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Guild Wars 2 - Heart of Thorns |OT| Welcome to the Jungle...

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N

NormalFish

Banned
Didn't they say they've got a sizable number of devs working on their next expac already? Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if LW drops in quality.

Really all I want is more zones, five man content outside of fractals (if only for the variety), and world events. If LW offers me those things I'll be happy. If it doesn't, I'll probably ignore it until I decide I'd like one of the exclusive skins related to it.
 
R

Retro

Member
NormalFish said:
Didn't they say they've got a sizable number of devs working on their next expac already? Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if LW drops in quality.
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Yeah, during the AMA where Mike O'Brien announced Colin's departure, they said
"120 devs working on live game, 70 devs on expansion 2, 30 devs on core teams that support both. With in the live release/expansion groups we have the PvP team, the WvW team, the Fractals team, the Raids team, the Living World team, the Legendaries team, and a couple others"
Click to expand...

Keep in mind that since then, they already killed the Legendaries team, and I wouldn't be surprised if they pull a hell of a lot more people off to work on the next expansion when crunch time hits.

They also said they won't be going back to the two week schedule, which is already a huge concession. The pacing was just right; spread out enough you don't feel rushed, often enough that you don't have long to wait for more.

NormalFish said:
Really all I want is more zones, five man content outside of fractals (if only for the variety), and world events. If LW offers me those things I'll be happy. If it doesn't, I'll probably ignore it until I decide I'd like one of the exclusive skins related to it.
Click to expand...

And really, the Living World was perfect for delivering content like that. Expansions are always a giant, gluttonous orgy of content bookended by periods of starvation. People run in, devour everything, and then wonder why there isn't more. With the Living World, it was like regular meals (though some of them were a bit on the meager side), and instead of blowing through four maps in as many weeks, you spent a month or so in one map that expanded with each update (Drytop was relatively small when it launched, the Silverwastes was lacking the Pac man Maze, Vinewraith, a large northern region and a giant ass jumping puzzle). Places stayed active and populated instead of everyone rushing to the end and staying there.

It's just a different game now, which is to say the things that made it different are being stripped away and it's more of the same exact garbage we've been getting from MMOs for the last decade. /shrug
 
N

NormalFish

Banned
Yeah, their comments about the next expac in that AMA do not instill me with a lot of confidence.

And yes, LW is amazing for introducing 'smaller' bits of content (a single new map like Southsun, or a new dungeon path like the aetherpath). I really wish we'd get more of that, since I really think that sort of content update is what the game is lacking.

Also new skills and weapons please. But I realize that's not nearly as likely, given they seemt o be very happy with their current pools of skills and elite specs
 
R

Retro

Member
NormalFish said:
Yeah, their comments about the next expac in that AMA do not instill me with a lot of confidence.
Click to expand...

I mean, they couldn't possibly make the same mistakes again, so they'll either deliver a quality expansion or find entirely new ways to screw it up. I'm not super confident either, but even at its worst it's still the best MMO on the market so I'm at least willing to wait and see.

I also wouldn't expect any new skills or traits outside of elite specs either, that seems to be how they want to deliver them from here on out. I would love it if they weren't part of the expansion though, since that creates a ton of problems (for example, it completely shuts non-expansion players out of PVP because they can't keep up with the meta).
 
N

NormalFish

Banned
Retro said:
I mean, they couldn't possibly make the same mistakes again, so they'll either deliver a quality expansion or find entirely new ways to screw it up. I'm not super confident either, but even at its worst it's still the best MMO on the market so I'm at least willing to wait and see.

I also wouldn't expect any new skills or traits outside of elite specs either, that seems to be how they want to deliver them from here on out. I would love it if they weren't part of the expansion though, since that creates a ton of problems (for example, it completely shuts non-expansion players out of PVP because they can't keep up with the meta).
Click to expand...
This patch has done quite a bit to reinvigorate my confidence, honestly. Seems like they'd have to do something aggressively stupid to fuck up an expansion after they managed to fix pretty much all the issues in their last one (outside of the actual quantity of content).

And your comment about being locked out of PvP if you don't have the expansion is actually what sold me on it. It's a dire situation playing without it, for the most part.
 
H

human onion

Banned
Well supposedly the expansion (and the recent patch) are supposed to lay the groundwork for adding more content, no new systems and such. We'll see how they works out from here on.
 
R

Retro

Member
NormalFish said:
This patch has done quite a bit to reinvigorate my confidence, honestly.
Click to expand...

