Guild Wars 2

Rennie.6750:

Benjamin Arnold.3457:

Viirastra is innocent and playful, and literally thinks she is playing a game with the players, so marbles made thematic sense. Plus, the marble mechanic combines perfectly with the SAS skill, which brings the joy of movement in this fight to an entirely new level.

Joy of movement? Are we talking about the same content? Do you guys ever look at your metrics? Because from what I can tell using the LFG tool every day what people like is first daily rewards then when it comes to replay value, the most straightforward “click this, kill that” ones with simple bosses win hands down.

Ehh i like something that can keep me engaged if i wonna have extra play time outside of dailies. Which i dont because replayability value outside of frac 40 is bad.

Fractured.3928:

zealex.9410:

Fractured.3928:

Honestly I kinda agree with OP. Maps and story shouldn’t be locked behind a paywall like that. Even more so, that they are locked behind ANOTHER paywall (HoT).

Arenanet is making bank off of microtransactions too, so the whole “They need money to make content”. They are making plenty of money, they just want to make more. Not only that, but for a full priced Expansion, HoT probably had the least content out of any MMO expansion I’ve seen, by a lot.

However, since if you’re actively playing when the story releases, it is free. I can’t really get up on a soap box and complain about it.

Meanwhile ff14 is an mmo with a sub fee and a cashshop. Also Morrowind says hi to your least content expac arguement.

EDIT: Why shouldnt gw2 do it? Lock content/ story behind paywalls? WoW does it Ff14 does it Eso doe it.

Discluding expansions (Which we are talking about content outside of expans), FF14 didn’t lock any content behind a paywall as far as I’m aware, could be wrong. And I know for a fact WoW doesn’t.

ESO I played for about a week, so I can’t say anything. Also, of course Morrowind was crap. Did everyone forget about ESO’s launch, or what? The company is sleazy.

---

Also, it’s a fact that Microtransactions make more money than subs. Hence why so many more companies are going that route. Just look around, and see all the cash bought items. How many unbound tools alone I see. How much are those? Around $40 USD? That alone is an expansion price.

Let alone all the outfits, bag slots, character slots, dyes, minis, makeup kits, etc that people dump loads on.

I’m not saying its wrong, just saying. They aren’t exactly poor.

Mircotransactions dont always make more money. Also, how isnt wow content locked behind a pay wall? I bouth legion 2 months ago and now im trying to log in and play the new stuff but it wont let me. Say i need to renew my subscription.

Randulf.7614:

Fractured.3928:

Honestly I kinda agree with OP. Maps and story shouldn’t be locked behind a paywall like that. Even more so, that they are locked behind ANOTHER paywall (HoT).

Arenanet is making bank off of microtransactions too, so the whole “They need money to make content”. They are making plenty of money, they just want to make more. Not only that, but for a full priced Expansion, HoT probably had the least content out of any MMO expansion I’ve seen, by a lot.

However, since if you’re actively playing when the story releases, it is free. I can’t really get up on a soap box and complain about it.

I would be surprised if micro transactions cover every expense, especially given that since HoT we have had a steady and constant stream of content and that looks to be continuing. I’m not a big fan of the LS model as I find it inhibits recommending to friends who would mostly only play for story, but I’m also uncertain of a better solution, given that fully free is not one of those and you can buy with in game currency (gold-gems).

As for the size of HoT, yes content wise it was smaller than hoped, but it nowhere near comes close to bottom of the pile. I’ve seen vastly smaller ones in other MMO’s like Lotro and some Funcom games. Sure it doesn’t match the big ones I imagine WoW, FF14 and prob TESO put out, but it did have a strong replay value, given 2 years on those maps are well sustained.

Hot was as big uf not bigger than Morrowind.

Fractured.3928:

Honestly I kinda agree with OP. Maps and story shouldn’t be locked behind a paywall like that. Even more so, that they are locked behind ANOTHER paywall (HoT).

Arenanet is making bank off of microtransactions too, so the whole “They need money to make content”. They are making plenty of money, they just want to make more. Not only that, but for a full priced Expansion, HoT probably had the least content out of any MMO expansion I’ve seen, by a lot.

However, since if you’re actively playing when the story releases, it is free. I can’t really get up on a soap box and complain about it.

Meanwhile ff14 is an mmo with a sub fee and a cashshop. Also Morrowind says hi to your least content expac arguement.

EDIT: Why shouldnt gw2 do it? Lock content/ story behind paywalls? WoW does it Ff14 does it Eso doe it.

