firedragon.8953

Not all content can be for everyone all the time. It's just 250AA. If you don't want to do it, don't. Simple. If you are meaning to try, now's the time. Remember LFG has a Training section for strikes. If you've been somewhat doing your dailies/weeklies, you don't even have any valuable stuff to buy from the vault at the moment. There's not even enough meat for all the salt some people are pouring all over this.

The reason why fractals are not dead like most other instanced group content is there is a built in gate system. It's not perfect, but fractals are much better at setting expectations for players of similar skill levels.

Same issue.

Late to this thread, but anyway, I like the vault. It gives unique cosmetics as well as valuable items. Now that they've added the reward track boosts for pvp and WvW dailies, I really have no complaints. The old log-in rewards could be easily abused by someone with 70+ alt accounts. The new one is still profitable for those that play a couple alt accounts to farm mystic coins and/or gold for their main account. I think it's a fair compromise that actually requires a few minutes or running around a newbie zone or whatever, populating the world. If you don't play much or ignore the dailies, the old log in rewards 28-day cycle gave 20 mystic coins and 50 laurels (if selecting bountiful laurels in final chest). Over 28 days with the new system, you get 140 acclaim for just logging in which is equivalent to 15 mystic coins or 14 laurels. Or you could do 4 days of dailies and get 22 mystic coins or whatever and then you don't even have to log in every day. The reality is you're guaranteed to make more than this though through VERY casual gameplay since a lot of dailies (+10AA) are like, loot 10 mobs, etc. If you engage so little with the game that you can't even achieve a couple daily tasks (not the daily chests) once and a while, then your not even really playing GW2, are you? And thus, such arguments are irrelevant.

Considering the work needed for the achievement, I actually see nothing wrong with this. sPvP lobby and guild halls already let players access bank, trading post, and basic vendors. Old Lions Arch basically adds the Mystic Forge to the list of services. Returning to original locations is not a VIP lounge pass exclusive feature (see above). Not even all lounge passes do it (e.g., Lily of Elon). Old LA "lounge" is a ghost town as it is. Personally, I'd like to see it used a bit more, and adding the feature of returning you to the open world location may have people pop in and out of it more often.

I'm pretty sure in the dangerous world of Tyria, weapons ARE a good thing. If little orphan Jane spent more time with the toy sling shot, maybe the centaurs wouldn't have killed her parents. Just sayin'....

It's a misnomer that power berserker is "easy to learn." "Easy to remember," maybe, not not to do well. Power berserker has always been a high APM spec to the point that having high ping makes it impossible to get near bench. But yes, it is easy in the sense that it has a short skill loop.

I think it' a good idea. I actually just made a post requesting this. But, unfortunately not a lot of people on the forums here understand the trouble. For example... Time zones my friend. There are many in the world.

Hammer on Spellbreaker in open world. Rips boons, stuns mobs, leaps through the air (nice for jumping puzzles tbh). Usually run main-hand dagger, off-hand axe for damage and spin to win (tagging as many mobs as possible in a zerged-out meta). I don't play warrior in PvP at the moment.

The thing about raids is that they are usually organized in guild/static or through a discord community like Raid Academy. The reason is that it's easier (faster) to pre-assign/select roles using Discord reacts to a post and that when raiding with people you've raided with before (i.e. guild mates) expectations are clearer and the time investment of learning each raid begins to pay off as everyone gets skilled. PUGs can be a huge mixed bag of friendly/bored gods walking amongst mere mortals, sweaty-palmed one-shot one-clear raiders, semi-experienced raiders, completely untrained players, and oblivious newbies (or vets?). Each on their own is probably fine, but mixing them and their expectations together with them all thinking everyone else is going to be similar to them is a disaster. But yeah, it isn't a new thing that Raid LFG is empty and/or just raid seller ads, and a part of that reason is that they aren't popular with most of the community. I really enjoyed raids in this game when I used to learn and then lead them with my own guild. Probably one of the most social parts of the game where you can work together with other players and actually feel like you did something while goofing around and chatting the whole time. But, this isn't the mainstream culture of GW2 and how the majority of people are trained to just "show up and get credit." So, yes, raids aren't very popular, and the lack of a large raider population can make consistent group formation more difficult than the raids themselves. I'm SUPER glad Anet made raids, but I'm not completely surprised they stopped making them.

Dragon Bash is probably the one I enjoy the most because it is a "non-Earth based" festival and for some reason I also just love the roller beetle race and atmosphere in Hoelbrak. I loved my first Wintersday, but over the years the charm has faded. However, I do like the atmosphere (incl. music) in DR and who doesn't like good ol' fashioned orphan farm! I'm not a fan of the Wintersday skins and most of the activities though. But that's just me. I do wish festival foods and utilities still dropped from wrapped presents though (or well for all festivals actually). I don't even open them anymore... but I guess it's a bit of extra gold.

