Guild Wars 2

Demosthene.2195:

Carring a repair kit is still far more practical. This will become of increasing nuissance as more ascended gear pieces are introduced, and required to progress in latter difficulty stages. It’s not a “learn to play” issue, neither is it “bring back backup armour noob”. Elephant in the room is still there, you can’t legitimately repair your armour without cash shop shortcut. Now what’s the deal with that?

This is an important point!

However, it never occurred to me.

• Why can’t you leave the fractals and return to the same instance?
• Why can’t you repair within a fractal?

Two valid questions and each one might be the answer to the other once you factor in the repair-kit and the cash that costs.

First, this beautifully sums up my own feelings about FotM. Superbly written, great read!

Personally, I think this is sort of a litmus test for ArenaNet and where the game is headed. Is the needless prolonging of content at the expense of social play (play with friends, regardless of their fractal level) the way GW2 is supposed to be nowadays.

The way ArenaNet addresses these valid concerns and criticisms will show in what direction GW2 as a whole is headed.

(Having said all this: I went to FotM on saturday, then had other things to do and now feel so far left behind, I’m not even inclined to log on anymore. Still, the fractals I’ve seen so far were very good dungeons indeed.)

Galen Grey.4709:

The open world remains uneffected as long as agony gets restricted to that one dungeon.

You wrote something similar before to which I responded about an hour ago, explaining why this sentiment (for me) is simply untrue. You can find my response here:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Play-the-Game-for-FUN/811931

Jornophelanthas.1475:

People treat their characters as if they are careers, which require lots of chores and busywork to maintain. But it’s so easy to just have fun without worrying about game design philosophies, game design principles and game design visions.

Except when descisions in game design stop me from having fun because my guildmates are running FotM at level 12 and I’m at level 4 because I had RL on the weekend.

ckeeton.4907:

Yeah it’s odd that one tier of gear all of a sudden makes this a wow clone. Uh ok? Lol wow people cry that easily ?

And here it is again, the ghost of “I didn’t read any of your arguments for the past 15.000 posts you made or the blogposts or the articles about treadmills, progression and item creep that were linked and discussed, so I know more about it than you.”

You don’t. You are uninformed. And contrary to reformed education, not all opinions are equally valuable. Informed ones weigh more – or at least they should. The issue and the viewpoint you just demonstrated you don’t understand have been explained literally hundrets of times, to hundrets of others who used to be as ignorant about it as you.

Fortunately for you, countless those explanations can be found here, on http://www.reddit.com/r/guildwars2 or on any other guildwars-related forum.

xiv.7136:

Xpiher.5209:

There isn’t any YET. New content will require you to be geared in agony resistance to do it.

So you’re concerned about something that hasn’t happened, that hasn’t been announced and is clearly not going to happen?

Sigh.

When the new gear was announced, it was said that there would be a point beyond which you won’t be able to advance without it. You choose to ignore what’s been said and written just so you can pretend that what troubles others is a non-issue. No good style.

Galen Grey.4709:

Xpiher.5209:

I’m not doing it, but not playing the game anymore. The game is no longer fun, to me, with the introduction of this patch. Is that so hard to understand?

honestly yes! provided you found the game fun before this patch that is. This patch didnt change any of the content that was there before (okey some class balances here and there) just added new stuff.

The patch implicitly changed the old content.

Part of what made Orr fun for me (other than playing an overpowered, unbalanced warrior in dire need of being nerfed) what the fact that there were so many players, that there was so much going on. Orr seemed pretty empty yesterday. Most waypoints were contested.

Orr hasn’t changed?

I like the old dungeons. Well, if they’re not bugged. I like to play with guildies. However, it’s becoming harder and harder to make them to go to AC for the tokens for the sword. And understandably so. SO, if I want to go to AC, I have to resort to PUGing it, which is far less fun for me.

Old dungeons have not changed?

Think again. Some things are changed if the context in which they exist is changed.

Galen Grey.4709:

If you find the added stuff unfun whats the problem with ignoring it?
do you think without ascended items you’ll fail at PvE?

