Guild Wars 2

Ynna.8769:

Tinni.4351:

Umm… we wear plate. We are Guardians and have to thus guard and guarding is usually most effective by being between mob and rest of your team.

Serious question back: Why be a Guardian if you just keep your distance? Roll a ranger, engineer or caster if you want to be at range.

I play a Guardian, because Arenanet has stated it would be enjoyed by players who liked healers in other games. They were wrong (I enjoy the Guardian for different reasons). But yeah, I play a Guardian because I want to support and protect my allies. Sometimes supporting and protecting my allies requires me to stay back. In this case, I’m limited to the unfocused Staff (and then my range is pretty limited) or the Scepter, which provides no support at all. I don’t necessarily want a new ranged weapon. I’d be perfectly happy if they tweaked the Scepter and/or the Staff.

Wearing plate is no excuse. Both in history and in this game there is precedent for people using ranged weaponry in accord with heavy armor.
Also, I’m sure that a Bow and a Rifle can be perfectly flavored as a protective weapon. Maces aren’t generally known for their healing and blocking capabilities.

I hate to break it to you but the “back line” so to speak, has ranger, engineers, necromancers and water elementalists. All four of those classes have AoE heals much more effective then anything we have and you don’t have to stay with the backline to support them with shouts. Roll back, shout, roll forward. You can also do the same with virtues. Roll back, use virtue, roll forward. There is absolutely no reason for a Guardian to be supporting from the back.

As I said, you should go back and forth since constant movement is a feature of the game and I switch between range and melee several times during a long fight. But that’s what our range is supposed to be. Something you put on for 25% of the fight while you melee 75% of the fight. That’s what the class is. At some point, what you are asking isn’t a “fix” to a range but a complete rethink of what the class is and thus should be able to do at range. So you know, two different issues here.

Also, for the record, I also played healers in previous MMOs. Including in vanilla WoW and GW1. I tried all the classes except warrior during the beta weekend with the Guardian being the last class I tried. I immediately knew it was going to be my main. So I would say that Anet was right with their marketing.

sigh My ranger is stuck on this one. Looks like I won’t be playing her for a bit. I wish I had known, I would have chosen a different path if I knew about this path.

Ynna.8769:

Tinni.4351:

I mean, Guardians aren’t supposed to stay at range.

Serious question: Why not?

Umm… we wear plate. We are guardians and have to thus guard and guarding is usually most effective by being between mob and rest of your team.

Serious question back: Why be a guardian if you just keep your distance? Roll a ranger, engineer or caster if you want to be at range.

Ganzo.5079:

Tinni.4351:

I mean, Guardians aren’t supposed to stay at range.

So if an enemy flee from us? we have not so much close gap skills, and they are pretty stupid imho, the only really usefull is judge intervention.
We dont have conditions that can slow down enemyes, so we cant keep an enemy on close combat for much time.

yes we are not a ranged class for sure, but now the only useful weapon we have against ranged foes, is that stupi.d and OP boon called retaliation. (and wall of reflection, but it cant be used always and its easily avoidable).

What you are referring to is a different issue to what I am referring to. Unlike Warriors, we cannot be a ranged only. But there are a lot of five signet, rifle warriors running around who never melee and can’t melee because their build leaves them very fragile. We cannot be ranged exclusive and that’s not a bad thing because that’s not really our classes role in life.

However, I too think that when we absolutely have to range, we are actually better off using an ele conjured bow then either of our ranged options. But this is only if we have to range for long periods of time and are not ranging temporarily because our health is low/because we dodged back from some AoE or whatever. As for gap closure, I cannot speak for your experience but I generally haven’t had too many issues with them using the weapons I do: Greatsword or hammer paired with a Staff for range.

The Mexican Cookie.3690:

All I do is dungeons in this game, but I don’t know if I actually find them fun. Think it just keeps me entertained as I don’t enjoy leveling.

… you can’t be doing things right. What do you mean you don’t like leveling? What do you do mean by it? I mean, I leveled by completing maps. How is that not fun? You go to a map and it’s at 0% and you are all like “I am lost and confused and there are wolves after me!” but then explore a bit, do some heart, tags WPs, get points of interests and then when you are 100% you are all like “Oh I see! It all makes sense now!” and I don’t just mean the map but you get to learn a bit about the lore and what’s happening too! But of course, you do actually have to pay attention, follow the events, talk to the NPCs etc, etc. If all you are doing is mindlessly killing like a bot, well yes, leveling is not a lot of fun. But if you enter a map zone wanting to learn about the zone – you get more out of the experience IMO. I mean, the lore in this game is really rich. So might as well dive into it! Not to mention that 100%ing a map zone get’s you money and lootz!

