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There is absolutely no reason to fear that a PTR will be implemented in GW2. The benefit of a PTR is quality content releases and it requires a longer development cycle for it to be even feasible, i.e., longer than a month. Otherwise, there is simply no way that it can be a part of the process as there’s nowhere to fit it in. With the move to two week releases there is even less reason to be concerned about the implementation of a methodology to improve the quality of code and content.
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I’ve never been able to find the “one”. That’s probably why I have all the professions at 80 and rotate professions (and builds) I play at least every two weeks. This is an alternative (no pun intended) approach that may help those looking for the “one”.
Historically, it has varied. It would be great if there was a regular time for this.
It sounds very odd that you played a hunter for years in WoW and detest kiting. I mean, it is such a core mechanic to the class. I still remember the day I spent several hours outside Crossroads in the Barrens perfecting my jump shot. Now I could kill an enemy while running away from them. A masterful jump shot set the veteran hunter apart as someone who understood their class mechanics and the best way to take advantage of them.
At any rate, some people really do not like to kite excessively and for those we have the primarily melee professions. Even my guardian kites occasionally, but with a warrior or guardian you’ll spend a lot of time in melee. I would exclude Ranger simply based upon your detesting kiting.
Yeah, pre-patch I had a rifle build that was successful, but haven’t had the heart to touch that character since the patch. In general PvE I’ve used rifle or LB primarily for kiting mobs at range. Melee is not always an option. If you are at the top of the aggro table and the mob (vet/champ) is spamming hard-hiting abilities, dodge provides limited utility. You die or drop back to range.
The class got a HUGE laundry lists of buffs… but the Hunters got nerfed, so they whine… While the rest of enjoy our now more potent rangers.
Confirmed for troll. Either that or clearly never played ranger.
He also said that a reduction in the range of a weapon was a “buff”. Maybe a troll, but could be a new gamer. And, nothing wrong with being new to gaming if that’s the case.
Guardians are pretty happy with their state.
That’s a fact. But, counter intuitively, success is viewed as a problem in this game. I wouldn’t blow the trumpet too loudly if you desire to continue celebrating the success of this profession.
They already post too much as it is…
….Without actually saying anything at all
Talking is easy. It’s Listening to other people first that’s the hard part.
But listening to WHO. In case you haven’t noticed, there are several opinions in every topic. Maybe they are listening and they’re just not listening to a specific percentage of the player base.
In fact, if they were listening to a specific percentage it would be guaranteed that a different percentage would feel like they didn’t listen.
This is in fact true. And, it’s why I would prefer that they listened and responded less to player demand. The alternative, of course, would be to evolve the game according to its DNA; in other words, from a compelling vision and game design philosophy, similar to how a manifesto would ordinarily function in guiding the evolution of an organization and its products. If it’s an idea whose time has come, the players will come. Player feedback is helpful, of course, in evolving a game. I’d just prefer to know that the game developer was in the driver seat.
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Orr is not obsolete entirely as you may want to complete the map if you are a completionist. It is no longer a place to play and socialize as it once was. Anet began a series of improvements in February that largely emptied the place. You’ll find the crowds at the world events. You can find the timers for your server at http://us.gw2stuff.com/
Ascended gear not intended for casual players? Google vertical progression and then, perhaps, we can talk reasonably. Gear with higher stats not useful to casual players? Do you really believe that?
Ascended gear was intended for use in higher level Fractal dungeons, which requires a heavy commitment to playing through low level Fractal dungeons – therefore, the items were not intended for casual players.
Useful as a stat boost is not the same as being intended for them. The intention of Ascended gear was to give hardcore players something to work for. Laurels will come to everyone in time, if someone wants to get laurels faster, they have to make a commitment to logging in more often – and therefore not play so casually.
Ascended gear was not intended for the casual player. I don’t run Fractal dungeons and I don’t have any Ascended gear. It doesn’t make a bit of difference to me and I still enjoy playing the game just fine, thanx.
Do you have a link from Anet on their intentions for Ascended gear? I mean that it’s intended for high level fractals only and not for casual players? I’ve read all their blog posts and statements on external sites and seem to have missed it.
