Guild Wars 2

I bet Quartz was a “test” for the upcoming time-gated Ascended materials.

Devildoc.6721:

Renewing stamina is the Arcana VI major trait, it grants 5s of vigor on critical hits, with an internal cooldown of 5s. Mesmers get the exact same trait as the Duelist 5 point MINOR trait. We have to choose a sacrifice to our utility and playstyle in order to get what virtually every mesmer I’ve ever seen gets for free.

Meanwhile our arcana minor traits are ho hum at best. 2s of fury is okay but not all that useful when it basically just gives an autoattack an extra 20% chance to crit.

I’d trade Renewing Stamina to be the minor trait slot and have fury on attunement swap as a major trait, provided it was a longer duration.

Guardians have Vigorous Precision which is MINOR trait that requires 5 points in Honor to get and does the exact same thing as Renewing Stamina.

I guess Renewing Stamina is still a major because it used to have a different functionality.

When players start going into melee with their Rangers they will realise that Rangers aren’t as bad as they make them out to be. Use some spider pets in WvW (they can stop escaping players too) and they won’t die as quickly.

Pets die easily in dungeons when there is lots of ground aoe / red circles, they can’t dodge so they take all the damage, the new dungeons are showing very well what is wrong with ranger pets. The “jumping the traps” and the final boss part Molten Facility, the laser room and final boss in Aetherblade Retreat are the best examples that Anet devs should be playing, and try to find ways for the pet to survive in ANY of those. When they find a way for the pet to survive in those types of encounters most of the pet issues will be solved.

If you want to play Ranger in dungeons, learn how to use the sword from an early level where mobs don’t hit as hard.

There won’t be heavy nerfs (or buffs) in this patch, a big esports tournament is coming up and they don’t want to upset the teams participating. Last minute changes will cause issues.

The patch notes will probably arrive later today when Anet devs go to the office… just like they do every time without a thread asking for them.

They’d better have new skins, otherwise why have them in the first place?

Ikcen.7518:

Galen Grey.4709:

problem is there an official explanation of what constitutes a sandbox? cause its more like a concept than something tangible.

Lol, seems pointless to talk with you. If you are not right you just start explanations and leaves without figs. GW2 is not a sandbox, it’s clear. The main elements of sandbox are missing. There is no matter /effect on the game world/ if you play it or not, or how long you play it. You have no property, there is no tournaments /this thing with arenas is everything else but not a tournament, cause at the end nobody wins, ppl just play it/, you cannot build, and your actions change nothing in the game. If I don’t help the villagers to stop centaurus, they will not start to hate me, my decision will change nothing. It’s clear, that Anet lie in their advertisement, when promised a sandbox game. And it was a great advertisement. Yesterday some player say GW2 is the best game he ever played. So I asked him how many mmos he ever played, and he told me – one, this one. GW2 is a good ad, but it’s not sandbox mmo. Anet just set the cart before the horse. They had to create a good game and then to advertise it, not vice versa.

When did Anet say that GW2 is a sandbox game? I can’t remember them saying this in any advertisement.

As for your decisions changing nothing, I bet you haven’t seen ANY of the meta events where player actions lead to different events. Get out of LA, go into Gendaran Fields, go to Ascalon Settlement and enjoy the show, player actions do affect the outcome and the game in general. I wouldn’t call any of that “sandbox” though

cesmode.4257:

@marnick: One of my followup posts was grind was a bad choice of words. You need to spend a bit over a month earning Laurels to purchase some acsended gear, or a bit over a month of laurels + a large sum of ectos to get some gear. It takes relatively the same amount of time to gain…Id say 3/4 of a tier of gear at least in a game like WoW. and I have a life. My guild was ultra casual, raided 3 hours on Wednesdays and Fridays. Combined with the things you did on your own, you had a lot of gear in a month or so.

The time spent in both games, GW2 and WoW, would yield someone the same result: The newest ascended gear slot, or most of a tier of gear.

The difference is you can get those Laurels by doing a variety of activities, including the new achievement chests that have loads of them, while in other MMOs you have to do very very specific tasks to get the best gear, tasks that involve raids usually.

