Guild Wars 2

Nah. I quit WoW for the whole RNG gated content garbage. I assumed GW2 would follow more closely to GW1. The “gated” Infusion in GW1 was well done as it was part of the story and completing the “Infusion Run” removed the gate. There wasn’t any of that dumb WoW RNG drops to progress nonsense.

If I’m going to have to grind, well, there’s just better games out there to do that in.

I’m interested to see what “revamping dungeons” will bring.
The current track record is pretty poor in my eyes; so I am wondering if they will bring the token grind back to BWE levels AND add in RNG exotics/ascended/unique drops to bosses and chests (thus making old dungeons worth the time and effort).
Will the up the difficulty or bring it down?
Will they add some unique abilities to bosses vs overly inflated health bars and silly one shot mechanics?

Playing less cause no one is running the dungeons I need/want. I have no intention of farming karma again, so I was trying to get dungeon armor this time around.

No reason to really invest in dungeon armor now though; Ascended armor will eventually replace it. So I can’t blame anyone…. but it removed my desire to play as that was my goal.

On my main, I missed the initial FotM rush, so I’m behind the curve now. Can’t get into groups now as I don’t have the “difficulty X”.

Loaded up SWToR and Planetside 2 – enjoying those a lot right now. Something to do at least besides stand in town spamming “LFG”.

IMO, if this is the course Anet wants to take GW2; so be it. But, Anet is going to have to step up and go with it.
What is going to be needed forward is:

Group/Party Voice chat IN the game.
A LFG Dungeon finder that allows players to queue up and set parameter for what they are looking for and what depth (fractals) they are able to get to or what path (other dungeons) they are looking for.
And finally push in Guesting to make it easier to find matches within the LFG tool.

Without these tools at hand; grouping is a pita. Spamming LFG for ten minutes then go through the “Application Process” of depth/path and gear checks is ridiculous… and the same is true for building a group. Finally, once in a group; one has to then climb into a 3rd party voice chat that varies from group to group.

Tried to play for “Fun” for about a month now. Tried to get into Dungeons so I didn’t have to grind karma again. Denied cause I was playing a necro and the cap on bleeds AND I hadn’t grinded a max exotic karma set yet (which what I was trying to avoid). No group. Guild has little to no interest any more either and I have no desire to go guild hunting again.
Thought new content would add “Fun”. Nope. Can’t get in cause I don’t have max stats already.

So I’m left wandering in circles picking up random DEs for karma now..? Sorry, not “fun”.

Whether the % in stats is small or not; apparently it matters enough to some as they wont join my group and I can’t get into other groups without the “gear check”. Sooo… I am about done here I think. /sad

Yes. Max stat AND desired look should be easily earned. A Norn (for example) shouldn’t have to grind out cash for cultural armor to look like a Norn (vs an over sized human) in addition to grinding out max stat armor.

Players want to look the part they pick and succeed as that role WHILE they play through content; not play through and exhaust content and finally have a “complete” character. – IMO of course.

I think Anet felt the game “needed” something to chase. Oddly, if they had only stopped and looked at the threads in this forums, they could have found a massive amount of potential content.

Example: Players have been asking for a massive amount of racially themed skins that span ALL level ranges.
Medium armor users have been pleading for more non-trench coat styled armor since BWE1.
Light armor users have been asking for more pants and more unique profession set armor.
RPers have been asking for more townclothes.
Grab just those ideas, add in a moderate Faction system that is earned while doing DEs and hearts in each factions’ area and they could have had “something” to do in between" other stuff.

That’s a start that would have held true to GW style of play IMO.

If I have to gear grind, there’s already better and more established titles out there. Many friends are already heading off to try TSW (for PvE) and Planetside 2 (for PvP) – I’m left once again looking at remaining guildies and PuGs for content… and now I’m slamming my head against a “Gear Score” or “Dungeon Level tier” to get any thing done…

Very Disappointed.

Invited 2. One played for a while and didn’t like the flow of combat and said “Thanks, but not for me.”. The other quit after the negativity in game chat bummed him out.

One of them invited me to re-join them in TSW, and since I can’t seem to find groups for dungeons these days that aren’t gear checking or moaning about “We already have enough condition damage” – or simply drop from the group I’m trying to start… /sigh — anyway, thinking about heading that way to play TSW again instead.

There’s nothing to really fear from PvP. It’s all for fun. Like goofing off with other people. Now, whether one finds it fun or not is another thing.

