Guild Wars 2

Aidan Savage.2078:

Telling people we dont need mounts. /thread

Aww, meta before I got the chance.

I was going to offer “casual vs hardcore” :P

doodie.1659:

This isn’t really a glider suggestion but I (and others I’ve talked to) would really like to see a matching backpack skin for the Valentine’s Day wings!

Rehashing some previous ideas, but there’s a good amount of call for ‘merging’ some backpack and glider skins:
*Holographic wings gliders
*Spinal blade jetpacks gliders
*Lovely wings backpack

Any chance of having ‘surfing wings,’ where toy items become a glider skin for characters to ride on? Broom and magic carpet, notably.

We could also use some Tengu wings. Attached to playable Tengu characters~ Buuut, I think that’s a little beyond the scope of what you’re asking, Gaile. :P

Perhaps some items panned around the various professions?
Scrapper glider: Two flying drones pop out on the sides with cords attached to the character’s back.
Berserker glider: Flaming wings!
Reaper glider: Chilly wings~
etc.

Ardid.7203:

IF Anet really decide to expand underwater, I really hope the new playable race are the Quaggans, and not the Largos. I prefer cute rabid manatee than emo fishy drow.

Agreed.

With Quaggans, I can make one and hurl it off the top of LA’s starfish. He will be named Oohnooo and splat the ground spectacularly.
With Largos, I don’t even go through char-gen.

MaximillianVonSchatten.6278:

Frankly, I’ve had no issues with levelling but I am out of mastery points and I’m not sure where to get more. Do I need to re-run through the story or how are other people getting mastery points these days?

In your achievement panel, look for the items that have mastery symbol marks next to them. (green for HoT, red for core Tyria)
But in general, yes, you’ll have to do story several times. Especially the tasks that are obnoxious to perform or obtuse in their description.

Sayrir.4609:

I actually got into a good map now in Verdant Brink. I can’t get to many of the events efficiently because my glider training isn’t high enough, and some I can’t reach at all(including some hero points) because I don’t have updraft training.

Found an adventure(I had seen this earlier, but it wasn’t working because it was ’’locked’’), worked on it until silver(actually first proper exp in hours), then it becomes locked because night time. Tells me I need to help clear the ‘’giant vines to the north’’ to unlock it. Proceed north, no ‘’giant vines’’ anywhere. K.

My head kitteng hurts now.

Unfortunately, all I can say is “it gets better.” It’s an unpleasant experience grind for a while, until you can get all your mobility masteries, including Itzel poison, speed mushrooms, and advanced gliding.

For now, you might do better staying on the eastern side of Verdant Brink, since the Pale Reaver and Itzel outpost events are out there.

And like Healix said, if you can find an open adventure that doesn’t suck, hit that one up daily. The scrapyard one on the south end (I think?) of VB isn’t too painful, a fairly easy Gold rank, which also gives to mastery points.

Technical issue.
Explained in several other threads. Look there.
Next time, please use “search function” site:forum-en.guildwars2.com in Google.

Overall, I +1 this list.
There needs to be a [DEVS LOOK AT THIS] button somewhere.

Paulytnz.7619:

“We?” No Sir, “I” Want Skritt to be the first and next playable race in the next expansion. There you go Anet now make it happen. PLEASE. :-D

I want Skritt too!
I guess that makes us We!

There are times it feels like all people do is roam around waiting to slap Matriarch for 20 solid minutes. Try to get a group for Tetrad and all you get are Mordrem tumbleweeds.

I can’t help myself..

BrotherBelial.3094:

I can’t see us having Tengui. It would be cool, but would call for a reworking of all the armor sets in the game. We might get Largous as they seem to use the human model, but have big wings, nothing new there really, so they would probably be the next.

