Guild Wars 2

Prophet.6257:

Anyone else think this name sounds pretty corny?

Definitely “high concept”!

;)

Linken.6345:

Just read that link again and they lied in it

Some professions will be getting a single main-hand or off-hand weapon, but each weapon should really open up some new playstyles for a given profession.

No profession got a single main-hand weapon if they dont change the engineer to mace instead of hammer and then they lie on the.

To me a two-hander is a “single main hand weapon”. It is used singularly; without an offhand.

Brother Dulfite.5793:

I’m curious what everyone thinks these announcements will be?

My personal guesses: New non combat activities and leaderboards to encourage continued growth of the community in a positive and horizontal way (stuff that actually is popular and could have leaderboards, like an in game card game where we get a separate wallet for playing cards that we collect over time and play against other people, for example).

I’m not sure why you seem to assume that the other announcements will relate to HoT specifically. It read to me more like Colin would be announcing more about how GW2 will proceed after the release of HoT.

Perhaps, just perhaps, there will be a concrete release date announced. Other than that I would expect to hear a note on how quickly the living story will restart after HoT’s release and some very broad, non-committal plans on where they think they’re going with the LS, and future content generally.

narwhalsbend.7059:

darkaheart.4265:

so i really want this sword and i know i have to play gw1 to get it but the question is, whats the minimum i have to do in gw1 to obtain 10 Hall of monuments in gw2?

has anyone done this just for the sword? and what did you do in overall?

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fiery_Dragon_Sword

You should play GW1 for the enjoyment instead because it’s a fun game.

I played GW1 to death years ago. Recently I decided I’d like to play through again so I began on a brand new account. It is still fun. Hella fun. Unlocking everything again, gaining all the heroes, playing through the story was all fantastic. I would thoroughly recommend it. I played it a few hours a day during a fortnight of downtime and completed all campaigns, Eye of the North, and Sorrow’s Furnace. Took me somewhere in the region of 60-70 hours and got 20/50 unlocked on the HoM calculator – now the property of one lucky friend.

Enough points for the Fiery Dragon Sword took no time at all really.

Nike.2631:

Whips. Animations for them are already in game (some nightmare court use them).

I would adore whips. Whilst there are animations for them, if they were to be given to, say, a Mesmer I’m sure there would be new animations created for them anyway.

Snowdrift Haven.

I love the isolated feel of that fortification, and the Snowden Drifts scenery is generally fabulous. If ever I want to just “stand somewhere I enjoy” it’s always Snowdrift I think of first.

jgcd.6041:

This isn’t the finished product, just something ANet is allowing us to play with.

It should be a product that ArenaNet thinks is in some way viable, otherwise what would be the point of the test? You don’t put out a product that you know is broken for people to test, because if you know it’s broken, you know what criticism you’d get back for it… so what would be the point?

Lots of people, both on the forums and in-game like to parrot “omg it’s not finished yet just wait for Shiro”…but it’s not about waiting for the other legends or weapons, this thread is about Ventari specifically.

ArenaNet must think that they’re in the right place with the legends they’ve put out so far, and I don’t think they are, certainly with Ventari.

I’d like to spend a little while setting out my thoughts on the Ventari legend, for what they’re worth. It would be interesting to see if others share my experience, or can tell me what I’m doing wrong. This thread isn’t really about the lack of damage a Revenant can put out – that particular horse is being flogged in other threads.

