BlueJin.4127

> @"DaFishBob.6518" said:

> Treasure hunting kits are another thing because of the chance to find material shipments, unidentified gear, freshwater pearls. Now I put this into another section because I will acknowledge that using treasure hunting kits is an absolute pain with the maps as they are. The kits are clearly designed with mount usage in mind based on where the treasures tend to be buried and the special action being usable while mounted, problem is the whole can't mount in battle and being constantly harassed by angry desert critters. That reminds me, I want a change or a mastery that let's us mount during combat and puts a cool down on mounting instead like when a ranger changes pets during combat. Would make the desert less annoying.

OMG, I remember this. I once decided to try the treasure hunting kit, then after killing a dozen or so enemies in the treasure area, I never bothered with the treasure hunting kit ever again.

Stuff like this really hammers the point. What's the point of having stuff to do, when the aggro range just drives players away.

I think PoF maps look amazingly beautiful. Anet's artists have done a wonderful job. Every time I fly around my griffon, it just takes my breath away how beautiful PoF maps are. Gameplay wise, they're also really good. While I personally prefer HoT maps in terms of gameplay, PoF is much more solo friendly and relaxing for exploration. Between HoT maps and PoF maps, there are two very different but amazing styles of maps that players can really get hooked into. However, despite the amazing job Anet has done, there are some issues that really push players away from PoF maps, which is a real shame.

1) Ridiculous aggro range of enemies - I was just talking in map chat earlier today and this is why I decided to post here. Despite the amazing job Anet has done on PoF maps, the ridiculous aggro range of enemies single handedly turns PoF maps into complete garbage (IMO). I'd start getting immersed exploring the beautiful design of PoF maps, then all of a sudden, a whole bunch of enemies from outside my screen constantly aggro and are like, "No, you're not gonna explore, because we're going to spam you with forced fights after forced fights after forced fights! Oh, are you done dispatching the initial enemies and are waiting for the game to let you mount? Here are more aggroed enemies!" This really kills any kind of fun I was having. It is very disruptive and is the main reason I just stay away from exploring PoF maps like the plague. This really should be addressed to make exploring PoF more FUN.

2) Poor event rewards - Since I don't spend much time in PoF maps, I don't know much about this. However, I read this a lot in the forums and I'm sure other players can explain in more detail.

Anet, please do not abandon PoF maps. Go back and address these issues. Personally, I'm afraid of purchasing the missing LWS4 maps or any future expansions because I just feel like Anet just abandons things at the drop of a hat and I would simply be wasting money if there's something I really dislike.

EDIT - One thing I forgot to mention, is that the aggro range can drive new players away. One of the players in chat appeared to be a fairly new player. He wasn't good at combat and couldn't handle the swarm of enemies that aggro from such long range and sounded very frustrated.

Enemies outside PoF have aggro range of about 600. PoF enemies have aggro range of about 900. Some specific enemies appear to have different values (such as that ice elemental enemy in Bitterfrost).

Short answer: YES! BUY THEM! BUY THEM NOW! DO NOT ASK WHY!

LONG... oops, sorry. Long answer: If you love doing world events, you’ll love HoT. They’re kind of like Orr areas, but with much more interesting maps, exploration, rewards, and events. HoT’s open world makes Core Tyria look like a snooze fest.

The only caveat is that the map can be really confusing at first, and downright frustrating if you want to rush through it. My suggestion is start PoF story first until you get the raptor. Then, stop playing the PoF story and play PoF maps until you’re able to get the Springer. Once you have these 2 mounts, then go back to HoT and do the HoT story. Mounts are so very helpful in navigating through the vertical HoT maps. Also, HoT story will help you learn the maps a little so that it’s not as overwhelming. Another thing is to look for, is HP Train (LFG tool) which starts in Verdant Brink and goes through Auric Basin then Tangled Depths. HP trains help you get the hard to solo HP’s in HoT maps, help you unlock waypoints, and help you understand the map’s paths better.