Regrets of Sini.6083:

1. Buggy – so many things are broken. Broken events, broken spawns, bugged mobs. Ugh…

I will give you this one. It is rather annoying to find broken things in dungeons.

Regrets of Sini.6083:

2. It is next to impossible to avoid grave-yard zerging content. It is so poorly designed that there is no concept of holding agro, as such tanking is very haphazard and rarely successful. Plus A WHOLE BUNCH of mobs are capable to 1-2 shots on pure vitality + toughness guardian tank. The only result – you die and run and die and run and die and run… this is ZERO FUN.

I apart from one bit in CoF path 2, only time I had to ever do graveyard zerg is during AC and that was only when I and others were new to it. If you have to graveyard zerg past AC, something is wrong with you.

Regrets of Sini.6083:

3. Environmental traps and jumping puzzles – please let your console designer go back to designing console games. Jumping puzzles do not belong in MMOs, and making them un-skippable makes people rage. AGAIN. PAY ATTENTION. ALL JUMPING PUZZLES _M U S T_ B E ____ O P T I O N A L _!!!!

I suck at jumping as much as the next person. Probably more but surely it is good design to use the Z axis if you are going to include it. I mean, GW one had no jumping and no jumping content. GW 2 has jumping and thus content that require it. I see no problem with this. Jumping is the same as any other skill in the game. It can be mastered through practice. Saying jumping doesn’t belong in MMOs is stupid. There is no such rule.

Regrets of Sini.6083:

4. Trash mobs are unreasonably tough and harder than all but few (broken IMO) bosses. Why does trash has so much a) CC b) hit points ? It is a chore, especially since there is no orderly pulling or CC chains in this game.

That’s rubbish. You can pull and do crowd control but you have to have party members or you yourself must be capable of doing so. Not Anets fault you are running with nubs who can’t pull or crowd control. Generally though, most groups don’t have to do either because they aren’t made with glass canons who can’t take a hit and can’t dodge to compensate for being glass canons who can’t take a hit. Only thing needed to make most dungeon runs go smoothly is target calling. Like seriously.

Regrets of Sini.6083:

5. With 1-4 in mind, rewards are very meager. I really don’t understand why do only get a bunch of tonics (goes to trash), lion chests (goes to trash) and blue/greens per chest? Why bother with chests if they don’t have anything VALUABLE in them?

I have gotten rare items from chests and you shouldn’t bash blues and greens. Even vendoring they add-up. But really, you don’t do GW dungeons for the loots. You do the story mode because you want to know the story and you do the explorable because you want the tokens for specific gear and/or want to do it at least once for the experience. But you will generally make a tidy sum from completion reward and vendoring blues and greens and if you lucky with a rare drop, that’s great! But drop loots should not be your motivation. If it is, you will be disappointed.

You know, I have completed AC (story + all 3 explorable), CM (story + all 3 explorable) plus done TA story + 2 x explorable paths and CoF story + 2 x explorable path (haven’t done 3 yet). I also did story mode for every dungeon but Arah and only reason I haven’t done Arah because I promised my brother I would do it with him. Across all the dungeons I have collected 1660 tokens.

But I am not in full exotic armour. I choose to put my dungeon tokens towards dungeon weapons and both my level 80s have all exotic weapons. But my armour is level 80 rares. I hear all this talk of being in “full exotics” and I am like o.O I mean, hell! My little Asura Engineer earned every single one of the 510 CM tokens she spent to get her pistol and shield and she got the majority of them when she wasn’t even level 80 (between level 55 and 70 for most of them in fact). It’s only the last 3 runs of CM to get enough token to get the shield was my Asura level 80.

I mean, at some point this elitism stops making sense. Surely experience and skill is > gear! Anyone who has done a few story modes know generally how a dungeon works and unless they are total nubs, require only a little explanation to get a hang of a new dungeon. Plus AC, CM and TA do not need level 80s!

DavidGX.1723:

Ghost.6247:

They do this for a reason, 1 player in games like Rift and WoW can wipe a whole riad by not having the right gear or experience. So for the rest of the group who has worked for days, weeks, sometimes months to get where they are dont want some noob joining them and wiping their whole raid. Simple as that.

This game is not like Rift or WoW. This is a skill > gear game, not a gear > skill game like those. Most dungeons are designed for people below 80, including exploration mode.

Not to mention that GW dungeons factor in death and one person can stop a boss from resetting while the rest of the team runs back from WP.

Scepter #2 needs to be changed to a symbol but apart from that, I think Guardian ranged is not as sucky as people make it out to be. I mean, Guardians aren’t supposed to stay at range.

coglin.1496:

Tinni.4351:

Depends on who you compare with. Of the classes I play, guardian is probably the best in terms of combos since both their hammer and greatsword has comb fields and finishers on the same weapons.

