Guild Wars 2

Blink isn’t bad for getting out of Lupi’s green dome if you get caught in it either.

Hamfast.8719:

DreamyAbaddon.3265:

Honestly they are useful for anything including PvE if you know how to use it.

Yeah, that’s what I’m asking. How can I use teleportation to good effect as either a combat or utility skill? Got a more concrete example than “anything”?

What my post doesn’t count? lol

Scroll up.

I’ve had some lag after the patch too, but nothing that’s much worse than before the patch. I get a few spikes and then it goes away.

There’s a corridor in CM. At the end of the corridor, there are three bandits. One of them is a saboteur. Two of them are snipers that do more damage to moving characters. On the side are open doors that have flame turrets. A lot of new groups wipe in that corridor.

I used a combination of feedback, blink and portal to get less experienced guildies past that corridor without fighting at all.

In the boulder section of CoF path 1, there are rolling rocks you have to time. Mesmers often use blink to get past them and then use portal to get the rest of the party past.

It’s a situational skill that’s not good in every situation. But there are places in the game where it is useful.

RoyHarmon.5398:

Is this working properly?

As you can see in the attached screenshot, I have it set to “Disable Personal Story” but the Personal Story is still showing up on my screen.

The content guide only refers to the arrow that shows you where to go, not the text in your event tracker.

nethykins.7986:

Vayne.8563:

nethykins.7986:

@chemiclord:

No discussion points on the loot drop changes?

I’ve started up an engi and at lvl 16 i’ve picked up only 4 bits of gear relevant to my class. The rest came through the parts of the leveling process (like underwater breathing gear and a harpoon) and one or two personal story missions, but drops-wise, it feels like nothing has changed on that front.

I even did Maw a few times and still kept getting stuff like swords and even a bow!

Chests aren’t affected I think, only drops from creatures.

Bummer…well then it’s doubly bad…looks like loot isn’t working in my favour at all. Again been playing on my engi and got more swords, and boots I couldn’t use, (these were drops)

Anyone else getting the same thing for Engi’s or for any other classes?

It was supposed to be a small change, not a huge one….but RNG is still RNG. I’ve only leveled a ranger so far, and an ele since the patch and in both cases I got more drops than I used to. but obviously not all drops.

On the other hand, level up rewards, which didn’t use to exist now including gear as well.

tigirius.9014:

I would personally LOVE companions that would eliminate the need for 5 mans, or the ability to do skirmish style dungeons where they scale with the number of players you have or remain soloable like in Rift/LOTRO. I’d love having the ability to kill Champions and actually be rewarded for it without the fear of some draconian system like DR stepping in and taking over.

Some of the issues for me are the lack of combat balance in PVE that’s been allowed to carry on far far too long imo. People on here don’t help either, they either deny these problems exist (like the balance of having a free water zone on the Engineer from Kit Refinement giving the Engi an alternative set of condition removal skills) or they tell you to choose another class. The problem with that is you lose connection with your toon. I made the Engi first because I liked it, I shouldn’t have to change just because they made poor balance choices.

I don’t agree with the reviving thing, I actually miss being able to revive in every other game out there. It actually makes sense to keep it a revive for all right now.

This game just has too many limitations. They keep calling it casual but as a filthy filthy casual there simply aren’t enough casual things to do, and I’m not talking about simply fishing/farming/housing I’m also talking about activities like invasions/actual treasure hunts with meaningful rewards/skirmish style soloable content things I’ve seen and done in every other title I’ve played. When even WoW has soloable content beyond max level and your game doesn’t you’re lagging behind a bit.

Not sure you realize this, but many of the people touting how great Guild Wars 1 was in the day are the same people saying what killed it was the introduction of heroes.

Tachenon.5270:

Everybody keeps saying 1-15 is faster, faster, faster. I played an ele from level 4 to level 11 on the evening NPE was deployed. I posted about my experiences on that evening. It did not feel faster to me. Perhaps because I didn’t jump immediately into the personal story at level 10, or do anything but stuff in Queensdale, sans the skill challenges that were not available at the time. And I still got one of those, due to someone else triggering it.

So you didn’t do hearts? Each heart levels you about 1/3 of a level. 3 hearts levels you a level. Three hearts in queensdale, that’s pretty fast. However, if you do a dynamic event, that’s another 1/3 of a level (roughly) and often gives you the heart, so you’re doing double time.

Do the events and hearts, and you level relatively fast.

DonQuack.9025:

:\ I dunno that 20-30 felt horrible. also before I could keep doing story missions beyond my level.

Now im going back to my tried and true run dungeons till 80 method. should be there in about a few.

Did you play it before or after the patch that fixed the leveling from 20-30?

Dustbite.3670:

Vayne.8563:

Seems to me those who want an end game are unhappy and those who don’t want an end game are happy. It’s really fortunate that other MMOs exist with an end game you guys can play. I’m happy to play an MMO that doesn’t have the typical end game. Is it fashion? Is it exploring? Collecting? Achievements? Legendary?

You don’t need any of it. But you can do it all. That’s the kind of game I want.

Who wouldnt want an endgame? The first year u play this game, u can keep yourself busy, but after that, then what?
For a game based on appearence (skins), there aint alot of “endgame” skins. Every gamer needs a "goal’ in a game, once u reached those goals, u set yourself new goals, but if there aint something to go for, people get demotivated, and quit.

