Guild Wars 2

Yeah, it’s because of SweetFX/GemFX. Those do not work now, which sux.

Same here.

Yeah, 24/7 initializing.

My game is in never ending “Initializing” state.

Hmm i think you’re right, it’s Eir. I always was ok with Eir’s voice, but here it feels really out of place to me.

I watched stream of Stronghold from PAX and… AN, couldn’t you, i duuno, ask like Jennifer Hale maybe to do that voice? Because currently it’s just… some granny voice, it’s really awkward. Makes me cringe every time i hear this “they’re at our gate”… sounds like some granny android or something, really weird. Might be a minor thing, but imagine listening to this over and over and over again…. eww.

Saiyan.1704:

Lopez.7369:

Teckos.1305:

OMG the casters, not pointing on ROM stealing chief on forest, not even reacting to tage using shelter to completely negate the nade spam in choke point during the last game, come on ….

Yeah. I think the only reason you don’t see other people pointing this out is most people are used to the bad shoutcasting. I really wish someone stepped up and took it more seriously. It would make this game much more watchable in tournaments.

It’s just so strange how the shoutcasters literally never call out anything that happens in the actual fights. They didn’t say a word while Abjured was getting wiped off-point. Instead, they just call out things that everyone can see on the minimap or health bars, which don’t need to be clarified for viewers.

A lot of this has to do with the way Anet’s protocol works. They can’t just talk about anything.

We all know how much goes on in TPvP. They have to keep it generic and simple for those who either never played the game, or is new to it like most PvE players. People may not know about class specific skills too.

When there were big plays, we felt that through the shoutcasters. I thought they did a great job.

Come on now. That protocol doesn’t stop Blu from doing amazing job. Kaelaris is not 24/7 GW2 shoutcaster and he’s relatively new, so it’s understandable. But Jebro, no offense, it just… he doesn’t see a lot of things and it’s not rare that when he does see them he misinterprets them. I don’t want to be a kitten towards him, but that’s the way i see it.

First 3 games of 4-0 were absolutely incredible to watch. Congrats guys, well deserved.

Grouch+Kaelaris would be cool.

lorazcyk.8927:

What’s wrong with the sound effects?
Why not show skill floaters, Anet?

Nothing wrong with sound effects, it’s just more skills need to have them (distinct ones), i.e. steal, corrupt ench. etc. As for floaters, what adds clutter to the screen are over the top particles, floaters won’t hurt that much, perhaps i should clarify that not all skill should have floaters, just more or less important ones, obviously no need to indicate aa etc. The purpose of combat log and floaters is different. Purpose of combat log is to give you info post factum, purpose of floaters is to provide you and viewers with info during fights themselves, shift mind games from aspect of guessing and assuming to more informed decision making.

Hopefully camera thing will be fixed on March 10. \o/

Smart thing would be to ask for support builds to be viable, because this will open up gameplay options for players, to choose a role and a different style of playing the game, this will bring a lot to GW2, bring some nice variety. Condi dps? It’s still just a dps and it won’t be even that much different mechanically from power builds in how you play it in PvE. It will only bring more problems in balancing for PvP.

It’s not a secret that this game often looks very hectic not only for players, but for viewers as well, probably for viewers especially. This hurts GW2 and it’s community on many levels, such as general PvP potential of this game, enjoyment from everyday gameplay for every players etc. There are certain things AN can do about it. It’s not hard to figure out what things are those, all you need to do is to look at GW2’s predecessor — Guild Wars. That game was nearly flawless at how well presented it’s combat was and how readable it was for everyone, be it a spectator or a player. Why is that? I see multiple reasons for that.

1. Cleaner, neater and overall better particle system. Barely anything was over the top, there wasn’t any clutter on the screen.

2. In addition to visual animations and tells many skills, and probably all key skills, had sound tells and effects attached to them. It’s been a long time since in played GW1, but i don’t have any problem whatsoever in recalling the sound of a monk using Guardian or Patient Spirit, or Protective Spirit and animations associated with those spells, or the sound of mesmer’s Power Block, or ranger’s Savage Shot. There are many more examples, those are just few poped into my head just now.

3. Last, but not least, the skill floaters. In GW1 you could tell that Energy Surge was used on you not just from your mana being drained, but also from a very distinct skill icon floater appearing above your character. Just imagine how much easier it would be for new people to understand what is going on in PvP if they could see such floater icons for skills in GW2, how much faster they will learn, how much faster they will be able to build associations during fight: how each class looks like skill-wise, what it’s capable of etc.

Imagine how much clearer and easier to read combat would become for players and viewers (especially those who are not all that familiar with every aspect of GW2’s PvP), for spectators and shoutcasters, if GW2 had all those things: sound and visual tells, skill floaters, proper particle system.

