Guild Wars 2

Risingashes.8694:

Hold up.

That’s the lesson they got from the beginning chapters of Frost and Flame? That we aren’t interested in new dynamic events? I loved the Dynamic Events, so did everyone else I’ve spoken to- what we hated was the stupid ‘Hit 40 signposts’ achievements.

You misread, I think, they meant the first content update which was around Halloween last year or so? Wasn’t it the one that added the “mini dungeons” which were fun for me to poke at but unfortunately nobody else was?

As for me, I don’t hate those stupid “Repeat until ding” achivements, but I don’t really think of them either . . . nor did I actively pay attention to the number until I was close to earning it. I mostly just hung around in the area and did things, gathered lower-level materials to feed to my Crafting practice, and had a blast finding “Snow/Dirt-covered objects” for folks.

Those achievements / content were much appreciated by me, as was the Whispers Secret Drops. Those were fun to read.

NinjaSonic.1392:

People over exaggerate quite a bit. Rangers aren’t bad, but they are a little awkward because they have some really weird weapon sets and traits.

I like to rib at myself a lot, because I always play a Ranger when I can and I almost always tend to regret it in some fashion. I still do it though, because there is something satisfying when there’s success at the end and it wasn’t dead-simple to do.

Khisanth.2948:

MasterYoda.8563:

In GW1 Anet done the same thing added certain weapons to certain mobs knowing full well that players will farm them. (Icy Dragon sword, Totem Axe and more) So this is no different so put your tin foil hats away and good luck getting your weapons.

These are actually a lot less restrictive. I am not even sure we can say that the drops are specific to a certain type of bag/box yet. Several are already known to drop from multiple types of containers.

Those weapons were really hard for me to earn, most notably the IDS. The FDS was also a fairly difficult one to earn in a form you would actually use

crystal.5930:

I hope you took no offense, btw. I was trying to be helpful, not to imply that you were in any way incapable.

Nah, I take offense to the people saying rangers can’t do anything. I try to prove them wrong a lot. I also faceplant in the dirt a lot trying, but hey . . . if you don’t try, you don’t win.

Which is why I am trying sword a lot lately and giving it a chance. I’m also honing my stats a bit with replacing Masterwork/Rare accessories (Rings, Jewelry, Accessories) though I’m still not replacing Mad Memories. The light of it is too useful

Awe.1096:

Single player games? I believe for example that infamous Dark Souls is easier from Liadri. Mainly becouse it punishes mistakes but it is easier to master over time while Liadri is still a mess even on the 200th try. No area or boss in Dark Souls challenged me so much as Liadri does atm.

This reminds me of a conversation I had someone which started with: “Kushala Daora is dead simple to take care of, at any rank, as long as you time your attacks right you can snipe the head . . . why are you shaking your head at me?”

Though to be fair, I’d more want to see bosses inspired off Ys. Usually a pattern recognition exercise, usually a matter of using the openings you get to win, and almost always awesome music.

Miflett.3472:

Primordus rises up to the surface through the underground gauntlet area, completely destroying it and flies away out of the rim of the arena like a reborn phoenix. It seems this primal dragon has been angrily awoken by all our recent fighting below grounds! Making matters worse, it seems the great use of mesmer magic in the area seems to have sped things up! Powerful magic is always a tricky thing to control; especially so close to lava fonts…

This leads to a call to action for our heroes, as we once again find ourselves among the familiar congregation with The Pact at Fort Trinity, while the kingdom of man is once again tasked with rebuilding. It seems like our new zephyr kingdom alliance has paid off however, and it looks like we’ll be seeing some new help arrive, for a threat to Tyria and the skies is also a threat to the kingdom. While they wish they could provide more military might, they remind us that they are a nation of free spirits and thinkers, not warriors. But all hope is not lost, though! They know just the race that could help us, given the proper welcome. We get to see our new alliance come to fruition when we are finally granted an audience with the Tengu after the zephyrites vouch for our honor. Who else to spear head this first meeting than the newly elected Ellen Kiel and the hero?

We can only hope.

Primordius wouldn’t sack Divinity’s Reach itself; no, that’s what champions are for, destroyers of inestimable ferocity and power who seize the Crown Pavilion and try climbing out of the pit. The Seraph, the Shining Blade, and all who can be brought to the fight need to get into the fray to turn them back. Though it is only a temporary respite, help is needed to seal that problem up for good.