I love PvP in games like Planetside 2 or games where tactics are used (Total War games for a quick off the top example). However, in fantasy RPGs I loathe the PvP. I find games of virtual tag rather “bleh” and annoying – probably why I dislike some AI that are coded to behave like (really really bad) PvP players. – Makes me sigh, roll my eyes and wonder where the challenge went.

Of course, with that said: Give it a try, don’t worry about getting “killed”; everyone dies now and then in PvP. That’s part of it. Have to have a sense of humor too. Ribbing each other “should” be fun… sadly, that seems a lost form of entertainment. :P

And as always: That’s just my personal opinion and others’ will likely vary.

Depends on how it’s implemented.

If I have to use Fine T-Stones to transmute the looks of the armor I already used those stone on; then I’ll be kinda miffed off. Culture Armor wasn’t cheap, required a hella grind to get; then to get the Exotics I wanted plus upgrades to tweak out the stats.
Now the Ascended gear is supposed to be better than Upgraded Exotics… ok, but with what stats? Who picked them and do they mesh with my character or will the stats result in a mild nerf for my character(s)?

Will the new gear be more grind? I already grinded more than I wanted; I don’t want to grind more. I ran screaming from WoW for that reason. Ugh…

If the Ascended items can be chosen from a list of “rewards” at various tiers within the dungeon and can be transmuted onto the look I already worked for (without the need for Fine T-stones), then I’ll be “OK” with it. Wont be pleased if it nerfs my chosen stats, but “OK”.
If the Ascended items are just more grind, token farming or RNG kitten… then kitten no. I will likely walk away and not look back.

I’m mainly concerned over a few things:

Grind and “old Dungeons”.

Anet seems set on pushing grind/farming for everything. Nothing is a reward. Everything is a purchase. Want anything of value in the game, grind it out. With that mind set in place, I see anything new they add as something more to grind for.
If the new stuff is a reward, that will be awesome. If it yet another grind for tokens or RNG kitten-fest… bleh.

As for “old Dungeons”; I’m already having a hard time getting into dungeon groups as it is. I don’t know if it’s my timing or what; but I can not find groups for the dungeons I want/need already. If the gear in them is going to eventually be null and void stat wise; how will we get the skins we want from those?

I don’t find it (PvP in this game) the least bit entertaining.

At it’s best, it’s annoying. At it’s worse, it’s frustrating (thanks to culling, bugs and exploits, ttk, repair costs and time to travel).
It’s one of the areas I wish they had re-imagined into something completely different to be honest.

Similar problem as the OP. Log in, check TP and log out.

It’s become a quick “LFG” check while I check the TP. If no hits on the LFG in a few minutes; I log to play something else. – I need certain dungeons for a mix-match set of armor I want and I’m tired of Karma Farming.

Azjenco.9425:

Eadgyt.5987:

Personally I like Orr, a lot..
It’s supposed to be annoying (hard), after all, you’re far behind the arch-enemy’s lines..
Why would there be safe-points?

:)

I still don’t see how people are mixing annoying and hard, it’s not the same thing.
For instance, most waypoints are contested so you need to run where you need to go, that’s an annoyance, not a challenge. I can’t walk five steps without being snared, so I stop and take down the five risen on my back, they’re an annoyance, not a challenge.

Like you said, we are behind enemy lines, of the strongest enemy in Tyria, and yet his forces are a rag-tag bunch of annoyances just standing around? It seems a bit too sloppy to be a zone at war.

Someone else made this suggestion, and I think it’s so brilliant, I’ll repost it.

Let us actually make a push and fight for the zones. Let each zone have a camp, and from there you need to take the zone, fight back the undead in a tug of war. They take, and control territory, that you then need to take back the land. Fight all the way to the temples to actually unlock them, and make it all worth your while to actually stand behind the Pact. Orr should feel cohesive, not scattered. And depending on who controls an area, that side will have patrols.

The confusion on “Annoying” and “Hard” baffles me too.

Orr is not hard, it’s annoying.
Fireheart is much more difficult, but it’s fun. – IMO of course.

Another person on page two mentioned this as well; It’s almost like two completely different conversations are going on… and it’s pretty funny.

Player 1: Orr is no fun.
Player 2: l2p, it’s supposed to be hard.
Player 1 (now confused): I didn’t say I was having a hard time, I said it wasn’t fun.
Player 2: l2p or group.
Player 1 (probably laughing by this point): No, it’s not a difficulty thing, it’s a fun thing. It’s annoying.
Player 2: So because you are having a hard time you want it dumbed down like WoW?
Player 1: wth?

