Guild Wars 2

Pregnantman.8259:

If I may add, I think it would be really cool if the tether left behind from Spectral Walk was to be an ethereal combo field.

Dang, that’s an interesting mechanic!

Here is what my Dragonhunter wears.

Head – Adventurer’s Scarf
Shoulders – Turned off
Chest – Whispers Secret
Gloves – Bladed
Legs – Draconic Leggings
Boots – Scale Greaves
Back – Quiver of a Thousand Arrows

The idea was to completely hide them as a heavy armour class. This was the closest I could get to making my guardian look like a ranger when I switched to dragonhunter. XD

The inquest ones don’t really feel like they are worth trying anymore. Other events are doable.

I left world of warcraft to play guild wars 1. I only play guild wars 2 because it’s a sequel of sorts. I don’t really like guild wars 2 more than world of warcraft either. lol

BTW, if you use the lfg tool to get a ‘taxi’ to a full instance of a zone. Then you might get a headache because there are too many players. I’ve had that happen.

No hearts have been added to the game in 4 years. XD

If a zone is full of players then you enter a second instance of the zone which might not have many players in it. Eventually you might be prompted to leave the zone because it has very little players. And you might move to a zone with openings… because a lot of players are leaving it… which means it will have few players left in it. XD
It’s happened to me often.

Guild Wars 1 did a lot of great things that could never work in GW2.

I’ve been waiting for years for a game to continue in the direction GW1 was going in. I really dug the attribute system, the dual prof, the elite skill capturing, and how gear worked. Great stuff.

It would be nice if stuff got looked at to make everything equally attractive.
Lots of sigils and runes and skills in the game, yet the feeling of so few viable choices.

AliamRationem.5172:

Redfeather.6401:

AliamRationem.5172:

Redfeather.6401:

Most fun I had was playing a thief in core game, then at lvl 80 I got the heart of thorns expansion and made my thief into a daredevil. Daredevil is most fun class I have played, and I played them all. Exploring with the HoT zones with a daredevil is very challenging and fun. I went with pistol/pistol and staff for that.
It’ll be a long journey, but it will keep adding new things to your character that keeps things fresh and frantic. My daredevil is the only character I have taken the time to fully complete zones with after I got gliding, because it’s just fun!

Hey! Your story sounds just like mine! I liked thief (dagger/pistol) from the start, and daredevil is just a faster, more powerful thief. I also ended up running staff with pistol/pistol in HoT.

It is very fun. I put together a build that reminds me of Tracer from Overwatch. XD

Yeah? Care to share? Always curious to see what other thief players come up with.

I’ve been running around with this, mostly just doing open world stuff on my own:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAW6an8lCFOhFmCOOBkmiFqiqrnCgGYLHHsqbu63+yH-ThRBABPcRAwT3wV7PK/oU9HzUCCwTAgUA6pMC-e

This is what I use. Equipment is what I have now, so you might notice a mixture of berserker and ascended in there. I bookmark the page and update it as I update my character as it helps me keep track of my character when I’m not logged in.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAqaWn8MBdPh9NBGOBkmiFeCbrAMbKQzHwGYFU7M9DCAA-TxCBQBJwESK0TgD1fyjmAso8BAPBgGcCBMiSIBu/ADOUAnRJYAAEAu5Nv5NbzA-e

It’s pretty squishy and relies on avoiding attacks when in p/p. For staff it relies on healing through auto-attacking and using staff skills to blind/evade. Lots of might in the build too. Reaching 25 might is merely a matter of whether you think you’ll need it, as it only takes a few seconds of setting up, but it comes at a cost.

edit: Had to relink because it didn’t have updated equipment. XD

Thief/Daredevil is more fun for regular PvE.

But I did use my level 80 boost for a guardian, as the guardian class is slower than molasses. Once you get to become a dragonhunter it really picks up and gives you options.

curtegg.5216:

I think the new Bloodstone map is Anet’s way to say to gamers we heard you about the excessive long meta-event timers and durations. To be honest I like the new map way more than HoT which I hardly bother to visit anymore.

