Feedback talk:John Stumme/Archive 3

Thank you

for taking part in the wiki's community. It's nice to see some input from staff (be it official or unofficial) on talk page discussions. ThrainFile:User Thrain Sig.pngcontribs 00:33, 29 December 2010 (UTC)

I second this. MrDark88 16:25, 29 December 2010 (UTC)

I second your seconding. Always nice to see staff around :) ***EAGLEMUT*** TALK 17:01, 29 December 2010 (UTC)

meh 3rd cause 2nd is borring --The Holy Dragons 17:02, 29 December 2010 (UTC)

I 8th this because I'm coo and skip numbahs. -- Konig/talk 19:17, 29 December 2010 (UTC)

I agree with the section starter. --Boro 21:31, 29 December 2010 (UTC)

I counter this collective "Thank you" with a thank you of my own. I appreciate that the people that come here to ask questions are almost always thoughtful and respectful (even when it's things that we disagree on!), it makes it a pleasure to have conversations. It's a welcome change of pace from the Fen Trolls that sometimes spawn on the forums. XD; John Stumme 18:41, 2 January 2011 (UTC)

Dervish & Paragon Canthan HoM armor possible?

So, I would like to know how hard or not would it be to implemment new armor into the game at this stage, especially Elite Kurzick/ Luxon armor for Dervishes and Paragon. The reason for this would especially be for the HoM, because some people, whose main characters are of those two professions, might prefer to explore/ do titles on Factions only with such character/ profession (especially when going for Not a Kind of Big Deal titles). It would save them the trouble from creating/ using a new character and going through factions just for the sake of this armor and nothing else. Because the next chapter of GW: Beyond takes place in Cantha, I think it could be a good opportunity; even more so now with the dervish update about to ome and the paragon one being next. And as a little extra,those two professions would each have access to two new armors, as for now they are very limited in such department. --The preceding unsigned comment was added by 84.90.208.138 (talk).

I'd imagine it would be more or less the same work as costumes, though don't quote me on that. If so, however, then priority would be placed on costumes, as they can 1) be shared among all professions (with the proper work); 2) aren't limited by a certain campaign, or in this case two; and 3) provide profit for Anet.

I'd also like to note that if Dervishes and Paragons get Factions armor, elite or not, HoM or not, then people will be demanding a Prophecies armor for the four expansion professions and Assassin/Ritualist armor for the NF that they cannot get... Which if possible I would promote - equal amount of armors all the way across please. <3 No need to alter the site calculations with such changes due to there being no new sets, just expansions to sets.

But yeah, unlikely to ever happen. :( -- Konig/talk 20:29, 1 January 2011 (UTC)

People would then also want armour for the expansion exclusive sets. Such as exotic and elite canthan. -- Salome 20:39, 1 January 2011 (UTC)

No, costumes are a single component with a solid animation Rig. Lux/Kurz armor requires exponentially more work or roughly a full art crew (i dunno, 4 members atleast?). ...our best hope on this tangent is that they eventually give us *parts* of the game's source that some 3rd party coder hamfists into a file converter that the amateur Modelers & Animators among us could eventually build the art resources for ourselves. ...but don't expect the final products to fit in... The first Canthan armor I'd personally make for a Derv would have 'em looking like a Dragon mascot instead of an asian scythe ninja. Why? B/c FYIAD, That's why... And most other artists would be in the same boat, making the armor THEY want, not the armor the game needs --ilr 21:59, 1 January 2011 (UTC)

Ilr, they have to make a costume for each profession and gender - that's 20 rigs for 1 costume. Each profession uses different animations and rigging. It was explained in this interview, and John commented on a misconception in this random thought. "the fact that the professions are all different rigs, thus 1 costume needs to be done 20 times." - so 2 costumes would be equivialent to the work of 20 armor sets (male/female being different) when not considering the looks of the armor, thus with effectively 4 different designs, it would be less work than the typical 4 costume packs that we get (2 male, 2 female), but compared to just one costume, it may be roughly the same if the 20 different animation rig set-ups and 2 designs is equivalent to 4 designs and 4 animation rig set-ups (that's just ONE kind of armor set, mind you, for 2 professions). -- Konig/talk 22:10, 1 January 2011 (UTC)

I don't think you understand the full difference between a solid rig that just requires a little re-scaling and a multi-component system... But since you mentioned it, yeah let's leave it to John to settle this... --ilr 22:47, 1 January 2011 (UTC)

Less of understanding and more of "I had forgotten armor sets are in pieces until after I posted." And I was assuming that designing costumes is more time consuming than rigging them to the point of 2 designs roughly equals 16 costume rigs. But yes... multi-components and Stumme and stuff. -- Konig/talk 22:58, 1 January 2011 (UTC)

Kristen or Patrick Axlen (the gentleman who has been doing a lot of the porting work on the costumes) would know better than I, but if I had to make an educated guess, I'd say costumes take slightly longer. Since they need to go across all rigs, the artists spend a fair amount of time fixing problems that may pop up on one profession, but not others. To answer the initial question, if we did something like this, it wouldn't be any time soon. We've got our art budget set for the year, and most of it has gone to things like rewards and new factions (har) for Cantha, as well some other things we'll talk about later on in the year. Having said that, I'll keep this in mind since there are other things relevant to the HoM I'd like to address (specifically there's some titles that I'm not happy with the implementation of...) John Stumme 18:37, 2 January 2011 (UTC)

Personally I don't want any new armour along the traditional lines of creating armour due to the limitation it seems to have on what you make. I like costumes because they allow my assassin to have legs bigger than tooth picks (I especially like the shining blade costume on him) or they let my dervish wear something that isn't a dress or my paragon doesn't have to wear a mini skirt. I don't like the base models/skeletons or w/e they call the restrictions class armour puts on certain classes. If you did create armour for the dervish and paragon in Cantha I'd rather see it be "costume" armour so that I don't have to wear a skirt or dress on certain classes. Having said that, the assassin and ritualist don't have sunspear armour sets so if you made canthan armour sets for the elonian classes the canthan classes would complain about not having elonian armour sets. And then there's all the people who don't have assassins or dervishes etc who will complain. 114.78.2.18 19:18, 2 January 2011 (UTC)

I would love to have an Art contest for Designing New armors ^^ (I could come up with some ideas for luxon/kurzick/exotic/imperial/istani/sunspear/primeval etc! :P ) --The Holy Dragons 19:27, 2 January 2011 (UTC)

Well, the "big" reason for the armor of those two professions is HoM and nothing else. It's justification enough, I think. HoM asks for one Elite Kurzick/ Luxon set, and Dervishes and Paragons don't have access it. Simple. (This also reminds me, I can't put my Dervish deldrimor armor on HoM because there isn't a gloves set for it neither. Is it just me?). Sure, you can create or use a new character for it, but if a "casual player" whose main primary class is Dervish or Paragon and wants to explore factions, they'll have to "sacrifice" that HoM title they could have easily gotten if the profession was another. --The preceding unsigned comment was added by 84.90.208.138 (talk).

@IP above me: It's not just you. The deldrimor armor are not sets, for any profession. Regarding the sets of armor... While Kurzick and Luxon are the "prime offenders" due to the Hall of Monuments requirements (those two sets being the only ones without a set to all 10 professions), I'd love to see a completely equal amount of armor sets. But such would then make the art designed for professions that cannot get a certain set obsolete (and I LOATHE unused content). Personally, if I had a say in the matter, I'd say: Get armor sets designed in a unique way from the rest to match the theme of the continent (I saw a fan-made artwork of a Granite Citadel paragon armor which was very nice, no skirt, looked a bit like a paragon version of the warrior elite sunspear armor, but fur-lined, and without the sunspear icon - this proves, imo, that armor art contests like THD said are indeed plausible on the fan side), but only implement them, along with the HoM changes(?), when they're all done. Which may be a couple years.

P.S.: John, you need to archive your page. :D It's getting long. -- Konig/talk 20:14, 2 January 2011 (UTC)

@konig just to pisss u off there is a unused/unimplemented armor set for dervs seen in the making of cd that came with night fall... its been a wile since i watched that dont even know where my cd is but believe me its there. (it could have been added in as a eotn armor set or a hero armor.) - Zesbeer 20:29, 2 January 2011 (UTC)

You mean [1] Konig ^^ I know It's awesome! --The Holy Dragons 21:29, 2 January 2011 (UTC)

Grrr... I shoulda prefaced my points with '"For the amount of work involved Per-Class"' ... too late now.
Either way, it's confirmed... It's still a budget problem --ilr 22:40, 2 January 2011 (UTC)

I would be happy enough with just a resking of 20 already pieces from different armors put together in just 4 elite armors (paragon, dervish, male, female), without adding the non-elite versions. Since all paragon armors are mainly white and you can only dye 'seams' on it, a paragon armor with a black base for Kurzick and the usual dyable seams, and one with a base you can dye in any color and fixed gold seams, would be greatly appreciated by players. Of course, there would be always people whining about reskins, but a reskin is better than nothing. MithTalk 00:28, 3 January 2011 (UTC)

http://haikai.net/gallery/DervishNew.jpg and http://haikai.net/gallery/DervishVariants.jpg from the canceled Utopia campaign. For dervish players: beautiful, isn't it? There was already texture versions for some of them. I wonder, couldn't those have been added into the game regardless of Utopia cancelation? That would save the time and resources for creating new art and models, right?

Now those textures off of haikai make me cry, I would KILL for some of those to be added for us lowly Dervishes. We get the shaft and the new update better be sweet. Devi Talk 21:44, 5 January 2011 (UTC)

Do you know it was specifically some of those that were textured? If there was a fully completed model they probably would have put it in just like they did with Silver Eagle, and the non-Norn Dervish EOTN sets are at least less obviously reskins than other professions have. Still, relating to the orriginal topic - it seems to me quite easy to argue why it's more important for the Dervish and Paragon to get elite Luxon and Kurzick sets than any other possible new armour art: All other professions can fill the HoM for calculator purposes on their own (it only requires four sets plus Obsidian, Vabbian, and one of Kurzick and Luxon to fill, and Vabbian is available to Canthan characters), but Dervishes and Paragons can't. Draxynnic 09:40, 11 January 2011 (UTC)

Watching Amagami SS & Ore Imouto

Sorry but I just took a look at your page, saw this and decided to comment saying... awesome stuff :D. (I watched both of them and enjoyed them very much ) --Stu 20:37, 1 January 2011 (UTC)

So here's the question for Amagami: which arc did you like best? Lauren and I are in agreement on Morishima first, Nanasaki second (although we enjoyed all of them.) John Stumme 18:44, 2 January 2011 (UTC)

I enjoyed all of them very much but I'd say Ayatsuji Tsukasa. After that it would be Nanasaki Ai and then Morishima. I also really enjoyed the bonus episode with Risa (and I can't wait to see the bonus ep with Miya and her nishishi laugh) --Stu 23:02, 2 January 2011 (UTC)

I don't like how there are so many different stories that can't happen at the same time in Amagami. I prefer things more... centered. In Baccano! there are many stories from many different points of view, but they all parts of one great tale that fit like a puzzle. MithTalk 00:32, 3 January 2011 (UTC)

If you are looking at titles...

If you are looking at titles please look at the alcohol, drunkard and sweet tooth ones. It doesn't make sense to me that the game wants me to mule all my party items onto one toon and punish me for using them across all toons. It's annoying that I have halloween candy with cool PvE effects or alcohol with all those drunk skills and I always have to mule them onto my warrior because he is the one going for those titles - I was enjoying my paragon a lot more because of the balthazar costume = pants but I had to spend my time in town during the finale on my warrior because he is the one who needs the drunk points or sugar points playing the present game with fruitcake. It makes playing other characters less fun as a result or "wasted time and resources" due to their progress counting for nothing. On top of that KoaBD makes me sad because I have to constantly make a decision when I play on whether I want to work towards KoaBD when doing something or "waste" that progress on one of my other toons. Trying to collect all of those titles on a single character imho was a really bad design decision because players who effectively do the same amount of work across all their characters (which actually ends up being a lot more work) have nothing to show for it in the area of titles in comparison to players who favour a single character. I understand people who already have the titles might be unhappy if you changed it because they had to suffer through the imho poor design of it but I personally think it's better to make things better rather than make everyone suffer equally. 114.78.2.18 19:23, 2 January 2011 (UTC)

IMO KOABD should stay character-based ^^ ,it shows how much you've done on That character and how much you Love that character ^^ --The Holy Dragons 19:29, 2 January 2011 (UTC)

I agree quite a lot that GW's titles punishes players who like to use multiple characters. If in any case you find out a profession you like even more than your primary one, bum! Punished right there when it comes to titles. In fact, I would even defend something radical like most titles being account-based, for the very same reasons HoM is. That doesn't requires less work. No, it simply allows you to use more characters for the same ammount of work. So, why not? Regardless, it might be too radical, so drunkard, sweettooth and party animal titles would be "better than nothing". I wouldn't even mind if, in order for those titles to become account-based, the requirement for them had to get higher. GW is funnier when you are not stuck to one profession to many people, and same amount of work + more fun =reason good enough to do it, IMO. --The preceding unsigned comment was added by 84.90.208.138 (talk).

It's the highest achievement in the entire game and it's restricted to a single character. The novelty of achieveing it on a single character shouldn't prevent people who have completed the same amount of work from achieving the highest achievement in the game. I personally don't want to protect novelty value of the title when it prevents equally deserving people of obtaining the same title. 114.78.2.18 21:36, 2 January 2011 (UTC)

What's the difference between asking people to use one toon for most of their drinking and using one toon to complete all the missions/bonuses? In both cases, you have to do less work if you have a primary toon that you play 90% of the time and more work if you play across multiple characters. And it's hardly a punishment: those who play multiple toons can earn ToTs easier during H'ween, they earn zoins more quickly (by repeating easy zounties and zmish), and are more likely to be able to join in highly rewarding team play (UW, DoA, ...).

Currently, the account-wide PvE titles are restricted to those that have some substantial benefit and are impossible to max without repeating the same activity dozens or hundreds of times. I support ANet's practice to restrict account-wide titles to as few as possible; I far prefer to lug sweets to a single toon rather than find/consume more than 10,000 points.  — Tennessee Ernie Ford (TEF) 21:55, 2 January 2011 (UTC)

Not even ArenaNet supports the redundant favouring of a single character, achievements (titles) in GW2 are account based. It's redundant and annoying to restrict players to a single toon simply to obtain a title when the same amount of work can be done across your entire account without any recognition at all. There is no difference in the missions example, if someone has mastered every mission in the game why does it matter if they mastered them soley on their paragon or across of their characters? It's a redundant restriction holding back equally deserving players who have completed the same stuff simply because someone, somewhere made what is imho a bad decision. 114.78.2.18 22:06, 2 January 2011 (UTC)

I agree, what GW2 is doing with titles should be a further good reason for GW1 to do the same as well. Sincerely, I have explored tyria with tyrian characters, elona with elonian characters, and so on. I don't feel like picking one of those characters and explore what I have already done again just for the sake of grinding titles. It's repetitive, boring and unnecessary because I have done the amount of work needd already, just spread over several characters. GW1 is much funnier when you keep switching your toons, imo, but titles punish you for that and promote a lot of unnecessary repetition.

