Guild Wars 2

P2 > P3?
I question it because P3 is the same zergstack last boss as a lot of the other quick-run paths.
P2 has the environmental gimmick (which I loathe), that slows the fight down quite a bit.

Granted, we’re not going to see actual strategy combat until we get new dungeons/encounters that split up the players with simultaneous objectives.

Dalanor.5387:

ps: Im curious, can you tell me what kind of encounter would need strategy and teamwork? An example from WoW or other well known MMO’s is fine too.

AC path 2. It requires fairly exact coordination that’s frustrating as hell with a PUG.

…And that’s why speedrunners don’t do it. That path will never be “efficient”, so it gets ignored.

Basically, it doesn’t matter if all the dungeons suddenly had interesting mechanics and environmental triggers, the path of least resistance will get the most attention.

Even in WoW, there are some bosses that are little more than tank-and-spank. They serve as basic DPS gates to harder content.

So, I was wondering why it was so easy lately for me to find enough dailies to do.

I did a count, and it seems they bumped it up to 12/day.

I guess I missed that in the patch notes.

So, kinda yay about it, though I wish they’d given more to the PvP/WvW kiddos too. :\

DeadlySynz.3471:

WvW, this is where it glaringly shows how out of scale it is with the rest of the gear. If you pit 2 of the same classes against each other, then put one in full zerker gear and the other in full PVT gear; the PVT geared player does more damage.

I’d love to see the test data for this. It’s very likely that, in that scenario, PVT reduces full-zerk damage by enough to negate the natural burst from crits while giving enough passive Power bonus to break through the zerk’s lack of defense.

PvP and WvW are a lot harder to predict for optimum gear choices, though.

PvE is pretty simple: Zerk for dungeons and PVT for world bosses (since they reportedly don’t take crits)

Scrambles.2604

I see what you are saying and no i did not mean it in that way or as a slight to a certain player base.

My apologies, then.

I did some ruminating while I was on a constitutional, and it led to an additional thought, partially about in-group/out-group psychology you mentioned earlier.

Mayhap I’m simply too goal oriented to care much about the actual time of a speed run. Granted, the goal of a speed run is to finish the run in under a specified time, which of course makes Berserker necessary. (Why not Assassin, I wonder, but eh. :P)

As said by many before, we generally don’t have a problem with speed run requests. It’s when we see stuff like

you’re not an elite dungeon runner like some of us here are

that we start forming these impressions.

I also got to thinking about the use of the words like “elite” and “skill”. It’s literally terrible use of the words. “Practiced” is much more apropos. “Studied” perhaps? “Optimized” for certain. But not “elite.”

It’s got nothing to do with what gear people use.
So the title is right “Zerker is fine.”

pdavis.8031:

I stopped the argument because of A) it is off topic, continuing this conversation would only result in more personal attacks against each other, and anyone else who wanted to join in, and C) It’s counter productive. Clearly berserker DPS is the fastest way to clear content. Period. Ripping apart my build and/or any other build because you don’t like it for whatever reason only serves to create dissension, and nothing more.

Furthermore, it’s this attitude that I was referring to earlier. It serves no purpose other than to stroke the ego of such players who get their jollies from putting down other players. I understand its not the entire berserker community, not saying it is. But the fact remains that it is there, and does more damage to the game as a whole than any broken mechanics and meta builds will ever do.

Good man, good man. A lot better than I would have responded, in my current mood. =P

Remember, it’s just pixels and digital property we don’t own. No need to get a huge ego about it. And you can’t put “dungeon runner” on a resume, unless you’re trying to work for ANet or Blizzard. …though, can you then? Those make for good credentials when applying to an MMO producer.

Scrambles.2604:

Rauderi.8706:

We wouldn’t even have these ‘zerker’ threads if speed-run groups had a better reputation for civility were accessible by everyone without having to expend effort or build skill.

I’m sensing some hypocracy in your zerker support modus operandus. -_-
And at the same time, I’m seeing evidence that supports my hypothesis.

Maybe I’m taking it the wrong way, but negating a statement about reputation and civility and turning it into a statement of blaming on “everyone” (read as “the bads”) with no “effort” or “skill” is exactly the kind of thing that turns people off.

Philosophically, you can’t call for “being nice to zerkers” in one breath and slam another group in the next and still be taken seriously. But maybe I misinterpreted, which is also possible.