Yes, and engineers have kits that have multiple combo fields with their own finishers.

Tinni.4351:

. Engineers have very few combo fields and they aren’t exactly rolling in finishers either.

In order to keep this discussion productive we should try a couple of things (I know it’s the internet, but I have faith in all of us ):

1. Provide evidence of our opinions, assuming your experience is indicative of all experiences is a fallacy.

2. Don’t poison the well.

3. Make an attempt to be unbiased.

Clearly you have not read the thread at all, because your make a direct and blunt statement that contradicts the facts. Numerical evidence of a comparison of the amount of fields and finishers has been posted and contradicts your statement.

I have no idea why you have decided to pick a fight with me when I wasn’t being negative and even gave an example of a combo I am fond off. Also, your numbers are wrong. Engineers have 2 x Fire, 1 x ice (from elite morter), 2 x light, 1 x poison, 2 x smoke and 1 x water. That’s only 9 comb fields, not 14+. They have exactly 13 blast finishers and that’s only if you count each type of turret explosion as a different blast finisher. They have 1 leap finisher: jump shot and they have only 7 projectile finisher not 10+.

However, numbers aside, I stand by my opinion that to combo with an engineer require more pre-planning and isn’t a matter of equipping one weapon and being done with it.

Arsenica.2105:

may i ask if there is any armor set out there with power, toughness and condition damage??, because that would be just perfect. but im starting to doubt it even exist,

I don’t think so. But you can check here to see the full list of possible insignia and their stats.

Depends on who you compare with. Of the classes I play, guardian is probably the best in terms of combos since both their hammer and greatsword has comb fields and finishers on the same weapons. Engineers have very few combo fields and they aren’t exactly rolling in finishers either. End result is that engineers have to think about combos when setting skills up.

For example, on my Asura I usually carry radiation field because it has a poison combo field if I am running with mines and thus work on mine blast finisher + radiation field poison combo happening. Otherwise, you have to go meta and coordinate with your team about combos. It just requires a bit more thought and combo combinations aren’t just handed to you – that’s all.

Congratulations! Your Asura looks awesome with it!

I miss him! I don’t feel safe in LA without his imposing presence!

That’s not true! You just have to gang-up on the guy! Forget your hatred for the mummy, the skeleton and even the irritating Asura with the boxing gloves that sneaks in between the giant candy-corn men and does the boxing glove AoE! Unite! Unite against Mad King Thorn and end his reign of costume brawl terror!

The Halloween Dungeon could not co-exist with the Halloween finally as the finally involves the Mad King being brought to heel, back under the curse and being allowed to come to Tyria “just for run”. While the Mad King dungeon was about beating the Mad King back into submission. That is why the Dungeon is Act 3 and the Party Act 4. I am sorry you missed out. But its not Anet’s fault that your were too busy. We are all busy and won’t always be able to make every event. Moaning about it is just silly no matter why you do it.

Gunblades. I would like gunblades.

I didn’t make the cauldron either! We should start a guild! “Crap Jumpers Anonymous”! ^.^

There, there, if it makes you feel better – I am so worthless at jumping that not only did I never try the clocktower, I die just walking around in MK land.

I can’t jump at the best of time and so I didn’t do the jumping puzzle. But I did everything else!

Kaderin.7584:

Mortbane.4308:

Any lvl 80s who will not take you are some poor lvl 80s. I can understand if they wanted you to be at least 30 so you could have a full skill bar…but ….no I can’t even understand that.

Your entire post is missing the main reason why people are being choosy, it’s not because the dungeon is difficult but because people want to do speed clears, low levels dont have the stats or the traits for that purpose.

Anyway my only problem in this act 3 currently are with the people who have mains but bring their alts instead because they think the drop is better, otherwise I have no problem with people who simply dont have 80s yet

Then specify you are looking for a speed run and be polite about rejecting lowbies or some classes. Don’t make it sound as if there is something wrong with being a lowbie or a specific class. Because there isn’t.

Also, I am one of those players who brings alts to MK. But not because I think I’ll get better loot but because my main and only level 80 character is a Guardian and having done MK with her once, I decided I didn’t particularly want to be melee in MK. I would hate to think that people have an issue with me keeping my level 80 on ice. Not like I am burdening the party. My engineer and ranger are level 68 and 51 respectively. I am also very particular about buying trait books and stuff. While I know a lot of people who have gotten to level 80 doing things that didn’t make them a lot of money and thus they never bought the 1G and 2G trait books. You simply cannot assume a level 80 char is fully traited and knows what they are doing.

I mean, MK will be the first dungeon for a lot of players. Hell, it might be the first time some of them are partying. Just as Reaper Rumble and Lunatic Inquisition will be first time PvPing for a lot of players. Holiday events is a time when loads of players try out things they ever try and that’s a good thing!

