Zaxares.5419

My thoughts... Vertical Power Progression Yes, the introduction of the Jade Bot Power Core is definitely vertical power progression. However... it's not exactly a new thing. Ascended gear provided vertical power progression. Ascended food provided vertical power progression. In a roundabout way, elite specs and masteries did too. In fact, I would go so far to say that GW2 actually needs MORE vertical progression. Why do I say this? Basically, because of the Dragon's End fiasco. That episode made it painfully clear that the gulf in power between the casuals and the hardcores is EXTREME. Today ANet released a studio update saying that DE clears have risen from 15% to 60%, but what they didn't mention is if the total number of attempts remained the same. I suspect very strongly that the total number of attempts has fallen dramatically as many casual players decided this was too hard for them and left (especially now that they can obtain their turtle by just slowly farming Writs of DE, either in the map itself or in other maps) This means that something needs to be done to raise the power level of casuals to the point where, even if they are not on the same level as the hardcores, that they can at least contribute meaningfully to events/content. And again, this is where the power creep of previous updates and releases comes in. Those of you who, like me, have been around since launch will probably have had a feeling of "here we go again..." upon watching the response to Dragon's End. We've had these same complaints about dungeons, Tequatl, Marionette, Chak Gerent, Dragon's Stand, raids etc. Each time, the acrimony eventually dies down as time passes, and a lot of people assume this is because the weak/bad players leave (which again, is not a good thing, because those players often wind up playing something else altogether) and those remaining get familiar with the encounter, but I believe this is only half the story. The other unseen half at work is power creep. For example, back when Tequatl first came out, people used to spam Fire Elemental Powders and Ogre Pet Whistles at him for the extra DPS. That never happens anymore. Chak Gerent used to take 2-3 phases to kill; nowadays it's not uncommon to have 2 or more lanes burn him down within the first phase. It's now very possible to clear dungeons SOLO if you're good and experienced enough. So all this power creep has undeniably made older content easier. But, and this is the important bit, is that a bad thing? All this power creep means that it's now very possible for just a small handful of powerful, experienced veterans to carry a team full of newbies. This, in turn, leads to greater accessibility and a more welcoming atmosphere for newbies. Whenever there's a daily dungeon path, I often see (and I usually post) LFGs just going "P1 for daily, all welcome" because the players putting these up are likely old veterans who know they can easily carry the entire team if need be, without caring about team comps or DPS. So fresh newbies can get to experience the content in an atmosphere without pressure or judgment (and learn over time if they do the content repeatedly), and the veterans don't have to waste time filling exact comps or worrying that they'll fail (and waste time. I often find that, for a lot of hardcore players, the thing that annoys them the most is not failure, but the loss of the time they just invested.) So this brings us back to the issue of the Jade Bot introducing more vertical power progression. Yes, ANet needs to be careful that the introduction of the Power Core doesn't lead to a new gear treadmill, but it could also be just what the game needs to bridge the gap between the two major cliques of PvE players. As it is now, a +235 Vitality boost isn't massively game-changing, but ANet could just as easily add variants for other stats, or even a Celestial one. Such a change can buff the power of players who want to do endgame content, but lack the skill or the desire to use meta comps. (Sometimes the meta build is just something you don't LIKE to play, for whatever reason. It's like back when Warrior BS was ALWAYS condi-based, but what if you rolled a Warrior to hack stuff with Greatsword??) It can boost min-maxers to the point where they can easily carry weaker players through things like strikes or raids, which in turn would help give a much-needed shot in the arm for these game modes (and hopefully encourage ANet to make more of them. It would be a crying shame if the 4 EoD strikes and their CMs turn out to be all we get for endgame content for the next few years until the next expansion.) And for content like Dragon's End, it could encourage players who got turned off by the poor experiences of the past to "come back and try it again when you're stronger"; coming back with more levels and stronger gear is a classic staple of RPGs past and present. I REALLY don't want Guild Wars 2 to turn into a game where it feels we have completely different cliques of players that never interact with each other because they each despise the content the other side is doing. (This applies to PvP and WvW too. I actually feel rather sad whenever I see a player proudly proclaim that they NEVER touch PvE/PvP/WvW for whatever reason. I feel like they're missing out on the whole experience buffet that is GW2.) I feel that it detracts from the fundamental experience of playing in an MMO, and it goes against the open, welcoming, "play how you want" philosophy that helped to make GW2 stand-out from the rest of the competition. Protocol Balance I agree that the Jade Bot modules need some organizing and greater access (particularly across different game modes, as you mentioned). Currently the limit of 2 upgrade slots means that many niche upgrades (like Skiff speed boost, or Siege Turtle damage boost) will simply be passed over in favour of more generally useful (or profitable) ones. I think that the maximum number of upgrade slots should be increased to 4 (possibly 5, if higher tiers of Power Cores ever get introduced): 1 Scavenger slot 1 Recycler slot (The Treasure Hunter module could possibly go into this slot too, for players who would prefer to keep their junk items and not recycle them) 2 General Usage In addition, I would like it if the Jade various Recycler modules got split into 3 different tiers: Minor, Major and Superior. This breakdown determines at what price thresholds the recycler will salvage slivers et al. from junk. Minor will only salvage junk items of 1s or below (in other words, all sorts of random mob junk like Dark Stained Claws, Spikes, Broken Lockpicks etc.) Major will salvage junk items of 10s or below (up to Broken Spoons, in other words). Superior will salvage junk items of 30s or below (as per the current version).

