Eramonster.2718

Fractals/Dungeons/Strike Missions/Raids = Renamed Side/Abandoned project in Forums section.

Only can say they have a very limited resources to further develop or work on anything simultaneously. Would say the main focus would be Living Story (to keep the game moving, just lacks replay-ability). WvW, Fractals, Dungeons, Strike Missions, Raids or any upcoming additions are probably in the same side bundle. Nothing decisive to propel the game towards any direction.

PS : Its silent, but Alliance is probably waiting... to be worked on.

> Responding to the OP: I never said raids were "abandoned" or what the future holds for that gametype or any other. I merely said, "We're working on LW and expac right now" and kept it vague because that's pretty much all I can talk about. Titling this thread "Bobby Stein on the future of raids" is a big exaggeration. Serves me right for posting, I guess. ;)

> But let's focus this discussion on the players for a sec. This is purely to spur discussion and not to set false expectations, BTW. I just want to read your thoughts. This is not an official poll or anything like that. Just a chat among players.

>What is it that you like about raids in general? Why do you play raids (in any game) in the first place? If we were to build another raid, what would you like to see? Any story you'd like experience?

Was a reply from the dev(Bobby) somewhere lower in the comment. But yes, most players anticipated and have a general idea on what's said more or less. Eg.Shortage of resources, previous raid dev working on other stuff etc. Not surprised or new_s.

Even for a (many said popular) short instance content like fractals hardly gets an addition. Somewhat can draw a picture there's not enough resources for Raids; a bigger instance content or any other contents(at least no plans and resources to spare for now sadly :anguished:).

Find it weird as well. It was the same back during dungeon days. There was an external platform to form groups instead of using ingame LFG :sweat_smile:. There are some groups in LFG (on and off) thats about it. Most raids squads are formed within or among guilds and discord platform.

May be difficult to find PuG groups through LFG. But there are ways to start, as most of the players I know and in my friend list are able to join raids without any problem despite being new.

> @"Nightcore.5621" said:

> So half the people in lfg ask for 200Li kp. Strike missions was suppose to be the step before raids or help people get into raids.. you all see the problem here?

Find it unnecessary or too high for a requirement as well. But what you could've done is form your own group(a lower requirement or none at all; your standards, not theirs). You don't need to join or beat them in their conditions, set your LFG criteria and standard. If its widely accepted and everyone does the same. In a way, you won.

Never had OP's problem before, but thought of a way to go around it. The offender is exploiting a weakness in LFG. What OP could've done is ask a player in group to leave group to be reinvited after the party is filled.

> @"HnRkLnXqZ.1870" said:

> We always look at this problem from one perspective. Let us switch the roles for once:

> - We start a LFG with "relaxed run, starters, no rush, no skip, NO RAIDERS OR FARMERS"

> - Once the party/squad gets filled, ask for LI and other raid related KP and then kick those people who have it

Non raiders won't have Kp/Li to link. But for those who joined, its best to inform them to leave/kick the moment they joined than wait till the party is filled. Wasting each others time and getting their hopes up, which may cause displease :sweat_smile:.

> Would you consider that a toxic behavior and unfair treatment?

No, if there's a valid reason. As stated "No raiders" (slightly misleading/easily missed). Might vary depending on player(s) and consequences if not handled properly. There is also the issue of sooner or later, everyone in the group will earn Li; what then? :sweat_smile:

> Would you rather be judged by your skill, experience and behavior than just kicked due to some prejudices?

The first. But its what comes after that matters, usually.

> Would you consider reporting a person who does this?

Unlikely, but providing the reason for it would help. Mostly due to miscommunication, slightly misleading or didn't read LFG properly.

> Would you consider lying about the questions from the party/squad leader, to stay in the group? Just not linking any of your KP/LI although you stack it in your inventory?

> Would you start an argument with the leader of the group after getting kicked? Telling your KP/LI say nothing about your behavior in the group?

No. If there's conflict, preferred it to be settled and done with, beforehand. Imagine it will feel unsettling for the entire process, no thank you.

> Would you complain about such an experience in your guild/discord or even on the forums?

Might be brought up as a discussion among friends and guildies to share their views on it. No reason not to(some might find it weird, but could be norm nothing to be ashamed of) and sharing information with them to be prepared(if encounter such group).

There's a black lion key and some mini pets in the track :smirk:.

Depending on individual, some find it better to spend 200g on gems for Warclaw's skins.

> @"Luc de Lanzac.2160" said:

> > @"Blocki.4931" said:

> > Thanks, made 600 gold due to this post!

>

> i have to thank you! people selling right now is exactly what the market needs for normal regulation :D

The price most probably will retain for a period. Any MC bought at 1.9g order price can be re-sold at 2g+ buyout/purchasing price. As long as the return tied even and not making lost after tax, its possible to circulate the gold back to maintain the wall/order price.

