Rasimir.6239

Personally I rarely use the heroics vendor, so I have plenty of testimonies in my wallet (above 3k at last count). I just have too much fun getting all that's available for them in pve instead ;) . One of my daughters is an almost exclusive wvw player, so she uses testimonies of heroics to unlock elite specializations on her army of asura alts, and rarely has enough of them. My other daughter plays wvw exclusively to get her hands on transmutation charges and dyes from the scrimish chests (she still treats the game a lot like barbie dress-up ;) ). A friend grabs a lot of siege decorations from those chests and has built a jumping puzzle out of those in his personal guild hall. Again others I know that rarely play wvw get unidentified dyes and superior siege to sell them on the tp. The only thing in the skrimish chests that's (afaik) universally regarded as "not worth it" is the canned food. You can get the food you want for cheaper from the portable provisioner.

Spending supplies for repairing stuff can be very situational, and if you are in a party or squad and unsure if it's a good idea or a waste of good supplies, don't hesitate to ask the people you are playing with.

Great guide. One (minor) addition: If your client is set to another language than english, the warclaw track might not be the last one on the list (since the abilities are sorted alphabetically). In the german client for example, the ability track is called "Kriegsbestie" and as such found somewhere roughly in the middle of the list (this threw me off for a moment when I helped my daughter getting started with the whole process).

All of these threads dealing with the future of the game, potential expansion and/or sequel also feature a lot of voices that would rather things go on the way they are now, with regular living story and other updates to move this game further than scrap it all for an expansion and/or sequel. I'd guess that if each of these voices would start their own thread along the lines of "keep releases the way they are" you might just find that there aren't that many asking for something entirely new any more (relatively speaking). But why make threads of "keep releasing living world" when we've already got that and many people are happy with it?

GW2 is cooperative down to its roots, it never was and never will be aimed at being a competitive game unless they decide to target a whole new audience (in which case they might as well create a whole new game to begin with, as that usually works out much better than throwing out the previous target audience).

It's already a nuisance trying to play events on a map when you find tons of people just standing around without participating because they'd rather spam join on the "free loot" map than try and get things going on the current map. A (visible) queue would give even more people the incentive to proclaim the current map as dead and just stand around until their queue pops, while scaling events into oblivion for those around that actually want to play the map/instance they are on. You can probably do away with megaserver for many maps at that point and just replace the copies with a generic waiting room.

I said it before: the game wins nothing from even more people grinding out events in the Silverwastes and Istan instead of participating in content all over the game world.

I know it's an unpopular opinion, but my solution to those random collection items is: don't farm. Most if not all of these collections are much easier done if you just forget about them and play the maps normally. I know many RPGs and especially MMOs have conditioned us to go farming, but in this game especially it's a recipy for burn-out and frustration, while being mostly unnecessary. Play the HoT maps with different characters. Explore the maps, do the different event chains, have fun, and if you see a smokescale in your path, possibly take a tiny detour to kill it. The claw will come, and most likely sooner than you expect. This game is just so much more fun if you actually go out and play it and leave the unnecessary farming to other games.

There was a developer comment recently on the question of why there are no collection achievements for some weapon sets (like Heroic Dragonsblood or Astral&Stellar). I can't seem to find it now, but if I recall correctly the answer was that they did not want to introduce collections for the more (time and resource) expensive weapons so people would not feel forced to grind the sets but rather could pick and choose the weapons/skins they actually wanted to use. To me the cost of those weapons is fine, even though I only have 2+2 so far, staff and scepter, but if I found I wanted the skin on another character, then coming up with the resources for another couple of weapons should be ok, despite the fact that I have not once taken part in the Palawadan events yet (I just don't enjoy those kinds of huge, timed events, but fortunately the episode meta achievement was doable without playing the Palawadan events at all ;) ). The game needs goals for those who enjoy spending lots of time and resources on exclusive stuff, and skins are a good way to offer that kind of goal. As such I can live with the fact that there will be extremely expensive/time intensive skins a few times a year. If you want them all, be prepared to spend the time and resources, or just go for the ones you actually want to use, and leave the rest as long-term (as in: years) project. Who knows, one day you might find you have enough resources for another one without the need to grind at all (that's how I got my astral and stellar scepters, with materials gathered over time from story and map exploration).

Could your problem possibly be less a problem of incentive and more a problem of just not having enough friends that enjoy the game (or maybe you yourself not enjoying it as much as you think)?

Park a character at the gates of Arah if you have one "to spare" and check occasionally for the defense event, and you should soon get one that spawns the wizard. I think I took part in three or four events that way until I got mine done (a while ago).