Menadena.7482:

Even though I already have S3 unlocked I would LOVE to see them open up those zones to everyone at some point after they have been in the game (maybe when S4 releases say). If you want to do the story you still will have to pay but it will keep the zones active and some of the people that it brings it will buy the story because they like the zone. Meanwhile people who previously unlocked it will have gotten their enjoyment from it and moved on to the current content.

Saying it is part of HOT is a cop-out. LS stuff should be treated like silverwastes and drytop and made core regions as far as access.

Oh so i should have been able to play sylverwastes and drytop without buying the base game when it was still p2p. Thats what you are saying no?

ProtoGunner.4953:

I agree that it is marketing wise a bad idea to let you pay 50-90€ and then they ask again for money. At least you have the option to use in game gold to turn to gems.

Why?

eldrjth.7384:

I agree completely with the OP. I recently returned to GW2 after taking a 5yr break to see if it was worth playing again. I thought I needed to get the lastest expansion just to get an accurate indication of where the game was at now and if PoF would be worth it. It would ATLEAST give me access to all areas/specialisation I needed was the thought process. As a returning player I didnt do too much in terms of research before buying HoT. Why? because could simply go and see for myself after I bought the expansion, and to my surprise I got bitten by that approach. I would never have bought HoT if I knew I would still miss out on potentially important areas of the game (that were for Free for a limited time but cost extra now?!?), or pay extra.

This is an mmo where efficiency matters so having access to be all areas is important and having this information obscured seems misleading to buyers and for meagre financial gain. If they make the new maps accessible at least then I wouldnt have much issues with it cause I dislike the story anyways.

The maps are the biggest part of this “dlc”. Dlc being lw the maps are what give the replayability value the episodes have right now. Should anet have it on a big panel to purchase with your expac for an increased price? Sure but having the importand stuff free? Then why should i even buy it.

draxynnic.3719:

zealex.9410:

Yeah the ending waant bad the only thing that it suffered from was that neither shining blades nor the whole lazarus/ balth thing had time to bake. Rhh w/e we HAD to have a braham episode as it help the overall story so much.

Eh. Episode 3 was probably my least favourite episode of the six, but if we didn’t have any indication of what was happening with Braham until S4, people would be asking until we did. What they’ve basically done is put him on a bus until they decide to come back to him, but at least we know he’s on a bus.

Would have been nice if we could have checked in with Zojja as well…

Braham be like " hey boss i want some time to think things through and decide what i want to do from now on". There u dont kitten an entire season and the character gets a break.

sokeenoppa.5384:

IMO every1 should pay for lws1,2 and3. More money to anet, More content faster ^^

Yeah should have been like this from the start. Paid Dlc with a season pass for who ever wants that. More money to anet more content in the game.

Ohoni.6057:

I actually think what they could do is allow players onto the new maps even if they don’t have the chapter unlocked, but don’t allow them to unlock the mastery or the unique mechanics for that map, which would make it much less fun. Yeah, you could whip around Draconis Mons if you like, but with no grapple vine? Or Bloodstone Fen without the glider skills? Or Ember Bay without the Lava Tubes? Siren’s Landing without the Shrine portals?

I tend to think that playing those maps, without those travel methods available to you, would really get people excited about actually buying them.

The only reason to revisit the nap are the currencies/ asc trinkets. If you give them that for free then it defeats the purpose of having to pay for the full exp.

eldrjth.7384:

You forgot to add that if you payed the $50 launch price you got to play the game for 2yrs more, which is of course a big deal. Those late to the game will have less play time on a older title that is why to attract buyers prices have to be driven down. But this living world ‘fee’ feels like a bit of bait then add on cost after for new/returning players esp since guys who logged in earlier got it for no extra cost. A game marketed as Free-to-Play with the only major component cost being the expansions. It seems a little underhanded and deceptive and is not something you want to do when you want to attract new comers.

The base price of the box would have to be higher to copensate for it. No mmo does free story and content updates like this without a paywall being somewhere.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

There’s a couple of different ways to look at this:

ANet’s Point of View

• ANet needs to pay for new content, so they charge a nominal amount for LS chapters, $US10 max (for all chapters & maps in LS3), same as the cost of a new character.
• To make the cost more attractive, the maps are also gated (along with different local map currencies that offer various benefits).
• ANet would like to reward loyal players and one way they can do so is by making the LS chapters free for those who logon just once during the release period.

New Player PoV
For a new player, it can be difficult to see the logic: “I bought the game, why don’t I get the entire game?” And to be fair: the distinction is a bit arbitrary.

On the other hand, when you buy either HoT or PoF from ANet, it’s made clear that there’s an extra cost for the LS.

