Guild Wars 2 Latest Update Destroys Hub Town

Proven

Member
If you're jumping in, get some people to party with so you can explore away from the commanders and find neat pockets in the map. GAF guild has your back too.
 
They should follow through and destroy all the towns, this game had the worst capital cities of any MMO I can think of.
surely that belongs to wow? Stormwind still has half assed gaps between houses from copy and pasting.
most of the cities are ghost towns.

anyway nice to see a dev support a game like this.
 

Trey

Member

big_erk

Member
it is. Very pretty, and the devs update it every two weeks with new content and patches. (although they might be tapering off a bit soon, considering this event here is a cap on a major story line.)

They've got to be getting close to releasing the first expansion soon.
 

Retro

Member
guild wars looks like a slay

im kinda interested

20% off at Green Man Gaming, at the moment. You can usually find it for $40 at either their site, amazon or GMG... seems like they're always rotating who has it on sale.

it is. Very pretty, and the devs update it every two weeks with new content and patches. (although they might be tapering off a bit soon, considering this event here is a cap on a major story line.)

From what they've said during live streams and interviews, it sounds like they're going to keep the two-week update cycle, but release a huge feature-driven update and then take a few weeks off every couple of months to give players some breathing room. I would expect some announcement about that in the future, they've said they don't want players thinking beyond the current Living Story. Every MMO I've ever played, when they announce large features or expansions people tend to stop and wait for big things to happen instead of appreciating what they have in the present (which is more important in GW2 than any of them since the game updates so frequently).

They've got to be getting close to releasing the first expansion soon.

Not even close; the recent Q4 earnings report from NCSoft says "No decision has been made for GW2 expansion for now", favoring instead the Living Story and imminent Chinese release. Read more here: http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1xro6q/ncsoft_q4_report/
 

Hawkian

The Cryptarch's Bane
They've got to be getting close to releasing the first expansion soon.
It's really tough to say. They really are doing pretty fine with their current model:
S0r84WX.png

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Least I can say for sure is, there's definitely more free stuff coming before anything you need to shell out cash for.
 

Retro

Member
Neat idea. I trust this is annoying the agoraphobic amongst the playerbase, right? :D

There are 5 other major cities to hide out in, not to mention the majority of the services provided by Lion's Arch now appear in refugee camps in three adjacent zones.

They really are doing pretty fine with their current model:

Worth adding that those population figures do not affect connectivity; Blackgate is "Full" in that new players cannot roll there, not that you have to sit in a queue and wait for your turn to play. GW2's server architecture creates "Overflow" servers for any zone that's full (one of the reasons it has zones rather than a seamless world), so even if the place you want to play is jumping with players, a copy of it is created for you to play in. When room is available in the 'main' server, you can jump into that or stay in your overflow and experience the exact same content (only the people you're playing with and the status of events changes).

I'd also add that they've increased the server population caps probably a dozen times since launch; Blackgate isn't just 'Full', it's "Full again".
 

Reese-015

Member
My god, this is amazing. I'm a very casual lvl 34 player and have always been very casual in MMO's.

I just logged in, got the awesome cinematic, went to Lion's Arch... Immediately being part of an immense number of people all fighting together and healing/rezing each other within this epic event is one of the coolest things I've ever experienced in an MMO. I imagine this is what epic WoW raids are like but without having to put in the work to organize and coordinate one. Instead this just works automatically and organically like a huge epic dynamic event. Truly awesome.
 

erpg

GAF parliamentarian
Downloading the patch. Hope this isn't just another zerg event, because it sounds like one.
 

big_erk

Member
It's really tough to say. They really are doing pretty fine with their current model:

Least I can say for sure is, there's definitely more free stuff coming before anything you need to shell out cash for.

Which is fine by me. I have followed all of the Living Story updates and while some have been worse than others for the most part I enjoyed them. They keep me coming back to the game.
 

