How do you feel about each of the controversial new features?

[Thron Stal.9367]

On 6/28/2023 at 7:40 AM, A Hamster.2580 said:

Using this template:

Open World Legendary Armor:  Don't care - doesn't mean anything - have ascended for years.   

Easier Skyscale:  Finally

More Weapon Choices for All:  This is the main interesting one. 

Runes and Relics:  Don't care - already have ascended, if they ruin those --- I will be PISSED OFF.

Open World Legendary Armor:  Don't care - doesn't mean anything - have ascended for years.   

Easier Skyscale:  Finally

More Weapon Choices for All:  This is the main interesting one. 

Runes and Relics:  Don't care - already have ascended, if they ruin those --- I will be PISSED OFF.

Edited July 13, 2023 by AreohCobing.5092

[idpersona.3810]

17 minutes ago, Biziut.3594 said:

Yes, you right. WvW armor is basicly armor for afking. But I do not understan how youcan use that as an argument. If something is badly implemented, that doesn't mean all future stuff must be implemented as badly to be in line with that. 

It's not about qol or starus anything really. LEGENDARY gear is a last tier of armor, something that is a main and sometimes final long term goal for many players in many games. Make it boring, tedious, cheap to get, and it won't be this long term goal. What will take it's place. Achivment hunts? Skins? Story every few months? 

to each their own. Mind you, I agree that WvW armor is badly implemented. I don't want that for the new OW leg.
I expect the armor to take a while and cost somewhat considerable resources. I don't really expect any normal player to fully gear out their legendary armory from this for a long while. And that is obviously acceptable. I'm looking forward to it being an alternative path to leg. armor. I just don't think there is any world in which it will be considered "free".

[Biziut.3594]

2 hours ago, idpersona.3810 said:

to each their own. Mind you, I agree that WvW armor is badly implemented. I don't want that for the new OW leg.
I expect the armor to take a while and cost somewhat considerable resources. I don't really expect any normal player to fully gear out their legendary armory from this for a long while. And that is obviously acceptable. I'm looking forward to it being an alternative path to leg. armor. I just don't think there is any world in which it will be considered "free".

So we agree on the acquire method. I too hope, It will be fun and challanging adventure rather than another "go kill megadestroyer for a 100th time and afk some meta, or you can just buy it off tp if you farm enough gold, idk". As for it being free, it is often used as a generalisation, of course it will never be handed for free. Peoples use this term to express their apprehension to the acquire method. For example compare the acqusition method of gen 2 weapons vs gen 3 weapons. One requires you to do some special achivments, some of them rewards you with cool gizmos or skins like the tiger bow, generally every weapon is it's own unique adventure. The gen 3 weapons... "go, do whatever, or just buy if you have some gold, we don't care really. But look, it's shiny, it's all that matter right?".

[idpersona.3810]

5 hours ago, Biziut.3594 said:

So we agree on the acquire method. I too hope, It will be fun and challanging adventure rather than another "go kill megadestroyer for a 100th time and afk some meta, or you can just buy it off tp if you farm enough gold, idk". As for it being free, it is often used as a generalisation, of course it will never be handed for free. Peoples use this term to express their apprehension to the acquire method. For example compare the acqusition method of gen 2 weapons vs gen 3 weapons. One requires you to do some special achivments, some of them rewards you with cool gizmos or skins like the tiger bow, generally every weapon is it's own unique adventure. The gen 3 weapons... "go, do whatever, or just buy if you have some gold, we don't care really. But look, it's shiny, it's all that matter right?".

Fair enough. I know the "it's free" is a generalization. But that tends to be the stance lately that a lot of players who already earned something feel about any other method of earning. I mean with WvW for example, I suppose you can afk for a lot of it, but you still need to put in 12-15 hours a week for 20 weeks straight. 300 hours of time is far from nothing. That being said, I do wish the pips track filled more from active gameplay and then the overall time could be brought down as long as you were productively active.
On the gen 2s, it was only 4 of them that required those in depth achievements. The rest were all just go do whatever, as long as you have this time gated material and some masteries filled out.
All that being said, I think we do agree on general outlook. It shouldn't be too easy by any means. And shouldn't be available from just throwing money at the TP. 

[Gehenna.3625]

On 7/11/2023 at 12:08 PM, vares.8457 said:

Absolutely, it punishes dedicated players and rewards lazy open world players. 

Dedicated afk'ers you mean. I remember getting the OW trinkets Aurora and Vision. That was not for the lazy.

[Gussy.3907]

All I want is an alternative means to WvW for getting Gift of Battle. Effing hate that part of acquiring legendary weapons. 

