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[Moondrop]

Makeover to commemorate my ascended armor. I love how some of the GW2 armor sets are designed aesthetically for shield users.

 

[Thorgal]

These settings :

+


This resolution :

=

20 FPS. on my 780 ti

But DAT Image quality .

 

[sackboy2197]

You guys make me so sad with those screens. I hardly get 40 fps on 1366:768 or something like that. At least I manage to have pretty much max settings.
Obviously during events I get like 10 to 20 fps.
But being it a laptop it's not that bad I'd say.

 

[Kos Luftar]

Here's what I'm using. Your mileage may vary.

Is there an easy way to do this on my Radeon 7950?

 

[BraXzy]

Oh, I know all the ways to get them. Im trying to get Mystic Clovers to finish my legendary. I have 59 and need 77 and I'm pretty much out of Obsidian Shards, Laurels, Fractal Relics, etc.

I have about 22k Karma, which is nothing really, to try to get 10 more OS.

That mystic toliet has ate 100's of my OS and given back anything but Clovers. It's driving me nuts. Feel like a drug addict trying to scrape enough change together for a hit.

Can't wait until this Legendary journey is over. Never again.

I'm enjoyig the gradual hike up the Legendary mountain. I managed to get 77 Clovers from around 200 Obsidian Shards thankfully with a bit of luck. I'd say just move onto something else and try not to grind the shards.. just let you Karma slowly build up naturally. Or I guess you could do EotM or something.

I finally got 8x AA override working properly with GW2, and it's way better than the mediocre 2x AA you get from Supersampling from the game options.

No performance hit that I can see; I would definitely try it if you have a good nVidia card.
http://ipkonfig.com/guild-wars-2-bringing-antialiasing-to-the-game/2

Ooooh. I need to try this when I get in!

I'm loving the 'Unlike a wife, a dog is for life!' bumper sticker I just saw!

 

[nataku]

I've been using the SMAA injector for a long time now, but I'll try these settings and see how low my FPS drops. I'm only using a GTX 670, so I'm not expecting much.

 

[Hawkian]

Loot poll.

http://strawpoll.me/2155133

or the thread: http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2b7szo/are_you_satisfied_with_current_loot_system_in/

Just saw this on Reddit, thought you guys might want to put some input.

(And hopefully respond as to why you choose what you did.)

I'm in the bunch that thinks the loot system needs to be overhauled.

I disagree with the premise of the question, and thus cannot answer with the options provided.

 

[Thorgal]

Is there an easy way to do this on my Radeon 7950?

I don't think you can .

There are programs like Radeonpro which can injext AA into games but your best bet would be downsampling . with this .
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=472941

 

[Levyne]

I dunno, I find it pretty easy to work towards what you want. The exception being Fractal weapons.

You want a Fractal....let's say Mace. A Fractal Mace, huh. Yeah, that's a nice mace.

Do Fractals until it drops for you. Good luck.

 

[Hawkian]

Makeover to commemorate my ascended armor. I love how some of the GW2 armor sets are designed aesthetically for shield users.

This looks awesome

 

[Kos Luftar]

There is a way.

But looking at it. it is not as straightforward as on Nvidia .

Will this work even if I have 2 monitors?

Also for this to work do you have to set the in-game display setting to a certain way for it to work?

 

[Lunar15]

I dunno, I find it pretty easy to work towards what you want. The exception being Fractal weapons.

You want a Fractal....let's say Mace. A Fractal Mace, huh. Yeah, that's a nice mace.

Do Fractals until it drops for you. Good luck.

Yeah, this has always been rough. I did get a fractal pistol though!

Keep in mind, I had no alts that used pistols for a good half of a year after getting this.

 

[Thorgal]

Will this work even if I have 2 monitors?




Also for this to work do you have to set the in-game display setting to a certain way for it to work?

always been on Nvidia so my knowledge on this is limited .

Whether it works on dual monitors i don't know and if i read it right it scales your monitors image instead of doing it ingame so i don't think you have to to change anything ingame but don't quote me on it .

 

[Hawkian]

I dunno, I find it pretty easy to work towards what you want. The exception being Fractal weapons.

You want a Fractal....let's say Mace. A Fractal Mace, huh. Yeah, that's a nice mace.

Do Fractals until it drops for you. Good luck.

Oh I totally agree, that's not really what they're talking about though. The "loot system" is random drops you get from mobs throughout the game

Will this work even if I have 2 monitors?

