Guild Wars 2

Ashen.2907:

Vayne.8563:

Gehenna.3625:

Of course, with the announcement of the next part of LW3 in the Ring of Fire, we know that hearts are coming back.

As these hearts don’t count toward world completion, I’m not too stressed about them. I still think, however, the resources could have been spent on repeatable content instead of one time content.

Perhaps I am mistaken, but didnt the article decribe the upcoming new hearts as repeatable?

No idea, since I haven’t read the article, but if they are repeatable, that would be better. Particularly if there’s a reason to repeat them.

MokahTGS.7850:

Madastertwo.8729:

For my group of 3, we can get to the end fight with Mordremoth, and not sure if it is due to the fact that the instance owner dies in previous stages and is sitting in the penalty box or not, but when the first rift is opened on the final stage, all the adds are killed and gone and Mordremoth remains invulnerable, just spamming his electric damaging circles with no way to do damage to him. This has happened to us 3 times so far. Where the rift used to be is a couple of squiggle white lines. Eventually we just give up and leave.

I wish there was a way to get assistance on these when it happens rather than having to fight your way through the dang thing over and over. I’m assuming it is a bug, but it has happened pretty consistent for us.

This is exactly what happens to my group. We have attempted it many times and it always bugs out in this manner. We have bug reported so many times but it seems to be ignored. Haven’t been able to finish HoT because of this exact bug.

Are you breaking his bar though?

Gehenna.3625:

Of course, with the announcement of the next part of LW3 in the Ring of Fire, we know that hearts are coming back.

As these hearts don’t count toward world completion, I’m not too stressed about them. I still think, however, the resources could have been spent on repeatable content instead of one time content.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Vayne.8563:

Hearts are the same as events.

• Hearts are done once per character/Events repeat
• Hearts involve generic MMO PvE tasks like escort, collect and kill/events do also
• Most hearts offer multiple types of tasks/Most events do not
• Hearts are part of zone completion/Events are not

By your criteria, Hearts are also the same as dungeons, raids, and WvW PvD. If the criteria applied is that the content involves generic PvE tasks, then most PvE is the same.

Well no. Let’s say you have a gathering heart. You can do a gathering event. But you don’t have to do the event. That’s the real difference. If it’s a heart, you have no choice but to do it, if you want world completion. You must do it. But what you’re doing is the same.

Dungeons, raids and WvW are not the same, because they include elements that require more than a heart. Dungeons require more people. They’re harder. You can solo most events. Raids require even more. No one can solo a raid. WvW gives the chance to be attacked by enemy players. Neither hearts nor events do.

If I’m doing a collection event, no player can kill me, I don’t need 50 people helping, it’s pretty much the same thing as a collection heart, except that it’s optional. I can skip it. I don’t have to do it. And if I like it, I can do it over and over again.

So with a heart you do it once, and you can’t do it again, unless you make another character. But the activities you do, they’re the same….except for group events I get.

Ithilwen.1529:

-edit- Small logical error in the story. The Skald states that Knut Whitebear banished Eir from Hoelbrak. She goes on to say that Eir returned to Hoelbrack with Destiny’s Edge before defeating the Lieutenant of Jormag.

She could not have done this if she were banished.

But that’s what happened. She wasn’t banned because she commited a crime per se. This was Knut’s way of motivating her to get the job done.

The second time she returned, she returned with a team and a plan. So she did actually return to Hoelbrak after being banished.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Vayne.8563:

What’s really the difference?

The difference is that hearts are part of a goal with concrete, finite steps – map completion. Some people like that kind of structure. Events are part of concrete, finite goals only insofar as they include one-time things like Mastery Points, collection items, etc.

Map completion is already a goal with concrete, finite steps. Adding hearts to new zones would increase the number of steps, while costing valuable dev time that could otherwise be spent on repeatable tasks.

I don’t mean that hearts and events are mutually exclusive. I do mean that there are only so many dev hours and ANet needs to make a choice. Given the popularity of repeatable content over one-time content, given most people’s limited enthusiasm for map completion… it seems to me that ANet’s making a reasonable decision to pass on hearts and experiment with other sorts of repeatable content that isn’t a component of map completion.

I was answering Vayne’s question. Hearts are not the same as events. I was not advocating ANet work on hearts.

But fwiw, while I’m not fond of hearts, I’d rather hearts than adventures.

Hearts are the same as events. What they count for is not what they are. It’s like saying a vista isn’t the same as a jumping puzzle because it doesn’t have a chest. But some jumping puzzles don’t have a chest and some vistas are at the end of jumping puzzles.

Saying they’re different because they count for completion isn’t really an answer. It’s a best a point of view, but I don’t agree with it. For one thing, a good percentage of hearts can be completed by doing an event in the area of the heart.

They’re, for the most part, the same stuff. One of them gives a different type of credit but it doesn’t make the substance different. Killing, escort, protect, gather, those are events and those are what you do to fill in hearts.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Vayne.8563:

What’s really the difference?

The difference is that hearts are part of a goal with concrete, finite steps – map completion. Some people like that kind of structure. Events are part of concrete, finite goals only insofar as they include one-time things like Mastery Points, collection items, etc.

Map completion exists with or without hearts though. It doesn’t change the nature of what you’re actually doing. If map complete never had hearts, people would still have structure.

Gehenna.3625:

Goatjugsoup.8637:

from what i understand the purpose of hearts was to direct people to content, they have gotten much better at that without the need to use hearts.

plus hearts are not repeatable content which lessens their value in comparison to other types of content they could add

The hearts serve other purposes as well. You can only do them once per character but most people have multiple characters.

I’d still rather have content I will actually do that I can do only once, than have repeatable content I don’t want to do at all.

People don’t all like the same stuff, that’s about it really.

I’d agree with you if hearts offered content that was different from dynamic events, but they don’t.

You can kill a few things, you can collect a few things, you can kill a few weeds, all of which is what you can do in a dynamic event.

The big difference between a heart and a DE is you have to do hearts for zone completions, which dynamic events are optional content.

I mean I do a heart, I go kill some stuff, I get the heart. Sometimes an event spawns and I kill the stuff in the event and get the heart anyway.

What’s really the difference?

theslynx.1596:

Obtena.7952:

I’ve not seen anyone give a good reason why HoT should be dumbed down…

Not everyone likes it; that’s the reason people are offering. If that’s not a ‘good reason,’ then what reason could possibly satisfy you? The reason you’re offering for it not being ‘dumbed down’ is that you do like it.

Also, I only watched a couple of ads/previews of HoT before buying, but from what I saw, it wasn’t specifically marketed as being all about tough content. It was marketed as being a wide-ranging expansion everyone would appreciate. I ultimately don’t think that’s accurate, and that strikes me as a pretty good reason to be frustrated with new maps.

Obtena.7952:

For me, the only compromise here is that people avoid zones they don’t like to play in.

That’s the expansion. That’s been a consistent complaint of many posters, including the original comment – it’s the whole point of this thread. The maps are all about density, tough mobs, verticality and content best done in groups. The core game has tough maps, and that’s great. It also has maps that aren’t, or maps that offer a mixture. That’s great, too. And that’s what HoT should have had. (For the record, unlike many, I don’t find Bloodstone Fen that much better, probably in part because I haven’t invested heavily in Maguuma masteries yet, so getting around remains a pain.)

I’m not asking that Tangled Depths be remade. Sometimes I want a challenge. But I do care that I bought an expansion marketed as something for everyone that leans very heavily towards tough group content instead of providing a variety of things to do.

At this point, my strongest feeling about HoT is that it does little of what made the original game great, and I’ve wasted my money on it. My hope here is that Anet is listening to this sort of thing, and cares about it enough to consider making more diverse content from here on out. If not, it was fun while it lasted and I hope the remaining players have a good time.

Why should HoT have had a mixture. If people remember Eye of the North, the only true Guild Wars 1 expansion, it was all end game content. It didn’t have a mixture because most of the player base are 80.

Just as Eye of the North was harder than any area of the game prior to it, except for end game content like the Underworld or DOA, it was certainly the hardest “open world” content in the game. The mobs were higher and harder level, they roamed in packs and some people did have trouble with it.

An expansion expands what we already have. That doesn’t mean it repeats what was already there.

I’m almost 100% positive that more people were complaining the game was too easy than the game was too hard. HoT balanced the tables a bit. We now have four hard maps, and 27 easier ones. Or if you want, you can say 7 hard maps and 23 easier ones.

There are plenty of easy maps, but not enough hard ones. The four maps of HoT weren’t really enough. They’re just a drop in the bucket.

