Guild Wars 2

There isn’t a tl;dr because it’s a tough issue, and if it could be summed up that easily, we wouldn’t be dealing with the mess we’re dealing with.

I know that this is risking edging into holy trinity territory, but I think the devs could go further to buff the support options of Mesmers. Instead of making the heal-on-shatter only personal, make it a decent group heal (and don’t make it compete with condition clearing on shatter!). Make using any healing skill (especially ALL mantra uses, not just the charge) remove conditions or also group heal. Or give the option of shattering clones grant chaos armor, etc. And make healing power scale better.

I’ve been playing an inspiration mesmer in open-world events in Orr especially, and I’m finding that when I do, there is a noticeable difference in how many folks die, I’m able to keep Jonez up at off-hours events where he’d get hit by champs and go splat. That’s not really viable for dungeons, but as an inspiration-specced mesmer it’s been pretty fun.

With mantra of pain and other specs, it’s feeling right now like a smite specced poor man’s disc priest, or a gimpy smite monk from GW1. I’m still damaging, but I’m offering some utility.

Group condition clearing with mantras is just not there yet, though. Null Field is still a superior choice because of the boon strip/total condition nullification, even with a longer recharge.

To be clear, I’m not asking to play someone who mostly just heals, but like some classes get a lot of regen/etc, allow Mesmers to bring more group heals and cleanses as we damage.

Yes, they can grow different kinds of leaves and bark on themselves, or splice living armor into themselves.

cesmode.4257:

Sylv.5324:

cesmode.4257:

Amiron.1067:

Well said, OP. GW2 isn’t perfect, but it’s a far cry from terrible and it’s a darn good game to look to. Did anyone mention the non subscription fee factor? Because that is also a huge reason why I love this game. I can put it down and come back whenever I like, without feeling obligated to play as much as possible since I’m trying to get the most out of my 30 days.

Why do people say they like a game because it has no subscription? The fact that a game is free does not make it any more fun or any less fun. Financial model does not factor into whether ot not the player will enjoy the game. One has nothing to do with the other. You may like the fact that its free to play, but when people say “I like GW2 because it is free to play”…puzzles me. The free aspect makes it fun? Please explain.

I will assume you like GW2. If GW2 was subscription based, would you then consider it not a fun game to play…or no longer like it?

This phenomena puzzles me

I like it (in part) because I can afford to play it! Whereas WoW is not fun because I had to stop playing it because I couldn’t afford to.

Did you find the gameplay, combat, content, etc of WoW fun?
Do you find the gameplay,combat,content of GW2 fun?

Yes, and yes.

I miss my WoW mounts and rated battlegrounds, but I prefer GW2’s graphics and the mobile gameplay. If GW2 adds mounts (non-flying) other than the broom, I’ll be happy, since I like to collect things and miss that from WoW.

cesmode.4257:

Amiron.1067:

Well said, OP. GW2 isn’t perfect, but it’s a far cry from terrible and it’s a darn good game to look to. Did anyone mention the non subscription fee factor? Because that is also a huge reason why I love this game. I can put it down and come back whenever I like, without feeling obligated to play as much as possible since I’m trying to get the most out of my 30 days.

Why do people say they like a game because it has no subscription? The fact that a game is free does not make it any more fun or any less fun. Financial model does not factor into whether ot not the player will enjoy the game. One has nothing to do with the other. You may like the fact that its free to play, but when people say “I like GW2 because it is free to play”…puzzles me. The free aspect makes it fun? Please explain.

I will assume you like GW2. If GW2 was subscription based, would you then consider it not a fun game to play…or no longer like it?

This phenomena puzzles me

I like it (in part) because I can afford to play it! Whereas WoW is not fun because I had to stop playing it because I couldn’t afford to.

Dark Catalyst.1028:

Arnath.2319:

Dodge.

I went back to WoW for a few days when they were offering free play time and the one thing i missed more then anything was dodging, that and moving while casting.

Also the graphics in GW2 are superior to any other mmo.

Every class can cast something while moving. I don’t know why some of the people here insist on being dishonest when describing other games.

Priest is mostly locked in place, especially under heavy pressure. Or it was as of Cata, I haven’t played since then. I was a kitten good disc priest, but being forced into turret mode, instead of being able to move, was aggravating.

Darkobra.6439:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

What if I told you that I’m grinding out Ascended armor for the skin?

I’d say “You’re definitely not a male that wears light armour then.”

I’ve made the shirt work, and possibly the pants and the boots, but the shoulders and gloves, blarg.

