Guild Wars 2

TwoBit.5903:

ThiBash.5634:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Please note, I’ve said a lot of times . . . I have done that fractal exactly once, and it has never come up instead. If we had been talking about swamp? Yes, I get that almost every time. Uncategorized? Not more than once.

Understandable. I didn’t post to say “OMG, U R WRONGZ N00B!”. I merely wanted to share a situation in which the Invulnerability mechanic makes it very tough to progress when it kicks in.

The funny thing is, that most gamers would love to have games where terrain plays an integral role. Instead, we get the same old permastun/instagib ‘challenges’. This forces players to flee into exploits (which do use the terrain) which then get fixed and take even more possibilities out of the game.

My main gripe is that, when I use skill and smarts to beat an enemy, I get punished by game mechanics whereas if I facetank it, I can beat it.

Agreed. In many games terrain isn’t something that’s there to look pretty, it’s there to provide strategies. Players are supposed to feel smart using tools, not punished for it.

Fair enough. However . . .

What happens when a smart, cunning, skilled player can basically walk all over your game? What positive effects . . . as a whole, does that have if they learn early on all they need to do is stand where something can’t hit them and hit the monsters back?

More to the point, what happens when you have that going on in a game where one group of players who can pretty much farm with impunity are playing alongside ones who don’t? Or more to the point, if everyone does it and there is no challenge?

We saw back in early GW1 the proliferation of certain farming builds because they were super efficient and almost unstoppable. I say “almost” because they required a lot of skill to pull off, and an intricate use of the system. But once you knew how? As many Ectoplasms as you had time to go farm. Or other objects, with no risk to you.

Aside from self-benefits, exactly how does this make the game better?

Katai.6240:

What? o.O

You’re saying the 5 silver you get from dailies is going to cause massive inflation

As opposed to selling greens to NPCs for 2 silver each, and most people get a stack of 20 in less than an hour…

Should we worry about leaky faucets because it’s causing the sea level to rise?

Erosion. Leaky faucets can’t cause the sea level to rise because they’re just moving water instead of creating it

Zaxares.5419:

I’m with Tobias on this. While I don’t really support the OP’s position, I can understand where he’s coming from. I, too, feel kinda “pressured” to log in every day to do my Dailies to ensure I don’t miss out on my Laurels. It’s not really an issue since most of the tasks can be completed pretty easily, but it does require me to restructure my nightly GW2 playing to accomodate completing the tasks, something which I didn’t have to do originally with Dailies in their original form.

The difference is I . . . well, I was mostly done with my ranger at 80 and personal story wise for a couple months now (save those last few steps in Orr). So, there’s a confession: I was mostly “shapeless playing” anyway so it was easy to look, figure out a way to get through the daily requirement and just do it.

On the one hand, I have seen there are a lot of players who are in the same position. “We’ve done everything we wanted to do, what’s left we’re not keen on.”

On the other? Might be difficult for new players or ones who took a break and came back now to really buy into so easily. I guess the best news is there seems to be a sort of pattern to the Daily choices, and the Monthly this month was one of those “real simple” ones.

Cures.7451:

dont thank ANET – thank the exploiters

Not just in this game, but in every game ever

Erukk.1408:

Hate is too strong of a word for me to use for him. It’s more of a general apathy for me. Most of the complaints I have against him were already listed by others: lack of character depth, bland personality, and Mary-Sue-ish qualities.

The player character accumulates far more of those than Trahearne. I am not sure if I really like the voice actor for the male human anymore. I think the big problem is the voice direction, and this is an across-the-board matter.

Veteran voice actors can salvage it, I mean Felicia Day does manage to make me not want to strangle Zojja every moment she opens her mouth. (Only when she’s being a prima donna, Snaff dying is all that matters, and that Kudu stinks!) And Steve Blum’s Rytlock is very good.

Not to mention the whole…

Trehearne: I don’t want to be leader.
Pale Tree: It is your destiny.
Trehearne: Ok, I’ll be leader! What should we do next commander?
Me: /facepalm

I’m coming up on this part again, but I thought it was “I don’t think I can lead” and the Pale Tree going: “You don’t think you can lead? Bull. Look important, act confident, and stare down anyone who tries to call your plan stupid.”

. . . those eyes . . .

If he is going to be a major character for the remainder of the game, they really really need to expand on him, and give his character some depth. I don’t mind playing the role of henchman in a MMO, but I’d much rather be a henchman to an interesting character/leader.

This sums up a lot of “but I liked my mentor, now I got this walking weed” complaints. The mentors had some time to grow on you, and then they were gone. (Except Sieran. Apparently she’s an exception.) Trahearne needed some more exposure if he was going to be important.

We’ll see what comes. Personally, I expect him to be more absent since he doesn’t have a personal stake (his Wyld Hunt) in being there all the time.

Valdur.3607:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

@OP:

Last night I did an experiment. I did not look at the Daily categories and did the following which is a usual routine for me these days:

- Frostgorge Sound to hit up the resource nodes there and hopefully catch the Claw of Jormag (I did).

- Travel to Blazeridge Steppes for Gold Ore mining and the Shatterer. Also, third-tier Fine Materials can be earned here so I try to kill all the things.

- Drop into WvW late night and fool around for a bit. More important since there’s been actual activity now on WvW and I’m still hoarding Badges.

I finished 4/5 of the Daily before I would have logged out so I dropped to the crafter and ran 10 Refinements. Done.

Exactly! Just playing the game will complete 3 to 4 of the tasks and if one really want to complete the last one it might take like 10 minutes.

I don’t see why/what OP is complaining about thus making him/her sounds like a drama Queen.

Here’s the sad thing . . . I know how he feels about this, and know the mindset which leads into feeling this is put upon him.