If they had to split the expansion, it wouldn’t have been as good for players like me.

onevstheworld.2419:

Mikal Dynath.6195:

You could be me … you could’ve completed Glint’s Bastion, then deleted the machined shield because it’s Exotic.
… THEN started your Mesmer’s elite spec and realize you need to make a shield again ….

… awesome!!!

Are you sure you needed to remake it? I’ve always had my collection items unlock automatically even if the original item was gone. Definitely was the case when I did the daredevil staff… I had discarded that mystic staff ages ago. Only part that wouldn’t do that was the adventure chest.

That only happens if the collection is unlocked when you get it. If you have both collections unlocked and you get a piece, it’ll apply to both collections.

However, if you’ve not bought the plated weapon for the second one, the collection isn’t unlocked yet. When you get a piece for the first collection it applies. It can’t apply to the second collection because it doesn’t yet exist.

It can only apply itself to unlocked collections. If you unlock the collection subsequently you have to get the missing part again.

IndigoSundown.5419:

ANet places mobs to make running past them harder, not impossible. All you have to do to see this is observe that players can and do run past mobs all the time, even in HoT. ANet seems to have no intent to make players fight mobs unless they cannot run past. Greater mob density just ups the skill threshold a bit for running past.

This leaves players with less skill who need to fight to get past often facing greater numbers than they can take. The whole design seems counter-productive.

Greater challenge comes from two things. Mob numbers is the nature of individual mob abilities and the underlying math that says how much damage those mobs do. The other is number of mobs, which is how many mobs are in a given place.

Harder mobs are supposedly put in the game to offer greater challenge to skilled players. However, those players are less likely to actually stick around to fight random mobs placed solely for the purpose of populating the zone with enemies. The more skilled are usually on the way somewhere they can do events, or farm.

Mob number challenges are fine as is. If one is fighting a mob, that mob being more of a threat is a good thing. Number of mobs challenge is more appropriate in places where numbers of players are likely to converge. Placing large numbers of mobs in places where players are only going to want to get by is just a hindrance for the less skilled while not providing any benefit for the demographic that wanted more challenge in the first place.

Keep in mind there, are often ways in HoT around the dense mobs, instead of running directly through. Sometimes you need to find an alternate path. That’s part of learning the zone. I almost never run through that plateau in VB near the Treacherous Point Waypoint. I always glide over or around it.

Reverielle.3972:

Personally I be happy to see Hearts return. The new maps are all a bit too much focused on the meta, and always rush rush rush to do the next thing in it. It’s becoming too much of a good thing. Some ongoing balance would be nice.

I play the new maps exactly how I play the old maps. Most of the time I ignore the meta. There’s plenty of events to do on the new maps, whether you play the meta or not. I’m not sure Hearts would add anything to the mix.

drunkenpilot.9837:

Relatedly, if anyone needs assistance with collection items found in the Not So Secret JP, or needs help getting up to the diving platform for goggles, shoot me a message in-game. I hang out here pretty often and regularly offer portals (free!).

I struggled with this JP a lot when I first discovered it, so now that I’m able to complete it relatively easily, I like to help others get through it. Just message me in-game, happy to help.

Sure now you tell us! After I killed myself getting for a guildie today. lol

That’s really cool that you offer this to people.

Hank.4839:

Wow, that is plain stupid. What was the point of Halloween 2012, if there’s always a way to get the skin afterwards. Where’s the exclusivity. Let’s bring back everything, shall we.

There are two types of people. Those who think there should be exclusive things in games that people who weren’t here can’t get and those who feel that everything should be available somewhere at some time, for people who missed it.

Having a different opinion isn’t stupid. I don’t think your point of view is stupid, because I understand it. By the same token if you weren’t lucky enough or rich enough to get it that first halloween…you might have been holding out to get it the next halloween, thinking it would be a halloween reward and it would come back. That’s my situation.

I could have bought it at the time, but I prefer not to buy if I can get stuff from playing. I’m sorry I didn’t buy it then, but who knew it wouldn’t be coming back?

It’s just as reasonable to assume it was coming back as it wasn’t. And therefore, why should people who expected it to come back miss out?

I don’t care how exclusive the stuff I have is. It doesn’t matter at all to me. I’m for bringing it all back and letting everyone get a crack at it.

That doesn’t mean it has to be cheap mind you, or common. It just means it’s accessible to everyone. This isn’t the olympics. No one won a gold medal to get that. They didn’t beat Liadri to get it.

So I don’t really see why it should be exclusive.

OriOri.8724:

I just rolled a ranger so not very familiar with it yet, do you have decent access to CC? Easiest way to solo this instance is to bring ranged weapons and kite around blighted Eir/Garm, blighted Canach, and then kite Mordremoth. Bring at least 1 stunbreak with you, and a strong heal on a short-ish CD.

It might take a few more tries, but don’t give up. Some tips:

1 – Just kite blighted eir/garm. Don’t engage in melee with garm. Preferably use a ranged weapon that can load him up with conditions, but either way just kite him until hes down, then use all your burst on Eir. Use your hard CC here as well to increase the amount of time you have to burst her down.

2 – Just kite blighted canach. At some point regular canach will tell you to use his shield to break blighted canach’s defiance bar. Don’t do it. Just continue strafing in a circle around blighted canach and using ranged attacks on him. His attacks are easy to see and dodge.

3 – Mordremoth himself is actually a fairly easy fight, its the non-fighting parts I had the most trouble with (the gliding parts). Just focus on not getting hit and chipping away at his health. Eventually he will summon blighted forms of your companions (rytlock comes first). Same strategy as before, kite them around and just hit them with ranged attacks/conditions while avoiding the attacks mordremoth is throwing at you as those are more dangerous during these phases. When the rift opens, just wait until its safe to close it and then do it. For the last part of the fight just make sure you have enough CC to break his defiance bar and hurt him. It will take a few rifts to kill him but its entirely doable solo.

This is definitely not the most efficient way to take on this instance, but its by far the safest/easiest since it avoids most of the attacks by having you kite around and just using ranged weapons/condis until you get to the few times when you need to burst.

Relatively good CC on a ranger. Longbow 4 is a knockback, longbow 5 is a cripple, the spike trap is a launch, and if you happen to have the electric wyvern, the F2 kill is fantastic for breaking bars.

If you use axe warhorn as a secondary, the 3 axe skill has chill, and if you’re already a druid, the 5 skill in the avatar form has a good one as well. Also, your elite entangle can help too if you’re still having problems.

I’m sure there’s more, but those are my go tos.

If you are in the last phase with mordremoth and you can’t break his bar, you can actually get out of combat by going all the way to the back and you can switch out skills.

I don’t mind doing story missions at pretty much any time. I have a lot of characters to get through at all different stages of the story, so hit me up in game. If I’m not busy with the guild, I’d be happy to go with you.

Djinn.9245:

Obtena.7952:

A little off topic but I think that’s the point … you shouldn’t be able to just run your way through maps and avoid mobs. I mean, there is a reason Anet put them there in the first place. In fact in Fen, i think it’s worse because in HoT, you can kill those mobs. in Fen, killing those mobs doesn’t really ‘clear your path’ so to speak. Some of the non-avoidance methods in Fen can’t even be avoided … like random death bubbles, etc..

It is your opinion that we shouldn’t be able to ignore mobs at all. If my character is level 20, it shouldn’t have to fight it’s way through every mob in a level 1 area. And so on up the level range and gear / experience range.

Why should you not have to fight your way through mobs? For what reason? A wolf is still a wolf.

Downscaling was a big selling point of this game for many of us. It’s been here since day one. Four years on, every time someone makes a post saying downscaling is bad, the bulk of the posts go against it.

Downscaling is one of the best features of this game.

Djinn.9245:

Ayrilana.1396:

Djinn.9245:

Ayrilana.1396:

Djinn.9245:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Djinn.9245:

Ayrilana.1396:

There is an excess of 31 Heart of Maguuma mastery points beyond what you need to max all masteries. With each adventure having two mastery points, and there being 15 adventures, this comes out to 30 mastery points total from adventures. You do not have to do adventures to max out your masteries. Of course this means you would then be extremely limited in what else you can do to get them.

So “if you don’t like Adventures, you can still max out Masteries by doing every other game mode in GW2”. Nice choice of play.

Yes, it is a “nice choice” — the word “mastery” suggests that it’s something requiring doing more than the minimum, especially since you can play the entire game without maxing most of the mastery lines. If folks want to restrict themselves to only one game mode, they should expect some limits on the rewards.

Masteries are not “rewards”, they are character progression. Imagine if Anet gated character Skills and Specializations behind having to do mini-games, JP, etc.?

It is also possible to play the game without unlocking your Elite Specialization – should that be gated behind having to do Adventures?

