Guild Wars 2

Ohoni.6057:

I like the out of combat version just fine as a standard armor style, and I like bits of the in-combat version too, although some of the spikes are a bit much. The nice thing is that we won’t be locked into an “outfit” version, so we can just wear the bits that we like, and leave out the bits that we don’t.

I say that hypothetically, of course, since the only current way to earn them is by raiding a lot, which makes them a complete non-factor in my playing of the game, but I retain hope that they’ll announce more options for earning them.

Personally, I wouldn’t want the leg armor to be accessible through other means but let’s optimistic, if Anet developed the tech for pieces of armor to have an animation, don’t you think it would be possible for them to realease skins in future LS updates that have a combat/off combat animation tied to it?

Torolan.5816:

You know that a game goes on a very, very narrow path if guys like Vayne, a rather notorious supporter comes around and joins the people who think that a majority of features accumulated over time left a bad taste in their mouth.

What some people Astralporing, Ohoni, myself and some other guys I can´t remember right now have tried to tell the rest of you from the day of the announcement on that raids were confirmed and would have legendary armor exclusive to them is elitist and exclusive if you are not willing or able to dedicate yourself to raiding has now finally dribbled through to the people who it may actually concern as it went online now.

The reasoning stayed always the same however:
1. We are raiders, we deserve the best reward. I knew that this would come to haunt us from the get go, despite supporters of raids vehemently disputing it as they were looking for the challenge only. Look back a year in the forum and you will see where I am coming from.
2. 99% is casual, 1% is not. Give it to us. Ok.
3. Legendary armor is not a carrot for a game mode that can not stand on his own feet because of it´s difficulty. Even supporters are beginning to realize this now with multiple threads showing up from people that can not come into raids and others who always tell them how to comer into raids with the same idea. Most often this is very tiresome to read, but sometimes I do it just for the heck of it or because it sometimes turns outright ironically funny.
4. Every MMO has raids. I always enjoyed this the most because every MMO has also level progression and raises the level cap, why not also have this here? The outrage against this idea is always hillarious.

That is the thing though? How can you claim that legendary armor is the best reward? Because you have an animation that put you on and off of combat? Because you can stat swap on a game barely requires you to stat swap (except in raids, oh the irony!!) ? You don’t even need to get the skin because you get whatever skin that feels the best for you. All I see here is complaining about the fact that one particular skin is for once not available to everyone and giving the franchises’ history, that is pretty common: in the original guild wars I didn’t go to fow therefore I never got to craft the fow armor armor nor did I finish the elite zones of DoA to get the skins associated to the content. The real peoblem is this: they don’t implement much armor to the game and so when there is one implemented people go riot because they can’t/don’t want to do raids. Instead we should rather be suggesting to implement more in skins in LW updates, which they have been doing so far.

Honestly, OP, I have only one reason to answer your whole “rant”: to reduce spamming. Personally, as much as I like the fast paced combat system, I can also sympathize why Anet did this. Spamming skills without worrying a single bit about the cool downs is not very fun I would say and with so much alacrity and quickness being shared with your party or allies whether you play raids or open world I sort of think it also contributes to reducing the visual noise that go along with these game modes. Just my two cents

Your sustain damage comes from auto-attacking as a mesmer? Personally I think you are playing it wrong. Damages from Mesmer mainly come from shatters and summoning your illusions I would say. The only time you stay in auto-attack mode is when you try to cleave downstate players and for that I would also rather use skill 2 of sword

Personally the biggest offender to map completion is hearts I would say. Getting to the WP, vistas and PoIs are fun as you freely travel by taking part in dynamic events. But having to stop your exploration because you need to complete a heart if you are planing on crafting a legendary is really not fun. A little suggestion: players gain an account bound additional title when getting map completion for the first time and when they start an alt, they can display this title, talk to the npc and automatically fill this heart. However, they don’t get the xp, karma, money and other benefits tied to it. If this heart is required as part of a collection for example, then they just complete the needed hearts. Edit: I have no clue if it is possible to do so from a technical point of view

Marthew.6140:

I wasn’t aware there was a lot of satisfaction in throwing gold away.. To each their own.. by all means spend a ton more gold then you need to.

