Guild Wars 2

Veilunariel.3914:

I do. It’s hardly a crime, is it not so? My first character was a Sylvari, my second character was a Sylvari. My third character was a Charr but I just couldn’t bring myself to like his appearance. And when I tried to create Norn or Human characters… well… the pretty boring skin color was the thing that bothered me the most. So I came here to ask if any of you feel the same.

And that is just the thing. ArenaNet wants to go with a somewhat realistic look for their races, and Norn and Humans can’t realistically be blue or purple or pitch black. At least not in the currently available areas of the planet.

Stochastic.1398:

5+5 = 10. For PVP it appears there is no downside to not having access to HOT, so you will actually be able to use all the classes…

No, you will only have 5 on the new account and 5 on the old account. A 5+1 on the old account is in my eyes worth more than 5 on a completely new account where I have to redo everything from the start.

I would say that there are several downsides to not having access to HoT. Especially the Elite Specializations and access to the upcoming Stronghold Mist Champions.

There is of course also the point that the match-making won’t work between two different accounts, so even if you have all classes spread out over the two accounts, you won’t really be able to take advantage of them all anyway.

Missywink.7162:

How about a “Defibrillator” rather than having to have revive orbs on you. If you are downed it takes the same amount of time to revive you, however the defibrillator charges 4 times with the sound of it charging whilst ressing you. You get up still dazed etc… but it means that you only have to have one in your inventory instead of a stack of revive orbs.

So basically an unlimited rez orb?

Sounds extremely unlikely that something like that would be added.

If you upgrade you have a bunch of stuff already and most likely have at least one character ready for HoT without having to level up from scratch.

There is also the case for some of us with old items that are no longer obtainable and so on.

Why would you want to redo all the work you have done on your current account just because you get 5 new slots with a new account (which is the same number as you already have at your current account btw)?

Varrg.2704:

This is not even funny at this point. Especially since half of the content which is supposed to sell HoT could be just patched in in regular updates.

Indeed, which they said themselves.
But the forums just haaaaaaad to have an expansion instead and wouldn’t shut the kitten up about it.

CureForLiving.5360:

Well we’ve already gotten info, several times, on the new WvW map. What we’re getting now is… I would say first look but they had a PoI of it as well. So I guess it’s more accurate to say, that some people are getting a hands-on but overall we’re getting nothing in terms of new information.

There is a rather large difference between having a full map with people running around in WvW as compared to a few guys running around on it in PoI.

Time will tell I suppose.

So, the only information that actually counts is Guild Halls, Masteries, Elite Specialization and new maps?

Fenom.9457:

NEED MORE INFO THERE IS NO EXCUSE NOT EVEN THE LA UPDATE IT WAS NICE BUT NOT AN EXCUSE FOR WHAT A MONTH OF NOTHING NEW?

We had 8 blog posts about three weeks ago. We had another last week.

Swizzle.7982:

Well, I don’t play warrior. I actually dislike playing warrior, I find it to be the most boring class in the game. But the specialization for even my least favourite class is still exciting, because maybe I’ll end up liking it, I’ll at least end up playing with people who use it, and most likely fighting against it too.

But go on, what other info do we have? Guild halls, revenant… and?

We know more information from data mining than from blog posts.

Masteries.
Stronghold.
Hylek.
WvW Mastery changes.
WvW map.
WvW system changes.

The only thing we doesn’t really have is Challenging Group content and a bunch of Elite Specialization.

Swizzle.7982:

The problem is a lot of this information concerns something only small numbers of people really care about. Guild halls? Nice for guild leaders and some of the larger guilds maybe. Tournaments and beta dates? Well, I know I don’t care about those. The other information, I don’t even remember that… So yeah, we might be getting information, but it’s nothing exciting or memorable. And if this is the stuff they’re showing us to build hype about their expansion.. well, I think there’s an obvious conclusion there that a lot of people are coming to.

And what makes you so sure that more people care about a Warrior Specialization for example?

The Guild Halls seems to have plenty of things for all three game modes and it does include rather large changes for WvW.
YOU might not be interested in it, but that doesn’t mean it is not new information.

We can’t start disregarding information just because we don’t care about it.
Heck, I am not really all that interested in the Specializations, but I don’t go around claiming we have gotten no information after weeks when they have talked about them.

