Guild Wars 2

When it concerns JPs… ask yourself (or rather, the other guy): “If there was an ‘instawin’ button for the JP, would you use it?”

If he says yes, then you might as well let the poor sod use the portal, if you like. Make him beg though.
If he says no, then tell him to do the JP. Don’t rob him of his sense of achievement. Explain the jumps to him. Maybe give a portal if he falls off halfway, back to where he fell off (some JPs do this anyway).

I would employ also the rule, make sure they want it. Don’t tempt them with the offer.

It’s mainly an issue for dungeons (depending on your class and skill I suppose). At this stage, allowing henchmen for instances would seem an idea to consider. When you can’t find a group, even Alesia is welcome. And it would allow us anti-social types to actually explore a dungeon instead of rushing it (since the other anti-social types don’t like us running off into side passages :P).

I can understand the choice against it and wouldn’t want henchmen in general PvE… but the case for it is getting stronger. Not because soloing is worse, but because grouping up gets worse.

I’d prefer ANet spending most of the next month on finishing the game and making it bugfree, with some spare time devoted to smaller updates (alike Halloween’s minigames) that won’t upset the game.

You can’t “move forward” until you’ve cleared the current area… unless you plan on spending your time fleeing, with a train of bugs and criticism behind you. We tend to know how that ends up.

“When it’s ready”.

I’d advise dungeons or WvW. Get a fifth to have a full group. Also, they may like to level up their alts with yours.

As for classes… try all of course. Warrior is good for solo melee pve in particular, generally well done though. Mesmer and Guardian shine in group play – though as such, perhaps harder to “learn” for an alt user.

My main problem is that, playing mostly war/guardian, I get a little bit too heroic on less durable characters…>.> :P

Whatever you like in a game.

Alts are a good money sink. Combined with cash shop upgrades (getting 8 character slots so you can do each profession, bank slots, inventory slots etcetera), it’s even better.

Also, WvW can be a money sink. Commander costs 100g iirc, and you can burn through money for blueprints.

If you have a small guild, I think you can buy influence with gold, if you like to upgrade it faster.

Blow it up on festive items etcetera.

Collect something.

Get legendaries.

Whatever you fancy, really. If you don’t want any of it… then simply don’t do things to get money. Certainly don’t go grinding, or even farming.

And if you like gambling, then there’s chests, mystic forge etcetera.

Finally, if all this doesn’t work, I’m willing to take over half your gold for a modest price (say, the other half of your gold :P). While reluctant, I understand the need for gold sinks and think I can be one for those in desperate need xD

(responding to VP links)
So, the idea was possible progression by levelcap in expansions (not quite a promise, especially seeing how unclear that topic was/is). Quite different from doing it inbetween, after a few months, isn’t it?. Ontopic, one could argue in GW1 you had this too, through new skills – while these weren’t directly stronger, it usually did allow new, better builds; while you didn’t need to grind for your ideal build, you would grind for more possible variation. This seems more innovative to me – though I don’t have the MMO grind mindset perhaps.
Edit: I’ll agree I’m waiting for the decisions made based on the AMA. Though I’m skeptical, seeing how complicated the issue seems to be.

@OP GW’s known for innovation. So ironically, GW2 has to innovate not just from traditional MMOs but from GW1 as well, to hold up that reputation. I don’t agree with all their choices, but I’m happy they didn’t sit back and clone things.

Why limit yourself to 1/8th of the gameplay offered?

I like playing all styles, even if I have a favourite. My alts aren’t 80, since I don’t rush them, but it’s still fun.

And yes, as a little bonus you have a few achievements, and in some cases it can be handy to have a different char availlable.

In looking at what monthlies should be like, one should consider purpose and fun.

For one thus, monthlies should be fun. Versatile, don’t force people into one role. So say if you place WvW there, don’t make it kills: make any way of contributing to your team (be it raiding camps, taking towers, defending, or even just running supply, or killing) count. Thus people can really play WvW for it, instead of just doing some PK’ing on the WvW map.
In the case of Fractals, this’d be made a lot better if it were dungeons in general. If people like to do fractals for it, sure, but any dungeon will suit.

