Guild Wars 2: The One Thread

[Coldkil]

berserker affix. thats whats going to get you the most damage because of the 3 main stats power, precision, and ferocity. use your healing signet for your survivability.

making gold is pretty tedious in gw2.

Not terribly since i'm taking it really slow. I'm at 16 gold right now, and world bosses drop quite a bunch, plus 2g a day with dailies. Will hunt for berserkers then, thanks for the tip. Decided to go double dagger spellbreaker when i am 71.

[Edge-]

Oh my god, the fucking new gryphon mount...how did that ever make it past the first round of reviews, much less into the final client.



I'm fucking dying.

[qwerty123456]

Oh my god, the fucking new gryphon mount...how did that ever make it past the first round of reviews, much less into the final client.



I'm fucking dying.

Yeah this is the one time I was ok with a horrible black lion chest drop rate. Did kinda want to get the spirit whales though.

[Alydael]

Ok, short story i just started playing the game and i'm having a blast. Upgraded to standard account for the expansions and managed to find a good deal for pass+2000 gems, so i also unlocked the whole second season - i'm planning to do story content in order and unlock it progressively even if it's slower.

I play a warrior, and i'm kinda "lost" in the builds. There's a lot of options and i don't really know what are noob traps or things to avoid. I'm gonna do mostly solo/open world, maybe some dungeon runs. I like swords skills, though i don't know what to chase - Spellbreaker with dual daggers looks cool aswell. Any basic pointers?

The "builds" in this game can be complex. If you really want to "nail" your build expect to do a lot of research (and farming).

I hear you about the game though- it's great. I wish they would charge a sub so they could get out more content (and maybe even an x pac).

The one thing it does poorly is accesability though. There is a ton of great stuff in this game that no one does because they haven't really streamlined it (made it easy to "get to"). The game would be insane if they fixed their systems so all that stuff was relevant and easy enough to follow that you at least knew what to do without doing a ton of research. The have really hurt the game with that type of design.

That being said it is a really good game- so good in fact that many other games steal their systems. WOW stole their fractal system (for M+) and their whole wardrobe system (transmog).

[Svifnymr]

I haven't felt like doing the new story yet, so just been doing other stuff.

New Year didn't change much, but the new adventure thing in the center plaza is fun. I like the variety without it being a huge investment.

[Coldkil]

Oh my god, the fucking new gryphon mount...how did that ever make it past the first round of reviews, much less into the final client.



I'm fucking dying.

WHAT THE FUCK. I want to gouge my eyes out rofl.

- - - Updated - - -

The one thing it does poorly is accesability though. There is a ton of great stuff in this game that no one does because they haven't really streamlined it (made it easy to "get to"). The game would be insane if they fixed their systems so all that stuff was relevant and easy enough to follow that you at least knew what to do without doing a ton of research. The have really hurt the game with that type of design.

From my point of view as casual player, i am fine with the huge story available and periodic releases - i have yet to delve into endgame/advanced stuff. Yes, i find lost of things i don't know anything about so at this point i'm just focusing on the simple/entry level stuff. As i said, i am in no rush.

[Edge-]

As i said, i am in no rush.

This is the best approach to take. Seriously. Take your time and explore. Go to lower level zones you haven't seen and check them out to see what's around. There's all kinds of goodies to find, with secret events, jumping puzzles, actual puzzles, and all kinds of things hidden in nooks and crannies. Plus, you get to see a ton of different open world events.

I'm glad I never "rushed" through GW2, I feel like you really miss a lot (at least when first starting) if you're not taking some time to smell the roses.

[PACOX]

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/disc...preview-global. - Global/PVE

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/disc...ch-preview-pvp - PVP (WvW is similar)

In nutshell they've are splitting all skills between the 3 modes (though PVP and WvW are joined right now). They've gone through and tweaked the numbers of many skills, and their overall philosophy. Basically dealing with the power creep from the xpacs and condensing numbers. Lots of changes are coming to the overall 'feel' of PVP.

Their goal the ability to balance the competitive modes more often without worrying about impacting PVE and vice versa.

[Coldkil]

This is the best approach to take. Seriously. Take your time and explore. Go to lower level zones you haven't seen and check them out to see what's around. There's all kinds of goodies to find, with secret events, jumping puzzles, actual puzzles, and all kinds of things hidden in nooks and crannies. Plus, you get to see a ton of different open world events.

I'm glad I never "rushed" through GW2, I feel like you really miss a lot (at least when first starting) if you're not taking some time to smell the roses.

Doing exactly that right now, i am doing a starter zone (i think it's charr's) to get to the next chapter of the personal story. So i thought "why not just do everything in here, i was going for 100% open world so"

[Edge-]

Doing exactly that right now, i am doing a starter zone (i think it's charr's) to get to the next chapter of the personal story. So i thought "why not just do everything in here, i was going for 100% open world so"

Yeah, the personal story will do a pretty good job of shuttling you around. When you can, make it to Lion's Arch (there's a portal in every racial city), that'll be a bit of a central "hub" for old Tyria, and it has portals to take you to every factions respective home city so you can grab those waypoints as well.

