Guild Wars 2

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Ahh, that may be the issue.

So, you are just trying to join their map?

Yeah, and thanks to you we finally figured out to take different regions into the equation. So we both did the guild bounty by ourselves. Thanks though!

I’m sorry, I should have been more specific. We were trying to join “instance” in the sense that we tried to do a guild bounty together. I’m going to ask, though, if they are in a different region.

Edit: They’re EU. I’m NA. I’ll keep that in mind for next time.

I just spent the last hour or so trying to join a guild member in their instance, and vice versa. Nothing we tried worked. We’ve relogged, restarted the party, left the party, rejoined the party, changed maps, relogged again, changed maps again, tried mentor tag, tried commander tag…the option to join the player in another instance is just not appearing when I click their name plate or their name in party chat, guild chat, or whisper. Am I missing something? Was that option removed?

I recently had a death in the family and thought I’d play some GW2 to take my mind off things. Didn’t get further than the second “beam puzzle” in the first White Mantle episode. Got the three beams in a row MULTIPLE times, couldn’t get the thing to unlock. At that point I was ready to punch my screen.

No thanks.

Khisanth.2948:

Annonrae.3681:

I’d like to know how Anet thinks anyone playing outside of US prime time is every going to get the Shard or the Watchtower PoI now. I tried to help people get up there, tagged up and all…and we were five. And that’s after putting our group up in LFG and advertising in map chat. Needless to say, we didn’t even make it halfway up the hill.

There are actually two places you can get the shard from near that tower. One is further up and fairly close the back route.

I’l keep that in mind, thanks for the hint.

Still, I’ll take today’s disaster as an indication that the area is pretty much dead. I’ve been running various alts through Doric for shard farming, and over the last couple of days I haven’t seen a single comm or mentor tag in that area. :/

I’d like to know how Anet thinks anyone playing outside of US prime time is every going to get the Shard or the Watchtower PoI now. I tried to help people get up there, tagged up and all…and we were five. And that’s after putting our group up in LFG and advertising in map chat. Needless to say, we didn’t even make it halfway up the hill.

I agree that something had to be done to change the leather farm, as it also prevented people from going up the hill – saw enough people asking for help and being laughed at by some sad individuals – but the current carpet bomb solution is the worst kind of game design I’ve ever seen in 20 years of gaming.

Obtena.7952:

None of that answers my question … What is the benefit for these people to farm in BFF in that spot with Autoheals? Most of them aren’t even going to get loot rights to anything that is killed in the vicinity.

I don’t know about other spots in the game, but farming mobs in Bitterfrost gives Unbound Magic, which can then be used to buy Magic-Warped Packet. Bitterfrost is so packed with mobs that unless you’re parked in a very safe spot, you’re bound to get attacked pretty much anywhere.

Captain Prinny.6492:

relevant link to her wiki-page + screenshot

I like the stuff she wears…..but what is it exactly? My usual bad luck would say it is one of the few (but surprisingly good-looking) NPC-only Townfolks clothes I saw over the years.

Rascal Coat [ Medium]
Rascal Gloves [Medium]
Rascal Pants [Medium] <- not sure about this one, too dark on my screen to see details
Shoes – no idea, but since the rest of the armor is medium, I’m guessing it’s some kind of medium boot

The Rascal set can be bought in game from the TP. You can get the entire set for less than a gold, methinks. It can also be crafted.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rascal_armor

OriOri.8724:

I don’t agree with AKF farming, but I thought ANet said that they were ok with it at some point as long as you weren’t using a macro?

There is a post by Chris Cleary, the Game Security Lead:

Chris Cleary.8017:

I’ll pitch in on this thread, as there seems to be some confusion about this situation.

The auto-cast feature was never intended to be used as an AFK farming mechanism, and usage of the auto-cast feature while AFK is fine as long as it is not used to facilitate unattended gameplay.

Mastery auto-loot also stopping players from being flagged afk seems like a bug instead of a feature, and I’ll be sure to bring it up today while we have a chat about this internally.

1) Using skill (1 or more) while AFK
2) AFKing in a place where it is beneficial for your character to be at
3) Unresponsive to interaction with GMs

If all 3 of these apply to what you are doing, you may get actioned for it.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Please-a-clear-statement-re-AFK-farming/page/6#post6161450

vove.2768:

You allow to do something and then you ban for it, this are some national socialist techniques of handling the issues. If this is not allowed change the game and create a design where this is not possible. I fail to see why you should be punished for something that is allowed by the game design. Of course anet is the one to decide whether doing something within the game is baneable or not, this is not healthy for the game.

