Guild Wars 2

An expansion of unknown size, unknown release date, unknown 6 outta 9 specializations, unknown “challenging content”, unknown beta test amounts and schedules, and known lack of character slot for the new profession…

40$ with extra character slot for base package and we’re golden.

New players will have 9 professions (for them each is new and fresh) and 5 slots to try them.

Old players get one new profession and 0 extra slots to try it. For many ppl it’s pay up or someone goes under the knife..

Sorry but i’m livid. I’ve had it UP TO HERE with all those white knights saying “people would be far less agitated if not for free core game bundled for new players”.

No. Stop insulting me, making me some sort of grinch that can’t bear other people’s fun. I’m all for them getting it for free, more players the merrier (especially in this game, and it’s pvp hehe).

My beef is that standard package does not feature extra character slot for a new profession that must be made as new character and is a payed (50$!) expansion content. If they cannot do their xpac buyer this basic courtesy, which is upheld by almost all and any mmorpg company, far less reputable ones at that, then we got a problem here. It’s about the principle for me (since i got a free slot anyway).

I’m from Poland and i bought original gw2 as a key from key online store roughly 4 months after it’s launch. It was around 43$ at that time, compared to 60 euros on official site.

Needless to say all worked, else you wouldn’t see me post this;) So i don’t know about arena.net’s official website, but i’m pretty sure there will be other options springing up if not immediately, then soon after HoT launches.

Well maybe they’re getting $100 from you because the ultimate edition is a pretty good deal, unlike the (sub)standard edition, that for many ppl means extra 10$ for character slot or a random act of butchery on one of their beloved characters.

I couldn’t care less for new players getting base game in the package, i’m cool with that, got my money’s worth form core gw2 long ago.

What riles me up is that they’re not providing character slot for us vets for their payed new profession. Even kitten F2P games run by Nexon of all the publishers don’t go there and give players reasonable opportunities for free character slot when new class comes out.

So a vet has to get higher version of HoT (deluxe or ultimate) or make a sacrifice if his character slots are full – 800 gems, delete a character, or no revenant.
That and imho i’ve seen to little so far to justify the price.

Summing up: My beef is not with new players getting better deal – they could get ferraries with their version for all i care. My beef is with us old players are getting milked for cash in such a sleezy way, instead of common sense courtesy, that even the bottom of business ethic barrel publishers provide.

Yeah i kittened about it being OP on the forums, but that’s because it was made minor. I’d love to see 50% reduction, but as it was – a grandmaster major, that you have to choose instead of venomous aura or shadow’s rejuvenation.

Well Collin was to show Guild Halls at last day of E3, but seems that happened on the first. I see nothing regarding day 2…so will there be anything happening tommorow a.k.a. day 3?

The question is which team will they share it with. If i recall right Collin announced pre-orders, but said nothing of the price. It is possible he’s not the one calling the shots in the matter. And we all know too well how “marketing pros” tend to bury game’s chances with their “optimized pricing and monetizing policies” (in their limited cranial cavities at least).

I prey A-net has marketing/sales team that even has half the idea of what they are selling and 1/5th of understanding of their playerbase that your average forum joe does. If not, then we’re gonna look at smaller sales, scapegoating and blaming “that guy over there with goatee, cause it scared off kids on twitter and sales went down 10%”;)

One of the gravest sins of HoT (asides no extra char slot with 50$ expansion) is how in the dark everything is kept. But among obvious thing (just how big is it), there’s another thing that’s not being addressed – what happens after?

I would like to know now that HoT will ley down the foundations for future expnasions, what sort of development cycle can we expect?

Like one x-pac every year? How will LS look like and what will it deliver? What are the future plans post HoT regarding game features?

I’d just like to see fire & air sigils to take one way ticket to oblivion, because they’re 0 skill, insta damage.

Why should I do a-net’s job and for free mind you?

Ok so in the blog post about guild halls it reveals that with HoT we’re getting 2 guild halls, but i’m guessing there may be more in the future.

So about that – if we decide that we’d love to have a guild hall in a new location, but already have invested in the old one…what happens?

