Support NeoGAF

[Proven]

No chance Sacrx is just trolling with these notes? There's no other source.

How Anet closes each thread:

He could be off the mark on some things. The video is a hodge podge of rants and leaks that he's recorded over the last 3 or so weeks. There's stuff that got changed that he had to add another recording to the video to comment on.

But it just sounds like this is his "Fuck it, I'm done" declaration. True or not there's a good chance he'll get account banned.

 

[Hawkian]

pretty much yeah.

 

[Hyunashi]

Sacrx all but confirms how wvw is an after thought for ANET. Pretty ironic how all those problems bought up in alpha actually came to light.

He could be off the mark on some things. The video is a hodge podge of rants and leaks that he's recorded over the last 3 or so weeks. There's stuff that got changed that he had to add another recording to the video to comment on.

But it just sounds like this is his "Fuck it, I'm done" declaration. True or not there's a good chance he'll get account banned.

I dont think he cares. Red Guard were the top wvw/gvg guild, but have now disbanded for obvious reasons plagueing WvW and its community.

 

[Retro]

Sacrx all but confirms how wvw is an after thought for ANET. Pretty ironic how all those problems bought up in alpha actually came to light.

"Confirms?" An hour-long, obscenity-laden rant punctuated with comments from more than a year ago on the alpha forums, without any context, by a guy with an obvious axe to grind and who admits was blacklisted from future alpha testing for having "shouting matches" with the developers? That's considered confirmation?

 

[markot]

The only gw2 YouTube guy I listen to us wooden potatoes, but mainly for the lore stuff.

 

[Hyunashi]

"Confirms?" An hour-long, obscenity-laden rant punctuated with comments from more than a year ago on the alpha forums, without any context, by a guy with an obvious axe to grind and who admits was blacklisted from future alpha testing for having "shouting matches" with the developers? That's considered confirmation?

To me, it does. Anyone who pays attention can observe the obvious bias Anet has for PvE, I cant blame them though, its their money maker. Anet believing WvW should be more for casuals and that the hardcores should be playing their shitty sPvP just shows how low on the ladder WvW is. I dont care how incoherent Sacrx is, but like it or not, he and his guild were a big part of WvW and GvG. And yes he is obscene, even when leading RG he was obscene.

The alpha comments basically state that ANET were informed of what could go wrong in WvW, it happened, it seriously happened. And the result of the issues to wvw have seen the population drop constantly and have seen major guilds leave the game. What we have now is a large quantity of people congregating towards the top tier servers while the lower ones continue to collect dust (Also, Im sure a 12th ranked server is gonna have fun against a t1 one when the seasons starts.)

Dispute it if you like, but Anet just doesnt listen enough in WvW, whether it be from the alpha community or the general community now. I am ready for how 'awesome' the seasons will be or how Bloodlust in the borderlands will be a 'significant' update to wvw (both of which the general WvW community do not want.)

Again, I have nothing against PvE, which is IMMENSELY enjoyable and constantly refreshing. The devs for that part of the game have been doing a good job that the blatant favoritism for it is obvious. As for the joke that is sPvP? Stop shoving eSports down our throats, because it will never be as popular as other games.

 

[Retro]

It's pretty much one guy's opinion, with little evidence to back it up (and what little is given is both out of context and unavailable to the public). You can see it as a confirmation of your personal views, but this video really only has two discernible truths;
1. The creator dislikes Guild Wars 2, and
2. He broke an alpha NDA and is likely headed for all sorts of Fun Times with Lawyers.

Everything else is conjecture and opinion. For example, at no point has ArenaNet said "WvW is for casuals, sPVP is for Hardcores.", though that assumption colors almost every discussion on the matter. You also can't say "ArenaNet doesn't listen to the WvW community" because there's no way to actually tell. There's probably a ton of people on the forums posting a ton of ideas on what they think WvW should be, but game development isn't by committee and ArenaNet has their own plans for how the game should be developed. They may read every single post in the WvW forums, but if they're all ideas that conflict with their own plans, of course they're not going to use them. Given the ferocity of the GvG community within that group, it wouldn't surprise me at all if they ignore many more of the suggestions than they take under consideration.

