Astralporing.1957

> @"Fangoth.4503" said: > > @"Psykewne.3025" said: > > > @"dani.5680" said: > > > I reach t4 fractals! In 3 weeks all! > > > > > > > Explain how you are doing T4 fractals in 3 weeks but don't have ascended gear? > > > > > > > > -Create a pdps, do CoF trade token for zero gear buy other with gold (~1/2day) > -do few tarir and mastery to get key line gliding (~1day can be done as you gear up) > -now that you got rid of dirty toughness gear and can fly you can go do a w1-4 and get free ascended armor. Use magnetites and loot to start changing weapons ? > it makes you inf 6-8 slot so 54-72 AR > -do fractals 1-75 trade dailys for 2 ring 6 extra inf slot 108-126AR > enough to do 76-86 depending on luck, if really you want to push with potion and inf above +9 you can get to 150 without too much prob I think you have missed the "but don't have ascended gear" part.

> @"DoomNexus.5324" said: > Emphasis on: _But is this really what GW2 should be?_ Not a statement at all btw, it's not a rhetorical question, just something to think about. It doesn't have to be answered here either, guess everyone should just answer this for themselves. Something to think about for Anet as well if someone reads this. Well, that is exactly what makes GW2 unique. Drop this, and it would truly just become "another wow/ffxiv, but worse".

Got unsticked long ago, so you would probably need to search for it at least several pages back.

> @"Dragon.4782" said: > I'm sorry I am having a tough time following you on this one. Are you saying that because they already are working on the expansion, they wont have the time to work on a new race? Because I imagine they are doing something big if the last episode of Icebrood Saga is mostly (if not entirely) taking place in older maps. Yes. There's a strong possibility that the whole case of splitting the last chapter over 4 weaksauce parts with barely any content (if the first one is any guidance) is caused by them working on expansion, and no longer having the capability of working on two major projects (expansion and LS) at the same time. Notice, that it was pretty much this case with the first expansion. It was only well over half a year later when their dev numbers grew up to the level where they could start working on PoF without impacting LS releases. Layoffs seem to have brought them back to that original situation.

> @"Inculpatus cedo.9234" said: > Would these Bounties be map level, or all L80(+)? They have to be map level, because all characters are scaled down to map level anyway. A level 80 boss in queensdale would be unkillable. About Bounties, personally i never liked them. Not against the idea itself, but the implementation wasn't really all that good. They had nothing that would make me doing them, and a lot of things that would make me avoid them like a plague. And apparently i wasn;t alone in this opinion, seeing as the bounties idea got abandoned by Anet even before LS season ended.

> @"AoTsuki.8675" said: > Oh you misunderstand me, I do raids every week no problem, I just don't get other guys' comment about it, as in, achievement points mean jack shiet here so not sure what the reason to filter by them is. You are, of course, right. Which is why noone sensible is actually doing that.

> @"Veprovina.4876" said: > Yeah... Still, my point stands. It's on Anet right now to take a definitive stand on this and anger a part of the community, or do nothing and nothing will ever change. Yes. They probably should have either not do the KP change at all, or do it fully, autoconverting all old tokens into new currency. Unfortunately, they went halfway, and now, whatever they'll do, it won;t be a good solution. > It remains to be seen how quickly and strongly the resentment from both sides then festers into people eventually quitting the game. Notice, that that resentment is not going to disappear no matter the choice. At best, you can shift it around from one group to the other. As long as the primary reason for it remains (which _isn't_ KP), the overall situation is _not_ going to change.

> @"DoomNexus.5324" said: > PvE is vastly outperformed by FF14 and WoW for example and I think that's pretty much all I have to say. Because if you said something more, you would realize it's not as clearcut as you make it seem. > If you are serious about PvE and progression then there's simply no way Anet could catch up and offer a great alternative. ...and you basically said it in the next sentence. Yes. FF XIV vastly outperforms GW2. In the _instanced content and high-end endgame category_, that is. As far as open world though, it's exactly the opposite - here, GW2 has basically no competition on the MMORG market whatsoever. And of course any MMORPG outperforms GW2 as far as progression goes - that's because GW2 is _not a progression game_. Although, notice how you can reverse that statement, and say that in this it outperforms any game thar _is_ progression-based. That's because progression is not inherently better for some reason than non-progression. These are _equal_ choices, that appeal to different people. That's exactly the aspect where Guild Wars 2 _does_ stand out on the MMO market. It's basically the only game on the market that is aimed at casual to semi-casual crowd that doesn't want to constantly run in hamster wheels. If that is the experience you want, you have _nowhere_ else to go.

