Guild Wars 2

Alright, so looking at it from that perspective, I think we could further address it as which issues in PvE affect all PvE players?

1) Living Story — multiple posts are out there, not only concerning the frequency with the updates, but the contents of the updates, ranging from thoughts on the quality of the story/lore, the actual mechanics of the various instances/missions included, to the number of achievements that must be completed in a finite amount of time to obtain the shinies.
2) Ascended Gear — while personally its inclusion in the game doesn’t phase me one way or the other, given the number of threads on this topic, it is definitely controversial and bears further discussion/review. With the cat out of the bag, so to speak, I don’t believe it could be removed from the game completely, nor do I think that’s necessary, but further discourse on how it could be obtained would assuredly be welcomed.
3) RNG — with each LS update, holiday, festival, etc., has come the quest for new shinies, whether they be backpacks, weapon skins, minis, helmets … but the backlash over those items being locked completely behind RNG chests has, at times, reached near deafening levels on the forums. Coupled with many of the items being account bound has left many folks without an option to obtain them at all, since they’re luck is either atrocious or they refuse to spend gold/gems on getting the chests in the first place. How the new shinies that become available in-game is definitely something that could be looked at, as well the drop rates for different mats, rares, exos, percursors, etc.

Those would be my suggestions for now, since they do all affect a significant degree of the PvE playerbase … obviously those aren’t all the issues, and may not even be ones that anyone else feels are all that important, but from wandering through the various threads on the forums, they definitely do seem to weigh rather heavily on more than a few players’ minds.

Thanks again!

Otaur.9268:

Because the dragon’s are actually friendly, and we are the bad guys… They land like, “Hey everyone, what’s going on? OMG OUCH STOP POKING ME!” and we are all like “Hahaha evil dragon, taste my awesome fury” and then it’s all like (in Tequatl’s case), “Man forget all of you fools, can’t even get me limping, I’m going swimming and this time I’m drop some dead fish heads on your land… You Tyrians are so mean…” and then he does a few leaps and is gone for a few hours hoping that when he returns, someone nicer may greet him.

The End.

Since you put it that way, now I feel awful about ever having been included in the myriad of failed attempts at taking Teq down … next time i’m there, i’ll fling bottles of rice wine at him in the hopes I will be forgiven for being such a horrible host.

Hey again, Chris!
As far as prioritization, I would recommend something along the lines of how the company I work for operates … issues are dealt with as far as whether they have a:

(1) Global impact, affecting all system users
(2) Regional impact, affecting all system users in a specific region
(3) Local impact, affecting all system users in a specific location

For GW2, this could be looked at as:

(1) issues that are affecting all players, regardless of class, race, playstyle preference, etc., that adversely impact their experience, which can be reviewed/responded to on a game-wide level. And these could be determined by asking the simple question, does this affect all players?
(2) issues that are affecting a particular playstyle (WvW, PvE, sPvP), which could be reviewed/responded to at a more “regional” level. Again, determinable by whether or not the issue mentioned affects only a certain “region” of players.
(3) issues that are affecting a specific class or race, game element, etc.

This would allow for those concerns that affect every single player of the game to be addressed first, then those of particular regions of the game, and finally, those of specific aspects of the game. I’m not suggesting that concerns raised at a “local” level are any less important than those of “global” impact, but, by the same token, if it’s something that’s affecting every single player that logs in to play, I think that would bear a greater need to address/resolve.

Thanks again for keeping up the convo!

While it’s unfortunate you’ve taken the hits both here on the forums as well as the kicks in the game, I think what you have to concern yourself with is your own enjoyment of the game and whether or not the gear set you have is a benefit to your char. I’ll freely admit, I’ve got a Zerk warrior because sometimes it’s just fun to go all ballistic. But that’s also the only char I have geared in all Zerk. My necro’s in Carrion, my mesmer and ranger in Valk, and my ele in Rampager. My first engi’s almost 80, and I’ll prolly go Knight’s with her … why? Because I want to … I feel it’s stats work best for that char and how I play. Is the best set, objectively speaking? Not necessarily, but it’s the best for me … and in the end, that’s what matters.

