Guild Wars 2

seshat.9652:

Guild Wars 2, is a fun game when you start playing it, but ended up being a game to do nothing on. If you want to spend hours on end, farming for skins.. talking with friends, or even killing stuff for the fun of it, then its an ok game to do that on.

If you want real progression, upgrades, content that improves, events that give real rewards, dungeons that give real rewards.. and anything else you normally play a game for.. gw2 is not for you.

It’s not for me, anymore.

Well I normally play a game for the fun of it. I think it’s actually abnormal to play a game for any other reason. Although somewhere along the line “fun” and “gear progression” became the same thing to most MMO players. For traditional MMO players, GW2 is a disappointment in this regard. I feel bad for those people. I feel worse for GW2. I wish more of my friends were in to it as much as me.

I miss the CS farming. I don’t like what Anet has done to Orr in general. It’s an even more unpleasant place now. The zones are littered with shrines that create frustrating AoE that is no fun to deal with. There are a multitude of event chains that go undone because of the lack of people, and thus everything is contested.

zBluRrYz.1347:

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

people will always goes for the most cost effective route.

CoF farming is NOT the fastest way to get gold. I’m sorry. Explore the game a bit more and find little farm spots here and there and there are definitly better ones.

I can get about 15 gold a day (4-5 hours of play time) if I just farm CoF with a berserker team. If there is a more lucrative place than this, I would love to know about it.

I think Living Story is either a bad idea, or at least badly implemented. I haven’t been to Southsun since it was introduced (took a break during the second event). Are there any permanent events or permanent world bosses like Shadow Behemoth which reward a rare + a chest? If not, Anet should add such things. I also think Anet should create a permanent dungeon there designed like all the others to have 1 story path and 3 explorable paths with a unique set of armor and weapons to earn.

They should certainly stop adding new things to Lions Arch, no matter how temporary. The player base is clustered there enough already due to the portal hub, mystic toilet, and Fractals dungeon.

Mad King’s Labyrinth was amazing, almost as good as the Super Adventure Box. I wouldn’t be surprised if the same guy came up with both of those ideas (and has been on vacation the rest of the time).

Why doesn’t Anet just stop trying to make the game interesting? Clearly everyone wants tank/spank content that they can AFK through, collect their “achievements”, and be handed free loot for their time.

Losing hope for humanity…

Luthan.5236:

I’m a dungeon noob. And I want at least a few of the achievements. And because it is temporary I’ll need to try this now while still in the game. Willing to retrait – this does not cost that much.

Also maybe willing to buy a different set of green(masterwork armor) but nothing more expensive… because I’m not a dungeon farmer and don’t have much gold(and want to save the little gold I have). The main armor I have is more focused on damage(berserker).

“Just go and use different armor” is easier said than done – if everyone expects you to have a full exo set of every armor stats type…

Not everyone has that much gold and money – because a lot of non-dungeon players are doing this dungeon(the first time doing a dungeon) because they want the temporary achievements – they can’t just wait and train and do it later when they are ready and maybe have more equip.

This mindset is what is wrong with our society these days. Expecting to be able to participate and do things without the effort or resources. Feeling entitled to a reward and achievement without doing what is necessary to earn it. I’m not trying to put you down for having little gold. I’m simply pointing out that if you don’t have a mitt, you can’t play baseball.

I agree that the temporary nature of this dungeon is stupid, but that’s beside my point. If you want to do challenging content, whether it’s a permanent or temporary dungeon, it’s a dungeon none the less. Going in with green gear and expecting to clear it easily is silly. Declaring one’s self as a “non-dungeon-farmer” as if this is a lifestyle that should be catered to, is silly. There are countless ways to make money in this game. All it takes is time. MMOs by their very nature require a large time investment. If you can’t make that investment, then maybe it’s not for you.

By the way, I know many people with full time jobs and families that have no trouble getting gear and gold. My friend has two daughters, a full time job, and still finds the time to lead a successful raiding guild in WoW. He got his legendary (GW2) in his spare time too.

Too many crybaby casuals… This game is going to be driven into the ground by people who don’t want to l2p…

Glenn.3417:

Dhuumfire is so not worth it for condition builds, a measly 4sec burn on a 10sec recharge and single target.

Spite is so useless, power won’t gain you anything and the +30% cond duration is much better spend elsewhere.

We shall see. You forget that 30 spite’s condi duration will bump the burn duration up from its listed amount (at least that’s how it should work). And with 1200+ condi damage, burn will hit pretty hard. Add bleeds, poison, and fear to that and you get a huge amount of overall DoT. The burn can also be spread with epidemic making it not so single target.

I plan on going Dhuumfire + Terror all the way!

Probably like 30/20/10/0/10.

