Guild Wars 2

Starting off my post with a disclaimer, first and foremost you should try out all the classes and decide for yourself which one you like the most. Pretty much everyone here has their own playstyle and opinion. Very rarely will you find posts 100% in line with your own impressions, so always read up and try out classes for yourself.

I won’t say which is better, but I’ll try to post a small description of what I’ve experienced with each class.

Mesmer: Going to start off with the best first. I’ve yet to really play any class that has been as diverse with my playstyle as Mesmer. You can use clones for damage and distractions when fighting monsters, or go with a condition based build. Long story short here, I’ve found Mesmer one of the most balanced classes in the game (I’m sure other people would disagree ;P).

Elementalist: There weren’t many builds with this class that I liked. A lot of people are using D/D build at the moment, but rumors are going around this build will soon be nerfed. Who knows other than ANet though. The only build I half-way enjoyed was a staff AoE build, but soon discovered I quickly became bored. Still, the support and fun utilities offer a modest amount of entertainment.

Necromancer: Ok… so I’m positive there are players out there that can make this class (as well as other classes) sing. I just couldn’t get the hang of it. There are a few viable builds with Necro (D/D, Wells, Deathshroud), but I couldn’t get the hang of many of them. Either I was too close to the mob and took too much damage, or I had to wait on super long cooldowns for utility skills. The only one I found viable was staff / minion master, which wasn’t too viable at all. There’s a lot of fun to be had with this class, but it is probably the least balanced between the other two since condition builds are currently underwhelming.

Again, I’m not the best player, and could be pretty inexperienced with these classes to highlight their shining moments. Definitely do some research in the class forums, gw2 wiki, and look at some builds on gw2 codex to try them out in heart of the mists before dedicating yourself to just one.

I hope the best for you

NO

The most fun I’ve had in this game has been those first few levels obtaining my skills. This is what I really want to experience in future updates, and I firmly believe new skills (skill capping, quests for skills, etc) can be added to the game without the need for extra levels. Extra levels is just another way to add more equipment and devalue old gear. That is not necessary for progression in this game. New equipment can be added to be on par with existing gear but offer totally different styles.

More levels doesn’t have to equal new fun content.

This is becoming extremely frustrating to view as a player, and a forum poster.

I have never seen a thread on the general forums (though I’m sure someone will post one to prove me wrong ;P) regarding elementalists as OP in PvP or WvW. The only post I may have read were their AoE spells were annoying, not challenging, or impossible.

First, I saw Warriors and Guardians were extremely OP in WvW due to their classes not having a lot of bugs, and being well balanced.

Second, I read post after post regarding one-hit backstab thieves. Equally, I read posts to refute the entire idea that this build was OP by its very nature being incredibly easy to one shot the thieves themselves.

THEN the argument was perma-stealth

…Now, after ANet suggested they would look into adjusting single target spells (not just for ele’s) to be on par with AoEs… there is a complaint against elementalist’s AoE’s.

I wouldn’t even be posting this if these changes didn’t affect my gamplay as a PvE’er, but these trends really need to be tamed. The exaggeration alone is simply untrue considering I’ve seen / heard from friends, posters, and the few times I joined WvW, a variety of classes being played.

Perhaps, instead of this exaggeration, the truth behind this is a group of elementalists (guild members, friends, a formed party) was really encountered.

Either way these posts have proven to be pretty detrimental to the accused classes. Every one of these posts feels like a witch hunt without the true problem being addressed.

I’m always looking for an excuse to post this amazing name generator,

http://www.rabbly.net/gnominomicon/namegenerator.html

Although it may be stated for Gnomish names in World of Warcraft, there have been so many gems in that name generator I just couldn’t pass up.

Also to answer the OP’s question, I always choose names that either have an association to a nostalgic cartoon / story character, or names that just make me smile (thus the name generator I linked).

Just a few random name examples from the generator that make me smile:

Cherila Fivegadget
Maritink Togglewheel
Kinny Jogglebyte

(Oddly enough, most of the male names sound very sexual… so I won’t post those >.>;)

Redfeather.6401:

TheUndefined.1720:

I’m not for sure if this has been posted yet, but…

Going out, and finding skills for my characters!!!

That was probably one of the most fun things I did in GW1! I absolutely loved finding an elite on GW wiki, figuring out where the monster was (of course it was in the southern shiverpeaks -.-), and taking this epic journey out to cap the skill!

I remember having to go through that snake path in the Shiverpeaks with an alt, and just being halted in my steps by the sheer beauty of the zone. I totally felt like I was Bilbo or Frodo in Tolkien’s novels! I adored the fear, and danger of going through those zones too! I’d often find myself saying, ‘oh geez where’s the next waypoint! Nooo we’re not going to make it! Oh my gosh… we made it to the last part of the map with 10 health!’ Those moments, and memories will stay with me for a long while.

I’d love to have more of that in GW2. I want to have epic adventures crawling all over the maps, and not just for completion. I’d love to find an elite skill, and build my entire character around it!

Those were some adventures.

