Avenrise.3592

As someone not really in the position to do CMs at all I'm shocked... that this is even a problem that some people feel the need to complain about. I'm actually surprised that ANET haven't done this sooner, it's a great extra incentive to get people into CMs and also reward those currently doing them with that little bit extra. For the rest of us that can't/won't do them... we're losing next to nothing. 250AA doesn't matter too much if you're doing the dailies/weeklies/others. You'll get all the unique skins, all the extra and are therefore ultimately missing out on a few gold.

Posted in the CORRECT thread this time: It's been asked for many times, I'm going to say it again... new item, a Book to hold all teleport/lounge scrolls in one place. Don't care if its 50 gems or 2000, a list of destinations or a fancy new UI. It's just driving me nuts that we either have to place half the scrolls/books in our bank or take up all of our shared inventory slots.

So I cant really recommend where to buy the parts from but as someone else said CEX is pretty great for second hand parts. What I will say is I'm still rocking a PC that's older than the game is so it would probably be pretty cheap to build/buy (maybe eBay?): Intel Core i7 3770K 16.0GB DDR3 RAM ASUSTeK MAXIMUS V GENE 2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 (EVGA) With this you'll get about 30-40FPS @ 1080p but you'll have to drop down a few settings like shadows to low, LOD to medium and character model limit to lowest. Not going to lie, super looking forward to my brand new build as it can be a bit of a pig in meta events and I have to reduce the settings further and EoD maps do drop the FPS down even more.

I usually wait a few hours for the bugs to be patched out but chanced it this time and... yeh. It happens, I'm not too salty about it but just gonna hope it gets sorted soonish as it's a little too immersion breaking for me tbh.

Not the same crash but don't want to start up a new thread :p I'm DC'ing to character select about 5 seconds after map swapping, it taking me back to the previous map or another WP on the same map. By the look of the amount of people there on reload it's not just me :)

Just gonna add this here even though I know it will never happen! I'd like ANET to unlink the VIP lounge from the PoF upgrade pack. Pretty sure they'd get a lot more people wanting to buy it that way to complete their 'lounge collection'... like myself who refuses to pay 2,400gems for it! Also shocked Evon hasn't monetised Champion's Rest as yet.

Yeh Pinata down also XD ANET are on it, should expect a patch shortly don't worry all.

Let me be clear, the AFK farming conversation has been had to death and I am not about to create yet another thread on the negatives, the positives or anything else relating to farming itself. I have my views, I am leaving them out of this. Okay, so we can all agree that AFK farming exists to some extent in GW2 and also that the perceived views on AFK farming in MMOs in general is negative. If ANET were to dedicate a small amount of dev-time to come up with a funny/interesting/ingenious way of stopping AFK farming, and then (and this is super important) make sure that news of that 'solution' is distributed gaming news outlets, providing that 'solution' is smart enough they would receive almost free advertising which would reach pretty much every current MMO player. The impact of AFK farming on the game wouldn't even have to matter. ANET would receive praise whether the issue is large or small, whether you don't mind the farming or actively hate it. ANET (and therefore the game) benefit from its removal. Now, what that interesting 'solution' would be... I'll let you lot brainstorm! Just had this thought while watching a Twitch streamer remark on Istan.

Hey, thanks for the response. I have one half set up at the moment but thanks for the offer!

In a strange turn of events a random raid group joined today may have just turned into the opportunity for a static. So for now, I think I have my group :)

I posted this in the wrong section so am re-posting here! So with Emboldened it's opened my eyes to the world of Raids. I've done all the wings apart from last weeks W7 on Emboldened and have started running the 'easier' ones every now and then with few issues. I know mechanics (regular, not tanking etc), can play Quick-Harb, Alac-Mirage and regular old DPS Soulbeast but as I have a real life issue my DPS isnt going to be stellar, I'm just playing a LI build. The problem is that my guild are a little closed off when it comes to inviting you to regularly join, preferring to just ask in guild chat at random times of the day. So essentially I'm looking for a static that would accept (currently) a low-KP person like myself. EU(UK), pretty flexible on times but I work so not too late and while I'm not the best player in the world I dont really have 10hrs free to bash my head against a wall so would be looking for an experienced group that could just use one more regular. Can listen to voice but no mic, thanks in advance!

Ditto!

Posted in wrong section!

