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And this is where Anet shows they don't understand their own game.. 

 

"One of the main goals for balance in Guild Wars 2 is to support a wide variety of builds that cater to different play styles. The current implementation of critical damage works against this. Put simply, if critical damage-stacked builds are more effective than other approaches, the build diversity decreases."

 

Berserker is good because the pve side of the game is brain dead easy. AI allows people to get away with going glass cannon. That's not going to change just because they slightly nerf crit damage. It's only going to change when they put in the effort to make a proper fix by changing the behavior of pretty much every single pve enemy in the game, especially bosses in dungeons. And other kinds of build aren't as popular because there is no reason to use to use them, they just aren't as efficient. This change is happening without a doubt to appease whiners on the official forums.

Removing berserker wouldn't fix the problem. People would just move to the next highest dps set. Valkyre or Assassins or whatever. Berserker is a symptom of the real problem. 

 

Here's how anet fixes the "berserker" problem. Make trash enemies attack faster but for less damage. Same with bosses. Then remove all the stupid annoying 1 shot mechanics that bosses all seem to have. Cheap 1 shot mechanics only enforce the idea that killing things faster is better, which means berserker is best. Because if you get hit wearing full defensive set you're downed anyways. Add mechanics that encourage people to use other sets.

 

People have been saying since the betas that toughness and armor were not effective enough, and turns out we were more right than we could have known. Doing the above would increase how effective toughness and armor are.

 

So only after doing all the above will the berserker problem fix itself. Active defense (dodging) is just too good compared to the defense offered by gear and boons. This is the reason why we saw the vigor nerf a while back.

Account bound dyes... seriously? I'm so glad I never bothered making a lot of characters and getting good dyes for them. What a joke. I have several friends who have made a lot of characters and have spent a lot of gold getting good dyes for them. This is going to ###### them off and for good reason, account bound dyes has been a requested feature almost as much as precursor crafting.

 

But anet said, no no, dyes need to be character bound to keep them rare. Again, what a joke. Also during the betas dyes were in fact account bound but they changed it in favor of the how it is now. 

Finally, wardrobe and account wide dyes.  Two things that should have been in the game since launch.

 

Dyes weren't account wide in beta after the first beta test.  They changed that pretty early on.  I only played in the second beta, they were still dye seeds but not account wide.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/pvp-reward-tracks-and-gear-unification/

 

"New" pvp rewards system. But judging by the pic of the tracks, it's basically the same chest based rng crap as before, just without the glory points now. Which means pvp remains a waste of my time since i STILL wont be able to pick my damn rewards.

I always felt it strange that they went with servers considering how they did things in GW1. The districts worked well in that game and I wondered why they didn't carry over. 

 

Anyways, I'm not sold on the entire mega server thing. It can make it so there are too many people all over the place and that's going to make it hard to do some events because things will explode instantly when they spawn.

  • 9 months later...

Anet announces the first official expansion of Guild Wars 2, called Heart of Thorns:

 

https://heartofthorns.guildwars2.com/en

 

 

  • New heavy armor class Revenant
  • Class specializations, ranger specializes into a druid, can use a staff and more, necro using greatswords, engineers using hammers, changes the way classes play
  • Masteries learned in "the Jungle", level 80 account wide progression system
  • New world vs world borderlands map along with a revamp of how world vs world currently works, new mechanics, actually reward defending instead of ring-around-the-rosie karma trains we mostly see now
  • New pvp game type strong hold, think GvG from GW1
  • Guil Halls
  • New legendary weapons and precursor crafting and/or scavenge hunt of some kind, no specifics yet
  • No new gear tier
  • No level cap increase
  • Raid style content for guilds
  • Maguuma Jungle is the focus of the expansion with the elder dragon Mordramoth, 3 "tiers" of verticality, huge area
  • Glint has a secret for us "in the jungle"

 

And more. No release date and no cost yet.

 

F.A.Q.

 

https://help.guildwars2.com/entries/105801626-Guild-Wars-2-Heart-of-Thorns-FAQ

http://buy.guildwars2.com/store/gw2/en_US/html/pbPage.buyguildwars2

 

On sale for 10 bucks. Worth it? Play a little bit of arch age and i did not like that game at all.

 

Archeage and GW2 are trying to be completely different kinds of games while both still being mmo, so there is that.

 

Its hard to say if you'll like it though. What other kind of games do you like?

 

But for $10 you probably can't go wrong, considering there is no sub fee.

Wonder if there'll be more than one specialization per class.. either way though glad to see "power creep" isn't going to be an issue, rather annoying in other MMOs. Hopefully they'll do a few more.. still waiting to see what happened with Cantha and Elona too, never mind a few areas they haven't touched yet like Ring of Fire, etc.  

 

On sale for 10 bucks. Worth it? Play a little bit of arch age and i did not like that game at all.

Definitely, as said above there's no monthly fees and the store is totally optional, no "pay to win" here.  Enough content to last you a long while and a decent replay-value with different races/professions as well.  

Wonder if there'll be more than one specialization per class.. either way though glad to see "power creep" isn't going to be an issue, rather annoying in other MMOs. Hopefully they'll do a few more.. still waiting to see what happened with Cantha and Elona too, never mind a few areas they haven't touched yet like Ring of Fire, etc.  

