[For 200 gold ...]

@"Master Ketsu.4569" said:Well 200 gold would get you just under 600 gems.

Lets do the math here:

1 Key: 125 gems1 Statute: 13 gems ( fair estimate / 10 keys )1 Heroic Booster: 150 gems1 Guaranteed Skin: 1200 gemsTotal: 1488

Or if you want to be stingy and compare to random skin unlocks ( 400 gems ): 688 gems

The skin of the reward track is a reskinned version, of a skin that costs 400 gems (in a skin package), so realistically it's at max only 400 gems for the skin.

Seems like it's a fair price for a package that includes a skin and various other items.

The price range is at the same level than other gemstore sales. You get a package of several items and the package price is lower than the sum of the items included.

People need to stop expecting an MMORPG to give them everything for free.

It seems you missed the point(s):

• it was announced/advertised as skin from a WvW reward track. Items from a reward track, including gear/skins, were free. The same was expected this time.
• yes, they added somewhere "reward track unlocked with gold", so a few gold for unlocking it was expected. But that the gold to unlock in fact was so high, that it is comparable to a gem store sale was not expected by lots of players
• it was not announced as a black-lion-reward-track with a skin, it was announced as a WvW skin that you can get with a reward track. In fact it's a package deal as a sales promotion of black-lion stuff
• the black-lion stuff is unwanted and has no value to lots of WvW players that only want the WvW-skin and do not care about black-lion-stuff. There is no way to get/buy the skin alone. You have to "buy" the complete package. 600 gems for a skin that is only a reskinned version of a 400 gem skin, is quite expensive.
• this is the first time that Anet made a WvW reward track that has to be unlocked with gold and it is the first time that a WvW reward track is in reality a gem store sale in the form of a WvW reward track

Lots of players were expecting a free WvW skin from a WvW reward track as some form of WvW-recognition because Anet neglected the game mode for years. But they did not expect this kind of behaviour that it's only a gemstore sale in disguise as a new form of monetization.

Fair and honest would have been, if they would have put the contents of the reward track as a package in the gemstore for 400-600 gems or the skin alone for 200-400 gems.

[200g for a reward track]

@Hyper Cutter.9376 said:It's about 150g to get enough gems for a RNG mount skin license right now, so the price doesn't seem that out of line considering there are other items in there (plus the skin is guaranteed and not RNG).

Agreed. The price is not out of line compared with other skins. The WvW reward track skin is a reskinned version (added guild logo) of the Outrider Warclaw Skin from the Warclaw Frontline Mount Pack Skins and 400 gems is the list price of one skin of the Warclaw Frontline Mount Pack skins.

Anet could have added the skin in the gemshop for 400 gems, or added the skin including the other items of the reward track in the gemshop for 500 gems like other gemshop items. Because in the end it is like a gemshop item that you have to pay for with gold/gems.

But to advertise it as a skin, that can be earned in game with a reward track (yes, they added: track is unlocked with gold), when in fact it is only a gemshop sale that hides itself as a reward track is the reason why some people raise their concerns about this new way of monetizing with hidden gemstore sales and also makes some people feel cheated and makes them think that this is a bait-and-switch from Anet.

[cc: the noodling (game)]

Noodle Wars 2

[Prime Wet Noodle Beam]

@Samug.6512 said:Prime Wed Noodle Beam

Its for Noodle Wars 2 ;)

[How long do you think a 1v1 fight sould be?]

@"Sansar.1302" said:I think 5 to 10 sec is perfect

A good duel should take a little bit longer if you can handle your weapon well.

[200g for a reward track]

You do realize this is the FIRST mount skin available outside of the Gem store?

It is the first time in game that you have to buy a WvW reward track with gold and I believe how this reward track is made is just a test for Anet to see how they can find more and not so obvious ways to promote gem store sales better to more players.

How is this WvW being neglected. Take your 200g and convert it to gems - it is 500gems right this minute, that is enough to get a random skin. RANDOM as in not going to get the one you want.

