Guild Wars 2

protips for inventory management:
1 – you can and should salvage anything white or blue that you don’t use with salvage kits
2 – you can use deposit all collectibles to empty bags into bank without stopping by a major city
3 – you can sell anything you consider worth selling on the trading post from anywhere in the world. You don’t have to be in a major city.
4 – you can buy from the trading post anywhere in the world, but must stop by a trading post rep to actually pick them up.

This should help you avoid bag-full status.

Astra.1398:

You are only looking at it from your perspective. Everyone that spends time, whether it be crafting, farming or whatever deserves the same as everyone else. If you think you are so “special” and want the game to cater to you, I propose you get wallet out and start spending because if I don’t have a way to get gear, I am not supporting the game. I will play for free when I want and I have already opened up my old accts on wow and rift. I don’t have to play this game and I sure as hell won’t support it. Let the dungeoner’s support it.

Do as you please. There are hundreds of current titles that cater to people who want to be hamsters and are looking for arbitrary criteria to scoff at and bully people. This is supposed to be the one title which does not do this.

It’s been stated over and over in the dev’s own blogs.

I find it ironic that you accuse those of us who bought the game expecting to receive what was advertised as “wanting to be catered to” when you are the one demanding the continuation of something which runs counter to the design philosophy reiterated continuously by the devs for years, and which is visibly breaking the game not 2 weeks after release.

ou have to remember that there are people in the game that do enjoy the challenge of the Fractals, and do deserve better gear for their progress.

No, they don’t deserve “better gear”, they deserve unique skins to act as a badge of honor, but in a game that should be horizontal progression they don’t deserve to have an advantage over players who don’t care for that set of dungeons.

Anyone who thinks they deserve better anything for doing their preferred aspect of a game so they can lord it over other people and depends upon that for “fun” has some real psychological issues.

Malefactor.2971:

plasmacutter.2709:

Malefactor.2971:

It wasn’t “just fine”. What it is, is grind. Everything you do in this game, save for leveling, is a grind. They just replaced (or supplemented, depending on your point of view) that grind with another. Maybe they are hoping it gives them enough time to implement some real horizontal content.

Don’t get me wrong, I found the leveling experience quite fun, still do (working on my 6th 80 now) but each time I hit 80 and have my exotics (which now is the same day I hit cap) I quickly get bored. Grinding gold, karma or dungeons over and over whether it be for appearance or stat increase, is the same difference to me and just isn’t my idea of fun.

you hit 80 and immediately have all arah gear and a legendary?

Who said anything about Arah gear? I craft exotics, since I have every crafting profession. For appearance I am quite content to work with what I can get with minimal grind, the factions (Vigil, Priory and Order) all have some nice looking stuff, as do the races. And Legendary? Please, that is the biggest grind in the game coupled with RNG, no thanks. Maybe if they made acquiring it fun somehow, like a difficult and lengthy quest line or series of challenges I’d be interested.

That stage is usually when I start pvp and random travels until they release the next content patch.

LOCO.1785:

Basically GW2 was marketed heavily as an alternate to your standard WoW style of MMO.

A few months in and things are not going as well as hoped. Instead of sticking to their philosophy, which they proudly hyped at any given opportunity, they’ve done a complete 180.

No this will not end well and it’s safe to say that ANet now realise this after the backlash from their recent patch. The question is what are they going to do about it? Continue going down this new path like nothing is wrong or are they actually going to start listening to the customers that they have left?

Who said it wasn’t going as well as hoped?
I saw plenty of people joining, the game was thriving despite the “ebb” of the initial launch “surge”, and nobody I met had any complaints.
Then this patch it. NOW it appears not to be “doing as well as hoped”.

Malefactor.2971:

It wasn’t “just fine”. What it is, is grind. Everything you do in this game, save for leveling, is a grind. They just replaced (or supplemented, depending on your point of view) that grind with another. Maybe they are hoping it gives them enough time to implement some real horizontal content.

Don’t get me wrong, I found the leveling experience quite fun, still do (working on my 6th 80 now) but each time I hit 80 and have my exotics (which now is the same day I hit cap) I quickly get bored. Grinding gold, karma or dungeons over and over whether it be for appearance or stat increase, is the same difference to me and just isn’t my idea of fun.

you hit 80 and immediately have all arah gear and a legendary?