Of course, I find the same mentality when bringing up WvW. I don’t find that fun either. I find WvW also annoying and not very fun. I told a guildie yesterday I wasn’t planning on getting 100% on any of my alts. They asked “Why?” and I said “WvW was annoying to have to play in.”
Her reply was “It’s not that bad. I never got ganked and found it easy to get where I needed to go.”
I laughed and said “What does that have to do with the fun factor?”
She continued assuming I just thought it was hard “I can help you.”
I had to reply “I think you are forgetting I already have a 100% and already told everyone I thought it was easy. It’s not FUN. And if I want PvP I load up Planetside 2.” – which I then asked her if she wanted an invite key into that. She said “No. I don’t like FPS.”
I asked “Why?” and she said “I don’t find them fun.”

I was so tempted to say “It’s not that bad, I can help you.”

/facepalm

Of all the races in the game; this is the one I feel is second worst designed (Risen being the worst of all time). :/

Sorry.

My first impression, when I saw one in some DE in one of the Norn areas was “Oh brother… Aion is that way!”
I know they are underwater “Drow” and all that, but such a cliche.

But then… I don’t like the Tengu either – so that may show where my personal tastes fall.

However; as it appears there some interest in these things being playable character, anything that keeps people in the game is a good thing IMO.

GW2 is, in my opinion, an MMOAction title more than an RPG at all.

Typical RPGs (PnP D&D) focus on the player characters more than the world. cRPGs (computer or video games) typically build a world as a back drop, and then focus on the player characters (emotes, lore designed armor with diversity in options, styles, story and more).

Action games focus more on the game world and then throw the players in.

I feel GW2 focused and still focuses more on the game world than the player characters. This is evident from the moment a character steps into the game world. A Norn for example stands there dressed as a human in stark contrast to his/her NPC counter parts (whom all look and are dressed like Norn). So it seems to me, that the attention and care went into making the world and less into the player character.

There’s other reasons as well; but that’s the easiest that can be seen.

From the players stand point on Role Playing – I personally find games that focus more on the player character than the game world easier to RP in. Games like Star Trek, Champions Online or EQ 1 or 2 – would be far better suited to fill any RP I wished to take part in.

Anyway, that’s just my opinion on the topic.

I’ve been trying off and on for a week now to complete a mix and match set of dungeon gear. I’m sick of farming karma/coin so thought I would go a different route. Can’t get into a group and when trying to start one, people drop.

So, I finally gave up. Nothing left to do in the game that interests me till adjustments are made.

Add me to this. I would love to switch from the one I chose to a different one.

Auesis.7301:

Am I the only person on earth who has very little problems getting around in Orr?

No. I find Orr extremely easy to navigate. It’s just absolutely no fun to adventure in and has boring and poorly designed mobs (Risen). For an “end game” zone that should be about a battle front, Orr falls flat.

Maybe I was spoiled from Tabula Rasa and seeing how they did “Battle Lines” and true PvE battle lines with their AI… but Orr… ugh.

For the dodge: The dodge will sometimes get interrupted depending on the current attack.
For example: On my necro during the 3rd auto-attack animation, there’s a slight pause. If I try to dodge during this attack animation; the dodge will not happen. She may “roll”, but she will not go anywhere nor does she evade cause the attack “breaks” the dodge.

It’s a bug I assume and I’ve reported it.

As for skills not firing; that’s likely lag. I’ll get that during peak times and during big events with lots of people around.

As I’ve mentioned in other posts on Orr; it’s not a difficult place. It’s simply “Annoying”.

So, yes, I agree with you. I avoid the place as best I can. I play to unwind and enjoy my time… not be trolled by devs with a sinister sense of humor.

Have a low level alt get kill some random things in a noob zone, gathering and hitting DEs if you see any. Don’t finish the daily though. Just spend about ten minutes in a noob zone killing different types of mobs as fast as possible.

Now switch to your main and finish the daily. Why? Higher payouts when you complete it on higher level characters.

Switching characters saves you the time and WP cost of bouncing around and saves you the time in hunting down that “kill variety” types.

As others’ have mentioned, Orr is a good place to clear out DEs fast. If, however, like myself you hate Orr. Frostgorge has several areas that have lots of events.
If you catch the Claw of Jormag event, you’ll be done really fast and get a chest at the end. If you miss it, hit up the Dredge area to the west. Lots of quickly repeating DEs in there as the Dredge and Kodan fight over the mines.

-hope that helps

Sadly, this is working as intended. When trash mobs become an un-rewarding hindrance players will seek ways to avoid them.
If trash mobs dropped Tokens or a high chance at valuable items (meaning, not simply more merchant trash); players would bother to take them out.