I also recommend getting all Living World seasons. LWS3 has maps that allow you to get ascended trinkets with relative ease. And if you care, the story from LWS bridges each expansion.

PoF zones aren’t as good. They look amazingly beautiful, but the ridiculous aggro range ruins any fun of exploration (IMO). That, and the events are pretty much abandoned by players and Anet. Basically, think of PoF as just paying for mounts and you won’t be as disappointed with PoF.

With mounts and HoT masteries, I love all HoT maps. They’re all so amazing in their design. Even in WoW with its crappy open world pve, I always preferred open world contents. GW2’s open world is just so amazing. I love it.

I’ve always loved music in GW games as well. Personal story is rather poorly done, with poorly scripted events. It’s kind of hilarious having such amazing and epic music in a really unepic and poorly scripted personal story event.

Have you seen the Edge of the Mists map from the WvW tab? If you have, you should read the post I made a few days ago. A fight like the one I describe below is something I’ve always wanted:

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/60990/i-want-an-epic-aerial-map-with-dragon-world-boss-fight/p1?new=1

And for the record, the fight I imagine is not like Dragon’s Stand (or Deathwing from WoW). I cleared up the post a bit, hoping people will better understand what I’m getting at.

Ew. No, thank you. I started out on WoW’s “high levels ganking and camping low levels” server and it was pure waste of time. Imagine trying to complete a difficult JP you despise, only to get ganked at the last minute. Ugh...

This game already has solid WvW for open world pvp.

EDIT: Cleared things up and described in more detail.

One thing I was really disappointed with WoW was that it had flying, but instead of creating amazing maps and epic battles that involve using flying, it resorted to boring ground based stuff and tried to ditch flying mounts altogether. I just saw the Edge of the Mists map in the WvW tab and remembered the kind of epic world boss fight I always wanted.

The map will take place in the air on floating islands, like the Edge of the Mists map (please see that map first, if you haven’t). It'll require players with gliding and griffon in order to get to the dragon itself. However, it'll also require battling the dragon's minions on the floating ground, so players without gliding or griffon can still participate by defending on the ground. While grounded players will be moving around the map and defending various points on the ground against minions, players with gliding and griffon must fight the dragon directly. The dragon itself will be flying at all times, never landing, unlike Tequatl. The goal is for players to skillfully use their aerial movements to land on an actual flying dragon, so they can fight it. Unlike WoW's Deathwing fight where the dragon is just a background, here, players will need to manually fly onto the flying dragon’s back, then actually fight on a giant dragon as it flies around the map in real time.

At several points, the dragon will swoop below a platform or a bridge connecting the platforms. Players will need to jump off the platform and land on the dragon's back in order to attack the dragon directly. Any players who miss the jump will have to use updraft to get back on the floating ground and help defend against minions on the ground until the next time the dragon swoops below a platform. In the air, the dragon will tilt left and right occasionally to drop the players and players will have to move around not to fall off the dragon (kind of like in Shadow of the Colossus but simpler). At some point, the dragon flips upside down and all players will fall down, forcing players to glide down back on to land.

After a couple of these, the dragon boss gets smart and no longer glides under floating platforms. At this point, launching pads will become available and the players must use launching pads to get extremely high up in the air, then players must use the griffon to fly onto the dragon boss' back, all the while the dragon itself is flying around. Griffon with Aerial Prowess mastery is the best option for swooping down and slamming down onto the dragon's back. Another option, though slower and harder, is to simply use the glider and fall to try to land on the dragon's back. The dragon flies faster than the griffon, so it’s not as simple as flying on to a rock. The key here is that players need to pay attention to the dragon's flying route, anticipate proper timing, and be skilled enough at flying their griffon to land on the back of a flying dragon.

Please create something like this Anet. Having aerial based movement and not using them for aerial based maps and epic battles is such a waste.

While I am not worried about seizures since these are extremely rare, I'm very concerned about eye damages caused by so many camera flashes this game has.

