Guild Wars 2

@onearmedbandit: I agree and disagree, both contradictory.
-I agree that these “noobs” and casuals might not know the fine detail mechanics of certain things and thus their input should be taken with a grain of salt.
-I disagree that their concerns should not discarded completely, even concerning structured PvP. They paid as much for the game as you or I, maybe even more!

If you alienate these people, you no longer have a game. Period. Time and time again, statistic after statistic, it is shown that there are WAY more casuals, noobs, semi-hardcores than there are the “world first”, top 1% or 2% of PvP players. Im sorry you, as well as others might even disagree with this statement, but I believe it to be true.

Casuals out number pros. It is a wise business model to not alienate these folks and make them feel unwanted. I believe Jonathan Sharp pointed this out and I do not believe he intended to send a message that casuals don’t know how to play the game, however, that is the message that I perceived.

You look around the forum and you see a small percentage of the greater community. Take the ascended gear debacle: I was part of that small community of people that is against the small treadmill they created. Avidly disguisted at first, though Ive since made my peace. The forums were anarchy for that week or two. But when you logged into the game, nobody cared. You hardly saw people in map chat talking about it.

Its a sad truth, because I would love nothing more than a revolution of the playerbase against ascended gear and fractal levels. But it just wont happen because the casuals, semi hardcores that do not frequent the forums as much as you or I, outnumber the pro players.

To add to my post:

I used to participate in live gaming tournaments / LAN tournaments for cash and prize way back in the Quake 1/2/3 days. I’ve won a few items, pretty modest stuff. Now, being married with a kid, I cannot dedicate the time to do this stuff anymore like these guys.

With that said, I’ll also add that the pro-players will always be catered to a bit more, listened to a bit more, and pampered a bit more because apparently they are what make games, or at least player vs player games, large. This happened in Quake 1/2/3, it happens in MMOs even in PVE… Back during the TBC, and WOTLK days of WoW, when they released new huge content patches that would crash the servers, ironically a lot of the time the servers that had some of the top guilds, never went down or had less issues. Sure, they had their disconnects as well Id imagine. But I’d bet that if their servers went down, they were the first to come up so they can rush back to World Firsts with boss kills. There was a lot of talk in those days about Blizzard taking care of those servers first.

My point is that, and again this is just my personal opinion so please do not attack my personal opinion, I feel that the small pro-player base is catered to and propped up whenever possible.

Would Jonathan Sharp invite the common player to the next interview?

Let me put my 2 cents in…

First, let me thank Jonathan Sharp on the interview.

I’ll be perfectly honest, I am not an avid PvP’er. I dabble in WvW a bit, and I have found sPvP to be fun when I played it in beta. With that said, I doubt what I have to say will carry any weight with the PVP community at large, or devos.

However, I felt that the “State of the game” interview with Jonathan Sharp(Thanks for participating by the way), made me realize, or at least influence, my opinion on game development and direction. You had those top-dog PVP players asking you questions. Many times, they inferred that they know whats best for PvP(and often time Jonathan agreed with them) and the rest of the casual/semi hardcore playerbase just simply rant and whine. Even Jonathan Sharp alluded to this, that most of what people say on the forums, and rightfully so at times, is not well-informed. I felt that Jonathan, while defending the interests of casuals, ultimatley sides with the pro players in hopes of creating a huge eSport game.

While it was neat to see a dev talk about his game and give some insight into his thought process, but in doing so it also left a nasty taste in my mouth. I now feel that since I am not a Pro player like those guys on the panel, that I would be holding this game back from its true potential, or holding it back from where it should go in terms of development, gameplay, and class design. I feel that guys and gals like me are “noob”, as Jonathan put it, that we do not know the game we are playing or the classes we play. I feel that inviting pro-only players to a discussion like this really segregated the playerbase, put themselves in the spotlight, and thus shunned the rest of us. The 90% of the pvp player base is not pro like those guys, which is why Jonathan Sharp said that he needs to keep those non-pro players in mind, however in doing so I feel like we hold the game back. The pro players know whats best, right? They know whats best for the game, and its because of the casual PVP player, the semi-hardcore PVP player that the class balance changes that they deem are NEEDED, ultimately do not get implimented. Or those changes are delayed to “allow us to learn the game”.

To put it simply, I felt the interview was mildly insulting because it contrasted too much the needs/wants/abilities/interests of Pro players vs everyone else.

I think the combat system is deeper thn what we know. Chris whiteside alluded to in the ama. Im thinking we will see mehancs where we need to run through combo fields to cleanse conditions that would be required to finish a fight.

