Guild Wars 2

Quaggan.

Absolutely.

And then be angry about gw2lfg posts : lf3m NO QUAGGANS.

Or Battle of the Free Waypoints. Now wouldn’t that be a content patch … one single line:

- Waypoints are now free

Full update for the month.

I’d love to see this Blank of the Blank Blank. Awesome title for an update.

In this thread, let’s discuss alternatives for Defiant.
I’m also of the idea that bosses should not be volleyballs so I’ll try to not make that happen.

My current idea is as follows:

- Defiant stacks to 5 max, and loses 1 stack per 5 seconds.
- Every control skill used adds 2 stacks
- Every stack reduces effect of control skills by either 20% range (knockback) or 20% duration (fear, knockdown, stun)
- at 5 stacks, boss is immune to all Control

This design allows for pugs to use control, but also for teams to have skill. At the same time, control does not become a tool to shut down a boss (except for control skills with 10 second duration, do these exist?)

Esplen.3940:

GW1 had an emotional wrenching story. Characters died. Characters were introduced. Characters were bad. Characters were good.

CHARACTERS FOLLOWED YOUR LEAD, for the most part. Middle finger to Kormir here.

It was a good story, but Prophecies was horribly cliché at the same time. Factions had a rather short story, and imho not a very good one. The Kaineng quests in Factions were the real PVE. Nightfall had the best story imho. EotN had a horrible story that only meant to set the stage GW2.

Also, none of the stories are ever really finished. They leave you hanging and then it’s like “BUT WAIT, THE WORLD NEEDS YOU HELP, I’LL BE FINE!”

Especially for prophecies that was true. Shining Blade, Druids, fate of Ascalon, White Mantle, Dwarves … at the end of Prophecies you were really left scratching your head at WTF actually happened. The world was sure worse off with me than before with 2 nations plunged into civil war and one at the mercy of Charr and impending succession war.

Now that would look as if I didn’t like the story. Truth be told, I liked it a lot, especially Factions and Nightfall. However they wouldn’t have been bestsellers in bookform or movie, the saving grace being that Guild Wars 1 was the sole online RPG at it’s time to feature a story at all. And for that innovation, they did a pretty good job.

FerrenoNL.7928:

But, I keep getting the feeling I’m missing something. The graphics and gameplay is very nicely done. Guild Wars 2 is not to be compared to any other MMO out there due to its unique, eh, non-existant ‘holy trinity’ aspect.

I played the original Guild Wars for god knows how many hours. Days and weeks on end, either solo or playing with various other people from around the globe. This game is so much different, and nearly impossible to compare to its predecessor. I’m gonna try either way.

You didn’t play the original Guild Wars for all those hours … you played the original game plus 3 expansions for all those hours.

The original Guild Wars, back when it wasn’t “prophecies” yet, was a 3 week game. Most people had quit by the 3 month mark. It was only with factions and nightfall that this game became the gem we all loved.

GW2 currently is in the same state as original Guild Wars before factions … a gem, but rough, unhewn. It’s a promise of great things to come.
The foundation is extremely solid, and this game is good. One day it’ll be great.

They try not to have favourites, because that’d hurt the game. Don’t google kalgan, don’t look up what he did to the fragile balance in WoW.

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

do some dungeons
sell rare items from meta boss group events
do guild missions

you will not feel much hurt from the way point fees anymore.

And yet, 3s for waypoints is a lot. I try not to care, it’s an active non-care act on my part which doesn’t always work as well. Especially if I don’t want to do specific things but just roam. Those times waypoint costs are extremely punishing during a night of actual fun would push me into red numbers for the day.

Go to the events timer, run the bosses, salvage ecto and sell that ecto. In a few days you should have it. Every laurel is also worth about 60s through heavy bags.

This game favours the casual, since the best rewards are put in daily chests. Hunt those and make a killing by playing 2 hours a day tops.

Let’s discuss new ways to implement money sinks given the following premises:
- goal 1: eliminate waypoint costs
- goal 2: keep inflation under control
- requirement: keep same gold sink through other means

Who has any good ideas for new money sinks that have approximately the same effect as WP costs without being as punishing?

