[Stop the RP hate]

My beloved pet Choya, Renauldo was killed by a portly amateur RPer who was carelessly casting chain lightning and mumbling "lightning bolt" while we were on our evening walk to pick his favorite omnomberries (sniffle).  I couldn't be caught dead RPing like you animals, and will not rest until every one of you is extinguished!

[Just gonna throw this out there]

Ahh, to be sweaty, sweet summer child.  Years ago I would have strangled myself to say this, but it's really nice not giving a crap about performance.  Time to stop.

[Make Gem Store Skins Mean Something]

3 hours ago, Malice.5867 said:

I see you point, but you can obtain any gemstore item with gold. Why make a ton of unnecessary collections (they will be a ton because there are a buttload of gemstore skins) when anyone can just play the game, save up some gold and buy the item this way?

The average outfit/skin is 700-800 gems and that is roughly 200g. Especially for PVE players that do meta events and things like that it will be way faster to farm up that 200g then to run around and complete a long collection that has multple stages.

To implement something like this would require a lot of work from Anet to resolve an issue that does not exist in the first place.

Not sure how you guys keep thinking that farming 200g is easy.  What kind of easy?  Like "hey I didn't sleep for 5 days, got my weekly furry outfit and I'm heckin excited!" or "hey I got my bi-yearly furry outfit and I'm casually heckin' excited!"

[Skyscale Quest Fix Request]

Lots of ignorance in these responses.  OP made it very clear that they can stomach difficulty, but can't stomach monotony.  Skyscale chain has it in spades.  In retrospect, I don't mind it.  Would even do it again. But in the moment I hated with a fiery passion the first half of it because I knew it was just insulting my play time.  It's insipid and worthy of complaints like this.

[Can we see what changed for the new e-specs before Eod drops?]

I'm usually more than cool with surprises, but I'm currently going through a main switch (sweaty completion and all) since Specter's not my cup of tea.  Would be nice to get a hint at which way the wind is blowing from the last run.

[GW2 has 0 inventive ways of unlocking anything at endgame?]

13 minutes ago, Danikat.8537 said:

Realising that doesn't necessarily mean you'll feel cheated.

I knew when I got my first character to level 80 and fully equipped in exotics (which was the top tier at the time) that I was largely "done" with gearing her and for me that was exciting. It meant I could focus on playing whatever I felt like, what I'd enjoy, instead of what I was required to do to get into the stuff I actually wanted to play.

That was in 2013 and since then she's got through 2 other sets (one exotic with different stats, one ascended pieced together gradually over time) and most of my characters have had 1 or 2 at most.

It doesn't bother me at all that most of the items I get don't have useful stats. If anything it can be a bit annoying when they do because then I have to sort out which character to give it to, maybe change the stats, get upgrades...it's not a big problem but I often end up sticking them in the bank for a while until I feel like doing that rather than using it right away. A new skin is at least as exciting to me, especially if it's one I know will suit one of my characters.

Which might explain why most of my characters are still in exotics, or a mix of exotic and ascended, while I've spent a lot of time and effort chasing down skins I like.
 

Sorry, my post was a bit vague.  I was attempting to lump appearance/skins as equals to stats.  My point, similar to yours is that stat tiers are moot, and appearance is the only identifier of "end game" distinction, which can be somewhat insulting to acquire.

[GW2 has 0 inventive ways of unlocking anything at endgame?]

You're not wrong, but having experienced the steepest side of the vertical progression ladder in other games, I realized something. Eventually there comes a point in all of your blood sweat and tears when you're grinding gear literally for the sake of grinding gear.  It's a sobering feeling knowing you duped yourself over many years.  GW2's system doesn't seem to allow hard blows like that, as the act of playing X content is endgame, not achieving milestones gated by gear.  

But, you're in good company with the feeling cheated part.  No hard work should be punished, and while the glory is in the content, there will also come a point when you realize you could play this game for hundreds of hours and not acquire any gear of intrinsic worth.

[Why is everyone so nice ?]

