Guild Wars 2

Skins are likely one of the biggest sources of income for ArenaNet. Between adding armors and outfits to the Gem Store, adding new weapon skins to the store (through the ridiculous lottery system, but that’s a different topic), selling transmutation charges, and people buying gems to convert to gold to buy skins, aesthetic is probably something big for ArenaNet.

It’s, thus, a bit surprising how bad the Wardrobe Storage is. Most of the GW2 UI has some big flaws due to having been build piecemeal update after update, but the Wardrobe has a lot of room for improvements. My suggestions:

• Allow us to sort by sets. Right now, we can sort armor by weight and by piece. But if I want to, say, see all pieces of the Scale armor set and nothing else, there’s no simple way to do so. Same with weapons – we can sort by weapon type, but not by weapon set. Being able to sort by set would allow us to easily see which sets are complete and which aren’t, which could make players want to finish a given set, which could lead players to giving ArenaNet money. It’s win-win.

• Allow us to sort by source. Create tabs so we know which armors and weapons are acquired through crafting, which are acquired through dungeons, which are acquired through the Gem Store, and which are acquired through other means. This would make the wardrobe more organized, and it could even link from the tabs to the relevant collections.

• Expand the wardobe to include a preview window in the wardrobe itself. It’s poor design to click preview, open another window in front of the wardrobe window, have to drag one of the two windows to the side so they do not overlap, and alternate between one and the other to preview a full set of armor and/or weapons.

Terrahero.9358:

Optimal will always be limited. If full zerker wasn’t optimal, something else would be, maybe Knights. And then we would have the exact same threads, only about a different kind of gear.

Not really.

Berseker could be the best in one dungeon.

Knight in another.

Soldier in one kind of boss fight.

And so on. People could go to the area with the playstyle they like the most, and fitting with the gear they have. We would also have variety in the game, as opposed to zerker being the best at everything PvE related like it is today.

creepmatic.9435:

Ascended gear needs more reasons to exist than just more AR slots or min/max expensive boring infusions.

Just let people switch their stats like we currently do with Legendaries. Then everyone would have a very good reason to get Ascended, without making it to give more power than it already does.

LCV.7245:

Okay, this is great, I’m enjoying my WvW experience, but let’s also say that the Druid skills and play style aren’t what I want for dungeons. Let’s assume that the other specialization is precisely what I want for dungeon and other PvE exploration. Do I have access to this other profession, having already chosen Druid?

ArenaNet said HoT will only have one specialization per profession. A second specialization will very likely take a very, VERY long time. Any reply they give now could change between now and when the other specializations arrive.

JoshuaRAWR.4653:

It would be nice for dungeons to require a more varied group set-up in gameplay (example being, conditions are strong in one path, weak in another, berserker is heavily punished in one path, strong in another) but i can’t see it happening.

That would be the ideal solution, I think. The main issue with PvE right now is that all enemies are too similar – most have a lot of health, not that much armor, and use very slow high damage attacks. Changing this, and creating different scenarions, could create a situation in which there’s a best build for each situation, fine; but nothing is the best build for all situations.

Vayne.8563:

Test.8734:

Vayne.8563:

I hate to agree with Test, but he has a point.

C’mon Vayne, you know you love me! <3 <3 <3

We don’t see eye to eye on pretty much anything, but yes, I quite like you. Don’t let anyone else know though. It’ll ruin my whole image.

Yay, I feel so loved! * _ *

NGoHT.1932:

I also told my friend about it a few minutes ago he also purchased it. He would like to play a thief. Whats a good class to play duo with him? Im thinking of guardian and mesmer, keeping my necro for my solo plays

Go guardian. Mesmer is a bit complex for a new player, and guardian is one of the easiest professions to level up with.

Isciira.2958:

As of the demo, you can toggle the revenant blindfold off like any other headgear, was not able to see if any other headgear can be used though.

So after being one of the first common players in the world to experience HoT… Your main reveal is that the toggleable headpiece is toggleable.

My mind has been blown.

Vayne.8563:

I hate to agree with Test, but he has a point.

C’mon Vayne, you know you love me! <3 <3 <3

I would rather see new ideas than just copying things from WoW or Runescape.