Well last time I checked, crafting zap was cheaper than buying it off the TP…..So I guess you have a bit misinformed. I also think that some player don’t really care about the money and they also have no time and no desire to efficiently farm gold to buy a precursor off the TP as quickly as possible. So crafting a very optional item no matter how much time it is gonna take them sounds reasonable I would say.

Astralporing.1957:

flog.3485:

Astralporing.1957:

Ashen.2907:

MashMash.1645:

Ashen.2907:

MashMash.1645:

I just thought it would be nice for non raiders to still be able to get spirit shards.

They can.

Well yes. I meant via the xp bar fill though.

They can.

Sure. In core maps. Not in HoT ones, where the current new action is.

That is nice but then how do you explain the fact that I get spirit shards by opening chests in HoT ? And no I haven’t entered any raid instances

You get spirit shards in HoT from filling xp track, without being in Raid instance even once? Somehow i doubt you.

flog.3485:

But this is exactly why some people will disagree with others: some see spirit shards as a reward and others see it as another currency that you stack without really spending it. Thus it doesn’t bother to not get them at the end of a xP bar.

It may be a reason to not support the change. It’s however not a reason to oppose it.

Where did I talk about filling an xp track ? I said that I was getting spirit shards by opening chests such as airship cargoes in verdant brink and I also said I took your comment out of context. Clearly you were talking about spirit shards by xp bars which you are now

Muchacho.2390:

flog.3485:

Astralporing.1957:

Ashen.2907:

MashMash.1645:

Ashen.2907:

MashMash.1645:

I just thought it would be nice for non raiders to still be able to get spirit shards.

They can.

Well yes. I meant via the xp bar fill though.

They can.

Sure. In core maps. Not in HoT ones, where the current new action is.

That is nice but then how do you explain the fact that I get spirit shards by opening chests in HoT ? And no I haven’t entered any raid instances

Your post is kinda pointless since if you would be more careful with reading you would know that he comment was about the spirit shards from the xp bar not other sources.

Honestly i cannot even understand why there are even people, who think it is fine the way the mastery system is currently implemented. Heck even if all mastery tracks could be used without requirments, it would still a problematic system because you also need the mastery points and if you dont have any you cannot advance. And I know getting mastery points isnt hard. But thats not my point, my point is that if there are rewards for xp gain after level 80, they shouldnt have the requirement of completing all your mastery tracks, when said tracks also require more then just xp. Hence why i think the whole mastery system needs a repeatable track without any requirments apart from level 80.

True I’ve taken the sentence too much out of context. But this is exactly why some people will disagree with others: some see spirit shards as a reward and others see it as another currency that you stack without really spending it. Thus it doesn’t bother to not get them at the end of a xP bar. Personally I don’t see the point of point of stacking a currency that you barely use but I guess in the end Anet should player choose if they want it or not. I would rather be on your side if spending this currency was something essential that you needed to spend on a regular basis.

Astralporing.1957:

Ashen.2907:

MashMash.1645:

Ashen.2907:

MashMash.1645:

I just thought it would be nice for non raiders to still be able to get spirit shards.

They can.

Well yes. I meant via the xp bar fill though.

They can.

Sure. In core maps. Not in HoT ones, where the current new action is.

That is nice but then how do you explain the fact that I get spirit shards by opening chests in HoT ? And no I haven’t entered any raid instances

Djinn.9245:

flog.3485:

Sure so do I but I don’t see how anomaly kills is a way Anet to say "kitten our desire to not have PvP in PvE that was expressly said before and that was also applied in the original guild wars…..believe me, I would also feel so much disenfranchised like you would so I will reiterate what I said before: I feel like you are overreacting. Sorry for confusion if I did not make myself enough clear

Its not “anomaly kills”, that “anomaly” is a player. And since a player is being killed, that is by definition PvP as was already discussed. Therefore Anet has ALREADY gone against the idea of “no PvP in the open world”. It is a very limited form of PvP so I am not overreacting (I only said I was concerned). But still don’t like the idea of PvP without notice. And I don’t like events being “gated” by PvP (as in, since I don’t like PvP I will miss out on the rest of the event).

Hopefully the people who believe this is the bug they are fixing are correct. I’m not sure why Anet wouldn’t just come out and state that this is the bug they’re fixing. But I guess we’ll find out one way or the other once the anomaly portion of this event is live again.

Ok care to disagree…..Although I gotta say that I am quite baffled by your logic.

