Guild Wars 2

Sovta.4719:

toffin.5032:

I actually enjoy FotM, running with guildies and having a blast trying to figure out the quirks of every little map. I enjoy having the different maps and all the programming that anet had to do to put this into place, and this is how far into the release of this game? 3 months, I cant wait to see what they have 1 – 5 years down the line… to all those that are saying “oh im quitting, because of blah blah blah”, have fun with your next game. The long time players will be here, just like most of us were there for GW1 that long time between GW1 and GW2.

Dude, some REAL dungeons are still bugged as hell, and thsi is how far into the release of this game? 95% players that wanted this are noobs that couldn’t do any real dungeon
Kill Lupicus and then you will see good dungeon

psssh you must have done only Difficulty1. I’ve been farming Arah and Lupicus for 2 months now and Fractals offers just as much challenge as Arah. but its a different type of difficulty that derives from its blend of puzzle and teamwork based mechanics. at higher difficulty levels i’ve seen skill groups that regularly one-shot Lupicus like he was a punk, repeatedly fail at the Fractals.

UnderdogSMO.9428:

If you bow back at the Colossus you get an achevment

haha awesome i’ve got to try that later tonight.

ok just did the Jade Maw dungeon… just so awesome.. wish it were alot longer though. but holy ffreaking kitten… awesome.

Dokuroizo.5348:

I agree OP!
I had the most fun today! When I saw myself as a charr sieging ascalon I was really moved, and the rest, oh boy all that diversity. MAGNIFICENT!

ya i really liked that fight. i havent made a Charr character yet but after that I think i will.

also i hope i didnt give a spoiler about the Colossus in my original post. but i just had to mention it because it is seriously one of my all time favorite gaming moments now. ArenaNet could have easily just ended that with a chest to loot and send us on our merry way to the next dungeon.. but no, theyre dedicated to a creating that certain fuzzy awesome fantasy feeling and took the time to add that. i just completed the Colossus event for the second time now.. and ya, the chills were there again haha. sooo good

Velg.3170:

Love the Fractals.

Would like to have some hot-join, though. Or some look at the DC mechanics – it’s just too hard to finish it in PUG without running on someone’s Disconnect, some rage quitter or somewhat.

ya thats a good point and we had this happen to us once. player got disconnected during the event where youre turned into a Charr and you invade the city. theres no way to get a new player into the gtoup without restarting the entire dungeon. i didnt mind too too much tho because that was another really fun event haha.

just wanted to say, before i crash in exhaustion following the 8 hrs i just played, that Fractals dungeons are genius. and immersive and challenging and actionpacked. pure gaming awesome.

when i first got online my guild already had 2 full groups going so i was an odd man out, had to PUG it. and to my absolute delight, the first PUG was devastated and confused by the mechanics. Fell apart quickly when some fools ragequitted rather than work it through. “This is awesome” i thought to myself. finally, FINALLY, dungeons that demanded communication and teamwork. love it. <3. next PUG was just awesome. we wiped a few times and then slowly we came out of our shells and started talking. someone even offered their Vent. What is this?!?! a PUG that must talk? that cant just glazed eye faceroll through a dungeon in 10min? yes we encountered a bug or two. even had to quit from a bug near end of Colossus dungeon but ya know what. LOVE IT. THIS IS WHAT I BOUGHT GW2 for. im on the verge of gushing right now. please i hope the developers and the artists and programmers that worked on this know that they have mine and many other’s undying love. you might destroy the rest of the game from here on out, but you will still have my love for this dungeon. ive only completed Difficulty 2 but wow.. awesome. my guild is thrilled and excited and talking about the future of GW2 again. i hear that buzz again.

some of these fights feel more intense and epic than full blown raids in other games. during that one snowy event where you must light the campfires to fight the frostbite effect and then the blizzard surrounds you and you can barely see? PURE MAGIC. LOVE YOU FOR THAT. my guild was freaking the kitten out during that. and im secure in my manhood enough to admit that when we freed the Colossus… and he flipping slowly turns and bows? E P I C. i felt chills. thats gold baby. developers just cant force that pathos into an event; they must have art and poetry deep in their blood to craft that feeliing. thank you. and i love the pace of the fights… long and epic like a raid, but not too many crazy one shot kill effects but enough time for the players to think and figure out the puzzles amidst the chaos of battle. just epic. love it. and the blend of puzzles and traps and lore and combat, awesome fights that really brought out the best of our groups – even made us adjust our traits and gear to synergize with each other. i really really hope this is the future of GW2 content.

ok im gonna go to bed now. thank you for the memories. i made friends tonight… strangers ive never grouped with before were capslock crazy screaming WOOT and high-fiving in chat again. im gonna sleep with the hope that somehow this humble thank you makes it to your staff’s breakroom refrigerator for all to see.