Well if you look lore-wise it would be a little bit strange... the char. would be like: how come i've spent 10.000 minutes drunk i've been created 2 days ago and I've never seen booze! though it's the same with other account-wide titles :P --The Holy Dragons 16:42, 4 January 2011 (UTC)

Titles are meta anyway for all areas of the game but two (and the first is pretty much meta itself), so I don't think it really matters whether the "lore" of it works. --ஸ Kyoshi 19:24, 4 January 2011 (UTC)

In a similar vein, let's go ahead and make outpost unlocks account-wide. "I'd love to help you on that, but my monk isn't there, yet" gets really old really fast. Grinding the same content over and over is the same. No one wants to do Zen Daijun seven times. The player demonstrates that they're capable of succeeding on the first completion; the subsequent ones don't demonstrate anything, so why are they required? It's just more time spent not having fun, imo. Removing the requirement to repeat content doesn't cost anything for the players who enjoy doing missions on different characters, either – in fact, it's quite the opposite: since they'll have the outposts unlocked at character creation, they will be able to play their favorite content when they want to, instead of having to grind through a campaign to do it.

I know, it's not really a traditional approach. But why follow tradition completely when it's anything less than perfect? — Raine Valen 20:20, 4 Jan 2011 (UTC)

And the new content would be much more enjoyable if I didn't have to roll through everywhere in factions to get to all the damn places. :/ -Cursed Angel 20:43, 4 January 2011 (UTC)

you did know it was sarcasm right? --The Holy Dragons 20:44, 4 January 2011 (UTC)

It wasn't. — Raine Valen 20:48, 4 Jan 2011 (UTC)

Well I'm not sarcastic, so...? It's most likely gonna be all over the place like warinkryta and I've only got either luxon or kurzick areas on my chars. At this point in the game it's either easily accessable or I might just not give a damn. -Cursed Angel 21:07, 4 January 2011 (UTC)

How I would love to create a new character and have instant access to all the outposts I previously have gotten to with other characters. The philosophy behind it would be very similar to a PvP Character: go straight into the fun part of the game, unless you are still a newbie. And, if said character still started at level 1, I could very well train them in missions I have yet to master, further contributing to the (global) titles. I agree, at this stage, making the content more accessible would only make it funnier, even if it seems radical at first. It's not like GW2 with its branching personal story, race/ starting point selection and dynamic events. GW1's low-end PvE is way too static and repetitive for an experienced player who wants to experiment new characters at PvE, and usually serves as an obstacle to have fun at trying new professions.

I think that when it comes to things that are strictly related to the character and their development should stay character based, like outpost unlocks, faction tittles and skills learned. But things like using a tonic or identifying an item... with those things it doesn't matter much if you are warrior or if you made a certain quest before. MithTalk 00:05, 5 January 2011 (UTC)

Missing updates

Just noticed that on the main page, the links for the December updates are missing, and anything from January as well. Any idea why that is? Not sure if you would know, John, but I wasn't sure who else to ask. Thanks! --Nathe 01:45, 7 January 2011 (UTC)

Matthew Moore contacted me about a recent update. You might ask him.  — Tennessee Ernie Ford (TEF) 02:01, 7 January 2011 (UTC)

To be clear about what Matthew said on TEF's talk page: The guy who puts the update notes on the site was out for holidays during the last dec one; he may still be on his (extended? o.O) vacation. Also it hasn't been that long for today's... P.S., Stumme, you need to archive. D: It's 150 kilobytes big! -- Konig/talk 02:11, 7 January 2011 (UTC)

Your wedding date

Congrats on finally having it set in stone! Better than being set in mud; that'll ruin the wedding dress. :P-- Konig/talk 02:28, 11 January 2011 (UTC)

i want to see pics of the irl gwen wedding dress...- Zesbeer 04:06, 11 January 2011 (UTC)

Oh sweet. Is that really going down? Is your soon-to-be wife really going to have a wedding dress like that? I thought that was just talk. If that's really the case... AWESOME. --Musha 06:00, 11 January 2011 (UTC)

Congrats, John! Best of luck to you both! --Nathe 18:05, 11 January 2011 (UTC)

Congrats :) --Nick123 19:27, 11 January 2011 (UTC)

gratz!--The Holy Dragons 19:30, 11 January 2011 (UTC)

Oooh, you having one in-game like that one years back when tabards looked strange? :o --Neil • 19:50, 11 January 2011 (UTC)

Thanks, all. And to answer the question - she really liked the dress, and wants something like that but with spaghetti straps. I have no idea what it will end up being, because I'm not allowed to see. I'm not so sure about pictures, though. As much as I can (and will) go on and on about how amazingly beautiful Lauren is, I am also acutely aware of how the internet works. I'd rather not have a forum troll get a hold of such an important moment to me to Photoshop it into something stupid. When it's just a picture of me, I could care less because I already make fun of myself. I don't know, we'll see though. Maybe through continued hard work and perseverance, I'll eventually win the community over. XD John Stumme 21:00, 11 January 2011 (UTC)

i realized after i wrote it that it sounded like a creep thing to write so maybe just a picture of the dress it self on a hanger or something would be nice. - Zesbeer 23:51, 11 January 2011 (UTC)

No worries, I didn't take it in that way at all. John Stumme 00:01, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

Ah, congratulations! :-) I wanted to suggest to hold a "fun" wedding after the formal one in the ArenaNet offices, where you re-enact Gwen and Thackeray's wedding with the colleagues (I wonder who would've played Olaf? :D) but it seems I'm late with that. (Joking, of course, but I just imagined it and couldn't help myself from actually posting it. :S) Again, congratulations! --Thalador Doomspeaker 20:06, 17 January 2011 (UTC)

for some reason i see olaf being played by Martin Kerstein...- Zesbeer 20:13, 17 January 2011 (UTC)

No, Martin is Mhenlo, they are equally bald! Just grab on of the Norn-size guys to do it, or if not, I know Konig is Norn-sized. Katherinezoltin 02:53, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

Deculture

Are you enjoying Macross Frontier? And have you seen any of the other Macross series/movies? Oh, and Clannad is a good choice as well (of course, you know, since you're re-watching). By-the-by, do you have a list of what all you've seen? --JonTheMon 20:01, 11 January 2011 (UTC)

I'd like a list of good anime meself. Running low on things to watch and have begun to limit myself to anime fitting in my horror/psychological fiction research... -- Konig/talk 20:06, 11 January 2011 (UTC)

I could compile a list of things that I've watched, but I would need to make a very different list for things that I would call good. We're enjoying Macross Frontier (it's another rewatch for me) and Lauren is really enjoying the music of it. She kind of wants to do one of the songs for Sakuracon, this year. I feel like that's probably a good choice, because how many people sing songs other than "God Knows" these days? (Although I do still <3 that song.) We finished Clannad last night, and I remember how "Meh" I was about the ending (a sentiment we shared.) Nagisa gets super dramatic about something she has no real reason to, so it feels a little forced. We might just be bitter because we liked Kotomi better.

As for things I'd recommend... for somewhat recent and finished releases, we both really enjoyed Angel Beats!, Toradora! and Durarara (!!), and not just because of their ridiculous concentration of !s. John Stumme 21:18, 11 January 2011 (UTC)

Clannad was kind of lackluster to me. Some of the characters were cute but in the end it disappointed. I saw a few episodes of Angel Beats and it looks good so far, but need to get around to Toradora and Durarara.

The last few anime I've enjoyed were The World God Only Knows and Otome Yokai Zakuro. Both are available stateside already via Crunchyroll, so I dunno if they're news to you guys. --ஸ Kyoshi 21:29, 11 January 2011 (UTC)

(Edit conflict) I've listed to the Macross Frontier soundtrack, and there are a lot of good songs there, but I happen to like a lot of the duets (which might be hard to do at a con). Oddly enough, I had gone through the Visual Novel before watching Clannad. So, i have a different perspective. I also liked Angel Beats and Toradora. Never got around to Durarara. Oh, and lists with ratings can help with separating good from bad. --JonTheMon 21:32, 11 January 2011 (UTC)

Ooh. Nice site! I'll have to make an account and start filling that one out one of these evenings at home. John Stumme 21:49, 11 January 2011 (UTC)

I totally showed you that further up the page in the archive! Why do you hate me, John? T.T elix Omni 23:15, 11 January 2011 (UTC)

The horrifying truth is that there's actually two of me - one of which has a monocle, cape, top hat, a very egregious mustache, and a walking cane that has an eagle grasping a human skull. That me is the evil one, and he often delights in posting as me, or under fake accounts to cause grief and misery. He has a name that is so debonair and evil, that I dare not speak it. It's either that, or that sometimes I just forget because I tend to scan the page briefly every now and then while at work - some days are busier than others, making me more prone to forget things from sensory overload. Which reminds me... I wonder if I ever turned the oven off? John Stumme 23:20, 11 January 2011 (UTC)

I've watched Angel Beats! when it was talked about on this page before (out of pure curiosity with all the "it's great!" like comments), and since the first episode it appeared like a Scott Pilgrim versus the world gone afterlife anime to me. Which means I couldn't stop laughing most of the time (odd for me tbh). Gonna have to add Durarara (that one's manga caught my eye a while back, so I'll watch the anime) and Clannad to my list... and the others eventually too. Even if anime I watch are lackluster, I always end up finishing them for some reason. That second you must be the true Great Destroyer. -- Konig/talk 03:18, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

Y'know, thinking back, Angel Beats gave me that sort of vibe too, except I hadn't seen Scott Pilgrim yet when I saw it. --ஸ Kyoshi 18:39, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

Ever get around to starting a list? --JonTheMon 00:23, 20 January 2011 (UTC)

I tried to, but for whatever reason when I go to log in it says my account doesn't exist. Except that it also says it exists. Maybe I'll need to try again with a different e-mail address. >< John Stumme 19:37, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

Winds of Change - optional?

This seems like the best place to make a request, rather than some random page where it will most likely be missed. Regarding the GW:Beyond content for Factions, it would be nice if the content was optional until people are ready for it. What I mean is simply that not all of us have been faithfully grinding away at our titles long enough to have them finished. Nothing could be more detrimental for working on our Kurzick and Luxon farms only to have them made nigh-impossible with insanely overpowered NPCs (Canthan army trying to end the Kurzick/Luxon disputes.) While it sounds all well and good to, "find a group and l2p", as most of the elitists would shout but finding a group to complete 336 more Kurzick runs is a little extreme. That and the random nature of the builds we saw in WiK made handling them a PITA for the most part. I enjoy the content, don't get me wrong, but some of us would just like to get through these titles in peace. Players who have been around longer have had the opportunity to finish their work without the hassle of the overpowered mobs and it would be nice if that courtesy was extended to the rest of us. As I said, I'm not against the update (in fact I look forward to it) but I'd like to get through my 3+ months of endless grinding without the annoyance of a new army. The map is already horribly slanted against Kurzicks, making it more than enough of a hassle as is. Ghosst • Talk •

you actually have a higher chance of getting it seen on the forums or on the feedback namespace.- Zesbeer 16:44, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

Not necessarily, Zes, since unlike Regina, John actually replies, and fairly regularly. --Nathe 18:11, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

But I thought Regina was head of CR for GW? — Raine Valen 19:53, 14 Jan 2011 (UTC)

Just for saying that Raine, you're banned from cookies for life. Ghosst • Talk •

Without getting into specifics, anything that would be altering the spawns of a map is happening as the result of story progression, instead of a "We decided to change the way this area is spawned until you do this." So in that sense, it's going to be optional because you don't need to start until you want to. John Stumme 22:57, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

Thank you, I'm relieved to know we'll be able to continue to work away on our titles until we're ready to start the extra content. Ghosst • Talk •

So.. John, wanna create a little trivia for SNL? Maybe The Lonely Island...? :) - Lucian Shadowborn 23:41, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

Drunken Status Effect Meter

Hay John i was just wondering if we could at this late game maybe get an icon to show us more game oriented individuals. its not exactly easy to faction farm or whatever while counting minutes for booze, idealy i would just ask for booze to work like sweets and not take time but id rather just make it easier to multitask than totally screw over anyone who actually did the title. i mean in my mind i see the ideal solution being like the norn hunting party bonus, you drink and get a like beermug or something with a countdown. Anyhow im just bouncing off the idea, im sure Lindsey already shot this down but you've already taken a second look at the hero limit so its worth bringing back to the surface :D - AaronDemoncia 04:19, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

Lynsey did do something like this for Bottle of Grog, you get that weird buff for the three minutes that count for drunkard and then it goes away when It's time to take another drink. It would be awesome if something like this was done for all alcohol, atm all I bother to drink is grog. 122.104.165.165 02:56, 27 January 2011 (UTC)

I've 2 suggestion about this topic... 1.Why not change the the drunk counter to display seconds too.. it would make people get more focus on this title since the can know exactly how they're progressing. 2. When you drink one of the drinking items it could display an icon with a timer (at top-right corner f.e.) showing the time left to drink expire and change colour like red when you're over 3 mins and unable to get points on the title and golden when you still above 3 mins so you can know that your drunken still counting.

