[Why play Revenant?]

Because in pve I can do pretty much all roles except healalac on 1 character with quite simple rotations. I'm not trying to min/max every rotation and every role and with Revenant I find it the easiest to do it all in quite similar setup (at least both quick builds and dps) so I never get rusty and can switch according to the squad. And easily at a lvl that's acceptable in encounters I am aiming for. And yeah herald just spews all the boons with really minimum effort. No need to track 4 abilities CDs to upkeep 4 boons. Just light them up, maybe blast a fire field to get might going faster and everyone should be fully booned from start to end of the instance, ooc doesn't matter.  

And while I am a bit out of the wvw squad play meta as my guild is on hold, I think revenant is still one of the top choice classes be it vindi dps, vindi heal or herald dps.

In pvp I don't really play rev so much. I mostly played condi herald in the past. I think it was making a comeback but I only played it a bit so not really sure. It was a bit of a degenerate playstyle in the past so no harm done to that build. Only dabbled a bit in power builds like vindi and herald so don't really know. 

[Man, but I didn't even get to BE disappointed by the new weapons]

For me gw2 is p2w for one simple reason, you can buy power and character progression with rmt. Gems to gold to leggies. 

But it doesnt bother me much because those are easy to get in game.

Buying expansions is fine. Although I would make some features baseline. Especially Warclaw. Weaponmaster I would agree also. I dont think it would impact sales much if at all.

[Passion has gone my friends [Merged]]

1 hour ago, Astralporing.1957 said:

Not lean too heavily on RNGesus-based mechanics. I was never a fan of extreme drop rarity stuff for example.

Yes, if you put a certain amount of effort into something, you should never get significantly less than someone else that did the same as you.

Yeah me neither. It's usually a trait of Korean mmorpgs where you have these super rare items but the content itself is quite easy. So it's just about grind. The good thing in gw2 is that these grindy rare items are just cosmetics (and don't really interest me much).

In wow if you clear raids consistently, you'll get your gear.  Some cosmetics are more rare though.

[Research Notes aren't to my liking]

I play all game modes and luckily got my leggies elsewhere. And yeah the ow path seems to be by far the grindiest and repetitive.

It might seem strange but if you like the other modes, you're basically just playing the modes as you preffer.

But we have this amazing big ow, best in genre, main attraction of the game. And youre stuck at grinding rifts, convergences and completing the same few maps. I understand they needed a timegate and Soto specific currency but not this.

So I understand the complaint.

[The amount of filler content in story is out of hand]

On 3/8/2024 at 4:41 AM, Vayne.8563 said:

I see what you're saying. And yet, I thought the mechanic in the last story in Bitterfrost was awful. It's not hard, just awful. I don't like or enjoy it. It's completely contrived  And the whole fight is staying out of circles and pulls and knockbacks for the adds the minotaur has to kill.  The problem with mechanics in story missions, and this is what you're not getting, is that most people do story missions once. They're not playing to get a raid boss. They're playing to see what happens and get what rewards they can, and that's it.  The small percentage of people who play storys for mechanics are just that, a small percentage of people. It's why strikes are there in the first place.  I've done the EOD story a few times, but I've done the strike missions  in EOD far more times.  I've done the Soto strikes far more than I've done the soto story.

I'd wager people don't want to repeat story over and over again until they learn the mechanics and get good at it. It's not why people I know play story. There is other content in the story.

I don't find the Ice Beast the most engaging fight also, it was just an example of a boss and mechanic that was common in the past (and some were good and some bad). And an optional achiev for those that want the challenge. The achiev I found quite fun to do.

Achievs are a good way to satisfy both worlds, to actually have two difficulties. 

And even if we forget mechanics and difficulty of the fight, the delivery is still subpar compared to the past. I think players that mostly play for the story are actually the ones that would appreciate more dynamic and cinematic delivery during story missions the most.  And some unique settings, not just fenced parts of open world (and fenced so tightly that some mobs and achiev items end up out of bounds). For me Soto just feels a bit scuffed and rushed and lacking lot's of small details that used to be gw2's edge in my opinion. 

