Guild Wars 2

bigblah.3285:

Olaf also likes to lead us off cliffs :p

You don’t trait for the 50% fall damage? I jump off cliffs a lot, and usually live.

stormspirit.6598:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

stormspirit.6598:

Are you kidding? It happens constantly in entertainment. If a large enough part of the consumer base doesn’t like something, it’s changed… or removed entirely. That’s how it works. The last thing ANY business that’s run with a bit of sense would do is stick to it’s guns and shove something the customers hate into their faces.

D20 System D&D, Jar Jar Binks, Highlander 2, Captain Janeway, TNA Impact, Matt Schaub.

Your move

That list really just illustrates my point. These are situations where they didn’t do the sensible thing and change course…. and the results were highly negative.

There’s also on the other side, the repeated outcry against things like the Transformer M.Bay movies, or LOTR/Hobbit films, or so on but they still remain successful financially. So . . . take that as you will.

Also, I ask people please stop making topics presuming to speak for me as a “fan who doesn’t like X”. If I don’t like it enough and want it changed, I’ll chime in. If I don’t chime in, I either don’t care or hate it enough to give it the silent treatment and play something else. I still have my UFO: Enemy Unknown CD somewhere . . .

stormspirit.6598:

Are you kidding? It happens constantly in entertainment. If a large enough part of the consumer base doesn’t like something, it’s changed… or removed entirely. That’s how it works. The last thing ANY business that’s run with a bit of sense would do is stick to it’s guns and shove something the customers hate into their faces.

D20 System D&D, Jar Jar Binks, Highlander 2, Captain Janeway, TNA Impact, Matt Schaub.

Your move

I don’t care too much about Scarlet, I don’t see her utterly destroying lore everywhere she turns up, and it’d be great if we did see some forward progress towards the end of her storyline or a hint at where it’s going so people stop claiming there’s no end or it’ll continue ad infinitum.

But! You know who kitten ed me off more for being involved even a little in the story? Zojja and Kudu. In fact, if you guys successfully lobby for Scarlet to get junked I want to start a lobby to remove ALL the asura except for Vekk. Just retcon it so they never survived on the surface this long for whatever reason.

Either that or have them get wiped out by destroyers again.

Visirale.6097:

Dear native SBI players,

Sorry.

I don’t mind, this is the last week right? Or is it eight weeks? If it’s eight, I’ll be much happier with work yanking my weekend out from under me.

If it’s seven, well, time to practice the “no sleep weekend”. It’ll be like Finals Week all over again :P

esme.6391:

I know SbI seems to be very upset, but is it really in good taste to party an Ebay guildie of mine and ask them “how it feels to be an abused step child” ??

suck it up. Yaks may want to keep you down the most but thats because you and them are in direct competition, and even if we pulled first, we aren’t going to effect either of your placements. You effect each others, and Yaks wants the win. Surely you realize that the score are not ALL of yaks doing.

Trolls and bitter pills will be trolling and bitter respectively. Ignore it, and get back to taking our stuff

Blurk.6231:

She talks about the magical network but the thing I find more interesting is that she talks about that Thaumanova is on an intersection of those channels! I almost directly thought about the Infinite Coil reactor. I am completely sure that the reactor is also built on such intersection. Then I started thinking about the Chaos Crystal Cavern. I think this spot is on an intersection as well.

I recall it being said outside Chaos Crystal Caverns, the source of the distortions THERE is how one of the crystals from that cavern was used in Thaumanova experiments which went wrong when the chaos energy was unleashed and it traveled back there.

FateOmega.9601:

She is experimentating with combining stuff. Possibly with the goal to combine herself with dragon powers.

Didn’t Kudu already pull that one off?

alanis.6094:

This has been the best matchup and most fun in several weeks. Beating up on servers that can’t field as many gets boring, so I’m glad that Yaks and their little brother showed up in force this week.

Those on SBI complaining about the 2v1 really need to get over it. This is how its supposed to happen when you have 3 competing forces. Be flattered, and chalk it up to lessens learned. And finally enjoy someone to fight and all the bags.

I enjoy the bags. I don’t enjoy dying so much but to be honest it’s been pretty good for me bag-wise as well the night I spent in WvW trying to get my Season 1 achievements. I also enjoy seeing a challenge and some of our commanders trying to push people past the “aw man, how are they doing this?” and into “okay, let’s just get it back”.