[Lazuli]

This is the best approach to take. Seriously. Take your time and explore. Go to lower level zones you haven't seen and check them out to see what's around. There's all kinds of goodies to find, with secret events, jumping puzzles, actual puzzles, and all kinds of things hidden in nooks and crannies. Plus, you get to see a ton of different open world events.

I'm glad I never "rushed" through GW2, I feel like you really miss a lot (at least when first starting) if you're not taking some time to smell the roses.

Loot is trash so exploration isn't rewarding at all, its only for map complete to build a legendary which takes forever to get. Just adding some realism to the post

I recall 1 puzzle in the game that actually puzzled me, which is the dark jp where you literal can't see shit. 'secret' events are irrelevant with 0 rewards other than your normal xp.

[Svifnymr]

Loot is trash so exploration isn't rewarding at all, its only for map complete to build a legendary which takes forever to get. Just adding some realism to the post

I recall 1 puzzle in the game that actually puzzled me, which is the dark jp where you literal can't see shit. 'secret' events are irrelevant with 0 rewards other than your normal xp.

Loot is still useful for a newer player that needs resources, but it certainly loses it's luster soon enough.

That said, the game is the world, so if you need an artificial reward to play the game, it's sort of pointless to play at all.

[Edge-]

Loot is trash so exploration isn't rewarding at all, its only for map complete to build a legendary which takes forever to get. Just adding some realism to the post

I don't play for loot, so it doesn't bug me in the slightest. My post was plenty real, you just felt that you had to give some snark to voice your criticism rather than just outright state, "but I think the loot is garbage so it's not worth exploring." which is a perfectly fine opinion.

It's just not an opinion the rest of us share.

[MoanaLisa]

I don't play for loot, so it doesn't bug me in the slightest. My post was plenty real, you just felt that you had to give some snark to voice your criticism rather than just outright state, "but I think the loot is garbage so it's not worth exploring." which is a perfectly fine opinion.

It's just not an opinion the rest of us share.

It would be great if we could all talk about stuff like friends without a huge amount of cynicism, snark, insults and the rest. As for Guild Wars II, I play it in spurts and find I forget a lot of what I used to know. It's been a hard game for me to crack even though when I'm in it I love wandering around the world. I think it's mostly I'm a way different gamer now than I was 20 years ago and MMO's with all of their details and FAQs and guides are harder for me to get my head around. I think I might also be playing too many games (about 10 right now).

I find I still get lost in the details but I think I've already asked about restarting twice now in this thread over the years so I've got the resources I need to find out how to catch up.

Anyway: advocate for the stuff you like. Don't spend all your time running down stuff. It's unpleasant and makes you seem like someone that you probably are not in real life. My two cents.

[Edge-]

Unrelated to the current discussion: New story was alright. More than I expected, but pretty good even though I feel like I'm missing some bits that I need a refresher on, but I'm glad that while there's an elder dragon behind the scenes that the "drama" seems more coming from issues between the races. I always find the non-dragon stuff more interesting when it comes to story.

Like the expanded zone too, and it works with the Tyria boss portal device to boot! Even if the new meta event is basically just a gigantic DPS check/health sponge. Will have quite a bit of work to do getting all the new masteries, need around 7 more points and a ton of XP, might be "back" in the game for a bit to work on this and maybe finish my skyscale finally.

[Rogalicus]

New development update:

• Visions of the Past details will be revealed at PAX, should release before next episode (so in March)
• Next map will have meta inspired by WvW (so probably something like Silverwastes), this season's overall focus is on replayability of the maps
• New Season 1 styled content with big impact on the world, but will be playable even after it's current
• Upcoming content is designed to be repeatable
• New CM fractal is coming
• Some fractal adjustments to keep them fresh, but no details so far
• Raids development is currently on hold due to low population, team is focused on Strike Missions as raid introduction content and will move forward depending on how it works

[Edge-]

New development update:

• Visions of the Past details will be revealed at PAX, should release before next episode (so in March)
• Next map will have meta inspired by WvW (so probably something like Silverwastes), this season's overall focus is on replayability of the maps
• New Season 1 styled content with big impact on the world, but will be playable even after it's current
• Upcoming content is designed to be repeatable
• New CM fractal is coming
• Some fractal adjustments to keep them fresh, but no details so far
• Raids development is currently on hold due to low population, team is focused on Strike Missions as raid introduction content and will move forward depending on how it works

I liked pretty much everything in that post. This is more information than they've given in years, and it's largely good. Except this bit...

Regardless of if that succeeds or not, we understand the importance of balancing our efforts between accessible content with broad appeal, and content that appeals to the more hard core audience, and recognize that we need to do a better job of supporting the latter.

