Guild Wars 2

Two-Factor Authentication

With email authentication in place, you can further protect your account by setting up two-factor authentication on your email account. Which, honestly, is a good idea anyway. Using email authentication this way protects your account in a very similar way to typical game implementations of two-factor authentication: the game will challenge any login attempt from a new location in a way that you’ll have to use two-factor authentication to approve.

We know customers also want a native implementation of two-factor authentication, and we want it too. This is an area where we should act faster as a company, and we’re going to. We had our own homegrown implementation of smartphone two-factor authenticator in testing, but we’re going to pull it back and instead integrate Guild Wars 2 with Google Authenticator, which already has robust authenticator implementations on most major smartphone platforms. This feature is already rolled out and ready to be used.

You can find all these options under My Account > Security or by visiting https://account.guildwars2.com/account/security

Two-factor authentication is a great tool for security-conscious customers to protect their accounts. But we know it will take time to get a significant portion of our customer base to adopt two-factor authentication, and in the meantime people are getting hacked every day by creating accounts with account names and passwords that hackers already know. So we need a solution that can protect everyone, not just the most security-conscious, and do it quickly. Thus we’ve rolling out our next initiative, password blacklisting.

Email Authentication

We have a feature in place, email authentication, that’s designed to help keep your account secure even if a hacker does know your account name and password.

Here’s how it works. When you first login, we ask you to validate your email address. After that, whenever you attempt to login from a new location, we send email asking you to approve or deny the login attempt.

So keep in mind, if you ever see an unexpected email asking you to validate a login attempt from a location where you’re not playing from, that means a hacker already knows your account name and password! The only thing that’s keeping him from logging in as you is the email authentication system! Change your password immediately.

Unfortunately, even with this system in place, people still get their accounts hacked. Here’s how:

First, about a third of players haven’t verified their email address yet. We can’t require email authentication for players with unverified email addresses.

Second, in many cases hackers have stolen credentials for the player’s email account too, and thus can access the authentication email message and approve their own login attempt. In particular this happens because people use the same password for their email account as they do for their Guild Wars 2 account and other accounts.

So, to be protected, be sure to verify your email address, and be sure to use a different password for your email account than you use for your game account.

Just got the new build; we’re getting closer!

Free trait resets were removed from BLC’s last month.

Thanks for waiting everybody. We have gathered questions from this thread, other threads on the forum and from our other language forums and passed them along to the teams for answers. Below you can read the great responses we have received from the developers. Namely, Associate Game Director John Corpening, Gameplay Programmer Bill Freist, Server Programmer Samuel Loretan and Game Designers Curtis Johnson and Matt Wuerffel.

Trait Changes

Q: What about PvP-only players who have low-level characters for PvP? Does the new trait system mean we won’t be able to experiment with builds any more unless we start playing PvE?

John Corpening: In PvP players have access to all skills, runes, sigils and traits from the “core” set. The core set is everything the game launched with. New traits and other items that are added to the game will require players to unlock it. So there should be plenty for players to play with. And with all the gold, loot, tomes of knowledge and skill points that players are earning from playing Reward Tracks unlocking the new stuff will be fairly easy.

Q: With the way getting trait points is changing and having to be level 30, does this mean that we can only get 50 trait points?

John Corpening: Trait points will be condensed from a total of 70 points into 14 points. Each one of these new points is essentially worth 5 of the ‘old’ points. This way each time you spend a point you will unlock a minor or major trait slot and 50 points of each stat in the line which will feel much more rewarding as well as prevent build errors when setting up your character. These points will begin to be awarded at level 30 and continue to be obtained every 6 levels. Once you reach level 66 it will continue at a pace of 2 points every 6 levels until 80.

Social Play and LFG Changes

Q: Last login for guilds, does that mean last represented login?

Bill Freist: Last logout time for the account – regardless of what guild they were representing.

Q: So is it only guild leaders who have access to seeing when members last logged on, or can the entire guild roster see it?

Bill Freist: The entire guild can view this information.

Q: Is last login retroactive? Will we see actual last login dates on April 15th or do we start our clocks from April 15th?

