Guild Wars 2: The One Thread

[Deleted]

I like the new ad for GW2 pvp, pushing on it being based on skill. Did something change with expansion or whatnot that I missed?
When me and my friends left the game a couple of months after launch it was just spamming cooldowns pretty much, thief being easiest with first you only needed to spam hearthseeker and then some patch came and you managed with backstab. It was true, we all made thieves and only spammed those abilites and enemies died, we also named the characters "hearthseeker skill", "backstab pro" and so on. And only one build was available per char, I remember my mesmer just having one solid build and when I returned like a year later it was still the pvp build.
I know that the plan behind the game was having weapons matter and weapon swapping being important, but it was just simply using cooldowns in the end.

So, did something change? Are there several builds/ profession? Did something happen to weapons so it's not just cooldown spamming? Did they give some kind of skill to thieves? I remember when leaving, backstab was going down and pistol whip being on the uprise... but it was long ago... what is the thief "to go" - ability now, or they actually got their damage nerfed so they need to use more abilities?
I'm wondering, and unless things changed... that ad is not really valid.

jump in and find out yourself. those are the wonders of a sub-free game.

[Deleted]

jump in and find out yourself. those are the wonders of a sub-free game.

That would mean that their ad had been working =)
I don't have time for another game now, but it would certainly be interesting what on earth ANet did to make GW2 skill based that they didn't have implemented before. Hopefully someone is still playing GW2 and can give an update on what the deal is?

[Kelimbror]

That would mean that their ad had been working =)
I don't have time for another game now, but it would certainly be interesting what on earth ANet did to make GW2 skill based that they didn't have implemented before. Hopefully someone is still playing GW2 and can give an update on what the deal is?

PvP in GW2 has always required skill. Whatever period you played in where you thought thieves were gods and facerolled their keys isn't one I even remember, but builds and strategy change all the time. When was the last time you actually PvPed in GW2? I've never personally had problems with thieves as a ranger, but can get wrecked by mesmers with glass cannon builds. It just depends on how you trait and how others trait.

GW2 is one of the better PvP games I've ever played, so I'm coming from a completely different perspective so I'm not sure what you want. It seems like a loaded question looking for confirmation bias really. No one is going to be able to give you a rigorous enough answer on all the changes to effectively answer the question, so reading changes or playing the game is the only way to *really* know. You know?

[Deleted]

PvP in GW2 has always required skill. Whatever period you played in where you thought thieves were gods and facerolled their keys isn't one I even remember, but builds and strategy change all the time. When was the last time you actually PvPed in GW2? I've never personally had problems with thieves as a ranger, but can get wrecked by mesmers with glass cannon builds. It just depends on how you trait and how others trait.

GW2 is one of the better PvP games I've ever played, so I'm coming from a completely different perspective so I'm not sure what you want. It seems like a loaded question looking for confirmation bias really. No one is going to be able to give you a rigorous enough answer on all the changes to effectively answer the question, so reading changes or playing the game is the only way to *really* know. You know?

Oh me and my friends played active from launch and a couple of months after that. We quit because of bugs ANet didn't want to fix (guardian blockbug) and faceroll builds like thieves one-ability spam, same as warriors 100-blade... lots of issues there. It was also not fun just to have one build viable for your profession. Like you said, glass cannon shatter mesmer... I had the build when I quit and when I came back one year later I didn't have to change build a bit... it was still the only viable one, and perhaps still is? Also there was little choice in weapons, and once you chose the viable weapons the swapping didn't matter that much. But if they managed to fix the important issue with some professions dealing insane damage with little effort, or some bunker professions being too tanky, then I would say it would be a step in right direction and perhaps increasing the skill a little?

[Kelimbror]

But if they managed to fix the important issue with some professions dealing insane damage with little effort, or some bunker professions being too tanky, then I would say it would be a step in right direction and perhaps increasing the skill a little?

Umm...I think a lot of your perception may be improved with the changes to builds and the new weapons, but I still can't give an answer without quoting thousands of lines of patch notes. Looking at http://metabattle.com/wiki/MetaBattle_Wiki you can see a lot of different builds up there. It provides links to streams of people playing those builds and may give you a better view if you really don't want to just try it yourself.

[Arlee]

Umm...I think a lot of your perception may be improved with the changes to builds and the new weapons, but I still can't give an answer without quoting thousands of lines of patch notes. Looking at http://metabattle.com/wiki/MetaBattle_Wiki you can see a lot of different builds up there. It provides links to streams of people playing those builds and may give you a better view if you really don't want to just try it yourself.

Pretty much that. Also they are doing regular balance patches from now on so any spec that is currently a bit strong won't remain that way for too long. Also about a year ago they did a huge balance patch and changed some key things which were causing problems and made the sPvP much more focused on skill and build knowledge than it was previously (which was always the intention). Anywho skill has been needed in sPvP for quite awhile now, especially in high level play.

[GW2Kenneth]

Just want to add that I came back to the game and I'm enjoying it regardless of the the few downfalls. It's honestly a AAA experience that is worth the money for sure. I wish the balance patches came more often though.

[Huehuecoyotl]

So when did they nerf the Lost Orrian Jewelry Boxes? I just opened a full stack of 250 of them, just because I had karma to burn and hadn't done them for ages. How many lodestones did I get? Three. Freaking three.

Is that a result of them making lodestones exotic? They basically wrecked the entire point of getting these things?

[Valeron]

They nerfed those like 2 years ago

[barackopala]

darnit sabetha, so annoying with her bombs screwing revenants over!

