Guild Wars 2

what a noble fellow. his actions affect no one and he just amasses gold for the sake of it. but let’s assume not everyone is as kind and humble as wanze. what if some of the trading post flippers were gold sellers?

what if they were making tremendous amounts of money off of ridiculous trades (flax seeds) and selling that gold to a now impoverished player base. wouldn’t it make sense to get rid of the traders?

the dungeon runner who was told he is too rich has to now tolerate lectures from the tp flippers…more than a few eyes are rolling.

as to the new expansion and player rewards…wanze if you think 2 armor sets in a paid expansion is plenty-i don’t what to say to you. a shameless apologist? a fool? who knows and frankly who cares.

players know hot has next to nothing on the skin side. the expac not only has no loot but we now have less gold to purchase what little there actually is.

it’s rather obvious that anet is effectively bankrupting the player base. the actions are twofold(at least).

1) nerfing rewards for doing content…see here dungeons but also a devaluing of what is dropped in open world content (we shouldn’t discuss pvp because pvp’ers have always been paupers). simply put the mats and items that players aquire are worth less than they were before and the new ones, as well as many of the old, are channeled into never ending sinks (pre cursors being only the most notable).

2) they have put all loot on the gemstore. how does this impoverish the playerbase? simply put your gold(what little of it you have) is now effectively worthless. there may be an item or two on a wishlist but by and large the desirable items on tp are effectively out of reach of most players-making gold worthless.

if the game dropped numerous armor sets and weapon skins(as a paid expansion should) players would have a tremendous number of options for purchase…as it stands the veteran player has probably bought 90% of the skins they desire off the trading post-and there is nothing more in the pipeline.

why would they do this? a rather obvious push towards making all gear purchases thru the gem store. at the same time gem conversion via gold is frankly impossible(as everyone is broke)..time to whip out the credit card.

it really does feel sleazy and cheap particularly for a new expansion. they throttled the excitement and opportunity to delight a content starved player base..and instead spent their time designing systems to promote gem store sales (i’m not anti-gem store but i am against everything new being on the gem store).

notes-i do find it odd that they nerfed dungeons (content) and the traders are having a field day. wanze said he made 500 gold in one day-one wonders why they haven’t cracked down on the traders? a transaction limit should be rather easy to implement-the outliers will stand out from normal players.

running down a path and fighting 3 mobs of pocket raptors isn’t a ‘challenge’ it is just irritation..in auric basin even the boars have turned surly.

basically every 3 feet of the way there is a ‘stop’ to fight a mob. and has been discussed previously-there isn’t a point to any of it…they don’t drop any loot. this is fighting for fighting’s sake-if practice golems dropped silk scraps it would be the same experience.

and in fact we have seen players so enthralled with the new maps that they are doing things like cof1 mob killing…trash mobs are just that-trash. you would hope the time spent fighting would give some reward…

yeah they made a game and forgot the loot…i know the long term plan is to impoverish the player base but man we just bought this thing and we got nothing in terms of loot (armor/dyes/weapons).

the environments are unique yet there is nothing of interest in them. there is a huge city for the exalted (a very strange culture) and yet most of the loot you find in the battles near it could just as easily be found in queensdale ! .

2 new armor sets is not enough…not even close. adding insult to injury are the endless amount of new items being offered in gem store-based on the expansion we just paid for.

anet fix this…put the artists and designers to work making armor/weapons/dyes/qol changes.

the problem is we didn’t pay 50 bucks for the promise of things to come..we paid for what we thought was a content rich expansion. by content i mean not just maps but new armors/qol changes-more emotes anyone?/dyes/and reasons to play the new areas other than grubbing for hero points.

it’s offensive to see the massive gem store push just days after the expansion launched (outfits galore ^^;…). why not have those jungle dyes you know actually be drops in the jungle!

the lack of content combined with the gem store cash in makes hot feel cheap and thin.

it does feel like dlc…or a f2p expansion (not a 50 buck paid expansion). there is next to nothing in the way of discoverable loot in the new areas. all arrows point directly to the gem store (new outfit anyone ^^;…).

i don’t care if they leave it as is or nerf it-what i’m asking for is a reason to fight them. i mean the ‘hardcore’ pve’r (i wonder how these ‘hardcore’ fellows would fare in say pvp) might enjoy hours of fighting trash mobs for silk scraps and crappy loot-not me.

without loot, armor sets and weapons specifically, this is just grind for the sake of grind. oh here’s a veteran smokescale just wandering down this path next to a group of beetles next to some tigers…and after i finish them off i have a few pairs of cabalist gloves! yusss…finally….

