Guild Wars 2

jia li ng.8415:

That certainly is a bummer … I dislike digital downloads with a passion because of the Epic failure of transferring information. I have never experienced a reasonable facsimile from any electronic digital download, there are always flaws. A master disk is a much better way to keep and store information when upgrading your personal computer as well …
A giant step backwards, in my opinion. I guess giving credit to the artists concept art is highly over-rated, and after ten years we should just allow ourselves to become complacent with the “regal” offerings.

Before you start rage quitting, you might like to know that you can still get a physical retail version of GW2 Heart of Thorns. ANet has also listed that certain retailers will even offer the pre-purchase incentive with physical copies of the game.

*"Can I pre-purchase through my favorite retailer?

Yes. Starting on June 23, 2015, you’ll be able to pre-purchase boxed and digital editions of Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns from our official retail partners. You may also be able to pre-order through retailers, but there is no official pre-order program and pre-purchasing is the only way to receive the benefits of our pre-purchase program, including access to all of the Beta Weekend Events."*

Source:

https://help.guildwars2.com/entries/94582027-Heart-of-Thorns-Pre-Purchase-FAQ

The only thing they have said is they don’t have plans to release a physical collectors edition. But that doesn’t mean to say you cannot get a physical copy of the game, with the pre-purchase incentive included.

SirDrygan.1823:

Did ANET know about the quickness duration?

One thing I am worried about is that ANET will not read everything that the players about complaining about and go for the jugular before identifying the victim first. Hence, after balancing everything, only then they realized they missed the small details that is the real cause of the issue and not the noise that is overshadowing it.

Yes, this is my worry as well. Everyone is blaming conditions without actually thinking or observing the situation properly. During Tequatl I think I saw bleeds and burns average at about 50 stacks each (it seems to peak and drop a lot but only for short durations). At most it’s probably only amounting to a 2% damage increase in a crowd of 150 players. Compared to the 50% damage increase quickness is giving, it’s like a drop in the pond.

I’ve been doing a few world bosses since the patch, and I have to say, after observing what’s been happening, I honestly don’t think conditions are making as much of a difference as people are making out.

The stacks are not going as high as I thought they would and I highly, highly doubt that conditions are in any way competing with physical damage during boss fights, which also got a nice buff in this patch.

But most of all, one thing I did notice was that quickness now seems to stack in duration. When I was doing Tequatl recently, I noticed that I had over a minute of quickness during damage phases. Giving a mob of players near endless quickness – which basically amounts to a continuous 50% damage boost – would obviously amount to a big time difference as far as taking a boss like Tequatl down is concerned.

I’m surprised more players haven’t pointed that out (so far as I have observed). People on map chats are always so quick to blame conditions for the huge damage increase, despite condition stacks not reaching that high, and yet everyone seems to ignore the endless quickness durations, which is probably playing a much larger role.

I think power / precision / condition damage builds should be comparable to power / precision / ferocity builds. However, I agree that condition damage on its own should not be comparable to power / precision / ferocity builds.

It makes sense for a build with 3 damage stats to compare to another build with 3 damage stats. It does not make sense for a build with 1 damage stat to compare to a build with 3 though.

It was only natural that overall dps would go up in this patch for conditions. That was the entire point of removing the condition cap. To put it plainly, IT WAS AN INTENDED CHANGE.

However, the effect is obviously more noticable in boss battles, where getting hundreds of stacks against one target is easier than it would be in smaller battles or during solo roaming, where getting over 25 stacks of any condition would be very difficult for any individual class. I also think the physical damage increase we got in this patch is just perpetuation that sentiment further. Bosses are dying faster, and it’s quite obvious why they would be.

Conditions as a whole should not be nerfed though, in my opinion. Instead, I think bosses, which are obviously being hit hardest by the damage increase, should have their health buffed instead to offset the overall damage increase we got. In fact, I’m surprised this wasn’t done already in-anticipation the obvious damage increase we were getting.

As for guardian burning, I think it’s good that they can actually go for condition damage and achieve reasonable results now, considering burning is their ONLY damage condition right now, and has to compete with classes that have multiple damage conditions that can now all stack (even poison). If they nerf burning, I’m afraid it might do little more than kill the only hope guardians have had to go for a pure condition build. I do understand that balance is needed, but I just hope ANet doesn’t go to the extreme and send us back to square one again (aka, zerker meta land).

nathanjameson.3542:

ah, i saw that thread about an hour after the changes went live, and people were already warning about it.

you must have jumped on that bandwagon super fast. never visit vegas!

Well, it’s easy to jump on the bandwagon if you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into. At the very least, I wasn’t expecting such a loss with practically no reward to offset the cost.