Bill Freist: This feature was deployed at midnight PST on Mar 12th. Players that log out after that time will start recording their last online time. So the maximum last online time will be just over a month when this feature ships. Player that haven’t logged in between then and the build will display as “Unknown” for when they were last online.

Megaserver

Q: Will language grouping only work for officially supported languages (EN, FR, DE, ES)? If not, how will players who speak unsupported languages (Polish, Russian, etc.) be grouped?

Samuel Loretan: To determine a player language, MegaServer uses the language of that player’s home world (or the world currently guested to, if any). That means that only official languages are being supported. All servers marked with a specific language are using this language, while servers without an explicit language are using English by default. Players who speak unsupported languages will be grouped using those criteria.

Q: How will this affect the people I’ve blocked? Will they be shuffled to another map unless someone in my guild has them unblocked?

Samuel Loretan: The MegaServer system currently doesn’t use the friends list nor the blocked list information. This might be something that will change in the future: as we’ve stated, the MegaServer system is just the beginning, and we are exploring all sorts of approaches in creating meaningful and solid social units for the system to use.

Q: What is happening with guesting?

Samuel Loretan: On April 15th, the guesting feature will still exist. If you guest to a specific world, this world will be used to sort you, instead of your home world. That doesn’t mean that you will necessarily end up in a different map copy, but you will be counted as a member of your guested world by the MegaServer system.

Universal Timers and Guild Events

Q: Will existing Influence, Merits, Consumables, and Unlocks across all Worlds be merged into the new unified chapter?

Samuel Loretan: We are still working on the details of the guild merging, but the general goal is to avoid losing anything in the process, when feasible, and without going over the currently defined maximal capacities for each of those elements (the 250 Merits limit, for example). Keep in mind that this will evolve, and that we will let you know the specifics of the guild merging as soon as practically feasible.

Q: How will Guild Banks from different Worlds be resolved and merged together? In order to avoid items/gold being destroyed, will guilds have to empty their guild banks in preparation for a merge?

Samuel Loretan: As previously said, the specifics of the merging are still being worked on. Guild banks are a difficult problem to solve, but we’re currently targeting a solution that wouldn’t require any preparation from the players. That being said, nothing is set for sure here, and you will be informed of the details as soon as they’re defined for certain.

Q: Since the megaserver changes will initially affect a few areas, will the World Boss schedule table be true just for the light yellow bosses or are the rest of the World Bosses also going into the new schedule even if their areas are still not part of the megaserver?

Samuel Loretan: No, the World Bosses schedule will be released globally on April 15th. Note that the order of rollout of the MegaServer system may still change, as we’re still conducting tests, and as we will be adjusting the parameters depending on our monitoring. While I know that it isn’t what was in the blog post, we’re adjusting this to ensure the best experience for everyone, and the smoother possible rollout of this feature, which has a very large scope and requires careful operation.

Wardrobe and Dye Changes

Q: Will all the gems armors we have bought or earned be unlocked even if we salvaged some of them?

Curtis Johnson: Only skins you currently have equipped or in inventory will be unlocked automatically. Any piece from a complete gem store armor set will unlock the whole set for your account. So if you salvaged everything but still have the primeval glove skin you will unlock the whole armor set.

Q: Speaking of the gas mask — what about it, or Mask of the Queen, or other items that currently can be applied to any weight of armor but then get locked to that weight? Will they remain free-for-all in terms of armor weight once in the Wardrobe?

Matt Wuerffel: Items that could be applied to any weight of armor (the gas mask, Mask of the Queen, Radiant and Hellfire armor) will unlock their skin for all armor types.

Q: Do racial and weight restrictions still apply to the wardrobe system?

Matt Wuerffel: When you are transmuting looks to a character, racial and armor type restrictions still apply. Any character can unlock those skins to the account (e.g. your Mesmer can acquire heavy armor and unlock the skins to your account, which you could then apply to your Guardian’s appearance).

Q: Does the number of transmutation charges required depend on anything?

Matt Wuerffel: All transmutations cost one charge per item, with the exception of skins from the Hall of Monuments and the achievements system, which are free to apply.

Q: Once I unlock a skin in the wardrobe, am I free to delete the actual item while still using the appearance from the wardrobe in the future?