Well, they DID add LIs to EoD strikes. 😉 As for the original topic, while I agree that Jade Slivers should not REPLACE playing WvW as a means of acquiring Skirmish tickets, I think there is a fair argument to be made for letting them SUPPLEMENT one's acquisition of them. Perhaps putting in something like a weekly cap of 25-50 Skirmish tickets that can be purchased with slivers. That amount is inconsequential compared to what you'd get from finishing Diamond every week, but it could help out casual WvW'ers who only have a small amount of time to dedicate to the mode each week.

Yeah. I was trying reaaaaaally hard to think of something else we could replace Jade Runestones with, but I didn't want to double up on Lamplighter Badges, and Memories of Aurene wouldn't fit that meta thematically, and there's really no other Gen3 Legendary component that's tradable and of similar value to LLBs or Ambergris. Honestly though, I think Jade Runestones will be OK even if it drops to like 10s or so. That would keep it at roughly similar value to Amalgamated Gemstones and be a decent alternative for players who don't like running around opening fox boxes. (I personally love doing that, but obviously not all players will feel the same.) Likewise, the reason I suggested LLBs is because, as you mentioned, not everybody will like redoing map completion or lighting lanterns. (I'm personally OK with it as somebody who did Core Map Completion 10 times, but even I acknowledge that it was getting pretty grindy by the end.) I foresee LLB prices rising as people get tired of doing EoD maps, and this is my way of ensuring there is another source for LLBs so their prices don't grow out of control. HoT's reward structure and currency design did have its flaws, but overall I agree it was quite well managed. DS is the only major source in the game for Crystalline Ore, so people will always come back to DS for that, but the meta is also engaging and decently rewarding. I would say the only big issue left to be fixed with HoT currencies is giving more worthwhile sinks for the map tokens like Airship Oil (ESPECIALLY Airship Oil) that have practically zero use outside of making Fulgurite.

While the increase in clear rate is pleasing to see, I agree that without the full picture/data, it could also be misleading. Has the clear rate gone up, but the overall number of DE attempts gone DOWN? That would mean that the increase in clear rates is due to many players simply giving up and leaving, which is NOT good news.

The addition of the Void infusion as a "jackpot" item is a good move, but I think it's only a partial solution. This buff specifically only affects Dragon's End (which, to be fair, DOES need a big shiny to keep it enticing far into the future, otherwise people will stop doing it once they have their Turtles/achieves and just start farming Summoning Stones from the weekly vendor for lazy currencies.) The other EoD metas didn't get touched, and a couple of them (Kaineng and Echovald) have fairly lackluster Hero's Choice chests compared to the others. I propose three additional changes on top of the ones ANet are adding: Increase the number of Jade Runestones offered by the Kaineng Hero's Choice Chest from 1 to 5. Remove the Jade Runestone choice from the Echovald Hero's Choice Chest and replace it with 1 Lamplighter's Badge. Add 1 Lamplighter's Badge to each of the various Bounty of X chests as a possible Rare drop. Currently most of the Bounty chests offer fairly low value loot, with the chance for a Rare account-bound Jade Bot upgrade (that's worthless if it's not the upgrade you want. ANet ought to consider making them tradable), and a jackpot item of the Jade Throne chair (a decent item, but its price is rapidly slipping because it's been deemed "ugly" by most of the playerbase and thus has low demand).

