Jackson.9307

Yeaaaahhhhhh...... That DOES sound really cool, but I think the engine would melt down if they tried that.... Hmm I think they already have the tech for it. They use a lot of shaders and post processing for creepy effects and fog in whispers in the dark and have deforming environments in several parts of the game (destroyed islands in ds, td post meta giant wall collapse, moving vines in ab, collapsing floors in jps and fractals, portals, shifting platforms in raids etc.). Now just gotta scale that by 500% and make it semi real time like that annoying fractal (forgot the name, the one where u have to place 3 wisps in trees while vines keep shifting and blocking ur way) but jacked up a tonne. The idea is to make the map alive with lots of moving tidbits, almost like the very planes you walk on are the eldritch creature itself that is annoyed that you are on its' back. The whole meta map would slowly progress from dark eerie environment to madness, darkness, cosmos, lots of moving pieces, separation, hallucination (already have that tech with ibogas and scarlets blossoms) such as players seeing things differently than what is in actuality, causing players to fall of platforms/cliffs. Walking into death etc. And as they succumb to their down state, the reality is revealed to them. With masteries, it would lessen the severity of such hallucinations and cause flickers between reality and illusion, allowing the player to know that they are actually about to walk to their doom. Final part of the meta would reveal the real nature of the map and world boss tearing out of cosmic space, an eldritch being tearing land and space, the being that players are walking upon. You fight its' head. Defeating it puts it back to temporary slumber, reverting the map back to its' "peaceful/illusion phase" for sometime before the map meta repeats. It is a lot of work though, cost heavy, unrealistic and most likely not worth it. But still one can dream. :p

I'd like to see some environments explored towards the direction of eldritch and cosmic horror. Something familiar yet unfamiliar, upside down, twisted, known yet unknown. An environment map which twists and turns and gets darker with each step of the meta-map event. With pathways that fold, twist and transform, forcefully separating players from each other and making it hard to regroup. A map where players can not see the unseeable and are only able to grasp what has killed them by gaining foresight through masteries. A map where the whole map is your enemy.

I also think those Mythic Weapons are one of the prettier skins. If they would be available as separate purchases for 500 gems a pop that would've been a guaranteed minimum 4 purchases from me as many of the Mythic Weapons look nice. However, just like the Celestial Axe or Wild Magic backpack, if they're a pain in the biscuits to buy, then I don't even bother. I don't think I'm their target demographic anyways -- these skins are most likely for the bigger spenders.

Ele for life. Love the gameplay and always come back to it.

3 enemies which I hate most: -Those pesky Harpies in Desert Highlands which deal a metric tonne of damage with their high ranged auto attacks and Dragon Hunter traps. These guys are seriously tougher than most Elite and Champion mobs. -Champion Mordrem Sniper. Hate this overtuned piece of tumbleweed with a passion. Has a charged shot which creates an AOE field that kills you in 2-3 ticks. Can spam it twice in a row. That shot also kills you in two hits and you can't strafe out of it unless you're quite far (hitbox seems bigger than the actual projectile). Has a dodge roll which he spams when you use CC skills. Spams Rangers' Rapid Fire skill which destroys you unless you burn a dodge or use a reflect skill (which have high Cool down btw, good luck using it again when he decides to spam that attack once more). And if you're melee he kicks you with a knockback for 70% of your health with instant animation. This guy makes Champ Stalkers and Punishers look like pushovers. -Elite/Champion Desolator. He will keep smacking you til you're dead. Unless you're playing Revenant or have all utilities and elite slotted with CC, gg. I generally avoid this guy with a wide arc unless I'm in a group.

I think whether the combat is fast or slow largely depends on the profession you play. For instance for me Firebrand feels really slow and many spells take a century to deploy, whereas thieves are swift and near instant in execution. However as a whole in terms of MMO space I would say GW2 is far from a slow paced game when it comes to combat. There are skills which have instant cast times with the purpose of interrupting your opponents during their skill animation. However if you're a person coming from a game like Vindictus or Black Desert Online then I can see where you're coming from, but WoW? I feel WoW is even slower and clunkier. I could never get into that game for that reason, even when I tried private servers.