Alternatives to Charging for LS & Maps
The alternative is that ANet charges more for the base cost of the expacs — that doesn’t go down well with veterans, who probably spend the most RL money on gems, one of the major sources of revenue for the game.

---

In the end, ANet needs to accept that they are going to alienate a few people by gating maps behind the LS (& its costs). At the same time, players are going to have to accept that ANet is a business — they have to charge for more things than we’d like.

Anet could put a season pass option when you purchase an expac. As you said 10 USD for the lw as well. It can be a pop up window when you go putchase the expac.

Sylent.3165:

So I just discovered from a friend they can’t access any of the ls3 maps because they don’t have the chapters unlocked???

It makes 0 sense to block each map behind a paywall for new or returning players. I 100% Understand blocking the actual story behind the wall but if I was a returning player to a buy to play game and found out hot which I purchased didn’t give me the new maps I most likely wouldn’t buy them but I’d be more inclined if I enjoyed the maps and wanted to know the story there.

But seriously it’s like making dry top and Silverwastes cost money if you didn’t log in during the time.

I’m sorry anet but that’s really messed up actually in my opinion.

Who knows though maybe my friend just can’t figure out how to get to the map and is wrong but if not I’m a sad player you’d do this

Its a buy to play game not a subscription one. Dont expect everything to be handed out for free. Besides for the map/ story the price is low and they uped the time that you can get it for free to like up to 2-3 months.

Feanor.2358:

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

Feanor.2358:

Mitch.4781:

100cm is longer and tougher than nightmare by a considerable margin.

No it isn’t.

You’re comparing your experience with a fractal that has been around for almost an year with one that has been around for about a month. Give people time to master it. They already started doing it, by the way. I remember my own first try at Shattered CM, which seemed impossibly hard. Last night the group I was in cleared it in a comparable time to the 99 cm we played just after it. Give it a few more months so more people can learn the mechanics and the gameplay experience in an average group will become much smoother and quicker, just like it did with Nightmare CM.

Going to have to strongly disagree here. CM100 has a lot more going for it than just a lack of familiarity. The amount of ambient damage that Artsariiv puts out is incredible, the amount of unavoidable damage Arkk has is substantial, and the variety of instant death mechanics you have to juggle means a single misstep quickly snowballs into full blown failure. In the Nightmare fractal, there is nothing harder than dodging the massively telegraphed single attacks one at a time.

Sure, at Artsariiv there are a lot of AOEs around, but if you cleave the adds and stack on the boss they don’t really amount to anything. The druid will easily outheal these.

Snowballing at Arkk is also a failure to do mechanics, not something that always happens. Eat the balls properly, focus the anomaly, use Hypernova Launch when needed and there really is nothing to snowball. I can agree that if you don’t control the encounter it gets chaotic much quicker. But if you do – and you can – it’s pretty much the same. Massively telegraphed attacks that you can easily dodge. True, sometimes they overlap. But you get the completely overpowered Hypernova Launch in exchange, so I’d say it’s not really any different in terms of overall difficulty. You’re free to disagree with me, but let’s wait a couple more months and see, shall we?

A guild did a witten guide on 100cm and a dev not sure if it was Ben or somebody else told them that there were changes coming. So id take that as “rip w8ing some months, its getting nerfed soon”

bugs

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

Unless there has been some drastic, hidden changes, then no, Anet will not fix the Mirage. Our fears have come true.

“drastic” care to give an example?

thrag.9740:

Benjamin Arnold.3457:

We aren’t happy with how the length of Shattered Observatory ended up either. It ended up being out of whack with the standard fractal experience for most players. We are taking a lot of things into consideration for the next fractal.

As far as non-cm, t4 goes, I don’t think it is too far off. If you did the following I think it would be pretty comparable to nightmare, and as long as it only comes up in daily rotation with some shorter fractals it would be consistent.

-modify boss 1 so that after the islands phase, his break bar is always up and ready to be broken. It seems the breakbar doesn’t recharge during the islands phase.
-remove trash mobs between bosses 1 and 2.
-speed up unlocking the door for boss 3 after killing boss 2. The NPC is too slow. Same for opening the door to boss 2.
-arc: I think you should standardize orbs phase to happen based off hp %,. at the same percentage every time.

Yeah i can see the npc being abit slow same with 99 base but idk how you will keep the lore importance if you speed them up or make the skippable entirely.

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

Feanor.2358:

Mitch.4781:

100cm is longer and tougher than nightmare by a considerable margin.

No it isn’t.

