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All professions are viable and fun. Best to narrow your selection by preferred playstyle. Melee? Warrior or Guardian. Ranged? All the rest, but many ranged, caster classes do fine in melee range. The two most played classes are melee, Warrior and Guardian. Warriors wreck face and Guardian is a boon factory that does very good damage. Read over the professions on the site and see if anything speaks to you. I’ve played all the professions over the last three months and have enjoyed the game playing each.
I am not one of the ones who has already posted about an Asura ear issue but I have one! I went to create a new Asura yesterday and, even though I have the slider as far over as possible, the ear length is no where near what I want and have on my other Asura.
The girl on the left is the new one with her horrible short ears. The one on the right has the ear length I have on all my others.
Is this part of the bug? Will it be changed or will all my future Asuras have short little ears?
I did submit a ticket, by the way.
I thinks she’s adorable with the shorter ears. And, from a lore perspective, long ears are only important for males. Females are fine with shorter, attractive ears in the culture.
But, seriously, I understand what you are saying and your preference. Seems strange they would mess with asura ears in the patch, but I guess fine tuning went awry somewhere.
Thanks for taking the time to collect and post this. I am one of those affected by sky dye not working on transmuted human cultural T3 armor. For me, and apparently others, sky is the color we wish to use and can’t. I haven’t been able to find any acknowledgement of the problem or an estimated time-to-fix. It would be great to know that this bug will one day be fixed, especially given the expense of the armor.
I seriously doubt they are going to move the current cultural armor along stat-wise. That’s not how vertical progression works. Just as in an integer series 4 follows 3, cultural armor will undoubtedly acquire a T4. That’s how vertical progression works. The cost may be adjusted for the length of the gear grind, but how could T3 remain simply a placeholder for new stats in a vertically progressing game.
Well, its sorta like earning cash to get exotic gear, then running dungeons to get ascended gear. Then you upgrade the dungeon…so you can run the same dungeon further.
I hope you’re right!
spvp and WvW are good, but I want pve!
I need pve !!!! I love pve !
cosmetics items are a bad joke!
we need some real reward (I need it)
a small vertical progression would be great! ( in WvW and pve).
spvp is good with progression hortizontal !
You appear to be suggesting you need vertical progression. Let’s take a look at what you need. Vertical progression “progresses” by periodically raising the power level of players, usually through stats on gear. So, before the new more powerful tier all players are at power level X. The new tier is introduced and all players hop on the treadmill (whatever the means to acquire the new gear). When they hop off all players are at power level Y. Meanwhile mobs, usually in new content, are now at power level Y.
Before the treadmill all players are at the same relative power level to themselves and the environment. After the treadmill all players are at the same relative power level to themselves and the environment. There has been no actual “progress” in this exercise, you’ve simply gone on a treadmill ride. What exact need is this treadmill ride meeting? It can’t be for progression as you’ve made no actual progress. No one has gone anywhere; that’s why they call it a treadmill.
Anet knew that there were people that realized the emperor of treadmills has no clothes; that’s why they made such a big deal out of GW2 being different in that respect in the Manifesto.
As I stated above, you now have what you need. There is and will be vertical progression. Enjoy the ride.
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Thanks for the thoughtful post. My observation essentially encapsulates yours in that I notice there is DR, and I know there shouldn’t be. Players play games to experience reward of some kind. Part of this comes through the gameplay itself and some comes from the loot you find. In most games you need gold to maintain and evolve your characters and you should be experiencing the reward that comes from finding loot; that’s why games have loot systems.
The more basic problem here, and DR is a just a symptom, is the lack of relative reward players experience through playing the game. That’s why you see threads like yours over and over. The answer is simple: tune the loot system so that players feel rewarded for playing the game. Given the way the game is monetized, tuning the loot system will not be simple as there are countervailing forces at play, but tune it they must as people play games to have fun and experiencing reward is the bedrock of having fun.
there are no Dead servers. People are dispersed. Lion’s arch right now always is in overflow. It’s logical that that fewer people is playing in the middle zones…
Anyway… where do you hear that they are going to merge servers? That is absurd.