Regarding roles, i am a firm believer that everyone is responsible for their own survivablity. People need to learn to build some surv. Into their builds in some way. I also feel that those that are pure support or tanks are a detriment to the group rather than a compliment because the combat system doesnt afford you this luxary in terms of fight mechanics ad how much damage mobs deal. I do not care what anyone says, i have yet to see a tank specced guardian or warrior maintain hate. The bosses run all over the place. The control aspect of it is imprtant but oly if you are dishng out comperable dmg to that of your peers.

Hellkaiser.6025:

They exist, they’re just not mandatory dedicated roles lol, if you’re playing a dedicated tank role then more power to you, but it’s NOT MANDATORY

If it is then you’ll likely see nerfs to defensive traits and stats to stop it… YAY!! sounds great -_-’

I sure hope that they nerf traits that lead people to go for “tank” or “heal” builds.

Arenanet says no holy trinity. Arenanet says no tanking. Arenanet says no healing. This is not my opinion, this is what the game developers say, they made the game so there wouldn’t be any roles. You can trait however you want but when they do nerf some of these defensive abilities, I hope you wont leave the game because this is what they have intended to do all along. You can still have those abilities, but they are more for added survivability rather than role defining.

It would be nice to have a Magic Find stat line in the character sheet, to quickly reference.

Another part of the problem is FoTM spamming in LA. Less people are playing their alts, less mains are out in the world, whether it be some lowbie zone to gather mats for crafting, or Orr.

I knew this would happen, regardless of FoTm. A living breathing world requires living breathing players to be in it, otherwise the content becomes too difficult for the few that are around.

Arenanets big mistake was allowing free transfers for too long.

What I would have done:
“You will have 10 days of free server transfers, with one day cooldown. After this time, server transfers will cost X amount of gems, resulting in a one week cooldown”.

If I wnated to transfer servers in WoW, its 25 bucks(back in the day at least). A deterrant not to, but the option is there if I wanted to…

Server pops were never a huge problem there, and they have 100-200 servers.

I prefer smaller guilds. Hell, Id prefer to just have 3 or 4 people on my friends list to group with and BS with, rather than a guild. However, that probably wont happen so Ill settle for a guild with like..10-20 people total…close tight knit group.

As someone who has leveled 3 characters to 80, and a 4th at 58, I can say the game is what you make of it all around, at any level.

I wont touch on the 1-80 experience, I think many will agree it is fantastic. One or two people here have touched on high level zones becoming more empty, I never experienced this. Always people running around…always. At least on my server.

-There is a grind at 80 for any type of gear that you want, be it dungeon sets, legendaries, ascended gear.
-You are able to craft exotics with minimal girnd
-I think the dungeons in this game are the best ive seen, especially FoTM.
-Honestly, unless youre a pro, competitive WvW player, stats really don’t matter. I ran into explorables not caring about my gear(being a mixed bag of greens, and a few rares..hardly any upgrade slots filled). Needless to say, I had no problems. I started fractals with a full exotic set, probably not optimally statted, still no problems.

It is what you make of it. My problem is pyschological in that I feel some innate need to try to keep up with everyone in fractal levels, but the recent AMA assauged this.

Enjoy the game.
Oh, and take in the amazing visuals…

drifter.8453:

Just tell me why I here noises coming from the sewer grate in Devinity reach, where the supposive sewer collapsed at? Also tell me why when I cross the rope bridge I see things flying around deep in the whole the bridge crosses? I want to know what is at the bottom of the gaping hole, and what is lurking in the Devinities reach sewers.

Deathwing

Vakirauta.6397:

Yes, there is mate.
What’s the point of playing an elementalist over a healer?
Or a tank over a guardian? A dps’er over a thief?

I encourage you to browse this website that says there is no holy trinity.

You can spec to be more towards the healy side, but if you sit there doing nothing when health bars are full, you are a detriment to the group. If your DPS suffers because you are statted for +Healing Power only, you are a detriment to the group.

The way combat, hate, and boss fights are designed work around everyone attacking the boss, keeping themselves alive, and helping eachother out. You perform a mixture of the three roles for the most successful outcome. The groups that I have been in that have been the most successful, do not have dedicated roles.

To respond to a snippit of one above poster:
The day I am “gear checked” and thus booted out of the group, is the day I delete the game without hesitation. That is something I will absolutely not tolerate.

Only FoTM lvl 7 right now…if you friggin people at lvl 25 think you’re going to gear check me, you’re going to find a lot more people like me that are going to quit this game. Good luck finding groups then, when more and more people quit because of gear checks.

