Seth Moonshadow.2710

I'd have to say this is the biggest reason for us. It started back with dungeon in 2013 when we tried our first time and it left a bad taste in our mouths that we now avoid that kind of content with a passion. It's still prevalent today though less toxic it comes now in the form of competitive PvE players leaving the group causing longer wait times IF it even forms. Or Group forms runs through fails and breaks apart. They are just two different styles of play that don't mix well! PvE Elite = Pro player, usually 1 prof know inside and out with variant builds and gear, faster PC systems & Bandwidth, typically younger (could be wrong just seems it?), not willing to stick around, share or teach. PvE Average = Patient, willing to try again multiple times (remember LWS2 Achievs?), plays all or most profs, usually ≤ some ascended, 1 or 2 build/toon, often or sometimes Min. PC specs, slower bandwidth, Older & slower (not that all are!) willing to learn, share and be taught. Sure you can pick that apart if you want to go down that road. The other MAJOR issue not mentioned is the Distraction Factor! That's a huge one for us also.

It, as far as I know, has not been confirmed either way, via scrying pool or as Story Journal. It just makes sense to attach it to the story journal as that was the new method since it's release and "going forward". It also has merit in scrying pool from gw1 since we had missions to participate in from there back then also (iirc?). But as far as we know these are just hopes and wishes being voiced. It's one of those "You'll have to wait and see!" things.

My expectations are tempered as I'm sure they probably attached the weapon variants to strike mission rewards, so other than LWS1 returning hopefully in ALL it's glory or Story Journal version of it, I'm expecting to enjoy Story > Map > LWS1 > Repeat! Instead of what I used to do until 2020 Story > Map > Achievements > Repeat. It's less playtime, less fun but most I can hope for is the stone summet skins will be map rewards or task vendor unlocks? As for my enthusiasm no reason I can't be excited! And I am I really hope the recent posts made a change and they've reconsidered where to attach some rewards or how and to what. But either way, it's always nice to get something new to do and be excited about. ;)

Agreed. And using that cool skill we have to "read" I think I have my answer!? The release page states "Get to know Rox and Braham, face Scarlet’s toxic forces, and remember how far Canach’s come in his time with you." So I'm hopeful that means all the other content leading up to and including say Cragstead I'm hoping it's not just a Scrying pool select a mission and drop into Cragstead or Nolan Hatchery or Tower of nightmares? To get to know them you really really need to do ALL the content in their background. They tend to go big! So I am eagerly awaiting the new story journal LWS1 missions! ;) ;)

@Nephalem.8921 Also, I did want to put in something but I had to leave. I wanted to say, YES, you are also correct that while these things do take place they are not 100% of the time. The distractions take place frequently enough to make participating in group content like Strike Missions, raids, Matches, Tournaments, and even Fractals and dungeons very unsuccessful and a much larger challenge rating! We literally stopped doing dungeons the first 2 years because of the leetude, gear checks (back then it was for exotics), XP checks and so on. It's what AreanaNet was NOT wanting to happen that nonetheless still to this day happens. Then there were the distractions that remain today. So NO I am not saying it's 100% each and every time we try. It's also not far from more than 3/4 or closer to 80%! In any case the new release on March 17th Steel & Fire video uses the words "unlock" That word was most often used was for story line achievement rewards in LWS1 & @ when we had to repeat a story instance and work on the achievement. I'm not saying that is what's going to be but I am certainly hopeful that is what they mean! It would be nice if we could play the mode we enjoy and earn the same rewards! Enjoy all!