> @"Bingus.4236" said: > I've been using Strikes to get ascended armour. For the actual time I spend playing, seems very time efficient. It's still worse than just farming gold directly and crafting the item, though.

> @"Veprovina.4876" said: > And yeah, i mean, if people are already using KP to get party members, then why not make a system out of it? Because that's not something they want to officially sanction. > I understand both sides of the argument though. On one hand, asking for killproof is kinda kittenish to some players, they see it as toxic, but on the other hand, Anet designed those encounters to be extremely hard and requires players to know what they're doing. Problem is, Anet always wanted more players to get into higher end content - be it raids, strikes or Fractal CMs. They still want that, even if they're not supporting some of those types of content anymore. In truth, they did **not** design the encounters to be extremely hard. In theory (and from pure balance point of view, when comparing to the absolute best players can do) those encounters are actually quite easy. The problem lies in the massive (way, way greater than in other MMORPGs) stratification of GW2 playerbase according to even small skill differences, which is a result of core game design. So, the raids aren't that difficult when compared to what the top players could potentially clear, but the skill level required is still at a level not enough players reach. And since differences between skill "tiers" are so massive, it's often not a matter of improving just a little bit. There's also a certain qualitative, binary threshold to pass - either you are above it, and then you can eventually learn to do any high-end content, or you are below it, and improving by just small steps won't help you ever pass it. > Just random pugs that joiun might have never event tried that fractal, and it wastes time for everybody involved. And those encounters are designed in a way that prohibit partying with inexperienced players (as they'll probably fail). So of course people will find a way to party with simmilarly experienced players. At that point - why not just let them and make a system out of it right? Again, because Anet _doesn't_ want to officially sanction this kind of behaviour. It's one thing to know about it and do not prevent it from happening, but it's a completely different thing to officially encourage it, or encode that into the game. That would be a powerful statement from devs - and if you think people are dissatisfied with situation now, that's still probably nothing to what would happen if Anet were to do that. Basically, while Anet is okay with doing high-end content (and, what's more, they not only _like_ doing that, but would probably liked to do way more of it), they are no longer willing to do it at a too big a cost to their more casual community. > And since that hard content requires training - why not reward people for doing so? They're already training people, a reward for training with a mentor badge would be really nice of Anet. There's probably no way to do that which would also not be heavily exploitable. > On one hand they make extremely hard content, and on the other hand it should be a free for all in public parties. It doesn't make sense. > I guess they were banking on guilds being a key ingredient here but as you said, it doesn't always work. They wanted far more people to be able to do the content. They just completely underestimated the impact their own game systems would have on this and didn't realize how big a barrier it would create - a barrier that cannot be removed without complete redo of several core game systems (which is something they'd be unlikly to ever want to tackle with, short of making a new game) > Idk... At this point, i think it's up to Anet to decide what direction they want to take and design a system that will funnel players actions towards that. If they want an open LFG, then make the challange motes easier so everyone can complete them. If they want hard content, then make a system so that players with simmilar experience can find each other. There's no other way. They cannot do the former, without angering the remains of hardcore community. They cannot do the latter, without causing waves at the more casual part of community (unless they would also remove any incentives for non-hardcores to ever go there, which is again likely to anger the hardcores). And they cannot create a funnel that would work, because they would need to redo too many parts of the core game first. So, it continues on without any meaningful changes.

