A message from Gaile Gray

Gaile,

The other day I posted a thread about exactly what you've done today: Give a short statement about the rational behind the update.

Thank you for that though, even though people hinted that might help them a bit, it seems not to have done it completely. But your candor and your statement help -this- play a lot and I thank you.

Yes, there are things that need adjustment and fine tuning but I trust that you all over there at Arena Net have not only your own best corporate interests in mind but the collective interest of your players as well.

Thanks again!

Oh...everyone needs to also remember that Gaile and ANet are not going to tell us what it is that they have in the planning for the future. That'd be like asking to read the last chapter of a thriller---it would seriously ruin the fun.

What I think that most of us want is a retrospective on each update. Why did you make the changes you did, etc. Gaile's post went a long way to explaining it to me. We need to rest assured that they are doing the best they can.

Heck, do you guys READ this forum? The sheer number of posts, complaints, suggestions, etc. is MIND BOGGLING! There's ony so much they can do in a day.

hahahahahahahaha....oh man, that was priceless

as an elementalist, i'm pretty happy with my spells, especially since sthg was fixed to make it possible to cast an AoE even if target enemy died beforehand, which originally sucked so bad....i just wish the collectors items werent practically the BEST items available for at least a fire or air elementalist...in a way its easier for us, but then eventually you want something different

Gaile,

In this, I don't think I may be speaking for others, but ultimately I don't really want more "uber" weapons or more "godly" weapons, just a few kinks:

1) more variety.. it really gets bland after a while seeing all those level *high* creatures drop seemingly pathetic weapons that even a lvl 3 grawl would scoff at.

2) consistency.. I'm not sure how weapon stats are generated, but during generation, wouldn't it be better to ensure that only certain stats would qualify as "rare", and others as purple "uncommons", and others as blue "magicals" etc? I've actually come across quite a fair bit of golds that are so disappointing I just either trash them or sell them to the merchant. Likewise a fair bit of purples ironically gives decent unlocks. That should not be the case, rares should be what they are, truly rares. Uncommons might vary somewhat. That way, when you do see a rare drop, your heart will truly deserve to skip a beat, as compared to now.

Rare drop rates aren't impressive right now... However I think purples and blues frequency should be increased. Rare status should be elevated to truly rare, and have matching mods to go with it.

Sure, I agree that it might cause prices to shoot rocket sky high for these ultra premium items, but let's think of it this way, at best they are probably collector items that comes up upgrades , it will also on the other hand create a thriving weapon mod/upgrade economy.

Frankly I'm starting to get *beyond* this whole rare nonsense, it is unattainable, and as it currently is, even if you get a rare it is not a big deal anyway. I do savour an overall increase in the.. *excitement* if you'd call it.. of average game play.

By "excitement" I don't mean "woohoo! a rare!"

But more of just.. something to look forward to, be it a new upgrade, or anything. Right now it is really rather bland.

IANAE (I'm Not An Economist )

However I do think that the trader's main role in GW should not be to function as a gold sink, but to facilitate movement of gold and goods. They can always function as a gold sink in some sense by buying goods back at a markdown of say 85%, but as it stands now, it is truly broken.

Your hypothesized inflation issues... well, let's just say that at the same time as gold, resources like iron and wood are correspondingly created as people salvaged them, in the current scenario
1) people would simply refuse to sell back to the trader, and the trader's prices would rise, hence making gold worthless (essentially this IS inflation)
2) people will even buy ALL of the trader's stock, and since the buying price is so unreasonable, he will never ever get stocked, and ultimately what's the NPC's role in the game?
3) in trying to control regulation, a more chaotic system arose. In a free market people where there is some real incentive to actually use the trader, people would actually sell back to the trader if his stocks are out (and he is offering a prices corresponding to that fact) and restore prices back to normal, similarly people would be able to prevent prices from falling too low too, I'm sure many independent traders will snap them all up as well.

I'm not sure what ANet is trying to achieve with the last round of updates, maybe discourage hoarding/independent trading. But it does provide something to do, and to be really honest, in GW there isn't much.

Believe it or not, it is quite satisfying to just enter a town or outpost, see someone "WTB" something, and sell it, knowing that you probably made a profit of 10g per piece or something. It isn't much but it is something! Right now.. personally it is just a bitterness to get back at the system that is smiting me

Some claimed and tried to defend the new update by saying that it is good, and it drove down prices. Since when? At this very instant, steel is 281 gold each, linen is 791 each, and in bulk it is 210 and 431 respectively.

