Guild Wars 2

VAHNeunzehnsechundsiebzig.3618:

why should a charr, that worked with humans, fought side by side with humans against dragons, joined order that is at least partially composed of humans, have problems working with the shining blade?

At that part of character development, the charr char should either grown enough to see beyond the species – or should not be part of the story anymore.

Two reasons, one top-down, the other bottom-up:

1. As a Charr, he should still be loyal to the Legions. That’s not something you just “get over” when it’s been a tight bond of your social structure since childhood. GW2 never really addresses this, but it the sort of loss the character endures, more than once, should be devastating. Add in that Kryta is barely an ally (cease-fire, not a treaty), and the notion of forging a soul-binding agreement to a human (still a potential enemy) cult should be a non-starter.

2. As a former leader of the Pact, the character should be free of complicated entanglements and loyalties to a particular sovereignty. Theoretically, this would include his home nation, or he would be pressured to step down. None of the PC characters, regardless of race, should have made that choice, especially for a simple scrap of information.

Family and a masters program. And 2-3 hours per night?
I wish to know your level of Time Sorcery!

Really though, GW2 is great as a half-time-MMO. No need to grind best-in-slot gear, and you can take content at your own pace. And there’s no monthly cost!

Yet another example of how our PCs are watered down. Way back in the day, my Charr Warrior was “brutal”. He would have smacked that priest through a stained glass window after the words “fite me” and then gave Anise a surly glare for impugning his honor as a soldier.

But instead, we don’t even get a fight out of it. Lame. :\

DeanBB.4268:

Playable Tengu? No, the rumor I heard was playable Dolyaks! They need no starting area, cuz they are everywhere!

To be fair, WvW might get more interesting if dolyaks suddenly had enough, stood up on two legs, and started swinging death-hammers. :P

For all my gripes about the writing and ill-tuned combat content, the dark side of GW2 . .

There come shining lights like this Portal Tome and Linsey helping us hide more of our hoarder shame in our banks. Shine on, you awesome User Experience folks.

Tristavel.9218:

Bottom line: typically bad storytelling and very bad second instance. I enjoyed the rest.

So I’m past the worst of it? That’s good to hear. I got so mad after the Shining Blade story and fight execution that I didn’t have the desire to fuss with another undead-mud map.

The Dirges seem like they’d be interesting for large group combat, though. Possible import/export of a raid mechanic?

Bridget Morrigan.1752:

Honestly, years ago it was all “more mechanics, more mechanics! we hate bosses that just take a million years to fight down” on these boards. Now it’s all “less mechanics, less mechanics! we just want to fight!” IDK, maybe the devs have gone too far the other direction in listening to advice on these boards, but mostly I’m less bored in these instanced fights than I used to be. (That doesn’t make them all balanced perfectly to my tastes, which is another issue.)

Yeah, I’m a little disheartened to see a lot of “no puzzle” sentiment, considering that managing special mechanics is Pre-Raid 101 anyway. My bigger objection, as is incredibly common with GW2’s design for the past.. years?..is that there is an ill-considered facet or poorly balanced item that makes their otherwise clever designs into something utterly obnoxious.

In the first mission, the puzzle didn’t follow the previous conveyance. To free the very-slappable NPC, you make all the lines go out. To attack the boss at the end, you have to light them all up so she overloads. That wasn’t what was demonstrated, and it looks like it was done for the devs whim and humor than player consistency.

In the second mission, the debuff claw isn’t dodgable. Or, if it is, its execution was so sloppy that the visual effect and actual projectile are nowhere near each other. That makes getting Fearless impossible on so many different builds, with no warning that such a mechanic is coming to allow the player to adjust.
It could have been a good fight, but it just came out to be incredibly annoying and wrong.

Yuffi.2430:

I’ve not yet taken my Charr through the story but had exactly the same thoughts.

The character I did take through is a Sylvari. I’m happy to help the Humans, and will continue to do so, but to be forced to join the Shining Blade with no option is a reflection of a poorly thought out story. The Mordremoth story took account of race with Sylvari hearing and denying the whispered voice of the dragon – why doesn’t LS3?

I would have helped anyway without the oath: so why make me take an oath of secrecy for a secret organisation I didn’t want to join? And for what gain did this occur – to set up the final scene of a genocide? This is not something my character would have chosen.

At least the Vigil, Priory and Order of Whispers are multi-species groups with an open agenda. How does being part of the Shining Blade sit with the priorities of my chosen faction?

