Guild Wars 2

Brandu.8150:

choovanski.5462:

who cares. all my 80s have enough points unlock everything. you get full specialisations while leveling, not just a few traits that you have to hunt for. ots much better imo.

Actually, I want to address the comment on traits you “have to hunt for” as well. Granted, it was within the Guild I’m in, but hunting for those traits/skills was actually a good thing in my mind. There were two ways to get the high end ones: you could pay for them or you could go out and track them down and usually participate in a battle to get them.
This was a good thing in my mind because 1. It gave the player a choice on how to get it, and
2. “Hey guildies, I really want to get trait/skill so-and-so, y’all wanna come help me kill xxxxxx?” which actually prompted players to work with others in and their guildmates in running dungeons/big battles. You know, guilds, that word at the front of the game title.

The trait update was one of the most reviled updates in the history of this game, along with the introduction of ascended gear. No other update came close. You may have liked the change, but you were in a very very small minority, at least on forum posts.

It was certainly the worst change in the game for me personally, but the amount of people who were enraged about it is legend.

phys.7689:

Vayne.8563:

I’m not so sure that Anet changed the system to eliminate key farming. I think they did it to eliminate the awkward story pauses that made people wait to have to do important things, as Danikat has already said.

Maybe the keyfarming thing was secondary, but I don’t believe it was the main reason. The entire story is set up in ten level intervals, and this way you play through the entire arc at one time.

if it wasnt to lower key farming, the system would have worked better starting at level 1 (or maybe 5) rather than level 10.

also what you call awkward story pauses, was completely optional. the old system adapted more to the player.

I used to wait until I was high enough level to do them all. The problem I had was, the rewards absolutely sucked doing it that way. In a sense, you used to be punished for waiting.

At any rate, it’s what Anet banked on and some people like it more than others.

I’m not so sure that Anet changed the system to eliminate key farming. I think they did it to eliminate the awkward story pauses that made people wait to have to do important things, as Danikat has already said.

Maybe the keyfarming thing was secondary, but I don’t believe it was the main reason. The entire story is set up in ten level intervals, and this way you play through the entire arc at one time.

phys.7689:

Vayne.8563:

You talk about the game at lauch. At launch we didn’t get our first trait point till level 11. We couldn’t buy our first minor trait till level 15. The hearts and events really weren’t that much different back then, but it took you a hell of a lot longer to reach 15th level.

It’s just a matter of opinion to what’s good or not good. I can’t stand leveling in FF XIV. It really didn’t enjoy it. But it’s still just an opinion.

you can level in ffxiv the same way you level in guild wars 2, by doing their version of dynamic events, or exploring. you can mix in personal story as much as you want just like gw2, or you can pick up random quests if thats your thing.

what exactly didnt you like about the leveling? im curious. It has flaws, but im curious what your thoughts were.

I could go into detail but I don’t feel this is the place for it. I found that there weren’t that many dynamic events, just a handful, and they weren’t around when I needed them to be. Most of the early leveling I did was through traditional quests and to be honest, that’s the real magic that Guild Wars 2 brought to the table. Not having dynamic events, but by eliminating traditional events.

Without doing those standard quests, leveling was glacial.

Brandu.8150:

Vayne.8563:

1. Most people don’t give a fig about or notice builds till they’re 80. They just don’t care that much. In fact, many people don’t even pay attention to builds after they’re 80.

Really? And you’re basing this broad assumption on what evidence? I’m actually curious how/where you believe this. In the guild I’m in, everyone pays attention to and covets the skills as we unlock them. We pay attention to how they affect and help our character and (until now) definitely played around with what would help us best vs how we want to arm and play the character..

Vayne.8563:

2. Most people aren’t going to be affected by this problem. It doesn’t affect new characters. It doesn’t affect low level characters below say level 15. And if you’re up around level 60 or more, you already have most of the traits unlocked by then anyway.

So a few people WILL BE inconvenienced by this, and it’s sad that that’s the case. But it’s not going to change, nor should it.

That is certainly your opinion and you’re entitled to it, but it doesn’t match mine. You are correct that the 15’s and below really aren’t affected too much, but I do contend that even the 60’s + are affected when the systems arbitrary assignment of what skills you have doesn’t match what you had before and now you have to build up hero points just to get back to where you were. By the way, they screwed over about kitten levels worth of characters (more than half).

Maybe someone can find the dev quote about it, but a good portion of players had never even been to the trait screen at all, never mind caring about it. Maybe someone can dig the quote up, I have no idea where it was.

You talk about the game at lauch. At launch we didn’t get our first trait point till level 11. We couldn’t buy our first minor trait till level 15. The hearts and events really weren’t that much different back then, but it took you a hell of a lot longer to reach 15th level.

It’s just a matter of opinion to what’s good or not good. I can’t stand leveling in FF XIV. It really didn’t enjoy it. But it’s still just an opinion.

KcS.3826:

Vayne.8563:

KcS.3826:

Vayne.8563:

KcS.3826:

To: Vayne.8563
Yes, I know that it doesn’t take much time to lvl up.
Please watch the first film though. It shows that first levels aren’t always so easy for newbies

Look, if people don’t have the patience to get to level 10 right now, I’m not sure they’ll stay with the game anyway. I’m not only intimately familiar with the leveling process, but I’ve brought numerous friends into the game recently, and they all found it pretty easy to level.