The WvW reward track skin is a reskinned version (added guild logo) of the Outrider Warclaw Skin from the Warclaw Frontline Mount Pack Skins and 400 gems is the list price of one skin of the Warclaw Frontline Mount Pack skins. And for the extra 100 gems (from theoretically exchanging the 200 gold to 500 gems) you get some black lion stuff as a black lion promotion, to motivate you to buy more of that stuff.

So it is actually a gemstore sale that hides as a WvW reward track for players, that would normally not buy in the gemstore. Thats why there are (additionally to the skin) no typical WvW items/rewards in the track, but a lot of black lion and gemstore stuff.

[SO, any news about the alliance update?]

@Dawdler.8521 said:

@Zok.4956 said:

@xXMapcoXx.9614 said:Is anet ever going to tell us anything about this? like are they still even still working on it? or are they hoping that if they don't talk about it that people will forget about it and they won't have to announce they killed off working on it years ago? It be nice to be told they are either still working on it or they are not, because this silence isnt doing anyone any favors.

Alliances will be obsolete in the future. More and more players leave and more and more servers will be linked until there will only be three servers/links left (in EU and NA) that will allways play against each other. Problem solved.Its kind of funny that this argument only shows how absolutely critical alliances will be for that future since it literally solves the problem of 3 sides always playing against each other.

Actually, it will be solved with bandwagoning which will also support, because of the transfer costs, that mode financially. ;)

[SO, any news about the alliance update?]

@xXMapcoXx.9614 said:Is anet ever going to tell us anything about this? like are they still even still working on it? or are they hoping that if they don't talk about it that people will forget about it and they won't have to announce they killed off working on it years ago? It be nice to be told they are either still working on it or they are not, because this silence isnt doing anyone any favors.

Alliances will be obsolete in the future. More and more players leave and more and more servers will be linked until there will only be three servers/links left (in EU and NA) that will allways play against each other. Problem solved.

[Balance Patch Preview - WvW]

@Nunya.4920 said:I'm killing off all my toons tonight so I wont be able to come back, because I couldn't afford to get everything back and, I'd have no fun as a level nothing. I don't need this kitten from a game that doesn't give 2 kittens that I have loyally supported it for years.

I respect your decision. Please send me your stuff before you delete everything. So its not wasted. Thanks.

[For 200 gold ...]

@Davros.9823 said:I'll point out again this is the FIRST mount skin that is 100% Obtainable without touching the Gem Store.

This is a great thing for people that want a reward for playing the game. Isn't that what people really want? Incentive to play the game? A REAL reward?

It is actually a skin/black-lion gemstore sale that hides as a WvW reward track for players, that would normally not buy in the gemstore. Thats why there are (additionally to the skin) no typical WvW items/rewards in the track, but a lot of Black Lion stuff.

For the 200 gold you have to pay to unlock the reward track you would get more than 400 gems in exchange, and 400 gems is the price of one skin of the Warclaw Frontline Mount Pack skins.

I think 200 gold is overpriced, but I did buy the reward track with 200 gold (because I did not bother about the 200 gold) and completed it with potions a few minutes after the patch. I did not care about the black lion stuff I got and put it in the bank. And I did not check how much gold I could get from selling the other black lion items from the track. Anyone has checked this yet?

All this complaining is doing is stopping anet from releasing more mount skins obtainable ingame without the gemstore.

It is the first time in game that you have to buy a WvW reward track with gold/gems and I believe how this reward track is done is just a test for Anet to see how they can find more and not so obvious ways to promote gem store sales better to more players.

[Official Feedback Thread about Build and Equipment Templates]

@"StrYdeR.2459" said:Welp - the revert button is garbage...the load-out still auto-updates if you play with your build; and if you close the window...you cannot revert....so - STILL NOT A TEMPLATE.As an aside to the players posting in this thread - please stop quoting a "nice photoshop effort"...the (heavy air quotes) build templates (end heavy air quotes) problem is much deeper than a pretty UII would take functionality over shiny any day of the week

Anet did it backwards. It seems they put a dev (or two) to the task to change the existing system a little, so they can call it templates and can shut down ArcTemplates, but they did not think about, if the result was usable. They should first have defined the UI together with a UI and UX designer. Not how shiny it is, but the functionality. And after that, they should have made the changes that are required for the new UI functionality.

