genjonah.1253

I’m generally one in support of this game. Telling people to do the work for the shiny, and that’s what I’m doing. So at the very least, I’m trying to come at this with more of a ‘is there something I’m not getting’ angle. but map completion being locked behind a group event has always vexed me. Iirc there was one back in LWS4, too (though feel free to correct me on that), and on Amnytas the Debate Hall PoI is this way (I know there’s another one in the southeast, but that one can be cheated with a jackal). I can totally understand locking the mastery point behind the event, that makes sense to me, but just the PoI seems a little excessive that it requires an event that itself requires at least five players to be standing in an area to start (once it’s started, it can essentially be soloed to the point of getting the PoI, at the very least, but just to get started requires a group) is there any dev reasoning stated for this? Any other topics on it? Idk, it just frustrates me

This is me. The vast majority of my time in this game has been WvW. That’s why I’m doing the grind slowly. Again, more than on track to have a full set the day it releases. It’s not that bad a grind. As alluded to by others, I’m more concerned with the gift of research and ecto aspect than I am the essence aspect

No one loved the Ritualist more than I, and I miss it dearly, but it’s not gonna happen. We’ve had several opportunities, but the roles of both Ritualist and Paragon are pretty much already there, and Monk was deliberately removed so as NOT to have a reliance on a healer (I know that was more at the launch of the game, and a lot of things have changed since then, but still) Guardian and Warrior pretty much fill the support heavy of Paragon depending on builds, especially Guardian. Ritualist was the super versatile profession (hence why I loved it), but Necro/scourge and Revenant/renegade elite specs pretty much hit all of them (I’d argue even some of the Ele ones do, too). And thief is pretty much assassin already, builds based on both power and condi. The only one that I really don’t think has a true parallel is Dervish. Yeah, there’s the human racial skills, but that’s only one aspect of the Derv, and frankly not a very good transfer outside of aesthetics. Maybe Reaper? Vindicator? But even those are definitely not 1:1 comparisons

As said a million times before- WvW is only ‘afk’ if you choose to be. There’s a million things to do there, that can be done anywhere from individually to zerging. personal pet peeve aside- as mentioned above, because Conflux was able to be made multiple times. Coalescence was not, and would require a change in the underlying program to do so that would require a lot more player concerns to address than anything with Conflux- would you have to do the entire 3 tier collection piece over? Parts of it? Would it be retroactive? Or again, parts of it? Who is going to decide which is fair? What would be the change, if any, to the graphics of having four PvE legendary trinkets as opposed to 3? Would it be ‘fair’ to those who couldn’t do so, and got Conflux instead? those sorts of questions, followed by the uproar of even just these forums over every time something like this is implemented (most recently see the changes to legendary runes/upcoming legendary relics) is why it hasn’t been changed

Also, I know it’s indirect, but some of the crafting vendors do sell hydrocatalytic and research kits. They do NOT give all the functionality of the Jade bot workbench, but those two items are available in the hub

I play on average 1-3 hrs a day (a couple longer Saturdays when family life is out of the house). Not counting the completely unknown element of the third map armor /completing the ‘precursors’ (but YES counting the speculation pieces outlined in the wiki), I am more than on track to have a full set of armor the day it’s released. Is it a grind? Yes. Is it an unreasonable one? Not even close if you want the shiny, do the work required for the shiny, or stop whining

Also, it’s obviously not the fastest route at all, but if you’re a WvW player, the reward track gives both map currencies as well as you-choose boxes of the new weapon skins

I’m aware, just saying both tend to be going around the end of the standard work day. Though you can get some tangentially, picking up the dots on your skyscale

I’m also guessing it’s somewhat related to what time of day you’re playing. After work I tend to find both meta and rift trains going

This is more what I would be interested in. Or similar to IBS eternal ice -> S4 currencies, so whatever the next expansion is, you can exchange new currency into the motivation/essence for this

Then buy the legendaries you want or play the game how it’s currently intended to be played. I’ll get out my smallest violin lol