Hopefully more will get finished come the weekend, assuming I’m not working all the time again. (Seriously, missed most of the tower and all of “Twilight Assault” due to that crap . . . don’t want to also lose my WvW time . . .)

snarfrificus.4230:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

snarfrificus.4230:

Also give trahearne more of those aragorn qualities instead of only his personal journey and also let him give you more honor like in the way of that the hobbits did so much for the world that everyone bowed and showed that you in the end are the hero, way more then trahearne himself.

Worth noting, Aragorn was completely . . . or at least, shades different in other versions of the story. The Bashki film had a more noble and strong cast to him, the books had him more inscrutable and frankly dominant as a leader once Gandalf disappeared from the story.

I don’t want book!Aragorn mixed in with Trahearne or else we will REALLY never hear the end of “he stole our story and our glory”. Remember, Aragorn got a throne . . .

yeah i liked the movie aragorn the most, i mean like tv or movie a game is also quite visual. also in the end trahearne was been found as such kind a hero people almost really did the same.

But the people were more thankfull to the hobbits then they are now to you, i mean you did most of the work.

. . . see attached screenshot. There’s a lot of talk among the Pact members you work with (who survive Orr) venerating your efforts as much as there is praise of Trahearne.

Nooo, actually, wait, there’s more of it

snarfrificus.4230:

Also give trahearne more of those aragorn qualities instead of only his personal journey and also let him give you more honor like in the way of that the hobbits did so much for the world that everyone bowed and showed that you in the end are the hero, way more then trahearne himself.

Worth noting, Aragorn was completely . . . or at least, shades different in other versions of the story. The Bashki film had a more noble and strong cast to him, the books had him more inscrutable and frankly dominant as a leader once Gandalf disappeared from the story.

I don’t want book!Aragorn mixed in with Trahearne or else we will REALLY never hear the end of “he stole our story and our glory”. Remember, Aragorn got a throne . . .

Mochann.5298:

Unleashed.6195:

Trahearne is awful, but he’s just a victim of the writing that is almost universally bad in the game. Someone else pointed out the “Show, don’t tell” rule. Except, they don’t just tell you something. They yell it at you, send you a letter to confirm it, and then tattoo it onto their forehead so you can’t even look at them without being told once more.

Is true, we shouldn’t play favorites. The writing in this game is just laughably bad all around, so we shouldn’t be too kitten Trahearne. That said, he was just the icing on the cake. At least early on you were the star of the bad story. With Trahearne you don’t even get the pleasure of being the star.

The only parts of the story I’ve found interesting is the constant bickering between Logan and Rytlock. Which also became bland after a while, and good thing it "evolved into something else in COF, but it was definitely the best part of the entire thing.

The writing is rather bad if you want to look at it that way. I liked Tybalt, I like Logan, and I like Rytlock but I look at some parts which work really well (“Oh woe, the White Mantle, is this the end for poor Logan?”) . . .

There are as many bits which just don’t.

It’s just my opinion the writing isn’t bad (with the exception of the Mad King’s jokes and Bloody Prince’s posturing, but that’s intentionally bad). It’s uneven. Characters seem to have a slightly . . . off presentation. My human ranger got to know Logan and that whole thing with Destiny’s Edge in Lion’s Arch felt too forced for it to ring true . . . even Rytlock admits in the charr storyline it was kind of stupid to blame Logan and snipe his head off.

Trahearne suffers from an uneven presentation. The first encounter with him in the Sylvari storyline isn’t bad. But it’s after he gets Caladbolg things seem to shift. There are moments where you get hints there’s something else in his head holding him back but no time to dwell on it.

By the way, for me, the worst character ArenaNet has come up with still isn’t Trahearne or Scarlet. It’s still going to be Norgu.

draxynnic.3719:

Norn have no need of directions. They are norn.

Seriously, though, it is a discussion I’ve had with Konig – we have a lot of stuff labelled as “hallucinations”, but really, who knows if there’s anything under the hallucination – and, for that matter, who knows if the things that appear to be real actually are?

Given the theme, it’s actually vaguely plausible, albeit admittedly improbable, that Scarlet was actually never involved and our characters and allies just imagined her presence because that’s what we expected, and that expectation fed the hallucinations, and the hallucinations fed the expectation, and so on.