I tried maxing out healing power as best I could and trundled into the Silverwastes as there are usually plenty of people to heal up in there. I equipped all the out-going healing effectiveness traits and equipped the Monk runes. The additional healing that you receive from that huge investment in gear and traits is very, very little. Let’s take a look. Base heals on skills before healing effectiveness takes effect:

Staff #4, Renewing Wave. No HP: 1332, With HP: 1983

Ventari’s Will. No HP: 827. With HP: 1218

Natural Harmony. No HP: 1657. With HP: 2308

Purifying Essence healing per condition: No HP: 332. With HP: 463

We’ve all known for a long time that Healing Power is a very difficult stat to justify taking. Even with +40-50% from outgoing healing effectiveness (if I’m correct in understanding how it works) those heals are nothing when you compare them to the following:

Personal Heals

My Guardian’s Shelter with a full berserker build heals for four thousand, five hundred and fifty five (if I type that number it translates it into “kitten”). Only me, I accept. For a Revenant to facilitate a heal of that magnitude on themselves using the Ventari legend and staff for Staff #4 and Natural Harmony, they would still only give them a self heal of 4273, and they have to get the tablet (or themselves) into the ideal location, AND they have to sacrifice stats for Healing Power to make that work, when my Guardian does not. My Guardian also gets a two second block on top.

Group Heals

Revenant excels a little more when it comes to group healing, but in my opinion, it’s not enough. The clunky, awkwardness of Ventari has been mentioned on the forums before. Since other professions can utilise so much swiftness and many movement skills, they can have moved too far before a Revenant has reacted to the situation and spent 0.5 seconds commanding their tablet to move, followed by another ~0.5 seconds waiting for the tablet to physically move. Perhaps this would work better in more structured group content where you can reliably know where your team will be.

My engineer, which does not stack healing power, can blast it’s healing turret for a 1320 heal, and place it’s Mortar Kit #5 on top of allies to (over 4 seconds) facilitate a 1480 heal. That water field can be further blasted by anyone. 2800 is already a pretty reasonable group heal when you remember that everyone has their own dedicated healing skill anyway, and for the last 3 years, has done pretty well without the need for large scale group healing.

Final Thoughts

The idea is cool, the implementation is clunky. The Ventari utility skills feel too weak for the stat investment that they feel like they crave. It looks as though the Ventari legend has been created to fulfil the role of the Healer. In the last PoI we see Colin saying that Staff + Ventari is supposed to be “very very supporty” – it was quite clear from listening to Colin that hugely supportive players would have a key role in the new expansion, in particular with the “challenging group content”. My concern is will a fully geared Healing Power Ventari Revenant going to be able to compete (in terms of group healing) with a Sinister stat Engineer, or Berserker Ele with plenty of water fields to blast?

The Healing Fragments on the elite don’t stay around long enough. Five seconds isn’t enough time for other players to notice that they’re there and run over to them. The Engineer bandages stay around for a long time, why can’t the healing fragments? If you’re on TeamSpeak with a group of players then maybe you could give them a heads-up that you’re going to pop your elite and your top DPS-ers should stop what they’re doing and run over to pick them up, but this just ’aint gonna happen in open world.

So, what is it? Am I playing it wrong? Is this Legend made specifically, and only, for the HoT Challenging Group Content? Does it exist because the Challenging Group Content will require a healer and the traditional Trinity?

“We never said we don’t want to have the DPS and the tank and the healer in the game, and I think that’s a common misconception.” #ColinSmile.

Seth Moonshadow.2710:

Wishful thinking, Crystal Desert. There is more in game that points to Crystal Desert by far than Isles of Janthir. Have you spoken to JoAnna in Stronghold of Ebonhawke?

If the Living Story isn’t still dealing with Mordremoth after the expansion, I’d expect th Crystal Desert might be the next place the LS will take us. I haven’t spoken to this JoAnna, but I’ll look her out. Notwithstanding that, we have the desert gate at Ebonhawke, the “obvious” future zone portal in the bottom right corner of Mount Maelstrom, and the crossing point from Orr to Crystal Desert via the Scavenger’s Causeway that could all be potential future Living Story progression maps.

I’d love to see the latter – it could be a way to show us how much of an effect Trahearne’s ritual actually had, and allow us to see Orr “after the cleansing”… that said, it’s a strange place to start if you’re going to the Crystal Desert I suppose.

Slightly more on-topic, regarding Janthir, I suppose we could see a portal to Janthir from the Exalted golden city. I wouldn’t expect it with the expansion. I’d be keen to see Janthir also, however, but not as keen as I’d be to see Cantha.

