Guild Wars 2

RoseofGilead.8907:

Claw Island, only reachable by doing the Personal Story.

Of course…

Forgive the brainfart.

So, I’ve had a little search around for this but I may have overlooked the answer, but does anyone know what the level 60 area to the left of Bloodtide Coast is?

cletiscake.9173:

b) Not stacking in corners is simply not feasible.

This is wrong. When I used to dungeon run with friends, we never used to stack.

cletiscake.9173:

Here’s the thing. Our characters are balanced around the fact that skills have a recharge time, we have only 2 dodges available to us, and we have a single Heal on a long cooldown. By design, we are a closed system.

What about things such as:

• Protection?
• Aegis?
• Blind?
• Weakness?
• Interrupts?
• Reflects?

cletiscake.9173:

Anet really needs to communicate to us how they want us to play the game. They need to talk about it openly. IF they truly don’t intend for us to stack in corners, they need to describe to us how we are supposed to cope without a Trinity. And if they want to lessen reliance on DPS, how will they go about doing that?

You cope without the Trinity by not frontloading everything you have into damage if you’re not sure what your team is bringing.

Back when I first run the dungeons before we knew what was going on, I’d sacrifice some DPS for control – I’d take a Hammer and the Leg Specialist trait on my Warrior. That way if SHTF, I’d have a backup that allowed me to get the boss away from a team-mate that was down and Immobilise him for a second while others got them back up.

You can’t really lessen reliance on DPS, since DPS is how you win the fight.

Also, in reference to your title, gear stats =/= builds. Builds are the totality of what you bring to a fight. The way to mix this up isn’t to make the fights numerically harder, but:

• give the fights mechanics players haven’t played against before.
• make sure that you have to pay attention to the boss mechanics.

Rasimir.6239:

Not quite. According to the masteries article on the HoT page, you can only unlock and train HoT masteries while playing the new content:

Each Mastery track is tied to a region of Tyria—they must be unlocked with Mastery points gained in that region and can only be trained in that region. With the launch of Heart of Thorns, there will be two Mastery regions: the Heart of Maguuma, encompassing all PvE zones that are part of the Heart of Thorns expansion, and the core Guild Wars 2 world, encompassing all PvE zones currently available in the game today

Thus all the mastery point unlocks and experience for training masteries aquired in the core maps will go into masteries like the fractal ones, while you specifically need to unlock and train (gain experience) your HoT masteries in HoT maps.

Ahh, thanks for the correction.

Palador.2170:

TheDaiBish.9735:

What about the Lore tracks?

Not to mention the gliding – and mushroom jumping – all give access to areas of the map inaccessible without them, so why would you not want them?

Because they’re only useful in a few maps that will come with HoT?

How much time and effort would you spend grinding out abilities that you could only use in Orr? And were required to get to all the points in Orr, including the end of the personal story? That’s pretty much what HoT is.

As far as I understand how Masteries work:

a) There are Mastery points to be found in the Core maps
b) You level them masteries by gaining XP, instead of gaining skill points.

This means that you’re able to level these Masteries while playing the core content, and then making use of them when you play in the new content.

It’s not something where you’re confined to the new maps in order to progress.

Not only that, but we don’t have the full list of Masteries currently. For example, we know we’re getting a Fractal Mastery track, and that’s not part of the new maps.

What about the Lore tracks?

Not to mention the gliding – and mushroom jumping – all give access to areas of the map inaccessible without them, so why would you not want them?

Hoaxintelligence.4628:

So that’s why the game is still so broken

Now imagine what it would be like if they spent all day on the forums answering questions instead of working on the game…

Why not adapt the Gambit system from the Pavilion?

For example, at Waypoints you’re able to add / remove a number of Gambits to your character. For example:

• Exahustion – Reduces Endurance regen by x%.
• Frailty – Increases incoming damage by x% and condition duration by x%.
• Cursed – Reduces Boon Duration by x%.
• Diseased – For the duration of a fight, you’re inflicted with Potent Poison, reducing incoming healing by 60% .
• Blindsided – Critical hits against you stun you for 1 second.
• Unprepared – Increases skill cooldown by x%.

and so on.

