Guild Wars 2

I don’t really want to see a new Elder Dragon be the next main antagonist.

We could see Palawa Joko take control of the remaining Risen somehow, opening a story arc leading to an Elona expansion.

What I really want to see one of the six Gods come back and the races of Tyria having to deal with the reprocussions of that. I’m leaning towards Grenth, since we already sort of worked for him in the personal story. There is also the unresolved story arc involving Grenth and Dhuum.

Yah, I just throw my mini in an invisible bag along with my alternate set of gear. I keep the bag in the bottom slot so it doesn’t interfere with the items I pick up while grinding.

There is a very good Chef guide kicking around that calls for this ingredient. As more people discover this guide and demand increases without people introducing more supply, the price will rise. I’m not sure if this is the main readon for the current price, but it may be a factor.

I have 100% map completion (and the badge / title, so it isn’t rounded up) and yet I only have two of the regional exploration achievements finished. I’m assuming there are small areas that are not tied to map completion. It’s going to suck trying to figure out what I “missed”.

As zombie has mentioned, I use WASD with AD changed to strafing. In addition to Mouse Look.

That dredge event was one of the highlights of the levelling experience for me. Finding out that the dredge had a social structure beyond “evil undergound race focused on mining” was very interesting.

I would love to have dense fog in PvP. It creates an unsettling atmosphere, similar to driving in the fog. Heavy rain would have the same effect, like how rain creates an interesting dynamic in an NFL game.

This is something that can be added when Guild Halls are implemented. I imagine a large table with guild members sitting around discussing plans of action.

Agreed, Gummi. The option is given to be either Diplomatic, perform Censorship, or simply Eliminate the threat. It is the choice of every Human player how they handle this situation. The same choice is made by many governments all over the world every day.

I went with Elementalist for my first character since I enjoy playing mages.

I think my next character is going to be an Engineer. Something about the Helsing-esque guns, trenchcoat, and brimmed hat. Using technology is also an interesting contrast to all the fantasy elements which the other classes have.

I enjoy having a pinch of roleplay in my gaming experience. This is why I always play a Human Male in any game that gives me the choice. I also make the character look as much like me as possible if the option is given.

I have a full set similar to this stat combination (vitality instead of power) on my Ele. I imagined it being decent for a staff support build. However, +healing doesn’t seem to effect my heals by a large enough margin to justify putting 1/3 of my stats into. Not only do my heals seem proportionally ineffective, many people move out of my heals during the heat of battle.

It is very odd that weapons cannot be dyed, yet armor can. For stylists, this actually restricts the colors you can use on your armor to those used by your weapon. Should be changed.

I really enjoy these conversations. The fact that a group of forums posters approached this political issue ingame with different viewpoints reflects the success of this storyline. Personally, I consider the Seperatists a major threat against the peace between Charr and Humans.

There is no need for a negativity forum. For one, this is one of the more tame communities I have seen in a while. Also, outright negativitiy should not be supported in any way. Constructive criticism is valued – it’s just that the opinions many people share lack the constructive part, even if they believe it does not.

I agree. The commander “rank” should require some form of leadership test to obtain. Having it aquired through PVP seems like the best option. Perhaps have some sort of limit system in place that limits this icon to active, high-ranked PVP players.

As it is now, I find the Commander system broken. It allows any random player to intrusively show up on the map of every other player, even if that “commander” purchased the rank without the intent to lead or the leadership skills to do so.

Change the quality name of these items from Legendary to Mystic. Some people seem to think that Legendary items must be devoid of a grind and must have a lore background (the Legend in Legendary).

I just view these items as a unique-skinned version of the highet stat tier. They are forged – not found – so how can they have a pre-existing lore background? I like to think that we are the heroes which will build the legend behind these items. Already, they have aided in the death of an Elder Dragon.

Why does everything have to be so over-analyzed?

