Guild Wars 2

So, you go to your favorite restaurant. Lets say, it’s an Italian place. Man, their pizza is soooooooo good. You can not WAIT to get your order in. You’ve been working a lot this last week, it’s finally your day off, and you’re gonna feast like a king.

You get to the restaurant, and go inside. You get seated at the table, and the waiter hands you a menu. “No thanks,” you say. “I already know what I want. Give me the pepperoni pizza, it’s my favorite!” The waiter takes your order and walks away.

15 minutes later, he comes back to your table with a plate full of asian curry. And not even good curry, it’s just kind of gross looking. “Surprise!” he shouts at you. “It’s april first! We know you ordered the pizza, but we aren’t making that today. Everyone is getting curry! It’s funny, right?!” You look down at the bowl, and stand up, sad that you couldn’t have just gotten your pizza, and walk to your car to drive home in silence.

Thanks for april fools, anet.

Airplane arms and funny noises are better than Super Adventure Box, though. Despite the fact that we’ve been asking for it for 18 months, they came up with airplanes and sound effects. Cool, right?

Since the response to everyone (myself included) that doesn’t like the april fools “event” is just “don’t play the game today”, I will say the same to you. If you don’t like it, don’t read the forums today. Anet once again failed miserably when they didn’t learn last year that not EVERYONE enjoys their idea of funny april fools things like this. By all means, put this sort of thing in the game. But add a toggle-off feature as well. A huge amount of the player-base said that last year, and they are cramming it down our throats again this year.

Why not a legendary back piece? Would work for all of the armor ranks and professions, so you would only need one. Maybe have it interact with a legendary you already have equipped, enhancing its visual effect or something along those lines. Add new effects based on what you’re already using. Could be cool.

Human ranger, or Norn ranger. Can you imagine exploring the world and going on adventures with a jaguar or some massive drake at your side? I know I would be a whole lot less worried about getting mobbed by bandits if I had a fire breathing giant lizard with me.

SpiritSpeakerOfHoelbrak.3980:

chaosdurza.3291:

I recently got The Predator for my engineer (yay!) and it is really, really cool. It is my first legendary, so I’m just absolutely thrilled to have one. However, I’ve noticed now that I’m paying more attention to other peoples legendaries, the Predator has noticeably less effects than some of the others. The footfalls, for example, are extremely small and feint, and only last for 2 steps, compared to the ax legendary or longbow. Both of those last for a solid 5-7 steps before the footfalls dissipate. The body glow is pretty awesome, but not as pronounced as I would hope it would be. I compare it to some of the players I see with Incinerator, which gives the user this really cool firey glow on their hands and arms.

Don’t get me wrong, if I could go back and pick another legendary to have, it would still be the predator. I just wish it was comparable to some of the other legendaries out there.

Side note: Why doesn’t it have an effect on the majority of my kit skills?

Yes,Yes,Yes and have i said Yes yet ?

Moooaaaarr footfalls and on-skill effects. I’m running a GS (Twighlight) and Rifle (Predator) Warrior and would love to see these improvements with the Predator rifle

Thanks for bringing this up.

I would LOVE it if the footfalls at least would be improved. I still feel like they are drastically too small. As for on-skill effects, I unfortunately find it somewhat unlikely to see any changes at this point, since it’s been this way for so long. But that would be a welcome change by almost anyone I imagine

Maybe if we bring enough attention to this, they’ll consider boosting the footfall effects at the very least?

Alright, small update. My engineer is a charr, and the aura wasn’t overly apparent on him. Just rolled a human engineer and skinned it onto a basic rifle, it is MUCH more obvious. Definitely going to be blowing 80 tomes on this toon tonight.

Jerus.4350:

insanemaniac.2456:

…quip and pred on engi are actually the only 2 instances in the game where effects persist through weapon changes. no other class has anything at all whatsoever that suggests they have a legendary if they are simply on a different weapon or holding a bundle. engi keeps nade barrage and sd effects.

Are you sure? I was quite certain the pred effect dissipated when my friend swapped to kits.

The effect IS gone when you swap to a kit, as Jerus suggests. The reason that I find this to be unfair is because swapping to a kit is NOT the same as changing weapons. It’s utilizing a utility skill. The only build that I can seem to find that makes full use of the Predator is a static discharge build. Not that it’s that big of a deal, I enjoy my SD build but it’s just kind of stupid that you are drastically limited when using the ultimate rifle.

Agreed wholeheartedly. I really hope they have some plan about changing this, its extremely disappointing that the legendary just gets completely removed by a backpack.