Masteries are not gated by adventures. You can skip every adventure and still max out every mastery line although that means you’ll then have to get every other MP except for one. It’s all about choices. If you choose to write off an entire category because you don’t like it then you’re limiting yourself rather than the game doing it.

Masteries were designed with the intention that players would do an assortment of achievements to obtain mastery points which were then used to unlock masteries once a mastery line was trained by earning enough experience points. This was communicated well in advance of the HoT release and we saw the basic in the beta tests. Although for the betas, only the communes were available due to the durations of each beta.

The only benefit to maxing all of your masteries is if you want to craft any of the four new legendary weapons. Outside of that, there’s no need to. Many of the masteries have very little use or actual value. For example, you can skip the last two masteries resulting in a net surplus of 17 mastery points. Masteries are a type of progression but not a mandatory one like leveling.

Leveling isn’t mandatory either.

Actually, it is if you want to experience any content outside of the starter maps.

And Masteries are mandatory if you want to see certain content.

The only content I can think of that requires all masteries are the HoT legendaries, which are, after all, legendary. If you take them off the table, I’m pretty sure you don’t need all the masteries to see the rest of the content.

If you focus on gliding and what you need from the others, there are masteries you don’t need.

Even something like fighting Potoni the massive, you can fight him without the mastery, you just can’t get the chest for defeating him, which contains the same stuff most other chests contain.

cafard.8953:

Ugh, there’s no backpack skin for alts?! And here I just picked the one I was going to use first, convinced I’d get the others soon enough when the alts aged up a bit. I’d have picked another had I known. Meh.

Contact customer service, they’ll probably switch it out for you.

tron.1438:

Vayne.8563:

Just for you!

Ok this will be my last post to this. Just for you cause you keep bringing up the same thing and I feel your not getting what I am saying or maybe even reading it properly.

Ok I have 12 girl on GW1. They are all kinda spaced out on years so not all get the same gifts when there bday comes around. I open them and get… ewww white. Lots of whites. OMG! I so unlucky to get all white. They all duplicates to. How unlucky is that (this did happen to me often to). So what can I do with them. Hmmm, oh ya. I can sell them. May be cheap but they sell. Or better yet, I can trade them. I tend to do well that way. I get minis or mats I can always use or trade for something else. Hmm, well there are a couple that don’t seem to be selling. Shame! What can I do with them. Oh I know, lets play a game of hide and seek in town and give them away to who ever finds me. That’s always fun. Sweet, I was able to use, sell or gave them away to someone that wanted them. Thanks for the B-Day gift. Was not perfect but it was useful and nothing went to waste. I sure enjoyed them.

GW2 – I have 3 girls for each race (each armor class) and one guy character. Plus 2 extra for no reason at all. About half are at or reaching 4 years but just the other day 3 of them got 1-3year gifts. Especially my Revs who got year 1.

Anet – Here you go! Happy Birthday.
Me – Sweet Thanks! Lets open some gifts. Hmmm ummm Anet buddy you know I got the Mini Queen right.
Anet – Oh! Ya, so.
Me – Been 4 years even if this girl is 1 year. Oh well, guess cant be helped. Can I trade her in now?
Anet – Whaaat! Don’t you like her?
Me – Well ya, but I have 16 of her in my bank now. Can I trade them in?
Anet – Naw! She is cute. Enjoy!
Me – Ok, well what else we got. What are these?
Anet – Slips of paper that say you can advance to lv 20, 30 or 40. Enjoy!
Me – Oh that’s cool and all but it’s been 4 years. I have so many of them already and well. You see my girls. All but 4 of them are lv 80 and the others are over 40. Can I trade them in?
Anet – Whaaa… but those are free lvs. You never know when you might need to lv up a new char.
Me – Ok sure but at this point when will I ever make 30 new characters? Can I give them to some new players. Kinda as welcome to GW2 thing. Have 20-40 lvs on me.
Anet – Dude, stop trying to ruin the game for others. Remember how much fun it is to play the game.
Me – Sigh Fine, ok! What else! Birthday Boosters? Just like these Celebration Boosters. Just like the 38 and 40 other boosters I already have and…. no, not going to say it. Just like those slips of paper. Maybe in the far distant future something I need karma for will come out.
Anet – That’s the spirit. Enjoy!
Me – Ok what is next. Dyes, well alright. Hmm maybe. Well there are 3 dyes I definitely want from these Celebration Dye packs and 4 from the Jubilee dye packs, but…
Anet – Oh what now? Don’t you like dyes?
Me – Oh well I got a couple I could use, but the rest are not my style and don’t need. Sooo can I…
Anet – NO! No trading them in. Just… just pick out random dyes. Complete the collection.
Me – But I won’t ever use those colors. EVER! I mean some are rather gross. Come on, let me give them to some other players. Maybe some that really don’t have extra chars or have to wait 2 more years for a great dye. Please!
Anet – Oh come… hey look at your other gift. We got you a gun that shoots cake. HA! This gun is no lie, its all cake. Ha… get it. Now that’s real fun right.
Me – Sigh Ok ok! Let’s see this gun. pew pew Hmmm, well that’s not bad. But, it takes up a space and I really don’t have a use for it. Though, thanks Anet. It’s not a bad gift.
Anet – You got that right. Here are some tokens to jump to your friends. Those are useful right?
Me – Well ya, kinda but it does not cost much to party up and join them were ever they are. I really don’t have a use for them. The 90 in my bank are kinda gathering dust. Can I give them to my guild mates or some random pla….
Anet – Why do you want to give away my gifts to you? Don’t you appreciate my appreciation of you?
Me – Oh no I do. In fact I see the effort and think they are great idea’s. Though, did you think about players like me that have a lot of characters and are accumulating all this stuff over 4 years? 7 or 8 on some chars that were made later in my game life. I mean it’s not that I don’t appreciate what your doing. Getting these gifts 2, maybe 3 times would be really cool and have had good use. 16+ gifts of non-tradeable account or soul bound items. Well, I just don’t get the point.
Anet – But we are trying to make you happy. What, do you want more? Rarer stuff or to sell all this and make money? I just… I just don’t want to flood the market or make it to easy or… or…. sniff
Me – Whoa! I am happy. I love your game so much. I love how you work hard to try and make us happy. Even if it is nearly impossible to make everyone happy. I don’t want more stuff or bigger rarer stuff. Do you remember how much fun I had in GW1 with the gifts?
Anet – Ya, but you gave so many of them away. I thought you hated them.
Me – No! Sure, I may not have gotten the cool greens or golds. But opening those gifts and not knowing what I was getting was fun. Then taking my extras and trading them to others who did not get what I got or even better. Giving some away to players who were just starting out. You gave me a chance to have so much fun back then. You let me share and laugh and just enjoy every moment.
Anet – And your not now?
Me – Well I do enjoy the game, but as far as the birthday gifts. It’s not about what I get. Just want to be able to have fun with it. Even if that fun comes from giving them away.

And that’s the end of the story. I hope you understand. I am not going on about getting rare things or making money. It’s about having fun with what I get. They want us to have fun and enjoy the game as well as our gifts. I am just not enjoying them cause I have no use for them.

It was the truth what I said happened 2 days ago. I had a 1 year, 2 year and 3 year B-day girl (and two 4 year girls). After opening each gift all I did was stick them in the bank to gather dust cause I am hoarder (remember Gwen’s torn cape from GW1). If all I got was a couple presents per year for my account then ya. It would not be so bad. Though every present after that is just a toss in my face of more useless junk I can’t enjoy in anyway. I am not a karma grinder or dye collector. I am don’t need to get a dye just cause it’s the most expensive dye on the market. I would say that may just be me, but there are lots of players that feel similar about this.

Now that I have looked at the Year 4 dye list. I am happy to say I am going to use 6 of the dye packs I get for all the bloodstone dyes. Cause I like them all and can use them. Taimi dyes are in both dye packs just to put that out there. After that every Jub dye pack will sit in my bank and never get used. With the Karma coupons. I will say year 4 is slightly better then 1-3. Not much though since I am getting so much more useless stuff.

Do you understand what I am saying? If not then I don’t know how to say it any better.

Selling 12 whites at this point in my Guild Wars 1 career means less than nothing. And because Guild Wars 1 doesn’t even have a trading post, I’ve have to waste my time standing in Kamadan to sell my 12 whites. And then I’d always wonder if I got good coin, which doesn’t matter.

Because the hundreds and hundreds of platinum I’d have had in Guild Wars 1 by my fourth birthday would mean 12 whites were absolutely 100% meaningless to me. I’d be as happy selling an unidentified rare. It’s fine for you to be happy with scraps. but that’s what 12 white minis would have been to me by my fourth birthday…scraps. And I have more characters than you do. Wasn’t exciting, I didn’t care.