You’re comparing your experience with a fractal that has been around for almost an year with one that has been around for about a month. Give people time to master it. They already started doing it, by the way. I remember my own first try at Shattered CM, which seemed impossibly hard. Last night the group I was in cleared it in a comparable time to the 99 cm we played just after it. Give it a few more months so more people can learn the mechanics and the gameplay experience in an average group will become much smoother and quicker, just like it did with Nightmare CM.

Going to have to strongly disagree here. CM100 has a lot more going for it than just a lack of familiarity. The amount of ambient damage that Artsariiv puts out is incredible, the amount of unavoidable damage Arkk has is substantial, and the variety of instant death mechanics you have to juggle means a single misstep quickly snowballs into full blown failure. In the Nightmare fractal, there is nothing harder than dodging the massively telegraphed single attacks one at a time.

The only amount of inavoidable amount of dmg arkk has on cm are the green circles and on 40% the aoe the gladietor does. Everything else and i do mean EVERYTHING can be avoided.

Ok this fractl requires your focus for more than one attack every 7 or so sec. What about it? Is that bad? Im not saying nightmare was bad but if cms were on that lvl only it would just be boring. That said i dont think constandly upping it is good either 100cm as it is now is a fine ground for cm to be for a while until the over all community thats interested in cms gets to that point.

The second boss because almost a joke if you jump over the ground aoes and it basically devolves into “kill the big adds do the marble”.

Unknown.3976:

Ithilwen.1529:

Did Mirage get any rework? Please post the class changes, if any.

It’s way too late to rework an entire spec, at most, you would only see some tweaking of parameters. Case in point: HoT elite specs, there were some changes in the final product (as compared to the hoT beta) but those changes were mostly bug fixes and there were some trait adjustments.

Nor does mirage need one.

OriOri.8724:

Benjamin Arnold.3457:

Mitch.4781:

Well I’ve done 100, but the incentive to do the torture that is 100cm till completion isn’t there. It simply isn’t fun. It’s hilarious that 100cm is actually harder and more frustrating than ANY of the raid bosses. What happened to the stepping stone? Apart from anything else, the entire fractal takes forever. If this is the way fractals will be going in the future, I’ll avoid them.

We aren’t happy with how the length of Shattered Observatory ended up either. It ended up being out of whack with the standard fractal experience for most players. We are taking a lot of things into consideration for the next fractal.

If you think its a bit too long can you not just decrease the health of each boss slightly? As it is, its mostly just fighting the 3 bosses, with a few random parts thrown in.

Yeah its not like theres alot of meat outside the bosses in this encounter. And ppl can already skip the islands to shorten it.

MashMash.1645:

zealex.9410:

Benjamin Arnold.3457:

Mitch.4781:

Well I’ve done 100, but the incentive to do the torture that is 100cm till completion isn’t there. It simply isn’t fun. It’s hilarious that 100cm is actually harder and more frustrating than ANY of the raid bosses. What happened to the stepping stone? Apart from anything else, the entire fractal takes forever. If this is the way fractals will be going in the future, I’ll avoid them.

We aren’t happy with how the length of Shattered Observatory ended up either. It ended up being out of whack with the standard fractal experience for most players. We are taking a lot of things into consideration for the next fractal.

Including cm durr? because cm isn’t leinghtier than 99cm (at least not by alot). While normal 100 is abit too much of hp sponges. As for the cm you guys follow a rule that fractal cms cant be as hard or harder than raids? Because if thats the case then thats extremely dissapointing.

Then it should give better loot than raids thanks.

Its daily and it takes about 15 to 14 mins. It does give better loot that a weekly wing run.

Mitch.4781:

zealex.9410:

Benjamin Arnold.3457:

Mitch.4781:

Well I’ve done 100, but the incentive to do the torture that is 100cm till completion isn’t there. It simply isn’t fun. It’s hilarious that 100cm is actually harder and more frustrating than ANY of the raid bosses. What happened to the stepping stone? Apart from anything else, the entire fractal takes forever. If this is the way fractals will be going in the future, I’ll avoid them.

We aren’t happy with how the length of Shattered Observatory ended up either. It ended up being out of whack with the standard fractal experience for most players. We are taking a lot of things into consideration for the next fractal.

Including cm durr? because cm isn’t leinghtier than 99cm (at least not by alot). While normal 100 is abit too much of hp sponges. As for the cm you guys follow a rule that fractal cms cant be as hard or harder than raids? Because if thats the case then thats extremely dissapointing.

