Vayne.8563

> @"Thornwolf.9721" said:

> > @"Vayne.8563" said:

> > > @"Rukia.4802" said:

> > > 1 recognized (?) pvp mode

> > >

> > > Let's count how much pvp content GW1 got.. with a much smaller budget and team.

> >

> > Yep, because GW 1 was designed as a PvP game. Guild Wars 2 wasn't. : Even in Guild Wars 1 developed as time progressed, the updates were more and more PvE. And didn't expect PvE to be as popular as it was, but it was undeniably what ended up driving the game. The evidence is that Anet made Guild Wars 2 about PvE predominantly. You can tell by the number of updates PvE gets by comparison.

> >

> > Anet said, before Guild Wars 2 launched that they intentionally didn't talk about PVP for the first year after the announcement to try to break people out of the idea this was a PvP based game. They said this at shows and on panels. The focus of this game was always been PvE from day one. That's why it talked on the official website about the game being a living breathing world. That's why they focused on dynamic events.

>

> Thats why their steam page DIRECTLY talks about competitive play and that its a competitive game?

> https://gyazo.com/7c04627da02a77ffc38f65d04853cae2

Sure they mention it. Just like a hotel that has tennis courts might mention them in an ad, but it doesn't make it a tennis hotel. There are four paragrpahs there, and one of them talks about competitive play which obviously from the wording covers both PvP and WvW. They're lumped in together in one paragraph. They don't even get their own seperate paragraph. Looks to me that one of the paragraphis there is about story, one is about dynamic events, one is about combat in general and one paragraph is shared between two completely different types of PvP.

I don't know a lot of people who would argue at this point that this game is centered on PvP. Just look at the game updates Anet absolutely said what I said they said. That they didn't talk about PvP for the first year to make it clear this wasn't a PvP centric game. Because they had trouble getting people into GW 1 later on because everyone assumed it was a PvP centric game. They've never had the bulk of their devs working on PvP. And I don't know any PvPers who think they have.

You can believe anything you want, but the evidence doesn't really support what you're implying here.

> @"Rukia.4802" said:

> 1 recognized (?) pvp mode

>

> Let's count how much pvp content GW1 got.. with a much smaller budget and team.

Yep, because GW 1 was designed as a PvP game. Guild Wars 2 wasn't. : Even in Guild Wars 1 developed as time progressed, the updates were more and more PvE. And didn't expect PvE to be as popular as it was, but it was undeniably what ended up driving the game. The evidence is that Anet made Guild Wars 2 about PvE predominantly. You can tell by the number of updates PvE gets by comparison.

Anet said, before Guild Wars 2 launched that they intentionally didn't talk about PVP for the first year after the announcement to try to break people out of the idea this was a PvP based game. They said this at shows and on panels. The focus of this game was always been PvE from day one. That's why it talked on the official website about the game being a living breathing world. That's why they focused on dynamic events.

> @"lil muffin.1250" said:

> first of all.. all the people who write "bring what back it wasn't ever here" b.s. YOU KNOW WHAT THE .... I'M TALKIN BOUT.

>

> Secondly.

> Gw2 is fun.

> the combat is actually fun.

> the combat is shallow as kitten and kinda messy and all over the place and sure I might be a casual who spams skills. but there is nothing and i do mean nothing that really rewards you for becoming a great players.

> Now i'm cute with my mesmer blinking out of aoes and giving out quickeness to my friends around me, interupting and depleting boss block bars.

> but i think the game would be a bit more solid with more concrete systems.

> its all too floaty.

> from the high numbers of bleeds. to the shortness of boons. everything seems less impactful because it only last for a few moments.

> I think the trinity allows game designers the ability to create characters that feel super unique.

>

> Gw2 is the only game i play every single proffession.

> Because honestly they all kind of feel the same.

> The gameplay is the same.

> they have different mechanics but they all do the same thing.

>

> I've been playing wow and boy do the classes really feel special.

> Being a Druid in the game means something.

> Being a warrior feels like being a warrior.