I don’t think it’s hard to see the huge difference here.

Tachenon.5270:

And so I asked, where is this clarification?

One of the few times Colin “clarified” something on the manifesto, he did it multiple times in the past and this is one I’ve found. This is on the GW2 takes everything you love about GW1 line that is often quoted on these forums:

Colin: It’s really tough. I think that at the end of the day we always have to look at if it’s exactly Guild Wars 1, we already made that game, and if people love exactly GW people should go play GW, right. So it has to be something different or we’re gonna end up remaking the exact same game we already built. So we definitely look at it that way as we know there are some people that aren’t going to be thrilled with Guild Wars 2 because it isn’t GW and it can’t be. It wasn’t going to be successful because we’d be competing with our own games.

Source: http://www.guildwars2guru.com/news/1034-qa-with-colin-johanson-part-ii/

Tolmos.8395:

Threads like this are why no one can have anything nice. There are players who like to maximize their time and rewards. To them, the story means nothing and dungeons mean nothing. To them, things like the “Plinx Farm” were the most fun way to play.

Then someone complained, just like this. No more plinx farm.

Why did they complain? Who knows. Maybe because ruining the gameplay of others is how they get their jollies. Or maybe, like a small child, everyone must play their way or no way at all. So it’s gone.

And now, they have Queensdale. They run their little circuit and it DOESN’T AFFECT YOU at all, and yet here is this thread. Right here, this thread. And the purpose of this thread? “They don’t play Guild Wars 2 in a way that I approve of, so I think it should be stopped.”.

:-\

You missed this part in the OP:

That they’ve turned my favorite zone into an mindless assembly-line grind isn’t what bothers me, it’s how they’re treating other players who don’t know or don’t care to follow their champion-killing routine.

Ryuujin.8236:

While the level of RNG and viciousness of the cash shop exceed that of many F2P games, despite the fact GW2 is a B2P game. Overall, it means that GW2 languishes in amongst a horde of similar games instead of standing out form the crowd.

I’d love to see even one F2P game with a “better” cash shop, that “many F2P games” needs a bit of explaining because in my experience no F2P game has a “better” cash shop than GW2.

Peetee.9406:

GW2 (Launch) = A
Solid and innovative, best MMO since WoW

GW2 (Now) = C-
Substandard cash shop MMO with RNG and poorly designed mini-games.

WoW succeeded because it continued to add features and fix bugs. GW2 seems more interested in farming players pockets.

Care to explain what changed? The same innovation is there, the game is still solid so what changed?

Nick.6972:

Make it skill intensive, requiring great coordination and teamwork.

Yay farming with my SoS Rit required great coordination and most of all teamwork! Between my spirits of course.

Why can’t it be in fractals and why can’t it use 5-man teams. You are just asking for the old underworld to come back and there is absolutely no reason to do it…

If you go to Malchor’s Leap and kill a single Spark (even by accident) you will get a very similar reaction by the Spark farmers: “Omg you killed that Spark we have a perfect loop we do every 5 minutes and kill all of them, you stole our lodestones!”

One of the problems with farming….

Doing Dailies (PVE and PVP) every single day. While doing those, get any other achievements that’s all you need.

Shockwave.1230:

What I’m saying is that they abondend their philosophy of not doing vertical progression that impacts gameplay. They didn’t have to abondon that philosophy, but they did.

Ascended is the last gear tier and it was needed to introduce new ways of getting it without requiring the over-farmed ways to get the other gear types. Gold/karma/crafting were flawed and imbalanced designs in the first place, relying only on your luck to get what you need or excessive hours farming at certain places. They didn’t abandon their philosophy, yet, I haven’t seen a constant tier increase with Ascended gear, yet, so until that time comes, the amount of vertical progression in the game is at the bare minimum.

Nuka Cola.8520:

oh but i’ve spoke to a lot of people about these two when they were available, no one liked them. on this forum im not surprised to see so much positivity about these two mini dungeons because most people here are fanboys who go crazy even if they add something as minor as a ONE new mini pet… Both of these mini dungeons are far from ‘fun’ or great.