The proper race to help against Primordius would be the dwarves, having to go track down what’s left of them in the Depths and bring them to the fight once more. Or maybe they’re already under siege and fighting back fiercely, requiring aid in the single-minded devotion to breaking everything Primordius has to throw at them.

And that would require bringing Ogden into the story again, to at least tell the tale properly. “I was there, you know, when the Great Destroyer was felled so long ago…”

Perhaps the focus of the counterattack is a long, long forgotten Asura Gate complex near Yak’s Bend. A repurposed Molten Alliance digging tool is employed to reach some of the caves, which are swarming with destroyers, and every advance must be fought for until the chamber is breached, then the champion is fought and everything made quiet for the moment.

At least, until a plan is made to assault Primordius.

And to bring this sort of back on-topic, I really don’t think you’re doing yourself any favors with PVT in PvE. I used it in WvW and had a very tanky build, but once I spent some time in Orr again (not even in dungeons!) …wow…I just had to do some freaking damage. Everything took forever to kill. And the longer it takes, the more danger you’re in. Finding the balance between survivability and damage that works for you is key.

Things don’t take me forever to kill, mind you, just Veterans and Champions. And I can take a few Champions if I’m on my A-game. Veterans seem to have a lot of health to chew through but I don’t have a lot of problems with them. Except maybe Risen Nobles, due to them not being strictly alone.

I like Orr, though, and I’m generally quite survivable in Risen so long as I’m not dealing with 4+ and a Veteran. Abominations are a pain, but do-able. I like the Pavilion less, due to the density of things there. It seems built for group or zerging.

I doubt it. I think DR will correct someone farming the champion rewards much better than sticking this as a nerf.

Maybe Scarlet is meant to be the nemesis and the whole start was meant to be setting her up as someone who knows who you are, but you don’t know about them until they’re ready to be known.

I can, and have, solo’d the following Queen’s Champions on a ranger:

Champion of the Whirling Edge – The mobility you can get with a shortbow gives you a good way to get her “Exhausted” as she swings and misses. Five stacks and she falls over, letting you get free hits. Go for sword and land Bleed / Poison, using Hornet’s Sting to back out when she gets up.

Champion of the Lightning Blade – Tank with a greatsword and a pet with a knockdown. If they don’t teleport, you’re good so long as you keep yourself standing. Alternatively, same strategy as Whirling Edge, just without the Exhaustion giving you free hits. Avoid, avoid, avoid.

Champion of the Stony Shield – Possible to do this, but I consider myself VERY lucky not to have been beaten down. Remember they reflect attacks.

Champion of the Heavy Hammer and Blazing Gun were not easy for me, but with a couple people it’ll work.

Caramel Ham.4891:

Thanks for the advice! I’m still playing to learn weapon tactics, because believe it or not I only know about half the weapons as well as I’d like. Dagger and axe off-hand not at all, sword main-hand in the sense of “this could be cool but I feel too fragile to do this”.

The Champion Icebrood Elementals during the Claw of Jormag sequence do not drop boxes, but do still drop at least green items if they die before the wall is broken. If the wall going down causes them to die, you will get experience and credit towards achievements but no loot.

I have yet to try the two Champions (Icebrood Wolf and Icebrood Goliath) in the second phase, but mostly because I wind up in play with only 8-10 other players and we kind of just go for the end rather than play around

Caramel Ham.4891:

Your point is all nice. But it doesn’t change the fact that zerker gear is the most optimal.

I could get behind this, it is easier currently to kill something faster and not worry about getting hit than to try to balance damage and survivability. Especially if you get a group together who can all drop some high-level DPS.

However! And this is a big thing . . .

I am not willing to go full glass cannon because I, simply, stink at dodging on time for many attacks. I run out of stamina due to dodging twice when once would have worked, due to missed timing. I choose P/V/T gear (Soldier’s) to try to bolster my ability to take damage. (It’s not always very successful, but hey I have surprised myself sometimes.)

On the other side, I didn’t go MF gear (Traveler’s) because the stats didn’t line up with what I was trying for and it was weaker than what I wanted to be. I might have made myself a set of armor, but my inventory is kinda cluttered already with a few things and I like having the space from time to time.