Right on! It was what attracted me to GW1 and held me captive. XD

That’s actually all I really did in GW1 lol. I’d just go out, and have adventures trying to put together different types of builds. I’d take a studious approach as well with a notepad out trying to compare numbers, and work together different sorts of skills into my silly gaming nerd equation.

My heart would sink if I saw I had to do half of an entire expansion before I was able to get a skill, but you know what I did? I’d do that half of the expansion as fast as I could just to get enough sunspear points for my rank, or to get enough reputation with the Kurzicks / Luxons.

Accomplishing my silly (totally not as effective as everyone else’s) builds in the end was so incredibly rewarding. Those skills were like pieces of my BiS armor sets.

A good way to add that sort of adventuring in GW2 would be to introduce new weapons then go out, and do quests to unlock the skills. I’m sure people would probably be annoyed at this, but I think that’d be pretty fun!

Zonzai.2341:

TheUndefined.1720:

Next time I’d strongly suggest if you’re going to migrate that large amount of people, wait 3 months after the MMO has come out. See how it is, and the complaints on the forums. Research the company, and look at other games they’ve made. I feel if the OP had been a little more patient, and produced more research to their members we would never have seen this thread. : /

That’s unrealistic.

Not to start a tiff here, but please explain to me exactly how saving your money for a few months before investing in a hobby, researching aka googling arena net, and looking at their previous game, then making a post to your members on your guild site is unreasonable?

Swtor (the OP’s original MMO if I’m not mistaken) was still going strong during this period of time, WoW is certainly still pushing onward; so it isn’t like people were sitting on their fingers, and holding their breath. They had something to do. : /

I’m not for sure if this has been posted yet, but…

Going out, and finding skills for my characters!!!

That was probably one of the most fun things I did in GW1! I absolutely loved finding an elite on GW wiki, figuring out where the monster was (of course it was in the southern shiverpeaks -.-), and taking this epic journey out to cap the skill!

I remember having to go through that snake path in the Shiverpeaks with an alt, and just being halted in my steps by the sheer beauty of the zone. I totally felt like I was Bilbo or Frodo in Tolkien’s novels! I adored the fear, and danger of going through those zones too! I’d often find myself saying, ‘oh geez where’s the next waypoint! Nooo we’re not going to make it! Oh my gosh… we made it to the last part of the map with 10 health!’ Those moments, and memories will stay with me for a long while.

I’d love to have more of that in GW2. I want to have epic adventures crawling all over the maps, and not just for completion. I’d love to find an elite skill, and build my entire character around it!

Those were some adventures.

I’d like to come in here and add to the non-gear treadmill support.

Tolmos is totally correct

I read in the OP’s post, ’we’re used to games like SWtoR / WoW, and didn’t like how GW2 was different.’

I understand the OP just wants to share their experience, but I feel they’re incredibly inexperienced with non-WoW ( / EQ) style MMORPG’s out there. I started out with FFXI, and you know what was endgame for us? Trying not to die, and lose our darn levels!

I do agree with the argument that GW2 is boring atm, but not for the reasons posted in the OP.

Next time I’d strongly suggest if you’re going to migrate that large amount of people, wait 3 months after the MMO has come out. See how it is, and the complaints on the forums. Research the company, and look at other games they’ve made. I feel if the OP had been a little more patient, and produced more research to their members we would never have seen this thread. : /

Blackwolfe.5649:

One big reason why so many people complain is because they want the game to become better, they want to keep playing and have fun and most of all they want anet to listen.

Sometimes hate is just another expression of love (even if hate is bad). If there was no love, the hate might not be as strong.

I completely agree with this statement. I believe many forum readers misinterpret posts as hateful, or whining. The passion behind those posts usually exemplify a posters love for this game.

Without discontent, where will progress lead us? If a gamer prefers an experience completely void of any interaction between consumer suggestion, and developer implementation; the answer is a console game.

There are players that truly hate this game, and those players left without a word. The fastest way to close your business is by not listening to your customers; both content, and discontent.

Grr! I didn’t want to continue to respond to this thread since I felt I had already made my point… but I have a very deep love for Necro’s (I could never truly master them in GW1, but absolutely adored their whole tone since then!), and you brought up Necro.. so I have to comment!

Buff Necromancers!!! This class has so much potential. Every time I try to play Necro in general I just faceplant, same with engineer. These two classes are the most underpowered imo.

So really… the solution here isn’t nerf nerf nerf, instead we should be calling for buuuuffs!

Ok sorry.. I’m done now XD

@Zeldain,

In the end I just think you’re making too many broad assumptions. ‘For fans who love mmo’s and the possibilities that cooperative team play hold,’ I know just as many veteran MMO players that love this game to discontent players.

I think you’re missing the points where I agree the combat isn’t fun.

I did misspeak when discussing comparisons. You’re right. I’m being too strict. The point I was trying to make was in comparison of MMO systems. Every system of the trinity is exactly the same with every MMO. There are tanks that hold aggro, there are Healers that keep players health pools high, there are dps that fight to bring HP down on the target. These are tried, and tested to the point we can bring up numerous examples and draw conclusions of effective, and very ineffective.