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I used to play in CS rather than the world boss hopping that so many people do (myself included now) as the reward for play was comparable and there was a strong sense of community there. I joined my current guild because I enjoyed partying up with the GM of that guild. I actually met a lot of people in CS and had a lot of fun.
Today, finding a rare is extremely rare in CS. So rare that you wouldn’t go there if you were looking for reward for play. Boss-hopping is the only way to experience reward for play (in terms of the extrinsic reward of loot) in the game. Sadly, it doesn’t foster the same sense of community that the old CS did. I miss the Orr of the January update.
Objectively, based on the forums overall, the answer usually is given by describing the bottom tier in the game: Ranger, Engineer, and Necromancer. My condition damage Necro is pretty happy with the last patch, but, because of the general problem with condition damage (stacks on mob rather than damage by player), he really hasn’t moved out of the bottom tier.
So, you want to play and you have goals you want to work towards, but the way you play the game doesn’t match your goals, so your response is to blame Anet and stop playing?
Ah, but the way he wants to play does match the original stated design of the game. Not having to play everyday is also supposed to be one of the main points of subscriptionless games. As far as his way of playing goes, his goals should be reasonable in this game. They aren’t, because “someone” did change the rules after the game shipped.
In an MMO, change is expected, not avoided. He is blowing things waaaaaay out of proportion. What would happen if you went to the WoW forums and complained you wanted top tier raid gear, but you can only log on for an hour or two twice a month?
Ascended gear was not intended for casual players, and it is useless to casual players. Likewise Legendary weapons – both were created for individuals who put a lot of time into the game. He’s not missing anything by not having them, he’s just jealous of the people who have put in the time and effort to get them.
There’s no reason for Anet to hand loot out like Mardi Gras beads just because someone demands it.
Ascended gear not intended for casual players? Google vertical progression and then, perhaps, we can talk reasonably. Gear with higher stats not useful to casual players? Do you really believe that?
They didn’t add “Ascended gear” so much as they added vertical progression to the game. Ascended gear is simply its implementation. And, since it’s vertical and since it progresses there will be more pieces, and then more pieces, over time. You do realize that the laurels given in dailies were added to the game precisely so that all players, whether casual or hardcore, could keep up with vertical progression?
I do agree that there is no reason for Anet to hand out loot like Mardi Gras beads simply because people demand it. That’s not how games work. Loot should be a reward for play; not play that the play police have determined is skillful, but simply play. It’s part of why we play games in the first place. We play because it’s fun.
Off topic, but Vayne, you’re about the only person I see on this forum with a consistent, respectable degree of logic.
I for one am glad you’re still here.
Thanks for this. I’m sure just as many people would be happy if I vanished into thin air, though. lol
I, personally, would hate to see you vanish from the forums. On every subject except this one you show a high degree of thoughtful, critical analysis with even-handedness throughout. You are a valuable member of the forum community. I would not like to see GW2 forums without Vayne as they would be all the poorer for it.
I prefer efficient fun. If I do something with no regard whatsoever for efficiency it’s not much fun for me. But, I really don’t think of efficiency in terms of an overarching goal in my gameplay. Rather, I come to efficiency through fun.
Funny you should mention it. I was at shelt yesterday waiting for what seemed like hours for the next event to spawn, when what do I see run by but a naked level 11 character. I was going to congratulate her on getting there but she was gone before I could get a grats out.
What I would say to the OP is exactly what went through my mind seeing the streaker run by. Why would you ever want to level in Orr? You will have freahmeat aggro-status and will probably be pulling mobs from all adjacent maps. Since you can’t fight and win, you will spend a good part of your time dead which doesn’t sound like much fun to me.
If going to Orr means leveling faster, and that is your goal, and you have ~60g for crafting, you can get to 80 in about 5 hours. If you are gold poor, leveling itself is fast in this game. On my last character that I leveled traditionally it took around a week.
My advice is to go zone appropriate. There’s really no advantage, and many disadvantages, in attempting to level in Orr.
I would like a development cycle that would allow them to design, code, test, and deploy quality content of an enduring nature (permanent as opposed to temporary). As a software developer myself, I believe the minimum dev cycle i could envision for this would be 3 months, possibly 2+ months, but I’m going to go with 3.