Here, if I didn’t go out and buy every single dye the moment it came out,. I got something cool that was worth more than all mini’s put together. Everyone got a backskin they could use for the 4th birthday even if they had to pick one. Everyone gets a 24 hour buff, which you may not care about, but it’s more useful than 12 white minis to me anyway, particularly if I get one for each character.

Matter of perspective, but I stopped caring about Guild Wars 1 birthday presents until they introduced tonics and then I quickly got tired of the tonics, when I got Koss and Goren and that sort of thing.

Now had I gotten a mad king tonic, Id’ have been happy, or a one of the really cool tonics.

I know some people don’t mind RNG but there’s enough complaint about RNG in this game.

For my birthday presents this year, I’m going to get a boatload of dyes I didn’t have for free, a free backpiece, and a title and a boost.

I’m not sure how 1 white mini per character can equal that.

kdaddy.5431:

Sammyjoe.4271:

In the early years of Gw2 I have never had more fun with a game. I would come home from school everyday and play until I went to bed, rinse and repeat. However when people wonder why Gw2 is maybe not doing the best it can be its for a few reasons, stupid reasons in fact.
1) WvW server merges: I have had at least 50 people from my server who have called it quits after the server merges. It totally defeats the purpose of one server working together and eliminates what that server did as one. For example, my server would do “Theme nights” and reset parties at north camp before the WvW matchup reset. All of that stuff is eliminated when you have 2 other servers with you. Server merges completely destroyed my super friendly, super close server community.
2) Condi Metas: This is all about PvP and a little of WvW roaming. Basically Anet requires you, for PvP to either run the cheese condi builds and completely destroy anyone you want, since condis have been way over buffed in the past years, or your build better kitten well be able to cure condis like no other.
This is why PvP is growing less popular, I think, every day. There’s no thrill of winning a 1v1 fight if all you do is stand there and spam some condis and call it a day, take us back to the good ol’ days when we had to make builds from scratch not just jump on the condi bandwagon since they’re godly overpowered or just go to Metabattle and get a build that will make you seem like you know what your doing.
3) Buffing then Nerfing (MOST IMPORTANT): I never was able to understand why Anet (not trying to rip on anet I love them) can’t simply make all classes even. Every big nerf patch a few classes get nerfed, and rightly so (I’m looking at you Dragonhunters and Engis) but for some reason they feel the need to buff the HELL out of other classes.
So since I’ve been playing since the November after launch I dont believe I’ve ever witnessed all classes being equal. There is always 3,4, or even 5 classes ridiculously set above the rest. Like engi, I mained a engi for the longest time rocking my awesome rifle build (I’m still salty anet about removing Synaptic Overload) back when engi was believe it or not, hard to play!
Well thats my rant, I feel some of the skill and knowledge of our classes and the game are fading since new players can throw together this overpowered condi build from Metabattle and destroy everyone. I could be wrong, give me some feedback and long live Gw2 (with changes)

Thanks to Danikat.8537 for editing my post into paragraphs which I forgot xD. Thanks!

If i can throw some stuff in there,

GW2 core was alot more about exploring and story lines. Dungeons with 3 explorable dungeons so in total 4 dungeons with 4 different story lines. Then living world with a huge amount of zerging and once again story lines.

HOT has some fun things but the maps are a bit of a chore. Not being able to do certain things unless you unlock masterys. Not being able to do raids without certain gear on certain characters. Not being able to pick up 2-3 people and go do something. I mean HOT should by definition just have pictures of zergs on the maps, raids, and events.

I just took a picture a few hours ago and this is kind of what HOT is to me. I mean when GW2 first came out people were doing dungeons like crazy, farming dungeons even more so then raids are now. But they had a fair amount of story to go with it. Now the story for HOT has been hot garbage but to add in all the missed steps in PvP and WvW. Its gonna be hard for any long time players of GW2 to sit threw this.

You took a picture of a raid long after raids have been cleared by people. Not really indicative of anything other than raids not being as popular as you think. I don’t think raids should have ever been added to this game, but that’s another issue.

You can take two or three friends and go do stuff in HoT in the open world. How do I know? Because I do it pretty often. I’m not sure why you think you can’t do that.

Edit: Btw there’s a ton of story in HoT. Not just in the instances but the zones. The HoT zones are filled with stories.

slpr.2647:

Just tried another dozen and a half times, to no avail. at this point im giving up. the darn thing takes so long that i get tired of trying to kill and stay alive at the same time, get frustrated, die, start over again, with frustration alrdy in place. doesnt pay to try anymore. does story really need to be like this? lol

Why not just get some help. Go with a friend. I do this mission fairly frequently with people in my guild, why not just tag along one time?

ZombieBait.6504:

Lots of good tips here but I wanted to add leap skills can be a huge asset for particularly tough jumps. Thief’s staff 5 is a low cooldown leap that lets you pretty much point your mouse where you want to land and end up there.

Engineer 5 skill on the rifle is a ground targeted leap as well.

Hesacon.8735:

Vayne.8563:

I disagree. Creating more gold means more people can offer more to buy stuff. So maybe ectos come down a drop, that’s true. That’s one item. But higher end items can actually end up going up.

The problem is when people have more gold they can afford to pay more for luxury items. Items end up in bidding wars and they go higher then the average player will ever be able to afford.

People who used to get ectos from the world boss train will return to the world boss train. The price of ectos isn’t that much lower than back then.

But the price of a lot of other stuff, higher end stuff keeps going up, because people have more money and can outbid each other.

No gold is created in AB. Seriously, have you gotten a single coin from a chest in AB? Go try one out.

Salvaging costs coin, selling on the trading post costs coin, keys cost coin. You might get 2-3 silver per map from champion bags in chests, much less than it costs in coin to run the map.

Coin is destroyed because of AB, it has the opposite effect to what you think is happening.

Let’s think about this, say you do 5 maps and get 25 ectos. How does this balance sheet work in terms of coin removed from the economy? Let’s say ectos sell for 33 silver, they’ve been floating around there.

• -15.36 silver from salvaging
• +15 silver from champion bags

Let’s say these cancel out.

33 silver * 25 ectos = 8.25 gold

• You get 7 gold (after the 15% trading post tax)
• 1.25 gold vanishes from the economy never to be seen again

Fewer coins in circulation causes deflation. If there is inflation, it’s coming from elsewhere like 2 gold per day for doing dailies.

Ecto prices would almost certainly rise without AB in its current form, remember when ectos were over 50 silver each?

http://www.gw2shinies.com/item/19721

Two things happened to bring them down:

• Someone posted about AB on the forums, so people knew about the multi-map and more people started to do it, increasing supply and lowering prices
• Some people horded ectos thinking AB was going to be nerfed with the summer update. When it wasn’t, people unloaded their ectos leading to a sudden shock to the supply

But the underlying uses of them haven’t gone down. So if AB gets nerfed, ecto prices will go back up, probably to 50 silver or higher over a couple weeks. That is subjectively either a good or a bad thing depending on who you ask, my entire point.

If you’re creating an item, whether it’s coin or worth coin, you’re causing inflation. People are making money from selling stuff to other people, but they’re still getting money much faster than they otherwise would be. That’s why multimapping is so popular. It’s not popular because ZOMG AB is the most fascinating event in all of Guild Wars 2. AB is the most profitable event in all of Guild Wars 2. Inflation or not that actually represents a problem. It’s not just more profitable but MUCH more profitable. If it wasn’t threads like this probably wouldn’t exist.

When people get large amounts of money from getting ten times the reward they would normally get, I don’t see how anyone can not expect that to affect the economy.

And since this is now very tangential to the topic at hand I’m going to have to leave it here, because I can’t afford more infractions.

Daroon.1736:

Vayne.8563:

GreyWolf.8670:

Nage.1520:

The “big” mega server complaint I remember was maps closing when people were doing the metas. That complaint has indeed been fixed. The other two complaints you have brought up, I can’t really address, but the pop up is something I"m not sure how they’d handle, because sometimes maps are closed simulatenously as a big event ends, or fails. As long as the server doesn’t close and you can stay on your server, I’m not sure if it’s an issue worth of a huge time investment.

Auric Basin tried to shut down right in the middle of the meta on us last night. It’s not fixed.

Tried to shut down, or the map closed? There’s a big difference.

The fix stopped maps from closing, not from getting any kind of message.

In the past maps closed. They don’t any more. That’s a fix. The message popping up…that’s an inconvenience. It only causes problems if someone actually clicks that they want to transfer maps, and furthermore, it only really matters if they’re not in a squad at that point and they can’t get back in.

The problem of maps closing has been fixed.