I think this game is full of grind, no question about that.

I think grinding for mats and requirements for Legendaries is fine.
I think grinding out dungeon sets via dungeon runs is fine.
I think grinding out mats for other exotics should be kept to a minimum.
I think the grind for ascended gear is way too much.

There is a lot of grind in this game. I laugh everytime Anet says theres no grind. There definately is, and most of it is still OK. But then I hear obsurd statements like Grind and Cash shop. Nothing to do with eachother.

^ What Beren said. When I am leveling, I want to do it solo mostly…Its quicker and I can go whereever i want when I want without having to wait on friends or other people, because they don’t want to waypoint or want to do other things.

1. When did you begin playing? (post bw’s) – Betas and headstart.
2. how many hours total do you have? (/age) – Probably around 450+
3. What’s your most gold banked so far? – Total across all toons, probably 40 gold.
4. Do you have a max level character (s)? (number if more than one) – 3 lvl 80s
5. List 1-3 areas / zones / events / tp; where you spend most of your time for income. -Dungeons
6. Do you mainly use MF or not? Yes
7. Have you ever got an exotic weapon from a mob? If so, how many and total? I dont think so, but I don’t use a ton of MF.
8. Have you ever got an exotic weapon from a chest? If so, how many and total? Between 3-5?
9. What’s the most number of rare weapons you have looted in one day or 8hrs time? 4
10. How many rare or exotic weapons do you “expect” to loot in one hour of time? 1 or 2
11. How many lodestones have you looted total so far? (all types) Two or three?
12. Do you craft? If so, do you have a 400 crafter? if so, how many? 4
13. Do you sell your looted crafting mats? (specify optional) – If I know I have enough of the salvagable mat, I do.
14. Do you feel your return, (in terms of items, completion, income, etc) for your time, has been worth it? I feel like my time in game is well spent, unless Im spending more than 10 minutes looking for a FoTM group. I do think that this game is way too grindy for things like FoTM gear.
15. In ONE word, what needs improved most; from your perspective? FoTM level system

Are transfers free still? I thnk its a one week cooldown, but are they free?

Arenanet needs to stop the free transfers if they are still going, and make transferring TO low pop servers more attractive…via free boosters or whatever.

If tanking is viable, arenanet failed. That is all.

One person should not be able to hold hate on a mob for the entire encounter, and live to tell about it.

One person should not have the cooldowns and abilities to heal the entire group from standing in badfloors all the time.

Even though there are builds that lean one way or another, why do people feel the need to fight against the system, against the way the game was designed? Surely people heard that this game had no trinity, before they bought it. Yet, they buy it and try to make it into a WoW clone-tank,healer/dps?

It is not how this game was meant to be played.

Kharma is worthless right not, aside from crafting a legendary at some point or purchasing the Orr sets.

Worthless otherwise.

A perfect sink for kharma would be an “Armor skin closet” of sorts. Once you acquire a skin (after equipping it), seemlessly and without the player knowing that skin gets saved in a “closet” where you can go to, spend kharma to take a copy of that skin out and use it to transmog your gear.

I think it is working fine. I scarft down some magic find food with a few magic find upgrades… I got 3 or 4 rares in one FoTM, lvl 6, last night.

Id say its working fine.

Ive seen a few threads like this before, infact I probably have posted one myself. These sounds are so annoying and unnecessary.

And I agree, the holy trinity might have been replaced with a new trinity. However, to spec 100% all one way is a detriment to the group in some fashion.

100% dps and you might go down easier
100% control and youre not doing enough damage
100% support and youre not doing enough damage.

Folks…

Still, if you are a “tank”, can you really hold aggro on that boss for the entire 4-5 minute duration of the fight? Any time I run with a “tank” the boss turns and starts walking toward someone else to smack. Yes, you can control it, slow it down, stun it, etc. Thats not tanking. Its control. The traditional holy trinity does not exist in this game, and if you some how manage to resurrect it, then arenanet did not do their job. Also, the control aspects that you would employ on the boss usually have diminished powers… Ever notice one of the buffs on the boss says something like “control effects are 25% less effective” or something like that? This is so that you cannot control and/or tank.

Make a pure tank spec, and it will take the group that much longer to kill the boss. Make a spec that is DPS, but has good survivability or group utility, and we kill it a bit faster. Make a glass cannon, yes you might go down more, but if you’re not an idiot you will be fine and the boss goes down even quicker.

I would say pure dps is a detriment as much as pure tank/healer. One should always strive to build in survivability in their build, or some group utility.

