Guild Wars 2

zeromius.1604:

mrstealth.6701:

The OP’s suggestion is precisely what ascended trinkets should have been from the start. Stick with the combined stat+gem, and replacing the gem slot with the infusion slot. But make the base stat the same as an exotic piece+gem upgrade. It gives them great value and convience, without giving a combat advantage. And it promote variety and testing more radical builds.

I don’t know if I’m going to quit over it, but every new step down this ascended treadmill makes that so much more likely. There is no way to keep up with this on 8 characters and a love of build variety.

You knew that they were going to add Ascended items to the other slots after they were first released in November. It’s not a big surprise that you were going to see Ascended weapons and armor. It would however be quite surprising if ArenaNet went back on their promise and introduced a tier above Ascended at some point in time.

Oh, none of this surprised me. I saw the blog posts when the ascended rings were first added. I’ve known since last November than full ascended gear was coming eventually. And ever since that, I’ve hoped that they would make start implementing ascended gear in some way that doesn’t punish alts and build variety. And every time another piece comes out with yet another timegated, alt-hating, way to acquire it, my desire to keep playing this game dies a little.

It’s pretty discouraging to know that the devs are working hard to completely destroy your playstyle…one that they previously claimed to uphold and encourage. I’m completely for the idea that some games aren’t suited or some people/playstyles, and that it can be best to find a game more suited to you…but GW2 was suited to me, and was marketed to this type of player. And now the game is changing to suit the demands of a different type of player, at the cost of destroying my preferred playstyle. Those that want this type of long-term time-gated progression have many game options, why try to turn GW2 into something it wasn’t supposed to be?

The OP’s suggestion is precisely what ascended trinkets should have been from the start. Stick with the combined stat+gem, and replacing the gem slot with the infusion slot. But make the base stat the same as an exotic piece+gem upgrade. It gives them great value and convience, without giving a combat advantage. And it promote variety and testing more radical builds.

I don’t know if I’m going to quit over it, but every new step down this ascended treadmill makes that so much more likely. There is no way to keep up with this on 8 characters and a love of build variety.

Zerg farming bosses is definitely easier than organizing a successful dungeon run or playing the TP, but I don’t think it’s good at all. It’s just following the mindless zerg around in another boring, repetitive task.

It’s also creating a very toxic situation between the farming zerg and anyone not involved in their farming pattern. We don’t need people raging at others for killing a champ they happened to wander by or completing an event.

The intentions where good, the added rewards to the open world/champs were needed, but way it’s implemented and the way the community acts because of it is doing more harm than good.

While I do agree with the general point of the OP, I do have to say that I am looking forward to seeing more of SAB. It’s silly, and a bit out of place, although they did do as well as they could trying to fit it in and make sense. I do think the “Back to school” marketing scheme during the US’s real world back to school season is more than a kitteneesy.

I give SAB a pass because it’s just some silly nostalgic fun. The rest of the game…the content releases making little sense…the wild shifts in game philosophy/direction…changing a dungeon to be somewhat less difficult, then making it much more challenging a few weeks later…It just feels like there is no real direction and they are struggling to find where the game is going.

fellyn.5083:

mrstealth.6701:

fellyn.5083:

Except for old players aren’t progressing. I just made a new character from 1 to 80 in full exotics and ascended trinkets in less than 2 weeks.

You cannot get full ascended trinkets in two weeks. It takes a mininum of 20 laurels to get just the amulet. You had to have used laurels/badges/commendations/pristine relics that you had previously acquired.

A new player cannot possibly have 5 ascended trinkets in two weeks.

That’s my point. The guy claimed old players are still progressing.

Where is the progression when I can take a character from 1 to 80 and kit them out with stat perfect gear in less than 2 weeks?

Fact is this game needs something that takes a bit longer to achieve than what we’ve got now.

You are only looking at the situation as it is this very moment, and only for the situation you are in with your characters.

Old players will be progressing in 7 days when timegated ascended weapons are added. Thankfully there was a pause between this and ascended earrings/accessories, and the weapons will hopefully not involve laurels in their crafting. This is the one thing that is helping negate new players falling behind, but it is very dependent on how limiting the timegating is and how frequent new pieces are released. The longer the game is out, and old players get more and more ascended gear, and more ascended gear/upgraded infusions get added, the worse this becomes for new players.

You’re also assuming the new players will focus on a single character, or few characters. There is no way I could possbibly have all of my characters equipped with ascended trinkets right now. I have no main, so unless I happen to want to play a character that does have those, I’m at a disadvantage to a single-character player…and I’ve been playing since pre-release. New players are even more pressured away from alts and into single character gameplay just to have any chance of maybe catching up if the release schedule and timegating allows it.

I am all for long term goals, things to achieve that take a lot of time or effort. But not when those things create an advantage for some players that others might not be able to catch up to, or put a significant disadvantage on certain playstyles. There are ways to add long term goals without creating these problems.

fellyn.5083:

Except for old players aren’t progressing. I just made a new character from 1 to 80 in full exotics and ascended trinkets in less than 2 weeks.