A few redditors have noted that it’s going to be really difficult for a Sylvari to keep the secret of the Shining Blade from the Dream. Mama Tree is going to know all of that stuff within a fortnight, and then the PC probably explodes in some horrific display.

I know the devs came out against it (or at least something like it), but if there are achievements, there really needs to be a retry mote after the event.

I do appreciate that the achievement tracker conveyed which ones were in the first two instances (haven’t done the rest yet), so that’s at least a plus.

ANet, there should always be a retry mote when achievements are involved.

Side note: the part where they just drop a bunch of boulders made me laugh out of the sheer absurdity of it. It’s not a good laugh, per se, because honestly, it’s immersion breaking.

Had to set things down for several reasons, so I only got to the opening of the island.
Portal Tome, THANKS! With that out of the way, the rest so far has been haaaate.

6.1 wasn’t actually too bad, but please, please, ditch the knockdown/knockback/pinball fetish. It’s irritating when more than one enemy has a disable skill. It invalidates Stability or Stun-breaks just be being so pervasive.
Puzzle element wasn’t so bad here. Got the relevant achievements in one go.

6.2 Awful. Writing was flimsy as an excuse to get the PC to team up. The actual trials might have been witty, but the execution needed more testing.
In the reinactment, trying to help the NPCs stay alive, as usual, just didn’t work. Somewhere, somehow, I got massively overrun and reduced to nothing terribly quick, and the constant blind spam is just another feather in the CC-fetish cap. It’s getting very tiresome.
Then, the Fight of Bad Feelings. It could have been much better, but there’s something amiss with the timing/execution of the homing claw that ruins it so badly. I could have endured it for the Fearless achievement, but a homing, undodgeable claw is absurd, and it goes against the entirety of the game’s combat system.

250 logs I had laying around = 14g today. Not a bad haul!

Best part of Episode 6! Thanks, Linsey!

Changer the Elder.2948:

A few points on my end:

- Please make up your mind what is my character supposed to be like. I don’t mind playing for something that’s not an “empty vessel”, I actually prefer it, but wobbling me from comedy to serious drama is working less than expected.
- Whee, I’ve joined another human organization! Which I unexplicably care about despite being a charr!
- While it has a nice idea in it, the fight with the Self-Doubt is more a fight with a crippling procrastinator issues. Whoever thought to have undodgable tendrils (they obviously are… but not with 120 ping, because their window is just THAT small) that give me 2 minutes cooldown on autoattack is a great idea… well. Let’s just say that your taste and mine will never align, pal. It’s also astonishingly punishing for certain classes. My particular Self-Doubt found me with a ranger longbow (15k rapid fire + knockback + range all over the room), a signet of stone (improved toughness) and signet of the hunt (health regen, which at some point heals it faster than my blocked skills can damage it). My friend, in comparison, had a lazy warrior with a greatsword telegraph. Thanks for kicking my sorry tail for maining a ranger. “Play it your way” indeed.
- The use of emotes and cinematics was nice. The Shining Blade class of horrible acting was not. Also, not sure if intentional, but “So much death…” quote from male charr sounded like a drunk freshman on a movie night.
- Fractal’s nice tho.

Haven’t tried the fractal yet.

BUT GEEZ, everything else above is so. freaking. true. I could have easily gotten Fearless if the tendrils were actually dodgable, and believe me, I tried. There is something seriously wrong with the effect appearance and timing.

..at least I can legitimately use my Shining Blade glider now. :\

BrosefStalin.3475:

I’d also like to state that the ghost arm that gives the crippling doubt stack (or whatever its called) seems to hit me before getting halfway across the arena, and i bounce between 50-70 ping (avg 60 in options). Are these actually able to be dodged? Do I have to go with the end of their statement plus .25 of a second to dodge it?

I’m not sure they can be dodged. And with their homing, you either dodge or get hit, no questions.

Which I find exceedingly irritating. Bad form, ANet. Episode 6.2 was poorly executed, but this specific aspect is largely unforgivable.

Changer the Elder.2948:

Well, I wouldn’t pat team Gilded Hollow on the back just yet, since I know of at least two guilds with a severe case of buyer’s remorse. At the start, GH was the shiny new promising place. But as time went on with upgrades, Precipice became an actual small desert town that looks like a group actually made it their home, while Guilded Hollow is still just a dank hole in the ground with nothing in it.

You can rest assured we’d swap if we could.

Pretty sure you can! You go back to the exploration guide (or whatever it is) and you can do the expedition to get the other guild hall.
..I think. I seem to recall that’s how it works.

