Guild Wars 2

misterman.1530:

However, the whole meta event is draining, to me at least. It happens too quickly and much too frequently. A constant grind of protect this, take this back, fight the legendary wyvern, rinse and repeat. No sense of progression – nothing changes. If the loot was better, it would be like early SW with more foliage and less sand.

I can definitely see where you’re coming from. One of my gripes is that there are no flavour events anywhere. With the exception of a few rare events, such as the Skelk Regurgitant in TD (and I’m not 100% sure about that) every single event on a map is focused on the map-wide meta. I wonder if ArenaNet decided that after the success of Dry Top and The Silverwastes that map-wide metas was the way to go from now on. If that’s the case, it’s sad.

Don’t get me wrong, I like a map-wide meta, but I also like flavour events. Events that don’t need achievements associated with them, or have any particular relation to the meta, but are just there as curiosities and to diversify the feel of the place. Sometimes when I’m running through a core Tyria map I’ll come across an event I’ve not done in ages, so I’ll stop and replay it. Very, very rarely I’ll see an event I’ve never encountered before and that’s glorious after over three years of playing.

With the HoT map metas you kinda know exactly what events are happening across the map at any time, and I miss the random nature of flavour events, and mini-chains that tell a small side-story.

Asa.3602:

What was wrong with the old event system where you can tag?

You answered your own question.

Asa.3602:

leechers.

I agree generally with the sentiment that HoT involves more “waiting around to have fun” than the rest of the game. In Dragon’s Stand you have to wait around to have fun until enough people bother going to stand next to the start NPCs. If the map timer is near the end there’s more waiting to have fun.

On balance though I’m glad that event tagging has been addressed, I don’t think you have to wait around too long to see an event to it’s completion. I also disagree that Masteries require too much XP further down the line, although it could be made to feel more rewarding to unlock them….. not that I know how that could be achieved.

The big question is this, though. Some in-game events in the past have almost required this tag-and-run tactic in order to stand a chance of getting enough participation overall to receive the rewards. Recent Mordrem Invasion events….I’m looking at you in particular. Will ArenaNet take this on board and scale future content of this type accordingly? Time will tell.

Maybe you were standing in an area of particularly hard air.

If you’re referring to the golem hero point in the West of Auric Basin you can get there without Ley Line gliding if you glide onto a rock near the Tengu and glide from that rock.

Not sure if that’s intentional, but for the time being it’s perfectly doable.

Randulf.7614:

Correct, not all legendaries have footprints unless HoT added new effects that I haven’t seen.

I may be wrong but I was under the impression that HoT’s “special graphic effect” was to change the effect on the arm with with you are wielding the weapon.

Nevermore turns your arm feathery
Astralaria turns whichever arm is wielding it into a celestial-like skin, similar to the gemstore armour skin.

Loboling.5293:

I mean just look at Scarlet, everyone when she was around thought she was some random sicko. Everyone was like: “Scarlet did it because she is CRAZY”. But they were building a much bigger plot. I’m sure we’ll find this is leading u to something big.

This bugs me a lot about the GW2 story. For every one mystery ArenaNet, after years of teasing, finally solve…they introduce far more.

So we met the big bad and we’re supposed to think we defeated him. Maybe we did. Who knows?

Malyck wasn’t explained.
Nightmare Court was hardly spoken of.
What have the Mursaat got to do with the Exalted? Enchanted Armours? Floaty creatures? I’m not buying that there’s zero connection.
Who is the Mysterious Stranger from the Living Story?
Who is E?

…is E the Mysterious Stranger from the Living Story?

Did the Consortium really fund the Tower of Nightmares, and Scarlet’s invasions?
Why did the Consortium do this?

The list of things we’d all like answers to grows and grows. Like a Blighting Tree.

The story did feel short to me, and it really felt like other things could have been explored. Nightmare Court’s relationship with Mordremoth and Malyck in particular. Maybe these will be incorporated into the story of the Raids, or into the eventual Living Story releases. To me, it just feels like it should have been here already.

Soryuju.8164:

Is this the Crystallized Scarab you’re talking about, or something else? The Wiki page for the Glint’s Bastion collection seems incomplete, and I can’t check the collection in-game right now. Unless they changed it with HoT, though, I don’t believe the Cystallized Scarab drops from the Pristine Sand-Carved Cache.

Ah, I may have to stand corrected on that then. The icon looked practically identical to the Fossilized creatures confusion is easy!

