Firebeard.1746

I didn't even see that the OP was saying easy mode doesn't give Leggie rewards/achievements, I would have left this alone if I had noticed. I'm fine with the hard mode having certain unique rewards, but not legendaries. Legendaries are the end game and by locking them out of any easy mode, you're locking people out of long-term engagement, because that is the long term engagement in this game outside of sheer enjoyment. I'm fine with the LI or equivalent drop rates being lower than the hardmodes, but feel it would be a mistake not to have access to legendary rewards at that level. I support hard modes because I accept that there's players that want hard challenges and want to be rewarded for them, and that's completely fine. The elite in this game are tired too and feel abandoned. They know everything and my understanding is the last wing was a bit of a disappointment in terms of difficulty. Right now, raids in their current state aren't serving either end of the community, and ideally, Anet should want to cater to both. I know I'm going to be flamed by hardcore raiders for my suggestion, but in reality, if the only reason they raid is for a reward others can't have, then they're driven by toxic elitism, and not by love of the game mode. And I'm actually not opposed to something special, like maybe an infusion with a low drop rate for the harder modes.

> @"Cyninja.2954" said: > I'm not invalidating players experience, that would not even be possible given experience is subjective. I'm saying that there is a level of ineptitude which does not need be catered to balance wise. I would agree with this in theory, but your level of what you consider ineptitude is way too high and/or does not factor in community realities. I.E. even if an alternative is possible the community may not accept said alternative, and doesn't in many cases.

> @"Cyninja.2954" said: > > @"Firebeard.1746" said: > > > @"Cyninja.2954" said: > > > Players who want to raid in this game are raiding, or at least the vast majority is. If sharing assets with other content is of primary concern, there is a ton of stuff which could be done which would be more beneficial than easy mode raids. Harping on half truths from the past because the overall games population is in decline in order to prove some point or make some type of assumption of how things could have been is just baseless speculation, especially when unfounded in recent game developments. > > > > False. Lots of people in one of my guilds are giving up because they don't feel they can make DPS numbers. One of the people in question is a little older if they've been telling the truth of gchat, I still think it's hilarious that GW2 raiders don't think GW2 raids are more technically challenging that other MMOs. I'd LOVE to just throw ya'll behind normal-ish geared toons into a heroic raid with some flasks and see what you folks do lol. Many people do not raid in this game due to a combination or difficulty and/or community issues (which imo, stem from the difficulty). > > > > EDIT: in fact there's people on this thread communicating that they want to but can't for whatever reason. > > Sure what ever you say. I've heard it all before in the most common reason is: people unwillingness or inability to actually get the knowledge they require from experienced raiders. > > As far as damage, sorry but when there is auto attack builds which literally require not pushing of buttons AT ALL to meet damage requirements for the easier wings, I am calling bs. What people most likely lack is the correct build for their skill level and just go to snowcrows and get meta builds (if at all, most just use their run of the mill trash build), then fail at rotations no matter how hard or easy those might be. Well there are tons of non meta builds which are far easier and provide more than enough dps for any raid content (bar maybe some CMs like Dhuum CM). > > That would of course require interacting with other players who might have that knowledge or even using simple google or youtube searches. > > We have players of ages mid 50+ successfully raid in one of my more casual guilds (and actually on meta classes, not "easy rotation" builds), so I fail to see how age is a huge issue. It's not BS, that was literally one of the reasons they gave. I can't speak to the amount of research they did, etc, but I can tell you they felt inadequate. I love how you like to control other people's experiences like they're not real. Perhaps they're not doing everything they should. Perhaps the commmunity is judging them too much for bringing a build optimized for their play style, I can't say, but you can't say that people's experiences aren't valid. And there's literally not enough of you to go around talking sense to fix this issue, the numbers of participation and the amount of frustration, here and on the forums is very real, and I'm not just talking about my own experiences. The OP is someone other than me. Other complaints in this thread aren't from me. You may not be wrong that there are solutions, but it's obvious they're not ubiquitously known enough to fix these problems.

