Guild Wars 2: The One Thread

[Fencers]

Even if the new Elite Specs don't cover new ground mechanically, they can still introduce new class fantasies and aesthetics into the game.

Those are things cooked up by fans, correct? I'm scratching my head this would be written as such or what the design expression is with this stuff if Anet put it out themselves.

[Big Thanks]

Since random BG queues in WoW are taking 12 to 20 minutes...i quit...to play Guild Wars 2 PvP

Played and learned the following specs:
Condi Herald (mid low tier)
Willbender (good tier)
Spellbreaker (good tier)

Am having tons of fun.
Reply to me if interested in some of these pvp specs. I can teach

[Val the Moofia Boss]

For me it was the opposite. I went from grinding GW2 SPvP last year (managed to reach gold 3 as Untamed in the regular 5v5 seasons, and I think I might have briefly dipped into platinum during a 2v2 offseason?) to doing RBGs again and premade epic BGs in WoW this year. I managed to grind all of the PvP league tickets and ascended shards of glory I needed to make a full set of legendary armor. Then I calculated the cost of buying the other mats needed to make the full set and it came up to $400. I already have 5 sets of armor so the stat changing properties are useless to me, and I wasn't going to drop $400 on a minor stat increase when I don't do PvE. Obviously stats don't matter in SPvP. Maybe if WvW wasn't so utterly neglected, I might have considered crafting it, but as of now I just wouldn't use it. Then I realized that while I had fun doing SPvP, I wasn't really motivated to do any more. So I quit.

GW2's combat is fun. I like the animations. I prefer the visual look of WoW but GW2's animations are more pleasing. I like that there are only 10 abilities which I can very comfortably macro to 1 through 6, R, T, G, and X, whereas with WoW I need to have even more keybinds AND a third action bar with items on it to click like soulstones, the Alterac Valley teleport toy, battleground potions, goblin gliders, and so on. GW2 is really easy to pick up and play. I suppose the SPvP announcers are also nice.

Unfortunately, the SPvP maps aren't very fun to play, IMO. They are all king of the hill/capture and hold maps. There are always 3 stationary points you're trying to hold and whoever holds the most for the longest wins. It gets old after several hundred hours. WoW's RBGs have a lot of these too, but those maps are bigger. The travel time between points is a lot longer, to the point that you need to mount up. This gives you periods of rest during a match in between fights. It also adds to the decision making as sending people to a point is a commitment. Also, WoW's maps have variety. You have king of the hill/capture and hold maps that have 3 stationary points to hold like Gilneas, or 3 moving carts to hold (that can be redirected!) like Silvershard mines. Or 5 points to hold like Arathi Basin and Deepwind Gorge. Or 4 points to hold and a flag to capture like Eye of the Storm. And then you have completely different game modes such as capture the flag maps.

My other issue is the PvP community. I spent hundreds of hours doing ranked SPvP in GW2 over 9 months last year, and only once did I ever group with another player to do SPvP, and only for a couple days. You don't see anyone in the Mists forming groups for ranked SPvP, nor do people add each other after a match is over. The only groups are for the automated SPvP tournaments, but you don't get ranked rewards for doing. So you're ostensibly playing a social game but there is no socializing happening.

Contrast that with WoW. There is no automatic group finder or queueing for RBGs. You have to scroll through the LFG list and join a group. Within the first week of PUGing, I got invited to three different RBG communities and joined their Discords. I'm not talkative, but just having familiar people to play and despair and triumph with massively improves the experience.

Another thing that alienated me from GW2 PvP is that at a certain point, you realize that GW2's active PvP playerbase is quite small. You start noticing the same names over and over again. And then you start noticing that people are throwing games, and you get clued into the fact that there is wintrading going on. At the top end of the game, PvPers add each other to their friend's list, and try to manipulate queues so they do not get into the same game as each other (by waiting until their friend gets into a match before queuing), and if they get into the same match on opposite sides then one person throws the game by AFKing in base. This is terminal for a 5v5 format. If you're not in the club then you cannot climb past a certain point.