Putting up doors or restrictions will have the side effect of fewer people bothering vs encouraging them to take the time to clear it.

Positive suggestions on this topic have been brought up a few times. One of the better ones (I thought) was have a Bonus reward at the end IF the dungeon was 100% cleared. A Bonus chest with Dungeon themed drops in it; or an Extra 30 tokens or the like.
The balance comes from: If players can earn more from completing even 2 paths than a single full clear (in the same time frame); they will still skip the trash and bum rush through.

A solid 6 (which is good from my critical eye).

Room for improvement of course; but over all was a some good times.

Needed a lot more playable and earnable holiday stuff. Earnable does not equal grindable/farmable stuff to eventually craft months after the event is over.
Having ALL skins available through Karma or Unique Halloween Karma-like currency from Halloween related DEs would have been a solid win in my book.
Each Act adding more DEs to new areas (could even add some in WvW to entice more conflict) each with the same rewards; but enabling more content to just have fun in.

Then post event; add the skins to the Gem Shop for purchasing the pieces players could not get would have been better and less akin to a cash grab via low budget f2p titles in dire need of a quick influx of money. And sadly, this is what left a sour taste in my mouth.

The 6/10 score, while is again generous from myself; would have been higher. But really, we got GW2 farm/grind mode with Halloween skins and one “quest” chain for the book (which happened to be my favorite part).

The clocktower, while one of the coolest looking things I’ve seen was beyond my ability to complete. That’s not a complaint though. I thought that it was really cool… I just have issues judging distance on even stable non-timed jumping puzzles, so that clocktower was my own personal nightmare. lol

These topics always make me laugh a bit.
A few things to add just for fun:

Back in EQ I had a female Dark Elf. Some random guy started flirting with me. No “hi” or anything. Not one to “hide” I said “Thanks, but not a chick” – he replied “Even better.” – I got a good laugh from that as I was so not expecting it.

In LoTRO I had this burly looking (well, as burly looking as I could make) male human. Some random male elf walked up and started flirting. I said politely “No thanks, not interested” and he/she replied “What if I logged on my female elf.” – O.o

Someone once asked me if I was secretly gay for making a female character. I laughed and told them “Boy, would my wife of 20 years be surprised. Besides, are you just looking for more male eye candy?” He answered “Yes”.

So, when I see these topics; the only thing that makes any sense to me as to why they would care would be to flirt or treat the game as some kind of weird place to hook up. Maybe it could just be me, but that happens quite a bit. Not so much in GW2; but in other games ALL the time. – Anyway, good fun. Gotta love people sometimes.

Personally; “real” undead would be a winner.
Shambling and Rotting Zombies that spread a plague, disease when close to them.
Skeletons and Wraiths that chill when too close.
Wraiths that drain life with each attack.

These kind of undead are probably my favorite types of foes – though, that’s likely because my favorite PnP D&D games often had us against legions of undead; and the DM made sure they were dread foes.

[Opinion – as usual]

The Halloween Items, Precursors and blatant cash grabs that were the Black Lion Chests are examples of RNG done badly.

The RNG should be added to award “additional” items of value (at this point, that means only Exotic items – sadly). That can mean getting a dungeon skinned drop or unique skin from that boss/chest that can’t be gotten outside that dungeon. Using AC as an example: That might mean getting a Ghastly weapon that glows a different color than the Token earned ones – something that simple.
That items must not be soul/account bound as it is the reward for running the dungeon in “addition” to the tokens earned. – This is important because at some point, players will not need the tokens so they need a reason to keep going back or go in the first place*.

*If a player, like myself, finds the armor in certain dungeons hideous, they wont bother to run those dungeons. CoF is such a dungeon for myself. I find the flame armor to be cheap looking, silly and lacking of anything but cliche. I have therefore never once bothered to enter the dungeon as there is simply no point in my doing so.
If a solid RNG were in place that always rewarded me a dungeon skinned item looted from a RNG table that I could then sell on the TP; I might give it a look.

So, RNG is good when it is from a limited loot table of “valuable” items. RNG is bad when it becomes a wall for holiday items, or the only way to get upgrades. RNG is the worst when (like in D3) everything pulls from the same loot table and 99% of everything we get is merchant trash, 0.9% is sellable on the TP and the final 0.1% we can actually use. – numbers gleefully pulled out of the air and slapped in the post with an evil grin. :P

RNG is good for “additional” rewards or “additional” drops.
RNG fails when it’s the only way to get a specific reward or when it becomes part of the gearing process (Gear treadmill for example).

