Guild Wars 2

Major spoilers will follow. You’ve been warned.

So Majory’s sister is killed, and she’s understandably upset. Kasmeer tries to console her. No problems here.

Jory tells Kasmeer that she’s going to return the body to their family, and that Kas should stick with the group. Kas says she’d rather be with Jory, to support her in her time of grieving. Still OK.

But then, as it always seems to happen with these two, the dialogue goes into “just get on with the freaking story” territory. After the above dialogue, all of which is fine, Kasmeer starts begging to come with Jory, and Jory repeatedly denies her. Kasmeer won’t take no for an answer, and Jory won’t give in. So it goes on far longer than it needed to, to the point where it once again detracted from the tone of the scene. I haven’t played through this on subsequent characters, but the inability to skip the cut scenes is going to make sitting through this exchange tough to do.

The Ley Line weapon set is a big disappointment. With that theme they could have produced some really cool looking weapons, but what we got was…not bad, but not great, either.

And for the love of all that is good and decent can we please get a good mace skin!? I thought the Mistforged Mace would finally provide me a paladin-esque mace worthy of my guardian, but even that was a letdown.

I’m thrilled Dry Top isn’t the small map we got in the first update. I’m thrilled it’s being expanded into a full zone. But I hope Dry Top isn’t the extent of our foray into the Maguuma Wastes. I really do hope we get a full three or four zones in this region, putting it on par with the other regions in the game.

They evidently don’t think this is something worth updating us on. But hey, it’s Tuesday. You know what that means, right? “New items in the cash shop!”

SnubdubLuskon.1795:

darkace.8925:

Suppose Chapter 1 of Season 2 had been one mail to set up the scenario, one instanced fight that takes 5 minute to get to and complete, and one achievement requiring the harvesting of 4000 cactus nodes. You’re saying the content isn’t complete until the achievement is earned. And with four cactus nodes respawning hourly, by your logic that’s 4000 hours worth of content. Yeah, that’s some rock-solid logic you got there.

That’s some good hyperbole.

Reductio ad absurdum, my friend. Reductio ad absurdum.

Trice.4598:

From the Tweets she made, it look like a disagreement on how they wanted her to handle her position as CM. This is only an assumption, don’t take my word on that.

Hopefully it isn’t another case of “communicating too much with the community, thus setting a standard the rest of the company feels pressure to follow” situation. To be fair, though, no heads rolled for that (that we know of), just finger wagging.

Vayne.8563:

Jemmi.6058:

Didn’t find coins that wasn’t part of the story?

Edit: clearly we consider different parts of the update to be content. The random achievements are not content for me. I care about the story and any new dungeons, zones, etc. Collecting coins around the zone aren’t something that I’m going to do. Anyway, misunderstood you I suppose.

Content isn’t just what you like. It’s content for people who like scavenger hunts. So what you say is there’s 1. 5 hours of content you like or you consider content. That’s not the same thing at all.

A lot of people do like achievements and some people do like scavenger hunts. It’s a form of content, and in fact, a traditional staple of many RPG games. Sorry you don’t like it, though.

Suppose Chapter 1 of Season 2 had been one mail to set up the scenario, one instanced fight that takes 5 minute to get to and complete, and one achievement requiring the harvesting of 4000 cactus nodes. You’re saying the content isn’t complete until the achievement is earned. And with four cactus nodes respawning hourly, by your logic that’s 4000 hours worth of content. Yeah, that’s some rock-solid logic you got there.

As of the time of posting this, a bowl of this stuff is selling for almost 24 silver. Who is buying this, like…at all? Let alone for this price? I’ve always thought people used food that helped them avoid being downed, not food that helped them while downed. Am I missing something here?

The only problem, as I see it, is the precursor. And it is a problem, and I’ll show you why.

Currently we need four things to make a legendary weapon: Gift of Mastery, Gift of Fortune, “Gift of Crafting”, and the precursor. The Gift of Master is earned by showing a competency in various aspects of the game. The Gift of Fortune is gained through…well, fortune. You’re either fortunate enough to get the drops you need to make it or you have a large enough fortune to buy them off the TP.

