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[Lunar15]

I just don't get most of the complaints relating to item grinding since all this patch did was give you more options for how to get these items.

For those saying it doesn't match what Anet said before release, it's almost EXACTLY what they said they were trying to do with the game. Make it so that you could get what you wanted, in the way that you wanted. Don't want to run fractals to get ascended gear? Well now you can get them through daily events in the world! What now we need ectos to get those? Well now the drop rate for rares in world event chests has increased! Don't have a whole lot of time to do dailies? Now you can do major occasional events with your guild!

For the person that mentioned that ascended items have an impact on player behavior, you're exactly right. But you're also missing the point: Anet has realized the fact that fractals were creating a player vaccum, and made it so that more people were going to all the other pieces of out-of-dungeon content in order to get it. They took advantage of the problem you mentioned in order to expand the amount of content people were going to.

They're not there yet, but seriously this patch went a HUGE way towards getting this game to where they want it. This is why I find so many of the complaints completely incredulous. They're doing exactly what people have been asking for. Problem is, people are looking at each issue in pieces. People go "oh, we can only get one chest from dragons now?" without realizing that now, OTHER event chests are more valuable. The concept is that they want to push people to more content, and that's not a bad thing. For MOST things in this patch, there was a pretty good reasoning behind a change.

Also: If you're grinding ascended gear for STATS, you're out of your mind. They're the best stats for that slot, but it's marginal at best. I've always felt like ascended gear was mainly meant to act as a barrier to streamline fractal progression, but people whined so much about stats that they simply made them more available. The audacity.

 

[Hawkian]

I personally go with abload.

Abload is out and out the best in the nets (do they even HAVE a max file size??) but my god the German.

 

[Lunar15]

All that being said, I do have one thing I'd love them to change/add: Something that lets me tab between different armor/dye sets quickly in the hero UI. I've set up a ton of different color sets for my armor (because I'm weird), and I'd love to be able to switch through them easily. And I don't think anyone would dislike the ability to switch through their armor sets. (outside of combat, of course)

Also: Anyone done all the AC bosses?

 

[Hawkian]

Nemesis, at least, did all three and found them to be below his prowess.

 

[Retro]

I just don't get most of the complaints relating to item grinding since all this patch did was give you more options for how to get these items.

For those saying it doesn't match what Anet said before release, it's almost EXACTLY what they said they were trying to do with the game. Make it so that you could get what you wanted, in the way that you wanted. Don't want to run fractals to get ascended gear? Well now you can get them through daily events in the world! What now we need ectos to get those? Well now the drop rate for rares in world event chests has increased! Don't have a whole lot of time to do dailies? Now you can do major occasional events with your guild!

For the person that mentioned that ascended items have an impact on player behavior, you're exactly right. But you're also missing the point: Anet has realized the fact that fractals were creating a player vaccum, and made it so that more people were going to all the other pieces of out-of-dungeon content in order to get it. They took advantage of the problem you mentioned in order to expand the amount of content people were going to.

They're not there yet, but seriously this patch went a HUGE way towards getting this game to where they want it. This is why I find so many of the complaints completely incredulous. They're doing exactly what people have been asking for. Problem is, people are looking at each issue in pieces. People go "oh, we can only get one chest from dragons now?" without realizing that now, OTHER event chests are more valuable. The concept is that they want to push people to more content, and that's not a bad thing. For MOST things in this patch, there was a pretty good reasoning behind a change.

Also: If you're grinding ascended gear for STATS, you're out of your mind. They're the best stats for that slot, but it's marginal at best. I've always felt like ascended gear was mainly meant to act as a barrier to streamline fractal progression, but people whined so much about stats that they simply made them more available. The audacity.

I like you.

Abload is out and out the best in the nets (do they even HAVE a max file size??) but my god the German.

It's pretty easy to figure stuff out, they have icons for everything that makes it easy.

All that being said, I do have one thing I'd love them to change/add: Something that lets me tab between different armor/dye sets quickly in the hero UI. I've set up a ton of different color sets for my armor (because I'm weird), and I'd love to be able to switch through them easily. And I don't think anyone would dislike the ability to switch through their armor sets. (outside of combat, of course)

Stop making me like you!