I dunno, peeps. If Charr femme-armor had to have boob-windows, shouldn’t it get three of them? =P

maha.7902:

If I hadn’t completely wiped the floor with every single thing you said, you wouldn’t have said anything like that, but thanks to your lack of counterargument, you now just want to slink away.

Yeah.. thing is, you haven’t. You’ve justified your own gameplay by insulting everyone else. I’m loathe to point fingers, but it’s attitudes like yours that bring so much flak to the “elite” set in the first place.

We wouldn’t even have these ‘zerker’ threads if speed-run groups had a better reputation for civility.

Sartharina.3542:

I, on the other hand, am annoyed at the lack of skimpy armors available for Charr, Asura (Both races are unisex), and Males. Or, at least skimpy leggings. There are options for non-chestplates, like Scallywag, Gladiator, and Flamewrath/Pit Fighter for heavy, and feathered for Light.

I dunno, the masquerade pants for Charr are pretty revealing.
I even use the Humiliation dye for the under-roos. :P
Note: My Charr is a dude. XD

timmyf.1490:

My girlfriend’s response to the Ancestral outfit was basically, “Would buy if it didn’t have a boob window.” I wonder what the net change in sales is due to boob window addition?

Considering all the GW2 gals are build like Power Girl (aka Supergirl), why NOT have a boob window?

Maybe female armor can have a click-switch like helms/back/glove slots that removes mammarial obstructions?

It’s because the items to make bread are both purchasable. Most other items require some kind of external element, karma buy, harvesting, or loot drops.

Scrambles.2604:

We need to recognize that are problem lies with the bad apple players that reside in every single video game, and move away from picking out arbitrary characteristics these bad players contain (wearing zerker gear), only to attack everyone that also shares those arbitrary characteristics.

Yup.

I’d leave it at “Yup.” but.. 15 characters, or somesuch.

I come to these forums to provide ideas that (sadly and in vain) advance the game. Not to fix things that aren’t broken.

Yeeeah, I have a friend who’s a rather strong feminist. I shuddered to recommend the game to her after seeing some of the endgame outfits. Masquerade was the worst offender by far. Or maybe it was the craftable harem outfit.

And I still don’t understand cloth “helms.” WTF is that thing on my face and how is it armor?

Scrambles.2604:

Just because they wear zerker gear and blindly adhere to the meta doesn’t make it fair to lump anyone who wears zerker gear in the same group as jerk players.

And I did not.

Honestly, who do I want on the other side of a boss that I’m using my warrior to tank? The dps guy kitted out in the best kitten gear he can find. (And yes, I said tank. Because I do.) And the best dps gear is Berserker. No lie.

Heck, most of my warrior gear is Berserker, because my build is defensive, and I still get away with ignoring half the game’s damage mechanics and surviving things I shouldn’t. My friend dragged my build to PvP, and he got compliments for the synergy he provided.

I don’t even have (much of) a problem with “lf1m zerk only” as a description. It’s what those players want. It’s rude, but it’s what they want. A group like that is probably high stress, anyway, the moment a run goes north of 9 minutes.
I say the same thing about champ trains and guild runs and just about anything else.

Play how you want. Just don’t be a jerk about it.
What more needs to be said?

Cojiro.6924:

If we have mario kart why not guild wars 2 kart! :p

At least the “We need mounts” set would finally be happy? :P

Though, we kinda already have that with Sanctum Sprint. Stupid blue shell, er uh, lightning. XD

Sigh, can we stop having this “discussion” already?

Berserker gear is fine.

Yes, there are elitists who would use any and every measure to exclude “bads” from groups. Let them wait in LFG queues.

Yes, there are players and white knights who will take anyone to a group, maybe even teach them dungeon mechanics. They are brave and patient souls indeed. Let them make LFG runs with “full clear” or “casual” in their descriptions.

Does the zerker mentality annoy me? Sure does. I’m a big boy, and I’m learning to ignore it and make my own groups for how I want to play.

This is very much an agree to disagree situation and doesn’t need champs from both sides trying to “kill/exalt zerker meta.”

After playing a few other games, I came to realize that the reason that GW2 feels so kitten grindy is we have few goals to put our time and extra cash into.

Legendaries and Ascended? Pfft. Useful, but far too much effort for most of the players. Nothing wrong with those as goals (I just got my Gifts of Exploration a few days ago, so psyched!), but it’s not enough.

