Guild Wars 2

Before this thread gets locked, I’m going to critique it a bit.

Please remove the “go back to playing WoW”….that part needs to go. Also, see if you can change the title to “Demanding too much?” as it seems less complaining about complaining.

But you’re right about the Entitlement thing. That word gets tossed around a lot, but this is one situation where it definitely belongs. There’s too much entitlement. The whole thing of what they did with Precursers in the chest was so that it was a HUGE seed into the game’s world to decrease the price (something players were requesting).

Now, the prices of precursers did dive (by literally 100’s of gold in just a few minutes after the event ended on some servers). People are instead now demanding one step further and saying that though the prices dropped through seeding, they didn’t get one ‘for free’. This is where they want one handed to them.

A) Life is not fair, sometimes stuff happens.

B) Thanksgiving is coming up. Give thanks for what you have (especially seeing as how 3rd world countries have it far worse than a fake item in a digital world).

C) It’s just a game.

D) There will be more events in the future. Only two items won’t ever be seen again: the Karka 20-slot bag (yet normal 20-slots can be made or gotten from Fractals), and the Accessory item (a multi-stat item that is ‘okay’ for everything, but not good/great for specifics).

If he had 2 level 80’s, then yes. However, I doubt he did it twice on the same character as I know people that tried that and it wouldn’t let them loot the chest. Then again I know of people that had multiple 80’s and were able to finish the event on one 80, then went to an overflow that hadn’t finished it with a friend and participated in that with their alt and looted it there. Which I see no problem with people with multiple 80’s being able to do the event with each character considering they put the time and effort into getting those characters up there.

I know there are some that had legit issues with the server side connection, but those are few. Many of times though, the issue occurs with client side. This could be many reasons, though I left PC in the title.

1) Memory: Some people got a BSoD during this event, or any that includes more than 50 people on the screen. Roughly 70% of BSoD’s are caused by failing RAM chips or a lack of enough RAM on the PC.

2)In-game Settings: There are times that people have settings on High or even Medium and don’t have a PC that can stand it. Their RAM, CPU, and/or GPU all chug at high settings. It’s always suggested that for events like this to turn your settings down to the bare minimum lowest just to be able to deal with the 60+ players and 40+ Karka in the same area.

3) Computer Specs:

This is minimum:
Windows® XP Service Pack 2 or better
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo 2.0 GHz, Core i3, AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 or better
NVIDIA® GeForce® 7800, ATI Radeon™ X1800, Intel HD 3000 or better (256MB of video RAM and shader model 3.0 or better)
25 GB available HDD space
Broadband Internet connection
Keyboard and mouse

If you’re only hitting minimum requires to play the game, there’s no surprise that stressing events are going to give issues. This isn’t ever recommended to have minimum for an MMO. It is because it’s just the lowest to RUN the game, not run well or stable, but just to run the client and boot it up.

4) Connection: There are such things as low connections. I only know of a few places in America that still have dial-up connection, but these places exist. Worse is a connection shared between multiple running devices in a single location off a router…and that worsens when you have people downloading/uploading as well.

Really hate to brag, but I was running the game client, Youtube, Pandora, and Teamspeak3 without any issues. Many in my guild were able to also play both the game and TS3 without disconnecting once; the only ones who weren’t able to loot the chest logged in too late beyond the event (sort of an own fault thing).

Pt 2.

CONS:

• Ascended Gear’s Attainability: Don’t get me wrong here, I love the idea of new progression through some gear stats. It’s not that big of a deal to me and I won’t flip out. However, what I was so vigorously made aware of was that it requires “repeated runs” of the Fractals to get. When the developer posted that these will “eventually be obtainable through WvW and other previous content”, the only question is “Why not already?”
  ————Suggestion: Ascended Gear is missing in different sections of the game. I’d have like to see it in WvWvW, even if it cost 1,000 Badges of Honor to obtain a single piece. That itself sets a goal for WvWvW players and allows them to play the content they enjoy while still progressing their character just as PvE players do on their content for their character. Even across the board, that’s what I mean.

• WvWvW Gear Skins: Right now there’s a single skin set for WvWvW and a single stat stack (Power/Vitality/Toughness). There’s not been any new added stat sets to WvWvW, nor has there been any new skin sets added to this.
  ———-Suggestion: Add in a few more skins to the WvWvW vendor for badges. I can sort of see why stat types are one version, as it promotes other content and even crafting/buying crafted goods (economy keeps spinning). But, there just needs to be a few good skins out there so that Engineers don’t look like Thiefs and Mesmers don’t look like Necromancers.

• Mini-games: There was not yet a single one this patch. During Halloween’s event we were introduced to three really fun and entertaining mini-games; yet only one was kept while the other two taken away. The game contains only two mini-games of note (and Achievement) at this moment: Costume Brawl and Keg Brawl.
  ——————Suggestion: I’d first love to see a return of Reaper’s Rumble. That’s a great game that was so super fun and unique that it’s sad to have seen it go. However, some content updates as far as the currently-in-construction Polymock Arenas and Shooting Gallery would be nice. Trust me when I say that guilds love to do these mini-games together, scheduling events that get their players a refreshed “fun” in the game. That translates to them staying in the game longer, leaving less, and … possibly spending more in the Gem store. Ah, that last part is completely speculation, but you get the idea.

• WvW anti-zerg: Aside from the changes to the loot table (and class balance sweeps) there’s been nearly no changes to WvW as of this patch. The current method of WvW stands as 1) get army of 30-50 players following one commander, 2) steamroll supply camps, power-build 3 rams at tower doors, and kill everything via the blob.
  ——————Suggestions: There’s been a few others have shared that I’d like to adopt. The first would be to remove the AoE cap for both healing and damage. Damage for a Arrow Carts, Catas, Trebs, and the like can be tweaked if they become an excessive nightmare like they were in Beta…but, it would promote more different tactical styles instead of zerg-blobs. The other suggestion is to remove sword flagging of keeps, towers, camps, and everywhere else. That change would promote scouting parties and sentries stationed at key properties in the map; communication would be a must then.

