Yeah, nerf them trees not me!
It’s because this is the gear treadmill outside of FotM. It’s all about the next tier of gear with a higher power level. It’s all about grinding for a future fun reward and all the other things they said this game was not about. This is a cheap take on progression but logically consistent. Why would you expect to find anything different on the vendors?
unfortunately it still failable if a single new person that doesn’t know what there doing pops in and drags the priest to the wrong area.
As I said in another thread about this, its all well and good making tough encounters but you need to design em for the situation they will be fought in, this temple event is an open zone event that attracts and is open to anyone in the zone at the time, thus it will generally attract lots of people. Thus saying that its easier with less people and thus balanced completely neglects the whole situation of where it is, it would be like them dropping a level 80 boss in the low level start area’s and claiming its balanced because a team of level 80’s could kill him.
Yes. It’s certainly not appropriate in its setting. But, beyond that it’s a poorly designed encounter. Basically cheap mechanics to simulate challenge. It’s what you get when a dev team is just out of college and hasn’t even been playing that long relatively. I appreciate legitimate challenges. I love interesting boss mechanics. It’s a lazy man’s route to simply put down essentially unavoidable AoE. It’s what you do to create ‘challenge’ when you run out of creativity.
The current implementation of the Grenth fight is at the intended difficulty.
We identified some bugs in the initial roll out and they were fixed. We also adjusted the size of the portals to allow for more play room. We intend this fight to be a difficult encounter in the open world for experienced players to feel challenged against.
MMO’s aren’t about crushing challenge and this fight is no longer tuned appropriately as a difficult challenge. I say this as someone who has done heroics in another popular MMO for years. There needs to be challenge and interesting, avoidable mechanics. Pervasive AoE that kills everyone is not a challenge, it’s a lazy developer’s attempt at challenge. It’s rare today to find experienced designers who have a gut-level understanding of basic design issues.
On a side note I was excited to watch an ESO in-dev vid and see all the ‘old’ developers. With that kind of gaming experience behind it it should be a great new title.
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This is something glaringly missing from the total makeover kit. There you can change the gender of your character but have you noticed that male and female names usually suggest the gender. Can we get word on when this feature will be added?
Saw a video of the new predator and fell in love with it. I had no thought previously of acquiring any legendary but this one has got me and my warrior thinking differently about it.
Yeah, it was plinx/pent/shelt that I used to get my mesmer her T3 karma weapons. I know what you mean about tagging but with huge groups I tab targeted serially to get the most tags possible. On the gold front, with Omnoms, it seemed to be a couple gold per hour with serious work. At the cost of T3 armor that would take quite awhile. I don’t experience a strong sense of reward farming and really can’t think of a truly rewarding location.
They always said that it would eventually cost money at some point. The point at which they added guesting sounds like a logical time to add cost to server transfer. It will have the added benefit of stabilizing server populations to some extent. The ability to freely transfer coupled with multi-guilding doesn’t really contribute to strong communities.
There are some great reasons to ragequit but this isn’t one of them.
I haven’t found a single instance where the racial skill equaled or surpassed a non-racial elite skill. And I have level 80’s of all the races. They might have a very situational use but aren’t strong enough for general use.
One would hope that the dev’s recognize when and where they’ve been successful in class design and work to bring all classes up to that standard of success. The warrior profession is an example of a well-designed and implemented class. It has strengths in melee and at range. It is the only profession where I don’t feel gimped by my secondary weapon set; rather, it simply feels optional depending on the combat situation.
I would not like to see any nerf as part of the warrior’s future. Nerf success and you simply breed mediocrity. I hope to see all the professions become successful to the same extent in the future.
The game is graphically glorious. That and design choices which breath life into the game make for a very beautiful and engaging game world. Yes, those teams involved deserve all the praise they get. I’m still blown away everyday and I’ve been playing since beta.
Edit: Forgot to mention the music. I just remembered I rolled a sylvari while doing map completion in and around the grove. The music captured me during the exploration. GW2 music adds a compelling component to the overall mix.
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What?
MMO don’t magically turn bad people into good ones and vice versa, people is the same.
A bad person in GW2 will be a bad person in EVE and in Darkfall too.Unless some games reward people for faking friendly behaviors, in that case yes.
But I’d take anyone of the kids in WvW that yell garbage over a cheesy person trying to be cool to me to get something.