Also, I wish they would put a border around the dyes you are currently using. I find myself trying different dye configuration but wanting to change it back, then having to hunt through my dyes for a color again (in cases where the dyes I am using aren't the ones I started with, since closing the dye menu just reverts back to that state).

 

[Nemesis121]

Patch was good to me. AC is a lot more fun, especially Kholer.

I couldn't give less of a shit about laurels. They're rewards you get for just playing the game on a daily basis. Luckily, the actual game is fun for me. So it's no grind.

AC is easy, other than p2 boss and this might change with more practice, the real hard fight is the Spider Queen lol.

 

[Retro]

AC is easy, other than p2 boss and this might change with more practice, the real hard fight is the Spider Queen lol.

Ghost Eater sounded a tad difficult from hearing people doing it in Mumble last night, but they were figuring it out on the fly so... yeah.

I have to ask though; it's easy, but is it any more interesting? The GE fight has been a snooze fest for a while now, I always found the ghosts right before him to be more interesting. I wouldn't mind a longer fight if it was entertaining. Predictability is boring,

 

[Nemesis121]

Ghost Eater sounded a tad difficult from hearing people doing it in Mumble last night, but they were figuring it out on the fly so... yeah.

I have to ask though; it's easy, but is it any more interesting? The GE fight has been a snooze fest for a while now, I always found the ghosts right before him to be more interesting. I wouldn't mind a longer fight if it was entertaining. Predictability is boring,

With reduce HP, the fight before him is also a joke, the trick to killing GE is to lure him into the trap by pull one his adds into the trap, if one doesn't work try another, also the GE spits out a true RRoD don't stand in it at all, it's death, the random pug I did it with wiped on the first shot then figured it out on the second try...

 

[Anno]

Also, I wish they would put a border around the dyes you are currently using. I find myself trying different dye configuration but wanting to change it back, then having to hunt through my dyes for a color again (in cases where the dyes I am using aren't the ones I started with, since closing the dye menu just reverts back to that state).

To get around this I load the ones I currently want to play with into favorites, then take them out afterwards. But yeah tht would be nice.

Put me in the camp of liking the patch and not really understanding the complaints. Even the living story stuff is fine for what it is. New events, lore and achievements on a regular basis? Sure, sign me up.

 

[Lunar15]

It's not like I'm sitting here dismissing all complaints. My biggest complaints mainly come from the UI and combat (and clipping, arg!). So many other complaints are entirely valid, and I'd rather spend time focusing on those, not on complaints towards things that are essentially what people have wanted all along.

But if you're new to this thread, don't be fooled: Most feedback I heard from the Guild while online, as well as other people in map chat, was pretty positive. Kind of a first, in fact.

Also, I wish they would put a border around the dyes you are currently using. I find myself trying different dye configuration but wanting to change it back, then having to hunt through my dyes for a color again (in cases where the dyes I am using aren't the ones I started with, since closing the dye menu just reverts back to that state).

Guh, this. I literally have each slot numbered, and I number the dyes (green 12) as well. So that when I make my sets I have it written down as Green 12 at Slot 3 (shoulders).

... what? Don't judge me.

 

[Giard]

I didn't get re-invited to the guild yet ._.
Giard.6498

 

[Retro]

I didn't get re-invited to the guild yet ._.
Giard.6498

Invite sent, check your guild tab and welcome to GAFGuild.

 

[Hawkian]

Ghost Eater sounded a tad difficult from hearing people doing it in Mumble last night, but they were figuring it out on the fly so... yeah.

I have to ask though; it's easy, but is it any more interesting? The GE fight has been a snooze fest for a while now, I always found the ghosts right before him to be more interesting. I wouldn't mind a longer fight if it was entertaining. Predictability is boring,

You need to use the traps now! She has to build them herself!!

Even the living story stuff is fine for what it is. New events, lore and achievements on a regular basis? Sure, sign me up.

By all rights and indications it's only going to accelerate in scope and frequency from here.

That reminds me, I gotta help some more refugees. Maybe I'll take The Arbiter to Wayfarer tonight, it seems right up his alley.

 

[hythloday]

You need to use the traps now! She has to build them herself!!

Wait.. she has to build them herself?! After the scouts brought down the parts?