It does, I was able to play a few games this way at 1440p when I had my old 7950.

Also for this to work do you have to set the in-game display setting to a certain way for it to work?

Have to be fullscreen, unless that problem has been solved

 

[Levyne]

Well, the majority of the comments are about obtaining weapon skins so that was the first and only thing that popped in my head.

Edit: Reading further down the comments spreads out the discussion more, I see. I agree that the vendor trash grey items with the specific sell all button just for them seems a little dumb.

 

[LumpOfCole]

Is there an easy way to do this on my Radeon 7950?

If there is a way to do this on AMD, I have no idea.

 

[Hawkian]

Well, the majority of the comments are about obtaining weapon skins so that was the first and only thing that popped in my head.

well actually the question itself and post give absolutely no context, so it really is pretty open to interpretation now that you mention it. but I interpreted it the same way as the top comment, which doesn't even mention weapon skins.

edit: er, nevermind, i get what you got out of it. I just mean he's talking about drops, not "working toward what you want," which is pretty reasonable in gw2 for almost everything in the game

 

[Coriolanus]

Well, the majority of the comments are about obtaining weapon skins so that was the first and only thing that popped in my head.

Edit: Reading further down to comments spreads out the discussion more, I see. I agree that the vendor trash grey items with the specific sell all button just for them seems a little dumb.

Game eschews immersion for QoL so often, dunno why they wanted to keep that bit of themed loot around.

 

[shysaursoft]

For the newcomers who want to attend Guild Missions on Saturdays or Sundays, here's the compiled list of all the various waypoints you'll want to grab so you can more easily move around.

Bounties, Challenges, Rush and Puzzles are randomly chosen by the game when they're triggered, so there's no way of knowing in advance which ones we'll be doing. So to help with that, here's a list of the Bare Essential waypoints you'll want to have so you can quickly get to whatever is decided, along with lists of the actual locations where they occur. The Bare Essentials list should give you a short run no matter what zone the guild event takes place in, and I tried to make each WP in the list the easiest to get to from central locations, like main cities or Lion's Arch.

The weird code in the brackets, like [&BPgGAAA=] - can be copied and pasted into the text window and will become a clickable link to the waypoint itself once you hit enter (do it in Party chat if you don't want to bother people).

Bare Essentials (needs to be culled down)
Level Range | Name | Critical Waypoints

1 - 15 | Plains of Ashford |

Langmar Estate | [&BPgGAAA=]
15 - 25 | Snowden Drifts |

Skradden Waypoint | [&BLMAAAA=]
15 - 25 | Kessex Hills |

Delanian Waypoint | [&BAgAAAA=]
15 - 25 | Diessa Plateau |

Nolan Waypoint | [&BN4AAAA=]
15 - 25 | Brisban Wildlands |

Mrot Boru Waypoint | [&BHUAAAA=]
25 - 35 | Gendarran Fields |

Vigil Keep Waypoint | [&BJIBAAA=]
25 - 40 | Lornar’s Pass |

Nentor Waypoint | [&BOwAAAA=]
30 - 40 | Fields of Ruin |

Hawkgates Waypoint | [&BNMAAAA=]
35 - 45 | Harathi Hinterlands |

Shieldbluff Waypoint | [&BKYAAAA=]
40 - 50 | Blazeridge Steppes |

The Last Whiskey Bar Waypoint | [&BPkBAAA=]
40 - 50 | Dredgehaunt Cliffs |

Hessdallen Kenning Waypoint | [&BF0CAAA=]
50 - 60 | Iron Marshes |

Dewclaw Waypoint | [&BOIBAAA=]
50 - 60 | Timberline Falls |

Krongar Waypoint | [&BFICAAA=]
55 - 65 | Sparkfly Fen |

Braggi’s Stead Waypoint | [&BMYBAAA=]
60 - 70 | Fireheart Rise |

Sati Waypoint | [&BBYCAAA=]
60 - 70 | Mount Maelstrom |

Broken Arrow Waypoint | [&BNACAAA=]
70 - 80 | Frostgorge Sound |

Arundon Waypoint | [&BHgCAAA=]
80 - 80 | Southsun Cove |

Lion Point Waypoint | [&BNAGAAA=]

