Guild Wars 2

Zero Sanguine.2857:

This whole thread is ridiculous just buy the expansion, clearly you enjoy the game so support it and gain access to a bunch of new content at the same time it’s a win win, don’t complain that your not getting for free what a majority of us paid for

It’s not new content. This is stuff we’ve had for years that’s now been taken away and put behind the expansion’s price tag.

And even if I do buy HoT, I’d still need to get a hall to gain access to this stuff again. Which doesn’t seem to be all that accessible to a guild that’s just small group of friends. There’s not really enough of us to do the guild missions to earn the favor required for upgrade unlocks.

And it seems the only way to even get the stuff we’ve already unlocked is by spending favor on it. While scribes get to craft them through recipes using materials that have to be a hell of a lot easier to come by than favor.

This is just inexcusable and needs to be fixed ASAP. We should at least have limited access to scribe crafting to the make consumables that have been in the game for years.

I’m not going to be using the consumables and resources from my main guild to drop banners for friends and the general public, or to get a guild cata for a couple friends playing in wvw. The friends I play with don’t even have permissions to use those types of things in their main/larger guilds. And now our smaller friends-only guild is not going to have viable access to those outside of us buying them with our personal guild commendations.

So, what all can we do with a guild without HoT and a hall?

I’m in the Initiative HQ of a small guild I’m in with a few friends, and I can see where to buy banners/guild siege/etc this guild has unlocked.

But when I go into the HQ for my personal bank guild, all I can buy is a karma banner and guild cata, and I don’t see any NPC that’s actually offering me upgrades to access more banners/etc. I only see the option to add the merchant and repair anvil.

I have to be missing something here. This can’t be how Anet intends this to be…

Vayne.8563:

Guild Wars 2 has a more extensive cash shop that is, for the most part, completely optional. It’s not the same thing. EVERYONE has to pay their WoW dues every month. No one has to frequent the cash shop. Do I need another outfit? Another mini? It’s all convenience. If I don’t pay for WoW I can’t play WoW period.

So if WoW has 5 million subscribers, and each has to pay $15 a month, that means WoW has 75 million dollars a month as a budget to make an expansion. Anyone who looks at the totals made by the cash shop knows for a fact that Anet doesn’t make 75 million dollars a month.

Those WoW expansions aren’t free, and I know people who never pay a dime to the gem story. I know people who farm gold and get gem store stuff for no cash.

No way you can compare these situations. But people do try to.

That is why I said you can’t compare the two business models. But it is still unfair to bring up WoW’s subscription fees, while ignoring the fact that GW2 does have a very obvious, though not required, revenue source outside of box/digital game sales.

I’m not a WoW player, but from my brief experience with the game and what I know from friends/others do or have played it, it does seem that there is quite a bit of additions of content/rewards/etc between their expansions. While with GW2, we see a lot of the game’s cosmetics (and cosmetics are a very prominent aspect of any MMO) being locked up in the gemstore. Even though we can acquire these through gold>gem conversion, someone has to pay Anet for those gems to be available in the economy. If GW2’s gemstore is adding more than $15/month in items you want, WoW’s sub fee can start looking like a pretty good deal.

So it’s not just a difference in the amount of money coming in for the developers. As players, we get different game experiences depending on the business model the game operates under. Which is a big part of why the subscription and cash shop models are difficult to compare.

Vayne.8563:

But you have to compare the whole package. You’re also paying a monthly fee for WoW with relatively little updates between expansions. So your’e not really paying $60 for a WoW expansion you’re actually funding it with $60 plus a couple of hundred dollars Let’s be real. The sub fees goes into making the expansion too. They absolutely don’t need that money just to run the game.

And GW2 has a more extensive cash shop. It is optional purchases, but most skins/cosmetics added since release have been gemstore/BL chest items instead of ingame rewards. This is to encourage spending in the gemstore to make up for not having a monthly fee. If GW2 had a monthly fee, we’d probably have seen many more armors and weapons added as ingame rewards.

Going by Anet’s own statements and NCSoft’s earnings reports, GW2’s gemstore has been making quite a bit of money. And just like WoW’s sub fees, that money has helped make this expansion. They are two very different business models, but they do serve the same purpose. The cover costs and fund further development.

Of course, there is no real way to directly compare these business models. One is an enforced “pay or you can’t play” model, while the other merely gives optional account upgrades and cosmetics. WoW also has a massive subscriber base pouring many times more sub fees per month than any other MMO has active players. Blizzard has a proverbial money tree that has always stood in a league of its own, and can’t be easily compared to any non-subscription game. Or even to other subscription games. It is simply making an obscene amount of cash.

Straylight.7529:

Arenanet deemed it sufficient. Whether you or I deem it sufficient enough is completely irrelevant. Also the beta testing of the original GW2 wasn’t more extensive either (I remember three to four beta weekends) and the launch was OK.

The original beta also had more of the game available. It was mostly limited by how high level you could manage to get in the limited time. HoT’s betas have been limited to a portion of a single map.