Lord Kuru.3685:

SonicTHI.3217:

Because ANET abandoned the development of GW1 to make a better game based on the same principles – no grind for stats, cosmetic endgame, good and engaging pvp.

Instead why dont the people that want vertical progression and all that go back to WoW?

This.

^^^^^^^^^^

Please bring back Cantha! <333 I miss Factions so much, it would be awesome to see the place updated and brought back into GW2.

The only thing that makes rangers suboptimal is the players, imo. I know enough rangers who excel in pve and pvp (yes, really) that it really is just a matter of grokking the class.

If folks give you a hard time in groups, then make your own.

Tremain.4623:

EthanLightheart.9168:

You obviously don’t craft legendaries then or u’d know what we’re talking about.

I’ve crafted a legendary, blew a million karma on orrian boxes and however much it costs to get 250 obsidian shards for ascended crafting and still have about 1.5 million left. I also quit the game for seven months.

Yes, but karma gain was nerfed, while you earned most of yours when it had been buffed. That is why people are complaining.

Several of the long hairstyles, including norn ones and the sylvari fern one, no longer move when one runs, but instead it sticks to the back.

Edit: reloading fixed it for me, seeing if it has for others. Editedit: It did not fix it for the long human flower hair for someone else.

zenleto.6179:

Sylv.5324:

zenleto.6179:

Sylv.5324:

However, you CAN spec to be useful with heals and mitigation; I set up my mesmer with a healing build, and was actively keeping up players and key NPCs in various events and such. Have kept Grenth from failing several times by keeping Jonez and players up.

At the risk of derailing the thread (!) … is there a build guide for this or did you figure it out? It sounds interesting and a little different.

I’m working on it, but it has to do with the changes to traits, especially down the Inspiration line, with AOE cleanses and heals. It probably would not be necessary in a full zerk dungeon group that knows exactly what it’s doing, but for general PvE (not sure about WvW yet) it’s been interesting. With Mantra of Pain, it’s sort of going back to being a Smite monk. I drop illusions to stack healing aoe regens, can shatter to clear conditions and give myself small heals, and can chain-cast mantra of pain for a steady flow of medium heals. All of them stack up, especially when eles are dropping their aoe heals.

You can’t spike heal anyone but yourself as a mesmer, but it’s very helpful to mitigate steady incoming damage pressure.

I am working on an ascended celestial set for WvW, but I imagine this build would work better with that than the zerk exotics I have now.

I obviously have taken a hit in DPS and had to spec away from Deceptive Evasions, but for the open world especially, or WvW, it’s no big deal, especially if your accessories are berserker (and ascended).

Very nice. Absolutely right about open world. I have a little Mesmer that needs a little guidance. I might try this as well if you don’t mind.

I don’t. Meep me as Sylv.5324 to let me know how it turns out.

Edit: Focus 5 and Disenchanter utility have good synergy with this. Also signet of the ether for the additional regen.

zenleto.6179:

Sylv.5324:

However, you CAN spec to be useful with heals and mitigation; I set up my mesmer with a healing build, and was actively keeping up players and key NPCs in various events and such. Have kept Grenth from failing several times by keeping Jonez and players up.

At the risk of derailing the thread (!) … is there a build guide for this or did you figure it out? It sounds interesting and a little different.

I’m working on it, but it has to do with the changes to traits, especially down the Inspiration line, with AOE cleanses and heals. It probably would not be necessary in a full zerk dungeon group that knows exactly what it’s doing, but for general PvE (not sure about WvW yet) it’s been interesting. With Mantra of Pain, it’s sort of going back to being a Smite monk. I drop illusions to stack healing aoe regens, can shatter to clear conditions and give myself small heals, and can chain-cast mantra of pain for a steady flow of medium heals. All of them stack up, especially when eles are dropping their aoe heals.

You can’t spike heal anyone but yourself as a mesmer, but it’s very helpful to mitigate steady incoming damage pressure.

I am working on an ascended celestial set for WvW, but I imagine this build would work better with that than the zerk exotics I have now.

I obviously have taken a hit in DPS and had to spec away from Deceptive Evasions, but for the open world especially, or WvW, it’s no big deal, especially if your accessories are berserker (and ascended).

Anyway, I look for where people are going splat, and park there, and just end up like a healing turret— bigger heals for those nearest me, and then regen and cleanses for those meleeing the boss. If I’m meleeing, it just stacks all that healing there. It does make a difference.

misterDEAN.3027:

I dont think they should imitate wow. I hear rift is so close to imitating wow its not funny. That doesnt appeal to me. But that doesnt mean they have to throw away the whole book. Im cool with tanks and healers not being required to progress. But the fact that they force people to play a DPS class go out of their way to prevent people from playing a pure defensive or supportive character is absurd.