but it is press 1…and then press1 again..and again. and for what-that conjurer coat i always wanted? trash mob fighting is for the simple minded or again the new player-hey they might not have seen a set of chain gloves yet.

but for veterans fighting these trash mobs dropping the same loot table as any mob in orr..it is lame.

it isn’t a whine. 2 new armor sets in an expansion is not acceptable. for those that like outfits and looking like everyone else-hey great! but some of us like individuality and customization.

all we want is some semblance of balance here (you can keep wearing outfits)…but we want new armor sets too. i know this is a money issue (anet makes more money off outfits-by a large margin) but this is also an expansion that we paid money for. that expansion should have armor sets and weapons by the wagon load..what we got are some leftover designs and only 2 of those. not acceptable.

Wuselknusel.4082:

Well, players cried when they were releasing armorsets in the gemshop. Well, they don’t anymore, now they release outfits.

players are crying that they only release outfits…do you think they will stop releasing outfits?

i never have understood this desire for tough trash mobs. honestly what is the point of fighting these endless enemies that drop nothing of value? it’s disheartening to have to fight literally everything every step of the way (why are the insects so angry anyway?-every beetle/wasp/grub in town wants a piece of you).

fighting trash mobs is just slowdown crap..no satisfaction if you beat them. and these mobs are fairly uninspired (i’m really not excited to fight animals…not out of ethical concerns-but out of jesus god another kittening beetle concerns). the various mushroom heads and faceless mordrem are boring.

not only is the loot terrible (same stuff you see in any gw2 map) but anet missed the boat with the creatures..where is the truly weird stuff/humanoid enemies (not barklickers). the jungle should feel truly strange but it feels like some insects/cats/and angry cabbage patch kids (shroom heads) are just in a bad mood.

they made an expansion but forgot to add loot-you know the reason you might want to stay and explore the maps. after spending hours in the jungle it is more than a little frustrating to go back to dr and see all the old gloves and coats that dropped as loot.

when you go in you fight..fight…fight…and fight ! but nothing drops-nothing unique to these areas. you would think you would be picking up unique armors and weapons along the way to advance the lore and immerse the players…but not here. what you get are the same blues and greens that you would find in any open world area.

however, there are a ton of new ingredients and baubles to clutter up your inventory! but there is nothing in the way of new armor/weapons -you know the things players actually want. how you make an expansion that is based on fighting constantly and give no reward for the fighting is beyond me.

the expansion is beefy if you have never played the game before but veterans will quickly find boredom and little replay value here.

Carbon Footprint.3421:

They are just hoping us ‘skins’ folks will either convert or go away.

i think your completely right..and frankly they would be happy with either option- obviously happier if we decided to just buy outfits but just as happy if we went away (so we would stop talking about armor sets).

and newer players don’t even really know what were talking about anyways. as they are so conditioned to gemstore outfits that the idea of customizing armor is foreign to them.

the thought process behind the gates for elites is still troubling…and 250 is still too high. anet had to do this..they didn’t have a choice-it wasn’t as if they are doing us a favor by lowering this cap.

they took something (400) that was mind numbingly unreasonable and turned it into 250…something that is still insane. a compromise in the way that getting burned alive is better than being hanged.

no winners here sadly. anet looks like a company completely out of touch with their playerbase.

outfits obviously make anet more money because of the outfit treadmill. people that buy outfits have to continually buy more to look ‘different’ if only for a day or a month. so it’s a cash grab but shouldn’t the paid expansion have more than gem store offerings?

i would actually be ok if there was a semblance of balance between outfits and armor sets. but as of now (and the expansion just released!) a net has given up on armor sets and frankly skins as a reward.

there is nothing in the expac to diffrentiate myself from someone who didn’t buy expac…we either are wearing the same armor from core game or the same outfit from gemstore. it frankly stinks.

missed opportunity to add much needed depth to these environments. off we go into hot in our three year old armors.

still too high but something that is at least workable. reason has prevailed…to a degree.

the problem is skins are not going in the game. 2 armor sets for the entire expansion. another outfit out today…

it is shocking. they released 4 new maps and only 2 armor sets. regional armor sets presented an opportunity to get players interested in the new areas..

but they decided to go outfits only (and in fact infuriatingly seem to be releasing a new outfit each day). after a year and a half 2 armor sets. so instead of unique armors we are running around in the new areas in the armor we have been wearing for 3 years.