And launch was fairly rocky, in my opinion. A lot of skillpoint NPCs were broken. You could get completely stuck at many points in the personal story. Higher level maps (which had gotten less testing) had lots of broken hearts and stuck events. The first time I got into Iron Marches, I couldn’t even get map completion without rushing to do hearts after updates reset the map.

It took a while to get the issues sorted out. But the game was mostly functional at release, at least for the content that was available at low levels.

Ashen.2907:

Vayne.8563:

But they didn’t nerf the silverwastes, I wonder why.

Because SW is not instanced group content competing against the new direction for such content.

Yup, they’re trying to funnel people into the raid/fractals. But this is a really bad way to do it. The new content should be attracting players with its own rewards, not by trashing the rewards on old content to make the new seem better.

It’s no better than other games making old dungeons/etc irrelevant by adding higher level content with higher level rewards. Either way, you’re making the old content not worth doing. It’s something they’ve said they didn’t want to do, but it’s already happening.

Straylight.7529:

But it DOES matter. It’s commonly accepted that raids don’t open up on day 1 since no one would be able to play it anyway.

Labeling HoT an unfinished product because the raid doesn’t open on day 1 is just silly. Do you want to raid on launch day?

People were playing the raid content available during the last beta. People completed the portion that was available then.

So, yes. If the raid was in the game on day one, people would be playing that content. We don’t know what level of masteries will be required (if any are even an absolute req) to finish it, but people can and would be doing that raid.

I honestly don’t know what you mean by “commonly accepted”. Maybe because that’s how WoW did it. “They did it, so it’s ok if everyone else does, too” isn’t really a good reason, it’s an attempted excuse. But this isn’t WoW, and the raid content is blocked off behind some requirement of needing special gear/attunement/magical hoopla in order to enter.

I’m labeling it unfinished because the raid and several other key features are not ready at launch.

They’ve basically given themselves till the end of the year (Christmas/New Year) to include something that their primary marketing page shows as if it’s a launch feature. Even today’s post about raids merely says “soon after launch”. And that is still no guarantee that it will actually be ingame by the time they stated. We’re already looking a list of features that didn’t make their stated release dates, and we’re expected to believe this one will be any different?

The fact remains that they will not be ingame at launch, and we have no solid date for their release. And there is nothing indicating that they are actually ready right now. If they were ready and waiting to be added, we should have a solid timeframe for that. What they have said clearly shows that they are not completed and are still being worked on.

As for using raids as a plural, this is marketing/hype about release, not what is coming later. Things that are only planned and not being worked on yet. They have planned a lot of things that never happened, or that we are still waiting for.

Straylight.7529:

mrstealth.6701:

Why exclude raids? Because it’s one of the more obvious examples? I think that should make it the best one to list.

Because the raid IS coming. Shortly after release. Therefore you can’t put it on the “missing/incomplete/broken” list. People need time to get their masteries up and prepare accordingly. In WoW the first raid also comes weeks after release yet no one is complaining there. It’s completely normal for an MMO to open the gates of a raid after release and not on day 1.

It’s a still feature that was hyped as a launch feature, that is not included with the game’s launch. At what point does “coming shortly after release” end? There are other game features/changes we’ve been told were “coming soon” that took months, or even years, to get into the game.

And that still doesn’t change the fact that what is being released “soon after launch™” isn’t even a complete raid. They’re touting raids (plural) as a feature, when they don’t even have a single raid done yet.

Straylight.7529:

That means every WoW-expansion, the most successful MMO to date, wasn’t ready to launch. LMAO.
Fractal changes, legendaries and squad UI are features but not main features. Main features are the stuff displayed on the official HoT homepage like new maps, guild halls, WvW, etc… all ready at launch.

I’m not sure why that is funny. Frankly, I don’t care what WoW has done or how they handled their releases. It doesn’t matter in this at all. But if they’re advertising raids as an expansion feature, then not releasing them along with said expansion, they are releasing an unfinished product. ‘Soon after’ is not ‘at launch’.

And fractals is on the list of main features, right along with raids. The squad UI is also heavily linked to the raid system. Legendaries are also a main feature listed under masteries, as they are part of that system.

Guhracie.3419:

Also, all of you who staunchly defend this xpac as being in-line with any other xpac out there… how do you know? You’ve played some beta events. Nothing I’ve heard about the beta suggested it was larger or more content-rich than any full expansion ever released.

I don’t think this can be said enough. It’s why I’m still at the “wait and see” stage. None of us can know for a fact whether its worth it without knowing precisely what it comes with. We all have our own ideas what is required to make it worth it, and our own impressions of what to expect. But there are still 3 entire maps that we have absolutely no information about.

Maybe those maps are crammed full of content and have a new event or other content every 5 steps. Or maybe those maps are barren and only have 5 events between the 3 of them. Obviously very opposing extremes, but the fact is that we just don’t know what they have.

Straylight.7529:

mrstealth.6701:

Straylight.7529:

MyriadStars.5679:

Beta testing also matters. Do you want a finished product or work in progress?

No MMO is ever finished. An MMO is always a work in progress.

