Guild Wars 2

Quozex.9430:

Thobek.1730:

I’m just hoping we get to travel there in a boat not some instant waypoint thing. I’d like to think its a massive journey to the islands. I want that epic vibe…

It reminds me of the docks area in Rata Sum. So maybe we’ll finally get to use them. Else it might just be a boat or something in LA, personally a little less interesting.

I am hoping so hard that the Rata Sum docks will be used as the means to access the islands. There are many areas of each home city which see no use, and I’d dearly love to have a reason to go to the docks. I find that Airships are a little too “easy”:

Need to get to an out-of-the-way location? It’s ok, there’s a handy Pact airship going that way.

…how handy.

Amaimon.7823:

Don’t worry, we’ll propably get a trailer tomorrow
15 seconds of flashy text animations on blurry backgrounds
5 seconds of 200000 frames too fast or too unspecific to actually learn anything
25 seconds of displaying the GW2 logo and the date of release

And Wooden Potatoes will still get a 30 minute video out of it :p

It’s astounding really, what you can theorise or deduce from a 1.5 second clip on a freeze-frame. ArenaNet probably know the community will do this and maybe this is why they show what they do.

I don’t want to be told too much prior to release in the form of a trailer, it spoils the release itself. It’s more fun to make theories based on the teaser for a week.

Squee.7829:

If they do make a lot of underwater combat, now might be a good time to buy some cheap underwater pre’s or make underwater legendaries. They’ll finally be desired/worth something!

Mmm… not convinced that’s true without some kind of UW overhaul / mastery system which I reckon would come with an expansion, not a LS Episode.

Wishful thinking!

I wonder if the Current Events will cease and be replaced by Undercurrent Events.

Danikat.8537:

MAJOR story spoiler.

hide spoiler

We now know that the cleansing ritual consisted of a minion of Mordremoth (Trahearne) using a thorn from a champion of Mordremoth (The Pale Tree), in a ritual created by those two to create something that looks a lot like Mordremoth’s vines and/or the plant structures the sylvari create, which we now know is a modified version of dragon corruption. So did it actually cleanse Orr, or did it just replace one form of corruption with a prettier one?

THAT is one of the few little pieces of magic that HoT brought to the game for me. I loved it when it dawned on me, whilst playing GW1, that … maybe the Mursaat’s weren’t all that evil, and maybe their motives were just… but hang on, they were killing my race.

It’s those kind of thought provoking tugs that really makes the story in this game for me.

Napo.1230:

I’m ashamed to admit I’ve got a level 80 of each class and played since release yet I’ve never finished a personal story, after claw island I usually give up. After seeing this i must pull my finger out.

Since you mention that, there’s something I’ve noticed. Levelling up to around L30 feels fast, and levelling up at level 65+ feels fast. That level range in between always felt slower to me. What you say about stopping the personal story at Claw Island resonates a bit with me, because I’ll get to L30 and usually feel like I’m ready to catch up with my personal story.

The Claw Island stuff tends to top me up to L65, and then I often decide to test myself against mobs 5 levels higher in early Straits of Devastation. After that I find myself pushing further into Orr up until a point where I get total toybox syndrome and decide it would be cool to go explore Dry Top / Silverwastes at L72 or so. This generally leads me to levelling through those last 15 levels super quick, and then I realised I’ve totally missed the rest of the story on my way through too.

Soon.5240:

I love this post. I’ve been playing since the Head Start, and I can remember leveling my first Toon and thinking, “Oh, no. I don’t want to get to Level 80!”

I was having too much fun leveling.

I bought another account during the sales a while back and have been slowly levelling up on that, from scratch, with nothing. It was not quite as glorious as the initial game release because of .. cough .. “new player experience”, but it really did scratch an itch for me.