Bounty
Level Range | Name | Critical Waypoints

15 - 25 | Snowden Drifts |

Skradden Waypoint | [&BLMAAAA=]
15 - 25 | Kessex Hills |

Delanian Waypoint | [&BAgAAAA=]
15 - 25 | Diessa Plateau |

Nolan Waypoint | [&BN4AAAA=]
15 - 25 | Brisban Wildlands |

Mrot Boru Waypoint | [&BHUAAAA=]
25 - 35 | Gendarran Fields |

Vigil Keep Waypoint | [&BJIBAAA=]
25 - 40 | Lornar’s Pass |

Nentor Waypoint | [&BOwAAAA=]
30 - 40 | Fields of Ruin |

Hawkgates Waypoint | [&BNMAAAA=]
35 - 45 | Harathi Hinterlands |

Shieldbluff Waypoint | [&BKYAAAA=]
40 - 50 | Blazeridge Steppes |

The Last Whiskey Bar Waypoint | [&BPkBAAA=]
50 - 60 | Iron Marshes |

Dewclaw Waypoint | [&BOIBAAA=]
50 - 60 | Timberline Falls |

Krongar Waypoint | [&BFICAAA=]
55 - 65 | Sparkfly Fen |

Braggi’s Stead Waypoint | [&BMYBAAA=]
60 - 70 | Fireheart Rise |

Sati Waypoint | [&BBYCAAA=]
60 - 70 | Mount Maelstrom |

Broken Arrow Waypoint | [&BNACAAA=]
70 - 80 | Frostgorge Sound |

Arundon Waypoint | [&BHgCAAA=]
80 - 80 | Southsun Cove |

Lion Point Waypoint | [&BNAGAAA=]

Rush
Level Range | Name | Critical Waypoints

15 - 25 | Diessa Plateau |

Manbane's Waypoint | [&BMkDAAA=]
25 - 40 | Lornar's Pass |

Durmond Priory Waypoint | [&BOkAAAA=]
30 - 40 | Fields of Ruin |

Fangfury Watch Waypoint | [&BEwBAAA=]
35 - 45 | Harathi Hinterlands |

Faun's Waypoint | [&BKUAAAA=]
40 - 50 | Dredgehaunt Cliffs |

Hessdallen Kenning Waypoint | [&BF0CAAA=]
70 - 80 | Frostgorge Sound |

Twoloop Waypoint | [&BIACAAA=]
80 - 80 | Southsun Cove |

Kiel's Outpost Waypoint | [&BNwGAAA=]

Challenge
Level Range | Name | Critical Waypoints

30 - 40 | Fields of Ruin |

Helliot Mine Waypoint | [&BEsBAAA=]
40 - 50 | Blazeridge Steppes |

Tumok's Waypoint | [&BPsBAAA=]
50 - 60 | Iron Marches |

Viper's Run Waypoint | [&BOoBAAA=]
50 - 60 | Timberline Falls |

Stromkarl Waypoint | [&BEYEAAA=]
60 - 70 | Mount Maelstrom |

Irwin Isle Waypoint | [&BNICAAA=]
80 - 80 | Southsun Cove |

Kiel's Outpost Waypoint | [&BNwGAAA=]

Puzzle
Level Range | Name | Critical Waypoints

1 - 15 | Plains of Ashford |

Langmar Estate | [&BPgGAAA=]
15 - 25 | Snowden Drifts |

Angvar's Trove | [&BP8GAAA=]
15 - 25 | Brisban Wildlands |

Proxemics Lab | [&BPkGAAA=]

 

[Moondrop]

Regarding loot: if you see my ranger running around with three amber weapons, you know something about my GW2 experience. You can speak to me about Dry Top and be reasonably confident I'll know the specific event (P.S. there are no other zones in the game for which I understand the event chains so well). Same thing for my mesmer's fractal pistol.

I think people want more rewards like that. The irony is those systems are already in the game, they're just for skins most people don't value. My new mixed set uses gloves bought from a single karma heart vendor and boots that require a whopping 15 exclusive WvW badges.

 

[shysaursoft]

My boots are sold by a vendor you save in Bloodtide Coast by preventing him from being digested by a drake. They cost like 100 karma or something.

I think a lot of people unfortunately still equate "most expensive thing to get" as "being the best thing to wear", regardless of stats. I really like that you can have a level 80 character dressed in paupers clothing, or a level 1 dressed in legendaries and ascended-looking armour. But I also understand how for some people, not having a top/bottom hierarchy in terms of how one looks in the game, really ruins their fun (their fun being, the ability to lord over the filthy peasants with their shiny armour that took a thousand hours to grind).

