Guild Wars 2

Played since launch and got my first two exotics during the Halloween event. Since then ive got two that were not account bound, six that were account bound from the fractals. Thats in 1k+ hours, and with very little MF.

I personally wouldnt pay attention to exotic drops anyhow… I get a fair few rares and four of those equal a basic exotic.

First off I know about GW2LFG but Arah Story mode crops up very rarely on there as its an event people usually run just once.

Im looking to get a group of four to join me for the Story mode of Arah. Ive been playing for 1k+ hours and for about half of that ive had my personal story sat on the final Zhaitan battle. Time to finally bite the bullet and get a group together! I was due to complete it with my guild but those that were online havent been back on since the new year.

Im free tonight from 6pm GMT (yup, European server) and most of the weekend so if anyone is up for it either post here or send me a message in game.

My warrior is damage spec’d and uses boon duration runes to help both myself and the party im with.

2xPirate = 10% Magic Find, 20% Might Duration = 13s each
2xWater = 25 Healing, 15% Boon Duration = 76s each
2xMonk = 25 Healing, 15% Boon Duration = 120 AC tokens each

Run the AC dungeon for the tokens you need to buy Monk runes and you’ll earn enough gold needed to buy the other four

Ive noticed for the past couple of weeks that a single shot of my rifle yields an ‘obstructed’ note above the mob im trying to kill. Ive only noticed this against boss mobs, and the boss isnt blocking during this single shot because ive noticed this issue middle of the way through Volley(skill 3) which shoots five shots in rapid succession.

Im not sure whether the bug is the fact im doing no damage for that single shot or the fact its showing ‘obstructed’ despite me doing damage. Its only one single shot out of about 25+ hits so its not a huge problem, just thought id report it.

I can only speak from my own perspective but without some form of progression (ie: something to do, not ‘being more powerful’) I probably would have given the game a break by now. Ive completed all that I want to complete on my main character including world completion, jumping puzzles, most dungeons (still missing Arah, will do it when I get a stable guild), personal story, master crafter and every event up to date. I got an alt to max, have everything I need for him, nearly finished his personal story etc and if I ever wanted to make a legendary ive got 80% of the mats sitting here to do so.

Ive enjoyed every minute ive played so would never complain, however without something to work towards (Legendaries excluded due to the fact I do not like any of the current skins) id have taken a break and popped back to check out the events every month that they are released. That is why im pleased Ascended gear was introduced. It gives me something to do each day and keeps GW2 on my mind. The only shame is that every player in every guild ive ever been in has quit so the lack of friends aspect is still a little disheartening. Im sure ANEt are aware of this and thats why they are making these changes.

For every one person that is against gear progression there is at least one for. You cant please everyone all of the time.

EDIT: Im all for cosmetic upgrades as well but only if they are extremely hard to get. In my opinion GW2 suffers from the fact that most items are far too easy to obtain. Even legendaries are now no longer rare- I partied with three separate players today, all with Twilight and Gandara is hardly a ‘popular’ server..

Okay so you seem pretty certain that the boon duration only affects the buffs that I use. No problem, I cannot find the info that says this but lets assume that youre right. Instead of increasing my power by boosting external boon duration, im boosting FOUR people’s duration for boons given to them by me. So im losing a small amount of damage to increase my entire party’s F/S/8xM by 30/30/50%. Thanks, youve actually made me see that my build is even more useful to the party!

Next I should mention that im 30 in tactics due to the fact im a shouts heal build. I need Lung Capacity and Vigorous Shouts, leaving no room for the warhorn trait not to mention the fact that I only use the warhorn for a swiftness boost. Im Axe+Shield/Rifle.

Lastly I think you mean Signet of Rage, not Fury.

If you want to talk about my warrior further feel free to private message me from this point on and i’ll be pleased to answer any questions you may have. I apologise to everyone else for letting this thread de-rail.

