Guild Wars 2

Lostwingman.5034:

However you feel about the conversation options we have. They are text now, the devs aren’t limited to voice acting. Why weren’t we able to utilize our “disposition options”? Like answer with Dignity or Compassion or Ferocity or something? I mean, why not?

I want my character to have options in conversation that reflect that.

Ah, yes! This is a sensible suggestion It’s a small change that would have packed a big punch in terms of roleplay and character realization. I want to utilize that character component more than we do, definitely.

IDK if this tumblr user is one of you guys, but I saw a very similar theory written up at this post. They tie in the appearance of tormented weapons, and have a lot of visuals to go along with the text which makes reading through the denseness pretty fun. They even have caps of glitching into the fortress in (iirc) Brisbane with all the Champs on the wall and the unused portal into a new zone

Thank you for putting this all together!

Lilith Ajit.6173:

Roy Cronacher.1576:

Donari.5237:

I feel quite positive about the changes, albeit with some reservations about the delay in getting to the traits. I’m at 12 80’s now, and nearly 40 on my 3rd Mesmer, because I always want to have someone I’m leveling in order to get that feeling of progress. So far I’ve managed different weapon/trait builds for each one … anyway! Question: You didn’t say pre-existing 80’s get all traits unlocked, you said pre-existing characters. So my new Mesmer, assuming he doesn’t hit 80 by Apr 15, does he get all traits, or just some? How does this work for characters created before Apr 15 but not yet 80 as of the patch?

Any character that was created before the feature pack build will be grandfathered into the system; meaning that they will have traits 1 through 12 of each line unlocked. The new 13 traits will need to be unlocked by everyone. Any character created after the build will be required to unlock all of their traits via content or purchasing trait guides.

Everyone in PvP will have access to traits 1 through 12, even on new characters. New traits will be initially locked in PvP and require an unlock similar to when we added the new healing skills. Once a trait is unlocked it is unlocked for all game modes. Hope that clears it up a bit.

Thank you so much, was really wondering about this!

This is so wonderful, thank you for the response Roy (and all devs, really). Wow, okay, I’m unreservedly excited now. The new major trait system sounds AMAZING. <3 Praise the six, I love this franchise so much.

I appreciate the way this was laid out. The information is very clear and well put together. Lovely site design, and a wonderfully straightforward release schedule. Cool cool cool.

I’m disappointed that we still can’t save our builds. Very disappointed.

I hope we’ll be refunded for all the gold we spent on training manuals. Sorry but 10+ gold is nothing for me to scoff at.

And no traits until level 30..? That does not sound like a fun low leveling experience to me. Combat only starts getting fun when you get your traits up there. I’ll have to reserve judgement until I see how the pre-80 monsters get their rebalance. But I now have a fire lit under me to level the rest of my alts as quickly as possible. Getting to level 60 and having grandmaster traits gave me a fantastic freedom to experiment with builds and weapons before I felt like I had to “know” at level 80. Maybe this feeling will be spread more evenly over the entire leveling experience..? This will take some adjusting to mentally.

I like the idea of finding major traits as you explore, the way you would capture elite skills from random named bosses in GW1. I REALLY love that. That’s absolutely a step in a more fun direction.

Quite a mixed bag.

ETA: Also, I don’t think the new trait point system is more simple. If anything it sounds more complicated to explain. And the way traits were refunded with each book means that if you learned that a 14/11 build was not as effective, you could change it with no fuss. It’ll be even easier in this “no pay to refund” system, so I’m not sure why it was even necessary. I don’t know a single friend I’ve introduced to this game (3) who have had a problem realizing it was in their best interests to go in increments of five but -shrug-

Electro.4173:

Different strokes I suppose, but I actually ENJOY the fact that I’m not treated as some grand hero by everyone. We players actually are one in thousands of others, so being singled out as the one important person breaks immersion for me far more than not getting recognition. Knowing that every NPC tells every player they’re the hero, that’s worse than being a “faceless player in a sea of others” IMO.

Oh, for sure. There are absolutely reasons characters wouldn’t know you, especially out far away from the action. But when a Lionguard is like “Get out of here! We don’t need another looter!” I’d like the option to be all “Uhm, I don’t want to make a big deal of this but I kind of helped save this place hardcore. Did you not see me busting my butt to save people? I fought next to a bunch of Lionguard just like you and happened to be the one who slew the crazy that started this…” and maybe have them explain they were posted somewhere else or they don’t care who I am, I’m not lionguard so move the eff out of the way… something that they wouldn’t say to any other civilian roaming the city..

Also, we took down a dragon with Destiny’s Edge. Again, kind of a big deal. I feel like if they know the names of Desitny’s Edge people, they should at least be vaguely aware of Trahearne and my Player-Character. Or have dialogue that plays it off for laughs that they have no clue who I am.

Not sure how I feel about the “every player is special so I’m not” line of thought. I have thought about this on my alts, though; how it’s a little sad that they’re so easily interchangeable in a semi-RPG. I’ll have to mull it over…

Rabbi Rick.3194:

Having dealt with tragedy and death for years in one of my lines of work, some words from my other line of work seems always appropriate in these situations:

“And if I laugh at any mortal thing, ’Tis that I may not weep” – Don Juan
Canto IV – Byron

Just my two coppers worth,

This is how I think my Sylvari viewed the laughter. He picked the “like pulling a dandelion and getting the root” option, which was very much meant not as a joke in my mind, but a sad metaphor for what he had to do – kill a living piece of the garden to prevent it from killing the flowers and grass. And it wasn’t as messy as he thought (digging for the roots).

When everyone laughed I think it might have made my boy sylvari quite sad. He didn’t mean it to be funny. I was actually really angry. But Marjory had nearly died and Scarlet’s actions made it clear she’d kill them before giving them the time of day… plus recalling a string of life or death situations over drinks leads to a strange mix of sadness and laughter. And to be fair it was a really apt analogy and very fitting coming from a sylvari about a sylvari. So I think he’s made his peace with their lightheartedness. They had somehow come through all that with their lives, despite Scarlet’s best attempts at making it otherwise. They all deserve a laugh, especially Jory.

The other responses were semi-terrible. I would have liked something that said, “She was mentally ill, she was not herself. I don’t regret my actions but I don’t want to joke about murdering someone that could have been me in another life.”

If anything, being lauded for the murder is the worst thing to him, though, worse than admitting you feel something positive in the face of so much death. Instead of how he’s helped countless citizens, he’s known for one murder. Ugh that rubbed my little sylvari absolutely the wrong way when Magnus shouted that praise at Fort Marriner. Though, I think it’ll help him in the future; at least one person is willing to give that sylvari some “good PR” considering the swell in anti-sylvari sentiment that’s going around.

Traveller.7496:

Fallout.1798:

Just to help clarify, it is well documented about the incident with Evon and the asura gate during the Escape from Lion’s Arch release.

I will post this again for clarity’s sake as well. Now, who shut down the gates?

Shud shut down the “gates” but Evon shut down that one singular gate. Pretty clearly. I don’t know how Gnashblade shut it down (and neither does Shud, so obviously it wasn’t her). Maybe he smashed key parts of the other gate, maybe he told Shud’s assistants on the other side it was an order from her. Only the devs know.

iirc, there was only one gate at the gate hub standing in Under Attack, so I’m not sure why it would even be a concern that the enemy gets through them into other cities. Perhaps in the initial attack, Shud shut down the remaining gates to other cities (some of them getting destroyed after the fact), leaving one open for evacuation in our evacuation instance.

