Guild Wars 2

Naus the Gobbo.5172:

In my opinion it would be much better if you in the future just added the dungeons as permanent content, but let the story npcs stay and tell the tale of how the new content came to be.
You could just make some unique skins as a reward for completing those challenges when the content is fresh, and then take them out when the next chapter is added.

Because then everyone would get to experience the content, and the world would still feel alive because there would be changes added all the time.

^ This right here.

In my opinion, this would be one of the best changes since release. It keeps the “lore” alive, it builds on the amount of content available, it allows for people who missed the content to still experience it, and it keeps the game fresh and growing.

Vayne.8563:

Spiral Architect.6540:

JustTrogdor.7892:

You could start a topic about pong for all I care…

Pong ruled.

If you got the left paddle, though, you were OP. It wasn’t very balanced.

I dunno. Sounds like L2P to me…

@ Vayne: I was just ribbing you a bit… I couldn’t resist.

I tend to agree with you on most of what you posted there, though if you’ll permit me a slight digression, I did think Ember Isle was brilliant.

My concern, and I’ve posted this elsewhere, is that there’s been a lot of “rushed” content put out, yet many “standard” MMO features (guild UI refinements, LFG tools, TP UI refinements, etc.) remain unimplemented. There have been bugs which were reported back at launch which have yet to be addressed, yet we get lots of new, shiny (temporary) content. The new shiny stuff sells more games, though, so there’s a lot more incentive to create new content than there is to fix what’s already been released.

Vayne, from your last few posts, you’re starting to sound a bit… cynical (or jaded, at least). What gives?

JustTrogdor.7892:

You could start a topic about pong for all I care…

Pong ruled.

My ranger was my first character. After about 15 levels or so, the pet AI really started to annoy me. I stuck it out for another 15, leveled to 30, but just couldn’t do it anymore. Now he’s a mule.

I love ranged dps in MMOs, so I keep my ranger on ice, just in case ANet ever changes the profession enough that I can stand playing him. From what I’ve seen over the last few patches, though, they’re going in the opposite direction. So, my ranger stays a mule, hanging out at the Rata Sum bank, selling stuff for me.

Zeefa.3915:

I am sorry to say that most of the things you want are kinda unrealistic.

^ This.

Threads like this are fun (taco, anyone?), but have no import on future game development. Take a look at the “Suggestions” forum, and tally up how many of those suggestions have made it into the game. Pure win.

Think about it for a minute: why bother to fix broken old content and class mechanics, when they can create shiny new content and RNG skins to draw in new players?

There’s all kinds of incentive to do what they’re doing now, and very little to fix the game.

Like I said in my previous post in this thread, the real problem is that we get the same mechanic over and over and over and over again.

Certainly, given the creativity and talent of the developers, we could have a little more variety.

tolunart.2095:

Shadow Blade.1324:

why buy precursors when you’ll be able to get them for free in the scavenger hunt?

Because we have no idea what the actual system will involve, only that it will require visiting nearly every part of the game and will eventually lead to a precursor weapon. I suspect it’s something like a modified form of the “Gift of …” that requires a variety of activities and produces a ticket for a weapon you can redeem with the new vendor who stands near the Black Lion Traders. Or maybe you get a random precursor and it might not be the one you want. Or the new Legendaries (if they make new ones) might not be interesting enough to go after. It might take so long to put into place that you already have two or three Legendaries before this even happens.

Any number of reasons.

Or that there will ever even be a scavenger hunt.

JustTrogdor.7892:

Potion that turns my character into a taco.

Absolutely this.

Lately I’ve been wondering if there’s a “planned obsolescence” in the game design.

There are bugs and broken mechanics still in place that have been there since launch — some of which have been acknowledged by ANet staff. Yet they continually remain unaddressed. Add to that a constant stream of new, shiny, temporary content that, while it has its bright spots for some, is really pretty shallow.

What does this pattern do for the game? The new shiny stuff makes for great advertising copy. They can publish screen shots of characters with the newest (mostly unattainable) weapon skins, fighting cool new monsters and engaging in fresh new encounters. This draws in new players, which means more box sales and potential new gem shop customers.

Meanwhile, veteran players get frustrated and fed up with the same old broken content. It’s almost like ANet is saying to veteran players, “You’ve played the game already. Move along.”

