Guild Wars 2

Classic boss battle design usually doesn’t involve just upping damage output and health. Its a boss because it does something or is something different from you normal foes.
You get eased into the fact you can’t simply DPS all these things down. You stratagize and switch up your game plan if need be. I was horrid at it the first time with a Warrior, fair at it with a Mesmer, and nailed it with my Ranger.
I learned a little in each run that made it more rewarding and fun. No guides, walkthroughs or builds. Just some trial and error.

This isn’t just this game. It goes back to the 8-bit classics.
As for being “forced” into playing dungeon and fractal content. Living Story has been introducing all sorts of playstyles for us to play around with. We are currently doing WvW siege in Silverwastes, and for some its like a welcome home. For others, its just a busy map with a lot of events and treasure chest.

You play the way you want, but Living Story is where new threats are cropping up all the time. It is going to get more complicated as this arch plays out, so we can’t expect it to stay in everyone’s comfort zone.

If I am alone, I head to the center of the Labyrinth and take out mobs there until more people start to show up. It doesn’t come into the center.

kiwiburner.2186:

I really like the idea of Queen Scarlet Thorn.

Scarlet and Mad King are now my OTP.
Next year, we would have a macabre ceremony, and with Edrick banished to his box for being a brat.

I actually don’t see it as an issue.
Guild Wars lore is filled with relevant, female characters, both good and bad, that are far more important than 2 characters playing off dark comedy.
Thorn’s legacy of murder and treachery is what got him killed in the first place and and we celebrate him because if we can put up with his very toned down bad behavior, we get rewarded.
His dark humor is the least he can impose on us.
He could always ask Scarlet to come by and partake in the fun. There would be some interesting new content. Her Majesty, Queen Scarlet Thorn.

When the beta weekends weren’t running, I would have it open and watch it, murmuring, “Soon.” to myself.

I am the sort that doesn’t purge nearly enough.
I happened to have the Meter and chapters 2 and 4, so I was happy to hear this may have been possible to get this year.
However, I was unable to get past the editions located outside of LA.
I do hope to have a chance to get it, now that I have explored enough of the world to find the chapters.

""From ruin we prosper."
I loved the organic look of LA, but I know it isn’t viable to just be rebuilt into what it was. Built on the hulls and timber of salvaged ships, most of it was burned and splintered during the attack.
Rather than just ask for a repeat, some of the ideas that have been called for by the community could come into play during construction.
Old Lion’s Arch, as a city, did not truly extend beyond the Grand Piazza. The only true places of importance were the Trader’s Forum and Fort Marriner. There was no reason to visit anywhere else except if you really wanted to explore. And there was a lot to explore.
A better layout of services, with certain parts of the city dedicated to events and guild halls. The salvage from The Breachmaker used in the construction of some of these new areas, making the memory lasting in the very foundation of the city.

I thought this was a pointless idea until I looked at how much space toys, instruments, kites, balloons, tonics take up in my bank. I also remembered that I dreaded the Witch’s Outfit because I had no room for the toy in where I keep them in the bank, so it takes up inventory space on my main.
I love supporting a game I enjoy, but buying items shouldn’t come with the dread of not having any room for it or buying another bank tab for just one item.

It really isn’t a problem if female Charr and Asuran don’t emphasize or emulate the modesty that humans have. They have a culture that has no need to design clothing based on the proportions of human females. It would look silly and be impractical.

As a joke, I hope the devs make a version with coconut mamarries for all the people being prudish over literally nothing.

Thanks everyone for the responses.
One bad day does not mean the world is coming to an end, or rate drops had changed.

What it says in the title.
I usually get about 3 to 6 a day, but I was only able to manage 1, even with buffs I don’t normally use.

Not just for Halloween, but for Wintersday as well, Lion’s Arch is in no shape to host either.
In reality, the fact that there is a location at all is rather pointless. Most of the activity wasn’t in Lion’s Arch at all, but mostly accessible from there via NPCs dialogue or doors found out in the world.
The only purpose the city served was as a visual set piece. If being approached like that, it wasn’t such a bad idea for the devs, as they can keep LA’s progression as slow as needed for impact and story telling.
It is too late to make suggestions, but the possibility of a creating a haunted location in LA that we could go to (That old excavation site comes to mind).