Out of the “big three” usually requested, you’d be looking at Tengu or Kodan, as far as adaptable design goes.
Tengu were originally panned before Charr were solidified, and they can likely use the same rigs. So new armors for Tengu would be mostly adjusting fit on those that already exist and coming up with cultural ones.
Kodan are basically Norn with bear heads. They’d be the actual easiest to port over, for lack of weird rig structure. Their main problem is, without some ‘subrace’ to provide some color, there would be little to differentiate them.
Largos are barely present. Their wings would interfere 100% with back pieces, and players would complain and complain hard. And there’s no way to resolve it without telling players “suck it up and turn off back items,” which would be kind of insulting.

Dantert.1803:

Well guys no need to worry that much and be whiny about this topic XD
With the “We” I was referring mainly to most of my guild mates and other people i spoke about online about Tengu and everyone else was interested in having Tengu as a playable race.
Anyway being it Tengu, Kodan, Largos or something else I can see that some people are agreeing about wanting a new race. Would it be possible? Maybe…Would it be worth it? Well it’s new content so it could be

Yeah, some people just sort of include themselves when others talk in first person possessive.

“You don’t speak for me!” /fingersnaps
“I wasn’t. My friends and I, hence the ‘we’, would like this.”

And I’d happy cash out for Tengu or Kodan. The Tengu are a vibrant race with lore, and they can cross-over a fair amount of Charr style because of the similar body types. Kodan are sort of dour and far too similar (because polar bears), but I have the perfect name for one, and I want to giggle at all the sad Shirokuma fans that walk around in Chef Outfits. :P
Or Skritt. I doubt it’ll happen, but it should!

Teniz.5249:

Dantert.1803:

We want Tengu as the next playable race!

NO.

We want Largos as the next playable race.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Largos

NO.

We want Kodan as the next playable race.
(Not Butterfly Drow Athathins.)

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Kodan

Mirta.5029:

Raziel.4216:

A rumor? a statement from one of the devs is not a rumor.
Call it plan, intent, etc. doesn’t change the fact that no company will greenlight another expansion if the first one failed.

unless they really need money. Then expansions do get greenlit one after another. Just look at WoW, whenever an expansion pack fails miserably and overall is regarded as not good, Blizzard announces that the next one is a mere year away, instead of fixing the mess that they’ve caused.
It wouldn’t surprise me, if instead of rebuilding HoT Anet is preparing another expansion in a year or so.

Yeah, WoW did shove Mists out fairly quickly after Cata. And Mists didn’t get much love until Draenor was released. And now Draenor’s getting shoved under the proverbial bus for Legion. It’s actually kind of painful to watch in slow motion. >.>

Sicarius.4639:

I love how many people think the pet AI is any good.

Coming from a much more polished game, anything pet related in GW2 is just remedial. >.>"

Conncept.7638:

Jehuty.9608:

Nope….we all want Largos to be the next playable race, none of us want to play an ugly overgrown chicken.

I’m not particular to either, there are way more interesting races than Largos and Tengu.

But so far as design goes… Largos are just really bad knockoffs of drow. They are supposed to be this society of assassins from the deep ocean yet prior to the awakening of the dragons, had no competition in their realm, their only neighbors being the quaggan, (the krait have kept close to shore since ancient times) no conflict or deity or anything at all to inspire such an odd culture. Their biology makes, no sense, rigid wings would provide absolutely zero propulsion in water. The terrible accents… the monochromatic color scheme, seriously what was the design team on when they thought these things up? Just their combination of attributes makes them sound like they were taken directly from the scribblings of a middle schoolers notebook.

And the truth shall set you free!

Now gimmie my birdies so I can buy another 9 character slots. >.>

Ayrilana.1396:

Depends on what criteria you are using to define lazy. I could call rangers lazy because they can just camp at max range with bow while having their pet tank. You can also call MM lazy since they can just let their minions do the work.

I’m surprised it took this long to see Ranger. :P

AFK, come back to loot.

katniss.6735:

I don’t get all these HoT-specific qualms. HoT made the game better. It was fun getting everything done. Raids, and fractal journey are fun. WvW is pretty bad now, but pips in spvp added to the game. Flying in Tyria makes getting world completion more fun.

