Guild Wars 2

The sad thing is that even if they reversed their decision, they’ve still tarnished their word and all without blinking an eye. Their blog post just pretends they never said anything about grinding and gear treadmills.

Why not just play the game that already has gear inspect? They’ve already solved all these problems that ANet has no experience with yet.

Level 50 difficulty level? I hope there aren’t that many. These dungeons better be super fun if we’re doing them 50×.

Well at least pink is a super cute color.

It sounds like infusions will be a reward for all dungeons…. but we’re not quite sure yet the path to obtaining ascended item and infusions.

Suddenflame.2601:

whoa guys you are forgetting sure the armour is stronger then exotic but it loses the rune slot in exchange for infusions which we have no clue what they do other then it deals with Agony from GW1. Which means the armour in general is weaker then exotics as the exotics have runes slot and Ascended doesn’t. SO there is still no gear grind cause exotics is still the top tier armour for normal WvW and PvE.

I didn’t know you can equip runes on a ring.

Because guild wars 1 had horizontal progression. Now they are trying to introduce gear progression, so it can’t be as easy as getting an “ascended” tagged on your gear. It has to take time and you have to “work” for it. First you’ll have to get the no-infusion slot ring, then the mats for building the no-infusion slot back piece, then the infusion-slot ring, and then the infusion, etc….

They obviously weren’t planning for this from the beginning, but obviously something spooked them into turning around and heading in the other direction. Player drop off? Low sales? Forum QQ?

krookie.6378:

Wasselin.1235:

Well it’s still not entirely clear how hard it will be to get these two ascended items. We can assume it won’t be super easy, as it is there to provide a sense of progression. It sounds like there are actually four different types of ascended gear: no-infusion slot, defensive infusion slot, offensive infusion slot, and omni-infusion slot. So it could actually be that the lesser difficulties of the new dungeon drop the no-infusion slot (or the stuff to make it) and then as you progress you get the next infusion slot up.

We also aren’t sure what will go in the infusion slot exactly. What is the difference between a defensive and offensive infusion? Infusion is described as dealing with agony— does agony lower your damage output and make you take damage? Do you have to decide between taking less damage and doing more damage? How will we obtain infusions? It sounds like their will be different qualities of infusions also: in this update they are capped at “fine.”

Agony is a DoT that cannot be cleansed. As you’re progressing through the new dungeon, you will get to a point where you will need to have an agony defense infusion because the DoT will be too powerful.

What’s the agony offensive-infusion slot then? Why would a omni-infusion slot be desirable?

Well it’s still not entirely clear how hard it will be to get these two ascended items. We can assume it won’t be super easy, as it is there to provide a sense of progression. It sounds like there are actually four different types of ascended gear: no-infusion slot, defensive infusion slot, offensive infusion slot, and omni-infusion slot. So it could actually be that the lesser difficulties of the new dungeon drop the no-infusion slot (or the stuff to make it) and then as you progress you get the next infusion slot up.

We also aren’t sure what will go in the infusion slot exactly. What is the difference between a defensive and offensive infusion? Infusion is described as dealing with agony— does agony lower your damage output and make you take damage? Do you have to decide between taking less damage and doing more damage? How will we obtain infusions? It sounds like their will be different qualities of infusions also: in this update they are capped at “fine.”

That happens occasionally to me when first entering wvw.

Bornthisway.4609:

My point is not invalidated just because they have the same stats. Legendaries are exorbitantly more work than Exotics to obtain, so of course they are more respected etc. Gear is moving forward, if you don’t want to no one is forcing you.

If you want to participate in the new content then yes, someone is forcing me to upgrade my gear. ArenaNet is. "Players who wish to delve deep into the Fractals will find that Agony makes progress increasingly difficult, until they reach the point where some defense against this condition is a must. "

Lucifer.6849:

nvmvoidrays.2158:

@steelwolf: they already said they’re going to implement more ascended armor options soonTM, so, they’ll eventually be available. even then, unless the infusion bonuses are somehow equivalent to rune/sigil bonuses (unlikely), you still won’t be using ascended armor for anything, but, this one particular dungeon.

