Guild Wars 2

mcwurth.2081:

it is so funny, people complain about these mobs, others thinking it is because full zerker gear….. you know, I run FULL zerker gear because I am to lazy and to poor to go buy new or farm new gear. Just waiting for some decent drops, but you know what, I have 0 issues with any mobs and hardly died at all.

I think it is more an issue of not having masteries complete and getting used to mobs and learning new tactics, (and yeah the smokescales are annoying but meh)

Well, that is good for you.

But, the point is, that the OP is clearly having problems, so the logical answer is to suggest he/she runs in something other than a glorified pair of pyjamas.

bravoart.5308:

Arantheal.7396:

question, do you run full zerker gear?

Zerker isn’t the problem, it’s a symptom.

If you don’t play zerker, mobs take 5x+ longer to kill and that’s 5x time longer to shadowstep, stun, blind, instagib you. You can’t outheal or outlast it, and since some of the mobs (frogs) spend 90% of the fight immune, stealthed, shadowstepping to range, or stunlocking/fumbling you, you’re in for a bad time.

No, it’s fine.

The more Toughness and Vitality you have, the (far) less likely you are to be one-shotted and the (far) more likely you are to make it to your next heal.

Heals are on a set CD, after all – they don’t get a shorter CD if you’re in your pyjamas…

I wear my PVP gear, mainly because I am not switching gear, piece by piece, all the time (have Anet really still not heard of gear sets?!) and I rarely, if ever, die to mobs.

What I die to is falling from great heights, when my glider fails to deploy; as it does on an alarmingly regular basis, for some unknown reason.

Majic.4801:

Tigaseye.2047:

The fact game devs take the, totally unreasonable, opinions of these totally unreasonable type of customers seriously is the true insanity, here and will inevitably minimise the popularity of their games.

Granted, I haven’t seen everything, but so far I haven’t seen any evidence that anyone at ArenaNet appreciates players who devote themselves to attacking other players for giving honest feedback. Indeed, they seem to resent it as much as — and perhaps more than — players do.

Admittedly, much of the criticism directed at Guild Wars 2 or ArenaNet is unsubstantiated, a product of frustration (which everyone experiences in a game at some point or another) or, in extreme cases, a patently infantile perspective. But a lot of it is relevant, constructive and deserves to be heard.

What all feedback about the game — pro, con or indifferent; cogent or confused; polite or profane — has in common is that it represents the opinion of a paying customer, or at the very least, someone interested enough to comment.

Whatever form it may take, product feedback is information of immense value to a business, and anyone seeking to discourage it or isolate ArenaNet from it for any reason does a grave disservice.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Well yes, I agree and I hope you’re right in the case of Anet and that they don’t appreciate, or try to appease, players like that.

I was really speaking more generally, though, as I know pretty much for a fact that developers at Blizzard have been doing just that, lately.

Having said that, if we think about who, normally, calls for greater difficulty/intensity in all aspects of games and for anything “easy” (or easy to organise), or relaxing, to be removed:

Is it, normally, the reasonable people, who understand that some people may be too busy to play one game 24/7 and/or may have other reasons that prevent them from enjoying exclusively difficult and/or very intense games?

Or is it, far more often, the people who say “Get used to it, or leave.”, if anyone voices concern?

So, assuming we agree it’s the latter, just by making the game, universally (and unavoidably) more intense, you are effectively (albeit, perhaps, inadvertently) catering to those types of people.

…and if that is how people view the situation, that will turn them off.

Because, there is nothing more annoying than bad behaviour being seen to be rewarded.

keeganrms.6301:

Oldirtbeard.9834:

keeganrms.6301:

Honestly, the community is going to be responsible for the life or death of this game. for an MMO, community is everything. Ever been to a Video Game news site lately? See the comments on GW2-related posts? Disgraceful.

What’s most puzzling to me is the posters on those comments and especially here on this forum seem to reflect the scum of the GW2 community. Bottom-feeders with no self-esteem picking fights for no reason and acting like children… All while making these hilarious claims like, “I’ve been gaming since before you were born!”

Yet every instance in every map I’ve ever played on GW2 has been the polar opposite. People seem eager to help each other. Almost no name-calling or holier-than-thou B.S.

I don’t think this game will die, per se. I think the 11-year-old keyboard warriors posing as 30-year-old sex gods will be just annoying enough to make the adults leave. The demographic will quickly shift and from there it only goes downhill.

Perhaps you mean people like me, though I am 37 but I have never claimed to be a sex god. I have been very very critical on Massively OP, and MMORPG because of my frustration over HoT Open World difficulty, the hostility I received when I dared to make a forum post venting my frustration regarding said difficulty, followed by jeering Trolls sprinkled with legitimate comments, followed by a deluge of abuse after I had the audacity to give it right back, followed by an enforced leave of absence.

So yeah, I took it upon my self to spread my message out to the gaming websites where I’m untouchable.

I’ve been keeping tabs on the forum posts though and I found it very satisfying when people started complaining about empty maps, I assumed folks like me started doing Champ Trains, or The World Boss circuit, or SW; the path of least resistance. Or left to try other games as my fiercest critics have suggested I should do.

If the White Knights turn nasty don’t be surprised if we take it out side the forums, especially if we lose our voice.

Actually, I was referring to community members that are hostile to any criticism of the game whatsoever. Criticism can only make a game better. Fanaticism is how things fall apart.

Quite.

When I first started playing WoW (my first online gaming experience) I was amazed at the strength of the way certain people, blindly, defended the game against any criticism, however justified.

Prior to that, my experience of the online discussion of products (and games are just another product, after all), even on what were effectively fansites for that type of product, was far more calm and reasonable.

People allowed other people to have views.

Most people had empathy.

I’ve got used to this extreme fanaticism in gaming now, to a certain extent, but it’s still totally bizarre and unhelpful.

I pity game devs having to deal with it – but, even more so, I pity the reasonable section of the gaming community (i.e. most of the customers) for having to.

Reasonable customers limit their opinions and criticism to comments about the product.

They do not spend their lives criticising other people’s opinions about the product, or demanding that everything is taken away from the customers they don’t happen to approve of.

The fact that game devs take the, totally unreasonable, opinions of these, totally unreasonable, type of customers seriously is the true insanity here and will inevitably minimise the popularity of their games.

The only people left will be the totally unreasonable ones and a few addicts that just can’t quite let go…

Kulvar.1239:

People will complain that harder mode loot more…
Or harder mode will be useless because maps will be empty because too much people are in easy braindead mode watching netflix while autoattacking.