But the deep truth is either my class is just not optimal for the task (Ranger) or I am not an optimal player, so I mostly just sit out anymore. Except for Candidate Trials, where there was an actual use for being able to load about six skills to hinder movement . . .

locoman.1974:

I got three words for you…

Battletoads racing levels…

I swear, completing one of those levels in an original NES (without save states of emulators) must be used somewhere as a manhood initiation ceremony

. . . thank you, I was trying to keep repressing Turbo Tunnel from my memory. Now I got to go back to therapy. Are you happy now?

:)

TooBz.3065:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Navzar.2938:

Hopefully the boost to 500 in each craft will allow tradable ascended items to be made though.

I’m on the fence there. I’d LIKE them to be able to be traded but I’d also like there to be a reason to work on the crafting for yourself. Mostly because that means you can gear yourself with less pain at certain points. (Or at least, I was able to gear up rather well every 10 levels or so.)

But really, I expect them to work like this:

- Find a specific drop from a Champion spawn. Possibly the recipe for an account-bound Ascended weapon/armor. This will make a “pattern” of some sort which is item one, and controls which type of Infusion it accepts (Defensive, Offensive, Utility).

- Take tier 6 components or Rare components and do something like the Charged Quartz. The component directing what the “prefix” statistics are, much like what you Mystic Forge for back pieces. This is item two.

- Items three and four are the base materials for Exotic gear; Orichalcum, Gossamer, Hard Leather, and Ancient Wood.

- Throw the items in Discovery to get your Ascended weapon.

That simultaneously sounds like a fair, clever, and very disheartening system.

This is why I expect it, it seems like exactly the sort of thing which would be put in. It’s also my method of working with what’s in the game rather than tearing pieces out to rework them.

Navzar.2938:

Hopefully the boost to 500 in each craft will allow tradable ascended items to be made though.

I’m on the fence there. I’d LIKE them to be able to be traded but I’d also like there to be a reason to work on the crafting for yourself. Mostly because that means you can gear yourself with less pain at certain points. (Or at least, I was able to gear up rather well every 10 levels or so.)

But really, I expect them to work like this:

- Find a specific drop from a Champion spawn. Possibly the recipe for an account-bound Ascended weapon/armor. This will make a “pattern” of some sort which is item one, and controls which type of Infusion it accepts (Defensive, Offensive, Utility).

- Take tier 6 components or Rare components and do something like the Charged Quartz. The component directing what the “prefix” statistics are, much like what you Mystic Forge for back pieces. This is item two.

- Items three and four are the base materials for Exotic gear; Orichalcum, Gossamer, Hard Leather, and Ancient Wood.

- Throw the items in Discovery to get your Ascended weapon.

VLNt.9862:

Forged like 50 + greens and 0 yellow oO. Never happened. I usually got in medium like at 5 forges 1 yellow. Did anyone noticed any change regarding this?

Change? Not really, just my continued horrible luck of not getting a Precursor for throwing in stuff. But I’m patient.

Navzar.2938:

It’s true that you can never please everyone, but I feel this wouldn’t be as big of a problem if players had options for ascended gear that wasn’t strictly time gated.

. . . there are options, for the rings at least, to just get lucky. From what I recall they dropped “like candy” off Fractal runs. The back pieces are grindariffic, but you can get that stuff without time-gating.

The necklaces and the accessories are currently time-gated, with the neckaces requiring at least 20 Laurels (and 250 Badges of Honor from WvW or your Achievement Reward Chests), and accessories requiring 12 Guild Commendations (minimum of two weeks of doing all guild missions).

But after all that?

Yeah, the way Ascended was handled was really kind of a drag. I wish it’d been in from day one and not patched in, because THEN I expect it could have been smoothed out later into something much nicer rather than patched in one phase at a time.

Navzar.2938:

I don’t think most people with alts complain about it because they feel they should reach max strength without having to put in as much time. The problem with time gating is that it simply makes you wait. It doesn’t actually make you put in any more time or effort or something like that. It just makes you wait by having you put in that time in intervals.

It’s not news or new to the genre, but it is less frustrating than older methods. (“Another Moonstone Ring? Crap . . . where’s that sash?”)

Also, this isn’t meant to hit alts, it just does so because . . . unfortunately, larger percentages of players would abuse it like a soda machine that you only need to slap in the right place to get a free soda. If the bosses which had Bonus Chests gave one on each kill, I get the sense this conversation would be more “but I’m falling behind for not farming the bosses 24/7” and less “but I have alts…” Not to mention, of course, any potential effect on the economy.