Tiny Doom.4380:

At the moment it very much seems as though the instances are designed to entertain the designers not the audience but maybe that’s just me and most players really love having to learn new abilities every episode and then never use them again. Would be nice to find out once and for all.

Haven’t gotten to the Ep6 stuff yet (waiting for the bugs to get squashed and balance passes to happen), but after Jade Anything, Caudacus, Chalice of Tears, etc, your statement rings so true.

Even way back at launch, I noticed a number of times where the game required me to do gimmicks and tricks instead of playing the character I have. I didn’t like it then, and I don’t care for it now.

Hand crossbow = Pistol
Big crossbow = Rifle

We might see skins, but I doubt we’d see a new projectile weapon. Or a new weapon at all.

Interesting question, definitely. Hopefully a dev can clear it up. As it is, so long as it only does 1 action per keystroke, if ANet is feeling lenient, I would guess context-dependent actions on activation wouldn’t be against the spirit of the rules. But don’t take my word for it.

XenesisII.1540:

Rauderi.8706:

Anyone got screens on the hammer yet? I’m deciding between that and Juggernaut.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/6phbbl/for_those_of_us_at_work_can_anyone_post_pictures/dkpbd9p/

Appreciated! Probably just going to make Juggernaut, since I bought the precursor recently.

Anyone got screens on the hammer yet? I’m deciding between that and Juggernaut.

Not worth it? I make 50s-1g per day by diving into mine, and that’s just from what I sell. I end up with a backlog of materials that also have value. I’m super glad to share it with the guild, when they have time.

That said, I wouldn’t balk at the idea of a gathering minion for the guild hall and home instance, especially if he comes with keys to open my loot boxes. No more spending map currencies for keys ..probably means less map participation, so I’m out of luck on that one. :P

Really though, can we get a Noxious Pod for the home instance?

Sarie.1630:

I really miss the feeling of unlocking weapon skills by using them.

Off topic, but I agree. I feel it was a disservice to new players. One of the ways I learned about the game was buying all the weapons I could use and trying to get all my skills unlocked by level 10. And I paid attention to every skill I unlocked, so I had a better sense of what each weapon was supposed to do.

@Pifil: Too right. The new zones were great to have when shiny and new, but there isn’t a lot to keep us coming back (except maybe one corner of a leather farm that’s finally semi-decent). I do my rotation on some of the maps for easy dailies, but the rewards beyond that are lacking for extended participation. Bitterfrost could be lucrative, but it’s annoying af.
I’m not sure it’s worth making all these new zones for something that could be inserted into the mainline maps. Then again, new maps keeps meta-map content from spilling over into weirdness like it did pre-HoT. Kessex is still forever reeling from Season 1, and I seem to remember a spot in Iron Marches that’s a lot more obnoxious when the plant events take place.

DirtyDan.4759:

Complete the Mushroom HP in Tangled Depths alone. Still easy?

Ultrahard Mode: TD Mushroom HP while the spore event is going on.

Blockhead Magee.3092:

FWIW, I imagine everything looks easy when you’re getting carried.

I did notice a lot of group events in that “too easy” list.

I’ve never wiped at dragon stand ever, or any meta event.
Fractals of the mist is easy too its made difficult thru AR if your over the AR suggestion
Never failed any world boss ever since launch, not one ever…
Raids are not hard don’t say they are hard.
For dungeons except for TA and Arah all of them are tuned terribly low.

To be honest, I’d swear the above is utter hyperbole, because groups can and will fail some content, regardless of a single player’s overwhelming talent and obviously epic contributions.

Donari.5237:

Hmm. HoT was sylvari-focused. If PoF is Asura focused, Point of Fusion? Point of Fission? Proof of Fibonacci?

Pontification of Felonies?

Because it’s not above the Asura to kidnap, forcibly experiment, steal, lie, or murder in the name of self-advancement…

I personally voted Lost Precipice, but I was overruled by the Skritt in my guild. ;_;

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Vayne.8563:

If it actually made you a profit, it would be pay to win.

That’s actually a really good point that few bring up in threads about gem shop convenience items.

And the nodes will pay out, eventually. It’s a matter of patience and if the game survives the 2-3 years some of them might take to profit.
But, assuming no tragic devaluation over time, inflation will steadily make each of those nodes worth it a little faster.

Skittish.4539:

This planet is boring. We need new planets.

I hear No Man’s Sky has a bunch of planets.
Maybe that’s what OP needs for a while, and then coming back to GW2 will be even better!