Simply alpha / beta testing does not offer any form of comparison to GW2’s system. This game needs time, just like any new idea. I’m usually not the sort to point towards the exit in any game, but if there ever was a game I’d suggest a break on it would have to be GW2. I’m honestly completely ignorant of any proto testing or what have you. If there were builds of GW2 massively tested to the open public, I’d love to be educated how it went.

Look at it this way, if I’m wrong, you didn’t waste anymore time on this game. If I’m right, you have a fun game to come back to at some point.

Zeldain.5710:

TheUndefined.1720:

I truly believe ANet hasn’t really found a sweetspot for their bosses, and the new system of no trinity. Most of the times the interesting aspects of bosses in other games is the whole strategy between the different classes.

But that’s the purpose of an MMO. Strategy and synergy between classes, and the combat system Anet has designed simply doesn’t have any. It’s not a matter of ‘finding a sweet spot.’

In the category of well developed (not the FTP trash MMO’s out there) MMO’s please list to me another MMO that has followed GW2’s design to a T.

I’m talking about same mechanics, same classes, same everything. Please don’t list anything if you can’t use the word ‘exactly,’ and instead use ‘like’ and ‘similar’ in your response.

None right? Well of course there aren’t any MMO’s out there exactly GW2, because the only game that is exactly GW2 is GW2.

So what do you have to compare to this unique game to list it as a failure in regards to, ‘without this system, you can’t have this’? Nothing. We just don’t know if this system is a complete mess of a failure, or if the potential will outride this dry period. This system may, in time, demonstrate an amazing array of strategy in combat.

GW2 is very bland and boring to me. Yet, I don’t kid myself in thinking this is as good as it gets. Sure, we’re not going to see the same boss fights we saw in other games, because GW2 has a completely different system. Though subjective, I agree the trinity boss fights are far more fun than GW2’s. I love having a purpose in my party aside from contributing damage, so naturally I enjoy utility roles in the trinity system. Yet I’m fully aware other MMO’s have had decades to tweak the Tank / DPS / Healer system.

GW2 has had since August to tweak their own class system.

I’m positive this game will find its ‘sweetspot’ in a year or two. That’s exactly what happened with GW1, I have little doubt the same will happen with GW2.

Omen.1879:

Thanks for your reply TheUndefined. To clarify, regarding how they use their money, I was more making the point that money is what develops the game, so it needs to be made clear to the community how the game is being developed, i.e. What is being fixed? What features are we likely to see implemented? As you say, we’ve been waiting since August and it’s just a prime example of bad business practice.

I certainly agree that it feels like the players are not the priority when really; Anet’s got nothing without them.

Oh hehe! There goes me not putting 1 and 1 together! I usually get pretty excited when I see anyone discussing a topic of interest to me. So I totally blazed through your OP lol.

In that case I totally agree with your comment. Thanks so much for the clarification.

@Mythilas,

I definitely see your stance on expectations of communication, and the state of their team. However, I really can’t agree with your last sentence. I feel as a player I’ve constantly said this to myself.

Well, let’s see what next month brings. Ok, that wasn’t at all helpful to our gameplay, maybe next update. Well, that didn’t help at all either, and there were tons of nerfs… ok next update.

I guess after the past very disappointing updates regarding very obvious broken mechanics (Necro AI, broken Dynamic Events (you know.. one of the selling points of this game lol), completely unbalanced dungeons, etc etc etc) some of us are drawing the line.

You seem to have much more tolerance, and patience than some of us. That’s very commendable. Yet, please see that many of us have produced the same attitude you have now, we’ve just been burned on multiple occasions.

Also, as a business owner, at what point do you stop saying ‘they have to wait’, and instead adopt the attitude, ‘we need to produce’? Just a thought ^^;

Honestly, we could argue our points for years without a resolve. I guess at the end of the day we’re all going to hold our opinions, and stay very stubborn in consequence to our experiences.

I could keep arguing against the last two posts, but really I’d just like to suggest to anyone that is having trouble against killing a thief; please play the class for a short time.

I used to think Guardians were ridiculously OP in PvE (still kinda do lol), then I played them. Anyone that can suffer that boring gameplay kinda deserves to smash their face at the keyboard (just teasing ;P)

It’s amazing what will happen if we all tried to walk in each other’s shoes for a short time.

Anyhow, thanks for indulging a carebear in this conversation for so long!

Although I try to give every party the benefit of the doubt (‘complainers,’ ‘white knights,’ ‘Anet’, etc), this post is much more insightful than I believe a lot of readers realize.

This is just good business. I don’t think I’d go so far as to say, ‘Tell me how you’re spending my money!’ You know how they’re spending it. They’re giving most of it to investors, the rest is divided between bonuses, and payroll. Probably a few other things are in there, but we shouldn’t act like naive customers. We know where this money is going.

I do agree that they need to offer more communication. I don’t believe a single post, a little more than a month ago about how they need to increase their information is at all acceptable. The fact I’m waiting two weeks -just- for a roadmap of development on this game that’s been out since August feels so silly to me.