NGoHT.1932:

Also any starter tips for a newbie elementalist/necromancer are welcome since im planing to start one of those ^.^

Don’t play as necromancer, other players hate them in PvE and kick them from groups saying they’re useless there.

That introduction screen apparently was rather nice.

I miss the ability of picking which reward we wanted for playing the storyline, with the option of getting skins not easily available anywhere else. This hasn’t been removed from the game – the early storyline missions still has this – but it has not been used again.

The lore books looked nice as well. A pity they were removed instead of improved.

The loading screens looked better, with lore and a loading bar.

Buying transmutation stones with karma would have been nice, too.

Not to mention, of course, how the NPE pack ruined the levelling experience. And the changes to daily weren’t fun either.

And ascended gear as well.

I guess some things do change for the worst.

Vayne.8563:

I fought risen in Calendon Forest but in no way did that compare with the risen I fought in the cursed shore.

Yeah, because they had different levels, were different risen, had different skills…

Vayne.8563:

I fought spiders all across tyria, but none of them prepared me for garguntula.

Yeah, because Gargantula is an unique boss and the other spiders aren’t…

Vayne.8563:

If every single thing you faced needed to have a different skin, we’d never get an expansion.

Yeah, because no one is talking about more than skins…

Vayne.8563:

I don’t get it.

Indeed.

It’s not a matter of fighting a default and a stronger version of one enemy. Or fighting enemies with different abilities. Rather, what ArenaNet is implying they have done with the Wyvern is to use “same creature” (per their own words) in multiple places, with the single difference being the size of the area said creature is in.

That sounds a bit lazy.

lordkrall.7241:

Do you honestly think that they will release the expansion with only having large-scale tested a very small part of it?

Are you saying the original GW2 beta test included most, or at least half of the content in the game?

runeblade.7514:

Do you guys want a trinity?

I’m sure two thirds of those answering this topic have read “trinity” as having a healer and a WoW-like tank. Not the GW2-based trinity the article was talking about.

Brother Grimm.5176:

The quote isn’t bull. It’s outdated.

It’s from an interview released yesterday.

From the Ten Ton Hammer interview:

" Ten Ton Hammer: Where would you place the Wyvern, in terms of difficulty, compared to other world bosses already in the game?

Jon: That we don’t really known yet.

Kevin: He’s in a few different places in the expansion and what’s cool about that guy is that he gets exponentially harder the smaller the area he is in, because he cuts so much of the ground. There’s a few different difficulties with the same creature in different areas. We have him on some smaller platforms that are much more difficult to fight him on."

The last bolding is mine. It looks like we will fight the same world boss in more than one place, and it appears the major difference between fights won’t be changes to the boss itself, rather how big is the area it’s in.

This kind of “copy & paste” content is the kind of thing ArenaNet begain using heavily in the Silverwastes (the four fourtresses are basically big copy and pastes, with the same events). The fact one of the HoT battles they’re talking the most about has also been subjected to “copy & paste” is a really bad sign, IMO. It hints that there will be a lot of repeated content in the expansion.

Does someone else share a similar opinion?

King Noob IV.3560:

I bought the game yesterday

If you got the game less than 24 hours ago, you can try asking for a full refund by claiming you hate the game, and buying it again once the sale begins.

John Smith.4610:

Let me ask a question, if you could farm silk specifically, but slowly, so the price remained what it currently is or higher, would that be better or worse?

Worse. It would reward grinders, who would have another way to farm, while punishing casual players (prices would remain at the current ones or higher).

ArenaNet rewards grind way too much. Today grinders can have a steady supply of silk by buying it from the TP after farming gold. There isn’t much of a point in introducing a silk farm.

I would like to know about specializations, too.

Does someone else have the feeling that it’s the last thing ArenaNet will tell us about?

If ArenaNet said today, “We will let the community pick which aspect of HoT we will talk about next week”, what would you pick?

• More Revenant skills/traits/legends?

• More about Masteries, as in, what will all of them be, how will people begin to unlock them, what do the core game Masteries do?

• Specializations, which new skills they will introduce, how they will be unlocked?