It makes no sense that Shud says she closed “gates” when only one working gate in the hub remained. If she was referring to that one controversial gate, I would think she’d go with the singular “the city’s asura gate”. Therefore, she must have closed more than just that one, and since a plural form can’t specify which specific gates she means, it’s still absolutely obvious from her confusion after Evon leaves that she didn’t close that one.

Other gates Shud closed possibly included the makeshift portals in and out of the city to Gendarran, Lornar’s and Bloodtide when the miasma gets too thick, the WvW gates, the Fractals gate and the Southsun gate.

I absolutely agree. I know there are probably practical reasons to not do this (file size), but I’d rather not be able to speak to someone at all than have it feel like everything I’ve done doesn’t matter.

My other “this feels rather impersonal” quibble revolves around never getting to hear my characters speak or converse with the others. I know there is, yet again, a practical reason; for each line, they’d have to call in and pay their (semi high profile) 10 voice actors (one per gender per race). I almost wish they’d picked passionate fans to voice the player characters. I would do this stuff for free, buy legit recording equipment and honor an NDA. XD If there’s not going to be a Personal Story expansion, I’m just concerned that I will never ever hear my characters speak again. This makes me deeply sad because I love the character voices so much.

These two things are my most frequent reasons for feeling like my character is sort of… a dime a dozen. Voiceless and unknown.

I’d also remind posters drafting and redrafting lists of Living Story Characters that men make up the primary cast of the yearly holiday updates. We have 2 male main characters in the Halloween plots (Mad King Thorn, Prince Edrick Thorn) and the main character of the Wintersday update is Toymaker Tixx. You could also count Moto for his Super Adventure Box.

Expand the campaign for gender equality in DE 2.0 to the other LS elements like the Holidays

Shiren.9532:

As my first post attempts to demonstrate, ArenaNet is doing fine when it comes to representing women imo. … I don’t dispute your quotes on the gaming industry, I just don’t think they are relevant when we are talking about Tyria.

Cut for length, sorry. I agree with your first sentence or two. But I want to take some time to defend the “broader context” discussions. Upthread, there are accusations of reverse sexism (~not being for equality~) slung at those who don’t see a problem with the balance of the group’s gender. I believe the contextual explanations that came after are specifically in defense of this line of thought, and were not a generic rebuttal to the thread. Context is important in a discussion about widespread issues like gender imbalance, issues of representation in popular media, and in getting at what exactly constitutes equality. GW2 doesn’t exist in a vacuum, as others have said, and neither does the concept of equality. To frame the discussion in this narrow way seems like a convenient method to avoid being called out on not upholding the same standards of equality in situations that are less self-promoting. It whiffs of hypocrisy from those already in positions of privilege and I think this “only focus on the single game” viewpoint is a way to avoid accusations of cutting the cheese. Are those pointing the finger at male inequality (and heterosexual inequality, as with another recent thread) as concerned with equality in any other form in this game? Do they discuss the main cast’s shortcomings at representing people of color? The “let’s just focus on this one game” approach would seem less suspiciously self-serving if those who cry reverse sexism were openly critiquing and starting dialogues with equal zest regarding all the problematic areas of GW2 (hello, armor set disparity). A broader context would lead to a discussion on whether “equality” is something they fight for in forums for other video games that have the more traditional “token girl”/white/straight inequality, or if the fight is only apparent/important to them in the games/specific elements of a game that happen to challenge the privileged main stream narrative that we are used to.

My point there is that if you (the general “you”, not you as in Shiren) want to get into a meaningful discussion on the nuances of equality, prepare to engage in some academic theory and macro discussion. There is no longer a simple definition of feminism or equality or social justice. There’s ~50 years of social theories, systems and context (history) to be knowledgeable about or at least aware of. And, as with all academic fields, the discussion is an ongoing one because the world is ever changing. I don’t think those accusing of reverse sexism actually want that macroscopic conversation because it’s too hard. It’s more than a two sentence reply and walking away from the keyboard. It’s a lifestyle of constant reflection. I think some people just want to use the word “equality” when it suits them, but I would love for the people championing male/heterosexual equality to prove me wrong and show that they’re passionate about other forms of inequality as well!

The Fresh Prince explanation upthread is a wonderful one regarding why such a micro-view is harmful in discussing equality. I’ve seen others in similar threads reference Tyler Perry and Sailor Moon, for more examples of media that provides a platform for primarily minority casts at the expense of equality on a micro scale.

Back on track. We know there are strong female characters in this series. I think we all began at least vaguely on-board with that premise, regardless of whether we quibble about males being equally represented in such a fashion in this single season of Living Story XD I can make a list of all the male characters to show that they have an equally strong presence in the series..?

For me, I think my curiosity at those responses in this thread comes down to: A party of 4 men and 1 woman has been the status quo for most media. A party of 4 women and 1 man upsets the status quo in a single game. The complaining that comes from that role reversal comes off as the sound and fury of privilege unable to cope with narrative elements that operate outside the status quo. It sounds like fighting for visibility and equality only when it is for characters that reflect their already privileged and visible self, not because there is a legitimate issue with the quality of writing of the male characters in comparison to the females, or because there is a character traditionally under-served in our society’s media that needs the spotlight.

Shiren.9532:

I don’t think “males make up more of GW2’s audience thus should have more representation in the story” is a good argument (it’s not being made here btw).

I agree that it’s a poor argument. But actually, that was seemingly the implication of Thobek’s comment:

Thobek.1730:

If you look at gamestatistics survey roughly about 90% of the player base is male. I think it would be prudent to have a few more male characters in the game that aren’t stupid, dimwitted or there for comic relief. Its almost insulting.

I would not call Braham, Canach, Evon or Faren “stupid, dimwitted or there for comic relief” (esp not Evon) any more so than I would accuse some of the female characters of some of these qualities. Faren @ Jubilee. Pay attention to Braham’s sensitive side w/ Ottilia, the scars of Eir’s ignoring, his attempted diplomacy w/ two races before standing alone to defend his home, how he treats Taimi or how he cares more about Rox getting what she wants (even if it’s against what he wants) when he’s in pain and wounded. Right in the feels. Even paragon Ellen thought Canach was doing the right thing but in the wrong way. I would call him misguided/impulsive (as a young sylvari might be) with his heart in the right place. Maybe Heal-O-Tron will relate to him and they can go adventure together. But I also feel like Rox was underutilized, and Kasmeer’s character building was tacked on to the end (Marjory, too. She’s the least developed as an individual, imo, despite the sudden exposition with Kas in the Lornar’s camp about her family). And I think OP cherry-picked a little by adding Mai Trin but not Horrik to the “boys vs girls” list, and having Turma who I’ve literally seen once but not The Mad King and Prince Thorn who’ve had way more development in their two Halloween updates. -shrug-

Shiren.9532:

1) Thobek is referring to a specific survey done about GW2 gamers not all gamers across all genres. It’s not perfect but it’s better than anecdotal experience (http://www.gamestatistics.fr/Guild%20Wars%202%20survey%202013_Full%20Report.pdf is the survey btw).

Never heard of this survey so I’ll keep my eyes open to see if I can spot it next time to make my voice heard. According to the pdf, 6500 players were surveyed. In the first year alone, GW2 sold over 3.5 million copies. They surveyed 0.19% of the game’s population (as of year one – I’m sure it’s gone up since). That sample size seems… incredibly minute in comparison. When you consider that in statistics they tell you that the smaller the sample size the larger the potential for inaccuracy in extrapolating those numbers into representing an entire population/concluding on unknown parameters, it seems like a poor idea to support an argument with that survey.

