Guild Wars 2

Colin: In answering your question about lore snd story into the dungeon/fractals without cutscreens and bothering people that don’t want to wait for those who want to hear the story…..

I recently played an event/patch in a game called Warframe. I know nothing about the lore of that game. But I was completing the event and throughout the entire event, audio and animated avatars were playing and it gave a great idea of what the story is behind the event. I went from not knowing ANYTHING at all, to knowing that Im helping to free some guy from a prison that his father enslaved him in. There was a nice bickering back and forth between father and son.

In the short 10-15 minutes of running the event, I learned much. This was all done without bothering people with cut scenes. You can pay attention to the audio while completing the mission if you cared. If you didn’t care, just ignore it and continue playing.

So applying to fractals: While you are completing the fractal, you can have little audio bits playing that tell a story via a narrative or dialogue. Maybe theres one or two NPCs that are arguing back and forth and you can get an idea what the fractal is about.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Romo.3709:

How about Story Mode fractals, where you could pick a fractal you want to experience. Then upon arriving to said fractal we could experience the story behind thus level hence learning more about the history and idea behind the design of each and every fractal. To make it actually rewarding we could have a achievement system in place for each level, so everyone would play it at least once. And maybe a reward at the end (30s should be sufficient as it would be much shorter than a regular dungeon story mode) and some experience. It would also help new players get a hang of fractals a bit more understanding the layout and mechanics behind every level.

We could do something like this, but when ends up happening is the work involved ends up being a lot of additional work to basically build something people play one or two times and then are done with it. In that time, we could have probably half built another real fractal, which I think probably would be better for the game over-all. Maybe the real question would be -> How do we try and get across better lore and stories with the current fractal system?

No offense, but this logic holds true for the explorable mode dungeons. People pick one or two paths and run those.

There is A LOT of wasted content in the game, dungeons and in the open world.

PattyCakeChamp.5268:

Why do people insist on posting these topics still? Anet has already begun to address the issue with ascended/ vertical progression directly with a CDI. Regardless of what your views on it are, its not providing constructive criticism.

They haven’t addressed anything. Giving us a forum/Official Anet post to talk about our feelings and suggestions on different topics does not mean anything. It doesnt mean they are or have or will address these topics. Chris Whiteside says ad nausem that the CDI drives conversations in the office and the CDIs are already having an impact.

I do not see this. I still see lots of achievements per living story update to acquire. I still see only one viable method of obtaining Ascended gear. Other than the one or two Living Story zones of the week, I still see a DEAD world. I don’t see much that has been a direct result of the CDI discussions.

Edit: Also, everyone should be aware that most things we talk about in the CDI and thus arenanet agrees with will take months upon months until we see them on live servers.

Id say its been about 1-2 months since the ascended gear discussion. In that discussion, the obvious elephant in the room was that we wanted more ways to acquire ascended gear. Arenanet said “wow thats a great idea, we didnt know that. Thanks cdi!”. So, 1-2 months have passed. And another 2+ months will pass. Until I am able to acquire an ascended gear piece via closing Grenths temple, for example(and not with a precursors drop rate %), they have not listened to our pleas.

Mastruq.2463:

Proof that GW2 is vertical profession would be that you start at level 1 and have to level up to access the higher level, more dangerous areas of the game. So yea, it’s obviously vertical progression. Duh?

(iirc GW1 had like 20 levels of v.prog too, and it was a pain to get enough stuff for some armor – I cant specify because I didnt do it, too grindy!). So yea that last part is a bit trollish, sue me.

This makes no sense to me. WoW is a verticle progression game, I can access all zones at level 1 if I wanted to much like you can in GW2. So no, this isn’t defining VP.

Verticle Progression looks at the statistical increase of gear power over time.

The atlas is a good start and a good step in the right direction.

Some feedback:
How do I see all of the story from start to finish(from start, meaning the first LS patch with the refugees, etc)? Are there no individual movie clips about those events or does the “our story so far” clip cover it? If so, that is one black mark on your effort with this. Could have and should have made some movies for the previous patches if you cared about this feature.

I agree with some people that this should be in game, and should be an activity in game to explore the world and find these pieces of information and storm them in a GUI.

Overall, not bad…

It isnt said what she is drilling..its another silly cliff hanger that we have to wait 2+ weeks to get the answer to.

This is one of the PRIME reasons that living story just won’t work…Tell a few bits of the story, and leave the rest to imagination. Many unanswered questions. Cliff hangers are good, but not every two weeks for every single LS update. Thats bad story telling. The best authors and writers in history do not use cliff hangers repeatedly. These little cliff hangers leave everything disjointed.

Conski Deshan.2057:

@cesmode, The rings drop from 10 on very frequently, which allows enough AR to get to 20, by then you can have obtained the back piece and infused rings now drop, this provides enough AR to 30, from this on ascended weapons drop which provide AR, after 30 you may need to grab other gear but you’re not expected to be able to gain all the gear from one activity, verity being required to progress is nice.