• The open world PvE content in HoT, as in, exactly how many new areas we will get, and what will they be about?

• “End game” PvE content, as in, if the game will have more dungeons/raids/whatever for when people aren’t doing open world content?

• The new WvW map and incoming changes to WvW as a whole?

• More about the new PvP mode, Stronghold?

• About if ArenaNet will make changes to current professions beyond specializations, and if yes, what those changes will be?

• The new Legendaries? What will they look like, how will they be earned, more about precursor hunt?

• Something else? What?

Chiara.9827:

-I know why you may want to wait and add world 3 or at least modify it before releasing it (it might be broken due to some update or just in need of love because, as much as I loved it, it did have issues the last time it came out).

Didn’t the guy who build SAB leave ArenaNet?

Knighthonor.4061:

I am curious,

whats the planned length of HoT Expansion?

A couple hours of new content.

1.250 hours of grind to get some new skins.

Vayne.8563:

Fact 3. Many people did abandon the game early because they didn’t.

Proof?

Vayne.8563:

But I know quite a few people who couldn’t get into the game because they didn’t care about builds at all.

Yeah, the “people” you know are not proof. Amazing how you always know people that support your opinion, but in the end it’s just that, your opinion.

Ragion.2831:

At the heart of every mmorpg playerbase, standing out is important. In the beginning, people complained about no healer because that means not being recognized for helping someone else. People complain about precursor drop rates not for the stats but because the legendaries are so much shinier than other weapons.

Yeah, second hand psychology isn’t a very compelling argument. You are assuming people have a child-like need to compare themselves with others as opposed to a (far more mature, by the way) ability to be satisfied with themselves. In other words, that players want to have one skin because few people have it, not because they like how it looks regardless of how many people have said skin or not.

I would rather give players access to every skin they want (earning them in some way), so they can look how they want to look, instead of catering to the players who need others to feel validated.

Lunarhound.7324:

I want the option to hide silly hats

Already in the game.

Lunarhound.7324:

faces that I think are ugly

Already in the game.

Lunarhound.7324:

anyone wearing a trench coat

Already in the game.

Lunarhound.7324:

and any piece of equipment that uses any colors that I don’t like.

Everything that can be dyed can be hidden.

Sarcasm works better when you know more about what you’re talking about. There is an option to hide all those things and more. It’s mysteriously missing the ability of hiding backpacks and weapon skins. It’s only logical that it would be expanded to include those skins as well.

Soyaman.7096:

I’ve not been following Anets development cycle / announcements so I’m hoping maybe someone could help me shed some light onto the topic below.

The thing is, Guild Wars was not made for GW1 players like you and me. Do you remember when we were playing the original Guild Wars and someone would pop in the forums and say, “I won’t play this game unless we get an increased level cap and more powerful gear”? And most players would reply with, “Then this is not a game for you, but there are many alternatives like what you’re talking about out there”?

Well, GW2 has been made for that kind of person. The one who has not happy with GW1 and wanted something more similar to common MMORPGs (despite how most common MMORPGs have failed). Not for the players who were happy with GW1 and wanted a refinement of that game’s systems.

Vayne.8563:

Guild Wars 1 was called Build Wars for a reason and while many loved that play style, many abandoned the game early because they didn’t.

That is just your opinion, man.

lordkrall.7241:

You can’t hide it. Nor should you really be able to, seeing as that would basically remove a massive selling point to back items.

Meanwhile, in a less greedy point of view, we got the option to turn off the sound from players-bought musical instruments, despite how that “would basically remove a massive selling point” of those items.

Same with armors and outfits. Those can be bought on the Gem Store, yet we can still hide them. I’m happy that this is one of the issues in which ArenaNet, at least, sees reason.

Crovax.7854:

As for suggestions: Option to hide other player’s back pieces. This is something incredibly important for players with weaker machines.

I agree. I wished the basic character model would not only hide players’ armors, but also backpacks and weapons (replacing those with place holders, just as with the armor). This would increase performance and reduce visual pollution.

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Test.8734:

Tonikor.5637:

…have some info on the specializations now?!

They are probably not even done yet.