Well i hope this give you some tips to improve this title ;) Eu Sou Deus 14:42, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Dervish update, again

I know it might be quite annoying to you and to the rest of the team hearing the fans cry for the same thing over and over. But with the Embark Beach "news", I would like an honest answer: "recreating" the dervish class is being difficult, isn't it? In my opinion, once it is done, and before moving to the paragon update, the balancing team should take a month to focus on general skill balance. You know, stuff like the recent gvg skill balance. Why? Well, more to shake up the meta a little bit, to recompensate for the lack of skill updates recently. But, if a better reason is needed for that, then: small fixes so elementalists can deal good damage in hard mode (they have two unused pve-only skills: an obvious solution lies in fixing them). And, to shake them up a bit, choose several underpowered elites and buff them up to give more options to them (kinda like the recent Invoke lightning buff). Also, Rangers in PvE - give them an alternative to barrage when it comes to bow attacks. Paragons and smiting monks are up for future lenghty skill updates, and other than them, let's see if I'm missing something... hmmm, nothing else is too important - perhaps take underused elites from other professions and buff them up a little too. Basically, small but important stuff that can: a) be done in a month or so; b) shake up the meta; c) fix eles and rangers in some pve areas. Then, full focus on paragons. Is this little shake up possible? Because skill updates can refresh the meta so much, and one or two "small", general updates every once and then between large profession-focused updates can do little great things. Wishful thinking, and sorry for being just another annoying, whiny fan. ;) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 84.91.205.232 (talk • contribs) at 16:14, 28 January 2011 (UTC).

all of your questions will be answered soon and you should be exited about the update...- Zesbeer 00:44, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

As I recall, the dervish and Embark Beach updates were supposed to be implemented this month, but so far we have nothing. It was specifically said that they would be put into the game in January, yet it's the 29th and they've not been added yet. I had hoped that Anet would have gotten better at keeping to its promised timetables with the change in leadership of the Live Team. If you guys intend to keep your promise, then the update needs to be in the game by Tuesday, as that's February 1st. It would be nice if, for once, things didn't always fall to the last minute. But maybe I'm expecting too much from you all. --Nathe 19:06, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

Shake ups are for PvP; altering the way skills work in PvE just makes people quit. Sure we might have ~10% of the players that remain, but these are the elitists who enjoy the, "what does a sword do this week?" Most of the players don't come near the wiki to make their disdain heard but all one has to do is turn on all chat when a new build comes out and see the, "great, what did they wreck now?" to know how much people despise updates. I have hopes John will do much better than the last person who ran the team and won't drive people away with random and inane changes that only serve to make this more like work than fun. Ghosst • Talk •

"As I recall, the dervish and Embark Beach updates were supposed to be implemented this month," Erm, no; no date has ever been set for any update. In particular, all that anyone has said is the order in which the changes would be released and an approximate date (early next year). HotN/Wintersday/Wedding → Dervish update → Embark beach. Scroll up this very page to see that nothing has been promised.  — Tennessee Ernie Ford (TEF) 19:44, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

what Tennessee Ernie Ford said, but also the embark beach and dervish updates are going to be awesome so simmer down and prepare your self for awesome to come... and it will come....- Zesbeer 21:36, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

Huh? This month? I thought we weren't expecting anything till atleast the 2nd week of February? Also: check out the Guardian update. Everyone on GW2guru keeps saying it's basically a StrongMonk but I'd argue it's more of a Dervish/Rit rebuild instead that might give us some insight into how the current Dervish will be rebalanced. --ilr 21:52, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

As said, nothing was ever said to be released this month in relation to GW1. But nothing official was said to be released "till atleast the 2nd week of February" either. Though I can and will say that you should be looking forward to things in less time than the typical Anet's "soon" (the Anet "soon" refers to "within a few months" it would seem to me). -- Konig/talk 22:15, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

i know i keep telling them konig... i think your heads will explode at least my head did.- Zesbeer 22:20, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

Zesbeer, are you on the TestKrewe or something? How do you already know what's coming? --Musha 00:35, 30 January 2011 (UTC)

I was talking about a skill Preview. Not the actual patch, IoW: no one cares how many friends you have on the TK. --ilr 00:52, 30 January 2011 (UTC)

Zes is in the TK. He's been keeping it silent so I'm surprised he's going "yeye it's gud!" @ Ilr: I meant an official announcement for anything, actually. There has been none, to my recollection. -- Konig/talk 00:54, 30 January 2011 (UTC)

yes i am on tk and i keep to my self about it and dont need to be like zomg everyone im on tk but john did say start getting people excited so thats what i am trying to do february will be a very epic month. like i said my head exploded at how awesome the changes are.- Zesbeer 04:48, 30 January 2011 (UTC)

Haha! John loves to tease us and now he has got the TK doing it! This is unbelievable! Somebody give us a taste of something!! --Musha 06:53, 30 January 2011 (UTC)

Yes, starts to feel like the rich kids of preschool rubbing their brand new RC car on our faces, all over again. Idmz 19:04, 30 January 2011 (UTC)

whoah slow it down on the word of mouth there guys, or else the rest of Anet might realize just how redundant their marketing department really is. --ilr 21:27, 30 January 2011 (UTC)

To the initial post, if you'd like an honest answer to that question I would say that the difficulty is not outside of the scope of what we imagined it might be. This week's thing is going to be Canthan New Years, but it's going to be very soon that people will understand the extent to which the Dervish has been worked on. And the month won't even be done with that. I've got some pretty legitimate reasons to be excited, and I think people will understand by the time the month is out (not to say it isn't cute watching people attempt to fail-troll my personal life.) On some of the other points, I don't think we'd be tackling another undertaking like the Dervish. After it's out, I would rather see us doing smaller balance fixes than major overhauls. I think what we're getting out of that update is going to be fantastic, make no mistake about that. I just have some other things I'd like to pursue for the future that I feel are going to be a good time investment to benefit ratio. John Stumme 01:32, 3 February 2011 (UTC)

I love when we get future hints ... love it. :) - Lucian 2:16, 3 February 2011 (UTC)

Well about this update i would like to ask a question. before i ask i want to say that i asked someone from the Live Krewe which was on my list since the Pink Day and even though I knew he wasnt allowed but i still asked him the same question although in a more misleading way which might have made him thought i asked something different and he put me on ignore since he's not allowed to answer those kinds of questions anyway i will ask it here and will ask that if you'r not allowed to answer it please say so^^. THE QUESTION: Is there an approx date to the dervish update or at least the preview which you said it was confrimed that there will be one?(its a yes or no question im not asking the date itself which was probably what the guy i asked thought) ofcourse if you can't answer or don't want to answer it just say so^^ but I think a lot of ppl here would like to know if its at least close to be done if there is a date^^. Kingmor 13:42, 3 February 2011 (UTC)

Please read just above your own post. I think John just far more than hinted an answer to your question. --Manassas 15:08, 3 February 2011 (UTC)

Well, if you really only want to know if there's a date - then there certainly is. There's more than one this month, and I don't mean in a "Counting Valentine's Day," kind of way, either. (Although I do hope that people will reading this will be able to enjoy that day with someone special as well!) :3 John Stumme 19:45, 3 February 2011 (UTC)

Don't be too surprised at Anet's evasiveness, Kingmor, it's what happens when you cripple your company with NDA's. Sadly Anet has yet to learn to abandon them and the fear of competition they represent. --Nathe 16:52, 3 February 2011 (UTC)

I would appreciate it if you would leave behind the disparaging tone while you are here, on my talk page. There is a difference between this and the public forums. I make an effort to respond to people here when I can in a respectful manner, and I don't think it's too much to ask that people show me the same courtesy. John Stumme 19:41, 3 February 2011 (UTC)

I didn't actually see this as evasiveness Nathe. I'm all for cynicism when it has its place (like what happened with our Waiting-Game holloween quests) but this definitely looks more like an attempt at something with a "christmas morning" feel. Poopoo'ing those good intentions when they're really good just repeats the patterns that cost us so much lost Dev interaction in the past. IoW: It's cliche as hell, but, "This is why we can't have nice things". --ilr 21:39, 4 February 2011 (UTC)

John can you tell us any more information about these dates in February? Particularly what they pertain to and context (Dervish skill preview vs Dervish update or Other update) and/or what days they are. I'm just getting back into GW after a long break and have been putting off getting back to my main because they are a Dervish and I didn't want to have to relearn them twice.--207.191.120.26 21:07, 3 February 2011 (UTC)

Please read prior posts before asking repetitive questions which have already been answered to the extent that we can expect to them to be. G R E E N E R 21:24, 3 February 2011 (UTC)

His comment "if you really only want to know if there's a date" hints that he may be able to tell us more but possibly can't volunteer the information. I was just after a bit more information if we could get it, but understand he probably can't tell us more than he has already.--207.191.120.26 21:28, 3 February 2011 (UTC)

(Reset indent) You guys are mighty impatient. He already confirmed the dervish preview and 2 updates in this month. This is also the shortest month (28 days) and we're 3 days into it. Since there's 2 updates, this means they'll be on two separate days; and since there's a preview, that means it'll be prior to the update. We know the dervish update is prior to the Embark Beach update therefore we can conclude that all three will be happening between Feb 4th to Feb 28th - with the preview being between 4th and 26th, dervish between 5th and 27th, and so forth. It's also highly unlikely they'll even be within the same week of each other and considering the tendency of providing updates on Thursday, via logical deductions one can safely say that the updates will come on either the 10th, 17th, or 24th (the only Thursdays in Feburary besides today). Preview is up for grabs prior to any of those dates.
It doesn't take that much to figure this stuff out. And even if you couldn't figure out the dates, or rather narrow them to their most likely days, it's less than 28 days (later). Not a long wait... -- Konig/talk 22:02, 3 February 2011 (UTC)

Thanks a lot, John, for answering my question! I'll get excited for whatever is comming, then. :) --The preceding unsigned comment was added by 84.91.205.232 (talk).

lol at logic.... also a quote from my favorite new web-episodes: "patience is a virtue that can not hurt you" also NOOO NOT 28DAYS LATER NOOOO- Zesbeer 00:31, 4 February 2011 (UTC)

John, I for one want to thank you for the information that you have given out. For the rest, he's only doing his job; if big guns upstairs tells their employees not to mention anything than it is in their (John and other folks who speak directly to both GW1 and GW2 communities) best interest not to give full info. Speculating when the date is won't push the intended date either... also, try not to harass people in the Krewe... John, something tells me this will make you giggle. just take a look and giggle... I don't want info cause it'll crush my dreams of speculating If any of you quote me.. I will wave my imaginary gun and use Shroud of Silence on you... - Lucian 3:07, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

Was the irony intentional? IE: ...of bringing up yet another assassin cliche in a thread about the Dervish? Crits cause raeg, let's pretend this is a piss take either way. --ilr 23:54, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

Actually yes, it was. - Lucian 5:31, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

Sorry about my tone, John. Just tired of the vagueness, is all. If we already know what the likely dates are, as has been pointed out, what's the harm in telling us which one it is? I notice what I said wasn't denied, though. And it was more Lucian's "big guns" I was referring to with that than anyone at your level, since I know you probably don't have as much autonomy as you would probably like. It's just a case of a company's business model being somewhat... schizophrenic, though that might not be the best word for it. Looking forward in some ways but still clinging to old ways of doing other things when technology has enabled so much more. But that's a discussion for another place and time. --Nathe 17:27, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

"February is going to be an exciting month."

← moved to User talk:69.69.197.119

Would it be possible...

→ moved from Feedback talk:Gaile Gray

...to get a comment from a designer on this page? Long story short, the data accumulated for droprates of celestial minis appears to suggest that the drop rates for the minis varies each year. The data is no where near broad enough to be conclusive though, so it'd be great if Jon (or any other designer responsible for events/drop rates) could comment on this issue to clear it up. If it's something that would take more than like 5 minutes though, it's probably completely unnecessary ^___^ --TahiriVeila 04:26, 4 February 2011 (UTC)

Seems more of a Live Team question than a support question. G R E E N E R 04:56, 4 February 2011 (UTC)

Probably. Mind redicrecting this to Jon's page? We don't do a lot of talke page redirects on pvx ^___^--TahiriVeila 05:03, 4 February 2011 (UTC)

Let me also paraphrase so that John (or whoever) doesn't have to unearth all the research:

• Data reported to this wiki (and to Guild Wiki) appears to suggest that the Lunar Fortune drop rate for the 2007 mini pigs was around 0.33%, or 1-in-300.
• Data from later years suggests a different drop rate, somewhere between 0.45% to 0.65% (give or take).
• The data also suggests that the rates changed from year-to-year, although we might simply be observing reporting bias (people stop opening after they get a mini).

Which leaves the following questions:

1. Did the drop rate change after 2007?
2. Does it vary from year to year?
3. If we stated that the mini drop rate from Lunar Fortunes is ~0.5%, would we be steering people in the wrong direction?

I think the answers to those 3 questions would give us enough to work with (to figure out the details) without forcing your team to give any secrets away. (And, I hope, without requiring too much, if any, work.) Thanks for your consideration.  — Tennessee Ernie Ford (TEF) 07:04, 4 February 2011 (UTC)

I'm not sure if the drop rate was changed (but it very well may have been, given at what estimates had it at, and what it really is) but the estimate of .45% to .65% is almost spot-on. John Stumme 17:54, 4 February 2011 (UTC)

Super. Thank you for the quick (and specific) response. I appreciate you taking the time.  — Tennessee Ernie Ford (TEF) 18:22, 4 February 2011 (UTC)

Cheers, thanks for the quick answer John.--TahiriVeila 19:55, 4 February 2011 (UTC)

Coward

Wondering if the design team could try and sneak in a look at the change to this skill before derv revamp goes live. I understand that a change to the skill was needed in order to reduce its effectiveness on assassins, but I (along with the rest of the PvP community) do not believe it to be the right choice. The addition of a recharge time caused the skill to become worse than it was pre-buff; the skill is less effective now than when it cost 6 adren. The most recent change to the skill effectively removed it from play, it's no longer even viable on warrior primaries. I would suggest returning the skill to an adrenaline cost of 4 strikes and adding a condition which causes the skill to fail 50% of the time if a warriors has invested 4 points or less in strength. The exact numbers on the failure rate and att requirement could be tweaked of course, but such a change would make the skill viable for warriors once again while simultaneously preventing its abuse by assassins. Thanks for taking the time to read this, cheers.--TahiriVeila 05:53, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

← moved to User talk:TahiriVeila#Coward

There's not going to be enough time for us to look at skill changes before the Dervish goes live at this rate, but I will let Robert know about your post to see if that's something he'd like to do afterward. John Stumme 18:20, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

Are we going to get the preview in time to actually give feedback? Or is the assumption that the remaining, mangled TK has given all the input needed? Because...that hasn't worked out in our favor in the past. Just saying. Karate Jesus 18:24, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

← moved to User talk:Karate Jesus#Coward

In the case of the preview, we're doing it because the changes are so extensive, we want people to have a chance to familiarize themselves with the new mechanics and concept of the class. That way it isn't a "Zahmahgahd, what just happened?!" on the day that the build goes live. It's not really meant to be a pitch or to suss out people's opinions, because it's different enough that people really need to play it instead of theory-craft about it. The TK has been pretty thoroughly involved in testing the update through its various iterations, and they've done well with it. I wouldn't call the TK mangled, although I do agree with the sentiment (if not the wording) that overall it is smaller than I'd like it to be. It's something I've started talking with the Community Team about to see if we can get it bolstered. John Stumme 20:30, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