I came to a stark realisation whilst playing though, and I wonder if it’s why people get so burned out so fast. I’ve watched a lot of let’s plays and they all have one thing in common. Hearts. People feel like they’ve gotta do ALL the hearts. My advice to anyone reading this who is new, or thinking about playing – after the first few super quick hearts in the starting zone (where you’re likely getting to grips with the mechanics anyway) just ignore them.

Explore. Find Hero Challenges. DO EVENTS.

If an event almost completes a heart for you, then finish it off. If you find a heart that you genuinely enjoy doing, then great….but you don’t need to do them. General exploration, dynamic events and personal story is more than enough to keep you leveling at a good rate. Actually, for me the leveling feels too fast even ignoring most hearts, but I suppose that’s subjective.

The only downside to this philosophy is because you’re not map completing zones you end up with very few transmutation charges.

Donari.5237:

Your brightly colored text says to get to the bottom of the crater. Under it, in grey, are a couple of steps. One of those is to talk to Bennett in the camp. Only after you talk to him does the green star show up below, at the start of those red streaks leading down to the floating altar.

The green star still points to Bennett though, I think, if you still have to speak to him?

If in doubt, follow the green star, not the written instructions!

I love the levelling experience, and even now, the levelling experience still counts for a hell of a lot of your playtime in GW2. GW2 was never originally designed to be a game that made you want to get to L80 ASAP. There is lots to enjoy whilst levelling up and you can make the game as hard or as easy as you want simply by straying into higher level zones if you feel up to it. Unfortunately players come into this game thinking that anything under max level is not worth their time, and that’s so sad to see.

People too easily forget that the game starts at L1, not L80. These days most players seem intent on getting to L80 instantly and skipping a load of great open world content. Well that’s my view anyway.

I don’t get instantly bored of my alts when they hit L80 however, but I do still love to level up a new alt.

It’s almost like ArenaNet is a business.

Redfeather.6401:

It would be nice if stuff got looked at to make everything equally attractive.

Unfortunately I can’t ever see this being a thing. No matter how many times things are balanced or tweaked the community will always look for the most efficient route. The runes, sigils and builds might change, but I can’t ever see a day when all runes and sigils will be considered equal.

If nothing else, a rune set based around might will always be inherently more desirable for PvE than a set based around, say, chill.

It’s sad in a way. Sometimes you just have to make a new alt and gear it in a really kooky way for a bit of fun and flavour and screw anyone who tells you otherwise!

Danikat.8537:

sorudo.9054:

i don’t want a sale, i want stuff worth my money…..

Such as…?

Colin Johanson commemorative minipet wearing bunny ears and holding a map of Cantha.

GBEW.5947:

Jethro.9376:

Pay 2 Win is paying for an advantage over others.

What you describe is Pay 2 Progress faster.

Progressing faster is winning…

Is it, though?

Pay to Win implies that you buy something with real money that gives you an advantage in completing PvE game content, or competing in WvW or PvE.

We can argue forever on what “PvE game content” comprises, but to me, the PvE content is the story, it’s the dungeons, the fractals and the raids; the stuff that really matters. I don’t consider unlocking skins, whether fine, masterwork or legendary to be content as such; it’s a game feature.

If you required a legendary weapon to complete any of the story, dungeons, fractals or raids then your argument might have a basis. You also don’t need a legendary to “get good” in PvP or WvW.

The closest “pay to win” comes is using gems to buy gold in order to get Exotic gear…but by the time you reach L80 you’ve likely got enough money to buy / craft exotic gear, and probably enough laurels for the odd ascended trinket. On that basis who on earth would “P2W Exotic gear”? I really don’t buy the pay to win argument, sorry.

Vayne.8563:

See, I get gold, but I don’t grind gold.

…

I don’t make gold in the most efficient way possible. But I’m not burned out either.

Amen to that.

The only times I’ve ever found myself really grinding was for my first legendary – I would farm Omnomberries on all my alts a few months after release to fund all the Onyx Lodestones. I farmed pretty hard for the stupid amalgamated gemstones for my Astralaria more recently.