Doesn’t mean they can’t say something.
Ranger specialization isn’t ready either but at least we know that it’s called Druid and gets access to a staff.

The others are probably not even that much locked down, hence why they just use the same example over and over.

Gralo.7230:

With the expansion, and it’s major assets announced is there any hope to see changes/developments with Underwater content?

I hope not. I wish ArenaNet would remove underwater combat from the game. It’s extremely buggy, boring, and basically a waste of resources (I would rather have more land skills for the Revenant than have underwater skills). Keep the exploration and remove the ability to fight in the water.

Tonikor.5637:

…have some info on the specializations now?!

They are probably not even done yet.

Toepac.9076:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/03/03/first-look-guild-wars-2-heart-of-thorns/

That one is great. Very poorly written, like most of those articles, but it has a few gems:

“Once the little slice of story was over we were spat out into the world, where we could engage in more open world activities, and end with a group battle against a flame-spewing wyvern for shiny loot. None of this was hugely interesting.”

(Bolding by me.)

“However, they also blurred the lines of the Golden Triangle, or Holy Trinity, or whatever you want to call it. Tank. Healer. DPS. A bold move that ruffled more than a few feathers. When every character can heal themselves, it tends to undermine the social and mechanical benefits of that traditional three-way relationship.

Fnarr."

(I was going to bold the “Fnarr” but it doesn’t really need more than what it already is.)

“The introduction of new tiers as a sort of soft reset on player power is pretty much the industry standard method to keep people hooked year to year. Avoiding it is brave and more than a little risky. While ArenaNet have certainly shown enough meaty content to create a convincing case to buy the expansion, their gambles have backfired in the past. That said, this genre needs more risk-takers, and I for one hope it works out for them. The Mastery system will have to be pretty bloody good, though.”

(This guy has “target audience” written all over him.)

Dadnir.5038:

I clearly doubt they will mess up with the profession base mechanic and I’d be really surprised if they change a whole traitline.

You didn’t really read this topic, did you? A few posts above…

psizone.8437:

http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=35650&storypage=2
“You can still mix and match, where if you are a Druid you will still have the capacity to use a lot of the things that the Ranger could, but your fundamental profession mechanic is different. While a Druid will be able to use some of the skills and traits that a Ranger could”

Bolding by me.

BrunoBRS.5178:

they said new traits, not a whole new trait line. it’s entirely possible that they just sprinkle druid traits on the existing lines.

I would prefer if we lost access to trait lines, so they can be replaced by something new. If the Mesmer specialization has no access to Shatter skills, for example, it wouldn’t be surprising if said specialization lost access to the trait line that reduces the recharge of Shatter skills, and instead got an all new trait line.

Likewise, if the Engineer specialization cannot use pistols or rifles, it wouldn’t be surprising if it lost access to the Firearms trait line, and had it replaced by something else.

It would even open some interesting possibilities. What if a specialization had two trait lines increasing Toughness, but no trait line increasing Vitality? And so on.

ArenaNet doesn’t care. The personal storyline was a failed experiment, under a model that ArenaNet itself said they will not continue. They are not going to rework the game just to fix the inclusion of the revenants in the storyline. Heh, they are definitely taking their time to fix the storyline itself after breaking the order of the chapters.

Mirta.5029:

You made the claim that majority of players play PVE. Still waiting statistics on that one.

You made the claim that majority of players play PvX. Still waiting statistics on that one.

Beldin.5498:

I’m not a “hater” but a “disappointer” .. because since we got the wardrobe we didn’t
got any single armor-set in the shop that we can mix and match .. not one .. only
outfits .. and that when the wardrobe is built specially to mix and match armor.

This is one of those things in which players don’t understand how the game works.

Outfits could not exist as armor. They would clip with the great majority of armors from an entire armor class if they were sold as individual pieces – just imagine how much clipping the pants and the shoulders of this outfit would have with the long coats used for medium armor.

It’s not a choice between having those skins as outfits or as armors. It’s a choice between having those skins as outfits or not having those skins.

(And incidentally, the wardrobe was not “built specially to mix and match armor”.)

Mirta.5029:

Well majority of people tend to play PvX.

