Guild Wars 2

ruzicka.4783:

I may need someone to help my aging memory here.

For those complaining that the new PoF expansion does not have new raids and such….didn’t most of the current raid content come AFTER the HoT expansion? During the Living World updates? But in order to get that new FREE content, you needed to first have the HoT expansion.

I saw nothing in the expansion announcement that suggested that there would NOT be new raids, etc, coming to us in the future. I could easily see extra/new FREE stuff added on later, but one will need to have the PoF expansion.

I think this is a point that a lot of die-hard doomsayers are missing. ArenaNet have now demonstrated that they can deliver live LW, PvP, WvW, Fractal AND Raid updates at decent intervals between expansions. I can understand why trust might still be at a low after HoT, and those with concerns should of course wait until the expansion has been out for a couple of weeks before making a decision, but I think the promise of content for all game types going forward can be reasonably assured.

Those posting in this thread so far sure seem to be a very specific group of either Sole PvPers, WvWers or Raiders. 90% of you seem to hate the idea of mounts. I dislike mounts also, but given the sheer volume of pro-mounts posts on this forum since 2012, and the crude “show of hands” on the post-show stream I feel those of us who dislike them are in the minority. Even though I don’t care for them if it required to cater to the masses – so what.

When players are satisfied they often seem to keep quiet either playing the game or getting excited. Generally only players with a grudge come to moan on the forums.

The way I understood expansions post-HoT would be that they will essentially be larger chunks of story, maybe with a few features. Several people have pointed out so far that PvP and WvW releases will be shipped “whenever they are ready” and are community driven. That means there is nothing to say that there will be no PvP or WvW content released with PoF but maybe they don’t want to make it a selling point in case it’s not ready in time. After all – it’ll ship when it’s ready.

The raid team also seems to have been pretty autonomous. They seem to have dropped raid wings into the game now and then whenever they have been ready.

The way I see this Expansion is a promise of future content. I’m in no doubt there will be raids, fractals, PvP and WvW content and feature patches throughout the life of PoF and LW Season 4. I think ArenaNet have proven that they can achieve this over the course of Season 3 and that, for me, is worth the gamble on PoF. I’m sure many will disagree with me, if for no other reason than “I hate platforming and that’s all Mike wants to give us”.

You decide what you want out of the game, observe what it delivers, and decide accordingly. You can always wait until after release, and following HoT, no one would blame you for being super cautious.

You can go to the Commodore’s Quarter in Lion’s Arch to hear the audible delights of Marcello DiGiacomo if you like!

Donutdude.9582:

Oddly, I am sad that Lazarus is gone and the Mursaat story finished. I absolutely adored them in the original Guild Wars but, seeing how the overarching plot of the original game was based around them, I can understand why we now have closure.

MO seems to like talking about moving forward in his articles.. I guess the last story episode very pointedly stated the extinction of the Mursaat because ArenaNet would like people to shut up about them? I dunno, that’s what I took from that story step. The story didn’t go at all where I thought it might so that surprised me, and not in a bad way.

I think the Mursaat could easily be written back in somehow in any case.

I reckon this was more a plot device to allow the Eye of Janthir to move off to the next most powerful / influential source. Not necessarily Balthazar. This could be a setup for several years time.

What did I like most about the current living world release? The Jumping Puzzle is a classic and was very satisfying. The inclusion of (ruins of) ordinary buildings along the new Orrian coastline. It helps to give more of a sense of history to the area, like it’s not just a map full of reliquaries. I also really liked the story instance in Brisban Wildlands. It was very pretty, interesting, and again – not what I had expected. A happy surprise.

mauried.5608:

What actually is the definition of “grinding.”
eg I spend a lot of my game time making money on the TP.
Is this grinding?

grind
verb

1. Reducing something to small particles. Like salt.

2. Completing content in Guild Wars 2 that you don’t like, or would rather not do, even though Colin Johanson once said that you could “play how you want”…and you took it rather literally.

Professor Sprout.1560:

There is a popular theory going around that Jennah is the human goddess Lyssa. If this is true, and if the theory that not just Balthazar but all the gods have been weakened is also true, then her unusually negative portrayal in Head of the Snake might have been an attempt by the writers to set her up as a possible adversary figure in the expansion.

I’d like this to be true. It doesn’t mean we’d have to fight against her though. She may remain on our side if she was to turn out to be the likes of Lyssa.

Maybe you have to have god-like powers to be able to resist the rugged good looks of Mr. Thackeray.

It’s a great one because it’s a classic. It’s something we’ve not had in some time. There’s little wondering where to go, little by way of dodgy jumps. Whilst I’m happy that the likes of the Chalice of Tears are in the game I don’t find it pleasurable to do and will likely never do it without a reason to. Jumping puzzles like Chalice of Tears give that extra level of frustration for people who are wanting it, but I got a tremendous sense of satisfaction from Abaddon’s Arm once I’d completed it. It’s a much better feeling than a “thank kitten that’s over!”.

