[GEMSTORE REQUESTS: New Items; Items offered again - [Merged]]

I'd like to echo the request for the Conjured Starlight Hat as the wiki suggests it hasn't been back since 2022.

[This may be unpopular, but an easy Skyscale mount?]

I don’t know what else to tell you, OP. The original LS4 way of getting the skyscale already got much easier once you could complete the ‘Return to’ achievements to get the map currencies for the saddle. That’s how I got mine and it was doable even though I have less gaming time than I’d like. Then others have explained the process got even more streamlined as part of the SotO expansion, to the point that anyone who plays that expansion should be able to get it. 

The rest is a ‘you’ problem. 

[Let's Brainstorm The Expansion "Nickname"]

Should have been Wilds of Janthir, so WoJ.

[The community becomes less demanding]

So far all anyone has to go on is a promotional trailer and a few short blog posts. As more information about the expansion features gets released you're bound to see more feedback, good and bad. I think I viewed this more positively than I thought I might because this is more inline with what I expected a smaller, annual expansion to be, rather than what we got in SotO. But can't really form an opinion without more information.

[Should have built on the Home Instance instead]

The trouble is the original home instances weren't built with this in mind, so in practice it would probably mean having to do some of the development for 5 different instances rather than one. 

I have a herd of different cats in my home instances so I hope they can all come across to the homestead somehow.

[Weapon sets with no matching spears - what's the plan?]

I suspect the plan is they would continue to not have matching spears, as Anet would rather release new stuff, but I wouldn't mind being wrong.

[This may be unpopular, but an easy Skyscale mount?]

11 minutes ago, Astewart.8415 said:

Nah, don't tell me it isn't a grind

Ok, I won't. But whether you did it the LS4 way, or the SotO way, if you took it just one step per day you'd probably have it done in a couple of weeks. As opposed to what you're doing right now, which is not getting it at all. The focus of the new expansion is Warclaw.

[Personal Housing, A New Raid, A New Weapon, and More: Janthir Wilds launches August 20! [Merged]]

Pleasantly surprised with what has been shown so far. Wilds of Janthir (yes I am calling it that) looks very appealing visually, the fuzzy Warclaws are very cute and I'm curious on how the abilities will be reworked for PvE (you could already throw a lance in WvW to dismount your opponent, will that get reused here with spears?). Also seems quite balanced content between the new raid, housing, new legendary and PvP mode. A bit weird that every profession gets the same weapon, but it's a 'new' 2-hander and sounds like it will have unique abilities for each profession so I guess it's fine.

Obviously need to see more between now and August, SotO didn't work out all that well for me, but the reveal here made a good initial impression and I am looking forward to seeing more.

[next expansion should remove all self-sustain aside from a generic heal, add monks, and resurrection signet.]

1 hour ago, Eddie.9143 said:

there's a reason most mmos follow the tank/healer/dps big three. it works. 

Then you shouldn't have a problem finding one that suits your needs.

[Event Leeching Has Really Gotten Worse, Hasn't It?]

Yep. Just had the final boss of the Seitung meta narrowly fail, with what seemed half the group fully dead on the floor for much of the fight. There has always been some of this behaviour but it seems to have gotten worse. I think thresholds for participation need to be tightened up, there shouldn't be an expectation to get rewards for just lying there.

[Did someone request beach wear? [Merged]]

5 hours ago, Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

On one hand: woo, roleplay and fashion wars options.

On the other hand: oh boy, bikini female meta armor incoming. Fashion aesthetics integrity at Asian MMO standards.

Which side of the fence do you stand on!?

That ship sailed so, so long ago.

Edit: I might have misread your comment, but still, my personal opinion is - it's tacky. I can't wait to fight through some life or death event with characters dressed for their holidays. Coming next, Bucket and Spade BLTC weapon skins.

[Secrets of the Obscure: Looking Back and Forward]

14 hours ago, Astralporing.1957 said:

There's also a number of issues they should have mentioned but didn't, like too much dependence on boring repeated grind (bar filling as primary "story" content, rifts, more and more repeat achievements, requiring tons of mats or event repeats for stuff, skyscale weapons...), or having the whole expansion revolve around legendary armor (and having that legendary armor revolve around an extremely narrow slice of content even if it's technically OW armor set). There's no mention whatsoever about the massive overall quality drop of content after changing into the new schedule either. Or about the overall impact of them apparently moving significant part of their studio resources off GW2.

Yeah, this sums up my lingering concerns about future expansions, so it's unfortunate it wasn't addressed. I have a limited amount of gaming time, even less than I had when I started playing GW2 at launch. I've always had to be a bit selective about the grinds I go for. That's been largely fine in previous GW2 content, but that approach didn't work well in SotO because so much of the expansion is built around repetitive grind for stuff I didn't really want or need anyway.

[ty for Gharr Leadclaw . . . [Merged]]

I'm glad that this exists, but if it's one of the few ways of making SotO currencies usable outside of legendary armour, it should not be gated behind a tier 6 mastery.

Anet your desperation is showing.