Djinn.9245:

flog.3485:

Djinn.9245:

flog.3485:

Djinn.9245:

flog.3485:

No it is not way out of proportion….you don’t become an anomaly every time you jump into a rift. I don’t know about you but in the many attempts I jumped into a rift I only became an anomaly once. The rest of the time I got transported to other parts of th world. To me it feels like you are overreacting for nothing.

I am expressing my concern about Anet introducing PvP into the open game world. No matter how often it can happen, I don’t like it.

It is not PvP, anomaly have no skills to use. May I remind you not anomalies have no skill bar……

You’re right, it’s not “PvP” because that would imply a fair fight. It’s more “P stomps P”. Not sure how that’s better…

Ok that is only your opinion….Your concern still feels unjustified to me and personally I find it confusing that you care about the fairness of player versus player even though you seem to hate any form of PvP whatsoever :P As for the “bug”, the way I see it is that they wanted to do just like ember bay when you turn yourself into a mursaat. However something must have gone wrong in the process and players were able to target and kill others while there was no intention to do that.

I would have thought it was obvious that the reason I’m concerned is because I am playing these events…

Sure so do I but I don’t see how anomaly kills is a way Anet to say "kitten our desire to not have PvP in PvE that was expressly said before and that was also applied in the original guild wars…..believe me, I would also feel so much disenfranchised like you would so I will reiterate what I said before: I feel like you are overreacting. Sorry for confusion if I did not make myself enough clear

Djinn.9245:

flog.3485:

Djinn.9245:

flog.3485:

No it is not way out of proportion….you don’t become an anomaly every time you jump into a rift. I don’t know about you but in the many attempts I jumped into a rift I only became an anomaly once. The rest of the time I got transported to other parts of th world. To me it feels like you are overreacting for nothing.

I am expressing my concern about Anet introducing PvP into the open game world. No matter how often it can happen, I don’t like it.

It is not PvP, anomaly have no skills to use. May I remind you not anomalies have no skill bar……

You’re right, it’s not “PvP” because that would imply a fair fight. It’s more “P stomps P”. Not sure how that’s better…

Ok that is only your opinion….Your concern still feels unjustified to me and personally I find it confusing that you care about the fairness of player versus player even though you seem to hate any form of PvP whatsoever :P As for the “bug”, the way I see it is that they wanted to do just like ember bay when you turn yourself into a mursaat. However something must have gone wrong in the process and players were able to target and kill others while there was no intention to do that.

Djinn.9245:

flog.3485:

No it is not way out of proportion….you don’t become an anomaly every time you jump into a rift. I don’t know about you but in the many attempts I jumped into a rift I only became an anomaly once. The rest of the time I got transported to other parts of th world. To me it feels like you are overreacting for nothing.

I am expressing my concern about Anet introducing PvP into the open game world. No matter how often it can happen, I don’t like it.

It is not PvP, anomaly have no skills to use. May I remind you not anomalies have no skill bar……

Djinn.9245:

RabbitUp.8294:

Djinn.9245:

eduardo.1436:

Djinn.9245:

Squee.7829:

Well, first of all, it’s really more of an Easter egg than anything. You REALLY have to go out of your way to become an anomaly. Second, it’s not in ANY way a requirement to do so. Its just some fun option someone added because why not?

How do you know this?

Because there is a chance you transform into an anomaly, it’s completely random. Plus it only happens to the ones who chose the priory. If you chose consortium or haven’t done the secret current event then the transformation doesn’t happen at all

I don’t see this as any kind of proof, but even if you are correct that this is an “easter egg” and doesnt’ carry any additional meaning for the game, it still concerns me that the devs think its fun to transform PCs into a PK-able form without their permission. This doesn’t make me less worried at all that Anet might introduce more PvP in the open world.

First of all, this is hardly pvp. The anomalies can’t do anything, they are walking punch bags.

Yes, and I don’t want to be the punching bag thanks.

RabbitUp.8294:

Secondly, there already is open world pvp, it’s called wvw.

The meaning of “open world PvP” is PvP in the entire game world. The fact that I have to go to a WvW realm in order to participate in WvW means it is not, by definition, “open world PvP”.