These are nowhere cheap.

I did recall the first time I made it to Draknar, still a super newbie and wearing parts of armor that are from presear (not collector's even!) and I decided to get that Aeromancer armor, it took me so much time just to scrimp and save to get that linen to complete that set. And then linen was like... 200-250?

Now? It is virtually impossible. It's insane to even think about it. A character wouldn't accumulate any more than 15K if played "straight", and with that kind of prices... I would barely have been able to afford the linen for the aeromancer robe even after another few days of play.


Unless of course, if Anet's intent is to essentially make all PvE characters just "sort of" PvP characters (in the sense that they all tote the same weapons, wear the same collector's gear), I really fail to see what else these updates are trying to do.

I did notice that dye drop frequencies seem to have risen somewhat, probably to colour that standard issue soldier's garb?

Anyway some words on the direction GW and PvE especially would take would be very nice to have. It might be reassuring or very disappointing, but at least it is good to be able to know.

They have set up a system that several sites are "elite" gw forums sites, this one and Guild Hall are one of them (there's much more)

http://www.guildwars.com/community/f...gram-info.html

They assign reps to the diffrent forums to watch them / allow Arena.Net to directly talk to the fan base and get honest reaction / feedback instead email all your compliants to x adderess. A rather nice set up actually.

(Edit) opps didn't say page two when I typed this.
Gale, Thank You for responding

I'm glad to see a statement from ANet and know that they are listening. I understand they can't add those super crazy damage types of weapons because of balance issues and the unfair advantages that would be created... but I think that they should be able to create balanced/fair weapons that have unique, cosmetic appearances. These could be the 'cool item collector' items that people are desiring. Sure, there's the infamous fiery dragon sword, chaos axe, and fellblade.. storm bow, eternal shield.. but there should be more. More weapons for other classes, more variety, and even weapons/offhand items that don't appear to make much sense. For the female gamers, corsages/floral items to act as off-hand items (same stats: +12 energy). Even weaker items, that look cool, and that are, I supposed, "rare".. they won't be chased after by everyone because they're not max damage, but the collectors are going to want to have it, just because it looks different than everyone else's weapon.

Looks are great esp if i think it's cool but in my mind i always ask "What does it do and how well does it do it?" and "Do i really NEED this" ie fissure armor, bragging rights whoopie do!!! personally a few of the fissure armors are ugly as catching your parents doing..well..nvm..lol and for 15k..i think i'll sink my gp into something that has better functionality rather than better "looks".

:::End Transmission:::

I can definately understand the difficultly in doing so. I just think alot of what PvE players are asking for is what they have seen in other MMORPG's.

I've seen those suggestions and I agree that you can't do that. But what I think people are asking underneath those comments are for progress/stage like encounters. Let me explain : Most "hardcore" pve's are used to raiding. That means killing epic bosses, and they are used to those epic bosses dropping greater, more consistent loot.

I use the term greater losely, because it doesn't have to be about a +1 gazillion fire dmg weapon. The weapon could simply be have a unique appearance, and it would be "greater" to some. Or it could have a unique effect, like "+5% to hex length." It doesn't have to be unbalancing, but unique'ness does account for much.

Also, people are used to linked goals. For instances, you raid dungeon #1 to get to dungeon #2. And you bring weapons/items from dungeon #1 to make your group better at #2. Example? Say in dungeon #1, there are +google dmg weapons. And then in Dungeon #2, you need +google dmg weapons to kill anything. But +google dmg weapons would be useless in PvP, since they wouldn't effect anything outside Dungeon #2.

So rewards can be flexible. You can also make PvE objectives, such as killing uber bosses, earn non-combat rewards. Guild Upgrades? Personal Housing? Those things would make PvE more rewarding, and people would feel they have more goals than just skills/finishing missions/obsidian armor.

I want to thank you for that. I just wanted to say that we really apprechiate it, and most of us only want to see A.net succeed.

Personally, I want to see you increase your demographics to include "hardcore" players from MMORPG's. The "raider" type. I basically cut my teeth in MMORPG's by playing EQ's end-game, and I know ALOT of players who would move to GW if only they had a reason. But you gotta know where to start ~ people want to have a good reason to raid, as well as you gotta influence the big guys in the raiding biz, like Fires of Heaven.

