Firebeard.1746

> @"Sajuuk Khar.1509" said:

> > @"Firebeard.1746" said:

> > I'm like 90% certain that they're downgrading the "Saga" to a normal season. They literally said they wanted to experiment with expansion like seasons and then a few months later reneged. I'm pretty sure that's because the player base hasn't received the Saga the same way they would an expansion. Though I'd argue that's wholly their fault as they gave no new elites or legendaries with it at launch. Icebrood mastery has its moments, but it's meh. Had they promised more then perhaps the community would have taken it differently. I'm guessing 2 more episodes, then we're done.

> >

> > Also, they promised in april of 2019 that we'd be seeing more of previous maps with this living world and it hasn't happened. Collections in the old world doesn't seem like the promise of that experiment. There's been a clear change in direction.

> We know there's 4 more episodes, and at least one more visions-like side update. For a total of a minimum of 11 releases for Icebrood Saga. Much more then a normal season. I'm guessing we will get two more visions like updates, for a total of 12.

I didn't hear about the 4 more episodes, but it's possible they meant for there to be more than that. That wouldn't cover the duration of an expansion (each has had its own season + core). Was this on a live stream?

> @"zombyturtle.5980" said:

> > @"Firebeard.1746" said:

>

> >

> > All that being said, I don't think all raids are even puggable. Like the Dhuum soul collection phase is a skill that players must learn in and of itself, and training runs for it are rare. You're basically rolling the dice every time you make a group hoping you get someone who knows how to do it or learn it very quickly. This is why I bought a W5 run outright with Mystic Coins yesterday for coalescence. I raid occaisionally, can't commit to a static, I'm a capable raider, but you're basically playing slot machines with people with how some of these encounters are built.

>

> Is it really that bad in NA that pugs cant even do dhuum greens? EU has no issue with this. Strange how one server is so different in pug raiding capabilities.

I don't know. All I know is the few dhuum adverts I've seen in NA raid academy hadn't seemed to go that well. My personal adverts for forming groups for W5 haven't gone super well either. My last pug (ish) with one of my guilds I don't normally run with was the raid leader deciding they were done as soon as we hit Dhuum. Overall it just looks like groups don't form that often and my experience with the same mechanic in statues doesn't make me feel that great about the success in PuGs. No one trains it and it's a wonky mechanic that is rarely seen. Maybe if I tried harder? Just didn't seem worth it after all that. Maybe you guys have more free time in EU lol.

To be honest, perhaps it wouldn't be that bad if we could save raid progress between weeks (other than camping the instance at reset, which my understanding you still lose as soon as you log out.) But W5 is a jerk to get through, it takes hours in a non-experienced group, so you basically have to start over every week you want to TRY on top of all these issues.

> @"Teratus.2859" said:

> Nobody does atm, all we know is the expansions is aimed to be coming next year.. I personally think it's gonna be at least a full year away yet so it's possible Ice Brood Saga will go on for a while.

>

> Some are expecting IBS to end after the next 2 episodes which will match the average 6 episodes the last 2 living world seasons have gotten.

> But it could be more than that, Season 2 actually had 8 episodes rather than 6 so there could be another 3-4 episodes to go in the Saga which if we factor in a 2-3 month release between episodes that easily adds up to the full year between now and my guess on expansion 3's release.

>

> Plus there is also the fact that this is a Saga and not a typical Living World season so there could be other things involved that we haven't gotten in other living worlds.

> Like the Visions of the Past release which despite not being a full episode of living world did give us new content and is part of the Saga, I'm pretty sure I recall someone saying that there will be more Visions of the Past content coming during the saga so the next release might not be Episode 5 but rather Visions of the Past 2.

>

> It's really all guesswork though, we've never had a "Saga" in Gw2 before now so who knows what'll happen over the next year or so.

I'm like 90% certain that they're downgrading the "Saga" to a normal season. They literally said they wanted to experiment with expansion like seasons and then a few months later reneged. I'm pretty sure that's because the player base hasn't received the Saga the same way they would an expansion. Though I'd argue that's wholly their fault as they gave no new elites or legendaries with it at launch. Icebrood mastery has its moments, but it's meh. Had they promised more then perhaps the community would have taken it differently. I'm guessing 2 more episodes, then we're done.

Also, they promised in april of 2019 that we'd be seeing more of previous maps with this living world and it hasn't happened. Collections in the old world doesn't seem like the promise of that experiment. There's been a clear change in direction.