> @"Ayrilana.1396" said: > > @"Firebeard.1746" said: > > > @"Ayrilana.1396" said: > > > > @"Firebeard.1746" said: > > > > > @"Ayrilana.1396" said: > > > > > You're not accounting for these being **UNIQUE** rewards which are not available elsewhere in the game. > > > > > > > > IMO they're not. The mistforged variants of WvW and PVP armor have more up to date graphics and coalescence almost makes me gag with its graphic. Also, other MMOs deprecate old content making it easier to grab the unique things, which was my main point. Mythic Antorus is the only place you can earn the corresponding tier set. WoW DOES have a few rewards that go away, but they're clearly communicated and a 100% drop rate so even filthy casuals can just farm some gold and buy a run (a single boss kill actually) and they're done (doing the same thing in GW2 costs WAY more cash in real dollars if we're talking the leggies as you have to pay for 150-300 kills depending on your account and what exactly we're talking about). > > > > > > > > updated for accuracy. > > > > > > Personal preference is not the same as there being no unique rewards. > > > > > > As I had said in another part of the post you quoted, Anet has specifically stated that they would “depreciate” older raids as time went on. > > > > I think you meant to say "would not" because your previous post was contrarian to me suggesting they should. Do you have a source on this? Do the versions of the armors look that different to you? The heavy ones look VERY similar except for a few pieces. But okay. If that makes you feel special then fine. > > Yeah, I meant would not. I'll try to find a source but I believe it was a video so it may be more difficult to find. Essentially is was them commenting about how raids in other MMOs became obsolete when new ones were added and they wanted to avoid that. They also brought up the elite maps from GW1 which have remained challenging. > > Considering the the legendary armor skins are unique, along with animations, I'd say that they are unique. Also look at all of the skins, minis, and so on that are available from doing raids. Do they exist outside of raids? No. They do not. > > EDIT: Found their announcement about raids. At around the 14 minute mark is where he starts talking about not wanting the content to be depreciated over time. It's also stated that raids are intended for those that are looking for a challenge as they're designed to be the most challenging content in the game. This is echoed through their various blogs and one or two dev posts on the forums. > > Nice research!

> @"Ayrilana.1396" said: > > @"Firebeard.1746" said: > > > @"Ayrilana.1396" said: > > > You're not accounting for these being **UNIQUE** rewards which are not available elsewhere in the game. > > > > IMO they're not. The mistforged variants of WvW and PVP armor have more up to date graphics and coalescence almost makes me gag with its graphic. Also, other MMOs deprecate old content making it easier to grab the unique things, which was my main point. Mythic Antorus is the only place you can earn the corresponding tier set. WoW DOES have a few rewards that go away, but they're clearly communicated and a 100% drop rate so even filthy casuals can just farm some gold and buy a run (a single boss kill actually) and they're done (doing the same thing in GW2 costs WAY more cash in real dollars if we're talking the leggies as you have to pay for 150-300 kills depending on your account and what exactly we're talking about). > > > > updated for accuracy. > > Personal preference is not the same as there being no unique rewards. > > As I had said in another part of the post you quoted, Anet has specifically stated that they would “depreciate” older raids as time went on. I think you meant to say "would not" because your previous post was contrarian to me suggesting they should. Do you have a source on this? Do the versions of the armors look that different to you? The heavy ones look VERY similar except for a few pieces. But okay. If that makes you feel special then fine.

> @"Cyninja.2954" said: > Players who want to raid in this game are raiding, or at least the vast majority is. If sharing assets with other content is of primary concern, there is a ton of stuff which could be done which would be more beneficial than easy mode raids. Harping on half truths from the past because the overall games population is in decline in order to prove some point or make some type of assumption of how things could have been is just baseless speculation, especially when unfounded in recent game developments. False. Lots of people in one of my guilds are giving up because they don't feel they can make DPS numbers. One of the people in question is a little older if they've been telling the truth of gchat, I still think it's hilarious that GW2 raiders don't think GW2 raids are more technically challenging that other MMOs. I'd LOVE to just throw ya'll behind normal-ish geared toons into a heroic raid with some flasks and see what you folks do lol. Many people do not raid in this game due to a combination or difficulty and/or community issues (which imo, stem from the difficulty). EDIT: in fact there's people on this thread communicating that they want to but can't for whatever reason.