• Bugged Events: I really hate to touch this subject (as mentioned above, I love the events and story), but it’s a must touch subject. Halloween’s Events had the same issue when it came to select added NPCs that players had to kill. The NPCs we just talk to for interaction, or gather things for, were just fine. But, those that have to be killed don’t reset or get bugged out for some reason. Same server bug in both Live Events.
  —————-Suggestion: If we come up on a lore based scavenger event for Wintersday and this one issue is not completely 100% QA tested and fixed by then, I’d like to suggest not to have any static interactive NPCs we have to kill and expect to respawn for the next guy. Or, another suggestion would be to make these NPCs into a separate instance thing similar to personal stories so that there’s no issue with respawn, bugging out, or whatever.

• Lion’s Arch again?: Seems like this Pirate-governed city is the center of Tyria’s universe. I would like to see use of some of the other cities in the game, which now feel like Ghost Towns. I know LA was the main city for Guild Wars 1 (having read that, never played), but this game has 4 other really great cities (and a Charr one ;P).
  ——————Suggestions: Earth Day in The Grove? Wintersday in Divinity’s Reach or Halbrok? Snaff day in Rata Sum! I’m just thinking that the other cities need love and give plenty of reasons for players to go there. I’ll even go as far as suggesting that the catacombs below Divinity’s Reach featured in Ghosts of Ascalon should be turned into a dungeon (which would promote travel there).

I’d like to start out by saying that this is going to be a long list of patch feedback about everything good and bad that I can pop out of my little head. Some of it might be displeasing to read, but take it all as opinion and not fact. Also, note that I loved the content and the patch; so it’s not going to push hate at all.

This feedback is not just going to be Pro and Cons, but also some insightful suggestions on to improvement for the future.

PROS:

• Karka enemies are fun. They’re very challenging, very vicious, and somewhat unique. I really dig how they have 2-health bars (1 for the shell, then 1 for the nakedness underneath). It’s also funny watching 20 people balled up and the Karka do it’s steampowered dash right through all of them, killing/downing most instantly.

• Fractals are fracin’ awesome! Rewards aside (get to that later), the Fractals are a great experience. They do require a lot more communication than current dungeons, and almost always require a VOIP (pugs are …nearly impossible here). The use of traps, puzzles, jumping, and so on is great.

• Head crabs: To have the hatchlings latch onto your head like that of something from an Alien movie is so cool. Honestly wish I could get a town-cloths hat of one.

• Another jumping puzzle: Keep them coming, they’re loads of fun and I love every one of them. Definitely great content for the explorers at heart.

• Nice tropical design: The island of Southsun Cove is very tropical and semi-volcanic in a sense that it’s pleasing. Thankfully it’s nothing like Orr (some people might have gone mad if it was).

• Karka Lore/Event story: These events, the invasion and story of the Karka, has been very well laid out. It’s great that this “mysterious creature” shows up after a few weeks of anticipation based on dying whales, signs warning of death, and a ship wreck. Then to find ways to fight them by using other race’s knowledge, finally using that to take the fight to them. {Still want to know whether or not they’re minions of Bubbles?}

• WvWvW loot drop increases: Yay! Some love for those that slaughter the enemy in droves. I mean I’m all for tokens, but getting Rares and Exotics off of players instead of needing to farm Orr for 3hrs is a great thing.

• New sPvP map: I really enjoy the new sPvP map. It’s so fun to kite someone around a bridge and up the stairs in a circle 3x that you’d think they’d eventually stop and turn around to intercept… Oh what a blast it is, glad to see ever expansion on this aspect.

• Daily/Monthly sPvP achievements: Another change to sPvP that’s very much enjoyable. Now daily participation is showing much more so than just tiny nicks in the overall Glory Rank bar. And the rewards are very appreciated and fitting.

• New back Pieces: Quivers! Yay! So many of my guild’s Rangers (and Thiefs) were flipping out in happiness upon finding this out. But, to also have other back items, new books, and the like is fantastic.

• Profession’s sweep: Glad that a lot of broken skills have been fixed, mislabeled items labeled properly, and a few balancing tweaks. The best ones I see as appreciating is making the Elementalist’s Conjured Weapons viable via the Boons provided and the extended range of Magnetic Pull on the Toolbox Kit for Engineers.

What NPC and what item are you referring to?

ClintonD.8620:

Andred.1087:

I feel your pain, but please consider the logistics of what you’re asking Anet to do.

How do they determine who was disconnected and who wasn’t? Should they just take everyone’s word for it who gets on the forums and complains about it? That’s certainly not a definitive way to do it. Do their logs have a way of reflecting disconnects? Possibly, but I’m going to say they probably don’t.

How do they give the rewards, if they can figure out who deserves them? Do they mail it? That’s likely not as easy as it sounds, because I doubt they’ve made a system for running the loot tables and mailing it. Do they spawn a chest only certain people can see, wherever they are? That could be possible. Maybe.

Furthermore, should Anet really make a habit of giving free things to people that just get unlucky? Don’t get me wrong, Anet isn’t completely off the hook for what happened to you guys, but let’s face it, accidents happen, and Anet can’t go around fixing every little accident that happens for the rest of the game’s lifespan. And if they start now, that’s what they’ll have to do.

Again, I’m not trying to be offensive or insensitive to any of you unfortunate souls. I know it sucks, but before you get your expectations up, I can tell you right now, what you’re asking for is not nearly as simple as you think it is.

Well they did have an npc after halloween give the event item to those who couldn’t get it, but did participate in the events. I can see them doing that for this one.