I can understand (but I do not agree), why Anet released their bad and unfinished template system initially: They urgently needed money (or became more and more greedy) and hoped, that there will be enough raiders and whales who buy this overpriced system because ArcTemplates is not available anymore.

But why this small and silly update now to templates, that does not really improve it but makes it worse and is probably buggy by itself? It seems they have not learned anything about this topic and all "open" communication about the future or their plans feels kind of hypocritical, if they do not talk openly about the template disaster.

[The timing of the next balance patch seems odd]

@Crackmonster.2790 said:Speaking of... timing, does anyone know when we can expect it to happen?

Probably in around 20 minutes.

[Including Strike Mission Achievements as a Required Part of the Zone Meta]

@yann.1946 said:

@Zok.4956 said:

@yann.1946 said:

@Astralporing.1957 said:

@yann.1946 said:

@Astralporing.1957 said:

@yann.1946 said:If you make the gap of mechanical skill smaller both parties can get some meaningfull experience from the boss fight.Yes. Unfortunately, this game cannot make that gap smaller. It would require not things like Strikes, but actual mechanical changes to the things that are the reason behind such a big effectiveness disparity. And those changes would need to be way bigger than what the game can afford to do now. I mean, we're talking now not about the expac level changes, but about something on the level of "Gw2 Remake" or "GW3". So, major rewrite of combat/class/gear/build system.

Maybe, i mean the new player achievement thing might help a little. I do think some things can be done without having to rewrite the basis of the game.Not much. You could probably try to teach players to cc, dodge, and to not stand in AoE markers. You might also try to teach them more complicated boss fight mechanics, but that's generally pointless. It doesn't matter how good in that regard players would be if the boss encounter is designed around personal dps of 12-15k but players are doing 2-4k. And the dps disparity is rooted in some core design features and can't be removed without at least adjusting those - which is definitely not something minor.

is their a way to let people experience with some basics of buildcraft etc.?

The basic rules of build craft are :)

1. A dead player does not do any DPS. If you die too often, put on more gear with defensive stats. After you have more experience, try to reduce the defensive stats a little, from time to time.
2. A dead mob can not kill you .The more defensive stats you have, the longer it takes to kill mobs/bosses and the more the chances that you could get killed.
3. In some challenging content you should not use gear with any defensive stats at all. But only if you already are able to position yourself in the fight (for example: go out of red circles, dont stand in front of a boss that makes a lot of cleave damage, etc..) and you know how to dodge, block etc.

BUt how do you convey that to people?

(1) and (2) could be experienced in a little tutorial instance. where a player should kill a (small) boss. In the instance is a slider between "offensive" and "defensive", and the slider changes the gear stats of the player. Add that with an achievement, where the players has to kill the boss with "offensive" "defensive" and "in between" slider settings and make the fight somehow fun.

And your forgetting traits and how senergies work. :)

Thats when the mess of this convoluted system, that Anet has created, starts. I do not have a solution for that and I would replace it completely (which will not happen, of course).

When my little brother started playing it took a really long time before he even knew what traits where etc.

You and your little brother could go to the golem in the Special Forces Training Area that you can access from the Aerodrome in Lions Arch and you can experiment (and also practice rotation) a little with the golem.

Then there are external websites like

http://en.gw2skills.net/

where you can play with skills and gear-stats without buying/crafting gear and you can check the resulting stats, boons etc.

And of course you can check build examples on

https://metabattle.com

or

https://snowcrows.com/

and try do understand, why some of them are seen as good and what the build creator wanted to achieve with the build.

Yes but those are not things players do directly at the beginning.

I agree.

[Including Strike Mission Achievements as a Required Part of the Zone Meta]

@yann.1946 said:

@Astralporing.1957 said:

@yann.1946 said:

@Astralporing.1957 said:

@yann.1946 said:If you make the gap of mechanical skill smaller both parties can get some meaningfull experience from the boss fight.Yes. Unfortunately, this game cannot make that gap smaller. It would require not things like Strikes, but actual mechanical changes to the things that are the reason behind such a big effectiveness disparity. And those changes would need to be way bigger than what the game can afford to do now. I mean, we're talking now not about the expac level changes, but about something on the level of "Gw2 Remake" or "GW3". So, major rewrite of combat/class/gear/build system.