ANet doesn’t have to jump when we say, but I feel the way they’ve demonstrated their priorities have been a huge window to the inner workings at their office. As a player, I really don’t feel that I’m priority at all. That, definitely needs to change this year.

@Xavori,

I actually forgot to mention in my previous post just how terrified I’d get if I saw a warrior lol.

I feel far more fear towards a warrior than I have ever felt towards a thief.

Still, this is coming from the person that’s PvP’d like three times, so I don’t know how much weight my opinion has in this aspect of the game.

@Writetyper,

If your suggestion is to add a skill to every class specifically to basically abolish 1 class’s ability, then there should be a skill like that for every class. There should be an elite for every class to strip a warrior’s def and / or power. There should be an elite to destroy every mesmer’s clone / disable them for a short period of time. There should be an elite to shorten a ranger’s ranged weapon to nearly nothing, and despawn their pet. There should be an elite to buff necro’s, and engineers (<— see what I did there… j/k ;P) You’re basically taking away every class’s unique game play ability. Stealth / mobility is a thief’s.

I truly believe ANet hasn’t really found a sweetspot for their bosses, and the new system of no trinity. Most of the times the interesting aspects of bosses in other games is the whole strategy between the different classes.

In general from what I’ve seen in other MMO’s:

• DPS has to be here, and avoid these things while also mowing down these other points.
• The tank has to pull the boss to this point, avoid these things, while the off tank has to keep this busy yet also keep it in this position for the dps.
• The healer has to keep a special eye on these classes, and provide buffs at this time or there will be a party wipe.

So there were clear instructions on how to challenge each subcategory of gamer (dps, tank, healer). While with GW2 honestly the only strategy is, don’t stand there, oh and be sure to stay alive! Really the only way to make a boss fight interesting without adding necessity to any one class is to either add a boss fight gimmick (you have to pick up this special weapon to fight the boss), or a very large health pool to make the fight longer.

ANet just needs some practice with their new system. I’m sure in a year or two there will be far more diverse, and balanced bosses than they have now.

Fiennes.9568:

TheUndefined.1720:

Do people truly have so much trouble with thieves in PvP to warrant all this attention?

In reality, people do not have that much of an issue with thieves. Well, those who are pretty decent at their class. Primarily, the people complaining are the people who are dying to thieves burst, and want them nerfed rather than learning to counter the burst and anticipate it.

To be fair, there is somewhat of a culling problem combined with a thief’s stealth, but I do not think it is as widespread as some are making out. I think people are pointing the fingers too much at an easy “reason” rather than buffing their class, or learning to counter.

Way to easy to point the finger outward, rather than inward.

Thanks for the info, and not flaming me lol. I’ve really tried to avoid these threads as I am very biased towards Thief. However, having played dozens of MMO’s in my lifetime I’ve never seen such unabashed complaining over one class on the forums. I have PvP’d maybe three times in this game total. So, I’m quite ignorant of how the games play out. The two times I went into WvW I dueled a thief on mesmer, and honestly… it was really easy to send him / her running lol.

I’ll gladly say I’m an absolute terrible pvper. I tried to a duel a ranger on my thief, and he basically laughed me out of the instance. I guess I just look at PvP as, you win some you lose some.

Overall, though, I really am curious why my class gets such an incredible amount of hate. How fun is a game if you truly can just mindlessly kill anyone on the field? You should die in PvP, isn’t that what makes those kills so rewarding?

Meh sorry I’m rambling. Didn’t mean to derail the topic on stealth though. Thanks for indulging my curiosity.

Kravick.4906:

I will never understand MMO developers and the insistence of adding a class that can stealth/become invisible at will and have extreme high burst damage at the same time. Rogues, and every other MMO after WoW that copied that bullkitten, has always been one of the most complained about topics.

You cannot balance a class that can go invisible at will and have the ability to take out any target with impunity.

Yet isn’t the balance for this that you can basically two shot those classes?

Playing a ranger in WoW, I would eat those rogues alive. I’d drop traps, and smoke out any stealthed character. I’d also stun them, cripple them, and sic my pet on them. I actually remember back in BC a completely twink (I think that was the term lol…) rogue in the ultimate PvP gear for level 20 bracket couldn’t touch me. I kited him in a tight circle, and just mowed him down. Yet, a warrior would close the distance, and eat right through my silly low level leather gear.

One of my favorite parts of an MMO is the rock vs paper of job classes. Sure your class might not be effective towards this one class, but how effective is your class to a ranger, or necromancer, or elementalist?

I mean, is the argument here everything should be equal, nothing should be special against something else?

I understand this is a thief’s discussion in regards to stealth, and honestly I feel like it should be in the thief sub-forum.

However, I’m curious as to why I see so many posts regarding thieves. Do people truly have so much trouble with thieves in PvP to warrant all this attention? If so, shouldn’t those claiming over-powered here, and nerf there keep it focused towards PvP play?

Maybe I’m a bad thief (which is entirely possible), but in PvE my HP gets eaten away extremely often. I also like to think I run a very balanced vitality build too.