RabbitUp.8294:

Thirdly, you are taking this way out of proportion. Players give their permission when they jump up and down for 5 minutes to become anomalies. If you happen to turn into an animaly at random without seeking to, then you can walk 10 feet to your body and return to normal. Even if you are killed, you are downed and rez 5 seconds later. Where’s the harm in that? The only people annoyed by getting killed are those that wasted time willingly becoming anomalies, because they have to do it all over again.

Lastly, if you want to experience the event without interacting with other players, there are magic rifts all over Tyria, you don’t have to stay at the lake where everyone is gathering.

Way out of proportion is claiming that someone has to jump for 5 minutes to become an anomaly.

No it is not way out of proportion….you don’t become an anomaly every time you jump into a rift. I don’t know about you but in the many attempts I jumped into a rift I only became an anomaly once. The rest of the time I got transported to other parts of th world. To me it feels like you are overreacting for nothing.

DoctorDing.5890:

I think it’s an excellent opportunity for them to nerf everything on those HoT maps, get rid of the adventures and move all the mastery points to just next to the way points. That might just about tempt me back onto those awful maps, at least until I get all those precious mastery points ;p

Those maps were never popular. Plenty of players went there but that does not mean that they liked them.

(Vayne – you’re on!)

Some people that expressed their view about HoT being 4 awesome maps in these very forums would like to disagree with you…..Oh guess what here I am!!! Sorry I am not called Vayne but at that point (after one year of hot approximatively) I guess it’s pretty much vain to try to reason with you. shrug

Runiir.6425:

EVERY mastery int he gliding line should have been granted immediately. Mechanics that are…quite frankly, needed to just get around everywhere should never be hidden behind a grind.

It is not a grind because you only need to complete the mastery line once. And now you have two more maps to complete it.

I disagree with OP. Today I went in auric basin planing to advance the achievement for fallen masks. I TPed south east if I recall near the location of a HP. 2 players from the same guild were standing next to it, they invited me and so we successfully killed it. Yesterday I soloed the HP with the three golems….I am gonna repeat what Wargameur said previously on this same page: take a look at the patterns and abilities of foes and trait yourself accordingly.

No need to. We have ember bay, bloodstone fen, the current events, hot zones and the fractals for a more casual type of content. Just a few hours back, I was in DS waiting for the meta event. As I randomly killed a few mobs an anomaly appeared just next to me and so I unlocked the achievement to cure myself from these appearances. That is awesome and that is the main attraction of the game to me. And this type of things are possible because raids are not the focus of GW2….Wasting more resources for existing raids is definitely not the way to go. Just my 2c

Astralporing.1957:

flog.3485:

I did not follow all the responses that were put into this thread

If you did, you’d know it was never about spirit shards specifically. It’s about your experience not getting to total waste. And about locking things that should be (and at some time was) accessible to pretty much everyone behind some side content designed for a small minority of player population.

Also, about Anet forgetting (again) that this small minority of players is not representative of the community (and thus treating them as a baseline when designing new things is most possibly a really bad idea).

Ok thx for the reminder. I guess once again I disagree with your stance on the game. I don’t play to fill up xP bars to get some “benefits” out of it, I just play for enjoyment. It seems your enjoyment is different from mine.

Lethalvriend.1723:

flog.3485:

I did not follow all the responses that were put into this thread but just 2 random questions: if players are so into having spirit shards, why not consume a ToK on your lvl 80 toon ? What content in the game require you to actively spend spirit shards in a regular basis so that it justifies the need to get them at each end of xP bar ?

Spirit shards can be converted to gold (at quite a decent return) and many are also required for legendaries. But another big issue that I personally felt when I encountered this problem is that back before HoT I would get a skillpoint (now shard) after each level up. With the new mastery system that got replaced, however once I hit the same point again all my experience was going to waste, it was literally worthless. After playing the game for 4 years knowing your experience was going towards something useful was a nice thing to have. People don’t like to have benefits taken away. Now I personally ended up just killing a Vale Guardian, but raiding is definetely not something for everyone as it requires quite some hours of dedicated time. Exactly what many players in GW2 don’t have.

Furthermore, this might repeat itself for those who have HoT but don’t own certain LS episodes, or when a new raid comes out etc. I agree with people that a permanent solution should come for this.