Its up to you to survive while doing the absolute most damage your class can do…and thinking your sword and board tank build does more damage than my thief, or whatever weapon loadout you use, you are sorely mistaken. Not even close.

They definitely need a “show usable” option, or different tabs across the top to sort through the armor types.
Its so annoying to try to find my armor in a stack of needles.

A big thank you for hosting the AMA earlier this week. While I still have concerns and some lingering doubt as to where the development direction of this great game is headed, at least some of my worries were assuaged, for the time being.

-Ascended gear(final tier?) Yes, but introducing a gear treadmill with upgrades instead. We’ll deal with then when it comes.
-Fractal level system – being worked on, a few options to handle this as Chris stated.

I wanted to say thanks for addressing our concerns. I am now playing the game again after a 1-2 week break. Enjoying it, trying to ignore the hoopla of the nov. 15 patch whenever I am in LA.

I just hope that changes are made to fix the division of community that has been created.

**Note, this post isnt meant to illicit the Ascended Gear/Fractal level system argument. I am just conveying gratitude for putting some of our worries to ease on Monday night. That is all.

Yet thieves can stack vit toughness, spam pistol whips and blinds, thus tanking for a few seconds. But then like other classes hes in for hurting after that.

Narkosys.5173:

With guild activities (raids) incoming I do expect a new mechanic that will allow more role diversification to take place. There will be a more pronounced swing to a healer and tank or mechanic that will allow this to be viable. In a few months time things will look a little different.

They did not say raids are coming or even that 10 man content is definitely coming..I think all they said was hat they wouldn’t rule it out.

With that said, the GAME..the CODE of the game is designed so there are no pure tank or pure healy roles. Youll have the same nonsense now, where people think they can tank and go down easily.

It will still be a 10 man dodge fest like it is now…

Servanin.5021:

cesmode.4257:

Suddenflame.2601:

My warrior i built, Healing power/ Toughness/ vit/ power in mind (using my jewerly and armour). The goal of my warrior is to draw the hate of the enemy and make it focus on me while my ally takes it down. I also do a fair amount of a damage. Im tanky but not a full fledged tank in the regards that i just dont stand there and take it. I move around the enemy and ensure some of its attacks miss. I also use a shield to block potentially deadly attacks.

And how do you make the mob hit you, when a thief with a backstab/crit build is tripling/quadrupling your DPS, since you are focusing on “tanking”. I guarantee your dps is no where near that of a glass cannon thief, or elementalist.

Unlikely. If you have 50% crit chance, and 200% crit damage, thats 50% more damage. Significant? Yes. Quadruple? Not even close.

Not to mention the only way that a greatsword warrior could sit there doing that is if someone else had aggro and didn’t move (tank) in the first place, otherwise they would have to stop hundred blades prematurely.

The backstab thief would end up botching some backstabs and CnD’s due to the mob’s erratic movement.

Erradic movement…say…because he switches his focus to someone else other than the would be tank?

Surbrus.6942:

DreamyAbaddon.3265:

There are NO BABYSITTERS to Heal you, or Take Hits for you. You have to be on the MOVE+DODGE and contribute in Control/Support and Damage!!

I always found it pretty hilarious when guildies would say that the Vine boss in TA was a joke. The moment I screw up and my Guardian goes down for the count, or I need to step out of combat for some out of combat healing (due to all defensive cool downs being off), all the glass cannons in the party instantly die mere moments after I do.

To be fair, after seeing that happen a couple times, my party would listen to me whenever I said I was in trouble in that fight, and the spider boss.

Also, without body-blocking projectiles heading for our ranged glass cannons, some sections of the dungeons can also be a bit more of a pain rallying party members more often than should be required.

cesmode.4257:

Sorry, but I highly doubt that you take most of the hits from the spider boss. Aggro management is nearly impossible in this game since there arent any aggro modifiers or aggro specific abilities. Not to mention, I dont think its a matter of highest dps = aggro. I remember an Anet post saying the system takes into account dps, armor type, and range.

The spider boss moves all over. Ive never seen someone keep him still for more than a few seconds.

Many bosses and other dungeon enemies prioritize Guardians, or people wielding shields. The only time that Spider boss was not directing all attacks my way (when on my Guardian) was when a Shield wielding warrior guildie was in the party, then the boss seemed to randomly switch between us.

This is very evident when you position yourself on the opposite side of the Spider that your party is attacking from. They don’t receive any of the AoE attacks from the boss.

And then the spider comes walking RIGHT for me. I still do not think this is true..I mean its psosible that they can prioritize if you have a shield, just like they would your armor type…however, I still get targeted often enough as a thief.