It’s a little died down now that people have sperged through a lot of the content already. I’d like to see more player vs players stuff, and guild halls worked on more than anything else. More bosses in the raid would be cool, too.

So, no. I don’t hate the game. At all.

I’m a little bemused, but I notice you mentioned only one bit of actual HoT content that was fun: Raids. (Maybe gliding, but that’s paired with ‘in Tyria’)

I’m also enjoying the secondary benefits of HoT: elite specs, gliding (so nice), and the other little benefits that come along with the devs improving the UI and such.

But Magus Falls? Everything in it is built to annoy, not enjoy And that’s just sad.

Raziel.4216:

The only valid info – not anecdotal – available is that Anet plans to make another expansion, now think about it a bit, would ANY company out there make a second expansion if the first one failed? probably not, even so we can’t draw any final conclusions based on that.

That’s not really “valid” either, to be honest. That’s intent.
Intent is a good sign that maybe they’re confident in a 2-5 year plan. I want them to be right. I want them to laser focus on making things good and fine-tuning the game so it returns to awesome. Even the rumor of changes for the spring patch have me hopeful.

Thing is, a rumor of a plan of something years in the making doesn’t mean squat about HoT’s success or failure now. After the whole “manifesto” trope that went on for years after release, anything ANet says is as anecdotal as the next “i leave 4evr byebye” thread. Plans change.

HoT had a lot of missteps, but I think GW2 can recover. It’ll take time and effort. There will be research and surveys and CDIs (hopefully). Because metrics only tell you what happened. Not why.

I haven’t +1’d this yet?
I was hoping the last part of the logistical mastery line would have allowed this. Not that auto-loot isn’t great. We really do need a hand-healthy way to deal with all the gift bags and bag-in-a-bags we get.

Yup. I sold one of mine for.. copper, I think. :P

Torment is viable just fine. Most classes that use it are ranged, which means the melee enemies they use it on take the extra damage. The ranged enemies, well, counter the Torment by not moving, as designed.

The only weird Torment I’ve run into so far is mace-Revenant, which is actually hilarious because the easiest way to up your damage is walk backwards.

HoT is just far too group oriented. Yes, I know, ‘but qq MMO’, but most MMO players only group up for specific content. In Magus Falls, it’s the entire friggin’ expansion that’s “group content.” And everything is locked behind it: masteries, hero progress, exploration, collections and achievements.

I’m not in a mood to herd cats into finishing objectives. (Go ahead, convince people to do Tetrad while they 1-mash at Matriarch…) Without an active guild, you might as well stop trying. And the guilds are dying from frustration and burnout.

Hate’s a pretty strong word for what I’m feeling, but frustration and disappointment are very palpable.

RubiBayer.8134:

Thanks everyone who asked about creature design! Brian and Ben went through today before livestream rehearsal and picked out some good questions from the thread, so we’re all set.

I’d like to say thanks for asking! This approach is nothing but good, I think. You get real questions from the players and time to prepare some polished answers.

So, yay, +1 for communication!

Palador.2170:

Okay, story time leading up to a question:

Last night, I decided to take my turret engineer (yes, each of my many characters has a style they focus on, rather than changing all the time) into VB. I don’t like the HoT zones, but I need mastery EXP, and thought that maybe it would be a good idea to use him to defend areas in the meta event.

At one point, I wound up setting my turrets up near some NPCs and fighting a couple of things that had latched onto my trail as I got there. When those targets were destroyed, the turrets did what they always do, looked for a new target. And they found one, one of the red frog people. A bit to my dismay, they opened fire at this thing walking around on the edge of their range.

And… it didn’t notice. Rifle shots and missiles were launched, but each and every one missed without this thing even trying to dodge. I checked the description under its health bar, and saw that it dodges ranged attacks. Without trying or entering combat, it was dodging all my ranged attacks. As an engineer that didn’t have the points to unlock Scraper even if I wanted to, I was pretty much helpless against this thing.

