Guild Wars 2

Really excited to check these out later. I never expected to get more emotes. <3

“Instanced” is a confusing description. The OP means since they made it so players don’t have to compete with each other for each piece of leyline magic, rather than an actual instance (pocket dimension) that the event takes place in.

Two people simply isn’t enough to complete the event. Whether that’s okay or not okay…Try using the LFG tool to find a group of people to do it with?

If you’re in Blazeridge, it’s possible to cheese the Northern event by putting ley energy in the tree. Mobs will cluster around it, if it’s the closest one, but they can’t climb the tree or pick up the energy. That might not let you do it with two people, but it can help a lot with a group. Just be sure to add new energy to the tree, since the old ones will despawn over time, and to pick up any new ones that appear which might be closer than the tree.

There’s a Wiki article that lists all the different combinations and results:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Help_Cesseilia_defend_and_research_the_oasis

I think you’re massively undervaluing the work of modders, CnrlAltDefeat. Honestly, it doesn’t seem like you value it at all, because you’re writing off all the time and labor they put into those mods as a non-issue.

My company cares about getting the job done right, but there are still nice things we have to cut because they would set the rest of a project massively behind. That’s just business, and a reality when you’re paying people for their time.

There are things I would like to see improved in my company projects, but I’m not going to spend my nights and weekends on them, even if I think I could make them better. I have my own stuff going on, too, outside my work, even though I love my work.

It’s unpredictable, but keep in mind that Anet’s offices are on the west coast of the US, so their timezone is pretty far back. (Compared to Europe, the east coast, etc.)

CntrlAltDefeat.1465:

If bringing over a cache of weapon and armour skins is so difficult, then why are there many games already on the market where players have independently created mods for free that do that very thing?

Player-modders do good work sometimes. Even if they’re doing it in their free time, and they release the mod for free, if they do a good job, you shouldn’t undervalue their work. When you’re asking professional developers to do the same thing those modders do, however, you should recognize how expensive that work actually is when you have to pay for it.

As I said above, some things aren’t impossible. Just expensive.

hornswroggle.8023:

Djahlat.9610:

just find the chat link to any weapon from Ascalon Catacombs dungeon, and preview it. if it is glowing blue, you know it’s night. if not, it’s daytime.

I’m pretty sure it always daytime in the preview window. Correct me if I’m wrong.

I’ve never seen it show the night version in preview windows. I’ve wanted to get those weapons before, but the inability to preview them in-game has made me reluctant.

Since you can buy the Leystone armor pieces you need from the vendor for HoT map currencies, it’s actually a very easy way to get a single piece of Ascended armor. Completing Bioluminescent armor was far more difficult, and it only gives one piece of Ascended armor.

I’m sorry you had a bad experience, though. Nothing ruins a cupcake like the expectation of a full cake.

It doesn’t seem like a good use of resources to me. We don’t have any system in place for dying weapons or particle effects, so unless they add that to weapons in general (possible expansion feature?) it doesn’t seem worthwhile to develop it for legendaries.

Whenever someone wants to spiff up legendary weapons with better stats, sigil swapping, look options, etc., my response is always “Why should they?” That’s a serious question. Obviously, it would make legendary owners happy, but that’s a relatively small percentage of the player base. Making legendary weapons more attractive would also make them more in-demand, and I don’t want them to be more expensive than they already are.

I do a lot of programming in my day job, and I like to tell people that while some things aren’t impossible, they are expensive. Usually, people outside the tech side don’t have a good feel for what’s a five-minute fix and what’s an expensive overhaul. It might look like I’m making excuses to avoid doing my job, but I’m acknowledging business realities.

You can argue, “I don’t care if it’s expensive, they should do it anyway,” but if Anet has said that something like districts or weapon dyes are impractical to add, it doesn’t do any good to argue how easy or simple they would be. Worthwhile or not, they’re not easy.

I’ve also done some 3D modeling previously, and converting GW1 armor to GW2 armor would probably not be easy. Even assuming they have higher poly original models, and high-res textures, that were cut down for GW1, there’s still a lot of work left to get them into GW2. If it were so very easy, don’t you think they would have done it already?