(Though we all know it’d be Queensdale which would be the hardest hit, with overflow queues for DAYS.)

If you want to cut out the waiting and limitations, I don’t blame you. I’d make the argument that it’d burn people out faster, but I expect anyone who would become burned out would likewise become bored and quit anyway. Honestly, I don’t think there is a solution which would satisfy anyone, let alone the majority, after the novelty of “oh it changed” wears off. In the strictest, most stringent observation? There’s nothing here worth doing by any yardstick you care to use.

Hybarf Tics.2048:

Kralkatorrik Summer 2014
Primordius Winter 2014
Jormag Summer 2014
DSD Spring 2015

Too quick a cycle for those. Seriously, in both development time and play time I’d rather see:

Dragon #1 – Begins November 2013, final chapter added June 2014
Dragon #2 – August 2014 to January 2015
. . .

Or heck, even if it didn’t have the dragons so regimented and it was story #1 and then dragon #1 . . . the potential strength of a Living Story schedule like it is now is being able to slowly ramp up rather than drop it in wholesale. I’d like to keep that.

Healix.5819:

Yes, but not for any reason. I just haven’t bothered.

Pretty much my . . .

. . . wait, it doesn’t cap at 100 anymore? Darn, I spent mine without needing to when my Achievement Rewards kept pouring them into my pocket.

Navzar.2938:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

wolfpaq.7354:

Xenon.4537:

I play my alts because they are fun, not because I could reap extra rewards from them.

You realize these “extra rewards” are mandatory to fully gear a character right?

To be technical, to “fully gear” a character you need a lot of Gems, 20 slot bags filling all slots except the first, and one weapon with each type you can use, each stat combination, each sigil . . .

Extra bag slots don’t make you stronger. None of that stuff is time gated either.

Of course they don’t make you stronger, and they’re not time-gated. But “fully gear” implies having everything

And yes, that’s silly and ludicrous. So’s the idea that “fully gearing” your alts shouldn’t require you to put in as much time as for your primary character.

Fortuna.7259:

That you have strategies for finishing some of the requirements quickly only tells me your behavior is being manipulated, just as I argued. Maybe you are someone who gets off of work and thinks to himself, “I’m really excited to be able to visit the Karma Vendor again!” I’ll wager for most people this isn’t something they would spend time doing without being manipulated.

No, I’m someone who gets off of work with a brain feeling like mush and having the Daily list there lets me pick up a circuit to go amuse myself with that night. Maguuma Slayer is on there? Okay, Mount Maelstrom it is, or maybe I’ll take an alt through picking up spots in Caledon/Metrica. Veteran Slayer? Eh, maybe I’ll hop on the SBI borderlands or EB to take a look at what’s going on.

Days off, I mostly hop on and see what the guild is up to, ride along with them for a bit, then split off to go do something else.

Your distinction between coercion and enticement isn’t so clear cut. By selectively rewarding people you can effectively punish those that you do not reward.

So, if I were to hand random people $10 in a WalMart, I am punishing those who I didn’t give it to? Or what about coupons, they punish people for not buying certain brands? (Usually the coupon doesn’t cover the price difference between generic and brand name, but whatever . . . )

Coercion just refers to the application of pressure, and players definitely feel the pressure of “falling behind” their peers.

Not all of them, and in fact I’ve found more who care about their WvW rank than their “falling behind” someone else.

Interestingly, I find that the people that are most committed to doing dailies/monthlies usually express notions of “falling behind” if they don’t do them, rather than excitement about what they can earn by doing them. These players get a sense that if they can’t finish a daily, the will be forever “down a laurel.” In other words, if these dailies succeed in altering behavior long-term, it is my experience that they usually do so by coercion and not by enticement. In either case, however, it is “manipulation.” And I don’t think most people are really comfortable knowing they are being manipulated.

I agree that mentality is a problem, but it’s because there’s not much worthwhile for Laurels to buy you other than gear you don’t really need to do much, most of which you can get in other methods (which might be more entertaining than grinding Dailies).

