Guild Wars 2: The One Thread

[Svifnymr]

Its a bit of a shame that GW2 doesn't have h actual housing because the tech is kind of there. Maybe it is a server load issue they never bothered to solve.

We have custom home instances that a tailored to your character. We have guild halls that allow you to place a ton of objects. There's one (and another one about to release) personal instance that's between your home instance and a guild hall

I really wish they'd either make housing type stuff fully customizable like the guild hall, or just stop making new personal instances. It's such a waste of time to make a new personal instance that consists of filling out a predetermined spot with a predetermined reward from a grind achievement.

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I agree, ESO is far better structured than GW2, with very mature lore in comparison (and not a 12 year old writing it). But I am a complete sucker for Cantha. It will steal me away for a while, but I imagine I will eventually go back to ESO. At least I'll have time to play through greymoor before this xpac releases, really excited to see the underground of skyrim as well. There are times I like the ESO combat more and times I like the simplicity of GW2 combat when I don't want a challenge, but in the end ESO wins me over. Playing my thief vs playing my stamblade is like the difference between building a lego house and building a literal house.

I tried ESO on pre-release centuries ago (or thereabouts) and never went back. I like GW2's movement and feel to it, but honestly I wish they'd use this system for a Star Wars game rather than the GW storyline at times, since the storyline really relies on assuming you care about characters rather than making characters to care about.

Either way, GW2 is pretty easy to hop in or out.

[Edge-]

New update is out.

EOTN instances is.../whatever. You can put a bank/trader/vendor/crafting tables there and it's a shared space, doesn't seem like it's much for now so if it's not nostalgic it's probably still better to hang out in one of the special instances of LA etc.

New content is SHORT, it's just the new strike and another short instance.

New strike is good. It's a bit long IMO, but I dig that it's actually a mini-story with a bunch of public events culminating in a boss. It's easy, which I like, and I really hope they go more in this direction with these moving forward. Not a fan of them being diet-coke raids, I have no interest in raiding and if I did I'd have done it long ago. I do have an interest in doing more casual group content, especially event based stuff. That's my jam.

There's a note that DOES NOT MAKE THIS CLEAR, but they added what appears to be four LS S1 episodes this update. I had no idea until I looked around online a bit. Check achieves for the episode to see where you need to go to unlock the episodes, each one requires you go back to where the episode took place and find an item. It pops up on your map usually, pretty easy to find.

And that's where I'm at. Going to play through the S1 content now and see how it is, I feel like I missed plenty of this so much may be new to me.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

• They are working on new expansion, 99% it's Cantha based on concept art and mention of Winds of Change

Sounds like they're panicking and going back to the well. "Oh, players loved that Cantha expansion! We should do it for GW2!".

Agreed sorta, but at the same time this was very much just a "confirmation we're working on this". they're likely way, way, way too early to start showing anything or discussing concrete plans.

I still think their PAX East presence was a big waste of money though.

^^^

Sounds like they are trying to assuage their hardcore fans that yes, something is coming. Eventually. If players don't think that there is a future for the game, they will stop spending money.

Big conventions like PAX and E3 are for marketing stuff to normies who aren't already in the door.

[Rogalicus]

Sounds like they're panicking and going back to the well. "Oh, players loved that Cantha expansion! We should do it for GW2!".

I don't see that as panicking, it's the only GW1 place we haven't visited in the second game yet, now that IBS adds GW:EN zones.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I don't see that as panicking, it's the only GW1 place we haven't visited in the second game yet, now that IBS adds GW:EN zones.

If all Anet can do now is retread old ideas, then I fear that the game is doomed.

They're milking the nostalgia of GW1 players who viewed Factions as the end-all-be-all, and the GW2 players who are affected by their hype. It's no different from Zenimax milking those who were nostalgic for Morrowind when ESO announced a Morrowind expansion, using the same iconography and themes to stir up excitement. It's no different from WoW milking the nostalgia for the Horde vs Alliance faction war with BFA.

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I know one might be tempted to say "but we've only seen one piece of concept art! The expansion will be much more than that" - true, but it's very telling where Anet's priorities lie when the first thing about the new expansion they unveil is intended to nostalgia bait.

[Rogalicus]

If all Anet can do now is retread old ideas, then I fear that the game is doomed.

They're milking the nostalgia of GW1 players who viewed Factions as the end-all-be-all, and the GW2 players who are affected by their hype. It's no different from Zenimax milking those who were nostalgic for Morrowind when ESO announced a Morrowind expansion, using the same iconography and themes to stir up excitement. It's no different from WoW milking the nostalgia for the Horde vs Alliance faction war with BFA.