> @"Cyninja.2954" said: > > @"Astralporing.1957" said: > > > @"Cyninja.2954" said: > > > Then this layer of difficulty serves no purpose as gateway or training mechanism for raids. > > Yes. Indeed, the usefulness of such mode for training, while existing, should never be considered as an important factor. It would be less important, than, for example, segregating "players who have different approaches and goals for a mode", so they won't end meeting in the same group. > > > > You nicely skipped the second part of the response where I commented on what another poster suggested that even an easy mode might very well attract players with different goals, which makes the entire approach of segregation meaningless. Besides splitting the player base even further. > > > @"Astralporing.1957" said: > > > @"Cyninja.2954" said: > > > All it does is redistribute rewards to lower tiers and potentially allow reuse of assets. > > "Redistribution" assumes raiders would lose something - which they wouldn't. > > read: > > redistribute verb > > > > 2: to spread to other areas > - https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/redistribute > > English might not be my mother tongue, but to me it seems you are using only part of this words definition. For clarity's sake though, I could have also stated that access to rewards was being redistributed. > > > @"Firebeard.1746" said: > > Why would you, if you love raiding, be opposed to more people experiencing the same content you do, and progress at a slower pace? If you love the game mode, you should want more involvement, even if it's not at your level because then *GASP* anet has a reason to develop more of your difficult content of choice. And heck, these people are also not trying to take anything from you by suggesting your more difficult method be more rewarding (as it should be). Hardcore players already whine the raids aren't difficult enough. There's no reason for people to complain about difficulty if there's an alternate method of getting the same rewards. And then you still get the *CHALLENGING* content you and the rest of the raid community claim you want (and you and anet don't have to worry about the haters if there's an easy mode and can go all-out). it's a win-win and legendary armor/ring isn't so special any more. > > In the past there was already constraint on the resources devoted to raid content, which in some of our opinions is the ACTUAL reason for this content decline. Just like Spvp, WvW and fractals, which have seen similar decline due to lack of attention and content. Spreading the same amount of resources across multiple difficulties would have meant even less content in terms of actual raids OR requiring more developer attention, which in turn would have meant less content in other areas, most likely other PvE. > > So no, it's not a win-win especially if we consider that as some have pointed out, easy raids might not even address some of the issues which players argue for: most notably a better way to enter the content. > > If this is about only easier access to the rewards, everyone can have their own stance on it, but it is something far different than "we need easy raids for training purposes". > > As far as the current situation and if there is no development resources allocated, then sure, any resources spent on any part of the mode might be in some way beneficial. That's a very different outset than the past though and again, requires resources be pulled from other content. > > > @"Firebeard.1746" said: > > > @"Ayrilana.1396" said: > > > You're not accounting for these being **UNIQUE** rewards which are not available elsewhere in the game. > > > > IMO they're not. The mistforged variants of WvW and PVP armor have more up to date graphics and coalescence almost makes me gag with its graphic. Also, other MMOs deprecate old content making it easier to grab the unique things, which was my main point. Mythic Antorus is the only place you can earn the corresponding tier set. WoW DOES have a few rewards that go away, but they're clearly communicated and a 100% drop rate so even filthy casuals can just farm some gold and buy a run (a single boss kill actually) and they're done (doing the same thing in GW2 costs WAY more cash in real dollars if we're talking the leggies as you have to pay for 150-300 kills depending on your account and what exactly we're talking about). > > > > updated for accuracy. > > The first part is subjective and if the other armor is more to your liking, what do you care if the inferior one is accessible to you or not. I actually don't, I just don't see it as that inconsistent with MMOs in general to make it more accessible as the content ages. If I find the right group, I'll gladly raid, if not I'll just keep my random poking at it every now and then, I think I'm more interested in completing the collections for envoy because OCD and that's it. I'm not crying at night or jealous of those skins. Even though I don't have my targeted WvW mistforged armor yet. Also, the visuals are only partially subjective - they had more time to work on and improve visual techniques after the release of the Maguuma raid armors (the first truly legendarily visual armors), I'm sure you'll find some people who like the maguuma armors better, but I'm also sure most people will find the improved PVP/WvW legendary armors better (I'm specifically referring to the ones that require higher rank in both to craft).

> @"Ayrilana.1396" said: > You're not accounting for these being **UNIQUE** rewards which are not available elsewhere in the game. IMO they're not. The mistforged variants of WvW and PVP armor have more up to date graphics and coalescence almost makes me gag with its graphic. Also, other MMOs deprecate old content making it easier to grab the unique things, which was my main point. Mythic Antorus is the only place you can earn the corresponding tier set. WoW DOES have a few rewards that go away, but they're clearly communicated and a 100% drop rate so even filthy casuals can just farm some gold and buy a run (a single boss kill actually) and they're done (doing the same thing in GW2 costs WAY more cash in real dollars if we're talking the leggies as you have to pay for 150-300 kills depending on your account and what exactly we're talking about). updated for accuracy.