There is a big difference between the ever-changing/evolving nature of MMOs and releasing a game with major features missing, incomplete, or broken.

Which major features are you refering to? And please don’t say raids. We know they’re coming shortly after release.

Why exclude raids? Because it’s one of the more obvious examples? I think that should make it the best one to list.

Perhaps you don’t think so, but I see a distinct difference between ready at launch and coming soon™. If one of your main features isn’t ready on launch day, your game isn’t ready to launch.

But there are more examples, so that’s fine.

Like the rest of the raid. What was supposed to be at launch, but got delayed, was just one wing of the raid. It’s not even raids at this point. It’s just the one, and only part of it.

Then there is the squad UI. Now this could be part of the reason the first raid wing is delayed, but it is a new feature on its own. And it still has nothing to do with the fact that the raid itself isn’t even complete.

Fractal changes are not ready for launch. The leaderboard (that they said was coming 3 years ago) won’t be ingame yet, which makes some of the new fractal rewards unobtainable.

The new set of legendary weapons will (by their own time estimates) take another year to complete. This is something we were supposed to have had (in addition to other types of legendary gear) back in 2013.

I think that’s the biggest things that we know for a fact are incomplete. But given Anet’s preference for living story releases over personal story, it’s likely a safe bet to say that HoT’s story won’t be complete at launch either. They’ve not really given much indication of the amount of story content coming at launch, which is something I’d expect to be hyped if it existed.

And I’ll not be surprised if Friday reveals a few more missing or “coming soon™” features.

Straylight.7529:

MyriadStars.5679:

Beta testing also matters. Do you want a finished product or work in progress?

No MMO is ever finished. An MMO is always a work in progress.

There is a big difference between the ever-changing/evolving nature of MMOs and releasing a game with major features missing, incomplete, or broken.

IndigoSundown.5419:

I still log in most days, and play a little on some of them. I’m in wait-and-see mode on HoT. I don’t need the characters slot badly enough to want to pre-pay for something I’m unsure about. Specifically, I want to know:

• How big are the 4 zones?
• Are the zones all like SW and DT, or are they more like the core zones. I’m not a fan of either SW/DT, and this is a make-or-break issue for me.
• Just how much of a role does verticality play?
• I already know enough about the Elite specs to know that half of them hold no appeal for me. I would like to hear more about the ones I might like.
• Just what do Masteries entail?
• Will Anet make changes to its LW release approach to a form that is more appealing to me? While 2 was better than 1 in terms of the story, they used story elements that I did not enjoy, like DE2. Will the LWS3 story be worth playing through?

I plan to wait until more videos appear, the wiki holds complete info on Masteries, and ANet gets around to revealing its plans for LW3.

This is pretty much where I am right now, though I’m rather pessimistic in my expectations. The big factor for me is going to be the new pve map content. Just how much there is, and how much replay value it has. I did like DT/SW, so those maps being the next evolution of that type of content would be a good thing, in my opinion. But it needs to be an improvement on that formula, not just more of the same.

The elite specs I’m most interested in are for classes I don’t play much, so they aren’t really offering much for me. I do play my ranger a lot, and like heal/support classs, but I just don’t see it being of any use outside of raids or wvw. Overall, I think the specs are something new I would try, but most likely end up not using on the characters I play the most.

I really don’t care about raids at all, and the only reason I’d never end up doing them is if I really like one of the legendary armor sets. I’m already disliking the new legendary weapon direction because of the arm re-skins they do, though the new crafting process should be much better.

The other big things I do care about are features I get without buying HoT. I’m in a big guild that will get a hall with or without me, which I can still access without spending money. I’ll be able to play on the new wvw map (one of the things I’m looking forward to the most) and new pvp gametype.

So for me, HoT is basically 4 new pve maps, 1 new class, a couple specs I might use, and whatever story it has. I liked LS2’s story well enough, but a lot of the gameplay of it left me disappointed. There were only a few chapters (the ones they took longer than two weeks to push out) that really stood out as good content to me. So while I do look forward to the story/lore aspect of HoT/LS3, I’m not as hopeful for how enjoyable the gameplay along with it will be.

Vayne.8563:

Dungeon rewards should have been nerfed ages ago. The reason stated was valid. Dungeons create gold. They add cash to the economy directly, which isn’t good for the game.

The last change they made to dungeon rewards was increasing them. If it was that big a of a problem, I think it would have been changed/reverted long ago, or just not increased the rewards to begin with.

Anything you do to get gold outside of selling items on the trade post creates gold. All of the coin drops and fodder sold to the merchants every day is probably a lot higher than the amount coming from dungeon rewards. If they wanted to control the amount of gold being put into the economy, they should be adding more gold sinks to help balance the flow.

Their stated reason for the change is pretty clear. They want our focus to be on fractals and raids, not dungeons.

Vayne.8563:

They’re giving the game away for free. It would be insane for them not to encourage people to buy the expansion. It’s unreasonable to think they wouldn’t. There are probably hundreds of thousands of people who play the game now without spending a dime. At what point would you, as a company, not make it so that the paid content rewarded players better.