Astralporing.1957:

Of course, the best option would have been making clear what the “access to all future HoT beta weekend events” actually means. If i am forced to parse it literally the only conclusion i can arrive at is that it doesn’t tell me anything. After all, they could stay completely true to what they wrote, and do no such event at all.

But they are rather clear.

Beta (that is rather clear what that means)
Weekend (also rather clear, I even think I supplied the definition of Weekend earlier in the thread): Friday evening to Sunday.

Event: A specific thing. Not a Test, an Event.

Beta TEST is a test. Beta EVENT is an event.

The thing coming this week is a Stress Test. Thus it doesn’t really hit ANY of the things from the promised access statement.

It is not a beta, nor is it an event, nor is it on a weekend.

CureForLiving.5360:

Yeah nothing on twitter get, we might be getting another zero-info weeks. Well they are doing the wvw stress test… so no info.

I would say seeing the WvW map in action for the first time is rather much info actually.

skowcia.8257:

I guess so considering how small the “expansion” is. All meaningful that left are specs and group contest.

Of course. And a couple of weeks ago we also had Guild Halls on that list, which was addressed.

CureForLiving.5360:

But some more specialisation info would be nice.

Oh, I agree, but people seems to imply that we have gotten no information whatsoever for months.

We have had plenty of other information since then though.

Elite Specializations isn’t the only thing coming with the expansion.

Eh.. there was never ever anything at all said that buying Guild Wars 2 would give you access to every new piece of content ever.
Expansions in the vast majority of games cost money, despite people having paid money for the original game. That is just how things work in the real world.
They need to get money in order to survive. Their employees are people just like you and me, and they also have families to feed and rents to pay.

It is a slot specific for the upcoming Beta Weekend Events. That slot can never be used to create something for the live game. And it will most likely get deleted after each Beta Weekend Event.

There is no “weekly Elite specialization talk”. There is “we release stuff when we are ready to release stuff talk”.

Because you have to take traits into consideration when you downscale?

If you had a lvl 80 with the exact same attributes as a lvl 21, the lvl 80 would be many times stronger than the lvl 21.

With slightly lower attributes however they are rather equal.

Dinks.2478:

Sorry, I compared my two mesmers hitting the same mob and no, the 21 is hitting harder.

Even with the traits that give Might on every hit?
What about traits that increase the damage (and add conditions) to the Shatter and Illusion skills?

You can?

The BONUS slot that was added AFTER pre-purchase started seems to be coming with HoT release, but the slot coming with Deluxe and Ultimate version is usable more or less as soon as you register the code (might need to relog).

Dinks.2478:

I cannot fathom the thought process that allows people to go “Oh, low level toons are stronger than level 80s. Better praise anet and ignore the issue” Seriously, Go make a level 20 and then bring your level 80 to a 20 zone. Your level 20 will kill things faster, traits don’t matter at low levels.

But.. they aren’t stronger.

Raw attribute points is rather irrelevant. Me running around with a Greatsword Mesmer getting Might every single auto-attack makes me rather powerful compared to a lvl 21 Greatsword Mesmer without the “free” might applications for example.

Nope, it gives a single code.

It is of course worth pointing out that even if power and armor scales badly, a lvl 80 character does have access to traits and such, and thus are much more powerful naturally even at lower stats, than a natural lvl 21.

skowcia.8257:

A bit modified mechanic is not really different from the old one, and definitely doesnt deserve to take a whole week just bc devs changed their mind. No wonder why everyone on reddit downvote you, they have a good reason to do so.

A bit?

During the betas there was one Hero per side (and it never changed, red always had the same one and blue always had the other). With basically identical functions.

In the new system there are three vastly different characters, which rely on the team taking each other choices into account and can very much change the flow of the battle.

It changes the whole mechanics of the game mode.

skowcia.8257:

Why are you lying? Last week was all about LA and champions to stronghold which we already knew about.

As for your “eight” blogs they were all about guild halls. So you want to tell me that it would be fine to drag info about guild halls 8 weeks?

We did not know about the Mist Champions, considering that the system is rather different from the one we saw during the earlier betas. Thus it was new information for HoT. There is in no way lying just because you don’t feel like the information count. In fact, the one lying here is YOU, since you are claiming that we knew stuff that we didn’t.

While they were indeed focused around Guild Halls, they did give information about stuff across all game modes. Especially the new claiming system for WvW was rather big.