The precursor is essentially a second Gift of Fortune; it’s earned in exactly the same manner as the Gift of Fortune (luck or wealth). So we’re looking at one Gift of Mastery vs two Gifts of Fortune. If there were a scavenger hunt (or any other means of earning the precursor through competent play) then we’d have balance between mastery and fortune. But as is, there is no balance; there’s far more emphasis on grinding out gold than there is mastering the various aspects of the game. And that’s a problem.

Now then, you’re free to tell me why I’m wrong.

For those of you who have done the math, which offers the bigger boost in damage?

The last I heard, there was two guys working on class and skill balance. If true, that explains whey changes are so few and far between, and it probably explains why new skills haven’t happened yet (yeah, yeah, we all got one new healing skill). I really wish they’d divert some resources from the Living Story to areas of the game that have set too long on the back burner.

So now that we can’t equip a new weapon after building a full stack of Bloodlust, it’s going to be one or the other. So my question for those of you who have done the math, which of these two gives the bigger boost to damage when rocking Berserker’s gear? Thanks.

digitalruse.9085:

I actually submitted a bug report for this.

And I created a thread in the bugs sub-forum. It didn’t get a response, so I’m assuming this, for whatever reason, is intentional. Hopefully a red will explain to us the rationale behind the decision to have the half hour version require twice as much of a rare ingredient as its one hour counterpart.

Just because Scarlet said she had a secret on Caithe AND a sylvari was trying to kill the Master of Peace AND the Zephyrites were stabbed to death by a hidden assassin using daggers doesn’t meant Caithe is guilty.

Or does it?

/dun dun dun

usernameisapain.7163:

Am I the only one who thinks it is about time to add some more skill variety, whether that be utility of weapon skills.

Having zero flexibility on our weapon skills means we’re locked into the same five skills forever. This is particularly frustrating when a skill is designed for a game mode you don’t play (i.e. a PvEer gets limited/no use out of Hunter’s Shot). I’m ready for a customizable weapon skill bar. I’m ready for new utility skills. And I’m ready for entirely new weapons being added to the game. I’m looking at you, two-handed axe. It’s past time for you to make your debut.

zenleto.6179:

darkace.8925:

It would be interesting to see what kind of answers you got if you guys showed that loading screen to those of your friends and family who don’t play this game and asked them what it was.

How does this make sense? Those people wouldn’t even know what Dry Top is let alone what the game is all about.

I wouldn’t expect them to say “that’s Dry Top, from Guild Wars 2!” But if the art does what it’s supposed to doing, they’re supposed to say, “that’s an arid canyon,” or something similar. But with…this…I doubt one in a hundred would even identify it as a landscape at all.

It would be interesting to see what kind of answers you got if you guys showed that loading screen to those of your friends and family who don’t play this game and asked them what it was.

Waldir.2571:

Give him a new look, make him look bad kitten with new armor or something. They usually do this in movies and tv shows when the characters gone for a while return looking different. Maybe this will make people like him more… What do you guys think?

I think “looking bad kitten ” is a LONG way down the list on things by which I judge a character.

FGJ more than covers my Fury needs. I was just hoping there was an actual reason to use AS. Like I said, it sucks not using the class’s mechanic as a GS user. I’m still hopeful we’ll get two-handed axes at some point. Then I’d be able to use a two-handed melee weapon and burst skills*.

*I don’t use a hammer because I’m a pve’er.

I’ve always leave my Adrenaline full to benefit from the 15% extra damage from Berserker’s Power, but I’ve always lamented the fact that I never get to benefit from the class’s defining mechanic. So I’m thinking about dumping BP and actually using Arcing Slice. Is this at all worth it? Or am I sacrificing too much damage for it to be worthwhile? Thanks.

PS – I don’t swap to axe (or any other melee weapon) for Burst because I’m usually rolling a longbow for tagging purposes.

Danikat.8537:

I don’t understand how having a bag that only accepts items you manually put in there would help with the weapon swap issue. When you equip a two handed weapon and it automatically swaps out a main and off-hand weapon then you’re not putting them into your inventory manually so they wouldn’t go into that bag. They could possibly program it so it does count as placing them manually and therefore they default to this bag, but it would probably be just as easy to make it so when you swap weapons they automatically go into the lowest available slot.