I have 5 legendaries in total and the other three only really got made because I looked in my bank and realised I had the ability to craft one. Doing a little every day in this game really adds up and is often overlooked. I guess, though, players want their prestige loot right now and that’s what burns them out.

Don’t call it “mediocre garbage”. Core maps and the like shouldn’t be thought of like that. None of them are mediocre, or garbage. They are of great quality and enjoyable in their own right.

I would also like to see more of them. They’re relaxing to play through… and that’s one of the reasons why I play this game. The game needs to strike a balance between new zone types being added. There is a place for all.

Dreamslayer.7659:

Account Recovery has to remain relatively lax because there are so many people who legitimately own their account, but don’t have very complete or accurate information.

It’s frustrating because I’m willing to include accurate personal information – my real name, telephone number, etc but because there seems to be an assumption that that could all be fake, or somehow all my information could suddenly change – it does not seem like we can establish a permanent ID in the system and then have recovery attempts be based on knowing or proving that info (as opposed to just saying you forgot all your real ID info).

I seem to remember, back in the day, I got locked out of my GW1 account for likely forgetting the password. I contacted support. They wanted scanned copies of my game card showing the activation code.

Now everything is a digital download these things don’t exist, and that’s a shame. Sure – you get an email with the game code in it, but presumably cracking an email account is as easy to a hacker as it is to break into your game. Perhaps the way around it is to actually send out physical cards to people who buy the game. A hacker would have to be really committed to fly from the US to deepest Poland just to steal someone’s physical game proof. Equally, however, it’s an easy thing to lose – and I’m sure it would not be worth the hassle for ArenaNet to find a way around lost cards.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Sarie.1630:

Ok I Did It.2854:

its pretty painless.

Debatable .

Start a support ticket. Provide proof of ownership. ANet changes your email address as requested.

How is that other than “pretty painless” ?

You’re right; it really is that easy apparently.

My one-word-retort was not meant to be a dig at you, but more how relaxed the support staff seem to be when it comes to personal details and account access. If anyone else manages to “gently coax” the support staff into giving them access to your account then that pretty painless feeling turns into quite the opposite.

I would really rather it was a more painful procedure to make account changes.

Ok I Did It.2854:

its pretty painless.

Debatable .

Ishtar.6457:

Oh wow .. lmao .. well ser/madam .. I will just ask you to .. please .. if you are looking for a job or looking for a new job, make sure to never apply a job as a CS or anything that involves handling people personal info. your primitive statements in this digital era gave me goosebumps.

Nothing I’ve said implies that I would act unlawfully or disrespectfully with anyone’s personal details in my chosen profession.

But my “primitive statement” is correct regardless.

There is absolutely nothing to stop people from acting like decent human beings. The fact that people don’t, and that people like you condone what has been done, is the “reason why we can’t have nice things”.

Ishtar.6457:

The person did tried to do it different ways and tried to warn anet about it but it yields 0 results. Like I said, I am looking all this from the bigger picture, not from just one single incident. Sure it sucks really bad for Gaile, but here we are today with maybe and hopefully a better account security for everybody, thanks to Gaile incident. This thing wont happen if it’s just some random accounts being hacked.

You’re missing the point.

If noone hacks there is no need to “prove” anything.

Ever since I read one of the GW2 novels I’ve thought it would be quite cool to have a way to get around the coast of Tyria by boat. There are unused docks at Rata Sum – perhaps you could get boats from there to the Fire Islands and L.A. Perhaps you could get a boat from L.A. to, uhh, Cantha. Each boat ride could feature small scale fights, a little more in depth than the one on the Airship in Arah Story Mode.

The technology should be there for it, right? I’m not sure how fun that content would end up being though.