[nevermore]

As of today I still couldn't complete the last story instance because my glider won't open during the 2nd flight phase.

I mean... the heck Anet.

[barackopala]

just leave space pressed and you'll autoglide :P

[nevermore]

just leave space pressed and you'll autoglide :P

Nope, there's nothing you can do when it decides to bug out.

On a positive note, I gave it a few extra tries today.

- Phase 2 flight bug, twice.
- Restarted the instance, Blighted Pale Tree despawned before I clicked the fissure and I was stuck in that zone.
- Restarted the instance again, this time everything was ok and I managed to finish it.

Quality assurance is sure as hell not the strongest side of Anet.

[nevermore]

So, how's everyone doing in GW2? These forums have been quite silent lately.

I'm loving the raid bosses and the various collections (fractals, etc) so far. There's so much to do now, it's actually great seeing how far this game has come since the original launch.

The HoT story has also confirmed again that ANet has the absolute worst writers in the history of mankind lmao.

[Kelimbror]

So, how's everyone doing in GW2? These forums have been quite silent lately.

I got burned out on the mastery grinding within 2 weeks and haven't done anything. Thankfully it's always a great game to go back to, so maybe they'll do some updates to make it quicker and then I'll get back at it. Still a lovely game, just don't have time for it as a primary MMO.

[nevermore]

Tbh once you unlock gliding, updraft and bouncing mushrooms there's nothing else you really need. It's back to the oldschool gameplay after that. The first few days of HoT launch were rough but it's pretty nice now.

I also spent about 2 hours XP farming in CoF p1 to unlock most of the Tyria masteries that I needed.

[Huehuecoyotl]

I got burned out on the mastery grinding within 2 weeks and haven't done anything. Thankfully it's always a great game to go back to, so maybe they'll do some updates to make it quicker and then I'll get back at it. Still a lovely game, just don't have time for it as a primary MMO.

Me too. There is a ton of content in the expansion, but everything you look at you find it locked behind massive amounts of mastery grind. I would have loved to get the necro ascended GS, but I just can't face all the time I would have to face doing the same meta events in the new zones to get it done. Consequently I have stopped playing the game completely for now. At least I know I can come back any time I like.

[Fencers]

So, how's everyone doing in GW2? These forums have been quite silent lately.

I do not think the base game changed enough to warrant any significant discussion. You are still doing "GW2"-ish things of platform jumping and roll/dodge & cooldown based combat.

There has never been a lot to discuss about Guild Wars 2 outside of the atypical design development. Most of the hot topics in this forum surrounds Arena.net adding X or Y feature, changing Z or F feature, etc. Not so much the actual gameplay and mechanisms of the gameplay- which are rather straight froward.

There haven't been any big changes since Heart of Thorns.

What was the biggest news last month; Wreath backpacks, Snowflake gliders?

[nevermore]

What was the biggest news last month; Wreath backpacks, Snowflake gliders?

To me the biggest change was how they improved group dynamics, specifically in raids. I never thought I'd see teamplay like this in GW2 but I was pleasantly surprised.
I've killed all 3 raid bosses as a Druid healer and/or as a Tempest dps, and it actually feels like playing a 'proper' MMORPG compared to the previous three years of autoattack+strafe.

It's the same game with the same mechanics, obviously, but the ways in which they pushed the boundaries of what the game system allows is actually awesome. Not to mention I finally get to be a healer.

As for the grindy masteries: ANet's been fine-tuning the system since launch and I think it's in a good place right now. Once you have the 3 essential masteries (gliding, updraft, bouncing mushrooms) you can do every event, personal story, etc.
My only gripe is with the Tyria masteries... It would take forever to get them but you can circumvent that with a 2-hour CoF farm.

[Svifnymr]

As for the grindy masteries: ANet's been fine-tuning the system since launch and I think it's in a good place right now. Once you have the 3 essential masteries (gliding, updraft, bouncing mushrooms) you can do every event, personal story, etc.
My only gripe is with the Tyria masteries... It would take forever to get them but you can circumvent that with a 2-hour CoF farm.

I didn't bother grinding out the Masteries, but have now hit a point where I lack Mastery Points to get the fourth tier of legendary crafting. I'd need to go do achievements in the stories, and bleh on that.

- - - Updated - - -

Me too. There is a ton of content in the expansion, but everything you look at you find it locked behind massive amounts of mastery grind. I would have loved to get the necro ascended GS, but I just can't face all the time I would have to face doing the same meta events in the new zones to get it done. Consequently I have stopped playing the game completely for now. At least I know I can come back any time I like.

I did Horologicus the Chronomancer shield. The collections are mostly about collecting Currencies, it's just a straight up grind. Then the Machined Shield, another grind, in fact nearly the same grind, so do it twice now to unlock a shield that then unlocks the shield... And I mean, I like Horologicus, but it probably wasn't worth the time spent.

But really, I was just bored off my ass. Sure I enjoy the gameplay, but the new zones are all just meta events with no fun corners to find. I've only managed to pug Tangled Depths meta successfully once, with 4 failures of well organized runs. I've had good luck with Dragons Stand, but it's not like it's FUN. I'm just killing lots of stuff. Everything is group based.

Couple that with a lackluster Halloween, then a Wintersday which has been glitchy and seems to be based on teh idea of cleaning out old Wintersday tokens to give you karma. Does anyone need Karma? Is anyone out there running low?

Most of my friends have abandoned the game, some may return when there's a living story to play. None of us are raiders though.