I imagine bloodstone fen is easier to QA as well. Imagine trying to troubleshoot problems in dragonstand’s event chains and boss events. :O

My gut says it has to be southwest corner of Brisbane Wildlands. Let’s see if my instincts are sharp.

I like how many of the trash mobs have unique strategies that set them apart from one another. It’s night and day compared to the trash mobs in core tyria.

I finished the dragonhunter collection and might give the druid one another shot. I think Kam gave me an idea. The level/rank of the enemy might affect it’s loot table and chance to drop the nature spirit piece. So I may not actually have to farm oakhearts at all like the collection says. If I find a lvl 80 treant elite and above my chances are probably going to by super high at getting the drop.

AliamRationem.5172:

Redfeather.6401:

Most fun I had was playing a thief in core game, then at lvl 80 I got the heart of thorns expansion and made my thief into a daredevil. Daredevil is most fun class I have played, and I played them all. Exploring with the HoT zones with a daredevil is very challenging and fun. I went with pistol/pistol and staff for that.
It’ll be a long journey, but it will keep adding new things to your character that keeps things fresh and frantic. My daredevil is the only character I have taken the time to fully complete zones with after I got gliding, because it’s just fun!

Hey! Your story sounds just like mine! I liked thief (dagger/pistol) from the start, and daredevil is just a faster, more powerful thief. I also ended up running staff with pistol/pistol in HoT.

It is very fun. I put together a build that reminds me of Tracer from Overwatch. XD

The olden says of waiting an hour to find a healer so I could finish a quest.

Now it’s wait almost two hours struggling to find people in an empty map, because any time you try to join a group in lfg the instance is full, and if you are too slow in joining a taxi after waiting for that map reset almost every 2 hours…. wait another hour and 45 minutes.

It’s mind boggling how it still left to function this way, after months of frustrating many players.

Ardenwolfe.8590:

Dano.5623:

I went to Greatheart Weald in Queensdale. Reminds me of the old Champoin train that I wasted many an hour doing. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Greatheart_Weald

This. That said, I got mine on the first drop, but that’s RNG for you. When I helped my wife in the same spot, she got it after ten or so kills. The spawn rate there is awesome, and they’re pretty clustered.

So that helps.

I might go back and try it after I’m done the dragonhunter collection. Just need to do dragon stand, which I despise. And then find a treasure mushroom, which I also despise. AT least the ascended longbow will help me kill all them oakhearts faster. XD

Most fun I had was playing a thief in core game, then at lvl 80 I got the heart of thorns expansion and made my thief into a daredevil. Daredevil is most fun class I have played, and I played them all. Exploring with the HoT zones with a daredevil is very challenging and fun. I went with pistol/pistol and staff for that.
It’ll be a long journey, but it will keep adding new things to your character that keeps things fresh and frantic. My daredevil is the only character I have taken the time to fully complete zones with after I got gliding, because it’s just fun!

Someone in map chat suggested I take a break, as they knew how awful it can feel. I’ve decided to do the dragonhunter collection instead. That one is going a lot more smoothly.

I did that area in Queensdale yesterday, but after a long time figured something was wrong with the quest and forgot about it. Today I figured I would try it again and moved to Gendarran fields. Circled around killing those oakhearts in the fields for 30-40 minutes before making this topic… because I figured it is just really so shallow and tedious it couldn’t have been designed that way. Had to know if the quest is bugged. Just now decided to quit it. It has to be bugged.

I’m assuming it is bugged and moving on to something else. Even if it turns out other people can do it, I’ve wasted over an hour just farming oakhearts, so it obviously has conditions I am not meeting and not explaining what they are.

I’m doing the druid specialization collection and I’ve been farming oakhearts for hours. Is this bugged or is there a secret area I have to kill oakhearts to get this “Nature Spirit” piece to drop?

BTW, this is not fun at all. Oakhearts are not something commonly fought while playing, and they are not fun to fight in succession.