I was, at the very least, expecting to get something back that was worth the gold and ectos I spent. Instead, the vendor just gave me back less gold, and ectos (so basically, I spent gold and ectoplasms to get less gold and ectoplasms back).

nathanjameson.3542:

the threads i saw on the subject explicitly stated it was a gambling merchant. where did you get your info?

I didn’t want to name or blame, but I got it from this thread:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/new-vendor-RNG-for-High-rollers/first

The original title was “new vendor SUPER broken” and the OP mentioned how much gold they made from it and how broken it seemed because of it.

Original Post: "The new ecto vendor is very broken…

I made 5000g from it already… I stopped since it seemed wrong… might want to disable it."

After feedback and advice from other users who posted losses on that same thread, he since amended his post to one that more accurately reflects the nature of the merchant. But by then the damage was already done for some players like myself.

In any case, my suggestion is also keeping in mind that some players never read these forums and that they rely on information in-game. This new vendor provides practically no in-game information as to his purpose and so players might be at a loss.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

This is why it is always prudent to consult the Wiki before investing any Gold/items one might not be willing to lose.

If the Wiki has not yet been updated on the topic, it is almost always only a matter of a short period of time.

It’s what I always do when confronted with a new mechanic/item/whatever now.

Good luck.

Yes, I know that, but in the end, if everyone is relying on the wiki for information, all it proves is that not enough information is being given to players in-game.

Who provides information on the wiki? It’s players who have tried and tested mechanics in-game. Even if you suggest that everyone takes a step back, or advise them not to try something until they have more info on it, someone has to take the plunge first if that information is ever to be acquired, for better or for worse. That means someone is forced to take risks at their detriment or benefit. In this case, it was to my detriment, partly thanks to the information being provided by another player being incorrect, but I feel it didn’t need to be if the relevant information was simply given in-game first.

It’s not like having one line about how this is a gambling merchant in game could take much effort on the devs part. It could, however, save players a lot of potential grief.

Hello.

I just wanted to visit an issue I felt needed to be addressed regarding the new LA merchant, Apprentice Mekteki. When I first discovered him, all I could see was that he was offering items, like the Glob of Destabilized Ectoplasm, but aside from vague descriptions on each offering, there wasn’t any real info to inform the players as to what the purpose of purchasing them was. Apprentice Mekteki himself talks in such a strange manner that learning anything tangible from his dialogue on its own is pretty much impossible (typical skritt).

So, naturally, I avoided it at first, because I didn’t see the point in paying gold or ectos on something when I’m not sure what I’m going to get back for it.

But, after reading a post by a player detailing how much gold you can make off the merchant, and how rare items could be acquired, I let my curiosity get the better of me and I decided to purchase globs of destabilized ectoplasm. To make a long story short, I ended up losing around 250 or so gold (roughly calculating in the cost and ectos). I only got some trophy items back which sold for 25 gold and some ectos back. I didn’t get any noteworthy items worth selling for a decent amount.

Now, for some players who spend hours farming every day and who have thousands of gold, it might not seem like a big loss and they’d probably brush it off. But for me, 250 gold is probably 3 or more months worth of saving. It felt like a huge blow to me and it left me feeling quite upset over it. But what upset me the most was not that I lost some digital gold because of my own curiosity, but rather because it was a loss that could have been avoided if I had been given more solid information as to what I was getting myself into in the first place.

So my suggestion is this. At the very least, give some more information to warn players that Apprentice Mekteki is essentially a gambling merchant, and that although there is a chance to get some good items, there is also a large risk involved. I think a lot of player grief can be avoided simply by providing proper information in game, rather than relying on players to test first at their own peril and then report their findings.

This is the kind of merchant that could trap new players or players who don’t have lots of gold into losing what little they do have very fast. It’s a very deflating experience and it left me personally feeling very angry and cheated.

I honestly much prefer the new lions arch to the old one. As a central hub for pretty much all world trade and travel, it makes sense that the city itself would look upper class and rival the other major racial cities in terms of infrastructure, if not exceed them.

The old LA was nice but it didn’t make much sense from a practical point of view, given its purposes and place in the world. I mean, an entire city made out of old wooden ships is just a fire disaster waiting. If one person drops a match in their house the entire city could literally go up in flames and once the fire starts, it would be near impossible to stop. No wonder Scarlet had such an easy time raising it to the ground.

Myself and some friends completed this JP last night. We had two mesmers along who acted as our “checkpoints” while the rest of us scouted out the correct path. Once we found the correct path, the mesmers took turns following us one at a time (in case one mesmer fell).