10/10. Would jump again.

Moyayuki.3619:

I love how easy it is to jump in, play for a bit, and jump out of GW2

You made my point for me. I go through long periods of time of just logging in to do dailies and logging out. I don’t even need to do that, but it’s what I feel like doing. You don’t pay a subscription for this game so you are allowed to play other games with no real penalty or downside. If you think you might want to play the living story in the future you just log in once every couple of months. Easy.

I wonder if a lot of people have been programmed by other MMOs to feel a terrible sense of waste if they stop playing GW2 for a while. If ArenaNet want you to play more then the responsibility is on them to give you that reason to.

If you get a lot of joy out of making and leveling new characters then great – there is something here to keep you playing. I still wouldn’t be feeling bad about not having an interest in the living story.

Moyayuki.3619:

(although I hate the changes put in the game from the NPE. I won’t forgive Anet for that).

I’ll +1 that.

I really miss the feeling of unlocking weapon skills by using them.

I’d be for having an “impossible mode” for Fractals, raids, etc. such that when a group finally beats it they are “rewarded accordingly” and the next time someone attempts it, it is automatically harder and scaled up “in some way”. Perhaps at some point the only way to beat it might be to hope that the power creep with the coming expansion is strong enough to form a capable build.

I wouldn’t personally care for an Impossible Mode, but maybe it satiate those who just want massive difficulty for difficulty’s sake.

I’d also like to see randomness in open world events. Events should randomly, and rarely spawn as “Hard Mode” in every zone that’s Level 15 and higher. I don’t know how this might be implemented, or how it’s best to make them harder. The most important thing to achieve is randomness. The game feels more stale when everyone knows where to go for the world boss. If, on the fly, someone comes up against a hard mode event it would feel a lot more exciting when trying to get more players into the zone to complete it. Again, players should be “rewarded accordingly”, but not necessarily any achievements for these kind of things.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Maybe because killing elder dragons gets boring and repetitious, when you get right down to it.

+1 to that.

I seem to recall a number of us thinking, especially after 2+ years of experimentation with the living story, “oh god, are they going to drag out this Elder Dragon storyline for the next 15 years?”

I welcome fresh directions. If ArenaNet have a plausible story about the dragons being sent back to sleep then that’s ‘a-ok’ with me. #bringonCantha.

Arden.7480:

Where would it happen then?
1) The Grove? Unlikely. Pale Tree is too weak.
2) Black Citadel? Not the best place to meet but likely.
3) Divinity’s Reach- more likely but DR has to deal with another problems.
4) Hoelbrak- this is really likely- maybe other races will talk to Norn to not follow Braham because Tyria might explode if Jormag would die.
5) Lion’s Arch- as likely as Hoelbrak because this place is the symbol of unity.
6) Rata Sum- I don’t think so. This city doesn’t seem to be a good place to meet.

I expect some kind of summit just on the strength of the dialogue in the trailer. You missed Fort Trinity from your list, however. Would also be a mixed race venue and a symbol of unity.

Sephas.8793:

Who could this be…

Why, that’s a nice crown you have there…

Maybe if it’s anyone it’s King Doric. We’ve been messing about with Bloodstones, we’ll be going back to Orr with a God back in the storyline, that’s not inconceiveable.

I’m more inclined to believe that it’s nothing in particular other than, perhaps, an Orrian Wraith under the control of the wielder of the Scepter of Orr

If ArenaNet made it so that there was just enough mastery points to serve all the masteries imagine the complaining when 90% of the playerbase couldn’t manage Gold reward on any number of adventures.

I’m for having a few to spare, it means those with less time or ability can still get what they need. If you have more than you require, who cares.

There is also nothing to stop ArenaNet expanding the jungle in future and using up some of the remaining mastery points in the process.

SnowHawk.3615:

i want to marry an NPC like Logan Thackeray

Confirmed: SnowHawk is Caudecus.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

One can always trade them in for Spirit Shards, rather than keeping them in inventory.

Good luck.

I’d like a variety of uses for them.

Spirit Shards are ok. I’d like the option of purchasing some other items such as transmutation charges and upgrade extractors which are generally harder to get, not that it’s terribly thematic to purchase such items with Tomes. Hell, maybe even allow the purchase of Black Lion Keys…

Healix.5819:

The core game has been nerfed several times. If you want to see the original, play in +10 level areas and use a condition build to counter the damage loss.

I absolutely +1 this.

I miss those days when you could go into the personal story at 10 levels higher for increased difficulty also.