There are dead servers in terms of the open world. The stated design of GW2 emphasizes the “open world”, and, because of the games design around DE’s, etc., a dead open world is a problem. I’ve made two server transfers since the Lost Shores event caused the open world exodus. First, to a higher pop server, then to the server I actually wanted when they opened them up around Wintersday. The difference is dramatic and the quality of life is significantly improved when you can adventure in the midst of other players. There are a variety of methods that can address the natural attrition of players from lower level areas such as instanced cross-server areas. I believe it will be important for GW2, conceptually, to retain a population in the open world.
As long as they can keep the majority of players happy with better gear to work for, they can take all the time they need with new features. It gave them some much needed breathing room.
It’s safe to say, from forum feedback and headlines on third-party sites, that the addition of a gear grind was the biggest misstep made by Anet so far in evolving the Guild Wars franchise. It didn’t give them any breathing room. What it gave them was their largest negative PR event in the short history of GW2.
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On a side note, I have an ele and mesmer at 80. While I love the “fire mage” archetype (great balls of fire!), I find I have more fun with the mesmer in terms actual playstyle. The abilities flow perfectly for someone who enjoys the kiting mechanic as I do. Grist for the mill.
I have a love-love with melee, ranged, pure spell caster et al, so for me it’s collect them all. But, I have to agree with you on the Asuran T3 cultural light armor. My Mesmer with her T3 cultural armor and greatsword is easily the best looking level 80 I have. My advice is to pick one and dive in, as it takes awhile to amass the gold and karma.
Just want to mention that the thief doesn’t play in stealth like, say, the rogue in WoW. Stealth is often used to initiate combat, then periodically in combat, and then, if needed, to exit combat. From that standpoint you might be put off by the inability to stealth around and pick your fights like you can with the rogue. Not saying the thief is bad because of this, just different. Best advice is to give the classes that speak to you a try. And, as mentioned, you can easily give max-level a try to get a full sense of what the class offers in terms of playstyle.
I would bet since the original survey the two major movers would be engi’s moving down and mesmer’s moving up in the current mix. Warrior and Guardian would retain 1 & 2 respectively.
And, don’t forget what we have learned about the possible “best” profession from gold sellers. They actually profit from farming efficiency which is all about killing quickly while keeping yourself alive. Their, perhaps more scientific, vote for best profession, while not unanimous, is the ranger/brown bear comp.
We don’t have to wonder whether we have it or not with the introduction of the Ascended tier, we have the answer straight from Chris in the AMA:
“we will have vertical progression moving forward with the focus on zero grind and a very low power curve.”
As to my opinion of the possibility of having vertical progression without a grind see my sig.
To generalize about the forums is to fall into the same error as generalizing about the game. Just as with the game, you have to engage with the issues raised, if you want to participate, evaluate them and form a view or understanding around a given issue raised.
I’m always concerned when people are labelled as whiners or haters just because they take issue with some element of the game. Some are right-on, some are off-base, but those you label haters, if not trolls, are probably those most invested in the game, perhaps the most ardent fans of the game who have been put off for some reason. You have to evaluate the reason given on a case by case basis. This is the way, I believe, the forums will work best for the purpose for which Anet intended them. I believe the main reason for the Discussion forum is to discuss the game, not the players.
I think this is a great idea; I like it. For those who would consider this an assault on the economy, I’d like to remind you that people play games to be rewarded. I know some like TP Tycoon, but most would prefer to be rewarded through playing the game. This sounds like it would add reward for play.
the 50 bucks a week in gem cards is getting old
I can imagine that it would!
What on earth do you find to spend all those gems on? There’s not that much in the store!
It’s probably not items in the store. I imagine it’s mostly buying gems and converting them to gold. When a set of armor (cultural T3) costs ~120 gold and weapons go for 3-2000 (Twilight) gold, dyes (abyss) occasionally get to 20 gold. At the dollar to gem rate, $200 really doesn’t go far in the game if you want great stuff, especially if you have alts.
DR, conceptually, is just wrong. It’s one of those ideas that are fine for brainstorming but should never make it out of the reality-testing phase.