OriOri.8724:

Redenaz.8631:

It’s frustrating when a mob loses focus and starts out-of-combat healing, but unless I’m standing right next to it, I can’t complain too much. Fair’s fair.

If only we could do the same thing. “Oh I’m tired of fighting this champion, let my health regenerate like normal and let me get my out of combat speed back plz & thnx”

Can you not? I do that all the time. Unless you’re trapped in a dungeon/fractal/storyline boss fight, it’s very rare that you can’t disengage and regroup.Take your pick of high mobility skills, stealth, teleports, etc.

Unless you’re fighting players, your foes lose interest pretty quickly.

Logos.1306:

in other words if lord of the ring story looked like that:

1 The Fellowship of the Ring – story in raids

1.5 The Fellowship of the Ring story short summary – first chapter of LW

2 The Two Towers – rest of LW episodes

3 The Return of the King – second expansion

then you are ok with that? No thats not ok you cant put main story in places that most of the people would not see it. Its not spin of or different story. As we know now it is the MAIN story.

You’re leaving out The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, and all of Tolkien’s other Middle Earth works. It’s interesting to know why Gandalf calls the Balrog the “flame of Udûn,” or that they were both Maiar, but that’s hardly critical to the plot. There’s no need to freak out over this, at least not until we actually see if anything important is missing.

It’s been my impression that the raid story would be supplementary, but not required to understand it. I’m guessing the raid story will end up being a sort of prologue, or related side-story, but not something I’ll need to follow LS3, anymore than I needed to read the Ghosts of Ascalon novel to understand the current situation in Ascalon and Ebonhawke.

No need to panic about it until next week, when we see for sure what we’re missing. It can’t be anything more egregious than Mordemoth’s name coming out of nowhere.

Probably to keep people from cheesing encounters. While I feel good about finding places where I can snipe enemies from safety, foes generally can’t climb or jump. That might not matter for ranged foes, but for melee foes, it’s pretty cheap, even if a creature wouldn’t have trouble with it realistically. (Anything that can fly, climbing creatures, etc.)

It’s frustrating when a mob loses focus and starts out-of-combat healing, but unless I’m standing right next to it, I can’t complain too much. Fair’s fair.

Half right.

He’s coming back, but it’s not bloodstone he’s after.

They never said anything about letting players change their character voices. The thing with HoT was that the player character would be speaking again, period, something that was missing from LS2. Same voices, just a lot of new recordings and (if I’m not mistaken) some new technology to let the player talk more.

I love love love my human male’s voice. Especially that /laugh .

I’m sure some people don’t feel it fits their character concept as well, but short of providing multiple voice sets, I don’t think that’s a solvable problem. The amount of voicework required in the game (gender, race, classes, story decisions, languages, etc.) is pretty staggering as it is, so I can’t see them adding more options. It’s just too expensive.

I’m not a huge fan of “dispatch missions.” I’m sure some games do them well, but in the games I’ve played, they’re usually vague, have a seemingly random success/failure, and generally don’t make for active, interesting content. Again, just based on games I’ve played.

It’s not something I want to see explored in GW2.

There are some crazy rare items in Black Lion Chests, but keys are relatively rare (unless you buy them,) and the really valuable items are also rare (even if you buy keys.)

Champion chests, or even World Boss chests, on the other hand, are super easy to come by if you’re looking for them. There are some very valuable rare drops, but, on the whole, I think the rewards feel about right for them. (Rares for world bosses, champ bags for champions.) It can be a little disappointing if you don’t get an item for your class/level, but that’s not entirely a bad thing. Mithril is worth a lot less than Silk or Thick Leather, for instance, so heavy classes aren’t stuck getting heavy armor drops, for example. If you get equipment that’s lower than your level (which happens less often than equipment at your level, in my experience,) you might be able to salvage it for valuable mid-tier materials.

Perhaps Zhaitain could be made into an awesome boss fractal? That seems like a pivotal moment that might show up in the Mists.

Generally, though, I don’t want to see a massive overhaul to make him as epic as the Mouth of Mordremoth, when they could be putting those efforts into LS3 and Expansion 2. Much as I like Zhaitan as a force of evil to battle, we have four other dragons still out there.

