Guild Wars 2

Gibson.4036:

Here’s to the anniversary of one of the worst patches in GW2.

Why is a simple price adjustment too much to ask until the new system can be implemented?

Make each adept trait cost 4c to unlock.

Make each master trait cost 5s to unlock.

Make each gransmaster trait cost 13s to unlock.

That way unlocking all traits would cost about the same as buying one of the manuals from the perfectly fine system that was scrapped in favor of this terrible one we were given one year ago.

How long would that take a programmer to do?

Over a year, apparently? :\

Really, devs, after 80+ pages of justified outrage the first time, and 14+ pages after having us be told to pike off, would a little compromise be such a bad thing?

It’s been a year. A terrible, uninspired year. The experiment has failed. The goodwill has dwindled. Please just adjust the costs until the new system releases.

As a fellow M.S., I’d appreciate you sharing your results from your final paper.
I’ll be giving the survey a poke shortly!

Guhracie.3419:

Rauderi.8706:

Still waiting for the patch notes that say:

In remembrance of this tragic event, all prices at trait trainers have been halved and skill point costs have been removed.

…still waiting.

Even half price is pretty bad. And I’d still consider coming back.

It’d be a compromise of good faith, at least. :\

Gold isn’t hard to get in game, and skill points seem okay, until there’s the uncomfortable realization that one can hit 80 well before enough map exploration happens to find all those skill points.

But, honestly, cutting all the costs in half (or outright removing skill point costs) would be a huge gesture that ANet is listening and actually values our play time.

Teniz.5249:

Mounts?
NO MOUNTS! Stop digging up mount threads!

Anyone find the “stop bumping mount threads” statement a bit at odds with actually, I dunno, bumping a mount thread? XD

I still wouldn’t mind seeing an Elite signet skill that just gives a small passive boost while not in combat. 5-10% maybe? With a short cooldown active that mimics the sun crystal effect from the Zephyrites. It would actually be in theme and could be a useful general skill.

Still waiting for the patch notes that say:

In remembrance of this tragic event, all prices at trait trainers have been halved and skill point costs have been removed.

…still waiting.

Beldin.5498:

I have meanwhile 37 of them i think .. but i’m a little crazy

I think ANet owes you a gift basket. Six know you paid for it. o_O

nexxe.7081:

This always bothered me about GW2. They made all the zones instanced and artificially connected them. Imagine if it was more natural and seamless without any zoning.

Yeah, i know GW1 had portals, but that’s hardly an excuse to make a world non-seamless.

WoW kinda spoils a guy that way, does it not? :\

Even FF14 doesn’t feel nearly as ‘boxy’ since the transition points feel more natural than hiding some portal into a cubbyhole of a zone. Half the time, I can’t spot the map transitions, which should definitely be more clearly marked.

Spyritdragon.6048:

I’m gonna post my controversial opinion here…. but i love double daily fractals – i give an internal squeak every time i see “Daily Fractal” and “Daily 1-10 Fractal” pop up at the same time.

I loathe the double fractal days, most of the time. I don’t have time for it, usually. And drawing a PUG might as well just ask me to grind a cheese grater over my knuckles.

But then my guild leader gets all squee and rounds up a daily group and all is well. Even beat Mai Trin for the first time in ever.

But still, most days, double fractal is UGH and needs to go. I’m not sure I’d even mind the 4th PvE slot being a Daily Dungeon/Fractal task. If I have time and want to, I can hit up the daily, if not, I still have 3 others I can work on.

Eidolonemesis.5640:

All those those things are important to me, too, yet just because my idea of what is ‘important’ is a little more broad than most people’s idea of ‘importance’, does not mean what I am pointing out in my OP is wrong, or does not mean what I am pointing out in my OP is not important to those who do think things like this matters.

You know, when I bring things up that are wrong or a bit off on a product, in this case, Guild Wars 2, I do it in such a way as if it were my product and how I want it to look and perform to the masses, yet you guys don’t look at it that way, and that is why anything that has to do with ‘polishing’ Guild Wars 2 doesn’t matter to you.