I’m not sure what else to tell you.

If you would watch the film before replying to my post you would understand that for a person who walks to the shop and buys Guild Wars 2 to test it, then installs it and plays solo because he/she hasn’t any friends who play Guild Wars – leveling can take way more time than to me or you. Most of those people are lost in this game, and the lack of things that you have at low level make it even worse. They run around for 1h killing mobs with same 3 attacks, trying to do boring quests becouse they are so unlucky that no event spawns, and then they resign.

If they would have something to go for – like personal story or even unlocking new skills, they would stay in the game for longer.

I brought six of my real life friends to Guild Wars 2… and only one of them still plays with me.
The rest resigned because they didn’t know what to do between Personal Story 10 level break.
Some of quests made them angry and they didn’t want to explore the map. To get next PS they would have to lvl up 10 times – because of that they went to pvp to get some tomes of knowledge. And there they got rekt by players who knew the game. So they’ve just resigned and went back to other mmos.

If they would have a little thing – like PS evry 2-4 lvls to motivate them to do quests and events, maybe they would stay and enjoy new content with me.

Please watch the films before replying again.

I’m not going to watch the film before replying again. You can’t tell me what to do.
Just sounds like your friends aren’t the target market for this game and there’s nothing wrong with that. Not everyone is going to like every game.

I’ve probably had more friends try this game than most, and about half of them don’t like it. It happens.

And thats the problem – people don’t like it :/. I don’t know anybody who didn’t like GW after it’s release. They played for at least couple months and then they were resigning from playing it because they didn’t know what to do – we didn’t have much endgame content backthen.
And now when we do have pretty good endgame content people resign from playing GW couple hours after buying it.
I hope you get my point now

Most of my friends that didn’t like the game, tried it at launch. Only a few of my friends came on recently. Of the friends that came on recently all four of them are still playing it. I underestand what you’re saying. I disagree with it.

ZaZap.8357:

Vayne.8563:

ZaZap.8357:

I was thinking of pre-ordering HoT… now I probably won’t order it at all. I’d rather put the money into a game that I have fun playing.

I believe your decison is unreasonable, but if that’s your choice, that’s your choice. I think you’ll be in a very very small percentage of people who don’t buy HoT because of this. But if you’re that sensitive to temporary change, I doubt you’ll stay with any MMO anyway.

If you want to believe I’m being un reasonable that’s fine.

I have spent a bit of money already on this game. I did it because I had fun playing the game, wanted what was offered, and wanted to support it. Right now i have 36 characters (yeah I’m an Alt-oholic), 9 of them are level 80. So I have 27 low level characters whose specs I did not get to choose. 27 Characters that (so far) I really am not having fun with anymore. 27 times where a choice was not given to me.

Do I think HoT will be a “bad” expansion? Nope. I am very interested in playing it. But now a significant number of my toons, I really don’t like playing. I wish I had the money to just throw at any game that caught my eye, but I don’t. So I can choose to put money into a game where I am not having as much fun as I used to, or I can put it in another game where I do (or could) have more fun. More than likely I will wait until HoT goes on sale at some point to purchase it.

Let’s face it, in any game where you take a choice away from the players, it’s a bad idea.

If you’re that familiar with the game, it seems to me that it’ll take very little time before you can start switching those stats around. I’m an altoholic too. To me, the last trait change was the worst thing ever done to this game, and that this fixed those problems means that I can deal with some inconvenience…and that’s all it is, inconvenience.

KcS.3826:

Vayne.8563:

KcS.3826:

To: Vayne.8563
Yes, I know that it doesn’t take much time to lvl up.
Please watch the first film though. It shows that first levels aren’t always so easy for newbies

Look, if people don’t have the patience to get to level 10 right now, I’m not sure they’ll stay with the game anyway. I’m not only intimately familiar with the leveling process, but I’ve brought numerous friends into the game recently, and they all found it pretty easy to level.

I’m not sure what else to tell you.

If you would watch the film before replying to my post you would understand that for a person who walks to the shop and buys Guild Wars 2 to test it, then installs it and plays solo because he/she hasn’t any friends who play Guild Wars – leveling can take way more time than to me or you. Most of those people are lost in this game, and the lack of things that you have at low level make it even worse. They run around for 1h killing mobs with same 3 attacks, trying to do boring quests becouse they are so unlucky that no event spawns, and then they resign.

If they would have something to go for – like personal story or even unlocking new skills, they would stay in the game for longer.

I brought six of my real life friends to Guild Wars 2… and only one of them still plays with me.
The rest resigned because they didn’t know what to do between Personal Story 10 level break.
Some of quests made them angry and they didn’t want to explore the map. To get next PS they would have to lvl up 10 times – because of that they went to pvp to get some tomes of knowledge. And there they got rekt by players who knew the game. So they’ve just resigned and went back to other mmos.

If they would have a little thing – like PS evry 2-4 lvls to motivate them to do quests and events, maybe they would stay and enjoy new content with me.

Please watch the films before replying again.