It was a fun group experience but if any of us went solo, we definitely would have doubled or tripled our time doing it (and it took very long as it is). I reckon checkpoints are a good idea. They can be placed at the location of each stash, and they can include a gold fee for it as well, with the price being relative to which stash you choose to travel to (with the furthest one being the most expensive).

suffish.4150:

I too had to buy skills I already had. Not a brilliant way to do it but not a disaster, skill points were easy to get anyway. Not a huge loss but I would have preferred it if I didn’t have to buy my skills again.

It’s not a huge loss but it still feels like a needless loss. I was just wondering if it’s working as intended or if this is some sort of bug.

I mean, I literally had every skill on my guardian unlocked. Now suddenly shouts and consecrations are no longer available. It’s like ANet just randomly decided to take away two sets of skill types just to make me re-earn it again for no reason whatsoever.

Same goes for some of my trait lines and such for characters.

Basically what the title asks.

When I logged into my level 80 characters, I noticed a lot of the skills and traits I had already bought are now unavailable and have to be re-bought again. Is there a reason for this?

It kinda feels like I am wasting points on stuff I already spent skill points (or gold) on to unlock.

Well, after testing the vendor thanks to the hopes given to me by this thread, I have now lost about 250 gold. I’m feeling pretty crappy now for believing it.

Please close this thread or amend your original post before you cause more people grief.

Impact.2780:

Tenrai Senshi.2017:

I’m surprised people cannot understand the difference, to be honest. But, allow me to use an analogy that might put it as best as I can think of in an attempt to make it clearer for some people.

Imagine you go to a fast food restaurant.

Software is different from food. With food, you buy the product. With software, you buy access and a right to use the product. Why? Because it’s a business. Comparing software with food might actually the worst analogy I can imagine, so think of buying a new desk. The desk you want to buy is the same you currently have, but with an extra draw. You can’t go and demand they give you the desk at the price of the draw because you already bought the same desk from them before they released a new one with an additional draw…. continued…

I’m very well that software is different from food, thank you. I was simply using an analogy to try help people understand the situation as seen from the consumer’s point of view.

However, that still doesn’t change the fact that new clients are getting more for what they pay than existing clients, so in that respect my analogy is correct. I could use 100 different analogies to point to the same result, but I simply used one I felt people would understand best. You can go on about ownership rights and all that jazz if you want, but ultimately, one fact remains. We are essentially the client/consumer and ANet/NCSOFT is the service provider. Keep us happy and we continue to pay for your services. Make us feel like we’re being screwed over, even if it’s well within your right to do so, and you’ll run the risk that we’ll stop using your product.

evoRobot.4019:

It’s an exclusive offer and a common practice in business.

The bank has periods of time where you can open a certain account for free, like a waterhouse account, or high savings account. Someone might have opened one a few years ago and missed that offer, but still has the same services as the person who will receive it for free today.

Between those years the person who missed the offer got to build their credit, receive interest and save their money. But the new person must start from the ground up.

This is the exact same situation here.

So tell me where the difference is.

I’m surprised people cannot understand the difference, to be honest. But, allow me to use an analogy that might put it as best as I can think of in an attempt to make it clearer for some people.

Imagine you go to a fast food restaurant. You buy a meal that is going for 10 dollars that comes with fries and a burger. The next day you go into the same fast food restaurant and you notice that they’re having a special on that same meal. This time instead of just fries and a burger, you also get a soda as well.

The person next to you is also looking at the same deal, but they are a first time customer. You don’t begrudge them that they’re getting the soda extra for the same price, because the same deal is available to you now as well, so it’s all fair right?

But then when you go to order your meal, the clerk tells you that you won’t get the fries and the burger with your meal, because you’re already an existing customer and you got fries and a burger yesterday. You have to pay the same price as the person next to you just for the soda. You argue that the new client gets all three for the same price, but then the clerk says “but that’s because they’re new and have yet to eat our fries or our burgers.” When you argue the price discrepancy between your soda vs their fries, burger and soda, the clerk says “Well, actually they’re getting the fries and the burger free. 10 dollars is just for the Soda.”

You see, that’s the issue here. If two people are paying for the same thing at the same time, and they are purchasing it from the same producer, they expect to get the same result. If I buy a meal with only a burger and fries one day and the next day I see someone buy it on special, I don’t mind. But if I’m also buying it on special, I would mind if I got less than the person next to me paying for the same thing, just because I was a repeat customer.

So players are saying this. If new players are getting a game and an expansion for one price, why aren’t existing players getting the same deal? Why do we only get the expansion? Should we not be benefiting from the same special as everyone else, if we are paying for it on the same day, at the same time? Why not give us an extra free account code? Or, if you’re not going to give us that, why not give us the option to buy the soda without the fries and the burger at a lower price, especially if you refuse to give us the fries and burger again just because we ordered it yesterday?