And it’s really set in Laurels. Heck, it was set in Mystic Coins before Laurels or the Karma Jugs were a part of this. Mystic Coins were keys to really neat gear in the Mystic Forge. And they were essential to earning Legendaries.

So it was either buy them or do your Daily regularly.

ThiBash.5634:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

If a creature was hitting me with a ranged attack, I haven’t had the displeasure of finding one I couldn’t hit back.

It happens all the time in the Rata Sum fractal. It gets double annoying because those mobs (that have ranged attacks) also have AoE knockback attacks (which have circles that are very hard to see on very small platforms) and you can only damage them if the entire team stands next to them on their own platform.

And the best thing, if you get thrown off, they can still hit you when you’re at the res point.

Please note, I’ve said a lot of times . . . I have done that fractal exactly once, and it has never come up instead. If we had been talking about swamp? Yes, I get that almost every time. Uncategorized? Not more than once.

Nay of the Ether.8913:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

I want to know how I get bones from Oozes, and also have some questions about “blood” from karkas, given that they’re obviously crustaceans.

Oozes, in a general RPG setting, have almost always, from the early primitive days of RPG’s, had remnants of their victims inside them that they dropped (well when RPG’s started having drops, the super early ones didn’t do that, you had to roll for random chance to recover a specific item…ect ect…it was a mess). King’s Quest, if anyone remembers that, had a few dungeons full of them and every single one had bones in it. Just go look at any Baldur’s Gate game, they were infested with oozes in half of the dungeons, and nearly every one of them had some kind of bone or other very solid material you wouldn’t expect in them.

I remember King’s Quest games but anything earlier than 4 is kind of blurry. Mostly . . . well, mostly because I was too young and my position in playing them was taking notes on where things were when we would (inevitably) need to backtrack.

. . . I don’t recall oozes/slimes involved . . . I do recall gelatinous cubes. (Those sons of . . . )

Cain.9724:

Our tactics are far superior: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wjid3sk8lBo

. . . did . . . did that person kill someone with the Level Up flash?

Oh my goodness.

Zaxares.5419:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

I want to know how I get bones from Oozes, and also have some questions about “blood” from karkas, given that they’re obviously crustaceans.

I always assumed that the Bones were from undigested meals that the Oozes ate before their untimely deaths.

That does make sense, but then so does the question “why can’t I collect fangs/claws/bones all the time”? The only real answer is “video game logic”.

Behellagh.1468:

I love it how a reward for hitting certain goals is considered a punishment.

“Okay Johnny, for every A I’ll give you $20”
“Why are you punishing me!?!?!”

It’s more “Why are you punishing me for getting Bs?” from where I stand, if you want to use that analogy. I, unfortunately, really don’t like analogies because they get inevitably picked apart and having more and more extra things stuck in them until the point is lost

And to pre-empt someone taking my post above and complaining “but I don’t want to do WvW”, then I would have skipped it in favor of the Mystic Forge – I had close to 18-20 blue items from the previous bits of messing about I could have burned up for that.

Akhellan.4180:

Line of sight doesn’t seem to be this game’s strong suit.

This line makes me pine for the days when I used to be interested in wargaming until I watched dice being thrown over “line of sight” disagreements followed by “fine, take your roll” . . . and the target getting obliterated.

Honestly, I just wonder if I’m instinctively moving away from instances where this might trigger. Though as I’d said, mobs with ranged attacks seem less likely to have this sort of thing happen.

Rifter.6591:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

If a creature was hitting me with a ranged attack, I haven’t had the displeasure of finding one I couldn’t hit back.

I will see if i can get it on video its not hard to accomplish with the right situation, i just bought the full version of fraps so now have the ability to record gameplay. I will see if i can get a vid up on the weekend. I just started my 4 day work week of 12 hour shifts so obviously wont have any guild wars time till thursday but will attempt to make my first GW2 video then to highlight this issue.

I’ll look for the video. Take your time, and leave it on the bug forum too. If it is a bug, putting it there means it’s more likely it’ll be seen.

I just finished my work week for the next couple days, so I should be able to do more than “pop on, fool around for a bit doing Daily and a few choice battles, crawl into bed until the morning comes”.

Unless the Minecraft server I admin on explodes. (This is not a nonzero probability.)

Catixie.6351:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Catixie.6351:

ParaldaWind.4523:

Everyone starts out bad. You should be upset at the veteran commanders not showing up or helping the new commanders.

There’s that too. Haven’t seen quite a few since before reset. A whole lot of new ones though

It’s not like people who openly sneer at Commanders (“You just bought your tag anyway.”) who are trying to organize something. If there’s one last reason I flushed the idea of getting a tag (aside from the mountain of others) it’s that there’s a certain percentage who do not respect Commanders of any kind.

True, I think commanders are great if they know what they are doing and didn’t buy it just to be special. Helps solo or smaller guilds out knowing where to assist. Just think it should be more then gold to get it because people that have no idea what they are doing have it.

Thing is, it’s partly true. Simply having the tag doesn’t entitle you to respect. However, I would think it is important to at least listen to a Commander trying to rally a borderlands and making a good case for why they’re making the call they are.

The other reasons I don’t consider it is I have a crap computer and my sense of tactics is often not sharp and agile enough to respond to “OMG golems” like . . . you know, can happen

@OP:

Last night I did an experiment. I did not look at the Daily categories and did the following which is a usual routine for me these days:

- Frostgorge Sound to hit up the resource nodes there and hopefully catch the Claw of Jormag (I did).

- Travel to Blazeridge Steppes for Gold Ore mining and the Shatterer. Also, third-tier Fine Materials can be earned here so I try to kill all the things.

- Drop into WvW late night and fool around for a bit. More important since there’s been actual activity now on WvW and I’m still hoarding Badges.

I finished 4/5 of the Daily before I would have logged out so I dropped to the crafter and ran 10 Refinements. Done.