As many have stated in this thread, there are ways to counter CC. However, in my opinion, it is only partially a “learn to play” problem. Why?

1) Knockdown, knockback, and immobilize get way overused in this game. More often than not, whenever there is a mob encounter that is supposed to be “interesting” or “challenging,” it’s because you get CC’d. Well, it gets old.

2) Groups of mobs chain their CC’s. Successive knockdowns, knockbacks and immobilizes get really old.

Yes, I know — there are counters to those things, and many players never bother to learn the mechanics. But when we’re faced with the “holy trinity” of knockback, knockdown, and immobilize over and over and over again, the game play gets really stale.

Sometimes I go run the group DE in Caledon where you get polymorphed, just for some variety.

I have not quit playing, per se, but I’m finding I am playing less and less. My reasons?

1. I love dungeons in MMO’s, but I’m not crazy about the mechanics in GW2 dungeons. Trash mobs and bosses with huge HP pools and cheap shot mechanics just aren’t very exciting to me.

2. I typically play tanks in MMO’s, but being tanky in GW2 basically means you do poor dps and slow your team down. Dps zerging is not as fun for me as coordinated teamwork.

3. Most of my friends in game have left, and I’ve been slow to make new ones. That’s all on me, but my friends list has cycled through to empty a few times already so I’ve been finding myself reluctant to put in the effort.

4. I had high hopes for WvW, but I find it kind of boring, to be honest. Zerg or be zerged.

5. I had high hopes for enjoying PvP in this game, but quite honestly, I am terrible at it. I’m old, and not very twitchy, so I get destroyed pretty fast. I also only know 1 or 2 people that are into PvP, so there’s not much critical mass for me to latch onto.

6. I don’t gamble, so RNG boxes aren’t my cup of tea. Temp content built around RNG box sales does not interest me much.

7. I’m not interested in Legendaries, so the grind for one doesn’t keep me going.

8. It’s Springtime in North America, and it’s freaking nice outside, so I’ve been gardening, hiking, camping, stargazing, and not gaming as much.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Transmutation

This page gives you step-by-step instructions.

I hope that helps.

killcannon.2576:

I run both sets for my warrior, a full tanky set- pvt and healing, and almost full zerk set with some healing accessories. The tank build is only good in certain situations and usually utilities and having skills that give you vigor are more than enough to help you survive with a zerk set. The game just isn’t built around having your armor save you at all and vitality and toughness just don’t have the synergy with skills that power/critical/ and crit dmg do. Your own skills and the skills/traits of your build will save you 50 times more than stacking vitality and toughness ever will.

Sil.4560:

Tell your DPSers that there’s a dodge button.

These two posters have it right. Going pure DPS, so you kill things fast (dead mobs don’t do much damage), and knowing when to dodge will do more than going “tanky”.

If you want, go with toughness and vit for a while, then start swapping gear out for zerker stats. You can always keep the tanky stuff in your bags and swap it back in if needed.

Keep in mind, this is all for PVE. In WvW, though, vit helps a lot.

DPS, no matter what profession you play. Always DPS.

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

easy fix.

additional stacks after 25 stacks converts it directly into direct damage. everyone is happy!

Yes, everyone is happy, except for the developers at ANet, who didn’t think of the idea first, so it doesn’t get implemented.

There have been lots of good ideas tossed around about how to correct this flaw, but it’s really doubtful it will ever be fixed. IIRC, even Colin J. said it wasn’t going to happen.

I only mess around with conditions on one character, a mid-level thief who almost exclusively solos everything. When I do events with him, I swap to direct damage weapons.

I have full sets of Berserker’s, Soldier’s, and Knight’s. Most often, I find Berserker’s just fine — kill stuff fast, and it can’t hurt you. Occasionally I will add a piece or 2 of Knight’s or Soldier’s in for a little toughness and/or vit.

Guardians have good defensive options, even geared for dps.

IronPlushy.4256:

So you just make a mountain of gear you’ll never use?

Pretty much. Crafting in this game, save for a few recipes, has little worth outside of being a great way to level up fast (10 levels per each maxed crafting discipline).

locoman.1974:

…probably things like “ok, CoF P1 is being done a lot but other dungeons not nearly as much, how can we make them more attractive?”

Sorry, but you’ve got it backwards. It should read: " How can we make CoF P1 less attractive?" For GW2, it’s nerfs, not buffs.