Even if that shiny armour looks like butt.

EDIT: I think what a lot of people want from loot in GW2, based on what I see peopel complaining about in map chat, is they want loot to drop that's literally too good. Like, killing Taco giving a chance for a weapon of +500 to HP to drop, or a weapon that augments an existing skill, Diablo III style. I don't see GW2 as a loot game, never have - but some people keep expecting GW2 to be a Diablo style loot game where a sudden drop would make them alter their build just to use the weapon that dropped, or armour.

 

[Hawkian]

That is pretty awesome, Miktar, thank you for the effort in compiling those waypoints.

I think people want more rewards like that

Oh hell yeah they do, as do I, specially because I don't particularly like the Ambrite skins But I really think that's sort of distinct from the way I interpreted the question and what the top comment is referring to. He talks about the region specific skin drops in the overworld, the practicality of farming for blood or lodestones from elementals, the unique mat bag types dropped by enemy classes, and the unique dungeon recipe drops. This is what I consider "loot"; drops from mobs, rather than the totality of all methods of acquiring weapon and armor skins.

I actually agree with that comment that when it comes to this (drops), Guild Wars 2 has almost no "loot system" at all. But I disagree that this is a negative thing and with just about every conclusion he attributes to it.

 

[shysaursoft]

Cantha confirmed!

Spoiler

Not really, just Kaineng fan art by this person: https://twitter.com/evasburg

 

[Hawkian]

I don't see GW2 as a loot game, never have - but some people keep expecting GW2 to be a Diablo style loot game where a sudden drop would make them alter their build just to use the weapon that dropped, or armour.

ding ding ding

 

[Kos Luftar]

@Miktar,

I think people are just tiered of always getting Blues and Greens and very rarely yellows when they do anything in the game.

 

[spiritfox]

Cantha confirmed!

Spoiler

Not really, just Kaineng fan art by this person: https://twitter.com/evasburg

Wow, it does really look the actual art from the game.

@Miktar,

I think people are just tiered of always getting Blues and Greens and very rarely yellows when they do anything in the game.

They do something. You drop them in the toilet, and flush it all away. The greens, anyway. The blues you just salvage for mats.

Oh I guess I don't understand what loot is.

Regarding items dropped by enemies that you pick up off the ground, then yeah the current system is outdated. I would prefer either a Monster Hunter-like system where the family/species of enemy gives a chance for specific craftable mats, or do away with drops altogether.

The only rational loot system is that of Baldur's Gate, where if my foe drops an enchanted bow, that means he was just wielding that bow against me in battle before I plucked it from his corpse.

I would actually like a loot system where you gather mats instead of actual equips, unless you're fighting someone that actually uses equipment. One less level of salvaging, and also removes the "why is this wolf carrying a GS?" issue that lots of RPGs have.

 

[Moondrop]

Oh I guess I don't understand what loot is.

Regarding items dropped by enemies that you pick up off the ground, then yeah the current system is outdated. I would prefer either a Monster Hunter-like system where the family/species of enemy gives a chance for specific craftable mats, or do away with drops altogether. Then again I do love AoE looting bags in WvW

Spoiler

and sometimes sPvP

.

The only rational loot system is that of Baldur's Gate, where if my foe drops an enchanted bow, that means he was just wielding that bow against me in battle before I plucked it from his corpse.

 

[shysaursoft]

@Miktar,

I think people are just tiered of always getting Blues and Greens and very rarely yellows when they do anything in the game.

I'm not. Those are valuable resources. I'm GLAD that almost everything you do, gives you resources in some form or another, either to use, or sell so you can buy the things you want. Also, I wonder what the median MF is for the population.

I think people are overly focused on wanting things, they misunderstand how GW2's resource model works, and, well, people are impatient. They see a shiny, and then they go OMG WANT NOW and so they grind for three days straight to get it, then complain that "game is all grind wah". When they could have just kept playing normally for a week or two, and gotten it in the end automatically.

I have no sympathies for people who complain about 'two blues and a green', because I think they're literally playing the game wrong.

 

[Levyne]

I suppose I don't have a good reference since my only played "mmos" are Guild Wars 1 and 2. Yes, I know GW1 doesn't use that label. So ANet "loot" is all I really know..

I did play a little Diablo 2 waaay back, but Guild Wars has always had such a strict and relatively easily met stat cap (less so now with ascended, but every ascended is equal to every other) that I'm unsure what you could really compare between those.