I think Holosmith is the best (worst?) example. Just about every weapon skill and utility skill causes strong camera flash. This is a very serious issue. Anybody who plays Holosmith regularly WILL damage their eyes. I myself had to resort to using eye drops several times a day from flashes caused by regular engineer... before I even got Holosmith. Holosmith is just unacceptable and I just turned my engineer to storage character out of concern for my eye health.

Of course, Holosmith isn’t the only problem. Air elementalist is also very bad. I heard Firebrand is bad, too. Every class has some flashing lights that are unhealthy. There was a boss, I believe in Tangled Depths, that was constantly flashing red lights. There are too many to list. Combine multiple of these and you have a game that is very dangerous to overall eye health.

I don’t know why Anet is so dead set on keeping such unhealthy flashing and bright lights. Graphics wise, they DON’T make the game look better. Overuse of such bright lights as visual effects is very shallow and something only artists with no creativity do, to cover something up. Looking at how beautiful this game is, we don’t need such amateur and unhealthy camera flashes to cover anything up. Anet’s artists are excellent enough to create beautiful visual effects that are not mere camera flashes and bright lights.

If they have any concern and respect for their customers, Anet really need to go back and completely redo every flashing lights immediately.

On a side note, it would be great if visual effects don’t create visual clutter, either. Some effects are not unhealthy, but can make it hard to see the enemy, especially in a group event.

I started playing 4 months ago (US server) and had no problems getting all core masteries. Here are some tips on how I did some of the ones you seem to be having trouble with.

1) For TT, the LFG tool is your best bet. I had no problems finding groups for TT 1 hour after daily reset or when it starts at xx:30 (about 12 hours after daily reset). Make sure to join the map instance 15 minutes before pre starts. There are online guides you can read and videos you can watch to help understand how to do all the achievements. I did TT a total of 5 or 6 times and got all the achievements associated with TT using some videos and Dulfy guide.

2) For the Not so Secret diving goggle, you can ask for a Mesmer's help to port you there. You can ask in map chat. I noticed that, sometimes, there are Mesmers just waiting in that map to help players so just check every 20 minutes or so. For me, some random player ported me up there and even taught me how to jump down properly. He wouldn't even accept any gold as a thank you. The trick to jumping down from the top platform, is to perfectly face the left most beam while standing at the center, then dodge backwards.

All other diving goggle JP's can be skipped using mounts.

3) For fractals, my guess is if you ask the group for help with MP's before you start, players who know will most likely be happy to help. If you get no replies, try another group.

Also, I recommend reading some of the tips people posted here, as well as watch videos online. They're very helpful in letting you figure out which MP's may be best suited for you. Hope you get them all soon and good luck.

Some players are nice.

Some players are mean.

OP, if this is in response to the discussion going on in the other post, I think you’re misunderstanding the discussion going on in the other topic. When we discuss the flashy effects in that topic, we’re not talking about “fancy” effects. We’re talking about the instant change in brightness from dark to bright, like a camera flash.

Do I like fancy, beautiful, creative, and artistic visual effects?

Absolutely. I’m a graphics whore. Though I wouldn’t mind having the option to tone down fancy effects to prevent visual clutter when in a group event.

Do I like unhealthy bright instant camera flashes?

No way! Camera flashes have nothing to do with beautiful visual effects and a different topic than visual clutter. This is a health issue.

If this is not in response to that other thread, please ignore.

The things is, we don’t even need a slider. Game engine is not the cause of this issue, nor the reason it can’t be fixed. Anet can go back and redo the flashes so that they’re not bright instant camera flashes that are hazardous to health. Anet just simply refuse to do it. Look at all the cool visual effects in games out there. Not only do you not need bright instant flashes to make a game’s effects look good, but the good looking visual effects are artistic and creative effects, not mere bright instant flashes.

I used to work at a certain infamous game company that just wanted to rush buggy games out the door. However, even this company took bright instant flashes seriously and changed visual effects if any were flagged by a single QA tester as possible health issues. The reason? If one tester is bothered by a flash, there **will** be thousands of customers who will also be affected by it.