So, the question here is what was the reason for putting something like that into the game, when some of the classes can actually be locked out of having a melee attack? Yes, I realize that AoEs will hit it, but AoEs tend to be harder to come by due to cooldown timers and other costs. Giving players a blanket “immune to ranged attacks” ability would be overpowered, so why is it not seen so with an NPC?

Ranged AoEs will still miss those frogs. It dodges according to distance, so even with a ranged weapon, you can get within point blank and still hit it. It’s meant to force ranged characters to stop kiting. ..and follow the blighter into another pack of enemies that it callously leaps into.

Overall, I don’t consider them ‘bad’ enemies, just in need of some tweaks to make them more like players:
Require them to actually Dodge. Expend stamina. Be susceptible to Weakness.
Tune down their leap distance. They go entirely too far in the cramped settings of HoT zones, and chasing them down with melee is entirely too frustrating. (Yes, even with closers.)
Also a small note about their damage, but I think the two above would make them reasonable tolerable, since their HP pools are suitably low.

So, yeah, I’d like to ask: What’s being done to improve the current HoT designs and make them more polished?

Gilburt.9146:

Will boon stripping/stealing ever be more useful in the open world? Not a lot of HoT mobs seem to use boons.

Great question!
This is a much better than the raw damage increases we’ve seen in HoT.
At least the Chak have a compounding element where they synergize with each other. Individually, they’re pretty weak, but enough together compounds to make it appropriately difficult. Opposite that, a pack of CC mushrooms is just a cheap way of disenfranchising player control and needs to be examined.

I’d like to add to that with:
Will we see HoT enemies adjusted to allow for more counterplay?
Some potential examples:
Frog arrow-thieves: Their ranged evade is automatic. Bad. Make them actually Dodge, and have the cooldown on that affected by Weakness.
Mushroom chargers and not-a-T-Rexes: Cripple doesn’t do enough or does nothing to halt them. It ought to break their charge and force secondary attacks.

One question, but it covers a lot.
Why was there such reliance on crowd-control by enemies?

There are creatures with a single attack, and that attack is spammed ad nauseam. Mushroom chargers, dust clouds, not-a-T-Rexes, siderolling arrowheads… This constant CC actually devalues Stability, because the uptime on the boon doesn’t last for the duration of the fight, and even being fully stocked on a profession that can have it, the uptime is insufficient and has a lengthy cooldown. (Unless Juggernaut Engi…)

Vargamonth.2047:

Rauderi.8706:

What matters is execution, and that’s where ANet dropped the ball. I actually consider it a shame, since what we’ll likely find is that Adventures don’t get metrics needed to continue supporting them. Not because players didn’t like them, but because players were so frustrated by the conditions in which they exist that it taints any future development.

Could you elaborate a bit?

There are a few adventures which stay in locked state for too long, Shooting Gallery being the most obvious cause, but outside of that I don’t know what exactly would frustrate the playerbase.
Adventures are mostly ignored because players don’t like them, and even for those, like me, who actually do like them, rewards are far from impressive.

I could elaborate on my own experiences, at least.

I wanted to give many of the Adventures a try, but several others, like Shooting Gallery stay locked way too long.
Others require masteries to participate in any meaningful manner: Fungus Among Us, Flying Circus, etc. While the barrier to entry on those is somewhat small independently, it adds up to needing Advanced Gliding, Blazing Mushrooms, and probably a longer list than I have experience for right now. I still haven’t managed to catch most of them open.

I think a fair bit of advice to ANet on this, if they’re going to remain closed for some reason, is to have the start point identify what events need to finish to open them.

Beyond that, without the required masteries, running adventures dooms you to sub-Bronze ranking. The time requirements are fairly absurd The requirement for Silver (and thus mastery/elite weapons) are ponderous arcane in how the dev team arrived at their number, and Gold (for the second mastery point) requires restarting an obnoxious number of times for the slightest mistake.

