AzureNightmare.3914

That's why you do the Clovers first. You usually get tier 4 crafting materials you can then use to put toward your gifts of might/magic/whatever. It may not value a clover, but i usually save a few gold in the process by doing Clovers first.

I don't understand how it could take two years to get 77 clovers? Even when I was barely doing WvW, it took like a few days of saving up and a little rng luck... but regardless, even if you don't want to test your luck, it is easier now. Lyhr in SotO can guarantee you get a mystic clover, albeit at a higher cost than the Mystic Forge's RNG. For three coins, Obsidian Shards, Spirit Shards, and 5 Ectos you can guarantee a Clover now. You're guaranteed a few clovers getting the Gift of Battle, so if you don't want the other weekly vendors or anything and don't want to to RNG, SotO has given new options such as a permanent guaranteed chance and even 20 a season through the new daily system. Doesn't that at least solve the biggest issue? SotO has made it easier than ever to get Clovers now.

How is this still not fixed? This is really egregious, considering a MASTERY point is inaccessible without it.

I'll admit I took a few years off GW2 and mostly am a dedicated PvE player so take some of my opinions with salt, but I've been into Guild Wars since I was 14 (now in my late 20s) and played GW2's beta, so I have a lot of love for this game, so I'm incredibly curious to see this game's direction post-Dragon Saga. Looking at the plans for Secrets of the Obscure I increasingly find myself in a space where I like the ideas going forth, but I'm worried SotO will debut with a lackluster launch riddled with problems. And I'm curious- is anybody else in this boat? On one hand, I do like this style a bit more than just waiting for Living World. More story content being delivered to us without needing months for part of a chapter I can get behind. While the idea of not having the full expansion is weird, I can mind not waiting months for like, an hour of story if I hurry through it. Of course, this one is extremely hard to judge now because we don't know how much story we're getting right away. However, while I prefer regular story updates over a year of nothing happening in the game and relatively little new content other than skins and festivals, not having the full expansion at launch feels weird. Only time can tell how this is gonna be. I like what's going on with weapons. And yeah: obviously, some Elite Spec weapons lose some shine when they're not on that spec. Sword Engineer is pretty lackluster without being able to generate Heat, but Hammer Holosmith was fun to play with. Mace could be an alternative for Sword if you're willing to sacrifice Heat tiers and Quickness in favor of some CC while still being able to inflict conditions. Sword/Warhorn Weaver and Tempest was fun, but this is personal taste. Personally, I think this can be good for future Elite Specs. I've always considered things like the Photon Forge transformation, shrouds, etc. I think it'd be nice if future Elite Specs no longer need to worry about the constraints of heavily prioritizing a weapon that some builds might not even use in favor of tuning and tweaking the mechanics itself. However, and this is a big thing relating to this style of release, it feels like the new Core Weapons should be launching with the expansion. A little more freedom is great, but more than anything, I'd appreciate being able to go into SotO with a Rifle Mesmer or double Pistol Guardian. However, we apparently will be waiting months for this. Sure we'll have more freedom playstyles going into it. This really feels like something that should be here at launch: not waiting a few months after launch, and I heavily question that decision. There's also the new Legendary Armor: I'm looking forward to it. I've wanted Legendary Armor for a while, but never really liked doing raids. I'm considering finally just doing raids with a guild I'm in to hopefully be able to get one set of the Perfect Envoy Armor just because it gives you your first precursor set for free, and do the rest for PvE. But why are we waiting for the Obsidian Armor? If anything, this would give players something to do while waiting. I assume you'll need to clear the part of the story that releases at launch to start doing it: it would be great to have that grind there so we have something to do, but it's something we're being told we have to wait for. I feel kind of optimistic. I'm a bit unsure about Relics just because I'm worried that means every expansion we'll have a new armor piece to grind for that you can't be competitive without, but I want to reserve my judgment until we see it. But it just feels like a lot of stuff that should be here at launch won't be, and that bothers me. Given this is the first expansion with this kind of release cycle I expect ANet will help fine-tune it in the future, but I'm not very optimistic for the launch of SotO. I'm sure by its end it'll be great, but delaying the release of new weaponry and new legendary armor for several months after release leaves me unfortunately extremely cautious for the launch. Does anyone else feel the same?