The main mechanic I see used in dungeons that just destroy players is condition damage. I mean… players will drop if they get more than 1 debuff on them. So often times I feel there is a very unfair lean towards Guardians, since they have such a huge amount of condition removal. Yet, as frustrated as this makes me, since I absolutely detest playing a guardian, and personally find condition removal somewhat lacking on other job classes in comparison; I accept that mechanic. Guardians are known for their party support, so should they not shine in that aspect?

Thieves are known for their mobility in this game. That’s their defense. Mobility is the pure lifeline of a thief. This game has proven stealth, and mobility go hand in hand. They balance this with the very low HP pool of a thief.

So every time I see discussion like this, really what I read is ‘nerf the defense of thief.’ I definitely feel there needs to be balance, but really should we not focus our discussion to the real problem here, PvP?

Maybe not male Charr so much, but I actually see female Charr mes quite often.

Maybe the Norn Male?

(Skip the first paragraph if you don’t want to read QQ ;P)

I’ve been playing this game since closed beta. The first 30mins were phenomenal. I adore unlocking skills, and to be honest it’s probably the most fun I have in this game. However, I quickly found myself searching for something to enrich my gaming experience. I tried all the job classes, and realized very few were truly effective (at least for my playstyle). I ran the dungeons, and discovered how little strategy was needed aside from, ‘Keep yourself alive!’. I looked into the loot, well I wasn’t at all impressed by the equipment offered (though the designs are beautiful, they don’t feel unique without class specialty gear: ie Thief Armor, Mesmer Armor, etc). Lastly, the story just fell flat when I realized how little I was going to learn about my character, because of Trahearne stealing the show (I’m a little self-centered when it comes to my character! ).

Every other zone was just a means to an end for my leveling. I’ll find myself rushing through zones as quickly as possible.

Yet, this all changed the moment I stepped into Frostgorge Sound.

First of all, I was taken back by how crisp the atmosphere felt. Between the crunching ice as I drove between the giant sparkling crevices within the glaciers, to the brisk wind while swimming through iceberg littered waters. I was thrilled to find new animal life swimming about as well (particularly the sharks).

Secondly, the writing for the Koda’s truly touched me. I’m not at all ashamed to share I teared up quite often as I read the journals of Icehammer, Snowcaller, Quatermaster, Voice Attendant, and the Guard. The writing was so touching, and so deeply emotional; whoever wrote for the Kodas should absolutely do more for this game. Never have I cared, and felt such empathy than I have while reading the Koda’s great journey south.

Lastly, typically when I play an Elder Scrolls game I generally point my camera up to the beautiful starry filled sky, and just wander about (usually spamming my spacebar for acrobatics ;P). Never have I done this in any other game, especially an MMO, except for Frostgorge Sound. I wasn’t obsessively checking my xp bar desperate to hasten my ventures through this land, neither was I dozing off from boredom; I was captivated by this zone.

ArenaNet, you did something so right with Frostgorge Sound. Thank you for this wonderful experience

P.S.: Unless I missed it… where are the giant squids?! Definitely should be added asap!

Arsenic Touch.7960:

Actually, the game of the year award went to the walking dead (spike tv) the only one that actually matters because it’s voted on.

As for IGN, they gave game of the year to Journey, not Guild Wars 2.
PC Gamer gave guild wars 2 MMO of the year, not game of the year.
Angry Joe is the only one that game best game of the year to guild wars 2.

So your post is quite inaccurate.

I’m glad to see someone else recognized this as well!

I posted the information on IGN giving Journey GotY (which imo was well deserved and then some).

I’m all for giving GW2 the awards that are due, but this OP feels misleading to me. :/

Um…

Ign gave Game of the Year to Journey.

The category was MMO of the year, very different categories. OP your post is a little misleading.

Source: http://www.ign.com/videos/2012/12/21/igns-2012-game-of-the-year-video

Happy New Year from the West Coast!

I hope you all had a very fun (possibly tipsy), and very safe New Year celebration!

This is a great question, and seeing as how my personal experience with GW1 was more positive on their expansions than the base release of the game… absolutely!

I’m actually expecting the game to really come into its own with the expansion, and kinda waiting on the expansion before I completely write off my experience with GW2.

Really excited for it, and I hope it comes out sooner than later.

I agree with Randulf. I didn’t start to fall in love with GW1 until the game had Nightfall / Factions under its belt.

I actually really disliked GW1 Proph. I thought the game was incredibly boring. I disliked the majority of classes, and felt they were really ineffective.

The problem with GW2 (imo) is there needs to be more variety within the classes. More weapons, skills, more everything. Right now there just aren’t a lot of effective weapon combos. There are maybe 1 or 2 weapons that work very well in this game per class. Sure we can get into an argument with playstyle, and all that; however I still feel the more options to make the character you want the better!

After their second expansion I think this game will be smooth like butter. Until then I’m just in, and out without any sense of loyalty to the game.

Greiger.7092:

TheUndefined.1720:

Also, if you’re interested in gaming harassment, I strongly suggest this video. It gives great insight into this behavior, and also some really great ways to combat it.

