Guild Wars 2

rrusse.7058:

Well I don’t know if moving the portal to LA only is that great either. Of course I would like there to be an area for setting up for raid groups, but I would also like for the locations in the game world to make sense as well.

The raid maps and the areas put aside for them are filling in the world map and they need to take place in reasonably lore friendly spaces. Perhaps a space that feeds into the Vale sort of how Twilight Arbor has a space that lets players enter either the Aetherpath or Twilight Arbor explorable.

It isn’t like fractals where they just take place in some arbitrary location floating in the Mists. Spirit Vale involves the bandit group that likely occupied Fort Vandal and the Silver Wastes. There might even be a Bloodstone in that area as well.

If they can, Arenanet needs to make a lobby area that is between Verdant Brink and the Vale.

I am no programmer or designer and I am not saying that there is an easy button for this issue, but I feel that the solution is somewhere in that realm.

The thing is, there can still be a doorway in VB, just so long as there’s also a queuing lobby behind that door. That way people can enter VB and then leave its instance by entering the raid lobby (this could keep true to lore/world location and also stop meta-clogging/afks)

Celtic Lady.3729:

It would be interesting if someone tallied all the ratings and made a list of them from this thread. I’m curious what the average rating for HoT would be.

There was a tally just a little while ago:

Coyote.7031:

The average “fun”, with some posts omitted because I’m lazy, is 5.12008 with 251 entries. Unless people gave a very clear short answer, I skipped the post. I didn’t want to average out the multi-score posts unless they listed a clear answer. If it was just two numbers, I averaged it out. So don’t beat me if it’s off, I did it just for kicks.

:)

Hahaha, no, we don’t want to revive Logan. Best to keep cloning devices under wraps for now.

Well, we’re also awaiting the arrival of the tengu. I’m guessing they’ll come in together? Cultural weapons or something. Could be. Fingers crossed. Tengu are Canthan in origin, after all.

Chiccotot.7296:

Too much aesthetics, not enough functionality.

Yep. For instance, the new keeps look kind of cool, but they’d suit EotM rather than borderlands. What happened to the charming Ascalonian castles I used to defend so valiantly! I feel like an outsider intruding on random tengu/asuran lands.

Aero.1489:

I am getting the random crashes as well on the old client.
Funny thing is I get the report crash to ANET screen pop up and I am able to move it out of the screen mostly and continue playing for a good 5-10 minutes, only thing that is off is the sound.
This too started right after the raid patch.

Except… I’ve had that same problem since the start of HoT, haha. Well, sometimes it dies altogether, and sometimes I can continue without noise and with the game slowly perishing in front of my eyes.

zinkz.7045:

Phantom.8130:

To be fair, EB has the best setup of the three. Not necessarily the spacing, which does tend to make the pace a lot faster, but how the layout made the areas in each third strategically relevant. If you want to take a keep, your best bet is to take out a few of the towers first, because the towers assisted in the keep’s defense. Both versions of the borderlands lacked a strategic layout. Being able to treb the garrison from the northern towers was a minor bit of strategy, but that’s the equivalent to a fingernail compared to an entire person. Now, with the new maps, there’s not even that fingernail.

I disagree, borderlands were much superior to EB, for a start EB is very imbalanced, there is a fair difference between how strong each keep is, there is a difference in towers such as green does not really have a weak tower, when you compare it to Durios (blue) or Anza (red), etc.

Then you have waypoints, on borderlands upgrading to / preventing / taking down / defending a WP was far more important than those on EB, it was probably the biggest strategic map based objective in WvW and biggest strategic driving force, things like preventing the opposition getting a WP in bay/hills have been removed from the game. (that this is gone with perma WP & autoupgrades is one of the reasons the new map is such a failure, the basic lack of understanding of WvW by whoever came up with the map and new upgrade system is well…).

The fact there were three keeps, and that it was reasonably common for the home side to get garri + 1 other upgraded at times meant that defense was generally much more interesting than EB, where all that really counted was your keep, then the 1 or two defensive towers like Veloka, jerri, etc, but they are right next to the keep, which is kind of dull, part of what made defending say garri + hills both getting attacked at once interesting is the distance between the two, not too far that it was impossible to get reinforcements in or react, but not so close that you can virtually defend two things at once, like you can in EB, and beyond that it was the importance and strategic value that made it interesting and worth defending, losing Veloka might not be good, but really pales into insignificance compared to losing hills or bay with a WP.

Furthermore you have the actual keep design, the keeps on the old borderland gave far more tactical options and produced far more interesting fights than the simplistic, rather one dimensional ones on EB (garri especially).

As for the “northern towers was a minor bit of strategy”, I look it like this, every tower except the SE one on the old BL had some strategic value for attacking a keep, on EB most of the towers are redundant (mendons for example) or very minor (those that can treb SM) and SM is the biggest red herring in the game.

