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Guild Wars 2 |OT3| Two Week Updates, One Box, Zero Subscriptions

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R

Reknoc

Member
One thing my time with Asurans has taught me is that they seen ridiculously more animated than every other race. The way they swerve when running or move when stopping and going the way their ears perk up when in combat.
 
J

Jest Chillin

Member
Once you get used to their extra animations, they're much easier to navigate Jumping Puzzles with as well since the camera doesn't go wonky as much or as badly as with the taller races.
 
L

Lunar15

Member
So, tomorrow's when we find out about Centaurgeddon, right?

My completely reasonable expectations:

- Playable Centaur Race announcement, effective immediately
- Two new centaur specific classes: Shaman and Centaurdian (it's like a guardian, but twice as good)
- Centaur themed backpacks added to the gem store, at reduced prices
- 4 new Centaur related minigames, including Centaur Sprint, Centaursketball, Centaur Bar Brawl, and Centolymock.
- A new dragon will be introduced, Centaurkatorrik, who will be more important than all the other dragons combined
- 500 New personal story missions added (centaur race only)
- Champion Modniir Ulgoth is now a friendly NPC that can be randomly found in all regions, handing out free legendaries
- A new centaur home zone with sandbox style questing and open world PVP
- Weapons and armor are re-designed and no longer clip through character models (Centaur only)

If none of these changes are made, I'll definitely stop playing and demand a refund of all gem purchases.
 
C

Coverly

Member
Stumbled into the chicken run guild quest yesterday and it was just too funny. I must have died around 20 times trying to get through and then a group of random people helped me without asking. They basically healed me and wiped out any mobs nearby.

There is a lot to digest coming back to the game. Definitely a lot of reading to do just on traits alone. I hit 41 yesterday and I've yet to do a dungeon. I read that being a Ranger is not a good thing if you want to get into groups. Question though, what type of build is good for a ranger to help out the team in a dungeon run? Play support or go offensive? What do groups look for a ranger to do generally?
 
L

Levyne

Banned
Re:Ranger

While this isn't the only option, Start Here

(I would personally find another weapon other than Shortbow for the swap, either axe/axe, flip out offhands, GS, hell, even longbow.)

You don't have to follow the guide exclusively. For instance I have more points into Marksmanship and less into nature magic.

Rangers are not great support characters, because their support type utilities and traits often are Ranger-Pet type, not Ranger-party type. The spirits are their only real group support and they are fragile as fuck.

(And the recent grandmaster trait giving group regen on shouts was a nice little bone for anet to throw, I'm not sure I've seen it used much though, I haven't really dabbled in it)

However, frost spirit is surprisingly powerful if you learn/know how to keep it upright.

That said, if you are a ranger and join a group with another ranger, entertain the option of switching classes. If you see two+ others, make it a mandate to switch.

Pugs can be a little bit harsh on grouping with rangers because many will sit back, swapping between bows, possibly in defensive armor, sitting with a crappy bear ("because they don't die!" (hint: in most cases they suck anyway)), standing outside of boon range and offering little in the way of party support themselves.

The stigmatization is perhaps a bit exaggerated but totally understandable.

Edit: You also have to know when to use which pets depending on your playstyle to not come across as a total dumbass.

(It'll still happen, pets do that)

1.) Use a ranged pet (or ensure 100% passive) in the corridors of TA. Else they will run into and eat all the poison blossoms with reckless abandon.

2.) Don't use a melee pet on the harpy fractal if you plan on ranging from the adjacent platform. Unless you want them to stand there and do nothing.

3.) Don't use a melee pet in ranging the dredge tank on SE3, unless you either enjoy him standing there doing nothing or aggroing every mole in the room. Those are the two options.

Aside: The activated move on most (all?) devourers is a melee barb attack. Don't swap a ranged pet (devourer) just to hit that anyway and fuck everything up.

4.) SE1 mines? Ranged pet. And go ranged yourself. Even if passive, if you go melee and avoid the mines, the pet will stand next to you and...won't.

5.) Cliffside fractal...please don't let your pet kill the chanters without you knowing...you won't get booted quicker in any other place.