I am completely unsure of what you are searching for or I’d help better

I want to know how I get bones from Oozes, and also have some questions about “blood” from karkas, given that they’re obviously crustaceans.

Rifter.6591:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Rifter.6591:

Quick Mouse.7635:

This game does not want you to attack mobs from a location on the map where they can’t fight back. They had a lot of problems with this in gw1. As a result, they introduced this. I think this is fair.

So you think its fair for mobs to be able to hit you with range attacks and do damage while being invulnerable themselves? I find that hard to believe.

I think a lot of things may be slightly unfair. Stealth-using mobs, one-hit kills from Champion Risen Abombinations, and the fact asura haven’t been subjected to genocide yet for being smug and insufferable.

I also understand what I find unfair is often not the same as what other people think of as unfair. (“Of course it’s fair my thief can one-two-three you into downed, then finish from stealth. Learn to play!”)

To clairify i dont really have a issue if the mob is not ranged, but if it is and is doing damage to me i had kitten well better be able to do damage to it. This would be such a simple tag to add to the code i dont understand why this is such a hard fix for anet to make.

If a creature was hitting me with a ranged attack, I haven’t had the displeasure of finding one I couldn’t hit back.

Deified.7520:

I require some assistance in terms of digging around of GW lore. I’d really appreicate it if people can help me look for banners that are used by factions. Factions as in affilations such as the Ebon Vanguard, Shinning blade, etc. Like flags. Now I’ve already looked through this websites list,

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Affiliation

I was unable to find the one I was looking for. If anyone could post some pictures of banners or a good place I can find them, thanks a ton. If I find anything conclusive in my search/research I will be sure to post it here. This could hint to something important, a long mystery left unsolved.

Well first, that’s the wiki for the first game.

Second, if you want banners, check out war camps belonging to a “faction”. Most will have something nearby. If you’re really hard up for them I could start trying to take tourist photographs

Catixie.6351:

ParaldaWind.4523:

Everyone starts out bad. You should be upset at the veteran commanders not showing up or helping the new commanders.

There’s that too. Haven’t seen quite a few since before reset. A whole lot of new ones though

It’s not like people who openly sneer at Commanders (“You just bought your tag anyway.”) who are trying to organize something. If there’s one last reason I flushed the idea of getting a tag (aside from the mountain of others) it’s that there’s a certain percentage who do not respect Commanders of any kind.

Rifter.6591:

Quick Mouse.7635:

This game does not want you to attack mobs from a location on the map where they can’t fight back. They had a lot of problems with this in gw1. As a result, they introduced this. I think this is fair.

So you think its fair for mobs to be able to hit you with range attacks and do damage while being invulnerable themselves? I find that hard to believe.

I think a lot of things may be slightly unfair. Stealth-using mobs, one-hit kills from Champion Risen Abombinations, and the fact asura haven’t been subjected to genocide yet for being smug and insufferable.

I also understand what I find unfair is often not the same as what other people think of as unfair. (“Of course it’s fair my thief can one-two-three you into downed, then finish from stealth. Learn to play!”)

Anatolian Turk.4057:

Geotherma.2395:

Paulytnz.7619:

Peetee.9406:

Dude your guild must be HUGE. If I asked mine if anyone had reduced salvaged ectos since last patch I would be lucky to get 5 people to answer me with a 322 person roster. But you got over 100 people to answer you?

It must be over 9000!!!

That sounds like a Guild issue to me. Why would you have 300+ people in a guild if they don’t even communicate what’s the point?

300 ninjas?

more like 300 spartans

“Tonight we dine in Orr!”

Also of a note, I’ve been having great success with Black Lion kits. Alas, I am now salvaging ones from the dragon champions and having managed to get lucky . . . well, I used to have four from Daily rewards. I now have 6 uses left on one :P

Come on, little kits, Daddy Tobias still needs his Ecto . . .

Ricky Da Man.5064:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Conner.4702:

Gw2 also has 6 times the manpower that GW1 had behind it. Or are we going to sweep that under the rug here.

All right, then pray tell, what should the effect be on the game? Six times as much content? Six times as good? Four? How about two? If a game company can be several times as big as another one, does that mean they must be better? Does that mean a game produced almost solely by one person isn’t going to be any good while a large company will produce nothing but awesomeness? So does that mean games made by almost a single person (“Cave Story”, “Akalabeth”) are junk? Or the reverse, and games made by hundreds of people are junk?

How about if we change that to “development time”? If a game is in development for longer periods (say, six years), does that mean it’s better or worse than a game which was in development for one year? I mean, by that logic, Duke Nukem Forever should have been the most awesome game ever . . .

What about survival time? If a game is alive and still played for longer, does that make it better? Pong should be godly then . . .

So, anyway, on topic.

Comparing GW1 and GW2 is comparing apples and peaches. (Not oranges, because seriously, I hate oranges.) They’re both different games in many very real aspects, but just happen to be both from a tree.

Name alone its the same tree, which is why people are sad its a million miles away fom gw1.

If “name alone it’s the same tree” then every Final Fantasy game should follow suit, no? Or how about Dragon Quest? Quake?

Also, they’re named similar but that doesn’t mean “macintosh apples” are going to have exactly the same qualities as “granny smith apples” because they’re both apples.

BobbyStein.2315:

Conner.4702:

You call it teaser. I call it extremely boring and badly written. Teasers are supposed to grab peoples attention. Not have them running around like headless chickens, because you failed to make a compelling intro.

It helps if you could be more specific in your feedback. Do you mean:

• Badly written (full of grammatical errors, confusing dialog, characters talking “out of voice”)
• Badly designed (lack of logical flow, unclear directions, broken mechanics)
• Badly messaged (“I was expecting more because of how it was promoted”)

Most people I have gotten feedback from in general while doing some of these seem to revolve around the last two. “Badly designed” in so far as the Unclear Directions (“where do I find these items and how do I know where to look?”), and “Badly messaged” (“Why isn’t this any bigger?” “The hype leaked out about this living story and all it does is this?”).