Ishtar.6457:

Looking at the bigger picture, I am glad this happen, and I am glad this happen to a really important person like Gaile, because I think sometimes this kind of things is needed. Yes, it’s really wrong to abuse a power like that, but this thing also happens for a reason. Looking at the reddit thread, and all the screenshots, the person did try to warn the people in the game about the security breach and also try to warn anet about this thing months ago on reddit, but anet said it’s impossible to hack something and ignore this person who actually trying to help and warn them to prevent this kind of security breach. My main account is linked to gw1 and I barely play that game, now, this is something so terifying for us customer, especially who buy gems and have all their real info in the game to buy gemstore items etc. I feel sorry for Gaile, yes I really do, but I also thank the hacker to try to prove a point(After countless of time being ignored) Hopefully they fix this terrible mess asap. I wish I can un-link my gw account but I guess it’s impossible.. or can it be done? between ap points and some armors vs my personal info being stolen .. I think I will choose to loose ap and some useless ingame items.

People have two choices when it comes to hacking. They can hack, and they can not hack.

Kitten-holes hack.

That’s it.

You don’t need to hack. Noone needs to hack to “prove” anything. Everyone could just act legally and not freaking hack. They certainly don’t need to do what they did to Tyria’s National Treasure.

Take it a step further. Would you break into your best friend’s house, sell off all their stuff, use their PC to send out racist remarks all over twitter and facebook? No? Not even to “prove” that they have a “security breach” for the “good of the country”? But… you implied it’s good that things like this happen from time to time.

EphemeralWallaby.7643:

I’m sorry to hear that happened to you, Gaile. I hope you get the opportunity one day to kick ’em somewhere sensitive.

~EW

This reminds me of the Big Bang Theory scene in which Todd Zarnecki gets “kicked somewhere sensitive”.

I reckon Gaile’s way too nice of a person for that… but… you never know!

Gaile, you must know by now that you’re Tyria’s version of a “National Treasure”. It’s very sad that with greatness comes a high chance to be targeted.

Belenwyn.8674:

If they want to bundle LW§ with Halloween then I would guess middle of October. Otherwise I am estimating beginning of October.

My initial thinking was this too. They like to lump content updates in with festivals where they can, it diverts the player’s attention a bit more!

To be honest, I thought Bloodstone Fen felt more like they were testing out more interesting glider play and flight combat… perhaps Dominion of Winds is coming next expansion and will be a flight-based home city.

What are the Tengu currently researching in South Kessex Hills?

A Rifle that launches custard pies instead of regular ammo. Each shot plays out a Krusty the Clown style laugh. The custard pies leave a trail of custard in the air and land with a “splat” sound effect. When the weapon is wielded the user will have clown face paint applied and each footstep will make a sound like a whoopee cushion.

I am, of course, not serious. That would be horrific.

I would quite like to see a set of legendaries released that are made up of trophies from the defeated elder dragons. I don’t mean a full set of weapons, just one token weapon which is thematically or aesthetically appropriate, and based on a body part of those dragons… kind of like carrying around a trophy.

Perhaps Mordremoth’s would be a scepter with a blighting pod on the end and all the visual effects that go along with that. Zhaitan’s could be a staff, the end of which could be a load of waggling dragon heads like the ones in his “mouth”. Maybe Jormag’s is a dagger made out of his tooth. Naturally each weapon comes with the usual visual splendour and effects.

Some points are great, some I don’t agree with. Let’s take it from the top:

CaptainVanguard.4925:

Solution:

Not “every” zone, needs a grind, not every zone “needs” gear that is attained via farming regular content, some zones “should” be easy, almost laughably easy because it balances the challenging content and gear from the easier more rewarding content that gives a level of instant gratification.

This I absolutely agree with, and has been something I’ve mentioned before. In any future expansion I’d love to see a mix of meta-event maps and regular exploration maps. There is absolutely a place for both of them. Sometimes I want to play through a meta event and… actually it feels like a more fun way to obtain gear than dungeons do. Sometimes I want to play through a large (often quiet) map and just soak it all in, complete some events and see what extra lore and side-stories I can find. I often find myself going back to some of the quieter core maps to do just this. It would be great to have some more to roam around.

