Manasa Devi.7958

> @"Infusion.7149" said:

> If you had been paying attention, Arenanet has been inconsistent about many things related to ingame content even before a pandemic was ongoing. I really don't think this is as much of an issue as people make it out to be, seeing how the only detriment is some people lost inventory spaces up until now. Anyone starting that content now is not going to expect T1 Stormcaller required for T2 Charged stormcaller weapons.

>

> Of course there could have been a recipe that required fewer resources if you had T1 Stormcaller weapons unlocked, I know. Given that materials are thrown at you every step of the way in Drizzlewood coast it is probably just to balance the economy.

>

> Before anyone says it didn't affect me, I had all T1 stormcaller weapons about a month after the last episode and they've been in storage.

It's not just an inventory issue, it's also an issue of perhaps having crafted tier 1 weapons at all.

One thing that bothers me is the new repeatable Drizzlewood Coast reward track for WvW. (PvP is probably the same but I haven't checked.)

It's basically a copy of the season 4 zone reward tracks, and it has completely inappropriate rewards, like Awakened and Djinn caches. The unrepeatable reward tracks for the Icebrood Saga have been very good until this chapter, especially the one for No Quarter, so this came as a bit of a disappointment.

> @"Lottie.5370" said:

> Okay - even if you have Dominion selected, it will spread them between the four high legions (Blood/Ash/Flame..)

If they were split over the older 4, at least I didn't waste my 150 leather. Thanks for confirming and providing more detail.

> @"Infusion.7149" said:

> Proof you can never satisfy everyone.

That's why you need to be consistent, so people can know what to expect. If you can't satisfy everyone, at least manage expectations. This weird last minute change isn't that.

I bought 125 charr commendations twice at Quaestor Annona Vinedrummer just now, having the "Death to the Dominion Pledge" active and visible on my buff bar. My "Death to the Dominion" achievement did not go up by 250 as expected, nor did any of the other achievements.

I've only played the story so far, so the new meta is a bit unclear to me. Do we have to complete the No Quarter meta before we can start the Jormag Rising meta? If so, that's... not something I want to do. That will be a once and done thing for me. I'm done with that first meta. Please tell me this is not how this works.

I like the note in the weapon description, because it comes with a solid justification to assume that future weapons without such a note can be safely salvaged/forged.

> @"Kurrilino.2706" said:

> > @"Sovereign.1093" said:

> > No. If you read the premise it's a special instance whereby it's pk. Players can choose not to go there but forego the incentive. :)

>

> What the hell is wrong with you. This area is already in existence and is called WvW.

> If you want to kill people, go there and meet the other lunatics.

If you read the OP carefully, you'll find one big difference between the OP's suggestion and actual WvW, and that's the "3x loot and good drops" aspect. So, this is basically just another "WvW is unrewarding" thread.

Great idea! They should name this sub-forum "room 101".

When HoT first came out, I hated the maps. Now, they're my favorite. What I hated about them was the reliance on masteries to explore small corners of the map. I absolutely resented having to advance further and further into the jungle just to unlock masteries I needed to finish the first area. It ran counter to how I want to play. I stopped playing HoT for months before picking it up again, that's how much I hated it. But I got back to it, bit the bullet, and got it done.

After that, with all masteries unlocked, HoT became really good for me and I ran a dozen characters through it.

Let's examine the two possibilities and try to make a judgment call which one of them is more likely.

1) ANet cheats, the highly desirable super rare drops don't actually drop except for the "chosen people" who may or may not work for them and all of the "chosen people" perpetuate the lie. **This creates a situation where people are tempted to spend money to gamble for these rare drops.**

2) ANet has a fair system where everyone has the same infinitesimally small chance to get a highly desirable super rare drop. The lucky winners let other players know their good fortune. **This creates a situation where people are tempted to spend money to gamble for these rare drops.**

Both scenarios result in the same outcome. It makes no sense to set up a corrupt system involving paid stooges and fixed odds.

> @"Inculpatus cedo.9234" said:

> Hmm...they announce something on the News Blog and Twitter, people are upset it's not on the forum; they announce something on the forum, people are upset it's not on Twitter.

> Difficult to win.

No one is twisting their arm not to announce it on all their platforms.

The gamble seems fair to me. Super rare things do drop from the chests, I can tell from personal experience. The reason they're so expensive on the TP is because they are super rare. You can't expect to get one of those drops. If they were achievable by everyone (without spending absurd amounts of gold) they'd be cheap on the TP. It's just like a real life lottery, jackpot prizes make a few people rich, not everyone.

> @"Inculpatus cedo.9234" said:

> Oh! Is that what the OP is asking about. One need only left-click the red or blue (depending on who controls the area) little icon for each area of the Drizzlewood Coast map, and a dialogue will appear (for travel).

>

> I thought she was asking about (Portable) Waystations.

Well, he mentioned having to "drop a table" so the portable waystations were the first thing I thought he was talking about as well.

Seems like a good idea. And I have another idea. Why don't we put all PvP players into giant wicker man constructs that PvE players can set on fire while singing pagan songs, every full moon? The ancient gods of phat loot need sacrifice! Oh, and we need bees, many bees.

> @"ConorT.5396" said:

> As mentioned previously, my concerns are not based on my own experience as I have 7 level 80 characters & over 1000 tomes of knowledge.