I can give another example, the whole Eod prologue. Your first mission is a unique setting on airships. It's a unique, detailed setting just for that one story mission. It's dynamic, things are happening around you which seem to be out of your control. Aurene is doing her own thing. The mission is quite easy but you have achievs for those that want a bit of challenge.

You end up in Cantha and in prison. A small story bit that could be completely cut out and wouldn't really matter in the grand scheme. But it was not. It was fun introduction and even had a fun optional puzzle prison break achiev on top. You get released, fill some release papers, meet key characters and get a short cinematic bit.

I feel that only that part of Eod had more thought and work put into than everything story delivery related in Soto. If this was Soto standard you would talk to Anhka, had a static mission on 1 airship where you kill 3 waves of Aetherblades. Maybe not even that because Airship is not a part of OW map. Maybe just a portal from Kryta to Cantha and you fight a few Aetherblades on the Seitung beach. And then you would end up in Seitung where you click on a few npcs (Rama, Minister, Kasmeer). They deliver their monologues and welcome to Cantha. Is this familiar?

[The amount of filler content in story is out of hand]

8 minutes ago, Vayne.8563 said:

Story bosses do have stuff worthy of a raid boss. You're giving mostly examples of climaxes. The death of Joko is an except you listed, but it wasn't a raid boss quality fight and anyone that says so has never raided. It's a fairly easy fight compared to Kralk.  Now, the instance that was a prologue to Soto was told in Gyala Delves.  While it linked to Cantha, it was also clearly linked to the new story and started it.  It introduced the emotions as a weapons and a wanderer from Inner Nayos, or one of the Horn of Magumma Zones at least.  That was the prologue.

As for the final boss, since we didn't get the final piece, we haven't seen it yet, but Convergences are definitely on that level for a start.  The convergence reminds me of an expanded Dragonstorm.  You pick and choose stuff while ignoring other stuff. I get that you don't like it. But saying a convergence isn't a big raid like boss fight, or saying that we don't have an end boss before we see the last part of the story is disingenuous. There are good and bad boss fights throughout this game. Remember the fight at the end of Domain of Kourna? Not a big fight? And the meta events in PoF aren't raid worth encounters. This idea of picking and choosing to try to prove doesn't really do anything. And PoF and Season 4 didn't have strikes. We have two strikes now with two encounters. Those harder encounters are part of the story too, if you choose to fight them on the higher level.

So you're using final bosses as an example, without acknowledging that we haven't seen the final boss of Soto yet.  Can't compare then, can you?  You're ignoring Strikes and the Convergence (and btw, I'm one of the people who find the CM of Dagda to be plenty challenging. That's closer to a raid than any open world story boss, whether raiders were disappointed or not.  The convergence is close to an end game boss. But you're not talking about that. You're ignoring the prologue where the demons were introduced, which is an entire meta that's in line with bigger metas, even if the first part of it is repetitive.  

You say you can't remember Soto bosses, clearly you don't do strikes, because I remember those fights.  They simply made the story bosses easier so that they could give people who like more challenging content something to do as well. It's still not challenging enough for people who do the harder core content (except for the new CM of course), but it is hard enough for people who don't.  It's hard enough for me.

I remember Dagda and Cerrus from strikes. Sure the easy version of them in story isn't much to comment on, but if you're skipping content, that's on you.

It's true I mostly gave final story bosses because I remember their names. I'm not really fan of the story so I don't really know the names of chapters and characters and most bosses because I mostly ignore them. So I also have a bit of a hard time to get a coherent timeline in my head. I play for mechanics so I mostly remember just that. Also story delivery is something else than the story. I'm mostly talking about cinematic camera, dynamic events during conversations or gameplay, engine made cutscenes. I remember those if done well.