> Mages- feel vulnerable but powerful.

> Paladins feel like they can fight a million mobs

> demon hunters feeel like they are actually equipped to hunt.

>

> In gw2 a mesmer and a ranger both kinda feel llike pew pew dodge doge pew pew

Played WoW. Hated it. Tired of being a coatrack for greatness. More about stats than skill.

Nothing that rewards you for being good? How about being able to clear fractals much much faster than another group, so more gold per hour. Sure people can slug their way through T4 fractals and get the reward. But being better means more gold per hour, which means more reward. I'm not sure how that's not an incentive to people.

I used to run dungeons with groups that would take an hour to clear Arah, than ran those same dungeons in fifteen minutes. Some would say that's a reward in and of itself.

> @"Dante.1508" said:

> > @"Vayne.8563" said:

> > > @"Dante.1508" said:

> > > > @"ruikarikun.9402" said:

> > > > Hey.

> > > > How do you think is 8th Anniversary Supply Drop Requisition worth to buy?

> > > > And I'm not sure if I played only one year in this game, I will get all drops or I need 8 year old character/account for it?

> > >

> > > I got very little it was a bit of a scam tbh.. i got one weapon skin a costume by luck and a few useless old school armor skins that i had years ago but for some reason was removed again after.. and very little else.. TBH its not worth the price so far.

> >

> > > @"Dante.1508" said:

> > > > @"ruikarikun.9402" said:

> > > > Hey.

> > > > How do you think is 8th Anniversary Supply Drop Requisition worth to buy?

> > > > And I'm not sure if I played only one year in this game, I will get all drops or I need 8 year old character/account for it?

> > >

> > > I got very little it was a bit of a scam tbh.. i got one weapon skin a costume by luck and a few useless old school armor skins that i had years ago but for some reason was removed again after.. and very little else.. TBH its not worth the price so far.

> >

> > I'm not sure what you're on about but it's absolutely worth it. We can put it in perspective. If you were going to buy two mount skins from the previous packs where you choose your mount (actually one from the previous packs and one from the new packs) those two mount skins would cost you 2400 gems, which is the price of the entire package. Everything else you get, you'd get for free. You've only got week one, but week two gives you two mounts and your choice of outfits from the outfit select license. Since week 2 costs more than the entire package, I don't see how you can think it's not worth it.

> >

> > One of the select boxes from week one saved me a black lion ticket, because it allows you to select a brand new skin from the current selection. Plus wardrobe unlocks which are admittedly and supposed to be a kitten shoot.

> >

> > The game lists EXACTLY what you get and it's what you get. To me this is the best value on the TP if you were going to buy mount select licenses anyway.

>

> I was just going by week 1 but fair enough that makes sense thanks. If its select a mount thats great, i just hope its not random as i always get skyscale skins and i have none, not interested in skyscale.

> @"Dante.1508" said:

> > @"Vayne.8563" said:

> > > @"Dante.1508" said:

> > > > @"ruikarikun.9402" said:

> > > > Hey.

> > > > How do you think is 8th Anniversary Supply Drop Requisition worth to buy?

> > > > And I'm not sure if I played only one year in this game, I will get all drops or I need 8 year old character/account for it?

> > >

> > > I got very little it was a bit of a scam tbh.. i got one weapon skin a costume by luck and a few useless old school armor skins that i had years ago but for some reason was removed again after.. and very little else.. TBH its not worth the price so far.

> >

> > > @"Dante.1508" said:

> > > > @"ruikarikun.9402" said:

> > > > Hey.

> > > > How do you think is 8th Anniversary Supply Drop Requisition worth to buy?

> > > > And I'm not sure if I played only one year in this game, I will get all drops or I need 8 year old character/account for it?

> > >

> > > I got very little it was a bit of a scam tbh.. i got one weapon skin a costume by luck and a few useless old school armor skins that i had years ago but for some reason was removed again after.. and very little else.. TBH its not worth the price so far.

