Guild Wars 2

is skill/trait bug-fixing now considered a “feature” or “balance” patch element, to be done once or twice a year?

if so, knowing this would help me decide whether to salvage my mesmer’s gear for the nice runes.

Lishtenbird.2814:

Relshdan.6854:

tomorrow is another patch….tooltip refinement extravaganza.
…now pls prove me wrong anet….

No(t even) tooltips in this patch. Proved?

lol…..sadly, yes i was proven wrong.

but on the bright side, no new attempt to fix a bug, means less likely to have a new bug.

Anet talks a lot about balance…..does very little (6 month interval on balancing skills/ traits). while its fun to read cdi’s and watch/listen to ready-ups, its meaningless as long as they refuse to iterate at a decent clip (every 2 months).

and this ignores the fact that they fix bugs even less frequently (unless they favor said class…then its within a week).

unless you absolutely hate playing any other class (in which case, i’m not sure why you’d still play this game), mesmer is crippled by bugs to the point its just frustrating to try and play. which is such a shame, as its such a unique and potentially fun class.

talk talk talk…….and still we wait.

i would never put the effort/money into a warhorn legendary, but i appreciate that it’s more subtle than most of the other hideous legendary weapons.

tomorrow is another patch….tooltip refinement extravaganza.

…now pls prove me wrong anet….i’ve never wanted to be more wrong. i want to play my mesmer.

i hate that defiance.
ccing easily telegraphed and very slow 1-shot mechanics is why they added it.

it was a lazy way to attack this problem………keep the one-shot boss attack mechanic and not add variety to their attack patterns……but making it actually more of a danger to players would cause some to stop pressing 1 and maybe hit a cc skill.

so i’d take the OP’s suggestion. it would be easy to do….so they might do it.

MarkPhilips.5169:

Why it takes so long for a balance patch?

Why do we have a 14 days pve/ls story patch and a balance patch every 6 months?

it’s absurd.

we shouldn’t even talk about balance philosophy of classes until we discuss balance philosophy in general……and that means frequency vs. severity.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Tyops.5894:

How about you respect the contributions of the thousands of players who have spent thousands of hours posting to the class forums, do your home work, and read your own forums. Everything you want is there ten times over.

This approach (along with the CDI) may appear inclusive but in fact it disregards all the information that has been shared with you by players who have quit or temporarily left the game. One might think that their insights would be valuable.

Or, it’s compiling it all into one, easy-to-read spot for reference before and during the stream. It’s not like these guys don’t have a lot to do besides reading the forums and trying to separate the whining from the well backed complaints.

lol….minor balance tweaks every 6+ months is inexcusable. bugs to skills/traits 12+ months old are inexcusable.

the sigil/rune rework is no excuse for not balancing again before the end of the year. it’s an excuse to not rework/replace garbage traits or fix broken specs.

less tooltip fixes……more kitten that matters.

this thread is insulting to mesmer players (which i no longer am).

kittening do something beside tooltip edits.

the death penalty can be increased a bit, i’d agree (make it mean something more than it does now)………but otherwise can’t disagree with the sentiment of the OP more.

if you want to play hardcore….do it. delete your character when it dies….no on is stopping you.

i’d rather they significantly increase rewards for no deaths (in instanced content). that would go farther in promoting less “zerk or nothing” parties.

Dr Ritter.1327:

Lightsbane.9012:

No. it goes against their core philosophy. no player should have access to something that another player cannot have access to. although if you’re in the game, clearly someone paid to be there.

“goes against their core philosophy” They went against their core philosophy a long time ago adding ascended gear.

…..and that small stat gain from ascended gear has absolutely ruined the game for for those using exotics………..said no one.

Lightsbane.9012:

No. it goes against their core philosophy. no player should have access to something that another player cannot have access to. although if you’re in the game, clearly someone paid to be there.

all players have access to purchase content (via RL money or in-game gold converted to gems), just as they do now to purchase gem store items.

do you honestly believe they can keep the game running/make a profit by giving away all future content for free to those that “just log in”?

there are no signs of them releasing a traditional expansion anytime soon. so if they are ignoring this model (which would be equally against the “core philosophy” by your definition) then they have to sell the content incrementally.