And then, purpose. What’s a purpose for monthlies? Well, to give more attention to a part of the game. Let players do that for a bit, they might realize they like it, and do it more often. Looking at this month, I’d think the following would have worked better:

- Events seem undervalued. Thus:
- 30th of november: introduce an update for events, making them worth more attention
- Open a forum topic for discussion of that update. Ask players for feedback – is it worth playing now? Were the problems solved? Is it fun?
- December monthly: do X events (might be a little more specific, say World Events, or specific mid-level range areas). This way you encourage players to try it, thus, allowing for more feedback.
- The ingame polling system used in the betas could be employed upon completing the monthly, to have a wider group of people giving feedback.

Having WvW on it all the time (and worse, just its PK aspect) is bad. Repeating already overplayed fractals there now, is bad (and worse, while group finding is so badly troubled).

Monthlies shouldn’t be a chore – that’s what dailies are. I don’t think it should be a challenge either – that’s what other achievements do. It’s ideal to highlight undervalued and updated game segments (which should be the same thing), so use it that way?

Trinity has a greatly diminished role. You won’t be a healbot (which ofc is control anyway now), or stand still as a tank taking hits, or just do DPS. But you can still specialize, and the best groups do use these aspects to some extent. If you’ve ever played with a good tanky player in your party, you’ll know it does make a major difference. Control is often harder to see directly, but if used against you in PvP/WvW especially you’ll darn well notice :P.

I hope a trait switch set gets added, which will really allow players to switch roles on the fly (I’d prefer it can be done in-combat, tied to your weapon sets… at least for trait points. Armor would be a bit strange).
Likewise, it’d be nice if resetting traits was free. Would promote groups to set up their builds before starting a run.

Short story: players aren’t mindlessly doing one-task-only. But they still have specializations, and I’d say that’s how it should be.

Grentchies!

Just because their bossman left, doesn’t mean they stopped wreaking havoc when they can. So I demand them to be here :P. And candy cane. There must be candy cane. And snowball fights. And there absolutely must must must be spiked eggnog!

Hoping for nice minigames and plenty of stuff for GW fans to love for old times’ sake.

As for the next Ix (you guys loving Ford Prefect or what? :P), I hope Nicholas and Yakkington get tied into that story. I miss those fellas…

Easiest fix, add a countdown upon disconnect, in WvW only (about 10 seconds?). Thus the trick won’t work to avoid certain death. Note this is a serious issue due to effects triggering ‘on kill’ – it could become a major exploit.

Dishonor could easily cause trouble to players suffering frequent disconnects, effectively locking them out of pvp/wvw (pvp being particularly bad in my case due to the frequent maploads there… which is my main d/c risk).

counts to ten

You do seem to make a good call here. Players on “our side” may have gotten confused on certain lines, and at times made claims past them – like between manifesto and other press releases/promises, and between ‘grind’ and ‘vertical progression’ (which are usually, but not necessarily the same). And that is a tendency of mob opinion – thanks for that reminder. While I don’t think I’ve made that claim, if I did, my apologies.

However, be careful not to step in the same trap. Your wording assume these people lied (rather than simply being wrong), and tied them directly to people demanding refunds – is that an accurate representation of the argument? This can easily get another falsehood started, and frankly, will turn people defensive instead of thinking about whether they crossed this line. Which I tried to demonstrate in the first line. So while I welcome the rebuke, if you’re talking to “our side”, you may wish to pick your words so that the rebuke actually arrives, instead of being felt as slander from the other side.

Addition: how about we not turn this into another thread of fury, but instead accept the criticism where applicable? I’d say go to the other threads, read through the AMA, assume good faith and let it sink in for a while. And wait for ANet to do as they’ve said.

@OP: Seeing as you reference TES, we’ll find out in maybe a year… I am extremely interested to see what the approach will be since it seems an impossible mission to me.

Leaving that idea aside, there are many things that could be done. Taking GW2 and legendaries as ultimate gear, I’d wish ideally wish the following:

Legendaries aren’t just top dog. They’re a status symbol. But more so, especially the weapons, they should be part of your identity. In fantasy settings at least, high class weapons get their own names, linked to the person bearing it. That’s how personal it is. Giving your legendary a nickname (just visible, say as an inscription) would be fun, but I’d think something else:
Take Greatswords. You could have various legendary greatswords, with different backgrounds. One crafted from (far too much) gold, one for the grinder, one for the mass slayer, one for WvW, one for the explorer, one for the challenge seeker, one for the completionist, etcetera. And please add one that’s absolutely ludicrous (requiring you to kill 10,000 chickens, do all sorts of minigames, get killed by a rabbit, take 1 million falling damage in one hit, and do all that while you’re intoxicated :P).
For bonus points, allow these to be upgraded (for even better looks) so that people can tell by your weapon that you are really dedicated. The highest tier should tell everyone that you have absolutely no life.