@ Nephalem.8921 Sports can be a hobby, they can also be a career. Without more information it's hard to tell which you mean. However, as a hobby or entertainment you again prove my point that it takes a back seat to RL / Responsibilities. THAT is my point also AND why the afk happens. I'm guessing you do not have kids at this point? There's nothing wrong with that weather or not you do or don't is your choice, more power to you. We do and so do many others, not that THAT is the sole reasoning behind afking. But YES! with kids especially younger ones 5m IS absolutely not an easy task to achieve! What any parenting movie out there and sooner or later one or the other parent will complain about needing "Just 5 mintues!!" . Go watch Shrek, to quote him "donkey, could you not be your self for five minutes?" It's a perfect example. "Predictable Diaper changes" My friend!!! IF you could invent that you would be able to own ALL the MMORPGS in the world!!!! No joke! To dig more into parenting getting slightly off topic but proving more why Strike Missions, RAIDs, or focused group content is not so constant.....Lets say I just finished changing that nose bomb of a diaper. Guess what? That means their little (or in some cases large) tummy's are now empty. SO I sit down and load in that PvP match or Non-Boneskinner Strike Mission. We're all sitting there loading up on our Essences. Then lets say 1m later (cuz we waited for full group, and we've waited longer!) we start in on the boss It's @ 50% Say 1m later. do the math, 2m on an empty stomach. Now 25% the cool new or reused abilities we all know and love or are experiencing for the first time start and we need those DPS's! 3.5m in now. Tug Tug Tug at my shirt....."Daaaaaad...I'm thirsty!" "Daaad...I have a peepee"...AAaannnd there goes the match afk. Just 4m in. Because that fresh new diaper didn't hold all the pee that wasn't let out WITH the nose bomb and now the pants need changing also!!! TAG your it! And again you prove my point! Gear / Build checking! I have yet to have one of those gear / build checkers, lets stick with build, build checkers share a build they wanted!!! If they want that build on a player share it YOU CAN!!! OMG......Guess what? There goes the group as players leave waiting for some one to Google said build and hopefully find the code! Cuz yeah that's happened to us also. Or it gets dissolved because the player accepting the build doesn't know the "skill rotation" of it, now THAT needs to be shown. Or they don't have the right gear to go with the build.....Do we make our point yet? I get it I see your side it's not like we're new and haven't tried. We've not done tons, but we certainly have given it a fair go to get those achievements you say are not stopping us from completing it. Except they ARE. :s BTW it's time for me to go pick up said distractions now cyaz :p <3

Question, Will those (Season 1 Missions) include the weekly content drops as part of their "mission"?

Might be true but they dont complain every time an achievement needs a group to beat. the worldbosses in wow actually need you to search a group since they dont work like "jump to map and afk leech the whole thing" like in gw2.Strike missions are included in the map meta so people actually try them out. Most of them are even easier than world bosses. In what other way can you get players to try content besides open world?Maybe you didnt like them but what if the majority actually likes them but they would have never found out because they wouldn't have tried them without the meta achievement? The rl argument doesnt hold at all. Sports need 1-3h time investments WITHOUT BREAKS! aswell and even more for tournaments and i've never heard somebody say: "i cant play football because i have rl".The strikes need 3-5min time investment without interruptions and maybe copying a decent build for pve from a site. Everything except boneskinner and whisper of jormag dont need any special tactic. Just grab at least 1 healer to make it easy. So maybe if enough players learn the fighting system with strikes all the story missions dont have to bore fractal, raid and even better pvp players to death because story bosses just die after 3 attacks. And i include that taimi golem in this. Because multiple open world heroes love to complain about it while it phases in like 10sec vs a decent dps build. a full facetanking dps build. You do realize, you just proved my point don't you?I think you are misunderstanding my post. Because "i've never heard somebody say: "i cant play football because i have rl". " THE GAME IS their rl!?! :p It's their job, not their entertainment. You need to change that to i've never heard somebody say: "i cant play football because i have to change my kids diaper". Or clean up the spilled plate or mop up the floor from crayons or help them sit on the potty! Are you saying you would let your child keep a nose bomb in their diaper for 10m? Do you have any idea what that can do to their body? THAT's IF they keep their hands out of it! :p :# Picture it in your head......Google it I'm sure there are videos of what this looks like!

