Poormany.4507

The exchange is less content in exchange for more frequent content (expacs every year instead of every 3-4 years), so we don't have long content droughts, as a large portion of the playerbase requested during HoT and PoF. While SotO was lower quality, as Anet acknowledged, I am cautiously optimistic that they learned from their errors and the second mini expac will be higher quality (i.e., similar to LW/expac quality, but more frequent, as intended.)

What exactly are they deliberately obfuscating? They just made a blog post about what they learned from SotO (i.e., they tried to pack too much into the expac and it ended up falling below expectations), which is pretty consistent with the general playerbase's reaction to it. I highly doubt they're deliberately hiding GW3 while actively making engine updates and planning for at least two more expacs up through 2026 (2+years of active dev work) to GW2. There would be no point in doing any of that if they expected a large chunk, if not the majority, of their current playerbase to switch to GW3 in the next two or three years.

tbh while GW1's Cantha maps were distinct from each other, the individual maps got very boring/dull very quickly with the same textures (grass, slums, jade) copy-pasted repeatedly to the point where I just remember maps by those descriptors and nothing else. The incredibly frustrating navigability compared to GW2's version (largely due to lack of vertical motion) did not help. I personally prefer GW2's Cantha map design over GW1's. I just wish we'd gotten more GW2 Cantha maps rather than abruptly jumping to SotO.

Finally finished map completion on this map since first going there after it was launched. Finding a map/time when the meta has opened up the second and third parts of the map is extremely painful, especially during off-hours. I'm also heavily in favor of not locking map exploration behind meta events that will die out months after release. Calling it now that there will be a "Inner Nayos - Worst Map Ever! " thread in a few weeks/months with the exact same criticisms when the meta-locked third part becomes inaccessible for exploration due to lack of players doing the second meta.

You can buy those with gold-> gem conversion. Also resource collection is basically free without buying gem store boosts. Just buy 5 stacks of gathering tools with in-game coins obtained in < 30 minutes of play. It's extremely easy to level in GW2. You can easily speed level from 79 -> 80 in < 15-20 minutes. Also, tomes of leveling can be very easily bought using in-game coins or even more so through WvW. I have never felt the need to use level boosts in my 12 years of playing because it's so easy (and more fun) to do so by actually playing the game. Also can be easily bought using in-game coins. Also, since they're so easily obtainable in-game, even getting them without knowing how to play the game (skills, rotations, strategy) is near useless to actually winning. Not white-knighting as I've had plenty of criticism for GW2, but being pay-to-win is far from one them.

What achievements are you talking about, the skin collection ones? Nobody has to do those and you can't distinguish AP points from those versus those gained through in-game achievements. I have never even though about paying to gain achievements in GW2 and I've been playing since launch...

By that definition, if a game has a cash shop that only sells tacky clown costumes, is that pay 2 win to you? What gameplay advantage would anyone gain from buying those over someone who does not? Same thing in GW2, what gameplay advantage does someone gain if they buy sparkly bunny ears in the gem store than someone who does not?

Defining paying for fashion or convenience items as pay2win is really, really stretching the definition of that term and I've never seen that loose of a definition used by anyone else in an MMO. Most games I would label P2W directy give better weapons/armor with better stats solely available through cash payments only. GW2 does not do this, which is a big part of its appeal. I've paid only for the expacs in GW2 and have never felt that it is pay 2 win in any sense. Unless your goal is to speedrun through the content as fast as possible and collect every possible skin faster than everyone else for some reason (Mine definitely isn't and I doubt many players' is), there actually isn't that much you can't obtain in GW2 (other than the expacs) without just using gold obtained by playing the game normally.

Any MMO that wants to remain competitive HAS to have multiple types of game modes, which pretty much every long-standing, successful MMO does (i.e., WoW, Runescape, GW1, GW2, etc.). Driving away those players to niche-focus on a very specific form of PvE ain't the way to go... As a primary PvEr, I still oftentimes get bored of open world PvE and hop into Fractals or WvW, when otherwise without the existence of those game modes like you propose, I would hop into a different game.

I also doubt the Gods storyline will come up just yet, when we've still got plenty of GW1/early GW2 mysteries left to tackle, as well as plenty of follow-up GW2 threads (E (I'm guessing will be revealed in Janthir Wilds), Malyck, Doern's homeland, Norn/Asura resettlement efforts, Charr Khan Ur politics/Ghost follow-up, Deep-sea monster, Canthan Purists in Raisu, etc.). I'm thinking maybe they're saving the Gods Return/War storyline to be the last expac of GW2 (possibly leading into a GW3), like a full-scale one like HoT, PoF, and EoD, because I just cannot see Anet fitting an entire God War storyline in two maps under the current mini-expac scale, even more so when they've already said they want to focus on non world-ending threats and smaller, local storylines.