Well, by "mangled" I meant that many of them have left for various reasons (banned for botting, quit out of frustration, or just quit for various reasons). And I think adding people to the TK is a great idea, but I hope the process isn't as demanding on Live Team this time around. Anyway, I'm not trying to criticize. I actually think you're doing a great job. I just think that I, like many players, would love to see skill updates more often. And I know that's something you're working on. Karate Jesus 05:34, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Yeah, I understand about the skill updates. I've actually been working on something on the side with Isaiah that I'm hoping will address some of the issues about the meta getting stale. I imagine we'll start talking about it at some point after Embark Beach goes out. John Stumme 17:59, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

How does recruiting for the TK happen, anyhow? Seems one day I just suddenly knew this thing existed and there was a lot of drama about it. --ஸ Kyoshi 15:01, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

For the pvp part of the TK, Joe Hostile basically made a thread on teamquitter that said to PM him with your qualifications if you wanted to join. Most people got in i think. Most have been kicked now too xD--TahiriVeila 15:05, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

I seem to recall an email from Anet with a poll, and it included both PvE and PvP aspects. Might have dreamed it. -- Large 15:15, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

There were applications online. They got thousands of applicants. If they do it again, it should probably be invitation only or like Joe did it on a forum. And they shouldn't have invited guys from TQ if they didn't expect generally lewd behavior. 69.69.197.119 16:14, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Huh, guess I should sign up for newsletters or something. Going to a fan forum seems awfully roundabout. --ஸ Kyoshi 19:15, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Yeah that sounds F-tarded. but I can understand the predicament they're in; You need committed self-motivated testers, IoW: the polar opposite of the "casual player", atleast in habit. So you get the word out in more hardcore communities. And yes that did include this Wiki at the time, some ppl here just missed it (or didn't apply). But if another call goes out, I think they'll find a broader response as Anet itself seems to be evolving towards broader appeal in the "Re-envisioning" of many of its designs and ideal playstyles. (yes, I'll put my $ where my mouth is too, it couldn't be any worse than Beta'ing DCUO afterall). --ilr 02:00, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

I take it you weren't impressed with that game, then? I generally try to play all of the major MMO releases that come out to get a feel for what I do and don't like about them, but I haven't had time to pick it up. I'm curious to hear what you think about it, I haven't seen much coverage for it on the various blogs that I read. John Stumme 18:13, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

I was curious too, but when I saw it had a subscription fee and no free demo I had to immediately discard it. --ஸ Kyoshi 18:36, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

Same here. I only pay for things I like, and I can't like something without trying it first. Even GW got me in the Open Weekends years ago. MithTalk 18:53, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

It's not even that I don't pay for things I don't know about, it's just that I don't have the income to keep up a subscription (or any income, for that matter; being a college student with no job sucks). Even if I did, I'm not sure I could justify paying forever for a game if I like it. --ஸ Kyoshi 19:03, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

Oh I was extremely impressed with the solo Story, voiceacting (Circe is just AWESOME), and early stages of its Combat. I was referring more to Sony's involvement. Yeah I know it's in a game designer's job description to play as many different games as they can so I don't have to tell you what happens when those suits get the data trends showing their testers are zipping through "the experience" too quick and not playing the game the way they want them to. If ya got the money and the time, buy it & play it for 1 month then just walk away till they've had atleast 9 months to double the Storyline. IE: Ya treat it like a JLA/JLU show, ya play it in "seasons". --ilr 23:15, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

Lost your response in the fray. "Yeah, I understand about the skill updates. I've actually been working on something on the side with Isaiah that I'm hoping will address some of the issues about the meta getting stale. I imagine we'll start talking about it at some point after Embark Beach goes out. John Stumme 17:59, 9 February 2011 (UTC)"

That sounds amazing. Feel free to ignore Izzy if he suggests anything that sounds like a Nightfall elite (pre-nerf) ;D. Just kidding. I'm looking forward to hearing about this and other projects. Karate Jesus 20:18, 11 February 2011 (UTC)

And please, give a big dopeslap to whoever redesigned mark of insecurity the first time around xD--TahiriVeila 05:59, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

I just wanted to say..

Hi John, how are you? ^^ --The Holy Dragons 20:00, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

I'm doing alright, I had an interesting (and at points, productive) weekend. How are you? John Stumme 20:34, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

I'm feeling great thanks! ^^ ,my weekend wasn't that special at all..(except for the awesome Canthan New Year ofcourse) --The Holy Dragons 20:41, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

Wanted to say thanks. I'm not so fond of working in retail, but I don't envy the stuff you deal with here, either. -- Armond{{Bacon}} 21:03, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

The stuff I have to deal with here isn't so bad, really. There are cranky people that delight in trolling, but eventually you come to accept that that's just their way of saying that they care about things. Otherwise they wouldn't still be here. It's not at all like some of the things I've seen happen in retail or similar industries. Here's a fun one, for example: my first real job was at a deli, and we would occasionally get some unbelievably rude customers there. One time a guy came in that was being so over the top offensive, that my boss finally snapped - he went after the guy, physically threw him out of the store, into his car, and slammed the car door on his legs. XD John Stumme 18:15, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Oh shit! That sounds like a lawsuit! -- Armond{{Bacon}} 19:48, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Wanted to say that we appreciate you! ♥ — Raine Valen 21:13, 8 Feb 2011 (UTC)

Thanks! In turn, I appreciate the work that people put in to this wiki. You'd be surprised at how often it gets used as a resource at work. John Stumme 18:15, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

What sorts of things do you use wiki for? — Raine Valen 22:02, 9 Feb 2011 (UTC)

Obscure lore, mostly. In a game of this size, there is so much that gets said (sometimes important bits are given in offhand manners) that it's hard to keep track of at times. There's also a divide between public knowledge, and studio knowledge. Sometimes we have planned stories, or just things we've talked about internally that we haven't used. For example, there's a lot more internal story for Mordakai than ever actually got used. So it's helpful to check the wiki to see what we have and haven't said, and then go from there. John Stumme 18:24, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

I spent 18 hours this weekend doing a problem set for my methods of theoretical physics course. FML. Glad somebody's weekend wasn't shit.--TahiriVeila 21:26, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

I can sympathize with your pain. My record worst was staying up for four days straight in preparation for my finals. It is a terrible, terrible idea and I recommend it to no one. John Stumme 18:15, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Four days? When did the hallucinations start? — Raine Valen 18:21, 9 Feb 2011 (UTC)

Around the third day, if I remember correctly. By the fourth day, everything felt sort of warm and fuzzy, and was funnier than it should have been. Not sleeping is serious business, and I've learned to not do it again ever since. *Insert a "The more you know..." rainbow here.* John Stumme 19:17, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Just because there are so many people who angry with Anet (and it's nice once in a while :D), you are doing Great job :D. Just by wanting the game to be endless you got my appreciate. After all... when the game is over, the game should be over (like almost every other game). I just have one thing that bugs me and i wanted to say to you... Have a nice and a FUN day.--79.181.8.52 21:32, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Trust me, we're almost always having a fun day here - the Live Team room is a bastion of interesting humor (to put it politely.) John Stumme 18:24, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

I swear in my mind that room is like 10 people constantly making Star Wars and Monty Python references.

(...Any jobs available?)--83.82.62.210 18:26, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

How I wish to be able to work there =D (just call me when you guys ever need a designer or something like that! =D (I would even want to be a caretaker there :p ))--The Holy Dragons 19:31, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

I don't think you'd get called. Just keep a tab on this page. :P Personally, I'd love to be a designer on the Live Team (not gw2 team for the sole reason that I don't know enough of it to be able to start working asap; I'd have to play and study it unlike gw1). -- Konig/talk 19:49, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

Same here Konig ^^ (though I wouldn't mind if they asked me to join the GW2 Live Team!) --The Holy Dragons 20:00, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

Thirded, I can see Konig and I keeping GW1 going forever in some backroom while the rest of Anet works on GW2 and GW3. XD Katherinezoltin 02:57, 11 February 2011 (UTC)

Haven't you got your hands in enough pies, Konig? Leave some for the rest of us, will ya? :p --Nathe 04:31, 11 February 2011 (UTC)

I don't like pies. So you can have them all. -- Konig/talk 05:59, 11 February 2011 (UTC)

You know what I mean. :p --Nathe 05:53, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

Casual PvP

Are any major updates considered that are directed specifically towards casual PvP, i.e. in regards to rewards (e.g. increasing faction for AB, FA and CA to attract more players) and especially balancing? Most PvP updates concern GvG and HA solely, while the power creep got pretty much out of hand in casual PvP, where it's much more noticeable due to the less structured nature of the formats. On a more wishful note, even though I realise it may be a bit late in GW1s lifetime for that, but what about the possibility of a new casual PvP arena, such as a new competitive mission? --92.106.50.20 08:32, 11 February 2011 (UTC)

That would require splitting skills three or four ways, since the balance required in each PvP medium is different. And as I think Jette or KJ said somewhere, every time a new skill is added to the game (PvP split or otherwise) the game's performance decreases. I wouldn't hold your breath on that. --ஸ Kyoshi 14:52, 11 February 2011 (UTC)

I find it highly doubtful there'd be more skill splits. And I also find it highly possible for new arena formats. It isn't wishful because we have (a) place(s) to put some. At least one, that is (where RA was). If a format could be designed to use old maps, work in gw1's capabilities, and it isn't an extreme (read: time consuming) thing to program, then it would be added. If. -- Konig/talk 20:05, 11 February 2011 (UTC)

As has been mentioned, additional skill splits isn't an ideal outcome. It adds another layer of complexity both in balance, and for the player (as a single skill can now effectively have multiple different values across venues.) I also don't think we're at a point now where adding in new and additional PvP venues is the right choice for the game. We were able to continue adding them while we were adding new campaigns, because we had a larger competitive player base in those times. If we were to add something new now, I think we'd just be cannibalizing the formats that are already there. So for the time being, we're looking at something to help keep the formats we have interesting for the people that are playing them.

Someday we may have to look at pruning less popular formats, and condensing what we have left (or replacing them with better formats.) But I don't think the time for that is now. I believe that's something that may need to happen after GW2 launches, because that's the greatest unknown on our horizon. Do the vast majority of people leave for the new game? Do we get some people back? How deadly IS the Three-Tailed Devourer? So on, and so forth. John Stumme 21:34, 11 February 2011 (UTC)

Three-Tailed Devourer? I'll go ask Valgar. --'Mai Yi' talk 22:53, 11 February 2011 (UTC)

I think he was rather suggesting balancing skills for 4v4; there's no skill that is balanced for a small arena and broken in a large arena, though the converse is certainly true. — Raine Valen 23:03, 11 Feb 2011 (UTC)

Confirm to close client.

Hey John.  :) I'm not sure if you're the right person to ask about this, but I was referred to you about this. Also, I realize you may have your hands full with the dervish update (way cool, btw!), but I still hope you can give this a look. I know a lot of people have been frustrated by accidentally closing out of the menu by clicking on the generic "close window" button at the top of the client (next to minimize and maximize/window). For example, I was halfway through a difficult vanq with a guildie when I went to flag heroes (my compass is in the upper right hand corner) and my mouse slipped and I hit the x by accident. Guild Wars instantly closed, and I lost all progress in that vanq. Other people report accidentally closing the client while closing (for example) inventory, or while switching between gw and a browser. My question is, would it be possible to have a pop-up window that appears when you hit the x button that would ask if you're sure you wish to close Guild Wars? I know on browsers like firefox there is a warning that appears when you try to close a window with multiple tabs that asks you if you're sure you want to close them. If you didn't mean to close out, then you hit cancel/no, and you don't lose what you were doing. Also, there is a similar thing already in GW that asks if you're sure you want to log out (though I'm not sure if this is the same mechanism). Would this be technically feasible? Would it require a lot of work? Also, I posted this on guildwarsguru.com, and the support for the idea was overwhelming. This[2] is the link, if you're allowed to go on Guru (I've heard there are legal issues...?). Also, the only concern that was brought up was that some people might not like the confirm window for whatever reason. Would it be possible to have an option to toggle the "Confirm to close client" option in the "general" section of options? I think this is a small thing that would help a lot of people out. I appreciate you taking the time to read this, even though it's a bit lengthy.  :) Ailina 22:53, 11 February 2011 (UTC)

Feedback:Getting started. The wiki has set up means for you to offer your ideas in an organized, easily accessible manner for Anet. This also allows for others in the community to respond to your suggestions without spamming the same page with multiple ideas. G R E E N E R 23:40, 11 February 2011 (UTC)

The thing is, I'm seeing this more as a technical issue with the current interface that a lot of people are facing than as a regular "suggestion" regarding new/improved content for the game. Hence why I placed it here in hopes that Mr. Stumme might be able to help fix this issue. Thanks again in advance.  :) Ailina 22:35, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

Yep, I understand your intent, and in no ways did I intend to belittle or disregard your suggestion (at least, I'm hoping you took no offense). In fact, this mistaken closing is an issue that I used to face prior to switching to a different OS (and window interface), and one I feel should be addressed in some way. There are tags which you can add to your feedback which will properly sort your suggestion. If you need any help in building a feedback page, feel free to ask at my talk page. G R E E N E R 23:06, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

If you want to minimize GW, click on your taskbar rather than the - at the top right...99.244.36.101 19:44, 20 February 2011 (UTC)

You don't seem to have read the whole comment, because that's not the issue here. --ஸ Kyoshi 19:47, 20 February 2011 (UTC)

Yes i did, he/she accidentally clicked on X instead of _ at the top right. Wanted to minimize GW but accidentally closed it. Next time just click once on your taskbar to minimize GW, no more accidents. Problem solved. And we need that Red X at the top for Survivors quick escape. 99.244.36.101 19:51, 20 February 2011 (UTC)

Except that the client can still actually run for several seconds after you click the X and is therefore not a guaranteed safety net for Survivors. --Musha 19:59, 20 February 2011 (UTC)

@99: "I was halfway through a difficult vanq with a guildie when I went to flag heroes (my compass is in the upper right hand corner) and my mouse slipped and I hit the x by accident." *cough*

Also, I assume you don't play fullscreen, because you can't click the taskbar from fullscreen.

As far as your survivor issue: "Would it be possible to have an option to toggle the "Confirm to close client" option in the "general" section of options?" It's been addressed in the comment.

You must have critfailed your reading comprehension (or just reading) check. --ஸ Kyoshi 20:57, 20 February 2011 (UTC)

(Reset indent) You could always try a simpler solution; just move the Menu button to the top right so it covers those buttons. ThrainFile:User Thrain Sig.pngcontribs 21:41, 20 February 2011 (UTC)

Any plans to update some ele skills to improve the ele damage in HM ?