The "hardcore" have, IMO, never been the reason this game succeeded. Hell, during its greatest period of success the game didn't even really have any "hardcore" content like CM fractals or raids. This is the opposite of the direction they need to go, and if anything the fact that Heart of Thorns tanked the game pretty hard should be all the data they need to show them. The revenue and playerbase plummeted due in no small part to the considerably ramped up difficulty of the HoT content, so much so that they nerfed it the following summer (at least during the in-game day), even though at that point it was far too late to repair the damage they'd done.

I really hope I'm more worried about that one line than I have a right to be, but considering the "hardcore" HoT expansion almost killed my interest in this game permanently I have reason to be concerned. I like this game and my character and very much want to see it remain the same "casual" game that I've enjoyed thoroughly over the years.

[Rogalicus]

I liked pretty much everything in that post. This is more information than they've given in years, and it's largely good. Except this bit...



The "hardcore" have, IMO, never been the reason this game succeeded. Hell, during its greatest period of success the game didn't even really have any "hardcore" content like CM fractals or raids. This is the opposite of the direction they need to go, and if anything the fact that Heart of Thorns tanked the game pretty hard should be all the data they need to show them. The revenue and playerbase plummeted due in no small part to the considerably ramped up difficulty of the HoT content, so much so that they nerfed it the following summer (at least during the in-game day), even though at that point it was far too late to repair the damage they'd done.

I really hope I'm more worried about that one line than I have a right to be, but considering the "hardcore" HoT expansion almost killed my interest in this game permanently I have reason to be concerned. I like this game and my character and very much want to see it remain the same "casual" game that I've enjoyed thoroughly over the years.

I think this was meant as appeasement for game's subreddit that turned into one big pile of vitriol since the end of season 4 with something along the lines of "no fractals and raids in sight, ded gaem lul" spammed in every single thread. The way I read it, ArenaNet rightfully thinks that diverting all resources from harder content was a mistake, as it sent the wrong message to veterans and potential new players, but Living World releases will remain the focus, just with more repeatable content as opposed to one time cool things like Sun's Refuge or mount collections.

[Edge-]

I think this was meant as appeasement for game's subreddit that turned into one big pile of vitriol since the end of season 4 with something along the lines of "no fractals and raids in sight, ded gaem lul" spammed in every single thread. The way I read it, ArenaNet rightfully thinks that diverting all resources from harder content was a mistake, as it sent the wrong message to veterans and potential new players, but Living World releases will remain the focus, just with more repeatable content as opposed to one time cool things like Sun's Refuge or mount collections.

I mean...folks want more fractals, but that's not just "hardcore" folks, there's tons of us casual fractal players.

And from what I've seen, folks are more upset about the way Anet announced and has handled S5. They roll it out as an "expansion-worthy living story update" and give it the same kind of marketing muscle as a proper expansion and what are we getting? Well...more normal LS updates and nothing on the horizon that points to anything remotely "expansion-worthy" in the slightest.

Couple that with Anet still talking about "laying the foundation to build on" that they've been talking about for 7 years (people went back and found posts in 2012/13 about this with identical language), and you've got a lot of disillusioned folks. Especially given the rough year Anet had last year with big layoffs and some big-name departures. Folks are, IMO rightfully, pretty worried.

IMO, and I could be totally wrong, they're basing that comment more off their "player metrics" than anything else. They're seeing that there are many that try raids, but don't see many sticking around to play them. It worries me, because that context-less data driven approach is what SWTOR did for years as it floundered, and it definitely damaged the game in the longer term by shrinking an already shrinking playerbase. GW2 still seems to have a healthy playerbase for a game that's around what, 8 years old, by now and that they've "recovered" and pretty much stabilized after the revenue/population cratered in HoT. I just worry how much longer they can sustain GW2 even at its current level of support without a big expansion coming, and especially if they don't start announcing and rolling out other projects sooner rather than later.

But I want to be optimistic, because I still enjoy the game. Finally got a "good" group for Drakar or whatever last night, learned there was an actual mechanic during the portal phase (who knew about the debuff when it takes so long between phases!), and melted him. Was fun to finally not guess whether or not we'd kill him before the timer for once. Now to find out how to get 6 more MP's so I can have them handy as I finish unlocking the remaining new masteries.

[Gray_Matter]

Doing exactly that right now, i am doing a starter zone (i think it's charr's) to get to the next chapter of the personal story. So i thought "why not just do everything in here, i was going for 100% open world so"

Just make sure you take your time. Explore and have fun. Jumping puzzles can be a boat load of fun. Some of the world bosses are a blast and the Auric Basin meta is probably the best meta I have played in a MMO. WvW is fun for me in spurts and there is a ton of stuff to do. If you need any help in game just send me a PM. I am happy to help out.