> @"Katary.7096" said: > > @"chrispy.7182" said: > > > > I see your point. But you could remedy this by: > > > > 1) Severely nerfing the rewards. So in the normal Radi ti takes, what, 6 weeks is it to get 150 LI? So in the easy version it would take maybe 6 months or something. Frankly, all the people who play the easy version are the people who are never going to play the normal version because of the barrier to entry. So they will have no problem waiting 6 months to get their legendary armour. > Why make the reward nerf this complicated? Simply remove LI, LD, Minis, Skins and Achievements and call it a day. To give people an alternative to WvW for legendary armor/ring mats? Honestly no one needs to touch raids to cover every slot at this point. I can literally kill guards for hours on end roaming in WvW and the game will shove legendary crafting materials up my kitten. (sure I'll have to cap and/or kill another player every so often, but it's not that hard). Why would you, if you love raiding, be opposed to more people experiencing the same content you do, and progress at a slower pace? If you love the game mode, you should want more involvement, even if it's not at your level because then *GASP* anet has a reason to develop more of your difficult content of choice. And heck, these people are also not trying to take anything from you by suggesting your more difficult method be more rewarding (as it should be). Hardcore players already whine the raids aren't difficult enough. There's no reason for people to complain about difficulty if there's an alternate method of getting the same rewards. And then you still get the *CHALLENGING* content you and the rest of the raid community claim you want (and you and anet don't have to worry about the haters if there's an easy mode and can go all-out). it's a win-win and legendary armor/ring isn't so special any more. Did you know the 2 versions of conflux are unique? You can leggie every slot not stepping into a raid ONCE (and honestly, I think that's great given the state of the content and community atm, it's great if it's with people you know/aren't judgy & in a static), I've never been able to make the second part of that happen, probably never will (the one guild I have that does training runs is completely open so kills are too hit or miss to be worth doing it all the time, even fi I could get my schedule to cooperate consistently)). Also, I don't know about FFXIV, but in WoW, you can just go back and solo all the bosses in old content (n-2 expac for weaker classes, n-1 expansion and beyond for ones with self-heals) if you want the old tier sets. If Anet doesn't fix raiding, I think they should add a mastery in EOD or IB that makes farming the bosses easier like this. It's old, mostly dead content, why not let players experience it/farm the cosmetics? WoW also changes the loot rules in this setting (usually to make it easier to get the transmogs, but in GW2 we have to consider breaking the economy), the same could be done in this scenario. maybe they wouldn't drop the 2g, the Exotic, anything that will break the economy, but relevant items for achievements etc still do. They can also disable special achievements that were intended for only high difficulty when the kill involved the mastery (just like AOTC in WoW). Obviously they should have a way to disable this mastery so what few people are still raiding are still raiding & get the full rewards, but honestly the content, especially W1-W4 are so old, they deserve a deprecation path like this if we want GW2 comparable to other MMOs. I also believe the raiding community is getting weaker, not stronger right now, all I've seen is anecdotal but that's my impresson.

> @"Ayrilana.1396" said: > > @"Firebeard.1746" said: > > > @"Linken.6345" said: > > > > @"chrispy.7182" said: > > > > This is the reason why I stopped playing. They need to make two versions of the raids in my opinion. One is the normal tier we have now, and the other is a beginners tier. The beginners tier will have the same mechanics but will be much more forgiving (less damage) so that people can pug and get to know the mechanics. The rewards from these would be less obviously. But it would just give new people space to practice until they know the raids and can then enter the higher tier when they know the mechanics. > > > > > > If its to forgiving people will just out heal it and ignore the mechanics and learning nothing. > > > > > > I say just make it the same nerf rewards and take away the timer. > > > > > > People can go full defence and still learn nothing but complete it. > > > But if they really want to learn they learn with the true severity of the mechanics. > > > Edit > > > Ofcourse no normal achievement progress, they could add other aps to it tho. > > > > Once you take away AP/LIs, you might as well just do strikes instead. > > The reasons being given for training and story must all be BS then. Just an excuse to get the rewards easier. Maybe not, but as others have stated, there's powerful enough defensive mechanisms that you're not really getting much in the way of training. Story you can just watch a youtube video. I mean rewards is what 90% of the player base are playing for. Otherwise why would PuGs and so many statics recruiting have such stringent KP requirements? People want rewards FAST. I can't read into the other's intentions. See my post below though because I feel like you're trying to say people don't deserve to earn those slots not doing the exact same thing as you.