It also seems like it’d be swayed by the player base built into each site they used to advertise. It was posted on 2 english fansites (plus a spanish and a french site), reddit, twitter and the official forums. I’ve never spent time on Guild Wars 2 Guru or Guild Wars 2 Online at all. I used to frequent reddit but avoid it like the plague now after some bad experiences with vitriolic users and their policy on keeping certain subreddits going. I probably never saw the thread on the official forums here, as I stick to only a few main subforums and don’t venture past page 1 most of the time. I rarely use twitter, and only catch what happens as I happen to be checking. It’s easy to miss tweets. I mostly stick to the official site, Tumblr’s GW2 tag (same problem as Twitter in that I can miss posts), my guild’s forums and tumblr, and Massively’s GW2 articles if I remember to read them.

The survey itself says, “Sample cannot be regarded as truly ‘representative’ of Guild Wars 2 players population, because of the methodology used (based on free access and not an online panel). However, we can consider it is representative at least of the main involved players.” The first part is the truth. The second part is conjecture. I’m on these forums a lot, I’m in the GW2 tag on tumblr a lot, I get my daily almost every day, played GW1 and GW2 since preview weekend/launch etc. Still never heard of it. Yet I’d consider myself a “main involved player.” The arrogance of that sentence astounds, but I digress.

tldr; That sample size is so small and the places the survey was posted are so limited that I would not tout that number around as anything resembling reality. All I really know now is the opinions/makeup of the populations of those few fan sites.

Shiren.9532:

2) The 2013 Gamer Stats isn’t specifically about GW2 or MMOs in general. Angry Birds counts as a game and it’s easily possible that the 45% of female gamers figure is heavily skewed towards casual games on mobile phones and that figure does not represent female representation in MMOs or GW2.

I don’t understand why those that play “casual games” are somehow not considered gamers to those who like to dismiss that statistic. Is Angry Birds not a non-casual game if someone plays it regularly? Is Pokemon? Secret of Mana? Is Pinball, or Tetris or DDR…? Man, gatekeepers of communities really keep you sprinting to prove yourself in their community. As a sidenote, this reminds me of the ~fake geek girl~ discussion going on in the comics community right now. When is the ever-moving invisible line where your enjoyment/use of a media is “enough” or “the correct kind” for an individual to be considered part of the community?

If you’d like something that looks specifically at MMOs, the percentage is more like 40%, according to this BBC article from 2008 which sees the gap as closing over time.

Shiren.9532:

Remember when Guild Wars was about the epic adventures in Tyria and not the interpersonal melodrama of some random characters? I miss those days.

While I recall the epic adventure, which has little meaning to me now besides the major bits like the Searing, fighting Abaddon, becoming Weh No Su, and fighting my doppleganger, I remember other things with far more vividness and emotional attachment. I remember them stringing out Cynn and Mhenlo’s relationship without giving it any development or depth beyond “Cynn be crazy jealous” (of Jamei, iirc, specifically) for three and a half games. I remember Hearts of the North, an entire plot revolving around a relationship. I remember the “interpersonal melodrama” between Rurik and his father that made me care so much about Rurik that I cried when he died. I remember the Tahlkora/Koss/Melonni love triangle and how Tahlkora was like Martha Jones in that she walked away with her head held high and no cattiness when she realized who Koss was truly in love with. I remember the struggle within Morghan to choose between the little girl he basically raised who grew to be terrible and the well-being of the people she was meant to govern. So… I guess my answer is that I do not remember the sanitized version of GW1 that you speak of.

Back on topic, though, I feel like their voice actors are both highly enjoyable. I absolutely agree that I want more interpersonal interactions between Braham and Eir (I think this would make both of them WAY more interesting). I don’t have many ideas on what to do with Rox, though… I still don’t understand if they’re going for a “species-specific cultural ties are more important than the friendships you go make for yourself” plot with her, or what. I’d be willing to see, though. It seems like that’s been the big set up for her this season, maybe we just have to wait until season 2 to see if it goes somewhere unexpected. I hope it does. I hope it contrasts with the sylvari maybe having ties to a dragon and can be played out that way. That’d be interesting. Rox and Caithe or Trahearne could have a nice chat.

Yes, I would love these! They’re called Player Chatter and I want them so badly XD

I would also love for at least bits of the Living Story dialogue to be up on the sound cloud. We’ll never get to hear these things again… it’s just such a shame. I need Kasmeer telling the story of her father being dragged to debtor’s prison, for example. The clips would be a great resource for fanvideos, too.

Purple Miku.7032:

I don’t understand the concept of roleplaying very well tbh. What even do roleplayers usually… do? I just went on the website that Lilith posted above but I’m not sure if it’s more so of writing stories like Fan-fiction or going ingame and pretending to be superheroes/villains or what.

I also should note that due to an MMO I was a part of for almost a decade (Runescape), I have a tendency to feel kind of creeped out by even thinking about that word. A lot of people on that game took things of that nature to extremely creepy levels, like cybering… (insert cringe/face of disapproval here)

I’m not sure if that’s part of the reason why Arenanet might be hesitant to add additional support for roleplaying communities, but I guess it’s worth considering the possibility of it being the case?

Either way just because I don’t want to have anything to do with it doesn’t mean I shouldn’t hope the best for those that do. Hopefully they’ll add an official server for you or something like that one day.

Aw, I like your last paragraph. <3 What kind thoughts for a community you’re not even sure you understand. I’m not really a part of it either, besides having my own headcanons for characters that I talk at length to my boyfriend about, but I’m touched at your sweet thought process.

RPers usually play the character… maybe they’re on a quest for something (real, like recipe ingredients, or imagined like Scarlet’s weave) in a city and go try to engage other RPers in their quest… depends on the story they have in mind for their character. Lots of emoting and talking. Some of them write supplemental fan fiction type things to get a better feel for their character, or to flesh out a scene they have in mind/experienced in-game.

It makes sense to me as a way to give your character more depth because I don’t see much personal story stuff coming back :\ For example, I really want to know more about my human’s dead parents and the events of her birth/being given to foster parents etc. Since they were spies, I don’t think she accepts that they’re dead even though she saw the headstones. You could do a lot of filler writing in plot holes like that. You run the risk of your headcanon being retconned out in future updates, but I’d rather have a richer idea of the person I’m running about as now than worry about the future.

And yeah, I imagine there is also cybering because I haven’t been in an mmo where I haven’t stumbled across that at some point XD Same thing with fanart, though.

Naz.2607:

I like this idea. I would also like to see our fulls stats still be displayed against the ‘reduced level’ stats. I always find myself in lower level areas going to look at my H panel to ck a stat and then saying “kitten, I can’t look at that unless I port out…..”
Dunno if anyone else does that or not lol

All the kitten time, Naz, haha Especially in this update where I’m pushed into outlying under-80 areas. I’ve been trying to figure out if I want to go for certain armor sets on my guardian, ele and thief and it’s been really obnoxious to have to sit through the log-in screen in Gendarran and then sit through another to portal into a city just to look at my actual lvl 80 stats.

I was talking with my dad about this phenomena the other day, but as it related to the Star Trek comic and how wonderfully strange it was to me to see the Enterprise with all girls and one guy instead of all guys and one girl. I couldn’t believe how weird it felt to see that, when a crew with all men was something I didn’t bat an eye at. Perhaps that’s what’s going on here. We’ve seen the opposite for so long that a female-driven cast is suddenly ~unbalanced~, where a male-driven cast is considered default.

