/ for the details. This is the fastest way to level in the game, but also the most expensive. I would only recommend it after you’ve leveled several characters the traditional way, which, by the way, shouldn’t be focused on leveling speed.
Back to the topic, probably Mesmer is my most fun class. I love the kiting mechanic and the GS Mesmer just seems perfect as an untouchable kiting fool. I don’t have a least favorite class, but Ranger is my least played class: boring for lack of anything meaningful done in combat. Unlike others, I don’t find warriors and guardians boring. I think they are pretty good implementations of their archetypes and I always have fun with in-the-face cleavage on mine.
I wouldn’t set up living content as the culprit. We actually haven’t seen much more than temporary filler, mini-games, platformers, etc. I’m actually looking forward to living content in place of what has gone before. That said, the game needs to be rewarding for all players regardless of playstyle. I have a radical notion around reward: it should not be for skill or time played; it should simply be for playing the game.
The living world has certainly not taken all the dev time. If it had, we would have seen the living world as a focus and would have witnessed its evolution. To date, we’ve seen things like the SAB which have only emptied the living world. It’s not the LW that is preventing WvW from moving forward, it’s the mini-games, platformers, and temporary filler that is taking all the development time away from the game.
I have no problem with holidays in the midst of telling a living story. I have no problem with following a liturgical calendar; I actually prefer it in a game.
I do have a problem with the volume of temporary content, mini-games, mindlessly walking up and down roads, platformers as core game, etc., that has defined the LS to date.
Again, no problem with holidays, but it would have been good to follow up Colin’s blog post with something substantive of a permanent, evolutionary nature. We’re left to wonder exactly what will change and what will not.
I have no problems with festivals and celebrating holiday seasons. This is not the temporary content I object to; it is actually a good modeling of our IRL living world and how it evolves. It follows a calendar. And, I don’t expect crushing challenge from them as that is not what the MMO is about in the open world.
What I do hope to see, after the last installment, is not a single platformer element, at all, used in the jubilee. I am absolutely burned out on the platformer genre presented as core in the MMO genre. Many people like them, so keep them as peripheral elements that can be avoided at no cost. Lose them in the core game.
The first thing I do when I hit 80 is head down to Gavebeorn for his breather. The second thing I do is put a superior rune in it to match the rest of my armor. Of course you can use the best runes in Masterwork items.
edit: would like an exotic aquabreather though. that would be nice.
(edited by Raine.1394)
GW2 approaches D3 in terms of a lack of a sense of reward for play. I remember in D3 feeling like I was driving a double-wide trash truck around the maps, sometimes bobbing and weaving and sometimes up on two wheels driving sideways. But, always picking up the trash and wondering why the mobs even would carry such trash. And, also wondering why I, the player, had to pick up the trash. Couldn’t they find an NPC to do this?
Frankly, I don’t know how to better state it, so I will attempt it once more. If you can watch the dev livestream for the current content and not understand that it is an extended platformer, you are unfamiliar with gaming genre. That’s it, pure and simple. Living story content should not be defined by a niche element which some players will love and some will hate. This is an MMO with a diverse player base. You want the core game to appeal across that wide diversity and the living story to be told in the broadest possible way. This should be straightforward stuff for any experienced gamer.
Sure there is platforming in the current update, but your original claim was that voting was “gated”, which is completely absurd. You don’t even have to hit the space bar to JUMP ONCE, to get to the voting! You don’t have to enter any instanced mini game or do anything that any player with enough skill to aim a simple AOE can’t accomplish.
You might as well claim that everything in Lion’s Arch is gated content because you have to figure out how to aim your character into walking toward an asura gate to get there. You’re essentially saying that something is gated from people who cannot perform the most rudimentary function of character control and pushing a key to activate an AOE, and if that is the case for some players, then they have bigger issues because the rest of the game is basically unplayable to them.