And do you have anything even remotely substancial to prove this applies to GW2? Or is that just “personal bias”?

Mirta.5029:

Test.8734:

So are you saying that PvP has as many players as PvE? To which I ask, “where are you getting stats from”?

No. I’ve said that I’ve seen MMOs die for not catering or caring about their PvP at all and that both parts of the game are therefore equally important.

Yeah, that’s completely nonsensical.

It’s obvious that PvE is more important than PvP.

Don’t believe me? So say: what do you think cost more money? PvP with its couple maps and little else? Or PvE, with dozen maps, all the voice acting, the storyline that required a team to be mantained, all the writing, and so on?

Mirta.5029:

Test.8734:

Are you seriously calling yourself “Elite”?

Now where did I ever say that?

You forgot your own post, didn’t you?

Nope, they won’t. They don’t want those changes in PvP, for ArenaNet PvP is more important than PvE (because they still have that “LOL E-Sport!” dream, regardless of how dead the PvP community is), and so ArenaNet won’t make different versions of fundamental game mechanics.

Meglobob.8620:

Yeah…

1) Are they, really? I wonder if the poster really took 10.000-15.000 damage, or if he simply died and doesn’t realize how much damage he took.

2) The combat log is showing only a small time frame, and by its end the OP is still taking damage, so he likely isn’t dead yet. So even if the OP took 10.000 damage, it’s either before or after what we see in the log.

Mirta.5029:

How about, there are other builds besides Zerker and people that are Elite, but not Elitists, tend to run those?

Are you seriously calling yourself “Elite”?

Mirta.5029:

where are you getting stats from? I know quite a few MMOs that died for catering only to PVE and leaving PvP broken. PvP is just as big of a part of this game as PVE is.

So are you saying that PvP has as many players as PvE? To which I ask, “where are you getting stats from”?

Mor The Thief.9135:

Will conditions finally be viable in PvE?

Nope, of course not.

Next question?

What ArenaNet appears to be trying to do is make enemies with very high armor, so condition damage would in theory work better than direct damage against them (see the copper boss at the Silverwastes as an example, or the hushs). The thing is, this is hastily and lazily done, because the real issues with condition damage (the things you mentioned in your post) haven’t been fixed, and probably won’t be fixed any time soon. The result is that people still try to use direct damage to kill the enemies that were meant to be killed through condition damage.

Ashtaeroth.3940:

but when I lose some 10k-15k health in 1-3 shots and the log shows 15 damage, I can only assume it was the illusions, it really and seriously baffles me how this can be possible. I mean ranger pets show the damage they do, guardian spirit weapons do

Yeah, you really didn’t understand what happened to you.

Mesmers have two kinds of illusions: clones and phantasms. Clones look like the player character, use the same skills, and do next to no damage. What you are reading at the combat log is the description of the damage done by the clones, specificially the clones using the greatsword auto-attack, Spatial Surge. They do, indeed, the very low damage you are reading (7, 16, 4, 10, etc).

In other words, the combat log is fine.

Caeledh.5437:

and I like how engineer kits (apart from flamethrower of course) function essentially the same under water as they do above

Arguably the grenade skills are better underwater. You cannot aim so well, but at least you won’t break your hand when auto-attacking.

darkace.8925:

I can’t help but feel they’re wanting to abandon underwater combat and exploration altogether.

I hope they will remove underwater combat (but not exploration). It has been filled with bugs and plagued by a huge lack of balance since release. It’s not really something worth using resources for.

RaGe.9834:

So am I missing something or is there some ginormous reason as to why we can’t remove a pointless time-gate?

It appears that the number of players logged per day is an important statistic for ArenaNet, hence the introduction of so many things that are gated to once per day. You should be happy that they haven’t time gated the other crafting materials required for exotic crafting.

Krestfallen.8025:

The words “optimal” and “viable” or “useable” have been thrown around this thread. Forgive me if I’ve misunderstood you, but it seems that your argument is, “if I can do something with it, then this skill is okay, therefore build diversity is okay.”
My argument is, in essence, “Build diversity will remain stagnant so long as we are being asked to choose between better and passable.”