This is the beauty of the core game, though. You can venture into higher level areas if you’re equipped for it, and know how to counter the glancing blows through stacking conditions. This is why I often value levelling with a condi build much more than power based builds.

dave.5913:

Fancy pants the problem is not difficulty in finding content. Its just that I don’t like to repeat things I have already done. So if you do everything once and once only I am not finding enough content going through maps in order. I finally went to another same level area and started doing the content there to get enough XP.

Have you noticed that there are usually a couple of maps for each level range? For example, if you’re level 53 you could play in either Iron Marches, Bloodtide Coast or Timberline Falls. It shouldn’t be forgotten that even if you’re Level 50 you can still go back and visit all the other race’s starter zones, if for no other reason than to hoover-up all the hero points therein.

I have played GW2 from release and was around for the New Player Experience patch which updated a lot of the leveling experience for new players. These days I find that you level much quicker, which isn’t necessarily a good thing.

I would also note that even on my 20th playthrough of the game, and after 10 world completions, I am still finding events that I’ve not done before and never realised existed. This, to me, just goes to prove that there’s still a lot to experience even when you feel you’ve completed an area.

Hindsight also comes in handy, of course. After I leveled a few alts I really got to know where the good events were. Events that had long chains with many foes to kill to really boost your XP. For instance, the top meta in Harathi Hinterlands. If you can be involved in it from the start at Seraph’s Landing then event chains like that are a great way to boost yourself, especially if you save XP boosts for times like that.

Generally speaking I find that keeping up with the personal story and bee-lining the hero points in other race’s zones to be more than enough to boost your level on top of the XP you receive from completing map hearts and events in your “natural” path through the game.

Tiger Ashante.1792:

Lvl up your first character normally to get that full game experience, big part of gw2 is exploration and the journey to max lvl, plus u get to learn about the game and your class progressively with tips etc. i’d save your lvl 80 boost for for an alt once you feel comfortable with the game.
Have fun and welcome to gw2

Completely agree with this.

You can easily be L80 by the time the next expansion comes and be able to experience the new content with everyone else.

ThomasC.1056:

I’m not sure those maps are now heavily populated

I would note that this isn’t a bad thing. There is a sweet spot between too many players and not enough players. Too many players makes events too easy on the whole. The new maps, much like all core maps these days, seem to have enough players to be able to group up for champions, but not so many that events are over-scaled and it’s just a tag-fest.

The biggest exception to the above is the ley line events in Snowden and Blazeridge. They don’t scale well regardless of how many people play them.

So I would say: Don’t fear maps being under-populated and yes, the maps are “worth it”. The story is good, there is easy access to ascended gear, some nice skins here and there.

I would also say: If you’re not playing for a period of time just keep an eye on the game. Logging in when there’s a new release to unlock the content will save you this dilemma.

mauried.5608:

Must be something really wrong with me , but I play MMOs to actually have fun, and NOT for rewards.
Seems for everyone else its if theres no reward I dont do anything.

Same here. I don’t wander around looking for events but I will almost always stop do participate.

There are some things in the game that I don’t have yet and, if someone were to hand them to me, I wouldn’t say no to. I have everything I actively want, however. Once you have been playing for long enough to reach this epiphany then you either quit, or you play for fun and not rewards. I like how most of my characters look at this point, I like how I’ve geared them, so money is just a “nice thing to have”. This means I can play for the sake of play and not because I need to farm something in the most optimal way possible.

So yea, I still do events if I come across them. I hope that ArenaNet find a way to make DEs more interesting in the next expansion, however. I find the most interesting ones in the core game end up “pulling you through a map”, and by the time it’s all over youe realise you’ve been playing for 1.5 hours and had a great time doing so. Examples of this are the big metas at the top of Harathi Hinterlands and across the sea in Straits of Devastation

I’d like to see some of the DEs in Core areas receive a bit of love. You never really see the Ascalon Settlement or Earthworks Bluff being occupied by Centaurs these days for example. Those DEs that are more of a push-pull I’d like to see more powerful foes coming along to try to take these places over, on a random basis. I mean truly random, not on-a-timer kind of random. I’d like these random “events-on-steroids” to be incredibly hard to for players to win. Perhaps if they do then you receive greatly increased rewards, but 95% of the time it’s a fail. No world-wide notification, no associated achievements, just a truly random event of vastly increased difficulty to “mix things up” and force metas back into an interesting direction so that new and old players get to experience them from start to finish more often.

You know what makes me salty?

Martin Katzbach

Bug Fix:

Fixed a bug that caused a crash when attempting to deploy siege disabler after deleting the item from inventory.

SIX HUNDRED FILES LATER….

I will become less salty when BT finally give me an internet connection that is not made of wood.

But seriously, 600 files for that?