> @"Jables.4659" said:

> > @"Eramonster.2718" said:

> > It's still the same HP sponge boss for many, hardly any group moves the boss before the change. Just with the new changes, players need to kill 1-2-3 channeling kraits at 75%, 50%, 25% respectively. Inflicting "Vulnerable debuff" does speed things up. Pros and cons for having pets/minnions up during the encounter.

>

> The other big difference is that it no longer has a breakbar which means you don't get the additional dps against a cc'd boss.

It has a new vulnerable phased after a player breaks free with Struggle. Vaguely remembered it with a break bar, but doubt it will a big difference in DPS with how underwater combat work. Effecting boons, traits, weapon skill and damage and with most underwater weapon swapping doesn't synergize (Weapon 1 lean more on power, while weapon swap 2 favours condi).

Believe Hearts (or be it WP/Poi/Vista) are designed the way they are for a reason :smiley: . But if there's a confusion with the term Map Completion, maybe petition to change the term instead? (Eg. Complete Every Map).

> @"danfenton.7329" said:

> > @"Perihen the Thawk.9527" said:

> > > @"Daria Morgendorffer.7049" said:

> > > I try to play both evenly to keep it interesting, so each character looks & sounds more unique.

> > >

> > > But I find it hard to play female characters, because of the pretty sexist way women are treated in GW2 (especially humans/norn). The same armor/outfit on a male vs female character is so different — a fully clothed armor on a male character is a revealing battle bikini on a female character.

> > >

> > > This is the SAME armor skin:

> > > 

> > > 

> > > I'd give a dozen more examples, but we've all seen it.

> > >

> > >

> > > I've never made a human female character because all the faces look identical, like Snapchat Filter Model Barbie. There are no old women in Tyria? No women who don't wear heavy makeup? Everyone has to only look one way? Only "pretty" like a doll?

> > > 

> > >

> > > I know some people like these designs (they do look good individually if you're into that), and that's fine, there's just a lack of options. I don't mean to insult anyone's beloved characters. You do you — I even have a female Norn, myself.

> >

> > 100% agree.

> >

> > I'm a guy and I play an even mix of genders because I just like to think of them as characters with some backstory that I make up, rather than avatars for myself. And I completely agree about the armors, *especially* light armor. I find myself wondering why so many of the female armors are so *ridiculously* male gaze-y. Even the heavy armors have weird random "windows".

> >

> > My wife watches me play sometimes, and she was interested in the game so I made her a free account to try it out. But then she went to make an elementalist, and hell I forgot how weird the starting light armor is for female characters. She was so annoyed, her reaction was pretty much "I'm a sylvari still in the Dream and I have to wear a freaking _garter_? Really?" I agreed and offered that we'd find her some better armor first thing but even though she halfheartedly continued for awhile, she was kind of done. Said she didn't want to have to *earn* pants. I don't blame her at all. Anet lost a new player there.

> >

> > While I understand that some people love the current options and I don't want to take them away, they should do better about providing more, especially for the starter and early game armor sets when people are leveling and are just stuck with things for awhile. Some of the armor skins labeled "pants" are not anything anyone would mistake for "pants".

> >

> > And there's definitely some sexism in the available character models, too. You can make male Norn of various ages with just totally gnarly, scarred, weatherbeaten faces, look like they've been through hell. There is, I think, exactly one female Norn face with any kind of scar, and zero older faces with any visible wrinkles at all. Not to mention male Norn have totally different proportions from male humans, but for some reason female Norn are just tall.

> >

> >

> Oh my god I went browsing the forums because I was wondering if anyone else had the same issues.

> While I have both male and female characters, I definitely enjoy playing the male characters more. If I do make a female character, they're generally sylvari or charr, which seem to have a slightly more gender neutral appearance. (I'm just not a fan of the asura movement animation.)

> I really dislike the lack of options for female human and norn characters. Most of the face designs are very similar in that they all look like made up dolls. So many of the male faces (even with the charr and sylvari) seem to have faces with more "character". There are way broader options for age, skin marks, facial structure, and damage in the male characters. With female human and norn faces the option is basically "what color do you want your lipstick and eyeliner?" I really try to make all of mine unique and it's really a struggle with those races. Running around the game, it looks like I'm mostly running around looking at the same character but with different skin and hair colors. I really wanted to try playing every race storyline, so I figured it would be fun to make the human character look like myself. The trouble was that it wasn't fun at all, because there's so few options that aren't just Barbie variations.

> I'm with you guys on the armor differences too. I do a couple types of historical combat, so I've spent a lot of time running around in armor, and I really hate that so many of the female armor options are pretty much bikini-maile. I really wish that they would at least give you the option to customize the basic starting armor appearance so you don't have to start off wearing stripper outfits.