Likewise, I think it's unfair to say ArenaNet is "biased" towards PVE: this isn't some sort of prejudiced decision because ArenaNet hates PVP, it's a simple matter of giving the majority of the players more of what they want. They continue to work on WvW, from the culling fix to WvW progression to adding more to do within the game mode (the new Bloodlust mechanic is obviously there to break up zergs and give smaller groups something to do besides Havok). And yes, they continue to work on sPVP, from Hot Join to new maps to, as the leak suggests, more game types beyond conquest. Few developers support their alternative game types as well, but for people who are focused on one particular aspect, of course they're going to think it's not being worked on fast enough.

We can at least agree on the "E-Sports" thing being ridiculous, but my view on that extends beyond GW2; I think trying to make videogames a spectator sport is itself a terrible idea overall.

 

[Mxrz]

ANet is doing the "leet sekrit forum" thing in GW2, too? I guess they really didnt learn from the last go around.

I can promise you that you could, right now, go dig up various threads from 2005/6 and likely find word for word the same hyperbolic statements and claims. ANet is ANet, Crying foul or favoritism is just as stupid now as it was back then.

 

[Retro]

ANet is doing the "leet sekrit forum" thing in GW2, too? I guess they really didnt learn from the last go around. .

I'm not following; of course they're going to have a closed forum for alpha tester feedback. Every developer does (or, at least the ones where I've been aware of them, when testing and such).

 

[Mxrz]

I'm not following; of course they're going to have a closed forum for alpha tester feedback. Every developer does (or, at least the ones where I've been aware of them, when testing and such).

Dunno how they work it now days. There used to be an invite only forum for the pvp balance talk back in the first game. At some point it got pretty messy and caused a big ruckus about players vs devs, Devs favoring certain guilds, Anet doesn't listen, only cares about pve, and so on.

 

[Boss Doggie]

Why do people want to hurt quaggan

From my understanding

Sanctum of Rall, Tarnished Coast. Blackgate, Jade Quarry

Ahh Tarnished Coast...

Well may I ask where you're playing zone wise? Most people are either in low level zones, level 80 zones, where an invasion might be (any zone from 25-80 except Orr and Southsun), doing whatever the current Living Story content is (SAB in this case), in dungeons, world bosses, Fractals, WvW, or sPvP. Point being there's probably a shit ton of people out in the world, just not in the zones you're leveling in cause the bulk of players are doing very specific things. No matter what server you move to, you're not going to see a ton of people in say Lornar's Pass unless an invasion is happening. It's the simple fact that over time everyone hits 80 and less people are actually leveling. I mean these last few updates have done a lot to get people out into the world doing JPs, minidungeons, champ hunting, guild missions, etc but there isn't a continued reason to be in say Lornar's once you did the JP there or an invasion unless you're gathering at level 80. It's something that they're working on and have already made large strides to get people into the whole world but it's not at the point where it's on a consistent basis.

TL;DR: People are all over the world and in some cases in very specific places for a certain amount of time at a certain point in the day. I'm taking SWATHS of people, at times hundreds in a single zone but for a very specific reason (invasions). What you're not going to see is 50 people leveling all at once in a level 40 zone at this point, it's really something that just doesn't happen after the first month or so of an MMO launch.

Ahh I see.

But even then, at the starting point, it feels like there aren't much players in CD... Is there a statistics showing the amount of active players of a server?

 

[NobleXenon]

I fail to see how these so called "big guilds" are leaving WvW in droves. I left TC because it was impossible to get in WvW. I transferred to SBI to escape all that, but now there have been queues to get in the past two weeks. At least they are fifteen or so minutes.

 

[Jira]

Why do people want to hurt quaggan



Ahh Tarnished Coast...



Ahh I see.

But even then, at the starting point, it feels like there aren't much players in CD... Is there a statistics showing the amount of active players of a server?