Face it: retaining veterans in any game is always a lot more expensive than attracting new players. New players have a wealth of stuff ahead of them, while veterans have "been there, done that". As such, giving veterans an extra bonus that is kept from new players who participate in the same content is a very dangerous thing, as it'll likely do a lot more damage to new player retention (who end up feeling second class for not being rewarded the same when doing the same) than it helps with veteran player retention (who likely already have more stuff than they know what to do with). A continuous reward system with at best a slight increase for experienced players (e.g. more pips for higher wvw rank or buffs from omni potion for fractal veterans) is really the most balanced way to reward veterans while not making newer/less experienced players feel like 2nd class citizens at the same time. Anything more than that will quickly backfire in a way that is neither healthy for the game nor for its players. Additionally, a lot of the rewards you propose are restricted to specific content for the very purpose of incentivicing players to play that content, not to short-cut to the rewardes by grinding generic event a, b, and c. It's in nobody's best interest to have people grind Silverwastes RIBA or Istan farm trains even more because it turns out doing those events and killing the champs that turn up not only already gives the best gold to time ration but also showers people in prestige coins on top of it. There's no way that would make the game feel more alive or "veterans" feel more inclined to spend money on this game. It would on the other hand take a way a lot of incentive of dabbling in different areas of the game. Why should I try to look for a raid group if I could get all of the raid rewards I'd ever want from gathering prestige coins while doing other stuff? Why ever set a foot into pvp again if I could get all of my pvp rewards from prestige coins I picked up in pve? Signeda 6-year 30k ap veteran with most stuff on your list already checked and enough resources stored to get the rest (mainly the legendary backpieces, why get them when I don't even use my Ad Infinitum?) done on a moment's notice

Opening and exploring maps with different characters can also be a good source of experience, as every piece of map exploration does give experience. Most helpful for me (especially during the early HoT days when you needed certain masteries to continue the expansion story) was changing from the story character to another one for a while and just not worry about the mastery. I could be sure the experience would accumulate while I was enjoying something else :) .

Does Rage count as a "better drop" (the harpoon gun precursor currently worth about 32 gold)? Does Sam reset the counter (a regular exotic that is part of a collection, currently worth above 300 gold)? What about the person above that said they'd much rather have an ascended chest than a precursor? How does "better drops" work for them? I don't think a "mercy rule" is as easy as you make it out to be. This game's reward and economy system heavily relies on the fact that people will get a lot of little bits of loot that add up, rather than the all-or-nothing reward systems we're used to from other games. Personally I very much appreciate this, as it means I'll be pretty much guaranteed to progress towards whatever goals I have, no matter what I do and how good/bad my luck at looting is. As such, getting a lot of drops that can be salvaged into materials and traded for other materials I need to reach my goals is a lot preferable to me to dropping a 30 gold exotic every once in a blue moon. A guaranteed exotic/precursor drop would either lead to the loot pool for those guarantees dropping in value quickly (after all, there are a ton of players playing, all of which would get those guaranteed drops either naturally or through the mercy rule) or the amount of gameplay needed to reach the guarantee threshold would be so large that it would be negligible for most people except for those dedicated to farming a lot (and those already have a good chance at dropping "something of value" the regular way).

I've had one drop from the labyrinth chest in the Silverwastes earlier this year, after playing for almost 10k hour. Fortunately for me it was the only one I ever really wanted to have, the precursor to the minstrel (focus). More fortunate, thanks to playing a long time I even had enough resources to craft it into its legendary form the same night despite it being one of the rare days where the trading post was down all evening. That said, my other legendaries (Ad Infinitum, Kudzu, and Nevermore) were all crafted from scratch, including precursors, and it was a much more memorable, enjoyable, and satisfying experience. I love my minstrel, but if I ever were to craft another gen1 legendary I'd prefer to craft the precursor from scratch rather than dropping/forging/buying it.

Ofc the content is just a few days old now and the data will likely change over time with more players obtaining the regular scarf, which if true would indicate to me that more players who play a lot preferred the more challenging content while more of the infrequent players preferred the more casual content, which would be less surprising . . .But why should I do 15 laps on 5 races in a day or two when I can just do a lap or two on whatever map I am on for the daily bronze/silver/gold chests and get my scarf in a couple of weeks that way? I still think your interpretation of those numbers is majorly flawed. Plus I seriously doubt it's in ANet's best interest to concentrate their development on the needs of those that rush through new content/achievements early (and then complain that there's nothing to do). A good mix is in order, but the new content is meant to entertain people for a good while, and those numbers you quote do nothing to convince me that ANet is better off developing for the people that are done with the content in a matter of hours. I think the argument that players wouldn't care about running fifteen laps bc they'll probably run fifteen laps eventually anyway would actually support the theory that they are not especially interested in the reward for doing so . . .Wanting a reward and wanting it NOW are two very different things. Patience is a virtue not to be overlooked. Seems the challenge was the much more effective motivator in this case then . . .You keep insisting that the first day numbers are any kind of indicator, while willfully ignoring the fact that a large part of this game's playerbase leads lives that don't even permit that much gametime a day, much less spend all of it on just one specific aspect of the game. Face it: a lot of people play this game because (unlike many others) it allows goals to be reached without having to no-life every content that is released. How many people complete new challenges on the first day has no connection to how many people enjoy the more relaxed aspects and goals of new content. You seem to misunderstand what is being discussed. I am not comparing the number of ppl who have achieved each goal to the total number of players, I am comparing the number of ppl who have completed one goal to the number who have completed the other. The ppl who completed either goal could have used the same time to complete the other instead. The fact that the more difficult goal has been completed more frequently is a strong indicator that the challenge of that goal is more appealing. Why is that uncomfortable for you . . ?The challenge of that goal is more appealing to the small subset of the playerbase who have already concentrated on the new content challenges. That's not uncomfortable for me. It's a conclusion based on a small, biased subset of the playerbase. You try to make it sound like that conclusion is applicable to the whole playerbase. I simply pointed out that your conclusion is not universally valid.