Hey, Chris … first, as many have mentioned, I wished to express not only my astonishment, but my gratitude, for you taking the time to not only reply, but to do so as frequently and as candidly as you have been … it is refreshing indeed, not only in regards to GW2, but in general to feel like we are able to converse directly with the powers-that-be in the hopes of forging new paths together.

In regards to the two topics set on the table for discussion, I think what would be optimal is a multi-pronged approach, as has been suggested by several folks.

• On the launch screen, there are updates on forum polls that are kicking off and/or about to end, with links that enable you to go directly to the poll in question. The polls would ideally need to be specific (or, at least, more specific than “what would you like to see changed in PvE?”), run for 48 hours, and be structured so that posters would understand from the get-go that devs wouldn’t be responding to the poll until the conclusion of the 48 hours. This would allow for every single person who plays to come to know not only that the forums exist, but that their opinions on the forums is being actively sought.
• In game “pigeon-mail” (or raven if you want to go all Game of Thrones), to coin the term. Some people will just blow right past the launch screen and never even realize updates to current polls are on there. So they’re in game and they complete content, whether it be a LS update, a dungeon, etc., and they receive a “pigeon-mail”, similar to what was used during beta. But, as another poster suggested, it could from the Asuran Response Initiative, congratulating the player for completing the content (or sympathizing with the player for a failure), and then asking them a set of questions, and allowing them to provide open-ended feedback. It won’t pop up and distract, the little icon at the top would just flash, and players would have the option to check it out or not, as they wished (alternately, in the options menu, they could disable it altogether if they wanted to).
• Most importantly of all, though, is that some type of response to both is given. The exact results would not have to be disclosed, but updates to the effect of “surveys on the latest chapter of the LS have been received and we are eagerly going through the awesome suggestions that were made for how the next chapter can be even better!”, or devs responding to the forum polls, even if it’s just to address a couple of posts in particular that were well-written/thought-out and letting everyone know that all of the input was valued and being considered.

Anyone, just wanted to chime in with my “two-bits”, and again, thanks, Chris, for taking the time to not only get this rolling, but to take the time away from your family and your own gaming time to chat it up with all of us.

The moment I log in and do something because I feel like have to do it, or that it is in any way, shape, or form even remotely resembling a chore … that would be the last time I logged in. I don’t spend 40-50 hours working at my RL occupation to come home and log in to feel like I have even more responsibilities to handle — I log in because I enjoy myself. Much like loco, I’ve got the quartz node — can’t remember the last time I saw it, though. I’ve got some ascended crafting mats, but those were obtained by fortune rather than design. If I thought the ascended weapons were visually appealing, I might be concerned with trying to obtain you, but even if I did, I wouldn’t be forcing myself to do things I don’t enjoy simply to get it sooner rather than later … having it would affect my gameplay in the most marginal way, so eh.

Those days where people could play how they wanted to are still here … it may just be a question of what people want that has changed …

The “all i had to do was stand there” and “dodging in and out while hitting people” reminded me of the scene in the Princess Bride when the Dread Pirate Roberts defeated Andre the Giant … because he was smaller, more dextrous, and wasn’t willing to stand there (aka thief) and let his bigger, tankier, stronger opponent (aka paladin, i guess — never played WoW) repeatedly bash him in the face.

Thieves are supposed to be agile and dodge around/over you — if they just stood there and didn’t have those abilities available, they’d get squished. The “skill” comes in with being able to counter that kind of mobility so that you can get them into a position to bash them in the face. Otherwise it becomes a session of internet browsing to piece together your build, gearing up with the right equipment, heading into battle and remaining rooted to the spot while going through a predetermined chain of keystrokes … which doesn’t sound particularly fluid or even exciting.

