Guild Wars 2

Mickey Chi.3178:

Sourde Noire.5286:

As the other said, it’s instanced group content. It’s certainly doable solo, moreso on classes like the Ranger probably, but if it was your very first attempt then it’s no surprise.

So I don’t quite get the point of this thread. You tried to solo group content and it was too hard. Surprise. This is neither a valid complaint nor does it need adressing.

Try to find a group to do it with.

Actually, personal story dungeon content didn’t let you find people, it has to be a friend invited to join group. It is a storyline dungeon available when you reach level 30. I was also with a Ranger NPC, warrior NPC, and myself a ranger, so in total we had 5 characters.

You don’t understand. When you try to enter a story mode dungeon with less than five actually players, the requester on your screen tells you you should look for more players. You just didn’t read it.

The dungeons never let you find people. You find people by posting your dungeon group in the LFG (looking for group tool).

Generally speaking, dungeons in MMOs are understood to be group content by anyone who’s experienced with MMOs. Finding the group is up to you.

Mickey Chi.3178:

Relair.1843:

They are designed for groups of 5, but you can absolutely solo any of them at 80 if you are patient and built for it. Ranger is one of the easiest, just use a drake or a bear with full beast build, signet of the wild, natural healing etc, and stand there and laugh as they tank every boss with barely a scratch. Or now with druid its probably even easier, even more healing, but I havent tried it yet with mine. I’ve done them all with regular ranger and necromancer, some of them are pretty kitten rough but AC should be very doable for most people. If you are having alot of trouble, even having 1 friend with you turns a challenge into a cakewalk.

I know Ranger pets can be awesome… but now they changed it so that many mobs will choose to attack you instead, they chase me all around ignoring my pet!

Vayne.8563:

If you’re soloing a dungeon instead of doing it with the group of five as intended, of course it’s going to be hard. It even warns you before you enter that it’s meant for a group. You probably just clicked through the warning.

Certain players can solo dungeons, but it takes practice and experience. Soloing a dungeon on your first play through a dungeon is pretty remarkable, but it’s also unnecessary.

There’s no bug. You just tried to solo something balanced for five people.

I see, I was thinking “personal” story dungeon I can do it with solo, I have always been solo on GW2, I guess this limits my chances. The point is many guilds say that the early dungeons are pretty easy, but I didn’t think so.

Yes they say early dungeons are pretty easy, with a group as they were designed. They don’t say early dungeons are pretty easy solo (even though that particular dungeon is for sure the easiest).

Story mode dungeons are still balanced around five people. Due to power creep you can get away with less, however. They were never designed to be done solo, however.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Sykper.6583:

Manasa Devi.7958:

maddoctor.2738:

There are only 4 zones, with events on a constant, unchanging schedule. This gets old very fast.

And searching for an event and if you actually need it for a collection, praying that is on, is so much better? Ever tried doing a legendary precursor collection?

That’s absolutely not better. I did the tier 1 collection for Dawn. It was horrible, easily one of the most boring things I did in this game.

Another mark against HoT.

Because a feature years in the making is the fault of the expansion. Legendary Collections are independent of HoT with the exception of the actual HoT Legendaries.

Except they aren’t independent, because one must purchase HoT to access Masteries. Not connected to magus Falls != not connected to the XPac.

This is a fine hair to split. You’re factually right. But I strongly suspect the precursor hunt we received was being worked on before it was going to be delivered as part of the expansion.

For example people blame the dungeon nerf on the expansion. I say it’s due to free to play.

A lot of people demanded an expansion and Anet took what they were working on and made it into an expansion. It’s entirely likely that even without Heart of Thorns, the precursor crafting we got would be the precursor crafting we were going to get anyway.

If you’re soloing a dungeon instead of doing it with the group of five as intended, of course it’s going to be hard. It even warns you before you enter that it’s meant for a group. You probably just clicked through the warning.

Certain players can solo dungeons, but it takes practice and experience. Soloing a dungeon on your first play through a dungeon is pretty remarkable, but it’s also unnecessary.

There’s no bug. You just tried to solo something balanced for five people.

penelopehannibal.8947:

Methods.4023:

eyesrutherford.1357:

penelopehannibal.8947:

Finally an /age thread that’s not about precursor drop rates!

Holy crap at over 14,000 hours lol.
Well that’s the highest I’ve seen now.

Ya 14k hours and I bet at least 1/3 to 1/2 are because he/she was logged on 24/7 in the beginning. People didn’t get the boot in the beginning for being afk plus for a long while auto run keeper you in the game too

I hope you didn’t put real money on this bet because you’re wrong! I actually only played about 4 hours a day when the game was first out. Now it’s like 12 hours, maybe 14 because I do a lot of roleplay on Piken Square, and I’m a stay at home carer.

This my story too. I care full time for a disabled person. I’m pretty much stay at home by circumstance. I don’t RP but I do spent time talking to people in the guild between doing stuff in real life.