In the same universe, there exists a game without waypoint costs. It’s one of those things where a.net should have taken things we love from GW1 and implement them in GW2.

It’s to double up the rareness factor. Getting it for the looks is 1 thing. Getting it for emperor is another thing. Having this set as Exotic is the kicker, and therefor many people won’t get it.

It’s good design of tiered cosmetics.

theenigma.3597:

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

As Colin mentions in this post and this post, based upon community feedback, we are adjusting our strategy to include a larger mix of permanent updates in the future.

The are also posts talking about introducing a achievement rewards ladder, not only does limited time content prevent some players from ever experiencing content and having certain in game benefits and achievements, now there will be an achievement ladder on top of this and some achievements will become out right impossible to obtain.

I don’t understand how closing more and more doors on a player base is a smart design choice.

I remember before release Guild Wars 2 was being touted as the “casual mans” MMO where you did not have to live in game for 8 hours a day to experience the full game and enjoy it, now I come in at a later date and find my self being punished for not playing from the very start and spending countless hours playing. I cant even take a month off from the game as I would be missing 2 rounds of content, I am forced to play by the schedule the game sets and what it wants me to do or I am loosing out.

On the other hand, the story is as generic as any soap opera. You can step out for months and pick up again without really missing anything.

Battle of the Feathered Wings

nah

Nilkemia.8507:

Hmm, what did it look like? Did anyone see it before they removed it?

I have it. Summons Dhuum and he chops down the tree for you.
no clue

Gumby.1708:

Yeah remove defiant from all bosses, so we can group 5 engis together and perma knockdown bosses

A great Idea /sign

That would be better by far than the current implementation. At least let that be one of the valid options.

I agree on the entire defiant rant. It should not exist in this iteration. It should have been reworked long ago. It destroys half our skills. As an engineer relying on shield blast I feel your pain.

However, let’s be clear on Mai’s so called undodgeable OHKO:
1/ it’s not undodgeable. In fact, I dodge it every single time once I got her telegraphs. Yes, multiple. There’s three consecutive telegraphs showing you’re the target.
2/ it’s not OHKO unless you’re zerk geared. Get another gear set and you’re fine.

Dear Mad Queen, you’re one of the pros in this game. I expected more skill from you.

But I still agree on the defiant.

You start by turning on that thing behind your eyes, use it to make educated guesses. Next you can simulate those guesses with the thing in front of your eyes, and if those simulations turn up good, you apply them to the game.

Good luck. Brain required.

Time to make sPVP free2play. Remove the need to purchase the PVE game to play PVP. That’s necessary to bring in players.

By not grinding I got lucky a few times, each giving me about 40g. Another few times and I’ll have my precursor. Nothing to worry about. Money comes easy if you don’t grind … especially if you don’t grind.

Brutal Arts.6307:

Morrigan.2809:

Brutal Arts.6307:

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

What do you think this removal means for us? Will we ever see Mini-battles in Tyria?

I wouldn’t hold my breath. Consider it all but dead. At the most, it may come in an expansion but since NCsoft is pouring it’s funds into WildStar atm…

What is it with people and Wildstar, NCSoft and Dontain?
Don’t you guys get tired of all this conspiracy?
You realize he is just some random guy on you tube, right?

The sky is not falling

It’s not a difficult concept. The parent company can either split focus (GW2 Lineage, WildStar) or they can spend all of their efforts on attempting to make the most revenue by getting people to buy copies of their newest product. Eventually it will be anets turn again when it comes time for an expansion.

You forgot the most correct option for a juggernaut like NCSoft:

Split focus (GW2, lineage, wildstar) and make the most revenue by releasing several successful products in 2014.

That’s not impossible for a company with over 3000 employees worldwide and a dedicated GW2 subsidiary with over 300 people. In fact, not splitting focus would be the bad option.

NCSoft isn’t one person. Neither is it one company.

I want to live and breath in a fantasy world when I buy an MMO. Structured goals go against that, because I’m no longer living the game but working towards another shopping list. Not fun. Leave the game open, let players decide what’s fun and what’s not.

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

marnick.4305:

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

stop trolling, please!

what trolling? i am merely starting the facts.

at the moment, most of their man power are focused on living story content, which comes with rng boxes, which promotes gem sales.