It sounds to me like you enjoy playing WoW. Guild Wars is a different series with different gameplay elements. These things are not needed in every game. Not every game needs to compete with WoW. It would be a boring world if all forms of art lacked inspiration in the way you are requesting.

Crusheddiamond.1895:

Toxyn.9608:

Depending on what it includes I may be interested in it.

If it is just an official character planner, well, IGN’s app does that.

An application for smartphones, iPod Touch, and iPad will be made available to talk to in-game friends and guild members, view friends’ in-game locations in real-time, and allow remote access to the marketplace. The application will be free for Guild Wars 2 players.

http://www.curse.com/news/guild-wars-2/15866-pax-coverage-gw2-ipad-application

Yup, I would definitely be interested in that.

Depending on what it includes I may be interested in it.

If it is just an official character planner, well, IGN’s app does that.

Even the tokens we aquire in Arah after Z’s death are ambiguous.

“A small piece of Zhaitan, forever dead.”

It could mean that Zhaitan was considered dead previous to being “killed” and will forever be considered dead. Or it could mean that Zhaitan was considered alive/undead previous to being “killed” and is now considered actually dead.

If logic dictates that the simplest answer is true then I think that he is actually dead, and the message got lost through a bad bit of storytelling.

critickitten.1498:

Right now there is nothing “Legendary” about them. They’re either grinded out or bought on the TP….neither of which is actually “difficult”.

I disagree that there is nothing Legendary about these items. I also disagree that they can be “grinded out”. How difficult it is depends on the player for the most part, so that bit must be ignored.

As it is, the key items required to craft a legendary can not be grinded in the typical sense of the word. Instead, these items are obtained by participating in GW2’s main gameplay elements (Dynamic Events, Exploration, Dungeons, PvP). Let’s take Bifrost for example:

You need Obsidian Shards, obtained by participating in Dynamic Events.
You need a Gift of Exploration, obtained by completing the world map.
You need 500 Shards of Zhaitan, obtained by participating in the Arah dungeon.
You need 500 Badges of Honor, obtained by participating in PvP.

Then of course there are the grind-able items. The stacks of materials and dyes and such. There is also an element of RNG involved with obtaining the precursor and clovers. Having grinding and RNG elements in addition to the participation factors I mentioned above is not a bad thing.

The only thing we are not tasked with seems to be Jumping Puzzles.

There is one problem though. They can be purchased on the TP. I think removing the option to sell Legendary items would go a long way in giving these items the status they deserve. The four participation factors I mentioned should not be able to be bypassed by people willing to purchase large sums of gold with real money.

It depends on the requirements. As long as the yearly achievement is not structured to take a year to complete, it would not be a problem. If players were expected to play for a full year or even close to a year, an issue arises:

Not many people aside from children and the unemployed would be able to invest this much time. Most careers have periods of growth and crunch periods, as well as post-secondary programs. The holidays are also a time that many people prefer to spend with old friends and relatives that they have not seen in a while.

If such an achievement would take say, six months, that would give enough wiggle room to allow completion.

Personally I prefer not to have a dual spec option. Given that concrete “trinity” roles are not in this game, I do not see the point. I enjoy that I must commit to one of my available trait/gear builds prior to participating in something.

I share the same opinion of LFG. I prefer the experience of meeting new people in my realm and building a solid friend list.

I realize my opinions are “old” though and not shared by the majority of players today.

The only one I’m interested in is the Largos. Their honor, skill, unique model, and mysterious nature all draw me in.

I don’t hold the same theory as the OP. I don’t have a theory – just questions.

There seems to be some sort of natural balance or repeating history on Tyria:

Five races (Mursaat, Forgotten, Dwarves, Seers, and Jotun) survived the last awakening. Now five new ones (Human, Charr, Asuran, Sylvari, and Norn) battle the current awakening.

The six Elder Dragons are on some sort of reocurring sleep cycle.

It appears that there must always be six Human Gods. Kormir replaced Abbadon, and Abbadon replaced an unknown. Grenth has taken Dhuum’s place, although Dhuum has not been killed.