Jalad Lantana.3027:

Hi, I am a PUG scrub. Just which of those dungeons do you consider faceroll easy?

umm how about any of the Explorables that are speed farmed in under 20 minutes? most under 15min? so that makes it like 80% of them. search youtube for 10 minute CoF etc… “7 minute AC” done by 2 players… was only 3 online in my guild tonight and we 3 manned each path of SE and TA and i dont think a single run took longer than 25min. and we are by no means hardcore or elite players in either skill or gear heh. most of my PUG groups take alot shorter but i always have a full group in those.

I’m pretty critical about aspects of the GW2 but not Lost Shore or Ascended Armor.

Of course, I cant give a representative sample of the entire game population but I will offer this: Since release I’ve joined 4 PVE guilds and 1 WvW guild. The WvW guild has thrived, while each of the PVE guilds (once very active) quickly became ghosttowns with maybe 1 or 2 players online each night. “we’re bored and defeated” as the leader of one of the guilds described it.

Since the announcement of Lost Shores, each of the PVE guilds has come to life again. people are logging into vent, people are talking and grouping and logging in. It was gradual but tonight i noticed for the first time since the initial release, i actually had to choose which guild to represent; they were full of returning players, even noticed a few new recruits.

so take that for what you will. Consider how little the data sample is for Nielson Ratings and yet how much TV ratings depend and decide upon it. I think small samples like what i’m experiencing is still valuable so there it is. I’m a pretty casual player and when i do find time to get online, I’d prefer its time spent with guildmates and friends rather than soloing or pugging faceroll easy explorables.

oh ya, i read it alright. i understand youre ok with gear progression and so am i; if it entails some sort of fun and challenging content, anything that leads to a sense of achievement and growth of my character, i welcome it. but i see alot of panic on these forums about the wrong issue. and i wouldnt even call this progression because there is absolutely no gear requirement for any “tier” or dungeon in the game. just felt your post is perpetuating this panic, although you meant in an indirect way to deflate the panic.

and youre right.. my rhetorical question should have been phrases “why the kitten care..”

who cares? who seriously cares…. if you PVE, youre going to be grinding some dungeon so why the KITTEN not grind this new set. PVE in GW2 is a faceroll. gear is so inconsequential. when was the last time you replied to a LFM and the leader interrogated you about your level or gear? me? never. not once. why? because Exp Modes are laughably easy and you can PUG them with everyone in Fine armor (blues).

anything that steps up the PVE challenge and thus, fun, is fine with me. bring it on. because PVE right now is pathetically easy… youtube “10minute CoF” or “7minute AC” where 2 players.. ya, flipping 2 players complete AC Exp in 7minutes…. lame. so KITTEN lame and boring. so yes… PVE needs deeper mechanics than button mashing, circle dodging, and im more worried that the new content will be more of the same faceroll than i am about new gear with SLIGHTLY better stats – especially since gear means almost nothing in this game.

referring to PVE, what puzzles me is how people think that in the absence of “gear based” progression, or “gear advantage” that skill naturally fills the void. it doesnt. when Anet said “Explorable Mode dungeons would be designed for the mostly highly organized and skilled players” I thought great… that will be a fun challenge for my guildmates and I to work at… but no, these dungeons are Speed Farmed by PUGs in the first week..

and in my experience Dungeon Parties need to do zero communication or teamwork to clear these dungeons… i know because when i join a group i always try to do some planning or short discussion about what Utility skills we were using and what trait builds we were… but people just ignore me completely. why? because there is no need at all for any teamwork to complete these dungeons. planning combos? pfft pointless. just dont stand in the red circle and rally someone if they die. if youre defeated.. RUN BACK FAST and rez zerg the boss.. that’s skill? this is teamwork?

Kaspanova.7293:

thefounder.2074:

i’ve experienced no teammwork or need to ever plan combos or adjust trait builds or utility loadouts. i mean.. PUGs were speed farming Exp mode dungeons in the first week of the game… i’m a casual player of games. and even i find this a bit dull.

