Guild Wars 2

Tyreal.5230:

The truth is, even if you up the loot drops to what they originally were it still isn’t exciting. When I get a loot drop I should be EXCITED. I should feel like I just found a legendary item. When I pick up a weapon dropped from a legendary mob it should be so great that it automatically replaces anything I am currently using.

While I will affirm that your feelings and opinions are valid, I must respectfully disagree. If every drop replaced the gear I was wearing then the feeling of excitement would lose its novelty, and really nothing would feel special or hard earned or rewarding at all in the game. As it is, waiting around all day on teamspeak with TTS and playing the right-click + join game and then running successful efficient runs for hours on end will still only net you mainly greens and rares, and perhaps a few T6’s, which is only worth a thousandth of a legendary. So for those who have a legendary, a legendary should feel just that way- exclusive, rare, and special. If everything that dropped was a “legendary”, nothing would be legendary.

I feel that the rewards were well balanced. My biggest disappointment is not being able to work for the rune/sigil recipes offered by the emissaries during the last Crown Pavillion. Is there any chance that those could be implemented?

I have been waiting ever since the last Crown Pavillion event to collect all of the account bound recipes that were offered by the various emissary NPC’s. I would very much like a chance to obtain them again, perhaps with the new tokens. Does anyone else feel the same way? Perhaps we can sway Anet to offer those recipes again.

I believe that offering these recipes again would be beneficial to the game. Those runes and sigils offer new build combinations, which allow diversity and horizontal progression. However as the game ages and less of the older players who originally got the recipe stay around to produce more runes/sigils to put on to the market, the price will inflate. This allows a remaining few individuals to control production and monopolize this corner of the market, which creates a monetary barrier preventing other players from accessing these builds. I feel that a periodic re-release of these recipes would prevent this problem while retaining the value and rarity of these runes.

nekretaal.6485:

Just wait. China will get everything we got, nothing is safe (except the ghastly grinning shield).

The non-exotic versions of the assault core backpack from the scarlet event look very similar to the jet pack, you can craft that instead very cheaply and skin it onto an ascended backpiece.

Why are you so certain that the ghastly grinning shield will not be re-released?

That worked; thank you!

I would like to trade in my fortune scraps and jade weapon tickets. The Black Lion Weapon’s Specialist used to have an alternative dialogue option that allowed you to trade in rewards from past events. However, I don’t see this option available anymore. Was this intended, or is it a bug? I didn’t notice any warnings that I had to choose a reward because the option to trade in would be removed, and I didn’t see it in the patch notes as an intended change.

I agree with your thoughtful insight about Anet’s motivations and player’s motivation and the execution. I think that the rewards and achievements need to be very carefully chosen such that it does not antagonize coordination and successful completion of the event (e.g. 30 kegs for wurm before it was fixed) OR frustrate achievement hunters (e.g. marionette warden achievements only granted upon successful completion of the chain, not just your group).

Kalendraf.9521:

I had read somewhere that the new NPC for collecting blade shards would also be collecting other old LS items. However, either those plans changed, or this was merely a suggestion or rumor.

I would like to get clarification as to whether or not the following types of items should be kept for the possibility of future trade-ins, or if they should be deleted:

- Aetherblade Code Fragment
- Molten Code Fragment
- Toxic Code Fragment
- Watchwork Code Fragment
- Scarlet’s Lockbox Code Fragment
- Found Heirloom

You can delete all the code fragments. Anet removed the chests without warning and upset a lot of players (myself included). They then stated it was a mistake, put the chests back for a little bit, and then gave players fair warning that they would remove the chests permanently and urged us to use all the fragments before they did so.

As others have suggested, other options would be to convert gems to gold and just buy the ticket. Alternatively, you could farm keys. But I agree with you in a matter of principle; legalized gambling is not cool.

Because if it were Christmas and your birthday every day, it wouldn’t be special anymore. It’s not too bad that it’s not around all the time, as long as they plan on bringing it back periodically- which I’m sure they will

I completely empathize with your desire for nice things. Casual player or hardcore player, student on summer break playing 8 hours a day or working man providing for a family of four, we all want the rarest, most exclusive, most evasive, most prestigious rewards in the game. However, in a game, the value of rewards are completely relative, especially when these rewards are purely cosmetic. This means that legendary weapons and rare aetherpath weapons are valuable simply because not everyone has them.