> @"maddoctor.2738" said: > > @"LordMorgul.9845" said: > > i want to remeber you all that les than 20% of player base do this content and there is people that don't do this content becouse of toxic elitism and play by d1 > > If we take a look at the easier Strike Missions we can see that 20% of the playerbase (at best) does those too. No, we can't. Efficiency statistics at this point are way too unreliable, considering that way too many efficiency accounts can no longer be considered to be "part of the playerbase", as they aren't active anymore. We don't have _any_ reliable statistics about more recent content at all. But if we _were_ to look at efficiency, we would see completion ratios (out of _all_ efficiency accounts, including inactive ones, remember): Coming Home (first step of of Bound by Blood): 118,147 of 279,661 (42.247%) A Race to Arms (last step of Bound by Blood): 97,737 of 279,661 (34.948%) Stay Frosty (completion of Shiverpeak Strike): 71,209 of 279,661 (25.463%) So, we can say that, among efficiency players, 71,209 people completed the strike, out of 97,737 that had completed that LS chapter. Which is 72.858% completion ratio. Or, if we compare it to people that even tried to start the story, it would be 71,209 out of 118,147. Which is 60.271% In both cases, way above 20%. (by the way, until Steel and Fire, you basically had to do at least first part of the story to even attempt the strike, because the only entrance then was in Grothmar).

> @"Dragon.4782" said: > > @"Astralporing.1957" said: > > > @"Dragon.4782" said: > > > That might not necessarily be the case. > > Oh, that was _definitely_ the case. They had no hometown, starting areas, racial quests and cultural armor done, for example. No voice lines either. Does that point to them being "cut out at last minute"? That would have to be a veeery long last minute then. > > > > > > They could still augment current VA's or even have recurring VA's (Like Liam O'Brian for instance who comes by somewhat frequently at Anet to do voice recordings for toons) voice tengu lines and have them do their own campaign that ties directly into the End of Dragons. With the manpower they have now, a new map, city, etc. is plausible. It still has nothing to do with the claim that Tengu were "cut out at last minute" and thus were nearly complete, needing only small finishing touches. No, they weren't. And it's not about them having or not the manpower (although i would say that this is probably one of the _worst_ moments to free some devs on such project, as they seem to be already extremely strapped for resources). It's about the size of what is missing. You are talking about at least a whole LS-chapter size (or two) of work here. And i mean a full chapter, not one like the last.

> @"Zushada.6108" said: > If I may. I think, one of the key aspects is that WvW players (and I mean those who pretty much only WvW) get tired of GoB players coming in, not listening and generally leaving as soon as their reward track maxes - regardless of what objective etc is being capped at the time. All the more reason to not have them there at all, right? > @"Veprovina.4876" said: > Yes. Which i think won't happen really lol, i doubt anet will let people buy GoB with badges of honor. Well, let's say i am glad that i bought as much of them as i could when it was still possible.

> @"Dragon.4782" said: > That might not necessarily be the case. Oh, that was _definitely_ the case. They had no hometown, starting areas, racial quests and cultural armor done, for example. No voice lines either. Does that point to them being "cut out at last minute"? That would have to be a veeery long last minute then.

> @"yann.1946" said: > This is actually a super interesting point to me, > Doesn't a dynamic system eventually lead to rotations? Depends on the system, i guess. Some will be more prone to it than others. Even in GW2, the differencies in situation and environment lead to different types of behaviour. For example, cc skill use is generally _not_ part of rotations. Same with defensive skills. They are used when there's a need for them, and are not included in some preplanned order of skills. Another example would be PvP, which is far less rotation-prone (because in a battle against an opponent that can actually think, being predictable and inflexible are one of the last things you want). > And gw2 system is also pretty dynamic (most things are priority based and the rotation is just the optimum of those priorities) GW2 has too many cases of where certain specific order of skills nets you significantly better results than those very same skills used in a different order. There are builds where cost of going off-rota even for a moment can be very high. In PvE, where you don't have to worry about the opponents exploiting your predictable patterns (and, especially, in high-end pve where the opponents are extremely predictable themselves to the point where you can know when they will be doing their attacks/using special mechanics before they even started doing it), this generally leads to strict and often lengthy rotations. But again, it depends on situation and environment. Let's just say that, in general, in PvE GW2 playstyle is not really all that dynamic at all. > @"Ayrilana.1396" said: > The dynamic system you’re speaking of would not happen in GW2 as it would be an entire overhaul of the combat system. True. Never claimed otherwise. The current system may be a mess, and a source of multitude of problems, but we're still stuck with it.