Compare to other caster damage ele damage in HM looks to be a joke. N and Me do armor ignoring damage compare to ele. Also most ele aoe skills break aggro badly. Air is still not an option in hm (to many problems, you have to be enchanted else you will be exhausted in no time if u use invoke/chaining light, even so you still are under the me aoe spells, if u don't use weaken armor you damage is low being secondary n can be a problem cause of the way monster interrupt, you just don’t have space in an air bar do to damage and to manage your energy in long fights). Fire is doing low damage in hm, water was never an option for damage it's only slow down nothing else, earth is extremely limited in the number of skills that are actually doing damage (between obsidan flesh and shadow form I will chose shadow form cause if I use shadow form I can hit the monsters, it cost me less to maintain it (as an any/A), and I don't have -2 energy degeneration). You might say use wards, this is not always an option, while facing monsters with area effect skills wards becomes useless cause if you are talking about an spell that is doing damage over time then if the spell affects the entire ward (and probably it will cause the party will try to use the benefit offered by the ward) then the ward become useless or if it's not a damage over time but still an aoe spell the party still needs to be spread so almost no one will take advantage of the ward. In NM it’s ok, in HM are the problems.Thedukesd 23:24, 11 February 2011 (UTC)

I really hope people begin to realize that if skills are balanced for HM, especially those which do not ignore armor, then they'd be overpowered in NM. Necros and Mesmer's armor ignoring damage are capable of being balanced for both at the same time due to what makes them strong in HM - they ignore armor.

The only real way to balance Elementalist skills for all of PvE is to balance HM so that it isn't just "large numbers." A huge project. To big for the Live Team atm, I'd think.

Although... perhaps a HM buff to skills... Hm... -- Konig/talk 23:39, 11 February 2011 (UTC)

Feedback:Getting started. The wiki has set up means for you to offer your ideas in an organized, easily accessible manner for Anet. This also allows for others in the community to respond to your suggestions without spamming the same page with multiple ideas. G R E E N E R 23:40, 11 February 2011 (UTC)

"Fire is doing low damage in hm". Have you ever tried killing Korr, Living Flame in Hard Mode?. --'Mai Yi' talk 23:54, 11 February 2011 (UTC)

I think his point was players deal low damage with fire skills. Though it's less of "fire is doing low damage in hm" and more of "enemies' armor is so high in hm that fire deals so little damage to them." -- Konig/talk 00:00, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

This begs the question - why does armor affect magical damage to begin with?

Either way, something should be done about it; when ANet introduced the PvE-only skills they gave ele pieces of trash with the explanation that eles already performed fine. Now that eles are at the bottom of the heap, they could probably use some revamping. A simple tweak to their already existing PvE skills (that see no use) could easily fix the problem. -Auron 01:28, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

On a side note, Korr living flame has double Damage and 20 in fire magic. Humans can't pull that off. So..... Yeah....--BriarThe Spider 01:32, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

You'd think metal armor would increase the damage that lightning does, but MMOs rarely make sense anyway. Karate Jesus 01:37, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

It actually did work that way in GW circa... early 2004? Most Warrior armors had a -20 to Lightning on them. It's amusing that this topic started today, we were talking about this in the room earlier today. Are people wire tapping us? That's fine and all, just don't listen in after 4 pm. That's private time. John Stumme 01:57, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

Obaby. — Raine Valen 2:06, 12 Feb 2011 (UTC)

Hawt.--BriarThe Spider 02:13, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

Private time is my favorite! Karate Jesus 02:29, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

The issue with HM Elemental damage will also be important for the new dervishes, as their elemental damage won't do much good neither there. A simple tweak would be no armor scaling past level 20 for HM foes, and recompensate that with higher HP. That would both bring back elemental damage as viable in HM and as it should be (?) elemental damage stronger than armor-ignoring damage. Of course, Elementalists would need bigger things for them, but the overall HM Elem. damage problem would be solved. --The preceding unsigned comment was added by 84.91.205.232 (talk).

Either you don't know enough about the dervish update to make that call, or you probably just violated an NDA. Not that it seems to matter much to most anymore. --ஸ Kyoshi 20:26, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

I think the ip was basing off of current skills - for instance, avatar of melandru and grenth turn damage into elemental damage, and Grenth's Grasp requires cold damage while Ebon Dust Aura requires earth damage. There may be non-elites that aren't coming to mind too. There's also the PBAoE skills which deal some sort of non-physical damage (either holy or elemental). If the trend is kept after the update, then dervishes will still keep a good amount of non-physical damage. -- Konig/talk 20:35, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

Ya, I was thinking about both of the current dervishes and the new Mystic Twister which will deal cold damage. So I assumed the cold/ earth damage willstill be present in the new skills. --The preceding unsigned comment was added by 84.91.205.232 (talk).

"the new Mystic Twister which will deal cold damage" Sauce or NDA. (Or maybe grammar?)

I doubt reality will be different, but you just sound so confident about something which we are told is going to surprise us. =P --ஸ Kyoshi 21:26, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

Did you even read the preview, Kyoshi? Mystic Twister was an example given and was stated to deal cold damage. Feedback:Skill_update_previews/20110210#Pious_and_Mystic -- Konig/talk 22:46, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

Theeeere's the sauce. --ஸ Kyoshi 04:04, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

Heroes in Scrimmages

← moved to User_talk:Joe_Kimmes

I want to play Hero's Ascent

← moved to User_talk:84.91.205.232

Melee Hero Update

Has it been announced or even hinted as to which upcoming update, if any, might include the melee hero update mentioned in this interview? Will it be included in the Embark Beach update or in a later, undisclosed update? I'm simply trying to manage my anticipation for everything that's coming. --Musha 01:31, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

I believe somewhere Stumme said it was going to be in the one with Embark Beach... though I may be misremembering. -- Konig/talk 01:51, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

Yeah, I'd like to see it going in with that build. If it doesn't, then it would happen in a build to follow that adds another feature we've been kicking around for Heroes. Mostly it depends on how much time Joe has before we push the build, because he's currently finishing up work on one major new feature for Heroes. John Stumme 21:44, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

"major new feature" i know what that is and i CAN NOT WAIT.- Zesbeer 22:12, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

John, have I mentioned how much I love you? I'm so happy they put you in charge. I swear. Gives me hope for this series. Karate Jesus 21:49, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

I do appreciate hearing that, and I'm glad I've been able to do something to help reinvigorate your interest. I can respect when someone can be critical of the game, but isn't just trolling for the sake of trolling. It's nice to be able to actually talk about things, and I really wish more people would take that approach instead of just posting internet-hilarious derogatory witticisms for everything.

As for me, since moving over I've been having a blast here, and I feel like the team is really hitting its stride. We've worked through the growing pains and finishing up old projects that we had an obligation to, and I think this will be a big year for us. I still have some concerns about getting people used to the pattern of "expect a big build with a lot of stuff in it," again instead of smaller updates trickling out here and there, but hope that Dervish and Embark show that they can be worth it. Failing that, I think I'll just go with your earlier suggestion of kicking back at my desk with a cigar and posting a picture of that in response to whenever someone's upset about something. John Stumme 22:37, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

I played s4 league for a while. There was a weapon that got buffed, called the Mind Shock, that basically let you solo anyone with impunity. The dev team eventually nerfed it, but, more importantly, they released some reasoning along with it that basically said, "You are all faggots; that's not what it was intended for, so we're taking it away from you." I thought that it was, quite possibly, the best dev update ever. — Raine Valen 3:57, 16 Feb 2011 (UTC)

I guess people won't have to wonder about their feelings on the matter when they're being that direct. XD; John Stumme 18:10, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Vocal Minorities

"kicking back at my desk with a cigar and posting a picture of that in response to whenever someone's upset about something." Seems an appropriate response for trolls anyway. I also appreciate your presence here, you're a pretty cool guy. --ஸ Kyoshi 01:24, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Indeed! I hope its apparent that most of us REALLY like the work you are doing and really enjoy the content you give us. The nay-sayers, while strongly vocal, are just a minority. --Musha 01:47, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

No worries! I previously worked on forums for many years, so I'm used to how it goes. There's only a specific subset of our population that uses them, and they're generally the people that are either more opinionated or more vocal. Personalities like that can generate some colorful commentary, but that's just how interaction goes on our series of tubes. I'd be more worried if people were genuinely leaving because they were upset, as opposed to the usual "RARGH! ANet!" that happens between builds. John Stumme 18:10, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Not to derail this any further b/c I'd LOVE some kind of mechanical advantage for our mostly useless Melee heroes. ...But do you think you could elaborate a little on why so few Anet staffers directly engage the "Peanut Gallery?". I feel like "we're" handed a bad rap a little too often. Something unexpected that happens in-game quite often is other players pulling us aside asking us what we think about stuff b/c they don't pick through the forums, they just want the TL;DR summary and apparently they trust our communication skills. Word of Mouth > P.R. Do other staffers just lack the time or do they feel it's a futile situation that will only get them in more trouble? --ilr 00:46, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

If I had to field a guess, I would say that people inclined to post externally are the exception rather than the rule (instead of being the other way around.) I'm sure there's as many different reasons for that as there are people to have them, but overall, communications originally only came through very specific people. It was like that for years, so I suspect most people are accustomed to it being that way. Also, wikis (while invaluable) are also not the easiest method of just jumping in and interacting with people, so I can see it being off-putting to some. John Stumme 22:32, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Ahhh ...grandfathered protocol, that explains it. <the more you know.jpg>--ilr 23:06, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Oh, so you remember me posting that image and all that stuff....hehe. Hope you enjoyed that. I thought it was pretty damn funny, myself. Karate Jesus 03:35, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

And I appreciate that you don't think I'm a troll (I think...at least). Karate Jesus 03:43, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

We got a kick out of it at the office. Matthew was convinced that picture needed to happen. It probably would have, had I not had the terrible long hair at the time. Eugh. John Stumme 18:10, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Where was this? — Raine Valen 18:17, 16 Feb 2011 (UTC)

It was a post I made on Guru. I can't remember it exactly. John, do you still have it?

Also, please take that picture. Get an old computer, light it on fire on a desk from a thrift store (or something), and just kick back with a cigar in your mouth. It would be the most badass picture of all time. OF ALL TIME. Karate Jesus 19:23, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

I don't have it still, unfortunately. The biggest thing holding us back is a lack of cigars. Perhaps I can find some other suitable object... or maybe something just outlandish enough that it serves only to confuse people. John Stumme 22:32, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

I can't hear you right now. I'm eating a taco. -- 23:25, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

You'll have to speak up. I'm not wearing any pants. -- 23:26, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

(Reset indent) Being labelled a troll is amusing, although I think you do your fellows a grave injustice considering I don't start arguments, rather provide a point of view and say go listen for yourself instead of just yelling out, "trust me". Honestly, the derv update means nothing to me; they were childishly easy to use before, and with the descriptions of coming skills I will soon be able to let my cat play on the keyboard and steamroll through everything. I didn't say at any point I would quit; I'm not 14 and suffering from ADD, requiring the game to be changed every 30 days or I'll light fires and kill small animals. I leave that to the true trolls. Ghosst • Talk •

I love my new dervish skills

For realz this time. The preview is nice. ;) --Boro 21:08, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

I'm glad to hear it, because you're going to be using them for reals pretty soon. :3 John Stumme 21:40, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

ARGH, stop tease please, I can't take it anymore.. Reaper of Scythes** 22:12, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

This feels like one of those moments where hilariously bad dialogue is called for, something along the lines of "That isn't a tease. I'd say it's more of a... *pause* guarantease." Queue in the David Caruso meme pose, followed by a Michael Bay explosion in the background. John Stumme 22:41, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

Or i have a better idea, you actually release the skills and then we will all go like AMG ANet U SO AWSUM. And then all the hipsters will go like: "I was a dervish before the update". And then the trolls go like: "ANet this update is pretty bad! It destroys the purpose of the dervish!" And then we all make out.--83.82.62.210 22:47, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

"pretty soon" does indeed sound promising, even though I don't play Dervish myself (maybe time to start one with the update?) Thanks for keeping us informed :D --Lordkrall 00:36, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

"And then all the hipsters will go like: "I was a dervish before the update"."

Oh my god I love you. — Raine Valen 0:43, 16 Feb 2011 (UTC)

83.82.62.210 LOL. hahahaha. thx. 108.75.73.62 02:21, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

I got CCd on the update. Some of it looks nice, I've thought flash enchantments should exist since Dervishes came out in the first place. Let me know how it turns out in vivo. –Jette 02:28, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

"And then we all make out." Lol. --'Mai Yi' talk 02:39, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

You wish :P --The Holy Dragons 07:51, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Yes we all make out. --Boro 19:18, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

I hope the update comes out tomorrow (18/02) (since i'm GMT-0) cause it's my birthday :P Eu Sou Deus 16:08, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Update looks good and all, but one thing I'm not certain about. I don't want to feel as if I have to strip enchantments and juggle them to be effective. I've had a derv for a long time now (almost 2 years), and I never had to do much enchant juggling for her to do well. She's beaten Proph, NF, and EotN without having to do so (just haven't gotten round to getting her through Factions yet). She buffs up before battle with her enchants and casts them again when they wear off, but I've never used any enchant stripping skills nor needed to. And I'd rather not feel like I have to in order to be effective with the new derv. It should be up to us whether we choose to go that route or not, I think. --Nathe 19:51, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Rly? You never used Pious Restoration? ...even after it was buffed? I think ya missed out but let's see if we get a late afternoon update before going too far into the weeds on this --ilr 20:08, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Nope, never used it. My hero healer does the healing and hex removal pretty well. I like to keep my enchantments on me so I can benefit from their effects, which is the whole reason they are cast. At least for me. --Nathe 20:12, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Something awesome I saw

It seems there is an attempt to make a video game museum out in San Francisco. They need a bunch of donations still, so I thought I'd point people who make games to it since I am broke. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/themade/the-museum-of-art-and-digital-entertainment Katherinezoltin 19:02, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Pogahn Passage

After the dervish update comes out, and after Embark Beach, 7 heros, and hero AI update, and when you're kicked back at your desk, cigar in your hand, and the PC in front of you is on fire, could you add Pogahn Passage to the list of Zaishen Missions? Its the only mission in all of Guild Wars not in the list. Thank you and keep up the good work. *Malganis Frostmourn* 12.106.72.10 18:28, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Pretty sure that was already on the bug list --ilr 18:56, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

And its been on the bug list for a while. Just bringing it up again. *Malganis Frostmourn* 12.106.72.10 19:30, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

you might see a fix for that....- Zesbeer 21:34, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

We've actually already fixed this for the Embark Build. Huzzah. John Stumme 22:18, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

HOoray! 108.75.73.62 22:19, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

You're awesome John. Take the rest of the day off as a thank you.  :) *Malganis Frostmourn* 12.106.72.10 23:08, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Something stupid but that bugs me,

