Thursday November 13, 2008 - update notes

MisterB

MisterB

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Oct 2005

Planet Earth, Sol system, Milky Way galaxy

[ban]

W/

Quote:
Update #2 - Thursday, November 13, 2008

Bug Fix

Fixed a crash bug.
Fixed a bug that caused enemies in Isle of the Nameless (PvP mode) to give Balthazar faction.
Balthazar Faction from barrels. Oops.

trankle

trankle

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Oct 2005

BloodBath & Beyond

Rt/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Travaail View Post
and gw players wonder why there are so many more playing WoW..atleast there you actually get rewards for time spent and reaching the end of the game..rather than your equipment having the same stats as some random noob who got a run to droks, or titles that are being made progressively easier to get. 30 titles beat all 4 games then why should you keep playing GW? and if you're not going to play GW why play GW2 since by the time it comes out there will be a new game that will likely be superior to GW2..if you can't keep em playing then you won't have player retention, ie death of guild wars..we've all seen regardless of what people say with their whole "GW isn't dead" crap. as i said earlier~ i quit, why keep playing if my achievements are going to be cheapened and my accomplishments are going to be made so easy even the worst GW player can get them..i thought gw was supposed to be about player skill? kk thx
I want to make sure I have this straight...

Before this update, the most efficient way to max K/L rep titles was to do hFFF. This consisted of learning the placement of a few flags, and tremendous repetition.

Now this method no longer works, and instead, the most efficient way of maxing these titles is to Vanquish, do HM Missions, or compete with other players.

As a reaction to this change, you lament that "my achievements are going to be cheapened and my accomplishments are going to be made so easy even the worst GW player can get them..i thought gw was supposed to be about player skill?"

Really? Really?

-------

All in all, a positive update. I would have liked to reap the gold and faction for the Guardian titles, but I did them before there were rewards, and that was enough for me then, and it will be enough for me now.

Avarre

Avarre

Bubblegum Patrol

Join Date: Dec 2005

Singapore Armed Forces

Title achievements and player skill were never linked anyways, so it's not like this is eroding the skill aspect of the game. What it is doing is allowing players to achieve silly titles by actually playing the game, and I can't really complain about that.

Esan

Esan

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Jul 2007

Wars

Nothing exciting enough to pick up the game again. I already have one GWAMM character, so I am forever done with pushing purple bars. The only reason I would consider coming back is if the gameplay fundamentally changes. PvE skills and items remain just as potent, the AI just as stupid, and the player pool just as idiotic as yesterday. I wish everyone the best of luck with the server resources I might otherwise have been using up, and see you all in GW2 if it's ever released.

SpiritThief

SpiritThief

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jan 2008

R/Me

Do we even get more points from bounties?

All I see they did was make everything into gwen, and turn a pvp title into something that easier to get in pve.

HawkofStorms

HawkofStorms

Hall Hero

Join Date: Aug 2005

E/

Quote:
Originally Posted by SpiritThief View Post
Do we even get more points from bounties?

All I see they did was make everything into gwen, and turn a pvp title into something that easier to get in pve.
They raised the K/L bounties ~2 weeks ago.

Hollow Gein

Hollow Gein

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Aug 2007

Menos Espadas

N/

Surprising not a bad update. Good job.

cosyfiep

cosyfiep

are we there yet?

Join Date: Dec 2005

in a land far far away

guild? I am supposed to have a guild?

Rt/

hm, thought they would do more with the gwen titles other than giving more points for dwarven stuff, my necro may never get armor.
The changes to the wisdom/treasure--ok,
uping the limit to luxon/kurzick faction ---2 thumps up
giving points for stuff already completed in factions--4 thumbs up (got another level just for having 16 characters who have completed factions!)
increasing the cost of amber/jade (faction cost) --meh, good thing I already have all that I need.
books for nightfall and prophecies--??????????????????????????????
increasing the ways to get lightbringer points--so, so.
increasing the ways to get sunspear points--meh.

overall review of this update 7/10. good for wisdom/treasure hunters, helpful for faction, no help for eye factions.

thanks for getting it out today!!

kostolomac

kostolomac

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Apr 2008

Serbia

Me/

This update was actually good.