OriOri.8724:

Its a catch 22 though, because these people won’t like underwater combat unless it gets a complete overhaul, yet if it does get a complete overhaul people will be upset because ANet worked on something they don’t like. I mean, just look at all the hate that Raids got (and still get to some degree), purely because some people consider it wasted development time because they have no interest in raiding.

Raids are a totally different kettle of fish. They’re not something that everyone has the time, or inclination to attempt or get into in any big way.

Now, everyone can get into Underwater Combat. I absolutely agree with you that it requires a complete overhaul. I actually find it quite fun in short bursts as it is, but it has so much more unexplored potential. It seems clear to me that the obvious time to overhaul underwater combat would be with the introduction of the Underwater Dragon content/expansion. It may have land-based minions, but we should expect underwater content with it.

Anyone who complains that ArenaNet might work on overhauling underwater content even though its something they don’t like should probably hold out until they try it. I have faith that ArenaNet will, with expansion-level funding, be able to create some fantastic underwater regions with some great new underwater mechanics. Such underwater overhaul could involve:-
Underwater Masteries – an obvious one but a key inclusion.
New Underwater Weapons – even if they’re land-based weapons being used underwater.
New Underwater Elite Specialisation – hopefully with the ability to set a new independent build when switching between land and water combat.
Utility Skills – reworking more utility skills so that they are usable underwater to broaden out builds.

I’ve managed map completion and story completion so far and one aspect of this patch really stands out for me. Something I hope gets more attention in future. Buildings you can walk around in! Lake Doric is awesome for building exploration – please keep that up.

Ayrilana.1396:

Xilicks.9547:

Ayrilana.1396:

Xilicks.9547:

Ayrilana.1396:

Xilicks.9547:

Ayrilana.1396:

This exact subject is already being discussed in several threads. Did it really need another?

The storm was well out of their control and they tried their best to get the release out today. When they realized that it was no longer possible, it was announced. I’d rather they try than give up the second they reach an obstacle where they may not make it.

Players are the ones who chose to take time off of work or spend their day in front of the computer. In case people don’t realize, all LS3 episodes are permanent once you log in. You don’t have to do it today. You don’t even have to do it tomorrow. It’s not going anywhere.

More about the raids, specifically those planning on racing and taking it seriously but clearly its a joke now lul. but what does this reply have to do with them having better communciation?

Their communication was fine. We got an announcement early in the day and then again several times throughout the day. Once they realized that it wasn’t going to happen, they made that announcement. I’d rather they work and try to get the update out as soon as they can than postpone it off the mere chance that it could not get done that day and would upset the handful of players that care about getting world first in the raid wing.

Idk if you actually read what I said, I don’t care that the patch was delayed. They had to delay it that’s totally fine. What I’m not okay with was the constant “ASAP” posts we saw on twitter from the official GW2 account. If they knew there were issues out of their control why couldn’t we been told at the very least a time that they’d say whether or not if it’d be out that day instead of sitting around waiting until they finally decided to wait until the next day.

You made the choice to continue to wait. They didn’t announce it would be delayed until tomorrow until they knew for certain that it couldn’t release today. I believe that I said that twice already, Wait… yes, I did.

If you saw the aerodrome I wasn’t the only person waiting all day. Many players were patiently waiting for whenever ASAP was. I’m not upset about the delay I just wish anet could’ve called it earlier or at least set some kind of time for people to check back on. When it comes to WF raid races every minute matters so ofc anyone wanting to participate in that content is going to continue waiting. What’s so hard about Anet either calling it early or saying “hey no need to wait until like 5PM est then we’ll let you guys know or post it” <- example

And they chose to continue to wait. They chose to give up their time that they could have spent doing something else.

Anet didn’t call it early because they still thought they could get it out today. I’d rather they not give up early because some people could miss out on getting world first which only really matters to those that compete for it. This is about getting content out for ALL players and not about appeasing those going for world first.

I didn’t choose to wait. As a long time player you get to realise that when you’ve waited for 2 hours it’s likely to be a bigger problem, so you log off and keep half an eye on announcements.

Notwithstanding my decision I have to echo Xilick’s comments about the constant “ASAP” comments. It is annoying, whether you’re in-game waiting, or checking back every hour or so, because I also can’t really believe that the true severity wasn’t known. I value fairness as well as honesty though and as such I feel it would be fairer all round if their announcement was simply “Sorry guys, due to a power outage we’re delaying the release for a minimum of 24 hours. Check back then for a further announcement.”. Would that have been so devastating? Everyone knows exactly where they stand and no-one is wasting time..

I hope lessons have been learned and the next time there’s a catastrophic failure such as a power outage, epidemic or kitten invasion shredding all of MO’s tax returns for the financial year that ArenaNet would consider a blanket delay of a stated number of days rather than half-hourly “ASAP” posts (which after the first few end up meaning nothing anyway).