Anyway, think about it. We will be here

Xoduz Midnight,
Winters Fury
Co-Op First Guild

Gaile, can you please bring back rank sticks? I'd even do some insane quest to get my rank stick back.

My golds are mostly better than purples. In fact, it seems most of the purple drops I get are salvage items with runes and other such goodies in them...

I recently got a gold sword. The stats? 15-22 damage, +15% while health is greater than 50%. Pretty damn good.

But on the flip side, I have gotten gold shields with less than 16 AL, I have gotten a couple crap gold items (no mods at all). But usually, the gold weapons I get are max damage (or AL) with nice mods.

I would like it so that all gold and purple weapons are at least max damage though, and that the average blue drop is better than a simple white drop (max damage sword is white, half of max damage sword is blue and, when ID'd, says "highly salvageable". When salvaged, it yields 7 iron ingots )

Gaile, I completely respect where you are coming from. I do not wish for the introduction of Uber items or an increase in drops. I am happy with the current state of play and I believe the Guild wars team is spot on and understand that any such introductions would redirect the games focus. Thanks Guilds Wars team!

what focus are you talking about? what is there to focus on after you have beaten the game a few times? and played hours and hours of pvp?

most of the time now is simply doing more of the same over and over in hopes of finding a better item, either to use or to sell, im not saying increase the drops or give us uber weapons but more so level it out right ie, i have ascended, why is it the dozen or so items i have found in the underworld or fissure or any of the higher up areas and basically at a level much lower than i can even call useful, if im lucky i'll get to unlock something ok sure great, but hell man do i really need to recieve a 6-22 axe? or a 5-10 item? when im at a lvl i cannot go past? or how about all the items i get that are gold or purple yet have no mods or stats?

even at lower levels the items and such arn't that great, but once you have 1 character that has ascended and can hunt around the higher up areas or buy max dmg and so on. There is a constantcy that seems to be missing...

well actually, now pvp has pvp rewards( altho it requires more time than i care to spend for it all ) as well as being able to unlock stuff for pvp while playing PvE. PvE has no such thing as the rewards, unless im understanding it wrong? ie you cannot unlock something by faction points and use it in pve? if i am wrong forgive me but im more of a pve player, and have done no more than a dozen or more pvp games. pve just suits me more as im more intrested in going on a quest with a real objective rather than just smashing my enemys so ppl can have the favor, but that's just me.

i have yet to find something like a gold sword with mods in a lower level area from say a char, so going back to lower lvls to try to find something doesnt make sence to me as im looking for the higher end stuff, but you find a lot of lower lvl stuff in higher end areas, i don't think it's so much more or actual better drops as much as where and what the drops are in specific areas.

also other things like i find a shortsword with a 10/9 or 10/10 sundering or furious on it, yet you cannot salvage thoses things from lower area items, making it even harder to actually get something, that you see common enuff on lower items but more rare in higher end stuff, or the fact that a gold item should salvo a part of it everytime, being that it is rare enuff or special enuff, if it were reallife you thing someone would mess up that badly as to have to trash the whole thing and get a clump of usless metal?

and believe me i used to work in machine tool and die , i have seem titianium go up in poof when cut in the wrong way.

i think whats important is quality for the lvl your at and consistancy for the areas their in....i mean even the story line seems to have large gaps in its plot etc..

but it is good to know people are watching and reading, for that thank you.

:::End Transmission:::

I personally love the staves. I am not sure why we made the change, come to think of it. I'll ask around and see. It could have been any reason at all, from "This is a cooler idea" to "downloading those assets are slowing those in dial-up." There are so many (!) considerations to every change. Hey, maybe rank staves are coming back in another form.... Hmmm...

Thanks for the kind and positive comments.

So, let me propose a thought: It's not "uber items," so much as "ultra cool and rare and wonderful" items, for many of us. It's "Maybe nobody in the entire server has this exact bow, or this cool shield, or this spiffy pair of Charr Fur Slippers." So I want to ask you this:

If items had the same combat-related stats, so as to avoid the unbalancing effects of uber items, but were unique in appearance, would that satisfy some of the craving? I'll be honest: For me, it would be a significant thing indeed. I wore Goldskin in Diablo II. (Assuming a few of you played that game. ) I wore that armour because it was gosh-darned beautiful, even though I had several pieces that were better in defense. It wasn't a strategic choice, it was a choice of the heart, built on my love for my Amazon and my connectedness with my character.