Unfortunately, that issue isn’t something that’s going to get polished away now. Which is sad, because they could’ve done some interesting things with interconnected natural borders. Instead of dredge hiding in little spots under one mountain peak, a part of two zones could have been laid out with tunnels to serve as borders. (Like the spot that connects to Frostgorge.)
Or, like the way Gendarran is, the transition occurs before the zone separation, so it’s less jarring.

rotten.9753:

If I were to complain it would be the fact that almost every map is surrounded by mountains. Square (maybe rectangular?) maps are a norm.

Yeah, same. I never really looked at it that way before, but me and MMO-mountains don’t get along, and now I find myself resenting these blocky, unnaturally designed borders. >_>

IndigoSundown.5419:

The primary issue that I see as far as comparative mobility goes would be a PvP/WvW one. Ranged players kite melee, melee attempt to close in. Characters move slower in reverse (which one does at least some of the time while kiting, to be able to attack) than they do forward. A percentage increase across the board would result in the closing melee player getting more of a boost than the kiting ranged player. 10% of the higher speed is more than 10% of a slower speed. I’m not sure how much it would matter, given gap closers, but I can see ranged PvP players looking askance at the proposed boost.

This is the best reason I’ve seen for limiting speed boosts to either out of combat scenarios or keeping them build dependent. The latter is still more of an issue because not all classes have even close balance on travel speed, though.. weapon choice is still a thing. I look the other way on warhorn warrior, in spite of 100% swiftness uptime, and yet staff guardian just feels wrong and clunky. And mesmer lives on the good grace of others for swiftness.

Speed Training and Commanding Voice do not appear to lower cooldowns on pet skills and F2 skills, respectively.

NoTrigger.8396:

Please….. There are enough gimmicks and gambits in the game already. We don’t need more of them.

Agreed. When I play a character, I want to use his skills and gear, not get shut out by arbitrary tools and gimmicks. (Looking at you Ghostbusters Catacombs and every transformation skill ever.)

I don’t consider that a challenge; I consider that a nuisance.

Glad to see this thread on the top page. I’ve been trying to put together a beastmastery ranger (for giggles), and I’m finding that half the traits don’t work like they should, particularly the cooldown/recharge reductions. (If I have time in the next day or so, I’ll elaborate more fully, but those two are ones I can’t see any tooltip effects for.)

And what’s with the weird codes instead of attributes?

TheFool.4589:

I wouldn’t mind a perma speed boost in cities…

Cities usually have a point or two that at least grant 4-5 minutes of Swiftness. We need more locations like that in open world and WvW.

Finishing an event thread or owning otherwise worthless locations could spawn an NPC you talk to for a speed boost reward. It’d certainly make it more desirable to make sure certain locations were player/color owned.

N.Dog, you mentioned the word “dynamic” earlier, and that makes sense to me. I don’t know if it’d be really applicable in open world, and I don’t see dungeons getting a much-needed makeover, but one of the ideas I keep nursing is the notion of an increasingly-difficult randomized dungeon. (Again, scale for 1-5 players :P)

I take inspiration from Diablo III’s rifts and its various clones, and Left 4 Dead (if I recall right).

A shuffle of enemies means that the players don’t know what’s coming. They can’t plan tight, well-rehearsed tactics because the terrain and creatures differ. Mobs with unique abilities above their typical counterparts add more to the mix. Randomized bosses per floor could be made harder by various boss room (lairs?) mechanics.

I bring up Left 4 Dead, because I remember some chatter in their design front that had a sort of “backstage director” that could pace how the players were doing and adjust the action accordingly. Sitting around too long? Bam, hostile mob spawns nearby and starts walking. (Anything to keep it from being like the Fire Elemental pre events -_-)

It’s not quite enough to give the enemies themselves flexibility, but to add the environment and a strong dose of randomness to pull basic encounters away from scripted fights and into more dynamic gameplay.

bloodletting wolf.2837:

I will admit I don’t play my guard and to a lesser degree my Mesmer as much because of the speed issues if I don’t have a party.