You cannot get full ascended trinkets in two weeks. It takes a mininum of 20 laurels to get just the amulet. You had to have used laurels/badges/commendations/pristine relics that you had previously acquired.

A new player cannot possibly have 5 ascended trinkets in two weeks.

fellyn.5083:

World vs world was never meant to be balanced. See 1v1v1. Individual skill was never in the equation. Next complaint..

No, it wasn’t intended to be completely balanced. But does that mean it’s right to keep throwing in more ways to unbalance it? It’s unbalanced enough as it it.

I do not agree with your statement that individual skill is not in the equation. The ability of a group of players is directly related to the skill level of the individual players. The more skilled players a zerg has, the more likely they are to succeed versus another zerg.

fellyn.5083:

Wrong. There is a time gate for everyone. Not just new players. Are you suggesting anet should make their content with people in mind who aren’t even playing the game yet?

There is a timegate for everyone. But those that are already playing are forever ahead of those starting at any later date as long as new piece/upgrades/etc are being added. And they’ve already laid out their intentions of going beyond just the ascended gear itself. The new players are behind the old players, and can’t catch up because the old players are still progressing at the same timegated rate.

Let’s say we apply the same scenario to race cars. 2 identical cars with a speed governor capping them at 60 mph, on a course that will not require any slowing for corners. One driver starts 20 seconds after the other. He has no way to catch up. That driver will always be behind unless the other is slowed down/stopped.

And an resounding yes to Anet taking into consideration people that aren’t playing yet. Because I’m sure they want to continue getting sales. People are going to be less likely to buy the game when they find out that there is an ever-increasing gear ceiling that timegates will prevent them from catching up to.

Master of Timespace.2548:

fellyn.5083:

And in wvw there is always going to be new players and old players mixed together with varying tiers of gear and skill. You can’t balance for that either. Unless you just remove all gear stats in wvw.

Agreed, you can’t balance it. However, you can always make it even less balanced.

Exactly, and this is exactly what ascended gear’s timegating does. The old player already has an experience advantage that a new player might never be able to catch up with. Why give a gear advantage on top of that? And the old player doesn’t get a gear advantage versus the other old players (assuming neither have alts in consideration), because they have the same gear already.

It’s the same old story of why vertical progression doesn’t work. For every 1% you gain, everything around you gains 1%, too. Let’s say the level cap goes up to 100. We get new level 100 enemies with that. Sure, you might be have 20% more HP and do 20% more damage, but that level 100 enemy has 20% more HP and does 20% more damage, too. It poses the same threat to you as a level 80 enemy did when you were level 80, and will take the same effort/time to kill as that level 80 enemy. You’ve gained nothing but seeing some pointless numbers being higher.

fellyn.5083:

New content will be scaled towards Ascended gear so your Exotics will be to Ascended as Rares are to Exotics now. Do you play with Rare gear? (This is especially significant in WvW.)

Did anet say that? Or is it just your assumption?

I’d say it’s a safe assumption from looking at how content has been created/balanced for pretty much any other game with vertical progression. If you want new content to be challenging, you create that content to challenge your most well equipped players.

While explorable mode dungeons can be completing in lower tiers of gear, I’d say most would agree that they were designed with exotic gear in mind. Higher levels of fractals have quite obviously been designed with ascended gear in mind, as that that is the only way to get agony resistance.

Meglobob.8620:

A lot of players are saying all the ascended weapons are going to be account bound, is this true? Apparently a dev has stated it?

So we after craft to 500 to get ascended, no ifs, buts or maybe’s? No other way to get them? Also, those that do will never be able to make a profit from it via the TP?

I can see hordes of QQ threads incoming…

Every other piece of ascended gear is bound in some way when you get it. None of it is sellable. Being able to buy it on the TP would bypass the timegate of getting it yourself, which is the whole point of ascended gear.

Please step onto the treadmill, and keep your hands behind the timegate safety bar in front of you. The bar is only there to keep you chasing the next piece of ascended gear safe.

fellyn.5083:

The interesting thing is that because it’s time gated it takes the same amount of time for some one who has played the entire last year as some one who starts playing next week. Where is the disadvantage here?

In fact one could argue the new player might have the advantage here because they won’t have invested time and money into obtaining their exotic gear else where.

The disadvantage lies with the continued adding of even more timegated gear. Which we already know more is coming. And they’ve already given us some bits if info on more to come after the full ascended gear set is out.

How can someone starting today catch up to someone that already has every piece released to date? You can’t catch up to someone that is ahead of you if you are both still progressing at the same timegated rate. For every piece the new player gets, and starts working on their next piece, the veteran player with all the current gear begins working on the next newly released piece. You can’t start to catch up unless the treadmill stops or at least slows down.

fellyn.5083:

Lord Kuru.3685:

fellyn.5083:

Lord Kuru.3685:

AndrewSX.3794:

A single char.
With a single build.
With a single weapon combination.
With a single armor and trinkets stat allocation.

Yeah. Sounds (not) fun.