Gratz! Thanks for the update.

pepsis.5384:

Vayne.8563:

pepsis.5384:

Nice try you two. Leveling your character up is like THE most natural thing in any RPG. Trying to paint it as black as the HoT progression grind is not gonna fly.

If we two were the only way saying it, you might be right. But you saying something is not so, doesn’t make it not so.

Go into any thread where someone calls it a grind, and count the number of individual posters who think it is, and who think it isn’t. I’m pretty sure it’ll be a closer count than you think.

Honestly, the posters who say its fine might as well be more than those who complain. It doesnt really matter to me does it? Or to you too by the way. What matters to me is what I think, what I feel. And I dont feel good in the jungle nor am I having fun. I’ve had helpful guild members show me around but it doesnt work for me and thats that.

I dont even need to define exactly why that is – why waste my time and energy evaluating the expansion bit by bit. The fact there are quite a few vocal others who feel the same speaks for itself.

Well look at your language. You say nice try you to like we’re trying to pull the wool over someone’s eyes. Even your assumption that people in MMOs don’t find normal leveling a grind is flawed, since we’ve seen many posts were people think leveling in this game is a grind.

Where as I’m stating my opinion you’re trying to discredit it through use of language. I’m saying yes, you consider it a grind, and other people do not, where as some people considering leveling a grind and you do not.

ProtoGunner.4953:

How is this judgmental. Every doctor or psychologist would tell you it’s unhealthy. Besides I didn’t tell those people are ill, I just told that half of your past 3 year life playing one game is unhealthy.

Yes, I know that there is a lot of afk time. But even then, you had to be there to not automatically log off after one hour.

If you are home bound there is not only one game. What about cooking, painting, collecting things, studying, reading, singing, playing an instrument, training etc. etc.

People who feel attacked directly do this often out of self-consciousness and instead of accepting to change something they blame the guy who holds the mirror. But certainly a forum of an MMO game is the wrong place to tell such things. So, I stop.

I can keep this game open and do other things though. You’re simply making the assumption that nothing else is getting done and only this game is being played. Even when I worked, I was at my computer 14 hours a day many days.

It’s quite normal for me to be at a computer. But in this instance, I’m up and down all day doing stuff. Maybe 2-4 hours of that time is directly playing.

maddoctor.2738:

pepsis.5384:

Nice try you two. Leveling your character up is like THE most natural thing in any RPG. Trying to paint it as black as the HoT progression grind is not gonna fly.

And how exactly is the mastery leveling a grind compared to leveling up from 1-80?

The more characters you have the less of a grind it is. I have 30 80s. I only leveled my mastery once for all 30.

pepsis.5384:

Nice try you two. Leveling your character up is like THE most natural thing in any RPG. Trying to paint it as black as the HoT progression grind is not gonna fly.

If we two were the only way saying it, you might be right. But you saying something is not so, doesn’t make it not so.

Go into any thread where someone calls it a grind, and count the number of individual posters who think it is, and who think it isn’t. I’m pretty sure it’ll be a closer count than you think.

maddoctor.2738:

I think players just forgot how GW2 was pre-HoT. For example I read a lot of complaints about Mastery points and how they are “grindy”.

First complaint: HoT story is gated behind mastery points. GW2 pre-HoT story was gated behind levels. And you need a LOT of experience points to progress your story. New characters can level up with tomes, but masteries are Account Bound. I don’t see how HoT story is more grindy than GW2 Personal Story.

Second complaint: You can’t reach places in HoT without first leveling masteries. In GW2 pre-HoT you can’t reach places if you are low level… same thing as the above really. I remember when players went to Frostgorge from Wayfarer’s and saw the high level mobs after they added the “guide”. Fun times.

Is the mastery system really a grind? Then the entire 1-80 leveling process of GW2 is a much worse grind. I’m sure after a couple of years players “forgot” how leveling works in the game, using their tomes, but if you think about it the Mastery system is not “grindy” compared to the regular leveling process.

Not to mention I’m sure a lot of people don’t use boosters, food, utlities and the stuff to allow them to level that stuff faster. The early stuff, the stuff you really need, is probably a few hours of play just playing, that’s my guess anyway.

pepsis.5384:

Manasa Devi.7958:

Vayne.8563:

We definitely lost some people to the game being too easy before the expansion. I can’t say how many but I know people who left due to lack of challenge in the game. Some of them have come back.

Anyone truthfully leaving because of the game being too easy, and coming back for HoT, will be gone again soon because of the severely lacking amount of content in HoT. If HoT is the only content in this game you appreciate, you still have next to nothing.

^This pretty much. Someone wants to live by the clock, then taxi around the instances just so he can participate in some boring meta event be my guest. That kitten is simply not for me.

See to me it’s a mixed bag. I don’t like the timers, but I do like the metas, particularly VB and DS. I don’t personally find them boring. If you do, that’s okay but I’m sure I’m not the only guy who likes some of the metas. In fact, I seem to remember some posts from other people who do. So whether or not someone comes back and stays depends a lot more on their play style and what they enjoy than anything else.