The only stat we have is if you look at the server browser, it's a real time representation of the amount of players who are logged in. The servers with the most players are at the top (or bottom depending on how you have it sorted) based on real time numbers. Even right now our server (SBI) is almost the lowest and there's tons of people doing all the level 80 stuff without fail, your server is near some of the highest pop right now. I cannot stress how active this game is, you're just not in the right areas yet to see this. Here's an example from a few weeks ago on our server:

That was the first invasion post patch way before NA primetime where it got even bigger, hundreds of people in a single area.

 

[Jira]

I fail to see how these so called "big guilds" are leaving WvW in droves. I left TC because it was impossible to get in WvW. I transferred to SBI to escape all that, but now there have been queues to get in the past two weeks. At least they are fifteen or so minutes.

When ANet announced WvW Season 1, two to three 200-300 person guilds transferred to our server and we really don't know why. The whiners on the forums always think they're the majority and because they or their guild did X means EVERYONE is also doing X.

 

[markot]

SOS needs More americans on it.

 

[NobleXenon]

When ANet announced WvW Season, two to three 200-300 person guilds transferred to our server and we really don't know why. The whiners on the forums always think they're the majority and because they or their guild did X means EVERYONE is also doing X.

Ah, that makes sense then. I just hope it doesn't become two hour daily queues like TC was/is now.

 

[markot]

Tc sucks if this is the best they can do with that many people.

 

[Boss Doggie]

Hmm... apparently there was a voting event before...

Why did players pick a no name Nord over a Charr that pretty much start up Black Lion Trading Company?

The only stat we have is if you look at the server browser, it's a real time representation of the amount of players who are logged in. The servers with the most players are at the top (or bottom depending on how you have it sorted) based on real time numbers. Even right now our server (SBI) is almost the lowest and there's tons of people doing all the level 80 stuff without fail, your server is near some of the highest pop right now. I cannot stress how active this game is, you're just not in the right areas yet to see this. Here's an example from a few weeks ago on our server:

That was the first invasion post patch way before NA primetime where it got even bigger, hundreds of people in a single area.

Ahhh I see. Neat. I guess it really just is me at the wrong hours and so on.

 

[Lunar15]

Hmm... apparently there was a voting event before...

Why did players pick a no name Nord over a Charr that pretty much start up Black Lion Trading Company?

Ironically, more players who had been around for a while knew who Kiel (a human, just so you know) was more than they knew Gnashblade. Gnashblade was in the background, whereas we were actively going on quests with Kiel. The choices of characters to vote against were really weird, but it was actually surprisingly close.

Key thing to note though, were the promised rewards. Kiel's rewards included temporarily lowered waypoint costs, and people are constantly whining about that, so that's who won. People like myself were rooting for Gnashblade, not only because he's the more interesting character, but also because one of his rewards was adding a fractal called "The Fall of Abbadon", which sounds pretty neat from a lore standpoint. With Kiel, we'll get a fractal called "Thumanova Reactor", which refers to an incident that happened just before the start of this game.

 

[Mxrz]

Any tips for making Guardian more fun in WvW? Generally just run around with a hammer/staff. Feels a bit dull.

 

[Lunar15]

Any tips for making Guardian more fun in WvW? Generally just run around with a hammer/staff. Feels a bit dull.

You can always take up golfing.

 

[Katoki]

You can always take up golfing.

That's good. I've recently just taken up the guardian again with staff/hammer in WvW too.

 

[xeris]

Why do people want to hurt quaggan

Because they are evil, tasty, and nutritious. But mostly evil.

 

[AFollowerNotALeader]

Wait, Red Guard had access to content pre-release?

Not cool ArenaNet.

On the other hand our PUG zergs still wipe them so maybe they need the help.

Edit - If RG were involved in advising ANet about changes then a conspiracy theorist might suggest that this explains certain anti-SFR decisions that were made, given our historical bitter enmity.

 

[jersoc]

Any tips for making Guardian more fun in WvW? Generally just run around with a hammer/staff. Feels a bit dull.

i've been doing it for the stars. here's what i do. get in zerg, get staff. spam staff and f1(well shift Q for me) profit or die in 2 seconds because fuck it. full zerker.

 

[Hyunashi]

Ah, that makes sense then. I just hope it doesn't become two hour daily queues like TC was/is now.

