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Guild Wars 2 - Spring 2014 Feature Update (April 15th)
- Thread starter Jira
- Start date
Vigilant Walrus
Member
HowZatOZ - Skills are still locked to weapons, however there is more ways to play now with buffed sigils and runes.
shysaursoft
Member
Guild Wars 2 doesn't have an end game. It has a game. If you hit level 80, every single piece of content in the world is still viable for you, and worth playing. There are high-tier events now to do, like the new Tequatle and Triple Trouble events, that are essentially open world raids, not to mention Guild Missions and such. But all content across the world is technically "end game", because the point isn't to get to 80 to "get to the good stuff".
Skills are still determined by weapon (first five slots, with a weapon swap on most professions), and four customizable utility slots and an elite slot. A lot of your "build" has to do with the weapons you have slotted, the runes you have slotted, the sigils in your weapons, and then your Trait loadout to determine the meta you're going for. You can now retrait for free on the fly, and there are powerful new build-altering Traits to go get.
GW2 will never be GW1. They are fundamentally two different paradigms. But what GW2 is, is great for what it is.
The megaserver system, as it rolls out over the next few days/weeks/months? will dramatically improve zone populations. Now is probably a good time to play again, since things are going to be busy as people roll alts and explore again.
Hm, might give it a try and see if I like it, could never get over just how much they screwed it up compared to Guild Wars (in my opinion of course).
Eh, that doesn't sound like its for me than. Ah well, I'll come back another time and see if its changed back to what I want
I'm more of an MMO player who enjoys end-game content that gives you items as a reward for doing said end game, and encourages group play etc. Also I prefer more customisation than locked in skills, something that really turned me off Guild Wars 2. Enjoy the party though folks, always good having some free content.
shysaursoft
Member
It's understandable that coming from GW1 and expecting "more of the same" would make GW2 seem like a huge letdown, in some respects if might have been better if GW2 wasn't called Guild Wars 2 at all, but what's done is done. You should rather approach GW2 with a beginner's mind and see it for what it is, not what you want it to be. It might surprise you. In the same way GW1 was a well designed game and experience, GW2 is as well, even if it is a different type of game.
In some ways GW2 has more customizable skills compared to GW1, because you can change your utility slot skills on the fly to meet the demands of each encounter, instead of being locked into a deck for the entire duration of the mission. GW2 is more about thinking tactically and on the fly, compared to GW1's "build wars" idea.
There is plenty of group content to do that gives you items as a reward for doing them, like the dungeons and fractals. You're just not forced to hit 80 to be able to do them.
Mikey Jr.
Member
Sounds great. So the mega server isn't out yet? Any timeframe on when it might be? Gonna start a new character, so would like to start with the mega server.
shysaursoft
Member
Megaserver is rolled out to "low population zones" first, but I've no idea which zones those are, or if it's dynamic based on population count, or what.
Mikey Jr.
Member
Great. Thanks for your help.
I'll hop on and see if it is fixed for me or not. Now to just patch this enormous thing.......
OldGangWarily
Member
Thank god. Harathi Hinterlands was practically empty very recently when I was levelling through that area. The giant group event to deal with the centaurs became impossiburu.
shysaursoft
Member
There's just so much to digest with this patch, it's overwhelming.
Boss Doggie
all my loli wolf companions are so moe
Updating is so annoying :/
piratepwnsninja
Member
So my character is Shalysnah if someone wouldn't mind tossing me an invite.
Done, check your guild panel.
shysaursoft
Member
hockeypuck
Member
I just realized Stormbluff Isle has a logo. I always assumed that cringe-inducing drawing was something from Teamspeak.
Lone_Prodigy
Member
I roll a Mesmer. Not the greatest solo character but quite valuable in a team. Illusions are fun; I miss the beta days when you had unlimited haha.
In PVP Mesmer illusions are the worst.
I've been having a minor jones to log-back in and tool around a bit...
They haven't added any open-world zones since last summer? abilities? weapons?
