Guild Wars 2

Same boat here. I was gifted 37 mastery points upon loading into HoT that were grandfathered in. Although this was nice I cannot, after 3 years understand why they choose to make me do the same old areas over and over and over again to just get the auto loot I wanted, so as to relieve my poor keyboard.

It might be different if I could, for instance, go into the labyrinth and have it count towards tyria mastery, or the jungle, but NO. I cannot enjoy the new things HoT has to offer nor will enjoy this Halloween until I farm events that I have farmed time and time again over 3 bloody years!

And yes I know it is my choice to not go into HoT or the labyrinth until I have this mastery unlocked. However, when they announced it was going to be added I, and a few others I’m sure really looked forward to having it. Unfortunately I, and I am sure others, didn’t think it would be just another grind!

Guess I will see you all in the labyrinth in a few days (if I grind like a kitten that is).

Chugged down my 4 kegs, 10 thimbles and 100 drops right after this was announced.

Got a ton of greens and about 4 rares, thanks RNGesus.

Turamarth.3248:

Nothing for current ranks I would say.
“In the interest of fairness to PvE players, we didn’t want to allow any WvW players who may have been stockpiling liquid world experience to instantly rank up a bunch of times and immediately begin unlocking the new expansion hero challenges the moment the expansion released. "

brb, I have 4 kegs, 10 thimbles and 100 drops to consume…. yes I hoard

5 minutes later.. rank plat colonel and tons of greens along with 4 rares… not even a lousy ascended ring.

I would love to see reward tracks added to WvW. The only players that are rolling in the loot are the k-trainers and/or an organized EotM farming map.

Anyone that plays the game mode as “I feel” it was designed to be played, as a battle against opposing forces and not just gates, knows this. If you are a scout, sentry, roamer, or just about anyone not in a k-train zerg then your loot is substantially lower.

Even the big zerg busting guilds (fight guilds) have a hard time getting any where near to the loot you can get from SW with a steady supply of fodder. Spending 4 times the time fighting against actual intelligent enemies that give worse compensation that farming mindless critters, or even worse, getting on a chest train map in one quarter the time makes me, in a word, angry.

+1 to the OP, if we are to get very little loot from normal play then we need better compensation elsewhere.

Very happy for these changes, more options are always better for the game.

BrooksP.4318:

Advanced/Adaptive AI wouldn’t only just be indistinguishable from PvP, but could also surpass it. Given enough time it would be able to predict what will happen and instantly have numerous counters. It would have instant reaction time, a low to zero error margin, and develop counters that would be in meta/MLGs wet dreams.

While it would be fun and interesting at first it would turn into utter frustration.

A full on AI would indeed lead to more frustration than fun. I would be happy though if the mobs were to dodge, move away, use defensive actions, etc once in a while. Most mobs (save a few bosses) in the open world are just fodder and as such defeating them is not even an accomplishment but a (brainless) chore.

gavyne.6847:

I’m expecting to see the post today, it’s the end of the week. I also don’t expect to see a big list of changes. This time it’ll likely be more fine tunes and smaller tweaks.

I’m expecting nothing, but I would be happy to be proven wrong.

If by “memory” you are referring to how they remember how to throw themselves upon your weapon and die, then yes they have a very good memory.

If, however you are asking if they can judge what your next move might be based upon past experience, then sadly, no.

This is the only legendary I want. The others were kinda blah and did not suit the theme I had for any of my characters. This one will go nicely with my new human reaper.

Thanks Anet, and the fact that EAP is one of my favorite poets don’t hurt either!

Meh, at least now when I get home from work the queues will be tolerable (maybe). However, if we are rolling over the opposing team I won’t even be able to get my dailies done in some cases before I have to go to bed.

Either way reset will happen about an hour after I leave for work so the comradery I felt when setting up my Friday reset will be something I will no longer partake of. The friendship and discussions (how was your week?) I felt with my guild while waiting to “spam” the portal will be sadly removed from my week now with this change, but heck I am not in the majority it seems.

In RL: Old enough to know better, yet young enough to do it again!

In game: About 7k hours.

HoT can have as many bugs as it wants. I plan on having my buttox firmly lodged within the labyrinth and/or the dungeon for the duration of Halloween. I hope by then the bugs will have been all sorted, so long as some players, unlike myself, actually go into the jungle.