The problem is that, while most people enjoy a challenge from time to time, most people can’t (and don’t want to) keep that level of concentration up for hours on end.

So, games have to choose to either make people work harder, for a shorter time, for lots of loot; or work easy, for a longer time, for less loot.

Or, ideally, a combination of the two – so, people can choose, according to their ability/mood at the time.

You can’t expect people to suddenly have to work really hard, for hours on end, especially for next-to-nothing.

Most people just won’t do it.

shadow.6174:

Long story short: they are very aware about the issue and are also annoyed by it, but they haven’t been able to fix it or change it because they used a third party software that’s no longer supported, and no one there was able or had chances to learn how stuff works in order to be able to fix it.

So, make a new forum?

Or pay someone else to?

I don’t get this, at all.

It’s not even like this is the only problem this forum has.

If they were a tiny company, then fair enough, maybe they couldn’t afford to.

But they’re a large company, with an impressive turnover.

Not making a new forum makes them look ridiculously cheap.

Aidenwolf.5964:

Tigaseye.2047:

Aidenwolf.5964:

Tigaseye.2047:

Aidenwolf.5964:

As if free to play wasn’t bad enough you now want a Chinese style premium membership? I’d burn my Rytlock statue and never look back.

Actually, I don’t really want it, at all.

What I want (or would have wanted, if I hadn’t spent a small fortune, already) is a sub.

But, if the alternative is everyone getting practically no loot, for fear of some people farming gold and then selling it, or keeping it for themselves (and refusing to spend a penny of RL money on the game), then I can’t think of any other solution, really?

If this game had a sub I’d play another game. They wanted money they just sold an xpac. The fact that they’ve gone hyper stingy on loot after asking for us to buy the expansion is a terrible sign.

Well, games that have subs typically also charge for xpacs.

Or, at least, the most famous one does…

The sub is for the servers, to keep the game running and for ongoing (smaller) updates (patches etc.).

You can’t only pay for an xpac, once in a blue moon and expect that to cover everything.

Not saying you think that, obviously, but some people seem to.

I play the game, because (ATM) I want to play the game.

So, I’m obviously playing it despite it not having a sub.

But, as I say, I would prefer a sub, as then I know where I am, how much I’m spending and that I’m contributing a fair amount to the manufacture and running of the product.

As opposed to the current situation, where I’m spending too much and getting not very much back at all.

Presumably, because they think other people can’t, or won’t, spend anything otherwise.

Everything you’ve said is contrary to Anet’s own track record and manifesto. Had they not used those exact words pre GW2 you might get away with it, but I’ll link the video if you like.

Sure, link it if you want, but they can say what they like.

The truth is, they sell stuff to people in the gemstore.

So, that is, at least partly, how they make their money.

They didn’t just sell the base game and then live off that income alone, for almost three years, until this xpac was on pre-order.

If people spend a lot of money in the gemstore and then find they can’t make enough back ingame, they may get disillusioned with the entire game.

That is the problem, here.

BTW, was thinking about this and it occurred to me, that if we travelled back in time and were having a conversation re. how games should be paid for, 20 years ago or more, we would probably almost all agree that a sub would be the fairest way.

As, then, everyone would be paying the same.

However, back then, the gap between the rich and the poor (talking about in the West, here) wasn’t so extreme.

So, almost everyone who worked (or whose parent[s] worked) had (or had access to) at least some disposable income.

I think it is a very sad indictment on our times that we even have to discuss this, or wonder how games should be funded.

Odin of Ark.4860:

Why are you "lol"ing at solo story. The story is pretty easy to do.

Number 7 was a bit of a nightmare…

I did it earlier.

There again, I did it on Ranger and you can’t use your weaps, or pet.

You’re just stuck with the egg (movement) abilities.

Aidenwolf.5964:

Tigaseye.2047:

Aidenwolf.5964:

As if free to play wasn’t bad enough you now want a Chinese style premium membership? I’d burn my Rytlock statue and never look back.

Actually, I don’t really want it, at all.

What I want (or would have wanted, if I hadn’t spent a small fortune, already) is a sub.

But, if the alternative is everyone getting practically no loot, for fear of some people farming gold and then selling it, or keeping it for themselves (and refusing to spend a penny of RL money on the game), then I can’t think of any other solution, really?

If this game had a sub I’d play another game. They wanted money they just sold an xpac. The fact that they’ve gone hyper stingy on loot after asking for us to buy the expansion is a terrible sign.

Well, games that have subs typically also charge for xpacs.

Or, at least, the most famous one does…

The sub is for the servers, to keep the game running and for ongoing (smaller) updates (patches etc.).

You can’t only pay for an xpac, once in a blue moon and expect that to cover everything.

Not saying you think that, obviously, but some people seem to.

I play the game, because (ATM) I want to play the game.

So, I’m obviously playing it despite it not having a sub.

But, as I say, I would prefer a sub, as then I know where I am, how much I’m spending and that I’m contributing a fair amount to the manufacture and running of the product.

As opposed to the current situation, where I’m spending too much and getting not very much back at all.

Presumably, because they think other people can’t, or won’t, spend anything otherwise.

Linken.6345:

Tigaseye.2047:

fixit.7189:

Here’s how to exp in HoT and it’s quite simple….

Buy heroic boosters.

They have lowered exp rates to minuscule rates in order to ‘encourage’ you to buy the super powerful heroic boosters and that is clear.

Case in point, unboosted I did 4x day/night cycles + an entire DS event to conclusion last night and that yeilded me 10% of a MR level. If I had used boosters I would have gotten an entire MR level. I know this since I have been using some boosters I had saved for a rainy day up until I ran out; the difference is really noticable unboosted/vs boosted.

working as intended

GW2 direction is towards the true F2P business model with game systems heavily designed around the CS to make people get frustrated enough to pay up. And what is sad, it seems to be working. I fully expect them to nerf loot drop rates across the board to get players to buy the loot boosters in the near future as well.

Ugh, that’s bad.

I don’t mind paying for cosmetic stuff (and I have done so, in this game) but if/when a game becomes P2W, I’m out.

Its not pay to win mate its pay to skip ( aka not play as much as the next guy)

IDK, I guess in a way it is, especially as the masteries are only really of any use in those zones.

We all have different ideas of what “winning” is, that is the problem.

For example, personally, I don’t view accumulating lots of gold as “winning”.

I just think of gold as a means to an end (as I will typically spend it on fripperies, anyway).

But, I know some people do.

Aidenwolf.5964:

As if free to play wasn’t bad enough you now want a Chinese style premium membership? I’d burn my Rytlock statue and never look back.

