2) This system is so much easier to balance. It is not reasonable to make 12 equally useful traits, particularly given how some of them had niche effects. Making 12 equal traits is harder, takes longer and ultimately leads to some traits seeing a lot less use. Finally an important point is that balance creates more choice as well because unbalanced and bad builds aren’t really options. The old system created a very small subset of über-builds which stomped out a lot of the good builds along with the bad ones.
This sounds like taking the easy way out. I've been watching GW2 very closely from the fence and statments like this are concerning.
4) Option Shock. New players at level 20 were clicking on a trait line for the first time and seeing 12 options which was very overwhelming. This gives them a bit of a reprieve to pick between a smaller number of traits at first and then learn more as they have played their character more.
Isn't this what the people who don't like the new system have been saying? Like that one thread about "WoWified."
They must have a system that promotes flexibility while still being easy to expand and balance. Some people might not like it, but it is a very realistic and honest answer, from a design and business point of view. Much better that sidestepping the issue or inventing ludicrous, far-fetched anwsers.
The Option Shock is probably the worst answer of the bunch, and much more similar to usual MMO Dev blurb. But as I pointed out in the beginning, it is one poor answer among a lot of honest and matter-of-factly ones. So, I think we can postpone burning their houses and raping their pets.
If all the numerous answers were like this, you might have a point.
They didn't have an answer I suspect, it probably hasn't been worked on enough. Which to me is enough to justify switching my main profession. As it stands now .. from what I can see, its all pointing to the Engineer being one of those tough to balance classes. ( I.E Engineer or Magus ala Warhammer ) Some people will stick by it, kudos to them, they might also flesh the class out pre-launch. I still would rather use the BWE's to thoroughly test a profession and master a few builds.
/sigh
Yeah, same here. It's too iffy to wait and see if "maybe" they are able to fix the Eng class enough for it to be viable in PvP (what I mainly play). I think I'm just going to switch to the Ranger this CBT as they had kind of an Eng "feel" to them but much more effective from what I could tell.
It's just far too likely that any change they make to the Eng will fall too short of many other classes. Good bye ol techy friend...
2) This system is so much easier to balance. It is not reasonable to make 12 equally useful traits, particularly given how some of them had niche effects. Making 12 equal traits is harder, takes longer and ultimately leads to some traits seeing a lot less use. Finally an important point is that balance creates more choice as well because unbalanced and bad builds aren’t really options. The old system created a very small subset of über-builds which stomped out a lot of the good builds along with the bad ones.
This sounds like taking the easy way out. I've been watching GW2 very closely from the fence and statments like this are concerning.
4) Option Shock. New players at level 20 were clicking on a trait line for the first time and seeing 12 options which was very overwhelming. This gives them a bit of a reprieve to pick between a smaller number of traits at first and then learn more as they have played their character more.
Isn't this what the people who don't like the new system have been saying? Like that one thread about "WoWified."
It's one thing to balance 12 traits for one class, but to balance 12 traits for multiple classes, making all their traits balanced on the play field, is what takes time, a tweak here means a tweak there, add too many in and it takes too much devotion to be worth it, it is the easy way out, but it's the viable way out.
The "shock" factor i think they just threw in there haha, i think it's mostly about cookie cutter 30/10/10/10.
It's a bit mroe complicated than 12 traits for one profession.
Old way:
It's 12 majors for each trait line (there are 5) for each profession (there are 8).
New way:
It appears that they consider 2 majors per trait line 'elite' so that's 10 per profession, but only one of the elites can be chosen per line.
Then another 4 per trait line that are 'great' so that's 20 per profession. Up to two of these can be chosen per line (if you are willing to forsake an elite).
Then finally 6 per trait line that are 'good' so that's 30 per profession. Up to three of these can be chosen per line (if you are willing to forsake great and elite).
I think what's more interesting than the way they are changing how we choose is that without changing a single trait many who have played are already able to categorize them into good, great, and elite.
They didn't have an answer I suspect, it probably hasn't been worked on enough. Which to me is enough to justify switching my main profession. As it stands now .. from what I can see, its all pointing to the Engineer being one of those tough to balance classes. ( I.E Engineer or Magus ala Warhammer ) Some people will stick by it, kudos to them, they might also flesh the class out pre-launch. I still would rather use the BWE's to thoroughly test a profession and master a few builds.
