Guild Wars 2

Mad Rasputin.7809:

Leeching??

Taimi asks for first hand accounts of what is going on in Lion’s Arch. I’m doing the Living Story and bringing back first hand reports of all the action taking place in LA.

I will not stand for this harassment by other players and devs calling me a leech for doing the living story. I will report all harassment promptly.

It is okay to be doing other content in LA: exploring, getting vistas, map completion, rubble, etc. It is not okay to spend 45 minutes running into a wall while you do other things.

It is understandable that some people will need to AFK. If you need more than 10 minutes, the game should remove you from the event. Players who attempt to circumvent that rule should receive suspensions.

Malediktus.9250:

timmyf.1490:

Malediktus.9250:

Again. If they dont want people to leech the event they should just add a minimum participation or shorten the afk timer to 5min or something. If people circumvent the afk timer then I could see a problem, but with 60min timer noone is doing that.

The day they suspend me for afking without circumventing the afk timers is the day I will uninstall this game. Oh and I would make sure to ask for a refund for all the money I spent on this game in the last 6 months or whatever their refund rules are.

You could always just… you know… not leech.

Or I could just stand around in LA like I used to before the destruction. If Anet even rewards being afk – even better.

You, sir, are proof that achievement points mean very little.

Malediktus.9250:

Again. If they dont want people to leech the event they should just add a minimum participation or shorten the afk timer to 5min or something. If people circumvent the afk timer then I could see a problem, but with 60min timer noone is doing that.

The day they suspend me for afking without circumventing the afk timers is the day I will uninstall this game. Oh and I would make sure to ask for a refund for all the money I spent on this game in the last 6 months or whatever their refund rules are.

You could always just… you know… not leech.

I’m not sure whether you could get yourself in trouble for this, but I’d HIGHLY recommend not accepting the 30 silver from your guild-mate. That’s the most suspicious part. It could probably be cleared up after further investigation, but at the surface, it’s really fishy.

And it’s just 30 silver. That’s nothing. Return to Sender.

I’ve seen people AFK for the entire match in LA. Those people deserve more than a kick.

I loved some of the videos from way-back when that showed how you recorded certain sounds. The swinging fireball comes to mind. Any chance you’ll do more of those in the future or give us a tour of a VO session?

Instead of summaries, per se, what if Chris did something like this…

Topics/proposals that have seem to run their course:
<list with high-level “understanding” that was reached… e.g. Ranger sword autoattack is clunky and shouldn’t root you in place>

Topics/proposals that are interesting and could use more discussion:
<similar list as above>

Topics/proposals that aren’t being discussed that I’d like to introduce:
<list>

Instead of just giving us a “this is what you said,” it gives us closure on some items and provides a path forward for the next 3 pages (and beyond.)

Syhnz.4928:

Spvp…cause that’s pretty much the only aspect that’s still quite alive

…

stop leveling and do Spvp cause that’s the best social experience u can get from Gw2 now

This is exactly the opposite feeling that I have. (Sanctum of Rall)

As a side note, if anybody has an idea but wants some editing help or opinions on it before they post to the thread, I’d bet there’s tons of people (myself included) who would be willing to provide feedback.

I run some of my ideas through friends and guild members and find their feedback incredibly useful.

You’re welcome to PM me if you want my two cents.

Nike.2631:

Feel free to ignore me. Or to have a conversation as the mood strikes you. But get over the notion that you’re going to dictate terms to me on how I post.

Nike, don’t take this too personally, but I’d like to call you out on this – there’s this attitude that permeates these forums that is some variation of:

“DON’T TELL ME HOW TO X” – play, post, farm, etc.

While I understand your feelings (and tend to agree with you), it seems slightly aggressive and we’d all do well to give each other a bit of leeway and forgiveness. Otherwise we’ll just constantly be sniping at each other.

(The irony of this post does not escape me.)