It actually seems quite balanced already on the ascended gain within the activity.

-The rings drop frequently yes…
-Infused rings come after, yes, although to be honest I only have had 5 or 6 of these drop.
-Back piece, sure. Maybe. But in order to upgrade that to infused I need to hop over to the forge and drop 250 scales and/or ectos…Why?
-At levels 30+ I haven’t seen a drop and I do not hear success stories from other people in 30+ that have received many, if any, ascended drops.

The last part of your paragraph is where I think you are 100% wrong:
“but you’re not expected to be able to gain all the gear from one activity, "

Why not? Missing the point I was getting at. Ascended gear is ONLY required in fractals. It makes sense to make all gear obtainable through fractals, with a reasonable amount of effort. Why is it unreasonable to ask that all ascended items (trinkets, weapons, gear) be available through the activity they are DESIGNED for? And not at precursor drop chance either.

TankinJankins.3276:

Kaiyanwan.8521:

How about we have now ascended gear you have to grind for weeks for tiny stat boosts.

PvE is more or less the same with some more zerg.

PvP is the same old same old.

So, the game’s PvE is still nonexistant, and the PvP still unbalanced?

There is something called living story that is updated every 2 weeks with a fresh set of new achievements to grind out via zerg content. The content itself is shally and vastly unappealing to many, although theres a lot of people that for whatever reason think it is quality. All I see are 10-15 achievements every week to grind out in one or two zones that arenanet designates. I.E. We are funneled like cattle into these zones and out of the open world in order to acquire more achievement points(since they matter to people now) and a shiny backpiece or something.

Personally, Id much rather arenanet abandon the living story and focus on making all zones appealing to play in at any time. No matter the server I am on, or guesting on, most zones are empty. Someone that would quote me here and say “well not on my server”..is just naive.

Honestly, Fractals are one of the better areas of the game. Im not sure, at least for me, that much change is needed. However, to contribute to the discussion:

Proposal Overview
Make ascended weapons and all ascended items be available at any fractal level above 10 with a reasonable drop chance.

Goal of Proposal
To give players who participate in the only content where ascended gear is REQUIRED the opportunity to obtain this gear through playing that content, making it rewarding to continue playing.

Proposal Functionality
Its no secret that the players want more ways to acquire ascended gear. The fact that barely anything ascended is obtained through fractals is insane, since fractals are the only area of the game where ascended is required. Add in all of the current fractal gear and weapons as drop chances from boss chests and the chest at the end of the run.
For example: an ascended chest piece could drop off the frozen worm boss in the frozen fractal(forgot the name). An ascended weapon could drop off the last boss. This is all similar to how ascended rings currently drop.

We also need to make sure the drop chances are realistic. Making the chances as rare as a precursor drop or a black lion key drop does not make this work.

Associated Risks
Too many players would acquire ascended gear too quickly. This could also impact the economy as players would rely on crafting and the Trading Post less, however this is also a positive since not everyone enjoys crafting or grinding for materials.

Summary All ascended weapons and gear are in the game. The fact that these items are not available via the content they are intended for is just silly. I do not understand this and I do not understand the reasoning why the ascended items that were rolled out slowly over the last year were not included in the loot tables in Fractals. Ascended gear, apparently, is only required in fractals. Why not make them available in fractals? I do not mean resources or materials…I mean the exact piece. Example: Zojja’s Claymore would drop off a best chest or something. We then can select the stats we want.

This idea would serve both improving our desire as players to run fractals, as well as address a key concern about ascended gear acquisition which was brought up ad nausem in the ascended gear discussion.

Make all current items available…do not slowly introduce one or two at a time. All.

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Flissy.4093:

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Warrior by a mile. They have been the most played class the last time we got numbers and they only got stronger. No reason to play anything else beside a warrior, unless you get bored.

Oh look, another typical player who thinks Warrior is the best at anything.

Warriors are only useful until both Banner of Discipline and Strength are taken. After that, either pick up more reflections, or a higher damage profession.

But @OP, Warrior is the most used class for the wrong belief they are the best damage (they are not, Thief, Mesmer, Ele and even Guardian are all higher in PvE).

The titel of thread: “PVE most used class”

Which is warrior. Which is the best PVE profession. Which is why you have so many of them. Which is why I posted it.

Let’s look what a base warrior offers:

Highest HP
Highest toughness
Highest armor
Highest mobility
Highest damage
Highest condition removal
Highest weapon swap time
Highest healing without even healing

All at the same time.

It is hard to fail in PvE as a warrior.

Id have to agree with this guy on this one. Greatsword warrior > any other class in terms of burst and sustained dps.

Heavy armor.
Good mobility/survivability
Boon potential.