Also upon death – not Downed – your event contribution gets reset to 0 in order to help prevent players stacking Gambits for the bonuses, getting their contribution in and then dying because they aren’t playing safe.

Orpheal.8263:

Monks are basically a Human only thing… thats why Cleric would definetely be the better choice.

How are Monks a human only thing?

Monks in the GW universe don’t get their power from worshiping but being attuned to one of the Bloodstones.

MyriadStars.5679:

TheDaiBish.9735:

MyriadStars.5679:

IMO, the prestige of a legend is invalidated by the fact that there is nothing particularly challenging in the process of making it, whether it’s under the current system or the upcoming system in HOT.

How do you know that none of the parts will be challenging?

Well, I doubt that Anet would make certain steps to be so difficult that less than 1% of the players will have the skills of completing these steps. It would be logical for Anet to use the new system to help them keep players playing the game, instead of using it to make players feel so frustrated that they will quit playing.

Why does something have to only be completable by x% in order to be deemed challenging? And why 1%?

Thing is, challenge is going to vary from player to player. What you might not consider challenging might provide a healthy dose of challenge for another player.

MyriadStars.5679:

IMO, the prestige of a legend is invalidated by the fact that there is nothing particularly challenging in the process of making it, whether it’s under the current system or the upcoming system in HOT.

How do you know that none of the parts will be challenging?

The information is probably coming slow because they don’t have anything concrete to give. For example, It wouldn’t be much of a blog post if all they did for the specialization for the Mesmer was “the Mesmer specialisation is the Chronomancer and they use a shield”.

The bits given in the Revenant blog were given because they were happy with them parts.

Y’all need RNJesus.

I wonder what the resource cost of adapting the game to allow addons vs just implementing small features like that would be.

Xillllix.3485:

Not to diminish the hard work of folks at Anet, but personally it doesn’t sound like the sort of hardcore content I’m looking for.

That’s probably because this blog post wasn’t meant to outline any of the challenging group content.

DaShi.1368:

Simzani.4318:

There is already so few content with this dlc. If they released with less it would just be the same as the actual gw2.

This. Given the amount of content they announced and how long they said they’ve been working on it, I’d be surprised if it isn’t released before summer.

What content are we getting exactly then?

I’d say it depends on two things:

• What content is going to be left out.
• How long after launch the content would be added in.

Things like maps and specializations should all be there at launch (maps because it’s playable content and specializations for equality).

Things like the new legendary weapons can be left until after launch, since players still have to get T3 of the Mastery track and the precursors. After all, if it takes, say, a month to get the precursor, and they patch the legendaries in 3 weeks after launch, no harm is done.

What can’t be done is these pieces of content be left for a stupid amount of time after launch.

No one knows at this point.

It’s unknown, but new materials have been thought to have been datamined.

Haakkelberg.2460:

There won’t be new Leaf of Kudzu skin, the precursor collection is just another way to get precursors.

Actually, the precursors are all getting new skins that are watered down versions of their Legendaries:

For all of our existing precursors, this is a tradable exotic weapon, but they will all be updated to use new skins that look much like the legendary weapons they’ll one day become. We like to think of these new precursor skins as the legendary weapon before it is embodied by its soul.

The whole point of legendaries in this game isn’t that they’re more powerful – and giving them an extra skill would break this – but that they’re unique and have some convenience.

To that end, I’d say that Legendary weapons are fine as they are. Maybe just add sigil swapping functionality to them.

Quite the opposite, actually.

Exclusivity through RNG or high cost on the TP isn’t something I’d really call hard; more like tedious.

Now, however, gaining a Legendary – and precursor – will have a story behind it. The weapon has a place in the world and lore, whereas before they were just random weapons with the Legendary title.

“As always, the content above is subject to change as we test and iterate on these systems.”