One way to create value is with items that not everyone can or will attain. While this concept might be shocking or offensive to some, I would argue that it appeals to a population of players. At the risk of being judged as being psychologically childish, I openly confess that I derive an immense amount of satisfaction from having things in the game that few other people have. If everything in the game was made accessible such that any player can have anything they want by doing whatever they want, there would be nothing for me to set myself apart or feel a special sense of accomplishment for having. I argue that such a game structure, one that makes everything available to everyone, would “lose players” just as much as the current system, if not more. It’s just that the population that would be lost would be the players who are more committed to the game instead of casual players, and more likely to stick with the game in the long run.

That being said, what kind of items would it be ok to make so rare or difficult to attain that not everyone can have one? I think that most people would agree that power or anything that grants combat advantage would be a very BAD choice. It would be terrible if I couldn’t enjoy living story or dungeons with my “casual” friends just because they don’t/can’t invest as much time in the game. Fortunately as it is, a full set of exotic gear is not too outrageously difficult to get, nor is getting to level 80, and the vast majority of the content in the game is fairly accessible to casual and hardcore players alike. What about cosmetics, then? I would argue that making a certain look rare or exclusive would be an extremely wise decision. Those of us who want to set ourselves apart and feel special or feel accomplished have a means of doing so that does not grant us any practical advantage over another player.

The downside is, of course, there will be players (and lots of them) who will not be able to have these exclusive items. On one hand you have players who threaten to quit because they can’t have a certain look that they really want by only spending a couple hours a week in the game. On the other hand, you have players who do every single achievement every single day, farm dungeons, follow the dungeons, and invest a lot of time and effort into the game who would feel cheated if everyone were given the same items they were with little to no effort at all. I dare say that the greater injustice would be to “normalize” all rewards, robbing the second type of player from any sort of distinction.

I guess my primary concern with the “increasing returns” idea is that it would make any reward, no mater how rare, accessible to any player and ultimately decrease it’s value. It’s kind of like the old joke, “if everyone is special, then no one is.”
However, I do think that the game already has systems which implement incremental rewards based on how much you play, and it is completely additive. As you play the game, you accumulate achievement points which will eventually lead to permanent bonuses to gold, karma, experience, and magic find. Magic find increases at a rate much faster than the other rewards even, because you obtain it from salvaging blues and greens which you naturally accumulate from playing the game for any amount. And it works quite well too; the more you play, the more blues and greens you get, and the more/faster your magic find increases. But they do curve it a little, so that hardcore players aren’t leagues and miles above the casual player, because amount of luck required to increase magic find increases exponentially.

I wonder what makes something qualify as “basic”- that is easy to implement, or that it’s common in other MMO’s, or that it’s essential to the function of the game? I also want to question what distinguishes an absent feature as “horribly lacking” instead of just “lacking”.

I agree that some of the features that you mentioned are absent from GW2.

I can’t comment on how easy these features are to implement or how prevalent they are in other MMO’s, but I would express my personal opinion that none of the features you listed are essential for the game.

I think that’s an excellent suggestion, increasing it by increments of 1% would help give you a sense of progression, as well as allow for a less overall depressive view (that about 90% of the accounts on GW2 are players who have quit)

notebene.3190:

3,495 hours. Bought one precursor for Bifrost. Have maybe 80% or more of everything saved up (basically need to buy the 2 recipes and the 100 stone things for 120ish gold, which I have – but still need quite a bit of T6 mats).

But don’t have a single dungeon run stone thingy from Arah. I figure I’ll need to go 9 times on 9 separate days to get the stones I’d need.

I’m intimidated to join a random group, and probably will never get to go, so it all sits in my bank.

Would love to get it some day.

I still find things besides that to do that are fun, though my choices are dwindling. The hard schedules for WEs have reduced the number of those I do. I used to enjoy the daily ‘to dos’, those were fun.

But I ultimately play a lot less now, and am reluctant to buy anything from the store that I think looks fun, lest it get the Westernized hammer like my running animations and some of my clothes.

I did buy $200 worth of Gs from MH recently when they had the 15% bonus on the packs (MaddolfNet never has deals like that). I get Sue Storm in less than a week, with lots left over for other costumes and heroes in the future.

Controversial, but you can also pay others to run the dungeon for you. I sometimes will solo/duo Arah, mainly to challenge myself and learn to solo Lupi, and partially to provide a service/help those like you, and also make a little bit of gold for my time/skill/efforts

psy.5437:

Justify to everyone why you deserve a precursor?

