Guild Wars 2

There is not. I vaguely recall them doing something once or twice in the early days long before the core game was free, but there definetly isn’t now

Hopefully never. For me, its specialness is in the mystery and the speculation. I would hate to see that taken away. No disrespect intended towards Anet, but I cant see 10 years of player driven hype and speculation being matched in imagination

Amaimon.7823:

Disable the effect means it becomes an ascended trinket. The aura makes it legendary.
The aura should change per class that wears it, as now its clearly a mesmer only trinket

Id like to see a potential aura colour change option, even if it is a MF recipe to change it. Perhaps using stacks of dyes of the appropriate hue ( orange, red, blue, green etc)

Slightly off topic, Id also like to see the option to purchase an additional one for say 200g once crafted, to make it easier for alts to use, without transferring it across each time.

As for the op, i have no strong feelings against this, although it is a shame so many want to hide so many different art types. Not to say I don’t understand why though (taste, fps etc). At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter overly to me if players can’t see the effects – most of my skins are for my benefit anyway.

I suspect this thread may be relevant.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Legendary-Armor-Backpiece-Attach-Point/first

They never promised or ever ruled out mounts from what I remember. They said they would not be part of launch.

Ashantara.8731:

Ayrilana.1396:

I saw no difference between the dialogue from the personal story and the LS3 episodes. You’re putting way to much emphasis on your dislike of contractions and so forth as you have already explained several times amongst the several other threads you created about this matter over the last few months.

The reason is that I am just playing through the HoT campaign for a fifth time, and the artificially slow pace and bad pronunciation (“Whershoe partner?”) and contemporary vocabulary etc. are striking me as extremely out of place and highly unpleasant again. I can’t enjoy the content as much as I would if we still had the same quality in the aforementioned departments (see my initial post).

Everyone saying they don’t hear the difference is either not paying much attention to dialogue or completely insensitive to the matter.

Randulf.7614:

The overwhelming feedback from the early years on these very forums for core and LS1 was to improve the dialogue and VA quality. The VA and dialogue from those campaigns is of distinctly lower quality

Maybe in regards of what is being said, but not in how it is being said. That is the huge difference I am talking about!

I disagree, I have found it to be quite the opposite (dependant on what I write below), with some momentary dips. However, the overall quality varies a lot more between race/gender combination than it did in core which is possibly the issue you are encountering.

One of the other things to bear in mind is that the effect the voice acting style has on a player depends also on whether you believe the character actually sounds the way you want them to.

For example, the male human voice perfectly fits my male human characters. The male Norn one is also pretty close, although he does often veer off into slightly less Norn-like dialogue, but I can forgive that more as his voice is right for him. The male human VA is also improving with every story arc and this has helped form a better connection to the dialogue he uses. Same with the female voices for Norn and human.

My male Sylvari do not sound anything like how I envision them to speak. In fact as each arc progresses, the exaggerated tones are pronounced and obvious so now I try to go in with someone else leading just so I don’t have to listen to their speaking as much.

Overall, the quality of written dialogue and the way it is delivered is a lot better than it was, but that isn’t always consistent for me at times across all the VA

The overwhelming feedback from the early years on these very forums for core and LS1 was to improve the dialogue and VA quality. The VA and dialogue from those campaigns is of distinctly lower quality in comparison to what we have had since LS2 onwards. in my opinion. It’s not perfect, but it has been improving and I hope to see that continue.

I agree there are some issues still and some of them you rightfully point out in your OP, but the vacant feeling that exists in so much of the early stuff is accentuated a lot when I play through them on an alt after playing through the newer campaigns.

Some of the issues of the newer stuff seems to be VA specific however. I find the male Sylvari voice sounds very artificial in both emotion and how they express themselves, whereas human male and most of the female VA has improved greatly.

So no, definitely would be against regressing backwards to the core way of things in this respect.

Could be a case of minimising unnecessary characters. Whilst it is a hanging thread, it is a small one and not really relevant to the current goings on. I suspect they saw no need to write dialogue for and schedule in a likely higher cost VA/character for little gain.

The original cast of DE are largely out of the loop now except Rytlock. Logan has an office job, Eir is dead and Caithe is Aurenes guardian – she is likely to pop up again, but probably not in any significant way.

They are likely struggling to fit all the characters in, whilst balancing in the feedback that players want less focus on npcs and more on us.

I would expect all pre purchase promos to run uninterrupted until the 22nd when PoF releases. After that, no idea.