Players are really craving content. While, for the most part, that means new dungeons, new guild challenges, and new zones, what we’re really seeking is a new set of goals.

I’m sure devs are also looking for ways to add something that gets players spending extra gold. Give them something meaningful to spend that money on, in smaller chunks. (Again, Legendaries and Ascended gear ain’t doing it.)

Players point to guild halls and the like as one way to give some added oomph and create a gold sink for the economy. It’s a good thought, and personal housing would be better for many players as something to tinker with.

What it comes down to is this: Characters need hobbies in a game where vertical progression is very stunted but money continues to flow.

Card games, Pokemon, …something. I’m slightly loathe to bring up Battle Pets from WoW, but there it is, a huge game within a game for people with nothing better to do.

And y’know what? It gets people exploring the world, looking for things. It gets people spending in-game money on travel and recovery fees. It gets them to invest time building up something new.

A lot of the hardcore set would accuse such an idea of being ‘soft’ or ‘carebear’ or whatever, and would rather have dungeons and boss challenges (I wouldn’t mind seeing a few more that actually work, myself. >.>), but we all know that content would get knocked out in a week.

It wouldn’t take much more than a small team to get popping on some kind of hobbyist idea, especially if it incorporates some of the trade skills in the game.

So, my question to the playerbase: What hobbies would you actually like to see?

Brother Grimm.5176:

Folks, if your REAL problem is, “THIS is not fun for ME anymore.”, there is a simple and obvious solution….don’t DO THIS anymore. The game is NOT going to be changed to add FUN for YOU. Either find something in the game that is FUN for you, or move on….very simple.

Added note: And when you do go, don’t make a “I’m leaving” post on the forums. NO ONE CARES. Thank you.

Ahem. Thanks for the simple breakdown of options, Grimm. Like it or leave it.

Or, y’know, come to the forums and actually care about the game, instead of just slamming it.

Anyhoo, we are seeing some very manic-depressive reward structures go out. Champ train, boss loot, festival rewards…
Case in point, gold chest from Boss Blitz explodes with loot. It’s all greens, but it felt ruddy nice to get… salvage stock, basically. But I could’ve sold it for 10+ silver. Still not worth the trouble, I suppose.

If ANet is upset about champ trains, make the loot good, but make it once per day, per character, per champion. After that, it gives lesser loot. I’d say the same with world bosses, but they come around so rarely now, once-per-day loot is about all they need to give. :\

@Dalanor

Stray thought: The condition-immune thing was unforgivable, even if it lead to phase 2 where conditions were desirable. The fact that Defiant exists as it does is still insufficient, and now the Boss Blitz bosses have a NEW stack of immunities. It’s insulting.

As for how to do boss design for the GW2 set, Subject 6 in the Thaumanova fractal is a decent step. The adds (which come from damaging the boss) need to be managed during its rest phase, or they heal the boss. Also during that rest phase, if players continue dps, the boss unloads a huge explosion. A little simplistic, but a serviceable example.

The Destiny’s Edge clone fight is also a decent example (though it needs some tuning). Murder Eir and Zojja (so you don’t die or get CC’d to death), CC dodge Logan and Rytlock until it’s safe to dps, etc. Then watch out for the actual boss (is it Faolin? I can’t remember..) because she might heal them. That one’s not so much an ‘add’ fight as it is one that starts off demanding good CC.

These bosses with slow, non-cleaving attacks and a few “gotcha” attacks are irritating and uninteresting. The Boss Blitz set are mostly guilty of the same. Most of the complications are on the boss itself, excluding Boom Boom’s healing turret and the stupid bird seed on the ogre.

And of course #raisebleedingcapto100
I will not let that one go for map-wide bosses. =P

Xenon.4537:

ITT: people not reading what I post.

Yes you can do non-zerker.

Non-zerker is less efficient (hence why zerker is meta).

The reason why zerker is meta is because of the design of the content.

The content is too simple.

The content is stack and DPS.

The content was designed this way.

They designed it so that bosses only throw out 1 or 2 deadly attacks that can be dodged.

They designed bosses with high health pools that can be wedged into a corner, stacked and burned.

They might not have intended it, but this is what we got. Plain and simple.

So you guys are saying Anet didn’t sit down and say “Okay, how do we make Zerker meta?” Yes you’re right. They didn’t do that. Instead they sat down and designed something, and the best solution to their design happened to be the zerker meta.