GW2 does not have a lot of cool rewards to get from ranked. In WoW, you have hundreds of transmog items to buy with marks of honor. There are dozens of Vicious Saddle mounts. And then there are a plethora of toys and pets you can obtain and use in RP, such as pennants or squires or flags. You can also get titles for use in SPvP, like being Blood Guard Orukurak. In GW2, there are only three legendary armor skins to craft, and that's it.

My last issue with GW2 PvP and WvW is that it just doesn't have a strong fantasy to me. There is no Horde vs Alliance are a member of, no war to be invested in. You're not fighting over recognizable locations in the world like Halfhill or Gilneas or Netherstorm. In GW2, it's just random people fighting random people in vague locations. WvW provides larger scale warfare, but once again it's three identical looking sides fighting each other over ambiguous locations. Also, WvW is fun for a few hours, but then gets stale. You never definitively "win" during a play session. It's just zergs travelling around in circles flipping the same forts forever, or two zergs out in the field smashing into each other forever. There is also the issue that the WvW has shrunken to a fraction of its formerself and the WvW guilds are concentrated on a handful of servers. You have to pay for a server transfer to get to those servers. If the server is full then you have to transfer to the linked server, which changes every few months so you have to keep transferring in order to continue playing with the same WvW guild. The actual WvW guild gameplay experience isn't very entertaining either. It's just everyone being silent in Discord while the zerg leader is shouting which way he is heading and everyone just stacks on top of him. It isn't like WoW where multiple people are allowed to talk and the group is splitting up to perform multiple objectives such as backcapping in Alterac Valley and summoning bosses.

GW2 also does not have open world PvP, whereas in WoW there is a thrill to playing in war mode. Mobs haven't been a threat in over a decade, but with war mode on you still at least vaguely feel like there is danger and that keeps you on your toes.

[Big Thanks]

I have a new hobby in Guild Wars 2.

Im simply a random person in Europe...and yet i managed everyday, for the past 5 days, to find people streaming the game and on my server.
Quickly search on twitch who is doing pvp.
Go to the PvP lobby myself and see if they are there.

Sometimes i snipe a game rare...since im only low gold rank

So much fun (>_<)

I also recognize random people from youtube ingame sometimes.
Like toothfairy, a willbender that is now Plat.
Love this game.

[PACOX]

The rumor machine is spinning back up for GW2.

EODs story is done. Steam DB leaks have revealed at least a placeholder for the next (mini)expansion, but credible sources say it's probably the actual name. The same name has popped up in the Chinese client and Google searches.


People are speculating that it will drop fall/winter.


Also getting a chunky balance patch and new fractal today. A balance patch that adding and removing roles to several specs. Not just a midsummer numbers tweak.

[Xilurm]

August 22. Earlier than fall it seems like.

[PACOX]

Thought we were just getting the announcement trailer
There's A LOT of info in the blog dumps they did. Lots of combat changes on the horizon.


New class weapons

Guardian: Pistol (main and off hand)

Revenant: Scepter (main hand)

Warrior: Staff

Engineer: Short bow

Rager: Mace (main and off hand)

Thief: Axe (main hand)

Elementalist: Pistol (main hand)

Mesmer: Rifle

Necromancer: Sword (main and off hand)

Weapons that are becoming a core part of their class (basically current elite spec weapons are becoming core)

Guardian: Axe (main hand), sword (off hand), longbow
Revenant: Shield (off hand), greatsword, short bow
Warrior: Dagger (main and off hand), pistol (off hand), torch (off hand)
Engineer: Mace (main hand), sword (main hand), hammer
Ranger: Dagger (main hand), hammer, staff
Thief: Scepter (main hand), rifle, staff
Elementalist: Sword (main hand), warhorn (off hand), hammer
Mesmer: Axe (main hand), dagger (main hand), shield (off hand)
Necromancer: Pistol (main hand), torch (off hand), greatsword

[Big Thanks]

Thought we were just getting the announcement trailer
There's A LOT of info in the blog dumps they did. Lots of combat changes on the horizon.