You require one for, I think, the Glint’s Bastion collection. You need to unlock a specific bug with it. I figured as much and kept one back. There could be other collections requiring a particular fossilized insect…not checked.

Aomine.5012:

If you have the time and patient to do this boring mining all days, I’d use them on grinding gold on fighting mobs and buy them on tp instead, which is more fun and actually quicker than gathering mats.

The end result is exactly the same, just that grinding gold is actually much faster and more engaging.

You probably can’t see my point either because even mining all days and doing nothing else is considered fun to you. I vote labyrinth grinding more fun than gathering because there’s actually bosses to fight that requires strategy, thinking, and dodging.

I never said gathering was faster. I said it was doable.

Aomine.5012:

There’s no journey other than TP war of hunting those ores.

Aomine.5012:

When you compute those numbers into actual crafting materials, it is this much.
There’s no journey other than TP war of hunting those ores.

I’m not disagreeing that the amount required is high.

I am disagreeing that buying them on the Trading Post the only way to do it.

When I crafted my three legendaries I gathered all the ore for them myself. I gathered that 1000 Platinum Ore… and you know what? Didn’t actually take that long. A couple of hours whilst I watched videos. So 10,000 Iron Ore? 2 hours a day for, say, 10 days? It is doable, indeed, I pre-gathered a few thousand each of iron, platinum and wood prior to HoT’s release so I think I’m in quite a good position if I choose to craft something.

I think ArenaNet’s idea behind precurser crafting is to give you the ability to craft a precurser in chunks. You can break it up however you want. I’d choose to see 1000 Iron Ore as a “chunk”; something I could do on an evening when I’m tired after work but still want to feel like I’m progressing. I’d only have to rinse-and-repeat nine times to complete the 10,000 total ore.

Do you see my point? Probably not.

TL;DR. The Trading Post isn’t the only option. You can gather it…it’s just people don’t want to.

SoulstitchMMO.1396:

If PvE players are so hot for “progression” why not make masteries per character. Wouldn’t that be more rewarding for them when they are going for elite specs?

Where have you been? If you’ve been watching the forums at all you’d just have seen people moaning that they have to work on unlocking things. Players just seem to want everything unlocked for them from the start. Elite specialisations, masteries, skins, you name it…a lot of people just don’t want to have to work on it. It’s not just HoT either; this was also the case at launch; Players on this forum complaining that they didn’t want to have to level to 80.

I like the progression the way it is. The current Mastery system means that if you have multiple alts then the first time you do the story you have nothing unlocked. The second time you might have gliding and mushrooms unlocked. The third time maybe you also have updrafts and speed boost ‘shrooms. This means that each time you play through the story (providing you don’t just blitz the Masteries in a week on one alt) then you get to have a slightly different experience each time you play through. I think that’s nice.

Naevius.3185:

<Swaps to pitchfork and torch weapon set>

Aren’t pitchforks two handed?

Rasimir.6239:

What’s the point in having bronze, silver, and gold, if everyone can get gold anyway?

And no, I’m not a person that’s likely to ever get gold in any of the adventures I’ve tried yet, but since they’re obviously aimed at the competitive crowd I see no use in making them so everyone can win.

You get Mastery Points for getting both Silver and Gold, I think. Given that this is the case, my question to.. anyone listening is: Do you need to complete the Gold rewards on the adventures to be able to obtain every Mastery, or are there excess mastery points?

If you do require Gold Tier Mastery Point rewards then they do seem to be expecting everyone to complete the Gold Tier.

Some Golds are really easy. Some adventures I can bearly scrape a bronze. The difficulties of them vary wildly.

WhiteFox.9432:

Do you think the maps are active enough?

I don’t. I still think the game opens up new maps too quickly. It’s not that it’s quiet, it’s just not busy enough for the meta events to really have a chance, it seems.

Auric Basin is a bit of an exception though. It’s an easy meta event to understand and fairly unorganised maps seem to be able to complete it with relative ease these days. Tangled Depths and Verdant Brink never seem busy enough to actually get anywhere meaningful… and Dragon’s Stand…every time I enter that map there are 20-30 people standing around the start but no-one is prepared to go and wait next to the NPCs.