Fabuloso.7846:

we need LFG dungeon finder .. finding ppl is not easy i dont like to spend 1 hour or 2 finding ppl for the dungeons

Absolutely not, we just need the “gating” system for FOTM removed or reworked, and the rewards from FOTM made no longer “superior” to others by either passing them out to all other aspects of the game or nerfing them to exotic level.

This game started out engineered specifically to unify the playerbase, reward people for playing how they wanted to play, and reward people for helping their fellow players.
Then FOTM came along.
Now we have a game with an “endgame dungeon” that specifically splinters the playerbase, forces people to play a specific dungeon to attain competitive rewards, and rewards people for excluding their fellow players.

Cancrizans.8527:

I agree that it is early on in the process to start thinking that the game will completely change character.

Are you kidding?

Over the past couple weeks we’ve seen things we never thought we’d see in this game:
- you can only get the top-end gear by doing “chores” in parts of the game (dungeons) you might not otherwise want to do.
- due to the above, you have the other aspects of the game emptying out (with the exceptions of a couple select servers) and Lion’s Arch becoming the only populated portion of the game world.
- you have 15 people gathered in one place looking for the same dungeon but not grouping because there is no benefit for those of higher FotM level to group with lower ones.
- you have people saying things like “link exotics or be kicked” or “you’re not high enough FotM level kick”

This game started out engineered with the express purpose of unifying the playerbase and rewarding people for helping others. It now splinters the playerbase and rewards people for excluding others.

Malefactor.2971:

True, but then the so-called horizontal “progression” wasn’t anything to write home about either.

it was just fine. there was plenty to do, with the pinnacle being legendary weapon with arah gear to show how B—A— you were, and the ability to add more.

Anyone who needs to grind more stats and look down on people to have “fun” has some psychological issue.

player a – “LFM FotM level 10”
player b – “LFM FotM level 2”
player c – “LFM FotM level 12”
player d – “LFM FotM level 6”
player e – “LFM FotM level 9”
All in unison – “Link exotics or be kicked”

FotM is the worst implementation of dungeon tiering i’ve ever seen in any game. Nowhere else have I seen everyone looking for the same thing but none of them grouping for it.

Aufero.2893:

I’ve been playing online RPGs since the early MUDs, when “massively multiplayer” would have meant fifty players online at once. The list of MMOs I haven’t played is probably shorter. (AC2 and STO are the only ones that come to mind.)

As for GW2, despite concern about where the game is heading, (I’m really over grindy games, despite having enjoyed a few in the past – I think Aion was my last gasp for that playstyle) I’m still enjoying the game. The art (particularly the landscapes) is often spectacular, and the combat is challenging enough to be fun without being punishing. Almost everything about the game is engaging – NPC conversations, dynamic events, huge world to explore, lore items in unexpected places, jumping puzzles, (which seem like a celebration of the ability to jump, after being glued to the ground in GW1) etc.

Perhaps ironically, one of the few things I’m not too fond of in GW2 is the central storyline. I keep wanting to whack the members of Destiny’s Edge upside the head, and I’d really like to give Trahearne a hotfoot, or aphids in his bed, or something.

I like the story, I just think it needs a heck of a lot more engagement. It should not just be something that you visit. If you’re not grouped and out in the world, it should visit you. Some NPC should come flying across your path chased by a horde and “pull you in”.

They should continuously add more dynamic personal events in addition to world events.

Selon.7056:

What do you GW1 guys want from the game then? How are to keep a MMO fresh without introducing new content and gear? I’m just so confused by this – that’s what MMOs do. They continue to evolve. GW1 did change and it did have new gear. they had 5 (or something) expansions and I know I wasn’t sitting in the gear I got from vanilla GW1 that whole time.

Add, in any order or combination you choose, the following:

- new dynamic and even static events that change the face of tyria
- new dungeons and new paths in existing dungeons
- new personal and global story archs and associated quests/events
- new structured pvp events and periodic changes to old ones
- new armor and weapon skins (not “more stats”) associated with all the above
- new skills or weapons available to different professions

and on and on. All of these things involve actual new content rather than lazily ticking up stats, forcing us to run the same old thing over and over, and encouraging people to say “link your tier x or be kicked”

I bought some power/precision/magic find trinkets, before then I had zero magic find.

with zero magic find I was finding rares pretty often.

with 15% magic find equipped i’m getting junk.

