Guild Wars 2

I mean it takes a couple of days or like a week max to hit 80. There, this is your no grind.

What do you think the game would look like if everyone got their ascended and skins ect in that same time frame as hitting endgame grind free?

I use a spear for underwater. Its…iffy. Some skills have no issue aligning with the enemy, but I need to get in close for most of the skills, which is a pain because I am usually getting railed on by several enemies, and I might be stabbing with the spear but the enemy is a bit higher and not getting hit ect.

Its too…fickle…with close range, and having to deal with positioning.

I dunno underwater combat lacks that fluidity and flow that normal combat has.

Plus your comparing this to something like flying, which always feels relaxing and fun in a mmorpg…which is silly.

I would buy one. It would be nice to have a separate bag just for consumables that I didn’t need to deal with shuffling them around on other characters.

Right now I have only one main character but after HOT I’m going to start leveling up multiple characters. Simple stuff like being able to tote around my boosts so I actually use them. Right now they mostly sit in my bank and whenever I think “ill pop a boost” I end up never making it to the bank to use them.

I don’t think one slot for account wide bag would ruin inventory balance (for whatever reason a few here seem to think that’s a thing, always have to have QOL haters I guess)

Youll still need to upgrade the bank, and buy inventory slots per character

and use the mail carrier for items that wont fit in that bag spot…

I don’t know why you guys are complaining, you can use the desktop authenticator, no phone number, no smart phone, none of that is needed.

As a bonus when you get a new cell phone in two years you wont need to dig up the code you need to reverify the phones authenticators connection to the game.

I assume most people replace their PC far less often than their cell phones.

As an added bonus, pairing the game to winauth, ive never once had to use it other than the initial set up, I think that because I’m on the same PC, so its pretty unobtrusive, which I like.

Ive used keychain authenticators before and it was a total pain to have to use it every single log on, plus the amount of pain that would be required if I lost the thing or it broke….

I’m honestly not a fan of authenticators. I’m even less a fan of SMS authenticators. This desktop program authenticator is by far the best version ive seen.

My only worry with these types of things is if I move and get a new pc after taking a long break from the game, getting back in can be often not worth the effort when the accounts tied to these things.

I dunno, in theory it seems like something awesome. Then I picture myself in this game, in third person, with the camera that this game has, hopping to that first vine then going first person mode clipped in the vine trying to time my next swing and I’m not centered correctly and fly off to the side into a pack of trash mobs that all spam cripple attacks on me.

Mob skill that are not fun:

Any skill that makes me passing by a total pain. For instance that risen mob that spams cripple on you (paired with an annoying norn sound effect as I hobble), the one that chains me in place (ok ill just kill the thing) or those cold blowing guys.

I’m sure this wont really be a huge deal on the one map in HOT, but nothing grinds my gears more than just passing by and I gotta deal with hords of trash mobs because one of them decided to root me, cripple me or slow me, and these are skills that really don’t matter in actual combat, just to harass me on my way to an unlocked poi or whatever.

I kinda like “helicopter ground effect” style attacks that you dodge by going clockwise, however are not anti-melee or non-factor to range (picture a large X ground effect moving clockwise, so theres room for melee to be useful and range has to deal with it too. Don’t like ground effects like a lot of core game mobs have that only bother melee, and you cant dodge them as melee and still attack, but range can stand there and auto attack.

If you dislike the map pve then your option is the spvp to level up or wvw.

if you dislike pvp and wvw, and you don’t like the casual approach to exploring the world and heart quests…I dunno plenty of games out there that have quest hubs lit up like a Christmas tree with gold question marks out there.

Perhaps the thing your not getting is that map pve is mostly exploration and heart quests are basically a traditional quest hub only where each individual quest is lumped together into one progress bar. So you can collect, turn in, kill, ect rather than getting a hub with each npc telling you to do each aspect of the heart quest…and giving a generic boring text box explanation as to why they cant just do it themselves.

If you don’t like the combat, I fear something is wrong with you, or you simply don’t use the weapons that feel the best to you…you know each weapon changes your skills right?

Personally I cleared a few maps, I’m not totally into it, but I’m still going around at least unlocking waypoints, between pvp and wvw at least.

It is an awkward transition, ill admit, getting use to the starter zone and how it works and what I need to be doing. Took me till around lv 25ish to get it, how it works, and what to look for, then I went back to the starter map and cleared it.

Also keep in mind you get a waypoint to EVERY starter map, maybe go to another one and see if it catches your interest.