ORIGINAL QUESTION: Which condition based runes would you suggest for my Axe/Torch/Warhorn ranger?

Thanks for the reply. Ive no rush…im pretty much half way towards the relics for the backpack anyway. I just wouldve thought that, considering the price change of relic bought infusions changed within a week or two of that announcement, it would be just as easy to change a Forge recipe.

You sir deserve man points and thats saying something considering I disagree with everything you have said. You do however earn points for

a) Making me imagine a musical based on gaming.
b) Taking the time and effort to post what you did when a sentence would have been adequate.
3) Making me look up at my Blu Ray collection to see Sweeney Todd is up there. Not sure I want to watch it again though…

Note for next time- you wouldve got more man points had you have used the word ‘bacon’ in the song.

Did this event for the first time…started off with just me then a character called White Desire joins in and the two of us just mow down all of the bosses until just before the Eye of Zhaitan then (conveniently may I add) a party of four join in to DPS the final boss down. One of the few epic moments ive had in GW2, so thanks to White Desire for a great event!

Anyway enough of the soppy stuff- loot from chest was a rare and some NPC food. Good drops considering I had only 15%MF on (Pirate sigil + Karka accessory) but alas, no Final Rest. I can dream though!

Oh and thanks for the guide Deified, used it to get to the location and just winged it from there.

For the sheer depth id go for Ele. So many different ways in which you can play an elementalist coupled with the atunement swapping make this class the most tricky to master, but will dominate when used right.

I tried an Ele….far too complicated for my poor little brain to cope with! <3 my easy to play warrior too much.

Many people ask about multi-stat items but it depends a lot on your character’s build. For example my warrior has the Empowered trait which gives 1.5% extra damage per unique boon I have on me. When partying its beneficial for me to have runes that improve my boon duration to take advantage of this and the boons themselves. There are also traits that take advantage of, for example, having a lot of vit and therefore any points invested in vit may yield further advantages.

So personally I wouldnt be looking at just the stats themselves, but how you can use those stats. If you dont take advantage of what ive mentioned above then maybe it will be beneficial to go for multi-stat items. I would, however, stay away from the Triforge as its massively expensive and will probably be replaced during the next ascended patch. Im fully expecting to see ascended earrings and necklaces next time around.

Please tell me if I am wrong, but I was under the impression that the devs were going to nerf the amount of ectoplasm needed to create the ascended book and quiver. It was certainly mentioned by the powers that be that the cost was too high on a forum post I can no longer find. Is this still happening? Its not so much a ‘I need this to happen’ question, more an inquiry as I gear up an alt.

Can I just say that this thread is great, even though im not directly looking for the staff! A couple of months back I was aiming to make an Ele and obviously came across the Final Rest and had to have it. Since then ive dropped the Ele but im still interested in finding out the secrets of the staff even though ive no character that can make use of it! Chances are id sell it, wasteful as that is, but rest assured that any information I find (which is nothing at this point) will be posted here. Its like a treasure hunt and I do loves me a treasure hunt!

Jay.3284:

Warrior can stack infinite Might/Fury without any boon duration….
With ONLY 20 in tactics (20%)… they can get infinite Might/Fury/Swiftness. You runes are useless… especially on a warrior

I have 30 in tactics so can assure you that you are wrong. Im also willing to bet that you have forgotten that % boon duration works for all boons given to you, and that the Empowered trait gives 1.5% damage per unique boon on me. Making external boons such as protection, vigor, regen etc last as long as possible not only benefits me by gaining the boon, but also by gaining damage.

Anyway that is all off topic on a ranger thread. Just looking for some tips on condition damage runes for dungeons.