Botting is the equivalent to going to work in real life, turning your computer/machine on, and then leaving again without actually having worked anything at all and still being paid for it. It is completely unfair to the people who show up at work to actually work. Does this sound even remotely fair to you?

Also, ‘because the game mechanics allow it’ isn’t a good excuse. The game mechanics also allow me to grief and harrass other players just by using the chat function; doesn’t mean that I should – or if I do, that I shouldn’t be punished for it.

ColourTheory.8041:

If I buy a style from the cash shop, is it only for that one character? Or can it be worn by other characters that you own. Also for the ultimate bundle that comes with all the stuff that you get, is it only for one character too?

Depends.

Outfits can be worn by all characters; buying one will unlock it in your Outfit tab in the Hero panel ( H -> Equipment -> Outfits ). They are like costumes you can toggle on/off, and they do not have any armor weight restrictions. Your 600 pound Norn Warrior could waltz around in a wedding outfit, for example. Outfits also don’t require a transmutation charge to apply to a piece of armor.

Backpack items like the Fire Quiver Backpack or the Scruffy backpack that’s currently on sale can also be worn by all characters, as long as they are wearing a backpack already or you equip the backpack straps that come with the package. Once you’ve used up the ‘free’ skin that comes with the package, further applications of that skin will require a transmutation charge to apply the look to another backpack.

There are also several sets of armor skins on the cash shop. They are usually named something like “Primeval Heavy Armor Skin” or “Profane Light Armor Skin”. Like the backpacks, the package contains the full set of skins needed to apply the look to a full set of armor. They can also be mixed: you could, for example, wear Zodiac Heavy Armor Skin boots and Primeval Heavy Armor Skin gloves. Buying, for example, the Primeval Heavy Armor Skin set will unlock those skins in your wardrobe, after which all of your heavy armor characters can use them, as long as you have transmutation charges. Just make sure that you buy the skin set with the correct armor weight. Light Armor classes ( Mesmer, Ele, Necro ) cannot use heavy or medium armor skins, Heavy Armor classes ( Warrior, Guardian, Revenant ) cannot use light or medium skins, and Medium Armor classes ( Ranger, Engineer, Thief ) cannot use light or heavy skins.

Finally, there are several skins that can be applied to armor of any weight: Lawless Boots, Chaos Gloves, Xera’s Mask, and so on.

By Ultimate Bundle, I assume you mean the Ultimate Edition that contains the Heart of Thorns expansion? If so, everything in that package is account-wide. The Rhytlock mini and the HoT glider can be used by all characters you have, the gems will be added to your cash shop balance, the finisher will be unlocked for all characters, etc.

/wall o’ text

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Annonrae.3681:

Ember Bay, Bloodstone Fen and Bitterfrost Dailies have their own tab in the Hero panel, listed under the “Daily” in the Achievement panel. The easiest way to see if you received credit for Hablion would be to check there.

The Daily panel does not indicate whether one received event credit or not.

One way would be to check your Karma total before and after the event. If it has increased, you received event credit.

Do be aware, if there are a lot of players participating in the event, it is possible to not do enough damage to fulfill the requirement for credit. This is why some suggest partying up for credit.

It is possible your client could have corrupted file(s), and a -repair of the client would be in order.

Good luck.

At the very least, the panel should indicate whether or not OP has contributed enough damage to the kill to have it count toward the BF daily? I’m honestly asking here.

Ember Bay, Bloodstone Fen and Bitterfrost Dailies have their own tab in the Hero panel, listed under the “Daily” in the Achievement panel. The easiest way to see if you received credit for Hablion would be to check there.

Anyone else having issues purchasing gems through Paypal? I’ve tried several times now and keep getting the “Unfortunately, there was an error with the payment provider. Please try again later.” message.

( Before anyone asks, there’s definitely enough money on the bank account I’m using. )

EDIT: Nevermind. My gems came in about 10 seconds after I posted this. But seriously…getting gems although I’ve had the error message? :S Great way to get people to spend more than they mean to.

I don’t mind the mob density so much; what peeves me – as in, makes it somewhat tedious for me – is that it feels like every. single. mob. in Bitterfrost CC-spams me with chill. The entire west side of the map is just one big chill-fest. Add to that the fact that some of these mobs behave like the 5000-range-heatseeking-missile-Knights from Bloodstone Fen before Anet reduced their range, AND add players who intentionally try to use other players to catch their tail of mobs as they sprint from berry bush to berry bush.