And dont tell me making 8+ chars lv 80, soloing a dungeon, or getting 2-3 legendary’s is endgame, those are only things to keep yourself busy. I really liked gw2, i’ve played 1.5 year, but now i check the forums once in a while, hoping that they add something new. But the only things we got were feature packs (which nerfed the fun side of leveling), and 1 map, which isnt enough to keep me busy

I think more people don’t want an end game than you think. That’s just my opinion.

But seems I’m not the only one who thinks that most people don’t run dungeons and most people don’t PvP. So what are they doing? Pretty much nothing.

Some are playing dress up, some are altoholics, some are achievement collectors. I have 150 people in my guild and maybe 20 of us run dungeons, and only ten of us run them frequently. Only about five of us SPvP and another 10 do some WvW.

Over a hundred people in my guild do very little as far as content. You know, some have jobs and don’t play as often. Or school. Or lives outside of game.

And a whole bunch of people just solo the open world and kill stuff and get what they get. Most people don’t follow the meta. I believe most people find dungeons challenging when they do them. It’s a whole different thought process.

Every time games are made for more hard core players, they end up being far more niche. Eve has half a million subs. That’s the most it’s ever had. But it’s hard core.

The more casual the game, the more players it seems to have.

Stars.2179:

And now with no more low level champ farm, and the key farm nerf, the starter zones are basically abandoned except during the time of the world bosses (SB, Maw, Jungle).

Sure the NPE is attractive to new players at first, but when the new players hear about what happened and all the things that the veterans have unlocked effortlessly, they will get bored or jealous and quit.

Even for the veteran like me it’s pretty bad. Today I decided to give the NPE another chance and took out my level 35 charr engineer. It took me over an hour to get to lv 36 and I was doing thing pretty efficiently, hitting events as fast as I could. Sure an hour isn’t that bad yes? But it’s pretty bad if you are playing alone in empty zones. Why bother? I could just take out my 80s and play or if I want to play alone I could just fire up Skyrim.

It will be evident that the NPE is failing soon.

I’m betting that most new players will never hear about it. Most people don’t “follow” games on forums, or many don’t even read map chat.

And people won’t be talking about this for years. They’re be talking about it for weeks, maybe. Already most of the map chatter about it has died down.

Galen Grey.4709:

Vayne.8563:

Galen Grey.4709:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Galen Grey.4709:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Galen Grey.4709:

good post and not much I feel I need to comment on. There is just 1 part which I think needs a bit of clarification. You said “to be Fair LS2 is an improvement but it’s still so apparent to me that it destroys the ability of the dev team to work on the rest of the game.” Thats not the case at all. The living story team consists of about 20 people out of 350
source: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/lwd/Enough-of-your-GMPC-please/page/3#post4193277

quote “Our team changes in size, but there are just a little over twenty people on it at any given time.”

There are still a lot of devs left to tackle other areas of the game.

Thats why some of us think there probably is an expansion in the works or if not an expansion other big content thats still being developed.

If 20 people can create all that living story content, how much more stuff should 320ish people create (well not exactly 320ish cause of course some of them are QA, Customer support etc.. that dont create content but still there is a sizeable number working on things in the background we have yet to see)

Apparently the other 300 struggle to do much of anything at all. There have been no new major features or content for almost a year. I suppose maybe dry top was assigned to those devs and not the LS team, but it seems pretty much exclusively for the LS so that seems unlikely.

I would love to know what all those devs are working on. I suspect they included NCSoft admin, janitors, coffee people, customer service reps and 100+ other people who don’t have anything at all to do with game development in that number. There is just no way a team that large could put out such little content.

Or they’re working on a project(s) they’re not ready to announce yet cause its not going to be finished this week

Lets say for the sake of argument they’re working on an expansion (not saying this is the case just an example) plenty of MMOs take 2 years to finish an expansion… rift, wow, Tera etc.. and thats without them releasing tons of content every single month. Because Anet dont announce stuff before they’re essentially ready to release it it would seem like most devs arent doing anything when in fact they were busy building an expansion. (or whatever they’re working on)

now even if most of the team is not a dev, with a 15% smaller team Anet built all of Gw2 in less then 5 years (some of those 5 years were used to design, build the engine and build the tools during which time not content could be developed for the game) and we still didnt see as much content so far. there has to be something going on in the background.

If they are working on an expansion then the game is in much better shape than everyone thinks. The problem is their no telling the community anything policy. If the LS ties into an expansion then I think many people will come back and give the game another try. I just hope they announce that before people uninstall and get dedicated to another MMO.

I would be really really surprised if the LS ever went anywhere close to any expansion.

If they release an expansion they have a big problem on their hands. not everyone is going to buy it. So what do they do, do they lock people out of their living story updates (those who have not bought the expansion)?

I bet if they do an expansion it will be something like Cantha or Elona or some far away land while the living story will continue on Tyria. That way everyone can continue getting updates.

One thing is certain. If Anet does come out with a paid expansion, no one who doesn’t like it can say the fans didn’t pressure them into making it. lol

are you sure about that?

No.

15 characters

ozmaniandevil.6805:

I detest the crafting system in this game.

One example: I want to craft bolts of damask. I need a freaking SPREADSHEET to determine all the materials I need to create to create the thing I want to create. This is the most kitteny kitten kitten crafting system. EVER.

Hate it. Thank you for listening to my rant.