I think magic find is bugging out in the opposite direction.

I strongly recommend avoiding magic find at this time.

Vorch.2985:

At the moment, the Ascended Tier is really pissing me off.

So I’m ignoring it.

I have no aspirations to attain it, no will to farm for it.

I’m just going to play the game like I was a week ago.

And if (or when) people start demanding I wear ascended gear, I just won’t play with them. And if everything I enjoy doing requires ascended gear, I’ll just stop playing all together.

MAYBE if (or when) it becomes easier to obtain AND ANet admits to their mistake and declares this is the final additional tier, I’ll be alright.

Until then…nope, not worrying about it. Right now, it’s the only thing that pisses me off.

Where is your server, I will play with you!

If they “fractalize” the existing dungeons, i’ll stop running them, because fractal gating is killing this game AND fractals (“LFG FotM lvl 2” for 5 hours until logoff)

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Who would get what weapon?

I would give:

Torches to Warriors
Axes to Guardians
Rifles to Rangers
Hammers to Engineers
Greatswords to Thieves (wielding in the style of Fire Emblem Swordmasters)
Greatswords to Necromancers
Torches to Elementalists (as both a MH and an Off-Hand)
Main-hand Pistols to Mesmers.

2-handed battle axes and hammers to mesmers. We need more people in dresses with big freakin weapons.

Greatswords and hammers to eles.

I’d like to see a global LFG (global per server, if you make it cross server you WILL have jerks because you’ve removed the social penalties for being one)

Whether it’s just a channel or a tool.

I don’t like standing around any capital city spamming for a group. I’d much rather do that while doing something more productive.

lookitsandrea.8531:

I don’t have any experience/comment on the gear grind, etc because I’m only level 50 and I’m not too worried about that at the moment…

However, for everyone who is “complaining” (harsh word in this case, because I think you guys deserve to) you may want to consider changing your server. I am on a pretty active one, and I have not run into the issues you guys are talking about (US by the way). I was in a group with 4 80’s, and as a level 50, nobody complained or commented on my level. In fact, I was the “leader” of the group who started the whole thing – and we finished level 1 in FotM. Yesterday, I did an AC story, AC path 1 and 2, and CM story run with some guild mates and people I found in map chat. Yes, there are people still looking to do the other dungeons somewhere.

I suppose I am lucky in my server, but don’t lose hope completely!

What server are you on. Maybe yours has the better end of the community. (if so I want to go there, because they buck the trend and i need people to play with)

Natural.7013:

This game can’t thrive on cosmetics alone.

I hear second life and gw1 were just the most horrific flop.. oh wait.

It needs depth, it needs competition, it needs the game modes to make people wanna fight tooth and nail to be on top of a ladder. Right now, it has nothing that really keeps people playing…EXCEPT for Fotm atm.

There’s alot of hurt over this “manifesto”. The game was gonna be another niche game like GW1 at best. Now, maybe, MAYBE it has a shot to be much more if they add more depth and challenge. Fotm was the first real challenge this game has to offer. There’s literally nothing that is difficult in this game or has anyone tensing up, hoping that they hit that boss one last time and kill it before they wipe, or a tense pvp match where people are fighting tooth and nail.

Until now… Fotm has some of that at 10+ and even more at 20+. We need more depth and more competitive game modes. Revamp what is supposed to be “Esport” that’s what we need.

Please tell me what is “deep” and “challenging” about the mechanic of agony and the fact that it is overcome not by skill, but by stacking resist?

There is plenty of depth in this game right now. People are constantly discovering new builds in their chosen professions. You have tanking melee elementalists, healing thieves, etc. The storyline is compelling, the crafting system is an endless labyrinth of exploration, the world’s dynamic events let you cruise around saving the day like batman, and the list goes on and on.

The competitive play you ask for is in the many types of PVP. Some is still unrefined zerg on zerg, but the smaller scale versions are quite competitive and your skill matters.

So far as being top of the pve ladder, it was there before the stupid FotM dungeons and was demonstrated by sporting a full set of Arah skins — the only reason to have higher stats is to facilitate elitist griefing and the undermining of skill as a factor in pvp.

All FotM accomplishes is:
A – Pushing anyone who wants to be current into a set of dungeons they’d otherwise not want to do, and in so doing emptying the rest of the game’s many different segments.