CaptainVanguard.4925:

Solution:

Simply reduce the grind, its time to nerf the amount of geodes you need to collect Amberite weapons, its time to nerf the amount of crests you need to collect Carapace Armor, and theres “nothing” wrong with that nerf since it was “relevent” then, and not now.

I don’t agree with this one. I farmed up almost all of my Ambrite weapons on Tier 4 Dry Tops which were largely unorganised. It’s perfectly doable and just takes a while longer. There are guilds around who organise Tier 6 runs and, even if it’s just for the duration of your completion of those achievements it might be worth getting into a guild like that.

I don’t think the solution is to cheapen the achievements of those players who worked hard to get them in the first place.

CaptainVanguard.4925:

Example: Going through ascalonian catacombs to grind dungeon runs for the tears feels like you’re missing the point. Its not the resorce that mattered, its the loot.

If I kill a dungeon boss, I want a dungeon loot reward, I dont care if its an item I cant use, I dont care if its a duplicate of an item I already own, I “want” that loot as it feels like an “instant” reward.

Grinding has much more effective ways of appearing, in Wrath of the Lich King in WoW the large success of the expansion was lended to the fact there were “multiple” ways to loot things. Not all of it required farming weeks of dailies, sometimes, you could just spam dungeon runs and get loot every boss, even useless trash.

Solution:

If I get a piece of loot I cant use, thats leagues more interesting to me, than getting a masterwork or rare piece of loot that has no value to me at all, TL:DR I am probably “not” going to care if I get a rare, but I will care “greatly” if I get an exotic, even if its one I cant use.

Dungeons could do to drop more interesting stuff, sure… but I wouldn’t like to see them move away from the token arrangement. At least I don’t have to complete the same dungeon 50 times just to get a specific armour piece drop like I had to in Aion.

The most interesting things Dungeons currently have going for them are the recipes for trinkets. They drop so freaking rarely in my experience, but when you get one, it feels kinda special. This idea could be expanded on…somehow.

CaptainVanguard.4925:

The Casual matters, no matter what the hardcore say

Everyone matters.

It is likely true that everyone thinks that every piece of content should be “for them”.

I don’t like Raiding. I despise the attitude of Raiders in EU, and I will likely never be part of that scene. You just have to be prepared to write off that particular piece of content. I have, and I don’t feel hard-done by. There’s still a ton for me to do in this game. Would I appreciate it if a Raid story-mode was brought out…. absolutely! I would never assume, or argue that this story mode should drop full Raid quality rewards though.

CaptainVanguard.4925:

Dungeons: Make every story mode entirley solo, not just Arah, so that everyone can get into explorable without having to waste the effort on finding a group.

That seems a bit sad, really.

Perhaps if story mode dungeons scaled. Perhaps if you went in solo you could complete it but your rewards would be reflective of that. Perhaps if you went in with 4 other players your rewards would be reflective of a full 5-man group. That all probably takes a lot of work on ArenaNet’s part…

Kirschsahne.2081:

It is far beyond me how killing 100000 pocket raptors makes me learning a frog language.
Make Masteries like mini games….. like making logical connection between
words and gestures… as more you understand as more progress you make
until you get it 100%.

Is it really so difficult ????

The idea is sound. Maybe you travel around the world talking to certain Itzel, slowly training yourself to understand their language.

I wonder how long it would take players to start whining that they couldn’t just train up by grinding pocket raptors.

ArenaNet are stuck in the middle of people who want a more immersive experience and people who just want loot, loot, loot and and everything unlocked from the get-go. I wish they’d take a stance more like they did in GW1, where they recognized it was their game, and you played it how they intended.

There was absolutely nothing wrong with having to gain Itzel Poison Mastery to continue with the personal story in HoT, but that requirement seemed to get quickly removed after a tsunami of complaining about “having to grind”. I wonder if the complaints about grinding out Itzel T4 would have been as prevalent if there were more maps to play through before that requirement came into force. Nonetheless, an update comes out removing this requirement from the story step and all of a sudden the game starts to feel more hollow.

