Guild Wars 2

No need to turn my words to your favour!
I’m fine with discussing and also speculations as long as they are kind of rational and well thought. But if a company said “No” several times and there are no indications that the reality is “Yes” there is no need to bring out untrue things and also pretending these untrue things were confirmed to be true only to cater to your argumentation.

There is no “connecting the dots”, he was just coming up with something he doesn’t know. We all don’t know and so we should stop any speculation and take it for an argument that is supporting the own discussion strategy or goal.
It’s more than iniquitous, it’s cheap and not the right way to lead a proper argumentation!

You should also stop talking about “believe” because we all don’t know anything more like we are told. Of course, you can follow your own conspiracy theories but I’d rather accept the statements that sound legit and true to me instead of building something into it because I have weird reasons to do so.

And your statement about more working on raids is just plain wrong. Anet already adressed that. Sure, musicians and some other employees are connected with the raid team but that’s not what’s stopping or slowing the release of other content.
Again, please stop making things up you don’t know and speculate about things while we have clear statements from the company, ty.

Cristalyan.5728:

Well, due to the massive drop in the player base, it seems that the percentage of raiders raised :-)))). I saw in this forum a 20% percentage of raiders ?!?!. It seems Anet is seriously thinking to have a 100% raiders community. Even if this means to find methods to make the rest of the non raiding community to leave the game :-)). In the end, only the raiders will stay – and even if the number of raiders will be the same as now, the percentage will raise to 100%. Still, i have serious doubts that the 20% raiders represents a reliable number – look at the topic asking lowering the LI request for Legendary. I think that a LOT of the raiders are non permanent/dedicated raiders. The number of hardcore raiders is probably much lower. And because they can raid only once per week they have plenty of time to post here on forum. Waiting the next week raid :-)). I think that only around 5% of GW2 players are raiders.
But to become serious: I don’t know if is very accurate for a representative of a 20% part of community to call the other 80% “a tiny or very small minority of players” (the bold is mine). In designing the HoT, Anet kept in mind the demands of the “large” 20% “majority” of gamers: challenging content (aka hard to impossible to complete for the (filthy) casuals), exclusive rewards – available only for the raiders, grinding, grinding and grinding. The results: The player base is now very thin (to the point the few raiders represents 20%! of the entire player base), Collin lost his job (they needed a scapegoat for the calamity named HoT), the officials almost apologized with the famous statement: " we learned the lesson" and the promise to “repair” what was destroyed.
This was the result of ignoring the 80% of the playerbase (representing the tiny or very small minority of players) voice. And Vince is asking Anet to do the same thing in the future :-)) Nice :-))
To answer to the OP question: Future of the raids?
Well, if Anet will continue on this line, by making some pieces of content only for the “large 20% majority” of the players, they can very well start preparing the burial rituals for the GW2.

1. You haven’t even understood what I wrote. I talked about 20 complaining people in this forum vs. a higher number of satisfied raiders.
Nobody was talking about 20% or something. Only Anet has the real data, so every statistical attempt from your/our side is just guessing and absolutely rubbish.
We can’t even make an assumption while I can count the people in this part of the forum. ^^

2. Colin hasn’t “lost” his job. He left for reasons. You can read, just google it.

3. Anet isn’t ignoring the majority of players. The majority of players got HoT, a nice Q2-Update and will get the LS3 soon.
Raids weren’t developed while other content was paused. All three wings belong to the expansion, they just weren’t released at HoT-launch. The raiding team consists of 6 people while the overwhelming majority (more than hundred) is working on the LS3 and the next expansion.
Raids are a niche, a really really small one but with a constant playerbase. We have been demanding for content like that since 3 years and now we’ve gotten it while the huge part of the game is still not challenging at all.
So, please don’t speak about a focus on raids or anything like that if you are simply missinformed.

OriOri.8724:

The problem is that LI isn’t a measure of whether someone is good at Raiding or not. They could have 80 LI and still somehow managed to never even fought Matthias. Yet just from asking how many LI they have you would now assume they would be helpful in that fight. Unless you are only running with people you know then you can never be 100% sure that people are really actually good at raiding, especially that specific wing/boss. but that still doesn’t change the fact that asking for 50+ LI to go in Wing 1 is ridiculous. It doesn’t mean they are good, they could have been carried through all 50 boss clears. Having none also doesn’t necessarily mean that they will suck. There are a lot of great PvE players that just haven’t been raiding long yet but they could help you out. LI is a terrible metric to use.

But LIs are a measure for experience. Maybe a player is experienced in buying raids but then you will see his failure in the first boss pull.
And to have 50+ LI is most likely a very good sign of experience because you cannot have 50 LI from one single boss at this time of the game today’s date.
Sure, it’s not the best measure at all but a strong indicator that someone can pull a weight in a group or not.
And I don’t find it ridiculous to ask for 50 LI in Spirit Vale. Less is not enough to get a safe progress if Gorseval and Sabetha groups struggling hard even with 50 LI.