Working weekends and not getting home till after reset (and queues) will make me one unhappy fellow. Good thing I’ll have so much to keep me busy in PvE land (for now) though.

I’m just hoping we get updates everywhere more than once a year after the xpax is released.

On a similar note, I just threw out the baby with the bath water.

I know it was not the best decision, but afterall the water was dirty, right, RIGHT!

I’d swap out precision for power as I already use decimate defenses. Instead of shambling horrors, I would prefer to see a chill on hit similar to grenth runes (makes being hit by ranged backfire on them occasionally).

The +25% movement speed is always nice but I feel it would be a bit to OP along with the chill duration, but I would most likely carry an extra set of armor just for that bonus.

xeras.9415:

Honestly. While i’m semi new to the game, i find the idea of having to complete the entire map to be able to craft a legendary absolutely mind numbing.. And not very “legendary” at all. So i won’t be doing that. I’d rather just grind gold then grind hearts and way points.

Plus, looking at some of the exotics, i find them to be more appealing.

Well map completion is much more legendary like than getting the precursor the most reliable way (mystic toilet). However, I too don’t like most of the legendaries so my main uses an ascended Xanthum.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Xanthium

TP speculation going nuts in 3, 2, 1…..

I got world complete on 5 characters now and no interest at all in any of the legendaries. I find map completion a way to help others while doing a bit of gathering; the keys you get occasionally don’t hurt either. If I could sell the gifts I got I would as they are just using up a slot in my inventory.

I can see how many people would just see map completion as a means to an end, but for me it truly is the journey that appeals to me. Helping fellow players along the way is just a nice bonus.

Having assumed he was talking reaper here, I though that maybe he made an error in the links as to the build and was only highlighting equipment used. As base necro has already been discussed to death. It was my error.

Sigmoid.7082:

Warscythes.9307:

I mean it basically comes down to whether or not the extra crit damage is better than the loss in power since both build should be in 100% crit due to fury.

Too lazy to do the math but gut reaction is that power is stronger, not sure how much though.

Napkin maths shows zerk build will do more damage if you do nothing but spam LB. As soon as you cant use shroud and must sue dagger auto for dps zerk wins.

I got the same results, but I am still going with valkyrie and wurm because the difference is relatively minor and being able to camp RS when needed makes up for the loss IMO. YMMV, but either way you will hit hard enough that any trash will melt.

Build 1 is close to what I will be running for equipment on my reaper. Never underestimate the benefit of a high crit damage. You can even push the envelope further by using furious sharpening stones and roasted cactus (241 crit damage % apx).

My sylvari main will look forward to the legions of loyal troops I will be marching down central LA. I plan on calling this new game HW (humanoid wars). The goal of this new game will be the complete genocide of all non-plant based races.

Ah yes good times ahead!

Andraus.3874:

Tommyknocker.6089:

Svarty.8019:

Try some WvW if you are sick of getting decent loot!

I would support this statement, but because I only WvW currently, I am living in a cardboard box and can’t even support myself.

Dude there are some nice bridges you can live under in Wvw

Tried that, but I keep getting zerged down in my sleep. Now I just camp my home BL with a “will work for gold” sign. Business has been terrible though, so I have resorted to carrying a shovel behind a dolyak. It is dirty work, but at least the manure sells for a few silver.

Svarty.8019:

Try some WvW if you are sick of getting decent loot!

I would support this statement, but because I only WvW currently, I am living in a cardboard box and can’t even support myself.

MashMash.1645:

Why? Their will be tons on the tp soon. The price will collapse soon.

Yep and I got 5 empty alts that will buy as much as I can carry for use with my gobbler during the year!

SHM.7628:

Tommyknocker.6089:

Having done map completion on 6 (I think) characters at this point, I must disagree.

Not only do you get to experience new players while out doing the map plus have the ability to forage for tons of mats, you also get the occasional black lion key for map completion. The chance is apx 30% per map to get a key, but I have gotten quite the few myself and even though many find map completion boring it does lend to the fact that you are legendary and should not be skip-able IMO.

They can just open the map and waypoints previously opened when you hit max level. Map completion would stay in tact minus a lot of the repeated grind.

They “could”, but exploration means having to explore all the map(s) and, to me, it would defeat the purpose. If it were a switch I could care less, but I personally would keep it turned off.