LOL, TC has 2hr daily ques? How long ago was this. Would totally explain how they are getting smashed by SoR when a few of our wvw guilds are taking a break and we basically have no ques.

 

[AFollowerNotALeader]

So.

I've listened to Sacrx's rant.

I think he's right about the pointless boringness of sPvP. To be honest, when I came to this game I assumed I was going to sPvP only, since that resembled most the PvP I'd done before. I quickly realised that for various reasons (rate of capping, time to kill, lack of trinity) sPvP basically became "sprint around the map avoiding the enemy".

I don't think he "gets" WvWvW though. He desperately wants WvWvW to be a different game from what it is. Of course WvWvW is based on coverage. It's a week long persistent battlefield. Viz Square (for all I loathe them) are where they are because they get that and play that and that makes up for their total inability to fight. It's not *necessary*. We have proven (through repeated iterations of our community after ANet pissed in our pool twice) that SFR can beat them, while having proper battles and a lot of fun. Sure, it needs fixing (oh Jesus, the arrowcarts), but games always need fixing.

He doesn't mention us in our rant because we are a server that has a server-wide community made up of a mix of guilds and PUGs which totally undermines his central thesis that "WvW is GvG" and is consistently tier 1 in EU, where he plays. And yes, our big guilds GvG as well.

 

[Kos Luftar]

A lot of people who play games think that making games is easy and that thier ideas will make any game better.

 

[Hawkian]

According to Ordon, some kind of changes are coming in Tuesday's patch to mitigate the champ farming at clockwork invasions.

He also said this about Fractals:

We’re currently looking at a few things regarding individual fractal difficulty and length. A couple of options are reducing the length of unnecessarily long fractals (dredge) and modifying the possible sequence of randomly selected fractals so you don’t get the longest and most difficult ones all on the same run.

 

[Lunar15]

According to Ordon, some kind of changes are coming in Tuesday's patch to mitigate the champ farming at clockwork invasions.

He also said this about Fractals:

Honestly, just reduce the length of dredge. I'm fairly ok with all the other ones.

 

[Hawkian]

Honestly, just reduce the length of dredge. I'm fairly ok with all the other ones.

I don't really have any issues with the others either. I want less HP on the damn jellyfish but it's still a quick fractal. A lot of them are actually pretty perfectly paced IMO.

 

[Lunar15]

I don't really have any issues with the others either. I want less HP on the damn jellyfish but it's still a quick fractal. A lot of them are actually pretty perfectly paced IMO.

Dredge boss needs to be changed to where you only need to pour the molten lead four times total, but there's more mechanics in between pours. Going round and round in there is a real pain, even if he's not a very hard boss truth be told. And way less waves of dredge at all sections. My God.

Jellyfish boss needs to be more focused on dragging him to the electric pods, but the mechanic needs to be more effective.

 

[Arcteryx]

I honestly don't see the issue with fractals, as you sometimes get the shortest ones too. There are a few that definitely have stupidly high HP pools, but cutting content to make them all similar isn't the greatest idea.

 

[Lunar15]

I honestly don't see the issue with fractals, as you sometimes get the shortest ones too. There are a few that definitely have stupidly high HP pools, but cutting content to make them all similar isn't the greatest idea.

I have very few issues with fractals, they're pretty great. Just shorten dredge. HP pools aren't the problem in dredge, it's that it's just waves and waves of completely uninteresting encounters. It's bad level design.

I'd rather take a long time on something because it's challenging, not because I have to do one thing over and over and over again.

Dredge is just so out of sync with the others. I wouldn't mind that being adjusted. I hope they don't mess with the randomness, though. It would be pretty blah if the selection was arbitrarily manufactured to ensure no 3 "short" or 3 "not-as-short" or make things more predictable in any way.. Having those sub hour swamp-water-ascalon or the relatively more grueling Grawl-Cliff-Dredge every once in a while is part of the charm.

Agreed: I'd rather them not implement a system that "forces" certain length fractals. Length isn't even the true issue: dredge is just tedious and boring.