I am sorry you have run into level discrimination. I do not believe it is very pervasive but I think it is beginning to be an issue. Due to the fact that I like being at ranged with MK, I have been running the dungeon on my level 68 Asura. She has so far grouped with level 8 thief, level 12 necro and I only on occasion saw “level 80 only” in both my server and the overflow.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying level discrimination isn’t a problem. Hell, one guy on my server made it to my block list when he was spamming for “level 70+ for AC explorable” and then “LF tank AC explorable” earlier in the week. I had to bite down on my typing fingers to NOT start a fight on /map by asking “what the hell is a tank in this game!”

Plus there is a whole thread in the dungeon forum about people being elitist with both level and gear. MK isn’t very hard. I 4-manned it once with a level 11 in the team. So anyone who is discriminating against you based on your level is not worth grouping with! Just wait for people who aren’t impatient!

Betrunken Affe.8476:

So you can pretty much sum up most of the counter arguments of dead.jezebel with: I did it, I am awesome, you must be doing something wrong.

What seems to be the point a lot of people are missing is that while you can definitely go into an area that is far above your level, require other people to basically kill everything and continuously res you (and generally need a crutch at all times). Is it fun? I personally don’t play games for the purposes of NOT having fun, and I don’t find alot of enjoyment of going into an area and being completely useless.

In regards to the “GW1 events” being better, they were imo. Even if you were playing out in the fields and not actually doing “festive” events, you picked up tidbits here and there. While you do to some extent in GW2, it’s only components to make the previously dropped potions/cookies/etc and the drop rate (for me) has been worse than most decent items. Overall it feels like a massive grind to get festive items so instead of a happy feeling from playing, you just feel ripped off.

The suggestion to downlevel players instead of uplevelling them was a good one and I hope Anet investigates that for future festive events. Not everyone has 2-3 hours per day to spend playing video games.

Okay, you do realise that book is equivalent to a level 80 item. Please let me repeat, that book is equivalent to a level 80 item. I played GW 1 too and I don’t ever recall there being an option to get an item that I could actually use in combat during any of the GW 1 festival events. Sure after the introduction of the “costume slot” you could wear your festival hats while PvEing but that was about it!

This Halloween event was not doable by everybody BECAUSE it had a nice item associated with it. IF Anet listens to you whiners, all that’s going to happen is that come winters day – there will be no item reward. Maybe if we are lucky we’ll get a skin that we have to transmute on to something but an actual item with stats: forget it!

Of course, the irony is that you whiners will probably be back here whining again if Winter’s Day quest rewards are skin only. Just like the complaints about Halloween exotics being too rare and then being “too common” because it is possible to get it from MK chest.

I am fairly certain Act 4 is clean-up that culminates a “grand opening of new Aslan statue” party.

I am torn between stockpiling and giving it to the kids. I do like what I can cook with the corns but bank slots are scarce!

I myself put-up with a ton of really rude lowbies to guide them through the events. Most were polite but at least one was impatient and irritating but you know, you help the bad with the good.

I also got help from high level characters on my one lowbie character I attempted the final book with. So really, I can’t see why a polite player can’t get help from the, on average, friendly player base of GW.

The average GW 2 player is pretty helpful. Perfect strangers came from across the room to kill mobs they didn’t have to in Fort Cadence just to res my Ranger (who was under level for that zone) when I was getting her, her flaming book. So you know, you can and will get help.

Exotics have come out of that chest. Did you guys remember to loot the chest?

Yes thank you! That was a fun and exiting dungeon. I especially like the Mad King says part of the dungeon. Brought back memories from GW 1!

Umm… the event was 7PM in UK. So it would be 8PM in most of Europe. It was actually a pretty decent time for Europeans IMO. My bro in Australia had to wake-up at 5AM. That was a bit more unpleasant but still do able.

Also, it.was.AWESOME!!! We had five guildies up. Me for UK, two from US, 2 from Aus. We saw the cut scene, our guild leader jumped in before we could catch our breath and next thing we know, we are in a dungeon with one guildie who was only level 10 and in his first dungeon!. But it all worked out. We down’d him with little fuss. Most of us got crap but Guild Leader got an exotic out of the chest (you guys did remember to loot the rest right?) but a good time was had by all!

Good Job Anet!

GSSBlunaspike.4153:

Wesley.4590:

This should not be a problem since you don’t have to fight anything to get these pages. Also, it’s not ANet fault that you are low lvl, lvling is very fast in GW2. And as others mentioned before, you could just ask someone to help you get there. Since the Act 2 book is called “Mad Memoires: Complete Edition” I don’t think Act 3 or 4 will bring new pages into the world.