 

[Nemesis121]

Wait.. she has to build them herself?! After the scouts brought down the parts?

They are traps now no longer Cannons.... once she build those traps you have to use them to kill GE...

 

[Aquila]

Took an extended break from gw2 and I come back to a Ride the Lightning nerf and this thread... Guess I'll become disappointed too as I finish my monthly today.

 

[hythloday]

They are traps now no longer Cannons.... once she build those traps you have to use them to kill GE...

I know that, Hawkian and I were making light of Detha's speech before the fight.

I have to BUILD THEM myself.

 

[Lunar15]

You need to use the traps now! She has to build them herself!!

By all rights and indications it's only going to accelerate in scope and frequency from here.

That reminds me, I gotta help some more refugees. Maybe I'll take The Arbiter to Wayfarer tonight, it seems right up his alley.

Be sure to check out the new area above Dolyak Pass in Wayfarer. Big ol' door and tons of lanterns. What's all that about? Pretty certain that wasn't there before.

 

[Hawkian]

Wait.. she has to build them herself?! After the scouts brought down the parts?

Yes see the scouts brought all the parts but she has to build them herself.

I find myself siding with the Ascalonian Ghost Captain during that encounter.

It's not like I'm sitting here dismissing all complaints.

Regarding this new patch, it's an absolutely valid complaint that the barrier of entry for guild mission is much steeper for smaller guilds, and as a result they'll have both a longer time to wait to try them and a tougher time completing them. Largely I think that the first batch of guild missions are themselves intended for larger groups, but there are still steps that could be taken.

In fact, I will now make an Official Hawkian Prediction, as I did on the night fractals were released, that ArenaNet will take some steps to make it easier for guilds with fewer members to participate in guild missions. Since they basically employed my exact idea for Fractal level advancement we can see if my track record improves or falls to 1-1 on this.

edit: Man, reading that over, ArenaNet was actually more generous than I was. Nobody ever runs odd fractals anymore, just using the next-highest even one to advance (a scenario I identified as "cheesing" )

Took an extended break from gw2 and I come back to a Ride the Lightning nerf and this thread... Guess I'll become disappointed too as I finish my monthly today.

Man, I love that you singled out a 5-second cooldown nerf. I love the crap out of Ride the Lightning too, it's in my top 3 favorite skills... but like virtually every single other class change in this patch was a buff!

 

[Nemesis121]

If you have multiple level 80 characters you can do the world bosses on them and get a chest, I have ran SB 3 times already, Jormag twice, Shatterer twice, Maw 3 times...I have five 80's working on my 6th...ton of rares...

 

[Hawkian]

Oh shit, so it's following the Fractal daily formula on those too. That's huge.

 

[etiolate]

I am a Charr coming and going.

 

[Hawkian]

Man that's philosophical.

Also a little disturbing, like you killed a tiny member of your own species to display on your back as a warning to your enemies.

edit: Just loggged in from work to start the patching. Gonna be a good night

 

[Retro]

I am a Charr coming and going.

With the shoulder pads, people won't know which way you're looking.

 

[Astra]

I recently discovered Xpadder, and it's the perfect piece of software for me. My setup isn't ideal for KB&M play, plus I suck at it.
Took me forever to figure out some of the finer points of the program. I didn't want to have to toggle between different sets to map all the necessary buttons, but I eventually figured it out with the help of Google, and got mostly everything in one set.

The hardest part was mapping two keys to the same button, and having them function properly. For example, I mapped 1 and 4 to the X button. I wanted to tap X for 1, and hold it for 4, however when held, it would press 1 then 4, so I would end up using both skills. I was able to eventually separate them after much frustration and now only 4 is used when holding X.

The control is so much easier for me now, and I can't wait to put it to the real test tonight when I play.

 

[Levyne]

I recently discovered Xpadder, and it's the perfect piece of software for me. My setup isn't ideal for KB&M play, plus I suck at it.
Took me forever to figure out some of the finer points of the program. I didn't want to have to toggle between different sets to map all the necessary buttons, but I eventually figured it out with the help of Google, and got mostly everything in one set.