Now don’t get me wrong — I understand exactly what you mean. The few times I’ve wandered WvW and run into opponents, yeah, I could barely keep my camera rotating fast enough to keep up with them. Sometimes I won, sometime I lost. Well, most of the time I lost. But regardless of the outcome, the way the battles played out definitely felt more alive and dynamic due to the kineticism of the encounter. If we’d just rushed up to one another and stood there while running through our list of keystrokes, and it was something I’d done a few dozen times before, then I could just lean back and let one hand run the keyboard while I drank the beer that was in my other. And the most my heart would start to pound would be if the bottle slipped.

The dodging around/over, difficulty factor in keeping visual track of your opponents, I believe is working exactly as intended.

I tried it a couple of dozen times on a couple of different servers and in overflow and was never fortunate enough to find myself in a situation where the stars aligned correctly for victory to be obtained. But, since Teq wasn’t part of what I normally did in game before, it isn’t personally going to affect me one way or the other.

That being said, I think for it to realistically remain in the open world, the event does need to scale. Mininum of 50 players, maybe, with its health being reduced proportionally to the number of players involved in the event. Removing it and placing it in an instance will do exactly what was mentioned above — a percentage of the population will be up in arms that they don’t have access to the event because they can’t organize the required number of players.

Have to chime in one the side of being a GW1 vet who doesn’t feel betrayed, abandoned, forgotten, etc. … are there aspects of GW1 I wish were in GW2? Sure. But, by the same token, I wish there were aspects of CoH (RIP) (costume creation and flying) in GW2 and even aspects of PotC in GW2 (owning a ship and sailing to Southsun would be awesome). And I don’t feel my experience with GW2, or the time I’ve spent playing it, have been wasted because it lacks those aspects, as it brings so much else to the table.

I know this isn’t the answer for everyone, but if I truly longed for Cantha that much or Elona, or EotN, then I’d just log back into GW1 and go wander around those areas. I know no new content is being developed or released, but what I did enjoy about it is still there. But, as another poster or two mentioned, the few times I’ve logged back into GW1, it wasn’t long before I was logging back out again because I wasn’t enjoying myself the way I do in GW2.

I’ve got 17 chars and definitely don’t feel the game is alt-unfriendly. But, to be fair, I’ve never been one concerned with WvW, fractals, ascended gear, legendaries, etc., so those issues have no impact on my gameplay whatsoever. And I think that’s where the true question lies — what a person’s interested in within the game. For someone who was concerned about WvW, or getting ascended gear for ALL their chars, and things like that, sure, I could see how it would be felt to be an unfriendly environment for alts.

Bouncing between Anvil Rock and Stormbluff, and been in maybe half a dozen invasions over the past week or so, and not once did any of them come close to getting to the Scarlet part … as was mentioned, once the aetherblades hit, it’s champ-farming time.

There’s numerous types of rewards that could be given at the end of the suggested quests that wouldn’t necessarily turn them into “the next stop on the champ train”. I believe the devs mentioned at one point that new skills and/or traits would become unlockable via in-game content — those could certainly be added as rewards. Unique (to that quest) skins, for both weapons and armor, that weren’t locked behind .0000001% RNG. Recipes that allowed you to create something along the lines of an endless keg of ale or a neverending bottle of rum. 5 gifts, like the GW1 royal gifts or gifts of the traveler. Specific dyes. And those are just a few examples.

As for the quests themselves, they could be of varying length/depth, from as basic as Bob the Brewer getting drunk and forgetting where he left is recipe for the endless keg of ale, but kind of remembering a bunch of strawberries and a bunch of griffons … (lame, i know, but just an example of brevity) to something with as much complexity as taking you from a 1-15 zone to a 40-50 zone, with pieces of the quest running through all the zones inbetween. And while I think I remember reading that the devs wanted to steer away from text-based quests, as mentioned, the inclusion of these would probably be easier than scripting out cut-scenes, gathering the voice actors/actresses/etc., and could, conceivable, be set in various, remote locations throughout each zone.