> @"Linken.6345" said: > > @"chrispy.7182" said: > > This is the reason why I stopped playing. They need to make two versions of the raids in my opinion. One is the normal tier we have now, and the other is a beginners tier. The beginners tier will have the same mechanics but will be much more forgiving (less damage) so that people can pug and get to know the mechanics. The rewards from these would be less obviously. But it would just give new people space to practice until they know the raids and can then enter the higher tier when they know the mechanics. > > If its to forgiving people will just out heal it and ignore the mechanics and learning nothing. > > I say just make it the same nerf rewards and take away the timer. > > People can go full defence and still learn nothing but complete it. > But if they really want to learn they learn with the true severity of the mechanics. > Edit > Ofcourse no normal achievement progress, they could add other aps to it tho. Once you take away AP/LIs, you might as well just do strikes instead.

> @"Leonidrex.5649" said: > > @"Kuma.1503" said: > > Nerf phantasmal warlock! I saw it do damage the other day and I'm pretty sure that's unintended. > > I want what you are taking. > Sincerely, Mesmer player. I'm 100% sure he's being sarcastic.

Honestly they've nerfed too much, before it felt like everyone was OP, now it feels like only a few things are viable and they just keep nerfing until nothing is. I think they need to reset and bring a lot of things back but properly tuned for intended role. They need to think harder about what individual classes should and shouldn't bring to the table and make each class bring something unique and perform particular roles.

> @"lare.5129" said: > don't try it do solo. > also change class for that boss. Lord hizen wants a word with you.

Though this has got me thinking: one of the unfortunate side effects of trying so many different things in quick succession is that it divides the available player base for PVE even further (because now players have to choose between 3 different types of content on a limited schedule). Maybe a compromise on my previous comment about seasonal content is they'd occaisionally bring back older seasonal rewards to do instead of new ones, so casuals are never truly gated out of anything, but have to make a choice. Meta events as boring as some people find them, are still the main draw of this game I think (along with permanent progressions/leggies). I want that to change, just like you OP. It would be healthier for the game to have a strong PVE community. Strikes, for the most part, I would say are a success. People will organize pugs and do them fairly regulary. That's probably something they should double down on, but they need something else to keep them interesting, because they're literally jsut a boss and the same boss all the time. I don't know what to say about raids. They're not really *RAIDS* imo. They're very challenging small group content, the margins of error on them are just far too low to use that descriptor compared to other MMOs. The only level of raiding in WoW that falls apart that easy is Mythic which most of the player base doesn't touch with a 10-ft pole. All that being said, I think it's interesting content, I don't do it often, but with the right groups it's great imo. I'd personally like to see more with some systems to encourage integrating and helping new players instead of building a super experienced static as the only meta, that's where most of the decay on the mode has come from IMO. I like the ideas behind Visions and DRM, they're just missing something and I can't put my finger on it. I actually love that my MF means something in Visions, I actually loved the final boss too because I was teaching players the mechanics. Sometimes it felt like herding cats, but the great thing about it was it didn't require particular gear, so it's very GW2 friendly in that way, it's mostly teaching and playing mechanics and I think there's room for a PVE mode like that. I've done DRM, haven't been grinding them even though I want volcanic stormcaller weapons, but I will say they're a pinch short. People aren't latching onto them like strikes though and I don't know why. Perhaps it's because they don't have a clear purpose? I like the active feel of them as opposed to traversing a dungeon normally, like it's a fluid event happening.