It’s a bit better since the last patch, since you can open the sub items you need to make the item you’re working on.

Yep. The first 15 levels are way faster. Even says so in the patch notes. If you’re not leveling faster for the first 15 levels, you’re not trying.

Galen Grey.4709:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Galen Grey.4709:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Galen Grey.4709:

good post and not much I feel I need to comment on. There is just 1 part which I think needs a bit of clarification. You said “to be Fair LS2 is an improvement but it’s still so apparent to me that it destroys the ability of the dev team to work on the rest of the game.” Thats not the case at all. The living story team consists of about 20 people out of 350
source: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/lwd/Enough-of-your-GMPC-please/page/3#post4193277

quote “Our team changes in size, but there are just a little over twenty people on it at any given time.”

There are still a lot of devs left to tackle other areas of the game.

Thats why some of us think there probably is an expansion in the works or if not an expansion other big content thats still being developed.

If 20 people can create all that living story content, how much more stuff should 320ish people create (well not exactly 320ish cause of course some of them are QA, Customer support etc.. that dont create content but still there is a sizeable number working on things in the background we have yet to see)

Apparently the other 300 struggle to do much of anything at all. There have been no new major features or content for almost a year. I suppose maybe dry top was assigned to those devs and not the LS team, but it seems pretty much exclusively for the LS so that seems unlikely.

I would love to know what all those devs are working on. I suspect they included NCSoft admin, janitors, coffee people, customer service reps and 100+ other people who don’t have anything at all to do with game development in that number. There is just no way a team that large could put out such little content.

Or they’re working on a project(s) they’re not ready to announce yet cause its not going to be finished this week

Lets say for the sake of argument they’re working on an expansion (not saying this is the case just an example) plenty of MMOs take 2 years to finish an expansion… rift, wow, Tera etc.. and thats without them releasing tons of content every single month. Because Anet dont announce stuff before they’re essentially ready to release it it would seem like most devs arent doing anything when in fact they were busy building an expansion. (or whatever they’re working on)

now even if most of the team is not a dev, with a 15% smaller team Anet built all of Gw2 in less then 5 years (some of those 5 years were used to design, build the engine and build the tools during which time not content could be developed for the game) and we still didnt see as much content so far. there has to be something going on in the background.

If they are working on an expansion then the game is in much better shape than everyone thinks. The problem is their no telling the community anything policy. If the LS ties into an expansion then I think many people will come back and give the game another try. I just hope they announce that before people uninstall and get dedicated to another MMO.

I would be really really surprised if the LS ever went anywhere close to any expansion.

If they release an expansion they have a big problem on their hands. not everyone is going to buy it. So what do they do, do they lock people out of their living story updates (those who have not bought the expansion)?

I bet if they do an expansion it will be something like Cantha or Elona or some far away land while the living story will continue on Tyria. That way everyone can continue getting updates.

One thing is certain. If Anet does come out with a paid expansion, no one who doesn’t like it can say the fans didn’t pressure them into making it. lol

What I’ve been saying all along. It’s a much better system, over all. Some inconveniences early on but much better for me over all.

nethykins.7986:

@chemiclord:

No discussion points on the loot drop changes?

I’ve started up an engi and at lvl 16 i’ve picked up only 4 bits of gear relevant to my class. The rest came through the parts of the leveling process (like underwater breathing gear and a harpoon) and one or two personal story missions, but drops-wise, it feels like nothing has changed on that front.

I even did Maw a few times and still kept getting stuff like swords and even a bow!

Chests aren’t affected I think, only drops from creatures.

Mosharn.8357:

Rohiro.4160:

Hey forumers and developers I have created this topic to do some positive feedback for the patches and to inspire the developers, because after a lot of complaining and whining topics this should be a relief where we thank the patches and updates.

So I wanna start with the leveling. I think you did a great job with giving players some new presents for the levelups (for example a dye) it makes the starters a good feeling that they have received a gift because of a simple level up and now it’s not that monotone. And of course you put in the teaching of the dodge. Most of the people should said it is unnecessary, but I have a bit of a dumb friend who didn’t know how to dodge on lvl 16!

Now to the people with higher level. the new options in the character menu is great (for example now we can summon a pet without inventory space and it says with us).

Ok so I left a lot more options from the patch to you guys and girls and I would like to ask you all to write down the good sides of the patches to inspire the developers. And after the new patches we could discuss here what you really like in it. Heads up and be positive guys.

Sorry to burst your bubble but none of the ’’feature’’ pack changes were positive. They screwd it up for new players and there is NOTHING and i mean NOTHING of use to veterans.

The very minor changes this thing brought were very subpar and it shouldn’t have taken them 6 months to do all of these things.

People have tried being positive but you can only take so much lazyness from someone.

Trading post changes – positive
Collecting changes – positive for a lot of people
Crafting UI changes – positive
New crafting items – positive
Back end upgrades for big fights – positive
Better rewards for leveling up – positive
Personal story rewards revamp – positive
Commander tag account binding – positive
Commander tag colors – positive

You may think that the small percentage of changes that represent the NPE are the entire update, but really you’re just focused on what you want to focus on.

And not everyone agrees those changed to the early game are negative.

Seems to me those who want an end game are unhappy and those who don’t want an end game are happy. It’s really fortunate that other MMOs exist with an end game you guys can play. I’m happy to play an MMO that doesn’t have the typical end game. Is it fashion? Is it exploring? Collecting? Achievements? Legendary?