Centaur……has that ever been possible in an MMO?
Aesthetically great -looking…….designing them during character creation would be a blast.

….and for those clamoring for mounts, you could pretend.

I think as long as they treat it as “side missions” outside current Tyria (be it in a different time period or story arch from the main) i’d love it.

i think they need to better monetize their product and while the new LS journel is a start, optional playable content would be a great addition.

much better than the current luxury gem store items……and MUCH better than moving to a pay-to-win model most free MMOs adopt.

unfortunately, getting the champ boxes during these 100+ people zergs, is 50/50 regardless of gear.

i run full zerk and strength runes with theif and warr…and am able to keep up 15-20 might stacks on my own….so i’m almost always at a full 25 might. party or no party, gear is almost irrelevant (as long as you have about 2000 power and do enough dmg).

not sure exactly how one triggers champ loot when zerg is that large. some say its more important to hit the champ first…..that only the first 50-ish of the zerg who do enough dmg will get the loot……and if you where too slow on the draw, it doesn’t matter how much dmg you ended up doing.

while not proof, my experience supports this. before megaserver, this was a rare thing that only happened in large prime-time zergs………..now, since large zergs gather at all hrs, the problem is much worse.

My guess is that it’s a bug……but they’ll hide behind the “you need to do enough dmg” half-truth and not fix it.

Stooperdale.3560:

Some of the best thing about these dungeons are that
- you can fail
- they are just the right content for a couple of friends and not PUGs
- the rewards are not important as they are fun to do once.

If we put those into the Living Story though those strengths become weaknesses. Story based sections are meant to be completed by players with low capability. The Living Story sections should be repeatable for fair rewards. The Living Story should support open access and pick up groups.

I would hope each LS installment contains more than just one personalized instance/mission type…..so that you could tell the narrative’s important points through easier missions and stand alone cut scenes…while still providing more challenging content as “flavor”…..“easter eggs” and/or side stories related to the main narrative.

Flame Temple and the event chain to open it was a part of the server world boss tours that occurred before megaserver, because it was fairly quick to do, and had a nice boss chest at the end. the reward vs. effort was in the players favor, so they repeated the content. if these story instanced mini-dungeons had a good risk/reward ratio (maybe i bit more skewed toward harder content/better reward than current minis), peopel whould want to play them….and buy them if they missed the installment while it was live.

and while i agree, that the “fun aspect” might be lost after a few completions in their current form, that’s where the new achievements come in. design the mini-dungeon so that it can facilitate a variety of “difficult” achievements. Since it’s instanced content, you don’t have to worry about players not interested in the achievements ruining your run.

i think the fun mechanics of mini-dungeons, combined with decent rewards and difficult achievements would be worth adding to LS. Since it seems they are not going to tie open-world content (mass-events, new zones, etc) to these unlockable LS installments, they need to make them purchase-worthy for new players or those that missed the content.

jblade.6470:

Relshdan.6854:

agree….and they would fit perfectly into story journal as “instanced” 5-man content. cap it off with a boss at the end that also has a daily world-boss chest (along with the one-time story reward/skin) and a few really tough achievements.

I agree many of these mini dungeons would be great instanced. I’d say instead of 5-man though make them solo or best, scale based on how many in the party, so that they can be played years down the line when others don’t care or everyone got their daily chest after reset. SO much they could do with instanced content if they could add in scaling. Right now, whenever I’ve gone into these mini dungeons somebody else is already there and I just walk up to the end chest and get a free achievement and loot.

agree that soloable mini-dungeons would be ideal…..then let them scale up to 5-man parties.

agree….and they would fit perfectly into story journal as “instanced” 5-man content. cap it off with a boss at the end that also has a daily world-boss chest (along with the one-time story reward/skin) and a few really tough achievements.