You’re not a casual player. If you were, you wouldn’t be talking about speed farming the dungeons in the first week or trait builds or loadouts. You got to 30 in the first few days, and probably have a bunch of 80s now, right? Not causal.

dont know what you define as casual. when i was playing, i played approx 15-24 hrs a week. it took me 3 weeks to get to 80, but that’s beside the point.. because EVERYONE knew about Speed Farming because thats all you heard about in /map chat… “LFG FOR COF SPEED FARM OMG PATH 2” or on these forums when the big DR Scandal hit… or from all my guildmates in vent… sooooo youre dumb.

and for the record i have one 80, one level 5, two level 2’s.

Most games… you put forth effort and time to get better at playing your character and improve both your understanding of the game as well as both your gear and appearance… in the best of those games, teammwork is paramount. this creates a sense of achievement. a sense of growth.

in GW2 you put forth massive amount of time and effort to endure a handful of speed farmed puggable dungeons… over and over… just for something to change your appearance. the only thing Legendary about this – is the amount of Grind. if i actually ever got a Legendary i would definitely question my life’s goals lol. overall i feel no sense of growth or achievement. i do find experimenting with the different professions to be interesting but clearly if i dont devote 95% of my time to ONE character. i will never ever get a Legendary within a year, or likely longer, or maybe never.

challenge? all the enemies list their special attacks, every boss is rez zergable. if i look cooler than you it simpy shows i walked away from the red circles more than you did. i’ve experienced no teammwork or need to ever plan combos or adjust trait builds or utility loadouts. i mean.. PUGs were speed farming Exp mode dungeons in the first week of the game… i’m a casual player of games. and even i find this a bit dull.

revolutionary? i was curious about a game without “the trinity” as they say. flexibility and freedom from established roles sounds like a great thing. but i also didnt want the mess that is GW2 gameplay – just complete chaotic random free for all with zero expectations on your Party members other than they dont stand in the red circle and Rally you if you die.

welcome to Grind Wars 2?

the last patch not only restored my FPS to its best performance since the Oct1 patch but its even slightly higher… only 2 FPS higher on average over 36 hrs of logging but still, its buttery smooth. the Highest Framerate range is still about the same but more importantly, the lowest Framerate range is slightly higher and i suffer fewer “dips” in high player areas. even at my server’s busiest Lions Arch and in WvW, i’m seeing great client performance for my system hardware.

i know you guys are swamped with work but i’m impressed by how quickly youre addressing problems. sorry to other players that are reporting low performance but i wanted to take the time to add my experience. and since Oct 8th. my FPS is just fantastic. From my experience and my family and friends, I would certainly call GW2 optimized. If i can run the game on Highest settings (shadows on Medium) 1600×1050 with mostly > 45 FPS with a mid-level gaming system in almost all but the highest polygon situations? i call that “optimized”. just my experience but thats all i can add to this discussion.

AMD 1100t @ 4.1ghz
AMD 6950 (8.97 beta drivers) 2GB version
8GB DDR3
Corsair Force GT 120GB SSD
Win7 64bit

**If you have a AMD Videocard and your FPS seems to be abnormally low, try making a custom Application Profile for GW2.exe in Catalyst Control Center and turn off all the Catalyst options. this improved my FPS even before the Oct. 7th patch."

so the other night, i was alllllll set! got the day off from work, kids at their grandparents… had mah coffee ready…. i lit candles… ready to get my fantasy freak on in my favorite zone Frostgorge Sound! I wanted to test my battle merit against Honor of the Waves Explorable!

but no… after being there for 5 minutes and entering 1 -one, uno, un, een – map message advertising my considerable Hammer Warrior skills.. i got the Suppressed Chat message. hrrrmmmmm ok. waited 30min.. did some exploration and took yet another 100 screenshots of the Kodan Iceships and the humpback whales in the waters (my daughter loves whales). hour has passed. go to Lions Arch try to find a group there, nobody forming groups.. return to Frostgorge Sound… still cant chat… cant even /say. kind of a bummer. so i logout.

24hrs (earth time) pass…. i log back into the game. into Frostgorge Sound. still.. cant… chat….

well i think i found a slight fix. has definitely improved performance but not returned to pre-patch FPS. but still ALOT better and im happy.

basically, i did full reinstall of AMD Catalyst. (i know.. pain in the kitten . then i made a custom Application Profile just for GW2.exe. and starting from a clean slate, i first turned EVERYTHING off in the profile.. full application control, “use application settings” or “disabled” for everything. all other settings on performance. and then entered GW2 and FPS was back up to normal but kinda looked meh. then i slowly enabled settings until performance and GPU usage was just under full (use MSI Afterburner to monitor this). in Catalyst Control Center, ended with Texture Filtering and Mipmap Detail levels on High. ingame settings are everything on High except for Shadows on Low, FXAA enabled.