OriOri.8724:

You can’t defend ridiculous requirements without also defending those players who don’t meet the requirements but are more than experienced enough to contribute so they end up telling a white lie to pass your entrance exam.

Since when will be a requirement ridiculous if 9 out of 10 people joining “experienced” runs are failing hard?
I tested it several times with friends, “Exp” lfgs or something like that are only successful at VG. But even there you won’t have consistency. You can forget such lfgs for Gorse & Sab. Won’t work in almost all tries. On the other hand there were just one “full eternal” group I left at VG because it was a clown festival.

Rednik.3809:

a lot of people

This is highly debatable since there are less than 20 people in this forum complaining about raids.
I only read the same names over and over again discussing or writing stuff against raids, I can even name them by heart!
The discussions aren’t even toxic so the argument that’s brought into here from time to time that players are afraid of posting here is nonsense.
It’s rather the other way round: There is a tiny or very small minority of players who is directly against raids and wants changes. Also I have never ever read anything against like this ingame while there were big discussions about Living Story and Living events.
So, the folks not raiding just don’t care about them and on the other hand there is so much going on in the lfg like good old dungeon times. I really appreciate that!

On bosses like Sabetha, Matthias and also Sloth you will see it during the first pull if anyone is new or unexperienced.
And I can understand why people are making very high requirements. I met pugs trying to sneak into a group and this leads just to pure rage and frustration. For every of all 10 players, the exp ones and the one hiding behind a bluffed LI because no one of them is getting the kill.
It happens every day, I mean I have nothing against good players faking their LIs and have their part in being successful but the vast majority of fakers is so bad I would be embarrassed myself if I fake and bring such poor playstyle and/or knowledge of a boss. As exp player you sit there and you have to laugh about those chicken running around in circles panically. But they are a time waste so in the end you will get angry.

eldrin.6471:

what is it im known to exaggerate? what is actually happening is that i am being hounded and harassed by certain individuals every time i post on these forums no matter what the thread.but i come on the forums as a way of letting anet know my veiws,and i suppose i just need put up with the fact there are people with rather malicious motives also posting on the forum.

Because you just don’t argue reasonably.

Harddrive.2738:

Spoken by someone in a raid guild.

Rule#1: Only play only pug games.
Rule#2: You can’t ping any LI or any of the collection content and for argument sake can’t try your luck on anything that says 40+ LI in hopes they don’t check.

You won’t get anywhere near 9 bosses except with the devils luck.

Absolutely wrong!

Over the half of my LIs are pugged with no problem.

By the time of now you can go for the easy ones first in pugs at the beginning of the week (Escort W3, Trio, VG) and expand it to Gorse, Sloth, KC afterwards. I bet after a few weeks you will be able to have 6 firmed LI very fast. Then you can go on for Sabetha (maybe even earlier), Matt and Xera (also maybe earlier).

If you think you are that good, fake your LI – on your own risk. But there are enough groups you can join without a big LI requirement – every fricking day!

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE

New Items and Promotions

Added a new White Mantle Appearance Pack. This pack contains 1 White Mantle Outfit, 1 White Mantle Glider, 1 Immortal Weapon Choice, 1 Total Makeover Kit, and 5 Black Lion Chest Keys. It’s available in the Style category of the Gem Store for 2,000 gems.

xD

Harddrive.2738:

You really aren’t reading, its near impossible to get all 9 bosses in 1 week for most players. Everyone without a guild raid will either dedicate there life to it or won’t get anywhere near it.

It’s ok if you don’t put enough effort and time into a thing and therefore you will need more time than others. I don’t see a problem here.

So far I’ve only seen 2 at once on EU server.

As always:

Organize

your

own

group!

Nothing easier than that, but stop complaining about pugs not even able to handle boss mechanics when you are on your way back to this forum afterwards .

virus.4370:

you shouldn’t have to pay for help in learning or getting to finish a raid,that is ridiculous.

Someone who will buy a raid spot to learn raids is stupid in my eyes because there are enough training runs in the lfg every day/night for every encounter. And if not you are able to open an own training group to get used to the mechanics. Have a look a guides before and you will become decent till good in a short amount of time.

virus.4370:

to me that say that raids are messed up..when someone has to pay to get a group or learn..why not just make them easier…and in the future maybe slowly increase the hardness after everyone learns..or pull a gws 1 move normal mode and hardmode..you finish normal mode and you unlock hardmode ..then you can pick which you want normal or hard

Buying a run in which the other players will carry you through (“finish run”) is another thing. People were selling dungeons, people are still selling fractals, people are selling home instances, people are selling portals to JPs and many more. Even in GW1 selling was a legit and often used method.

Raids aren’t messed up because of sellers. Have a look at the lfg. Most of the time there is
only one selling offer and it seems that it’s used very rarely according to the squad numbers.

eldrin.6471:

Your bored of the arguments in favor of lowering the number of li needed on a thread dedicated to that subject?