As with most of the game’s transformations and special-toolbar content, the abilities are imprecise, buggy, and clunky. Polish the controls, and people would like them more.
Similar to that, lots of these adventures are jumping puzzles of a sort. That means getting the collision physics to cooperate while in the middle of clunky, transformed hit boxes. A step on one pixel is a slide right off a ledge at another, and that doesn’t convey well.

There were a fair number of complaints about Shooting Gallery and Haywire somethinganother having obnoxious controls and ludicrous time requirements; Falling Masks has apparently RNG, though some say once the pattern is established, it’s not so random.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

I agree with ODB that adventures are outside the tradition of RPGs and (as I’ve mentioned), I hate them. But one of the reasons a lot of us love GW2 is that it bucks tradition and so, for all I know, this might be a great concept to bring in more players who also love the game.

Or as I said above (using far more words), just because some of us hate adventures doesn’t mean it’s good for the game to remove them from mastery progress.

It’s been a trend in gaming to see a lot of genre-blending. FPSers with RPG level progression. RPGs with bullet-hell combat. MMOs with action combat more suited to adventure titles. Etc.
So, to say that platforming and minigames “don’t belong” is a bit exclusionary when perhaps it shouldn’t be.
What matters is execution, and that’s where ANet dropped the ball. I actually consider it a shame, since what we’ll likely find is that Adventures don’t get metrics needed to continue supporting them. Not because players didn’t like them, but because players were so frustrated by the conditions in which they exist that it taints any future development.

Kraggy.4169:

ODB.6891:

What is relevant to the issue is that there is a foreign element (content outside of the genre)

Please provide a citation or link where I can read the official standard definition of an MMO so that I can identify what these ‘foreign elements’ are.

Maybe you’re thinking that a single MMO defines the genre, if so I wonder which one, because I play 7 MMOs .. yea, PLAY as is I have active characters in 7, though obviously I spend more time on some that others in rotation .. and every one of them I think of has something the others don’t, so is your definition of an MMO the lowest common denominator of the 15 or so major MMOs in existence today?

All you’re doing is arbitrarily asserting was should or should not be present in an ‘MMO’ based on your likes and dislikes.

And what I see is arguing semantics about should or should not instead of addressing the critical issues of what is actually in game.

I accept what ANet tried to do. Minigames in an MMO are generally a good idea. They’re supposed to be short, fun content to break up the monotony of map grinding. Good minigames provide meaningful play experiences with humane exit points.

GW2 Adventures kinda fail at that. The minigames have frustrating, unpolished controls and actively detract from other participation.
Metric: Lots of complaints and the philosophy of “if it works, people don’t kitten about it on the forums.” If I had access to actual ANet metrics, I’d show ‘em, but I obviously don’t. :P

So, instead of derailing things:

A.

B. The OP is pointing out that the mastery point rewards locked behind Silver and Gold (and someone else notes the weapon collections requiring Silver) are frustrating and poorly executed. Unreasonable. The OP would rather have those mastery points re-assigned to areas of core gameplay achievements for HoT, rather than allegedly “optional” content that has nothing to do with character progression.

So far as item B goes, I’m only half inclined to agree. I think coaxing players into doing Bronze and seeing which Adventures they like isn’t a bad thing. It’d be even better if ANet could resolve some of the issues with availability (patched a little already) and tuned the controls/timers more in line with player use and ability.

IndigoSundown.5419:

“Why do people continue to play MMO’s?” That’s an interesting question. Probably because it fills some emotional desire/need on their part. Taken on that level, people who dislike/hate HOT likely find that playing that content detracts from their sense of fulfillment rather than contributes to it.

I find it interesting that ANet thought to hire an economist so that the in-game economy would function as they wished, but apparently did not see the need to have a psychologist on hand to analyze the meta-needs of their player-base. By all accounts, they rely on metrics, which can be deceiving.