It’s encouraging that you require the new LS3 mastery to continue the story. I hope this goes further as the episodes are released. Players scream for further progression, but when that progression is a requirement for the story, it’s seen as an unnecessary grind by 95% of the player base. Similar thing happened with the new profession specializations. Same old players screaming that they want everything unlocked from the start; and for some reason ArenaNet seem to be accommodating it and reinforcing that behavior.

Ayrilana.1396:

Serval.6458:

How could you reach her without using the exact same method to break the shields on the mobs earlier?

Some people cannot connect the two together.

Whilst I did eventually figure it all out on my first playthrough it did take me a while. The Bloodstone Elementals in the section before can easily have their shields drained by accident, purely because of how close they are already to the bloodstone shards, which I think is what I must have done.

You are taught to destroy the first 4 Bloodstone Shards on your way to the Elementals, and then all of a sudden, the game changes.

The only instruction comes verbally from Marjory right as you approach the first elemental. It’s dialogue that it’s easy to miss in the heat of charging into battle, or if the music is playing loud. She could do to have some repetitive dialogue to reinforce it, that’s all it should take. “Hey Poo-bah, pass the Elemental’s shield through the Bloodstone beam!”

Immensely satisfying in the Adrienne fight when the penny did finally drop though. It’s great to see more new non-skill based mechanics being utilised to make fights more interesting.

… and by the way, is Adrienne a Norn, or is she a “Norn” because they wanted a “Larger than normal Human”? Was susprised to see a Norn White Mantle.

I think that they were trying to create a cliffhanger and I agree, it felt a bit abrupt… but maybe it’s meant to be played as part of the full season. I would have liked a little more text to read at the end of the episode. Not everything needs to be voice acted; I think plain old clicky clicky text is a good way to keep those of us satisfied with more optional juicy text to read.

Dengar.1785:

What gives? I thought you were going to give us better quality content?

I’m not surprised by the length. I wasn’t expecting more than any other LS episode in terms of story length.

As for the quality though, did you just skip through everything? The quality of the content put out was extremely high. The way the story is told has improved further. The writing in the story instances is utterly amazing. So to say that you thought they were going to give us “better quality content” – I believe they have and I believe what you meant to say was “I thought you were going to give us more content than you actually did”.

Ayrilana.1396:

Sky is Falling is done in the story instance. Read the text for the achievement to get more details.

There’s a Reversal of Fortune achievement tied to a boss outside of the story instances. Some people say it’s bugged but I’m thinking you just need to break his bar based on that I have yet to see a group manage to do that. Probably one of those ones I’ll just need to wait to end up on an empty map so I can break it myself instead of it being scaled up by dead weight which won’t use their CC.

I was in a map with a bunch of people who managed to kill his breakbar a couple of times. We never got ported up.

Firstly, ArenaNet, the writing in this patch is glorious. The first two instances in particular. Rytlock’s developing into a superb character even more so.

Now onto the spoiler at hand:

Tanith.5264:

Anyway, something to have fun with while waiting for today’s patch. Don’t try to glide at home, though.

Of course not. You gotta go outside, or into town to do that. Can’t glide in your home instance!

E is going to turn out to be Rikkiti.

Queen Jennah secretly visited Logan in his hospital suite during the night and killed him. Rytlock will now be able to channel Logan as a legend.

It will transpire that the carnival workers in Kryta are also members of the White Mantle and Minister Caudecus is their chief clown.

Countess Anise is Palawa Joko in disguise and has both Livia and Evinnia locked away in a prison cell in the bone palace.

Walking into Tequatl’s mouth when he roars will port you into The Bone Palace to complete the new raid wing to rescue the two captives.

Did I guess right?