But, this may be a case of wishful thinking or too tall an order to be asking.

While I enjoyed Cantha and aspects of Elona as well, with this being more of a new game than a direct sequel, so to speak, it might also be interesting that IF a new “land” is under development it was something entirely new rather than a revamp of Cantha or Elona … something new to both GW1 and GW2 players alike.

That being said, any new profession would likely be heavy armor since, as it was pointed out, that would balance it at 3/3/3, and I’m for thinking it wouldn’t be the paragon, since that’s tied so heavily to Elona. Unless they re-invent it and call it something else, like the thief class is a re-invent of the sin.

As for race? I know it would never happen, but the only one I’d be interested in playing would be skritt.

Provided you have the gold and/or the mats on hand, you can craft all the way to 80, and I’ve heard tale people have been able to hit 80 that way in a few hours.

While I don’t keep track of it, I’d have to guess it’s in the $100s I’ve spent on gems, but as many others have already stated, it was because I wanted to, not because I had to in order to play the game. Some of it was more bank tab slots, char slots, and some of it was to trade for gold, and some of it was just to get the “fluff”, like mini sets or town clothes or whatever happened to catch my interest. But the truly wonderful feeling about all of that was I didn’t HAVE to spend a dime.

While I’m not a HUGE fan of JPs, turning this into a solo instance would be a lot like turning Sanctum Sprint into a solo instance … in many ways, it would destroy the point. And while I’m sure there are some folks that wouldn’t mind running Sanctum Sprint alone (conceivably, other players could be replaced with NPCs/trash mobs, and “winners” could be determined by total time taken to run it), I personally don’t think it would have been as enjoyable an experience.

But, by the same token, unless char sizing, and the likely lag-fest that will ensue, are addressed, I could see how some return participants, as well as new ones, will be a little dissatisfied with it.

Hmmmmn … may take you up on the offer when my 7 day extended vacation to a different server to complete the maps in WvW is at an end … I got through perhaps 33% of ‘em on AR, but the rest just wasn’t going to happen …

I agree about the elites in particular … can’t say i use them all that often on some of my chars, and in some cases, were it not for Hounds of Balthazar, I wouldn’t use it at all (looking at my mesmer, unfortunately) … now, it may be a completely different scenario for folks in WvW or PvP, but for PvE, I think another half-dozen truly useful elites for each class would be welcomed.

1. the freedom to do what i want, when i want … no rules, no forced gameplay

2. lack of reliance on a dedicated healer … i’m a soloer, so having heals on each char makes wandering the world much easier

3. the world itself — as many have said, there always seems to be something new to find, even with 100% map completion (which is sooo much different than the cartographer title where you had to hit each and every little corner of every single map)

4. crafting, and this is just in comparison to GW1 rather than other games … i like the inclusion of this because, to me, sometimes it’s just fun to play around with …

5. the trading post, and again, this is just in comparison to GW1 … i like the inclusion of this much more than watching text going streaming by in the chat box with WTS or WTB …

6. the LS … while not all of it has been 100% engaging or interesting, especially for a soloer, i still really like the fact that new, albeit temporary, content is added in every couple of weeks … provides a lil more variety …

7. and the music/graphics … though if some of the music from the Jade Sea was included somewhere in game, i would love it even more …

I wouldn’t say I’m ignoring the LS by any means … but for me, I don’t go out of my way to complete any of the content unless something being offered is something I’m interested in obtaining … I don’t find it to be horrendous or boring or anything like that, but by the same token, i haven’t found any of it to be so awe-inspiringly awesome i’ve felt compelled to participate in every aspect of it.