What all this balance means – I don’t know. However for the first time an Elder Dragon has been killed instead of “sated”. What does this do to the balance, if this balance exists? Do the Gods and Dragons share a connection since there are six of each? If there is a connection, how does killing Zhaitan effect the God associated with him? Will it cause the associated God to reappear?

Like many good stories, getting the answer to one quesion (Can an Elder Dragon be killed?) has spawned even more questions.

I believe the bulk of time spent is in the Pact section, specifically the construction phase of the Fort Trinity and the airships. Especially the “new model” ship seen in the final mission.

Consider that it took approximately six years to build the Burj Khalifa.

Given that Asuran research and Charr production are superior to our own, I’ll be generous and say that the personal story spans a minimum of one to two years.

lisamee.2408:

Toxyn.9608:

As long as the house included trophy stands, and trophies were added to various achievements, I would love this. For example; kill Zhaitan in the story and get a small statue of him to place in your home. Get X kills in PvP and get an ornate sword to hang on the wall.

I love that kind of stuff.

Yes! i agree. There would never be an “End Game” if housing were introduced along with all the new items and game play, which could be associated with it on a regular basis.

With major achievements the house could even be expanded. Getting “Dungeon Master” could unlock a dungeon/basement floor. Getting “The Emperor” could unlock a war room that has armor preview closets. Getting “Master Crafter” could unlock a personal crafting station room. They could go anywhere with it.

1. No
2. Yes

A combination of 3. and 4. seem to be the issue. Boss fights are more interesting when major abilities can, or must, be countered with the use of CC interrupts. With Defiant, however, it is difficult to plan for this. Not impossible, especially with a built group using voice chat, but difficult. Difficult to the point that as long as Defiant exists, most pick-up groups would not be able to handle these abilities. That is where the issue lies, in my opinion.

As long as the house included trophy stands, and trophies were added to various achievements, I would love this. For example; kill Zhaitan in the story and get a small statue of him to place in your home. Get X kills in PvP and get an ornate sword to hang on the wall.

I love that kind of stuff.

You make a good point, Proxy. However, say someone is looking to lower the amount of threat they get in a dungeon. They have two main options; switch out some dps for Vitality or for Toughness. Luckily, I made the choice of Vitality without knowing this information. If I had chosen Toughness, I would be back at square one and wasted time/resources re-gearing.

At least some information about this system should be made available in-game.

Also, edited title to include Threat, as it seems the discussion is focusing mainly on this.

Oglaf:

I just looked over the aggro wiki page, http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Aggro, and I learned quite a bit from it. After considering the information, my answer to my question in the OP must be that armor classes do not need to changed. It seems myself and others that I play with just did not have the information to manage threat properly.

Even something as small as reviving allies creating a very large amount of threat is insanely useful to know.

There should be a section in the Tips menu in-game devoted to this mechanic.

1. You would have to trust that each person who responds has actually quit.
2. You would have to trust that each person that quits, quits forever.

Considering neither of those things can be factually determined, you will not gain any relevant data from this thread.

proxy.7963:

…people presuming it’s broken in favour of certain things or just randomised to a degree.

I’ll be honest – I came into this game hearing about the lack of a proper “trinity”, and thought that meant that threat had some sort of random or static nature depending on the boss/monster. I had no idea a system to manage it actually exists.

Oglaf.1074:

Toxyn.9608:

Oglaf.1074:

Toxyn.9608:

However, in a game where a boss/monster could just as easily chase after a light armor profession instead of a heavy armor professions, does it still apply to PvE?

Actually, Heavy armour classes generate more aggro by default.

Perhaps their threat generation should be increased even further? Like I said above, the odd time I do go pure dps, I am always stealing the boss/monsters’ attention.

I did not know they had higher innate threat generation though. Thanks for your input.