When it takes players so long to organise themelves in Dragon’s Stand it means those of us who do go straight to the NPCs to kick-start the meta chains are… as Colin would say… standing around waiting to have fun. This might be exacerbated by the fact that I often enter Dragon’s Stand at 20 minutes remaining and the meta’s not been started. I think to myself “what’s the point?”, and leave to do other things, so I imagine other players may think similarly. I suppose I should be checking on LFG to see if there are any taxis up, but the two-hour kick-out timer doesn’t really do it for me.

That’s more than I was intending to type.

In short: They feel quiet.

I unlocked the white wings fine but wouldn’t let me unlock the black ones. I walked into Silverwastes and back into VB and it worked just fine.

Basically it’s rule 1: If in doubt – relog.

May not work for you if a new bug has worked it’s way in, but for me it was just a case of the NPC thinking he’d already fulfilled his job the first time around until I refreshed the map.

You need to have the first Druid trait unlocked and to have the Druid traitline selected as your third trait (note: Elite Specialisations cannot be selected in trait lines 1 or 2, only on 3).

Same applies to equipping Glyphs; the Druid specialisation needs to be “equipped”.

Yargesh.4965:

Another storm in a teacup event. Wonder what the next end of the world will be?

It’ll be when they find out that in order to level a Revenant you can only do so in WvW, given it’s in the mists, in order to attune your new Revenant to the magic of the mists.

Oh, and that you can’t use Level Tomes.

Wahey.

Kraggy.4169:

Well THAT has never been made clear, certainly not in your pre-sale hype!

Those of us who know ArenaNet also know that their plans can change in a second, we know that they hold back information until late. I pre-purchased Heart of Thorns knowing this and expecting this. Too many players take information they release at face value and then twist and contort the hype into what they want to hear. When it’s been twisted enough players then get attached to the idea that they wont have to work for something, like you and your Elite Specs, even though this has never been stated.

Be careful of “chinese whispers”.

It makes sense that you should master the core of your profession first, before you can specialise. I predicted this way back. Way, way back.

It makes sense to me, anyway.

It probably doesn’t to most others given the “i-want-it-now” culture.

People love a reason to complain.

Kraggy.4169:

I was expecting to play HoT WITH Elite specs, not play HoT TO UNLOCK Elite specs ready for the next new content.

“I was expecting to play through HoT having already been given all of the story details by one of the devs, not play HoT to actually find the story out for myself.”

“I was expecting to play through HoT with all the new armour skins unlocked, not play HoT to actually unlock the skins myself.”

“I was expecting to play through HoT with all the masteries unlocked, not play HoT to actually unlock all the masteries myself.”

“I was expecting to play through HoT with my guild hall already built and decorated exactly how I wanted it, not play HoT to actually build my guild hall myself.”

Tim.6450:

Then how is this a sense of progression? The only difference with this and giving it at launch is the timing/cost.

Want a sense of progression?

Put 60 points into the Elite Spec at the start and begin using it. You can then watch it progress as you put more points into it.

BINGO! Progression! Win!

Oh…. OH…. sorry….you wanted INSTANT progression? The type of progression that isn’t progression, it’s the type where you just get given everything. Sorry, my bad.

Tim.6450:

It would be progression if I wasn’t depowered when equiping it while uncomplete.

Use a non-elite spec build until you’ve unlocked the whole tree then.

There are plenty of viable builds which don’t require an elite spec.

As for me. I wont be touching Dragonhunter with my Guardian Main when I start HoT, but I will begin using the other elite specs before I’ve unlocked the whole tree…and you know what? I don’t even care.

Varrg.2704:

Yes, grinding hero points and grinding in general is surely challenging content. My God you Arenadrones will defend anything.

People whined about having to earn Skill Points “back in the day” before they could buy normal skills too!

Most people got over it in the end.

Pezz.4758:

thats either basically doing map complete now in 3 days to find enough to unlock it.

How many times? Map Completion is NOT the same as collecting Hero Points.

NOT THE SAME

Renown hearts and running to “out-of-the-way” locations to pick up PoIs and Vistas are what take the time. You’re probably 10-15 mins running through each zone collecting Hero Points. Less in zones you have likely already partially explored.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

/sigh

(Silver platter) here yah go. The whole game unlocked for you. Enjoy.

Also this. A hundred times this.

I remember back in 2012 asking all of the players complaining that they had to level up to 80 if they would rather everything in the game was unlocked from the start so they could just rush the story and leave. Most complainants I asked said yes. I found that to be very sad.