Firstly, support here are excellent. Ive encountered some seriously poor support in other mmos recently, Anet buck the trend and consistently so. I have had similar experiences where they helped me buy an armour set at a sale price after the sale ended. Of course i then found i already had an opened box of said armour in my bank a couple of days later….

Sevondly, top tip: right click your salvage tool and use the salvage all options there for salvaging where possible. Using that exclusively will guarantee never accidentally salvaging a precursor since exotic isnt in that menu.

Heart of Thorns will give its own story plus you need it to purchase and play LS3 which sets up PoF storywise.

HoT also gives access to 4 raid wings, gliding (the best of the masteries so far), plus 1 extra elite spec for each class.

I see no reason why Guild buffs would be excluded, given core players w/o HoT can access the guild hall and presumably obtain the buffs.

Ascalon is my least favourite. They lack a certain character for me – neither desolate like in GW1, nor beautiful.

Snow maps are by far and away my favourite, followed by volcanic.

Last time they commented, it was more because it’s a large amount of work for something that would likely cause tons of unforseen bugs. They may one day find a way round it, might it sounds like a very complex coding issue for very little gain considering players can buy new slots and buy straight to lvl 80 now.

There are some good ideas in here, but frankly you had me at turning Engineers into Doctor Who.

Best idea on this forum…ever!

Clear the adds whilst the dragons fly around and then when they hover in front of the ship, jump on the cannon which is nearest to it and attack. Shouldnt really be anything else to worry about from memory.

If anyone has played Lotro, this suggestion sounds identical to their mithril coin system. Coin are bought from the in game store and can be used to reset certain daily quests, festival quests, access waypoints and a variety of other time gated things ( although unusually not crafting).

It seems to work very well there and it isnt pay to win, but Im not convinced it fits gw2 quite as well. Id rather they just removed more timegated elements instead, since some seem outdated at this point (charged quartz for eg) and add only an arbitrary time gate.
Is it really that much of an issue if a player crafts their gear in a day instead of a week?

Not seeing an issue

Ah I missed this too. Was it yesterday? I was out all day and I wouldn’t expect to check on a Monday when new things usually go in on a Tuesday.

Shame, but it was a generous offer anyway

They appear to be starting to fix the issue with hidden checkpoints. When I played the first instance of the newest episode, when I logged back in, it put me back only a short way behind where I was, rather than restarting.

It’s clearly not an easy fix or it would have been done by now, but this says to me work is progressing towards sorting it.

They seem to be moving to correct this. The latest episode, I logged out halfway through the first instance because I missed an achievement and wanted to reset it. When I logged back in and reactivated the instance, it put to a checkpoint just behind the bit I was on, not right at the beginning.

Tekey.7946:

Randulf.7614:

Raid wing 4 closes off an old GW1 story and is self contained. Whilst it has links to the LS3 story, it has no bearing or impact on the narrative of LS3 whatsoever so works as a stand alone.

And what would you tell GW1 players who don’t necessarily raid?

That would be players like me. I think the current system is the right approach, although I do understand the flip side of the argument.

Aurelian Omenkind.2470:

The thing is, I know it’s not technically new content, but it was content that was played briefly, then moved beyond. And still, new players have a gap in their story going from the personal story to LW Season 2. The story summary in the Hero panel just isn’t enough, in my opinion.

We’re not going to disagree with you. The gap in the narrative I think is a barrier and an issue, although the devs will be better informed of how much a barrier it is. The video recap barely covers enough of LS1 to be relevant at all.

But, if they don’t have the time/resources, it’s all moot. They want to bring back some of the LS1 festivals, but they are struggling because of it being based on old code/tools/tech, so if a festival is a struggle to be brought back, imagine how tough a whole 18 month season would be.

There have been other statements from ANet as well which pretty much echo the above. Think one dev said it would be a minimum of 6 months work for a large team, with very little if any new content being produced as a result and that was being optimistic

I would love to see an LS1 redux though

Pifil.5193:

Randulf.7614:

marelooke.9708:

There’s barely any story in the raids. Unlike in WoW’s old raids (no idea about the new ones) where they basically wrapped up or continued the single player story. Even the white mantle stuff is so minor that they don’t tell you anything you aren’t told through the Living World (I mean, I do hope most people figured out that the White Mantle was trying to revive Lazarus, which is all I’ve gleamed from the raid story so far.)

Which is a good thing imho, this way as Anet doesn’t have to bother doing the extra work of making an “easy” version of the raids (which they probably don’t have the manpower for anyway) as the only thing you are missing out on is the bossfights and some minor ambient dialogue.

People that think the raids somehow plug the plentiful holes in the LS3 narrative are in for a huge disappointment.