> @"SeikeNz.3526" said:

> it's too much to ask? everyone should enjoy raids / end game content.

>

> not everyone want to join a guild or have 10 friends to raid.

>

> also will kill the "raid sellers" on the lobby.

> kill the show proof players

>

> random raids - MATCHMAKING

> specific raids - MATCHMAKING

>

> if someone leaves just re-queue his slot to replace him

>

> guild players don't need to use it.

Honestly their endgame encounters like strikes and raids, don't jive well even with the current LFG. It's really hard to get only one person of a given role to join at a particular time. This is the product of anet refusing to actually embrace or teach any roles yet still make crazy encounters that require particular ones: They refuse to acknowledge in their LFG tool that we need to request for a particular number of people for a given role to intelligently form a group.

However, I don't think I support a queue at all. If you're looking for a group of raiders, I recommend NA raid academy or a similar discord group for your region. Snow Crows will tell you. You can organize your own raid within the community and request a tutor. I'm afraid adding queues to end game raid content will erode the community that currently exists around guilds. Especially as guilds are all but irrelevant nowadays. That random banter in my gchat is the reason why I play this game over WoW. Wow's in-game community is all but dead. There are plenty of players sure, but they're all discord monkeys and/or don't talk to anyone. We'll lose that friendliness factor.

All that being said, I don't think all raids are even puggable. Like the Dhuum soul collection phase is a skill that players must learn in and of itself, and training runs for it are rare. You're basically rolling the dice every time you make a group hoping you get someone who knows how to do it or learn it very quickly. This is why I bought a W5 run outright with Mystic Coins yesterday for coalescence. I raid occaisionally, can't commit to a static, I'm a capable raider, but you're basically playing slot machines with people with how some of these encounters are built.

> @"JUN YANG.4328" said:

> i dont get it. if you dont have a single legendary. why u need legendary armory? motivate is not an excuse to start. + 1 legendary wont make ur game life easier. =) even i have 8 legendary and 13 toons. i am not in a hurry. i still enjoy all my legendary goes into 1 character.

Correction: I've started both Vision and Coalescence. I will soon. Trinkets are a priority because I want to be done with berry farms forever.

> @"Tazer.2157" said:

> The crafting system in this game is one of the most tedious, unfun experiences in this game and it needs attention if the game wants to bring in and hold on to new players.

>

> Why the current system is bad

> 1. Zero interaction with drops: kill a mob, get crafting items to then directly deposit in storage or sell on TP. How is this okay? I get the world and the quests are fun enough to keep people engaged, but encourage us to find use for these drops.

> 2. A painful way to level up crafting: any player who wants to level up crafting needs at least two screens! One where they need to log into gw2, copy a bunch of text to paste in another website, then go through a list of things they need to buy On the TP and tick them off. This is unfun, tedious, and quite frankly elitist where the crafting system is min-maxed. I leveled up a weaponsmith and an armorsmith to 500 and I spent more time looking at the tiny screen on my phone to make sure I was buying the right amount of items from the TP than actually enjoying the experience.

>

> Fixes: some sort of daily system where you craft items that levels you up. This is all that is needed. Getting to 500 need not be done in an hour. There are multiple crafting professions in the game, and it’s a shame and a loss if it’s not accessible to most players.

1 -> The only issue I would say here is the cardinality of items. There's nothing wrong with depositing items to use later. The use is crafting. All of them are used somewhere. If you think they're useless, you just haven't learned the use for it yet.

2 -> This is purely by choice. You can learn the hard way. It is the most efficient way, but that's always the case for any game where there's a guide. I'm not sure where you're pulling elitist from. Like yeah, it's expensive, but a noob can just cash out their mystic coins for money for the mats if they don't feel like farming the cash. Also you can use materials from festivals to earn cash. That's actually how I subsidized my crafting. I think the hardest thing is that most of this is non-obvious, not that it's not accessible.

Crafting professions have become very binary (where they're not useful until 400-500) because the process of leveling a character has been massively sped up due to the plethora of tomes of knowledge along with boosts. Most people are playing at max level very quickly now. The levels below 400 are intended to gear leveling characters. That phase of the game is by and large over. I have no problems with this either as so much happens at end game now.