6.) CoE1 computer? If you are on the computer, instead of having the pet doing nothing, target the nearest enemy (I believe this is not initially set to any binding) and press f1. Repeat. Might as well have the pet defend you instead of doing nothing. A drake works well here I find due to the large-ish range on bite and tail swipe.

7.) Burrow defending in ac? Melee pet. A ranged pet will sit it one place and bug one enemy, where a melee pet will naturally run and kite them around. Even if he's mostly chasing, it'll be more effective.

8.) Don't leave a pet on aggressive all the time for the dredge fractal boss. Just don't. If will slow him down and allow his debuff to wear off.

9.) Initial Lupi phase? Ranged pet.


etc
 
K

Kos Luftar

Member
New interview with Bobby Stein of ArenaNet

I cannot wait for the upcoming update because of this excerpt from the interview:
We used a combination of the mail, achievement, and map systems to provide players some direction while we continued internal discussions on building a proper tracking mechanism that could guide players through the Living World. I’m happy to say that our latest designs will go a long way in solving many of the usability and contextual issues that players are facing when trying to experience the Living World story.

While it may appear to some that we're tying up simple short stories every month, there is a larger narrative that we're building toward. We’re about to make some larger reveals that will put the previous events into context. In my opinion, the best moments in our game are when our characters are tied to compelling gameplay and beautiful art, so that’s what we’re striving for.

We've had to rethink our methods of story delivery post-ship. We no longer rely on the two-shot cinematic conversations to impart plot. Instead, we try to involve characters in the action to tell the story as it plays out. The Living World allows us to take some chances and do new things with the Guild Wars 2 story, so you can expect some surprises in the coming months.
Click to expand...

Full interview at http://www.guildwars2hub.com/features/interviews/exclusive-interview-arenanets-bobby-stein
Part 2 at http://www.guildwars2hub.com/features/interviews/exclusive-interview-arenanets-bobby-stein-part-2
Part 3 at http://www.guildwars2hub.com/features/interviews/exclusive-interview-arenanets-bobby-stein-part-3

From part 2 of the interview:
From January to April, the focus was on Braham and Rox and their fight against a new Molten Alliance. Then we jumped into Moto’s Super Adventure Box. After that, we followed Ellen Kiel to Southsun Cove, Lion’s Arch, and Zephyr Sanctum. We’ve fought Aetherblades. But how does this all tie together? Does it have anything to do with the core story of the dragon threat?

Players will soon understand where these characters are headed, and how these seemingly disjointed events fit together and tie into the larger narrative. So while it may look like we’re playing catch-up, we’re actually ahead
Click to expand...

Once our Living World tracking system is online, we will have solved the story presentation issues that are currently making it difficult for people to experience the story content in the proper order.
Click to expand...
You will not miss out on the story part of the Living Story anymore...hope they release this on August 6th.

In addition to that, the player’s personal story will continue in the future. We’ll share more details on that when we’re ready.
Click to expand...
 
A

Ashodin

Member
Kos Luftar said:
New interview with Bobby Stein of ArenaNet

I cannot wait for the upcoming update because of this excerpt from the interview:


Full interview at http://www.guildwars2hub.com/features/interviews/exclusive-interview-arenanets-bobby-stein
Part 2 at http://www.guildwars2hub.com/features/interviews/exclusive-interview-arenanets-bobby-stein-part-2
Part 3 at http://www.guildwars2hub.com/features/interviews/exclusive-interview-arenanets-bobby-stein-part-3

From part 2 of the interview:



You will not miss out on the story part of the Living Story anymore...hope they release this on August 6th.
Click to expand...
Really curious.
 
K

Kos Luftar

Member
Ashodin said:
Really curious.
Click to expand...

At the moment I really do not see how all the things are related but I am really excited to find out...I think it is going to be a
mind_blown.gif
moment.
 
C

Coverly

Member
Levyne said:
Great Stuff
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot for that advice. I saw the youtube, I'm really glad he spent a lot of time on traits. For the dungeon runs, I think I'll also watch a youtube or two before I actually enter so at least I have a general understanding.
 