This. Plus, new players (i.e., new customers, Anet!) will be at a severe disadvantage.

How are they at a disadvantage and more importantly why should anet worry about that?

Should new players start at level 80 with a full set of exotics and crafting professions at 500 fresh out of the character creator? I’m not sure what you’re saying.

We all started at level 1 with 0 crafting professions and gear. I’m not sure where the disadvantage comes into play.

Currently, getting to fully Exotic gear is pretty easy, even for a new player — there are lots of avenues for getting geared up.

It looks very much like Ascended gear will be a huge grind, locked behind time gates. The point being that getting to Ascended gear will be far harder than getting to Exotic gear, causing a big stat separation between your main and your alts, between your primary build and other builds, and between old players and new.

You didn’t answer the question and your claim. How are new players disadvantaged.

The timegating is the disadvantage. Someone getting GW2 a few months after all of the ascended gear pieces are added will be looking at months and months of drudging through timegated gear upgrading just to get themselves on even footing.

Someone playing right now, as the ascended gear is being released, can keep up (only with a single character, which is also a huge problem) and not be at a disadvantage to anyone else.

Yes, starting at level 1 is still a disadvantage, but it’s a minor one because leveling up and getting into exotic gear is a fairly quick process. The months it takes to get ascended gear is not, and it’s also locked behind timegates that ensure they will never catch up as long as new ascended tier gear is being released. And we know more is coming. We’ve already been told that armor is coming at some point, and that higher grade infusions are also planned.

This is ridiculous, even though I saw it coming back when Ascended gear was first added.

Every new piece of this tier they add drive us farther down the road of alt and variation hate. I have 8 characters I play, 6 of which have more than 1 set of armor/trinkets, and all of which have more than just a single weapon set. I’ve not even had a chance to put the majority of them into ascended jewerly, and they’re already rolling out weapons. I don’t have a main, I don’t want a main, and I shouldn’t have the devs trying to force me into one.

Why should I even bother trying more variation like I wanted to? I know that every piece of exotic gear I get is just waiting to be upgraded. I don’t to play the timegated treadmill game, because I’m forced into a disadvantage because the timegates are all account based. At least make the timegates character based. Make the laurels/commendations/T7 mats/etc give me the currency for each character to spend on themselves, or let me do something to earn them for those characters. Having alts shouldn’t force into waiting 8x longer. I have alts because I have time for alts…let me use that time.

I hope they really love their single character, single build, single armor set, single weapon set players, because that’s all they’re going to have left when they are done catering to them. Well, them and the very casual players that likely don’t even know or care what ascended gear is. I get wanting to add things that cater to certain types of players, but you don’t do that when it royally kittens over another type of player.

Waffler.1257:

Dual.8953:

Dunno what you’re smoking. Unless you’ve got blinded status you, there’s nothing stopping you from hitting a stealth stomping thief with an untargetted skill. Two things that make the thief bail are untargetted CC’s or high untargetted damage. And most attacks in this game are untargetted.

Dunno what you’re smoking. You can only attack in the direction you’re facing when you were downed. So unless the thief decides to stealth and stand right in front of you, it’s GG, you can’t do anything. Of course that’s assuming you aren’t playing a necro, where none of your downed skills do anything, line of sight or no, unless you have a target. I swear most of the people who try to give out advice on the forums don’t even play this game.

I assume Dual.8953 was referring to allies using those skills, not the downed person. But I’m also not sure about the statement that most skill are untargeted. This is true for most melee skills, but ranged skills usually need a target unless they are ground-target skills. You aren’t likely to hit anything trying to use either ranger bow, a war longbow, pistols on any profession, or most scepter skills for any profession.

There are a fair number of skills that can hit the stealthed player, I just don’t think most skills fall under that category unless you are completely ignoring ranged weapons.

Shoe.5821:

Now on top of that I gotta deal with your pal trying to revive you/kill me when I try to stomp. It’s not impossible but there is already a LOT in favor of the greater numbers… why add more to that?

TBH if you have any chance of winning the 2v1 in the first place, it’s just as likely that the other player will get their fool self killed trying to rez. :P

The person ressing is now vulnerable to you, or you can just go stomp the downed person. The stomp is going to take less time than the revive, and the person will have to break the revive to have a chance at stopping your stomp. If the other player is not trying to revive, then just finish off the downed person with damage while trying to kite the other as much as you can.

CreativeAnarchy.6324:

You were downed, you lost. You have to be very lucky, and luck is the only thing in your favor if you get up before a spike.

While resing can be done in a zerg fight, if you were able to do that, you were either winning the fight or the other side was not doing a very good job of killing people.

Either way, stealth was not the problem.

I couldn’t disagree more. You’ve not lost till you’re defeated. And I’ve seen many instances where someone was revived even in a fight that was already going downhill.

I’ll agree that stealth is a lesser problem that invul stomping, it’s still a problem.