Matt Wuerffel: Yes. In fact, deleting the item will actually unlock the skin in the wardrobe as a safeguard.

Q: Are we going to be able to use town clothes as armor from now on?

Matt Wuerffel: All outfits will be usable in combat.

Q: Why not simply convert town clothes into armor skins and keep the costume pieces separate?

Curtis Johnson: Some town-clothes are not compatible in tech and art style to mix with all the existing armors and thus were not eligible for conversion.

Q: ‘Outfits’ are all or nothing. What about items that were sold as individual items?

Curtis Johnson: Town clothes sold individually were either converted to individual armor skins available to any weight class or endless tonics.

Q: What happens to the extra items that came with the costumes, like the broom you fly on or the black cat?

Curtis Johnson: All toys will still function from inventory and can be used with armor or outfits. Toys will still un-equip automatically in combat.

Q: Will this be enabled in WvW? What about the various toys that got costumes and such banned from WvW?

Curtis Johnson: WvW equipment and wardrobe will all be usable the same as PvE. Toys that are not allowed in WvW will be individually disabled.

Q: Will a transmutation charge “unlock” the skin already in our locker for unlimited use?

Matt Wuerffel: Skin unlocks are permanent, free, and account wide by account binding the item or salvaging it. Each time you transmute a skin from the wardrobe onto an item, it will cost one transmutation charge with the exception of skins from the Hall of Monuments and the achievements system will remain free to apply to as many items as you like. Once transmuted the item can be equipped and unequipped as often as you like and will keep the skin.

Q: Unidentified dyes are required for the Gift of Color. How are we going to get them now?

Matt Wuerffel: Unidentified dyes will be obtainable from the Mystic Forge, from select in-game rewards, and from the trading post. Also, the number of unidentified dyes required for the Gift of Color will be reduced.

Q: When unlocking a Legendary appearance, will I also unlock the visual effect that comes with it (footsteps and aura). If so, would it take 1 transmutation charge to apply those to the account or will I need to pay gold?

Matt Wuerffel: All visual effects that are associated with a Legendary weapon will apply to any weapon transmuted to an unlocked Legendary skin. The cost of transmutation is always one charge per item, with the exception of skins from the Hall of Monuments and the achievements system, which are free to apply.

Q: If I’ve already reskinned my legendary with something else would I still be getting the legendary skin when we get the wardrobes? Also, what will happen to transmutation splitters?

Matt Wuerffel: Items that have been transmuted will unlock the skin of the base item used for stats and the most recent item applied for appearance. Transmutation splitters will still be available to use on transmuted items to separate the base item used for stats and the most recent item applied for appearance.

Q: What about backpieces (be it the Jetpack, Dwayna, Ascended, etc.): will these be converted into skins too?

Matt Wuerffel: Backpiece skins can be added to your account wardrobe, and backpiece items can be transmuted through the wardrobe in the hero panel, just like other pieces of equipment.

Q: Will there be an opportunity to earn transmutation charges as in game rewards for events, or will access be strictly gem purchases?

Curtis Johnson: Transmutation charges can be earned as part of map completes and will occasionally be included in other rewards. Gold can also be exchanged for gems to purchase anything in the store.

I just arrived at work. I’ll let you know as soon as I hear from the team.

Pyriall.5027:

Josh Davis.6015:

Pyriall.5027:

Let’s see the balance team’s pie charts!!!! Grouch, you don’t count.

Had my image ready and everything.

I feel bad now…UPLOAD AWAY GROUCH!!

Yay!

Pyriall.5027:

Let’s see the balance team’s pie charts!!!! Grouch, you don’t count.

Had my image ready and everything.

Thanks for bringing this up. This is definitely a bug. Now that we know about this we will try and get it fixed soon™.

JustTrogdor.7892:

Yifang.8260:

JustTrogdor.7892:

So I guess Mac users miss out on this:

Free Bank Access Express
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/bltc/Free-Promotion-Bank-Access-Express/first#post3878915

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/bltc/Thanks-for-the-Freebies/first#post3879219

Not like it is a mega huge free item, but we are left out either way as these free items are usually one day only.