I hope the merged zones makes for more small groups and doesn't just lead to a bunch of big zergs roaming around every map. The game works best with smallish numbers of pcs in most situations... more than that and it becomes a bit of a mess.
edit: reading the release notes... sigh... they keep making the strong stuff i invested in into weak stuff. someone please make an mmo with a great combat system and no pvp that needs to be "balanced" pls.
edit2: gw2gaf fan-force should be on the payroll. you folk are champs.
They haven't added any open-world zones since last summer? abilities? weapons?
I hope the merged zones makes for more small groups and doesn't just lead to a bunch of big zergs roaming around every map. The game works best with smallish numbers of pcs in most situations... more than that and it becomes a bit of a mess.
edit: reading the release notes... sigh... they keep making the strong stuff i invested in into weak stuff. someone please make an mmo with a great combat system and no pvp that needs to be "balanced" pls.
edit2: gw2gaf fan-force should be on the payroll. you folk are champs.
Kagoshima_Luke
Gold Member
I updated and logged in for a bit last night.
My quick takeaways:
My quick takeaways:
- Being able to respec traits on the fly is awesome. I was out and about in the world and was able to just try different builds, right then and there. No fuss. No annoyances.
- Still wish there was an option to tie camera movement to mouse movement (like in TERA/ESO).
- The level 65 zone I was in was dead. Hopefully megaservers will change that.
- Account bound dyes = great. That's how it was in beta before they got money-grubby and changed it character bound. I do take issue with them charging for dye changes now in the wardrobe. I attempted to dye some gear and it kept telling me to purchase "reconfiguration charges" or some such thing. Went to the store and the first 5 were free, additional ones cost money.
- The game still looks gorgeous.
They've added three new maps total since launch; Southsun Cove (AKA Karka-infested Wasteland), the Bazaar of the Four Winds (AKA the most wonderful, joyous MMO map ever created) and Edge of the Mists (AKA WvW Lite). They've changed a bunch of maps though, most notably Lion's Arch but also Kessex Hills, Divinity's Reach and a few others.
Each class has gotten a new Healing skill; depending on your playstyle they may be the best thing ever or completely useless, but they are there. No new weapon combinations or types, but that sort of thing is always being worked on.
It's one of the downsides of having the "RPG" in MMORPG; the math and mechanics running under the hood are always going to need to be adjusted as the ground on which the game sits shifts. The alternative is a completely skill-based MMO without any pretense at RPG, and then you'd have something along the lines of Zelda. Which wouldn't be bad at all if you ask me (in fact, I think it could be very very good), but I don't think it's possible just yet when all things are considered.
I'll be right there with ya though the day it happens. Until then, balance changes are both the order of the day and the nature of the beast.
That is a not altogether uncommon accusation, but there are only two ANet developers on GAF that I know of; one Software Tester and one member of the Living Story team. Both post fairly rarely.
Actually, the way dyes worked in BWE was even more money-grubby. Yes, dyes were account-wide, but they couldn't be obtained anywhere as easily. Instead of "Unidentified Dyes" you just click to identify, you instead obtained "Colorful Dye Seed" as drops that you had to take to an NPC in your home instance. It then took 24 hours for him to turn it into a dye, unless you spent real money on "Magic Plant food" to speed the process up.
Either way, the way dyes are handled now is perfect, though I'm not keen on the gem-store exclusive ones sitting at almost 200g a pop now.
thoseAREmySHOES
Member
Reinstalling! 
I didn't manage to get back to the game any earlier, damn life commitments
I didn't manage to get back to the game any earlier, damn life commitments
Astral/H3X
Member
Hm, might give it a try and see if I like it, could never get over just how much they screwed it up compared to Guild Wars (in my opinion of course).
Eh, that doesn't sound like its for me than. Ah well, I'll come back another time and see if its changed back to what I want
Enjoy the party though folks, always good having some free content.
Here's the thing you're missing though:
All content is endgame content.
Seriously. We're not kidding. If you go back and do the level 30 dungeon, at level 80, you will get level 80 gear, including badass ghost possessed weaponry exclusive to that dungeon. The level does not dictate what you SHOULD do, only what you CANNOT do. You don't hit 80 and stay in level 80 areas. I think my 80's have spent only a very small amount of their time at 80, in level 80 areas.