Garreth MacLeod

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Nov 2005

Quote:
Originally Posted by Phenixfire View Post
The biggest impact: The Hfff nerf. To be honest, i don't know why Anet had a problem with Hfff in the first place.
It was a way for people to get Kurzick/Luxon points quickly and easily ... that's not wrong in itself as the max faction needed to achieve max rank was off the scale anyway.
So people not willing to spend ages Hfff'ing could achieve the lower ranks (< r4) in a few days ...
those that went for the high ranks (> r6) had to spend several days doing that farm, which bored like nothing else in the game.

Max rank could only be achieved by those that were dedicated enough to keep the farm going for several months (got my r12 in 4 months with 4 hrs hfffing straight per day), or by those who accumulated faction by various activities over a long time.

What did players get for no longer being able to Hfff? One time mission rewards with a petty 1ooo points (wow .. on a scale of 1o.ooo.ooo, 1ooo is like ... nothing?), non-retroactive books that give you some faction and gold when being turned in ( lol? so i did all missions on normal and hard mode, and i can't let them fill my books for a fee? I do the same amount of work and dont get a reward someone else would get by doing that stuff after the update .... because it could damage the economy? tell me dear "community relations managers" ... what economy? You mean that thing where an overfarmed pink glob is the main currency?), an AB reward boost (yay!), vanquishing rewards and, last and least, "elite" missions rewards... did it ever occur to you that those have been dead for a long time and will stay dead as ppl didn't stop doing them because they got no faction reward QQ ...

AB boost is actually decent ... but with players quitting, and wait times being horrible alrdy, the inability to donate one kind of faction and keeping the other, the inability to donate faction for a guesting guild in order to get the double reward benefit ... in the long run, this is gonna fail as well.

Vanquishing rewards .. lol? i suspect you kill like 300-400 enemies per zone (non retroactive again ... me, who vanquished everything, didnt get anything again ... thx for that.. damaging the "title-economy" again?), which would make it a 15oo-2ooo points per area, which is approx 1-2hrs work ... lol? getting that with hfff took me like 6 minutes. That much for wasting time, eh? Please take a break....

Rewards for Challenge missions buffed .. guess i'm not going into those, as they have been dead and never rlly important for 98% of the players anyway. Dead things stay dead. End.

The increase in the faction cap is useless as well. If ppl were too poor to donate while waiting for an entry to the AB for the 15th time, well, then ofc, faction cap is so gonna make it up to you, you know? As if donating whenever you had 5k was that hard, eh?

So they took hfff and gave us ... rewards for more time consuming things, that eventually make getting the title harder in the long run? And even more unachieveable for the casual player?
I kind of agree with that. I've not analyzed any of the numbers but at a glance it looks like it's going to take longer to reach the max title now. So now we have even more grind? Oh joy. I was so excited about this update I logged off an hour and a half earlier than normal, even though I'm on vacation tomorrow and could have played later than I usually do.

Operative 14

Operative 14

Forge Runner

Join Date: Nov 2006

Arizona, USA

[OOP] Order of the Phoenix I

I'm a little disappointed that they didn't make more titles account based, and also that the new storybooks aren't retroactive. Other than that it looks great.

All in all a good update and a step in a nice direction. Thanks.

[DE]

[DE]

Hugs and Kisses

Join Date: Oct 2005

Scars Meadows

Good update. Most of the player base won't consider it the biggest update but I'm sure it was one of the biggest update work-wise for Anet Employees.

Gogo less grind!

Kerwyn Nasilan

Kerwyn Nasilan

Forge Runner

Join Date: Aug 2007

WHERE DO YOU THINK

W/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chocobo1 View Post
Our bad for wanting our issues fixed instead of you getting easier titles.
Yeah I have issues with PvP and hardly ever PvE anymore, I don't mind that you are disappointed but saying that the update sucks because it does not cater to you is stupid and self-centered, alot of people benefited from this and it is a very good update in terms of what was added/reprogrammed. Ahem..GTFO

Hailey Anne

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Sep 2007

A/E

Great update except for 1 thing.
They gave us this Kurz/Lux cap great but they gave both points at the same time.
So I gained 60k Kurz and 40k Lux at the same time well that 40k Lux had to be flushed away when I donated to my alliance. They should have thought that one through a little but other than that good update,

natuxatu

natuxatu

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Apr 2006

Wisconsin

Rt/Mo

I rather have a new zone added that gave ss or lb points or whatever.. that would be cooler and more fun than having to do all the missions over yet again.... but in all reality it's a good update... it's a better update if you're a new player though. Just gimme guild wars 2 plz

The Meth

The Meth

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jan 2007

R/

The luxon adepts in Zos Shivros channel give +100 luxon faction each, and there are 6 of them. Get 6 players together who can quickly spike down each of those and you could have a new FF run for luxons.