If Anet added “additional” drops to say, dungeon bosses and chests; then in addition to the tokens – a great deal of replay value would be added.
As it is now, once a player has their tokens needed for their gear, there’s little reason to ever return to a specific dungeon (RNG would address this).
Additionally, if a dungeon doesn’t have a skin a player likes, there’s really no reason to go there (again, RNG addresses this).

So, RNG on “additional” items that offer a reward in addition to the tokens would go a long way. Also, tokens would be better spent as universal or at the very least, tokens from one dungeon should be able to purchase tokens from another at a slightly increased exchange rate (2:1 maybe).

In this, a play looking for CM or CoE (like me) and can’t find a group or enough party members can at least join the constant AC groups and make some progress towards my own goals while helping others.

Just my opinion of course, but that’s what I would love to see.

OEXTRA.1780:

You have a point to your post. Personally I think if they added unique rare skins or even runes/sigils that you can ONLY get as a drop from the dungeon, it would make it more worthwhile to run (for you and everyone). This way you would have the guaranteed armor/weapon/etc. skin in your sight that you know you’ll get from an X amount of runs, and you’ll have the other unique armor/weapon/etc. you can possibly get during each run.

^^ This. This alone would finally get my guildies wanting to run dungeons like we did in GW; and pull those that retreated back to WoW back to play with me again.

Orr brings out the worst, because it’s a constant source of annoyance. Annoyed people are bitter and cranky.
Once players get used to Orr, the difficulty (if they found it difficult) is gone; but the annoyance level stays.

Put people in a hot room with little room to move, they get cranky and on edge. Put people in a tightly packed store with things and others bumping into them constantly, they get annoyed.
This is human nature; and Orr pushes those buttons.

At least, that’s how I see it.

Depotboy.6204:

Never have a problem finding pugs for dungeon runs in LA, as long as those dungeons are AC and CoF. No one really seems to want to do anything else.

This may be part of my problem. I’m looking for CoE and CM mostly.

And last I knew, CM story is bugged.

[Opinion]

Long fights are OK when done right. GW2, does not do them “right”.

Long fights should be won via attrition and tactics, planning and out thinking the AI (via clever use of player abilities and terrain).
GW2’s long fights = mobs with a lot of health and hit too hard. So that equates to running in circles constantly while avoiding red circles of doom.

Simply reducing the mobs dmg output and creating stages of varied changes* it would go a long way in making bosses in GW2 interesting and add “real” challenge.

*For example: Say Balthazar @ 75% health suddenly could no longer be hurt by players outside a certain range; and all players in range began to burn or bleed. At 50% this changes again. Maybe Balthazar takes half dmg from physical attacks but double from conditions (or the like). Then final stage, the adds in the area drop items that are required to be thrown that do dmg.
And of course, adding a randomized rotation to such an encounter would make it less trivial each spawn.

That’s a rough idea of course; but this would make a “long fight” interesting and not just a long drawn out fight of running in circles humming the Benny Hill chase theme.

PS. To be fair, The Lyssa encounter is a pretty good one. But outside that one, none stick out to be a “good long battle”.

I’ve had an increasingly difficult time finding parties that take non-fully geared characters of late. I’m tired of running Orr karma runs for ugly gear; and trying to just jump to certain dungeons to farm the tokens I want/need – and I’m finding it more difficult.

I’ve not done many of the story modes so (unless I am mistaken) am reliant on another to start the explorable. It’s not for lack of trying, just bad luck on finding groups of story modes too.

I had to hit up the events to the south; where the Dredge take over the outposts. I did those a few times and finally got a key for my last alt.

My first run through there (on my main) and during the first week of launch, I ended up with 30+ keys. Thinking I wouldn’t need to hold on to them, as they were so common, I tossed them.
Second and third alts each had to grind for them. doh…

I would rather they add a ton of new racially themed armor/weapons to the game before they add another race. From level 1 stuff to level 80 stuff.

After that, they can add a new race or two.

I personally already don’t play anything but human because the armor drops/rewards are all “human” in design. If I want non-human designs, I gotta grind it out. #lame

I can’t imagine myself even caring if Skritt were made playable (my personal favorite non-playable) if they started out wearing… human armor.

PS: And yes, I would so play a Skritt and yell “Shiny!” then train a massive gathering of things to go get it. /evil_grin

I agree with some of the points the OP brings up.

1. I completely agree here. The story goes from interesting and sometimes even very entertaining (Grizwhirl anyone?) to “Why am I needed here again?” – Mr Cabbage Head with his uber sword of doom can handle it all on his own.

