Guild Wars 2

cesmode.4257:

Discuss and tell me how time-gating a new tier of weapons and gear that has better stats obeys what Mike O’Brien said in his quote.

It doesn’t.

fellyn.5083:

Q) Do you need ascended weapons for any sort of content to complete said content?

A) Again, nope.

It doesn’t force anyone to do anything and it certainly doesn’t “kill” anything. If people would stop thinking they need to have their ascended weapons all done at once and instead picture it as long term thing much like legendaries then they’d be way better off and stress themselves out less over them.

The only concern I have about ascended weapons it that they will cause unwarranted elitism.

Deaths Sensei.5317:

all i can add to the argument is: LFG link weapon (must be ascended), everyone else gtfo

Yep. I, for one, can’t wait ‘til we see people looking for groups, and rejecting anyone who doesn’t have ascended gear. Then, all the people who said, “You don’t need ascended gear to play the game” can have an “oh kitten” moment.

It will happen. Just watch.

Justdeifyme.9387:

Ascended Trinkets are 5% better than Exotics. Getting Ascended Trinkets isn’t even necessary if you aren’t planning on doing Fractals. What do you even want to do with 5% better Stats? WvW? It’s a big zerg, the 5% more Life, Damage or whatever won’t make a difference if the Weapons and Armor have the same Statistic improvement.

You don’t HAVE to get Ascended Gear if you DON’T WANT. There’s really no need. Yet.

It will not take long before ANet starts tuning new content to Ascended level gear. They’ll have to, or people will get bored. When that starts happening, there will be need, and people who don’t have Ascended will have to either skip the new content, or start grinding.

I don’t play GW2 to chase gear tiers; I’ve had enough of that in other games. I had hoped that Ascended weapons, like other promised announcements — the LFG tool, the fix to condition damage, and portals for non-mesmer classes — would never actually make it into the game. But it looks like they’re here now.

I had hoped ANet would get creative, and develop progression in the game that wasn’t reliant on gear tiers. Color me disappointed.

Unleashed.6195:

It’s evolved, but it certainly seems like the evolution has been towards gem-shop tie-ins with “activity of the week” themes. It’s puzzling because I like the concept of bi-weekly content updates. It just becomes more and more difficult with each update to take a game seriously that they don’t.

Yep. I’ve been saying this for a while — the “new content” is all just glitz to get people to buy gem shop stuff. The Bazaar update was the only one in the last several cycles that I found even remotely interesting; the rest of it? Meh. And now we have the return of SAB. Meh x2.

The “story” in this game is severely lacking, IMO. I found the story in Rift to be far more compelling, and that’s saying a lot.

tolunart.2095:

They study every aspect of the game carefully and consider changes based on how it will affect everyone, not just you.

I disagree with this statement. This game has been rife with blunders and errors since day 1. Remember the Lost Shores event? That wasn’t very well thought out. Remember when they added the loot boxes for world champs, then nerfed them when the market got flooded with ectos? Oops. Or take a look at the more recent addition of celestial stat gear crafting (with MF stats), followed closely by the announcement of the abolishment of the MF stat. Notice the history of PVE nerfs, due to PVP imbalance. I don’t think they study much, or consider much when it comes to how changes will affect players in this game. It all seems rather knee-jerk and reactionary to me. Just my $.02.

Viking Jorun.5413:

Astralporing.1957:

Sythus.2396:

^ Ascended Armour was nothing we didn’t know about already though, was it? Why are you being so upset?

He likely had hope that they realized how bad decision introducing ascended was, and that they won’t follow through with it to the bitter end.
Just as some people still have hope that ascended really will be the end of item progression.

I don’t understand why there is still any doubt. It’s been explicitly stated on countless occasions that they don’t plan on releasing any tiers above ascended stats. Ascended was a missing link between exotic and legendary. There won’t be more.

All they ever said was that they don’t plan on releasing new tiers every 3-6 months. They never said there wouldn’t be tiers above ascended.

Kivot.7516:

I have a few concerns about the new ascended gear coming out and hopefully they respond.

I hate to burst your bubble, but I wouldn’t expect a response from anyone at ANet.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Feedback-Changes-additions-to-Ascended-Gear/first

I certainly respect your opinions, but I see it differently. To me, my character means nothing – it is just pixels on a screen. If the personal story actually had any impact on who a character becomes, I might feel differently about the matter, but it doesn’t.