There could be a new race.
What if your character could actually be a mursaat hibernating in another race's form. And at some point the game asks if you want your character to stay as an asura/charr/etc or metamorphose into a mursaat.
Make it a legendary quest or something.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Redfeather.6401:

Do you guys think our characters are not alright? That maybe hanging out in bloodstone fen has messed with our character’s minds?

Oh, I’m sure of it.

Well, I’m not sure of it in a game development sense, but we start collecting Unbound Magic, and before you know it, we’re taking a “just a few minutes I can quit at any time” attitude about it. That way seems to lead to some sort of bloodstone madness, right?

The idea of our characters secretly going mad just seemed so interesting that I wanted it to be true. I read some reddit topics where players seem to be figuring out what is instead causing the ghost sightings… but darn it I was really excited at the idea of an insanity effect creeping into the game. So much wacky & creative stuff could be done with it.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Rhaegar.1203:

I said it a long time ago! I even got a shoutout in the now defunct Points of Interest by host Kate Welch.

Ever since we used Omadd’s machine, and we witnessed the Eternal Alchemy, our character has not been right in the head.

I miss Kate so!

I’ve noticed the odd scream from my usually stoic character, as well. Seems to be in a different color of text….or maybe I’m just a bit ‘tetched in the head’. o.0

Yeah, that scream is strange. My character just occasionally does it and the speech bubble says they are screaming. What is also strange is that I’ve gotten used to it, as it feels right. It pleases me. o_O

Heeeeey. What if it’s the 7 people that were standing around the alter?

Do you guys think our characters are not alright? That maybe hanging out in bloodstone fen has messed with our character’s minds?

So is the sad anomalies that are appearing everywhere the result of the dragons being defeated?

Diovid.9506:

cafard.8953:

You can see bits of what might be Kralkatorrik in a GW1 map in the Blood Legion Homelands. It’s a huge spiked hill ridge likely to be the spine of the dragon:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCNN-n80YBo

Same regarding Jormag, you can see a frozen dragon in Drakkar Lake, in the Far Shiverpeaks that might be Jormag or one of its minions:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi2fGJNU2XA

The thing sleeping in Drakkar Lake is Drakkar (duh right?) a champion of Jormag, not Jormag itself. Jormag had been sleeping to the north of the GW1/GW2 map, though he is pushing south.

See: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Drakkar

That thing gave me nightmares. Ohhhh, just enjoy a nice walk across the ice. Nevermind that hug frozen body below the surface staring up at me.

I gotta go to bed soon, but I wanted to come back to this topic and mention something.

Just remembered something about Dragon Age Inquisition. When I was playing it the environments in that game were amazing. The first zone I was exploring was so magnetic and engaging. But for some reason even though the other zones were so diverse and different, I was losing interest fast in the game!
I honestly think it was because every zone was boiled down to unfogging it and looking for icons such as ‘atriums’, ‘skull shards’, ‘landmarks’, ‘rifts’, etc. They were all being treated the same from a gameplay perspective.

So maybe the idea of changing things up for the next expansion could bring back the mystery of exploring a new zone and give that new zone a real fresh feeling.

Vayne.8563:

Redfeather.6401:

Vayne.8563:

Redfeather.6401:

Vayne.8563:

Redfeather.6401:

Yesterday I decided to get my stealth glider mastery from 34% to completion. It took me all day!
I wandered HoT zones struggling to find events for the xp. I was so bummed out after a couple of hours that I asked in map chat what to do, and people said tarir meta event. So I farmed that. It took a while and got so repetitive that the second I got the stealth glider mastery I quit. Does the average person actually enjoy this type of game-play?

I have no idea why it took you that long to max it. In almost any HoT zone, I can max a mastery in an hour or two, from scratch.

Are you using any kinds of boosters, food, utiltiies, guild buffs, birthday boosters, celebration boosters?

Maybe that’s it. I wasn’t using boosters of any kind.

That’s definitely it. Boosters all stack. Many of them are free or cheap. There are a number of ways you can increase experience gain. In events with lots of adds, make sure you have a weapon that pierces or does AOE damage as well so you tag the maximum number of enemies.