PorceleinEve.2973:

TheDaiBish.9735:

Where did I say it was a piece of cake?

Thing is, priorities change and team members get shifted around.

Why would they have the art team working on something that can wait until after launch (since, you know, players have to get the precursor and mats first) when they’d be better put to use creating other assets (other weapon and armour sets, mobs, world assets etc) that players are going to – most likely – experience first?

that is a non argument, pretty much all of the features of the expansion can be postponed until after launch. masteries? give some now, rest can come later. maps? start with one and add others later. specializations? start with some and the rest later.

fact is they announce the feature, it should be in properly or not at all. fact is, if they’ve done that for any of the other features, like specializations, the forums would be on fire. if they can’t manage properly their resources, not our problem. if they’re having issues with their timetable, not our problem either. if it’s announced, it should be done properly. not holding them accountable to that, just gives them permission to sell even less feature complete “expansions” in the future.

It depends entirely at what point the player can access the certain types of content, really.

If a player was able to obtain Legendary weapons from day one – like Masteries – then yes, it should be included. If they don’t patch in the Legendaries until a long time after the launch then yes, they should be criticised for it.

However, if getting a precursor alone takes, say, a two weeks (especially given how the newer precursors will be from T3 of the Mastery Track) and gathering the mats for the Legendary takes another week, and the new Legendaries are patched in two weeks after launch, what harm has been done?

No one was able to get the Legendary at that point anyway and them asset creators were free to help create the rest of the expansion – asset creators (as well as that would otherwise be tied up developing a feature that didn’t need to be in the expansion at day one, and extending the development time of the expansion unnecessarily.

Another point that should be made is that they said that other Legendaries would be made available in subsequent patches. We don’t know how long after launch that patch will be added.

PorceleinEve.2973:

TheDaiBish.9735:

Or maybe the art team is busy with assets for other parts of the game, and legendaries aren’t anywhere near the top of the priority list because players need to get the precursor and mats first?

As for the whole 3 years and they can’t develop 15 weapons thing, they’ve made a number of weapon sets over the past three years.

so which is it cause i’m confused? is the art team swamped with work and they can’t really produce the art for the legendaries or it’s a piece of cake thing to do since they’ve been producing a number of weapon sets these past 3 years?

Where did I say it was a piece of cake?

Thing is, priorities change and team members get shifted around.

Why would they have the art team working on something that can wait until after launch (since, you know, players have to get the precursor and mats first) when they’d be better put to use creating other assets (other weapon and armour sets, mobs, world assets etc) that players are going to – most likely – experience first?

I’d probably wager a guess at it being based on a bug that happened back in beta.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Anet is clearly not capable of producing these legendary weapons, and it is extremely unlikely we will see a full set for at least 2-3 years. Remember this is the same set of legendary’s that Anet said would be in the game by 2013… this expansion will launch in 2016 and it STILL isn’t going to be a full set. 3 years and they can’t develop 15 weapons, don’t hold your breath.

Or maybe the art team is busy with assets for other parts of the game, and legendaries aren’t anywhere near the top of the priority list because players need to get the precursor and mats first?

As for the whole 3 years and they can’t develop 15 weapons thing, they’ve made a number of weapon sets over the past three years.

weskay.9217:

TheDaiBish.9735:

If you want to play control / support orientated builds, why not start your own dungeon runs and post any build welcome?

I think this may support the OP’s reply to you: While that suggestion is a solution, I think it’s the general notion that no one should necessarily have to post that any build is welcome; it should be the norm, if that makes sense.

Not necessarily. After all, there will always be one or two group comps that are meta for particular content.

If the aim of the game for a group of players is to maximise efficiency – speedrunners, for example – then they’re going to want to play this meta.

This goal is in contrast to someone who wants to play a build of their choosing outside the meta – healing Elementalist, for example – or someone who doesn’t want to skip over trash mobs.

