Guild Wars 2

ah, i saw that thread about an hour after the changes went live, and people were already warning about it.

you must have jumped on that bandwagon super fast. never visit vegas!

i had a flashback when i first stepped into the new lion’s arch…a flashback to the day i first beheld its original glory, 250 years ago

the threads i saw on the subject explicitly stated it was a gambling merchant. where did you get your info?

what if bleeding did a fixed percentage of the total health pool per second, like .1% per stack to pcs, less to bosses? that would mean it’d hit harder vs. tanks and softer vs. glassy builds, where straight burning would be better

dude…that’s what a meta shift is. it can be a very good thing.

personally, i WANT the instances to have the old LA. I’d like the ability to experience the old lion’s arch someplace outside of old youtube videos

it’s a subtle nod to the “theme park” aspect of mmorpgs…walking around in LA felt like being at disney world again. i couldn’t find the Pirates of the Caribbean ride though, sadly.

the only building that seemed out of place was the lobster building, as it was not radially symmetrical (the manta ray fort is not as prominent). that’s really just more personal taste, however; and overall the city is beautiful, evocative, and terribly unique…three things GW art has always been good at

would not buy preorder before announcement.
now will purchase ultimate.

try a support ticket, but i bet they’re deluged with them at present

honestly, i got the impression that for myself and others, that the issue a not so much a lack of a character slot as it was an inflated price for what was offered (as another slot added another ten dollars). now that it includes the slot, i feel it’s fair.

would i pay full post release price for the expac with no slot? no. new players might. but anet will see how many others will.

as for veteran benefits, that is the lamest rationale ever. without a subscription fee, a “vet” is anyone who’s purchased the game once. while i personally have spent hundreds in the gem store, i don’t expect any different treatment than someone who could only afford the initial cost.

honestly, i got the impression that for myself and others, that the issue a not so much a lack of a character slot as it was an inflated price for what was offered (as another slot added another ten dollars). now that it includes the slot, i feel it’s fair.

would i pay full post release price for the expac with no slot? no. new players might. but anet will see how many others will.

as for veteran benefits, that is the lamest rationale ever. without a subscription fee, a “vet” is anyone who’s purchased the game once. while i personally have spent hundreds in the gem store, i don’t expect any different treatment than someone who could only afford the initial cost.

…but we still made our voices heard! Good job, community!

And a big “thank you” to ArenaNet as well, for listening, not burying their heads in the sand, and quickly addressing the vast majority of concerns. This is why I’m still an ardent supporter after 3 years (not including the time in GW1).

Will be purchasing the Ultimate later today…

thank you for this address. my personal issue was that $50 was too steep for a non-stand-alone game with no other perks. an extra character slot, normally a $10 value, was basically the extra incentive i was looking for.

i will be making my pre-purchase later today.

adding my name to the list of people thus far. $50 for an expansion involving several maps and a new living story, with nothing else, is far too expensive, for pre-order or regular. i won’t be paying that.

“Congrats and welcome to the Beta! You will spend most of the time face-down in the dirt waiting for your friends to revive you, because the closest uncontested WP is on the other side of the map, until they die as well, at which point you will exit the Beta event in disgust.”

Then have them require 2, 5, 10, whatever Mastery Points. Like ranks in WvW, or skills as they are now. That still makes more sense than activate, train, purchase to complete.

I understand that. They’re needlessly convoluted and counter-intuitive in their present form, however.

Lastly, Masteries.

• Masteries are a good bit more intuitive than the last iteration, where I was completely lost. Still, however, I feel the process is a bit overly-complicated. To train a Mastery, you need to:

1. Open your Masteries window.
2. Choose the appropriate tree to begin training.
3. Click the small Check at the top of the window. Double-clicking a mastery as an alternate method isn’t enabled. (Could we make it that way?)
4. “Earn a level.”
5. Once your level/mastery bar has filled, go back to the Mastery window. Spend a Mastery point to complete the training process.

I like the way this is reminiscent of completing PVP tracks, though it still seems overly convoluted. Why doesn’t the system simply let you train generic mastery levels, awarding you a Mastery Point to spend as you see fit once the process is through? (Yes, this would be much more similar to the Skill Point process after level 80 as we have now.)

What’s the point of “training” a Mastery in order to be able to unlock it? Unlike in some games, you don’t train it by completing theme-specific tasks. You simply do random stuff and boing now you know how to Hang Glide. Why was this system envisioned this way? What’s the purpose behind the extra steps?

And if the extra steps are indeed necessary, can we have red text screen prompts for when a) you’ve begun training a new Mastery, and b) when your training is complete and you need to spend that Mastery Point. Also, perhaps have the “Training” text in green on the Mastery bar to make it stand out more.

All in all, I enjoyed the new content and loved seeing the interplay between theme and mechanics. I want to learn more about the different frogs’ cultures, and I want to learn how to combat Mordrem on the dicey bridges of the ruins. Rewarding and leaving me hungry for more!