I have to ask you John, what is with the nerf of Empathy in PVP because it is too strong to have a level 20 use on another level 20. How do you think we feel in PVE when its level 30s spamming that on us maybe perhaps its a tiny bit overpowered in PVE as well yea? (along with alot of hexspam) Truth be told, I know a lot of wars, and other phys players that are rather ticked off at their inability to play anywhere near mesmers on hardmode, because shutdowns like Sympathetic Visage coupled with retarded amounts of damage is just too much. While I believe you are doing a great job I feel that perhaps us physical players could get a little love. I cant get my war into parties in HM because mesmers are just too OP. (let the trollfest begin) 108.75.73.62 22:09, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

I only ask this because the new dervish is going to make being a warrior obsolete. 108.75.73.62 22:48, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Mesmers are fine, It's Sentinel who's REALLY overpowered! lolamirite? --ilr 23:10, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

How is spamming a skill like Sympathetic Visage then keeping a war from even attacking fine? I thought we were supposed to have a fighting chance, as it is, I swing a sword and I have no energy nor adrenaline, then I have to stand there whilst doing(max 22 damage) no damage whilst everything around me destroys my party how is this fine? 108.75.73.62 23:19, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Oh never mind I get it, I am supposed to as a war run, SoS, bloodsong, pain, vampirism, shadowsong and a staff in order to play this is how fine mesmers are? (true story= I spent 3 hours trying to get through level 1 of Ravens Point HM (sympathetic visage spam) with h/h because and I reiterate: As a war I could NOT get into a party because of MESMERS in the dungeon (it was just the ZB recently) and I was told no they will not take wars because wars cannot fight(due to sympathetic visage) This tells me that there is a problem and no amount of you saying it is fine will make it not so. 108.75.73.62 23:25, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Take enchantment removal. Problem solved. --'Mai Yi' talk 23:28, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Tried that, you must have missed the word SPAM in my paragraph. 108.75.73.62 23:29, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

i have done it on my war just fine with enchant removal... maybe its that you need to bring more then one? also bring a messmer for interrupts- Zesbeer 23:32, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Try Disenchantment or Chilblains. --'Mai Yi' talk 23:33, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

I don't think my war has enough energy to run disenchantment. OH thats right I wont have energy because of Sympathetic Visage DURH. (and once more you guys missed SPAM in my previous sentences. 108.75.73.62 23:40, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Oh so sorry John did not mean for this to get started I just wanted an official statement to be read by anet. this is done here and I will resign my war to the inevitable incompletion of his titles due to casters thinking that wars have no problems with mesmers. 108.75.73.62 23:42, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

My favorite part was how you didn't even read my joke-reply about a completely different game but threaded off it like it was another reason to keep going. That really shows dedication. R U RougeOnion? --ilr 23:55, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

I appreciate the Sentinel joke. This page needs more MvC going on. John Stumme 23:58, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

(Reset indent) last time i checked eye of the north gives you HEROES that could run the skills/build it even gives you a rit.- Zesbeer 23:49, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

shall I drop my mesmer hero or my monk hero to run a rit hero? 108.75.73.62 23:50, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

On the bright side, it won't be that long before you can bring 7 of them, so you won't have to pick and choose so much. It'll be easier to dedicate support for dealing with situations like these. John Stumme 23:53, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for you're input John, this last year has been increasingly frustrating for wars as they have been very much unable to cope with the hexspam and over powered shutdown+massive damage combos that mesmers have been dishing out like bad drama. 108.75.73.62 23:54, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

ILR no, I did not notice the reference as I am unfamiliar with it, no am not RogueOnion but he was treated shamelessly by you guys and you should be ashamed of yourselves because he was right about several things while very wrong regarding his presentation of those things. 108.75.73.62 00:00, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

"I don't think my war has enough energy to run disenchantment." "shall I drop my mesmer hero or my monk hero to run a rit hero?" How about use your mes hero to bring that enchantment removal. I run a sin, who attacks faster. Know how I deal with Empathy and Sympathic spams (which the combination is more common than merely Raven's Point)? I bring self-heals (not hex removing ones mind you) and don't attack foes with that enchantment, rather I go to the next one. A warrior needs to play with Tactics, and I don't mean the attribute. A ritualist isn't needed to solve every problem. -- Konig/talk 00:14, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Ohhh, my apologies, you do have a sense of humor. I'd personally update my material though... like: "Dervish Update!...It's got the Elecrtolytes dramas crave!" --ilr 00:30, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

if you bring both of the healer henchmen, they can do a good job of keeping your team alive. i have notice that the only way i could vanquish areas in hm was to bring 3 healers because of how retarded the ai is/the lack of skills on henchmen's bars.. really though just think about your build and how it can best be changed to work for the area that you are trying to clear. - Zesbeer 00:20, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

ILR ;P 108.75.73.62 00:33, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Are we there yet? Are we there yet?

Are we there yet? Is it out yet? I can't wait anymore! I'm gonna go to the bathroom now. When I come back, I hope the update is here! ~Mervil 22:11, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

I am also sitting in anticipation of the derv update. perhaps it will be April like the mesmer one was. 108.75.73.62 22:17, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Settle down in the backseat, or I'm going to have to turn this car around! XD John Stumme 22:37, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

YAY DERVISH! 108.75.73.62 00:12, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

We're here!! ~Mervil 22:33, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Wow, you took a long time in the bathroom, didn't you. --Musha 00:55, 19 February 2011 (UTC)

Userpage layout

I liked the old one more. Nearly stole it more than once even. Change it back Spooky! -- Konig/talk 22:55, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

SHUNN THE NON BELIEVERS. i like it.- Zesbeer 22:58, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

We're going to Candy Mountain, Charlie! Or, what I mean to say is, "It's not quite done yet." Maybe what it needs is DHTML sparkly cursor trails. People like those, right? And glitter text. Glitter text and pictures of kittens wearing hilariously huge sunglasses. This will be the best user page ever! John Stumme 23:12, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

And pictures of My Little Ponies?! That would make it even better! Or wait...glittery pictures of My Little Ponies that practically blind you when you stare at them! o.o Katherinezoltin 23:15, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Only way to make your userpage "the best" would be to put pictures of your desk on there. And that cigar picture talked about above. -- Konig/talk 23:18, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Also, too much blue. ._. (better than a red+black combo though) -- Konig/talk 23:19, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

It would be the best if it gave away free cookies. Actual free cookies, I mean, not some virtual free cookies. MithTalk 23:20, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

(Edit conflict) YES PLEASE!- Zesbeer 23:21, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

All of the text should blink. Manifold 23:37, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Blinking text AND marquee text. John Stumme 23:41, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Everything should be written using Ascalonian as well. Blinking, glittering, and in a language 90% of readers won't understand. Brilliantly epic. -- Konig/talk 00:15, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

As long as the only colors you use are hot pink and blue (if you don't get it, it's helps the viewer remember your page by forever burning it into their retinas!) I'd support it :) BladeArrowney 01:16, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

My suggestion it's change the text and colour to looks like we went back to the old days of MS-DOS :P and those games like "Paradise Cafe", "Home Alone", "Bumppy", "Sokoban", "Commander Keen","Duke Nukem", "Hunt the Wumpus" if you know what i mean ;) poor graphics but addictive :D :D :D Eu Sou Deus 10:31, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

You

Are such a tease. :D ShadowRunner 00:50, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

It's true. But at least people know what to look forward to after the Dervish buzz has a chance to die down a little. John Stumme 00:58, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Thank you John it is amazing. 108.75.73.62 01:07, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

I'm curious if anyone is capable of putting two and two together. Stumme gave away something very important to the rabid fans. -- Konig/talk 01:14, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

I got it I just didn't say anything. 108.75.73.62 01:26, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

← moved to User talk:MangyForestCat#Full hero parties

Full Hero Parties!

Any idea on when that's going to happen? Eh, eh, eh?

I just can't wait till this dead game is made into a single player one already... --MangyForestCat 03:39, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

I would guess first week of March, since it should be the next update :)--Lordkrall 06:49, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Nope. It's already been said that it will happen this month, but after the dervish update, which happened today. Also, full hero parties wasn't announced, 7 hero parties was. We still don't know if Urgoz and the Deep will allow 11 heroes or not. --Musha 06:52, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

It's going to happen in the first week of March as John said in Random Thoughs http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Feedback:John_Stumme - "I was hoping it would go out next week to finish out the month, but it looks like it will be the first week of March instead." 89.154.53.177 07:30, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Ok, so where in that comment does he specifically say he's referring to the Embark Beach update? Yeah... It sounds like he's referring to something else entirely. Some other awesome new feature he's going to surprise us with. --Musha 07:53, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Well, it has been stated several times that FB is the update after Dervish. Dervish was released yesterday, therefore we could assume the delayed update is FB--Lordkrall 09:29, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Or that the build itself was not delayed, but something that I wanted to have happen in February leading up to it was. >< Ah well, that just means a couple of things happen at once. John Stumme 17:47, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

"Also, full hero parties wasn't announced, 7 hero parties was." When did he say 7 hero parties? I can find a reference to full hero parties (the WiK survey results blog post), but not 7 heroes. Closest I found was when he was specifically referring to Raven's Point.--Res 17:01, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

"7 heroes" is what people in the community called it ever since they started asking for more heroes. As far as I've seen they've kept calling it "7 heroes" out of inertia ever since "full hero parties" was announced. --Valshia 19:17, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

I actually don't care if they don't include the Deep and Urgoz. Those are the only parts of the game where the party size grows higher than 8. So if the cap is 7 heroes and not 11 I just don't care because that is still FULL HERO PARTIES to 99.99999999999999999% of the game. So whoever (Musha) is trying to be hyper correct by saying "IT'S GOING TO BE 7 HEROES NOT FULL PARTIES!!" grow up... --24.1.228.112 02:55, 19 February 2011 (UTC)

Musha is hardly being immature by pointing out an inaccuracy in a statement a single time. Rage less. --ஸ Kyoshi 03:16, 19 February 2011 (UTC)

Also he didn't use caps, to be hyper-correct. --ஸ Kyoshi 03:17, 19 February 2011 (UTC)

Dervish NPCs and their new skill bars

Any chance you can give us a list of the new skill bars used by dervish NPCs? ^^ Not that I wouldn't find placing a {{outdated info}} tag on every dervish page listed in the update notes and going to see which ones were changed... but it would be an teeeeeeny bit helpful. ^^ -- Konig/talk 04:14, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

I'd rather have the Scan skill I'd love so much and get them myself, XD. MithTalk 12:47, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Fantastic Update

'nuff said. Thanks, John. --Musha 05:45, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Glad you're enjoying it. It's still in a pretty tumultuous state, but I suspect most people are going to come around to the changes after people have had more time to play with them / PvX finds the new top tier builds. Right now we're still at the "Hornet's nest has been poked" phase. XD John Stumme 21:30, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

haha yes! ^^ anywayz this update is great the only part I hated was the asuran scan/BuH change but Asuran Scan isn'tactually that bad and BuH turned out to be fun for some time=D so thanks for giving me some hours with huge spirit armies ;) but why the reboot when I finally reached the HM dungeon's chest! XD --The Holy Dragons 21:37, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Well RA's in a "escape dagger rangers everywhere 2: electric boogaloo" state. Everyone's runnin these dervs and nothing counters them. I thought enchant removal would be worth a damn but the "flash" enchantments are up again in 5 secs. Hexes are impossible with dshot/savageshot campers and fast paced hex removal, unless you run tons of low energy rupts you're out to get raped by some E-surge 1-2-3 retard, if the avatar of grenth don't get to you first.

Then on the "cool random buffs everywhere" list I see "scythes attack faster"... ಠ_ಠ That's just crazy, man. -Cursed Angel 22:03, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

I've decided that I would give this update a chance, though issues have already become clear rather quickly.

So far my team builds for PvE are doing nicely, some of the combinations are OP (but since this is how you want Dervs to be I'll run with it) to be honest but I'm fully taking advantage of how OP the AoE effect on skills can actually get.

I'm running through varying build ideas and hope to get some friends in on it for proper testing, already I've been able to free up an entire party slot, so 8 party areas can be done with 7 with the Derv doing much of the damage (with a few support skills from allies.

In some cases I got smart and have been running heroes with free skill slots, it's cheeky but if I can perfect them against WiK builds then I'll feel confident I can achieve my goal, which is to be able to construct HM builds that can do all non-elite areas with 6 in the party. Half way there. ^_^ ~~000.00.00.00~~ 22:09, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

New skills are cool, and we're finding new ways to do things which is nice. I just hope people calm down a bit instead of rage-quitting. 000 likes my new A/D and that make me :D Ghosst • Talk •

<3 203.118.170.56 00:03, 19 February 2011 (UTC)

Questor/Questing Title

As someone who loves the quests in Guild Wars, I've always wondered why a title for completing a campaigns (or all of the campaigns) quests was never implemented. I mean it makes sense for Eye of the North not to have it (PvE skills are enough rewards) but there's a ton of content that people worked on that players aren't experiencing (or perhaps never experienced) in Prophecies, Factions, and Nightfall because they don't offer enough perceived reward (not much gold and they don't prevent grind for titles either). It also seems like the game must keep track of non-repeatable quests (because you can't take them again). I'm sure it's much more complicated than it seems (and would require way too much time on the part of the live team to implement now), but was it ever investigated/looked into as a title, with either one title for all three campaigns (like the old skill hunter) or a title per campaign? And if it was looked into, do you have any idea what the problem was? =S 67.193.131.11 20:34, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

I believe the prime reason for that is due to the quests which require folks to be of the continent's origin - missions don't have this requirement, nor does exploration (thus vanquishing) or skill hunting - and there's also the mutually exclusive quests to consider. There's a way around that, of course, which would give the character leeway in its native continent (via having the number of quests to complete for the title(s) to be equivalent to how many a non-native character can do). Could also simply be due to the number of titles already in the game. Course, Stumme has the final say on why it wasn't made. -- Konig/talk 20:40, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

"You are one away from finishing every quest in Tyria. Good luck figuring out which one you missed." What you're missing on other titles can be checked without actually going anywhere. 24.197.253.243 21:51, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

Isn't it the same as Skill Hunter then? It's not like there aren't resources to check for quests (like we do with skill hunter). Keeping track of what minipets you have is similarly maddening. With that said, I know what you mean about figuring out what you've missed, but cartography is sorta in the same boat (that last percent tends to suck)and as Konig pointed out leeway has been done before, such as in cartography. Prophecies is the only campaign where Tyrians have MUCH more quests than others, but the campaign also has the Titan Quests in terms of extra more difficult stuff. Could be a matter of difficulty or ease - with all of our new skills quests just aren't as difficult as they used to be...but the same is true of Protector, isn't it? 67.193.131.11 22:19, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