DresdenAllblack.1249:

Each week we receive no info it makes me wonder if we’ll see HoT before the Mad King.

It’s like Anet is running covert ops.

The Mad King is stealing all the blog posts before ArenaNet can upload them. The new Halloween patch will have us fighting the Mad King in his realm to get blog post fragments!

In all seriousness though, I’m not sure you should pin your hopes on any information this week as there is a WvW stress test to keep ArenaNet occupied!

Dark Saviour.9410:

The ‘intelligence’ is what ruined them for me.

I see it as a case of Elder Dragons having several tiers of monster. The grunts (trash mobs), the Generals (foes like the Eyes of Zhaitan – they seem to have a bit more autonomy), the Champions (Tequatl and Friends), then the Dragon itself. I got the impression that the humanoid Mordrem are more than the Mordrem we see in the Silverwastes. Kind of like “Mordrem +”.

Dark Saviour.9410:

Risen should not be saying, “Death Good”; they should have no opinion on death, nor any thoughts whatsoever. They should just be tools to spread Zhaitan’s influence, and he himself should not be capable of thought in any way we can comprehend.

I always considered dragon minions, regardless of rank, to kind of share a hive mind. If Zhaitan thinks “death…good” it seems quite plausible to me that even his gruntiest of minions would think the same.

I guess we don’t get to hear the thoughts of the current Mordrem, Destroyers, and the like because they don’t use the spoken word to put forth their views.

If Zhaitan didn’t, in a way, “hardwire” his undead minions to kill on his behalf, what motivation would they have to even rise from the ground? Perhaps their limited “battle cries” (for want of a better expression) is simply a by-product of Zhaitan’s control.

Dark Saviour.9410:

In any event, Zhaitan at least should not have had minions capable of vocalizing any level of intelligent thought. That mouth of Zhaitan needs to shut it.

Of all Zhaitan’s minions, regardless of rank, I’d say this one has the greatest legitimacy when it comes to talking!! He reminds me a little of the Mouth of Sauron.

starlinvf.1358:

I’d expect them to be Nightmare court, even if their origins aren’t with the Grove. I fully expect them to have mechanics similar to the Toxic Alliance, which have more player-like skill sets and the downed mechanics. With some AI changes to include group dynamics, the ability to rescue downed allies would make the new Mordrem incredibly dangerous if organized.

I’d love to see more use of the downed mechanics used by foes. Actually, they remind me a lot of the Wardens of Cantha. Perhaps they’re abominations grown from Malyck’s tree since they’re humanoid.

Dark Saviour.9410:

I’ve honestly lost almost all interest in the dragons themselves; once they stopped feeling like unpredictable forces of nature, they just end up kind of worthless to me.

After the Zhaitan fight, it’s hard to imagine what a re-designed elder dragon fight in Guild Wars 2 could be. I don’t think we’ll end up killing Mordremoth though. There was an interview between Colin and Matt Visual some time ago now, where Colin was asked if we’d be killing Mordremoth in the expansion. He didn’t say yes. Ever the politician, the answer was diverted to something he wanted to talk about.

Perhaps we’ll just be putting Mordremoth back to sleep. I’d be fine with that anyway. It’s about the rewards, right?

I have a hunch that the new humanoid Mordrem, such as those we saw in the beta, might be a little more intelligent than the current Mordrem, or the “This one, kill” Risen. Might make them a little more interesting. Jury’s still very much out.

Primordus and Jormag clashing with the player in the middle, trying to “mediate” like a dragon therapist sounds like a cool idea. By “mediate”, I of course mean “slaughter” and by “dragon therapist”, I of course mean “hero”. I have a hunch that Primordus might become a priority in the same expansion that (may or may not) give us Tengu as a playable race. Going by the going on in Kessex Hills I suspect that Primordus’ minions will be the Tengu’s motivation to engage with the rest of Tyria.