Tumult.2578:

I think I would have started with a huge communications effort here in the forums first.

they did.
a few months ago they held a CDI (collaborative development initiative) thread specifically about Living Story and how to improve it for season 2.

at the time, the same cynical folk who always complain and wouldn’t be happy unless they got to personally vet every development decision Anet made, stated it was simply a PR move…………..it wasn’t. Season 2 was changed as a result of that discussion.

we’ll see if it was good enough (the fact that the installments will be permanent is already a guarantee of improvement).

i’d like to separate the gauntlet from the festival and make it a permanent thing….and also make it a way to introduce dueling in a controlled pve environment (not open world)

imagine the gem store as a way to buy new opponents/gambits to add to what exits now. you could play another player or a npc…….and you could choose to take gambits versus either for extra rewards. other players could bet on the player vs. player fights like prize fighting/gladiator pits….which would be way more interesting than moa races.

anet could make a killing monetizing a permanent gauntlet.

Ohoni.6057:

GW2 has ALWAYS been casual. If anything it’s become far LESS casual over time with the introduction of content like NuTeq, Triple Threat, Marionette, Blitz2.0, etc. Players that had no interest in a casual game left within months of the launch of the game, you can hear them on boards for games like Wildstar whining about how casual GW2 is, and they are NEVER coming back. The good news is, GW2 doesn’t need them, it’s been running fine on the players that ENJOY a casual experience and don’t want a “hardcore” challenge, and the worst thing ANet could do is to cater to an audience that they do not have at the expense of the audience they do. The game would be better off driving away every single remaining player that “wants a challenge” than if they drove away the casuals who “just want to have fun.”

but if you are truly a casual player (and i’m far closer to one than i am a challenge-seeker), you won’t care about completing the difficult achievements……..you’ll be more than happy with the very easy to achieve dailies and monthlies and weapon-masters and fashion and mob kills, etc etc etc. the fact that some of the living story achievements will take more skill/practice/time to complete would hardly be a deterrent.

Kaz.5430:

I think that some of you are missing one important distinction

“To unlock an episode and have it added to your story Journal, you simply need to log in to the game during the two-week period that the release is live to be given permanent, free access to the storyline of that episode……With this addition to the story Journal, content from Living World episodes will be a mix of new story steps and open world content.”

The payment option (for players who failed to login in time) is for the storyline, not the open world content. So regardless of whether you missed an episode or not, everybody (new players, old players, casual players) will be getting the permanent ‘Open World’ content for free.

Open World Content : New Maps (e.g. Southsun), New Dungeon Paths (e.g. Aetherpath), New Dungeons (e.g. Fractals)
Living Story Journal : Storyline instances akin to the Personal Story

In the context of Season 1, and the ‘Lost Shores’ event that introduced Southsun, I imagine the release ‘might’ have looked something like this.

Open World Permanent Content
Additions to the core game and map. Free for all regardless of whether they log in or not

• Southsun Cove Map (DE’s, JP’s, crafting resources etc) [Gated during release period to make sense with the storyline, and then unlocked for all afterwards]
• Fractals of the Mists Dungeon [Gated during release period to make sense with the storyline, and then unlocked for all afterwards]
• Temple of the Silent Storm (PVP Map)

Storyline Content
Free for people that log in during the release, 200 gems for those that don’t (but want to play)

• Defend LA (Instanced Storyline Mission) [On completion, opens access to Fractals during the release period]
• Drive Karka from Morgans’ Spiral (Instanced Storyline Mission)
• Drive Karka from Garenhoff’s Harbour (Instanced Storyline Mission)
• LA Scavenger Hunt (Instanced Storyline Mission)
• Miyani’s Scavenger Hunt (Multi-Instanced Storyline Mission)
• Retake LA (Instanced Storyline Mission) [On completion, opens access to Southsun during the release period]
• Defeat the Ancient Karka (Instanced Storyline Boss Mission)

while i would love the open world stuff to just be free and permanent, limiting the story journal monetized installments to just these kind of “personal story” missions and cut-scenes would be a bad business decision….unless completing them gave unique rewards/skins that otherwise can’t be gained.

