Feature Build: The calm before the storm

Maybe drunkard will make all achohol like the pirate stuff? It gives you a little buff while drunk but then goes away. Still not a great title but a significant improvement.

Mercenary heroes sounds pretty amazing...

So, Ironic. 7 necro party, just cost you likely $40 or so... edging away from cosmetic into actual advantages with the microtrans. And yes, segregating PvX hero teams according to who will pay $40 is on a whole different order than holding extra inventory.

Interesting to hear about the BuH/AS nerf. It sounds like he basically nuked them to make elite PuGs more accessible... no needing to do some quest or grind your PvE titles up to pug DoA for example. I'd like to think we will see something done about Sin Promise-PvE interactions once ele damage is addressed, but in terms of pugs it's one character in one team for one area so not holding my breath.

Figure I'd post this here as well
*Minion UI panel will be nice
*Different areas of Embark Beach for different missions in Tyria, Elona, Cantha.
--List of Missions for each area
--Zaishen Scout in each mission location sending u to Embark Beach
--All Mission locations only, not every single outpost

*Mercenary Heroes
--Micro Transaction
--Take any char on your account, turn them into Hero if they meet requirements
--Customize with your costumes, armor, etc.
--Must be level 20
--Sounds like you pay for each slot (I'm guessing $5 per)

*Pre-Sear
--9 Daily quests
--Scale to level of leader of the party
--Higher reward for Harder players
--Implemented because of LDoA grinding
--Earn xp to get the title, still an investment in time but more friendly.
--Added Kimmes The Historian-Able to dedicate titles to Hom
----LDoA, Survivor (lol), Party animal, Drunkard, Sweet tooth
Continue to address PvE skills

If no one has seen this yet - interview with John Stumme about this update: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cO5xAGxfCKU

I saw it. Something worth noting is John Stumme's comment on the reasons for Asuran Scan/By Ural's Hammer nerf. Save Yourselves! might follow because it's been through the same pug team behavior as Asuran Scan caused and if it keeps up and Anet knows it, we might see another update targeting SY! It would suck if it got nerfed, because it's a really great skill for warriors to protect their party.

When the first person posted this I laughed and started typing a saracastic response because the concept seemed so ridiculous to me. Then I found out it's true in the video and well...

How about I throw my credit card at ArenaNet in a fandumb induced state and begin chanting my account details so they can plug it directly into their bank accounts and drain all my savings right now?

I was psyched about the Feature Build but now it tastes like swamp water.

Don't want it, don't buy it. You get all the good parts of the update for free, what's to complain about?

My friend Joe spent money on microtransactions and now he has more necromancer heroes than me. His hero party is stronger than mine for real life financial reasons.

Ah yes, necromancer heroes. The be all and end all of PvE. How could I forget...

I had the money to pay for EoTN and Nightfall which grant me access to heroes. My party is far stronger than one that can be assembled by a player without access to heroes for real life financial reasons. Problem?

I just hope this doesn't mean final death for pugs.

That happened with heroes. The only time the vast majority of players play with other people now is for Speedclears.

Virtually all content that could be beaten with 7 heroes can already be done H/H and those areas which can't are all speedcleared with PuGs/Guilds already. I don't foresee any great change in the amount people PuG.

This may just be cosmetic effects to your hero's look and feel. And it is ok to charge for cosmetic stuff (e.g. costumes).

Anet in optional cosmetic microtransaction shocker?

I think this is pretty cool, I personally wont buy it but paying a bit to have your other characters as 'heroes' seems like a pretty fun idea.

It is, but it is also put to better use by Paras, Assassins and now Dervishes.

Maybe he also spent money on skill packs - which gives all of his heroes instant access to every skill in the games for which he bought packs.

Maybe he also spent money on Nightfall or EotN, and thus has those heroes to begin with.

ANet has found a good balance between microtransactions and in-game advantage as a result of them... much better than many games out there currently.

And incidentally, if Joe is your friend, why aren't you partied up and thus also enjoying the advantage of his additional necro heroes?

Personally, I'm loving this idea... being able to add a third ritualist, or mesmer... one I have had to work to get to level 20 with, before I can turn it into a hero for myself... sounds like a lot of fun to me, and creates some very interesting possibilities.

One other thing... unless you're doing PvP (which doesn't allow heroes), in what way is it a competition between you and Joe? How is he gaining an advantage over you and over your game play? It's not like he can grief you out of killing a boss and reaping rewards from same...

I agree, but also realize I only have two main characters on my main account that I would consider "up to snuff" in terms of armor/weapons/skills/runes, etc. If I read it correctly, it sounds like you may be stuck with whatever appears/armor/rune,etc. your character(s) have at the moment you decide to make Mercenary heroes out of them. Hope I'm wrong, though.

I was thinking of not even being able to find a pug to do a Zaishen mission. Because that's the main reason why i still log on every day.

My problem is simple and concise. Buying hero slots of any profession gives you a gameplay advantage. It gives you a functional superiority over other players.

That is my problem. For as long as that remains true (if it is true) that will be my problem. I don't care if you want to customise the appearance of your heroes, I have no problem with that.

My problem is charging money for the ability to create a superior party.

As far as the talk about campaigns (I don't have a problem with that) they are not microtransactions. Those are marcotransactions. A tried and true value for money business model that is the superior industry standard. Microntransactions are, by their very design, intended to overcharge for bits an pieces resulting in less content for more money. The argument ArenaNet has been using up till now in their defence was they are cosmetic. Well now they aren't.

I had fun reading this raging QQ when it completely misunderstood my post. I responded to a guy saying how 7 heroes would kill off group play. I responded that its no different from 3 heroes, other than the speed. I specifically added the "areas that people can't do with 3 heroes would still be impossible with 7 heroes."

Its a completely neutral post basically stating "there's no real difference"...you just chose to think that I don't want 7 heroes.

What would make a difference is incentives to actual groups, not artificial "limits" on heroes. See what a difference it makes when you don't automatically add a negative connotation to a post?

Wait a second...does this mean "pay for 7 heroes" or "pay to have pretty heroes"? It would suck if its the former, I can live without 7 necros if its the latter.

I can count the number of decent PvE skills on one (maybe two) hands now? If the goal is making Elite area pug accessible then they better not touch "SY!" because I've NEVER seen a pug that could deal with DoA damage without that skill...ever. One mistimed nuke and scatter is all it takes to wipe in those areas without "SY!"

And people call me mad for creating two Rits and two Monks on the same account. Well, WHOS MAD NOW!!! (...slowly walks to the Mercenary hero creator guy.)

...Only wish I had created more Necos.