It’s not about the downed person deserving to lose. It’s not about the stomping person deserving to win. Unless it’s a 1 on 1 fight, it’s not about any one player deserving anything. WvW is about team play. If none of your team can manage to damage or stomp the downed player without some form of becoming invulnerable/untouchable(and yes, stealth does make you untouchable by quite a few skills), then that team doesn’t deserve the kill. If the downed player’s team manages to revive him and prevent efforts to stomp/defeat him, that team deserves to have their ally alive.

I’ll offer a quick suggestion to alleviate remove a lot of the problem. As some others have said, cause the stomp to remove stealth/invul skills, and maybe even stability/blocks. The latter is very questionable. This leaves the stomper very vulnerable, so to counter this, shorten the channel time of the stomp. No more blind swings in hope of landing a CC on a stealthed stomper, hopelessly flailing away at an invulnerable one, or taking time to boon strip stability hoping someone else hits a CC in time. Stomping becomes a fast action that an aware, and fast responding, ally can prevent.

CreativeAnarchy.6324:

You lost because you were downed.
You lost because you were downed first and would have just as easily been stomped by any other means.

Downed skills only delay the inevitable.

Just accept that when you are downed, you are going to loose.

Doesn’t matter what situation. If you get up in a zerg, that is because someone spiked another player.

Let’s just turn that around a bit.
“If you get downed in a zerg that’s because you got spiked by other players”
I’m not sure what kind of teammates you usually end up with in a zerg, but reviving downed players is a rather common and smart thing to do.

Outside of a 1 on 1 fight, downed is not “losing”
Outside of a 1 on 1 fight, death is not inevitable. It’s not even inevitable in a 1 on 1, it’s just the most likely outcome.

Shoe.5821:

PS : as many have said, if you’re downed, consider yourself dead. ;-)

what is with this sentiment?

it’s totally counter to how this game works

downed is not dead

that’s the point of downed

EDIT:

Furthermore, the entire point of stealth/etc. stomping is to be able to stomp people in situations where instead that person would otherwise be able to get back up. Which is kind of a big deal, especially in wvw roamer fights.

The only situation where I can even begin to accept the “you’re already lost” argument is a 1v1. And even then, the downed mechanic is part of the game. You haven’t lost till you are defeated. You haven’t lost anything in a group fight if half a dozen people are involved in downing you. Getting down in a fight like that happens. As I’ve said before, a huge part of the downed mechanic is giving your allies a chance to revive you.

Let’s just look at the “already lost” argument from the other side. You’ve already gotten them into their weak downed state. If you’ve “already won”, it should easy to finish them off. If you can’t do that without stealth or some form of invulnerability, how can you say you’ve already won?

Genocide.4506:

All I can say is LOL at this thread and all who agreed with it…. 1st of all stealth stomping doesn’t mean we cannot be interrupted AND we can still be damaged.. 2nd engi, ele, warr, guard can stomp uninterrupted and unscathed via shrink potion, mist form, stability even invulnerability… sooo before you guys complain about stealth stomping check on other classes that don’t use stealth.. I myself use shadowstep instead of stealth for stomps you might want to nerf that too eh?

All of those have already been brought up. I, and many others, agree that every one of them needs to be changed.

Aberrant.6749:

Another problem caused by vapor form is that even if you stomp them after you won’t get WXP from them (ever).

I never paid attention enough to notice that. That’s a bad mechanic, but it does kind of make sense from a technical/coding perspective. Must be resetting your tagging of the player along with the temp rallying effect Vapor gives them.

Does doing damage to them before you re-attempt the stomp give you credit?

I have to agree with those saying “you were downed, you lost” in a 1v1 scenario or in a small skirmish.

However, I completely disagree with that assessment in a larger battle. There is a much higher chance of getting downed, no matter how much better you are than the players attacking you. You didn’t lose, you were unlucky. That down state is time for your allies to revive you.

In a small scale fight, you’re likely to have a single downed ally. The stealth stomps are expected, and your allies have a good chance of prevent the stomp. Increase the scale of the battle, and you’re going to have more downed allies at once. Unless there is an extreme level of coordination that would be near impossible in a large scale battle, defending them from stealth stomps is simply not viable. Trying to efficiently divide your CCs and reviving is just not likely to happen. This leaves the downed players completely vulnerable to stealth stomping, likely from thieves that weren’t even involved in them being downed.

I also agree with those that said invulnerability, teleport, and stability stomps need looked at as well. While stability can be countered, removing stability takes time, meaning that the stomp will still likely happen. Teleports fall under the same realm as stealth, because they are preventable, but only if you are aware of them. They are more of a problem in large groups, and more easily prevented in smaller fights. Invulnerability is the biggest problem, because it’s not something you can stop.

On the other side of the problem, there is one downed skill that definitely needs a nerf. The ele’s Vapor Form should not be able to move through a tower/keep portal. No other profession can move through those portals after being downed and simply be able to revive themselves in safety. The closest would be the warrior, but their survival depends on getting a kill after using Vengeance. This is not likely to happen if they run into a doorway. The warrior is in a position more readily revived by allies, but they will still have been defeated.