Ok thx for responding but you did not answer my question: why not spend a ToK? Don’t you have a pile of ToK that you don’t know what to do with it? And no it doesn’t seem like that you spend it on a regular basis simply because you don’t craft legendaries in a matter of small period of time. And not everybody wants to craft a legendary. Personally I would say the best way to acquire gold on a regular basis is to play silverwaste or tarir or dragon stand. However I would agree with your last point: maybe Anet could tune it so that the acquisition of spirit shards only take into account the last mastery line that has been added to the game? Anyway even with this suggestion, I do get spirit shards in HoT and I have never been into a raid instance. What strikes me also is that I get more shards in less time that it would take me to fill up many xP bars. In the end I really don’t see much problem

I did not follow all the responses that were put into this thread but just 2 random questions: if players are so into having spirit shards, why not consume a ToK on your lvl 80 toon ? What content in the game require you to actively spend spirit shards in a regular basis so that it justifies the need to get them at each end of xP bar ?

Personally I would say no….Let us not go back to the biggest flaw of the first legendaries. Obviously the first legendaries need to stay in their state so that people can choose to buy if they want it but not want to craft it or if people want to craft it and then gain some money

I have all my bets on the next expansion personally. Great opportunity to add a great feature

Well that is amazing news!!!! Personally, I did believe Anet when they said “put on hold” and never thought of the word “cancelled” but I did not expect new legendary to be released that quickly…Awesomely hyped for it!

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

flog.3485:

Since the egg is a descendant of brill, why not call it destiny’s child lmao :p

You can’t poach names like that.

Too much tempting to do so lol

tobascodagama.2961:

flog.3485:

Just use MoP with some wells and GS/staff for weapons, OP. I can assure you I can tag multiple foes with this set-up

Notice what you’re not doing in this scenario: using Mesmer mechanics at all. Nobody else has to ignore their class mechanics just to do open world stuff.

What are you talking about? What particular mesmer mechanics are you are referring to? I am still using my shatters, I still summon illusions to shatter, I still gain might and I double on wells, chaos storm and clones and phantasms to cleave foes….and I gain stability for each shatter. What else do you want?

Just use MoP with some wells and GS/staff for weapons, OP. I can assure you I can tag multiple foes with this set-up

I would like to ask you OP, what do you like about the game exactly ? Because to me your rant listed things Anet rely on to provide content well long before HoT was even announced. Just an example: you" grinded" events to accumulate gold in order to buy your precursor off the TP or try your luck with the mystic forge just like you grind events now in BF and And other hot zones for money and masteries now

Vayne.8563:

Pelinal Inventius.3548:

I had the same experience as op. I have since given it another try and have made it through about 75% of each of the new maps. I can honestly say that I am disappointed in the new content. I don’t want to devote endless time to finding some obscure point that I cannot reach and trying again and again to beat some overpowered, outnumbered area just to get some hero points when no one is around to help. It isn’t really that fun. Seems Arenanet thinks that adding a bunch of something is “new”. Yes, I know gliding is new and while I do like the new specializations, the maps themselves are annoying and often just completely frustrating. If there is no zerg, you can’t really progress. How is that fun? Yes, I do know a couple of people who have quit the game because they just didn’t care for HoT. I still love the heart of the game, so I’m not giving up yet, but I completely understand the op’s feelings about it.

You really don’t need a zerg to progress. Maybe a friend or two. There are very very very few things in HoT you can’t do without two or three people.

Of course, the big metas require people but that’s true in the core game too. Temples in Orr, Tequatl, Triple Trouble all require people to show up.

But you don’t need a zerg for a huge portion of it.

Can I +10000 this?

I disagree with OP, HoT is a great addition to the core game because it incentivizes to play the content and it makes you care about it. I kinda feel like the vanilla game offered much less in terms of value and as a result the only thing players felt like doing was joining the big zergs for the big loots. And that is the problem: in the end, you end being surrounded by players, by effects in such a way that you stop caring about what is happening in these events, what the build you run simply because you know a zerg will carry and rez you no matter what happens, even if you run the most ineffective build that doesn’t suit the dynamic event because the core game was too much easy.

Since the egg is a descendant of brill, why not call it destiny’s child lmao :p

Scellow.1596:

yes so they are wasting time for single player features, THIS IS A MMO, not a single player game

People forgot this

Ok I really need to ask this: in what universe is developing current events in core tyria and hot zones also, part of a single-player experience? Have you managed to solo bandits? Have you soloed bloodstone crazed foes? Have you soloed the leyline events?