Open World Legendary Armor: Pretty good. I'm a PvE dedicated player that mostly just does WvW when she needs Gifts of Battles that doesn't like big collections that requires stuff like Fractals either. With this, I might actually begin to start crafting Legendary Armor. As this is arguably the most useful of all Legendary gear, I'm actually quite looking forward to it. Easier Skyscale: It's funny, I've been spending the last month grinding LWS4 tokens for this then we get this. Now I can convert it to a few ascended trinkets from LWS4E3 and the rest for crafting material, that's nice. More Weapon Choices for All: I don't mind it. New weapons for Core Classes is great. While some weapons will be functionally useless without their elite specs, that's fine too. Some will be better than others. Hammer Power Holosmith was pretty fun to use in beta, although Sword Scrapper is useless. Sword/Warhorn Tempest and Weaver were also really fun. Some will be better than others- the chance for more diversity is great. Mace Holosmith can be better for inflicting conditions as a melee weapon than Sword at the cost of not gaining heat tiers. I still think it should require fully mastering an elite spec before you can do it though, to make sure players have incentive to fully master Elite Specs, but all in all this is great. Runes and Relics: This I'm unsure of. I don't have Legendary Runes, but I get the concern. Initially thought that this meant you would get essentially two final Rune bonuses, but it would appear that's not the case. I think players who have crafted at least 3 Legendary Runes should be compensated with a free Legendary Relic. More than anything my worry is the idea that we're going to constantly have new equipment slots, which is something GW2 really has avoided: the only "new" equipment slot we ever got was for Infusion and that was early in the game. Is there going to be a new set of gear we have to get every single expansion? Is there ALWAYS going to be a new Legendary grind now? Sure, it means players always have something to do... but I don't think this is how anyone wants it. I think we would be far better off having two separate full rune bonuses than anything. This is the one thing that has me worried because I worry it could open an unfortunate gateway.

If they make a Guild Wars 3 that's a single-player game that's like 5000 years after GW2 or in a parallel timelines since there's a canon multiverse, I'd check it out. Announcing an end to GW2 to focus on making GW3 will absolutely make me hard quit the game though.

Stiiiiill waiting...

Adding onto this: the portals in my instance just did not spawn, making it impossible to kill the Svanir to progress the event.

I've said it three times, I'll say it a dozen time mores; let us buy account-wide upgrades for this stuff, already. Or at LEAST, three free equipment tabs.

I may be beating a dead horse, but I still think the biggest problem is that you can only unlock tabs per character, not account. If the purchases for Equipment Tabs and Specs were account-wide, I'd be more tempted to buy them. If I only had to buy four more Equipment Template Slots for 2000 gems total (a $35 purchase there) and every single character I have, and will ever make will have six slots, most of my criticisms would be gone. I think these templates should either be dirt cheap per character ($10 can get you everything with a few gems left over), or account-wide purchases to justify their hard prices. With the prices you're charging, I can just buy character slots and make new toons to fulfill new purchases. Engineers and Elementalists having weapon swap now helps save on the space a bit, but it still much. I don't know. I never used ARC, I can't really compare how much better it was, and I'm a really casual PvE primary player. But there's something about the prices for these single purchases that just... don't feel right, honestly.

Don't get me wrong; I don't think fun=loot. One of the really cool things about GW2 is that it isn't loot-based grinding, and anyone who maxes out crafting disciplines can create the strongest weapons and armor in the game. However, large-scale events should still be rewarding. Take Tequatl for instance; in addition to being a fun and engaging world boss broken into multiple dynamic events, the whole thing rewards you with a minimum of 1 gold and 10K+ karma. The legendary bounties of Elona while fun while also being challenging reward us with the valuable Elegy Mosaics we spend in the Tomb of the Primeval Kings. I think bosses like this in addition to having fun and challenging mechanics should nontheless also be rewarding to a player for participating in it. However, I'd take a funner event over better loot drops any day; I just think dropping a good amount of map currency is a fitting reward for such a battle, ya feel?