B – Splintering even those in the community who want to do FotM for the sake of FotM rather than as a “chore” because its the only avenue for the gear through its ill-conceived gating system.

C – Encouraging people to be insufferable kittens and say things like “link exotics or be kicked, must be level XX or you can’t come”

macabakur.4521:

The issue with your viewpoint is we are’nt given instruction as to what we need to survive. The game just throws you in at full speed and you just have to figure it all out. Which I guess is fun for some, but I think the majority of people would prefer a ramped difficulty, where at least for the first 30 or so levels it’s a decent amount easier, so you can actually figure stuff, gear, stats.. what this does, that does without having to die over and over and ultimately get frustrated and quite possibly quit.

The game is too hard for low level, it’s too hard for solo.. if you expect a level 10 to understand about toughness and all that, then I think you’re being a tad bit silly.. crap, I still don’t really understand all that, and am just now, getting a smidgen of an idea about it.

Add animations that are easily sightable and recognizable at least 1-3 seconds before mob casts uber spell, give more time of red circle before dropping the spell.. there’s a bunch of issues with this, that if they fixed them the game would be so much more pleasing. For me, most definetely, but I don’t think I’m the only one.

If this game is meant for the hardcore of hardcore then fine, i’ll leave now, because that’s not what I want out of my mmo’s.

I understand this, and do think its an issue.
Perhaps some tutorials or recommendations in-game are a good idea.

I found it out the hard way, too, before doing some more research thinking “if it’s this hard i’m doing something wrong”, and it turned out I was.

There will always be builds out there for those who don’t have the time to theorycraft thanks to the community.

lookitsandrea.8531:

I have experimented with a couple other races, but I primarily play Ranger and Guardian. I can say that the invulnerable issue is MUCH more prominent with the ranger than with the others, in my own experience (both the Guardian and Ranger are Norn, so it wasn’t exactly an area issue).

Mesmer.

PopeUrban.2578:

plasmacutter.2709:

PopeUrban.2578:

How does someone other than yourself having better magic find impact your gear drops though?

ANet takes into account the ability to boost magic find, and nerfs the base rate by X% to compensate.

So, what you’re saying is that magic find, in stead of being a tradeoff for core stats just shouldn’t exist? MF is a tradeoff for core stats specifically to reward the ability to perform well without them, and to be completely honest, it is really not that difficult to acquire the gear you need in this game compared to most others.

I better understand your point now but I can’t say that I agree with it.

Fair enough. I do think magic find is bugged now, though.

When I hit 80 I bought rare grade pow/prec/magic find trinkets for +15% magic find, and since then my loot quality has actually tanked. I’m thinking of removing all MF gear again.

PopeUrban.2578:

How does someone other than yourself having better magic find impact your gear drops though?

ANet takes into account the ability to boost magic find, and nerfs the base rate by X% to compensate.

I’m much less concerned with run efficiency and more concerned with the fact that gear drops are balanced around the presence of this stat, and that means people who need the gear are least likely to get it because they’re least likely to have magic find sets.

Ganzo.5079:

Rooks Zaer.5846:

Bugs? Yes, I will give it time.
Balance issues? Yes, I will give it time.
Missing features? Yes, I will give it time.
Doing a 180 on your manifesto and punching your fanbase in the mouth? No, I feel like I already gave you more than enough time to do that.

I feel like this too, i can give them all the time they need to fix the game they promise us, but That 180° turn is just a lowblow, and 10 days of “No reply” are even worse.
So, i dont really have too much faith left, ill wait monday and only then ill decide what to do.

It’s the holiday season. They probably need the right players to be in the office to discuss the fallout and plot a new trajectory.

Next week will tell.

Vorch.2985:

…mmorpg.com forum users tend to post perpetual hate for GW2.

To be fair, mmorpg.com forum users tend to post perpetual hate on almost all MMOs post-release. You’d be surprised how much vile so-called fans of the genre spew when things are not exactly as they want.

Agreed. their forums are like a slightly less offensive version of the wow forums, but for all games.

Still, it’s more than mmorpg.com

I do hope they manage to close pandora’s box before hope disappears too.