50-60 FPS solo, 33-43 in busy Lion’s Arch and WvW. considering my system hardware i’m pretty happy with this quality:performance. so i offer this to anyone with system similar to mine as a possible fix. best of luck

Since the October 1st update.. my FPS has dropped on average of 10-15 Frames. i know this because I log my FPS and GPU usage throughout all games. no performance changes in any of the other games i play. so it has to be GW2 client change. but i dont see anything listed in the patch notes, so im scratching my head. actually, im pulling out my hair updating drivers etc. i work in the computer tech industry so no issues with software or driver conflicts. i play BF3, Skyrim, TSW, all on Ultra with no issues.

was getting a solid 40-60 FPS on High Settings, Shadows on Low. slight dips to 35 in WvW. but now i cant run around Hoelbrak or Lions Arch with more than 35. even with only a few players around. really frustrated. so if anyone has a similar system as mine and similiar experience please share. thank you.

AMD 1100t @ 4.2. completely stable prime tested.
AMD 6950 2gb version (8.97 drivers – which are the best for this card, also tried very latest but reverted because it didnt help)
8GB DDR3
240 SSD
win7 64bit fully updated
no viruses, no spyware.. pristine.

oh and also – true first person mode would be great for taking screenshots!

i bow… no, i worship, humbly at the feet of your concept artists, 3D modellers, animators and world designers. best in any game i’ve ever played. and i’ve played an embarrassing large number of games.

1. why are the Swords so epically detailed and impressive and other weapons types… Hammers, Maces (among others) look like their design was out-sourced to a HS student? seriously. look at the Sword models for the dungeon armor and then compare them to the Hammer models for instance… Swords look freaking epic and the Hammers look like a misshapen kitten at the end of a stick. a burnt marshmellow on the end of a twig. meh

2. is nobody else annoyed by the various “floating” shoulder armor’s? my warrior’s pauldrons hover like 1 foot away from his shoulders… I only complain because as stated, the main loot of this game is cosmetic and i just find so much of the armor and weapon cosmetics lacking. i’m sure you dont want to exhibit all the great stuff so soon after launch, but seriously some of the weapon and armor quality are nowhere near the match of the absolutely gorgeous and evocative work done on the gameworld.

3. i swear i’m about to nerdrage over unintended NPC interactions during Dungeons. please for the love of odin, give us separate hotkeys for “loot”, “interact with item” (banners, boulders, vehicles, trebuchet, etc) another for “talk to NPC”.

4. could it be possible to also “Hide All NPC names” even those in your Party? pleaaassssse, i dont want to see letters and health bars everywhere on my screen when im trying to notice the boss performing a potentially lethal attack.

none of these seem unreasonable or hard to do? hell, i’d pay 10000 gems for any of these features. seriously

thoughts?

cherrie.8907:

I’ve decided to drop by to share my thought.

First of all, using “arguments” like this bit “ALL STORYMODE DUNGEONS MUST HAVE AVERAGE COMPLETION TIMES SO THAT LITTLE BILLY CAN BE DONE BY DINNERTIME” makes your whole post loose around 60% of argument strength.
This is called argumentum ad hominem and generally points out that you have no leverage and you’re trying to gain some by logical fallacy.

Secondly, you call devs out on “defending their design philosophy”.
If you would follow GW2 development closely, you’d know they gave up their oroginal design philosophy that they proudly shared 2 years ago closely before release (f.e. related to dungeon rewards).

Thirdly, if you call ANet on “their design philosophy”, it would be nice if you were actually aware of what they have stated in the past and recently. Story Mode is meant for everyone. Explorable Modes are meant for organised, experienced, coordinated groups of players.

And lastly, it seems that your idea of challenging encounter is mobs having 10xhp and 10xattributes. However, this is artificial difficulty of lazy / unimaginative developers (which I am surprised made it’s way to GW2 with it’s otherwise extremely entertaining and diverse world).
A design like that serves only as a speed bump and is completely unnecessary, especially in a game that does not have a subscription fee where it serves no purpose for the owning company either.

ya i know Story mode is for everyone.. thats the point… its already easy.. so is Exp mode once players “learn the dungeon” as game director Colin Johansen is quoted as saying about 2 weeks ago “..it takes time and practice to learn how to overcome stuff..”
and “As for the question about PuG’s for explorable dungeons, we’ve said all along that explorable dungeons are intended for highly organized/skilled groups of players.” really? im no great player. my guild is nothing special. we mostly talk about trivia while on vent while we farm these exp mode dungeons and its similiarly easy with PUG groups that do ZERO communication, show no attempt to be the “highly organized” group that the Dev’s state. and now, theyre being slowly made easier. you see no danger in this?