Vayne.8563:

I’m sorry OP, are you suggesting that Scarlet has the ability to take over watchknights, but she’s completely mystified in how to take over Steam Mechs?

She had relatively easy access to the Watchknights. They were built in or near Divinity’s Reach, and it’s possible she was even involved in their design/construction since no one seems to have any knowledge of her antics with the Asuran colleges. Even if she didn’t have this level of access, they are still much more accessible than the steam creatures.

I was kind of ok with this till the aetherblades first showed up. They make no sense at all. A completely unknown pirate faction shows up out of nowhere to try and gain themselves a seat on the captain’s council….for what purpose?

And how does a huge group of pirates with advanced technology and a seemingly endless fleet of Pact airships exist without everyone knowing about it?

I don’t recall any of the NPCs during their initial appearance even being surprised or questioning the unknown attackers. It’s like they all knew already, but forgot to act surprised for us.

And now they are somehow linked with Scarlet? ….who also came out of nowhere, despite her previous actions that should have made her a major concern for the Asurans. And she is also somehow in charge of the steam creatures that are already explained in one of the asura storylines (Infinity Ball) and are absolutely not related to Scarlet at all. And to top this off, she’s also managed to resurrect the defeated Molten Alliance and bend them to her will.

I won’t be the least bit surprised if she ends up controlling the 8—bit SAB creaters next month, or shows up at Divinity’s Reach riding Zhaitan as her mount.

There was some continuity early on, though. The Molten Alliance leading to refugees in Southsun, which were exploited by the Consortium. The 2nd karka invasion is plausible enough, because we only took out one hive which was likely not the only one. Skip past the Dragon Bash/Pirate mess, and we end up with an election and the Zephyrites. Kiel has made a name for herself and makes sense for being a candidate. The Zephyrites are a bit out of nowhere, but their own backstory supports this, as they were likely in the sealed-off Crystal Desert where no one would have seen them.

Even the content of the Bazaar event was more interesting in my opinion. The jump puzzle-ish hunt for crystals was one of the best bits of temp content that has been added.

As suggested above, I recommend checking those settings. They used to effect only wvw, but since this week effect pve as well. That is the source of players not being rendered, or rendered in low quality. Nothing changed in the game to prevent players from being rendered, or rendering in low quality. You just have options for that now, which you apparently still have set rather low.

The name tags always showing is definitely a problem, and it’s related to the culling update as well. Those players would have been previously culled server-side, and never rendered at all. Now your client is aware of them, but your video settings prevent the models from being rendered. This causes the nameplate to be shown, which unfortunately ignores the name display setting toggle.

The only work-around available right now is to set the Character Model Limit higher, and the Character Model Quality lower. This is allow the nameplates to be hidden while still rendering the players, although they will be low quality models.

Kronus.6048:

what exploits ? really enlighten me on what exploits were used in the old areas. When plinx was farmed there was no exploit happening at all, it was pure farming.

Plinx farming was fine in that respect, it wasn’t exploiting anything. But take a look at two much more recent updates to Orr. The Union Waypoint event at the Lyssa Temple and the champ giant event on the steps leading up to Arah. Both of these were exploited by intentionally not completing the event in order to keep waves of enemies spawning infinitely. The Arah giant event is actually one of the next steps in the event chain that is currently being exploited.

Khisanth.2948:

Im Mudbone.1437:

OR, it’s the culling from hell which is still very prevalent in the game.

Stuff just dying on their own should make that part obvious …
Although I was about the ask the same thing. Is the map actually empty or are you just in the wrong part of the map?

Yeah, that particular overflow had the same events active for a very long time. Same two bosses and the bonus centaur (with the same number of enemies remaining). Nothing was being killed and chat was also totally dead. If anyone was in there, they were up in the gauntlet.

At one point when I was in a the main server instance, a friend (in the same party) got dumped into the dead overflow, and his option to join me simply did nothing (not even a full error). He ended up leaving the party, re-zoning, and got right into the main server with me. Stepping through the portal solo seemed to be the most reliable way for us.

Always a chance this is just random luck and someone leaving right as we try, but 3 of us have had luck today getting into a populated overflow by leaving the party. Perhaps the game is checking the server for room based on party size, even when only one is trying to enter.

It’s still an inconveniencing workaround, but it’s better than having to find someone that is already in the map. In any case, the overflow system could definitely use some tweaks.

Well, one of my friends already in my party decided to go in, and either got lucky or found an unusual fix.

He had been put into the same overflow with me several times. He attempted to get in after leaving the party, and was put right into the server’s main map. I’m not sure if the full party somehow effects the overflow queue system, or if he simply got lucky and another player had just left.

Reihert.1509:

Get a friend as a teammate that is already in a different overflow than you, click his portrait and choose “join overflow”.

Fixed

As I said, that doesn’t always work. As it frequently doesn’t with world events at peak hours. I also don’t have any friends in my party that are in that area, so I would have to find someone else, hope to get in, and return to my party. ….and then repeat that all over again in a bit when I change character.