Now, we are getting somewhere, excellent! So, there is platforming in the current update. Very good at recognizing your gaming genre. Here’s the problem. I don’t like platforming, so I chose to avoid the current content—as I have the jumping puzzles. My argument has nothing to do with how easy or hard the platformer is; I simply don’t enjoy platformers. That’s the gating that I’m speaking about. It’s gated content for me if it is, well, gated behind a platformer. I dutifully watched the dev livestream, saw that it was an extended platformer, and chose to skip the content.
Sadly, they have already broken faith around the platformers in-game. Originally they were to be optional content, there for those that like them, optional otherwise. This release of the LS they have even gated voting , an important element of impact on the world, behind a mini-game platformer. I don’t do platformers and am unable to vote. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Very sad.
Did you actually try it? Even once? Because getting up to the airship is not even remotely platforming. If you use the lightning crystal near where the elemental spawns you don’t even have to jump, you can do the entire thing never pushing more than 1 button at a time or using any kind of timing or aim.
That’s what platforming is here. Your skills are replaced by platforming skills and you use those to play a different game than the one you bought. What I object to is platforming taking over the core game, not how relatively hard or easy it is. When I play GW2 I want to play my character and his/her skills, not the skills of the month.
So you never use environmental weapons?
I have, and prefer my own actually. But, that would be a non-sequitur in the current discussion. My objection is to temporary mini-games that have somehow made their way into the core game, gating content for all players. This is where you learn a new game to play rather than the one you bought.
This is a ridiculous level of hyberbole. There is no “gate”. If you want to vote, you get the lightning attunement and simply place the aoes to get to the top. No gating, no jumping, no platforming and no learning any new mechanics (unless you never figured out how to place an AOE).
No hyperbole required. But, I see that some are unfamiliar with gaming genre. If you can watch the dev livestream and not understand that the new content is an extended platformer, you simply are unfamiliar with gaming. Platforming is extremely niche within the greater MMO content market. It makes no sense whatsoever to move the story forward through a niche element.
I’ve been playing games since Atari so, yeah, i’m very aware of what platforming is. Complaining about how this content is somehow gated by any sort of “platforming” is beyond absurd though, because you don’t need to make any controlled jumps to get to the voting. Someone with no fingers could easily place a few AOEs and make their way to the top without EVER HITTING THE SPACE BAR. Stop inventing something to be upset about.
Frankly, I don’t know how to better state it, so I will attempt it once more. If you can watch the dev livestream for the current content and not understand that it is an extended platformer, you are unfamiliar with gaming genre. That’s it, pure and simple. Living story content should not be defined by a niche element which some players will love and some will hate. This is an MMO with a diverse player base. You want the core game to appeal across that wide diversity and the living story to be told in the broadest possible way. This should be straightforward stuff for any experienced gamer.
Sadly, they have already broken faith around the platformers in-game. Originally they were to be optional content, there for those that like them, optional otherwise. This release of the LS they have even gated voting , an important element of impact on the world, behind a mini-game platformer. I don’t do platformers and am unable to vote. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Very sad.
Did you actually try it? Even once? Because getting up to the airship is not even remotely platforming. If you use the lightning crystal near where the elemental spawns you don’t even have to jump, you can do the entire thing never pushing more than 1 button at a time or using any kind of timing or aim.
That’s what platforming is here. Your skills are replaced by platforming skills and you use those to play a different game than the one you bought. What I object to is platforming taking over the core game, not how relatively hard or easy it is. When I play GW2 I want to play my character and his/her skills, not the skills of the month.
So you never use environmental weapons?
I have, and prefer my own actually. But, that would be a non-sequitur in the current discussion. My objection is to temporary mini-games that have somehow made their way into the core game, gating content for all players. This is where you learn a new game to play rather than the one you bought.
This is a ridiculous level of hyberbole. There is no “gate”. If you want to vote, you get the lightning attunement and simply place the aoes to get to the top. No gating, no jumping, no platforming and no learning any new mechanics (unless you never figured out how to place an AOE).