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I know one might be tempted to say "but we've only seen one piece of concept art! The expansion will be much more than that" - true, but it's very telling where Anet's priorities lie when the first thing about the new expansion they unveil is intended to bait nostalgia.

What do you mean 'now'? The whole game since the start was about showing how the world changed in 250 years. The only truly GW2 original big zone was Orr, because it was sunk before the first game even started.

If you want an example of desperate nostalgia bait, look no further than FFXIV. SE really dropped their ball turning their world into crossover mess with almost any numbered game and even settings that don't have anything to do with franchise itself like Nier.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

What do you mean 'now'? The whole game since the start was about showing how the world changed in 250 years. The only truly GW2 original big zone was Orr, because it was sunk before the first game even started.

If you want an example of desperate nostalgia bait, look no further than FFXIV. SE really dropped their ball turning their world into crossover mess with almost any numbered game and even settings that don't have anything to do with franchise itself like Nier.

This is a highly disingenuous comparison. Sure, GW2 has had us revisit old GW1 places, but that was never at the forefront of their advertising. Up until now, GW2 has always been focused on the new things, be it the new gameplay systems, the new characters or the new plotlines. When HoT was announced, sure, we were going back to an old GW1 location, but that wasn't the centerpoint of the advertising. The announcement was focused on the new ideas - that we were going to fight Mordremoth, pact invasion, adventuring with our Destiny's Edge buddies, elite specs, etc. Here, announcement isn't meant to intrigue us with a new idea, a new story, a new gameplay system, or anything.

FFXIV is, again, a poor comparison. FFXIV has never focused on nostalgia for the rest of the FF franchise as its primary selling point. When a new FFXIV expansion is announced, they aren't saying "oh, you know how much you liked that one FF game, right? Well, we're doing an expansion based off of that!". It has always been about new things. The nods to prior FF games are just that; nods. Sure, Kefka is a boss in XIV, but he's not the centerpoint of the advertising. Sure, you can ride a magitek walker from FFVI, but that's not the centerpoint of the advertising. The advertising is focused on the new characters, plotlines, and gameplay systems specific to FFXIV.

I might have been excited if the announcement had been "our third expansion is about Rytlock and friends going to this new place to fight this new big bad, and meeting these new characters along the way", or "this new expansion will involve this gameplay mechanic", or a teaser for a new class/new elite specs, or even a vague teaser like "Who is this mysterious silhouette?" introducing a new character.

Instead, the announcement for GW2 expac 3 is literally "hey, you remember how much you liked Cantha/how much you heard those GW1 vets rave about Cantha? Well, we're going there in the next expansion. Aren't you so excited?"

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It feels like Anet is not confident in their ability to drum up interest in a new expansion by teasing new ideas, when they were able to do exactly that with HoT and PoF. It feels like they are tacitly admitting they don't believe GW2 can drum up interest on it's own merits, so they must draw from an older game to make up for it.

[Rogalicus]

This is a highly disingenuous comparison. Sure, GW2 has had us revisit old GW1 places, but that was never at the forefront of their advertising. Up until now, GW2 has always been focused on the new things, be it the new gameplay systems, the new characters or the new plotlines. When HoT was announced, sure, we were going back to an old GW1 location, but that wasn't the centerpoint of the advertising. The announcement was focused on the new ideas - that we were going to fight Mordremoth, pact invasion, adventuring with our Destiny's Edge buddies, elite specs, etc. Here, announcement isn't meant to intrigue us with a new idea, a new story, a new gameplay system, or anything.

FFXIV is, again, a poor comparison. FFXIV has never focused on nostalgia for the rest of the FF franchise as its primary selling point. When a new FFXIV expansion is announced, they aren't saying "oh, you know how much you liked that one FF game, right? Well, we're doing an expansion based off of that!". It has always been about new things. The nods to prior FF games are just that; nods. Sure, Kefka is a boss in XIV, but he's not the centerpoint of the advertising. Sure, you can ride a magitek walker from FFVI, but that's not the centerpoint of the advertising. The advertising is focused on the new characters, plotlines, and gameplay systems specific to FFXIV.

The announcement for GW2 expac 3 is literally "hey, you remember how much you liked Cantha/how much you heard those GW1 vets rave about Cantha? Well, we're going there in the next expansion. Aren't you so excited?"

You are comparing different timeframes. HoT was announced 9 months before release, PoF 3 months before release, Cantha expansion is in early stage of development and at least year away from release, of course they are not going to talk about any specifics.

Shadowbringers is literally nostalgia bait. "Oh, hey, we have Hrothgar from FFX, thicc bunnies Viera from FFXII, Blue Mage and Dancer (with theme from FFIX), Eden raid based on FFVIII and YorHa alliance raid with 2B's recolor showing her rear, which you all like so much, in announcement, please play our game. And for those of you who already play, here are alternative versions of ARR and HW zones and guy from ARR alliance raid who drools himself over how awesome WoL is.". The disgusting thing is it works.