If people cannot understand this issue, then I’m honestly not sure what else to say.

Frankly, I don’t see why people always try to defend a company from player feedback. If players think there is something wrong with new content, or the price of new content, they have every right to make themselves heard.

It is, in fact, to ANet’s benefit to read and consider this feedback. Whether they act on it is another story altogether, but they certainly shouldn’t ignore it, nor should other players try to suppress it.

I also think the title of this thread is misleading, because it implies that all veteran players, or at least a lot of them, feel entitled to extras simply because they are veterans. In reality, the situation is quite the opposite. I think a lot of veteran players are unhappy simply because its the new players who are getting extras simply for being new players, while veterans get nothing to offset that obvious discrepancy.

All we want is balance. We want the price point and incentives of the HoT upgrade to be fair to both new and veteran players. Right now, it is glaringly in favor of new players, who get the base game for free in addition to the expansion, while veteran players only get the expansion on its own for the same price. If some people can’t see an issue with that, I’m afraid they are simply choosing to be ignorant rather than fair.

Just like it can be argued that veterans shouldn’t feel entitled to extras just because they are veterans, the same argument can be made that new players shouldn’t be entitled to extras just because they are new. If the scales are not balanced on both sides, then one side or the other is always going to end up feeling burned or neglected.

My main issue with the pricing point for the expansion is that it seems to holly favor new players and not veteran players.

Saying that new players get the base game for free, is basically the same as saying that new players get a discount on the GW2 + HoT package (with the discount being a value relative to the cost of GW2 on its own at any given time).

This discount does not affect veteran players because veteran players already have the base game and thus do not benefit from acquiring it again.

Now, I’m not asking for veteran players to get more stuff than new players. I’m just asking for them to be treated equally. Right now though, it feels like new players are getting the most benefit from this package while veterans get no extra incentives to offset the difference.

I still believe ANet should have had two packages. One for upgrading to HoT if you already have GW2, and one that includes both, as the current package does. Even if it’s just a 10 dollar discount for upgrading (I.E. the standard edition upgrade to HoT costs $40 for existing GW2 players), that would still be better because it at least gives us a free extra $10 to buy a character slot or whatever else we want. At the very least that would make it feel more balanced for both new and veteran players.

As things are right now though, it feels like veteran players are getting the middle finger while new players are treated like V.I.P.s. I’ll say this again, I don’t expect Veteran players to get any extras over new players. HOWEVER, I also don’t expect new players to get any extras over veterans, which is currently the case.

Hey guys. Before I get started, I want you all to know that this is not a rant of any kind. I’m not here to hate on anyone or anything so if that’s what you’re expecting, you might be happy/disappointed that this is not the case.

What I would like to do is bring up what I think are a few issues with the pre-purchase incentive for Hearth of Thorns as it currently exists. ANet can consider this constructive criticism, and anyone else is welcome to add to, or debate any of the points I bring up if they want to.

1: Justifying The Price Point

Now, I think this is more of an issue for veteran players rather than new players. As it currently stands, you can get the standard version of the HoT expansion for about $50, and that includes the original game as well. For new players, this might seem like a very appealing offer – $50 for a game + an expansion – however, for veteran players who are only really benefiting from the expansion content, it may feel like a bit of a steep price point.

What perpetuates this issue even further is that there is no discount for veteran players who already have the core game and are upgrading to the expansion. The pre-purchase deal, as a whole, is vastly more attractive for new players than it is for veterans, and as a veteran player, I don’t think this is a very graceful gesture on ANet’s part. ANet should be rewarding veterans for their commitment and contributions – both in terms of time and money – to their product over these last few years, but instead it feels like we are simply invisible bystanders, while new players are exalted as the V.I.P. clients.

I think this feeling of neglect has been growing in strength for some time now, with lots of changes in-game favoring new players over veterans, and I think this latest example might just upset veteran players even more.

2: Lack of information

Another issue with the pre-purchase incentive is that there really isn’t enough information for us consumers to make an informed purchasing decision. As it stands at present, I’d say that it’s almost like going to a car dealer and seeing the shiny exterior of the car on offer, but the salesman doesn’t want to tell you what’s inside, or what engine is running under the hood.

In the case of HoT, we’ve gotten snippets of information regarding some of the new content in the game, but because that information is still being released in incremental updates, we don’t have a holistic view of what we’re in for, or what we, as consumers, will ultimately gain in terms of content for the price we’ve paid. Given that some of the new features are already confirmed to be coming to players who only earn the base version of GW2, it does bring into question just how much extra content or features we’re really getting in the expansion and whether it justifies the price.