Conspiracy theory does not make it fact. You’re stating delusions.

hmmm you got a good point.

but it has been 10 months, and i see more RNG boxes than mini battles.

can’t blame me for being delusional right?

anyway i’m still playing guild wars 2 everyday, though casually.

I also see a lot of content I like more than another minigame. I play GW2, not pokémon. A.net probably realized that minigames are not why people play MMOs.

Fact is, I played SAB once, didn’t play moa racing and play costume brawl only sporadically. As much as I like those minigames (and I love brawl), it’s not the game I want to play when I boot GW2.

PS, I’ve been playing GW2 casually for ten months, loving it. Loving it more than pokémon.

Vayne.8563:

A better question is why have 1.7 million people left WoW over a very short period of time.

Because it has monks.

Monks are out of fashion.

Blizzard tried to appeal to Guild Wars fans but failed :p

It can be fixed by doing two things:
- waypoints to all cities are free
- waypoint costs are based on nearest city

Because eg you can save 2 silver by porting Mists > LA > Grove > Wurm instead of Maw > Wurm.

Ye thanks!

The range 900 for most weapons can be summed up as
You shoot it you loot it.²

² exceptions may apply. Shortbow no longer an exception.

What I like most is that it’s hard but not tied to gear progression.

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

stop trolling, please!

what trolling? i am merely starting the facts.

at the moment, most of their man power are focused on living story content, which comes with rng boxes, which promotes gem sales.

Conspiracy theory does not make it fact. You’re stating delusions.

What the living story doesn’t have, which is a pattern in expansions, is destroying existing characters by raising the level cap or gear tiers. In 10 months we’ve gotten 3 pieces of ascended gear, in other games it’d been 3 new tiers.

Kinda like the living story for NOT doing what expansions usually do … destroy my game.

That’s part of alting, even though it’s not too fun to get all waypoints again.

Cantha.

I said it.

But domain of winds is a good second bet. There’s a tengu on the forefront.

Just focus on moving. DPS is an afterthought. If you stay alive long enough, eventually you win.

Avoiding the lasers isn’t difficult if you put attention to it. Keep dodge up for when you need it.

Also, stack a bit of vitality so you can avoid a single laser hit. Zerkers are not good for this dungeon.

Thedenofsin.7340:

Explain what brain cells are required to avoid the random canon fire. It’s RANDOM and sometimes you CANNOT avoid it. How is that a test of skiill?

It’s neither random nor unavoidable.

1. the lasers being out of sync is intended.

2. Mai’s move doesn’t do a one hit kill if you’re properly geared (namely non-zerk)

3. Mai’s move can be dodged, so it’s neither OHKO nor 10 stacks of bleed.

Skill up. This dungeon isn’t easy but it’s not impossible either.

Cannon phase is long though. Makes it more hard because of endurance than skill.

Got it yesterday. Took some time, had to wait for an incoming zerg to clear the arena, but proud to say I got both (obby sanctum and pirates) completely legit. Made every jump myself.

I’m 90% pve but I do not shy away from pvp challenges. Neither should 4 pages of complainers.

colesy.8490:

marnick.4305:

Good question. Furthermore, will defiant be removed too?

Removing defiant results in getting bosses like Bjarl the Rampager who are repeatedly knocked down so they can’t do anything. It’s not the best solution, but it’s better than completely trivialising encounters.

There’s other ways to accomplish what defiant does. One could make bosses immune to selected forms of crown control, which forces players to adapt, knockdown and knockback could have duration/distance tweaked … As it stands, defiant merely makes all CC worthless.

Nick.6972:

CrossedHorse.4261:

Nick.6972:

10 overpowered, 500 good and 1000 mediocre skills is still better than having close to no skill customization at all.

Though the end result is the same. People all running the same cookie-cutter builds. I don’t mind how people play if it’s fun to them, but I would say that limited or not, everyone gravitates towards a few select builds regardless of how many you started out with.

Bad players will always go on internet and search or the best viable cookie cutter build and copy paste it while good players will try innovating and creating new meta builds.

Play a gimmicky build and watch your opponent think “What the hell is this? I’ve never seen this before.” The more skilled player with self made build will certainly win.