For one, this would mean that whatever your style is, you’ll be working towards a legendary. More so, people can look at you and see instantly what kind of player you are: your looks tell your story. Of course you’d want some variants, but the idea’s there.

Oh well, back to tyr…earth :P

I do like the suggestion, provided it’s after finishing the storyline (say you become an honorary member). Simply put, it puts you in a position where you may choose your path purely by checking what armor would look best. Which is particularly bad in a personal story (some armor/profession/race combos seem just not quite worth it).

(note this is just responding to the armor matter. I like that for once I’m not the almighty boss of everything, like 1 million other players, when finishing the game ).

/signed

One thing I’d add: if you’re a newbie (or otherwise, not knowing what to do), say so. Especially if you’re in a party. At least on my server most players are willing to help, but sadly there seems to be a rather major lack of telepathy among us so speaking out will really help. Those few elitists who would kick you for not being pro yet… let em be. Not worth doing a dungeon with imo.

And maybe worth noting: try out WvW if you have a committed server. I don’t do it often, but it tends to be quite fun.

I’m in the “wait and see” camp. They’ve acknowledge fault, seemed fairly honest, and have given some insight on their plans to solve it.

Now they’ll have to do just that. My advice to ANet: as soon as possible, give us the info on when you plan to release those ascended pieces to the rest of the game, and what costs you’re thinking of. That way you can get feedback before you act (because it’s far harder to say decrease costs after players have bought it at twice the price already). In addition, having a projected date gives us some certainty – I want to know whether I should expect this in a week, a month, or half a year.

It seems to me the AMA confirmed that they wish to have no grind for stats, though stat raises will occur. This seems a reasonable compromise, if it is implemented correctly.

We’ll see. I’m not a big fan of saying “second chance”, I’d rather say I give them the chance to remedy the situation and then…“move forward”

Dunno about a server, but you could start by suggesting a minigame? Say a battle royale with entry fee, winner-takes-all? Don’t know if that satisfies your needs, but I’d say starting small may help your ideas get across (if it gets very popular, you have a good case to ask for more )?

1). It’s the ultimate item tier. So yes, it takes work, and a lot of it. You may not like it all, but it’s how it is. Bypassing the pvp part by doing the JPs is an option, or harass camp for the badges. If needed, switch servers for it… plenty of ways. The worst part imo is that you need to do wvw map completion for it, so you have bad luck if your server never holds certain keeps.

2). It’s unclear how ascended items might function in this respect. If I’m correct to guess they offer another path (through upgrades), this might not require WvW.

Ascended as a precursor tier that can slowly be upgraded to leggy, great, indeed, it’s what I hoped for.

Ascended as a gating mechanism… generally acceptable to me in its current “childhood” form. I’m seeing the treads though, and I’ll be clear: treadmill is NOT acceptable.

But… and this is a big but…

Ascended with higher stats? We all know why. Grinder want shiny stat. Grinder didn’t accept manifesto. NCSoft want wow shiny.
I don’t want that, same for many. We bought this game to get away from that trash system. We advertised: no grinding for stats. Now we’re betrayed.
They sold out one of their biggest principles for a quick buck. Now how am I supposed to trust their new promises? Hell, how am I supposed to believe they’ll keep their other promises? Final final tier? Sure, until the next. Shame on you if you fool me once…

[edit] To those saying it’s minimal: its still there. You’re not arguing in favor of it. You argue that it’s not worth complaining. While I accept your stance, I disagree, fearing precedent, the full set, and eventually stronger infusions. If you’re neutral, please act like it. If you’re in favor of the change, please play open cards and argue why [/edit]

How to solve it?
- For one, be honest. Either announce a revert (or steps to minimize the issue as below), or publically admit you’re selling us out.
- Second, add it in PvE and WvW asap. If you can’t do it now, make clear when you’ll do it, and what the prices wil be.
- Third, if you can’t do a revert, add a variant with the same stats (as modified by upgrades) without agony resist, at 2x exotic prices. Be absolutely clear this’ll be the last stat tier.
- Fourth, if you refuse this also, we can be simple: currently only the backpiece, afaik, has its price set. All other pieces can be added at a normal price. This would reduce the issue to only one slot.
- Fifth, comparably, all items but rings/backpiece can still be added with exotic stats, reducing it to three slots.
- And six: if I’m correct in guessing NCSoft is making decisions about matters they don’t understand, please be so kind to print out every single post made opposing this, and require them to read all of them before they ever make a “suggestion” again. I doubt they’ll learn, but at least it should keep them busy while ANet can make the beautiful game they planned to make.