That said, I agree with Nike – snipping posts to include just the relevant text can help keep the mess down. I didn’t know that you could just click the name to jump to the full post, that’s a cool feature, and thanks for pointing it out.

Zatoichi.1049:

titanlectro.5029:

“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction.”
-Albert Einstein

You might be thinking:
My ideas are so good and important, I NEED more than 200 words.

Instead we should all be challenging ourselves this way:
If my ideas are TRULY good and important, I should be able to say them in under 200 words.

my ideas involve specific weapon, trait, and skills changes, with proper rationale for everything. If I put all these proposed changes into one post, it would certainly exceed 200 words, by a lot, so I wont do that. Ill certainly break them up the best I can…

That being said, I applaud your optimism in supporting Anet’s proposed format for this topic, but at the same time, lets not ostracize those with well thought out, complex, lengthy and organized proposals, simply because it results in a “wall of text.” Anet is asking for specific, detailed responses, not floppy philosophical generalizations.

A proposal can be well-thought out, complex, and organized without being lengthy. The reason we’re concerned about length is because of the huge number of 3-4 posts in a row, wall of text, no whitespace stream-of-consciousness posts by many people in the CDI.

Also: (caps because it’s important) PROPOSALS DO NOT HAVE WORD LIMITS. (But spoiler tags if it’s reallllly long might be good.)

Responses to proposals, the discussion posts, are where word limits are being suggested.

Bubbles.8931:

Am I the first to get the Selfish Potion?

Bubbles.8931:

Selfish Potion?

Freudian slip?

I’m in favor of this format for proposals. I think it pushes people toward the right way to suggest ideas: general, non-specific ideas about how to improve the systems.

If we get into the habit of micro-suggesting changes (Ranger shortbow autoattack after-cast too long, reduce by 0.25s), the CDI will miss its intended goal, I think.

Remember that, between the idea, design, implementing, testing, and finalization phases, all the specifics change. If you spend hours writing up a super-specific plan, even if ArenaNet loves it, tons of stuff will change about it before it hits the game. Higher-level ideas are a better use of your time, the CDI participants time, and ArenaNet’s time.

(The above is my opinion and, I assume, will upset many people. I still think that it’s true.)

Yalora Istairiea.6287:

…snip

Suggestion: type up your suggestion in a word processing tool that can give you a word count.

Bonus: apparently many forum posters don’t have spellcheck in their browser, (not pointing fingers,) so this could help on the spelling/grammar as well.

Ah yes but word processing tools tend to change the formatting once you copy and paste into your forum text box.

Oh well it was just a thought, ignore it as you see fit

I’m not sure about all browsers, but in Chrome there’s a Paste as Plain Text option which helps sometimes.

Yalora Istairiea.6287:

Chris,

There are those of us (myself especially) who’s ideas on a subject tend to get very fleshed out in their description. And being restricted to 200 words presents a personal challenge.

Just to quantify. 200 words at an average of say 5 characters per word would make about 1000 characters per post. As I recall the limit on the forum for characters is ~5000. So posts maximum limit would only be about 1/5 the size of a standard forum limit.

Suggestion: Put a word counter along side of the text box so we can see how much space we have left to type, to close out our presentations.

Suggestion: type up your suggestion in a word processing tool that can give you a word count.

Bonus: apparently many forum posters don’t have spellcheck in their browser, (not pointing fingers,) so this could help on the spelling/grammar as well.

ZeftheWicked.3076:

Careful what you wish for there. You may say 150 words, but are you sure you want me to skip on things like:

• why am i proposing said change to a skill.
• what is wrong with it’s current version.
• it’s relation to other skill/trait/pet changes in my proposed ranger revamp.

Sure i can chop it up and have it refer to other posts, but it’s your choice to do this puzzle rather then have it all in one spot.

If the CDI thread moderator is unclear about any of the above, they could always just ask for more detail…

silvermember.8941:

sorudo.9054:

silvermember.8941:

Judge Banks.9018:

PSA Reminder In flat square mileage GW2 is Smaller than Vanilla WoW, Vanilla WoW is but a Grain of Sand in GW1.