1. Start from scratch with new one , and lose old one, because you can’t have more then one?
2. keep old as is, build new one from 0?
3. you can move all your stuff easy to new one, but gotta ditch the old one?
4 can move all upgrades to new one, and keep the old one?

$40 + character slot for revenant, $50 for expanded version and 75$ for ultimate and sales would be through roof and good name kept. But they know better…

hey is it just me, or is my fav trait gone? Is there any downed state trait for engi in new specs?

Actually i just changed that second weapon set to Sword/Pistol over the initiall set and over SB.

Now as for reason – the 2nd set was chosen for it’s ability to catch a running enemy, and possibly provide extra survival/condi cleanse. The d/p was chosen for shadow shot and pistol offhand. And that expensive but targetless stealth for condi cleanse.

Now i replaced that with sword/pistol ,because sword #2 is the best catch with it’s immobilize, a both engage and disengage option rolled into one, and an ini based condi cleanse without stealth – as point holder you can’t abuse stealth, or you’re giving them the point for free.

Additionally #2 + pistol whip will let you net some nice healing, and headshot is always there for all the interrupt needs in the world.

There is little to no offensive power in this build’s sword/pistol, but it still proved great for harassing and taking down snipers at forest of nilfhel mid, and getting some nice stomps even away from point.

Once the specs roll in i might use shadow arts for some venoms to be used as means of condi pressure for that sword/pistol and party play, who knows.

I was experimenting with cele amulet too, for some more direct damage power, but results weren’t satisfactory – my thief was too squishy compared to settlers. I know it sounds weird on paper, but that’s the practice. Though more matches might change that (better skill with my thief).

$50/€40/£35 is too much for an expansion – it’s 45€ to start with.
And yes, so far the x-pac looks like roughly 20-30% extra content compared to base. So the price is not yet justified in my eyes.

I want to buy Heart of Thorns on it’s own – this too. If i link HoT with my base game account i’m saying farewell to 5 new slots i would get with new account, but i don’t like running an account farm here.

The Expansion adds a new class, but does not add a new character slot – and finally this. I got an empty slot for reve, but that’s still just being sleezy. It’s common courtesy to give slots for new professions/jobs/classes especially if they’re payed content (and you can’t play revenant without x-pac).

If only one of the above can be tallied up in the poll, then #1 would be it. HoT has yet to proof to me it’s worth the 5/6 of the game’s launch price.

Bad idea. Runes are not only picked for stats, but also their other functionality. Chaining a large portion of your desired stats to a rune you hate will backfire.

A-net’s ain’t any better either. All this talk of power, but you both parties here forget about freedom.

Traitlines let me choose additional stats without being chained to an amulet, on top of that how deep and in how many traitlines i went defined how much and how many stats would i get from there. Stats of my choosing, not limited by amulets or runes.
(though limited by being in 2 stats per trait sets).

What a-net should do is give us 5 or so stat boosts for us to choose, each usable once in our build.

Like pick between:

300 power
300 precision
300 ferocity
30% boon duration
30% condi duration
300 healing

and so on and so forth..

it’s a good thing they do. Stealth is pretty unfair. In conquest that is partially allevated by losing ability to hold a point when invisible. But in wvw it only makes sense there are tools that prevent from whole nation of thieves from moving into enemy base unnoticed.

it’s actualy 45 euros, roughly same as the 50 bucks.

Oh, my bad then.

I come on website and see it’s 44.99 euros now. Was it all the time like this, or they changed it from 49.99?

At any rate this seems alot more fair now, price is around same as in dollars.

You and me both strategist…

Adam Jensen voice: I never asked for this.

And i don’t record videos, so can’t showcase it.

“You-know-what” EU. And i say that as an unhappy EU member:/

Ok let’s not panic ppl, instead vote with wallets. If the price doesn’t please you (and that includes me as well) let’s just sit down, wait for a-net to prove to us they deserve the 50 bucks/euros and wait for the game to get released.

With boxed versions/activation keys and different regions we’ll get HoT for more reasonable price level, if we only say no to pre-purchase and hold our horses. It’s not like we’ll be playing the game more then those that buy it at day one, unless you mean those few hungry hours of beta….