[Thron Stal.9367]

17 hours ago, Gussy.3907 said:

All I want is an alternative means to WvW for getting Gift of Battle. Effing hate that part of acquiring legendary weapons. 

Maybe you will get a Free skyscale skin too!

[Tekey.5084]

On 7/4/2023 at 1:50 PM, TheOuroborus.6387 said:

I think this "expansion" -- it's not really an expansion -- will be the final curtain on my many years of dedication to Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2. I won't be buying it and once the skies are filled with skyscales, I won't be playing it anymore. It's been a good run, but I'm out.

And no, you can't have my stuff. I'm burning it all.

I'm a kind guy and a bit more gold and some legendary weapons would make me a less miserable man. Think about it with a light heart 😃

[Gibson.4036]

On 7/11/2023 at 6:08 AM, vares.8457 said:

Absolutely, it punishes dedicated players and rewards lazy open world players. 

Hard core punish!

😄

Edited July 18, 2023 by Gibson.4036

[Gazrul.3086]

I like them all. 🙂

[Pifil.5193]

On 7/13/2023 at 6:00 AM, AreohCobing.5092 said:

Runes and Relics:  Don't care - already have ascended, if they ruin those --- I will be PISSED OFF.

Genuine confused emoji: you have ascended runes?

[Linken.6345]

39 minutes ago, Pifil.5193 said:

Genuine confused emoji: you have ascended runes?

Probabely mix up the armor grade with the rune grade.

[Anvar.5673]

I found interesting to speak about more features than only the controversial ones, so:

Open World Legendary Armor:

I don't mind about it. Since the Heart of the Obscure and Astral Ward masteries will be required, alongside doing Soto content a lot (like getting the new Rift Hunter, Astral Ward and Demonic armor sets),

I hope it will not be too boring. It will be a long run, for sure.

 

Easier Skyscale:

As it seems this expansion will largely take place in the air, allow players to get the skyscale easilly was mandatory as they paid to benefit for all of the content.

Apart that, I don't mind about it especially if it can open up more design possibilites for the developers that can benefit to everyone.

The new abilities and enhanced ones for the players who already get the skyscale in Path of Fire are great and the combat launch one is a godsend.

 

More Weapon Choices for All:

Relasing more and more elite specializations was untenable on the long term for mainly balancing issues.

Give access to more weapons for each professions is a good compromise.

I hope it will give them more room for manoeuvre to focus on more contents with great replayability like new games modes for PvP.

 

Runes and Relics:

Good feature, bad execution (legendary relics). Relics are interesting and can greatly benefit to the game.

 

Maps:

3 maps a year is already a lot more than we got from months of nothing so I guess it's great for the explorers type players like me.

I have some reservations about the recycling of a lot of assets but the level designers often showed the full extend of their talent in most positive ways than negative ones (we see you Gyala Delve) so we will see.

I hope the third map won't be separated too badly and that it will look like a real smartly made map and not some patchworks at the end.

 

Story:

From what little I read and knowing that Bobby Stein and his writing team is on it, I have complete confidence about the story of Soto.

 

Wizard's Vault:

That's Zaishen's Quest again but with weeklies and monthlies. I like the fact that this new rewards system do not require any expansion, even if some rewards are Soto exclusives.

I think the Wizard's Vault will help to revitalize some forgotten parts of the game by the majority of players like some metas (Serpent's ire) and the WvW and PvP.

 

Rifts:

It sound like the awakened invasions throughout all Tyria and it seems boring but we will see how it goes together with the Heart of the Obscure and Astral Ward masteries.

 

New masteries:

Heart of the Obscure: "...hunt and close Kryptis rifts, open special doors and reward chests, create ley lines, and others".

It looks like some Icebrood Saga masteries (raven doors and walls, essence chests) but seems to bring more cool things.

Astral Ward: "...undertaking monster hunts and bounty contracts throughout the game to rank up and earn new rewards and abilities."

Let's see about that second one beyond only activate some bounties but the both masteries looks very promising.

Edited July 28, 2023 by Anvar.5673
formatting

[TheGrimm.5624]

Runes and Relic

This currently sounds like a major nerf bat. Remove all existing 6th piece traits. On paper it sounds like a great way for future additions, but then it also destroys any builds already created around 6th piece traits. So again, sure add new one but make sure all the old ones are available day 1 so existing builds aren't void on day one.

[Gehenna.3625]

On 7/28/2023 at 7:04 PM, TheGrimm.5624 said:

Runes and Relic

This currently sounds like a major nerf bat. Remove all existing 6th piece traits. On paper it sounds like a great way for future additions, but then it also destroys any builds already created around 6th piece traits. So again, sure add new one but make sure all the old ones are available day 1 so existing builds aren't void on day one.