So, Episode 1's reception was... mixed. And I know that's the norm for GW2; for any MMO when anything happens, really. A very common consensus even among those who really liked this episode is that it was really short, even my favorite GW2 streamer, AuroraPeachy commented how short it was when she was done. Someone on reddit gone as far as to say they literally finished the ep before they finished their beer. I had a very love/hate relationship, because I utterly loved the story (despite how short it was) and the atmosphere of Bjora Marches, and I genuinely had a lot of fun playing it... but you know those Steam reviews that talk about how much they loved it but they just can't give it a recommendation? That was me with Whisper in the Dark. But that's for the feedback thread for that episode, really. But here's the real million dollar question; after Whisper in the Dark, what's your expectations for Episode 2 of The Icebrood Saga? It really feels like ANet has some REALLY big shoes to fill this time, much moreso than the last episode. For those of you unaware, we're going to be receiving Drakkar as a world boss. If you're unfamiliar with the lore, Drakkar is one of Jormag's oldest and most powerful champions, who you can actually see frozen in a lake in GW1 (many of us thought he WAS Jormag at the time). Drakkar was the one who corrupted the original Svanir into becoming the Nornbear to herald Jormag's return, and as years went on seduced more Norns with promises of power, who would go on to become the Sons of Svanir, basically making Drakkar responsible for 50% of the problems we've dealt with in the Shiverpeaks, outside of the Dredge and steam jerks (we get to blame Scarlet for that one). The world boss fight with Drakkar is, love it or hate it, care about it or not, going to be a huge part of it. From the announcement of The Icebrood Saga, Episode 2 is what I've personally cared about the most because of this. After the small map and lackluster meta of Bjora March (and again, don't take this as me disliking the episode), I can't help but be concerned. And I'm pretty casual about things. We had a small world map with only one WP. A world boss has to be a huge boss that attracts a lot of people to be a success. And keep in mind since he's not a Core Tyrian world boss, we can't rely on people getting a notification with the world boss portal device to pop over there and do it. To this end, I think there's a few big expectations I have in particular for this Episode to be a success; The map needs to be large AND fun enough that people will actually want to stick around and do the pre-events that will make Drakkar spawn, or if its a guarantee (like how Champion Svanir Shaman Chief always spawns) nontheless be fun enough that it will keep enough players on the map so that we have an appropriate amount of players to be able to fight a world boss. To this end; the map needs to be and investing enough that even without Drakkar's meta active people will want to do events in the map and 100% it.Drakkar himself needs to be a fun enough and engaging boss (ideally dropping a large amount of the map currency in his chest) that players will want to stick around to actually fight him. That is to say, not something like pre-patch Tequatl or Fire Elemental.Ideally a story that, map stuff aside, should take at least 3 hours to complete.These are my main expectations and hopes for Episode 2, and what I feel will make it a success. I think expectations are... higher for this episode than the last one, with a major lore figure from GW1 returning as a world boss. And I don't think what we got last episode can cut it; I had fun with the last ep, a lot, but I don't think a map that small and events so simple and straightforward would be satisfying for such an events. Do you agree? What expectations do you in particular have for the second episode of The Icebrood Saga, and the world boss event with Drakkar?