Especially what you hear if you talk to the NPCs in Nightmare Chambers . . . they came in there following someone who we know isn’t in there.

Could it turn out instead of killing hallucinations we accidentally killed Zojja? Wait, where’s the downside to that . . .

Dropping this theory here, since it came about from a conversation with someone else.

Scarlet likes to tinker, since she has roots as an engineer. But that means disassembling something to “improve” or “fix” it. She did it to the Watchworks, and apparently has been able to do that to the krait and sylvari to make the hybrid.

She’s out to remake Tyria as she sees fit, not to just destroy it. I don’t think her goal is the Pale Tree specifically, as that’s too small for how she’s playing these days. It’s worth noting there’s something . . . similar, in how the Molten Alliance members look – they’re infused with magic much like Baelfire’s infused charr. Not just charr, but dredge using this sort of power.

“If that can happen with those two, why not with others?”

. . . also, fun thing. Anyone seen any “Azurite” references again? It was a somewhat unique touch to the Molten Weapons Facility, but it’s never been spoken of . . .

Brimstar.9036:

My only problem with Scarlet is whenever we get to her, she just summons a portal and runs away. In that sense, even in the invasions she can just port away which I find really annoying.

I’d be more surprised at a villain with her portal control not using them to escape or for contingencies. Heck, there are a few villains I could name in gaming (story side) who simply cannot be killed because you cannot actually do it thanks to just how many backups they have to get them out of trouble.

By the way, I don’t hate Scarlet as a character, nor her writing. It just is a bit puzzling how this fits together but there is a pattern of sorts emerging. I said it in another post:

Scarlet seems to like taking things apart and reassembling them in different ways to serve her. It’s probably what she has in mind for Tyria once she can figure out just how to go about it.

(Also, she apparently slapped the Nightmare Court around like the useless idiots they are so if they take a back seat to her I’ll be actually grateful. Though I can see Faolain having . . . words . . . about it if she returns to the daylight.)

Azure Prower.8701:

Kain Francois.4328:

Anyone notice Braham is missing from the final instance?

Seriously, why is no one talking about this? This is HUGE, yet no one else noticed it?

He got lost on the way.

He does that. Remember, Norn do not ask for directions.

Psynch.4087:

Further, recruiting armies is one thing, but then taking a turn to fuse races together as she did with the toxic hybrid, suggests an alternative motive.

Well she did deconstruct and twist the Watchworks, but everyone was thinking it was due to apparent engineer leanings. Now I wonder if it’s part of her nature to disassemble and alter things just to see how much she can do. Since, well, she’s rejected her “destiny” as far as the Pale Tree was concerned . . . her drive to do this sort of experimentation seems to be the danger it was talking about in the short story.

By the way, her “presence” just as a mocking hallucination this time is a nice touch.

Gray Fox.9178:

Serenity.8246:

We had one of those too, held the golems for ransom, in fact and then jumped them off of Hills when it was obvious no one would pay (or was really paying attention since garrison was being hit at the time). I think that one was a home grown clown, though.

I was once held hostage by an enemy zerg. As we attacked 2nd place borderland’s SW tower, a zerg of 15 3rd placers killed my escorts. They beat my Omega down to 15K Hp, and when I fled on foot, they invited me to their party, stating I was now their ‘hostage’ and had to repay them.

They proceeded to use my golem to batter down and capture SW tower, then shatter the wall of Bay, at which point I was released. I remember one of them commented, “Your debt is repaid, Jack Sparrow” before they dropped party.

. . . Am I the only one who actually thinks this is a twisted kind of awesome?

By the way, getting screamed at for grabbing supply and told I’m a troll for repairing a gate at <25% . . . yeah this has a lot of people on edge. Then again I had a EBay player run the jumping puzzle in their borderlands with me and while they were acting wary at first, once I just started doing it, they just left me alone. Ditto for a YB player in the Dark Room earlier.

So, class acts on both sides. Rude yakslappers on both sides. Just game on and get to work

Add another one to the list of people stuck . . .

Now for the people trying to track down the trouble:

I got on last week sometime and tried doing the Obelisks before realizing I needed an item to start. Cue backing up to start over and getting Kessex Hills and Gendarran cleared, then taking a break after sticking myself in Caledon.