> @"Ayrilana.1396" said: > One of the primary arguments for tiers is it would allow progression. The only other time that you really see another reason used is they want to experience the nearly nonexistent story. That's not quite correct. Sure, this argument is way overused, but that is mainly because it is the only argument raiders are even willing to hear. Any argument that treats easy mode as something more of an independent entity, and not just a crutch for the Real Raids is immediately ignored. Often not getting even a response. It's just, as i said, this is probably one of the worst uses for the easy mode idea > Raids were developed to be the most challenging content in the game. The other 99% of the game doesn’t require any thought or skill to do. If players don’t want to do challenging content then they have other areas of the game to play. Sure, they were developed to be that. Doesn't mean this is the only choice. Again, look at FF XIV, where both the easier and harder modes exist side by side, with neither being more important than the other. And where existence of normal difficulty raids and trials does not diminish in any way status of savage/extreme tiers. Like i said, you are looking at this whole case way too narrowly, and thus are unable to see a bigger picture. Your desire to see current raids as the only raid content that matters colors your perception and makes you unable to see any options that do not fit that narrow viewpoint.

> @"Ayrilana.1396" said: > > As i see it, there's nothing wrong about the _idea_ of rotations, but there's indeed quite a lot of problems with how this got implemented in GW2. > > > > You need to understand what a rotation is. Practically any way that a player commonly uses their skills is a rotation. Mashing their skills is a rotation. Removing rotations is practically impossible. Then we understand the term differently. For me, random mashing buttons is not a rotation. It is random mashing buttons. Rotation for me is having a certain sequence of skills you need to follow in the right order. The alternative would be a dynamic system, where you use skills according to the current situation and certain priorities, and have no set rotation to follow. > > As we already know, this in itself is a highly debatable issue, big enough to be worth a separate thread. And, again, very subjective one. For me, i will say that you are just plain wrong. Sure, tiers would not resolve _some_ issues, but they would help with others. You not caring about those other issues doesn't mean they don't exist or would not be helped by tiers. > > > > The mechanics don’t really have all that much scalability. This is especially true if you only add one additional “difficulty mode”. > > What will happen is that players will ignore the mechanics if it’s not dangerous enough to the party. You see this during world bosses as well as the ice construct strike mission. Like i said, you caring only about certain issues doesn't make all the others disappear. You are still thinking only in the context of progression, of easy modes being a training ground for the modes above. That's not the only (or the best) use of the tiers idea though. Just look at FF XIV, for example. They happen to use the idea far better.

> @"Fueki.4753" said: > I think Arenanet abandoned guild activities. > Maybe not enough people have participated in them in them long run. Actually, they never had a guild team. Guild Missions were from the very beginning meant to be an one-time work investment, not something they intended on suporting long-term. Although it's not like they atually made a decision to abandon it - as MO at some point explained, it is just something with an extremely low priority, so there are always more important things to be done instead of it.