Shinya.2598:

400 Hero Points…
Wow… I have mixed feelings about that. I like the fact that it wont be “easy” to become an elite spec. I hope you realize A-net that i wanna play HoT as a Reaper, not becoming a reaper after I’ve finnished HoT.
There better be plenty of accessible Hero Challanges early on.

binidj.5734:

I want to explore with my Berserker, not in order to get my Berserker.

Just to put it out there, it’s not hard to already have 60 hero points which seems to be the threshold to unlock the elite specialisation and give you access to the new weapon. Most people will likely have enough points to unlock the first few traits and a few of the new skills too, let’s be honest.

So you likely can begin roaming as an elite spec, but will only have a partial trait tree. Doesn’t seem bad to me…

…but then I like the high HP requirement and “noone else does”, so what do I know?

I see a lot of people equating world completion with earning hero points also. Getting world completion takes a long time. I know. I’ve done it nine times. Running across a map vacuuming up all the hero points is quicker, much quicker.

For the avoidance of doubt:

Earning all hero points in Pact Tyria is not the same as getting World Completion. By far the most time consuming part of world completion is the Renown Hearts.

Personally fine with the idea that elite specialisations are not instantly unlockable on HoT’s release. I’m, sure people will try to skip content as much as possible and bee-line the elite specs because they feel “they’re owed it” and “that’s what they paid for”, but there’s really no need.

To all those players claiming that they paid for an elite spec and now they have to play to unlock it… do you expect every other game you buy to come with everything unlocked too? Do you expect FPS games to come already completed? What a silly question…. of course you do.

This all reminds me of the core game’s release in 2012. Players whined until they were blue in the face that they had to level to 80 in PvE and couldn’t just be level 80 from the start. This is the same thing allllll over again. Same people whining about the same kind of thing. Pathetic.

Presumably, though, once it’s downloaded all the core changes (which in themselves may take quite some time) the game will pass the “Playable” marker, and you can play as normal while it downloads HoT in the background. If you try to enter a Halloween-specific zone such as the Labrynth I would guess it’ll then prioritise the download of that zone so that you can enter.

Consider parking your alts outside of L.A. in a zone that doesn’t see much halloween activity, like Southsun. L.A. in particular, but presumably also the lower level zones too, will see changes and require additional downloaded content before they let you in. If you log in whilst in a zone like Southsun and try to move to L.A. it should then ask you if you want it to download in the background, or if you want to sit on the loading screen, so you always have a choice.

I guess we’d have no more downloaded than we currently do due to potential data-mining spoilers.

Snowdrift Haven, Snowden Drifts.

Often go there if I want some quiet time.

Narrrz.7532:

condis can be cleansed.

Also Resistance!

RyuDragnier.9476:

Zenith.7301:

I like masteries.

I don’t like having to grind boring dynamic events to level them up in Heart of Thorns.

Same here. Had to do so much grinding to get the Gliding. But once I got it, I was in absolute love with it. But dear god did it take a while to get. :/

Can’t that be a good thing, though? Isn’t that feeling of finally unlocking a mastery after working on it for so long something precious that should be savored?

In addition, the first time a player goes through HoT they will have nothing. the second time you push an alt through, maybe you’ll have gliding, mushrooms, and a bunch of other things, then again for the third alt you’ll have more, and each time you’ll get to experience HoT slightly differently, with more unlocks. I got this during that last BWE. I decided to play through the story mission, which I skipped at BWE2. The first time I had to walk everywhere…but the second time I did it…then I could glide down the hill after Braham…and that felt good.

The key word is progression. Masteries are a once-only thing, and there is no sense in making this type of progression so easy to unlock that you’re done in a day. You will only ever get that little boost of joy when you unlock bouncing mushrooms once per account. I think it should feel like it was a little bit of an achievement to unlock it.

Diovid.9506:

In my book grinding is repeating content just for the extrinsic reward (such as xp or gear) instead of the intrinsic reward (e.g. fun/challenge), whether that means repeating one specific type of content or repeating different types of content. Though repeating a variety of things tends to give more of an intrinsic reward and thus tends to be less grindy than repeating one specific type of content.

It is possible to play through the game for the stories (personal, open world, or otherwise) without doing it solely for the XP for masteries.

It is also possible to enjoy grind.

Just saying.

Strength. Go strength.

The funniest cutscene I’ve yet encountered in-game.

HaxTester.9816:

How do we add new recipes? Make longer versions of existing ones?

Honestly I’d settle for that.