Except for Guild Missions. I haven’t found too many people excited to go do them, but I do find guilds explicitly created to offer a community outreach to those who wanted to do them but couldn’t otherwise. I’m in one

TooBz.3065:

Whether or not you believe the game is alt-friendly, you can’t argue with the fact that the game is less alt-friendly than it use to be. Well, you probably will, but you’ll be wrong.

Hrmmm . . . I don’t see it. I know at this point it’s probably something with how I perceive it but it’s a mixed result. While there’s been some things which make alts harder to gear up, and account-bound bonus chests mean there’s only reward for a main character in a day’s period . . . there’s also some things which made alts easier to work with.

Positive:

- The new Account Wallet means no more having to specifically work for Karma (or save Jugs) for an alt to gear up. (Please note, this is a big thing for me since I’m lazy enough to gear accessories by Karma purchases as opposed to crafting every five or ten levels.)
- Gathering Tools were unrestricted from “Soulbound on Acquire” to “Account Bound”, save the infinite tools.
- Effectively being used as storage for odds and ends when not being played. (What? I have no better use for my elementalist since I learned painfully I stink at playing them :P )

Negative:

- Ascended Gear is Soulbound on Use, and purchased with Laurels. Laurels are an accountwide currency, so you need to earn them regularly if you want to gear up multiple characters.
- Bonus Chests are once-per-account, meaning there is less reward to do (for instance) Tequatl if your alt character happens to be there and your main character already has. Notably, you still get the spawned chest to open, not the bonus guaranteed Rare.
- Dyes are per-character, meaning you may need to spend or be lucky to get colors you want with multiple characters. (Note: This was changed, allegedly, from an account-wide system where you could only get one dye per day much like Charged Quartz. And required an item which was not used for anything else to trade in.)

Mixed:

- World XP from World vs World is per character, which can be positive or negative. It is possible with this method to have one character be geared for using siege and another for running supply for siege building and repairs.
- It’s possible to earn multiple “Gifts of Exploration” from 100% completion, meaning you can in fact make more than two Legendaries per account. However this means going through the rest of the mess for more than two Legendaries.

The Talcmaster.7391:

fact: nobody cares about the karma, gold, or experience they get from dailies. They don’t even factor into this argument because there are alternative ways to get them, some of which are potentially more efficient. The only thing that matters are the laurels and their exclusive stat boosting rewards.

If there were alternative ways to get laurels or the prizes bought by them, people would not be sweating the dailies so much and creating 8 page threads.

There are alternate ways of earning the stat-boosting rewards, save only the necklaces. Which I really won’t argue sucks, and they should have come up with a means of getting them by now.

Deified.7520:

What if the person is Cadecous. He doesn’t have a huge involvement in the personal story is for humans during the first like 5 levels of it. He isn’t seen in game at all except for the dungeon and in one area in DR (queen jennahs room).

It would make sense, if the Watchwork creations were based off Uzolan’s cribbing off Snaff’s work . . . it would explain why the asuran emissary was unsettled by the Watchwork guardian at the beginning of the Opening Ceremony.

Ashen.2907:

How many MMOs can you not take a break from and come back to do the lower tier instanced content that was present at launch ?

I have not encountered even one such.

That said, you are correct, as of now at least, about the relatively low impact of gear progression in GW2.

I’m relatively confused here, what lower-tier instanced content which was present at launch currently can’t be completed by someone gone for a month? Six months? Since November last year . . .?

Vayne.8563:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

justkoh.4073:

Its frustrating that I can only get one laurel and one charged quartz a day. If they’d let me do 2, that’s already a 50% reduction in the time needed to equip all my 12 characters.

On the other hand, if I could get rewards from ALL my alts, I might play myself to death trying to equip them. Now I can happily shut down my GW2 client knowing I’ve done all I can for the day. Its a mercy in a way.

You can earn more than one Laurel, if you do the Daily PvP achievements. Of course, I never found them fun so I tried it a few times and bowed out.

This isn’t correct. You can get a laurel from either the PvP daily or the PvE daily, but not both. This was changed many months ago.

Really? I swore I got the rewards . . . though I only did it once, saw the reward screen, “Kiel Every Day” update, and said “huh, that’s neat”. I don’t pay attention to my Laurel count all that closely . . . so if I’m mistaken then so be it

justkoh.4073:

Its frustrating that I can only get one laurel and one charged quartz a day. If they’d let me do 2, that’s already a 50% reduction in the time needed to equip all my 12 characters.

