tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post5573779009701391503..comments2024-03-28T10:18:05.213+00:00Comments on Inventory Full: If You Like This Sort Of Thing, This Is The Sort Of Thing You'll Like: GW2Bhagpusshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03499162165023939880noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-24599643843633752852017-02-15T00:22:05.440+00:002017-02-15T00:22:05.440+00:00Second run at it was much smoother with zero death...Second run at it was much smoother with zero deaths, mostly because I knew about the mechanics by now and could preselect skills to match / use the appropriate strategy. Mostly it was wall of reflection. The projectile damage on most of the mobs is tuned so high, they killed themselves the instant their attacks were turned back on them. Caudecus was just immediately start running in a circle and don't stop - not exactly the most intuitive thing for a player who thought they were watching the story/characters to do.Jeromaihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02206083433625986970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-34214770844726899092017-02-14T04:42:55.105+00:002017-02-14T04:42:55.105+00:00Berserker staff ele? Ha. Bring repair canisters, m...Berserker staff ele? Ha. Bring repair canisters, methinks. ;)Jeromaihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02206083433625986970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-27051722946275448282017-02-13T16:12:30.764+00:002017-02-13T16:12:30.764+00:00Oh, that is so infuriating! One of the reasons I g...Oh, that is so infuriating! One of the reasons I gave up on The Secret World was because of that sort of thing happening on a disconnect. <br /><br />I have been following the discussion of the Caudecus fight on the forums with interest. While there's a sprinkling of the usual "I did it first time on a zerker ele - l2p noobs" kind of sneering, I would guesstimate over 80% of all comments are complaints that it's either horribly tuned, horribly designed, or just plain too difficult. That includes comments post-nerf.<br /><br />Cast your mind back to Teq, Breachmaker, Marionette et al and you'll recall they all went through a series of nerfs before they were weakened sufficiently for the core playerbase to accept them. Arguably Triple Wurm was never nerfed far enough and has never been fully accepted as a result.<br /><br />Those were all open world zerg-based events but the principle remains: if just about *every* "challenging" encounter has to be nerfed multiple times before most players enjoy it, why do the devs repeatedly make them that " challenging" in the first place?<br /><br />There were several comments on the forums along the lines of "when I saw this fight I thought "Welcome Back Colin!". it really is as though the hard-learned lessons of the first few months of HoT have not just been forgotten but actively denied. I completely agree that they don't seem to have a clue what they are doing but then I'd say there has rarely been even the smallest sign in four years that they ever did. If ever I played an MMO that operated on the "it seemed like a good idea at the time" principle then GW2 is it.<br /><br />I'm going to take another character through the story to do the Caudecus fight jsut to see if I was lucky the first time or whether I found it not *that* bad because of the class I was on or what. Haven't decided who to do it with yet. Might try my berserker staff ele - that should really make the point one way or the other...Bhagpusshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03499162165023939880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-8114440537402952432017-02-13T15:07:59.202+00:002017-02-13T15:07:59.202+00:00Tried the nerfed Caudecus fight today, died a coup...Tried the nerfed Caudecus fight today, died a couple of avoidable times because I was gungho enough to do the vigil way on the twin jade constructs, downed/died 4-5 times in Caudecus' final form room while running in circles, first being utterly confused as to what was the intended mechanic for the fight, got wrecked by adds in the meantime, went "OMG how does Anet expect a casual player to avoid all these circles and all this knockback chaos AND pick up bloodstone shards and throw it at him" and eventually trial and errored, brute forced him down.<br /><br />Just as Canach and Anise were discussing his freedom, the game disconnected me and I logged back in at the entrance of an uncleared story instance.<br /><br />Gave up for the night. I suppose it'll give me time to decide if I want that monster cat-dog-thing in my home instance...I'm leaning towards... no.<br /><br />Also seriously considering giving up most of GW2 besides social obligations and playing the Dark Souls franchises instead. At least the punishing difficulty there is intentional and telegraphed fairly. The more I play the recent updates, the more I seriously question if the current devs at Anet have any clue what they are doing. Hearts and Minds -still- broken, I believe.Jeromaihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02206083433625986970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-89596627888893441962017-02-12T23:56:21.402+00:002017-02-12T23:56:21.402+00:00If they fluff that, I am done with MMOs. Twice now...If they fluff that, I am done with MMOs. Twice now, once in City of Heroes and now in Guild Wars 2, an egalitarian enjoyable game bent over to cater to the strident demands of the "we need raids and like the exclusivity it brings because then I can feel better than others" subset and ripped apart the community in the process.<br /><br />Wildstar should have been an object lesson in catering to only one small subgroup and expecting the bills to be paid. <br /><br />WoW should have been an object lesson in seeing how the developers started with only one raid difficulty, then scrambled to create different difficulties in order to reach more players, while still keeping the exclusivity factor (they can do exclusive, because their game started out with that schtick from the beginning.)