Hawkian

The Cryptarch's Bane
Which is fine by me. I have followed all of the Living Story updates and while some have been worse than others for the most part I enjoyed them. They keep me coming back to the game.
A lot of people are clamoring for the big "gimme it all at once" you get with a paid expansion, but I love just watching the value I've gotten from the thing grow over time :p
 
Downloading the patch. Hope this isn't just another zerg event, because it sounds like one.

It's not. There are multiple objectives to accomplish, often at the same time, on different parts of the map. But zerging is a mindset. If all you do is follow the herd, wait to get ressed when you get downed because you're mindlessly spamming 1, and pay zero attention to the whole map? Sure, it's a zerg.

But if you pay attention, play the game as it was designed, you'd be surprised how much good a small team of focused players can accomplish, in the grand scheme of things.

It will look like a zerg regardless, because you're talking about 200 or so players all running around shooting things.
 

DJIzana

Member
I'd likely still be playing this game if they added new PVE zones. I saw that new WvW map and that looked kinda cool but I dunno. Don't think that's enough for me to come back as the main thing I enjoyed from GW2, was the exploration.
 

Retro

Member
I imagine this is what epic WoW raids are like but without having to put in the work to organize and coordinate one. Instead this just works automatically and organically like a huge epic dynamic event. Truly awesome.

A WoW raid exists as a static chunk of formulaic content 10 / 20 / 40 people must organize and experience together, and only together. Wandering away from the group doesn't usually happen (it didn't when I played, at least).

The current Attack on Lion's Arch is many more people (the exact player limit is kept a trade secret, but rough headcounts in World vs. World puts it ~300 players per map) doing lots of things simultaneously across a much larger map. They're also doing it how they want; some people are staying in tight groups taking out high priority events (and as a result of so many people being together, those events are scaling up dynamically) while a bunch of people are roaming around, picking their way past the larger squads of enemies, rescuing captured citizens, reviving downed defenders or escorting children / supplies out of the city. This is happening on all 51 servers at the same time, not just when one group steps through a portal on their scheduled night.
 
They should follow through and destroy all the towns, this game had the worst capital cities of any MMO I can think of.

That is the most ridiculous statement. The hub towns were amazing looking. Once I get my PC set up I may jump back into this. Unfortunately will probably be over by early March when I would be able to jump on in.

I know the maps and waypoints do not allow for it, but mounts would have rocked.
 
I wish I could bring myself back to this game. Unfortunately it has bored me to tears. I really liked the GAF guild, too. I just stopped having fun with it :(
 

pyrandes

Member
This is pretty awesome to see! I haven't kept up on the Living Story stuff all too much, so I just heard about this happening this past weekend. Ill have to log in and see the destruction myself.
 
27% done, 7 gigs, so it's about 40-45 gigs total. I think I'll just leave it dl'ing overnight. I'm actually getting kinda excited. Also wanna see how my gal is doing. Last I remember she wielded dual-pistols and had on an outfit dyed pink, lawl
 
Some shots I took during the chaos. There's very little time to breath when Lion's Arch is open (there is a miasma buildup that forces everyone out after about 45-50 minutes, then it "resets" on the hour after some prelimiary events at the gates leading into the city).

nYmrwsD.jpg


You can see the "Breach" drill in the background, a giant thing that's burrowing into the ground where the old Lion's Arch from Guild Wars 1 was, under the water near the rebuilt Lion's Arch, which is now in flames of course.

XJgQhA0.jpg


The Molten Alliance is no joke in this. Those enemies that throw up a shield, making all enemies inside it invulnerable to damage, are back. They were great fun in the Molten Facility dungeon back in Flame and Frost: Retribution. Out in the open world, they can be a real pain.

FctOXbG.jpg


Some bosses make a return too, like this fun fella from the Molten Facility. A few others from the various Living Story updates past also show up in Lion's Arch during this sequence.

6n1zKbG.jpg


When you're not defending the various rally points around the city, or escorting citizens trying to escape, there are various 'Miasma' events people need to handle, or things end quicker due to rapid miasma buildup.

HwsDxrJ.jpg


The drillbit in the water, dangling down from the giant flying thing in the sky. This was as close as I could get before dying.
 