To me, race choice in GW2 is merely an aesthetic choice, so it doesn’t’ matter to me if someone wants to change their mind later.

then fell asleep

I have a question for those in this thread who are opposed to the idea of racial change: do you have a problem with Total Makeover Kits and Name Change Contracts? Both of those are already in game, so players can already change the appearance, gender, and name of a character.

I don’t have a problem with the idea of a race change item. Unless a player is looking for access to a specific racial ability, it’s really about aesthetics. If changing the aesthetics of a character is going to keep a player interested in playing the game, then I’m all for it. And changing aesthetics doesn’t really impact anyone in any appreciable way.

ANet has said that they don’t have any plans for racial change options, but if I were a betting man, I’d wager they will offer one in the future, as it could be a real money maker for them. People didn’t think Blizzard would sell many of them in WoW, but they certainly did (and continue to).

I’m happy with the choices I’ve made, so I wouldn’t buy a race change item. But I certainly would not mind if other people did.

Just don’t touch

Anise and her friend…

ZudetGambeous.9573:

They don’t give an exotic every time. I found you get 1 exotic about every 100 bags.

You’re kidding, right? I haven’t counted, but I’ve looted several hundred of those bags, and no exotics. But then, I’ve only looted 2 exotics total in this game since launch.

I’ve looted maybe 3 or 4 rares from those bags so far. For me, the champ bags are all about green items.

The indigestion was…

a kitten weeps…

carrying a big…

Daecollo.9578:

I wanna wield my staff like a female would.

Maintain a firm grip on the shaft, and keep your helmet well-polished. You’ll get there.

I run zerker gear on my guardian almost exclusively. It works fine.

Guardians have enough “defensive” or “supportive” weapon and utility skills to be of benefit to your party no matter what gear stats you wear. Don’t believe me? Wear full zerker gear and equip a hammer. That alone will do a TON for you and your party. And that’s just one option available to you. The beauty of the guardian profession is that it brings a lot of good defensive and supportive benefit to the party, while still dishing out good dps.

I doubt the other player in your scenario was a moron, but it sounds like he didn’t understand the game very well.

colesy.8490:

If you are using gear that buffs your own stats without helping the team (toughness and vitality as examples) then you are being selfish. How hard is that to understand?

True. And furthermore, since toughness and vitality won’t save you from the big damage gimmicks anyway, they’re only marginally useful.

Berserker gear is actually less selfish. The way PVE encounters are designed in this game, it’s best to kill fast, before the mob does another big damage spike gimmick.

Milennin.4825:

Anything that goes into downed state is selfish, too. Unfortunately, it’s most often the players in Berserker gear who do go down the most…

Given the mechanics of dungeon bosses in this game, it’s most often people that don’t plan ahead and play smart (i.e. dodge, stay out of red circles, keep moving, etc.) that go down the most. PVT or other gear won’t save you from the big damage spikes you’ll take if you don’t plan ahead and play smart.

If you do plan ahead and play smart, you can do everything in Berserker gear, and kill stuff faster. Killing stuff faster means fewer big damage spikes; dead mobs don’t attack.

The players who go down the most are the ones who don’t plan ahead and play smart, regardless of what gear they use.

I may be in the minority here, but I actually like the Queensdale champion train. It’s a fun zone, it’s easy to move around in, the events follow one another quickly, and (on TC, anyway) the chat is kind of fun. Once in a while, I see people get rude in chat, but that’s not very common.

If better rewards are available after the champ changes, it may spell the end of the QD train. I might as well enjoy it while it lasts.

Erasculio.2914:

1. This is a suggestion. I have already reported it so I expect a mod to move it soon, but it’s the kind of thing that would have been better at the Suggestions forum.

2. ArenaNet makes a lot of money by selling Transmutation Crystals. Your suggestion would remove much of that money. Ergo, it’s not going to happen.

I copied this from another reply I made earlier today:

Spiral Architect.6540:

This has been mentioned elsewhere, but it bears repeating:

There should be a “skin locker” that we keep unlocked skins in, and that we can withdraw skins indefinitely from.

To use a skin still requires a transmutation stone or crystal.

This way, players get to keep their hard-won skins indefinitely, and ANet still sells stones and crystals.

With a system like this, I’d be willing to bet ANet will sell more skins and crystals.

Boreale.3129:

The thing I’m wondering about is if champions will have a chance to drop unique skins like Colin said in the blog post, while it does say “and more!” at the end of the description you’d think unique skins would be something they’d add onto it.

Porous bones.

Vol.5241:

Spiral Architect.6540:

Neural.1824:

Did you all notice the part where it says “if you qualify for loot”?