M

Mxrz

Member
I'm completely okay with them ditching the whole 'evil dragons!' stuff, and focusing more on fun reasonable threats. Political intrigue is way more interesting than Big Unimaginable Evil.
 
J

Jira

Member
Here you go Hawkian, right from Bobby Stein's mouth:

It’s just hard for the average player to make sense of it all since we’re pacing it out in two-week increments and we don’t yet have a mechanism to log what’s past and what’s to come. That’s slated to change before the end of the year.
Click to expand...

Seems I was already beaten...*shakes fist at Kos*.
 
H

hythloday

Member
Lunar15 said:
It's nice to hear acknowledgement of people's issues with the system. As for their solutions, I'm excited to see what they do but I'm keeping expectations in check.
Click to expand...

I think an entirely new window for the tracking system would be a good addition. They could add a "Living Story" icon on the upper left where the hero, guild, etc icons are. When you open it, you could page through all the past releases like a book. The "Now Showing" page could just show some basic info to introduce the setting, and they could edit in brief plot summaries and show cinematics later for the past ones to make it easier for players to catch up.
 
H

Hawkian

The Cryptarch's Bane
Jira said:
Here you go Hawkian, right from Bobby Stein's mouth:



Seems I was already beaten...*shakes fist at Kos*.
Click to expand...
Hell yes. So glad it's an end-of-year priority.

As long as they keep taking my advice so consistently, this game could really be something! :D
Kos Luftar said:
At the moment I really do not see how all the things are related but I am really excited to find out...I think it is going to be a
mind_blown.gif
moment.
Click to expand...
We can essentially rule out Primordus based on the dead drops, but that's about it. I have to say, it does feel to me like we are lurching painstakingly toward the Crystal Desert, and that means big Mr. K.
Lunar15 said:
It's nice to hear acknowledgement of people's issues with the system. As for their solutions, I'm excited to see what they do but I'm keeping expectations in check.
Click to expand...
Wise.
 
J

Jira

Member
I'm really only expecting it to be part of the UI like the Personal Story is but a bit more detailed. If it's anything more elaborate than that it would be fine with me.
 
H

Hawkian

The Cryptarch's Bane
Jira said:
I'm really only expecting it to be part of the UI like the Personal Story is but a bit more detailed. If it's anything more elaborate than that it would be fine with me.
Click to expand...
That's all it needs to be, really. The personal story tab is centralized, detailed, unobtrusive, and easy to follow. There's just no reason to ever flip through it because a) the items in its pages are... decorative? b) you are guaranteed to have "been there" for every step it mentions, because it's your story and c) it's not ongoing, so there's nothing to "check" after completion.

Right now, the Living Story's current solution(s) = the opposite of all of those qualities. It's decentralized through mail, achievements, the occasional lapse back into a quest-giving NPC (thankfully, these are all for completely tangential aspects of a release), the UI text, and extra text outside of the game like the short stories on the website. It's rarely detailed except for major story steps- all of which, until Marjory's journal, have been non-repeatable or reviewable. It's obtrusive, in that the in-game mail which is sometimes key to progressing through the story can be waylaid by a full inbox, and you can easily forget which character grabbed the thing. And while it's not usually that tough to follow if you just want to dip your toes in the water of a release- sampling a little bit here, a little there as you come across it- if you really want to get the most out of the entire experience you frequently need to review everything in the achievements panel at the least, and consult an external guide at the worst.

It's not simple to fix, because it does require UI restructuring and a lot of consolidated information, but it is an easy fix. It's just nice to know it's on their minds.
 
L

Lunar15

Member
Hawkian said:
That's all it needs to be, really. The personal story tab is centralized, detailed, unobtrusive, and easy to follow. There's just no reason to ever flip through it because a) the items in its pages are... decorative? b) you are guaranteed to have "been there" for every step it mentions, because it's your story and c) it's not ongoing, so there's nothing to "check" after completion.