I just finished watching it I LOVE the weapon variant rewards, provided of course they are not attached to strike missions, PvP, raid, WvW play!!! So far I am supper excited!!!! I <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 the gw1 call backs! Just please for the love of the game.....Dungeon rewards from dungeons, fractal rewards from fractals, PvP rewards from PvP, Story for Story!!!! BTW.................FR$%^&R%&%$^& AWESOME!!!!!!! LWS1 returns!!!!! 10/10!!! keep it going team! <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

All the bickering aside the point is as they mentioned: This is a problem for us PvEr's! For the first time in Guild Wars 2 history in my case this marks the first time I did not complete a story "meta"!!! That is sad because it proves Vayne's point that it encourages less play on the part of PvEr's. LESS PLAY IS NOT what you want from any mode in a video game, I think that would be an obvious "Danger danger danger will Rob..." sign. I've already pointed out why attaching Story Rewards to Strike missions is bad. I'll elaborate, Strike missions are already heading the way of dungeons. We've all seen it. The empty or 1 or 2 lfg listings for them. Zero listings for groups working toward the achievements tied to the story rewards. Why!? Welp, because strike missions are full of X-RAIDers who gear check, bail/leave on first run fail vs sticking with it and HELPING encourage those "stepping stone" to raids. The mantra for them "Time is money". IF...IF they do stay beyond the first attempt and try to teach the nuubs chat becomes filled with condescending comments and crapchat leading to others leaving. We've all seen it from either side. It's why I've never finish a single riad to date. It's why we (my family, and maybe other PvErs?) don't want or would stop playing that content. That's not good for anyone. Having the CHOICE to play your character in any mode is AWESOME, but it is still a choice. Attaching rewords from one content to another does "force" a choice. The hope is it will be played. And before you go there!!! YES raids ARE PvE content. It is widely considered END GAME PvE content. As is Fractals for Dungeoneers, Leagues for PvP and WvW. That doesn't mean every one will participate in END GAME content. Guild Wars 2 is so great a game that there is tons of choice for you to pick what fits your Play/Life style. That is another part of why strike mission having Story line rewards is bad. Strike missions, RAIDs, Dungeons, PvP matches, WvW skirmishes ALL require something many PvErs don't do. 100% focus on the keyboard, screen and mouse 100% of the time. PvErs tend to go afk for multiple reasons multiple times in just a 10 mintue period! I'd say in any 10m period my wife or I will be stopped at least half the time just for munchkins. Yes, a strike mission CAN take less than 10m with a well organized or well "built/build" group. Otherwise it can take longer and there is were a PvEr will step away for a second and when returning POOF the gorp is gone and they are left alone in a cave going..."echOOoooo". So after that happens multiple times guess what?..........waiting.........waiting..........yep you guessed it. We stop trying. The next time that content is released we just strait up don't do it, we lower our goals, we decrease our play time, our desire to purchase diminished, all leading to lower player base. Fact is ArenaNet, while a competitive minded company (appearently), built a large Open world / PvE / Casual player base that DOES NOT want or will be lead into other modes. The same can be said for players in the other modes. Problem is, can ArenaNet provide for all modes? Or are they at a point they have bitten off more than can be chewed? Strike Missions as a "stepping stone to raids" should have their own riadesk or strike mission rewards akin to raids. They should be "Optional", as they were in previous story, to complete for the story meta not required. I am holding out hope for the future. Andrew Grays post. "but I can tell you the map is meta-focused with a push-and-pull feel similar to WvW in a PvE setting." Worries a little, after all SilverWastes is a lot like that and that map is some times heralded as THE BEST map of the game, though I'm interested to see what they think will "We want maps this season to bring something to them that makes them a permanent part of your play experience."? Because if it's more like Shadows in the Ice, then probably not for us. I loved every bit up until strike missions were required to complete the story meta. As it stands that is the only thing we have not completed and we keep trying but we are getting very discouraged from the random join or even the squad, since often the squads are there for the weekly NOT the achievements! What gives me the MOST hope is:"Generally, as a team, we are placing a greater emphasis on repeatable content (open world events, world bosses, WvW, and yes, even Fractals (hint hint)). We want to make the types of content that have a lasting, positive impact on the game, so expect that design approach to focus on that more going forward." AND "We want it to be a unique, fun, and rewarding experience that will be part of your daily/weekly play cycle." Because as PvErs with RL we definitely have play cycles we enjoy. Not being able to complete story metas is not one of them! My hope is that this help not spawn more finger pointing......but it is the interwebz :o <3

YW, I still have some hope, it's fading faster than I thought, but some...After 3 & 4 I guess we will know for sure!?