Today I finished all the rest but it’s stuck. I will log back in tonight and double check the ones I didn’t get today for certain, for reals, double pinky swear.

Interrupting while channeling? Yeah, all the time, especially in Timberline Falls where I had a mass of krait chasing me up the tower. And the Flooded Castavall because nobody fights the Orrian Terror and my pet happened to tag it’s attention. But they did appear to be attainable AFTER the interruption . . .

Regardless, I unfortunately have the little problem of “use an alt to scope them all out” because . . . well, I don’t have an alt capable of that.

hollowcrown.4872:

What adds to the problem is “legendary” heroes like Caithe and Rytlock lying knocked out for 80% of a fight whilst I kite around an enemy. I am definitely the most powerful person in the world when the heroes of the fabled Destiny’s Edge can’t stay alive.

I didn’t have this issue as much as others, and I was dealing with Logan.

Drakkon.4782:

SAB is just bad. It was bad a joke content for April Fools. It wasn’t fun, it didn’t make me laugh, and it angered and frustrated me, which isn’t something I want from my video games. It prompted me to quit playing for about 4 months, during which I apparently missed a lot of interesting Living Story things. That angers me more.

But if this is now going to be permanent/reoccurring, I’m going to be able to do what I’m doing right now: ignore it like the corky kid in the back of the class whose eating paste instead of listening to the lesson. I’ll make fun of it, deride it, and make it feel bad about itself until it goes away, and every time it comes back, I’ll treat it like the unwanted crap it is. It isn’t about immersion or lore for me, it’s about SAB just being BAD content. It’s a horrible idea, poorly executed, that ruins fun, and destroys and sense of enjoyment I can get out of the game. By ignoring this cycle completely, maybe I can get a few more of my alts up in level. The scrolls were a nice start, but 20 is only part of the way there, and the rest of the way is going to take so kitten long…

Much as I don’t like the idea of you deciding it’s "junk’ because you don’t like it, I think the rest is probably the best reaction possible for people who don’t like it. Do something else until it goes away.

Or at least until Tequatl Rising.

RebelYell.7132:

Let’s take “need” off the table for a moment.

What exactly are the long term advantages of NOT being fully loaded out in BiS items?

Well, for one, I will have less time spent seeking things I don’t really want in the first place. And I’ll be less sour about having worked for getting it only to discover I’m still just as junk as before I got them.

Radio Isotope.3045:

Well I see it as pay to win and so does majority of my guild. You few forum lifers dont think so then so be it but im getting off the forums to go play some more gw2. argue amongst yourselves until you turn blue. Its my 2 cents and im not paying it to arena net to win.

So, let me see if I understand this.

Not only do you want to ascribe “pay to win” to something which is both temporary content and doesn’t yield statistical advantages . . . only skins . . . you are willing to insult people who disagree with you (“forum lifers”) because they obviously don’t play the game.

Even though, well, we play it enough to know SAB Tribulation Mode only yields account bound special rewards. Even though we can rather easily point out the only thing which is being “won” is achievement points. Even though quite a few of us have been playing for a while, and are well aware of many other things you could list as “P2W” and actually be arguably right.

. . . seems legit.

Blaine Tog.8304:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Honestly, I can count the number of RPGs I’ve needed the best possible stats or gear with me to beat it on one hand.

Post-game content? Mmm, I’d need two hands but the penultimate bonus boss in FF12 was just kind of a long grind.

Hence the issue here: what is the purpose of Ascended gear, from a gameplay perspective? If the content is already easy enough to not require even Exotic armor, then what benefit is there to giving us even more stats? They would have to make harder content for Ascended gear to have even a shred of a gameplay purpose (for PvE).

Then you get into WvW and we have a whole other problem where the people with the most time to grind get the best chance at succeeding. Maybe the difference between Ascended and Exotic doesn’t matter in a zerg, but what about duels? What about small-scale fights? You’ll now have even less time to react to a thief ganking you from out of the blue and even less chance of beating him if you do react correctly.

I personally think the Ascended gear was envisioned with one solution in mind: Agony. It was a concept people thought was cool, they kicked the theories around on how to work it into the equipment without actually making people give up their gear OR clutter up gear with transmutations, extra lines of descriptive text . . .

. . . and someone went “just make new gear with higher stats so people will flock to them” “but won’t that have a problem with upgrades?” “nah, just make the upgrades they can receive weaker to the point they’re there to impart Resistance.”

