Boss Doggie
all my loli wolf companions are so moe
Now I wonder if I should just keyfarm for Fused Axe or just buy it
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Guild Wars 2 |OT4| The only subscription you need is this thread.
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It's not really that expensive. If you get what I mean.
I'm not that cheap
This is quite a good idea, one for me, one for you!
In all seriousness, it all depends on what you wanna have. Save it towards an legendary? Get some new armour? Buy a cool backpiece skin? Flush it down the toilet?
How to easily spot a GW2 casual:
- Has less than 15k AP. 5.5k
- Does not have a Legendary. Crafted Foefire's Essence and Power instead
- Does not have full Ascended armour. Not worth it
- Fractal level still below 50. never stepped foot in a fractal
- Does not have Dungeon Master achievement. have completed maybe 1/3
- Isn't rank Dragon in PvP. never played PvP
- Has yet to finish their Personal Story. got to claw island and stopped
- Does not constantly complain about a lack of raids. in my world raid = WvW night with the guild
- Isn't part of a hardcore WvW guild. you better believe it!
- Wasn't there for Early Start. nope
- Didn't do a Finisher on Scarlet. I've never even seen scarlet
- Didn't lag out during Lost Shores. [Bhuh?[/B]
- Has less than 2500 hours played. ~2250
- Has less than 3000 deaths. ~2500
- Doesn't have a level 80 for every profession. Guardian / Warrior / Mesmer
- Has less than 100,000 kills in WvW. 150k
Kind of illustrates how vastly different my experience is with this game compared to most of you.
shysaursoft
Member
Actually, your experience is kind of the average around here.
(The list was meant to be a joke, after all - a bunch of goals that *nobody* in the guild would have all together. Everyone's likely to have a handful, depending on where their focus was, and none of the others).
remember when i said i was going to be the 1st one wearing ascended armor?
if that thing wasnt so ugly, i totally gave up because of its ugly aesthetics, and now i see im not missing much.
i found my place in the wilds, hunting things.
Complistic
Member
He was joking. There might be a couple in our guild of 500 that satisfy all of his "requirements".
Less than 15k AP automatically hits everyone except Neo and Xavier, I think, lol
No reason you can't have an expansion and a living story. Why does it have to be one or the other?
An expansion generates news, hype, and generally a large influx of money. I believe it will come about, as I can't imagine ANet never having another retail release. Going back to GW2's reveal, one of the things mentioned was having a foundation that could be easier to expand upon. The impression being given GW1 had some how painted them into a technical corner.
If you can ignore the legendary hunt, a good bet would be getting your numbers (armor/weapon/runes/sigils) to a point you're happy with, and then diving into the lands of cosmetics. It seems like that's where most of my gold goes these days.
An expansion generates news, hype, and generally a large influx of money. I believe it will come about, as I can't imagine ANet never having another retail release. Going back to GW2's reveal, one of the things mentioned was having a foundation that could be easier to expand upon. The impression being given GW1 had some how painted them into a technical corner.
If you can ignore the legendary hunt, a good bet would be getting your numbers (armor/weapon/runes/sigils) to a point you're happy with, and then diving into the lands of cosmetics. It seems like that's where most of my gold goes these days.
Me and my bro were chatting when Roxie tried to come over and butt in. My bro was having none of that.
http://a.pomf.se/qpqrag.webm
http://a.pomf.se/qpqrag.webm
gamergirl85
Member
gamergirl85
Member
Edit: This isn't directed specifically at you, I'm just covering all of the Expansion Nonsense in one post.
It doesn't have to be one or the other, but an expansion doesn't make sense because it flies in the face of what Guild Wars 2 is all about; playing together.
No other MMO tears down the barriers between players like this game; the different datacenters for NA and EU is the only thing that can prevent you from meeting a friend. Compare that to something like Wildstar where there's region (NA or EU), then server type (PVP, PVE or RPPVE), then server (for NA, there's 6 PVE and 3 PVP and 1 RP-PVE), then faction (Exile or Dominion). There's no guesting or megaservers either (you can pay $20 to transfer a single character permanently though).