> >

> > I'm not sure what you're on about but it's absolutely worth it. We can put it in perspective. If you were going to buy two mount skins from the previous packs where you choose your mount (actually one from the previous packs and one from the new packs) those two mount skins would cost you 2400 gems, which is the price of the entire package. Everything else you get, you'd get for free. You've only got week one, but week two gives you two mounts and your choice of outfits from the outfit select license. Since week 2 costs more than the entire package, I don't see how you can think it's not worth it.

> >

> > One of the select boxes from week one saved me a black lion ticket, because it allows you to select a brand new skin from the current selection. Plus wardrobe unlocks which are admittedly and supposed to be a kitten shoot.

> >

> > The game lists EXACTLY what you get and it's what you get. To me this is the best value on the TP if you were going to buy mount select licenses anyway.

>

> I was just going by week 1 but fair enough that makes sense thanks. If its select a mount thats great, i just hope its not random as i always get skyscale skins and i have none, not interested in skyscale.

You don't get one select a mount, you get two. You get to select one from the new mount pack and you can choose another from a bunch of old mount packs. I did this last year and it was absolutely worth it. You'll also get to choose an outfit from a wide selection. I bought one for my alt accounts too, because it's the cheapest way of getting a bunch of skins I want.

Not everyone has the problem. I've certainly never had the lag you described, and I've made vision and done the zone meta. I do get some lag in the zone, but it's till playable for me. Anet has recently said they've made some changes there (in the most recent patch notes) but I've been busy and haven't had a chance to check it out. Of course, I'm not the guy who would be best checking it out, because I'm not one of the people most affected.

> @"Dante.1508" said:

> > @"ruikarikun.9402" said:

> > Hey.

> > How do you think is 8th Anniversary Supply Drop Requisition worth to buy?

> > And I'm not sure if I played only one year in this game, I will get all drops or I need 8 year old character/account for it?

>

> I got very little it was a bit of a scam tbh.. i got one weapon skin a costume by luck and a few useless old school armor skins that i had years ago but for some reason was removed again after.. and very little else.. TBH its not worth the price so far.

> @"Dante.1508" said:

> > @"ruikarikun.9402" said:

> > Hey.

> > How do you think is 8th Anniversary Supply Drop Requisition worth to buy?

> > And I'm not sure if I played only one year in this game, I will get all drops or I need 8 year old character/account for it?

>

> I got very little it was a bit of a scam tbh.. i got one weapon skin a costume by luck and a few useless old school armor skins that i had years ago but for some reason was removed again after.. and very little else.. TBH its not worth the price so far.

I'm not sure what you're on about but it's absolutely worth it. We can put it in perspective. If you were going to buy two mount skins from the previous packs where you choose your mount (actually one from the previous packs and one from the new packs) those two mount skins would cost you 2400 gems, which is the price of the entire package. Everything else you get, you'd get for free. You've only got week one, but week two gives you two mounts and your choice of outfits from the outfit select license. Since week 2 costs more than the entire package, I don't see how you can think it's not worth it.

One of the select boxes from week one saved me a black lion ticket, because it allows you to select a brand new skin from the current selection. Plus wardrobe unlocks which are admittedly and supposed to be a crap shoot.

The game lists EXACTLY what you get and it's what you get. To me this is the best value on the TP if you were going to buy mount select licenses anyway.

> @"Daishi.6027" said:

> > @"Vayne.8563" said:

> > > @"Daishi.6027" said:

> > > I find it funny.

> > > Just because you rope a bunch of players into your game doesn't mean you will retain many of them: an example you thought they'd learn from PvP.

> > >

> > > Now I don't begrudge PvE at all and maybe it can rope in casual players to buy some gems and push past that story paywall, but when 2/3rds of your game are doing poorly because of the core design, and the balance dev is complacent with bad design being like "oops, we'll make good changes next time; maybe.... half a year later", Anyone coming from steam is going to quickly run into the same issues that we've had since release.

> > >

> > > GW2 needs holistic cures not bandaid fixes.