100cm is longer and tougher than nightmare by a considerable margin. Also what exactly would be the point in making fractals harder than raids? Given the fact that Raids are the flagship, endgame content and top tier fractals are supposed to be a stepping stone towards raids, it is illogical to make them harder. From a logistical and loot reward point of view, it makes no sense whatsoever. Fractals are currently in a good place. All that we really needed was more of them. We don’t need every single new fractal to be a frustrating 5 hour farm just so the top 1% can get a title.

There are diff demographics alot like that fractals put responsibility to all 5 ppl which raids dont do for all 10. It also gives options for ppl to do w/e they want in terms of hard content. And for the love of god the cms are outside of the t4 environment so they dont affect someone whos not up to that lvl.

The way i see it what they consider a steping stone are the base t4 fractals. Nightamre shattered and swampland these are considsrebly easier than raids and teach you stuff that can be usefull. Cms exist as an alternative to raids in tems of difficulty.

And it not the fractal’s team’s fault that this frcatal cm happened to be harder its the raid team’s bacause since wing 1 wings keep getting easier.

The average clear time of 100cm might as well be 3 or 4 more mins than 99 maybe even less than 99cm depending on how good your team is at bullet hells.

Mike O Brien.4613:

Hi all,

Today we hit an internal milestone: we locked down all content and feature development for Path of Fire. We now move the game to our staging servers and start final preparations for launch.

This expansion is all about content, and today’s milestone marks the completion of eighteen months of content creation. It’s been a labor of love for the team. We hope we’ve brought each story chapter, each open-world zone, and each mount up to the level of what you experienced in the demos last month.

Thanks to everyone who joined the demos and the stress tests. We used those tests to inform our final balance tweaks, and to squash some bizarre bugs that we could only reproduce under heavy load, like the one where Raptors would randomly show up in non-demo maps.

We’re in the home stretch. Eleven days to launch! We can’t wait to play Path of Fire with you!

Mo

Is there a chance the kind of content we should expect will be discussed ina stream or a dev diary before the expac. Or do you think its better to leave it to us to find for ourselves on launch?

Benjamin Arnold.3457:

Mitch.4781:

Well I’ve done 100, but the incentive to do the torture that is 100cm till completion isn’t there. It simply isn’t fun. It’s hilarious that 100cm is actually harder and more frustrating than ANY of the raid bosses. What happened to the stepping stone? Apart from anything else, the entire fractal takes forever. If this is the way fractals will be going in the future, I’ll avoid them.

We aren’t happy with how the length of Shattered Observatory ended up either. It ended up being out of whack with the standard fractal experience for most players. We are taking a lot of things into consideration for the next fractal.

Including cm durr? because cm isn’t leinghtier than 99cm (at least not by alot). While normal 100 is abit too much of hp sponges. As for the cm you guys follow a rule that fractal cms cant be as hard or harder than raids? Because if thats the case then thats extremely dissapointing.

I always though for exp pugs and good groups it was more close to 1:40-2 hours

Mister Asdasd.6194:

zealex.9410:

Mister Asdasd.6194:

zealex.9410:

Mister Asdasd.6194:

zealex.9410:

Mister Asdasd.6194:

I never liked Bolt. It doesnt even look like a sword. Just a tangled mess of metal.

Im working on the shining blade. It is a bit more subtle but it is a very beautiful blade + when you swing it it leave a trail of blue flames+ you get a blue infusion running through the arm the weapon is equiped in. A lot of the older legendaries are losing their edge. Only a handfull really have the legendary feel to them like the greatswords, the bifrost and to some degree the dreamer for its unique missile animations.

Blue flames? Blue infusion? On shining blade? Whats you’ve been smoking?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf57YGcStDs

Do you see the blue aura reaching up to the shoulder when the weapon is drawn? Also notice the trail it leaves behind when swinging? Just because i probably offended your sword of choice doesnt mean im high

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrF_y3rcU0c

also another video with more detail

Thats purple

Doesnt negate anything else is said

It negates that the reasons u like it arent there. It like saying i like Juggernaut because of its fiery red effects

Stop grasping at straws, ok it is not blue i still like the purple aura trail it leaves behind like sunrise/twilight and the arm aura and it actually looks like a sword. Obviously the newer legendary would be of better quality dont feel bad about your Bolt if you like it ok. I just gave my opinion and you started saying im smoking weird stuff

Scroll up to my first post here. Also its not a matter to put down your opinion. Its miss information that might infuence opener’s choice.

Mister Asdasd.6194:

zealex.9410:

Mister Asdasd.6194:

zealex.9410:

Mister Asdasd.6194:

I never liked Bolt. It doesnt even look like a sword. Just a tangled mess of metal.