Which is the essence of the debate, I think. Some classes are less desirable (partially) because of this limitation.

I’m not even on the side of blanket increases to movement speed, just more suitable access to roaming speed for PvE.

Not having much WvW experience, I kinda forget.. Is there a reason for the random checkpoint locations? If they could be used to give a speed buff by following paths a side owns, that would be appropriate. (Please do enlighten me on that. :P)

Artemis Thuras.8795:

People throw the aetherpath card whenever saying people dont want challenge they want rewards. To an extent this is true.
However, consider:

Typical completion times for my guild groups:
arah: 1/2: 20-30 minutes each.
Reward: 3g each.
Aether: 40-60 minutes.
Reward: 2g + ( miniscule chance of rare skin).

Show Spoiler

hide spoiler

Granted speed clear dedicated guilds have gotten those times down to 10 minutes for arah, and 20 for aetherpath. However the ratio of time is still pretty similar. 2 paths of arah to 1 aether.

So in similar time, do I want 2g, or 6g?

In terms of difficulty/learning curve, I don’t think there is much in it at all. If anything aetherpath has a longer learning curve due to unique mechanics.

So I’d say its fair to call aetherpath rewards poor.

Mostly lends support to the “don’t want actual challenge” statement. So not that it’s wrong or right, but a discussion on challenge in gaming must be paired with reward or most players will write it off as uninteresting and not worth the time.

If the ones asking for “more challenge” would take the challenge without the carrot dangling on the end, that’d be a different story, but I find it very rare that someone does something in a game just for the challenge.

NumenorLord.6539:

P.E.T.A.: Kill 10,000 ambient creatures.

Players for the Execution of Tiny Animals.
>_> Nevermind that I’m farming the little scamps for weapon master achievements.

Notorious Dog.1043:

Hard mode doesn’t need good rewards, It just needs to give people a reasonable (possibly scalable) challenge.
So when people ask for something, to answer those people with more than what they wanted and more than they could possibly handle, such an amount that makes them sorry for asking in the first place, is cruel and unfair.

Do you know what I mean? Lets say I live somewhere where there is drought, and I pen a letter to god and ask for water. Would it be kind of god to answer me by flooding my land with so much water than all of my live-stock drowns? Would it be cruel? Or would it just be what I asked for?

You have to realise that some people truly don’t know what they want. It’s kind of a part of nature. But some people are very intelligent and lets say more experienced and they do know what they want.

What people want is INTRIGUE. They want their human sensors to be tickled in a delightful and pleasant way. People want to learn and to learn means to experience something new and possibly surprising.

A map full of elites? See now, that is over the top.

The question is, how do you avoid splitting the population when implementing separate game modes?
Maybe by having dynamic creatures? When they see you coming, they can sense whether you’re on normal, hard or hardcore mode, (Judging by the amount of determination they can see in your eyes) and if you’re on either of the 2 latter modes, they will reach into their pocket and take a sip of either 1 of two strength potions. (Strength or Super strength)

Much better critique! Thank you, and I apologize for my tone earlier.

Requesting an A.I. revamp? I’m certainly for that. And I believe ANet has been looking into it. More abilities and less useless spamming (looking at you Ascalonian shield fighter).

It brings up an interesting dialog on what could be challenging, not just in games in general, but specific to GW2.

Adding more damage or more HP-sponge doesn’t really do much to make fights more interesting, just unnecessarily long or punishing. (Side note, insta-death is one of the reasons why I’m sour about the much-lauded Liadri fight, because it removes several aspects of build design.)

Making content hard enough for a group just leads to zergeasymode, so guild challenges like bounties are right out. But it’s not a terrible idea to apply to single mode…

I’d actually recommend Hunting Zones. Could be instanced content that scales from 1-5 people, less dungeon-like, where more challenging, more dynamic enemies live and support their leader, the target of the hunt.