My problem isn’t that it’s a different level. It’s not even Anets fault. I blame myself on thinking about it further. I expected the same company that we had in gw1. That is my own fault. Now that I know what I’m dealing with though I will just adjust my own habits accordingly.

You know I am from GW 1 too! And I would remind you that the consequences concentrating the events in a lowbie zone accessible by everyone was that we NEVER got anything good. No items we could use in combat etc. These books are actually useful. They were an upgrade for my Asura Engineer from the 1G Guild Backpack and she will use it for a long time to come.

It’s a matter of balance. IF the events truly are something anyone can do. At most we can get is a unique skin. Not an item with stats that will be useful even at level 80. Indeed, the stats, in fact, are comparable to a level 80 item. Think about that for a moment, that book is equivalent to a level 80 item. Do you really, really, really think that your low level character deserves to get an item that is equivalent to a level 80 item just because its a holiday item?

Item with stats means we have to work for it and yes, not everybody can get it. Only thing this amount of whining will achieve is that come Winter’s Day, we are going to get stuck with skin only rewards for quests that don’t take us beyond the starting area of each race! I hope you whiners will be happy then!

sigh So by questing you can get the Mad Memories back slot accessories, which are totally awesome and useful. You can also turn in candy corn to get temporary themed weapons that are awesome and you can get the devil horns for free form the gem store. Honestly, what more do you want?

In GW 1 we all got a hat for Halloween. Two hats after Nightfall, one from Lion’s Arch and another from Kamadan. That was pretty much it! I mean, we did also get some consumable, which in GW 2 is equivalent to the special food and potions chefs and artificers can make. But in GW 2 you also get special runes, you may have no desire to make them but you can if you wanted to.

So far as I can tell, you are not getting short changed in anyway! It is however unreasonable to except the same exact thing as another player who is willing to spend the time and effort needed to get exotic versions of the Halloween items. I mean, even if Anet added vendors who sold Halloween themed whites, I don’t think they would silence one of the whiners. You are whining because you want the best stuff without putting in either the time or money. How is that fair I ask you?

To conclude, here is a picture of my Sylvari holding using the Halloween bow, the temporary kind because I don’t have the faintest desire to farm-up the mats for the permanent kind. Because I am a causal player and this is the casual version of the weapon and I am cool with that.

I should explain that I do not believe that the book is bugged. Makes sense that it can’t be fully tricked out. Gives people reason to look forward to the quest reward. However, the wiki entry for this had a note suggesting it was bugged. So I put in that it could be bugged.

Also, I think that if anyone could truly obtain this item – it wouldn’t be as powerful. At most it would have been something like the Hero’s Band which is nice but not too nice. But I also don’t think the item is unattainable. Lowbies just have to team-up with higher level guildies or even helpful strangers who guide them along.

I put this together for my guild mates but I figure I might as well post it here for people who are curious about the Mad Memories back slot item and how they compare against guild backpack.

In short, the book for Act 1 is only different from the Hearty Back Brace as a quest reward during you personal in that it is visible. Otherwise, 1G backpack is better then it.

The book for Act 2 is equivalent to the Rampagers Spineguard and therefore better then both the 1G and 3G backpacks. But again, it is visible while the spineguard is not visible.

Rumour is that the Mad Memoires: Complete Edition is supposed to be bugged and that’s why it can only accept a tier 1 gem upgrades, which like it doesn’t have a level requirement.

runeblade.7514:

Lewis Burnell.2493:

I’ve played AC Explorable on my Engineer since level 31 and managed absolutely fine (I have a level 80 Mesmer) however the difference between AC and CM is enormous. As a level 40 in CM I was being steam rolled during the explorable to the point where I was dead more times than alive.

That is because your party carried you. AC exp can easily be done with 4 people. You are just an add that leeches off of the 4 other players. You think that you were good, but you contributed almost nothing.

This reminds me of a CM explorable run. At the time my level 40 ranger was looking for a CM story mode group and responded to a LFM message that didn’t specify story or explorable. I saw that the team had a level 80 (not surprising since some level 80s hadn’t done story mode of a surprising number of dungeons), a level 42 and the others were 50+. It didn’t cross my mind that this might be a explorable mode dungeon group but lo and behold they entered the dungeon in explorable mode.

Now we did get the first boss down, even with two people below the recommended level 45 but it was so awful that I asked the group to let me change to my level 55 at the time engineer, who had also done story mode CM but that’s beside the point. The fights were more comfortably done after that. The level 42 did die a lot and maybe the rest of us did carry him a bit. I mean, it’s not like I haven’t 4-manned portions of CM when team mates D/C and stuff. But there is a difference between taking someone under the level requirement (or 2 people – which was just stupid) and demanding that people be 80 for AC, CM, TA and even SE.