Yep. The first step is admitting you have a problem and this update is pretty much exactly that, with a shitload of steps towards resolving those problems to boot. I'm waiting for new content though before I'm ready to call it, when and how that shows up is incredibly important for the game now. Right now they're kind of... um... Blizzard'ing it up.
 
V

Victrix

*beard*
Welp. I got my answer about dungeons right from the head guy. He straight up said they don't have a team working on dungeons, nor the bandwidth to do so.

On the one hand, that sucks bad.

On the other, it's refreshingly honest, and it's not like those devs are 'being lazy', it means they're busy working on live support and updates, lw3, or expac 2.

I think I'm actually ok with that, as much as it bums me out. I have a lot of content to explore, and even in their current state, I'll still have a good time at least looking at the dungeons that do exist. Whatever their gameplay, they are well built, and the rewards are on point now.

Query, does the gaf guild have a regular vc population? I don't like text chat these days, I prefer talking to people.
 
R

Retro

Member
Victrix said:
Query, does the gaf guild have a regular vc population? I don't like text chat these days, I prefer talking to people.
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We have a mumble server set up and paid for for like, two whole years thanks to generous donations from members, but it usually only sees action around mission times. That said, it's free if anyone wants to use it for just chatting with their friends or what not.

The server info is at the top of the OT (quote to see it, it's in the e-mail tags) or in the guild Message of the Day.
 
M

Morokh

Member
As big as this patch is, frankly I wouldn't flag it as major news for someone who doesn't follow the game closely, and even as a player who follows the game closely, it's basically just a big patch that significantly starts to repair everything they messed-up with the expansion to bring it to a level it should have been in the first place ....

You can praise them for fixing things , for sure, but you can't really ignore that they messed up big-time in the first place either.
 
N

Nemesis121

Member
Morokh said:
As big as this patch is, frankly I wouldn't flag it as major news for someone who doesn't follow the game closely, and even as a player who follows the game closely, it's basically just a big patch that significantly starts to repair everything they messed-up with the expansion to bring it to a level it should have been in the first place ....

You can praise them for fixing things , for sure, but you can't really ignore that they messed up big-time in the first place either.
Click to expand...

At least they fixed it some MMO's just move the fuck on to the next expansion...played F2P mmo who destroyed what they built with the first chapter, and instead of fixing it right away, game stayed in that state for 9 months until chapter 3..
 
R

Retro

Member
Nemesis121 said:
At least they fixed it some MMO's just move the fuck on to the next expansion...played F2P mmo who destroyed what they built with the first chapter, and instead of fixing it right away, game stayed in that state for 9 months until chapter 3..
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That's what I meant by "Blizzard'ing it up." They're notorious for long stretches with no content (it'll have been more than a year since the last content release when the next WoW expansion hits... a YEAR) and then paving over the existing stuff. Especially with character boosts, which I've always taken as a developer saying "Our old content is terrible, here's one free ticket to skip all of it!", and I feel like GW2 has done very much the same now (though being able to try out a different class at max level is nice at least). I actually think the old world is light years more enjoyable than the HoT zones, so you'd be skipping the good part to get to the not-so-good part. But that's MMO players for you... everything is Endgame Endgame Endgame.

The community wanted an Expansion... sad to say this is how expansions usually work. I wouldn't expect any new content before late summer, maybe even early fall. Another raid wing and slightly-modified festivals definitely shouldn't count (though even in that regard, Blizzard has run the exact same festivals for the last 10 years with only a few changes).

I can't imagine playing an MMO that's even worse.
 
Boss Doggie

Boss Doggie

all my loli wolf companions are so moe
Okay so I only need 6 more masteries until I max out (raiding not included, I don't think I've ever been to a raid).

VB, AB and TD all have adventures waiting to be golded, though I still need a majority of TD to silver and Fungus Among Us in AB.

TD also has two lanes needing to be done on my side (why I didn't get credit for taming the beetles bother me, I participated in that) and the Skelk boss.

Those last 6 masteries easy for me?
 
U

UltimateIke

Member
I finished the Legendary Backpiece Ad Infinitum tonight!

qq4tmSS.jpg
Click to expand...

It is actually an item that means a lot to me because making it takes a lot of time in Fractals, conquering all kinds of special challenges and crafting items like the Fractal Capacitor, all of which I've been working on for two years now.

So, many thanks to everyone with whom I've ever had the pleasure of playing Fractals of the Mists, and I hope to get many more opportunities to play with everyone in the future!
 
N

nataku

Member
I've probably said this before, but I really wish they hadn't gone for more wings yet again. It's so gaudy. And yet thanks to gliders they'll probably end up being even more common going forward. Yay.