They’re not actually nerfing the rewards. They’re simply not upgrading them.

Free players are already heavily restricted and getting less rewards. They don’t even get the daily login rewards that paid players get. If Anet is worried about giving free players the new map rewards, they can simply block that feature off from free accounts. I might not be buying HoT right now, but I’ve certainly paid for my game several times over.

And, as mentioned above, rewards are most definitely being nerfed. Dungeon rewards are being reduced and salvage is being changed, with the new map bonus rewards system being part of the reason for the changes.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Personally, I think that the cost and inflation is a bit silly. Are we to be perpetually stuck with 214 spare hero points?

I agree that the cost/inflation is really the bad part of it. It essentially does the same thing that Anet said they weren’t doing with this expansion, and the problem that most other game expansions do have. It devalues the existing content, which in this case is the hero challenges in the core game areas. It seems kinda pointless to try and unlock your elite spec at the rate of 1 point per challenge, when HoT gives you 10 per challenge and enough of those challenges to fully unlock.

TJgalon.5012:

Just so people know, you only need 60 points to get into elite specs. while it unknown how much to unlock just using elite skill, each Jungle HP is worth 10. I wish if people complain about one thing, they at least put in the other info to not make it seem worst then it is.

If the unlocks are setup like the other specs (which they most likely are), that 60 points isn’t going to get you much. You’ll have a new weapon, your first minor trait, and maybe a major adept trait. I don’t think the elites will be worth using until you have at least one useful grandmaster trait unlocked. You’re really gimping yourself by rushing to use it while most of the traits are still locked.

PyrateSilly.4710:

mrstealth.6701:

There are still some looming concerns and unanswered questions that could certainly sway my decision to stay into a decision to leave. Mostly regarding how core game changes like map rewards/masteries are being handled for those not buying HoT. If those things are locked behind the expansion paywall, I don’t see myself staying around as a second-class player.

Well, they have already said that only those that bought HoT will get the map rewards and masteries. Expansions add to the game and only those that buy the expansions get the additions. It has always been that way for expansions for every other game – MMO or otherwise – so I am not sure why you think it might be different with this game.

That’s the impression I got from their info, but I don’t think I ever saw it clearly stated. Not getting the new map rewards would mean that HoT buyers get more rewards for doing the same content, while non-buyers still have to suffer the consequences of reduced dungeon rewards and salvage changes.

I’m fine with new content coming with new rewards. That’s expected with any expansion. But if they’re nerfing existing content rewards, and shifting that into HoT-only rewards for doing the same old content, that’s just a slap in the face that I’m not willing to stay around and take. I don’t care who bought or didn’t buy whatever, if I’m doing content I have access to (and have had access to for years) along with someone else, I should have access to the same rewards as that person.

I don’t think HoT is worth the price from what is known now, but I’m holding final judgement till after release. I want some of the new specs, but it’s just not enough to justify the cost of what I have the impressions is going to be a lackluster amount of new pve content. I’ll probably stay around without buying it, but that does depend on how well the new borderland map renews my interest in wvw, as well as how other changes affect pve/the game overall.

There are still some looming concerns and unanswered questions that could certainly sway my decision to stay into a decision to leave. Mostly regarding how core game changes like map rewards/masteries are being handled for those not buying HoT. If those things are locked behind the expansion paywall, I don’t see myself staying around as a second-class player.

Ayrilana.1396:

Conner.5803:

Ayrilana.1396:

Random.4691:

Ayrilana.1396:

It’s 40 hero challenges within HoT. Even less if you currently have excess hero points. Not a big deal…

No it’s not a big deal to you, it’s a rather large deal to everyone who disagrees, which is the majority. (at least in the forum world)

Because 40 HoT hero challenges requires too much effort?

It does if most of them will require masteries already.

The first tier of gliding and mushroom jumping.

As far as I know, we don’t know if that is true. How ‘bad’ this is really depends largely on how much is required to actually access the hero challenges.

I do think that 40 isn’t a bad number, but it’s certainly rather tedious when you look at the bigger picture and consider multiple characters. What I don’t care for is the the inflated numbers of 400 points and having HoT’s challenges being worth 10x what a core game challenge is. It’s a really cheap way of trying to make HoT’s content seem “more rewarding”, while at the same devaluing core game content.

What I see as a real grind that isn’t acceptable is obtaining this in wvw. It’s not clearly stated, but I’m guessing a Proof of Heroics is given at the rate of 1 per rank. Which would mean unlocking a spec for a single character needs 200 ranks/proofs, as well as 6000 badges per character. That’s not what I would call a viable alternative to 40 pve hero challenges.

Sidenti.6035:

If you want more information, kids, you have to be better players. Remember – we’re our own worst enemy. The reason game companies are so secretive about upcoming changes is because, time and again, we have proven to them we will use this information for personal gain and kitten the effect it has on the overall game.

We have met the enemy, readers – and they are us. Are we willing to take more responsibility as a community to prevent this sort of stuff from happening?