In my opinion, using any of the legendaries on an engineer should completely change the visual effects on the kits. Each grenade skill could have some firey effect to it if you have the predator, or streamers coming out of it if you’re using quip. Idk how they would change flamethrower or elixer gun, but hell even toolkit could just be lit on fire, or instead of a wrench be some sort of molten hammer when using predator.

I’m not a programmer so I have no idea how difficult any of that actually is, but it seems like it probably wouldn’t be rocket science.

The effects on the gun itself is nice, probably one of the best actually weapon looks imo. I guess I was just expecting a little more. Anything about engineer kits with legendaries? Do none of the kits have additional visual effects from it? I noticed the grenade barrage thing is different, but other than that I don’t see anything new, which was a little disappointing. It is a legendary after all, throw a hobo-sack on and suddenly you’re just a commoner again :P

I recently got The Predator for my engineer (yay!) and it is really, really cool. It is my first legendary, so I’m just absolutely thrilled to have one. However, I’ve noticed now that I’m paying more attention to other peoples legendaries, the Predator has noticeably less effects than some of the others. The footfalls, for example, are extremely small and feint, and only last for 2 steps, compared to the ax legendary or longbow. Both of those last for a solid 5-7 steps before the footfalls dissipate. The body glow is pretty awesome, but not as pronounced as I would hope it would be. I compare it to some of the players I see with Incinerator, which gives the user this really cool firey glow on their hands and arms.

Don’t get me wrong, if I could go back and pick another legendary to have, it would still be the predator. I just wish it was comparable to some of the other legendaries out there.

Side note: Why doesn’t it have an effect on the majority of my kit skills?

Raiment of the Lich is an outfit. When you equip an outfit, it changes all of your current armor to that outfit until you toggle the outfit off. Each outfit has 4 color channels to customize it’s color scheme. Unfortunately, you can not pick and choose which piece of the outfit is showing or not showing, besides the head and shoulders. It’s pretty much an all or nothing deal.

I tried to purchase a large quantity of gems this morning. I’ve been buying gems on a somewhat regular basis when things come up in the store that I want, just $10 or $20 here and there. This is the first time I’ve tried buying more than that. Every time I attempted to charge it, it says “Unfortunately an error has occurred, please try again later”. I made a support ticket, but still haven’t heard back anything other than a generic ‘we are looking into your issue’ response. My checking account has more than enough money for the amount I want to purchase, so I know that’s not the issue.

What I am concerned with is that after doing some reading, people are saying that all of the attempted purchases will eventually process without warning. If this happens, my bank account will go deep into the negatives. Is this something that commonly happens, and if so, will A-net resolve it quickly? I updated my support ticket info to reflect this new concern, but still haven’t heard anything yet.

As everyone else stated, race is irrelevant for pvp as you can’t use racial skills. HOWEVER, for pve, if you are considering using a static discharge build then I would go with a charr. Their racial skill ‘hidden pistol’ has an extremely powerful tool belt skill that works really really well for that build. To the best of my knowledge, no other race has any racials worth while.

I don’t recall them ever saying specializations are only getting one new weapon. We already know 2 classes for sure that are getting 2h weapons in their specialization, which means 5 new skills. It’s not unlikely that all classes will get at least that. However, that doesn’t mean they won’t get new abilities on their old weapons. We don’t know enough yet to say for sure.

Have you considered that by equipping the shield in your offhand, you cause yourself to be in the (supposedly) Chronomancer specialization, and thus, your main hand weapon skills change WITH it? The mesmer seen in the video is using a sword main hand and shield offhand. Perhaps the sword skills are not the same as the normal mesmer sword skills.

This may just be that we haven’t been told enough information to fully understand it, but in case I completely missed something, I have a question about specializations.

After reading several forum posts and a handful of articles, everyone seems to be under the assumption that specializations for each class are tied to a SINGLE weapon. For example, a ranger is a druid when they have a staff equipped, but not with any other weapons. On top of that, staff is the ONLY druid weapon. If you equip any normal ranger weapon, you are once again a ranger, and no longer a druid. After watching the twitch stream, the thought never even occurred to me until I started reading online that there might only be one weapon for the specializations for each class. I just assumed that the specializations would utilize more weapons, and the old weapons in a different way.

Is this the way specializations will work, or do we just not know enough information yet to determine how they will function?

I absolutely agree with you about the changes to the zones and taking away the really unique parts of leveling, like golem chess and turning into a fern hound in the sylvari zone. That was unnecessary and took away interesting and unique things. However, the progression in my opinion has improved since launch.

