Guild Wars 2

It sounds like Tonn was pretty popular within the Pact, and I remember liking him a lot, between his enthusiasm, optimism, and love of things that go boom. He was only in one story arc, but I was still bummed out when he died. He doesn’t have as much screentime as your Order mentor, but the racial sympathy story arc is even shorter, and I’m still pretty fond of Skritt for it.

Spoiler for Heart of Thorns:

As for Sayeh, I don’t think her part of the story ever really worked. Largos are so rare in the game, and so thinly developed, that it’s hard to take any real interest in them, and Sayeh is so “strong and silent” that it’s hard to take much interest in her. She suddenly appears, stands around like a cool person, then drops out of the story.

Considering you can just buy sprockets with gold, I wouldn’t call the Watchwork pick “pay to win.” If you want the advantage provided by the pick (more sprockets/gold,) you can get it by doing basically anything else in game, just…more of it. We already have a mechanism (converting gems to gold) by which people can just buy gold, so free sprockets are just an unusually good deal, (since they can pay for themselves over time,) but not an obnoxiously unfair one. (Unless you have a problem with the gems→gold exchange, but if that’s the case, you have bigger problems with the game than just the watchwork pick.)

That said, the Watchwork Pick was still a mistake because it makes buyers choose between the pick they prefer aesthetically and the one that offers the most economic value. The transmutation system exists precisely so people wouldn’t have to make that kind of decision with weapons/armor, so you can see where pushing everyone into the Watchwork Pick doesn’t fit. Not to mention trying to sell new picks to people like the OP.

SkyShroud.2865:

most importantly, only the older player who did the living story have the node

You can get the home instance node from Laurel Vendors, along with the Krait Obelisk Shard (handy for charging quartz) and Gift of Sprockets, among other things.

If the cost rises due to high demand, won’t more people go out of their way to gather quartz?

There’s a steady stream of new quartz entering the market each day, so there’s a limit to how expensive it can get, and the limit on supply helps it maintain some value. Quartz isn’t cheap, but how big of a problem is that, really?

One piece of quartz is less than ten times the cost of a piece of copper ore (9.92s versus 1.61s,) so if you want more quartz, just mine other ore, sell it, and buy quartz. That seems like a functioning market to me.

Luminescent Armor dyes…strangely. You’ll always get a bluish hue over top of the color you dye it, and the strength of that glow (which is always blue) will pulse slowly.

They’re tradeable, but you can only do the journey for it once, so if you sell it and want it later, you’ll have to get it the old-fashioned way. The precursor journeys are pretty expensive as well, so a person might not make very much money selling one, if any, especially when you factor in the time involved on top of the material cost.

During development, Revenants didn’t have the ability to weapon swap (like Elementalists and Engineers,) but that got changed in response to player feedback. (Source) That’s why Revenants are designed with only one underwater weapon, but have two underwater weapon slots.

Stances and aquatic combat are super awkward right now, however. Stances should probably be treated more like utility skills or Ranger pets, where you have alternates set for aquatic combat, even if your traits would still be mismatched.

Edit: Do Revenants have separate underwater stance selections? My Revenant’s only been in the water once or twice, and I rarely change stance off Shiro, so I’m not sure what the situation actually is.

Edit Edit: Just logged in and checked. If I change out Jalis (no water) for Mallyx (water,) the change remains when I go on land. Awkward, if I want to use Shiro and Jalis, even weirder if I want to use Jalis and Ventari. It’s easy to switch stances, but redoing your traits to match is too much hassle unless you’re spending all day underwater.

I picked up a few shark fins in Kessex, and I just tossed them. Whatever they’re for, they’re of no value to me right now, and it doesn’t look like they’re hard to collect.

I’m not sure I understand what you’re asking for, or what the appeal of it is.

That’s great. There’s so much more to the world than just the game mechanics, and I love finding this kind of stuff going on.

It’s a pretty great design. The insect motif doesn’t really match my character, but it’s a great idea, and I’d like to see more foci in play with it. So many of the foci look a little…awkward.

