Guild Wars 2

^ People always seems to claim that, but I have never actually seen any sort of examples or evidence for it.

Dedlaw.9130:

Which is pretty much how every single world boss, dungeon & fractals work. It all requires a certain amount of suspension of disbelieve, I don’t see why a new boss would be any different

The world bosses are not unique though. Most of them are either a rank or just a random extra strong enemy.

Dungeons are locked in time. What happens in the Dungeons happens once. Not every time you do them.

Fractals takes place in the Mists, the rules of the Mists are mysterious and thus standard logic does not apply to them.

Getting to kill one of the Elder Dragons in a open world zone on the other hand would be rather impossible to explain. Especially considering the fact that it would have to respawn more or less on-demand so that people could finish it whenever they felt like it, rather than having to wait on a schedule.

It is also the fact that they are massive and performance as mentioned in the second part of my post.

I would assume that there will be a new personal story that deals with the offensive against Mordremoth.

No official word as of yet though.

Deli.1302:

I wouldn’t be so quick to call it an advanced version.

It have the whole standard thing (the match ends when the enemy lord is killed) and adds stuff on top of that.

Isn’t that the very definition of an advanced version?

Dedlaw.9130:

I’m curious as to why you think a map-wide event wouldn’t work? Killing the dandelion in Silverwastes is a pretty good example of map-wide efforts culminating into a big boss fight.

But yeah, anything other than a repeat of Zhaitan

Because defeating a massive unique boss just to have it respawn 10 minutes later is rather silly?

I would also say it have to do with performance. There is already issues for some people with lags when fighting Wurm and Tequatl. Just imagine fighting something that is many times bigger than those.

Ralanost.8913:

Zhaitan fed on magic. Could have tried to give him bad magic that weakened him. Maybe set up a field to drain the magic from him. Asuran shrink ray. Anything other than the stupid King Kong fight where you aim a cannon at him while he calmly clutches to the side of a building while you repeatedly press 2 over and over again. After he dies, you don’t even get to see his corpse. He falls into the fog, never to be seen again. Even if we had to walk up to his body with a torch and light it on fire, it would have had more closure.

It isn’t our fault Anet wrote themselves into a corner making Elder Dragons so monstrously huge and making them the big bads we had to fight. They set them up as the enemies, it is up to them to make the fights compelling and rewarding. Turrets are NOT compelling or rewarding. They remove you from combat.

I suppose we completely disregard the fact that more or less the last half of the personal story was all about denying Zhaitan the magic it feeds on, and thus making it weak enough to attack?

We fought Zhaitan long before we took it down in Arah.

The BvB that people have started calling GvG is not actual GvG.

GvG is the mode that was available in GW1. Something that they are giving us a more advanced version of with HoT.

People are overreacting.

16% of a company is not enough to take total control.
Sure they can make changes, but even if the new person they place on the board says: “We should do this in order to increase income!” there would still be others that could simply counter with: “We have allowed them to make their own decisions for a long time and it is still very profitable, so we should not touch it”.

How is 200 gems more than €10?

Sure, you can only by the pack of 800 for real money, but that means you can unlock FOUR chapters, not one.

The actual worth of 200 gems is around €2,5 not €10.

While I do see the issue with having a work in the middle of nowhere, one could of course point out that said work most likely generated money and as such a tiny bit of those money could be used to unlock access.

Not to mention the fact that you can trade in-game gold for gems, thus paying nothing at all.
Or joining someone that have already unlocked it, thus not even having to get the gold.

I wonder if we would have the same discussions if it was humans that had the place of the Sylvari.

Or did she?

The fact that a very champion of Mordremoth managed to infiltrate the Dream suggest that she did not actually protect it as well as we might want.

If your browser have saved the password you should be able to find it in the settings.

If you use Chrome it should be up at Settings —- Advanced Settings —- Password or something like that.

Chrome:
http://www.wikihow.com/Manage-Saved-Passwords-in-Google-Chrome

Firefox:
http://www.wikihow.com/See-Saved-Passwords-in-Firefox

The problem is that people don’t know the difference between a plan and a promise.
And as such as soon as any of the plans change (even if we get told about it) the forums will explode about being lied to and so on and so forth.

The effect of that is hurting the game and ArenaNet way more than not telling us stuff until it is ready.