IronPlushy.4256:

I really don’t understand how anyone gets a character to 80 since by 30 you have every skill you’ll ever use. How does that not bore you?

Crafting.

15characters

Mungrul.9358:

I’m pretty anti-farming, and find it hard to understand people who claim to enjoy such a monotonous activity.

Fill in the blank: “I’m pretty anti-__________, and find it hard to understand people who claim to enjoy such a monotonous activity.”

Whatever we fill in the blank with, whether it’s “farming” or “frisbees” or “fishing” or “frito-eating”, it’s immaterial. Some people will like it, some won’t. That’s life.

Some people, in this thread and others, have bashed people for liking farming. Some people do. Please try to understand that there are lots of ways to create enjoyment, and just because someone doesn’t do it the way you do, doesn’t make it wrong.

I’m going to get flamed for saying so, but when ANet did away with the trinity of tank, healer, dps, it made for a dull dungeon experience. Without tanks to soak up damage, and healers to keep everyone’s health bars topped off, dungeons are basically just zerg content. To keep a “level” playing field, that any profession can play in, they designed dungeons so every profession can withstand the damage mobs dish out, and gave us a dodge mechanic (which I love, btw) to avoid the big stuff.

So, how to keep dungeons from just being massive dps-fest facerolls? Give mobs and bosses knockdowns and snares, and (with bosses at least) huge dps-spike one-shot attacks which will kill you regardless of how defensive you are. In some areas, they included traps to slow things down as well.

What this does is:

1) Encourage people to skip trash mobs. They don’t drop anything worthwhile, and are really just annoying bottlenecks.

2) Encourage people to go full berserker and dps things down as fast as possible. If you dodge/avoid the big spikey attacks, then go back to dps-ing, the mob/boss dies faster, and does fewer big spikey attacks. DPS is king in this game.

3) Encourage people to find the dungeon paths that can be completed the fastest, and run them over and over. It’s simple risk vs. reward behavior.

4) Once people learn the mechanics of a particular boss or dungeon path, it gets repetitive (for example: when the boss does xyz, wait 1 second, then dodge, then go back to dps-ing). When content gets repetitive, people look for the fastest repetitive content to do for their rewards (loot, money, etc.), and skip the rest.

Attempts to make content “harder” have really just made content more annoying. If we look at the changes made to AC a few patches back, it’s not really a “harder” dungeon, it just has more annoying mechanics that slow parties down. As a consequence, fewer people run AC now than they used to.

Making dungeons take longer to complete, with more “tripwire” (roots, snares, knockbacks, knockdowns, etc.) type content in them is not a very good solution, because people tend to avoid that kind of content.

In my opinion, dungeons in this game need a massive overhaul. Mobs and bosses need to be made more “interesting”, and “smarter” — not just frustrating and annoying. Some of the paths take way too long to complete, and many players don’t have the time or inclination to run them, given the rewards. Some are too short, and thus get exploited. But the saddest thing? Many dungeon paths in this game just get ignored or avoided.

Read a book. Take a walk. Learn another language. Write a poem. Pet a dog. Dance. Ride your bike. Bake a cake. Volunteer somewhere. Fall in love.

There’s lots to do after 80.

I’d rather see champs have a slight chance at dropping a unique weapon or armor skin — one you can’t get from any other source. Even if it’s a very slight chance, it would be more interesting than a guaranteed blue.

My guardian is my favorite character, by far. I, too, have always played tanks in MMO’s, and guardians come closest to tanks in this game. They have eavy armor, lots of defensive skills, great survivability, cool weapons (except for ranged), can dish it out as well as take it, etc. It’s a great profession.

As has been mentioned, we really need help with ranged, though. Scepter is just not a great option (read this thread for elucidation on this point: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Fix-most-broken-autoattack-in-game/first ). I love the staff, but it’s only so-so as a “ranged” weapon; it shines in other ways, though.

My bigger beef with guardian really has little to do with the profession, and more to do with the game itself, though: Tanks are not really needed in this game, save for some situations in WvW. And I love to tank. So, to get my tanking fix, I play other (trinity) games, and use my GW2 guardian as a “supportive” melee dps character. It’s fun, but it just ain’t really a tank.