I play all professions. Mostly because after some time I get bored and switching things up makes the gameplay fresh. It's also fresh on the eyes since I play as all races so I get variety when I play and don't have to keep looking at the same toon for weeks (although when I decide to do JPs, I switch over to Humans or Asurans). Also I have a backstory crafted for each character and at some point they all interact with each other in one way or another and are essentially part of one big family. Speaking of...would be kinda cool if your alt characters could be placed in Sun's Refuge or your home instance and you could hire them out as NPC party members. :P

Since most people already answered, I will just chime in and wish you a pleasant stay in the heart of the maguuma jungle. Also if you think Verdant Brink is a troll map, wait til Tangled Depths. That map is like Durian. You either love it, or hate it. :P

It was most likely an alt character below level 80, whereas his/her main is most likely level 80 with masteries unlocked as masteries are account wide as mentioned by others in this thread.

I wouldnt do this simply because its unhealthy in the long run. Starting to introduce these kind of monetization methods will slowly turn this game into a mobile-esque fest where literally everything will be monetized. Not only does it go against the way content is designed in the game but it will sell for sure (i have seen mobile analytics and also personally have friends who spend huge amounts weekly on mobile games just to be the best without effort and time spent). Next we will have microtransactions to skip collection steps. Next will be payment to negate the time gate. Next will be dedicated button to pay gems for mats instead of gold in the black lion trading post. Etc. Etc. Sure this will bring in huge money at the cost of the core established audience. I dont have hard data but gw2 is already quite casual in terms of mmo space from my observation and even still there is a disparity between the pvp-ers, high-end pve-ers and casuals who still complain about game difficulty. Now imagine bringing a totally new demographic in. Yeah there will be money at first. But man anet gnna have a headache. I personally wouldnt want to see this game get aggressively monetized like an average mobile game, cause to me guild wars 2 is still a game at its core with monetization attached whereas mobile games are monetization machines disguised as games, and I dont want gw2 going that direction. Regarding your point on level boosters etc. Its different because levels and masteries have been designed differently. Levels have always been character driven by design with exterior factors mostly being mobs and quests, whereas masteries take map and account wide progression design into consideration and thats how the devs can pace and control player behavior. That is why when u play core u can hit lvl 80 without even exploring all of core Tyria whereas with masteries you usually end up a. Exploring most of the map because masteries dictate so or b. You go back to old content with your new masteries to have new player experience. In short. Here is gw2 experience. Come join. If you like, stay. If not, move on. Im really not trying to be unwelcoming but just to illustrate: Monster Hunter but pay to 1 tap kill boss. That goes against the core design philosophy of the game, and at which the core audience was built upon.

I would like to see the addition of dungeons. Fractals are too short and I really enjoyed the multiple paths and the open-ended exploration feeling of the instances. If anything Fractals feel a bit more like running from A to B whereas dungeons feel like explorable instances.

Nothing in this game goes beyond “laughably easy” though ... And yet you like it so much that you even post in the game forums, like I do, by the why. Let's keep trying to improve this great game with things like removing S.A. from Sirens, so a lot of people that are now skipping that fractal will return to play it again. Don't you agree?Not really here to add anything to the discussion, just wanted to say that this post and the one after are friggin hilarious. Really enjoyed your wit in your comments. :p

If you have laurels or living world s3 and 4 you can either buy ascended celestial accessories for your character from the laurel vendor or purchase accessories with selectable stats from unbound/volatile magic vendors and select celestial.As for the equipment and weapons you can use berserker/marauder mix depending on the amount of hp you are comfortable with. You should be sitting at 18k health (traited) and 400 ish healing power when attuned to water with the above setup.

If you have laurels or living world s3 and 4 you can either buy ascended celestial accessories for your character from the laurel vendor or purchase accessories with selectable stats from unbound/volatile magic vendors and select celestial.As for the equipment and weapons you can use berserker/marauder mix depending on the amount of hp you are comfortable with. You should be sitting at 18k health (traited) and 400 ish healing power when attuned to water with the above setup.

Bought it, love it! Can be dyed and applied for free without costing transmutation charges!! Been waiting for capes since forever! <3