Actually you are so wrong it is funny. The people that actualy care about this stuff
listed
vanilla WoW as 80 sq mi
guild wars 1 nightfall at 15k sq mi

Considering that guild wars 2 is bigger than all of guild wars 1. What you said is so ridiculous.

http://kotaku.com/5533787/its-not-the-size-of-the-game-world-but-how-you-use-it

actually, even with the Z , GW1 is still bigger then GW2.
you can only take half of EotN as Z, the rest is the same as proph.
so in a way GW2 is proph minus the fire isle, GW1 is still bigger.

Actually, according to colin. Guild wars 2 is bigger than all of guild wars 1. So I m going to take the word of colin over let’s say you.

Look, I’m done arguing with you. Here’s a map of just Tyria (the continent) with points from both games on it. http://zoom.it/vxe1

Ikorolch.8421:

I just love how people compare GW1 a game where you couldn’t venture out of a city with more than eight people, a game that is a fraction of the complexity that its successor is to GW2 which is larger and has way more moving parts than GW1 would ever have hoped for. Then you complain why Guild Wars 2 hasn’t received the same amount content, scratch that even more content in the same period of time.This just underlines the fact that people are extremely ignorant about game development. They do not understand that the bigger and more complex a game is, the longer it takes to develop content. Guild Wars 2 has been out for just over a year, it will get massive permanent content updates, or even an expansion. Give it time, and please don’t compare this game and its content to GW1 a game that was released in 2005.

I’m going to say this politely: I think you are confused. I am not a game developer, but I do have an engineering background. GW2 is almost certainly more complicated than GW1, but that does not mean it takes longer to develop content.

In reality, it probably takes longer to develop content because of choices that ArenaNet has made. Voice Over work takes forever. Text needs to be translated into 4 languages. Any artwork for the PC needs to fit 5 races (though some use the same mesh, so the work is likely reduced.) Textures must be in a higher resolution. etc.

That said, the live team for this game is considerably larger. The toolsets, if you listen to the teams themselves, are much better.

We can perhaps rephrase our criticism: it’s not the amount of content that is the problem necessarily, but the choice of content. It was a CHOICE for the Living World to consist of temporary events in existing zones. That was a design decision. The Living World could just have easily been “we will push north in the Shiverpeaks to open up new zones and a new permanent dungeon fight with Jormag.”

When people like myself – a huge fan of the game who is happy, plays daily, and spends real money on the gemstore – have complaints about content, it’s not QQing or raging or thinking ArenaNet can make miracles happen. What we’re complaining about is the CHOICE that player fragmentation is the #1 enemy and the LW should confine itself mostly to the zones we already have.

I think we’ve seen that people will zerg to the new content no matter where it is and leave most of the rest of the game empty, so why not give us some new places to go while we zerg around?

silvermember.8941:

Actually, i was right. Colin before release said guild wars 2 at release was bigger than ALL of guild wars 1.

So there. Read above for the link and proof.

Thanks for playing.

If Colin said that, I’m going to have to disagree with him. (I don’t see your link.)

To me, GW2 is roughly the size of GW1 after Factions came out. I think most of us just had higher expectations for the velocity of new content in GW2 and have been a bit disappointed that we haven’t gotten to explore more of the world.

I don’t think Penguin has attempted to join an overflow of the LA event yet.

Nat.4029:

timmyf.1490:

Nat.4029:

Asumita.2174:

timmyf.1490:

Does anybody else think it’s possible that they have a huge content addition sitting around and waiting for the releases of TESO/Wildstart/EQN and they’ll drop it at the same time to keep people around?

I get the feeling that they’re building something and just not talking about it.

That’s exactly what wow does, and it works. Expansion release around other prominent titles is like using heat to cook. No heat, you can’t cook, period.