I don’t think the Kraklatorrik campaign would take us out of the crystal desert, but, it would leave an opening for ArenaNet to introduce us to Northern Elona through the living story.

Personally? I’m most excited to see a Bubbles campaign. It seems like it could be the most unusual setting, with maybe a focus on the Largos (Largos mastery, anyone?). I’d love to see a full underwater overhaul come with it with new underwater weapons and new underwater Masteries such as use of undercurrents for fast travel. Perhaps even underwater specialisations. Not to mention that it could give us an “in” to Cantha somehow as I am of the understanding that Bubbles is currently stalking the unending ocean.

I’m very glad they got Zhaitan out of the way in the original release. I do find undead in games to be tiresome and overdone, although getting to see Orr was amazing.

Opportunity Cost.

That’s why not.

Cantha Confirmed.

#ColinSmile.

TheRandomGuy.7246:

Meanwhile threads like “remove cripple from hyenas” exist and people qq that ac is hard.

I’ve not heard anyone qq in a long time that AC is hard. In fact, the last time I remember that being a complaint I was playing the original open betas.

The hyena thing is no different to risen mobs disrupting you as you run through Orr. It’s not that they’re hard, it’s that people are lazy. So much so that even dodging is considered too much energy.

I do think that there is some truth in that many of those people who complain that there is no challenging content do also post to complain about features in the game which are intended to provide some tiny challenge, but they consider to be annoying and therefore must be removed. These people are kittens.

Mem no Fushia.7604:

• mobs that steal endurance,
• mobs that steal vigor,

These would definitely be potent as it’s the dodge function that gives us so much survivability. Foes that have this effect could help shake things up a bit more.

• mobs that rez allies,

This came with the Tower of Nightmares and I really hope we see it again. The Mordrem we know of now feel like they’re expendable, re-growable pieces of the dragon and such simple minds perhaps should not be able to revive each other. The new humanoid (seemingly intelligent) Mordrem that we’ve been seeing in the beta, as well as corrupted Sylvari – hell yes, having to interrupt foes reviving foes would be great.

One of the harder aspects of GW1, I found, were the foes that could resurrect each other.

There’s another train of thought I’d like to throw in at this point. It’s often the case that people focus too much on one boss. I have always found combat to be far more engaging and fun with multiple foes to contend with. Groups of less harmful foes can be a lot more fun than one big bad boss with his telegraphs, in large part because of how you have to consider how to control them, chain blinds onto them, interrupt them, ball them up, etc. I wonder if this is what they’re trying to achieve with the Pocket Raptors.

Frost.1503:

Nice Idea.
I would like also the mobs move out from the corner.
Example: In that point the mob understund that there is a concentrate damage and move out from there in a better place.
I don’t have a solution but I do all dungeon in corner -.-" (or kicked)

Again, the dungeon stacking thing could be avoided by making the Monster move around. Monsters in dungeons don’t really do this. They could be programmed to dodge away from walls when they take a certain amount of damage, back to the middle of the room/arena. Another enemy NPC could portal them to a different location at random points throughout a fight, again, to get them away from a wall. Alternatively they could just be programmed to walk to a different place at certain percentage health markers.

I think the only thing that might stand a chance of eradicating stacking is if the foe actively kited players, perhaps leaving damaging/snaring effects behind them as they run like Terragriffs in the SW.

When you take a moment to think, there seems to be a lot of ways which could be employed to make combat more challenging… no idea if any of them would work well enough to have an impact. After all, as Tequatl (initial redesign) and the Bloodtide Wurm have shown, after a short time people get used to fighting them, and when the “new strategies” are worked out they’re “just another piece of trivial content”.

rapthorne.7345:

It’s an understandable concern. ANet need to get their fingers out and give us info. They need to stop with this utterly absurd “We’re only going to talk about things when they’re 100% iron clad and set in stone” policy and just talk to us.