Actually, I don’t really want it, at all.

What I want (or would have wanted, if I hadn’t spent a small fortune, already) is a sub.

But, if the alternative is everyone getting practically no loot, for fear of some people farming gold and then selling it, or keeping it for themselves (and refusing to spend a penny of RL money on the game), then I can’t think of any other solution, really?

Truth is, if everyone was (an idiot) like me and spent a fair amount of RL money on a ton of cosmetic stuff, they wouldn’t need to be so mean with the loot.

Unfortunately, some people either can’t afford, or have no real interest in, cosmetic stuff.

So, apparently, we all have to be denied decent loot, to try to force us to spend (even more, in some cases) RL money.

I agree with it, in theory, because some people have virtually no real life money; so, the people with more, IRL, can (and probably should) subsidise the others.

But, we all know that some people aren’t poor at all – they are just extremely careful/mean with their money and/or don’t care what their chars look like.

So, us all being loot-starved, at least partly because of them, is not ideal.

I’ve said it before, but really what they probably should do is set a certain minimum limit, that they need people to spend (in RL money) on the game, for x amount of time, to make it healthy and profitable.

Then, after you reach certain increments, they give you better (i.e. more valuable) ingame loot, for the appropriate amount of time the money you have spent buys.

So, say they decided they needed $300 a year from us (I doubt they would need that much from everyone, but we have to assume some would still spend nothing).

Once you reached that amount, they could give you more rewards from playing for the next year.

Obviously, they would need to backdate this system to the start of the game.

So, say you’ve spent $600 since the start of the game, they could give you 2 years of better loot and so on.

Then, the people who couldn’t afford to spend any RL money and/or didn’t care about their char’s looks, could still play for free, as they do now.

Nothing would really change for them.

But the ones who do spend quite a lot, wouldn’t feel they had to either play too much, or poor endless amounts of RL money in, to get the few more cosmetic items they really wanted, over the next year, or whatever.

This system would not only be good for the players who have spent RL money; it would also, probably, be good for Anet.

As some of the people who have spent, say, $240 so far (and could afford it) might decide it was worth it to them to spend $60 more, in order to benefit from the scheme.

Obviously, this is all off the top of my head, so it might need fine tuning, but still.

The only two downsides I can really see are, firstly, that it might create a haves/have nots type of situation.

But, really, you already have that, with F2P and people running around in basic armour and with basic weapons, vs people running around with gemstore armour and legendaries.

The second possible issue is inflation, caused by more gold entering the economy.

Although, I’m not sure how much of an issue that would really be, as we already have gold entering from, real life money, gem to gold conversions.

More than anything, I think it would help retain people who spend (or who have spent) more on the game.

As there must be people who have spent quite a lot, but just can’t justify spending even more (in the shorter term, anyway) and don’t feel they are being fairly rewarded ingame either, so they stay away.

TL;DR: Consider rewarding people, who have spent a reasonable amount of money supporting the game, a little more in ingame loot/currency.

fixit.7189:

Here’s how to exp in HoT and it’s quite simple….

Buy heroic boosters.

They have lowered exp rates to minuscule rates in order to ‘encourage’ you to buy the super powerful heroic boosters and that is clear.

Case in point, unboosted I did 4x day/night cycles + an entire DS event to conclusion last night and that yeilded me 10% of a MR level. If I had used boosters I would have gotten an entire MR level. I know this since I have been using some boosters I had saved for a rainy day up until I ran out; the difference is really noticable unboosted/vs boosted.

working as intended

GW2 direction is towards the true F2P business model with game systems heavily designed around the CS to make people get frustrated enough to pay up. And what is sad, it seems to be working. I fully expect them to nerf loot drop rates across the board to get players to buy the loot boosters in the near future as well.

Ugh, that’s bad.

I don’t mind paying for cosmetic stuff (and I have done so, in this game) but if/when a game becomes P2W, I’m out.

As far as it being hard, that is mainly to do with gear/build.

Treat it like PVP and gear and build for survivability and it will be a lot less deadly.

The main cause of death, if you do that, is via falling.

The meta was thought of to be Zerker, but now it’s probably Soldier, unless you are extremely (and more importantly, constantly) focussed and adept.

Yeah, it’s awful.

I have a bank guild that is just totally stagnating and can’t progress at all and then I’m a member of another guild, which is now constantly asking people for donations (or was).

That can’t be good for the leadership to have to do and it’s certainly not good for the members.

Imagine the first impression, if you have just joined the game.

You would think that all guilds ever do is beg their members for gold/donations.

It’s not good.

SkyShroud.2865:

In my guild, as a leader, I record all the donations that are coming into either the treasury or guild bank. The list is growing longer and longer but at the same time, recording it is important because you will know among all your members, who are the one who cares and the one who don’t.

This is universal truth to all guilds, there are people who cares and people who don’t. Though it is noble for leaders to want to take care of everyone, but it is also very important to know the members who care and the members who don’t.

…and this reaction, Anet, is just one reason why all this was a TERRIBLE idea.

Omne.4603:

This sounds like a lack of real members or actual leadership ability.

Leadership ability is not (or should not be) about begging for stuff.

People should be able to make/join a guild and then contribute to its growth, automatically, by just playing normally.

This is the polar opposite of that kind of system and as such, it is a major step backwards.

Healix.5819:

HoT will get nerfed. It’s already happened. I recall the sniper’s rapid fire to be deadly for example back during the beta, but it seems to be heavily nerfed now. In comparison, shadowleapers. They have a rapid fire on their leap/evade, they also stealth, are immune from range and can shoot a poison AoE twice if you’re in melee range, which is very deadly. As a staff elementalist (solo zerker), shadowleapers are the most dangerous enemies I’ve encountered (veteran+, haven’t been to the last zone yet). Half the time they’re in stealth or evading, and any single 1 of their attacks is deadly. In comparison, snipers are trivial.

HoT will likely get nerfed regardless due to balancing. Considering that the average player plays solo and they’re usually casual (as in less effort), I would assume that HoT will get nerfed. Not everyone is going to want to play as the easiest class in the game – the ranger.

Tigaseye.2047:

You have to pick the Beastly Warden talent, which makes them taunt when you hit F2, otherwise they don’t seem to taunt at all.

I haven’t played HoT with a ranger, but I’ve never had a problem with the pet tanking without using that. Using a longbow/greatsword, enemies naturally seemed to go after the pet. If not, I simply stealthed, moved back and AoE crippled.

Using 2 tank pets, that’s ~50k health on a 15s cooldown (swap before death). You can tank almost anything, especially if you bother to call them back to avoid the stronger attacks and AoEs.