Probably missed some points, but I have to do some fun stuff before it gets removed.

Avatar.1923:

Tobias;

there is no way the game can keep the massive amout of hardcore players without treadmill and esport.

gw2 want to be the next big thing, and to be that big you need gear treadmill until somebody come up with a better fantasy mmo design.

And imo, that’s the core of the issue.

GW2 was (I strongly suspect) ordered to be something it wasn’t designed to be. By a greedy publisher (yup, I’m still ANet fanboy :P). Now it’s incomplete in both ways.

I guess we’ll see next year. That’s when GW2’s real test may come, as the next big series gives it a try.

Yes, the game’s great. It certainly was, and I haven’t given up hope just yet. Let’s hope NCSoft doesn’t gamble it away and turn it into another clone… because if they think this is a success, they’ll demand more. Guess they’re treadmill grinders in their own right.

“Others do it far worse” is not quite an argument to do something, is it?

matenzo.9518:

How true are the following statements for you on a scale of 0 to 5?

1-, 0, 0, 0, 0-

1) 1-. I had plenty left to do, the main issue is that leveling alts just means visiting the same zones again, and that the long term goals were too grindy and RNG based.

2) 0. The entire concept of the dungeon and the gap bridging to legendary would’ve been great… the added agony resistance, fine… until they decided to add stats. Which breaks a major promise of the game in a wowification move that serves on purpose, other than selling out to try to get more sales to mainstream MMO players.
Had the stats been equal to exotic, this’d score a 4 or higher (depending on whether these can be upgraded eventually to legendary without grinding just FotM).

3) 0. It’s false, because there already was. Legendary. Just no more stats upgrades, as the game’s been saying long before we could ever buy it.

4) 0. I’d hope for a system alike GW1 where an expansion gives tonnes of new content to play through, and the only possible ‘powerup’ would be new skills and alike (horizontal progression). Things that give you new options, but that aren’t actually stronger.

5) 0-. Lower if I could, it was ranked among the “absolutely do not” list.

Because, if wiki’s correct, you can upgrade an exotic backpiece (the ~1300 relics ones) to ascended, and upgrade ascended ones again (adding agony resist, so that’s not upsetting the balance). If that goes all the way up, you can eventually get a legendary, through smaller steps. 1300 relics is steep, but better than a traditional precursor I suppose.

Note: this does not explain why ascended needed higher stats, they don’t add anything. Adding an agony resist slot to the exotic version (and the upgrades themselves not adding stats) would’ve already been an upgrade, after all.

Wayfarer.2051:

I really do not get the whining about ascended

Sorry, you not understanding is not an argument.
In general people: you have several threads to talk/flame/bicker about the gear one way or the other. This is not the place.

@OP: agreed. Should be easy enough, most of it’s just adding multipliers and making drops more rare on the hardcore server. Generally the content is the same.

Splitting the community is not an issue because it’ll happen either way. The two won’t mix – grinder’s gonna be where the grind is. Either they’re split on the same server, or on seperate servers, not a big difference imo.

Mods/alternative game modes aren’t even that bold, countless games are made with them after all. Can satisfy both groups of players instead of giving both sides half what they wanted (and leaving them grudging). So, if NCSoft wants to keep both sides in the game, that’s an obvious move to make, or at least a very serious consideration.

To just toss up a ball: is there any consideration of splitting up the servers? The GW hardline and the generic MMO audience will likely not be able to reconcile on this matter. If NCSoft demands that ANet tries to steal more players from other games, all they can do is sacrifice their principles, and with it, anger their fanbase. Which easily becomes a PR nightmare.
On the other hand, keeping the generic MMO audience satisfied as new titles zoom in on them, will take quite some effort, though obviously, the big possibilities appeal to a publisher.

Shipping will only go so far. So, is splitting the servers the easiest way out? Many games split between hardcore and normal, have old version game modes, or modded servers. Likewise, it might be easy to take some servers, assign fancy colors to the next few armor sets, and add a few multipliers for the armor stats and the mobs of the corresponding level, voila vertical progression. You can just add the same stuff in the regular version and keep it exotic and standard lvl 80, no big deal I would assume.