So the content is designed, regardless of intention, to produce a zerker meta. Hence why we have a zerker meta.

Xenon’s right on this one. The problem is in encounter design. Part of where we see the problem is that the devs, while they have released themselves from Trinity design, are still designing for it. Less so now than at launch, but here we are.

We still have huge monolithic monsters that lob one-hit KOs. Once in a while, that could be cool and scary and kinda epic, but when it’s nearly every single fight that’s dodge-or-die, it not only gets old, but it lends itself to optimization oriented around… dodge or die, so it’s a ‘kill before getting killed’ meta.
These same monoliths often don’t cleave, rather attacking (with excessive force) one player at a time, until they do their dodge-or-die mechanic.

What GW2 needs, not only to “break” the Zerker meta, but to be successful, is an encounter design team that understands their own combat system and how players act within it.

1. Make sure every player is rewarded for damage done in an event or dungeon, not just on the main boss. This is an important part of…
2. Make judicious use of smaller mobs (vets/elites) that interact with boss mechanics. Not just pests that harass the players during a complicated fight, but make the adds impact the fight. This also gives condition-heavy characters MUCH more to do in a fight, without impacting the 25-bleed cap (which should still be raised).

Example: If there’s a dodge-or-die mechanic, tie it in with an add. This gives players at least two options: deal with (interrupt, kill, kite) the add, or dodge the damage.

Right now, with monolith bosses as they are, it encourages stacking dungeon and “111111” world boss gameplay.

All the complaints, but the word “silk” wasn’t mentioned once. gg

Ionut.2307:

What gold dude? Everyone is dirt poor unless they open their wallet.

That’s a big nope on the nope front.

Not to say I’m rolling in thousands, but I have no complaints for cash. (Because I’m not hunting a precursor.) I know lots of people don’t want their game to be “work”, but it’s not hard to sell goods on the Trading Post.

Darnis.4056:

<.<

Yup.

I lost a lot of faith in the dev team after the trait rollout and the long silence afterward. Megaservers, while a good idea conceptually, need a LOT of tweaking, and we haven’t heard any ideas from them about it.

Sherpder.1834:

I’m just really tired of swinging the same 5 skills. Everything about this game is great and amazing, but the limitation on weapons skills and types makes the combat not much better than WoW’s

There’s.. other weapons? And skills? And traits?

One of the “problems” is that the business end of a weapon is usually the #1 skill for damage. A few weapon skills do better damage, but have cooldowns. More likely, most of the skills have some control or support component.

And compared to WoW, the skills in GW2 tend to be more dense in utility. WoW has skill rotations, but that’s just an illusion of depth, forcing players to tote a wealth of only-occasionally useful side skills while they bang out their 2-to-4 damage button combos. That rotation has been more-or-less replaced with autoattack.

And that’s fine. There’s only but so much a person can do at once, anyway.

Ronah Lynda.2496:

MEDIUM and MEGASERVERS don’t fit in the same shoes like MEDIUM and GUESTING didn’t fit either.

Pretty much. When the server caps allow for 70+ people, even splitting them up into groups of 10 is unlikely. And since megaserver groups are far more transient, the learning rate for the population as a whole just sank in the toilet.

I believe, much like Teq and Wurm, that a dedicated group can get gold, by splitting into moderately sized groups and doing a simultaneous takedown. Problem is, stray groups barely have a chance of finishing the run at all.

Darnis.4056:

What’s the point of it being an item?..
It’s account bound, for an account wide bonus, it’s used for one thing and one thing only… Why not instead just put luck straight into the account’s luck meter upon salvage?..

It’s also a crafting item for artefacing. I’m not sure what it makes, but there it is.

Yup. All the kitten time.

Naevius.3185:

Vigil Keep Hotel and Conference Rooms, Inc.

Sure beats schlepping down to Orr to fight nasty dragon minions.

Quick, someone get Evon Gnashblade on the pho.. bird!

Really though, Vigil Keep shouldn’t be guild space. Still, there COULD be a spot in a zone for it. Maybe a portal via Lion’s Arch? (Assuming they don’t blow it up, again.)

Xytl.8659:

Sword of Damofleas?
…

The pun hurts, but it is clever. 8/10.

Xeronus Stoneforge, Bunker Shout Warrior.

Another Forge bandmate! Reminds me of my spirit ranger, Garrus Trailforge.

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

Right now, I think one of the biggest issues in-game at the is PVE balance and execution.

