An Open Letter to ANet

Good point. I'm just disappointed it couldn't have been worked in here somehow; I much prefer the mechanics/feel/look etc.. of GWs to games such as WoW... I guess I'll keep my eye on Aion and GWs 2 (closet I can see being developed to what we have here).


Actually, it was meant to be playful but take it how you will.

This rage related to the ability to resurrect in Dungeons doesn't make sense to me. This isn't a dig at Malice at all, just to clarify, your post just caught my attention, and seems to be a viewpoint taken by a lot of people.

I don't understand what is srong with having Resurrection points in dungeons. If we think about other dungeons, which are described by wiki as being the Realm of Torment and Sorrow's Furnace...they have Res Shrines...yet noone complains about those. Other underground "dungeony" areas such as Bahdok Caverns, The Undercity and the Hidden City of Ahdashim also have Res Shrines. All except real "elite" areas such as The Deep, Urgoz Warren and DoA do, so, perhaps when Hard Mode is introduced to EotN, the Res Shrines will be taken away.

If someone could explain to me on what basis they're complaining that dungeons have res shrines in I'd love to hear it, because, right now, it seems normal to have them to me, and since Slavers' Exile is deemed "too easy", that seems to justify it having them too, since all the other easy dungeons have them.

EVE is far more hardcore then WoW tbh. I can't see how they'd work in hardcore PvE tbh, unless they done something along the lines of my example of hard mode.


Heh you had a valid point tbh...long winded posts do annoy me though, half of them just repeat what other people have said, the other half are complete garbage. Short n simple is the best way

The dungeon list on wiki is ridiculous in my personal opinion, because when you load into a dungeon, it says that it's a dungeon. The Deep, Urgoz, FoW, UW, DoA, The Hidden City, Bahdok Caverns, The Undercity, Sorrow's - these are not dungeons, nor do they claim to be. Having similarities does not justify classification. UW and The Hidden City are both on seperate maps not shown above ground; are they Realms of the Gods?

Regardless, my problem with rez points in dungeons is that it becomes impossible to fail. I have stated, however, that in Normal Mode I see no particular issue with rez points in dungeons, as it is Normal Mode. Hard Mode will answer that concern if the rez points are unavailable there. That said, I absolutely see no possible reason for dead allies to just... stand back up. Even in Sorrow's, if High Priest Alkar or Orozar or anyone else died, you lost. If they want to make it so that the NPCs are your "guides" and that their death means simply the loss of a guide and not the loss of the dungeon (which was a very specific selling point of GW:EN dungeons), then why don't they at least stay dead?

That sums up my feelings toward those who have been telling me I should play without armor, without weapons, and without skills for a challenge. My heroes have never had any runes on their armor, and they have no special equipment - just the preorder hourglass staves. My own armor and equipment and skills are all readily available to all players, because that is how the game is designed. I have no advantage that any average player doesn't. Why should I have to make myself suck to have fun?

I'm also compelled to mention to those who are calling me super-elite-amazing with this godly understanding of skills and mechanics: I am, but I didn't have to be. I ran Searing Flames and Spiteful Spirit and didn't lose. Is that really that much of a high end top secret build?

Also, to those who are dwelling on my example of Havok Soulwail vs. Remnant of Antiquities: I had no problem defeating either, personally. My concern was the fact that the Remnant had gotten an awesome new skill that made him an actual thread, while poor Soulwail was a rather anti-climactic Warrior boss with Giant Stomp.

To some degree you're correct, and you can trust me when I say I've already both played and have other games that I intend to play shortly. Regardless, Defket also makes a good point; if ANet was not hoping to have a partially hardcore, super-skilled fanbase, why did it put in DoA at all? Hard Mode? Even the Deep/Urgoz? Hell, Underworld takes HOURS to complete if you were so compelled.

I'm still hoping someone at ANet will take that big step and post here, or somewhere at least, and address these concerns, or others. I find it sad that even those who do not agree with me at all in this thread are generally still having entirely seperate problems of their own or are commenting that they'd like to hear something from ANet.