Heh, I’ve heard about that harpy. It’s a level 80, for some insane reason, probably a bug. Apparently, downscaling doesn’t apply to everyone. ;P

Pretty hilarious, really.

Living World Season 3 starts on the 26th, so that may have something new to interest you. We don’t have a lot of information on it, but it should be a major content drop judging from the long buildup and the scheduled release cadence.

Different people like different content, and since you mostly list your gear as your achievements, it sounds like basic vertical progression is what you want. GW2 has a pretty limited amount of that, however—You could fight your way to high level Fractals (building agony resistance) or you could try out the new HoT four-stat combinations to see if you can create a more powerful build, but there are only so many raw powerups you can obtain. If you haven’t completed all of your masteries, those are a major part of HoT’s vertical progression.

Depending on what you enjoy, you could also try branching out. Achievement hunting can be satisfying for a lot of people, especially the mission-style achievements of LS2 and HoT’s story mode. I find that other classes are also a lot of fun, so I can keep things fresh while saving my main for when I need serious firepower. PvP is also an option, if you want to feel like you’re the best fighter, not just the best-dressed.

Good luck!

kamedin.4698:

Kind of wish they had a tower of nightmares mechanic of when you defeat the physical body so many times that it would eventually change the world and make it a “living world” instead they just have all these “frozen in time” maps that never change and never make you feel like you do anything but again probably due to people wanting to play like it the game was released 1 day ago but want all the updates as well.

I’m glad that’s not the case here. They’d basically have to throw out the entire map, and then either we’d have one less map, or they’d have to spend resources to create new events in the area. I’d rather see that effort go into new content.

It’s a balancing act, for sure. The permanently changing world is interesting, but I know I’m not the only one who feels a bit wistful about the Tower of Nightmares, the Marionette, or Old Lion’s Arch.

You can view it as a moment frozen in time that only happens once in canon (See: Orr,) or as an offshoot of Mordremoth that retains some of its power, dying and being replaced as the dragon’s jungle-wide death throes gradually decline.

Or you can just say it’s there because it’s fun to fight, and it would be silly to kill it permanently just because LW2 rolls around. Whatever works for you.

TokyoGhost.6492:

20 minutes till Wednesday, and still no patch? where is it?

Not in Bellevue, Washington. Just hold your dolyaks.

I say just leave it alone. People who don’t like the current version can stick with Sunrise and/or Twilight, while those who do like the current version might not like the new one. I’m not saying the group of people who like the new less than the old would be large, but given how expensive Eternity is to make, it doesn’t seem fair to screw them over like that.

Meanwhile, I think the development resources put into it could benefit more people elsewhere. If they’re going to make a fancy new weapon that isn’t a gem store item, I’d rather it be something like the rare HoT drops or an LS3 reward, than something extremely fancy and insanely inaccessible like another legendary greatsword.

Your first mistake was reading YouTube comments.

I wouldn’t take them as an accurate measurement of whether the game has failed or not. There are people who point at the Manifesto and how they feel the game didn’t live up to it, or how they think it did at first, but changed after launch, and so on, but that’s not a measure of success or failure for the game as a whole.

Personally, I’ve been having a good time, from pre-launch to today. Not everyone will have the same experience, but I think the game is a long way from the dismal failure you’re making it out to be.

I’ve seen a lot of suggestions/concerns get addressed in-game, such as the recently-added options for shared inventory slots.

I can understand if devs would rather read the suggestions and see what they can do about them, rather than get drawn into a lengthy conversation about why a suggestion is impractical, or how they’d like to do it but it’s a low priority, etc. I know we like that as players, but as a person trying to get stuff done, that can eat up a surprisingly large amount of your time.

As far as Reddit vs these forums go, I can’t say I mind. I feel like they post the really important stuff here (legendary weapon hiatus, change to female precursor armor, game updates,) and a lot of other stuff is just what developers post on their own time. If they, personally, like the Reddit format better, and prefer to spend their personal time on there instead, they should do that. A lot of forum fans take it personally, and there’s really no resent to be resentful or indignant about it.

Blockhead Magee.3092:

Muusic.2967:

5050hrs, 1412 days and so far Dawn, Dusk,The Legend and Chaos gun.