Filth.1479:

Once you learn to recognise all the €10 suits it’s easy to separate the real farmers/pros from the casual scrubs, ofcourse

If you’re a “real farmer” or “pro” you’re not allowed to buy an outfit from the Gemstore, even if you like it, lest you be downgraded to “scrub”.

Interesting… interesting… I wish the game told you this in the form of a tutorial box the first time you open up the Gemstore.

It would be wise to not tie achievement points into getting a certain piece of loot. I think that’s what sparks a lot of the ill feeling.

I like the feeling of being impressed when I see a player running around wielding a rare skin. I don’t like that feeling to quickly turn into sorrow or jealousy because it’s a skin I require to unlock for an achievement; an achievement I’m never likely to complete because of the value placed on that particular skin unlock.

I don’t think many “prestige” skins currently exist in the game that aren’t a requirement for some kind of collection or achievement… which is a shame. I would defintely be in favour of having skins drop in the game which are subject to harsh RNG but are only there to impress.

Sartharina.3542:

Yeah – the “Account Bound on Acquire” nature of the new stat combos confuses me as well. And it’s not even simply the HoT ones – Zealots and Marauder stats can’t be trading-posted either.

I’m going to guess it’s to stop core-game owners gaining access to HoT stats easily on the Trading Post. Perhaps if GW2 Core + HoT is included with the next expansion then the account bound on acquire tag will be removed from HoT stat combinations.

There is a limited range of play styles in this game. The big ones are DPS, Condi, Healing, Support. I imagine that the elite specializations will, in time, flesh out all professions to be able to easily take on any of these roles, which completely removes the largest benefit a second profession could bring.

Notwithstanding the horror of the idea of the Bearthrowers, the reincarnated Bearbows.

…I trained my children to weep and wet themselves when you mention Queen Salma.

(reference for those who pay no attention to the story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO5RNhs657A)

ArchonWing.9480:

Quality over quantity.

I had no love of those 2 week rapid release schedules. Some of like to take our time and even a month can be too little to catch up if one falls behind.

Also, if they’re going with the same model of getting it for free if you logon during the time, it’s only natural the time period is so long.

I largely agree with you; the two week schedule, when I wasn’t working, was glorious fast paced content…. but now, it would be far too fast, and approve of a slower paced living story. It was certainly tiring on a two-week schedule.

I do wonder, however, if what we’re seeing is another one of those “ArenaNet All-or-Nothing” approaches. If LS3 is released every 3 months then I feel that’s a teensy bit too long of a gap between the story sections, unless there’s some serious meat on the bones of each installment (By “meat” I don’t mean collection achievements).

Angelica Dream.7103:

What ever happened to the GW2 that I bought that promised no grind?

That dead horse has been flogged so much now that it’s broken up into dust… like Voldemort.

Perhaps we could replace it with a Quaggan? See if people are still willing to keep flogging that.

Sylent.3165:

For me it’s gotta be the fear of then trying to fix underwater combat and making the next elite specizalations underwater based. Just the thought scares me half to death and I’d end up leaving till the next expansion.

To be honest that sounds pretty good.

I would say, though, that I would be surprised if any elite specs would be designed to only work underwater. Perhaps one trait from the minor, major and grandmaster lines could be underwater-centric. A big underwater revamp makes sense at some point in the game’s life.

Why would you just assume that because they try to fix underwater combat that it’ll automatically turn out to be bad?

It’s also naive to believe that the content of a 2011 manifesto video would remain their current stance in perpetuity! ArenaNet have revamped this game so many times since release, maybe too many times. As the developer they are quite within their rights to change the scope of any aspect of the game, whether it breaks their “play your way” promise or not.

Ask yourself this. If ArenaNet launched GW2 in the state that the core game is today, without the ability to go on earning endless skillpoints through levelling, if you never even knew it was an option, would you still be making the argument?

Dashingsteel.3410:

In the old system you could get skill points by leveling you didn’t ever have to do a skill point challenge if you didn’t want to.

