Guild Wars 2

I find it easier to farm the money and buy 1-2 lodestones/cores a day. The chnaces of getting a lodestone from open play every day are incredibly slim

I agree it could set up an interesting combo situation. And in lieu of more skills, would be ideal. Even if not instant, then maybe 2 seconds or something

I’m sure there was a reason for the CD tho, anyone know what the reasoning is?

The Crossing (staff)
Mjolnir (hammer)
The Anomaly (focus)

To name a few. Dulfy has an excellent list of weapons for each type you can look at and also link to the game client to preview.

I think the main aspect is not that it needs the achievements, but that the content needs to be strong enough so that rewards, achievements etc aren’t the overriding reason for doing it.
Again, I enjoyed it, but I’m under no illusion from comments on the forums and in game that there are plenty of people who wouldn’t say it was strong enough. The loss rewards and the achievements seem to be greater than the gameplay/story.

They simply wont please everyone, someone will always miss out – with 2-3million associated players that is to be expected. Being temporary or unable to retroactively completed, that is going to be an even harder challenge. I can’t imagine everyone will be as accepting as me.

Not something on the side, but they did say it was an experiment and now necs how Living Story arcs will play out. A basic teaser I guess.
Time will tell though. I’ve enjoyed it, albeit with some criticism as would be expected.

There’s plenty of valid feedback that’s needs to be acknolwedged/addressed for future updates. Getting rid of the Living Story achievements maybe one option. They exist for the sake of existing and a very silly pve leaderboard. I’m quite certain a team of anets calibre can think of a more imaginative alternative to marking the story other than this.

Marketing is the other. The epilogue formed part of the dungeon finale, but despite my own feelings, clearly people saw the communication/advertising of today as a separate piece of content. Marketing was over hyped and it needs grounding.

It is a valiud argument and one I hope they take on board. The big drawback of this experiement – and experiment is what they have called it themselves, will be that a living story will shut out players. Whether future or current busy players.

In their defence, they did make it clear it wouldn’t be permanent and I also know that is likely no consolation to players. But, it is somethign we knew was going to happen from the communications on the login page/forums/web page – wherever they choose to talk about it.

They could rectify this using the Books system from GW1 – re-living old chapters as instances. They could even make a library room in the Priory HQ and this could be revisted for any LW content.

I quote from the F&F forum from Paul Belz the dev

“The victory phase has begun and will continue until the southsun cove patch. Be sure to interact with a victory bonfire in hoelbrak, the black citadel or lions arch to complete “A Rallying Flame”.

As mentioned in the guide it is mostly conversations, though if you’re curious, you should check out Cragstead and the hatchery. Also the Bonfire gives you a pretty good buff."

Yeah it will vary server to server depending on the community or whether a group of ppl is on hand to get things going

It’s a nice way to end – plenty of NPC’s around to talk to progress the story/lore (one of the big bits I love the most in this game). They stated no knew content after the dungeon, so it isn’t a surprise.

Above all else, a great deal of players getting into the spirit, by gathering together and even celebrating. Player driven fun, w/o the need to kill everything in sight.

Im torn on the issue. Id be happy to suspend what i know really happened so they can add in a proper story or lore that we could investigate. Maybe a dungeon. Or a link to the destroyers and dwarves fighting.

Oh I think this is an excellent idea. As long as it was items and not gems. I could see that being exploited for gold selling. Plenty of times I’ve wanted to buy a social item or a mini for a friend who couldn’t afford it though.

Not entirely true, there was a great deal of people asking for paid transfers long before that actually happened. Yes, it was always meant to happen, but ultimately, it being free caused more problems in wvw.

That isnt to say a money sink isnt a viable bonus to them. They will likely use free transfers strategically to spread the community around around as and when their data shows them it is needed

Lacklustre flame and frost story is opinion. I enjoyed it altho i wanted more. I certainly wouldnt agree it was bad. Fractals split the community, agreed. Many like myself see it as a innovative dungeon. Yes they are gated, but not at the expense of the game. They reward players items to progress within itself, not the rest of the game.

Again, ac is divided. Many say it is improved.

Half life was universally acknowledged as one of the greatest games, but it was horrendously bugged. One of the buggiest A class games ive ever played. Skyrim was also badly bugged. still is.
Mmos are bugged. They are too complicated a game to not have them, even with long testing times. Good games, great games…they can all be bugged and not fixed.

We need dragon related stories, but not necs a dragon. As i e said before, the zhaitan story ended way too suddenly. Once a dragon is killed, part of game disappears with it. The build up, the influence they have -thats what is the fun bit. The final battle and appearance should be years off.

The living story hopefully will run with this. It is ideally suited in philosophy to do so and have multiple, separate dragon related incidents running together. A sudden icebrood attack on hoelbrak, whilst gathering info on brand movements out of the desert for eg.

The biggest challenge anet face is how many stories they have to draw on and keep going. 6 dragons, mursaat, white mantle, palawa joko, cantha, offspring of glint, the 6 Gods, the consortium.