On the other hand, if I could get rewards from ALL my alts, I might play myself to death trying to equip them. Now I can happily shut down my GW2 client knowing I’ve done all I can for the day. Its a mercy in a way.

You can earn more than one Laurel, if you do the Daily PvP achievements. Of course, I never found them fun so I tried it a few times and bowed out.

Calae.1738:

This isn’t hard.

Go do a Dark Souls play through with no shield and no magic.

. . . really?

Naked Dual Nargacuga G3 rank. With Ham of Hams.

So, for anyone else are you having trouble registering the balloon towers properly? I got the two in Queensdale earlier last night and it still registers only one. Except they both show the chest at the top having been activated, so I can’t actually get the one I missed . . .

Einlanzer.1627:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Just here to say, if you think that’s a problem don’t talk to anyone from Boston about their automobile, or Canada concerning their footwear. And it will drive you mad to try to talk to someone in Britain . . .

People like to toss out this argument a lot, but it frankly misses the point. The main reason why is because inflection is not the same as pronunciation. While the Queen’s English and American English differ to some extent, the vast majority of words are pronounced the same way using the same exact grammar rules; it’s only the speaker’s inflection that differs due to regional variation in accents.

Well, when the accent on a Bostonian “car” loses the R sound and the C becomes a hard K? It does make a difference, much like accents in the Southern US tend to blur words together sometimes into other things. And that’s without visiting South Carolina and some of the accents there . . .

No, it doesn’t fully excuse “gall-em” versus “goh-lem” (not using the long O), but if I can run into people continuously correcting my spelling with “colour” then I can make this argument.

Kal Spiro.9745:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Just here to say, if you think that’s a problem don’t talk to anyone from Boston about their automobile, or Canada concerning their footwear. And it will drive you mad to try to talk to someone in Britain . . .

Einlanzer.1627:

This post eloquently describes the idiocy of the previous argument. Language has rules for a reason, because otherwise we’d just be barking incomprehensible gibberish at each other. People should strive to obey those rules. When they fail to do so, they should be corrected.

Language has rules, but they’re all different from language to language. And a lot of times, even the rules for English do not make sense. Seriously, just look at homonyms for a start.

And none of that is related to how one should be pronouncing golem.

It’s related, you just need to step back to appreciate the broader scope of the discussion on language. It’s not directly related, but heck, I’ve seem flimsier connections used to justify a lot on the forums so why not?

wolfpaq.7354:

Xenon.4537:

I play my alts because they are fun, not because I could reap extra rewards from them.

You realize these “extra rewards” are mandatory to fully gear a character right?

To be technical, to “fully gear” a character you need a lot of Gems, 20 slot bags filling all slots except the first, and one weapon with each type you can use, each stat combination, each sigil . . .

Einlanzer.1627:

Octopuses, not Octopi, is correct.

Both are correct.

Just here to say, if you think that’s a problem don’t talk to anyone from Boston about their automobile, or Canada concerning their footwear. And it will drive you mad to try to talk to someone in Britain . . .

Einlanzer.1627:

This post eloquently describes the idiocy of the previous argument. Language has rules for a reason, because otherwise we’d just be barking incomprehensible gibberish at each other. People should strive to obey those rules. When they fail to do so, they should be corrected.

Language has rules, but they’re all different from language to language. And a lot of times, even the rules for English do not make sense. Seriously, just look at homonyms for a start.

Vol.5241:

If all you want is the rune, can’t you just salvage it with BL kit?

Can’t salvage Karma purchased gear . . .

Tad.4109:

i hope that ‘S’ is for ‘Scandal’. after all, from a role-playing perspective, there is so much about this arena and Jubilee that do not pass the smell test. what right does Jennah have spending Kryta’s coffers on this huge monument to herself? even worse, the Queen only plans to use the arena two weeks out of the year? how does that make sense? how does that help her people? additionally, she’s built balloon towers all over Tyria in remote locations. why? wouldn’t that money be better used building infrastructure in Kryta, helping the poor, etc? Jennah has a lot to answer for and i hope the people of Kryta wake up and take note! this entire event has scandal written all over it, and i hope a scandal is what we get!