One of the reasons it pops up in AB by the way is the meta exploit. People are trying to get from your map into a multimap situations or they’re changing maps. As people move around, population changes and then the mega server message is triggered. They fix the multimap that will help AB as well…but the problem I was talking about, as far as I can tell is fixed.

The zone didn’t close.

I would agree that maps no longer close without warning, that indeed seems to be fixed.

That was not however the issue I was addressing. The problem of too many ‘Empty maps’ is still very much a problem (just look at the number of threads related to this issue that have appeared in the last 6 months) and as Anet have stated that Taxi’ing is not ideal, why have they not fixed it yet?

Just because something is not ideal, doesn’t mean there’s an actual solution that’s more ideal. It also doesn’t mean a solution can be performed in a timely manner. It also doesn’t mean that the solution won’t breed new problems.

It’s easy to say why don’t they fix this to a programmer. I’m pretty sure that most things we think are easy to fix are really really difficult to fix.

Why haven’t they fixed it? Because it’s not game breaking and other things are going to take priority.

Am I annoyed when a box pops up asking me if I want to transfer to another map. A tiny bit. Not worth a huge amount of effort from my point of view and I’m pretty sure fixing the megaserver generally, on any level, would make it prohibitive.

They absolutely had to fix the zone closing, because that’s infuriating. A hundred people on a DS map that closes being cheated out of a reward is absolutely infurating.

Having a warning pop up on a map to change zones a handful of times a day is far more bearable.

Did you look at the last of recently fixed bugs? It’s not like nothing is being done. Plenty is being worked on. Asking why a specific thing hasn’t been fixed, is ignoring how many things are being fixed.

Hesacon.8735:

Vayne.8563:

Hesacon.8735:

hornswroggle.8023:

No.

AB Multilooting is an exploit and it subjectively hurts the economy, because it damages the prices of all tradable loot in the game. It doesnt work in DS for a reason and so it should here.

Fixed.

I’m not sure how it’s subjective. It’s a form of inflation. If you can increase rewards to the point where they’re so profitable that people are threatening to leave if it’s fixed, something is wrong.

People threatening to leave are stupid. Go read the pvp and wvw forums, people claim to quit over the silliest of slights.

You call it inflation, but I don’t think you know what it means.

• It lowers the price of ectos, which is deflation
• It has a negligible effect on the supply or demand of other materials, since VB/TD/DS/dungeons/silverwastes can generate similar amounts of blues/greens
• It lowers the overall supply of coin since the trading post takes 15% of the coins for everything sold on it. As a result, every gold you have has more buying power. AB generates very few coins.

So for those who don’t go to AB and join a multi-map squad, they still get lower prices for everything across the board. The subjective part is whether or not lower prices are a good thing.

No aspect of the game should be so profitable that everything else pales in comparison, particularly something that’s 15 minutes long than almost anyone can do.

A half-hour and you still need map currency or map events for the keys. It would be easy to exhaust your supply of lumps of aurillium doing multi-map if you don’t already have a large reserve. If you want to nerf AB, triple the cost of keys.

When you pour gold/loot into the system, you get inflation, which is objectively bad for the economy.

It forces people to play stuff like the AB multimeta if they want to afford things, because a bunch of people who do it can afford to pay more, and prices go up for everyone…but not everyone does it or wants to do it.

There’s nothing subjective about it.

I addressed this. It causes deflation. Whether or not lower prices are good is a subjective debate worth having. Just don’t pretend it’s the cause of all the ills in the world.

I disagree. Creating more gold means more people can offer more to buy stuff. So maybe ectos come down a drop, that’s true. That’s one item. But higher end items can actually end up going up.

The problem is when people have more gold they can afford to pay more for luxury items. Items end up in bidding wars and they go higher then the average player will ever be able to afford.

People who used to get ectos from the world boss train will return to the world boss train. The price of ectos isn’t that much lower than back then.

But the price of a lot of other stuff, higher end stuff keeps going up, because people have more money and can outbid each other.

KickzNGigglez.4958:

AB multilooting is 45 minutes every 2 hours. Find something to do during the other hour and 15 minutes. Technically you’re losing money by sitting in LA during the down time. Farming for gold is well and fine imo, but there are plenty of things that takes you back to old maps. A month ago I was wandering core maps finishing dusk crafting. Last week I was wandering all over the place making that cool bloodstone visage. This week I’m doing my 3rd map expo for the next set of legendarys I’m making. Today I retook the balthazar temple to buy obsidian shards. I might even take a detour on my legendary crafting and finish the last 5 specialization collection I have left to finish. Plenty of stuff to do, just need a bit of imagination.

I have plenty of stuff to do during the downtime. But then, I don’t have that down time because I don’t waste my time with multiloot servers. Most of my money comes from making and selling legendaries, which requires me to go and do things all over the game. It takes longer. It’s a more intensive investment in time, but I still ended up with a couple of thousand gold after buying a permanent bank contract for 3000 gold.

There are other ways to make money in this game. If you want to make the same money all the time, it’s not going to happen, but you can make money doing daily high level fractal runs, or somewhat less money by running the eight quickest dungeon paths…mind you some of that money is offset by tokens you get.

At the end of the day, you’re making your own problem here. The fact that you found one profitable thing to do, doesn’t mean profit is the only motivation of most people, and doesn’t mean the game should be changed to increase inflation. The real solution is to fix the issue in AB, so people don’t have the problem anymore.

If you want a portal, I’m happy to jump it and port you up there, if you’re on a US server. Just message me in game. If’ I’m not busy with the guild I’d be happy to help. Sorry you’re getting stressed…it can be sort of stressful.

GreyWolf.8670:

Nage.1520:

The “big” mega server complaint I remember was maps closing when people were doing the metas. That complaint has indeed been fixed. The other two complaints you have brought up, I can’t really address, but the pop up is something I"m not sure how they’d handle, because sometimes maps are closed simulatenously as a big event ends, or fails. As long as the server doesn’t close and you can stay on your server, I’m not sure if it’s an issue worth of a huge time investment.

Auric Basin tried to shut down right in the middle of the meta on us last night. It’s not fixed.

Tried to shut down, or the map closed? There’s a big difference.

The fix stopped maps from closing, not from getting any kind of message.

In the past maps closed. They don’t any more. That’s a fix. The message popping up…that’s an inconvenience. It only causes problems if someone actually clicks that they want to transfer maps, and furthermore, it only really matters if they’re not in a squad at that point and they can’t get back in.

The problem of maps closing has been fixed.

One of the reasons it pops up in AB by the way is the meta exploit. People are trying to get from your map into a multimap situations or they’re changing maps. As people move around, population changes and then the mega server message is triggered. They fix the multimap that will help AB as well…but the problem I was talking about, as far as I can tell is fixed.

The zone didn’t close.

ChrizZcE.5981:

Derdhal.6908:

ChrizZcE.5981:

but I feel like I´m actually losing gold by doing anything other than ML.

And you’re right. The point is: do you play a game to gain in-game gold or for fun? I remember that old times when all games were just about having fun…

The two shouldn´t be mutually exclusive.

All I´m saying is make other areas more rewarding so that the game feels less grindy.

Actually the reward structure has usually been that most game modes should be more or less equalized, that is to say, a person can farm trees and have almost as much gold as a person who runs dungeons. It’s not always equal but it’s also not usually that far off.

The AB multimap throws that balance off. It’s so profitable, people focused on profit want the entire game to be that profitable. That’s not really a reasonable expectation.

Because if you make everything that profitable you have inflation and everything goes up in price. You’re not accomplishing anything. You have a higher amount of gold but if inflation kicks in, it’s not buying any more.

Precursors go up in price. Legendaries go up in price. Mats go up in price. No one would actually win if you made the zones as profitable as the AB meta.

If the AB meta is that profitable, the best solution is to tone it down.

Hesacon.8735:

hornswroggle.8023:

No.

AB Multilooting is an exploit and it subjectively hurts the economy, because it damages the prices of all tradable loot in the game. It doesnt work in DS for a reason and so it should here.

Fixed.

I’m not sure how it’s subjective. It’s a form of inflation. If you can increase rewards to the point where they’re so profitable that people are threatening to leave if it’s fixed, something is wrong.

No aspect of the game should be so profitable that everything else pales in comparison, particularly something that’s 15 minutes long than almost anyone can do.

When you pour gold/loot into the system, you get inflation, which is objectively bad for the economy.

It forces people to play stuff like the AB multimeta if they want to afford things, because a bunch of people who do it can afford to pay more, and prices go up for everyone…but not everyone does it or wants to do it.

There’s nothing subjective about it.

Any change to the meta in AB is going to come with collateral damage. Some people will be unhappy and some of those will leave. Probably not as many as threaten to leave.