Gummy.4278:

Tinni.4351:

Gummy.4278:

Enikuo.9205:

Tinni.4351:

It appears that Anet has given-in to player pressure and implemented mounts! By that I mean, broomsticks! Quidditch anyone?

I was indifferent to mounts until I got the witch’s costume and now I think they’d be cool. At least I’ll have my broom : )

And you get to ride them in town right , oh no what ever will the nay sayers do…

Well the Witch’s Broom can’t be used for obstruction, which is what a lot of people were worried about, and secondly, they are clearly for the lols. It’s fun riding them from the trading post to the crafting station and vice versa and also to just hoover while waiting for a group. I am not even sure if it gives a speed boost or just feels like it does. It’s just a gimmick, not a proper means of transportation. We are happy with it because the broom is not advertised as a mount. If it were and it cost X gems, there would be even more people complaining about it then they are about the halloween skins dropping from Black Lion Chests.

I like how you contradict yourself by saying “It’s fun riding them….and also to just hoover while waiting for a group.”
SO they are FUN, SO you LIKE just AFK’ing on them ,but isn’t that one of the things that the opposing the mounts was against. Who cares what size the mount is, BLOCKING is not an issue anyway cause you can talk to any NPC by hitting the (F) button.
And this line “We are happy with it because the broom is not advertised as a mount.”
What difference does that make, you are so opposed to having mounts you justify what has all the makings of being a mount, as being ok cause it was not advertised as a mount, as a way to accept it. If it was not a part of town clothing and was a mount that could go anywhere , really what difference does it make. You already said that is was fun, so why try to make it so the idea of having mounts would not be any different.

sigh I also like turning into birds and flying form the crafting station to the trading post. Not to mention crafting as a bird or some other tonic induced transformation. Those are also fun for me. and serve the same function as hover on a broom.

Something called a “mount” and bought as a “mount” raises certain expectations and has certain connotations. The primary purpose of a mount is to travel. the primary purpose of that broom is to pretend to be a witch. Two very different things. You would not, for example, buy a mount that did not give a speed boost and allowed you to “zip around the map” as many of you pro-mount people like to say. There is no need for such mounts in GW 2 as we have waypoints and all classes have speed boasts and you can get speed boast buffs too. There is zero need for a “mount” in the proper “mount” sense.

Mount in WoW = necessary because they don’t have way points and the maps are designed to sink time travelling from one end to another. Mount in GW 2 = not necessary and if they were introduced as “mounts” but still made redundant because you couldn’t get a speed boast, you guys would cry even more!

1. Will you or will you not be buying black lion trading company or random number generation materials again?

I don’t buy gems just for keys. I buy gems for other things, bank expansions or costume, and if I have enough leftover, I buy a key. I don’t see why I wouldn’t do the same in the future.

2. Did you buy them in the past?

I have bought 6 keys total in my time in GW. 1 in September and 5 during Halloween.

3. If you would not buy trading post material/gamble, would you support direct to buy weapon skins and what general price do you find acceptable from a business standpoint both as a customer and realizing that they must make money as a business?

Direct purchase is not always a good thing. A skin that anyone can purchase is not nearly as desirable as a skin that is rare to obtain. Human psychology 101 that. I personally don’t care but I imagine those who care about skins wouldn’t like this.

4. Do you believe that future events will also be handled with random number generation to make profit based on limited time item acquisition?

I resent the formulation of this question as it is clearly biased against Anet. I will have you know that Anet has ALWAYS had random number generated “packs” for holidays. In GW 1, there was no real money involved (unless you were buying gold from third party sellers) and they still had things like lunar fortune:http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Lunar_Fortune that worked on a drop rate with rare items having excruciatingly low drop rates. Only thing I would ask is that during Holidays, they also make mobs drop the non-locked chests, as was the case in GW 1.

5. If you believe that the future events will be handled in the same manner, does this realization negatively effect your trust of Arena Net in regard to handling micro transactions for permanent content?

No, I do not have a problem with how this holiday was handled. I got a fun trinket for doing meta quest. Got to cook some festive food and I got to temporarily try the Halloween skins by paying candy corn. I am good!

6. Did you obtain a skin or whatever it is you were looking to get from the black lion trading chests? From the Mad King Chests?

I wasn’t looking for anything specific. Had I got the chainsaw skin, it would have gone to my brother. Who was looking for the skin.

7. Have you bought any of the direct purchase, set priced halloween items. If so, will you be buying more?

Yes, I bought the Witch’s Outfit and love it!

Fay.2735:

I’m reinforcing that it’s the player and the team that makes the difference not the gear, not the level, not the profession. Sure go ahead and don’t take lowbies with because of their gear which I feel is a weak excuse because it really is about how good the player is.