Admittedly, the astral armor if looked at by itself is absurdly expensive. The acquisition is an exotic set of armor that shares aesthetics with all armor weights, and costs a lesser gift (of dust, claws, etc) and more per piece. You’d think at that price it would be at least ascended quality overall we still don’t know the final price for the legendary armor, but even though I am cautious over saying the whole thing is overpriced, I will admit that this particular step, especially if you’re just trying to get this armor (ie, in isolation not even looking at the legendary), it’s pretty steep

Not to mention that legendary isn’t necessary to begin with, you can now get full ascended gear (instead of just trinkets), tied in stats, completely deck a character out literally just by logging in if you wait long enough, and minimal effort to make it faster Shiny things are shiny. If you want this particular shiny, the path to get there is partially obscured at the moment, but largely known, so all you have to do is follow the path

I love the concept art (for the heavy, the others are… not my cup of tea), so I’ll be doing it literally for the skin, because I already have the WvW set for functionality. Maybe it’s just because I was preparing for it, but I am not daunted yet- a lot of the materials already done, and the rifts are the current new things so are decently easy to farm atm. Frankly it seems less than I was expecting so far

Doing this would fix the only issue I have with this system. Sure, it’s annoying that I had bought a second account around halfway between the release of PoF and EoD, for literally the only reason of getting log in rewards/daily crafting, but I still can get some use out of it (crafting obviously unaffected, and still get the just log in astral acclaim), but even though it is a bummer for those reasons personally, this change is overall good for the game (especially if you implement this change)

I have posted about the things I am skeptical or upset about (primarily I do think the skyscale should have stayed exclusive and difficult), but I love this thread because I am actually really excited for this new legendary armor- while I do want it to be very difficult to obtain, the heavy concept art looks phenomenal, and I do like new ways to obtain functionality (again though, it should still be a status symbol of long hard work and dedication) story- everything announced so far sounds so much more like GW1, and I say that as the highest compliment. I will always accede that the overall combat gameplay of this game is better, but the original world and stories I’ve always liked better, a and it sounds like we’re moving in that direction weapons- I like the customization options and new ideas. Even though I’m primarily a guardian and have zero interest in pistols, my two main alts (necro and rev) both have me excited

There’s more than enough guaranteed ways to get clovers- WvW/PvP/icebrood Saga tracks, fractal/strike/raid/competitive vendors, log ins, and more. I’m against this

I went into GW1 blind, literally had only read the box before diving in. I know it’s over a decade out as far as spoilers go, but The gameplay is definitely better in GW2, especially the competitive play, but the world of GW1 was far denser and just better than what came after. In both highs and lows, darks and colors, themes and writing, etc., it just had much more depth and nuance and worldbuilding if you want to go for the darker elements, try the first game. Especially Nightfall for the story and aesthetics, Factions for the classes (and PvP but there’s little chance you’ll be able to actually experience it these days)

Yeah personally I’m only interested in the heavy one for the aesthetics of what we’ve seen so far. Just utility I’d do either WvW or PvP (plus WvW light and PvP medium are waaaaaay better aesthetically) I really want to learn more about the crafting process, to be preparing. I’ve been hoarding gold, clovers, and the like, and got almost two stacks of WvW potions, hoping that that may unlock some of the skins that they did mention will be required as part of the process. But without anything more to go on, just kinda been passively building higher tier stuff