On the other hand, it’ll mean more people doing other metas, like TD and VB, which would make some of us happier and, in my opinion, would be worth it in the long run.

The AB meta is something that’s been going on for too long. It really doesn’t help the game as a whole. It helps the types of people that can farm the same event over and over again because it’s profitable. I submit that’s not a majority of the playerbase.

As long the AB meta pulls people from other areas of the game, it’s a problem that needs addressing in my opinion.

tron.1438:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

tron.1438:

Another Birthday BUST?

tron.1438:

Final words: I am not asking or demanding in anyway for grandiose gifts or more stuff. I am not asking for less stuff. I am asking to be able use the stuff I get in some way. Even if it is simply to give it away to a friend or some cool person I partied with. Heck I would have been happy for a bag of rare mats. They are a great gifts, but so much of it I have no use for. That is all I am saying.

Your title says the gifts are a bust, all of them.

That’s a lot different from saying you think they are “great gifts” that you wish would appeal to more players such as yourself, that have different interests.

I get that you meant to be starting a discussion about how different stuff would be better, you didn’t mean to ask for more (or even less) stuff. Unfortunately, your rhetoric suggests that you think ANet is completely out of touch with players and that the gifts are worthless.

Actually, there is a question mark at the end of the title. Meaning I am questioning if this is another bust of a birthday for me and anyone else. So I don’t say it’s a bust in title.

Now, even if if I was to say in the title that they were in deed busts. Does not mean that I few them as bad gifts for anyone else. Merely that they are bad, or rather useless gifts to me. I mean look at what I am saying. If at least 75% of all the gifts you got for the last 4 years were things you could do nothing more then throw away. No pleasure from using them or even looking at them. No joy in giving them away. No chance of exchanging or even giving them back gift giver with a sincere thank you for the attempt. You would say that they were kinda a bust.

I am allergic to fish, does not mean I think giving someone smoked salmon is a bad gift. I think it’s a great gift. Just not a great gift for me. So if you give everyone including me a gift of fish and my only option is to eat it throw it away. Well guess I am wasting food. Same principle here. Though true, using a dye won’t kill me. What will I get from it. Nothing I will ever use.

It seems a lot of people are missing the point. If I am given something to show appreciation for my time and it is something I can enjoy in anyway. It would be the same as getting a gift of nothing. I love this game. I think the gifts are great gifts, just not for me. My post just goes into detail about why I am unhappy. So that hopefully those that feel the same join in for our voice to be heard.

Like I said. I am not wanting more. Just something I could use. Even if it’s a fat sack of mats.

Vayne.8563:

This reply goes to you to.

Ya, they only did 1 mini in the 4 years. The mini they gave in GW2 is not related to the Mini example from GW1. The gifts in there entirety is the comparisin. The fact that in GW1 I never had an issue with a gift cause no matter what I got. I got use out of it. Even if all I got was a big fast pile of white minis and they were all the same one. I would have been able to use them. I gave mini’s to friends, to guild members and even as prizes just for finding me in town. I had a TON of duplicate mini’s. I got them in trade a lot. Still, never upset with any of them or getting them as the gifts. Cause no matter what. There was always a way to use them instead of throwing them away.

In GW2 I can’t even give any of this stuff away to anyone who might have use for it. Sure there are plenty of players who would have loved one of my many lv 20 scrolls year 1 and 2. This has nothing to do with mini’s specifically. Just that there is I can do with all this stuff they are giving me. Do you want one of my celebration dyes? Oh wait, I can’t give it to you. Sorry!

See!

---

I really hope everyone reading this further looks down here. If you don’t agree with me. That is cool. That means you enjoyed your gifts. I have not. I am not hating on Arena. I am not demanding anything. I am simply pointing out that I (and I am sure many others) are not happy with them for the reasons I listed. Maybe they will see this and change for year 5. Maybe they will come up with a system to exchange unwanted gifts or account bound rewards for something else. Maybe they will just read this and laugh. I don’t know.

So everyone enjoy your gifts if you can. I do think they have some great stuff in them, but just nothing I can use.

I don’t know. I remember people in Guild Wars 1 complaining about their birthday gifts. The complains were I’ve opened five gifts and gotten five whites, but they were still complaints and people weren’t happy with that.

There were people who weren’t into minis at all and didn’t care about them as well and to those people Guild Wars 1 birthday gifts were at best ho-hum. The amount you could sell them for, more of the time, was neglible to people that had been playing for years.

The Guild Wars 2 birthday gift gives you a suit. More than one thing. A title, if you like that sort of thing. A booster if you like that sort of thing (I personally like birthday boosters), an item like a mini, or a birthday blaster, or a dye pack. In the last instance your choice of one of three back pieces, to unlock in your wardrobe that can be used on multiple characters.

Let’s face it, the Guild Wars 2 gift, like it or not, is not only more versatile than the Guild Wars 1 gift, but doesn’t see many complaints (after the first year when I got 20 Queen Jennahs anyway).

Sourde Noire.5286:

My biggest gripe is probably the disconnects. Especially because some instances seem to be more prone to them than others for whatever reason. I think I had to do the PS instance where you and Trahearne go into a cave to rescue a team and in the end fight a Lich and Abominations about 20 times, even though I’ve only done it on 10 characters. Mostly because I’d get a disconnect right at the end of this 20-30 minute dialogue fest.

The reason is probably, as usual, that they don’t know how to easily do it given the code and that they have more important things to do, but really. This existed in GW1 and it’s just the best feeling, knowing that, if you disconnect during the super long instance, you have up to 15 (?) minutes to attempt to reconnect with your progress being saved.

I mean, you may return to a wiped party and failed instance, but that’s better than a definitive kick.

I’m pretty sure I was kicked from instances in Guild Wars 1 and had to restart then, like story instances. I don’t ever remember being returned to the same instance.

Daroon.1736:

Nage.1520:

The “big” mega server complaint I remember was maps closing when people were doing the metas. That complaint has indeed been fixed. The other two complaints you have brought up, I can’t really address, but the pop up is something I"m not sure how they’d handle, because sometimes maps are closed simulatenously as a big event ends, or fails. As long as the server doesn’t close and you can stay on your server, I’m not sure if it’s an issue worth of a huge time investment.

I’m not convinced that any sort of ‘fix’ has taken place as you describe. What has occurred is that players are using the taxi system to try and get to ‘full’ maps as events start. This is fine for the few that succeed but the problem is that many can’t because there are so many players on empty maps, that when they all try to join the advertised one or two, they end up staring at the ‘the map you are trying to join is full’ dialogue, they give up in frustration.

The system should be filling one map at a time (similar to how the old district system worked in GW1) but at the moment, because the priority is to ensure that each new map created has reserved space for friends and guild mates to join – too many ‘empty’ maps are being created.

The fix was listed in the patch notes and it’s been quite a long time since I’ve seen a post about the zone closing during a meta.

Edit: For those who believe Anet doesn’t fix bugs, here’s a link to the known issue tracker. You can see recently solved bugs and bugs they’re currently trying to investigate.

https://help.guildwars2.com/entries/98802888-Known-Issue-Tracker

Edit: This is a quote from the known issue tracker relevant to the OP:

“Map Instances are being closed while active or with substantial progress in active Meta events”

This is listed under recently solved.

AliamRationem.5172:

I love the HoT maps, but I’d love them more if I could just log in and play them any time. I recognize that they aren’t “dead”, but that isn’t my issue. I just want to play and the hard event timers combined with the LFG and megaserver systems create a scenario in which your only option for doing so is to show up at the correct time and use LFG.

That’s the biggest failing of HoT, in my opinion. Well, that and adventures. But at least those are somewhat optional. Unfortunately, this issue is simply a side-effect of the design. I wish there were a way around it, but they’ll probably just have to avoid this event setup in the future.

I play HOT zones at any time. You can solo much of it, probably most of it, but even with one single friend you can do an awful lot. And even if you don’t have friends playing, it’s easy enough to find people doing stuff in zones even at off hours.

But again, as I’ve already said, I sincerely doubt they’ll be doing this again.

Astralporing.1957:

Vayne.8563:

If a meta map is going on, we can fill 10 maps for the meta in AB. Filling ten maps is not no one playing.

That’s not “playing”. That’s the most farme event in the game. and 10 maps is around 1000-1500 people at most (that assuming all those maps are full, which they are not).
On the other hand, there are days when, even at the peak hours, you can’t find even a single map doing Gerent. Or VB meta above t2. AB maps 15 mins after te multiloot has ended are also generally empty or filled with afkers waiting for the next chest run opportunity.
Also, multiloot is going to get killed one of these days. I’m actually surprised it hasn’t happened yet – Anet was usually faster to kill (or at least diminish in some way) such farms before.