> >

> > PvP, WvW and even Raids aren't 2/3s of the game. PvP has NEVER had the playerbase of PVE in this game and raids hasn't had the playerbase of open world PvE. If you add up all the people who PvE, WvW and Raid, you might get half the population and you might not. I suspect you wouldn't. The truth is 2/3s of the game isn't really doing badly. It's just that people who only play SPvP think SPvP is doing badly becasuse they're ignoring 90% of the game.

>

> V

> > @"Daishi.6027" said:

> > But that isn't an excuse for poorly designed systems, and people are going to notice that. All while competing in the same space with things like PSO2 which _arguably_ do the whole casual 'hang out and life sim stuff' better by offering more tools and customizable personalized spaces. Or FFXIV (which unfortunately is a sub, but I think they doing to lv60 free now?) which _arguably_ does story better. But that's really neither here nor there.

> >

> > I don't think going to steam is a bad move in any respect. And ya, it might get them a good chunk of money. But my point in saying what I did is that it's literally delaying the inevitable if they don't fix the core foundations of the game, and it's not like those 2/3rds aren't heavily pushed as big selling points of the game. So, what happens when the well runs dry on Steam? Go to Epic?

> >

> > Maybe I'm wrong, but I think the best way to compete is to have a superior product. Yet here we are 8 years later with the same problems in the same 2/3rds just with different faces of the same core issues. But maybe they need to compete in a different way, and those 2/3rds are just as irreverent as people make it out to be. Either way there needs to be something significant. I have my doubts they can carry on like they have the past 8 years, and I think something like going to Steam would be_ far_ more beneficial if they worked out design problems before hand.

> >

> > Way I see it: if it bled out before, it will bleed out again; This is a band-aid.

>

> Even then, when was the last time we had a significant update to the systems supporting social afk in town casual playerbase? Wardobe? lol. Arguably mounts maybe?

Let's see. Take a quote from a guy answering one specific point and add to it a complete point someone was making. Try to make these things seem equally weighted. Profit.

Let's take a look at the casual audience. In this game I unlock skins globally. I buy an outfit, not like BDO where it's locked to one character, but it's unlocked on all my characters. Every skin that comes out in a chance for more fashion wars, and there's plenty of fashion wars. Those new festival weapons look mighty nice. Mount racing is fun for a lot of people, and I'm not thinking it's just casual people. Taking your skimmer underwater should be fun for casual players who just want another way to run around Lion's Arch. Arguably this game is totally pro casual, not pro hard core. So the harder core community (hard raiders, hard core WvWers, hard core PvPers) all have reason for complaint. Everyone one of them.

But I'm casual and enjoy going into WvW sometimes. I enjoy PvP less, but it's okay sometimes. However the biggest part of the game is designed for me. Every dye I get is unlocked account wide. Every skin I get is unlocked account wide. Want to farm transmutation charges, keep a character slot for black lion key farms (casual enough for most people) and in between use it to complete the five cities.

There are plenty of mini games in this game for casual people to play. Plenty of gathering and mats are a way to get things done. Want BIS gear, craft it, as a casual.

And when my casual player makes an alt, there's no better game for alts in existence, because all my mounts and gliding are unlocked as soon as I get out of the tutorial. The truth is, there's an audience support by this game and it's the casual audience. Virtually every festival has stuff for you to slowly work on. Virtually every story has a reward that you can slowly chug away on and get some skin or lately even emote. And if you're just standing around in LA and just logging in, you get laurels to buy ascended rings and amulets, even accessories if you feel like doing world bosses and salvage your rares for ectos.

The guy that hang around in Lion's Arch aren't playing the game, but the game still has plenty for them to do. However, for the casual player, who can literally go anywhere in the world and do events, get experience and karma at level, play with their friends of any level, stand around and rez people at events and get full credit...this is the game for that crowd. And yeah, I believe that crowd is bigger than the top 5%, almost by definition.

> @"Daishi.6027" said:

> I find it funny.