Maybe one day they'll add a Hide all back items setting for those of us who think 90% of them look terrible.
 
L

leng jai

Member
UltimateIke said:
I finished the Legendary Backpiece Ad Infinitum tonight!



It is actually an item that means a lot to me because making it takes a lot of time in Fractals, conquering all kinds of special challenges and crafting items like the Fractal Capacitor, all of which I've been working on for two years now.

So, many thanks to everyone with whom I've ever had the pleasure of playing Fractals of the Mists, and I hope to get many more opportunities to play with everyone in the future!
Click to expand...

Nice armour, which set is that?
 
N

NormalFish

Banned
nataku said:
I've probably said this before, but I really wish they hadn't gone for more wings yet again. It's so gaudy. And yet thanks to gliders they'll probably end up being even more common going forward. Yay.

Maybe one day they'll add a Hide all back items setting for those of us who think 90% of them look terrible.
Click to expand...
Capes please.
 
H

Hawkian

The Cryptarch's Bane
Congrats on the Legendary backpiece Ike!

The fractal changes and dungeon rewards are sooo nice. The way the dungeon achievement serves as a permanent checklist that only resets when you get the reward is pretty brilliant. You can only do ones that you haven't done that day to maximize reward, or if you've done one on a previous day for the achievement reward you'll still get the daily reward, or if you've done the dungeon already that day but reset the achievement, you can do it again as part of the new 8. It's addictive.

Silly perhaps but I really like all the new dailies, too. Dailies are more of a "hey, that sounds fun, I'll do that" list now; whether that was ever before or is now the intent, it's a pleasant addition. I haven't even tried any of the HoT maps again since the patch yet.
 
K

Kos Luftar

Member
appletoasty said:
Glad you had fun, sorry we couldn't get you Gorseval... maybe next time :)
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Yeah you guys kept me on a bit too long, might not be able to be on much for few days.

I felt like first time in awhile I was actually using skills only when they were needed.

Auto attack with all the buffs dose so much damage.

Positioning and watching the bosses attacks/movement was very important.

I think once you are organized and know the fights, the combat in raids is the essence of Guild Wars 2 combat.
 
A

appletoasty

Member
I LOVE the dungeon changes. The last patch was just perfect for tidying things up, they covered almost everything I wanted to fix. Dungeons feel worth it again, fractals feel worth it again, I feel like I can run into an HoT map and do one event and not feel like I wasted my time. So many rares, aye.

I didn't realize it until the dungeon rewards got fixed but I missed playing alts. You can't take alts into any fractals that are worth doing because of agony resistance, and even then it would've just been 3 swamps. It's a great change. Ty anet.

I also love that they give you a thing after the AB meta that gives you 12 keys. TWELVE. That's so many. You can open all of the grand and great exalted chests with those, and a handful of the normal exalted chests. The price of black diamonds crashed for it, but I love that there is now cheap access to viper's stats. Paying 5g+ to swap a single piece of armor to viper's stats was a pain in the ass.

Only thing left is exp going nowhere once you max out all the masteries... I didn't rush to 166 or anything, but I maxed just from playing a bit each day. I actually had to force myself to do those dumb adventures for mastery points so my exp would stop going nowhere, but now there's no masteries left. v_v

Also, Aetherpath is crazy money right now because of those guaranteed skin drops. $$$

Kos Luftar said:
Yeah you guys kept me on a bit too long, might not be able to be on much for few days.

I felt like first time in awhile I was actually using skills only when they were needed.

Auto attack with all the buffs dose so much damage.

Positioning and watching the bosses attacks/movement was very important.

I think once you are organized and know the fights, the combat in raids is the essence of Guild Wars 2 combat.
Click to expand...

Sorry to Mrs. Luftar :p I'm glad we could finally take you after talking about it forever. I feel the same way about the raid fights, the personal responsibility is huge compared to what dungeons and fractals were and I feel like it's forcing me to become a better player (or at least a more aware player).
 
T

Taffer

Member
Turns out I got a backpack off Sabetha last night, it is ascended and you can choose Viper's stats. It'd probably be handy for a condition class, it would save having to spend six weeks of raid wages on getting one. Imagine that, you could spend those shards on something else. Boy am I glad I got a free ascended Viper's backpiece. I shall treasure it always.
 
K

Kos Luftar

Member
Taffer said:
Turns out I got a backpack off Sabetha last night, it is ascended and you can choose Viper's stats. It'd probably be handy for a condition class, it would save having to spend six weeks of raid wages on getting one. Imagine that, you could spend those shards on something else. Boy am I glad I got a free ascended Viper's backpiece. I shall treasure it always.
Click to expand...
You have 1 already, don't you?
 
