Elden Arnaas.4870

Of course everyone is entitled to express their opinion here, so long as you don't violate the rules. Please express some more - All of you crying out against this will refuse to use the portal scroll to travel to EotN when that option becomes available?

So you'd call this new method of story-gating a success, then?

re: Let's not dip into fallacy here, shall we? When I TP to Lion's Arch from whatever map I'm working on, it costs silver to do so, and, it's had this cost since Day 1 of the game. - No, let's call a thing what it is - Eye of the North is not a city, it is a convenience area. These have not had a travel cost. And EotN won't, - as Andrew Gray has already told us. Why are people still insisting that a convenience are should not be convenient? Especially since ANet has already settled this?

re: How many homes have you, in real life, that did not require payment for access? I pay every month for mine. - This isn't your home, or mine. Let's ask the question properly then:How many in game convenience areas require payment? - ZERO, because Andrew Gray has already said that they're adding Eye of the North to the Icebrood Saga portal scroll in a future update. ANet agrees with this, or it was intended to be implemented after. Either way, ANet agrees that a convenience area should be convenient.

re: I can accept that this content isn't being made for me and that's cool. If there's story locked behind it I can watch Kroof or Mukluk or WP or someone else do a LP and get caught up on it. - Story takes a lot of resources to develop, so it's a waste to lock it behind content intended for only the top few percent of players. Yes, we aren't quite there yet, but this is escalating. Last month there was a thread about zone meta achievements being locked behind strikes:Including Strike Mission Achievements as a Required Part of the Zone Metahttps://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/97716/including-strike-mission-achievements-as-a-required-part-of-the-zone-meta Some people said the OP was over reacting, but he countered that he wasn't just concerned for the current issue "zone meta achievements gated by strikes" but that this trend would escalate. And it has - story is now gated by a strike. While this current story-gating "strike" is not really representative of what strikes actually are, I think that this is going to escalate, and story will get gated by real strikes, which are exclusionary content not intended for everyone. Why should story be for only the top few percent of players? I don't want to watch a video of someone else doing the story - I want to do it myself, or with a few (less than 10) friends. Once again, why should story be restricted, so that only a minority of players can do it? Why can't story be for the majority of us, or even- gasp EVERYONE? (edit -typo)

I think that Eye of the North (besides being a strike hub) is also intended to be a convenience area for those who don't want to pay for a VIP pass and don't want to join a guild just for access to the convenience features. You can pay for all the EotN convenience features with in-game currencies, and it's not so costly or elaborate as a guild hall.

I don't like to play the bad guys, and usually refuse to do so. There have been whole games I've avoided because you play as the "bad" or "evil" guys.{SPOILERS FOLLOW] I thought that the "bad" charr would just be fighting Icebrood and Svanir, so it wouldn't be too bad. But even still, (the player's avatar) Ryland didn't kill Almora - Bangar did. We learn that Ryland was misguided, and sincerely regretted Almorra's death. This may even lead to a turning point for him, where he stops blindly following Bangar and starts thinking for himself.(edit - spelling)

I see your chuckle and raise you a guffaw - Andrew Gray just announced that they will add Eye of the North to the Icebrood Saga portal tome. It would seem that even ANet thinks that convenience areas should be convenient.(edited - grammar)

In another thread, Andrew Gray just announced that they will add Eye of the North to the Icebrood Saga portal tome in a future update.(He did not specify when, though)https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/100679/protest-having-to-pay-to-travel-to-the-eyes-of-the-north

Thank you Randulf, for bringing that up. I think that in this case, ANet's metrics are flawed, but we'll see how well this works. Or ANet will keep trying anyway. For some reason, there seems to be a bias towards trying keep raids viable at all costs. Why aren't they putting more resources into PvP and WvW? Why are these modes being allowed to languish while raids get love?(in the form of strikes) I don't currently do strikes, raids, PvP, or WvW - but it makes me wonder about this unfair (IMO) distribution of resources. Are there really more people who raid than do PvP or WvW? (edit - clarity)

And if you please, could you give some thought to making a MegaTome or SuperPortal that will contain all of the portal scrolls and convenience passes?(or one for scrolls, one for passes?) Thank you for communicating, and for your consideration.

Thank you very much for adding EotN to the portal tome. And thank you for letting us know - we appreciate when ANet communicates with us.

No, I'm thinking that people bellowing that a convenience area should not be convenient are the trolls.

re: Bold assumption. A small group here thinking they're the majority. - No, based on ANet's own admission that raids aren't attracting enough players, and are still a relatively small group. Which is the reason strikes were added. And why they're trying to find ways to coerce players into doing strikes, which should ensure that they're going to do (and love) raids, right? The second sentence after the heading "Raids" may interest you.https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/97028/a-message-from-andrew-gray Actually, I'll just put it here, and save you the trouble. Please do fact check me if you have any doubt. They're a unique experience and community that we want to find better ways to support, the biggest challenge in creating more is the small audience they attract. Also:Our intention was for Strike Missions to be that intermediary step into 10-person content. And again, please do fact check if you have any doubt. (edited- grammar, clarity, supporting info)

re: Fortunately players don’t have to do this content. - It's story content, and story content should be for everyone. I wish they would add an optional challenge mote (or whatever they're called) to each and every story instance, so that people who want story mode to be "challenging" could get their adrenaline fix, or whatever it is that they're after. But once again, I think that should be an option - story should be for everyone. re: If you don't like it, don't do it. - I see this a lot on the forums, and it's a shame. ANet should be making more content that appeals to more people, not dumping resources into making more restrictive content that will appeal to less of their player base. It's wasteful of company resources, much like the LS1 content that was only available for a short time and not re-playable after.