/sigh
Which question? I saw several asked, and what I got out of them was
1) They want the kits to be better developed
2) They plan eventually to add more weapon choices and better weapon skills to engis
3) They're aware of the concerns players have raised and working on them
They didn't have an answer I suspect, it probably hasn't been worked on enough. Which to me is enough to justify switching my main profession. As it stands now .. from what I can see, its all pointing to the Engineer being one of those tough to balance classes. ( I.E Engineer or Magus ala Warhammer ) Some people will stick by it, kudos to them, they might also flesh the class out pre-launch. I still would rather use the BWE's to thoroughly test a profession and master a few builds.
/sigh
Which question? I saw several asked, and what I got out of them was
1) They want the kits to be better developed
2) They plan eventually to add more weapon choices and better weapon skills to engis
3) They're aware of the concerns players have raised and working on them
They didn't have an answer I suspect, it probably hasn't been worked on enough. Which to me is enough to justify switching my main profession. As it stands now .. from what I can see, its all pointing to the Engineer being one of those tough to balance classes. ( I.E Engineer or Magus ala Warhammer ) Some people will stick by it, kudos to them, they might also flesh the class out pre-launch. I still would rather use the BWE's to thoroughly test a profession and master a few builds.
/sigh
Which question? I saw several asked, and what I got out of them was
1) They want the kits to be better developed
2) They plan eventually to add more weapon choices and better weapon skills to engis
3) They're aware of the concerns players have raised and working on them
4) We probably won't see any of that this BWE.
Yep , thats exactly what they answered.
Then I'm missing something perhaps...what did you think they dodged? Honestly there was like 80k questions in that subreddit, I couldn't come close to reading all of it, so I'm curious what you thought was missed.
I felt like Engi's got a lot more feedback than Mesmers, or some other classes.
Then I'm missing something perhaps...what did you think they dodged? Honestly there was like 80k questions in that subreddit, I couldn't come close to reading all of it, so I'm curious what you thought was missed.
I felt like Engi's got a lot more feedback than Mesmers, or some other classes.
Q: What is the status of the Engineer re-work? What kind of changes are being made?
A: Still in progress. I think the key piece is getting their kits to inherit some of the benefits that you get from collecting and customizing weapons.
Then I'm missing something perhaps...what did you think they dodged? Honestly there was like 80k questions in that subreddit, I couldn't come close to reading all of it, so I'm curious what you thought was missed.
I felt like Engi's got a lot more feedback than Mesmers, or some other classes.
Q: What is the status of the Engineer re-work? What kind of changes are being made?
A: Still in progress. I think the key piece is getting their kits to inherit some of the benefits that you get from collecting and customizing weapons.
Ah. I didn't read that as a dodge. It wasn't a "This is exactly what we're going to do, when we're going to do it" type answer, but it did explain their design philsophy and it lets you know it's something they are working on.
I felt some other complants (like pets dying WAY too easily) got ignored entirely.
Then I'm missing something perhaps...what did you think they dodged? Honestly there was like 80k questions in that subreddit, I couldn't come close to reading all of it, so I'm curious what you thought was missed.
I felt like Engi's got a lot more feedback than Mesmers, or some other classes.
Q: What is the status of the Engineer re-work? What kind of changes are being made?
A: Still in progress. I think the key piece is getting their kits to inherit some of the benefits that you get from collecting and customizing weapons.
Ah. I didn't read that as a dodge. It wasn't a "This is exactly what we're going to do, when we're going to do it" type answer, but it did explain their design philsophy and it lets you know it's something they are working on.
I felt some other complants (like pets dying WAY too easily) got ignored entirely.
Ayep , it wasn't answered enough to make me feel my time is well spent with the Engineer. /shrug
"4) Option Shock. New players at level 20 were clicking on a trait line for the first time and seeing 12 options which was very overwhelming. This gives them a bit of a reprieve to pick between a smaller number of traits at first and then learn more as they have played their character more."
i took a look at a trait thing.and not even playing the game yet,could figure it out with no "shock"
i mean,if they wanna dumb down the system.it would sound better to get rid of dodge and weapon swapping first then mess around with traits
Making something more digestible is not "dumbing it down" and that's fairly insulting to a ton of people who play the game. I can sit here and make builds allday but someone who doesn't care about information overload will be happy for the change.