>

> My concern is that the new player experience is not inviting to veteran MMORPG players which are moving from other games - and aNet are loosing potential revenue by restricting players in progressing in the story while the starter area's are not as polished as much as the newer content in the game.

>

> I lost interest in this thread as soon as people who disagreed with me, and could not accept the fact that my points held true - started insulting me directly

>

> If you have not fully read the entire thread, I suggest you do - because if there was not a discussion to be had here, it would not have reached 5 pages.

So what would happen if they remove the requirement? Basically nothing. You could play a few levels below the level the instances are set at, though many new players wouldn't manage that, and it would be easier or harder depending on the class they picked. And to keep playing at a similar level of difficulty, you'd still need to gain on average 10 levels between story steps.

The only practical difference would be the option of people joining underlevelled players to quickly run them through the story.

The one change I would cheer for would be a way to control the clinging. Either a "always cling / never cling" toggle or only clinging when you collide while having a skill key pressed. Accidental clings are so annoying.

Who would care about the "influence" of a failed warband's remaining 2 members whose turncoat conversion was effected at knife point with half of them in captivity. The notion that this would have any effect at all on the war is preposterous beyond reason. The more likely resulting sentiment would be: "Oh, the oh-so mighty Steel Warband was soundly defeated and now these two treacherous pups bowed their heads to a new master. Any charr worth their salt would've had the dignity to die in battle instead".

Smodur did nothing wrong. People feel he did because the way the story presents the other NPCs nonsensical opinions. I find it quite sad how many people fall for this obvious emotional manipulation. So Smodur has us blow up a few charr? I fail to see how this is a problem. Out in the open world, we slaughter them by the thousands, and that's okay? I guess we shouldn't have firebombed them but instead knocked on the door and chopped 'em to bits using good old elbow grease when they answer. His troops should applaud him for taking down an enemy threat without risk to their own life and limb.

> @"ConorT.5396" said:

> > @"Batel.9206" said:

> > I fail to see how the old system was better. Explain it to me, please? The way I see it now is that you're free to do absolutely anything you want to do in order to level. Hearts, events, exploring, gathering, crafting, etc. While that was still true before the NPE, of course, it seems to me you were FORCED to do it, breaking up the story, if that's all you wanted to do. Just got done with an exciting story step, and the NPCs tell you to meet them somewhere else? Great--oh, whoops, can't do it, you need another two levels before you can not feel underpowered and die to every other enemy. Go do stuff before you can get back on track to the story.

> >

> > Isn't that what you're railing against? How was that better? In the new system, the ten-level gap between chapters makes sense for the story: your character explicitly gets time off from the last chapter, and they learn to hone their skills and explore the land before they're called back to the fight. And, frankly, that gap is so easy to close because leveling is so NOT a grind that it almost doesn't matter.

> > Or, put a different way, what would you do differently? You've said that there should be limits the player themselves discover...how's *that* not a "grind"? Once the player discovers those limits, now they're "forced" to go get better gear/level up until they can push past that limit. That's not a grind, according to you? What the heck IS a grind, in your opinion??

>

> Honestly, I have no idea what should be done with the issues with the starter area.

>

> All I know is, the game development company that has built the amazing elite specialisation system, the smooth mount system & release regular content in a living world - can do a lot better than just putting a level restriction in place and calling it "New Player Experience."

>

> aNet, if they thought about it - would be able to design & develop something that does not restrict players from trying higher level story missions while encouraging them to explore.

>

> Initially, the game was already geared towards exploring just out of natural curiosity. But anything could have been put in place - advanced (or specific per meta event) loot reward systems for large scale events rather than static, generic loots for example.

>

> There is a whole host of idea's that could have and should have been explored before gating the personal story.

>

You always needed to level. In the original release, you could (and I often did) do story steps some levels above your own. Fun. And then you finished that step and good golly, the next step was higher level still, way above your then current abilities. So into the open world you went, to level. Or maybe craft and gather, which you claim to never have done. Pays huge xp dividends. The only significant change they made is that they formalized how the levelling process relates to the personal story. Big deal.

Please keep real life religion out of the game.

/s

No offense, but I I can't help getting the distinct feeling that new players are much better off exploring what the game has to offer on their own than being anywhere near you.

> @"draxynnic.3719" said:

> > @"Manasa Devi.7958" said:

> > I think he's acting pretty pragmatic.

> >

> > He's not buying into the abject nonsense that redeeming a single traitor who just happens to be someone's kid will fix everything. He's manipulating the "commander" into doing things they wouldn't do of their own accord and getting results. He's playing to win.

>

> And in doing so, he's alienating every ally he has. That's not playing to win. That's setting himself up to lose.

>

> Malice says it in the episode: "No one here will ever bow to you". He's ticked off the Imperator of one legion and likely future Imperators of two more, along with at least one influential non-charr person of importance. His short-sightedness has torpedoed any chance he had of becoming Khan-Ur.

Yes, you're right, everyone is going home now and stop fighting Jormag and Bangar. Oh, wait a minute, they won't!

Maybe he doesn't care if some whiny kittens don't want to be his friends after the war has been won.

I think he's acting pretty pragmatic.

He's not buying into the abject nonsense that redeeming a single traitor who just happens to be someone's kid will fix everything. He's manipulating the "commander" into doing things they wouldn't do of their own accord and getting results. He's playing to win.

I don't have the first clue what the actual problem is after reading the OP. If your ticket was just as confusing, support probably closed it because they didn't have a clue what to do with it.