[Q&A with the Narrative Team]

I'm not sure if this can be answered, but here goes. Back toward the beginning of GW2's life, I remember reading that the Elder Dragons were supposed to be more along the lines of forces of nature(and thus incomprehensible to mortals). With Mordremoth and Kralk, it feels like there was a shift away from this concept as both have very human aspects(pride and fear/familial love respectively). Was this intended from the start or did the plan change somewhere along the way?

[Death Penalty (GW1) or Armor Damage (GW2)]

I honestly don't feel that either are necessary. Especially the armor damage in GW2. It just makes me take a stop at an anvil every so often.

[What do you want to see in season 5?]

I would like:

• Accessory Skins(give me earrings)
• New weapon types
• New animations for old weapon types(even if they are gem store exclusive)
• Bat mount(it can crawl along ceilings and, briefly, hover)
• Cheaper stat-swapping without legendary gear(or more ways to access legendary gear)
• Let me side with Jormag
• Innsmouth equivalent
• Refocus instanced story content into Open World story content
• More customization
• Give Norns some love
• Add a 4th option to every trait setI don't see most of these happening, but these are my wants.

[Mechanics [suggestion]]

"derd.6413" said:i'm all for change so long as it's good and not change for the sake of changeI think I've promoted "change for the sake of change" in the past, but, after recent balance patches, I think I need to clarify. I think that change should be a constant because "balance" is an illusion that can never be reached. This doesn't, however, mean that you should change an enjoyable mechanic without good reason or that all change is good.

Back to the original post, I miss hexes. Not a huge fan of the homogenization of status effects.

[Playing as socially inept rude?]

I was diagnosed with Aspergers(now ASD) 16 years ago. It took time, but I have learned to deal with (most)social situations. I think an important aspect of social navigation is being open about your shortcomings and putting in effort to avoid repeating mistakes. When you upset someone, apologize and try to learn why it upset them. Reasonable people tend to recognize the effort you put in and will be more willing to overlook small mistakes. It's all about showing that you care.

[Does anyone feel the same?]

I'm not quitting, but my health is not great at the moment, so I'm playing significantly less. I feel I should say this as I'm also fairly critical of Anet and I want to be clear that it isn't because I'm sour.

[Returning Player wants to know: Why do you still play GW2?]

I still play GW2 because there is no other game where I feel a sense of community while playing content. I can play alongside others without formally creating a group and just as easily switch to another zone and find another group. I love just finding someone, stopping to help them, and all of a sudden there's a group of 20 people doing an event that only a single person actually needed to do. People go out of their way to help others in this game and I love it.

[Legendary Gear]

@mindcircus.1506 said:

@"HnRkLnXqZ.1870" said:It is an answer, but a quite ignorant one. It neglects a lot of details and side factors,Actually it's a simple one that ignores a lot of excuses for not taking personal responsibility for one's choices and doesn't obfuscate the matter by blaming others.If you need Skirmish Claim Tickets like me, you have to watch a 5:00 minute timer to go to 0 over and over. Sorting sand grains by size is more challenging and exciting than this.Congratulations you have found the least rewarding way to play WvW.I play WvW, because of the items locked behind itYou

choose

to play it for the loot, you mean.

Honestly, the "personal responsibility" excuse is garbage. You ignore systemic problems and, instead, place all responsibility at the foot of the individual. You can "choose" to forgo an item that provides what should be a baseline feature or "choose" to participate in an activity that you find unenjoyable. Yes, there is a "choice", but a choice between two terrible options is no better than having no choice at all. The system that set up this non-choice is poorly designed and should be fixed. Ignoring systemic flaws while blaming the individual shows a lack consideration that is appalling.

[New Legendary Runes/Sigils alongside a Community Event]

This particular addition feels like it was designed to exploit what developers often call "whales"(who are still people). How we can talk about them as if they were just some piggy banks feels disgusting to me. If they were all rich assholes, fine, but I doubt that's actually the case.Beyond that, I feel like this legendary equipment idea was a mistake to begin with. If legendary was just some flashy cosmetic, fine, I wouldn't bother. Instead, it restricts what should be considered a baseline feature. I have 18 characters(1 per elite spec) and I like to change their builds up frequently. This gets expensive fairly quickly. Getting all of them legendary equipment also doesn't sound plausible. Not only that, but getting some legendary equipment requires spending time doing content that is less enjoyable than filing taxes. Why should this be the case? To overcome this, why not make stat selection a separate account unlock for each slot? I'd still have to do soul-crushingly-boring raids, but at least there'd be an end in sight.