In BF3, M16 is the best weapon, however, a skilled player will also be able to score good playing a sub par weapon.

Not necessarily. Effective gimmicks such as iway were far stronger than many balanced builds due to ease of use.

Nick.6972:

10 overpowered, 500 good and 1000 mediocre skills is still better than having close to no skill customization at all.

Was more like 10 overpowered, 500 acceptable and 1000 worthless skills. You could really count the important skills on the fingers of two hands.
- shadow form
- protective spirit
- save yourselves
- hundred blades
- searing flames
- iway
- discord
- pet gimmicks

probably missing a few. Feel free to help.

eventually most popular builds revolved around at least one of those. That goes for pvp and pve alike.

My engineer got slightly buffed dmg wise in PVE. Support/control is still kitten but that’s because of defiant.

Overall good but not extraordinary. Without a huge warrior nerf, small buffs to engi/necro/ranger are worthless

Stricgly PVE

salvage to obsidian

digiowl.9620:

The problem with adapting builds is how much of it is tied into worn gear.

This means you have to carry a second or third gear set, taking up maybe 12 inventory or bank slots.

Someone who has only a zerker sets simply knows he’s not properly equipped for a whole lot of content. That’s not necessarily true for other sets.

Siofra Crumble.2098:

The counter argument the full berserker fans will bring is time.
If you cut down on DPS, you are slowing the party down. I can’t help but laugh at that argument. An organised -and balanced- group really won’t go any slower then a full berserkers group. And even if they do, it’ll come down to mere minutes.

Let’s not skip the fact that a zerker on the ground does less dps than wayfarer geared MF leeches.

WereDragon.6083:

marnick.4305:

It’s not a one-hit on my non-zerk geared characters. Maybe it’s your gear, not the boss. In my group there was a guy dying all the time to the beams, while I could just run through them.

Furthermore all damage can be avoided by proper movement and dodge.

her shadow shot is undodgeable

and yet I dodged it every single time once I got it. One of us is wrong. Guess who.

Nick.6972:

GW1 had no gear grind, instead people grinned tens if not hundreds of hours to get best cosmetics/skins.
That’s what kept the hardcore players – speed clearers, dungeon runners – occupied for so long time, not getting +6.497% better armor.

And yet farming most of that cosmetic stuff could be done in bite-sized amounts. Hardcore specifically means several consecutive hours (ie raid requirement), and impossibility for casual players.

Casual players can farm. They can farm for hours and hours. They can’t raid for 4 hours a night, 3 nights a week. That’s the difference. Are casuals allowed to get the same stuff as hardcore people by splitting up their time investments?

jheryn.8390:

Araris.7839:

No. “Hard core” and “Casual” players can not co-exist, because each demands the others content be destroyed. It’s as simple as that.

I get what you are saying, but with the world as big as it is, don’t you think they could create areas that would cater to both. Maybe a section of the world would cater to hard core gamers, and another that casual players would get a lot of fun out of without being over challenged.

The inherent problem is that hardcore people demand rewards that make them stronger, as opposed to merely cosmetic rewards. That leads to a gear threadmill which kills casual communities. However, elimination of gear threadmills kills hardcore communities.

And that’s the kicker. Casuals can’t live with gear threadmills, while hardcores usually need those to feed superiority complex. I don’t support that. However gathering full Arah gear is pretty hardcore, as is a 15 minute speedkill on Mai.

Are hardcores satisfied with merely cosmetics? That’s the one million gem question.

Good question. Furthermore, will defiant be removed too?

The current system is more transparent, probably more balanced and has far less junk skills. Currently that comes at the cost of build diversity which reduces real metagames.

The game needs far more utility and elite skills, while keeping weapon skills as they are

Worst thing being that warriors still aren’t nerfed enough to be in line with rangers, necromancers and engineers (strictly PVE)

Now I want yakburgers.

I’ll tell my cutie to make me one tonight. While doing the jumping puzzle. Because I’m baws.
She may not be blond, she may not have the flattest chest (and her tummy may be too flat) but she sure makes good burgers.
Forums for the win.

I’ve got no clue. While I love the dungeon, such stupid decisions are beyond my comprehension.