Eventually, the new gear will be needed. It’s been stated that at a certain point, progression through FotM is impossible without it. In case you want to join your friends who go there, you have to farm it, too.

Galen Grey.4709:

do you think without ascended items everyone will kill you in WvW?

I like to know that I’m doing the best I can in order to help my team. Not anymore. I’m not doing the best I can. Others are farming for better gear to win in WvW but I don’t, because I hate grind. I feel like letting my team down (a little bit). Bad emotion tied to the game.

Galen Grey.4709:

whats the real issue why this patch made what was fun before suddenly be unfun?

As stated above, it’s all about context.

El Hefe.2814:

im sick of all this kitten on these forums. if you guys feel like your grinding or being forced to do something then don’t do it. the premise is really simple. Play the game for fun. have fun with the game. when you stop having fun take a break. you aren’t being forced to farm/grind or whatever else you want to call it. it’s not required to do anything in the game. so just remember it’s a game, have fun. if your not having fun, take a break. you already bought the game and it will be here when you’re ready to have fun again.

Sorry, can’t play the game for fun anymore.

My regular dungeon-group has more time than me. So far, this was not an issue. But already they have to do pointless stuff (FotM on lower-than possible level, old dungeons) if they want me to join. Feels like holding them back.

So, I’ll have to either PUG (I’m not fond of that) or stop doing dungeons. 5-man content was always what I loved most about MMOs.

So, I can’t play the game for fun anymore because excessive gating has made the most fun aspect anti-social for a dedicated casual like me.

Morrigan.2809:

This is the new gold standard for the genre, anything less (or that costs more) is simply unacceptable" Oct 2012

To abandon that and give us just another gear grinder in it’s place is unspeakably disappointing.

Basically, in october the 15th, they took the gold standard from us and in return gave us something less, which is simply unacceptable.

TheWarKeeper.5374:

They have stated they wont release a new tier every 3 months, u can eat your words now :P

See you in 4 months, then.

Karizee.8076:

Not $180 a year innovative effects.

I would gladly pay $180 per year to play GW2 pre-Karka.

To play GW2 with all the bugged dungeons, unpatched.
To play GW2 with all the unbalanced classes as they were.
To play GW2 without any new content, ever.

If that meant that there was no gear treadmill, ever. That I could be part of every content in the game without preparing for it first. That I could silently inch my way to a legendary two years down the road.

Derk.3189:

Actually he has a point. WoW treadmill items are at least innovative with what effects the armor sets do.

Add to this that the amount of time needed to prepare for the fun content (aka end game) is much shorter in WoW than it is in GW2 now. Running hard mode dungeons for a while grinding tokens is easy and fast compared to the grind needed for ascended items. Just imagine the time it’ll take to be full ascended once the complete set is available.

Thus, the WoW treadmill runs smoother and faster.

Aufero.2893:

Swarthy Avenger.3072:

If you accept the concept of levels in MMOs, you must accept the concept of gear progression as well.

Why? The two things don’t seem inextricably linked to me. In fact, they haven’t been linked in this game for endgame gear, until now. Before this update, endgame gear progression was entirely cosmetic after the first week or two.

I haven’t noticed any lack of enthusiasm for dungeons or dragon fights, so clearly people can be motivated by something other than stat-based gear progression.

Well, to be honest, I have seen a sharp decline of enthusiasm for the things you mentioned. It started on friday.

Zid.4196:

Relevant http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35BPhT-KI1E

Not relevant anymore. Should be deleted by original publisher.

Why, oh why?

With the new gating, all I see in Lion’s Arch is people looking for others. But not for good players or players playing a class and build that complements the group.

No, it’s all about what level was the highest you’ve completed so far.

Do I go there with some guildmates limited to level 4 or am I being egoistic and play at my personal max level? Well, the game is all about groupbuilding and social playing. So obviously, the gating mechanism encourages me to play egoistically.

Even if I love playing with my guildmates, not doing so all the time but egoistically preferring to play on my personal max level is the rational choice if I have to assume that I’ll not be playing FotM for a few days and they might surpass me and then leave me behind.

