Guild Wars 2 Live Stream Q&A Transcript

Bringing PvE focus back to deserted zones

• There will be a new achievement system that plays into dailies and monthlies that adds new styles of gameplay.
• The new achievements will encourager cooperative play to a greater degree, to allow players better at understanding the concepts of our game.
• ArenaNet want to allow players to move back into some of the deserted zones by encouraging achievements to be completed there.
• There will be new content for guilds with different styles of content that are designed for guilds to start, to encourage others to take part.
• There will be new rewards for guild members to show off and new elements added to the guild tab.
• There will be more than one hundred rewards linked to achievements that players can show off with.
• New ascended items are to be added outside of the Fractals, with much of the above rolling out this month.

Dungeon Philosophy

• ArenaNet are seeking to remove the concept of “rez running”.
• You will no longer be able to resurrect (i.e waypoint run) if someone in the dungeon is in combat.
• Some of the encounters will be rebalanced to make them easier.
• Some of the encounters will have their difficulty raised if necessary.
• There will be new rewards added to dungeons, although no specifics were given.
• ArenaNet have now developed better tools to improve boss scripts.
• They’re looking at implementing a greater amount of mechanics, similar to fractals, when bosses reach different stages of health.

Looking for Group/PvE

• A system is currently being designed that works across PvE and sPvP however there is no estimated time of completion.
• Crowns are a new type of currency awarded by completing daily and monthly achievements.
• Where “Crowns” are concerned, you will receive rewards based on your profession.
• “Crowns” will only be available as dailies and monthlies at first.
• Februarys update will implement Crowns.

Structured PvP

• Work has begun on custom arenas, however they’ve yet to be released because they’re polishing them while ensuring they’re bug free. Leaderboards are also in development.
• A better matchmaking system is in the works, to better pair players against one another of an equal skill level.
• Work has begun on a 1v1 paid tournament system (ed: I'm assuming this is really 1 team versus 1 team) with a “winner stays on” rotation. The rewards and entry fee will be less to reflect this.
• This new tournament version will be on Temple of Silent Storm map (this map has a lot of tournament potential).
• A blog post will be released soon to discuss all the changes to sPvP.
• A greater quantity of skins will be added to PvP that are unique to sPvP.
• Servers will cost money to host and are rented directly from ArenaNet.
• New game modes cannot be created, but options will be provided to tailor your experience.
• There are still ongoing discussions occurring around other game modes.
• The Elementalist “bunker” is still considered incredibly strong and is being watched.
• The Mesmer portal is still being reviewed, with the intention that other professions receive similarly useful skills.
• It’s considered that the current meta game could use some expansion although they want to retain bunkers based on them being an anchor for the team.
• However, they are keen to ensure bunkers aren’t mandatory for teams.

World versus World

• A progression system is being developed/looked into, to give rewards and development to your character.
• The principal of this is simply to encourage greater participation in WvW.
• Culling tests are ongoing, with a multitude of different tests and tweaks in the works.
• Similarly to structured PvP, more PvP/WvW centric armour will be added.
• The development team have mixed feelings towards showing enemy names. This is about a whole server, not individual players.
• If they were to show player names, it would be voluntary opt-in as opposed to a blanket implementation
• They’ve discussed ascended gear being implemented in WvW with the exchange of tokens.

Area of Effect Skills

• ArenaNet consider that Area of Effect (AOE) spells are too strong at the moment.
• The intention is for AOE effectiveness to be brought in line with single target damage skills.
• A major update is to be released to all AoE skills, allowing single target skills to stand out.
• ArenaNet went on to describe how completing dungeon content, just by utilising AoE skills isn’t what was envisaged.
• Data is being gathered on the potency of AoE skills. ArenaNet consider that players shouldn’t be using AoE skills against single target enemies (the describe an example of a single target skill dealing 10 damage, to an AOE skill dealing 8 damage to 5 enemies)
• In Player versus Player and WvW it’s common to see AoE used specifically on downed players.

Profession Balance

• The intention is that all classes should have multiple options to deal with all/every situation though it should be noted that all professions won’t have the same amount.
• The intention is that all professions will be brought up to the standard that they have 5 to 6 viable builds.
• ArenaNet want all professions to have a unique way to approach situations, they described Mesmers and Thieves having stealth as escape tools. While other professions don’t have it, they have similar ways of escape.
• Weapons and Traits will be revised to bring them into line with the strongest.

Fractals of the Mists

• Disconnecting from Fractals and the disjointed grouping caused by the difficulty progression will be fixed this month.
• As described in a previous blog post, party members will be able to join at the highest difficulty level.
• Players will be rewarded based on your personal level, not the level of the fractal you are taking part in.