There definitely seems to be something broken with the Ocean-Fresh Sashimi events. In all the time I've spent in New Kaineng I've only ever seen this event ONCE, and it was the south one. The north one never ever seems to occur, although sometimes I'll walk past and I'll see 4 Sakda employees just standing there doing nothing. I waited around for about 10 mins but nothing else occurred.

No, I haven't upgraded my PC since last year. My ping and framerate are both within the same range as before. The only potential difference between this year and the last from my (client) side is that I'm running DX11 mode, but that shouldn't affect the actual gameplay at all.

So I'm still trying to figure out how exactly this works. Does Myung-Hee's statuette collection reset once every week? Or only once you turn in all 4 statuettes? Last week I only turned in the Empress and Gate collections. Today I tried turning in two more of the same, but Myung-Hee won't take either, despite it being a new week. On the one hand, it's quite annoying that if you don't finish the collection, you're stuck with statuettes you can't turn in. On the other hand, I can see why some players who are going through the collection slowly don't want to have to turn in a new set every single week if they fail to get the last missing pieces. Can we get some clarity from ANet about how this vendor/achievement is actually supposed to work?

It would definitely make the price drop, yes, but I doubt it would crash it completely. For comparison, look at Poultry meat. It typically hovers between 3-4 silver, and they primarily drop from Moas and Raptors (an even more restrictive list than the crustacea I suggested), the latter of which will actively attack you. In contrast all of the crabs et al are generally passive and won't attack you unless you hit them first, so it's doubtful that players would go out of their way to attack them. If anything, I expect it would boost supply only by virtue of the fact that such mobs sometimes get dragged into fights when they get pinged by AoEs while fighting other mobs. The proposed change would basically give players seeking Crustacea meat (likely for the minis) a more focused avenue for farming them than just randomly trying to catch the 5 or so actual fish that drop them. (Take a look at how ornery players are about Saltwater fishes, which generally have to compete with a whole bunch of other fishes in determining what drops.) This approach would basically just help alleviate frustration. I also dare say that it wouldn't affect the "profitability" of Fishing either, given that players engaging in Fishing are mostly after Ascended/Legendary fish for the Ambergris (which is worth roughly 2g). Because most of the fish that drop Crustacean meat are on the lower ends of the scale, that means that fishers have to choose between either going for (random) Crustacean meat or fishing for high fish for Ambergris, and it's way more profitable to aim for the latter because you'll be catching Rare/Exotic/Ascended fish whose filets can also be promoted into Ambergris. Your last suggestion did give me an idea though. Perhaps ANet could introduce some way of downgrading unwanted fish filets into Crustacean Meat instead; it would achieve mostly the same result, although I still think it makes more logical sense to have various Crustacean mobs drop it directly too.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's noticed that Crustacean Meat (https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Piece_of_Crustacean_Meat) is astoundingly expensive. Currently it's worth 30s, more expensive than Ecto, or even Flawless Fish Filets! This seems rather incongruous considering it's supposed to be the lowest tier of fishing resource we can acquire, as evidenced by the fact that we trade it for ONE(!) Fine Fish Filet, a staggeringly bad conversion. The reason behind it is fairly simple: it only drops from a tiny handful of Fishing catches that most people aren't even aiming for because they're mostly found in Open Water and thus players do not spend a lot of time fishing there. I propose that ANet add it to the loot tables of various crustacean mobs in the open world, like Hermit Crabs, Thundershrimp, Sea Scorpions, Triops etc. (Essentially, any mob that would count towards the Shell Slayer achieve.) This has the side benefit of also making those mobs more appealing targets, because honestly, the random loot you get from them is just awful. The most valuable drop a Hermit Crab can give is worth 16c; giving them a loot drop that's something other than vendor junk (literally) just feels like they're an afterthought rather than inhabitants of a broader world. (Even killing neutral Deer or Rams can get you Red Meat or Quality Red Meat, for instance.)