I’ve always preferred open world content to instanced content. The dungeon nerf, which kittened off a considerable number of people, didn’t hurt me. Again, I can’t be the only guy…and no one knows the numbers, probably not even Anet.

pepsis.5384:

Ah, here’s Vayne, ArenaNet stalwart defender to the rescue. FYI Im not really attacking them this time, no need to jump the gun

I’m not defending Anet, I’m asking a couple of valid questions. You made a statement that losing customers is NEVER a good thing, while neglecting to ask if having the game too easy didn’t lose some customers, which would then not be a good thing.

There’s no defense to Anet here nor did I think you were attacking Anet. But I did think that there was a logical fallacy about losing customers never being a good thing. I’ve been in businesses before that made decisions were guaranteed to lose customers and it turned out to be a good thing. I really does depend on number and specific customer.

Sometimes change isn’t accepted by people even if it’s necessary. But that isn’t necessarily a defense of Anet, isn’kitten It’s an opinion stated about some assumptions you’ve made.

P.S. On the issue of money I wholeheartedly agree. I’ve been saying that across many threads for a long time. In six months or so, we’ll get a better idea of how these changes have affected the bottom line. Until then it’s all just guesses.

ProtoGunner.4953:

How can you get so many hours is beyond me. I just wonder: If you played half your life a game the past 3 years what else you do? I mean: work, family, friends, travel, sport, going out etc. You clearly have almost nothing of this if you clocked that many hours considering you still have to sleep for 6-8 h a day. I don’t want to moralize etc. but I don’t think this is healthy – neither physically nor psychically.

I wish people would be less judgemental. First, being logged in for all day doesn’t mean you play all day, or even a lot of each day. There are plenty of home bound people who are home bound for all sorts of reasons. This game allows them to connect to the rest of the world. It’s like having a chat program open for them.

I really think judging other people’s mental and physical health is pretty far beyond the purview of any forum goer, particularly as a generalization.

pepsis.5384:

Well I, for one, left HoT. Im back to core Tyria so there’s that. Arenanet defenders tend to tell us that its ok for people to leave and that the game needed more challenging content etc. Thats rubbish. The game flourished for years thanks to its easy going model. It didnt have to force a change, it could have simply added a hard mode for those who want it. Losing customers is never good and dont kid yourselves, most of the so called “new people” are free to play.

First of all, some free to play people still spend money on the cash shop and some buy the expansion, so there’s that.

More to the point, all MMOs lose customers. Every single one of them. They also all gain new customers. The question is always in the equation customers lost, customers gained and customers returned.

We definitely lost some people to the game being too easy before the expansion. I can’t say how many but I know people who left due to lack of challenge in the game. Some of them have come back. The question I have though is why is losing those people okay, because you liked the content that allowed you to stay, while losing you and people who play like you is a bad thing.

At any rate, Anet has realized, belatedly perhaps, that they’ve lost perhaps too many people from the south pole of the equation, so much so that they said they’ll be making changes to HoT to accomodate some of those people.

I guess when those changes come out we’ll see if the people who left come back, if the people who came back will leave, and how many of which is going to be left.

That’s fun. Try it on a character with some stealth, or speed. Lots of dodge and run tactics.

Even though it’s physically longer, I would take the north road. Up through Jaka Itzel and along the road there past Pact Encampment. From there I’d go north and cut around through Coztic Grounds, make a right and you can take the path all the way straight through to the waypoint.

Those with gliding and upgraft use and the lost precipe guild hall can get there in about 2 minutes from pretty much anywhere in the world by traveling to the guild hall first. As a bonus, as soon as you enter the zone, Shipwreck Peak waypoint is unlocked as well, so you can get the first and last waypoint in the zone in about 2 minutes.

I think the mostly did the cash shop right. I’m not in favor of some of the more RNG stuff that’s in the cash shop, but mostly it’s very good. Particularly compared to most of the other non-subscription games I’ve played.

Sages.3496:

Vayne.8563:

Sages.3496:

Vayne.8563:

I’m not sure I should say. lol It’s over 12,000 hours though.

Some one who has managed to beat me! I am honored.

Not sure it’s an honor but nice to meet you. Again I’m logged in that amount of time, I’m not playing for all of it. How many achievement points do you have (or do you bother with them?).

I feel having high AP is a way to say “Here, beat this!” so i dont actively achievement hunt, 11k hours and i have 15.4k AP xD

Having a high AP is different for me. I’m not really asking anyone to beat me or not beat me. I’m simply more reactive than proactive. It’s handy to have a list of things to do for me, because I have so much stuff going on on so many characters, I’d just be paralyzed by choice. That’s why I seldom start specific guild stuff but I join in when someone needs help with almost anything.

Basically there’s too much to do, so the achievements give me a road map of what to do next.