Good job!

I was able to spend more time on this Beta than the last, taking part in more than one instance. (Still was the middle of the night for me in Taiwan.) I never bought a ticket for the hype train, so I was neither greatly overwhelmed nor distraught at what I encountered. Here are, however, some notes on what I liked and what I’d like to see polished:

PROS:

• Smarter Enemies. I noticed this with the previous stress test, but enemies talking (and even evading!) attacks make them seem much less like walking plants and more akin to Zhaitan’s or Kralkatorrik’s minions. Good job.
• Pocket Raptors and Pudgy Mounts? And those Mushroom Soldier things that remind me of D&D’s myconids? SQUEEE! We’d better get those in minis. They’re adowable!
• Shadowmaws(?) I apologize that I didn’t get a better look at their names. Truthfully, I was running as fast as I could to get away from them. Terrifying as hell.
• “Taunt” Mechanic. Really handy when I got to use it. I was able to turn the attention of a hypogriff away from the NPCs and keep them alive.
• The Unique Visual Themes. Just like Southsun Cove and Dry Top “feel” very different when you’re walking through them, so does the Maguuma canopy. I especially liked the Itzel village, where I could believe I was back in Disney’s Adventureland. (“And don’t forget to face the fury of our….gift shop!!!”)
• Regular Classes Still Contributed. As I had already played with a Revenant during the stress test, I decided to see how a flamethrowing engineer would hold it. It did perfectly well in the new environment against the hordes of Mordrem, reassuring me the new content was not simply based around hyping the Revenant.

FIXes:

• Will the “Legendary Demon” skill of Mallyx’s aspect have some form of telltale transformation, kind of like a warrior’s Rampage? It would be a helpful visual reminder.
• The southwestern ruins WP (forget the name) was uncontested during a defending event. I assume this was intentional, in order to not punish beta players; but will this be altered in the final content?
• Some of the red/blue capture squares bled over the edge of nearby cliffs, turning them into large, floating capture parallelograms. Probably a minor fix.
• The broken bridge next to the Champion Troll Vinetender could be directly leaped over via several Revenant skills. Was this intentional? I can’t help feeling it wasn’t, much like Thieves and Mesmers need a legal path to use their similar arts.
• Also, with the broken stone bridge—it magically reforms at night. This doesn’t make any sense thematically. Are the Pact repairing it? If so, can we have the repairs look more cobbled-like and less like perfect stone?
• Using the Revenant’s Phase Shift skill against enemies on a different level prompted the “Deploy Glider” skill, though I couldn’t actually use it. I guess the game considers my character actually in air long enough to prompt it.
• For skills like Phase Shift, can we have the POV camera jump forward perhaps 10% of the distance to the target before returning? It would give a better sense of your character actually moving, instead of watching a doppleganger of yourself being thrown into distant battle.

…

just the word “raid” itself completely turned me off to this thread

The event wasn’t designed for an entire party of Revenants. :-P

EVERYTHING WRONG WITH HoT IN ONE POST:

Psyke. Made you look.

I understood that we were given a very limited amount of actual game content simply for means of a test, so I wasn’t expecting more than I got. I did get more than I expected, however. A few things:

• I liked my character suddenly talking while not in a cutscene. Cutscenes, while cinematic, also break immersion. It was nice to see my guy as more than a stoic monument to silence during actual gameplay.

• I’m pretty sure the Revenant skills were on 0s cooldown just so that we’d have most opportunity to play with them in the 2 hours allotted. If they aren’t seriously nerfed by then, I’m going to have no reason to play my guardian ever again!

• As mentioned by others, some sections were unintuitive, like how masteries were spent and used. A section in the Hero’s panel would fix this.

• I liked the new graphics for the area effects, especially the expanding/contracting poison circles. Nice new touch.

• I loved the glimpses of the new Modrem enemies, with both their new mechanics and look! Like that humanoid one and the OMG WHAT IS THAT THING IT’S GOT MY FACE

So far, very promising! I dearly hope I can be a part of another stress/beta in the future.

I’ll be there. Thinking about playing a Condimancer alongside the massive zerg of Revenants.

MORE COME, YES?

(I’d personally love playing a skritt just for the lolrat factor. And their racial skills would have to be complete crap as well. “Find Rock/Throw Rock” for their epics, etc.)

let’s all play minion masters

I know, that’s why I’m asking the crowd for ideas of what I should play alongside all your numerous, numerous Revenants. ;-) I’m leaning towards the Condimancer idea myself, as they do well versus Triple Trouble husks, etc.

http://i.imgur.com/POlMbvT.jpg

I’m really torn between trying out the new Revenant, and just seeing how older professions interact with the new game material. I’d really like to give useful advice to ArenaNet, and everyone and their mother is already going to be playing the Revenant…so…

What other profession would be useful?