Thing is, they don’t even do that. They seem like they do that, but it you listen carefully, especially during the specialisation livestreams, they are always telling us (as well as it being evident from the in-game footage) that certain things are still in flux or just haven’t been designed yet. Feels a bit like HoT is being rushed out to please the Publisher.

Perhaps a better course of action would have been to had LS Season 3, and then announced HoT, since in the later half of the year we have many more festivals to “keep us entertained”, unlike this long period of time where we’re twiddling our thumbs waiting for the next specialisation reveal.

I’d actually be OK if HoT didn’t come until 2016. I’d be in a more comfortable position to play it by then, but I still find myself becoming very impatient at the lack of information they’re willing to divulge. They shouldn’t have announced it so soon.

FrostSpectre.4198:

1. Mobs like Charge/Lunge Teragriffs that will use control effects

The thing that makes these monsters doubly tricky (and therefore interesting) is that they move out of AoE. All. The. Time. Both the Teragriffs and the Vile Thrashers. It forces the player to CC them before laying down their AoE which brings another dimension of combat to the encounter. The CC that these monsters throw out is fairly easy to avoid.

It might be a plan to have more foes move out of AoE more generally, to make the control aspect of the game more viable. Perhaps they should also kite melee attackers (Centaur archers already do this a lot), and line-of-sight ranged attackers such as Rangers and Engis. All of this combined might help in making combat feel a lot more engaging, and bring some underused skills into play.

starlinvf.1358:

What about a trait that changes the Combo field types from one to another?

Ruins the flavour of the skill I think.

I wouldn’t mind an option to toggle on and off that allows my combo finishers to prioritise my combo fields over anyone else’s. That way if I want to stack might or swiftness I don’t end up stacking a load of retaliation.

Kythan Myr.4719:

Hey, remember when they made Teq more “difficult”, and all that was a HP buff. I can only imagine what the community would do if there was truly more difficult content.

This is exactly my thoughts. I suspect that a lot of people who complain about the Teq changes also complain that there’s no “hardcore content”.

Yes, the game is certainly dumbing down, and PvE is far too easy to play through, in particular with regards to the Personal Story. I would tender a couple of additions to the system:

When a new player begins the game they can only play through the game with the NPE turned on. After their first character reaches L80, new alts will have the NPE turned on by default, however, further options will be unlocked. During character creation the player can then choose from a few new options.

[ ] New Player Experience (Default)
[ ] Experienced Mode (Returns the leveling experience and rewards to pre-NPE)
[ ] Veteran Mode (Experienced Mode + the ability to play through story missions at any level)
[ ] Iron Man Mode (Veteran Mode + Permadeath on defeat. Speak to an NPC to claim a bag of your dead character’s gear)
[ ] Non Waypointing (Disables waypoints for your character – they must now walk everywhere, or use Asura Gates)

I remain hopeful that foes in the new L80 zones will provide more of a challenge than foes in the rest of Tyria. We’ve already seen an improvement with the Silverwastes Mordrem monsters which require players to employ different tactics if they want to defeat them easier; Immobilize/Interrupts for Vile Thrashers and Thrashers, Condi or Hybrid builds for Husks, awareness of character orientation when fighting Wolves. I hope to see this go a bit further in Heart of Thorns.

I think it might be inevitable to see HoT monsters become “too easy” over time, as players get more used to them, though. I think this is the case for any content in any area of the game. Does anyone remember the whining about how much crowd control the risen monsters had in Orr shortly after release? Noone bats an eyelid now. You know when to dodge, when to block, how to run through areas.

Am I OK with it? Well I’m not OK with existing content being made easier, and the Personal Story is now exactly that. The bunching up of story sections into 10-level blocks of story is fine, but the difficulty needs to be maintained. I’m trying leveling a new alt from zero, without scrolls or tomes to see how the game has changed. Now I’m Level 45, and have 2 full specialisation trees with grandmasters…this alone makes a massive difference, and as was pointed out in WP’s video, you don’t even need to buy gear as you run through the game…what you drop, or receive as a reward, is generally good enough.