The XP boosters, if you have any, don’t just give you kill XP bonus. they give you 50% bonus on events as well.

Would the events give stacked xp bonuses too? I would like to try and continue gliding masteries next weekend and it would probably help if the xp from events could be stacked to be double or more. :O

I think the most you can get on events is 50%. But what you can do it get to VB right at the beginning of day. Or even the beginning if night if you want. Do the night events and then follow the event chain, any of htem really, from the beginning. YOu’ll get like 9 events in a row plus kills.

If you’re on a US server, I’d be happy to show you how I do it.

I’m going to log in and add you as a friend.
Don’t worry as I won’t hold you to helping me out. I won’t be playing for real until the weekend and it might be busy enough to figure it out on my own. But I really appreciate your advice and helping me to get better at completing these masteries!

It does hurt my eyes. But I’m getting used to it. The events seem to repeat a lot. Something I can’t do for more than a half an hour at a time.

Vayne.8563:

Redfeather.6401:

Vayne.8563:

Redfeather.6401:

Yesterday I decided to get my stealth glider mastery from 34% to completion. It took me all day!
I wandered HoT zones struggling to find events for the xp. I was so bummed out after a couple of hours that I asked in map chat what to do, and people said tarir meta event. So I farmed that. It took a while and got so repetitive that the second I got the stealth glider mastery I quit. Does the average person actually enjoy this type of game-play?

I have no idea why it took you that long to max it. In almost any HoT zone, I can max a mastery in an hour or two, from scratch.

Are you using any kinds of boosters, food, utiltiies, guild buffs, birthday boosters, celebration boosters?

Maybe that’s it. I wasn’t using boosters of any kind.

That’s definitely it. Boosters all stack. Many of them are free or cheap. There are a number of ways you can increase experience gain. In events with lots of adds, make sure you have a weapon that pierces or does AOE damage as well so you tag the maximum number of enemies.

The XP boosters, if you have any, don’t just give you kill XP bonus. they give you 50% bonus on events as well.

Would the events give stacked xp bonuses too? I would like to try and continue gliding masteries next weekend and it would probably help if the xp from events could be stacked to be double or more. :O

Vayne.8563:

Redfeather.6401:

Yesterday I decided to get my stealth glider mastery from 34% to completion. It took me all day!
I wandered HoT zones struggling to find events for the xp. I was so bummed out after a couple of hours that I asked in map chat what to do, and people said tarir meta event. So I farmed that. It took a while and got so repetitive that the second I got the stealth glider mastery I quit. Does the average person actually enjoy this type of game-play?

I have no idea why it took you that long to max it. In almost any HoT zone, I can max a mastery in an hour or two, from scratch.

Are you using any kinds of boosters, food, utiltiies, guild buffs, birthday boosters, celebration boosters?

Maybe that’s it. I wasn’t using boosters of any kind. I was also struggling to find events I could complete. I died many times trying to do certain events before giving up. I should have used lfg to find an xp train or something. I just wanted to explore on my own and enjoy stuff, and it backfired.

Yesterday I decided to get my stealth glider mastery from 34% to completion. It took me all day!
I wandered HoT zones struggling to find events for the xp. I was so bummed out after a couple of hours that I asked in map chat what to do, and people said tarir meta event. So I farmed that. It took a while and got so repetitive that the second I got the stealth glider mastery I quit. Does the average person actually enjoy this type of game-play?

What’s the next expansion going to be like? Masteries that require 5 million xp? And that xp can only be earned in 2 zones? I worry for this game’s future.

BTW, I was motivated to get the stealth mastery because in bloodstone fen I was getting killed by gliding way too much. Before I quit, I went to bloodstone fen to use the stealth gliding. It barely helps and I died twice to homing rocks and quit in frustration.

The franchise has always had great environments. But not all zones have the odd thing that only exists to make you wonder why it’s there. To spark the imagination.

If silverwastes didn’t have that poi in the gigantic underground cavern it would have blown me away stumbling across that wondering what else could be down there. But as it is I just felt it was for a poi and didn’t explore it much.