^ words of wisdom. (though i’m in the 40$ bucks “gladly” crowd;)

Let’s just wait for the launch. Once the keys get out the price will be much more reasonable for those who know where to look.

As far as i know that’s a yes to both.

And some beta schedules?

Since the game is going on pre-purchase, wouldn’t it make sense to reveal these two things as well?

Yeah, think i’ll do just that. When HoT is priced at around 40$ (given i’m in europe that will likely mean buying a key), that’s when i’ll jump the ship.

Shouldn’t the prepurchase be cheaper then the retail version? I mean you discard the safety of knowing the game’s quality via reviews, and take a leap of faith with it…

Try europe where it costs the same but in euros – 1/3 more expensive…

yeah. Used that before and had no complains. Fraility is there to just give bleeding some cover, so some 1 condi cleanse skill won’t kill your whole effort. But you can that with cloack and dagger too, so go for it

swiftness. for mobility

I was asleep at that time. My issue is that when it’s all said and done, i still got them 4 talking heads on official strem, rather then it being cut to be 30 mins long with just official collin and a-net stuff.

A-net for the love of….when you make an official stream i want to hear the official news about the game and not sort my way through 4 talking heads which take up roughly an hour of your 1h 30mins stream.

They got their fans that’s cool, but don’t force them down my throat when i came for the meat and not 2x longer appetizers that i don’t care for!

I hate meta, so the moment i hopped on thief in spvp i went and started looking for my own build. After 2-3 days of trial and error (and incoming specializations to ruin my fun) i got my own kitten tanky trapper condi thief that works and works well.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZAQRAoY4al8MptplOxvJ8PNhTBxVA8uFjIGdvhkmBA-TpRAABsVGAgHAQg7PQyBBIjjAgFnAAA

How it works:
This is a very in your face build that tanks by outhealing damage done to you, and mass evading. It’s also equipped with solid mobility and shadow trap for instant return to defended point so you can protect it without camping it.

Damage is done with bleeds & poison, and to that end d/d is your main weapon set, and leaping death blossom main attacking skill.

Steal is a big thing, so it’s set on minimum cooldown. Steal from ranger or a warrior in bigger fight and your survival goes way way waayyy up (heartseekers on water field from ranger, or whirling axe into mob of ppl/minions with whirling axe for awesome hp gain. Steal from a necro and you can fear opponents off point for some small decap advantage.

now what is that venom doing in elite you ask since this builds has 0 venom traits? This is your panic button heal! Notice that mad king’s rune this builds uses. When you use an elite, you’ll do hunter’s call on up to 3 targets in large area. Combine the number of hits you get off this with signet of malice (boosted by settler’s amulet heal stat) and well….it’s a life saver! Untraited it’s only 5s faster then rune’s own cooldown, so close enough but you must be vary of that 5s wait after basilisk venom goes off cd.

Now about cc and condition defense. As for cc you got your trusty steal, and 3 stunbreakers – shadowstep provides 2 of them and shadow trap is your last one. Don’t forget blinds on 2nd weapon set and that you can DOOOOOODGEEEEEE!

condies are cleansed in 3 ways – one is shadowstep, other is pain response in acrobatics, and lastly stealth, which both weapon sets provide (though at a steep price).

Also never forget your traps, they are your friends!. Needle trap let’s you set up a nice opening for death blossom spam, and it’s on far shorter cd then devourer venom would be.

And shadow trap – there are the “viable path to target” moments but if that’s not in the way…oh boy what fun! Insta teleport to it’s spot across miles and the surprised enemy who thought he’d get a free cap! Not to mention those 10 stacks of might push your condi damage even further;>

I’m not saying build is perfect, especially given the short time i had to set it up, but it works for me!

current example:

I want a trapper condi thief (yes it’s a thing). Right now i got full acrobatics, fulll trickery and 10 into shadow arts so i can condi cleanse when in stealth.