The worst thing you can do for a new player or someone trying to get into a new game is to load them with so many choices and options. My wife is as intelligent as most people I know, but she did not care for the number of skills initiated at first, just too much to digest at one time.
You want to scare a new player from playing tabletop dnd, give him all the splat books and tell him to make himself a character and pick feats, it can be daunting. The reason why good dms segment things into digestible chunks. GW are good dms.
In other wrods, yeah, glad that there are nerds (like us) out there that don't mind all the information and will sit ther and study builds all day, but thats not the majority of players.
Then I'm missing something perhaps...what did you think they dodged? Honestly there was like 80k questions in that subreddit, I couldn't come close to reading all of it, so I'm curious what you thought was missed.
I felt like Engi's got a lot more feedback than Mesmers, or some other classes.
Q: What is the status of the Engineer re-work? What kind of changes are being made?
A: Still in progress. I think the key piece is getting their kits to inherit some of the benefits that you get from collecting and customizing weapons.
Ah. I didn't read that as a dodge. It wasn't a "This is exactly what we're going to do, when we're going to do it" type answer, but it did explain their design philsophy and it lets you know it's something they are working on.
I felt some other complants (like pets dying WAY too easily) got ignored entirely.
they said they made some ai improvements to pets. Not ignored at all.
They dodged the Engineer question...They didn't have an answer I suspect, it probably hasn't been worked on enough. Which to me is enough to justify switching my main profession. As it stands now .. from what I can see, its all pointing to the Engineer being one of those tough to balance classes. ( I.E Engineer or Magus ala Warhammer ) Some people will stick by it, kudos to them, they might also flesh the class out pre-launch. I still would rather use the BWE's to thoroughly test a profession and master a few builds./sigh
I really want my main profession to be engineer, becuase I want to be a turret spammer. However, I looked into it, and barely any traits were available the turrets or they stunk, the turrets themselves were not that good, and I felt like there simply wasn't enough room to get what I wanted for the engineer. I mean, I couldn't care less about a kit, but it seems engineers are only good with kits becuase their weapon skills were incredibly limited. When I went to make my build on one of the build maker sites, it simply felt weak and too confusing to use. There were tons of buttons, put turret down, secondary effect for turret, third affect (or self destruct), but in the end it felt... Like it was a small number but confusing. I also watched gameplay videos of engineers. One guy had a very clever build involving bombs and kits and what not, but none of them dealt with turrets, or just had one turret and a flamethrower. Then the turrets would barely do anything to help. This entire profession needs to be reworked like the sylvari. Make it so it's not confusing, kits make sense, turrets which are supposed to be a trademark work well, and make it look less awkward, I don't know how to explain it, but it just seems so boring to play. Until then, I'm gonna play a spirit spamming guardian.
I really want my main profession to be engineer, becuase I want to be a turret spammer. However, I looked into it, and barely any traits were available the turrets or they stunk, the turrets themselves were not that good, and I felt like there simply wasn't enough room to get what I wanted for the engineer. I mean, I couldn't care less about a kit, but it seems engineers are only good with kits becuase their weapon skills were incredibly limited. When I went to make my build on one of the build maker sites, it simply felt weak and too confusing to use. There were tons of buttons, put turret down, secondary effect for turret, third affect (or self destruct), but in the end it felt... Like it was a small number but confusing. I also watched gameplay videos of engineers. One guy had a very clever build involving bombs and kits and what not, but none of them dealt with turrets, or just had one turret and a flamethrower. Then the turrets would barely do anything to help. This entire profession needs to be reworked like the sylvari. Make it so it's not confusing, kits make sense, turrets which are supposed to be a trademark work well, and make it look less awkward, I don't know how to explain it, but it just seems so boring to play. Until then, I'm gonna play a spirit spamming guardian.
I would suggest the opposite: do play a Turret Engineer, plot a solid build the way you like it, and then take your conclusions. If it's bad, providem them your feedback. Post in the forums, with numbers and impressions.
This is how things get fixed or get interesting. Anet seems very aware of good feedback. I know I will give them a lot of feedback about my experiences.