Which is why, or at least what I found on multiple servers (on EU) that most veteran players whether they wanted fights as a guild, decent fights as an open raid or liked scouting / upgrading or whatever, preferred the borders, often leaving EB to newer players / casual players.

But in comparison to the new map? EBG has the best setup. At least that’s what I feel after wandering around the borderlands for several hours that were – somewhat ironically – a mixture of boredom and confusion. Don’t get me wrong, the new map isn’t trash, but it would suit gameplay better as an alternative map, not as the borderland map.

Eir, Traeherne, Logan… not to mention personal story companions in the Lion’s Arch battle part, right?

Diku.2546:

@Jim Hunter

It’s hard to start a dialogue when the other party is hostile.

I still stand by my suggestion that Dev/Anet should at least consider opening a monologue through locked threads to the WvW Community.

That… or there could be a new form of thread based on forum rep, where people either are allowed in or locked out depending on the manner with which they provide feedback/help others/etc. I’ve seen other forums with rep levels (although I’m not sure how they work, myself), so I’m sure something like that is possible.

I mean, I wouldn’t mind changes and things taking a long time if only there was someone responding to queries occasionally. They wouldn’t even have to say a lot, just so long as we can see that Anet is actually watching and interested in legitimate feedback. Prolonged silence followed by comments on Reddit or the occasional vague mention in a Guild Wars news post doesn’t taste so great – this is neither a fan-made nor fan-moderated forum. Some minor sense of conversation would be encouraging. Haters/flamers? They’re always going to flame/hate. I’d like a space for people who want legitimate, thoughtful to-and-fro conversation with other players and devs.

DeWolfe.2174:

As I’ve posted many times, Guilds should not be prioritized in WvW, period! Worlds need to be a cohesive military force. Buffs need to be available to every soldier of a World because they all matter equally. Not gating buffs to social cliques, especially to only the largest large social cliques at that.

The entire design concept of gating WvW buffs to guilds is a complete failure….

I will agree that large guilds should not be made mandatory in the way the update has made them, but the game is still called Guild Wars. It’s all very well when small guilds (1-3 members) are able to farm and accumulate WvW boosts/buffs, but if it was just down to individuals who are guildless it would take some of the meaning from the game. You may as well just be playing Elder Scrolls Online (WvW isn’t that bad there, actually).

Not sure if my position was clear there, so to clarify… Anet’s apparent focus on big guilds is a poor turn of events, in my opinion. Small guilds should be just as capable of progressing and of being able to provide buffs in WvW. WvW is supposed to be a pretty level playing field. If Anet is going to give big guilds big benefits, they should be PvE-based benefits, not PvP advantages.

Fellfoot.8156:

Haven’t really looked at that spot real close yet. Aside from scenery I see no purpose, just another of many, many places to fall and die.

Many, many, many, many – oh, I probably ought to stop watching tv shows while in WvW now. It’s just as empty as before, but now there are so many new accidental ways you can die!

Artemis Noir.3804:

I too started having a lot of random CTDs after yesterday’s patch. Earlier, I finally broke down and downloaded the 64 bit client (I generally try to avoid betas), and so far so good.. crosses fingers
The problem, though, with something like this is that it’s so difficult to diagnose, given all the different configurations people are running. If it is at all useful, I have Windows 7, 16 GB RAM, 960 card, and I have a desktop. As I said, so far the 64 bit client appears to be functioning without issue.

Well… I’m running it on desktop too. Hope yours is working, but mine hasn’t worked properly since HoT released, patches and all. Last one didn’t affect me at all, positively or negatively >.<

Daddicus.6128:

Daddicus.6128:

0

The grind for masteries kills most of the fun, and the monstrously difficult and overly-prevalent mobs kill most of the rest of the fun. Couple that with virtually no humans willing to help (including even revives and rezzes), and it’s very bad.

I didn’t even start HoT content until after Halloween, so I’ve been in there maybe two weeks. But, I’m already so frustrated I’m ready to quit it completely. But, I still have to put up with masteries in the old content, and the rewards have been reduced.

Unfortunately, I’m not sure it’s fixable. I’m not sure what they tried to accomplish, but fun was definitely not the end result.

I’m going to change mine to a 1 (barely). The revenant is mostly well-done. (It would be fully well-done except for the fact that you’re useless underwater.)

Oh, really? I kind of enjoyed the underwater 2-spam. Infinite forward stabs. Serious carnage. Not to mention torment for days with 1-spam!

Trolls, trolls, everywhere, and not a shred of decency to spare… sigh. People, huh? =/

Ephemiel.5694:

So both Eir AND Traeherne are dead thanks to Mordremoth.

