Summoning Stones: My new addiction!

Why are you complaining? They gave us another consumable basically that acts as a skill and adds to the party. Why is that a bad thing? They took away some effects of Armor of Salvation and Essence of Celerity - this is their way of making it up to us. Its better then nothing and im sure they will find SOME way to incorporate more everlasting ones into the game

Most of them, meh. Thats not a meh as in I think its a bad idea, its... more along the lines of: "Pretty neat. Not gonna shell out the cash for one, though".

However, there is one that has captured my heart. I have been waiting for so long to get a siege turtle in my party, yet I never thought it would happen. Now I just need one of Animal Companion size and, along with the miniature, I can have my very own fractal turtle army.

EDIT: By the way, whoever it was who complained that Juggernauts got no love... They didn't need it. They may not be good damaging units like the Luxon turtles, but Aura of the Juggernaut gives +1 energy to everyone in the area. Thats pretty useful, in anyones estimation.

The Gaki is pretty good imo, it got spiked by a group of wardens once, thought its a goner, somehow it managed to survive the onslaught. (my group's monks were half a mini-map away)

Personal challenge? Curiosity? Fun? All not good enough for you?

There is difference between one person going "Hey, i'll do this without X for heck of it." and someone else going "If you find this too easy, just play without X".

First is playing game for fun and whatnot. Gets thumbs up.
Second looks like selfish attempt to keep game in easy (exploitable?) mode. Gets thumbs down.

Are they fun? Sure. There's nothing like having a raptor on my side for once. Are they worth it? Maybe, maybe not. I had one that died awfully quickly in a vanquish, and I felt like it was a rather expensive waste. I know it's supposed to be a money sink, but 1k and the rare crafting material costs for maybe a half hour of help--I don't want to lose money or at best break even with drops after spending the money for the stones.
Now, if you don't mind spending the gold, they're a good time and add some firepower to the team. I'll use them from time to time because siege turtles and raptors are fun to have around, and I have so many skill points on a couple of characters I'll never run out in that department. I probably won't use them often, however.

- The decision ANET made was foolish. As always, introducing new things to the game carries a certain risk. It might have too great impact on how the game is being played, which in turn could drive away old customers (these things rarely attract new ones). On the other hand there's a group of people who are anticipating changes. Making satisfactory changes is difficult: they have to improve the quality of the game in a tangible way while minimizing risks. Making changes is also expensive. Company has to pay for designers, artists and coders. Naturally they want bang for their buck, which is measured in sales and general company reputation.

This is also what I don't understand, they keep making changes that have no effect on the game except gnawing away the integrity. The way those summoning stones were introduced is almost tragicomic. Good news: "Summon a Gaki ally"... and the next three concepts in the long description that pop out are "but", "dies", "limited". One could think that the description is about what the Gaki does and not disillusioning "no warranty" claim.

So should these be unlimited and free? Of course not, because they would be too powerful for it. Then the next question is, in what way these should be limited? Is the cost (/effort) appropriate for effect so that this won't be left as one-time novelty? Is the item power such that it doesn't obsolete other things, but rather complements? ANET needs to really come up with better ideas for balance.

How about:
* Starts with 10 uses (also a fitting reward for Urgoz/Deep).
* Stays until dies or player zones to an outpost. Place in party window.
* Other resctrictions are reasonable. Basically just like Asuran summon using bit of money instead of skill slot.

Agreed. If you suck and die your summons will just die so no help there, if you are a half decent player it stays alive for 30 minutes. Not really making an impact on the outcome but perhaps shaving 5 minutes off of your time. Crappy players lose it and good players will continue to blow though missions/areas/dungeons with no problem except with a expensive temporary pet at their side.

Only exception is in HM missions or special ops quests with 4/4 or 6/6 party limits. In this instance they do make a significant difference.

The imp is overpowered and be removed from the game. High level players in pre are already overpowered. Giving them a high level nuker was over the top. LDOA has lost some integrity because of it.

This is exactly what I meant about screwing up the LDoA title. Why should you have a imp farming char for you? Basically leveling you up to level 16 which used take some skill to reach.

I think you mean the Arctic summoning stone which summons the bveldulf which is just a beautiful creature and very nicely done by Anet. I don't remember the ones in the cave west of Gunnar's Hold looking nearly so good.

The thing just looks too cool to pass up, but the price would be way out of my price range.

If Anet didn't destroy the economy we wouldn't need gold sinks, someone at anet is out of control. Anet thrashed the economy with the ridiculous Zchest, Zkey, Zaishen title , + Xunlai gambling house combo. Which allows people to buy 5- 10 accounts and bet on the tourney and collect 20 keys per account every month. Thats 1 million plat per month with 10 accounts. They couldn't destroy the economy faster if they hired George Bush.

Not to mention leaving broken Ursan in the game for nine months. Every elite area in the game was farmed to death by people who still to this day never heard of aggro.

Exactly no one will ever buy guild wars because of PvE skills, cons , and summoning stones, but they sure will quit over it.

That is the million dollar question. What is driving this constant stream of crap from anet? They are somehow under the impression that players can not get though the content even though players have been gobbling up content for three years. There is a real disconnect with the community here for some reason and does not look good for the future of GW1 or GW2.

I agreed with most of what you said EXCEPT that part.

Zkeys do not "create" money, it just transfers money from one part of the game to another.

That is an exaggeration, I dont think players will quit the game if ANet introduces another siege turtle quality summoning stone. Like you said, broken Ursan was around for 9 months and yet many of us are still playing.