It hasn’t been fully defined yet what that means. Don’t assume that “qualify” means you’ve done enough damage to the critter. Knowing Anet it very likely means “if you haven’t done this already today”.

This ^

I understand the excitement many people have about this upcoming change, and I share that excitement, to a degree. Until we see how it gets implemented, though, I’m at best cautiously optimistic.

Well what could they possibly do to make this a bad idea?

If each champion only drops loot once per day per account, people will organize zerg trains to run from champion A to B to C, etc. Once players kill the champions in a zone, they’ll move on to the next zone. I’m imagining huge, laggy zergfests, followed by empty zones where players are serenaded by choruses of chirping crickets. If you miss the zerg train, too bad, so sad — you’ll have to wait for another to come along.

I don’t think this is what the developers intend with this change, but it might be what it turns into.

This has been mentioned elsewhere, but it bears repeating:

There should be a “skin locker” that we keep unlocked skins in, and that we can withdraw skins indefinitely from.

To use a skin still requires a transmutation stone or crystal.

This way, players get to keep their hard-won skins indefinitely, and ANet still sells stones and crystals.

With a system like this, I’d be willing to bet ANet will sell more skins and crystals.

scala.1670:

Erasculio.2914:

cesmode.4257:

Or, if one day I want to switch to a condition build from a zerker build…storing skins in a “locker” or something vs in bank would be a so nice.

Never going to happen.

Storing skins would make less people buy Transmutation Crystals, which are likely one of the best selling items in the Gem Store. Adding armors to a locker is complex since a piece of armor has multiple variables that need to be tracked, while dungeon tokens have none.

Storing Skins will make people buy “less”? If there is a PvE locker. I’m sure it will be set in place if, and if they do it this way, to be able to withdraw said skin piece but use a transmutation stone for each use with the ability to use that same skin unlimited uses. Making them buy them more which is obviously better and more profitable than to have 1 of “x” skin and only use the transmutation stone once.

I hope they implement something like this.

Me too. This would be a win/win for players and ANet.

Neural.1824:

Did you all notice the part where it says “if you qualify for loot”?

It hasn’t been fully defined yet what that means. Don’t assume that “qualify” means you’ve done enough damage to the critter. Knowing Anet it very likely means “if you haven’t done this already today”.

This ^

I understand the excitement many people have about this upcoming change, and I share that excitement, to a degree. Until we see how it gets implemented, though, I’m at best cautiously optimistic.

Tychondus.4821:

i would rather they fix the copious amount of bugs than roll out meta events on weekly basis. Drowning/deceiving people in new meta event wont make problems go away.

This. There are bugs in the game that have been there since launch, still unaddressed.
There are features this game should have had by now (guild halls or housing, guild UI upgrades, TP UI upgrades, LFG tool), which it doesn’t. There are broken mechanics (like the way the condition cap works) which have been pointed out and discussed for months now, yet remain broken. Jon Peters, back in February, stated they were looking at ways to correct the condition cap problem, yet we’ve heard nothing since.

But the smokescreen of “new content,” with accompanying gem shop items and RNG boxes keeps coming at us, hard and fast.

Here is the link to the old (closed) thread. It wasn’t as long ago as I had remembered:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Too-easy-to-stalk-Privacy-concerns/first

ZudetGambeous.9573:

The problem ultimately stems from the fact that they tried to do away with the trinity without actually replacing it with anything. This leads to the situation we are in now that DPS trumps everything else.

Boss has a healing mechanic-> More DPS to outpace it
Boss Builds up power during the fight-> More DPS to kill it first
Boss Does powerful attacks-> Quicker you kill it the less attacks it does

There is no situation where having more defense is more helpful than killing things faster. Every class has the same access to CC/Ulility/Healing so you can have all that and still wear zerker and be the best dps as well.

Most classes can buff themselves and debuff the enemies just as well if they are wearing zerker or nothing at all. There is no need to bring in a support spec in a support set of armor because most classes can already provide their own might/fury.

This. Especially the line I bolded, above.

On my guardian, I carry Soldier’s, Knight’s, and Berserker’s gear. I find I rarely need anything other than Berserker’s. If I want to run as “support,” I equip my hammer.

The biggest problem is that defensive and/or healing gear won’t get you through the big damage attacks. To survive those, you need to dodge, run away, get out of the red circle, etc. You can do all that in Berserker’s gear.

As was stated above, DPS is king in this game.