Even if the new gear would only be good for the new dungeon it is a really bad idea to have a dungeon requireing specific gear. And just imagine down the line trying to find a group for that dungeon if you don’t have ascendant gear.

Exactly. This gear is only for fractals of the mists right now but in the future you will continue to need it. Right now it’s just the ring and back piece, but in future content they are saying they will release more ascended gear, and eventually ascended weapons. So eventually you will need it for any dungeon.

I feel like they didn’t even really try. All they had to do was release Lost Shores without the ascended gear and see what would happen. Did their halloween event not draw in a big enough crowd?

Wasn’t the concept that you make fun content and people will play without needing a carrot? Did ArenaNet come to doubt their ability to make content fun?

Yes. You will miss it.

Everything you do grants experience, so make sure to gather and craft. check out your personal story also.

That’s actually the same author… He is moving domains slowly I think.

Ari Kagura.9182:

If I read the PR notes right, apparently the paths will be randomized upon entry. Meaning that your party won’t be able to choose which path you want to do. If you get an “easy” path, then sweet! If you get the hard path … well, I guess you just have to deal with it.

I was wondering about that. I wonder how they will deal with people simply exiting and reforming their group until they get the path they want.

You can try this website: http://gw2lfg.com/

The more people who use it the easier it will be to find groups.

alcopaul.2156:

so far i only did CM and Arah. And they’re adding 9 more? Why are you giving me more things to do, A.NET?

I’m not against them adding new things— I’m just worried that the population of people who want to do dungeons will be spread even thinner making it harder to find groups.

So the fractal of the mists dungeon is supposedly 9 dungeons in one. However the 8 dungeons the game launched with are still filled with bugs and have unbalanced paths. What do you think this fractal dungeon will be like? How could they possibly have created so many dungeons so fast?

The lost shores page said this is an “all new” dungeon but I wonder exactly how much different it is from the dungeons that came before. Especially because it says that it’s nine dungeons, when that’s more than the game launched with!

Fiontar.4695:

Crazylegsmurphy.6430:

I’m not sure why they don’t have different EU and US start times for these events. Using the excuse that players will upload the video to YouTube is not a very good excuse.

That’s like saying that if they release The Hobbit at different times throughout the world, someone might read about it on the internet. If players don’t want content spoiled, they shouldn’t be looking for it on the internet.

The three things that ANet could do to make this easier on all players are:

1. Space events out so they don’t require such a large time commitment all at once. I think most people can plan for these things, but not many can dedicate entire weekends to playing a video game.

2. Be more transparent about all the events coming up. Put a calendar online, and in the game showing upcoming events and times. Even if it just says, “World event!” with a time, that would be enough for people to look months down the line and book time off, or whatever.

An extra step would be sweet iCal/Outlook integration so we could manage them like any other task and ANet could change, or adjust them as needed.

3. Be a bit more transparent about WHAT it is that is going on. We all like surprises and such, but not everyone will be super happy to dedicate the time, only to find out it’s a cutscene.

Anecdote: Last week my girlfriend and I were on the road traveling to California. We knew there was an event at 12 PDT, so we planned our travel day around it. We rushed to a McDonalds (free WiFi), and sat there frustrated as it took over 30 minutes to update the client. We eventually got in, only to find out it had been a cutscene.

Again, these events are super awesome and I applaud ANet for putting in such amazing effort (the Halloween theme was quite cool), but they need to be a little more flexible for all their players.

This!

There are two data centers 5+ hours apart. Each data center should have it’s own start time for the region it’s in. I could care less if the event is “spoiled” for those in the US unable to stay away from spoilers before the event kicks off here. At least more people would be able to participate!

Exactly. What’s worse? The event being “spoiled” but actually getting to participate, or not getting to participate and having to watch what happened on youtube?

They’ve already confirmed that they are open to raising the level cap in a new expansion. What’s your point op?

There was a few people who didn’t really appreciate the lack of information regarding the halloween event, so maybe they decided to reveal more up front this time and see how that goes.