Anet really needs to have their QA team check out all the weapon skills and utility skills, and report the ones that are causing bright instant flashes. Then the devs should change these effects so that they’re not unhealthy bright instant flashes. This would be an excellent **start**. I’m sure a lot of players can make do with things like gathering tools causing flashes for now, since we do not need to look at the monitor while gathering. But a player’s own skills causing such bright instant flashes (made even worse in a group), when the player needs to look at the action going on, needs to be fixed ASAP.

Again, we’re not saying remove beautiful visual effects. We’re saying change them in ways that are not hazardous to players’ health.

We’re not talking about removing visual effects altogether. We’re talking about reducing unhealthy flashes that cause seizures, migraines, and eye pains. Devs want to make the game look good. I get that. I’m a graphics whore. The way it is done in this game, however, is just so mind numbingly idiotic. I have never played any other game with flashes anywhere near this bad.

In any case, I’m extremely frustrated that I can’t play my engineer at all and resigned him to a storage character. Holosmith is the only spec I enjoy on my engineer, but Holo is unplayable for me because every attack causes minor flashes and every Holo skill causes major flashes. I’m not even talking about flashes from other players. Flashes from my Holo alone are hurting my eyes. And I’m playing with Gunnar computer glasses, my monitor’s brightness and contrast set to low, and in a brightly lit room while taking eye vitamins every day. This is just ridiculous.

If Anet gives a damn about player health, this should have been fixed years ago. This issue literally pisses me off.

I’m talking about total damage dealt, not DPS or damage per tick. ^^

You're right, Ronan. I was able to check as well, and it would turn to 200 damage over 16 seconds. Thanks for the help. ^^

I bought both and I recommend getting both.

HoT gliding is still useful anywhere. Many of my favorite specs are HoT elite specs. The attribute combination I use also requires HoT. HoT maps, although frustratingly confusing at first, are brilliantly designed.

PoF maps are garbage due to ridiculous aggro range, but mounts are excellent. I personally wouldn’t play if this game if it didn’t have mounts.

The only bad thing is that you have to buy LWS separately.

New players will not directly join because of QoL fixes, but these are important for retaining players, which in turn, helps draw in more players.

I’m still new so I don’t know if I think Anet doesn’t listen to players. However I really wish Anet will fix unhealthy flash effects spam. I literally cannot play my Holosmith because every skill causes blinding flashes and my eyes hurt. And I do not enjoy any other specs on an engineer at the moment.

When I'm playing a game using cat people and plant people, fighting against zombies, dragons, and gods using magic and... other pixels, I cannot have skimpy armors because that’s what kills any sense of realism and immersion. :tongue:

Flying is the same speed as running.

When a character glides, his base gliding speed is the same as his running speed.

When a griffon flies, its base flying speed is the same as its running speed.

I’m not the type to scream realism in a video game, but this really irks me.

I’ve been unable to find a clear answer on this. If I do 100 condition damage over 8 seconds, does getting 100% increased duration result in 200 damage over 16 seconds? Or is it 100 damage over 16 seconds?

Some say it’s the former. Some say it’s the latter.

> @"nosleepdemon.1368" said:

> I'd play gw2 on mobile. Just sayin'. Y'all need to get over yourselves, besides the developers are right - who here does not own a mobile phone?

Who here does not own a PC?

I do not own a tiny phone for games any more than I own a good PC for phone calls.

That dev’s comment was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

OP, the pic you posted is disgusting! :angry:

You need to get with the times... and post a higher res pic. :smiley:

The amount of flashes in this game is ridiculous and none of the current graphic settings do much. It’s even worse for an engineer. I started leveling my engineer recently and since then, I’ve been using eye drops several times a day. I just got Holosmith and it’s even worse. Every attack is a flash spamfest. This is a legitimate health concern. What will it take for Anet to take this seriously and take swift and meaningful action? A lawsuit? :anguished:

I recently made a post asking players what attribute combinations players would like to see added. I was surprised to see that there are a lot of different combinations players want that aren’t in the game. So it got me thinking of some kind of reforge system that let’s players customize attribute combinations, without ruining current combinations or future additions.