Actually in-game cultures are largely shaped through game design elements. That doesn’t mean that they turn bad people into good people, rather they exert an influence strong enough to be felt. And here I will disagree with the OP in terms of the friendliness of the game. When you design quests and resources to be non-competitive, have rezzing a downed player add XP, or include DE’s that benefit from a larger number of people, you make seeing other people on the map a positive experience. With the positive experience of seeing other players you lay the groundwork for cooperative play and encourage it. This is actually brilliant stuff in shaping game culture and especially when contrasted to another leading MMO where adding players to a zone is like adding rats to a cage. It could well be the same players in either game, but the outcome will be different because of design choices that shape the culture.
Edit: I will agree with OP that there isn’t a lot of chat involved. I often greet people and always ty for party, but it’s not fun for me to chat and play at the same time. I personally would rather not multi-task while actively playing. That said, I don’t take the absence of chat as unfriendly. I just figure they are just as multi-task challenged as I am.
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The question around scaling is balance and I think they had it right before they fixed what wasn’t wrong. What’s truly odd is that there are so many issues obviously and glaringly wrong. One could talk about class balance. Have you played all the professions. Did you happen to notice there are three that really, really fall short of the others? One could talk about the persistent and gamebreaking problem of culling that has an impact daily on gameplay. These are things they should be focusing development resources on. Scaling was not even low-hanging fruit. It may have needed tweaking and rewards of course needed to be added, but they didn’t need to fundamentally realign players with the environment.
I give them a thumbs up on the work they did in Orr. It’s not “fun” to be in constant major CC in a densely packed, insta-respawn environment. I mean anyone playing the game while it was in development should have noticed that one.
I give them thumbs down on scaling and difficulty in the 1/28 patch. A hero should benefit somewhat from the fruit of his or her heroism. He or she certainly shouldn’t be running for their life from 20-something mobs.
There are factors in game design that we play games for, fantasy, abnegation, etc. But, the bottom line is these are fun factors. All potential elements need to be evaluated in terms of the fun factor. MMO’s are not about crushing challenge and fun does not equal more difficult. Challenge is desirable in all games and there’s the razor’s edge. You must walk it without falling to the left or right. It was perfect before the patch. Like my Norn warrior who often prefers falling to his death to completing even a tough vista, they have fallen off the razor’s edge.
I played swtor for several months. I thought they had nailed balance up until the time they redid the trees and invalidated two hybrid builds I really enjoyed playing on 2 of my level 50 characters. Yeah, there wasn’t a lot of interesting content at level 50 and the world was not particularly living , something GW2 has down. I finally ragequit swtor when I was infected by a virus in a world event and now had to buy and administer an antidote regularly to keep myself from blowing up and dying. Often there are final straws when a game goes downhill and that was it for me. GW2 is a better game all around.
They need to take it one more step and realize that fractals are just dungeons. Some people do not play dungeons or WvW. For them, the monthly reward will be unattainable without changing their playstyle. It would be preferable if there were a path to monthlies for all people who play the game. At that point their play it your way credo will be realized.
OP, I agree. I have over 1,000 hours in and have found I think one or two exotics (obviously not a memorable experience) in that time. RNG is not the problem per se, it’s the way they’ve implemented and tuned the loot system. There are lotto winners to be sure, but the daily players are not finding their play rewarded. I came to GW2 directly from D3 and the loot experience was the same there. D3 was supposed to be about grinding gear so it was conspicuous by it’s absence. GW2 is simply missing the aspect of reward for play beyond the gameplay itself, which I admit is rewarding. But, in an MMO there are characters to maintain and expand and reward for play is the usual means to do so. So, yeah, I have the same loot experience as you do. If it weren’t for porous bones, I wouldn’t have no bones at all.
I would define an ultimate farming game as one you could farm in predictably and profitably. In another well known MMO I supported myself, very well, for years, by crafting entry level PvP and heroic’s gear. I could have a crazy farming day and make the whole set. That is nice farming and nice crafting. While GW2 requires EPIC farming to make anything of value, I wouldn’t call it an ultimate farming game by my definition.
It will be a non-grindy and non-gambling choice. I intend to play at the current max level gear, pre 11/15, until I can no longer play. No non-optional grinding for me. I realize I will be phased out eventually but it’s a great game in other respects. It will probably be a mini for my first purchase.
I haven’t tried WvW where they were focusing their efforts since the patch, but culling is much, much worse in open world PvE since the patch. It affects friendlies and enemies. Often the only cue that enemies are present in to see friendlies beating the air. Move in that direction and the enemies eventually appear. I was expecting, if anything, culling would improve after a patch that addressed it. Not so with 1/28 patch. And, it’s a non-issue with other games I play. I really don’t understand the problem they are having with it and why.