They will have to approach ascended gear carefully or ruin every thing they have worked to achieve. It’s definitely something that could divide the playerbase.

I haven’t even been to all of the “old” dungeons yet but now ArenaNet is releasing 9 more? It’s already hard to get groups for some of the lesser done dungeons but with player interest shifted towards this new mini-expansion it seems like it might become impossible.

HykCraft.4610:

Too bad everyone stands out at each dungeon entrance spamming the /s/ and /m/ chat channels for groups… along with Lion’s Arch.

They will add one eventually. Give it 3 years though.

That’s what is so frustrating to me, because I know that a dungeon finder is so important that they will eventually add one. It benefits the game so much that I can’t see how it wouldn’t be a greater priority to get it in there sooner.

I really like it actually.

“Here comes the flames!”

I love when my human just says “Air” “Fire” “Water” “Earth” the most though.

ArenaNet isn’t working on a dungeon finder even though one is sorely needed.

there are currently no plans to implement a dungeon finder.
If you are having trouble finding groups for dungeons, you can use our LFG system. Open up your contacts menu in-game, and there should be an option in there for grouping. That way it’s not just people standing out in front of dungeons shouting LFG until someone invites them. This system does not stretch across servers, or to other maps.

Even though they have a LFG that is what is happening: people are shouting LFG until someone invite them.

With all the different ways that ArenaNet has set up to make playing with other players easy why not even have any plans to implement a LFG? There are already a couple different internet sites popping up to help people find groups. You can actually already make groups cross-world and they do have a guesting feature to play with people from other world in the works. So why not a LFG? Everything needed for LFG dungeon finder tool is already in place except the part that actually makes it easy to find other people who want to play the same dungeon with you.

I had to swap to finally get world completion. I waited for a month on three points of interest and even tried to rally people on my world to take those points but it never changed hands. When it’s so much easier to swap why even bother trying to do it the right way?

Hmmm I think it’s kind of a perception issue. There is more to work towards than legendaries, yet that seems to be what everyone is focused on.

I think they need to polish their achievement ui and use it to direct players to different activities. I think a lot of players feel a little directionless when they get to 80. If they better messaged to players the amount of things they could work towards and then made it so they could really show off their achievement, either with a title that’s displayed better, a unique set of gear (doesn’t have to be legendary level), or even a minipet that would help give people a reason to log in.

For the average player I think the game expects them to do a little bit too much exploration and discovery.

I’m really not sure. A level 80 island map with some event chains? I’m hoping for a lot of bug fixes and some polish on traits. At the same time I hope they don’t mess up my build too much cause I really like it.

It’s a lot of running. It’s so annoying trying to get to the commander icon or combat icon, and then getting there and the action is over. Even when I do find a siege or something fun it usually turns out to be me casting meteor shower over and over.

I basically only go there to do my dailies when I need a change of pace and to get the wvwvw kills for the monthly achievement.

Switching attunements with the elements is not optional. You might be able to get by with staying in fire or earth 99% of the time, when solo in PvE, but you would be severely limiting yourself and it probably wouldn’t be very fun. A lot of elementalist skills have pretty long cooldowns to compensate for the fact that they have more skills available, if you just stick to one attunement you will be just spamming a few attacks over and over and won’t be very effective.

Switching attunements isn’t really that hard. Just start with switching back and forth between a two and build from there.

Remember to keep switching elements, dodging, and basically spamming all of your skills. I think ele’s might be a little unbalanced, because they did cut our damage a lot from the first betas but nothing else really changed. However, if you just look out for some gear with toughness/stamina/healing then you can have a little bit more leeway with mobs and not die so quickly if things don’t go your way.

I like how League of Legends does it. There is a patch preview video before the patch that lists a few of the changes and why those changes are being made. Then the patch notes appear closer to the day of the patch or after the patch launches.

It’s kind of a happy medium between no warning at all before the patch and complete patch notes. I think it’s also a good PR move because it helps soften the blow for some changes to get an explanation plus promotes the patch and the game. It also lets the player base know that the game is moving forward.