Quinci.5968:

Doggie.3184:

I actually wish they’d just increase everyones’ movement by 25% and remove all the signets and passives that raise movement.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought this in game. At least on my Ele the signet provides a nice 25 second CD stunbreaker, but on my thief it’s just a wasted utility slot so that I don’t go insane from running so freaking slow.

Seriously, if you ever use the 25% speed increase signets it is virtually impossible to play the game anymore without them. The game just FEELS so much better with one of those signets on your bar than not; it feels as if it was the default movespeed originally and they nerfed the default by 25% to add the signets. It would be great to actually get that utility slot back on my characters.

One the one hand, I respect that speed boosting is part of a class-build choice. I wouldn’t have fallen into banner warrior without it.

What gets me is that some classes have terrible options for speed, and Swiftness is even less available, if at all.

I’d like to see some form of Elite signet that’s universal, like the healing skill from Living Story season 1. It’d still be a ‘build choice’ of sorts, but it wouldn’t be nearly as involved, and the utility of several Elites is kinda ‘meh’ anyway. It might not even have to confer much of a bonus:
Passive: Increases movement speed 15% (or 25% if being a generous dev) while not in combat.
Active: Grants Swiftness (10 sec); Breaks Stun. 35 sec cooldown.

As an example, anyway. Obvious tweaking for balance needed, of course.

rapthorne.7345:

don’t see how this would solve anything. once people got used to the new standardised movespeed there would still be complaints of everything being slow

Yeeeah, there’s a point to that. Case in point, 310% flight speed, and I still can’t stand waiting to get somewhere in WoW. Did I mention waypoints are awesome?

Kinda hard to care if you’re bored if that’s your attitude, but I’ve seen a few threads on the topic.

Hard content needs good rewards, which we know ANet isn’t so keen on rewards. Also, challenge exists, but players have proven time and again they don’t actually want “challenge” they want “loot”. Case in point, Aetherpath. Or maybe Aetherpath just needs better loot. Eh. Or Southsun. The mobs are annoying and significantly more fatal than average, but people hate that place.

So, I have to wonder if a Silverwastes-type map with nothing but Elites (and not Champions) showed up, if people would go for the “challenge”. I suspect not.

Harper.4173:

Doggie.3184:

I actually wish they’d just increase everyones’ movement by 25% and remove all the signets and passives that raise movement.

No. Because mobility is part of class balance.

Because that isn’t a questionable, unfun decision, much like traits or zone event completion dailies.

I can understand it a little in PvP and WvW, maybe, but in PvE the unbalance is terrible. Perhaps it’s the difference in ‘tiers’ that really makes it seem so harsh. 0/25/33? Where some classes are stuck at 0 without investing in level 80 runes, it’s significantly more boring to play after having a horn-warrior.

That tail is a huge temptation! Reminds me of the Mad King outfit too. Except, y’know, Balthazar has innards. XD

Miku.6297:

shrug Well at least it’s not another outfit thread xD.

As has been said in the countless other “mounts” threads, they wouldn’t serve much purpose here, and some races might look… odd… on mounts. Also the tensions between humans and centaurs might get worse~

Wouldn’t get worse if everyone rode Charr tanks or Personal Pact Zepplins~

And yes, at least it’s not another outfit thread. XD

Good thing the outfit helmet has horns.

..because Charr have theirs cut off when wearing it. ;_;

Thanks for the warning. I hope you get your charges back!

No.

If you pug, you’re asking the community to carry you, no matter how good you are. Social contract and all that stuff. Advertise your group appropriately, and that includes class limitations if you must, but you accept any risk afterward.

If you want efficient runs, join a speedrun guild, ask them, and stop trying to push this selfish agenda on the rest of the community.

Greyhound.2058:

I love my Sanctum Sprinter title as I have absolutely zero chance of ever getting that title again since having so much trouble with lightning pulls.

Golden is probably one of my favourites that I like to see, just because it’s simple and lovely. Just a shame it’s so easy to get – even I have it and I’m always broke lol

I got Golden, but I never use it. Why advertise to hackers who they should be stealing money from? =P

Genesis.4671:

Please stop crying about outfits.