I think the biggest weakness of the crafting system is the non-obviousness of everything. There's tons of loot and it's not easy to know what everything is used for. On the flip side, this creates markets for crafters who are paying attention. It also created one of the most robust economies I've ever experienced in any MMO. In almost every other MMO I've played, I've felt like the AH just wasn't worth the effort or took forever to learn. So many things having value with so many different conversions allows you to make money very quickly as a new player if you're willing to sell. Sure you might be losing some cash because you don't understand how to use it, but you can make money REAL fast in the game using the deposit all function on the inventory widget and selling everything every now and then.

I actually really like the economy and crafting system, I just wish it was simplified because like I stated early, the amount of materials can feel very intimidating.

It's just kind of weird to randomly treat steam players like second class citiziens. Sure it might be nice to keep the core tyria maps inflated for a while, but the F2P players will do that on their own.

> @"Khisanth.2948" said:

> > @"Firebeard.1746" said:

> > > @"Khisanth.2948" said:

> > > It would be nice but it's not like you can just will it into existence.

> >

> > They made it sound like it was close when they first announced, and then there next update made it sound like it was far out. Muk covered that. To me, that sounds like they almost finished it and then pushed it out for some stupid reason.

>

> Did you actually read the dev posts? Quoted below for convenience.

>

> https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/comment/1249417/#Comment_1249417

> > @"Fire Attunement.9835" said:

> > First, thanks to all of you for your input. Your strong reaction and feedback showed us that this would be a worthwhile addition to the game and we can’t wait to get it to you. We’re excited to be able to make you a part of development early on for this feature, and in the coming months we’ll be sharing updates as we move through the implementation process.

>

> "would be a worthwhile addition" is not a phrase to describe something that is mostly done. That is something to describe a project that hasn't started work or barely started.

> "make you a part of development early on" does not need any explanation ...

>

> " we’ll be sharing updates as we move through the implementation process" given the lack of updates being shared it is reasonable to assume that there has not been anything noteworthy to share

It's funny you say I'm reading it wrong but don't quote it:

First, thanks to all of you for your input. Your strong reaction and feedback showed us that this would be a worthwhile addition to the game and we can’t wait to get it to you. We’re excited to be able to make you a part of development early on for this feature, and **in the coming months we’ll be sharing updates as we move through the implementation process.**

Sounds real close, doesn't it? that sounds to me like they're working on it and will be implementing it in months. It's been WAY longer and all they said is "it's far out" And it's been ONE update. Not many. Nothing in regards to actual implemenation or challenges they're facing, etc. That's not the only post either, it's not even the OP about them. So you're not even giving all the information in your criticisms.

> @"lokh.2695" said:

> As far as I know ANet is okay withpeople selling raids and stuff but they won't reimburse you when you get scammed. You are doing it on your own risk.

Interesting. That sucks. I think the reason why blizz does that is because it increases the value of token sales. You do have to make sure that you get an in game agreement though.

Is there anything i can do to make sure i'm not scammed? I don't have a static and beating dhuum doesn't sound like it'e going to happen outside one but i still want the ring. I bought my first mount run in WoW last month and apparently blizzard will make sure the other party will keep their side of the deal as far as buying mount runs with gold goes, which i hope to do in Gw2 this instance.

> @"RedBaron.6058" said:

> ...usually means that it is unable of getting new players by itself and accepts sharing part of its meagre revenue with the gaming platform trying to remain alive. An old game getting into STEAM is usually the beginning of the end...

>

> Thanks and best regards.

O so ffxiv should be dead then?

> @"Khisanth.2948" said:

> It would be nice but it's not like you can just will it into existence.

They made it sound like it was close when they first announced, and then there next update made it sound like it was far out. Muk covered that. To me, that sounds like they almost finished it and then pushed it out for some stupid reason.

> @"Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582" said:

> If you think it's coming before the expansion, I think you will be disappointed.

This is what I'm afraid of. The expansion is coming out whenever. really. So basically we never get a fix to the unusability with leggies and the armory? Great!

I don't actually have a single legendary yet, but I feel like it will motivate me to work harder on them. I REALLY want this. I'm working on trinkets right now (Ascension, Vision and Coalescence) So i can be done with berry/LWS material farms once and for all.

> @"Mini Crinny.6190" said:

> > @"starhunter.6015" said:

> > Now some of the events for the NPCs for the new skimmer mastery are broken, have been broken for years...................Anet seriously if you are going to release something that rides off of old events, at least FIX the kitten events.