 

Definitely, as said above there's no monthly fees and the store is totally optional, no "pay to win" here.  Enough content to last you a long while and a decent replay-value with different races/professions as well.  

 

I hope there are more than one specialization per class because then it's not really a choice. It's just something everyone of a given class will have which kind of lessens the entire idea of specializing.

 

A few things they didn't mention anything about, and these are kind of big.. they didn't mention anything about new dungeons or a dungeon revamp or fractals either. Which is surprising.

I hope there are more than one specialization per class because then it's not really a choice. It's just something everyone of a given class will have which kind of lessens the entire idea of specializing.

 

A few things they didn't mention anything about, and these are kind of big.. they didn't mention anything about new dungeons or a dungeon revamp or fractals either. Which is surprising.

It's probably a safe assumption there's going to be new dungeons and the like, probably have more of the details revealed as the release gets closer.  And yea I'm thinking the same thing about specialization, it's not like GW1's dual-classing but could come close-ish, for the ranger not only a druid but say a master marksman and one that specializes in blades primarily, give a lot more flexibility/flavor.  That said, going to avoid the revenant for a while.. brings back memories of the Death Knight flood in WoW heh, going to be a gazillion of them.

I'm wondering how they are going to distribute that expansion and how much we will be charged - if it would be released for free then I'm pretty sure this would be mentioned today.

I seriously doubt it'll be free.  Typically it's the core game, buy it once and done.  Free content updates (living story, etc).  And then, at least with GW1, several paid expansions, again once and done, never any monthly fees.  They've been reasonably priced in the past though, plus had an option to buy them all in one shot if you're late to the game.  

I'm wondering how they are going to distribute that expansion and how much we will be charged - if it would be released for free then I'm pretty sure this would be mentioned today.

 

In the FAQ I posted up there it says it will be a paid expansion. My guess is that it will be distributed the same way the original game was. Via their store and box sales.

 

The real question is how much it will be. Wouldn't be surprised at all if it's $50 or more.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Posts