I like the foci that look like -something-, like a bell, a bottle, a ship’s wheel, etc., more than the ones that are just a big…thing with a handle.

With those answers, I’m okay with it as-is. The community isn’t just on these forums, so I don’t mind them interacting with the community elsewhere, without worrying about whether they’re stating anything that’s not on the forum already, or worrying about cross-posting it. If it becomes too much of a hassle, or everything needs to be turned into an official news release, some questions, like those examples, might not get answered at all.

It’s a perfectly valid complaint, and there are areas where communication could stand improvement. I’m pretty down on these forums, however, (their organization, their software, etc.) so I’m a little pessimistic about them being the solution without a major overhaul.

I think this thread would benefit from a few concrete examples of things that have been posted elsewhere (and not here,) but that people think should have been posted here as well.

Something to consider: What qualifies as “important” information?

If they’re making a formal announcement about something, like a new release or something, it’ll probably go up on the official website. If it’s just someone popping into a Reddit thread to say “We’ll be announcing our Halloween plans on Monday, so look forward to it!” does that need to be cross-posted? What if the post is something like hints on how to get Nightfury? Does that require cross-posting?

I generally don’t read Reddit or Twitter unless someone links to it from the forum, so I appreciate all the official information I can get being posted here. At the same time, however, I don’t think it being the official website means everything of interest that a dev says needs to be posted here as well. That could be unrealistic, depending on how thorough you want the policy to be.

Remember, the core game was getting progressively less and less expensive leading up to the Free to Play announcement. The $50 is for the expansion, with an upgrade from F2P to paid thrown in if you don’t already have the game.

If you don’t think the $50 cost is justified, wait for it go on sale, don’t buy it, or wait for the next expansion, which will include HoT as well as the core game.

Could it have been the Ranger Elite, “Strength of the Pack!” ? (Formerly “Rampage as One.”) It has pink particle effects.

It doesn’t look familiar. I was going to say Acolyte, but you’ve already (correctly) ruled that one out. I don’t think anything else looks like that.

There’s a lot more to developing legendary weapons than Black Lion weapons. While legendaries do tend to have more effects, most of the time is likely to come from designing the collections/journey, testing things, and trying to balance the economic impact involved.

You have to remember that not everyone does the same thing. Time an artist spends developing a new weapon set is not time that artist could have spent putting together a legendary journey collection.

Hard to argue with Wanze’s logic here.

Since these things drop from ToT bags, but are only used for Recipe: Gift of Spiders/Souls/the Moon, there’s not a ton of demand for them.

Like trading candy corn cobs for Halloween candy recipes, you’re going to get a lot more bang for your buck just by using the Trading Post.

(Edit: Assuming you even want the recipes, rather than just buying the gifts directly. Depends on what you want them for, I suppose.)

Looks like the banner went up prematurely, because they always announce it on the website when there’s a new set.

Talking to the BLTC vendor, I can confirm that he doesn’t have the Glittering skins yet.

How did you even find this topic? It’s nine months old.

I assume you’re talking about Shards of Glory, to which my answer is: Buy them on the trading post. They’re tradeable.

I think he’s dead, basically for the same reason Verificus says. I say the same thing anytime someone thinks Zhaitan is still alive: We have too much work still to do with the other dragons to think about going backwards.

I don’t think the other dragons will get quite the same dragged-out build-up as Modremoth, because Scarlet’s story winded and turned a very long way before getting to the point. I don’t think they’ll go on that long leading into the next dragon, both because they learned some narrative lessons from Season 1, and because they have the groundwork laid for the next expansion. (Business model, mastery system, elite specs, etc.)

There’s a chance that Modremoth and Zhaitan will appear “alive” in some form or other “at the end,” if the Elder Dragons are part of some grand conspiracy tied up with the fabric of the world, but for narrative purposes, I think they’re dead. I’m okay with that, and ready to move on to fighting something other than Modrem for a while.

I would like to see the old town clothes be made into outfits, so I could at least dye them again. They’re woefully wasted as tonics.

Tere.4759:

Yes, I have the winter outfit and can no longer use it. They get some transmutation money out of me if they did this.