COMPLETELY DIFFERENT! That was because of “Mega-Super Storm Hurrican Sandy” had caused millions on the East Coast to be without power for days to weeks. That was to assist those that wanted, but absolutely 100% couldn’t, get into it. It was also to show care for those in a natural disaster.

Celestea.4105:

I’m just amazed that someone who got a free trial can get a precursor, while others who have been playing since day one and have hundreds of hours clocked in didn’t get anything as they had real life committments and couldn’t attend the event.

I can understand why they like doing one-time events, but putting precursors in them is crazy.

Well, you’re wrong. Sorry. Only level 80’s could have gotten it because the item drops were level-based. I know because a few of my guild members weren’t level 80 and got rares and exotics of their level (60’s). One did the even on a level 30 character and only got level 30 based gear. So ya.

CONS:

• Ascended Gear’s Attainability: Don’t get me wrong here, I love the idea of new progression through some gear stats. It’s not that big of a deal to me and I won’t flip out. However, what I was so vigorously made aware of was that it requires “repeated runs” of the Fractals to get. When the developer posted that these will “eventually be obtainable through WvW and other previous content”, the only question is “Why not already?”
  ————Suggestion: Ascended Gear is missing in different sections of the game. I’d have like to see it in WvWvW, even if it cost 1,000 Badges of Honor to obtain a single piece. That itself sets a goal for WvWvW players and allows them to play the content they enjoy while still progressing their character just as PvE players do on their content for their character. Even across the board, that’s what I mean.

• WvWvW Gear Skins: Right now there’s a single skin set for WvWvW and a single stat stack (Power/Vitality/Toughness). There’s not been any new added stat sets to WvWvW, nor has there been any new skin sets added to this.
  ———-Suggestion: Add in a few more skins to the WvWvW vendor for badges. I can sort of see why stat types are one version, as it promotes other content and even crafting/buying crafted goods (economy keeps spinning). But, there just needs to be a few good skins out there so that Engineers don’t look like Thiefs and Mesmers don’t look like Necromancers.

• Mini-games: There was not yet a single one this patch. During Halloween’s event we were introduced to three really fun and entertaining mini-games; yet only one was kept while the other two taken away. The game contains only two mini-games of note (and Achievement) at this moment: Costume Brawl and Keg Brawl.
  ——————Suggestion: I’d first love to see a return of Reaper’s Rumble. That’s a great game that was so super fun and unique that it’s sad to have seen it go. However, some content updates as far as the currently-in-construction Polymock Arenas and Shooting Gallery would be nice. Trust me when I say that guilds love to do these mini-games together, scheduling events that get their players a refreshed “fun” in the game. That translates to them staying in the game longer, leaving less, and … possibly spending more in the Gem store. Ah, that last part is completely speculation, but you get the idea.

• WvW anti-zerg: Aside from the changes to the loot table (and class balance sweeps) there’s been nearly no changes to WvW as of this patch. The current method of WvW stands as 1) get army of 30-50 players following one commander, 2) steamroll supply camps, power-build 3 rams at tower doors, and kill everything via the blob.
  ——————Suggestions: There’s been a few others have shared that I’d like to adopt. The first would be to remove the AoE cap for both healing and damage. Damage for a Arrow Carts, Catas, Trebs, and the like can be tweaked if they become an excessive nightmare like they were in Beta…but, it would promote more different tactical styles instead of zerg-blobs. The other suggestion is to remove sword flagging of keeps, towers, camps, and everywhere else. That change would promote scouting parties and sentries stationed at key properties in the map; communication would be a must then.

• Bugged Events: I really hate to touch this subject (as mentioned above, I love the events and story), but it’s a must touch subject. Halloween’s Events had the same issue when it came to select added NPCs that players had to kill. The NPCs we just talk to for interaction, or gather things for, were just fine. But, those that have to be killed don’t reset or get bugged out for some reason. Same server bug in both Live Events.
  —————-Suggestion: If we come up on a lore based scavenger event for Wintersday and this one issue is not completely 100% QA tested and fixed by then, I’d like to suggest not to have any static interactive NPCs we have to kill and expect to respawn for the next guy. Or, another suggestion would be to make these NPCs into a separate instance thing similar to personal stories so that there’s no issue with respawn, bugging out, or whatever.

• Lion’s Arch again?: Seems like this Pirate-governed city is the center of Tyria’s universe. I would like to see use of some of the other cities in the game, which now feel like Ghost Towns. I know LA was the main city for Guild Wars 1 (having read that, never played), but this game has 4 other really great cities (and a Charr one ;P).
  ——————Suggestions: Earth Day in The Grove? Wintersday in Divinity’s Reach or Halbrok? Snaff day in Rata Sum! I’m just thinking that the other cities need love and give plenty of reasons for players to go there. I’ll even go as far as suggesting that the catacombs below Divinity’s Reach featured in Ghosts of Ascalon should be turned into a dungeon (which would promote travel there).

I’d like to start out by saying that this is going to be a long list of patch feedback about everything good and bad that I can pop out of my little head. Some of it might be displeasing to read, but take it all as opinion and not fact. Also, note that I loved the content and the patch; so it’s not going to push hate at all.

This feedback is not just going to be Pro and Cons, but also some insightful suggestions on to improvement for the future.

PROS:

• Karka enemies are fun. They’re very challenging, very vicious, and somewhat unique. I really dig how they have 2-health bars (1 for the shell, then 1 for the nakedness underneath). It’s also funny watching 20 people balled up and the Karka do it’s steampowered dash right through all of them, killing/downing most instantly.

• Fractals are fracin’ awesome! Rewards aside (get to that later), the Fractals are a great experience. They do require a lot more communication than current dungeons, and almost always require a VOIP (pugs are …nearly impossible here). The use of traps, puzzles, jumping, and so on is great.

• Head crabs: To have the hatchlings latch onto your head like that of something from an Alien movie is so cool. Honestly wish I could get a town-cloths hat of one.