Ofc the content is just a few days old now and the data will likely change over time with more players obtaining the regular scarf, which if true would indicate to me that more players who play a lot preferred the more challenging content while more of the infrequent players preferred the more casual content, which would be less surprising . . .But why should I do 15 laps on 5 races in a day or two when I can just do a lap or two on whatever map I am on for the daily bronze/silver/gold chests and get my scarf in a couple of weeks that way? I still think your interpretation of those numbers is majorly flawed. Plus I seriously doubt it's in ANet's best interest to concentrate their development on the needs of those that rush through new content/achievements early (and then complain that there's nothing to do). A good mix is in order, but the new content is meant to entertain people for a good while, and those numbers you quote do nothing to convince me that ANet is better off developing for the people that are done with the content in a matter of hours. I think the argument that players wouldn't care about running fifteen laps bc they'll probably run fifteen laps eventually anyway would actually support the theory that they are not especially interested in the reward for doing so . . .Wanting a reward and wanting it NOW are two very different things. Patience is a virtue not to be overlooked. Seems the challenge was the much more effective motivator in this case then . . .You keep insisting that the first day numbers are any kind of indicator, while willfully ignoring the fact that a large part of this game's playerbase leads lives that don't even permit that much gametime a day, much less spend all of it on just one specific aspect of the game.Face it: a lot of people play this game because (unlike many others) it allows goals to be reached without having to no-life every content that is released. How many people complete new challenges on the first day has no connection to how many people enjoy the more relaxed aspects and goals of new content.

Ofc the content is just a few days old now and the data will likely change over time with more players obtaining the regular scarf, which if true would indicate to me that more players who play a lot preferred the more challenging content while more of the infrequent players preferred the more casual content, which would be less surprising . . .But why should I do 15 laps on 5 races in a day or two when I can just do a lap or two on whatever map I am on for the daily bronze/silver/gold chests and get my scarf in a couple of weeks that way? I still think your interpretation of those numbers is majorly flawed. Plus I seriously doubt it's in ANet's best interest to concentrate their development on the needs of those that rush through new content/achievements early (and then complain that there's nothing to do). A good mix is in order, but the new content is meant to entertain people for a good while, and those numbers you quote do nothing to convince me that ANet is better off developing for the people that are done with the content in a matter of hours. its funny that you write that since its the people who do NOT rush though content complaining here. not gold on the track in the first day? a failure!My comment wasn't aimed at the opening post of this thread but specifically made to challenge the assumption that the current numbers allegedly show that players are more interested in challenging than participation content (their words, not mine). I still believe your reasoning is faulty. There are many more people out there neither rushing nor complaing.

Ofc the content is just a few days old now and the data will likely change over time with more players obtaining the regular scarf, which if true would indicate to me that more players who play a lot preferred the more challenging content while more of the infrequent players preferred the more casual content, which would be less surprising . . .But why should I do 15 laps on 5 races in a day or two when I can just do a lap or two on whatever map I am on for the daily bronze/silver/gold chests and get my scarf in a couple of weeks that way? I still think your interpretation of those numbers is majorly flawed. Plus I seriously doubt it's in ANet's best interest to concentrate their development on the needs of those that rush through new content/achievements early (and then complain that there's nothing to do). A good mix is in order, but the new content is meant to entertain people for a good while, and those numbers you quote do nothing to convince me that ANet is better off developing for the people that are done with the content in a matter of hours. I think the argument that players wouldn't care about running fifteen laps bc they'll probably run fifteen laps eventually anyway would actually support the theory that they are not especially interested in the reward for doing so . . .Wanting a reward and wanting it NOW are two very different things. Patience is a virtue not to be overlooked.

Ofc the content is just a few days old now and the data will likely change over time with more players obtaining the regular scarf, which if true would indicate to me that more players who play a lot preferred the more challenging content while more of the infrequent players preferred the more casual content, which would be less surprising . . .But why should I do 15 laps on 5 races in a day or two when I can just do a lap or two on whatever map I am on for the daily bronze/silver/gold chests and get my scarf in a couple of weeks that way? I still think your interpretation of those numbers is majorly flawed.Plus I seriously doubt it's in ANet's best interest to concentrate their development on the needs of those that rush through new content/achievements early (and then complain that there's nothing to do). A good mix is in order, but the new content is meant to entertain people for a good while, and those numbers you quote do nothing to convince me that ANet is better off developing for the people that are done with the content in a matter of hours.

Gather it then and remove the collision? Obviously.As far as I'm aware gathered tree stumps have the same collision as full saplings.