Welcome and thanks for the great blog post. I've not WvW in years and yet it is all super clear and pretty interesting. Glad to see flow charts aplenty (might be the minority on this one!). Excited to see where this is all heading.

Disclaimer- I dont ever intend on making the Zhaitan Legendary. That being said this is just another voice to add to the others- locking ANYTHING behind failing an event is a terrible idea and always will be. It actively encourages griefing which goes contrary to what GW2 had always been about and I'll be shocked if this isn't rectified sharpish. Certainly if it isn't then this is one of the few occasions where ANET are willing to foster animosity within the playerbase for the sake of a Collection which is very unlike them.

Looking forward to attending again this year! Are we sending raffle donations to your account? And for any new people looking to attend it's super fun, doesn't require anything from you but your participation and it's just a great way to stand up for a great cause. Just being there is a huge deal and shows just how tolerant and inclusive the GW2 playerbase is.

Sorry to necro my own post but there is another bugbear related to Collections that has slightly gotten to me- collection achievements that involve you finding a vendor NPC who mysteriously has the item you are looking for. No backstory as to why they have this unique item or why they are selling it. Now for this I'm not expecting a whole other story on how they came to be in possession of the thing but maybe a sentence or two in the Collection step itself? 'XYZ: found floating in the sea by a lucky sailor, forced to sell by a casino-loving partner' or something along those lines... I'm no wordsmith! But then make the NPC a sailor near open water instead of just shoving it on a random Karma merchant (unless you find one dressed the part and positioned in a place that makes sense).

Deleted that bit just in case it could be construed as me 'having a moan' or venting. Hopefully my constructive criticism is wanted... I've been around a long while now :)

So I'm a huge fan of the lore of GW2. It's really the main reason why I play, I adore the story and learning about the past/present/future of the world. So when I heard that a lot of the Collections for EoD had a story-based element to them my eyes widened and I couldn't wait to get going. Well my busy schedule IRL has meant me taking things pretty slowly and so I've only just completed a couple of these Collections/Quests. But what is obvious to me now is that there's a pretty nasty flaw in the design of the ones that I have so far done/started and it's taken me away from the experience. So story based Collections are a great idea but in order for them to be meaningful in this way they need to immerse you in the tale that they are telling. The Collection format is alright... essentially just steps along the quest route. But so many times I had this held up considerably by including events that aren't always up as one of the steps. You're required to meet XYZ in an unknown place, finally figure out where to go and no one is there. You figure you've got the wrong place but no, you're sure. You keep looking and still nothing so, in my case, I THEN go to the wiki and realise that the NPC I need is part of an event that isn't due to spawn for 20 minutes. Not only am I now well and truly out of the immersion I have to wait around for something to happen? What would happen if I refused to use the wiki? I would have probably moved on from the area and missed the event entirely. Collection stories need to work out just what they want to be- Quests with a worthwhile story or just another achievement point grind. Including events in Collections is fine but at least then position the NPC in the said place and have them tell you that maybe it might be worth coming back in xyz Canthan hours. Or better yet have the ability to start the event if you have the quest item to do so! Just something to really press that you are on a mission, not that you are ticking boxes by having to wait for something to pop up that you didn't even know would pop up.

Well there's the nerf (or what looks a lot like one). Glad I managed to get it done beforehand :)

So after failing 11 times in a row I finally succeeded. That success didn't come with Discord, didn't come with necessarily pro players but did require us to make groups, each with a little Alac and quickness. In the end it was a comfortable success. I am not saying this to boast but to make a point- the group I was with were Laranity's guild group. Players that have played the game for a while and understand the mechanics that the fight throws at you. With a little in game organisation I still honestly feel that DE isn't a hard fight, it's just tuned very tightly and reducing that tuning isn't a good thing for the game. Honestly after all those fails and a single win the biggest difference was the amount of players in the fails going down during very clearly choreographed attacks. When you're on the floor you're not doing damage or breaking bars. You're also causing the person res'ing you the same issue. These attacks are not hard to see and are not too hard to avoid either. I'm sorry if this is starting to sound like another 'git good' post but honestly the more people that learn these ideals the more players will feel confident enough to try new encounters. This is coming from a non-raider and someone who hardly plays Strikes and Fractals. Rewards for failing need looking at sure. The build up could be shorter and tooltips encouraging boon support could be added. But overall I don't think it's healthy for the game for this event to be yet another insta-win meta.