Perhaps it’s easy for me to say that this time. I usually take the Wednesday after the patch goes live off work to immerse myself in it. This time due to a heavy workload I did not, but had I done so I have to admit I’d be really kitten-hurt right now. This is also a lesson for me to check the weather forecast in Seattle before I take that time off in future!

DoctorDing.5890:

You can’t just poll people who are already capped about abolishing the cap. That’s like polling prisoners about abolishing prisons…

I’m at the cap and don’t want to see it removed. I like that I’m not “having to keep up” any more. The 2-Gold daily is enough motivation to keep me going for now, however, but I’m less bothered if I miss out on it.

Sounds a lot like players would have to actually do something to unlock the Elite Spec. We all know what the majority of the playerbase thinks about that.

“ANet how dare you lock my elite spec away behind a quest wall” It’d be like the whole 400 Hero-Point Fiasco all over again.

I’d be happy with a more thematic way to earn an Elite Spec though; for example completing a ‘quest chain’ to unlock the Elite Spec, which is progressed with Hero Points as usual.

I’m in two minds about whips. I love the idea of them, they’d fit on a few professions quite nicely, but in the back of my mind I’m wondering if it would be a bit too slapstick.

One thing’s for sure though. The expansion they’ll come with will have to be “Guild Wars 2: After Dark”.

Malediktus.3740:

The two recent new open world maps offer almost nothing longterm reward wise – dead content after 1 week for me.

I think we have to play the wait-and-see-game with this. Unbound Magic seems to be a currency which will be applied to multiple maps going forward, so who is to say that on map number 5 there wont be a super-vendor which required various items from all previous maps to purchase some super-awesome-pro rewards.

I also don’t feel the desire to replay the new maps a lot. I mean, I love them, I enjoy being in them, but maybe because I totally immerse myself in them the day after they come out I complete all there is to complete quite quickly and therefore the novelty fades.

I think looking at the living world seasons as a complete package it’ll be great for new players. Once you play the main story you then go onto Living World Season 2 which hands you another several hours of content, then HoT, then Season 3 which hands you probably more content than Season 2 on the basis that there seems to be more maps coming, and therefore more new things to see.

You don’t need an outfit to allow you to “opt in” for open world PvP, you just need a check-box, surely? I also want to be able to wear, say, the Mursaat outfit without people thinking I want them to Backstab me from stealth and Heartseeker me down.

Notwithstanding that, however, I don’t really want to see toxicity strewn liberally all over map chat when people lose fights. In addition, surely it will get boring quite fast since players who want open world PvP generally want it so they can gank PvEers, and if the only people to opt-in were people who were “up for a fight” then it wouldn’t be as fun.

Maybe I have too low an opinion of people…. I guess that opinion comes from having played Aion.

kurfu.5623:

Squee.7829:

Im a little put off by the circus as well. …

They are a group of circus performers that have been shipwrecked for a very long time. They are trying to maintain a connection with normalcy in the only way they know – by staging a circus. Also… they may have been stuck so long that a touch of group insanity has crept in.

Makes sense to me…

It can make sense all it wants, we don’t have to like it.

I guess I just don’t like how “easy” the likes of the carnies and the skritt apparently find it to live there. Doesn’t seem right. It’s supposed to be inhospitable, darnit.

WannaFeel.7082:

Sarie.1630:

I only gave examples of what I’d like to hear. Talking to NPCs is a very, very basic thing players who don’t just play for loot expect to be able to do. We want NPCs to give further information to give background and context to what is happening. Take Taimi’s Game for example. At the end of the instance you can’t even speak to Taimi. She’s stood there but all she’s got for you is a Big Pile o’ NOPE – to me that’s not right.

Got your point wifh Taimi here, and so wifh all other acts like this. I didnt even think to talk to her, as she said so many things while ‘The Game’ was on :- )

Anyway, would be good for you if she would just ‘write’ all the same what she just said ? :- )

Well yes, it would be better than nothing. It would be the game’s way of confirming that what she’s already said is all the information you’re getting for now. It also gives the player the opportunity to pour over some of it again.

Notwithstanding that, however, she could have been given some unrelated “extra” stuff, such as…

Player: So how did you come to know Cami?
Taimi: Cami and I met over a deep shared hatred of Phlunt [insert background story here]
Player: How long has Cami and the rest of your Krewe been on the Fire Islands?
Taimi: Only about …. days but they’ve sent back some very interesting information so far.
Player: Any useful information to give me a heads up on what I can expect when I get there?
Taimi: Well there are Destroyers of course, loads of those. There also seem to be some remnants of Mursaat Constructs there guarding an old fortress. Skritt too, they kept stealing Windall’s notebook apparently, haha. Shame really, apparently he drew a picture of a three headed monster he saw on a far off island in there, I’d have liked to have seen what his crazy dehydrated mind made up.