The point is, it’s not as easy as he, or she, thinks.

Yes, you can use tanky pets, but that obviously reduces your damage and requires forethought.

Much as wearing non-Zerker gear and building for survival does.

Also, they die a bit less now (due to the AOE reduction thing), but when I tried to solo dungeons, in the past, even tanky pets would die a lot, relative to WoW pets.

I often get aggro.

I normally stealth and wait a second, or two, for pet to take it back (or use F2 now, if available), but it definitely happens.

Whereas, in WoW, you set your pet to Tenacity (or not) and switch Growl on and pet taunts by itself.

WoW Hunter is definitely better than most other classes, for harder PVE soloing (excluding tank specs, like Blood DK).

I’m mentioning WoW, because I think people come here from WoW, thinking Ranger is exactly the same as WoW Hunter (because, on the face of it, it seems fairly similar), but it’s actually not.

BTW, when you say Ranger is the easiest (and I assume you only mean for solo PVE, here, because it’s a nightmare in WvW/EotM and almost no one seems to want Rangers in group PVE) – it’s not, if you want to skip mobs.

It’s pretty wearing playing Ranger, on the new maps, because you are constantly pulling everything, whether you want to, or not and 3 second stealth (especially when you have to hit something for it to work) is normally not enough to get away entirely.

So, you have to keep moving until you lose them.

At which point, you run into another group…

Whereas, skip on Mesmer and you can run around freely in stealth and pick your battles.

Which, in many ways, is easier, IMO.

Notsoperky.2348:

OP’s title should have been ‘HoT isn’t too hard with my super tanky pets’.

Ranger has got to be one of the easiest characters to run through HoT as you have a huge meat shield taking all the damage and can swap to another meat shield without even bothering to heal it.

Not quite true – many pets still die pretty easily and then there is a considerable CD on pet swap.

So, if you get that wrong, you can have no pet at all, for a while.

Not to mention that you often have to choose who to spend your Heal as One on…

Do you spend it on your pet, when you don’t need it yourself yet, or do you wait until you do and risk your pet dying?

If you choose to spend it on your pet, because you know your pet swap is on CD and then take a big hit yourself, you have no heal.

Having a heal pet ability would make things easier, actually.

Same with a res pet ability.

Also, pets don’t really tank effectively, in this game.

You have to pick the Beastly Warden talent, which makes them taunt when you hit F2, otherwise they don’t seem to taunt at all.

Not saying solo PVE on Ranger is not easier than on some other classes; it may well be, but it’s not quite as easy as you seem to think.

I’m finding the difficulty level fine, personally (on Ranger and Mesmer).

I don’t do Zerker in HoT, though, so that may be why.

If anyone is having having problems, try Soldier gear (or the equivalent) and maybe tweak your build, a little, for more survivability.

The only issue I have with harder mobs, is that I find it hard to navigate unfamiliar maps, while either fighting mobs, or trying to avoid them.

I think it’s just that my brain goes into survival mode and I sometimes forget where I was supposed to be going. xD

The Ranger pet thing is a little harsh, as our class mechanics are gated by an event.

It’s not so much people having to wait to get the new pets themselves, it’s the realisation that other classes just got their mechanics; whereas, Rangers have to jump through hoops (almost literally!).

Re. hero points: not really bothered, personally, as am not desperate for the new specs.

But, I can see why people, who were, were upset.

Re. masteries: they are pretty slow to acquire, if you just wander around randomly (and try not to consult guides), as I tend to do.

Again, I’m not that bothered, but still.

Like you, I mainly died to falling, especially as my glider doesn’t always deploy, for some reason.

Which can be annoying, mainly due to the sparseness of waypoints.

Also, all those 1s somethings eventually add up of you’re not rich ingame.

BTW, your post is a pretty reasonable one and I agree with a lot of it, apart from the mention of people “whining”.

If I were you, I would drop that particular word, because it is quite patronising and what may seem like “whining” over practically nothing to you, may seem like a legitimate concern to them.

Re. the Butterfly Wings backpack being converted to a glider.

I realise that they consider them to be too small to be a convincing glider, but what if they grew for gliding and then shrunk again, on landing?

Shiren.9532:

I want rangers to have the option to use their pet eagle, hawk, rave, owl etc as a glider. The ranger leaps off a cliff and the eagle grabs them and helps them to glide.

Nice idea.

Laniya.9520:

I loved the Druid in the Beta, Smokescale was amazing. Now we get it after looking forward to it and healing has been nerfed and so has the damage on the smokescale. So DISSAPPOINTING. Why do that? Rangers have wanted to be happy for so long, I quit playing my ranger for so long. After beta I couldnt wait to play her again. Its like a marketing come on. Show us the great, then NERF IT. I can see losing 25% damage on the pet, but come on! 50%????

The problem is, that Ranger in this game is like a watered down WoW Cata Hunter.

Hunters were a notoriously awful class, in Cata.

Not only that, but Anet gave all the things that made them slightly less than totally tragic to Mesmer, for some unknown (or unknown to me) reason.

Mages don’t have stealth, or a disengage, in WoW; but Hunters do (albeit a weaker, or slower moving version, in the case of stealth).

I don’t think stealth and disengage should, necessarily, be removed from Mesmer, as I don’t agree that Rogues/Thieves should be the only ones with stealth and I think they also need these things.

However, I do think they should be added as optional things, for Ranger.

But, as utilities (and possibly as weapon skills); not as unreliable pet abilities, that force you to use a certain pet.

Otherwise, we have pretty much nothing of any use.

It’s virtually all “do a bit more damage”, with the occasional “move a little faster” (unless anyone even breathes on you…), or “take no damage for a very short amount of time” on a long CD.

Practically useless compared with Mesmer.

Relshdan.6854:

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

Going to be investigating this. It may require some change to Smoke Assault, since the active skills are intended to be a little stronger than the passive skills.

lol…what’s to investigate?

you already nerfed smoke assault significantly (50% dmg reduction) and then made the pets smoke field uncontrollable, thus making it unusable in any thing other than solo roaming (since it will overwrite group-coordinated fields such as water and fire).

these types of changes you guys are making are just absurdly illogical.

i literally sigh every “new build in 10 minutes” notification…..because each one bring a “bull in the china store” nerf to ranger or druid.

why are other classes “shaved”, while rangers are decapitated?

kitten.

I’m assuming it wasn’t Irenio who did that?

Otherwise, as you rightly say, what would he need to “investigate”?

Read between the lines.