No thank you. The amount of nerfing they would have to do by giving us a stealth ability would cause the tears in these forums to fry my computer!

Qugi.2653:

PvP easy the worst. If you win many time get some toxic chat and yell about cheese build or lucky or some thing like that. If you lose many time get some toxic chat and yell l2p noob. Almost any thing you do in PvP good or bad will see some toxic player often.

I have only gone into PvP once and this was my reaction too. Even the lobby is generally full of so much ego and hot air that if it were to be released into the real world it would melt the ice caps. I myself am waiting for tracts to be added to WvW (praying), which although not perfect is my preferred game mode due to the camaraderie with my guildies.

You can’t currently. However I would be happy if upon the release of HOT we get a one time relocation ability. My power necro soon to be reaper for instance would have no use for the curses line, but as I made him LONG before the expansion and he generally only does WvW it would seem fair to allow me to resort the points this one time.

The problem with systems like you suggest is this:

Having done map completion on 6 (I think) characters at this point, I must disagree.

Not only do you get to experience new players while out doing the map plus have the ability to forage for tons of mats, you also get the occasional black lion key for map completion. The chance is apx 30% per map to get a key, but I have gotten quite the few myself and even though many find map completion boring it does lend to the fact that you are legendary and should not be skip-able IMO.

Going with wurm myself on my power build. Along with Valkyrie armor it is a match made in heaven for damage.

Cerbeius.7129:

Immune to Fear CC-factor, but not to the damage: I could totally live with this!

I could not agree more. If our chill does no effect (other than a dot) to mobs with break bars but does trigger all our “on chill” effects, I see no reason whatsoever why we cannot do the damage associated with it. Even if it did not do the chill effect or the “run away” fear effect it would be a very nice boost to condition users. This in itself would make condition classes more wanted IMO.

And on a similar note: while we are at it can we finally do something about conditions not damaging structures (rot etc)?

edit: clarity

EvesDesire.2596:

…snip
- I think that Deathly Chill does a bit too much damage considering the insane uptime. Somewhere between last bwe and bwe3 would be a good spot I think.snip…

Honestly if they nerfed it at all, I, and I am sure many other condimancers, would just take reapers onslaught to apply burning faster. Even as it sits it is a toss up in my build if it is even worth using over onslaught.

Isarii.2804:

I can’t even begin to address how poorly thought out this thread is. Space being taken up on an imaginary map is literally meaningless. This means nothing in terms of what they can or can’t add in future releases.

This. And if they REALLY need to add more space they could always add a higher or lower level to the current maps like they have done with the verdant brink. I see no problem with using world map area to accommodate the raids, same as I see no problem with it taking another 40 years to fill the world map after another 10 expansions.

If this is your biggest concern with the expansion I would give ANet a big old +1.

I was running full rabid for the test and it seems to have performed well. On live I will most likely switch in some sinister for the extra hitting power depending on how difficult the raids turn out to be. My runes were krait, but I will use a combo of nightmare and antitoxin to max out both duration and damage on live; 1 second fear on a 60 second timer is not worth the loss of 28 condi damage IMO but YMMV.

Ran a similar setup myself and was having a blast with it (pun intended). I went with the weakness as the uptime for it is amazing, and for LF gen/might I went with chilling force; they did a nice job improving it BTW.

Now I can’t wait till the end of October!!

It must be getting close to winter time as it seems all the special snowflakes have come out to play.

To the OP it fits the theme get over it.

Tried a power build first and I too felt a bit less powerful than I did last BWE; although this may just be rose colored glasses it still felt a bit off (no solid numbers though). I tried a chill/fire/fear condition build next and it is wonderful. I outlast everything while chipping away the health of whatever comes my way. Once I get myself fully set up with the runes/sigils I will be using on live (didn’t bank em) it should be quite the powerhouse (excuse the pun).

Deaths charge does indeed feel much smoother and although I would have preferred night fall follow you the extended radius feels good.

Dashingsteel.3410:

Yeah, let’s take a zone that is popular and nerf it. That really makes a lot of sense. It is one of the few zones that encourages teamwork across the entire map. Instead of calling for a reward nerf, how about asking that other zones receive an increase in loot? Loot shouldn’t be hidden behind instanced activities.