Things aren’t looking so good for the Pact and Destiny’s Edge, we still got 4 Elder Dragons to go and one of them is underwater [ironically, there’s some old concept art of Eir fighting a huge creature underwater with a sword].

Who is next on the chopping block? Likely Zojja. Who else could die after Eir of all people but her?

Hey, it wasn’t Eir in that concept art, it was my Norn ranger. Seriously… why would you try and take my prophecy from me! =P

IndigoSundown.5419:

As to Renewed Justice… I seem to remember that modifications to profession mechanics were supposed to treat the new version of a mechanic as if it were the original for purposes of traits that buffed the mechanics. If Spear if Justice is not renewing on kill, it may well be a bug. Try reporting it.

Yep, I have previously reported it. We’ll see how it goes. I know that the traits affecting the other two virtues work, so hopefully it is just a bug.

Ashen.2907:

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Swift.1930:

Palador.2170:

Swift.1930:

Quick query: in what way is her son of use to us (or anyone)? O.o

Meat shield.

Ah, gotcha.

Aww… I like Braham. He’s the only one who revives me in any mission with him, unlike Destiny’s Edge who just stand by and gawk. Apparently, they’re too high and mighty to get their hands dirty giving me even a little life-massaging.

(Incidentally, why is the word ‘r e s s e s’ censored?)

The word, “who,” followed by the first three letters of, “resses,” creates a new word referencing the world’s oldest profession.

Curiously, though, “who” wasn’t censored.

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Swift.1930:

Palador.2170:

Swift.1930:

Quick query: in what way is her son of use to us (or anyone)? O.o

Meat shield.

Ah, gotcha.

Aww… I like Braham. He’s the only one who revives me in any mission with him, unlike Destiny’s Edge who just stand by and gawk. Apparently, they’re too high and mighty to get their hands dirty giving me even a little life-massaging.

(Incidentally, why is the word ‘r e s s e s’ censored?)

Haha. But seriously, he doesn’t really seem to actually do anything except run off and make you follow him/overtake him/wait for him until you can start the next mission phase.

Palador.2170:

Swift.1930:

Quick query: in what way is her son of use to us (or anyone)? O.o

Meat shield.

Ah, gotcha.

Coyote.7031:

The average “fun”, with some posts omitted because I’m lazy, is 5.12008 with 251 entries. Unless people gave a very clear short answer, I skipped the post. I didn’t want to average out the multi-score posts unless they listed a clear answer. If it was just two numbers, I averaged it out. So don’t beat me if it’s off, I did it just for kicks.

Haha, nice pickup. So on average, the consensus is that the game is average. Pretty sure vanilla GW2 was all up in the 7s or 9s, but I wouldn’t know because I didn’t have any concerns about the game until the expansion – and that’s when I joined the forums. =P

Lady Elyssa.2469:

That is a wonderful interpretation of how Eir might have communicated with the Spirits after her death, sadly it still doesn’t address the manner in which she died which is a key element to how I feel Eir has been treated.

Her death, however harsh and sad I can accept, for the story, for Braham, for Druids / Dragonhunters, even for the future of Tyria.

The manner in which her death occurred though, is ultimately tragic and I feel degrades Eir as a character and as a Norn.

The debate over how well Eir might have survived a crash, lack of food and water and being stabbed could undoubtedly be debated and if it was scientifically possible to do so accurately on specific details within a game, let alone a fantasy based one, then I would be all for it, but in doing so it only detracts from my original reason for posting and in my view detracts from the rich Lore that the game has.

Eir still had the strength to walk and she could have rolled away from the Vinetooth’s tail attack, even transformed in to the Spirit of Wolf. Her fate need not have changed, just the manner of her passing.

Eir was a Legend in and of her own right and she deserved a Norn’s end and a chance to go out with a fight, to die with honor and to face the spirits proud with songs sung by the Skalds of the legend she had created for herself, a legend that would not only inspire her son Braham but one that would inspire future generations from all the races.

Well, I’d say that it’s not just the manner of her death that was an issue: it was also the fact that we (and our whole team) just sits around watching this skirmish. We’ve got gliders, mushroom-hopping skills, longbows, an infinite supply of long-range hammers (revenants), and half an army of rescued soldiers with us – but for some reason a five-minute (that’s a very long time in battle) cutscene plays out and results in the death of a character some of us would have died to protect. Therein lies one of the greatest insults we, as gamers, face.

Palador.2170:

Maybe she didn’t fight back because Logan wasn’t there to give her permission to?

… oh, wait. Sorry. Other M flashback….

And on a more serious note, I picture something like this happening in the mists shortly after:

Eir wanders through the grey void

Eir: Spirits? I don’t understand. Why wasn’t I able to call upon the change? Why did you leave me too weak to fight?

Eir: Wolf? Bear? Have you abandoned me?

A Voice: No, Eir. They did not abandon you.