The hardest part was mapping two keys to the same button, and having them function properly. For example, I mapped 1 and 4 to the X button. I wanted to tap X for 1, and hold it for 4, however when held, it would press 1 then 4, so I would end up using both skills. I was able to eventually separate them after much frustration and now only 4 is used when holding X.

The control is so much easier for me now, and I can't wait to put it to the real test tonight when I play.

uh oh

what's that I hear

a hawk's screech?

 

[Trey]

This patch gave me shit I didn't even know I wanted. Like AC changes.

I know I'm going on and on about AC but it's better all around than before. And before it was my favorite dungeon. The lowered HP on enemies plus more interesting battle design is so good.

 

[Astra]

uh oh

what's that I hear

a hawk's screech?

Hah, I see now. An Xpadder search reveals a few Hawkian posts.

 

[Hawkian]

I recently discovered Xpadder, and it's the perfect piece of software for me. My setup isn't ideal for KB&M play, plus I suck at it.
Took me forever to figure out some of the finer points of the program. I didn't want to have to toggle between different sets to map all the necessary buttons, but I eventually figured it out with the help of Google, and got mostly everything in one set.

The hardest part was mapping two keys to the same button, and having them function properly. For example, I mapped 1 and 4 to the X button. I wanted to tap X for 1, and hold it for 4, however when held, it would press 1 then 4, so I would end up using both skills. I was able to eventually separate them after much frustration and now only 4 is used when holding X.

The control is so much easier for me now, and I can't wait to put it to the real test tonight when I play.

Why hello there, friend. File -> Download, follow instructions.txt (you already have xpadder so you'll know how to just load the profile, but the AHK stuff is pretty game-changing)

Our solution does rely on one toggle set, but it really is quite good and very natural after a brief learning curve. Skills 1-5 are accessible without any toggling/held buttons. Your use of holding a button used for another function to press certain keys is really interesting, but in practice I think it seems like it would cause a delay when you wanted to activate a "hold" skill versus a "press" skill, and sometimes fractions of a second can actually make a difference!

If nothing else, you'll want to pick up the autohotkey script that allows you to swap between pure camera and mouse control, and most importantly, resets your cursor position to the center for aiming AOE reticles. Feel free to let me know if you have any questions

This patch gave me shit I didn't even know I wanted. Like AC changes.

I know I'm going on and on about AC but it's better all around than before. And before it was my favorite dungeon. The lowered HP on enemies plus more interesting battle design is so good.

Unf. Best part? Consider this the prototype full-dungeon pass for the Phase 2 overhaul to be applied to every dungeon.

 

[Jira]

As a whole AC is just an overall more fun and balanced dungeon than it was just two days ago. I'm quite impressed with the new HP of mobs, new mechanics on sub bosses and big bosses, and new mechanics on the mob packs as well.

 

[Hawkian]

That sounds fantastic, just please tell me that *holds breath* all the 5s champs are still present?

 

[Rebel Leader]

brought my laptop to around 10fps =(

was fun though =D

 

[Astra]

Why hello there, friend. File -> Download, follow instructions.txt (you already have xpadder so you'll know how to just load the profile, but the AHK stuff is pretty game-changing)

Our solution does rely on one toggle set, but it really is quite good and very natural after a brief learning curve. Skills 1-5 are accessible without any toggling/held buttons. Your use of holding a button used for another function to press certain keys is really interesting, but in practice I think it seems like it would cause a delay when you wanted to activate a "hold" skill versus a "press" skill, and sometimes fractions of a second can actually make a difference!

If nothing else, you'll want to pick up the autohotkey script that allows you to swap between pure camera and mouse control, and most importantly, resets your cursor position to the center for aiming AOE reticles. Feel free to let me know if you have any questions

Wow, you can do a lot more with Xpadder than I thought!
I'll check it out, thanks. I'm playing as a Necromancer, so I have a lot of AOE skills.
I kind of wish I checked here first before fumbling around assigning my own bindings, haha.

 

[Jira]

That sounds fantastic, just please tell me that *holds breath* all the 5s champs are still present?

Oh yeah they didn't remove any mobs, only tweaked things so they're less annoying and have mechanics now.