I like that this game is aiming to give meaty arcs to traditionally under-represented portions of the real world population. And I definitely don’t think that male characters having flaws is somehow an insult to them. Rather, I think that their season 1 intros are a wonderful set-up to give them a character arc for season 2 that’s actually compelling and emotionally involving. Will Rox’s search for acceptance into a new warband (vs the “family she chose” in Braham and co) inspire Braham to try to repair the relationship he has with his mom? Does Canach mean what he says about repenting or is it just a slippery way to shrug off suspicion and fade into the background for more covertish shenanigans? Magnus is going to have to do something about his kittenty Captain’s Council and Evon’s set up to be some prime opposition to that goal, as well as influencing Heal-O-Tron in a probably negative way. If these men weren’t somehow flawed, if the women were just Strong Female Characters, I would care so much less about all of them.

I’m just excited to see how everyone’s semi-conflicting ideas end up clashing or merging through Season 2.

eta: And I’m amused at people who think that Kasmeer hasn’t had people calling her a vacuous airhead, or Marjory a terrible detective, or Kiel a useless paladin. Everyone sees these characters differently, I guess. I don’t see how Canach, Evon or Braham are idiots or fools. One is a crafty businessman, one is/was a crafty and caring anarchist, and one is brave warrior who stood basically alone to defend his home against terrible odds.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

Lishtenbird.2814:

My suggestions are:

• Introduce a required boss(es) that insta-kills you when you fail to dodge when NPC told you to.
• Introduce a required boss(es) that insta-kills you if you do not get a potion and nourishment from NPC which told you to, or a zone which kills you fast if you do not get a potion/nourishment “antidote”.

Those are terrible suggestions! Requiring players to use a consumable to beat content is bad and annoying. Insta kills are also bad and annoying.

What the game needs, is a tutorial, and slowly increasing difficulty. The game needs to teach players the required skills naturally as they play through PVE. Players aren’t lazy, but the game designers made a design mistake by not coming up with a decent way to teach players essential combat strategy.

Currently almost all of open world PVE makes zero requirement regarding skill, but doesn’t teach anything either. Then there’s dungeons, which are a very steep increase in difficulty and mechanics, without teaching those mechanics first. Fractals is a bit more gradual, but I think a lot of players falsely assume that since Fractals aren’t accessibly until halfway into the game, that they are there for at a higher difficulty tier than dungeons.

Ah, Malafide, I agree. Instakill only leads to frustration and doesn’t give you an opportunity to course-correct. I feel like that’s the academic equivalent of “we don’t need to teach these kids writing skills and techniques, we need to throw ‘em in to a 20 page essay that is pass/fail depending on criteria we won’t clearly communicate to them.” A good teacher knows that’s a terrible way for people to learn. This game absolutely needs a more in-depth tutorial system and a deeper explanation of its mechanics. Allow people to go into training instances with a boss that helps them hone one mechanic – dodge, condition removal, shields, effect fields, combo finishers – and let them practice. Heck, I’d do this on the classes/weapons I play less often just to get reacquainted with the skills in a stakes-free environment.

There’s a heart in Queensdale that lets you train timing shots through blocking, skills that utilize a “hold down the key” mechanic, etc. I thought there would be more places like this about because that sort of thing is incredibly useful for understanding mechanics while also being totally immersive within the game. Alas.

Someone upthread mentioned more audio cues from NPCs. I love this idea, too. NPCs were so well-utilized in the marionette battle, as far as offering relevant information. I wouldn’t have to constantly look at the UI and could focus on the combat in front of me. It made the event more fun, too, getting to hear their encouragement or bringing your attention to the boon they gave you. A gentle reminder about the potion would be good. Because, yes, I forget to drink! It lasts like 20 minutes and usually in that time frame I’m in the middle of trying to keep three separate objectives in my mind ankitten ot focused on consumables when I get jumped by a patrol. I especially forget to drink because I used to actively avoid potions due to the year-old bug that only recently got fixed.

I’d also add that there is a big inconsistency in enemy aoe fields. A red ring can mean “standing here is okay, but don’t hit the walls!” or “insta death” or “damage over time if you don’t scurry out of here”. The timing for the dodge is inconsistent; I mentioned this in a reply post about the LA Knights. You’re expected to dodge just after the red ring goes away. In what other part of the game is this the case? How would you know that without trial and error? You wouldn’t, and in this case it’s not the players’ skill levels or familiarity with mechanics that matters, it’s familiarity with a singular boss.

We’re at a point in the game’s lifespan where there’s a big gap between new players and experienced ones. Those of us here from the beginning who kept up with mechanics in each update have a huge advantage because we’ve been able to learn gradually and gather experience. These new players are thrown into an environment where there isn’t a lot of up-to-date in-game guidance. I had to find out myself how combo fields worked and how my builds could utilize them better by reading on the wiki for about an hour. Information like that should be more pronounced in-game.

Sorry, OP, but I disagree, as well. This is like me asking for GW2 to change the necro effects because locusts with the green and black color combo are “boyish” and it off-puts my fancy pink lady sensibilities™. I mean, my female Asura necro is not only forced to wear boy versions of armor but also must endure the black and demony corpsified color scheme.

I actually really like that there’s no gender difference for the effects of Mesmers and Necros because, as someone upthread said, the “this color/thing is for boys”, “this color/thing is for girls” is being side-eyed, discussed and found inadequate lately in most academic circles. It pleases me greatly that video games are letting that mentality leak in.

Lambent.6375:

kimeekat.2548:

Regarding the dodge on the knights:

I appreciate OP’s tip on when to dodge (during the animation). The problem is that the red on the ground (which telegraphs the hit much more obviously when in the midst of so many players and their particle effects) appears and disappears before that. So I dodge, dodge, the red disappears as the knight jumps and I get pulled.

I’ve adjusted since I realized the timing on the ground telegraph was wrong (or my preconceived notion of when to dodge was). My issue is that it seems like there’s no consistency for ground telegraphs and when I should dodge throughout the game as a whole. Lupi is wait two seconds and dodge (red still on ground at that point) but I have to dodge with these knights after the red is gone. The Marionette attacks were split second telegraphs — it telegraphed almost as the hit was happening, where if you had to wait for a bit more vigor or were just finishing channeling and then dodged, you were SOL. Here, it’s like I could just stand around whistling dixie through most of the telegraph and not be pulled.

I don’t mind timing my dodges, it’s just impossible to intuitively know when. So it’s less a matter of overall skill and more a matter of knowing the game mechanics for one specific fight. I’d prefer a focus on the former.

If you’re talking about the large orange-red aoe circle, I just dodge as soon as it disappears, and it works every time. For the one that appears at melee range, I just find it best to get out of the area as soon as it appears.

It’s the first situation you’re talking about. And yes, as I mentioned, I know when to dodge from both experience and OP’s tip. I’m just voicing a concern about the overall inconsistency of the dodge timing in relation to the aoe telegraph throughout the game.

Regarding the dodge on the knights:

I appreciate OP’s tip on when to dodge (during the animation). The problem is that the red on the ground (which telegraphs the hit much more obviously when in the midst of so many players and their particle effects) appears and disappears before that. So I dodge, dodge, the red disappears as the knight jumps and I get pulled.

I’ve adjusted since I realized the timing on the ground telegraph was wrong (or my preconceived notion of when to dodge was). My issue is that it seems like there’s no consistency for ground telegraphs and when I should dodge throughout the game as a whole. Lupi is wait two seconds and dodge (red still on ground at that point) but I have to dodge with these knights after the red is gone. The Marionette attacks were split second telegraphs — it telegraphed almost as the hit was happening, where if you had to wait for a bit more vigor or were just finishing channeling and then dodged, you were SOL. Here, it’s like I could just stand around whistling dixie through most of the telegraph and not be pulled.

