Guild Wars 2: Pre-Release Discussion

[Imitarate]

I finished the map for Plains of Ashford, got a level 26 green rifle with power/precision and 1% crit sigil, green chain boots with a rune of the traveler (5% magic find), 3 transmutation stones, 40 iron ore, something like 60 silver, and some other stuff. Pretty nice rewards. Too bad my necromancer can't use either of the items!

[Arelian]

Just cleared a path for explorable catacombs. I'm really, really frustrated and bitter right now. ANet really dropped the ball with dungeon gear, in my opinion. See, here's how explorable mode works:

The dungeon is incredibly hard, to the point where you'll end up glitching out a few fights simply to beat them. Many monsters have 1-shot mechanics they don't telegraph at all. The 1st real boss of explorable tombs is the best example. He has an instant-cast move that pulls everyone in the area to him, after which he'll spin around and 1-shot you. If it doesn't take you out instantly, you don't have enough health to really do much besides die. So, this is part 1 of the frustration. Hey, we're having fun, though, right? You feel super accomplished when you do kill a boss and it's not like the death penalty is all that harsh. The real kicker is this: You aren't promised any loot at the end of the dungeon. Nothing. Whatsoever.

See, every boss - of which there are about 3 - drop Ascalonian Tears. You use these tears as a currency to buy the rest of the Ascalonian armor set from vendors in Lions Arch. It takes about 90-190 for a piece of armor/weapon. Not bad, if you're using these tears as a supplement to anything that won't drop, right? Well... as far as I could tell, none of the set drops in the dungeon. When you kill the last boss, you're awarded with 20 tears in lieu of 7, and that's it. An full-clear run will net you 41 tears, more or less. Aka: It'll take at least 3 full-clears to get even a single piece of gear from the dungeon. For a game that's supposedly trying to remove the nasty, grindy parts of the game in favor of "fun" they have fallen incredibly short.

Not only do they have some of the worst tuned fights in any beta-test I've ever seen (that are still completable, mind. It's different if the encounter is just broken), but by the end of the dungeon you aren't given anything. Maybe this is just the "casual" or "entitled" gamer in me, or something, but I want to feel sufficiently rewarded for my time. Getting 1/3 of a piece of armor is not a reward, it's something I sort've expect with a currency-based redemption system.

Please visit my thread on the official GW2 forums and support this if you don't think it's "fun" to have to grind out dungeons repeatedly to get a single piece of armor: https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/foru...e/1#post204318

I should also mention, I think it might be more efficient to grind out the 1st boss (which should only take a decent group 10-15 minutes to get to, at best) for those 7 currencies, resetting the instance, etc, etc... than to perform a 2-4 hour full-clear. That screams that something isn't implemented yet, as far as I'm concerned.

[Celeras]

TLDR: trying to grind low level dungeon gear in a beta, and not liking the betaness of it.

[Arelian]

The betaness isn't a problem whatsoever. I just don't understand why ANet wants it to be a grind to obtain level-appropriate gear when I'm level 35. Is the gear, and the dungeon, not really intended to be done at level 35 or something? I understand it'll be easier with someone higher level going back and doing it, and that'll make the dungeon time faster... but why even have it at level 35 if it's not practical, or possible even, to obtain the whole set before levelling onto something higher. Especially since there is a level 60 version of the armor as well. It's a lot of confusion at my end combined with some severe disappointment for clearing a rather hard dungeon and not getting a single thing out of it.

Edit: Also, is it really supposed to be a grind? I don't know what ANet really wants out of us with these things. I see level 35 armor with unique skins, and I'm going to try my hardest to get that gear at level 35 when it'll be the most useful to me. As it is, by the time you get enough currency for 1 piece you'll likely be closer to 38-39, at which point I think the level 40 stuff will be better for you anyways.

[Hyan]

Why would they make it like that? There's no sub fee, what do they gain? I figured this game if any would avoid such situation.

[Arelian]

That's... more or less what I thought, too. I can understand there being some "prestige" behind someone wearing the full explorable mode set, but that should be based off of difficulty and not grinding.

[Katlan]

You still grinding an instance for the chance for your gear to drop. So now your grinding it for tokens for gear. I don't see any difference. Only difference is out of 4 runs you can get that piece of armor that may take 10+ runs to get due to RNG

[Arelian]

That's why I expected it to be a combination of both. Especially since you're given a piece of the set after the story mode version of the dungeon. Like I said, I expected to be subject to RNG after a dungeon but also get small amounts of currency so I can eventually purchase any pieces that don't drop. So instead of having to run the dungeon 4 times to get 1 piece, I can run it 4 times, get 4 pieces and then buy another piece that I want from the set. Especially since there's weapons in these sets, so as a thief I'll probably want... 2x daggers, 1x shortbow, 2x pistols since those are the weapons I use pretty often. Combined with 6 pieces of armor (helm, gloves, chest, pants, boots, shoulders) that makes 11 things I want from 1 dungeon. If each piece is around 100ish currencies to obtain (Some are more, some are less) that means I'll need 1100 currency to get the entire level 35 set. I'll have to run the same dungeon 27 times to obtain all of the pieces I want from that dungeon with the current system. That seems a little excessive to me.