2. Guilds are not really needed as there’s no valued group content. Dungeons? They are really token farms, nothing of value IN them, just getting THROUGH them. IMO, that’s the core problem. Group content is lacking in substantial rewards for time and effort – almost everything in game can be gotten via grinding only. I could list potential ideas on how to address that here, but it would be off topic… but, that’s a core reason Guilds are about useless here right now (at least, IMO).

3. I have different thoughts on 3 (Orr) than you. I do not find any of Orr difficult. It’s silly, the Risen are poorly designed and are easy to over come. My main is a thief, and I don’t think I’ve ever died on Orr from Risen (Krait got me once or twice I think, but not land based Risen). As a thief, I set for conditions and cripples. When you dodge make sure you get the Speed Boost and toss out caltrops. Bleed, bleed, dodge through the Risen and run around a bit – repeat. Pretend your in a Benny Hill chase scene and the dumb Risen don’t stand a chance. The Risen like to flank, so dodging through them seems to reset where they think they want to be – buys you more time. (Hope that helps some at least vs Risen. – as for the Champions, gotta join a zerg; sadly)

PS. I also keep in mind, that while on Orr. Risen are not meant to challenge; they are meant to annoy. Once we figure out how silly these things behave, they are easy – yet they still annoy the life out of us. Eventually, the only thing they test, is our patience.
I’ve had near 5 Risen on me without issue. Just remember the above AND zig zag while you run. Their pulls will miss and you can hum Benny Hill chase themes while they stupidly follow you bleeding and limping to their deaths.

Now, when I go to Fireheart… yikes. I get a lesson in humility. The Charr don’t run around trying to flank or try to compete with Sonic the Hedgehog. They just run at me trying to smash my face in. And often, if I’m not careful; they do. Fireheart > Orr for end game challenge IMO. Maybe it’s a playstyle difference; I dunno.

4. Scaling – Don’t have much to add here.

5. Personally, I love underwater combat on all but my Necro. The thief is all about timing with the spear. If you time the enemies attacks right, 1v1 combat you can kill anything without taking a single hit. The 2 attack evades and puts us behind the target. The 3 blocks and multi-hits after the blocked attack. 4 is great for quickly catching up or closing the gap between AI that think they can get away by moving two feet away.
The ranged option for thieves underwater is all about the condition damage/duration. Snare foes, kite. Pretty much all we can do.
Also, stack the poisons underwater. They really help, even if you don’t trait into poisons (I didn’t, and they still are a solid choice).

6. Not a fan of PvP in a game like this at all. So I’ll not comment. I play Planetside 2 currently for my PvP fix.

7. I would finish the story once; but eh… I completed it on my thief and since then have an 80 mesmer and an 80 necro. Both I have stopped their story lines soon as they are able to use their chosen portals to Fort Trinity. After that point, there’s little reason for me to continue in it.

Anyway, hope that helps or gives things to think on. This isn’t meant as a l2p, just a suggestion on what works for myself and so on.

It wasn’t too bad when I teamed up with friends. IF we were in a voice chat and could carry on non-GW related conversations as well; it went by much faster.

The last 98% that had me in WvW was the worst though. It dragged on and on and on and on and…

I honestly have little intention to get 100% on any of my alts. Once was enough

So, having a friend with you may help. Outside that, not much advice I can give. I too found it mind numbing at times.

Had to think about this a bit and then work out how to phrase it without it coming across as merely a complaint.

Immersion: Immersion is severely limited IMO. The game world is gorgeous and I can see a lot of care went into making it feel and look alive. Yet, when I create a Norn, Charr, Sylvari or Asura I walk into the game world dressed as a human? All the NPCs around me look like the belong IN the areas I am in. They look like they are actually Norn, Charr, Sylvari and Asuran… not the players though.
This completely removes me from the moment, breaks the 4th wall and kills the enjoyment of playing those other races. (Personal Opinion of course)

Holding the content to the Lore: This moderately fits in with the above. I hate the Risen. They are the silliest foes I’ve ever come across in an MMO (outside the usual K-grinder starter mobs of ’shrooms and goo bubbles). So, when asked why these silly things are standing around doing nothing, or why there are so many and why they move so stupidly fast; the answer was “Lore”.
Erm… If we hold the game to be solid with “Lore”; then why does my Norn start dressed as a Human*? – “Lore” should not be an excuse, it should be a rule of design that holds true to all parts. Not just the parts that require the least amount of effort.

*Now if the personal story said my Norn had just returned home from Kryta and was then chosen for the Great Hunt; I might forgive the human starter gear… but ONLY the starter gear. It would not explain why all the drops and merchant armor IN the Norn area are all designed exactly like the Humans. – and yes, this has bugged me way more than it probably ought too since BWE1. lol

I don’t mind the undead – the skeletons in the Halloween event were pretty neat… just NO more Risen please. Ugh… worst designed foes ever.