I wish I was better at putting words together.

 

[spiritfox]

How do you play condi thief? I'm not hitting the stack cap even after spamming pistol stealth whenever I can, and the tick damage seems too little, at around 1k per tick if I manage to lay a bunch of bleeds on. Also, thieves are so squishy even with Dire on, so I don't have much sustain as I need my stealth to throw more bleeds. Is there a trick I'm missing?

 

[Jira]

@Miktar,

I think people are just tiered of always getting Blues and Greens and very rarely yellows when they do anything in the game.

So let's say Rares dropped more often...they'd stop being rare, would lose their value, and then everyone would be like WHY DON'T I GET MORE EXOTICS?!?! and this continues into Ascended gear. Eventually it wouldn't matter when anything dropped at all and the economy would tank instantly and never recover.

 

[shysaursoft]

I think this is very much just a side-effect of words being used to describe broad things, and then people taking them to mean specific things.

"Loot", in the strict sense, means "goods, or property, taken from an enemy in war or stolen". In gaming loot generally means the process in how a player gets things, like money, equipment, weapons, from the corpse of mobs or players. You loot, to get things.

But over time, loot has become the term by which players describe the things they get, not the action by which they got them. So in Diablo III, loot means the actual items picked up. Good loot would be a Legendary with amazing stats or a great effect. Bad loot would be something you didn't want, an item for a class you don't play, or an item you did want by the stats rolled on it were sub par. But everything in D3 can be salvaged, broken down into materials used to craft things you might want (sound familiar?). Or just sold for money, which is something you also really want.

In Diablo III, items can have a big impact in how you play your class, or what happens when you do. Things like, Goldskin that makes enemies drop gold when you hit them, or the Zuni set for Witchdoctors which has the great effect of making your Fetish Army last until you die (they usually die after a set time). So if you're a WD and not running a Fetish Army build, finding the full Zuni set would make you consider changing how you play, to suit the loot.

Guild Wars 2 doesn't have much of that - weapons or armour that have effects that dramatically alter how you play. That's not to say finding a Zerk chest wouldn't make certain players considering changing their build to be more damage oriented, and then running a full Zerk set, which in turn would mean they'd have to play more carefully since they're glass cannons - but it's not quite the same thing. It's neither good nor bad that GW2 isn't a Diablo III style loot game - they're very different paradigms and I'm not sure if it'd work well in GW2's ecosystem to have Diablo III style items. It would be cool though - stuff like gear that boosts a classes abilities in new ways, like an Engineer Rifle that when you drop Rifle Turret, the Turret has an extra little rocket pack that shoots a rocket once in a while.

But balancing THAT kind of thing for PVP? Two choices: don't let PvP use "Effect-giving" items (which the PvP'ers would complain about), or let PvP use it, and forget about balance forever.

An issue GW2 has been facing since launch is that players seem to want it to be something it isn't, because they've played something that they like, see that GW2 is "kind of like that thing they like but it doesn't have all the things that thing had", and thus want GW2 to change to have the elements of the thing they like. The Trinity discussion, is a good example of this. Players like GW2, but prefer the Trinity, so they want the Trinity regardless of what that would actually mean for the game's systems as a whole, and never mind what anyone *else* wants. But I digress.

I don't think GW2 has a loot problem. It's exciting when an Exotic drops, or an Ascended box (not that I've seen an Ascended drop myself, beyond rings in fractals), and even if you can't use it, you can usually either sell it, give it to an alt, or convert it into resources for use in getting something you do want. I'm okay that there isn't an overabundance of carrots to chase, but I understand people who want that kind of thing, like unique items that drop in dungeons - even though I think the token system is lightyears better than random chance need/greed rolls on that shoulderpiece you need to be ready for the raid next week fuck the thief got it he doesn't even use heavy armour wtf....

GW2 seems to focus on the idea that, if you play, you'll eventually get things. Run a dungeon enough, you get the full dungeon armour. Do events, get karma, buy the Temple armour. Play WvW, get tokens, buy WvW armour. No random involved, no luck involved. It's pure effort in > reward out.

Other parts of the game though, where RNG comes heavily into play, does need massaging. I had a friend who opened a SINGLE buried chest in Dry Top, the first one he ever did, and got a Fossil out of it. I opened over 100 of the damn things, and finally got one. People in map chat talk about having opened over 300 and not gotten any, though I suspect there is slight over exaggeration involved, but with RNG you just don't know. I suspect though that at some point, one of the Episodes in Season 2 will have a Fossil in the end-of-episode reward box, which would make the people grinding Dry Top right now all day every day, rather mad.