I cannot rely on YOU , being “tank specced”, to keep him stationary so I can sit at range and pew/pew with shortbow and grab a cup of coffee. The boss moves, hits that ele over there, spits bad floor down..and then comes and tickles me pink in the corner.

DreamyAbaddon.3265:

cesmode.4257:

I keep reading threads on “is this tanking build viable?” , “is this healing build viable?”

I run dungeons and when I see someone try to tank, after a few seconds the boss either locks on someone else or rofl stomps the would-be tank. After all of your cooldowns are wasted staying alive, are you really helping the group?

I know people can try to steer themselves in the direction of tank/heals, but do true tanks and healers exist? Do you think that by being a complete support build / heal build you are 100% helping the group? Shouldn’t you have some offensive capabilities and not just focus on your support cooldowns?

I grow weary of people saying they are a tank, because this game isn’t meant to have tanks.
I also understand that some fights prefer ranged, but when someone tells me to go ranged all the time on my thief, I get annoyed…the game isn’t meant for all ranged weapons. Shouldn’t I be able to run the dungeon the way I want, if I play it correctly?

I 100% Agree and feel your pain man!
I’m getting annoyed with people who want to main tank or main heal in GW2
They dont understand that this combat system has no Holy Trinity!

GW2 Combat system is based off:
Damage/Control/Support.

Every Class must learn to deal “Damage” while mentaining “Control” and being able to “Support” themselves to be self-effeciant.

In a 5 man dungoen, everyone must coordinate “Control & Support” while contributing in “Damage” to successfully overcome a challenging Dungoen.

There are NO BABYSITTERS to Heal you, or Take Hits for you. You have to be on the MOVE+DODGE and contribute in Control/Support and Damage!!

Dont be upset about it though. It’s always best to help and teach new players what you know so they can improve with their skills so you can run better with them for future contents. Dont expect people to know GW2’s combat mechanics. people are used to MMORPGs with Tank/Healer/DPS roles so that is all what they can think about..

This style of combat system is new to the genre.

Agreed. 100%. I think that your main objective is to stay alive, but keep up DPS as well. Damage/Control/Support. This does not mean Damage/Tank/Healer. You wont be able to hold aggro effectively. You wont be able to keep the ’ kitten alive that stand in bad floor. Damage/Control/Support…with Control and Support dishing out their fair share of DPS.

People complain about glass cannons(which my thief is not specced as), but I am whining about people that cant spit out any respectable dps…boss fights taking forever. And we would survive the fight, just as quickly, if people put out more dps.

Namu.5712:

People make support roles because dead dps means no dps.

Don’t know how much time I spend in runs rezing glass cannon pure dps people…. warriors and thieves are especially known for this crap….. ya sure they hit for alot but as soon as they miss a dodge and get hit its GG now the group is kittened trying to res you.

While tank and heal builds aren’t used in the traditional sense they are still needed to support the group, doesn’t mean they can’t dps at the same time.

Well, I am in a downed state as much as the next guy, but that doesnt mean I am standing in the fire like a noob, or I am specced as glass cannon. I work in survivability into my traits.

Suddenflame.2601:

My warrior i built, Healing power/ Toughness/ vit/ power in mind (using my jewerly and armour). The goal of my warrior is to draw the hate of the enemy and make it focus on me while my ally takes it down. I also do a fair amount of a damage. Im tanky but not a full fledged tank in the regards that i just dont stand there and take it. I move around the enemy and ensure some of its attacks miss. I also use a shield to block potentially deadly attacks.

And how do you make the mob hit you, when a thief with a backstab/crit build is tripling/quadrupling your DPS, since you are focusing on “tanking”. I guarantee your dps is no where near that of a glass cannon thief, or elementalist.

AW Lore.5682:

my guild group and i had been doing AC for a while, and we had gotten pretty good at it, then during one of the runs we had a missing fifth, so we took a random pug who was an ele and claimed to be a “healer ele”, who focused only on just…using water ele spells.

that run felt like it was just a 4 man run, me and another guildie kept whispering each other, and we both agreed that we did not felt at all that the “healer ele” contributed much to the team, if at all.

its an anectodal experience and thus your mileage can vary, but thats how i felt having a “healer” in our team, and would rather have a random balanced or different

I think its OK that he uses water spells to throw out SOME dps and heal simultaneously. It is how I plan to play my ele when I level it. But builds where you purely try to do ONE thing like tank or heal..sometimes are a detriment unless you are dpsing at the same time.

If people disapprove of an elementalist running with water attunment, why is it in the game?