How many new PvE Maps will there be? Will we get new dungeons or fractals? What kind of new guild missions can we expect, if any? Will there be other new minigames or alternative forms of end game content? What can we expect in terms of new armor or weapon sets? What about new character creation options? I could go on, but I think you get the point.

3: Closing notes

I think ANet might have been jumping the gun a bit by introducing the ability to pre-purchase the expansion for GW2, without giving any upgrade incentives for veteran players, nor giving enough details regarding the actual content in the expansion to justify the current price point.

Given how much content we got in the original game for its starting price, one would expect the expansion to give similar amounts of content if it’s going to be sold at the same base price. If it’s not, and the price is only as high as it is because it also includes the original game, then there needs to be a cheaper upgrade price for people who already own the original game, and who will not benefit at all from purchasing it a second time.

I really think that ANet should look into and address some of these issues in order to appeal to player concerns. If they have an answer or would like to bring up additional points or factors that I might not be considering, or that as a whole might be unknown to us, I welcome them to enlighten us.

If you’re playing in PvE, you should definitely be able to play on the same maps with each other. Being in a party is simply enough but if for some reason you didn’t happen to end up on the same map, you can simply right click on your friends portrait and click the join in X area option.

The only thing that would potentially prevent you from joining their map or visa versa, is if the map has already hit its hard cap with regards to player numbers.

Also, it goes without saying that you cannot join a friend in wvw unless you both belong to the same home server.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

ProtoGunner.4953:

It’s fine, 250 gems isn’t really all too much to get in game or even to buy. The only greedy thing is the exclusive hairstyles only available via hair style kit. Just add those to the character creation already!

Which would mean that new people and new chars would get the exclusive hairstyles and faces for free but veterans with old chars would have to pay. If you don’t think that would cause massive whining in the forums then you don’t know the forums.

On the contrary, as a veteran player, I’d love them to add the kit hair styles and faces to character creation.

The most expensive item I found so far was spark. I got it during Scarlet’s invasion in LA.

Malediktus.3740:

I agree with Orpheal. The mortality rate in western countries is around 10 in 1000 per year. Going by that tens of thousands (10k per year per million unique copies sold) of people who played GW2 died already.

I don’ think the request is too unreasonable though. The OP is not asking for a monument to be made in the game world itself, but rather, they’re asking for the ability to have monuments inside their own guild hall, which is likely an instanced area.

This means players could possibly customize their own guild halls with monuments if they wish to, or I suppose ignore it if they’d prefer not to have such a thing. It doesn’t affect anyone else in the game world, and if you already have other customizable features in a GH, why not this? Especially if it’s optional.

DieFinn.3594:

From the feeling it would be better if LA is rebuild in several stages imo, but to do so, anet must create severeal buildingstages and the map must be updated a few times and that will likely cost a huge amount of ressources i think. I understand the request fully with on part of myself, but another part tells me it will be highly unlikely to happen. And if you ask me from another viewpoint, i would say, they should place the ressources in developing new stuff over a literaly cosmetic feeling of rebuildtime in stages.
(I hope my english is understandable and not the worst)

I agree with this point. Showing the rebuilding of LA in a lot of stages, while a nice touch, would take a lot of time and resources that could instead go towards other content. I don’t mind them skipping ahead to the end if it means the time they save for doing so goes into something else that is meaningful.

I think one mistake people make when they compare condition damage to the zerker meta, is that they tend to forget that they are comparing 1 stat (condition damage) to 3 stats (power, precision and ferocity).

Even with the changes to condition damage, it will never and should never outperform, or even match zerker gear on its own, because if it did, it would be ludicrously OP as a stat.

However, with that being said, I could see power, precision condition damage builds becoming a lot stronger, and possibly competing with the current zerker meta (sinister gear, as the OP mentioned). A mix of decent physical damage combined with high condition damage could offset the loss of ferocity’s crit damage modifier. In fact, it may even end up being superior as a whole. However, I do see some people only taking into consideration the condition damage of sinister gear without factoring in the physical damage as well.

Remember, if you’re going to make a comparison to a pure damage stat build, you have to use another pure damage stat build to vie with it. You can’t compare a toughness / vitality / condition damage build to a power / precision / ferocity build and expect the same damage output because one has three damage stats and another only one. But you could maybe expect similar amounts of damage output from a power / precision / condition damage build.

The best way to fix retaliation would be to make the damage returned based on a % of the base damage of the skill the enemy player used on you, and that % can increase with power.

So for example, at 1000 power you’d return 15% of the base damage. At 2000 power, you’d return 30% damage. Etc and so forth.