Maybe, i mean the new player achievement thing might help a little. I do think some things can be done without having to rewrite the basis of the game.Not much. You could probably try to teach players to cc, dodge, and to not stand in AoE markers. You might also try to teach them more complicated boss fight mechanics, but that's generally pointless. It doesn't matter how good in that regard players would be if the boss encounter is designed around personal dps of 12-15k but players are doing 2-4k. And the dps disparity is rooted in some core design features and can't be removed without at least adjusting those - which is definitely not something minor.

is their a way to let people experience with some basics of buildcraft etc.?

The basic rules of build craft are :)

1. A dead player does not do any DPS. If you die too often, put on more gear with defensive stats. After you have more experience, try to reduce the defensive stats a little, from time to time.
2. A dead mob can not kill you .The more defensive stats you have, the longer it takes to kill mobs/bosses and the more the chances that you could get killed.
3. In some challenging content you should not use gear with any defensive stats at all. But only if you already are able to position yourself in the fight (for example: go out of red circles, dont stand in front of a boss that makes a lot of cleave damage, etc..) and you know how to dodge, block etc.

When my little brother started playing it took a really long time before he even knew what traits where etc.

You and your little brother could go to the golem in the Special Forces Training Area that you can access from the Aerodrome in Lions Arch and you can experiment (and also practice rotation) a little with the golem.

Then there are external websites like http://en.gw2skills.net/ where you can play with skills and gear-stats without buying/crafting gear and you can check the resulting stats, boons etc.

And of course you can check build examples on https://metabattle.com or https://snowcrows.com/ and try do understand, why some of them are seen as good and what the build creator wanted to achieve with the build.

Wouldn't it already be quite usefull to let people know atleast the basics of all the gamesystems?

Yes it would be. But Anet failed with that big time. Even Anet devs do not understand the skills/traits/etc. in the different game modes fully. Thats why they make a balance patch on the live servers and then look at what the players aka guinea pigs sort out about what needs to be changed after the patch.

EDITED: typo. guild craft -> buildcraft

[Stop with the PUG life, you're doing it wrong]

@Astralporing.1957 said:

@DoRi Silvia.4159 said:

@Astralporing.1957 said:

@DoRi Silvia.4159 said:The only thing is that gw2 never reaches players to get better at playing their class and proper rotations cos the open world can be cleared with auto attacks. Heck even fractals unless cm doesnt need you to do proper rotations and play meta builds.More like GW2 design is such that the game is inherently incapable of teaching players anything about all that stuff. If you want to learn, you either need to put a ton of work into researching it yourself (hint: even most hardcore players are incapable of that), or you have to use out-of-game, third party resources.

Yes it's common sense there will be elitism in end game content (in any game) and there is nothing or should be nothing done about it but I also think anet did a bad job at teaching players progression of difficulty;Again, having "progression of difficulty" doesn't matter, if the game is incapable of teacthing players to follow that diffiulty curve. All the "stairway to raids" can do is to make devs notice at which difficulty levels what percentage of players give up. Actually

changing

those percentages, though, can't really be done that way.

I think not, if gw2 teaches players breakbar mechanics right from the start and make aoes and enemy skills more punishing them players would learn to cc and dodge right from the start.Yes, breakbar mechanics and dodging can possibly be taught. We were talking about class mechanics and rotations however, and those things for the most part just are beyond this game's ability to explain. Especially good builds and rotations are not something that can be taught ingame, because game doesn't even know what they are.

The class mechanics, rotations, skills, synergies, gear stats, etc. are also too complicated to understand for the devs themselves. The devs can not even write internal simulations and tests to predict the outcome when they make changes. Thats why they make "balance changes" on the live servers and let the players aka guinea pigs sort it out for them.