of course from a pure greed perspective it makes sense (outfits make money) but from a paying 50 dollars for an expansion perspective it feels like a ripoff-and brings up the tough questions..what exactly were you guys doing for a year and a half?

these threads deserve to be bumped…players are very unhappy with the lack of armor sets. hopefully colin listens to this feedback.

buyer beware. you cannot play the new specializations upon purchase. ymmv on the new maps (many hate the verticality/jumping puzzle nature of it). there is precious little in the way of loot…only has 2 new armor sets…and a few weapon skins.

i know it is difficult to not purchase if you like core game. one would assume that no matter bad it is they must have done some things right. hot however has very few redeeming qualities. as the poster above said i would at least skim thru some of this thread before purchase:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/hot/Elite-Specializations-Hero-Point-Feedback-Merged/first

hot feels like a kickstarter gone bad (they took the money and failed to deliver). anet has managed to strangle the genuine enthusiasm of thousands of fans. i do imagine some of the devs honestly feel for the plight of the players-this decision was made above them and they can either quit or just go along.

but it doesn’t change things…we paid 50 bucks for the opportunity to grind 400 hero points. forced to play content that is at best unappealing for the chance to ‘try’ out one of the elite specs that were showcased as the main selling point of the expansion.

because let’s be honest the elite specs are all there is to the expansion (2 new armor sets!/a thin selection of skins). they have to gate it because no one wants to explore the new areas for zero loot.

65 pages in and still no meaningful response or even acknowledgement that a problem exists with the elite spec gating. nothing…not even a post. is this how anet ‘listens’ to passionate feedback?

Michael Patricius.4369:

I paid $100 for access to classes (elite specs) which are locked behind a map-grind.

PvP players get immediate access to their elite specs, but still have a separate Maguuma mastery track. Should be the same for all players. My $100 is as good as theirs.

I might actually enjoy the mastery system if I could approach it casually, instead of having my class mechanics locked behind it.

WvW hero points rewards are far too little to make up the difference.

Right now, I’m holding off on buying HoT for my wife and kid. They simply WILL NOT grind to unlock their elite specs. To hang-glide, yeah sure, but to play their class? No way.

things aren’t that rosy on the pvp side. we got nothing in this expansion. one new map that isn’t a pvp map (stronghold) that no one plays. a few new reward tracks and that’s it. we don’t get hero points for playing so unlocking elites for playing pve with friends is impossible.

a literal heart of thorns.

i don’t think there is much they can say. this is all they have and the gating (err ‘hardcore’ pve…as if the best players were playing pve ) is absolutely necessary to stretch what little content they have.

there is literally no reason to go to the jungle other than the hp’s and i suspect that many will go once and grit their teeth and then never go back..many others will dip their toe and just never go back. all the ‘hardcore’ pve players will tire of it and the maps will be as dead as drytop.

in the process they have kicked their loyal veteran players in the teeth with a grindy small content release that feels cynical and cruel. the reason veterans are passionate about this issue is not because we feel ripped off by this gated feature pack (altho we do). hey it’s 50 bucks but i’ve wasted 50 bucks on bad computer games before.

no we feel angry because we love playing the game and hate to see it flounder like this. further, there are no ‘fixes’ in the future-if it took them a year and half to come up with hot (?!?)…how long would it take them to make something good?

ColinJohanson.2394:

Hey folks,

Lots of passionate feedback and discussion in here on either side, and a friendly reminder that constructive feedback helps us make better games (please do keep it constructive!) We don’t always get every detail perfect the first time, but I like to think one of our strengths is we’re always open to and listening to feedback from our community and making good decisions based on that feedback…..

Thanks again!

you know it sounds nice to say these things but are they even true? has anet listened to our passionate feedback and made better games? one could argue that hot is actually inferior to core gw2… are they making good decisions based on our feedback?

im really not trying to be rude here-just honest questions. because after a year and a half of our feedback, while you developed hot, you seem to have concluded that jumping puzzles, tough trash mobs (dropping blues and greens) and gated specializations are what the players want. was this listening to us? were these good decisions?

here’s some people having fun with the new content
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5H8o1XRlew

Beldin.5498:

Selkirk.4218:

it is a big issue. 2 sets is absurdly low for an expansion they worked on for a year and a half. the reason we love the core game is because of the vast amount of customization we had (5 races/8 classes/30+ armor sets for each weight class…)….now with hot it’s outfits and one class.

Yeah .. we didn’t get any new sets in the gem-shop since we got the wardrobe, beside
the carapace set, so i expected that we at least get quite some new sets now.