There was quite a lengthy thread about this issue about 6 months ago. In the end, it was closed by a moderator. The only official word given in the thread was a suggestion to report anyone who harasses you.

Evidently, the issue was not deemed important enough to warrant any further attention.

The reasons I don’t SPvP have been posted already in this thread.

I just want to add that I enjoyed PvP in Rift a lot more than SPvP in this game. And that says a lot right there.

Villious.8530:

Agree @JustTrogdor^

I will clarify that I don’t do WvW/PvP. For me, I’m only talking PvE. It would be nice if the two could be separate so one isn’t hurt by the other.

Absolutely. And not just for the run speed issue.

Blaine Tog.8304:

Spiral Architect.6540:

What I’d like to see: all characters, upon reaching xx level (40? 60? 80? dunno…), can complete a quest to get a permanent 25% speed boost added to their run speed. No signets, no weapon usage, no sigils required. That would be fair.

This basically invalidates Swiftness as a component of the game.

Make it only work in PVE. Solved.

Vol.5241:

You can’t lump guardian with the mesmer. The mesmer is at the very bottom with no chance of getting out.

The guardian you can have nearly 100% uptime with speed buffs. Staff 3/SaveYourself/Retreat are great.

Yeah, I’m well aware of how guardians can get nearly 100% uptime on speed buffs. But it’s cumbersome to do so.

And I agree — mesmers are truly borked in the speed category.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Spiral Architect.6540:

Yamagawa.5941:

<Rant>
What in the?!? What’s this I read about magic find becoming some sort of account bonus for accomplishments!?

I’ve abandoned several good games simply for having this kind of reward structure! It punishes new players in a way that cannot be made up with a simple gift of a box of armor, they have to work hard to get that magic find. It does nothing to reward skill and everything to reward long time players.

Ok. Deep breath.

With MF on the gear, I have a decision to make: Can I clear this game content with the penalty of using MF gear, or do I sacrifice drops for clearing the content. Absent some living story content and fractals levels starting at about 26, and the odd bit of dungeon content, I don’t need my ‘main’ gear to press forward successfully. I’m a skilled player. I tank Karka. Veteran abominations, on occasion some giganticus fellow in Arah who has some really nasty breath. I don’t credit my gear for this, I credit my ability. I use my ability to bring MF along and get better drops. Some items have even been announced to only drop if you bring MF. What’s this mean? Only the players who have played the game longer and farmed all the permament MF bonuses have any real chance at getting it.

With MF on the account and off the gear, the switch itself punishes newer players who have paid out cold hard gold for a second set of MF gear. The attitude moving the buff to the account presents is not one of ‘ability trumps all’ but ‘attendance trumps all’, an attitude I absolutely despise in games. I come to use my ability, to earn my rewards, not for handouts – handouts are not earned, so they have no value to me (zenith gear included. Yeah, it looks shiny, but I didn’t do anything specific to earn it, so I value it likewise)

Please Arena Net: I’ve never asked you for anything design wise, but I’m going to insist now.

• Drop the account wide buffs – they are a detriment to new players.

If you really want to reward longtime players, do it with titles, or skins obtained only by completing specific, sometimes difficult, content. Not as permament powerups for kitten showing up and killing ten rats.

I’m ok in a game without magic find. I’m not ok in a game that grants performance boosts of any kind to long-term players, PvE or PvP.
//Portable Corpse

</Rant>

This post here sums it up very well for me.

All those of you who are excited about account-wide, achievement-based MF boosts should read this.

“So you’re new, and don’t have any MF bonuses, nor any way to get them other than not being new? Sucks to be you…”

They have to earn a luxury stat that has no effect on their power just like everyone else did?

The HORROR!!!!!!

You’ve failed to actually present a problem…

Ah, one of the “sucks to be you” crowd weighs in. Thanks.

Mesmers and guardians are kitten in the speed dept. for sure. When I play my necro or thief, it’s like a breath of fresh air being able to open up and actually run. It has always seemed wrong to me that some professions get run speed signets, and some don’t.

What I’d like to see: all characters, upon reaching xx level (40? 60? 80? dunno…), can complete a quest to get a permanent 25% speed boost added to their run speed. No signets, no weapon usage, no sigils required. That would be fair.

Yamagawa.5941:

<Rant>
What in the?!? What’s this I read about magic find becoming some sort of account bonus for accomplishments!?

I’ve abandoned several good games simply for having this kind of reward structure! It punishes new players in a way that cannot be made up with a simple gift of a box of armor, they have to work hard to get that magic find. It does nothing to reward skill and everything to reward long time players.