They’d end up being pretty expensive I’m sure, but if we’re not going to get any kind of bindable key to allow us to apply food, the ability to craft longer lasting food would be a real treat.

Crimson Clouds.4853:

This. Something may not personally offend me, but if I believe that it’s against the ToS I will report it.

Are you reporting it because you find it offensive, or just because you fancy yourself as a bit of a vigilante?

Different people take offense to different things at different levels. There can never be a one-size fits all approach to online character naming. If I see someone running around with a name I don’t like, it tells me something about them; mainly that I should avoid them. If this is in the open world then I just let them be; they’re not harming me. If, however, they decide to come at me with abuse then sure, I’ll report, block, and be back on my way.

Do I think people should grow thicker skin? Yes. I wish my own skin was thicker, but you take offense to what you take offense to and I don’t think you can change that too easily. The key is to tell yourself that it’s just a name, and what does it really matter in the grand scheme of things? Notwithstanding that, it’s actually alright to be offended – it just means you have feelings, probably unlike the guy running around Queensdale who has chosen to call himself “Kitten Kittener”, or “Kittening Kitten”, or even “Kittening Fairy Kitten”. Reporting people who haven’t showered me in abuse in ways other than their name choices really isn’t worth my time leaving the game and firing up a support ticket, attaching all the screenshots and writing a little blurb about how I’m so terribly shaken up by what I’ve seen. There’s Soft Wood Planks that need collecting, and I’d rather keep on doing that.

Am I right in thinking that if you go reporting everyone for everything ArenaNet reserve the right to suspend your own account for a period of time? If I am, that’s just something to consider.

Duke Nukem.6783:

…..you are mindlessly grinding, but the only difference is your not going anywhere =p

Grinding for skins is optional. As has been stated many times before there is no grind in this game for stats in order to be competitive, or valued in PvE. If you feel that levelling from 1-80 is a grind, then your definition of grind is completely different to mine.

The real reward in Guild Wars, 1 and 2, was and is an aesthetic one. Quite a lot of my friends don’t understand this; they literally cannot get their minds around why someone would not want to grind for years for stats, only to find out that those stats are made obsolete by subsequent expansions. Shallow players crave the power creep and stat grind that other MMOs offer them.

Lord Trejgon.2809:

also this would not make much sense anyway – what one would want to craft with chef 500?

I’d like to see a 500 Chef profession, and ascended food to provide a buff that lasts for hours instead of only 30 minutes.

Lord Trejgon.2809:

and ascended trinckets have already 3 ways of getting them so I doubt they will ever add that 4th (which probably would be easiest of them all)

Jewel Crafter could still be used to create ascended quality jewel upgrades. Currently if you want raw stats you can only slot Orbs into your gear. 500 Jeweler could improve those to Ascended. In addition: Craftable aqua breathers. Doesn’t quite fit with the jeweler theme though. Perhaps Jeweler will be given additional functions later on also, such as ascended bag crafting for things like 25-slot bags or account-wide bags.

uhohhotdog.3598:

I don’t believe in censorship.

I see people say this quite a lot, both on the Internet and in discussions with friends. I’m not sure if it’s amazing, or unsurprising, how many people don’t believe in censorship, unless someone is saying something they don’t like about them, to them or in the vicinity of them. All of a sudden they believe very much in both censorship and hypocrisy! I’m not saying that applies to you, it’s just a general musing.

Further on topic – I write Kitten. I used it once IRL and really did get a strange look for it.

GW2’s reward is aesthetic, not statistical.

One of the aspects I really disliked about Aion was the system for +10’ing, or even +15’ing your weapons and armour. No. It’s an expensive, not to mention RNG, load of kitten, and no. The buzz you get from equipping your +15 Super Bow of Stunlocking Awesome should be translated into the buzz of finally unlocking a prestige skin that you can then flaunt around town and make people swoon as you pass.

I admit, it was all a lot more potent “back in the day”. Anyone know of that animated Jotun Greatsword skin you can get for Karma in Snowden Drifts? I found it while playing the beta and basically bee-lined to it when the game released. For several weeks I had people whispering me asking me how I got that skin, and that felt great! There’s a lot less of seeing a player with an awesome skin you’ve never seen before now and that makes me a bit sad.

Bomber.3872:

No mounts, No duels, No capes!!!

You, sir, are my kind of guy.

It’s not that I’m against duels, as such… but they don’t interest me and as such I’d rather ArenaNet didn’t divert resources to develop it.