The only marginally reasonable justification to implement it is to combat bots. But, you never make your game unrewarding for players because there are bots. There are ways to combat bots and they are implementing them. D3 tried this by removing gold from destructibles and weapons from weapon racks. They left the empty destructibles in the game, so you could bash them and increase your repair bill, but nothing came out. Who could not have foreseen the outcry? These are signature elements of Diablo. Needless to say they reverted the policy. The point is they should have had the good sense to not have implemented it in the first place. The rule is you don’t penalize players because there are bots in the game. The game is played precisely to be rewarded.
I’ve heard some people justify it by saying that they want you to move around and see the world. No, thank you, I’d prefer to play the game the way I want to play the game. Micromanaging people’s playstyle may sound good to some, but it goes against everything I play a game for.
The focus for Anet right now should be on how to make the game more rewarding not less.
What we are talking about is reward for playing the game. There is a general reward in the gameplay and gameworld, but there are bills to pay and things to buy. We don’t want a loot wasteland and we don’t want the big rock candy mountain, but we do want a “sense” of reward for playing the game. Right now, my sense is loot wasteland so I would argue that the current DR and general tuning of the loot system needs to be adjusted to produce a feeling of reward for playing the game.
Well here we have non-sub game and it choo chooed much harder than any sub game I have ever played. And I cant even express my disgust in any meaningfull way as I had already paid for it.
I had been wondering why some people wanted GW2 to go sub. Are you saying that if GW2 was sub then you would have a meaningful way of expressing your disgust by dropping your sub? This is a sincere question, not an attempt to be inflammatory.
I’d like to suggest that there is a reason beyond the leverage of simply being a paying customer. In playing games like D3 and GW2 I’ve felt a coercive funnel to the real money auction house or the gem store. And, for me, this has to do with the relative absence of reward for play. I understand that if you play 12-14 hours a day in either game you can acquire game capital. But a lot of people don’t want to work at a game, they’d rather play the game and experience a sense of reward simply for playing the game. That sense of reward is largely absent in the ‘free’ games I’ve played and largely present in the subscription games I’ve played. I’m simply asking whether there is a funnel to the gem store because the game is ‘free’ and whether it would be more rewarding, in-game, if game companies could make their profit from subscriptions rather than the current monetization schemes of ‘free’.
subscription fees : Seriously?
Absolutely. You know what you are playing for. If the game turn to the direction you don`t like anymore, you stop paying. That actually makes developers take a notice of the ingame problems they can easily ignore in the game that require only initial payment. That is why I personally think monthly sub would be better for GW2.
If you start playing a subscription fee game, then you should know that the grind train stops at every station and it’s the only way to get around. You will only encourage more grind. I obviously can’t back up my statement with any hard evidence (since I can’t predict the future duh) but from experience of playing sub fees games, better get ready to go choo choo because we’re all going to be chasing the dragon…
If your worry is the developers not taking notice of your gems purchase (AKA the GW2 equivalent of a subscription fee)…trust me they do, any semi-decent company keeps a really good eye on their finance, how much is coming in and how much is coming out. If players stop purchasing gems, the devs will notice. Just saying.
There is no necessary correlation between how a game makes a profit and vertical progression. I assume that your assumption is that WoW is sub and has a gear grind therefore all games that are sub must necessarily have a gear grind. Two completely different concepts; no correlation. It’s perfectly possible to pay a subscription fee for a game like the one described in the GW2 manifesto.
Nice thoughts OP. Yes, after D3 and GW2 the sub model is really looking attractive. I think that juggling economy, monetization, and player reward in free to play just doesn’t work IRL as its currently being implemented by game companies. What I mean is literally that it doesn’t work; it doesn’t lead to a rewarding gaming experience for the player. That is my experience anyway and it’s good to see I’m not alone.
Often, people misunderstand how loot systems work. RNG is often used in a loot system, so people assume that what they are getting is random. A loot system using RNG would better be described as a rules-based system that uses RNG to spread desired results across a player base. The big takeaway here is that it can be tuned to produce any result desired. It can be the loot wasteland of D3 or the Big Rock Candy Mountain. The key in tuning is for players to have a rewarding experience through playing the game avoiding the extremes of the wasteland and mountain. This is relatively easy to do in a single-player game and becomes more complex as you add concepts like ‘economy’ and monetization. Bottom-line, I don’t think it’s currently tuned optimally for player experience.