It’s all a matter of when. Mists of Pandaria hit not long after GW2 launched right? And it was announced a good bit before that. If they are wanting something to hit when these new MMOs do, then they need to start announcing. And as far as Wildstar goes…isn’t it published by NCSoft? They aren’t going to let GW2 take away any of it’s glory.

Yeah, so this is a really good point. I would say this: boxed expansions require substantial notification and lead time because you have to get the boxes to retailers. Gem Store expansions would not require much lead time. Free expansions would not require much lead time.

Can you imagine if, the week before Wildstar and ESO hit, ArenaNet says “Boom. Travel to Elona unlocked next week. Enjoy.”

That would be amazingly awesome, but I put the probability of that happening at about .0000002%. Or the drop rate of a precursor.

You’re probably right. Of course, that’s also what we would have said about the probability of destroying Lion’s Arch three months ago.

I think they could do it in stages: we start off on Istan but can’t get to the mainland yet. We need to build up reinforcements, yada yada. A couple months later, we can head into the mainland, but we slowly, over 4-6 months, have to fight our way inland.

I know, I know, I’m dreaming… but they seriously could do this. If I can think of it, I’m sure they’ve thought about it…

Nat.4029:

Asumita.2174:

timmyf.1490:

Does anybody else think it’s possible that they have a huge content addition sitting around and waiting for the releases of TESO/Wildstart/EQN and they’ll drop it at the same time to keep people around?

I get the feeling that they’re building something and just not talking about it.

That’s exactly what wow does, and it works. Expansion release around other prominent titles is like using heat to cook. No heat, you can’t cook, period.

It’s all a matter of when. Mists of Pandaria hit not long after GW2 launched right? And it was announced a good bit before that. If they are wanting something to hit when these new MMOs do, then they need to start announcing. And as far as Wildstar goes…isn’t it published by NCSoft? They aren’t going to let GW2 take away any of it’s glory.

Yeah, so this is a really good point. I would say this: boxed expansions require substantial notification and lead time because you have to get the boxes to retailers. Gem Store expansions would not require much lead time. Free expansions would not require much lead time.

Can you imagine if, the week before Wildstar and ESO hit, ArenaNet says “Boom. Travel to Elona unlocked next week. Enjoy.”

Vol.7601:

timmyf.1490:

Just a reminder: I already gave you guys the solution earlier in the thread.

Show Spoiler

hide spoiler

Everybody: you can fix the problem with overflows without removing overflows. You do it the same way Personal Stories are kicked off. You have this option:
Join in Lion’s Arch (Overflow) <—- exists now
Instead of just saying the world is full, it pops up a new option: Invite Party to Overflow
This pops up a box (like the one for the Personal Story) that lets each party member accept an invite. Everybody who accepts is moved simultaneously to an overflow with room for them.
It’s not IMPOSSIBLE to solve. There are more than 2 options (overflows that split party and queues.) Be a little more creative here.

Sounds nice in theory but you are ignoring the repercussions from this. For one, each overflow acts as a server. The more servers, the more resources and costs involved. If you do not include a cap on the number of overflows that can be created, then this can be abused to bring down the game.

And we are also forgetting about the bots who would create their own private overflow. Out of sight = out of mind.

Nope! Let me elaborate: “Everybody who accepts is moved simultaneously to an overflow with room for them.”

Here’s the priority:

1. Existing overflows with room for party
2. New overflow created if #1 is not possible

This means that overflows will still fill up, people don’t create their own overflows. It just moves you to one with room. An overflow is only created if there are no overflows with room.

Just a reminder: I already gave you guys the solution earlier in the thread.

Will pay 800 gems for unlockable “Account Bag Slot.”

Rezz.8019:

It is very, very unlikely that all overflows were full. Unless you were there 10 minutes before the event finished…
If you are all there in time, there is no way that overflows would be full so fast. That’s how overflow maps work. So yeah… pay attention next time.

I went through the portal at the same time as my girlfriend. Immediately when we loaded, I tried to join on her. Full. Then she tried to join on me. Full.