And I’ve spoken to a lot of people about these two and all of them liked them, strange how this works. I guess you were talking to cof p1 farmers that want the most efficient path to loot and nothing else, yes for them the new dungeons weren’t good, for people looking for something fun and unique they were. Go back to cof p1 farming

Glint is made of crystals, not Ice and her attacks include crystal-themed attacks.

Grump.7069:

I’m one of the players constantly winning races, and trust me, i’d love to have a bracket where all skilled players are pooled together… Cause it means quicker races without dancing between instances!

Actually this is what they should do for every single mini-game… at least separate people into 2 pools so total newbies are not in games with veterans. Useful in all mini-games, both upcoming and current

Myramar.8657:

absolutely not. because those achievements that are offered there are two i will probably never complete. The HOM, and the Tooltip one. i think there should be a way to “remove” Achievements you dont plan to complete. For the rest, it is really nice

I have the same problem, all 3 are impossible for me to complete at this point so the feature is useless for me. Anyway, I’ll progress in some other achievements to replace those…

I got a legendary on my main, why can’t I have a legendary on all my other chars as well? I mean, I don’t want/need to do it all over again, why should I?

There was a RoF player earlier near Godslore Quarry, Gandara Borderlands, a female Human Thief that was teleporting underground, then using Underwater guns from under to hit foes above…

I don’t know how to report that though because in WvW you can’t see names…

PS: He was a newbie Thief with no skill, always going underground to escape death, I almost killed the exploiter like 10 times…

Or have two leaderboards, one with APs that are doable by everyone and one without HoM/Dailies/Monthlies and Living Story achievements. 2 separate tabs on the leaderboards.

Astralporing.1957:

PvP dailies done every day do help a lot. You don’t have to be any good at pvp to get them, though.

Yep. The easiest way to get the PvP dailies done is getting inside an arena and farm them with friends, it takes a few minutes. A Custom Arena can make this even easier but they are costly.

Akari Storm.6809:

Hardly any of the pve achievements say you are decent at that aspect of the game. Most of the ones that do can be and have been exploited to death except Mad Kings Tower. The WvW achievements are just time based. Coming from SoR OP (i’m there too) you may reach a title faster than most if you put the time in.
I’ve seen you OP in spvp hotjoins (necro right?) so I know you at least dabble in pvp. I’ve seen you on the WvW portion of the forums. How can you even call meaningless ap competition and be serious about it?

I mean really? The majority of ap tells me one thing-that you did this one thing at least once. Doesn’t mean you are skilled at it. I mean c’mon, dailies count.

Yes, WvW achievements are just time based, but they are not the only useless achievements that tell nothing about a person’s skill in a particular part of the game.
Some more:

Keg Brawl achievements are the best joke ever…. Grab a friend, go into Keg Brawl and start exchanging kegs to get lots of APs, amazing Keg Brawl skills there!
Create a Custom Arena and start “farming” wins/points with your friends, amazing PVP skills right? Or simply do your PvP daily without a clue of what PvP is.
Aetherblade dungeon achievements were ALL bugged. With your friends/guildies you could just die at the start and let the other 4 do everything for you and you would get the achievements, superb design right there. Repeat as many times as needed for everyone to get them! Amazing PvE/dungeon skills there!
Portal-using Mesmers at Jumping Puzzles…. are just making these worthless. Fortunately the goggles where in such a tricky spot that even with a portal you could fail.
The Explorable Dungeon achievement… yes run CoF P1 1000000 times and you are the master of Dungeon running! Fortunately, for the repeatable version to appear you need to do each path at least once first.

And yet these achievements that are actually hard to get are causing trouble…

Mkalafut.1273:

maddoctor.2738:

Mkalafut.1273:

maddoctor.2738:

Mkalafut.1273:

These leaderboards cause nothing but elitism and divide the community. I think with a game so focused on player cooperation, this leaderboard thing goes against every idea of players trying to do what’s best for each other and really means “What can I do for MYSELF To get up one more rank?”

Defeats the purpose. I think it should go.