Stealth != Invulnerability

If you don’t dodge/move the attack will hit you.
Simple as that.

You can get massive amounts of transmutation charges completely free by either doing map completion (the cities give them I believe) or doing WvW (all the Reward Tracks gives quite a few).

Shiren.9532:

lordkrall.7241:

It is very likely that we will focus Norn when we go for Jormag, Asura when we go for Primordus, Human when we go for Bubbles/Steve and Charr when we go for Kralkatorrik.

Which I think is a huge mistake. It’s going to be really boring if each expansion focuses primarily on a single race and isn’t able to meaningfully advance multiple racial storyline. What the charr aren’t going to do anything meaningful because Jormag comes first?

It’s also very difficult/risky to pull off an expansion in a single environment. I don’t doubt ArenaNet will work kitten making the Heart of Maguuma aesthetically diverse and interesting, but there are only so many flavours of jungle they can pull off. After a while players are going to crave a desert, the beach, snowy mountains, a forest or the plains. We have so many diverse environments with the core game, an entire expansion that likely only focuses on one environment could get old really fast.

Repeating that with a Jormag expansion and snow/ice seems like such a waste. I think they will be able to pull it off for a single expansion, but in the future I think players are going to be well and truly sick of single environment expansions and will be craving something bigger. It will be interesting to see what happens with this fewer maps but greater gameplay density design they are going with. Personally I’m concerned.

As far as focusing on the sylvari now, well I don’t know what they have in the pipeline for Jormag, Kralkatorrik, Primordius, the charr homelands, Cantha or Elona, but I suspect the sylvari story had to take place sooner rather than later, especially once they committed with Scarlet. I do think it’s interesting many players got sick of sylvari back when Scarlet was running around, I feel for them now that we get what is essentially a sylvari expansion. This story will define the role of an entire race in the world for every story to come. They had to tell it soon.

You are assuming that we will only ever have one dragon per expansion. I would not say that is necessarily true. For all we know we will go against both Jormag and Primordus at the same time, thus focusing on the Asura and Norn in the same expansion and giving us both snow and underground.

If you are not going specifically for WvW you have no need to join Blackgate, since you can still play with people in the same region in PvE from any server.

The sad thing is that if they HAD been PR people we would have complaints about how it all just being PR talk.

The precursor mastery seems to be along the lines of: “Get to this level of the mastery, which unlocks a collection which you have do to in order to get your precursor”.

It was confirmed in yesterdays blog post that the Masteries are only for owners of HoT.

More specifically this part:

The ability to train Masteries is unlocked at level 80 for all players that own Heart of Thorns.

Since masteries are not in any way or form usable in PvP I really don’t see how one could measure that.

It also seems like the masteries themselves are tied to very specific things, so while you might be more powerful than a creature in the Jungle you would most likely still be at the same level against a Ghost in Ascalon.

It is very unlikely that they will lock any main story behind the mastery “grind”.
Based on what we have heard it sounds much more like giving access and abilities for OPTIONAL out of the way content. So I really don’t see how that would be much of an issue, even if it requires some “grinding” (it seems to basically just require playing the game in the area).

And without siege decay trolls can completely shut down the ability to place siege and not a single thing can be done about it.

The whole of the Living Story have built towards the awakening of Mordremoth (and thus the reveal of the Sylvari origin). Mordremoth is the Sylvari dragon, as such it makes sense that they are focused when we are working towards that Dragon.

It is very likely that we will focus Norn when we go for Jormag, Asura when we go for Primordus, Human when we go for Bubbles/Steve and Charr when we go for Kralkatorrik.

No, but you mentioned having “low as kitten HP” which would suggest you build around something that doesn’t give vitality.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/support/Delayed-or-No-Ticket-Reply-Read-This/first#post4533589

There are also a very large number of tickets at the moment, so it does take longer than usual.

After a week with no answer you can post in this thread:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/support/Tickets-for-Review-7-days-older-Part-2/page/38#post4762443

As for a chat or call center that wouldn’t really change much, seeing as they would still need to investigate and as such it would take more time than a phone-call or a chat session should.

NiloyBardhan.9170:

TBH, that 5% stat increase can make a difference in small scale fights (even in ZvZ I suppose). I, myself, have barely stayed alive with as low kitten HP (Yes, FIVE). If I was wearing Exotic, I would have been downed (and dead consequently). So yes, it does make a difference IMHO.