Clicky —> http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/harassment

A bit off topic but, hey that’s where those guys went, I used to watch them religiously when they were on The Escapist. Those guys know their kitten.

I’ve watched almost every episode. Their shows have really raised my intelligence, and awareness as a gamer. I try to find a reason to share their videos as often as I can.

>.>

Clicky —> http://www.penny-arcade.com/patv/show/extra-credits

My first 80 I ran a few dungeons, and did all the lower level zones first before venturing into the higher level zones. So I actually didn’t encounter the risen much at all.

My second 80 (one I’m currently playing), I wanted to explore more of Tyria, and enjoy all the world had to offer me. Huge mistake. I’ve spent hours on events in attempts to solo them (reclaiming that stupid fort in sparkfly fen, trying to defend the Hylek town from waves after waves of undead, etc) to absolutely no avail. I’d get overwhelmed as if there were a dozen players behind me.

No there weren’t players around the area to scale up the difficulty.

So you know what I did? I left. I didn’t even want to bother with the hassle of those unbalanced enemies / events. I find myself doing that pretty often with the higher level zones.

I could just be a poor player, or playing an ineffective class; either way it isn’t fun. : /

I’m really confused by the intent of the OP. ArenaNet practices banning quite frequently for verbal attacks.

However, if this is just to bring awareness to the community then I agree. I also completely support ArenaNet’s stern stance against this sort of behavior. So many people write these attacks off with ‘just turn the profinity filter on’ without realizing how much damage is actually going on. Most of the time these attacks come from children, or adults that simply never grew up. Although it is neither ArenaNet’s, or the community’s responsibility to parent over such behavior; it is our obligation to raise our own standards higher when witnessing bullying attacks on one another. Demonstrating how this behavior is unacceptable will help foster a more welcoming gaming community for the next generation, as well as our own.

In regards to slipping a curse word once, and a while; I don’t think I’ve seen many cases (if any) of ArenaNet banning individuals. If they do, well that’s their own prerogative.

This isn’t our game. We didn’t make it. We’ve paid to participate in their virtual playground. They make the rules, and we play by them.

Once a member of the community doesn’t agree with those rules, well this really isn’t the place for them sadly. : /

Also, if you’re interested in gaming harassment, I strongly suggest this video. It gives great insight into this behavior, and also some really great ways to combat it.

Clicky —> http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/harassment

Did you write an email to ANet support?

I’m sorry to hear this happened to you, and I hope this gets resolved in your favor over the scammer.

This is a very informative thread. I’ve never really thought about how my bleeds correlate with other’s.

Really makes me rethink some choices I’ve made with my characters. I’d really like to see bleed stacks increase. Possibly with a diminishing return? That way those with bleed builds can balance the stack of bleeds.

To be honest, I’ve no idea of how to really adjust this so everyone gets their due damage. Very interesting issue, and thanks very much for bringing this up!

To the OP, I can really appreciate your questions, but for me none of them really address the issue I have in this game regarding loot.

As a player I prefer a steady progression line for my character. I totally don’t mind seeing items that are ridiculous (to me personally) to achieve; like the legendary items. Simply put, I’m not going to push for one until I feel they’re more reasonable to obtain for my play style. If this never happens, well then no biggie for me!

There are two big issues that bothers me with the system ArenaNet has implemented in GW2. First, there isn’t a smooth step from the bottom of the progression line to the middle, and top. An example would be, buying exotics on the TP transition to the RNG / FotM method of obtaining Ascended equipment. An incredibly easy technique of obtaining gear to a very unrewarding way to obtain gear. I don’t find FotM RNG too outrageous, but I absolutely despise how the FotM dungeon has been implemented by gating off members of the community with ‘fractal tiers.’ However, this will be remedied once they put Ascended items up for karma, and they allow other players to join their friends in higher tiers of fractals.

Secondly, I don’t feel there’s an adequate balance between structured group events, and going out with a mob to ‘zerg.’ The amount of time spent sticking with a very long, and difficult chain of events (dungeons, long dynamic event chain, etc) just doesn’t equal the reward given. I understand there are numerous posts on these forums how individuals have made fortunes of gold by running dungeons. I’m not going to contest those methods, and how these practices affect their gameplay. Yet, for my own experience in GW2 I have never made more of a profit from running dungeons compared to the mindless events in Orr. Perhaps I’m just running the wrong dungeons.

Now to address other items such as the unbreakable choir bell; I thought the amount of backlash this item received was absurd. You can buy as many temporary choir bells as you want for an absolute reasonable price. Gambling items are meant to be fun. “Hey, I opened a few, and I got one! Neat!” The problem with these items is the fact people just don’t have self control. That isn’t ANet’s fault, that’s the consumer’s fault. I would have a huge problem with this item if say ANet stated specifically you would get one within 200 boxes, but they didn’t. No one has tricked anyone into opening / spending that amount of money on those items.

There’s a very fine balance in this game between reasonable, and unreasonable. So long as there is a reasonable method of obtaining a comparable item to the unreasonable item, I’m fine with that.