Retro

Member
Wouldn't be a GW2 thread without a mega post. Been so damn busy playing I didn't have a chance to respond to these one at a time.

Downloading the patch. Hope this isn't just another zerg event, because it sounds like one.

Actually, it seems like not spreading out and tackling multiple objectives at once is actually causing them to fail, meaning this content is distinctively anti-zerg. As Miktar mentioned, Zerging is not a purposeful design but a mindset players bring to the game; players naturally clump up into groups. At least the game scales accordingly to make that content just as difficult as if it were being done by a small group (or, as seems to be the case, too difficult and very inefficient).

I'd likely still be playing this game if they added new PVE zones. I saw that new WvW map and that looked kinda cool but I dunno. Don't think that's enough for me to come back as the main thing I enjoyed from GW2, was the exploration.

The problem with new PVE zones is that as soon as they're completed, players demand more. There's a sort of 'content locust' mentality to adding new zones to MMOs, which of course can't be sustained. This is one of the reasons GW2 players are so happy there aren't any expansions; it's a lot of work for what's basically devoured in the space of a week or two (if that).

New zones are almost certainly coming (there's too much real estate on the map for them not to go to new places), but they're being careful not to turn their existing world into a ghost town, and they're focusing on giving players bites of new experiences rather than gluttonous orgies of content. Edit: Also, the new Edge of the Mists map is brilliantly designed, if we get new PVE maps that are even half as good looking and laid out, they'll be incredible.

I know the maps and waypoints do not allow for it, but mounts would have rocked.

Personal preference, but for me mounts have always seemed like a way to rush past content rather than through it, allowing you to (at least attempt) to bypass the carefully crafted game world rather than take part in it. Especially flying mounts, where you just zip over everything interesting / dangerous, drop down on top of whatever you're looking for and zip back up. The waypoint system drops you close enough to where you're going without putting you right on top of it. I'd also say that while mounts make the travel speed faster, actually getting somewhere quickly still takes a lot of running, whereas the waypoint approach at least gets you closer instantly.

I wish I could bring myself back to this game. Unfortunately it has bored me to tears. I really liked the GAF guild, too. I just stopped having fun with it :(

You've missed a year's worth of updates, and while not all of the Living Story stuff has been permanent (in fact, most of it hasn't) there's still a lot that's changed along with a TON of Quality of Life improvements.

I'd also venture that maybe you picked a class that didn't 'click' with you, as that's a common problem. Part of the downside of having such distinctively different playstyle for each is that you can pick one that just doesn't suit your preferences.

You already own the game, it's not like you can't try it again for free.

I'd join in but my PC really can't handle the game anymore.

I guess with the bi-weekly updates a Cantha or Elona expansion is out of the question?

In interviews, they're constantly saying that their decision to not release expansions has no impact on if or when they implement 'expansion-level content'; new races, classes, zones, etc. are all "on the table." I would, however, expect them to dispense that content out an update at a time instead of all at once (see the aforementioned "orgy of content" comment). It makes the advance into new territory more memorable, in my opinion, letting players advance into a new region for story reasons, slowly eeking out new routes and scrambling for territory before opening up another section.

Southsun Cove was like that during the Invasion event. For all the flaws that early experiment into the Living Story had, you can at least say it was memorable as hell to land on the beach, lock down a landing zone, push into the interior, clear trees for a road and use them to build a bridge, establish a base camp and push into the Karka hive, all in real time. When that was over, it felt like something was seriously accomplished. If they had added half a dozen zones at once, everyone would have just rushed off for the next chunk of content to devour. The fact that it felt like a real community effort to push into a frontier made it memorable, and any Living Story approach to a new zone would likely feel the same (just spaced out over two weeks instead of one fucking insane afternoon).
 

Laieon

Member
I might have to check this out. I haven't played since near launch because I didn't really like the game (and I even spent $150 for the CE!).
 

erpg

GAF parliamentarian
It's not. There are multiple objectives to accomplish, often at the same time, on different parts of the map. But zerging is a mindset. If all you do is follow the herd, wait to get ressed when you get downed because you're mindlessly spamming 1, and pay zero attention to the whole map? Sure, it's a zerg.