I think that before you “get it” with how pve maps work, its really hard to like it, once you do understand you can make a decision on if you want to keep doing it or not. BTW the rewards for clearing maps are worth it…though it gets tedious for me. Luckily I can come back later and do it as I please, I more or less hit 80 exploring waypoints, spvp, and the personal storyline.

Fox.3469:

Defensive gear does give you more chances, it is working as intended, this gear isn’t supposed to make you ignore the boss abilities. Btw you are way overselling this, most classes in full zerker can afford one mistake in a bossfight. Most classes full tank can make 3-4 kittenups before going down.

I agree. Only if the only if the means of damage are ground effects you dodge or die to…wearing heavy armor and getting one shot for not moving or light armor and dying to not moving is the same result.

Also if the damage done is so high, meaning it doesn’t scale if there are say, 5 people vs 50 what does it matter if you get one shot in tank gear or one shot in DPS gear as a “tanky build” say a guardian with lots of protect skills. Might as well go DPS and burn as much as you can then get out of the way when the attacks come, which is the same playstyle say a zerker would have. So what benefit is there to sacrificing DPS to toughness?

My problem is, when the event gets huge and the dps skyrockets on the event champ, I might as well go my spvp range build, which is fine and all, but the situations where I can be a tanky guardian and feel like a big heavy armored tank seem to be shrinking rapidly. I was having fun seeing a bunch of thief’s/rangers kiting a champ or veteran mobs then running over, taking its agro, then keeping him off the dps while support skills on the dps…that’s fun, that feels guardian, you change that you make guardian, or any other class with the means to tank if properly built, pointless other than map pve non event mobs…and even in HOT I’m hearing that the mobs that you typically would “tank” in core game have stuff you cant tank and must run around kiting…

So again, going tanky only matters when you can actually take hits. Getting one shot, or two shot, or only able to stay there while a long cool down skill is active….you go from a tank to just another dps kiter with one or two “second chance” skills.

Wouldn’t the fact that a lot of people choose not to go the new specialization be a sign of a complete success with the system?

Did anyone want the new specializations to be guaranteed “must have” for each class?

I’m sure down the road someone will create a really useful meta for each of the “bad specializations” and they’ll be more popular…but I don’t thin anet wanted the new specializations to trump the old class system, just add another layer of variety if you want it…..and that’s how it should be.

I’m more worried about the very popular “omg awesome” specializations for certain classes more so than the “this sucks” specializations….as being too good means no one will play anything but it when on that class, and that to me is a failure of the specialization system…more so than DH (though the lore/flavor of DH sucks its nothing guardian) being not so great looking thus far…because only some will be DH and there will still be lots of guardians out there…

You make it too powerful and awesome and it just becomes a linear “we didn’t extend level cap but now you need to farm mastery to upgrade your class from average to awesome to compete”

Id rather have the skills known, tested, and balanced than to protect against some people having the gear premade…because all you really have to do is head to the crafter and or auction house once you realize what you need anyway.

Plus I would rather have the devs know the exact “meta” being used well before the specializations are launched, the less time people get comfortable with a broken class the better it will be. Changing/nerfing/balancing many months down the road is just going to create a swarm of tears, doing that same balance a week into the launch on the otherhand wont…especially if people know its coming.

Try clicking through the authenticator set up. There is a desktop program option. Use it. Its easy, it hasn’t popped up since I registered it. Just make sure to email yourself the code connecting the game in case you get a new computer down the road.

I too refuse to use SMS authentication. Phones change too often, chance of losing/breaking the phone is real and I really don’t need more random callers trying to sell me stuff (actually its now voice recorded messages telling me I won something or to go to some website)

Just register the desktop program and its done. Not sure if its because I’m on a trusted computer but haven’t used it once since registering it. which I like.

use the desktop winauth option. I registered the SMS to it. Never seen it pop up again. assuming that’s because I play from only one computer.

I refuse to do cell phone sms, as that cell phone changes too often and the biggest draw back of SMS is lets say you take a year or two off from the game, if I don’t have one of those keychain sms, its a royal pain to figure out everything.

I would have ignored the SMS requirement, but I decided to look into it, saw a desktop program option and took it, now I have a snazzy magical dragon mini I quite enjoy.

Have never once had to use the SMS since registering it.

I think the only thing moving forward is to keep each new specialization true to the lore of the class.

For instance. Guardian shouldn’t be a big game hunter. They should have went with some sort of angelic protector with a bow and heavy armor…seraphim or something..that ties into the flavor of guardian as a heavily armored “magical protector and support” only now hes got a bow, mobility maybe not as tanky, turn traps into divine interventions or something…even if the effect is roughly the same.

As a new player I desperately want this. As someone else said id like two builds per game mode. Allow me to manage the builds from anywhere…basically I don’t want to have to travel to the mists to mess with my spvp build, then head to wvw to mess with my wvw build.