Post specializations:

Traps are deadly arts. Sure i can get full deadly arts, acrobatics and trickery. But i can’t get 2 pts into shadow arts for that cleanse. And i would love to, since there’s nothing in deadly arts grandmaster that would interest me, unlike that adept tier condi cleanse in shadowarts. But guess what? I can’t.

I mean i want option to make more balanced middle ground builds. Ones that have tanky stats from amulet, with bit precision and ferocity + boon duration from traitlines from example.

How are they gonna make me get my 300 stat i choose on top of amulet ones, especially if i’m aiming for one that the amulet does not provide, that is what i wonder.

+1 to this post.

mistsim.2748:

i explained why EB is there and how it’s useful, plz read.

The point is that even now we can have both at once. I disagree with their placement, but still, you can have both. and that’s a great thing. Because EB is uncontrollable, and Survival of the fittest doesn’t offer enough cleansing in a condi heavy fight.

But now they close that option off and force us to go Wildreness survival if we want a decent trait for cleansing. Neither being good or a choice.

EB should be beastmastery grandmaster – makes total sense and adds more diveristy and a boost for least loved traitline.

What i’m questioning is how we’ll get those missing points and do we actually get a say in what we get? I don’t like them forcing their “view” on how i build my character.

Polarizing builds mean that one guy will get easily wrecked by another because his build, forced by specialization’s limited choice and now these stats gone is by default prone to condies/burst/slow/whatever. Loss by build, and not by skill. I thought that was to be avoided.

My recent thief build is taking an arrow to the knee because i either have to select deadly arts (which i don’t care about) for traps, or go balls to the wall into shadow arts (which i really just want for condi cleanse on stealth).

I say we all lose becuase we lose flexibility of making our builds and still have no idea how those missing traitline points are going to be given back to us. Hopefullly not in form “everyone gets it baseline” or i’ll scream.

Though after that leap movement change and random boon/condi conversion i’m not very hopeful..

So once specializations hit these take a dive. So we were told something about gear getting extra boosts, but silence since then.

So what is being done about this gaping hole that’s one week away if i understand correctly?.

Simple stat boosting won’t do, because traitline stats allowed boosting up to 4 stats that amulet did not necessairly had to provide. I could be a carrion amulet user, with 300 healing & tougness from shadow arts and 30% boon duration from acrobatics – stats which are not in the amulet.

If you have me mix and match armor – then well..what about the amulet? Because right now in spvp that’s your only stat giving “armor”. There’s a lot of question an issues, but little answers…

yeah, recently it’s one bad decision after another, though you didn’t have to bring out the NPE boogie man, some of us still have nightmares…

But yeah, random boon conversion (0 skill, 100% luck), leaps independent from movement speed value (there goes movement condi and boon game) etc and so on.
I wonder of the last one is tied in some way to HoT maps being smaller, since nobody can tell me that our curret huge pve maps “are too small for leapers”.

Anyway i can swear they’re reading “101 ways to sink a game” in recent times. Someone must’ve told them “sreamlining is hip” and they bought it….

This forum mod and I both know i have much shorter and descriptive term for the issue at hand, but if my topic is to survive i have to be more descriptive.

I like customizability of my build, and “playing my way”. But the “specializations” go the Titanic route of “we know better then you!”.

Result?

I. can’t go into more then 3 lines, even for one measely adept trait.
II. can’t choose a traitline only partially, because grandmaster traits are of no use to my build.
III. can’t select lower tier traits in higher one’s slot – again killing my choice and diveristy. (yes i have a build that runs on 3 adept tiers from one line and does just fine).

I get this whole condensing traits and making them less but more viable, but that doesn’t change the fact, that our build options are getting severely butchered, and we’re supposed to be happy about it. Well, i’m not.

While i do find that cripple on traps pathetic (dodge ignores cripple’s movement slowdown, and now leaps will as well), i’m glad i’m not forced to toss my traps.

When there’s a thief backstabbing me i want to have insta trap, not having to bother with aiming and throwing. Sadly i don’t get insta trap because arming time now. But at least no throwing time..

? Didn’t you guardian guys get massive decrease to cooldowns on those skills?