Zhaitan "echo" ground assault. Okay, I'm in.

It appears you've completely missed the point. lol

Oh... To be clear, I only mean a change in scaling to the STORY paths. Not the other paths. I think normal p1/p2/etc. should still be 5-player content and not solo content. Just the story focusing on the Destiny's Edge characters.

Fair point. I suppose my reasoning was to superficially connect dungeons and fractals to create a "path of progression" as it were. 5-player instanced content that awards exotics (dungeons) and 5-player instanced content that awards ascended/legendary (fractals). Admittedly, it's been a while since I've played any of the story paths in dungeons. I can't seem to recall any story paths having mechanics that require multiple players to progress. Can you think of any story paths that wouldn't be completable controlling for mob strength/spawn number? Yes, I know about this. Actually, this is the reason why I made this post. This isn't about developing content (e.g., CMs) for dungeons, it's about a systems refresh (adding dailies, adjusting vendor items, etc.). I know dungeon content development will not happen (nor does it need to), but base game systems need to be continually refined or we end up with an semi-abandoned unruly mess that confuses new (and veteran?) players as the games content grows.

Thanks. May I ask why no dungeon token to fractal conversion? I was thinking something like 150 dungeon tokens = 1 Bag of Fractal Relics (15 relics) from the fractal vendors. This would make the dungeon tokens more valuable as dungeon tokens, and fractal relics much more easier to get through fractals, but it opens up a use for players who already got all the unique skins and have ascended gear and/or help players looking to get ascended gear for higher tier fractals.

Probably suggested many times already, but here's what I propose for dungeons. Hopefully striking a balance between lower dev time (I'm just guessing?) and relevancy. Story Path Story dungeons should be scaled like personal story. The background of the characters and Arah finale in the core story is pretty important for character development in my opinion, just like LWS1 (which was made playable again [thank you!]) was important for character development. It also kind of introduces new players to dungeons, like where they are, the "feel" of each dungeon, etc. Rewards Make the exotic dungeon armor stat selectable. Make core relics available for purchase with tokens. Add token-purchasable bloodbound weapons. Allow conversion of dungeon tokens to fractal relics. Implement a daily dungeon system that awards an additional 1g per dungeon path for that day's dungeon the first time it is completed that day and 20% more tokens (daily achievement). Consider having trash mobs drop baubles (not guaranteed rate) or some high value trash item to encourage players to farm the instance a bit rather than just rushing to the end (think an extra 3g per path if spending time to clear some trash mobs). All Arah paths (and Aetherblade) should offer 100 tokens as base, not 80, due to length/difficulty. Streamlined Access Anet has made some pretty good strides by adding the centralized dungeon access NPC in lions arch and consolidating the currencies [again, thank you!]. But, get rid of the dungeon lock for characters that did not complete story mode. This doesn't work as a gate anymore to nudge players to do the story mode, it just acts as a barrier for starting dungeon groups completely. Change LFG to just be one [experienced] or two [training] sections (like strikes). Conclusion That dungeons are old or even "buggy" is definitely not why they are played. It's that they are hard to access and the rewards are trash compared to anything else people could play in game. Consider them "exotic-tier" whereas fractals are "ascended-tier." Adding a conversion to fractal relics encourages veterans to engage with the content for extra relics for ascended gear and fractal rewards (especially now that farming for runes (e.g., monk runes) as become unnecessary). Adding a daily system pushes a small dungeon enjoyer player-base to certain dungeons. Consolidating lfg will help find "daily" groups at a glance. I'm not a dev, but this is mostly tweaking the drop tables, vendors, and creating a daily system; it isn't reworking dungeons, adding CMs, etc. so hopefully it is "feasable" while offering good newer player rewards and competitive rewards for veteran players.

I'd argue that is because meditation skills are never worth taking and so the flavor tastes the same as core warrior + Full Counter. If Spellbreaker was given the utilities to be group support (as described above) and Full Counter/Burst supplying alacrity, the payoff of bursting, countering, bursting again would be huge (and arguably needed since the new staff burst skill would only be Stage 1 adrenaline). But sure, you're right about Bladesworn being a lot different. But the build is still really fixed because it's all about getting off as many dragon triggers as possible, that's it and the BSw utilities reflect that. I suppose they could take "Immortal Dragon" and change it to "Equip your gunsaber with healing cartridges for healing explosions. Grant alacrity to you and allies whenever you convert flow into charges." However, this would likely be yet another offensive build (which berserker can do) and not defensive. This would do little to address warrior's poor group utility, so I don't see it as a real competitive option. I mean most, spellbreaker utilities skill are just sitting there unused (and hence, again why it just feels like core warrior).