There’s actually an intricate aggro system in the game. For example, using melee weapons generate more aggro and a Shield on top of that generates even more. Toughness is also a huge factor; the more you have, the more aggro you generate.

However, the problem is that a lot mobs have their own aggro rules; some go for the squishiest target possible (Riflemen in CM explore, for example).

I had no idea that the threat system in this game was so deep. Thank you for bringing it to my attention – I’ll have to read up on it now.

This discussion is mainly aimed at the PvE side of things, given the first sentence about threat/aggro. It definitely would not work in PvP.

Oglaf.1074:

Toxyn.9608:

However, in a game where a boss/monster could just as easily chase after a light armor profession instead of a heavy armor professions, does it still apply to PvE?

Actually, Heavy armour classes generate more aggro by default.

Perhaps their threat generation should be increased even further? Like I said above, the odd time I do go pure dps, I am always stealing the boss/monsters’ attention.

I did not know they had higher innate threat generation though. Thanks for your input.

proxy.7963:

Defences aren’t solely reliant on armour – there are many factors that contribute to a profession’s innate staying power. Elementalists can survive with the best of them, though many have said that they could use fine-tuning. Professions can be balanced towards defence in ways that don’t rely on the boost given via heavy armour – healing ability, attack negation/avoidance, debuffing the enemy to make attacks less effective – I’d argue that by making every armour possess the same innate defence stat, you’d risk marginalising other methods of defence that require a bit more thought than basic stat stacking, particularly given that you’d need to rebalance these skills in the wake of the defence increase.

Very good points. Crowd control is a major part of an Elementalist’s kit, for example. My only gripe with this is that on bosses with Defiant, crowd control becomes useless unless the group knows how to manage stacks. I usually play a support role in dungeons, but when I do go full DPS for speed runs, I find I am stealing the boss/monsters’ attention almost every time.

Try to keep the responses productive. I left the topic open-ended as just something to promote discussion. I make no claim that it should be changed. I fully understand that melee take more hits in every game, meaning they need higher defensives. This is especially true in PVP. However, in a game where a boss/monster could just as easily chase after a light armor profession instead of a heavy armor professions, does it still apply to PvE?

I have a simple question:

In a world where there is no trinity and no real threat/aggro management, should armor classes exist? It is the opinion of many players that Guardians and Warriors are two of the most overpowered, or easily played, professions in the game. I can’t help but notice that these two professions use the Heavy Armor class.

What if armor classes were removed and every piece of gear was bumped up to Heavy stats? What if base health pools were equal across all professions, giving each equal base survivability?

As a bonus, this would open up three times the amount of armor skins to mix and match. The “battlemage” appearance would be made possible. Warriors could mix in some medium armor for the nordic look. Thieves could wear light armor robes for the “cloak and dagger” flavor.

Is this a good idea? I have no idea. It is interesting to consider though.

I thought it made perfect sense. Just because Zhaitan is killed, it doesn’t mean that his minions are. Similar to WoW’s Arthas/Lich King story arc. After he was killed the Scourge remained. A new Lich King had to take Arthas’ place since without a master giving the Scourge a purpose, they would run chaotically rampant. I imagine this is what is happening in Arah exploration; the remaining Risen are without a master, but are aggressive anyways due to their nature.

On topic of whether it was or was not a mistake to kill an Elder Dragon because it may “wind-down the plot”, I do not think that is true. We severely weakened Z by first killing Eyes and Mouths. This may not be possible with the other Elders. Who knows what their weakness is? Time will tell.

The answer is no. Both past GW1 players and people who never played GW1 could find this game boring. It is all up to the individual’s personal taste. However, past GW1 players would be more inclined to disagree with features of GW2, simply because many people like things to stay the way they always were.

LHound.8964:

You should see how hard it is to find some groups in the lower servers (server with low population / tier), to make that assumptions. Some players wait hours to find a group for some content …

Care to comment now?