He’s telling us that there are class designers (i.e. him) and then balancers (or whatever they call themselves) and that the designers aren’t always consulted by the balancers, pre-changes/nerfs.

Must be extremely annoying to design something and then find out it’s been changed and/or heavily nerfed, without even being consulted.

Almost as annoying as playing Ranger, in this game… xD

Scrimschaw.5784:

Inoki.6048:

Azure.8670:

it was about 10 minutes or less

That blows the mind really. I mean, not knowing the location, I worked for 2 hours now to get 10 minutes and there’s always a very high chance to fail…

Someone else prefer to call them names for a change?

Unfortunately, the thread that requested alternate ways to access these two pets was locked.

Think it was locked because of people trolling, not because of the subject matter?

So, it’s possible that someone could make another thread like that.

The people trolling on that thread were, invariably, the ones who think it’s fine for our profession mechanics to be locked behind hurdles like this.

Almost certainly people who play against Rangers, rather than as them.

Pretty sure they would feel differently if the shoe were on the other foot and their main classes’ mechanics were gated like this.

Especially if their main classes were already at a general disadvantage.

I got the tiger, as I really wanted that particular pet and I think it’s easier to locate, but I still haven’t got the Wyvern.

I don’t really play my Ranger anymore, even though I would like to, as it’s just not anywhere near as useful as my Mesmer and is far more stressful to play.

So, I’m not going to put myself through trying to get the Wyvern quickly, until I’m in the right kind of mood to fully research it, first.

Just not worth the hassle for me.

kevvy.5081:

Tigaseye.2047:

Apparently, it’s OK, from that POV.

I was told by a guildie (thank you!) that you don’t have to compete for them.

What happens is that, when you Charm one, the one you Charmed despawns for you, but not for other players/Rangers.

So, there should always be the same number available for everyone.

I don’t know about that. My personal experience was that when my other Ranger party member tamed an e wyvern in front of me, it disappeared for few seconds. This was at 20 seconds before the map was going to close by the way. My hand was sweating like a faucet. It does respawn, but no, it does disappear.

Well, this is what I originally thought.

I thought that, if I Charmed a Juvenile animal, it would disappear entirely, for everyone (until it respawned).

Maybe my guildie was wrong?

If it isn’t like that, it should be though.

Like gathering nodes etc..

Thank you, you too.

Right, so IMO the best way to know where the Juvenile Tigers are (without having to try to save a tangled, viney mess of a map in your head!) is this:

They are roughly at the intersection (if you drew two straight lines) of the ‘e’ in the “Northern” of “Northern Barbed Gate” (to the North) and the Dragon’s Domain waypoint (to the West).

Best way to get to them is:

1. Go to the Northern Advance Camp waypoint (which should be open, if the event succeeds).
2. Go to the Vista directly South of “Northern Barbed Gate”.
3. Face South from the Vista and you will see a vine-covered opening (which will clear when the event succeeds).
4. Go through the opening and you will see them straight away. They are not hidden at all and you should have plenty of time, so don’t panic.

anakinatka.8965:

I don’t mind the pets being gated behind a big meta event, not too much anyways. What bugs me though is the fact that we have to race and compete with other players in order to tame the things. I don’t want to be the jerk who snatches a tiger from under the eyes of a fellow ranger! This is the sad thing about it … but yeah, just saying

Apparently, it’s OK, from that POV.

I was told by a guildie (thank you!) that you don’t have to compete for them.

What happens is that, when you Charm one, the one you Charmed despawns for you, but not for other players/Rangers.

So, there should always be the same number available for everyone.

Javonovich.5280:

Unrelated but worth noting is that vanquishing worked well in GW1 because to complete the content you actually had to do it all. When ANET designed these dungeons, they were designed in such a way to reward the fastest most efficient runs, which often meant skipping the “trash.”

If trash isn’t trash, you don’t have players skipping content. Seems pretty simple. All that gold that was reduced from dungeons? Why not distribute it among the trash mobs? Or why not reward higher gold for more mobs killed so that endgame dungeon rewards increase with the number of non-champ mobs killed?

Yes, I totally agree.

^ Yes, I know and I think the gold rewards, from playing all aspects of the game, should be slightly higher.

As you can’t just expect people, who have already spent plenty on the game, to use endless amounts of real money indefinitely…

At some point, the game has to provide the player with enough gold to buy everything they need and most things they want.

But, as it was previously, the richest players in the game (by far) were the speedrunners.

They didn’t ever need to spend any real money on gems, because they got so much gold in-game and they were insisting that everyone else played that way.

That was not good for the overall, ongoing, health of the game.

Especially as many of them didn’t want to even tolerate newer players, as they viewed them as a liability, as they were slowing down their ability to earn gold per minute.

This excessive greed (albeit, partly, due to Anet’s own design flaws) gave Anet the perfect excuse to nerf group PVE rewards, for everyone.

Really, what they should have done, is change the game mechanics, so skip>permastack>melee was no longer optimal, but I guess they just thought it was far easier to remove the rewards for everyone?

As I say, I think it’s a shame that it came to this, but not exactly a surprise.

Agemnon.4608:

From bags and salvaging light armor.

Yes.

Also, it’s pretty cheap on the TP, ATM.

About a third of the price it was a few weeks ago, in fact.

dace.8019:

All I see is OP complaining about good customer service.

OP isn’t complaining about the customer service.

He/she is only complaining that the game is virtually unplayable for him/her (which is a more than reasonable complaint) and is sharing with us the fact that it may be refundable.

ETA: I stand corrected, OP is also complaining about the customer service, but presumably not specifically about the refund offer?

OP, they’re using copy-paste replies.

They probably have so many concerns to deal with, ATM, that they haven’t got time to try to help everyone individually.

Hence they think it’s preferable to respond to the refund part of your request with their standard, copy-paste response, rather than just not answer at all, for ages.

dace.8019:

The justification given was that the gold reward outweighed the time investment.

Well, it probably did, if they were almost exclusively being speedrun farmed.

If they were being played normally, it almost certainly would have been fine.

It’s not really even, mostly, the players’ fault.

It’s due, at least partly, to Anet’s highly questionable design choices.

Such as stacking and meleeing being made the only efficient way to play.

Fact still remains that the players could have chosen to try to keep fun and diversity alive, but they (mostly) didn’t.

They, mostly, decided to milk dungeons for everything they had, in as short a time as possible and reject any players who didn’t want to do it like that.

Problem was, that people were just farming them for gold.

They were only taking classes, builds (gear type) and players that met their expectations of a superfast, clean run and were skip>permastack>melee speed-running them.