I do however like the idea of a soul/account bound bag where anything bound to you is automatically sorted in that bag. That would solve the problem for everything except basic and fine weapons (which aren’t so much of a problem if you accidentally sell or salvage them). Personally I’d like it to work like the other self-sorting bags where it is possible to put other items in if you want to, or if all the other space is full because I doubt anyone carries around 20 account bound items. (I don’t see what it has to do with player housing though.)

Until then I solve the problem by using exotic weapons and having ‘show rarity’ turned on. Maybe I’m just unlucky but I never get enough exotics that I’d sell or salvage them without taking the time to see what they are.

As I said, I originally thought of the idea a while back when typing up my wishlist for Player Housing. I wanted a new crafting discipline through which we’d make our own furniture. Since the weapon crafts have consumables and the armor crafts have bags, figured a furniture making craft would need something similar. So I came up with the idea of chests (bags) that auto-sorted soul/account bound items. Outside being the origin of the idea, it doesn’t have anything else to do with anything in this thread.

I’m thrilled I can finally use the Wizard’kitten skin for armor, but I’d be even more so if I could actually dye it the color of my choosing.

Djahlat.9610:

Ronin.7381:

It’s implied he may not have been working alone. At the same time though we shouldn’t base a character on their perceived class. Game mechanics don’t necessarily equate to story elements 100% of the time.

Exactly, like when we see Rytlock Brimstone using a pistol, and normally, warriors can’t do that. Or that Norn in Ghosts of Ascalon (Gullik I think) who handles a two-handed axe which don’t even exist in the game.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Hidden_Pistol

Back in the day I was holding out hope that we’d get Player Housing and a furniture-crafting discipline. I was hoping said crafting discipline would be able to make chests (bags) that auto-sorted Account and Soulbound Items, meaning masterwork and better equipment bound to your character would go there when unequipped.

Draknar.5748:

Someone posting on the forums about how horrible Living Story is because it doesn’t add any content is really just talking out of their sphincter.

So anyone who disagrees with you is talking out their kitten

Draknar.5748:

Point is. When you add all of this crap up, it’s an expansion’s worth of content. Problem is, you whiners will literally complain about everything.

Point is, it doesn’t add up to an expansion’s worth of content, and it certainly doesn’t add up to an expansion’s worth of quality.

And by the way, calling people with whom you disagree whiners is childish and disrespectful. No one from the other side (that I’ve seen) is calling those who don’t want a paid expansion “poor” or saying of them “they don’t want a paid expansion because they can’t afford to buy one”. This is supposed to be a place for mature discussion about Guild Wars 2. Please act accordingly.

Lishtenbird.2814:

Since they haven’t “fixed” it still, that might as well be a temporary image for the zone which is going to change a lot in the next episodes.

Or they could just not care that we dislike it.

Vayne.8563:

Oh look, another person who adds 2 plus 2 together and gets 87. It doesn’t work that way.

It worked that way when you called me jaded. If my criticisms of this game makes me jaded, then your defense of the game makes you enthralled. 2 plus 2 doesn’t equal 87, but 2 does equal 2. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. That’s how it works.

MSFone.3026:

I think it’s about time (exotic) celestial weapons and armor be more easily obtainable. What’s the logic having a crazy annoying time-gated system making acquiring this basic stat set for exotic gear such a pain?

I have no idea why they’re still got Celestial gear behind a time-gated account bound wall.

Vayne.8563:

You’re so jaded on this game,. you don’t even see what you’re doing.

I could just as easily say to you “you’re so enthralled with this game you don’t even see what you’re doing,” but I’d rather discuss the actual game than play armchair psychiatrist. Now then, I’m still waiting for you to show me where I said something demonstrably wrong.

Vayne.8563:

Yep and you haven’t seen larger projects.

How do you know? How do you know Fractals of the Mists, the currency wallet, and Edge of the Mists weren’t the big projects to which they were referring? How do you know the release of the game in China wasn’t the big project to which they were referring? You don’t. And neither do I. That’s why “big projects behind the scenes” works so well as PR speak.