• Another jumping puzzle: Keep them coming, they’re loads of fun and I love every one of them. Definitely great content for the explorers at heart.

• Nice tropical design: The island of Southsun Cove is very tropical and semi-volcanic in a sense that it’s pleasing. Thankfully it’s nothing like Orr (some people might have gone mad if it was).

• Karka Lore/Event story: Thus far (minus the Event 3 that hasn’t happened yet), the invasion and story of the Karka has been very well laid out. It’s great that this “mysterious creature” shows up after a few weeks of anticipation based on dying whales, signs warning of death, and a ship wreck. Then to find ways to fight them by using other race’s knowledge, finally using that to take the fight to them. {Still want to know whether or not they’re minions of Bubbles?}

• WvWvW loot drop increases: Yay! Some love for those that slaughter the enemy in droves. I mean I’m all for tokens, but getting Rares and Exotics off of players instead of needing to farm Orr for 3hrs is a great thing.

• New sPvP map: I really enjoy the new sPvP map. It’s so fun to kite someone around a bridge and up the stairs in a circle 3x that you’d think they’d eventually stop and turn around to intercept… Oh what a blast it is, glad to see ever expansion on this aspect.

• Daily/Monthly sPvP achievements: Another change to sPvP that’s very much enjoyable. Now daily participation is showing much more so than just tiny nicks in the overall Glory Rank bar. And the rewards are very appreciated and fitting.

• New back Pieces: Quivers! Yay! So many of my guild’s Rangers (and Thiefs) were flipping out in happiness upon finding this out. But, to also have other back items, new books, and the like is fantastic.

• Profession’s sweep: Glad that a lot of broken skills have been fixed, mislabeled items labeled properly, and a few balancing tweaks. The best ones I see as appreciating is making the Elementalist’s Conjured Weapons viable via the Boons provided and the extended range of Magnetic Pull on the Toolbox Kit for Engineers.

Akacia.1583:

lol ok so guess cannot finish then?

Thanks for the reply. I guess thats one way for Anet to fix it

and I guess this junk I did prior is now for the garbage

They did fix it with well over 1/2 way still remaining in Phase 1…so, that chain ended when Phase 2 started. All it was, was a story arch informing you (the player) of ways to fight the Karka as well as some lore information behind them. The reward was 5x Commendations, so not much really @ all.

RandomHominid.3456:

It’s possible the normal loot tables aren’t active just during the event because of the sidekicking for the event. Imagine a swarm of sidekicked-up level 5 bots.

That’s the most logical assumption. I mean, it really would suck if drops were coming out really good and it was level 2-5 bots in droves on the island.

Also, the Karka are event-based spawn right now, not normal spawn. They may get replaced with normal standing Karka after the event, but all they are is a means to an end. Just wait until today’s event for the “big loots”

Phase 3 is to fight the Ancient Karka on Southsun Cove….(assumption).

Reasons:

1) They’ve been building Asura lazer cannons and trebuchets facing the webbed cavern entrance.

2) There’s a giant blocked-off cave that they have to open (what better way than the event?).

3) It’s a finish of the story of chasing after the Ancient Karka.

Water→Earth→Lightning→Fire.

Best of luck.

Some fun times in the Fractals:

Here’s some from the opening (and a bonus scene from a Fractal):

This is going to be the official unoffical screenshot thread. Post adventures, the opening events, NPC’s, dungeon runs, the sPvP map, and whatever else floats (or sinks) your boat.

Idstedt.7239:

Evans.6347:

The key part is +5 Agony resistance, obviously.
How useful that is, I don’t know.

Probably not alot after they redo the instance with nerfs after people cry its to hard.

The thing is, they don’t do that. Otherwise Path 3 of Arah would have been nerfed long ago on the 3rd boss. Just the same, they fixed a lot of “exploits” that allowed players to skip huge sections of it, so they mean it to be completed in full as hard.

Lorana.2468:

Heals dont have a cap, i believe there was a tactic of having zergs ball up with guardians built for healing and since aoe dmg caps at only 5 people in the zerg with enough healing you can complete negate all damage coming your way.

pretty comical.

Really? See, I thought that and that’s why I added the “P.S.” part. The only reason I was lead to believe they have a cap was…

http://www.guildwars2junkies.com/2012/05/01/dev-tracker-jon-peters-on-aoe-target-caps-for-all-skills/

Originally posted by Jon Peters (Source)
This is a general rule of our skill system. AoE attacks hit up to 5 targets. AoE buffs or heals can heal up to 5. We cap it at 5 because its the party size and lets us reign in the balance on AoE without impacting most normal situations. WvW is the one place where this shows up, but we believe the alternative is worse. Hope this helps…

Ya, if there’s no cap on AoE heals that only worsens the situation and means the other option besides removing the AoE damage cap would be to apply one on healing.

That title seems like a “choice” question, but really it’s a force of action needed. I think it’s more related to PvP/WvW than it is in any other aspect of the game, so bare with me PvEers.

Right now the game has 5-player hit cap on AoE damage. I’m sure this was related to the massive arrow cart buildup in the Beta of the game (remember when you could defend a keep just by building 5 arrow carts on the walls and nothing could get in?). They did an Arrow Cart damage decrease at the same time, so I think the AoE damage cap was overkill; and I’ll tell you why…

Turtle

Confused? Well, basically a “turtle” is balling up an entire group (roughly 20-40 players) and Mesmer portaling it to the front lines. That group contains at the very least 2-3 Guardians that are support speced using bubbles and applying constant group heals. Just the same there’s a few Elementalists in the group laying down Healing Rain and Water fountain heals.

That Turtle ball stays in the tight group no larger than the diameter of the Mesmer’s portal. In doing so, they make sure that everyone in that tiny spot is getting constantly healed.