Originally posted by KingJigglyI really want my main profession to be engineer, becuase I want to be a turret spammer. However, I looked into it, and barely any traits were available the turrets or they stunk, the turrets themselves were not that good, and I felt like there simply wasn't enough room to get what I wanted for the engineer. I mean, I couldn't care less about a kit, but it seems engineers are only good with kits becuase their weapon skills were incredibly limited. When I went to make my build on one of the build maker sites, it simply felt weak and too confusing to use. There were tons of buttons, put turret down, secondary effect for turret, third affect (or self destruct), but in the end it felt... Like it was a small number but confusing. I also watched gameplay videos of engineers. One guy had a very clever build involving bombs and kits and what not, but none of them dealt with turrets, or just had one turret and a flamethrower. Then the turrets would barely do anything to help. This entire profession needs to be reworked like the sylvari. Make it so it's not confusing, kits make sense, turrets which are supposed to be a trademark work well, and make it look less awkward, I don't know how to explain it, but it just seems so boring to play. Until then, I'm gonna play a spirit spamming guardian.
I would suggest the opposite: do play a Turret Engineer, plot a solid build the way you like it, and then take your conclusions. If it's bad, providem them your feedback. Post in the forums, with numbers and impressions.
This is how things get fixed or get interesting. Anet seems very aware of good feedback. I know I will give them a lot of feedback about my experiences.
Well, I haven't played the real game yet. I am saying this as it is now, and I will play the engineer when I get the game as my secondary to the guardian, but again all this is in my head ATM. :P
It should be easier to group up with friends in overflow servers.
A number of performance optimizations have been made since BWE1, but it may still be laggy as they are not done optimizing yet.
They have made improvements to skill queueing since the last BWE and there are still more to come before release.
Skill rooting is being fixed. They have fixed a few of the skills but there are still some out there that need fixing. They also said that "skills should stop you if they feel like they should stop you, otherwise, they shouldn't."
You still can't rebind left or right click.
Pet AI has been worked on but may still be buggy.
First person view is something they want to add post release and camera swing will be disabled.
They will be taking a closer look at downed skills as some professions have it better than others.
In regards to the sliding effect people feel when walking, what you see now is mostly what you will get on release.
Dueling will be out some time after release. They are still figuring out how it will work.
They have improved the "sense of hitting". This phrase is used for all visceral combat improvements which includes audio, effects, animations, timing of skills, camera shakes, and a number of other things.
They have added an effect LOD system.
They have identified some noisy effects and made them less noisy.
New weapons like two-handed axes might be in expansions.
Two-handed weapons will most likely be getting two sigil slots, they ran out of time to add this in BWE2 though.
They want to work on a template which allows you to easily swap weapon sets, traits, skills etc after launch.
There will be new content in the maps that were already available in BWE1.
There is an item previewer in the works that did not make it for BWE2, but the game will ship with it.
You can now see what major traits are available in a tree without spending points.
They may look into your character causing bigger splashes when you jump into water from a high height.
Apparently Guardian is proving to be the hardest class to develop, balance etc.
In the human storyline, there is now more room for you to fight in (no more insanely narrow corridors)
The carnival skill point guy in Beetletun should no longer die.
When moving from map to map you will now retain your party.
They are investigating some options to help out colorblind folks.
When you are out of coins, resurrecting at a waypoint is free.
Servers won't go down when they need to patch the game. You will just need to restart your client, much like in GW1.
They are working on an API which allows you to get data out of the game (eg web services)
They would like to work on a MAC version after launch.
It won't be on Steam. Apparently Valve has some new business terms that Anet say will keep almost all new MMOs off Steam. Interesting.
Beta Specific
Definitely no Asura/Sylvari for BWE2. No new info on whether they will be available in other beta events but they didn't rule them out.
There is still no level cap like last beta.
Skill points will be refunded when you log in on Friday.
There is currently only one dungeon in the BWE and it is level 30. It can be found in the Charr map Ashford.
You will not be carrying over unspent gems from BWE1 to BWE2 but you will be able to claim another 2000 free gems anyway.
World transfers will be free until 6pm PDT Saturday. After that point they will cost 1800 gems as they want to test the system. If this is your first beta, you will be able to select the server you want to play on when you log in for the first time.
They are working on making patch notes for BWE2, but the list of changes is so large some stuff may get accidentally left out.
Beta characters will definitely not transfer into the game when it goes live.
Mike Zadorojny (Content Designer) was the man responsible for last beta's finale.
There is an exciting new finale for this event! With multiple staff working on it this time.
Apparently the Black Moas from the last finale got a higher kill:death ratio than the players. Despite the sheer number of players the Moas definitely rose to the challenge.
There will be at least one more beta after this one.