This.

Once in a while, I’d like to gift gems without using a gift card. >_>
If the game gets good enough to actually bring people in again, I’d like my friends to get LS2 as a gift.
Or maybe I’ll just buy gift cards, but it’d still be a nice feature.

Oh thank gods this isn’t another “anti-zerk” thread. The title made me scared.

The different gear weights have different wiring frames to go with them. Purely a technical issue, and not one I expect to see resolved. The outfits work because they replace the entire frame, not just bits and pieces.

No. No athathins with butterfly wings. Maybe a pair of Largos wings from the gem store. Or as a 1% drop by killing them in game.
#BanSeaDrow2015

Do not gamble. The odds of getting the item you want from a chest is, probably literally, a million to one. Take Olvendred’s tip and really decide if you need a make-over kit, name change, or both.

Yeah, this really needs to get fixed. It’s the terrain that seems to muck them up.

I stopped playing minion-master in favor of double dagger and wells. It’s more fun, but I really wanted my minions and scythe-staff. :\

In b4 closure?

Only if there’s a guy-bulge slider too.
#equalrights

Belzebu.3912:

Except for a very few runes iirc, you CAN use superior runes on mystic forge.

EDIT: I’m wrong … interesting I never realized you couldn’t.

I know, right? I made that mistake when there was a wealth of cheap Mischief runes on the market. Perhaps a new MF recipe is in order?

3 superior runes/sigil + 1 Exotic Essence of Luck = new superior rune/sigil?

tboneking.2531:

Its not hard to understand. Its just that I dont believe thats what anet intended. Im not sure how you can see that there are literally 24 gear sets, and see that 23 of them don’t see any use, and think that that’s how the game was intended to be played.

It’s not “any” use. PvP and WvW are much more diverse, since tactics change depending on characters and builds. The complaint about the Berserker Meta is almost exclusively in dungeons that have been sitting idle for years. The tactics are sound and well-rehearsed, so those who speedrun can afford to use Berserker gear.

That’s it. That’s the reason.

In more chaotic surroundings, with less scripted tactics, Berserker gear and the tactics that often come with it become a much higher case of risk-to-reward ratios. And with more diverse enemies that have significantly higher armor coming in HoT, that content will end up with its own meta.

I’d like to see more seasonal content as well. It doesn’t even have to be a big achievement-point driven affair or something hugely different every year. A two-week event that highlights some of Tyria’s lore would be great to have every month or two.

DrRock.1637:

It’s easy to despise what you cannot have.

I think the appropriate line is “familiarity breeds contempt.” /sagenod
They’re everywhere, and they don’t even look good, and every time I hear that godsforsaken bronybow, I want to commit felonies.
“Cannot have” doesn’t even rate in the top 10 of reasons why legendaries don’t matter.

Matryoshka.1607:

Jumpin Lumpix.6108:

In my opinion, this game has one of the worst communities I’ve seen in a long time. Maybe not as bad as diablo 2 but still… pretty bad especially in sPvP and here on the forums.

Pshh no way. I used to play WoW and I can tell you with 100% certainty GW2 is like an overly friendly church compared to it. That is pretty much what I hear from tons of people I know who came from WoW to GW2, “Wow the people are so friendly and willing to help”.

Coming from WoW to GW2, yeah, this is the case.

My SOP for WoW:
/leave general
/leave trade
/leave whereeverelsepublicchathappens

My SOP for GW2?
Map chat is in a different tab for when I need it.
I’m far more willing to deal with the GW2 community than in other MMOs.

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

In highly scripted content, active defense means you don’t need passive defense from armor if you’re good. That’s how the game was built. If people want to make defensive roles more important in PvE scripted encounters, one needs to remove the party’s ability to negate damage from active dodging or from skills that cause aegis, blind, block etc.