Wait, why can’t you use the winter outfit? That one was converted into, well, an outfit, so you should still be able to use it. (As a new-style outfit, rather than town clothes or armor skins.)

If your winter outfit town clothes disappeared and you haven’t unlocked the outfit, you should talk to a Black Lion Trader. You’ll need to talk to him with a character who was wearing a piece of the winter outfit, if you didn’t have any in your inventory, and he can convert it to a new-style outfit.

Currently, no.

It’s possible customer support might be able to unlock the skin for you, if you have the Complete Edition, but I’ve never tried it, and I wouldn’t count on it. I think some people have gotten it that way in the past, but I can’t point to any specific cases, and I don’t know if it’s policy to do that, or just some unusually generous support staff.

The addition of a way to change weapon/armor stats was a huge improvement, so it would be nice to see it extended.

Amulets and Rings are relatively easy to replace, and Accessories can replaced occasionally without wrecking the bank, but Back items are just too expensive to make more than one per character.

I have a Celestial Spinal Blades for my Cele Ele, and a Berserker Mawdrey for everyone else. I’d have to be very committed to a build to settle on a third backpiece.

I find Ranger to be pretty relaxed in PvE. It’s pretty tough, especially with Greatsword, while still having some wiggle room for different options. My build and utility skills on my Ranger are basically an afterthought, but I still have fun playing it, mostly for World Bosses and the occasionally just for fooling around.

In dungeons, WvW, or anywhere else where competing with other players comes into the mix, you’ll have to give it more thought, but that’s a given when you’re looking for something “relaxing” to play.

I think the batwing potion is unlikely to be the best indicator of the overall health of the economy. It was never common, and this year it’s an ingredient in a much-talked about, highly sought-after new item. It’s not hard to understand why the price went up on it, and its price is unlikely to affect the non-Halloween economy in a significant way.

You’d be better off looking at the changing prices for things like silk and thick leather sections. Those are items most players interact with frequently, and were both notoriously expensive and cheap, respectively. They’ve both changed prices markedly since HoT came out.

Funny, Black Lion Chests are one of the two things (Aetherblade Keys are the other) that I just sell immediately to the highest buyer, regardless of price, just to get them out of my inventory. I’ve always been a little surprised by the demand for the things, since I don’t farm keys or purchase them.

Of course, that doesn’t say anything about them as an investment. Just thought it was interesting.

I’m surprised people feel so strongly about hearts. On the rare occasion that I need a karma vendor I don’t have yet, it usually doesn’t take that long to pick up a single heart or switch to my main. If I don’t need the karma vendor, and I’m not trying to do normal map completion, the Renown Heart just doesn’t matter.

I suggest some way of unlocking waypoints because that seems to be the most useful thing for alts, and seems more likely to actually happen than unlocking full map completion, which doesn’t seem to add a lot of benefit. What do you want hearts on alts for? The karma vendors, or are you actually hoping to make hearts account-wide, but still get map completion benefits?

Just a flesh wound.3589:

I’m not understanding your post.

Asian MMOs are—according to stereotype, anyway—more grindy than Western MMOs. The OP is suggesting that Chinese MMO players are accustomed to a lot more grind than we are, and like it a lot more, so if it seems like Heart of Thorns is super grindy, that’s because it was balanced with the Chinese market in mind, rather than the Western market.

I don’t agree, but that’s what the OP is saying. If that were the case, though, there’s no reason the Western version would need to have the same amount of grind. If they were really padding out the game for the Chinese market, our version of the game could have required 250 hero points for an elite spec instead of 400, a reduced number for each mastery. etc. There’s no reason to assume those numbers were picked for the Chinese version, and just left in for the Western version.

People have been worrying about how the existence of the Chinese version would impact the game since it was announced, and I think a lot of it is unfounded worry. Whether the amount of grind in the game is good or not, I’m skeptical that the Chinese version has any impact on the actual numbers.

Perhaps it would be better to suggest, more specifically, some way of unlocking all waypoints somehow, since that’s what people usually really want. Seems like most people who want this could care less about unlocking vists, renown hearts, etc., so asking for map completion is overkill.