It really is a bizarre choice on ArenaNet’s part and seems to go against their stated goals.

I really don’t care about it being MY story. I just want it to be a good story. In fact I think for them to tell a really good story, the player-character almost has to kind of fade into the background a little bit.

I’m fine with their being variation between the classes, but I think it should be smaller. Sure give us the lowest health and lowest hp but not the huge difference that is in there now.

I’m tired of video games and mmorpg jumping right to some big epic story to save the world! Sometimes smaller is better. Does the personal story have to be a giant over-arching linear story?

Some of the best moments in rpgs are the side-quests. Because they are shorter they can be more focused and more character driven. They can also be more varied in tone— humorous, tragic, mysterious, heroic. I want a story where we have to decide how to stop a necromancer who is tearing apart reality to try to bring his little girl back from the dead. Or the story of a town who is trying to make peace with the centaur instead of fighting them. Or maybe just a “personal story” of a guy who is trying to find a date for the latest ball in Divinity’s reach.

The most important thing to me is character. It’s not interesting to see a bunch of people overcome a dragon— but it is interesting seeing a character overcoming their personal problems and then being able to succeed at killing a dragon.

Adine.2184:

Would you be able to run full speed if you were conked on the head or shot with something? I doubt it. Kill stuff and move on dont be a baby .

Sometimes the second you get into combat though you slow down. It’s very annoying for a missed punch or whatever is causing it to slow me down to a crawl. Especially when there is field after field with enemies just standing around doing nothing.

ANet always says that they don’t talk about things until they are in a state that is close to release. Does that mean that there is nothing close to release? I really want to know if we will get a better LFG or what exactly they are planning on releasing. Hopefully the lost shores event will give us some idea of where they are going.

Thanks for the replies. I wonder if a ssd would help, or if something else is causing my load time woes.

I don’t care about elementalist being underpowerd, but I do think there are certain aspect which could be more fun. Our traits seem pretty boring and the cooldowns on all of our abilities are pretty long.

There are certain types of traits which I think should be baked into the class. For example, I think a lot of the bonus on attunement should be baked in (such as the 5 point traits). I think major traits should provide a benefit to all attunements and each trait line should be more thematic with the kind of bonuses it supplies. For example instead of Aeromancer’s Alacrity making air weapon skills recharge faster it should make all weapon skill recharge 20% faster. A trait like Piercing Shards should make your spells deal 20% more damage to vulnerable foes, regardless of your attunement.

Basically I think, as far as our traits are concerned, ArenaNet needs to pick a style. Either give us traits that make it viable to stay in one attunement for a long duration of time or give us traits that effect all of our attunements. Right now traits that effect only one attunement are just wasted because no attunement can stand on it’s own merit long enough for those traits to be worth it.

The best and easiest way to provide healing is to spec into the water and arcane lines get some plus healing gear and then switch into and then immediately out of the water attunement (maybe use a water field if it’s up, but get out fast so you can switch back in). Then use the rest of your abilities to cc and put pressure on the enemy so people don’t get hurt in the first place.

I like patch notes! I wish we had them to read just a little bit before the patch came out.

It’s pretty ugly and looks so different from anything else in the game. In the future I hope we get some better looking sets.

I too am waiting for this but I think we’re probably going to have to be patient as it’s most likely low on the priority list.

I’m so tired of slow loading screens. I hate using way points or changing maps while I play because of them. I’m waiting anywhere from 20 seconds to over a minute on load screens.

I had a velociraptor hard-drive and recently switched to a Momentus XT. Load times stayed the same. Is it my internet connection that’s slowing me down?

Other computer specs: Window 7 64, Intel Core i7 940 2.93 GHz, 6 GB RAM, NVIDIA GTX 460 SE

edit: I should also mention that in the first beta load times seemed to be much shorter. It wasn’t until launch that I really noticed how long they were taking and started timing them.

What kind of load times do other people have?

Wait until ArenaNet bans some bots, and then take their space ;-)