You haven’t brought any proper argument for a serious reduction of LI for the armor. Not a single one.
The only things we read is: “too much” & “can’t acquire them (with my groups/pugs)” of less than 10 forum writers.

Astralporing.1957:

I’d be very, very glad if Raids weren’t the main focus and centerpiece of GW2. Currently however that’s not true. They are the endgame content. As long as they’ll continue to have that place, we’ll have problems that lie at the basis of this thread (and others like it).

Raids are not the main focus or centerpiece of GW2. That is a lie and you know it.
Please stop making such things up if they are completely untrue and just devised by yourself!

Also, we have several endgame things like dungeons, fractals, open world bosses and more. If not to say skins are the real endgame.
The main focus is LS3 at the moment, fractal update and the expansion. All of them we will see in the near future and it’s highly doubtful that we will see another raid or raid wing before the next expansion. The reason why raids are popular now is because they were slow (obviously due to the little team) and couldn’t and wouldn’t release the complete raid at launch of HoT.

Yeah ok, I think you are the prophet.

Since it is impossible to have a proper conversation/discussion with you which is obviously related to something you already mentioned about yourself in this forum, I will end this dialogue here.

Raids are not the reason why some ppl were calling out HoT a failed expansion.

And if it was a failed expansion for you, you would have stopped playing but you haven’t.

For me raids are a succes while I see more raid lfgs than for dungeon and dungeons were played regularly before HoT and their reward is fine again after the seasonal patch.

eldrin.6471:

Yes Raids are niche and i would have thought they would need to attract a larger audience if anet is to continue developing content for them.and 4 month time gates wont help that.

It was never their intention to attract a bigger part of the audience with raids.
However, according to company statements raids are a success and that several guys at Anet are excited to see what comes next from the raid development team so are the raiders.

eldrin.6471:

I get it,some of you guys like grind and massive time gates.probably nothing better to do with your time.most p[lay this game for entertainment and have real lives,jobs ,wifes, kids, and do not want there rewards locked away behind grind and a 4 month time gate.

Most?
Several guys like me here have a job, some have kids, some have a girlfriend/wife and they are still fine with 150 LIs.
I already told you that I am such a player. I don’t have the 150 yet (around 40 now) but it’s a longterm goal, not a monthly one like almost every legendary weapon. I get the impression that some of the young have forgotten or never learned patience at all. There is no drama in playing all these weeks…
Players like you are only there for the reward – in this case the LI – and you will very likely never ever set a foot into raids again after finishing the armor. That is not the attitude of most raiders. They like the challenge + being rewarded decently and this is why they don’t have anything against this number because one day they will achieve it and still play the content.
I am very pleased that Anet isn’t balancing raids around pure loot farmers like we can see in dungeons, fractals, Silverwastes, Tarir, Dragon Stand, Cursed Shore and Frostgorge Sound. It’s rather embarrassing that there are so many farm spots in this game where people running after trash only pressing 1 and become richer.

Raids are niche and all critics are pointing that out in every single raid thread in this forum. So, let this niche be a niche and accept that there are different rules according to loot and time investment compared to the huge rest of the game.

That’s ok to come here and write your opinion but you are repeating things again and again, being not reasonable at most times, posting arguments that are not true, making up conspiracy theories and blame the company that you have to spend 2k £/$/€ which no human being would pay unless not knowing what to do with your money (a.k.a. being a millionaire or richer.)

I am serious: Why the hell do you want to have that armor and why for this huge real money price? Are you collecting skins and you already have all others in the game? If that’s not the case I don’t see any reason to go for that armor because first of all we don’t know about the look of that armor and second the stats are the same of asc ones.

eldrin.6471:

facts
anet sell gems
gems buy gold
gold buys runs
anet set number of runs hence price at 150 LI
All true
Now of course its in some peoples interest to argue that 150 insights are fine they could be the ones selling the runs.NOW what part of what im saying isnt true?

I still don’t see any connection between anet sells gems, gems buy gold, gold buys runs, anet set number of runs hence price at 150 and the indefensible claim that Anet wants special raiders or groups to sell runs.
I am not a seller + being far away from 150 LIs and still think the amount is totally fine.

Legendary is a cool longterm goal if you want and not only a thing of a month or less like the weapons.
Additionally, I know some of the best raiders in the game and they have no interest to sell runs regularly because they are bored of the organization and keeping 7,8 or 9 guys together just for a little bit of gold although they are skilled enough to do low-manned speedclears.

You should also know that Anet doesn’t make any profit out of players gaining ingame gold via playing, buy gems and afterwards gemstore items. If you buy gems via cash, convert them to gold and give it to sellers that’s your business and it is you who support Anet.
I can just repeat what others said: Don’t spend your money on a skin, this is not worth it. Even if you do so don’t complain about game settings like 150 LIs then. It is your own decision and for me it would be pathological to go for a skin with real money unless not being a millionaire. There is always a better purpose to spend money than for a pixel in a game.

eldrin.6471:

misleading isnt lieing. and i dont get why a few of you guys are so set on keeping the number of insights at 150.what difference would it really make to lower it to 90 or a 100.
or let us buy an extra one a week with margonite shards.
i suspect its because some folk are selling runs and are just greedy.