Pifil.5193:

Over a period of 2-3 years how much new plant growth do you really think you’ll see in soil that has been reclaimed from salt water where it was for 250 years and also corrupted by an elder dragon?

To be fair, it is a fantasy game… and there are wizards!

I’d like to see some link maps, one day, stretching from Cursed Shore to the Crystal Desert, which could potentially take you through the “new, lush, green” Orr, following Trahearne’s cleansing.

I believe that was the hints that came before Southsun.

Silhouette.5631:

New LA? Please, why are you going to go into the heart of the maguuma jungle, grab a glider, and then leave YOUR DIEING COMRADS to fly around LA. SRSLY

This made me laugh so much.

“See ya later, KittenLords. Mordremoth can wait, I got a JP to cheat in Lion’s Arch now my glider mastery is maxed out.”
“But Commander, Mordremoth is just around the next hill!”
“See my face? Does it look like it cares?”

ehm

I got to wondering if a lot of the new traditional jumping puzzle content that we might see in HoT will end up being covered, such as in a cave or with carefully placed collision foliage to prevent glider-cheats.

Resubian.5823:

Same thing for me. It started literally right after I downloaded that patch. Sometimes I activate a skill and it doesn’t go off for a full minute after. Yesterday I tried doing guild missions with my guild and everyone was rubberbanding around. My ping normally stays around 50 and since the patch it sometimes jumps as high as 450. Even if my ping stays at 50 I still have extreme skill delay.

I’ve seen my ping go as high as about 2500 before!! I’m on fibre broadband and never had an issue before last night. The spike lasts a few seconds, often then the NPCs disappear and I lose all health. The only way to make NPCs respawn is to waypoint.

+1 to big lagspikes here.

Friend in the nearest city is also reporting them.

The weird thing is when all the NPCs disappear, and then seconds later, all your HP are removed and you insta-die.

Am I missing something?

Do we actually know that Glint will be an Elite Spec? I didn’t think so, I rather assumed that Ventari, Jalis, Mallyx, Shiro and Glint would represent the 5 core specialisation lines of the Revenant. Isn’t it conceivable that a sixth legend will be brought to the table when they finally get on with announcing the elite specialisations?

When I play a lot my drop rates take a dump.

When I stop for a week and come back there is a marked observed increase in rare & exotic drops.

Conspiracy theory? Maybe… Still a valid observation. I don’t care one way or the other – when I’m playing a lot I am doing so because the game is very fun to play at the time and the fun is often reward enough for me.

Magicus.4302:

I’m referring to this: https://twitter.com/GuildWars2/status/614560129573351424

Please remember that a very large portion of your player base doesn’t agree with the court’s decision today.

It’s amazing how freedom of speech is a right that advanced countries are very proud to support…

…until someone disagrees with the views of another…

…then they’re just being plain offensive and should stop talking!

The hypocrisy is real.

EDIT: Remove post please – the karka screenshotted is a dummy. Achievement completed.

My final Karka Hatchling is supposed to be in “Sanctum Harbor” according to the achievement hint. Instead it is in “Farshore Ward”, and no matter which direction you fire from, you can’t hit it.

Location screenshot attached.

I am often prepared to defend ArenaNet, to friends, even in these dark times. Whilst I am very excited for tomorrow’s patch there’s been one thing I’ve been thinking for months now given just how much the game is about to change:

Have we been playing a Beta for the last 3 years?

I also love the way the UI looks. It could do with more customisation – moving aspects around, like we could in GW1, but the painterly theme generally I like a lot.

Arioso.8519:

If Anet wants SOME angst but not maximum, He’ll find her bow in wreckage of the pact fleet, (possibly with her pet) but no signs of her. He makes use of it himself, while frantically trying to find signs of her survival and eventually Eir returns as a druid after wandering the jungle after whatever odd plot stuff happens to her.

I quite like that as an alternative.