I’m not going to watch the film before replying again. You can’t tell me what to do.
Just sounds like your friends aren’t the target market for this game and there’s nothing wrong with that. Not everyone is going to like every game.

I’ve probably had more friends try this game than most, and about half of them don’t like it. It happens.

KcS.3826:

To: Vayne.8563
Yes, I know that it doesn’t take much time to lvl up.
Please watch the first film though. It shows that first levels aren’t always so easy for newbies

Look, if people don’t have the patience to get to level 10 right now, I’m not sure they’ll stay with the game anyway. I’m not only intimately familiar with the leveling process, but I’ve brought numerous friends into the game recently, and they all found it pretty easy to level.

I’m not sure what else to tell you.

The first ten levels literally take about an hour now. Maybe 2 if you really take your time. It’s only a big deal if you make it a big deal. For new players, they’re just learning the game, its’ not that bad. At least, the ones who get the idea that it’s more than just doing hearts.

A couple of hearts and an event generally gets you a level now, all the way up to level 15.

ZaZap.8357:

Well checked on my low level alts and they are screwed up as well. From seeing my Ele and with what others have posted, it sounds like all low level Ele’s got specced into earth no matter where you had points spent prior to the change.

It feels like I’m being told how to play my characters, that I have no choice in the matter. That’s about as much fun as scratching your sensative areas with a running chainsaw.

Now I have no desire to play any of my under 80 toons, since the only way to play like I want is to delete them and re-make them. Which will be the complete opposite of fun.

I was thinking of pre-ordering HoT… now I probably won’t order it at all. I’d rather put the money into a game that I have fun playing.

I believe your decison is unreasonable, but if that’s your choice, that’s your choice. I think you’ll be in a very very small percentage of people who don’t buy HoT because of this. But if you’re that sensitive to temporary change, I doubt you’ll stay with any MMO anyway.

skowcia.8257:

Why i think its press event is in op post. “Lolwut i dont even know what im doing” over dedicated wvw players. And thats olny bc hes a streamer.

Still doesn’t make it a press event. If they only needed a small number of people, why not kill two birds with one stone. They’re only testing capacity. That’s it.

Test.8734:

Kitsune.1902:

In this case releasing HoT ‘incomplete’ is a good thing, because it just means you get access to part of the content sooner – rather than getting it all at once, but at later time.

Yeah…No.

When the core GW2 was released, did ArenaNet said there were more things they had intended to add at release that they would add to the game soon after? Yep.

Did they actually add those things? Nope. See the firing range minigame at Divinity’s Reach.

Let’s look back at what ArenaNet had said they would add to the game in 2013? You can see they said,

• “On top of this, you’ll also see new legendary weapons and new types of legendary gear in 2013”

• “we’re building a new comprehensive “level zero” optional tutorial that teaches the core basics of the game. We’re also adding new story steps at levels 5 and 10 to help better teach core mechanics as players grow”

• That they would increase ALL crafting professions to 500, including jewelry and cooking.

• And so on, and so on.

Did ArenaNet add those things? Nope.

What we get when HoT is released is everything we know we will get for sure. Everything else ArenaNet claims they will eventually add one day to the game… Is just a promise. And it wouldn’t be the first or the last time ArenaNet makes a promise they are not going to keep.

The less content we get with the HoT release, the more incomplete it is, the less we will have in the long run.

For me, some of the best stuff Anet released post patch was stuff we didn’t even have a clue they were working on. So many we didn’t get every single thing they said that was on offer at launch. Maybe we didn’t get the bar room brawl. But we did get fractals and that wasn’t on anyone’s radar.

skowcia.8257:

Vayne.8563:

skowcia.8257:

Kurogami.9210:

skowcia.8257:

If they really wanted to test it they would replace eotm with new map for 24h.

And how many players would actually report bugs and glitches instead of just having fun on the new map?
How many players would be honest enough not to use possible exploits that haven’t been detected yet?

Giving all p(l)ayers access to the map might actually do more harm than good.

And how many players reporter bugs during a “closed beta”? How many off selected players will actually report bugs when they are picked off from a guy that streams for profits?

What exploits, what harm? Eotm doesnt count to wvw score, how it can harm anything? I see youre 100% pve guy if you dont even know basic informations about wvw.. and more people means higher chances to identify such exploits you talking about so that we wont see them on release.

Logic is stronk on these forums.

I agree. Logic is stronk on these forums. People make something out of nothing or almost nothing on a pretty regular basis. Let’s say 500,000 people prepurchased and there’s from for 2000 people in a stress test. That means 498,000 people are going to get screwed no matter what you do. This isn’t about veteran or not veteran.

I’m really getting tired of every single decision that Anet makes being equated to a veteran/non-veteran argument, because that’s absolute kitten. Anet needs to do a stress test, they chose some people to do it, and that’s the end of the story. It’s not a free sneak peak. It’s a stress test that needs to be done.

People who prepurchased were guaranteed access to beta weekends, not stress tests held in the middle of the week.

People want Anet to test their game and when Anet does, people complain that they weren’t invited to the test. The logic on these forums is indeed shot to hell.

That also, we knew about wvw “beta” 2 months ago so i dont really understand why they complain about it. Howered calling something stress test which is nothing else but a press event to promote the game inst really a stress test either.