The overflows were filling within 10-15 seconds of creation, as best as I can tell.

Does anybody else think it’s possible that they have a huge content addition sitting around and waiting for the releases of TESO/Wildstart/EQN and they’ll drop it at the same time to keep people around?

I get the feeling that they’re building something and just not talking about it.

Everybody: you can fix the problem with overflows without removing overflows. You do it the same way Personal Stories are kicked off. You have this option:

Join in Lion’s Arch (Overflow) <—- exists now

Instead of just saying the world is full, it pops up a new option: Invite Party to Overflow

This pops up a box (like the one for the Personal Story) that lets each party member accept an invite. Everybody who accepts is moved simultaneously to an overflow with room for them.

It’s not IMPOSSIBLE to solve. There are more than 2 options (overflows that split party and queues.) Be a little more creative here.

I don’t mind gem store armor. I’d actually like to buy some. I even like the concept/theme of the Zodiac armor.

But really with the boobs?

CharrGirl.7896:

I’m from Europe. I can currently afford to play bit later but I will wait till tomorrow for this update. It’s a little thing called patience. I don’t feel cheated or dissapointed. They took their time to polish the update so you all wouldn’t be kittening about bugs/lag etc.

CharrGirl, don’t you know these are FORUMS on the INTERNET and you can’t be this reasonable?

Look, I’m sorry to all of you in Europe who missed out on playing the patch tonight. That sucks. A lot. Seriously, I mean it. I’m super excited about this patch and waiting to play it is awful!

But saying a bunch of people are going to quit and how can we ever trust ArenaNet again? Yiiiiiikes.

Majic.4801:

timmyf.1490:

That’s CUT, not UCT! UCT is Uniformed Curling Time.

Only in Canada, the Friendliest State In America.™

I live in Atlanta and we have a curling league.

Curling: Not Just For Drunk Canadians!

Spiuk.8421:

Sitael.4680:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Sitael.4680:

Sure, the other poster meant the US but talked all the time about America, wich is not the same. The US is 21.133% of America’s and 1.887% of the World’s surface. ;-)

Yet America stands for 100% of the world’s hope for freedom.

Watch to the end pls.: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMqcLUqYqrs

Humor, how does it work?

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Zorby.8236:

I agree, that’s why all times should be given exclusively in UTC for anything international.

What is UTC? Is it like Pacific Standard Time?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinated_Universal_Time

That’s CUT, not UCT! UCT is Uniformed Curling Time.

This thread is solid gold. I hope ArenaNet comes out and sincerely apologizes that you had to wait MAYBE A WHOLE EXTRA DAY to play the free content that released AS MANY AS 6 HOURS late (based on the release schedule they never announced, but you assumed based on prior releases.)

I’m starting to think these forums are bad for my sanity.

Anyway, have fun! I have to wait for my girlfriend to get off work before I play the patch, so I get to keep waiting!

What does “afternoon” mean? “After” “noon?” Shouldn’t that be 12:01pm UDT-8? Wasn’t that over 90 minutes ago?

(I’m just having a laugh here. I’m shocked this thread is still open.)

Also, this may help: http://bit.ly/1kT5DvN

I think you might be reading too much into what the Massively writer said. From what I remember, the actual comment was more like, “We haven’t decided whether an expansion is the right way forward.”

Which could mean a lot of different things.

mercury ranique.2170:

I take time to make a build, and then I would like to use it.

<snip>

For those who didn’tplay GW1, in GW2 it would translate as follows:
Don’t use boons. Mallyx removes your boons and deal near-lethal damage
Don’t use conditions. Mallyx feast on it and fully heals himself to full health

This is a great example of why the CDI is so useful. It brings players together to talk about things that we might not have thought about alone. If use-the-build-you-want is the rule, then “don’t apply boons or conditions” rules out a huge variety of builds. Guardians would be totally left out, even on a direct damage build, because of virtues. Tons of traits have passive conditions on crit, so that’d make those players completely useless.