Yeah, way too much competition for human players outside of dungeons. NPC’s are the way to complete the daily.
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Strange. In GW1 people spent hours and hours in FOWSC and UWSC to get ectoplasm and obsidian. But nobody said that GW1 was pure grinding….
True. But it was for vanity purposes only. Elite armor was just a skin. Now we have to spend hours and hours in Fractals, and now do dailies for weeks on end, to get better gear.
Grinding for skins = optional for those who like to do that kind of thing.
Grinding for gear = gear treadmill, Pavlov, and all that. No fun.You need ascended items only to make fractals from level 10. And wvwvw is zerg vs zerg. So, you’re not forced to make fractal constantly to get ascended items.
Anet confirmed in the AMA that the stats introduced in FotM will be required in other parts of the game over time. They are just moving the grind out of one dungeon and into other parts of the game.
I think people get confused because the don’t understand vertical progression. It’s the element of game design that defines or creates a gear grind. Anet confirmed in the AMA that vertical progression would be in the game going forward. Consider the words that make up the well understood gaming concept. Vertical: the power level increases. Progression: it periodically and continually increases. By definition it’s a non-optional grind. Because we are talking about the power level of the game there will be a point at which you must grind to continue to play the game.
I think it would make forum life a little easier if more people understood the concept of horizontal vs vertical progression. It’s fine to like or dislike vertical progression and a gear grind treadmill. It is, however, not optional to say that GW2 has an optional grind. Once they added vertical progression, they not only introduced a gear grind; they made it non-optional.
OP, it’s a question I’ve asked myself many times after 11/15 and especially before the AMA when we didn’t really know what ascended gear meant. I don’t know what they were thinking and that aspect is still a mystery. My guess is that got spooked by all the no endgame threads and thought they better give them something to do. But, it really is a mystery. Adding a gear grind to GW is one of the larger non sequiturs in my gaming experience. And, even after they saw the negative impact on the game, they seem committed to continuing down the path.
So, there’s the fact that the grinding culture is here, which is sad, and there is also the issue of the nature of the grind. I don’t think Anet is very good at making a grindy game. In WoW the grind is relatively fast. When you are grinding out your PvP and PvE sets it’s basically what you focus on. Once you have the level of gear you want you can relax and most of the expansion is relaxed. Here it seems there will always be a sword over your head and a need to grind. Not a very good way of designing a grindy game if you ask me. (I cut them some slack here as they are new to grindy games.)
As I’ve stated before Arenanet want’s to increase the cap
Wanted to, at one point. There were a lot of things they wanted once (or said they wanted) and changed later.
Also, when they said that there will be new levels, situation was different. Top tier eq was supposed to be easily acquired – and there was to be no item progression. They didn’t really know how their trait system would work, their scaling system was highly theoretical, and so on.There are lot of reasons why, even if they once considered it a good idea, it may not be a good idea now.
" Wanted to, at one point. " What evidence do you have that show’s that Arenanet no longer want’s increase the level cap(If you are indeed saying that)? Certainty Arenanet could change their mind, (I wouldn’t have a problem with that) but without any indication of them saying they are going back on their word you simply cannot assume that they no longer want to raise the level cap. That’s like me saying “I want to go the store and buy some milk” and my wife saying “I wanted to at one point go to the store” Which indicates that I no longer have a desire to do so. Also Arenanet stated that they wanted level progression in late November.
Of course there is no proof that they’ve changed their minds on raising the level cap. You would need a quote and they haven’t publicly changed their minds on the subject. I think the larger question the post you are replying to addresses is the fact that just because they have made a statement about raising the level cap doesn’t mean they will actually follow through on it. They have shown the ability (11/15) to turn on a dime with no looking back. They are entirely out of my predictive range at this point so I don’t make predictions based on what they have said or what they have left unsaid. Only the actual implementation details will tell me which direction they have chosen to go.
I have 11 characters and they are split pretty evenly between male and female. I didn’t plan it that way it just happened as I was visualizing the character in terms of race and profession. I’ve thought about it before as it is a common topic in MMO’s, but I really don’t attach any significance to it. I enjoy the variety I guess. It might be different if I were an RPer. I think it would be difficult for me to role play against my gender.
