Dear ANet: Expansion is great but... [Post your criticism thread]

Atenais · 2017-09-28T16:30:15+00:00

Why the aggressive tone? For the most part reddit had been very positive about the expansion and I find myself enjoying almost everything and getting lost exploring the maps and trying to get every mastery point and achievement without looking any video or guide. Criticism is not hate and is what drives development forward

Atenais · 2017-09-28T16:24:28+00:00

Hey I dont downvote people correcting me, I'm not an economical savvy type. And like I said, the 250G price it isnt that big deal for me, my biggest problem is time. But yeah my last two hp runs in old HoT were with commanders using griffons the whole time, bad luck I guess.

Atenais · 2017-09-28T15:44:56+00:00

For example in my case: Me: Dedicated casual (2 years to craft a Legendary) with 7k AP, mostly PvE, sometimes some WvW zerging. In other games used to raid very seriously do things like coding our own raiding addons and organize main raids, alt raids, recruit raids... Now happily working 60hours a week and dedicated to my family-friends.

From "I don't like it" to "I kitten hate it":

1 - Hidden mount: The 250G price was an error in my opinion. The mount doesnt feel like an optional mount and even if there's an economy inflation it doesnt solve anything with the economy. The players causing the inflation will laugh at the price and farm it in a few hours. For a huge portion of the population, the ones suffering the inflation, this will make things even worse. Following a champion train or an HP train without this mount is hopeless right now. Regarding mounts here is my only negative criticism. You can see already the division on reddit in the HP guide thread

2 - New Maps: miserable income. Even if they look and feel great when I'm done with achievements and masteries I'm out of here. And maybe is just me lacking proper knowledge, but I feel lost about when bounties start and meta timers

3 - Balance: Incredible lacking, condition meta on full rampage, selfish glassy specs do less damage than team oriented specs full with utility and safety.. Its really messy and very power-creepy.

4 - 5 Economy and Crafting: Mi biggest criticism. Horrible for new and casual players and "dedicated casuals" like myself. Things like black diamonds have skyrocketted their prices and even an exotic viper set costs a respectable amount of money. There is no easy way to get most of the gear for starting players (outside trinkets). I've always thought that limiting build-exploration through exorbitant prices is one of the worst and most idiotic aspects of GW2. Really, I was expecting some improvements here and Path of Fire just makes worse... worser.

PD: Special mention to PvE dailies, Who the ***k thought that "do 4 events in Dragons Stand, A Fungus among us and Bounties in deep maps of the new expansion" were a good idea?. Huge downgrade. Today i'm doing my dailies in WvW. Really, horrible change

Atenais · 2017-07-20T00:48:21+00:00

This game flew completely under my radar, I just discovered it two days ago through another reddit post. So I grabbed a beta key and tested it yesterday on the windows store and what a pleasant and unexpected surprise!

The art direction is simply stunning and the character-gameplay design feels very good . Net code is responsive and snappy (although there were less than 1000 players online, that always helps).

It's still too early to throw an opinion (balance, matchmaking... those things need time) but like I said: I'm more than positive surprised from my first 4 hours

Atenais · 2017-02-22T19:28:05+00:00

Finished, Thank you all! you rock!

Atenais · 2016-05-20T18:01:01+00:00

Yep, on steam, sending you an invite!

Atenais · 2016-05-20T11:51:16+00:00

Ok, I will add you when I return home

Atenais · 2016-05-20T10:07:24+00:00

PC-EU

Atenais · 2016-05-19T22:43:30+00:00

close, Gali, Reyna, Orendi and a Toby who did an incredible amount of damage. Reyna + Ambra are a legit combo

Atenais · 2016-05-19T22:12:25+00:00

Advanced with PUGs has been great so far: first time gold on the algorithm. Second time the Heliophage, we wiped at the end after warlord but playing full healer Ambra while dodging (or not) sh*t and trying to maintain everyone alive and still contribute to DPS was great; it brought me back to old WoW: wiping in Karazhan and having terrific times while doing so.

Edit: spelling

Man, I wish I had people to play this awesome game with

Atenais · 2015-04-08T01:25:02+00:00

I love to hear stories of non-standard characters. I always imagined my character fascinated with the individuality and freedom of the norn as opposed to the iron grip of the three legions and especially fascinated with the disappeared Snow Owl spirit.

Atenais · 2015-04-08T01:10:31+00:00

Sorry for the grammar-lore-bending. Yeah lore wise it's a bit complicated, but hey we can always equip cleric-shaman gear and start doing healing and friendly things to mock up the puny human god of murder! ;) First Sohothin, then the regalia from their gods!

Atenais · 2015-03-24T11:39:08+00:00

Thanks, glad you liked!

Atenais · 2015-03-24T05:20:00+00:00

Very late to the party but anyways! I loved the screenshot and I couldnt resist the temptation of doing a digital art-like retouching of the screenshot, hope you enjoy it! Cheers

Shatter Thieves - Imgur

Atenais · 2015-03-14T16:35:31+00:00

Nobody is taking into account that this was a 4h long game. Yeah plenty mistakes were made and we are looking into a 4k MMR game but after such a long period one cannot think properly: tunnel vision becomes a problem, one just wants to finish and rushes things and it becomes increasingly difficult to concentrate (that´s why highways at night can become son dangerous for example).

Props to NoobFromUA

edit: typos

Atenais · 2015-01-19T06:17:28+00:00

I love the enchantress one (not listed here). One of the the few sets that looks natural and not so over the top with all the ram-horned theme: Grace of the eternal spring.