I just go happily about my way as I have since beta, logging in with anyone of my 17 chars and doing whatever it is I feel like doing at that particular time … wandering, leveling, crafting, whatevs … if i happen to be in a zone where an event is going down, and it’s an event I feel like participating in, i’ll jump in on it, but if not, i’ll just meander on by, continuing to do whatever it was I’d been doing …

I think that is one of the truly appealing aspects of the game to me, and anyone like me — there’s no obligation to DO anything in the game. I don’t NEED a certain gear set to wander around any of the zones, though, admittedly, exotics make survivability in certain zones a little more likely. I don’t NEED to farm mats for anything, because none of the things I could craft with said mats are things I NEED. Heck, I don’t even NEED to finish the PS, and I’ve got 5 lvl 80 chars, with the last three classes hitting 80 soon, and I don’t think I’ve completed even a third of any one of their PSs. I don’t need to do dungeons, WvW, PvP, etc.

The only thing I NEED to do is enjoy myself. And the moment I stop enjoying myself, I log off and do something else.

Ah, so like watching grass grow. Thanks!

Any more detail for folks trapped in the office and whose company’s system security protocols prevent watching a bit of youtube?

While I honestly don’t have a problem with the notion of increasing the level cap per se, since at face value it wouldn’t make that much of a difference, I wholeheartedly agree the only reason to do it would be to introduce a geargrind, which I most definitely have no interest in seeing added to the game.

But as someone else mentioned, the likelihood of it happening any time soon/at all, doesn’t seem particularly high, seeing that it would, conceivably, need to include level 80-85/80-90/90-100/100-x zones. Otherwise, what would be the point in obtaining the new gear? To go stomping through Orr at 20 levels above the critters in gear that makes you able to one-shot anything you run into? Or to hit the champ-train in Queensdale and one-shot everything along the track?

I don’t know if this solution would be best, since there would be a backlash of folks who have leveled all 8 char types to 80 and have done map completion several times over. However, and this has been mentioned in several other posts concerning less populated areas, the revamp of existing events and/or addition of other events (with worthwhile lootz — has to have the lootz), that satisfied the majority of the effort vs. reward principle COULD entice some players into those zones they don’t tend to frequent.

But I think what would be equally beneficial would be for those revamped/added events to be chains that affected more than just a single corner of the map, because otherwise you’ll have a ton of folks camped out in one secluded section waiting for the event to spawn, and then WPing out the moment it’s done.

I’ve often thought all armor types should be made available for all classes, with advantages/disadvantages to each, so that people with different playstyles could tweak their chars the way they wanted to. As mentioned, heavy armor should be heavy, reducing either speed or endurance regeneration, but providing the best defense of the armor classes. Low would be on the opposite end of the spectrum, providing the least amount of defense, but with better speed/endurance regeneration. And medium would sit where it’s at — in the middle, not the best of both worlds, but providing better defense than light/less than heavy, but less speed/endureance reg loss than heavy but more than light.

I know the “logical” conclusion people reach is “i’m a warrior, why wouldn’t i want a scrapyard’s worth of metal protecting me”, but what if you had a warrior in mind that was more of a “sword-saint” type char who didn’t believe in armor because your skill with the blade was defense enough? Or, on the flipside, an ele char who was just a wee bit timid and felt safer within a cumbersome steel can?

I know one point of contention that has been raised is by locking char types to armor classes, it makes them easier to identify in PvP situations, but from what lil wandering I’ve done in WvW (and I know it’s not the same), it’s when another player starts hammering into me that I figure out what type of char it is, and that usually happens a lot faster than me checking out their armor and going, “Oh, heavy armor, must be a war/guar”.

Plus, by opening up all armor types to all classes, it provides a lil more variety to the game.

I ‘ve got dupes of each, with an extra warrior to boot (I was hooked on those for awhile), but recently, the ones I’ve enjoyed the most have been mesmer and ranger. Don’t get me wrong — mesmer was a looooong trek to 80, but once there, I feel fairly confident walking into any situation, and I’ve felt like that with the ranger all along.