Guardians are great in WvW, if you’re into that kind of thing. I wish I were, but I’m not. I find WvW realy boring and dull, so I don’t do it much. As always, YMMV.

zerorogue.9410:

Spiral Architect.6540:

“Polish updates” don’t lead to gem store sales, though, so we’re not likely to see one anytime soon.

Initially no, however a polished game attracts more people, and more people means more gems sold.

Not only that I’m sure there are many people out-there that have quit GW2 because of something (or a culmination of things) that need polish. Gem sales are not only about a shiny new toy. You gotta get em playing first to fork over the cash

Yes, you are correct. However, if an update came out that “fixed all the things that should have been fixed since launch,” that wouldn’t attract many new players.

This issue has been discussed at least weekly on these forums since the game launched, as has the “only 2 players required to kick” problem.

I think it’s here to stay.

zenleto.6179:

I came to the conclusion months ago that kill or be killed comes first and then support a far second but I keep on trying to see if I can get it to work.

This. I’ve always played tanks and support characters in other games, and I really miss it. I built my guardian for support in GW2, but in most situations I’ve found my zerker warrior to be more beneficial to any group I play in.

The best support one can offer in this game is to kill stuff really fast. Dead foes don’t do much damage.

“Polish updates” don’t lead to gem store sales, though, so we’re not likely to see one anytime soon.

Many in this thread have stated that there’s no benefit to having a subscription. I disagree.

Subscriptions keep a steady stream of income flowing into the game, which gives the gaming company an incentive to keep the quality up. Shoddy game? Loss of subscriptions. Quality game? Renewed subscriptions, plus the satisfied player base refers more players.

Games without subscriptions have to generate cash flow other ways, usually through cash shop sales. Thus, game content tends to funnel players toward “playing” the cash shop. Development of fresh cash shop related content takes resource time away from other aspects of the game, and quality suffers. As examples, look at all the broken/bugged/missing features in GW2 that have never been addressed, yet we get constant “updates” of temporary content that lead to cash shop items.

This doesn’t make non-sub games “bad,” rather they just have a different flavor. It’s important to remember a couple of things:

1) There is no free lunch. Anytime anything is advertised as free, it’s not.

2) If you want to understand why people do things, look at the incentives in the system. As much as we’d like to pretend otherwise, incentives drive our behavior.

Jeffrey Vaughn.1793:

There were an excessive number of bots at that location on several servers, so the spawns during the event (only) had their loot reduced. No changes were made to any creature outside the event, including wraiths in other locations. We tried to find the simplest, safest change possible. I hope that answers the question, but I really don’t want to get into a debate about “What is farming?” or “Does farming hurt the economy?” or “Economy? It’s a game, who cares?”

Question: if they knew there were bots there, why nerf the loot, rather than banning the bots outright? I smell a red herring…

ColinJohanson.2394:

It’s highly likely the precursor concept will involve playing varied different content all over the game to gather numerous content specific materials that are combined together to make a precursor.

Or more likely, “numerous content specific materials that are combined together to have a slight chance to make a precursor.”

This is GW2, after all.

/popcorn

I agree with the OP, by the way — deceptive marketing hype is… deceptive. I’m just waiting for the usual troupe of GW2 apologists to weigh in here. This thread will be fun while it lasts.

Ascended items are unique because having an extra +4 to a stat would, obviously, break the game.

r z.7261:

Are they adding a scavenger hunt?

First they said they were going to add one, then they said they were not actively working on it, but that they were working on “a system by which a scavenger hunt could be added to the game.”

Summaries here: http://www.guildwars2guru.com/news/981-update-on-precursor-scavenger-hunt/

Back in November, I was excited about the prospect of a scavenger hunt. Now? Not so much.

stof.9341:

Actually, WoW Unique doesn’t mean the same thing than in GW2. In WoW, a Unique item is an item where it’s impossible for you to even own two copies. In GW2 you can own multiple copies but can only equip one at a time.

WoW system is much more user friendly here since the store will refuse to sell a second copy to you.

Not to mention that in WoW, you have a window of time in which you can get a refund from the vendor if you realize you’ve purchased the wrong thing. Not so in GW2.

But again… they should just get rid of the whole concept of “unique.” It’s pointless.

Queensdale Cave Troll. ’nuffsaid.

No.

/15characters.

Seriously. Just get rid of the whole concept of “unique” already.

Is +4 more of a stat really that game breaking? No.