I appreciate that not all players are emotionally tied to their characters. Some rotate them out like yesterday's socks, and that's great for them. I played a gimped character in AC1 for months and months, simply because I couldn't bear to give her up, even knowing she'd never amount to much. Heck, I had trouble giving up my Melandru's Stalker to get my beloved Lynx, and I actually closed my eyes when I hit accept.

So, now you know, I'm not only a gamer, but perhaps a silly and sentimental gamer. But hey, it ties to the question, and I sincerely want to know: How many players are considering the item issue from the viewpoint of "coolness" and "uniqueness" rather than pure functional advantages?

i think something as small as different *unique* colors would be a hit along with different embellishments you could add (for a gold sink err price) that could be added to your armor

plumes (of different colors) come to mind as well as a small catalog of extras you could add

give people balance with a plateload of small individualizing extras and it would help

not for the dingbats who have to have the uber staff of leetness but it would make many people happy and more happier

I guess you can get the answer yourself, Gaile. Just look how many people bought 15k armors or underworld armors..they're not better than the other armors in any way, but they are prestige. As well as black dye and all that stuff..it looks cool, so people buy it. Even I myself have a black-dyed 15k dragon armor..and I would consider myself to be someone who prefers functionality

Gaile,

This proposal is PERFECT for all three kinds of players (PvE primary, PvP primary, and both) if you carry it out to its logical conclusion.

I've long said that things like this proposal (steady acquisition and goal progression) is a fundamental and enjoyable PvE play mechanic. However, this type of play mechanic is anti-competition in PvP. All competition is based on the basic rule that all competitiors have equal access to allowed gear/equipment. It's up to them to prepare themselves and make the most of it in order to win.

As of now, a PvE player can go 100s of hours with nearly zero required time doing PvP-type play mechanics (forced competition). It would be wonderful if your idea helps us to see the logical equivalent in PvP... no forced PvE play mechanics in order to battle others on an even playing field regardless of hours played. A team with 100s of hours towards 'unlocking' in all classes is inherently at an advantage to someone who hasn't put 'unlocking' and PvE time in. It should be purely skill vs.skill.

There's a reason why this is. The problem with Guild Wars has been that the rewards at the end of PvE adventures are things that are required at the start of PvP strategic planning for a match. However, the more you reward our PvE efforts with things purely PvE (i.e. your idea above), the easier it will be for Arena.net to allow pure skillful PvP play to exist without the uneven options that players and teams now endure.

Guess what? You have sprinklings of it already. Flaming swords, Chaos Axes, outfits, etc. If you expanded on this and made so many cosmetic options available while keeping pure PvP "bland" but fully functional, then the goals of PvE acquisition no longer requires you to hold pure skillful PvP competion back as it is now. maybe even add new, flashy visual effects to moves. Special taunts and emotes. New color combinations that can't be achieved in PvP-only toons. You can eventually have a lot of people playing PvE just to look dazzling in PvP.

Hopefully that came across ok... I do play both modes, but I am uncomfortable at how one mixes in the basic play mechanics of the other (mostly PvE mechanics in PvP). Based on your constant PvP changes in the updates, it seems some of Arena.net recognizes that there is more weight of PvE play mechanics (unlocking, PvE priests for skills, etc.) in PvP while there is virtually none of the opposite (forced competition) in PvE.

As you continually flesh out each mode to appease fans who wish to play properly in their "mode", I'm sure you'll see that all three type of players benefit when the play mechanics of the two modes are separate but accentuated (i.e. more pure PvE rewards and the introduction of pure skillful PvP competition) so you get maximum enjoyment and fairness from the total product.

i honestly think you will not get UA/X

MAXIMUM PC magazine just gave GW its coveted *kick ass* stamp of approval and a 9/10 rating.

they really liked the EARNING of additional skills

A key issue now that people have completed GW a few times is the lack of uniqueness and rarity - what weapon/shield/armour hasn't been found yet? It maybe that the 2 new areas introduce new styles but given that it's been only a few months since release, and the gap between new areas and chapter is about the same, people will tire of the same old crap...

