Hunter's Insight – A Guild Wars 2 Blog

City and Colour

In an effort to start blogging again instead of writing an essay on a subject and then not posting it because of how long and boring it is, I think I’ll just start throwing down far shorter posts about random things I talk about with friends.

For instance, I want more reasons to go to the racial cities.

Lion’s Arch is great and all but I hardly need new reasons to go there. All the festivals seem to take place there, dungeon vendor NPCs, Fractals of the Mists, 3 jumping puzzles, and more.

Plus all the things that other cities have by default. Bank, Auction House, crafting stations, repairs, profession NPCs, guild vendors, laurel vendors, etc.

Sure you go to racial cities in the beginning for personal storyline, something Lion’s Arch also has, but after the personal story is done, you have no reason to return beyond map completion. Even the rewards for that are shrug worthy.

At one point early on I guess the hope was that activities in cities would draw people in. But with real rewards for Keg Brawl outside getting your daily done, I don’t see that many people going to Hoelbrak. And besides, you’re in an instance in an activity. It’s not the same.

The only reason I can think of to go to a city that isn’t Lion’s Arch is cultural armour sets. That’s it. You may like the atmosphere, you may enjoy the art, but I doubt many people spend more time in one of these cities than LA.

Super Adventure Box was an interesting exception of course. Rata Sum was suddenly flooded with people. I actually felt like the utility of the bank/AH area was refreshing. But of course it was temporary content.

So come on Arenanet, give me a racial hearth type skill thing to get me back to my racial city and give them some of LA’s unique advantages. Or heck, go ahead and put some temporary content in one of the cities, lets at least get some use out of the most underutilized zones in the game.

I Worry About Magic Find

But I don’t think I worry about it the same way other people do.

For now the problem is this: Magic Find is not a useful stat to have on gear. While that is an acceptable loss for some people it has only negative consequences in group play.

As such, people have been complaining about the nature of magic find for some time now. Even I noted how some fellow guildies had been building magic find sets and bringing them to dungeons.

Recently Colin Johanson said this.

Some fun ideas in here, we’re also actively discussing ways on how we’d best like to alleviate having to make players choose between having better stats, or using magic find. It’s not a choice that’s great for game play and there isn’t really anything that fun about it, even more so when group composition is taken into account. Ideally we’d also like to keep the ability to slowly build your magic find over time, but doing this at the cost of using better stats isn’t the right way to do that.

No ETA on any changes here, just want to point out we agree there is an issue here that goes against what we want Gw2 to be, and is something we want to address.

So Arenanet is clearly aware that although Guild Wars 2 was essentially built around encouraging more people to play together, Magic Find somewhat encourages people to contribute less than others.

I agree with all of this, but I have a few problems.

First of all most of the people who want magic find removed or changed probably aren’t affected much by magic find.

The only time I run into magic find users these days is when I PUG or farm. Now if I’m farming, what do I care? And like any sane MMO player I keep pugging to a minimum.

And even then, what percentage of people use magic find? Surely the number of people leeching their way through PUG groups is a small percentage of the player population.

And what difference is there between an incompetent player, a player with poor gear, and a player with a full magic find set?

Ultimately if you are expecting optimal play out of a PUG group, you are deluded.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, is it that big a deal? Personally I don’t feel like I need further direction from Arenanet on what to do about magic find. I don’t need them hand-holding me every step of the way to make sure I’m contributing. There is plenty enough of that already.

Despite all that, I agree magic find isn’t ideal. Which is why I’m slightly worried about the statement above. They’re thinking about changing magic find.

As it is now, I can avoid PUGs or have a quiet word with a guild member or friend and tell them to not bring magic find gear. Problem solved socially.

How would Arenanet go about it however? After much familiarity with Arenanet I find myself worrying. I’ve come to the conclusion that no, they aren’t that great at balancing anything. They don’t mind grind as much as they say they do. They aren’t particularly generous with drops.