I don’t particularly want to see Eir die, or any of D.E. come to that. Oh. Logan. The jury’s out on Logan still.

VergilDeZaniah.3295:

So it’s quite clear Braham is becoming a Dragon Hunter, but does that mean Eir die? Or will she become a Druid?

What do you think about it?

I don’t see any reason why ArenaNet could not kill off some of D.E.

It could be very plausible that Braham picks up his mother’s bow and decides to slaughter with it in her name.

Seems to be a marketplace seller, right?

In the UK the marketplace sellers are horrific. half of my orders don’t get dispatched, even though the companies claim to have dispatched them, and I end up having a fight to get my money back.

On the basis of how untrustworthy marketplace sellers are in the UK, I would suggest you give them a wide berth….but maybe they’re more regulated in other countries.

Dawdler.8521:

The strange thing is… I see it available for pre-order in lots of stores. Well respected ones at that, not shady internet sites. The largest hardware stores in Sweden are all selling it and state its HoT expansion only, the cheapest going for around €35.

Is this because it’s an ArenaNet website deal that if you buy the HoT expansion as a new player you get the core game for free? I don’t know for sure…. but it seems like it could be an explanation. Digital versions elsewhere may be expansion only and people should be wary of that if the product description is not as you might expect.

ArenaNet breaking their wall of silence really could help, but maybe I should give them the benefit of the doubt as it has been the weekend.

Arioso.8519:

Three new maps

Where is this stated?

I’ve seen that maps will have “3 distinct biomes”, but never an ArenaNet statement on how many new maps there will be.

SkiTz.4590:

jihm.2315:

what the kitten is wrong with people this days?
the expansion price is good and fair .
simple as that.

Maybe to you.
But for veteran players who have been supporting the game for years, its a slap in the face to not AT LEAST give them 1 free character slot to try out the new class…

as it stands I would have to pay 50 bucks + an extra 10 just to fit the new class…
You think thats FAIR? your definition is slightly different than most peoples…

I’ve played GW2 since the first open betas, and Guild Wars 1 before that – pretty sure I count as a veteran – and I agree with jihm, the price is fair and fine.

The only criticism I have is that the standard version doesn’t come with a character slot. I have a few friends who could have really used a character slot thrown in with that standard pack and I feel a bit sorry for them. This doesn’t affect me directly.

When I think of the content we’ve had in the past 3 years, and the content we’re likely to get after HoT release, hell yes it’s a fair price to support a game that’s been entertaining me solidly for three years, and am confident that it will in years to come. ArenaNet is the only developer I’m prepared to extend this trust to.

Anyone who thinks it’s too expensive. Wait it out for 24 months and pick it up half price. Problem solved, right?

Jski.6180:

Quiznos.4296:

Core game for new players.
~2400 gems for vets. (Whatever 3 characters slots is)
I could go for that.

As it stands now though, also a bit strange, the core game is no longer for sale… So we can’t even compare price points.

Why do vets have to pay twice?

The the thing your not paying twice your just getting something free. If the base game was not there would this still be an issue? Just ask your self that.

This is precisely what I’ve been saying. If ArenaNet could have kept the “free core game” clause under wraps, how would the community have reacted to the news? It couldn’t have been kept quiet of course.

I have only one complaint about the packages & pricing. My complaint is that there is no character slot bundled into the standard pack. Feels off to introduce a new profession and not give out a character slot at standard.

I understand the thought process behind those complaining that “veterans should not have to buy the core game again”, but it sounds an awful lot like “I only want to pay £5 for the expansion instead of £35.” – and that’s not really fair. The price of the standard expansion is pretty reasonable (very reasonable if it actually came with a new character slot).

“Anyone opting to not purchase the HoT expansion by release will be granted access to an exclusive area in the west of the Silverwastes where they can link arms, sway around campfires, and chant about how they only want to pay £5 for the expansion content alone whilst everyone else happily plays HoT on the other side of the wall.”

I implore ArenaNet to make this a thing.