The ones I play the least frequently, which I suppose amounts to the least fun, are my eles and thieves, eles because of the constant attribute swap for aspects of the traits to kick in, and thief because you have to be fluid to be effective.

But all my chars still get “play-time”, so I don’t truly dislike any of them.

Not true … exotic duelist armor for medium is just as skimpy as the human T3. But that leaves you with two to pick from, and only 1 if you’re playing anything other than a human …

I was at it last night around 10:30/11 CST and there were maybe 60 or 70 there at the most, and I would think that’d be considered closer to prime-time? We got it’s health bar down MAYBE a quarter of an inch …

With the weekend coming, I suppose there’s a possibility we could see a higher population at it, but the 80 player minimum is going to be a challenge to muster, and then, of course, it’s the question of getting those same 80+ people to hang around and repeat the event because it’ll take a few runs of trial and error to get the mechanics down. And based on what I’ve been reading here on the forums, it seems like 80 players would have as much of a chance at winning as would 8. Well, maybe SLIGHTLY higher odds.

But, that being said, I’ll still likely show up whenever it pops up just to check it out … it’s not like a Scarlet invasion where I have to check the clock and wonder if I want to devote the next 45 minutes to zerging …

While I do agree and wouldn’t mind something with a more macabre of a feel to it (Orr might benefit from a Silent Hill type makeover), by the same token, I have to think that it could be the grittiest, darkest, most sinister atmosphere/landscape imaginable, and then someone goes trundling past with their plush Quaggan backpack, blasting out tunes on their SAB Boom-box and just like that, the immersion is dissolved.

With the mix of magic and tech/fantasy and sci-fi in the game already, I don’t think the inclusion of more “modern” styled armor skins would be that immersion-breaking. Some of the aetherblade armor available is already pretty sci-fi looking. I think the caveat to that, however, would have to be that the armor skin would need to have some type of fantasy/sci-fi element to it.

For example, I don’t see the inclusion of jeans, or chuck taylor’s, or catholic school girl uniforms, or three piece suits (what i guess you could call “normal” clothing) having a place in the GW2 world. That to me screams Sims. But, take that three piece suit and add on a bunch of chains/gears/antique-looking trinkets, snap a pair of techie goggles around a top hat, and suddenly it’s a “steam-punk” three piece suit. Or, make the vest out of chainmail, the coat out of leather, and the pants out a mix of the two, and tack on some type of helm, and suddenly it’s a “fantasy” three piece suit. There are ways to incorporate elements of modern clothing.

Except the catholic school girl uniform thing … i’m at a loss there.

E.T. vs random Asuran

Excellent points by the OP … in my eyes, it’s always been a question of perspective. I’m 100% in support of constructive criticism, with suggestions on how aspects of the game could be improved. But the pure viciousness that comes through in a lot of the forum topics, directed towards the devs and/or management … it still truly boggles my mind. I’m by no means a hardcore player, but i clock in a good 15-20 hours a week. I’d probably play more often, but there’s the job, the kids, the book i’m writing, etc. (you know, real life shtuff). I can say beyond the shadow of a doubt, though, that if I was just thoroughly disgusted with the direction the game was going, additions they’ve made to it, the frequency of additional content (temporary or permanent), or anything else … well, shoot — I’d find something else to do with my 15-20 hours a week that I DID enjoy.

But I’ve been playing since beta and for the amount of work, hours, and heart and soul that’s been put into the game, the folks behind it could use a few more forum hugs rather than a few more forum kicks in the junk.

If just flipping the boxes to be the reward for the event/chain of events, but the event/chain of events don’t involve anything more complex than slaughtering waves of vets and champs, then it’s only shifting the issue, rather than solving it. I think a few of the ideas presented (more complex mechanics for the champs and/or mechanics that increase in difficult the larger the size of the zerg) were spot on. That would provide for a “nerf”, so the speak, on the AA/AFK mentality, while still providing the lootz … which, with the scarlet invasions, I have to admit, I do enjoy.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Raine.1394:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Zackie.8923:

“no one will never know”

means

everyone knows

???