Id think warrior is the most OP and over played class in the game.

Edit: I play a thief and mesmer as mains…

Roxhemar.6039:

Shouldn’t he be saving Lions Arch and stealing our glory?

Didnt you hear? Arenanet abandoned personal story in favor of living story. They dont care.

I would prefer all major cities(left standing) have all the conveniences that LA had.

Putting all of that behind a paygate such as the airship is just shady business practices. Didn’t think arenanet had it in them.

Nike.2631:

cesmode.4257:

While I’d agree that talking about format and structure detracts from the casual nature of the effort…

I think it borders on psychotic break with reality to think more than a fraction of the CDI contributors will give the things being put forward here any thought whatsoever before pressing ‘reply’, and that the people who are reading it are being unnecessarily stressed out by it . In essence we’re discouraging those people most interested in contributing in an orderly fashion.

…people need to realize that writing books and placing them in subsequent posts(multiple posts/pages), is not necessarily healthy for the discussion. I for one do not have the time to read those wall of texts and I cringe to believe that folks like Mr Whiteside have to read them in order to stay current.

People need to learn the art of brevity. It will serve well in many areas of your life, not just in this CDI discussion.

Two or three well written paragraphs(not 10 sentences each) is not too much to ask in order to convey a thought.

I agree with you about these goals in all aspects… except for the implementation being attempted here . Its an interesting attempt, but I think there’s exactly 0% chance we won’t be trying to rework this in the next CDI Evolution thread. This plan will not survive contact with it’s friends, much less the enemy .

Im not sure I understand the last sentence.

Nike.2631:

mercury ranique.2170:

In CDI threads it is not allowed to make the same suggestion twice (so if someone else mentioned it, dont mention it again)

Demanding that everyone have read and compared every post to their own position before making their proposal is simply not a reasonable expectation.

I SERIOUSLY think we’re losing our grip on the casual nature of most CDI contributions & participants with just about everything said in this thread from the first post on.

More tips; less rules~

“Reading the entire thread will give you an advantage in presenting ideas that are likely to interest or resonate with the Developer hosting the thread, but is not expected or required. Being current will also help you sound awesome when discussing ideas with your peers .”

While Id agree that talking about format and structure detracts from the casual nature of the effort, people need to realize that writing books and placing them in subsequent posts(multiple posts/pages), is not necessarily healthy for the discussion. I for one do not have the time to read those wall of texts and I cringe to believe that folks like Mr Whiteside have to read them in order to stay current.

People need to learn the art of brevity. It will serve well in many areas of your life, not just in this CDI discussion.

Two or three well written paragraphs(not 10 sentences each) is not too much to ask in order to convey a thought.

@Seven Star Stalker: Could you TLDR that for me?

Smooth Penguin.5294:

You don’t need Ascended armor. The stat increase over Exotics is minor. So if you’ve given up on getting these, you can still play the game as normal.

You can say the same thing in an MMO like WoW. Dont need tier raiding gear.

Why is ascended gear so different?

Seven Star Stalker.1740:

Ascended food.

I really just want my Obsidian Shard Salad with Bloodstone dust dressing on top, garnished with a pinch of Dragonite salt.

Haha. Kudos to you.

With some empyreal cider please!

lordkrall.7241:

cesmode.4257:

Stop following me. =)

Link me to where they said after LS season 1, and I’ll concede. Until then, you pulled that out of your kitten . I believe they said it simply wasn’t ready for end of 2013.

Here:

Due to the size and scope of the final four story releases in season one, the next round of major features will be bundled together into a large “feature only” release that will come after the first season of the Living World 2014 has finished.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/living-world-2013-the-year-in-review/

Conceded. I stand corrected.

Wish they would prioritize better. People have been asking for that nearly since launch. People have been asking for Cantha, for more zones, more skills, more dungeons since launch.

I don’t recall anyone asking for living story. While there are different teams that work on different things, I feel all their resources are tied up in LS. Otherwise, they would have people making new dungeons(other than the fractals), which we have not received. Since these areas are going largely untouched, and LS is pushing forward full steam, I can only conclude that LS is detracting from other parts of the game LIKE the scavenger hunt.

Seras.5702:

cesmode.4257:

1. Funnel us all into one or two areas — Check Nobody is being funneled. The event occurs in LA. Choose to take part or don’t. -- Funneled. Still funneled. LS content is one area. You ARE being herded.

2. Create content that fosters zergs — Check (although to get the highest rewards you have to split up, but it is not required and I still see a lot of zerging). The major complaint about Scarlet’s Invasions were that nobody completed it intelligently after a while because higher rewards cam from farming champs rather than winning. Anet responds with an event designed to give higher rewards for winning. Good planning on their part —Maybe if youre not caught in overflow, which is unlikely.