Personally, I have said this feels more like the team setting up and seeing what they can do with this concept of a “Living Story” right now so more complex forms can be done later. And while I would like more to do each release (personally), the whole “sneaking evolution of things in every week or so” has kept me poking around and asking people who have been in Wayfarer’s Foothills and Diessa Plateau “hey, anything new or odd going on?”.

If that was your goal, to get even a casual interest in these areas, mission accomplished for at least my guild

Conner.4702:

Let me do it for you.
Step 1: Place some new random crap houses.
Step 2: Burn down one of them.
Step 3: Start rumors about monsters.
Step 4: Burn more of them down.
Step 5: Have people fleeing, while telling horror stories.

What you don’t do is show the enemy before the main event starts as that just completely kills the suspense

Step 1: We placed refugee structures, but new random houses would have been cool.
Step 2: That would have been neat if we had enough time to build an event around the teaser. We didn’t have the time or resources, so we put the refugee structures in.
Step 3: The characters you met in phase one alluded to attacks but did not specify the enemy.
Step 4: See step 2.
Step 5: We’ve done something similar to this, though the characters are scattered around Hoelbrak and the Black Citadel.

TL;DR version – You have some good ideas that, funny enough, we also thought of during the development cycle of the phase 1 and 2 teaser warmups. The reason we didn’t implement more substantial content for the teasers simply came down to a matter of time and resources. All of the members of the Living World team wanted to do more. They just didn’t have the time to build everything they wanted, which would have added to testing time, iteration time, rewriting, localizing, etc.

Have a +1 over refuting that point by point.

On a serious question, when you folks get to the next Living Story block you want to work on (after Frost and Flame) may we see something more ambitious as far as changes? Somewhere between the homestead/camps/ranches showing up and the havoc wrought on Lion’s Arch late last year?

Conner.4702:

Gw2 also has 6 times the manpower that GW1 had behind it. Or are we going to sweep that under the rug here.

All right, then pray tell, what should the effect be on the game? Six times as much content? Six times as good? Four? How about two? If a game company can be several times as big as another one, does that mean they must be better? Does that mean a game produced almost solely by one person isn’t going to be any good while a large company will produce nothing but awesomeness? So does that mean games made by almost a single person (“Cave Story”, “Akalabeth”) are junk? Or the reverse, and games made by hundreds of people are junk?

How about if we change that to “development time”? If a game is in development for longer periods (say, six years), does that mean it’s better or worse than a game which was in development for one year? I mean, by that logic, Duke Nukem Forever should have been the most awesome game ever . . .

What about survival time? If a game is alive and still played for longer, does that make it better? Pong should be godly then . . .

So, anyway, on topic.

Comparing GW1 and GW2 is comparing apples and peaches. (Not oranges, because seriously, I hate oranges.) They’re both different games in many very real aspects, but just happen to be both from a tree.

Pinko.2076:

santi.7516:

GuardianOMS.8067:

Look’s like Maguuma’s attempt to go up a tier failed. As someone who plays mostly during oceanic prime time, I can’t say that I’m upset about it.

So that imply that all this time Maguuma was playing serious against CD and SBI?! LOL

Do you think we’re throwing the match or something?

Well, no, I got the lumps from Maguuma folks to prove it. They definitely still hit like their serious.

By the way, some of your thieves left daggers in my back while I was yak escorting today. Do they want them mailed back?

azureai.9764:

You never saw refugees actually fleeing from the winds or being chased by the Flame Legion/Dredge (those would have made nice events).

. . . I’m sorry, what did you think they were marching down the roads with pack animals from? Bad seafood?

Honestly, if this was a teaser, it should have been rolled out quietly. No announcement. Then the players would be going nuts trying to figure out what it all means before getting hit with the real content.

It’s been rolled out quietly bit by bit as they announce it. I’m totally serious. They said “we’re starting the Living Story ‘Frost and Flame’, keep an eye out” and roughly every week there’s been small changes to the world. Homesteads and other structures appearing on the map, increased refugee traffic, a camp taking shape in each Hoelbrak and the Black Citadel.

Obsidian.1328:

And you misread the middle part. You can get the jist of the lore just fine through the GW2 game. But if GW1 never existed, niether would GW2 in any recognizable fashion. The same is not true reversed.

Well, yes, that’s why there’s a “2” in the title. Not to mention there wouldn’t have been funding to release it if they hadn’t released the first game. So you’re completely correct: Guild Wars 1 is the reason we have Guild Wars 2.

. . . but it stands alone fine. The exposition to understand what intrudes onto the necessary plot of Guild Wars 2 is present.

And who cares if it’s “their right.” That doesn’t make “make it right.” Licensing rights and doing the right thing are two very different things. One is a legal principle, the other is a subjective ideal…usually judged by your peers. You seem to think they are equal somehow.

No, I think “doing the right thing” is entirely subjective. Based on each person’s opinion, cultural background, bias, and upbringing. And while it can be judged by “their peers”, you misunderstand one very specific thing. _We are not their peers. We are their consumers. _

And I think that evaluating whether they were “right to” do something with their game is very selfish of me to apply my personal tastes to something which is not solely created for me. Therefore, I question whether it is their right rather than wondering if they were keeping with what I saw in the original.

My opinion of what should have happened or what needed to happen is irrelevant to the story we were given. It’s not for me to decide what happens, it’s not for you, and it’s not for Konig. Saying it is “wrong” because it’s not your perceived natural course for the story to take is rather similar to saying a meal is cooked wrong because you don’t like one ingredient.

