Anet: 3 ongoing issues that need to be addressed which are killing this game

These issues are well-discussed in threads spanning dozens if not hundreds of pages, and they have remained broken or unaddressed for some time now. Plus Anet and Gaile have stood silent on them, while they lead to the detriment of this game.

Briefly, here they are:

1. Missing Sunspear skills. These were initially supposed to coincide with the release of Hard Mode. Many of us are becoming frustrated with certain aspects of Hard Mode, that I'm somehow sure that there are missing Sunspear skills that woud address them.

2. Anti-farm and Hard Mode. Gaile has flat-out spread false info on this -- she's said that anti-farm code was taken out of normal mode, and was never put into Hard Mode. I could gather these specific quotes, but I'm sure they are familiar to everyone by now. Vanquishing and farming HM has quickly become pointless, for the drops. Hard Mode was advertised for being much more lucrative and fun, tying in increased difficulty with increased rewards. This issue needs to be addressed and related to their fan base.

3. Soul reaping nerf. Gaile has stated that it is not completely implemented in it's current state (the rigged-up arbitrary 5-second rule). The huge thread contains a poll with a rather difinitive result (about 50% choosing reverting Soul reaping to before but only half regain from spirits, from about 10 different choices), and more than enough reasonable alternatives. We've been left in the lurch on this, and again Anet/Gaile's absence of this seems derelict.

These seem to be the top 3 broken issues in the game, far ahead of any othese. Sadly, they were all recently introduced; however seem to have been totally neglected since.

That WAS the way soul reaping worked pre-nerf. They decided that was too much and cut it down to the current. Unless, of course, the vote was for cutting spirits in half again to one-quarter.

At the very least, if you reverted SR to its old state, you'd probably have to reduce the benefit from minions as well to stop MMs from acting as a battery to every other Necromancer in the area as well as, y'know, providing the party with an army of the walking dead.

Addendum: On Sunspear skills: While I'm waiting for them as well, I'm hoping they're going to provide interesting optionsto do things that wouldn't work in PvP, not to be uber-skills that are needed to survive Hard Mode. First, because Hard Mode is supposed to be hard - to estabolish my credentials as not being one of those people who cry "lern2play" whenever a new level of difficulty is introduced, I was one of the people calling for Razah to be more accessible - but apart from a couple of titles I can't see anything that is innaccessible without Hard Mode. So let it be hard. (Ironically, this attitude may change if there are Sunspear skills that you don't get without hitting Spearmarshal)

Second, I don't want them to become 'must haves' - I'd rather not see the Sunspear skills make any non-Sunspear build obsolete overnight - especially considering that not everyone has Nightfall. Finally, the skills are apparently going to be profession-specific, and unless they're VERY careful with balancing there are probably some that are going to be more powerful than others (compare the Celestial skills, for instance) and I'd prefer not to see discimination due to Sunspear skills exacerbating the problem we already have of profession discrimination. (Of course, some targetted unbalancing of the Sunspear skills may serve to reduce the problem, but again, they shouldn't be must-haves.)

Why did you post a seperate topic about these issues, where they are already individual topics for all of these issues?! Heck, you reposted the Soul Reaping argument...after another thread about it was recently locked...BECAUSE IT WAS REPOSTED?!

Gaile's not an idiot (although some may disagree). She doesn't need help to determine what the issues are. ArenaNet just doesn't listen.

Wow Zinger I thought you and Vitis saw eye to eye with the faults of A-net. Your right though in some sense posting these topics won’t make A-net move faster. They move at a docile pace no matter what.

Don't forget we were promised a reworking of Mesmers so they are more effective in PvE. I'm looking forword to that.

Also the poll had about half of the votes for reverting SR to they way it was and taking out spirits all together. Which is the most logical choice IMO.

No real reason than I just felt like it. I'm getting frustrated with these three issues, and it's really taken the fun out. I just wanted to summarize them and hope that the title might trigger a response (in post form). If this gets closed, then so be it. I'm just really getting fed up with these admitted broken aspects lingering on and on.

Expect a dissappointment wrt to that. The only way ArenaNet can fix Mesmers in PvE is to add a super-powerful Sunspear Skill, since they 1) can't add new skills, as that would break campaign balance and 2) the can't fix older skills, as it would probably break PvP. Ironic, isn't it?

Well, they can add new skills in EotN.

I could have sworn that horribly imbalanced skills and classes were the root of GW's demise, but I guess I was wrong. MISSING SUNPEAR SKILLS are the real reason...

lol

I just wanted to chime in and say that nothing is currently killing Guild Wars. Maybe these things you listed are killing your fun in the game, but they are not killing Guild Wars. Not to say that Guild Wars has no flaws... but there is nothing killing Guild Wars at the moment.

Well, in relation to your 3 points...

1. I'd like to see what these new skills are myself, but you'd be better off testing your current builds so they work without some uberbuff hax skill. New skills should make things quicker and easier, but if you're relying on them to save you then maybe you should just put in more time to optimise your builds.

2. I agree. Short of a chance of getting tomes while you farm greens, I haven't really seen any improvements in drops. Sometimes you get lucky and get a few golds while vanquishing, other times you'll clear an area and have nothing but whites to show for it. Same as normal really.

3. I'd like SR to be finalised one way or the other. But this topic has been done to death already.

The 55 cesta has done more harm than the best skill ever could.

I really do wish they would hurry up with these, especially now that I've hit Legendary Sunspear.

I sold my 55 cesta at the start of factions. I haven't looked back. I believe there are better options for solo farming now. Especially since mob size doesn't matter with SoA...

Also, reverting soul reaping back to the old is not going to fix it. It doesn't matter how stupidly low energy you get from minions, spirits or other players. It's still going to be exploited for insane energy gain.

Mini-E3 Minipets are more important. Didn't you know...

qft.............

Okay.. stop.. If you're not getting good drops, how about this,
MOVE!
Seriously it's that easy, start getting crappy drops, move to a different place. I farm a 'super secret' place that no one can guess, I'm sure ANEt knows about it by now though, but I often get 7-8 golds a run. It takes about 20 minutes. That proves that all you have to do is find a spot that isn't already farmed out!

I'm not positive Gaile "flat-out lied", but the inclusion of loot scaling and Hard Mode certainly has made the game significantly less fun to play. I don't much anymore, as a matter of fact. I get on to talk to my guild and that's about it.

I gave Hard Mode a 2-week period chance to prove itself to me, and the loot scaling crap too.

I love how Anet started pushing towards solo play (inclusion of heroes w/NF, e.t.c.) and then put a penalization for doing so. Hilarious.

Really, the dev team isn't in favor with many people. And the people that don't hate them are the players that play the game and don't actively contribute to communities like these.

I'm fed up with being ignored, and already looking for an alternative game. LOTR looks like crap, so maybe Age of Conan or something. IDK. Anything is better than what Guild Wars has decomposed into.

And why should others farming that place affect my drops. What a load of crap is that.

I'll just wait till my Halo 3 beta starts, so I don't have to deal with this crap anymore.

Ripskin, I do alter my farming spots. And I still get nothing. Last night I decided to try farming the Crags and Sandstorm guys in Joko's domain, using the farm build posted. Ten runs, zero golds. I've never farmed there ever before. I started doing hydras for the first time ever two days ago. Three runs (they are pretty long runs), one gold.

It's been well discussed how the entire HM has gone totally downhill (HM drying up thread), across all zones.

Now, again it was stated by Gaile that there should not be any anti-farm code in HM. Even though I do rotate zones, it is contrary to what Gaile has told us about how it should be.

If you'd be so kind as to PM me your secret spot, I'd be happy to tell you what my results are.