If an enemy uses a skill that does 2000 base damage, and you have 2000 power with retaliation up, the damage returned to the enemy would be 600. Likewise, if a boss in PvE uses a slow but powerful attack on you, then they’d get much more damage returned. At least then the damage would scale relatively well in PvE as well and enemy attack speed will not be as much of an issue as it is now.

Wethospu.6437:

Please give an example of one player stacking 25 vuln. without much effort. At least in dungeons groups struggle to keep bosses at 25 stacks (which would equal 50 stacks on players because of Unshakable), even in quite short fights.

Guardians will be able to instantly apply 25 stacks of vulnurability with their one trap, once they get the Dragon Hunter specialization.

I’ve never heard of anyone ever say or suggest that they revive others for the sake of exp. So your title is way off the mark.

I’m honestly not a fan of the Dwayna outfit, especially not the part with the character’s crack showing through the back on female characters, however, what I would like to know is why this one couldn’t be made as an armor set instead of an outfit. Or, at the very least, to be made as an armor set and an outfit.

If you look at the female version in particular, it is clearly made out of separate, distinct pieces. It doesn’t look like it would have been difficult to separate those pieces into armor pieces, like gloves, head gear, boots, leggings, etc. At least then you could use parts of it that you liked (for example, the cape part would be cool as a shoulder piece to mix with other armor pieces).

Phoebe Ascension.8437:

No thanks. Mario is an indie game, wich i don’t like.

It seems people don’t understand what the term “indie game” means anymore.

Rather than just say “nerf this farm” or “nerf that farm”, I’d rather bring up the bigger picture as a whole here.

I think one of the biggest issues in this game right now, is that some of the easiest content in the game gives the greatest rewards, while some of the most difficult content gives, comparatively speaking, greatly inferior rewards.

For example, you could farm candy corns in Bloodtide and get up to 15+ gold an hour (depending on efficiency), for doing as little as throwing a bottle every few seconds and killing enemies in one hit, with no risks at all to yourself. Or you could spend that time doing Arah explorable mode for roughly 3 – 4 gold (depending on your luck with drops, you can get a bit more) and a few shards of Zhaitan. When you consider the sheer difference in difficulty between doing Arah and farming candy corns, it seems ludicrous that the latter is far more profitable than the former.

The same could be said for a lot of content in this game. It’s usually the mundane yet simple tasks that are the most profitable, while the more challenging tasks tend to reward comparatively little for the effort involved.

Now, I myself am not a fan of farming, so I tend to spend a lot more of my in-game time doing fractals, dungeons, PvP or even WvW, as opposed to just farming candy corns (I play games for fun, not so that I can go into a coma). But I would like it if Anet balanced rewards more, so as to reward the completion of difficult content appropriately.

To be honest, even if you crafted a legendary greatsword, you wouldn’t likely get any more attention for it. At the very least, I see far more players prancing around with Twilight or Sunrise than I see with Foefire’s Essense, which would make the latter more of a novelty than the former, in my opinion.

However, the bottom line is that no matter how rare an item is, once you’ve seen it a few times, the novelty wears off. If people are not complimenting your weapon, it’s because it’s something they’ve seen enough times that it doesn’t move them any further to see it again.

One thing I have noticed, however, is that players are much more inclined to compliment you for coming up with a unique look, or an interesting combination of gear, than they are to compliment you for one single piece of gear on its own. Come up with something that’s unusual but that looks great, and you’ll get compliments no matter how prestigious your gear is or how long it took you to earn it.

My advice would be to think beyond the weapon, and come up with a cool look centered around that weapon or the theme you’re trying to carry across. Better yet, do it because you like it, and not because of how much attention you think you’ll get for it. Otherwise, all you’ll ever be doing is basing your characters around the tastes of others and not your own.

I love JP’s. I also don’t understand why people find it odd that others do like them.

All you have to do is accept and understand the fact that different people have different tastes. I know some people that love wvw, and others that hate it. Some that play PvP all the time and some who won’t spend even a second in it. The same can be said for fractals and dungeons, so how are JP’s any different?

What I don’t understand is why people rant about content that is perfectly avoidable. If you’re doing it just for Achievement Points then at least be glad that they’ll give you some of the easiest, quickest achievement points you’ll ever get, out of any form of content in the game. And after you’re done with that, you won’t have to revisit them ever again if they turn you off that much.

To be honest, the weapon disparity seems a bit jarring at first, until you actually get a bit deeper into a class’s mechanics. Then the reason behind it becomes clearer.