[PACOX]

If all Anet can do now is retread old ideas, then I fear that the game is doomed.

They're milking the nostalgia of GW1 players who viewed Factions as the end-all-be-all, and the GW2 players who are affected by their hype. It's no different from Zenimax milking those who were nostalgic for Morrowind when ESO announced a Morrowind expansion, using the same iconography and themes to stir up excitement. It's no different from WoW milking the nostalgia for the Horde vs Alliance faction war with BFA.

- - - Updated - - -

I know one might be tempted to say "but we've only seen one piece of concept art! The expansion will be much more than that" - true, but it's very telling where Anet's priorities lie when the first thing about the new expansion they unveil is intended to nostalgia bait.

The entire world is built on top of the GW1 world. Its hard to say they are just milking nostalgia. Very few areas in the game are 'new'. They'd have to suddenly create a new continent to escape any callbacks to GW1.

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This is a highly disingenuous comparison. Sure, GW2 has had us revisit old GW1 places, but that was never at the forefront of their advertising. Up until now, GW2 has always been focused on the new things, be it the new gameplay systems, the new characters or the new plotlines. When HoT was announced, sure, we were going back to an old GW1 location, but that wasn't the centerpoint of the advertising. The announcement was focused on the new ideas - that we were going to fight Mordremoth, pact invasion, adventuring with our Destiny's Edge buddies, elite specs, etc. Here, announcement isn't meant to intrigue us with a new idea, a new story, a new gameplay system, or anything.

GW2 basically begins where GW1 left off but with 250 years for the story to unfold. All the dragon stuff basically started in GW1. The side stories like the Balthazar's stuff (which they pilled a bunch of other stories into) go back to GW1. POF is basically Nightfall 2.

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This patch is a 'feature' patch. Anet sucks are selling their product which gives people false expectations.

It introduced the hub and system that will be used for future strikes, like the raid aerodrome. It introduced the reward system, which is a 'lite' version of the raid system. The two story instances are another system that will be back. A little speculation, the second story mission is a new iteration of a 'dual-class' system they tested in WvW a while back. People are speculating they're trying to turn that system into a core system, like elite specs.

Theres a bunch of stuff to "do" for rewards but its all tied to buried in collections and achieves or part of long term systems like the strike mission reward system.

EotN as a hub is one of the best hubs in the game. It even rivals the premium hubs if you bother to upgrade it. All its missing is a mystic forge and portal to fractals and it would be like the premium hubs.

[Svifnymr]

New update is out.

EOTN instances is.../whatever. You can put a bank/trader/vendor/crafting tables there and it's a shared space, doesn't seem like it's much for now so if it's not nostalgic it's probably still better to hang out in one of the special instances of LA etc.

Amusingly, the Hall teleport from the GW1 points thing still teleports you to a private version. Then you can see the waypoint to the public version. I've got a cold (excellent timing of course) so didn't do much yet, and of course they had to repatch twice so I just gave up for the day and went to paint more minis.

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On a different subject, do Black Lion Chests just SUCK?
I used to get stuff sometimes and they always had the scraps if nothing else, but the last 6 months or so I can open 15 chests without getting a single uncommon, let alone the one i want. Scraps also have been shuffled into the randomness in favor of stupid themed chests with like, mats? Seems utterly pointless.

I had a couple keys from leveling a character to complete the new tutorial achievements, and got nothing worthwhile at all.

[Aliven]

If all Anet can do now is retread old ideas, then I fear that the game is doomed.

They're milking the nostalgia of GW1 players who viewed Factions as the end-all-be-all, and the GW2 players who are affected by their hype. It's no different from Zenimax milking those who were nostalgic for Morrowind when ESO announced a Morrowind expansion, using the same iconography and themes to stir up excitement. It's no different from WoW milking the nostalgia for the Horde vs Alliance faction war with BFA.

- - - Updated - - -

I know one might be tempted to say "but we've only seen one piece of concept art! The expansion will be much more than that" - true, but it's very telling where Anet's priorities lie when the first thing about the new expansion they unveil is intended to nostalgia bait.

Strong words from somebody who is Star Citizen...

[Edge-]

If all Anet can do now is retread old ideas, then I fear that the game is doomed.

This is like...the first time they're really "retreading" GW1 though, no? They've touched on it here and there through episodes where the lore is relevant and to offer some fanservice, but largely they've moved forward.

This is a continuation of GW1, so it's not surprising that we'd be revisiting some of the same places and encountering some of the same races 250 years ago.