You don’t need any of it. But you can do it all. That’s the kind of game I want.

Ascended gear was implemented to keep certain people playing the game. People have been saying on the forums for almost as long as I can remember that you can do everything in the game without worrying about a ascended gear.

In many (if not most) MMORPGs, you MUST HAVE the highest gear in order to clear content. That not true in Guild Wars 2 (with the exception of high level fractals). You can play the game quite comfortably in exotics.

Before you buy a car, you do research. You don’t just buy a car. Even the briefest research into ascended gear would have shown it’s not worth it.

But I still make ascended gear for my characters, because it’s something to do.

You’re right, but most of it is not that bad….most of it. lol

I actually agree with this…and I like crafting.

I think too many things force players to craft who don’t like it.

phys.7689:

Vayne.8563:

phys.7689:

Vayne.8563:

phys.7689:

chemiclord.3978:

21-30

Completing this personal story chunk got me to level 21… and also earned me the skin for a T1 chestpiece. I’m sure there are some collectors who won’t like that little development.

Shortly having finished said personal story, the rules changed on me. Now I have all three utility skills. Okay… I guess that’s how it goes when you are doing something in the middle of a revision process.

It is during this period where I really start to see the improvements in the leveling system. With the utility traits unlocking more or less as normal, the tweak to gear dropping (as well as the occasional toy from leveling), has really helped prevent me from being underpowered for level relevant content without having to resort to crafting (which is an element I’ve never particularly liked in any MMO).

These levels also seem to be going by faster than I remember… though granted, I could just be fooling myself.

Really, there’s not much else to say on this particular clump, as by the time I got here, there was nothing particularly new to unlock, and as such there’s not much I can say about how it felt before.

But now I take a deep breath, for I have now unlocked the new trait mechanic. I already know I’m going to hate it. The question is how much? We shall see!

ahh, for me personally 22-30 was super boring and i just had to grind it out. I EOTMed, i did some hearts, hunted down dynamic events.
Its odd because i like personal story, up to this point (tends to go downhill for me when i join an order) but i really hate the no drops in personal story thing now, so i come away feeling like i am wasting my time slightly.

Did you do it after or before teh experience point 20-30 fix?

As for the personal story the rewards you get at the end are better, to me anyway, than the stuff you used to get during.

after.

i think perhaps it has to do with me generally really never liking map completion, and now thats pretty much the focus for 10 levels at a time.

See, I don’t map complete. Sometimes I even turn off all the map markers. I just run around and act as if my character is actually in the zone. See what they see, hear what they hear. I’m always always finding something I either haven’t seen or don’t remember seeing.

i kind of do that, i just dont end up leveling very fast, or I do most of the stuff i actually want to do in the zone before i am high level enough to leave it. Then im usually left with a bunch of stuff im trying to avoid left, or i have to go to a different zone in the same leveling range.

Sometimes i catch a lot of dynamic events and it works out, some times the dynamic events seem rather barren.

If I really think about it, I’m led around by gathering nodes, since I gather absolutely everything. Particularly once you get into the 20-30 area, softwood, iron are required items that I never get enough of.

I just follow my nodes (pun intended).

And you know whatever’s on the way, in the way. I pass through a heart, get a couple of hits on something move on. I’ll be back to finish the heart another time. It’s not that important.

But you’re right, I don’t level fast unless I’m focused on leveling fast. The point is, if you don’t really enjoy leveling, nothing is going to make it a whole lot better. If you enjoy leveling, leveling slower isn’t really that much of an issue.

It’s likely that EotM is always going to be better for you, no matter what you do. Or SPvP for level up tomes.

One thing about the personal story is that you’re almost always better making a new character, not necessarily for the obvious reason.

The end of the personal story is actually a web of interaction. Different bits of it come from different early personal stories, and you’ll never know about it, unless you actually do take another character up through the story.

The easiest example is Professor Gor. If you’re not on a specific personal story quest line, you’ll think he appears out of nowhere, but there’s a whole history with the game. Same with several other characters at the end of the story.

The more races/stories you do, the more the end actually starts to come together.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Vayne.8563:

See, I don’t map complete. Sometimes I even turn off all the map markers. I just run around and act as if my character is actually in the zone. See what they see, hear what they hear. I’m always always finding something I either haven’t seen or don’t remember seeing.

Trust me, the older you get the more likely the latter is the case.

That’s the truth. Just the other day I was saying to my wife…“who are you again?”

But yeah, it’s a fair point. Not remembering stuff makes reexploring zones more entertaining.

felessan.9587:

ShadowDragoonFTW.3418:

felessan.9587:

Really, not rhetorically, does anyone have those numbers?

ANet does. But, that’s it. People have been trying to estimate current user numbers for ages, and we just don’t have any real way to measure that.

Yes, I should have said: “Anyone outside of Anet.” I’m really curious to see what healthy retention rates are considered to be.

Anet seems to think that people were overwhelmed by too many options when they first logged in, so they reigned them in. Hopefully the NPE does what they hope it will.

We know with WoW that only 30% of people who try it ever get past level 10, or at least that was the case then the article was written. I’d have thought it would be higher.

phys.7689:

Vayne.8563:

phys.7689:

chemiclord.3978:

21-30

Completing this personal story chunk got me to level 21… and also earned me the skin for a T1 chestpiece. I’m sure there are some collectors who won’t like that little development.