3. Create content that only requires auto attack and minimal brain activity — Check That’s your choice how to play. You can autoattack all you want. I’m going to help the whole zone win the event. -- Still no need. Wasting finger energy reaching for the # 3 or 4 key. Everyone can auto attack and we win. Theres no NEED to buff people. Do you really think that is helping?

4. Inject the same monsters into the content — Check Well it makes sense doesn’kitten Scarlet creates a large and varied army of krait, clockwork, aetherblades, nightmare court, dredge, and Flame Legion. That’s 6 factions, each with numerous types of enemies. Of course she’s going to use the army she spent the past year building. —And the same army we have destroyed time and time again. Same monsters, for a year. Nothing new. Boring. Yawn. BTW, how many minons does she have? She must have more monsters and minions in her army than all the orders, lionguard, and GW2 players combined.

5. Do not give the player much direction as to where to go when he/she logs in for the first time — Check Read your mail, check the upper-right of your UI. Talk to other players…it is an MMO after all. It’s really not that hard. Read the mail checked the UI. it said to find a camp director. I spent 15 minutes runnaround around Ganderran(where it spawned me) looking for this director. I had to ask in chat where to go, they said just wait for the even to start. Oh..Okay. Wish the ingame mail or UI would have told me “wait for the event”.

6. Tell the story abysmally — Check. Truth be told, there’s not much story to tell. What, did you need pages of lore and revelations? This is the culmination of the story…a massive attack on Lion’s Arch. We get a cinematic showing the beginning of the attack and we take part in the evacuation. What else needs to be told? Personal story told a story better than this living story ever did. Id much rather have something similar.

lordkrall.7241:

cesmode.4257:

No, for reals…yeah, two months past 2013 and no whispers about it. Its not like they weren’t ready to deploy it. They were not even close to the mark.

Or maybe they simply overestimated the playerbase and thought that we would understand that “no features until after LS Season 1” means no Precursor crafting until after LS Season 1?

Stop following me. =)

Edit: I must have been on my 2 month break when they announced it after LS season 1. My mistake.

Still, doesn’t change the fact that they were not even close with end of 2013.

Martrim.1078:

yes it does give your stats a boost, but you don’t NEED it to do any content.
Therefor it is completly optional

ps: U used a warrior as an example……..u can be in Masterworks and still be fine in any of the end game content using that class.

Sigh.

You also don’t need to have raid/tier gear in order to raid in WoW either, yet people on this forum loathe the WoW raiding/gear treadmill stuff.

Why do people think that Arenanet’s version of a treadmill is differen’t than WoW? Many that play GW2 loathe the WoW treadmill and say GW2 is nothing like it. But it is the same.

You don’t need Ascended gear to do any content other than high level fracta.s
You don’t need raid/tier gear to do any content other than the highest raid tier.

It might take you 2-3 months to be fully decked in ascended gear(provided you aren’t playing 24/7)
It takes you two or three months to be fully decked in a raid tier.

What is so different? Subtle differences, but I see more similarities than differences. Stop being naive people…

Its the same system as the WoW treadmill, masked differently.

Oh, you didnt hear? No scavenger hunt. Get your ascended gear instead.

No, for reals…yeah, two months past 2013 and no whispers about it. Its not like they weren’t ready to deploy it. They were not even close to the mark.

lordkrall.7241:

cesmode.4257:

Yes I am bitter. I will be bitter until they give us incentive to play the way we want to play(which is what they said we could do) and be rewarded for it as much as we would be if we grinded out zerg LS content. I want to log into Timberline Falls and just play DEs and get the same rewards as if I were grinding out the LS zergy content. Until that day where I can play how I want to play and not feel like Im missing out on resources and reward, I will be bitter.

So you will basically be bitter until you can stand around talking in [insert town here] and get Legendaries, full Ascended gear and all achievements? Because that is what you are saying.
Some people want to play the game like that, and by your logical they should get the same rewards as those that actually play all parts of the game.

I guess reading is not one of your strong points.

I do not want to sit around in a town and be rewarded for it. I never said that. Don’t know where you got that.

I want to play the dynamic events that launched with the game. In any zone I want. I want to do this without feeling like Im missing out on the “flavor of the week” grinding spot. I don’t want to feel obligated to move to the “funnel/zerg zone” in order to acquire materials. Grinding in these zerg zones that the LS creates would force me out of what I want to do in order to acquire any wealth.

I want to go on record and say that I suggested limiting word counts or having some sort of formal structure during the first CDI overview discussion(after the talk about living story)…Many folks shot me down saying that it was a dumb idea, that they cannot put their thoughts into a structured format or that they should not be limited to word count.

I still think we should be limited to word count. If you say that you will not enforce a wordcount, people will continue to post pages and pages of ideas making it insanely difficult for YOU to keep up with (as well as the rest of us). And if there were a word count restriction, there should also be a restriction on the number of subsequent posts…so that Player A reaches limit in post # 1..he posts, and continues with post #2 until he reaches wordcount, etc.

