Guild Wars 2

I read about 1/4 of this thread before posting this because I don’t want to spend THAT much time on this argument.

I’m probably going to be called a meta-hater, but I’m not. I don’t play zerks because it’s an answered question, and is therefore less interesting to me. As a player I want to explore the space of build options, and the least interesting part of that space is that which has already been most thoroughly explored/documented. I’m not someone who is gonna argue that my Condi Engi does as much DPS as he would if he was zerks, but I have finite in-game resources (time, laurels, gold, etc) and I’m more interested in spending my time figuring out what other builds are capable of. I’m more interested in approaching in-game content as a puzzle than I am in taking the so to speak ‘right answer’ and face-rolling. The game is eminently ’winnable’* without zerks, and I’m want to see how other builds fare, since anyone who has ever been in Lions Arch already knows how zerks fares.

I say all this because I imagine I’m not alone in this attitude. Note that, as I said first-off, this doesn’t mean I hate zerks. It makes perfect sense to me that sizable portion of the player-base only wants to play with the highest DPS build.

Also, saying all of this might set up my next point as unexpected: I would love it if there was an in game DPS meter. That way, while I’m exploring the possibility space of GW2 builds, I can gain some empirical knowledge about the builds I’m testing/interested in. From the perspective of implementation, there are a myriad of ways that they could make DPS un-ping-able. (i.e. when you do a DPS check the game could tell you your DPS by sending you mail, the body of which is unpingable). It doesn’t seem like it would be hard at all to keep other players from being able to find your DPS, but moreover that, why does it matter. Yes there are people who will kick you from a party for not wearing zerks, but but there are more people who won’t.

IDK, this is already more time than I wanted to spend on this.

tl:dr: even some people who don’t use zerks, the king of all builds, are interested in a DPS meter. Data is cool. Happy Wintersday season.

*by ‘winnable’ I mean you can experience all of the content. I have yet to beat lupi without zerks, but I willing to bet that even that is possible.

Okay, well where does the image come from then? Sorry if this is a dumb question, but my interest has been piqued

Where is that roof in game?

oh right! Character name: Finnegan Ferrous

417 if it’s open

toadstool.6184 (even though its on the left :P )

I’m not disappointed in the living story. My only issue with it is balance, and I assume it’s released without playtesting at scale (cause really how could they playtest it at scale) so it bad balance is something that seems forgivable to me; I Imagine that they’ll get better at balance as time goes on.

Somebody already mentioned my biggest reason for wanting an expansion-increased zone access. I love going to AC knowing that it is the same place I frequented with my GW1 monk; I like looking at the maps and comparing them because I think it’s cool how close they stuck to the original layouts. I want to see the Crystal Desert and the Maguuma Wastelands again; I want to see whats going on in Cantha and the Jade Sea, and what going on in Elona ~250 years since I last visited.

They could produce(?) and open these zones through Living Story content, but that would be a marked change from what they have been doing with the LS, so I don’t expect they will. Furthermore Elona is only suggested on the overworld map by the Elon river right now and Cantha is nowhere to be seen, as far as I can tell. :/

I will happily continue playing the game as is, but I would also happily throw my money at an opportunity to return to these zones.