One of the big feedbacks from the. community was for raids to avoid significant story continuations in raids. Casual players or non raiders did not want to be forced i to raiding to find out whst happens next. Any story in the first three raids was recapped by any npc in bloodstone fen, which worked well

Really? I don’t remember that NPC or that recap.

See my above post about Squad Leader Bennett and the cinematic in Bloodstone Fen

Djinn.9245:

Randulf.7614:

One of the big feedbacks from the. community was for raids to avoid significant story continuations in raids. Casual players or non raiders did not want to be forced i to raiding to find out whst happens next. Any story in the first three raids was recapped by any npc in bloodstone fen, which worked well

Was it? I didn’t play GW1 and I don’t remember it being explained to me what was going on. They have this huge story about Lazarus – who is Lazarus and why do we care?

I have since learned the story from videos, but I had no idea at the time I was playing it.

EVerything is recapped in Bloodstone Fen that is required.

If you visit Squad Leader Bennett (which you will have since a story step directs you to him and you have the option to explore his dialogues further), he will give you a rundown of the raid from his point of view, but more crucially, he will give a replay of the raid cinematic which recaps the basic need to know of the White Mantle and their servitude to the Mursaat. AT the end, after he narrates how the Mursaat were all defeated/sent into hiding, one lone Mursaat is left.

Whilst GW1 players would know that is Lazarus, it is not necessary for everyone else to know that. The important info is seeding a clue that a Mursaat still lives and has fanatic followers.

There is an argument that more detail is warranted. That is not entirely unfair, it is just not necessary for the story arc at that point – ie raid players are no better informed than story players (which is the point behind this thread).

More detail on the Mursaat, White Mantle, The Shining Blade and Lazarus is seeded throughout LS3 through NPC’s and lore books scattered around. Whether that is enough is unrelated to this point though which concerns the raid story itself.

Raid wing 4 closes off an old GW1 story and is self contained. Whilst it has links to the LS3 story, it has no bearing or impact on the narrative of LS3 whatsoever so works as a stand alone.

marelooke.9708:

There’s barely any story in the raids. Unlike in WoW’s old raids (no idea about the new ones) where they basically wrapped up or continued the single player story. Even the white mantle stuff is so minor that they don’t tell you anything you aren’t told through the Living World (I mean, I do hope most people figured out that the White Mantle was trying to revive Lazarus, which is all I’ve gleamed from the raid story so far.)

Which is a good thing imho, this way as Anet doesn’t have to bother doing the extra work of making an “easy” version of the raids (which they probably don’t have the manpower for anyway) as the only thing you are missing out on is the bossfights and some minor ambient dialogue.

People that think the raids somehow plug the plentiful holes in the LS3 narrative are in for a huge disappointment.

One of the big feedbacks from the. community was for raids to avoid significant story continuations in raids. Casual players or non raiders did not want to be forced i to raiding to find out whst happens next. Any story in the first three raids was recapped by any npc in bloodstone fen, which worked well

Lake Doric is an excellent map for sure (sirens i think is an abominable map, but i wont bore you with my long list of reasons). The great thing about all 6 maps is despite any flaws, there is so much variety across them all, they cater for many tastes.

I love HoT maps. They are fantastic to play in, so i love draconis mons and bloodstone fen. But, bitterfrost and lake doric ground things for others to enjoy.

Map design and variety alongside map storytelling (as opposed to the a tually instanced stories) has been a real strength of the design teams.

Does it not break the rules of linking to another game and not being gw2 related tho?

What’s nice about this is unlike 2 other MMO companies I have sent tickets to recently, you guys actually alert us when you have a backlog, why you have a backlog and how you are resolving the backlog.

And to top it off, you actually help and resolve issues.

How this isn’t standard practice across the board I will never know, but at least you guys have it right!!

Or, assuming you can afford to do so, buy gems an convert to gold for all or some of the cost. If it’s a skin you really want and will use a lot, it’s likely to be worth the cost.

Alternatively, go through your bank and material collections. I’ve often found unlikely treasures in there to sell when I’m desperate for gold. Selling up things in storage which you can farm back later is a decent way to earn gold fast.

Yes, I stand corrected about silverwastes and dry top. Not sure why I misrembered that.

Im curious to understand what silverwastes offers that differs from ls3 maps. Sure its an excellent meta map, but it is just the same replay each time, never offering anything new or varied.

Ls3 maps in contrast do not have metas, which as i said earlier is a welcomed and conscious design, but has hearts, many more events of various styles and a lot more acievements and exclusive rewards and skins in each map. Plus those maps are full and ma y players are enjoying them as much as they did silverwastes.