I am feeling overhyped about this!!! Ring of fire was awesome in guild wars, glad to see it back

We should be able to summon an Anomaly as our elite skill. The more illusions we shatter, the stronger it gets. As a counterpart to this elite, we loose the ability to shatter if we don’t have any illusion up as long as the anomaly is active on the field. Hey might be an idea for a next elite spec

zxstanyxz.8769:

Linken.6345:

flog.3485:

Well sorry to inform you that the dungeon team was disabled years ago and that Anet are focusing on creating different scales of fractals

Yes but not very active at that either, almost a year after hot and we got 1 new fractal

and overhauls to every other fractal

Very true

Well sorry to inform you that the dungeon team was disabled years ago and that Anet are focusing on creating different scales of fractals

Maybe for the next expact they should buff our clones for a personal DPS matter. That would be interesting to see it happening with a short bow.

Sird.4536:

Go to Bloodstone Fen and fight the Unbound Guardian. Lern that fight and then you got your first easy mode boss.

100% this. It is an intelligent reuse of assets and it is great way to learn a bit about VG mechanics without having to form a group to raid.

Blaeys.3102:

thrag.9740:

I support an easy mode that literally has no rewards, only existing for story purposes (also shouldn’t get achievements from easy mode).

My entire guild has basically taken a 6 month break, we came back with living story 3, but it seems to continue from the raid story. We probably won’t be playing unless we can experience the raid story first.

It definitely continues from the raid story – something many of us have been trying to tell them all week – even as others try to deny it.

It is good to see a fresh perspective from returning players on this point. The more they hear this is needed, the more likely we are to see them do something.

Yeah….No. The belief players had with caudecus being associated with white mantle was not introduced by raids. The secret chamber Taimi has been hiding from other asuras was also not part of raids. The lack of trustiness shared by heroes towards Caithe was definitely not used in raids. The story that Anet tied to lore from the original GW was definitely not told by raids. In fact if the story started assuming that raids were completed by everyone, there would have been no big climatic reveal at the end of this first episode. As a side note, I would say that using the words “it seems that” is definitely not a proof, coming from someone who took a six months break

…..Or you can maybe consider the fact that mesmer was never meant to be a dps sustainable class? I mean, after complaining about its dps for more than three years (not targeting you OP specifically), maybe it is time to accept the fact that if you want to see big numbers on your screen, just don’t play it…..The least they could do is making sure that our phantasms would not die so quickly because of AoE stuff in open world. The best way to create a more dps version of mesmer is through elite specs I would say. Fingers crossed for you OP^^

Pyro.4765:

flog.3485:

Pyro.4765:

Rognik.2579:

Pyro.4765:

What do you consider ascended gear to be worth, by the way?

To me, ascended gear is just a bonus. At least for now. But hasn’t there already been a full suite of ascended gear released through other means? I doubt that the new stat combinations are that much more powerful than the other ascended gear already released.

Viper’s is a significant upgrade over Sinister for the builds I’d like to run.

I would like to pop in and say that viper does not make sinister completely irrelevant. It is only your choice because the game is not based on vertical progression.

In the same way Sinister didn’t make what came before it completely irrelevant. But in a high level fractal I’d prefer to be doing the best that I can, and I’m sure the people I’m doing it with would agree.

Fair point but it is not like everybody needed to reach high-level fractal just like you are not required to complete raids.

Pyro.4765:

Rognik.2579:

Pyro.4765:

What do you consider ascended gear to be worth, by the way?

To me, ascended gear is just a bonus. At least for now. But hasn’t there already been a full suite of ascended gear released through other means? I doubt that the new stat combinations are that much more powerful than the other ascended gear already released.

Viper’s is a significant upgrade over Sinister for the builds I’d like to run.

I would like to pop in and say that viper does not make sinister completely irrelevant. It is only your choice because the game is not based on vertical progression.

Personally, I always felt like the game was always rather laggy close to the release of a major patch. The release of ls3 might be the reason why

Anchoku.8142:

Thinking about why HoT does not feel comfortable, I suddenly thought that it may, in part, be because there are no really good hangouts like there are in old Tyria.