You guys (the players) really can be concise. Its not difficult. In the corporate world it pays to be concise. No one reads what you wrote if it is pages long.

Probably something circling around living story, like the ability to replay things you have missed. This would be good, but still…its just another step toward living story and another step away from things like dungeons, open world PVE, etc.

Yes I am bitter. I will be bitter until they give us incentive to play the way we want to play(which is what they said we could do) and be rewarded for it as much as we would be if we grinded out zerg LS content. I want to log into Timberline Falls and just play DEs and get the same rewards as if I were grinding out the LS zergy content. Until that day where I can play how I want to play and not feel like Im missing out on resources and reward, I will be bitter.

This whole patch was disappointing…
I logged in last night and played for the first time in two months. After seeing what transpired in the CDIs I’m astonished at how abysmal this patch is. If this is arenanet’s idea of fun and exciting, then there is no hope for the game.

Its the same thing as any other patch.

1. Funnel us all into one or two areas — Check
2. Create content that fosters zergs — Check (although to get the highest rewards you have to split up, but it is not required and I still see a lot of zerging).
3. Create content that only requires auto attack and minimal brain activity — Check
4. Inject the same monsters into the content — Check
5. Do not give the player much direction as to where to go when he/she logs in for the first time — Check
6. Tell the story abysmally — Check.

It is like this for every patch since Jubilee and Clockwork invasions. Mindless zerg content that requires no skill or coordination that happens in one or two zones or an instance. Horrible.

Arenanet is wasting their money on this idea of a 2 week living story. Just stop and and start developing real content like new zones, monsters, game systems, dungeons, skills(not a heal skill that has no impact on builds)…

The game is being torn down to make this living story work and its only working for a % of the people while the core pillars of the game are being left to rot. Its so sad…

First, I logged in saw a cinematic and got mail. Tool tip on my screen said find a director in a camp outside of LA. Well, Im in Ganderran(outside of LA), and I couldnt quite find a director. After asking in map chat what to do people said wait for the event. (so, lack of direction here for starters)

Event kicks off and we kill, we rescue, we kill some more.

What would I like with these updates? Actual improvements to the core pillars of this game:

-Open world PVE — all zones. Do not funnel us into one zone, or into one instance (lions arch has become an instance). Encourage us to play the game and complete dynamic events that launched with the game. Improve on the world bosses instead of giving them all HP and damage buffs. Tequatl is a start.

-Dungeons: — Any new perma dungeons aside from a few fractal additions and one path in TA? Any improvements to the actual ones? Have the boss mechanics changed? Only AC has been revamped, the rest are left to rot.

-WvW— WxP is a good start, seasons are a nice idea. Map was revamped. I agree with these changes. IMO, WvW is in a good place.

-sPvP— I don’t play it. But from what I hear, people think its the pits.

Overall: They need to balance out classes a bit better to encourage more build diversity and less zerker.

I want zones, dungeons, open world stuff that doesn’t foster zerging and funneling us into one or two areas. I want to play existing DEs that launched with the game in any random zone I want(and actually see other people doing them as well…I can do it on my own but any server I guest on I am alone doing this). I want personal story.

Real content, not this fluffy crap that has me wondering around for 20 minutes before I find out what to do..which is just mindlessly kill stuff that requires nothing but my #1 skill and minimal brain activity.

But its still much of the same.. zerg or not, you just run around killing stuff(or saving citizens).

Very bland.

Run around Lion’s Arch killing waves of baddies collecting stuff, earning achievements, etc?
Seems identical to clockwork invasion..just zerg around killing things.

Please tell me theres more to this lovely arc of the LS…

Dee Jay.2460:

I agree that the added content is lacking some real depth.

The Living Story stuff is nice and all, but ultimately superficial. The 4 core pillars of every-day GW2 game-play are still.

• Dungeons (incl. Fractals)
• PvE boss events
• sPvP
• WvW

And very little has truly changes about that.

Even when there are changes made, these changes often don’t account for much in the long-term. Look at WvW for example. It really isn’t much better now than it was at release.

Agreed about the 4 pillars.

-No new dungeons aside from fractals to which you need AR after a certain point hence the necessity of ascended gear if you want to much further than lvl 10.
-No new world bosses. No new events other than LS events and aside from the ninja addition of events they told no one about a year ago(I don’t remember hearing them say they are adding more). No new zones aside from Southsun which is largely abandoned.
-sPvP I cannot comment on.
-WvW got a nice change with the WxP system and the season(even though not needed). Other than that, its the same.

Burn through living story in a few hours, grind the open world zerg for a few more hours for coin and material, then back to the four pillars whicih are largely untouched.

I really feel that all of their time is vested into living story and the 2 week update.

Awsome post OP. +1.

By new attractions…zones (and reasons to go into), new dungeons, new world bosses, new events.