See what I did there with that last bit? Yeah, I’m a pro writer, right? But hopefully you see the point. You can plant very sketchy ideas in player’s heads if they bother to read the optional dialogue and that in itself is the reward for bothering to do so. What I found most strange was that in Episode 1 the “optional dialogue” was explicit. At the end the story mission actually told you that you could speak with Canach for more information… but that’s not only been lost in Episode 2 but even the optional text seems to have been abandoned.

WannaFeel.7082:

… they said a lot about Glint, and related to her cases in HoT

If they already know then there’s no reason that can’t reiterate then, is there, for those of us with terrible memories!

WannaFeel.7082:

But some of us just don’t dig deep untill something comes to an end :- )

I’m not sure where the fun is in that. By the end, you know the story. I wouldn’t then go back to read through all the teasers I stoically ignored all the way through!

I dunno, man. There were a couple of sloppy bits of implementation in this patch for me; dialogues being one of them. The rest, by the way, all the voice acting and the “in-your-face” story was excellent.

So I’m sticking to my 9/10!

WannaFeel.7082:

Sarie.1630:

9/10.

Why can’t we speak to the NPCs in the story instances to get more information? Surely text is such a cheap extra thing to add in.

Why can’t Taimi tell me about this new Krewe of hers at the end of Taimi’s Game? Why can’t the Luminate or Ruka tell me more about Maureen (Aurene) after the final story instance? Why doesn’t Caithe have anything to say? Why can’t Windall give me more stories of his time in the Fire Islands while he’s being treated by medics?

Too many missed opportunities in story telling for a full 10/10 from me.

It’s too early to complain about all those :- o
What do you want to hear (read) from Ruka or any other about the dragon, as it’s new for them as well … ? :- o
Shouldn’t they ask you, as Commander, some question as you are babies champion?

There are so many episodes to give us some new informations. Windall might be taking part in next episode as e.g your talking travel guide backpack wifh lot of stories :- )

I only gave examples of what I’d like to hear. Talking to NPCs is a very, very basic thing players who don’t just play for loot expect to be able to do. We want NPCs to give further information to give background and context to what is happening. Take Taimi’s Game for example. At the end of the instance you can’t even speak to Taimi. She’s stood there but all she’s got for you is a Big Pile o’ NOPE – to me that’s not right.

I’m not asking and wouldn’t expect explicit explanations of everything. For the record though, I’d expect the guardians of Glint’s legacy to know a tiny bit about what they’re doing, why they’re doing it and what makes Aurene worth caring for. I never expected to be told what Aurene’s purpose is or what she’s expected to grow up to be.

It’s all about background and context for those of us who don’t want to just rush through, grab the loot and log off.

9/10.

Why can’t we speak to the NPCs in the story instances to get more information? Surely text is such a cheap extra thing to add in.

Why can’t Taimi tell me about this new Krewe of hers at the end of Taimi’s Game? Why can’t the Luminate or Ruka tell me more about Maureen (Aurene) after the final story instance? Why doesn’t Caithe have anything to say? Why can’t Windall give me more stories of his time in the Fire Islands while he’s being treated by medics?

Too many missed opportunities in story telling for a full 10/10 from me.

Ronin.7381:

McKelly.6317:

Why is there a destroyer crab in the room?

As we see in Tarir, they can burrow.

Yes but…. why is it there?

Is it there to tease astute player characters with a new mystery, or is it just sloppiness on the part of the developers? In this instance, I’m going to guess the former.

Ranulf.9285:

I… found Glint’s spawn ugly. In that “We decided that the child of an ancient dragon should be SOOO CUTESY AWW” kind of way. Like, they tried to make it cutesy to pander to easily awed people but wound up making this weird abomination instead, like some Female Humans with the grossly babylike faces.

I’ve never found human babies to be particularly cute, but don’t they say that offspring naturally look cute so that you want to take care of them? I’m sure Aurene will grow out of it as she grows up and look more spiky and vicious like her mother outwardly did.

Unfortunately “Aurene” sounds a lot like “Maureen”.

My wife now calls her “Maureen”.

Electro.4173:

but you never really acknowledge the hatchling directly. No dialogue towards the dragon itself, just to the other characters ABOUT Aurene. You practically ignore her as you’re talking about her to the others.

One of my biggest annoyances about this patch was the lack of ability to talk to… ANYTHING going through the story missions. Oh no wait, I lie, you can talk to that first Asura Researcher in Taimi’s Game who is still grumbling about you destroying his Golem.