I think the game needs MORE of such features because it gets boring fast without new toys to play with. Besides, I hope people would only use this in long elite missions like Urgoz and the Deep, considering that most PUGs suck and wont be able complete it without help and you would have to start from the beginning again with another group when they fail.

Anything that would help people complete elite missions like Urgoz and the Deep using PUGs, so we can raise faction limits without ever going there again, is a good thing.

PvE NM is easy sure, but most players in GW have no good guild and really need help when it comes to elite missions and HM. I dont care if you are suppose to be "elite" and belong to a terrific guild. ANet has to accomodate the needs of the majority and because of the recent update, many people are starting to PUG elite missions but they are failing repeatedly and feeling frustrated. Without help from tools such as these, then most of them would really quit from repeatedly failing these missions (the deep, urgoz, doa). Don't just think about yourselves but think about the level of skill of the majority of the players in GW.

Every month many people get 100k (*number of accounts) from XTH, this money comes from nowhere, just from a few clicks on the XTH website (and gathering info from fansites, possibly using zwei2stein's program ). And converting 5k balth into one zkey does create money where there was not, although it does not create money from nothing.

LDOA had integrity?

Shadow, LDoA is not about skill, it's about perseverence. As a mesmer, with or without a pet, levelling up to lvl16 is about time and nothing else. The imp makes solo runs faster, and that's where it ends. It is not is anyway difficult if you know how to pull, and how to prioritise targets. And once you hit 16 it's just death-levelling and the imp is hardly helpful in that regard.

The imp is fun, he has been helping me take out the mobs which I get no xp from quickly so I can get to the bosses, the only thing that give me xp. With or without the imp I'd still get to the bosses. With or without the imp I'd still kill the bosses. I still approach and kill the mobs in the same order as I do without the imp. Difference is time, not skill, which is what LDoA is all about.

I found that the Summons are great for doing mission in proph where you only get 4 people in HM. Having them makes it so that I can have 5 members + minions + Asuran summons

Using zkeys gets you items- Golds. Sell golds to merchant = creating money.

What happens if instead of the imp, player X has a brother that helps him gain LDoA alongside with him? Player Y doesn't. Would you say Player X is cheating?

It is just a game, don't take PvE titles so seriously.

Maybe it is just me but I'm failing to see how your post is in anyway a response to mine.

Yes you can have people help you. Guess what? I prefer to hunt charr with my friends. I prefer to do it that way so much that I don't frequently go and kill the charr solo. There is no "cheat" when it comes to this title. There is only one way to gain it - level to 16 then death level. How long it takes, how fun it is, and whether you enjoy it is completely up to you and I never claimed differently.

I'm far from a hard core farmer or title chaser I think I have KoaBD on a grand total of 1 character and that is at level 1. I am attempting LDoA because for me it is a challenge. If I ever get there good for me, if I don't so what - and I treat all the titles the same way. The fire imp makes things fun, I'm sorry if you can't see the novelty value of the summons. Sure the imp is over powered in pre once you hit levels 12 and above. However after level 16 it is practically useless. So those attempting LDoA actually get 4 levels LESS than those who don't chase the title. Do you seriously see people complaining about that? No because that would be stupid.

People in this thread are complaining about how summons are E-Z mode. However summons will not make a bad player good, or a good player bad. They are a NOVELTY. Some people enjoy them (like myself) and some people do not.

You can call it whatever you want, but my point is with the imp you don't need skill or perseverance, because the adversity that LDoA candidates faced getting to level 16 is now gone.

Of course not! But the brother does not have glyph of restoration and fireball in pre-searing nor is he a bot with lighting fast reflexes.

You dont need skill, you only need perseverance. It is just designed to be a big time sink in the first place. I am honestly glad that they have reduced the time sink and grind by having the imp. Don't you?

So what? He still helped, you have to admit that gives a certain advantage to those who dont have friends in pre to help them achieve that title, don't you think?

If LDoA is to be a FAIR competition based solely on player skill, then all the rules must be put in place to ensure everybody starts at the SAME common ground, but guess what? It is not a competition, thus having LDoA doesn't mean you are a better player period. If ANet had intended the title to mean player skill then they would have put safeguards to ensure that common fairness is achieved for everybody like in a high stake GvG match for instance.

The title is merely there for those who likes to achieve it, for fun and laughter. There is no need to be so hung up on it now that others have an easier way to achieve the same thing as long as we are all having fun.

You are allowed two people in a party in pre thats no big deal. People solo the Northlands because they want to get all the XP they can. at level 14 you must make 42 boss runs and at level 15 you must make 81 runs to kill the 4 bosses for 32 xp per boss that 128 xp per run. Now if someone wants to split that xp with their brother and take only 64k xp per run they and their brother will have to do 162 runs to get from level 15 to 16. It balances out with humans, but the imp not only does more killing than the brother he also doesn't share the XP. So no its not the same at all.

So it reduces the grind and lessen the time sink. Grind is bad and evil and should be reduced whenever possible. This is not about player skill, but rather pure grind, forcing yourself to do the same area over and over and over....

Playing the game, the quests, the new content, are the fun parts. Lesser time spent to grind means lesser time in stale content.

Try additional help and aggro concentrators....


I love the summoning stones a whole new addition to play with. Not major overpowered but a welcome addition from my side.

Summoning aren't bad, the gaki has a pretty incredible healing power imo and the oni is a pretty decent assassin. But for these who are expecting them to be overpowered, well its not gonna happen, they're there to HELP you kill, not kill FOR you.

If Anet is to make something superly powerful to help the pvers play, then what is the point of pve? (remember Ursan? yeah, it would THAT bad)