This is such a hard decision for me. You know those reviews on Steam, that say they like a ton of things about it a game, but since they can only give a thumbs up or a thumbs down its a thumbs down and they go into detail why? That's it for me. I had GW2 at launch, but I quit playing for a few years, so even since I started playing agian in 2018 i'm still not 100% done with all of Living World and the expansions, mostly because I'm that kind of nerd who loves role-playing and making new characters constantly (I know all the lore though) instead of finishing the story, so Icebrood Saga is kind of? The first LW i'm actually doing as they come out, so I've been eagerly awaiting every new episode to get the experience, but since I'm not too experienced with LW episodes and maps feel free to take what I say with a grain of salt. Here's what I feel is the good and the bad though. The Good:The map, while small, is great. It has that perfect feeling of the hopelessness, despair, and even depression winter brings; and it was released with winter around the corner. I have seasonal depression with winter and how it gets so dark and so cold so early, and I feel like it was perfectly represented in Bjora Marches. Its sad. We've stepped foot uncomfortably out of the Shiverpeaks back to the Norns' ancestral homelands, and its ruled by Jormag and his cultists. Its a really depressing place with the son always blocked out and snow, and I really genuinely loved it. I especially love the hopelessness among the Vigil after SPOILEEEEEEEEEEEERS happened, and the constant paranoia that follows with Jormag constantly whispering to everyone; I knew he'd try to kitten with Rytlock, Cre, and Braham, but I was caught off guard by him screwing with Jory too and I especially loved that segment in the caves. The writing was great. I feel like ever since the Icebrood Saga began the writing has tremendously improved, and I loved the psychological horror that filled the air. The writing was the best part of the episode to me, and being able to kamehameha with the mastery was pretty cool too. And I like games like GW2 for its story, so thats a huge boon to me. I'm part of a Norn RP guild and I absolutely loved this, I've already thought a lot about what Jormag is whispering to all my characters and I can't wait for us to get further in and caught up so we can RP in the map. Even Braham, who I've disliked (a shared sentiment by many) in the past is starting to grow on me; and this is the chance to write him into a likable character. And its also unfortunate when I say that's what I enjoy the most out of this map, because that is... not good. Nitpicking/Personal gripes:YOU TEASED US SO MUCH WITH THE BONESKINNER AND HE WAS NOTHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING Jokes aside though, the Boneskinner was really disappointing. Its one thing that he wasn't prominent in the story itself, focusing on the Sons of Svanir was fine, but at the end of the day? It was just another Champion boss. I remember when it said it was going to eat people I was thinking maybe there'd be a mechanic where it ate players and insta killed them, but no it was just these NPCs I don't care about. Now I loved the woods area in general, but it is incredibly disappointing after being hyped up the Boneskinner is just a Champion you can easily miss. I would have been in favor of it being a Legendary and the final boss of the meta event of the map (more on that below), but that was disappointing. Not enough to seriously deduct points if I was rating it formally, but I don't think I was the only one who felt this way about it. If anything the Endless Boneskinner Tonic just feels like, way more exciting than the actual thing. Being able to turn into a Boneskinner and let people pretend to pet you sounds funner than the actual boss. Now, I DO like the associated quest where the Vigil is getting freaked out bc they're being watched due to my love for the horror themes in this episode, but still. Now, I get the Boneskinner will be the focus of a strike mission, but that's a rotating thing that not every player is gonna be interested in. The lore is weird and you didn't explain what the Fallen is, and I was debating if I want this to be a big thing. When I saw "corrupted bear shaman" in the distance I assumed they were like, Icebrood shamans who used to revere the Spirits but fell to Jormag's influence and are stuck in their forms, like Svanir was. But they're just kind of there? And they're like... on fire. They look like Destroyers. Is there some kind of lore to them? Are they resisting Jormag with fire magic but are also hostile to anything that isn't them? Hopefully we'll find out in a few months. The Bad:And I'm really sad this is gonna be the longest part, because I did have a LOT of fun playing it, and I probably will again on other characters, followed by never returning to the map. The first thing I want to talk about is that meta. I hate it. I hate it a lot. The Icebrood Construct WAS kind of cool, but that should have been part of the story (a second half, which I'll go on below) with it attacking the Keep as part of the personal quest. I don't like how intrusive that was to the UI. I really wanted to do the main quest for Whisper in the Dark before doing metas and quests; but that UI thing was SO disruptive and I didn't want to constantly run back to get Raven's protection, I just kind of put my story on hold to finish it. And I didn't even like the last boss. The Icebrood Construct was cool visually and I liked it being chained, but there's nothing I can say other than "big monster walking and we gotta make it stop!" I'm sure Jory's part of the main quest would be unaffected since its in a cave, but the other two segments with Rytlock and Creia and Braham were awful until I decided to just stop. It didn't help that meta took forever to finish either. I hate to say this, I really do, but even The Frozen Maw, aka Baby's First World Boss felt more investing to me despite the worse loot; there's something about the Champion Svanir Shaman Chief summoning his portals and hulking out on you in his Icebrood form that feels... more epic than just an ice kaiju steadily advancing. Also, it doesn't mess up my entire UI, so I can do other stuff, such as the main quest in Wayfaer Foothills without worrying about a debilerating condition from an event I'm not interested in is hindering my process. The map is really small. This has been said a million times; which means you guys should listen. It didn't need to be HUGE, but like... I don't know. 2-3 more explorable areas with its own events like the woods and cave would've been nice, I think? I think that would've made a huge difference to the map. And also said a million times, the quest is too short. Even my favorite GW2 streamer, AuroraPeachy, commented that was really short. I thought the Raven Shrine would be like, the halfway point, and then maybe something like stopping the Sons of Svanir from destroying the keep