Edit: Fixed my numbers. Lol. NAH IM THE GREATEST I GET 80 POINTS!

Am I missing something? The numbers you guys report makes it look completely worthless. Going from nothing to over 1k healing power gives you a measly 3 extra health per hit? How is that worth the investment?

Luke.4562:

Wake up, the updates aren’t that gamebreaker and the Necromancer is lacking a smart and nice design since September 2012 (10 months) without considering the beta.
They don’t deserve all this love. They actually are skipping work (and by the way getting money on it) serving you cold meals..
Wake up…

LOL… Your sig makes this post even better.

Ezeriel.9574:

Right now, the devs are balancing everything around spvp, and most people don’t care about spvp.

I hear this statement all the time with “spvp” interchangeable to “wvw” and “pve” depending on who you ask. The truth? Anet is balancing the game in general the way the game in general needs to be balanced.

WvW is still rather popular, at least on my server. People that did other things have mostly quit. Fractals are still popular, so there are those too.

The people who quit fit in to a few simple categories:
- The game was too hard for them.
- The game was too easy for them.
- They came from [insert mmo name here] with a certain set of expectations, but were disappointed to find a game that is trying to be different.

but if you want honest feedback, ask on a forum that anet doesn’t monitor; speech isn’t exactly free around here.

You can say whatever you want, as long as it doesn’t break the rules of conduct (such as attacking, being rude, obnoxious, etc.) I would say you are going to find roughly the same responses on any forum except that the further away from a GW2-centric forum, the more you will hear people summarily dismiss this game because they didn’t like it in the first 5 minutes. Honest feedback is hard to come by in any case because there are a flood of gamers with a multitude of opinions, but little in the way of good critical analysis skills.

Vayne.8563:

What’s solitaire about? It’s one of the worlds most popular games..but what’s the point? I mean I play solitaire and I get no prizes, no drops, no real reward.

This game is about buying into the reality of Tyria. Either you buy into it, or you don’t. It’s the same with soap operas, comics, Star Trek, professional wrestling. It’s entertainment.

If you need to accomplish something other than fun in your down time, if you need to be spoonfed go here and do this, go here and do that to keep you going, if you need to constantly test yourself to try to prove something, then you might be well playing the wrong game.

On the other hand, if you just want to bang around and have fun without worrying about catching up to people if you take a month or two break…you’re probably playing the right game.

I love you Vayne.

I think some people have been playing MMOs like WoW for so long that their definition of fun went from….. “fun”…. to like…. gear progression. Somewhere over the years, fun went from that intangible definition to some all-consuming tedium ad nauseum.

I think the patches usually roll out some time between noon and 5pm EST.

These threads are always the same… It’s just a gathering place for pessimism and depression. The OP always sounds like they never did and never will enjoy the game, regardless of what may have changed. And the only people replying are those who didn’t like the game when they bought it, but still lurk the forums because they like complaining.

CrossedHorse.4261:

Because there has to be a line drawn somewhere? Do you even realise how much work it would take to make absolutely any weapon combination viable for every single class with different skills from each weapon per class? You’d never have a game …

Exactly. It seems like he wants the game to have 1 class with access to all skills and gear in the game in any combination as well as the option to chose which animations are used for everything. Like really? Do you want to be able to use Jump Shot with a staff that looks like a greatsword, yet the animation is a seamless combination of /dance + /threaten + /scared with the added particle effects of mesmer clone shatters? Oh and his character better look like a combo of Darth Vader, Solid Snake, and Master Chief using light, medium, and heavy armor pieces at the same time…

I have an idea. If you want to custom tailor all of these things, become a 3D artist and do it yourself.

These expectations are pretty ridiculous… Did you even try to fathom the work that goes in to modeling, texturing, rigging, animation, lighting, special effects, the math/code behind skill behavior, etc? You do realize they can’t sit down and custom tailor every little nit picking detail exactly to each individual player’s request? This is a video game meant for millions of people. If you can’t stand the way your characters look in this game, despite the multitude of combinations with races, classes, and transmutation stones, go find another game that is more to your liking.

Bweaty.9187:

Shoulda rolled a Asura!!!

That way, when you get CC’ed, then chain kicked around to death, you look footy sized and it’s funny to watch.

Lol… Footy sized…

Mammoth.1975:

I highly doubt it applies 3 stacks a second. It would be reasonable to get 9 stacks on, which would have the potential to deal over 200k damage with 1400 condition damage and 30% duration. That’s magical christmasland, hitting 5 targets with 3 ticks each, none of which get cleansed, and all of which keep moving for the duration, but even 10% of 200k is significant for one ability.

3 stacks total seems more likely, which would apply 500/1000 dps to targets affected by it until they get cleansed. That would give it a 2s channel, assuming it applies one stack at the beginning of the channel.