Because you put 2000 hours in?

What makes that more worthy than someone who supports the community on a daily basis? A commander who tirelessly works in WvW? A player who put 2000 gold through the mystic forge? Any number of other reasons?

You don’t need one and the attitude that you somehow deserve one for putting hours in is absurd.

I agree. 4,300 hours into the game and over 17,000 achievement points before I saw my first random precursor drop. Play the game to enjoy the game. If your goal is to get a specific precursor/legendary, I guarantee you that if you spend another 2,000 between YouTube videos teaching efficient dungeons/internet resources and actually running daily dungeons, you will have enough gold to buy/craft your desired legendary, if not multiple legendaries.

The old system is gone because of the direction the game is going and technical limitations, and we’re stuck with tonics, and that’s just something we’re going to have to accept.
But some of the accompanying clothing looks so tasteless, like it was half-heartedly done. Can we perhaps have a contest amongst the players to design the colors/accompanying clothing with the tonics, and the most popular vote replaces the tonics? Or maybe allow some of the most popular combinations to be mystic forged (e.g. Endless Khaki tonic + Endless designer vest tonic = new endless tonic with a combination of the two). I think that would be a fair compromise. I mean, a fancy silk shirt + rider’s pants is such a fashion faux pas that it makes me feel as if Anet WANTS to push us to get refunds.

You can purchase upgrade extractors from the gem store.

I think it would be great if the name and flavored text of equipment were associated with the skin of the item, not the item that grants the stats. This way everything that makes a skin unique and memorable is preserved.

Of course the immediate conflict I see with this request would be the lower-level gear of different stats that share the same skin. Perhaps a solution would be some sort of hierarchy system: unique skins will always have their name and flavored text applied to the item; in the case of a named exotic and rare/karma (e.g. Twin Sisters and the rare “light sword” obtained in personal story) the name and flavored text of the exotic would be associated.

DavidH.7380:

Wonderly.1324:

For everyone else… Yes, play-as-you-want is one of Anet’s core promises with GW2, but they also have a vision to unify all game modes. It’s hard to compromise between the two, and I think having to do one or two new thing that you don’t normally do isn’t too time consuming or unreasonable. I think Anet also wants to challenge players to step out and try new things, especially when they work so hard to improve every game mode. Give it a shot, who knows, maybe you’ll discover you enjoy pvp, or pve, or wvw. And if you don’t, it’s not like the game is ruined just because you need to occasionally do one or two little thing if you really want a laural for that particular day.

No, but it actually hurts the game to have people like me in your PvP or WvW or mini-game matches just because we need credit for the dailies. Can I try to sponge credit for stuff off a zerg or just stand around and hope the other players pull off a win for me? Sure. But why would anyone want me to do it? Yeah, I can stand there if someone attacks me and just wait for them to kill me so I can rez and get on with what I’m trying to accomplish, but how does that benefit me or my team?

That’s actually a very valid point. However, I feel like this problem is inherent in the system because how some people play. There will always be a subsect of the player base concerned with min/max or efficiency. In WvW there will always be players who take supplies from the keep and wait around for an attack just for daily/season 1/tournament repairs, or kill the guard way off yander and cap the point regardless of the commander’s plea not to do so and reveal zerg position to the enemy. In PvP there will always be several players who sit on an empty point for daily captures. And the same problem is present in PvE as well, e.g. Queensdale champ train, barrels for Wurm achievements, etc. I imagine it’s difficult to find a balance and choose achievements that would incentivize/challenge players, without causing too much harm to the various game modes. I believe this change is an attempt at that. At least now there are fewer PvP daily achievements, daily capture isn’t always a set one, and tournament wins are no longer required. Which means people who have zero interest but want the laurel/points can pop in, do their thing real quick, and then hop out. In PvP the “damage” can be somewhat isolated to hot-join and lower ranked matches.

I will confess that I personally tend to be a PvE-centric, achievement-oriented, efficiency minded player. I had never stepped foot in PvP until I decided I wanted the achievement points for those dailies too, discovered it was reasonable, and then discovered that PvP was actually enjoyable. The same thing when they added soloq/tournament wins to the PvP daily. Initially I, like many of my other high ranking leaderboards achievement point friends, was very exasperated at the increased burden of more dailies we “have” to grind for, the exponential increase in difficulty, and the seemingly unfair disproportionately random element in those few extra points. I joined a “casual” PvP guild just to get more consistent wins. To my surprise, I discovered a whole new community of GW2 players who shared an experience different to my own, learned a lot about the game that I’d played so hardcore for a year (which was a humbling, refreshing, and exciting experience), made new friends, and found a new level of enjoyment in higher level organized sPvP play.