At this point no major loss as I got the deluxe edition thankfully before this debacle

But the rest of us are out of luck. Sure it isn’t a huge item, but unlike our PC friends we don’t get one because we play on Mac. Of course they could extend the offer for a day on the grounds that Mac customers could not take advantage of it.

You will get one; it is not expiring today.

As this has been answered, we’re closing the thread.

Some work was done to address this issue. Once the feature patch is released you will need to play a few matches in order for the achievement rank to match parity with your actual rank.

phys.7689:

John Smith.4610:

This is spiraling. Let’s stop discussing possible “solutions”. Before discussing a solution you must first prove a problem. I have yet to see any evidence internally or externally that there is a problem.

Speculation on player wealth is not evidence of a problem.
An anecdote is not evidence unless it demonstrates a systemic problem.

Logic and reasoning are the only evidence we can have at our disposal, data points are something only you have access to.

Heres why having wealth disparity is bad.
People with an abnormal amount of wealth control the value of highly desirable items.

Now im not going to say they are manipulating or whatever, but the fact is, if you want to get an item that is highly desirable, you have to compete with people who can make much more than you can in the same time frame on the market.

Imagine you and a rich man have both lived your life in the pursuit of cool cars. Bill makes a cool car. You cannot compete with rich man for this car, even if you have put in equal work, because he makes more per unit of time than you do. In fact his earnings are geometric (to a limit) while yours are only additive.

Now, while this might be ok, if he was a better car man than you, he is not, he is simply better at making money.

Essentially endgame is controlled by the wealthy

This is the kind of post I mean when I say evidence. I don’t require numbers I require a coherent idea that makes sense in this setting. If I think it’s valid I’ll be researching it myself (assuming I haven’t already).
This one I have researched though. My response is a couple of points:
1. MMOs have homogeneous good, this means there’s no differentiation from your item from someone else’s copy of that same item. This comes into play because it rules out quality control/competition.
2. I know you said it already, but I’ll restate, that prices of high end goods aren’t being controlled.
3. The prices of high end goods are VERY close, if not exactly the same, to what they would be without any “TP Barons” wanting those items. There’s too much velocity for individual rich people to influence the supply/demand equation all that much, which is the only control they have if they aren’t manipulating prices.

This is a virtual economy, you may not assign the same speculative rules.
Read through why increasing wealth inequality is bad for a real economy and then apply that setting to gw2 as an argument.

PS Eve does not have a global economy.

Yes, Hannelore! The Twisted Marionette songs will return in the future.

Flippers increase liquidity and bring prices closer to equilibrium, almost always lowering prices and providing preferences to other players. I see no reason why anyone would want to stop that.

The fact that you want to change the BLTC to Ellen Kiel’s anything seems a pretty good indicator that it’s a bad idea.

:)

This is spiraling. Let’s stop discussing possible “solutions”. Before discussing a solution you must first prove a problem. I have yet to see any evidence internally or externally that there is a problem.

Speculation on player wealth is not evidence of a problem.
An anecdote is not evidence unless it demonstrates a systemic problem.

MageIanBorthwick.3054:

CC Danicia.1394:

Hello all,

I talked to the Mac team this morning. A fix for the most recent TP issue is going in today. Regarding the on-going issues in this thread, they tell me that it it actually spans across more than the Mac client. And they’ll have more information on those fixes later.

This sounds an awful lot like:

“This is only being addressed because it affects the NON-Mac community”

The one issue is very specific to you. The ongoing ones are not. Hope that helps clarify.

Greetings,

We are closing this thread on OP request.

All our first-party HTTPs sites (including the commerce panel) are behind IIS, which doesn’t suffer from heartbleed. Our third-party hosted HTTPs sites (buy.guildwars2.com, in-game purchasing flow, and CDNs) were not vulnerable when I checked Tuesday morning.

The CDNs at least were vulnerable before that but no user-specific data ever flows through those so it shouldn’t have been an issue.

Just to be sure we’ll be issuing new certs for all our secure domains in the near future, but we’re pretty confident that there were no issues for our sites.

Confirm progression has been disabled.

Thanks for bringing this up, we definitely consider this an issue. To help combat this we’re going to require auto-balance in custom arenas for progression to be enabled.

This is a server configuration change, so can be done immediately. However, custom arena owners will not see the progression disabled warning until we can get a build through to include that information in the client.