> @"DoomNexus.5324" said: > Guild Wars 2 does not really stand out in any aspect on the MMO market and it's kinda sad. I just want to know what you guys are thinking about what I have to say, there's no hate, I don't even want to make suggestions what Anet should do or not, I just want to tell my opinion about the state of the game and if there are at least some that agree or if I'm delusional here. So.. No need to get aggressive in here. > > PvE is vastly outperformed by FF14 and WoW for example and I think that's pretty much all I have to say. If you are serious about PvE and progression then there's simply no way Anet could catch up and offer a great alternative. Maybe some side content between major patches/expacs of said games but other than that I think good PvE is pretty much non-existent in GW2. I'm not saying we don't have a lot of PvE-only players or that there's 0 PvE content but Anet doesn't particularly focus on delivering content to sustain a PvE community. I mean, almost everyone plays PvE, even competitive players sometimes need to relax and do some fractals, open world farms, maybe even raids,.. but you simply can't argue that GW2 is nowhere near the quality and quantity other mmos provide and I'd even go as far and say that GW1 had and to this day still has better PvE content than GW2. > > Now competitive modes are a bit tricky since no MMO has been really "good" at it in the past decade or so. Guild Wars 1 had amazing PvP and while some players are still organizing large player groups to play together at specific times pvp in this game is unfortunately pretty much dead. > There are some contenders for competitive modes however. For both sPvP and WvW there's probably first and foremost ESO and BDO. > BDO lacks a good game mode for small scale fights however so I kinda don't really consider it a contender in small scale content but I know that a lot of people are dueling in arenas, running around PK'ing (as "pvp content"..) or fighting in RBF and stuff soo.. Also it's a huge grindfest (has been improved tho) and large scale content is not really viable for (semi-)casuals so it's probably not really a good example in the eyes of the gw2 community but well.. it's there and it's popular for those who enjoy and are able to invest a lot of time. > ESO on the other hand is hands down better in every way when it comes to competitive content by design. The sPvP is way more balanced, Battlegrounds are imo (or at least used to be until they made it solo only - haven't played much since then but removing full team COMPLETELY is always a bad move) vastly more enjoyable due to the design with relatively speaking a lot of pvp modes to choose from (5 to be exact, if you own the dlcs), Imperial City as a PvEvP mode is also decent.. > I can't say too much about Cyrodiil since I haven't played it much, but from what I can tell it's a lot better structured than WvW.. Don't quote me on that tho.. A lot of people are enjoying the game mode but have their issues too. But that's also not the point, the point is that WvW in gw2 is not unique in a modern mmo and if you want an alternative then you can get it. > Not to mention that these are just some examples, there are also other games offering similar features. > Not everybody likes any of the games mentioned above and that's ok, I don't like most of them or at least aspects of them either. But this should not be a "Look at dis game, it's so much better- Anet please make GW2 like [insert other mmo]" to begin with. It's a fact that a lot of people quit gw2 to play some games mentioned previously for said reasons. > I enjoy the combat system and class designs in Gw2 A LOT more tho, hence why I'm not playing ESO and talking about the state of the game on their forums (I simply don't really care, unlike for gw2) but.. It just shows that GW2 doesn't have any uniqueness or edge over any other game. Nor have others over gw2 btw, they are just as lazy as Anet in some areas (at least competitive modes), however it's kinda obvious that Anet doesn't really deliver in _any_ game mode sooo... > > The only thing GW2 can bring to the table is Living Story and the story itself, however I think it's super boring and I would bet quite a bit of money that if Anet made LS episodes b2p from the moment they released only a few percent of the playerbase would consider buying them for the story. If it offers a good farm map, maybe, but for the story? probably only a handful of people. But monetization is a whole other topic I don't want to get into with this thread. > Now don't get me wrong, there are plenty reasons to stick with gw2 like the casual friendly non-existence of gear progression or that everything is "kinda enjoyable" to a reasonable extent or for a limited amount of time. But is this really what GW2 should be? A kinda enjoyable gap filler for releases in other mmos/games? Idk. > > Soo... I'd love to see Anet make up their mind and settle on something they want their game to identify. Something they can really invest their resources in and capture a larger audience. I'm not even saying "focus on that one thing and nothing else".. Maybe ditch Living Story entirely and focus on _Something_.. Idc, I'm a PvP player so I'd obviously prefer PvP but even if Anet decided to go with Raid and Fractals then I'd be ok with it. As long as they don't add some new "mode" like Strikes, DRM, ... only to let them die in the next patch by introducing some new flashy mode nobody cares for since there won't be any variety. > > So I'd like to read your thoughts about whether or not you think Anet should settle on some existing features, if yes which one, or if they should just continue experimenting with new forms of content, continue the Living Story cycle, etc.. > Just please don't make comments like "that's not going to happen because X" - Yes.. I know.. I know nothing will improve, it's Anet and GW2 we are talking about. If they wanted to please their game community then they could've done so somewhere along those last 8 years. But they continue to fail, it's nothing new. And yes, Anet apparently makes enough money to justify their path they're going with the game but that's also not the topic. I'd just like to hear in which direction the game should head during the next couple years, not what direction is likely to be. > I for example would wish for Anet to bring back Fort Aspenwood and Jade Quarry in EoD. It would be a perfect fit since those were introduced in the Cantha expansion back in GW1 as well. Maybe give us an additional Eternal Battleground-style map and the Alliance update _eventually_. I would argue there's currently more relevant content to do at any point in time in GW2 than WoW, it's just that much of it is old. Which is a product of their business model that feeds directly into their dev model. Like even though Dungeons aren't quite as rewarding as strikes for example, there's not the same magnitude of difference and you can do them on ANY day to get that reward. Whereas in WoW you have to wait for months for any relevant timewalking events to get gear of a decent ilvl from old content (you are primarily silo'd into current content). This is barring any gold profits from mob kills (IIRC timewalking doesn't scale up gold drops from Mobs. Generally raids/dungeons aren't the primary gold source in WoW, but it's still worth noting it's not as efficient as "normal" expansion content). The last big experiment WOW had as far as PVE goes is M+ and that started in Legion and has just been iterated on, whereas this Season we've received 3 DIFFERENT TYPES of PVE content: visions, strikes and dragon missions. Anet is trying their darndest to do something new and engage the community, we're just not latching on. (I would say the 3 probably == 1 WoW's expansion's worth of dungeon content) I'm interested in Dragon Missions but haven't had time given the current ascension grind I'm stuck in. I think maybe they should add special seasonal rewards to PVE content or something to try to engage people more that way, but doing so would invalidate the fundamental selling point of GW2: that you can do things at your own pace and the gear ceiling doesn't truly rise. Even Vipers'/Zerker's gear from forever ago is STILL useful. It might be useful to have things that stay forever but also special things that are temporary. This would hopefully appease both casuals and hardcore players. HCs would always have something to chase other than leggies, but casuals would still get something if they don't have time for it *NOW*