Maybe I’m just one “success story” drowned out in the voices of a million protests. I honestly still feel that two tournament wins or three soloq wins is a lot less controllable and takes considerably more time and effort than daily gatherer or the like. But I don’t “have” to do it, it’s up to me to decide how much I WANT to do every single daily/monthly every single day/month to rack up as many points as possible. Just like none of you “have” to play/try anything you don’t want to. You just have to decide whether that one laurel/point is worth stepping into PvP for 4 minutes. And if it’s not, you may still be be able to get a laurel from time to time, depending on what the daily rotations are.

As someone who used to stress over doing every single daily in every single category every single day, this, along with the 10,000k-AP-from-dalies cap, is a very welcome stress-relieving change. For everyone else… Yes, play-as-you-want is one of Anet’s core promises with GW2, but they also have a vision to unify all game modes. It’s hard to compromise between the two, and I think having to do one or two new thing that you don’t normally do isn’t too time consuming or unreasonable. I think Anet also wants to challenge players to step out and try new things, especially when they work so hard to improve every game mode. Give it a shot, who knows, maybe you’ll discover you enjoy pvp, or pve, or wvw. And if you don’t, it’s not like the game is ruined just because you need to occasionally do one or two little thing if you really want a laural for that particular day.

And a message to Anet, though I wonder if I’ll be heard… Thank you for the hard work you’ve put into the game, for always considering the playerbase as a whole (not just the causals or the hardcore, or the loudest/whinyest). Thank you for striving to be true to your vision of the game. Even though visions change and evolve over time, you maintain your core passion to create a game that is unique and fun and accessible to all. Thank you for being as transparent as possible and striving to maintain open communication and receive feedback and ideas from the players. Thank you for being gracious in so many decisions in the past- e.g. the way you handled/offered refunds for unlimited harvesting tools becoming account bound, light flamekissed armor remodel, refunds for former town clothes, etc…. I’m sure you didn’t have to do any of that because somewhere in the fine print there’s a legal loophole that says “Sorry, no refunds, all sales final”. And thank you for doing all of this, for maintaining a passion, excitement, and enjoyment of the game despite hearing negative feedback no matter what you do. Every. Single. Time. Thank you for celebrating the triumphs and continually listening to feedback, instead of being discouraged by a portion of a community that always seems dissatisfied, ungrateful, and cynical. Please don’t let the negativity pull you down. Change will always be uncomfortable, especially when sometimes your intention (I assume, from interviews I heard on the design of the Marionette, Teq, Wurm, etc.) is to challenge players. And there will always be people who will respond negatively to changes or being challenged, people who complain because what they want takes just a little bit too much effort to attain, people who complain because something that took effort was made more accessible/common and thus devalued their work, people who complain because they feel like their point of view is the ONLY point of view and they lack the capacity to realize you’re trying to consider things from multiple perspectives, people who complain just because. Despite that, GW2 has made wonderful improvements. Keep up the good work, and thanks for a great game!

I’ve spent a lot of time in GW2, adventuring, learning, collecting, pursuing goals, making new friends and meeting new people. I’ve achieved pretty much all there is to achieve, and a lot of my friends have left, which leaves me feeling kind of empty and bummed. Which I guess brings me to my point; one of the things I have yet to accomplish and would like to do is to eventually be able to duo/solo Lupi/Arah. I’ve done my research and watched a bunch of videos and practiced as much as I could, but it’s very frustrating to practice. I’m not able to get to lupi on my own and it’s difficult to find someone who would be willing to escort me, and those rare times where after strenuous effort I do get to him alone, I’m already worn out and it’s very emotionally taxing and frustrating to only be able to practice fighting him in phase 1 for like a minute before dying and having to spend twice or three times the amount of time walking back to him, rarely ever seeing phase 2, never getting to practice phase 3. I’ve duo’ed him a couple of times and can pull my own weight for the most part, but would like more practice on the other phases. I guess I was wondering if there was anyone out there who would be willing to help me learn Arah and lupi if you are either:
-an Arah/Lupi pro who can solo Arah, if you’d be willing to bring me with you and let me fight Lupi with you; you can sell the other spots for gold or whatever you want, I don’t care, I just want the company and the practice
-someone who shares my goal, and would like to practice two/three-manning arah/lupi for more practice/exposure and to get to lupi quicker before going off and trying it on your own
-someone who’s down with watching me practice, giving me tips/help, and importantly, keeping me company and ressing me so I wouldn’t have to run back 54063138 times

EDIT:
IGN: Wonderbouter;
I’m on NA, Tarnished Coast;
I want to do this on a Warrior;
I want to focus primarily on path 2;
I have access to all major VoIP, I speak English and Cantonese fluently

Taku.6352:

Legendaries are endgame items. You are not supposed to get them just for logging in.