Behellagh.1468:

Vayne.8563:

Kattenpootjes.4291:

So many people left already XD I wonder why…

Because bigger companies like Microsoft, Google and Amazon can offer developers more money than Anet who has made two games in a single franchise and has no other income. Most of the people who left recently were hired away by bigger publishers who have deeper pockets. If you worked for Anet, even if you loved it there and someone offered you a salary that was 30-50% more than you were making, what would you do?

Well there’s that but after X years, something new sounds fun.

I’ve always been more of a company guy. Once I settled into a position in a company I’d move through the company but it took a lot to get my switch. Maybe it’s just a case of being comfortable and happy, and not wanting to risk not being so in a new place. But yes, a lot of people like moving around. Particularly if you can get rewarded financially for doing so.

DarcShriek.5829:

I enjoyed season 1 better than season 2. The problem I had with season one was that when it was over, it was gone. I would have liked to have some of the events remain. Events such as the aetherblade dungeon, the krait tower, and the marionette.

I do like the replayability of season 2, but season one just seemed more epic.

If you do fractals you can get parts of the aetherblade dungeon and the molten alliance dungeons.

As a confirmed altoholic, I’m really happy with the way masteries were implemented. 8 more mastery points and I’m done…for now anyway.

Just something I was curious about. In the beta, ambient snakes existed in the world and they were removed before the game went live. I’ve always been curious why.

Kattenpootjes.4291:

So many people left already XD I wonder why…

Because bigger companies like Microsoft, Google and Amazon can offer developers more money than Anet who has made two games in a single franchise and has no other income. Most of the people who left recently were hired away by bigger publishers who have deeper pockets. If you worked for Anet, even if you loved it there and someone offered you a salary that was 30-50% more than you were making, what would you do?

Manasa Devi.7958:

Vayne.8563:

Manasa Devi.7958:

Always an excuse for everything you say that doesn’t make sense beneath the surface or even at surface level in this case.

To “expect” what we actually got after reading that article would take a psychic. The only thing one could reasonably expect, after reading that article, if one figured that they’re just painting a pretty picture, is that “adventures” wouldn’t be as fabulous in the actual game. But that’s not what you’re saying.

You’re saying that you expected “what you got”. So you expected that they would be closed some or even most of the time in some cases, despite the article explicitly stating that they’d be open all of the time. And you expected that the Shooting Gallery would be an uninspired slog lacking several elements that were mentioned in the article. You also expected dysfunctional leaderboards and faulty score tracking?

Yes that’s the answer I’m psychic. That’s obviously it. I did my research bought the game, and, for the most part, knew what I was getting. Other people did too, they must be psychic.

But you who doesn’t go to reddit, or Dulfy or other sites expects to know something about a game by simply reading the press on the company’s page? You take everything said by everyone at face value?

Okay then.

Moving the goalposts again. You said: " But then, I read that same article and expected what I got." Not Dulfy, not kitten Reddit. The article.

And after reading that you expected that they wouldn’t actually be open all the time? Come on, be honest. I’ve never called anyone a white knight before because I hate throwing labels at people. I’m on the verge now. You’re making entire unreasonable arguments.

Article:

As you progress through outposts and event content in the world, more Adventures will open up. This means that when you or other players clean up events in an area, there will still be readily available, on-demand content to experience, regardless of the current state of the open world.

And reading that, you expected what we got? I dare say that’s absolutely impossible.

As you progress through outposts and event content in the world, more Adventures will open up. You thought they’d open up permanently? Really?

See, when you go and do events in the world, the Orr Temples open up, and then they cycle. So yes, that’s what I expected. I expected them to cycle.

You do an event in the game and CoF opens up. Does it STAY OPEN. No. You have to open it.

As long as CoF is open, ie the event is done, you can play CoF. When CoF is closed , you can’t because you have to do the event.

If you’re not willfully misinterpreting it to try to make some kind of point or rile me up, you didn’t think about it, you just read words and didn’t apply any kind of in game logic to it.

Basically anything in this game that you need to do events to open up eventually closes and you have to do the events again.

Manasa Devi.7958:

Always an excuse for everything you say that doesn’t make sense beneath the surface or even at surface level in this case.

To “expect” what we actually got after reading that article would take a psychic. The only thing one could reasonably expect, after reading that article, if one figured that they’re just painting a pretty picture, is that “adventures” wouldn’t be as fabulous in the actual game. But that’s not what you’re saying.

You’re saying that you expected “what you got”. So you expected that they would be closed some or even most of the time in some cases, despite the article explicitly stating that they’d be open all of the time. And you expected that the Shooting Gallery would be an uninspired slog lacking several elements that were mentioned in the article. You also expected dysfunctional leaderboards and faulty score tracking?

Yes that’s the answer I’m psychic. That’s obviously it. I did my research bought the game, and, for the most part, knew what I was getting. Other people did too, they must be psychic.