Cited for likely truth.

In my casual study of games and game design, I’ve spotted a legion of mistakes that anyone with a degree should have caught and corrected:

Short iteration time after failure – Not present in Living Story releases. Jumping puzzles like Not So Secret are equally frustrating sinners. The reset button on Adventures was actually well executed, even if the Adventures themselves were not.

Conveyance – Not present in ..90% of enemy attacks? Jumping puzzles and general map navigation art both poor for the same reason. Too little information being given over available ‘channels’ of communication. Meta-events are also prone to this. (It’s as if ANet has a problem with communication~)

Reward schedules – …’nuff said. I love a stable economy, but some decisions are made without polite consideration to how rewarding our experiences are.

Balancing – …We mostly agree there’s a problem. The solution isn’t so easy, so I cut the team a lot of slack. (Except for the current state of Warrior. Grr.)

Engaging encounter design – Hit and miss. HoT did add some enemies that require attention and counter-play. It also added literally one-skill enemies that lean on ANet’s frustrating CC durations. Bring the stragglers up to snuff and I’d actually be lauding encounter design overall.

Ayrilana.1396:

It being suitable or not is your opinion but isn’t fact as other RPG games and MMO’s have had mini games. If adventures are not suitable for GW2 then neither is SAB. Neither are the holiday activities and regular activities too.

SAB isn’t core gameplay. That’s true. SAB also didn’t block my mastery progress, character growth, or map completion. To think of it, SAB is closer to core GW2 gameplay than any of the ‘adventures’ ever were.

Adventures could have been good. It’s one of a long line of “good idea ANet botched because of thoughtless execution.” I don’t even need to list all the problems, anyone paying attention to the boards is overtly aware of them by now.

I mean, I get it, arguing for arguing’s sake, but it doesn’t further the discussion. Go back and actually examine the design decisions invested in the Adventures and return with a critical analysis.

Ayrilana.1396:

ODB.6891:

What is relevant to the issue is that there is a foreign element (content outside of the genre) that has not only been introduced to the game, but is being used as a road block to progression in the game.

Source?

We bought Guild Wars 2, not Super Mario Bros, Burgertime, or Call of Duty. That’s what ODB meant.
The MMO format isn’t suitable to these sorts of genres. The controls aren’t the same, and they’re poorly tuned for what they ask us to do to succeed at them.

If they wanted us to try them, and maybe even like them, they failed at it overall. Long stretches of unavailable time, instances pulling players out of participation, frustrating mechanics that require masteries to get mastery points to get masteries, overtuned timing demands, RNG elements…

I have to wonder who even playtested this garbage and decided it was acceptable for general consumption.

Kraggy.4169:

HOT has little to no useful purpose to ‘exploration’, you’ll see most of it during the metas.

HOT actively discourages exploration. What was GW2’s original joy is crushed under the thorny weight of Mordremoth. ;_;

TexZero.7910:

I’m all for removing them and giving players meaningful trade-offs at the adept tier trait level (since that’s where most fall damage traits are located)

Yes, please.
This and the revive traits need to either go away completely or get a decent redesign.

Agemnon.4608:

HoT maps feel very unwelcoming, like someone really doesn’t want me to go there.

Well it is run by a dragon who actively declared war on the rest of Tyria. Enemy territory shouldn’t feel welcoming.

But who knew Mordy was so disciplined? Everything happens right on schedule, and not a minute sooner.

I thought he was the dragon of Plants and Minds, not Plants and Clock Timers… -_-

coso.9173:

All wing types should be made into glider skins.
Also, all cosmetic mounts should be made as glider skins too.

That’s what we’ve been saying!
ANet could even make a few extra gem sales by bringing back the holographic wings.
/nudgenudge

Vayne.8563:

Agemnon.4608:

Rauderi.8706:

A:
I don’t hate the game. I just hate the HOT “content.”