The dynamic stats system seems ok - maybe this could be improved to be a dynamic artwork system (basic level - merge current components...Raven Sword anyone?; advanced level - pull from a large artwork base, 30-50% of which isn't readily available)...

\/\/00t, that's very intriguing Gaile. Staves and /fame emotes can live in harmony and look double cool . But to save on the bandwidth if one needs to be chosen, we made a poll at TGH.

While I have your ear, can you please see if faction can be increased a bit more so we can get skill points as fast as in PvE (25 minutes comfortably, 14 minutes for us at KARMA). That is the main thing PvPers would like at the moment. A bonus would be if you retroactively award skill points for fame please? You can find my main post about this linked from my profile here but I'm sure you read it on TGH. If you wish I'll compile all the data available. BTW thanks again for making the faction system happen and patching it .

I second Divinity's post. Thank you for paying attention to us PvPers, it is a nice feeling to know that our ideas are being heard. There are still some rough edges with the PvP system, but it's great that you (Gaile) are listening.

Gaile,

Real quick, What are you guys doing to make it so we dont all look like "clones" of each other? I dont like being No. 14321 Warrior/Monk out of No.231234. Just been wondering what you have been planned.

Fame Staves were way cooler

I would defenetly like more unique items , I would despise any really good items in any place pvp or pve. For me the main selling point of the game (beside no monthly cost :P) was that power was from builds and skill not from items or levels.

A rare powerful weapon system dosent work for me, I don't have the heart,charisma,or patience for trading and I don't have the time or skill for farming.

Well yes, but it's a short term solution.

Once you get your Goldskin armor, did you ever want to get rid of it? I'd guess probably not So your normal GW player who has Obsidian armor is basically set, and won't be upgrading unless they see an even better cosmetic change that they like.

That can't be the end-all of the game, or players will be bored out of their minds, no matter how cool they look.

Ultimately, gamers want progression. Every time they log in, they want to be able to log out with some tangible result. For PvP'ers, that is the guild Ladder, Tombs, Rank, unlocking, etc. But for PvE'ers, that stops once they have Ascended and made their character look the way they want.

What I suggest, is to look for ways for Character's to progress, outside of unbalancing items. If you make the progression worthwhile, and difficult enough, players would feel more rewarded.

Create more non-combat rewards. Most "hardcore" raiding guilds measure themselves by what they can kill, and how many times they have killed it. I could link to a dozen guilds in EQ that constantly scrolled how many times they killed certain bosses on the frontpage of their websites. If A.net could build into the game a way to display that info, it would be taking a step in the right direction imo. This could be done as simple as a Ladder, or it could be via a displayable upgrade's in a Guild Hall.

Also, "Competitive" PvE is something to look at. I like the idea of PvE arenas, where in the group competes for a high score. Think of an arena like Tetris, throwing more monsters into your group faster and faster as time goes on. The more monsters you kill, the longer your team last, the higher your score. Then, compare your high score to others to see how you rank, etc. Even have rewards, akin to the PvP tournament rewards, for the winners, and you would be creating HUGE replayability. Maybe you could have tournaments with the grand prize Goldskin-like Armor?

Unlocking and item acquisition is a PvE play mechanic squeezed into a competitive game mode. Strategic planning, tactical execution and acheiving victory over opponents is what drives PvP'ers who prefer that mode. Of the items you've named, this "featue" of unlocking is the most controversial issue that has caused changes in every update since it was introduced. Whether one likes it in Guild Wars PvP or not, it should not be automatically included in a list of "what PvP'ers" want.

I like your other ideas though. But for the competitive PvE mode to work, you'd have to change things a bit so that the team builds won't be stacked and discriminatory like UW/FoW is right now. Right or wrong, alot of less popular classes end up leaving a lot of gamers without the frequent chance to participate.

The way they can do it is to give a bonus multiplier (items, EXP, or something else) based on the number of different classes in your group. If it allowed six characters max, you would get a 5x bonus for having a team made up of two Warriors and 4 other classes. Maybe give an extra bonus (7x) for teams who bring in six different primaries.