Its among the hardest of the fractals but its far from impossible. Tips I can give:

1) Always keep moving (the obvious one) to avoid the burn damage on the floor
2) When the elementals spawn ignore and take down his shield ASAP to stop him regen’ing health (he munches on a human when he has a shield on)
3) Bunch up during the elemental spawning period and AOE them down. If anyone has a blind save it until this point.
4) Combo fields are your friends. Ask the party whether they use fields beforehand- theyre not essential but they make any fight a little easier.
5) Save your endurance for when you really need it.
6) The more agony resistance you have, the better. If you still havent got your two rings and the backpack(so 15AR minimum) then go back and grind 10 until you get them (or can ‘buy’ them).

I can afford Divinity but I see it as a rather expensive way to add a mere few % damage and a great way to opt out of a set build. One of my three armour sets on my warrior has Divinity runes inserted and I only really use them to replace broken parts or replace the 20% might duration buff from runes of pirate when im stacking too much. If there was a way to remove runes and keep the armour id drop them completely.

As for my ranger I know I dont have the build that does the most DPS but I feel happy using Axe/Warhorn/Torch with traps so ive got my build sorted. Just interested in what runes people have used for near pure condition build rangers.

If you have any specific questions ask on this forum and im sure the majority of people here will be happy to help.

Id relish GW2 raid content. Five man dungeons lack that epic feel and while open world boss events bring that back, the ease of the fight is laughable. Large scale dungeons (ie: raids) involving 10, 15, 20 players would be epic and a challenge and I really cannot see how anyone would have an issue with that so long as they are optional. Special skins, weapons, backpacks etc with no stat increase would be amazing.

I neither like nor hate the fact you can now buy Legendaries on the TP. The main reason is that these nice looking skins are nothing more than an end game item designed to get people playing the game. You dont have epic quests to do, just a grind (I use this term positively) in a few different aspects of the game. Legendary weapons are not legendary!

For me I see no difference between grinding out a Legendary, grinding out money irl to buy gold (stupid if you ask me) or grinding out gold in the game. This view would be massively different had you have to complete quests, stories, boss fights, jumping puzzles etc etc to acquire the weapon but you do not. ANET missed an opportunity with Legendaries, we all know this but as it stands Legendaries are just nice skins, nothing more. When ascended weapons come in you’ll be able to transmute current weapons with ascended, so the whole power argument is null and void.

Personally I wouldnt mind having to go out and get new equipment. I see GW2 as a journey that ive not yet finished. I expect (and hope) that my current equipment doesnt last me until the game’s demise. But for those that do mind…what about adding in a way to upgrade your current equipment? If not then level specific skins, keeping all stats at 80?

As for trait points…a new tier may be needed. Skills….new level specific skills maybe?

So its been widely reported that ANET have shoe’d in ability to raise the level cap in the future and because of this I think we can safely assume it will happen eventually, possibly in a future expansion. I do see an issue with this however- the relative ease of leveling in GW2 will see any small cap increase rendered nigh on pointless. If, as in many MMOs, they decide to add a further 10 or 20 levels then I can see many completing this, along with the new maps in a few hours. What should be a massive update will effectively be an event at most.

So with this in mind ive been trying to think of ways to shoe in a ‘cap’ increase that wouldnt be completed in a matter of hours. Apart from the obvious increasing of the exp needed to level, what about an achievement based leveling system? Completing specific tasks in order to get a set amount of exp….but with enough different achievements for the player to choose what they take part in. The point is that you cannot get exp from an event more than once. These events/achievements could include new bosses, mini-stories, your personal story, dynamic events, renown hearts etc etc. The point is that this would slow exp gain but you would have to implement a system whereby exp cannot be gained outside of the new areas and that could be controversial.

A variation of the above, you could do away with the level increase and have an achievement based system for the new zones which awards titles (or similar). You would then be able to wear the new equipment based on what titles you hold.

So enough babbling, how would you lot like the level cap increase to be implemented?