Fact remains that we had plenty of information rather recently, as opposed to no information at all lately as the OP seemed to imply.

For most HoT specific things we have had teaser picture on Monday.
Articles/Blogs on Thursday and live stream on Friday.

During the Living Story it was usually:
Week A: Teaser on Tuesday.
Week B: Release of teased thing on Tuesday.
Week C: Teaser on Tuesday.
Week D : Release of teased thing on Tuesday.

A few weeks ago we have EIGHT blog posts about HoT. We also had a blog post last week. Yes, they could be faster, but on the other hand they could also be much slower.

The expansion won’t get here faster just because they rush through the blog posts. And I for one prefer to have information spread out rather than getting everything at once and then potentially go months with no info and no release.

It does not say access to all betas. It says access to all Beta Weekend Events.

The stress test is a stress test.
On a Thursday.

So it doesn’t really hit any of the parts (not a beta event, and not on a weekend).

The thing is that a stress test (especially early ones) needs to be rather controlled. Therefore giving access to potentially millions of people is not a good idea.

Ricky.4706:

why put it in bold letters on the front page if none of the prepurchasers can attend ?

that’s plain rude. funny, but rude!

Source that none of the prepurchasers can attend?

How do you know that the streamer haven’t prepurchased for example?

Go to: https://register.arena.net
Sign in on the top right
Press the add code button.
Add code.

You don’t pay again to get the full game. You pay to get access to the expansion. Which costs $50.

Baldrick.8967:

I’m wondering why they even bothered announcing it

Because if they didn’t people would rage like mad how they are trying to “hide” tests in order to bypass having to give access to everyone (because people can’t read).

Ricky.4706:

massive ques ? ……ok lol

Yes, if potentially million people get access at the same time and all wants to play it will create rather massive queues.
And since it will ONLY test the new map, there will literally be nothing at all to do while waiting in said queue.

There are a grand total of two things in the whole PvE-part of the game that require any sort of organization whatsoever. Is that really such a big deal?

Triple Trouble Wurm and to a lesser extent Tequatl are supposed to be for organized groups. It really is as simple as that. If you do not want to make organized groups, there are over 2500 other events around the world that you can complete.

Trajan.4953:

It’s not a Beta, it’s a promotion which they handed to a popular streamer who only plays the game when he can get views, and spends most of his time in EOTM. Nice and safe.

And bullkitten.

It is indeed not a beta.
It is a stress test.
A stress test is mainly used to see how much the servers can handle, not for feedback. Thus it is rather irrelevant how much or how little a single player plays WvW normally.

People also seems to think that it will ONLY be the supposed 35 people that said streamer is supposedly giving access to. That is not the case.

I am still waiting for the source that he actually have these slots to give out.
People seems to refuse to give a source on this other than “he said so, so it must be true”.

Who has ever said anything about this being a private beta? There is a difference between a private, a closed and an open beta after all.

It is a stress test. They invite whoever they think will be best for the game into said stress test. It really is as simple as that.

Fact still remains that there is nothing in any way or form that says that you will get access to every single test ever if you pre-purchase.

Ricky.4706:

@lordkrall.7241 that would be one side of the conspiracy theory,

the other side of that would be anet is doing a marketing stunt and inviting the press to show us what we can’t have for another 6 months. 5 months of advertising already …for an expansion…..over-production.

What does that have to do with the topic at hand, at all?

There is no conspiracy theory. There is simply logic. They specifically said Beta Weekend Events as opposed to Betas. Which is exactly what they did before release as well, and the current situation is exactly like it was before release. Even if people somehow don’t understand the meaning of the word weekend, it would be rather easy to just search for Beta Weekend Event and see which system was used for the initial release.

Astralporing.1957:

If you have to parse specific wording and think of the ways to circumvent it in order to get the full meaning, then the message is not only not clear, but intentionally misleading.

I suppose it might be a matter of language barriers, but to me a Beta WEEKEND event, would take place on a WEEKEND.
I would also assume that something specifically named Beta Weekend Event would be a specific type test as opposed to beta tests.

The thing, is people are reading something that is not there on purpose, simply so that they can bash ArenaNet.

Think about it: Why would the specify Beta Weekend Events instead of just writing Betas if they meant every single test ever?

Ricky.4706:

whats clear….. you pay, you are in beta, there’s a beta, you can’t get in. Darn that fine print!! lol

But that is not what it said.
It did not say: Buy now and get access to every test ever.
It did say: Buy now and get access to all Beta WEEKEND Events.