Responses below will tell the tale, won’t they. -Sid

This really only applies to the economic/material aspect of the game. Not at all to details about features or content.

We know a lot about the new specs/skills/traits, but there is no evil to be had from it.

Selkirk.4218:

instead it feels like bombs are being dropped in the week before release (again dungeon nerf…fractal leaderboards…guild missions…the list does go on).

What’s changed with the guild missions overhaul in the past week? I know all of the expected changes/improvements coming with halls/instances missions, but what’s the bad news?

Pandabro.8743:

I don’t understand people who think there’s somehow a lack of content for their precious $50… Have you seen ANY of the videos of the jungle areas? It’s enormous. Those maps plus all the story content alone will be worth it in my opinion. Getting lost in a whole new world is such an incredible experience to me. My 1-80 in GW2 was incredible and if this captures that feeling again it’ll be worth way more than $50.

We’ve only seen 1 of the 4 maps, and even then only part of it. We don’t know if the other 2 biomes cover the whole map, or are just limited to smaller parts of it. But we do know that the remaining 3 maps won’t all use all 3 biomes.

Verdant Brink is an impressive looking map and it looks fun to explore, but it also has a lot of open space and winding paths. Places that actual content isn’t likely to be found. A 300 ft wide canyon looks great, is fun to glide across, and makes the map look bigger, but it doesn’t really add any content to the map. It’s a big area that you can’t really do much with, outside of gliding.

That’s really the important issue. Instead of how big the map looks on the world map, we should be concerned about the content density and available content space within that area. Even if HoT’s maps fully utilize each biome zone (which we know for a fact they don’t), each map is no bigger than the core game maps. To hold up to its nearly equal price tag (to the core game at release), HoT needs a lot higher content density.

Content density is difficult for them to show off, but they can at least show the map areas to give us some idea of how much usable map space there will be. A single biome of Verdant Brink with massive canyons wasting space does not leave an optimistic impression on me.

Ragnar.1546:

KhanKatir.4038:

“… but we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it…” ~ Nancy Peloski.

“the bill”, Prepurchase.

Meh, details.

Pretty much.

So far HoT hasn’t sold me and has pushed me closer to uninstalling than purchasing and continuing. I’m still going to wait and see what reviews show on YouTube before making my final decision.

Same position I’m in. I want it to be good and worth the money, but delayed features and lack of details on the amount of content doesn’t inspire confidence. I’m not very inclined to spend $50 for a bunch of “content coming soon, check back later” signs.

I agree about economic changes being kept a secret, but there is plenty of general info relevant to purchasing decisions that could have been given. There’s been a lot of feature hype and detail, but little indication of how much content is coming. And the amount of content is a huge factor in deciding the value of a game purchase.

We’ve only seen part of a single map, with no hint of how much ground its other two biomes cover. And we know nothing about the 3 other maps, aside from the fact that not all of them have all 3 biome areas. I don’t think a quick fly-through tour or some map screenshots(preferably showing each of the biomes) is much to ask for.

I’d also like to know how much personal story is included at launch, and just when we can expect LS3 to pick up and finish off the story. Just a simple number of chapters or instances, or expected average gameplay hours within the story instances. The ditching of PS in favor of LS for the core game, and relative silence about HoT’s PS, gives me the impression that there isn’t much to it. I’m expecting the bulk of HoT’s story to be released post-launch via LS3.

Which then makes me question how many other things are held back till sometime after launch. We already know that the single raid won’t be complete at launch, nor do we have any idea how many more raids (if any) there will be at this time next year. Legendary weapons apparently take about 1 month each to add, so we can expect about a year before a new complete set is ingame. These are fairly big features that we know for a fact are not ready at launch, but are they only ones?

The impression I get from lacking this kind of info is that it’s being held back because it’s unfavorable. That it doesn’t show HoT living up to its price tag.

I did a Tequatl run with settings nearly maxed (reflections on terrain/sky). I ended up dropping the character limit settings down just before the first defense phase, but they were at the highest levels during the 100-75% HP zerg DPS race. Those two settings definitely seemed to impact RAM usage, but it was less than a 200MB difference between highest/highest and low/medium.

Physical memory usage never went over 1.8GB, despite having at least another 2-2.5GB of RAM availabe. Virtual size (as reported by Process Explorer) got to around 3.1GB, which I think includes GPU memory usage. I’m not sure what the actual GPU memory usage was, and I don’t have a way to figure it out after the fact because virtual size also includes unused page file allocation.

This was a fairly fresh start of GW2, and I know its RAM usage can get up around 2.1-2.2GB in some areas. Adding that extra use onto what I saw could put the total memory allocation up to around 3.5GB. If GPU memory use can also see a similar increase, then I can see the game maybe hitting the 4GB ceiling. But that’s a big jump from what I saw tonight.

It’s probably worth checking to see if your RAM and GPU memory total is hitting the 4GB limit for the game. Process Explorer doesn’t show GPU by default, but the column can be enabled to show it along with RAM use. If it’s really hitting that limit so easily, make sure there isn’t some GPU feature enabled that might be eating up more memory on the card.