It’s a stupid concept, and should just be kittencanned.

Edit: But the chances of 1) someone from ANet actually reading this, and 2) someone from ANet actually giving a kitten about it are zero.

This thread is a waste of electrons.

Chase.8415:

For those who don’t know why the mechanic exists, and how other games will simply not even let you buy an item if you can’t attain it twice…

Guild wars 2 has a feature where the majority of all items are account bound, giving you the ability to play on any character you want and earn gear for another alt.

If they were to prevent you from buying the same ring twice for example, it would cause troubles for those who use the feature on transferring items between alts on the same account.

This is why there is no warning, because of there was people would assume that because it can only be obtained once, they couldn’t send it to their alt either,

I know how upsetting it can be, but you can’t be stating the game didn’t think things out properly, because it did. There’s a reason why you can buy the same ring twice… it wasn’t bad development.

That still doesn’t explain why there is such a thing as “unique” on them at all. It serves no real purpose. Are the folks at ANet really that concerned that someone might have two rings with the same offensive stats on them? An extra +4 to a stat? That just seems silly to me.

And furthermore, with as many threads as there have been on the subject, one would think that by now something would have been done to change this (or at least that there would be some kind of official response). But there’s been nothing. That is mindboggling.

Narcemus.1348:

The title was ArenaNet created, not a player name and has been around for YEARS without too much incident, that I know of.

Yeah, I know. I was playing Devil’s advocate… so to speak.

What about the title, “God Walking Among Mere Mortals”?

Could that not be construed as a religious reference? Is everyone with that title unwittingly breaking the EULA?

I’m of the same mind — I’ve never bought any of the previous RNG chests, nor will I buy any of the new ones. I’m fine with having a cash shop for aesthetic items, but I’d have to say I intensely dislike the cash for RNG thing. When I go to the hardware store to buy a hammer, I want to walk out with a hammer — not a box with a “slight chance” to contain a hammer.

This issue has been argued six ways from Sunday, for several months now, in several forum threads. I doubt anyone from ANet, save the forum moderators, have even read any of these arguments. And if I’m wrong — and they have read the arguments — I doubt they care what anyone thinks about it.

I want more than that. Spears for land combat ftw (and useable by every profession).

I’m not an expert, but I have played that build quite a bit. I use the same armor, trinkets and jewels you listed there, but I like Soldier Runes, for the condition removal on shouts.

Some people advocate swapping pieces of the Knight’s armor out for Berserker’s as you get more comfortable with the build and the playstyle.

lordkrall.7241:

Morfedel.4165:

Don’t be a smartkitten, flissy. they said at one point that the living story would have an expansions worth of content. so no, it’s not strange at all.

No, they said that the updates would have an expansions worth of FEATURES, which I would say that it does.

Actually, it was content:

We had a huge Halloween update in October, we just had a big one in November, we have a giant Christmas update coming in December, and all of those have gone over really well, and I think in December people are going to be really excited. But January and February are actually are biggest updates to date. They’re even bigger than all the stuff we did in October, November and December. And I think that when people see how much stuff they’re gonna get for no monthly fee in January and February, they’re probably going to be blown away. These two months combined are basically an expansion’s worth of content for free.

Source: http://gamingbolt.com/guild-wars-2-interview-we-talk-to-areanet-about-how-the-mmorpg-has-been-doing-post-launch

akamon.2769:

and with regards to healing power – i personally have a threshold of about 1k healing power for me to directly invest into it. meaning, i don’t mind having any amount of healing power if i’m not actively giving sth else up for it. so if i do deliberately choose a piece of gear, whether it be runes, sigils, weapons, jewelry with healing power, i aim to go above 1k.

Lightrayne.7829:

In general, added healing will mostly be a percentage of the healing power stat that you use. In the case of guardian staff, the detonate accounts for 60% of your healing power, while empower accounts for 100% of your healing power (info is on the gw2 wiki). You get 179 healing power for a cleric’s staff, so you’re getting an extra 179 heal at most, which in my opinion, is pretty minor because the staff base heals are fine enough on their own.

Great input — I think I’ll leave healing power out of the mix, then.

I’m thinking I will go with Knight’s + Sigil of Energy for a swap weapon. I like having the extra dodge roll, and the toughness could come in handy in an “oh, kitten” moment.

I imagine I’ll have a Berserker’s before too long, too…