Some great answers above. One I didn’t see mentioned was “when farming”. When you are farming DE’s with bazillions of mobs use a staff. It tags everything in front of you. I have all the professions at 80 and have tried every weapon out there and the guardian’s staff is hands-down the best farming weapon.
I run the same trait build as you (0/0/30/30/10) which has been great as a standard build for my entire history with the guardian. I have made some changes to eek out a bit more dps without losing the survivability. On my armor it’s knights-3/valkyrie-1/pvt-2. The change I made was to swap in zerker stats 100% (well, other than the back piece) on the trinkets. My weapons are zerker as well. I really think this realizes the best dps/survivability/group utility tradeoff in the game. Sure, sometimes I miss my warrior’s pre-patch dps, but my guardian can go places where my warrior fears to tread. And, it’s enough dps for me.
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I see the definition of grind is up for grabs again. I think it’s pretty clear what they were communicating in the manifesto and associated marketing documents prior to the release of GW2. All you have to do is consider the context and the intended audience of the communications. They weren’t attempting to break new ground in the understanding of ‘grind’. They were, in fact, relying on the commonly held definition held by the common reader of the documents. Who was this common reader? The intended audience was former GW1 players and other gamers who may be looking for a new kind of MMO that, in this case, was not grindy.
For GW players they were quite familiar, for the most part, with how their game differed from common MMO’s out there. Anet let us in on their definition with the qualification about grinding “for a future fun reward”. How are they attempting to make the distinction here? Well, against other games which are grindy. How about the current reigning king of MMO’s? There you are doing dungeon after dungeon trying to get upgraded weapons, upgraded armor, upgraded trinkets, etc. You are always playing to get “a future fun reward”. This is what they were talking about when they used the word ‘grind’ in the marketing literature. They said their MMO would be different.
As Vayne says, English is English. And I will add that context is king when attempting to interpret something where there is disagreement as to the plain meaning. It’s clear that they were using the common negative meaning of grind and were stating that their game would not be grindy in the ways that people commonly understand existing MMO’s to be grindy. I think the definition of grind is plain here. The question remains, however, as to where they succeeded in producing a game that was not grindy in the same way that other MMO’s are grindy.
Honestly, I couldn’t stop until I had all professions at 80, so was tempted to say just pick a combo as it probably won’t be your last. But, to make things simple, it should be an Asura engineer. Make sure you design a slight smile on your character at character creation and get a flamethrower as soon as can.
I understand your decision to leave the community in order to spend time with family and friends. Thank you for being a part of this community. I will have hope for your healing and wish you well in all things.
I think Vayne got it right in his first post above in assuming that this is a complaint against those complaining about the level of grind in the game. And I think the OP can be summed up as don’t complain about grinding in the game because there is no need to grind, and if you do it’s your own fault.
I have to disagree. I believe Anet got one thing absolutely right in their statement “we don’t make grindy games”, and that is that grind in a game is solely achieved through game design. It’s really not subjective and its certainly not something players add to a game. Players can like grinding or dislike it, but they can’t create it in a game. It is a game element that is added to games by a game developer.
And I agree with Anet on this. So, the debate on the forums, I believe, is legitimate. Usually there are two camps in the debate; those that favor grinding (and I’m using grind here in it’s negative connotation) and those who don’t. Here on the forums we have a third camp, which I have never really understood, those who don’t believe in grinds, or at least don’t believe they exist by design in GW2.
Rather than counsel those who feel there is too much grind in the game to take a break, I prefer to counsel them to share their feelings and perceptions on the forums where others can engage with them and together we can work towards making GW2 a great game. The forums exist for 2-way communication about the state of the game. They will only fulfill their intended role when they are used. So my counsel, succinctly put, is don’t take a break if you are feeling forced to play. Keep playing the game and keep actively involved in the forums in order to make this the greatest MMO ever.
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I read one about this poster complaining about complaints, I found that pretty amusing.
killcannon, this is probably the best rejoinder I’ve seen on the subject of this thread. Very well executed, /kneel.
Actually, a high level of constructive criticism demonstrates the involvement level of the community. It means that the forums are succeeding in the purpose for which Anet intended them: as a mechanism for 2-way communication about the game. I actually find the tone here generally much better and more positive than other gaming forums that I have participated in. All games have issues and its healthy to raise them and debate those where there is disagreement. I, for one (or maybe for two I guess), am not going to complain about complaining.