 

[Levyne]

Dredge is just so out of sync with the others. I wouldn't mind that being adjusted. I hope they don't mess with the randomness, though. It would be pretty blah if the selection was arbitrarily manufactured to ensure no 3 "short" or 3 "not-as-short" or make things more predictable in any way.. Having those sub hour swamp-water-ascalon or the relatively more grueling Grawl-Cliff-Dredge every once in a while is part of the charm.

I was kind of hoping that the 55 AR would make 50-tier fractal runs more likely, but it seems like Maw is still in "fuck you" mode when it comes to agony.

 

[NobleXenon]

LOL, TC has 2hr daily ques? How long ago was this. Would totally explain how they are getting smashed by SoR when a few of our wvw guilds are taking a break and we basically have no ques.

A few months ago. So TC still gets dominated by a T1 server? Does TC still lopsidedly dominate T2 servers? I remember this combination making dailies, monthlies, and rank gain a pain in the ass. Glad I transferred from it.

Dredge is just so out of sync with the others. I wouldn't mind that being adjusted. I hope they don't mess with the randomness, though. It would be pretty blah if the selection was arbitrarily manufactured to ensure no 3 "short" or 3 "not-as-short" or make things more predictable in any way.. Having those sub hour swamp-water-ascalon or the relatively more grueling Grawl-Cliff-Dredge every once in a while is part of the charm.

I remember someone saying the Dredge Fractal makes for a good Dungeon, but a terrible Fractal.

I wouldn't expect these fractal changes to come until the three new (or more) fractals are added later.

 

[shysaursoft]

So.

I've listened to Sacrx's rant.

I think he's right about the pointless boringness of sPvP.

I play sPvP regularly, and have no issue with it. Then again, I treat it like a TDM client, like Quake 3. I go in, play, have fun, get out. I don't try to make an MMO out of it. Then again, I think I'm one of only a handful of people that enjoys playing GW2 because I enjoy playing it, the way comabt works, and not because I'm chasing some carrot off in the distance.

 

[Shanlei91]

I play sPvP regularly, and have no issue with it. Then again, I treat it like a TDM client, like Quake 3. I go in, play, have fun, get out. I don't try to make an MMO out of it. Then again, I think I'm one of only a handful of people that enjoys playing GW2 because I enjoy playing it, the way comabt works, and not because I'm chasing some carrot off in the distance.

That describes my relationship with sPvP. I enjoy the combat and have always wanted an action-based death match-esque team game, with Iron Phoenix on the Xbox being the closest thing prior to match my wants. So this game does well.

Probably 80% of my time in Guild Wars 1 was spent in Random Arena. Never joined a guild or did tournaments...had no ranking to speak of. Just popped in, had some random fun then left.

I actually treat PvP and PvE as if they're two separate games, fit for different moods, that happen to share similar combat and similar avatar.

 

[Hawkian]

Dredge is just so out of sync with the others. I wouldn't mind that being adjusted. I hope they don't mess with the randomness, though. It would be pretty blah if the selection was arbitrarily manufactured to ensure no 3 "short" or 3 "not-as-short" or make things more predictable in any way.. Having those sub hour swamp-water-ascalon or the relatively more grueling Grawl-Cliff-Dredge every once in a while is part of the charm.

I agree with everything you guys are saying about Fractals including this bit. The randomness is excellent, I already hate "rerolling" when someone doesn't like the first fractal.

I actually really really dig the Dredge boss(es). I prefer to kite between two vats rather than all four. But I think it's mechanically sound. Definitely has that real "how adept i your group at this?" feel which is less forgiving than most of the game's content, but also rewarding when the answer is "goddamn adept."

Cliffside is my fave too.

I was kind of hoping that the 55 AR would make 50-tier fractal runs more likely, but it seems like Maw is still in "fuck you" mode when it comes to agony.

Yeah, the agony cockblock is still in place for 50. I guess I'm expecting a raised level potential with the new fractal release. But I'm still not _that_ compelled to get my Fractal level that high. Behind able to run t2 and t3 dailies is where the good stuff is in terms of risk/reward from my perspective.

I play sPvP regularly, and have no issue with it. Then again, I treat it like a TDM client, like Quake 3. I go in, play, have fun, get out. I don't try to make an MMO out of it. Then again, I think I'm one of only a handful of people that enjoys playing GW2 because I enjoy playing it, the way comabt works, and not because I'm chasing some carrot off in the distance.

