Guild Wars 2?

[Stridergg]

Haven’t tried them yet because I’ve been out of town. I definitely wanted to give them a shot, but I haven’t read up on whether or not the first few levels are a little bit more casual friendly, particularly when you’re being upscaled. I think I have one more time where I can say to my wife and friends that “yes, the dungeon is easier at the start” and possibly have them believe me.

Hehe, I hope it works out for your group. :)

We did fractals with two upscaled people in the group once, they were in their 60s IIRC. I would say fractals are easier that regular dungeons and are more varied too, which I like. Some of them are more puzzle-y (for a lack of a better word :)), combat often is not the main focus, which can turn off some people but will attract others.

Let us know how it goes!

[instant0]

That would of course explain why Warners laid off a bunch of Turbine folks recently.

Coke and Prostitutes for the execs dont pay for themselves. And I’m sure Warner have other holdings than just Turbine, but turbine was probably an easy mark for them to gut.

[Seneca]

Reviewing the match ups at: http://mos.millenium.org/matchups#NA it appears that 6 of the 8 tiers will have the same participants next week. Eredon Terrace and Henge of Denravi are still on the decline from earlier mass transfers, but it looks like they will settle into the 6th/7th tiers.

It will be interesting to see if these rematches turn into a long term trend, or if individual servers will try to make a move up the bracket. If the tiers solidify is that a good thing or a problem? After we fight Crystal Desert and Maguuma for another week, I would like to square off against different opponents.

[Derbain]

It will be interesting to see if these rematches turn into a long term trend, or if individual servers will try to make a move up the bracket. If the tiers solidify is that a good thing or a problem? After we fight Crystal Desert and Maguuma for another week, I would like to square off against different opponents.

It’s both a good thing and a bad thing. A good thing because it shows their ranking system as working correctly. Bad because you do get stuck facing the same realms over and over.

I suspect there will still be occasional movement in the brackets, but it will certainly be less than it was at the start. I’ve been a slacker lately and haven’t been getting out to WvW. Is there still a hefty population participating in it?

[Seneca]

On Ehmry, we generally have a queue (usually for Eternal map) on Friday night after the reset. After the initial surge, the numbers settle down for the rest of the match. For this past week, most of the borderlands saw light action, with the pitched battles being over Stonemist in Eternal. With the removal of the Orbs, Stonemist has become a game of king of the mountain.

[Derbain]

Yeah, they do need to do something to bring some relevance to the borderland maps now that the orbs are gone.

[Nephrinn]

New patch released that includes adding the make-over/hair kits to the BL chests as well as upping the chance that you’ll get minis and dyes from them. I wonder if it’s time to buy a ton of chests assuming the price will now go up?

It also fixed the fractal exploit with the colossus where you could kill the final boss by AOEing the chain.

[Hanacker]

New patch released that includes adding the make-over/hair kits to the BL chests as well as upping the chance that you’ll get minis and dyes from them. I wonder if it’s time to buy a ton of chests assuming the price will now go up?

I doubt it. There are so many out there.

[Byrdman]

It might affect the price of the keys though.

[KevinC]

New patch released that includes adding the make-over/hair kits to the BL chests as well as upping the chance that you’ll get minis and dyes from them. I wonder if it’s time to buy a ton of chests assuming the price will now go up?

It also fixed the fractal exploit with the colossus where you could kill the final boss by AOEing the chain.

That’s an awfully paltry set of profession fixes given how much is still busted in the game months after release. I’m glad to see that the Mesmer phantasm traits finally got fixed, though.

[Charlatan]

New patch released that includes adding the make-over/hair kits to the BL chests as well as upping the chance that you’ll get minis and dyes from them. I wonder if it’s time to buy a ton of chests assuming the price will now go up?

It also fixed the fractal exploit with the colossus where you could kill the final boss by AOEing the chain.

You know, I read that killing that chain referenced above was an exploit, but it was first explained to me as “DPS the boss and when he drops the hammer, the seal is vulnerable, so DPS it.” It was simply explained as the way to do it. So while I knew about the “shortcut” in the Dredge area (isn’t it faster to just do it the right way?), I never knew that was wrong. It’s going to be interesting to do it the way it was intended.

[malkav11]

The issue with making group content challenging is that it doesn’t rely on you personally getting good at the game. It relies on you AND everyone else participating getting good at the game and coordinating successfully. Which pretty much means only people who have access to a sizeable and reliable pool of friends (or at least acquaintances) that are good at videogames have any shot at progressing through that content. You can straight up forget about doing any of it with random PUGs.

I’m not at all opposed to having optional harder difficulties for that sort of content. I don’t even mind the higher difficulties being more richly rewarded. But I object on principle to having content I’m interested in being effectively locked out of my reach because I am not master of an elite squad of gaming ninjas.