And again, I know little of GW1, but given the constant demand I've seen for folks hoping for a Cantha expansion for years and years...I don't see why this is a bad thing? Folks really seem to like Cantha from GW1, I see no harm in giving them the opportunity to re-explore a favorite continent while giving the rest of us the opportunity to check it out for the first time.

Why instantly jump to doom and gloom? The fact that an expansion is being worked on at all is good.

[Aliven]

Amusingly, the Hall teleport from the GW1 points thing still teleports you to a private version. Then you can see the waypoint to the public version. I've got a cold (excellent timing of course) so didn't do much yet, and of course they had to repatch twice so I just gave up for the day and went to paint more minis.

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On a different subject, do Black Lion Chests just SUCK?
I used to get stuff sometimes and they always had the scraps if nothing else, but the last 6 months or so I can open 15 chests without getting a single uncommon, let alone the one i want. Scraps also have been shuffled into the randomness in favor of stupid themed chests with like, mats? Seems utterly pointless.

I had a couple keys from leveling a character to complete the new tutorial achievements, and got nothing worthwhile at all.

Random Number Generator. And Maths. Even the 99% show you can miss.

[Arewn]

Cantha is kind of meh news to me, given that I didn't play GW1 and don't care for asian architecture styles. But it's great to hear they are working on a new xpac, and a roadmap is nice lol

[Svifnymr]

Random Number Generator. And Maths. Even the 99% show you can miss.

True, but then I'm not saying what I get is representative. I've no idea what the rate is for uncommon anymore, and scraps have certainly been replaced by theme-packs as the default second piece, right? So...

[Aliven]

True, but then I'm not saying what I get is representative. I've no idea what the rate is for uncommon anymore, and scraps have certainly been replaced by theme-packs as the default second piece, right? So...

Arent they suppose to release drop chances? There was that big deal with lootboxes and nearly every game released theirs.

[qwerty123456]

True, but then I'm not saying what I get is representative. I've no idea what the rate is for uncommon anymore, and scraps have certainly been replaced by theme-packs as the default second piece, right? So...

Last couple have definitely seemed worse for me 2.

[Lazuli]

If all Anet can do now is retread old ideas, then I fear that the game is doomed.

They're milking the nostalgia of GW1 players who viewed Factions as the end-all-be-all, and the GW2 players who are affected by their hype. It's no different from Zenimax milking those who were nostalgic for Morrowind when ESO announced a Morrowind expansion, using the same iconography and themes to stir up excitement. It's no different from WoW milking the nostalgia for the Horde vs Alliance faction war with BFA.

- - - Updated - - -

I know one might be tempted to say "but we've only seen one piece of concept art! The expansion will be much more than that" - true, but it's very telling where Anet's priorities lie when the first thing about the new expansion they unveil is intended to nostalgia bait.

This argument is funny to me because you ignore the complete base game of zones which are all from previous games in ESO and GW2. But only up in arms about the expansions? Cantha isn't just about nostalgia its a unique setting with asian culture very rarely seen in western society and its got a great story with much potential and gorgeous scenery.

Morrowind was great in ESO and I expect skyrim to be as well, nothing wrong with exploring old content in a new way like how we're going to be unground half the time. Its a reverse of GW2 where its 250 years in the future, ESO timeline is about a millennium before the SP games . Its not a rehash if everything is different aside from the look (culture of the zone).

Now if they copy 1:1 literally remake a story then you have a point. In GW2 it would be a continuation not a copy, it wont be the same as GW1 Cantha.

You'd make a better argument with WoW classic. And from what I could tell , me included, fucking no one wanted more horde v alliance rehash stories, that was all Blizzard and they failed spectacularly.

[Rukh]

I played very little GW1, basically only Cantha. It was an interesting place. A lot of the expansion is this enormous city, absolutely humongous. Reminded me a little bit of SWTOR where you have zones that are just all urban.

This picture is basically what I remember of it:

https://gamepedia.cursecdn.com/guild...7ac8fa69f620ee

I linked because it's a pretty big picture. Entire regions of slum, then some dense upper class areas as well.

[Lazuli]

I played very little GW1, basically only Cantha. It was an interesting place. A lot of the expansion is this enormous city, absolutely humongous. Reminded me a little bit of SWTOR where you have zones that are just all urban.

This picture is basically what I remember of it:

https://gamepedia.cursecdn.com/guild...7ac8fa69f620ee

I linked because it's a pretty big picture. Entire regions of slum, then some dense upper class areas as well.

Cantha had a loot of different settings.

Slum, high-class, open lush fields to crystal jade oceans and gothic forests. That campaign was literally all over the fucking place, in a good way.