I understand that, and would want the same. I wasn’t suggesting it as a proper solution, just a test and potential work-around.

Unfortunately, you’re likely right about being out of luck unless Anet actually makes a 64bit version of the game(or implements limits on the 32bit client). If you’re seeing 3.3GB RAM usage, not including GPU memory, you’re probably just hitting the 4GB memory addressing limit on 32bit applications. I don’t think there’s anything you can do about that yourself.

Are you running the game at an extremely high resolution, or across multiple displays? I’d expect to be hearing more reports of this if it was happening at 1920×1080 with those settings turned up.

You could try a different driver version. Either an older one, or a beta driver if one is available.

And have you tried lowering graphics settings to see if the issue persists with your new GPU? Since this is happening at larger events, character model limit/quality would probably have the biggest impact.

Are you using DSR (Dynamic Super resolution) on the GPU, perhaps in combination with the game’s render sampling set to supersampling? I don’t have a GPU that supports the feature, so I’m not sure how it interacts with the game’s own over-rendering/downsampling setup.

mordran.4750:

Dopamine.7502:

As topic says. BETA testing has no place in WvW. Use the new BL tests to test WvW for beta characters. BETA characters are unbalanced and have no place in WvW matchups.

Ah i see, you want to test beta chars on empty borderlands maps to let unbalanced professions into the live game when hot releases. Makes total sense, you sir are a true genius………..

The previous wvw BL tests were not very well done. My guild wasn’t active in it because we were spread across the 3 fake servers setup for the test. The way the tests were conducted, they would likely have been better off swapping that map into EotM’s place instead of creating that fake wvw matchup.

If they want to actually balance test new specs, they should have done a separated pvp beta for stronghold and new specs. Unleashing untested professions/specs on the live game (any part of it) is just a bad idea. There is a reason other devs use test servers instead of using their entire customer base as forced test subjects.

The live game should always be kept as balanced as possible to maintain integrity, especially within competitive aspects of the game. Allowing new classes/skills that you know still require balance testing into it shows a lack of respect for the game and players. The only difference between this and releasing them untested with HoT is the time limit on the beta weekend. Either way they are still put into, and allowed to impact, the live game.

While I can’t say over/undershooting with this and similar skills is the norm for me, they are quite unreliable. I haven’t done Sanctum Sprint in a while, but the lightning pull skill in Dry Top and even the launchpads at Tequatl behave the same way. Either of them can over/undershoot the target landing spot by a considerable amount, or just drop you out of the air like a brick mid-flight.

I have noticed that it often accompanies the flight/jump being jerky or having some rubber-banding. Which makes me think that it’s caused by server or network lag, as the wiki suggests. Even with an apparently low ping, server lag can still cause problems. I often have skill lag when my ping is still under 100.

I’ve seen dailies not reset before, but it’s always been just the particular map instance I was in. It’s always reset properly the next time I waypointed to a new map. If you remained in the same map (or dungeon) instance before and after reset, you might find that it’s reset the next time you log in.

This does look like a different, and maybe more complex issue, though. I don’t think I ever had a situation where the individual daily activities reset without the Completionist also resetting. It was always that nothing reset till I changed maps.

Perhaps the chkdsk did find a corrupted or bad sector and auto-repaired it(or disabled if physically bad). Your initial game repair could have just re-written the bad file to the same sector without realizing the sector was bad. Detection/repair does happen on-the-fly to a lesser degree, but the drive’s controller could have thought it successfully recovered a sector that should have just been marked as bad and reallocated.

If that’s the case, it’s nothing to worry about unless it happens repeatedly. A bad sector or two cropping up can cause issues themselves (like corrupting your game files), but they are something that can just happen from wear or a minor manufacturing defect and aren’t an immediate sign of hard drive problems.

TWC gave me a Ubee modem/eMTA/router, which doesn’t appear to have static DNS settings while otherwise operating in DHCP mode. At least per the user guide. The device is set to bridge mode and all of its router features are disbled, so I can’t actually see those settings without changing it back to NAT mode.

If anyone else has a device that lacks the setting, or you can’t find them, you can set DNS servers on your PC as well.
Network and Sharing Center (in Control Panel) > Change adapter settings > Right click your adapter > click Properties > double-click Internet Protocol Version 4
Leave the upper section on automatic (or whatever it is currently set to), and change the DNS option to “Use the following DNS server addresses”. The DNS server fields will then be available to set static DNS servers.

Kuju.2153:

I was having the same issue with TWC in Ohio as well. I believe it to be a DNS problem. You can fix the issue by logging into your router, go into LAN settings, and check the box labeled Enable DNS Override. Then put in Google DNS servers: 8.8.8.8 and/or 8.8.4.4 for the Primary and Secondary. If you need IPv6 use: 2001:4860:4860::8888 & 2001:4860:4860::8844. You can leave the third one blank for now.

It seems to have cleared up all my intermittent problems thus far.

Should fix it if it’s DNS related, though the method of doing that can vary with router brand/model. Mine (a Linksys) simply has fields for static DNS in its local DHCP connectivity settings, which are enabled automatically if you fill them.