Yah, the question Ive been asking for a year and a half. Same events over and over. Theres a word for that: grind.

I thought my choices in the open world would impact the environment around me. Sadly, not true. The people of a town could care less if I were there 20 minutes ago and saved the town.

Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to impact the ebb and flow of events and circumstances in the little corner of the world that you are in.

Is this patch all about more open world zerging?

I hope not.

Thats sort of gameplay is so watered down.

Edit: I haven’t logged in since the patch

Just wait until Wildstar

Nike.2631:

Lion’s Arch is on fire.

That’s different.

Yes and its nice to see a change like that. Only took a year.

The change Im looking for is good substantial reason for everyone(or anyone PVE oriented) to play in the open world wherever they choose…not be funneled into one or two zones by the LS. Id want to log in one day and decide to play in Iron Marches and get rewarded nicely for it and be contributing to the world of Tyria or my server in some way, all while playing with random folks in the zone. Reality is: Any server I guest on has these zones empty, I get a measily 12k xp 1.5 silver and 300 karma for an event, and it does nothing to further the world of tyria or my server. So other than my own personal enjoyment, theres no point.

Thats what I was looking for with this game, when I heard of the dynamic event system. Sadly, this is not the case and even though this might have been touched on in a CDI, I doubt we’ll see anything of this magnitude this year.

Vol.7601:

If you quit because of those reasons, then no, I don’t think you’d want to come back.

I don’t think GW2 is made for you.

Ironic. When the release date was announced and after all of the hype and interviews and demos and ’cons…the game looked like the perfect game for me. Told my RL gaming buddies that this one is made for someone like me where I can put the game down at any time and not miss anything or lose “power”(I am way behind in ascended), playing in the open world just because and feel good and rewarded by it(not so much)…etc.

But you may be right, it may not be the game for me. Had LS never entered the game, I might not be as bitter these days. The game changes too much and if you take any time off you miss out.

Been on GW2 hiatus for 2+ months. Anything new and exciting? Anything worth coming back for? Or is it the same type of stuff…?

I took a break because I was getting burnt out on materials gathering for ascended gear, but also because the constant patching for Living Story was just annoying. I don’t like it…

Is there anything worth coming back to? Or is it more of the same “you missed out on the last 2 months of patches, tough luck but we will place you in the middle of a living story arc that you know nothing about”..more fluff content? More “we have added more things to the gem store”..

Or have there been substantial perma content updates in the form of dungeons zones skills(not the little healing skills we got a while back), etc..

Logged in last night and got the itch to maybe look into playing again but not if its more of the same 2-week nonsense of 100% focus on Living Story while other parts of the game are abandoned.

May I suggest to have patch notes that are directly impacted from our CDI discussions flagged as such when posted?

Example:
-Reduced the number of achievements required for the meta achievement in half. — Living Story CDI

This way, we have tangible evidence that our discussions are being applied in practice and, do not take this the wrong way, we do not simply hear developers say “it has been enormously helpful”. Im one of those people that needs to see it to believe it…so having some sort of flag or notification that tells me that a change in a patch has been directly influenced by our discussions here. I’d like to believe this is something that everyone can get behind.

In the same boat. I continue to come back to the game(on break now) and promise I will not get into the grind/ascended grind. But I do. Even last time around I devoted my time between worldbosses/temples and WvW…still got grinded and burnt out.

With no true endgame, Im starting to see replayability issues with the game. Sadly. I’ve always been an advocate of no raiding or traditional endgame content in GW2 but maybe thats what it needs. But, I can always go to another game for that so I won’t ask GW2 to change.

I don’t think the game is for me anymore, at least not as a mainstay game. I might log in every once in a while, maybe for a month or two… but it won’t be my mainstay game again.

Heres to hoping Wildstar can captivate me.

Edit: The one saving grace for me would be if in the near future(Im talking less than 6 months here…) there is some sort of open world system where we have reason to be spread out across all of tyria completing dynamic events that launched with the game. Id love for there to be content like that. Not funneling us into one or two zones..any and all zones. And be rewarded handsomely. Not with 300 karma, 1.5 silver, 12k xp. Since theres no end game content, this and WvW would be the only things to keep me in the game.

Galen Grey.4709:

another head start player who still loves the game.

Come on cesmode you cannot seriously believe that no player will love the game after playing it for a few hours.

I believe there is a honeymoon period(with any game). After which theres a statistical drop off of interest for a lot of people once they see how everything shapes up at “end game”.

Not all, but enough.

Shadowbane.7109:

cesmode.4257:

@OP…what level are you and how long have you been playing?

That question is just silly. I am playing since the 3 day head start and I too love the game but at the same time I am open about flaws and i do not deny them.

Didn’t your mother ever tell you no question is silly? Or any teacher in school, rather?