Are you still not able to handle a proper discussion? Stop repeating things that are not true.
You were already told that Anet has 0.0% influence on people selling raids due to multiple reasons. They clearly mentioned that they allow it but won’t support it or won’t be considerate of selling while bugfixing or implementing new features within the LFG-system.
Also, if you have a look at the LFG (stands for EU) you will notice that there are barely any guild selling runs. Yes, there are some out there but if anything there is 1 guild at a time, not more, that is selling raid runs and even this offer isn’t available consistently. So, please stop making up conspiracy theories and argue in an adult manner.

It’s is rly getting annoying to read untrue arguments or the same ones over and over again although they had been proven wrong.

Astralporing.1957:

People have been asking for all dungeon paths to be made easier. And this actually happened, all of them got nerfed, most more than once.

(also, see the above note about aetherpath restrictiveness. It applies to Arah too)

Dungeons weren’t nerfed that much only little refinements were made, almost not to mention. The reason why dungeons are so easy has to do with power creep (restructure of zerker stats and introducing of elite specs due to HoT)

Astralporing.1957:

No, people were saying that it should have been outright nerfed. There is a reason why it’s not being done by a huge majority of the players. Also, this tied to LS1. LS1 had a terrible story and the less we’re reminded of it, the better.

The argument that TT belongs to LS1 and LS1 was terrible so TT hasn’t been liked is so absurd, I had to laugh when I read this, sry.
Also, even if TT is easier ppl still won’t play it, rewards are low. Most GW2 players play for loot compared to the time invested. The “walk of npc” in combination with fighting the worms just takes too long for 1g and a minimal chance of an asc box. Even without a preparation phase before the world boss wouldn’t be worth for the “farmers”.

Astralporing.1957:

Sure, because generally the players that have issues with raids are not doing them.

Yeah, ok.
I seriously doubt that those players who will try out raids will then start to complain hard about the timers.
Sorry, but this is pure nonsense. And it has been said so many times and it is true: Timers are nowwhere near a problem when facing the encounters.

Shiyo.3578:

Just did sloth and bandit trio with 0 experience on a class I’ve never played before in group content and barely played at 80(like less than 10 hours played) with a bunch of new players(but a lot of experienced). Killed both in less than an hour.

People just need to give others a chance! We had a fantastic leader leading us to victory and it made it pretty easy.

You have been very lucky then. While pugging is fine in the right groups, setting up a lfg without any requirements will bring you a lot of players that fail over and over again, even at VG. No matter what you say, explain, demand, how kindly you are etc., they aren’t improving over the time. It starts when they refuse to come to a TS just to listen or don’t talk after asking about a specific role in the encounter.
Best example yesterday and this happens a lot: A necro joins at our VG run. Staff usage like it’s a usual thing. I wrote him every little utility skill in whisper chat and told him how and what he had to do although the group was advertised as “experienced”. I don’t have to mention that he wasn’t able to use “epi” at boss when i offered to “epi” the seekers. Same on Gorseval but even worse. I told him all skills to hold the soul and he failed horribly while it’s nearly impossible to let a soul walk through as a necro (orb clear assumed). As exp raider, such things are not funny because it feels like you have to be a primary school teacher or educating people the way you would educate your own kids – over and over and over and over and over again. This is stressful (even with your own kids^^) and I want to have fun in my clears, I have no problem to help afterwards during the rest of the week.

So, I tell you with 100% certainty that usually 10 out of 10 pug groups won’t kill Slothasor while having “a bunch of new players” and you playing a “new class”. Experienced raiders know that and after so much time spent in W1 and also in W2 they don’t want to fail to unnecessary reasons.

Well, I don’t agree to the forum argument. I don’t know any people being afraid of writing in this subforum, have never heard about it from dozens of TS I joined or other guilds I talked to. Even in map chat I don’t see any complaints about this subforum. That’s more of a phenomenom people are calling out in this forum than being a real and relevant problem.

Plus, your assumption is wrong from the start:
Timers aren’t an issue for 99% of the players doing raids. They fail horribly at mechanics. 100% of all my VG fails and I had a lot with learning people in training runs and with others. Gorseval timer is almost irrelevant due to updraft mechanic, Sabetha as well.
The timer on Sloth is very forgiving and also on Trio which is the easiest “boss” along with the event of wing 3.
The argument of people are pressured due to time isn’t valid neither because in all groups that struggle almost nobody has the eye for the clock. ^^

When is a reward called a deserved reward? Only when the last people in GW2 will call out: Now!
And these persons are the ones standing afk in open world maps during events. The demand will never end.