No hyperbole required. But, I see that some are unfamiliar with gaming genre. If you can watch the dev livestream introducing this content and not understand that the new content is an extended platformer, you simply are unfamiliar with gaming. Platforming is extremely niche within the greater MMO content market. It makes no sense whatsoever to move the story forward through a niche element.
(edited by Raine.1394)
Sadly, they have already broken faith around the platformers in-game. Originally they were to be optional content, there for those that like them, optional otherwise. This release of the LS they have even gated voting , an important element of impact on the world, behind a mini-game platformer. I don’t do platformers and am unable to vote. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Very sad.
Did you actually try it? Even once? Because getting up to the airship is not even remotely platforming. If you use the lightning crystal near where the elemental spawns you don’t even have to jump, you can do the entire thing never pushing more than 1 button at a time or using any kind of timing or aim.
That’s what platforming is here. Your skills are replaced by platforming skills and you use those to play a different game than the one you bought. What I object to is platforming taking over the core game, not how relatively hard or easy it is. When I play GW2 I want to play my character and his/her skills, not the skills of the month.
So you never use environmental weapons?
I have, and prefer my own actually. But, that would be a non-sequitur in the current discussion. My objection is to temporary mini-games that have somehow made their way into the core game, gating content for all players. This is where you learn a new game to play rather than the one you bought. And, I should say, I think mini-games are a great addition to GW2. However, I believe they should remain as originally conceived: there for those who like them, easily avoidable by those who don’t. And, when you avoid them, you should not miss out on key story elements like voting.
Sadly, they have already broken faith around the platformers in-game. Originally they were to be optional content, there for those that like them, optional otherwise. This release of the LS they have even gated voting , an important element of impact on the world, behind a mini-game platformer. I don’t do platformers and am unable to vote. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Very sad.
Did you actually try it? Even once? Because getting up to the airship is not even remotely platforming. If you use the lightning crystal near where the elemental spawns you don’t even have to jump, you can do the entire thing never pushing more than 1 button at a time or using any kind of timing or aim.
That’s what platforming is here. Your skills are replaced by platforming skills and you use those to play a different game than the one you bought. What I object to is platforming taking over the core game, not how relatively hard or easy it is. When I play GW2 I want to play my character and his/her skills, not the skills of the month.
Love Extra Credits, but you have the reward thing wrong in this genre. They are not giving up on intrinsic rewards, they are simply addressing the perceived lack of extrinsic rewards, something absolutely necessary and to be desired in an MMO/RPG.
The concept of intrinsic rewards is important, just not important as an either/or. It’s both/and in or near the genre.
If you like platformers, you will love where they have taken the game. It kinda takes theme park to a new level, something like the old arcades. Remember Donkey Kong? Very cool. Yeah, GW2 has that retro feel, 8-bit graphics and all that. I do remember purchasing an MMO and I’m sure they will start that part of it up soon.
Sadly, they have already broken faith around the platformers in-game. Originally they were to be optional content, there for those that like them, optional otherwise. This release of the LS they have even gated voting , an important element of impact on the world, behind a mini-game platformer. I don’t do platformers and am unable to vote. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Very sad.
Have 500+ tokens for Gnashblade but there are no collection points outside the mini-game platformer. Voting seems important in this release; just wish they had considered there will be non-platformers playing and desiring to vote.
I think a set of unlimited use gathering tools would be an excellent Birthday present!
There is a reason why financial advisors do not recommend buying more lottery tickets as a means of generating wealth. Buying keys is analogous with buying lottery tickets. There will be daily winners, but the chances are it won’t be you. There is no rational reason to buy keys.
For the sake of discussion, I’m going to take it for granted that the issue is bandwidth, as ANet says it. The question I come up with is, “Knowing the bandwidth issues, why were DoT’s not treated as DoT’s are in other games, where applications of the same DoT by different players are treated separately, but individual players can only have one of the same DoT at any given time?” It’s pretty evident what the shortcomings of the current system are. It’s a lot harder to see what advantages it provides — if any.
