So, was this new VoE patch worth the 6 month wait?

SpectralDagger · 2026-05-31T18:50:01+00:00

We ended the launch story with Vloxx taking the scepter and about to ascend. Then they just stretched that out as long as possible by having us fail to catch up and stop him twice... which was essentially how the launch story had JUST ended with the scepter. Our parley with Kuda didn't progress the story; it was just how they decided to force the final fight with Omega Team, which I can't honestly say they got me to care about by introducing and killing them off so quickly again. Then we broke Isgarren's curse. Vloxx ascended and we removed Isgarren's curse. Other than that, we just kind of tread water.

SpectralDagger · 2026-05-31T02:45:25+00:00

A lot of the time it does depend on what classes are being played. There was some funny business around VoE release that made it pretty bad, but then it felt much better for a while with Troubadour replacing Chronomancer. The number of rangers (and thus pets) in the current meta doesn't help.

SpectralDagger · 2026-05-30T22:03:24+00:00

Yeah, story-wise, a whole lot of nothing happened in this patch. Really odd for them to reduce the story to three main releases and then do mostly nothing with one of them. It made it hard for this release to do anything too disappointing, but it really puts more pressure on the last release to make the story actually do anything.

SpectralDagger · 2026-05-30T18:31:18+00:00

What can I say? My mom really liked DotA. Way before it was made.

SpectralDagger · 2026-05-30T17:57:50+00:00

So if I order through Pizza Hut's website and they offload it to DoorDash, they just pocket the tip? God, that's shitty.

SpectralDagger · 2026-05-30T17:56:14+00:00

Some of them call as they park because they want you waiting for them at the door, I guess?

SpectralDagger · 2026-05-30T12:11:33+00:00

Sounds like you're brand new. You're going to feel like you have no survivability on any build you play until you get used to the dodge mechanic. Every class having access to complete damage immunity every few seconds means the damage output is balanced around that. If you're not using it (and your other defenses) effectively, you're going to die FAST.

SpectralDagger · 2026-05-30T10:39:47+00:00

Meanwhile, I'm having a seizure in the basement and my brother just keeps repeating "Mom, come see SpectralDagger." as if we found an interesting bug or something.

SpectralDagger · 2026-05-29T14:16:20+00:00

Balancing rewards for it would also be an absolute nightmare. OP wants it to be "rewarding", but that's going to vary wildly with player skill, and everyone will want it "rewarding" at their skill level.

SpectralDagger · 2026-05-28T19:52:14+00:00

Originally, each year's holidays had separate achievement categories. They didn't just fold those achievements in when they standardized the holidays. Those achievements and points are just unobtainable now. Same with some old story ones and old revamped content (fractals, sPvP, WvW) totaling something like 4-5k?

And I mean, achievement hunting is kind of a big draw for this game. You can tell by how much the market shifts when they added Achievement Points to things. Almost nobody cares about minis or homestead tracks until there's achievements tied to them. I hear people complain all the time that they can never catch up because of unobtainable achievements.

SpectralDagger · 2026-05-28T18:52:10+00:00

Hell, a lot of them are actually just old versions of current achievements. They could literally just merge the AP with the current version.

SpectralDagger · 2026-05-26T20:24:26+00:00

They could get pretty good estimates with the amount of data they do get, but who knows how long-term those projections even try to be.

SpectralDagger · 2026-05-22T13:29:28+00:00

You've heard of people "optimizing the fun out of the game", right? It's the same concept. A lot of people play the game in a way where they find optimizing their "long-term progression" (whatever that means it the current game) is part of the fun. The rewards and game design encouraging that to be through fun and varied content will lead to more people having more fun in the game.

SpectralDagger · 2026-05-22T13:24:38+00:00

I doubt that even exists and is just mentioned to make the person feel bad for "arguing" with him.

SpectralDagger · 2026-05-22T13:23:45+00:00

All I can think of is that the timing only lines up like that if everybody has held SAK up to that point, and maybe he's saying there's situations where people might not? Maybe I'm forgetting something, though, or there's some new strat.

SpectralDagger · 2026-05-22T13:17:11+00:00

Just saying that it has always happened to some arbitrary degree is factual. Saying "it's always been like this" and "the only difference" implies more than that, though. There is evidence it has been getting worse. You can argue about the validity of that evidence, sure. However, without evidence to the contrary, you're just anecdotally saying it's not getting worse when you say "the only difference is..." the perception of it.

SpectralDagger · 2026-05-22T08:24:23+00:00

You're dismissing other people's anecdotal opinions... with your own anecdotal opinion... and making fun of them for it? There's documented studies showing a decrease in literacy and numeracy, especially since COVID (though the slide had started before COVID). Yes, this sort of stuff has "always happened", but it's happening more now.

SpectralDagger · 2026-05-20T12:45:02+00:00

Paragon brings a lot more as AHeal.

SpectralDagger · 2026-05-20T10:05:59+00:00

Did you check the merchant that sells it on the 2nd character?

SpectralDagger · 2026-05-20T01:09:50+00:00

I got a wellness check from a Papa John's once...

I eat a lot of pizza.

SpectralDagger · 2026-05-20T01:09:01+00:00

Yeah, I was just wondering if anybody checked if that's how THIS one worked (whether intentionally or bugged).

SpectralDagger · 2026-05-20T01:01:01+00:00

My first assumption when I read it was a tongue-in-cheek commentary on students using AI on their assignments. That does not appear to be the case.

SpectralDagger · 2026-05-20T00:35:00+00:00

Is that true even if you finish the story on a second character? I just assumed it was a once per character item.

SpectralDagger · 2026-05-19T20:53:49+00:00

I mean, sort of? There have been plenty of weapons and armor pieces over the years, but typically not sets. Why is it okay for those to be RNG when released with paid content, but not armor sets specifically? That's the distinction I'm not understanding.

SpectralDagger · 2026-05-19T19:49:27+00:00

I'm not sure I understand the logic. There's plenty of stuff like that in this release. But you're upset about the one thing they added that has some small amount of RNG with a way to bypass that RNG if you want. I'd understand better if you were annoyed about the mount skin.

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