And if we all stick together and play at the highest common denominator whenever we’re all there, this might sully the experience for up to four of us who feel that the dungeon-run doesn’t really advance them that much.

Actually, having a level restriction at all is an epic design-failure. These restrictions should not be souldbound or accountbound, they should be nonexistant.

If I’m (hypothetically) the god of GW2-PvE play, I can spend the next month soloing Arah explo and still be the best GW2-player imaginable. If my FotM playing guild needs my help with FotM level 9 then, why should I not be allowed to?

- I’m not good enough?
I’m the best possible player, I just never bothered with FotM.

- I need to practise the easy levels first?
I can (theoretically) advance the level I’m admitted to to 100 but the RNG never sent me to a certain shard. So the first time I go there might be at level 100.

If ArenaNet insists on restricting advancement through content not by skill but equipment (which they did, aside from just the atrificial barrier of fractal level) then they should restrict it by equipment.

If I’m perfectly geared, I want to be admitted. In all exotics, you’re perfectly equipped for anything up to level 9, because there’s no agony until 10, IIRC. So why do we have this clunky mechanic anyway?

However, since the mechanic is as disingenious as it can possibly programmed on a touring-complete machine, I’m all for restricting its effects as much as possible amd make it account-wise. Or guild-wide. Or server-wide. Or just abolish it.

TwoBit.5903:

Until we get developer saying otherwise, I’m fairly certain that the Elementalists is the Dan Hibiki of Guild Wars 2 – surprisingly competent in the hands of masterful players, but otherwise a joke character worthy of laughs from both its masochistic users and onlookers. The Designers, who very fittingly aren’t present the forums, have no other desire than to laugh at its users for treating the profession as seriously as they do. There’s no way for the users to win but to admit that they’ve been part of an elaborate joke and then re-roll warrior.

I did this after playing Necro to 72. Re-roll warrior, I mean (the warrior is now my main).

Today, I hit 80 on my ele. Trust me, ele is fine. Ele is perfect. You want to get frustrated? Play necro at higher levels. Now that’s a class that’s boasting broken skills, poor survivability and clunky playstyle.

Ele broken? Well, at least the last wave of patches wasn’t needed to stop us from healing our enemies in combat, as the necros did.

Having said all this I must add…
…where on the ele, I do this nice dance around mobs in Orr (especially the frenzied ones) trying to kite and kill at the same time (and it takes some time), on my warrior I just charge ‘em, 100-blade ’em and if it’s not a veteran, it’s dead. No, I’m not glass-cannon.

Edit: Which got me thinking… Ele staff fire 2 only works on targets that don’t move away (like 100 blades), lasts a few seconds (like 100 blades) and has a relatively low cooldown (like 100 blades) and affects a comparable area. Can I get the same 10k+ damage over the duration of it, please?

MrLee.6892:

I am very excited for this patch! ArenaNet along with some of the playerbase understand that things need to change for the better!

ArenaNet has indeed listen to the players and is giving us a new goal to work for! Along with new content!
MMO’s are always changing and adding in new things! After all how much fun would it be if they just released it then never did anything new with it. It would get very stale very fast. (Like it has in Guild Wars 2 hence the additions and changes!)
And GW2 would turn into a single player game with more live people in it.

For those people who understand and are just as excited as I am, hope to see you in game! For those others who are in unhappy, I am sorry that you are leaving or going back to GW1.

Oh my god.

Exclamation marks are neither pack-animals nor the only form of punctuation. It’s funny that I found that most of the time, the number of exclamation marks used is inversely equivalent to how serious a text can be taken.

Lheimroo.2946:

One of my primary drives in an MMO is feeling like I’m an asset to the group that I’m playing with. With the addition of such a significant stat increase behind an arbitrary and seemingly large amount of required work.. I feel that I’m being held ransom to play the game X number of hours to feel like I’m fully contributing to my people.

It’s a kind of stress that drove me away from WoW and SWTOR and other MMOs, and one that I bought GW2 hoping never to experience.