It might not hurt ArenaNet in the long run to massage the RNG some more, give it a 'guaranteed drop' raising percentage, like what Diablo III has for Legendaries. (In Diablo III, every time you kill something or open a chest or break an object, there is a roll on a chance to get a Legendary. If you don't get one, a hidden counter increases, which gets added to your chance on the next roll. Eventually, that counter hits 100% and you're guaranteed a Legendary, usually one every hour or so, more if you get luck, but never less if you're unlucky). A system like that, specifically for account-bound stuff so it doesn't wreck the economy, might solve 90% of the complaining about bad loot.

EDIT: Oh god wall of text, sorry. I didn't realize how much I typed. Here, have a picture of a Charr:

 

[Ashodin]

Amanda got a fossil last night! Mad jelly.

 

[LumpOfCole]

 

[Hawkian]

a Monster Hunter-like system where the family/species of enemy gives a chance for specific craftable mats

urk i couldn't stand that! How many more times do I have to kill Rathian to get a god damn talon! I have enough scales damnit! Granted, it didn't matter so much because the process of, you know, hunting monsters was so much fun. I just had to start looking it differently to avoid being frustrated (from "how long will this take?!" to "I'll get this when I get it").

Diablo, Path of Exile, Torchlight, Borderlands, and Marvel Heroes are all good examples of "loot games." Integral to the core gameplay loop is the concept that at any given moment of gameplay, you'll bonk an enemy on the head or open a box and out will pop the shiniest, coolest, killingest most gloriousest axe you have seen since you started playing. It will be just perfect for your character and augment all your skills. You will equip it and suddenly kill the skeletons that took you 5 hits to kill before in 2 hits. You are unstoppable! By the time the novelty of this awesome drop has worn off and your avatar strength has returned to a sort of baseline, you'll be looking out for the next awesome drop and it's an incredibly motivating method of encouraging continuous play even long after the basic gameplay ceases to offer anything new.

Did you ever consider why most of the games I mentioned and others with the same core gameplay have "item identification"? It's because the sensation of knowing you might have gotten something awesome, without being able to immediately tell exactly when, activates certain areas of the brain that are very pleasurable. It's a sensation of excitement that is dulled if you simply receive the item clearly marked right away. The suspense generated in the period between getting the item and identifying it is a big part of what makes the process so potentially addictive. Even Borderlands (which doesn't have identification) replicates this period of suspense in the long, elaborate chest-opening animations where it's a few breathless seconds between pressing 'X' and actually seeing what you've found. Hell, this is exactly the same psychological effect that is tapped into when you buy a booster pack for a CCG: you buy the pack, it could have something amazing in it, you rip the foil, you pop out the cards....

Guild Wars 2 just isn't that type of game. It doesn't scratch the same itch. Gear in GW2 has several qualities (all of which I consider realllllllly good parts of the game) that make it an awful "loot game":
1) Gear is all instanced. There is no "rolling for gear," no "ninja looting," no "ooh I really need that, is it okay with you if I" and so on and so forth. This is a good thing for me because I don't like any of that stuff. The downside in the "loot game" sense is that rarity across the board is slashed (or uh boosted, depending on how you look at it) because inside of a single roll against a loot table for a party in an instance, it's 5 rolls.
2) Zero stat variation. This is the biggest point by far and I don't see it discussed a lot. There are no variables on weapons or armor. A level 54 green helm has the exact same stat weight as any other level 54 green helm. There are no objectively "stronger" or "weaker" level 70 rare boots. An 80 exotic dagger is equivalent to any other 80 exotic dagger. So once you've achieved the item you want with the stats you want and the sigils/runes you want... any upgrade must be purely and literally cosmetic
3) Low statistical ceiling. Goes hand in hand with the previous one, but outside of the crafted Ascended items (back pieces, armor, and weapons) for a miniscule- and unnecessary- difference, it is trivially easy to obtain max-stat gear in Guild Wars 2. This essentially kills much of the appeal of a "loot system" since you're not constantly expecting to replace your gear.