First note delay will be removed from Drum and Harp on Apr 15.

Hello all,

I talked to the Mac team this morning. A fix for the most recent TP issue is going in today. Regarding the on-going issues in this thread, they tell me that it it actually spans across more than the Mac client. And they’ll have more information on those fixes later.

Update: Can you confirm that you still are having issues? If so please follow one of the suggestions above: Please post in Technical Support or submit a ticket. I think the ticket would help us kitten how many people are having troubles, so I’d suggest you do that, if you don’t mind.

Thank you for your patience!

Now…. if you are NOT having the problem any longer, could you update to say that, as well? Keeps the team happy to know the status of these things.

Please do ask your friend to submit a ticket so we can help him. Thanks to both of you.

The above comments are true. And of course, if you need assistance, please submit a ticket so an agent can help you.

I discussed this with the team, and they said that this sounds as if your installation is not right, and you may need to uninstall the version you downloaded and download the setup file from your account management page again.

You’re welcome to submit a ticket for help by clicking “Support” at the top of this page, and then “Submit a request” afterwards to start a ticket.

I agree with AP, this sounds like a possible account compromise. Go ahead and contact Support and the team will help you. You can read through the Knowledge Base on that link, and you can submit a ticket via the “Ask a Question” tab on that page.

For details on what information you should provide in your ticket, to expedite its response, please read The “How to Submit a Ticket” post.

First of all, thanks for buying our game! Second, we’re sorry you’re having issues.

I have flagged this post for the team — to see if they can help in a general sense — but if you’d post in the Technical Support Forums that would probably get you the help or the answers you need more quickly.

I am not sure what you need, but I do know our team can help. Please contact Support and the team will help you. You can read through the Knowledge Base on that link, and you can submit a ticket via the “Ask a Question” tab on that page.

For details on what information you should provide in your ticket, to expedite its response, please read The “How to Submit a Ticket” post.

I believe this isn’t a situation on our end, as mentioned above. I am glad you were able to purchase gems, but wonder if you’ve contacted your CC company to ask them for assistance? If they tell you to contact us, well then please contact Support and the team will help you. You can read through the Knowledge Base on that link, and you can submit a ticket via the “Ask a Question” tab on that page.

I am so sorry that you’re having this issue. Has it sorted out yet? If not, I suggest you contact Support and the team will help you. You can read through the Knowledge Base on that link, and you can submit a ticket via the “Ask a Question” tab on that page.

Thanks for your support of our game. I am sure your children will love having their own accounts!

Please contact Support and the team will help you. You can read through the Knowledge Base on that link, and you can submit a ticket via the “Ask a Question” tab on that page.

For details on what information you should provide in your ticket, to expedite its response, please read The “How to Submit a Ticket” post.

Please contact Support using the steps outlined above and a team member will assist you.

Update: 10 April 2014

507306 – Resolved. (Duplicate of 487077.)
512921 – Resolved.
486770 – If you were asked to submit a new ticket, definitely proceed. I’m sorry for the confusion, but do believe the team can and will help you.
500464 – NINE tickets. You friend must STOP submitting tickets. In the meantime, I have asked our GM Manager to review this situation.
130404-001167 – This ticket is at least six months old and is inaccessible to our team. Please have your friend submit a new ticket and provided details about his request in that new ticket.
508632 – Final Response was given on 5 April. This is not something that can be further appealed via the forums. He should update his ticket with any new information
510266 – As discussed in the ticket, we’re still working on this request.
504313 – Under review.
525887 – Please follow the instructions sent to you yesterday.

• Some tickets will require extra time because they are very complicated. This applies especially to compromised accounts and certain access issues that may related to disputed ownership of the account. Please continue to discuss these matters with the Support Team to reach the best resolution.

• Please also note that people involved in botting, cheating, exploiting, and gold sales (RMT workers) file appeals and post in forums. We will not reinstate accounts found to be involved in these offenses. Responses flagged as “Final Response” will not be reviewed again.

If your ticket is at least three days (72 hours) old, and if you still need assistance, please post in the Tickets for Review – 3 Days and Older – Part 2 [merged] thread, which is here at the top of this forum.