This is where things becomes a pain: With the cap for AoE damage, only 5 of the 30+ players are getting hit with an AoE. However, since they’re the only one’s being damaged, they’re the only ones getting healed by the many healers there. And, it’s not just those healers; every Sylvari most likely has a healing-plant ability, every Engineer with their healing turret. There’s tons of group heals going on in that ball.

I already know there are some mechanical counters to this tactical assault, but they are very few and require select class abilities (one being a Mesmer’s #4 Focus ability to pull people out of the ball formation…though the range on that is shorter than that of the ball, which is max ranged 1200 + ).

But, why is there a cap for AoE? Honestly right now WvWvW is nothing but a complete “zerg fest” and it seems that AoE in mass is the only way to counter this. Because all one zerg facing another zerg becomes is one giant cluster-ouch (and also becomes a culling issue too). This isn’t just for AoE for player abilities, but siege too. When you have a 100-supply, 25 silver Trebuchet only hitting 5 people out of the 30+ people it visually hit, it seems very weak and shouldn’t happen.

P.S. Does AoE healing really have a 5-cap as well? It seems like it doesn’t and heals for far more people. I know Elementalist Mist Aura heals more than 5 people, low ticks or not.

This is the start of an adventurous series. You could say it’s a subversive Asura’s fun experiences in Tyria. The first is kind of listless, however I hope to find more extraordinary moments throughout the lands. Enjoy.

OMG! The Fractals of the Mists looks amazing!

It’s amazing in style, artwork, and from what looks to be lore from GW1 and time between GW1 and GW2. Also, from the looks of it, they employ many jumping puzzle mechanics into them, as seen on the screenshot they’ve provided as well as the video’s content. Oh, I cannot wait to master this dungeon!

I just want to put it out there:

Thank you for the game updates. Halloween was a blast and had more content than that of 2-3 “major” patch updates from other games. Most of the content was temporary (sad face for Reaper’s Rumble), but there was also lot of newly added permanent content as well. It was great.

The Lost Shores looks to have a great amount more coming out. It’s great that you’re adding the content in an extravagant way such as the live events. I also love the fact that that not only is there just a new dungeon, but an entirely new zone with new mob types, new mechanics, new items, and new crafting recipes (and hopefully new jumping puzzles… lots of them!).

The new item tier of Ascended is good to hear. It’s only a 7.4% increase in stats/overall power, which isn’t to stay it’s a huge advantage at all (when factoring in WvW usage). The rarity of the items is yet to be seen to determine whether it’ll be obtainable sooner rather than later, but you haven’t let us down with the easily obtainable Exotics, Rares, and such.

You’re still doing much better than other games that only gives a single boss reward to a party of 5-20 (and locked in class items makes it worse! oh how much it sucks to have a heavy-wearing healer item drop and not have one in your party). I like that everyone in my party is equally rewarded for the kill of a dungeon boss, outside that of the RNG chest rewards as well.

You guys are doing an exceptionally well job at expanding the game and updating it to a quality standard so much higher than many other MMO’s have have come (and passed) in the past 1/2 decade.

Thank you very much.

Signed,
A still-loyal fan.

nachtnebel.9168:

Siphaed.9235:

I’ve watched this “manifesto” video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35BPhT-KI1E

WHERE in it do they say that item progression is bad and should be/will be avoided? In fact, most of that Manifesto is about Dynamic Events and the game’s world and art style. Very little of it is (if any @ all) is about dungeons or progression on that weight.

People who are saying “you’re going back on your Manifesto” are lying…. they are either fooling themselves or are trying to deceive the community into turning against Arena.Net.

In fact, the ONLY thing I can think about that might be incorrect in that Manifesto is the part about Grind; but that’s only in relation to Legendary weapons. Then again, it’s not really grind if you rotate it casually with normal play, WvW, guild and friend events. It just scuttles into the background of fun.

In the manifesto they state that they took everything we love about GuildWars and included it in GuildWars 2. Having no stat progression once you reached max level along with the fact that the level cap was never increased are two of the things the GuildWars community loves most. We know it and Arena Net know it too. They never explicitly said that there won’t be any stat progression (at least not in the manifesto), but the fact that they used that phrase implied that there won’t be any.

Now that’s stretching it by a mile at the very least. Going from “taking everything we love about Guild Wars and putting into Guild Wars 2” and turning it into “there won’t be any ‘stat progression’ at all”. Would you like a slice of lemon with that major twist of words?

And, if you’re furious about stat progression @ 80, shouldn’t you already be upset that there’s level 80 whites, blues, greens, rares, and Exotics? I mean, if you really wanted absolutely NO stat increases at 80, then there should only be Exotics; right?

Also, I don’t see this as the same thing. Tiers are flat-stat across the board when it comes to comparing it to other Tiers. All 80 rares are in the same tier and would have the same attributes; same with 80 exotics; and now same with 80 Ascended items. This is different than other MMORPG’s that may have 50 different level 80 “rare” purple items, each having a different stat configuration and one being more powerful than the rest and so on.

The item tier set up in Guild Wars 2 is still uniquely different than that of other MMORPG’s and still is NOT a grind fest that people think of. When players run a dungeon: EVERYONE GETS REWARDED! Everyone gets the tokens when the final boss dies. Everyone gets to open the chest and loot stuff from The Claw of Jormag, rather than just 2 people for two random items out of 40 participants.

You think this is grind? You really think that GW2 is grind? YOU KNOW NOTHING OF GRIND!

I’ve watched this “manifesto” video:

WHERE in it do they say that item progression is bad and should be/will be avoided? In fact, most of that Manifesto is about Dynamic Events and the game’s world and art style. Very little of it is (if any @ all) is about dungeons or progression on that weight.

People who are saying “you’re going back on your Manifesto” are lying…. they are either fooling themselves or are trying to deceive the community into turning against Arena.Net.

In fact, the ONLY thing I can think about that might be incorrect in that Manifesto is the part about Grind; but that’s only in relation to Legendary weapons. Then again, it’s not really grind if you rotate it casually with normal play, WvW, guild and friend events. It just scuttles into the background of fun.