I did have a few DNS resolution errors earlier today, so it’s quite likely there is something going on with TWC’s DNS servers. TWC’s hadn’t given me any issues for a long time, but I’m back to using Google’s now.

Went afk for a few and came back to being DC’d. Then got the connection error/retry on launcher for a minute. But seems fine now.

[edit]
Same thing just happened again. Website/forum was not accessible, as well.

Potentially relevant info
In the US (Ohio) on Time Warner Cable. Tested a few other sites, and all loaded while game/site were both not loading.

You’re quite welcome. That’s what the forum is here for.

Good luck with support, hopefully they can figure something out aside from playing whack-a-dredge with different driver versions.

And Windows 10 does leave you the option to revert to the previous version for a month after you upgrade. So if you do decide to try it and don’t like it, you can go back without much trouble. The free upgrade option is also valid till July 2016, so there’s no rush. Windows 8 will also continue to get normal feature updates till 2018, and security patches till 2023.

That’s definitely a strange one. That rubble isn’t usually phased like that. Everyone should be seeing the same pieces, so you can toss them around and cooperate for the events. And your game client shouldn’t be rendering those anywhere unless the server is telling it that the objects should be there. I don’t really have any sort of explanation for this, or even a real guess at whether it would be server or client-side.

I’d expect the ground to be completely littered with them if it was a graphical bug, or a bug in with how the server was handling the objects in the world. But a server-side bug should have others seeing them, as well. Them being organized to paths between the forts is also extremely weird. It’s almost as if the supply bulls were leaving a trail of rubble droppings along their routes.

Windows 8 vs 10 is just personal preference, mostly. There are some new features and conveniences, but functionality isn’t really any different. I doubt anything will run better (or worse) on 10 than it does on 8, until games start supporting DirectX 12. It’s worth checking out, but deciding to upgrade is just down to which you like the look and feel of.

I went from 7 to 10, and never touched 8 because I didn’t like the lack of standard start menu and the full-screen ‘metro’ apps. 10 has a hybrid mix of both start menu types.

That’s a bit unusual. You could try running a CHKDSK (check disk) on the drive the game is installed on. Though, it is somewhat unlikely for a sector that was bad to have not just been marked as such and ignored during the game’s checking and repairing of its own files.

To run the CHKDSK tool, get to the “My Computer/Computer/This PC” section of Windows Explorer/File Explorer (the names/exact method varies with Windows version).
Right click the drive where the game is installed, and open the Properties window.
Go to the Tools tab, and click the Check button in the Error Checking section of the tab.

You can also (or instead of the CHKDSK) download a HDD check/test utility from the drive manufacturer. If you don’t know the manufacturer, you can usually tell by googling the model number shown in the Hardware tab of drive properties.

Windows also includes Windows Memory Diagnostic, which you can find by typing that into the start menu or taskbar/Cortana search. As with CHKDSK, it will reboot to perform the test or offer to schedule it at the next reboot.

Looks like someone got bored and carried a bunch of the rubble from the fort rebuilding events to make a path. Something like what happened here http://imgur.com/a/y8ohF

When you reloaded, you probably ended up in a different instance of the map.

It’s a lot more of an issue for new players, because they’ll still have hero challenges locked till level 11. They also won’t have any writs or tomes for easy XP/levels.

The only fix I’m aware of for a new player below level 10 is to gain a level, which can be a pain without a heal skill. But at least you can still get XP from exploring and discovering waypoints/points of interest/etc.

I think this has been happening without it being directly linked to the updates that changed We Heal As One. Some reports of it I’ve seen do seem to indicate that it might have happened in the middle of a single play session, but weren’t completely clear. It’s happened to a friend a few times, so I’ll ask her about it later today. She did have it on a level 80 and was able to immediately re-equip a heal, unlike many of the lower level characters that have encountered this bug.

I’ve still not encountered this myself, which could be because I haven’t used We Heal As One recently. For the sake of testing, I dropped my current heal for it.

I’ve had this happening for years now, on multiple (likely all, I never really kept track) characters. I think it’s been since release or not too long after. I had just given up on it, as one of the random bugs that will never be fixed.

It doesn’t happen too terribly often, but enough to be rather annoying. Especially knowing that it could happen at any time in wvw/pvp, which can easily lead to getting killed.

My guess would be either a corrupted texture in the game files, or something caused by your GPU/driver.

Try repairing the game. Make a copy of your game shortcut and edit it to include ‘-repair’ at the end of the Target line. It should look similar to this.
“D:\Games\Guild Wars 2\Gw2.exe” -repair
Running that will force the game to check the .dat file and replace any corrupted files.

If that doesn’t fix it, you can check for GPU driver updates or rollback to a previous version.

There is a setting in options (General tab > Combat/Movement section) to “Disable Area of Effect Damage Rings”, make sure that is not checked.

This might also be caused by the “Effect LOD” setting in the Graphics tab of Options being enabled. Though, I’ve not known this option to hide AoE rings, only the actual visual effects.