It suffers from the same disease that is killing Orr:
All the enemies are annoying as kitten.
I think you are right here and Orr would have killed itself over time; FotM just hastened its demise. We could use a fun and creatively, as opposed to annoyingly, challenging level 80 area. Hard to pull off, but it will eventually be in the game.
i was wondering if each race has a special skill for their own race, do they?
Yes, they all have racial abilities:
Charr
Battle Roar
Hidden Pistol Fires a single pistol shot while wielding any weapon.
Shrapnel Mine Scatter up to 3 mines that cripple and bleed enemies.
Warband Support (Elite) Temporarily summons allies from your warband to fight alongside you.
Artillery Barrage (Elite) Calls in an artillery barrage that deals AoE damage.
Human
Avatar of Melandru
Prayer of Dwayna Self-heal.
Prayer of Kormir Removes a condition.
Hounds of Balthazar (Elite) Summons 2 fiery dogs.
Sylvari
Blessing of the Pale Tree Protects the user.
Grasping Roots Immobilizes a foe.
Norn
Bear Form (Elite)
Raven Form (Elite)
Snow Leopard Form (Elite)
Wolf Form (Elite)
Asura
Arcane Blast
Radiation
Golem Battlesuit (Elite) Creates a battlesuit that can be entered and operated by yourself or another party member.
Some might be of situational value, and I do see the Norn abilities being used, but racials in GW2 are much less important than what you would find, say, in another leading MMO. I wouldn’t pick a race based on racials.
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My advice is to plan on trying several professions, if not all, and not look at picking your first as all that important a decision. GW2 is somewhat different as not only don’t you have the holy trinity (tank/healer/dps), you don’t even have traditional ranged/melee distinctions. Elementalists can play successfully in melee range and Warriors do decent damage ranged (though they wouldn’t be played to potential solely ranged). Read over the professions and start with the one that sparks the most interest. They are all viable and all fun. I have five level 80 characters and don’t have a traditional “main”. I like them all.
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Some very good points OP. Before 11/15 I didn’t frequent the forums as I was having too much fun in the game to be distracted—maybe a couple three times at most. GW2 got so much right. Just the simple making of quests/resource nodes non-competitive dramatically influenced the game culture for good. I witnessed and played cooperatively. This was a refreshing experience after the rat’s cage of my previous MMO.
More than anything, without vertical progression, I just felt I could relax and play for once. It was a wonderful two (almost 3!) months. And I want to give credit for the founding game design philosophy. It was brilliant.
The whole MF thing in terms of gear was to create a risk/reward dynamic where you traded survivability for increased chance of loot. It has a history of not working well in dungeons or when players are otherwise relying upon each other for obvious reason. Lots of resentment toward ‘selfish’ players in high MF gear. Post 80, I gear for maximum damage/survival and use omnomberry for a bit of MF.
Yes, it’s an in-game lottery. IRL, how many financial planners would suggest that investing in lottery tickets is a good way to increase wealth? I suppose Anet is counting on a sufficient number of foolish players to profit from their lottery. Many states do this as well so I guess Anet feels their player base mirrors the general population in IQ.
This is what happens when you have a monthly event-based release schedule. Realistically, there just isn’t the time to be creative, think through, and reality-test anything you do. Placing one rich ori node will draw some industrious folk, but, realistically, there is nothing to do there and the place is not fun to explore.
There have been several threads on this topic. Sky dye reverts to “Dye Remover” on at least the head, shoulder, chest, and leggings slots. I’m sure there have been numerous bug reports on this already. Does anyone have word on whether this has been acknowledged by Anet and whether there is a timeline to a fix? Thanks.
I find it hard to believe, given all the constructive criticism I’ve given, but I don’t share any of your problems with the game. Everything mentioned, I’m fine with. There are many areas for constructive criticism and I get that you don’t like these things, but in a new game these are the things that improve over time like a fine wine. I’m much more concerned with changes in design philosophy which seems much more serious to me. To each his own.