Eldiora.5836:

I tought that we would only get the bonus chests (with the yellow item) once a day. But today I did Tequatl at around 2:30 where I looted his chest. Then again at 5:20 but this time the chest did not appear for me.

Is this intended or a bug? Because if its intended how are we supposed to collect 500 dragonite for 1 ascended weapon if those chests only spawn once every day.

It’s been that way for a long time.

Also, those chests with Dragonite Ore are at any world boss chest and can give as much as 30 (Orrian Temples) to some other number. I heard something like Shadow Behemoth’s gave a low amount, but I’ve not checked it out yet.

Khal Drogo.9631:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Tachenon.5270:

Anyway. It seems the road to ascension is not a road I care to travel, due to all the speed bumps and grinding of gears required. What else ya got, anet?

Tequatl Rising, I’m guessing, is the next thing. With potential for further revamps of other major world bosses based on their feedback from players tackling that one.

I care less about Ascended gear this week and more about SAB and much more about Tequatl two weeks from now.

Not looking forward to anything from Anet right now. Put up with class nerfs in PvE, tons of inconvenience, bugs, poor design etc. But this gear grind is seriously making me want to uninstall GW2 from my hard disk.

Good thing I never played WoW before.

Well, that’s you. I’m talking about myself in that, since I can’t speak for other people.

Zero Day.2594:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

I really don’t like people pulling RL into the argument, if only because inevitably there’s flaws in the analogies and it becomes a moot point.

don’t know if you read the post above but let me ask again

DON’T YOU WANT TO DO THE BEST YOU CAN?

(why did you switch from whites to blues, from blues to greens, from greens to yellows…)
I guess the counter arguement is, “i want to just have fun” – cool standing around? being bottom or doing bad in pvp (or anything else), and you’re just going to accept that, not going to try to improve? why does anyone progress or try to go further with anything (really anything)?
o well either too deep or not a lot will understand….

Of course I didn’t read the post ahead of mine. I was typing mine out and thinking about what I was saying way too much, so yours was posted ahead of mine.

Let me run down the list.

- I suck, like, really really suck, at PvP. But as the gear is standardized, who cares what gear I have?

- I could WvW but as mentioned just above: I suck at PvP. So I mostly run with groups, which could mean anything from four or five people to “Da Zerg”. In such cases, my individual use goes anywhere from “less important” to “not really an impact”. Don’t see why I should bust my knees out rushing for Ascended or Legendary (before Ascended existed).

- Do I want to improve? Sure, I guess, but my problem is more based in my personal skill and not gear. It’s also that I play a ranger, and we all know rangers suck. (Disclaimers: Some rangers suck less than others, naturally, due to having really skilled players behind them.)

So, I mean, sure I could be doing better if I tried real hard and worked my carpal tunnels to the breaking point getting my reflexes and skill timing down JUST SO . . . but that’s even LESS appealing than the Ascended/Legendary search.

If I want to look cool fighting things with a sword the size of a ship rudder I’ll boot up Monster Hunter again.

Tachenon.5270:

Anyway. It seems the road to ascension is not a road I care to travel, due to all the speed bumps and grinding of gears required. What else ya got, anet?

Tequatl Rising, I’m guessing, is the next thing. With potential for further revamps of other major world bosses based on their feedback from players tackling that one.

I care less about Ascended gear this week and more about SAB and much more about Tequatl two weeks from now.

Lord Kuru.3685:

That’s too nice of a way to put it. More like: they wanted to, but once the launch went beyond expectations, they got greedy and decided to cater to the general MMO audience instead of their original intended audience (casuals, those sick of grinding for stats).

If you can’t prove greed, stop ascribing it to them. Don’t look for malice (or incompetence) when there’s much more simple answers.

Going for “greed” or “incompetence” or “they just want to make us suffer” makes arguments look petty and personal, weak and easily just pushed aside by people who don’t agree with you.

Wukunlin.8461:

Zero Day.2594:

“you don’t need ascended to play the game”
“you don’t a good job in real life, you can stay a janitor” … sorry I don’t want to be a janitor.
same mentality applies to games/anything in general, the want to be better.

oh noes, get ready for the swarms of YOU CAN’T COMPARE GAME TO RL AHFEJAHJEWAR;LWAFE dog piling on you

I really don’t like people pulling RL into the argument, if only because inevitably there’s flaws in the analogies and it becomes a moot point. If the argument stays where the argument actually is concerned about in the first place, then it’s a better discussion.