Ricky.4706:

that would be nicer to hear than some announcement saying "we are holding a stress test that you thought you paid for …bwahahahaha! "

whether they meant it that way or not really doesn’t matter…..I learned this the hard way, public speaking can be tricky!

public speaking is like speaking to that one argumentative friend that is always like "So what you are trying to tell me is…..-insert worst possible case scenario here- "

How can it be tricky?
It outright says exactly what it means. The fact that you decided to read it as something other than that, isn’t really ArenaNets fault.

Lets make it even more clear, shall we?

Definition of weekend:

a. the end of the week, esp the period from Friday night until the end of Sunday
A weekend consists of a Saturday and the Sunday that comes after it. Sometimes Friday evening is also considered to be part of the weekend. The weekend is the time when most people in Europe, North America, and Australia do not go to work or school.

Guizao.4167:

What? FEW BETA WEEKENDS and REAL BETAS AND STRESS TEST, the announcement on the pre-purchase page is very clear, that is, pre-purchasing it grants you access on ALL beta weekends. Plus, what do you mean by ‘real betas and stress test’?

The announcement is indeed very clear.
You do not bold the whole important part however. All beta weekends is what it says. Not all tests ever.

Silvy.3816:

The only one thing I’m can’t understand is why ANet cant select 2-3 programmers and tell them something like:
“Ok, guys you need to fix SAB. Here is old code, here – someone who created it earlier and you can ask whatever you want. Here is tonns of video, how it should work. You can just use other features to make it work. No falling damage? Grandmaster planner mastery. Dry leafs? Skyhammer power fields. Jumping mushrooms? HoTs jumping mushrooms, etc…”
Thay dont need to design levels, draw textures, place enemies and traps. Only thing thay should fix – SAB mechalics. Why Anet cant pick out 2-3 programmers from more then hundred programmers stuff? Dont think it would take more then few mouths to fix everething, if thay already have old code, fully designed levels and someone, who done it before.

Because 2-3 programmers out of a total of probably around 50 (at most) is a rather large chunk of programmers?
There is of course also the fact that programmers specialize in different things. Just because you are a programmer doesn’t mean you will be able to do every single thing related to coding for example.

JediYoda.1275:

Get your facts straight June 16, 2015 Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns Is Available for
Pre-Purchase!
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/guild-wars-2-heart-of-thorns-is-available-for-pre-purchase/

Anet Announcing the WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Tests May 8, 2015, More information on how you can get an invite to participate will be released at a later time.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/announcing-the-wvw-desert-borderlands-stress-tests/

Announcing the First World vs. World Borderlands Stress Test July 2, 2015
The first World vs. World Desert Borderlands stress test will take place on July 9.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/announcing-the-first-worldvs-world-borderlands-stress-test/

People are confusing things and or haven’t been following the news or both!

Context is rather important.
We are rather clearly talking about the initial release. Not HoT release.

Zetsumei.4975:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3bzuwt/so_this_is_how_they_are_selecting_active_wvw/

Surprise, surprise.

As far as I am aware there have still not been a single confirmation that the guy actually have any spots to give away. Despite being asked every single time that have been linked (and it have been linked rather many times).

Astralporing.1957:

Yes, and after they presold the game with the promise of access to any next beta event, all betas were only beta weekends. Unlike now.

That is actually not entirely correct.

Pre-purchase started on April 10th. There were tests after that which didn’t include everyone that have pre-purchased.

It is of course also worth pointing out that they never said any next beta event, but rather every Beta Weekend Events, just like this time.

Baldrick.8967:

How is 35 (if that number is correct) a ‘stress test’? Unless they are planning on restricting the new maps to 35 a side (or total), or are they planning on the last few wvw players to just give up playing when the new map comes out?

If we assume that the guy giving away slots actually have slots, it is very unlikely that those 35 slots are the ONLY invites that will happen. If it were, why would that specific person be given them to hand out freely?

Ah yes, I am sure people would love being invited to the beta but just spending the whole test waiting in queue.

^ Confirmed where? And by whom?

Chaba.5410:

I question how it is supposed to be a stress test when the space is limited. XD

Because having unlimited space basically means that the servers will crash completely within minutes and thus the whole test will be pointless due to them not being able to gather data?