You used thieves in your example, and although they do get fewer weapons than warriors, you also have to take into account their dual weilding skills, which change every time you pair two different kinds of weapons together, as well as stealth skills, which change the nature of the primary attack on your main hand weapon. These increase the thief’s weapon skill pool to a greater amount than it seems at first glance. It also goes without saying that while adding one new off-hand weapon (for example) would only give a warrior two new weapon skills, adding one new off-hand weapon for a thief would give them 5 new weapon skills (the two offhand skills + 3 new dual weild skills). Likewise, adding one new main hand weapon would add new stealth skills and new dual wield skills for each off-hand weapon you can pair that main hand weapon with.

To put it plainly, if thieves had the same number of weapons as the warrior, they’d end up with a good amount more weapon skills than the warrior, which is partly why disparity exists.

The same applies to some other classes, like elementalists, who get 4x the amount of weapon skills per weapon as a warrior, because of elemental swapping, hence they get a considerably smaller amount of weapons to choose from to offset that. Regardless, elementalists have the most weapon skills in the game, despite having so few weapons to choose from. Engineers, on the other hand, have less weapons but make up for it with lots of kits and tool belt skills that change depending on what utility skills you equip.

To make a long story short, you can’t just look at each class and how many weapons they have and call it unfair. You have to actually understand how every class works and how their class mechanics add to their overall diversity.

I can agree with a weapon swap out of combat, but honestly, a build swap would be better, and not just for eles, but for all classes.

Make it so that you can equip two builds and two sets of gear at a time for each character that you can quick swap between outside of combat. That way you wouldn’t have to go through the fuss of changing gear or traits between different encounters.

It would be nice if we got some answer from ANet regarding whether or not they intend to make Ascended rings salvagable or craftable in the future. Hell, even just using them in precursor crafting would at least give spare ascended rings some use outside of taking up bank space.

Why not just give players the option to either show or hide the aegis effect? You could also add options to show it only on other players, or only on enemies. That would be the easiest way to solve the issue for all parties involved.

JonPeters.5630:

MiniEquine.6014:

Any idea for Cooldowns if these would be put in place? The Tomes are pretty cool, but Courage, currently, is almost useless.

I don’t have the heal/boon duration numbers in my head but the current test cooldowns are 180 on signet of course and 30 on “feel my wrath.”

Jon

A 180 second cooldown on a signet would be a bit extreme. It means if you do end up using the signet, you have to go without the passive effect for a very, very long duration, which kinda defeats the point to a certain degree.

Use whatever you find most fun. You don’t have to use meta builds to enjoy the game. However, if it’s about survivability, the mace tends to lean more towards that with heals on hit, protection, blocks and regen.

Gemenai.3807:

Tenrai Senshi.2017:

Gemenai.3807:

I’m still dreaming of the day, when an army of angel like guardians rules the WvW with seals, consecrations on the field and hymns in the air.
Already got a guild for that purpose ( though i’m actually the only on in it, partially because i just had a 11 month break) – maybe someday, all those with a guardian in their hearts and a paladin fetish in their minds will rise

Then I’m sure you’ll be happy with the new guardian specialization, if the preview art is anything to go by…

http://tinyurl.com/nyshoxh

Yeah saw the picture^^ I heard that those wings you could get as skin while aquiring the new specilzation? Either way – I WANT!

It is possible that it’s a skin, but it’s also possible that it’s part of the specialization itself, as an animation of sorts perhaps when using skills, or as part of the new class mechanic (an F4 skill perhaps). Look up GW1 Paragons to see what I mean.

In fact, chances are, this is a Paragon specialization.

Gemenai.3807:

I’m still dreaming of the day, when an army of angel like guardians rules the WvW with seals, consecrations on the field and hymns in the air.
Already got a guild for that purpose ( though i’m actually the only on in it, partially because i just had a 11 month break) – maybe someday, all those with a guardian in their hearts and a paladin fetish in their minds will rise

Then I’m sure you’ll be happy with the new guardian specialization, if the preview art is anything to go by…

http://tinyurl.com/nyshoxh

I just want more armor and less outfits.

Toast.1495:

As for sword needing a symbol, I could see putting it on flashing blades, honestly. Teleport to your target and sear a symbol on the ground that pulses blind.

The problem with this idea is that having a skill that serves as a gap closer, and a symbol that pulses with aoe damage and that applies multiple blinds within the symbol’s radius, would make it too strong. To balance it out ANet would be forced to increase the cooldown for the skill by quite a fair margin.

If flashing blade has too long a cooldown, it loses it’s role as a reliable gap closer and it makes sword guardians even more easy to kite than they already are.

Here’s my Guardian.

Just this…

The way I see it, the guardians are kinda like leader figures in a party. They support and inspire others, which may be why their weapons are more traditional and ornate in nature. It gives them more of a presence and makes them seem more charismatic and dignified than, say, a person wielding a rifle or pistol would come accross.