Honestly, I haven’t seen ANY indication that the Leaderboards divide the community or cause elitisism. For example, Mesmers are still porting people around in Jumping Puzzles, if people were taking the Leaderboards so seriously and wanted to keep their place, Mesmers would’ve stopped porting people around (a “good” start towards elitisism)

Sorry, I don’t see it. The game is still exactly the same, with or without leaderboards.

So that’s why there’s 3 threads of people whining that GW1 players got something they didn’t get? Right.

Threads on the forums don’t reflect in any way or form what is going on in the actual game. How is having some whine threads makes you conclude that the game is full of elitisism is beyond me. If anything, those who act like elitists are those who want the Leaderboards to GO, not the other way around.

So because I want a [useless] cause of drama to go away, I am suddenly elitist? I don’t have 10k+ achievements – I am in no way an elitist. Just because I don’t want to see my 8000 hours of GW1 efforts go to waste and Anet decided to reward me and you disagree, does not make me suddenly elitist.

I guess I wasn’t clear. I was responding to this part:

These leaderboards cause nothing but elitism and divide the community

The only elitism and community division I see is on these FORUMS and these FORUMS alone, there is absolutely no change in player behaviour inside the game, leaderboards or no leaderboards, HoM points awarding 20, 500, 5000 or even 0 points. It’s still the same game and the same helpful community.

Zero Tolerance.1539:

maddoctor.2738:

No I can’t. If you want to be in top100 or higher 20 and 500 is exactly the same, gives an advantage to some players, why there were no complaints back then? Nobody ever cared about it and now that the number increased there is rage all over.

Look, then you’ll have to trust me on that. There’s a far bigger chance of catching up to the guy with 20pt difference, compared to 500. Take my word for it.

It’s still a difference and an advantage that nobody cared about. And 500 points is nothing if you really want to “compete” on the leaderboards and stay in the game for a lengthy amount of time. Oh wait, you want to “compete” on the leaderboards and quit the game in a few months?

Mkalafut.1273:

maddoctor.2738:

Mkalafut.1273:

These leaderboards cause nothing but elitism and divide the community. I think with a game so focused on player cooperation, this leaderboard thing goes against every idea of players trying to do what’s best for each other and really means “What can I do for MYSELF To get up one more rank?”

Defeats the purpose. I think it should go.

Honestly, I haven’t seen ANY indication that the Leaderboards divide the community or cause elitisism. For example, Mesmers are still porting people around in Jumping Puzzles, if people were taking the Leaderboards so seriously and wanted to keep their place, Mesmers would’ve stopped porting people around (a “good” start towards elitisism)

Sorry, I don’t see it. The game is still exactly the same, with or without leaderboards.

So that’s why there’s 3 threads of people whining that GW1 players got something they didn’t get? Right.

Threads on the forums don’t reflect in any way or form what is going on in the actual game. How is having some whine threads makes you conclude that the game is full of elitisism is beyond me. If anything, those who act like elitists are those who want the Leaderboards to GO, not the other way around.

Zero Tolerance.1539:

20, not 50. People who don’t even make it, or have ambition to make it top100 or higher on the board shouldn’t even be allowed to post here….

As for the difference between 20 and 500. I’m [almost] sure you can figure it out…

No I can’t. If you want to be in top100 or higher 20 and 500 is exactly the same, gives an advantage to some players, why there were no complaints back then? Nobody ever cared about it and now that the number increased there is rage all over.

I wonder why they removed the category total, makes no sense to me. Other than that, I like the new interface much more

Mkalafut.1273:

These leaderboards cause nothing but elitism and divide the community. I think with a game so focused on player cooperation, this leaderboard thing goes against every idea of players trying to do what’s best for each other and really means “What can I do for MYSELF To get up one more rank?”

Defeats the purpose. I think it should go.

Honestly, I haven’t seen ANY indication that the Leaderboards divide the community or cause elitisism. For example, Mesmers are still porting people around in Jumping Puzzles, if people were taking the Leaderboards so seriously and wanted to keep their place, Mesmers would’ve stopped porting people around (a “good” start towards elitisism)

Sorry, I don’t see it. The game is still exactly the same, with or without leaderboards.