/signed

Add to this the frustration when I, as the main tank of my guild, didn’t luck out on raid-drops for almost 2 months and was eventually downgraded to off-tank so we could tackle the next tier with the then-better-equipped former off-tank I helped equip as main. It was frustrating because it was the result of unfavourable RNG.

So, aside from the treadmill I hate, it was also the lack of RNG which sold me to GW2. Well, look what they introduced today!

Banewrath.5107:

I think people are over reacting to this whole thing. Getting this new gear is probably going to be just as easy as getting anything else in the game. You would just need to use this gear in the places that require it.

The new tier was added to have something in game that was in between exotics and legendary as far as ease of acquisition is concerned. That means, its’_supposed_ and described as harder than exotics to farm. And if I see that one ring costs 1350 tokens and that 1350 tokens is about as many as you need from the current dungeons to get a full set of armor, I start to see why it’s harder to get.

My entire guild (mostly coming from LotRO / Rift) is deeply disappointed and can be described (at least) as having lost passion about GW2.

Risingashes.8694:

Removing MFs effects within dungeons would encourage team play and supportive playstyles. It should be done immediately and efforts undertaken never to encourage the use of substandard gear in future.

I have heared that magic find had to become important in dungeon due to player feedback. The resoning was “I’m so 1337, I’m still good enough in magic find. This way, I can turn my uber-skillz into ca$$”, IIRC. Always willing to reward individual players for their dedication to the game, the request was granted, partly because the game was in such perfect state already, the development ressources for this were not needed elsewhere.

No, there’s no such UI for you.

But don’t worry, the next dungeon doesn’t have fixed paths that could be tracked in any way shape or form any more. Neither can you choose the fractals you want to tackle.

So as you can see, achievments are something we’re not that much into anymore. After all achievments are only for fun and not giving you that extra edge in end game content.

Why is GW2 dying?

Once they’ve driven their long-time followers away (their current cmpaign) to keep the grinders playing, revenue will drop. Then the grinders leave for the next triple-A MMO, probably Elderscrolls Online. Left with no loyal playerbase and ever dwindling revenues, new development will cease, staff will be layed off, the game will die.

NCsoft will finance one last attempt to re-kindle interest with an expansion, raising the level cap. Since GW2 will have a reputation as “dead end” by then, this will fail to attact enough customers to recoup development costs.

A few years later, the servers will be shut down.

cherrie.8907:

Lets start with one very basic thing:
If you want to fight WoW on it’s ground, you better amp your customer satisfaction.

GW2 has no
- in-game support
- account restoration nor plans for acceptable system (rollback only, no ETA)
- no reimbursement system even for colossal player losses caused by game bugs
- no dungeonfinder
- good dungeon mechanic

Add to that:
- No raids; while we’re at it we might as well add them.
- No working dungeons; I’ve hit the “can’t finish due to bug” wall once too often.
- No class-balance; my warrior does at least 1.5x the damage of a ranger.

Chamone.6890:

I’m still prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt.

I wish that Colin J and Mike O were not so deathly silent on the issue. A statement from them telling us that Ascended is gonna be the final tier, scouts honor, would go a long way to stopping everyone rage-quitting.

What should they say?

Yes, we lied to you and you fell for it. Deal with it. Now here’s some more stuff we say, you must descide if you trust us again or not.

Or not.

They can just as well remain mumm. Who cares what they have to say? I’ll take the game for the bug-ridden, unbalanced beast it is and play while it’s fun, but not invest a dime in it anymore. And I doubt there’s anything the two could say that would reverse my descision as they seem so dedicated to making this a treadmill-game that they sure won’t back off from that.

I’m not inviting someone I like to a party if I don’t know what that party is going to be like. There might be hookers there or a nice round of bingo!, I don’t know. How can I invite anyone to such a party?

Merged post?

To me, that’s another was of saying “we’re not interested in feedback, we put threads dealing with different aspects of the issue into one huge pile that’s so big, single topics won’t be discussed reasonable anymore.”

Quit doing that.