I really wanted the Luminate or Ruka to tell me something, ANYTHING new at the end of the final mission installment but noone would speak. Some of them even made the mouse curser change to a speech bubble like it normally does when an NPC can be interacted with… but none of them have anything else to say.

There’s a lot to like, a lot, but there are a few things that have ticked me off.

1. Destroyers can now burn. Legit? Is this just ArenaNet not wanting to kitten off people who use burning builds? It just feels out of place and not true to what they are.

2. The mission to go into the caldera and collect machine parts. There is CLEARLY a large piece of the dwarvern machine down there but we are collecting glitter off the floor. Immersion breaking.

3. Why can’t we talk to NPCs in instances for extra bits of info? I can’t even speak to Taimi at the end of Taimi’s game. Why wont she speak to me?

4. Circus. Yeah yeah I know, they washed up there… but … Circus.

5. Lack of interesting stuff underwater.

6. No book item collecting all the journal entries.

Given most things are account bound I don’t have this issue. I generally log on whichever alt I feel like playing that day.

Very few things require me to be on one particular alt.

Most of my alts are only in Exotic gear too, but if I’m playing for fun, I really don’t care.

Gaile Gray.6029:

SuspensionLand™.

That’s got to be an easter egg. It’s either the title for Expansion 2, or Josh’s next Jumping Puzzle, right?

Joltz.8596:

Its slow enough to feel like a crawl in my opinion. Theres no suggestion or advice that solves the problem im referring to. Only a game change from anet would solve it.

I beg to differ. You could kill the drake that bit your leg. No longer in combat.

Squee.7829:

Mizukiaki.8590:

Hydra will more than likely be on the map, unless they were wiped out from the area between the end of GW Prophecies and now.

They seem to have been wiped out in Ascalon, along with the gargloyles. Only they at least bothered to mention the gargoyles.
And Ascalon didn’t suffer any giant volcano eruption like the RoF did. It had a cataclysm, but hydras were thriving quite well in Ascalon despite it. But then just went extinct for no real reason at all. If the slow gradual “grassification” of Ascalon was enough to wipe them out, I don’t like their odds of surviving the volcanoes on RoF.

The fact that Ascalon had Hydra in GW1 always seemed a bit dubious to me. There were no signs of them in Pre-Searing, and then you moved to Post-Searing and … suddenly Hydras. I wonder if they thrive in inhospitable environments and that’s why they “moved in” so to speak. I never really liked that Hydras were in Ascalon because it never seemed to make sense other than “well at least they’re thematically appropriate given the new environment”.

It would have been nice to see some in the modern-day Fire Islands. Perhaps we’ll be surprised. It would be quite funny if they still cast Meteor Shower.

Almost all I can see in this thread is “I don’t want to have to do Masteries. I want to just do the story then log out ASAP so I can catch Pokemon”. Ok, I may have exaggerated, but jeez, guys.

Gating story behind Masteries enhances the experience, so long as those Masteries are thematically appropriate. I completely disagree with ArenaNet’s decision to remove the original HoT Masteries from gating the story not least because you only had to earn the Mastery once.

Thinking back to Guild Wars 1 both Factions and Nightfall gated the story behind an equivalent to Masteries; either Kurzick / Luxon Faction or Sunspear Promotion Points. This annoyed people at the time but it undeniably added depth. It made you do other stuff to give your main story more context and background.

ArenaNet feel some weird need to constantly hack out the padding in the game because Players keep parroting this out-of-context phrase of “play how you want”. As someone else pointed out – the main Personal Story is gated at levels, and even before the NPE you physically couldn’t complete story missions which were too high a level for you; you’d get wrecked. Masteries are the way you progress your character post-80 and should be treated the same as pre-80 levels.

preacher.9370:

Best example would be temple events in Cursed Shore, namely Grenth’s. Running around there doing map completion a few days ago and seeing chat filled with people complaining about others defending Grenth’s rather then letting it fail.

Also so would see people say its taking to long to reset, so they assumed people were there defending.

Jofast’s Camp is a big one also.

General Health.9678:

MithranArkanere.8957:

at the expense of the fun of other players. This needs to stop.

So your fun is worth more than their fun? Not sure I’m understanding that properly. Also not sure why you’re telling us it needs to stop, we can’t do anything about it.

Not true. Players could just … not let events fail. Therefore, players can do something about it; they can not perpetuate that behaviour. It’s not a case of “can’t”, it’s a case of “wont” and will remain that way unless ArenaNet decides to further incentivise that particular event’s success over failure.

I have to smile when a small group of people successfully complete an event against all odds that others are trying to overscale and fail. Why? Because people can use Caps Lock in all chat to rant all they want but there’s nothing in the rules to stop people successfully completing an event.