That might even be what you mean, that you just want some way of unlocking all waypoints, but it’s good to be clear about that.

I got DC’d the other day, and it rolled me back maybe five minutes, most of which were spent map traveling, running to a waypoint, and killing a few Risen/looting.

It’s extremely rare for that to happen, rare enough that I can’t remember any other occasions of it, but it stinks that it would happen to you when you got a necklace drop. Ouch.

If it’s venting the overflow to the next mastery in the line, that’s awesome.

I would still like some kind of indicator, so I can activate the new mastery and start benefiting from it, but it’s nice that any excess XP doesn’t go to waste. (At least not until you’ve finished the mastery line, anyway.)

Personally, I find two doors at once, close to each other, exciting.

It’s not the logical thing to do, and I’ve cautioned people about opening both doors near the Viscount, but it’s not the logical part of me that wants to rush headlong into a horde of enemies. It’s still fun, and people are going to do it. Some might do it to spite the zerg, but I imagine most just do it because it’s fun, and they’re not thinking about optimization.

Gameplay programmer Joel Helmich recently wrote a really interesting forum post about path validation that might go some way to explaining why your teleports aren’t working how you might expect.

Basically, if you can’t walk there, most teleport/shadowstep abilities won’t be able to get you there. There’s no lore reasoning to it–It’s just part of the solution they came up with to enable path calculations at the speed needed for gameplay.

I can’t say whether thief abilities are more flexible or not, since I rarely use my thief, but, generally, I don’t think abilities are going to help you short-circuit jumping puzzles. They can be good for closing in on enemies, or putting distance between yourself and enemies, but not for jumping puzzles. (So, that’s why they bothered including teleports, for reasons other than jumping puzzles.)

Some players just want to watch the world burn.

In seriousness, though, it’s usually pretty harmless. Some people just get excited and rush to the door, then fling it open as soon as they get there, without thinking, “Well, if I wait, the rest of the zerg can catch up and more people can tag it.” No big deal.

Since you can invite other people into your home instance, and there’s no limit to how many people can mine your home instance per day, a guild or other friend group could actually get a lot of value out of home instance nodes, or at least a lot more than one person.

I’ll occasionally see people advertising trips into a complete home instance, for free or for a tip. Clearly someone is enjoying them. (Personally, they’re too expensive to interest me, but they’re definitely not pointless. They make people happy!)

Maybe I’m just not paying enough attention, but does anyone else find it hard to notice when they’ve completed a mastery? I fill up the XP bar, and then notice…sometime…later that it’s full and I should finish training it.

Perhaps filling up the mastery bar could trigger the level-up animation, or some kind of flash on the right-side icon. It’s a not a big deal, and maybe it’s just me, but something would be helpful.

Ouch. That’s got to be immensely frustrating.

While I won’t say it isn’t a bug, because bugs can behave inconsistently, lag does seem like a possible culprit as well.

I do Clocktower a couple of times most days during Halloween, and I haven’t had any problems with it this year. What you’re experiencing definitely isn’t intended.

The Shatterer has been my pick for “worst world boss” for a while now, which is a shame, because he looks incredible. Even pre-revamp Tequatl was more interesting to fight.

Players can cheese him from total safety, and just ignore all of his mechanics. It was awkward enough to have the achievement for being caught in crystal, but needing it for the precursor hunt just spreads the badness further.

“Revamp Shatterer” might be asking a bit much at the moment, but surely they can do something with his crystallizing attack to make it more common, or else replace that part of precursor hunt with something else. It can’t be a great experience.

Short answer: No. Absolutely not.

GW2 uses its own engine, and to redo the game with Unreal would basically mean remaking the entire game. There are systems they could carry over, of course, but the whole thing would be extremely expensive, tying up artists and programmers for a long time.

UE4 has excellent lighting, among other features, but it’s just not practical here. I think Anet would rather continue working with their own engine, developing new content, than the massive amount of work it would take to redevelop the entire world. There are other considerations as well, like how much UE4 would raise the system requirements to get the results you’re imagining. Then you have licensing the engine, retraining everyone to work in the new engine, etc.