Vayne.8563:

I suppose you think Edge of the Mists is nothing.

You’re putting words in my mouth. No, worse than that…you’re twisting my words completely. Frankly, I thought you were better than that.

Vayne.8563:

I get you don’t like the game, but saying they haven’t done is demonstrably wrong.

A. If I didn’t like the game, I sure as hell wouldn’t be wasting my time on these forums. That I’m displeased with the direction the game has taken since release doesn’t mean everything I originally loved about the game is undone, and it doesn’t mean I should abandon any hope of the game returning to its former glory.

B. What have I said that is demonstrably wrong?

Vayne.8563:

People keep saying they’ve had two years. They’ve had two years. Well, you know, many MMOs have expansions every two years…but they don’t always launch in China in between. I strongly suspect that the timing of things is quite intentional (as you’d think it would be). They’ll have an expansion about a year after the China release. There was no point in releasing it before.

The release of the game in China is great for the developers and the publisher, but it doesn’t change the fact that the game has gone almost two years without many of the features players expect when they’re promised* an expansion worth of content.

• Let’s please refrain from yet another argument over the semantics of “promise”.

Vayne.8563:

Business release stuff when it makes sense to release them from a business perspective.

Sure, but miscalculations can and do happen in the business world.

lordkrall.7241:

I personally prefer to get new stuff every two weeks that lasts a few hours instead of waiting 6-12 months to get content that lasts a week or two.

The amount of content is probably more or less the same. It is simply difference in how and when it is delivered. Some people prefer to have it bunched up, others prefer to have it dropped during a longer period of time. Simple as that.

It’s not as simple as that. Even if the quantify of content is the same either way, the quality isn’t. The were a lot – and I do mean a LOT – of serious bug in the first season of the Living Story that slipped past an overtaxed QA department. Then there’s things like our Player Characters going voiceless because the the two week release schedule couldn’t accommodate ten different voice actors. A two week release schedule just doesn’t afford the developers the time to ensure the level of polish is where it otherwise could be.

Vayne.8563:

Anet hasn’t said they’ll never come out with another profession. They haven’t said they won’t come out with another playable race. They haven’t even ruled out having an expansion.

Given how slow they’ve been to implement relatively simple things like class balance and new skills, why would anyone expect they’re going to add a new profession?

Given the costs of paying voice actors to voice a new race for an already outdated Personal Story, why would anyone expect they’re going to add a new playable race?

What you say is true, they haven’t ruled any of those things out. But neither have they given us any reason at all to believe any of those things will be added to the game.

Vayne.8563:

They’re STILL giving you living story. They are working on larger projects in the background, and have not yet decided how to deliver it.

They’ve supposedly been working on “larger projects” in the background since the game launched. I’m sure they’re working on projects of which they haven’t spoken, some of it they’d even deem “large” (the last features patch, for example), but the “larger projects” thing is nothing more than PR speak designed to placate and string along players who are growing increasingly antsy.

Vayne.8563:

This content isn’t being provided instead of an expansion. It’s just being provided.

If the two options for expanding the game are in small, free installments or large, paid blocks and the company has decided to eschew the latter in lieu of the former, then yes, that very much looks to be a case of “providing this instead of that”.

Tried it out with Throw Mine’s knockback, and you get two to three more shots off when you don’t have to pick yourself up off the ground. It also works okay with Flamethrower’s 3rd skill, but that can knock them out of range, costing you some of the damage boost from Synaptic Overload.

guardiaN.1640:

shield 4 should give aegis besides the protection, shield 5 needs way shorter cd and better heal.

Something. Anything. I long ago came to terms with the fact that the Guardian’s focus works like a shield and the shield works like a focus, but I still think Shield 5 sucks. Sure, it has its niche uses, but I’d love to have the option to swap it out for something else (preferably something that feels like a shield skill).

onemantankwall.3641:

Ive always wondered what mordys influence is doing inside the tengu wall, they know of scarlets doings but will they have a big reaction from mordys awakening (only anet knows

If they didn’t react to Scarlet’s forces literally banging on their door, I doubt anything an Elder Dragon all the way over in the Maguuma Wastes/Falls is going to stir them to action.