And here I was remembering someone say in some video that random drops are bad and not what they wanted for their game. The reasoning was something like “it’s no fun to grind an instance and hope for that drop and have some players be lucky and others not, resulting in needless grind and frustration.” Or something like that.

If anyone remembers who that was and which game still offers this, I’ll buy it immediately and even spend money on in-game-shops.

Coffeebot.3921:

Simulations are fine and dandy in a purely static environment, but simulations are comparatively mechanical in all aspects as they don’t account for individual skill (even if you use the caveat “assuming equal skill”).

Here’s an example; warrior one pops Frenzy, Endure Pain and Bullrush with Hundred Blades and kills Warrior two in 2 seconds, warrior two couldn’t do anything because warrior two doesn’t have any stun-breaker utilities.

Both warriors have access to all the skills. Of course, a better player may still beat a not-so-good player. What if the better player has 10% better gear, though? Why do you seem to assume that the gear-advantage will be offset by a skill-advantage? Usually, those who play a lot (and get better gear first) are not the one who play worse, after all, they train more.

If we compare equipment, we must assume equal skill. Otherwise I could always argue that white gear is just as good as exotic, because if the player in white is any good, he can still kill a player in exotics who’s currently AFK.

Therefore, equipment that has higher stats gives you a statistical advantage.

toomuchtatose.6874:

I’m sarcastic. Its like moving from one slum to another slum, nothing changes xD

Sarcasm is hard to detect on a forum, I’m sorry for missing it. Unfortunately, there seem to be a number of players out there who can’t look past the higher numbers, who don’t understand that higher numbers change nothing in terms of gameplay because the game will get balanced around them and who tout their ignorance as enlighted wisdom on forums. With my sarcasm-detector broken, I had you mistaken for one of those, sorry for that. But after all, they sound just like what you’d written.

toomuchtatose.6874:

Can’t wait for Ascended version of Berserker ring xD

…with roughly +10% damage that you’ll use to fight other ascended-clad players so your +10% damage will be countered by their +10% HP / mitigation. Or you’ll use it in PvE to fight the +10% NPCs in the new content, the only relevant content.

Congratulations! You’re a happy person and that’s a good thing to be. You can even be pleased with, basically, nothing. You can be pleased with an update that allows you to kill players and NPCs with exactly the same effort as before but that forces you to work to regain the status quo.

It must be great to find enjoyment in such changes. I don’t, unfortunately.

Osprey.6587:

Secondly, he says it will be available through other means but doesn’t say when.

If I may wager a guess, it’ll be available through other means such as karma or gold (crafted in TP) when the next tier is unveiled. As we know from other games, it’s important for gear treadmill games to make the currently second best gear easy to obtain while requiring dungeon runs / raids for currently best gear.

Urxx.6840:

I really don’t understand why it’s so difficult.
Right now I’ve got full exotic gear. I can do whatever I want knowing my gear is not limiting me.

That’s exactly why I invested time and gold in having a full exotic set of armor and weapons. Because we were led to believe this way our gear wouldn’t have been a limiting factor ever again.

Now it’s a limiting factor again. For now, just in the difficulty levels of the Fractals that go above a certain numer. After a few patches who knows.

You are fine that a company lies to you and makes your time investments less and less relevant. I don’t, especially since they advertised they wouldn’t. Simple as that.

I had to repost this because it’s 100% my feelings about this.

Havn’t logged on since monday. Oh wait, that’s not true. I logged on for half a minute to delete my credit card information from the game.

Keelin.5781:

So assuming that a fractal takes, in the best case, 15 minutes to complete as they wrote:
Those items cost 1.350 relics.
15 min = 5 relics
1.350 / 5 = 270 (Fractals)
270 * 15 (minutes) = 4050 minutes = 67.5 hours
So 67.5 hours of nonstop fractals for one item.
We have 12 equipment slots NOT including weapons.
810 hours to get items for all 12 slots.
Let’s assume that one day is defined as 12 hours.
And we’re back to 67.5. That is 67.5 days of non-stop dungeons to get all of your equipment this way.
Truly, there’s no grinding in GW2.