My point is that a lot of people see GW2 through rose tinted glasses for the first few weeks or months until they get to max level and see how everything lays out. With ascended gear grind for BiS gear (if that interests you) to the open world zerg content that is Living Story, to the lack of attention to dungeons, etc.

So yes, there are people like you that guininely enjoy the game since day one and I commend you. But there are a ton of people that enter the honeymoon phase at level 1 and exit the honeymoon phase at level 80.

JeRune.3512:

Ehm I hate to break this to a lot of people; but how can you call items like this P2W when you can directly convert RL money to ingame money? You can already get everything you could possibly want if you’re willing to pay for it.. Seriously, that ship sailed a long time ago.

Because if you play the game enough you can earn enough gold to do whatever you want.

So if/when scarlet’s minions go away and sprockets can ONLY be obtained through one method: these watchwork picks via the gemstore…thats where the problem lies. theres no alternative to acquiring these goods without dropping RL cash.

Granted, sprockets are worthless. Its the principle of the matter that Vol is concerned with and I agree with him on that.

I haven’t been keeping up with the game as much as I should in the last 4-6 weeks…just large scale stuff.

Reading this…makes me hrmmmz.

I agree that 20% is low enough and that sprockets are junk. Who cares?

But I also agree with Vol that it is a dangerous precedent. If this sort of functionality/mechanic existed to provide you with ascended materials, and the pick was only available through the gemstore or some ~1% chance RNG of a drop from a boss chest..yeah, you are teetering on P2W.

Who is making these decisions over at arenanet?

@OP…what level are you and how long have you been playing?

Suggestion:
Whenever there is a change to the game, regardless of how large or small, could we have some sort of CDI flag in the official patch notes that tell us that the change derived from a CDI thread? It would show us that the fruits of our labor in these threads do not go un noticed, even though you say they do not. I would simply like to see in writing what changes are being made as a direct result of the CDI…not a “Yeah, lots of changed happened”.

Example:

-Reduced the number of achievements for this living story patch, and subsequent living story patches, by half. – CDI: Living Story

I’ve since stopped playing the game, and stopped contributing to the CDIs…life is too busy at the moment, and the little time I have in gaming has been diverted elsewhere for the time being. But I keep an eye on GW2 and would like this simple addition to patch notes.

jheryn.8390:

cesmode.4257:

jheryn.8390:

I honestly don’t believe that they are going to nerf zerkers but just make it more balanced with other armors/builds/play styles. Some might get slight boosts and some slight reductions. I am certain zerker will still be very viable.

I dont think the specs need to be looked at. Their watered down content does.

If you give content that has minimal condition removal requirements, minimal buff requirements(such as stability), minimal unique mechanics..and open world content that fosters zerg mentality, then you can nerf any spec you want. Won’t change the fact that 9/10 dungeon bosses and world bosses require no thought whatsoever.

Reworking crit damage and/or nerfing classes is a lazy patchwork job to avoid the bigger issue of reworking their content mechanics (dungeon bosses, open world bosses, etc).

Astounding.

It is this type of decision making that is driving me away from the came for good. Blizzard did the same with WoW…their decision making began to be atrocious. Arenanet is following the same path unfortunately. They cannot see 2 feet in front of them and see the larger picture, or they do not feel like tackling it. THEN months down the road, this becomes a CDI, they acknowledge the problems of their ways and then months later we see change.

Same old…laughable.

I agree with you. I wasn’t actually justifying what they are about to do, just explaining what I think is going to happen. You are right that it is the lazy and wrong way to do it, but I think it is the way they WILL do it.

I wasn’t rebutting you. Just used your post to quote and reply

And if this is the only way they will balance out the game, then it is a sign of many work arounds and lazy patch work jobs to come. No need to spend any more money on the game if the developers cannot be bothered to give us quality. Apply this logic to the living story….give us quality instead of a buggy, horribly narrated, tiny combat living story patch. Give us quality there too..can’t be bothered because you need to adhere to your schedules? Then I can’t be bothered to support the game anymore.

If you can’t be bothered to man up and make some serious changes to the game that are needed, instead of dancing around the issue trying to make your way work, and only admitting to your faults in a CDI, then I cannot be bothered to support your game.

Umut.5471:

Norjena.5172:

Umut.5471:

because elitism and classism make it go wrong. not every class is good at being zerker.
“play zerker warrior or quit” this sentence sums the pve aspect of the game.

Again for u.

Fact1
People cry for warriors only because they have no idea about dps.

Fact2
Warriors DPS is only selfbuffed rly strong, goupbuffed the warrior will do much less then.
Ele
Thief
Guard
Slithly less then
Necro
Probably more then
Engi
Mesmer
ranger
Engi/Ranger can do nearly the same dps, but the need a proper rotation (which nearly no engi is using most of them just play bad). Or the ranger needs his sword (can sometimes be tricky and a living cat which can be a problem).