Anyway, as somebody who does Fractals occasionally, but would like to do them more (if just a few things were different), I’m very excited for this CDI. I’ll wait for the official thread to share my ideas. :-D

The CDI is a way for Anet to listen, not a way for them to explain or promise. The word “collaborative” was a poor choice. I’d say “community feedback initiative” would be a better choice.

Chris is quite clear in the rules to say that they make no promises and can’t talk about what they’re working on.

I think it’d be awesome if they hung out with us and chatted about the game, but that’s not what it is. That doesn’t mean it’s not useful.

At first I thought this was about mold.

Now that I know what you mean, yes. Please.

gidorah.4960:

i think i am mostly disappointed that you didnt keep your word about getting a redo on population balance for wvw as the next topic and are going to make players waste the next vote getting it to the top again.

“WvW: What aspects of Edge of The Mists do you think could carry over to the rest of WvW and how? "

You don’t think that the color-matching server-mixing that’s used in EOTM is an appropriate topic that could potentially address your concerns?

nethykins.7986:

Nike.2631:

nethykins.7986:

Genuine question: Anyone explain to me the reason for this thread if the discussion is to start at a later date?

The first post could have easily been the only post, and it be stickied.

Think of it as a dress rehearsal, or maybe the previews before the movie .

Ok. Just find that difficult to understand while chris is telling people not to go into detail.

I like that the topics are announced ahead of time, as it gives me some time to think about what I’d like to say ahead of the start of the discussion.

As far as people coming here, leaving a bunch of comments that don’t belong, and then going away… that’s been a hallmark of the CDI since the beginning… ;-)

This is a terrible idea.

The problem is with ArenaNet’s host, not their code. Posting lots of bug reports just inundates their support team and keeps them from being able to handle problems that are fixable.

Please. Please. Do not do this.

sirsquishy.8531:

timmyf.1490:

tracert

hide spoiler

Tracing route to 206-127-159-188.plaync.com [206.127.159.188]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms 1 ms <1 ms homeportal [192.168.1.254]
2 27 ms 21 ms 21 ms 76-240-24-2.lightspeed.tukrga.sbcglobal.net [76.
240.24.2]
3 * * * Request timed out.
4 * * * Request timed out.
5 * * * Request timed out.
6 24 ms 22 ms 23 ms 12.83.82.137
7 64 ms 104 ms 78 ms attga04jt.ip.att.net [12.122.84.113]
8 22 ms 21 ms 23 ms 192.205.36.122
9 128 ms 128 ms 128 ms xe-0-0-1.fra23.ip4.tinet.net [141.136.110.121]
10 127 ms 126 ms 126 ms 89.149.164.42
11 127 ms 126 ms 126 ms 206-127-157-86.plaync.com [206.127.157.86]
12 128 ms 127 ms 127 ms 206-127-157-102.plaync.com [206.127.157.102]
13 * * * Request timed out.
14 * * * Request timed out.
15 * * * Request timed out.
16 * * * Request timed out.
17 * * * Request timed out.
18 * * * Request timed out.
19 * * * Request timed out.
20 * * * Request timed out.
21 * * * Request timed out.
22 * * * Request timed out.
23 * * * Request timed out.
24 * * * Request timed out.
25 * * * Request timed out.
26 * * * Request timed out.
27 * * * Request timed out.
28 * * * Request timed out.
29 * * * Request timed out.
30 * * * Request timed out.

Well at least now I know that I’m not crazy. I’ve felt pretty lagged for awhile, but most of my guildies have been saying it’s not a problem for them. (Except for the huge disconnects, obviously.)

I don’t suppose there’s anything I can do?

6 24 ms 22 ms 23 ms 12.83.82.137
7 64 ms 104 ms 78 ms attga04jt.ip.att.net [12.122.84.113]

Since you have paths are are * and not resolving its hard to say if its your ISP or a path your ISP takes. Id call your ISP and get to an engineer and have them look at your tracert.