But you who doesn’t go to reddit, or Dulfy or other sites expects to know something about a game by simply reading the press on the company’s page? You take everything said by everyone at face value?

Okay then.

Elric Of Melnibone.4781:

I managed to get on a good map tonight and we got the T4 night meta. It’s very discouraging at first as we spread out well and I think we had level 5 camps everywhere but the map status was only T2. Killing all the bosses somehow got us to T4 and we even had almost 10 minutes to spare.

So you did it? That’s awesome. Gratz to you!

Soon.5240:

Kaiju chi.3620:

How come there are no heart task to do like in the other parts of the game?.

Hearts required imagination and a respect for the RPG elements of gaming. So they were jettisoned….

Now you have Adventures! Nintendo styled platform events that have no place in a MMORPG.

Hearts required imagination and respect for roleplaying? They were put in the game, as per Anet, to get people to areas were dynamic events were. That’s why they were put into the game. They didn’t even exist in the first two betas. People simply didn’t understand a game without static quests, so they had to put in these places near were events spawned and keep them there.

Anet didn’t add hearts for some bizarre RP reason. They added them to make you stay in one place long enough for an event to spawn.

Hyper Cutter.9376:

Is getting t4 at night the criteria for getting the item? Because that’s dumb as all hell.

I figured it was just “kill all the canopy bosses” (a significantly more attainable goal), but I was on a map that did that and still didn’t get it.

Yep the meta is not to lose any of those outposts. It’s not hard it just requires coordination because people don’t know what to do. Also there’s no guarantee on the coat box even if you do win. It’s like the coat box in Vine Wrath.

The only thing that makes it hard is people not understanding what needs to be done. I’m almost positive Anet is going to do something to fix this when the fixes to the new content come out. I’m not sure what they’ll do, but they should do something.

Serious.6940:

foxcat.4096:

Daggos Skelito.2910:

Serious.6940:

Another issue is that increasing the power of players means mobs need increased power too, just to stay even. Central Tyria mobs were not much of a challenge before HoT but now don’t even reach cannon fodder levels. anet really needs to think before giving players even more power we don’t need.

Worse it creates balance issues between players who have HoT and those that do not.

Im really starting to feel HOT players have an advantage in WvW/EoTM. Sorry but getting insta downed alot since HOT gives me the “Pay to Win” feeling. Never rage quit before HOT and been doing alot of that lately. I’ll give it some more time before exploring other options. HOT just isnt for me.

An expansion is not “pay to win” its your decision if you buy it or not however and expansion like the name suggests is gonna expand on the base game. Which in the case of pretty much every MMO ever meant and increase in level cap. HoT had no level cap increase but introduced new specs even if it was possible that they where all in perfect balance with the exisiting pre HoT builds you are still gimping yourself by having less options.

The reality of expansions in MMOs is if you do not have the existing expansion/s you don’t have the full game and as such will be at a disadvantage. Gw2 is pretty unique in that you can still be competitive without the expansion but again you will always be limited as you do not have access to all the content. If you cant deal with that then MMOs are not for you further more if you can’t afford $30 or whatever for the expansion playing video games should not be a priority for you.

In all Pay to Win games you have the choice of paying or not, your argument does not make sense here. The actual cost doesn’t matter, it’s the fact you have to pay. If someone gets an advantage for paying money it’s still pay to win. GW2 is a triumvirate game consisting of PvE, PvP and WvW. Many players who paid at launch and only do WvW or PvP don’t want the additional HoT content – why should they pay for something they will not use? Many free to players don’t have the money available to buy HoT.

The pay to win issue isn’t in HoT but WvW and PvP. They should give the skills to all WvW and PvP players for free, or not allow them to be used there at all.

Well then every single MMORPG is pay to win, since every one of them raises the level cap. P2W was a term meant to talk about microtransaction in relation to buying power directly and having to keep spending money to stay on top. It was never meant to apply to expansions, because expansions are the payment model.

In Guild Wars 1, you had expansions that came with skills you couldn’t access if you didn’t buy them. But no one said Guild Wars 1 was pay to win. You also had classes you couldn’t access if you didn’t buy it. In WoW they raid the level cap every expansion which means you can’t compete unless you buy the expansion. Hell in WOW You can’t even compete if you don’t pay the subscription.

The issue here is the issue of people taking language literally instead of looking at the intended usage. It only means pay to win if you’re interpreting pay to win literally. Not if you’re using the meaning it was designed to convey.

Let me ask you this. Can you name a single MMORPG that’s not pay to win by your definition?

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Daddicus.6128:

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

moonstarmac.4603:

the way I got the dive was to stand on the ledge just below the goggles where you can still put them on…this allows you to get a better look at where you are jumping

Yes, that was it for me too. Stand on the little pipe just below the ‘cloud layer’.

Yes, this is basically the only way to do it for non-professionals. Ignore the videos and stay on that little pipe. You can view about half way around the mountain, so you can almost jump right towards it.