I did mention Joko because praise Joko. And also Darkrime Delves because I found that instance really well done so I actually remember it fully. But I can give another example with some context because I did it recently, the LS3 Ice beast in Bitterfrost. That fight has a mechanic (make beast charge the npc enemies with correct positioning) but also an achievement that requires you to think and pull of a certain strategy which can be quite tight (it's just a timer but requires you to devise a strategy to beat it). And that I would say is the average end of chapter boss since LS2 onwards, not the most complex. Usually with a gimmick that you need to figure out and than execute and an achiev that steps it up.  Soto just doesn't have that, we basically got all punching bags up to now. And the achievs are "break the bar", "dont get downed", "kill it within timer". Did I miss something? And these would be fine if timers and break bars would actually be challenging. I don't remember in the past that I just did all the achievs by default. Timers were tighter, break bars tighter, bosses actually had mechanics that downed you fast.

Yes there are good and bad boss fights. And a complex fight is not necessarily a good one. But at least for me there hasn't been a good fight in Soto yet. Maybe final boss will surprise. I hope so. Also why not pick and choose good fights and compare to them? Soto is almost complete, there should be some memorable moments. Also it's the latest instalment of a long lasting game. You would expect the quality increases over time or at least keeps a standard. Why not compare it to Joko or let's say Ankha in the underwater facility in EOD or even  Kralkatorik? I mean the scope of the Kralkatorik fight was huge but maybe the Queen encounter could at least get close to it quality wise if not quantity. But it's not even close.

I've done strike clears pretty much weekly up until about a year ago when I got bored. I've done some raiding.

I am not talking about strikes being hard, Febe cm is and probably will always be hard. It's about mechanics and variety. Compare these 2 strikes to Harvest Temple (ok this is again the pinnacle) or my favourite Old Lion's Court. Eod strikes really had a great curve, HT the pinnacle and OLC (LS1 technically but ok) as the wrap up. And I though at the time that OLC is what they want as baseline. Not HT level of complexity but a decently challenging strike with good variety of mechanics, choices a group can do to progress through mechanics and some individual player responsibilities (tanking the bosses) that is not really a requirement in normal mode but makes the fight easier and  mandatory in CM. Soto strikes are a big step down from EOD strikes and Dagda hardly manages to be on IBS level (which was also a living season but had way more strikes). Again, why be content with reduced quality?

As for the convergences. I don't like them. In my opinion it's just more of the same (literary the same) Kryptis that we already fight in ow, meta events, rifts and story. I don't see how they remind you of expanded DS. While DS was highly criticised by many, including me, how it is not suitable for an ending of 2 elder dragons and a living season, I think it's way better than convergences. Now the DS mechanics are nothing to write home about (they are quite boring to be frank), it's just as easy but at least it's not just a 100% reuse and has a cinematic delivery. And at least for me it's great that it scales down to 10 players so you can do it with a strike group and it's not just a 50 man 1111 nausea inducing light show. The only 50 man instance of a kind I really like is Twisting Marionette. That one is very good, especially in private mode when players communicate. Because it splits the group enough that you don't get that 50 man 111111 light show and it actually has mechanics that require both the group to coordinate and player to execute. And yeah it's a story reuse but it adds enough and it's just overall an engaging encounter.

[The amount of filler content in story is out of hand]

20 hours ago, Vayne.8563 said:

I"m as immersed in this story as I was at most points in Season 2 and 3.  I like the zones better than most Season 3 zones too.  By what standards are you judging it to call it more or less immersive. I feel these zones.  As for raid bosses, we didn't have strikes back then and now we do.  Strikes are like raid bosses more properly than most stuff we got from the living world.  And we have convergences as well.   It's almost like people are ignoring stuff to make a point.

Story delivery, not story itself. I generaly dislike the story but thats fine, I dont play games for story.

Compare pretty much all prologues, darkrime delves (whole instance), death of Aurene in ls4, death of Joko and many many more to anything in Soto.

I didnt write about raids but about story bosses having mechanics worthy of a raid boss. Hearts and minds, Balthasar, Kralkatorik!. And many many more. Also there are many interesting achievs that require new approach and some are actually challenging. Now compare to the last boss we got. 1 mechanic, break the breakbar with like 4 seconds wind up and thats also the achievment. I literary dont even remember any other Soto bosses because they all just dropped and somehow all achievs were done without me noticing.