One of the long-term easiest ways to create a higher level of "unique" weapons is to split the weapons, litterally. A pommel, a Hilt, and a Blade for a sword. a grip, a haft, and a head for staff. when you salvage a weapon, you choose the part you want to "try" and salvage.

this way, a sundering fellblade of fortitude would actually look different to a furious fellblade of enchanting.

without actually adding any new content (other than graphics) you have trippled the veriety of the look of weapons.


alternatively you could greatly increase the "graphic" pool that a weapon chooses from. perhaps have 5 different types of fellblades, all that have that "look" but are each unique in some way. hell, I can create 3D weapon models designed for games in a few minutes, and im sure there are hundreds of other GW players who are the same. hold a competition or something.

basicly though, at the moment MOST (no, Im not trying to speak for everyone) PvEers are simply unhappy with the ratio of time/reward. where the reward is something of value. just sit in lions arch for 1/2 and hour to see what is of "value". increasing the drops so that spending an hour playing PvE results in at least one decent item, whether it be a weapon, an upgrade or a rune of value would silence a few of us for a while (to give you time to implement my first idea :P )

oh just a suggestion or 2

extra storage in the guild hall, a merchant in the guild hall, possibly traders etc in the guild hall, and how about a full set of bots in the guild hall?

our guild hardly ever uses the guild hall for anything other than once and a great while play a gvg, seems like a waste of space and for all we had to go thru to get it, im like umm wtf, 4 bots and thats all? i understand the point to a guild hall, but who buys a mansion and doesn't stock it with furnishing and a full staff? i mean we don't use the guild hall to trade items or anything because that can be done anywhere.

and like i said im not concerned so much with looks, "What does it do and how well does it do it?"

and im not sure what this ranking staves or whatever their called is all about but it seems just another way to measure ones'...well you get me, just another vainity item, tho i have to admit the rank emotes are cool tho i have only seen a few.

our guild doesn't play much pvp because we spend our time looking for good items, without some of thoses we feel were not going to do good in a pvp, tho i understand its about teamwork pratice and skill, were just not organized enuff for that lol sad but true.Most of us like the adventure side of it, play the hero, or the bad guy, save the maiden, kill the dragon, find the treasure etc, etc.
And while pvp's can play pvp untill their eyeballs fall out, pve ends at the point that you finish the game, which is abrupt btw, and tho i know the game doesn't exactly end there, im like where's the ending movie or what have you ( everyone seems to never have a good ending, movies esp lol)

so pve'ers are stuck in an endless loop untill a new area is added or stuck waiting for a new expansion, or find enuff items to feel good about going into pvp, well at least enuff to feel satisfied with your character, or at least feel satisfied over the time i wasted trying to find something good, i myself like to look for items i can use on characters rather than to sell.

oh btw wth are clay bricks for? makes me think theres going to be some building going on later ot something, and one last thing, the healer bots, is it at all possible to get better ai on them , i mean if she's a healer why does she acts like a war, where she doesn't belong, and rather than rez'ing shes continues to fight, and eventually gets herself killed, and if she does stay alive, your basically waiting for the battle to finish before she does stare to bring you back to life, usually being the human players get brought back to life last, least in my experiences.

:::End Transmission:::

All I'm asking is for more weapon skins(looks) for everything(hammers, swords, shields, axes etc....) also the armors... I have no Idea who designed some of them, although others are great the majority isn't. I mean there are alot of people who do, but I am not willing to shell out 1.4mill for an armor that makes me look like the tin man w/ funky markings. I mean whats so bad about making all armors look good? I personally like the way they approached the ascended gladiator set as Anet put an entirely new mesh instead of just redid textures. Wish they did more effort on the 15k plateset/dragon/ascalon/ and add in a knight set but the one shown in the game cover, the knight set and the ones worn by NPC have nothing on it.

Also, please add more customizability to PvP char creation, you should be able to use all looks you've unlocked in game. As well as Custom color not pre set.

Also, what's w/ the constant nerfing of item drops and item drops get stupider every day. Gold flamberge of trollslaying -_- not to mention staves w/ 3 different profession mods, one which is exclusive to another prof.

Other than that, I love the effort and dedication of GW staff. I still enjoy the game very much, just not as much as when it first launched. The nerfs kinda slowly kill it for us pve people.

What a great message, Gaile. I think you've reaffirmed to everyone that you guys at ANet are indeed "listening" to the community.