Professions
The Necromancer Death Shroud skill Dark Cloud now causes blind as well as chill. Minions have some AI bugs but they should attack what you attack and run where you run, they want them to feel uncontrolled but not broken.
Engineer re-work is still in progress. They want their kits to inherit some of the benefits that you get from collecting and customizing weapons. They're also getting more weapons and kits in the future. Engineer kits may also get their own sigils.
Mesmer illusions will now have class icons. Apparently they were not aware of this bug until the AMA!
Guardian scepters now have a longer range. You can now cast Bow of Truth while running (not in BWE2 though). Guardian hammer skill 3 is a line immobilize now.
Ranger - the third chain in the sword "1" skill that leaps to the enemy has been changed a bit (don't know how). They also plan on updating Throw Torch and Hunter's Call to be more interesting in the future.
Thief - They have done a big balancing pass on the thief. Death Blossom is also an evasive attack now. A bug involving Black Powder and not attacking has been fixed.
Numerous other weapon skills have changed considerably.
Guilds
Guilds will be able to increase their member cap. (how and the max number is unknown)
An account may be in many guilds and each character can represent different guilds.
sPvP
Automated tournaments are not cross-region.
The game mode in automatic tournaments will be 8 team single elimination.
Tournaments are meant to be the equivilent of GvG from GW1.
There will be more amulets in BWE2.
At some point in the future they may consider adding more game types.
Spectator mode will not be available at launch but they plan to add it at some time after release if the demand is big enough.
World vs World
The new WvW mini dungeon is part of the eternal battlegrounds map, not a separate instance. It will mostly be about PvP and evading traps. They may add PvE elements like bosses in the future.
You should now be able to unlock skills in WvW easier. Not unlocking them in BWE1 was a due to a bug where players were not getting the proper credit from player kills. This should make getting reward bags easier too.
There will be a Commander UI that shows you the members of your squad. Squad size is only limited to 50 but there are discussions about raising it.
There will be no player ranks in WvW.
You will never be able to see your enemies name in WvW, only their guild tag.
Combat markers show when a group of 6 or more people are fighting. You will never be able to see everyone on the map as the bandwidth requirements are too high.
They may have shorter battles for the first few weeks of launch to help balance servers faster.
If you get disconnected while in WvW your character won't be locked out of the game if the WvW map is full. I'm guessing it will return you to the mists.
What you'll be playing this weekend is pretty close to how they intend to ship WvW. They still have a bunch more polish to do, but don't expect any more areas or expansions any time soon.
They don't plan on adding movement to any of the stationary siege weapons.
There are no current plans on making the borderland maps different in the future.
Respect, walk, what did you say? Respect, walk Are you talkin' to me? Are you talkin' to me? - PANTERA at HELLFEST 2023
"4) Option Shock. New players at level 20 were clicking on a trait line for the first time and seeing 12 options which was very overwhelming. This gives them a bit of a reprieve to pick between a smaller number of traits at first and then learn more as they have played their character more."
i took a look at a trait thing.and not even playing the game yet,could figure it out with no "shock"
i mean,if they wanna dumb down the system.it would sound better to get rid of dodge and weapon swapping first then mess around with traits
Making something more digestible is not "dumbing it down" and that's fairly insulting to a ton of people who play the game. I can sit here and make builds allday but someone who doesn't care about information overload will be happy for the change.
The worst thing you can do for a new player or someone trying to get into a new game is to load them with so many choices and options. My wife is as intelligent as most people I know, but she did not care for the number of skills initiated at first, just too much to digest at one time.
You want to scare a new player from playing tabletop dnd, give him all the splat books and tell him to make himself a character and pick feats, it can be daunting. The reason why good dms segment things into digestible chunks. GW are good dms.
In other wrods, yeah, glad that there are nerds (like us) out there that don't mind all the information and will sit ther and study builds all day, but thats not the majority of players.
"4) Option Shock. New players at level 20 were clicking on a trait line for the first time and seeing 12 options which was very overwhelming. This gives them a bit of a reprieve to pick between a smaller number of traits at first and then learn more as they have played their character more."
i took a look at a trait thing.and not even playing the game yet,could figure it out with no "shock"
i mean,if they wanna dumb down the system.it would sound better to get rid of dodge and weapon swapping first then mess around with traits
Making something more digestible is not "dumbing it down" and that's fairly insulting to a ton of people who play the game. I can sit here and make builds allday but someone who doesn't care about information overload will be happy for the change.