Shortly having finished said personal story, the rules changed on me. Now I have all three utility skills. Okay… I guess that’s how it goes when you are doing something in the middle of a revision process.

It is during this period where I really start to see the improvements in the leveling system. With the utility traits unlocking more or less as normal, the tweak to gear dropping (as well as the occasional toy from leveling), has really helped prevent me from being underpowered for level relevant content without having to resort to crafting (which is an element I’ve never particularly liked in any MMO).

These levels also seem to be going by faster than I remember… though granted, I could just be fooling myself.

Really, there’s not much else to say on this particular clump, as by the time I got here, there was nothing particularly new to unlock, and as such there’s not much I can say about how it felt before.

But now I take a deep breath, for I have now unlocked the new trait mechanic. I already know I’m going to hate it. The question is how much? We shall see!

ahh, for me personally 22-30 was super boring and i just had to grind it out. I EOTMed, i did some hearts, hunted down dynamic events.
Its odd because i like personal story, up to this point (tends to go downhill for me when i join an order) but i really hate the no drops in personal story thing now, so i come away feeling like i am wasting my time slightly.

Did you do it after or before teh experience point 20-30 fix?

As for the personal story the rewards you get at the end are better, to me anyway, than the stuff you used to get during.

after.

i think perhaps it has to do with me generally really never liking map completion, and now thats pretty much the focus for 10 levels at a time.

See, I don’t map complete. Sometimes I even turn off all the map markers. I just run around and act as if my character is actually in the zone. See what they see, hear what they hear. I’m always always finding something I either haven’t seen or don’t remember seeing.

phys.7689:

Vayne.8563:

phys.7689:

MikaHR.1978:

Hope they never ever listen to GW1 suggestions (khm…traits….khm)

you keep saying this, but im pretty sure its not accurate, can you point me to where people asked for existing traits to become unlocks? im pretty sure that never happened.

There was a thread, search function doesn’t work so good luck finding it, and in it the thread people were talking about how the old skill hunting stuff was great in Guild Wars 1 and we should bring it here. In that thread, many said it wouldn’t work for skills, there weren’t enough of them and you need them pretty early, but that it would work for traits.

It wasn’t a huge outcry in a bunch of threads, but skill hunting has come up a number of times and people said they liked it better than the way skills were in Guild Wars 2, just handed to you, and in every thread I can remember on the subject, it always shifted from skills to traits in the thread and always had at least some support.

Edit: It might have even been mentioned in the CDI thread on horizontal progression. I seem to remember that, but in that case, I can’t say for sure.

i remember the talk, i dont remember any one suggesting it for traits, if you can find these posts it will be good to read

I don’t feel it’s imporant enough to go searching. I tend to post while playing Guild Wars 2. Looking through reams of old threads is quite a bit different. I remember people talking about it, but it’s definitely not worth the time to research it.

Keep in mind, I never bring up the topic anyway. I was just mentioning from my recollection it was talked about. But I don’t think there were a zillion threads or people talking about it. I just remember it being mentioned.

Teon.5168:

Furyan.9578:

Teon.5168:

ShadowDragoonFTW.3418:

phys.7689:

There are some things to learn, and apply from gw1, however, it usually gets caught in gw1 vs gw2 instead of talking about what is strong, or what would transfer over well to gw1, and how to transfer it over.

I’ll give my opinion as someone who has played both Guild Wars 1 and Guild Wars 2.

They are completely separate games. The feel, the goals, the systems… there is really nothing “similar” in the games, aside from the lore.

Talking about transitioning things from GW1 to GW2 just seems like a bad idea to me. GW2 has taken on a life of it’s own. It isn’t “the sequel to GW1”, instead it’s “that MMO that relies heavily on dodging and combat that actually makes realistic sense”.

If you really want a game that’s more like GW1, then start with a game that’s already close to it. Don’t take what people love about GW2 and twist it to fit what you think the “sequel” to GW1 should be like.

Maybe Guild Wars 3 will be closer to Guild Wars 1 than it is to 2. If so, then good for you. You’ll get the game you want. But me? I like GW2 how it is. I don’t want it to be fit into a mold just to be more like its “predecessor”. I like my game how it is, don’t ruin it for me in the name of nostalgia and/or legacy.

Well said….and I agree completely.

Nostalgia is one thing, but missing functionality that wouldn’t hurt the game confused me.

Replaying key missions
Saving/Sharing your entire builds
Selectable instances

How would these things break GW2 for people?

A lot of the stuff I miss from GW can’t be in GW2 simply because of how the lore of the world works, for the moment at least (/cough Dervish! /cough ), but there was nice functions that the previous game had that were great. Also, refining things in Gw2 like what choice actually means, how that functions wouldn’t hurt the game either.

Multi-class set ups, while missed, aren’t something I’d like to see.

*on a side note they could probably drop a Dervish class into the game and it wouldn’t require that much adjusting: seeing as how many weapons default attack hits multiple foes, its skills have a positive and negative effect (damage and heal), they have true Avatars , etc, but that’s just me. *

Saving/sharing builds is an interesting concept. I think that might work.

It’s coming, they’re working on it.

It works both ways btw. There was plenty of missing functionality in Guild Wars 1 that would prevent me from enjoying it, including a marketplace, and the ability to move while casting. Those two things alone change the whole deal for me.

phys.7689:

MikaHR.1978:

Hope they never ever listen to GW1 suggestions (khm…traits….khm)

you keep saying this, but im pretty sure its not accurate, can you point me to where people asked for existing traits to become unlocks? im pretty sure that never happened.