Ok. Deep breath.

With MF on the gear, I have a decision to make: Can I clear this game content with the penalty of using MF gear, or do I sacrifice drops for clearing the content. Absent some living story content and fractals levels starting at about 26, and the odd bit of dungeon content, I don’t need my ‘main’ gear to press forward successfully. I’m a skilled player. I tank Karka. Veteran abominations, on occasion some giganticus fellow in Arah who has some really nasty breath. I don’t credit my gear for this, I credit my ability. I use my ability to bring MF along and get better drops. Some items have even been announced to only drop if you bring MF. What’s this mean? Only the players who have played the game longer and farmed all the permament MF bonuses have any real chance at getting it.

With MF on the account and off the gear, the switch itself punishes newer players who have paid out cold hard gold for a second set of MF gear. The attitude moving the buff to the account presents is not one of ‘ability trumps all’ but ‘attendance trumps all’, an attitude I absolutely despise in games. I come to use my ability, to earn my rewards, not for handouts – handouts are not earned, so they have no value to me (zenith gear included. Yeah, it looks shiny, but I didn’t do anything specific to earn it, so I value it likewise)

Please Arena Net: I’ve never asked you for anything design wise, but I’m going to insist now.

• Drop the account wide buffs – they are a detriment to new players.

If you really want to reward longtime players, do it with titles, or skins obtained only by completing specific, sometimes difficult, content. Not as permament powerups for kitten showing up and killing ten rats.

I’m ok in a game without magic find. I’m not ok in a game that grants performance boosts of any kind to long-term players, PvE or PvP.
//Portable Corpse

</Rant>

This post here sums it up very well for me.

All those of you who are excited about account-wide, achievement-based MF boosts should read this.

“So you’re new, and don’t have any MF bonuses, nor any way to get them other than not being new? Sucks to be you…”

For “plate” style heavy armor, I really like Antique Bronze with Oil Slick. Looks really sharp, and kind of “battleworn”.

For mixed “leather and plate” style heavy armor, I like Black for the leather parts, and Fog for the metal parts. The contrast between the two looks great.

Yeah, it makes sense now. Thanks for the explanations, everyone.

That’s strange. I haven’t missed a daily in weeks. I’m not sure how I missed an achievement chest. I guess I must have, though.

I guess that makes sense. But how is everyone else getting the 1000 one today? This is only the second day of the patch.

hoewhoew.4619:

Spiral Architect.6540:

Zenith.7301:

You gotta open your achievement chest first and select the skin.

Hmm… I opened my chest just a few minutes ago, and all i got were a bunch of PVP skins. No Zenith skins at all.

More RNG?

What chest did you opened? The 1000 achievement point chest? Maybe you didn’t open your chest from yesterday or the day before?

It was a 500 achievement one. I opened the 100 one last night, the 500 one just now. I see a 1000 one on my UI screen, but I can’t seem to access it any way.

Zenith.7301:

You gotta open your achievement chest first and select the skin.

Hmm… I opened my chest just a few minutes ago, and all i got were a bunch of PVP skins. No Zenith skins at all.

More RNG?

Vayne.8563:

Now I just want to be treebeard.

I’d rather be Celeborn… just sayin’.

Why don’t I WvW? I find it exceedingly dull.

Zerg vs zerg? /yawn

Using siege? /yawn x2

Running back for 5 minutes after each death? /yawn x3

Roaming is mildly more fun, until the next zerg sweeps through, then it’s more of the above.

So, in answer to the OP’s question, I’m not sure what it would take to get me to play WvW, other than a complete overhaul of what it is.

The real bummer for me is that, prior to launch, WvW was the game mode I was most excited about.

They should have just called it the “kittened” buff.

JustTrogdor.7892:

The Mexican Cookie.3690:

HAHA

Best thread, should be stickied or something.

(If people don’t get the reference, they had no childhood).

I had a rather normal childhood, well the same years spent as a child as most. I still don’t get it. Maybe my childhood era preceded the reference.

Don’t worry — I had to look it up to get the joke.

In my (late) childhood, we played Pong on a black and white TV.

I am in a guild that, up until recently, was really great. After a lot of key people left, it’s been a revolving door of folks in and out of the guild. I like tighter-knit friendly guilds, so it doesn’t really work for me. I’d find a new one, but I never game that much in the Summer, and I would feel awkward joining, then not playing much.

So, yeah, I play alone 99% of the time.