Not to be too derisive, but I get the sense that the GW2 community is akin to the pleasant neighbor pent up with so much un-surfaced rage that they're eventually going to burn down your house if you step on their lawn one too many times.

[If Skyscale, why Griffon?]

On the right map, Griffon is a lifesaver for rushing to events/metas last minute.  The thing friggen moves.  And it's just more fun.  People talk about the novelty of GW2 mounts in general, but you could build a standalone AAA game that involves doing what the Griffon does.

[I want more fast finished pve daily’s.]

Maybe this is just my warped perspective, but I welcome constraints like this that give me easy decisions.  A day with laborious dailies is a free out to do something else.  Versus having every daily being a 5 minute clear, setting me up with mindless habitual behavior.  

[Hypothetically, if a certain publisher bought GW2, how quickly would you leave?]

Tbh the game already has all the framework and underpinnings of malicious things "X" publishers are doing with other games.  Nothing to fear really.  Hell, a decade ago GW2 basically ushered in the microtransaction model everyone sneers at today.

[Bad time at Dragons' Stand]

Props for taking the initiative on acquiring and using your tag.  That alone speaks to your quality.  It's not just an icon on a map and people know who's the alpha at the end of the day.

[The next expansion/LW series: Total Destruction]

As long as there is some subtlety.  This game's biggest flaw is trying to move at 100mph, killing off dragons and old gods every other week.  A season of tasteful and tactful turmoil would be appreciated.  But I do like your idea as there's not a lot of avenues to break permanence.

[A group finding pug system would be nice for fractals]

4 minutes ago, Sobx.1758 said:

I'm not sure what's the problem with people being able to spell out what they expect from players joining their party, as well as individual players being able to join party with goals corresponding their own. If anyone wants to play with "whomever random", all they need to do is create their own lfg group. Is there a reason you're unable to do that? And is there a reason someone can't "self-educate" right now"? Am I missing something here?

The problem isn't with specificity though, it's with accessibility on a global scale.  I can go into LFG and type "LFG casual hot babes only for nude Cliffside, we're not doing an ounce of trying," and people will probably know what to expect there.  Probably a good indicator for a safe space.  But there's all kinds of ambiguity when you leave entry up to a system monitored by human behavior.  Any one of those criteria could leave somebody with a bad experience or a boot at their own expense.  Something globally defined has no ambiguity.  Like a fire alarm.  It's an inconvenience, it implies danger; without question people follow the protocol, but it is in the hands of nobody other than the entire group of people involved.

[A group finding pug system would be nice for fractals]

On 12/13/2021 at 4:54 PM, Vayne.8563 said:

I want more control over my groups rather than less control. I personally don't like the idea of having no real say over who entered a group I make.  I don't find that better or more fun.

I'm totally in agreement, but consider the opposite and its "regenerative" effects on community behavior (particularly the kneejerk gating crowd with good intentions but stubborn behaviors).  If everyone is on the same field of play, everyone has something to relate to.  If randomness is the only way of gathering groups, it's the only measuring stick to doing group content.  There's no alternative, and no means for people to start ostracizing entire categories of players.  If you want your legendary, you group with 4 potential losers or else.  People temper expectations, and they start relating to each other more easily.  They might even start self-educating each other.  It sounds disgusting I know, but that's also part of the problem.  This is human behavior conditioning at work, not a gameplay problem.

This is anecdotally coming from playing many years of WoW in its earliest growing stages btw, which actually worked in keeping a healthy community.  The resurgence of Classic and was a direct result of this sort of implied handicap.  

[Elementalist got lost in the game reworks]

Attunements.  They're basically a self-inflicted tumor that you get to live with the rest of your life.

[Anet needs to move away from Open World design and make new dungeons.]

2 hours ago, Fueki.4753 said:

From what I've noticed there are far more people who simply don't want to bother with raids because they have to put effort into them.

I see this stated all the time, but the implications of what you're saying really requires some evidence as to whether that's actually true.

[Anet needs to move away from Open World design and make new dungeons.]