From a gameplay standpoint, Dynamic Events are inclusive, where everyone cooperates to complete a common goal. Nobody is out for themselves, tagging as many quest mobs as possible so no one else steals them, slowing their progress. The lack of a hard trinity means anyone can join a group at any time, nobody gets left behind because "We already have a tank", etc. All of the world events, despite the Official Forums and Reddit demanding instanced versions, are first-come-first-serve events where perfect strangers can be included in a big event and get to experience content that, in other games, has a tremendous amount of hoops to jump through just to enter it (again, Wildstar is a great example; look at all the crap you have to do, including a rep grind, dungeon and adventure grind and killing 12 different world bosses). Fun.
The point is, an expansion divides the players up between those who have it and those who don't. "Anyone want to come along for So-and-So dungeon?" is not longer a matter of choice; you have to have the expansion or you don't get to play.
Is there a Level Cap increase? Why, when level means absolutely nothing? Isn't there a bigger risk of pissing people off who had full Level 80 Ascended gear now needing to get a full set of Level 90? Will players who left for a few months come back and find there's a loot grind waiting for them before they can play with their friends?
What does an expansion add for PVP or WvW that they haven't already shown they can add via the Living Story (for example, Edge of the Mists)? For that matter, what does it do for PVE that they can't do with the Living Story? New Zones? Been there, done that. New weapons? Races? Classes? None of those seem like the exclusive province of a boxed expansion. Whatever the LS can't handle the Gem Store likely could (and it's much easier to distribute than an expansion that way too).
Yes, an expansion generates news, hype and profit. But giving away that kind of content for free would do that too, and without segregating the player base. Race and class unlocks can be done via the Gem Store; that would cover news and profit too, and without the population issues. What else does an expansion offer except the same content we've been getting via the LS except in one enormous, gluttonous bite?
Other MMOs may need expansions, but the Living Story has GW2 covered. This season has already been a vast improvement over the experimental Season 1 (no other developer has tried something like this before, I think a few bumps can be forgiven), and I can only see it getting better. Whatever benefits an expansion brings (and I would argue the only people who really benefit from an expansion are content locust), the negatives simply outweight it. Always.
It doesn't have to be one or the other, but an expansion doesn't make sense because it flies in the face of what Guild Wars 2 is all about; playing together.
No other MMO tears down the barriers between players like this game; the different datacenters for NA and EU is the only thing that can prevent you from meeting a friend. Compare that to something like Wildstar where there's region (NA or EU), then server type (PVP, PVE or RPPVE), then server (for NA, there's 6 PVE and 3 PVP and 1 RP-PVE), then faction (Exile or Dominion). There's no guesting or megaservers either (you can pay $20 to transfer a single character permanently though).
From a gameplay standpoint, Dynamic Events are inclusive, where everyone cooperates to complete a common goal. Nobody is out for themselves, tagging as many quest mobs as possible so no one else steals them, slowing their progress. The lack of a hard trinity means anyone can join a group at any time, nobody gets left behind because "We already have a tank", etc. All of the world events, despite the Official Forums and Reddit demanding instanced versions, are first-come-first-serve events where perfect strangers can be included in a big event and get to experience content that, in other games, has a tremendous amount of hoops to jump through just to enter it (again, Wildstar is a great example; look at all the crap you have to do, including a rep grind, dungeon and adventure grind and killing 12 different world bosses). Fun.
The point is, an expansion divides the players up between those who have it and those who don't. "Anyone want to come along for So-and-So dungeon?" is not longer a matter of choice; you have to have the expansion or you don't get to play.
Is there a Level Cap increase? Why, when level means absolutely nothing? Isn't there a bigger risk of pissing people off who had full Level 80 Ascended gear now needing to get a full set of Level 90? Will players who left for a few months come back and find there's a loot grind waiting for them before they can play with their friends?
What does an expansion add for PVP or WvW that they haven't already shown they can add via the Living Story (for example, Edge of the Mists)? For that matter, what does it do for PVE that they can't do with the Living Story? New Zones? Been there, done that. New weapons? Races? Classes? None of those seem like the exclusive province of a boxed expansion. Whatever the LS can't handle the Gem Store likely could (and it's much easier to distribute than an expansion that way too).