If neither of those help, try repairing your game install. Edit the game shortcut (or make copy of it to edit) to include -repair at the end of the Target line. It should look similar to the line below, but with you game’s install directory.
“D:\Games\Guild Wars 2\Gw2.exe” -repair

Running the game with that edit will force it to check the .dat file for any errors/corruption. If you edited your only game shortcut, you’ll need to remove the repair argument to play the game normally.

Every character starts with a healing skill unlocked, but there has been a bug effecting rangers since the 9/29 update. Your unlocked heal(s) should return when you level up. I’m not 100% sure if it fixes itself at every level or a certain level (would be 10 or 11 if that’s the case).

If you need some easy non-combat XP, try exploring a city. You can also use a Tome of Knowledge or Writs of Experience if you have any of those items.

reapex.8546:

mrstealth.6701:

reapex.8546:

Menadena.7482:

Yay! I was able to join a party this evening while tagged up.

Yes, that works just fine. People that join your squad will no longer be in a party.

It’s back to ‘normal’ for now. Squads will be just a tag and added chat channel till HoT is out, or perhaps some pre-HoT update to prepare for its release.

Once all of the invite/join features are enabled and the UI fully implmeneted, the new squad system should be completely on-par with the party system. So being tagged up will just mean a bigger “party” with a different UI. There won’t be any reason to be in a party as well as your squad, since the squad replaces all party functionality.

Except no condition icons ><

Ah, yeah. I hope they do have a way to show that info for subgroups. It’s probably not practical for the entire squad, but subgroups should have some way to display members more prominently and with more information

gavyne.6847:

You get to test some things, but often you get people who hop on beta servers just to get the first look more than actually testing the gameplay and providing feedback. In other words, you have a serious lack of real feedback, and your test subjects are extremely limited.

You get limited, and likely lower quality, feedback when you limit your beta testing group to those that have pre-orders. These are people already financially (and quite probably, emotionally) invested in the game. They likely pre-ordered the game just to try out new features early (that is the primary pre-order ‘incentive’). They want it to be good, and will often be seeking a confirmation that they made the right choice in spending their money on it. Confirmation-biased feedback is not good feedback.

You get more/better feedback outside of the confirmation bias-influenced group by allowing people outside that group to actually test the game. The only feedback they’re going to get outside of this group is from their opponents in pvp/wvw, which isn’t going to be good feedback if that person can’t play the class themselves to understand why they died to it or easily killed it.

By allowing beta characters to play LIVE in PvE, WvW, and PvP allows the massive amounts of feedback from players in LIVE environment, something you will never, ever, get with beta servers. Remember even when HoT launches, you may have people who will choose to not take elite specializations. So it’s very important to get feedback from everybody, not just those wanting a first look at the new elite specs & rev class.

Again, the only players giving feedback on the new class/specs, are going to be the ones playing them. The limited pre-order/beta group. Having a test server not limited to that group is more likely to get a wider variety of feedback, because it’s open to more people. I’m sure there were a number of people testing in the beta-only areas with core specs. And even those testing the new specs still have 2 (updated?) core specs equipped.

It’s undoubtedly reveant/new spec-heavy, but that will be the case no matter how the test is conducted. You’re going to see more varied feedback by letting in players that didn’t pre-order the game just to preview the new stuff.

And wvw isn’t even a good place to test class balance, because it’s an inherently unbalanced gametype. But testing of them in that environment is still necessary as it does have unique gameplay and mechanics that new classes/specs will be interacting with.

The thing is everybody’s got access to these beta characters. So it isn’t like one server has an advantage over yours because of these beta characters. If your server loses a week due to the beta weekend, chances are your server would’ve lost the week without the beta weekend. If you find some class op in PvP? Well bring your own if you really think that way. As for PvE? Who cares, GW2’s PvE is designed in such a way that the more the merrier, it’s inclusive so powerful allies are a good thing for you.

This brings us right back to that core issue. Not everyone has access. Only the limited (potentially biased) pre-order group. This has less impact on the server-wide game balance because every server is going to have some of the new class/specs in wvw, but it does impact the gameplay experience of individuals. As well as having an impact on the amount/quality of feedback being given.

Anet is doing it right, they are limiting beta tests during select weekends only. 3 weekends to be exact. It’s from these live weekend tests where they’re getting the necessary feedback from the masses to make necessary changes to these new elite specs & new class. No beta servers can replace the live environment, anybody who beta tested MMO’s before knows this. Be happy to know HoT will launch with semi-balanced, workable classes. This way you get to enjoy the new expansion right away.

If they wanted to properly test wvw, they would have had a test server up with the new borderland/class/specs for an extended time (weeks, at least) that was open to all players.

I do agree that beta servers don’t give the full picture of what will happen on a live server. But neither does this limited test on the live server. Or even an open test mixed into the live server for that matter, though that would provide considerably more/higher quality feedback. And testing on the live server also comes with the negative impact of having untested features breaking your (supposedly) stable live game.

There are good reasons why pretty much every other game uses test servers, and in my opinion, this past weekend has reinforced that.