> @"Ayrilana.1396" said: > > @"LordMorgul.9845" said: > > 1 - no time > > The timer isn't why players fail. Correction. While timer usually isn't the _direct_ cause of failure, but it can, and does often cause failures by removing some options from the table, as well as putting the group under pressure. Doubt removing it would help the current raids any, but it would be a possibility for any potential easy mode. > > 2 - fix damage system to avoid rotations > > There's nothing wrong with rotations and every single build can have them. That's highly subjective. There's nothing wrong about them _to you_. It doesn't mean there's nothing wrong about them to others. As i see it, there's nothing wrong about the _idea_ of rotations, but there's indeed quite a lot of problems with how this got implemented in GW2. > > 3 - TIERS > > Tiers wouldn't resolve anything as the mechanics would still need to be learned and the weakened versions would be ignored in lower tiers. As we already know, this in itself is a highly debatable issue, big enough to be worth a separate thread. And, again, very subjective one. For me, i will say that you are just plain wrong. Sure, tiers would not resolve _some_ issues, but they would help with others. You not caring about those other issues doesn't mean they don't exist or would not be helped by tiers. > > 4 - Story Mode > > There's very little story in raids and a one and done mode doesn't wouldn't be worth the effort to make. This i agree. Dungeon story modes were for the most part a failure. Let's not repeat that. Especially when easy mode should work good enough for it. > > > 5 - Make Anet Guides by Dev to how to do a raid, (wiki is not helpfull and is ilarius how the game got tons of specs but is closed to 3-4 setups and all guides are for elitis and speedrun not common playerbase) > > What's wrong with all of the guides created by players? All guides and builds are for all players. Considering how a lot of encounters are now being done in ways different (but more efficient, and _easier_) than the strategies originally envisioned by devs, and how some encounters can have several valid strats depending on group preferences, i don't see how dev-sanctioned guides would help. Also, for the issues brought up, if anything, it would make the matters worse. If anyone thinks that current third-party-created strats are too restricting, imagine what would happen if the strategies were official. > > > 6 - Make legy weapon and armor more powerfull or make stat encreased on mastery base like 1% = 1 mastery > > No. We don't need more power creep. Agreed. > @"sokeenoppa.5384" said: > For some1 that raids alot, your suggestion didn't "fix" raids. Actually it destroyed raids. Considering that none of those ever got implemented (except for the point 7, which was present from the start), that's just factually not true.

> @"Cyninja.2954" said: > Every single episode released added more mastery points available versus required to finish new masteries added. Every single episode so far. But we're not talking about mastery points available. We're talking about how many of those are in the "easy" group vs the "grindy" one. So, if the episode releases more mastery requirements than easy mastery points, it means that as a result of said episode, you would need to do **more** grindy MPs to cap your masteries. Not less. Even if the total of released MPs is greater than the requirements, as long as we're basically forced into at least some of the grindy MPs it doesn't help at all. And i honestly doubt we're going to get 17 easy mastery points in the last 3 parts of the Champions chapter. > > Currently the unavailable but visible masteries in Dragon Slayer require a total of 17 mastery points (not 12). You're right, i counted wrong. That makes the situation even worse, because i just don't see us getting even 15 of easy MPs, much less full 17. > If the developers continue for the remaining episode as they have for all episodes so far (and which was mirrored in past living world seasons too, always adding more new mastery points versus needed with new episodes), which is the only basis for assumption we have, you would be incorrect. Again, it doesn't matter how much mastery points they release, if the net result would still be a need to do more of the _grindy_ ones. > Hence why I am unsure where you are drawing your assumption from given this was never the case so far. Because it _has_ been the case so far. It's just the case for something else than what you speak of. > Not saying you are wrong, but I just don't see WHY the developers should suddenly change their approach to this out of the blue. Exactly my point - i don't see them changing their approach either. > They don't have to change their approach given how their approach was always provide more than needed. That only seems like that to you because you count only the MP totals. Which was never the issue at all. You are essentially arguing about something completely different than i do, and completely ignoring the core of the issue i brought up. Which is that grindy MPs are not optional, because we don't have enough of _non-grindy_ ones, and (again, _based on prior experience) that situation is only going to get worse, not better, with future releases. Unless something changes, which, as you yourself noticed is not very likely.

> @"Cyninja.2954" said: > I do believe though that by the end of this Saga, there will be enough spare points that this will become a non issue (outside of players with extreme OCD). At least I would hope that to be the case. I'd expect the last 3 parts of the final chapter to come with around 15 Mastery points. And i would expect a minimum of 7 of them (but probably no more than 10) to be of the easy variety (remaining 7 DRMs and probably no more than 3 for the story itself). At the same time, there are still 12 points left in the yet-locked tiers of the last Mastery track. As such, i would expect the rest of IBS to _increase_ the requirement for more grindy mastery points you would have to do (or, at the very best, keep them unchanged). Even if it will also increase the point leeway. Unless, as i said, they'll significantly change their approach in the last moments.