So, my list:

No Risen.
New weapon and armor skins.
And yes, events that work. :P

I’ve spoken about my utter loathing of Orr many times; well, mainly it’s due to the way Risen are designed.
I find it funny that even the worst (self admitted in some cases – and rl friends so no taunting or elitism around) players have the same thing to say about Orr: “Well, that’s annoying”

I’ve never heard anyone say “Orr is too hard” or “Orr is too dangerous”. It’s always “Annoying”. Now, in forums, I’ve read a few comments on difficulty, but very few.

IMO; End Game zones should be the most interesting, most entertaining, most dangerous and most of all, most rewarding – not most annoying, frustrating and “try to avoid at all costs”.

The one time events are kinda neat; but can we move away from those and maybe move towards scripted scenes that play maybe upon each character’s first time entering these “new” zones.
That way, all players (new and old) can see and re-see the content. /suggestion

Also, yes please. NO more Risen, or any mobs that behave like them. They are so silly.

Melchior.2135:

The objective behind changing Monthly Achievement components is likely to get us participating in content that they’d like to focus on testing. The various internal teams probably jockey for positions on the Monthly Achievement list so they can get the players to blitz that section of content and give them a ton of data to look at on how to modify that content. So long as there are some parts of the game a lot of players find more frustrating than fun, we should expect those parts to show up on the Monthly Achievement list so they can watch how we play and try to bring that content in line with what will make more of us happy.

That actually made me wonder if our Monthly Achievements will always be in flux. That would actually be kinda neat IMO.

[Opinion – I will stress this again; the following is my personal opinion on why the current MMO players are as they are.]

In my opinion: The comparison in today’s MMOs and the earliest MMOs (such as EQ) comes from this: Dependency on others.

If any player was to succeed in “old school” MMOs we were reliant upon our fellow gamers. A bad attitude earned a bad reputation. A bad rep earned fewer groups and fewer opportunities to progress.
The toxic “elitist” attitude was frowned upon (as it still is) and a player with such an attitude would find themselves without group members as quickly as a notoriously poor player.
The combination of these made sure the majority of players at least tried to be polite to each other.

Enter modern MMOs. Modern MMOs added a lot of PvP* to their side games; that something to do when “there’s nothing to do” if you will. This meant, there was suddenly a need for personal growth outside the group setting.
Old School games meant anyone in your usual grouping getting an upgrade; meant the entire group getting a boost in power. Not the case now as the mentality has shifted from “congrats!” to “Where’s mine?”.
This is made even worse as soloing and the Corporate Efficiency mindset take their hold. Now each 0.01% must be accounted for and maximized.
Add those issues together and the generalized confusion on “Entitled” (not talking about or referring to anyone in this thread) comes out. A player asking for the ability to work towards or earn their own rewards is often labeled as “Entitled”. This comes from the Corporate mindset. Anyone standing up and asking for work and fair pay/rewards for their effort/labor is called “Entitled” because they are not happy with feeling cheated or their wages/rewards are too low for their efforts.
So, the Corporate Efficiency/Mindset, PvP and the requirement on Solo play all come together to create a “Me” generation of gamers that must look out for themselves because no one else has their back – whereas, old school MMOs; without someone at your back, you wouldn’t go very far.

This type of mentality clashes with us “old school” MMOers (at least it does for myself). I see people linking their goodies in chat and if I see a rare or item the player is proud of; I send them a “congrats!”. I’m further baffled at the almost always following hatred that flows after with demands to “stop spamming your ____” and the “Anet, where’s mine? How am I supposed to compete now? Do I have to buy Gems to keep up?”

*This is not meant to say PvP is a bad thing. I like PvP in some games, it’s fun!

Like I said, that’s my personal opinion on how the MMO genre has become what we have. Hope it makes some sense.

Devata.6589:

I always find the ‘elitism’ discussions a bid funny if it is about MMORPG games. Really, the whole game is about it, or you totally don’t care about it.

The games allows you to do your thing and don’t mind what other people are doing. If you play like that ‘elitism’ should not be a problem for you.

You can also use the game to really get the best chars or the coolest mini’s and so on. Some people say thats elitism. Well then I am an elitism but I am not the guy with the biggest armor showing it of in LA. I just like to have so unique stuff.

It’s not problem if these sort of activities ‘block’ content (like you name it) It makes that content just more epic. So you like that content (be an elitism?) and go for it of you don’t care and ignore it. It is as simple as that.