I would appreciate more customization in armors and weaponry. While we may be preternaturally attached to our Goldskin, it'd be nice to be able to change it ever so slightly to fit our personalities.

Some of the bosses ive fought have dropped utter crap compared with how hard they were to fight. Atleast give me something special. Not just some gold. The Dragons at majestys rock for instance. 5 bone dragons guarding a few chest on top of a easily guarded hill in an out of the way place. Oh and the undead that spawn behind you when you attack the dragons.....And I got nothing but a few measly gold drops. I dont have the time to go on adventures like that and get nothing. I could be playing other games that will actually reward me for my skill. And no im not asking for the +40 vorpal sword of dismembering. Just make the drops = to the monster im fighting.

ALSO PLEASE!! GIVE US THE OPTION TO NOT WEAR A CAPE AND JUST WEAR A GUILD EMBLEM OR SOMETHING TO REPRESENT OUR GUILD, BUT HAVE AN OPTION TO NOT WEAR A CAPE -_- ty for listening.

The problem isn't that players can't get uber items. It is the way that you get gold drops that is not functional. It has been improving lately, but still needs worked on. If you farm the right area you are likely to see a few gold drops easily, however this requires you run that same area over and over. While farming can be very fun if done right (think time trials) most players don't enjoy this sort of play.

Lets look at the history of farming:
At first the best way to get gold drops was to run solo into certain gold heavy areas and kill things over and over again. This was remedied by code that punishes players for soloing. It really wasn't done very well.

Solo farming continued aiming for getting gold instead of items (or keept trying for items via brute force), this time a better approach was taken. Level design was altered to discourage a solo player from running around killing everything (like adding enchantment stripping to riverside.)

Currently farming still exists and in its most efficient form small groups of 3-4 players run an area over an over again going for drops. You can get a gold or two a day in the right area this way. So what is the problem here? If I play the game normally I am very unlikely to ever see a gold drop. In addition botting for gold is now grown extremely popular (you can see the things everywhere now.)

So what can be done? Well take a few things into consideration, thanks to the rune trader even superior runes (a select few) are worth nothing now and most gold items aren't so good. In reality a PvP equivalent item can be obtained from a trader that will outperform most golds. Guild wars is about the skills you select and not the items. I run around with random items I pick up most of the time and outperform most players (although it seems most players ate lead paint chips as a kid, so that isn't saying much.) So the gold drop rate can safely be raised without really ruining the game and making PvE characters "uber godly pwnage machines" or whatever term the masses are using these days. Thus the drop rate should be balanced. Some gold drop heavy areas should be lowered while everywhere should be increased. This way farming becomes just playing the game however you want. Instead of picking an area based on how often it drops golds you can pick an area to hunt for items in based on what kind of a sword you want. The other issue is add a bit more variety to the item art. The players PvE are hungry for different looking items. Have you seen how they drool over fellblades, stormbows, eternal shields, and fiery dragon swords? Yet shadow bows and shadow shields are unloved. This is because the shadow items look generic while the other items have a unique look. Players want a variety of unique looking items. The items don't necesarily have to have insane stats to make people happy, however a variety of unique looking items actually dropping with decent stats will make PvE players very happy.

Just observe people in LA, what they want is simple, shiny stuff. Honestly you could make a cool looking sword, make it a gold drop, and give the mods "intestinal discomfort" and "ineptness" and they would buy it even though their character feels like he ate a bad burrito when wielding it and the sword itself couldn't slice through butter.

Looks don't mean jack to me if its not a max dmg and works properly. There needs to be a good mix of both, like i picked up a cool looking shadow shield, and was +12 or something vs plants....PLANTS?? i mean how long do i plan to be fighing plants( i usually try to skip the wilds untill i need skill points/quests that give specific skills, not a big fan of that area.)...few life pods few reed stalkers..comon...or a 12%(vs) char on a gold sword...at lvl 20 do i really need a (vs charr) sword? i think not. (plus customizing at 20% all time is better than most mods, tho initself isn't really all that much per hit.)

A lvl 20 with a mid weapon still seems to do a lot of dmg because of attribute lvls, and from what i have been told you need to have, say for a sword or other weapon, your attributes at 12 just to get 100%?( there's a chart somewhere showing the percentages) altho armor ratings on ememys also affect this, as well as skills etc.