> @"maddoctor.2738" said: > > @"Astralporing.1957" said: > > > @"Cyninja.2954" said: > > > As far as grind, that is a subjective perception currently based on the fact that masteries are limited. There were certainly some difficult/grindy mastery points in the past, only players had an easier time in ignoring those where as the current perceived scarcity makes the grindy mastery points seem necessary. > > That "only" is the exact point i am making. The players _had_ an easier time in ignoring more grindy Mastery Points. And there's nothing pointing out to this changing in the future parts of the last chapter, unless those start giving out those mastery points in a manner significantly different than how it was done throughout the whole IBS. And there's absolutely nothing suggesting such a sudden change in design will happen at this point. Especially since the same kind of shift into more and more grind was happening also in other parts of the game. > > > > So you want to "replace" grind-y mastery points in game with mastery points that are sold on the gem store? No - and i thought i was clear enough about it already. I wanted to say, that if we were to do some changes (and for IBS we definitely _should_ do some changes), they should be done ingame, not through the store. > To stay on the topic, excluding Icebrood Saga, do you think that there aren't enough "easy" to get MPs in Central Tyria, Heart of Thorns or Path of Fire? Because this is a global suggestion after all, it's not about IBS exclusively. No, absolutely not. Up to IBS, the Mastery Points situation was quite good in general. It started turning sour only in LS5.

> @"Cyninja.2954" said: > As far as grind, that is a subjective perception currently based on the fact that masteries are limited. There were certainly some difficult/grindy mastery points in the past, only players had an easier time in ignoring those where as the current perceived scarcity makes the grindy mastery points seem necessary. That "only" is the exact point i am making. The players _had_ an easier time in ignoring more grindy Mastery Points. And there's nothing pointing out to this changing in the future parts of the last chapter, unless those start giving out those mastery points in a manner significantly different than how it was done throughout the whole IBS. And there's absolutely nothing suggesting such a sudden change in design will happen at this point. Especially since the same kind of shift into more and more grind was happening also in other parts of the game.

> @"hugo.4705" said: > So would like to go underground in depths of tyria, and gonna be disapointed if we just stay in surface with 2012 destroyers models. I noticed that many destroyers is insect-looking or use some of their features: Chelicera, dart, clamps, mandibles... > So god, just invent new destroyers already! Search arthropods and insects, copy paste picture, add rocky and lava textures on it, add some unusual organ and here you go! (EG: A caterpillar with a jellyfish head like pouch on it s back and four mantis legs) Actually, they could go back to the GW1 destroyer models (they already started doing that, but for the most part GW2 destroyers are still lava-reskins of normal creatures, instead of the completely alien and creepy designs they were in GW1)

> @"maddoctor.2738" said: > > @"Astralporing.1957" said: > > You might have a point - except, of course, lately way too many of the MPs are nothing _but_ mindless grinding. If that were to be replaced with exploration, questing and gameplay, then sure, that would be for the best for everyone involved. Probbaly even for those that ask for them to be obtainable from gemshop. > > > Regarding the grind for MPs: > To my knowledge the Icebrood Saga hasn't ended yet. So far we always had excess MPs, anyone that finds a MP too much of a grind, can skip it and go for others. I have covered that already in another thread, i believe, but the main problem isn't that there's barely any leeway in MPs. It's that _compared to all three previous Mastery categories - Core, HoT and PoF - IBS masteries are in general way more grindy. So, sure, you might technically have some leeway, but it will be probably as grindy as the one you'd want to avoid. If we add to that the fact that the IBS masteries themselves are, for the most part, generally underwhelming, it really doesn't look good. > I see no reason why the Icebrood Saga won't have many excess MPs once it ends It theoretically can, but any previous Mastery category at this comparable point had already been in a much better situation. In previous cases i don't really remember ever thinking that maybe the next chapter will give me access to more mastery points - i always had enough of them, without having to go for the most annoying ones. Now it is different. At least we probably can count on getting 7 more of the easy MPs in DRMs. On the other hand, the rest of the mastery track that wil unlock will require significantly more than just 7 points. > That case in Bitterfrost wasn't about selling progression, you didn't get access to a vista or waypoint by buying that in the gem store, yet there was quite an uproar about it. Imagine if they sold -actual- progression on the gem store as some are asking around here. Oh, i can imagine that. That's why i'm not in support of the gemstore option, but rather for introducing more of a low hanging fruit in-game ones.