But if you pay attention, play the game as it was designed, you'd be surprised how much good a small team of focused players can accomplish, in the grand scheme of things.

It will look like a zerg regardless, because you're talking about 200 or so players all running around shooting things.
I don't know. Guild Wars 2 seems to encourage these large, uncoordinated group events with no mechanics beyond 'follow the something' and 'kill the champion health-sponge x'. At least Tequatl forced people to disperse for the same goal. LA right now (from what I can tell, since the miasma took over), is the same escort mission and massive wave-based combat they've been doing since the start. I know some people love to be swept on by this kind of MASS OF PEOPLE stuff, and heck, I loved the Ahn'qiraj opening event though my server crashed and it was running at 1 FPS, but I really wish an MMO would come around and... fix the combat. Get smarter, more interesting enemies. More meaningful dodging and fewer massive death circles. A different scaling system that doesn't just add more enemies and make everything more confusing. Speaking of circles (you all know I've complained about this before) - when are they going to make everything more visible and understandable? White circles and red circles. That's all they offer. White circle? Use your combo finisher. That's it. You don't think about what element is it and how it'll benefit your group or whether or not it's the best thing to use, because the game doesn't help you. It's a weird thing to say, because I hate busy screens, but the game needs more (and clearer) visual combat effects since the it revolves around lingering AOEs.

The heck is going on here?


Maybe playing all these character action and hunting action games over the last few years made me sour on the whole cooldown+auto-attack based combat that is the MMORPG. I know I prefer a more intimate 4-player co-op game anyway.


Well, whatever. You've heard my crap before.

It's a nice zone though. They've got great environment artists.

Actually, it seems like not spreading out and tackling multiple objectives at once is actually causing them to fail, meaning this content is distinctively anti-zerg. As Miktar mentioned, Zerging is not a purposeful design but a mindset players bring to the game; players naturally clump up into groups. At least the game scales accordingly to make that content just as difficult as if it were being done by a small group (or, as seems to be the case, too difficult and very inefficient).
That's good to hear, I'll have to give it another go. At the Mystic Forge, events were essentially looping (finish the children event, which brings you to the Dolyak event, which luckily ends just as the children event restarts and repeat). Seemed like people were getting 'stuck' in a zerg by the content itself.
 
I know I prefer a more intimate 4-player co-op game anyway.

I hear ya. That's why I really enjoy the dungeons in GW2. They're well designed, encourage teamwork and synergy, and there aren't 200 people throwing around effects. But with large, open world events like what's going on in Lion's Arch, it's not that bad either. I can tell which combo fields are which, since each has a very unique effect. Your screenshot may look confusing to someone who's not played the game, but a player can easily figure out what's going on in there. My natural reaction is to toss Elixir R on that pile of downed zerk-geared idiots :p

They've started experimenting with AoE indicators though - the Triple Trouble wurm event now has bright, orange markers indicating the wurm spit zones, and those markers show above everything on the ground, so they're impossible to miss. I'm hoping this means they're thinking of giving all the effects a bit of a visual clarity pass.
 

Dreavus

Member
I hear ya. That's why I really enjoy the dungeons in GW2. They're well designed, encourage teamwork and synergy, and there aren't 200 people throwing around effects. But with large, open world events like what's going on in Lion's Arch, it's not that bad either. I can tell which combo fields are which, since each has a very unique effect. Your screenshot may look confusing to someone who's not played the game, but a player can easily figure out what's going on in there. My natural reaction is to toss Elixir R on that pile of downed zerk-geared idiots :p

They've started experimenting with AoE indicators though - the Triple Trouble wurm event now has bright, orange markers indicating the wurm spit zones, and those markers show above everything on the ground, so they're impossible to miss. I'm hoping this means they're thinking of giving all the effects a bit of a visual clarity pass.