Now, personally i’am very skeptical that AN will and can fix #1 here — their particle system, clean it up and tone it down. But they certainly could work on #2 and #3, and that would improve everyone’s experience with this game by a lot.

I feel underwhelmed that this new PvP mode etc. turns out to be just one new map thrown in into current map rotation. After announcement i thought it’s gonna be a stand alone game type with 3-4 maps in it. But noooo… The more you think about what’s been announced, the more it feels… smallish i would say, especially considering it’s unknown when it’s gonna be released. But for real, it’s too early for conclusions, we’ll see.

Well, if it’s like a Vinewrath, then i don’t know since when VW can be considered a challenge. Marionette was way better in that regard, due to a none zerg phase in it, where individual skill of players who went in actually mattered. That was the beauty of Marionette fight. VW is a faceroll, even Tequatl have more interesting design and bigger chance to fail if someone kittens up.

Doubt that, they would’ve mention that. Sure it would be great though. I always felt sad that Orr didn’t look more like Arah explorable.

Sniper’s not so hot. Now, thief with a greatsword called… i don’t know ninja or whatever, that would be cool.

It’s not just you, there were topics about this problem before. I dunno what the kitten’s up with designers at AN, but they have some quiet annoying fixation. Every sword is fugly stick or club, every greatsword is a surfboard, i can add that every scepter looks more like a mace than a scepter. Everything is huge, everything have funny shape etc., etc. There are so many skins in the game, yet, there are so few decent ones. For sword it’s probably not more than 3.

Mo Mo.1947:

Why do you think there’s been a large dedicated crew working on HoT since the game’s release?

Well, i don’t actually. I have no idea if team working on HoT was large and if they’ve been working ~since release etc. I’am just playing along with this opinion shared by some people that AN must have been working on it for a long time, particularly WP made this point in one of his videos, like some of the devs with big names been silent for a long time (since release basically etc.) For real, who knows, maybe they started to really work on it just, let’s say, a year ago. As for the size, when you think about conventional expansion, it just dwarfs in scope and size what have been released for GW2 during first year, so i dunno how it could affected the expansion development if they then managed to develop S2 and HoT simultaneously, again, doesn’t make sense to me.

Sarie.1630:

Half a year would be moving “fast” since, if I understand correctly, this expansion has been in the works almost since the base game’s release?

Look at it from another angle. If it’s in the works almost since GW2’s release, that means it’s been in development for 2,5 years now, almost. This gotta be something epic scale then, like GW2,5 or something. Did it sound or looked epic in presentation, after dust settled down and wow effect’s gone? Hardly. So i dunno, another half a year (actually more, if you count from now) for what exactly? Whole games being developed in that time frame, so no, another 6 months wait doesn’t make any sense to me. OR. They just haven’t been working all that long on it after all. So, we will see, i really hope it’s April-May, otherwise it’s a major WTF, unless it’s something of epiciest scale, which, for now, it doesn’t look like that.

The demo is in 6 weeks, after that beta will start. Colin or Mike (sorry, i don’t remember which one exactly) said that things will start moving fast after the PAX East (where the demo will be available to play in 6 weeks). Half a year after the demo is not “moving fast”, it’s very super kittening SLOW, especially considering it’s gonna be 3 years by then. And they’ve worked on it for so long now, they said. So, no, none of this mambo jumbo with dates makes any sense to me.

Well, OP might be right about no new dungeons. At least that’s what i gathered from interview for MMORPG.com. Plus that “map” from another interview is peculiar. Maybe Colin just misspoke, or do they really going into expansion with a single map in it? Lol, hard to believe, but who knows really, they’re very vague, as always, dodging every question as hard as they can. Business as usual.

As i suspected masteries gonna be an analogue to GW1’s faction/reputation PvE skills, where you needed to grind certain content of the game to get those skills, and then more grind to make them powerful enough for you to use em then in another content, some elite area. In GW1 it was, i.e., Lightbringer skills for DoA, or Norn skills for UW etc. Is it exciting or not, decide for yourself, i personally always thought it was boring crap back in GW1, but here it’s gonna depend on how it will be implemented, through what kind of content etc.

Belenwyn.8674:

It will not be a traditional expansion. It will be an episodic expansion mainly based on the LW concept. Since this expansion concept is very important for Arenanet and they want to promote it intensively they registered the logo and the title for merchandising. At the beginning “Heart of the Thorns” will monetized via gem store. There will be heavy discounts for people logging in at the right time. After everything is released Arenanet will sell boxes where all features are bundled. There will also be collector’s editions with additional perks.

I really hope you are wrong, but unfortunately i have to agree that it’s the most probable scenario here.