Yes, an expansion generates news, hype and profit. But giving away that kind of content for free would do that too, and without segregating the player base. Race and class unlocks can be done via the Gem Store; that would cover news and profit too, and without the population issues. What else does an expansion offer except the same content we've been getting via the LS except in one enormous, gluttonous bite?
Other MMOs may need expansions, but the Living Story has GW2 covered. This season has already been a vast improvement over the experimental Season 1 (no other developer has tried something like this before, I think a few bumps can be forgiven), and I can only see it getting better. Whatever benefits an expansion brings (and I would argue the only people who really benefit from an expansion are content locust), the negatives simply outweight it. Always.
gamergirl85
Member
Oh, I don't disagree that the majority of updates have been on the PVE side (though I will note that they also added the Ruins of Power and WvW abilities, and they can hardly be blamed for what the players have done to EotM). I'm saying that EotM is a big piece of content for WvW, and so there's no reason that kind of thing has to wait for an expansion; nothing does.
I do think it all comes down to the delivery method, but that's a pretty big thing.
To use myself as an example, I'm much more likely to drop $50 on a large bundle of content than smaller releases at a lower price. Whether it comes down to a particular mindset or not, its just how my brain tends to process it. I've spent less on GW2 than GW1 and I feel a little bad about that.
There's also that feeling of unbridled exploration. Here is an entire new land, explore to your heart's content! That is a little different than the LS and Dry Top. Not that its in any way bad. But there's a difference in there.
I also believe it plays a fair part in how invested I am in any story & lore bits. I tend to binge tv shows and books. So it is hard for me to get into something, stop for a week or two, and then start right back off with the same fervor.
Again, looking at myself. I plowed through Prophecies and Nightfall (Factions, eh) because once I was hooked, I wanted to see more, and it was all right there waiting. The awesome bits carried me through the not so awesome bits, and I have terrific memories for it. I wear these rose tinted glasses proudly.
The rationing of the LS story means a bad bit tends to stick in the mind for longer, and makes it somewhat harder to reengage. I end up doing it more for whatever the new shiny is. So I can't honestly say if the writing is any better or worse than the past stuff when the delivery method is knocking me out.
Anyhow, when I think Expansion I think in the vein of Nightfall and Factions instead of anything from other MMOs. Each was stand alone, and I met more than a few people that started with one or the other over Prophecies. I can't really debate the merits of that, but it was a pretty unique and cool thing at the time. It certainly helped the feeling of new lands, new people if nothing else.
Beyond that, I doubt we'll see more levels. I'm still sort of amazed GW2 had as much level-related aspects as it did. There won't be any more tiers of gear. Not sure where these notions come from, ANet has never seemed too big on a numbers treadmill.
PvP is interesting. ANet tied all the new pvp modes into aspects of the PvE game. (Little less with Nightfall, but then there's challenge missions.) I would love to see something similar to the Kurzick vs Luxon environment brought over into GW2. After the first faction's beta weekend, there was this insane thread of players picking sides and downing the other. These weren't even roleplayers. Good times. I would really like to see ANet capture that again.
Along that thought - Does GW2 introduce WvW or sPvP to the player at all? It seems like they're entirely separate. I know there's an NPC in Rata sum that recruits for the mistwar, but I can't think of anything else.
Thinking more about it, the past games fed you into the competitive aspects via quests, npcs, and the like. Prophecies even dumped you straight into a pvp match at the end of the searing. Its a little jarring how disconnected it all feels in GW2.
Anyway. Not down on the LS story. Think we can have both. ANet deserves money. GW1 was awesome and I need to replay it.
* Oops. I can understand the concern about dividing the player base. All I can add is that it ended up not being much of an issue with GW1. At least not until years later when most of Cantha was a ghost town outside of the PvP hubs. The daily Zaishen stuff helped a bit with that.
To use myself as an example, I'm much more likely to drop $50 on a large bundle of content than smaller releases at a lower price. Whether it comes down to a particular mindset or not, its just how my brain tends to process it. I've spent less on GW2 than GW1 and I feel a little bad about that.