Oh look, everyone’s AFK in Dragon Stand. Such compelling gameplay…

Quoted for truth! I’d like to actually do the Dragon Stand content but if you can’t get a taxi in you miss out. Tangled Depths even if you wait awhile has times when there aren’t enough people for the meta. Never had this problem with Silverwaste.

Actually you’re quoting this for truth but it’s the opposite of my experience. Most of the time I’ve done DS I didn’t taxi in. Or rather, I stayed in a map that was closing until it closed, in a group with people already organized who had just done one, and we were all in one single squad together. It’s actually easier to organize something like this yourself than it is to use the LFG tool.

Before the map ever went to the LFG tool I was already in because we all just moved to a new map.

I stayed until a map closed. It killed me and banished me into Tangled Depths, forcing me to zone in again. Good on ya, game. When I finally did make the transition to the upcoming DS map, it was literally two people. Me, and the one patient sod who inhabited a camp.

So, I’m thinking an adjustment to some core philosophies is in order here.

I’d recommend pricing items appropriately. And waiting. Bot or no bot, you got outbid. Leave the system alone.

Also, I’d recommend if there is a limiter, it’s to the number of buy-sell orders available. That would hedge in the number/quantity of orders botters can invest in. Maybe JS has the average number of active sales per player listed somewhere.

maddoctor.2738:

Agemnon.4608:

Rauderi.8706:

A:
I don’t hate the game. I just hate the HOT “content.”

Oh look, everyone’s AFK in Dragon Stand. Such compelling gameplay…

Quoted for truth! I’d like to actually do the Dragon Stand content but if you can’t get a taxi in you miss out. Tangled Depths even if you wait awhile has times when there aren’t enough people for the meta. Never had this problem with Silverwaste.

Interesting because the times I needed to change maps and get a taxi in Silverwastes were too numerous to count. Not because there weren’t people around but because of the dreaded chest farm going on.

Also quoted for truth.

What Silverwastes did right:

• Player-triggered meta event.

What Silverwastes did wrong:

• Chest farm.

This is nearly inverted for all the HoT maps.
Time-based metas that are severely unfriendly to pick-up play.
Reward scheme that occasionally rewards for non-participation. (I always feel a little guilty when that happens.)

But, it does hand out rewards for participation that give access to the region’s chests. Where Silverwastes misstepped in the similar strategy was by socializing loot drops. One person with a shovel can pull 50 people out of participating in the zone.

If Silverwastes ditched shovels and made the chests strictly key-based, we would have a near-perfect zone.

A:
I don’t hate the game. I just hate the HOT “content.”

Oh look, everyone’s AFK in Dragon Stand. Such compelling gameplay…

nicknamenick.2437:

Let us place banners in our back

I saw a good idea for this in someone’s rework. Basically, give the banner an activation that lasts a reasonably long time and a secondary ability that triggers on use. Using the secondary wouldn’t explode it like with Ranger spirits or nullify the banner like with Herald Facets.
To handle multiple banners, switching banners puts another active banner on cooldown for 10-20 seconds.
Bam, no more carrying banners.

I keep reliving the disappointment of Lunar New Year. It’s a gambling gold sink and shoddy PvP.

…woo.

Is there even a meta-achievement this year? Didn’t see one, so I have 0% reason to go into Dribble Ball.

Cynder.2509:

Yup, I’m sure now that I’m crushed on Trahearne and Logan…
That’s why I ship Trahy with my Sylvari and Logan with my mesmer…
Ok insert that escalated quickly image here
I also love to ship Rytlogan…
I mean, come on! They remain together and it would be cute…

I dunno. That’d be some really cringe-worthy fiction.

..Why do I do these things to myself? XD

TheBravery.9615:

Yes and no. With only so many ‘roles’ or ‘identities’ realistically available, there will be overlap, especially as elite specs opened the design space. I’m not even sure what it is I’m feel I’m disagreeing with for this statement, except it seems to argue against blending roles that would actually bring variety to play.