From a few of the posts on these forums, and the articles posted about previews for the Lost Shores content, it seems that there’s going to be some 200+ new crafting recipes.

But, from the developer’s post, it seems that only a single new resource was added.

Does that mean that T6 materials (Orichalcum, Gossamer Silk, Hardened Leather, and Ancient Wood) should be bought up now dirt cheap to be used for these new recipes that will surely require them? I’m just afraid that if I don’t now I’ll miss out and prices will skyrocket to where I cannot purchase them if so required.

I ……WAS…….RIGHT!

Okay, so I said it was going to be a 5% difference and it looks to be more of a 4% difference.

Still, it’s only a ring slot and back slot items. …..NOT A BIG DEAL!

After watching the latest ToT, I saw this old Guild Wars 1 video:

So, can we expect something like that on the Lost Shores? Because that would be awesome!

Roven Leafsong.8917:

My suspicion?

I’m just not interested in playing another generic “MMO” hero (or heroine).

First, let me define what I mean (because hero has so many different interpretations). To me, a generic “MMO” hero has the following attributes:

• Their journey is always primarily about how powerful they can become;
• Violence and fighting is always their most effective and well-developed means of resolving issues;
• They are always a leader (or lieutenant) and inspire, command respect or provoke admiration and awe in others;
• Their every thought, move, word or action holds immense weight and importance to the world around them, and every story really does revolve around them;
• They are super-human and are constantly vanquishing invincible foes, solving inscrutable mysteries, exploring impassable wildernesses and accumulating unfathomable wealth or prestige;
• They hold no fear of crushing defeat or permanent harm – any failure is just a temporary minor setback; and
• They are always unfettered by politics, prejudices, dependence on others, consequences for their actions, or the daily trials and concerns of the ‘ordinary’ folk around them.

• There’s no power journey in Guild Wars 2, only a journey to get different races and factions to work together. But, if you call that reaching for power, then technically anything and everything is defined as that (even attempts to gain more wealth/money).

• Um,….ya, I suppose violence is the solution to Guild War’s 2 main question: “How does one KILL an Elder Dragon?” But many of the missions have a focus of being not about violence (such as sneaking into a “crime scene” using forged documents).

*Trahern (sp?) is the main hero in the story and is the leader of the Pact. The player is more of the lackey sidekick.

• Of course every story revolves around the one playing it in a video game. Playing someone else story would be boring and lame. It’s a video game, not a book.

• Dying 1/2 way through the story and getting a “Game Over” sign is NOT the way of an MMO. Of course the player is invincible.

• If you read the story, many times the characters are fearful, sad, and remorseful. They hate some of the decisions they make, and weep for the dead that helped them get that far.

• Many things are politics in the story. In fact, a major political set of the game is which faction you (the player) decides to pick to join for 1/3rd your story. That faction choice shows in the way NPC’s interact with you and their choices.

Here’s an idea on INFUSED ARMOR:

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Infusion

So, the Infusion might not effect anything other than the dungeon itself. The increased slots effect the other.

5%, that’s my guess. From what the incremental difference between gear types right now is, I’d say that the Ascended gear is 5% more effective than that of Exotic. It’s not much of a difference, some will say 5% is the matter between life and death (over exaggeration much?). But still…it wouldn’t be too bad.

Oreoz.9521:

I wish ppl would actually think b4 they post. There is no gear grind. There is a dungeon, that goes on forever. It gets harder and harder if you dont reset it. Eventually your going to hit a wall. To help you get over that wall a new set of gear thats higher than exotics was introduced.

All this, "I am casual, i dont have time to “grind” gear" You dont have to “grind” gear anymore than you are grinding dungeons for dungeon sets or grinding events for karma.

The beauty of this dungeon is that like all dungeons it can be done with any gear set. But heres what you guys are getting confused on. The dungeon gets harder so lets say after doing it 5 straight times your on ur 5th difficulty it becomes too hard, and you have to stop. All you have to do is just reset it back to difficulty 1 and keep going.

No one is making you grind gear. The new gear is for those who want to get further and further in the dungeon. Those who dont want to get further can play on the lower difficulty levels.

Again i wish ppl would think more and not just speculate and blow things out of proportion.

Congratulations on only considering ONE aspect of the game. Now, let’s look at other effected ones:

1) CRAFTING!: Crafting is going to become pointless for anything other than leveling up an additional 10 levels per craft and Legendary gifts. By introducing this, they’ve completely killed money-making for crafting outside of Cooking and Jewelers. Crafted weapons are no longer going to be made and sold, neither will armor (assuming there’s Ascended armor).

2) MARKET!: Associated with crafting, the market will take a deep dive down on 80 Exotics when Ascended weapons come into play. Money making will be even harder for those that use the market as their way of pushing profit.

3) WvWvW!: Oh me, oh my! What a kick in the acorns! See, if I saw a player in a Legendary weapon on the field, I could kill him. We’re on the same tier, both 80’s and the max he could have was Exotics (just as I). So, big deal if he’s shooting rainbows at me, I’ll still try to kill him. HOWEVER, with now having more stats through having Ascended weapons, players will have a stat/gear based advantage over other players…slippery slope!

4) COMMUNITY!: This is the biggest negative caused by the mistake of increasing gear stats. The community will start to troll each other, it will become bad. Guilds will force their players to get Ascended weapons before doing WvWvW or other things. Groups will require full exotic + Ascended just to do runs for Ascended. The whole thing will spiral downward into nightmare!

Oh PLEASE NO! This is just totally 110% wrong! Say for example that the Ascended weapon skins are in PvP, and they come out of the new PvE dungeon, but ….

WHAT-ABOUT-WvWvW?!