> @"Kabansky.9160" said: > Sometimes I don't get credit for the kill for no apparent reason. I get the usual loot it drops upon death but not the event chest. If I kill another one later on that day and do manage to get the chest I still don't get my daily mystic coin. This is getting rather annoying as I'm saving up for a legendary. I've had this happen too. It's usually once every 1-2 months, but annoying nonetheless.

> @"krzysiekb.8769" said: > "I barely made an account but I'm unable to participate in "endgame content" right away, fix it!!" > > How is that an issue? Are you guys seriously complaining about it? This might be news to you, but other MMOs try to make raiding the crux of end-game content, it's generally not hard to gear up for the lowest tiers of raiding in them (and straightforward) so other MMO players expect to be able to just jump right in. Some paths for selectable stat exotics and/or ascended gear actually aren't that bad but require knowledge that new players just don't tend to have. GW2 doesn't babysit you and in most cases it's a beautful thing, because you get to make money off of your OWN knowledge in some cases, perusing the wiki and experiencing the game. But for raids, it's freaking annoying. Some metas for gearing up require delving into old content too, which is also not straightforward.

> @"dani.5680" said: > Impossible for new players to get in a new raid! All require 150+ LI and all training require ascended so you are in a farming space of over 3 months for ascended gear just to get in the training! Then 1 year to get those 150 LI! What the hell is going on? > Most of training guilds take you on weekends if they are free, if not, not! > So as a new player you have to farm 1year to be in a LFG? Thats stupid isn't it? Be careful, you're going to get lots of "smart" comments that don't work in practice in game telling you everything is fine, no one has to teach you, etc, etc. My only recommendation will be to try NA raid academy. It seemed harder to start groups the last couple times I checked in (the few people pinging weren't getting much respnoses), but it's probably the best place to start honestly, people there are friendly and most people have the proper gear, even if they're not experienced. 10 Squad size is prohibitively low for making raids a true guild activity, and most people want someone just experienced as them for quick rewards outside RA training runs. The raids in this game tend to have a higher skill cap than WoW normal and most heroic raids, and are much less fault tolerant (i.e. one death wipes the group in GW2). I will try raiding again as soon as I'm done getting ascension and the leggie neck. I'm close, but we'll see. I may just WvW for the rest. My OCD is the only reason I might get back into it. I can't stand having those random items from the envoy armor and coalescence ollections I do have just lying around forever in my inventory. BUt if it's too bad maybe I'll just delete it all and move on.