The worst thing you can do for a new player or someone trying to get into a new game is to load them with so many choices and options. My wife is as intelligent as most people I know, but she did not care for the number of skills initiated at first, just too much to digest at one time.
You want to scare a new player from playing tabletop dnd, give him all the splat books and tell him to make himself a character and pick feats, it can be daunting. The reason why good dms segment things into digestible chunks. GW are good dms.
In other wrods, yeah, glad that there are nerds (like us) out there that don't mind all the information and will sit ther and study builds all day, but thats not the majority of players.
The sacrifices you make for mass appeal.
it depends on who the mass is that you want to appeal
im not even wasting 50 bucks to buy the game if there appealing to the same crowd that pretty much made swtor so bad.you know,the cool kid world of warcraft players who want every single mmo they play after wow to be exactly like it
Which they would have elaborated as to why there will be no ranks in WvW
Yeah, why is that? I am kinda dissapointed by that.
They have said this earlier, they want WvW to be about servers against servers, so individual players or even guilds don't get any rewards. The rewards and bonuses you get from WvW are for your whole server.
Any form of individual reward (even a meaningless ranking) for WvW would lead to egoism and elitism.
Comments
good point.
Yeah, same here. It's too iffy to wait and see if "maybe" they are able to fix the Eng class enough for it to be viable in PvP (what I mainly play). I think I'm just going to switch to the Ranger this CBT as they had kind of an Eng "feel" to them but much more effective from what I could tell.
It's just far too likely that any change they make to the Eng will fall too short of many other classes. Good bye ol techy friend...
Q: Will Asura and Sylvari be playable in a BWE?
A: (-: Watch this space!
It's a bit mroe complicated than 12 traits for one profession.
Old way:
It's 12 majors for each trait line (there are 5) for each profession (there are 8).
New way:
It appears that they consider 2 majors per trait line 'elite' so that's 10 per profession, but only one of the elites can be chosen per line.
Then another 4 per trait line that are 'great' so that's 20 per profession. Up to two of these can be chosen per line (if you are willing to forsake an elite).
Then finally 6 per trait line that are 'good' so that's 30 per profession. Up to three of these can be chosen per line (if you are willing to forsake great and elite).
I think what's more interesting than the way they are changing how we choose is that without changing a single trait many who have played are already able to categorize them into good, great, and elite.
Which question? I saw several asked, and what I got out of them was
1) They want the kits to be better developed
2) They plan eventually to add more weapon choices and better weapon skills to engis
3) They're aware of the concerns players have raised and working on them
4) We probably won't see any of that this BWE.
Yep , thats exactly what they answered.
Then I'm missing something perhaps...what did you think they dodged? Honestly there was like 80k questions in that subreddit, I couldn't come close to reading all of it, so I'm curious what you thought was missed.
I felt like Engi's got a lot more feedback than Mesmers, or some other classes.
Q: What is the status of the Engineer re-work? What kind of changes are being made?
A: Still in progress. I think the key piece is getting their kits to inherit some of the benefits that you get from collecting and customizing weapons.
Ah. I didn't read that as a dodge. It wasn't a "This is exactly what we're going to do, when we're going to do it" type answer, but it did explain their design philsophy and it lets you know it's something they are working on.
I felt some other complants (like pets dying WAY too easily) got ignored entirely.
Ayep , it wasn't answered enough to make me feel my time is well spent with the Engineer. /shrug
The amount of people trying to force ANet to dumb down the Trait system is really upsetting me.
This is why we can't have nice things.
***** Before hitting that reply button, please READ the WHOLE thread you're about to post in *****
well now i am one of the guys that support this tier trait system. love there answers and now i really understand why tier trait are need
I'm sorry but I agree with their reasons for redoing the trait and skill systems.
Come on Friday! I want to play so bad I can taste it.
Making something more digestible is not "dumbing it down" and that's fairly insulting to a ton of people who play the game. I can sit here and make builds allday but someone who doesn't care about information overload will be happy for the change.
The worst thing you can do for a new player or someone trying to get into a new game is to load them with so many choices and options. My wife is as intelligent as most people I know, but she did not care for the number of skills initiated at first, just too much to digest at one time.
You want to scare a new player from playing tabletop dnd, give him all the splat books and tell him to make himself a character and pick feats, it can be daunting. The reason why good dms segment things into digestible chunks. GW are good dms.