Lucas was wrong, very wrong, in his portrayal of young Vader for instance. We have the right to judge it because like any work of art it doesn’t exist in the dark in a vacuum. It’s authentic truth will always be compared to the original Vader. If Lucas didn’t want that to happen, then he shouldn’t have released episodes I-III, or perhaps just not released them to the public. Having the entirety of the nerds in this world bemoaning him for this does matter.

When considering any work of art, it is important to take it on its own to evaluate as much as it is to take the context of the work or the whole of a series of works by that artist. This is a very basic thing. Art does not exist in a vacuum, but each piece should be able to stand up on its own without the support of outside influences.

Works derived from an original can be examined through the lens of the original to see how they stack up. This is why most fanfiction can be regarded as “crap” even if its technical aspects work. However, it is equally important to step aside and look at it on its own and see how it holds up without that lens.

When evaluating one piece derived from another, it is vitally important not to let that lens distort the actual piece you are looking at. Each work is an individual object to be viewed, and must hold up on its own or the artist has failed in creativity.

And before you say it, Guild Wars 2 does hold up on its own.

As for the portrayal of Anakin? I could come up with several reasons why it does work, and several more why it doesn’t. But it comes down to the idea people viewing those films decided they had a say in how the character was “supposed to be”. Again, that is not their right to decide, it is that of the writer. The fans do not have a right to tell the artist what to do, even if they think it would be better if this one detail was changed.

I still don’t like the prelude trilogy as much as the original, but that’s not the point. It’s not my place to determine what the artist does.

Obsidian.1328:

Konig
Adelbern wasn’t portrayed as mad until that novel came out, you’re misrepresenting him based on a tendancy to take only the most recent writings as genuine. That’s bad research.

I could make a case for him being at least “unhinged” as of War in Kryta. Rather than even begin listening to someone from Kryta, he let Evennia stew outside Ascalon City. He really could have used allies, at that point, but not Krytans. Heck, he could have used it before when it was the White Mantle come to call.

I would say that the years after Prince Rurik died soured him and watching Ascalon still slowly die under his people caused dementia to set in.

GW1 is its own complete story. And while GW2 uses that story as the backbone for its own lore, the GW1 story is still valid in its own right. If you think that’s nonsense consider this: GW1 can exist complete without GW2, the same cannot be said in reverse.

Yes and no. While ancient lore is important, the game is written with enough redundant talk to allow someone who never touched GW1 to get the basic gist of what went on in the past. Some of it is biased (Charr/Human interactions), but there is not exactly a requirement to have played the first game to get what’s going on.

At any rate, if we do things your way and only take the most up-to-date lore as valid, then nothing is really out of the question. ANet could simply write whatever they want tomorrow, claim it as canon, and we’d have to accept it.

As the people who do the writing and hold the license, that’s their right. I know us geeks are supposed to hate him, but George Lucas did the same thing. And Gene Roddenberry tended to waffle a lot on what exactly could be included/excluded. Luckily, these are two big examples of canon being a little . . . twisted.

If you want worse examples, go take a look at Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance. Both of these were slightly notorious for altering history by the authors’ whims. Sometimes not entirely for the worse.

bpphantom.8243:

callidus.7085:

Now don’t shoot me for saying this but… Ascended gear being more easily attainable now is great but they are most useful in fractals where they were previously only available. I think it’d be nice for them to introduce something else other than fractals that could make use of the AR.

I have to disagree. The more content they add Agony to the more required infusions become. As infusions can only added to ascended gear that means I need to get that gear to do future content additions. It becomes a must have rather than a nice to have. It’s already a must have for fractal runners, but at least it’s available from there as well.

That assumes Agony will be introduced outside of Fractals . . . which is not a bad assumption, just an assumption.

If the Mursaat emerge again, then expect Agony to be among their favorite tricks.

Shadow Blade.1324:

@OP laurels did exist at launch they’re called mystic coins and they are tradable so you didn’t have to do your dailies/ monthlys if you didn’t want to, if ascended gear had been in the game from launch this discussion probably wouldn’t exist so im not sure what your point with that was…

Mystic Coins are not Laurels, and while they could substitute . . . that would put people trying to use them in the Mystic Forge for recipes in a bind.

TwoBit.5903:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

That’s because it’s not true invulnerability, it’s super-sped-up regeneration. You can drop higher rates of DPS on a target which would otherwise be “invulnerable” and kill it. In later areas, a bunch of people on a rock could technically do it.

That’s what I assumed, and it’s still a loophole to the intention of the design.

And I don’t think you need to go around and check every little tiny detail to make to find another way to do it completely; that’s why I said “unimaginative.” For one thing, I don’t think players would mind the removal of randomly roaming mobs. Players rarely ever attack them anyway and they serve little purpose other than to slow you down when you try to run past them. Why not let players spawn their own mobs in some fashion. You can already do this with certain heart quests objectives, so why not take it a step further and let them do it in appropriate areas (no safe spots) with reasonable conditions? It may even add a bit of interactivity to they very static world ANet has built. At the very least, I’m sure it would remove a bit of stress on the servers if there are fewer mobs roaming around and all.

Interesting thoughts. However, part of my tired brain is instinctively protesting it’s not a good idea, but I can’t sift through for why right now. Ah well.

Zaxares.5419:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Zaxares.5419:

Oh man, I LOVED that game. Going into the Catacombs and having to fight all those Wights was a terrifying/frustrating experience too. ( kitten it! Got level drained. Reloading…") It had a few genuinely creepy moments too; I always jumped whenever that kitten cat squealed in the town…

How about the castle and the howl of zombie golems? That game did some things poorly but atmosphere was not one of them.

Oh yeah, those suckers hit HARD. The female Vampires in the Graveyard and Castle, as well as the Undead Treants in the Mists, were also kitten creepy.