Assuming we’re having a canopy stress test, perhaps against the famed Wyvern, here are some ideas I had:

• Condi-Necromancer, to cleanse the zerg and transfer conditions to husks.
• Shouts Guardian, to cleanse conditions and add stability.
• Zerker Warrior, to see how well (or not) the go-to PvE build does in HoT.

Your ideas?

From what I can gather, the beautiful mystical dragon miniature that we’ve seen from data mining is only available to those playing on Chinese servers.

http://dulfy.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/gw2-mini-mystical-dragon.jpg

I live in Taiwan. China considers it within their borders, but Anet doesn’t. :-/

ATTN: ANET
I will pay you real money for this adorable miniature! Please tell me you will release it to the rest of us who also celebrate Chinese New Year!

???? !

With the new-and-improved wardrobe, I am enjoying the “Inventor’s Sunglasses” skin on my Celestial Heavy Helm. Before, I was only fit for display in the wastebasket aisle of Home Depot. Now, my giant norn figure hangs with the likes of John Lennon and Bob Marley.

What my rocking ensemble needs now is a “guitar” skin for my two-handed hammer, so I can properly educate my foes in the ways of rock.

SuicideByTaco.5408:

also ty to the norn Mend commander staked him and got an abyss dye for like the first time ever in wvw u made my day!

Everyone should feel special when they manage to actually down Flappy. B-)

[MEND]er speaking up on non-drama-related topics. Great fights so far, HoD! You’ve been able to maintain a 10% lead in the score, but we’re sure not making it easy for you. I love finally having a match-up where it isn’t a complete blow-out, one way or the other.

Win or lose, I am thoroughly enjoying this week.

If IoJ wanted to do GvGs, we’d be playing PvP.

Discuss.

prowler.4530:

Now now Nathan, the shots are not directed to IoJ but to a particular group of people in IoJ. Now to this particular group I want to just say congratulations on your 9th place victory this past season.

I know, I’m in that group of people. ;-)

Ironically, the difference in actual rewards between 1st place and 9th place turned out to be minimal.

Whatever makes you happy, I suppose. That was quite a fight, though.

Let the forum warrioring…begin!

@ HoD: I noticed you didn’t post pics of your losing your keep right after that last screenshot, or of us killing your 12 Omegas trying to take ours.

This thread is a good example of why I will not miss the WvW forums.

I never complain about getting zerged. I just wish that IoJ had the SEA coverage that DB obviously sports.

EFWinters.5421:

Not sure if I should laugh or cry at this.

We usually do a little of both.

Last time we were holding the line in IoJ Garri, I happened to take a look at the 15 or so people standing alongside me, and realized that they were all commanders. That’s basically the definition of losing all your fairweathers.

What you’re seeing there (“20 max” from your chat window) is pretty much all we can scrape together from our whole server at that time. :-[

Loki.4139:

I killed myself more than you killed me.

Is it a race to be suckiest?

That was some fight (1 hour+) that CD just gave IOJ at our Bravost-Langor line. It was hard to gauge numbers, but your CD crew easily outnumbered ours, perhaps 2-to-1. And you guys came up with every conceivable strategy to punch through our siege and defenses on Bravost. Really kept us on our toes playing defensively!

Ha ha that JP treb totally looks like something we’d do for fun. Good job IOJ.

We had a half-hour fight in DH’s garri as well the other day, with roughly equal numbers. We mentioned it on an earlier page. It’s good to see both FC and DH have some hard-core players who give as well as they get. B-)

Solstice.1097:

DH could have beat us without your help, but now we’ll never know.

So NOT getting in the way of you two fighting is what sunk you? I’m not sure I understand your logic. As it was, I was offering encouragement to the current third-place server, so I don’t understand why you’re so kitten.

DH, noticed you were taking FC’s borderlands to make up the 2k difference you guys had in points. Decided not to k-train it ourselves to give you guys a fighting chance. Good luck! ;-)

Also, great ninja golem attack on our SM. The golem-on-golem fight in the lord’s room was amazing.

Arius.7031:

I was the necro who kept plague form suiciding to stop the circle until the golem got there.

Ah yeah, I remember you, ha ha. Fun fight all around.

Arius.7031:

Fun fights in Dh BL garrison and hills. Felt really good to FINALLY be able to put up a fight.

I was the commander for IoJ at that time (I was the giant Norn). The half-hour fight in your garri lord’s room was one of the best fights I’ve ever been in. Felt honored that you finally brought in a golem to finish us off. ;-)

P.S. Just how many freaking warbanners did you guys have anyway???

Fergies! We’ve missed you!

Really? And here I thought it was actual footage from the event.

munkiman.3068:

The moderation on some of these threads seems out of hand. I didn’t notice anything in the last thread that could be considered bad… Not sure what’s going on.

Well, I WAS getting kind of tired of people complaining about perma-stealth thieves in various guilds.

This thread needs more .gifs of budgies running from explosions.