    • Microsoft releases major feature updates for stock Windows 11 apps by Taras Buria In addition to releasing new Windows 11 preview builds, Microsoft announced that inbox Windows apps now have dedicated release notes in the official documentation. At long last, users have access to all the release notes for each app, with changes listed in chronological order. Microsoft used to announce feature updates for stock apps with each build. Now, with Windows Insider release notes hosted on the Microsoft Learn website, each app has a dedicated space for its changelog, which is very useful for those who want to track new features and improvements. Alongside that, Microsoft dropped massive feature updates for six stock apps: Clock, Media Player, Calculator, Voice Recorder, Photos, and Paint. Each app packs quite a lot of changes and new capabilities, so here are the release notes. Here are quick notes so that you can jump to the app you are interested in the most: Calculator Camera Clock Media Player Paint Photos Sound Recorder Here is what is new for the Calculator in version 11.2605.9.0: More accurate square-root results — Fixed rare cases where a calculation that should equal zero (like sqrt(2.25) - 1.5) returned a tiny leftover value instead. Readable text in High Contrast themes — Settings text now shows the correct colors in the High Contrast Aquatic and Desert themes. Fixed layout for right-to-left languages — For languages like Arabic and Hebrew, the graph, number pad, equation fields, and scroll buttons now appear correctly oriented. Reliable launch after upgrading — Fixed an issue where upgrading from much older versions could leave outdated settings that stopped the app from opening. Here is what is new for the Camera app (version 2026.2605.7.0): Zoom slider works on more cameras — The zoom slider now works on the latest cameras, respects your system zoom settings, and updates instantly when you change those settings. Full range of zoom levels — Fixed an issue where the zoom slider only showed three steps on some devices that zoom in finer increments. Front camera works on more devices — Resolved a problem that blocked the front-facing camera on certain wide-angle devices. More video resolution choices — You can now pick video resolutions that were previously hidden; the app shows a heads-up warning instead of removing them. QR links you can still use — When a scanned QR code points to something with no matching app, the link is now copied to your clipboard (with a notification) while still offering a Store search. Smarter default settings — When you haven't set a preference, the app now follows your system settings by default. The Clock app has a massive changelog with the following improvements in version 11.2605.9.0: Timers keep counting after they hit zero — When a timer runs out, it now keeps counting up (for example, -00:27:31) so you can see how far past the time you've gone. You can turn off the daily goal — Focus Sessions now include an "Off" option so you can skip setting a daily goal entirely. New 15-minute snooze option — Alarms now offer a 15-minute snooze interval. Run up to 3 countdowns at once — The Countdown Widget now supports three simultaneous countdowns, up from two. Timer Widget notifications now appear — Fixed an issue where the "timer finished" notification didn't show when the timer was started from the widget. Less clutter in Focus Sessions — Tasks you've already completed no longer show up in the Focus Session task list. More accurate focus progress — Fixed a rounding issue that could show your daily focus progress as a minute short (for example, 49 minutes instead of 50). Smoother World Clock comparisons — The World Clock compare page now loads dates as you scroll, so it feels more responsive. Up-to-date World Clock locations — Refreshed country and city names to match their current names. Correct sun and moon icons during midnight sun — Fixed an icon that wrongly showed a moon during all-day daylight in polar regions. Fixed back-button behavior in clock comparisons — Pressing back once now takes you back as expected, instead of jumping the date to 1926. Corrected the Newfoundland time zone — Newfoundland now uses the right time zone (St. John's). Disabled alarms stay looking disabled — Editing a turned-off alarm no longer makes it appear turned on. Cleaner timer cards — The expand button is now turned off on timer cards that have no time set, preventing actions that wouldn't do anything. Clearer theme setting — Updated the wording to "Choose your preferred app theme." Smoother Settings links — The "About" links in Settings no longer trigger an unexpected "switch apps" prompt. Fixed spacing in Spotify settings — Corrected uneven spacing in the Spotify settings card. Better focus visibility in High Contrast — The focus highlight in World Clock is now clearly visible in the High Contrast Aquatic and Desert themes. No more double announcements — Screen readers no longer read the timer value twice. Countdown names read correctly — Screen readers now properly announce the name of each countdown. Keyboard focus stays put — Focus no longer disappears after you press the Timer Reset button. Clearer alarm toggle for screen readers — Tidied up how the alarm on/off switch is announced. The Media Player app received plenty of changes as well (version 11.2605.14.0): Custom captions — You can now personalize how closed captions appear, with caption styling tied to your Windows caption settings, plus a quick link to open those settings directly. "Indexing" banner in the play queue — When your media library is still being scanned, a banner now explains why some items may not appear yet. Fixed the look of selected items — Corrected a layout glitch with selected items in lists. Fewer playback failures — Improved how the app recognizes supported file types, so more files play without issues. Playlists need a name — You can no longer accidentally save a playlist with a blank name. Cleaner look for empty playlists — Improved how a playlist appears when it has no items yet. More stable play queue edits — Fixed a crash that could happen when changing the play queue while the app was switching between sessions. Clearer "missing codec" message — Improved the dialog that appears when a file needs a codec you don't have, with clearer guidance on what to do. A big update is also available for Paint in version 11.2605.61.0: Adjustable eraser transparency — You can now control how transparent the eraser is. Cleaner stamp brush strokes — Fixed visible color shifts and artifacts when using stamp-style brushes. JPEG photos save in place — Opening a rotated JPEG and pressing Save now overwrites the original instead of unexpectedly prompting "Save As." No more crash on bad image files — Opening a damaged or invalid image, from within the app, by double click, or commandline, now shows a clear error message instead of closing the app. Classic selection behavior restored — The selection outline now hides while you move, resize, or rotate a selection, just like in classic Paint. Tidier AI image panel — Fixed missing spacing at the bottom of the AI image generation panel for a cleaner layout. Visible button hover in light theme — Toolbar split buttons now show a clear hover highlight in the light theme. Snappier toolbar — Streamlined how the ribbon lays out, giving a small speed boost at startup. Fewer background crashes — Fixed a crash that could happen while background tasks were finishing up. Stable app shutdown — Prevented rare crashes when closing the app. Fixed layer removal glitch — Deleting the active layer no longer leaves the layers list in an inconsistent state. Here is what is new in the Photos app (version 2026.11060.2004.0): AI watermarking — AI-generated or edited images can now carry a visible Copilot watermark. You choose Never, Always, or Ask Every Time in Settings, with a confirmation when saving. The watermarking is off by default in settings. Better viewing of small images and pixel art — Tiny images (like 16×16 pixel art) now zoom in far more to fill the screen and stay crisp instead of looking blurry. Select scanned text with the keyboard — When text is detected in an image, you can now navigate and select it using the arrow keys, Shift+Arrow, Home/End, and Ctrl+A, with a clear focus highlight. Fixed a crash in text recognition — Resolved a crash that could close Photos while detecting text in images; the app now recovers gracefully. Easier keyboard navigation — Tabbing through the navigation bar no longer stops on hidden controls, so it takes a single Tab to move past it instead of three. And finally, here is the Sound Recorder (version 11.2605.1.0): Waveform shows with Bluetooth mics — The live waveform now displays correctly when you record using a Bluetooth audio device. No more stray scrollbar — A non-working horizontal scrollbar no longer appears at the bottom of the waveform unless you've zoomed in. Mark button ready right away — The Mark button no longer looks grayed out until you hover over it after opening the app. Markers hidden for WAV files — Markers are now turned off for WAV recordings, since that format can't store them — so they're no longer lost silently. Smoother deleting — Quickly pressing Delete and Enter to remove several recordings in a row no longer triggers a "file doesn't exist" error. Fixed a memory issue — Resolved a memory leak that occurred each time a recording started. You can find all these changelogs in the official documentation here.
    • again, an article about Microsoft Edge and ridicules hater's comments
    • From this very same article: "For organizations that prefer a “more deliberate pace”, the Extended Stable channel remains an option."
    • Or every other browser, because they all behave the same, at least the mainstream ones. Firefox does exactly the same: background updates, restart to install them. Haters gotta hate, I guess.
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