Raven appears before her, gliding down out of the mists.

Raven: I am the one that prevented you from changing.

Eir: Raven? I… I respect your wisdom, but I do not understand. Why?

Raven: Eir, you were weak and injured. Had you survived the fight, you would have been of no use to your allies.

Raven: Your son would have abandoned his own quest to see you safely home. He would not be there for them when he is needed.

Eir: And with me dead?

Raven: He will mourn, and then he will press on in your memory. With his aid, many more will be saved.

Eir nodded, understanding.

Eir: My one life for many. That is a good death. Owl would be proud.

Raven bowed his head at the mention of the lost Spirit.

Raven: Yes. Owl would be proud.

Quick query: in what way is her son of use to us (or anyone)? O.o

He probably took her body back for a full burial ceremony anyways, so with her alive or dead he would have done the same thing, haha.

lilcoffeebean.3149:

Swift.1930:

Regarding map completion rewards… it’s been a little while since I’ve gotten equipment through one, but aren’t they account bound? (I’m probably remembering wrong.)

They aren’t account bound in the core game or HoT. The rewards you get for leveling up pre 80 however are, so perhaps that’s what you were recalling.

Ah, I’m remembering those and story rewards. My mistake.

Celtic Lady.3729:

ProtoGunner.4953:

LOL, how can’t you get a single bladed coatbox? I got already 4 and salvage the rest. Just LFG and find a full map, it’s super easy. Gives a box every time you kill all 5 bosses which always happens when map is full, even with about 7mins left.

It doesn’t give a box when you kill all 5 bosses. It only gives a guaranteed box when you have T4 at night AND enough participation.

And it’s not “super easy” to get a full map or a full map that finishes to T4. I’ve been on plenty of full maps that didn’t even make it to T3. The LFG may help, but it’s not a guarantee of anything.

Not to mention that I’ve taken several T4 taxis recently that turned out to be T2/T3…

Huh, people are getting exotics in HoT content? I’ve had nothing but masterworks and uncommons except in AB, where I’ve gotten rares from exalted chests.

Regarding map completion rewards… it’s been a little while since I’ve gotten equipment through one, but aren’t they account bound? (I’m probably remembering wrong.)

I’ve been getting bluescreens with the 64-bit client, and regular 40-60-min crashes with both clients. I’ve got all drivers updated (which was an improvement, because before that I was getting crashes every 5-10 minutes). So yeah, you’re not alone in the boat. Lotta troubles going around. I wanted to think it was my computer and not the game to blame for me having to repeat a mission sequence 10 times, but seriously… the only other game that does this to me is Assassin’s Creed: Unity, and that game dies on everyone.

And The Witcher 3 works beautifully on high settings, so it’s not the quality of my rig.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Swift.1930:

I’d like to add that I’m a bit confused about how the elite specs have been designed for some classes. For instance, Dragonhunter (my favorite elite spec so far) completely replaces all virtues instead of providing optional ones, which messes up most of my favorite builds. Also, it’s acceptable to have to spend tons of points to level up the elite specs – but why can’t you equip the skills unless the specialization is equipped? You don’t have to equip, say… Honor to use skills from the Honor spec line. It’s a lot like forcing every class to be slightly like revenants.

This is done to allow ANet to develop more Elite Specs over time, without ever having to be concerned about players finding unanticipated synergy between skills from the new categories — because they will only be able to have one Elite Spec at a time. Not saying I like the idea, but then I liked finding skill synergy in GW. However, it fits in with their design concept of simplification and avoidance of depth in the name of easier balance.

Ah, okay… if they do come out with further elite specs, I don’t mind the limitations as much. But the fact remains that (for the dragonhunter at least) the elite virtues don’t even synchronize with the basic trait lines properly (I loved my Virtue of Justice refresh on kill build, but Spear of Justice doesn’t work).

Has there even been comment about further elite specs coming out? I’m collecting a lot of spare hero points… but so far not enough to build a full new elite spec.

(This doesn’t mean I like the limitations, but if it’s to allow for more elites I can live with it. Like you, I had a wonderful scrambled collection of GW1 builds.)

Wouldn’t be a profession, but could possibly be made a race skill. Technically the revenant already channels magic, though… so not sure what kind of difference you mean. But hey, the exalted can’t be made a race until the tengu have been… which still seems to be a long way off, even though the tengu have a capital and meshes all set up and ready to go.

I’m not 100% sure if this is something that you guys will be able to help me with, but I’ve already scoured the forums and other discussions for answers, and they haven’t helped.

My game keeps crashing on my mid-high spec rig. The Witcher 3 played very nicely with few crashes on high settings; Guild Wars 2 played with zero crashes until Heart of Thorns came out. Now (even with fully-updated vid drivers, hardware drivers, etc) I’m getting regular crashes and even bluescreens with both the 32-bit and 64-bit clients. I’d like to say that it’s not the game’s fault and that it’s something I am able to personally fix on my computer, but seriously… no fixes have worked and other games work perfectly.