I mean, it’s the old thing with a form of “if all your friends jumped off a bridge would you?” is used. Similarly extremely flawed for an argument. Keep off the loaded questions and this actually might get something useful talked about.

RebelYell.7132:

ophidic.1279:

You don’t need ascended gear to play, you need to know how to kite and dodge and think ahead. That’s more powerful than any ascended.

Such skills don’t exist in a binary state. Maybe someone is great at rotating their cooldowns to kite, and not so good at reading boss tells and managing their endurance. Maybe someone knows the tells, but only reacts in time to 50% of the attacks. That’s where gear upgrades come in.

If ascended gear lets me take a boss down 10% faster, that’s a significant amount of time in which I can’t make mistakes. Consistency isn’t easy.

Take a game that’s pure skill, like The Touhou Project or DoDonPachi or Quake. Nothing in those games has an attack that’s impossible to dodge. However, you have to keep doing it. Now, double your damage. That cuts the amount of things you have to dodge in half.

Whoa. Quake? “Nothing in that game has an attack that’s impossible to dodge.” I’m relatively sure that’s correct in the basest of terms but it’s also more accurate to say “a single attack might be able to be dodged, but it becomes progressively harder to stay alive with certain situations”. Dodging into a corner, or against an element which stops you, for instance, is likely to stop you from dodging the next hit successfully.

(Also, if you were in the water and someone decided to drop the Lightning Gun attack while also in the water? No, you can’t dodge that. You can only take damage and maybe live. I used to do that often enough.)

Much the same as dodging anywhere – positional awareness is crucial but it also can be hampered by a few things. And there are situations where “you could have dodged that” becomes “if you hadn’t been in that exact spot you could have dodged it”. I remember games which would sometimes “lead” you in between two attacks to nail you with a third right up the “safe” spot you were thinking was there.

You’re correct in the point of “if I can kill it faster, that’s less time I need to dodge”. It’s often a war of attrition to have a skill-based combat. How long can you keep up the peak of skill to kill it without dying? I’ve seen some utterly insane displays of skillful combat (I’ll find one to link you if you really want) where the goal was to go in with the least advantage possible and still win.

Guild Wars 2 tried to hit that point, but the gear and stats you can build on are more like a safety net so your failures are not an automatic “walk back from the waypoint”. They’re there to (offensively) shave the time you have to dodge or otherwise run the encounter, or (defensively) survive hits you weren’t able to dodge.

If you’re good enough, in theory, you can make it without anything other than a white weapon your level. In practice, that probably happens a lot less than anyone arguing it’s possible would think. On the other hand? Entirely plausible to do it in less than exotics, which renders a decent example of “it’s not needed to have Ascended”.

It does make things easier.

Gehenna.3625:

Solomon Darkfury.3729:

Given it took about an hour per craft to hit 400 I would say not long…

If you can afford to buy the mats. The crafting length is mostly determined by your gather speed…or buying power.

I had a lot of T6 materials I wasn’t using – I had all the exotic gear I really wanted already, so I wasn’t using it. I mean, I did use a lot of Vicious Fangs but I wanted to upgrade off Mad Memories for a quiver.

That’s it, really. The T6 bottleneck is in two places for crafting most often: Fine materials and Ectoplasm. Ectoplasm can be attained fairly regularly by doing a lot of World Bosses and salvaging their Rares. (Do they also give Essences of Luck? Eh, don’t know . . .)

Fine materials are harder, and they are the bottleneck, the throttling component to ALL crafting. It requires buying or farming to get it done fast.

Gehenna.3625:

Vayne.8563:

Gobhoblin.7582:

Ashen.2907:

Some of the PVE only skills tied to titles did provide a significant amount of power. They were easy mode approaches to powerful builds as top end builds without PVE only skills were capable of levels of performance at least comparable to PVE only builds.

You and I remember it quite differently. Lets agree to disagree, and let all these good folks get back to arguing about GW2, shall we?

I did give specific examples. Whatever your memory was of that, those skills existed and if you entered the meta game in PvE, you were expected to have them..and by many have them maxed out.