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What are the impacts of raising the the level cap? First one atom explodes. Then the atom next to it explodes, and then the next. We don’t know if the chain reaction stops at the borders of Tyria or extends to the borders of the planet earth. It’s not a risk I would be willing to take.
You really need to throw DE’s in there if you are talking about open world running around, because you would be foolish to exclude them. I have all the professions at 80 and have done a lot of open world PvE. Overall, I would say the guardian is best for running around. The DPS/survivability tradeoff is perhaps the best in the game. And the guardian does respectable ranged and melee damage. If you are farming events I don’t believe there is a better tool than the guardian’s staff (it also grants swiftness for the running around part of running around). The usual disclaimer directed to Anet applies: the class is not OP and does not need to be nerfed.
I hated the staff while leveling my guardian and largely avoided it except to try it out for a few levels. It just felt so weak and ineffective. Post 80 I fell into using one while running around simply for the swiftness buff and I began to notice how well it did tagging mobs and that the damage, overall, was respectable. And…gradually it grew on me. Now it’s one of my favorite weapons in the game. You would have to use dynamite to get it out of my 2nd weapon slot. It works very well in WvW too.
There is nothing about an “expansion” that particularly interests me. And, the threat of a level cap increase makes it more a subject of dread. I like the idea of evolving a living world—that seems more like the way worlds evolve and less cataclysmic (pun intended).
And, rather than a two week release schedule, I vote for one that has a chance to produce quality content, say, a 2-3 month development cycle.
I think they have covered the archetypes well enough and I don’t see any need for additional professions. There is plenty of work to do in evolving the current ones. Eight is enough.
I don’t think the problem with it lies primarily in terms of player perceptions and expectations. I have long advocated for a longer development cycle, i.e., longer than one month. And the reason is that quality content takes time to design, code, test, and deploy. Many of the problems we have seen whether its lost shores or the living story that was a road to walk up and down can be tied to the short development cycle and time imposed limitations on the possible.
I would much prefer to see them evolve a permanent world of an enduring nature with a development cycle around three months. Bug fixing and game balance tweaks could, of course, happen more often.
I agree that living story and personal story nags should be optional as to whether or not they are displayed. And, while we are at it, the display of character titles should also be optional. Just a mass of clutter in any group.
I think it’s a valid complaint. A level 80 zone should reward level 80 armor.
This
Especially now, considering the difficulty of some temple areas to complete and lack of people in the zone to help
Agreeing with Vayne, et al on this.
No surprises for anyone who regularly reads the forums. I have all the professions at 80 and play them all occasionally. The poll accurately reflects my thinking on balance and utility. And, I feel the poll results are an accurate representation of the thinking of the group it polled—the online community. For those who don’t keep up with the forums and third party sites, it could be helpful in demonstrating what the current thinking is around profession balance.
I was happy that Colin gave a nod to adding more permanent content to the game. As has been said there are numerous problems associated with temporary content. I have long advocated for a longer development cycle (longer than monthly) as well that would give developers time to think, write code, test, and deploy quality content of a more enduring nature. Well, no surprise, they are moving in the opposite direction to a two week cycle. As a software developer I was happy to see the “Hello World” allusion in the blog post to the K&R C book where a lot of us old timers started our serious programming. But contemporary approaches to software development really don’t alter that fact that it takes time to develop quality ideas and quality code.
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Of course guardians are not OP and the form of the OP is that of a troll. I will say the the guardian has fared favorably in the balancing and that’s not a problem simply movement in the right direction.
It is certainly the best MMO I have played to date. And, it still has potential to be great. They did so much right with this game and I wish Anet and the community success in making it great.
These items are a convenience for players who don’t want to manage inventory for these items. And, they support Anet and fund future development. Convenience and profit should not be a temporary in the game. Please bring these back as permanent items in the store. As it is, I only have one character with a complete set and I would like to get these for all my characters over time.
When will ANET add them? next year?
I have a lot of Laurels and guild commendations and nothing to buy….They will likely add Ascended weapons and armors as a reward for the GW2 raids mentioned in another topic at the front page of this subforum. Your laurels and guild commendations will likely be useless to get them.