These things are good for GW2 because the focus is on obtaining viable gear with the stats you want in a stat sense fairly easily, then spending time obtaining the cosmetic skins you like most. So there's plenty of stuff to "want," it just by nature doesn't include the unknown potentially epic drop from that drake over there.

edit: Good points Miktar. I didn't think about addressing pvp or the "epic drops" GW2 does have- like Ascended boxes, the Teq weapons, and the Dreams set from TA Aetherpath- every once in a while giving a tiny scratch to that old itch. But the game isn't built around it. I think we pretty well covered this XD

 

[BraXzy]

That WP list is NICE Miktar, great stuff!

Also.. Quaggan's are creepy.

http://a.pomf.se/ramvnz.webm

 

[shysaursoft]

That WP list is NICE Miktar, great stuff!

Also.. Quaggan's are creepy.

http://a.pomf.se/ramvnz.webm

 

[Jira]

Just amazing.

 

[Levito]

Very Madoka.

 

[Hawkian]

How do you play condi thief? I'm not hitting the stack cap even after spamming pistol stealth whenever I can, and the tick damage seems too little, at around 1k per tick if I manage to lay a bunch of bleeds on. Also, thieves are so squishy even with Dire on, so I don't have much sustain as I need my stealth to throw more bleeds. Is there a trick I'm missing?

Is this for PvP you're talking? If it's PvE I'm surprised that Dire would be considered at all better than Carrion or Rabid or a mix of those two. Thieves are best at, you know, doing lots of damage. You need to get your sustain from mobility and trickery for the most part unless this is meant to be some sort of condi support build where damage isn't your biggest priority, but it doesn't sound like that. Consider at least shadow refuge and possibly, shadowstep and blinding powder- all three if you need them. Otherwise caltrops for more bleeds. If you're in trouble, use stealth to reposition rather than for the attack. Sneak attack from shadow refuge also does lifesteal.

Also, it sounds like you're focusing on getting ALL your bleed from Sneak Attack with pistol? You can and should also spend initiative on rapid bleeds by making d/d your other set. Death Blossom with high condi will make groups kinda melt away in many PvE settings.

If you really want to go all out with this, I suggest Sigils of Earth and Geomancy and Superior Runes of the Krait along with Basilisk Venom.

Bear in mind, even with all this trickery, hitting a 25 stack by yourself as a thief is just not practical, that's not what you're aiming for.

Also bear in mind that in PvE, direct damage is rather likely a better option for thief almost all of the time. Conditions ignore armor which is awesome, but thieves can pump out HUGE numbers in spikes a variety of ways. I have a hybrid condition build myself as one of mine, and it's a lot of fun, but I'm just saying, if you're not happy with the damage you're getting with it at present...

 

[Zeroth]

So let's say Rares dropped more often...they'd stop being rare, would lose their value, and then everyone would be like WHY DON'T I GET MORE EXOTICS?!?! and this continues into Ascended gear. Eventually it wouldn't matter when anything dropped at all and the economy would tank instantly and never recover.

I think the concern was more directed at how often greens drop over blues/whites, not that rares weren't dropping enough.

 

[Morokh]

Other parts of the game though, where RNG comes heavily into play, does need massaging. I had a friend who opened a SINGLE buried chest in Dry Top, the first one he ever did, and got a Fossil out of it. I opened over 100 of the damn things, and finally got one. People in map chat talk about having opened over 300 and not gotten any, though I suspect there is slight over exaggeration involved, but with RNG you just don't know.

It might not hurt ArenaNet in the long run to massage the RNG some more, give it a 'guaranteed drop' raising percentage, like what Diablo III has for Legendaries. (In Diablo III, every time you kill something or open a chest or break an object, there is a roll on a chance to get a Legendary. If you don't get one, a hidden counter increases, which gets added to your chance on the next roll. Eventually, that counter hits 100% and you're guaranteed a Legendary, usually one every hour or so, more if you get luck, but never less if you're unlucky). A system like that, specifically for account-bound stuff, might solve 90% of the complaining about bad loot.

RNG is clearly the part of GW2's loot that needs to be adressed, the biggest offenders clearly being precursors.
But basically if you're not lucky, you end up relying on gold to buy things on the TP (which many consider farming), and if you can't because the parts, or the item are soul-bound frustration often ensues !

The fact that you get 'scraps' no matter what you do can also be an area of concern, even if when you get a good grasp of how things work it isn't as bad as it seems.
Yet I can't say that it wasn't one of the things that drove me away when I took a break from the game.