No new specializations....right?
Just new weapons for everyone.

Sad about that

But i guess is exciting either way

[Ghost of Cow]

This is mind-boggling to me because I was still thinking of End of Dragons as new. (I haven't purchased it yet)

...it has been HOW long already?

[Big Thanks]

This is mind-boggling to me because I was still thinking of End of Dragons as new. (I haven't purchased it yet)

...it has been HOW long already?

True
My friends only recently started testing the "new" EoD specs in PvP...and calling them the "new specs"
This is insane

[damonskye]

This is mind-boggling to me because I was still thinking of End of Dragons as new. (I haven't purchased it yet)

...it has been HOW long already?

End of Dragons came out two years ago, shockingly! July 2021.

The trouble with End of Dragons is that they had no follow-up story worth speaking of, unlike the previous two expansions; instead, they brought Living World season 1 back as chapters, except for the Gyala Delve stuff. So that's why it still felt rather new. Personally I thought it was extremely disappointing, so I'm hopeful this new expansion will feature more content.

[Edge-]

So overall my feeling is...we're getting ripped off. Basically half of an expansion in terms of scope/content with only a $5 price drop.

I like a lot of the bits in there - weaponmaster sounds neat if not super fun (opening up weapons is nice), NEW WEAPONS IS GREAT, and their naming conventions are still hilariously awful.

Anet continues to make no sense to me. They go out there bragging about how great the game and studio are doing and how they're increasing headcount very recently and then they announce this dramatically scaled down expansion that clashes with that messaging. I guess they're once again investing a lot more in non-GW2 projects, hopefully these pan out better for them...

And honestly I'm kinda pissed that -

A) It seems like another big, world-ending threat. For fucks sake give us a break and let us beat up some local bandits for an expansion.

B) We got a single pretty lame zone for additional content in Cantha before fucking off. Really disappointed that we spent so much time exploring so many parts of EoD and PoF and core Tyria through those updates and all we get for Cantha is...Delve. I get it, too many zones is unsustainable and results in a lot of dead zones and all, but like...we finally go to Cantha and we barely spend any time there feels like shit.

I'm feeling a bit more of a negative nancy, but this was how I felt about EoD and I ended up enjoying the expansion a lot.

[PACOX]

End of Dragons came out two years ago, shockingly! July 2021.

The trouble with End of Dragons is that they had no follow-up story worth speaking of, unlike the previous two expansions; instead, they brought Living World season 1 back as chapters, except for the Gyala Delve stuff. So that's why it still felt rather new. Personally I thought it was extremely disappointing, so I'm hopeful this new expansion will feature more content.

I still haven't finished Gyala and GW2 is the only MMORPG I play. Shows how interesting it was, I really enjoyed the core EOD story though.

[Edge-]

I still haven't finished Gyala and GW2 is the only MMORPG I play. Shows how interesting it was, I really enjoyed the core EOD story though.

It's worth doing the story at least, you get some dumb, fun moments and Rama is great.

But it's really a pretty shit zones IMO. Very much did not like at all despite my love of Drizzlewood. Second half of it might honestly be the worst map-related update Anet has ever done.

[PACOX]

There's so much info to comb through. The Wizard Vault thing sounds like "seasons" in other games but without the FOMO...thats pretty dope.


The combat changes are too much for me to wrap my head around right now but I'm excited for the theory crafting if anything. There's builds I've played the same for years - maybe the unlocked weapons might change that. I'm excited for hammer holosmith actually.


New fractal and strikes. Here for it.


Story is whatever. The Mists are cool but there's no reason for me to feel one way or there other about the antagonists though.. Maybe if actually finish the Gyala stuff I would care more?