 

[Hawkian]

Wow, you can do a lot more with Xpadder than I thought!
I'll check it out, thanks. I'm playing as a Necromancer, so I have a lot of AOE skills.
I kind of wish I checked here first before fumbling around assigning my own bindings, haha.

Hehe, I feel for you. I spent my first 20 hours with GW2 just coming up with an adequate solution to use a gamepad because it's SUCH a good fit for GW2, it really changes the game. And then over the next few weeks WeltallZero ran with my foundation and added some really revolutionary changes like the cursor reset. At this point, I'm legitimately at a disadvantage using a mouse and keyboard even in very demanding skill-based scenarios.

 

[Divvy]

My journey through Tyria today! We went and did most of the major events around the continent (Minus Orr)

Taco

Maw

Shadow Behemoth

Fire Elemental

MegaDestroyer

Shatterer

Jormy

Had a lot of fun. And one of my guildies got Final Rest too.

 

[Hawkian]

Now that's just cool. I'm jealous that you guys got to see so much of the game while I've been stuck editing PPTs all day, but at least we all know the rewards from doing the big world events suck FINAL REST WHAT THE FUCK

 

[Divvy]

The chests are really good now. You're basically guaranteed at least one rare from them. Sometimes you get like four from the harder events like Jormag.

 

[Hawkian]

Sheeeit. I think this means it's time for me to finally do the Shatterer for literally the first time...

 

[etiolate]

I like how ANet teased and hinted at the location of Final Rest and there was this great investigation by the populace, and then it suddenly starts dropping for all sorts of people at Shadow Behemoth after they fix the loot tables.

Just did SB before the patch hit, too. =| Too soon for Final Re$t

 

[Anno]

Does the chain fight in GE wreck everyone's FPS or is it just me? Went to kite last night and dropped to like 6 FPS for the entire fight. I normally get 50-60 at max settings.

 

[Hawkian]

Does the chain fight in GE wreck everyone's FPS or is it just me? Went to kite last night and dropped to like 6 FPS for the entire fight. I normally get 50-60 at max settings.

Mm, nope, never had any slowdown there, let alone single digits Then again, maybe it's different now in some what?

 

[Arcteryx]

Now that's just cool. I'm jealous that you guys got to see so much of the game while I've been stuck editing PPTs all day, but at least we all know the rewards from doing the big world events suck FINAL REST WHAT THE FUCK

The drop rate on that is so silly. I did SB again this morning and 3...yes, 3 people got it.

 

[Hawkian]

Oh wow, they must have moved a decimal point in the drop rate or something. What is it selling for?

 

[Squall ASF]

Xpadder is awesome for battles, they are so much better than keyboard and mouse for me. Problem is menu controls are really clunky and a bit of a chore to use. It takes way too long to go through an over encumbered inventory and salvage what I want and move stuff around quickly in between fights. You can hold the back button and use a mouse to quickly do this stuff which is nice, but it feels kind of awkward using the controller and mouse at the same time, especially if you have to lean forward. I'm still bouncing between the two control options depending how lazy I am.

As for the changes, I'll start with the bad and then move on to the good. I'm glad I didn't rage about the ascended gear cost based off of the pic someone posted on here yesterday. I thought initially that all the gear cost ecto as well but thank Tyria it's only the new items. Still a really really stupid idea by Anet. Laurel is a truly brilliant currency, ESPECIALLY now that you can choose your own dailies. This is as close as you can get to truly letting the gamer play how they want, for fun and not turning the game into a second job, to accrue a currency for high end gear. It still has a time investment so that it doesn't feel like just anyone can get the good stuff overnight and I think investing the time to log in so many days and completing the dailies is deserving of great gear. They should reward people for playing their game, not for grinding something out. Truly a brilliant move by Anet. So why taint it with an ecto cost? It's not a certainty that you're going to get ecto when you salvage a rare or exotic and more importantly, if you are trying to work on alts, they are too low lvl to get any rare drops at all. So basically I am forced to play my high lvl character to get ecto when I really want to develop my alt....BAD idea. I have to agree with others that this is adverse to what Anet is trying to accomplish. I'm not going to pretend this ruins my game experience though, some of you are just full of hyperbole. Quitting the game because you can't get this one piece of gear...