After all they opened stronghold for 24hours and they got a lot of feedback, people found exploits and reported them. Im not sure why they cant do the same with this wvw map in future. Or actually i know..wvw community will complain about eotm v2

Cant win at all

I’m not sure why you think this isn’t a stress test. But the stress test is different from a beta test. They’re interested in seeing how the servers react when full, not necessarily a bug test. I’m sure they’ll be beta tests too.

This isn’t even a beta day. It’s 4 hour test. Not really a big promotional event, no matter how you slice it.

Baldrick.8967:

CureForLiving.5360:

choovanski.5462:

who cares. all my 80s have enough points unlock everything. you get full specialisations while leveling, not just a few traits that you have to hunt for. ots much better imo.

My thinking exactly.

Yes, showing you don’t understand the problem and don’t care really helped the discussion.

The point is, for the players who have low and mid level characters (and are keeping them at that level for whatever reason, or are slow levellers) the seemingly random way the points were put has made some characters pretty awful, with no way of changing it.

Maybe if they reset all your level 80’s, gave them three random trait lines and locked the available traits you’d get an appreciation of what the OP’s concerns are.

Sadly, doesn’t look likely that anything will be done about it so in a lot of cases new players just quietly quit, older players end up soured and decide to reroll, and others carry on in blissful ignorance.

Some new guys will quit, but frankly, if those people quit, they quit. People quit MMOs all the time for all sorts of reasons. You really are talking about a very very small percentage of the playerbase being affected, and if a handful of that percentage quit, let them quit.

But they’re going to quit any MMO they start, because all MMOs have these types of grown pains, one way or another. It’s part of life in MMOs. This really is just a growing pain.

skowcia.8257:

Kurogami.9210:

skowcia.8257:

If they really wanted to test it they would replace eotm with new map for 24h.

And how many players would actually report bugs and glitches instead of just having fun on the new map?
How many players would be honest enough not to use possible exploits that haven’t been detected yet?

Giving all p(l)ayers access to the map might actually do more harm than good.

And how many players reporter bugs during a “closed beta”? How many off selected players will actually report bugs when they are picked off from a guy that streams for profits?

What exploits, what harm? Eotm doesnt count to wvw score, how it can harm anything? I see youre 100% pve guy if you dont even know basic informations about wvw.. and more people means higher chances to identify such exploits you talking about so that we wont see them on release.

Logic is stronk on these forums.

I agree. Logic is stronk on these forums. People make something out of nothing or almost nothing on a pretty regular basis. Let’s say 500,000 people prepurchased and there’s from for 2000 people in a stress test. That means 498,000 people are going to get screwed no matter what you do. This isn’t about veteran or not veteran.

I’m really getting tired of every single decision that Anet makes being equated to a veteran/non-veteran argument, because that’s absolute kitten. Anet needs to do a stress test, they chose some people to do it, and that’s the end of the story. It’s not a free sneak peak. It’s a stress test that needs to be done.

People who prepurchased were guaranteed access to beta weekends, not stress tests held in the middle of the week.

People want Anet to test their game and when Anet does, people complain that they weren’t invited to the test. The logic on these forums is indeed shot to hell.

It was a decision based on practicality, even though, yes, it conveniences a portion of the player base.

But the amount of time and energy it would have cost in programming time to create something that would fix the problem is actually greater than it’s worth to the game over all. There are several reasons for this.

1. Most people don’t give a fig about or notice builds till they’re 80. They just don’t care that much. In fact, many people don’t even pay attention to builds after they’re 80.

2. Most people aren’t going to be affected by this problem. It doesn’t affect new characters. It doesn’t affect low level characters below say level 15. And if you’re up around level 60 or more, you already have most of the traits unlocked by then anyway.

So a few people WILL BE inconvenienced by this, and it’s sad that that’s the case. But it’s not going to change, nor should it.

Ricky.4706:

ok, lol….. it just looks like a marketing attempt to get more people to prepurchase. but we all have feelings…and that’s ok!!

Now you’re not making sense. Let’s say it’s 80 people per side in a WvW map. Remember those maps have NO overflows.

That means 240 people will get to stress test. That’s it. 240 people.

Now think about it. How would you choose 240 people from all the veteran players. Are you suggesting they sold only 240 prepurchases?

This was never about the community and anyone in the community making it so is being completely unreasonable.

This is about stress testing the server. It’s not a free preview. It’s not a trial. It’s a stress test, which has to be done. That’s all it is.

Casmurro.9046:

The difficulties that youtuber was facing shows how the npe failed to adress the trouble gw2 has to hold new players to the game. He gave up to the game at lvl 10 and he didn’t even got to see the personal story.

The NPE should have focused in creating more dynamic events around the heart quests, making then less boring to complete, another problem i saw on the video was that he didnt know how to queue for pvp matches, he was just joining those arenas where people were farming for dailies, that may have caused him a bad impression about the pvp in gw2.

Actually, this is really bad logic.

One you tuber, even ten, doesn’t necessarily mean anything. The only actual proof would be the number of people by percentage who go from starting the game to staying with the game.

Arguably, no game is going to have 100% uptake. It makes no sense. In fact, most games won’t have 50% uptake. That means that if 1 person makes a you tube video, if they happen to be one of the people who wouldn’t buy it, what does that prove.