[Drawbacks to elite specializations]

The "drawbacks" that have been added to elite specs just feel unfun. Instead, they should buff unused trait lines to make them more appealing. Unfortunately, we have people that dislike any power creep for some reason. I don't really understand that sentiment myself. Power creep just helps bad players complete content they were unable to when it was released.

[Legendary ring Coalescence and the obligation to play]

Keeping skins behind certain types of content is unfortunate, but I understand why it happens. What I dislike is locking functionality behind certain types of content. In my opinion, legendaries should be unlockable via OW PvE, raids, PvP, and WvW. Additionally, the griffon, skyscale, etc should be unlockable through raids, PvP, and WvW as well. Why force people to grind content they don't enjoy?

[Halloween in July: Just curious...]

I wish Halloween in July was a thing in the real world. I love Halloween. That said, it's way too warm out right now for that to be a thing.

[Upcoming Balance Notes]

I like to dabble in all classes a little. It feels like, overall, more nerfs than buffs. Now maybe it's because I'm awful at video games(with the tremors and hand spasms), but I'm not really a fan of nerfs in 99% of cases. Additionally, most of these changes don't seem fun or interesting(though, indeed, some do; yay thief portal). Seeing this, I'm considering just spending most of my time on my ridiculously easy-to-play p/p deadeye for a while. Glad that wasn't touched, at least.

[Do you think we will get new elite specializations in Living World Season 5?]

We should, but we won't. =(

[IDEAS: to make GW2 builds better.]

I like it, but I don't see it happening. Instead, what if we added options/flavors to weapon skills. Maybe allow a skill that normally causes vulnerability the option of adding weakness instead. Maybe lower the damage of a skill for a lower cooldown. Such changes allow for increased player expression without requiring the developers to add new animations/icons.Balance has always been an illusory goal. Limiting options for balance is foolish.

[Let's hear your baseless hopes for where the story goes next!]

I'd honestly rather we never go anywhere near Kaineng City. Besides, I'd rather focus on something not centered around humans. I'd like either Norn/Jormag, Depths/Primordus, or random islands/DSD. No need for Cantha.

[Why are some rewards essentially "anchors"?]

Salvage it for materials - not possible as it turns red when attempting to salvage

Wait, what? I'm 99% certain I salvaged it. I remember getting 2 ectos and 1 dark matter. Did they change this at some point?

[Which ingame titles do you use the most and why?]

I use either Combat Healer or Contract Killer. Combat Healer is the one I am most proud of, but Contract Killer just sounds really cool.

[What is your favorite Mount/Mount skin and why? How can they improve?]

My favorite mount is the raptor. Jumping with it is just really satisfying.

My favorite mount skin is the Shimmerwing skyscale skin. I love the butterfly esthetique. Unfortunately, this skin never quite looks as good as it does in the dye window. The colors look great in the preview, but the lighting in actual areas sometimes makes it hard to distinguish darker colors.

[Would you like to play Season 1 again?]

Please, no. I would much rather have new content than old content.

[More Frequent Balance Updates]

I, personally, would like more balance updates. I don't think now is a good time to make that shift, however. Right now we need stuff to keep people preoccupied so they don't wonder/worry about what is next/what season 5 is going to be like.

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

This likely has already been said. In case it hasn't, I think a rechargeable transmutation charge along the lines of the rechargeable teleport recently introduced. Maybe something like it regenerates its charge after a month or something.

[What are your mount names? - skyscale edition]

On my current main because I haven't named the others:

Raptor - SierraSpringer - HeidiSkimmer - GraceJackal - HobbesGriffon - TaraRoller beetle - Petunia but Petey for shortSkyscale - Azure

[Why do we buy mount skins? What is the meaning of gw2?]

Everytime someone has something cool you are like "wow, let me buy that too" and then everyone has it and it's not that cool anymoreI take issue with this comment. If somebody else has food, does your food suddenly become worthless? No. That's silly. If I have something, somebody else gaining it does nothing to me. I don't understand this mindset and, frankly, I would never want to. If Anet suddenly decided to give every player a copy of every skin I have, I'd be delighted because that sounds like an awesome amount of free stuff for other people.

On to the actual question. I buy mount skins because they allow me to express myself and my characters in new and interesting ways. I look forward to more interesting skins to come.

[Why don't you sPvP?]

I used to PvP back in Guildwars. I loved it. Since then, my tremors have gotten worse and my hands spasm more frequently. I'm not sure I want to burden teammates with my issues.