Decently coordinated groups should be able to match the HFF kurzicks used to have by vanquishing. You get 10 per kill, 50 per kill when you finish, along with the boss bonuses. You will be looking at anywhere between 12k and 18k base faction + boss bonuses for a single vanquishing, and vanquishings can be done in about 45 mins give or take a bit. Surely some dedicated people can come up with an optimized run that gets you quite a bit more.

Daenara

Daenara

Bad Romance

Join Date: May 2006

Aussie Trolling Crew HQ - Grand Matron

Mo/

So, this update basically means that I get rewarded for playing the game. Yay. I think this is exactly what I was hoping for and I'm very glad that they've gone this way. I've finished legendary guardian/vanquisher, and I don't care that the title is not retroactive.

I dont have to spend hours mindlessly hfffing/a show of force/whatever other grind, I can just play the game to get kurzick/sunspear/lightbringer.

I love it. Thankyou ANET (and Linsey <3)

Crom The Pale

Crom The Pale

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Nov 2006

Ageis Ascending

W/

Well the update for Luxon/Kurzick points was nice.

The new summon stones are kinda a waste, only 1 seams to be unique(frost stone) the others are just common monsters. Though I have yet to pick up the Deep/Urgoz stones.

Most of the rest is kinda a waste for me. I am a one char player so merging titles did little for me. I have already completed all 3 chapters and have Protector/Guardian titles so the books are useless.

I was hoping for some new quests on the scale of Glints quests after completion of Prophicies, but oh well....

Thargor

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Mar 2006

The Young Heroes book [Hard Mode]
7 pages is worth:
Sunspear: 800 points, 800 gold, 8000XP
Lightbringer: 800points, 800 gold, 8000XP
Kurzick/Luxon: 16000 points, 800 gold, 8000 XP
Lions Arch: 1200 gold, 12000 XP

8 pages is worth:
Sunspear/Lightbringer:1000 points, 1000 gold, 10,000XP
Kurzick/Luxon:20,000 points, 1000 gold, 10,000XP
Lions Arch:1500 gold, 15000XP

Will report back at higher pages done.
So far I am liking the new books!

Tarzan Yamada

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jul 2006

W/

I'm really bothered by the fact that LDoA was untouched. This is by far one of the grindiest titles, and basically takes an afk exploit to achieve. I can't believe that Anet hasn't released some kind of Presearing HM or a few higher level Charr in order for people to complete this title legitimately.

fog_of_redoubt

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: May 2005

Quote:
Originally Posted by Hailey Anne View Post
Great update except for 1 thing.
They gave us this Kurz/Lux cap great but they gave both points at the same time.
So I gained 60k Kurz and 40k Lux at the same time well that 40k Lux had to be flushed away when I donated to my alliance.
Wow, you are the first to notice this!!!!

Pleikki

Pleikki

WTB q8 15^50 Weapons!

Join Date: Nov 2006

???oo ???ugs ???lan [?????????]

hmh. i didnt like update tbh, its unfair to make titles easyer to get when some ppl worked hard for em

bhavv

bhavv

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Sep 2006

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lyynyyrd View Post

* Odurra [Illusion Henchman] now has Visions of Regret at level 20 in Nightfall.


Thank you Anet for this update.

pumpkin pie

pumpkin pie

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Jul 2006

behind you

bumble bee

E/

Just want to say:


and thank you anet.
Sheer length of the list of things fixed impresses me!

Snuppa

Snuppa

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: Jul 2006

Oslo, Norway

Eternal Enchanted Wings [Wing]

Mo/E

As a Legendary Guardian I'm obviously not that impressed by the new books... Especially since I'm 1 title away from GWAMM and working on the Kurzick title as my last one.

This book thing would have been great if they had added it like...18 months ago. You know...when people started getting serious about the Guardian and Vanquisher titles.
And I'm not all that tempted to do all the missions again just so i can fill a "Young Heroes of Tyria" book...so I wish they would have done it differently.

When I logged on and read about the update today, I thought i'd try to fill the Factions book, just to see how many points it would get me, cause my plans to do HFFF went down the pooper...
So, I rush through the missions and get a full book, only to discover that a full NM book gives 40k kurzick points, and my cap is on 37k...
I'm not sure what to do about that, cause I really don't wanna mess around with those cap raising things like winning in FA or JQ.