This is why “any build is welcome” will never be the ‘norm’ – different players have different goals.

weskay.9217:

It’s just unfortunate that it is not so. I work around that by choosing not to “LFG”. Instead, I just group up with guild mates and friends that share this notion. Once again, you shouldn’t necessarily have to avoid LFG, but that is just how it is as it stands.

Why does someone who wants to play a non-meta build have to avoid LFG?

Anyone can post a LFG request, and write in that description what they wish from that group.

xKole.9175:

That last sentence just got me. This game compared to almost every other MMO I have played has had the LEAST by far focus on team composition because of EVERYTHING you said before that. Everyone CAN do EVERYTHING. Yes, some do better than others at certain things, but not quite enough to make it important to care about team composition. I mean… literally every single group I have run a dungeon or fractal with took the first 5 to join and went in. Only one stipulation that I must have said 14 times in this thread “Zerker only” lol.

One thing Anet said before launch is that they wanted players to ‘bring the player rather than the class’.

Personally I’d rather be able to throw a team together with whatever professions are at hand and whatever professions my mates like to play than having to wait because a specific profession is needed or forcing someone to play a profession they don’t like.

xKole.9175:

It’s cool that it works this way to an extent, but why level my warrior when I have a thief at 80? I can “switch my whole playstyle” as you said.

Because Warriors and Thieves bring different things.

For example, good offensive group support (FGJ, Banners, Phalanx Strength, Empower Allies etc), whereas Thieves bring good evasive group support (stealth for respite).

xKole.9175:

Not asking to force roles, just wanting control and support builds/specs to be more reasonable and rewarding ways to play. I like doing dungeons, and yes btw there ALREADY is forced roles. I mean role* DPS.

Except damage is always going to be a required role in any game with combat.

If you want to play control / support orientated builds, why not start your own dungeon runs and post any build welcome?

The problem has never been the lack of Trinity.

The problem are:

• The mechanics of a fight aren’t enforced strongly enough in the core dungeons. Look at AC the Lovers; they’re supposed to get stronger the closer they are together. However, they attempt this only once during the fight. The Effigy in CoF is supposed to get regen from the crystals – making destroying the crystals a role into itself – but this is easily ignored with a full damage group and helped along with poison. Because a lot of these mechanics can be ignored, there’s no reason to bring things like heavy CC builds, or heavy support builds.

• How the mob is ‘specced’ – for lack of a better word – is vastly inferior to players. Trash mobs come with one or two skills and there’s a pause between their attacks, meaning they die before they can really make an impact. Bosses come with 4 – 5 special skills, but compared to the total tools available to players – minimum of 50 skills at any one time, traits to boost their effectiveness, runes, sigils, weaponswap etc – they are woefully inequipped.

The horses ran all over the world, gathering XP with each new discovered place. Eventually, they gathered so much XP they started to evolve, but with the God’s gone, there was no-one to press B so they ended up evolving into centaurs.

True, legit story.

Ranatoa.4869:

No where does it state Hot maps will add new currencies…

Maps like the Silverwastes or Dry Top that have a dedicated currency will work a little differently. For these maps, bandit crests and geodes have been something of a test for this concept, where you’re rewarded with these currencies through a bouncy chest for playing on the map. The Map Bonuses system is a more streamlined experience, and with Heart of Thorns, these maps will be updated to always award currencies through the Map Bonuses system. Moving forward, any map with a similar currency will also work within the Map Bonuses system.

That’s what I read it as, though in hindsight this could also mean things like Karma and Gold.

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

TLDR

• Precursor crafting has three tiers, based around the theme of the Legendary.
• Precursors are getting updated skins to look more like the Legendary weapons they’re associated with.
• This method is once per account; current methods of acquisition for precursors will still be in place.

• Maps will have bonuses associated that rotate to make item gathering for a Legendary a more directed activity.
• These bonuses are acquired by doing content in the map – JP, events, mini dungeons etc.
• Most maps have crafting mats. For example, Cursed Shore might have Charged Cores and Lodestones one rotation, and Glacial Cores and Lodestones the next.
• HoT maps will have dedicated currencies, much like Dry Top and Silverwastes.