I don’t think a tinfoil hat is necessary to come up with an answer to the problem. Most people misunderstand RNG and its use in a loot system. The loot system is not random. It is more appropriate to understand it as a rules-based system that uses RNG to spread results.
The problem here is in the tuning of the loot system, i.e. adjusting the rules that govern the system. Anet can make loot, for the common player, a wasteland or the big rock candy mountain. The goal is to follow the middle path where the common player experiences reward for playing the game. They have not arrived at that middle path and it is why you see these threads over and over. When you no longer see them you will know that they have it tuned correctly.
Yes, scaling was one area where I gave Anet credit for nailing it. That said, it’s come unhinged in the last patch. Scaling for a level 80 has gone too far the other way. What’s maddening about it is that it needed no change. There are stability and balance issues that are glaring in their obviousity and they remain unaddressed. The dailies are fine so they address them as well.
And, it’s not just in scaling either, but level specific difficulty. I have 7 level 80 characters and have played the same areas numerous times. I’m currently leveling a character through Bloodtide and the mobs are much more difficult than they were previously. Difficulty and scaling, things that were fine, are no longer fine. They’ve improved it worse.
DR isn’t just for bots. DR is also safety net to catch exploits or something that was not intended. If there wasn’t DR, it would be far too easy to farm something simply by creating a zerg, mulitplying your loot. Event DR slows down the ability to tag and leave, event hopping through the zone. Dungeon DR just catches exploits and gives an incentive to run other paths.
Requiring something like a captcha doesn’t stop botting, it just temporarily interrupts it while the bot calls its master for help. For the human players, it simply creates an annoyance.
DR is not a safety net as you describe. That would be called Quality Assurance. Bots are most easily found (and eliminated) after the fact through data mining techniques. They can be identified as soon as the data gets to a data mart or warehouse, usually on a daily basis.
DR itself probably was justified to gimp the bots initially. Reality-testing would also tell you that it gimps legit players equally. We play games in part to experience a sense of reward. You never, ever combat bots by making your game unrewarding to play. This is actually a game design 101 level issue.
It’s kind of funny on the culling. It has gotten much, much worse after the last patch that was addressing it. The irony is amusing. I’m talking about open world PvE and I believe they may have been targeting WvW initially. The Harathi Hinterlands were a joke last night. I could see friendlies fighting something a few feet away but couldn’t see the enemies. At least they were my cue that enemies were present. A couple more steps in their direction and sure enough, there they were.
And, it’s not just enemies. Run into the BLTC in LA and you will be the only one there for a couple seconds then a roomful of people appears. At least it doesn’t kill you but it does break immersion. I think they should realize that culling is a problem, not just in WvW with enemies, but a problem in the game.
Very nice video and very good use of the classic footage. Sums up the 11/15 issues pretty well. I’m torn between thinking they either don’t know how to balance the professions or, more generously, simply can’t given the monthly events sucking up development resources. Whatever it is they should put everything else on hold and address stability and balance.
BTW, I don’t see the vid as anti-warrior and I don’t think Warriors need a nerf. They are an example of a successful class design. I think the same creativity should be used on rangers, engies, and necros. And, while they are at it, they should take a look at condition damage. It is simply damage dealt differently. There is no reason for it to be lower in terms of sustained damage.
I do like the incentive to get people into different parts of the world. As the game matures more people will have higher level characters and you can safely move the achievements to higher level areas. That said, more than anything, I would like to see options for both dailies and monthlies that allow people with different preferences to get them. As you note they are significant rewards now with the laurels and you really shouldn’t be excluding people who don’t like or play WvW or dungeons. A simple list of options would solve most of the problems with the current achievements.
One thing to note on the declining number of people grinding fractals is that they have begun to place the treadmills in other parts of the game with the last patch. Localizing the grind in a dungeon probably sounded like a good idea initially as that’s how WoW does vertical progression post max level. With treadmills appearing closer to where players naturally play I would expect the dungeon population to decline a bit. This is not to say that there has not been a change in loot quality, just another reason people may be grinding the fractals less.
My whole point is there is no such thing as DR bug. For some reason that I can only speculate on, ANET stealth nerfed loot drops and I say stealth because it was not in the patch notes but its obviously and clearly happening to EVERYONE except those few who are getting the lucky side of RNG.
But there is a DR bug (or perhaps a “consistent RNG bug”), becuase the people who get the lucky side of RNG have been, according to my observations, getting the lucky side of RNG CONSISTENLTY since the 11/15 patch
You (and some of your friends, the same ones) get porous bones by the stack and a couple of blues.