Thats a lot of content i find very exciting that can be drawn from

Divinitys reach. Lots of nooks and crannys and its huuuge! You can even pick up lore titbits from various books and npcs.

My fav city by far

The problem with the review and i dont want to dispute your opnion as its perfectly valid for you, is that your review is twisted round your conclusion. A good review needs balance of both worlds and as little bias as poss for it to be meanngful.

For eg you say it doesnt captivate mmo players, yet i see the opposite with friends and players i talk to. I dont see your evidence for this claim.

A pattern of bad updates? Based on what? We have had constant content, something which is new to mmos afaik. Overall, considering we are in uncharted waters id say we have done pretty well. Karka aside….

You say it is riddled with bugs. No mmo is bug free and gw2 is low down on the spectrum of bugged mmos. Ive played anarchy online for 10 years. Its brilliant, but heavily bugged since launch, many never fixed.

You are right in some aspects of course. I love the dynamic events, but they need more impact on the world and the qsts are uninvolving for me. Its very early days tho, this could well improve.

Like i said, your opnion is valid to you, but cautious of stating it as fact. Plenty agree, plenty don’t…

Khisanth.2948:

There is apparently some research showing that people more excited about opening chests than looting corpses. Not sure if that was a general bit of research or something ANet commissioned.

Haha, actually that’s very true of me!

Wouldn’t that mean a player returning, who hasn’t looted anything have a higher chance of getting a precursor/exotic drop than a normal player? I’m we’d have cottoned onto that by now if it were true.

It wasn’t so much a case people didn’t want their loot, more ppl (like me) who couldn’t easily see the sparkles, especially when a lot of ppl were around. The chests are much easier to spot and now they stay around, even if missed once, can be easily spotted as you pass by again (something which has happened to me 3 tiomes this week alone)

They wont give you feedback, I don’t think any mmo company Ive played for gives feedback on bug reporting.

I’ve certainly had plenty of bugs fixed that I’ve reported. They have a live team on hand to collate and fix things regularly. That said, plenty re-bug (cow catapult for eg) indicating an underlying issue, but they wont know unless we keep repeat reporting them.

The Moot. It’s a disco ball, what’s not to love!!! The reflections from it are just stunning as well. Very nice skin

I also like flameseekers prophecies and the underwater spear for their animations. It’s just a shame there’s so little UW stuff to motivate me to get the spear

It was around about the same time..so I’ll live in hope..small hope anyways

ha! Where was this?

Now see, this is the sort of thing I want to read…but directly to us, not hidden away on an online magazine that only a proportion will read (I have no idea how big massively joystick is, I’ve heard of it, but that is about it).

Some interesting stuff in their which is from THEIR perspective which then gives an understanding of how /why things are impleneted the way they are. My particular attention was directed over;

“There will be more guild missions for smaller guilds”

Just maybe, this is an issue hopefully they have listened to us on. Previously, dev replies on this subject have been arrogant and dismissive in tone, which has been unfortunate.

Overall, a reassuring interview imo, I just wish they’d use their website to communicate this sort of thing to us. Maybe a monthly progress report like other mmo companys use.

Good stuff, thanks for highlighting it Midnight

My understanding is that since abaddon, anet have been reluctant to fully kill something off. It is entirely possible that whilst zhaitan is physically dead or downed, he still has presence…something akin to sauron in lord of the rings. If he has presence, it will explain orr indefintely.

Or he may not be dead, just dormant again. No one knows if they are killable

If you go after trahearne or logan next…let me know!

The new sentinels gear has those 3 stats, but in a diff combo.

I use mace and shield on my warrior. The cc and reflect combos work perfectly for me, but the dps is slow as maces have lower dam and swing rate.
I used to switch between this and axe and mace, but apart from anything else, the solid clump when you whack something with the mace as a main, is just soooo satisfying

I stat primarily vit and tough with banners and shouts as utilities if that helps. Power is high enough for a flat dps rate, altho nothing spectacular.

Dr. Zoidberg: How do I look?
Bender: Like whale barf.
Dr. Zoidberg: Then the illusion is complete.

Gunnars Hold was an hr ago

Balth open on Gunnars

daimasei.4091:

Randulf.7614:

I think this was always going to be an issue having culminated the Zhaitan part of our adventure so soon. I really expected this to take a year, not a couple of months. Hopefully a lesson learned for future Dragons.

They can always fix things. They just need to say we fought a simple minion sent to test our strength and the real Zaithan is still hidden, waiting to strike for real (which would explain why we are still overrun by risen).

I would be happy with a Zhaitan not dead story, just dormant again maybe. It was just all too easy and underwhelming. Needed more time to bed in. The presence of Jormag for eg is being felt subtly atm and they can build on this for a year or more before we have to take him down.

I have 3,400 armor. If something really wants to kill me in wvw..it will (but I suck in pvp anyway). I could probably drop a lot of that in pve due to dimishing returns and recoup some dps or burst, but it does make my warr rather sturdy

I’m the one who gets pushed to the front in dungeons though

Hehe…well I wasn’t in favour of mounts, but I wont say no to a Harley in the gem store

Depends on the server – some have this as an issue, others don;t. Part of the issue is that people wait for it to start rather than organsing groups. And the difficulty of the bosses, which is ironic considering the calls to toughen bosses up..