Many people do give a kitten about underwater. It’s a beautiful world down there and could be a great part of the game. They just need to take care of the player power, invul-reset, mob density (no meaningful movement without further aggro), respawn rate, aggro range problems and problem solved. I do agree they need to better prioritize resources. The priority should favor the fixing of existing content over the introduction of new content. I think they are a little over-ambitious. I think most people would be happy waiting if they were seeing glaring problems getting fixed.
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[snip] Unless you accept that fact that if you cast focus 4 at your feet you will often run over it and not get buffed.
You are not alone there. The Guardians staff 3 sometimes fails to trigger when you run through it. So at least they’re practicing modular programming so all the bugs are shared. I, too, think the Mesmer needs a movement speed buff, preferably a good one.
Confirmed cannot use ‘Sky’ dye on human t3 heavy armor. And, I tried it again without luck after the Wintersday patch. Sad, as it is the one color that I’m going after—nothing else seems to work, but I’ll look for the midday that was mentioned in the thread, thanks.
‘Best’ is a hard one to zero in on. I have 5 different professions at 80. If I had to pick one for a fight I needed to win, it would be the Guardian. If I want to have a ton of fun, I play my Mesmer. When I get in touch with my inner kite, I turn to my ranger. All have strengths and weaknesses and all can be played at the top of the game. Some need a lot more love from Anet right now than others. But, overall, I don’t believe there is an overall best profession.
People, I know you’re trying to help him with advice, but he’s actually got a valid point.
There are monsters in the game who kill you in one hit, regardless of your stats. It’s not a mysterious phenomenon, it’s an actual mechanic that is part of the game and has appeared in many places. Oh, they try to conceal it well in most cases (like the champion giant in that 15-25 zone), but in others it’s obscenely obvious (like the Jade Maw).
And it does need to be removed. Auto-kill mechanics are ridiculous, and the downed state is not nearly as “cool” and “fun” as they advertised it to be. It’s obnoxious that in many cases you don’t get nearly enough time to react to something like that, and even if you could, the window for dodging it is very very slim. I know the precise timing necessary to dodge the Jade Maw’s auto-kill and still don’t manage to dodge it every time.
Pretty much this. The hinterlands events are quick spawning and a great place to get xp fast and I’ve experienced the Modniir champ fight many, many times on 5 different professions that I’ve leveled to 80. All were specced differently from a very tanky guardian to a more berserker ele. Gear or spec or play skill is not always a major contributor to the outcomes. It’s quite possible to be one-shot knock-downed into a lava font, without a telegraph from the champ, that you are not going to get up from. This is what leads me to also believe that Anet has included a ‘cheap’ shot mechanic in the game. The problem with this is that skillful play is not rewarded and it is not fun to die unavoidably. I think the suggestions around gear/spec are sincere but not understanding the dynamic the OP is addressing. The l2p responses are either trolls or people that aren’t experienced enough in gaming to notice this.
And, with the wintersday patch, the bug remains. you still can’t use the sky dye.
Edit: Does it matter that we report the bug here? Will it ever get fixed?
If everybody looked backwards, there would be no going forwards.
[snip]
Sounds really nice and progressive and all, but I would be more inclined to state it thus: If no one looked backwards, there would be no going forwards. It’s why we study history. It’s built into our very DNA and it’s how we learn. It’s why, as adults, we no longer need to stick our hands in fire to see if it will burn. And, it’s how we deal with “new” phenomena; we associate within an existing framework of meaning. So, an idealistic approach often sounds very progressive, it just doesn’t match up well with how things work in the world of shared human experience, meaning, it’s not how we work.
I’m with OP on this one. The state of the game calls for reflection and reconsideration and not a rush forward at a breakneck pace. Why? (asks the idealist), because we are not getting good results, and we want to know why so that we can produce good results.
I play my guardian just fine, I don’t know why people are claiming it’s the end of the world….