Aylpse.6280:

For Armor, at Lv80 you can run Dungeons for tokens to trade in for exotic gear, or you can simply buy some. For cultural armor, its not really that powerful, but you can transmute the skins for vanity. Some of them are nice. Hope I helped

Don’t spend karma on t1 cultural weapons of any kind, they have the same skins as the ones on the auction house.

Asura t1 are glyphic
Charr t1 are the various steam models
Human t1 are the krytan models
Sylvari t1 are the verdant models
forgot which ones are norn.

Wolfhound.4165:

That’s not the problem I really had, guess I didn’t convey it. Yes, I understand why we can’t target PvE mobs from safety, free loots all day, yeah, I know and understand that, what tic’s me off is I WAS on the same ledge as the Vet and I got invulnerable invulnerable invulnerable or Obscured with clear line of sight.

LOS is severely buggy in this game.

Rangers and now with the recent changes mesmers are howling mad over it.

It’s affecting various world v world pvp as well as causing serious pve nuisances.

I’m hoping this will be part of the announcements and open qa this monday.

mulch.2586:

plasmacutter.2709:

Additionally, it rewards people who cripple their effectiveness for their parties in dungeons and dynamic events, making them harder to down.

You won’t cripple your effectiveness, because gear stats only comprise 21% of the stats affecting your character’s performance. Most of it comes from your level and traits. Not to mention skills and how you deploy them.

I’m not buying the 21% effectiveness thing.

I have a pretty standard GS build on my mesmer and all rares on it.

People in exotics hit spatial surge for 1.5k

I hit it for 900.

Gear matters more than 21%

How did magic find turn into a tanking discussion?

My opinion on magic find.

It’s obviously a carry-over from GW1 and other classic rpgs which really should have been given the chop long ago.

It produces a “rich get richer” environment in which the people who need gear most are least likely to receive it, because gear drops are balanced around its presence, and lowbies/newbies are not going to have it immediately.

Additionally, it rewards people who cripple their effectiveness for their parties in dungeons and dynamic events, making them harder to down.

I really think they should remove at least the itemized ones on gear and upgrades, lower the boosts from other sources, and re-balance drop rates around that to lower the differential on it.

TsukasaHiiragi.9730:

Those Who Remain.1987:

I can’t say I have seen that much skills that are ‘OP’. It is far from a huge flaw, but could be addressed if there are some unpredictable, too strong spells.

I honestly think you are overreacting a bit.

The OP isn’t overreacting at all. You just haven’t done that much content – many mob skills just hit you without any animation frames at all, some of these attacks are also extremely OP. Look at the Champion Shark in Sparkfly Swamp for instance who can pretty much one shot anyone without even being close to it – this is a significant problem and design flaw.

I’ve personally lost count how many times I’ve died to cheap attacks that have been unavoidable.

I have never been one-shot by that shark.

in fact, I kitten near soloed it, even though it managed to hit me a few times.

you can’t have a glass cannon build and expect to properly face off against champs and even some vets.

If you take a glass cannon build built to be like the traditional mmo “max dps” spec, you will be flattened over and over until you’ve done something about that.

Either equip toughness or vitality as one of your stats, or spec heavily into at least one survival trait line. (doing this will also give you more group utility)

Azthioth.9682:

First off, I agree with the OP.

I cannot log on to most cities without being in overflow which was not the case 2 weeks ago.

All I see in LA is LFG Fotm 1-19, or lfg (name dungeon) people are playing way more than they did 2 weeks ago.

If you would stop whining for 2 sec. NO ONE has yet to prove how any of this will hurt the game. All you use is anecdotal evidence to prove your paranoia. No one knows the future. If two items that can only be gotten by months of playing the same dungeon is creating a gear treadmill, the treadmill must be set to UBER SLOW.

Also, it is not a grind. I LOVE the new dungeons. TA and AC are horrible dungeons, just awful. Fotm is so much fun. I am above level 5 but I will run 1-5 at any time. Why? Because they are amazing. Oh, and I see people all the time, my guild included, doing the same thing.

I have a reason to keep playing. I now see a future for this game. Before it was boring dungeon grinds to get pretty gear then do nothing. Sure I could make up content like see how fast I can run around LA but I didn’t pay 60 bucks to come up with my own games. What I mean by this is not that I can grind for gear, but that if the Fotm dungeons are the future, I WANT TO KEEP PLAYING. I don’t care about your stupid kittening gear, I just want to have fun.