Not to be rude, but please read the post before suggesting that. It’s quite obvious that I am already aware of that “solution”

I intended on doing a bit of farming in the Pavilion today, but I’ve found myself stuck in an empty overflow. I’ve attempted multiple times to re-enter the zone hoping to be placed into a different overflow, but it’s always the same instance of the Pavilion with the same events active. It’s been about an hour since my last attempt to get a new overflow, and I’ve yet to get a chance to enter the main instance for my server.

The only option I see to get into an instance of the Pavilion where I can actually do something is to attempt partying with someone that is already there. This is, of course, assuming that the map isn’t already full to the point of not letting that happen. It’s also a annoying inconvenience because I don’t plan on staying on the same character for the entire time I’m here. Which means repeating the process of leaving my party of friends to find a way in, then rejoining with friends once I’m in.

For a map that consists of nothing but group events, the overflow system is a huge hindrance. I’m assuming there are other full overflows, so why not funnel people into different overflows to create 2 half full, instead of 1 full and 1 with only 1-2 players.

Aside from attempting an inconvenient work-around that only has a chance to work, I’m essentially locked out of doing anything productive in this map.

Majuub.6215:

I cry thinking about having to still finish that.

Then skip it. I did a couple rounds of Southsun Survival, and decided that I didn’t like it. So I’m not doing any more of it. You only need 6 achievements completed to get the mini, anyway.

Well, the latest update should put an end to this.

While attacking the Champion Risen Giant at the Promenade of the Gods, most of the risen defenders will stop spawning once the “Risen Presence” objective is completed.

Anet dealt with this about as best as they could have. Minimal impact, if any at all, on players just trying to do the event. Far better than just nerfing the loot from these mobs.

At least 3 members of the party did not get credit for the fractal runner daily achievement. We completed all 3 fractals + Maw on level 8.

The only person I am certain did get daily credit was the person that started/opened. He suggested that the issues the rest of us had might be because he had entered alone multiple times attempting to get an easier/shorter first fractal. I usually do not bother with this particular daily, so I’m unsure if that is a known/common issue. I do see other guild members trying to get an easy fractal for this daily, so I think it is unlikely.

While this may or may not labeled as an exploit, it is giving the players doing it an unintended advantage. They are not participating in the event as intended. They purposefully not completing the event, and harassing (which is most certainly a Code of Conduct violation) players that attempt to complete the event as intended.

That is quite possibly enough to qualify as an exploit under Anet’s somewhat broad standards. Previous ‘unintended advantages’ such as the Wintersday jewelry salvaging were considered exploits. In my opinion, this ‘farming’ deserves the exploit label more than the Wintersday incident.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

I hope they don’t nerf it, but improve it. Currently people are farming the mobs, because the mobs are more lucrative than the event. The logical solution to that, would be to make the event itself more lucrative to complete.

And maybe the event should have some sort of counters to people just keeping the giant alive. Like the event escalates if the giant is not killed, and then more giants show up.

Making the event completion more rewarding would take a huge change to the rewards. Let’s say you add 100 heavy bags as a guaranteed chest reward. This event only happens every couple hours, so it’s still going to be “better” for them to stay there and farm hordes of mobs. A change like that would also require adjusting countless other events to keep them in-line with this one.

I’ll be the first to admit that GW2’s reward system is bad, but no matter what changes are made to event rewards, this type of exploiting would still happen. The best solution would be to alter the event to make this impossible. A time limit on killing the giant would be one of the easiest methods. I hope Anet chooses that over permantently nerfing the loot from this event.

Astralporing.1957:

mrstealth.6701:

If you don’t appear as online, they don’t know you are online, you don’t get messaged by them, and their is no chance they will be offended by your not wanting to talk to them.

But they do know, since the area you are in is constantly updated, and it does show. So, the first time they’ll see your info showing a different area, they will know you are online even if the game insists you are not.
And there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it.

That’s part of the problem being discussed here. It makes the invisible option a bit pointless. It’s a major flaw in the system that needs to be fixed. Just like how setting yourself as invisible makes guild chat not work.

ProxyDamage.9826:

mrstealth.6701:

Simply never appearing as online to them (or anyone else) is a better solution for both sides.

I don’t see how.

mrstealth.6701:

It’s not being rude,

Yes it is.

mrstealth.6701:

it’s not being a liar,

Yes it is. I’m pretty sure lying is lying.

mrstealth.6701:

and it’s not being a coward.

Yes it is.

mrstealth.6701:

It’s simply wanting to play a game without having to bother being social.

/block

Or just ignore them. Whichever.

If you don’t appear as online, they don’t know you are online, you don’t get messaged by them, and their is no chance they will be offended by your not wanting to talk to them.

It’s being anti-social, but it’s certainly not being rude, lying, or a coward. It’s just hiding and being anti-social. There isn’t anything more to it than that.

What exactly is it supposedly lying about? Or being afraid of?