I don’t think they will make them exclusive to their version of raiding.
If they did, the uproar and mass exodus would be huge.
Yeah, tying ascended gear to raiding would be a huge blunder, perhaps worse than the introduction of ascended gear (VP) itself. Personally, I would like to believe Ision’s rumor, but the reality-testing in me is too strong. Wouldn’t it be great though if they simply did a mea culpa and went 100% horizontal. It would truly be a new kind of MMO with a lot more staying power against the upcoming new titles. And, my alts would all be very happy that they don’t need to chase stats.
I really like the idea of having these more available under the various currencies in the OP. And, as mentioned the aqua breather really needs some attention from Anet.
Tarnished coast. It’s well populated in all zones and seems to be fairly mature and friendly. I spent over a month trying to get in back when it was free to transfer and I’m still glad I did.
I noticed the speed difference with the sickle—very nice! I just hope they make all unlimited use items available permanently in the store. I didn’t buy them for all my alts and I would like to be able to over time. It will benefit players, mostly through convenience, and it will benefit Anet monetarily. It sounds win-win to me.
I’ve had problems with not being able to purchase items with gems and also not being able to sell my items. When I attempted to sell I just got the brown screen of death with a working indicator. I can solve it by logging out and then back in. This leads me to think it’s an authentication issue where you lose authentication within the store app. At any rate that works for me when it’s not working.
Yes, the axe doesn’t appear to be a Monday (or 7/1) axe. I’m hoping it will be a Tuesday axe and preferably the 7/2 version of Tuesday. But, it will no doubt arrive at the appointed time.
My record is getting one-shot for 30k and a number of times for 20k which will do it on most characters I play. And, culling doesn’t even have to be a factor. Suppose you have a populated event with 3 champs up. The particle blur will be sufficient to mask any animations. Plus you’d never have the endurance to dodge based on animation anyway. The abilities are essentially spammed.
After watching the recent livestream of Anet devs dying over and over in the new dungeon, I’m wondering whether they might have a different philosophy around death in games and the downed state alludes to this. In most games you die because you made a mistake. You do a post-mortem, learn from your error, and hopefully play better from that point on. This promotes learning and skill-based play. The random death idea is not satisfying and does not promote skill-based play. If this is a philosophical element and not simply bad design it would be helpful to know this.
Anet has said that the have made Southsun and Orr “interesting” for hardcore players who are looking for “challenge”. While this group appears to be highly vocal, they are largely non-existent in the game. If they were to return CS to the January update there would be many happy players in GW2; and, these players would be actual existent players. It would be great to have the old CS back.
I do not usually post on game forums, but I feel very strongly about the presentation of in store “Rich Dragon Coffers.” I dropped about 20 USD on jewels and bought a few boxes hoping to get a skin. [snip]
This is the problem, “hoping to get a skin”. You should never gamble for a skin. Financial planners IRL never recommend that you just buy more lottery tickets in order to increase your wealth. It just doesn’t happen for the common person. Play planners in GW2 say the same thing. Coffers or any gambling mechanic in the game are to make the house money. Period. If you are feeling like you want to support the development efforts of Anet, by all means, gamble. But, definitely don’t gamble if you actually want something in-game—it’s highly unlikely to happen.
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It actually happens quite often that when trying to buy an item in the store for gems, I click Click to Confirm and absolutely nothing happens. I try a slow deliberate confirm, then a fast ninja confirm and no matter how I perform it, nothing happens. Then, maybe I’ll try later in the day and the purchase goes through. I’m curious, is this a problem for other people or is it just me?
Edit: This may have to do with losing the necessary authentication over time in the game. I noticed that, while I’m able to play the game fine, I also can’t sell on the TP. I logged out/in and everything worked fine again.
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Perhaps “information should be free” taken to its logical conclusion. When it gets near it’s logical conclusion, it doesn’t seem very logical.
I understand the dynamics of risk/reward. It is the underlying dynamic of magic find, i.e., putting yourself at greater risk to increase your chance of reward. All well and good. But, perhaps I am getting old. These days I think more in terms of reward for play. We play games to have fun and we all have dramatically different playstyles. Rather than double down on one motivator/dynamic why not expand it to reward for investment in the game through play, recognizing there are many ways to play the game.