>

> The players are the QA team, we find the issues so they can fix em, saves them time, ezpz

This only works if they actually fix bugs we report. Like that invisible chest in the TP treasure hunt in the Sauna room. It woudln't be half as frustrating if I knew they would fix it by next week.

> @"Ardyth.9286" said:

> I just got the High-Vault for the Springer, which helped me get a couple of mastery points I couldn't get before. The frustration is that I need mastery points to get the traits but I need the traits to get the mastery points. I will be more diligent about following the story and working my way through.

Have you tried doing the story as many here have stated? Also the final tier of the mounts is not one you should max early at all. I waited on those until last. It's usually a shared power between them and as such, unnecessary at first. I didn't really have much of a problem? I feel like you're missing something and I think it's the story. There's lots of mastery points there. And they make more than enough to max all the masteries on purpose to help with this.

> @"VoxShatterfall.5470" said:

> Another drawback of the reduced PvP player base, bad queues at late nights. I can only queue after 10pm server time, and the last 2 matches I got placed against the same Plat 2 team twice. Also mind you I'm Gold 1 right now. How the MMR system pairs a full rating bracket difference, and then expects people to think its a balanced match, isn't fun at all. But, whatever. I'm sure if Anet changes the MMR system to prevent a full rating bracket difference, we'd have queues in the 10 minutes long. That's the issue though, we don't want long queues, but we want a fairly balanced chance to win.

As a player on pacific time, I can attest to this. This so much. usually all my matches are ROFLstomps one way or the other but when I play on weekends, I seem to do magically much better.

> @"Hot Boy.7138" said:

> i can't speak for everyone, but my interest drastically declined when they introduced 2v2s, then took it away. it was so much fun, it just killed my vibe entirely. Then they brought 3v3 but only for 2 weeks. After I read it was only 2 weeks I didn't even bother with it. Lastly, i'm finding it difficult to enjoy my main class anymore. I started playing again last week and at least in NA Gold 3 and Plat 1, there was enough people for me to get competitive games going. Most of my matches seemed very fair.

PSA: even the 2v2s were only supposed to be 2 weeks at a time. It's called a mini season.

I don't want another elite spec in Cantha. I would want something kind of like legendary powers in WoW Legion or in an ARPG. I feel like they could make them like another item slot that's kind of a really difficult to unlock thing like a legendary, but is account wide, you can only equip like 3-5 at once. It's fun getting a complete set of coherent stats, runes and sigils in this game, but I feel like there's something else needed to add more depth, because the stats and runes we pick feel very static. Something that can be swapped regularly, is a long term goal and impactful to gameplay would add something interesting imo.

> @"Rainbowdash.5314" said:

> So, i came back to the game after a 3 and a bit year break where i previously was a hardcore raider and didn't really touch pvp/wvw at all. I returned about a month ago and have tried my best to learn pvp and understand what's going on. But honestly trying to learn in unranked is a joke.

> I've been matched with plats as a new unranked player. I've seen guardians with so much aegis 3 people can't kill them while their team leave, get the bonus objective and come back go wipe my team.

> As a thief I've been hit by ranger longbow 2 and get 100-0 on a hit-tracking skill even after i stealth and run, an uncountable number of times. I've had my shortbow blink get cucked by stupid interactions on FLAT terrain.

> Condi thief kills people by mashing skill 3 and it's not even adjusted to take more than 1 finger.

>

> How have you guys let this go on for so long?

> The posts of complaints are met with essentially 'get out of gold' mindsets and 'its just how it is around here' attitudes..

> Note that my perspective on balance is indeed limited and I'm more than aware, however ranked is not something i feel safe to do given low rank, placements included, the win or loss is simply who is abusing the overtuned kits the most.

> I don't get how you stay silent when the game seems to be in such a toxic state balance-wise.

> Would love to get some dialogue with people, especially the people that reached legend without win-trading to find out their thoughts on the direction the game is going with changes.

>

> Thanks

> New player 'A'

You're discovering something I discovered a while back: Skill based games still have vertical progression, it's just on your skill and not on a gear grind. You can't leave for years and then expect to come in swinging. Yes there are population issues, but generally it's not as bad on the weekend/when people are just getting back from work. The biggest issues I have there are late night.

That said, the people who have been playing this game for 8+ years are going to understand the metas. You just have to copy them. You're not going to get something clever, I thought I would, but in practice my off-meta builds just don't usually work out well. This is when having a character of every class is nice, because you can almost instantly bring a new character online in sPVP. You have to get to like level 2 or 5. Then you just port in to the mists and buy the white versions of the weapons you want to use. And as others have stated, watch pros. Unfortunately the population issues have been basically self-selecting really really skilled players (or botters) and that's been making it difficult for normal people to get in.