Most updates will barely be different for either side. Switching between modes could be made easy – just downlevel the higher tier items to exotic, done (slightly harder other way around, but well, can still be done). sPvP can stay together, WvW can either split or adapt standard strength levels, etcetera. Events will just be the same.

It’s the easiest way to not have to make a decision, one might say.

Silentstorm.7531:

Stat capped games only work for RTS based games. You cannot keep a audience with no way for them to progress. It works the same way in life is everyone capped at 100 dollars? No ofcourse not people need things to strive for. And reality check thats atleast 75% of the gaming population they want power and the means to earn it. If you really think a game is going to be successful with horizontal progression your in denial.

And what you really want is a console game not a online growing mmorpg. People really need to stop it with this subject its not going to work like that give it up. You really think a million plus people going to palette swap skins on gear for months after months. You must be smoking a new type of weed that makes dreams reality or something.

Also relentliss rift is fine stop talking out of your butt. I also play that game and the servers are packed since launch. So you clearly are one of those people I famemessly say don’t know wtf they are talking about. And just read something somewhere andsaid hey i aggree so it just must be fact. The same way people complain about ascended gear DONT actually have it tried or even been in the dungeon. I have and its not something to say omg I got raid gear I’m OP.

For one thing they’re is no dps race in this game. So who cares who is stronger because it doesn’t effect pvp either. So where is the complaint? Your kitten is smaller because you were too lazy to get off your butt in LA and get some gear? Or your too lazy to actually do the dungeons and get it. It’s not hard I’ve been doing a dungeon series with pugs and one shotting each level so far. It’s all on you tube so i’m really not paying attention to the whining.

Because I’m actually proving people are just crying and don’t actually know wtf they are talking about.

I’d feel that those 25% left (taking your number) are a pretty large niche for one game to dominate (while hundreds of games fight for the other 75%). But that’s a sidenote.

Hearing you, then I think we can arrive at a compromise.

If NCSoft/ANet officially state that “horizontal progression and no grind for max stats” was an error and they have decided to go vertical progression, I’ll (grudgingly) accept their choice. And hope Zenimax/Bethesda dare do what NCSoft didn’t.

If however, NCSoft/ANet officially state they will keep “horizontal progression and non-grind for maxed stats”, then there should be a revert to exotic stats.

Can we agree on that?

@OP: Excellent post.

@mulch: Thus by your own logic, reverting ascended stats to exotic stats will be functionally equivalent? So then, ANet might as well do that.

vektor.7058:

IF U DONT WANA RAID THEN DONT (*) RAID go back to your pvp and let us be

I u dont wana play GW then dont (*) play GW go back to your obsolete game and let us be.

===

And I don’t care if ANet, once they get bored, decides to scale up a dungeon or instance a map for those who like it. That day is still far away.

ANet, do not betray the GW fans.

Agreed, wardrobe is needed for endgame. A very simple option for the time being: copy the PvP locker to PvE (I assume some sets will need to be added), and you’re done, seems to me. Whether it’s account-wide or character-based would be up for discussion.

Also, add a costume tab please. That’ll help people who don’t want to buy costumes due to limited inventory space ^^. Further functionality can be added later (eventually, an actual wardrobe in our bought house would be nice. )

Present balance (well say, pre-update) is quite good. Dungeons are basically a no-go, that’s a shame but I can accept that (fits with philosophy, and I don’t mind doing some group stuff). Perhaps one addition I would like: a dungeon party finder (slightly offtopic, but a solo-oriented player may benefit most of this, since we don’t like standing around waiting for a group to form).

Other than that, the main issue is loot. Ascended aside, simply put with the current system grouping up means faster kills, while drops per mob stay (almost?) the same. With any form of DR, that gets worse. Rich nodes being guarded by champions is also unfriendly to solo players. Seeing how groups already have the advantage of being able to do better farming events/dungeons, that might deserve a bit of balancing. Perhaps add a form of outnumbered buff like in WvW?

Azjenco.9425:

Tenshi.3598:

And to stick with hats: in horizontal progression, you work hard so you can buy a prettier hat. Or because you collect hats. Or (whatever you fancy doing with hats :P).

In vertical progression, you work hard, so that you can buy a better helmet, so that you can work harder and get a better helmet, so that you can work harder and get a better helmet, so that…

I see what you did there. You tried to make your own stance seem better by calling the opposite side “pretty hats”, while your own view has “helmets”. Who’d want to get a hat when you can get a helmet, right?