Totally agreed on the atmosphere though. Did you play the sequel, Stone Prophet? It was a lot smoother (and Ang’krag was hilarious), but it didn’t quite capture the creepy, jumping-at-shadows atmosphere of the first game.

I own both on CDRom and play through them a few times now and then. The second game had plenty of positives, but the atmosphere wasn’t scary and the game was improperly balanced if you were importing.

Anyway, this is now fully off topic so I stop here

TwoBit.5903:

You said technically kill something like that. I assumed the something like that is a mob that’s under the effects of mob invulnerability, therefore a loophole to that workaround.

That’s because it’s not true invulnerability, it’s super-sped-up regeneration. You can drop higher rates of DPS on a target which would otherwise be “invulnerable” and kill it. In later areas, a bunch of people on a rock could technically do it.

Of course, it might be considered exploiting. It has always been considered it before this game, even if it worked. (See: “Killing the Sleeper” in EverQuest 1)

What I’m asking is why didn’t the developers take into account the entire thing and design around it. And by design I don’t mean leave it as is but put a mechanism to stop it. I mean actually designing encounters to take into account the terrain.

In short, because there’s too many variables to consider and not enough time to run around testing every single iteration where it could be made “more interesting” to take into account the terrain.

I also considered another fix which probably didn’t work: if mobs could jump properly and make jumps across gaps, then this problem would not exist. Therefore, something prevents the system from working properly if they do.

Also it is worth noting if a mob has a ranged attack, it will try to path to somewhere it can shoot you. If it can’t shoot you, it regenerates until you step into range again. This is not the same as the “over-zealous leash” the Giant Arctic Jellyfish are on.

TwoBit.5903:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

TwoBit.5903:

The question remains as to why there are places where mobs can be safely attacked. I know GW2s maps are big and all, and that the developers can’t account for every of every map, but still. Why pick a system the game can’t support without resorting to this infuriating mechanic?

Please note, you can technically still kill something like this, with enough damage getting done. I’ve had to do it twice in Thaumanova’s “Ice Sector” to have any hope of getting across a couple jumps where Elementals were waiting. It is not easy.

Sounds like a loophole to a workaround to unimaginative design. Why is it like that in the first place? That’s my question really.

Why is which like that? Enemies where they can’t reach you except at range or the fast regeneration which used to be “Invulnerable” back in Beta? Cause I can answer the second one.

Zaxares.5419:

Oh man, I LOVED that game. Going into the Catacombs and having to fight all those Wights was a terrifying/frustrating experience too. ( kitten it! Got level drained. Reloading…") It had a few genuinely creepy moments too; I always jumped whenever that kitten cat squealed in the town…

How about the castle and the howl of zombie golems? That game did some things poorly but atmosphere was not one of them.

But back onto topic, while I’d like to see the Margonites again, they’ve lost their ability to reproduce, and with Abaddon’s death, are now incapable of making more of themselves. Any Margonites that still survived to the current day would be exceedingly rare, although that might still argue for a unique Margonite Champion boss lurking somewhere in the dark corners of the world (or maybe in a Fractal).

Fractal-based Margonites would be amazing, if we could get to see them before they became all . . . corrupted. Face it, Fractals is a wonderful place to throw things which otherwise would not fit in modern/current Tyria.

Personally, I’d like to see Rollerbeetles make a comeback in GW2, as well as Junundu. Oni were also an enemy I loved to fight in GW1, and I hope they’ll show up again if we re-visit Cantha.

I still vote titans, because they would be one of those things which require serious forethought to take on. And I would like to see more complex combat encounters going on. I hate that Grenth is hard to pass now sometimes but I love that it’s different.

Barring that, I have fond memories of:

- Kveldwulves
- Hydra
- Wardens.

azureai.9764:

And you only really need Ascended gear if you’re doing high level fractals.

Not just Ascended gear but Agony Resist.

Which . . . is on my shopping list after that Grawl Shaman kept potshotting me with lavabolts.

. . . what? By the time I get the materials to make a Fine Infusion, I will have a ring to put it in.

TwoBit.5903:

The question remains as to why there are places where mobs can be safely attacked. I know GW2s maps are big and all, and that the developers can’t account for every of every map, but still. Why pick a system the game can’t support without resorting to this infuriating mechanic?

Please note, you can technically still kill something like this, with enough damage getting done. I’ve had to do it twice in Thaumanova’s “Ice Sector” to have any hope of getting across a couple jumps where Elementals were waiting. It is not easy.

StormageddonBK.9842:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

If I can’t replicate it 100% of the time, I’m not going to say it happens.

So if we don’t see things happen 100% of time they don’t happen?

I guess planes don’t crash because I’ve never seen one crash let alone 100% of them!

How absurd, go troll somewhere else.

No, how about you go do personal attacks on someone who keeps score?

I play a ranger. I play where most of my damage comes at range. I play going for places where mobs take long paths to get to me so I can get free hits in while they path. I do not get this to happen reliably, nor can I willingly trigger “invulnerable”

holodoc.5748:

@Tobias Trueflight
Here you go since you asked so nicely…

Well, let’s see.The mob can’t path and can’t hit you so it sits there and regenerates health incredibly fast. For the first two minutes, I don’t see “Invulnerable” popping up, I see damage being dealt and regenerated fast.

So, after four minutes of watching you pretty much demonstrate exactly what I said had to have been intentional design to prevent people from fighting without being at risk of enemy attacks? I think I’m done here.

Thanks for proving me right

critickitten.1498:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Again:
If I can’t replicate it 100% of the time, I’m not going to say it happens. I can’t get any mobs to go “Invulnerable” unless it is for the very specific reason of “can’t attack things which can’t attack back”.

I can’t replicate it 100% of the time, either.

But it does happen. I’ve seen it happen to me and other.

And I agree that it’s hardly very constructive to the discussion to have people barging into this thread and saying “you’re all obviously lying”. So please refrain from doing so. I don’t like being accused of things that are clearly untrue.