When devs talk about updake from trails, they’re usually talking about 20% being a good retain rate. That means even with a good rate, 80% of the people won’t be retained and might agree with this video.

It’s the 20% number that Anet is going to be interested in.

Xenon.4537:

I don’t understand Anet’s logic behind the NPE. They say it’s because the game was leaking players, but based on this guy’s reaction it seems like they are going to leak even worse than before. If people are getting bored and quitting before they even discover the personal story, pvp, or wvw, then something needs to change.

What’s even more troubling is once they reach level 10 and start the personal story, they will probably begin to hate the game even more. WP did a video showing just how stupid and pointless these missions can be.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJUMino2KDA

If the game is this sleep-mode easy, why would anyone care to stick around? What reason do we have to care about the story?

Actually Anet never said nor implied that the NPE was for the game leaking players. Specifically Anet spoke of the update of players on free weekends making the purchase. People would go into the free weekends and then stop playing at a very early stage. The NPE was not meant to stop the game from leaking players, it was supposed to get people who started the game in a trial to convert to buying the game. Big difference.

Ricky.4706:

no, i get it. You guys are seriously disconnected from your community.

1 guy gets thousands of views …. 1 other guy posts to several forums that have several hundred thousand gamers you are trying to appeal to, with several let’s play gamers that gets millions of views combined.

So again, are you going to stop posting positive stuff, because you didn’t get into a single stress test. That’s the question. If you’re not going to stop, publicity wise, there’s no reason to invite you. But more to the point…there aren’t enough slots for every veteran anyway. So you have to make what invitations you do send out count.

Logically if almost all vets would get excluded because there aren’t that many spots anyway. And you have no evidence the people being invited aren’t long term vets anyway.

You’re complaining just to complain.

Ricky.4706:

do you really believe their marketing is stronger than our word of mouth ?

You really don’t get it. You are one person. I am one person. This guy reaches thousands of people.

Now, I like the game and whether I get into beta or not, my word of mouth isn’t likely to change. I’m a fan of the game. I’m going to sell the game.

But this guy, he can reach more people. Are you going to stop liking the game because you personally couldn’t get into a stress test. If so, you’re not much of a fan. If you like the game, really like it, you’ll be talking good about it to people. The press needs a reason to publish something.

Ricky.4706:

nice presentation, i truly felt the emotion, just one slight flaw.
We actually are the paying customers they are trying to interest…maybe ?

There’s no flaw in my logic. If Anet is going to promote their product, it makes more sense to promote it to a journalist than it does to a veteran player. They don’t need to promote it to you. The do need to get the word out there.

But, getting the word out there is good for veteran players too. Let’s say there are 1 million veterans, and they only need 20,000 people for a stress test. 90% of the veterans couldn’t get in anyway. So what is the big deal really?

They might as well invite press and have that going since most veterans can’t be accommodated by this.

imsoenthused.1634:

Vayne.8563:

I forgot about Guild Wars 1. Completely different than Guild Wars 2, mind you, but far more fun for me than any of the other MMOs out there.

I suspect OP has a personal problem with the company, reading between the lines of his posts, which would make that not an option.

Well if he’s looking for an MMO with active combat and no gear treadmill, he’s going to be looking a long long time, no matter what he has for or against anyone.

Soleil.1304:

I just simply want new twists and turns just not the same old thing all the time. I just hate it when developers keep bringing back old stuff. If you like to repeat history and keep doing what you’ve been doing, you should go back to WoW. They’ll give you lots of the “same thing.”

Most of the fans of Guild Wars are people who value innovation. I’m just asking you to get back to your original promise of innovation.

As for the popular demand goes, there are two ways to handle it:

1. Repeat history and bring it back.
2. Find innovative ways to add fresh twists to the old history and bring it back with a bit of flare.

1. Is the lazy developer’s choice, 2. is the innovative developer’s choice.
Same reason why music artists perform the same song in different ways at different venues and changes a little year after year.

All I am saying is: If Anet is going to claim innovation, stop repeating old stuff. Or if you are going to keep bringing back old things, stop claiming innovation so we can stop supporting you. Lets be honest.

Yes, Anet is lazily working on an expansion. What’s lazy is people’s throught process when using the word lazy to define something they don’t personally like. You don’t like something so it’s lazy. Wrong.

And innovation has NOTHING TO DO with old stuff. All professional writers who innovate still have old stuff in their books. It doesn’t mean they’re not innovative.

Being original doesn’t mean you don’t use anything anyone else has ever used. That’s just ridiculous.

I forgot about Guild Wars 1. Completely different than Guild Wars 2, mind you, but far more fun for me than any of the other MMOs out there.

Jockum.1385:

They changed borderlands map in WvW and added Wxp giving you new skills/stronger effects.

In PVE they added new fractals and two new maps (drytop and silverwaste).
They added the living story 2 but you have to buy it in the gemstore.
You can explore the new LA, which was added ~ two weeks ago.
And there are two new world bosses: tequatl and triple worm.
I think thats it.

And new mini-games, new dynamic events, new jumping puzzles, also Edge of the Mists map, crafting up to 500 to make ascended armor and weapons, probably the new TA dungeon path as well.