In general, i really, really hope Anet has really took the lessons to heart and is going to change course for the next expac. I don’t think i’d be able to stomach a second HoT.

Saying farming isn’t playing is a fairly selective view, considering farm is what some people do as their man vehicle for playing.

Some people go and farm mats in the open world. They have a route, they go through zones on multiple characters. They may never do a dungeon. To them, that’s playing. It’s not how I play but it doesn’t mean it’s not playing.

The zones are designed to separate people, but it doesn’t mean people aren’t there. I keep running into people in those zones, even at non-meta times and yes, I’m in those zones a lot.

Every time I think I’m going to get overwhelmed by something or some event, a couple of people show up. That’s without me posting in map chat or popping a tag. There are just people there.

What you find less of is zergs.

This is more like what most maps are like when there isn’t a world event on them. It’s normal not to have a hundred players on every map. However, if you put fifty or sixty players on a hot map, I’m pretty sure it would look like no one was playing. I’m in a cave, you’re in the canopy. I’m doing hero points, you’re doing events. I’m doing adventures, someone else is farming mats.

There are people around. They simply aren’t congregating unless an event is on.

And I’ve still not found a time when a TD event wasn’t being done on a map….but that map usually sets up 15 minutes before the event timer kicks in.

I think HoT would be a lot more popular without a lot of negative publicity from a few people who judged it early and hated it. Without the negative publicity where would be even more people in zones. But I don’t think many people gave hot a chance, comparatively anyway.

I don’t think HoT will be the future design-wise because of how verbal the backlash was, but I think a lot more people like it than most people who don’t think.

Ardenwolfe.8590:

Sadly, as far as the starter zones, when they nerfed the champion trains, they also nerfed interest in staying in those zones. And then Scarlet nuked Lion’s Arch, the most popular hub at the time, and the new look isn’t exactly making people stick around.

On top of all that, the content drought hurt the population and interest in a huge way. Now, returning players, head straight for the new zone and only the new zone for any length of time.

Finally, I can only speak for myself, but I again log in, do my dailies to include two of the Bloodstone Fen ones, and then log right back out to play something else.

Yeah . . . it’s not a surprise you’re not seeing anyone in my humble opinion.

So the people moved to DR and Rata Sum, not sure why that’s a big deal. High level players can’t run around low level zones and ruin the experience of new players by killing stuff too fast. Not sure why that’s a big deal.

You keep saying no one is in HoT, but then you say you only go to one zone and log out, so I’m not really sure how you’d know.

I think you’re right. You can only speak for yourself.

Djinn.9245:

Blipp.5206:

Djinn.9245:

Blipp.5206:

There is still plenty of people playing hot maps, you just need to use the LFG tool

“Need to use the LFG tool” and “plenty of people playing HoT maps” are mutually exclusive. If there were ACTUALLY plenty of people, you wouldn’t need to use LFG.

Thats not really the case. LFG is a tool that lets you find people to do specific content. Every player goes to a certain map to do specific content

If I go to HoT maps, I often don’t see another character while doing things around the map. In AB, probably the most popular HoT map, I don’t even see people doing Pre-Meta events if I simply zone into the instance without looking for a map doing the meta. That is not “plenty of people”. If you have to know how to look for people, that means that they are hard to find…

That’s like saying there’s no one in NYC because when I go down a street at 4 am it’s deserted. It doesn’t mean there aren’t people in NYC. It means they’re not there at the moment you’re there. That’s all it means.

If a meta map is going on, we can fill 10 maps for the meta in AB. Filling ten maps is not no one playing.

And you can still be on a map that’s not doing the meta that has less people on it.

tron.1438:

Ok so I am getting a lot of no one wants to read and assume I am just hating or something.

I said the gifts are great IF…. IF… they were 1 per account instead of 1 per character.

Vayne.8563:

So what you’re saying is a white mini on a bunch of Guild Wars 1 characters, because that’s what you got most often, is somehow better than we’re getting here?

Okay. I think a single white mini per character is much worse than we get here. Sure you could get a green or a gold mini, but what are the odds.

Someone could theoretically have started Guild Wars 1 two years after it launched and they’d be two years behind on birthday presents where the mini they get, if it was white, would have been worth next to nothing. And I’m sure those people complained.

At the end there were probably more people like that, than people that have every dye.

Birthday boosters, a 24 hour buff is actually pretty nice. Teleports to a friend? I use them all the time. A nice back piece once per account, pick the best you want, so everyone doesn’t have the same thing, nothing wrong with it.

And the dyes, which for most people would be worth more than the white mini they were most likely to get in Guild Wars 1.

I’m sorry but this is definitely a case of rose colored glasses. I one year in Guild Wars 1, I opened presents on 12 characters and got 11 whites and a purple. I promise you I wasn’t thrilled with what I’d gotten.

I’ll go on record to say the dyes are probably as good or better, and everything else is gravy.

So 11 whites and 1 purple that you can TRADE/SELL/or GIVE AWAY is worse then 14 of the exact same mini that you can do nothing with, 14 experience scrolls you can do nothing with, 36 Birthday boosters that have no to little use to me. At most I will probable use 2-4 of those Boosters. (by the way I have other boosters just like them given out from events)

So ya. If I am going to be given the same thing over and over. I would like to be able to use then throw it in the trash. That’s kinda rude to have someone give you something and you just toss it in the trash. How would you like it if you gave something to you a person you appreciate and they just tossed in the trash right there in front of ya saying, “No thank. Can’t use it.”

Yes, I liked the Queen mini. Even use her on one of my char. Would be great if I use all them. Yes I used a couple of the lv 20 scrolls from year 1. Year 4, everyone is pretty much past lv 40. Ya, B-Day boosts were nice year 1 and 2 for said charactures getting up in lvs but year 3 and 4 don’t really need them any more. Birthday guns were cute and fun but tossed them all after the first day and never used them again. Don’t have a use for them. Though it was a cool gift.

The DYE packs that I am getting a lot of anger on. 4 years with the game. I have 17 charactures. Now I would have used all these dye packs and begged for more IF the game was the same back in year 1 or even 2. Though they changed the way dyes work. I use to have to get the same dye for each of my chars most of the time. Which was a pain. Now that they all share dyes colors. I only need 1. Year 3, ya I used a couple of the dye I really liked. I don’t need every dye or already got the dye I needed. When new dyes came out. I almost never needed any of the colors and only got them for sale later.

Now with all these account bound dyes. What do I do with them? Open them and get random dyes I will never use just to fill a checklist? They are a great gift, just to much of the same thing I don’t need.

Year 4, birthday cards. I am using everyone of them. Great gift. Bag of shards was cool at the time cause I they had use then as well. Teleport to a Friend, well I can see how others may need that. I think I have only used 1. Every time I wanted to run a map with a friend. I just grab the way point nearest to them. Seems to work for me.

If I could I would GIVE this all away to people who need them. I hate wasting cool items. They are all great but I can’t use them.

AGAIN!!! For all those that may have missed it. They are all great gifts but I can’t use them.

That is the issue here. NOT that they are bad or anything like that. I have so much of them that are of no use to me. So ya, 11 white mini’s and 1 purple mini that I can trade/sell/or give away is a better gift then all this stuff I have to throw away or let sit in my bank.

Oh and for your info Vayne.8563. I started GW1 about a year and half after the game came out. Ya, I got mostly whites. Ya, they were not as expensive as the newer whites but I still traded them for things I could use. Materials, a little gold, or some inscriptions I did not have.

Final words: I am not asking or demanding in anyway for grandiose gifts or more stuff. I am not asking for less stuff. I am asking to be able use the stuff I get in some way. Even if it is simply to give it away to a friend or some cool person I partied with. Heck I would have been happy for a bag of rare mats. They are a great gifts, but so much of it I have no use for. That is all I am saying.

Except that one mini was only the first year birthday gift, three years ago. Don’t you think using it as an example when we’ve had 3 years where that didn’t happen is a bit disingenuous. Obviously Anet has moved away from that one mini thing, and that was simply what they did the first year and it didn’t work.

Why is it being brought up now to prove some kind of point?

Danikat.8537:

Vayne.8563:

Tekey.7946:

EphemeralWallaby.7643:

Waypoints instead of mounts

Why not both? It’s working in TESO e.g. (I didn’t like many other things in that game though).
Are mounts still considered as evil in Guild Wars? If we had a larger variety of cosmetic mounts (yup, we already got mounts such as the magic carpet, broom,…) maybe we could experience a new feeling while roaming through Tyria. If we didn’t waypoint every 5 seconds it could provide much more authenticity to the world our characters live in..