And, be a mesmer traveling with mesmers. You’re going to fall an ungodly number of times before you actually get the title.

Then, when you do, stay up there and earn a few gold. Make a portal, waypoint, run back in, and port other players for tips.

For …non-professionals…? Who are the professionals?

I did it from the top. grins

Take it easy, Jeff. Best of luck in your new position!

Saunby.5306:

The monk was one of my mains, it would completely kick kitten in this game now! haha I remember the Dervish being the most overpowered in guild wars 1. Definitely wouldn’t mind seeing some new builds, revenant doesn’t quite do it for me…

The necromancer reaper feels a lot like a dervish actually.

Arlee.7038:

The honest answer… we don’t know how HoT really did and we don’t know how GW2 is really doing at the moment. The last financial report was on Nov. 4th for third quarter 2015, which probably had some HoT pre-sales on it (and incidentally GW2 was doing good at that point) but it by no means shows the whole picture and we won’t know more until the 4th quarter 2015 report comes out.

As far as how many people are actually playing or not currently… it’s all anecdotal.

AFAIK HoT presales were not included on that report. Almost every MMO only actually uses the presales on the quarter it actually releases. I read something about this a while back, but can’t remember where.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Vayne.8563:

That’s like adding 1 plus 1 and getting 55. If you really think someone logging in once a month has any affect on demographics, I don’t really know what to say.

Not demographics, metrics. It affects metrics when the only reported numbers we’ve seen from ANet (via an article in Fortune) were of monthly logins.

Right, but still, someone logging in once a month to get a beer to eventually get an ascended back piece?

Who that doesn’t already log in once a month is going to bother logging in once a month just for the brew of the month club. It doesn’t make sense.

So I doubt this was implemented primarily to get people to log in once a month. More likely it was an easy reward for casual players, because many of them have been frustrated lately.

Daddicus.6128:

Coulter.2315:

Wraith.3504:

Another point of contention is the grinding of materials, Mastery points, Hero points, sepcialization advancement, and other tedium.

You literally cannot grind the bolded things as you can only get them once… Where did you learn to use the word “grind?”

There are dozens of MPs and HPs. And since the process of attaining them can be considered repetitive, they indeed meet the definition of grinding.

I agree, though, with the poster above that HPs and specs are the same thing.

Then the game was always grindy because there are 189 hero points in the core game, and just about all of them the vast majority are either communes or fighting a boss.

Doing a hero point challenge with one boss and a different hero point challenge with a different boss is a completely different experience and cant’ be considered grinding, unless you’re completely ignoring their mechanics.

Rauderi.8706:

Vayne.8563:

Agemnon.4608:

Rauderi.8706:

A:
I don’t hate the game. I just hate the HOT “content.”

Oh look, everyone’s AFK in Dragon Stand. Such compelling gameplay…

Quoted for truth! I’d like to actually do the Dragon Stand content but if you can’t get a taxi in you miss out. Tangled Depths even if you wait awhile has times when there aren’t enough people for the meta. Never had this problem with Silverwaste.

Actually you’re quoting this for truth but it’s the opposite of my experience. Most of the time I’ve done DS I didn’t taxi in. Or rather, I stayed in a map that was closing until it closed, in a group with people already organized who had just done one, and we were all in one single squad together. It’s actually easier to organize something like this yourself than it is to use the LFG tool.

Before the map ever went to the LFG tool I was already in because we all just moved to a new map.

I stayed until a map closed. It killed me and banished me into Tangled Depths, forcing me to zone in again. Good on ya, game. When I finally did make the transition to the upcoming DS map, it was literally two people. Me, and the one patient sod who inhabited a camp.

So, I’m thinking an adjustment to some core philosophies is in order here.

I was already in a squad with people before the map closed. So even if it transfers you, and kills you it’s easy to get back in and onto the same server as everyone else.

Astralporing.1957:

Shortly after HoT launch they were proudly speaking about high numbers of people playing. Last big patch they introduced a system to encourage people to log in at least once per month. Draw the conclusion yourself.

That’s like adding 1 plus 1 and getting 55. If you really think someone logging in once a month has any affect on demographics, I don’t really know what to say.

More likely the system was already in process for a while and it just got implemented. The odds of them rushing that out just to get people in once a month is ludicrous.

Manasa Devi.7958:

Vayne.8563:

Manasa Devi.7958:

I’m not talking about the Shooting Gallery not being fun, but about the implementation not being anywhere near how they announced it. They describe gameplay elements as well as storytelling elements that just aren’t there. That write-up gave me certain expectations about the “adventures” that weren’t met by a long shot.

They’re just a pole you click for a mini-game. Some of the time.

Which brings me to the announced availability of adventures, which is no small thing, far from it. Also nothing but misinformation.

Different adventures have different ties ins with what’s going on in the world. Obviously it’s not a novel. They’re flavor things.