NotOverlyCheesy.9427:

Redfeather.6401:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

musu.9205:

Yargesh.4965:

They did not have different currencies in the core Tyria and people constantly asked for specific currencies. They wanted Teq weapons, they wanted wurm ascended and so on. So frankly it was players who kept demanding various currencies that led to them implementing (I agree too many different ones) currencies to everything now.

i agree that players want specific currencies as in the past you can buy anything with gold ,but right now it seems too much ,new players hardly catch up while vets feel too grindy .

and it is certainly a way anet tried to keep map popular .a forced way like any other mmo on the market .

What’s the right balance then?

• People hate on RNG: “it’s not fair if your luck is bad” (and people tend to think their own luck is worse than average)
• People hate on gold alone: “you shouldn’t just be able to farm with a credit card”
• People hate on tokens: “ANet just wants to sell more inventory upgrades”
• People hate on map currencies: “stop adding new currencies”
• People hate on collections: “it’s too much running around and the same for everyone — what happened to freedom to play as you like?”

Each mechanic that MMOs use has pluses and minuses. Everyone has their own preferences, so no single tool is going to be appreciated by each and every player.

How would you balance all the different methods of earning loot so that most people are happy and very few are deeply unhappy?

Maybe let players represent an organization and fill up a meter as they gain xp. At milestones they earn a reward, and unlock new tabs in an organization’s NPC seller list. The unlocked seller tab items could just sell for gold.

It’s like a cross between reward tracks used in PvP/WvW and guilds. Only it would be it’s own thing specific to PvE. And you could add some role playing to it by giving xp bonuses to certain actions fitting the organization you are representing. Like representing the durmond priory gives you xp bonus for gathering/mining and such.

An interesting suggestion for sure. However, how would you price stuff like the bloodstone backpiece in gold after the initial xp grind. Wouldn’t it stop people from ever doing any other method to get a backpiece if they can just buy one with gold? Would it be gated for 1 equip per char/account? Would you have to reset the xp if you want another backpiece?

That’s a good point and I now realize the game simply can’t be changed at this point. Too much work and it’s best not to bother. Thanks.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

musu.9205:

Yargesh.4965:

They did not have different currencies in the core Tyria and people constantly asked for specific currencies. They wanted Teq weapons, they wanted wurm ascended and so on. So frankly it was players who kept demanding various currencies that led to them implementing (I agree too many different ones) currencies to everything now.

i agree that players want specific currencies as in the past you can buy anything with gold ,but right now it seems too much ,new players hardly catch up while vets feel too grindy .

and it is certainly a way anet tried to keep map popular .a forced way like any other mmo on the market .

What’s the right balance then?

• People hate on RNG: “it’s not fair if your luck is bad” (and people tend to think their own luck is worse than average)
• People hate on gold alone: “you shouldn’t just be able to farm with a credit card”
• People hate on tokens: “ANet just wants to sell more inventory upgrades”
• People hate on map currencies: “stop adding new currencies”
• People hate on collections: “it’s too much running around and the same for everyone — what happened to freedom to play as you like?”

Each mechanic that MMOs use has pluses and minuses. Everyone has their own preferences, so no single tool is going to be appreciated by each and every player.

How would you balance all the different methods of earning loot so that most people are happy and very few are deeply unhappy?

Maybe let players represent an organization and fill up a meter as they gain xp. At milestones they earn a reward, and unlock new tabs in an organization’s NPC seller list. The unlocked seller tab items could just sell for gold.

It’s like a cross between reward tracks used in PvP/WvW and guilds. Only it would be it’s own thing specific to PvE. And you could add some role playing to it by giving xp bonuses to certain actions fitting the organization you are representing. Like representing the durmond priory gives you xp bonus for gathering/mining and such.

It is something that started happening in the original guild wars sometime around Eye of the North. 250 Superb Charr carvings for a mask is just one example. The franchise has been relying on it way too much.

It just feels like the only game design idea for retaining players is farming currency. Are the possibilities of game design really that limited?