Personally, I miss gifts of the traveler. That was the main way I made money in GW1. I’ve yet to find a profitable way to make gold in GW2, but I’m sure as time goes by there will be something that allows me to purchase the items I want. Until then I’ll enjoy the game as it is.

TL:DR: The game’s RNG isn’t as atrocious as it’s made out to be. There are comparable alternative items for the difficult to obtain items. ANet provides alternatives to the difficult to obtain items, but the balance between progression in the game could be better.

Narcemus.1348:

I would like to point out that it would make more sense for us to receive a gift around January 1st instead of December 25th, because that was the central point in time that the gods were fighting over (although in real world terms it probably would have been closer to February 2nd with the war over how long winter would last).

That’s true. They do the finale on the 1st (so looking forward to this year! I finally get my rudolph helm hehe).

I think allowing players to choose between a hero / henchman in each of the Orders would be a great way to not only give the decision to choose an Order more weight outside of gear, but a non-intrusive way to introduce the hero / henchmen system to GW2.

Each of the orders can have a group of heroes the player can choose. All 8 professions could be presented in the Orders so players don’t have to risk losing out on an opportunity to balance their gameplay by making a bad decision between the Orders.

The heroes can all have their own storyline you must complete before opening up the opportunity to provide their services as your hero / henchman.

There would definitely need to be some balancing, and limitations on the uses of heroes as to not jeopardize the need to play with other players. Such as only 1 hero is obtainable per player, or they could be placed on a cooldown system (summon hero for 2 hours, cooldown 4 hours).

ShinraGuardian.8053:

Call me the odd one out, but I actually enjoy farming.

I have a particularly stressful life outside of the internet, there are many things I do to deal with it, but possibly my favorite one is beating the living daylights out of every monster I see, even if I don’t get great items I still have fun doing it.

I’m in the same boat as you lol. I actually love taking an hour or two out of my day, and just enjoying my level 80 going crazy on a huge group of monsters while I listen to some music.

However, I completely agree with the OP in regards to group content not being as rewarding as zerging regular mobs.

As a player, I’m just overall really confused with the route ArenaNet is taking this game. In other MMO’s I have a very clear goal. Get to level cap, climb the gear ladder, enjoy helping other players do the same thing. This is a clear, and focused route of my game in most MMO’s. However, with GW2 I just feel like it’s a mess right now. Getting to level cap isn’t rewarding at all, and I remember reading a Dev saying how they don’t want you to have to wait until level cap to enjoy the benefits of being a top level character. Wait… wha? Ok. So 80 isn’t a big deal, and it really isn’t to me as a player.

So what about gear? Well, gear is either pretty easy or so ridiculously hard to get I don’t even bother with it. There’s no smooth progression between Exotic, Ascended, and Legendary. I don’t particularly hate gear tiers, but spreading gear so far apart in a game is confusing. Is it easy to get, or hard? Should I be feeling relaxed about my 80’s equipment, or should I be stressing out trying to keep up in fractals?

Now, I know the biggest argument for this whole mess is “well, you get to choose what you want to do!” That’s all well, and good but by choosing one over the other you’re cutting yourself out of huge chunks of the game. I want to enjoy everything. Dungeons, gear climbing, leveling, etc. However, I just don’t understand the goal ArenaNet is setting out for the players in this game. It’s certainly not about the story, or even playing with your friends since there are so many complications with both of those aspects.

In a year, I think ArenaNet will understand exactly what they want to do with this game. Right now, it’s more like a mismatch quilt of gameplay with the big title of, ‘Give us your money!’

Just my two cents anyways.

I wanted to drop in this thread to also support the OP’s guide. I tried this just the other day, and it worked beautifully. Although I did notice Toxx ignoring the snowmen / catapults at times, it didn’t make that much of a difference.

I would suggest this strategy to anyone needing this event completed. Great advice, and thanks very much for sharing.

Although I replied to this thread already, I would like to add two more thoughts to this event.

I truly enjoy the accessibility of this event over Halloween, and am still enjoying Wintersday.

However, the two points that I felt kept this event from being great were; nothing happened on the 25th, and I also feel the story was completely overlooked.

It would’ve been really nice if we were all given a small present in the mail on Christmas. Now I understand you get three mini pets, a very cute backpack skin, weapon skins, and all the content in between; yet it would’ve been nice to have been given a present on Christmas.

The second thing I felt was completely underwhelming was the story. Halloween’s lore (imo) was so great, because they used GW1 lore! I’m dumbstruck there wasn’t any mention of the battle between Dwayna, and Grenth! That was one of the coolest things to witness in GW1. I understand the deities left Tyria, but goodness you could have still tied in some really interesting twist to the old traditions of Wintersday.

Toxx, and Tixx just didn’t feel fleshed out at all. Yes, I get it, Portal. That was it. There wasn’t anything else to the story that I saw at all. I’m still curious as to what the ‘Giant Clanker’ did to the skritt to make them so vengeful towards the Inifinarium. Sure you could assume they gave them presents, and they rebelled on a Skritt town, but how much cooler could it have been to investigate such a happening. Perhaps a quest line to rebuild the Skritt town out of the kindness of the player’s heart? Sounds more akin to the whole spirit of holidays; you know giving back?