these missions/cutscenes where simply not substantial enough to be worth paying for when so many similar ones or better instanced content already exists in game for free. they would have to tie account-bound unique skins/rewards to it.

if it ends up this way, then hopefully the rewards they tie to completing the missions are unique/valuable skins, because i think they need to find more successful ways to monetize the game outside the realm of pay-to-win tactics. tying content usually introduced in expansion packs (new zones, instanced large event chains, dungeons, races, skills, etc) was what i was hoping they’d do……as its fair and expected to pay for that type of new content. tying aesthetic skins usually associated with a cash shop is a bit tackier, but still better than the cash shop selling things like ascended sigils/runes or more powerful foods than one could craft in-game.

juno.1840:

Wow — both of you guys completely missed the boat on what I was saying.

First: You don’t have to buy the content for the 2 weeks it’s out. You can buy it anytime — that’s how expansions work.

Second: If people don’t buy it, it’s because the content sucked. That’s how you speak with your cash — and believe me the Developers listen to the voice of money.

Unrelated: The gem conversion rate has nothing to do with any of this. If your goal is the selfish desire to keep gem prices cheap, then sorry, that’s your problem. Use RL cash to buy the 200 gems for an episode — you had to do that to buy GW2 in the first place so it’s not a difficult concept.

I see nothing but advantages to charging for Living Story.

monetizing it for those who miss it should be enough motivation to make the content “purchase-worthy”…….but charging for the content, in general, is no guarantee that the the content will be “purchase-worthy”.

i would rather take a chance that their planned monetizing is enough motivation to make “purchase-worthy” content that i , a regular player, will get for free……rather than have to pay to find out.

Blade Syphon.4325:

I just feel that instead of requiring people to pay two-hundred gems, it should be unlockable for a small Gold fee in stead.

“small” gold fee is relative. i’d say they are already giving you this.

converting gold to 200 gems (12-15g) is a “small” gold fee (can be earned in a few days of casual game play….or a day of dungeon running/orr farming).

Test.8734:

Calys Teneb.7015:

What is the problem with people having choices? Not everyone feels the same way you do and will enjoy this.

Because I’m thinking DEEPER than “OMG so cool” or “OMG so NOT COOL”.

It’s IRRELEVANT if you will buy it or not. It’s irrelevant if YOU like it or not. REGARDLESS, this will have a huge impact on the game: it will drive ArenaNet from making more OPEN WORLD content, which is actually something in which GW2 has been VERY slowly improving, to focus on STORY steps. It will ALSO make it less likely that ArenaNet will make a REAL expansion, instead of selling bit-sized content and lottery tickets for weapons.

Are you telling me I can CHOOSE to play the open world CONTENT that ArenaNet will NOT make and/or polish because they’re focusing on the content that gives them MONEY, aka the story steps? That I can CHOOSE to buy the EXPANSION that ArenaNet will NOT make because they’re trying to get money from those story steps?

NO?

So, YEAH. Less talk about so-called “choices”, PLZ.

you haven’t proven your main point…..just speculated that open world events won’t be tied to the journal, and thus not developed/implemented as much as before.

you assume that the current personal story is what the new living story will be, but discount the new megaserver system as a way of making pseudo-large-scale instances.

you may end up right, but you can’t know at this point.
making your argument is nothing more that a guess and a hope that later you can tell everyone “i told you so”…..if you are wrong, who cares because we all got a better game.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Ugh, I had a nice well thought out response and the darn thing errored. kitten it. Oh well.

I look at it this way: It’s not any different than buying an expansion in chunks, rather than all at once. Of course, if I’m playing regularly anyway, the point is moot because I get it for free.

this.

i play regularly…..the cost is a moot point for me.

but if i didn’t, i like the fact that i would be able to pick and choose content that appealed to me , instead of having to pay for a full expansion price and getting come content i don’t care for.