Also, I know its a small thing, and they sell inventory space so this probably wont happen…but to save equipped gear on each game mode. I know it doesn’t matter in spvp but maybe I want to look a certain way?

So what I want is a build tab. I click the icon of a globe for pve maps, two swords for spvp, the castle tower icon for wvw. I can drag and drop gear into the set up then mess with the traits and skills.

I just want to be able to do pve, then run a bit in wvw without having to juggle gear…as well as in wvw switch from a “zerg” setup to a small group “roam” without having to more or less afk at a bank ncp while I sort out my build and gear.

Is this so hard to do? With specializations….the need for this is going to be increased…especially the two builds per mode (so I can play more than one specialization easily)

spvp reward system. Stack that onto your XP bar once 80. So now if you want to go grind out some levels your just grinding progress on a spvp reward bar towards…whatever you selected.

I absolutely love the spvp reward system, I don’t think I would play much of the game mode if it wasn’t for that addicting progress bar towards potentially cool rewards.

So just add that. I was going to suggest jacking paragon levels from Diablo 3, but I don’t see a means to do that in any interesting way without creating a massive power gap in the playerbase.

You could also, with this spvp style progress bar reward system, create special events. Maybe put the last reward as a box potentially containing “most asked for items” like those stupid bunny ears everyone wont shut up about. Then in the gem store sell progress boosters (and keep them there only) so you make money when you do an event that has bunny ears as a potential reward and all those sociopaths go crazy trying to speed level the progress for more chances at it.

Its win win if you ask me. It would give me motive to run through more pve map content too…as I’m really not sure I’m going to be interested in even trying to 100% stuff especially when most that content is boring poi discovery or jumping puzzle vistas that I cant stand.

I think the point he is trying to make is that the damage is so high that even on a tank build it wont make much a difference, therefore, you might as well be a squishy character that does high burst/alpha damage.

So lets say then I’m on a guardian with tanky gear, well I’m going to get one shot a lot because of lower health…so why try to tank if it yields little results? Does that make more sense to the people hung up on “zerker” ?

Whats the motive for tying tank? If its all ground effect stuffs why not just a squishy mobile class….see the point? There should be room for characters who want to be big lumbering tanks, not saying you should be able to stand there and spam auto attack, but there needs to be some results for being a tanky character who “knows he can waltz up to the champion and take the heat off the squishy dps characters”

Its more an entire style of gameplay that might be rendered pointless that I’m worried about.

I don’t see a problem with them adding Russian hieroglyphics.

Well their goal was to make specializations completely change how a class plays, for better variety…and well this seems to be exactly that.

I’m hoping most of the complaints I’m reading are more knee jerk reactions to a class that now plays totally different…and that it will just take time to figure out the meta for them.

I mean I don’t see anyone going “you know what I love the DH I’m going guardian” it seems more aimed at “you know what I’m going to mess around on my guardian DH for a bit” type of specialization.

I just hope it has a good role in all the games content. I really don’t want the class to be ignored or shunned in content.

I do like the idea of a control based, trapper, longbow class….just you know….its a Guardian…the heavy armored magical knight sort of class…of all the options to change how the class played I feel there would have been much better routes.

Hell something like a seraphim bowman, you know maybe a blend of paladin looks and support with a bow and mobility (like angel wings that allow me to be more mobile or leap long distances) with a lot of bow based holy support skills. That seems like it would have been a better evolution of what the guardian is, but with a totally new gameplay via the specialization.

I don’t see the connection that the guardian, the support heavy armor class, has with someone who hunts dragons with traps.

I’m sure there is stuff everyone is missing, the obvious meta’s get spotted first, which reside in other class specializations, so I’m hoping theres something good here buried in the DH….but part of me think….why didn’t they do something cool related to the guardian…it appears to be just like they had a wheel of classes and said “for guardian spin the wheel….annnnd…ooh the guardian will get a hunter/trapper spec…done”

Its like saying any single player, buy once game, on steam is pay to win, because I cant win if I don’t buy the game, because I cant play it.

Totally different concept from actual paying to win games, which usually pit big spender “whales” against eachother in a bottomless spending pit.

In a pay to win game youll get your butt handed to you by a guy who spent a few hundred more than you, regardless of your baseline amount spent. For instance, these games are typically set up to where paying $100 youll beat any non spending player, but will get stomped by the guy who spent $250, and he will get stomped by the guy who spent $500, and it just keeps going. Youll have people spending $5000 to be top of the game and theres always that one guy (probably employee account) who seems to spend unlimited money (keeps the big spenders buying to have someone better than them) This is why some f2p games that actually are pay to win youll have people stating they spent $2000-$10000 on the game.