And dont mention soto strikes. They are not worth comparisson to raids or eod strikes mechanic wise. And convergences, really? 111 rush rush rush

[The amount of filler content in story is out of hand]

20 hours ago, Vayne.8563 said:

Actually it is okay, it's just not what you like. The truth is, most people are trained by other games to run from green star to green star without experiencing the world between, when a good portion of the world is the actual story.

In the old days at launch, leveling made sure you couldn't get too far ahead and you had to play the open world between story arcs. Then, they changed it to every ten levels. You could only get 2-3 levels at most from the story so you have at least seven levels to go till the next story, even though it was all one story .

In HoT, we had to stop and get masteries and train them, which got us out into the open world, before we got to the next green star. In the beginning we even needed poison resistance but that was a step too far, so Anet removed it.  Every expansion has had filler content since the beginning. PoF had running around Elon Riverland like a noob, talking to a zillion people to find a hidden city.  There's plenty of running around.  Season 3 had filler, too. Lake Doric started with Scouting, and then there was filling a bar, and even having to do hearts.  Siren's Landing you had to do every heart.

People are acting like this is new. Viewing Vistas took me five minutes maybe. The bar was faster to fill than it was in Lake Doric.  But I fill bars or ended up doing hearts in lots of zones previously (and I consider hearts to be worse tbh).

The game has always been like this. It hasn't changed since launch, because some of the story, even a significant portion of the story has always been in the open world. The game isn't focused on story instances, it's focused on open world and particularly meta events.  It was Temple Events in Orr that were the open world end game. The fact that people have played this game for so long and don't recognize it is ANet's fault.

I mean Dragon Stand, the meta event, is far more engaging and better than Hearts and Minds the story. They're each half of the story. Playing Hearts and Minds without doing the Dragonstand event is a huge letdown for most people.

 

Thats all true. But the difference is that in those expansion the story missions are long, often with unique maps, mechanics sometimes designed for 1 mission only and boss fights have mechanics fitting a raid boss. The story delivery is also much more immersive.

In Soto an average mission is literary defeating 3 to 4 packs of normal mobs with 1 veteran mob. 6 same reused mobs we are seeing through the whole expansion. And bosses have 1 mechanic. Like 1 breakbar to break. And the story delivery is a 2 minute static monologue before and after the mission.

So these ow fillers were small compared to the whole story. And a break between long missions that were sometimes maybe even too long. In soto almost everything feels like a filler and a break from a game that doesnt exist.

[Arcane Chest mini games]

39 minutes ago, kiroho.4738 said:

You want reward, you have to do something for it. That's how games work.

Pressing 5/7 buttons in the right order to unlock a chest is really no effort. It's just like any other game where you have to use lockpicks to open a chest, just with a different minigame.

But ofcourse just pressing F is more braindead and some people always want more reward for less effort.

Thats how bad games work. Good games dont need to pad gametime with such filler content.

Also its not effort at least not such effort I would consider meaningfull for a game. Lock loot behind hard bosses, thats a meaningfull effort. But I guess gw2 exchanged that for minigames my 3yo could solve.

[Arcane Chest mini games]

2 hours ago, kharmin.7683 said:

Is it really so burdensome?

Wrong question. The question should be "Is it fun?".

For me the answer is no. And these mildly burdensome systems have been infesting the game for some time now.

[Passion has gone my friends [Merged]]

35 minutes ago, IAmNotMatthew.1058 said:

Severe drop off compared to what? Anet starting LWS3 with a small kitten map that you could run around and finish everything tied to it in a week or two and nothing for like 3 months and then repeating it again in LWS3? Becase the same kitten has been happening for years. 

Get rid of those rose tinted glasses and remember how the game was back then. It was sure as kitten fun farming Branded meteors and repeating the same 2 metas for 4 months at the start of LWS4, the 3 month wait for Kourna only to ""enjoy"" that map for another 3 months, but hey, it had a mount, so all is good, right? Did I mention that 4 LWS4 maps were essentially recycled from Nightfall and 3 LWS3 maps are from Prophecies? Recycled content is a big complaining point about Soto, but seems to be ignored with everything else.

You look back at previous expansion - costing 50€, if not more for all the releases - as good, because over the span of like 3 years a lot of kitten was released for them and then you complain that a yearly release - 25€ - has less content.  