There was a thread, search function doesn’t work so good luck finding it, and in it the thread people were talking about how the old skill hunting stuff was great in Guild Wars 1 and we should bring it here. In that thread, many said it wouldn’t work for skills, there weren’t enough of them and you need them pretty early, but that it would work for traits.

It wasn’t a huge outcry in a bunch of threads, but skill hunting has come up a number of times and people said they liked it better than the way skills were in Guild Wars 2, just handed to you, and in every thread I can remember on the subject, it always shifted from skills to traits in the thread and always had at least some support.

Edit: It might have even been mentioned in the CDI thread on horizontal progression. I seem to remember that, but in that case, I can’t say for sure.

phys.7689:

chemiclord.3978:

21-30

Completing this personal story chunk got me to level 21… and also earned me the skin for a T1 chestpiece. I’m sure there are some collectors who won’t like that little development.

Shortly having finished said personal story, the rules changed on me. Now I have all three utility skills. Okay… I guess that’s how it goes when you are doing something in the middle of a revision process.

It is during this period where I really start to see the improvements in the leveling system. With the utility traits unlocking more or less as normal, the tweak to gear dropping (as well as the occasional toy from leveling), has really helped prevent me from being underpowered for level relevant content without having to resort to crafting (which is an element I’ve never particularly liked in any MMO).

These levels also seem to be going by faster than I remember… though granted, I could just be fooling myself.

Really, there’s not much else to say on this particular clump, as by the time I got here, there was nothing particularly new to unlock, and as such there’s not much I can say about how it felt before.

But now I take a deep breath, for I have now unlocked the new trait mechanic. I already know I’m going to hate it. The question is how much? We shall see!

ahh, for me personally 22-30 was super boring and i just had to grind it out. I EOTMed, i did some hearts, hunted down dynamic events.
Its odd because i like personal story, up to this point (tends to go downhill for me when i join an order) but i really hate the no drops in personal story thing now, so i come away feeling like i am wasting my time slightly.

Did you do it after or before teh experience point 20-30 fix?

As for the personal story the rewards you get at the end are better, to me anyway, than the stuff you used to get during.

jheryn.8390:

Vayne.8563:

[SNIP]
But it’s much easier to do that sort of thing in a completely instanced world. This is why stories in MMOs tend to involve the open world less, or your characters story most often isn’t tied into the story of the world. They’re separate.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both systems. I did feel more attached to my Guild Wars 1 characters.

But I still prefer the open world of an MMO to the instanced, linear game that was Guild Wars 1.

I agree with you here too.

I like the open world. However we do have instances in our personal stories and in the LS. None of the storytelling here has made me feel as connected to the world as I did in GW1.

And to be honest, the interview dialog scenes of the personal story paled in comparison to the cut scenes in GW1. If we were going to have less cut scenes, they could have at least made them spectacular and engaging. The two character conversations were poor at best.

It’s not just the cut scenes though. The world reinforced the story in Guild Wars 1. You were never ever really out of your story. Whatever you were doing in the world pertained to your story.

If you think about Guild Wars 1, the game, the ENTIRE game, was your personal story.

You just can’t do that in an MMO.

The connection thing comes from the difference in how the games were structured. Guild Wars 1 was far far more linear than Guild Wars 2. Everything in every story was in order. You did A, B, C, D.

The world around you supported the missions you were doing. No surprise there. If you were doing missions in Ascalon, you were fighting charr in the open world. But in Guild Wars 2, which is not linear, it’s not that easy to pull that off.

I know I play humans sometimes in Charr areas, something much harder to do in early game in Guild Wars 1.

But it’s much easier to do that sort of thing in a completely instanced world. This is why stories in MMOs tend to involve the open world less, or your characters story most often isn’t tied into the story of the world. They’re separate.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both systems. I did feel more attached to my Guild Wars 1 characters.

But I still prefer the open world of an MMO to the instanced, linear game that was Guild Wars 1.

In my experience, most people who started this game in Guild Wars 1 feel this way to some degree, including me. I was more attached to my Guild Wars 1 characters than I am to my Guild Wars 2 characters. That said, some people I know who didn’t play Guild Wars 1 are attached to these characters.

And my attachment to certain characters has grown as I find more ways to “make them mine”.

But it still doesn’t feel the same was Guild Wars 1 did.

nekretaal.6485:

I really liked the twisted marionette and escape from lions arch (not battle) this year.

I am not in love with Dry Top (why is everything good there account bound?)

I think Edge of the Mists was this year… It’s a good zone, giving GW2 sort of an open world Pvp option, without interfering with WvW or PvE.

Living story season 2 stuff probably suffers from being single player content within a MMO. Its gameplay is better than the personal story, but not really the main point of the MMO.

PvP really needs a mode other than conquest, and WvW still needs new maps and a solution to nightcapping. Players of these modes are the ones with every right to be disappointed, especially PvPer’s who got all of their glory stolen from them

My guild does the living story stuff together. It does scale for more people. We have a lot of fun with it, especially helping each other get the achievements.

The game difficulty hasn’t changed in higher zones though. Creatures in Dry Top for example and Southsun are still more difficult than most creatures in Orr. The game can get harder and still provide a gradual experience for people just starting. They’re not mutually exclusive.