How did you make it to EoD? Event timers are nothing new and have existed in GW2 since 2012. This seems like a really odd thing to complain about.

This is one of the most downvoted posts I've seen lol. Bad idea - Unless they completely redid 12 years of GW2 combat from scratch and/or introduced healing/protection/boon henchmen, the game is it is would just bleed out players if the requested changes were implemented.

Kestrel Zuru does not approve of this choice of representative, dragging Uncle Viri's name through the guano (I couldn't resist 😉). The Asura looks like Councilor Ludo from the Arcane Council, who we haven't really interacted with much so far.

Since they're titans, which are controlled by the Scepter of Orr as we saw in Prophecies with Vizier Khilbron's army, I wonder if Livia will be able to control them to some extent.

Based on the teaser and image in the official store page, it seems like the new story will be heavily focused on old characters. Anise, Malice, Caithe, Braham, and maybe Ayumi seem like they will be the main companions. They've also thankfully acknowledged that there were way too many characters in SotO, so hopefully, we'll have a smaller cast this time around and be able to have actual connections to them (I agree that I barely felt any connection to anyone, save for Zojja for nostalgia's sake, in SotO).

Based on SotO (Skyscale) and JW (Warclaw), assuming they continue the trend, it seems like each mini-expac features a new major mount update/overhaul. What other mount update feature(s) would you be interested in? Personally, I was thinking of a springer update where they can do double hops and have some kind of hop/knockdown attack while mounted or a jackal update where they can do wall climbing (like the commonly requested lizard/spider mount would do).

It might smell a bit like cattle, but it should work on demons, right...?

Given the letter from Anise to Livia in the Epilogue of SotO, my guess is she'll be moderately-heavily involved, especially since she's one of the only/top experts with firsthand experience we've got on the Mursaat. Another loose end I'm thinking will be covered in the next expac is what exactly Caudecus was looking for in Janthir. Also, given that Kryta seems to be at least partly involved in the next expac and Anet seems to be focused on resolving longstanding mysteries atm, maaaaybe we can finally learn who a certain Mister E is? 🤞

Doubt we'll get much more about her, since it sounds like she was rewritten to be more of a supporting friend than a love interest during the re-release of LWS1:

Watch next April Fools be everyone's dressed in beach wear...😉

I think they're saving that for the GW2 Gods showdown that's been teased ad nauseum by now and will probably be in a future (Maybe the final?) expac. I wonder if they'll give us some more seer lore as well, specifically what exactly went on during their war with the Mursaat and how they got their defense against Spectral Agony. Also, while I really hope they don't do this, they could pull another Lazarus is THE (we mean it this time, honestly) last Mursaat with the Seers and reveal that the rest of them, aside from Isgarren, did not all die off (We've already seen the Ancient Seer in GW1 and Isgarren in GW2). That said, I do wonder who the enemy we'll be facing is this time, unless they plan to bring back the Mursaat somehow (Mabon seems to hint there may be more survivors out there, maybe they're in Janthir?).

Just watched the new teaser video and I'm unsure where that is we're going and/or who we'll be dealing with. Based on the teasers in SotO, bog image, and this preview, my guess is Woodland Cascades (The area above Divinity's reach) and Janthir. However, the architecture doesn't seem familiar to anything we've seen in GW1 or GW2 (Looks like some kind of mix of Asuran and Norn styles???) Any speculation? Either way, I'm definitely looking forward to going there!

Why didn't Cerus use the soul-bind ability then, so if he dies, Isgarren also dies? That makes sense, I forgot that Peitha claimed us before the initial fight with Cerus as "Strange Voice."

Agree with this - Why aren't more Krpytis using this ability? Why didn't they simply use it on Isagarren to get rid of their top enemy, effectively crippling their resistance in one swoop? Why didn't they use it on the commander, who was already exerted/mentally worn out to the brink (i.e., more vulnerable to corruption) at the start of the expac when they were trapped in Nayos with Cerus? The ability and it's use just wasn't mentioned/explained enough in-game and just felt like a MacGuffin used solely to kill off Mabon.

I could see either of those two dying (agree that Ramses seems the more likely of the two). Another high possibility I see is Frode or Arina being Character X and sacrificing themselves, leaving the other to grieve/honor their memory. Both have been set up as secondary, sympathetic allies in Nayos that don't really impact the future story otherwise now that we're probably leaving behind the Astral Ward. Them being just reunited in the last patch makes it more likely that their reunion will be short-lived (cause we know Anet loves that plotline 😉).