> Just because you rope a bunch of players into your game doesn't mean you will retain many of them: an example you thought they'd learn from PvP.

>

> Now I don't begrudge PvE at all and maybe it can rope in casual players to buy some gems and push past that story paywall, but when 2/3rds of your game are doing poorly because of the core design, and the balance dev is complacent with bad design being like "oops, we'll make good changes next time; maybe.... half a year later", Anyone coming from steam is going to quickly run into the same issues that we've had since release.

>

> GW2 needs holistic cures not bandaid fixes.

PvP, WvW and even Raids aren't 2/3s of the game. PvP has NEVER had the playerbase of PVE in this game and raids hasn't had the playerbase of open world PvE. If you add up all the people who PvE, WvW and Raid, you might get half the population and you might not. I suspect you wouldn't. The truth is 2/3s of the game isn't really doing badly. It's just that people who only play SPvP think SPvP is doing badly becasuse they're ignoring 90% of the game.

Remember, Season 4 also gives you PoF experience. You can do metas in the other maps as well. Try looking for whatever map is the daily. There's the Shatterer event in Jahai, Palawadan, I even like the quicker meta in Kourna. The truth is I don't really dislike any of the Season 4 zones. Anet just said they did some work in Thunderheaad Peakes, so maybe the North and South meta are more playable now. I enjoyed those as well. And I always have fun in Dragonfall.

> @"Pii.8574" said:

> > @"Cyninja.2954" said:

> > > @"Pii.8574" said:

> > > Anyway, I just wanted to vent a bit and share my personal opinion. Maybe some of you can relate or understand that it's quite the turn-off for returning players but I'm also aware that many of you have absolutely no problem with it. It just doesn't feel right to me.

> >

> > The main issue with living world episodes is that the extra monetization on them is unclear to players both new an returning. That's unfortunate and could use some better integration or warning.

> >

> > Not to be confused though with the fact that they are monetized the way they are:

> > If you weren't around supporting the game while those episodes were being developed, not even finding the time to log in, then you have to pay the developers retroactively. Content development is not free and the game did not survive 8 years by people NOT playing or supporting it.

>

> Don't get me wrong, I have no problem supporting them - I already spent hundreds of dollars for Guild Wars 1 and Guild Wars 2 (along with 7000-8000 hours of playtime). I have no problem unlocking the story with gold, that's really not the issue. It's more the feeling that they develop the game in a way that forces people to buy the new content in order to keep up with the meta. It looks more like "unbalanced must-have content" rather than the balanced, optional "high-quality content" I expected.

>

> Also I don't think there is a way to unlock Elite Specializations or Mastery Points without buying the DLCs and it's out of question that they provide immense advantages not just in form of PvE QoL but even in the PvP environment.

I don't know. Some of the best skills in Guild Wars 1 were the PvE only skills from specific expansions. Want an Imbagon paragon...have to have Nightfall. Of course, GW 1 unlocked specific professions behind two of their titles. But some of the EotN skills, like the headshot one (I forget what it's called but it was very powerful) among others like necrosis from Nightfall were some of the most powerful skills in the game.

I bought all four Guild Wars 1 titles pretty much as they came out and spent more on them then I did on ALL the GW 2 expansions. As a loyal player who'd been here all along I've never paid a penny for any episode of the living world.

The only real issue here is the lack of how this is communicated. But it's still very cheap for what is essentally 7 years of content, with an option to buy them in game for gold.

No.

First of all, a person who played for two months at launch and logs in ten years later for the first time doesnt' deserve a precursor, or a legendary. They're getting quite enough.

It seems like people think that people in this game for a long time are the most loyal. It's not necessarily the case. You could log in once a year for SAB and get a birthday gift. This year we got an ascended amulet. Birthday gifts in Guild Wars 1 were minis or later on everlasting tonics. Cosmetics items.

If anything it's newer players that need the help to get a precursor not people who've played for ten years, at least the ones who've actually been here.