Blackwyn.8127:

1. Achievement points do have a direct impact on players that take it seriously. As weird as it may sound to you, when there’s a leaderboard involved. Some people will really commit and take it seriously if they’re actually on it.

2. You’ve spent “1000s” hours of gameplay in on another game and you have been rewarded as such in THAT game. Now why the hell should you be rewarded for what has been done in that game in this? Just getting exclusive skins, titles and pets is already generous from them and it should’ve stayed like that. You have ALREADY been rewarded, stop being kittening greedy.

3. If you consider achievement points to be useless and the leaderboard to be useless. Then why the hell are you arguing to begin with? Since you don’t care about the achievement points to begin with, then let’s just remove them from you and have it like it was before.

4. If your previous post is as argumentless and generic as the one you just posted that you are eagerly trying to make me read. Then no, I won’t read it at all as it would be time wasting.

Question: where were you when HoM rewarded 50 points? 50 points from HoM still gave an advantage to Guild Wars 1 players but nobody complaint, what happened?

SpyderArachnid.5619:

This is absolutely ridiculous that people are now complaining about something that has been going on for a long time. Before it was perfectly fine for GW1 players to be ahead, and now all the sudden it’s unfair for GW1 players to be ahead? Makes no sense.

The only reasoning they give is 500>50 yes weak and pointless but it’s the only argument now… Makes no sense

Sorin.4310:

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

Sorin.4310:

I don’t see how trading complaints about the leaderboards for complaints about the removal of the leaderboards is a step in the right direction. Or a step at all.

hmmm you got me confused now. O_O

1) create leaderboards.
2) complaints about leaderboards.
3) remove leaderboards.
4) complaints about the removal of leadeboards.
5) forums don’t improve – just find a new thing to complain about.

0) complaints that there are no leaderboards
1) create leaderboards.
2) complaints about leaderboards.
3) remove leaderboards.
4) complaints about the removal of leadeboards.
5) forums don’t improve – just find a new thing to complain about.

A small addition.

Why should they be removed? I don’t see any reason

It’s funny how a food nobody ever uses is considered P2W

Solo Ascalon Fractal at level 1, doable with most Professions and I’d say, EASY. Daily Fractal problem solved.

What your friend is looking for is a fixed-camera option, keeping the camera always behind the player so when you turn the mouse, your character turns as well, much like how it is in many (all?) 3rd person games – non MMORPG. You don’t click your skills – for example Mass Effect.

There was a mod for Guild Wars 2 that changed how the camera worked. Obviously it was breaking the rules and got downed, but that doesn’t mean it was a bad try.

What the mod did, was give the game a “true” 3rd person camera. That is, the game shoots projectiles/skills at the crosshair, the default is turning the camera WITH the player, so the camera is fixed behind the character and you need to press another button to activate the mouse (to click on staff on your screen). It’s perfect for 3rd person game (not MMORPG) players as it gives that much better control of your character, how you dodge and how you aim, without requiring to tab-target AT ALL, and this in Guild Wars 2…. not in some other game.

No more tab-target, or click target and it IS doable. On the minus side, you had to put all your skills on your keyboard, ok they already are, but you cannot use the mouse to activate your skills, which might be a problem for lots of players

I was surprised when I played another mmorpg (Neverwinter) that uses the exact same camera system….

A toggle for fixed-3rd person camera would be awesome!

Dynamic Events system… Being able to participate in a battle/event without the prerequisite to talk to an npc first. I’d really like every single MMO that is to be released in the future to follow a similar system, at least to some basic quest types that exist in all MMORPGs, like Escort quests, Defend/Assault quests, Gathering quests and of course Kill quests, are all horrible in all other games.

Meta events, the world changing, and staying changed, depending on player action and if an event fails or succeeds.

Combat system, no rooting in combat, no holy trinity. I’d love to see an option for a true 3rd person camera, with Mouse Aiming/Shooting, that would make the Combat system 100% perfect for me.