So with HOT your spending money on the content, which allows you to do more stuff. However I don’t think the new classes/specializations will make you stronger, since level cap remains the same and the standard class specializations are suppose to be competitive regardless, since lv80 is lv80 and they wont raise level cap.

your friend is illuminati, confirmed.

Sure its been asked before but forum searches suck.

Anyway, if I bought HOT as my ticket into GW2, did that include any of this living world stuff?

If no is there any reason other than story to get and do it? Special items or whatnot?

How quality is the story and content of living world? I’m not saying the core games story is garbage but its no elder scrolls game when it comes to story (or even SWTOR) and really its not a big deal for me to have extremely good story, but if this isn’t included in my $50 purchase how good is its quality? Is this something that is done better than the current core games story? If so might be worth the expenditure ect.

I mean I get what the guys saying, maybe an additional racial trait that gives them a bonus in the pre 80 “home turf” maps or something.

I mean this isn’t something like one race gets magic bonus, another gets archery ect meaning if you go X class you must go Y race or be kitten, even if its a slight kitten .

In the end, these are suggestions that are kinda…moderately…interesting…would it be worth the programming cost to do something that has almost no effect on gameplay, other than a brief stomp through certain pve maps?

why is…gim…p…ed…censored? whats next censoring the word nerf?

I was sort of pumped when I heard a guardian longbow spec. I was thinking a support bow with high damage mitigation, maybe some mobility…but basically a big heavily armored longbow spec that did guardian stuff only changed its gameplay up into something longer range and again, more mobility.

I’m not sure I’m thrilled with the “hey you guys wanted a trapper bow class when you chose that heavily armored support class right?”

However….If the goal here is to simply “completely change how you play a class” well then this is it.

I will say that I almost always see in other games the pre launched predictions are completely wrong after a the bulk playerbase gets their hands on it and interesting meta’s appear. We don’t have that yet.

So right now, while I’m not 100% thrilled at the aspect of being a trapper bow user…im not against it. I think that people will figure out the specialization far better once its in game and thoroughly tested.

Keep in mind, the developers who made this have had far more time to play and test the class than any of us have had, and get the inner workings of the skills ect. So if there isn’t something obvious that jives well with the specialization, perhaps were all missing something.

it is possibly that they just sort of said…“well kitten it” and rushed the development for DH because they were out of ideals and time…

But if I’m not mistaken, these specializations are 100% optional, so guardian should function as it always has if people dislike the concept of a trapper/bow “petless hunter”

Cronos.6532:

nevermind my $3000 pc doesn’t support dx12 rofl

just make it dx11

Windows 10 is free, I would upgrade if I were you.

The thing is, DX9 was a success since most developers utilized it…however, I hear it was a total PITA to code using it, and that dx10 and 11 were even less dev friendly. DX12 is suppose to be better on code monkies, at least from what ive heard.

Also the advantages of the jump from 9 to 12 is huge, dx10 gets you…?? and 11 tessalation…which is ok but you know…

DX12 is going to be the new standard, so the sooner they get on board the better….

But yeah I don’t see it happening…its a huge undertaking that wont yield new players really…maybe a few would check it out just to see how it all works if they get it done before it becomes standard issue…which wont happen.

We will have to wait for GW3 for that….and to be honest…they should do the WoW thing, just keep making the game you have that people like better rather than trying to reinvent the wheel. So maybe if they see fit to not make a 3rd game and just keep gw2 going forever, then dx12 would make sense.

Artorius.6178:

While I know who AngryJoe is, hell, I watch his videos on a daily basis, he actually wasn’t the reason I got the game, I needed a new MMO, was tired of TERA, STO and SWTOR, and knew I wouldn’t have much money to throw at a F2P title, so I got GW2 HoT instead, which off course came with base GW2 included.

Very similar to my story. I’m like 5 days into GW2 as a new player. I hadn’t been in the mmorpg mood for a long time. I sort of got the itch. Been looking at f2p games because my time is all over the place, I don’t want to think “well ill sub this month but I’m not sure how busy ill be”

So I’m looking at free to play games. Each one more dead than the last, thinking…do I really want to get hooked and end up spending $$$ in a game where I think the future looks bleak?

Heard this game was going free, I had ignored it for quite some time for various reasons, one was I just all together stopped mmorpgs.

So I did some reading, thought if the core game is free the game will guaranteed be active, as my big worry with GW2 in the past (during sales ect) was that this was going to be nothing but hardcore vets 3 years deep in game.