. . . all right, fair enough, though I took a page from P&T and called “BS” instead of “you’re all lying liars who lie”.

To rephrase?

I can’t replicate this reliably. I haven’t encountered it except in situations it seems it should happen as intended. For people to say this is a problem of “bad design” is BS. You may refer to it as a glitch/bug, and I won’t argue the point.

Frosch.7809:

Tobias, there are many cases in history when people made claims based on tracing their bloodline back to some ancestor, although those ancestors were sometimes of mythological origin and were made up – Julius Caesar, Hannibal, Alexander III. Edward III. laid claim to the throne of France with that argument and started a war to last 100 years.

Yup, but two points are worth noting here.

1 – The claims were made, and at least some people believed/backed them or else it wouldn’t have started wars. In essence, the purpose of the claim was met.

2 – More to the point I originally made? I’ve looked at my ancestry. I quite possibly have a branch connected to some minor nobility about 500 years back, but I don’t have the money (or the interest) to go verifying this. Considering I’m American and the nobility in question seems to originate somewhere in the Balkans? I’m not going to try to dive any deeper.

You found a quote in GoA that i hadn’t considered, probably because i did not overly like that novel. So let me redefine, my theory is that there may be an heir to the royal line of Ascalon yet undiscovered, maybe known to the Order of Whispers, because of some small hints ingame and because it would fit with the overall mood of the game. To me it seemed like you said that it was impossible.

I think “improbable” not “impossible” is the word people want here

Also, remember that the Order collects information much like the Priory . . . but unlike the Priory, it doesn’t seem to care to make use of it publicly.

holodoc.5748:

@Tobias Trueflight
Dude, don’t be so lazy and ignorant.

Don’t be insulting.

Use the search function above and type “invulnerable”. You’ll find at least two dozen search results for posts where people confirm mob invulnerability to happen for various reasons (one of them being the difference in terrain elevation).

Don’t be ignorant.

I’ve done that difference in terrain elevation a lot. A lot. I get “Obstructed” more than “Invulnerable” and only when the ranged path is actually stopped by terrain, tree trunks, or walls. The only time this comes close . . . and mobs still don’t go “Invulnerable” . . . is when they cannot reach me and nothing can path to the target/me.

I posted this.

Do you play WvWvW? Are you aware of the bug where a simple defender could climb just 20 cm above ground on the hill behind Vale and be able to screw around with 30+ people attacking him because he would receive Invulnerable status (reason being for that – difference in terrain elevation).

That bug was finally fixed about a month ago and anyone who actively played WvWvW during that time will confirm it. It happened always and unconditionally which is why it was heavily abused.

Don’t be obstructive.

Nobody said anything about this. Do you mean the cliff where the Legendary Defenders are stationed, where the players actually have it showing up and they aren’t able to do more than harass people willing to stand and be pin-cushioned? That’s the only “hill behind Vale” I can think of unless you want to clarify. This is the lower-left/right supply camps (Fishing Village and Workshop) right? Those are the only spots with “vale” on the borderlands.

Also if it was ‘fixed’ then why are you bringing it up?

Essentially I won’t do video requests just to prove a single guy (or girl) something that he/she can read himself/herself on the official forums. In fact I will make a video which proves invulnerability caused by difference in terrain elevation just not now, but when I actually find some spare time. Until then enjoy your spotless gameplay and stop implying that people which do have invulnerability problems lie. Its plain simply rude.

Lie is such a harsh word, but there’s a reason I called it. I prefer “not telling everything for the sake of making drama” but that’s too long. I also have tried most of what people have mentioned to me (specifically) and until I get the Uncategorized Fractal again I can’t specifically test the last one.

Again:
If I can’t replicate it 100% of the time, I’m not going to say it happens. I can’t get any mobs to go “Invulnerable” unless it is for the very specific reason of “can’t attack things which can’t attack back”.

And if you won’t make the video for me, make it to link to this topic so the people who work on the game can actually see what you’re talking about and get working on it.

Until then enjoy your spotless gameplay

Far from spotless, but that’s okay. I play a ranger, nobody gives a crap about us anyway

I got to, I can’t take this.

• How do the Dredge and Flame Legion factor into all of this?

Good question, though from the appearance of the Flame Legion and Dredge, I’d say they decided to start working together in screwing over the races they’re closest to. why? No idea, maybe we find out, maybe it winds up being a “wtf?” like “why are giants so rare?” or “why nor Risen Skritt?” . . .

• What’s up with the weather?

Steam vents/ruptures opening causing localized weather disturbances. Dredge primarily live underground, so this hints there is something going on under the surface.

• Why the Norn and Charr? Why not the Sylvari?

Dredge and Flame Legion aren’t local to Maguuma.

Since we don’t have all of these, we can’t say that there is poor direction.

We have one out of three definitively, one can be supposed, and one hasn’t been addressed yet. It’s very light on details but this thing has been purposefully stretched and updated as a minor part of the last few updates. Things have been snuck in slowly.

The refugees have been slowly revealing more since the time when they started trickling in to Hoelbrak and the Black Citadel. First it was “we don’t know what hit us” then it was talk about dredge and Flame Legion attackers being blamed but small inconsistencies (“I’ve never heard of the dredge using fire.”) when named refugees showed up late in part one.

Part two brought the lost and found and active invaders taking shots at new small settlements in Diessa and Wayfarer’s. It also brought the Consortium pouncing on the situation to try to improve its image by being helpful (while denying it had any responsibility for the karka). They’re still trying to shill Southsun Cove as a paradise, but that doesn’t mean it’s the final destination for the story . . . only where they want to send off the refugees to.

holodoc.5748:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Does not happen to me, and I’ve tried even the rocky, uneven terrain in Southsun Cove east. I’ve stood on rocks, and thrown axes down at Risen during trips in Orr. There has never been “obstructed” when a terrain feature clearly was in the line of fire or “invulnerable” ever.