Devs would have to constantly follow the meta and adjust all the teaching content on the fly, according to both the meta, and the individual player skill

If devs would understand their own gw2-skill-system, they could predict the new metas. ;)

[Including Strike Mission Achievements as a Required Part of the Zone Meta]

@Vayne.8563 said:

@maddoctor.2738 said:

@Vayne.8563 said:Well we just wiped on the Boneskinner and half the group left.

Fraenir of Jormag

Elemental ElegyFraenir Frolic

High Shaman, High Stakes

Voice and Claw

Break It UpFlawless Fallen

Kodan Dodger

Boneskinner

Flickering LightDeathless Hunt

Hold onto the Light

Whisper of Jormag

Reflections in the IceVortex, InterruptedLegendary Whisper of Jormag

Slither-less

Whisper Boxing*

Sanctifier*

The Strike Mission achievements, those with * require completion, the others do not. You need 37 achievements to complete the meta, 45 are available total in Shadow in the Ice, 15 Achievements are inside Strike Missions. This means you need 7 achievements from strike missions to complete the meta.

Fraenir of Jormag is a very easy encounter and the achievements there are also relatively easy. The Voice and Claw is a bit more difficult encounter, but still not really hard. Sanctifier can be completed by killing the Fraenir and Kodan 20 times. That's 7 achievements without ever touching the harder Strike Missions.

Now, if you find some of the Fraenir or Kodan achievements hard to complete you have the following options:Reflections in the Ice on the Whisper of Jormag is almost a freebie, Vortex Interrupted is also very much doable provided the team has unlocked the proper mastery, you will get enough vortexes before he reaches the harder parts of the fight. Both of these aren't hard to acquire and they do not demand killing the boss, get a team of 10 randoms (to more easily break the bar) and slowly lower his health while finishing the 2 achievements. Flickering Light can be completed without joining a group (as you did) but I'd suggest going there with a group anyway, I think that's a harder one to solo or do in a random group.

There is enough achievements to finish without entering the Boneskinner or Whisper of Jormag missions, and in case it is required, you don't need to kill them to progress.

@maddoctor.2738 said:

@Vayne.8563 said:Well we just wiped on the Boneskinner and half the group left.

Fraenir of Jormag

Elemental ElegyFraenir Frolic

High Shaman, High Stakes

Voice and Claw

Break It UpFlawless Fallen

Kodan Dodger

Boneskinner

Flickering LightDeathless Hunt

Hold onto the Light

Whisper of Jormag

Reflections in the IceVortex, InterruptedLegendary Whisper of Jormag

Slither-less

Whisper Boxing*

Sanctifier*

The Strike Mission achievements, those with * require completion, the others do not. You need 37 achievements to complete the meta, 45 are available total in Shadow in the Ice, 15 Achievements are inside Strike Missions. This means you need 7 achievements from strike missions to complete the meta.

Fraenir of Jormag is a very easy encounter and the achievements there are also relatively easy. The Voice and Claw is a bit more difficult encounter, but still not really hard. Sanctifier can be completed by killing the Fraenir and Kodan 20 times. That's 7 achievements without ever touching the harder Strike Missions.

Now, if you find some of the Fraenir or Kodan achievements hard to complete you have the following options:Reflections in the Ice on the Whisper of Jormag is almost a freebie, Vortex Interrupted is also very much doable provided the team has unlocked the proper mastery, you will get enough vortexes before he reaches the harder parts of the fight. Both of these aren't hard to acquire and they do not demand killing the boss, get a team of 10 randoms (to more easily break the bar) and slowly lower his health while finishing the 2 achievements. Flickering Light can be completed without joining a group (as you did) but I'd suggest going there with a group anyway, I think that's a harder one to solo or do in a random group.

There is enough achievements to finish without entering the Boneskinner or Whisper of Jormag missions, and in case it is required, you don't need to kill them to progress.

@maddoctor.2738 said:

@Vayne.8563 said:Well we just wiped on the Boneskinner and half the group left.