For a fee (whether gold, materials, or other non-gem currencies), a player can change attributes of a gear piece to any desired attributes, like turn **power, precision, and ferocity** to **condition damage, precision, and expertise** with a small hit in overall stats. For example, a customized ascended piece may have stats that are between ascended and exotic. This way, obtaining existing combinations the normal way is still the right way to go and future combination additions won’t be pointless. However, it let’s players customize their gears into stats that are otherwise unobtainable.

I think there are some misperceptions about casual group contents. I understand that it’s much more convenient to play alone without the pressure of being judged by others and some bigots stressing you out. As a casual player, I can say that world bosses and lower tier fractals are really no different than playing solo and there really is no need to feel any pressure. People will not tell you what build to bring. They will not tell you that you need berserker gears. They’re not going to give you crap because you were not born with knowledge of game mechanics. They won’t tell you to chat and communicate with others. Most chats are either completely quiet (like when playing alone), or just filled with friendly and funny banters. Also, people are more than happy to help with MP’s they don’t need themselves (often kindly pointing MP’s out, in fact).

Just like when doing solo conents, when I do a world boss, I just go in with my own build, Marauder gears, no knowledge of mechanics, and just go pew-pew-pew. I just try to learn mechanics on the fly when I can. If I die, somebody resses me when they can. There’s really no toxic communication because there is no cause for one. I don’t feel any pressure because there is really no reason to feel pressure when world bosses are no different than playing solo. The only difference is that since world bosses require a lot of players, I use the LFG tool to get into a map instance with enough players. Don’t let the mention of LFG tool scare you, though. It’s only to get you into a map.

For players who are still too scared to try casual group contents, what I would recommend is use the LFG tool to get into a world boss map instance (except Triple Trouble) with enough players, leave the group, then fight the world boss by yourself. There’s absolutely no reason to feel any pressure since you’re just playing solo with a bunch of competent NPC's. Once you're comfortable doing this, then try staying in the group the next few times. Once you’re more comfortable, try HP trains, low tier fractals, or Triple Trouble. Just take it small steps at a time. Oh, and you know how some hearts and events, we have no idea what we’re supposed to do and we have to actually read what the game/NPC tells us to do? Triple Trouble is basically like that. All you gotta do is read what the NPC(ommander) types and try to follow it. If you still don't get it, just follow the colored icon NPC(ommander) around. That’s how I learned, just tailing and seeing mechanics. Online videos are also helpful. While it’s true that there are occasional bad apples, don’t let them get to you and dictate how you play. Just have fun. ^^

I can’t say I agree with the OP. I’m a casual open world player who started 4 months ago and only decided to start working on maxing my masteries about 2 weeks ago. I’m now 5 points away from maxing Core and haven’t encountered any road blocks.

Story gives players a lot of MP’s and they’re very solo friendly. If a player ever encounters a story mission he can’t heat, he can always ask for help. There are tons of videos online that give helpful info on getting easy or solo friendly MP’s. Mounts are also very helpful for some jumping puzzles, which is important because I despise JP’s and suck at them. There are still plenty of players doing world bosses and such. In fact, I just beat all 3 heads of Triple Trouble the past 3 days - 1 head per day. I also completed all achievements for Tequatl a few days ago. I never purposefully tried for the achievements, but apparently earned all but 3 achievements for Teq. I completed the 3 remaining achievements in one fight. Using LFG about 10 minutes in advance really helps.

It also helps to plan ahead. I doubt most players need all masteries. I read through all the masteries and found many of them are useless to me. So, I just grabbed the masteries I would use. Now, I can work on maxing the “useless” masteries at my own leisure. Sure, some take time to get, but this game isn’t sub based. I’m in no rush. Besides, masteries aren’t repetitive grinds like some MMO’s. You don’t have to repeatedly grab the same collection item every day. Every mastery is new stuff for players to do. I’ll have stuff to do in this game for a long time and I’m loving it. ^^