Surbrus.6942:

Just because there is no Holy Trinity doesn’t mean that specialized roles are useless.

As for tanking… have you ever been in Twilight Arbour Explorable? When I go in there with my Guardian I pretty much take all the attacks from the Vine and the Spider boss, and if I go down, and don’t rally quickly, there is a very real risk of a wipe that otherwise did not exist.

Also, as a Hammer/Staff Guardian using Altruistic Healing (poorly named trait, as it encourages you to be greedy with your buffs), there is a great amount of damage mitigation provided, especially when I am able to keep the attention of enemies, or body-block projectiles that are heading to my allies.

Note: my Guardian build also puts out a lot of damage, so its not like I am just a one dimensional Guardian.

Sorry, but I highly doubt that you take most of the hits from the spider boss. Aggro management is nearly impossible in this game since there arent any aggro modifiers or aggro specific abilities. Not to mention, I dont think its a matter of highest dps = aggro. I remember an Anet post saying the system takes into account dps, armor type, and range.

The spider boss moves all over. Ive never seen someone keep him still for more than a few seconds.

karma.8763:

the only one that can actually be sorta helpful is the healer role, but then even the healer would be hurting the party, because thats 1 less person taking the bosses health down. people tanking and healing are bootable offenses imo, run with a guild for this and dont waste my time.

My thoughts exactly. I love having a support guardian in there or something, but its less dps…

I keep reading threads on “is this tanking build viable?” , “is this healing build viable?”

I run dungeons and when I see someone try to tank, after a few seconds the boss either locks on someone else or rofl stomps the would-be tank. After all of your cooldowns are wasted staying alive, are you really helping the group?

I know people can try to steer themselves in the direction of tank/heals, but do true tanks and healers exist? Do you think that by being a complete support build / heal build you are 100% helping the group? Shouldn’t you have some offensive capabilities and not just focus on your support cooldowns?

I grow weary of people saying they are a tank, because this game isn’t meant to have tanks.
I also understand that some fights prefer ranged, but when someone tells me to go ranged all the time on my thief, I get annoyed…the game isn’t meant for all ranged weapons. Shouldn’t I be able to run the dungeon the way I want, if I play it correctly?

Hi,
Are axe/axe builds “decent” in explorable? Its the only weapon set that I truly like. I’ll probably end up equipping a rifle or something for those ranged ocassions, but for the most part I want to stick with axe/axe.

I know it provides little utility to the group, but considering the game design if these types of non-utility/non-support builds were not meant to run dungeons, why are they in the game?

I am currently set up to regen HP based on adrenalin and unused signets…loving it.

FYI.
There are no tanks. There are no healers. Theres only glass cannon DPS, people with more survivability, and people with a bit more support. If I run a dungeon with someone that says hes a tank, I watch him get pounded senselessly after a few seconds.

If someone IS able to stand there and be a meatshield for 5 minutes, holding aggro and all, I urge arenanet to nerf the hell out of that class.

This should not be allowed in the game, however, I do not think any character has the ability to hold aggro and not get annihilated after 10 or 15 seconds.

Even though for GW2 I am whole-heartedly against increasing the level cap, I understand that they have alluded to the fact that they might in the future.

I think as far as expansions go:
There should be small-mini expansions where the cap doesnt increase but there is a boat load of content. Lets face it, the lost shores event was riddled up to be compared to an expansion. One small island, a few DEs, a one time event, new dungeon, and gear that only a small portion of the playerbase will get before the next step in the treadmill. Small mini expansions…no increase in cap. Then release full expansions, where the cap does increase. I think our current gear should scale with us as we level.

Gear treadmill at its finest there. I absolutely hated transition periods between expansions in WoW where I have my awsome armor from many hours of raiding. Then in a few hours of the new xpac, its replaced by greens and crummy gear. Please do do this to us. Increase the cap if you want, but also give us some way to bump up our rare/exotic/ascended gear up to the new cap as well. And dont make it an insane grind to do so…like 50 globs of ecto, 250 tier 7 fine items, etc. Thats stupid. A small price of some sort. We worked hard for these items especially the people that obtain full ascended. Id go insane if my ascended, or even exotics, were suddenly replaced by crappy greens or blues.

Hi,
So I was running a fractal this morning, and we got the map where you have to defeat the ice elemental to stop the blizzard. After that fight, you go through the forest, and it becomes nearly pitch black. Only the sky and your character are slightly illuminated. You can hardly see where youre going.