would occur, much like the meta event of the map, maybe ending with a funeral for SPOILEEEEEEEEEEERS, and even Rytlock acknowledging this has become something much, much, much bigger than just pursuing Bangar further. Instead it just... kind of ended? The Freir (or however you spelled it) was a great Legendary boss once you understood the gimmick, don't get me wrong, and I could've been fine with it as the final boss, just not that early. And this isn't just my opinion either; a lot of people are unhappy with how short this quest was. If you released LW episodes like... twice as quickly (which would also affect quality negatively) like every two months it'd be fine; I think everyone excused Bound by Blood being short bc it was a "Prologue" (I think all of us at heart consider it to be the real episode 1 and were disappointed still though by the length), but now? We're in the main meat. Nobody wants to wait 4 months for something THIS short. And this brings us to the ultimate problem; outside of roleplaying and doing IC stuff on all my other RP characters? I don't... really want to come back to this map. I LOVE the atmosphere and writing around it, but I don't wanna come here to spend hours when I could be doing World Bosses in Core Tyria, map exploration, or the past two maps; which I want to talk about in-length now. Dragonfall and Grothmar Valley still have lots of people active in those maps; why? Because they're fun and rewarding (although hatched chillis are probably the worst map currency in the game, that's another can of worms for another discussion). Dragonfall has this huge (easily more than twice Bjora Marches) and an incredibly unique and massive meta event in the form of Break the Crystal Dragon; and I have WAY more issues with War Eternal's writing and story than Whisper in the Dark's, but I still want to do Dragonfall much more than Bjora Marches. That meta is so huge, fun, and massive it makes me want to come back to Dragonfall just for it. Hell, it makes me want to do the previous metas and misc quests around the map JUST to get mistborn keys to open those coffers at the end. An incredibly fun meta event spawning multiple Legendaries followed by a horde of Champions to fight each spawning chests after is super fun! And I've not done all of Grothmar Valley's metas, Metal Legion alone is just so fun I have gone back to the map just to do it. Its fun and has massive replay value. And as this game does not revolve around loot, where any character can craft weapon and armor with the highest stats in the game? That's what's most important in the PvE front; fun maps with fun events that entice the player to return to do them again and again. Its not even about getting Ascended trinkets; they're just fun to do, and Dragonfall's metas drop a ton of chests dropping jewels useful for upgrading Exotic amulets and trinkets (for those who don't like grinding or crafting for Ascended armor) and other crafting as well. Grothmar Valley gets you a warhorn that's a kitten microphone and some wicked t-shirts, and some really cool back items for Charr players who are deep into Legion roleplay. Even Siren's Landing which I don't really like (I don't like any Orr map tbh) has two things going for it; the first is that Undead Wyvern epic-level boss, and the second is the option to buy Ascended back items and trinkets with Karma instead of Unbound/Volatile magic. What does Bjora's March has? I guess the Endless Skinwalker Tonic is cool. And those Ancient Boreal weapon skins look great, especially the Greatsword featured in the trailer since it looks just like an Ultra Greatsword out of Dark Souls (I actually like the Ancient Boreal skin much more than Restored Boreal, looks more... ancient, eroded by the sands of time; which I get it, restored and ancient, but still). But i'm never gonna make them more than once, once I get the skin its transmutation charges from then on out. So what's my incentive to go back to Bjora's March once I have these items, other than roleplaying with my guildmates or to do the quest on new characters after I get to that point? Nothing except a meta with fairly uninspired events, the same Sons of Svanir I was killing back in the Shiverpeaks. I hate to say this, I really do, but even The Frozen Maw, aka Baby's First World Boss felt more investing to me despite the worse loot; there's something about the Champion Svanir Shaman Chief summoning his portals and hulking out on you in his Icebrood form that feels... more epic than just an ice kaiju steadily advancing. Its a TERRIFIC atmospheric map and really great for roleplaying if you're into that, but its not like I'm RPing with my guildmates all the time. Most of the time I'm doing the personal quest and living world on my characters, bounties in Elona maps, and world bosses (bought the World Boss Portal Device just to do them), and various other metas I find fun (usually with challenging final bosses). There's very little intensive for me to return to Bjora's March other than getting that tonic and Boreal weapons. Once I have them, I'll only come back to RP or complete it on new characters. That's it. In Conclusion:I really need to stress the fact I had a lot of fun, except for when the blizzard started and I felt compelled to join what I feel is an unfun meta event. The story was great, the atmosphere was great, the writing was great, and the new masteries are fun. I genuinely enjoyed myself, and I'm sure I'll enjoy doing it again. But its not like Istan (and Elona in general quite frankly, I love the entire region except for the Desolation), Dragonfall, Grothmar Valley, and even Siren's Valley for me. I feel very little reason to return to the map, and that to me is enough I cannot recommend it. It's a map that exists I have some fun on, but other maps are much more fun to do. The replay value in this map largely relies on my RP guilds being active in it, and because on all my characters I want to try to complete the entire story on them if possible. I certainly hope this short map and story means you're gearing up for Chapter 2 of the Icebrood Saga. We know you will be introducing Drakkar as a new world boss; something I and many GW1 vets have wanted (I still remember when most of us thought Drakkar WAS Jormag). I'm really hoping the short story and map is a sign you guys are going full out to deliver us an epic world boss with an epic map. If not... I think the reception from those even who loved this map and quest will be a lot less warm. So yeah. That's my personal thoughts. Great story, great writing, great atmosphere, great roleplaying potential, and a cool Endless Tonic and weapon skins; but tragically, very little replay value, which is instrumental to new maps in MMOs, and as far as I'm concerned a downgrade from both Dragonfall and Grothmar Valley as a result. Its like... you guys are almost there; but you still need to put int a little more to get to the finish line. Regardless, God bless, and especially kudos to the writers.