Running around in zerker will still get you killed, no matter if you use Exotic or Ascended.

Dean Calaway.9718:

This might not be a popular opinion but I hope they’re NOTHING like the old ones.
Acquiring the old is a drag, its all about grind and asking guildies for help.
Then the looks, well…

Isn’t the main reason for this the problem getting a precursor though? Which will no longer be a problem with the new Mastery.

While there are some slight similarites I wouldn’t say they are the same.

The masteries seems to be a much broader system for one, and not just tied specfically to combat.

The risk of you running into a lone guy with the exact same skill as you is more or less zero. Thus the tiny difference in stats won’t really change much overall.

jia li ng.8415:

I seriously doubt that the number of incident tickets will be dropping to below its June ’05 numbers anytime if ever, and there are more than a thousand unemployed IT workers seeking a decent job, of those, the cream of top one hundred may apply for a position posted with ArenaNet, with barely any training.
Given the fact that resurgence of interest with an impending expansion placing another twenty full time Customer Service personnel would do nothing but shore up a sagging department. If a number of individuals hired show promising talent there would be no reason to lay-off or defer any to unemployment again … if what I see on the horizon for ArenaNet is true then being able to provide prompt Customer Service should always be of keen interest.

That is not how it works.

I could have worked 50 years in CS and still need to be trained for a new CS-role seeing as all of them might have different procedures, uses different systems and have different tools available. Sure, it might not require as much as a completely new person, but it would still require a week or two at the very least.

Yes, there might be a high number of tickets for a long time. But what if the number of tickets suddenly drops down to the levels they had before the announcement and sale? Then they would suddenly have lets say 50 people that won’t really have anything to do, due to there not being enough tickets to attend to.
They aren’t going to pay people for sitting around doing nothing after all.

Ohoni.6057:

I would hope that players that don’t buy the expansion would at least have access to the “old map” masteries, giving them some amount of progression.

They won’t, according to the blog.

The ability to train Masteries is unlocked at level 80 for all players that own Heart of Thorns.

And who is to say that the powerful infusions simply don’t have special modifiers such as: “Increase damage done by x% (works only in Fractals)”?

Beast Sos.1457:

It makes sense but doesnt change the fact that its a bad argument. I said we are not forced to do fractals then he comes back at me by saying youre not forced to go in the jungle. If you think about it you are, if you want to progress in the gw2 story. We also know season 3 of the LW will take place in the jungle.

No. What he said was that you were not forced to EXPLORE the jungle.
Going into != Explore.

It is rather unlikely that the story parts will be locked behind Mastery advancements and as such his argument is very much valid.

What we have seen in interviews and such suggest that the gliding and such lets you visit SPECIAL places, not that you need it to visit every single place ever in the new maps.

But that is just the thing:
The customer service is still exactly the same. But the volume is much higher and as such it is impossible for the exact same costumer service to provide the exact same service as they did when they had a much lower volume.

Unless they hire 20 extra people (which would then be required to be trained and such before they could do any real work) that they would later on need to fire there isn’t really much they can do.

Brother Grimm.5176:

Where have they said that old precursors will even be obtainable via the new method? (I might have missed that).

If they haven’t specifically stated that, keep in mind that your “valid argument” may be factor in whether or not they include old precursors in the new method….just to make your “argument” a moot point.

Here:

Master Legends: Train in legendary crafting to learn to create all existing legendary weapon precursors and new legendary weapon precursors introduced with Heart of Thorns.

Beast Sos.1457:

LMAO! Really? Now you are arguing for the sake of arguing. GG

Well to be fair we don’t actually know exactly what will be locked behind masteries.
Based on what we have heard it all seems to be optional extra stuff as opposed to the “required” story parts.

And as such, his argument makes complete sense.

Some Mastery points will come from content that existing players may have already completed, and these Mastery points will be automatically awarded to you with the release of Heart of Thorns, allowing you to get started on your Mastery journey right away.

You have been able to enter both Dry Top and Silverwastes without doing LS so I would assume so.

You will most likely not be able to enter it without buying the expansion though.

zerorogue.9410:

If the mastery system was limited to the jungle there would be no issue. However if what was said is true, they are adding a system that will increase your combat abilities behind a pay-gate to into the game in general. Something like this will cause very serious issues.