> @"Mewcifer.5198" said:

> > @"Vayne.8563" said:

> > AP rewards aren't there to entice you to do achievements People do achievements because they enjoy achievement hunting. Adding must have rewards will "force" people to focus on something they don't enjoy. That's sort of the structure of the whole game.

> >

> > I don't need to run dungeons because dungeon rewards aren't forcing me to do that. I don't need to run raids because raid rewards aren't required to get BIS gear (like in many other games). The idea that you should do what's fun and play for fun is more central to this game. If you want a specific reward you can go for it, but i find this game best played where I play for fun and see the reward as a bonus.

>

> I agree with this for the most part. It would be bad to put anything in the rewards that makes people feel like they need to hunt achievements. Especially since daily AP and LS1 has so many people way ahead of anyone who would start going for AP now.

>

> I am an achievement hunter and I am only just now getting close to 20k points. I would have a lot more if I did dailies regularly instead of just whenever. I like racking up those numbers, but I also enjoy the process of completing achievements.

>

> But another set of armor skins as rewards wouldn't harm anything. And would be a nice bonus to people who hunt AP.

The real bonus for people who hunt AP is the one no one ever talks about. And it ends up being better than an armor skin, which is hit or miss. You might like it, you might not. I don't like the hell fire skin and so it's not a motivation.

But those gold finds and those magic finds and karma boosts and XP boosts all add up. I get stuff done faster than people witihout my achievements. Sure I might be only getting a percentage more gold or a few more rare drops when I kill stuff than another player, but, I kill stuff constantly. All the time. And that stuff adds up. It adds up to alot. I'm sitting on over 39k XP and when I level a new character or a new mastery which I often do by killing, I level them much faster. it'S much better than a skin I may or may not use, because no matter what I do in this game, I'm going to be killing something at some point.

AP rewards aren't there to entice you to do achievements People do achievements because they enjoy achievement hunting. Adding must have rewards will "force" people to focus on something they don't enjoy. That's sort of the structure of the whole game.

I don't need to run dungeons because dungeon rewards aren't forcing me to do that. I don't need to run raids because raid rewards aren't required to get BIS gear (like in many other games). The idea that you should do what's fun and play for fun is more central to this game. If you want a specific reward you can go for it, but i find this game best played where I play for fun and see the reward as a bonus.

> @"coso.9173" said:

> > @"Vayne.8563" said:

> > Guild Halls have limits to how many objects you can put in a small area. Since decorating guild halls, for some guilds, is a big thing, it's there as a blank canvas for people to "play with". In our guild hall we have a pet cemetary to honor our lost furry friends (or in some cases feathered), we have a party area, we have tombstones with guldies names hidden all over, a bone bridge raceway, and all sorts of other areas for people to explore and enjoy...and some people do. If you had a small guild hall, with the limitation on space, our super cool hologram dragon would look ridiculous. lol

>

> this sounds prety nice, do you have an videos?

I don't but I can give you a tour if you like. I'm not recruiting or anything but always happy to show someone around.

Guild Halls have limits to how many objects you can put in a small area. Since decorating guild halls, for some guilds, is a big thing, it's there as a blank canvas for people to "play with". In our guild hall we have a pet cemetary to honor our lost furry friends (or in some cases feathered), we have a party area, we have tombstones with guldies names hidden all over, a bone bridge raceway, and all sorts of other areas for people to explore and enjoy...and some people do. If you had a small guild hall, with the limitation on space, our super cool hologram dragon would look ridiculous. lol

> @"maddoctor.2738" said:

> > @"Vayne.8563" said:

> > I would agree with the complain that there should have been an open world ramp up to HoT and the Silverwastes and Dry Top were supposed to be that ramp. They are hard...if you try to solo everything. But if you learn to use the LFG tool and look for an active map, particularly in the Silverwastes, they're much much easier. HoT is definiteliy hard solo. Soloing is a choice.