Funnily both Bloodstone Fen and Istan are one of my favourite LS maps (I don't mind if LS maps are a bit smaller and with less secrets compared to full expansion maps). Bloodstone was gliding playground and masteries were fun and I like Istan metas a lot. I'm sure I'll play them more in the future while I don't really have much interest in Soto content already now. And no, I haven't played much Soto at all,  explored the place, maybe did metas 2 or 3 times, 3 convergences and I'm not even interested in checking new bosses. I probably did Hablion more times than Soto metas meanwhile just because I like to fool around Bloodstone Fen while waiting for pvp queue. Hey maybe even Istan metas just because I like to do LS4 dailies and metas for volatile magic if I'm bored with other content.

The amount of content is irrelevant if it's not interesting enough to play it more than once.

[Whats next..!? more of the same !?]

EOD was way better than this in my opinion. Much larger, more intricate maps, much better meta events and a lot better and more strikes. Don't forget we got elite specs. Some assets were reused but even if  some enemies were just reskins the textures were not just 1 texture all over the place like in Soto. We got some original enemies also. They introduced new systems and while I'm not a fan of them (I think jade bot could be just scrapped and it would be net positive for the game) they at least tried. I generally don't like gw2 story so EOD was just another gw2 chapter for me but delivery was quality in some chapters. Story maps and bosses were also extensive and well designed (remember EOD prologue, the underwater facility with Soo-won, Joon's estate, Harvest temple...). SOTO story instances are usually just open world maps with the same enemies all over the place. There are hardly any interesting fights with interesting mechanics (I remember only 1, maybe 2 fights that had mechanics, everything else was just powered through).

Cut the original EOD content in half or in thirds and you still have more and better quality content. 

I don't care about quantity or low price if it's low quality. 

[Research Notes aren't to my liking]

1 hour ago, DanAlcedo.3281 said:

I never had a problem with Research Notes.

Silk and Mithril is something everyone has tons of. So why not convert it?

https://fast.farming-community.eu/salvaging/costs-per-research-note

Because its a lot of clicking and waiting to craft stuff.

Want a straighforward material sink? Just make a vendor that sells notes for mats.

They can keep the current system on top. The vendor could even be more expensive, like 5% more mats per note compared to crafted stuff.

[Passion has gone my friends [Merged]]

LS4 quality wise  >> Soto.

I play more LS4 content these days than Soto and Soto is fresh.

Besides LS4 gave us more than just ow content. 

[Axe thief]

I haven't tried axe thief yet but if the ability has a cast and travel time it is indeed a bit strange that you can't just cast it anywhere (if I understood it correctly). 

It's part of the gw2 mechanics that you can free cast most abilities and that projectiles are actual projectiles with physics and limited tracking and not just animation that has no impact on the gameplay. 

Need to try it though. It's not just ranger, all (I think) projectiles work in a similar manner. 

[Underwhelming. Not really bad, but also not good. [Merged]]

22 hours ago, Zera.9435 said:

To make sure I understand: you are complaining that you got your money's worth? It was $25 for a reason. It is an expansion, just not a massive one. $25 is a good price for what we got and are getting. Sure, there are issues, but nothing that is completely unforgivable due to the low price. They're trying out a new way of delivering content to see how it plays out, how players respond, and what they can do to improve. They figure people are more ready to spend $25 than $75. All we can do is give them valid criticisms and constructive feedback where appropriate. Point out what doesn't work, point out what does, and hopefully the next expansion will be better because of it. This content is definitely NOT worth a base price of $75 or even $60, but don't forget that they totally could have done that but didn't. The pricing is on point.

Gw2 is worth it's money. It's actually undervalued for the amount of time I spend in it. I pay more than 25eur for 2 days of groceries. It's a good and cheap game. But I value my free time, the part I spend in gw2, more than 25 eur per year. Much more. Do I really want to play a cheap game in that free time? 

Now this is completely my personal situation. Give me a full expansion, Hot or Pof quality, price it a 60 eur. Hey price it higher, fine, inflation whatever. But produce an expansion worth it's name. And I'll pay and play it. 