I don’t mind timing my dodges, it’s just impossible to intuitively know when. So it’s less a matter of overall skill and more a matter of knowing the game mechanics for one specific fight. I’d prefer a focus on the former.

Only managed to hit blue, green, and red assault knights once each last night. I got loot from the first knight (blue), but the next two bosses dropped nada. And I got gold in the events, so I must have done something right…? I’ll probably try again after a few patches because I think the “skipping with a backpiece” is a cop out, but if this is working as intended I don’t know why I’d bother in the future.

Any and all Armor Sets from GW1. Notably:
Labyrinthine on Monks and Elite Luxon for Eles. Really, all of the Luxon armor. And the Elite Imperial Rit armor. And the Elite Cabal Armor for necros. Some of these are good examples of how you do skimpy and classy to wonderfully show off skin choices.

And the tattoo’d sets like Labyrinthine? You could have done the zodiac effect on the tattoo parts and it would have solved the skimpy vs covered problem the bluewash of the zodiac skins create. And it would have looked amazing. AMAZING.

I would also like the toxic shoulders and gloves re-released as a whole armor set.

Every server has its immature, rude people. Or so I would imagine; I’ve only lived on 2 and guested to maybe 5. Unfortunately, these people are often ones who are inconsiderate enough to shove it in people’s faces and use map chat vociferously. The nice people tend to operate under the “if you don’t have anything nice to say” adage and find arguing in map chat the ultimate exercise in futility. I didn’t notice a big difference in this from a low pop server to a (now) full server.

The general population can also be affected by guesting on larger servers, so it’s tough to know who’s a native jerk and who’s a drive-by jerk. I’ve seen a lot of kittenry from guesters verbally abusing the server as a whole (“I thought _ was supposed to be leet, lol, this whole map sucks why did I even guest”). But then, I’ve also seen polite, skilled and helpful guesters tell those people to kitten. So, you know. It’s going to be a mixed bag everywhere. A nice community one month could see the “nice” players move or play less, and then it’s changed.

My advice is always: Find a guild who promotes the kind of atmosphere you want to be a part of and engage with them heavily. Say hello every time you log in, ask questions about people and not just the game itself. If they’re on a certain server, go hang with them. If not, focus on guild chat and offering group spots there first instead of LFG. Or if you’re a newb looking for guidance, ask! Contact your guild leader or officers, see if they’d help spread the word that you’re looking for experience in certain areas so you can have a group at least mostly made up of guildies. Read a guide or watch a video beforehand, tell group members you’re looking for tips.

A good guild will make a huge difference. I promise.

Also, and I know I need to listen more to my own advice here, but the only way to counter a toxic atmosphere is to roll up your sleeves and help scrub. If you’re just doing your dailies or running somewhere, offer your assistance in map chat. Ask if anyone needs help, ask before a big event if anyone feels uncomfortable with the content and wants an(other) explanation.

I would suggest answering people’s questions as much as possible, but sometimes you see the same question four times in a row in events like this, a week after they’ve been going on. And you feel burned out. You wonder why these people waiting ten minutes for an answer don’t take a sec to alt tab and get the answer online (the way those answering probably did) or read Dulfy or… Sometimes, in large events like Marionette, it can be draining to answer those questions over and over. It’s so much easier to say “go look it up” because you’re busy and that’s what you had to do. You walked three miles in the snow to school and by god kids these days should, too, etc. Except that’s disheartening and wouldn’t it be nice to prevent your kids (server peeps in this metaphor) from having to do that three mile walk in the snow like you had to? So do your best to give a cursory answer before pointing to a Dulfy guide or the wiki. It at least shows that you aren’t trying to brush them off or imply that they should somehow magically know underlying mechanics just from in-game instructions.

The problem with asking certain questions in map chat is that it can come off as you thinking your time is more valuable. You only have to sit here and listen. The other person must have 1) experienced or read thoroughly/taught themselves on the topic to know what they’re talking about and 2) condense that knowledge into typed words that make sense to you and further answer any follow up questions. I personally feel anyone wearing a commander sigil should feel obligated to put themselves in the more burdened position of explaner, but at the end of the day the one who needs to learn it is you.

IDK, you probably know all that. This is just a tldr way to say good luck and that I don’t think a Perfect Server Community exists. Guilds are where it’s at.

I thought it was Tengu at first, too. That skin tone… looks nothing like an Asura’s. But it would make the most sense to be Taimi’s? And now that I look at the armor she wears, it matches the coloring and style exactly. The fingers just look way slender in this picture.

I think what you really need to do is go use this build build editor (or one like it). Get your base build, armor and trinkets down in exotics, then flip ‘em to the same type of ascendeds. In the half an hour this thread has been of no help to you, you probably could have specced it yourself this way :) It gives you way more control than some random dude’s screenshots.

Rizalee.4593:

Yea.. The lighthouse.. I Really hope that father “bear” turns up alive.

Oh gosh I’m tearing up just thinking about that conversation the first time I heard it. :( Yeah, I really hope the lighthouse keeper made it out. I’ll be keeping a really close eye on that in the next update, searching the hordes of refugees for him. Although all in all I think he had the less dangerous position versus all the enemies that spawned for escorting his family, hehe.

I guess I’ll belatedly pour my two cents into the void, since I’ve been lurkingly reading these threads in multiple subforums.

I see people upthread defending this behavior with “what if something important came up irl?” If your kid is having a melt down or you have to take half an hour to an hour to prepare dinner for your family (like I do) maybe just don’t log in (or if you’re in: log out/idle elsewhere). I know that’s a tough concept contending with the aura of entitlement that AFK rewards allows one to feel, but accept that you have real life obligations that are more important and go deal with them. At that point, the reward for an event that continues for the next week or getting removed from the instance when you’re not even at the keyboard should seriously be the least of your concerns. Free up space for someone who will actually play the event.

I play the event two or three times a night after work and skip the 6 o’clock hour to prep and eat dinner. I log out. I don’t stand there and leech off of other people’s efforts. If I have to leave halfway through an event, I am satisfied with the bags earned as a collective, the heirlooms I’ve found as I’ve rescued citizens and the bags that have dropped as I’ve defended them. That’s a lot of reward, even without the final bags.

This is absolutely different than camping for main in Teq, Marionette, or any other event. When you camp for a main instance, you go and actually contribute to the event once it starts. Here, you’re just standing around waiting to be autorewarded. Big difference.

It seems that for an event like this the AFK timer should be reduced to something like 5-10 minutes to prevent people from claiming that this is the way ANet ~meant for us to play~, when you are not “playing” the event and nothing in it says “stand around autohealing/running (AFK circumvention methods) while NPCs and players die around you!”

I’m only sad that a dev hasn’t made official comment on this event behavior. Is the event here for too little time to bother with adjusting the AFK timer in the zone and thus are leaving it in the hands of the mods to kick idlers out of the zone? Even that amount of “you take your potential kick into your own hands” clarification would probably lead to less bitterness on both sides. A mod at the beginning map-chatting, “alright, AFKers have five minutes to get moving or I start kicking out of map,” after such a clarification in the forums would be great. Punishment (I use the term loosely — the zone kick mods are using is a tap on the shoulder compared to an outright ban as some are accusing) for design flaws identified as exploits can then be enforced with more fairness because their stance on the issue is set in writing. I just don’t believe they straight up doled out bans. If you’ve enfracted multiple times, maybe that ads up.

Either way: I agree, their policy should be more transparent.

And either way: It’s still a crappy thing to do to everyone else on the map who’s hustling to hit 1200.

Ramiel.4931:

Proposal Overview

Selectable number of fractals to run before getting the final boss fractal.