> When I try playing a female character, it often feels like I'm just playing a walking pair of boobs. If walking boobs is an option, and not just the norm, I'm fine with that, but when that's the default, it takes the fun out of playing the character. It's not really a character anymore; it's just eye-candy. There's nothing wrong with giving people the option to make eye-candy characters, but I find it both weird and kind of insulting that you're playing characters in the game who are a range of ages and have obviously seen combat, but so few of the female character options represent that.

>

Humans(especially female), have the most customization. Asura have the least, few facial option but they have the best attack animation imo(flashy and cute). Vaguely remember making a necro with old facial features. But deleted the character, too lively with straight back and the voice acting.... :lol:

Overall, they're all the same because all the Lore/story always converge into the same ending. But giving credit to human, because did enjoy Ascalon, Caudecus Manor(Kryta's Politic and White Mantle but sadly wasn't continued), 6 Gods etc are mostly human centric. Other races lore lacks development or still developing so this might change as the story is getting better. Norn's interesting but wasn't developed and there's whimpy Brahm killing the _Hunts_ mood. Charr is making a comeback aside from Rytlock, not how I imagined him to be(?).

> @"Danikat.8537" said:

> Something I always wonder about when these topics come up: for people who only want to play one gender (either their own so they can identify with the character more easily or the other because they prefer to look at them), how does that work in games where you don't get to choose?

>

> Do you avoid those kinds of games? Do you only play them if your preferred gender is available? Is it as important when the character isn't human/humanoid? (e.g. playing a Sonic the Hedgehog game is fine even if you'd never want to play a human male.)

>

> As I said earlier in the topic it's not something that would have ever occurred to me if I hadn't read it so many times in topics like this, so I'm not sure I really understand the idea but outside of RPGs it seems like it would be incredibly limiting. Especially if you only want to play characters who look like you.

Depends on how its perceived imo. For example :smile: I view my characters as avantars. Tokens in a way, doesn't represent myself, perceiving from a third person view. Which can be different from what others perceived in theirs. The game Sonic is no different from Tomb Raider.

Random example. Player A only creates Male characters because he's a male and all. But if we apply Player B's reason/perception on Player A, it will make him a gay, which might not be the true nor fair :smile:.

Though not sure what's the answer OP is searching for from this, we do get to see many different replies and views here.

As Tails.9372 said, PuG'ing is random. Reasons could be didn't read the complete LFG, don't understand the jargons (alacren, HB etc.), don't think the requirement is necessary, swapping to an alt and so on.

Imo, block seems excessive, could just explain to them and kick if necessary. Try placing the requirement infront (eg. LF: Hb, t4+ recs).

> @"MartinTinTin.4370" said:

> > @"Eramonster.2718" said:

> > Mouse over the maps name. Some poi are added later into the game and most likely after your map completion. Look for a specific map with 1 poi undiscovered (but it might still display 100% because you completed it before its added). Eg. Kiel's office(Lion Arch) or Living World story (Diessa/Wayfarer) etc.

>

> Got Kei's office already also and mouse over Diessa and Wayfarer POI icon

> maybe this character was my first character already been 5 or 6 years,

> or maybe i missed the POI in my living story which i had finished

> im just so disappointed for that i can't complete the map

>

> which my new character had completed map 100% 2 months before, just wasted my time sigh.......

Should still be possible to complete it. Just a hassle to mouse over all the maps and cities name to find it. Once you've identified the map, just move to it and search for the poi.

Mouse over the maps name. Some poi are added later into the game and most likely after your map completion. Look for a specific map with 1 poi undiscovered (but it might still display 100% because you completed it before its added). Eg. Kiel's office(Lion Arch) or Living World story (Diessa/Wayfarer) etc.

5 Males, 7 Females.

6 Humans, 2 Norns, 2 Asurans, 1 Syvalri, 1 Charr.

Around the same play time between male/female, since its based on the profession classes I play the most. My characters are created based on fashion in mind, eg. Asuran for Engi/Thief etc. but may or may not use those classes often. Hope this help answered OP's question.

Ps: Not a fan of outfits. Find Human Male avantars the most challenging to gear with floating shoulder skins, butt capes, bulky hips with thin legs and small head/helm etc. Female avantars have lots of hair clipping issue, a problem male avantars free of.(rant, rant, rant... :tongue:).

1) Evade, reflect or simply walk out of the circle. It depends on group setup(?). If the healer can keep everyone alive and okay with it, its possible to just ignore it. But if its stressing the healer or running without one, its best to avoid taking any additonal damage. Comunicate with the team if unsure. _Personally, I only pay attention to avoid the bombing pattern aoe, We Bleed Fire(x2), Afflicted with Mai and Veteran Grenadiers. Find the rest trivial._

2) Best to work in pairs. I find splitting 3-4 players left taking the first coin and 2nd along the way. While 1-2 player(s) go for the coin on right works well though might need a player to assist at the 2nd last junction if solo.