I’m glad they’re adding the longbow, because it’s a better fit. I just hope the weapon skills will be unique and stand out from the longbow skills we see on the warrior and ranger.

I must admit, I was kinda hoping that the guardian would get a unique weapon skin to go with the specialization, kinda like the mesmer’s new shield in that artwork we saw. But the guardian art looks like it’s just showing the Azureflame bow.

I’m not really fond of that bow because I like weapons with nice, intricate details that catch the eye. I’m not really drawn towards ghost type weapons that have no textures or details.

The sword could definitely use some love. It’s decent, but has some very noticeable fallbacks that keep it from being great.

Many of those cons are mentioned above, such as the third skill in the auto chain counting as a projectile, and thus being susceptible to projectile blocks and reflects, as well as having very little cleaving capabilities.

However, what saves the sword from being completely passed off, is the fact that it has high auto attack damage, and can be paired with a focus for a great mix of offensive and defensive capabilities. Sure, you won’t be dishing out the impressive burst damage that you’d get with the greatsword, but you’d certainly be able to take a few more hits as a trade-off.

I personally think both the sword and mace need to be buffed somewhat though. The scepter out-damages them both, and it’s a ranged weapon. >_>

Randulf.7614:

There is something coming n HoT that will do a similar job. Its meant to reward you with relevant mats for events and activities in each zone. I think this will be their preferred method for pve at this stage

https://www.guildwars2.com/en-gb/news/a-legendary-journey/

Scroll down that link to the bit on map bonuses

While the map reward bonuses would be nice, it’s not the same as my idea. You see, even with map reward bonuses, when people are farming, ultimately, they will take the shortest and most efficient route to their goal. This is why certain areas are more busy than others, and it’s simply because you earn faster.

If I can earn certain mats at a set rate on one map (option A), but I can earn tons of gold on another map at a faster rate, and then simply buy the mats I need instead (option B ), then chances are, I will be more inclined to go for option B. Option A becomes irrelevant because, when there are two routes to achieving the same goal, people will almost always choose the fastest route.

This is why I think the map reward bonuses, while nice, will not actually have a big impact on where people play, because ultimately that will be determined by efficiency. That’s why I came up with another incentive, and that is having exclusive rewards for playing in different regions, with no alternative way of accessing those rewards (e.g. you can only get the unique Maguuma Jungle weapons and armor skins through the Maguuma Reward Track).

It’s kinda like how dungeon weapon or armor sets can only be attained through their associated dungeon, or how fractal weapons can only be acquired from fractals. Do you think as many people would be running fractals if it was not for the fractal exclusive rewards? Definitely not, especially with how little gold you get from them relative to the time it takes to complete them.

Hey guys!

I came up with an idea that is, admittedly, inspired by the reward tracks in PvP. And that idea is, of course, to introduce similar Regional Reward Tracks for PvE.

How They Work

The idea is to have several PvE Reward Tracks, for each of the primary regions in the game, as follows:

- Kryta
- Ascalon
- Maguuma Jungle
- Shiverpeak Mountains
- Maguuma Wastes
- Ruins of Orr

When playing in any zone that falls under each specific region, any and all experience you earn, whether through kills, collecting resources or simply exploring, will also go towards the progress bar on the reward track for that region. Doing events in those regions will also give bonus exp towards the reward track.

Each Regional Reward Track will also have unique rewards – which includes a unique light, medium and heavy armor set and a unique set of weapon skins themed around that region – that cannot be acquired by any other means outside of the reward track. So, for example, as you progress through the Maguuma Jungle Reward Track, you get unique jungle themed weapon skins, and each time you complete the track, you can choose one piece towards a unique jungle themed armor skin (you could even reintroduce the Tribal light armor set, as well as adding a medium and heavy variant).

Finally, a daily soft cap can also be placed on how much exp can be attained for Reward Track Progress for each zone in a region, therefor giving an incentive for players to play in multiple zones in each region, rather than only sticking to one zone per region all the time.

Why introduce Regional Reward Tracks for PvE?

I came up with this idea, because despite having this vast world to explore in GW2, we’re given very little incentive to visit most of the various zones once we hit level 80. End game content is typically limited to Dungeons and Fractals, and a select few high level areas where players might farm, such as Silverwastes or Cursed Shore.

Having regional reward tracks with unique and exclusive rewards, will incentivize playing in various zones, across each primary region. Also, because reward progress is attained through any activity or event, players can do whatever they want to do and still feel like they are progressing towards something meaningful, as opposed to feeling tethered to a specific farm route or activity. I definitely think this would promote the “play how you want” philosophy that ANet was promoting at one point.

Of course, PvE players need not be left out either. These unique region rewards can also be added to the existing regional PvP reward tracks as well.