Goal of Proposal

Making rewards rise exponentially with the amount of time spent running fractals. Because, let’s face it, current rewards are a bad joke.

Proposal Functionality

You select the number of fractals you want to run. Let’s say 6. The system divides the number to the three tiers of fractals. You get 1 tier 1, 3 tier 2 and 2 tier 3. After which you get the boss fractal as always. Each fractal beyond the 3’rd increases rewards given at the end of the run. Increased ascended armor/weapon drop rate, increased tonic drop rate, more relics, more gold etc.

Difficulty should scale too on runs with more than 3 fractals. If you want to run 20 fractals to seriously increase those ascended chest chances, you should work for it.

Associated Risks

Might make 1 fractal runs easy to abuse though you could easily set the minimum number to 3.

Dude, I was just about the post the same thing:

Proposal Overview
<A short description of the proposal that is being put forward>

Allow parties to select how many fractals to play through at once.

Goal of Proposal
<What problem are you trying to solve with your proposal>

This is an attempt to address an aspect of fractal length issues. Three to four hours for a fractal run is a very large amount of time to schedule in between work, family and other obligations. It requires all the energy and time investment of an Arah path with little of the reward (the reward element has been addressed well elsewhere, as have suggestions on making fractal levels more roughly equivalent in length). I find that I literally can not even contemplate forming a group for fractals during the week after work due to this time length.

Proposal Functionality
<How does your proposal work in regard in relation to the current design of GW2>

Much like choosing which explore path to take in a dungeon, you can choose initially how many fractals from which tier your group wants to attempt, with scaling rewards for fairness. While a “do you want to continue or go to the boss fractal?” type prompt at the end of each successful fractal could work similarly, I imagine the “continue prompt” could cause room for griefing if a few members suddenly decide to deviate from what the group initially agreed upon.

Associated Risks
<What risks or problems can you foresee with this proposal which you would like to have assistance on from other members of the CDI>

It could be disheartening if someone’s schedule suddenly clears up and they’re stuck in a “2 fractals only” group. It would also lead to more splintered LFG advertisements, which could make finding enough to fill a party a little trickier — or it actually might encourage more people to do fractals more frequently and thus fill up the shorter groups faster. I could see it going either way. And if the rewards are lesser in shorter runs without addressing the issues with the current overall rewards that are in place, there might be even less incentive.

There’s also no real ambient event chatter around the asura gates of the racial cities, as one might expect. It would have been cool to see a few dead minion corpses that maybe got through before the gates were shut off, or overhear people confused about popping out into Gendarren Fields, or maybe some people panicking about the attack, etc. But -shrug- these are the little details that probably slip through the cracks on such a tight release schedule.

You did the hard work of capturing and editing, all we had to do was stand there and look pretty. :) I love how the music matches up with the cannon blasts, btw.

I’ll second the thanks to ANet and everyone involved, who seem to continually outdo themselves on Living Story updates.

Kumu Honua.2751:

So I personally dislike that Anet seems to be banning people for being afk, especially without even testing if they are indeed afk or not. If my account gets banned for my activity, I will most certainly raise one hell of a fuss.

Sigh. Anet is doing no such thing. They are banning accounts using macros (almost always “illegal” in game) to circumvent the AFK disconnect time (60 mins). Furthermore, do you really think devs don’t check logs before enacting a ban? Why would you assume such a thing? I’ve reported tons of bots and have never seen them immediately disconnected, to borrow a smart example from earlier up-thread.

A closer reading of posts, especially from the first page where most of this has already been discussed and debunked, might save on the unnecessary drama. No one is getting banned at the moment for AFKing. OP expressed their desire for such a thing, and now it’s like a game of telephone. Hey I hear you get autopermabanned for dancing naked while afk dual wielding legendaries. Pass it on.

Redenaz.8631:

I prefer to think that they’re trying to get people’s belongings back to the rightful owners, and that the rewards are incentive for us to collect and bring them in. It might be nice if we’d do this for free out of the goodness of our hearts, but risking life and limb for mere things is a bit of a tall order, given the warzone you have to go into to retrieve them.

If it eases your conscience, imagine your hero saying, “Just trying to help,” while the Lionguard says, “NO, PLEASE, WE INSIST. HERE, TAKE THESE…LEMONS IN BULK? YOU DESERVE THEM.”

I like this interpretation. I wish it was made explicit that the people you turn in tokens to are actively attempting to return them and not just melting them down to give you stuff… someone please point me to the dialogue if it’s already in-game!

The Flame and Frost event was nice because you’d actually find specific tokens to return to specific people. I thought it might be something similar this time around. I’m not sure what the reward would be (maybe something similar to aiding in one of the escort missions) but it would give me a more personal connection to the refugees. -shrug-

Healix.5819:

If saving civilians gave decent rewards, it would return to the tagging system. People would complain about having their civilians ninja’d.

They need more widespread escort/freedom missions that are more about the civilians cowering in place while people clear out a small area around them. Then you get the rewards of mob loot, plus the satisfaction of saving people. Maybe the civilians auto-release after a successful event en masse or some other mechanic that prevent them from being ninja’able.

They tried this with the escort missions, but the people careening through mobs upon mobs of aoe when you’re just one guy is… a nightmare. And then even if they do make it and you participated via heals and swiftness, you don’t get credit unless you downed an enemy that spawned as part of the event and not one of the trash mobs along the way. The current escort missions are okay for zerging. But they do not encourage overall civilian rescue.

Maybe so many people have to tag citizens before the citizen gets the morale to leave? And as thanks, they offer up some small event reward. That way, you can have multiple people tag the “node” before it depletes. I can see why tags of citizens by infinite players (like on an ore node) would lead to a sort of unwanted inflation in numbers, so maybe this could be a good compromise?

I’d love to see more ideas on how to make rescuing citizens as rewarding as the zerg, in any case :)

I don’t think it breaks lore… I just wish it came with lore. Or that the current events of the game influenced the armor they released in the gem store. Imagine armor made of the wreckage of Lion’s Arch. Wearing the broken statue’s paws as gauntlets, char getting its tail…

Palador.2170:

It should wait until Lion’s Arch is “saved”, but I do think some kind of memorial event needs to happen in-game.

It shouldn’t be a big event with fighting and missions, though. It should be a quiet and personal thing for the most part. Lighting torches or fires at various points in and around LA to remember those who fell there. Maybe services or speeches every now and then in LA, each of the orders’ bases, and each of the race cities.

It should happen every year at the same time, as well.

Hell, I’d even say that the gemstore should shut down for those two weeks. Or offer a free “Memorial Torch” or something. Just NOT make a profit off of it.

Yes, I like this a lot. A lot a lot a lot. All the plus ones.

GW2 has shown it’s got more to offer than just interesting combat as far as gameplay goes. Lighting torches (or even funeral pyres/viking style boats, uuugh my heart), helping compose speeches, maybe finding the right seeds and soil to plant memorial gardens, gathering event materials to assist in rebuilding homes… there’s a lot beyond a dps race they could do here that would make the atmosphere feel thoughtful the way a memorial ought to.

Though you could do a decent defend event if it was an NPC visiting the places outside LA they and their fallen friend would visit — which just happens to be populated by normal map mobs. You’d have to have some mechanic beyond this to make it interesting, but I don’t think this sort of normal aggro would be too out of place if it was part of something bigger with other mechanics mixed in.