Good point, I don’t know what I was thinking when I wrote that.

The core classes did have stronger identities, and that’s important to the feel of the game. So you weren’t wrong in that regard.

Where ANet misstepped on elite specs is they tried to cover nearly all the gaps in each core class with a single elite. It’s one of the reasons they feel so overpowered right now.

TheBravery.9615:

I suggested a 90 second cooldown and 75 second duration. 120 second cooldown is too long if you happen to lose it or if someone grabs it and runs away- it strikes a better balance.

Me too! I’ve been saying this since the trait changed.
The huge gap in between banners is too much, but the 6-second gap prior to the trait re-design was too short for ANet’s liking. 15 seconds is a solid compromise.

JETWING.2759:

The related trait could make banners regenerate HP and increase banner radius instead grant regeneration boon.

I was thinking of keeping the regen and adding a pulse healing to go with it. Healing Power works best when there are multiple sources of simultaneous healing, which is more likely with Ele and Guardian. But for “Warrior healer,” the most we get is weak, long-cooldown Shout-heals and pesky Banner Regen.

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The banner skills themselves need a rework if they’re going to be used in combat, or carried outside of combat.
Stab needs to have its cast time dropped in half. Keep or increase the actual damage.
The unique benefits for each one need better intra-banner balance and utility.
The AoE swiftness works as a get-around tool for groups.
Sprint is okay, but could use a damage component.
Plant Banner ought to bring out the old Powerful Banner damage along with the Blast finisher.

Carpet glider, broom glider, bladed jetpack gliders, holographic wings..
So many ways to add some flair to this gliding thing!

Q: What’s the purpose?
A: To waste materials and keep their value escalated while allowing a definitive progression to acquiring extremely rare exotics required for Legendary weapons.

Minor disagreement with:

Grandmaster traits should be stronger than master traits, and Master traits should be stronger than adept traits. A profession’s adept trait in should not be comparable to a grandmaster trait from another profession.

In the current build system, the only time this even matters is during leveling. PvP auto-promotes to level 80 and unlocks everything. (If you’re doing WvW under 80, it’s your own fault. :P)
So I wouldn’t say that Grandmaster must be greater than Adept at this point. This is especially important when considering that trait lines support specific weapons and utilities, and placing a mediocre weapon talent (worthy of Master) on the same line and level as a decent utility trait (also worthy of Master) would deny some of the more appropriate build mixes.

The balancing process must consider other professions, and avoid identity conflict. Changes must be reasonable, balanced, and justified.

Yes and no. With only so many ‘roles’ or ‘identities’ realistically available, there will be overlap, especially as elite specs opened the design space. I’m not even sure what it is I’m feel I’m disagreeing with for this statement, except it seems to argue against blending roles that would actually bring variety to play.

Can’t agree with enough:

All major traits must have equal consideration within each class. In other words, no trait should overshadow other traits in the same selection.

There’s a lot of this. Some traits are “Why would I ever..?” while others are “movement speed, omigerdyes” or “+10% damage and absurd Might buffing, YES”.
While ANet does have to balance its incomparables in many trait lines, at the same time, any two damage-related traits on the same tier will almost always yield to one.

All weapons and utilities and associated skills must have an identity. In other words, each weapon / utility must have a role to fulfil and a reason to choose over other weapons. No weapon / utility should overshadow other weapons / utility in similar situations.

I’d have to add: Do not let the assumed identity drag the weapon into poor balance decisions. Sadly, Warrior Hammer ends up being my near-constant example. Whiffs slowly and horribly, has pathetic damage, but “because hammer is CC,” it remains in its current state with an equivalently pathetic trait.
But overall, the weapons mostly try to feel different and have solid purpose, while others seem to languish (Warrior sword/mace, Ele scepter, Ranger axe…) It’s not something a meager damage boost or stray boon is going to fix.

Between sprint and Fast Hands, there’s a lot of “need” in Discipline.