A number of solutions have been suggested (group magic find, complete removal, gear check, lockpicks, increased drop rates) but I fear any solution would end up being worse than the problem. All for a flaw that probably doesn’t effect as many people as its critics think it does.

Mounts Maelstrom

I’m on a beetle and I’m going fast and I’ve got a canthan-themed gossamer head band.

I think there are a lot of assumptions when it comes to Guild Wars 2 and mounts.

For instance people assume there isn’t a need for mounts in Guild Wars 2 because there are waypoints. Apparently that is the studio line on the subject as well.

I say, if we ever did do them, we would need to find something really creative and very uniquely Guild Wars 2 to make them fit in the game, cause they don’t really make sense in the world – travel is so easy, it doesn’t really fit. – Colin Johanson

If travel is so easy, why do I use weapon and utility speed buffs on every single one of my characters? If there isn’t a need, why do I consistently and constantly use these skills in every aspect of the game? In concept Guild Wars 2 doesn’t need mounts, but I have to point out the reality of the situation is far different. Everyone has these skills on their bar. Everyone.

Another argument goes that there isn’t a basis for mounts in the lore.

As an avid Guild Wars player I can tell you that dwarves rode Dolyaks and other beasts. Concept art showed humans riding giant beetles. We raced roller beetles. Oh and yeah, we rode inside the stomachs of giant Junundu worms as though they were some kind of, oh I don’t know, riding animal.

Of course that’s only if I’m going by the original game. I’m not forgetting that Guild Wars 2 is 250 years later and there is some indication that things have changed. We have motorcycle gangs (which incidentally give out one of the few free town clothes (why isn’t there more of that?) pieces, a bandana) and helicopters and tanks and blimps and submarines and supply crates that fall from orbit.

Some people think that mounts would be abused.

Well I would say that in the majority of games mounts disappear when you enter combat, can’t be used inside instances, have cooldowns, activation bars, and numerous measures are taken to ensure they aren’t abused. I suppose some games have mounts that go quite fast, but I’m not looking for a mount that would go any faster than swiftness at 33%. In fact I’d say it probably wouldn’t make any sense at all to introduce a mount that went any faster.

With a new speed option some people assume that people would feel obligated to buy a mount from the cash shop.

I can’t think of a single situation in other games where having a mount was anything other than an obligation to my own sense of convenience. However, I admit freeing up a skill slot would be a good motivator to buying a mount from the cash shop for some.

I also don’t assume that there wouldn’t be free alternative ways to get a mount. Through gameplay, through buying gems with gold, through tokens or laurels or other rewards.

Realistically speaking though, let’s just say they were cash shop only items. Am I effected by people who feel obligated to buy bank space? Am I effected by people who feel obligated to use magic find boosters, or other cash shop items? No, of course not, because that’s a subjective need. Objectively, as long as mounts don’t provide a speed boost that’s faster than swiftness, there is no obligation. It frees up a single skill slot. That’s not exactly OP considering I can switch out speed skills quickly and often.

Admittedly this does create a problem in World versus World. In PvE a min/maxers own sense of obligation does not bother me. The peer pressure of a WvW scenario however might be a little overbearing. I do know that when I’m in WvW I use speed buffs just as much as I do in PvE, which is to say, a lot. An eighth of my skills are devoted to just getting around.

I don’t think devs intended for speed skills to have a permanent home on 100% of skill bars in both PvE and WvW. Or hell, maybe they did, I don’t know.

Another concern might be that professions with too few speed buff options might have their own reasons for wanting a consistent boost from a mount.

I hear a lot of grief from mesmers about not having an appropriate utility speed buff of any kind. Rightfully so. I’d add that rangers, thieves, and necros have it sweet compared to other professions that have to twist and jive just to get a similar amount of speed.

I think, generally speaking, this is its own issue. Speed buffs are not fairly distributed amongst the professions. I’d definitely like to see this fixed whether or not mounts are ever introduced.

If mounts were introduced from the cash shop, it would absolutely have to be fixed.