It is to avoid bottlenecking groups with healers and tanks. I always play healers in every MMO but this one, but I think what ANet did was ok.

However, you CAN spec to be useful with heals and mitigation; I set up my mesmer with a healing build, and was actively keeping up players and key NPCs in various events and such. Have kept Grenth from failing several times by keeping Jonez and players up.

It really depends on who you group with, in regards to DPS. I’ve done Arah runs where I was in mixed gear and had a defensive build that kept my party members up; I’ve also run it with very speedy people and could go full DPS. Suit your build to your group and the situation. If you are with speedrunners who insist on full zerk and nothing else, find other groups or make some.

Shields in GW2 are used more like how Romans used shields: as a defensive and offensive weapon, not just a passive barrier. Their variety of shields (from the big rectangle wall ones that riot police still use today) to the smaller bash-‘em-upside-the-head types) is part of what made them so formidable in combat and is an influence on ANet’s shield skill design.

I think OP just hit that content burnout stage; they’ve played the hell out of the game and need a break.

IMO, take a sabbatical, go play something else, and wait until ANet updates with a bigger content patch that freshens stuff up.

People are stacking auras to get them that bright.

‘They could learn a few things from WoW…’

They’ve learned that imitating WoW too closely only leads to losing players to WoW because they aren’t WoW. So they may as well do things their way, because people will be dissatisfied and go back to WoW.

Really, the issue is that folks want WoW to have better graphics, so they lurch around to other games in the hope they’ll find that, regardless of how much the game is or isn’t like WoW. But instead of going to Blizzard and demanding graphics upgrades, they go to other games and demand they change their core systems to be more like WoW’s.

My suggestion is to play a game for what it IS. Not what you wish that it was. If you know a game has no tank/healer/dps setup, and that’s what you think is best, don’t get a game that isn’t like that when you have many choices that are.

There are horses in Tyria, but the running joke is that they are never on-camera. They show up in art, in references, in the books, in NPC chatter, but their models have not been dropped in game and it’s the case since GW1 (except for necrid horsemen). I assume this is a Monty Python reference (there are several in both games), since everyone in The Holy Grail ran around and just clacked coconuts together even though horses existed.

Edited to be more helpful.

If you are in NA, TC is busy.

stobie.2134:

I haven’t played GW2 for almost a year now. When I left, it seemed like the community was degrading rather fast. I sometimes check in to see how it’s doing, but this doesn’t sound too promising. I started in beta, & at the time, it seemed like GW2 was going to have an exceptionally nice player base. A friend tried it again this spring, & said it had gotten considerably worse. People were meaner, chat just had to be turned off…

So how is it? Not in dungeons only, but in general. Whenever I think I could try it again, I see stuff like this, & think… well, maybe not. Is that – I hope – a bad impression from forums only?

Come to TC, we’re very nice there.

Also had nice experiences on Ehmry Bay when I guest there.

You can also type /wiki and the name of what you want to know, in-game, for example:

/wiki ascended weapons

The armor you get from the heroic edition is a set of skins; you can apply them to an armor set. if you want to move THOSE skins onto a new armor set after the first time, you can get transmutation stones for items under level 80 and crystals for level 80 stuff.

Do NOT vendor that armor.

What I miss most is armor collecting (and I think the armor designers of this game should keep looking back to the old; anet spent a lot of time on that game and there’s no need to cast those looks aside), and guild halls, and missions.

The personal story is a lot like missions, though.

Yes, GW2 did lift a lot more from GW1 than people give it credit for.

I also miss playing a healer, but I don’t expect to see one anytime soon. I’ve set up my Mesmer a bit like a smite monk, though.

Some of them mention going down to the sewers, so between that and the fact that LA is scaled down (there are a lot more houses and people off-camera), there probably is a big skritt population lurking around.

Edit: part of why there are so many in LA right now that are all arglebargle is that they escaped Tixx’s experiments.

Most Vigil sylvari are currently in zones affected by dragons: Mt. Maelstrom, Orr and Sparkfly Fen (and they make up a lot of the Vigil NPCs there), as they are the only race that can’t come back as Risen; FGS, because they can’t come back as Frostbrood, etc. They make up a disproportionate amount of the troops there, and consequently there are less in some other Vigil-patrolled zones.