Anything is possible of course, but if it applies 3 stacks a second, I’ll be bracing for nerfs as soon as it gets released.

I’m pretty sure it’s less than 200,000 damage lol.

I think the community is pretty much united against the idea of RNG boxes, but obviously if people want the skins, they are going to keep buying in to them. The only way I see this changing is if Anet has a personal change of heart when hearing our cries of frustration.

Uberkafros.5431:

Raids are not the solution.If i wanted a Raid system i would play WoW which i left due to that.
I do like long commitment pve but instead of 10,20,30+ Raids i would prefer something like a World/server effort.Along the lines of current world bosses but on a bigger scale.Something like ,on wow terms, the opening of AQ.
Think a server wide raid that you can assist and get rewards on your own terms.
Not 3-4 days a week for 4 hours.

Raids in GW2 don’t necessarily have to be a carbon copy of the ones in WoW. In fact, such a design is doomed to fail since the games are completely different. I think a sort of 8-man instance with bosses using multiple mechanics and requiring a high level of team work is totally possible in GW2. Rewards could be tokens for ascended gear and/or sets of exotic gear with unique skins. It would essentially be the same as current dungeons, only with a larger team, more challenging content emphasizing mechanics and team work, and rewards to reflect the higher challenge.

Zelkovan.2630:

… and bosses containing the Defiant/Unshakable buffs. Because of this, control mechanics (knockdowns, stuns, fears, etc) are virtually useless as a target can ignore it. There is a purpose to this, however, as it is to make sure control does not become too powerful (knocking bosses down over and over again) however because this buff is so strong, control is currently under-powered and not even close to being up to par.

I tend to disagree a bit. I think if you run with a good group who brings and uses a lot of control skills, you will see those defiant stacks melt away and get some valuable CC in quite frequently. Problem is it seems like a lot of people focus only on their pure dps skills while dodging and such. I have, for example, run with my mesmer and made sure to use diversion on cooldown. I had a warrior and a guardian, both with hammer offhand. My diversion would strip 3 or 4 stacks of defiant on its own, leaving the others to take away 1 or 2 more stacks and then knock the boss around. This would happen every 20-30 seconds and give us a nice reprieve. People should try a more group CC effort before knocking the defiant mechanic.

Likewise, support is also lacking in that it is most often not worthwhile to pursue due to heal scaling being somewhat lackluster and boon duration also being quite lackluster.

I agree healing power scales badly. I wish they would sort of “stratify” it more. Make heals with 0 healing power a little weaker, but heals with lots of healing power stronger. Boon duration seems fine to me, though.

As a result, DPS in this game is the strongest and has little risk associated with it. Sure, you are less tanky and more squishier, but using the dodge mechanic a player can easily keep themselves alive (a group managed to kill lupi in 40 seconds…that really shouldn’t be possible). Because support and control are most of the time useless and due to mob’s not bothering to dodge any abilities DPS is the strongest role to go as it contains more strengths than weaknesses. Period.

This is pretty much true. Berserker groups tend to be the most efficient if they can survive long enough to deal their dps. I would like to see more content with mechanics like some of those in fractals. Fire shaman, frost elemental, and old tom each have a single important mechanic that involves the players interacting with the environment and/or performing the fight a certain way. I think they could add more mechanics to a single fight and use phases like lupicus. For example you dps and dodge, phase 2 you have to bring the boss to a certain spot and hit a switch, phase 3 you have to hide behind something to avoid a special attack or something. There are endless possibilities. I just want to see more mechanics and less tank/spank. It would make support rolls more useful during those intermission moments, and if a phase had adds to deal with, control would become more useful.

CrossedHorse.4261:

Just a side observation:

I find it odd that the very same people who … are the very ones who …

Not that I agree or disagree with the rest of your post, but why do so many people phrase their observations like this? Is it really the same person saying both things, or is it actually two different people saying two different things about the same topic in the same forum?

Aevic.9675:

I hate the idea of living story in some ways. It makes for less permanent content and more content geared towards people who play every single day. I for one do not play this game everyday. So having content that isn’t permanent isn’t a good thing for me, but I’m not alone. I wish the living story would continue and evolve the world, but I want it to be permanent in some parts too.

I completely agree with this, and also I wish Anet would quit doing RNG boxes and just sell me individual skins for 800 gems straight up like they did on Wintersday. (except I didn’t buy those because they were UGLY)

It would also be nice if they added new armor and weapon skins to existing or new dungeons. SAB was amazing, and I love those skins, but it was completely different from normal gameplay. Would be nice to have new rewards from normal gameplay.