I think guardian is one of the better “broken” classes. Yes, traits could be improved. And, yes, they really need something better at range. But, overall they remain one of the most playable professions. I have 5 level 80 professions and guardian is right at the top of my list of playable professions, as opposed to, say, an engineer.
As I recall, ring of fire→phoenix acts as a combo finisher stacking might. I only played scepter/dagger for 10 levels and went to staff. Also, the personal story is tough at times for all classes and doesn’t represent a breakdown for the ele. Put it on hold for a couple levels if you get stuck at any point.
either your lying just to be able to whine about something or the person you saw posting this is clueless. Either way nothing to see.
Ive got a lvl 80 engi in full exo. It feels weaker than my warrior by miles and thought it was the class. Spoke to a friend who was a main engi and turns out Im just rubbish as it. Seems people mistake broken classes for l2p issues.
Great, could you share the l2p factors that puts your engi on par with your warrior. I have both and there is really no comparison. Could you help me l2p?
I didnt say I was any good at engi. If you an re-read maybe you will work that out since I made it quite clear. I have massive l2p issues on it. But as I said just because Im clueless and crap at it dont mean the class then is. But someone I play alongside is more than capable. Maybe not brute DPS wise but in utility he dont seem to have any issues and since he is in the late 20’s in fotm Ill take his word for it over a bunch of forum whiners.
If you want to learn the class properly head over to the engi forums. Im sure they will help you out more.
But surely he would have told you something of substance that would lead you to think that you are doing it wrong, while he is doing it right—just the fact that he is present in dungeons at any level says nothing about his skill. What did he say about how he played that led you to think you were rubbish at it? If it’s an l2p issue, then there must be l2p factors involved. What are they? BTW, the engi forums are full of QQ about the post-patch state of the engi so no help there.
Guardian. While, say, shout warriors can add some benefit to a party, the guardian can be a boon factory. Guardian would have to win here. Though I sometimes wonder why killing an enemy quickly is not always considered group support.
As one with 5 level 80 professions and a level 2 engineer I have to agree. The engineer is conceptually a very cool profession with too many problems right now. Anet seems to feel that making it worse will make it better. I would love to play my engineer, but the motivation to level him is just not there.
I agree they need to slow down and take care of things now.
This is not a casuals persons game – it is a grinders game simple -
BIS gear and loot is 1 place fracs.
They nerfed loot drops and have forced casuals to purchase gems ->gold in order to just keep up with the grinders or fall behind. This isnt going so well and the greed is showing.
Bots have ruined the economy and will always have an edge until Anet decides to undercut them killing the economy further.I would have happily payed $25/mon for a pre Nov 15 game with no DR. But I think it is a lost cause. I hope they do pull out of it cause I did enjoy this game and dont want it to go F2P.
Agree. If this is the alternative to a subscription-based game, sell me a subscription to a rewarding game without the gear grind.
It would be interesting to see a distribution of professions played over time and see the possible effect patches have on them. I’d be willing to bet you would see fewer professions being played due to their “crushed” balancing rather than anything approaching a more even distribution. Not saying even is possible, but more even would be the goal of profession balance, i.e., all professions remain viable in PvE and PvP.
either your lying just to be able to whine about something or the person you saw posting this is clueless. Either way nothing to see.
Ive got a lvl 80 engi in full exo. It feels weaker than my warrior by miles and thought it was the class. Spoke to a friend who was a main engi and turns out Im just rubbish as it. Seems people mistake broken classes for l2p issues.
Great, could you share the l2p factors that puts your engi on par with your warrior. I have both and there is really no comparison. Could you help me l2p?
the tradeoff doesn’t come from straight up damage, but the number of utility sigils you can have. effects on crit/kill/weapon swap, etc.
They set it up as a damage tradeoff in the patch notes. If so, the question remains: what sigil compensates for a 30 percent reduction in damage?
I’m curious to find out what sigil will increase our damage potential by 30 percent as well.
By 43%, actually. Math takes no prisoners.
Bertrand Russell burned his math books upon graduation and turned to philosophy. He said math was simply tautology.
yeah, loved the 30% damage reduction for grenade kits. That’s just what engineers needed and were asking for. GG Anet!