But again, this is my personal situation. If it's a good business model for Anet, fine, good for them. I have no data to say otherwise and they probably have. I would just like more good content, especially outside of just ow pve and I'm willing to pay for it. 

It's actually sad. I've bought a few full priced games in the last year and I barely played them. I gave more money to these shoddy "AAA" games than to Anet for gw2 which I still consider one the best games ever.

[Anet, lets have a talk about Strike CMs]

You can't do much with 2 strikes. Especially if one is not good. This is not a vertical gearing game where eventually you will become strong enough to clear the encounter. There's a ceiling for players that most will never breach unless we see more crazy power creep.

Now if you have EOD. 5 (4+1) good strikes with cms, 10 encounters basically, that ramp up in difficulty, there is plenty of content for everyone. If you are a cm level player and HT cm is above your ceiling , that's fine, plenty of other content. And HT normal is probably a nice fight for you anyway, because it's just a good fight. With 2 (and one not good) well you won't please many players in any case.

Also there is a place in raiding for hard dps check bosses with not too difficult mechanics. They usually serve as gatekeepers, a gear check for your group. But that's not the type to be the final boss of a wing or a raid, those should be mechanically rich. And are more relevant for vertical gearing games that basically tell you "your gear is fine now, you're ready for the raid" and become trivial from there on.

 

[Underwhelming. Not really bad, but also not good. [Merged]]

The story dialogues really regressed at some point, I haven't really noticed when exactly but it was really obvious to me in Soto.

We started with these semi cutscenes in vanilla (which you could skip) and then moved away from that to a more interactive variant which didn't pull you out of the world. And while this started a bit clunky, especially because the npc were clumsy and slow, the quality really went up and peaked somewhere in LS4 and start of IBS (intro in Grothmar, Darkrime Delves were amazing). Even if the dialogues were long and/or boring sometimes it didn't feel that way because things were happening and you were in control of your character. Some parts felt like an interactive movie, good camera movement, camera effects. Rarely it felt boring to me even if I am not really a gw story enthusiast.  

Now we have probably the worst iteration ever. Everyone is completely static. NPCs just ramble and ramble while standing there (and I am doing something else because I can't skip it). Talk to NPC no1, talk to NPC no 2, talk to NPC no3, talk to NPC no1, talk to NPC no 4. Maybe talk at length to NPC no 2 and 3 again for achiev. Now do mission and return to talk to NPCs again. They are probably at the same spot that they were for the last 4 steps. I wonder if their back hurts from just standing there all the time.

Now the story itself. Please forgive me if I say something wrong but mostly I phased out the story very early in Soto but that's also a tell on it's quality. It's not unusual for this game that the next chapter downplays or forgets the events of the previous ones but that was not so bad when LS episodes were partially self contained. But the start of this latest chapter is just sad. For example the arc between Frodo and Arina (I think that was the name of his daughter). For some reason it really imprinted in my mind and I was really thinking they are going somewhere. Arina presumed dead, Frode worrying being kept in the dark about her alive by Isgarren. They could really take this in so many interesting directions. But all we get in this chapter is basically "Oh hai", "She can take care of herself". 😕

As for the Kryptis. Now I haven't finished this chapter yet so maybe I'll change my mind but at this point I doubt it and the harm was already done. The whole ordeal with Peitha started promising. Potential ally of dubious nature, we travel to this strange demon world and get a glimpse of their game of thrones. Great setting for something interesting, new. They are kitten demons, you could do whatever. Dubious morals from our point of view, strange customs, funny or tense interactions because they are kitten demons, betrayal (I guess that one is still to be played out or not). And what we get? They (our allies) end up just another oppressed group of "people", refugees, like so many we saved in the past that needs saving by the good old Commander (Wayfinder now I guess. I don't really care how they call us). Please Commander bring some water, food and bandages to the poor Amnoon refugees... oh wait... am... poor Kryptis refugees. They just want to live the rest of their quiet lives at a farm growing Thornsprout blooms.

[New end game goals.]