I think that with halloween we will celebrate that the fountain has been repaired but the the Mad King destroys it again…

That is a pretty cool idea. Mad King is the best troll.

Just a story I wanted to share:
I was in Malchor’s Leap making my way to Wren WP after a gathering run, when I see an Asuran Guardian having some trouble with survivability. I didn’t say anything, but they clearly had an agenda taking on the Statue of Balthazar skill point at level 68.
So I just tagged along as long as time would allow. For me, it was a nice change from a self-subscribed grind and a way to pay it forward for others that have had my back when I attempted the same leveling strategy on occasion.

If you happen to read this, my courageous friend, best of luck to you!

I had the same issue when I wanted to get the skin. Then it came back in the store and it was on sale.
Give it some time.

I liked the mercenary heroes. Not really viable in GW2, but having all my characters fighting as a team was pretty cool.

I have only one chef now and I am glad that she knows this, just for nostalgia.
A game that is only 2 years old has generated nostalgia in such a way, that it is depressing.

Now that I have 6 level 80 characters, I am considering giving them specific roles while I level up my reaming 3.
I have a Guardian, Thief, Warrior, Necromancer, Ranger, and a Mesmer that does everything right now.

So to save on gearing them all with multiple sets of equipment, (or until I can afford otherwise), I am looking for some suggestions on how to dispatch them into gameplay other than PVE. Dungeons and Fractals that I have yet to try, as well as WVW and PVP that I am slightly more familiar with.

Lunaire.5827:

• Never wanting to level an alt again. This was one of the last nails in the coffin. With the trait revamp where you must unlock them or buy them, and now with the NPE, I couldn’t see myself having any fun at all leveling an alt. I already felt like the trait system was bland and generic, but now this seals the deal.

I really question the logic of creating alts ATM. Character Slot on sale in the Gem Store now, but what is the point?

Why not keep some of these things as non-Heart content that awards XP?
Old players will still do them and new players will think they found secret content.

I am really regretting not leveling my last 3 characters. Things feel pretty disjointed ATM.

uknortherner.2670:

Roll a new character. There’s your race change.

Since immersion is important to the narrative and personal story, name, gender and appearance changes can be understood in the story, but if you changed from a human with Noble, Commoner, and Streetrat specific content to an Asuran with college specific content, you can’t simply rewite the backstory.

Guilds with enough influence can have bonuses for gathering, karma XP and magic find. They also allow for participation in Guild Puzzle and Rushes.
The place where you can usually see your guild logo, however, is if you use a Guild armor skin on your character.

Hello Arenanet,

I just have an opinion to spew. I know you have been happily reading all the response to the Feature Pack and this is just one of many. I have a point in stepping away from the discontent.

Guild Wars had an introduction in Prophecies that was tops.
I got a chance to learn about the games mechanics and try out the profession combinations before moving on.
When I did move on, The Seaing really kept me invested in the long term.

However, I still didn’t understand enough about the game to do well. I made it all the way to Yak’s Bend, clueless as to what I was doing wrong. Turning to my guild mates for help, they taught me how to improve my strategy, challenges to come, and what to expect after level caps and endgame.

With all the anger and frustration over updates, it is important to note that holding someone’s hand does not guarantee clarity. We must have time to sort out mistakes on our own, or at least find ways to deal with issues we run into. Guildmates who I have asked about why they quit playing Guild Wars 2, didn’t do so because the game introduced new concepts. They quit because there wasn’t a “Follow” option, No Guild Halls, No face to face trading system.