Im working on the shining blade. It is a bit more subtle but it is a very beautiful blade + when you swing it it leave a trail of blue flames+ you get a blue infusion running through the arm the weapon is equiped in. A lot of the older legendaries are losing their edge. Only a handfull really have the legendary feel to them like the greatswords, the bifrost and to some degree the dreamer for its unique missile animations.

Blue flames? Blue infusion? On shining blade? Whats you’ve been smoking?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf57YGcStDs

Do you see the blue aura reaching up to the shoulder when the weapon is drawn? Also notice the trail it leaves behind when swinging? Just because i probably offended your sword of choice doesnt mean im high

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrF_y3rcU0c

also another video with more detail

Thats purple

Doesnt negate anything else is said

It negates that the reasons u like it arent there. It like saying i like Juggernaut because of its fiery red effects

Im aware that the projectiles have a trail to them unlike bolt’s but, its silly to just throw the sword i crafted away at my enemy could this be something like juggernauts?

Mister Asdasd.6194:

zealex.9410:

Mister Asdasd.6194:

I never liked Bolt. It doesnt even look like a sword. Just a tangled mess of metal.

Im working on the shining blade. It is a bit more subtle but it is a very beautiful blade + when you swing it it leave a trail of blue flames+ you get a blue infusion running through the arm the weapon is equiped in. A lot of the older legendaries are losing their edge. Only a handfull really have the legendary feel to them like the greatswords, the bifrost and to some degree the dreamer for its unique missile animations.

Blue flames? Blue infusion? On shining blade? Whats you’ve been smoking?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf57YGcStDs

Do you see the blue aura reaching up to the shoulder when the weapon is drawn? Also notice the trail it leaves behind when swinging? Just because i probably offended your sword of choice doesnt mean im high

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrF_y3rcU0c

also another video with more detail

Thats purple

OriOri.8724:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Check out the video at https://redd.it/6yq0w1, which compares the renegade’s F3 skill for plain weapons, bolt, and shining blade. (That skill was chose to highlight the differences.)

Bolt is a flashier sword, full of sound & fury, but signifying little when it’s thrown. The Shining Blade is a more understated weapon with more pyrotechnics when thrown. I think that makes Bolt more fun as a melee-focused weapon, so more appealing to mesmers while Shining Blade generates the better projectiles, e.g. for Renegade.

In the end, you’ll have to decide for yourself.

They are supposedly working on new projectiles for bolt. Personally I hope that they don’t keep the mini swords, but instead make it lightning based projectiles. It would fit the theme of the sword very well.

Id hope for something like that for the shining blad as well

Puki Man.4068:

Really wish Anet would bring in Heroes for GW2 (as per GW1). Heroes would give PvE players more options rather than the open world zergfest that PvE seems to have degenerated to.
Here’s some rules which would help Anet introduce heroes:
- Heroes only allowed in instanced play, Dungeons, Pers story etc.
- If in a Dungeon team each human player can bring a certain number of heroes if a full team of humans cannot be made.
- Players can customize their heroes, buy armor, weapons for them.
- Players have to complete special quests to acquire a certain Hero this would create some great storylines as players begin to collect their heroes, with the storyline woven into the bigger Gw2 story.
Its a win – win for Anet and the PvE players.
Please, please bring back heroes. I will trade mounts and minipets any day for Heroes.

If by zergfest u mean the social aspects of gw2 as an mmo then im fine with that and i dont want to see single player systems being added to a healthy mmo.

Mister Asdasd.6194:

I never liked Bolt. It doesnt even look like a sword. Just a tangled mess of metal.

Im working on the shining blade. It is a bit more subtle but it is a very beautiful blade + when you swing it it leave a trail of blue flames+ you get a blue infusion running through the arm the weapon is equiped in. A lot of the older legendaries are losing their edge. Only a handfull really have the legendary feel to them like the greatswords, the bifrost and to some degree the dreamer for its unique missile animations.

Blue flames? Blue infusion? On shining blade? Whats you’ve been smoking?

I mean chrono is op lul

Shining blade. For a change it actually looks like a sword.

Ryouzanpaku.1273:

zealex.9410:

Just making superspeed aply to all directions is enough.

Well (again IMHO) short range directional blink would be SOOO MUCH COOLER
But I would be ok with superspeed working in all directions – just do not want to loose any mobility as class mechanic “bonus”….

It takes away alot of the freedom tha having complete freedom to cast provides. And you really dont lose all that much mobility (in specific raid encounters i can see that). But in pvp wvw its a straight upgrade. Also quite a few utils give u mobility and axe/ sword also have movility to them.