There were a few “everyone welcome” groups, but at least half of them would turn out to be an, often unwanted, tutorial on speedrunning.

New players weren’t getting to have fun, or experience the dungeons as they were originally intended to be experienced and were just being trained-up by people to help speedrun them, in future.

Sad, really.

If people had just played them in an anything goes, everyone welcome kind of way, they probably wouldn’t have felt the need to nerf the rewards.

But, as it was, they were just reducing Anet’s potential income and putting off new players.

ITA, although I wouldn’t think of any of that as toning them down.

Rather as updating (as you say), improving, or fine tuning them, maybe?

Torn between Ranger (i.e. making the core class more fun to play and useful) and reducing lag…

If I had to pick one, I guess it would have to be reducing lag.

But, they both need sorting out.

Oh and ranged should be as viable as melee.

Hard to pick just one, really.

Norrath.5910:

Why are people wanting assault as F2 now? You are saying you want your pet putting down a combo field with it’s “AI”?

They aren’t.

Look at the results of that poll…

It’s like I always say – take what most people say on forums with a huge pinch of salt.

Half the time, they don’t even play the class in question, or are just trolling and/or lying (frankly) and/or looking out for their own selfish interests and almost invariably, they are not representative of the majority of players.

Even polls, posted on forums, should be viewed with extreme caution.

But, they are still more reliable than blind comment counting.

Nike.2631:

Geshque.1326:

Wtf are you investigating? Is it hard to understand that u just ruined the class completely?

Wow. Because if the WHOLE CLASS hinged on one f2 skill, then that’s pretty much proof positive that skill is busted. Thanks for clarifying that this absolutely needed to get changed, likely for the weaker.

Man, think of all those poor useless rangers out there who don’t even have the stupid pet.

No.

That is not how this works.

If the whole class hinged on that F2 skill, that is pretty much proof positive that the whole class is in desperate need of attention.

It doesn’t mean you take, even the very little that Ranger has (or did have), away until you can do that.

Sad as it is that Rangers can’t get hold of this pet, without purchasing HoT, you’re not just balancing Rangers with Rangers, here.

You’re supposed to be balancing Rangers with every other class in the game.

Lest we forget.

Holland.9351:

Earix.5684:

Holland.9351:

In what situation has smokescale covered an all-important field for you?

Well apparently you unlocked Smokescale a few hours ago (from another Thread). Play a few more hours with it in organized groups and you will experience a ton of these situations

“organised groups” as in dungeons/fractals and stacking on top of a PvE boss? Maybe don’t use it in that situation.

No, think about it in WvW.

It could be pretty disastrous.

LegallyBinding.4937:

No one’s stopping you from playing Mesmer.

Er…

No, I know.

What’s your point?

My point, is that I would prefer to play Ranger, IF it was as good as other classes.

I like bows and I like pets.

It was my first choice and I played it for the first 6 months of my gametime here, but I am not playing it anymore, because it is severely sub-par.

That is, obviously, a great shame and needs to change.

…and by “change” I don’t mean by just half turning it into another, completely unrelated, class (i.e. Druid).

I mean core Ranger needs to be added to and improved, while retaining its original class identity and flavour.

Holland.9351:

Tigaseye.2047:

Holland.9351:

Tigaseye.2047:

Problem is, why play a Ranger with a staff, when you can play a Mesmer with a staff?

Didn’t you mean Mesmer Greatsword?

No.

IK that is supposed to be better than staff, but staff is OK too.

How can you compare Ranger Staff with Mesmer Staff? They’re completely different weapons. Ranger Staff is much more like Mesmer Greatsword.

I’m not comparing Ranger staff with Mesmer Staff.

I’m saying, if you like playing a class with a staff, you might as well play a Mesmer.

Rather than just pasting a weirdly inappropriate (IMO) staff onto Ranger.

As Mesmer is just a far more useful, far less stressful, far more enjoyable class to play, in my experience.

This shouldn’t be the case – Ranger should be just as good/useful/fun, it just isn’t.

I’m talking about the core class, here.

Not even going to try Druid and that is kind of my point, too.

Why would I want to play a Druid, when I originally picked a Ranger?

Obviously, some people may disagree with me, here and that’s fine.

Holland.9351:

Tigaseye.2047:

Problem is, why play a Ranger with a staff, when you can play a Mesmer with a staff?

Didn’t you mean Mesmer Greatsword?

No.

IK that is supposed to be better than staff, but staff is OK too.

Mesmer is just far better to play, in general (at least, in EOTM/WvW, which is what I tend to do).

Unless you enjoy a lot of unnecessary stress, which I don’t.

BlusterWolf.2103:

Think ranger in the same spot as dungeons for the devs now, if they can, they would remove this class from the game, they already realized there is no place for this class to perform and not kittening most other classes’ players off, ranger is a design failure. It is just unlike dungeons which can be ignored, rangers cant, so the best way is to reduce the player number as many as possible so lesser of the player base will have a worse gaming experience. You guys should thanks the dev for all the sub par designs and nerfs on ranger so you guys can wake up and move on to other classes and enjoy the game correctly.

There’s things they could pretty easily do, though.

Some non-targeted, stealth utilities, for a start.

It would reduce Ranger damage, if taken (as it would, generally, replace damage increase utilities), but it would make us far more useful.

Also, they should switch Ranger LB knockback to a good disengage (like the Mesmer Staff 2 one).

Far more useful for general defence and would reduce all the Ranger hate.

Because, as we all know, Rangers always get the blame for knockbacks, even if other classes did it…

Also, they could (and should, IMO) get rid of the more damage at long range/less damage at short range nonsense.

It just complicates things, unnecessarily, forces melee weaps onto us (whether we want them, or not) and makes Ranger a positioning nightmare.

Also, Shortbow needs to become far more useful, again.

Almost no one uses it, on Ranger!

Can’t they see that is a major problem?

It would be ridiculous to kill the class, when even just a few, fairly simple changes, would make it a lot more viable, useful and fun.

Holland.9351:

alain.1659:

Can I ask something? I have been thinking on this subject since HoT release.

Why are there so many reflect skills? I mean reflect means you are immune to projectile damage, whic is the archetypal ranger source (longbow, shortbow).

Reflect is worse than immune to damage skill, because if it is properly applied it can destroy a lb ranger (fast reflexes and properly reading the game needed). And also after the reflect, opponent can use his “immune to damage” skills to bug the hell out of you again.

With new skills and professions, there are more reflects and some invuls in the game. People say rangers skill cap is low, but I object. Rangers skill cap is high if you want to survive the battle, not just pew pew.