Id disagree, certainly in the case of my warrior. I run 2xWater, 2xMonk and 2xPirate for a total of 30% boon duration, 20% might duration, 50 healing and 10% MF. That gives me constant fury, swiftness and approx 10 stacks of might. I also run with a strength sigil on my rifle for 30% chance to gain might on crit, and during the day use those pepper poppers for 40% chance on crit to gain might. All in all around 14 stacks of constant might and that is just my boons. If two other players in the party give me might I have to drop the pirate rune pieces! I then have the Empowered trait, giving me ~1.5% extra damage per different boon on me.

I know a warrior isnt a ranger but im just using it as an example of making use of boon duration. It is certainly a lot better than orbs for my warrior. In the case of my ranger boon duration isnt whats needed but I certainly wouldnt like to run with a full orb set.

Stats yes but specific buffs/effects no. Any boon duration % on runes with a guardian in the party and youre far exceeding the sats from orbs. The only way id consider using an orb is if I didnt want the #6 ability on the rune.

By fix you mean ‘buff’. Buffed or not ive no interest in using spirits.

Thief is great if you can back up the crit chance with crit damage, which I cannot. Divinity I find is great but only for those not sure which runes to pick.

Ok so if I gave you the following choices, while stating that this was specifically a dungeon build, which would you pick?

Four Runes of the Afflicted plus:
1) 100 condition damage + Death Nova (poison on down?)
2) 25 power + 20% might duration (equates to 4 seconds of 3 stacks of might with my own buffs but would include external buffs)
3) 28 condition damage + 15% bleeding

Im sorry but are there those here seriously thinking theyll allow you to buy a full expansion with gems? For a start, there are people playing with 1000s of gold from farming in one way or another. Can you see them actually rewarding these players with a free expansion pack? Its these players, those that spend time playing the game, that they want to spend money. Secondly. can you think what would happen to the market with a sudden exodus of gold from the game? All hell would break loose!

Expect to pay real money for an expansion.

I wouldnt normally post on a thread like this. Im one of those people that has had a ton of fun so far in GW2 but so many people on the forum use the phrase “Well if you dont like the core values of GW2, go play another game”.

Quotes like this kill games. Its all well and good ANET sticking by a lot (not all!) of their policies but only until such a point where they have a problem with player numbers. Then it becomes an exercise in how to draw players back into the game, doing ANYTHING that is necessary. That includes going against core values! I dont doubt that everyone involved has a soft spot for what GW2 is and im sure they have plans based on this fact, but first and foremost this is a business and their job is keeping customers happy until such a point where that customer makes a further purchase.

Saying “If you want gear progression(ex), go play another game” is fine if there’s already enough players enjoying the current content. At this point im not saying there’s an issue with numbers but I can speak from my own experience- two guilds joined, 60+ members and im the only one still playing. This is echoed all over the forums. Surely this isnt ‘normal’ for an MMO as big as GW2?

FYI I agree that a lot of changes need to be made to boss fights and general PvE combat, FORCING people to work as a team. The solo aspect, while good for those who prefer not to play with others, has watered the game down. It is now too casual and in my opinion that is why many have left. There is very little challenge outside of Arah and a couple of the Fractals.

Ive just reached the magical 80 with my alt, an axe/torch/warhorn ranger and I originally planned on running with 4 runes of the Afflicted for the specific bleed/poison duration and 2 runes of Lyssa for 10% duration to all. I am however having second thoughts because I am making a dungeon build ranger and I do not intend on using the character for much else.

As a result it seems as though having condition duration seems a little wasted considering pretty much every party ive been in is close to maxing bleed on the boss mobs. I can reach 10+ stacks of bleed without the runes at the moment.

So question for you lovely people- what runes do you run and what would you suggest for me. I repeat that this char is for dungeons and messing about with. I have a warrior for everything else and I love it to bits TY in advance!

I love the idea of having lore behind Legendaries and most things in game. One thing that has annoyed me about FotM is the fact that Agony hasnt been explained. But with the Legendaries I think that its already too late to include lore. These weapons do not send you on an epic quest, just an epic ‘grind’ (I use this term lightly because I am not against grinding).