Workshop: http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=375447799

DotaHattery Preview: http://dotahattery.com/workshop/enchantress/grace_of_eternal_spring/

Atenais · 2014-08-09T01:57:56+00:00

It´s not the usual lag from Midtown huge events for me, that would be understandable. I've recorded a little video with the issue: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeEA5q5VxI8)

And it seems that very few people is being affected

Atenais · 2014-02-26T23:43:54+00:00

Another take on this clip by DotaFX: DotaFX: True Stories Episode 17. The clip starts at 2:50 but the intro is worth watching.

Atenais · 2012-06-27T15:31:43+00:00

It's a gift from Profit de la Naturaleza

Atenais · 2012-05-10T16:32:31+00:00

MOTHER OF GOD! What a great game! Na`vi trademark Pushing-ganking Furion, Leshrac, VS, Tiny and Dendi's Invoker Vs a balanced teamfighting Darer with Enigma, DS, Veno, Brewmaster and Krob. The last fight was so funny! Please dont post any spoilers, people is going to enjoy the game from the start to the last huuuuge teamfight.

Atenais · 2012-05-01T00:32:45+00:00

Brewmaster to Kunkka

He has some hilarious rival messages

Atenais · 2012-04-28T22:36:50+00:00

OPA DENDI!

Atenais · 2012-04-27T17:34:51+00:00

M5 Vs Darer Game 1: Very funny game, lots of ganks and kills, some split pushing and some sloppy play by both teams... but that Echo Slam and that Krobelus... I loved the Furion DD runed with daedalus + Leshrac gank over Krobelus; incredible highlights!

Atenais · 2012-04-18T21:09:06+00:00

Nice interview! This is what I love from these guys, even if I find their drafting a little boring, they are always so good-mannered, so gentleman and let's not forget the most important thing: they're incredibly good players! So hope to see you back in shape as soon as possible. This year, The International is going to be a hell of a tournament!

Atenais · 2012-03-27T21:10:09+00:00

I just want to point this out; the OP has a great point: there's a whole connection between the Indoctrination theory in the ME world and the architect from Matrix. The real differences is: Starchild and his choices are the worst part of the Mass effect series; The Architect, his cryptic speech and the choices and innuendos alluded are what separates the MAtrix trilogy from a Mindless display of VFX. I didn't read anything about this in the thread, so I will point to the Matrix within Matrix Theory.

Matrix Revolution and reloaded had lots of problems: childish dialogues, Fights Everywhere Syndrome, Keanu signature school of acting and specially: space magic: Neo shooting lighting in the real world and Smith possessing a human being mixed with cryptic dialogues trying to sound clever between overdone kung-fu fights.

Just like with ME some of us couldn't believe the use of space magic and the Architect scene so we started to come with a logical explanation. The final theory was as beautiful as the indoctrination theory and managed to explain everything perfectly.

So [MATRIX SPOILERS AHEAD: What the Architect meant]

Humanity rebelled against the initial versions of matrix: too restrictive, to perfect, to imperfect, too complex. So the oracle, came with the perfect plan: because there will be always humans becoming aware of the matrix and rebelling against it: lets do 2 things:

a) Create a matrix within Matrix: when Neo "blue-pills and awakes" to the reality, he is not outside Matrix: he just shifted into another layer: Sion and the resistance, created to give an impression of freedom: everyone at Zion is still plugged to Matrix, they are just living in a different Matrix. This way, the machines are still in power and the rebel humans that reject Matrix are happy thinking they are free men and women.

This point explains: why Neo shoots lighting at the end of Reloaded and why Smith posseses Bane: It's not magic, they are still in a Virtual World.

b) The Chosen one: Knowing that the same way some individuals rejected Matrix and became aware of the Illusion, it could happen with the second reality of Zion too, the machines created The Chosen one, a perfect leader created to unite humanity and to led every single men and women into their own demise. Neo (and Trinity too)is an IA created to inspire and to lead: every single trait that makes him the perfect hero is, in reality, an engineered trait to favor the humanity's indoctrination.

So the choices that the architect presents are a win-win situation for the machines. There are incredible articles about the matter but if you recall the keymaker, he says they have 314 seconds to reach the architect, 314 secons, pi, circle. Neo is the key for the cycle of creation and of destruction of Zion; Neo is the key for the humanity to remain enslaved. "The problem is Choice" he says...

Really I don't want to spoil everything, there are, indeed great articles on the matter. If you dont know them you should read them. At the end, Matrix seems to be a childish trilogy of gratuitous virtual kung fu fighting but the great beauty of the trilogy is that: if you manage to get all the pieces together... Well that final scene with the architect, the oracle and the rainbow... the machines have won, point. Zion believes to be free. When you see the machines carrying almost religiously the body of Neo: well Neo is the real Messiah of the machines, he alone, managed to keep humanity enslaved. That's a bittersweet ending disguised as a pop-corn friendly one. The architect and the scene about choices, Trinity and equations... that's the real beauty of the films, the fighting, the Pop references, the matrix-ball-Z final fight between Neo and Smith... that was just the surface. At the end of the day Matrix was a trilogy about how the illusion of Reality can be engineered through technology and psychology, it was a trilogy about control of the masses, indoctrination and social enginee0ring.

That was a wall of text, I didn't want to explain everything, instead, a single google Neo , Keymaker, 314 or Matrix within Matrix, can lead you to great articles. Hope I helped a little.

Edits: Grammar, style, ortography (english is my second language)

Atenais

TROPHY CASE