So where, ultimately does the difference lie?

If story is something that drives you, then HoT + LS3 is essential.

If not, you can dive straight into PoF. HoT was fun for me, but you wont be gated out of anything.

What makes it clear though that things aren’t working? I’ve gone through all the ls3 maps for Aurora recently and the maps are packed with players doing either the same or catching up as returning/new players.

There is always going to be a finite amount of content they can design and whilst I agree I’d like to see more things like unique skins in game rather than via the gemstore, I don’t think the maps would be any healthier for it. Players who really want them, will get them within a day or 2 and then leave, making no substantial impact on the situation. Taking the black lion weapons out entirely could never be a solution. I’m willing to bet a significant number of players put too much money into keys for the company not to continue down that road. For BL weapons ever to be implemented in the way you suggest, a concerted rebellion of not buying keys would have to occur and that is simply not going to happen.

As for your 2-3 maps suggestion, it is not without merit, but Silverwastes and Dry top had that approach. They linked much better to the story that way, but we didn’t really get much extra content/gameplay versus how the LS3 maps work now. I think a major draw for the community was the 1 map per episode philosophy and on that they delivered strongly – I only disliked 1 map (Sirens) for example.

Also remember, these newer maps were designed deliberately without full metas and big scale events compare to SW, HoT, World Bosses etc. That will be a conscious design decision knowing that too many metas split the population as time rolls on and are best served in key expansion maps rather than every map. It also ensures when the populations in the LS3 maps eventually die down, they don’t become uncompletable.

My criticism of the story itself aside, I personally think they’ve done brilliantly to make half a dozen maps which are different and fun to play in and still manage to keep themselves full.

No, that is not the right solution for this game. The answer is already been or being implemented. They added 9 new mastery points in Tyria to open world maps in for us to walk up to and get. Easy, no groups, JPs, metas, bosses required.

I understand your p.o.v. and whilst I’m not a big fan of the system at times, it does have the positive factor of rewarding loyalty (ie free for regular players). Content also needs to be funded somehow and this was is a little fairer than everyone paying.

To be honest, I’d buy one episode for 60g and the rest with gems for (smallest package will suffice which is £8.50 in my currency). I got mine for free, but if I had paid, despite some criticisms I have had about the narrative, I’ve loved 5/6 maps utterly and had value for money many times over.

Episode 1 gives access to Bloodstone Fen
Episode 2 gives access to Ember Bay
Episode 3 gives access to Bitterfrost Frontier
Episode 4 gives access to Lake Doric
Episode 5 gives access to Draconis Mons
Episode 6 gives access to Sirens Landing

Basically 1 episode = 1 map

I don’t like them either, they look completely out of place. However, they fund the game which is fair enough trade for me, so like people in real life, I just walk past and pay no attention.

If you weren’t around for the 2-3 months free period during initial release, then you need to buy the corresponding episode to play in any of the 6 LS3 maps (same with the 2 LS2 maps if you lack them).

Afaik not even teleport to friend works (someone can confirm/deny that I’m sure)

(that should mean you at least have episode 6 for free)

RoseofGilead.8907:

Doombringer BG.3740:

I’ve seen people with 40000+ AP :P

Seems unlikely, since the #1 spots on the NA and EU leaderboards are at 35000.

And to back this up, here is the link

https://leaderboards.guildwars2.com/en/eu/achievements

Disappointed in Malediktus though, letting NA be ahead of us by 8 points

Chuka is the best of them all. The story that bridges across collections 1, 3 and 4 is just amazing to follow.

Plus, you get some extra exclusive rewards which are very cool

Arden.7480:

darkprecure.6129:

I just wish to hear this in Guild Wars 2… Who knows if this wish will ever come true…

I love GW1 music so much and I love the themes. I didn’t play GW1 but I listened to the soundtracks and my fave themes are Nightfall and Factions.

I wish Nightfall theme would be used in PoF because it fits so much to the Crystal Desert.

GW1 makes me nostalgic. I don’t know why because I’ve never played this game, but after listening to the soundtracks I felt GW1 and its story.

I don’t know how to describe it.

I don’t agree the Nightfall OST fits he Crystal Desert at all, despite being a great theme. The Crystal Desert and Elona never felt that similar. Elona was grassland savannah, canyons, forts, swamps and poisonous wasteland where desert once would have been. And it had civilisation – earthen and often magnificent in tone

The Crystal Desert was a near uniform desert landscape with very little else beyond an Oasis and rocky outcrops and very little settlements. In contrast to Elona, it’s beauty was in its mystique and serenity.