SunStar.3760:

That said…
Please add the Hylek as a playable race!
I know that the less humanoid the more work, but so far GW2 has gone way beyond all other MMOs and the next huge milestone could be non-humanoids as (a) playable race(s). Somethings are worth the extra work. I hope GW2 will continue to blow all other MMOs out of the water.

I don’t think they’re going to make one of the lesser races (those aided in the Personal Story) playable. I don’t think they’re going to add any new playable races, so don’t feel to bad about not getting hylek.

They’re a handy way to have players in the areas where Dynamic Events occur, but they’re not necessary for this function. I liked the tiny bit of life they added to the game, and I always looked forward to seeing what they had to offer after completion, but I can do without them.

Vol.7601:

I wish there was more group conflict between them. Kas/Marjory dont’ care about anyone else but themselves. Rox/Brahamahmam seem to have some sort of underlying attraction with one another (despite how ridiculous it sounds and how that would work) while Taimi just DNGAF.

The writers have done nothing to this point to make them an actual team in anything more than name. It’s Jory and Kasmeer occasionally exchanging pleasantries with Rox and Braham, all the while the team mascot Taimi is just sort of blabbering on about something or another. If the writers wanted to make this group of NPCs feel like an actual team maybe they should pry apart the love birds and mix up the duos on some of these missions.

tekfan.3179:

I wouldn’t be surprised if Prosperity will be destroyed by the vine-hybrids Taimi wanted to create all along.

Because the Living Story this season is permanent, Prosperity can’t be destroyed. That means everything tied to Chapter 1 has to remain intact. This includes locations, NPCs, items, etc.

Don’t worry, she’s wearing Plot Armor. She’ll be just fine.

After playing around with it a bit I’m still not sold. With Overcharged Shot, you only get three shots off by the time you get back up. It’s not bad, and there’s not a ton of other choices to fall back on for a Power Rifle build, but it’s not great either.

to replace Shield of Absorption with Shield Stance.

Brother Grimm.5176:

I have to agree that 20 PPs is a bit much. Maybe 5 (same as the Cactus). Maybe it should be 2 and an extra zero got added?

That’s certainly a possibility. It would be really nice to get confirmation one way or the other from a red.

ricky markham.8173:

its not the opening thing its the more that they could introduce a key chest thing in more areas that i dont like. i dont want to have to carry a bunch of keys around on my chars when im in certain areas or have to go to storage to change what keys i have when i want to go to another area. that happened in gw1 and we complained so they made lockpicks but seeing that a conveince i could see that as a gem thing

A Key Ring, either in the form of a bag to be slotted or in the same vein as the currency wallet, could be an easy way to allow all your characters access to you keys.

I have two concerns regarding this. One, I hope it’s not done in an arbitrary manner. I hope it’s not simply a case of “hey, let’s muck X zone up in the Living Story just to shake things up.” I hope any changes to a map stem from organic reasons, they’re in line with and enhance the story.

Two, I hope they’re not changed in a way that make a zone less enjoyable. Many of the Toxic Offshoots that still persist (for some unexplained reason) in the starting zones are death traps for unaware new adventurers. The difficulty of these events is not in line with the rest of the zone. That’s not good, in my opinion.

PopeUrban.2578:

You know, you’re not really supposed to want these things to happen. You’re supposed to feel a sense of loss when it happens. After an entire season of the living story, I think it should be pretty clear at this point that nothing is sacred.

Except for Marjory, and presumably the rest of the Destiny’s Edge members (both versions). Even when they want to, the writers just can’t find it within themselves to kill them off.

What do you guys think of Synaptic Overload in general, and for a Power Rifle build specifically?

Paul Belz.7351:

Hey everyone,

I talked to the designers today and we’re going to address this issue. Jewelers should be able to craft sheets of ambrite in a future update.

Sorry for the inconvenience for now

Thanks for running this by the appropriate people.

If it’s intended, it’s senseless.