Old Tyria has

• cities and maps with crafting and BLTP trade areas.
• safe areas where NPCs sometimes have ridiculous crises or stories of their own.
• large spaces people can go afk for a break and not worry about the camp flipping.
• features and areas with enough “lore” that can be used for role playing.

I do not want to detract from Lion’s Arch but not one of the maps in Heart of Thorns has much in the way to sustain a casual, relaxing, “do something leisurely” atmosphere. Each of the species’ home areas have places in beginner areas for crafting and light PvE and there are plenty of hidden gem areas scattered around old Tyria.

There are also mini grind areas, for those who know where to look, that can be taken as a small bite of PvE.

Does anyone have opinions to share on this? I realize that is an open invitation for critique but I am trying to understand why I keep leaving HoT areas for core Tyria even though I really like the increased difficulty.

I really don’t understand why you want to hang out in a place that is supposed to be dangerous. Besides, the expansion doesn’t provide a core tyria levelling experience in which you learn how to play the game, it is supposed to be a war zone that we have never explored before. Even with that, quiet zone do exist in the maps where you can afk. In verdant brink, you have the flax farming spot, the entrance of the guild hall, the entrance of the first raid wing or any other field that you can glide/walk to that foes do not occupy. Also not every WP are part of a dangerous threat/event that come up in the game. You can also park characters at the beginning of a mini game I would say

BrotherBelial.3094:

flog.3485:

CaptainVanguard.4925:

There probably will be more raids in future but I suspect given the backlash they’ve suffered they will make some kinda compramise with casual players in future in order to make them more open to everyone and not just specific players.

What backlash ? The pre purchase without an additional slot was one, the “cancellation” of legendaries is a minor one, the dungeons being deincentivized was also one I would say….But raids? Come on, a handful of players complaining on multiple forum threats isn’t one, it is just a a very vocal minority of players. I think you simply fail to understand that raids were never meant to be completed by everyone. As for the topic, it is hard to say, who knows maybe add at the end of this LS 3 as some closure but just a single wing

People did have a problem with raids, what people had a problem with was that there where things cancelled like the legendary weapons that anyone can make/do the collections, where ANet “wasted” development time/money on raids that where meant for, by ANets own admission, a small amount of the player base. Those have been the main complains I’ve seen on the forum and in game, people complaining about difficulty is a nonissue, yes sometimes getting 10 players that are capable of playing a raid can be harder than the raid it’s self.

I have no problem with raids, the only thing I really want to do is have a good nose round the maps. I personally would like ANet to have a mode that just lets you look around as if the raid is completed. There could be a few mobs around but no bosses, and no ability to get the achievements. That would be cool.

Fair point I guess, but I am also having a hard time believing that legendaries would have been introduced even if raids were never a thing and I don’t understand why players simply assume that raids are responsible for the “cancellation” of legendaries.

CaptainVanguard.4925:

There probably will be more raids in future but I suspect given the backlash they’ve suffered they will make some kinda compramise with casual players in future in order to make them more open to everyone and not just specific players.

What backlash ? The pre purchase without an additional slot was one, the “cancellation” of legendaries is a minor one, the dungeons being deincentivized was also one I would say….But raids? Come on, a handful of players complaining on multiple forum threats isn’t one, it is just a a very vocal minority of players. I think you simply fail to understand that raids were never meant to be completed by everyone. As for the topic, it is hard to say, who knows maybe add at the end of this LS 3 as some closure but just a single wing

Moyayuki.3619:

EdgarMTanaka.7291:

Well… I wouldn’t call silverwastes a desert. Wait till you get to play in Crystall desert instead or play GW1 and visit crystal desert to see a preview of it there. Silverwastes is not the ordinary desert, it is like comparing grandconyon with Sahara desert.

Sadly, I am not the type of player to play WvW/PvP. I’d rather there be a true desert for PVE that can be explored and have quests in. I just mentioned SW because it and DT have the most “desertish” feeling out of the PVE maps, which is a bit sad IMO.

Why do you bring up pvp/wvw ? He was referring maps from Guild wars campaign located in the desert.

The best way to bring back LS 1 is through fractals I would say…..Who knows, maybe that is what we are going to get for the new ones. If not, fingers crossed for the next expansion

Astralporing.1957:

flog.3485:

…..And yet you fail to understand that raiding is not forced onto us because it doesn’t grant an armor that is superior to what we already have and that we can craft at any time.