#1: There is nothing in-game to teach players how to play the game. Anets philosophy on this is to increase difficulty, and expect people to figure it out on their own. This doesn’t work: it just discourages players from playing the game. There needs to be an in-game tutorial that teaches players about blocking and dodging, the absence of hard roles, about combo fields, about telegraphs, and particular class basics.

#2: The condition cap puts a hard limit on the contribution of condi based builds and classes. Again, this is not something Anet tells players, but something players observe.

#3: Unblockable and undodgeable attacks don’t have any special indication of their nature. Players have to learn what is unblockable and undodgeable by getting their face smashed in by these attacks, and then trying to remember that experience for the rest of their lives.

#4: PVE enemy behavior is incredibly basic, which causes DPS to be the best way to play the game.

#5: The way leveling and scaling works in the game is so disjointed that lower level zones are a bore now.

Something I have noticed about GW2 in its dungeon/boss design is that it doesn’t communicate what’s going on. I’m not sure how much information is needed, but many encounters just surprise players with “whoops, you’re dead” mechanics with no real indication of how to survive them or when they will happen.

And, really, one-hit KOs can just go, entirely. It’s unjustifiable as a learning tool. Perhaps GW2 designers are thinking of being a little “hard” about it, but really, it’s just kinda kitteny. OHKOs aside, we need better telegraphs that are comparable to the amount of damage we’re due to receive if we don’t move. (Looking at you, Catacombs knight bum. -_-#)

Enemies do need more flexible behavior, especially bosses and their mechanics. Less megadamage and more spread out to encourage multiple players to stay on the move.

By the Six, I will rail against that condition cap on bosses until it’s raised to 100. It’s one of the biggest offenders of maintaining a zerk-only meta. (Nothing wrong with zerk, but other kids would like to play too :P)

A R W E N.6895:

lack of hardcore content
lack of reward
lack of area to explore
lack of build diversification
lack of true feeling of accomplishment
lack of …..

lack of hardcore content
There’s some. A little. People have done it enough that it’s no longer “hardcore.” And really, stop using that word. -_- But yes, we do need some engaging challenges, either in open world or better dungeon encounters.

lack of reward
…Yes. So much yes. Beyond so much yes. Bad enough I get more excited for silk than gossamer, most of the challenging content in the game just isn’t worth it.

lack of area to explore
False. There’s plenty. But I know many waiting on the wings for an expansion or new zone. (Get it? Wings? Dominion of Winds? …no? Sigh.)

lack of build diversification
Again, there’s plenty available. The problem is the encounter design enforces the zerg-and-stack dungeon mentality and often shoves PvPers into condition builds. PvP ain’t gonna change that, because control is power, but boss design needs to be improved greatly.

lack of true feeling of accomplishment
…Yeah, I can kind of agree with that. Personal Story didn’t give it to us. Open world content doesn’t give it to us. Living Story shows up, bombs us with quasi-plot, then flies away, never to be seen again. I’m just grinding out the daily metas to get my loot then wondering what the scripted end will be, in which my failure was preordained so the story could continue.

I don’t have very many titles or options to get them.
I don’t have a robust set of emotes.
I don’t have goals that aren’t “grind out 13000 silk” or “buy the 1000G off the trading post”.

And yet, I still play daily, just not with the enthusiasm I had before.

As far as gear grind, Legendary, while best-in-slot and customizable, isn’t the only best-in-slot option. >.> For those who aren’t fortunate enough to get a precursor, Ascended weapons provide the same tier of damage and bonuses.

Piggybacking off my previous post, I wonder if there could be a normalizing system in place that boosts Magic Find for all loot tables (not just non-chest drops).

Similar to the above, with qualifiers explained below:
(b+r) / (r+g)
b: A modifier based on “bad” drops: greys, whites, and blues. For arbitrary values: 4, 2, and 1, respectively.
r: A base rate to blunt the curve. For arbitrary value: 100
g: A modifier based on “good” drops: greens, yellows, exotics, and precursors. For arbitrary values: 1, 10, 100, 1000. (Don’t hate the random numbers, they’re just for examples.)

So, if you’re out there farming centaurs or something and get 20 hooves, some bags, a few low quality weapons, say.. 88 on the B scale,
but somehow manage to net a few greens, then get a pair of rares on a boss run, a 22 on the G scale… About 154% modifier Magic Find.