I noticed some clearer indicators for the Twisted Marionette too, and it's welcome. Funnily enough the one part of it where they DIDN'T do this was the Warden the group was most likely to fail against (Warden III with it's high-damage bombs with zero indicators)
 
I noticed some clearer indicators for the Twisted Marionette too, and it's welcome. Funnily enough the one part of it where they DIDN'T do this was the Warden the group was most likely to fail against (the high bombs with zero indicators)

Ah, Warden III. Yeah, I think the goal there wasn't to have players avoid the orange AoE circles, since they already did that for Warden II - but instead have them pay attention to the order in which the mines are dropped. Just standing near them doesn't really do anything, you have to run face-first into one to set it off. If you looked at the order in which the mines dropped, then run to where the first one just exploded since they're on a timer, you can always be safe. From the mines, anyway. Problem is, the Twisted in the arena with you hits like a truck, and people tend to gear very glass cannon.
 
In interviews, they're constantly saying that their decision to not release expansions has no impact on if or when they implement 'expansion-level content'; new races, classes, zones, etc. are all "on the table." I would, however, expect them to dispense that content out an update at a time instead of all at once (see the aforementioned "orgy of content" comment). It makes the advance into new territory more memorable, in my opinion, letting players advance into a new region for story reasons, slowly eeking out new routes and scrambling for territory before opening up another section.

Southsun Cove was like that during the Invasion event. For all the flaws that early experiment into the Living Story had, you can at least say it was memorable as hell to land on the beach, lock down a landing zone, push into the interior, clear trees for a road and use them to build a bridge, establish a base camp and push into the Karka hive, all in real time. When that was over, it felt like something was seriously accomplished. If they had added half a dozen zones at once, everyone would have just rushed off for the next chunk of content to devour. The fact that it felt like a real community effort to push into a frontier made it memorable, and any Living Story approach to a new zone would likely feel the same (just spaced out over two weeks instead of one fucking insane afternoon).

I see.

It should be interesting to see where the game is a year from now then.

If one of those updates adds the Paragon class I might consider building a new PC just for that. :)
 

Retro

Member
Is now a good time to start Guild Wars 2? I was tempted to get it or not for a while now.

Now is always a good time to start Guild Wars 2, except when it goes on sale for even less than the aforementioned 20% off at Green Man Gaming (it was $30 a few weeks ago). You're only missing out on content by waiting (for example, the very excellent Marionette event is now gone, though it's supposedly coming back in the near future like all of the better content has been).

I might have to check this out. I haven't played since near launch because I didn't really like the game (and I even spent $150 for the CE!).

1+ year of content (26 updates last year alone) is waiting. Maybe try a new profession, it really does make all the difference in the world finding the one that 'clicks' with your preferences. I've seen people pick a profession because it was similar to what they played in other MMOs get frustrated, only to try something new and just fall in love with the game. My wife started with a Ranger since she played a hunter years ago in WoW, but didn't care for it. Same results with Elementalist. Then she tried a Mesmer (a class she had no interest in trying at the start) and everything clicked together. She had a similar thing happen when she tried a Thief (after avoiding it because she hated rogues in WoW), a completely unexpected playstyle she didn't even know she enjoyed playing.

It's the single biggest determining factor that I can find for people who love the game and those who got bored and left. Finding "your class" is more important than any other MMO because of how wildly different they all play.

Get smarter, more interesting enemies. More meaningful dodging and fewer massive death circles.

They're in there. The Toxic Alliance mobs don't die instantly, they're downed like players and have to be finished off. Their krait buddies will make a beeline, even from outside the normal aggro radius, to revive them. There are Molten Protector mobs that are dropping these large fire fields that protects their allies, forcing you to drag / lure them out. The Watchwork enemies also have a sort of 'downed' state (they're giant piles of scrap marked with a red gear icon) that other watchwork enemies will flutter over to and use to build new enemies or upgrade themselves (I think, they may not be doing that in LA but it's a trick they did in the past). I think the only enemies that aren't really doing something unique are the Aetherblades, and they're just fine being tough as balls.

Speaking of circles (you all know I've complained about this before) - when are they going to make everything more visible and understandable? White circles and red circles. That's all they offer.