Fraenir of Jormag

Elemental ElegyFraenir Frolic

High Shaman, High Stakes

Voice and Claw

Break It UpFlawless Fallen

Kodan Dodger

Boneskinner

Flickering LightDeathless Hunt

Hold onto the Light

Whisper of Jormag

Reflections in the IceVortex, InterruptedLegendary Whisper of Jormag

Slither-less

Whisper Boxing*

Sanctifier*

The Strike Mission achievements, those with * require completion, the others do not. You need 37 achievements to complete the meta, 45 are available total in Shadow in the Ice, 15 Achievements are inside Strike Missions. This means you need 7 achievements from strike missions to complete the meta.

Fraenir of Jormag is a very easy encounter and the achievements there are also relatively easy. The Voice and Claw is a bit more difficult encounter, but still not really hard. Sanctifier can be completed by killing the Fraenir and Kodan 20 times. That's 7 achievements without ever touching the harder Strike Missions.

Now, if you find some of the Fraenir or Kodan achievements hard to complete you have the following options:Reflections in the Ice on the Whisper of Jormag is almost a freebie, Vortex Interrupted is also very much doable provided the team has unlocked the proper mastery, you will get enough vortexes before he reaches the harder parts of the fight. Both of these aren't hard to acquire and they do not demand killing the boss, get a team of 10 randoms (to more easily break the bar) and slowly lower his health while finishing the 2 achievements. Flickering Light can be completed without joining a group (as you did) but I'd suggest going there with a group anyway, I think that's a harder one to solo or do in a random group.

There is enough achievements to finish without entering the Boneskinner or Whisper of Jormag missions, and in case it is required, you don't need to kill them to progress.

OKay you're still not seeing what I'm seeing so I'll try again.

This specific round, sure you can get a bunch of them and cheeze some of them and in general make do. But I don't play games to make do. Right now, at this moment,. doing either of those strike missions even five times sours me from teh game. I don't LIKE the content. I don't want to do the content. I don't think I should have to. I have never had to do that content before.

You're saying this time we can get away with this, but that's all we're really doing. Getting away with it. This time. And I think that's a bad way to run a railroad. You seeem to be thinking I CAN'T get the meta. I know I CAN get the meta. It's a totally horrid process for me that was never a horrid process before. It turns me off from the game and makes me not want to play it.

There are at least two parallel discussions mixed:

A: Is including Strike Mission Achievements as a Required Part of the Zone Meta a good or bad game design choice?B: What could be the easierst way to "cheese" through strikes to still get the meta achievement?

I think the OP was initially talking about (A), but some parts of the discussion went into (B) like "completing is possible, so it can not be a bad game design choice".

About A:

We really do not know why Anet included the strike achievements as a required part of the zone meta. It was maybe because of their plan to push strike missions, it was maybe because just some dev wanted to increase the participation numbers of strikes (to justify his idea/work to his boss….), it could be an error (because two episodes now share the same map and it it looks like they splitted one episode into two during development), it could be that Anet just tested, how far they can go until there is uproar from players, etc.

Whatever reasons Anet had for doing it, I think it is a bad design choice that Anet did not allow alternative ways (without strike mission achievements) to complete the zone-meta and I also think it is a bad design choice that PvP and WvW players also have to do this now for the meta-achievement-loot (even if its just a silly emote ATM) because there is no PvP/WvW reward track for this episode.

A question for the players who think it is a good design choice to include the strikes as a requirement in the zone-meta-achievement: What harm would be done to the game, if Anet would reduce the achievement count of the required achievements for the zone-meta and would add PvP and WvW reward tracks for this episode?

[Best way to get an ascended longbow?]

You can play PvP and/or WvW and then you can buy ascended weapons with PvP/WvW currencies, or you can raid and buy it with raid currency.

[A Message from Andrew Gray]

@"Vainkilla.9671" said:it doesn't matter you want to delete the LI, KP, LD, etc, etc when raiding. it all useless. they will find another way to ask you proof them that you "EXP" at raiding. Maybe they will asked you for Leg Armor, or maybe they will asked you for CM title. Because no matter how you change the content, how you nerfed the boss, skill, mechanic, etc, raid will always for elitist and will always be. Mostly the thing that attracting new ppl that coming to Raid is just that achievement for Leg armor or the leg trinkets coalesence, they want to "play" the content but since it filled with this elitists then most of them changed their mind.