I got some bad news for you then. XD The vast majority of players don't even give a kitten what you look like. They're more worried about whether you're paying attention to THEIR fancy fashion. My advice is to just go for a look that YOU like, because a) you're the person who's going to be looking at it the most, and b) status and exclusivity comes and goes. What was prestigious and expensive today may not be tomorrow (Khan-Ur infusions are a good example. They went from being the rarest and most expensive infusion to being mid-tier at best). Trying to chase the "Look at me! I'm so rich!" pedestal is a never-ending dream that's ultimately unsatisfying.

This is one of those situations where I think certain players will have TONS of them, and certain players will always struggle with them, depending on your playstyle and which game modes you usually frequent. As somebody who plays basically everything in GW2, I get the bulk of my Spirit Shards via PvP/WvW, which gives you tons of Tomes of Knowledge that you just consume on the spot. However, if you're a new'ish PvE player who hasn't maxed out all the masteries, you'll probably find that you're struggling to gain Spirit Shards because any XP you gain instantly goes towards maxing out masteries in one campaign or another. If you're trying to fund your Legendary journey (or some other purpose like mat conversion or changing stats on your Ascended gear). So, I guess the situation does kinda suck if you're stuck in that latter position, but if you stick it out, it WILL get better. Trust me.

As the title says, I'm noticing now that I'm getting knocked down almost immediately after jumping from or landing on a log, and I suspect it's the game freaking out about my actual position due to my SEA ping of 250+. Previously the logs actually had a "safe" box that was slightly bigger than their actual footprint in the game would suggest. Yes, it could look a little odd to be half standing in the water and still be fine, but I'll take that over the current system where I jump onto a log, take a running jump to the next log and immediately trip and fall into the water the second my foot leaves the first log (because the game hasn't yet registered that I've actually jumped and I should be safely in the air. I presume the game is assuming I just ran straight off the log into the water.) It's a good thing that I've finished all the Rapids and Trib Mode achieves for it, because I think this would make for an absolutely frustrating experience otherwise. All the same, I implore you to change it back to the old system, ANet, because on the days when I DO go into Rapids for dailies, that log portion is teeth-grindingly annoying.

More that it expands the combat options players have against tougher enemies in SAB. Whip/Boomerang is useful against enemies that take more than 3 hits to kill (like the Bears) or that are dangerous to approach without stunning (like Bananas). Meanwhile, as people have discovered, Whip/Boomerang helps make Storm Wizard's first phase a lot more bearable by stunlocking him in between attacks. Upgrades and masteries should always follow the approach of "having this will make your life SO much easier!", rather than "you must have X to do this content", or worse "X is only useful in one area/purpose and does absolutely nothing else elsewhere".

That's what I did too. XD Which is why I'll only finish the Crimson weapons this year instead of last year like some others. Only 1 last weapon to go though, and it'll be here in 3 more days!

There is now also the Weekly SAB achievements (for completing all zones in W1 and W2) that award 2 more Crimson Tokens each per week (so bonus 4), but yeah, it's still going to be a slow pace.

So, as some of you may know, the Beedog (I refuse to call them Bumblepugs :P) transformation for the race/adventure in the SAB lobby is... well, kinda janky. It's difficult to control and has a tendency to bob up and down so you're not sure of your exact location. This makes it especially annoying for high-ping players like myself because trying to judge your location and collision when picking up the speed boosts or the coins/clouds is highly dependent on chance. I've flown right through speed boosts without it registering (because the game thought I was still above/below it), and sometimes I'll look to be on track to grab a coin/cloud when the game thinks I mashed the 1/2 button one too many times and sends me to a different altitude. At the time, there wasn't much that could be done because there wasn't really a system for proper flight in the GW2 engine yet. But now, with the Skyscale and the Jade Bot, this is no longer the case. As such, I'm requesting that ANet consider overhauling the flight system of the Beedog and make it work like the Jade Bot when we're flying around lighting lanterns. Yes, it kind of takes away from the "retro" feel of SAB, but it's otherwise proving unfairly aggravating for a segment of the population who have no other recourse for doing this race/adventure. It's similar to the nerf ANet made once for the spinner flowers; low-ping players had no issues at all with it, but for high-ping players, the flowers would do things like hurl you straight into the chasm because the game was confused as to your actual location and orientation. So what ANet did was that they changed it so the flowers always shot you to a specific spot. Was it a nerf? Yes, but it was also needed in order to provide a level playing field for all players. I ask that they do it one more time for this otherwise charming little activity. :)

As someone who grinded Trib Mode years ago for the achieves/AP/skins, I have no objections to this. I'll always have the satisfaction of knowing that I actually earned my weapons myself, and it's not like there aren't people already selling Trib Mode runs anyway. So, if people are willing to buy the skins, and Trib Mode fans are willing to sell the skins, why not allow them the chance to make some extra gold and help keep the economy healthy while we're at it?