Figured paying $50 was cheaper than getting into a dying f2p game….though ive spent more in the shop since that…figure this is a game that’s lived 3 years with like no significant content and is still active…made me think the overhype related to it might not have been so far off to keep people around that long with nothing special added.

Thus far I’m lovin it, though could say that about just about any game this new into it. Hoping its a game that I stick with.

For its price, and considering what else is out there, and what else is on the horizon (nothing on the horizon) I don’t think there is a better deal out there than $50 for HOT then maybe $20-$40 for some deco stuff and storage.

Behellagh.1468:

Well I guess they will have to buy the game, or wait a long time if they want an ascended amulet.

But considering how much coin can be raised by selling or converting the login rewards they had to put the kibosh on it for P4F accounts.

I mean not only that but also why wouldn’t you just create 20 free accounts for yourself to farm the laurels, especially since the rewards can be traded to your main account.

Honestly I feel that they sort of give too much to a free account. Its not a free to play game, meaning not paying gets you all the same content as a paid players, but until HOT drops its pretty kitten close.

Once the expansion is out free trial players will have much more motive to pay up, which is how it should be. Right now though, without said expansion, its basically a free to play game, the restrictions are minor, granted its only going to be about two more months that trial players will get to enjoy all the game has to offer minus daily logins and mailing stuffs.

Draknar.5748:

So what’s the goal? To simply hit 80 or do you have to clear all dungeon paths or all JPs or something?

This sounds like a lot of fun. The no dodging thing is kind of weird. Gonna have to simply remove the key binding, it’s habit at this point.

Typically stuff like this is meant to have you lose the challenge relatively quick, and the challenge is to see how far you get.

Not being able to upgrade equipment makes me think this is sort of a “quick” challenge since you probably wont get very far.

I dunno not a big fan of angry joe. He usually puts out stuff for games that are highly hyped and sensationalizes the general opinion the majority of people have, rather than really digging deep and bucking the popular opinion.

For instance, he hated ESO and pretty much tore it a new one. I agreed with him initially with that game, it was akward to get into, didn’t seem like a TES game. However once I got past the “tutorial” mini instance and got into the story, I quickly forgot that it was a mmorpg with mmorpg combat rather than an TES game.

I actually really loved that game as a TES experience, glad I stuck with it…though for long term play…it was like SWTOR, good story and leveling up experience, endgame was so standard issue. But it actually turned out that the early game awkwardness wasn’t the game at all, and watching that guys review, seemed like he just didn’t bother once his subscribers went all kitten y “we over hyped the game and it didn’t live up to expectations” which is sort of a pet peeve of mine when mmorpg’ers do this then get mad about it.

Theres a few other games I remember watching him review and I was just like “did this guy do an online poll as to what his reaction to the game should be? Doesn’t he really do anything else other than megaphone the already established opinion?”

Sukihona.1482:

i already lvled them to lvl 10 and i like them all so i cant choose

Ill choose for you then.

You shall be: Mesmer.

Ive seen the future, this is the class youll enjoy most down the road.

Rauderi.8706:

StrangerDanger.3496:

Rauderi.8706:

So.. you want it to be like Diablo 3?

I’d sigh, but then again, I’d giggle like mad to see mobs with Mortar against pewpew Longbow4 rangers. :P

until you realize they are teleport/jailer/desecrate elites

Uuugh, I got hit with jailer/desecrator/mortar once. So much hate.

/blink
Y’know, I’m not sure we’ve seen mobs that flat out teleport, like mesmer-blink or thief-shortbow kind of thing. Except maybe Risen nobles?

I’m mean, sure, OP kinda qq-meanders on the point, but I can see it. It’d be interesting to shake up world exploration with random challenge mobs. Though, I suppose that’s the role that dynamic event champions normally fill.

Maybe teleports and drops a set of illusions that teleport around to different players. That would be an interesting clusterkitten

Hi, I’m new as well.

From what I can understand necro is like a glass cannon with buggy minions that may or may not be fixed with HOT.

Mesmer is more of a CC class.

Ele is more complex and should be a really strong all around class

IMO necro looks cooler and this games all about fashion so….

Just make both and take both up to like lv10 then see which one you feel more interested in. shouldn’t take much time

Rauderi.8706:

So.. you want it to be like Diablo 3?

I’d sigh, but then again, I’d giggle like mad to see mobs with Mortar against pewpew Longbow4 rangers. :P

until you realize they are teleport/jailer/desecrate elites

I don’t think people will actually know how brutal the raids are until HOT drops.

Ive seen devs in other games boasting difficulty, only to have that difficulty become wiki info that made the “tricks needed” well known and relatively easy.