We need our own special sub forum for threads like this…

People gonna QQ when their class gets nerfed. Either they adapt or leave. Hopefully one day they will learn that, in the volatile balancing environment of MMOS, their build is never 100% safe and they shouldn’t expect it to stay the same forever.

This thread makes me laugh. I’ve got an ele, mesmer, necro, guardian, warrior, and thief all 80 and geared. Playing my ele or mesmer is no more or less difficult than my guardian or warrior. If you are dying too much as any class, you are playing it wrong. Warriors and guardians are pretty OP, but that doesn’t mean eles suck in PvE. The game is easy if you learn to play.

Zindrix.1750:

So I noticed there’s a lot of options for a condition necro as far as runes go, but which ones are the most useful/why?

I haven’t picked out my accessories or weapons yet, but I do have a full set of Carrion armor and I use Scepter/Dagger mostly while occasionally swapping to Axe/Focus.

Any ideas/help appreciated!

6 Necromancer for a fear build to max the duration and get that extra tick of damage. 2 Krait, 2 Centaur, 2 afflicted for a pure bleed build, again for the duration which helps maintain high stacks.

By the way, you shouldn’t use Axe/focus in a condi build, unless those conditions you are talking about are vulnerability which is technically referred to as a burst build. For bleed/poison stacking you want scepter/dagger + staff.

Also, you should be able to get at least one crit proc every 10 seconds using all your staff marks, scepter auto attack, and DS auto attack, assuming you have 30 curses + rabid gear. Meaning the burning trait will be just as useful to a pure condi build, not just power or hybrid.

OP it sounds like maybe you just need to research necro and get some advice on your build and gear. Currently there are at least 2 strong condi builds, some hybrid builds, and some very nice burst builds using wells. If you are having trouble dealing damage or surviving, it’s most likely due to a lack of understanding of the class. I don’t mean this as an insult. Necro can be confusing to newcomers. In my opinion Necros are already very strong, and as many may have pointed out, the upcoming patch looks like it’s bringing some huge buffs that will make us even more powerful. If you wish, I can post some of my builds soon.

Edit: Here are my two builds.

Build #1
0/30/20/0/20
II – Hemophilia – Bleeds last 20% longer.
VI – Terror – Fear deals damage. Bonus damage w/ a condition.
XI – Lingering Curse – Scepter conditions last 33% longer.
II – Greater Marks – Staff aoe are larger and unblockable.
VIII – Reaper’s Protection – Apply fear when disabled.
III – Path of Midnight – Death Shroud skills recharge 15% faster.
IX – Master of Terror – Fear lasts 50% longer.

Use a full set of Rabid gear and 6 Necromancer Runes with staff as your main weapon, and scepter/dagger as your second set. This is a condi build focusing on fear. I have no trouble getting 12-15 stacks of bleeding with this build. The best part is when you drop Reapers Mark (staff #5) and then hop in to Death Shroud and hit Doom (#3). This applies 2 seconds of fear aoe and another 2 seconds on your single target. Your single target will take 4 seconds of fear which ticks for over 1k damage each second. Use rare Veggie Pizza for the 40% condi duration to help stack more bleeds. You can swap Reaper’s Protection for Staff Mastery in PvE if you like, but Reaper’s Protection will save your life in WvW and PvP.

Build #2
0/0/25/30/15
IV – Ritual of Protection – Wells apply Protection.
IX – Death Shiver – Apply vulnerability to nearby foes while in Death Shroud.
II – Blood Thirst – Siphoning health is more effective.
VIII – Ritual Mastery – Wells recharge 20% faster.
XII – Vampiric Rituals – Wells siphon health.
V – Speed of Shadows – Move 15% faster in Death Shroud.

This is my tank build. It lacks a little in damage due to lack of crit, but is able to take a massive amount of damage. I use full Soldiers gear with Soldiers Crest in every slot. I have over 3k attack power, 2.5k toughness, and over 30k health with ascended trinkets. Weapons are axe/focus + dagger/warhorn. The point is to use skills like Flesh Golem Charge and Dark Pact (dagger #3) to lock someone down while you drop all your wells and go to town on them with your close range attacks. You will easily stack 25 vulnerability with Well of Suffering + Reaper’s Touch + Death Shroud (Death Shiver Trait). You can take Lich Form as well if you know how to use it. You will have over 50k hp in Lich Form using this build.

As always, use Consume Conditions as your heal. In both builds the main reason I went in to Soul Reaping was for Last Gasp. It provides you with Protection when you really need it as well as life force so that you can get in to death shroud. Basically it allows you to eat a lot of extra damage when you are taking a beating.

Anyone feel free to critique.

Mungrul.9358:

Xenon.4537:

I agree that grind sucks, but some people sound like they just want to be handed gear without putting in any time or effort… It only takes a couple hours of play time after you hit 80 to be fully exotic geared (karma vendors + TP + a couple dungeons).