Has anyone else had these issues? Has anyone else been able to fix them?

Main specs:
-Windows 8.1; all updates except the Win 10 update installed
-16Gb RAM
-4Gb vRAM (2×2GB 660ti SLI; I tried switching SLI off but the problem stayed the same).
-Nice cool case with plenty of air flow
-All drivers up to date

But seriously, it’s only Guild Wars 2 (after the expansion) that crashes. Oh, and Assassin’s Creed Unity, but that happens to everyone.

Albadaran.1283:

Straylight.7529:

DoctorDing.5890:

I don’t believe it was “well known” that the expansion was going to be harder than the core game. It was well known only to the minority who followed the various pre-release announcements. Most people don’t follow the forums and don’t read press releases. I think most players would assume that the expansion was more of the same. “Hey, I like this game and now there is more of it to buy. Cool!”. So it’s hardly surprising that a bunch of players are now shocked at the difficulty level. Telling someone who has paid for the expansion that they should stick to the non-expansion stuff if they can’t cope is, frankly, absurd.

Anet have missed the sweet spot imo.

That only a minority followed the announcements is completely irrelevant. The only thing that is relevant is the fact that the information about the increase in difficulty was made openly available by Arenanet for nine months prior to launch. There is no excuse for not knowing that HoT was going to be more difficult. If you wanted to find out, you could find out.

[… snap]

As I posted earlier, we all know that expansions are harder than the core game. I mentioned LOD, EOTN, Reapers of Souls as examples. But in those games you could just continue the way you played in the core game. In HOT you can’t. They changed the game mechanics, making it more Arcade. THAT is what people are complaining about. Its a different game now. If Anet had made it harder just by leveling up enemies with a few levels, like in the expansions I mention above, than gameplay would have stayed as it was and no one would have complained.

You know what Anet could/should have done? I can’t believe I didn’t think about it earlier, hah. They could have given us hard mode instances like in Guild Wars 1 (except that anyone with hard mode toggled will enter the same instance) – where all enemies are scaled to at least level 80. Could you imagine a Hard Mode Tequatl? O.o Well, it’d be cool running around starting maps on hard mode anyways.

Celtic Lady.3729:

DoctorDing.5890:

I don’t believe it was “well known” that the expansion was going to be harder than the core game.

The statements they did make ahead of time about the “challenging content” were extremely vague and not ideal for making buying decisions.

There were many things no one could have predicted that changed from the core game and “mobs will be more challenging” simply doesn’t cover all of it.

As far as I recall, they also didn’t mention that we would need 50+ people synchronized per map to gain substantial rewards, too, haha. I got 200% participation once, but I’m sure you all know that just got me a couple more uncommons and a crowbar at the end of the T2 meta…

Or you can spend half the 50-minute meta whacking a legendary dragon and end up with 20-40% participation at the end of a T3/T4.

Nice detailed post. I’m a little concerned about the direction things are going as well; upon starting GW2 (coming from GW1), it bugged me that half our skill bar was decided by the weapons we were wielding – and that one skill slot was completely limited to a healing skill, and was the only slot where we could equip one – but I grew accustomed to it. Now, though, it has developed beyond that – skills are unlocked in very specific orders, and elite spec skills cant even be equipped without equipping the elite trait line. Customization and choice of gameplay (rewardless dungeons) are being swept under the carpet… =/

Jahroots.6791:

Initial impression was around 7 or 8, dropped to around 4/10 now that the novelty’s worn off.

I love how beautiful some of the zones are, some of the mobs have interesting mechanics and the elite specs are fun to play. Story rewards have been surprisingly good. There’s some interesting collections to complete that will keep me busy for a while. I like most of the new armour and weapon skins as well.

But…..

Masteries do not feel like progression, just gating. Nothing I’ve unlocked is particularly special, just basic requirements to get things done in the new zones. Getting around is still a bit of a pain. Rushing from event to event to get enough participation points to be rewarded is tedious. I don’t care for the map-wide meta in general (my view might change if this stuff eventually becomes infallible and can be farmed for rewards).

And worst of all, my favourite content has been nerfed to death. I always did stuff in this game between dungeon and fractal runs, but the reward remoal made that content virtually worthless. As a result I’ve been spending more time in the new areas that I truly care to, which just makes the flaws I’ve outlined seem that much worse.

Similar feelings. I’d like to add that I’m a bit confused about how the elite specs have been designed for some classes. For instance, Dragonhunter (my favorite elite spec so far) completely replaces all virtues instead of providing optional ones, which messes up most of my favorite builds. Also, it’s acceptable to have to spend tons of points to level up the elite specs – but why can’t you equip the skills unless the specialization is equipped? You don’t have to equip, say… Honor to use skills from the Honor spec line. It’s a lot like forcing every class to be slightly like revenants.