Comforting the fallen masks is great to me. Sorry you don’t like it, but there are lore tie ins with quite a few adventures. But then, I read that same article and expected what I got.

I guess we make different assumptions.

So after reading that article, you were expecting something not nearly as interesting as how they made it sound in there and you also expected they wouldn’t actually be available all of the time, “on demand”, despite the article saying they would be?

Man, I never realized you were such a pessimist about the game. I guess lowering my expectations is what I need to do to enjoy HoT more.

No. I’m 54 years old and I parse everything I hear as a sales pitch because you know, it’s how the world is.

Morfedel.4165:

Vayne.8563:

First of all, plus 1 for the Michael Moorkitten reference. Loved the Elric stuff.

I play in Australia and I’ve hit meta at nights, so I’m guessing you’ve just been unlucky. That said, I haven’t seen a strap drop, even on the rare occasions we get the meta. At least I don’t remember seeing it.

Michael Moorkitten… LOL!

Yeah I saw that too. Made me laugh.

nacario.9417:

I dont want new expansions if it means content hiatus which we had for 9 months after announcing it. That only makes it feels like content pause.

I strongly suspect this won’t happen again. It happened this time because Anet used the content they had been saving for Living Stories. My best guess is that the quarterly updates now will stay even though expansions are coming.

I also expect more content with the next expansion since this expansion did the ground work.

Finally I expect new expansions to come out more frequently.

Ashen.2907:

Raizen.7981:

Ashen.2907:

Raizen.7981:

Ashen.2907:

Raizen.7981:

For the last kittening time. There is no one hiding your MPs behind arcade games. They’re here to help you get fast MPs.

This is incorrect.

If one cannot get the MPs in question without doing the mini-games, then the MPs in question are gated behind the mini-games.

Personally I like the idea of difficult content, but if I want to play an arcade style shooter, or a platformer, or whatever…there are options available that can provide those types of gaming experiences better than an MMO. I don’t buy a computer chess game to play a FPS either.

That is incorrect. You can get the MPs with little to no effort. You don’t have to MAX out the content (like doing hard metas) in order to get a reward. If they would’ve added more MPs to hard achievs, every1 would ignore metas and just get MPs from adventures. If they would’ve added MPs to gold adventures, and migrated the other 15 MPs from silver to other meta achievs, y’all be complaining about a MP grind. It’s the wisest path they’ve chosen, to make happy the largest (almost every1) amount of people. Choosing any other course of action would’ve made a lot more angry people, than the 3 here spamming this thread about how hard adventures are.

My post is accurate. One cannot get the MPs tied to the mini-games without doing the mini-games. I made no claim about gold or silver, merely about doing the mini-game.

Your claim that one can get the mini-game MPs with zero effort is a blatant falsehood. If, “no effort,” is required then one could get them while AFK. Such is not the case.

Let’s not be nitpicky and get into semantics, you got my point.

You people claim that content is gated behind MPs. The only thing that the last MPs gate is your access to HoT legendary weapons.

If we take a look at https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/hot-new-legendary-weapons/
and see the “The first step was making the journey an account-based experience from top to bottom. Then we wanted to shift some areas to take full advantage of the new Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns features and content” thing, you realise you’re supposed to do more than mindlessly farm gold in the SW in order to aquire said weapons. We can argue that adventures are intended for this exact reason, and I’m pretty sure that the argument would be 90% in my favor.

Also, let’s recap: 114 mastery ranks in maguuma
104 MPs from HoT + 30 MPs from adventures, getting 10 silver rewards would cap you(and now since 4 adventures are easy gold, you get the point)

Also, even if you’d REFUSE to complete adventures and remain at 104 MPs, the last mastery(either nuhoch alchemy or adrenal mushrooms) are in no way a requirement to ANYTHING in the game, they do not offer any advantage, so you can live without them happily ever after.

Also, if you feel yourself locked out of content(that being legendary weapons) I can’t see how would you be okay with farming 3000 gold and spending days on scavenger hunts, but can’t spend 30 mins to do 10 adventures and be done with it.

Honesty and accuracy are not nitpicking or merely matters of semantics to those actually being honest and accurate.

I did not claim that content is being gated behind MPs. This is another point where honesty and accuracy might serve you better than falsehoods and inaccuracy.

I did, however, point out that MPs are gated behind a type of content that I do not believe should act as a gate in an MMO.

This is my point too. I don’t agree with this as a design decision.

Agemnon.4608:

Rauderi.8706:

A:
I don’t hate the game. I just hate the HOT “content.”

Oh look, everyone’s AFK in Dragon Stand. Such compelling gameplay…

Quoted for truth! I’d like to actually do the Dragon Stand content but if you can’t get a taxi in you miss out. Tangled Depths even if you wait awhile has times when there aren’t enough people for the meta. Never had this problem with Silverwaste.