Well I was in Caledon Forest yesterday and did loads of events with people. I guess time and server can make a huge difference. Also, in the starting zones the more people are close to where the big chains are happening.

By the way, the starting zones in Guild Wars 2 are a thousand times more crowded that the starting zones of other MMORPGs… at least in GW2 you have a reason to go back (downscaling helps too)

“I want this to be a niche title”

I don’t know why anyone would say that, and besides the game is “trying” to cater to lots of different players, how can it be a niche title? Proposing new mechanics or mechanics from other games is good, but as I said above, any suggestions must be following the basic design philosophy of the game.

whereas Guild Wars’s model encourages on-and-off sessions

That’s why they are doing a Living Story every 2 weeks, to keep players interested.

I don’t mind casual people and you shouldn’t mind the ones wanting to gain a level of satisfaction from the game that’s only achieved through completing difficult content and being rewarded properly.

And once again, we need to define “difficult”. The AR dungeon was quite a nice step to the right direction, hard enough but offers extra rewards, in this case some achievement points, for doing something different, and considerably harder than just finishing the dungeon. Achievement points are enough? Maybe, maybe not. Now that APs will give rewards, it remains to be seen how important/desirable those will be.

By far the most incompetent argument in favour or Guild Wars 2 I’ve read is “you’re playing the game wrong”

Silly argument indeed. Fun is subjective.

Don’t suggest a 180 design overhaul because no company will ever invest in such a thing

And when they do it, their game fails miserably.

Fractals gave Guild Wars 2 meaning

If only Fractal rewards weren’t so bad (money wise) then it would’ve been much better, but this belongs to the rewards section I guess, which desperately need a change/revamp.

World vs World is a fun and engaging addition that cannot alone hold players’ interest.

Judging by the amount of guilds who are almost exclusively focused in WvW I must disagree here. As you said in the Fractals section, WvW also gives a goal – to win each week. Also, watch some Guild vs Guild action in WvW and then say anything about teamwork, there is loads of teamwork needed and it makes a difference in the end.

All we want is a satisfying goal – server-wide buffs for everyone if we cap a WvW borderland, an epic, exclusive skin for every 10 levels in PvP, a very hard instance that we have to plan for in advance to beat and be rewarded with looks that no one else can have…

You already get server-wide buffs for winning in WvW. Every few PvP ranks you get access to new skins, that get better and more unique the higher you go. Dungeons offer looks that no one else can have already, dungeon armor/fractal skins aren’t available anywhere else, all you need is here already.

Guild Wars 2 pushed the genre forward and then it stopped. MMOs that have adopted this gameplay model are already on their way and will likely be far more polished.

Which MMO are you talking about exactly? I haven’t seen any that have adopted the gameplay model of Guild Wars 2 and you dont’ know how much “more polished” they will be. Betas of MMOs I’ve tried lately (after GW2 was released) aren’t very much better than GW2 beta as far as polishing goes.

“If you don’t like it, you can leave!”

They said they will add Raids, but with a GW2-twist in them, not like the Raids in other games. If someone want to “force” mechanics/gameplay from other games (for example WoW-like Raids) that are contradicting the main design philosophy of the game, then yes they should search for a game that has what they want, what’s wrong with that?

That type of game won’t last against the coming MMOs.

Why is that? A lot of casuals and a lot of non-mmorpg players are playing the game, I don’t see those going to any of the coming MMOs. They are too MMO-ish, maybe the old MMORPG players will find the upcoming MMOs more appealing but I doubt those who don’t like MMOs will.

GW2 players don’t want vertical progression

I still don’t see any vertical progression… In a way that exists in other games at least.

and that’s not what Colin Johanson wanted GW2 to become.

And of course you know better than Colin himself what he wanted GW2 to become…

be it a meaningful story ending, a powerful item, a new armor set and so on

Powerful item and “stat upgrade” are similar, no? I made a long post about how they could change the reward system of the game:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Changing-the-way-the-Reward-system-work/first#post2308317

RNG needs to go. Rewards need to be revamped and changed. Rewarding players who do variety of content is the way to go, in my opinion. The more unique things you do, the more rewards you should get.