I think this "mini" expansion has morning exciting upcoming features going into than EOD did. EOD obviously beats it in scope and story. EOD lacked additions outside of EOD which did put people off.

[Big Thanks]

Welp...

Seems like my class (Herald) has a bug that reduces damage taken by 95%....so all pvp is unplayable if someone decides to play Herald

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/topi...hotfix-herald/

That sucks...
I want to play my class T_T

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Not digging the generic artstation MTG look of the splash art. Hope that isn't indicative of the art direction of the expansion ingame.

At launch, the first arc of the expansion’s epic story, as well as two new maps, will allow players to explore the skies

It's a floating sky island themed expac?

As a fun bonus, this means we’re also introducing a few new skills for edge cases like berserker’s Primal Burst while wielding a dagger, or the untamed’s Unleashed Ambush while wielding a staff.

Sounds like they aren't going to rework Untamed's ambush mechanic? Darn.

Being able to mix and match weapons doesn't do anything for me. I main Ranger. Playing core/vanilla Ranger is unviable in strikes/PvP/WvW. There is only one elite spec that ties into the ranger + pet fantasy, the Untamed (Druid is a healer and ignores the pet, Soulbeast cannibalizes the pet). The ranger weapons I most enjoy are greatsword, longbow, and hammer, all of which I could use as an Untamed anyway.

Being able to use a shield, greatsword, or shortbow as a Revenant sounds cool though. Those are classic hero weapons.

we’re granting each profession proficiency with an additional weapon.

...

Ranger: Mace (main and off hand)

Ooo. Maybe interesting. Might be cool to have a shield too. Be a shield warrior with a pet at his side. Maybe they will let Rangers wear shields in next year's expansion?

the Elder Dragon cycle that dominated major events from the original launch through Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons™ has come to a close.

The Elder Dragon cycle didn't end. There is still a cycle of Elder Dragons gobbling up magic, getting sleepy, going dormant for thousands of years as their magic bleeds off, and then waking up again. The only difference is that the number of dragons has shrunken down from 6 to 1. The world is still screwed since one dragon can't contain all of the magic, and will either go insane or explode.

In fact, today’s game update includes a small scene to transition out of the End of Dragons storyline. This interlude brings us to a scenic overlook in Seitung Province, where one of our dearest comrades has some…bittersweet news to share.

Oh gosh please tell me Taimi is dead! Lemme log in to check.

New fractal where you used a grappling hook and a parachute to delve into the cave was fun, though I don't see it having much replay value. Missed opportunity for the Kanaxi fight to have you jump from platform to platform as he shatters the pillars you're standing on, rather than just going back to the same one platform.

New story journal stuff was an instance where you talk to Aurene. Hm. The writers remembered the part about Elder Dragons going to sleep but seem hesitant to commit to her never waking up again during GW2. Also once again ignored the part about dragons exploding or going crazy if they have too much magic.

No cutscene where you see her fly off into the sunset? Aw.

That's a cool new skin. I hope it is appropriately scaled for Charr! Right now every Skyscale skin except for the Broad-Horned Bull looks comically small for Charr characters.

Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure skyscale Mastery line includes new abilities, like the Fireball aerial attack you’ll unlock at tier two.

Does that mean we can attack from the air while remaining on our dragon?

Tier 4–Wind Beneath Your Wings - Flying mounts can use updrafts

Only really useful in HoT and season 3 zones as those are the only zones that updrafts really appear in.

5–Combat Launch Gain the ability to mount your skyscale in combat

Sounds like they're going to design more fights where you need to fly to another platform quickly. You can mount up and fly from platform to platform during the Mouth of Mordremoth meta but there is a delay as you have to wait for you to exit combat.

As you fight off the ravages of the Kryptis, you’ll make allies of the Wizard’s Court and the Astral Ward—ancient protectors of Tyria who have been brought out of their seclusion by the Kryptis threat.