There are so many things I find objectionable about this paragraph.

Firstly, why SHOULD it take a long time to get optimal gear? When WvW is a big chunk of endgame, shouldn’t all players be able to compete on an equal footing?
Give me one good reason that doesn’t effectively amount to “I deserve better gear because I play more than anyone else”.

Secondly, this kind of thinking breeds elitism and comes from other MMOs. Hint: GW2 on release wasn’t like other MMOs; if everyone had quick and easy access to all top level stat combinations, gear checking for dungeons would be nowhere near as bad as it is even now.

Thirdly, your claim that it “only takes a couple hours of play time after you hit 80 to be fully exotic geared” is an outright lie, especially if it’s your first level 80 character. After your second or third character, okay, you may be able to get almost one full set of Exotic gear of one particular type when you get the next character to 80, but only one set, which will lock that character into a limited amount of effective builds.

Fourthly, how about that full set of Exotic P/v/t gear for WvW? Good luck in getting that in “a couple of hours”. The only ways to get P/v/t gear are through temple karma vendors or WvW itself.
And even then, only 5/6 pieces of armour are available through temple karma vendors, necessitating some WvW. You can only get P/v/t trinkets and backpieces through the temple karma vendors with there being no option to get them via badges of honour. And finally, unless you go Legendary, you can only get P/v/t weapons through WvW.

If I had it my way, you’d get a complete set of top stat gear upon reaching 80, and you’d be able to change stat combinations on the fly at no cost. The only grind would be for appearance, and all appearances would be tokens rather than requiring transmutation stones.
But unimaginative people with some trumped up, badly ingrained ideas of what “Progression” consists of, just keep spoiling this vision.

So you want instant gratification then? Well I don’t. There are plenty of people who don’t, plain and simple. All of my friends left the game because it was too easy. You said I can get “at most one set” of exotic gear when I hit 80. This is exactly what I was talking about. If you could get access to every type of gear and swap stats on the fly the moment you ding 80, what would the point of dungeons be? Fun? Sure fun is great and all, but there should be a reward for doing things. If not gear, then what? Skins? Not everyone is satisfied getting just a skin. A lot of us enjoy the effort of making our character stronger through gear.

By the way, gear checks? Yes, I’ve seen the berserker speed run groups doing CoF, but I’ve never had trouble finding groups of regular folks to do CoF. Use gw2lfg.com and you will never have trouble finding a group for anything. If you are running in to people asking for gear checks, it’s because they want to speed clear (which is a specific tactic taking gasp specific gear) or they are incompetent in which case you don’t want to run with them anyway.

And thank you for being the 9001st person to wield the word “elitism” as a cudgel against those who simply wish to raise the bar. Just because I want the game to ask for one iota of effort does not make me an elitist.

ProtoGunner.4953:

What’s the problem, if it takes a bit longer to get the best gear? What the hell is the problem? Almost all poeple are complaining, there is nothing to do after hitting 80. Anet introduces a new tier of gear (which I like) and the same poeple are now complaining that it takes too long to get it. BTW, it doesn’t take too long. actually after 1-2 months you are able to have most ascended stuff. That’s really not much for an MMO.

“Everyone’s got a cell phone that makes pancakes and rubs their balls.”
- George Carlin

The people that complain about ascended gear being too much grind are the casual, loud-mouthed crybaby demographic that travel from game to game, never spending more than a couple weeks playing. They either don’t have the time or don’t want to invest the time to really delve in to the heart of a game. They want instant gratification, and when they don’t get it, they complain, sometimes until their collective cries are so deafening that the developer is forced to change the game to suite them. These people still abandon the game and wander off to the next new shiny thing that grabs their attention. They don’t realize that they leave a wake of devastation across every game they move to; always lowering the bar wherever they go.

Again, they want instant gratification, and they feel that because they spent money on the box, they are entitled to every single nook, cranny, nit, pick, gibblet, and bobble in the game regardless of how much time they invest or how much skill they bring to the table.

jheryn.8390:

Devata.6589:

Lol, most complains I here and the reason that people stop playing GW2 all comes down to the gem-store focus. The gold-driven system and the RNG has a lot to do with that.

How do you get anything in this game? Being lucky, farming gold (there are like 3 ways to do that) or buy money. Well, not a small part of the player base but a huge part does not like that. Why where so many people so enthusiastic about SAB and MF?

Really? How do you know that a huge part do not like this? Where is your statistical evidence?

Devata.6589:

Almost nobody likes to just farm for gold, or buy gems to get the stuff you need. Most people don’t like that they want multiple ways playing the game, getting that. Doing dungeons, doing JP’s, doing WvW or killing mobs but not farming for gold. using real money to buy it…. And then still having a big change of not getting it.