IMO the teamwork portion of the map is fine the way it is; very good in fact and promotes more or less friendly play. The portion that could use some “work” is the chest farming that goes on and it seems that ANet is aware of it by making shovels be something you need to upgrade your guildhall. How effective it becomes remains to be seen, but it is a start.

Edit: oh and OP I am sure that your voice may have been heard along with many others here. However, I am equally sure that using the word “my” in most of your opening sentences makes you look like a bit of an ego maniac; try using “our” instead.

Assuming this is not a troll post, if you are running a scepter for power, you are doing something terribly wrong. The vulnerability alone with the addition of the new range for the axe make it a far better weapon for any power build.

Although you could use anything for a weapon in any build, using a scepter in a power build is akin to wearing full clerics in the same build. You could, and things will die eventually, but why voluntarily shoot an arrow into your own knee?

Reaper
Druid
nothing else interests me

Just need Tank!

In 7000 hours in game I have had 3 keys drop, pre patch, none since. Even doubled with getting 6 keys in the same allotted time span, and given the chance of something useful from a chest, it could quite honestly take me years to get a full ticket for a skin.

I would buy them but I refuse to pray to RNGesus to get a ticket for a skin I may like, so instead I just buy the skins occasionally with gold. However, with the inability for some people to quickly farm keys it will become much more difficult to afford the new skins now.

I do map completion rarely on new characters, but even then the odds of getting something good from a chest, it makes getting a key a meh experience; even when one graces me with it’s presence.

IMO it seems that in order to cure the common cold that was key farming they gave the rest of us chemotherapy.

Necro main enters thread, scratches head and leaves.

Scenario 1:

As I see it if they want to go with having dedicated healers then ALL classes need the ability to spec into it on the fly. Changing armor, trinkets and traits aside if they are going to be needed then they need to open the playing field to all.

As a necro main I am generally not looked upon favorably for groups anyways, what would be the harm in making our vampiric abilities MUCH more potent to our teammates to compensate? The other classes could/should be given a balance patch too, so as to make every class viable as a healer IMO. Eles, guards and now druids will need the least or no work but other classes such as necro (do we even have a place?), warriors, thieves etc will need a more thorough going over in order to compensate.

Scenario 2: It doesn’t matter and life goes on as usual with only those that want to be healers playing them.

Scenario 3: remains to be seen as we don’t know at this point what ANet has planned for the game.

edit: clarity

Ayrilana.1396:

JayMack.8295:

I, for one, am looking forward to all the terrible zerkers blaming the healer for their death.

I hope they pull this off, though. As much as I enjoy playing a zerker ele, it’d be nice to have some other roles and builds to actually bring.

And all of the other people in other gear who can’t keep themselves alive.

Can’t dodge??

Bring a healer, it’s a win/win. If you die it is his/her fault, if you don’t you were awesome!! /S

I must agree. A hearty well done to the ANet staff. A shout out to Jennifer Hale, that cooking segment was gold and you are one very charismatic host. The music was top notch too and overall the experience thusfar has been an enjoyable one.

Kirschsahne.2081:

A little bit of a Drama Queen aren’t we dear OP ??

These changes are insanely welcome by 99% of the fanbase.
Get used to it.
People will gladly play Druid or Tank

Which will wear off quickly unless they address the loot problem. It will become difficult to continue playing a healer when all the DPS guys are getting all the loot and the healers are getting the staff (shaft pun intended). Just sayin.

Nick.6972:

Tommyknocker.6089:

sean.6058:

Agreed. The trinity is a better system than what we currently have.

LFG healer!!

10 minutes later: LFG healer!

20 minutes later: LFG healer

30 minutes later: /P anyone want to do some farming instead?

Yep much better. Even if you find a healer and a tank they had better be 100% for every second or they bear the brunt of the vitriol from the party when things go south.

edit: clarity

I like playing Healers.There are many people besides me who does too.

Glad to hear it, and I do too occasionally btw. Remember though that for every one of the players that enjoy playing a healer there are many many more that just want to DPS. This is generally a fault of the game(s) in that tagging and doing damage grants you more (or in some cases any) loot. If for instance ANet figured out a way to make healers and tanks receive the same benefit as the damage dealers then it would make more players want to diversify. As it sits now though playing a healer is a purely selfless act.