Okay so my take as a super casual PvE'er of many years... I have failed the DE meta 7 times now and each and every time I've taken extreme pleasure at the difficulty. I honestly think it's tuned just fine and we've reached a point now where we should be asking PvE'ers to step up their game a little. I don't mean this in a 'git gud' kinda way, I just feel that the mechanics are not hard in of themselves and learning about break bars, movement (including having movement abilities) and boon support should be being encouraged at this point in the game's life for the sake of interesting new encounters going forward. What in my opinion needs to change are: 1) Rewards for failing/only progressing a certain way through. Maybe a reward per step of the meta. 2) RNG in the tail phases, to be replaced with (and this is super important) RNG that can be mitigated. RNG is great and brings unpredictability to a fight. Really means you have to react to what is going on in real time instead of just learning the entire battle and facerolling it after a few weeks of doing it. Suggestion? Tail RNG changed to set phases or just reduced, and have Soo-Won do a double bite at random on two random different areas of the platform. That attack is really cool and encouraging player movement is never a bad thing. 3) You could shorten the meta a little by having the East and West lanes make a beeline from the outposts to the 'Quell the Void corruption' events. It's cool watching the NPCs battle their way there but it would shave off a few minutes from a (failed) meta. I'm sure I'll think of more down the line but the point I want to make is that it should be okay to have an open world event that is difficult. Triple Trouble is great, the revamped Tequatl was great at launch... players just need to know that their time isn't being 'wasted' (although as I say, enjoying every second here!)

A post on Reddit inspired me have a think about what new Festival I'd like to bring to GW2 and for me I think I'd love to see a Music Festival make its way to the game. Bands from all around Tyria converge on Lions Arch for one massive yearly celebration of music. Multiple stages showcasing different styles of music with mini game events inspired by those of the Metal Legion event in Grothmar Valley. Metal Legion doing their thing with some classic and new tracks, a Sylvari group/singers with more mellow tracks (another Fear Not This Night version maybe? Please?), an Asuran... techno rave?, Norn bashing the dragon once more and maybe the Zepherite choir adding their amazing voices to the festivities? These are just off the top of my head, I'd just love to hear some more original tracks or old tracks re-done/remixed and maybe some more... unusual groups. I wonder what a Skritt band would sound like? Different sections within LA could be devoted to the type of culture represented by the bands/groups. Within these areas would be merchandise (skins) and new food items that you can buy with tokens won by participating in events. Merch would vary in looks, inspired by the race/culture/group associated with it so there could be many different styles to collect/choose from. There could also be various mini games in these areas to win tokens. In between shows stages can be left empty for the game's very talented players to play pre- arranged gigs (or just have a spare stage). Here I'd love to see the ability for leaders of these music groups to have a unique instance to play in but might be asking for too much at this point! Lastly Moto and Tixx have joined forces to create a simulation designed to blow the senses off any group willing to participate. A Strike centred on exploring the creativity of music... an audio-visual masterpiece that's equal parts mesmerising and challenging. Fight your way through various music themed landscapes one after another and take part in puzzles/mini games in order to face the final boss... a creative block. No idea what that would look like, my imagination only goes so far.

Ive learned a valuable lesson from my many years playing games- know when you're preaching to a brick wall. Will leave the thread up for future discussion but I guess... wrong crowd!

Now I value criticism of course however a lot of people here are being very one-track minded. There is a general consensus that the gem store is taking content away from the game and my idea was merely to try and add a way to incorporate gameplay into gem purchases. Saying "I bought the thing so I should get the thing" isn't a valid argument- it would be like saying "I bought the XP booster, might as well just give me the XP up front". GW2 also needs more ways to retain it's playerbase other than what it currently has. Adding collections that use content already in the game is an easy way to do this. With regards to earning skins why is it seen as a bad thing to actually play game content? What is it that drives people to just want to earn 'gold>gems>get skin' as quickly as possible? Is that even playing the game if, as you say, gold is easy to earn? It's collecting for collecting sake and I can understand that IRL but on a digital platform? It's been mentioned multiple times by multiple different popular streamers and brought up many times by players themselves... the gem store is a (necessary) issue. If you have an idea that, essentially, doesn't hurt ANET's bottom line that will improve the situation then I'm honestly all ears.