Really? Huh.

I mean, it’s nothing wild, but I always thought it was appropriately flashy without being over the top. I feel good when I see it, but I also see it pretty often, so it’s good that I don’t get tired of something longer or bigger.

If they knew for certain when the problems would be fixed, they’d be all-but finished. That’s how code works. They likely don’t know every problem, or how long they will take, so fixing it is a process.

If they told you, “We’ll have everything fixed by Monday,” there’s a chance of that being spread around as a guarantee, which puts them in a sticky position if anything is still wrong on Monday. Better to just say “We’re working on it” and keep pumping out patches.

You’re the one who asked about refunds. I don’t see the problem.

I was going to write something, but Illconceived Was Na covered it very well.

Just for clarity: It’s actually a question of trademark law, rather than copyright. Copyright would apply to the actual “Sea of Sorrows” novel, or Guild Wars 2 itself. Trademarks, on the other hand, are usually things like names and logos. Both of them, along with patents and a couple other things, fall under the umbrella of intellectual property.

Deep Sleep.4568:

it is price manipulation one person bought 45 of them and relisted.

Who was that? How do you know?

I have a hard time believing you nearly failed Tequatl because of too many mentor tags. Most people who do Tequatl now seem to know the event well enough that they don’t even need commanders, so I find it hard to believe mentor tags were a crippling distraction.

I do think players should have the option to turn off mentor tags on their screens, simply because of the clutter and potential for clutter, but I think the same thing about commander tags.

I’m pretty sure it’s possible, although I wouldn’t bother. I like Mawdrey, but I only want one.

(Even for eating Bloodstone Dust, there’s a new eater item available in HoT that eats 250 a day.)

I’d love it if there were a recipe for Endless Batwing Brew. I collect endless tonics, and I was planning to purchase the Brew this Halloween when the price went down. That’s definitely not happening now!

So many tonics, being turned into shoulder pieces. ;__;

raiaknl.6348:

So the Halloween event started, great.
I went to the vendors to see the rewards and had a bug in my head.
The vendor sells an item to craft Gift Of Souls, ok… So… What the hell is gift of souls? How am I supposed to know about it without going to Dulfy, wiki, forum?? The game doesn’t provide me ANY information.

Ask. You can ask the Wiki, a fansite like Dulfy, the forum, or just other players in game.

As for the “Nightfury” shoulder piece, there’s been an extensive effort by fans on Reddit (and, I assume, elsewhere) to figure it out. I can’t say whether it’s been too hard for them to enjoy it, but I think they enjoyed a large part of the process, and I know people have enjoyed similar mysteries in the past. (Like last Halloween, when John Smith teased the recipe for the Reaper of Souls.)

There isn’t complete information handed to you in-game about all of the Halloween rewards, but I think it’s also good to keep in mind all the straightforward activities and rewards (Ascent to Madness dungeon, Labyrinth zone, Halloween achivements, Clocktower jumping puzzle,) (trade candy corn for an outfit, minis, bags, etc.)

You don’t need to do everything to have a good time, and if you’re bent on doing everything, you need to realize that, in this case, that might include content for people who have different ways of enjoying the game. (Using wiki, puzzling it out on a community site like Reddit, etc.)

The bat shoulders and the process behind them don’t appeal to me, but I never gave it a second thought that the Gift of Souls doesn’t spell out what it’s for. It’s an MMO, it’s a big world.

I’m…honestly, I’m a little confused by what you’re asking. Everything new that’s added to the game is, literally, DLC.

We can expect store additions to continue, like new outfits, weapon skins, minis, etc. These are a basic moneymaker, and relatively easy to add.

Will there be another expansion? No one knows. If Anet has plans, they haven’t announced anything, and they could be holding loose plans that are subject to change depending on how things go following Heart of Thorns.

Will there be a Living World Season 3? I think most people, including myself, assume there will be, but exactly what form that will take, no one knows, and Anet hasn’t announced.