Think like a jump puzzle, first time I’m doing a jump puzzle I’m like WTF….then I see someone else run up and do it and go “oh that’s how you do it” and its ezpz…

I haven’t tried the beta and I’m not interested in spoiling new content yet…so I could be way off here.

But I don’t think this game is really built for complex raid mechanics other than insane ground effect that need to be navigated.

I remember when Rift was new and the dungeon and raids were super hardcore (I think they’ve dumbed them all down by now) and the difficulty was twofold. One it was role difficult. Your healer, tanks, off tanks, and dps needed to be spot on to beat enrage timers, which were difficult even when properly geared due to the ground effect stuffs that went on during the fight, that often had you more focused on where you are than how your dpsing/healing/tanking…

So remove the role aspect sort of and I forsee very chaotic ground effects if the raids are going to be hard.

Just remember. Rift went the hard dungeon and raid route…had to change them because no one was interested in hard pve. Wildstar tried it, and no one stuck around after endgame because few were interested in hard pve.

Ill be happy if they do keep raids hard in this game, ive never seen a game stick with it, people (general majority) don’t like difficult no matter how much they cry on the forums for it. Just like how a lot of mmorpg gamers will bemoan the lack of good full loot pvp sandbox games yet every game of that type is a ghost town. People want to fit in to the elite clique of every game, but often when push comes to shove, they just want easy success.

So ill be shocked if raids are hard, really hard, and they stay that way.

Build locking as a permanent thing is a horrible idea, given there could be balance changes down the road.

Now one thing that would be interesting is a lock build mode once you leave the raid lobby, dungeon lobby, or whatever the start area of the instance is. If you do lock you get an extra reward.

Thing is, some people enjoy this merry-go-round build swapping mid instance. Personally I hate it. It just means I need to lug around more gear…and rather than saying “ok we need to change tactics on this boss its not working” you end up going “sigh which builds do we need to do this now…”

I think its more a personal option based on tastes, but I didn’t like the whole “figure out the builds needed” aspect of other games that had build swapping built into dungeon content. Lot of times it had me playing something I found boring just because it worked.

You could always wait like 3 years and maybe the next expansion will see the core game and HOT going free.

DaniTheHero.6318:

Linfang.1087:

Did they not say at Pax they sold 5 million copies of Heart of Thorns?

Play for free is still very new, less than a week old. when they hit a milestone they might make a public announcement.

5 million copies sold of the actual base game.

I honestly doubt Hot sold even close to 100 thousand yet.

Gw2 had astronomical levels of hype before launch. Hell that amount of hype, and what I saw was insane fans of the games stomping on every 3rd party forum kept me away for quite some time. Typically when a game is over hyped like that it ends up doing poorly down the road due to over inflated expectations.

Of my group of friends, all but me played at launch, all were back within two months….that kept me away for 3 years.

I’m in the moods for this type of game now, and have been, but I knew that even with mega server the early zones would be kinda dead other than vets rolling alts…

Then I saw the f2p rumor, saw the expansion was on the horizon (lol 3 years for one expansion?) and bought in.

Don’t regret it but I would gather something like 90% of the initial buyers of this game are gone. Maybe HOT will bring back a few percent. Free to play will bring in more players but most wont buy, that’s just how that works.

But at least the low level areas are alive. The game wont be able to recreate that initial hype, that’s not how it works. I don’t think HOT is that big of a game changer tbh, new area, one class, raids….its good stuff but not something that’s going to cause a second coming of the general mmorpg’ers hype like the initial launch.

Overall the games health looks to be great, though sort of hard to tell with mega server tech. Ive been floating around a lot of really dead free games prior to hopping in here though…so it could be much worse.

I like the map pve only because its really casual.

The thing I like best is that I’m able to save the content for when I feel like it. With every other mmorpg, once I level past said content its a complete and total waste to even be there, let alone doing the content.

So I can level up to 80 however I feel like, which ive mostly been doing unranked matches.

Typically ill go do some map questing in typical mmorpgs, then get into dungeons, then hit endgame that way, and miss out on it all with zero reason to go back.

At least ill be able to clear maps for rewards that I can use at endgame, well really for keys I guess and achievements ect…but the content is doable, relaxing and easy…for when I feel like that.

I think this is the perfect way to do map pve in mmorpgs. They just maybe need to make dungeons more interesting (though ive never done one)

I’m like a 5 day old character btw.

Just offer a reward in WvW that can be used to buy hero points, or make them integrated into various activites in wvw as normal rewards.

Enrage timer is a DPS check. If you cant kill the boss in X amount if time it goes into one shot mode and its a wipe. Simple as that, DPS check.