Some of this may stem from the fact that during interviews, I could've sworn ANet has said that at the end of every dungeon you'll be rewarded with a piece of gear that you'll always be able to use.

[Purrrfect]

I think I might like the VA better than swtor. And that was swtor's main thing. /suckerpunch

For srs tho, I love it when my ranger chick levels up and says "Welcome to the big-time. Population: Me." and my norn warrior says "By the power of me!" Ohh He-Man...

[Arcana]

Bitching about explorable mode not being tuned is quite stupid, why do you think they raised the cap? and bitching about having to run dungeons for sets multiple times, oh lawdy how dare they not give you everything on a plate like warcraft does right?

it's a set, its designed to match aesthetically, if you want it you gotta work for it. the whole point is except for the 80 explorables the stats on the gear isn't gonna matter more than 2-5 levels.

[Kuya]

How is completing a difficult dungeon and expecting some immediate reward for the effort, wanting to receiving everything on a plate?

In my planet, wanting everything on a plate, means wanting things to be easy. How is a difficult dungeon not a contradiction to that shrill statement?

[Kuishen]

Claimed the eastern keep on Ehmry Bay for my guild, we maxed it out in a few hours. Also maxed out the forward eastern tower, and supply camp. As soon as we got done upgrading a ton of shit in other bases green came in and took half of what we upgraded. Learned my lesson there. >_> At least we didn't lose the keeps...

Between me and my friend we spent like 6+ gold on WvW base upgrades tonight lol.

[The Blackrose]

Wait, green took it?

I haven't seen shit out of green all weekend. It's mostly been Crystal Desert zerging our asses.

[Purrrfect]

The new green after rematching last night was more proactive. Frazar Lake server I don't think even knew there was WvWvW.

[Arelian]

Bitching about explorable mode not being tuned is quite stupid, why do you think they raised the cap? and bitching about having to run dungeons for sets multiple times, oh lawdy how dare they not give you everything on a plate like warcraft does right?

it's a set, its designed to match aesthetically, if you want it you gotta work for it. the whole point is except for the 80 explorables the stats on the gear isn't gonna matter more than 2-5 levels.

I'm not even really bitching about explorable mode not being tuned except for the fact that it feels like they didn't test their tuning internally whatsoever. It makes for a very frustrating few hours that can really sour someones opinion of an otherwise fantastic game. I love this game, and I really like ANet as a company, but c'mon.

And please, tell me where I'm going to find 4 like-minded individuals that will want to run every dungeon in the game 27 times, at no less than 2 hours per run, to obtain all of the sets? I don't think it's a rational assumption that people want to work 54 hours (under ideal circumstances) for a set of gear. Given that there's 8ish dungeons in the game, we're looking at 432 hours (again, in what I imagine is an ideal situation) to obtain the "cooler" armor sets and weapons in the game. Suddenly it's looking more like Grind Wars 2. Keep in mind that combined with the time commitment, you're looking at difficulty as well. To me, this is going as far from their stated mission with the game as they can possibly go.

[Takiwaki]

When I think about salvage, that really seems great lol, but honestly I do think the rewards should be upped a bit.

[Celeras]

I'm not even really bitching about explorable mode not being tuned except for the fact that it feels like they didn't test their tuning internally whatsoever. It makes for a very frustrating few hours that can really sour someones opinion of an otherwise fantastic game. I love this game, and I really like ANet as a company, but c'mon.

And please, tell me where I'm going to find 4 like-minded individuals that will want to run every dungeon in the game 27 times, at no less than 2 hours per run, to obtain all of the sets? I don't think it's a rational assumption that people want to work 54 hours (under ideal circumstances) for a set of gear. Given that there's 8ish dungeons in the game, we're looking at 432 hours (again, in what I imagine is an ideal situation) to obtain the "cooler" armor sets and weapons in the game. Suddenly it's looking more like Grind Wars 2. Keep in mind that combined with the time commitment, you're looking at difficulty as well. To me, this is going as far from their stated mission with the game as they can possibly go.

Here's why you're being mocked. Instead of presenting the information and saying something like "I left feedback and hopefully its addressed because I don't like it", you're saying "Wow A net dropped the ball wtf is wrong with them". Hence letting everybody know you're an idiot.

[Arelian]

My mistake for holding arena.net to a higher standard. I don't mean to come off as bitchy, I'm just curious about the thought processes behind some of these decisions.

I'd also like to add that I only linked my official forums post and asked for support because they have listened to us on things people really wanted changed, which is why I offered feedback in the first place.

The dungeon certainly was fun, and I'm excited to play through it again when its tunes properly.

[Jakson]

This beta kinda feels dumb in that really the only content that really gets a good going over is the first 10 levels of content and pvp at 80, and why complaints like Arelians could easily go unnoticed because such a small percentage of the "testers" spend enough time at 30 or w/e to experience this somewhat more mid-level content.

If anything, they should have paid more attention to that content because it would receive the least attention during the planned betas. Maybe the next(?) beta could start everyone out at 30 or 40 to get different content checked out by more players.

[Arelian]

One big positive is the addition of racial armor. Shit looks so cool. Also, guild backpacks are sweet.