But both have alot of support and can be rly good for your party. If played well, not a class blance problem.

Fact3
If i had to choice between a rampager using hybrid warrior or necromancer. I would choice the warrior, this class balance issue is not a zerkers issue.

Fact4
Berserkers gear is the fastest way to finish dungeons, not the easiest one as many people still think

Fact5
The easiest way is to wear PVT/Clecirs mix with supporty traits and join an tanky/supporty meleegruop.
It will be exactly the sam,e LoS, stacking. But much much easier. For most bosses u have to do nothing then pushing 1.

Only a few bosses require frostamorstacking or the use of some grouphealskills.

Fact6
Even if they nerf berserker it will stay the best (except rampager probably)

Fact7
If they try to chance a part of the critical dmg to vitality (like in pvp) the meta will get even stronger. Because it will stay as the fastest, but it will get easier to use for everyone.

Fact8
CC/Healing and so on is not unviable because of DPS is so OP, it´s weak because they´re is no need for it. Content is to easy. Teamplay is usually not needed.
It makes it faster/smoother.
But in GW2 i feel like a sologamer found 4 other sologamers to speed it up. Not being part of a team which solve problems one alone could never do.

Fact9
There will be alot of balance issues. For example engineer. At the moment max dps is a rotation with or without grenades. If they nerf the critical dmg for example only 15%. Rampager nades will top everything.
Bombkit (AA) Flamethrower (2) Elixirgun (4), Toolkit (3), Rifle (3/5) will get much worse then now. U can choice your style of gaming an engineer. There are a few nearly equal possibility. Nerfing zerkers will ruin them.

You are just looking from dps side, which I didn’t mean it only. Try a berserker ele/thief in dungeons, would be the squishiest thing in the game. Even cof bosses can one hit kill them. With this, warriors can have better armor with acceptable hp, with ultra high dps. Plus if you equip stance invulnerabilities it will equal to a thief or ele’s tanky build. Problem is this, other classes get one shotted with full zerker gear, while warriors are a lot better in terms of survivability as a zerker. This is why people are only seeking for zerker warriors for dungeons. In every aspect, zerker only pve meta is not acceptable for an mmo. They have to make it more challenging by requiring more teamsupport. Healing and bunker(tank) builds must be required in pve parties like all other mmos. Don’t forget, not everyone wants to play as dps. In s/tpvp & wvw we have freedom to choose our build without losing any efficiency. They have to allow this in pve too by adding better ai and challenging bosses. Mobs are so dumb and just waiting in front of hundred blades, this is the main reason makes zerker builds viable.

My full berserker gear/trait thief runs lvl 30 fractals which are arguably more difficult than any dungeon in the game, except a path or two in arah and a path in COF. No issues, and Im not one shotted.

jheryn.8390:

I honestly don’t believe that they are going to nerf zerkers but just make it more balanced with other armors/builds/play styles. Some might get slight boosts and some slight reductions. I am certain zerker will still be very viable.

I dont think the specs need to be looked at. Their watered down content does.

If you give content that has minimal condition removal requirements, minimal buff requirements(such as stability), minimal unique mechanics..and open world content that fosters zerg mentality, then you can nerf any spec you want. Won’t change the fact that 9/10 dungeon bosses and world bosses require no thought whatsoever.

Reworking crit damage and/or nerfing classes is a lazy patchwork job to avoid the bigger issue of reworking their content mechanics (dungeon bosses, open world bosses, etc).

Astounding.

It is this type of decision making that is driving me away from the came for good. Blizzard did the same with WoW…their decision making began to be atrocious. Arenanet is following the same path unfortunately. They cannot see 2 feet in front of them and see the larger picture, or they do not feel like tackling it. THEN months down the road, this becomes a CDI, they acknowledge the problems of their ways and then months later we see change.

Same old…laughable.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

cesmode.4257:

There have been a half dozen requests for someone to link the page where they state they are changing up zerker. Was this an off the cuff comment on a livestream or something? Or do any of you have an article to share? Ive been away from the game for about two weeks so I missed it and cannot find the article on the website here.

No, it’s a post in the balance forum. It says that they will be discussing “changes to critical damage” as part of the livestream tomorrow. Nothing more than that. Nothing definitive, nothing set in stone, nothing specific on how it will be changing.

Thank you kind sir.

If its anything drastic to crit damage, such as halving it, then I would be in the camp of those who feel zerker gear people should be able to swap out stats. And if we do not get that ability, then my interest for this game has all but evaporated, even moreso than it currently is(theres a reason I haven’t played in weeks).

Otherwise, its a nerf like any other. Roll with it.

There have been a half dozen requests for someone to link the page where they state they are changing up zerker. Was this an off the cuff comment on a livestream or something? Or do any of you have an article to share? Ive been away from the game for about two weeks so I missed it and cannot find the article on the website here.