Legendary Armor says hi. Yes, it is superior. Maybe not statwise, but stat changing gives it a quality no other armor posess. On top of having the best tier stats.

flog.3485:

And you know what: we don’t need to play raids and enjoy them simply because GW2 doesn’t revolve around raids.

Nowadays it does seem to do exactly that.

flog.3485:

So let the players that enjoy the raid experience have their fun.

Sure. Though i’d like the players that enjoy the raid experience to return the favour. Which they seem loathe to do.

flog.3485:

I think you also need to understand that creating content for a large amount of players will always take more time…

Open world map, maybe. Open world boss? Highly debatable. Dungeon? Extremely unlikely.

What legendary armor? Nobody can craft it at its final stage and nobody knows when exactly. You feeling it being superior doesn’t mean it is true because you are not making more damages, thus not requiring players to have a legendary to run any content the game provides…..Btw I can already change stats to whatever I feel like. On a more general opinion, I personally think you overestimate how much and how quick Anet can introduce new content into the game: casual doesn’t equal to easy to implement but I guess we will need to agree to disagree, since you have no real proof just like I don’t have any. As for raids what favor are you talking about and why is this a thing in the game?

CaptainVanguard.4925:

Raiding definatley has played some kind of hand in delaying the launch of season 3 but I think thats intentional. As they clearly have shown the raid actually does have story hints and teasers towards future content which they CLEARLY lied about.

They once said that raids would have NO impact on the actual lore or content that main world players would experience. Yet after the events of wing 3 which I “wont” spoil for anyone I disagree that exclusive content exists there.

Also, before someone says:

Youtube it, no, screw that guy, who ever you are, screw you. The game isnt meant to be Youtubed its meant to be “played” and content is meant to be “consumed” players are consumers, they pay “money” to consume that content and “expect” quite fairly so, to get something out of that.

I do not for one minuate buy the “git good/joina training guild” logic ever, its not going to work okay? I have said this from the start even if I myself recently had the luck of raiding at all.

Raiding, has “no” place in Gw2, it never did, it shouldnt even “be” in this game and honestly it was a cataclysmic mistake to even add it.

New dungeons would have been fine, but raiding changed the entire map, completley, forever. It changed the mindset of the players, it introduced hard caps, demands, achievement levels, hard grinding, extremely tedious generic mmo content NOBODY likes doing from previous mmo’s.

It literally made this game everything it once stood against in its Manifesto video.

Raiding has to make way for the rest of the playerbase. A story mode “must” be added to raiding in order to do this, and like it or not, raiders, you already get the hard content and the difficult challenge so complaining that people can actually experience the story isnt “exclusive enough” is rubbish, you get the loot, and the challenging raid, dont complain.

You “got” content, while the rest of us, waited nearly a year for something new.

Calling a few proxy events that give some “clue” whats going on new content, isnt new, its literally just a filler in an attempt to stem things from getting worse.

It would have paid off, had that filler actually “lead” to something, but it hasnt, just more ominous nothing.

While people wait for something to actually “be” added to the game.

So no, raids definatley did damage, they definatley didnt help and yes, they probably have delayed the launch of season 3 and other content because they required testing, tuning and adding of content that others wont get to see BUT raiders.

And im sorry A-net, but you PROMISED that content would NEVER be exclusive in this game.

…..And yet you fail to understand that raiding is not forced onto us because it doesn’t grant an armor that is superior to what we already have and that we can craft at any time. It is also time you provided a proof for stating that Anet promised that “content would never be exclusive in this game”. Because, correctly if I am wrong, you can’t craft a fractal backpiece if you dab into doing fractals. On a personal level I think exclusivity is fine as long as we are on equal footing as our ability to play the game and enjoy it. And you know what: we don’t need to play raids and enjoy them simply because GW2 doesn’t revolve around raids. The game as I see it revolves around the repetition of dynamic events that everybody can take part in no matter what content players have take part in. That is the backbone of this game and that is the casual spirit of this game. So let the players that enjoy the raid experience have their fun. I think you also need to understand that creating content for a large amount of players will always take more time……You can complain how so many times of how about core tyria was better than we have now, the fact is core tyria is the result of more than five years of development and three years of iterations. Compare it to HoT then lol.