That being said I think the kerfluffle over the lack of speed skills shows just how integral speed skills are in the game, how commonly they’re used, and how introducing a single out of combat speed boost might free us up to have more diverse skill bars.

But to be honest all of the above is a moot point to me.

People assume mounts are about speed, but I think you’re missing the point if all you see in mounts is a redundant speed boost.

Sometimes mounts are about prestige. Super hard to get or a rare drop, mount that thing up and take it for a spin through town to impress the local server population. No different than showing off your legendary. It’s the last Sky Bison in existence, eat your heart out.

Sometimes mounts are about having a nice pet. Okay sure, it isn’t cool when your 500 pound feathered riding lizard tries to cuddle up in your lap but he does get lonely.

Sometimes mounts are a trusty companion. Remember that time when you were trapped in a well and your mount went to town to get help and ended up going on a drinking binge with BattleCat? Good times.

Sometimes mounts are something pretty to look at. Not in the New Zealand sense of finding sheep pretty to look at but in the more adorable emergency kitten sense.

Sometimes mounts are a prized possession. Something you worked hard for, farmed for, or maybe it was a gift from a friend, a guildmate, a loved one.

Sometimes mounts are just wicked awesome cool stuff that I can spend money on to help fund Arenanet. Because you know, I wouldn’t mind supporting Arenanet in the slightest if they had more stuff I wanted. Let’s face it, Arenanet would make bank on this.

That being said, would I buy a mount if it didn’t have a speed boost? I guess that’s the big conundrum. Well I don’t own a Riding Broom if that answers your question.

Guild Bounties

So far I’ve done two Guild Bounties, one with I Can OutTweet a Centaur, one with Relics of Orr, and I’m sure another soon with Hamstorm Nation. The experience has been a bit varied.

I don’t think Twit Guild had a single problem getting together the karma to unlock Guild Bounties. It sounded like they have karma to spare, but I can’t really check on that easily since I’m not on Jade Quarry. They were also very well organized. We were split up into two squads, there are two bounties at tier 1, a commander leading each. Everyone grouped into parties as well. When the bounties were activated one commander took one zone and the rest went to the other. We split into different vent channels and got to work.

We probably should have had a more concrete plan on just how to scour the zone for our prey, but we ended up just randomly warping around and running along some of the paths that our bounty takes. I say some, because in Iron Marches the bounty has an extensive path that doubles back, does figure eights, and is generally confusing. Once spotted, we were pinged the closest waypoint in chat, by the time I got there, someone had already talked to the NPC to activate the fight.

Finding these guys means searching the entire zone so it took us 10 minutes of our 15 minute time limit to find the bounty, a charr prisoner that has permanent swiftness. There were about 15 of us and half of us were downed by the time we had her at half health. With half of us down she started to run away again. We got everybody up, snared her, and finished her off with time to spare.

I didn’t realize until afterwards that the other team had beaten their bounty more quickly in Genderren Fields. Altogether it went by very quickly, and I didn’t feel a sense of accomplishment unfortunately. I was a guest on JQ and got credit for an event but as a guest was not able to reap the rewards of Guild Bounties.

I did get some rewards for the RO bounty however, they are on my server and I am a member. There were fewer people attending the RO bounty, probably 20 or so compared to the 30 Twit had on hand. And that was with a bunch of people from PIG jumping in to get credit. Still everything seemed to go smoothly. I was fortunate enough to discover our target in Mount Maelstrom after a bit of running around, even after a guildie must have run right past him without seeing him.

The other team in RO must have discovered their bounty very quickly actually because by the time I had found him in Mount Maelstrom, some of them started warping in from Lornar’s Pass.

I got 2 commendations, 50 silver, 2 rares, and RO got 15 merits.