In hindsight, I should have made an "other" option for this poll, and didn't realize that until ya'll pointed it out, so my apologies for a kind of black and white poll. Still though, ty for your input everyone!

inb4 we're never getting a third expansion that's not the questiooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooon So something I've been thinking about is that both HoT and PoF added a new mechanic to the game related to movement. Heart of Thorns introduced the glider, which helps us with navigating large jumps and negating fall damage if timed right, and Path of Fire gave us multiple mounts each with its own unique movement ability. Let us say a third expansion comes out. While we of course would expect a massive new map, probably a new mission mechanic to replace bounties which are exclusive to Elonian maps, there might be a question of a new movement method. What do you all think? On one hand, adding a brand new movement method could be exciting in make traveling maps immersive and fun. On the other hand, you can argue that mounts have become far superior to gliding in general in most situations and that any future movement mechanic could probably just have a mount that does the same thing; and people love using mounts in MMOs, and a new expansion could simply introduce new mounts that use mastery points of the new expansion so that it can co-exist with the previous mounts, and even the rare few who could get this expansion without having PoF could still enjoy mounts. What do you all think is better? Should ANet try to design a new movement related ability altogether like a grappling hook or something, or should they just create new mounts with new movement abilities instead? And if you have any ideas for a new movement idea like gliding or mounts, feel free to share it!