Well she did build it in the Great Collapse, which was previously just a big hole in the city saying “we can’t build foundations properly, oops”.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Well guess what… there is no longer a single area of the PvE game left that alts aren’t penalized for, guess it’s time for a new excuse.

Not true! You have the Personal Story which is just as fun (or not) as it was before!

. . . by the way? Still haven’t felt penalized for having alts. I’ve felt penalized for my main being a Ranger, but . . .

Hawke.6943:

OK. this is the case:

I bought a piece of HEAVY armor from temple of lyssa with my elementalist
now its soulbound to him

I have a warrior and i want that specific item that i just bought to get transmuted to the armor my warrior has, just for the lyssa rune

Is this possible?

if its not then sigh……i have to walk my warrior to temple of lyssa all the way from LA

Transmuting it for the Lyssa rune is probably the more painful way to do it. What you should possibly do is check the price of that rune and see about getting it. (Note: Currently the Crown Pavilion is actually a good place to burn a couple hours and earn money.)

Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s a way to do this shuffle. Soulbound equipment to another character can’t be withdrawn by another, and Transmutation will soulbind it automatically. Though you may be able to Salvage it, you’ll need a Black Lion kit to ensure you get it out with a 100% success rate.

Devata.6589:

Isn’t it bad that you need this sort of tactics to get people to log in in the first place? And many people don’t like to be presumed to do something so eventually people will start logging in less because of this.

Is it bad? Sure. I mean, it should have people logging in every day without it instead of just cherry-picking for events. You know, like the last two years of GW1 (“Is it special event weekend? No? Not logging in then.”)

I’m curious, could someone give me “the next ten words” about how they’d fix the problem mentioned here? I mean, I can tell we’ve got bright minds on the problem on both sides of the fence. Can we start brainstorming a way to make that fence not exist at all? It’s not like we’re discussing the viability of MF gear, we’re talking about how to get people to log in daily without needing to offer bonus rewards or other time-gating.

Dog.1472:

And that mindframe is what causes runs that last for hours instead of minutes and the entire party repeatedly wipes instead of wins.

Do you enjoy it when runs are frustratingly slow and painful? I have a feeling there’s a couple people who don’t, therefore you are not playing in a way that everyone enjoys and are indeed being selfish.

I don’t like to say enjoy it, but it’s one of the finest memories of my GW1 days – the Eight-Hour Urgoz’s Warren raid. Fun times, and it totally by all rights should have been the worst night of my time there AND broken up the alliance. Instead we just decided we had to come back in a week or two and try again.

Weird, isn’t it?

. . . is it that time of month again to get to work on the Manifesto once more? Hang on, I need my hipwaders and shovel because this is gonna be too good to avoid.

Did it live up to the Manifesto? Yes and no. Yes in the sense that I got what I expected from hearing the Manifesto but no in that I don’t think any came could fully encompass what is described there at this time. There’s not enough development time and funding to allow it short of some guy bankrolling it with his private accounts (Paging Richard Gariott…)

But I’m tired of talking about it on a case by case basis because, frankly, I know no matter what I say nobody who disagrees will be convinced. It’s a favorite pinata, except this one doesn’t give you even that horrible salty Zhaitaffy which was next to worthless. All it does is get fans worked up because they like the game, flaws and all, and that’s just unacceptable to some people.

Well, if I can’t play to the best of my ability, or am not always at my best, it would be respectful not to play with others at all then, isn’t that so?

Dante.1508:

I gave up on dailies they are a waste of time, look at the rewards? Ascended stuff that is great if you WvW the rest its pointless ugly weapon skins and overpriced mats…

I think i’ve done 3 dailies in the past few months and they were just luck..if you see the rewards for what they are you’ll stop doing them.

I do them largely without trying, anymore. I just pop on, do something fun, hop into WvW to see if SBI is getting its teeth kicked in again . . . the usual It’s largely due to my available time often being later than everyone else.

Dante.1508:

Again i blame Anet for these issues if all builds were optimal and not just dps for the win these threads wouldn’t exist, yes you can go other builds but they suck compared to zerker, its not zerkers fault really its Anet’s and their classes/gear /dungeons.. etc.

Strangely, “DPS for the win” worked for a lot of other things I recall. I do recall EQ used to have the issue of bosses not being mechanically difficult but rather having insane health pools or automatic invincibility kick in, or “it’s 20% health, time to start plowing some players over”. The few battles which had odd mechanics I recall were not often well-received by the people I talked to while I still played. The words “cheap” and “unfair” often came up.