That’d be great… if I could get one on the phone. Uverse tried to shuffle me to their paid “premium support” folks instead. :-/

Well at least now I know that I’m not crazy. I’ve felt pretty lagged for awhile, but most of my guildies have been saying it’s not a problem for them. (Except for the huge disconnects, obviously.)

I don’t suppose there’s anything I can do?

Rym.1469:

Ladies and Gentleman and asuras, Let me introduce you a new Hero to fight by your side!
Wait for it…

TRAEHERNE!

Hero Skill

“On Me, Marshall!” Shout. Command Trahearne to stack on your location.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

maddoctor.2738:

You are forgeting the GW1 example… once people learn how to use these “heroes” better (provided they are as good as GW1 heroes) there won’t be any need for human players anymore. Everyone will be running the dungeons on his own with his favorite npc allies, how is that any good?

So make them on par with GW1 hench. People still pugged a plenty with those available. Of curse, even after heroes came out, there was still plenty of reason to at least partially pug. You couldn’t take 7 heroes.

I can only imagine what Marionette would be like if a half dozen (or more) players showed up with 4 Heroes each.

Please, no.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Xia.3485:

To the extreme of wanting NPC allies instead of talking to others in game? That’s kind of sad really.

It’s not necessarily that they don’t desire to talk to others. Some of us just prefer playing with NPCs. They don’t kitten at you, they don’t treat you like trash, they don’t randomly go afk, they don’t argue about how things should or shouldn’t be done, etc etc.

Some people just like to play solo. Doesn’t necessarily mean they aren’t social though. Although I’m sure there are plenty of people that are shy or have a hard time reaching out to other socially (ie socially awkward). That’s no reason to judge them so harshly.

There are plenty of communities where the poor behavior you’re citing isn’t tolerated. You just have to look for it.

Source: I run a guild this way. As best as I can, which is imperfect, but we all do our best.

1. Thing You Need To Know: the “Champ Train” is not how you play this game.

(You don’t know what I mean by this yet, but write a post-it for yourself. You’ll eventually find out, be confused, and maybe get it all wrong and hate the game.)

Yeah, FPS is fine, but I’ve had continually worsening (though intermittent) problems with skill lag and what seems like 100% dropped packets for 5-10 seconds at a time. I can run around, but nothing else is moving (except things that were running in a straight line keep going, I assume due to position prediction).

There have been several full server crashes.

Dungeons and Fractals – anything requiring dodging – is completely unplayable.

I just had a few friends come back after a long absence and they’re about to quit again due to the horrific lag.

Could we, at the very least, get an in-game representation of ping so we have an idea when this is happening? If I see my ping at 500-600ms, I might skip out on dungeons rather than join and get continually frustrated.

Also: if you guys are interested in having players help with some testing, I’d be happy to help in any way possible. I really just want my pre-January GW2 experience back.

A few quick points:

1) Yes, it gets better
2) You picked two of the hardest classes – Mesmer leveling is awful until about 40, Thief is incredibly squishy – I wouldn’t recommend either as a first class (Guardian all the way)
3) Ascalonian Catacombs Story Mode is unnaturally hard – I usually only go in when I’m level 50 or above
4) Most of the dungeons have simple mechanics once you learn them. The problem is that it’s hard to get in groups that will give you the time. I remember my first time in AC Story, we spent about 2 hours playing and never got past Adelbern. The trick is to find people who will teach you. I do “training runs” in my guild where we get on Vent and I explain all the mechanics as we go. Sometimes it’s easy things like “stack here, dodge when you see red circles” that you could maybe figure out on your own without too much trouble. Other times it’s things you might not know if somebody doesn’t specifically say: “when you get here, run left around this pole because there’s a big spawn of oozes if you go right.”

So my suggestion: find a guild with people who will take the time to help you level and help you learn the dungeons and you’ll enjoy the game much, much more.