The 6th piece traits as you call them are going to be on the relics. So it's not a nerf. In fact it can be a buff because these "traits" are no longer linked to specific stats that you may not care for.

Example: Rune of the Trapper. The 6th piece bonus grants invisibility every time after placing a trap. Rangers and Dragon Hunters have traps, but the stats on the Rune of the Trapper are condition based which is fine for Rangers because their traps cause conditions, but not for the Dragon Hunters whose traps are based on power damage.

So with this new system, Dragon Hunters will be able to pick more appropriate stats for their builds. And if you're a Ranger and want to use different stats you can pick any runes you want now as well.

The bonus abilities are removed from the Runes but are added again via the Relics. There is one caveat, the core Relics (aka the 6th piece bonuses from the current runes) are going to number a total of 40, and I do believe there are currently more than 40 of them. So the question then becomes which ones will make it and which ones won't. Having said that, they already were talking about adding more core relics over time.

The system itself is a buff, but they might be removing some things that might be a nerf by themselves. Just not sure about which ones those 40 core Relics will be.

 

[genjonah.1253]

On 6/27/2023 at 5:40 PM, A Hamster.2580 said:

Open World Legendary Armor:

Easier Skyscale:

More Weapon Choices for All:

Runes and Relics:

Legendary armor- I don’t mind another set. But it should be hard to get and actually mean something. While I was one of the seemingly few judging by these forums, I actually really liked the designs of the Gen 3 legendary weapons, but the Gen 2 ones are a status symbol. Especially the first wave, you had to work for them, and not just in a credit card swipe. That’s how it should be. And even though there’s issues as far as how ‘hard’ it is for the WvW armor (much more a time sink if you want it to be), all the current legendary armor sets still show some form of elite status, the Envoy set being the most prestigious. Legendary should be prestigious

 

Skyscale- call me a grump idc: just like above, this was supposed to be a symbol as well. And it’s status has already TWICE been cheapened because enough people complained, first by drastically reducing the time gate (which admittedly was a bit of a dumb gate) but much more so by the ‘return to…’ achievements making it so you could get all the account bound materials in a day. If you designed the whole expansion around that sort of travel, I’d even have been happier with it being the Griffon revisited, at least that one was pretty much just a gold sink already.

 

More weapon choices- this… intrigues me. I didn’t do the beta, so I will reserve my judgment on it. While it also reeks of ‘give me give me’ mentality, it also sounds like it kind of balances itself out, in that if you (for example) don’t have dragon hunter specced, you can’t get as many actual bonuses for the longbow, and can’t maximize it like a dragon hunter could. So I’ll wait and see

 

Runes and relics- I’m soooo glad I hadn’t gotten around to crafting the legendaries yet, as it sounds like doing such a thing will be a huge waste of time from now on. But just like above- if I HAD taken the time/effort, I’d be pissed, as this is a huge slap in the face

[TheGrimm.5624]

11 hours ago, Gehenna.3625 said:

The system itself is a buff, but they might be removing some things that might be a nerf by themselves. Just not sure about which ones those 40 core Relics will be.

Agree it might be seen as a buff and on paper looks good and might allow for more build crafting in later additions to the system. And I think we agree, concerned with the 6th piece traits that don't make the cut, which is where I am aiming low, would prefer to be wrong and pleasantly surprised versus assume not and see traits people used as center pieces removed and the build concept that was created is just gone. So again, this might be easily resolved by an early share of them all so that players can either be assured, more worried, or at least have time to provide early feedback to make cases for some being kept versus try and deal with feedback after the fact. But that is my 2 cents.

[Gehenna.3625]

2 hours ago, TheGrimm.5624 said:

Agree it might be seen as a buff and on paper looks good and might allow for more build crafting in later additions to the system. And I think we agree, concerned with the 6th piece traits that don't make the cut, which is where I am aiming low, would prefer to be wrong and pleasantly surprised versus assume not and see traits people used as center pieces removed and the build concept that was created is just gone. So again, this might be easily resolved by an early share of them all so that players can either be assured, more worried, or at least have time to provide early feedback to make cases for some being kept versus try and deal with feedback after the fact. But that is my 2 cents.

Yeah a lot depends on which 40 abilities the core relics will have included and which ones are not. We just don't know if they're going to cut abilities because of their lack of popularity or because they might be too powerful in their eyes. Or indeed a mix thereof. 

In just over 3 weeks we'll know and then we'll see whether or not they cut some choice abilities.