[tomchick]

The issue with making group content challenging is that it doesn’t rely on you personally getting good at the game. It relies on you AND everyone else participating getting good at the game and coordinating successfully. Which pretty much means only people who have access to a sizeable and reliable pool of friends (or at least acquaintances) that are good at videogames have any shot at progressing through that content. You can straight up forget about doing any of it with random PUGs.

Are you just talking theoretically, or are you talking about Guild Wars 2?

Because if you’re talking about Guild Wars 2, you’re flat-out wrong, malk. You can absolutely do the dungeons with pick-up groups. I know this from experience. I’ve done several dungeons by joining groups in Lion’s Arch. If anything, the problem is the exact opposite of what you’re claiming. I’ve found myself in groups that know the dungeons so well that I’m the weak link struggling to keep up.

-Tom

[tryte]

Could we diversify those with the permissions able to deploy some of our 45k guild bonus points? The fewer times I have to explain how to run CoF exp 2, the better.

[malkav11]

Are you just talking theoretically, or are you talking about Guild Wars 2?

Because if you’re talking about Guild Wars 2, you’re flat-out wrong, malk. You can absolutely do the dungeons with pick-up groups. I know this from experience. I’ve done several dungeons by joining groups in Lion’s Arch. If anything, the problem is the exact opposite of what you’re claiming. I’ve found myself in groups that know the dungeons so well that I’m the weak link struggling to keep up.

-Tom

Theoretically. I’m not high enough level yet in GW2 to do dungeons. Certainly that was the case in for harder content in WoW, though I grant that the way levels work in GW2 would make a wider pool of potential companions available. But it seems like it would still be random whether you get people who can handle the content or not unless you have a dedicated group, or GW2’s playerbase is on average massively more capable than in any other MMO I have ever played.

[Nesrie]

Theoretically. I’m not high enough level yet in GW2 to do dungeons. Certainly that was the case in for harder content in WoW, though I grant that the way levels work in GW2 would make a wider pool of potential companions available. But it seems like it would still be random whether you get people who can handle the content or not unless you have a dedicated group, or GW2’s playerbase is on average massively more capable than in any other MMO I have ever played.

Tom’s right. Pick up groups work more often than not in GW2. It’s not like other games. You still have to work together, but it’s not nearly as punishing as you’d think. If you get one person who is on their back a lot because they aren’t good at dodging or using skills… so what? I’ve done fractals, dungeons, and event dungeons, always with 2-3 pickups resulting in a lot of fun and success.

[tomchick]

Could we diversify those with the permissions able to deploy some of our 45k guild bonus points? The fewer times I have to explain how to run CoF exp 2, the better.

Absolutely, tryte! Anyone who wants a promotion in the guild, either to spend our guild points or to get access to the full bank, can send me a PM or an ingame email. Let me know your account name if you PM me here.

-Tom

[malkav11]

Tom’s right. Pick up groups work more often than not in GW2. It’s not like other games. You still have to work together, but it’s not nearly as punishing as you’d think. If you get one person who is on their back a lot because they aren’t good at dodging or using skills… so what? I’ve done fractals, dungeons, and event dungeons, always with 2-3 pickups resulting in a lot of fun and success.

If you guys say so. I’m skeptical, but I guess I’ll find out in a few months when I finally get around to hitting 30.

[draxen]

I’m late to the party with this one but oh what a fantastic party it is.
This is my GOTY so far. The world is huge, sprawling and beautiful.
The quests are varied and fun. The classes are different and interesting.

I’m level 30 now with my Asara Mesmer. I just love his run animation, especially when carrying a staff.
Fantastic game and best MMO I’ve played. Well done ArenaNet.

[Gedd]

So my group of friends (and one pug) ran Fractals of the Mists last night at difficulty 1. We managed to complete 2 of the fractals, although it wasn’t pretty in the least. At the start of the third fractal, most of us really, really needed to repair, but as I understand it, jumping back to the base resets your progress. So the third fractal went pretty poorly, but then we got stopped by a bug. We had the colossus fractal, and the second (?) seal with the AoE fire spots, wouldn’t budge. We hit it several times with the hammer’s #4 ability, and it sat around 90% the whole time. Kind of frustrating. We finally had to call it though because my wife got knocked off the ramp by the wind-blowing faces, fell through the world, and lived. So when the rest of us died, all we could do was sit there.

I’m still somewhat disappointed in how difficult the content is, although my friends and I are apparently part of the small portion of the population that is having so much trouble with it. I keep reading (here and elsewhere) how easy this stuff, how ANet’s catering to casuals with the dungeon content…but I’m just not seeing it. For sure, we did better last night than our AC and CM runs, but it was still really rough, with at least 8 or so wipes in the first two fractals.

I’m also dismayed how, after seeing repair vendors that were easily accessible in the first two dungeons, there was no chance to repair in the fractals.