This kind of messes up my experience of elite specs, which are otherwise nice additions to the game. I can’t say I wanted to farm up group hero challenges in order to scrap my favorite builds, hah.

Maps are kind of pretty, but are also generally unpathable for casual players.

Game keeps crashing on my mid-high spec rig. Witcher 3 played very nicely with few crashes; Guild Wars 2 played with zero crashes until Heart of Thorns came out. Now (even with fully-updated vid drivers, hardware drivers, etc) I’m getting regular crashes and even bluescreens with both 32-bit and 64-bit clients. I’d like to say that it’s not Anet’s fault and be able to fix it up on my computer, but seriously… no fixes have worked and other games work perfectly.

Masteries are okay, although a bit rough on casual gamers. It’s tricky to visibly get anywhere with them when you get maybe 6 hours on a good week… and so long as you’re playing HoT content the whole time.

Can’t say the replacements of WvW (rather than the expansion of it) have been fun at all for me. It’s all very well to add a new map, but to replace the perfect borderlands map entirely was a bit of a slap in the face for someone who fought hard for the Mist Runner title. (I fiercely protected my borderlands with sword, bow, and spirit… and now they’ve been coded out of reach. =/)

On the whole, I’d give it 5.5/10; it’s an expansion of interesting content that has been laced with unnecessary compromises.

Dawdler.8521:

BlinkFishtacos.6931:

However, I can’t see how everyone is so ridiculously upset about the expansion.

Imagine if you and and some friends had a tight WvW guild. You loved to small scale, upgrade keeps to waypoints and +5 camps with your upgraded guild.

Now imagine that Anet said kitten you motherkittening kittens and demanded that you pay $50 to get HoT and 5000+ gold or you are not allowed to ever use the guild upgrades again.

How happy would you be?

And still, the WvW that was completely broken with HoT probably wont even get mentioned in threads outside WvW forum because its oooooooh so horrible when players like… die in PvE due to hard mobs or didnt get those blue pair of loot pants the mob promised.

Yeah, WvW got hit pretty hard. A lot of people keep saying that it was already pretty empty, and that the expansion has actually done wonders for it, but I’m convinced that the update has only harmed the WvW playerbase. It used to be possible to do things on empty/low-pop maps (which was a bonus with the playerbase thinning out slightly on some servers); now it kind of isn’t. And yeah, I’ve only heard the rumors about upgrades… my guild hasn’t gotten back together to warrant me even trying to attempt them yet.

Labjax.2465:

I dislike parts of the game. I like other parts. When I find myself with loads of free time and nothing better to do, I sometimes turn my time studying game design, and my issues with the game, into detailed feedback.

I am the 1%. I mean, wait, crap. Uhhhhh, I am the 99%?

I don’t know. Screw the percentages. Point is, it’s not all black and white. You don’t have to love or hate all of it. And there are plenty of people who give feedback out of the self-invested kindness of their hearts (figure that one out).

The sooner people understand this, the sooner I can get back to writing detailed posts that will never be read or listened to by the developers.

Detailed posts with thought behind them? Huzzah! Sign me up. Some of that’s still going around, but certainly not as much as there should be… =P

Going to agree with Zoltar on that – nice one, Labjax, haha.

I’m somewhat on the fence between the +1s and the -9999s myself. The fact that you’re new will help you take in the content with less concern; something that has spiked a lot of frustration is that customization has been limited more and more with most updates/patches directly before and during HoT’s launch. Some things have been trailing downward for a while (don’t buy Black Lion Chest keys unless you have a time machine), but others have only just flipped. World vs World, for instance, faced a map replacement rather than simply receiving new/expanded content. But it’s a good game overall.

Glad you’re enjoying the game; likewise to Misguided’s post: congrats! And welcome aboard.

Red Mistress Denna.9804:

+1 for username relevance. I agree with most, if not all, of your points.

+1 for the pickup on the username relevance. Oh, and +1 on the main post as well. Here’s hoping small guilds are recognized in an update soon. (I’m waiting on a hobbit hole guild hall.)

Honestly I would say I feel somewhat burned out (although that might be the wrong choice of words) because I can’t play it for hours and hours on end and yet the gameplay requires that to unlock just a few simple elements. Work, study, other responsibilities… even when I put in about seven hours per week, I see the XP bar go up by only about 40-50%. Oh, and that was with a celebration booster ticking (and several meta events progressing/finishing).

Safer Saviour.9685:

When Arenanet announced Guild Wars 2 they really emphasised the fact they wanted to expand upon what players did at the endgame. They spoke about wanting to get more out of the combat system and challenge players in ways that, until then, only other players had been able to do. I’m honestly shocked by how many people are surprised by the upped difficulty in the jungle.