Again, where is your proof of this?

Devata.6589:

If you really think it’s just a small part of the people I can ensure you you are wrong. But we both don’t have the numbers to proof it.

How can you assure me that? Eurogamer wrote an article on this very thing. The article used Assassin’s Creed for their statistical evidence. They said that the differences in opinions of very vocal forum posters and the thousands of other people playing were very different when they took surveys and polls. All I had to do to find this information was to do some very simple Google searches.

It is human nature for those not liking something to complain about it while those who are content or even like something will not say anything. And while I do not have actual numbers for this, I know from looking at the high number of people playing on many servers, that there are many more people playing the game than there are of those posting complaints about it in the forums. There are hundreds of posters in all of the forums commenting on all manner of subjects. There are thousands and thousands of people playing in game. They are not all posting on the forums, so yes, forum posters are in the minority. This isn’t just my guessing, there are many articles out there about internet forums compared to actual participants.

I just do not understand how you can claim these things with no proof. I would be more than happy to look into anything you had to prove what you say. I would even back you up if you had something solid to show me. Until then, I go with what I have read and that is that those who complain about anything on internet forums are usually in the minority because it is the nature of people with complaints to be vocal while those content are not.

It’s not a case of them lacking proof so much as a case of psychological projection. In trying to communicate their own personal feelings, they describe other people as having those thoughts and feelings when truly it’s just their personal opinion. This is a communication problem. They either don’t realize it or they are assuming that their opinion is the majority perhaps because their friends and immediate peers share the opinion and that’s all the empirical evidence they bothered to gather. Yes, it’s a misconception, but asking them to prove their claims isn’t going to teach them this lesson so much as frustrate them, which will in turn predispose them to disagree with you out of spite and create further rifts in communication.

Erasculio.2914:

…Is how much of it is made by people who want to keep something as bad as RNG in place.

The worst RNG in the game is the one that rewards luck (something which doesn’t really deserve a reward) and has been set in place so people keep buying RNG boxes in order to try to find items. It’s a mediocre design, based on the idea that players are foolish enough to waste their money on RNG boxes.

At the same time, the great majority of the community (and thus the great majority of the complainers) are grinders, farmers and so on.

And guess what? Farming rewards time spent (something which doesn’t really deserve a reward) and has been set in place so people keep grinding in order to try to find better items. It’s a mediocre design, based on the idea that players are foolish enough to waste their time on grind.

I wonder if we will soon have players addicted to RNG, just like we have players addicted to farming, claiming it’s a good thing. One design is as bad as the other, and both have been set in place to milk money from players, not to make good games.

I like this post! This illustrates the two extremes in multiplayer RPG design. Developers continue to struggle to balance these two sides of the equation. They will never be able to please everyone in this regard.

marnick.4305:

Because of the real world economic crisis which translates to bad feelings in this game. In WoW and GW1 there was a whole lot of randomness involved too, but no one seemed to care as much as today. Farming UW ten times and not getting a single ecto, it happened. Not getting a BDS in dozens of runs was just fuel for the next run, just like the economy was booming at the time.

Currently the world is in a negative cycle, and that reflects on the overall attitude of gamers, regardless of whether they’re actually affected by crisis and/or RNG. The game isn’t noticeably different in RNG aspects from games where RNG wasn’t a problem. As soon as the economy picks up, RNG will no longer be an issue.

We try to stay positive around here. Right guys? ;D

No, but really RNG in the loot tables and Mystic Forge are one thing. RNG boxes every month instead of new meaningful content is a disaster for everyone, except NCSoft’s bank account of course.

Aegis.9724:

i don’t know if i agree to the other points, but loot is seriously lacking

Right now, for 99% of the drops, its either:
-blue, greens -> vendor junk
-rare -> either salvage for ecto, or mystic toilet fodder
-exo -> directly to trading post, unless it’s a pre or i like the skin ( in which case i probably already have one )

There is just no excitement to it, feels like i’m just dropping money in physical form..

Yet this is pretty much the way it is in any RPG, unless it has a loot system like that of Zelda or Dark Souls where specific gear is always found in exactly the same place guaranteed because there is only 1 of each item in the game and each item serves it’s own specific purpose; a system that simply won’t work in an MMO.

I agree that grind sucks, but some people sound like they just want to be handed gear without putting in any time or effort… It only takes a couple hours of play time after you hit 80 to be fully exotic geared (karma vendors + TP + a couple dungeons). Ascended gear is only marginally better and is meant for those of us who want a longer term goal in the game, not something we can get after running Fractals casually 3 times. I’ve watched a dozen or so of my friends quit this game out of boredom because they hit 80 and run out of things to do.