The dungeon token one is a fair one, because you can gauge the work you have ahead of you before reaching your goal .... but it also locks you in a way of playing that comes very close to farming a single piece of content which we all know Anet wants to avoid (and we all know that in the bigger picture it isn't the best way to make content) but here it doesn't pose that big of a problem because token prices are reasonable.

Your Diablo example if it explains your point well isn't the solution either and imo D3 RoS proves it, as it makes legendaries almost trivial, and kills the surprise of having something truly special drop, it makes it a reward-less reward of sorts.
But the legendary 'problem' in this game also comes from the shitty way it was designed from scratch combined with, once again, the poisonous effect a few elitist players with influence can have on more casual ones.

The problem of loot is one case where Anet's philosophy proves tricky once again because a good middle ground is hard to come by between pure RNG and pure farming.

The legendary system isn't a bad one in pure theory, where you get a lower quality item that you can upgrade to something fancier with some work, the WwW season rewards function in a similar fashion, and other things could too, but the initial way of getting the base item and the amount of work to upgrade it should you want to will always be troublesome to adjust.

 

[shysaursoft]

Your Diablo example if it explains your point well isn't the solution either and imo D3 RoS proves it, as it makes legendaries almost trivial, and kills the surprise of having something truly special drop, it makes it a reward-less reward of sorts..

I dunno, Patch 2.0, the new drop system, along with smartloot and the huge amount of cool legendaries they added (Puzzle Ring, etc), has totally fixed all my issues with D3. RoS has been nothing but awesome, I've put more time into D3 now than I ever did D2. And I played D2 far more than I'd want to admit.

The loot system in D3 right now is almost flawless - when a Legendary drops, even though it drops often, there's always a chance it's the thing I want, so it's exciting. The only thing I don't like is the inability to trade with players who weren't in the game with you when the item dropped.

 

[Retro]

There are alternative ways to spice up loot. It was only a few weeks ago I was talking to Ash about it because I was in the process of reading the (now defunct) gaming blog I wrote and found some tiny nuggets of cool.

It went over all of the various methods of loot identification, suggesting one that was sort of like a mini-game where you attempted to identify an item based on what effects it caused; a sword that sets people on fire is obviously an incendiary weapon, etc.

My favorite part, though, was the idea of adding story elements to the game via unidentified gear. For example, you'd go to identify a weapon and it would be named "Sword of Zog's Demise", where Zog is a new enemy that may or may not have existed before you found the sword, which now functions as a key to open up a whole new fight or content (the example I give is that Zog might be an invincible defender of a large, optional corner of the game). Other examples included a weapon that was created to kill a good NPC, who you now must convince is being threatened, or a weapon that has a subtle environmental effect that can be used to unlock new areas (for example, a sword that can 'cleave' a waterfall, revealing a passage behind.

Weapons could basically be used to spawn dynamic events. No awesome stats, no special features or anything, just a blurb to distinguish it from junk loot. Most people would probably see it drop and salvage it, especially if it's quietly slipped in as a blue or green item, but I like to believe a few would figure it out (like they key in Thaumanova).

 

[Katoki]

@Hawk: Likely PvP/WvW that is being mentioned there. Thieves aren't squishy in PvE for the most part with dire stats.

How do you play condi thief? I'm not hitting the stack cap even after spamming pistol stealth whenever I can, and the tick damage seems too little, at around 1k per tick if I manage to lay a bunch of bleeds on. Also, thieves are so squishy even with Dire on, so I don't have much sustain as I need my stealth to throw more bleeds. Is there a trick I'm missing?

What're you hitting for your personal best in terms of maximum stacks? I once fought a dire p/d as a berserker p/d and he went pretty quickly save for some shortcomings. The problems I had was that I bled out from stealing into caltrops on dodge and had nearly non-existent means of condition clear.

Use SR, shadow step, and switch out between blinding powder and the caltrops utilities as you see fit. Otherwise, please provide more information/feedback so that either Hawkian or I know how to proceed.

 

[LumpOfCole]

 

[Hawkian]

too much swagger for my puny mind to handle

 

[Coriolanus]

On the drops as resources aspect of loot, i'd be mostly fine with, at 80, just flat out having chests and bags give you gossamer/silk/leather/wood/mithril/ori, on top of the random green/yellow sigil/rune.

All it would do is remove the busywork of having to keep restocking master salvage kits and eliminate a very minor gold sink.

Well, and break the mystic forge greens trick.

 

[LumpOfCole]

One more

 

[shysaursoft]

One more

Love this one.