Guild Wars 2

So I recently decided to try and go for my Map Completion. The Problem – I am TERRIBLE at Jumping puzzles and there are a LOT of SP and Vista’s that require you to complete a mini Jumping Puzzle.

Does anyone have any advice for helping me get through this other than PRACTICE?

PS… I known I’m just salty because I suck at them but requiring Jumping Puzzles for MC is a terrible idea as my NORN is going to have a hell of a lot more trouble than someone’s asura.

Honestly I think practice is the only option. You don’t have to practice jumping just when trying to get to a vista, any scenery you think might be climbable will do. Especially because a big part of the ‘trick’ to jumping is knowing how far and how high you can reach and where you can land and that can be practiced anywhere.

I actually find jumping easier on a norn than an asura because the height and distance they can jump is more realistic, which makes it easier to gauge.

One advice I can give is to get an Endless Common Clothing Tonic to get a better view of your feet and where you stand. Sometimes, being able to make a jump or falling to your death/frustration may be as simple as positioning. There are a ton of those tonics in the TP and they cost very little.

When having difficulty, it may help to have a friend or guild mate come with you so you can watch them do the jumping bit (hopefully slowly). It also helps to know there are effectively two “kinds” of jump: move + jump and jump + move. The first will get you across larger gaps, but may not be ideal for climbing upwards (like up ledges) as the height of the jump isn’t that high and can sometimes make your character ‘bounce’ backwards. The second is more for climbing upwards since it lets you jump higher than the first. When attempting the second kind, it can sometimes be beneficial to not have up against the ledge when you try it. Take a step back and try to jump.

Other than those general advice, all I can think of is the one you already know: practice.

Good luck to you, and may you get that shiny star by your character name that only others can see.

The Norn comment was more about my camera clipping into the wall an making it impossible to clearly see my next landing point. The Tonic (or just getting naked) might help to get my bulky armor out of the way.

Using a transformation tonic can help for larger characters as well. Ascalonian mage potion or infinite watchknight tonic come to mind but I know there are others.

I find it easiest to make jumps on sylvari/humans. The camera is centered most realistically and clips into the terrain the least. Anything that can make you that size temporarily may help.

When I was first starting I found the experimental teleportation gun (think that is the name of it) to be helpful in some cases.

Keep an eye on your movement speed buffs. For long jumps where you can’t overshoot they’re useful, but for short jumps to small platforms they can make things worse.

Dulfy has a list of jumping puzzles in order of difficulty at http://dulfy.net/2012/09/16/gw2-jumping-puzzles-guides-guild-wars-2/, doing some of the easier ones might help with practice.

Check if you have teleports or leaps on your class. These can sometimes make jumps easier.

If your world is green in WvW, go do the green EB Keep Vista. It’s an annoying JP, and even worse to do when green is trying to take their keep back. None of the other vistas in WvW are anywhere near as bad.

Two things I learned through my own practice with JPs that I found help me immensely are these (which if you don’t know, might help in some instances):

Some jumps that are closer, especially if you have a small landing surface ahead, it really helps to hit the spacebar to jump then the forward key. Instead of the forward key and then the jump to launch you forward in a full jump, it sort of hops you forward.

Also – and this doesn’t work so well for terrain that is covered by bushes and stuff – is to tilt your camera so that you’re looking down at yourself as much as possible. In a lot of cases that helps give you a better picture of the distance to your next jump.

I’m glad I read this thread. I didn’t know about the “hit space for jump before moving forward” technique. Thanks everyone.

I’ve been playing for 2 years. I’ve always liked jumping puzzles even though I was awful in the beginning. I’m no expert now, obviously, but they are a lot easier now and more fun so practice does help.

The only things I want to add is that teleport and blink type skills don’t generally help reach platforms you couldn’t normally reach (just makes it easier) but since those skills often negate crowd control they are good for getting past traps. And also to use the w, a, s and d keys and even the q and e to position yourself correctly before a difficult jump you keep missing.

I’m lousy at JPs and I don’t think there are that many. I can only think of three, two officially JPs. The JPs I resorted to YouTube walk through and the third I just kept trying (kitten Norn) till I got it in WvW (green keep in EB).

Make sure your weapon is “sheathed” or just remove it. Also be careful with speed buffs. I’ve found that they usually help smaller characters, but can cause my taller ones to overshoot landings.

Some few things I learned while practicing JP :

You have two “jump techniques” :
- The short jump/high jump : spacebar then direction key.
- The long jump : run then jump.

The short jump is used to climb up “cliff stairs” and calibrate some small jumps (duh!). The long jump is more often used, however you have a risk of “over-jumping”. Don’t abuse it.
Learning JP means that you have to learn where to use each jump technique.

More tips : rapidity is almost never mandatory to complete JP especially the ones to get near a vista.
I suggest you un-equip any skill that make you alk 25% faster. Thus you will learn how far your character can TRULY jump.

Final tip : PRACTICE (i.e try again again and again until you get it). People who excel at jumping puzzles are always patient and focused. Never let yourself be discouraged.

If you’re really lazy, develop a friendship with a mesmer friend.

One other point – you can steer yourself while in mid-air – especially useful when dropping down to a small platform or beam. Also when jumping to a beam or a log try to jump so that if you over jump you still land on the beam/log. In other words don’t jump perpendicular to the length.

If you’re not already doing it, steer using the mouse. Use only the W key and spacebar, and hold your right mouse button down while moving it to turn your character. When jumping on very small platforms (like quaggan egg jumping puzzle) it helps to face nearly downwards near the end of the jump to be sure your legs will land correctly. In most other cases this gives you FAR more precise control of left/right than attempting pure keyboard jumps will do.