Its a nice layer of depth adding stats to titles. However, it kinda sucks if you are into showing off specific achievements, which imo, are what titles are all about.

I think a better way of managing such a system is to create a new system where achievement unlock stats that can be mixed and matched, like add 3 from all you’ve unlocked. This way people could show off the title they want without side effect.

meta is just a way of saying the game played outside of the actual game. While I sort of agree that builds are not meta game, people are starting to use meta as the overall way the game is played.

Metagame is more typically used in cases of politics, which often happen on forums and not in the game as an actual game mechanic provided by the devs.

Really I would call metagaming basically going above and beyond the in game mechanics provided by the devs. If people want to call that picking a different build then so be it….figuring out the “builds” is a form of metagaming as such.

Pointless for some, but motivation for others.

Certainly something I don’t see myself ever doing, but I don’t see the harm in adding titles for people who have, and it might give others motives to get the last few items ect.

How much effort does it take Anet to put a new title in? Would be an easy way to add some content for endgamers I guess…so why not?

If I’m not mistaken people did ask for exactly this. Locking stuff behind difficult group content is what makes the effort to learn the raid and coordinate properly work it.

It might not be something ill be interested in tbh, and I’m sure a lot of people who cried for this will have issues with it one way or another…I mean ive seen a lot of people go hardcore to doing raids, only to dislike that they are difficult in the end and not do them….you know…people want it because its perceived as the hardcore thing to want…like how tons of people want hardcore full loot sandbox mmorpgs but every single game like that has hardly anyone playing.

I mean if your standing in both of my ground effect skills, and Ive been hitting you with super weak scepter shots…eventually that burnings going to get out of control….but I mean this is how a low alpha, damage over time, type of mechanic is suppose to work.

maybe the problem is that its not visible enough when burning or other condi stacks get out of control and need to be dealt with, and when you got an off effect on you that wont do much other than stop you from regenerating. being more visible in this sense might indicate to you better to use that cleanse or whatnot.

There should certainly be a few different classes able to go low alpha, damage over time as a build….maybe the issue is that there are just far too many condi effects going around, off people not built towards them….maybe a set of conditions on your build to make them stick would be needed to ensure that your either built for it in pvp or your not…else they get resisted or something…just for pvp.

didn’t really think it was that out of control but what do I know. loving my heavy armor scepter burn guardian though…never expected this to be how I pvp on this class…pleasantly surprised I can even do it.

I sort of like the branching down class paths with multiple specialized class routes more than the old gw1 style.

If they could get three tiers of class specialization to branch off the current classes with two or three choices per tier, that would be great.

I’m not the biggest fan of “sandbox style skills” in a game like this, where you mash together skills from tons of classes to create some sort of “whatever” build. Personally I think that’s sort of boring, rather than being something specific. Like if I’m a necromancer, and have the option to branch into sorcerer, warlock, or reaper I feel like a dark mage the whole time. If I’m a necromancer and I have a an “arrow poison” skill, a melee stun, a knockback,. and a blind…I feel like…well…you know when you were a kid and you went to the soda fountain and put a bit of every soda in your cup, was a blast until you had to sit with it the whole meal.

What is this people first time “around the block” with mmorpgs?

You NEVER take sick/vacation days off for launch days…way too much crap goes wrong on launch days. Typically a week after is better, as you’ve already done some progress that first week and can really focus your grindcation.

never skip school for a game

I think it will. Unless they have some unannounced trick up their sleeves for raids, its not going to satisfy what raiders want. They’ll be back to the drawing board trying to make raids work I think, continually.

Having no trinity in raids is like pvp without classes…yeah it works but offers a much less complex event. Hardcore raiders want a complex raid mechanic that isn’t easy to beat, basically everyone needs to play their role near-flawless…without trinity you have basically one role, DPS, and ive played raids in games with no trinity…its just focus fire the right order of enemies then dodge ground effects, everyone needs baseline dps for it to work. its ok but nothing like actual raiding.

I’m wondering if they are just going to do the crazy telegraphed ground effect route with raids, since you cant have tank/agro “kitten checks” in this game, so really the only thing to up the difficulty is to make the raid bosses turn the screen into one of those Japanese top scrolling shooter arcade games where you have a screen full of stuff you need to dodge.

I really don’t see how you can appease the hardcore raiders in a game with no trinity, which is why I hope theres a trick or two up their sleeves.

Problem with hardcore raiding though, you’ve now spent all this time developing content for like 1% of the population…who usually don’t like it anyway for one reason or another.