Their purpose, to a great degree, is to fight dragons and they are resistant to dragon corruption, so if ANet sticks to established lore, especially Vigil lore, you’ll always see more of them on the front lines than further into safer territory.

Re: letting villains into their territory: All of the races do this. Norn tolerate Svanir (arguably the worst since they are directly dragon worshippers), Asura tolerate Inquest (who participate in politics, too), Humans tolerate Bandits as long as they toe the line in town, and Charr even semi-tolerate Flame Legion as long as they don’t start a fight.

Courtiers can be any color (and there are many Dreamer NPCs, including firstborn, who ‘look nightmare’), but a lot of the grunts tend to wear the same uniform. Go to Briarthorn Den (near Morgan’s Spiral, there is a heart there), there are a few examples of the ‘shock troop’ type outfits.

These aren’t restricted to Courtiers, but they’re more common there.

Some sylvari have bark for skin (just like other ambulatory plants in Tyria do), and it works because magic.

Kagamiku.9731:

Chicken mini. Are we sure it doesn’t exist already? (haven’t checked)

Only the Orrian chicken and baby chick.

HykCraft.4610:

I just use my flamethrower and roast them all in towns.

You should go do this in Ebonhawke, and then fraps it to show us your victory!

It feels like one of the female faces was done somewhat because of the requests for Caithe’s face— it’s not exactly like hers but it’s got a similar look, pretty but without much floof.

Toli Rosca.9041:

Sylvari have the external appearance of sexual organs without the function of them.

They do work according to the devs, but they are sterile.

There is a (budding) couple in Orr between a Human Vigil Soldier and a Sylvari Priory researcher. Or rather, he is in love with her and she only starts to get it at the end of their arc.

Norn hit on humans a lot in GW:EN; as long as you are tough they seem to dig you.

MatthewMedina.5419:

All of those conversations and scenes in the post-release camp were done entirely by our writing team this time around. A couple of us on the content design side were able to sit down with them and actually teach them how to do basic spawning and scripting, and with that base of knowledge they were able to populate the camp with all those interesting characters, which I think of as a huge win for the studio. It’s not that we’ve not had the capability in the past, it’s just that those kind of things usually end up low on the list of priorities for those of us who do the bulk of the content authoring, because although it’s really not hard to do, it’s also usually not that intense in terms of setup and scripting. When you are faced with the decision to fix a half dozen Pri.1 and Pri2 bugs or implement an NPC with conversation, the former will always take priority. So I would like to think that this is just the tip of the iceberg and that the bar will continue to be raised on content like this.

Please continue with this! It makes an outstanding difference in making things truly feel like a living world.

I’ve always been the type to collect things to feel a sense of (horizontal) progression— minis and armors in GW1, mounts in other games. But minis have very little functionality (they don’t ‘stick’ through zones, most of them don’t swim despite many of their models having swim animations). And we have no mounts, which makes me sad. I’d probably spend another year just collecting all these things.

I know armors take a lot of resources to build, but GW has always been about displaying your prowess through your armor skins. Please let us earn more of them. <3

L2GF scrub

u cant just animals

Cultural armor works like sylvari skin, so it doesn’t darken when the ambient light is low— skin doesn’t seem to change so much with the light, for whatever reason.

I would swim to Cantha. I miss Shing Jea Island and its Kirin. <3

Jornophelanthas.1475:

Some professions are harder to play well, and there are some balance issues. It’s mostly a problem of player perception. If “everyone” believes that warriors, guardians and mesmers are the “best” (meaning easiest)

That’s not why Mesmers are counted among them. They are considered ‘optimal’ in certain setups (3 warriors + 1 guard + 1 mes) because of their elite and reflects. They are considered one of the more difficult classes to play and particularly to level (though I disagree about the latter), which is why so many of them get boosted and crafted to max, and then only used in that dungeon setup.

They’re actually close to the bottom of the class chain in terms of numbers, IIRC under Warrior, Guardian, Ranger, Ele and Thief. You see a decent number of them earlier on, but halfway through the level curve, they just get dropped as folks reroll something else.

Kristen Perry.5260:

I see mentions of fruits and nuts. This is a new category of material that I’ve been pondering and haven’t quite settled with it. While the visual idea is lovely, I’ve always pictured the sylvari to be the fruits of the Pale Tree. For fruits to have fruits of their own… not sure that works just yet. It may be a matter of weighing anatomy righteousness against the fashion notion that most people won’t care and just want the cool factor. Hehehe, oh you guys! One day you’re in, the next day you’re out, eh?