What Blackwyn said. I heard it’s even worse now than what HJ used to be. I guess all the normal people who wanted to play and who before were enduring HJ, because they thought soloQ was too hardcore for them or whatever, they now play in unranked, so only scum of the GW2 left in practice now. So i guess it’s a complete dump now.

Personally i really hope it’s gonna be a paid one, which will hopefully mean it’s a proper one: big, traditional expansion. Because if it’s free then it’s probably gonna be a smaller one.

Jahroots.6791:

wasted.6817:

I wonder why AN continues to make those fugly, yet well done, skins which barely anyone uses?

It’s mainly the method of acquisition and subsequent cost that restricts people from using the BLTC skins.

I agree. However, the same method of acquisition and subsequent cost doesn’t stop people from using, let’s say, chaos skins.

I wonder why AN continues to make those fugly, yet well done, skins which barely anyone uses? How many people using karka (screlit or whatever, black kitten dropping ones) weapons, or those thistle or how the called from tower of nightmares? How many people will use this mordrem crap? How many people can like a crap like that? Yet we really could use classy, elegant weapons, there are so, so few of them in GW2. Barely any decent greatsword or sword skins available, every scepter looks like a kittening mace — huge, every greatsword looks like a kittening surfboard, every sword looks like some weird fugly stick of uknown purpose. SIGH.

Decided to try d/d ele again, after a year+ break, used to be somewhat ok, now i’am crap. xD Guide really helped to get back into it, thanks a lot man.

It is working as intended, but imo what’s intended here is wrong. There should be a threshold, map should qualify for roulette first by scoring minimal number of votes. Thats how voting usually works.

Make a minimal number of votes required for map to be in voting pull. Right now one troll can kitten up 9 ppl, this is silly.

I basically do things i don’t mind doing anyway. Win some games in PvP as this or that? Don’t mind if i do. Extra rewards are nice. Etc. And whatever i’am not doing, i’am still not doing. Haven’t done a single WvW daily so far, not planning either. It’s a great system for me.

I dunno, compared to such shops in other games like WoW, AA, Tera, shop in GW2 certainly is NOT lacking anything at all, quiet opposite actually, it’s far ahead of those in other games. They’ve been focusing on it quiet hard lately, you know.

If that’s true then i guess i was super unlucky or something.

I just had around 8 consecutive losses because i was teamed up with people who are completely oblivious to the general concepts of Conquest mode. Going to cap one node with 3 people, running like bots into one single node fortified with turret engi time after time again, just to die there, constantly going for animal on forest every single time it spawns etc. etc. etc., not to mention ridiculous crap some of the people were running, it’s really frustrating. All because i went on power ranger to complete a daily, and i don’t play ranger and there’s no way a power ranger can carry anything ever. I never had such horrible luck before. It’s not that hard to catch up on class mechanics even if you’re generally not playing this class often, there’s no need to put people into the dump with terribads just because of that. It’s not “giving us time and experience to adapt to new class”, it’s just kittening wasting our nerve cells, plain and simple.

So what i’am aiming at is: make class mmr less impactful, or whatever the word is.

It’s a new episode, give them time, maybe they will make fractals out of it. They made MF and Aetherblade fractals that way. Except, both MF and AB already had solid mechanics in them, while GL and Laby don’t have such mechanics, they will require some significant additional work done.

While i agree that it’s rather strange that they decided to go for yet another re-iteration of the daily system while there are some glaring issues in this game, there’s no way in hell i want to go back to the old system after trying this new one. For me it’s like day and night. Interesting, versatile rewards, i love the PvP ones, no more stupid kitten boring activities like 10 revives or 15 dodges, or condi cleanse/apply and if i cba to play i can just skip it all without looking back. So in my book it’s a job well done.

Why not let us salvage em for FotM asc. mats.

Bloodstealer.5978:

I bet doctors and nurses are loving ANET for keeping them gainfully employed dealing with RSS.

Exactly. I forgot to mention that. On top of everything it’s also unhealthy.

Really. There’s another topic, where people discuss why AN thinks that RNG is fun. I want to point out another problem: why AN thinks that gameplay where you have to stand and perform 334456056769 mouse clicks is fun.

Just take a look at wintersday boxes. You open a box, you get 223354 more boxes. Really? You open those boxes as well, you get tons upon tons of crap most of which you have to manage manually one way or another, which means more clicking.

I just found myself going for this: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Essence_of_Time It requires 20 of this: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Amalgamated_Gemstone To get those you have to stand in front of MF and click, click, click…. And i just thought that i’am so, so tired of this.

Now, if it was like every once in a while that wouldn’t be a problem. But that’s not the case unfortunately. Have you ever noticed how absolutely OVERLOADED GW2’s loot table with INSANE amount of crap? Greys, whites, blues, greens, mats, badges, crests, keys etc., etc. Sometimes i really feel that 70% of time i spend in GW2 are spent on managing this crap. Selling, salvaging, destorying, banking, forging. Click, click, click, click…. Jesus Christ. I have yet to see another MMO out there with such a horribly designed loot table. Absolutely HORRIBLY. Crap Wars 2.