There's also that feeling of unbridled exploration. Here is an entire new land, explore to your heart's content! That is a little different than the LS and Dry Top. Not that its in any way bad. But there's a difference in there.
I also believe it plays a fair part in how invested I am in any story & lore bits. I tend to binge tv shows and books. So it is hard for me to get into something, stop for a week or two, and then start right back off with the same fervor.
Again, looking at myself. I plowed through Prophecies and Nightfall (Factions, eh) because once I was hooked, I wanted to see more, and it was all right there waiting. The awesome bits carried me through the not so awesome bits, and I have terrific memories for it. I wear these rose tinted glasses proudly.
The rationing of the LS story means a bad bit tends to stick in the mind for longer, and makes it somewhat harder to reengage. I end up doing it more for whatever the new shiny is. So I can't honestly say if the writing is any better or worse than the past stuff when the delivery method is knocking me out.
Anyhow, when I think Expansion I think in the vein of Nightfall and Factions instead of anything from other MMOs. Each was stand alone, and I met more than a few people that started with one or the other over Prophecies. I can't really debate the merits of that, but it was a pretty unique and cool thing at the time. It certainly helped the feeling of new lands, new people if nothing else.
Beyond that, I doubt we'll see more levels. I'm still sort of amazed GW2 had as much level-related aspects as it did. There won't be any more tiers of gear. Not sure where these notions come from, ANet has never seemed too big on a numbers treadmill.
PvP is interesting. ANet tied all the new pvp modes into aspects of the PvE game. (Little less with Nightfall, but then there's challenge missions.) I would love to see something similar to the Kurzick vs Luxon environment brought over into GW2. After the first faction's beta weekend, there was this insane thread of players picking sides and downing the other. These weren't even roleplayers. Good times. I would really like to see ANet capture that again.
Along that thought - Does GW2 introduce WvW or sPvP to the player at all? It seems like they're entirely separate. I know there's an NPC in Rata sum that recruits for the mistwar, but I can't think of anything else.
Thinking more about it, the past games fed you into the competitive aspects via quests, npcs, and the like. Prophecies even dumped you straight into a pvp match at the end of the searing. Its a little jarring how disconnected it all feels in GW2.
Anyway. Not down on the LS story. Think we can have both. ANet deserves money. GW1 was awesome and I need to replay it.
* Oops. I can understand the concern about dividing the player base. All I can add is that it ended up not being much of an issue with GW1. At least not until years later when most of Cantha was a ghost town outside of the PvP hubs. The daily Zaishen stuff helped a bit with that.
I justify my EotM trolling as retribution for what the player base has done to EotM. But Anet is hardly blameless; the design of the map and more importantly the role of EotM itself come from them and inevitably lead to karma training.
Boss Doggie
all my loli wolf companions are so moe
I guess I'll save up for a Tooth of Frostfang. Gods know I'll never get it as a random drop
There's zero strategically interesting about an EotM skirmish. So I guess it's visually interesting?
It's literally the state of combat from beta. Opposing sides line up in rows and fire at each other like 18th century soldiers. Map chat consists of "Push, Push, Push, Push," then either "lol so many bags" or "I told you to push. Bads."
Boss Doggie
all my loli wolf companions are so moe
People tend to avoid EotM combat because it's not worth it.
I guess I disagree. Some skirmishes are like that, sure, but large fights in interesting places like the blue keep or the airport introduce a ton of factors that simply aren't present in normal blob v. blob WvW combat. There's verticality and places to fall off, so pushes and pulls are suddenly important. There are usually multiple ways into an area which helps to prevent siege lines and encourage flanking moves. There are chokeholds everywhere that can make or break and given army. I'm not saying it's the most thrilling content out there but it's definitely more interesting than the alternative.
Sadly this is true, although there were plenty of fights all weekend, mostly because blue wanted to play turtle and defend everything.
I think fights end up the way they are because of 2 factors: the size of the zerg and the amount of uplevels. Even in EB, zerg sizes don't reach the size of a EotM train, which just ends up a mess of bodies and particle effects, making it hard to do anything other than AOE and hope for the best. Also, uplevels don't have all the abilities available to them, so they tend to want to stick together, making the zergs just one mass of bodies pushing against each other.