• New Legendary weapons and Precursors will not be tradable.
• Example:

One thing to consider: what if they don’t have anything concrete at this time to show?

Not to mention that since there was a press and PAX demo, it’d be wierd for them not to release info as to what would be in that demo (the parts of the Revenant they were happy with, Stronghold etc).

lighter.2708:

TheDaiBish.9735:

For example, ‘challenging group content’ could mean anything from Fractals and open world events to dungeons and raids

you over think too much, when anet say something, they mean it, when they say challenging group content, it will just be open world event like Wyvern

Except they’ve said Wyvern is an example of just a tough boss:

…the Wyvern is an example of just a tough boss in the open world. It’s not a mega boss, it’s not some super, crazy challenging group content that we want you to do. It’s just an example of what world bosses are going to start being like.

Source

It’s entirely possible that every ‘major’ feature that they’ve announced is an umbrella term.

For example, ‘challenging group content’ could mean anything from Fractals and open world events to dungeons and raids, while Guild Halls could have things potentially tied to them as well (they’re instanced, so they could house instanced content for guilds as opposed to just being a place to hang out).

All in all, until they go into the specifics of each feature, we can’t really say what they’ll be comprised of.

Knighthonor.4061:

In fact, GW1 was one of them. Warriors pray to the same gods that other classes get their magic from. So it’s not a reach. But I predict Pistol.

Those who use magic don’t pray to the Gods to get it. It’s from being attuned to one of the four Bloodstones.

Secondly, not all Warriors pray to the Gods – that’s a purely Human thing, with Norn having the Animal Spirits, Asura having the Great Alchemy etc. Not to mention that the Charr have eschewed all deities.

Guilds can already claim structures – which displays the banner – and spend Influence to provide bonuses for players.

Structures
Art of War Upgrades

There’s no info yet on whether HoT will have dungeons (or raids for that matter); all we know is that there’s supposed to be ‘challenging group content’.

Knighthonor.4061:

I never said there was no AI manipulation in trinity games, i said that the AI in trinity games are far more challenging than Non-Trinity mmos. EQ being the first Trinity mmo proves my point as well.

The argument i seen has been that AI in trinity mmos are just dumb. But i have shown that the Trinity Mob AI is more advanced than we see in Non-Trinity mmos. People used the argument of predictability, which is proven that in GW2 the mobs are more predictable.

Also somebody argued that trinity mmos are easier, but this is disproven by the fact that Trinity PvE in mmos like WoW and Rift, is far more challenging than anything we have in Non-Trinity mmos like GW2. No argument there.

I’ve failed to see where you’ve proven anything really aside from a few ‘my opinion is fact’ statements.

AI in both GW2 and Trinity games are equally dumb and predictable.

The difference is where in GW2 things like stacking are doable because the AI is weaker or the mechanics aren’t enforced nearly enough, in Trinity games the AI is actually programmed to constantly attack the person shouting things about their mother/father/guinea pig while tapping them with their weapon while ignoring the person keeping that person alive, and everyone else who is actually causing the boss harm.

All in all though, being the appropriate level (actual level 30 as opposed to downscaled level 30, for example), I found the dungeons in GW2 to be much more challenging on the first few run-through than level cap raiding in a few of the Trinity games I’ve played.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

TheDaiBish.9735:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

TheDaiBish.9735:

Serbianwolf.1652:

And don’t tell me you will release only 1 map and 1 profession in expansion? hh gg

Who said anything about there being only one map?

Well, only one map for WvW and only one map for PvP (Stronghold), I guess.

Eh, touche.

Still, that’s two maps and we haven’t touched PvE yet. I don’t get the complaint either.

I suppose it’s all a matter of perspective.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

TheDaiBish.9735:

Serbianwolf.1652:

And don’t tell me you will release only 1 map and 1 profession in expansion? hh gg

Who said anything about there being only one map?

Well, only one map for WvW and only one map for PvP (Stronghold), I guess.

Eh, touche.