You must have passed over the word ‘without’ (or you don’t give two kittens).

Yes, we mustn’t allow any satisfaction to contaminate this echo chamber of despair.

Apparently I posted in this thread two years ago, and I feel the same now as I did then:

Redenaz.8631:

Do the number of days tell us anything relevant?

(I don’t have a strong opinion about precursor drop rates; I’m just interested in the way information is presented as a rhetorical matter.)

I suppose we can calculate, on average, how many hours a day each poster plays, but most of what I’m getting from this thread is “RNG stinks.” Which it does.

How much wealth have each of you raised over that time, including gold-convertible assets? (If I craft ascended armor, for example, my current gold total is going to be substantially lower than my overall wealth once I factor in things I’ve spent that gold on.)

Of course, now that we have precursor scavenger hunts, we can’t just blame it on RNG. Go out and craft the dang precursor.

It’s a balancing act between number of sales and profit-per-sale. That concept is true for pretty much all businesses, that you have to figure out where the sweet spot is.

I’m guessing Anet is pretty confident that they’ve got it, or else they’d lower prices. Whatever I think of their prices, I can’t imagine they’re making those decisions totally blind to their sales metrics.

Galtrix.7369:

Would their income take a hit? Yes, at the beginning. I’m of the opinion that, over time, more players would join or come back due to skins being released “not through the gem-store”. I would definitely play more often if they released, let’s say, 5 new armor sets.

I’m guessing Anet’s data might not agree with that, because they don’t do it. If they continue to put outfits in the gem store, it’s safe to say the outfits probably pay for themselves. If putting new armor in the game (for karma, map tokens, WvW badges, etc.) were profitable (from increased sales of…boosters? Toys? Bag slots?) I would expect them to do that as well.

If they were both profitable, I would expect them to do both. Everyone would like more armor, always, but would it be more profitable than selling outfits, which are cheaper to make and more directly pay for themselves?

If you hear “this game is heavily raid-based,” don’t take that at face value. The raids introduced since HoT came out have gotten a large share of the excitement, but other game modes have been getting some love as well, even if it’s not as flashy. I don’t raid, and I’m still having a good time, so don’t worry if you can’t find a team of people to raid with.

The thing about getting into dynamic boss events sounds confused. In April, they revamped the LFG tool to with more categories and the ability to post squad-based LFGs instead of just party-based ones, making it easier than ever to get into good PvE maps. The Heart of Thorns maps have some pretty major “meta-event” components, so it pays to join a good map (like Silverwastes or Dry Top in the core game,) but the April update also made it more rewarding to be on less-than-full maps as well, even if you can’t complete the meta.

I can’t speak for WvW, but as far as general PvE goes, you should be fine, especially if you play during the evening primetime. I don’t know that you’ll be able to get a dungeon party right away, especially for certain paths, but that’s always been the case, at least in my experience.

Just speaking personally, I’m not interested in this. As incentives to do particular content, they’re unnecessary because Legendaries are already in high demand as it is. As customization options or content, they’re extremely narrow, only benefiting players who make Legendary weapons.

It wouldn’t be a major problem, because they’re just titles and probably don’t require a ton of work…but as long as we’re discussing the topic: No, it’s not something that appeals to me. I’d rather see interesting titles introduced elsewhere.

I would just call it a fluke unless we see it happen more often, but it is interesting…

Felahr.9830:

tolunart.2095:

The shatterer is secretly a Mesmer. You’re seeing its clones, the real one is stealthed.

*snort

well…she IS purple

I can’t argue with this logic.

thaginger.2630:

while i love the fact that they are making more armor, i have to say that these all look terrible

Like them or not, these are actually old armor sets that were formerly available via PvP Rewards, back when PvP had its own skin ecosystem. When that was phased out (generally a good thing,) these skins were left stranded, with no way to get some of the parts if you didn’t already have them.

They’ve been in significant demand by some part of the player base ever since, especially Tribal armor.

Paulytnz.7619:

But you can’t tell me that fighting creatures in anything other than zerk/high cond builds for a great deal of the classes doesn’t take longer and get’s to the point of total boredom. Unless you build your char to a very good balance in the other gear (which I think I have managed to get very close for my PVT Engi) you are stuck like this and could very well get tempted to “the dark side” which I am sure many people have.