That last sentence was lewd.
That last sentence was lewd.
YuriLowell
Member
So I joined up on the GAF guild yesterday, thanks to whoever sent me in the invite.
I am a level 12 necromancer but all of my armor is shit-tier, and all of the vendor stuff seems like garbage.
Any tips on getting some decent armor?
I am a level 12 necromancer but all of my armor is shit-tier, and all of the vendor stuff seems like garbage.
Any tips on getting some decent armor?
You can get cheap armor off of the trading post (press O and go to the scale icon), and make sure to check the karma vendors that pop up after you complete heart events. That said, you don't need to keep on the bleeding edge of gear by any means to complete open world content, so I wouldn't sweat it too too much.
Boss Doggie
all my loli wolf companions are so moe
I really hate this graphics bug I occasionally get :/
Not ignoring your whole post, just cutting it down for space.
All of the reasons you listed are perfectly good, legitimate reasons to want an expansion. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with wanting that, not even close; I actually agree with a lot of those points (that feeling of having a whole world ahead of you especially).
I'm saying that the negatives vastly outweigh the positives, in my opinion.
I'm more than happy to enjoy the steady drip of Living Story, for better or for worse, because it means everyone comes along for the ride, not just those who can afford to. Imagine if we tried to hold Missions and it was in a zone certain guildies couldn't visit? Or have to spoiler tag the new story because not everyone is on board on day one? Or having to explain to a friend or relative who hasn't played in a while why a $50 expansion is justified and why they should come back at all when the promises about no loot grind or hoops to jump through are so clearly broken.
An expansion could work, but I feel like you'd have to cut out so many of the 'expansion-level' upgrades that people expect (No level cap increase, no new tier of gear, make all of the new zones free) just to make it gel with the philosophies of Guild Wars 2 that there wouldn't be any reason left to do one. At that point, you might as well give the expansion away for free, and if you're doing that, you might as well stretch it out a bit over several months so that the content lasts... which is what the Living Story accomplishes.
I still believe the only people who benefit from a Guild Wars 2 expansion are the Content Locust, who will come back only long enough to devour everything and leave. It may give ArenaNet an influx of cash, but how many existing players will they burn in doing so? How many current, loyal customers do they have now that may not be able to afford $50 (remember, one of the big reasons GW2 is popular is precisely because it's free to play after purchase), but can throw money at the game via gems every few months?
It's a tricky business balancing those kind of things, and I'd like to believe that ArenaNet would come down on the side of existing players who have supported them for two years, not the swarm of content junkies who will leave in a matter of weeks and then disappear, leaving only a load of complaints about "Not enough content".
I feel like ArenaNet set out to make a cool, faster paced, short-duration, non-capped "WvW Lite" map with Edge of the Mists and those three things are just the perfect formula for Karma Farmers. Nobody yelling at them to leave so "Real" WvW can take place, no organized zergs ripping them apart from behind, no cap on who can tag along. Hell, the last few times I've played EotM it seemed like everyone was organized to just cap and leave in an endless cycle of karma farming.
I also feel like maybe ArenaNet realizes this now and is content to just let that be "Karma Farmer Central". I don't think they set out to do it, though the conspiracy theorist in me thinks maybe they're playing 11th dimension chess and intentionally did it to pull the Karma Train out of WvW proper, but... you know...
All of the reasons you listed are perfectly good, legitimate reasons to want an expansion. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with wanting that, not even close; I actually agree with a lot of those points (that feeling of having a whole world ahead of you especially).
I'm saying that the negatives vastly outweigh the positives, in my opinion.
I'm more than happy to enjoy the steady drip of Living Story, for better or for worse, because it means everyone comes along for the ride, not just those who can afford to. Imagine if we tried to hold Missions and it was in a zone certain guildies couldn't visit? Or have to spoiler tag the new story because not everyone is on board on day one? Or having to explain to a friend or relative who hasn't played in a while why a $50 expansion is justified and why they should come back at all when the promises about no loot grind or hoops to jump through are so clearly broken.