I understand that such thing as loot table can’t be fixed at this point. But AN, PLEASE, can we stop with this idiotic philosophy of overloading this game with all kinds of items? Can’t you think of more elegant ways to design your rewards and loot? Thank you.

I can agree with some of what OP mentioned, most of it however overly exaggerated, like World Bosses and Megaserver. Megaserver was a necessary evil, i don’t really see the point in complaining about it. And all that crap about feeling like a free hero. Just, please. Hero who toggles #1 and alt tabs during oh so heroic WB fights, that’s how they used to be and some of them still are.

I completely disagree, however, on achievements part. Here’s the counter example of how new achieves allow me to play how i want. Usually during Teq fight i prefer to man a turret, for various reasons, but because of old achieves system i always felt forced to not to and to go do something else instead, something that would help me complete said achieves, because there’s a daily laurel pressure behind those achieves. With new system it’s not the case anymore, i can do whatever the kitten i want. And if i don’t want to complete them at all — i can, there’s no laurel pressure anymore. There’s no kind of pressure behind achieves anymore, except for the puny 10 ap which i don’t give a flying kitten about.

Re-decorations are minimal, i agree, it can be somewhat disappointing. But if you remember re-decorations in LA weren’t exactly state of art either, same crap as in DR, decently done main plaza (don’t remember the name) and rest are those stupid ra… asuran machines poring a little bit of snow. Couldn’t that big kitten golem air ship drop some effing snow for us? Meh. Such poor imagination, dem people .

The fix i need is the ability to kitten this piece of junk. It was a funny npc, it became a nightmarish backpack.

About those cannons, keep in mind that it takes time for projectiles to reach the impact zone, so if you’re far away from cannon (the ledge, right after first present boxes part) you should wait a little before dodge, but if you’re near the cannon, right before last present boxes part, you either should dodge immediately or just wait outside of the impact area a little. And on last present boxes part try to stick with large blue boxes and candy canes. Also keep an eye on Snowmans, they can blow you out, pass when the wind is not blowing.

It’s super easy really, you can get unlucky every now and then, but unless you suck at JP in general, which happens, there’s nothing hard about it.

Race: Norn
Class: Warrior
Sex: Female
Weapon: in my experience any one-handed weapon when stowed
Armor: Phalanx Armor from gem store

The issue is pretty much self explanatory from screenshots. Any of the one-handed weapons i was able to test are sort of hanging in the air when stowed. This issue is also present with pirate outfit. I included the screenshot of my character’s body type, just in case, maybe this issue might not be present with another body type.

So, do you folks plan to extend this feature to other modes in PvP (unranked etc.)? Thanks.

Rylen.2147:

I can’t see this happening in PvE. What do expect will happen? You get a zerker staff of bloodlust or night, set to build, then salvage and sell sigil? The only was that this could work is a “deposit” of your armor and weapons. But +(over 9,000) for PvP builds!!!

It loads up template, but notifies you that some of the template’s elements/parts/whatever couldn’t be found. It’s not like it’s inventing a bicycle, it’s been done in other games ages ago.

As far as i understand, people who were login in just for the daylies will be doing same for log in rewards, it’s even likely that those people were the target audience of log in rewards for AN. And people who actually play the game will be getting the new daily achieves system. Afaics it’s a win/win. I will reserve my judgement for future to see how it actually implemented and how it plays out, but for now i don’t see a problem. Perhaps daily achieves actually might become part of content after that, something you can do in game, instead of essentially being a log in rewards as of now.

You should change topic’s title to better reflect what’s it all about. Overall i agree, it’s a bit strange that they went for this third(!) achieves system rehash while some of the essential features are still not in the game. Maybe template manager is just much more complicated and time consuming task compared to this rehash, who knows.

PS. How long it took them to implement the tiny feature of different commander tag colors? (and how grotesque was the presentation of this to the community) And how long it took them to implement a mail carrier models feature. Them priorities.

Frankly, to completely fix this they will need to do a complete remake of the whole system, which is obviously not gonna happen. Because, it’s not only about control of how many particles we see, it’s also the fact that the size of those particles depends on the size of the mob/boss/player model, so it’ also an engine’s issue/feature. But the most important factor is art style. They went for this muddy, sort of watercolor painting stylization and it turned out to be a very bad decision in case of particles, the particles are quiet greasy themselves just because of the style, but when it’s also combined with quantity and size of them, and most importantly when polish all that kittening kitten with bloom from post processing… well you get exactly that kittening nightmare we currently have in this game.

Have i heard “wealth of content” here?