And thank you to the people who are kindly giving helpful hints for doing this content. It's very nice of you to take the time to help others.

re: Not my type of content! - Story should be for everyone. Those of us who like story resent it being locked behind content not intended for everyone.(Raids and strikes are, by definition, not for everyone.) re: Tricking us! - If you can't recognize subterfuge by now, I don't think I can help you. Un-fun, because I'm expected to press more than one button! - You assume that anyone and everyone who doesn't raid has no idea how to play or is completely incapable. Do keep wondering why non-raiders think that the raid community is un-welcoming and hostile. Something went wrong when I was playing, therefore the instance is bad! - That is just baseless, like the other assumptions. But y'know - why reinvent the wheel instead of going with what already works? New stuff is more likely(than old methods) to be buggy.

Do you even realize how arrogant and elitist that sounds? Don't wonder why ANet is so desperately trying to prop up raids.

No, I don't think it was a clever choice. ANet certainly thinks that they're clever, and that they're going to dupe everyone that doesn't like raids into liking raids. They think that we don't even know what we like or dislike without being told. ANet thinks that everyone who doesn't raid just needs a shallower difficulty curve. And while this is certainly true for some percentage of players who don't raid, I believe that it won't make the amount of difference that ANet vainly wishes it will make. Also, from what I have seen of raids and strikes, this content is not representative of either raids or strikes. The escort part is much like an open world event chain. And the end boss fight seems more like a fractal boss than a raid or strike boss. And while it's nice to have the option to do story in an instance, with only players of my choosing, I'd rather it be just that - an option. In summary, I don't think that this tactic of "fooling" or "forcing" non-raiders into doing raids will have the results ANet so desperately wants. I have participated in raids and strikes, and I do not like the style of game play - I think it is very un-fun. Clever, clever ANet will not fool me into liking something I've already tried and formed an opinion on. And I think that I am not alone. And if ANet are so bell-hent on tricking people into doing strikes, then raids- their bait-content should be more representative of strikes and raids.

re: I had a group that refused to break the defiance bar so after like five failures, I just took the WP to the start and watched something on Netflix. I’ll put in the same amount of effort as I would have with competent players but anything beyond that is a no. - You should have just left the instance.

I should have checked myself, thank you for letting us know.

I can confirm that this is an issue - Dismounting when already in combat or when using the dismount skill to initiate combat. The previously present pet does not spawn on dismount, 100% of the dozen times I have tested this. Merging and quickly un-merging is a clumsy but viable workaround, that seems to work in 100% of those dozen or so tests. I don't feel the need to test more than that, especially with the behavior of the issue and workaround being so consistent. Besides, it's ANet's job to do testing, especially now that players have pointed out this issue which has already gotten by ANet's QA and into a live release. And should this thread possibly be moved to the bugs forum? Also, the thread title should be changed to reflect that it is a "pet activation" issue, rather than a possible misunderstanding of the new Soul Beast pet swap mechanic change.

re: How many level 80's do you see one shotting mobs in starter maps? - This tells me that you don't often go into starter zones, because this sort of behavior is common when there are event dailies, or anything else that would draw lvl 80s back into starter zones - Like the New Player Tutorial thing going on right now. It is very common in these times to see level 80s who know the events by heart vaporizing mobs at their spawn point before new players ever realize that the mobs have spawned. I have long been against mount nerfs, but seeing this over and over and over has driven the point home. In Starter Zones, dismount skills should probably do heavily nerfed or even no damage. I hate myself for even typing that. But this issue is interfering with new players' ability to play in Stater Zones, and that's a very bad thing. We can't force certain veteran players not to be rude to new players, but we can nerf dismount damage. And yeah, they'll still be rude, but at least their ability to be rude will be mitigated somewhat. And it will be proof (to anyone who might disagree) that "Yes, high level characters using mounts skills in Starter Areas in a rude, exploitive fashion is a problem."

A lot of mobs use CC, even in Core. There are Oakhearts in starter areas, Krait and Skelk in low to moderate level areas, Risen in higher level areas, etc... in the case of a single mob, this is what I call "nuisance CC" - the mob has no chance to kill your character, it just halts your movement for a time. But when you're in aggro range of several CC using mobs, it becomes an issue. Yes, you can mount up if you have PoF and have at least one mount unlocked. But sometimes mounting up is not a good or an available solution. In short, you can make nerfs like this in PvP and WvW without the same ramifications, because the nerf is for both sides equally.(all participants are players, all got the exact same nerf) In PvE the nerf is to all players, but mobs and environmental effects will need to be adjusted to compensate. Unless the one-sided adjustment is intentional, to correct what ANet considers an already existing imbalance.(in PvE)

re: Sine when did you have to worry about PvE mob CC in this game? - There are a significant number of CC wielding mobs in the expansions & living story. The White Mantle typically have decent CC. And even in Core - Some of the mobs in Orr(even the early parts) have CC. To me the obvious solution is to mount up and just skip more stuff.(where you can) But there will obviously be places where you can't just mount up and wade through.