I always thought it would be nice if there was a racial legend.

Of course the way racial skills are set up right now with multiple elites and not always enough utility skills to fill the bar rather ruins that idea, but it’s not to say that racial skills couldn’t be altered in future to always give one heal, 3 utility and one elite. Revenants could then have access to a legend of their own race in order to use those skills…if people really wish to play with that kind of flavour. Might be a laugh in open world.

When you go to a sandwich shop and buy a sandwich, do you go back the next day, claim you’re a veteran, and demand a free sandwich?

We’ve had pretty decent free content for two years running. I say two years because this last year has been a bit of a drought after the final Living Story episode. If you’re played from release, for three years, and you don’t like that ArenaNet are wanting a bit of income for a much larger amount of content, then I think the line back has to be “sorry bud, sucks to be you.”

Doam.8305:

What do the core specs get!?

No new weapons, skills, or traits at all it all goes to the elites and heck there even less than what they were before since Anti-Toxin Spray was removed over the summer. Most people will be using an elite of which I have no doubt however they may not be using there main toon for that elite but rather the elite of an alt for the early bits of HoT. this wouldn’t be a problem if the core specs recieved some new skills but its to no avail.

I….sort of think you miss the point of the whole elite specialisation idea, my friend.

Professions already have a core set of weapons, utility skills and specialisations. That makes up the core profession. The core set doesn’t need more love. The elite specialisations provide a little more L80 variety, and expand your profession in new ways.

Not everyone will necessarily be using their elite specs. In PvE I doubt I’ll be using DragonHunter on my Guardian. I just don’t really see the point, honestly. It’s not about it " not being meta" as other people try to argue – It’s simply that having tried it in the beta I don’t find it fun. Not at all.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

It’s a very different game. In fights it’s one of the old style, “stand there and duke it out.” There’s normally not much to any moving around. Your char stands in one spot and throws out spells or does melee damage. There is also no jumping or swimming.

It’s certainly weird going back to a game that doesn’t allow you such freedom of movement. That said, definitely worth playing out if the OP is open minded. I went back to GW1 on a new account for a laugh a couple of months ago, after no playing it for 4-5 years and had an absolute blast. Starting with nothing and unlocking everything my heroes needed was so much fun. I initially intended to just play through Factions having had an itch to go back and see Cantha again, but once I finished that, I found myself completing Prophecies, Nightfall, Eye of the North, Sorrow’s Embrace, and unlocking the first 20 items in the HoM just for fun.

I’m against the Elite Specs being available below L80 for a few reasons.

Firstly, the existing content was created without the elite specs in mind and, in my opinion, elite specs could detract from the leveling experience more than they could add to it. They may end up trivializing non-80 content too much.

Secondly, and more importantly, the elite specs give you something to look forward to at L80. People have complained for three years that there’s nothing to do at L80…well soon there will be. There will be Elite Specialisations and Masteries, amongst other things. I think Masteries alone would not cut it because once completed on an account they cannot be re-done. Elite Specialisations will be unlockable each time a character hits L80. I think that’s special, and should remain so.

No longer should players be left thinking “well now I’m 80 do I just grind out dungeons?” No, now you can see your Profession from a whole range of different perspectives (enhanced further with new Elite Specs in future).

Azala Yar.7693:

I just log in, I prefer it that way, been doing that in MMOs since 2004 and have never had any issue with security.

That sounds like famous last words!

Unless you’re moving all over the place and playing the game you should only need to authenticate once. Given that for an extra level of security, what do you have to lose?

It’s up to you though, of course.

I’m using Google Authenticator. When the SMS system came out I decided to try it, but given it took them over 2 hours to send me out the first message to get the thing set up I quickly decided to revert back to using the Authenticator, despite the SMS’s inherent advantages.

Blaeys.3102:

For me, a prioritized list – from most exciting down – would look like this:

• Guild Halls

Really? Ok, takes all sorts! :p

For me it’s the new areas ripe for exploration. You can only see something for the first time once. An obvious statement, but it’s an easy thing to not take full advantage of. I’m really looking forward to seeing new places, and new interpretation of old GW1 maps.

Tasao.4623:

Frankly, these BWEs are getting perilously close to reigniting the magic I felt exploring Queensdale or Wayfarer Foothills or Caledon Forest for the first time.