"It's not like there aren't resources to check for quests" Thing is, the game records what elites you have, but there's no way to check - outside of manual recording as you progress - which quests you have done. Keeping track of what quests you have is far more maddening than minis or elites, because with those two, you actually have them on hand, while with quests you're getting rid of. Forgot you had already done that one quest which needs to be picked up in the middle of no where? Tough luck! Only way to know is to go to the quest giver! -- Konig/talk 23:40, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

Well, there must be some kind of flag for the quests you've done, otherwise NPCs wouldn't have different dialogues depending on the quests and you would be able to take them again and again, but we can't take many quests more than once. I'd be happy enough if Xunlai Agents in a region had an option to pay them 50G to tell me the name of an NPC that has a quest I can still take in that region. Like: Talk to an Xunlai Agent in Kaineng after making all the quests there excepting "Housing for Refugees" choose option to ask 'for a job' or something like that. You are deducted 50g and the Agent says: "Imperial Guardsman Yang has requested help for a job". If you want to know more, you wiki that name. Do that final quest, and if you talk again with the agent, you get a "The Xunlai Guild has no requests of any other jobs for you i nthis region, maybe you should ask to Xunlai Agents in other regions.". As much as I'd love a title for quests, I'd be happy enough just by having an easier way to check the ones I'm missing. MithTalk 01:23, 22 January 2011 (UTC)

Something like that scout system in GW2...sounds neat, even if I probably wouldn't use it. --ஸ Kyoshi 02:24, 22 January 2011 (UTC)

I'll do with all of your suggestions as to why it wasn't implemented - thanks everyone! 67.193.131.11 09:55, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

This title would not be any harder to complete than Skill Hunter or especially cartographer. I mean really, there is a list of quests on this wiki, and you can't say that makes it harder than the cartography titles, where you just have to keep guessing until you get it right. Why? 14:13, 25 February 2011 (UTC)

Hello Mr. Stumme

Could you shed light on the location of Embark Beach? Is it going to be on top of the Xunlai Marketplace or on the Island where Team Arenas used to be?--83.82.62.210 22:39, 11 February 2011 (UTC)

Embark Beach does in fact reside on top of the charred remnants of what was once the Xunlai Marketplace. Many Bothans died to bring the wiki this information. John Stumme 23:04, 11 February 2011 (UTC)

So we're going to be standing on the grounds of mighty heroes before us? So the Zaishen order have summoned a squad that the world has never seen and battle Tyria and rid all the evil it holds? And i guess some sort of histroy on what happened there/here I hope --Chessyang 18:06, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

So we're going to be standing on some dead merchants? F--- yeah! Also what are Bothans? Waar Kijk Je Naar 06:46, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

His quote "Many Bothans died to bring the wiki this information" is an alteration of the Star Wars Episode 6 line, "Many Bothans died to bring us this information." The "Bothan" is a fictional character from Star Wars. --'Mai Yi' talk 13:25, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

Live Team Builds

Is there any way you could show us some of the builds you or some other members of the Live Team, TK, QA, etc played around with when testing this update? --Musha 10:14, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

I know some TK members do post here, they might share some of theirs. Between all of us though, I feel like it'd be a pretty extensive list. Various topics on the Dervish over the course of the project were all hundreds upon hundreds of replies long. At some point someone might have even tried Crippling Sweep + Ice Spear, just to make sure it wasn't secretly the best combination in the game. As it turns out, it wasn't (that's actually Echo + Ice Spear.) John Stumme 21:52, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Deadly Haste

Ice Spear

Conjure Frost

Way of the Master

Critical Eye

Resurrection Signet

Blank

Blank

Ice spear is a beast. — Raine Valen 21:57, 18 Feb 2011 (UTC)

Well, since Stumme said we could post ours here (wasn't sure about it) I might as well give the people my bar I used for testing. Keep in mind I normally play a Necromancer and playing Dervish for so long in testing was rather awkward for me.

Farmer's Scythe

Crippling Sweep

Chilling Victory

Mystic Corruption

Avatar of Melandru

Faithful Intervention

Balthazar's Rage

Eternal Aura

The bar changed a bit over time as I started playing around with skills, but that's the last one I used for testing. Katherinezoltin 19:34, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

By Ural's bug

Not sure if the live team is aware of the problem but they should be. BUH is resurrecting ANY kind of dead ally atm, including spirits, asura summons, summoning stones, EVAS sins, the snakes in foundry, etc. Check out the BUH! page for more details. Hopefully the problem will be too much of a pain in the ass to fix and you'll just revert the skill to its old functionality ^___^--TahiriVeila 16:31, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Apparently it wasn't that difficult. XD --Valshia 19:12, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Nope, it wasn't that hard to fix. We got it before it did too much damage, and for the people that did get to mess around with it, at least it will be a fun memory to look back on someday. It makes me think, how funny would it be to find the absolute worst skill in GW, and give it some weird property that in the right cirumstances, the skill actually summons a BWE Gwen death-storm - and then see how long it takes for people to find and exploit it. Not that we'd ever do that of course, but it's amusing to picture it. John Stumme 21:41, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

by saying you won't ever do that.. are you speaking the truth or.... I'm gonna search such possibe things in weak skills now!!! =D --The Holy Dragons 21:49, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

That should totally be a real April Fools update. Then, when people find it and post it on the forums, no one will believe them because they'll think it's just an elaborate lie since it's April Fools Day. :D--Res 22:08, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Using Arcane Echo on an Echo'd Mending summons BWE Gwen. You know you want to do it. 58.111.78.122 06:25, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

A good place to start to look for "hidden" skills is Rust. According to the long German skill text it does 200 damage (regardless of investment in water magic)... which reminds me to check the list of localisation errors. --195.202.166.190 00:22, 22 February 2011 (UTC)

About the new derv

Sorry for repeating this, but as it was originally at the bottom of a wall of text, I wasn't sure if you would see it or not. Anyway, the update looks good and all, but I don't want to feel as if I have to strip enchantments and juggle them to be effective. I've had a derv for a long time now (almost 2 years), and I never had to do much enchant juggling for her to do well. She's beaten Proph, NF, and EotN without having to do so (just haven't gotten round to getting her through Factions yet). She buffs up before battle with her enchants and casts them again when they wear off, but I've never used any enchant stripping skills nor needed to. And I'd rather not feel like I have to in order to be effective with the new derv. It should be up to us whether we choose to go that route or not, I think. --Nathe 22:10, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

← moved to User talk:Nathe#About the new derv

Point is, I don't want to be locked onto my bars in a fight, that's the whole point. I buff up and charge in, recasting the buffs as they expire. Dervishes aren't circus performers, juggling isn't a good mechanic to use. Too many things can go wrong. And how can you instantly reapply a stripped enchantment that has a long recharge, like the 10 sec one you just mentioned? You can't. You have to wait for the 10 sec before you can put it back on. Which makes it less useful because you can't maintain it. If the teardown mechanic is to stay, then all derv enchantments must be changed to instantly recharge upon ending unless they last their full duration. It's the only way to make the mechanic truly useful.

By the way, some derv enchants have an effect upon losing a derv enchantment, but the description doesn't necessarily say how. Does simple expiration of the enchantment (that is, its natural end) count toward the "losing an enchantment" requirement? I've done some playing with the new skills, and I find it to be somewhat hit or miss. The damage is still lacking, though. While I can hit large mobs more easily now (Vow of Strength+Sand Shards+Whirlwind Attack), it still hits for only low damage per target, sometimes as low as 11, which I did recently in the Tannekhai Temple mission in NM. That's going to be useless damage in HM, where such damage is further reduced by enemy armor which is higher than in NM.

I've not been able to reach the 100 damage per target that I once could. AoHM should, at the very least, be restored to its former functionality, but with the added damage tied to Mysticism so that primary dervs will still be better with a scythe than other profs, which is as it should be. If not, then Mysticism itself should be adjusted to add extra scythe damage per rank to compensate for the loss of the PvE damage boosters. And as John hasn't answered this topic yet, I'd appreciate if it wouldn't be moved until it has. Once he does, then it's fine to move it. --Nathe 18:27, 22 February 2011 (UTC)

Just wanted to take back some of what I said about dervish damage ability now that I've played with the skills some more. The individual damage packets are less now, but often there are more of them now than there used to be, and they add up to some decent damage pretty often, especially with the right build. So I was wrong about that. Still getting used to the new derv, but it might not be as bad as I thought. I still don't plan to use the teardown mechanic much, though. I like going my own way. --Nathe 04:15, 25 February 2011 (UTC)

And this is why you should play around with things for a good while before giving any kind of feedback, positive or negative. -- Armond{{Bacon}} 04:50, 25 February 2011 (UTC)

Every time someone open his eyes, an angel gets a free mojito. Rejoice! MithTalk 14:00, 25 February 2011 (UTC)

New Dervish update Heroes

Was noticing that Mobs, NPC'S, and Bosses were listed as updated AI to deal with the dervish update.. Heroes are not listed with updated AI. and I among other have noticed that Derv Heroes will not use alot of the new skills. Mystic Vigor and Mystic Sandstorm are two I have noted they wont touch. I am wondering if heroes havent gotten updated AI as of yet or is intentional that heroes wont use certain Flash Enchantments, and Mystic Sandstorm is listed as a Spell with Adrenaline costs. Could this be why they dont get used. I would like to know if they are gonna update the hero AI to deal with the skill changes anytime soon, as it is now Derv Heroes are nearly useless unless you build them as another profession. Can we find out if they will be fixed so we can use them again? 69.242.196.134 22:47, 19 February 2011 (UTC)

Were? The Update page says: "Rebalanced skill bars for the following creatures", skill bars, not AI. You are the one that ultimately chooses the builds for your heroes. So if their first build with 5 skills gets a bit messed up, all you have to do is give them a better one. MithTalk 23:54, 19 February 2011 (UTC)

While you are correct in your observation with my post. if you watch your dervish heroes skill bars. you will notice they do not use many of the skills in their new current form. Not that they dont use them well, or correctly. they dont use them at all.. 69.242.196.134 19:37, 20 February 2011 (UTC)

If you check the "Upcoming changes and features" page, you'll read: "Further improvements to heroes are planned, including changes to melee heroes. Some of these features may be delivered in a later patch". MithTalk 22:31, 20 February 2011 (UTC)

Are people working on a list of skills that aren't being used properly anywhere? Something like that would be really helpful! John Stumme 22:44, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

I tried to do this at the heroes AI page but Tennesee Ernie Ford would rather I post about this in only one spot, he saw fit to delete my section in under Hero AI where I asked people to do this. Then message me and warn me about posting in multiple places on the same topic. but hey, not everyone has the time to sit and wait to see how many times people post something. Could We possibly do that here under this topic? What do you say Ernie? Ill leave it up to you at risk of having my section deleted again.. 69.242.196.134 01:07, 22 February 2011 (UTC)

There are conducive ways to communicate on this wiki, and one conversation in many places is sadly not a good choice. If you wish for an area to highlight possible problems, I'll set up a temporary location in my user-space to do so. User:Greener/Sandbox/Dervish Hero AI issues. G R E E N E R 02:05, 22 February 2011 (UTC)

The feedback portal is used to report this stuff, and was how I got Forked Arrow fixed. "Properly" is relative of course, as heroes will blow the recharge of Energy Drain on a full bar; won't use Scavenger Strike when they're running low; comfort animal is a 2 energy ~100 heal that is not prioritized - only custom AI macros (where I suppose the client would poosh hero's buttons for them) could resolve all quibbles... -- 04:31, 22 February 2011 (UTC)

(Reset indent) John Stumme asked, "Are people working on a list of skills that aren't being used properly anywhere? Something like that would be really helpful!"

1. User:Greener/Sandbox/Dervish Hero AI issues has been setup specifically for the new Dervish.
2. A number of issues with skills from other profs have been raised in Hero behavior, Feedback:Bug reports/Skill bugs, and/or Feedback:Bug_reports/AI_bugs (these were documented before the derv update and since).

If you're keen on seeing a comprehensive list, I'm sure that we can clean-up the existing reports to that there's a unified presentation of repeatable, documented set of bugs. We have seen: skills that are unused, inappropriately used, inefficiently used, and so forth. Are you interested in any/all? Just dervs? Thanks.  — Tennessee Ernie Ford (TEF) 04:59, 22 February 2011 (UTC)

Avatars

John may I ask you a question..do the avatars (like Avatar of Dwayna) look the exact same as the 'real' gods or is it just one way to show them..?, Thanks! --The Holy Dragons 23:00, 19 February 2011 (UTC)

Highly unlikely. Dwayna has wings, the dervish avatar does not; Lyssa is twins, the dervish avatar is an individual with a four-face mask; Balthazar is a man (or looks like one), but the avatar is "a fiery presence" (words taken from Nightfall manual). Plus, they don't match any other typical depiction of the god (not even showing that Balthazar actually has flesh), and the statues were created by an Orrian (gw2:Malchor) a long time ago - I'd think those statues are the closest depictions. -- Konig/talk 03:36, 20 February 2011 (UTC)

Actually, the avatar of Dwayna gets two little wings in her back, and wing motives and shapes in her clothing. The Goddess of Truth avatar looks like a shiny golden version of herself, but she may be an exception, she will probably have to get her own servants and such, and eventually she won't appear herself there. What's the origin of the other gods? Where they human or any other race once? If we knew that, we could see them how they were before they became gods. If you look at the art, it seems to me that the gods would be more like the faces seen in the skill icons, than their avatars(servants) or the avatar (forms). This can be seen clearly in the Avatar (forms) icons themselves. The Avatar of Balthazar shows a bearded man shouting, Dwayna's is a crowned woman, Grenth bears an animal skull, Lyssa's shows a mirage of to conjoint women that seem to somewhat move in the same space without interfering with each other, and Melandru has a somewhat Asiatic face with leafy features around. Balthazar's Rage and Grenth's Fingers show closer shots to their faces. I like to think that those are the actual appearances of the gods, and that the avatar (servants) are just representatives, and the avatars (forms) are the result of being imbued with the power of a god, both their bodies and clothes being changed by it, something like what happened to the margonites but in lesser scale. This second theory would work better if there was male and female counterparts of each avatar, but it still works even without that. MithTalk 04:01, 20 February 2011 (UTC)

"the avatar of Dwayna gets two little wings in her back" Aren't those, and the rest, just clothing though? I wouldn't count clothing as "having wings." -- Konig/talk 04:45, 20 February 2011 (UTC)

Well, it's hard to say if they are boneless wings or just part of the clothing. The wings in the back don't appear in the concept ar of the avatar form. Look at Raziel's wings in Legacy of Kain. It's hard to tell that they were actual wings one, since they look like rags. I don't think it doesn't matter if they are actual wings or not, the thing is that dwayna is depicted as having wings, so the avatar gets them too, as a manifestation of the power received. It's like when you get a halo in Fable. MithTalk 15:54, 20 February 2011 (UTC)