Which is why, in other threads that address gearing issues like this, we’ve seen others request for faster-attacking creatures, instead of a lumber once/3-sec that we see on most of them. Lower the damage of each hit, obviously, but guarantee some damage and let players decide how to manage it.

IllegalChocolate.6938:

I don’t agree with across the board, the primary goal would be that everyone can find a place of expertise, fully destroying the worth of full power builds (zerker, sassy) is counterproductive to the ultimate goal which is a place where everyone can belong. Annihilation of the zerker meta via destroying berserker builds is not the way, but rather diversity of opposition is.

As we mention PvP, in PvP the stat types, behavior, and builds of players are varied which is why you have a varied meta. To apply this variation in mobs with a procedural method is the best solution so the meta can never serve to or come close to an absolute but rather a target average at best.

Not trying to destroy a meta. There’s very little grudge to be had there.

Why I say “across the board” is meant to be a starting point. For most of the creatures in the game, their armor is simply too low to support anything other than direct damage builds (and wise application of utility skills and combos, in dungeons).

Moreso, because direct damage is too good, enemies have to be giant meat-walls of HP for condition builds to even have enough time to be useful. Even then, a lot of theorists say that condition builds with enough time still won’t do better damage output.

Sometimes, the way to balance is bring the outlier back in line rather than do something to buff every other play style. Making AI tweaks is only going to go so far if the mobs still die too quickly for their most threatening actions to take place.

That said, you’re right in that a more robust AI could and should make the game more interesting. I read a line about how some mobs in HoT might get evasion, thus making Weakness have more counterplay in PvE. It’s encouraging to hear, if done right.

Mirta.5029:

Rauderi.8706:

And the card game is winning in diverse gameplay? =P

well card games are PvP. And PvP is diverse in build variety here too :P

Yeah, I was going to bring that up, but.. eh. Lazy. XD

I’m not even all that qq about the ‘zerker meta,’ honestly. It’s mainly an artifact of ancient dungeons. The strategies are known, the combos exist, and speedrun groups use them.

Big deal?

As it is, the devs should to a balance pass and up the armor on all PvE enemies by a good 25% and drop their health accordingly. It would open up condition builds as better than before without having a huge impact on direct damage or the PvP/WvW metas. It works especially well since condition caps are soon to be a thing of the past, fingers crossed for good luck.

TheRandomGuy.7246:

Apolo.5942:

Meta does not equal 1 option. Just look at MTG, you certainly have a meta, which is comprised of a handful of different decks. Here everyone is running the same deck.

You do realize that you just compared card game with mmorpg?

And the card game is winning in diverse gameplay? =P

Sigh, all this lore quibbling about a simple option players would like to have. Option. Not even forcing it. I certainly can’t begrudge anyone who wants their Charr erect.

Honestly, I’d love to see a return to underwater support. Redesign the skills that didn’t make it to underwater, etc. I was amazed that GW2 had the best underwater experience of any MMO I’d played (even it was still kind of lackluster).

I look at the ambient fish swimming around, and I just want to grab them and bite them. …because Charr. }]:3

I suppose my point is sit-and-fish seems a little passive for the GW2 experience. I could see maybe having large pools of fish and going at it spear-fishing style, where you have to spot-target the fish to get them.

Overall, though, I think the idea has merit, so don’t get discouraged. I’m not sure how broad the devs could make such an idea, but I could see them working in fishing nets, at least.

Heh, I have a love/hate relationship with WoW-style fishing. I did it way back in Wrath because I mained hunter, and it was the easiest way to feed my pets (when that was still a thing). In my headcanon, my character retired to the Barrens to sit with his tiger and fish all day. =)

But, it’s also a deliberate time-waster. :\ I get how it can be relaxing, though.

I wonder if ANet could make a fishing rod “toy” or bundle. Or maybe even a little stool you can sit on that starts the character fishing. =P

I wouldn’t mind Cooking 400-500 to include fish. I’m sure the Cantha-lovers would adore “sushi” as an item.
We don’t really need a fishing pole, though. Just dive into the water and catch your tuna!