Zaxares.5419:

My guess is that we’ll probably see them on the level of the Aetherpath or Gauntlet achievements.

would be nice……hope that’s the route they take.

its a fine move, that has no downside vs. the current model.

the current LS story model had temp content that disappeared forever after it was live.

the new model makes it permanent for anyone who actively plays (or just logs in every once in a while) and playable for those that missed it for a small fee.

complaining about this now, before it even launches, is pretty rash. we don’t know what the LS content will be or if the total season will be worth the price of a typical expansion. my guess is it will be somewhere in between a typical expansion, and what we got with LS 1, since it is free for anyone who plays (generating no additional income on its own)….but has to be good enough to be worth spending gold/gems on if you miss it (if its only as good as personal story quests or some of the weaker LS 1 releases, then no one will bother).

i like the move to make them more difficult.

right now, they are easy enough that i feel obligated to do them….but they are kind of meaningless outside of advancing my achievement point total. they don’t measure much….and most reward nothing other than the points.

making the new achievements harder and adding rewards to them seems better……if they actually end up being a good measurement of skill.

i’d prefer it be permanent and updated with a new world each year (that would be your “excitement”)………but i doubt it, as it isn’t a part of living story and is probably viewed more as a “festival”/ temporary thing.

most likely we will have to pay if they ever bring season 1 to the journal….though it would be awesome if you got free, the installments you already completely the meta achievement for.

if they charge for it, this is fine….as there are season 1 installments that are worth paying for to replay permanently…..and others that aren’t. this is why i like that it’s broken down by individual installments.

Test.8734:

People, PLZ think deeper about stuff. This isn’t SIMPLY a matter of “yay, permanent content, so cool!” or “not cool, boo ArenaNet!”.

The Story Journal effectively MONETIZES part of the Living World. It’s only logical that ArenaNet would try to make people PAY for this content and feel like they are GETTING something in return, so expect the next Living World content to focus on the kind of things available through the Journal.

And WHAT will be available through the JOURNAL? That’s also a matter of logic. OPEN WORLD activities – big world events, dynamic events for a lot of people, and etc – will NOT be available through the Journal. One, the logistics isn’t there – think about trying to do Teq without a timer used by a lot of people to know when the event is going to HAPPEN, now add the issue of playing through an event that isn’t available to the ENTIRE community, and you end with something that SIMPLY cannot be done. It would be like TRYING to do the Marionette with only THREE other players.

Two, ArenaNet itself mentioned how open world content is different from the story steps available through the Journal:

ArenaNet

content from Living World episodes will be a mix of new story steps and open world content. Story steps will work just like existing story steps in the game today by taking you on a journey specific to your selected episode, which ties into a broader narrative from the season’s continual story progress.

SOOOO, the Journal will give ArenaNet money. The Journal will focus not on open world content, rather on story steps. Ergo, ArenaNet will focus more on story steps than on open world content.

Ergo, ArenaNet won’t work as much on the open world content, which happens to be the BEST and most promising aspect of GW2 (and that’s NOT simply MY opinion; does anyone else remember THIS?). Instead, they will focus on content like the STEPS of the personal storyline, which are, well, INCREDIBLY mediocre.

THIS is a loss. We will have LESS development of the open world events, which are still a flawed aspect of the game but that was beginning to show SOME potential (see the marionette), and instead MORE of a kind of content that NO ONE has been asking for.

except that the megaserver system allows them to essentially make “open world instances” for those with access to the LS content and the desire to play it. those with access get sent to a version of the zone with the living story event running….those that don’t (or choose not to play that content) get sent to a version without it.

so i don’t think you can discount open world events from the LS journal just yet…..

awesome move by Anet……regular fresh content that’s playable at your own pace.

hopefully monetizing the LS installments for those who missed it while it was live, will drive them to make stronger content in the vein of SAB/Marionette/ Aetherblade dungeon/Assault on LA and the current Boss Blitz and sky crystal “jump puzzle”.

if the update/content is good/fun, then the 200 gem fee is more than fair…..i would easily pay more for a permanent SAB or marionette event.

if true……………….hahahahahahahahaha.
worse QA team in gaming?

Ropechef.6192:

Relshdan.6854:

they made cc skills useless in pve….

they did?