Think of it this way. If I told everyone that the divine power in this universe looked like this: http://images1.fanpop.com/images/photos/2600000/Haruhi-Wallpaper-the-melancholy-of-haruhi-suzumiya-2628875-800-600.jpg and then asked you to channel that, you'd probably come away with something that looks like your interpretation of it. Also, it's pretty cool to see that people are somewhat familiar with Malchor, that's a story that I ended up writing with Ree Soesbee. Not even GW2 is beyond the reaches of my maniacal grasp. John Stumme 20:01, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

Now I have an urge to find (or create, in months and months) a TexMod add-on that turns all dervish forms into members of the Haruhi cast. Thanks a lot, John. --ஸ Kyoshi 03:40, 22 February 2011 (UTC)

Oh my god do it. -- Armond{{Bacon}} 17:15, 25 February 2011 (UTC)

Sure, just let me take those months I mentioned to figure out how to do it, then take another few to implement it. I'm color blind, by the way, so if Nagato's hair ends up light blue or purple instead of pink that's why. (Note: I'm not actually going to attempt this.) --ஸ Kyoshi 17:51, 25 February 2011 (UTC)

Dungeon Siege

Have you ever played it? it's a game where you can have a party of eight adventurers from four distinct classes (melee, ranged, combat magic, nature magic), and you only control one at a time, but you can decide when you want to switch control from one adventurer from an other. While you control one adventurer, the others are controlled by their individual AIs. --Boro 08:45, 20 February 2011 (UTC)

I absolutely love Chris Taylor, but drdeath should not exist in DS. Completely ruined it for me. -- Armond{{Bacon}} 14:52, 20 February 2011 (UTC)

That is done in Granado Espada (Sword of the New World) too. This time with 3 characters. While you control 1, the other 2 are controlled by the AI, but all of them are your characters. They even have a naming system that goes with that. You get a 'family' name that all your characters get, and then a particular name for each of them. The character names can be repeated, but the family name is unique. The uniqueness of Granado Espada's system is that you still keep control over the other 2, since you see all 3 skill bars at all times. MithTalk 15:58, 20 February 2011 (UTC)

Sure, I have played both Dungeon Siege and Granado Espada. There's a couple of other games that I can think of that use variations on that mechanic, of them, I think FFXII was the one that I enjoyed the most. However, Dungeon Siege did give us one of the greatest "It's so bad, it's amazing" movies of all time. A bunch of us here at the studio went to go see it on opening night, I'm not sure I've ever laughed harder in a theatre. It was only made worse by the fact that I think some guys from GPG were there as well, because I was hearing some pretty agonized sounds from the front. I think I'd feel the same if we were watching a Guild Wars movie like that. >< John Stumme 20:14, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

Dungeon Siege gameplay was pretty boring with melee and ranged characters only able to auto-attack but it was so awesome with mods! I made so many mods for that too and had lotsa fun... then Microsoft decided they wanted to close the servers for DS2 where mods don't work so well online and they removed the PvP :x Zencow 23:42, 2 March 2011 (UTC)

Slight topic hijack, but have you played the Dragon Age 2 Demo, I couldn't help think about Guild wars when i played it and how awesome they both are --Smithy-Star 01:01, 3 March 2011 (UTC)

Siege turtles

← moved to Feedback talk:Joe Kimmes#Fort Aspenwood

Feature Build and Factions Elite Areas

Will the feature build allow 11 hero parties in Urgoz's Warren and the Deep or is it just going to allow 7 heroes? 58.111.78.122 05:58, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

every where john talks about it he says 7 hero parties thus i would take that hint as we only get to have 7.- Zesbeer 06:56, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

I was under the impression that 7 hero party was a community term that the devs ran with and that the actual update would be more akin to "Full Hero Party", implying we'd have 11 hero's in those elite areas BladeArrowney 07:43, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

relook at all of the interviews about it and you will see what i am talking about.- Zesbeer 07:49, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

Well, the blog post about the Survey results promised that "You can look forward to filling out your party with Heroes as another feature of the free update build that will include Embark Beach.". It said nothing about this being limited to 7 heroes, or the "filling out" only applying to 8-person areas. Cheiron 08:48, 21 February 2011 (UTC) -- (Edit) btw, shouldn't this be merged with the 'Full Hero Parties' section above?

Merging seems pointless with sections, but we should just wait for an answer instead of discussing the semantics of what they've said about it. --ஸ Kyoshi 14:08, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

It's 7. The Elite areas for Factions were very particular in their design, that different party members would need to do/bring certain things. Having people trying to solo them is just going to highlight that, and make for a limiting/frustrating experience. I think it's ok to say that there are some places that you still need to bring a friend along, especially considering the number of places people can get to that they couldn't before they had 7 heroes. John Stumme 17:45, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

Okay so I still need to find somone to do the deep/urgoz with me. --'Mai Yi' talk 17:48, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

I'm a bit disappointed to hear this, but I'm sure I'll find a way to complete and armor-record them by myself, regardless. Manifold 18:05, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

There's no need to feel down about not being able to bring a full hero party to Urgoz or the Deep. You'd only find yourself unable to complete them anyway, because the hero AI isn't smart enough to run anything in the Deep and Urgoz - Mostly because the party needs to split up in order to function properly. Which if you'd try to do all by yourself, you'd have to micro a shitload of actions. On top of that.. Embark Beach should be able to provide you with the resources to find a party to do Urgoz or the Deep anyhoo. That's the whole idea behind the outpost. Making it easier to find a party to tag along with. Elisa/ talk

The only place you split up in Urgoz is one or two bridges you leave someone behind to prevent mobs from spawning, that's not an issue. Getting them to run around enough during the Urgoz battle might be very difficult. In the Deep you can clear the first two rooms with a group of three, and then res the rest. For the five switches, you would flag some heroes on them, and then flag them to the gate when the nightmares spawn, then res them across the gate. That part could be tricky, but it's not really insurmountable. If you're the tank you wouldn't have to worry about pulling mobs huge distances with flags. And no, I don't think Embark Beach is going to have anyone that wants to do either area very slowly with someone with a build that is pretty much not doing anything. Manifold 19:20, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

You need a necromancer to open the gate after a bit. That's what I meant by splitting the group for Urgoz. A hero would never be able to do such a thing, making sure that you need to be either primary necro or secondary - Which will greatly limit your choice of skills when it comes to making a build. On top of that Urgoz can in fact be solo'd reasonably easy. But you'd still need heroes to res you occasionally. As for the Deep, you can never perfectly place your heroes on top of the gate switches. You'd need a hell of a lot of patience to get it done for just one switch, let alone all of them. Embark Beach will allow you to find a team. However whether or not they will invite you and allow your build will be entirely up to you. Of course people prefer a quicker way to finish an area. Because spending 3 or 4 hours in Urgoz's Warren is simply ridiculous and a plain waste of time.Elisa/ talk

Well, to be fair, a Factions elite dungeon shouldn't have been designed to require a Prophecies-only skill in the first place. It should have been designed to be doable with just Factions and Core skills. So I feel that part of Urgoz should change. If any place in the game should have a "puzzle" like that, it's a Prophecies area.--Res 04:06, 22 February 2011 (UTC)

Then again you can safely assume that most, if not all, players that have Factions also own Prophecies. Waar Kijk Je Naar 15:50, 22 February 2011 (UTC)

Suggestion

You may want to start directing users to Feedback:Main when they post purely game-related suggestions on your talk page. Staff talk is in the feedback space so there's no legal issue, but your talk page is likely to get overwhelmed at this rate. It's happened to every other ArenaNet staff member who's showed the slightest hint of being responsive. elix Omni 20:05, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

It's just showing what I've always said - that when people post an idea, more often than not they want to hear an official response to their idea. That doesn't happen in the feedback space, so they do it here. Address that need and the problem of overwhelming dev talk pages goes away. --Nathe 20:09, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

(Edit conflict)

/agree w/Felix. It also gives the impression that ideas posted here get more attention than those posted as official suggestions.

I don't disagree with Nathe's assertion, but I'm not sure it's realistic that we expect official responses to more than a few suggestions.  — Tennessee Ernie Ford (TEF) 20:19, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

Exactly. Given the few people from ArenaNet that actually post here and the small number of Live Team members, it's unrealistic for everyone to expect an official response to every idea they post. --★KOKUOU★ 20:39, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

That's fine with me. I've just been responding to people here because there's always notifications about "Your talk page has changed," so it's easier to pick up on. But I can just add that page to keep an eye on. I'm a wiki nooblar. XD John Stumme 22:26, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

*nose-ridge pinch* I been meaning to ask the Archivists here about.... just how many of the feedback space suggestions for Derv actually got used? We're told Robert watches it constantly but does anyone actually have a hard tally yet? --ilr 22:39, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

Intriguing, but perhaps too tough to tally. Some suggestions are repeats of others; some are... poor; some suggest a change to skill A which the Live team did to skill B, instead; some suggestions have no bearing with the new over-arching changes to dervs; some suggestions may have inspired a different idea, so we can't weight that value... Hold on, was your question rhetorical? G R E E N E R 22:45, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

Okay let' say it was a bit of a stretch to link some of them... would it atleast be more than you could count on 1 hand? --ilr 22:52, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

I have to concur with Felix here John, we put a lot of time and effort into creating the feedback namespace so that people can post their suggestions for you to read at your convenience, without feeling it necessary to respond unless you chose to. The fact that Nathe has been warned repeatedly about bringing suggestions directly to staff is more of a problem with the admins not properly putting a stop to it than anything you have done, but I'd be happy to direct you to the most efficient ways for you to view the feedback space. We have lost all previous team members from the wiki because of the sheer overload that was allowed to continue on their pages. I don't want to see that happen here. -- Wyn talk 07:19, 27 February 2011 (UTC)

It's true. John's been the only team member that actually responds to people here on the wiki and it would suck if that stopped because of talk page overload. On the other hand... not a single suggestion in the feedback space has been commented on by any of the live team. There's got to be some way to make the suggestion posters feel like they're not being ignored and the feedback space not seem like a garbage can for ideas. Then people wouldn't feel that to get attention they have to fill up John's page. --Musha 07:56, 27 February 2011 (UTC)

From the beginning, we knew that the live team wasn't likely to comment on suggestions. Perhaps it isn't ideal if posters feel ignored, but that issue is exacerbated now: those who follow the guidelines (posting well-crafted ideas in Feedback) are getting one kind of response and those who post off-the-cuff comments here are getting another. I don't happen to feel that the feedback space is a garbage can because I can see updates that make use of ideas that I have found there.

Stumme can (of course) decide he prefers that people post here (in which case, he need do nothing). On other hand, if he prefers that people rely on the feedback space, as Felix suggested above, it would help if he could direct people there (or ask the sysops here to move the relevant posts).  — Tennessee Ernie Ford (TEF) 08:16, 27 February 2011 (UTC)

To throw my hat in the ring: Using silence as tacit approval of the current situation would not be the best scenario. It leaves those who may wish to redirect some "misplaced" conversations in an awkward limbo.

We know that your time on this wiki and page is limited, precious and appreciated, so we would like this page to be as effective, informative and enjoyable for those that come here (inclusive of you). Giving contributors a proper scaffold from which they can work would help immensely. Is this page for general chat on life, love and gaming? Is it for suggestions or in-depth questions about Guild Wars? By providing a frame to build from, this page can grow in a more comprehensive manner, rather than the garrulous form it has now. Yes, I had fun with a thesaurus for that last word, and I don't care if I used it incorrectly. G R E E N E R 08:50, 27 February 2011 (UTC)

(Reset indent) Of course Wyn will disagree with me, I've never seen her admit to being wrong about anything. Or disagreeing with Anet about anything. Funny she's still a sysop after all this time. But anyway, she has missed the point I mentioned—the reason people post ideas, more often than not, is because they want an official response. Not silence. There has to be a middle ground so that the feedback space doesn't have to be the waste of time that it is for us regular players who have no way of knowing if our ideas will ever be implemented or not. We have to take it on faith that they're even read.

I'm sure they are, I believe Regina's explanation from a while ago about how it was done, but there has to be a better way. You won't stop people from posting suggestions here until you serve the underlying need, which is the desire for an official response to the submitted idea. Doesn't matter if the dev says yes or no, just that it's something. Just so we the players don't feel ignored, that we feel our contribution—the fact of being able to contribute—has meaning and value whether the ideas themselves are approved or not. I don't think you quite understand how many players feel about the feedback space, Wyn. Your tone has always been one of arrogance in most everything I've seen you say, whether to me or others. It's like you don't even want to consider what others have to say. So I don't expect to get through to you. But I write this for others and for John, that I might clarify my point to them. Serve the underlying need and the problem of misplaced suggestions will go down. That's all I'm saying. --Nathe 18:21, 27 February 2011 (UTC)

Yeah, we will stop people from posting suggestions in the wrong place - one way or another. Their inability to understand basic concepts like "where to put my two cents" isn't going to make the problem go away, it will simply chase away more ANet devs swamped with hundreds or thousands of people who can't follow directions asking stupid questions about a billion different topics.

The feedback namespace exists for ANet to use at their discretion - they are under no obligation to answer every post or grace every idea page with a "wow, this is awesome" or "man what a dumb idea." You are not going to force devs to answer your questions by posting them directly on their talk pages, you are simply going to force them to leave the wiki - like Izzy and Reggie did. Expecting a response on every post is an exercise in futility. There are too many stupid ideas - too many ideas in general - for ANet to process them all, and the feedback namespace was designed to allow ANet devs to browse through suggestions as standalone project pages (uncluttered by irrelevant or off-topic discussion, which talk pages sections often get).

If you, Nathe, have a better idea to organize the feedback namespace, feel free to suggest it and get input back from the community - I'm sure we all would like to see the best possible outcome. But ignoring the system entirely and throwing everything on dev talk pages because users have inflated egos and an inability to put suggestions in perspective is not going to cut it. Stop expecting, nay, demanding a response from the devs, and try to help build a system where devs can review suggestions in an efficient manner without forcing them to sift through pages of offtopic bullshit. -Auron 07:26, 28 February 2011 (UTC)

You've just shown your problem, Auron - you don't treat people here or what they say as though they have any value. It is admins and former admins like you and Wyn that put people off, because you continue to refuse to actually listen to what is being said. You only hear and see what you want to hear and see. And I never said put everything here, I just said that it happens because people's desire for an official response is not being met in the feedback space. There is a difference. But you and Wyn chose not to see it. --Nathe 17:14, 28 February 2011 (UTC)