NOTHING from these new pieces of “grinded treadmill” gear will make 1 bit of difference in WvW. Especially since all you conveniently miss the part where the gear will be made available OUTSIDE THE DUNGEON.

So freaking seriously, kitten and enjoy the game. Just because Anet isnt catering tot he GW1 crowd, doesn’t mean you get to clog the forums with your whining.

Anet won’t be able to see your tears because of all the money that I, my guild, and my friends will be throwing at them. So many whiners….

The only reason LA is in overflow is because the entire rest of the world is empty.

Just because you think explorables suck doesn’t mean everyone else does. They were going gangbusters before the patch, and THEY didn’t require superior loot to attract people.

If you either removed the superior loot from the dungeon, or spread that dungeon’s superior loot to everywhere else, you’d probably see FOTM drop to the same population as any ONE of the existing explorables.

Your anecdotes mean nothing, but the fact ANet just cut the price of the deluxe edition to that of the standard edition shows the oppostie of what you say in a very substantive manner.

ecad.9085:

Iam constantly asking people to team with me when I’m levelin up in areas and doing hearts etc…. only like 1 in 10 people wants too… but why??

It is soo much faster and easier to level up when ur in team instead of going at it alone. Also much more fun imo. Why so many lone-players?

I will often spend several silver on my toons to swoop in on waypoints when people call for help.

Sadly, I’m well away from my primary systems for the holidays, so I’ve been offline 1.5 weeks.

Satakal.6971:

1. a single map chat shared between all the cities.
2. a single LFG chat channel shared between all the cities.

Problem solved.

3 – a specific whitelisting AI to prevent people’s LFG spam from being construed as gold spam and throttling their chat.

Vermillion Hawk.9037:

But there isn’t zero vertical grind. You still need to work your way up to exotics. At no point did they say there would be no vertical progression.

When my toon hit 80 before the patch, I went to the TP and had enough gold for all exotics. (in addition to nearly 100k karma)

I know certain dungeon sets have the stats I want, and did not feel pressured, so I purchased loads of dyes instead.

Still, I had the option of fully equipping in exotics just from the stuff I found and sold. (and I hoarded nearly every material meant for my crafting to the point it piled in my bags, which means others likely had more gold)

Requiring minimal resources be spent to equip yourself is very different than a vertical gear grind involving funnelling yourself into one aspect of the game and dealing with people shunning you because you’re not level 10 or you’re not in exotics.

ASB.4295:

They wanted to make the journey to max stat armor longer. The gap was time investment. They want max armor to be something that involves a certain degree of work. It took them over 10 years, but they’ve finally caught up with the industry standard: Long term vertical gear progression is a must in PvE. A lot of people like it, a lot of people don’t. If you don’t like it, there’s sPvP or GW1 waiting for you. Have fun.

Two million copies were pre-ordered on the manifesto ArenaNet published stating there would be zero vertical grind.

As usual, INTP’s cant be pinned down in this study.

Lutharr.1035:

well I really like the fotm atm. Im doing em cos they are fun, but im only lvl 9 on them. Once the grind starts for acended gear Ill stop that. So someone like me while there currently wont stay there for much longer.

I really wish I could hang out in Divinitys Reach or the Black Citadel though since I LOVE those 2 places.

Leave cats alone long enough, and they’ll build a death star. This is why I have dogs.

Golgathoth.3967:

I’m mildly pleased to hear about the old dungeon overhaul and all that, but it would be nice if we knew what was being done about bugs that didn’t get fixed/got created for the various professions in the last major patch.

I’m actually worried about that.

If their “overhaul” to old dungeons is to make them like fractals, i’m going to be forced to pack up and move on.

I liked the explorable modes, the fact that they were entirely based on skill, the fact that they did not have agony, the fact that if you searched for an explorable mode group you did not have to worry about their “level”.

if they apply fractaling to explorables, I will have nothing left to play.

Astralporing.1957:

There’s something i have noticed today. I don’t know if it’s just an accident or intentional. When i play on my lev 80’s, i see drops nerfed acros the board (including dragon chests – though people still do get rares, so that’s may be only me). When i log in to my lev 60 alt, the rarity and number of drops jumps up heavily. Anyone else could comment on that?

Seen the same here.

Happens both in open world and non-fractal dungeons.