PIG is a different story altogether. Despite running dungeons constantly, being somewhat active every night, around 10 people logging in daily, 83 members logging in once in a while and having everything but Art of War level 5 unlocked we were still left unable to start working on Guild Missions. First of all, we don’t world vs world much. That meant we had no need to unlock Art of War level 5, which is fine because we had saved 40k influence. Why bounties are in that tree remains a logical mystery, but I did see on the forums a few days beforehand that it needed to be unlocked, so a couple days after the patch it was ready. Except that we were left with a 30k influence deficit if we wanted to unlock Guild Bounties, a cost of 50k influence itself.

There isn’t currently a place for small guilds to take part in Guild Missions. I see that as a big oversight. Despite what a lot of people on forums and blogs might say about small guilds (a bunch of nasty, immature, bullshit) this isn’t their fault. Some people prefer small guilds and some people despite their best efforts can’t grow theirs. But the fanboys defend Arenanet on the grounds that you should just join a larger guild. Well there is something to be said for a small guilds morale. Personally I think people would rather play with people they know rather than being some anonymous random in a giant guild. Not to mention the fact it becomes increasingly harder to start a new guild or grow your small one when people find out you can’t do Guild Missions. Especially seeing members of your small guild, maybe even the guild leader, repping other guilds to get in on Guild Bounties. I don’t want to even start in on guesting or think about the consequences of moving servers.

Why does everything Arenanet introduce have to have some exorbitant cost attached? Halloween exotics, Black Lion Chest skins, Mystic Forge recipes. Does it always have to be about the material/gold/influence/karma sink? Particularly when it’s not an item I’m after, but content?

Anyway, I could not currently afford to contribute to the 60g someone in PIG must have plopped down to just outright buy the influence necessary to begin building bounties, but we’re about 16 hours away from completion. We’ve invited RO members to join up so they can take advantage of our bounties when they’re ready and in the future we’ll be coordinating which Guild Missions to unlock first, with them taking Treks or Rush and us doing Puzzles or whatever.

Overall Guild Bounties are… good, but with a limited shelf life as far as interest goes. They go by way too quickly, and require a lot of coordination for such a short challenge. But I guess that’s why there are other types of missions. I’m pretty lucky to be involved with multiple guilds doing them so far, and I don’t deny PIG is pretty lucky to have so few active members and as much influence as we have, but I certainly have empathy for anyone who doesn’t. Unlike some.

Temple Runs

One thing I think a low population server like Northern Shiverpeaks does right is temple runs. It’s one of the best things going on with my server. We can’t win a WvW match, we don’t have people in every zone, I’m not sure how much of a community feel there is, but damn it we don’t capture Lyssa, Dwayna, Melandru, the gates of Arah, Balthazar, and Grenth on a near nightly basis.

It is due mostly to the guild Brown Cow Train and a commander named Anths. Early on they got the idea to organize several times a week at 8pm EST at Meddler’s Summit and then do a number of different temples, usually about 3 runs.

Of course sometimes there are problems. Months ago people were still getting used to the fights so they didn’t know how to effectively do Melandru, or Balthazar or Dwayna or Grenth or Melandru would get bugged, or any other number of hiccups. Certainly the changes to Grenth in the most recent patch made for a few interesting nights on temple runs.

At this point most people on my server are familiar with the runs, they know the ins and outs of the events, how to unbug events if they haven’t been fixed, where to stand and not stand. I had gotten so used to the runs that I had forgotten these runs weren’t necessarily happening on other servers.

So it was a bit of a surprise when I started mentioning the runs a couple of months ago to friends on other servers and some of them didn’t have anyone organizing that sort of thing. Even when they were on high population servers that rarely captured the temples.

I guess the main reason for that is probably rewards. The NPC merchant is great and everything, but the chest drops are rarely anything more than blues or at best greens. I got the impression a lot of people did those runs for a chance at exotics and, flying spaghetti monster willing, a pre-cursor. Which frankly never happens.

I haven’t been on a temple run in a while but there was a stretch where I would do it a few times a week. I’m not even sure if they’re still going to be honest, I’ve been playing other games, but it was certainly a lot of fun. If you don’t have someone organizing this stuff on your server, give it a shot.