>

> Spending 8 months doing only RIBA/chest runs in the Silverwastes surely had a major negative effect on the community's ability to play the game. Then, when HOT was released and pressing 1 and F wasn't enough to earn rewards it was seen as a mass difficulty spike, when in reality the "spike" wasn't as large. Especially for players that played during Season 1, there are countless examples of Season 1 mobs and story instances of a similar level as HOT, but since all that was scrapped, we were left with a gigantic leap between core and HOT.

>

> And on a similar note, the mass nerfs they did to all the hardest hitting Silverwastes mobs with the release of HOT doesn't really help the situation. Nowadays even when you go solo, the Silverwastes is a total joke compared to how it used to be before HOT. For anyone interested, go to Iron Marches and you will find some veteran/champion mordrem that are using the old abilities.

My guess is those are are US LFG and doing Riba aren't really teh guys having troiuble with HoT. though. It's the guys who don't know how to use LFG, or a timer site, who just wander into the game from the core game with little Silverwastes experience that are probably having more problems by percentage.

> @"Croc.1978" said:

> > @"Vayne.8563" said:

> > I would agree with the complain that there should have been an open world ramp up to HoT and the Silverwastes and Dry Top were supposed to be that ramp. They are hard...if you try to solo everything. But if you learn to use the LFG tool and look for an active map, particularly in the Silverwastes, they're much much easier. HoT is definiteliy hard solo. Soloing is a choice.

>

> I guess the problem with Silverwastes and Dry Top as preparation for HoT is:

> - In SW you indeed fight many of the Mordrem foes that you will encounter later in the jungle. But, since that part of SW is a rather small area filled with group events, players almost always have other people around to help each other out (or they are even doing RIBA alongside a full squad). Then they wander into the 3-story green hell that is Verdant Brink and sooner or later find themselves all alone in a very hostile environment. Surrounded by dangerous mixed groups of Mordrem or Hylek, and nasty wildlife that's out to eat them alive. Kinda like Orr was at release, but even harder.

> - Dry Top is something completely different. The trash mobs there are pretty tame and have nothing to do with the jungle theme.

>

Except that I go into the Silverwastes quite frequentlyi and if I don't LFG there aren't that many players around randomly. And there are just as many players on HoT maps if you're not talking about an organized map. People were probably trained to solo and so they continue to try to solo. That's the real issue.

> @"Rokeb.3815" said:

> I am also a 'casual' player, I've recently returned to GW2. I did buy it shortly after launched, but my first character was an engineer and I didn't every figure out what I was doing so ending up giving up.

>

> A lot of the veteran players commenting have completely forgotten what it like for newer players.

>

> Yes, HoT is MUCH harder than the core game that you've likely just come from. Core Tyria is no where near as punishing for small mistakes. HoT forces you to become much more of a 'twitch' player - as positioning and dodging are suddenly much more important (I'm looking at you Mordrem Snipers! )

>

> The farcical complaint that 'HoT isn't even hard with mounts!' is equally naive - so you have to skip the first expansion - start the second expansion and come back and THEN play the fist expansion? What kind of game play design is that?

>

> HoT is totally playable - even enjoyable eventually. However, in terms of game design - the leap from core Tyria to HoT is a huge one - and often needlessly frustrating.

> Invisible 'gating' of areas - ie you need to have masteries to get to a certain point, making the hero points group content (sure vets can solo them with ease - but a potential new player??) If I didn't find a nice hero point train early on in HoT, I probably would have quit the game again.

>

> Don't even get me started on the last chapter of the story.. still trying to complete that. Casual players (like me) don't have HOURS to time to do one mission.

> From the wiki "The final fight with Mordremoth features mechanics that can lead to instant death and a reset of the long boss fight if you make an error"

>

> Spending hours on the same mission over and over with no progress isn't challenging or rewarding - IT's TEDIOUS. I swear if I get a server disconnect AGAIN during that fight I'm going to rage quit for sure.

>

>

Casual players that solo are different from casual players who are in a guild, or at least thsoe that play with other people. Two people make hot a lot easier and three make it a whole lot easier. This is an MMO and even casual players can solo and learn.