I see the Core Game inclusion as a sweetener for new players. The expansion price seems reasonable to me. There has been a lot of “free” content released to players in the last 3 years. I would ask people to take a long, hard look at their account – particularly those who have played since release and are still complaining about price – to kitten the value for money they’ve had out of their purchase since they bought it. If I pay even £60 for the deluxe version now, I am sure I will easily get my money’s worth out of it before the next expansion hits.

The only problem I have with the structure is that I feel the character slot should have been included in the standard package. If you’re releasing a new profession, just give people a free slot on which to try it. Notwithstanding my opinion on it, Standard game + character slot is cheaper than the deluxe version, so anyone wanting only a new character slot should keep that in mind.

Shear-able animals.

Just saying.

Oak da Vite.9054:

Would you pay Gems for personal AFK-Animations?

Absolutely not.

Sorin.4310:

What would you suggest as a change to retaliation?

Just make it work such that when someone looks at you they take damage over time, but if they hit you they take more.

Some people will never, ever be happy.

Sigh.

Diovid.9506:

No elite specialization reveal this week (otherwise we would have had a teaser on monday).

The teasers can come as late as Wednesday, can’t they?

Regardless. I suspect that the announcement this week is that the LA & Core Spec patch will be “coming soon™.”

ProtoGunner.4953:

I like this game but the non existent endgame in this game is what bothers me the most. I like to have a raid or hard instance with unique drops to make the ultimate gear (in the GW2-context skin-wise).

Thing is, skins are very subjective. What is one person’s absolute favourite over-the-top bells-and-whistles completely oversized pauldrons is another person’s worst nightmare.

If I, for example, didn’t like the skins that the “raid or hard instance” had as a reward, would I be justified in claiming that there was in fact “no endgame” as there was nothing of interest to me?

ChoChoBo.6503:

Teoman.3016:

If you want something to show off to people, the only thing to get right now imo would be full radiant/hellfire armor because you’ll need a crap ton of achievement points.

full set of hellfire already… AP isn’t really a bragging right anymore so I don’t put it on at all, I do have 6k permanent AP that I’m proud of and wish I could show off.

Are you saying that you actually have a full set of Hellfire?

You need 30,000AP for that I believe.

Top player has just nudged over 28,000AP.

As for showing off AP, isn’t that what the titles every 5,000AP are for? Or the specific titles for, say, completing the meta achievement under certain categories.

Notwithstanding the comments above, because MMOs tend to become larger and larger I’ve treated the endgame as myself getting ready for the next installment.

TheBlackLeech.9360:

kash.9213:

Like badges of honor for World vs World, that’s a pretty straight forward system you’re describing.

no. It really isn’t.

It kinda is.

How does a developer keep you playing? One of the cheapest ways would be to keep you striving for something, such as a specific skin or gear tier. If you got “non-rng based loot”, as you seem to want, you would no doubt run the content a few times, claim you have everything, and that there is no longer any endgame content. I’m going to be controversial here and suggest that RNG isn’t always the demon people make it out to be. Yes, it’s very easy for developers to abuse, and the chances of an item dropping could seem too low for the input they require (cough Black Lion Tickets), which by the way, is partially subjective anyway. In terms of challenging content, however, would you really continue to run it even though you’d “got your loot already”? I’m sure that a lot of players would not.

Linken.6345:

Yea better start deleting dont sell them or anything by all means

Deleting or Selling – Whenever anyone chooses one of these options and gets rid of a load of … pretty much anything currently considered useless, you can bet on ArenaNet developing some amazing use for them shortly after.

Celestial Pigs.

Xillllix.3485:

It might be possible to get theses skins one day if Anet actually cared about WvW and PvP achievements.

Right now these armors are for PvE players only.

WvW and PvP are a calling. Players should resign themselves to the blunt fact that they are there to be played for the standalone enjoyment they provide.

If I want something from a game mode I don’t enjoy playing, I decide how much I want it, and if it hits the desire threshold I suck it up and play another game mode.