The other thing is that there is only a minority that wants changes to raids. The overwhelming majority has absolutely no problems with the one difficulty or if so, I don’t here them for any reason. And let’s be clear, the group of people that is complaining has always been bigger than the one who is not. In this case it is surprisingly not true.
Raids are already easy enough, even good pug groups can carry one baddy through most of the bosses if not all. It’s not about my personal needs because if my guild mates aren’t online I am also struggling to beat the harder bosses and this is actually how I like things to be implemented.

Blaeys.3102:

And why would that matter if tiered rewards were in place based on kill speed?

It wouldn’t change how you approach the fight at all. It would just allow groups that play differently than you to still experience the fight -albeit with a lesser reward.

You cant claim that enrage timers are trivial and required at the same time.

You know the next complaint after introducing that?
First thread in this forum would be:
“Seriously Anet, get us some real/better/deserved reward for raid bronze tier!”

We all know that spiral…

Or: “Why should I go for gold tier in raids when reward difference is that little.”, followed by raids becoming abandoned because SW, Tarir, DS, FG and CS trains are 1000 times more rewarding.

I am thankful that Anet will not listen to those ideas.

I have 34 and I am totally fine with 150? So, what now, eldrin?

Some additional things:
1. 17 weeks from now on is ok and we don’t know if the leggy armor will be released within this time
2. The journey should be legendary
Every legendary weapon can be achieved in less than a month. That’s not “legendary”. That’s bullkitten.
3. VG, Trio, Event/Mc Leod + Gorseval are 4 easy insights per week.
4. You haven’t made any valid argument till now, eldrin. Just the same five- or six-line poem over and over again. We are still waiting for some posts from you with substance.

Amineo.8951:

That’s a special case, the 1st boss of the new wing is the easiest of the Forsaken Thicket, wait a bit (like a week or two) and you’ll see that he will struggle finding groups.

Do you remember the Slothasor run from Friday (or maybe Saturday, dunno exactly). You joined a pug stated as “experienced” but no other requirements (like LIs, eternal or tonic buff) and when I read all member names, I recognized your account name. I immediately googled it and I knew my memory was right about this forum and your posts here.
The commander and organisator of that run asked everybody of the group about experience and about unclear things. He did an excellent preparation via TS, you were there as well but muted, maybe or hopefully only listening.
Although it was an experienced run he was repeating every mechanic and made clear that you can fail once but not more because the mechanics shouldn’t be a serious issue for exp players.
You failed hard three times (2x laying poison under team although it was called out loud in TS + 1x not pulling Sloth as tank to the next spot).
The commander then asked you via TS, you didn’t react, so your kick was absolutely inevitable because that hasn’t been a training run + you haven’t shown any reaction at all.

Situations like this are the reason why people put up requirements. All you had to do was reacting to the mechanics and play the encounter like the group had wished for.
People who are not able to should form training runs and get used to mechanics. After practicing a bit you shouldn’t have a problem to have success in a group like from the weekend.

As long as you get players with 200 AP in the group running to the first mine and die instantly it’s absolutely ok to ask for at least “experienced” players.
I pugged the event several times after release and I lead it as a commander yesterday with 4 guildmates. You actually won’t believe what players are joining and ruining the runs over and over because they don’t listen to proper TS commands, aren’t prepared, have no stun break and position themselves horribly (for example in the middle of the path next to a mine —> fear into oblivion = death) and don’t know how to play their class at least decently. And that’s only for the first event which is as easy as an open world event.

Sry, but I don’t want to deal with those players if I have to wipe over and over again. Those players should form training runs and get used to the mechanics. And that’s why ppl came up with “exp” after a few days.

Raguel.9402:

more OP Archdiviner is the higher tiers.

He is easy as f… heck! There’s no challenge at all to beat him at the higher/highest level.

So, raid lore is not a side story?

Well, then you think Bobby Stein is lying?

BobbyStein.2315:

• It will not be necessary to play Forsaken Thicket—or any future raid—in order to complete Living World or expansion stories. Raids do not gate main story progress.

• If any lore information from the raids is relevant to storylines in other content, we’ll make sure that information is also available in that other content.

• Raids are not part of our Living World episodes; they are separate game elements.

Again:

RAIDS DO NOT GATE MAIN STORY PROGRESS.

Rednik.3809:

For some reason, fractals have exactly same thing and don’t have any of your “problems”.

1. Fractals are very short content, not comparable to a raid at all.

2. Fractals were implemented years ago with the exact scaling system as we have it now. The question is therefore: Why are there no fractals since the last update, was it 2013? What is the reason why we still don’t have new ones but we can have raids. My guess is that it was way easier to create new content/maps than to go into the fractal system and build in some new ones. That also fits to the restructuring of the company and the dungeon problem where we haven’t seen any important changes or bugfixing since abandoning the dungeon team years ago. You need to have the know-how. When it’s gone like for dungeons it is almost impossible to restructure it without putting too much time into it and burning a lot of money.