Other classes have new computer systems while rangers (especially archers) have a rock, with a computer drawing on it.

That’s why I swapped my Longbow for my Staff. It’s a fun weapon, no worries about reflect/destroy and it does a constant stream of damage, so very sustained. Longbow does more damage at more range, but it’s more burst and weak to all sorts of things.

Reflect is completely overpowered. Reflect is as if Retaliation returned 100% of the damage and also gave invulnerability.

Problem is, why play a Ranger with a staff, when you can play a Mesmer with a staff?

I did higher damage, on Ranger, but no one appreciated it and it came at a huge cost.

There is literally no reason for me to play Ranger, other than my sentimental attachment to my (dopey) pets and a preference for bows.

So, I don’t anymore.

They need to look at the classes overall and into the core aspects, utilities and weapons.

Not just try to balance new toys with new toys, while ignoring the either permanently OP, or permanently neglected, class underneath.

Oh and they need to buy a BS meter, so they know when they’re being misled…

^ Thought someone might think that, but I’m not.

It’s just a fact that, in these types of games, there exist not only people who demand to be grind-punished by the game makers, but who also seem to take great pleasure in insisting that everyone else is.

In fact, if anything, they seem to be more interested in the idea of everyone else being “punished” by content, than themselves being “satisfied”.

I’m, obviously, not suggesting that this is, necessarily, a sexual thing…

Although, I think it’s fair to say that Freud would have had a field day and perhaps, with some justification, this time.

Obviously, there has to be a certain amount of repeated content, in MMOs, but demanding that games companies make games even more grindy than is necessary is totally bizarre.

The only reasonable position to take, if you enjoy grind in games (for some unknown reason) yourself, is this:

“I enjoy grind, so would like more of it.

However, I totally understand that many/most other people don’t feel the same way, so it would obviously [or at least “perhaps”] need to be optional."

…and yet, what do you actually see them say, all the time?

Some, or all, of the following:

“You SHOULD have to work hard. This isn’t grind. Suck it up, or leave. Entitled kids.”.

Perhaps some, or all, of them are just trolling?

But, if not, they show no consideration for others, no flexibility, no acceptance that we all view these things differently and an absolute insistence that everyone should be forced to play like them, or leave.

That is not a reasonable request, as it is not just about what they want; it is about what they insist is imposed on others.

…and yet, games companies are apparently viewing these comments and blindly adding them to the Yes and No piles, as if they are of equal weight and of equal value as the reasonable comments.

That is, pretty obviously (you would have thought), a huge mistake.

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

Timiok.1048:

I mean, this part of the forums is just toxic and everywhere is mild.

no, i disagree.

the PvE forum (general discussions) is way more toxic than our this PvP forum.

seriously, have you any idea the amount of elitism PvE people raging whining just because the total amount of hero points to unlock an elite specialization in PvE is reduced from 400 to 250?

I know.

Sadomasochists only, in there, I think.

I don’t care if they’re masochistic, whatever floats their boats; but I do care if they try to insist that we all are.

For one thing, you can’t logically insist that other people become masochists, like you…

They either are, or they aren’t and trying to impose your own masochism onto them, against their will, amounts to sadism.

Which is (or should be) illegal.

Had more than enough of that weird type of behaviour, in WoW, TYVM.

Even if it’s “just” about a game, it’s borderline creepy.

Yeah, it does seem unfair.

I’m not an expert (as I keep saying), but even I can I totally see that it is either going to be of too much use to a profession/spec/build, or of virtually no use at all (depending on their individual stat priorities/values).

Wolfs Shadow.7234:

glaphen.5230:

Tempest: Shocking Aura to entire team nearly permanently while spamming the ridiculous massive AoE damage of Overcharge Air.

Reaper: Permanent chill and far more CC on Reaper Form while they get high stability up time and better damage than base and Rise gives too much sustain and damage in one skill.

Druid: New pets are obvious upgrades over base, too much free sustain for non bunker builds, ignore the people who complain about Astral Force generation because staff is probably the best weapon in one slot either way, too much immobilize if they take Ancient Seeds.

Dragon Hunter: Traps in general with their nearly instant ridiculous damage, CC and utility. Virtues are pure upgrades over base besides possibly Resolve since it can be interrupted but everything else about it is better. Too much CC in general with LB grandmaster, LB5, Justice pull and elite trap giving 12 seconds of barrier spam. Too tanky with a damage build compared to a normal Guardian damage build.

Chronomancer: 10 seconds of easily hit stuns that hit in a massive AoE and remove multiple stacks of stability. Need to remove Continuum or at least the cooldown reset portion which would solve above.

Scrapper: Too much defense and damage combined on the hammer combined with base Engineer amazingness with a free revive/stomp support.

Berserker: Pretty ridiculous condition damage and CC with mace.

Daredevil: Too much condition removal on dodge, but I still die on my bunker Thief to condition builds nearly instantly so…

Herald: Too much block/evade spam combined with amazing damage and healing. Hammer zerkers do some broken damage from ridiculous ranges with Coalescence of Ruin with just one use and it has nearly no cooldown.

In no actual order.

You kind of contradicted yourself, by saying every class is OP would in fact make all the classes balanced.

o.0

Well, firstly, he could mean compared with the old, pre-existing specs?

These “elite” specs shouldn’t actually be “elite” in terms of being better than everything else.

Secondly, he could be listing the things he feels are OP about each spec, but not implying those things make them all equally OP, in terms of their overall strength.

Some might be (and almost certainly are) more OP elite specs than others.

Timiok.1048:

To explain, I’ll just go through two views:

The QQer: Gives a reason (Could even be a good reason), why a build is overpowered. People either completely agree, or they pull the ‘you don’t know the class, you suck, learn to fight the build’ card.

The Defender: The person defending their OP (Or most likely not OP)build, always gets battered with the ‘You just don’t want to be nerfed, you suck, you want to keep your build so you do well’ card.

I mean, it never ends well, it just ends with it escalating and people being pricks to each other. Why have we been doing the same exact thing for like 2 years? Heck, why do we come here to complain to other people, and not the devs themselves? We could have actual meaningful threads if we could directly contact them about the ‘balance’ issues.

I mean, this part of the forums is just toxic and everywhere is mild.

ITA.

Although, I would change “The QQer” to something else, personally, as that in itself is a pretty inflammatory term.

Not sure what I’d change it to, though?

“The Nerf Requester”?

