General nonsense

[frightlever]

frightlever, have you by chance already tried WvWvW?

Always the last thing I finished for the monthly, but honestly after my fifth or sixth time there I was tolerating it. Actually yeah, I would probably pop back for a bit of that. Definitely had most fun when the odds were ridiculously against us, or I was running from an ass-kicking. (I'm on Aurora Glade BTW)


@maknol "Or, you know, people could keep playing because they find the game fun in itself, not for extrinsic rewards. When did that go out of style?"

I think we actually agree on more than you suggest, as I explicitly mentioned PvP play or are you saying you're going to grind PvE content you've already seen with your exotic-geared lvl 80 for the foreseeable future with no goal other than fun?

I do understand that people will continue to PvP.

[Maknol]

I'm not sure to what extent we actually agree; on the PVP count, I think we do.

But I don't grind PvE content, and there is over 50% of the map I haven't even seen yet, despite having played daily since the headstart. I don't for a moment think that if not for the quest for legendaries, there is no reason to keep playing the game at level 80. On the contrary, I love(d) the fact that once I got to 80 and had full exotics I didn't have to worry about gear anymore and could just do whatever activity I chose that day. Especially love(d) the fact that I wouldn't have to climb the same ladder every time for each new alt reaching 80.

I will gladly welcome any new content they throw at us, like the halloween special map events, labyrinth and mini-dungeon; those were a blast!

But added carrots are not content. A new pixelated ring icon that will make my old numbers become new, slightly higher numbers is not content.

[Salix]

I'm a little bit irritated that they've added a new condition that you have to have new gear to do anything about, that just strikes me as doing things the wrong way. That said I'm not entirely sure what the right way would actually be aside from adding in new content.

All in all I've been feeling burnt out for a few weeks now and haven't been playing much so I hope that this brings a little of the fun back even if I will miss the start of the first two phases due to work.

Edit: I also hope they've sorted things out after Halloween or the events will be a horrible lagfest.

[squirrelfanatic]

I agree with most people in that it is disappointing to see the addition of new tiers of gear so soon, even at all. But I'll see how things turn out in the long run. Right now I'm having way too much fun in WvW to be concerned about some slightly higher numbers on gear and I'm looking forward to blast through the new dungeon a few times.

Concerning the new condition: I find it funny that they are practically recycling a mechanic from the old Guild Wars. Agony - it was called Spectral Agony back then - seems to work in a very similar way it did in the old game. You also encountered powerful enemies that were able to inflict the condition on you (the Mursaat) and took tremendous amounts of damage if your armor wasn't infused by a certain ritual.

What I am even more suprised about is that they didn't learn from experience that this mechanic wasn't fun at all. You practically had no chance to progress past a certain point in the original / Prophecies storyline without getting your armour infused.

[Krathor]

More details about the event:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Lost_Shores

Anyone up for story mode Arah this Saturday actually? I've done it before but I need to do it again for my bloody personal story.

[squirrelfanatic]

Krathor, I'll see if I have time on Saturday, but I'd love to join for Arah since I haven't done that yet (yeah, I know, I got distracted). Personal storyline is also something I desperately need to finish on my main character...

[Screwie]

Oh damn I would love to join in for Arah, but I'm not even at that part of my personal story yet (seems wrong approaching it out of turn)...

[jha4ceb]

Same here -- definitely up for an Arah run once I get to that stage, which should hopefully be soon (but doubtful that it will be before the weekend).

[Labbes]

I'd be up for Arah on Saturday as well.

[Skalpadda]

I've still got a character, and maybe two by Saturday, that needs to do Arah so I can try to make myself available for that.

On the wider topic of how the game is faring, I can't believe any but the most hardcore of people have run out of stuff to do already. I guess I can see how they'd run out of things to do that they like, but I've played for a couple of hours almost every day since launch, have three lvl 80 characters and one lvl 66 and I certainly haven't seen everything in the game yet, with plenty of gear slots still to fill with exotics. I'm really surprised seeing people seemingly yearn for the gear treadmill of other MMOs and I would've thought the idea of getting the gear you want and then being able to do whatever content you like for enjoyment or fashion loot to be a good thing; it's certainly something I appreciate.

This Ascended gear then. In a sense I get that they want to hang onto players but it also seems entirely contrary to their stated design philosophy. And dungon resistance gear? Really? It wasn't fun when WoW did it yonks ago and judging from those who played with these mechanics in Guild Wars it wasn't much appreciated there either. I really hope they don't start gating new content with gear requirements and if they do that'll probably be where I stop playing.

[Screwie]

The latest communications from ANet indicate they plan the ascended tier to be a once-only addition and not the beginnings of a longer treadmill. Its purpose is to help bridge the astonishing gap between exotics and legendaries, to give people with exotics a shorter term goal to reach if they choose to.

The early sections of this new endless dungeon will surely be quite doable without the ascended gear (which is a good thing not least because it's currently the only way that you can acquire said gear!) and given the random nature of the dungeon, a player will still be able to see every permutation without requiring ascended stuff.

Right now I am looking forward to facing the giant crab monsters this weekend - they remind me a little of the leviathan beasts on the Jade Sea, which were some of my favourite creature designs in GW1. Also I'm holding out hope this means the ranger can tame crab pets! Another GW1 throwback

[squirrelfanatic]

Right now I am looking forward to facing the giant crab monsters this weekend - they remind me a little of the leviathan beasts on the Jade Sea, which were some of my favourite creature designs in GW1. Also I'm holding out hope this means the ranger can tame crab pets! Another GW1 throwback

Oh man, if they could pull something like the Jade Sea (which was literally a sea made of jade) again, that would be so great.

[Screwie]

Totally! It makes me sad that, when we eventually get to return to Cantha, the Jade will have reverted back to water.

As long as Shing Jea Island is still as pretty, I won't hurt too bad though.

[Kismet]

Leah Rivera on the New Fractals of the Mist Dungeon

That’s right, a scaling dungeon! The dungeon will remember your progress, and will poll the party’s levels when you enter, scaling the dungeon to the highest common attained level. It’s a true challenge, but as you hit higher and higher scales, the dungeon will get more and more rewarding.

I wonder if there will be some GW2 equivalent of the "show stones" GW1 PUG requirement for the Underworld.

[Krathor]

Aye, for Arah I'd say sometime in the afternoon Saturday then - around 3PM GMT? I'll give people a shout when I'm around because it seems like we have over a full group already and I'm sure if I mention it in /g some more people will volunteer so I'm not too concerned about setting a definitive time, but I'm sure if we aim for around 3PM it'll be alright.

Yeah the new content made me a little worried actually. I don't even have any exotics yet - now they want to throw in a new gear type to the mix? Bugger.

[Malfious]

I still need to do story mode of CoF, CoE & Arah myself. I'd be happy to join in any of these 3 (or explorable of the others )

[Beard Of Bees]

Oh god I haven't played GW2 in ages, hit 35 around launch and it's been sitting neglected since. A crying shame for such a good game. How many are regularly online in the guild now? It was around 70/day when I last logged on.

I did a AC dungeon run with the guild and absolutely loved it, but Dota 2 has been sucking my life away since

[jha4ceb]

I'd say it peaks at more like 35-40 in the evenings now. There seem to be still very regular dungeon runs, though, and the guild has been particularly active in World vs World recently.

[Screwie]

The GW2hub has a guide to the Fractals of the Mists which is very informative, including difficulty settings and what you can buy with the dungeon's loot.

[Malawi Frontier Guard]

The new dungeon is great. It also has a little Jade Sea in it.