The best rewards should be the hardest to earn

Indeed. But we need to define “hard” first, what is hard for some, is easy for others. What is hard at release, is easy-mode after a few months, be it a raid or a dungeon in any game. GW2 has some potential here, with the way they do temporary content, while the dungeons themselves shouldn’t be excessively hard to finish, adding some extra achievements like they did with Aetherblade Retreat is a great way to increase difficulty. Then, because it’s temporary, it won’t be changed to “farm-status” as easily.

Invest in the future, not in the Living Story

Living Story = the future though. It’s not always working well, but it’s something new for the developers as well. An ever changing world is far better than a static world with lots of farmable places, what they need is to make Living World actually change Tyria, in a more amazing way.

Hardcore content = longevity

And offering new updates every 2 weeks is having the same effect on longevity. Players log to see what’s new, if they like the new skins/rewards/dungeons/story they will continue and complete it, if not, they will wait for the next release. That’s great for the longevity of the game. Hardcore content will simply alienate even more people that non-hardcore content does.

The Aetherblades offer somewhat of a challenge, the same can be said about the Molten Alliance veteran mobs and the Toys of Wintersday. We have seen more challenging mobs in the Open World, I don’t know if they should recreate the whole game and make all mobs like those…

But, what can be done is remove the boring veterans/champions out there and replace them with mobs that require some skill to kill, instead of having lots and lots of hit points.

Arah also has some nicely designed encounters, some dungeon mobs there combine well and offer a challenge, they could just be placed in the Open World (with substantially less hit points of course)

tl;dr: we already have more challenging mobs with unique skills, it’s just they are not used – at all – in the Open World, instead, they give Open World mobs more and more hit points and up their auto attack damage, which leads to dull and boring encounters.

The actual list of changes was posted earlier in this thread:

Galen Grey.4709:

- 139 New Achievements
- 62 New Dynamic Events
- 9 New Jumping Puzzles
- 3 new mini dungeons (Forsaken Halls, Vexa’s Lab,Canach’s Lair)
- 2 new story-line instances (Braham and Rox)
- The Diving Goggles Activity
- Costume Brawl
- 3 farming Activity (Halloween (haunted Doors), Wintersday and Dragon Bash)
- 5 PvP Mini Game (Lunatic Inquisition,Reaper’s Rumble, Snowball mayhem, Crab toss, Dragon Ball)
- 4 mini games (Bell choir, super adventure box,Toypocalypse,Moa Racing )
- 510 new recipes (Halloween, Lost Shores, Wintersday)
- 15 new minis
- 98 new skins
- 20 new tonics
- 2 new world event (Skritt Thief and Modus Sceleris)
- 4 event specific dungeon (Ascent to Madness, Tixx’s Infinirarium, Molten Core, Aetherblade Retreat)
- Fractal of the mists (9 new mini dungeons)
- 2 new PvP map (Temple of the Silent Storm, Spirit Watch)
- New Gear Tier
- 2 new maps (Mad King Labyrinth, Southsun Cove)
- 9 new game features (crafting materials accessible through bank,PvP paid Tournaments, guesting, guild missions, trading post preview, selectable daily achievement, Custom arena, spectaor mode, WvW progression)
- 4 new currency ( Pristine Fractal Relics,Laurels, guild merits, guild commendations)
- 3 scavenger hunt (the mad king, Karka scavenger hunt, Marriner Plaque )
- 42 new guild missions
- 1 new meta event (Legendary Karka Queen)

You missed quite a lot

Kain Francois.4328:

They wont be releasing them, because they wanted Demmi Beetlestone to be “unique”.

Too bad for ANET, nobody cares.

Demmi Beetlestone is wearing a completely different outfit: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Demmi_Beetlestone.jpg

There is no “main” npc with that outfit.

mrstealth.6701:

And I don’t believe I ever referred to wxp as a grind, although in some ways it is. Primarily because it has to be repeated on a per-character basis. It’s active discouragement for playing more than a single character in wvw. And it’s also turning into a progression treadmill because they keep adding more and more abilities to the list.