Exactly. Too many people want to get legendary while doing non-legendary things… Those things exist to distinguish the people who do have the time and effort to put into the game. You don’t HAVE to have one to enjoy the game or have access to all of the content or even to be as competitive/viable in the game. The price of precursors on a free-trade market reflects what the players determine the precursors are worth. Throwing a temper tantrum, threatening to quit, saying they’re too expensive, won’t change the player base’s perception of the value.

Also… different people have different resources/abilities available to them. I have a friend who is in dental school and she was still able to make Eternity without having to convert any gems.

Isaiah Cartwright.8569:

I would love to get people thoughts on what stat combinations they would like to see added to the game?

Toughness, Vitality, Healing Power

I asked whether that existed when I was a fledgling guardian over 4,000 hours of playtime ago, and the response I got in map chat was “…that sounds too tanky to exist”.

Seabreeze.8437:

In defense, it was 1.5 years of the knowledge that those skins were PvP exclusive. As an avid PvE player, I wasn’t going to grind PvP to get an armor skin that I would never be able to use in PvE. Now that they announced the gear unification, I was excited to find out that I could earn these armor sets in PvP and use them in PvE. I don’t think it’d be right to up and remove them entirely, especially since one of the focal points of this update is to bring more players to the PvP scene.

I just really want more information about the reward tracks and when we’ll see the PvP Masquerade set available so I can set a goal to work toward.

Bad news man. It’s not looking good… I wish you the best of luck that they’ll change their mind and add it in the future though.
= /

Seabreeze.8437:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Maybe you could ask in the Dolyak Express thread, as they are answering questions about the Feature Pack release.

As always, Inculpatus, you’re as helpful as ever!
In fact, you were the one who gave me the news to me that Anet planned on unifying PvP and PvE gear, if memory serves me.

Thanks again for the tip. I actually went ahead and posted a question about this on the Dolyak thread. I really hope they can provide clarification on this matter, as it’ll really affect how I feel about this update. I mean, I’ll like the update regardless, I’m sure, but… I just want that PvP Masquerade armor so baaaaad!

Anyways, you’re good people, Inculpatus!

Thanks for sharing Seabreeze! Care to link us your post? (Especially if they respond!)

Romek.4201:

Wonderly.1324:

Nike.2631:

That’s the same blog where they say there will be skins that can only be earned through PvP, which can then be displayed in any mode.

I would be completely ok with skins that can only be unlocked through the new PvP system. My question/concern is not whether there will be skins obtainable through the new PvP system, but whether the skins that are currently attained only through PvP would be obtainable at all in the new system. I don’t care HOW I get it, as long as it’s possible. They can make dragon rank a requirement for all I care, just as long as I can still get it

there was a lot skins in PVE which are gone now and PVPers have no chance ever to get them

now with new track system PVPers will have a chance to get Livingstory items when its active – but the old ones are simply gone

get over it – you had 1,5 years to farm this pvp skins

I don’t have to “get over” anything. I still have 60k glory stashed up and practically an infinite supply of pvp crafting gear. And every single missable PvE exclusive skin as well. shrug I just want to know because I want to decide whether I should spent my glory getting those skins now, or get T3’s and wait to get them via the new system.

Chase.8415:

It was in the ready up video here:

http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2/c/3968869

I watched the entire video twice (some parts more) but still missed the part where they specifically said that the skins currently available only through PvP mystic forge crafting will be obtainable in the new rewards system. Would you be willing to refer me to the specific time in the video that lead you to believe this to be the case?

Chase.8415:

They also said in the future for the other unattainable skins right now would be implemented in a PvP track as well.

That’s exactly the information I was seeking. So just to clarify, the skins that are available only through PvP right now will be available in the future from the new rewards track, is that right? Could you be so kind as to reference me to the source of where you confirmed this information?