This got me thinking...How many points would a "Young Heroes of Tyria" book get me? It's gotta be a considerable amount...And that's just stupid, cause it would be such a waste...i mean, my cap is too low for 1 NM book...WTH would I do with a "Young Heroes of Tyria" book, that should the way i see it, give 3 times as many points..? lol, I just don't get it.

I bet some people would tell me to get off my PvE-butt and do AB instead. And those people probably have a point, but I don't like AB. You have to wait for ages between every fight, you get close to no faction if you lose and it's full of kids throwing insults at each other...It's just not fun.

But this update isn't all bad. It's great for newer players, they have a chance to catch up with us veterans now :P
And I suppose most of the boosts ect. was fair enough...yeah, it kinda sucks for those of us who did it the hard way, but that's no reason to say the update is bad, cause it's not.

Drop of Fear

Drop of Fear

Forge Runner

Join Date: Nov 2006

W/

BEST.
UPDATE.
EVER.

and this comes from a guy who already had trasure hunter, wisdom, luxon, kurzick AND unlucky maxed.
i don't care about self-centered pro and cons, this is the game i loved playing for years and i'm just happy if less-obsessed players can get more fun and/or sense of accomplishment out of it.

Fril Estelin

Fril Estelin

So Serious...

Join Date: Jan 2007

London

Nerfs Are [WHAK]

E/

What a quality update! I love it, I'm going to get one "Young Heroes of Tyria" book for the 3 campaigns, I think it's a very convenient way to progress titles!

GG Linsey, you really deserve to get some good rest now!

Owik Gall

Owik Gall

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jan 2007

Guardians of the Light

W/Mo

Although the change in titles are of great help to get GWAMM there's still Survivor title getting in the way. I haven't seen a change to that title in the list of updates. They should allow a reset for the title so people doesn't have to reset their characters. It's just lame.

pumpkin pie

pumpkin pie

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Jul 2006

behind you

bumble bee

E/

okay, sorry I found them (for the Young Heroes of Tyria Book)

Acquisition

* Prophecies
o Lion's Arch - Gordon Ecker [Tyrian Loremaster] (beside Armen the Guide opposite of Sergio)

* Factions
o Kaineng Center Anja [Luxon Bard] and Gorani [Kurzick Poet]

* Nightfall
Sunspear Great Hall Captain Ahkenchu [Sunspear Signalman]
Chantry of Secrets Source of Whispers [Lightbringer Scrivener]

bhavv

bhavv

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Sep 2006

Yea, I already have Legendary Guardian too, and max NF grind titles on my main, so those changes are a dissapointment to me.

I have also already Vanquished all the Kurzick / Luxon areas, so no faction boost from there for me.

I'll still be stuck on my current titles though, I still cant be bothered to finish Vanquishing and doing EoTN grind titles for R5 GWAMM.

Abedeus

Abedeus

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Jan 2007

Niflheim

R/

First update since August (?) skill balance that I'm not going to crap about.

Way to go.

xshadowwolfx

xshadowwolfx

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: May 2006

California | Ascalon

Mo/

Great update, but its not a legendary one like HM or SF. Would have liked retroactive books and something about Survivor or LDoA but good job.

Kook~NBK~

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Mar 2005

A little chalet outside Drok's

Natural Born Killaz

I'm gonna give this update a HUGE THUMBS UP!!!!

1. Kurz/Luxon faction: Now there are OPTIONS! Instead of mindlessly grinding away at HFFF runs (I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that the changes there were more to foil the gold farming bots, not the faction farmers), there are other ways of gaining faction reasonably quickly (12,500 faction [x2]for an hour's work in Urzog's FTW). Vanquishing Reward faction is another very nice perk! (Going to test that out tomorrow - should be very rewarding!)

2. SS/LB - Nice to see all of those quests with points rewards, along with the other bumps in point rewards. I didn't particularly enjoy endlessly running around in a wurm doing the same thing over and over.

3. Wisdom/Treasure - THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!!! As character based titles, I felt a bit hand-cuffed whenever I reached a chest with a secondary character.

4. The books - I don't give a fig about 'em. I've got Legendary Guardian and I don't feel cheated, robbed, or red-engined because they're not retro-active.

5. Summoning stones - Who needs 'em? I've still got 5 of the things left over from the ONE time I finished the MOX quests.