The trait system is currently awful, and if we could just have the original system back, plus the free trait refunding, I think 99% of the vets would be happy.

As far as content, I too am disappointed that there is very little new permanent content. There is some, like some of the fractals and a few new dungeon paths. However, I think 2 years into the game, everyone kind of expected to have an equal amount of new content comparable to a box expansion of similar MMO games.

I for one am disappointed that we have not unlocked a new race, or seen a 3rd soldier class implemented into the game. Or, as a smaller but still massive addition, seeing new weapons added into the game/give classes more of the current weapons (i.e. main hand pistol for mesmer, hammer for engineer, etc).

This is about the New Player Experience, or the new leveling system/additions/changes made in the most recent patch.

For starters, I would like to say that when I first heard about the changes coming in the feature patch, I was really unhappy. I did not agree with almost all the changes to leveling and particularly the gating in the feature patch. It really bothered me and I was one of the massive group of people saying “Guess I’m not making an alt ever again. GG Anet”. Well, I decided to make a guardian and just give it a shot.

What I found out, was the new system is actually really, really fantastic. You might look at it on paper and say things like “Wow, can’t use my 5th skill until level 10? Screw that”. The gating is pretty daunting to a veteran player who is used to having access to things from a much earlier point. However, the time it took me to get from 1-10 was ridiculously fast. I wish I had timed it, but it couldn’t have been more than an hour and a half. During that time, I got several messages notifying me with EXACTLY what had been unlocked, including some useful items and a breakdown of stat gains. This continued from 10-20, with me just completely floored with how quickly I was leveling compared to what I was used to. What I discovered was that at no point during my 1-20 leveling phase did I sit there thinking “Man, I really wish I had my 5th skill before level 10” or “Holy crap why don’t I have my utilities yet”. The levels just go by so quickly that you sort of forget that you’re missing something, and before you know it, you have it unlocked.

Something else I would like to throw in is the experience for someone who is truly new to this game. Me and my brother have both been playing this game since beta, as well as gw1 since beta. Our Dad wanted to have something that we could all do together, and since none of us live near each other, we suggested getting GW2 because it was fairly easy to get the hang of. To our surprise, we were having a really difficult time helping him figure everything out, because he has never played any MMO or computer game like this in his life. With this new system, however, he has been able to play without us and figure things out on his own much easier. He has been able to get a sense of direction with the handy arrow pointing to the next heart missions, and he understands the story better because it’s sorted into chapters, so there is no waiting between missions if you’re under leveled.

There are a few things I did not like. I don’t understand why we aren’t getting skill points every level anymore. Maybe this is a bug, but I just don’t get why its designed this way. For those who haven’t leveled a character with the new system, you get your skill points bundled in every 10 levels? or so (I don’t know what level I got all my skill points at, I just know I looked and they were all of a sudden all there). That really bothered me, because it really sets you back for the first two tiers of utility skills.

The only other thing that I do not enjoy about it, and this is not new, is the trait system. I still hate this. I don’t understand why we have to wait until 30, and how that is beneficial at all. I strongly feel like a better tutorial system could be implemented, and trait points could be rewarded much sooner. Say, starting at level 15. It is just very frustrating not having access to that customization until essentially 36, because lets be honest, your first trait point is pretty negligible until you can get your first actual trait.

TL;DR The new system is pretty great in my opinion. Even if you are absolutely sure that you hate it and everything it has brought, at least give it a try. You may find that you actually enjoy it a lot, and that it’s not nearly as bad as you expected!

Earlier I made a post asking how long the Marjory weapons would be for sale, as I do not have the money at the moment to purchase them. When I logged in to my account, a complete and total stranger had gifted BOTH the axe and the dagger to my account!! I can not begin to thank this person enough. This act of selflessness has entirely restored my faith in this community. I plan to play this person back the gems as soon as I can, as well as pay it forward to the next person who can’t afford a limited item. Thank you!!! A little bit of kindness can go a very long way.

Donari, that is mighty kind of you to even consider that for a total stranger! If it is indeed August 30th, which would make sense, I’ll just have to cross my fingers they show up again around Christmas or the end of LW2 as BrotherBelial suggested! Thanks for the feedback guys, I appreciate it.

Does anyone know how long the weapon skins, namely Marjory’s, will be available in the store? I’ve been dying to get these, but I am currently out of work and can not justify spending the cash on gems at the moment. Also, what are the chances they will be made available again in the future? Thanks in advance.