A

Ashodin

Member
Why did no one tell me PVP became so sexy? I missed out on dem league cheevos.

I got like 8 boxes for winning one match, lol
 
Z

Zeroth

Member
Taffer said:
Turns out I got a backpack off Sabetha last night, it is ascended and you can choose Viper's stats. It'd probably be handy for a condition class, it would save having to spend six weeks of raid wages on getting one. Imagine that, you could spend those shards on something else. Boy am I glad I got a free ascended Viper's backpiece. I shall treasure it always.
Click to expand...


Salvage it for 20 shards and slowly get your shards back
kappa
 
Q

Quenk

Member
Taffer said:
Turns out I got a backpack off Sabetha last night, it is ascended and you can choose Viper's stats. It'd probably be handy for a condition class, it would save having to spend six weeks of raid wages on getting one. Imagine that, you could spend those shards on something else. Boy am I glad I got a free ascended Viper's backpiece. I shall treasure it always.
Click to expand...

This is why I'm worried to spend my shards on things.
 
V

Victrix

*beard*
Finished reading through LS1 summaries. I played LS1, but only bits and pieces, and by the time the tower was accessible I bailed out completely, so I wanted to get a full grounding in the parts I missed.

Scarlet was awful, and sadly, she plays out better when read as a historical entry than she did in the game. Some parts of the story even had some pathos, but then I go look at a picture of her ridiculous flower hairbuns and roll my eyes again.

I'm just now finishing the vanilla story, so I guess I'll see how good LS2 is soon.

Also jesus christ anet invested way way way way way way too much time and effort in the personal story. I took a look at a full branching node tree of every possible mission and branch, and it's fucking enormous. Then you multiply that by 10 voices, male/female for every race. Then you multiply that by multiple languages for localization. So much time, effort, and money, and I don't know the payoff was worth it.

Anyway, I need to get some fractal groups rolling. Any newbies around want to stumble through starter fractals?
 
S

shysaursoft

Member
Victrix said:
Also jesus christ anet invested way way way way way way too much time and effort in the personal story. I took a look at a full branching node tree of every possible mission and branch, and it's fucking enormous. Then you multiply that by 10 voices, male/female for every race. Then you multiply that by multiple languages for localization. So much time, effort, and money, and I don't know the payoff was worth it
Click to expand...

It used to be what set GW2 apart, that and Living World. It gave the game a serious air of quality, depth, and storytelling (even if the story itself feels weak along certain choices due to much of the scriptwriting having been done third party due to the amount of work it was).

It's not really *that* out of place in the MMO scape though, ESO has as much, if not more, voice acting, also split across languages.

But do I think it was the right choice, in hindsight, for Anet to front-load so much work into what is essentially something most people only see once? Probably not.
 
Boss Doggie

Boss Doggie

all my loli wolf companions are so moe
Oh yeah been reviewing my zerkwarrior

So I'm sticking Strength and Berserker, should I swap out Arms for Discipline or Tactics?
 
V

Victrix

*beard*
Miktar said:
It used to be what set GW2 apart, that and Living World. It gave the game a serious air of quality, depth, and storytelling (even if the story itself feels weak along certain choices due to much of the scriptwriting having been done third party due to the amount of work it was).

It's not really *that* out of place in the MMO scape though, ESO has as much, if not more, voice acting, also split across languages.

But do I think it was the right choice, in hindsight, for Anet to front-load so much work into what is essentially something most people only see once? Probably not.
Click to expand...

I mean to be clear, I admire what they were setting out to do, but I have this feeling that GW2 was too massive in scope (see: underwater combat), and maintaining every single one of those moving pieces live has been a bit of a hell for them.

The personal story was just emblematic of that (admirable) philosophy, but it resulted in a an absolute mountain of often skin deep content that many of their players would never see (or possibly even care about - I mean I like gw1/2 and I'm just now finishing the vanilla story! it most definitely did not hook me).

Anyway, water under the bridge. I only touched down in HoT as briefly as I could to unlock masteries, but the little I saw, I like the way they're doing 'live' story instead of art panel dialogue.

The good thing about all that is that when their entire team is focused on delivering smaller chunks of higher quality content, the end result should be (in theory), much better than what they attempted with the PS.

We'll see how true that statement feels to me after I finish ls2/hot :D

(but seriously, fractals guyz, wanna run dunjon)
 
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