You accomplish the same immediate effect of blocking/ignoring, without the long-term damage of offending someone just because you had a bad day. That might be “their problem”, but you are a part of it. And simple features that should be in the game anyway (for the other reasons posted here) could help to prevent that from being a problem.

edit:
If I’ve had a bad day, I’m probably not going to share that with someone I don’t know that well. It’s none of their business. So that is going to leave them not knowing why I don’t want to talk to them (more likely to think I’m just blowing them off and being a jerk). Any other reason I gave them would be an actual lie. Is that really better than an invisible mode to prevent that conversation from happening? Just because I don’t know them well doesn’t mean I don’t care about not coming off as a jerk to them.

This is going end up just like Lyssa. A bunch of idiots are going to get the entire event nerfed for everyone, just so they get a week or so of “farming”. After their week, every legitimate player trying to complete that event gets punished for their actions by having a permanently loot-nerfed event.

Ronah.2869:

Pixelpumpkin.4608:

If you’ve never had a stalker in RL, good for you. It does happen to other people, though.

And how is this game’s fault? They didn’t force you to give them your account.
You can easily buy a new one and don’t give it to them so they don’t know you are online. ever

Never had an ex-gf/bf/wife/husband? Or a disruntled co-worker/employee/boss that you formerly had a good relationship with? That cousin you had a falling out with? There are plenty of reasons why someone you formerly wanted to have this info would now be someone you wish could not see it.

Spending another $60, and throwing away nearly a year’s worth of game progress/items/etc is not an acceptable solution. The game having features that were part of its 8 year old prequel is a solution.

ProxyDamage.9826:

So, not only are you being “rude” (according to your standards….) but also a coward, a liar and a hypocrite? Oh, I see, much more polite.

There are so many things wrong with this post I don’t even know where to start…

First of all, are these people your friends or not? They’re not on your friends list… So they can’t be too much of a friend… So who the kitten cares if they decide to be upset? Boohoo, someone on the internet doesn’t like you. Big woot.

Second, since when it is considered “rude” to not want to talk to random people? Sometimes I don’t wanna talk to people. I’m tired, or I had a bad day, or that particular person is boring me. I tell them I don’t want to talk right then. If they choose to be upset, or emotionally distraught, that’s their problem. It’s one of those age old “offense is taken, not given” things. If people, especially people I don’t even consider my friends, choose to be upset because I may not be in the mood to talk to them 24/7 they can go suck a lemon.

I think a lot of people would consider it rude if someone didn’t want to talk to them/do something in game with them, yet they can see that person online for however long they choose to play the game. Even if you’re just not in the mood to be social/talkative/etc, they are likely going to take it as being blown off, whether or not that is the intention. If you’re already in a bad mood because of something, you’re more likely to say something that could be taken as rude. Simply never appearing as online to them (or anyone else) is a better solution for both sides.

It’s not being rude, it’s not being a liar, and it’s not being a coward. It’s simply wanting to play a game without having to bother being social.

It’s bad enough that anyone can follow you and see this info, but the worst part is (as claimed previously, I have not tested this myself) that even someone you have chosen to block can still see it. If I block someone, they should not be able to see any info at all. I should appear offline to them at all times.

Sometimes even a person you know in real life is not someone you want knowing when you are online in a game, or where you are in that game. A friend I played another MMO with had a former employee using his online status in the game to determine when he was home. Contact list additions in that game were character based, and required no authorization. All the stalker had to do was make another character to avoid block lists (I don’t recall if blocking even prevented status from being seen).

GW2 makes this even easier for the stalker by adding all of the victims characters at once, and ignoring the block list. The only “advantage” the victim has is that their stalker will show up on their followers list, but there isn’t much they do about it.

Looking at this logically, there is no valid reason for anyone to be able to obtain anything more than your character name by following you (maybe account name, but I would question why that is needed; simply show the added character name instead as GW1 did). There are many legitimate reasons to prevent this info from being shared, however. This basic level of privacy was included in the now over 8 year old GW1, so why does a sequel built around the same engine (very modified), by the same company, lack these features?

Elthurien.8356:

So how much real money does one need to spend to get one weapon skin? I don’t mind spending money on gems but there is a fine line between buying skins and funnelling money into a slot machine-like chance at winning nothing.

Current estimate from drop rates reported so far is around $60, which goes up 5x to $300 in just a few weeks when the cost goes to 5 tickets(50scraps). RNG being random some will get lucky and spend much less, but just as many will get unlucky and end up costing a great deal more.

Jski.6180:

You can still get the items from you know running the event that is going on in the living story. Ppl should have a chose to buy them with gems if they do not want to run the event that is HOW F2P games should be made.

That event is temporary, the BLC scraps/tickets are not. In a few weeks BLCs will be the only source of Aetherized weapons. The supply of weapons from the event will dry up, and the price from BLCs will increase 5×. The gold value of the weapons will be very high because paying the absurd $300+ price (a very conservative average) is the only way to obtain a new one.

anzenketh.3759:

They want the skins to retain their value over time and if they don’t increase the price then everyone will have one. They know this from the In game store from Guild Wars 1.