Legendary armor- I don’t mind another set. But it should be hard to get and actually mean something. While I was one of the seemingly few judging by these forums, I actually really liked the designs of the Gen 3 legendary weapons, but the Gen 2 ones are a status symbol. Especially the first wave, you had to work for them, and not just in a credit card swipe. That’s how it should be. And even though there’s issues as far as how ‘hard’ it is for the WvW armor (much more a time sink if you want it to be), all the current legendary armor sets still show some form of elite status, the Envoy set being the most prestigious. Legendary should be prestigious Skyscale- call me a grump idc: just like above, this was supposed to be a symbol as well. And it’s status has already TWICE been cheapened because enough people complained, first by drastically reducing the time gate (which admittedly was a bit of a dumb gate) but much more so by the ‘return to…’ achievements making it so you could get all the account bound materials in a day. If you designed the whole expansion around that sort of travel, I’d even have been happier with it being the Griffon revisited, at least that one was pretty much just a gold sink already. More weapon choices- this… intrigues me. I didn’t do the beta, so I will reserve my judgment on it. While it also reeks of ‘give me give me’ mentality, it also sounds like it kind of balances itself out, in that if you (for example) don’t have dragon hunter specced, you can’t get as many actual bonuses for the longbow, and can’t maximize it like a dragon hunter could. So I’ll wait and see Runes and relics- I’m soooo glad I hadn’t gotten around to crafting the legendaries yet, as it sounds like doing such a thing will be a huge waste of time from now on. But just like above- if I HAD taken the time/effort, I’d be pissed, as this is a huge slap in the face

As mentioned- start with trinkets, they’re usable by every character no matter what. Additionally, the living world one is relatively easy/costless to get, as well, and you can get two of the WvW rings so you never have to raid if you don’t want to. The living world trinkets are what I would save for last, but still worth it Next I’d go for armor. Again WvW is typically going to be your best bet if you’re more casual, and if you max your participation, you can get enough of even the time gated requirements to get one armor piece a month, if you’ve got the gold to back up the non time gated stuff. Also, I know looks are subjective to each person, but I think the WvW light armor (especially the mistforged, which will admittedly take longer than the standard month mentioned above) is the best looking light armor in the game, as it actually looks like light armor instead of wizard garb or noble clothes. (And on the topic of aesthetics, I also think the PvP medium armor is the best looking set for the class in the game, as well) After that, knowing what we know, I’d say then focus on weapons. Outside of the rare exceptions, both runes and sigils are largely just not cost effective unless you are regularly playing 10+ alts all with different builds you’re switching between. And while that argument can also be made for all things legendary, at least the armor, trinkets, and weapons come with the visual swag to go with the effort. So at this point, prioritize individual weapons that you actually want the skin for- even if it’s cliche, the Gen 2 warhorn on a Necro is deliciously beautiful/thematic, and actually used on frequent meta builds, so win-win. Other iconic looks are guardians with Sunrise or Pharus, revs and rangers with the tiger bow, firebrands with Flames of War, etc thats just me, though

This is exactly why it needs to be gated to WvW. WvW best mode, and legendary is supposed to encourage mastery (well, let’s say familiarity, with what we have currently) of all modes

I’ve got 9 extra gifts of battle lying around. Many people have literally given one away to a cat in game. They’re not hard to obtain- the process is extremely simple, just time consuming. Try to do the WvW dailies for the potions, they help these things as well. But seriously, I still like WvW better than any other mode at this point- find a Commander and follow them around for a few nights, you’ll have some decent rewards on top of the gift of battle and had some fun times taking keeps

Day 1 player with only two decent sized breaks. Still never once had a precursor drop As for the OP, thankfully in my experience it has been largely relegated to end game sections. People being nasty in strikes is really the only place I remember more than one instance, not even in raids (though admittedly I only ever really work in training guilds where the whole point is to be patient and learn through trial and error)

Balthazar started out trying to do the right thing, but his circumstances led to madness that escalated as it went. That being said, he should’ve been doing the actions he was doing (trying to kill Kralkatorrik), just not for the reasons it turned into (and therefore led to unacceptable ‘means’ to that end) Most entertaining was Joko. Most fearsome was Kralkatorrik. Kralk was exactly the vibe I was hoping for from the elder dragons overall, a living consciousness with wills and desires but also strangely foreign, while also being this force of nature that actually, if only for a moment, multiple times actually had my mind in Tyria facing him, as opposed to being a player at a keyboard. That sprawl across the sky at the end of PoF, and as he crashed into the keep to kill Aurene, both of those things had me right there (Zhaitan was sooooo close but the actual fight against him was so pitiful that it took away from it, similar to Mordremoth)