Hm. I think we’ll just have to agree to disagree, because I don’t find it as tedious as you make it out to be. Obviously, it goes fastest when you spec for pure power, but unless I’m fighting something intended for a group, it’s rare for me to get bored.

I can’t help wondering if maybe many runs through the content might skew a person’s perspective a bit, and make zerker feel like the baseline. My main uses Travelers runes, and everyone else feels a little slow by comparison, and I’m sure the same effect happens when you get used to zerker speeds.

RNG is RNG.

But, in seriousness, I’ve never gotten exotics on what I’d call a “regular basis,” so it’s hard to spot a pattern versus normal luck.

Khisanth.2948:

Redenaz.8631:

I think it’s worth noting that not every gear has to be part of the meta to be used. Zerk might be ideal for people who know the encounters, know how to use evasive skills, and know when to dodge, but I’ve spent enough time helping friends up off the floor that I hesitate to make them even more glassy. The boss might get more swings in because we’re not killing it so quickly, but one-hit-ko’s aren’t the only thing that kill casual players.

Guaranteed 1 hit KOs also make defensive stats completely worthless.

If the boss has a serious, dodge-or-die attack, I probably shouldn’t tank it, no matter how much toughness I have. The fact that I still need to dodge occasionally doesn’t mean toughness isn’t useful the other 95% of the time.

My point was that the mere existence of one-hit-KOs doesn’t make defensive stats completely worthless. If the game were wall-to-wall one-hit-KOs even in toughness gear, it would be a bad situation, but that’s not the case, at least in my experience.

Paulytnz.7619:

Also since Anet has the data and can see and has seen for some time now that almost everyone ( I would assume less than 5-10% who don’t, including myself for the most part of my time here on 7 out of 11-ish chars) does run zerk and even now zerk type cond builds I would say they adapt to add challenges for that even with the trash mobs and thus we get even more larger HP pools or other tricks that take us longer to kill them even with said zerk/high cond gear.

Is it possible that your assumption is way off, and that they’re not balancing everything strictly around pure DPS gear? I think you’re mixing your “they have metrics” knowledge with your assumption (“90-95% of people run zerker”) and coming up with a pretty major conclusion based on those two together.

I mean, I guess it’s possible, but the vicious cycle you’re describing in detail hinges on some large assumptions.

At the same time, I wonder if doing this was causing any problems, like inflating the active WvW population numbers or causing longer wait times in some situations. I can’t imagine them removing these for no reason at all.

It might be nice to get a note explaining the reasoning behind the change, but I can’t say I was totally surprised by it.

WORLD VS. WORLD
General

Added a new reward track that contains Tribal, Stalwart, and Apostle armor skins.

This has been such a popular request for so long, I figured I should call it out for anyone who doesn’t read the update notes, or doesn’t look at the massive Tribal Armor thread.

THE PROMISED DAY HAS COME AT LAST?

Edit: Khani says they’re available in PvP as well!

4k screens I’ve seen desperately want some larger interface options, but otherwise I think the UI is overall still very appealing. /2cents

I mean, you can always make a case for more options or more informative niche options, but in general terms of color, sound, etc., which the OP calls out, I think it’s fine.

PopeUrban.2578:

HoT vastly improved GW2, but it improved it at a theoretical level moreso than a usable level simply due to lack of content for its systems. The fact that half a year later they haven’t leveraged all of the new systems they build specifically to make extending them and rolling out content easier is the problem.

It’s really going to be on LS3 and Expansion #2 to prove that all the time they spent building tools was worthwhile. Reception around Precursor Scavenger Hunts seems to have been generally positive, but it took ages to develop, and then had to be abandoned because of how resource-intensive it was to continue supporting. Hopefully masteries, elite specs, and other developments can avoid that fate.

I think it’s worth noting that not every gear has to be part of the meta to be used. Zerk might be ideal for people who know the encounters, know how to use evasive skills, and know when to dodge, but I’ve spent enough time helping friends up off the floor that I hesitate to make them even more glassy. The boss might get more swings in because we’re not killing it so quickly, but one-hit-ko’s aren’t the only thing that kill casual players.