Bizarrely enough all three gameplay types are made primarily for that handful

I actually treat PvP and PvE as if they're two separate games, fit for different moods, that happen to share similar combat and similar avatar.

Totally, satisfying in completely different ways. I just wish you didn't see your dang PvE inventory in the heart of the mists -_-

 

[Grayman]

That describes my relationship with sPvP. I enjoy the combat and have always wanted an action-based death match-esque team game, with Iron Phoenix on the Xbox being the closest thing prior to match my wants. So this game does well.

Probably 80% of my time in Guild Wars 1 was spent in Random Arena. Never joined a guild or did tournaments...had no ranking to speak of. Just popped in, had some random fun then left.

I actually treat PvP and PvE as if they're two separate games, fit for different moods, that happen to share similar combat and similar avatar.

I loved the RA in GW1. There was probably a lot more game there for TA people but for my level of involvement RA was great. Also being that I liked playing Monk I would end up playing in TA after my 10 RA wins anyways.

GW2 sPVP hasn't grabbed me in the same way but maybe someday it will.

 

[Hawkian]

I loved the RA in GW1. There was probably a lot more game there for TA people but for my level of involvement RA was great. Also being that I liked playing Monk I would end up playing in TA after my 10 RA wins anyways.

GW2 sPVP hasn't grabbed me in the same way but maybe someday it will.

I hit TA with my RA team as a ranger a couple of times and even won a couple. That was wild stuff. Some of those maps were candy for GW1 rangers...

Ultimately though I prefer GW2's PvP just because I much prefer GW2's combat. The old system was stellar for its time but going back to get a handful of HoM points for launch, I could really feel how limiting it was in terms of the playstyle I enjoy. I just wish there were more modes in GW2's PvP, but I'm sure one day there will be some.

 

[shysaursoft]

Bizarrely enough all three gameplay types are made primarily for that handful

The way I handle it is simple. If you go to the GW2 forums and read the threads, you'd think GW2 was an empty, broken husk of a game that nobody plays and has long since been abandoned by everyone, that WvW is a broken empty mess that nobody plays, that PvP is a broken mess that nobody plays.

Then I go in-game, go to PvP, and it's always busy, I can always find full games, and there's always people from the guilds I'm in playing it. Same for WvW, same for PvE.

There is such a huge disconnect between the disgruntled ever-bitch crowd, and people actually playing and enjoying the game.

That's not to say there aren't issues - there are plenty - but the ever-bitch crowd tends to overinflate every issue that they personally have beef with.

I've seen PvP players complain that Anet only cares about PvE. I've seen PvE players complain that Anet only cares about PvP. I've seen WvW players say that WvW is the only reason people by the game, and why did Anet waste their time with PvP and PvE because clearly nobody plays that crap...

And on and on.

And this is all just normal. I saw the same shit all the time in WoW, and I'm seeing it now in FFXIV as well. I saw it in UO. I saw it in EQ and AC.

It's hard to tune it out though, because I want to read the forums, and reddit, because I want information - but man does it sap your energy, all that kvetching and endless bitch bitch bitch, me me me...

"The quickest way to hate a game you love, is to read its forums".

I realize Anet isn't this giant company with infinite resources, so I forgive them for having split attention or not dedicating time/resources to all three sides of GW2 equally (nevermind they're still transitioning away from GW1, putting it into self-sustain mode, so there's still that taking some of their attention). The ever-bitch crowd seems to think all Anet should do is hire more people to fix things, or just spend more time on X or Y, forgetting they're actual people, with lives.

Anyway, I've kind of gone on a bit. You get what I mean.

 

[Hawkian]

That I do, and I could expound at length on the "ever-bitch crowd"- I tend to slightly more-diplomatically refer to it as the "malcontent factor"- and the intricacies of who it will be composed of at any given time, and you are absolutely dead on that all of it is normal and typical. Par for the course. Mundane, even. But keeping that in mind does help me with some perspective when I venture into the official forums.