Serbianwolf.1652:

And don’t tell me you will release only 1 map and 1 profession in expansion? hh gg

Who said anything about there being only one map?

warbignime.4610:

TheDaiBish.9735:

Nope.

Can you really say it’s failed when it hasn’t really been implemented?

Look at the Lover’s fight from a purely mechanical point of view.

If that mechanic was enforced much more strongly, then that fight would require at least 2 people to bring control skills.

And I feel it’s quite the opposite actually; the Trinity limits boss and encounter design, since you have to design it with a set group composition in mind.

With GW2’s system, you could design it with any group composition since you aren’t bound by a specific group composition.

Can you dare say that original Gw2(no s2 stuff) was well designed? No you can’t, because there is one strategy and it works every time with is DPs as much and as fast possible , dose that sound well designed to you? Also you know the boss attack nearest target right , you don’t need control at lover just let one guy pull the dude away.

I find your lack of reading comprehension disturbing.

• Cherry-picking aside, at what point did I say the original content was well designed? I said we couldn’t really judge the effectiveness of the control/damage/support trinity because it hadn’t really been implemented.

• I was referring to the Lover fight from a purely mechanical point of view. Note where I said if the mechanic was enforced much more strongly, as in if the two bosses tried to actively go near each other.

warbignime.4610:

It still gose downs to no trinity, it limited their boss and dungeon design, they wanted to make DPs/control/support instead of DPs/tank/healer but just failed.

Nope.

Can you really say it’s failed when it hasn’t really been implemented?

Look at the Lover’s fight from a purely mechanical point of view.

If that mechanic was enforced much more strongly, then that fight would require at least 2 people to bring control skills.

And I feel it’s quite the opposite actually; the Trinity limits boss and encounter design, since you have to design it with a set group composition in mind.

With GW2’s system, you could design it with any group composition since you aren’t bound by a specific group composition.

The Trinity or the lack of static, pre-defined and required roles has never been the problem.

It’s the encounter design not needing anything other than damage, and the mob design being a far departure from the players that is the issue.

Swagger.1459:

TheDaiBish.9735:

Swagger.1459:

Iirc, they are not investing resources in dungeons so that means no dungeon raids either.

Source?

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Very-disappointing-news-for-you-guys

Q: When will we get more dungeon, fractal, any kind of dungeon related changes? Like another question is hardmode for dungeons.

• Hardmode is something we’re staying away from at this point.
• Thrown around ideas to increase longevity of dungeons without doing major reworks like Twilight Arbour.
• Twilight Arbour was a pretty serious amount of work. Not necessarily something they want to commit to at this point (Aug 22, 2014).
• Fractals are flexible; allow to add smaller chunks of content without the work required to redo a dungeon.

Nothing in that interview said that they’re not creating new dungeon content, just that they’re not doing massive changes like Aetherpath.

Given the age of the interview and when HoT was announced, things could have easily changed since then.

Swagger.1459:

Iirc, they are not investing resources in dungeons so that means no dungeon raids either.

Source?

By quests I’m guessing you mean the Hearts?

Them Hearts are not the only source of EXP on the map:

• Dynamic Events
• Other Map Completion elements – Skill Point Challenges, Vista’s and Points of Interest
• Gathering

As for character building, one of the updates spread out certain elements quite far.

• Level 15 opens up weapon swapping
• Levels 13, 17 and 19 unlock your 1st, 2nd and 3rd utility slots respectively.
• Level 30 unlocks traits

There are two main upgrades to gear:

• Weapons get Sigils
• Armour gets Runes

I think the best way for the devs to design encounters is so that each encounter has a mechanic that is based around each aspect of combat (control, support and deeps).

That way players can choose either to:

• Have players dedicated to that aspect (one player specced to handle the control aspect of the fight, another for the support etc).

OR

• each player brings a little of what is needed and the responsibility is shared (a Warrior might sacrifice 2 trait points from Power to get Leg Specialist against a foe that needs to have movement reduced).

Have you tried using Windowed mode?