But that together with the unfun unsoloable content where you have to grind
to get masterys that you only need to play content you will never play again
as soon as you have them … it really one of the last nails in the coffin

i totally agree. not only is the new content unfun but there is really no reason to do it (after looking at the hp requirements i laughed and went back to pvp)…i have given up on the idea of playing a new elite in pve.

but new armor sets are something i actually would grind for…and would make sense-hey its a new area! but instead we are stuck with the same sets we have had for 3 years. further,it just guts crafting. i mean other than ascended why on earth would anyone choose armorer/tailor/leatherworker?

so for me the game hasn’t changed much (if at all) since hot release…i’m playing pvp and i got no new armor sets, some new reward tracks (one of them laughably has the makeshift weapons as a reward!) and a new map that i don’t play because it isn’t a pvp map (stronghold).

it is a big issue. 2 sets is absurdly low for an expansion they worked on for a year and a half. the reason we love the core game is because of the vast amount of customization we had (5 races/8 classes/30+ armor sets for each weight class…)….now with hot it’s outfits and one class.

evilunderling.9265:

IIRC, last time we tried to figure out how populated the game really is, we came up with an answer of something like 2.5 million. A 2600-post thread is a significant event, but a self-selected sample of less than 0.1% of the game’s population tells us nothing.

Also note that that thread is going to include a tonne of debate and mudslinging, which will bump its post count far higher than you’d expect a thread to ‘naturally’ obtain.

i think these are fair points…except that the ‘debate’ is completely one sided (people hate the masteries and hero point system). the only people defending it are the same people that posted in the ‘thanks anet’ thread .

further the level of dissatisfaction is remarkable only 3 days in. as veteran players we are used to lame content and if hot was only bad we would be seeing largely positive posts (with the ‘negative’ threads being bug reporting and edge cases).

however we have seen the community, desperate for content-any content, frankly disgusted with hot. hot is precisely the opposite of what we love about the core game. hot is unpleasant in almost every aspect and that is reflected on these forums.

while we don’t know exact numbers obviously…we can at least make educated guesses by comparing threads. say the number of people posting in this one on page 1:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/hot/Elite-Specializations-Hero-Point-Feedback-Merged/first

and the number of people that posted in this one buried on page 9:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/hot/Thanks-Anet/first#post5649042

people are complaining because the content is so distasteful. the maps have such a negative burn factor that the very idea of visiting them is barf inducing.

after a year and a half of zero content people will put up with a lot just to get a little.
somehow anet has made a product so lackluster that people want to bail after 2 days…

if this was 3 months of development that would be fine (hey they messed up..try again). the problem is this was a year and half of development at the expense of the core game.now what? we wait another year and half and hope they come up with something good this time?

i’m not faulting the effort just the misguided ideas behind hot (seriously what player was asking for mazes with jumping puzzles populated with powerful trash mobs?).

i guess the most troubling aspect of the hot release is they actually thought/think they did a good job with hot. you can sense they are caught flat footed by the largely negative reaction to hot..just as they were with the recent invasion event.

the devs are unaware of what we like about the core game and in fact seem unable to create compelling content anymore.

hot feels soulless and cold. no charm. the ideas they had were bad ones. i say this not to be mean but im staring at a pig in hot and i’m all out lipstick.

i don’t really feel scammed as much as dissapointed and confused. they spent a year and a half on this…this is all we got. if you are going to make a very limited content release that content needs to be really good-hot is not good.

the reason we are upset with hot is we actually enjoy the core game and after 3 years would like to have seen a great release…but we got hot.

the people defending hot would defend nosepicking as a fun activity.

i don’t know why anet thought combining jumping puzzles with powerful trash mobs (hey i finally got that blue i wanted after a 3 minute fight ^^;) was a good idea.

the maps lack any sort of charm..there is no pleasure in exploring these tiny trails that lead to deadends and roadblocks-and fighting these mobs at every twist and turn is just lame.

after 20 minutes i feel so depressed i just log out and never want to go back-how is it possible they made content this lackluster and uninspired?

the maps are really bad. cramped railroads leading to nowhere. been playing pvp not even setting foot in new areas.

yeah dis aint good. 2 sets and very conservative for all weights..well one of the sets (i think medium) has a diaper…might be good for fetishists.

thanks for update on the timing (honestly i thought it was at 3pm tomorrow).

any news on the tim allen mini? still possible for hart of thrones?

so i heard in map chat that the expansion for gw2 is going to be released sometime (possibly soon)…anybody know when?

also is it true they will have a tim allen mini in hart of thrones?

yeah im sort of ok (but not really) with not knowing anything about the game…i’m not ok with the pvp thing tho. i mean am i wasting my time on these reward tracks (essentially wasting time playing pvp at all this week). if i get to say 90% of a track will it transfer/the old track stay/gaining ranks is worthwhile or worthless?-going from level 32 to 33 for instance…will that all be wiped out?