Wait… what?
Exotics are easier to farm, to be honest.

I don’t have that amount of time.

That means that GW2 might forever be limited to the content available as of today, for me.

Great show ArenaNet, kkthxbye.

Spryt.8012:

Wow that sounds like Diablo 3. Run same stuff over and over on harder and harder difficulty to get better loot so you can do next level.

…and what’s wrong about that, Diablo is a great success after all. Once the grind set in, the playerbase expanded like mad!

Right.

Oh, I’ve mentioned it before but I’m saying it again: I deleted my credit card information from the game. Telling them that you don’t spend anymore doesn’t change a thing. Show them that you mean it!

Namu.5712:

However the gear isn’t needed to do the content which is the biggest fear: I have to gear up to do new content!! I dont have the time etc etc. This is in fact false you dont need the gear for the new content.

While it might be technically true that if I’m lucky, I’ll get all nine fractals randomly presented before I’ve been in long enough that it requires the new stuff, there will be a point at which I will have to have it or I’m excluded from that dungeon. And if I’m not lucky, that point may come before I’ve seen all nine fractals.

Furthermore, while it may be true that I can enter the dungeon without infusion, I cannot enter the dungeon without infusion to help friends with infusion who want the advanced experience available after enough runs that requires infusion. If I join them with fewer runs under my belt than them, I’m doing to equivalent to porting them from Orr to Queensdale.

The new dungeon (Fractals of the Mists or FotM for short) will scale according to the number of times yu’ve been there. Or, to be more precise, it will scale according to the lowest number of times one of the players was in.

So, let’s say you and your 3 friends have been in 10 times. One guy has been in 5 times. Difficulty and loot will be calculated for people having been in 5 times.

That means that asking to have rings / back posted prior to joining a PUG can no longer be considered bad manners. It’s necessary.

In fact, we need a way to know how many times some stranger who joined our group has been in FotM before. An easy fix would be an achievment for the dungeon along with a way to post achievments in chat.

I know, I know. It reeks of gearscore and elitism. But if 4 people are looking for a challenge, number 5 should not deny it to them because he lied to them about how often he’s been in.

If 4 players want to progress, they need someone who’s been there about as often as they were. Otherwise, one player can waste 4 players’ time.

So, what we need with this model of progression is a way to know how many successful runs of FotM others have done so far. At least we need to know how many such runs groupmembers have done.

That means that asking to have rings / back posted prior to joining a PUG can no longer be considered bad manners. It’s necessary.

If 4 players want to progress, they need someone who’s been there about as often as they were. Otherwise, one player can waste 4 players’ time.

So, what we need with this model of progression is a way to know how many successful runs of FotM others have done so far. At least we need to know how many such runs groupmembers have done.

Conner.4702:

Please point out where they said they would raise the levelcap. I’ve never seen them mention that.

Havn’t you learned anything?

It doesn’t matter what they said they’d do or they’d never do. It doesn’t matter one bit since what they say is no indicator for what they do.

Urxx.6840:

phooka.4295:

Yes, exactly, once I have 6 pieced of legendary armor, 2 legendary weapons and legendary trinkets, I’ve escaped the treadmill!

Oh wait…
…there’s no legendary tinkets or armor.
…legendaries don’t have infusion slots; even if their stats are raised, they still won’t shield me from agony so I’d still have to grind (for infusions).
…I can only make two legendaries per character.
…

But apart from those minor details, I agree, your point is valid.

Just for the sake of truth legendaries will have infusion slots, but that doesn’t detract one tiny bit from your point which is still completely valid.

Thanks for the clarification, will try to edit it.

Jezath.7395:

I agree with you ganzo and i feel the same way. I do. However I really truly beleive that this is not happening here. They are upgrading the stats of gear already ingame. Im sorry if im starting to sound like a broken record here but really, people seem to be missing this major point.

Yes, exactly, once I have 6 pieced of legendary armor, 2 legendary weapons and legendary trinkets, I’ve escaped the treadmill!