Haha didn’t mean to spill the beans zombie. And miltek, its not that, it actually fires 2 shots instead of a single one. It shoots one out near the beginning of the channel, and again at the end (occasionally it will shoot 2 shots one after another at the end). Still hoping someone can confirm this works at 80!

I’m sure nobody cares, but in case someone WAS wondering, the skill began shooting 2 discharges again as soon as I hit 60. So if you’re leveling a charr engineer and using static discharge, some skills may be buggy between 40 and 60. Not sure what was causing the issue, but hopefully it works at level 80. If anyone reading this as of 4/22/2014 can confirm the hidden pistols shoots 2 discharges at level 80, that would be much appreciated.

I recently started a charr engineer with the intention of using static discharge builds. I saw in a video that the toolbelt for hidden pistol discharged two static charges instead of one. When I hit 36, tested it out and it was true, it fires 2 shocks instead of one. However, I woke up today and got on it and no longer fired 2, it only fired one. Is this a bug? Or was it a bug before when it was firing two?

I recently started a charr engineer with the intention of using static discharge builds. I saw in a video that the toolbelt for hidden pistol discharged two static charges instead of one. When I hit 36, tested it out and it was true, it fires 2 shocks instead of one. However, I woke up today and got on it and no longer fired 2, it only fired one. Is this a bug? Or was it a bug before when it was firing two?

I do not understand the logic in pushing traits back to level 30. Does 1 point per level REALLY daunt new players that much? I want to know how many complaints Anet got from “new players” that feel like the game would be SO much less challenging if they didn’t get any options until half way through the game. If you insist on making traits start at level 30, which is ridiculous IMO, then quit making the most important/main mechanics of builds be MASTER traits! What you have done now is effectively make all builds impossible/useless until level 60. This is supposed to be better for everyone? New players are not your player base, EVERYONE is your player base. You can’t cater to one group and expect the population to just roll with it. If traits at level 30 are here to stay, then I propose you switch ALL master traits and first tier traits around. I can’t think of a single viable build on any class that functions at maximum efficiency/power without a single master/grandmaster trait.
Also, the new grandmaster traits. Why would you give us massive group missions to unlock the new traits? Traits are adjustments to your character. My trait does not effect someone elses gameplay. Therefore, why would you require me to form a group or pray to dwayna that there will be people there to take down these massive bosses just to unlock a trait that merely tweaks my toon? I entirely support the idea of unlocking grandmaster traits. I think its cool and gives you a great sense of accomplishment and meaning to get that. HOWEVER, it should be instanced or soloable.
Please make sure all new players are warned before buying your game that there is 0 customization options until about 3 hours into your first character, and even then you really wont have much too work with until max level. “Come buy our game! It’s super fun and awesome as long as you pour countless boring and meaningless hours into it and reach the maximum level where the TRUE fun and customization beginsssss!”
Rant over, incoming flamers/trolls.

And as I have said before, you can NOT compare physical items to digital ones. How can you put a price on something that you simply have to click on a persons account and change the account level access? No I would not demand a new car, that makes no sense. But I would demand that they do something that costs them nothing, and is most likely just automated (requires no work other than the initial setup).

ZudetGambeous.9573:

chaosdurza.3291:

@zudet we already covered this, people that have been playing since launch like myself are passed the deadline for a refund. Otherwise I gladly would’ve accepted my money back, and would not have repurchased the game with it. I already stated in my initial post that I have no want or need to fund this game any longer, why would I repurchase it?

If you don’t like the game then why are you here? I would encourage you to find a game you enjoy. Clearly the new offer isn’t aimed at you, it is aimed at new players who think the game looks fun and want to try it, it is a bonus for them.

I’d say after playing for a full year you have gotten your money’s worth.

That is a fair argument, and I agree I have played for the full year. But what are they doing for veteran players? Why are new players receiving bonus’s and returning players are not? What’s stopping them from doing something like pay $5 to gain the extra bonus stuff, or even just giving it to us for free? It’s all digital items, you can’t compare it to a physical transaction. They literally lose nothing by giving it to players that already have that account level. Yeah, they lose the money they COULD have from players purchasing those things from the gem store, but now a lot of players are kitten ed off and probably aren’t going to purchase them anyway. Would you really say more people accept that the new players with the exact same account level get more, than players that disagree with it? Maybe I’m wrong on this but I feel very strongly that returning members should never be exempt from things new players get. That’s part of being a returning member, you shouldn’t have to miss out on anything or pay full price for a new game just to get the same thing as a brand new person.