A few extra points in power or precision or whatever stat isn’t going to make the player good. I’ve seen some really bad level 80’s who are geared do terrible at lower level dungeons while I seen lower levels without perfect gear do 10 times better.

Like I said the whole ‘You must have this gear and this level’ is so nit picky and a selfish attitude. I’m not saying it doesn’t make a slight difference I’m just saying a slight difference isn’t enough of an excuse to act elitist and deny access to people who want to enjoy dungeons but get kicked out because of this attitude. It’s simply rude.

You wouldn’t deny access to your house party to anyone who doesn’t bring cake just because cake is nicer. Because the person who doesn’t bring the cake might contribute greatly to the party by being chatty and fun (Strange metaphor I know but cake is tasty!).

I am totally with you. People think too much in terms of gears and levels when it is all about experience. I mean, obviously if you are level 50 and still wearing stuff from level 30, that’s not appropriate for dungeons. But if you are level 50 and your gear is 45+ for blues or 40+ for greens, you should be okay. After that it is all about experience and knowing what works and what doesn’t. People aren’t going to get experience if you don’t take them alone with you!

I maintain that anyone who demands people be level 80 and also adds utterly ridiculous caveats that they be in full exotic is not worth grouping with.

You could just turn dialogue sound down you know. I mean, mute the dialogue if it annoys you. It won’t diminish the game at all since apart from a small handful of world event where you have to listen for dialogue cues, mission cuts scenes etc, you really DON’T need the dialogue sound up.

I have began to notice a bit of dungeon intolerance myself. Certainly, being level 80 in AC makes it easier. Sure your level get’s scaled down to 35 but you still have the trait bonuses and you gear will still give you an advantage. But it is not necessary. However, I am seeing more and more “LFM <insert low level dungeon> level 80 only” or “LFM <insert dungeon> experience players only”.

It’s a patience thing. To get full dungeon armour you need almost 1500 tokens. That’s a lot of runs. I imagine when you are running the same dungeon and paths over and over and over again, you lose the patience to deal with 1. newbies to the dungeons, 2. characters who are likely not going to find the whole thing as much of a cake-walk as a level 80 in full rares if not exotics. My advice is to just avoid this type of impatient people/people who have just run out of patience due to repetitiveness.

This is not an answer we can give without hindsight. You could waste your time or you could be missing out on loot. For me, I opted to do phase 1 on my main and 2 alts. It didn’t take long and along the way I got some loot out of the crypt and general mobs. It was also amusing to learn more about the mad king and truly appreciate his royal murderous psychopath. As a loot the book was useful only to my Ranger as my other characters had backpacks with better stats. So I didn’t do it for the loot. I did it because I wanted to.

Gummy.4278:

Enikuo.9205:

Tinni.4351:

It appears that Anet has given-in to player pressure and implemented mounts! By that I mean, broomsticks! Quidditch anyone?

I was indifferent to mounts until I got the witch’s costume and now I think they’d be cool. At least I’ll have my broom : )

And you get to ride them in town right , oh no what ever will the nay sayers do…

Well the Witch’s Broom can’t be used for obstruction, which is what a lot of people were worried about, and secondly, they are clearly for the lols. It’s fun riding them from the trading post to the crafting station and vice versa and also to just hoover while waiting for a group. I am not even sure if it gives a speed boost or just feels like it does. It’s just a gimmick, not a proper means of transportation. We are happy with it because the broom is not advertised as a mount. If it were and it cost X gems, there would be even more people complaining about it then they are about the halloween skins dropping from Black Lion Chests.

Have you guys ever collected the toys inside chocolates? Cards that come with purchase? If you have then you know that the whole skin in chest with low drop rate is nothing new. If you don’t want to play, you don’t have to but this is hardly a controversial concept.

O for the love of everything holy! You people are the worst! It’s a skin! A bloody skin that looks awesome but not having the skin will not hamper your enjoyment of the game in anyway shape or form. This not like an epic that makes you waaaaay more powerful then the unlucky chump. It’s just a look that starts and ends its desirability with how it looks and how rare it is.

Yes there is a certain gambling element to it and Anet has been successfully running this lucky lottery in GW 1 for years! Only difference these days is that gems can be bought with real money. But no one says you have to buy the gems! I mean, I want a legendary but looks at the amount of grinding and the luck factor (pre-cursors either have to drop for you or you have to buy them) and I am like “probably not for me”. So at the end of the day its about setting limits.

So far I bought $40 worth of gems that I have used to expand my bank, buy a backpack slot on my main, by the boxing gloves and witch’s costume. I also bought a total of 8 keys. The chests I opened with these 8 (I actually managed to open a lot more then 8 chests due to sometimes getting a key when opening the chests) did not yield any skins. But that’s not really the end of the world. Not like I didn’t get anything out of them. Bank passes, instant repair canisters – all really good things that have helped me out in a pinch before and some of the boosters are handy to have.