Part 2
Obviously I can vote with my wallet, and my own characters don’t have to wear zodiac. I’m fine with that! Really, I promise. I don’t care about taking anything away from anyone – this isn’t an issue of fairness the way Flamekissed was. But I still have to live in a game world where women’s breasts are bared under the veil of airbrushed particle effects, and supported by wishes and dreams — or literal groping hands in the case of the Arah heavy armor. Which they changed as if the problem was the slivers of exposed breast and not the inherent grossness of implying that women’s body parts are to be groped and ogled. Are there going to be more armor sets like this in the future? Is this where the armor design is going? That’s what I’m hoping the feedback influences.

Studies have shown that “dont buy it” protests are not effective because all you’re doing is erasing yourself, making it more likely in the future that the developers won’t even consider you as part of their audience. So I’m voicing my opinion. The bared breasts are only one of many factors — which I outline earlier in the thread — that are keeping me from purchasing the sets.

The people maintaining that “it’s a skin suit/leotard” must never have worn one, or understand the bulk body armor like Batman’s adds to your form. Where are the joint lines showing where pieces connect, like batman’s armor? Where are the padded details, like on Batgirl’s? And just because some comic artists can have a similarly atrocious grasp of anatomy and clothing does not mean it excuses the same mistakes in other media. That just seems to mark this out as an even bigger, more widespread problem than this singular instance, if anything.

I’m not, nor have I seen, any of the criticism ask for the armor to be taken away. Just to keep in mind the tone the game’s design gives off to members of its audience. I’d hate to be running around this game in 2015 and have it basically been a year of God of War female armor options for GW2 female characters. Because I won’t be back in 2016 if that happens.

Part 1

sorudo.9054:

foofad.5162:

Astral Projections.7320:

sorudo.9054:

you see ppl die, blown to pieces and even break legs in mid battle but a nipple is what you guy’s are panicking about?
what a bunch of sissies, grow a pair or go outside and see the world, a nipple is really nothing to be ashamed or embarrassed about.

But, but the CHILDREN! Think about the CHILDREN! O.o

Jk. Lol.

There does seem to be a fair amount of ummmm…… excitement, if that the proper word to use here, over the mere possibility of the presence of female nipples. Multiple screenshots with closeups of the “offending” area with discussions whether or not those are nipples showing or graphic glitches. Idk. Maybe it’s cultural. Maybe it’s an age thing. But some people are getting pretty frothed up about it.

Did you know that the female Orrian heavy chestplate used to show flesh underneath the claws covering the breasts, rather than a metallic plate? They changed it in Beta Weekend 3 or for release, I forget which.

There were definitely complaints about it and it was changed AFTER release. People tend to get offended at things that just do not affect them.

Armor skins are basically the end game right now, so it’s no surprise people are excited to voice their opinions. I don’t think the criticism specifically regarding the bared breasts stems from ~protecting the children~, at least not on my end. I really couldn’t care less about keeping children “pure” or whatever (because spoiler if you don’t have them: they can be smart jerks). I don’t think 5 year olds are playing the game. I think 15 year olds are, and this whiffs of pandering to them.

On my part at least, my investment in the topic stems from: what kind of atmosphere are game elements promoting both within the GW2 world and the games industry at large? Whether it’s Living Story, armor design or playstyle, that’s a question that’s relevant to everyone and not just whoever chooses to wear the armor.

Female armor’s been a subject of high contention in video games from an academic lens. I don’t think that’s a shocking concept to any of us. So does this armor set contribute to supposed industry tropes of objectification or refute them? Or some blend of the two? There’s been some good discussion about how this set excels at being one of the most on-par between the sexes (in terms of skin shown) of all the sets. That’s great! But maybe the girls could get a breast covered, too? All of the male sets cover up at least one pectoral… why are females not allowed the same? And why is the little fabric that is there used in such an ugly and impractical form? I think parity might be buttless pants for guys with some glued on doily looking fabric “holding up” the cheeks. It’s not a sexual organ like the other set of orbs on a guy. But it’s a sexualized body part, I guess. No attention has been paid to the booty on any other sets, just female breasts. Which strikes me as weird. That’s been a lot of the argument, right? That those quirking an eyebrow at the bared breasts are somehow puritans covered from head to toe who quiver at the site of an exposed breast or buttock. Hahaha, noooo. Because I’d like to know why don’t sexualized male parts (dat Nightwing booty) western society labels “taboo” get any of the spotlight? Is it because that feels tasteless? Is it because they think less of their audience would be into that? What is it that makes breasts such a high priority to expose? Bigger questions than we can get at here, but I hope you can see my concern has nothing to do with fear mongering about our children’s morality and more about the message they’re sending about the male and female form in the GW2 world to the players, and how that contributes to the culture of gaming as a whole.

BG main same way, at least as of last night. I’d think this should go in the LS forum? Has there been posts there about this yet?

I usually can’t stop on escort missions. Either 1) I’m trying desperately to down one of the spawns just so I can get credit for the event, because acting as support gets you zero credit — regardless of whether you just landed a wicked crit heal or just dropped 5 long lasting boons at once — and thus is worthless. On the first day, I made the mistake of thinking “everyone is stopping for mobs, I’ll actually try to, you know, escort” and missed out on credit for the ogres, lighthouse and dolyaks. It was a dark moment when I realized I’d just wasted most of the 2-3 hours. ….
or 2) As the escortees run like their butts are on fire, spawning like 5 huge waves of enemies, I’m trying to aoe tag as I run with them to draw fire away. This is what happens after I’ve definitely murdered an enemy that definitely spawned for the event.

These events can be really challenging to get credit for. I’m sorry if everyone runs over you, but they are hustling to get these wonky events done :\ I’ve been in both situations and tbh I don’t fault anyone but whoever designed these events. I hope you have better luck next time! Try grouping during the event for some built-in support.

There’s so much AoE that usually I’m doing my kitten edest to keep myself alive. Sometimes someone’s too far in for me to get to :\ The less events I really need for achievements, the more I’m willing to run in and yolo it to rez someone. You see, I also spent the first day running to events only to find them completed by the time I got there. Even with swiftness buffs I couldn’t make it in time from the waypoint. So I learned to camp events. The less time I have to spend standing around or running to somewhere, the more I can focus on what’s actually going on around me, including downed players.

Sekhmet.6153:

If you want a game just like GW1, then go play GW1.

No one in this thread is asking for “a game just like GW1”. I’m not sure where that came from. Okay, I lied, some randoms jumped in and made it about that, but OP had a great point. People are sad because they feel like history and lore are being wiped off the landscape (physical and story-wise) of GW2.

The ruins were a nice nod to everything that came before without being intrusive. It’s disappointing that they were destroyed. Unless something really cool rises from the ashes, it seems like a waste. Maybe the spot was super magically powerful and Scarlet is drilling there to bring up some artifact or will raise a dragon that will raise even more extensive ruins…? That’s my hope.

ETA: And I’m willing to bet the above poster is right, that it was intentional to make us feel emotional about the invasion like we did with the Searing. But idk, the absolute shock of the searing can never be compared to imo. It came as a complete surprise, hitting me like a truck. I don’t think the structure of the living story releases and their promotions of them ahead of time allows for a surprise like that.

I feel you, OP.

First, I love this update so far. Origins of Madness and Escape from LA have really just hit it out of the park for me, and I feel like feedback is getting to the devs. Each LS update is usually better than the last, which is all I ever really hoped for. <3 so wonderful.

My concern this time is that I can’t play with the person I’m sitting in the same room with. My boyfriend and I were in a group together with three other people, we did the entry event, I portaled in and… everyone of us got placed into a different overflow. Each one of us tried to “join” one of the four other members only to receive “full overflow” messages. We never had that problem in Marionette; one of us could almost always join the other (though of course if one of us got into main they didn’t want to, heh). I don’t care if it’s my server’s main instance or an OF, I just want to play with my group.