Anyone who played GW1 and has done things like DoA knows that Lightbringer levels were a requirement… but what I think he’s trying to tell you is that whatever happened in GW1 is irrelevant for GW2 and the manifesto and as a consequence for this discussion.

Now, I haven’t followed all posts here but is that relevant for this discussion?

GW1 did have grind but it had stuff I really wanted. GW2 has grind but for me it has no purpose so I don’t do it. I don’t mind grind always but the statement that they don’t want to make grindy games is a nice statement but I don’t think they managed to do it.

That’s the nicest way of putting it, and one I’d actually agree with. “They wanted to but they didn’t manage it.” As opposed to “they lied to us to get our money”.

Meanwhile, I’ve got about a ton of Bloodstone Dust and am kind of bottlenecked on what to do with it until I sit down and start working the Huntsman station.

Shelledfade.6435:

dalendria.3762:

MikaHR.1978:

darkace.8925:

snip

I would agree that it was introdused because of small portion of playerbase who whined about it if it was actually implemented as such.

Since most of them got ascended weapons in first few hours,

Wait. What?

Are you saying that people have Ascended weapons already? I thought the patch for these just came out today. I have not even played the game tonight. Just downloaded the patch about a hour ago.

Are you serious? People have these weapons already?

Probably people who can control the TP with the amount of money they have already crafted them.

Maybe.

No, people who got lucky off Champion loot bags. Seriously, as in I saw two people with them today. Occam’s Weapon Chest, for one. Remember, there’s a slim chance they come out of them. Like Precursors can, and have, but are unlikely to on any single click. So cheer for the lucky ones.

There’s not really a way to BUY your way to one with the time-gating on it.

Astralporing.1957:

Mostly, due to timer, it promotes pure DPS. Ascended significantly help there.

Ah, I don’t know . . . about the promoting pure DPS. I mean, I’m not going to argue Ascended won’t make that number go up.

But on the other hand? I think if the players wanted to try for pure DPS and just all leap on him we’d see failures and proclamations it’s impossible because that approach doesn’t work. I mean, I’ve seen Grenth fail like that, and the “let’s zerg it” lemmings leave THEN the event succeeds because we weren’t getting a minefield of corpses people kept trying to res.

Honestly, I can count the number of RPGs I’ve needed the best possible stats or gear with me to beat it on one hand.

Post-game content? Mmm, I’d need two hands but the penultimate bonus boss in FF12 was just kind of a long grind.

fungihoujo.8476:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Kaleban.9834:

banana.9038:

It’s the first expansion. Infinite coin provides unlimited access to tribulation mode. Normal coins will only allow access temporarily.

Until September 30th when the Box is gone and your 600 Gem item becomes useless.

Well, useless until the next time the Box is turned on. And they decide to go “It’s time to make it . . . Early Konami hard.”

Until they rephrase the infinite coin to say ‘infinite continues in world 1 and 2’.

Until they go subscription fees, if we’re going to talk about “cards ArenaNet probably won’t be playing”.

EgonVenkman.1907:

What are they supposed to be?

Once per day per character? or Once per day per account?

They were once per day per character last time it was around.

I got it last time this was around. Dulfy’s had a guide available.

Kaleban.9834:

banana.9038:

It’s the first expansion. Infinite coin provides unlimited access to tribulation mode. Normal coins will only allow access temporarily.

Until September 30th when the Box is gone and your 600 Gem item becomes useless.

Well, useless until the next time the Box is turned on. And they decide to go “It’s time to make it . . . Early Konami hard.”

Raine.1394:

Markadis.9012:

Collen Brohanson specifically states in this interview that there won’t be any more gear past Ascended Gear, so all you doomsayers can chill and go back to enjoying the game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy7CcwnfUdU

Did he say that there would be no further vertical progression? No. They even said last November that there were no plans for new tiers of rarity, simply infusions and whatever other gains to power they can come up with without a new tier. Power creep will continue.

What does this mean? Well, Ascended was never the problem. It is simply a point on an ever ascending power curve. Vertical progression is the problem and until Mr. Brohanson (sic) declares an end to it there is no reason to quit the doomsaying. VP is a blight on gaming and really needs to be removed from this game.

Actually, I think irresponsible implementation of cash shops/after market DLC are a bigger blight on gaming than Vertical Progression. Along with “Games for Windows Live”.