Raven.3957:

Two years? Everyone here and a wiki will tell you everything they’ve added. Ill caution you to the things they’ve removed:

Glory if you had any its just gone~ Poof, wasted.
Monthlys – No more monthlys, only dailys now. And you get rewards just for logging in so you no longer get laurels from completing dailies, just from logging in every so often.
Build Diversity go find yourself a meta build, because with the crazy overpowered damage and conditions they have right now, playing anything that isnt a meta is outright underpowered and worthless.
Hall of Monuments Hope you got your skins if you played gw2, its been broken for months and they keep saying “Soon” but the fix aint gonna come out until they can fix everythign else broken atm im sure :/ (Then if HoT comes out, there gonna have to upkeep all the bugs/breaks in that!)
Skill Points Those are really just turned into two seperate things, Hero Points and Spirit Shards, the shards are basicly currency to buy mystic forge stuff and hero points are just.. you unlock trait trees with them, and unlock your utility skills and such. But you dont get to CHOOSE what you unlock, it unlocks it in a pre-determined order. You know, so you dont have to hurt your head thinking about what you actualy want and all.
Living World Yeah, ever since January when the last bit of season 2 finished, they announced there will be no more living world until HoT comes out. The only real content we’ve had added to the game is the new Lions Arch, but thats more eye candy then it is playable content. They’ve had a few tournements and such, but thats not really new.. They could have done Super Adventure Box, or some little something, but.. really nothing has been happening besides mechanic bre-(Cough).. “changes”.. and the like.
A fun leveling experience Oh yeah, that was removed a while back, you cant do your personal story until your at least level 10, you cant get into wvw until your lv 30 something, and theres a whole buncha things like mining nodes, vistas, and etc that your locked out of until you hit a certian level. Oh, and your weapon skills unlock via level now too. So have fun auto-attacking the tutorial boss for 5 minutes alone, because no one else happens to be there.. and you cant die.. and you can only press 1 (and you only really need to press 1 once.).. oh and if you dont press 1, the npc’s will kill the boss for you, so its all good.

Sorry if that seemed a bit negative. But.. its all pretty much sadly true.

Biased post is biased.

Glory HAS been removed. It’s been replaced however by reward tracks that give you far more than glory ever did. With all the complaints that people have about the game, PvP rewards are not one of them. Even if you can’t use the glory you’d previously stored. Rewards are much much better in PvP now.

They did remove monthlies, but you get more laurels now than you did when they existed, just by logging in.

Build diversity is still an open question. They removed a lot of useless builds, but there seems to be about the same number, or even more, of builds that work.

Hall of Monuments was not removed, it was temporarily closed down due to an exploit and will be reopened when that bug is fixed.

As you already pointed out skill points have not been removed they’ve transformed.

The living world hasn’t been removed, it’s on a hiatus until the expansion comes out. They did take a rather long break from it.

The leveling experience in many ways is better now, not worse. Just because you think it’s worse doesn’t make it so.

Oh my god. Stop the presses. Anet is actually asking the press to play the game, so that they can promote the game. How DARE they do that to us hard-working, long term veteran players, who have sweated and toiled sacrificing everything for this game.

We bought a game. We played the game. We got what we paid for…and least, I got what I paid for. Now Anet is running a stress test, and they’re inviting people who can promote the game most efficiently to it. Oh the horror. How dare they do something to further their business for a stress test.

Honestly, I don’t get people sometimes.

yakuza snowdragon.4639:

Vayne.8563:

Funny in Guild Wars 1, I’d spec my heroes and for most content I wouldn’t even have to be there to win. I could just AFK and my heroes would finish the battle for me. In fact, my build became so efficient I could afk most vanquishes. I mean I’d have to move but I wouldn’t have to fight.

I would like to see you solo 60+ mobs in HM without knowing the gear weapons skills and timing combination and I mean solo not with hunches or heros.

Also you guys all need to go fight Shatterer and tell me you cant just auto attack and hit any attack that isn’t on CD the whole fight. hmmm what a challenge. GW1 and 2 are my number 1 games of all time so I don’t need fanboys telling me its ok or a challenge as it is right now.

Reading is fundamental. I never said that the challenge of Guild Wars 2 is okay the way it is. However, I don’t need people looking at the past through rose colored glasses telling me that Guild Wars 1 was X or Y, because that’s what it is.

I stopped playing Guild Wars 1 because it got too easy…even in hard mode.

Cyninja.2954:

Necroed an unecessary thread to agitate a topic that has been dealt with mostly. Reported.

There’s no rule against necroing threads.

chrtylee.5280:

ill say this now, i game to guild wars 2 after being told that expansions come out free, unlike WoW. at the moment im a bit upset that this is being charged for. i still enjoy the game more than WoW but im not about to spend more money on an expansion than i spent on the core game. that kittened. fair enough it was on sale from gamestop for $30 but even if i paid $50 for it i would have an issue paying another $50 for an EXPANSION! Companies need to stop being greedy and grow some brains. i MIGHT buy the expansion if i see the price drop to about $25 since the preorder for $50 includes the core game WHICH I ALREADY OWN AND SHOULDNT HAVE TO BUY AGAIN!