So what about another tier? Lets call it…Ancestral. You grind the mats and make the weapon as per legendary but once you have the weapon, the quest to upgrade begins. And I do mean QUEST. Depending on the legendary, you recieve certain ‘scrap’ items that give clues as to what you need and how to get it. Think multiple step scavenger hunt with jumping puzzles, small mob/boss filled instances and an actual story as to why youre doing what youre doing.

Certainly in the UK its considered legal. If you join a club, pay membership for the coming 12 months and then get banned from that club, so long as its good reason then they legally have the right to terminate your membership. Its the same with GW2 and to some extent they can even argue that they sold you the files that you downloaded, not the ability to play the game.

Regardless if this im glad to see the exploiters getting banned. As the powers that be have said, it was only the most blatant exploiters that were affected anyway, those that knew what they were doing. Those that did it a few times were probably not punished at all.

The majority are in the Fractals of the Mist dungeon id expect. The dungeon is great but its had the unintended effect of taking people out of the game world and into that of a dungeon. They are going to address this in the near future by improving activities and rewards in the ‘real world’ and by making ascended items available game-wide, not just in the fractals dungeon.

Luck is the human brain’s way of trying to explain probability. The brain is wired to try to understand the world the best way that it can.

Needless to say ‘luck’ doesnt actually exist, only probability. The probability of gaining a pre-curser per attempt is a set percentage. Think of it as each roll of the dice is a play at the lottery. The majority lose but some people can win. Just because certain people win and you do not doesnt mean theres some strange force at work.

Thanks Valderius and everyone else, ive taken the points youve all made into account and come up with:

Dungeon mobs/PvE: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMMQRBHfdG2IRVcdbleFqdgYVAQtHay8Yi9QRO6RpcqswWL;TEBgyyuEcJ5S1liLKYMFJKyCjDGJMrFGLsF5twUEA

Dungeon boss: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMMQNBlODbEpKuOvyyi1OQsKAo2DN1fMxeooGxoUOVWYrF;TEBgyyuEcJ5S1liLKYMFJKyCjDGJMrFGBsF5twUEA

I can change between the two mid-dungeon to enable a bit of range for the boss fights. For normal mobs i’ll be weapon swapping constantly to take advantage of the Call of the Wild, Tail Wind, Furious Grip and the Might from the Battle sigil.

I went with Lyssa runes for the 10% conditions all round, and Afflicted to boost bleed and poison specifically. Fire should feed itself due to the torch having two fire skills. Pets now have high defense and condition skills.

So what do you nice people think? Its not the highest dps build but it looks to me as if it could be useful in dungeons.

I see many people saying how large party sized raids/dungeons are not the way forward and yet the only argument against them is ‘well WoW or [insert MMO here] had boring raids so I dont want them in GW2’. I say bring on the large raids so long as they are made optional. GW2 lacks a certain epic’ness after youve killed the world bosses a few times and completed the personal story and in my opinion the game needs to bring this back to the playing population.

Introduce new mechanics to dungeons and raids and this would bring excitement not seen in other games. Dedicated, instanced maps that requires the group to perform tasks, puzzles (from JP to basic math to ‘move across room following a pattern’) and mazes as well as killing their way towards the boss. This boss would have special mechanics, multiple skills instead of just a handful like most of the current bosses and would be a challenge. Certain bosses could take longer to kill than others but this would be made clear before the group enters.

Rewards would be of the order of unique skins, nothing more.

Yup, for some reason youre required to copy&paste.

I was tempted by the sword however I heard you might have issues when dodge-rolling as it roots you so it put me off. Im also wondering whether taking a sword would mean id be more reliant on my pet because with this being primarily a dungeon build, id expect that my pet would be out of action more often than not.

Another question- is the GS any good for dungeon’ing? I know its not great in the damage department but does it make up for that in other ways or is it just a lemon?