I do agree that the core open world didn't prepare people for HoT. But core also had dungeons and fractals were around for years, and some casual players did learn that content, and if you did, well the jump wasn't that much.

In fact, if you'd done both Season 2 and Season 2 achievements, some of that stuff was really hard as well. Saying I didn't really play a portion of the content and only played in open world so the expansion is too hard is sort of misdirection.

I would agree with the complain that there should have been an open world ramp up to HoT and the Silverwastes and Dry Top were supposed to be that ramp. They are hard...if you try to solo everything. But if you learn to use the LFG tool and look for an active map, particularly in the Silverwastes, they're much much easier. HoT is definiteliy hard solo. Soloing is a choice.

> @"Fueki.4753" said:

> > @"Avatar.3568" said:

> > the game is advertised for casual players,

>

> This game is being advertised?

> I haven't seen any official Arenanet advertisement in **years.**

> I've only seen it a few times in videos about current MMOs, but that hardly counts.

The game isn't advertised for casual players so much as it's aimed at casual players. This game didn't even have a raid in PvE for the first 3.5 years. There were no real ladders, very few individual accolades, nothing like a elite dungeon even, not really. I mean you could say Arah is an elite dungeon I guess, but the speed runners could still do most paths pretty easily in 5 minutes.

The open world of this game has never been hard, but enough people complained about the difficulty of Orr to have it nerfed fairly early on. The game wasn't really ADVERTISED as a casual game, but many hard core players left early on leaving mostly casual players in behind...most of the content is pretty easy after all, and there's nothing forcing you to do harder content. Not like you need to raid to get BIS gear. I'd say this is one of the more casual MMOs on the market, whether it's advertised for casuals or not.

Bjora is probably my least favorite map so far.

> @"Tukaram.8256" said:

> Heart of Thorns - all of it. Navigation nightmare, and terrible map.

> Really though, any map with no hearts sucks, for me.

Just the opposite for me. Heart of Thorns are my favorite maps in the game, and one of the reasons is they have no hearts. Hearts ruin otherwise nice maps for me. lol

If you're on a US Server, I'd be happy to help you. HIt me up on Vayne.8563. It doesn't solve your complaint, but they did give mesmers portals.

7. You don't need a mastery to get the toxic bacon. Take some very cheap food that gives you health every second like mango pie. Costs almost nothing.

HoT isn't as hard as you think it is, you just haven't learned the game. If you're interested in learning and you're on a US server, hit me up in game or here and I can show you how to get through HoT. It's not as bad as you believe it to be, and it's my favorite area of the game.

> @"corcode.7581" said:

> > @"Vayne.8563" said:

> > > @"corcode.7581" said:

> > > Hello, I know this is an older thread but your guild sounds like it's the type of gameplay that I enjoy and I am wondering if you're still active and recruiting. If so I would be interested in possibly joining your guild. I am a fairly new player, been playing a few months, but I am loving this game and would love to join an active casual guild.

> >

> > Hey there.. We're still active. We don't recruit as much because the guild is almost full and I like to leave room for people's friends/family when they start playing but we always welcome like minded people. That 500 member guild limit can be a bear. I'll try to message you in game.

>

> Thank you. I'm sorry, I have not been online much this last week. I have had a lot going on. I'm not sure what time you are usually online but I am getting ready to login now for a few and should be on a couple of evenings this week as well

I guess I missed you. I usually get on at around 8 PM EST. I'm in Australia so that's currently about 9 am for me. Earlier than that is tough. If you want I can just send you a guild invite.

Edit: I did send you a guild invite, feel free to join the guild and talk to us if I'm not around.

> @"LucianDK.8615" said:

> Masteries is about the only meaningful progression in GW2

If you don't consider skill progression. A dev said the difference between the damage done by a good player and an average one is 500%. There's plenty of room for growth in this game.

In other games, it's all about stats...you're nothing more than a coatrack for greatness. Here, it's about player skill, far more than other games I've played. That's real progression to me. Plenty of stuff I can do now I couldn't do as well a year ago.