I have played since launch, and if ever there was a concept or feature that brought me confusion, there is this huge community that we have that is responsive to inquiring
players, offer detailed guides and advice. Removing a feature like a downed state removes that first impression of the game’s best feature: The community at large.
Sure, it was a surprise when it first occurs, but another player coming in to revive you was really cool. That players look out for each other. That in an entire map, there are a few will step up and organize an event for everyone to participate in. Someone asks for help, and get prompt responses, links or someone to WP to them. Mesmers offering portals. Map Completion groups.
A lot of “Please” and “Thank you” in chat.

First impressions are everything.
The first contact a new player has doesn’t have to be immersion breaking or behind gated content.

Paulytnz.7619:

I had a good laugh when I got a soulbound gem upgrade today as a reward from a level up. Really, soulbound? So I can’t even add it to my bank collection? So silly…..

I thought that was insane. I kept trying the “Deposit Collectibles” with no results onl to find a Peridot soulbound.
Why?

The optics of a little Asuran getting an assist by a Charr and turning on a mutual foe is great.

I like the concept of a downed state.
It isn’t just about you being downed, it gives allies(community) a chance to come to your aid, and rally against a foe.
What could do with improvement is how we are able to manage ourselves in downed state. Can we select our own skills, as we do with heals? Can we have more effective skills that can assist us and allies that come to help us?
Can we opt out of a downed state altogether and choose to admit defeat?

ANet, Please do not assume that confusion of new players means the rest of us won’t lend a hand and help them learn. Megaservers are tops. Let them create the environment to make a downed player feel that we are working together, rather than as rivals.

Fernling.1729:

Vayne.8563:

I’m pretty much convinced that if Anet brought the VIP membership here, half the game’s population would just walk. Straight away.

Which doesn’t mean the game would necessarily be less profitable.

What do you think would happen to the game if it went F2P with a vip type membership? I could only imagine that it would do very well.

I don’t know if half the population would leave, but it would likely be the part of the population that makes the game worth playing.
We aren’t all here for the personal and living story.

Marjory and Kasmeer have more personality in their place than we do, and we haven’t even seen it and I love a lot of the ideas Tobias had.

As for my thoughts, I think ANet may have considered to be detrimental to the sort of community they have been trying to create, and the reason why the Home Instance is such an underutilized asset. Things like banks and the trading posts still make the most since to be located outside , so people don’t hole up in their home instances and not interact with the community.

What do we even get to call Home?
For example, with Humans, it would seem that our current actual house in Salma district is in the far south east part of the district (if it isn’t, then our home, it shows how indistinct the location is). It is very well furnished and not far from the entrance.

We should be able to enter this house and interact with things, as well as leave things like a mini pets to wander the premises or mementos there.

Admittedly, I would unleash as many cat minis as I could and reign as the Cat Lady of Salma’s South End.

Wardrobe interaction would be a natural location here instead of at the bank (naked with everyone watching). The possibility of one of your crafting professions having a station in your home could be done as well as possibly moving to another home in the area.

While things like Guild Halls are far off in the future, the possibility of player housing is likely even further away, but this should not bar the possibility of personalization in a location we have no reason to currently use except for gathering nodes and the occasional personal story quest.

Valky.2574:

I wish they had them like they did with GW1 i don’t do dungeons in this game do to that fact ppl are mean and just plane rude and expect every one to have been playing since day 1 and know every thing ..

I liked the heroes from GW1, but GW2 really does not need that sort of mechanic unless it takes a serious hit to it’s player base.
I miss the Mercenary Hero concept that allowed you to hire alts.
It meant all my characters could be on a team together in battle.

My biggest problem with the Pale Tree being a rouge champion of Modremoth is that the tree figures very prominently in the eternal Alchemy we saw in Omadd’s machine.
It implies that the Pale Tree is either a pillar of balance on Tyria or Modremoth has figures so prominently, that Tyria is entirely dependent on only one of the Elder Dragons to maintain balance.

No

Its too much. CondiShatter builds are viable now. We have a lot of options to apply Torment now and still we are getting more added.
If Torment was Sugar, we’ll have cavities within a week.
When other players start making builds specifically to destroy our Clone Wall of Torment, nerfs will be heading our way, possibly to other aspects of our gameplay that work better.