i’m glad i gave u the opportunity to flex your latin phrase skills. but i dont see your point. these are the stated philosophies as of 2 weeks ago. and as i stated clearly…. this is a slipperly slope argument. im just observing that MMOs start to slide towards easy when things like this happen – and so soon after launch, conspicuously admist all this crying about dungeon difficulty. i could name any of the eight MMOs ive played where this occurred (even stating ive played this many MMOs embarasses me i spend way too much time playing these, so i wont bother making examples of all 8 hehe).

i could be wrong. i HOPE im wrong. because i love the game. and no, i dont think arbitrarily high HP or Armor necessarily = challenging. but obviously its contributes? there is no science here. but you dont see any warning signs here? none? maybe im overracting then. but its just a reflex that, i hope, shows my love and worry for the game.

Korrt.3809:

Hopefully they take another inch off the top of these dungeons so i can see all of your elitist rage quit posts. =)

this player is what will emerge as Arenanet’s thermometer. they will increasingly listen to these voices who think the “vast majority” of players find it too hard. and we other players are just “elitists”. gone is the belief that in a game, even one advertised as skill based with less gear advantage, should ever require teamwork or even a modest amount of communication or planning. already players… ALOT of players pug farm these Exp mode dungeons without saying a SINGLE word to each other. without caring even in the slightest what build’s the other players are, without caring what boons or conditions are on them. and combos are just pretty colors that accidentally pop up. rinse, repeat, profit. hence the nerf to speed farming. its already too easy.

players like this poster are the norm now.. the loud majority. when they cry ’youre just elitists" or “hardcore players need to get a life” theyre actually saying “whether i am casual or not, i demand a game where interaction with other players is completely unnecessary and teamwork and skillbased gameplay are just promotional phrases meant to differentiate us from WoW”

i’m not one of those “the sky is falling” criers… but i’ve been around long enough in MMOs (since meridian 59) to see the signs on the wall. i have defended, trumpeted and lauded GW2 EVERYWHERE i could. now you just took alot of my argument ammunition away from me.

One week there is a Dev Post about retaining Dungeon Difficulty, holding firm to their design philosophy of how they want players to have time to Learn the dungeons. The next week, you start to read patch notes about armor and health nerfs. i just dont even care anymore. cant fight it any longer. MMOs wil just eventually become watered down. dont fool us anymore, just start naming games “Sameness 2012, Sameness 2013”. reading between the lines here i see the affect of “low gem sales” and “player grumbling” and NCSoft’s current cutthroat business stance.

funny but the guild i joined ran a forum poll after the first week of release… asking us to rate our favorite dungeons. Crucible of Eternity was #1 by 10 votes (out of 52). now everyone is talking “meh” on voicechat. why do dungeons have to be identical? huh? why couldnt CoE become known as “the dungeon with longer fights” or “the high armor and health” dungeon? do you have some analytic somewhere that says “ALL STORYMODE DUNGEONS MUST HAVE AVERAGE COMPLETION TIMES SO THAT LITTLE BILLY CAN BE DONE BY DINNERTIME”… seems like that..

i know there is other things about GW2 that set it apart from other games… and for that im happy and feel my money was well spent; it will keep me around for a few months i guess. but this doesnt bode well when a top Dev says “we’re firm about our design philosophy” and then flipflops with “heres a happy meal dungeon with a toy in it”.

so at level 80 cant we replay SE dungeon? thought this game was about removing barriers from helping guildees.. youve scaled me down already. and i was able to “replay” other dungeons but not SE? sup? i havent done any Story modes in the past 24 hrs. working as intended?

all other voice comm software works fine. my guild uses C3 so ive never experienced this problem until a PUG asked me to join their vent. but just as title states… i shutdown Vent, game sound comes instantly back. no problems with C3, mumble or Raidcall. just vent

win 7 64bit (fully updated)
ventrilo version 3.0.8
AMD 1100t @ 4.2
Creative Xtreme Gamer Soundcard (newest drivers)
AMD 6950
Corsair Force GT SSD

any tips? thanks!

Syrellaris.9125:

Solid State Drives are not really good for gaming, its like you say they Write and read a lot of the hard drive. of course, they gotten better but in the long run it will lessen the lifely hood of your SSD. Just not instantly lol. It takes a pretty long time. SSD’s are small because they are best suited for Heavy load programs, like Operating Systems and say Photoshop.

ignore this buffoon. he also believes in ancient aliens and santa claus