Nike.2631:

That’s the same blog where they say there will be skins that can only be earned through PvP, which can then be displayed in any mode.

I would be completely ok with skins that can only be unlocked through the new PvP system. My question/concern is not whether there will be skins obtainable through the new PvP system, but whether the skins that are currently attained only through PvP would be obtainable at all in the new system. I don’t care HOW I get it, as long as it’s possible. They can make dragon rank a requirement for all I care, just as long as I can still get it

Currently there are some looks that are only available in PvP (e.g. PvP Masquerade Armor, Dark Moon Shield; check http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/21lqtz/psa_possible_one_time_only_pvp_armor_skins/ for more examples).
I assume that with the new patch, there will be a place for these skins in the new wardrobe system. However, will these skins be obtainable by some means within the new rewards system after the patch, or will these looks be lost forever, available only to those who have obtained the pvp set before the patch hit?

As an avid collector who has played this game throughout the past year in a way that prioritized the possibility of every skin in the game being available/obtainable to me, I would greatly appreciate an official response to this. Currently I am sitting on 60,017 glory, having stayed up late on the vary last night just to grind out enough glory for a set of T3 cultural armor. However, if there are skins that will be lost forever once the new patch hits I will spend all my glory in effort to unlock those looks now.

I know a kid who mistakenly recieved a bifrost. He kept it. I told him that story was not one he should be proud of sharing, when people ask him how he got his precurser

Ideally, the personal story would be perfectly preserved and separate from the living story and open world. I know it probably won’t ever happen, but it would add such a sense of satisfaction and congruence for me if the Lion’s Arch in the personal story remained undestroyed, Kessex hills was the old version, etc. It would really give a distinction between the current, evolving, changing world, and an opportunity to play/glimpse into the past.
To add icing on the cake, all future living story releases could be tailored towards two audience: those characters who have completed their PS and those who have not. More than just a pact token, wouldn’t it be great if NPC dialogue would vary based off of whether you finished the PS or not? A character that has finished the story would be approached/spoken to/recognized as the commander of a pact, etc. A character that has not completed the story would be greeted as a random helpful wandering hero. It would certainly give more incentive to complete the personal story on multiple characters, more than just levels/pact tokens/achievement points.

TL;DR:
To resolve the conflict between personal story and living story, all open world content and living story should be associated with the dynamic, changing world of Tyria, and all personal story should be preserved as an opportunity to play through what has happened in the past.
1) The entire open world should be updated to reflect the state of Tyria after the resolution of the personal story
2) All references alluding to the personal story currently in the open world should be changed from the present tense to the past tense
3) Personal story private instances should be preserved and immutable, as replaying history should be (i.e. visiting LA in your PS, it should look like it did before the events of the LS)
4) When playing through the current living story, how the NPCs and LS responds to your CHARACTER will differ depending on whether or not the character has completed the PS.

I rarely post because I feel like my voice would get lost in the crowd and I don’t feel like having to shout over others to be heard… but I really love this game and am passionate about it, so please let me know what you guys think. Let’s work together for a better, more immersive Tyria!
= )

BobbyStein.2315:

I’d like to echo Colin’s sentiments. Thanks to the OP and everyone else for posting your constructive feedback here. We’re always evaluating our past work and looking for ways to improve our future releases. Sometimes those improvements may come in the form of developing new technology to support our vision or improve the player experience. Other times it means evolving our writing and game design processes. In other cases, resource and scheduling changes are necessary to support the additional workload. The potential solutions will vary depending on the challenge in front of us.

Part of the development process is prioritization, so I’d like to know what you feel are the highest impact items you think would improve our storytelling delivery. What are your top three requests?