The main issue with that is the fact that it would make conditions more or less completely worthless, unless they got extremely buffed, which would make them very unbalanced.
Remember that conditions represent, principally, damage. The damage is essentially the same as direct damage in that it reduces a health pool of a mob. The difference, and hence all the trade-offs, is that condition damage is delivered over time. This is the distinction.
It is not worthless to deliver damage over time, except in GW2 where it is currently not properly accounted for. Direct damage is, and once condition damage is accounted for, by player (as in other games), the problem will be solved.
Of course i do stuff for rewards..its a game..you get rewarded in games for completing objectives right?
Personally I don’t really care much about the reward but rather do stuff for the story and in order to get involved in the world.
Well, even if you don’t care, game designers are acutely aware of reward in gaming and focus a great deal of attention there. Why? Because humans are wired for reward and game developers want to engage the player in a meaningful way. In gaming, there are intrinsic rewards in the gameplay itself and extrinsic rewards (loot). Both are essential in making a successful game (in this genre) with human beings as a target audience. To suggest that reward, intrinsic or extrinsic, is unimportant, would be to misunderstand the significance of reward in gaming.
I would prefer no LS to the LS they have implemented to date. Especially with the last release where you have to perform a platformer mini-game to even vote. Having no LS beats having a bad telling of the LS. At least you wouldn’t anger segments of the player base.
Bazaar of the Four Winds/Cutthroat Politics is the worst release so far in that it is gated by a platformer mini-game. It only took a minute of watching the dev livestream to understand that. And, since I don’t enjoy platforming (I’m an MMO/RPG type gamer) I decided to sit this one out. I can’t imagine why you would consciously choose to exclude people from the living story—it boggles the mind. Now, I won’t be able to get the achievements and I won’t get to vote for Evon or Ellen, which seems like a pretty big thing in terms of the story.
Orr is deserted, which sucks cause the mel event has good drops but it needs more people for the drops to upscale.
The mel event has been bugged on my server for the last four days. Buggy software is actually a feature of an aggressive release schedule. Simply no time to test.
A two week release cycle is a problem in itself. As the OP mentions, there is no real need for it. We shouldn’t be able too consume a release in two weeks. And, regardless of the team organization, it’s still a two week release cycle. It’s extremely aggressive in terms of software development life cycle. Given that it adds no value and poses quality risks, I’m left wondering why.
The why is simply how Anet has chosen to define their value proposition. Look, you are getting a kittenton of mini-games, jumping puzzles, and temporary fluff all for free. Isn’t this great? Well, no, for those of us desiring quality, deeper story, less kid-toys, this value proposition does not work.
Rather than two week, I would move to a three month release schedule. Bug fixes and balance could happen as desired. New content would be permanent and evolve a permanent living world. And, if there is an election everyone would get to vote, not just the platformers.
I agree with the OP on this and hope that Colin’s blog post is addressing this specifically. Temporary content is simply a bad way to tell a story and evolve a living world. Gating content behind platformers is simply a bad idea in an MMO. Anet knew this at the start when they said that JP’s would be there for those who enjoyed them, but would not gate content. In this release they are gating content.
Again, I can only hope that Colin’s blog post is talking about a future where the Bazaar of the four winds won’t happen again.
Anet did what they said they would not do. They have gated core content behind, essentially, jumping puzzles. Many people enjoy JP’s and platforming in general. Others detest it. The key here is that the MMO is not about platforming at core and since you have a diverse player base you don’t gate content (and the living story/world) by a niche feature.
I’m not taking part in the living story because I don’t do platformers. It was a bad decision. I hope that this release represents the past in terms of Colin’s blog. This is exactly the problem we need to move away from and towards a permanent, evolving, living world.