Right now, the Living Story's current solution(s) = the opposite of all of those qualities. It's decentralized through mail, achievements, the occasional lapse back into a quest-giving NPC (thankfully, these are all for completely tangential aspects of a release), the UI text, and extra text outside of the game like the short stories on the website. It's rarely detailed except for major story steps- all of which, until Marjory's journal, have been non-repeatable or reviewable. It's obtrusive, in that the in-game mail which is sometimes key to progressing through the story can be waylaid by a full inbox, and you can easily forget which character grabbed the thing. And while it's not usually that tough to follow if you just want to dip your toes in the water of a release- sampling a little bit here, a little there as you come across it- if you really want to get the most out of the entire experience you frequently need to review everything in the achievements panel at the least, and consult an external guide at the worst.

It's not simple to fix, because it does require UI restructuring and a lot of consolidated information, but it is an easy fix. It's just nice to know it's on their minds.
Click to expand...

I'd really, really love if they made it personalized, like a journal. Something that just gives it a touch of lore. Something like "Kiel and I explored the depths of Southsun..."

It's small, but it ties the UI into something more akin to, I dunno, a story.
 
M

markot

Banned
Asurans have the best animations ever, it makes them feel so awesome to play.

I kinda wish they had some voice options though, all male asura sounding the same is annoying >.<

Divinities reach? More like stupidities beach!

Humans are boring >.> lousy aliens go back to your own planet whatever.
 
L

Lunar15

Member
Ashodin said:
hnngh that arena
Click to expand...

Pretty fancy arena for Brawlsketball. :p

Also, I love the idea of big events in home cities. Who wouldn't love a celebratory moot in Hoelbrak, a midsummer's ball under the Pale Tree, a science fair in Rata Sum, or a giant arena tournament in the Black Citadel?
 
S

Slightly Live

Dirty tag dodger
Finally lv80! For some reason the story mode keeps going on. Orr feels padded, go here kill, go there kill, walk long distances, kill along the way. Feels like it's being stretched out. Let me fight Shitestain already.
 
L

Lunar15

Member
They&#8217;re non-linear by nature in that they run independently of player progression within a linear story path, so you can&#8217;t expect people to engage in a dynamic event and to immediately understand its relevance to a certain character that may or may not be present. This was evident in The Secret of Southsun and Last Stand at Southsun releases. All the story details and characters existed in the world and were available for players to experience, but since players lacked a proper system to direct them through content in a linear order, many were confused at how things tied together.
Click to expand...

I'm really happy they're aware of this. It feels good to hear the team openly say what they have liked and disliked about everything so far. Feels iterative, not overly PR-infused.

I wonder though... once they work on this system and find a good balance, will they'll break off and apply a lot of these principles to that other concept we saw art for?
 
H

Hawkian

The Cryptarch's Bane
Grats! Having a bunch of Orr open is useful for some of the major events, but yeah it definitely drags on. I'm not really a fan of the final stretch of the personal story. The final dungeon is cool, but the last fight is pretty disappointing. Cool-looking though
 
J

Jira

Member
Hawkian said:
Grats! Having a bunch of Orr open is useful for some of the major events, but yeah it definitely drags on. I'm not really a fan of the final stretch of the personal story. The final dungeon is cool, but the last fight is pretty disappointing. Cool-looking though
Click to expand...

Though they're gonna revamp the Zhaitan fight so at least they're not gonna just leave it to rot for years or never fix it at all.
 
K

Kos Luftar

Member
Jira said:
Though they're gonna revamp the Zhaitan fight so at least they're not gonna just leave it to rot for years or never fix it at all.
Click to expand...
That's confirmed?
The boby stein interview made it seem like he didn't think it was a good use of resources to fix old personal story quests.
 
J

Jira

Member
.

Greetings, Matthew Medina has asked me to pass on some explanations/clarifications:

There&#8217;s been some confusion and spirited conversation regarding the Candidate Trials, and I&#8217;d like to take a minute to clear up some of the concerns that have been raised about this content. There&#8217;s a lot I&#8217;d like to cover, so I hope you&#8217;ll bear with me. ?