Worse than the aforementioned issue is the Guild Quest implementation. You start off thinking "wow, Anet is brilliant! Allowing you to band together with other guilds to accomplish a mission will allow all sized guilds to participate in this new event! What a great setup!" then you see the laughably bad initiation price. My guild of RL friends, who I like playing with, will never get to try the guild events as they are now because there is a whopping four of us that still play. Why in Zhaitan's name would you create a system that would allow us to band with others for larger scale content we can't do on our own, but then make the entry fee beyond our reach? It just doesn't make sense. I'm not overly worried about it because like Hawkian said, I'm sure they will quickly see the error of their ways and after much clamoring by gamers, will significantly lower the entry fee. Still will probably be beyond a guild our size though but where it's at right now is quite frankly unacceptable for many many guilds. Just boggles the mind what they were thinking when they set it.

Now for good things: Providing far more flexibility and customization by gamers for dailies is a pretty huge deal. It removes the feeling of the game being a second job to get those laurel and enhances it to where you can play how you like. I'm working on a alt right now and story quests are a focus for me, I planned on working on them last night and I see one of the daily options is for completing a personal story mission :0 How perfect! So yesterday, you want to work on personal story? you can make progress, want to farm nodes for crafting? you can make progress, want to zerg events for drops? you can make progress, want to just run around a kill a bunch of stuff? you can make progress. Just really a beautiful system as I touched on in a prior paragraph. This really is how I think currency should work. You can make money and now some karma and laurel doing just about anything in the game, this is great. You want the players feeling like they can play how they want to and just have fun while heading towards great rewards. That's what will keep interest up in a natural way.

The other stuff is nearly a carbon copy of Hawkian's post a few pages back, essentially: More ascended stat variety and new items at the laurel store? yay! (sans ecto fee) more xp for competing dailies? yay for my alt progression! better loot in chests? who doesn't like that?! Preview stuff in TP? Who doesn't like that?! Then there are stuff I could care a less about but I think are great for other portions of the community like a new PvP map and free tournaments. Sounds great for sPvPers. Alas, there weren't any useful buffs applicable to me this time around but I'm sure there were for others! Playing as Mesmer right now, I can say that the GS3 really needs a damage increase. That skill is pretty much a wasted slot on the bar and that's a pretty big hit on the weapon. They should either increase the damage it does, or make it cause some kind of condition...cripple would seem appropriate for something coming out of the ground or maybe bleeding.

Great Balthazar this was much longer than I intended! I will say over all I am pleased with the patch and my biggest concern (Guild quest entry fee) will likely be addressed in the future.

 

[Trey]

That sounds fantastic, just please tell me that *holds breath* all the 5s champs are still present?

I couldn't tell you. I skip everything but Kholer.

But I most like the Kholer change. I ran AC2 yesterday with some GAFfers and we wiped two times on him because we ignored the adds he now summons. Then we calmed down, assigned two guys to add-duty, and took care of him quickly.

Pulling him and dodging his spinning shit every now and again is much less satisfying than facing him legit on the platform with his minions. He dies much faster.

 

[Divvy]

Oh wow, they must have moved a decimal point in the drop rate or something. What is it selling for?

About 50g is the buy price right now. Fluctuates between 20-60g

 

[etiolate]

Oh wow, they must have moved a decimal point in the drop rate or something. What is it selling for?

It's dropping in price. It's 100g now, but I think it was two or three times that at the time of patch.

 

[Retro]

Alas, there weren't any useful buffs applicable to me this time around but I'm sure there were for others! Playing as Mesmer right now, I can say that the GS3 really needs a damage increase. That skill is pretty much a wasted slot on the bar and that's a pretty big hit on the weapon.

They changed Mind Stab; it can now hit up to three targets... or wait... the #3 chain skill on the one handed sword is called Mind Stab too... huh. Not sure which got the buff then.

 

[Squall ASF]

They changed Mind Stab; it can now hit up to three targets... or wait... the #3 chain skill on the one handed sword is called Mind Stab too... huh. Not sure which got the buff then.

Ah you are right, it can now hit three targets but it's still weak sauce. My comment on what it needs stands. Draining a boon should be swapped for negative condition or else give the damage a boost.

Edit: Oh, is it? Maybe it didn't even get that then haha