[SotO Feedback [Merged]]

I felt SotO started reasonably well, Skywatch Archipelago, Wizard's Tower were nice maps, lots of (rather obvious) asset re-use but a story reason was found for it and it sort of worked. Initial story was enjoyable, meeting the wizards and the first encounter with Cerus made a good impression. I enjoyed weaponmaster specialisation, being able to equip any weapon on any specialisation has been fun even if it hasn't been so good for balance. Some of the new weapons are ok. I also ended up liking the Wizard's Vault system much more than I thought I would. Those are the pluses. I already had Skyscale from LS4 so that aspect didn't matter to me.

The negatives ... the whole thing took a nose-dive in the subsequent patches and this most recent (final) story installment was probably the worst thing I have played in some time. Eparch's palace in the story instance looked like someone designed it in Minecraft. Inner Nayos is incredibly boring to play in and I really disliked how the Kryptis were handled generally. Wizards vs nightmare demons is a fine concept but for it to work, your nightmare demons should be inexplicable, unrelenting monsters. Giving them badly written, human melodrama and motivations ruins the whole thing. The culmination of the story left me wondering why any of us bothered with the story at all.

I must comment specifically on the SotO rewards. There are going to be a good chunk of people who do not care about PvE legendary armour, either they already have legendary from another mode, or like me they've just come to the conclusion they just don't need it. It really feels like there is no value in spending more time on these maps, as not only are they less fun than previous expansions, I also don't seem to be able to earn anything worthwhile by playing on them.

I've taken some long breaks from the game, didn't purchase EoD or SoTo at launch due to them looking disappointing, but ultimately changed my mind due to (mostly) nostalgia ... there is a nice feeling coming back to a game and characters you've played for 10+ years even if the current content isn't the best. But honestly? SotO has me really pessimistic about the next 'expansion'. Either this new way of delivering content doesn't work (you can't fit development into one year so prepping the next expansion is causing you to rush the later patches to the current one) or you have a skeleton team working on GW2 (again!) and your main efforts are going elsewhere ... or perhaps both of those.

People will (reasonably) say £22 isn't a lot to pay for content, and I tend to agree, but whether it's a lot of content or a small amount of content, doesn't really matter if we what get isn't even good.

[Heart of thorns is like a dream]

Agreed, HoT was the highlight of the game for me. It was at its best before the difficulty was reduced and before the introduction of mounts with PoF.

[Studio update makes it look like the game is abandoned]

It's not maintenance mode by any reasonable definition. But it does seem to be a case of the minimum development necessary to maintain a level of income from the game. I assume the studio calculates that will work out fine because the average GW2 player seems to be very easily satisfied these days.

[Runes, Relics and You]

I don't have legendary runes although I was hoping the people who do would see reasonable compensation, but that still seems up in the air. The expectation given to players that legendary items would always be Best in Slot, when legendary runes will lose functionality here, isn't adequately compensated by 'progress' toward a legendary relic in my opinion.

But for those of us with exotic runes - some of which are still relatively expensive to obtain or change out, often specifically because of the 6th piece bonus -that the 6th piece bonus is moved to the relic but that we are only going to receive 3 choices of relic for our lost 6th piece bonuses is concerning. I hope one of them might be "increase strike damage by 5% while your health is above 90%" so that I can keep parity with my existing builds on many of my characters running power gear. I wonder how likely that is.

But more generally, given the stated aim to be "spending our development resources on improving core systems and features of Guild Wars 2", considering all the areas of the game that are crying out for improvements or updates - how the hell did this rune rework come to the top of that list? 

[Expansion: Pre-Order, Wail Till Launch to Purchase or Not Purchasing]

I’m sufficiently underwhelmed that I am not planning to buy at present. As it is I regretted my EoD purchase, and nothing that has been shown since really excites or reassures me either. 
 

So far the developers have not shown that they can competently balance the game as is, so I’m particularly sceptical of the changes to weapon restrictions, runes and relics.

[Accepting the fact that I will never obtain a skyscale.]

My approach to GW2 has been very casual for years but I didn’t have any difficulty unlocking the Skyscale. The Return to … events in particular made getting the LW4 currencies straightforward, the rest is a bit time gated and repetitive that’s all. 
 

Treat it as a longer term goal and try and clear just one bit at a time. You’ll have it eventually. 

[Reflect On Your Feelings]

I picked Cinder purely because I couldn't remember who they were and needed a reminder. Considering the characters that could have been used for this, the choices seemed bizarre.

[The "What Lies Within" Story was ...]

Mediocre sums it up pretty well.

[Priority Strike missions on Asura portal are wrong]

Appears still to be bugged as it's out of sync today (daily says Cold War, Portal says Boneskinner). Reported in 2021? Yikes

[Turning Off Other Players' Ability Effects NEEDS to be a Priority]

1 hour ago, Linken.6345 said:

Woot and not let people show of the infusion/legendary  effects people would riot.

Let them. Your character appearance is really there to please yourself, after all.

 

If I can't even see what is happening in a fight, I'm definitely not able to check out all the shades of their legendary vomit.

[Turning Off Other Players' Ability Effects NEEDS to be a Priority]

Yes, wholeheartedly agree. It's a complete mess any time players are attacking the same target. I swear half the difficulty in encounters comes from not being able to see what the boss is doing, or even which direction it's facing sometimes. 

[The Future of Jade : Power Plant [Merged]]

This is still happening. Annoying given that I can see it was reported in March.