Ayrilana.1396:

Selkirk.4218:

this is a good question…i played all three beta weekends and i feel like i know nothing about what’s coming. i guess what’s stranger is that there aren’t previews on gaming websites etc…

not that much internal hyping. recent notes have been largely bad ones-dungeons nerfed…guild missions/fractals not ready etc. it seems like they would really want to show this thing off and get some good press from tenton and other gaming sites but…

Have you read the blogs and watched all of their live streams?

i’ve read most of the blogs..can’t say that i’ve watched any of the livestreams. i would actually prefer to have this information (just basic stuff regarding pvp for instance) in one place-slogging thru livestreams looking for nuggets is too tedious.

i mean historically haven’t companies had big previews with gaming media shortly before launch of an expac? shouldn’t the website have all the information i need to answer basic questions…instead it feels like bombs are being dropped in the week before release (again dungeon nerf…fractal leaderboards…guild missions…the list does go on). and further it feels like further delays are going to be revealed on release date itself.

this confusion is created (perhaps intentionally but i don’t necessarily think maliciously) by anet and the lack of transparency on even basic features(and their availability on release).

this is a good question…i played all three beta weekends and i feel like i know nothing about what’s coming. i guess what’s stranger is that there aren’t previews on gaming websites etc…

not that much internal hyping. recent notes have been largely bad ones-dungeons nerfed…guild missions/fractals not ready etc. it seems like they would really want to show this thing off and get some good press from tenton and other gaming sites but…it’s not the case.

to pvp i know we are getting one map and leaderboards and new rewards but i know next to nothing about leaderboards and the new rewards. it’s frankly a bit frustrating as i don’t know if what i’m doing this week in pvp is all for nothing-does reward track progress transfer(im gathering it does not)? how will new ranks work? just basic information here.

i’ll probably stick with my vanilla engineer for pve..but i will at least try scrapper for pvp-depends on how balance is in pvp.

Gav.1425:

Don’t kill old content to increase value in new content. Make me want the new content through the content itself and new unique rewards.

this..times 10000000.

they should have launched halloween this week and then let hot have it’s own weekend release.

i think the releases are timed so if hot has massive bugs/login problems/just isn’t very good/is still in late beta stages…oh look halloween ! .

Guys grinding for a legendary is the definition of solo play-the worst possible kind of solo play but solo play nonetheless.

and who can know the calculation at work here? maybe people pursuing legendaries buy the most gems/grind for the most gold? it’s the only possible explanation i can think of for devoting this much time and energy towards marginal (meaning most players will not get or even pursue a legendary) cosmetics.

It actually sounds like a guild zerg farmfest not challenging content to mr. I mean honestly the idea of grinding for a legendary is a total turnoff. I mainly play pvp and pve w/friends (not large guild).

who exactly is hot designed for? i’m not interested in raids and i don’t want to grind for a legendary (very disappointing to hear they wasted so much time and energy designing the new weapons…for what 1% of the population).

i’m in a small guild (me) so no guild halls. what’s left? 4 maps that may or may not be good-i don’t like verdant brink..so the other three need to be really good. possible living story season 3 at some point in the near to distant future?

including class specific armors is actually a perfectly reasonable request…but the game has turned into outfit wars 2.

it’s been noted before …game has had 50 armor sets per weight class in the first year and a half. 3 armor sets in the last year (cara/lumi and 2 in new expac). anet doesn’t/can’t make armor sets anymore.

doesn’t feel ready…feels like a game entering a beta not a game finishing one . but who knows maybe the internal qa is really good and the rest of the game is rock solid.

why should the trash mobs be really hard? what’s the appeal of fighting each mob for a blue or a green? without actual loot/drops why fight these ‘tough’ monsters?

this debate about the strength or lack thereof of various mobs has only exposed the real issue-the verdant brink map is stale and boring. i log in for 30 mins each bwe then promptly log out and never go back.

the events are poorly designed and the npc’s are bland (being charitable). the underlying content is the problem not the mobs.

well that’s probably what’s going to happen…lfg paying 5 gold for guild mission etc…

but it’s still lousy..i mean why note let the small guilds work for something. we did pay for the guild and the various features in it. now we are told to join up with big guild or go home.