Let's just cut the crap on open world being torturous.  I couldn't imagine a more easily accessible and flexible means of passing time and earning rewards.  With that truth out of the way, I can agree that some focus on dungeons (not fractals, not raids) would be nice, but the moment it jeopardizes the open world identity that GW2 has mastered, it can't stand.  There are an abundance of trash MMOs that prioritize instanced content, and they can stay in their corner with the vertical progression fanatics.

[Between Bladesworn and Vindicator, which will be "most likely to succeed" in PVE come EOD?]

Thread should be titled to "Give me all the reasons not to do sweaty endgame".  You guys are pretty on point with the reminders that Warriors are eternal banner slaves and that anything that doesn't provide quickness/alacrity basically doesn't exist. 

[Prestige items GW2 vs other MMOs]

Let's just settle this and get to the obvious, that at some point, literally everyone's gonna have a Skyscale.  Exclusivity is directly tied to prestige.  At that point, the act of accomplishing the feat will be effectively nullified, and all you have is the "thing", more importantly, the skins that you didn't buy vs the skins they did.  And from that point, your "prestige" will unfortunately be tied to your wallet rather than your feat.  

And yes you do need to have tangible evidence of prestige.  I guess you could go around linking your achievement panel too, but then you start to question "am I playing a game to ride dragons, or ride spreadsheets?  am I rocketing to the moon to quietly congratulate myself, or take a piece of the moon back and show people?"  

[Prestige items GW2 vs other MMOs]

25 minutes ago, Danikat.8537 said:

Because you have to unlock the mount before you can use the skin. If you just buy a skyscale skin from the gem store without unlocking the base mount you can't use it.

It would be like buying a really nice case for an iPhone without buying the phone, you couldn't do anything with it. Except then you could at least show people the case, you can't even do that with a mount skin until you have the mount.

That's different to most other MMOs where you buy actual mounts in the cash shop. If I start a new Elder Scrolls Online account, buy some crowns and use them to buy a mount from the cash shop I can use it right away on my first level 1 character, and it will be just as good as any mount obtained in the game. Whereas if I start a new GW2 account, buy some gems and buy a mount skin from the gem store I still have to get to level 80 and unlock the mount before I can use it.

I can agree with that.  Perhaps it's just my bias (and the OPs) that the skins are too visually impressing to not have a good means of associating game-acquired prestige.  Imagine a brand new player walking up to your Cyberscale in a Skyscale gaggle and saying "Good Knight, what quest shall I embark to be as magnificent as thee!"  And you say "bro, just pull out your plastic!"

[Prestige items GW2 vs other MMOs]

4 hours ago, Teratus.2859 said:

Skin.

It's a skin not a mount, the mount itself you earn in game by playing it, as you do with every mount in Gw2.
Only skins are locked behind a gemstore purchase or black lion chest RNG.

Ship of Theseus my dude.  Some of you making these claims really need to think about what you're saying.  How is a mount and a skin different in any way.  The skin is the virtual representation of the mount.  The mount is just the word associating the pixels of "skin" with a real life "mount".  The prestige is the same in the skin as it is in the mount.

[Noob question, but do Mesmer's have a ranged playstyle?]

16 hours ago, Salt Mode.3780 said:

Virtuoso wouldve been an option for a full ranged if it wasnt for the fact that you do more dmg mid range then far range

Isn't this a systemic problem with all Mesmer specs?  So the problem isn't just with Virtuoso, but that we've somehow managed to get a decade into the game with a ranged-capable profession that literally can't optimize at range.  Lookin at you, Chrono...and Mirage...and...Core...

[(Feedback) Wandering Weapon Master Outfit]

This is one of those that I really wish wasn't a full outfit, and haven't gotten it for that reason.  It checks all the boxes for good mix and match, but naturally, you cant...

[Will you be making a Specter when EoD Launches?]

My formula for most classes is pretty simple:

If there's an alternative that can do this profession's job better and with more finesse, it goes in the trash.  This spec is not a jack of all trades or a master of anything.  It's getting binned.  Sticking with the DD, and I'll haul out the Firebrand if I want to do some proper support.