But then, joy of joys, a precursor drop from the boss chest! That Magic Find modifier just dropped to 16%. Looking pretty grim. After a bout of really unsatisfying drops (which you ignore because YOU GOT A PRECURSOR), you rack up about 128 bad points and call it a day.

So what to do to keep these loot numbers from exploding out of control? Cut both significantly. 50-75%. Or if we needed longer reaching normalization, 30% or less.

What happens to our example, it ups to 43% (on a 75% cut). So a few more lackluster drops later, and things round themselves out.

Needs a little tweaking, but it would certainly help balance out the luck issue, though it does lump treasure qualities together a little much.

Eh, just throwing out ideas.

Uh.. there’s a lot on this list that’s not “horribly lacking”.

And there’s PLENTY of threads for the stuff that is, actually, horribly lacking.

There’s quite a few people here and in PvP forums wanting more robust PvP options and dueling. There’s plenty of people who want new dungeons with better boss designs above stack-and-zerg. The trading post makes player-player trading horribly obsolete.

To counter the argument that an increasing-returns system would benefit hardcore players more:

Good. They deserve it. They get rewarded for their time.

More casual players do not get the same reward.

If there’s concern about hardcore players getting more loot, it’s possible to include decreasing and increasing returns at the same time.

For example, the rate of earning specific rare rewards by loot drops could be:
(1c) / 1,000*(1+.05n)
where c is the number of “missed” chances at said loot drop (resetting when that loot is gained),
and n is the number of times that reward or level of reward has dropped (adjusted downward per time iteration/diem/month/annum).

So, say out of 100 loot shots, I get fairly lucky and have 2 exotics drop out of the set, and it’s been 15 boss drops since my last good drop, including the current drop. My odds would be adjusted by:
15/1100, or 1.3%
Similarly, my unlucky friend has gone the entire time without a good drop for an adjustment of:
100/1000 or 10%

Basically, every time a player doesn’t get a drop, he gets a better chance at it the next time the drop applies. If he gets good/specific loot frequently, either by extraordinary luck or lots of logged time gaining loot, it becomes harder, until a specific time frame has passed.

Unfortunately, I’m not sure how well the idea would fit with the usual structure of a loot table, but it could very well apply as an additional, hidden Magic Find boost.

Which is also an idea I like….

Been in the game since launch, but I haven’t really done the guild experience before.
Experienced casual player, all but one class at 80.

On Sanctum of Rall / NA server.

Looking for a laid back, RP-friendly guild to bring some extra interest to the game and do some extra dungeon dives and bosses I never got around to while soloing.
Have my own side/vanity guild, so I can’t 100% rep, but I’m pretty active overall.

34 and feeling all young again. =P

cyanweapon.7290:

For some reason, that thought never occurred to me. I have something new to try.

We elevate our public discourse when we no longer allow those who would drag it down with negativity and bile.

and/or Evil succeeds when good men do nothing. Take your pick. =P

Lazuli.2098:

How they should have implemented the new trait system:

Trait Points

The old 1 level for each trait point with a total of 70 points starting at level 11 is fine or the new 5 levels for each point for a total of 14 points starting at 15 also works.

Unlocking Trait Tiers

The 3 trait tiers unlock at the levels they did before:

Adept unlocks at 11 or 15 (depending on the type of trait points used)
Master unlocks at level 40
GrandMaster unlocks at level 60

Trait Unlocks

I like the idea of unlocking traits but here is how I would do it:

Each tier has a pool of tasks, say 12 or 15, similar to the pool of daily or monthly tasks. To unlock all the major traits in a tier would require doing any 6 of the tasks from the pool of tasks. (Edit: I guess only the adept tier has 6 possible major traits. Master and GrandMaster have less) The tasks can be from PvE, PvP and WvW but would be appropriate to the level of character. All adept tasks would be in areas of the game that a level 39 or below could reasonably do. All master tasks would be in areas for a level 40 – 59 character. GrandMaster tasks would be in areas for characters level 60 and above.

If I could forcibly hire you to the dev team, I would.

cyanweapon.7290:

There’s always one person in particular who takes it upon themselves to champion the notion of what all ‘good’ players must do in that event. And they’re always the most belittling, abusive, egotistical little goblins society has to offer.

I’ve learned to make liberal use of the ignore feature. Once you know how the event works, it makes the whole thing a lot more peaceful.

And if they’re real abusive, swearing and the like, right click the name and report. I do not hesitate in that.