Renny.6571:

Mesmers only have Chaos Storm for RNG poison on a 35sec cooldown. It’s also not an intensity-stacking condition, so clones can’t just completely play the game for you.

This please.
Chaos Storm could be utilized so much more effectively, as it also a finisher.

Gummy.4278:

Romek.4201:

Mireles Lore.5942:

Love the new birthday blaster….

But seriously Anet… what are we supposed to do with more experience scrolls?

64 character slots possible

they give you this scrolls as a carrot so you buy more slots

Ok then I can give Anet a carrot as well make a new class and new race and I will get another slot and I can finally use 1 of the scrolls. I could instantly level it to 80 with all the extra scrolls, if it worked that way.

So I can make my Tengu Dervish…

Randulf.7614:

It’s an interesting discussion, but the pessimistic side of me dismisses the speculation concerning Livia onto the same heap as recent speculation of Glints offspring/Mursaat/White Mantle/Realm of Torment. Wishful thinking, but sadly unlikely.

Ofc happy to be proven wrong!!

So…Cantha, Tengu and Mounts incoming?
j/k

There has been surprisingly little discussion about it, but you aren’t the first to make the Livia=Anise speculation. Her motives are pretty aggressive, and I wonder (hope) that the possibility that she is still using the old dual classes from 250 ago bring some cross class features into the game for PCs.
Talk about a game changer…

If she wanted to know more more about the Pact, she just ask the PC directly.
Anise is highly suspect in her motives, but she is also very aggressive about getting results.

Main was a Mesmer in GW and that took me forever to get used to.
Tried and failed to do direct damage with spells, with no luck. Once I had my guild leader show me how it worked, I never looked back. It was the best match for me, making life hell for my foes.
GW2 new approach for the Mesmer took me by surprise, but OH MY GOD! Purple Butterflies! squee
After messing around with all the weapons, I have come to enjoy condition builds.
Traiting to cause both Confusion and Torment on shatter can make much the same effect as Backfire from GW. That “kitten ed if you do, kitten ed if you don’t” for attackers. Combine with “Portal” or “Blink” to break line of site in PvE, my preferred mode, and enemies will kill themselves before getting to you.
The Sand Giant in Dry Top has a devastating attack similar to this effect.

I have since made characters of every race and profession, but when I see another Mesmer out there…

http://imgur.com/i9cG9cZ

It would be a little complicated logistically to make the player characters evil. The Sylvari, as a race, becoming completely corrupted present about the same issue.
There are just going to be forces we have no control over. The summit is going to be a prime target, and while it is obvious that Mordremoth is going to be the subject matter discussed between player races, we can always consider that their antagonists (The Inquest, Nightmare Court, etc…) can obviously target the gathering as well for maximum chaos.
So far, the only loose end we have nailed down is Scarlet. There is a lot that can and still has yet to happen if the narrative goes well.

Zergs for patch day.
Not to mention that the events kept looping. It is questionable if it was because of the bugs or because it was intended.

Items

• All recipe unlock items have received new icons. Icons now match the rarity and type of the output item. Similarly, the rarity of all recipe items now matches the output item’s rarity.

I was VERY happy to see the recipe icon changes. I don’t know if I am crazy about the way they look, but at least I know what I am looking at now.

Mickey Frogeater.1470:

For all we know Mordremoth and Jormag are all on the same side!

ib4 Elder Dragon Fusion Dance.

Esplen.3940:

Really? I soloed it as a Mesmer. Drop Warden on statue while he’s vulnerable.

I knew the fight is soloable. I just didn’t have the time to deal with a solo battle.
Party up, finish quick and helped some buds along the way.

Really rough.
I tried the fight and saw it was more than I had time to deal with.
joined a party with a Mesmer and handled the Healer while Guardian and Ranger dealt with the statue.

There were a lot of achievements in previous LS that required group event coordination. Sometimes it was fairly simple, others a kitten to finish.
The new version focuses on the player’s own skill, for better or worse.