Difficulty &#8211; From the beginning, we wanted to create an event that would truly test player&#8217;s abilities to survive, whether solo or in groups. That&#8217;s when we came up with the concept of the [Challenge Event]. We wanted to create an event where it was easy to get bronze participation, moderately challenging to achieve silver, and difficult to get gold, and to provide an escalating difficulty curve by making use of tiers that got progressively harder, and progressively harder again with groups. We knew that this would not be everyone&#8217;s cup of tea, but we also know that there are many players who are eager to challenge themselves in this way, and we stand by the decision to include content for those players. We made sure to make the lower tiers as accessible for all players and play styles, and the upper tiers (III and IV) a serious challenge! Now, there&#8217;s hard and then there&#8217;s impossible. I can assure you that completing Tier IV with a group is absolutely possible, but it&#8217;s not in any way easy, or even feasible for an uncoordinated group. It requires the utmost concentration and communication, and so our expectation from the beginning was that only a small number of groups would accept the challenge, and even fewer would succeed. I&#8217;ve been impressed by the many different methods players are finding to solo Tier IV (Ii&#8217;s a feat even I myself have yet to achieve) but I&#8217;m just as eager to see what groups come up with to overcome this challenge!

Rewards &#8211; There has been some confusion about the most optimal way to acquire the rewards in this event. We are seeing some players contend that the lowest risk option (staying up near the plunderer spawn points and away from the treasure piles) at the highest tier is the optimal path to acquiring an Aetherized weapon. This is wrong&#8230;somewhat. ? Employing this method will get you enough kill credit to earn one or two loot bags, but your chances for getting an Aetherized weapon actually increase with each subsequent loot bag that spawns. So if you really, really want to get your hands on some wicked Aetherblade gear, you actually stand to gain much, much more by taking more risks and defeating as many Aetherblades as possible at the highest tier you can manage. The greater the risk, the greater the reward.

Achievements &#8211; There was an initial bug related to how we were tracking player&#8217;s progress through the tiers, which did not quite match up with what achievements you had unlocked. We made fixes to that bug, and now player progress for the tiers should be tied to what you&#8217;ve unlocked, achievement-wise. There was also an unfortunate bug which was fixed earlier today involving an issue where some of the Aetherblade waves would not spawn. The first bug made the achievements hard to understand, while the second made the achievements easier to attain. I deeply apologize on behalf of our team that these issues led to a less-than-optimal player experience. With these issues fixed, our hope would be that the achievements for the Candidate Trials are clearer and better balanced for their intended difficulty.

I think that covers most of the concerns I&#8217;ve read, but the team will continue to monitor feedback on the forums, and if further clarification is needed, rest assured that we will communicate that out to you, our amazing players! Thanks for taking the time to read this post.

Matthew Medina
Content Designer
Click to expand...

Some info on the ability to tone down spell effects:

We believe the majority of the issue is the effects spam. News on that front coming VERY soon. Once that is out of the way we can start to address other concerns.

Jon
Click to expand...

As I mentioned at some point earlier, we are working on a system that basically weights these effects and tries to make the noisier ones less noisy. This system is in a good place right now on our development servers so expect to hear about it fairly soon.

It will definitely try and bring out the streaks and such a bit compared to the chaos storms, for example.

Jon
Click to expand...

Yeah this system is game wide and like I said, you won&#8217;t even need to be that patient as we are close to being ready to talk about it. Should help PvP, WvW, big events, dungeons, etc.

Jon
Click to expand...

Sounds to me that it may be coming on the Aug 20th update.

Some info about solo queues in sPvP

<tease> I think you guys will be waiting less time than most of you think. </tease>
Click to expand...
 
J

Jira

Member
Based on what Colin has said and the dev tracker as of late, it seems August is gonna be a pretty big month update wise.
 
N

nataku

Member
Kos Luftar said:
200 fortune scraps is the easiest way.

Playing aspect arena also works but it is more RNG I believe.
Click to expand...

Easy, pfft.

I haven't seen a kite fortune drop in over a week. I'm sitting at 26 fortune scraps and can't get any more.

What's a good event to farm for them? My luck is horrible.
 
J

jersoc

Member
if the update removes i can outrun a centaur line, best update ever.

i do wish anet would do some quality of life updates here too.
 
D

Da DreadLord

Member
I'm kinda jealous when reading you guys talk about the world and stuff that's happened etc.

Is there a place where one can read up on what has been happening in the world since release?
 
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