SeNoZinD.9874:

Has anyone received an ascended weapon from these so called chests yet? If you have, I would love to hear where you got it. (Wvw,pve, dungeons, etc). I really wanna see if I should rely on RNG (drops) or extremely expensive time-gating (crafting).

I saw two people in LA this morning opening their saved champ loot boxes out of fear they would get one Bloodstone Dust per box . . . (HAH!) . . . and go “What is this?” And link Occam’s Weapon Chest and WupWup’s Weapon Chest.

Coffee.7058:

I want to see an entire city open at once.

I did, logging in shortly after update to see the bank in LA full of bodies.

Along with a couple exclamations of “WTH just killed me?!”

ophidic.1279:

You don’t need ascended gear to play, you need to know how to kite and dodge and think ahead. That’s more powerful than any ascended.

Well, unless there’s Agony involved which lands on everyone in an area (Jade Maw). In which case, maybe you need one piece with AR on.

dcypher.2590:

darkace.8925:

Happyfool.8951:

I posted this in another thread but the premise is the same:

Have you seen the upcoming changes to Teq? It promotes teamwork and coordination. I am guessing that they going for that in the “difficulty” department, instead of just bumping up numbers. And in the off chance that they do bump up numbers. I imagine the experience would to be the same as wearing rares in an exotic world. Bit of a challenge, but still doable.

If I’m not mistaken, Colin said in response to concerns about gathering 80 players to do the event that fewer skilled and very well-equipped players could manage. What he considers “very-well equipped” remains to be seen, though.

sounds like a gear check to me

Could be. “Check, do they have gear on? Good, okay, they can go in. Hey! You! No pants, no dragon champion. Stop whining about being a norn and me oppressing your culture, you want in, you get pants.”

I’m having flashbacks to my childhood, all right, all the games I never could beat off emulation due to mechanics basically being “memorize the jump patterns or fall and die” in so many games.

Ninja Gaiden comes to mind (fricking birds!).

Gehenna.3625:

I’d like to hear the rest of your story if it ends up that Obsidian shards are not part of Ascended crafting.

But if you are correct you can probably craft you ascended gear on the first day it comes out and then you can quit the game cause you’re done.

They are part of Ascended crafting, in so far as being used in refinements. Which is nice, since that suggests there’s a use for them other than Legendaries

Tom Gore.4035:

Rhaegus.8924:

While we play GUILD wars, we don’t have:

- Guild halls
- Guild vs Guild wars
- Guild managing mechanics (How to know who contributes and who is not playing for 5 months. God knows)

yeah…

Inb4 someone comes and “educates” us that the name Guild Wars has nothing to do with player guilds.

Which is true, of course, but so misleading we should sue ANet.

No, it had everything to do with player guilds.

. . . it also has a lore reason for persisting.

Banquetto.9521:

fungihoujo.8476:

All in all- this isn’t the same company that gave us GW1. This is a company that has realized that simple, repetitive tasks are both cost effective to produce, and keep people chugging at the slot machine longer. In all fairness, they are a company, and that’s the logical path to take.

Just out of curiosity: when playing GW1, did you by any chance complete the Legendary Cartographer or Legendary Vanquisher title tracks?

You pick those?

Lucky
Unlucky
Treasure Hunter
Wisdom
Friend of the Kurzicks/Luxons
Zaishen Supporter
Gamer

Please, do go on about how the Vanquisher and Cartograhpers are repetitive and boring. The above listing is much worse, especially “Gamer” from what I experienced. (I at least finished Cartography and Vanquishing.)

Rozbuska.5263:

facepalm You dont get your top weapon faster than in 2 week… Buuuu huuuuu…

You need to read the complaints better, it’s not just “the top weapon”. Heck, it’s not the top weapon at all, those are the Legendaries (that stat switch . . . whew).

It’s the implication it could take 2 weeks per weapon for some classes which use multiple sets of weapons to be versatile. Ranger, Warrior . . . two off the top of my head and I know other classes are like that too. (Those two have a nice big pile of options as far as weapons go, too, so it might hurt them a lot.)

The complaint isn’t “two whole excruciating weeks until I get my Ascended bow” . . . it’s “two weeks for the bow, two weeks for my sword, two weeks for my greatsword…”