They (and some of their friends, the same ones) get an exotic, 4 lodestones, and 4 ectos worth of rares in the same time.
And no matter how many times you run with them, it’s always the same for each account – the “have lucks” get every loot amazing every time for months, the “have none” have stopped waypointing to dragons because it’s too expensive.
This is statistically impossible, which means there’s a bug.
I haven’t seen this at all. Yesterday, I played for three hours and I got two exotics and three rares. Two days before that, I played for five hours and didn’t get a single rare, almost no drops at all in fact. And the day before that I got two rares in only an hour and a half.
You do know what the R in RNG stands for right? Being random it has the potential to consistently give you nothing, consistently give you a ton, or anywhere in-between.
Many people are not familiar with how RNG functions in a loot system and so make comments like this one. A loot system is anything but random; it would be more appropriately denoted as a rules-based system that uses RNG to spread results over a player base. The loot system is tuned to provide the loot experience everyone sees in-game and the devs know, or should know, what the common experience around loot is. The problem with the loot system as it is is that it is currently tuned like a lottery. A lottery will have daily winners, but the common player loses. And, if he just plays the lottery more, the odds of his winning don’t change. That’s why financial advisers don’t advise people to just buy more lottery tickets to improve their chance of winning. The answer, of course, is to tune the loot system so that the common player experiences a sense of reward for playing the game. That sense of reward is not there yet and you will continue to see threads on the subject because it’s impossible not to notice that it’s not there.
No, it is random, and what you said, is just plain stupidity trying not to sound stupid. Sorry, but that is literally the least offensive way I could think to put it.
You have a random number generator on the server, which continually cycle through numbers. When you kill something or open a chest, it has a set of loot tables, it picks a loot table for you based on the current number. Then when you pick up that loot, it rolls again, from items on that table. The amount of items place in the market is ‘controlled’ controlled by making certain loot tables number appear less in the number sequence.
Like I said it is rule-based and uses RNG to spread results. If this were not the case they wouldn’t be able to adjust it to provide more or less reward. But, in fact, we know they can adjust or tune it at their whim. If you don’t understand how loot systems work, it’s best not to comment on the subject.
My whole point is there is no such thing as DR bug. For some reason that I can only speculate on, ANET stealth nerfed loot drops and I say stealth because it was not in the patch notes but its obviously and clearly happening to EVERYONE except those few who are getting the lucky side of RNG.
But there is a DR bug (or perhaps a “consistent RNG bug”), becuase the people who get the lucky side of RNG have been, according to my observations, getting the lucky side of RNG CONSISTENLTY since the 11/15 patch
You (and some of your friends, the same ones) get porous bones by the stack and a couple of blues.
They (and some of their friends, the same ones) get an exotic, 4 lodestones, and 4 ectos worth of rares in the same time.
And no matter how many times you run with them, it’s always the same for each account – the “have lucks” get every loot amazing every time for months, the “have none” have stopped waypointing to dragons because it’s too expensive.
This is statistically impossible, which means there’s a bug.
I haven’t seen this at all. Yesterday, I played for three hours and I got two exotics and three rares. Two days before that, I played for five hours and didn’t get a single rare, almost no drops at all in fact. And the day before that I got two rares in only an hour and a half.
You do know what the R in RNG stands for right? Being random it has the potential to consistently give you nothing, consistently give you a ton, or anywhere in-between.
Many people are not familiar with how RNG functions in a loot system and so make comments like this one. A loot system is anything but random; it would be more appropriately denoted as a rules-based system that uses RNG to spread results over a player base. The loot system is tuned to provide the loot experience everyone sees in-game and the devs know, or should know, what the common experience around loot is. The problem with the loot system as it is is that it is currently tuned like a lottery. A lottery will have daily winners, but the common player loses. And, if he just plays the lottery more, the odds of his winning don’t change. That’s why financial advisers don’t advise people to just buy more lottery tickets to improve their chance of winning. The answer, of course, is to tune the loot system so that the common player experiences a sense of reward for playing the game. That sense of reward is not there yet and you will continue to see threads on the subject because it’s impossible not to notice that it’s not there.
It isn’t DR that’s bugged, it’s the loot system. It needs tuning to provide the necessary reward beyond the gameplay itself. It’s been bugged long enough that it is obviously by design. The loot system is designed not to provide a sense of reward for play. It may have something to do with the way the game is monetized. It’s only speculation, but D3 had the exact same sense of reward and the same monetization scheme. It may be that they can’t make a profit and provide players with a sense of reward.