Myself as well as others would like to see (pve) a mix of good looks and approite weapons and items to our lvl, that help us survive a little longer...this way im not facing a hord of avicari braves at -60%DP for most of the sitting, basically requiring a restart/rezone, to avoid dying every 15 seconds.

So many different mods on different weapons that might only get used for a short amout of time...saving all thoses weapons takes up what little space we have in storage, and on our persons.

Acctually as i see it the gold drops have gotten much, much better. You can get anywhere from 300-500+, in some cases with a full group i have gotten 1k, much better than it was a few updates ago , i dont see getting gold as much of a problem now.

ok i'll stop replying to this thread before they bann me lol, i think i made all my points by now.

:::End Transmission:::

YES! x9347347238742
I think more items with unique appearances and same stats would definitely satisfy many of the cravings the GW community has. Additionally, I made a post in the suggestions forum that suggested questing for these said items, and the inclusion or more novelty items that are fun to use [dwarven ale, etc.]. Like you, sometimes I wore armor in other games because it looked pretty f'n awesome, even though I could get better armor/stats from some cheap cloth robes.

And Gaile, now that you've mentioned Charr Fur Slippers.. I kind of want a pair of those, too. lol!

I beg to differ. Unlocking and item acquisition is niether PvE nor PvP, it's Roleplaying. Also, I find the skill aquisition system to be hugely popular not only in my guild, but specifically the players that come from other ORPG's like UO, WoW, SB, L2, DAoC, etc.

Maybe you want instant gratification in the ways of UAS, but many players who like to grind feel the opposite of you. There are players who do want to be rewarded for their time. They do want to feel like they accomplished something for their "Strategic planning, tactical execution and acheiving victory." Pretty much, that is why they play roleplaying games.

Let me go back to something you said earlier in the thread,
"A team with 100s of hours towards 'unlocking' in all classes is inherently at an advantage to someone who hasn't put 'unlocking' and PvE time in."
Of course, but you need to remember that there is a learning curve. A team with 100s of hours can beat a team with 1000s of hours played at any time.

And that is why I play GW's
Thank you.

You could do modifiers, but I really think the solution to that problem is complexity and diversity of monsters. Each wave needs to be targeted to destroy a different profession, so that imbalance weakens your chances

Finally, I actually got to read this thread I heard about while guildwarsguru was down for me.

Anyways, to comment on some of Gaile's statements and questions...

Absolutely, more weapon models/skins/general appearances would please me a lot. One thing I'm all about is character appearance and being able to create a unique and creative looking character, the more character appearance options the better.

My only problem is...as I'm sure people've noticed, I started a few...threads on the nerf drops, and how it's becoming increasingly difficult to get money in the game 'cept for being a droknar runner or someone who gets lucky.

I'm all for new looking items, armor, hair styles, whatever. So long as we're able to afford them reasonably enough and they don't get overpriced beyond all reason, like storm bows or magma shields or something, because that tends to happen and I'm sure that'd piss a lot of people off. Last thing we need is huge prices on items that just look different with less ways to get money (kinda like our situation right now).

You get the idea.

I'd love to see more weapon skins/looks etc. on weapons, coolness is a factor in cost of weapons. Look at the cost of any decent crystalline sword out there, people are paying upwards of 200-400k for a good crystalline, why? Because it's friggin cool looking. I know this isn't WoW, but thats one of the reasons I've started playing it, some of the weapons/skins in that game are amazing....and what other game can you find a weapon called "the lobotomizer"? Not that I want something named exactly that in GW.

Would still be nice to see *some* better drops in high level areas (FoW and UW). I've done almost all the quests in Fissure so now it's loot hunting time down there, every time I go in there I come out frustrated because all the junk I get down there, I don't come out of Fissure with, it gets sold directly to the forgemaster. Considering the time it takes just to get to forgemaster and that you're paying to go down there. Something cool besides x10 chaos axes would be nice.

Gaile, As you see in these forums many discussions are about the quality and droprate of yellow/purple items. They are very hard to find and if one finds a rare than the exitement is often followed by disappointment when the item has no usefull qualities.

I think more items with unique appearances is a very good idea if it meets these conditions:
-They should be 'yellow'.
-They should have usefull abillities (not just a nice looking item thats only 'precious').
-They should drop frequently.