They had very precise, visible indicators during the Marionette event in the last update; they've said this is something they plan to do more of in the future and that was sort of the 'test'. Players responded to it really well (even if some of the dumber ones couldn't figure out the giant shield with an arrow meant "don't bother attacking when it's facing you," but that's on them).

Your screenshot may look confusing to someone who's not played the game, but a player can easily figure out what's going on in there.

Not to mention that when you're in the thick of that and can control where you are and what you're interacting with, it feels a lot less chaotic. That screenshot looked like a billion things going off at once, but I can tell even without 'being there' what's important, what's the biggest threat and the most obvious target, etc.

I see.

It should be interesting to see where the game is a year from now then.

If one of those updates adds the Paragon class I might consider building a new PC just for that. :)

Considering where it is now, a mere year and change from launch, is so different from where they started, and heading in such interesting directions (and since nobody has done anything like this before, they've sort of been figuring it out as they go), a year from NOW is going to be very very very interesting indeed.

As for a Paragon class, I don't see it happening since a lot of their playstyle was rolled into Guardians, but the one thing I've learned with this game is to never say never. If you'd asked me a year ago if they'd burn Lion's Arch to the ground, I'd have said "Nah, that'll never happen, too many people use it as a hub". And here it is, burning down around us as we speak (well, type...).
 

Kintaro

Worships the porcelain goddess
Kinda outside the purview of this thread, but yes.

One dungeon has been fully revamped (Ascalon Catacombs), one dungeon has a new path. Two permanent world bosses have been added that require more coordination than anything previously seen; the revamped Tequatl encounter and the new Three-headed Wurm remains fairly undefeated (I think only 3 or 4 servers have beaten it at this point). Both feel more like open world raids.

The Living Story is basically used as an excuse to revamp or add content gradually, two weeks at a time.

Okay, with that answered, one more question: Are dungeons really required for the majority of content in this game as it stands? I honestly felt that they just did not work very well in the game itself but I enjoyed most everything else until life got in the way. I liked grouping but I think the lack of real aggro management and such hurt the play of dungeons.

So, are they even required for a player?
 

inky

Member
Man, it's been ages since I last played. I might hop back in to see how it goes, but I'm wasting most of my playtime with just Marvel Heroes now, that I don't really see myself committing to an MMO on top of that, and I already forgot how to play this game. I'm also probably incredibly poor so I might just check it out on one of my lvl 1 characters instead.

LOL, I remember I have 7 character slots and only bothered to get 2 of them to cap and never touched the rest other than picking a name. We'll see how it goes.
 
Okay, with that answered, one more question: Are dungeons really required for the majority of content in this game as it stands? I honestly felt that they just did not work very well in the game itself but I enjoyed most everything else until life got in the way. I liked grouping but I think the lack of real aggro management and such hurt the play of dungeons.

So, are they even required for a player?

Kind of a weird question. Dungeons aren't really required, you can ignore them entirely if you want - just like you could ignore crafting, PvP, WvW, and half the game world if you so chose. But Dungeons provide good loot, much gold, and dungeon tokens for unique armour you only get by doing those dungeons. Plus, they're a lot of fun. There is one dungeon that is technically unavoidable, which is Arah, since that's the 'end' of your Personal Story.

One reason to do the dungeons, are for the 'side story' they tell. The dungeons act as an optional story, telling the history and current status of Destiny's Edge. The story modes of dungeons are enjoyable for that sake.

And of course, all dungeons have a separate, harder mode called Explorable, with multiple paths. So Ascalonian Catacombs, for example, has Story, and then three paths, making it essentially four different dungeons (with four different bosses and various different midbosses/situations).

There's also plenty of aggro management. You just need to manage your own damn aggro, is all. Can't rely on others to tank for your spank, or to keep your bars up. Though to be fair, all classes can help each other manage aggro. A theif or mesmer can take the whole party into stealth to break locks, while various others can push/pull, lock down, stun, immobilize, moa, etc.