General Health.9678:

MithranArkanere.8957:

Players harassing other players, forcing them to fail and falsely reporting them for playing the game as intended

Isn’t that what you are doing?

I’m not sure that any player could successfully argue that ArenaNet designed events with the vision that players would not want to complete them. As you noted they have already fixed collections which required failed events. I think that’s evidence enough that events aren’t meant to be failed whether or not some players find this “fun”.

Henry.5713:

I feel like both sides can take this one way too far sometimes.

Absolutely.

Henry.5713:

Play whatever you want to play. Make your own party with whichever requirements you wish to set but respects others ideas and wishes to run anything (yes this includes a full meta party) they like.

The biggest issue for the OP is that people take the path of least resistance, especially when loot is involved. When someone makes a build and tells you “if you press 1121131121134511” then you’re playing as efficiently as it’s possible to play at the current time" it’s much, much easier to filter out everyone who doesn’t use that than it is to filter people into two groups; “builds that work even though they’re not meta” and “builds that are undeniable fail”.

All that said, the attitude of some folk on this issue is just appalling.

Sesbog.8705:

Condi burn druid rip
Condi burn engi rip
Condi burn guard rip
Condi burn war rip
Condi burn ele rip

If mobs will have immunity to burn, it will be a big mistake

Power based builds have struggled with Mordremoth’s Husks since Living World Season 2.

Players should be incentivized to develop new builds. It keeps the game fresh. The OP seems to be complaining that he has an ascended condi set that will be “useless”. My advice: Keep it. Get an exotic power based set if you can’t afford an ascended set and fall back on that until the Primordus story is over.

Aeolus.3615:

Next arc will be “more than HoT”, fire islands, destroyer dragon.

Just GW2: HoTTER

Is this ArenaNet’s way of saying: “Prepare your Revive Orbs guys, Rising Flames is gonna end you.”?

If they did that you wouldn’t have an incentive to buy the infinite ones, then where would we be?

Skittish.4539:

Hot is heart of thorns. The next arc can’t also be hot. We have to call it something else. Like LoF. Lungs of Flame. That’ll work.

I expect fire breathing dragons.

I prefer LoL. Lungs of Lava.

or maybe RoFL. Rings of Fiery Lava.

Randulf.7614:

simplesimon.2084:

It is going to be rough on any one running burn as there main damage.

Hoping for a mastery or something. They can’t realistically proceed against Destroyers w/o solving the burning dps issue

Actually, I think they can. In Guild Wars 1 foes has strengths and weaknesses to various damage types. ArenaNet haven’t dipped too much into that in GW2. Dredge immune to blind, Destroyers to Burning and Husks have high armour against power based damage. Burning builds have been having a whale of a time against the Husks since Living World Season 2. Don’t forget that. Destroyers are the other side of the coin and players should have to think hard about how’s best to combat them, changing builds if necessary.

If Destroyers were immune to Confusion for example no one would care or have any incentives to tweak builds.

CMM.6712:

tomlin.8204:

Hi,

I played this game since beta but got bored of it, and was rather put off (a little bit sour) by the fact I had to pay full price for the game again at the HoT update, after financially supporting the game as best I could with gem purchases over the years/months since release…

Anyway I’m wondering if there is any worthwhile content for me to return to without paying any more than I already have? I didn’t buy the HoT expansion. If I return will it be the same old grinding repetitive events in Orr and tediously dull dragons for trash items? Is running off a cliff for 10 minutes still the PvP meta game?

I tried to play a few months ago, took one look at the guild halls update and logged off after about 20 minutes. I see there is a new update approaching, are we going to have to pay full price for this one as well? Is it only for HoT players?

No, it isn’t worth it for you.

Agreed.

I really do take issue with this idea that you think you’re having to pay for the game twice. I wonder how much people would whine when, after expansion no 4, the game became less and less populated because new players didn’t want to have to pay £50 then £35 then £35 then £35 then £35 for the core game and all the expansions. Had ArenaNew just accepted they might have to go down the expansion route and stated you’d get the core game free with any expansions right from the start we likely wouldn’t be having this constant I’ll feeling.

I for one support their current model and don’t feel at all cheated that the core game is free with HoT. (Whether HoT was worth what they charged is another debate entirely). Self entitled people just can’t get over the fact that had they waited 3 years they could have had the core game “free”. Sad.

But then I’m one of these players who gets a lot of value out of the game. I speak to the NPCs without voice acting. I read their text. I hang around for the extra story after events finish. I don’t just play through the story one time and call it done. I don’t just resort to boss farming and stagnating my endgame. Guild Wars 2 isn’t like other MMOs and from what the OP has said I’ll reiterate the quote.

It isn’t worth it for you.

Moreover, if all you do in game is boss farm you can still do that without HoT.