Ish.2846:

Vayne.8563:

So spend the 10 silver and 2 skill points to unlock your blue trait. Problem solved. For blue traits especially it’s not that much.

Soon you’ll accept anything if you keep accepting the little things. Don’t you have any principles.

I have principles. However they don’t extend to spending some in game gold on something that once cost me in game gold anyway. My principles are you know about more significant things than the price of a skill in a game.

Vlad Morbius.1759:

Vayne.8563:

Yep, I agree. And I’m banking that Anet knows more than most forum dwellers, including me. That’s my bet. Because they have access to data we don’t have.

It’s nice to be a back-seat developer and tell people how to run their game, but so far, the stuff they’ve done that the community doesn’t like hasn’t seem to have hurt their bottom line much. So many Anet does know a thing or two.

I’m willing to see if the NPE does retain more players. If it does that’s a plus for me, not a minus. I’m not sure why you think I’d trust Anet’s plan less than some stranger on the forum I don’t know at all.

I’m saying that so far at least, it doesn’t look like Anet is losing the battle to move the game forward. In spite of the forum opinion.

I have no idea where this response fits into what I posted, so forgive me if I misunderstood your intent but what I was referencing was not the NPE (I have already voiced my opinions on this) but rather the lack of a forecast of upcoming content and the harm that it is doing and could continue to do going forward. I am talking specifically about that issue and why it has led to many feeling the game is lackluster at this point.
Before you jump all over my statement of harm it’s doing it is specific to my personal experience with friends and family not the average back-seat developer as you’ve pointed out.

That’s probably all true. And I’ve often had problems with how Anet releases information, in a lot of ways. I think they’re terrible at communicating. If I weren’t so disliked on these forums, I’d apply for a job translating for them.

But my answer doesn’t really change much. What they’re doing so far really doesn’t seem to have hurt their bottom line. I’m not sure it’s sustainable much longer, but then they are trying to communicate more now, so there is that.

fireflyry.7023:

I fully agree but they could have been designed and reworked to be symbiotic. I’m talking hypothetically from inception. Comparing one to the other as they were and are now raises obvious conflict as they are clearly separate entities in no way made to co-exist, but in theory I don’t see having two parallel leveling modes in an MMO, one for new players to learn the ropes with, and one for vets to bypass hand-holding, as an impossibility or something that couldn’t have been considered and implemented.

Akin to skipping the tutorial zones in many other MMO’s, all be it vastly more complex and complicated, but surely doable, at the least a possibility, at worst a fantasy I’m free to indulge in :P

Would have been awesome.

Well this is already happening here. You have to unlock skill points only once and future characters will have them unlocked immediately. You don’t even have to make a choice.

Vlad Morbius.1759:

Vayne.8563:

It matters to a lot of people. Because in an MMO you invest more time into it than your average game, and you become vested in it. If it’s not going to be there, you’d have to start over somewhere else, building your fortune, leveling characters.

If I knew an MMO had six months left, I probably wouldn’t start playing it. On the other hand, I would play a driving game that wasn’t going to be around in six months.

This is exactly why you see so many passionate responses to changes people feel hurt the game. I love GW2, and most of all I worry that some of the directions being taken are wrong and are harming the game long term. It is a very tough pill to swallow after investing two years of time and money and then be totally cut off from any meaningful information on what’s coming down the line. You hit the nail on the head with your statement “If I knew an MMO had six months left I probably wouldn’t start playing it” but that thought extends further and for many here would include “If I don’t know what the future of the game holds why should I keep playing and supporting it?”.
This is what is causing so many people angst and why they question the reasons for going on with GW2. Most won’t out of blind faith, especially when several things such as traits and even ascended gear are still sore spots. Giving people a clear forecast of what is coming, even without a ton of specifics (due to development changes) would go a very long way in making them feel secure in a continued investment.

Yep, I agree. And I’m banking that Anet knows more than most forum dwellers, including me. That’s my bet. Because they have access to data we don’t have.

It’s nice to be a back-seat developer and tell people how to run their game, but so far, the stuff they’ve done that the community doesn’t like hasn’t seem to have hurt their bottom line much. So many Anet does know a thing or two.

I’m willing to see if the NPE does retain more players. If it does that’s a plus for me, not a minus. I’m not sure why you think I’d trust Anet’s plan less than some stranger on the forum I don’t know at all.

I’m saying that so far at least, it doesn’t look like Anet is losing the battle to move the game forward. In spite of the forum opinion.

Lazuli.2098:

Vayne.8563:

…
As far as I know, no one in my guild liked the trait changes, though.

Edit: You know, I think that it’s more than that. My guild is casual and I think most players are casual. And most casual people don’t post on forums. So my casual guild, which mostly doesn’t post on forums like the changes.
…

These two statements contradict each other.

If you read the first line of my opening post you’ll see this thread is about how the trait changes effected the leveling process, removing the fun. The 9/9 NPE changes didn’t help it at all. It doesn’t matter if the leveling process is faster or slower if it isn’t fun. If enough players who used to buy character slots and inventory slots and boosters and BLTP keys for those characters with real money no longer find the leveling process fun then Anet will be loosing revenue.

This post was mainly discussing which veteran players are more likely to spend real money in the gem store and which players are most unhappy with the changes over the last 6 months. Since I think they are mostly the same group I think Anet has made a mistake.