<br /><br />You do NOT do exclusive after you market your game as inclusive, because all those who flocked to the game because they support that philosophy now feel hideously hideously betrayed, regardless of how far they can get with the actual raid content.<br /><br />I have refused to spend a single real life penny in Guild Wars 2 for a very long time now because I am that emotionally betrayed. Every time one of these divisive topics boil up, I walk around for days after feeling resentful and angry, this does NOT build any goodwill towards the game at all.Jeromaihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02206083433625986970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-25800490341840524252017-02-12T19:17:10.661+00:002017-02-12T19:17:10.661+00:00The real problem with just about all of GW2's ...The real problem with just about all of GW2's narrative is that precious little of it ever stands up to even the gentlest critical examination. The same could probably be said of most MMOs but I really feel GW2 is one of the least consistent - or even coherent - in terms of plot, characterization or even direction that I've ever played. The structure and pacing seem about on the level of one of those old 40s movie serials, if even that.<br /><br />That said, it's often enjoyable. Most of the voice acting is decent and some is good. Also there are usually some good one-liners. Characterization, while frequently inconsistent, is at least energetic and defined. I can at least remember who most of the characters are, which is more than I can say for some MMOs, and quite often I can actually tell which character is speaking by the dialog alone.<br /><br />I never disliked Scarlet in the way many did and by the end I had become really fond of her. My character wouldn't have killed her, given the choice, but of course we weren't given that choice to make. I would welcome her back and of course, as a lifelong comics fan, I can see absolutely no impediment to that happening. I do wish video games were more like comics in that respect. No-one in a comic is ever dead, no matter what happened to the body.<br /><br />Jennah, on the other hand, I have always disliked. As a player I object to being expected to condone and clean up after her serial poor decision-making and my Charr and Asura characters are positively outraged by it. To have her now transition from a damsel-in-distress to some kind of uber-mesmer (seriously, what are those powers? Since when did Mesmers get a ranged Death Touch?) is both galling and completely unbelievable...unless she *isn't* Jennah at all, of course.<br /><br />Kryta might look half-way decent if they ever get rid of the centaurs but even then I doubt it. How Divinity's Reach can look so pristine while the entire country it represents looks so scrappy baffles me. That's autocracy for you, though.<br /><br />As for the health of the open world,. yep I totally agree. I made that point in my reply to Jeromai. It's self-evident that, where ANet provide options for players to gather in large groups and brute-force content in order to get rewards they see as worthwhile, players can be found willing in great numbers. If only the developers could see that as a positive and work with it rather than against it we might have a genuinely popular and growing MMO on our hands instead of the gently declining one the annual report tells us we have.<br /><br />Really, though , I feel we're all just treading water until the second expansion. That will be the crucial test. If they fluff that like they fluffed Heart of Thorns then I think they'll have to revisit their plans for not having a GW3.Bhagpusshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03499162165023939880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-13877313416619099912017-02-12T16:04:16.283+00:002017-02-12T16:04:16.283+00:00I don't think Queen Jennah is anywhere as bad ...I don't think Queen Jennah is anywhere as bad as Scarlet, as far as Mary Sues go. Scarlet was a horribly written character, even with the "Mordremoth" excuse behind her. Nothing about her made any sense. Especially not how she could possibly build the gigantic machinery she did with the help of a few paid bandits only. Even if she had the know-how, where did the time and resources come from? The Pact would struggle to come up with such devices, yet it's a world-wide elite organisation in Tyria. Let's not mention her personality, which was also pure boring cliché.<br /><br />Queen Jennah is a kind of Dumbledore at this point. She's the "wise old mage with great powers" type, except she's not as old. Granted, the force shield feat was still way over the top and it debunks Logan's reason for abandoning Destiny's Edge.<br /><br />There's still plenty of open-world content in GW2. Some people argue that nobody does SW, Dry Top, and Hot maps anymore, but that's not true at all. Those maps, plus world bosses, are constantly being run 24/7, heck it's all I ever do in this game. I've even seen Cursed Shore champion trains running again. I've never done a raid before and I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything.<br /><br />Regarding the design of Lake Doric, I suppose the beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Where you see Kryta as only grass and dirt, I still find Queensdale to be one of the best looking maps in game, my other favorites being Timberline Falls and Mount Maelstrom. <br /><br />See, I do agree with almost everything you're saying here. I'll gladly bash on Anet's storytelling any day of the week myself. They're good at world building, but terrible at developping characters, and indeed Canach is the only good apple in this basket of rotten fruit. But I don't think this chapter is subpar. It's just their standard content, nothing better nothing worse. Armathyxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12605672751498969775noreply@blogger.com