An expansion could work, but I feel like you'd have to cut out so many of the 'expansion-level' upgrades that people expect (No level cap increase, no new tier of gear, make all of the new zones free) just to make it gel with the philosophies of Guild Wars 2 that there wouldn't be any reason left to do one. At that point, you might as well give the expansion away for free, and if you're doing that, you might as well stretch it out a bit over several months so that the content lasts... which is what the Living Story accomplishes.
I still believe the only people who benefit from a Guild Wars 2 expansion are the Content Locust, who will come back only long enough to devour everything and leave. It may give ArenaNet an influx of cash, but how many existing players will they burn in doing so? How many current, loyal customers do they have now that may not be able to afford $50 (remember, one of the big reasons GW2 is popular is precisely because it's free to play after purchase), but can throw money at the game via gems every few months?
It's a tricky business balancing those kind of things, and I'd like to believe that ArenaNet would come down on the side of existing players who have supported them for two years, not the swarm of content junkies who will leave in a matter of weeks and then disappear, leaving only a load of complaints about "Not enough content".
I feel like ArenaNet set out to make a cool, faster paced, short-duration, non-capped "WvW Lite" map with Edge of the Mists and those three things are just the perfect formula for Karma Farmers. Nobody yelling at them to leave so "Real" WvW can take place, no organized zergs ripping them apart from behind, no cap on who can tag along. Hell, the last few times I've played EotM it seemed like everyone was organized to just cap and leave in an endless cycle of karma farming.
I also feel like maybe ArenaNet realizes this now and is content to just let that be "Karma Farmer Central". I don't think they set out to do it, though the conspiracy theorist in me thinks maybe they're playing 11th dimension chess and intentionally did it to pull the Karma Train out of WvW proper, but... you know...
All of those factors are present in normal WvW combat.
But more fundamentally, there's actual coordination in real WvW and virtually none in EotM.
Braxzy, you just made my fucking day. Saving this.
Roxie, I hope you don't have too many broken bones.
Haha that's great. I still need to see it myself, got caught up with world bosses last night. Good old world bosses. 0_0
Did they up the quality? I only ever played vanilla WoW back in the day (I think I played Burning Crusade?) and while there were a lot of pop culture references, they were tiny and in the form of character/item names. Where as with stuff like this, there's an entire song sung in the game, referencing an opera from the 1870s. Someone had to sit there and write out the song, staying true to the original and then also pay a voice actor to sing it. It's more than just a wink wink but rather a full-fledged parody. Kinda like all of SAB.
Where as the original Guild Wars also settled with just naming skills after pop-culture references. (My favorite being "Bonetti's Defense" as a skill, which is Indigo Montoya's fighting stance used in The Princess Bride.)
KernelPanic
Member
Last time I played a bit like a year ago it seemed pretty much every quest is a pop culture reference of some sort. They definitely upped the quantity.
There was at least a whole elaborate Leeroy Jenkins reference in Sorrow's Furnace complete with NPC behavior
RIP Kilroy Stonekin
I am very glad. It made my day too hehe
I was just in fact looking up articles and came across this. I wish an official page would go up so we could see direct from source but one page said this:
It sounds like we're gonna have a bit of a gap
But also, the "It's going to have to keep you busy for a few weeks" indeed sounds like some event will keep us occupied like we suspected. Fingers crossed. Source.
I was just wandering to my last heart needed in Bloodtide Coast and suddenly started hearing some dude singing, turned around and there he was! Which was really weird considering I'd watched the video less than an hour prior.
Boss Doggie
all my loli wolf companions are so moe
dat permanent bank access
dat permanent bank access
Wow. Congrats!
I might have to give this a go just in case now haha.
Boss Doggie
all my loli wolf companions are so moe
I only did key farming due to the increased rate... but this is tempting me.
shysaursoft
Member
dat permanent bank access
Looks like your grinding paid off. I couldn't do that - spend two or more hours a day farming keys.
Boss Doggie
all my loli wolf companions are so moe
3-4 hours with beakman/simpsons to carry me by, heh
So wait, if
, what will we get until fall?
So wait, if
dragon's reach p2 is mid season finale
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