3. T1-2 fractals are hardly practice ground. They are more like an introduction and in the future we will see less players here if there’s no daily.

4. T4 fractals are too easy and too rewarding.
And that is a problem but sure, not for the big amount of GW2 players that are going for the loot. Are they challenging? No, not at all, only if you have some of the so called 1-clickers that haven’t practiced the lower ones and constantly fail the easiest mechanics leading to a longer run for 4 ppl.
If you want to be taken seriously, that cannnot and must not be your wish for raids!

5. It was already said: A story mode of raid won’t calm down the complainers because the first thing they will criticize is the lore or story which is skinny implemented. It’s there but far away from dungeons.
Also, if the rewards are too low, ppl will still complain and this content will be played a couple of times and then left aside like LS2. If the rewards are too high, the usual raid would be devaluated to oblivion.
The current rewards aren’t that good I bet that the critics who will try raids out will be disappointed about the rewards as they are now because they won’t see numbers like in AB multiloot, fractals, SW or other farm methods.

150 LIs are perfectly fine.
People that started to raid with the goal of getting the armor as soon as possible already have over 100 LIs. Others that came in later like me should admit that we are a little bit “behind”. But there is no doubt that those who want will catch up easily.

But even for raid/armor beginners it’s not very extensive because there are some easy-to-get-LIs like VG, Trio and the Glenna event. You don’t have to learn very much to accomplish these.
Gorseval and Slothasor are also not very hard to pug if you have a decent knowledge and experience of them.
This equals to 5 puggable, unproblematic LIs per week and in all 30 weeks for the whole thing.
Seems fine for a legendary armor. And still, if you want to achieve it earlier, you can go for it in 17 weeks from this day on.

Dinosaurs.8674:

Necro is bad against VG because it’s worse than engineer against VG in pretty much every way. It deals less damage (VG has low armor and engi has much more of its DPS in power damage), and it has no knockbacks or really anywhere near the seeker control the engineer has. And it’s great that you can pop shroud and survive a seeker on green lightning, but that isn’t keeping your elementalist alive if the druid doesn’t have glyph of tides. Engineer can also blast water to heal and blast fire for might during the split, and if you take scrapper you get function gyro which as it turns out is quite the noob carrier in that fight.

And there is another major flaw with necro in that fight which is that condi damage is awful against Vale Guardian. Since he has lower armor than normal, power damage is far superior to condi damage. The only reason to bring a condi class in that fight is for the red guardian.

So yeah necro isn’t unusable against VG, it’s just completely outclassed by engineer. Even if you already had 2 condi engineers, what incentive is there to bring a necromancer over a third engineer? I’m not saying it impossible, I’ve played necro on VG plenty of times, and I’ve killed it with comps that had 2 necros and 0 engineers. But that doesn’t change the fact that necromancer is bad at dealing with the mechanics of the fight, and I think an inexperienced group would have trouble beating VG with such a comp.

I have to agree to the others. Necromancers are a pleasure for pugs and also organized groups during the VG fight.
The damage is totally fine. In a usual pug you will still have the first split time above 7 minutes and even after both split phases on red you come out with over 3 min. rest for the last phase which is making it very easy. Also most of the engis aren’t professional or very good players knowing and being able to execute the best dps rotation. So, in pugs, you won’t notice any time advantage at all.
The big plus for playing a necro is that it’s perfectly easy to play which leads to an easier focus on green circles.
You can also epi-bounce on seekers. It’s working very well.

If you are going for records, sure, engis would be better but to have a safe weekly kill I would rather pick a necro over an engi because it’s almost impossible to fail hard with a necro.

What about a collection to run 1000 daily T4 fractals and the reward will be the tonic? So ppl have to play a year of dailies to achieve that goal. Less to do than older WvW achievements but harder to get for a complaining casual wanting his shinies as fast as possible.

STIHL.2489:

I was raiding 15 years ago in EQ when death could cost you levels, and people could loot/kill steal. Blah, Blah, Blah, I all that and a whole bag of chips, look at how great I am, or some such.

You only lose time and a bit gold due to bufffood. You don’t lose levels and nobody can steal your loot. Raids in GW2 don’t work like that. I’m sure you knew that so it’s a bit confusing why you mentioned it here.

STIHL.2489:

I should also have the right to choose who I play with, and a part of that, should not be being forced to deal with egotistical elitist entitled jerks that think they are better then other people.

But sadly, Raids cater to that very exact demographic. Starting to see the problem yet?

That is absolutely not true. Yes, there are elitist lfgs out there like in almost every lfg section – mostly raids, dungeons and fractals but I’ve also seen them for many world bosses and even for story achievement groups. Just leave them out and take one of the other groups. Tbh comparing raid elitism to fractal elitism the elitist lfg entries have shifted to fractals these days but that’s just my personal experience over the last weeks.
Nvmd, till my last log out of the game there were many friendly raid lfgs and groups not doing a teaching run but still explaining the core mechanics again even though they were listed as an experienced one. And you have a big group of advertised training runs + guilds looking for even inexperienced raiders.