Rouven.7409:

Copycat.

I haz the copyright.

Deuce Copyright of the Right warband and scholar Zerocks Copyright of the Copy warband have gotten into a rather nasty argument of their names. Ash Legion lawyers have been deployed.

=P

If it were a higher grade of kit, I probably would’ve gotten one by now. But as a basic salvage, no way.

Got a full gathering set, and I love it. Especially lucked out on my Watchwork pick. It might as well mint money for me while I use it!

Wetpaw.3487:

Lack of trinity will result group play in always being zerg/stack/dps race.

I’m so tired of hearing this myth.

As an observer, I took a look at Trinity play for a few fights. You know what I saw?
A bunch of melee around a stationary target while ranged dps lobbed stuff into a noisy, colorful blob. It looks EXACTLY like zerg/dps, on the surface.

Sure, there’s a tank trying to manage imaginary numbers and thumbing his nose at the boss. Sure, there’s a healer’s burden that gets dispersed in GW2. And DAMAGE IS THE POINT OF EVERY BOSS FIGHT EVER.

But it doesn’t look different.
Why?
Mechanics.

Whether it’s in Trinity or GW2, a good boss keeps ALL the players engaged with damage fields, special attacks, unique statuses, and the occasional set of allies. GW2 play can be well thought, but for the most part, it hasn’t.
As an example, in FF14, they make heavy use of adds. Lots of adds. A flood of them. GW2’s tank-less play is highly well suited to this. Rather than focus on one HP-sponge monolith, it can create encounters where the centerpoint is only half the fight, and the rest comes from an army to fight off the zerg with cleaves and bombs and area-CC.

It can be better, we need to insist on it, and also be patient to give devs time to create some new encounters.

Echoing vincecontix, I offer a separate question, how many games survive their subscription model bids within the first year? Two years? Look at Rift, et. al. and how many tried to battle in the WoW subscription arena, and most fled to FreeToPlay in a short time. Those are also games I wouldn’t touch because of poor design decisions elsewhere.

I want to see GW2 get better, I really do, and I will gladly give them money when the mood strikes me. But they need to give us something, a little, in return. In the very least, talk to us again, devs. Tell us that we’re getting something new and exciting (and permanent).

phys.7689:

In games, these big goals are usually tied to loot, and some grand adventure. Of course you are right, they haven’t added any new grand adventure to go with the loot. simply putting the loot as random drops in the game would not be any more entertaining. however, if they put the loot in a grand adventure, that would be pretty good.

Exactly this!
Why not have these skins tied to some event/adventure-pack? Heck, tie it to Living Story, and then after it goes away ( as it always does ;_; ), wait a month or two to release it as gem store skins. Yes, that will irk the elitist set, but they already got their skin for free and before anyone else, so nyeh.

Stooperdale.3560:

The luck system does already give a loot advantage to experienced players.

As it rightly should. But right now, it 99.9% completely hedges out people who don’t play 8-hour days on champ trains and dungeon speed runs. A system that scales generic rewards upward gives more casual players a significantly better chance.

It’s always been my thought that, if you must gate special loot behind RNG, that there be an additional counter that climbs with the times the special loot didn’t drop and resets when the loot is attained.

Say, for infamous example, precursors. As an assumption
For every exotic rolled on a drop, it has a n/1000 (n=1) chance to be a precursor. Any time that an exotic drops (already a rare chance) and a precursor doesn’t drop, n=n+1. Which would mean every thousandth exotic for a given player is a precursor! Yay.

Corpus Christi.2057:

After almost 2 years, people still miss the point that lots of people here are trying to make:

It’s not about the existence of the gem store, gem items, skins etc. etc., it’s about the focus that is somewhat oddly placed on the gem store, and because of which the quality of the Living Story was so bad in Season 1. There may be different teams working on gem store items and Living Story stuff, but if not for the reason I put before, I do not know how the game that decides to abandon the classic expansion pack idea could have let the substitute ( Living Story ) be so bad, quality-wise. Tons of temporary content that were done in 3-4 hous of non-hardcore playing when each and every update was meant to be for 2 weeks. During those 2 years of the existence of GW2, the game did not receive any substantial new, fresh permanent content.

Ayup, +1, too right, and all that sort. The content was shallow and panic-grindy for anyone who didn’t utterly dedicate to the game, and even those who did found mostly zerg stuff. I’d be eager for a proper expansion.