On 2/23/2024 at 1:54 PM, Astralporing.1957 said:

Honestly, it wasn't too welcoming (in the west at least) even among the original WoW crowd. Even earlier, with MUDs, pure PvE ones were significantly more popular than the PvP ones. Lineage, of course, was made for the asian market and that player community is a bit different in their tastes, but among western players even there PvP was mostly either avoided where possible, or actively hated. Most players just do not have the mentality for this type of play, especially nowadays when player crowd is much more casual than when the games were more niche.

No to mention OW PvP has always been more about griefing than actual challenge, which is fun mostly to those that do the griefing, but far less entertaining for everyone else.

Wow during vanilla had very big pvp population. I think it was almost an even split between pvp and pve servers and maybe even more to the pvp side. Wow ow pvp was very accessible for a mmorpg at the time because there was hardly any punishment for death. No exp loss, no item loss, just a short run to the body. 

But yeah over the years the landscape changed in favour of the pve. Partly because of the player base that became more casual. But in my opinion also because wow never had as immersive open world as in vanilla. Maybe outlands were still not there but wotlk and onwards ow was just a means for quick leveling and a gate to the endgame instances. And any distraction like a pvp encounters was just a nuisance for players trying to get through ow part as fast as possible.

While yeah ow pvp is more or less ganking, it also adds a layer in exploration. Sense of danger. I understand many hate that but many also love it. And there are many very successful games that play that card.

As for Lineage like korean mmorpgs. The ones that I played, THE end game was always guild pvp, i.e., castle wars. Also in the west. It was all about gearing your guild to have a chance in wars. 

Not really gw2 related post, just how I saw mmorpgs I played and pvp. Sure, my view is skewed because for me pvp was always one of the important end game pillars and pve often just a means to get gear for pvp.

[Stop making special action skills mandatory CC]

6 minutes ago, Sobx.1758 said:

Sadly, I consider current "SAK cc" as the form of lesser evil in the game where waystation EMP already exists.

Sadly I agree. Better an encounter specific design than emp.

But I agree its not the best design, diminishes builds. And when we came to a point that game needs to teach players? If a player is unable to grasp such simple mechanic he should not be able to beat the game.

[Whats next..!? more of the same !?]

3 maps, an hour of boring story and 2 strikes.  It looks like this is what we get from now on.

Now if these were Hot quality maps and events and Eod or raid quality strikes, I would be ok, although a bit sad for other modes like spvp and wvw.

But I guess Gyala was not a fluke. And also mostly recycled assets.

[Speed of Sand is the worst trait in the entire game and I can prove it.]

Why would you make it baseline if it's so bad?

Joke aside. All minor traits are useless. They're just there, there is no choice. They could all be just removed and made baseline and it wouldn't affect anything.

[Symbols to identify the player's role.]

Anet pretty much solidified roles in pve group play so yeah this would be definitely in order.

Basically icons in the squad frames. And players could designate their builds for certain role so it would be pretty much automatic. Next step is pre-set squad compositions so players can apply for specific role when joining a squad. Maybe that's a stretch because gw2 still doesn't have streamlined roles in all the 10 man content. I'm mostly talking tank or no tank, not about special roles which are just too much to go that way and are strategy dependant. But if we exclude raids and cm strikes we're left with only OLC strike where tanks are actually nice to have (although not really necessary). So this could be also the basis for an automated grouping tool for normal strikes. Although with just some basic improvements more players might be ready to command anyway so more groups that way.

[New PC for WvW in full settings]

First make sure you actually want to run at higher graphic settings. I've upgraded my pc recently, set gw2 settings on highest and kitten almost went blind. I hope with the additional post processing settings that come out tomorrow we will be able to make it playable. But right now, the game at highest settings is a blurry bloomy lightshow that unless your hobby is looking directly at a high noon sun will just hurt your eyes. Lower settings definitely make it more crisp and clear. 

[Dragon Storm Drops Please fix]

I'll make you feel better 😛. I got 2 or maybe even 3 Frostsaw's in a row the first few times I did DS. I was sure it's a guaranteed drop or at least a very high chance one to a point I thought them crazy as they will devaluate all other GS drops. Haven't got one since those first few runs.