Laughing Bat.1570

Heroes impacted Pug availability many years before they increased the cap. Setups like Discordway killed a lot of pugs. The consensus was that Discordway plus 4 henchmen was generally better than taking the time to find a pug.

Thr announcement of GW2 included the announcement of the last expansion for GW1. Years later they started Guild Wars beyond, a series of free updates that wrapped up plotlines and somewhat led into GW2. It's pretty silly to say GW1 died during the time between EotN and GW2. The biggest change was heroes (started in Nightfall but EotN added quite a few more), which meant pugs were far less common. It was never difficult to find people in main hub towns or finding an active guild before gw2's release.

I hear you. I'd miss skills, characters, and skins from gw2. He'll I'm still salty about the loss of my precious hexes from gw1. Honestly I think we're more likely to see GW2(and GW1) close up without a GW3. It's a bit different for WoW. That game broke out of the gaming scene to be a cultural event. It has a large amount in subscription fees alone to fund its development. This is to say nothing of how much funding is available from the same studios other projects. How many Anet salaries are covered by monthly gem sales these days? (Legit question on if we have any data on this.) If the gw2 player base drops we'll probably see gw2 stay up because the cost to keep it running is cheaper (less server stress). Plus if they do a HoM style transfer you get periodic new blood. It's kind of surprising how many Gwamm's started with gw2 first.

Really don't get all the doomsaying over a possible gw3. GW2 was never going to go on forever. I'm hoping it's true. Let the next 3-4 of these smaller expansions set the stage for gw3. I'd love to see them build on the HoM idea. Hell play with time and let it go both ways (unlock gw2 trinkets by playing gw3.)

Grabbed one of these earlier today, absolutely love the idea. Reserving judgement on the implementation until I actually make one from it.

If it ties back to old LA, I'm down. I'm hopeful that the new model will allow for an expansion that focuses on overhauling the underwater combat, it has a lot of untapped potential.

The lack of any new weapons really stands out as the biggest downer for Soto. Using the elite spec weapons did nothing for me on this topic and it taints an otherwise excellent launch. Looking forward to the new weapons in the quarterly updates, but it really should have been here at launch. Story: Best story since core. The return of all the extra details really stands out. Loved the new cast. Excited to see what comes next. Skywatch: Brilliant map, creative use of existing lore and art assets. As an old school gw1 guy, I flipped when I found out about Droknar's Forge being here. Amnytas: Nice, but a bit monotone. A letdown after the wild variety we get in Skywatch. Masteries: Leyline is frustrating as always, the rest are nice. Nothing grabbing me as a game changer. Wizards Vault: I basically ignored the old daily system because I thought it was dumb. I like this one, I can skip to rewards I actually want. More variety in task options would be nice.

Short answer: No Long answer: Engineer doesn't need weapon swap, we need a utility/elite skill rework/balance update. Given ultimate authority, I'd probably replace the toolbelt skills with 2 selectable kits(picking a kit being like a ranger picking a pet) and rework the good toolbelt skills into a new set of utilities. The Mechanist bar could easily be reworked into a kit, Holosmith already comes with a kit. I don't think it'd be too difficult to turn function gyro into a kit. Make the well, remote rez, etc... Each into individual skills.

I've been playing a lot of mace/shield scraper. The change of pace has been fun for variety, but hammer is probably the better weapon.

This would be my biggest criticism for the expac. I main engineer and unless we get a significant update, I couldn't be less enthusiastic about having the weapon restrictions lifted.

I always thought Holosmith was supposed to take more inspiration from Necro than Ele. I'd rather photon forge stay the same and have the heat mechanic extended to the rest of the engineer weapons. That being said, I wouldn't mind a more customizable photon forge.

I quit playing mechanist because the gold/jade aesthetic just doesn't fit well in a lot of areas. Been hoping for an asuran style mech since EoD launched.

I'd be willing to spend more on Asura themed skins for the engineer (mech, turrets, kits) than I would a new expansion. I'd rather it be in-game collections, but at this point I'll take whatever method they offered.

In general, I agree with you (I actually really like the idea of making the big celebration thing an excuse to revisit the whole game.) However, my pedantic side feels the need to point out that all beta toons got deleted... It might just be because I kind of miss my beta mesmer who died in the great Hunger Royal of 2012.

This sounds like a dream spec to me. MM'ing in gw1 was my first "go-to" build and I love it to this day. On the other hand I've been getting into viws recently because of Monster Hunter so marrying the two sounds like a blast!