When my mesmer was 60 to 80, I’d receive rares and even got myself a few exotics (above my toon’s level mind you!), but the moment I hit 80 it became abysmal.

Also noting the dye drop rate patch was a break-point in which my loots started to really suck.

Aleaf.8174:

TsukasaHiiragi.9730:

Aleaf.8174:

TsukasaHiiragi.9730:

Veltoss.9135:

They already said they’re adding more ascended gear with more ways to get it, including from dungeons and more fun ways as well.

source?

“Ascended and infusion rewards will be available in both PvE and WvW over time, and be made available through all sorts of content around the world including existing content.”

Source

Oh I read that already ~ its all smoke and mirrors without an solid information. I wouldn’t put too much into that.

And there it is. You’re CHOOSING too ignore what they have said.

When it comes down to it, you have two choices:

-Accept what the company says and let things go.
-Choose to disregard what they say and wage a crusade against the game.

Either way, what you have to say will not change anything. They’ve already released it. There hasn’t been a mass exodus. There has been no signs of disgruntled customers outside of constant complaints from emotionally attached gamers (which isn’t bad to some degree).

And if anyone has had any experience in customer service, you’d know people are more likely to complain about bad things then to appreciate the good.

Over time is the issue here, and the more horrifying thing is the idea that they could overhaul the previous dungeons by applying the same gating mechanisms which has resulted in 15 people failing to form even one group for FotM because they’re all on different levels.

The fractals have only been out a week or two and you already have Tyria being overrun by unopposed dynamic events due to empty zones, you have empty dungeons, and you have lion’s arch threatening to sink into the sea under the mass and frustration of people using a cumbersomely gated dungeon system where half the people queueing for the same place can’t find a group.

Lutharr.1035:

plasmacutter.2709:

4 – an increase in important dynamic events away from Lion’s Arch and Orr.
—- we as a community have been neglecting the elder dragon advance in the face of FotM, this could be used as an “excuse” to launch a new draconic offensive against the major cities?

I really like this suggestion.

This still requires the rewards for those events compete with fractals.

Fractal rewards being superior to all other rewards in the game are feeding the lion’s arch issue.

For players like me who don’t participate in fractals, stops into lion’s arch only happen once a week.

Please see raine’s post (third one in the thread), it sums it up nicely.

There was no “legendary gap”.

There was a lack of variety in the choices of gear skins which should have been addressed rather than add a dungeon and tear tier incongruous with the rest of the game, but no “gap” existed pre-patch.

Corvindi.5734:

plasmacutter.2709:

Corvindi.5734:

Since Ascended gear will create the standard WoW-style haves and have-nots and worse, will put those who don’t have it at a disadvantage in WvW, I’m against it for the same reason I’m against corporate and military power being used to oppress the poor and powerless.

Although I’m less concerned about Ascended gear than I am about real world bully tactics, since I’m %99 positive no one is going to actually die from Ascended. Unless, of course, someone really does try to farm up all those mats. Hopefully no stories of people found dead in their chairs with the GW2 loading screen on their monitors will surface.

We need a hitler video where he raves about ascended…

I still think the bigger issue is the following combination:
Ascended + high FOTM challenge levels + FOTM gating = lots of people feeling compelled to do something they don’t want (emptying the rest of the world and making for VERY testy players), and the FotM gating mechanism preventing people trying to group for it from gaining optimal outcomes for each person.

I dare say the fact Ascended is not available through every means like exotic is a much greater problem than the simple presence of Ascended, as gear seems to be a much smaller factor in this game than others.

How do I put this delicately? Gamers are stupid sometimes. Why should we feel compelled to chase this gear at all? It clearly isn’t fun to get, so I’m not going to try to get it. Nor will I try to compete against it in WvW or for teams in PVE. I’m just going to wander solo until I find something better to do.

I am not a hamster, after all, and I will not act like one. I wish other people would stop acting like hamsters, too, maybe then finally we can get a decent MMO that doesn’t treat us like hamsters.

I understand where you are coming from, and have been doing this myself in the limited time i’ve been able to log in during this thanksgiving, but the fact remains that you will need to spread the Ascended gear to all aspects of the game if you want to see people playing all aspects of the game again. Otherwise, it’s a fully solo game with insanely hard encounters (because you have to solo group encounters with everyone buried in the fractals)

Blackwolfe.5649:

Dunno, Ive been playing since pre-release and Ive still lots of things to do! But I wouldnt mind giving more incentives for people to go out in the world instead of spamming LA chat like sheep for FoTM apart from possible a dragon quickie that doesnt give anything good most of the time (loot buff? HAH, might be a bug though.)