I think an entire lvl 80 zone like that would be awesome. For whatever reasons Arenanet could muster up, the nightsky covers the zone(never daylight). Its snowy, semi-desolate. Not too many creatures or mobs walking around, however, there are camps of mobs. You’ll need a torch(the kind you can pick up from the ground) to illuminate a small area around you to help you get around.

This would be awesome.

Edit: Pretty much make it exactly like the forest that you traverse through after defeating that ice elemental. Not too many mobs, a torch would definately help. No sunlight ever.

Hi,
I recently took a week or two off of GW2 to clear my head with all of the Ascended gear nonsense. I might be coming back soon. Wondering if there is a guild out there that suits my needs. Looking for a very small, close, tight knit group of people that enjoy all that the game has to offer. Honestly, what I would love is to find a group of 3 or 4 people to run around Tyria completing DE’s together, or to get a group for a dungeon run or fractal. However, I understand that such a set up would be extremely rare to find. My main is an 80 thief. I also have an 80 Necro and Guardian. I am currently leveling a warrior. I am currently on Stormbluff Isle, and would prefer to stay there, however may consider a transfer if the situation is right.

My main focuses are/would be:
-Completing the CoF set on my thief(already have the TA)
-Leveling alts(I plan on leveling one of each class)
-Running dungeons
-Running fractals CASUALLY. I absolutely love fractals, but I hate the fractal leveling system, and I dont want to log in one day to see that the rest of the guild is 5 levels ahead. If we ran fractals casually and on a regular basis, I would not have any problem running lower level ones to help guildees out. I just want to experience the content!
-Leveling more alts :P
-Eventually grind out some legendaries for one or two of my characters.
-Get into some small WvW skirmishes
-Maybe dabble into sPVP. I tried it in beta and to my surprise I enjoyed it.

I am on every day, various hours but mostly after 7:30est. I want to play this game casually and not feel obligated to do any piece of content in fear that the “guild” or the game is passing me by. I am very laid back, I can have a dirty sense of humor, but if the guild is toned down on that sense, so will I. There are a lot of things I can say to explain how I would like my Gw2 experience to be, but Id rather just play

Send me a PM with some info on your guild if you think I would be a good fit with your group. I am kind of picky when it comes to this sort of thing, so if I dont respond in a day or so, do not be offended. However, I check these forums many times per day.

Thanks!

I completely agree, 200%. Its the only thing preventing me from signing in right now. Ive made my peace with ascended gear. I asked Chris Whitehead in the AMA on monday about this myself, to which he responded. He completely agreed when I said it fragments the community and they are working on options. One of which is levels 1-5 are grouped in a tier, 6-10, etc. But this has ramifications on reward and difficulty.

All I want to do is run the fractals and have it get harder. To be honest, until I cannot go any further, I dont care about ascended right now.

Im sure this has been done but I’ll do it again.

Yakkington’s Ring(80 ascended) Opal Oricalchum Ring of the Explorer
50 Power 48 Power
50 Precision 48 Precision
10% Magic Find 3% Magic Find
18 Power 4% Magic Find(upgrade slot)
18 Precision 15 Precision(upgrade slot)
15 Power(upgrade slot)
Comes to:
68 Power 63 Power
68 Precision 63 Precision
10% Magic Find 7% Magic Find

Take one stat: 63 power / 68 Power, .92% . This means that the exotic is 92% as powerful as the ascended, leaving 8%..The ascended is 8% more powerful.

Compound that, eventually, against every item, if the same statistical difference holds true for everything. You are saying this is not big? I cant think off the top of my head how many slots there are, say there are 10(I know theres more). 10 slots * 5 stat points = 50 more stat points in any given category. Significant. Yes. Otherwise, why did you upgrade from Masterwork/Rare to exotic in the first place? Because Exotic is the best and you want to stay on top.

Now, in the AMA Chris said it was his intention to release ascended globally, but for whatever reason it didnt make it in. I had asked why was it rushed out the door when Arenanet is all about “when its ready”. His reply “A bad call”. Ok, I can understand that, sure. He also stated that ascended gear was always going to be in the game. How come this wasnt announced at launch or pre release or in beta? I bet if we would have known about ascended gear at launch, none of this would be happening right now. We would have considered ascended gear to be top dog from scratch and might not have wasted all the time getting exotics. So I actually question his truthfulness here.

Edit: Sorry about format. The post didnt come out the way it should have.

1:36 – Colin Johansen – We just dont want to make a game where people grind. How do you get ascended gear?

2:17 <I dont know her name> – We dont want to make the same MMO everyone else is making. What is item progression, at any degree?