The only comparable thing sold in GW1 were costumes, and I don’t recall everyone having them ever being considered a problem. Nothing from the GW1 cash shop ever had any value, either. You bought a costume, and it was yours to retrieve as many copies as you’d like, but it no value ingame or otherwise. Still, a lot of people bought them, which means a lot of money for NC/Anet. Probably a lot more than are buying keys right now to throw away at the chance to get a weapon skin. I know the GW1 costumes seem to have at least outsold the town clothes in GW2, but we’ll never really know about the BLCKs because we can’t just see people running around with them.

I think they should keep Aetherized weapons as just a rare drop in the Candidate Trials, or other similar activities, to have the same “I have it, and you don’t” status/elitism/showing off/whatever you want to call it, all without the ridiculousness of the BLC RNG. There isn’t any reason, aside from greed, for the real money cost and RNG associated with these skins. The idea that something must have an absurd real money value in order to retain ingame/gold value, is a very very bad one.

To be honest, I consider this type of tactic something to be expected from “free2play trash” currently littering the MMO market, not something from a dev that should know better from 8 years experience of running a successful game.

edit: as mentioned in the above post, the Bonus Mission weapons are somewhat comparable, but they were just an added incentive to a content add-on. Like the costumes, there is still no ingame value associated with them, as they are always locked to your account.

Viking Jorun.5413:

You would have loved GW1. You didn’t ever have a follower’s list. Anyone who added you was completely anonymous and could see every detail about you.

#StalkerWars2

All they could see was your character name and the character you are currently on. The only other info ever displayed to anyone was your location, and that was for mutual friends only. It was limited to mutual friends for privacy reasons, but apparently that was forgotten somewhere between GW1 and GW2.

Ronah.2869:

lostforever.3106:

I never really understood why Anet allow people to see the whole account…

So you don’t need to remember hundreds of character names and who they belong too instead of a few account names

I do like the idea of adding the all characters. I think Anet’s reasoning was something like “you’re adding the person, not the character”. I play a lot of different characters, so it would be hard to keep in contact with me otherwise.

However, GW1 handled this a lot more conveniently. There was no account name, and the person was permanently listed as the character you added, with the current character they are in parentheses next to it. If “Sir John The Warrior” that I added a week ago from a dungeon run is playing his alt “Alty The Ele Alt”, it’s a lot easier to know who he is on my friends list if I see the familiar Sir John instead of “jdawg.1234”. Maybe I should try the nickname feature again, but last time I attempted that it reset back to account names at every game udpate, which only made the problem worse.

It’s not technically a gamble because you’re not at risk of losing your money/gems. You always get something, even if it’s just worthless junk like mystery tonics. There is a low chance you will get what you want, or anything else rare/valuable, but under no circumstances do you lose your money and get nothing in return.

The information that is shared with followers vs friends doesn’t even make sense. The most “sensitive” piece of info should be current location, but that is openly shared with everyone. The only additional information a mutual friend gets is profession/level and current server.

Followers should only see your account name, character name, level, and profession. There isn’t any reason for addition info to be shared. I think even the online/offline notifications should be limited to mutual friends as well.

If I like someone well enough that I want them to know where I am and be notified when I log in, I will add them to my friends list so that can be shared. This is exactly how location sharing worked in GW1, and is how it should work in GW2. GW1’s block list also prevent the blocked person from seeing that you were even online.

minbariguy.7504:

Living World takes one of the crappiest parts of Real Life — the fact that we often miss out on fun things due to other commitments — and puts it front and center as though it was a cool new feature.

The worst part of this with the living story is the rewards and achievements. Not only are players that are taking a break or are unable to play at the time missing out on story content, they are missing out on rewards and achievement points they will never be able to get. Looking back at GW1, the main thing you could ever permanently miss out on was a festival/event hat, and even those became attainable a bit before GW2’s release. Every special event would come back the next year, typically with some new content(and a new hat), but also restoring the old content. The only other items I recall being exclusive to a single event were Wintergreen Weapons, which like the hats, where later made attainable once again during the 2012 Wintersday event(and presumably all future years).

GW2’s list of now unattainable items is already longer than GW1’s. Molten weapon tickets, multiple food items, jetpacks, a mini, a tonic, and event a gear stat combo from just the F&F event alone. Tomorrow, two sets of dragon wings, Jade weapon tickets, another mini, more food, and a cooking recipe will be gone.

It’s true that many of these items are simply cosmetic and don’t have any impact on gameplay experience, aside from wanting something you know you will never be able to get. There are a few exceptions like the recipe, food, and stat combo, but the rest is just fun/cosmetic/fluff items. What does leave a lasting impact on gameplay is the lost achievement points. Starting this week, achievement points will be used to unlock rewards. Anyone not playing during a given living story step will permanently lose out an any associated achievement points. They are already falling behind the curve every day with daily achievements, so why push that even farther with temporary living story achievements? Are new players not already far enough behind with no chance at ever catching up to the veteran players?

New achievements can be a good addition to the game, but not when you only have weeks to get them before they are gone forever. It rushes existing players into doing everything right now, and away/future players from ever experiencing that achievement hunt.