I just tried master’s bond for the first time and was dismayed to find that it resets on pet swap. Totally worthless when you are swapping pets as is absolutely needed in this game with pet survivability what it is—dismal. This really needs to be corrected.
They need to bring the dailies and the monthlies into alignment with their stated (not implemented) play it your way philosophy. As it is, it is a glaring contradiction in its present form.
Most annoying. I like the option of having it there for those who wish to see it, but dislike their cluttering my screen against my wishes.
Find me a consensus among financial professionals that advises you to buy lottery tickets to increase wealth. When that comes back in the affirmative I’ll have a look at the boxes.
WvW should never have been a part of map completion. It doesn’t fit with Anet’s play it your way philosophy and I don’t understand how it found its way into the game. It should simply be open world PvE.
No, I don’t believe it should be random for each player. I would prefer them to include options in both daily and monthly achievements to allow players to select achieves that fit their playstyle. This would make the process less frustrating for players and bring the achievements into alignment with Anet’s play it your way credo. It most certainly is out of alignment (monthlies) right now.
Bottom line, they should not have released the new dailies before they could get in the option to choose among them. They could save themselves and players a lot of headaches by simple reality testing of ideas before implementation.
Haha, I was wondering how long before people were killing themselves over the new dailies. ArenaNet encourages suicide! :P
Not only suicide. I found I was letting NPC’s I was supposed to be protecting die so I could revive them. I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before all players find the perfect spot for them to find dead NPC’s, but this is just a silly, silly idea for a daily.
Guest on Tarnished Coast. I think you will find it’s your server.
I tried the MF a couple times for weapons and promptly stopped. I was fresh enough from D3 and “crafting” there to notice a losing proposition when I saw one. There is a good reason why financial advisors don’t recommend buying lottery tickets to increase wealth and certainly wouldn’t advise just buying more to increase your chances. The same goes with in-game versions of the same mechanic. Sure, there will be occasional winners, but the chances are it won’t be you.
I think I have only missed a couple dailies since launch, but have never gotten a monthly achievement. Dailies have been largely around open world PvE and monthlies include WvW and dungeons. Anet knows that not all players do WvW or dungeons and yet have designed the monthly achievement as if those players don’t exist. They really need to offer options around monthly to include all players as it’s a significant reward that people who do play the game are missing. All they need to do is ask whether these players are able to play it their way or not. A simple alignment with their own philosophy is all that is needed.
Grenth is soldier accessories.
Drat! They must not want people in soldier’s then. They probably consider them OS (overly survivable) or something.
If the grinding grounds are becoming less populated it could also indicate that Anet is having success in distributing the treadmills throughout the game. Once there is a gear grind treadmill located close to where players naturally play I wouldn’t expect to see them all congregate around one treadmill.
I dont PUG any dungeons because of magic find gear. You can never be sure who is in it and is thus leeching off all your hard work. Thus, I make sure to never do dungeons in PUGs. Not that I do any PvE really anymore. And that is partly, again, due to MF gear.
I know, right? And what about all those with sub-par PCs, bad connections, build and gear I don’t approve of, classes I find weak, people with less than 2000 hours online. All those noobs ruining dungeons, shame on them. They should just go to their noob corner and quit gaming in general, because they are just too noob to be allowed online. The two of us should start a petition to have them banned!
You are failing to make the distinction around your examples. MF is a conscious choice to increase your risk (gimp yourself) in order to realize the possibility of greater reward. It’s fine single-player but doesn’t work in groups as when you choose to gimp yourself you also gimp the group. The salt in the wound is that though you contribute less to the group, you are then rewarded more for contributing less. It’s not a technical issue; it’s a question of human values. Some players hold a higher standard for themselves and would like to play with people who share those values.
I focused on the vets in Orr’s farming areas, pent/shelt to be exact, and they seemed to add to the count fine. Historically, though not in every fight, I’ve tended to focus on pesky adds first, then the mob of significance. But, no more strategic play—Anet has taught me to go for the vet no matter what so I can add it to the count.
I also used to protect NPC’s in DE’s that I was assigned to protect. No more, I let them die so I can revive them if healer is one of the dailies. Just bad game design made manifest. Now the focus is on playing the daily rather than playing the game. The old dailies were perfect in this regard as they remained in the background while you played the game. The reward came from playing the game.