Not exactly snappy, but more neutral.

princode.2750:

Well maybe I’m noob in druid but I’m seeing druid facetank 3 or more player on a point and its not 1 match its almost every match well maybe all the 40 plus match my teammate is all noob. Explain please

I don’t claim to be an expert on Druid.

However, in general, healers have to be made pretty hard to kill, for two reasons:

1. They can’t kill you easily.

2. Everyone tries to kill the healer (so they can’t heal the rest of the team).

If you made them as easy to kill as damage dealers, they would:

1. Be dead pretty much all the time.

2. Be pretty much pointless to play, as they wouldn’t even get many (any?) kills before dying.

The problem is that people really like having a whipping boy, in PVP.

Just like in school, or in the workplace, when everyone decides to pick on one person (or people) and here, it’s Ranger.

It was exactly the same with Hunter, in Cata WoW.

Everyone with a brain could see that Hunter was in really bad shape and totally unrepresented in high end arena and yet, they didn’t try to improve it, for fear of an outcry from other classes.

Not because people, genuinely, felt Hunter would become too strong…

Just because they feared they would lose their super-easy kills.

That is what it boils down to here, too, with Ranger.

They could improve it immensely and it would still probably only be mid-pack.

Just as, when they finally bit the bullet, in WoW and ignored the protests, Hunter (after the improvements) only reached mid-pack in PVP.

It would just require bravery, imagination, a BS meter and lack of bias on the devs’ behalf.

DoogySnowStalker.2069:

I honestly don’t understand why we don’t just have another keybind to access our second reliable pet skill. The respone from Anet was ‘Because it would be to difficult for new players’, although I find that a very poor answer. Anyone who chooses a pet class will most likely expect to utilise the pet as an extenstion of youself so you be two places at once, not a CC and utility bot hindered by a poor pet AI (always sad to see a Ranger just use it for the F2 and nothing else). If anything, I would say Engineer and Elementalist to be more confusing to new players with the kits and the attunement swapping, maybe even Revenant as well.

IDK, they may have a point?

It took me a while to use all my pet abilities, on Hunter, in WoW.

I was more than a little confused, for a while, having never played an MMO before.

There again, as long as it doesn’t really matter if you use them both, or not, I guess it would be OK?

The real problem would be if not using them, or both of them, caused real problems.

But, if they are just going to keep it to one, then it is obviously even more important that it is always the right one.

Generally speaking, the right one will be a utility, IMHO.

Especially a powerful one, like this.

GiggleFairy.3807:

i only had to go through it for the one. the other was no prob. btw Tigs. ty for keeping it clean unlike some others. i only get trolly when someone else gets trolly.

OK, fair enough.

GiggleFairy.3807:

i am having a good laugh at the attacks you are all doing to the people who reply to your whining. having a great laugh at how this ONE pet is holding you back? most of the current builds use dogs for fear/knockdowns for pvp/wvw or Cats/Birds for pve. just work for it and enjoy it when you finally get it..you know soon as you get off the forums and do the event.

So, you’re admitting you’re just trolling?

Thanks for the heads up.

BTW, it’s not one pet, it’s two.

If you had read the threads about this and/or were really a current Ranger player, you would already know that.

GiggleFairy.3807:

does not matter if they had unique abilities or not. the idea is to earn the pet. i had fun unlocking my pets. it was more rewarding than most of these pets that you can just run up to and cap it.

It does matter.

It may not matter to you, if you play Ranger like Pokémon (as I am pretty much doing, currently, too!), but it matters to other Rangers.

Just as, if the same thing was happening to other classes and two of their class mechanics were locked behind a map event, many of the people who played those classes would feel it mattered.

We all need to forget that these are pixelated pets, for a sec and just think of them as class mechanic packages, gated behind an often failed map event.

GiggleFairy.3807:

Have any of you people ever played Guild Wars 1? Did you know that our Black Widow was in Underworld and took a long time to get due to all the quest and keeping the reapers alive. How about that Phoenix that was not possible to get until you killed Shiro Tagachi? How about that Rainbow Phoenix that required you get to get so many titles, HoM, etc? How about them special Wintersday Pets that you had to complete quest line in order to unlock and tame? earn this pet and stop acting like you should have everything handed to you on a silver platter. i think it is more of a rewarding feeling when you can complete something and get the pet as part of the reward.

This has already been discussed.

From what was said, none of those pets had unique abilities.

Therefore, they were “just” skins, so a completely different situation.

Oh and unless you intend to start demanding all classes have two of their new mechanics gated behind this event, please lay off the whole “silver platter” nonsense.

It’s very patronising and not even vaguely relevant, in this case.

Thank you.

Wuselknusel.4082:

Tigaseye.2047:

Wuselknusel.4082:

I’m really tired of “arguing” with you. You defy everyting that is not your opinion. You aren’t even able to accept that no bigger company ever would let junior employees decide important details. And yes, the placement of the pets of the Ranger are important. Just let me tell you this: You are wrong. And if you would put the effort you are currently wasting here into getting the pets, you would probably already have one.

That makes two of us.

Nothing any of you guys have said here has made any real sense, or has been backed up with logic, or evidence.

You don’t bother (or are unable) to answer any of our questions, or concerns, relevantly and/or appropriately.

All you are, basically (or sometimes, literally), saying is “Suck it up, or leave.”.

So, if you no longer want to bother repeating yourselves, for the umpteenth time, that is very good news for everyone involved.

You come here and expect us to “prove” our opinion, while you are doing not more than defending your own opinion? Why is it so bad that you don’t get the pet immediately? Why can’t you wait two weeks until even the last idiot has figured out how to complete the event? Go play Minecraft if you want everything immediately, don’t annoy me with your attempts of “casualising” even the last bit of content left that poses some challenge.

Yes, I do expect you guys to explain, provide evidence for, or revise any comments you present as facts, when I know these “facts” to be erroneous and/or purely based on personal opinion.

If you guys had said “IMO, this game is no longer a casual MMO and therefore, I think it’s OK if people have to work a lot more for things.” that would be presented as opinion, so that would be OK.

I would still disagree that Rangers should be singled out for special treatment, like this and I would still disagree that the game was intended to be far less casual, in general, without quotes from devs saying that.

But it would just be your opinion, so I would have to accept that.

But you guys are not saying “IMO”; you are all making definitive statements.

In addition, when your comments are that either our profession mechanics are not affected by this heavy gating (when they are), or that it doesn’t matter that they are gated (which it does), you are incorrect, pure and simple.

…and that matters, especially as no other class’s mechanics are gated in this way.

If you guys had made sure to get your facts right, had presented unproven things as just your own opinions and had remained polite throughout, this could have been a very different thread.