I will say though that toxicity is not uncommon in PVP towards people who are learning, which doesn't really help the population.

> @"panzerdragon.8791" said:

> Good day everyone ,

>

> Over the past few week in our raids and fracs we have encountered alot of players joining the group with no regard to our lfg ad. Examples include t4 + recs LF : Hb. Plenty of the joiners are not communicating when they join to explain the discrepancy between the ad and the class the brought. Had a few people message me back with worthless complaints on their removal from our party. Has anyone else had these issues or have a solution.

>

> Regards,

>

> Alac man

Honestly the LFG tool just doesn't work well in the context of the roles the community has built in responses to evolutions in professions. For example, if I request a single healer in my LFG because I often play heal tempest in strikes, there's nothing stopping my entire group from randomly filling with healers between someone noting they're a healer in chat, and me finally navigating the LFG page back to strikes to edit it. The LFG tool still believes you can clear anything with any group comp, when raids, strikes and fractals no longer fit that and comps critically rely on buffs generated from specific types of party members. The LFG tool needs a huge rework, plain and simple.

And I don't get the hate on people who think some LFG tools stuff is ridiculous. i get it. I also don't troll people either by joining groups I'm not qualified for. If you don't want to deal with randos, don't play with randos. You're likely to get "special" people every now and then. they might not be trolling, so don't lump everyone you don't like into one group.

> @"Mad Queen Malafide.7512" said:

> The final phase of Whisper of Jormag isn't _that_ bad. Yes, things get a little more exciting near the end, but if my glass cannon can stay alive on her own during that phase, then so should anyone else be able to. Especially if there's also a healer in the group.

>

> A necromancer placing a Flesh Wurm can block a lot of the projectiles that spawn. The icycles still require a well timed dodge, but the party should know this dodge by now. If the party is spread out a bit, the chains should be no issue either. Just keep your distance when the balls spawn, and go in for dps when they stop, then back away again. I think what kills the most players, is failing to dodge the icycles (because they can't get the timing down) and trying to res a party member and getting killed in the process.

>

> This is one of those fights where you should not rely on healing through all the damage. You must dodge those icycles.

I usually Cringe when I do it weekly and am still struggling on learning the mechanics on that phase. O my favorite was when I got the green and then the icicles spawned at the same time. I think that was last week. Sure, make us stack deadly AOE in order to avoid another deadly AOE. it doesn't feel properly scripted.

I felt like I had to hit "Other" even though i use skyscale the most because I still know and feel like each mount has a niche use. I will probably never learn the sand portals well enough for Jackal to be worth it, but it gives you great shortcuts if you know them. Bunny is the best stun mount and I use it exclusively for Ley line. Raptor is best for the "lasso the hydra events" scattered here and there in PoF content (as I believe skyscale's flight breaks the lasso and isn't as fast), Griffon is the fastest aerial mount if you can start from a high point. Skimmer is great for quickly traversing over liquids and is faster than skyscale in that scenario. Roller beetle is the de facto fastest mount and I often use it to quickly travel great distances if I think I can manage over ground. I probably use Jackal the least, then raptor then Bunny. But they're all still useful and you're not bringing your a game if you don't undertand that.

> @"Adzekul.3104" said:

> Nobody is acknowledging the problem in the "bugs" forum, so I am posting here.

>

> DC on map load, 3v3 season 1, EU megaserver, currently 4 consecutive matches and counting. Not just me, or even my entire team, but other players also.

>

> We ready up and select a map, and .... DC as it is loading.

>

> Please acknowledge and investigate.

>

> [https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/106830/dc-from-3v3-ranked](https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/106830/dc-from-3v3-ranked)

This just happened for me as well. And it won't let me get into the match when I relog. Annoying AF.

> @"mindcircus.1506" said:

> > @"Firebeard.1746" said:

> > I also believe that it is completely within Anet's right to stop pushing content that the community doesn't do in response to said standards.

> Are you trying to say that vast numbers of people aren't doing strikes?

> And that this is because of crazy LFG requirements?

>

>

No, I'm mostly jabbing at raids, where OP is likely putting ridiculous requirements, but am poking at how sometimes that toxicity bleeds through into other parts of the game.