Also skills in GW1 kinda sucked, looking back on it. Yes, you can say there's customization, but really everyone ran with the same skills, and 80% of them were worthless. I honestly feel like there's a lot MORE customization now, since carrying two weapons actually makes sense, classes aren't locked into one weapon (exception GW1 warrior), and skills have a much, much wider variety outside of "do damage, like this".
Kos Luftar
Member
Thought I should share this here as well.
https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/info/news/Megaserver-Rollout-Update/first#post3909472
https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/info/news/Megaserver-Rollout-Update/first#post3909472
Update done. Looking forward to seeing the changes.
Looks like they are adding more as the day/s progress and meets the satisfaction of the guys looking after the servers.
ArenaNet said:
Looks like they are adding more as the day/s progress and meets the satisfaction of the guys looking after the servers.
I feel bad for anyone logging into Lion's Arch who hasn't played in a while. All of the amenities have moved north to Vigil Keep, which is in the next zone over and fairly easy to find.
If you do happen to log in to LA, don't immediately leave, but take a minute or two to roam around and see the level of destruction. It's practically heartbreaking.
If you do happen to log in to LA, don't immediately leave, but take a minute or two to roam around and see the level of destruction. It's practically heartbreaking.
Lone_Prodigy
Member
Still kicking myself over missing the living story events.
Eh, it's not entirely your fault. Apart from e-mails they send out after every event, there's little marketing being done for Guild Wars 2 (especially since NCSoft is now pushing really hard to get anyone interested in Wildstar). Part of it is just the way the Living Story works; the gaming press can't really cover every update fairly without their front page looking like "Guild Wars 2 all day, every day" because no other MMO makes enough news to compete with that. The end result is that non-GW2 exclusive gaming sites usually just pay lip service to LS updates because making a big deal out of each update, even with they deserve to a fuss to be made over (Lion's Arch was a huge deal) would just be an endless noise compared to everything else.
I'm hoping the gap between the Feature Update and Season 2 is used like the months immediately preceding the start of a new television series, ala "Game of Thrones". Teaser trailers, a few interviews, that sort of thing. Television doesn't make a big deal out of each episode, they just do a hard push to get everyone pumped for the upcoming season and let the whole thing speak for itself.
Southsun and the Bazaar I've seen (though the bazaar had left I think when I stopped playing - glad it's back - it *was* a great map). Haven't checked out the new and de-improved Lion's Arch yet. I wish they'd do more new zones - I realize they're hard to do and asset-heavy, but the game is the most fun for me when I'm exploring new areas - particularly ones with legit dangers.
That's a start, I guess. Based on the description of the new thief-heal, I'm guessing it'll fall into the "completely useless" category for me... worth playing with I guess... (especially now that you can respec in the field (yay)).
It's a side-effect of pvp more than anything (though I'm sympathetic to their desire for build-diversity too). With no pvp balancing having an ott op skill isn't nearly as big a deal. With pvp and the "esports" desires of anet, you can never really have a ridiculously powerful ability and you need to keep classes competitive with each other... it's too bad (if you don't pvp at-all). Also, I'm just bitter and grumpy because all of the stuff I spent money on is looking like it needs to be bin'd now
compliment, not accusation
keep up the fandom - it's good.re: Living Story and marketing/press coverage...
I think LS is getting *tons* of press compared to most mmos. Lion's Arch had big stories everywhere because it's just more interesting in the context of living story (since it's... actually destroyed and is staying that way for a while). Even the smaller events got some coverage in non-gw2 press (I don't read any gw-specific news-sites, and I've been at least a little aware that stuff was going on in the game).
Generally-speaking, I think it's a great way to keep your game in the public-eye *without* spending a ton on marketing. If interesting things are happening in the world, the enthusiast press is going to keep writing about it.
I think LS is getting *tons* of press compared to most mmos. Lion's Arch had big stories everywhere because it's just more interesting in the context of living story (since it's... actually destroyed and is staying that way for a while). Even the smaller events got some coverage in non-gw2 press (I don't read any gw-specific news-sites, and I've been at least a little aware that stuff was going on in the game).