It is possible as we progress into Elona itself, the Nightfall OST will fit better, but be wary of confusing the Crystal Desert and Elona as the same thing despite the physical bridging.

Chuka is an exceptional collection/quest chain. Even to those not making the bow, I’d encourage to make it a long term work through because it is so much fun.

It is a shame they stopped after that because of the workload it put on the team – they were exceptional content in my book.

Having said that, Aurora’s collections, whilst lacking the same story has been really good fun to progress through – I’ve been going back through LS3 maps and ticking off achievements I was previously unmotivated to do.

Could you link said vid please?

Arden.7480:

@Anthony I am glad you enjoyed it! As you know already it was composed by Maclaine Diemer- he works for Anet since it started. Most of Season 1,2 and 3 are his soundtracks. I love them!

@Ashantara I admire J. Soule for his music and he just gave the soul into Guild Wars. M. Diemer continues his legacy and his music is equal to J. Soule’s. I love that the music of GW stands on the highest level since GW started. If everything would be on the music’s high level then GW2 would be the best game ever created. But I am happy the music is beyond everything and that is what counts for me. PoF bought me because of the music.

@Randulf We got Crystal Oasis Redux (if I am not mistaken with the name) in Season 2. Also there is a lot of GW music in GW2 composed by J. Soule.

About the PoF theme. I am not crazy about this because the themes were always epic. New one is not bad, it is really good. But it should use some epicness.

Demo HoT theme was different than official HoT theme. I think the composers keep the official theme for September 22.

I love the PoF music especially combat ones. As I said the music bought me and I want to give my money to the composers for the amazing music and the highest quality of soundtracks.

We did get Crystal Oasis yes, although despite it’s popularity, it’s never been one of my favs. There’s nothing wrong with it – it fits fine. It just doesn’t do anything for me like say the original Shiverpeaks and Krytan themes do.

EOTN remains my favourite OST for nostalgia purposes, although I suspect I will feel the same pangs of nostalgia about tracks like Glint’s Legacy, Auric Wilds, Tarir, the Forgotten City, Battle of the Breachmaker and Rata Novus (arguably the single best track in GW2) in years to come, long after the cause.

Ace Starpaw

Reassuring about the Gauntlet. Not sure why they couldn’t just say that earlier, but good to hear it’s on the “to do” list down the line.

I will never understand the evasiveness on underwater. They must have a stance on it.

Even though we knew it wasn;t coming with PoF, to hear it is still a kicker. I’m surprised this isn’t a top priority QoL feature. It’s just…..necessary at this point.

The wiki has a more condensed summary. IGN also has a decent episode by episode summary as well. The video above is 3hrs and was too much for me to sit through, but is probably useful if you have the time/patience and want a more complete experience.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Living_World_Season_1

http://uk.ign.com/wikis/guild-wars-2/Living_World_Season_1

There was an exceptional summary on the forums years ago. If I find it, I’ll link it for you

Are there less in the new maps though? Putting HoT to one side, the LS3 maps are generally much, much smaller (Draconis Mons being an arguable exception due to its verticality), so the number of waypoints have scaled down a lot to compensate. There are also many (too many!) extra travelling methods with lava tubes and that grappling thingy which also compensate for less waypoints.

I’m 50/50 on waypoints. They are incredibly useful and for a game so accessible as this they are a natural and seamless fit in that respect. They do however, shrink the World too much. It’s not sure how easily we can get places from an ease of game playing, it is how easily we can suddenly get from place to place in the story and travel from Ember Bay to Bitterfrost so suddenly, when the mileage is probably in the thousands.

The problem with the core maps is how we are spoiled with waypoints just scattered a bit less strategically, meaning some are clustered together unnecessarily. I THink LS2/HoT/LS3 does a better job of placement so the ease of travel exists, but the number isn’t too excessive encouraging you to really explore and learn the map.

Tdlr: I think the reduction has been a positive thing

Osby.5390:

I thought it looked more like Primordus and being called path of fire made sense cause its Balthazar & Primordus maybe? Primordus maybe woke up after the dealing with Balthazar in Draconis Mons?

I wouldn’t have thought so, although I admit to initially thinking Primordus myself. Primordus has gone back to a certain level of dormancy so he is likely still too far away across the continent to have moved across to Elona.

I think the story is going to struggle to do justice to Balth, Palawa Joko, Elona and Kralkatorrik as it is (based on past experience) without them introducing Primordus back into the mix.