Just couldn’t ignore the double negative in the title?

I think the double negative only cancels itself out in algebra. Here on the forums I believe it emphasizes an increasing magnitude and here a sense of terrible loss.

No, the rule exists in English as well. Random crap I remember from high school English classes.

“In most logics and some languages, double negatives cancel one another and produce an affirmative sense”

“In Standard English, two negatives are understood to resolve to a positive. This rule was observed as early as 1762”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_negative

Edit: Adding the quote and link simply as support.

I was actually an English major for many years and this is indeed the truth of it. I think one of the best examples of this are those that claim, “I ain’t got no (fill in the blank).” Which, clearly, suggests they do have whatevah …

To address the OP’s point, however, and to agree with several who have already stated the same, what difference does it make if anyone else in the game knows what type of weapon you have so long as you are content with it? I would assume if you spent the time/coin in crafting the ascended weapon, but knew you didn’t care for the skin, you were crafting it for that stats, which you now possess. So in my eyes, you accomplished your goal.

Would it be nice if more skins were available? Certainly, the more the merrier. But if/when they would become available, a word of advice, and this is also something several others have pointed out — get the skin you like because you like it, not because you’re expecting/hoping for a crowd of other players to gather around and ogle your amazing weapon … I, like many of the others, really wouldn’t care one way or the other. I don’t spend a lot of time eyeballing the neighbor’s lawn decorations, car, wife, er, barbecue … As long as what I have makes me happy, then my goal has been accomplished.

Skritt ftw! Nothing would make me happier than wandering around and having my char randomly shout, “Shinies!” Or, in the midst of a world boss battle, have my char shouting, “Killlll it!”

Holy … that was a long read … but a lot of really fine suggestions were made, though I have to say that the thing that struck me as most true was the following:

“•Smart players with bad reflexes. There are plenty of bright people in my guild that managed to do the hard content in GW1 that are struggling with the terrors of GW2. Bringing protective gear and some extra healing just doesn’t help. If you don’t have the reflexes, you’re going to fail. And since difficulty is for a large part defined by the amount of time you can keep going without messing up a dodge…Yeah you’re going to have to miss out on all the challenging stuff.”

I wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment. I’m an old GW1 player, spent time in FoW, UW, completed multiple dungeon tomes in Hard Mode, Vanquished, etc. … and a lot of the process, for me anyway, was tweaking builds for maximum efficiency/effect, depending on where I was going … but in many of the more “challenging” portions of GW2, it isn’t mash #1, it’s mash the dodge, and if you miss one or two, or you fail to see the AoE circle, then yep, exactly, you’re toast. And even if it’s just a question of memorizing the timing, or the placement of AoE damage, or which direction you’re supposed to dodge, all it will take is missing one or two, and wham, toast …

But if there were areas that required one to truly think through it, using some of the skills at our disposal (knockbacks, interrupts, and pretty much everything else you mentioned), it would provide for challenging content for players who don’t want to spam dodges in zerk gear because it’s the only stat set that logically is worth it in many situations.

I haven’t heard of anyone getting double boosters, but each character a person has receives the birthday gift. I had four B-Day presents waiting for me on Monday when I logged in because I created all four chars during headstart, so I have four Jennahs, four boosters, and four level 20 scrolls.

A couple have mentioned it already, but def CoH char customization. There were literally thousands of combinations possible, and they were all cosmetic — no stat bonus, etc. Plus, you had the option to customize your skills’ effects, not only with colors, but for some skills, there were different animations and different effects. For example, for the mesmer, instead of butterflies when an illusion shattered, it could be flies, or stars, or shards of glass, and they could be of the color you chose. Or for the thief, with dual pistols, the animation could be the one they have now, or the animation CoH had for the dual pistol skill Bullet Rain (which was really cool). But as one poster stated, it allowed for everyone’s chars to be easily identifiable from a distance (assuming you knew them, lol) since no two chars looked the same.