“GW2 doesn’t fall into the traps of traditional MMORPGs. It doesn’t suck your life away and force you onto a grinding treadmill; it doesn’t make you spend hours preparing to have fun rather than just having fun” – Going after ascended gear is a grinding treadmill. Rather, the upgrades/and upgraded infusion slots over time(making the previous infusion slot obsolete) is a grinding treadmill). Ofcourse no MMO forces you onto a treadmill. I wish people would stop spouting that. “Dont run FoTM and dont get ascended gear. Its that simple, if you dont want to be a part of it” You are almost validating every arguement that is against ascended gear. If you say “Dont go after ascended gear, noone is forcing you”, thats kind of covering up the fact that you think it is a treadmill. No MMO is going to force you to grind out the best gear or items. Of course. WoW is the same way, Rift is the same way. Nothing new. But if you want to stay mildly competitive you must.

I found this in 5 minutes. Re-read carefully.

I am leaning toward it.

Banquetto.9521:

Stick to your plan of levelling alts, and then park them when they hit 80.

I’ve hardly played my main at all since they switched on the endgame treadmill, but I’m having a fantastic time playing a Charr engineer alt. Nothing has changed for levelling characters, it’s still as fun as ever.

Good to gear. Are you finding that there are enough players from zone to zone? And have you tried running some of the “older” dungeons? What server?

Karizee.8076:

Just go play any other MMORPG and you’ll come running back, arms outstretched, begging for forgiveness like a bad boyfriend that dissed his best girl.

I already have/am. Problem is, I am actually enjoying it too haha. I think, fundamentally, GW2 is far superior game and the best MMO on the market.

As stated in the original post, I can/would love to continue playing the game as I was, very casually. And then get to FoTM a few months down the road. I just hope there are players still running low level fractals at that time, because I can definately see FoTM being a good endgame. I just want to be able to experience it on my own time when I am ready.

Sykotik.3480:

Looks to the left
Looks to the right
Looks behind me

Nope, I don’t see anyone that cares if you play again. One less entitlement-happy person that doesn’t want to play because he didn’t get everything he wanted.

Good bye

Guess you only read the title. Because if you read the post, youll see that nowhere in the post do I mention that I am upset with a grind. I don’t mind grinding for gear, and Ive made my peace with Ascended gear. You either didnt read the post, or have comprehension issues.

Wow, I think this thread is going to generate some mixed reactions from people that are willing to throw their 2 cents into the pot and try to convince me to log in tonight and play, and from the people that will say “If you need convincing, dont play, there is no sub”.

My basis for playing Guild Wars 2 was as follows:
-No stat gear grind
-No need to rush to max level
-Aesthetic gear grind
-All content stays relevant(low level areas, mid level areas, dungeons, etc)
-Level every class to 80, pick two or three to grind out armor sets and legendaries.
-Grind out legendaries as ultimate “end game”. This includes all the pre-reqs of map completions, materals gathering, skill point farming, kharma farming, etc.

As you can see, I am a PVE player at heart and this is what I wanted to do. I was working on my fourth lvl 80, and had plans of leveling the engineer and elementalist over winter break from work. While leveling, while running around Orr or running dungeons, I never cared that my gear might not have been fantastic, or even stat-wise optimal for my build. I completed the TA exotic set and began working on CoF.

Then everything changed.

Since the Nov. 15 patch, for reasons I cannot explain, or even understand myself, I only felt the need to run FoTM. I could not and can not keep up with everyone in fractal levels. Eventually, it took 20-30 minutes to find a group, whereas other dungeons I used to be able to find a group in a few minutes. I love FoTM dungeon, but I do not want to feel the need to ONLY run this and nothing else.

You can see from the above where my ambitions were. And by a stroke of magic, something clicked in my head that I must follow the herd and grind FoTM until I drop. I was/am trying to shake this mentality, but when I see half as many dungeon groups forming for other dungeons, and see some zones becoming more empty, it only re-enforces this behavior. I could look for other dungeon groups, and continue leveling alts. But I also fear that I may be running around empy zones, in which it will become depressing because the game as I knew it would have changed. I feel that I should only be running FoTM, because that dungeon and that gear is all that is relevant. The dungeon is great, but I have neglected the rest of the game and I am trying to shake this. Its a "I dont want to miss out on FoTM and eventually watch the “FoTM level train” pass me by." If I continued on the path I was going, and came back to FoTM after I grinded my dungeon sets, and possibly even a legendary, my only fear is that I will have noone to run the low level fractals with because I DO want to run FoTM and I definately enjoy the dungeon.

Convince me and “teach me” to play the game that we all once played.

Yes,
Thanks buddy.

Want to be my friend? I have none left in Gw2