See, the players in WvWvW can already get the top gear via WvW Badges of Honor. They can get the gear they like the looks of from other means, but it’s entirely possible to WvW 100% of the time and be of the highest power. ….that was until Lost Shores.

Another issue is that people will abandon the other dungeons and no longer run them. Don’t think so? If not, then you’re clearly oblivious of other MMO’s with gear-grind progression as their thing. As soon as content with more powerful items comes own, the older content becomes a GHOST TOWN as everyone and their grandmother tries for the more powerful stuff.

Legendary Items: Will they scale to Ascended level now?

This one really is a bother. See, Legendary Items are the most sought after in the land and said to be the best of the best. Sure, they’re just a skin for Exotic items, but they’re a 600-800 gold skin that should hold power. So….will it now be almost completely pointless to get a Legendary when such Ascended weapons are out there?

Bifrost is not a purple glowing staff. It’s a rainbow nightmare! Do not get it unless you absolutely love rainbows, because you cannot turn it off and will be stuck with it until the end of time!

However, what you’re looking for is Asura tech. The T3 staff costs 69,000 Karma and it glows purple with a purple mist coming off it.

Cloudwalkernz.1328:

I been checking out some new clothes for my main and my alts. I want to create a unique looks for them.

So I been checking out the culture armours for different races. I noted that they are very expensive for what they worth.

First, the armour doesn’t stand out. They have no Fx like the dungeon armours and generally look very bland (except the Asuran).

Secound, they are only rare with no rune but they cost like 40 gold each. Compare with the Karma temple armours and dungeon armours they seems very expensive in comparison.

Third, they can only used by the same race as the armour. I would love to fit some of my alts with the Asuran armour but I can’t.

I think the price of the culture armours should be reduced a bit or have their stats increase to exotic at least. Alternative is to make them better looking and make them skins only like the heritage armours set.

What is your thoughts?

1) Prices are fine. I say this because I’ve already spent 50g on two piece and reducing the prices would be a kick in the acorns. Also, it makes them that much more unique and rare.

2) Cultural armor is based on the culture and thus only the culture could wear it. Sylvari CA is grown, thus being a part of the Sylvari; not wearable by other races. Asuran CA is high-tech and highly advanced; no bookahs can wear it. Norn CA is made of honor furs; only a truly honorably Norn can wear them. …..so you see why they cannot be worn by other races?

3) The only points I agree on is that T3 cultural armor should be made into Exotics instead of Rares and should have racial-tyle runes plugged into them already.

pdg.8462:

I thought this post by a different poster was a good question. But it was locked because it was “not on topic”. So I just reworded it a bit to keep it on topic, kept the typos and ungrammatical bits:

Why is ANet so reluctant to give out information and plans for the future of GuildWars 2?

I think that everyone would be better off knowing what’s expected to come or even possible ideas for the games future.

We can all agree that this game doesn’t really have much hardcore diversity or reasonable longevity. Since ArenaNet has gave us like any information about the upcoming content, most players would rather quit.

Lets say they planned on adding raids or something, at least we’d know what to strive for and keep us playing so we were prepared for when that patch did come out.
I hardly want to play this game now because I know there really isn’t anything for hardcore gamers but if I’d know what is coming, maybe I’d play more.

Original post: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Why-are-game-companies-secretive/first#post680826

But….but….I DON’T CARE FOR RAIDS!….(“OMG! Burn him!”). Ya, I really don’t give two-behinds for raids. The current raids in-game right now are good enough, and those are the 5 temples of the Human Gods in Orr and the 3 dragon generals throughout Tyria. They’re open, they require players to do things together, but aren’t at all restrictive, mind wracking, or heavily time consuming (I think the Temple of Balthazar takes 1hr to do all the steps in it).

What I care about:

-Jumping puzzles! They’re fun and they’re challenging and they are different than that of other MMO games.

-Mini-dungeons. Similar to jumping puzzles, except they’re publicly scaling dungeons that anyone can enter and jump right into to assist. Bosses at the end, mobs in locations, puzzle parts, and rewarding.

-World vs World. Great section of the game, but it needs a few things done. For example: zergs can’t be stopped capping a supply camp without another zerg. There has to be a solution to zergs.

-Mini-games! Need more of them because they’re fun and interesting. I really wish that the mini-game Reaper’s Rumble would make it back into the game.

-More crafting recipes…

However, the game is pretty awesome as it is…so no need to throw a fit and quit the game. I don’t get how people don’t understand that THIS….GAME….WAS…NEVER…ABOUT…RAIDING! Seriously, the developers have said this, the beta testers have said this: it’s something well known. Want a raiding game? Go play one.

Love the idea (though this’ll get tossed into the suggestion forums instead of general)

Akiko.2364:

what happened to the 25th US server?

Never was one. See, 24/3=8. That’s 8 WvWvW pairings. A 25th server would be an odd-man-out and couldn’t exist without a 26th and 27th as well.

Jemmi.6058:

How about pre-orders? I paid for the game in April.

Being that those are “pre-order/pre-purchase”, I don’t think the publisher counted it as profit until the product released/shipped. At least, from a standpoint of reporting it to shareholders, they can’t say they’ve officially sold something unless it’s sold; so they can’t count profit unless it’s really profit. That’s my take, anyways.

Veldan.4637:

Kraven.4936:

Legendaries are worth getting because there’s nothing else worth doing.Right now, there is absolutely no gear progression. Exotics and you’re done.

This.

I think it goes further than gear progression, at 80 if you want any form of progression (which has always been a key element in RPGs and MMOs) you can do either achievements or legendary weapon. Since achievements give you at most a hardly visible title and legendary weapon gives you, well, a legendary weapon, the choice is obvious.

What about cultural gear? It’s roughly 120 gold per each T3 set. Now, if you’re doing every race (5 characters total), that’s 600 gold to get T3 (each Light, Medium, or Heavy). That’s progression for you. Also, there’s the dungeon gear to progress towards. Titles anyone? Achievements are a great thing to chase as well. We make our own game with what they give us, and they give us a lot.