STIHL.2489:

Complete Access to the game I paid for. In case you missed this, I paid for this game, and the Expansion that went with it. Any Skill, Any Time Investment is nothing, compared to cold cash that keeps their lights on.

Here lies the problem. You have access to, the same access you have to PvP and WvW which in my case are things I don’t want to play but they have nice rewards. In your eyes I would be locked out from them.

But that’s wrong. I exclude myself from it with not playing.

I could but I don’t and so it is more than ok that I don’t get PvP and WvW titles and I won’t be in the favour of wearing the legendary PvP backpiece.

Jahroots.6791:

People tend to exaggerate a lot on these forums, lol. 40g/hr isn’t typical at all. It’s possible with great drops and ideal circumstances (switching maps effortlessly and with no real downtime during peak hours), but the average player will probably make around 20-25g/hr, assuming they’re not bored after two runs through Tarir.

Even if you only do 20-25g/h you will be tremendously faster to obtain asc gears on the contrary to raids. It’s not only the collecting of shards by playing you also have to wait 3 weeks to achieve at least 250 shards for a minor ascended armor piece because there is this weekly cap of 100 shards.
In addition you just have to play three fractals a day and you will gain a huge chunk of gold + a bigger chance to drop an asc box than to one week of raids.

So, please don’t use the argument of receiving asc gear – and as a whole raid rewards – from raids as an advantage compared to other game modes. The rewards in raids are abysmal when looking at all other PvE content.

And, to add something to Harper’s statement:
You forget the 9 other lfgs without li requirement, Amineo.

There is also a trick without cheating if you are comfortable and you feel well prepared for an encounter but you can’t find a decent group to kill it:

Open your own group and ask with requirements (LIs, eternal, tonic buff, w/e bs). Fun fact, nobody who is joining such a group is asking the opener/leader of the squad to show the requirement as well. ^^
Of course you should know what to do or the team will boot you or leave.

Zortok.8153:

So, have cleared this boss quite a few times, and just re-read Dulfy, but didn’t know about the room sequence to get NPC help or a buff?

Please can you be a bit more specific?

Just be fast enough and don’t let any of the prisoners die. At the end boss you will experience a debuff (purple colored).

From Dulfy:
“After you have completed this room, a console opens up that allow you to disable a collider and last boss (Thaumanova Anomaly) receives a debuff that allow you to do more damage to him.”

Source:
http://dulfy.net/2013/11/27/gw2-thaumanova-reactor-fractal-guide/

I am not that skillful than many others here in this forum, trust me. In my opinion it’s more the experience you need to gain through playing this fractal several times on higher levels because some things aren’t working in unorganized groups or they just don’t work due to the scale + instability.

The biggest issue on that boss is the amount of missing platforms. The first rule I call out (it’s my personal assessment) is to not run around like a chicken and try to delete as many platforms you can. Players have time until a flashing platform will be gone. I think if you simply follow that hint you’ll have an easier time asap.

Some more things I would advise:

- Watch your steps and split properly to not kill your mates (sure thing for everybody, ok ^^)

- Take a step aside from your usual dps build. For example, as a warrior you don’t have to throw both banners because your group won’t be in range for the buff most of the time
Bring some rly helpful rescue skills like “Shake It Off” for condi cleanse and cc-break, “Endure Pain” for a little dmg break on yourself and cc-break. “Signet of Stamina” is also fine for more dodges and condi cleanse.
I don’t mind taking “Dolyak Either” for decreased dmg income over time + cc-break/stability.
Just an example for the warri, other classes can bring their own sustain as well. Players should be able to use helpful skills while playing on their main char. The dmg output is enough because it’s not about bursting the boss down, it’s more like a survival race.

- Use lifesteal bufffood; this is very very helpful because the anomaly doesn’t have a burst skill, it’s more like it is sucking dry players hp. Lifesteal is working great against that.

- Clear the room in the east together as a team and focus on the fire and poison room (the red indicators, I think).
With a 5 man group you should be able to be in time so the npc will give you a buff when fighting the endboss.
You will experience a definite simplification.

These are only my favourite ones I bet there are many more.

To refer to domness’ video: Having 1-2 reapers is a very nice thing. Try it out some time, it’s an excellent hint too.

Astralporing.1957:

If you don’t ask, you won’t be given. And if you don’t ask, you definitely shouldn’t be using that as an argument that others shouldn’t ask as well.

Definitely, you can ask for it and maybe it’s smart and the probability is there that you’ll get it. But sometimes you can be realistic from the start on and stop the dreaming.

And? I have already mentioned it’s about a gear category, not about specific skin, haven’t i?