It seems like a lot of people list resolution between the Personal Story and the Living story as a priority. I will admit that it places top three for me as well.
It’s been stated that the events of the living story occur approximately after one year after the conclusion of the events in the personal story. I propose that we re-structure and remodel the entire open world to reflect the state of Tyria as it would be after the end of the living story (most notably, that Orr would at least be in the process of being cleansed). The personal story would remain as a way for new players to see “this is what happened in the past, before I started playing the game”. Older players who have played through the personal story and kept up with each of the living story releases would have the satisfaction of seeing the transformation of the world congruent with their efforts, game play, and loyalty to the game. We would set the expectation for new players that Tyria IS a dynamic, changing world, and that there ARE things that they will have missed by coming in late (they’ll never get to see Kessex hills like it was before release, or Lion’s Arch before it came to ruins, etc.) but they are still able to catch up and play through the core of the story which sets the stage for the living story by playing through the personal story line (with the understanding that, “this is all what happened in the past”). The storytelling in GW2 has often been compared to a TV series, so I will continue with that analogy. If a new friend joins a group of friends who have been following a show that’s been out for a year, the newcomer would not have the expectation of knowing everything that’s going on or understanding the full plot. At first he may join his friends every week a new episode comes out to share in the excitement and maybe ask a friend next to him for important details/explanations, but eventually he’s going to be pulled into the show enough to go back and watch season 1 of the series on his own time, with the obvious understanding that everything he’s watching chronologically takes place before the weekly new episodes that his friends are watching. Spelling out the analogy, the open world and the living story should be the new episodes, tailored towards those who have been there all along. The season 1 of the TV series or past episodes would be the personal story (or even Guild Wars 1), and would remain as an opportunity for new players to gain some insight into the history of the vast world of Tyria that they have stumbled upon.

I also saved several days worth of cyphers, procrastinating from turning them in only because an official response saying the lair would stick around was given specifically to someone who inquired about how long we would have to use cyphers. I also genuinely hope that it was an honest mistake, and that even if not, Anet would understand why players like myself, and many others, could feel cheated due to miscommunication.

I’m going to miss LA, so many memories here… In the background is that tavern where me and one of my dear friends would hang out.

It’s meant to be special. If everyone had it, it wouldn’t be special. Personally I wouldn’t mind if they introduced the first radiant piece at 10k.

They changed it for a good reason. Anet handled their mistake (of making it too similar to human T3) well; if players who purchased it like the old look better (like you), you’re given the option of a full refund. Think of it as having been able to rent a cool look for free the past few months.

Tryxtr.6295:

Luck should never be a part of anything “important” in a video game. Having a Legendary is a pretty lofty goal for most players, and making one key component of the Legendary a lucky, random drop, is completely ridiculous. It should take time to acquire. A long time.

Technically someone could play the game for 4,000 hours and not have a precursor drop, due to bad luck. And someone else could play the game for 200 hours and get 2 precursors because they have good luck. RNG on something that is so important to the “end game” for a lot of players is completely unacceptable.

Precursors should have been ONLY craftable, and ACCOUNT BOUND from the very beginning. Same with Legendaries. It should have been about time spent, and prestige. Now, it’s about luck and lots of people buy them. Doesn’t mean much anymore.

This. Exactly, this. I think the worst possible solution would be to make precursors (and legendaries) craftable and sellable. An intermediate would be the system we have now, where there’s some extreme RNG but there’s at least the option to buy off the TP. The best solution, however, would be to make legendaries and precursors account bound through the whole process.

I understand the benefits of gold as a common currency, and why most things can be bought and sold. It goes with Anet’s core philosophy of, reduce grind, play how you like, and get the best rewards in the game. You want Lord Taeres’s Shadow? Well instead of doing research to see which champ bags drop those, finding that champion, and finding the most efficient way to kill that champion 432796682349 times until your weapon drops, you can just run a few dungeons, do some sPvP, do whatever suits your fancy, until you get 30 gold and buy it off the TP. That’s great for making things accessible to people who don’t like to grind. But there’s another group of players out there who Anet claims to make this game for when they say they want to make something for “everybody”. The downside to standardizing rewards with gold is that a lot of unique rewards looses its sense of rarity, and that diminishes the sense of pride and reward for a lot of players. I’m guessing that’s why this sword dropped from 300 gold a pop to 30 gold. Some players enjoy the feeling of accomplishment of having to “work hard” for their goals, or to really feel like a unique snowflake. There’d be a sense of pride walking around with a LTS if there weren’t as many around, and a sense of camaraderie when you see another person with one, knowing that this person most likely wanted it badly enough to also have gone through the same grueling process you went through to attain it. I believe that would be the case if LTS (and other weapons) were account bound from the go. There are certain items you want sell-able and accessible (certainly mainly, if not completely, stat progression), and other times you want to be account bound to preserve that sense of reward and rarity. I think it’s great that exotics are so accessible, and there are so many options even in terms of cosmetic variety that is available on the trading post. Legendary weapons, I would argue, clearly belong in the second category; the whole point of those things is to give the wielder a sense of accomplishment, and to set yourself apart with pretty little footprints and particle effects.

Epic background with epic armor