I have to agree with this A few times I found myself getting a buzz out of “happening across” a Mastery Orb when I least suspected to. For instance, in the cave on the south wall there were jumping mushrooms. “Yay.”, I thought, “Now I can use these with my newly unlocked Mastery”. “Bouncy..Bouncy..Boun…Hey! Orb!”.

I have decided that in my first playthrough of HoT I’m not going to bee-line for Mastery Orbs, and see how many I just find through the general course of exploration. Not realising there’s one nearby and finding one without intending to feels far more rewarding than bee-lining for them all and feeling that brief frustration trying to work out how to get to them. It’s a bit like the game saying to me “Congrats. You got here through curiosity led exploration rather than content speed-clearing. Here, have a Mastery Point!”

Tigaseye.2047:

One of the best healers I met, in WoW, used to hope for new/less good players, as they made the game more fun and challenging for him.

I played a Cleric in Aion for quite some time, and by the end, I would help out the newer/less able players also, for the exact same reason. It scratched a challenge itch I had and it was hella-fun.

When it comes to AP in GW2 – all of us recognise it’s a bad measure of skill, but honestly, how many of us don’t cringe when we see a 500-AP player join the party? I think a more open minded view after free-to-play starting up is going to be crucial though. It’s like the game is starting again and there may well be plenty of sensible players trying out GW2 from other games that need those of us with AP in the tens of thousands to overlook their 500AP and show a little patience.

Finally, an observation. About a year into GW2 people were asking for “minimum 4k AP” players to join their groups, and these days it’s usually around 6k AP. The kind of people who impose AP restrictions in their LFG posts don’t seem to have increased their own AP very much in the last two years when a point total over 15,000 is very common to see these days. Even 20,000AP is becoming extremely common. The LFG posts never seem to take this into account.

Kevan.8912:

But in most (or all, maybe) MMO’s, a certain good gear is required for endgame content.

If you choose to believe certain people that’s true of GW2 dungeons right now. Most groups gearcheck these days to make sure your gear is ascended with the right stats and the right runes & sigils.

Raids is going to add a Mastery check on top of this.

Ohoni.6057:

It’d be interesting to see some “challenging group content” that would not see you fighting a boss, but instead a hardmode defense event consisting of waves of Mordrem, and creatures under Mordrem control. Zerging works well for players versus the content, in order to make the content trivial…I’d like to see this reversed, and start seeing the content zerging the players.

The Marionette and Vinewrath lanes fit this pattern in various ways, and I think it’s a fine play style. There are elements of it in other dungeons and fractals as well.

The Marionette and Vinewrath are… ok… but very easy. I’m thinking more in a five/ten man instance where the content can be controlled enough to be difficult.

I had forgotten about Path 3 of CoF, where you have to hold an area against the Flame Legion. I think this section sort of replaces a boss fight and it’s almost the kind of thing I hope to see more of. Take your eye of the ball, and you could get swamped. Swamped by reasonably easy foes who are all running out of your AoE, trying to keep their distance from your melee, heal each other up and control you. As a player you need to be aware of which monsters are still in play and what they can do, not to mention where new foes might begin joining the fight.

The management of a fight like that is far more interesting to me than one boss encounter.

I’m less of a fan of single boss encounters.

I prefer a fight, such as a defense event, whereby you are assaulted and flanked by multiple enemies. I enjoy the different management each wave, or type of foe requires and I think that such a fight, in place of a “big bad boss fight” could be diverse enough to really give each party member a well defined role. I’m skeptical as to whether a single boss encounter really can achieve that; maybe I’ll be proved wrong.

With the small betas we’ve had access to in HoT so far I’ve already seem potential for foes to be substantially more brutal, and enough of a threat in large numbers to be challenging for a group of players to fight against. The closest thing we have to this so far, I reckon, is in the Dredge Fractal.

It’d be interesting to see some “challenging group content” that would not see you fighting a boss, but instead a hardmode defense event consisting of waves of Mordrem, and creatures under Mordrem control. Zerging works well for players versus the content, in order to make the content trivial…I’d like to see this reversed, and start seeing the content zerging the players.

Zaxares.5419:

I’m actually curious about those. They reward AP and Mastery points, but will those points remain even after the BWE is over, or when HoT is released?

One would presume the points would not remain. Colin has said on a previous livestream that daily achievements earned on beta characters do not remain on your account because the beta character, it’s progress, and everything it earns is tied to that beta character, and when it’s removed, you lose all you gained.

If AP is tied to those achievements it should “disappear” just like everything else when the beta slots are deactivated.