That’s a cute little promotional piece.

I’ll be fine on Tuesday, since it’s going to be bug fixes well into the evening, but I’m eager to see what happens after I log on when I get home.

zealex.9410:

The team is already making skins for every living world release i believe the can fit 1 armor pieces oer 3 months in the updates.

It’s one hat/shoulder/glove and/or back piece per episode. That’s not the same as a full set, much less one for each armor weight, per episode. It’s not even a single full set.

Granted, it might help if they spanned an entire set across an entire Living World season. Since the hat, etc can be ported between armor weights without seemingly much issue, then it’s just a matter of designing chest/legs/boots to go with the rest of it. That’s probably also the hardest part, with three different rigs and several different skeletons to put them on.

nottsgman.8206:

if you do the easy dailies in the LS maps (unbound magic gathering, aerial attack, berries, peach, etc) you can get a nice chunk of karma a day.

Yup. Just doing the quick ones in episodes 1-4, I get 10k karma. I tend not to bother with Draconic Mons after I finished map completion on it. The dailies aren’t as conducive to quick in-out, and I ran out of shared slots to put the scrolls in. :\

TexZero.7910:

It’s not like they haven’t changed voice actors for roles in the game before….

It was a bit jarring for the male Charr PC, but the sound team did a very believable job sometime after the first episode or two the switch was made. I was pretty impressed.

Now if they would fix the writing, dialog options, and let me punch Braham in the face, that’d mean a bit more. >.>

I can see how the storytelling would be underwhelming, especially for Living World episodes. I kept getting excited by them, only to be let down with dropped threads, baffling ‘plot twists’, random deaths, and isolated responses with no root in the continuity.

Episode 6 is going to have to do a LOT of heavy lifting to resolve plot arcs left behind from the start of HoT…

Maybe after Engi gets a melee weapon other than hammer.
But I do like the idea of a vigilante engi with Green Arrow/Hawkeye arrows. Sounds hilarious.

Aldath.1275:

Makes me even wonder if it was intentionally designed

It was. You can practically hear the “bweeheehee” from Seattle.

that way or the devs just found funny shapes and platforms, added a chest in the end, and called it a day. I highly even doubt this was playtested; there are at least 4 areas where you struggle with the ground to register your jump and at least one is quite a middle finger for norns.

If I’m being fair, this is a thing that irritates me in general with MMOs. Some equivalent slopes will different between navigable and utterly frustrating, usually depending on arbitrary developer whim. In other MMOs, it’s not such a problem, but in GW2, it’s often placed in an intentional part of a map/vista/jumping puzzle.

This was more like glitching the map and less like a puzzle. A puzzle gives you clues, this one has you randomly guessing where to go.

“Working as intended.” ™

I only have 27, with one open for the occasional key run. 60+? o_O I don’t know if I should applaud or urge help.

Still, like Indigo said, unless there’s a technical reason, why not add another wing to the Alt Gallery? Though, I suspect there’s a technical reason. Memory is cheap, until you have to store the same thing 5 million times.

Westenev.5289:

I think, ideally, we would ideally want to see something akin to Renegade and Paragon from Mass Effect, whereby the same actions are taken for different reasons. For this reason, I think it would be nice if the Charm, Dignity and Threaten options saw more widespread use.

I could’ve used a Paragon/Renegade set of options in Episode 3.

-Paragon/Dignity-
Weak, mincing Commander: “No Braham, don’t go away angry. Let’s talk this out ..and, he’s gone.”

-Renegade/Ferocity-
Commander: [Post face-punch] “How dare you pull this childish garbage on me? Do you have any idea what I’ve lost? My warband! The Pact! Eir was my friend! [second punch] Go on, go.” [Braham leaves crying.]
Rox: “Boss, don’t you think you were too hard on him?”
Commander: “No, but I bet this is going to bite me in the buttcape anyway. He’ll sort it out. I hope.”

It’s one of those “illusion of choice” things that doesn’t change the overall story, just the presentation of it.

Plunder Orr Finally?

Only if choosing a different side shows the natural result of betrayal:
Death at the hands of a legion of heroic murderhobos.

Goettel.4389:

I hate alting, normally, but I’m currently leveling my fifth, and loving it…psst, elementalists are awesome, and mesmers too ymmv

As a shameless alt-junkie, I have to say that one of the things that surprised me most about GW2 is how easy it is to have an alt. There are so many account-bound conveniences, and getting from 1-80 isn’t difficult at all.