Now you have to pay attention, especially with certain mobs. You need to know what they do and how you can counter them. I personally have unlocked seven of the Elite specialisations, meaning I’ve taken seven classes into the jungle and while some have had an easier time than others, even my poorly equipped Elementalist and my Beserker Thief made it through. You absolutely can solo through the jungle, you just have to be more careful than in Core Tyria.

I’m okay with difficulty being raised in HoT; I don’t mind changing the gameplay, but I do think that most of HoT difficulty is health bars and giant AoE indicators. Sure, mushrooms (and pocket raptors) aren’t walking pillars of HP, but a lot of the mobs make using skills tiring rather than tactical. I generally just revert to spamming 1 and kiting in circles nowadays… when it’s a group of enemies (like Mordrem groups) with regular health bars I’m constantly thinking of tactics, but that doesn’t seem to occur overly much. It feels like the majority of the jungle is about wearing down HP bars and skipping out of the way of AoE.

Honestly it would just make sense to have smaller guild halls as an option for smaller guilds or guilds who don’t need real-estate. If people aren’t going to frequent a guild, why would they need to have so much room? I was astonished when I first entered a guild hall – compared to my nice old GW1 hall, this thing is massive. It’s like a giant empty citadel – or like Smaug’s lair under the mountain (minus the gold).

Celtic Lady.3729:

Swift.1930:

That’s a lot of people spreading out to try and populate huge maps for the events. When the population thins out after the hype, what’s going to keep the maps going?

Considering how hard a time I’ve had the last 3 weeks getting into populated maps where the metas succeed, I have no idea how we’re supposed to get anything done once the population moves on…

Meta events and group Hero Challenges will be something new players and alts coming to the game in the future will never have a chance to get is what I’m worried about.

Especially since Hero Challenges are required to max out the elite specs – my map completion guardian still required about 80 points.

Daroon.1736:

lordhelmos.7623:

-World Meta events take HUGE amounts of time (2 hr+ each meta), fail regularly, and the game spawns dead maps faster than then the U.S. Treasury prints money. Either I never have time to finish an event from 1 hour of map hopping to find an organized one, or spend 40mins before realizing there is no hope at all that the map is even going to make it to the end phase.

This is the biggest problem with the game at the moment.

Anet’s design decisions are contradictory and completely baffle me – SAB2 was (relatively) unpopular because it was too long. They changed Fractals (for the better) for similar reasons. Yet the team seems completely stuck on their latest and greatest ‘wonderful new idea’ that lengthy map wide meta events are the way to go.

Once players have mastery points and map completion, expecting them to invest 2-3 hours every time they revisit these maps to (possibly) achieve something meaningful makes no sense whatsoever.

I agree; this is an issue… they keep adding new map-wide metas. That’s a lot of people spreading out to try and populate huge maps for the events. When the population thins out after the hype, what’s going to keep the maps going? It’s all very well to keep one or two maps running constantly, but with 6+ maps that all require 6-10 full parties to even be slightly viable, I can’t see it lasting very long. Smaller events like Shadow Behemoth or the Karka Queen can be run by a few parties, but multiple-lane/multiple rally point/etc fights can’t.

Junkpile.7439:

Old borderlands were empty too.

I know, but they were prettier to run around in while empty than the new maps. =P

Edit: MUCH prettier.

Edit: And a lot more homey – which was the whole idea of borderlands.

TheGrimm.5624:

These are the first maps in the game that you truly need to explore. There is nothing to explore in the standard maps since they are flat and if you head in one direction you will get there. Do these maps frustrate me at times, yes. But that’s a good thing. We have something to figure out and understand. Just this weekend found a much more simple way to make it to a point in the map that I had been at before. There was a fresh discovery at that point that was new and interesting and made me question other routes I was taking. This is a good thing.

As far as masteries to defeat NPCs, haven’t unlocked yet any that aid in that case and have made it all the way through to Dragon Stand and events there. So that’s a matter of playstyle and the difference in the NPC in these maps versus traditional maps. So take your time, get to know the maps and mechanics in an area before moving to the next and each area will make more sense. Plan on getting lost, its part of the concept of the zone. Don’t expect the old, need 100% map completion though either. There are sections that are supposed to be more secluded that will require masteries to travel too but those do not limit you moving around or progressing to the next map. They wanted players to have some back and fourth to areas as we go versus create wastelands as areas are abandoned. And if you are still overwhelmed, get friends and guildies to give you a hand or step back into Tyria and wind down before going again. People requested more challenging areas and seeing some feedback on the forums that’s working.