Yes, give us ascended weapons and armor, but don’t make it easy to obtain. It should feel like a real accomplishment of both time invested and skill to beat challenging content.

JinAtonic.2781:

I just started playing the game on the dragonbrand server, i picked it because it was under “very high” server load so i figured it was populated.

I’m level 31 guardian and nobody is playing the game…i find it hard to level up and progress since dynamic events, group events can’t be done alone so i get no exp!

Even Lion’s Arch is empty like nobody is even playing, i feel like im playing single player.

I’m from australia and nobody playing in my peak times….. game feels desolete and it is really boring since it relies on others to play and participate in events.

they really need to combine servers into 3 big servers

I’ve been on Dragonbrand since launch and I can tell you now the peak hours are between 5pm and 2am EST which is probably when you and the rest of Australia are asleep. Lions Arch is almost always packed when I’m on, and I run in to random players in the world every 5 minutes no matter what obscure, remote area of a zone I visit.

The only thing I can suggest is you try to find a server with a higher Australian population.

I’ve talked to two necromancers with the wings and they both told me the wings don’t show in death shroud. Anet, can we fix this please? I want my necro to look like a shadowy demon!

I heard the wings disappear on necros using death shroud. Is this true? If so, I hope they fix it. In fact I want them to turn black while in death shroud to match the form. That would look incredibly awesome.

Whenever I run my condi necro, I always feel powerful. I don’t run in to many other bleed stackers in dungeons, dunno why.

Guns and Giblets.9308:

Xenon.4537:

The one thing that will throw a wrench in your argument is that Anet might not raise the level cap at all. They never did in GW1. An expansion doesn’t necessarily have to have a level cap increase, it’s just a popular practice in other games. Anet have stated many times that there will not be stat creep. The currently released “tier” of ascended gear is the first and last “tier” that will ever be released.

They’ve made statements to the effect that they ‘absolutely’ will raise it.

Whether they stick with this or not is to be seen. But I expect an expansion to raise the level cap. You’re right that this would not be stat-creep. It would be another tier altogether.

Ah, I stand corrected. However, I have seen devs post right here on these forums (during the ascended gear drama explosion) that they will not introduce stat creep or gear treadmill or have any kind of ever-increasing gear-tiering system. So Either they changed their minds since that interview with Colin, or they have ideas in place to have increased level cap without introducing new gear levels. Here, I dug all the way back and found the relevant post:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/news/A-message-from-our-Studio-Design-Director-Chris-Whiteside/first#post721451

“Our goal is not to create a gear treadmill. Our goal is to ensure we have a proper progression for players from exotic up to legendary without a massive jump in reward between the two. We will slowly add the remaining ascended gear items and legendary items in future updates to allow people time to acquire them as we add exciting new content that deserves exciting rewards. We will not be adding a new tier of gear every 3 months that we expect everyone to chase after and then get the next set and so on.”

To be fair, this is probably a good example of Anet’s capacity to make statements that are not perfectly clear and are somewhat open to interpretation. I think people read this quickly and see words like “progression” and “We will slowly add..” and assume the worst. I believe the proper interpretation of this post is a literal interpretation of the last sentence of that paragraph. They will not be adding tiers. Period.

If it makes people feel better, they can keep the link to that post and use it to hold Anet to their word. Personally I’m not worried about it.

I strip naked, do a /dance, rub my belly (irl) lean back in my chair, and hit the dodge roll key into the gate with my toe.

cesmode.4257:

Vayne, hi

I look at ascended gear, and the frequency of its release like this(assuming GW2 releases an expansion and increases level cap):

WoW/Rift raiding and gear treadmill:
-Gain Tier 1 set (takes approx 1-2 months to acquire)
-3-5 months later Tier 2 is released
-Gain Tier 2 set (takes approx 1-2 months to acquire)
-3-5 months later Tier 3 is released
-Gain Tier 3 set (takes approx 1-2 months to acquire)
-Expansion is released, level cap increased
-Level up to new level cap, all gear acquired in previous expension rendered useless.

GW2 Ascended gear:
-Gain Ring/Back slot ascended gear (approx 1-2 months to acquire)
-2 months later amulets are released (I think this was next)
-Gain Amulets (One month of laurels?)
-1 month later accessories are released
-Gain Accessories (One month of Laurels + ecto?)
-Expansion released level cap increased rendering all previously acquired ascended gear useless.

In both scenarioes you now re-start the grind.

So if you compare the two styles, its the same thing. Every few months a new tier, or new ascended slot, is released. It takes approx 1-2 months to acquire the gear in either scenario. This process is repeated several times over the course of a year or 1.5 years. Eventually, expansions are released, level caps are increased. All gear in both scenarios are useless (unless ascended gear scales with level at that point).

Its the same thing in my view. Arenanet just masked it differently.