I think it is totally legit, that players want to choose with whoom they want to play instanced content. And it is also legit (and NOT elitist) if experienced players want to play with other experienced players if they want a fast, smooth run. And that, if they play with strangers, they want some kind of "proof of experience" that can not be faked easily.

So players choose, however bad it is, what the game offers, to try to estimate the skill-level of other players. This is not new and this did not start with raids. In the old dungeon-days a requirement often was AP (achievement points). Of course APs tell nothing about a players skill level in dungeons. But a small correlation between "AP" and "skill level" was enough to use it as a requirement.

In (a lot of) other games you have to work up your way up the tier-ladder, because only with doing a tier you get the gear that is needed for the next tear.

A big problem in GW2 with raids is: There is not ramp/ladder a new player can climb up and gain experience on the way, there are no raid-tiers, so players can get experience in low-tiers and if they reach the highest-raid-tier, most of them will have the required skill and experience.

Raids in GW2 are all "top-tier". Yes I know, the different wings have quite different difficulty, but there is no visible "tier" that could guide a new player to the easy ones. And there are no "entry-tier-level" raids in GW2.

And even the strike-missions, that are intended as a ramp-up in difficulty, have no visibly signs in the game about their difficulty or tier-level and players do not need to work their way up the ladder but can jump in directly into the hardest ones (and create frustration for themself and the other team-members).

Anet tried the tier/ladder-concept in fractals with ascended gear and the agony resistance infusions. Both you get by playing fractals. So the more you play, the more you get that helps you in higher levels/tiers and if your reach the maximun level, you have the requiered gear and experience. That was the theory. And agony was at first not the only gear-check that was planned. Anet had more ideas, but they never were realized.

If raids would have had tiers and significant different diffculty levels and if the game itself would guide players that are new to raids (and similar content), to work up the tier-ladder and if the game would make sure by itself, that a player can only enter, for example, tier-2 after gaining enough experience/skill in tier-1, to be ready for tier-2, than a lot of the behaviour that is seen as "elitist" or "toxic" would be reduced drastically.

Players will always be players, but how the game is designed, influences a lot how players interact. Example: In the Openworld-PvE we play cooperatively because there is (normally) no "kill-stealing", no open-world-PvP and the basic game-design idea is "you should be happy when you see other players".

The biggest error that Anet made with raids is, that they just put it in the game without thinking it through and hoping that everything will be sorted out, somehow, by itself. And the actual statement of Anet does not really make me confident, that they understand the real underlaying problems.

[NC Soft Q4 earnings report. GW2 25% decline over Q3]

@Gehenna.3625 said:I do not know if there are that many people still playing WvW or PvP and I certainly have no clue about Fractals.

About WvW:Because a lof of WvW players left the game already and some servers became ghost-towns, the problem of population imbalances between servers became a much bigger problem and that is why Anet has put several servers together that then play as one server, the server-links. And over time more and more servers are linked, so this is a sign, that more and more players continue leaving WvW.

The servers-links do not really solve the existing population imbalances very good, so Anet presented the idea of the alliance-system, that should replace the WvW-servers, more than two years ago, as a solution.

So yes, there are (a lot of) players still playing WvW. But how much of a niche content it already became compared to other game types? I do not know.

So in summary, WvW and PvP rarely get content, raids and fractals have been a while as well, and we do get story and open world content but it's not done right.

Did I miss something?

We do get regularly new skins and other things (like templates/loadouts) we can buy in the gem-shop. ;)

[Lack of Solo End-Game]

@Amaranthe.3578 said:

@Mortifera.6138 said:

@Linken.6345 said:What about world bosses and map meta events?You can do them without being in group with anyone.

You /can/ do them without a group, but you /will/ run into people who want to do them just as much as you do!

If youre looking for a solo experience why are you here? Im honestly baffled by the question...A mmorpg should focus on MP content.

A not so small part of GW2's PvE is in fact solo content. If youre looking for a game with only MP content, why are you here?