With ‘content’ I am mostly referring to items, not basic things like world-completion.

I apologize, I am not really understanding what you are trying to say. I am thinking there’s a bit of a language barrier between us.
You took the time to reply directly, so I didn’t want to seem rude and not at least say I read your reply – so, letting you know I did. Thanks

If I am guessing what you are meaning; we may also have a different meaning of an elitist. A person that is “showing” off their hard earned goods is not someone I would call an elitist. However, someone that is insulting or downputting of a fellow gamer(s) when they are unable to complete certain content; and then goes out of their way to exclude that person or persons from a potential group is what I would call an elitist and a toxic player to the community.

I personally go out of my way and says “congrats” to my fellow gamers when I see them with hard earned or extremely rare items. However, when I see other players throwing out insults towards other players cause (for whatever reason) they are unable to complete something; yeah… ugh. Toxic.
Gated content like this in key areas, dungeons, vistas, skill points etc would be a breeding ground for such immature and toxic behavior. That is my concern.

Anyway, hope I didn’t completely misread or misunderstand what you were saying.

I gotta agree with the idea behind the achievement. I don’t personally like or care for PvP in this game; much less the WvW. But; that said, the achievement does not say PvE nor PvP achievement. It’s “daily” or “monthly”; and neither is needed to progress in game.
Yes, it’s helpful for the free goodies; and put aside technical issues that may prevent some from partaking; it’s not needed.

Personally, I wish they would create two achievement lines. One for PvP and one for PvE. Give each “only one camp players” a goal, and double the goals for players that go for both.

Bad joke: There’s some bad blood between the Risen and Sonic. The Risen move faster than the super sonic hedgehog and jealousy came about. Now, the word Sega is banned so as not to bring up bad feelings. :P

I noticed this the other day for the first time actually on my Necro. I almost always run with no head piece showing, so never noticed; but, finally got the hood I wanted, used a fine t-stone put it on… then noticed my character’s head was suddenly shaved and looked stupid… lol

After the chuckle over wasted fine t-stone and effort I put into getting said combination, and warning others (whom ALL already had noticed – apparently I was late to this party); I turned off my hard earned Hood and went on.

I would like to see this fixed though. It’s silly to suddenly go bald just because a head piece is put on.

I haven’t had time to really look into this; it’s on topic so I will ask it:

At what point does the achievement get counted?

There’s a lot of people out there that don’t like the dungeons due to the over tuned nature of the mobs dmg output, massive life pools and “ugly armor rewards” (not my wording, just quoting what I have seen as a reason they don’t run dungeons). Will we start to see what WvW is seeing now? Players joining and sitting there waiting for PoIs to open up, or camping “safe” spots waiting for a zerg to rush the walls so they can get in their monthly kills in.
Will we start to see griefing of this nature now creep into Dungeon runs? Or has it been tested enough to disallow such behavior?

Or am I just paranoid? :P

I had mentioned before, I really didn’t like the jumping puzzle. However, to clarify the why; it is because I am truely terrible at them.
In voice chat, I would laugh and get ‘ribbed’ by friends when I would fall (yet again).
In game chat, I joined others in doing much of the same. It was simply too difficult for me to complete.
I may have been able to do it eventually without the gooey stuff rising AND the ability to actually see the floor through the wall of other players (Norn and Charr mostly); but to be honest – I doubt even then. ha!

My concern with such a puzzle is that it be used in similar form to gate off other content. Say, a future dungeon path or vista/skill point etc. That type of setup breeds elitism which I feel is very toxic to the over all health of the community.

Now, that doesn’t mean don’t add stuff like this as there are some that truely love it. But add it in part of normal jumping puzzles out in the world for exploration and such. Don’t use them as a “in your face” or “in the way of” a vista, skill point or such. An single exotic holiday item caused this level of rage, imagine blocking off a skill point or vista in future content… O.O

PS. To the dev making these puzzles: These are the perfect opportunity to put in place an ode to Willie Coyote. Give us a flailing animation or calm wave before falling to our doom. /evil_grin

“Post here if u havent gotten…” – Cracks me up at the posters doing the opposite. Not that difficult folks.
I’ll join the didn’t get a rare or better crowd. Wasn’t too worried about it though. Had a great time with the scavenger hunt (hope in the future they add mostly inclusive stuff like that vs the grinders and RNG gunk).
Though, the lack of earnable holiday stuff had me back to leveling alts very quickly vs taking time out to really enjoy the holiday stuff like I was able to do for days in GW1.