Where were these guys during the past 11 years? What, were rampaging Elder Dragons that wiped out entire civilizations and threatened to destroy reality too low level of a threat for them?

The Wizard’s Vault is a new streamlined rewards system that combines the best elements of the daily login and daily achievement systems, allowing you to play Guild Wars 2 the way you want to–whether it’s PvE, Player vs Player, or World vs World, or a mix–and earn a wide variety of exciting rewards for doing so.

With the release of Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure, you’ll receive new objectives to complete daily, weekly, and with each quarterly release. As you complete objectives you’ll earn Astral Acclaim, a new account-wide currency, which can be exchanged for rewards of your choosing, such as new weapons and armor skins, a small selection of items previously exclusive to the gem store, crafting materials, gold, mystic coins, legendary crafting starter kits, and more. Those rewards will refresh on a quarterly basis—but fear not! As new items cycle in, any Wizard’s Vault–exclusive rewards will simply move into a legacy section of the vault, where they’ll remain available for the same type of currency indefinitely. Our goal is for Wizard’s Vault rewards are meant to be attainable through regular, normal play; there are no paid upgrades or progression skips, and the legacy section exists to take the time pressure off and allow players to catch up if they take a break.

Sounds like the Great Vault/Trading Post from WoW.

Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure will also introduce a new set of legendary armor: Obsidian armor. This will be the first set that doesn’t require heavy investment into raids or competitive experiences—instead, the various crafting components come from open-world gameplay in Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure.

Hopefully it won't cost $400 in mats to build. I finished acquiring all of the timegated rated PvP mats to craft the legendary PvP armor, and then stopped when I calculated the costs and realized I would have to drop hundreds of dollars to buy the rest of the mats off of the auction house, or spend thousands of hours I don't have no-lifing GW2 to farm them myself.


Overall ambivalent.

No new specializations....right?
Just new weapons for everyone.

Sad about that

Sadly no new elite specs.

So overall my feeling is...we're getting ripped off. Basically half of an expansion in terms of scope/content with only a $5 price drop.

Yeah. Theoretically, the two new expansion maps could be double sized and have HoT-tier level design (there is a reason why HoT maps are still the most populated 8 years later), but given Anet's track record over the past few years that's almost certainly not going to happen.

[Svifnymr]

I log in occasionally, but still haven't finished the core of last expac, let alone wandered around to see what else was new. Not sure if/when I'll buy the new one.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Now that the class rebalances have been out for a few hours...

Yikes at the new ranger changes.

Spirits no longer give alacrity. RIP the low APM alacrity hammer build where all you had to do was keep your spirits up and press hammer 2 and 4 every 6 seconds.

They reduced the cooldown on the Untamed's pet abilities which you have to manually press (unlike vanilla ranger pet abilities which can be automated). Even higher APM whether you want it or not!

Fervent Force is dead! RIP our high survivability double axe build.

The devs increased the damage of the unleashed ambush skills. Fervent Force has been replaced with Let Loose, which causes your Unleashed Ambush skills to give boons. None of this matters because flipping back and forth between unleashed pet/ranger stances is still clunky and not worth the bother. You have to press F5 to enter unleashed ranger, press 1 to use your first weapon's unleashed ambush, press ~ to weapon swap to your second weapon, press F5 to switch to unleashed pet, press F5 again to switch back to unleashed ranger, and then press 1 to use your second weapon's unleashed ambush. That is a 5 step process to use this trait.

Dagger's unleashed ambush skill is a shadowstep teleport. That is cool. Combined with Unnatural Traversal, you could become a some sort of nature ninja teleporting all over the place, though the fundamental issue with how clunky Unleashed Pet/Ranger swapping is would need to be addressed first.

Feels really bad.

[Scyth]

I'm pretty hyped for the new xpac or update rather as it's quite small to be called an expansion imo. Not too happy about Ele getting a pistol though, really wanted a bow but I understand they probably don't want to create so many new abilities for Ele again.