By the way, on the topic of split attention, I'd wager that right now by far the most dev cycles are being eaten up by preparation for the Asia launch (which includes coding a whole new tutorial system). Not easy stuff, and a big deal from a business perspective, so I know they're devoting substantial resources to it.

 

[Levyne]

Some people do treat wvw as the "graduation" of pve player to something more meaningful, and I can see where they are coming from. Sometimes pve just feels like un-engaging opportunities to fill your e-bank for e-shinies, where wining a closely contested camp scrum or outmaneuvering a server as they lose their keep to you is rewarding in a more intangible way, and losing red keep after holding it for so many hours feel more crippling than, say, wiping in dungeon. I mean, it's nice that they do offer legitimate "loot" through wvw captures so that you can still work towards some cosmetic goals, but when taking a keep I'm not thinking about the 5 dragonite ore I'm going to get.

Though trying to find groups to improve on your best dungeon time (that isn't CoF 1, etc), tackling relatively more challenging pve content like the Aetherblade dungeon or Liadri, or simply attempting a guild challenge with fewer than the optimal amount of people, these things can be engaging and I find myself more often leaning towards those things rather than parking at each world event once a day, or ensuring that I religiously run CoF 1 or SE1. I actually kind of loathe seeing the Invasion message pop because part of me feels compelled to just enjoy the influx of champ bags while the other would rather spend 45 minutes doing something else that doesn't result in such an auto-pilot and turning my brain off.

There's enough variety in pve content to keep it interesting as a whole, though. Just leaning away from it more and more. I still greatly enjoy guild dungeon groups, and I enjoy teaching them to new players.

Edit: I'm confident that world events will continue to become better and less rote with the Teq Rising update and related tweaks.

 

[Retro]

Edit: I'm confident that world events will continue to become better and less rote with the Teq Rising update and related tweaks.

Well, the preview page says all the bosses are being upgraded to be 'more challenging and fun'. At the very least, I expect them to bump down their health so they're less spongy and bump up their damage or the frequency of their attacks.

I don't expect the fights (except for Taco, of course) to get new mechanics, but mixing things up a bit would certainly help.

I also hope that they change the way World Events are communicated. Right now, Invasions pop up, seemingly at random, and everyone rushes to the zone on the alert, but World Events are all on a timer; you either use an overlay or a second monitor and jump to the event when it happens.

What I think would be cool is if they added a UI element above the Mini-map; a little "Caution" icon that flashes when a new World Event is starting, and remains red until it is resolved. Clicking it would open up a "Living World" panel that has little bits of info on the fight, lets you uncheck specific fights that you don't want alerts for, and even allows you to waypoint straight from the menu (assuming you've uncovered it).

Basically, an Emergency Alert System for Guild Wars 2.

Maybe even have a series of unlocks; at first, you don't get any alerts until you've completed them once, so you'll need to rely on others to know when they've started. Once you beat that event, you get the alert option, but no auto-waypoint; you have to beat the event a few more times to unlock it, or beat the fight in a specific way. Maybe even integrate special perks in it, like small Magic Find bonuses for specific bosses, in case you're hunting something specific they drop.

 

[Shanlei91]

Totally, satisfying in completely different ways. I just wish you didn't see your dang PvE inventory in the heart of the mists -_-

The inventory being shared is such a stupid thing.

As result, I store anything I get in PvP immediately and only have one set of gear I ever use.

 

[Kite]

If the rumors about JQ's internal implosions turn out to be true, TC might not have a choice on whether or not they want to continue slumming in tier 2 or get moved up~

 

[Hawkian]

I think I agree with almost all of that Levyne, and I too can even see what people mean about the "graduation" to WvW, even if players are all very different and will wind up spending time where they have the most fun. Compared to PvE, the effort and consequences- what's at stake- are greater in WvW and the feeling of overcoming poor odds against actual human beings is exhilarating. At the same time, depending on the mood I'm in, following a commander in a huge zerg can be just as unengaging to me as the easiest PvE content. Sometimes I really like the feeling of being a tiny part of a massive army, but other times the idea that things would be going exactly the same way whether I was there or not just makes me get bored.