Okay to clarify. Over all, my guild didn’t love the trait changes, but my guild did like the NPE, which is what many people have been complaining about recently.

I don’t think anyone is slitting their wrists over the trait changes but it’s not something that we prefer. That said, my guild is made up of a lot of people, some of whom are younger, but many of whom are older. And we do spend money on the game. Because you know, no matter how much I’ve spent, this is cheaper than golf.

How many people will continue spending money on the game. I guess we’ll see with the next quarterly report.

I’ve noticed it on lower level characters for sure. I have more weapons I can use and more armor I can use. I’ve leveled lots of characters even recently in the old system.

Believe me the new system is in place.

fireflyry.7023:

I don’t see why the two couldn’t be made to be symbiotic. All we are talking is differing access paths to exactly the same mechanics and rewards.

In saying I don’t know the reality, maybe it is too much of a logistical nightmare?But maybe not….

The simplest difference between them is the levels at which personal stories unlock. One way allows key farming, one way really doesn’t. Not with the same efficiency anyway. So Anet could make changes to black lion chests. They made drop rates for scraps better. Now they’d have to undo that change, because the key farmers would all choose the old way.

So you and me now start characters together as friends. Maybe you choose one way and I choose the other. Now we can’t do personal stories together, because yours are unlocked earlier than mine. We say screw this game, and find a game where we can be on the same page. It’s not unreasonable to think some people will do this, without even realizing.

And every time the game changes as a whole, devs would then have to redo two systems, which makes making future changes much much harder. Let’s say they decide to add 20 levels to the game in an expansion a year from now. That means updating two different systems, if the systems run through the entire game. That’s got to be more work.

Galen Grey.4709:

Beldin.5498:

Vayne.8563:

I think you should look at where we were three months into the last living story and compare. We did have a dungeon, but now we have a zone.

My problem with that is, that they already said we had now one half of LS2, so all we
can expect for the next half year is maybe 4 more episodes .. and another loooong
break until feature pack next april / may .. and then break until LS3 in June / july 2014.

assuming they have absolutely nothing else planned which well we dont know yet.

Assuming also that Season 2 was split into 2 parts, maybe it will have more.
And assuming S3 would start in july and not before.

Lots of assumption there.

I might be imagining this but I seem to remember someone saying they want shorter seasons, without as much break.

Not sure who said it though, or where.

Jexx.6471:

why does it matter if a game is “dying?”

It’s a game. You play it until you complete it/don’t feel like playing, and if you feel like playing you return to it. Games aren’t required to give you content to “keep playing.” Just play if you want to play.

It matters to a lot of people. Because in an MMO you invest more time into it than your average game, and you become vested in it. If it’s not going to be there, you’d have to start over somewhere else, building your fortune, leveling characters.

If I knew an MMO had six months left, I probably wouldn’t start playing it. On the other hand, I would play a driving game that wasn’t going to be around in six months.

fireflyry.7023:

It’s implementation at fault imo.

If your going to retroactively change the core leveling mechanic why not make it an optional choice at character creation?

No company in their right mind would create two complex systems, both of which need bug fixing and changes and maintains and perhaps updates later when more things change. I’m not sure in this case that situation would be sustainable.

Tachenon.5270:

Vayne.8563:

I can’t imagine that 1 hour of a character’s life is so significant to veteran MMOers that it’ll make or break the game for them.

To me it’s a vast over-reaction that will die down. The game will get new players. Some people may leave. I think the new players will outnumber the leveling players and time will march on.

By itself, maybe not, even though I believe NPE needlessly made GW2 a smaller, less fun, worse game than it was before, but NPE coming on the heels of the trait system revamp, along with the persistent adherence to Living Story as a means of delivering new content, seems to me to be yet another strong indication that anet is determined to change GW2 into a game I don’t want to play.

Thus, the future of GW2 is not looking good (to me). Disclaimer: as always, your mileage may vary.

Right, so leave the NPE and redo the trait system. I’m on board with that.

Beldin.5498:

Vayne.8563:

I think you should look at where we were three months into the last living story and compare. We did have a dungeon, but now we have a zone.

My problem with that is, that they already said we had now one half of LS2, so all we
can expect for the next half year is maybe 4 more episodes .. and another loooong
break until feature pack next april / may .. and then break until LS3 in June / july 2014.

Did they actually say we have one half of Season 2, though. Or are they just calling this a mid-season break?

ZudetGambeous.9573:

I think the difference is in the number of features released.

In the first LS season we had NEW features. Fractals, ascended gear, guild missions, dungeons, WvW ranks, new PvP maps, etc.

This year we have had no new features, just backend changes. These changes still took a lot of work, but they really provide nothing to show for all the work in the end content wise.

I think this is where the perceived difference really comes in.

I dare say that a new map is a new feature. Collecting is a new feature. Looks like we’re going to have more zone in the next patch. This year so far is three months into the story.

I think you should look at where we were three months into the last living story and compare. We did have a dungeon, but now we have a zone.

Some of us prefer zones to dungeons.

Will there be other different changes coming? It’s too early to tell.

Much of the new patch isn’t copy paste from China though.
The NPE is somewhat, but there are also differences. It’s not the same. In China you don’t get a black lion key at level ten story reward for example. Collections are new to both games. The trading post changes are new to both games. The balance changes are new to both games.

And yes, I’m in love with the ranger changes.