Please do not submit duplicate tickets for the same situation. Please update your ticket by simply responding to the most recent e-mail with the ticket number in the subject line.

Update: 10 April 2014

507306 – Resolved. (Duplicate of 487077.)
512921 – Resolved.
486770 – If you were asked to submit a new ticket, definitely proceed. I’m sorry for the confusion, but do believe the team can and will help you.
500464 – NINE tickets. You friend must STOP submitting tickets. In the meantime, I have asked our GM Manager to review this situation.
130404-001167 – This ticket is at least six months old and is inaccessible to our team. Please have your friend submit a new ticket and provided details about his request in that new ticket.
508632 – Final Response was given on 5 April. This is not something that can be further appealed via the forums. He should update his ticket with any new information
510266 – As discussed in the ticket, we’re still working on this request.
504313 – Under review.
525887 – Please follow the instructions sent to you yesterday.

Looks like you guys figured it out, but I’ll make it official anyways.
- Splitters aren’t sold any more because, all skins you would get with a splitter will already be unlocked by the wardrobe system automatically.
- The only reason to use a splitter at this point is to get the stats of the current appearance back. (Or as someone mentioned to create an extra item salvage, but i’d suggest you save your splitter and trade it in for charges if you want value)

We are not removing them from inventory automatically. You will trade them in at a black lion trading post after the 15th.

It’s unlikely that you’ve ever traded on a market that hasn’t sold an item in the last 2 hours.

Zortek, you are very wise.

This restriction was put in place after previous player complaints of other players transferring to worlds who were winning or more likely to win during Season 1 last year. In addition to being explicitly stated in the blog post linked by players above, it was also messaged in the form of a warning when attempting to change worlds. This warning has been in place since the beginning of the tournament and reads as follows (emphasis mine):

Are you sure you want to transfer to <world>?

If yes, you’ll be logged out of your account, which may be inaccessible for a short period of time while the transaction completes. In addition, you cannot make another transfer for 7 days. Your WvW accessibility will be restricted to Edge of the Mists for the duration of the current match and until the end of your world’s next match.

Hey guys,

We’re currently looking into this issue and I want to apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Hang tight! I’ll keep you all updated once I’ve got more information to provide for you all.

Thread closed on request.

This is not an account issue. Please use the report or block function in game to report this type of activity. Closing this thread.

This is not an account issue. Please use the report function in game to report this type of activity. Closing this thread.

Hi Xingba,

I’d start with an MSCONFIG as you have a lot of applications enabled in the background. Should that not resolve the issue for you, I’d like for you to try the following steps:

1. Navigate to your Guild Wars 2 folder, which by default would be C:\Program Files(x86)\Guild Wars 2.
2. Move this folder to a new location like C:\Games\Guild Wars 2. The location doesn’t matter specifically, as long as it’s outside of Program Files and Program Files(x86).
3. Navigate to this new location and “Right-click” on “GW2.exe” selecting “Create Shortcut.”
4. Rename this shortcut to “Guild Wars 2 Admin Mode.”
5. “Right-click” on “Guild Wars 2 Admin Mode” and select “Properties.”
6. Click the “Compatibility” tab.
7. Checkmark “Run this program as an Administrator.”
8. Click “Ok.”

Once completed, let’s go ahead and repair the new installation location:

1. Right-click on “GW2.exe” and select “Create Shortcut.”
2. Rename this shortcut to “Guild Wars 2 Repair.”
3. Right-click on this shortcut and select “Properties.”
4. Edit the “Target” line to include -repair at the end. Note: Please make sure -repair is outside of the quotes
-- Correctly Formatted Example: “C:\Games\Guild Wars 2\GW2.exe” -repair
-- Incorrectly Formatted Example: “C:\Games\Guild Wars 2\GW2.exe -repair”
5. Once completed, click “Ok” to save your changes. If you get an error trying to save, your target line may not have the correct format. Please try Step 5 again.
6. Right-click “Guild Wars 2 Repair” and select “Run as Administrator.”

Allow the repair to run and once completed, double click on “Guild Wars 2 Admin Mode” to launch the game.

Hi Pokkaiz,

To start, what kind of hardware are you working with? Specifically: CPU, GPU, RAM, and OS?