But in your example you made it seem like an endless road that doesn’t amount to anything in the end. You’ll never get anywhere. Sure, you’ll always have goal, but there the only point is adding numbers on top of your old numbers, while your worker for bigger numbers, that’s waiting just in front of even bigger numbers…

The point of horizontal progression is meaningful choices. Where you get gear with differences in how their stats are applied to an item. You’d actually look at you old item and the new item, and then need to decide which works better for you. While the vertical system has an endless out with the old climb, it promotes throwing replacing items, not choosing items.

Haha that was exactly my point: how meaningless vertical progression is. Apologies if that wasn’t clear.

And to stick with hats: in horizontal progression, you work hard so you can buy a prettier hat. Or because you collect hats. Or (whatever you fancy doing with hats :P).

In vertical progression, you work hard, so that you can buy a better helmet, so that you can work harder and get a better helmet, so that you can work harder and get a better helmet, so that…

(edit for clarification: point being, in horizontal progression you work for the things you want, to do the things you enjoy. In vertical progression, you work so that you can work more, an endless chore that gets you, really, nowhere).

Very much a false diagram. I love the new dungeon (just needs a better system to make parties at your tier). I like the new added map. I liked the event, though I would’ve liked it much better had it been properly tested. I hate the gear addition having higher stats because it
1) doesn’t serve the purpose of bridging a gap – I wasn’t aware of legendary rings and backpacks with superior stats
2) is utterly unnecessary, because at least GW veterans never needed a stats incentive to work hard for new gear
3) currently forces grind in one specific area
4) is a step back to the outdated MMO system of vertical progression
5) is a dangerous precedent, even if it’s currently minor, we can expect more pieces… perhaps more tiers >.<
6) by breaking one GW core idea, also sets a precedent for breaking others
7) seems ill-fitting with ANet, and thus, at least gives the feeling that someone else (likely the publisher) is pushing it… by the idea of “in case of doubt, copy wow” . Thus giving the feeling that once again, a publisher is ruining one of my favourite game series.

I play quite a bit, almost only PvE, but since I like to use alts, explore, and prefer to solo, this affects me as much as a casual player. I don’t mind being weaker in WvW, I’d lose anyway. I mind being forced to grind to have the top gear set. I mind that the very well worked out exotic set, may simply be rendered obsolete, for no apparent purpose. That goes against the core of GW.

Lol, almost compelling.

Now you just need to demonstrate how the New Blizzard Order is in turn the one pulling the strings behind Nexon.

Exotics offer a good balance as it is, I’d say. For some it takes a bit of effort, but you easily see it paying off quickly. And it gets the job done.

GW1, I dare say, worked quite well, on the basis of players working hard for better looks, as well as building our alts. At the same time this ensures casuals can play at the same level.

What rewards then for the player with time to burn: Well, primarily aesthetics. But also one could think of exclusive, though impractical items. Assuming the balance can be protected. Think of Morrowind’s Boots of Blinding Speed – that’s awesome. Or even the good old dragon armor sets which make you highly resistant to fire (while leaving you vulnerable to anything else, thus making it nearly useless for actual use). Add a suitable skin and you get something worth looking for. Yes, humans want better items to work for. However, better isn’t just a matter of practical worth. Which is why kings liked spending fortunes on weaponry that couldn’t even really be used in battle :P.

*Addition: about those players leaving once they hit max: too bad. Can’t please them all. Same for those who wish to buy the good stuff from the cash shop. Stick to the GW philosophy, that’s where you have your fanbase.

Selection bias.

Most players stay quiet, simple as that. Some of those mind, some like, many don’t understand what the fuss is about. So stop claiming a majority. The majority is silent. Therefore, everyone here should stop pretending he/she is the majority. Forums are no indication, nor are ingame chats. One might even say, “a quiet customer is a happy customer”.

As such, keep it civil, stick to constructive criticism. I see several good posts doing exactly that. And hundreds of posts just tossing mud as if Arenanet is the opposing presidential candidate. Might just be me, but if I see posts like that, it only serves to discredit their side of the debate.

To summarize: when GW2 was close to completion, based on its plans my thoughts were, if even half of this will be accomplished, it will surely be a great game – the best of its type.

And now I say, yes, it’s about half what I hoped for. Many things don’t work as well as they could, but almost everything does show the brilliance that I also liked GW1 for (most of the time :P).