To the complainers: NOTHING, when you think about it, has been taken away from you.

1. You may not be able to collect some of the faction that was awarded to your account, but, in the big picture (10,000,000 points needed to max each title), it was a very tiny amount.

2. No one is forcing you to re-do story-line missions. If you feel the rewards for doing them over is worth the effort, do 'em. If you don't think they're worth the effort (HAH) of doing the missions again, then what are you complaining about?

THANK YOU, LINDSEY FOR YOUR HARD WORK AND ALL THE THOUGHT YOU PUT INTO THiS UPDATE!!! I, FOR ONE APPRECIATE IT!

kazjun

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Aug 2006

HoVa

W/N

Would be nice if it was retroactive, even just the one book per account. But I can't seem to bring myself to really care about this update.

Prophs book: probably just money and xp. Don't really care about either and I've already got my titles for doing it so don't really see myself going through it again. By the way, since they track what we've done for missions via the map and the guardian and protectors titles, it's not like they can say they don't know what we've completed.

Nightfall book: probably money, xp and SS and LB points. Don't care about the money or xp, and my main already maxed SS/LB so not really caring. Since I don't even bother with the titles on my non mains anymore, it's worthless. About the only use they'd be is if you can use them to get the SS rank 7 you need to get the venta cemetary mission for elonians. Which I doubt, since you'd have only done about 4 or five missions up till there.

Factions book: maybe useful, cause you get kurz and lux faction. But they don't seem to have changed the numbers for what you need for the title tracks, so unless the books give you like 100k faction or something, you'd proably still need to get like a million books or something. So not something I'm gonna work for.

So, faction rewards guys in the AB maps, good. Increasing the kurz cap, good. Wisdom/treasure hunter, good, though they should have been like this from the beginning. Unlucky, useful, I'll see how much it actually scales later. New books, useless to me (and anyone who'd bothered to work on the prot and guardian titles in the last 3 years), good for new players. Though they should get the books right at the beginning, unless filling in the pages is free. Cause you get the faction and nightfall books fairly early, but you'd have done quite a few missions before LA (unless you get run). Not sure about all the new consumables, but maybe fun.

Overall, for me, is maybe 5/10. For the game, maybe 8/10.

Would have liked some skill updates too, but whatever.

SkateFreek

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Feb 2008

I don't see how this makes it less grindy.

Gwen titles didn't even really get touched.

AB faction gained is still crappy.

K/L are now basicly pve wtf?

All the other titles that actually could have used a rebalance didn't even get touched.

I don't think the bounties got increased at all.

Everything just got turned into GWEN

Play thru the game 5+ times more per character, Vanquish the same areas over and over again, is their idea of "less grindy".

pumpkin pie

pumpkin pie

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Jul 2006

behind you

bumble bee

E/

hahahaha

summoning stone!!!!! i hope it works with level20s

bhavv

bhavv

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Sep 2006

Quote:
Originally Posted by pumpkin pie View Post
hahahaha

summoning stone!!!!! i hope it works with level20s
Yea they do. They are intended to make 4 man areas easier to vanquish, I'll be using them in all the noob areas.

Krill

Krill

Desert Nomad

Join Date: May 2005

America

Quote:
* Tolkano [Tournament] has arrived in the following Alliance Battle outposts: Kaanai Canyon, Etnaran Keys, Saltspray Beach, Grenz Frontier, and The Ancestral Lands.
Thank you! This and the raised caps on alliance faction were enough to satisfy me.

bhavv

bhavv

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Sep 2006

Talking to my alliance, a few people think that the 30 Min duration on the summoning stones isnt worth their cost, and that they should last untill you Zone out of an area.

Also, what happens if you D/C and then reconnect? Do they disappear? Do they remain but with the length of your DC time deducted from their duration?

They are nice additions, but they should have a permanent duration untill they either die or you zone out of the area.

netniwk

netniwk

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Mar 2005

Bellgium

W/E

Quote:
Originally Posted by bhavv View Post
Talking to my alliance, a few people think that the 30 Min duration on the summoning stones isnt worth their cost, and that they should last untill you Zone out of an area.

Also, what happens if you D/C and then reconnect? Do they disappear? Do they remain but with the length of your DC time deducted from their duration?

They are nice additions, but they should have a permanent duration untill they either die or you zone out of the area.
Don't you get a free one in the deep/Urgoz?