I feel incredibly lucky to have gotten into an overflow with him the first time I tried the event, because the three times after I was all alone but for the randoms I was placed with. I don’t mind randoms! I love the learning and teaching, and don’t mind meeting new people. In fact, the other players in our group who were separated from us were randoms we met while waiting for the entry event! We thought we were going to have an opportunity to hang out with new people, only to be immediately split.

Is it too much to ask that if I go in with a group, the game shoves me in an instance with them? Why can’t we choose districts like in GW1? The usual rhetorical questions, I suppose.

This is awesome! Way to go devs :) It’s details like this that make it feel like a living world. Thank you for this.

UrsaMaritima.8604:

kimeekat.2548:

I highly suggest the artists look at runway fashions like this, this, this, this, these, this, or really just anything fashion related and take some inspiration time.

This, so much this. The two black dresses in that list are great – although to be fair, we’ve gotten some pretty good ones with the Phoenix, Trickster, and Viper armors.

Phoenix is loooovely and the Viper’s really grown on me. I was waiting to see what gemstore armors would be out with this patch before I pick up the Phoenix, hoping something would pull me away from being yet another female character wearing Kasmeer’s getup but. So perfectly pretty and revealing just enough… those floating feathers! That phoenix at the back! Swoon.

Lorelei.7809:

You have to admit though, it seems that they colored the characters blue so that they could have indecent armors… Personally, I just don’t like how it looks. It just seems…. wrong.

Please, make an armor that is both skimpy and classy. Like http://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/b/be/Norn_Raven_Shaman_render.jpg
(hint, hint)
Note: I’m cool with pretty much anything but breast showing. open backs are awesome (particularly for Sylvari and tatooed Norn, I’d also like it for my Charr gal), open arms are great (particularly for my patterned Sylvari and tatooed Norn, and patterned Charr!), showing legs is great, and feet (why I like the T2 on my Sylvari to show her darker toes), midriff to show rock hard abs (I chose the muscular Norn builds).

Go ahead and keep the armor as-is, but there are major problems with it:
1. It takes away any and all characteristics of your characters – A major problem for female Charr and Asura since they use the male version of the armor. My lady Asura and Charr look like men now.
2. The blue covers up tatoos, Sylvari patterns, Norn Tatoos, Charr stripes, etc.
This armor makes make-over kits and work put into character design worthless…

What you could do instead:
Masques (so that hair shows)
Long gloves (I would love long gloves and no sleeves!)
cool boots (high boots)
elegant dress (with no sleeves and an open back for example to go with the long gloves)
maybe transparent sleeves/veils/leggings instead of opaque covering such that tattoos show?

Wow, I want that raven shaman top so bad for my Norn warrior. Lovely. The bottoms could use some work if they wanted me to pay gems for it, but. Yeah. That is so right up my alley in the mix between skimpy and haute. Great suggestions and accompanying explanations :) The headpieces would be so much cooler if they were blue masks that still showed some face in the vein of the “tattoo” skins they’ve been releasing lately. I would buy probably too many of those.

I highly suggest the artists look at runway fashions like this, this, this, this, these, this, or really just anything fashion related and take some inspiration time.

I think this (nsfw?) male fashion might be a little more on par for the male design of Zodiac.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

This is absolutely no different than what a lot of women wear for yoga or ballet or any number of other activities. Skin tight leotards, body suits, etc. Do you take issue with those as well?

When I wear a leotard for ballet or a bodysuit for cosplay, the leotard or suit doesn’t concave to perfectly shape my cleavage. If you’re looking for some sort of equivalent, I think body paint or a spray tan is closer.

phys.7689:

Flytrap.8075:

The armor itself is not too bad. The female version could do with a little more coverage, but overall, it’s not a terrible set.

What really gets me is why ANet decided to include the blue skin effect. Maybe there are people out there who think it’s a cool look, but I personally think it’s just plain ugly.

the blue skin is the point of the armor really, its supposed to be sky/star/godlike celestial beings. Its hard to see with certain graphics settings but the blue skin is actually glittery and starry
google search celestial and you see a lot of starry blue sky things when you search celestial

The armor set is called “Zodiac”, not “Celestial”, and there is a weapon set sharing this name in the game already. While those weapons do utilize a blue effect, there are other effects that share the stage equally if not more, such as the glowing star points and the animals. The two sets seem only tangentially related.

I wear skimpy armor (caveat: the ones I find detailed and fashionable) to show off my character’s sylvari glow or my norn tattoos. shrug For those of us with that mind set (and I’d say it’s a fair amount because I hear so many crowing about how they love Sylvari skin), the blue overwhelms that and defeats the purpose. It’s a lovely effect, though. I just wish it were on actual items of clothing instead of overwriting your skin, glow, face (ugh), etc.

And as for your reply to my longer post, I don’t think you read/caught the nuance of my statements, or else perhaps I didn’t clarify well enough — ymmv. I don’t think there are too many skimpy armors; I think there are too many poorly designed skimpy armors, especially lately, and that for the most part their male counterparts are not on par in the skin department.

Gulesave.5073:

On the male-vs-female discussion: yes, they show skin on guys, but not in areas that are popularly eroticized like a woman’s chest is. Male characters are deliberately desexualized in a jarring and downright surgical way, (their entire pelvic area is emasculated more than a Ken doll’s).

This is really the gist of it for me. I LOVE that the male version attempts to be as skimpy. Gold Star for trying. So many gold stars. Glad my male characters will get one whole bared nipple if I ever decide to drop 800 gems just to see a hyper blue version of half their chest and upper stomach, I guess.

But that fails to match the vast amount of bared skin, and the specifically placed nature of it, of the female version. My god, why even have fabric on the design of those tops at that point? Oh argue all you want that the blue effect isn’t skin it’s just a cool fabric bodysuit that happens to reveal every joint and the cleavage line like a mystical spray tan, ~educate me~ about how unenlightened and puritanical I am for not understanding that sexualization and fetishization of certain female body parts by western culture is just like, a construct man, don’t get your panties in a wad; while you then continue to perpetuate those trends and try to tell me I’m getting just as much fanservice from half a bared male chest (hint: I’m super not). kitten chaps or maybe some cupped ball design (can you imagine blue balls with those little doilies underneath? hahaha, oh man), and you’re getting warmer.

I guess at least this armor feints at covering the nipples via a texture rather than drawing attention to them with a megaphone like the watchknight design. It’s the small victories.

Also, in the name of desiring some relative practicality, it’d be nice if someone could design female chest armor that actually looks like it would support the breasts instead of being designed around a ‘cupped hand to the underboob’ aesthetic. Is that the only way they’ve interacted with boobs? Doesn’t have to be structurally sound but between this and the single bikini string at the shoulderblades thing going on with the light flamekissed/feathered I’m just feeling like someone doing these designs has never had to deal with a real pair of breasts. I’m all for skimpy, but take a note from the winged female light armor which actually looks like a top and not a taped-on applique.

Afya.5842:

Here I’m still in office imagining the look of the new armor.

I know those feels, friend. I’m in the half hour doldrums that happens on light-medium work days before I go home, and I can’t find pictures anywhere. Too afraid to troll the tumblr Guild Wars 2 tags for fear of spoilers that I can’t unsee.

Wow, OP. Do you realize that because they drop the updates in the middle of a work day, most US residents not on some sort of flexible school schedule never get to experience the patches at release?

Reel it in a little bit. They’re probably not gonna do a “one time or you miss it” event ever again. You’re not missing out on anything.