However, there is a design flaw, which is in part due to the success of things like living story etc which is pulling people away. After the initial run around Orr and the personal story runs its course for most players, coming back to Orr has little gain. Constantly pulling people back to Orr as well is counter to the story – I think this was always going to be an issue having culminated the Zhaitan part of our adventure so soon. I really expected this to take a year, not a couple of months. Hopefully a lesson learned for future Dragons.

If it’s your guild getting the runs going regularly, then pass on my thanks to the organisers. Had some great fun there recently, plus it’s good to see runs organised after so long seeing it ignored.

I wear the leather hoodie + Khaki shorts + riding boots. Best combo I could currently find for my norn.

Balth has been done nightly on Gunnars Hold for a bit now and usually goes w/o a hitch if you are looking for somewhere to guest

Have you cleared down your mailbox? 9/10 times this solves the issue.

Also, if this is aimed at anet, u want the support forum. General discussion is unlikely to get a response.

Hope u get your items

Yeah that would be a possible solution. Or buyable with laurels

Our Guild Leader had one drop this week… I think he’s still in a state of shock 3 days later..

Not had any since before Karka iirc as loot. I don’t have a huge issue with a low drop rate considering how much business they prob rake in on the gem store, but I’d like 1 or 2 to drop in game as well every now and again

RNG I’m afriad. I still get a healthy supply. Many have reported bad luck as you have, many have reported great luck. But. there’s no eveidence of a nerf

Im a big fan of the dungeon climax, but there are other options for those who prefer to solo.

The dungeon is about destroying a facility and yes that’s a group thing, however an alternative quest line for solo players could be optioned. In this instance, maybe recon or disruption or rescuing a high profile npc prisoner. 2 arching story lines depending on how you play.

No feelings either way since i never used them much in any mmo. If they do implement them, i hope they are implemented better than guild missions, which have been poorly thought through so far.

My main worry about guild halls would be spreading the community away from the hubs even more. Theres little enough reason to go to your home city atm and mid lvl zones are often sparse, guild halls would risk seeing less and less ppl out on the field. Thats not something id be in favour of.

Id like to see events that stretch across the map more and really lift a d affect the zone rather than a small bit. Give each zone more identity, some like frostgorge have it, but the middle zones (except maelsyrom) lack any real soul.

Also, cross zone metas where an event chain takes you across kryta or shiverpeaks. The living story has made a good start, this could be the next level for it.

Braham asks whete is girlfriend is in the dungeon. The prisoners reply that he “doesn’t want to know the answer to that”.

Either she was killed, or she has involvement in all this somehow

I’m quite glad culling isn’t going so soon personally. My current machine can’t handle wvw now and I fear meta events would be off limits for me in pve if culling goes. Only being able to see 30 of about 60 people isn’t a biggie..makes it less confusing if anything.

I’m (pleasantly) surprised to see new content so soon otherwise though

Sounds cool. I like Southson – its a suitably challenging (beautiful) team area and the Karka are a formidable foe.

Looking forward to this!

I sort of agree, but we despatched Zhaitan too soon and too easily. Once a dragon is gone, part of the game goes with it. I’d rather we held off and the dragons were built up more, perhaps using the living story to set up bits with the Dragon’s minions. I’d expect a year at least of building before fighting a dragon if not longer. I know that sounds like a long time, but if it was well built before that, then it wouldnt feel like a chore, but something quite epic.

Not a fan of RNG from the store,, otherwise no issues with the stuff they do add in the store otherwise.

I like the idea behind it all and as first shot at this “living world” concept, it’s decent enough. But, there’s much to learn from this. A 4 month arc of what was 2-3 nights gameplay caused it to feel too stretched and lost its epic feel. There’s no doubt hard work has gone in, its just too diffused across a too long period of time.

Has it changed the world? Not really. Maybe Southson, but there never quite felt the threat against Tyria. Sure, maybe Wayfarer had a threat, but at no point did Tyria’s subject cities feel on the brink of disaster. Maybe random attacks on it would have helped.

The marketing was over hyped by a massive way and the writing was not good – I do believe that the writing can pave the cracks over any gameplay issues. It doesn’t have to be a literary sensation, but its not even amateur level imo. If the the 3 pacts were involved, why were we as the “Commander” never involved apart from collecting listening devices? Why did we never be a part of their investigation? I don’t really like the Pacts personally, but they’re here to stay, so use them better for this sort of thing.

On the flip side, I did enjoy helping refugees. That was a varied event. Short, but atmospheric. The dungeon was also superb and I agree it was a good way to round off the story. I understand solo players frustrations, but I can’t see any other way to have told the story and aim for a “big” feel. It’s also free monthly content and taht has to be taken into account as well.

Much to reflect on by the LW team I suspect