Oh wait…
…there’s no legendary tinkets or armor.
…legendaries may get infusion slots; even though their stats are raised, they still won’t shield me from agony so I’d still have to grind (for infusions, which will have quality levels, ensuring future grind for better infusions).
…I can only make two legendaries per character.
…

But apart from those minor details, I agree, your point is valid.

SuddenlyOnFire.3162:

Are you guys really complaining about getting new stuff every month for free?

I’m getting some new dungeon. In return I’m paying with the stuff I’ve gotten so far plus the time I sank into my characters’ equipment. I’m losing more than I gain, but the exchange is not optional, it’s forced on me.

Furthermore, I’d been promised that the time I put into the game would be respected. That I would be respected. Now, it’s being devalued.

I can’t understand how you can think the new stuff comes for free.
The new stuff is free only if your time and commitment so far are worthless.

Pants.8315:

They are effectively acknowledging that the game’s been out three months, but they aren’t setting a precedent by adding this set now. It’s a one time only deal.

Maybe that’s true.

It’s still irrelevant. Once the full ascended gear is out (in small pieces coming out every 3 months, but that’s just pieces of an existing tier, not a new one evry v3 months) we’ll grind for rare infusions.

The next dungeon will have us grind for exotic infusions.

Then a new expansion raises the levelcap to 85. We grind for level 85 equipment.

Dark Priest.3041:

“There are multiple types of Infusions and Infusion slots. In November, we’ll introduce Offensive, Defensive, and Omni Infusions of Fine rarity” -> masterwork -> rare -> exotic -> ascended

And you will be forced to grind them all =)

Oi, thanks. I missed that line.

Havn’t logged on since announcement. Will be pondering that line you quoted and what it means. Possibly skipping weekend-event now.

Thanks for the positive feedback.
It’s one of my favourite web-videos.

mulch.2586:

As far as videos go, I almost wish it were a Rickroll.

A mission, a vision, a cause — these things are great. But the saying goes, the proof is in the pudding.

I think there’s as many great ideas that are poorly implemented as there are good technicians with no vision.

But that’s exactly the point, isn’t it?

The game has lots of weaknesses, be it the stuck events that block important parts of Orr, the missing in-game support, the bugged dungeons, the missing class-balance. However, while I had reason to assume that they did what they did to achieve the goals they had communicated in the manifesto, I was confident that the problems would eventually be solved and the game would continue to evolve in a direction that I would love it to evolve to.

Now with the manifesto’s promises broken, I don’t know where the game is headed, so I have to judge it for what it is, not for what it’s supposed to be and thus eventually going to be. And what it is is far less appealing than what it originally was supposed to be or to become.

Very, very watchable video:

Thanks to the manifesto, we knew exactly why ArenaNet did what they did and those who identified with the values communicated there bought into the game early on and very dedicatedly. Now, with core values communicated back then compromised, why is ArenaNet doing what they’re doing?

They just went from me buying into their values and purpose to simply looking at what they sell. And given the bugs and poor in-game support, that what is not so compelling anymore.

krs.7520:

phooka.4295:

I don’t care how easy to get it is. What matters is this:

- Everything I might be tempted to farm today will be obsolete soon.

If they keep the pace with 1-2 items a quarter it will take a year for an upgrade,
even if there will be one new piece every month its a non-issue, get real.

That’s pretty soon compared to the 7 years GW1 was played, which is how long I intended to play here.

More imporantly, thanks to the no-info communication by the publisher, we don’t know if I get a sword now if it’s replaced in a year or in two months.

I don’t care how easy to get it is. What matters is this:

- Everything I might be tempted to farm today will be obsolete soon. This is not what GW2 was supposed to be like and it’s severely lessening my incentive to do anything in the game.

- Whenever the gear comes and however easy it may be to get, I’ll have to spend 9 fine transmutation stones on it because I actually like the look of my exotics. I picked them for the look. That’s 6 pieces of armor, a two-handed weapon, a ranged weapon and one of the water-weapons (don’t care about the look of the other). That’s cash being forced from my wallet even if the gear comes for free in the mail.