It used to be that having the Whip made her a cakewalk; you could whip her to stun her, attack once or twice, then whip her again and repeat the process. However, ANet changed it so that you can't stun the Queen or the Kingpin anymore, which I think is actually a mistake. Having these enemies be able to be stunned makes the Whip/Boomerang valuable upgrades that players should strive for; most normal enemies aren't worth stunning as you can kill them in 1-3 hits by just circling around them, and it's very rare that you actually use the Whip/Boomerang for their secondary purpose of collecting distant baubles anyway. As it is, the only real change the nerf to Whip/Boomerang did was that most people just skip the Queen/Kingpin now as it's no longer worth the time to collect the paltry amount of baubles the honeycomb/stump gives you.

Agreed. Please issue our minions zip-line travel passes as well, ANet!

It's just anecdotal evidence, but I can concur that there does seem to be something to this theory. Fishing with extremely low FP (like 0 - 150) only ever seems to return white fish, with the occasional blue. 151 - 300 is when I start seeing green fish as well, and 301 - 450 is when I start seeing rare fish on a fairly regular basis. I haven't been cooking Fishing food or using Fishing Party buffs yet, so those will likely push me to the 451 - 600 range, which is when I expect I would start landing Exotic fish.

I know, but it's not the same as seeing a different node in your HI and actually being able to physically gather from it. The rewards from the EoD Expedition Contract probably also need a balance pass. Seitung's is pretty good; you get something unique from it (the Tale of Adventure) although the amount of the rewards should be beefed up a bit. Dragon's End gives WAY more rewards than any other selection, so nobody in their right mind would choose anything other than Dragon's End gathering from the contract. Either the amount of Pure Jade should be reduced (or perhaps replaced with 1 piece of Dragon Jade), while Kaineng should offer a Jade Runestone (seems more fitting, as Kaineng is where the raw jade goes to be processed and turned into workable materials and art objects). The Fishing option meanwhile should also have a chance to drop Flawless Fish Filets as well, along with a pretty rare chance for Ambergris.

Collecting new goodies for my Home Instance is one of my major joys in GW2, and there are some shiny new candidates from Cantha that I think would make excellent additions! My ideas are as follows: Home Jadeite Vein - 3 strikes mining node, returns 3 Chunks of Pure Jade daily, along with random ore-related junk like Pebbles, Gravel etc. Can occasionally return T6 Gemstones such as Ruby Orbs as well. Purchased from a vendor in Dragon's End for 50g + 250 Writs of Dragon's End. Home Petrified Echovald Sapling - 3 strikes logging node, returns 3 Chunks of Petrified Echovald Resin daily, along with either Elder Wood Logs or Ancient Wood Logs (rarer). Purchased from a vendor in Echovald for 50g + 250 Writs of Echovald. Home Instance Shrine Guardian Chest - This would be identical to the Shrine Guardian kits hidden chests scattered throughout Cantha. Opening them gives an assortment of loot comprised of unidentified gear, luck, salvage items, Unusual Coins, with a rarer chance for a Jade Runestone. It MUST play that adorable fox kit animation upon opening. :P This node is not purchasable and is instead awarded for completing all of the matching collections throughout End of Dragons. I did also consider a Home Instance Jade Bot Workbench, but it wouldn't be as convenient to get to as a Workbench in one's guild hall and would likely not serve much purpose aside from just being decoration. Likewise, I so wanted to come up with something for Fishing, but most of the HI's don't have any water in them and one can already select "Fish" as a daily reward from the Black Lion board for EoD. Anyone else have ideas for new things they'd like to see in their Home Instance?

Yeah, I checked the Wiki earlier and saw that someone had updated it. Previously the Wiki was suggesting the Aetherblade Ambush that takes place near the Eastern crash site, which was incorrect. I tried the Jade Mech reinforcement event and it did indeed work. Mystery solved!

Yeah, where is the "Emerald Park" Aetherblade assault? I can't for the life of me find where it is.