RNG should be reduced (make a standard drop value with some possible deviation). Precursors should be rewarded for skill, not for luck. Make MagicFind a spread party buff when in dungeons; possibly add some MF when lower level players join the run. Fractals: make a system like in PvP, where one can enlist (solo or as group) to any tier they have unlocked; the server assembles the parties. As for ascended: unless you wish to make exotics on par with them, make ascended available for crafting. Players should be able to craft the best quality gear for themselves.

Things like these can be solved, I’m quite sure.

To put another summary at the end: it has been shown that the game can handle fantastic events that make me love arenanet. It has also been shown that the hardware can not handle it. A balance needs to be struck here.

All in all, I loved last weekend’s events, despite the bugs, the lag, and other issues.

They got lucky. Other 80’s were less lucky. It’s the precursed RNG system Anet needs to address.

MF is good in general PvE, and fine in PvP since nobody would use it. So the only major issue is team PvE, thus dungeons. It’s a usual issue of game theory – not taking MF gear hurts that player, but everyone doing so may hurt the team a lot more.

Thus, spread MF over the party when in a dungeon, problem solved. Just like defensive stats are spread (because the tanks take a few extra hits and don’t waste your time lying dead, and glass cannons shorten the run).

The only argument against, imo, would be to charge the complainers with elitism. Which may be quite valid, but doesn’t take away the problem.

I’d say the easiest option now is adding more endgame tiers. Might already be in the works.

For instance, legendaries: apart from making them a personal (not possible to buy any significant part with cash/exploit gold) project, add tiers. Crafting a precursor might be step 1. You’d need to recraft it with new gifts at every stage. The skin should slowly change each step toward the full legendary. Make each step twice as expensive, so that say a tier 5 legendary costs as much as 16 tier 1 legendaries (and so on). Thus, players constantly have a new goal to shoot for. Bonus points for branching (that is, each legendary has 2 different ways to upgrade).
Thus you spread out the progress.

Likewise with challenges. Clocktower was apparently meant to be such a one: you could go for the bonus chests or try get further. Dungeons could use a similar system, where only the best players could actually reach the end.

Add huge scavenger hunts. To prevent the wiki-shortcut, consider randomizing the locations – specific to each player. The further steps should take one to the hardest areas and challenges, but with an ultimately great reward (unique items, say). A full hunt should probably take days.

Add a vault to store all unique items, legendaries and so on (as well as costumes etc). Thus players can look at their accomplishments (similar to HoM) – and not have to carry them around all the time.

As for events… while the Orr invasion was nice, ideally the end game is a warzone that the Pact cannot win. The further they get, the harder, until it’s just too much to handle. A system of interconnected event chains that, seems to me, is the future. Consider a map alike the EB, with two NPC factions that get stronger as they lose territory. And which don’t use one chain, but will try different ways of attacking.

For the perhaps far future, imagine that, but on a map many times larger and with more factions. Where a single castle siege has the scale of the invasion of Orr. Better still, let players side with different factions, as mercenaries. Also, make the NPCs a force to be reckoned with, instead of the pushovers they tend to be.

The OP has a point, though a bit shortcoming imo. In my opinion one of the best reward systems I’ve seen so far was in the much-cursed clocktower.

1) Getting them required skill, as anyone who got there will agree. You eventually noticed you got better each run.
2) It also required effort, as anyone will agree. For some, too much effort perhaps, but the idea is great.
3) Luck was a minor factor. Getting all chests I think the minimum was 1+3+5+7=16 bags, the max 1+5+7+10=23? That’s an about 50% luck bonus. I’d say this can well be stretched to a 100% luck bonus.
(Thus, the three main factors all represented fairly)
4) While it didn’t work out I s’pose, the idea of the mid-level chests was great: a player who can’t yet complete it, can still get a smaller reward. But stopping to smell the roses made it harder to reach the garden.

After that, of course, you had the terrible ToT bag odds. Still, I generally liked that system. Had all the possible drops been craftable (essentially, with all the mats you got on “failure”), it would’ve been fantastic.

I’d say we can use more of that idea. To put this in, say, a dungeon context:
- Add a luck factor. Say, half the tokens, but the other half goes effectively to an endboss chest, which may drop a dungeon item. Thus, unlucky players still get 50% of what they’re entitled to, but players will feel that luck factor.
- Add Challenges, comparable to the GW1 mission bonus objectives. Completing them may for instance raise the chest’s drop odds. These should however be hard enough that most groups won’t complete all the challenges. Thus rewarding skill, though it’s not required.
- Effort’s already represented.