I recently jumped back into Guild Wars 1, it’s a different feeling walking through the maps by yourself compared to teleporting (+ loading screen) all the time (gw1 had outposts though, so you could easily reach distanced areas). I don’t want to remove waypoints in gw2 because they’re very useful but mounts could be a good thing for a different purpose.

P.S.: I want to ride drakes and dolyaks and things just as Dagnar Stonepate and the dwarves of the Stone Summit already did in gw1.

I don’t get the mount hate either. I’ve lost the hope of Anet ever adding mounts to this game, but I’d be happier if they did.

I don’t think GW2 needs mounts at all. There’s enough stuff to see and do that we don’t need to run past large tracts of empty space and we’ve got Waypoints when we need to go long distances quickly.

But I wouldn’t object if they did add mounts. I think they could be fun and I’m an animal person – I main a ranger and collect mini pets so I’d welcome the chance to add mounts to my zoo.

My deal is that mounts, in past games, were always part of my characters identity. So like different characters would ride different mounts, just like they’d wear different titles or have different minipets. It’s another way of customizing a character to me.

I don’t care about speed or need at all. I care about customization. Once I get my armor looking just right on characters, I rarely change anything. A mount is another option for me to customize.

If you’re on a US server hit me up in game. I’m sure I can help.

Djinn.9245:

Blipp.5206:

There is still plenty of people playing hot maps, you just need to use the LFG tool

“Need to use the LFG tool” and “plenty of people playing HoT maps” are mutually exclusive. If there were ACTUALLY plenty of people, you wouldn’t need to use LFG.

This simply isn’t true. There are plenty of people doing HoT maps, but that doesn’t mean the mega server is working well enough to put them together.

And of course the other thing is that more people are playing the HoT maps as specific times as the meta approaches. It doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of people at other times, it just means they’re more scattered because the maps are complex.

I was in VB with a guy who said, there’s no one here. This map is dead.

I popped a tag at the event chain we were doing and in minutes there were 20 people with us.

It’s easy to believe maps are dead. But the way HoT maps are designed, they’re designed with enough complexity to make it less obvious that others are around.

Tekey.7946:

EphemeralWallaby.7643:

Waypoints instead of mounts

Why not both? It’s working in TESO e.g. (I didn’t like many other things in that game though).
Are mounts still considered as evil in Guild Wars? If we had a larger variety of cosmetic mounts (yup, we already got mounts such as the magic carpet, broom,…) maybe we could experience a new feeling while roaming through Tyria. If we didn’t waypoint every 5 seconds it could provide much more authenticity to the world our characters live in..

I recently jumped back into Guild Wars 1, it’s a different feeling walking through the maps by yourself compared to teleporting (+ loading screen) all the time (gw1 had outposts though, so you could easily reach distanced areas). I don’t want to remove waypoints in gw2 because they’re very useful but mounts could be a good thing for a different purpose.

P.S.: I want to ride drakes and dolyaks and things just as Dagnar Stonepate and the dwarves of the Stone Summit already did in gw1.

I don’t get the mount hate either. I’ve lost the hope of Anet ever adding mounts to this game, but I’d be happier if they did.

Tachenon.5270:

Vayne.8563:

A marketing like like “we’re going to take everything you love about Guild Wars and put it in Guild Wars 2” is impossible. Completely impossible. Anyone who stopped to think about it for even a minute or two would realize that.

Yet they said it, and they said it like they meant it. Are you saying it was a lie?

Yep, I’m saying it’s not a lie. It’s not specific enough to be a lie. It’s amorphous. Not everything that turns out to be untrue is a lie. A lie implies INTENT to mislead. I’m not so sure this was said with any intent to mislead at all.

I can talk casually in a video about what I INTEND to do with a game. They were open even at that point about how the weapon system would work.

It’s a casual statement, not a specific one. It’s an English thing. Not all things are meant to be taken literally and everything really needs to be taken in context. You remove the context and you lose the meaning.

I largely play this game because my guild makes it fun, but that’s true in any MMO.

Unlike the person who claimed that they play this game because they don’t have a girlfriend, I’m fortunate in that my wife plays too. We play together much of the time, instead of sitting and watching TV (which we also sometimes do).

This MMO in particular gives me a lot of things other MMOs don’t. It’s less linear than most MMOs. There are all sorts of intricate nooks to explore. All sorts of hidden thing. I love the graphics style and the feel of the world.

I like not paying a monthly fee because it means I get to choose when I pay (buy something from the cash shop). When I’m annoyed with stuff, which happens, I stop spending money. When I’m happy, I spend money. I’m not being held prisoner by a subscription where I have to keep paying every month to play a game I already bought.

I like this game because the cash shop isn’t pay to win. I like it because it has humor. I like it because it focuses on the open world, instead of instances, as many games tend to in end game. I like it because new and interesting things happen often enough to hold my attention. The current events are an example of this.

I like it because I enjoy working on collections. I enjoy collecting skins. I like the wardrobe feature.

But mostly because I found a great group of people who play with who play like me…hardcore casuals and proud of it.

It’s a lot of fun for me, even after for years of playing just about every day.

Lemuria.3195:

No one’s talked about the advantages of hearts? No one? Okay… here goes.

One of the main advantages is that they’re persistent. They’re always located in one area, so you can keep working towards an objective. They don’t replace timed events either, and in some cases doing events benefits your heart objectives too!

They count towards map completion. It gives you more reason to explore the area outside of just passing through, and encourages players to gather in certain areas to complete them. Areas with hearts are often hotzones of activity for players.

As someone rightly pointed out earlier, heart events aren’t found in level 80 zones in Tyria. Honestly, I don’t see that changing for the Maguuma either. My goal here isn’t to suggest they should be added, but offer an interesting counterpoint to the hate that heart events seem to get.

Even if you hate them, you can’t deny they have their advantages.

Almost all the advantages you listed are disadvantages from another point of view.

You say they’re persistent, but they’re really not, in the sense that once you finished them, they’re essentially meaningless. An event I can profit from over and over again, a heart I can profit from once per character. They create a heart that I can finish often in 2-3 minutes. Then I’m done with that heart.

They count toward map completion is not an advantage for many if not most of us. What you’re really saying is they’re REQUIRED for map completion. Means it takes longer to map complete. Sure your first map complete no one cares. The more map completes you do, the more annoying hearts end up becoming. This isn’t a plus.

Orr has no hearts but has hotbeds of player activity. We don’t need a static Heart to tell us plinx is up, which is a Hotbed of player activity. Outposts in VB are places where event chains spawn, we don’t need to beat hearts in them to have hotbeds of player activity. Meta events are also hotbeds of player activity. I’ve seen more people at the maw and fire ele than I’ve seen at any heart. So what are these hotbeds you’re talking about? In fact there are some hearts that disadvantage you by having players around because they don’t scale and there’s not enough to kill.

So I’m not sure what you listed that actually counts as an advantage, end stop.

I get nothing from hearts I can’t get better from a dynamic event.

Zones without hearts still have hotbeds of activity, but generally don’t require you to get every event to progess something, except maybe an achievement.

Gehenna.3625:

The positives I take from HoT:

I like gliding…a lot. All over Tyria basically.
I like trickier maps like VB and AB but not so much the two after. Still I like the general idea of a 3D approach to maps.
Storyline feels darker as it should considering what happens in it.
The elite specializations are cool, though the Necromancer one currently has left me rather underwhelmed, but Mesmer and Guardian I think are great. Can’t wait to get the next one really.

The adventures and more legendaries to grind for, the fractals and raid. Well, not for me, but the game does need to cater to more needs than mine. It makes me a casual player but that’s ok.

I think HoT improved GW2 significantly overall.

You should take a look at collections, because there are some collections that are relatively casual, even in HoT, particularly the mistward armor and the elite specialization weapons.

DGraves.3720:

Djinn.9245:

GW2 started as a game in which you could choose how to play. Anet should stop gating content behind play modes and offer alternate means of receiving / accomplishing things for different modes of play.

As Legendaries are cosmetic items I’m thinking they should be given at least this to enjoy. Not everything in the game should be watered down to match player laziness and stupidity. They alreasy hosed traits, money, combat and gear.

Leave them their Legendaries. Leave them some dignity.

Aside from this, this game started with you having to do WvW for world complete. I’m not sure why that’s ignored.

If you wanted a gift of battle, you had to run around and complete WvW maps. It wasn’t easy. Sometimes it wasn’t fun, and a lot of people hated it. This isn’t worse than that. This is actually easier.

Because at least this way you don’t have to wait for one tower that isn’t your color that your guys never cap to turn to your color so you could get it.

But yes, right, it’s always been play your way.

People need to look at the context that quote was given in, rather than using it for everything every time they want to try to make a point.

Welcome back and Happy Fourth Anniversary.

Hope you enjoy the return.