For the sake of discussion, I’m going to take it for granted that the issue is bandwidth, as ANet says it. The question I come up with is, “Knowing the bandwidth issues, why were DoT’s not treated as DoT’s are in other games, where applications of the same DoT by different players are treated separately, but individual players can only have one of the same DoT at any given time?” It’s pretty evident what the shortcomings of the current system are. It’s a lot harder to see what advantages it provides — if any.
It was inexperience that led Anet to try to manage DoT on mobs rather than account for it by player. Other games have actually tried it but it doesn’t work. And, just thinking it through should be all that is necessary here.
The good news is that we are not hamstrung by technical difficulties. The problem is solved in other games. All you need to do is account for damage by player (damage/tick X # of ticks). That’s it. Is it doable? Yes, other games are doing it right now. Does it work? Yes, now adding 5 more condition builds to a group would be comparable to adding 5 more direct damage builds. They have acknowledged the problem and hopefully are working on the solution.
This interview doesn’t really give much insight on Orr sadly. I do like the fact that there is a goal of making Orr more rewarding. It seems like each improvement simply empties Orr. I wish them luck with the goal.
No, it’s not a bug or limited to Gendarren Fields. Champs are not worth fighting anywhere—unless you are fighting purely for sport. But, check out the latest blog post by Colin. Changes are coming to make fighting champs worth the effort.
We really don’t need an Anet response on this. It is not a mod. It doesn’t modify or interact with the game client in any way. It is an overlay and that may be what’s confusing you, i.e., that fact that it looks like a mod. But, hey, it will overlay firefox or any other program. It really has nothing to do with GW2 except for reading the publicly available api’s around events.
I think the OP misses it around reward. Yes, a game must be intrinsically rewarding. We play because it’s fun and if it isn’t, well…
But, in games, and especially in the MMO, there must be extrinsic rewards as well. Character development requires gold or some form of currency. Food costs. Waypoints cost. T3 armor is around 120g. Everything of value found in the games costs something. Actually, since we don’t create ex nihilo, this is modeled on real life. The game has an economy and we all participate in it. There is nothing wrong with this.
And, this is why Anet’s focus on extrinsic rewards in game is not misguided, but rather the OP is. Anet is correct in noticing that felt reward in the game has not been happening for a lot of players. They are addressing this and hopefully the extrinsic rewards will rise to meet the intrinsic rewards of the gameplay itself. The game is a lot of fun to play.
I came to this forum looking for a thread like this to join. I have alts gathering resources the old-fashioned way and they have a fever, and the only prescription is more picks, axes, and scythes. Anet, please take my money.
Hadn’t tried it on a Charr, but have to say, like you, I love it on my Asura engineer. The Charr need a lot of attention when it comes to armor generally.
OP, I have good news! In terms of the criticisms listed, I personally would say that Colin agrees with you (or at least hears you). Read the latest blog about where they want to take the game going forward. It doesn’t sound like temporary content and platformer mini-games will be center stage.
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/looking-ahead-guild-wars-2-in-2013/
He was talking about combat. Learn to read/listen. Kids these days, they hear what they want.
Not really.
When he says, “We just don’t want players to grind in Guild Wars 2. No one enjoys that. No one finds it fun”, he’s not saying “we don’t want people to grind for levels, but grinding gear is ok”. He is saying that grind is bad because grind is not fun (and it isn’t). There isn’t any way to make it clearer than saying “no one finds it fun”.
By removing grind, combat isn’t just a matter of mindlessly killing a big number of enemies as quickly and as easily as possible, so it would definitely change how people see combat.
Unfortunatelly, ArenaNet changed their minds and decided to make a game filled with grind. The result is that their plan – to make a MMO for people who don’t like MMOs – failed. The GW2 community is made by the same grinders, farmers, addicts and exploiters who populate all other MMOs, and little else.
Actually, in the written manifesto, the statements follow the section on combat. It’s a new paragraph that begins to summarize all that has gone before. This makes sense as the statements don’t really have anything to do with combat; ‘grind’ is not even remotely associated with a games combat systems.