But ye all directions superspeed would be nice. All directions blink would also be neat but somewhat more limiting imo.

Yeah the ending waant bad the only thing that it suffered from was that neither shining blades nor the whole lazarus/ balth thing had time to bake. Rhh w/e we HAD to have a braham episode as it help the overall story so much.

Ryouzanpaku.1273:

Ohoni.6057:

Honestly, when I first heard about Mirage, I had the same reaction as the OP “but I LIKE to move when I dodge!” But after playing it, I think this is ok as it is. It just requires rewiring your brain a bit. It provides Superspeed and evade, so if you want to move outside a circle, you still can, it just requires manually running out of the circle while in your evade frames.

I am probably repeating myself (and others) – but superspeed is not good replacement for standard dodge animation – reason is lowered speed when strafing & backpedaling.
Result of this mechanic is that you can move approx same range when going forward in Mirage Cloak (not really much usable when ""dodging") slower to the sides and reaaaaly slow backwards. Overall it is a huge downgrade for in-combat mobility.

I still think instant blink in exact range of dodge would be better solution. (And no it would not be downgrade for melee if blink would not happen without wasd pressed).

IMHO new class mechanic should be pure update (waves at Daredevil) and not partial update in some cases and downgrade in the others.

Just making superspeed aply to all directions is enough.

Carighan.6758:

Elessaria.9142:

and they can properly balance the Ambushes on the assumption that you will have 4 entities executing it, instead of balancing them on the possibility, and shafting anyone who doesn’t take that GM trait.

Well frankly, right now anything other than Scepter feels balanced for having between 7 and 10 clones …

Idk sword ambush wirked fine when i was using it by myself.

Soggy Biscuit.9372:

Are things like the bomb, the rabbit, and Mossman completely random? I run on a vanilla DPS guard who often happens to be the tankiest in the group, and I’ve felt like I get targeted by those things the most, which only adds to the disgust as I’m often already face-tanking whatever with low endurance.

u cab use that to your advantage and take tabk these away from the group or tank them into a corner and cleave ( in case of actual mobs in the fractal)

CptAurellian.9537:

Breakbars are a thing in some fights. If every thief in Vinetooth Prime zergs slotted BV and knew when to use it, the world would be a better place.

The OP probably used the worst possible example, since BV is a shared effect, but that’s the exception to the rule. For the vast majority of hard CCs, he is completely right with regard to their uselessness for other things than break bars.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Reasons for short duration.
[…]

Those reasons aren’t very convincing. The entire interrupt thing suffers from one big issue: cast times. While 1/2 second or more may be justified for a powerful CC in PvP, it makes the skills rather pointless if you want to interrupt a certain attack of your opponent. By the time you’ve finished your cast, many attacks will have already hit.

With regard to the stunlock you fear for tougher opponents, diminishing returns have been invented for a reason. Implement them properly and the veteran/elite will have more than enough time to fight back.

However, I doubt that the amount of re-balancing required to make CC worthwhile outside of break bar situations is worth it. Those capacities should be used more productively, e.g. to finally get closer to proper class balance in PvE.

Cc outside of break bar is already worth it there are many mobs that can so much more easily be dealt with if simply cc or interupt them. Theres also some mobs in fractals that could 1 shot you if you dont cc them at right times.

Wasnt the whole basis of gw1 to have situational skills? Asking for something to be equally good in all game modes is like asking for trouble.

Sifu.9745:

Sorin Noroku.5342:

TLDR: power is burst, condi is long drawn out fights.

Depends on class and builds: as condi Guardian (condi/power/vitality) i can do the same burst or even more than berserker Guard, while having 9k more health Condi guard burst dmg (and sustain) is just insane.

Id like to see that.

Vahlen.9508:

…….Seriously sick of how much stronger condi is than power in PvE. I don’t expect balance, but look at the warrior……34k condi dps and 10k power dps from the best power build. That shouldn’t even be acceptable, but yet somehow the devs seem to think it’s hunky dory.

Dh and power thief and dps mesmer and maybe power engi all say hi

Mel.3064:

zealex.9410:

Mel.3064:

That logic. a good group can do full raid clear without deaths. By your logic we wont need anything like this ever. The whole point of titles like this is to get good in first place to be able to earn them

I think hes trying to say that a “Good group” for 99cm might not be so good on 100cm.

But according to people 100 cm is much harder, so a good 100cm group should faceroll through 99cm

Which is exactly what im saying.