Mine would def be the Skritt Forager, if it actually ran around shouting, “Killll it!”

If we go rule 63 for the A-Team iteration of DE, we wind up with Sucker Punch.

Maybe Faren should be Murdock, bump Canache, and insert Marjory as the female version of Faceman, er Facewoman?

Rox — Hannibal
Braham — B.A.
Canache — Murdock
Faren — Faceman

Done and done.

Vol.5241:

Sylentir.8913:

Vol.5241:

mojowalker.3798:

Vol.5241:

Making lots of gold.

And then sharing it, this one would hope …

Last month I gave out 100g, 1g to every new player in Queensdale. I may be a rich snob, but I’m also a philanthropist.

If you want to have fun, make up contests. Do a hide-and-seek in Lion’s Arch, or a race in Queensdale, or an unofficial jumping puzzle. People like feeling that they worked toward their rewards, and it gives you something fun to do/watch!

Hmm good idea. There are loads of nice places in LA to do hide and seek.

Dance contest … or drinking contest.
Or both.

If they turned Faren into a stumbling, wine-swilling drunk that pushed his misogyny into randomly spouted lewd comments, like to Anise for example, it would definitely have me re-watching cutscenes and demaning they be put in a living story journal.

And, similarly, turning Braham into a Mr. T type would be even more interesting.

Rox: Looks like we’ve got work to do, Braham. Come on: there’s almost enough for both of us.
Braham: I pity the fool!

VOLKON.1290:

I play.

This. If I didn’t find the game itself fun to play to begin with, I wouldn’t bother logging in. I’ve always looked at these questions like, “You’ve got a Monopoly game, but what do you do with it to have fun?” …. Ummm … play it?

Vol.5241:

Making lots of gold.

And then sharing it, this one would hope …

Chuo.4238:

Limited from the gem store? No. If you ever sold it, keep selling it.

Limited in the sense of festival hats from Guild Wars? Yes. No problems with a free cosmetic item that says “I was there, then”.

This here … armor/weapon/back items/etc. skins, dump ‘em in the gem store/TP for any and all to buy, tailor-suit to their chars, mix and match, etc. Honestly, if you’re spending that much time wandering LA trying to show off what you’ve got your char decked out in (“Check out my big freakin’ sword! Betcha wish YOU had this thing, but you can’t because you ain’t specccialll”), that’s an issue for another thread altogether …

But limited time items linked to specific events, like festival hats, that in GW2 would wind-up being town clothes — it proves the been there/done that. I think I’ve still got the GW2 baseball cap lying around somewhere in one of my char’s sacks.

With so many references to Joker, Harley Quinn, etc., if Scarlet was more “Bane-ish” (Tom Hardy Bane, that is) so to speak, would that have been more appealing? Just curious …

(AS-IS) Scarlet Briar: Aaaaand that’s my cue. Hello, DR! My name is Scarlet, and I’ve come to play with you.
(BANEIFIED) Scarlet Briar: I will destroy Divinity’s Reach and then, when it is done and your city is ashes, then you all … have my permission to die.

What about the sclerite karka shell and/or the fervid censer? I’ve got both, not certain if I’d ever use either … but if I could make a pretty penny off ‘em in the TP, I’d toss ’em up for sale.

CoH (RIP) had something very much like this, wherein you could not only choose the color of your skill sets, but some of them had a few different animations to choose from as well. For example, you could change the color of the blast from Spatial Surge to match/complement your armor’s coloring. Or, using the mesmer as an example again, when an illusion shatters, rather than butterflies, it could be stars, or regular flies, or flower petals, or maybe just a colored haze.