As far as I read it the combat abilities seems tied to the enemies faced in the Jungle, so that shouldn’t be much of an issue.

I also still don’t see the issue, since clearly it is fully possible to play the standard game now without the Masteries, why would it suddenly become impossible after the expansion?

zerorogue.9410:

The problem is this will be opening a skyscraper sized can of worms if they do it this way. I can’t see them do such a thing.

Why?
It is rather unusual for systems added with expansions to be added for people that does not buy said expansion.

It is not like you NEED the new Masteries to play the current game.
It sounds like you might need it for certain things in the Jungle, but in order to get to the Jungle you would need the expansion in the first place anyway.

It does seem like there will be special things hidden behind mastery progress, not story stuff and such.

I also don’t really see the connection to gear grind, considering that you would (after you have unlocked a Mastery) increase its level by simply playing. And getting the points to unlock the Mastery doesn’t seem all that hard either (such as map completion, story instances and so on).

zerorogue.9410:

This needs to be clarified/fixed ASAP. This has to be a mistake, because the ramifications of such a decision are extremely bad

What needs to be clarified?

You need to buy the expansion in order to get access to the expansion system. Simple as that.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

skullmount, your comparison with the PvP reward-track makes a lot of sense, especially when looking at this statement:

Higher tiers in Mastery tracks require progressively more Mastery points and more experience to fully train.

So you

• complete maps
• find secrets
• complete story steps
• get good results in adventures
• …

in order to unlock a new reward track AND/OR a new tier of a reward track, then you…

• simply get experience to fill the bar by
• doing events
• killing mobs
• crafting

once the bar is filled, you can spend your mastery points to open up the next tier

am I right?

I read it more along the lines that you can do the first part to get points in order to unlock tracks.
And then level up the track by getting XP.

Just getting XP does not seem to award Mastery Points. Especially not considering that they are talking about having to specifically select a Mastery to “train” and that you can only train specific masteries and specific areas (Old/HoT).

I have seen that thread.

It have 1157 posts. Multiple of them are made by the same users. That means at the very most there are 1155 people having issues. That is not even a % of the actual player-base.

Yes, it is annoying when there are issues. Yes everyone wants them solved. But that doesn’t mean they will magically get solved just because people want it enough.

They need to find the issues and such first (and it does seem like many of the people having issues are from the same general area and/or uses the same provider, which would suggest that the issue lies there and thus out of ArenaNets power to fix).

Doing map completion is specific content completion.

You need to do specific tasks in order to get the points. Not necessarily doing specific tasks in order to get specific points.

And yet it was only the user base on the forums that took notice of it (more or less) and not even close to all of us reacted with the massive rage that some of you did.

The vast majority of the players probably have no idea whatsoever that there have ever been talk about this before it gets implemented with the expansion.

Malkavian.4516:

Here is where my main concern lies: the utilization of Mastery skills.

Let’s use the Gliding Mastery, for example. From the way it was worded out, it seems that my fears may be realized in that the gliding part is going to just be limited to the Maguuma jungle. I can understand that gliding may be essential to explore more unknown areas that would be impossible to do by jumping or walking, but at the same time, I feel like I am grinding for a mode of transportation that I can’t use wherever I please. I’d really appreciate it all the more if the Gliding mastery extends to the core GW2 areas (excluding dungeons, WvW, EotM and HotM instances) as there are plenty of high areas for players just go “wheeee” when they ride on a glider though it would not be on a greater scale as the Maguuma area.

Please consider this feedback piece, Arenanet as you work and refine your expansion.

That would require more or less a complete rebuild of most of the maps in the game. Seeing as they are not built around being able to semi-fly and as such being able to do so might very well break them quite a bit.

Astralporing.1957:

What really worries me is a small throwaway line in “Fractal masteries” description about unlocking “more powerful infusions”.
I thought we weren’t supposed to get any gear creep…

Indeed.

But it could be something along the lines of “Add +10 stats (only active in Fractals)” I would say.

Or simply: “Do x% more damage against enemies in Fractals” like the WvW specific Infusions.

Mastery Point != Mastery Progress.

You need to use the points (which require specific content completion) to unlock the different Masteries, but when you have a mastery unlocked you advance it by getting XP.