Also, turn off doubletap = dodge when attempting a difficult jumping puzzle or you may end up dodging down a cliff. You can reactivate it after it’s done.

P.S. The tonic things help. You can imagine what it’s like to do a quaggan egg jumping puzzle as a charr. I’ve done it, but with far more pain than the human or asura characters ever had. Human/sylvari is probably the easiest – asura can actually jump a little bit further/higher than their character model indicates, and this can be somewhat confusing if you’re not used to it.

P.P.S. The ‘Trial-by-fire’ method of training Jumping Puzzles is to try the Griffonrock Bomb run with the bomb, and blow up the end chest. Once you can complete that monster even once, you should have enough skill to complete any jumping puzzle in the game (and solo any Guild Rush in the game, too).

Attempt that only after finishing Spekk’s Lab in Caledon Forest west (the lava one) first in a single run without dropping into lava. That one has clearly denoted platforms and runs on a timer, so it trains you to make consecutive jumps based on feel. Overthinking a jump will usually mean you fail, as hesitating mid-jump prevents you from getting the distance necessary to cross some of the harder jumps.

Very few VISTAs require great JP skills. Mine are less than stellar and I have done most of the JPs at least once. I will add that DOING the JP Monthly Chievo DOES improve your skills, so practice is a good idea.

Only really kittenes I can think of are:

• SW Dredgehaunt Cliffs (Dredge scaffolding tower….really not that hard).
• Vizier Tower in Straits of Devastation (a couple of the jumps are kind of tricky)

The rest of the VISTAs are fairly easy once you see them done one or two times (if you need help search the VISTA on YouTube….plenty of videos to watch).

Brother Grimm.5176:

Very few VISTAs require great JP skills.

Believe me, there are some players with VERY low JP skills, I consider myself having above average JP skills, but sometimes I see some players in easy JPs, like the ones in the guild mission puzzles, and after almost an year they just can’t do it.

Yes, I totally agree that practice improves your skills, so I also recommend watching some youtube guides, and picking some JPs to do.

Learn what you can exploit in the environment. Unfortunately, many of the jumps require you to stand on the invisible ledge/hitbox that extends from the edge of a cliff. Knowing how far you can Looney Tunes walk on air before you fall is needed to get past many areas.

Get yourself a friend who is also a Mesmer. You and your friend can do the mini JP and in the event you fall off, your friend can port you back up.

Assuming the Mad King’s Clocktower returns this year, do it as often as you can make yourself. I never beat it the first year after 6 hours of trying (I shall blame my need to mouse-move and running out of mouse pad thanks to the constant right turns, which is my own issue and not a design flaw), and barely touched it the second year beyond realizing I wasn’t going to beat it then either, but hooooo boy did it improve my jumping skills in the rest of the game forever.

Just go into it knowing you won’t beat it so you don’t get angry at it (and then rejoice if you do). It’s jump training like nothing else around.

Marndeis.7815:

So I recently decided to try and go for my Map Completion. The Problem – I am TERRIBLE at Jumping puzzles and there are a LOT of SP and Vista’s that require you to complete a mini Jumping Puzzle.

I used to detest JPs. My main for most of my time in game was a max size charr. Trying to do jumping when I have a clipped view of a wall through the inside of my shoulder is no fun. Other thing I used to find on charr is having no clear idea where my feet were.

Then I started levelling my human and asura alts. I actually started to have a little fun with them. This surprised me. They seem to jump further. May just be my imagination, but this surprised me a lot. I’m certainly much more accurate.

Some ideas, assuming you don’t want to do this on a human or asura:

Get a transformation potion. I used to use Infinite Watchknight Tonic, but ghost tonic, or endless mystery cat potion I’ve seen recommended. Anything that will shrink you down smaller, but still let you jump, will help a LOT. I’m sure there’s plenty of other possible potions. The JP and some vista routes were simply designed for human sized characters and have camera issues for norns and charrs.

Our guild does a monthly JP night so everyone gets the 12 puzzles. Route is made to take in any that people miss for achievements. With a few mesmers in the group it’s super easy, even for the jumping challenged. We’ve taken in a few vistas for people doing this at times. You’ll learn the routes, so they’ll be easier when you decide to try alone. Maybe suggest your guild do this?

Befriend a mesmer or two who like JPs. I’m sure they’ll help with the more annoying Vistas and JPs.

You’ll jump further when under a speed buff.

These days I miss only 1 JP achievement (a borderland that I never remember to get round to).

Things that helped me get pretty good at JPs:

Do them on a small character or use a transformation tonic (ghost tonic, cat tonic, sinister automatonic [turns you into an asura]) so that you won’t have the issue of the camera quite as much.

Zoom the camera out as far as possible. This might not be everyone’s preference, but I can judge distance a whole lot better this way.

If you have a 25% speed signet on your character, have it on. That helps if you somehow suddenly get put in combat during a job because it won’t make you lose quite as much momentum.

Be very careful with the 33% speed boosts when making little jumps.

Either turn off “double tap to dodge” or train your brain to not have twitchy fingers to make you accidentally dodge.

Biggest thing that helped me for a lot of timed JPs: Use the right mouse button to change the camera angle. For some reason I just used the movement keys on my keyboard to turn the camera angle, and it slowed me down so much. As soon as I made myself just hold down the right mouse button and just use the Forward/Back keys and spacebar, it improved my jumping by leaps and bounds (ha ha, get it?).