(runs off to go see)

edit:
Nope still works.

you knew i meant defiance on bosses….don’t be an kitten just to be one.

i saw some sweet tooltip fixes………..while skill/trait bugs being fixed is nice, tooltips being altered is far more important. keep up the great work QA team.

class still dead, as expected.

tooltips more accurate, as expected.

excited for the tooltip fixes next patch!

to see what mesmer phantasm will be borked next.

they made cc skills useless in pve….and now they’re trying to do it w/ reflects.
why not adjust reflect damage on bosses if you aren’t capable of improving boss attack patterns?

next time i read a dev post with the words “in order to promote build diversity”……..LOL

every move they make in pve narrows the desirable build selection to zerk gear and +% damage modifier traits….for every class. fractals is all that remains.

easier to just turn off our skill, than adjust reflect damage….or GASP, improve /alter boss behavior and attack patterns.

just a terrible ninja nerf……lazy and indefensible solution to a non-problem.

who knew a “tooltip patch” could suck so hard.

its not unfair (rng is rng, and those with more disposable income have more opportunities to gamble…it is a luxury item after all)……but it is a kittenty way to acquire them. there is very little “legendary” about earning these weapons. grind relatively easy content for karma/gold/mats (rewards dedication/ability to endure monotony), play the TP (rewards economic speculation) or convert gems to gold (rewards….having a job i guess).

there is already a gift of luck to test your patience with direct rng….tossing 1000’s of gold/items into the MF is rng overkill….and the drop rate is so low it might as well not drop.

i can’t say i like the idea of a scavenger hunt, as the whole process of crafting a legendary is basically one……unless that’s just a way for them to organize a series of incredibly difficult tasks to perform (JP speed runs, timed solo dungeon bosses/ instanced champs, etc).

i like that the overall process of creating a legendary takes you to most facets of the game……the precursor should be able to be earned by performing extreme feats of those facets (along with the current lame rng methods…with lower drop rates to compensate).

agree.

lets not proclaim it a failure simply because you disliked the first season………..or hype it up pretending you know certain things based on interpreting screen shots, artwork, or old dev comments).

that said……….i hope they keep this 4-6 week pace. no pressure to do achieves is nice.

love the game, and wish Anet all the best (for the persons responsible and selfishly as it effects me the player as well). Hopefully this is a success in china (beyond opening).

like the idea, but not a fan of the execution (i say this a lot about Anet)…….since the requirements send you to content 10-20+ lvls higher than the level you are when you can get the trait.

you end up just buying the traits from vendors as you go…which is fine if you’re an experienced player who knows what traits to take and has a bankroll. for a new player, though, the system is HORRIBLE and discourages experimenting with different builds.

they need to tweak the requirements. for example: all major adept traits should send you to lvl 30-40 zones/events.

how does any of this prove new zones? could (and more likely is) just a dungeon/instance entrance.

anyway, if its true they will be releasing actual permanent content with each (or most releases) its best that they keep living story on 4-6 week schedule, with “polish patches” for bug fixes and balance tweaks in between…..alternating LS and polish patches every 2-3 weeks.

they seem to be a way of getting festival tokens without doing the events.

and if you want to make 100’s of celestial sets…..but you don’t….so sell ’em

there is a merchant that will take your candy corn for supply boxes, if thats what you are asking for. he’s right with all the other mat-trade merchants right in front of the boit you get off on entrance to the map.

1) events like marionette (that combine dividing a large zerg onto 20-ish man groups, with 5-man party play)

2)new dungeons with interesting mechanics like the original aetherblade retreat dungeon (not the fractal).

3) new permanent jump puzzles (one of my favorite aspects of GW2) of medium difficulty (somewhere between the easy stuff in LA and the southsun /atherblade one .

love it……..without removing achieve points from casuals, it would give incentive to attempt more “difficult” tasks for those that want to……….and provide a sense of actual achievement.

Darkobra.6439:

Relshdan.6854:

they have to make money.

That’s why they sell the game and not just give it away.

would make sense for a stand alone one-time release…..not a constantly evolving MMORPG.

being snarky works better when you aren’t a moron.