I apologize, I overlooked your post. Queue tools, to me, are a band-aid used to artificially create a pool of players to group with. A better option is the “Underflow” idea that is often seen thrown around on the forums. It would fill underpopulated game worlds without automating the process.

HERO.2057:

Actually, you have a very simplistic and wrong view of the matter.

1. I’m not 15 anymore

If you are not fifteen anymore, try not to be needlessly antagonistic in your responses. Messages are better heard with reason.

On topic, I agree with certain things you have mention, specifically that a large portion of the player base is used to having queue portals and has become reliant on them. I’ll restate my opinion though, that I believe they have a detrimental effect on MMOs.

The way I view MMOs is that they should require time to play, whether that time is spent in large amounts over a short time, or small amounts over a large time. Becoming a part of an MMO’s community should be vital to player success. Perhaps I have a dated opinion.

LHound.8964:

“Why gw2 needs a group finder now.” ?

Because we shouldn’t be forced to use a independent website like GW2LFG.com, to find a party to do any kind of content in the game, and to be able to cross-server grouping!

Nuf said!

Except that you are not forced to use GW2LFG. It is a supplement to the in-game community. I honestly have not used it once and have no trouble playing the game every night. It is up to the player to step out of the single-player element of the game and meet new people. Exactly the same as real life.

Hickeroar.9734:

Toxyn.9608:

I’m not sure how I feel about this. One could argue that the implementation of these portal tools in WoW helped kill off that community. Before LFG it was much more common to know other players on your realm, friend list good players you have met, fully embrace your guild, and become a part of community websites.

If I had to choose between the fully automated system of WoW and the more community-fostering system of GW2, I would choose the latter every time.

I don’t find that it fosters community though. I meet players in pugs from all over different realms….we run a dungeon or fractal….we never see each other again.

I’ve had the opposite experience. I started running dungeons with a guild mate late at night. We started as two. As we met and friend-listed good players, our team grew into what it is today. We no longer look for random people in LA unless we don’t have enough members of our team online, in which case that next random person might be a future member waiting to happen.

That’s the way I see it anyways. I’m just one dude though.

I’m not sure how I feel about this. One could argue that the implementation of these portal tools in WoW helped kill off that community. Before LFG it was much more common to know other players on your realm, friend list good players you have met, fully embrace your guild, and become a part of community websites.

If I had to choose between the fully automated system of WoW and the more community-fostering system of GW2, I would choose the latter every time.

I do not see a problem with the prices of superior runes and sigils. Gold is easy to come by at 80. Also, having the highest grade of runes is part of the process for completing your character. Buy the Majors first, then break into Superiors when the gold flows in.

Xuro.5861:

This is why infinite achievement point systems are pointless goals.

In every game I try to max out my achievement points except this one, considering any person with alot of gold can beat me without a hassle, there is no reason at all to try obtain an high amount of achievement points.

I hope they actually implent a system similar to this.

I completely agree with this. In most games, achievements exist as a way to plan out the road to 100% game completion. Guild Wars 2 is an odd exception where you can gain infinite points through menial tasks. It cannot be argued that individual achievements in a system with infinite possible points are worthless.

If infinite achievements must exist, then they should be tied to actual gameplay elements such as dungeons, fractals, pvp, and jumping puzzles. Not salvaging scrap items.

You’re right, CesMode, that it is definitely how they fix, update, and balance the current world that matters. A quick addition however regarding this bit:

cesmode.4257:

Kharma farming is only fun for a while, and there is no sink for it unless you want the kharma sets. They need to make us want to accumulate kharma again to spend it on something else.

Kharma is required in large amounts to purchase Obsidian Shards for anyone creating a legendary from scratch. Other than this though, you’re correct.

It’s possible that it will make or break it for people who are currently on the fence between staying or quitting.

However after reading Colin’s response about the content updates I believe the right choice is being made. Fixing bugs, adding quality of life features, balancing classes, and tweaking the current game world are all vital for the success of a young MMO.