I tested this. A lot. I gave up an entire hour running around and testing things people said give them this bug. The only one close was the Giant Arctic Jelylfish, which don’t go invulnerable but just leash back to start.

At this point, I’m calling BS unless you post a video.

You can call it whatever you like fact is a lot of players, including myself, are experiencing the invulnerability behavior on every day basis. When I get some free time I will make a video which clearly shows it happen but in the meantime you will have to satisfy your curiosity by simply searching these forums for the words “invulnerable” and “invulnerability”.

I know you didn’t read the post earlier, so I’ll just reiterate:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/In-my-opinion-invulnerable-mobs-are-a-bad-design/1621801

I tested four of the more common triggers. One of them I haven’t been able to test, one which panned out halfway. It’s not curiosity anymore, because that was back when I kept asking “where/how does this happen” and kept getting back “everywhere/all the time” and similar unhelpful replies.

I’ve tried many combinations, and I continue to make attempts. If I could run a video capture I’d do so just to prove my point. It doesn’t happen to me, I do not see “Invulnerable” except on mobs which pick up that tag as programmed. I do not have the “extrapowerful regeneration” occur for ninety percent of situations they’re supposed to happen in.

If I can’t reproduce it on demand, how do you expect me to say “you’re right, it happens all the time, ranged weapons are useless”?

To the Maguuma person who allowed me to pass through to finish the Jumping Puzzle in the CD borderlands? Thank you for doing so, I’d almost managed it earlier but managed to get killed in it with both parts of the key.

Behellagh.1468:

“What is wrong with Orr?”

Well if violently sank, spent around 150 years at the bottom of the sea before violently raised back to the surface. Not to mention the smell of dead sea life.

The fact it’s full of undead doesn’t help making it a popular vacation destination either.

It’s still got more tourists than Southsun Cove.

StormageddonBK.9842:

Gestankfaust.4216:

StormageddonBK.9842:

Geotherma.2395:

GW2=Ability to level a character to max in 1 day, acquire best non ascended gear in 1 day.

Please let me know how this is done! If you’re going to say crafting then isn’t the collection of mats grinding?

You want a guide to tell you how to game?

No but I don’t understand how you can level 1-80 in a day by playing the game. It seems impossible when it takes up to an hour to gain a level.

A guildmate made his character one day, and in 36 hours he was level 75 and claimed he could have been 80 if he’d focused. If you assume he did some of this via crafting and leveled his relevant gear-crafting professions? He could probably turn around at 80 and sink not-too-much into the Trading Post to make up a difference in materials and make Exotics.

Eurantien.4632:

But this argument is silly and the OP has it right. Rangers own in the right hands. And I’ll duel you whenever if you wish.

They can “pwn” people, sure. But people more experienced than me have told me it’s much harder to do than on other classes . . . and they are generally not able to match the same effectiveness.

On one hand? I love my ranger. I found it remarkably easy to fly solo in PvE play, and have usually been an asset to any group I’ve joined up on for dungeons.

On the other? I spent 50% of a keep defense rallying over and over and not seeming to have any good effectiveness in stopping a zerg. I find it difficult to kill anything, though simple enough to run and survive an engagement I’m not ready for.

We might need a buff, I’m just leery of what might get done.

Funny thing, rangers never struck me as a class to go “damage overkill” on, they struck me as always more suitable for other things. In Guild Wars 1 this was the insane amount of conditions you could stack in short periods and perhaps the second-best interruption class you could play. That’s without dipping into secondary classes.

In EverQuest, rangers were great at kiting and once you had a supply of arrows and a good ranged bow you could pretty much own stuff without really risking much in open world play. Later on raids they were almost demanded for their ability to DPS for a very short, very intense period.

Guild Wars 2 seems to split the balance. PvE wise there is some incredible survival ability if you’re not jumping into 40-300 mobs and expecting to come out alive. I’ve heard that they’re actually not too bad on PvP side, but you can’t build them the same way you would another class.

Anyway, bottom line? I find them not as powerful up front as other classes but I don’t feel the need to go begging for a buff. I think I just need to “lern 2 play”.

Frosch.7809:

Being named heir by the current ruler or becoming heir by descendancy are two different concepts, but you seem to not differentiate for the reason of critizising my post. There seems to have been an heir to the royal line of Ascalon, and Wade Samuelsson seems to be the descendant.

Well, considering how blood relation can be really funny, I don’t find it that problematic. Consider how many people today probably could trace their lines back to nobility in some part of the world.

We know King Adelbern was crowned by popular demand, and is a descendant of King Doric of Orr. We know the line of succession meant Duke Barradin should have been the next but he stepped aside to support Adelbern and offered his daughter up for marriage to Prince Rurik to unite the lines and silence dissenters. (Apparently, mind you.)

The question about Jadon having had legitimate children or not is irrelevant for the status of Salma as illegitimate child, yet you insist on bringing that point up again.

We know Queen Salma was also a descendant of the same line, though an illegitimate child. So we know lineage doesn’t require legitimacy, which should be obvious anyway.

And if Adelbern had a sibling whose family lived on then his bloodline did not end (bloodline: all the members of a family group over generations). It remains to be seen from which line exactly Samuelsson comes, so the question of Adelbern’s bloodline is not solved yet. But i know you will not let it be but insist on “being right”.

No, it’s solved. Adelbern’s bloodline ends with Rurik. When you talk about a bloodline and name someone, you start tracing down from them and not upwards. His bloodline only flows one way: down. The “family tree” on the other hand, is a different story.

The bloodline and family tree of King Doric is still unsolved . . . but it probably never will be because of how it can spread out into dozens of hundreds of branches watered down by “common blood”.