In the spirit of a couple deleted posts...

I love when... people name-call each other so that even if they had any valid points, they're completely lost amidst stupid bashing-each-other comments.

Stop it.

My view on this -

Urgoz/The Deep etc were added to keep the small percentage of hardcore players happy.

FoW/UW were needed to house the materials and armor crafter for the l33t armor, otherwise I'm not sure they would have been there at the beginning either.

TBH I don't consider UW/FoW hardcore PvE, neither area is that hard. Back in the day, maybe, but now..nah.

Can't comment of Urgoz or The Deep because I could never bring myself to go through the snore fest that was Factions.

Thank you,

We do need to get back on topic, instead of arguing amungst each other, we need to voice our opinion on what we think is wrong, so Anet maybe someday will give us the time of day.

I agree with the OP, my main concern are armor reskins and loot from dungeons. Of course i cant expect any new armors in an update but the loot you recieve in a dungeon is too little. One diamond? I got a req 13 jeweled chakram from beating another dungeon. Most dungeons are hardly worth my time right now.

If l33t loot dropped every time you finished a dungeon, it wouldn't stay l33t for long.

Rare drops will encourage people to play longer. Right now everything is about keeping the player base entertained until GW2.

Sorry i wasnt meaning rare drops. I was meaning something along the lines of maybe instead of 2 diamonds, maybe 3 or 4. Or instead of just a jeweled chakram, maybe two or three gold drops. Maybe a better reward for the quest givers than 1500 gold, maybe 3k. I know if they add hard mode this could possibly go up. But then it would make no sense to do the dungeons in normal mode. The rares will encourage me to play longer in a sense, but its discouraging to get the amount of loot for your time.

Finally, an intelligent comment. The imbalance in GW has always come from the fact that enemy mobs play nothing like human teams in PvP. Would human players just stand around and let you sneak up and hammer them with a AoE spell?

The idea of having random mobs is good. Maybe Anet could monitor the builds people use in PvP, and have enemy mob copy the successful ones. That'd reduce the amount of development work.

I would like to see some changes to the combat mechanics too (in GW2?). Right now, the so-called skills in PvE consist basically of not aggro management and focus-firing. Keeping circles from dots and pressing T when you hear a bell is not particularly challenging--or fun. It'd be more interesting if aggro and the radar are based on line-of-sight. To see an enemy you have to risk having him seeing you. Not sure what can be done about the over-importance of focus-firing. Maybe it's just a matter of giving enemy mobs more monks.

You have to factor the in the economy though. Having 2-3 diamonds drop is great but there will come a time when diamonds would have no value due to the insane drop rate.

Same goes with 2-3 gold drops, a time would come ehen those drops have been farmed to death and virtually worthless (think Dead Swords, soon to be worthless Runic Blades)

Because they finally realized how stupid that "keep NPC X alive, despite them doing their damnedest to get themselves killed" thing was?

What would be your opinion on VERY rare, auto-customized and VERY VISIBLE rewards (weapon/armor) ?

Well is not the economy already wrecked? Anyway nevermind lol. I guess in my opinion doing a dungeon for an hour or two doesnt warrant my time compared to what i believe is a decent reward. lol. Again i wasnt saying rare, i was thinking 2 crappy drops instead of one. lol. I have to be more discriptive in my posts. I was trying to fit in something that i thought was important to me. That a dungeon should be worth more than it is. I just wont play em until hardmode comes out.

Economy is casual palyer based..so yea it's a bit screwed from a traders point, and in great shape by a average kind of players point.

I fully agree with you, however, it's good to look at a subject from both sides.

Some reward for a 2 hour dungeon crawl would be nice, but which ever way you look at it, that dungeon reward will be worthles after it gets farmed to death.

I can see from both sides because I use to be a hardcore trader, now days I rarely log more then a few hours a week.

I have no problems with something like that. What do you have in mind?