Actually you’re quoting this for truth but it’s the opposite of my experience. Most of the time I’ve done DS I didn’t taxi in. Or rather, I stayed in a map that was closing until it closed, in a group with people already organized who had just done one, and we were all in one single squad together. It’s actually easier to organize something like this yourself than it is to use the LFG tool.

Before the map ever went to the LFG tool I was already in because we all just moved to a new map.

rhodoc.2381:

Gaile Gray.6029:

We’re sorry about any inconvenience that you experienced with the bug fixes and related restarts. We had some significant issues that we needed to address. Better to have a forced restart — as irritating as it may be — than have players unable to join the game, or locked on an endless loading screen, or having their refrigerator start spewing ice cubes whenever they enter Rata Sum.

Ok, I joke about the latter.

But seriously, we are sorry, it’s just a necessary thing to make the experience better for everyone.

Are you seriously ignoring the feedback?

It is simple. It was 3h before restart for like 3 year ,now it is 1h after HoT. Just increase restart timer 2h+ and everybody is happy.

Gaile isn’t ignoring feedback. She’s not a programmer. She’s a community liaison. Her job would be to bring this to the attention of devs, which presumably she did. She can’t make decisions to do or not do something. I’m sure there are hundreds of suggestions that the devs have to go through and schedule in time to fix.

How is her reply ignoring feedback?

There are five main camps. The trick is to get the defenses on those camps up by running supply to them between defending them. The more minor camps, I believe, are less important. I believe you need to defend all the primary rally points. They have circular icons on the map and say primary pact rally point when you mouse over them. There’s one on noble ledges, one south of the Jaka Itzel waypoint, one near the pact encampment waypoint, one by Dry Step Mesas and I can’t find the last one on the map, but there are five.

If you can defend the five primary pact rally points without losing them (and upgrade them), you’ll get to tier 4. Then you just have to kill all five bosses.

That’s really the whole deal.

Manasa Devi.7958:

I’m not talking about the Shooting Gallery not being fun, but about the implementation not being anywhere near how they announced it. They describe gameplay elements as well as storytelling elements that just aren’t there. That write-up gave me certain expectations about the “adventures” that weren’t met by a long shot.

They’re just a pole you click for a mini-game. Some of the time.

Which brings me to the announced availability of adventures, which is no small thing, far from it. Also nothing but misinformation.

Different adventures have different ties ins with what’s going on in the world. Obviously it’s not a novel. They’re flavor things.

Comforting the fallen masks is great to me. Sorry you don’t like it, but there are lore tie ins with quite a few adventures. But then, I read that same article and expected what I got.

I guess we make different assumptions.

You don’t really need commanders at all, but you do need map communication. One of the issues I’ve had is that if there’s one commander he gets most people and not enough people read map chat to go to where they’re needed. They just hang out with the commander.

I had a commander tag up once and switched it off, because too many people were following me. Then I went to a different outpost and switched it on again, got some people there and switched it off again.

You only really need 3-4 people at each outpost to defend. That’s enough. But people have to be at those outposts. And they have to actively upgrade between defenses.

Manasa Devi.7958:

I said I didn’t see them advertised. I knew about them, and I thought they would be fun side content. I had no idea there would be 15 and they would be insufferable, and ties into character progression. They made them sound like fun, with some story integration that would make them seem “adventurous”.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/adventuring-forth/

Compare that with the Shooting Gallery we actually got. I know, it’s sad.

So you don’t find them fun, I find some of them fun, others find others of them fun. The shooting gallery is obviously one of the worst offenders. Punch-o-matic was until the last update. There’s no guarantee you were going to love them all.

On the other hand, flying circus is a blast for me.

First of all, plus 1 for the Michael Moorkitten reference. Loved the Elric stuff.

I play in Australia and I’ve hit meta at nights, so I’m guessing you’ve just been unlucky. That said, I haven’t seen a strap drop, even on the rare occasions we get the meta. At least I don’t remember seeing it.

Manasa Devi.7958:

You’re moving the goalposts. I was saying I never saw the “adventures” advertised. They either are or they aren’t.

Whether or not they were discussed on places that don’t interest me has no bearing on that. Furthermore, every iota I found about it on the guildwars2.com blog/news were lies and misinformation. Heck, they made the shooting range adventure look interesting in a news article.

Here’s another bit of misinformation:

As you progress through outposts and event content in the world, more Adventures will open up. This means that when you or other players clean up events in an area, there will still be readily available, on-demand content to experience, regardless of the current state of the open world.

So I have to scour the internet for information and also try to guess what is true and what isn’t?

Well know, since a lot of info was offered pre release and things sometimes change (that’s in every MMO I’ve ever played not just here), yes, you have to roll with the punches. That said, in everything, in the third zone most of the adventures are opened most of the time. At least I hardly ever see them closed.

But this is exactly the reason Anet doesn’t want to say stuff. There always someone on the forum who reads something coming up, and it changes and they go on the attack about it. Why should Anet tell us more, when if stuff changes, this is the reaction they get?