Truly, it's all what you make of it. Like you, I gravitate toward PvE content that is more active, challenging, or able to be handicapped- Guild Challenges with <15 people are a great example. All of those successes and even the failures have been fun for me under those conditions (okay, maybe not Save Our Supplies). I love doing Zho'Qafa in a small, group, though it's hard to get people to come with me To tie it back to WvW, obviously in the same vein I prefer havoc or small-scale tower capture and defense to being where the most people are- really psyched for the BL changes personally.

The tougher large-scale PvE stuff is great too. I've had a lot of fun hunting down the Karka Queen (even if missing a stupid waypoint meant I didn't make it to her last time :'(). Sad I missed the last couple of times Ash ran Balthazar, cause it's satisfying to beat as well. Thinking it over now, it's been quite a while since I've done Grenth and now I really feel like trying it again. Really looking forward to Teq being at the top of this list.

Meanwhile the "pinata" world events never really attract me anymore. I haven't seen the Shatterer in months, nor Ulgoth. Maw, Wurm, SB, I've done maybe once or twice a week. Commi I'll do if he's up before or after an SE run. There's just so little there other than push button, receive prize and while I very much don't mind that kind of stuff being in the game for the people who dig it, it's not compelling over the other ways to spend my time. Cautiously optimistic to see what's in store for the lot of them come Tuesday.

I will say that I do love the invasions, but likely because I always try to stay engaged and forget about the champ bags, and just do whatever I can to help the server win. I consider the scaling tech during them to be really impressive, and you can really start to understand the impact you can make as a single player or small group. Of course it isn't as "rewarding" (read: lucrative), and the conflict with Aetherblade farming does bother me. Nice that at least some further step will be taken about it on Tuesday.

The variety of stuff there has been to do at any moment even outside of the world bosses just really works for me. I loved the gauntlet, absolutely everything about the Bazaar and Labyrinthine Cliffs, love soloing random champs or going hunting with the guild, enjoy a majority of the dungeon paths in the game, I like all 4 activities (though I am beginning to understand that I suck at Sanctum Sprint... where's my Aspect Arena at?!), love most guild missions, obviously love SAB, and so on and so on, and enjoy both WvW and PvP. I'd change a lot of the extrinsic rewards for them, but I find the concept I'm starting to get preemptively pumped for the next dungeon revamp, too.. even if nobody ever wants to do Kholer or Colossus Rumblue legit with me

Bah, I rambled.

let's do megadestroyer with the guild on tuesday

 

[Levyne]

Meanwhile the "pinata" world events never really attract me anymore. I haven't seen the Shatterer in months, nor Ulgoth. Maw, Wurm, SB, I've done maybe once or twice a week. Commi I'll do if he's up before or after an SE run. There's just so little there other than push button, receive prize and while I very much don't mind that kind of stuff being in the game for the people who dig it, it's not compelling over the other ways to spend my time. Cautiously optimistic to see what's in store for the lot of them come Tuesday.

I will say that I do love the invasions, but likely because I always try to stay engaged and forget about the champ bags, and just do whatever I can to help the server win. I consider the scaling tech during them to be really impressive, and you can really start to understand the impact you can make as a single player or small group. Of course it isn't as "rewarding" (read: lucrative), and the conflict with Aetherblade farming does bother me. Nice that at least some further step will be taken about it on Tuesday.
y

Agreed, and well put. And the invasions could be awesome with a few tweaks. They just aren't compelling with the competiting interests in place at the moment. It's finding the pinatas and whacking them.

And yes, following the EB zerg without TS up, without caring about your destination or secondary occurrences, can also be a bit mindless. But even then, every battle is different, even if slightly. EB yesterday was an interesting dynamic since the day crew had captured nearly everything and the night crew was basically just defending giant zergs of NSP and IoJ on multiple fronts, taking down as many as we could and ensuring the map regression to the mean was as slow as possible. I've been making a deliberate attempt to communicate in TS more and be more involved than simply following the crowd. There's a degree of flexibility that just isn't present, say, in the fire elemental or melandru events, or cof 1, or mapping out a zone for funsies.

 

[Ashodin]

I do pinatas for ectos. I need 'em.