I suppose the skill could be like this instead. Slow Counter - Full Counter applies cripple and slow to enemies. Burst skills apply alacrity to allies. That way both Full Counter and F1 burst skills apply alacrity which should solve the problem of consistency.

Piggy backing off of this thread, I propose that spellbreaker be made the alacrity elite spec for warrior. Very rough idea, but... Consider putting alacrity on Slow Counter (Full Counter applies cripple and slow to enemies and alacrity to allies). Natural Healing - Lose boons and conditions, then heal yourself. Lose boons and conditions, granting barrier and regeneration to yourself and allies. Imminent Threat - Taunt nearby foes, gaining adrenaline for each affected foe. Apply protection and resolution to yourself and allies and instantly recharge Full Counter. Featherfoot Grace - Gain a burst of superspeed and resistance. Apply stability [5 stacks] and superspeed to yourself and allies. With the introduction of staff and it's burst skill as well as Spellbreaker utilities being essentially useless, I propose a rework like that above to meditation skills to be more heal/support focused with full counter applying alacrity. The theme is that Spellbreaker meditations affect the area around them (positive for allies/negative for enemies). Bladesworn was sold to us as a high-dps speciation, and that's exactly what it should be, a greedy dps that gives up almost all it's utility to do high cleave burst damage (also restore Daring Dragon to PvP trait). Its builds are generally very inflexible due to no burst or weapon swap, etc. It's profession identity is to use the gunblade (sworn to it as it were) and slice down foes. So let it do that, and give spellbreaker a defensive-heal/support (alac) build with berserker more of the offensive support (quick dps.

As an aside, I would like to see Arenanet publish a single player campaign RPG set sometime in the early future of Tyria. Possibly when the human gods first brought humanity to Tyria and the birth of magic (for humans). I'd really like a deep story driven narrative that wouldn't compete with GW2, but would rather possibly increase interest in it.

Honestly, I don't want GW3. I want more and better GW2. It's possible with advancements in AI that the game engine can become more optimized even Anet's small team. I think a better more robust engine is definitely needed going forward and hopefully innovations in technology can be applied to GW2 to keep it "current" and more optimized going forward.

Yes, in my example I used a word that most people would know. If I didn't, most people wouldn't have understood the example; for example if I used "sukatan" （スカタン）or something. If anything, it being written in Japanese script would give a clue to what language it was in. Hence, the argument that the reason for not using Japanese script is because chat cannot be moderated is a weak one. I could easily write something random in some language like, "Cave purpurea animalia quae furantur animam tuam," and moderation would still be an issue. It would be just as hard if I wrote 「魂を奪う紫の動物に気をつけろ」in Japanese. The funny thing about language is, it is nearly powerless if it isn't understood. If anything, it can only cause confusion or paranoia. I guess it's weak magic. I agree. That is why your argument being one of the difficulties of moderation is weak. I suppose I can agree with this statement regarding implied intent. Although, an easy work around is a statement from Arenanet saying the only officially support (insert current supported language list.) However, do realize this contradicts your previous statement regarding the ability to type Dutch, an unsupported language, in game merely because it shares an alphabet; it poses the same difficulties for moderation (your original argument). Ultimately, this argument is a philosophical/ideological stance, and not a barrier of technology or knowledge so arriving at an objective conclusion would prove difficult.

While this seems to make sense, it actually doesn't. People who speak Japanese in game just chat using romaji (English letters). Assuming none of the people who monitor (?) chat logs know Japanese, it makes little to no difference if it is using Japanese script or not. You can still call someone baka without calling them バカ if you know what I mean. As someone who runs/ran a bilingual Japanese-English guild, most of us just chatted using romaji in game. It's not great though because, yeah, Japanese has lots of homophones and without using kanji sometimes it's not so easy to understand, and reading romaji can just feel cumbersome. But, for the most part it's fine. For more important group activities (raids, etc.) we used used discord voice chat. So although I wouldn't be against Japanese IME support in game since I use the language often enough with guild members, etc., I'm pretty ambivalent to it, mainly because of current 3rd party options that allow communication.

An interview with Grouch that sheds some interesting insights into the future direction of GW2. Thank you Grouch for doing this interview! It's great to hear the devs talking about the game and their vision for it. https://wccftech.com/guild-wars-2-qa-arenanet-on-switch-to-yearly-expansions-secrets-of-the-obscure-learnings-and-2024-update/