[NC Soft Q4 earnings report. GW2 25% decline over Q3]

@maddoctor.2738 said:

@Daddicus.6128 said:So, lance doesn't count either? That makes it three months, and that time period included Wintersday and New Year, hardly the time for new stuff.

And isn't PvP getting something RIGHT NOW? I wouldn't know myself, but I keep seeing threads about something to do with Swiss.

It's a beta. That it took them 15 months to -start- a beta for a new PVP feature is astonishing!

15 months is nothing. The announcement about WvW-alliances had already its 2nd birthday and there is not even a beta announced. ;)

[NC Soft Q4 earnings report. GW2 25% decline over Q3]

@maddoctor.2738 said:

@"Gehenna.3625" said:You are right though that the focus of the game has been open world PvE and that's for very good reasons. I reckon it's the most used content by the player base and I think people should realise that things like PvP/WvW/Raids/Fractals are closer to niche content than general content. It's also the content you can do with sucky builds and that's important.

Exactly my point, they've been focusing on the Open World PVE ALREADY, there are claims in this thread that they are not and that they should start focusing on it, which makes no sense. And that the game is suffering because it's spread too thin. It's NOT spread too thin, it's exclusively focusing on Open World content for at least the last 8 months, so any kind of population drop (or revenue drop) can only attributed to that Open World focus. When it comes to content type of course, other factors, like the lack of expansions, build templates, gem store and so on are regardless of content type released.

It is easy to blame one type of content as the reason for the suffering (of the game and players), but I do not think this is the real reason behind the scene.

When the lay-offs happened last year, I remember someone saying that the most people that were laid-off were not working on GW2, but on unannounced side-projects and now (at that time) the whole company will focus on GW2. But from the amount of content that was delivered until now, it does not look this way.

Of course Anet struggled a lot in 2019 and was (which is understandably) self-absorbed because of the lay-offs (and also people leaving the studio after that) and the following restructuring (which could also be called "groundwork") and this is probably a major reason, why they did not deliver more and better content, yet. On the other hand, there are again rumours and signs, that Anet is already (or still) working on side-projects.

Adding to that are misconceptions (that are sometimes typical for Anet) like the templates. Where it seems it was delivered unfinished and no one at Anet asked themself "Is what we deliver fun to use and helpful?" and Anet also was too greedy in their monetization.

[Reaching the Potential of Guild Wars 2 World vs World Part 2]

@thepenmonster.3621 said:So... GW3 mobile?

Weren't they already working on something like that, before the lay-offs happened a year ago?

[Guild Wars 2 "Classic"]

@TheThief.8475 said:The RESISTANCE OF MOBS should be quite (or slightly) INCREASED ;The DAMAGE OF MOBS should be slightly DECREASED (from1 to 80) ; quite decreased (at lv 80) ;

Please no. That would be boring. Mobs that do not hurt and that just take longer to kill.

The PvE is a strong part of GW2, but i can say that killing mobs is quite boring (or frustating), because they are very easy to kill, but they deal a lot of damage when in groups.

If you can not kill a group, try to position yourself better, so you do not pull too much aggro, seperate mobs from the group and kill them one-by-one. Or simply walk around the group and don't engage. If you believe, you die too often, put more defensive stats in your gear until you feel comfortable.

[Including Strike Mission Achievements as a Required Part of the Zone Meta]

@Vayne.8563 said:

@Pirogen.9561 said:Strikes? To me it looks like they don't have enough resources(time, people, skill) to do a proper Raid.

Actually they said straight out they're not sure they can support raids moving forward because not enough people do them.

Its not a contradiction. Creating a raid needs much more resssources/devs/money than creating a boss-fight in an instanced version of an already existing map aka a strike-mission. So they probably try the cheaper version and hope that enough players are happy with this cheaper version of 10-player-instanced content and they also hope that players, who like strikes, also will do raids afterwards.

And a pessimistic person could add: And if this doesn't work, they did burn less money with new strike-missions than with new raids and it can then be used as an excuse, why they can not make any new raids anymore.

But that is probably only a cynical overinterpretation from my side. ;)