Actually, the “I can do something with it so it’s balanced” argument is used mostly by fanboys who are trying to defend ArenaNet with the argument that, “The game is perfect” ergo “Everything is perfectly balanced” ergo “There’s no useless trait” ergo “Someone somewhere must be able to do something with any given trait, and that’s evidence that everything is balanced”. It’s an argument not worth debating simply because it’s based on a wrong premise – the zealous belief that the game is perfect.

The true issue is that GW2 is balanced more due to PvP than PvE (regardless of how small the PvP community is when compared to the PvE or the WvW communities), and it’s easier to balance stuff for PvP if you keep a lot of things underpowered (and thus out of the way), while you focus on balancing the few things that actually matter.

Plus, ArenaNet likes to balance the game by making a few small changes, and seeing what happens. That’s not a bad thing, but the very slow frequency of those changes means that, in order for anything to significantly change at all, it will take months, if not years.

Which means, the current status quo will likely remain in place for a long time. Worse, with the introduction of new traits and skills with HoT, ArenaNet will likely use a lot of resources balancing the new additions to the game, ignoring everything that is currently there. Expect the currently underpowered skills and traits to remain so for a very, VERY long time.

The Manifesto trailer, all those years ago, had a line that said, " It’s your story". That line is dead now.

In one of the recent interviews, ArenaNet mentioned they are not going to follow anymore the pattern they had with the original personal storyline – of a branching story that (in theory) followed what the player decided. They said the expansion’s storyline, and likely the story of any future content they make, will be linear and experienced by everyone. The old model, they mentioned, didn’t work that well.

The “It’s your story” mantra was heard quite often during the original GW2 hype. I would like to ask the community why do you think the personal storyline failed, to the point that ArenaNet decided to abandon it.

Here are some options, to start the discussion:

• Because the idea of a branching storyline is bad. It creates content that a player would only see if he played the game again.

• Because the idea of a branching storyline is nice, but it was poorly executed in GW2. The story never had that much cohesion, with things that happened in a chapter being mostly forgotten and never mentioned again once said chapter is over.

• Because the idea of a branching storyline is nice and its execution wasn’t that bad, but the GW2 storyline was so badly written that, no matter how it had been presented, it would still have been a fail.

• Because MMORPG players don’t really care about story, so investing a large amounts of resources on the storyline is a waste.

Other ideas? Opinions?

maha.7902:

and people need to understand that while all options are viable there will always be a select few that are optimal.

That’s lazy game design.

You are comparing this to League of Legends, but that’s a bad comparison – LoL is basically the same scenario (PvP with the lanes defending the fortresses and that combination of NPC management and player-controlled enemies to be killed), driven by a strong meta.

GW2 has no need to follow the same scenario all the time. Which means, while for each scenario there will certainly be only a few optimal builds, there is nothing preventing the game from having multiple different scenarions, so no build is the optimal build all the time, and all builds are the optimal build some of the time.

That’s GW2’s main failure, in this aspect. The same few builds are the optimal build in almost everything. That’s what needs to be changed.

lordkrall.7241:

Usable != Most efficient.

I can almost guarantee you that every single build in the game can complete the vast majority of the content.

Which is proof of how the vast majority of the game is way too easy.

Tevesh.1265:

All three are bad. The writing is terrible, the characters flat and uninspiring, the story forced and contrieved.

True.

It’s also kinda of irrelevant which order you pick. Soon, the story folds back into the same thing no matter what were your previous choices, so decisions such as race/affiliation/order/etc lose any impact. Any NPC you meet during the order chapters will disappear and your story won’t acknowledge them anyway.

olTThreelo.6710:

I have lots of chests, but rarely find keys. Any help is appreciated.

ArenaNet wants you to buy keys from the Gem Store, that’s why you get chests but no key.

You really shouldn’t worry about the keys, though. The chests are a scam-like lottery system that will likely not give you anything useful.

Rich Fuel.7253:

what do u guyz think? bad? good?

The meta says that, if you are playing PvE and are not using full Beserker stats with Runes of the Scholar, you’re a n00bz (see the above posts).

I’m not convinced that zerker is that good. But if you plan to use anything other than berserker + Scholar, I suggest never joining a party.