When I started, I fell into Warrior pretty quickly. Good profession to learn the game with, fairly forgiving, but simple. But there was something about Mesmer that just felt so unique, something elaborate about their gameplay, that I’ve got such a crush on them. Then there’s Elementalist, which goes beyond the boring “Mage” trope into a dual-dagger wielding hellion that can dance into various roles.

@OP: Glad you’re finding Thief more engaging! I’d like to think that GW2 has a profession that’s right for everyone, so I definitely encourage you to explore all the profession and weapon combinations. Weapon selection can dramatically change your play style. (Warrior + Hammer needs more love in my opinion, but I’m biased.)

I noticed this too. I wasn’t using a kit, but after gathering, I heard the weapon swap noise. It didn’t switch my weapons, but I could tell it was going from “bundle” to my equipped weapon. Could be something from a recent patch?

I’d like to help clean MOX out with a flamethrower. ._.

Then, there’d be less spiders and more room to put in music files.

Ayrilana.1396:

I kind of did provide some insight into why a new race wouldn’t be an effective selling point in attracting new players to justify the costs like some people have claimed.

It’s not about just new players, though. Doing something for loyal veteran players will lead to sales as well. A lot of what ANet sells is the experience, and part of that is the visuals. Playable Tengu has a lot of opportunity, depending on the excellence of its execution.

Of course, it’s up to ANet to gauge interest and estimate profitability, so while I want Tengu, I don’t necessarily expect Tengu. Want, though. ANet, gimme burbs, I gibs you ninety moneydollars~

perilisk.1874:

Plus, he hasn’t really had any character development.

To be fair, Belinda didn’t get any character development either. She went from Marjory’s sister to Christmas tree ornament in the span it takes to get a glass of milk from the fridge.

Oenanthe.6549:

Unfortunately my first thought when I saw PoF was Promise of Failure. I can’t say I really liked a lot of HoT so while I have no doubt I will get the expac, I’m not that hyped up about it.

Sad to say, I’m the same.
I’m hoping that there were numerous lessons learned and stable leadership to produce the upcoming expansion, and hope is the reason I’m willing to buy into it.

Xiosk.7534:

I kinda feel like someone who just got a brand new toy, and doesn’t really know how to use it yet.

Picking this quote in particular, because I want to emphasize how different the classes are, not just in game, but how some feel so unique to MMOs. Getting stuck with a profession you don’t know what to do with or one that feels flat can make traveling a slough.

I started with Ranger because my main in WoW was a Hunter, and I tend to groove with pet classes.
Hated it.
Got a few I love now, but I couldn’t stand Ranger to start. Necro baffled me. Mesmer was quirky and slow to amp up. Guardian was entirely too squishy for a heavy armor class.

So I fell into the basic trope Warrior.
But I had fun! GW2 was the first game to really make me like melee combat.

Over time and plenty of study, I worked on other builds for other professions, and alt-junkie that I am, eventually made a whole bunch.

The tl;dr of it, if you’re struggling to enjoy your experience now, try swapping professions. One is likely to resonate with you, and keep with it even after level 80. The Elite specs can change things dramatically, like Necro into Reaper (which I find hilarious).

Also, set up some challenges for yourself. Scan the achievement list and gun for some of those, or just roam around and see what you find. You’ll probably stumble into a jumping puzzle and have a good laugh.

Welcome to the game!

Ayrilana.1396:

I think it was the one wearing a red shirt.

Checked the trailer. There’s someone that resembles Riot Alice (nuuuu ;_;) in reddish armor, and some random Charr rifleman in red-lined clothes. So it could be a red-shirt. Hmm.

I tell ya, once you experience GW2 in full, it’ll be hard to go back to anything but the most polished MMOs, and even then, GW2 makes a great “second game”. Get bored of it, just wait for a content release and reconnect.
Or show up for the dailies+more. That’s generally where I sit nowadays. For some reason, GW2’s dailies are more compelling than WoW’s have been, probably for a general lack of annoyance and a pull toward things I don’t do often.

And don’t be afraid to ask questions! We’ve got what is probably the most helpful community in MMOs.

Eir, Demi, Belinda, that random Asura in Personal Story.. We’ve got no shortage of “shocking” character death, and with an episode title like One Path Ends, I’m figuring someone has to die. So who’s it gonna be? Thoughts?

If you bought something and it goes on sale (probably within a week or two), you can usually contact Support (nicely!), and they often return the difference in gems.

But be nice!