But if ALL you are interested in out of the chests are the skins, I suggest saving money to buy them off the TP!

It appears that Anet has given-in to player pressure and implemented mounts! By that I mean, broomsticks! Quidditch anyone?

I don’t actually know if there are people stupid enough to run with no utility stills. But I do know people who never change their utility skills and people who don’t bother buying their trait books. >.<

So here you are, you go to the dungeon forums and hear people moaning about how dungeons are too hard while we all know that by now, many, many, many people have got dungeon running down to a routine that is only broken if certain members of the team are not pulling their weight.

Don’t get me wrong. I have had off days in dungeons as well. But there is a difference between having an off day and being ill prepared. Not being able to trait above 10 and running with utilities ill suited to dungeons, or at least the dungeon in question, is being ill-prepared and that’s just not acceptable!

In the old trinity, players who played “tanks” and “healer” usually had to be pretty good and were the ones that paid careful attention to their skills and gear etc, etc. The average DPS could get away with being crap and having crap gear. Not any more and people don’t like it!

I use smite conditions and have meditation setup to actually heal me when I remove condition. I also use signet that auto removes conditions every 10s. I don’t notice the Guardians low HP pool because I made conditions work for me!

Norn are heroic. Hero’s don’t grow old…

Seriously, if your goal in life it to make a legend for yourself. Your aren’t going to choose a path in life that’s going to lengthen your life-span. Pretty much why you keep running into Norn orphans all throughout the Shiverpeaks.

fractal.7039:

I had no problems on my ranger….quest was easy

Same here. I had no issues either.

Well yes the story of GW is going to be predictable in that I doubt they are going to let the world be destroyed. I know of only one recent movie where they let the world be destroyed. However, I would like to point out that the personal stories of GW were not all created equal. Some of the personal story combination are just more enthralling then others. The Asura story had more shades of grey then 50 shades of Grey (I couldn’t resist!). The human and Norn stories were more generically heroic while the Sylvari too seemed a little bit more… nuanced.

It’s only because I have now had exposer to a number of different story combinations between Beta and release that I can appreciate how the whole outlook of the game changes for you when you play through different personal quests and how all the stories are interlinked etc. Not saying that the story isn’t predictable, as I said, they aren’t going to let the world be destroyed and you will do heroic things. But there is more depth then is evident from just playing one character and one story combination.

But I don’t think its a matter of age. More that by being around this long, you probably have seen the same story a few times. Plus not everybody has to like the GW 2 story. I do but that’s just me.

I use the sceptre as my ranged option. It’s okay but not great. The beauty of the sceptre is that it leaves the off-hand free to pair with something more interesting. But on its own it needs a buff.

I understand our inner monk demands we not be given bows or guns but I don’t think we would be complaining so much if the actual skills on the sceptre weren’t so lackluster.

I mean, I like ethereal chain but would like it to last a little longer and possible needs a shorter recharge time. Although I would happily accept just a shorter recharge time. 1 is fine for an auto attack thing.

But 2 needs to be rethought. I mean just changing it to a symbol, aka symbol of smite, alone would make #2 better. You know “Place a symbol of smite on the ground that strike foes in the area repeatedly and grants retaliation on allies” or something like that. Suddenly sceptre can be used in symbol builds and just becomes more useful! In fact, I am actually surprised that #2 isn’t a symbol already.

Well I agree that the travel cost for cooking can add-up but there are a number of zones that you can access without paid travel. Bloodtide Coast, Grendarren Fields, all the newbie areas, Dredgehaunt cliffs and other non-newbie areas that are linked to major cities. I guess it comes down to the question, are we worse off (travel cost included) from other professions who have to buy ectos for their 400 crafting stuff or even the other professions who make consumables like artificers. I don’t think anyone currently is making money off consumables. So you cant really say that Anet hates chefs.

I mean, the limit to of how much you can bulk buy from NPCs scattered around the world is currency (in the form of karma). But if you have enough karma, you can travel once and stock-up. Plus while you are there you can kill a few mobs and make-up the travel cost.

However, to think slightly outside the box, for chefs who completed 100% of the map and thus unlocked all renowed heart karma vendors etc – maybe they can have a special NPC in their home instance who sells them every available bulk purchase from around the world. I mean, as it requires 100% map completion, chefs would have to put in extra work to unlock this vendor. Only thing this NPC would do is save chefs travel costs by being a one stop shop in their home instance.

Still wouldn’t solve the vanilla bean issue and you would still have to go out in the field to gather things like the Omnomberry BUT it would make gathering bulk purchases for cooking seems less expensive.