In other wrods, yeah, glad that there are nerds (like us) out there that don't mind all the information and will sit ther and study builds all day, but thats not the majority of players.
they said they made some ai improvements to pets. Not ignored at all.
I wonder if pets still insta-die, hope they implemented some of what made them fun to use in guild wars
I really want my main profession to be engineer, becuase I want to be a turret spammer. However, I looked into it, and barely any traits were available the turrets or they stunk, the turrets themselves were not that good, and I felt like there simply wasn't enough room to get what I wanted for the engineer. I mean, I couldn't care less about a kit, but it seems engineers are only good with kits becuase their weapon skills were incredibly limited. When I went to make my build on one of the build maker sites, it simply felt weak and too confusing to use. There were tons of buttons, put turret down, secondary effect for turret, third affect (or self destruct), but in the end it felt... Like it was a small number but confusing. I also watched gameplay videos of engineers. One guy had a very clever build involving bombs and kits and what not, but none of them dealt with turrets, or just had one turret and a flamethrower. Then the turrets would barely do anything to help. This entire profession needs to be reworked like the sylvari. Make it so it's not confusing, kits make sense, turrets which are supposed to be a trademark work well, and make it look less awkward, I don't know how to explain it, but it just seems so boring to play. Until then, I'm gonna play a spirit spamming guardian.http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/innovation
I would suggest the opposite: do play a Turret Engineer, plot a solid build the way you like it, and then take your conclusions. If it's bad, providem them your feedback. Post in the forums, with numbers and impressions.
This is how things get fixed or get interesting. Anet seems very aware of good feedback. I know I will give them a lot of feedback about my experiences.
I would suggest the opposite: do play a Turret Engineer, plot a solid build the way you like it, and then take your conclusions. If it's bad, providem them your feedback. Post in the forums, with numbers and impressions.
This is how things get fixed or get interesting. Anet seems very aware of good feedback. I know I will give them a lot of feedback about my experiences.
Well, I haven't played the real game yet. I am saying this as it is now, and I will play the engineer when I get the game as my secondary to the guardian, but again all this is in my head ATM. :Phttp://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/innovation
General
It should be easier to group up with friends in overflow servers.
A number of performance optimizations have been made since BWE1, but it may still be laggy as they are not done optimizing yet.
They have made improvements to skill queueing since the last BWE and there are still more to come before release.
Skill rooting is being fixed. They have fixed a few of the skills but there are still some out there that need fixing. They also said that "skills should stop you if they feel like they should stop you, otherwise, they shouldn't."
You still can't rebind left or right click.
Pet AI has been worked on but may still be buggy.
First person view is something they want to add post release and camera swing will be disabled.
They will be taking a closer look at downed skills as some professions have it better than others.
In regards to the sliding effect people feel when walking, what you see now is mostly what you will get on release.
Dueling will be out some time after release. They are still figuring out how it will work.
They have improved the "sense of hitting". This phrase is used for all visceral combat improvements which includes audio, effects, animations, timing of skills, camera shakes, and a number of other things.
They have added an effect LOD system.
They have identified some noisy effects and made them less noisy.
New weapons like two-handed axes might be in expansions.
Two-handed weapons will most likely be getting two sigil slots, they ran out of time to add this in BWE2 though.
They want to work on a template which allows you to easily swap weapon sets, traits, skills etc after launch.
There will be new content in the maps that were already available in BWE1.
There is an item previewer in the works that did not make it for BWE2, but the game will ship with it.
You can now see what major traits are available in a tree without spending points.
They may look into your character causing bigger splashes when you jump into water from a high height.
Apparently Guardian is proving to be the hardest class to develop, balance etc.
In the human storyline, there is now more room for you to fight in (no more insanely narrow corridors)
The carnival skill point guy in Beetletun should no longer die.
When moving from map to map you will now retain your party.
They are investigating some options to help out colorblind folks.
When you are out of coins, resurrecting at a waypoint is free.
Servers won't go down when they need to patch the game. You will just need to restart your client, much like in GW1.
They are working on an API which allows you to get data out of the game (eg web services)
They would like to work on a MAC version after launch.
It won't be on Steam. Apparently Valve has some new business terms that Anet say will keep almost all new MMOs off Steam. Interesting.