They could have spent this time making a ton of pvp instance maps and game modes, some of the more obvious modes seem missing in this game, fixed peoples issue with WvW, then added some mega world boss dynamic events that would more or less take a whole coordinated guild running around different spots in the game world at the same time to even trigger it. Hell you could have made a few where opposing guilds could attack you while you tried…sort of like a guild vs guild challenge to trigger and kill a world boss ect.

Raids cater to a small group of people, even smaller group when those who say they love it actually raid and end up disliking it for being so time consuming and difficult. Lot of people want raids until they get them, and realize how (at least good raids in games made for raiding) unfun they can be if they are not pro and have a perfectly built raid character.

I sort of agree with the OP here, the game is incredibly easy. Not just with killing things, but leveling as well…the hardest thing in game are those jump puzzles which isn’t a good kind of difficult…more a frustrating type.

I however, don’t feel its really that bad of a thing tbh.

I started a few days ago, I have died but usually from yoloing into areas then deciding after a train of mobs is on me that “yeah ill actually kill these guys now” and there happens to be a veteran in pack. Think I have more falling deaths than combat though.

I don’t see the ease of combat and ease of progress really that big of a problem…that’s the type of game this is, fast track you to the endgame, where hopefully WVW and pvp is the high skill threshold content.

I don’t mind having hard pve content, however, in their lust to buck mmo trends and remove a lot of typical mmorpg BS, they removed a solid trinity system, which is the foundation of hard pve content….otherwise its just a dodge/focus dps event, which doesn’t take all that much skill to do (not that trinity offers skills just more defined and specific roles to master)

The difficulty in pve is there…you just have to be below level for the content a few levels…which isn’t easy to achieve as ill level up just roaming around doing kittenall other than wandering.

I would suggest a leveling mode called hardcore. Level scales to -1 or so below content, add a few stat nerfs for the mode, keep statistics (combat deaths fall deaths and time to clear) per map, rank people. Then offer something special for going that route. Ive had to use all my skills when I wandered to the next zone 3 levels below or more, and it was difficult….but that was an accident, and if you 100% clear maps youll be scaled but still above when you move on…and heaven forbid if you craft or pvp any youll be way over level….not that it matters with scaling but still…not easy staying a few below level.

Otherwise I do find the game very…relaxing…which is good…due to its ease of combat, ease of leveling, and multiple progression options that are all very powerful in leveling.

Just add a hardcore mode, make it a try-hard competition…I know I would redo some maps on it to see how quickly I could clear the heart quests, or however they want to do it…

I really don’t see how 10 man (raids? seems a bit small for a"raid") dungeon is going to scratch anyones itch for Raids.

Raids typically are the pinnacle of coordinated group efforts where everyone has an exact role to play, and needs to play that role near perfect for the instance to go well.

This game specializes in everyone running around DPS’ing stuff. There are no set healers or agro tanks really…those some can occasionally fill that roll slightly, for a short time.

Really I get why they are doing this, just I don’t think its going to be executed in a manner that will satisfy anyone who takes a break from this game to raid in another game.

They should be piling on content that is coordinated with how this game plays. Make more epic, insane, difficult, world events, designed for masses of people to complete…make some of those even more coordinated ect.

You cant have a proper raid when you lack the trinity. Skyforge did this (little know game that came out recently) and lacks a trinity system (less so than this game) and it was just coordinated DPS targeting…as you cant really do much more than that.

UNLESS…they have special items in the raid that actually allow someone to become a tank and healer (like a healing staff on the ground and a tank shield, that bestow unique skills for whoever equips them) which would be cheesy imo

All I see here is a “built for gold spammers” free trial of all the old content….and a bunch of people crying that they got a raw deal because they paid $50 three years ago and now they need to pay again for the new stuff.

By built for gold spammers I mean it seems tailor made to create a nightmare for gold spammers, who will no doubt circumvent the restrictions some how.

I’m sure the devs would have loved to continually work for kitten payment you made three years ago but reality sets in and you realize you pay for a game you like or you wait another few years and hope they make HOT free for you..

This is coming from someone who saw the rumors and paid $50 for the expansion. Because I knew there would be a whole boatload of new players coming in, and I really didn’t want to pay for a three year old game and have it turn out theres just a few people rolling alts and me being new.

Want your beloved game to thrive? Have to remove the paywall. You have any idea how many “low budget” free to play gamers are out there looking for a good pvp game who are willing to spend $50 but not much more? You realize a lot of free to play games make it a wallet fight and people who spend a few hundred get stomped on by the people spending thousands on the game….

So appealing to people who want to play it a good bit first then possibly make a payment for it all…really blows away every other free to play model….it in fact takes the best aspects of free to play and mixes it with the great concept of buy to play.