When it comes to (future?) legendaries, I’d love the three factors to be properly represented, and RNG not being the pain it is now. Clovers nicely represent luck (the larger number with better odds seems nice) – a consideration is to make an alternative recipe with lower odds, but higher possible reward, for the gamblers. The gifts represent effort. Third item should represent skill (for instance, a reward from challenges like clocktower; making several different challenges and/or allowing it to be crafted for a high price might prevent a block). The precursor itself should be the easy part, as far as I’m concerned it could just be a special crafted weapon.

A simpler option for the precursor: at forge failure, reward weapon shards, with which one can craft the weapon. Taking a number from the hat: say there’s a 1% drop chance for a pc, then it can be lowered to 0.5%, but 200 shards is enough to craft the weapon. Thus a player effectively still’d get 2 precursors from 200 attempts, average, but he’s guaranteed 1.

Well, just my opinion. Keep luck a factor, because we like getting lucky, but not a dominant one that blocks progress for many players.

Newbies dying in Orr isn’t a problem (it happens far too little). Experienced players not dying, is the problem. When you can just run through the mobs to save time, that’s wrong. When you can camp the spawnpoints at Shelter’s, that’s wrong. Make the risen strong. Make them OP. Make us cower behind the walls when they attack, make us inch forward through Orr if we want to survive. Make it so that most players won’t dare use their MF gear.

I dare say, if players have a hard time surviving, then they might, just might, try working together.

Reward #1: fun
Reward #2: fun
Reward #3: fun
Extra Reward: holiday-specific bags with a minor chance of very rare items (if your side wins).

Might raise the rewards a bit; 3 ptot bags for 10+ minutes is a bit low. I’d say add extra rewards for good scores or top score categories, as an added incentive.

Nice thought

Other than this, I assume next year these activities will be back (can’t imagine this work just being garbaged now :P). So perhaps then people can complete it.

Request: could Anet make a list of all the “deleted achievements” for us to see, basically so we can look back and see all the things we’ve done? At least the big ones (say clocktower an emissary on this one). Might be nice for sentiment. I understand taking it out of the achievements section, but maybe a “player history” section might be nice?

99% great fun! Suggestions:

- Better bug checks. That was my nr 1 complaint. Most bugs were solved within hours, which says on one hand that Anet has the skills, and on the other, that they weren’t used in time.
- Greatly decrease RNG (in general) influence. Drop rates around 1% are terrible, you feel entitled and often have nothing to see your progress. Replacing that with a 20% chance, but requiring 20 drops to craft the item, should enormously reduce frustration. In addition you could let the full item drop say 0.01% chance, so that nobody can feel entitled or farm for it. Outright using tokens or crafting materials would also work (for events like this, I’d say use Halloween Crafting Mats and common materials only). The recipes could be tied to finishing a certain event like clocktower.
Of course, simply awarding all pieces of the MK set, one piece for each challenge, would be nice as well.

My favs: lunatic court and the clocktower.
Lunatic had a nice grizzly feeling; suggestions: 1) Give Villagers a buff (say speed buff) as their numers go down, so that they can at least run. Their only chance to survive, as it was, was that the ghosts didn’t know what to do (aside from bugs). 2) Minor rewards encouraging active play and risk taking. Say, a ptot bag for finishing first in a category, or scaling rewards with your score. Reward skill and activity. 3) Minor issue: black goo seemed to need a buff. 4) Remove any class specific buffs (traits seemed to work).

Clocktower: I love it as it was, and I want more challenges like that! Suggestions: 1) allow players to take a standard human model (not mandatory) to solve vision issues. 2) Allow all classes to take the 25% “one with air” speedbuff if they wish; remove banners. 3) Slightly raise the first chest’s content to match the risk it poses. 4) Do not make it easier, however, as a compromise, make a “hard mode” with slightly higher rewards on reruns. The harder part is simply that better players will do it, thus, longer waiting time if you fail.

Please do not make future puzzles easier. The sheer sense of achievement upon reaching the top was one of the best GW2 moments so far. This challenge, more than anything I’ve seen so far, was that neat combination of skill and perseverance. You won’t win by just grinding it, you have to learn the jumps. Nor will mere skill tend to be enough, almost anyone would have taken quite a while. And luck, while present, is a very minor factor.
Sure, some people can’t complete it. So? I couldn’t do the Elite areas in GW1. Tough luck, plenty other things to do. The word “achievement” should reflect something difficult. Something you can take some pride in. Something that many players may not be able to do, and many more give up even though they could. Challenge. If anything, GW2 needs more of that.