It's the one reason I prefer GW2's system over WoW, FFXIV, and etc. I don't *want* to rely on others to heal, or tank, or dps - I like being able to do all those things at once, by myself - and help others with that if needed. GW2 is far more about personal agency than most MMOs that still use the crutch of a holy trinity to design what are by now pretty bland encounters. GW2 also allows a lot of interesting freedom for people to experiment with. If five rangers want to tackle the hardest dungeon, they can. Five naked thieves? Sure. Five Engineers? You're good, since Engineers are op. No relying on having specific classes.

Plus, no waiting for a healer to show up in in the dungeonfinder, so no queues! I will never go back to a gorramn dungeon finder 'looking for tank eta 20 minutes' system, ever again.
 

Retro

Member
Okay, with that answered, one more question: Are dungeons really required for the majority of content in this game as it stands? I honestly felt that they just did not work very well in the game itself but I enjoyed most everything else until life got in the way. I liked grouping but I think the lack of real aggro management and such hurt the play of dungeons.

So, are they even required for a player?

Not even slightly required, but then, very little in this game is required.

I mean, gear wise once you're in exotic-quality armor, you're more or less ready to take on anything. There's Ascended-quality, but that's intended as a long term goal and has such little statistical benefit that any casual observer won't be able to tell you're wearing it (actually, if you went with rare-quality gear, a step below exotics, I don't think anyone would notice that either).

Dungeons are a good, solid way to make money, and dungeon tokens can be used (in bulk) to buy Exotic armor, but you can also get exotic armor from drops, crafting, fractals (sort of like mini-dungeons served three at a time), capturing temples in Orr (purchased with Karma), Badges of Honor (WvW) or just bought straight from the Trading Post... and I bet I'm forgetting a method or two there... hmm... Anyways, the only thing you really HAVE to run dungeons for are the cosmetic appearances of their armor sets, if you want them.

That said, the dungeons that they've overhauled are really top notch, and they do away with the aggro / health sponge issues the old-style dungeons have by focusing on unique mechanics (I could tell you all about the new Ghost Eater fight, but you flat out wouldn't believe me).
 

Retro

Member
Not sure if the pictures shown so far do it justice. They didn't just slap some fire textures on there and call it a day. Lion's Arch is fucked.

I think when this sunk in for me was when we crossed a bridge and I realized I had no idea where I was. All the familiar landmarks are either collapsed or completely gone, and even things like solid rock walls have been blown open and roadways have crumbled into heaps of rubble... it turns out I was in the Coriolis Plaza, but a wall was blown apart, half of a structure had collapsed from the cliffs above and part of the ground had revealed a new, tiny passage due to a landslide.

I'm already wondering how the zone will look when we inevitably put out the fires; will we rebuild the city or will it eventually be reclaimed by nature and turned into a corner of the world people explore without potentially realizing the history of what's underfoot?

I'm also wondering what the hell the drill is going after and if the city as it looks now is only going to get worse when whatever the hell THAT is happens in two weeks.
 

Kintaro

Worships the porcelain goddess
Not even slightly required, but then, very little in this game is required.

I mean, gear wise once you're in exotic-quality armor, you're more or less ready to take on anything. There's Ascended-quality, but that's intended as a long term goal and has such little statistical benefit that any casual observer won't be able to tell you're wearing it (actually, if you went with rare-quality gear, a step below exotics, I don't think anyone would notice that either).

Dungeons are a good, solid way to make money, and dungeon tokens can be used (in bulk) to buy Exotic armor, but you can also get exotic armor from drops, crafting, fractals (sort of like mini-dungeons served three at a time), capturing temples in Orr (purchased with Karma), Badges of Honor (WvW) or just bought straight from the Trading Post... and I bet I'm forgetting a method or two there... hmm... Anyways, the only thing you really HAVE to run dungeons for are the cosmetic appearances of their armor sets, if you want them.

That said, the dungeons that they've overhauled are really top notch, and they do away with the aggro / health sponge issues the old-style dungeons have by focusing on unique mechanics (I could tell you all about the new Ghost Eater fight, but you flat out wouldn't believe me).

Aight. I'm willing to hop back in. Thanks for the knowledge. ^^
 
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