I do understand your tenuous point, but… saying someone might not like having to do skill points so they shouldn’t have to is like saying that they don’t like having to eat food so they should just get all their nutrients intravenously? “Look mom, I’m living my own way!”

The only potential truth is that it’s likely “easiest” to complete the same hero points on each alt to unlock the elite specialisations, and therefore players feel like they have less options because they don’t want to wait around for help to complete the harder points.

I bet Colin really regretted ever uttering the words “play your own way” given how much it’s been twisted and contorted to mean whatever players want it to mean over the years.

MarkBecks.6453:

where we tried to kill the legendary wyvern with 20 players, and after 20 minutes, boss was on 5% but event failed.

Were there a load of AFKers standing in the caves below whilst only a few were bombing him in his invulnerable phase?

20 people should have downed him just fine…unless you were crippled by AFKers.

This annoys me too, for all melee staff users.

I wish they’d hold the staff more like The Monkey King.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/3/38/Mini_Monkey_King.jpg

Zorbakpants.5792:

- more than 5 hours of content

So you’re implying that HoT has less than 5 hours of content. That tells me you’re probably a “rush the story and quit” kind of a player.

Whilst I am the first in the queue to tell ArenaNet that HoT lacks side story I can also see that there is enough “content” there to fill far more than 5 hours. If collections, achievements and skins are not something you care about…that’s cool, but maybe learn from that and assume that the story for the next expansion wont necessarily be that long either.

warbignime.4610:

Blude.6812:

Making it like HoT instead of like the core game.

I’m sorry WHAT??!! PLZ NO. core game content is literally close your eyes press 1 and win. Seriously find any regular mob, press 1 and close your eyes. The game literally wins the fight for you. How is that fun?

I like the core maps just as much, if not more, than the HoT maps. What I don’t want in the next expansion is a game where every map is a meta event. There’s less incentive for players to go off and find all the side story and bits of lore from all the other NPCs around. You feel compelled to constantly stick with the meta events so you don’t lose out.

HoT suffers horribly from a lack of side story, lore snippets, interesting dialogue outside of the main story itself and interesting things to see after you’ve had a small nostalgia hit from The Falls. Don’t get me wrong, the place is beautiful and the attention to detail on what’s been done is very good. The issue is it’s one dimensional. It’s all about getting to Mordremoth, or doing the map metas, which doesn’t do anything to flesh out the rest of the world.

So when I say I’d like the next expansion to be like the core game, I don’t mean in terms of gameplay; I mean in terms of story and exploration. You can still have HoT difficulty and you can still have multi-tiered maps (though a mix of both would be better – and if we went to the Desert I’m not sure a multi-tiered map seems appropriate), whilst also having the depth and interest that the core game’s maps bring to the table.

I want both nostalgia hits and new lore snippets and mysteries to discover. I don’t just want a rush to the end and the loot box.

On a slightly related note – I noticed that more events got dropped into HoT maps a while back. Veteran creatures and other mini events. It’s just “something to do” while you’re waiting for the meta. It would have been nicer to see side-story events pop up. For instance – you clear out the Colossal Vine in Verdant Brink, but afterwards a priory team decides to investigate the ruins and you learn more about who built them, and why. Perhaps the first time you complete the event you get a book as a reward which needs to be delivered to Gixx and then appears in the Durmand Priory library for you to read. This sort of stuff adds depth, gives the landscape more purpose, and gives you a link back to the core maps.

paShadoWn.5723:

Leather and wool nodes are called “sheeps”.

Oh dear lord yes. Shearable sheep. Please make it so!

Actually in this game it’ll be more like Shearable Hirsute Cave Spiders.

Moyayuki.3619:

runeblade.7514:

I disagree because:

• They’re not grindy.
• I do not want character-based mastery grind ever. This will be much more of a nuisance.

I suppose you missed the part where the OP said that if you don’t believe them to be grindy, then don’t post.

The OP expects only people who agree with him to post on an internet forum? Slightly naive, one would wager.