To players really concerned about meta gear, very little of the open world is “hard,” but there are plenty of players who struggle with Orr, and take a trip through Verdant Brink at night with some serious gravitas.

I feel like this topic was more current Pre-HoT. These days, conditions are more viable than they’ve ever been, and HoT is challenging enough that glass cannons aren’t the no-brainer decision they used to be, to say nothing of raiding builds, which sound like they’re in a healthy place. Beserker will still be faster than everything else, when it can servive, because that’s what happens when you spec pure damage.

I like rally and “heal outside of combat” as they are, and I think it would be a mistake to break them in an attempt to make people use Knight’s armor in the open world. That’s a solution that’s worse than the problem.

Sylent.3165:

If 3 years from now we have 4 elite specizalations then adding a new class would be hard because on top of the new class 4 elite specizalations would need to be added with it.

No need for that. Since you can only equip one elite spec at a time, a class with 4 elite specs doesn’t have a significant advantage over a single elite spec. It was a smart decision to make elite specs exclusive against each other, because that makes it easier to balance them (No Revenant/Herald/Dervish spec, just Revenant/Herald, or Revenant/Dervish, for example,) and it means they wouldn’t have the problem you’re describing if they do add any more classes.

I’m not expecting more classes, but I do really like the Revenant, so I’d be open to more classes if they had a good idea that couldn’t be done with elite specs.

Gravox the Terrible.2157:

This system needs a lot of work, I also always get placed in an empty map, the LFG tool always places me in a different empty map than the rest of the squad. Every. Single. Time.

Forgive me if I’m pointing out the obvious, but have you tried right-clicking on a squad member, especially the commander, and selecting “Join in Dragon’s Stand?” The map might be full, in which case you’re out of luck, but if simply being in the wrong instance is the problem, that will solve it.

I’ve been doing a lot of Dragon’s Stand in the past week or two. There’s not always an organized map being advertised, but I’ve had reasonable success finding a group if I keep my eye on the LFG tool near the end of a cycle, to catch the next one when it opens. Good luck!

Trueshots.9456:

Just an update, tried this for 3 hours today before I boiled a pot of water and dipped my kitten into it, just to ease the pain and frustration of this. There were zero updrafts to get me off the ground, ZERO!!!!! WTF!!!

Counter update, I did this three-and-a-half times this past week (once solo, once with another player, successful Migraine with five players, and an unfinished solo attempt for aerial dodging achievement,) and the updrafts were always there. I died once because I didn’t get to one in time, but that was totally on me.

It’s still super confusing that you have to run into the updrafts instead of jumping/gliding, but they were there for me. Individual experiences/bugs may vary, but it’s not a consistent problem. It’s been waaay less buggy than when I did it right after launch. We had no problems with updrafts not appearing, with rifts appearing in inaccessible places, bosses getting stuck, etc.

(Also, general update, the aerial dodging achievement now resets when you die on Mordremoth, so you can wipe to try it again without having to redo the entire instance.)

HoT had some problems at launch, most of which were massively improved, especially since the April patch. It’s now much, much easier to get onto a good map for big events like Dragon’s Stand, all of the maps are a lot more rewarding in XP and loot, whether you play through the entire event on an organized map or just fool around for a while, and we can glide in the Core world. A lot of bugs have been fixed, the poison mastery gate was removed from story progression, and the 64 bit client has reduced crashes.

HoT did make some major mistakes (so much grind!), but I’ve had a ton of fun with the new maps, storyline (including achievement challenges,) and masteries, especially gliding. If you were hoping for a full set of new legendary weapons, you don’t like how meta event maps play, or you think elite specs ruined PvP balance, you’re out of luck, but I’m generally satisfied with the expansion now. Individual mileage may vary.

I can’t help wondering if worrying about this might be premature. Raiders can’t even get legendary armor yet, so I’m not going to fret about alternative methods until the first one is finished.

I don’t want legendary armor to be the exclusive prize of raids forever, but I don’t mind Anet easing into it. Maybe LS3 will introduce a “legendary armor journey,” or maybe that will be part of Expansion #2, but it’s okay, in my opinion, if legendary armor stays a raid-only thing for a while.