3) Probably won't see many ele(weavers etc) by pugging. Restrictive.

> @"mindcircus.1506" said:

> > @"Maria Murtor.7253" said:

> > I have seen everything in this game now.

> Really?

> Also today on GW2 LFG...

> 

>

Love the Asuran LFG :lol:. Would've joined and said "It's a _small_ world".

If the player can't give a proper reason or simply do it out of spite to ruin LFG, just block.

Lengthy, long drawn out fight with open world's Bounty Board level of difficulties. 3 Bounty Champ(1 at a time) followed by the Boss. Minnions swarming in before every encounter.

Not keen of this Strike. Fog surrounds the entire ring, there's no scenery together with repetitive music for entire fight (18-25mins) :frown:. Clunky with the ring locking out players temporarily when started. Confusing toggle and message when bazooka ran out of ammo. Bulky enemies, making their movement animation as if in slow motion :sleepy:. Rng rewards but mostly blues, greens and few rares.

> @"Moradorin.6217" said:

> > @"Tails.9372" said:

> > > @"Moradorin.6217" said:

> > > give rank levels like fractals and give people a bonus reward at the end if they group with x number of lower tier people. This would make it more rewarding for experienced people willing to take the time which seems likely to help people who are learning. Win Win. Heck then I bet people wouldn't care anyway about some groups asking for KP.

> > As long as the higher difficulties are more rewarding people are going to flock towards them, creating the same issues we have rn for other content except for those who only care about progressing towards a specific goal given that it can be accomplished by playing the lower difficulties. If you really want to address the issue more effectively you need to have multiple difficulties aimed towards the more general player subgroups which all give out the same rewards making the difficulty more of a choice of gameplay preference than anything else. This way players who don't want to play easier content because they find it boring would have less to worry about some "leeches" dragging down their party while the more casual players wouldn't be "gated" out of the content by these so called "elitists".

> >

>

> Well I dont disagree with what you suggest I just dont understand how that isnt giving strikes and players a strike level or rank of some sort and conditioning rewards to encourage experienced people to either play w less experienced people or do the specifically higher tier of the content, kind of ala fractals. Seems like it would allow what you suggest, which is not locking out new players while also still making it worth it for experienced players.

The problem is not that easy to be solved by using rewards. Would've been solved, even for other scenarios and games if it is. Be it Raids, WvW etc. Even Fractals, a content with tiered difficulties and rewards, same issue exist. Strike is just another content facing the same issue. Can only conclude the problem is not Strike.

> @"lare.5129" said:

> so continue experiment, again join 200li group, not link, only say role. Strike done. May be people cry only because they like cry ?

_There's a quote : "You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time."_

It doesn't solve the problem OP is having except proving it can be done without KP/Li. But do get your points.

There's nothing stopping OP from starting a group. If groups with requirement fills slower compared to groups without, there shouldn't be any significant difference to fill up. If afraid to lead due to afraid of failing the content, find a way to work it out, grasp what's missing or needs to be improved etc and place a lower requirement/standard for it to be done.

> @"Astralporing.1957" said:

> If PVT is a wrong gear set to wear, then perhaps it shouldn't even exist. And definitely the game should not offer it as a leveling gear/level 80 boost gear set.

>

> Problem is, on one hand the game promotes the idea of many different stat sets, and using the gear you feel most comfortable in. On the other hand, it introduces content where 90% of those gear sets are pretty much worthless.

>

> You can have one, or the other, but not both. And yet the game wants to have both. And when it causes a ton of problems, everyone's suddenly surprised for some reason.

More like the stats are not suitable for the task.

> @"HotDelirium.7984" said:

> > @"Mad Queen Malafide.7512" said:

> > It's not a very compelling Strike Mission. The bosses are punching bags with just a lot of health, and the rest is just spamming of weak mobs while you stay in one place. But it IS different from the other Strike Missions, and perhaps that is the point. But I don't find it that fun to do. Most of the Strike Missions are just a short boss battle, which means it doesn't outstay its welcome. The Forging Steel mission is a lot longer, but has a lot of variety in it, plus a fun boss battle. This new one feels long, but without the variety.

>

> Since ANET has said the point of the strike missions is to lead to raids....they need to keep up with that theme. The Cold War strike reminded me of the dragonbash holo instance. If they want to give us different flavor strikes that's good but always add raid mechanics MAYBE even from the current raid i.e. the Vale Guardian fight is the Shiverpeak boss etc etc.

>

> I played Cold War today and I guess they added new abilities because their ice powers are different and deadlier now (ice fields, ice reflects and blizzards).

A mini patch? Felt the same for me though.