@Vayne.8563 & @Swagger.1459 Yeeeperz!!! PvE was apparently the hook, line and sinker (hehe no pun intended) to teach us to "WANT" to play Competitive Game Modes. It's partly to comply with "Player Autonomy" and get us to the chosen mode of ArenaNet: Competitive Play! They built an AA and some would say AAA game off PvE but then said...nope! Very sad day for PvE'rs and Achievement hunters, we'll need to get used to unfinished Story Journal segments :'( incomplete collection sets and pray to the RNG Gods that's at least once every 5 years we'll get that drop that's part of an achievement or a collection! The Game Modes don't play well together, lets us play the mode we like 100%!!!! RAIDs have their reward System, put strike rewards there and give us back our PvE rewards! LOLZ! I went to Bjora Marches and all I got was this Fishing pole! At least I can pretend to fish now ;) I poke (omg srsly!?) fun. Honestly Arenanet, we have loved your game since 2005. It seems 2020 might be all we get?

Nice thought, odd I did not think of that seeing the 3 doors there. However, it is actually very similar to Marionette. MANY of the "boss" or meta battles use the same mechanics as marionette if you take a closer look. For Example, Drakkar, whil we do not go into all three doors at once we still get the time out blocker preventing us from going into another door. Just Like marionette or vinewrath. But is it the marionette no not yet. We can only hope for a Story Journal LWS1 return. But absolutely, when you look close enough you can see LWS1 in everything! This this is what I'm afraid of. My wife and I have only missed about 7 days of play since 3 day head start. Only now are we getting the feeling our motivations for playing diminishing. Mainly because again they are trying to push the game modes to one end. One day, probly when it's too late, they will realize the game modes exist because players OF THOSE modes enjoy THAT play style. While the option to choose between them is ideal it's the forced choice we will not enjoy and makes us turn away. I've said it since 2012 Let each mode play (earn rewards) 100% in it's own mode and let players play in all modes. Some players don't want to play other modes, it's a thing! really it is! I'm soooo worried next release is just going to completely remove my desire for achievements (a major reason we play) it will be story > map > done > twiddle thumbs or other game :'(

Appears to be resolved?? I was able after the crash to load in the accounts that couldn't get in to home instances.

On multiple worlds (Blackgate and Crystal Desert) in multiple zonez, Rata Sum and Divinities Reach we cannot access our home instances! If we do get it it is taking VERY long to load.

on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the best game play value 8/10 Story:8/10 Lore: More lore books!!!! AWESOME still wish we could store them in a library ;)9/10 Map: I like the way it was expanded, the explorability of it keeps that "still haven't seen it all " feeling10/10 Music:8/10 Audio: I have ambient maxed and still not enough only get a couple sounds. Never any snowy footsteps or crows cawing..9/10 Things to do: Plenty of achievements, events, mechanics (Ox, Wolverine, Eagle shrines),10/10 Dungeon Crawl: Brought back the D&D dungeon crawl feeling. The Raven gated areas were great! (traps, monsters, LOOT, hidden/dungeony area). We need more of this kind of feel to the game mode.8/10 Koda Trials: Frequent, fun, challenging, scalable! Some confusion on the Koda Be Praised for many players5/10 Masteries: a bit buggy I am not getting the use of my masteries as frequent when it's charged up as others and my wife are!! Mostly during Drakkar World Boss3/10 Rewards: Here is the bomb! The rewards that we PvE'rs, Fashion wars players, collectionists, and others ACTUALLY PLAY the game for have a few unfortunate decisions tied to them (see below). And yes, the emote while nice isn't really a prestigious reward as much as an armor set or weapon set is! The Raven Armor set:This should have been tied to the Spirit achievement repeatable tiers for Ox, Eagle, and Wolverine NOT RNG from various areas and a single purchasable from merchant and one from an achievement. This was a HUGE disappointment and something our family was looking forward to! Until IBS historically Weapons and Armor sets have been achievements or Token based and kept us playing for many years. We played the content until the next release arrived. Now, that doesn’t appear to be of interest due to RNG. This starts down the road of pay to win in the sense that now we can just throw money your way for gems, buy keys and collect Statutes to gain the rewards tied to the LWS content!! Dangerous path to take! Already players have suggested that this be the method since they are no longer tied to Achievements. VERY SAD! Illuminated Boreal Weapon set:I admit I was a voice in this very method of reward crafting. I enjoy it and think it should have been the norm from day 1. You find or craft a weapon then KEEP it and continue to upgrade it into you cherished weapon all the way to legendary! Once T2 was unlocked we should not have had to purchase them again for crafting T3 that material should have been “gifted” / automatic IF it was previously unlocked. This just makes players more horders than they already are and I’m glad I did not salvage mine!!! What should have been done was to just credit us for what we did do in the first place. On the topic of Tier 3 and RNG failure!! relays on materials that very rarely IF ever dropped! The solution in game is to buy the lower tier due to the scarcity of T5 Advanced materials. That should be changed. All day long T6 Intermediate materials drop and only after an hours worth of playing did a single Advanced material drop. Fix it please Overall it appears IBS, AS MUCH AS I WAS SOOOO EXCITED FOR IT, is actually killing casual play as well as the elite and competitive game modes! This marks a very sad realization for us.