Anyhow, those were the only two things that sort of bugged me.

So… you were the one that kept smashing my face in the snow with that stupid snowball?!

…What goes around comes around, friend!! >:(

/teasing ;P

…no but really I hate that stupid snowball move with a passion!!! >:E

Taiance.6213:

If you still have the frames make a tonic and buy the mini otherwise your out of luck and forget having them both.

This isn’t the case. You can buy the frames at the gift exchange for all those ‘ugly’ items. I don’t believe you need the cogs for the tonic. You may need to purchase the stuffing glue though.

Just be aware the tonics are a very random chance item. There are players that got the tonic within a handfull of tries, and other’s that broke their bank trying to achieve a tonic without success.

Unless they’ve changed it again, you should only get the cog / stuffing / glue reward the first time you complete it.

Originally you were only able to make 2 of the 5 toys. However, due to a problem with people unable to get their rewards from the Tixx chest in LA, ANet decided to give everyone an extra 250 cogs.

So all in all you’re able to make 3 total toys with the cogs, but you may need to buy extra stuffing / glue.

Wintersday was a blast to me. If I had to compare them on a level of which was more pleasing to go through, I would say Wintersday. Not having to freak out about times, and one time events was a huge stress reliever. I prefer the way they handled this event as well.

Personally I loved the dungeon variations. I thought it was a lot of fun going back to the Grove variation, and helping out friends. I was surprised by how much I had forgotten lol.

I really appreciated the jumping puzzle as well. With the Halloween’s Clock tower, I tried it three times, and saw it was a huge waste of my time. This jumping puzzle was difficult enough (for me) that I got it maybe 3 times out of the dozen times I tried.

I absolutely loved the PvP event. There were some issues, but my team wasn’t normally organized enough to take advantage of them (I hardly saw anyone waiting on the gift respawn). Normally I suck so much in PvP I rarely join in any matches, but in this event I was a monster with that slingshot! I stopped trying to get the presents, and had mini death matches instead!

I didn’t feel anything was really filler. Also I didn’t get the feeling anything (outside of the dungeon) was super necessary either. I loved how this event felt like a huge amusement park for me to pick, and choose what I wanted to do.

For me, both events were a success.

I’d say if you have the extra room just save them for next Wintersday.

Before the Tixx fix, we were only able to craft 2 toys. You should’ve gotten mail (and if you haven’t go talk to Tixx in LA) that gives you another 250 cogs. You may not have enough magic stuffing or glue for the third, but you can buy it on the AH

So in total, you can make 3 toys without spending real cash in the gemstore.

Those tonics were just a special side thing you could do if you wanted to invest in a chance item.

Giving you a very stern warning, especially since you don’t forum dive: These tonics are based on chance. Whether that chance is 1 in 6 or 1 in 100, every time you attempt to obtain one of these items, you’re taking a chance of getting nothing. So proceed at your own risk.

Doggie.3184:

Wow.. Think Anet needs to mail out one of those unbreakable bells to you if you don’t already have one. .-.

Totally agree with this. You totally deserve an unbreakable bell lol.

MrMacAndCheese.3907:

will be buried on pg 2 by QQ in 5 mins ;D

Lol, I tried to go this route with other games (*cough*Tera*cough*). I always wanted to support the community with tips to alleviate their frustration, and suggestions to help the game prosper in a less infuriating way.

However, I quickly realized players tend to want to be upset. Even if they’re treated respectfully, and offered rational explanations for their problems they will still be angry.

Likewise, I’ve yet to see a developing company not be totally stubborn with silly things. ANet has probably been the best company in regards to listening to their fans, and offering sooner-than-later adjustments. Yet, even then there’s a fine line a company must walk.

• Please your fans, and you may end up losing the vision for your game.
• Stick to the vision of your game, and you may end up losing your playerbase.

Personally, I think the real problem is the forums themselves. Though they offer a lot of good, I think the negativity really affects the community over all. No real easy fix for ArenaNet. I feel for them and the players both lol.

I think this is a great post to make, and although I agree with your post… you know like nobody will follow this advice right? Lol XD

Oh my gosh! Ridiculous! That was great! Thanks so much for sharing! If only they took at that darn swinging sound >.<

Necrid.2705:

This is on Anet. The whole event. They are going to become very familiar with the phrase : You made your bed, now sleep in it.

That’s a little harsh. Considering the fixes they made to try to better this event from the last two, I think they’re doing a great job.

I’m sure they’ll take this into consideration for the next event… Canthan New Year? (floating lanterns!!!)

@YaHiKoDrG,

I don’t know when this person bought the gems, but I do know the dev post on only 2 available toys was well before any mention of the Tixx fix (at least that I had seen).

I don’t want to argue with anyone. I think both points brought up in this thread are valid, and I hope ArenaNet takes this in to better their next event. However, I don’t think it’s fair to completely to shrug off a complaint without trying to uncover the real issue here, and that is ArenaNet’s poor communication to their players.