First off I have a warrior, I love my warrior, I will forever love my warrior! I do however want my second character to be something a little different so I went with a condition based ranger and now im approaching 80 im having to think of what final build I want.

My build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMMQNAnfVjIVx1tVaWo2Bili9IomCOZe2D+7oHdypSVL;TYAqqMVJqyWlrKZVA

Ive been playing a carrion based Axe/Torch trap build but im a little conflicted because the torch is very situational and many people recommend the warhorn. So if any of you amazing rangers could answer some questions that would be great!

1) The point of this build is decent AOE damage. Would dropping the torch in favour of the warhorn mean I lose a considerable amount of AOE damage?

2) Is full carrion the way to go considering im a lot closer to the fight than SB/LB rangers? Will this leave me short in the power needed for the axe?

3) I presume id have to swap out a utility for flame trap if I used a warhorn. Which skill would I swap out- one of the other traps or SS?

4) Is it even worth having SS? The only reason its there is because I wanted to make more use of the Wilderness Knowledge trait.

5) Empathic Bond, Bark Skin or Keen Edge?

This character is purely for PvE and dungeons and I expect i’ll be using a short-bow for the main boss fights. Answers would be great, thanks guys and gals.

I was about to get a little angry at a post such as this because I hate the fact that certain players feel the need to laud their wealth and luck over other people. But then I remembered- unless saving for a legendary, this game is pretty much the first MMO ive played where gold isnt really needed for general play. Its only use post-80 is saving time by buying exotics instead of dungeon’ing and buying cosmetic items!

So with that being said im sitting on the most ive ever had which is ~390g. I had stored trick-or-treat bags on an alt with the hope of making money but grew tired with the lack of storage space so opened all 13,000 of them and got myself an Endless Tonic. Was so tempted to keep as I was collecting tonics…then I saw the price on the TP.

It was ironic though because 13k of bags produced 22k of candy corn, needless to say im worse off space-wise than I was before! At least I could afford some 18 slot bags to put on that alt though!

Dont get me wrong, im no stranger to playing the TP and from what I can gather he will never make money from this because there are other ways to progress in that profession. He has only monopolised one out of the two leggings pieces and no other mats that I can see as well as the fact you can just make the part using leather! You can craft your way around his monopoly!

As for my situation I crafted myself past just before he made the purchases so it doesnt affect me in the slightest. Just found it strange.

There’s been a few along the way but my nod goes to a guy a ran into while leveling a couple of days after launch

Mr Butter.

I dont know why but it tickled me! It made me laugh even harder when I heard “WTF why is this random guy sending me butter?!” from about 10 people on map chat and him replying with “Im Mr Butter, its my job!”. Hats off to you sir!

So im sitting in LA crafting and I buy the lowest legging mat for Leatherworking. 1s is a rippoff kitten but alas I pay. I craft, I have leftovers! Yay! So I proceed to list on the TP… check the screenie below!

So the question is does someone have a fetish for leggings, is something fishy going on or is the TP having a ‘moment’? There mustve been 1000s of items listed between 1s and 10s…

Happy new year peoples. Hope you got/are planning to get as drunk as I currently am right now! If you dont drink…there’s your first new years resolution!

I am of course joking! Hope you have/are having a great night

A band of NPCs defying all odds, surviving by eating sea birds and whatever the general public will throw over to them, seeking to form a new community separated from the mainland. Show some admiration for this band of heros, survivors of the devastating Ancient Karka attack. Give what you can to help these four brave souls survive in their newly chosen lives!

In all seriousness I laughed my kitty-kat off when I spotted these four stranded in the old lighthouse now that the walkway has been removed!

Thanks very much Regina for allaying my fears. I prefer one time events but obviously realise that this is a time of year where bigger things matter so I do understand the direction and appreciate the hard work put into bringing us Wintersday. With everything that has been said on the forums I just worried that this was a direct response to those against one-time events.