"Scroll bag" or "Tome Chest" or "Bag of Plenty"First I have to say THANK YOU for adding a Guild space in LFG! And a thank you for finally adding in the LWS4 Tome. Given the recent post from Mr. Gray and future "expansions" the number of portal's, tome's passes etc. will begin to outnumber the number of shared inventory spaces. Now this may not matter to a large number of players but there are some of us (like myself) who glob trot around playing different content going form map to map meta's to meta's for various reasons and causes. While WPing is available it's costs start to add up to gold rather fast when you talk about going from say Sandswept Ilse to Bitterfrost or Marches multiple times. So the portals, tomes and passes become a cost effective method of cross map travel. I'm glad that tomes were added to the game, moving forward I'd like to reiterate my concept of a "scroll bag" or "Tome Chest" that would be a shared bag slot, sure change it for gems too, that we could store ALL our Tome's, Passes, or Scrolls both temporary and permeate.along with other "Gizmos". Not a bag with individual slots shared. Add Shared Bag Slot, It would accept any current bag and but only holds Tomes, Scrolls, Passes and Gizmos.

I seriously doubt that. That would be "over the top". ;) The 6 free storage spaces for templates are account bound. Build Temples"At release, each character will get three Build Template tabs, which will be preloaded with their existing equipped builds from PvE, PvP, and WvW. " Template Storage"Your account will have access to three Build Storage Spaces for free. To obtain more, you can purchase them in packs of three in the Gem Store. For a limited time after release, you’ll be able to pick up a free pack in the Gem Store for a total of six free Build Storage Spaces." Equipment Templates"Each of your characters will have access to two Equipment Template tabs for free, and the first will be automatically populated with an Equipment Template containing the gear your character was wearing when you last logged in"~Source

you didnt have infinite in gw1, max slots was 550 That's still far more than 6 free storage spaces, 3 Build Tabs and 2 Equipment! It's only 6 Storage Spaces for your account! I main 9 (one of each porf.) and they all have both ESpecs so yeah they could do more. I guess print screen still works :o

It wont and still they have another 19 hours to respond unless a lot of people are swarming em to play the new episode that released 2 days ago. Well, it is a launch window and from systems administration I know they can keep developers and some systems administrators on hand 72 before and 72 hours after a launch for bug fixes and other updates / software repairs. That being said I have not had any response since Wednesday. I am suspecting that due to launch and the Reaper Tool + Chef issues AND HoT Refunds they are bogged down a bit and remain mostly hopeful that by next week I should have had some kind of response. I've have really good support in the past so I was disheartened some given the much longer wait this time but forgot about the launch. Good Luck all!