Yes gamers should get some brains. A year of WOW costs you well over $100 plus the price of the expansion. I’ve played Guild Wars 2 for under a hundred dollars for 3 years.

I’ve gotten free content updates during that time and I’ve seen a lot of QoL updates I didn’t have to pay for at all.

If you left WoW for this, you left a game that charged you every month just to play. Complaining that every couple of years you have to buy the new areas seems really silly to me.

eureeka.5368:

camelot unchained recently came out with a new vid on some content and trait system. omg blows gw2 outa the water in customization. I can’t wait for this game!! gw2 will be a memory https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdLRYy3o-Qw

Because we haven’t heard this before about Archeage, Wildstar, ESO and even Neverwinter. lol

I’ve played most of the MMOs out there, at least for a bit. ESO and TSW are two of my favorites, but each of them have things I dislike enough to make them not an option.

I don’t even understand the question. Was there some surprise in the patch we haven’t been expecting for at least a couple of weeks?

There were bugs, which I expected, because there are always bugs in MMOs. There were a few positive surprises I didn’t expect, like the new Jumping puzzle.

But mostly, I don’t really see what this update has to do with HoT. If you didn’t know the direction before you haven’t been paying attention.

No MMORPG is ever released complete. No expansion is ever released complete. There are always things that come down the pike after the expansion. The same was true with Guild Wars 2.

Rebound.3409:

The more time passes the more outdated it will be on launch…or ppl won’t care about it anymore.

That’s true for some people. Not all people and not even necessarily most people. You know, it’s very easy for Anet to say a few words closer to launch, and the hype train will start up again. Why?

Because a lot of people people want to be hyped. Don’t ask me why.

Sorel.4870:

I find it odd to offer pre-purchases before announcing a release date, that’s why I didn’t pre-purchase. However, if we can assume that Anet doesn’t want its most motivated players (those who already bought HoT) to wait too long for it, it’s safe to say that HoT will come out in 2015.

I still want to believe that it will be in August-September. After all, a guy from their marketing department let slip that the expansion was to be released “this summer”.

But the original game was also offered for prepurchase before the release date was announced. I paid for the original game in full on April 1st and the game didn’t launch until August 25 for head start players. And it was a couple of months after I paid before the release date was announced.

NoTrigger.8396:

Echosys.2406:

i’m just guessing but the majority of people who against challenging content just against instanced, privatized content Content that excludes you is not a way,(see TT) and some sort of way, as i read your comment you exactly ask for this. Elite content, what just 5% can complete, or you or who have a friend amongs them, I don’t want elite stupid WoW raids, and maybe not just me. But i admit i assume, thats exactly the elite, skillful, practice needed challenging content what you need.

that is what most people refuse to understand. first of all, no matter how difficult the content is, it does not exclude you, you exclude yourself by choosing to not play it.
guilds dont exclude you, you exclude yourself by choosing to not play with like minded individuals or make your own guild.

secondly, not every piece of content needs to be made for everyone. 100% of this game is made for players like you. whats so bad about giving above average players a little bit of content specifically made for them?

I actually agree with what you say here. With all of it. I have only one question.

What makes you think the bone Anet throws you is going to be enough to hold your attention for any length of time? How long before you wear out that rug and then start asking for more content again…and again?

I’m not against a bit of harder content for those who like harder content. But if you put in too much harder content at this point, if you change the direction of the game (and you’d be doing just that), you risk alienating existing players.

There’s a rule in writing that basically you have to include the genre, tone and point of view as soon as you can, and that if you later change that you risk alienating your audience. The same holds true here. Many people play this game because they see it as a casual game. And sometimes perception is everything.

If Anet adds enough hard content to satisfy the hard core crowd, they could easily change the perception of this game for other people, who don’t want that content. And if a hard core crowd then becomes attracted to the game, it makes it harder and harder for casuals to stay in the kind of competitive environment that sort of content tends to bring.

You seem to think having that content will have no affect on the rest of the player base. I can assure that, depending on the quantity of that kind of content, that you’d be wrong. If there’s not enough of it, most hard core players won’t stay anyway. If there is you risk alienating other players.

Orochimaru.4730:

The Living Story was bad, face it.

An update every 2 weeks which most did within a couple of hours. Any more time spent on it was to get the APs.

I would not pay for more of that!

I don’t know. Some of the stuff from the Living Story was pretty cool, particularly Season 1, but of course, both Dry Top and the Silverwastes came with season 2 and some people seemed to like them.

Yeah I don’t like most MMO combat. I find it too slow. I hate standing in place and casting which in most MMOs is what you have to do with most of your skills. Not all however.

The thing is, the combination of stuff in Guild Wars 2 isn’t found all together in any other MMO. For example, I really like the story in TSW, but I don’t like the combat. I really like the combat in Tera, but I don’t like the story or the style. I really like the story in ESO, but I don’t like the static quests.

Most MMOs allow you to kill steal or node steal, which I can’t stand. I don’t like the holy trinity. I don’t like games that center on dungeons and raids, where you have to do them to get the best gear. I don’t like games that focus on open world PvP.

This game has most of the stuff I want from an MMO. There are still some omissions, but this game has most of what I’m looking for.