Generally-speaking, I think it's a great way to keep your game in the public-eye *without* spending a ton on marketing. If interesting things are happening in the world, the enthusiast press is going to keep writing about it.
What? When did this happen?
The Bazaar isn't back, I probably should have specified that it was temporary. I just had to include it though, since A). technically it is a new map and B). I love it to death.
I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing new zones soon; that was one of the most-requested features in the Big Official Living Story feedback thread, and they've strongly hinted via the last update of the Living Story that we're headed into the Maguuma Wastes next.
That said, the problem with new zones is that they're usually devoured in the space of a weekend but take a huge amount of time to develop. It's hard to blame them for not adding new maps when the most ravenous content locust would beat the zone in an afternoon and then immediately start whining for more. That's not just a GW2 problem (if anything, the POIs, vistas and hidden stuff like Jumping Puzzles add a lot of life to their zones), but an MMO problem in general. That's one of the reason we need more Sandbox in our Theme Park games, so player activity can keep things a little fresher.
Also, I'm just bitter and grumpy because all of the stuff I spent money on is looking like it needs to be bin'd now
Hmm? What did you spend money on that would be affected by the game? There's nothing but convenience items and cosmetics in the gemstore, so balance changes should affect that unless you're talking about not using a purchased skin because that weapon type isn't as viable anymore.
compliment, not accusation
I did mean to thank you in my original response, but it slipped through the cracks or something. The comic in the OP was meant as a subtle bit of ribbing at the folks who think we're all marketing shills.
Honestly, seeing so many people return to the game and immediately want GAFGuild invites, or seeing the guild mentioned so positively in various MMO threads on GAF really means a lot to everyone running it. The game makes it easy, of course, with guesting and multi-guilding and all that, but I like to think the level of enthusiasm and the play-how-you-want/anti-elitist approach we've taken is why it's easily the longest-lived MMO guild on GAF and one if, if not the largest (FFXIV has a lot of people playing, but they're spread out across three guilds last I heard).
We were just talking about this in the Community OT (sparked by a discussion on Reddit), how there seems to be almost no awareness of the game outside of the enthusiast press; a couple GAFers were at PAX and every time it came up people were surprised the game still exists. For all the great stuff they're doing with the game (two-week update cycle, blowing up a major hub city, etc), you don't hear about it unless you follow MMO news. The last big news story on GW2 was the "Fastest Selling MMO", way back in August (and I don't think that created many waves).
I think there's also a certain degree of risk of just burning people out on GW2-related news. Not every update is going to be a Battle of Lion's Arch, and week-after-week of seeing GW2 news means people will eventually start to ignore it. Hell, we could create new threads here on Gaming side every two weeks for the Living Story updates (new news = new thread), especially considering how many people come back to the game when we do make them. I think people would just stop caring after a while, which is why we only venture into gaming side for the "Big stuff" that really changes up the game world. There's also a pretty reliable pack of haters who absolutely cannot pass up a chance to drive-by shit-post in anything GW2 related (this thread, shockingly, is probably the most positive we've had).
One of the reasons the Feature Patch exists is because including features alongside the Living Story kind of buried one or the other; people either cared about the feature more than the story or vice versa. Holding all the features back for one update allows them talk about big mechanical changes one month, then the Living Story the next.
As far as the enthusiast press and MMO-specific sites go, hell yes, the two-week update thing keeps them in the news a lot, and for legitimate reasons. Unreleased MMOs tend to generate a fuckton of hype-laden "What if!?" articles while bigger, established MMOs tend to generate a ton of pointless fluff pieces just to get clicks. When you see GW2 news, most of the time it's because something new is happening. So yeah, they don't need to do much marketing in that area, it's just outside of the communities that know GW2 is a thing that seems to be the problem.
It's not back, I included it because it's a new map post launch, though it was temporary. I wouldn't be surprised to see it return in the near future though.
ack no. not real money.
lyssa runes look not near worth-it for me anymore - that's the big one. some other gear might need a look at, but nothing else as dramatic. i saved ages for those.