But legendary armor is not a real gear category at the moment and we all don’t know if it will be in the future because we all are lacking the information about the runes. If we aren’t able to substitute runes for free, legendary armor will be exactly the same like ascended armor because then stat swapping is useless – asc gear can be changed reasonably priced at this stage of the game.

Welcome to Press-1-Wars 2!

The encounter is fine – it’s the random ppl being annoying and the real challenge here.

In good pug groups you will have 0 wipes and kill it the first try especially with the debuff from the room in the east.
Many players don’t know which 2 of the 4 doors have to be opened fast or first to get a good amount of help afterwards during the boss fight by the npcs. Everytime I pug this there are players entering this room alone before the group can actually react to that.
It’s just the usual Pug life.

Too difficult for random parties? No, because if you adapt correctly (build & trait change) you will be able to solo the boss.

Astralporing.1957:

Currently, no, but what exactly is preventing you from asking for them to be available somewhere else? And if you do ask for them, I definitely won’t be saying to you that no, you can’t have them, because “reasons”. Quite the opposite, i have always supported such initiatives whenever they appeared.

You can ask for it, yes. But it’s unlikely to be come true because…well we know this game/company for too long.

Legendary armor won’t be better until we know something about runes fitting into it. If we cannot save or change runes without rebuying them, the possibility to change the stats will be nonsense.

Astralporing.1957:

And also, even if the choice currently is not that good, you can choose. If you can’t stand pvp, you can at least try fractals. If you dislike fractals, you can go sPvP. If you dislike Raids, you can… what? Ah, yeah, (to quote the user above) “get in the raids, then just play them. If you’re not willing to do so, then well, sucks to be you.”
A small and unsatisfying choice is still better than no choice at all.

The PvP skin is different from the fractal one. There is no optical similarity.

STIHL.2489:

Neox.3497:

Why sould HARDER content give you the same reward as easier content?

By this logic the best rewards should be exclusive to PvP, is that what you want?

Because everybody can get into League 4 with just facerolling the keyboard like a guildie of mine who is absoluteley incapable of playing properly?

Arnath.2319:

This is still not okay, content is still being denied to 99% of the community. Until Raids are accessible to everyone this problem will never go away.

It is denied to 99% of the community? I didn’t know that only VIPs are able to join and play raids.

Arnath.2319:

They have NEVER said this. Please do not make up facts to prove a point. Early data showed us that Raids have been a failure.

Yes, they said THIS! They are more than pleased about raids.
Also you cannot use gw2efficiency as a valid statistical source because you have no data that a significant part of the playerbase is registered there. Almost all of the known persons I raided with don’t have an account. So, it’s more than questionable that your so called “data” has any value at all.

We can only speculate why you are posting wrong and untrue “facts”
but tyi:
You cannot be taken seriously as an adult if you are continuing writing stuff like that.

Yes, but you see, Arah is still there. That was the point of CorruptEagle if I am not mistaken. This kind of content is already there multiplied by 8 and multiplied by 3 again (except Arah, there is 1 additional path). There are also fractals that got a revamp, more levels, some other rewards as well.
And to bring that in place: Almost nobody of those fractal players are complaining about raids being too hard and that they want other stuff because fractals and dungeons are too boring for them.
Those who complain are predominantly players that don’t play fractals or dungeons. They just feel excluded from raids (although the reasons are not valid and to taken seriously) and that’s why they are complaining. They know they can play fracs and dungeons. But are they doing it? No, definitely not. It’s just that there is a thing they cannot get into easily and this hurts them.

And that’s why I am strongly against an easy mode. The challenge should stay and there shouldn’t be an alternative as raid’s reputation would decrease.

Additionally, no, nowadays you don’t need to wipe over and over again. The guides are there. 10 minutes of time to watch those, look for the right LFG – be intelligent here – and don’t join the stupid ones. Also, you don’t need to look at the ones with requirements. At weekend there are so many good groups taking randoms with them, let them experience the bosses in 3-5 wipes and then it easily works.

I spent a big amount of time in just observing the LFG this weekend while watching soccer. There were and still are dozens of friendly entries for all kind of players. A clear sign for me that elitism is very little in the scene although some try to convince us of the opposite.

Astralporing.1957:

So, for raiders it is all about shinies too. You simply don’t want to share them with others. Because apparently you think they will make you special, or something.

For some it is, not for all. But the logic behind is that you shouldn’t get things on the fly because you don’t get them anywhere like this in the game. For higher fractal rewards you need to play higher fracs. Getting the PvP achievements is only achievable by playing PvP, same with WvW.
Just saying, there is also a little bit skepticism about shutting content down or to dumb it down like we had in the past with dungeons or fractals. We don’t want the same mistakes to be done again.
And at last, raids are easy enough. The complaining and “not-trying” fraction should step aside and have a proper look onto this content and they realized that they are able to play and succeed in this content if they want to. We have people coming here that never set a foot into raids and they complain as hell although even in this forum we have offers of players to help ppl out besides the looking-for-forum.