Beta Specific
Definitely no Asura/Sylvari for BWE2. No new info on whether they will be available in other beta events but they didn't rule them out.
There is still no level cap like last beta.
Skill points will be refunded when you log in on Friday.
There is currently only one dungeon in the BWE and it is level 30. It can be found in the Charr map Ashford.
You will not be carrying over unspent gems from BWE1 to BWE2 but you will be able to claim another 2000 free gems anyway.
World transfers will be free until 6pm PDT Saturday. After that point they will cost 1800 gems as they want to test the system. If this is your first beta, you will be able to select the server you want to play on when you log in for the first time.
They are working on making patch notes for BWE2, but the list of changes is so large some stuff may get accidentally left out.
Beta characters will definitely not transfer into the game when it goes live.
Mike Zadorojny (Content Designer) was the man responsible for last beta's finale.
There is an exciting new finale for this event! With multiple staff working on it this time.
Apparently the Black Moas from the last finale got a higher kill:death ratio than the players. Despite the sheer number of players the Moas definitely rose to the challenge.
There will be at least one more beta after this one.
Professions
The Necromancer Death Shroud skill Dark Cloud now causes blind as well as chill. Minions have some AI bugs but they should attack what you attack and run where you run, they want them to feel uncontrolled but not broken.
Engineer re-work is still in progress. They want their kits to inherit some of the benefits that you get from collecting and customizing weapons. They're also getting more weapons and kits in the future. Engineer kits may also get their own sigils.
Mesmer illusions will now have class icons. Apparently they were not aware of this bug until the AMA!
Guardian scepters now have a longer range. You can now cast Bow of Truth while running (not in BWE2 though). Guardian hammer skill 3 is a line immobilize now.
Ranger - the third chain in the sword "1" skill that leaps to the enemy has been changed a bit (don't know how). They also plan on updating Throw Torch and Hunter's Call to be more interesting in the future.
Thief - They have done a big balancing pass on the thief. Death Blossom is also an evasive attack now. A bug involving Black Powder and not attacking has been fixed.
Numerous other weapon skills have changed considerably.
Guilds
Guilds will be able to increase their member cap. (how and the max number is unknown)
An account may be in many guilds and each character can represent different guilds.
sPvP
Automated tournaments are not cross-region.
The game mode in automatic tournaments will be 8 team single elimination.
Tournaments are meant to be the equivilent of GvG from GW1.
There will be more amulets in BWE2.
At some point in the future they may consider adding more game types.
Spectator mode will not be available at launch but they plan to add it at some time after release if the demand is big enough.
World vs World
The new WvW mini dungeon is part of the eternal battlegrounds map, not a separate instance. It will mostly be about PvP and evading traps. They may add PvE elements like bosses in the future.
You should now be able to unlock skills in WvW easier. Not unlocking them in BWE1 was a due to a bug where players were not getting the proper credit from player kills. This should make getting reward bags easier too.
There will be a Commander UI that shows you the members of your squad. Squad size is only limited to 50 but there are discussions about raising it.
There will be no player ranks in WvW.
You will never be able to see your enemies name in WvW, only their guild tag.
Combat markers show when a group of 6 or more people are fighting. You will never be able to see everyone on the map as the bandwidth requirements are too high.
They may have shorter battles for the first few weeks of launch to help balance servers faster.
If you get disconnected while in WvW your character won't be locked out of the game if the WvW map is full. I'm guessing it will return you to the mists.
What you'll be playing this weekend is pretty close to how they intend to ship WvW. They still have a bunch more polish to do, but don't expect any more areas or expansions any time soon.
They don't plan on adding movement to any of the stationary siege weapons.
There are no current plans on making the borderland maps different in the future.
Respect, walk
Are you talkin' to me? Are you talkin' to me?
- PANTERA at HELLFEST 2023
Yeah, why is that? I am kinda dissapointed by that.
The sacrifices you make for mass appeal.
>> watch this space <<
it depends on who the mass is that you want to appeal
im not even wasting 50 bucks to buy the game if there appealing to the same crowd that pretty much made swtor so bad.you know,the cool kid world of warcraft players who want every single mmo they play after wow to be exactly like it
They have said this earlier, they want WvW to be about servers against servers, so individual players or even guilds don't get any rewards. The rewards and bonuses you get from WvW are for your whole server.
Any form of individual reward (even a meaningless ranking) for WvW would lead to egoism and elitism.