I agree, why wasn't ascended chef gated like the rest? Why isn't it gated at the crafting process like other ascended crafting is. It would remove the problem of home instance and things could go back to normal. But that is off topic and another one of my posts. They are apparently working on a fix for the guild hall issue with the use of the Reaper tools.

I can see some grey areas, but I'm willing to wait and see. I can see "exploity" reasons why they would disable them. But that should have gone into though before putting them out. After all there are not a lot of groves with 600 range or even 900 for them to be used in open world so it seemed quite obvious they were meant for home instance, GH and WvW were nodes ARE in range for it's use. Maybe they had issues with the new Ascended garden box? but either way it's looking more like I'll be asking for a refund :s :'(

Are there plans to re-enable this "Disabled the Glyph of Reaping in instances for players who are not instance owners." ~ Release Notes or is this permanent? My reason being that my wife and I have enjoyed Guild Wars since 2005 and have played every aspect of the game together since then until now. We absolutely work on progressing our individual account home instances I support her and provide items in her instance and she has done the same for me. We ensure we both have the same things in the game. and we enjoy using them together. This is not a fix for us and likely others who do the same. Please reconsider this fix! We are patient and can / will wait for the enabling of it. If this is your decision to permanently disable Reaper tools in home instances for non-owners, are we able to get a refund? Literally the only reason we bought the reaper set was for our home instance farm! Since we can't farm together I see no need to keep them, I'd rather have others.

They never did say the oven was in all home instances only that Sous-Chef Seimur Oxbone was, though the meaning was that that would be for chef 425 characters NOT all characters. It was inferred by us and would rightly so be A W E S O M E! Admittedly it is listed in the achievement panel as something other than a Grandmaster Chef and so appears to be more of an account unlocking achievement we are used to. Though to be honest this one is a little tricky. It fits into multiple categories, account unlock, Discipline unlock/progression, home instance & party rules can all apply to it. There is the account achievements that are normally "Account Bound" and that did unlock a tool & garden box usable by other characters, so why not the oven also?. There is the discipline that allows for crafting ascended items, agreed they should be soulbound to the one that unlocks it, and gated, like crafting currently is.Then there is the Garden Plot Deed, unlocked for your account home instance, so why don't other home instance rules apply? (example IF another player has unlocked the same feature why can't they farm your instance and have it removed from theirs as with other home instance items? Like it currently is) I can see why the oven is tied to the chef that unlocked it given they are the only ones on your account that can craft ascended seeds. It means the 500 chef can Farm > craft > Replant those seeds all in the same visit, very convenient. However many of us use different characters for different things. For example my chef is almost never in the home instance since he does ALL my crafting and uses ALL the stations. My home instance farmer is the one who goes in every day to farm the home instance and dailies. So he has to get the seeds early form the bank before going in to farm and plant. While I greatly appreciate the work that went into this concept and hope that something like it will also be worked into Jeweler 500 ( <3 <3 <3 <3 ) I also hope that maybe Sept.17th can bring us an update to it that works more with current accessibility and features. Like having the oven accessible to all our characters home instances, ability for other players in your party to farm your ascended nodes (provided they have unlocked and planted ascended items) and have it removed from theirs after farming, It's something we can all hope for that would speak volumes to it's enjoyment! Only time will tell...

Thank you so much for adding Strike Missions!! 10/10. I know you mean for them to be stepping stones for getting into raids. While I wish this were going to be true for us, sadly it won't be our case. We are very grateful Strike Missions are being added and that our, along with many others, opinions were listened too. We enjoyed the Freeze Strike Mission / Mini raid and encouraged more to give it a try also. I would like to ask that if the dynamic release style you are going for is like the Dry Top release that the entire map be released and the actual playable story/content/achievements/masteries...etc be the dynamic part. Getting a small portion of a map for us explorers just is not as fun. I would even be happy with the entire map and only ambient creatures, later drop an NPC or 2 in. Then later an event chain or two. But please let us get the entire map to explore and enjoy while waiting for (and speculating on ) what the content will be when it arrives. Thank's for considering it. I loved the art style for the reveal trailer awesome sauce!