I’d like tougher bosses in general. Heck, I’d like a Demi-Fiend level tough boss just to shake things up. Make them evolve their attack patterns or available powers, or do the Shiro thing with “Impossible Odds” for the lolz to the Zerkers doing massive amounts of damage . . ..

Queen’s Sanctuary. The Aetherblades are enough of a threat and striking often enough to drive Queen Jennah into safety under the Shining Blade’s protection in said sanctuary, and the players will have to defend it and the queen.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

IndigoSundown.5419:

sinzer.4018:

You understand why ascended is to be time-gated right? It’s to reduce the impact of the inevitable power creep. Whether it’ll be effective or not is another matter ofc

How is that? Delaying an impact is not reducing it.

Time-gating serves one purpose and one only. It stacks the deck on the side of the developer in the tug-of-war between the developer’s desire to extend the game and player desire to burn through it as fast as possible.

This is not quite accurate. Time-gating in games extends the game, but it’s also meant to prevent the player from burning through content OR far too easily getting an edge over the game which takes challenge away. I’ve seen games where (if you know what you’re doing) you can get a massively overpowering edge early on due to skipping time-gates.

It does alter the balance of the game following the point where you “sequence break” to be somewhat less interesting.

I was replying to a post about Ascended, which afaik does not pertain to other games; hence my comment was GW2 specific. While the topic is listed as dailies in MMO’s, this thread is basically another discussion of dailies in GW2. Since laurel acquisition cannot be sped up — except minutely, through achievements — the point stands. If you like, read my statement as, “Time gating in GW2 serves …”

It doesn’t completely translate to other games, but it’s up there with some sequence breaking players can do.

Dailies aren’t really the problem, so much as the players are. Because when the Daily Achievements were first in? There wasn’t any point to doing it other than Mystic Coins and the occasional neat BLC item. Then there were complaints that doing the Daily wasn’t rewarding, during a time it was thought Karma was too hard to get so they added the Jugs of Karma.

Then there was a bunch of extra stuff converging into the solution of Laurels: the means of acquiring Ascended gear outside of Fractals (not requiring luck farming it until you get the Ring you wanted, or relics to purchase them), Dailies needing (again) to be relevant, and trying to figure out how to make sure alternate means of Ascended weren’t too easy since there was a big movement about how they were too powerful compared to Exotics.

After that, there was talk about how unrewarding certain World Bosses not named Champion Svanir Chief, The Shatterer, Tequatl the Sunless and Claw of Jormag could be, so the Bonus Chests were added on a daily timer, and expanded on little by little.

. . . and so we reach now, when finally some other things seem to have been laid onto the daily reset time, which is convenient since other things are on it . . . so might as well use the same timer. Really, it’s hard to say it’s all ANet’s fault since it was rooted in players complaining the opposite of “Dailies are too important”.

The vocal majority got their wish. Now the vocal majority wants something different. I’d be more snarky about it, but in MMO-land, this is relatively normal.

Surbrus.6942:

Yes, making content impossible for [unskilled] zerk geared players would be wonderful. PvE content is ridiculously easy, which is one of the reasons for why zerk is so much better. Not having a holy trinity has nothing to do with the low difficulty level… the low difficulty is almost entirely due to lazy implementation of encounters, and appealing to low skilled players too much.

As a veteran of the Pokke Village hunters, I totally appreciate the idea of requiring skill and practice if you choose to go for power over protection.

On the other hand, don’t think protection is all that cracked up right now in GW2.

laokoko.7403:

I’m purely guessing. But you got kick out of a group once and you get over sensitive and stop doing dungeon.

I get there are people anti ranger. But if you meant to tell me you see them all the time I’m quite skeptical.

Not to mention I think ranger is one of the better class for atherblade retreat.

I got kicked once. I’ve been told “no thanks, don’t need a ranger” many more times, which is preferable to me than being kicked. (Note, the kick was because I wasn’t wiping with the rest of the party and they wanted to quickly restart.)

I really think Ranger is underrated . . . but it doesn’t matter what I think if I can’t get a group without sifting through a ton of “no thanks”. Though considering most games which have Rangers have had the same problem with the class . . . I should wise up and roll a Cleric on EQNext or whatever is after this.