Massively.com posted NCSoft’s Q3 earning posting today. Here’s a chart containing GW2:

http://www.blogcdn.com/massively.joystiq.com/media/2012/11/numbers-1352306210.jpg

Now, this is completely theory crafted, but if I’m reading that chart right and do the conversion, it comes to $42,207,367.20. If I divide that by the $60 per box, that comes to 703,456.12 copies of the game sold.

HOWEVER, this is publisher profit, not overall game revenue. Publishers make 30% average of the sales of a game. So, we’d have to multiply the $42,207,367.20 by 3.33, which equals $140,550,532.776. Dividing that by the $60 box price is 2,342,508.87 copies sold. Now, instead we need to estimate that roughly 10,000 CE copies ($150 each were sold), so that’s $1,500,000., meaning we’d have to remove 25,000 of the normal copies and replace with 10,000 CE copies.

Grand total copies of GW2 sold: 2,327,508.87. (Or 2.3 million)

P.S. 75% of all #’s on the internet are made up or submitted by crazy people.

I’m currently around 30% from completing the Scepter legendary. Why? Status thing. I don’t have any other excuse other than to say it’s a status thing.

Renegadeimp.8439:

Go ingame and try to find all the players that actually make the cap “full”, or “high”. It seems to be the total number of characters per server or in that servers database, rather than the amount of people actually online at any given time.

Very much am able to find most of those players: tons in Lion’s Arch (overflows and normal), Orr has quite a large number of them, Frostgorge Sound is also filled with players. Then, there’s the players in sPvP (I don’t count them normally, but they are players of the server that are online. Also, there’s those players in WvW, of which there’s a few thousand. In the lower zones, I run across 1-3 players per each heart I come across. Also, this past week I have yet to do a single jumping puzzle without at least one other player trying to attempt it as well (few great conversations and new friends, as well as new people to recruit).

I’m sorry, but I’m trying to understand where people are saying this game is “dead” or “dying”; everything I see is contrary to that claim. As for the starting zones, which is a 1-15 zone and only takes a few hours to complete, I would never expect them to be populated heavily at all 2 months post launch (especially considering there are 5 of them).

Why are there topics demanding server mergers, demanding a shorter transfer limitation, and saying “this game is dying” and “people are leaving”?

From what I see…the game is growing, significantly. There’s a lot of players I see every day, and the game is just getting started. I’m expecting to see more growth come the Nov 15th patch and post-Christmas.

What would grandma rather get little Jimmy for Christmas: a $15-a-month 7-yr old game plus all expansions costing nearly $120, or a subscription free GW2 for $60 one-time box cost? That’s an easy choice for them to make.

My server and guild has been growing. Sure, there are those people that rushed content and left after the first month (even my guild had a few), but they’re replaced by casuals, new players, and long-term players.

I think this game needs more servers added. Not only should it add more servers, but it should do a commercial around Thanksgiving to get more public awareness. Do it! Please and thank you!

Chriswck.6490:

<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rnpqzt44Pag&feature=g-u-u”>Tales of Tyria #55</a>

WvW has been undeniably losing its attraction as time goes on. Fixes are coming in at snail’s pace. Anet has to realize that there IS a point where it will be too late. We’re all here because we love this game and saw the potential with it.

Tales of Tyria by far generates the most meaningful and interesting discussions, compared with other open-table shows. WvW was talked about.

One of the major proposals discussed here is: Remove Orange Swords on the Map. Contemplate.

If that got your attention, watch the rest of the show.

Anet watches the show, and they have to take their time quickly, and seriously deliberate over the core structure and come up with creative solutions to WvW.

100% agree with this. Now, the white swords that also prevent Waypoints…those are FINE, they’re great. But the orange swords…those need to go NOW!

Also, I loved the idea of that same video that the cap on siege (max 5 players hit), needs to be removed. That’s good idea to get rid of it to test it out like that. I wish that my Treb shot that hits a location of a major zerg would knock down everyone hit that didn’t dodge-roll out, instead of 5 of the 50.

Add our guild to the list of issues.

EDIT:

Closed client. Checked to make sure the executable was closed under Task Manager. Then, relaunched client. Yep, it worked perfectly afterwards. Spread the word.

Yes, I agree that rendering/culling is a factor of the issue; but it’s not the only thing that’s wrong here.

And for those that say “group up and AOE”, it’s very hard to control PUG people than run into the camps and circle around like a chicken with it’s head cut off. Another issue is that when say everyone is in the group, the Thief in question just removes stealth behind a building (which all camps have) and now has no issue preventing the cap: nobody is hunting him because everyone is grouped up.

I have to agree with this. Like, for example, I make the Ascalonian Potion and want to send stacks of 5 to each of my 25 guildmates I’m running with in WvW. Cna’t do it after the first 3, it locks into a 1 minute timer each message after that. Ya, what a pain.

The game is hard? Zones are challenging and not a simple grind? ABSURD!

Seriously, there are “some” annoying parts of it, but I find it amazingly fun and the challenge is enjoyable. This is probably because I did the whole zone completion with a friend and guildmate of mine; so the adventures, frustrations, and memorable times were shared.

Bottom line: Great game design.

Why is there no Jumping Puzzle title?

Okay, I just finally got around to finishing the last of the puzzles under the achievement list (including the new ones). What really irks me is that there’s no title involved with this completion.

-Puzzle Master?

-Jumping Jack Flash?

-Super Skipper?

-Winged Feet?

Any of those titles will work for it. But no, we have no titles for such completion.

Now, I know already that the title of completion will be hard fitting seeing as how more Jumping Puzzles are going to be added,…but that’s the same with World Completion and new locations being added (see Lost Shores for reference) .

P.S. Even without a title, some really super boots or something. Even a superficial pat on the back….