There’s also Corypheus using the calling to turn grey wardens. Gettin into their heads.
The fade functioning similar to the mists.
And of course named dragons.
But that’s because they are fantasy tropes.

Squee.7829:

The frog! Tell me the frog is safe!

I’m sure frog is okay. Gaile showed me frog once, as I’d never met him before and kept asking where he was. Turns out a warrior was sitting on him, and that’s why I couldn’t find the frog. XD

Hope you alright Gaile. You are the best, and I heard yesterday what happened and felt for you. I remember the conga lines you made in Lion’s Arch. Good memories. Take care.

BTW, most of my frustrating comes from falling in love with Guild Wars 1, and GW2 just feeling like it’s slipping into mediocrity. I spent so much time playing GW1 and every hour was engaging.

This sequel isn’t hitting the same chord as the original game. And I spend most of my time playing Path of Exile, wondering why GW2 is going the direction it is when a game like PoE is just getting better and better at engaging its players and doing it all in far less time with far less staff.

Soon.5240:

Redfeather.6401:

In mmorpgs, characters are ‘collectors’, ‘carriers’, ‘compounders’, ‘contributors’ and ‘conquerors’.

When making new content one should acknowledge that this is what characters are, and offer that which keeps such entities engaged.

I’m in a hurry right now, so I’ll throw at a quick and dirty example of new content.

1. Grubs are taking over the world! Find matriarch grubs scattered across the land and kill them for ‘gunk’.
2. Bring the gunk to areas with special mushrooms, and use the gunk on the mushroom to make it grow.
3. Use the grown mushrooms to access new areas with special flowers that can be picked.
4. Combine the picked flowers with gunk to grow ‘flower parasol’ items.
5. Flower parasol items bestow characters with different abilities depending on the colour of the parasol.
6. Find the different ways of changing their colours!
7. Red parasols can allow gliding. Green parasols shield small animals from acid rain. Blue parasols are edible and taste like candy.
8. Be celebrated by all children and small animals for helping to bring about a world free of grubs and safe for picnics.

Unfortunately, Anet has pretty much abandoned the RPG elements of an MMORPG in favor or mini games and lather, rinse repeat meta-maps.

There is so much shallow content that ultimately hinges on farming for longevity. I just logged, played for half an hour, and quit in frustration because of how shallow this game feels. I don’t get it. How can game developers rely so much on farming to keep players engaged. It’s freaking mind boggling. This game is nearly 4 years old and relies so much on farming at this point. It should have tons of engaging content.

It’s too bad. I see a lot of underutilized content in the new update.
Those glider skills would be fun to use throughout the rest of the game.

I salvage and bank it all. Just depends on what the item is as to what type of salvage kit I’ll use. Saving the mystic salvage kit for the good stuff and the black lion salvage kit for the omg really good stuff.
Then at some point I go through my bank and see whether to sell or keep.

In mmorpgs, characters are ‘collectors’, ‘carriers’, ‘compounders’, ‘contributors’ and ‘conquerors’.

When making new content one should acknowledge that this is what characters are, and offer that which keeps such entities engaged.

I’m in a hurry right now, so I’ll throw at a quick and dirty example of new content.

1. Grubs are taking over the world! Find matriarch grubs scattered across the land and kill them for ‘gunk’.
2. Bring the gunk to areas with special mushrooms, and use the gunk on the mushroom to make it grow.
3. Use the grown mushrooms to access new areas with special flowers that can be picked.
4. Combine the picked flowers with gunk to grow ‘flower parasol’ items.
5. Flower parasol items bestow characters with different abilities depending on the colour of the parasol.
6. Find the different ways of changing their colours!
7. Red parasols can allow gliding. Green parasols shield small animals from acid rain. Blue parasols are edible and taste like candy.
8. Be celebrated by all children and small animals for helping to bring about a world free of grubs and safe for picnics.

I logged in for two days, and now I either log in to farm stuff for this update or go back to path of exile. See you guys in two months then?

Is pepsi the new kitten. I been gone a bit.

It is what I hate most about GW2 and why I take breaks from it for months at a time and only come back for huge content updates.