As for the issues of one time events yes these do exist for the most part but I largely had no problem during the Lost Shores event (except the first invasion which was close to unplayable but was then fixed). Im sure lessons have been learned and improvements will be made however.

I assumed with it being a major event that Toypocalypse would take place in Lions Arch, with toys coming from the ship and causing havoc down below. Instead I was treated to another mini-game…or maxi-game I should say due to its length and lack of team making. Now dont get me wrong, it wasnt terrible and I had fun in there for 30mins or so. But I worry that this kind of event in a readily available instance will completely remove so called ‘one time events’ from the game.

Now dont get me wrong, I use the term ‘one time event’ lightly because it shouldnt be ‘one time, it should run a few times to allow different time zones to participate. If not then maybe two versions of the same event- a one time event with that same event placed into an instance after it has been completed for others to take part in. My fear is that with this mini-game the whole notion of a single epic event that has an impact on the world will disappear and be replaced with a readily repeatable quest or game which takes away any kind of ’epic’ness’ from the event. I was a little let down when I realised id be playing a game for the final event as opposed to helping the people of LA rid themselves of toy-vermin.

Am I being paranoid?

PowerCat.5738:

There should be a subscription based GW2 package where they strip off the DR and let you play the game freely.

So essentially those that pay the subscription get more gold….so pay to win….

Maybe you havent thought this through properly…..

So essentially the OP wants everything to be made more predictable and easier to acquire. Are you serious?!

This game, along with many other MMOs, is about working towards things. There are many ways to work towards each thing in GW2 (except ascended items which they said they will be addressing). I have NEVER ‘grinded’ anything I didnt enjoy doing and yet I have all the equipment I could ever want except for the ascended rings which are dropping like Chuck Norris at the moment.

Yes I do many things a lot more than once but this isnt called grinding because im having fun doing so.

The issue of gold… so many people moan about it but its very easy to get gold in GW2.

Lack of suitable rewards from dungeons- you get a lot of silver for completion, 60 tokens per first run which is 1/3 of a piece of exotic armour, vendor food drops and rares. I think thats pretty reasonable plus the way you wrote that implies that you go to dungeons to wear what you find. Thats never going to happen.

Magic Find- you can see who is running magic find by looking at the stacks under their name because theyre usually running a Sigil of Luck. Its then up to you to make sure they take at least the weapon off or kick them. If theyre just using MF armour then just observe how good they are at the dungeon/event.

Crafting is pointless and tedious, this we can agree on. After getting Master Crafter ive not crafted anything since and this is something the devs need to look into. Just create recipe’s for unique skins that maybe require two or more crafting professions to make and youre done.

The rest is about RNG…. I would leave the game in a heartbeat if they said everything had a set recipe and a set way to earn it. The game needs RNG because by its very definition it brings a randomness to the world. This game would be a lot less exciting if you gave everyone what they want.

Also you made a mistake in saying that ‘they had a lot of complaints about the Halloween chests’. People complained ON THE FORUMS…. maybe 5% of the playerbase at most….and the rest bought LOTS of chests. ArenaNET more than likely saw a huge spike in people buying gems so why would they then NOT make a Wintersday chest? Coupled with that, its your own fault if you buy a chest and lose. You know the rules, youre playing a lottery. You wouldnt buy a lottery ticket irl then complain to the shopworker the next day that it hadnt won, would you?

Substance E.4852:

Yes, but that is a bad design if you are building a game to last. A new player is going to have a hard enough time trying to get a feel for the game with low level areas devoid of life and will get even more frustrated by impossible quests that were designed to be done with large groups that would have only ever been found during the launch of the game. If you start to cut off the supply of fresh players the game stagnates and won’t last very long.

Also, let’s not invoke realism in a game where I can be shot in the face with a gun and be totally okay.