Gotta say I miss the exploration in Guild Wars 1, though; it was a lot of flat but very enjoyable maps, and not tons and tons of waypoints like in GW2. Oh, and challenging mobs. I like that the HoT maps exist, and they’re fun the first two times around, but I’d really appreciate a huge quantity of “flat” maps be added to the game as well for exploration’s sake. Flat maps come cheap, and Anet could always develop them later.

Nate.3927:

PopeUrban.2578:

snip

I agree with almost all of this. Increasing the incentive to defend is good and auto upgrades are a step in the right direction. However rewards for defending also needs to be increasing, because as somebody else mentioned above, you could successfully push back a superior force with lesser numbers, but unless you kill one of the attackers, you actually get no rewards. Unfortunately this isn’t an easy problem to solve, for example if you simply reward someone who happens to be in the area and did some damage to an enemy during the defend event, then that could be very easily abused.

Not that hard to abuse… if they added something similar to (but not identical to) the buggy participation mechanic in HoT, in which the person who assisted has to remain in the area until (or return to it before) the defense event ends to receive their reward.

Obtena.7952:

Swift.1930:

ezd.6359:

Why do you need to grind xp? You need to finish something exactly at particular date? One week later is not good enough, right? You have other things to do? If they are so important, finish them then return to gw2 and play without grind.

Masteries is just another type of experience. Why nobody complains about leveling in MMO? Why don’t you complain about WvW xp and WvW abilities?

If they will remove masteries and add 80 regular levels instead, you will be more happy?

Most GW2 players/fans came straight from GW1, which was designed around a system that capped leveling at 20. Was very quick to the top. The rest of the game revolved around customizing skills, collecting new skills, and figuring out combinations and strategies to take out foes.

Even though GW2 started with a different focus, it still retained elements of that. But the updates directly preceding and during and after the HoT expansion tore GW2’s customization into shreds (especially for new characters, with the skill circle update).

If you’re not sure why people are complaining about GW2’s development direction, you seriously need to look into GW1 and its playerbase. They are invested in the game’s legacy, setting, and world. We’re not just playing an MMO. We’re playing Guild Wars.

I think people from GW1 need to get a perspective that GW2 isn’t supposed to be GW1 Part 2. It’s just boring on lore; that’s where the comparison should end.

Well, sure, you can have your opinion on whether something is boring or not. But you wouldn’t have GW2 without GW1 preceding it. You could just as easily go play ES:O if you aren’t invested in the Guild Wars series, world, and lore.

Also, there was every indication that GW2 was to be GW1’s sequel; players were given vaults to fill up with GW1 achievements while GW2 was being developed, story was set up with the entire EotN expansion when relations between the Charr, Asura, Norn, humans, etc were established, the destroyers were introduced but not completely defeated, etc, etc. Not exactly sure where you got your information…

Celtic Lady.3729:

ezd.6359:

Celtic Lady.3729:

ezd.6359:

GW2 is about skins and fun from just playing the game. Addon adds more to these categories. If you don’t like to play (collect skins, achievements, chat with friends, RP), why do you play GW2 at all? You are wrong almost in every point

See, the thing is, you don’t get to define fun for the rest of us.

Not everyone plays this game just for skin collecting or achievements. Others define fun in this game differently. We all have different reasons for playing this game and none of them are wrong.

Yes. But if i don’t like game content i don’t play it, i try another game. Literally you just go to a shop, buy a piece of meat and complain “it is not a candy QQ, add sugar plz”. What the point to play a game based on collecting skins, achievements and relaxed gameplay if you don’t like it?

This is a gross oversimplification of many of the reasons why people come to game forums and express their concerns.

Got to agree with Celtic Lady… perhaps it’s because you haven’t been on board with the series since Prophecies that you don’t understand most of the quality complaints and suggestions.

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Zelkovan.2630:

What is a viable way of obtaining a mastery through physical interaction with the specific task it is related to, while making sure it isn’t easily cleared and without being too repetitive or limiting?

Seems to me there’s a question that needs to be asked before we even get to your question:

“How is the existing mastery system prevented from being easily cleared and not being too repetitive or limiting?”

The answer is: it isn’t. CoF farming is legal and clearly repetitive. HOT masteries can only be trained in HOT maps, so it’s limiting. People are claiming it’s not hard to train the masteries by doing events, especially DS which apparently gives millions of xp(?), especially with boosters.

So if the existing system already suffers from these issues, clearly anything that builds on the existing system but adds more variety has to be better by definition, surely?

Here’s my simple suggestion (which has been raised by others too): allow any mastery to be trained anywhere. Easy to implement, introduces variety, doesn’t disadvantage anyone.

Although I hold to my suggestion that masteries be made more… innovative, I would also support this. If my entire mastery leveling is going to be purely through grinding XP, why can’t I do that anywhere? I have no interest in leveling any of the non-HoT masteries, and I’m not a fan of wandering the event-clogged HoT maps (it was fun the first two times…).