If it helps, some of the armors seem to incorporate fruit: the little gourd things on one of the medium sets, along with the berries on the gloves of t3. So maybe it would be less of a structure that they’re born with, and more a way of mimicking things they find pretty in other plants.

I’d love to see long, grasslike hair.

Some of us are still here. I always have a HoM title on, and will replace with GWAMM once that’s done (because I slacked off for years, bah).

You have to upgrade, bro. It doesn’t matter how much you paid 20 years ago; I bought nice machines 20 years ago, too. But computers are not cars and they do not age well, and are never a permanent investment.

Guild Wars 1 was built for the tech of a decade ago and could even run on older machines, but GW2 is built for this decade (that said, running GW1 at max settings and max character detail in cities does require a good machine even nowadays). If you refuse to upgrade, that’s not ANet’s fault.

stale.9785:

OP, I hope you realise that, my posts at least (since I cannot speak for anyone else) are as bitter sounding as they are, because there is SO much potential in this game.

Honestly, the changes I agitate for are ones that would move this toward being, for me, the best game ever made.

In no way should this detract from the truth that Arenanet has made a truly great game – it’s just that there’s so much potential, and the direction they seem to be taking instead depresses me.

Anyway, that’s my $0.02 – were this a BAD game, I wouldn’t be waiting for improvements, I’d be gone.

You should never play a game for what it COULD or SHOULD be, because you will always be disappointed: because you are not one of the designers, you will never have the degree of input that you wish you had.

You should buy and play a game for what it is. If you do, you should be more satisfied than not.

ArchonWing.9480:

They just need to make more long chain events and trains in other zones.

Truth is, after the repeated Cursed Shore Nerfs before the train started, there was probably zero reason to play open world beyond leveling because there was nothing to be gained from it— oh good a rare after 15 minute world boss! And the only reason people are like that is because crap was nerfed elsewhere— so it’s pretty laughable to think that making the problem worse will solve the problem.

Bring back Cursed Shore or something… boost the loot greatly and revert it back to the old difficulty.

They nerfed Pen/Shelt in Orr repeatedly, first the timers and then by getting the scaling borked on champs for a long time. A lot of farmers had no problems doing the Caer Shadowfain / Pen / Shelt / etc and then hitting Plinx, but for some reason this was completely derailed. IMO, they should set them back to how they originally were. They insisted getting rid of this would make people scatter over the map, but it hasn’t. Taking a farm away doesn’t scatter folks through the game.

There IS a good event chain in Harathi, it’s good loot and XP and Ulgoth is at the end of it. It is arguably the best leveling chain from level 40 to level 80, if you can do it that long. It resets pretty quickly, but the downtime between the end and the start is long enough for some people to lose patience (ten, fifteen minutes). But if you get the time down right, you can pop out for whatever and then back as it restarts.

Pen/shelt and the surrounding bases was the best way to get from 70 to 80, as a couple hours pingponging between them would level you up very fast. But, nerfed.

The fact that it took you seven years of casual play to get max level in one skill shows that it took a lot of work. If you wanted it sooner, you had to grind it out, because just playing the game through and doing so casually did not get you anywhere near them.

If you are that knowledgeable about GW1, you KNOW that most people got theirs by grinding, and you’re playing dumb to me now to bolster your argument instead okittennowledging that GW1 did have a steep grind for many things in general, and faction-based skills that did have an impact on your performance in PvE in particular.

Yeah. It always throws me closer to the evil, for whatever reason.

They’ll want to tie them to events if they do, otherwise there is no reason to switch from either zone.

Enokitake.1742:

You can with ascended gear in WvW though. Like said, its not the same.

You are shifting the goalposts.

Also, it was not possible to ever get rank 10 luxon or kurzick or deldrimor or norn or asura or ebon vanguard or lightbringer, etc, etc, through casual play, let alone quickly.

This does not include faction skills, which are acquired via grinding Factions PvP (Kurzick/Luxon skills), or PvE (GWEN skills and Kurzick/Luxon skills). Higher points in those titles resulted in more powerful skills. You keep ignoring them, but several of them are essential to various PvE hero and player builds. That absolutely was grind = more power, but what GW1 did was tie it to skills instead of equipment.

In practice, it meant a lot of doing FA or JQ over and over for Factions ones, and killing lots of stuff for bounties for that and the others.

To get max level GW:EN and Factions skills, you absolutely had to grind them. To unlock a skill via a tome, you had to have the skill unlocked already via PvP or on an alt.

Edit: You also had to grind out those title skills on each alt.