The one thing that will throw a wrench in your argument is that Anet might not raise the level cap at all. They never did in GW1. An expansion doesn’t necessarily have to have a level cap increase, it’s just a popular practice in other games. Anet have stated many times that there will not be stat creep. The currently released “tier” of ascended gear is the first and last “tier” that will ever be released.

LHound.8964:

The problem with Ascended Gear is when it was released, players were forced to do content (Grind the crap out of Fractals). However with the latest introductions of Ascended Gear trough dailies, guild events and WvW, there is more than one viable option to get them. Therefor, i believe that now it don’t contradicts with the original ideas shown in the Manifesto!

No one was forcing people to do Fractals or to get ascended gear at all. Exotics are perfectly adequate for all parts of the game except for Fractals 20+. People felt entitled to rewards yet did not want to do the content, which is a silly notion. Would you pay an employee if they didn’t do any work for you? Do you give the Olympic gold medal to the guy who didn’t feel like training or competing at all?

Another reason people exploded the issue out of proportion was they thought Anet was trying to introduce stat creep. They heard the word “tier” and thought that meant every few months Anet would release a wave of rare, exotic, and ascended gear with higher stats than previous versions of the same gear. This was completely false. Nothing will ever be stronger than the current version of ascended gear.

Add my name to the list of people who don’t agree with the RNG box direction of GW2. BL chests are all the RNG box we need. New weapon skins should be introduced to the loot tables of existing enemies/bosses or new ones so that people can go out and earn them by playing the game. If they want money, they should provide weapon skins for 800 gems each.

A message to Anet: I’m not sure how good or bad your sales were for the Wintersday weapon skins, but if your decision to put the subsequent skins in RNG boxes has anything to do with that, please understand that I did not buy any Wintersday weapons from the gem store because I thought they looked ugly, not because there was a lack of random chance involved. I’m sure many others made the same choice. We want to buy weapon skins directly for 800 gems each, but you have to provide skins that actually look good. If you had offered the Fuzed or Jade skins for 800 each, I probably would have spent over 5000 gems to get skins for different characters.

I just feel like Anet got the wrong message for the wrong reasons when they tried to sell us weapon skins the first time, and now they are using RNG boxes because of a misconception in sales results.

Zoldyck.6241:

The adjective pretty much describe what i think of Elitists.

e·lit·ism or é·lit·ism
(-ltzm, -l-)

n.
1. The belief that certain persons or members of certain classes or groups deserve favored treatment by virtue of their perceived superiority, as in intellect, social status, or financial resources.

2.
a. The sense of entitlement enjoyed by such a group or class.
b. Control, rule, or domination by such a group or class.

e·litist adj. & n.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

elitist

adjective
snobbish, exclusive, superior, arrogant, selective, pretentious, stuck-up (informal), patronizing, condescending, snooty (informal), uppity, high and mighty (informal), hoity-toity (informal), high-hat (informal, chiefly U.S.), uppish (Brit. informal) He described skiing as an elitist sport.

noun
snob, highbrow, prig, social climber He was an elitist who had no time for the masses.

Yes. This is indeed the definition in our dictionaries. That doesn’t mean the term “elitist” is used properly. Much of the time poor players use it as a cudgel to bash players who are simply looking to raise the bar of quality in gaming.

I think what the OP is worried about is that no one is really concerned with improving their own skill performance within the game. Rather than learning to play better to overcome challenging content, they cry out for nerfs and beg for tank and spank content that they can practically afk through. This trend only serves to make the game more stale, boring, and pointless over time. It’s an atmosphere of cancer and decay.

Swimsasa Stoon.8936:

Xenon.4537:

Swimsasa Stoon.8936:

replace fiery aura with plasma aura, makes you invulnerable for 5 seconds+burns foes. That way the current (30% longer fire fields) would be way more useful and the ’ fire aura’ on the focus would be way better because the currect focus fire skills are crappy. Plus this would allow elementalists to give better group support while being offensivly specced.

We already have 2 invulnerability spells: Mist Form and Obsidian Flesh. Not to mention auras can be shared, and fire aura can be procced off signets. So you want to be able to proc a new invulnerability shield that lasts 5 seconds, can be shared to allies, and can be procced 4 times from signets plus 1 more time fro the focus? Thats 25 seconds of shared burning invulnerability shields shared across up to 5 people. Lol.

wouldn’t that be awesome

Yeah, and then they should just give us the unshakeable and determined buff permanently. Also righteous indignation, and remove all the cooldowns and cast times of our spells. xD

I have a hard time running anything besides berserkers. I run staff or s/f because daggers feels wrong to me, but damage on staff is laughable without full berserkers. Even then, it barely breaks even with kitten thief and mesmer builds.