In my very humble opinion WxP is far better as Character Bound than account bound. I can give my characters different builds, try new skills and abilities that way. I won’t use Siege boosting abilities on my Thief, I’m only roaming on my Thief, but on my Ele I would take them to help during sieges.

Once I’m able to, I will get the extra supply boosts on my Ranger to move across the battlefield quickly to construct siege and repair walls etc

mrstealth.6701:

Vayne.8563:

But doesn’t nearly give you the same type of advantage. Apples to apples. You had to grind Luxon/Kurzick ranks if you wanted to say, have an imbagon paragon. That became required.

The WvW stuff that you get isn’t on the same level. It’s passive stuff, not active skills. So you get it by playing.

Both gave you advantages that made your character better in some way. In fact, the wvw abilty advantages are bigger/better because they aren’t just effecting 1-2 skills (you could only have 2 allegiance skills at any given time) on your bar. In fact the single example you gave was likely the only allegiance skill (the warrior’s Save Yourselves that was used by Paragon/Warriors) that actually had a noticable effect on anything. The only other that was frequently used was Summon Spirits, and that skill’s main function didn’t care if you were rank 1 or rank 12. The other 8 skills were minor support for just your own build that never saw much use.

May I remind both of you that Arenanet changed the Allegiance ranks to scale up to rank 6 in effectiveness.

Anything above that, was only there for the title, as at rank 6 your faction skills were already maxed out in effectiveness. For Save Yourselves specifically, rank 5 was the maximum you needed, it was capped at 6seconds at rank 5 so any rank above it was “wasted”. Getting to a healthy rank 5 or 6 wasn’t very “grindy” either, you just had to complete Factions in NM/HM – Vanquish Luxon zones and do the Deep a few times. Of course you could get it just by doing PVP too. Getting to rank 12 was an enormous grind, no matter how you look at it, but it was completely optional and didn’t give any kind of benefit.

There are also the plants that spawn during the Bloomhunger battle in Swamp Fractal, they also count.

Esplen.3940:

maddoctor.2738:

holodoc.5748:

And it wouldn’t be so problematic for me since I do realize thakittens a game requirement to get the achievement. However, my issue is that by adding this new diving goggle to the “Diving Master” achievement people who didn’t finish the achievement until the introduction of the new JP are simply punished, especially if they don’t like JPs – hence the achievement treadmill. Why not simply add this diving goggle achievement as part of the “Sky Pirates of Tyria” achievement section and leave the original 37/37 requirement be? I mean how can my “Diving Master” achievement be the same compared to the one before the new JP if the requirements differ?

As someone who had 37/37 achievement points before the new JP was released I must inform you that I lost 10 points when the new JP was released and I had 37/38 on the Dive Master Achievement.

You DO lose points if something new is added on an achievement line and you DO have to finish the new objectives to get your points back.

I was at 37/37. When the patch came through, I did the JP and was expecting to need to do the jump. I checked my achievement panel before jumping and noticed I was at 38/38 with full points. I did not make the jump.

A bug then because me and all my guildies and everyone I know in the game who had 37/37 before the JP came in, went to 37/38 and lost their points. Report it as bugged if you had it differently.

holodoc.5748:

maddoctor.2738:

As someone who had 37/37 achievement points before the new JP was released I must inform you that I lost 10 points when the new JP was released and I had 37/38 on the Dive Master Achievement.

You DO lose points if something new is added on an achievement line and you DO have to finish the new objectives to get your points back.

Essentially it means that if someone decides to take a break from the game for a couple of months he/she might be looking for hundreds of missing points after returning. A treadmill no matter how you look at it.

It’s not a treadmill, unless in a very strange definiton of the word. Keep in mind that achievements like that are achievable AGAIN if you return to the game, it’s permanent content. Keep in mind that you only have to do what you missed to get those points, just like everyone else. They just want all players to be even and the way the system is achieves exactly that, I don’t see any reason to change it

Aarean.5398:

Why is the top achieve score on the leaderboards 10k going to meme and not you?

Because the OP got his points by salvaging and now salvaging is capped and his points dropped lower than the highest player…..