I would like to remind some folks that saying a dungeon is "too easy" is only relative to you and you alone. And why did you feel the need to rush through and beat the game in 1 day? Bragging rights maybe? By doing that you missed out on a LOT of gaming.

I, for one, was caught completely off-guard when I entered the dungeon that you have to go through to get to Gadd's Encampment. I had my usuall build and hero/hench team and was blown away by the teams of Undead Wizards using Sock and Aftershock and their Priests healing any damage I was doing. I was all the way to the end and could see my staircase exit to get the hell outta there but could not get past the 2 remaining mobs cause I had a dp of -60% and was killed instantly each time I approached. I eventually made it out by using my heros as bait and me running like hell past them.

My first foray into Frostmaw's was another disaster in the making. I made it, but only with the use of some well used Candy Canes that I didn't anticipate using. Was I un-prepared? Maybe. But I didn't run to a forum to find out what build to use. I was exploring on my own and was not prepared for the challenge. Will I be prepared next time? You bet.

So, I for one, love the rez shrines and rezzed NPC's. Cause if I had to restart the whole frickin dungeon after treking all the way to it and then making it to the second floor and died and was sent back to town I would be pitching a fit and would probably never enter a dungeon again.

I won't say too much about the rest of your arguements. Just that I too have played for 2 years and I am still having fun and have no desire to leave. My key to happiness is taking breaks from GW. I play other games as well. That way I don't get burned out and think GW is going downhill like SOOOOOO many people on this forum think.

I have been saying that for ages.... nothing against no one, but if 1 persons whole freaking job in life is 1 thing... u would think they wouldn't be the one asking the questions like "oh everlasting beetle tonic, was that a reward or something?".... and especially not publicly where other players see her lack of game knowledge, of which she is paid for.


Very nice letter btw... im not gonna recomment on everything but very well put. My biggest thing, is Anet has no idea what is going on ingame with its players.... the PR person should be an actual player, a person who plays many aspects of the game.

A well thought ut and good OP.

Not being a top end player i am finding the game quite good, working through it relatively easily. The dungeons do seem to be easy though, i was expecting harder.

Main point I agree on is about HM though. A release time for this would be appresciated, and this would, as you say, answer most of your issues.

Dungeons would not quick you out untill the 60dp was reached i imagine though.

From what I've seen Andrew Patrick has really stepped up and is starting to do a much much much better job at PR since he actually plays the game with people. I don't know about Gaile cause i have never her seen her actually play. But I've faced Andrew quite a few times in HA, and that is reassuring, even if he was running Heroway. :P I think Anet needs more people like Andrew/Izzy.

So...some say Anet isn't paying attention to its players enough.

I have yet to see the blue dots go down in EotN. Guess what? The other games have good trafic as well(other than late Factions, but what else is new?). On weekends you are still getting 6-8 districts or more in Kamadan, which is good considering the release of EotN 12 days ago.

It's been mentioned by Jeff Strain, and by others in the thread. We....aren't....the....average....player. Right now the average player might be in a role-playing guild, acting it up in Loin's Arch. They might be having fun exploring the darks of Ferndale. They aren't hopping on GWG or wiki trying to find the 1337 farming build for their ele. They aren't looking at a sword in EotN and saying, "Geez! Couldn't Anet do better than this cheap reskin?" Do you think a lot of players KNOW what a reskin is? I know that before I started reading these forums, I didn't. Hell, most of them, when they get that red helmet for finishing the game, will try HM a few times, go "F*** this!", and move on.

Having things like Elite missions and HM proves they do listen to those on the forums and try to accomodate. Don't think for a second that no answer to you means no one is going to buy GW2. Maybe YOU won't. Maybe I won't. There are plenty of things I don't like about the game as it is now. Thing is, they are doing enough things right with the majority of players that, when the next game does come out, there will be plenty of people that remember the good times they had playing this game, and give it a try.

So, while the OP wrote a well-put-together letter, and it's ok to post concerns on the forums, as they try to address as many reasonable concerns as possible, don't think that you represent Johnny Q Guildie. Right now he's playing the game, and he's having fun.