> @"Bingus.4236" said: > I've been using Strikes to get ascended armour. For the actual time I spend playing, seems very time efficient. I am not really a farmer, I don't enjoy sorting through loot that much. With strikes, I can just pay the shards in and get what I want. the three easy strikes and forging steel once a day is about 40 minutes or there about and doing that once a day for a week can get around enough to get one of the smaller 150 shard armour pieces. I still think fractals beats it when you start doing the higher tiers. The higher level chests can give ascended mats (or mystic coins) and you get boat loads of raw gold, but okay cool! Good for you! It is easy to get into.

I'm about 1/2 way on the last Ascension achieve and the about 90% of the way to the neck (not the floaty ball version, you couldn't pay me to endure the tournament toxicity I experienced the one time I tried. Tournament could be good if people weren't so picky with teams most people would have more wins if there was more participation in general, but it feels like the winner is picked before they're started, barring botting/hacking. The team with the lowest skill and/or rank floor loses). AS soon as I complete them, i'll be raiding (provided I can find interested parties, RA hasn't been doing so hot the last few times I've checked in)/WvW for any legendaries I want. i'll still PVP because the legitimate matches I've had have made me a better player and I tend to own other roamers on WvW (scourges still give me issues), so I don't want to lose my edge, but it'll be like 3 matches a week on a class I WvW with.

> @"Jekkt.6045" said: > > @"Firebeard.1746" said: > > > @"Jekkt.6045" said: > > > 1. mug deals damage > > > > > > 2. might stacks, vulnerability, zerk amulet, separation sigil etc > > Can you actually run the numbers instead of just telling me > > > > > > > > 3. zerk, vulnerability, more damage from stun etc > > > > That was the weirdness though: how would I go from 0-25 stacks of vuln instantly out of a stealth? And where would they get 25 on their own? They literally popped out of stealth and did this from thin air, no prior encounter. > > > > > > > > nothing you mention is out of order. mug is pretty normal. 11k dj is on the higher end, 4.5k shatter too but both are possible under certain conditions. > > > > > i'm way too lazy to run the numbers but i've played full zerk deadeye the past week and mug deals around 1k damage that can't crit and i hit a ranger for more than 10k with dj once. > > mesmer: > 5-8 stacks vuln from stun (8 if they rupt) > 12 stacks vuln from power spike on stun > 12 stacks might from mantra chanel > +50% shatter damage on cc > +15% crit damage on cc > +8.5% damage vuln trait (17 stacks x 0.5%) > +sigils and runes > > pre feb patch you could literally oneshot every single class except ranger with shatter mesmer. 4.5k crits sounds about right after the global damage nerf. spec can't do that anymore because power spike damage and scaling sucks now. > And I had most of those. It doesn't account for a 2x in difference.

> @"Jekkt.6045" said: > 1. mug deals damage > > 2. might stacks, vulnerability, zerk amulet, separation sigil etc Can you actually run the numbers instead of just telling me? > > 3. zerk, vulnerability, more damage from stun etc That was the weirdness though: how would I go from 0-25 stacks of vuln instantly out of a stealth? And where would they get 25 on their own? They literally popped out of stealth and did this from thin air, no prior encounter. Also I was using zerk ammy and sep sigil and my crits on a single mind wrack shatter are 2.3k. > > nothing you mention is out of order. mug is pretty normal. 11k dj is on the higher end, 4.5k shatter too but both are possible under certain conditions.

> @"uberkingkong.8041" said: > They do this this way because you can potentially DDoS the game. > > Everytime you change something like LFG message, it sends it to database for a change. > So if you was really mad, > made like 50 accounts, program to change lfg message. > It's gonna flood the server and bring it down. > > Have to think of this from a architectural point of view. > Seems silly, but it makes the game more secure and less vulnerable to attacks. > > What they could do, is add something like captcha, where you have to solve to show you are not a robot. Then perhaps they should consider giving us proper queues and own the fact there's roles in this game instead of denying it but constantly releasing new content that require them.

> @"Critical Delay.9184" said: > This has made it extremely hard and irritating to manage and find proper groups in LFG. Not sure if it's new, but I have been getting suppressed from editing my LFG way too often. I focus on fractals, so im constantly having to edit out which classes join and also when someone leaves the group. Now I constantly have to be asking the new players to edit out their class from LFG because why? I can't think of a good reason why they would add this feature to LFG. OMG had the same issues organizing strikes. Won't provide queues that auto-construct appropriate comps, won't let you modify comp requests at will. FML.