Fastest way to do this:
Roll out ascended gear to Karma vendors, badge vendors, and DWE chests.

There are growing complaints by people who participate in fractals regarding how the cumbersome gating mechanism is causing groups to take hours to form.

I predict moving these would cause fractals to become a small niche element of the game.

sammael.7136:

There is nothing wrong with FoTM or dungeon grinding. some like it (i do), some not. with audience so broad anet will never please everyone.

The problem lies in the unacceptable and unexplainable absence of any kind of LFG tool. Without LFG tool, when you want to do any dungeon, not just fotm, you have to sit in the zone spam map chat getting nigh to zero responses as everyone sits in LA / sit in lions arch posting your line between the spam of lfm fotm lvl x messages.

Give us proper LFG cross-server cross-character queqeing tool so I can go explore, do dynamic events, hunt vistas on any char any place in world, then when my group is ready alert us and let us go any dungeon we want and queqed for.

You wanted to break the MMO stereotypes, do a unrestricted lfg that is actually effective to use then…

This is so very wrong a direction I don’t know where to begin.

The moment LFG tools go cross-server it breaks server community completely, and removes the social penalties for various griefing behaviors.

The root of the problem stems from the gating mechanism. It does the opposite of rewarding people for playing with and helping their fellow community. It results in 15 people looking for the same dungeon but being unwilling to group with one another due to different gating levels.

Corvindi.5734:

Since Ascended gear will create the standard WoW-style haves and have-nots and worse, will put those who don’t have it at a disadvantage in WvW, I’m against it for the same reason I’m against corporate and military power being used to oppress the poor and powerless.

Although I’m less concerned about Ascended gear than I am about real world bully tactics, since I’m %99 positive no one is going to actually die from Ascended. Unless, of course, someone really does try to farm up all those mats. Hopefully no stories of people found dead in their chairs with the GW2 loading screen on their monitors will surface.

We need a hitler video where he raves about ascended…

I still think the bigger issue is the following combination:
Ascended + high FOTM challenge levels + FOTM gating = lots of people feeling compelled to do something they don’t want (emptying the rest of the world and making for VERY testy players), and the FotM gating mechanism preventing people trying to group for it from gaining optimal outcomes for each person.

I dare say the fact Ascended is not available through every means like exotic is a much greater problem than the simple presence of Ascended, as gear seems to be a much smaller factor in this game than others.

Combined Suggestions to help this issue:

1 – unified city general chat
2 – An LFG tool, single-realm only, that will assemble groups but NOT port them to dungeons, while the individual people who sign up in this tool are out and about doing other things…. or a completely global LFG channel with select message archetypes NOT in the spam filter so people can post “looking for” messages without being throttled.
3 – an increase in waypoint costs to Lion’s arch to encourage people to use their closest major city as their point of choice for TP pickups, etc.
4 – an increase in important dynamic events away from Lion’s Arch and Orr.
—- we as a community have been neglecting the elder dragon advance in the face of FotM, this could be used as an “excuse” to launch a new draconic offensive against the major cities?

Vermillion Hawk.9037:

Keiran.1896:

60 of any dungeon token = 1 Dungeon Shard.
100 Fractal Relics = 1 Fractal Shard.

10 Dungeon Shards + 2 Fractal Shard + 50 ectos + 1 Eldritch Scroll = Ascended Gear.

Simple and you got your players playing everything. Not just fractals.

Why not?

Perhaps because the whole system is still in the process of being implemented.

Is it that hard to put ascended gear on karma and dungeon vendors?

I want to know why the intern who just LOVED playing FFXI and whose personal hero was Ayn Rand was allowed to run ArenaNet for the holiday season, because the current monstrosity that is Fractals+Ascended that is ripping GW2 apart like black hole could not have come from the same people who wrote the manifesto for this game.

I don’t have to worry about getting ascended, neither does anyone else.

All 20 people in the square in lion’s arch are on different levels and none will group with one another.

please be sure to post answers back to this thread.

I will be in transit most of monday.