The devs have already acknowledged that they need to do something to get more people into lower level zones and im confident they will act on it. But for the article to say that dynamic events are REQUIRED to level is just false. Theyre an added extra that are not on the main map and lower level players are encouraged to complete the renown hearts and map completion. Dynamic events arent needed and im sure anyone with an ounce of common sense would realise this before quitting the game.

BurnedToast.3781:

I guess it’s related to point #1, but I’m surprised they didn’t mention the horribly shallow combat system. Actually I’d say point #1 is not really a problem, it’s just a symptom of the shallow combat system.

There’s no tanking, no aggro management (if the game has a hate system it’s so incomprehensible it might as well be random).

There’s no control (defiant buff on anything worth controlling),

Buffs are short duration and long cooldown, and healing coefficents are almost universally terrible. There’s no mana/energy or anything like that either making support not particularly viable.

Probably 70% of your survivability comes from the two dodges every single class gets free, 20% from utilities/traits, and 10% from toughness/health. Meanwhile, due to the downed system (and to rez zerging which thankfully they are starting to fix with fractals), it’s not much of a problem if you die anyway.

Meanwhile ANet’s idea of making a fight harder is to slap on absurdly large health bars to the same boring mechanics of every other fight.

They don’t explain the roles better because there is only one role – DPS. Sure, maybe you want to sacrifice a little damage so you die in two hits instead of one, or maybe you give up a damage skill for a banner or shout, but in the end every single classes is invited to that group primarily to do DPS.

Umm what? No tanking…well I can tank pretty fine for a short period of time before someone else in the party (if we’re talking about dungeons here) takes over. There is tanking in the form of damage reduction skills, just no prolonged facetanking.

No agro management? So all the knockback, fear, stun, root and daze skills are for nothing? Oh dear, ive been playing the game all wrong!

Control…see above.

Buffs are not long cooldown, short lasting. I have a constant 20+ stacks of might, perma-fury and perma-swiftness along with any other buff anyone wants to give me x1.5 due to my %boon duration armour set. If you have just a few boons for a short persiod of time youre not using the skills/equipment needed to get them so its your fault.

Survivability. Well looking past your clearly fabricated numbers, its all about how you use those separate damage reducing abilities and stats. Two miss-timed dodges and dodge itself means nothing in damage limitation. Know how and when to use each skill, how your character reacts to being damaged (traits and equipment that give bonuses to damaged players) and understand that different forms of damage limitation work better in different situations. As for going down ‘so it doesnt matter’ I can see youre just a PvE’er and dont play dungeons much.

Wow something I agree with you on! The bosses need more skills and mechanics for you to respond and survive through as their health decreases.

Only one class eh? Well players are in the party to do DPS yes, but that doesnt mean its everyone’s class. There are no classes, just individual builds that work better or worse with other individual builds. I cant count the amount of parties ive been in where ive recieved no buffs and seen no combo fields on the floor. These are players that know very little about how to best support the group. I lie, there are two classes- the smart ones and the idiots.

Second issue is that with dynamic events. He obviously knows nothing about map completion and renown hearts for leveling outside of dynamic events. He also thinks that events that have one person helping should still succeed. Im sorry but if youre one man taking on a centaur army youre not going to succeed, are you? Its called realism. Yes it can be annoying but id rather have that than events that automatically succeed no matter how many people are participating.

Im halfway through reading the ‘lack of trinity replacement’ argument and I cant just sit here without saying my piece. I had no idea how to play my warrior…..UNTIL I worked it out for my self by taking builds other people had posted, thought to myself how they would fit with my playstyle and adapted them accordingly. Why is it that people (like the article writer) need everything spelled out for them? I heard about how a ‘Shouts Heal’ warrior build could be beneficial to the group and used my own brain and a little research to figure out the rest. If you cannot understand that giving other players healing is helping the party, and would rather have that spelled out to you, then id rather not party with you because youre an idiot.

Im sorry, but already the writer of this article has annoyed me….