@zudet we already covered this, people that have been playing since launch like myself are passed the deadline for a refund. Otherwise I gladly would’ve accepted my money back, and would not have repurchased the game with it. I already stated in my initial post that I have no want or need to fund this game any longer, why would I repurchase it?

For the record and before all you “gtfo and go back to WoW then” people start jumping in, I have no intention of taking advantage of that offer. It was purely an example.

Because GW2 frequently tries to hold itself to higher standards. They are trying to ‘set the bar’ if you will, and make online games and MMOs come to a new level. If they really want to succeed with that, they need to show some love for the veteran players as often as they help out newbies. There’s no call for offering new rewards to new players and nothing for returning players. I get discounts on MMOs with subscriptions all the time, and free playtime just because. The other week, I got an email from blizzard with a free week of playtime for WoW, and a 3 month subscription with a discounted price, RETURNING MEMBERS ONLY. While GW2 can’t do this because it has no subscription, it can do this in other ways. And it has failed to do so, in my opinion.

gaspara.4079:

chaosdurza.3291:

I think it’s fantastic that they’re adding more content and perks to entice people to buy the game. I really want more players to join. What I don’t understand is why companies only cater to people that don’t own it yet, and do nothing for the people that have had it and supported it.

I have gotten mail from ArenaNet with 3 free minis and a free kite for buying gems in the past. So I would argue they very much do stuff for those that support them.

These free items are a profit increasing alternative to a price drop. Basically they are giving new players free gems and spending them for them instead of dropping the price another $10 in an attempt to maintain or raise copies sold over the next few months.

This is the best argument I have seen or heard all day. As far as the free minis and kites, I must’ve been inactive at that time because I have bought additional character and bank slots and never received anything. The profit increasing alternative is a fair argument, I’ll give you that, but unless they have something new instore for veteran players only, there’s no way I will spend another dime on this game. And hopefully, I might be able to just get a full refund and be done with it.

@Beorn I didn’t think of doing that, honestly that is a great idea. Even though I have had it for as long as I’ve had, will they give me a full refund on it? As of right now, I have no intention on supporting this game any longer.

I think it’s fantastic that they’re adding more content and perks to entice people to buy the game. I really want more players to join. What I don’t understand is why companies only cater to people that don’t own it yet, and do nothing for the people that have had it and supported it.

The new players receive everything I got plus more for the same price. How does that work out? Of course I get the year ahead of them, I bought it before they did. Why should I NOT get a year of playtime and enjoyment because I bought it first? What do I gain that they don’t?

Promotions are limited time, that’s why they are promotions. Unless I completely looked over it, this is not a promotion. It’s a brand new entry level of the game available to be purchased.

And as for “losing future revenue” they can forget about getting any revenue from me. They aren’t going to support the players that have backed them for a year, they can forget about me ever buying anything from this again.

In no part of my post did I whine at all. I made a valid argument and supported it.
If someone supports your product ahead of time with a preorder, they get rewarded (see ‘preorder bonus’s’). Therefore, if someone supports your product for an EXTENDED period of time, they ALSO should be rewarded. Why should a brand new player who has done absolutely nothing but open up their wallet pay the exact same price as what the digital collectors paid at launch and get all the same stuff PLUS MORE? And for people like me, who bought the ultimate edition, why should we receive LESS than a new player, even though we’ve supported the game longer? If someone buys it now, they get everything I have plus some, for the same price I paid a year ago. Explain how that’s fair to me.

I preordered the ultimate collectors edition of this game, got it on day one and have been playing since then. How do I collect the rewards for this new heroic edition? I should not have to pay a cent for this, I already spent over $100 just on the collectors edition and was never told they would possibly be doing something like this, otherwise I never would’ve bought such an expensive version of this game. It costs them nothing to give me the bag, experience boost and armor skins, so don’t give me some BS that Arenanet would be losing money by just handing it out to the dedicated players that already spent tons of money on this. If digital collectors and ultimate collectors edition players don’t receive these rewards for free, I have no reason to ever spend money on this game ever again. If I ever buy some gems and get something from the game store, there’s absolutely nothing stopping Anet from just making a newer, better, and MUCH cheaper version of the same thing for new players and just saying “well, you’ve played our game for a year and we’re pretty sure you’re going to keep playing anyways, so there is no need to give you bonus’s just for that. We have new players that haven’t done anything for us, they need to be appeased!”

TL;DR Anet better start caring about the players that have been playing since launch and bought the collectors editions, or they better hope a ton of new people buy this game because they’re about to lose a bunch of money from the veterans.