I was able to solo this the first try on a Mesmer with only Carrion armor.
It took forever, but it became a matter of patience and persistence.
It was pretty frustrating that after a bit, the 2 minion spawn points changed up and moved to the opposite side.
Slamming “Feedback” on the plant while its shield was down was the the way it primarily took itself down. My focus when it was up to keep at least one minion alive. to hit the shield. 15 minutes later it was done.
Interesting fight, but poorly executed and bugged.

Thanathos.2063:

DDCarvalho.2071:

Currently I support the theory that, in the Entanglement cinematic, the orb uniting into the center is Zaithan, with its energy returning to Tyria.

I just don’t see why there are so many theorys about the GREEN orb being Zaithan and the greyish one (therefore) being Mordremoth… It makes just way more sense the other way around.

I think it was the way they became active and started to glow. The Green orb lit up before the grey one which would be saying the cycle has Mordremoth waking before Zaithan.

Actually, I completely expected Taimi to do something foolish, because she knows shes smart, and she is a little fearless. A teenager that may have a disability, but has something to prove.
If the writers had made this scene and written Taimi to be meek or hesitant, I would have said they dropped the ball. It worked to get the PC into the machine and she got the thrill of a brush with her idol, Scarlet. Win-win.

My take on it was:
A rebellious dragon champion, makes you also wonder if the Pale Tree also understands the nature of the dragons enough to just blindly send its people into the world “speaking softly but carrying a big stick”.
She is also aware of this imbalance and still willing fight Mordremoth anyway.
That worked out so well for Glint and the imbalance could possibly make the Pale Tree itself vulnerable. We also have to consider there is another tree in the world that may or may not be under Modremoth’s influence. That the Sylvari are very tied to dragons and there is some sort of union possible if the dragon comes to claim what is his. Thing as they are, Modremoth has to have come across at least the roots of The Pale Tree. She is either locked in struggle to keep the influence out or all those who have awakened from the dream recently are sleeper agents of Mordremoth already.
Maybe Caithe was the first, while Scarlet was the first we noticed, and Aerin involvement to come out of nowhere.

I think when I got the PoI prior to playing the story there, I was thinking, “I should keep Taimi far away from this”, down to emoting “/no” when I was in the the story instance.
While Asurans give off a mad scientist vibe, she is a teenage girl.
Her fangirling does not have to be rational to anyone. When it comes to Asurans, it seems, when in pursuit of knowledge, she thinks there is nothing she can do wrong in it.

Jennah is Psylocke.

Jaken.6801:

He was a stupid Quaggan in the dessert.

I wish I knew what got him so far flung from a place no sensible Quaggan would be. I felt bad for him, and I think a lot of people donated gold rather than copper or silver because he was so out of his element.
I figured he’d at least be able to WP to a better place..

I have to give a big thank you to ANet for making releases with little introductions to new mechanics.
We have had Jumping Puzzles since release. Later, we started in Labyrinthine Cliffs last year, using the Aspect Crystals, and kept playing with them for Aspect Arena and Sanctum Sprint. With Dynamic Group Events being important to gameplay as well, we get bosses like the Marionette and Triple Trouble events that require a lot of coordination for success.
Then we get an area like Dry Top. The region uses everything we learned and applies it for us to take on. While some are just marveling at the views, others are in chat and on chat clients casually setting up an entire map to deal with the events and get better rewards.
Folks are using aspects to fly and race around with ease and little thought of possibly loosing their footing. We’ve got a handle on it by now.

As much as I like the story and the art, the immersion through a sly introduction in new content makes the game continually interesting to me.

I like the idea that it could be Kasmeer.
It certainly makes her story more interesting (and complicated).

Something else that has bothered me.
Scarlet’s attempt to capture/kill Jennah was laughable, but I question the creation of the Watchknights in the first place. That was what Scarlet was after in the first place.
After that she didn’t care about Jennah at all. For the story they were necessary, but was this a practical security issue. I have my own suspicions about the Queen’s motives.
Is she setting things up for a big reveal later? “Its been cool folks. JENNAH OUT!” shades down, portal to Southsun Beach