The thing is, journalists publish articles to get exposure. Their job is to get people into their various publications. So even if they were to publish an article on GW 2, who is going to read it? Well, I will. But most people who’ve already made up their minds won’t.

At this point in a product’s life, it’s up to fans of the game to share their enthusiasm to keep the game growing. The expansion will bring some people onboard, but for a lot of people, since they don’t have an interest in this game for whatever reason, they’re not going to stop and read articles about it.

NoTrigger.8396:

Vayne.8563:

NoTrigger.8396:

den aelling.7681:

For all those who want higher difficulty and more challenge why don’t you just equip white armor and weapons, leave off trinkets….you’re happy to be challenged, others are happy the way it is…….win win.

YOU HAVE THE OPTION to make the content more challenging………….is it really that you want other people to be challenged more than they are….. or do you want yourself to be challenged?

You can transmute your stuff for the same looks as spendy gear!

do you think people havent done this before? the PvE content in gw2 is a joke and everyone smart enough to google a guide for their class and understand simple logic will be able to breeze through the content or even solo it.

Everyone is “smart enough” to google a guide for their class. Really?

So those who don’t do it aren’t smart enough? Because plenty of people don’t do it. I don’t do it. I prefer to make my own build, thanks very much. And there are plenty of players who don’t even realize going online and getting builds is a thing. Nothing to do with “smart enough”. Has to do with exposure to the genre. Has to do with commitment to the game.

Plenty of people log in and kill stuff and never ever look up a build. Not because they’re not smart enough. Because it’s either not on their radar or they want to do it themselves.

i like how you think everything is an insult. i was just stating the fact that everyone who is smart enough to google a guide and understand simple logic will be able to breeze through the content and even solo it.

that has absolutely nothing to do with “on my radar”. its just a fact.

I disagree with the statement for a lot of reasons. Aside from the fact that many people people who are smart enough to look up a guide and a build don’t all have the same hand-eye coordination, or the same experience…you just make everything sound so cut and dried, when that’s not the case.

People have all different levels of experience, all different types of computers, all different internet connections, not to mention just levels of comfort with different types of content.

You can do it. Maybe most people of your generation can even do it. But not everyone can. At least, I don’t think that’s the case.

NoTrigger.8396:

den aelling.7681:

For all those who want higher difficulty and more challenge why don’t you just equip white armor and weapons, leave off trinkets….you’re happy to be challenged, others are happy the way it is…….win win.

YOU HAVE THE OPTION to make the content more challenging………….is it really that you want other people to be challenged more than they are….. or do you want yourself to be challenged?

You can transmute your stuff for the same looks as spendy gear!

do you think people havent done this before? the PvE content in gw2 is a joke and everyone smart enough to google a guide for their class and understand simple logic will be able to breeze through the content or even solo it.

Everyone is “smart enough” to google a guide for their class. Really?

So those who don’t do it aren’t smart enough? Because plenty of people don’t do it. I don’t do it. I prefer to make my own build, thanks very much. And there are plenty of players who don’t even realize going online and getting builds is a thing. Nothing to do with “smart enough”. Has to do with exposure to the genre. Has to do with commitment to the game.

Plenty of people log in and kill stuff and never ever look up a build. Not because they’re not smart enough. Because it’s either not on their radar or they want to do it themselves.

This is true of almost every MMO. though. Most MMOs improve as time goes on. And most people don’t give MMOs a second chance, once they’ve written it off. There are exceptions though.

Games like Warhammer became much better, but never caught back up after an abyssmal launch. Same with AoC. Wildstar is probably much better today than it was at launch but who would know that?

This is pretty much normal for a 3 year old MMO. So if the word is going to get out, we’re the ones that will have to get it out.

Price is always decided on multiple factors, from cost of production to expected sell through, to market positioning. There are probably people in the company who specialize, they won’t have to go outside to a consultant most likely. Of course, people can make mistakes too.

There’s a lot that goes into make a decision like the price of an expansion. It’s a pretty complex calculation.

Funny in Guild Wars 1, I’d spec my heroes and for most content I wouldn’t even have to be there to win. I could just AFK and my heroes would finish the battle for me. In fact, my build became so efficient I could afk most vanquishes. I mean I’d have to move but I wouldn’t have to fight.

nexxe.7081:

Well, it seems like we’re not the only ones comparing an expansion’s worth. It happens in other mmos too. Comparisons to previous expansions and content is valid, no matter how many people deny it.

Comparing MMO expansions to single player games is acceptable, because someone on the WoW forum did it? lol

You know I think HoT isn’t worth it because it costs more than my dinner last night. I mean I got Steak and potatos and vegetables and a drink AND dessert.

Funny, some churches are allowing gay marriage now. Pretty sure they’re Christian too. There are even gay people who self-identify as Christian.

In a word, OP, if that’s your attitude, there’s nothing anyone can do about it. But it’s not our problem either.

I’m not even sure I understand this need for hype. I’m not hyped. I haven’t been hyped yet. Maybe because I’m old, I don’t know, but it seems some people want to be hyped and can’t enjoy things because they’re not. This is like an alien concept to me.

Being excited doesn’t really do anything, except raise your expectations, which no company can probably live up to. Hype is not your friend, or at least it’s not my friend. To me, hype is the enemy. It clouds judgement.