Mitch.4781:

Well I’ve done 100, but the incentive to do the torture that is 100cm till completion isn’t there. It simply isn’t fun. It’s hilarious that 100cm is actually harder and more frustrating than ANY of the raid bosses. What happened to the stepping stone? Apart from anything else, the entire fractal takes forever. If this is the way fractals will be going in the future, I’ll avoid them.

Not everyone enjoys the 10 man format what about us should we have to deal woth the boring t4s? Regardless the currency the fractal drops is worth 50s per currency and the drop rate for mystic coins seems nice. Also theres rare chance for the blue infusion.

Mitch.4781:

Benjamin Arnold.3457:

zealex.9410:

Benjamin Arnold.3457:

Randulf.7614:

Benjamin Arnold.3457:

Jahroots.6791:

I gotta applaud anyone who can figure out the mechanics in the clusterkitten that is fractal 100. The first fellow’s alright, but the second boss just has way too much going on at once.

Even on normal mode, she’s actually a fair bit harder than many raid encounters.

Viirastra has 2 core mechanics:
1. Stand in the bubble when you have the skull
2. Bounce the marble on your head (only 1 person needed, backup helpful)

If you do these two mechanics correctly, the rest of the fight is pretty easy. Failing these two mechanics quickly snowballs the fight to failure.

There are also two minor mechanics:
1. Don’t stand in the AoEs (You can jump over many of them)
2. Kill the big clones, then drag the little ones to the boss.

Doing these two mechanics reduces the damage pressure to almost nothing.

Theres a bit more to the fight, but this is the core that will allow you to succeed in non CM.

If you are failing the marble, try lower tiers. The marble pattern is significantly easier. Also note that when the marble bounces on your head, it refreshes your SAS. Your SAS is OP and you should use it to move around.

Edit: If your group is learning, try having everyone do the marble at once. There is no time pressure on non CM, and doing the marble gives you lots of aegis and invulnerability so you can stay alive.

Out of curiosity, was is the thought behind the marble mechanic? To me, it didn’t feel an organic part of the fractal itself, more a random mechanic added, because more mechanics were felt to be needed.

I think that is what set this apart for me – the mechanics didn’t gel with what was going on around. Much of the other fractals work a) because they are short bursts and b) because the mechanics are organic to the environment. This felt too random or out of place if that makes sense.

Viirastra is innocent and playful, and literally thinks she is playing a game with the players, so marbles made thematic sense. Plus, the marble mechanic combines perfectly with the SAS skill, which brings the joy of movement in this fight to an entirely new level.

Idk if id describe Viirastra like that in the cm version. Yes the marble feels like im playing a game with her. She throws me the ball and its my job to keep it bouncing and sent it back to her. But shes innocent and she doesnt know that ball is a ball of suffering and death. /shrug

I was describing Viirastra, not Artsariiv.

They are both trying to kill you so your point is moot.

Well the non cm one doesnt view it that way. U could say shes playing to win.

At the game. Theres partner and player made guides. Feature them on the site or somewhere in the game.

Animism.6849:

maddoctor.2738:

Animism.6849:

I took a break from the game after completing HoT, to then return and be forced to fork out for the next section of the story (which maybe should have just been included with HoT purchases, given the dissatisfaction people voiced in regards to the short-length of the expansion story, back when the expansion released)

They only require you to login once during the episode release time to unlock it forever. That takes 5 minutes of your time

An unreasonable expectation. People can be busy in real life, unable to access a computer for a time, or not wanting to constantly update a game as a life task.

If you are busy enough that you cant log in once per 2-3 months then why be mad about it. With this pace u will hardly finish se3 in less than a year.

Anet is kind enough to give you the ability to unlock something for free before making it a paid dlc instead of makimg it paid xlc from the start.

narcx.3570:

Things like Social Awkwardness, Toxic Trail, Flux Bomb, and to a point, Last laugh, are meant to punish/discourage the stack in a corner, pull the mobs, and power creep/power rez your way to free-lootz mentality of the Dungeon meta.

Granted, a magi druid can still heal through all of this, but at least you still have to bring one.

Id argue last laugh can be countered somewhat by stacking to a corner are parts of the circle thats about to blow up are inside the corner where the players cant really get hit.

Amaimon.7823:

Any tips to get into 99cm without the title?
I killed the first 2 bosses, and had a few good runs on Encollyss, but since I dont have the title no one wants me,
Apparantly linking legendary armor is no proof of skill either.
I’ve tried making my own parties but no one wants to join a party with a titleless “noob”.

Anyone any tips to still get into 99cm?

If you are on eu whisper me we could pug it ez.