WareWolf.6951

I might actually be willing to sell my expansion back if it meant I could get my old runes. The rock dog really was worth it...

I personally love the idea of splitting up the "effect" from the "stats" on the runes. I understand that there were some sets that ran nth slot bonus's that were desired, but the stats did not align with the rest of the character build... This is conceptually easy for anyone that has played the game and tinkers with builds to grasp... What I personally dislike and feel like ArenaNet dropped the ball on was not just verbatim moving every set's bonus as it stands today into the new relics. I feel like at some point this was the plan, given that the names of the relics even match the names of the rune sets. This would have required almost zero additional coding, balancing, testing, or creativity, and they could have just given us all a relic from the equipped sets we have and called it day. At launch, they would have patted themselves on the back that they delivered new flexibility in our builds and opened the door for new relics with new features and names that do not mimic the runes we have today. If they truly wanted to win points with their base, toss one or two of those relic chests at everyone so they can get a feel for the new and original relic offerings - a token to help us all break out of our comfort zones. Instead, we got a subset of the existing rune bonuses as relics in name / spirit only, so not only do we have less choices, but we have completely lost some of the functionality that we have had for over a decade with the game. Personally, I have been impacted because I used the summons such as Runes of the Ogre (Rock Dog summon) on a few sets, and otherwise ran Runes of the Pack (Boon sharing) and Travelers (permanent speed buff) on gear for every one of my characters since the game came into existence 11 years ago. None of my sets were brought into the new system with the launch choices. Some of you may say "well they may add those back!" - sure, I'll grant you the same foresight that any of us have for what is to come. However, I already paid for the bonusses I had, wanted, and worked into my builds and playstyle, and these new ones should they offer the same functionality I lost, will not be free. Additionally, it seems that the new relics are very heavily in favor of being tied to triggers, in particular when using your elite skill. The Rock Dog was essentially a permanent pet unless it died - no need to trigger something and its life was not tied to the cooldown of my elite skills. For a ranger, this was particularly fun to truly be a Beastmaster with multiple pets and fits into the culture and customization that GuildWars has presented to those of us that have played since GW1 was in launched. Personally, I feel like a product or project owner already saw this feedback coming, which is why rather than truly make it right with the player-base which would likely have been an expensive shift for the release, they offered all of us three of those relic choice chests per character over 60 - knowing we would need to experiment to try and find suitable replacements for the functionality we lost. Our reactions to the changes should not be a surprise, and in fact could easily have been measured by reviewing the application database from multiple perspectives: What are the top equip rune sets? What rune sets are sold the most in the trade system? Data driven decisions are the next best thing you can do outside of polling your consumers, and ArenaNet owns the data so it's cheap and easy to execute business intelligence. Want to see some easy to measure external data? Throw an intern at a few sites like metabattle and ask them to plot out the runes from the top-rated builds - it should only take an afternoon. To put this into context: Imagine you were eating at a pizzeria daily, and all of their menu choices were pre-packaged, so you had to pick from Plain Cheese, Pepperoni, or Supreme. For a decade you have come in and always ordered from one of those three choices. Some of you probably dislike mushroom but would order the Supreme anyways and just pick off the bits you didn't want. The restaurant decides they want to offer more selection on their menu and instead just orders plain cheese pizza as a base, and then they hand apply toppings of your choice. The new menu offers a few dozen items, but missing from the list is Pepperoni. As of 2019, 36% of pizza in the USA includes pepperoni. To try and sell the new offerings without abandoning their existing consumer base which over 1/3rd are expecting pepperoni, they offer them all coupons to get three free toppings of their choice from the available items to find something else they like. Anyways, I've said my part - Thanks for listening...

I just want my old SA trait line back... That was the only way I enjoyed my thief and felt that the ability to step into / out of stealth made the class mechanic and fun to play. Didn't even WvW or PvP with it...

I still can't purchase anything either. I've tried all times of day and night for a few weeks.

I have my Paypal linked to both my bank account and a credit account. Neither one seems to make a difference. I'm not going out of my way to get virtual money for a game at this point I only play a few hours a week. That said, I do spend $100-200/m on gems (when it worked) to get fun things for me and the family. Not to mention we buy all the top versions of the games when launched, we have bought the plushies and other out of game stuff too. Own / Read the books... Lot's has been spent on this franchise even back when GW1 launched. If Arenanet is OK with that loss, that's on them. I do not need this game like they need the revenue streams.

I took a break for the holidays after participating in the beta events for the upcoming expansion, and I'm in the same boat. The reworked UI looks like it setup correctly but will not let me purchase. I spend a ludicrous amount on the gem store for me and my family, wife just bought another plushy... GW wants me money, why won't they take it?