I love the new map. At this point, I’m all jungle’d out. The Shiverpeaks are my favourite area in the whole game, and Bitterfrost is gorgeous, imho. But I seriously could have done without the CC spam and the headless-chicken-mobs that run away even when I don’t use any kind of AOE.

Today’s patch was supposed to fix the elixir bug in Bitterfrost Frontier, was it not? Well, it didn’t fix anything for me. I played the whole story and then replayed the last boss fight a couple of times to get the achievements; after that, I couldn’t make the elixir. That was two or three days ago. After today’s patch, the Svanir will only sell me stuff, the grawl merchant has no firestone on offer, and suet isn’t dropping for me, either.

Just to be certain…is the only way to “unbug” my main really to replay the whole story? I don’t care for the daily, but I’d like to have at least the ability to make the elixir in case a friend ever needs my help in the Bitter Cold.

uncreator.5982:

whoa how do you level so fast? its been 2 weeks of casual play for lvl 30

By not playing casually. If you log in only for an hour each day and do a few hearts, explore a few areas, of course you’ll level slower than someone who sits down for 10 hours and completes an entire map ( which includes hearts, points of interest, vistas, and maybe a few events here and there ).

There are a few ways to speed up levelling significantly, including the usage of experience tomes from Black Lion Chests or PVP/WvW and crafting with a booster, and doing quests/events with an experience booster. Just as an example, popping an experience booster and exploring each racial city – Hoelbrak, Divinity’s Reach, etc. – can give up to 9-10 levels if you do it on a low-level toon. Also, doing your personal story at levels 10,20,30 and so on will give you a sizeable amount of EXP.

Forgot: many merchants in the cities will sell cheap food that gives a 10% experience boost for each mob you kill, so that even at low levels you should be able to afford a stack of 10 or so. Munch one, read whatever quest you’re on. Most quests have various ways of doing them; if you can, and care for the EXP, always do the mob part.

Speaking from a strictly PVE/non-raid perspective:

I kinda view Necro as the firefighter class: everyone else runs out, Necro runs in.

Obviously, Necros aren’t immortal, but I’ve done and survived stuff on Necro that would have pulverized me on any other class. Two health bars. Minions. Wells. As Shadelang said, the self-reliance. While it isn’t an ideal play strategy, a Necro can facetank a lot, if built for it.

It is by design a selfish class, offering very little in the way of party support. It does, however offer a ton of survival. In that regard, it fits my playstyle very well. I’ve tried all classes and various set-ups, and Necro is the one I always come back to.

If you poke through this subforum, there are a number of posts with viable builds, both for a power and a condition set up. There are also a number of websites listing builds for various game modes, such as metabattle.com and qt. Please keep in mind that the builds on metabattle especially are heavily theory-crafted; I would use them as starting points, not as the be-all-end-all. If you play mostly open world/solo a lot, you won’t have half or even a third of the buffs/boons these builds assume you’ll have under perfect conditions ( as in, party, boons, food, etc ) and you’ll find yourself disappointed.

I am a chronic world completer, meaning I do all the underwater quests, too. I can tell you that on some of my toons, I forgot to change out the breather you get at around lvl 40-50 ( either levelling reward or story reward ) and it literally did not matter/I did not notice until I checked what ascended gear that toon is still missing. Unless you plan on spending 99% of your time underwater or running the water fractal, an ascended breather does not really add a lot to your toon ( other than the joy of having everything ascended ).

My advice would be to pick, per toon, the same stats as that toon’s armor/weapons. So, Berserker breather for Berserker armor, Knight breather for Knight armor, and so on.

mauried.5608:

The other problem with the targeting system is that targets dont stay targeted while you are fighting them, and you are forever having to retarget them to continue doing any damage.
Seems to happen most when you are fighting a mob in a group of mobs.

That used to happen to me until I chose another Ground Targetting method. Having to click on the ground to “release” a skill made me lose targets more often than not, especially in the heat of the moment where I was clicking a little more frantically.

I don’t know if I’m doing something wrong or overlooking something really obvious, but my situation is the following: I cannot create the elixir used to enter the Bitter Cold on alts that have not done the story.

I can collect the eggshells, but Suet is not dropping for me. I cannot buy the firestone from the grawl heart vendor, either. Using the hot spring at Blister Cauldron tells me I don’t have the formula; talking to the Svanir Seer only opens the merchant option.

Do I really have to replay the story on every toon ( up to elixir creation ) if I want to do map completion ( without any workarounds like using the thermal tubes and then running like hell hoping I can make it before either the debuff or the mobs kill me )? I know the story isn’t very long, but I still wonder if this was really intended, seeing that neither Ember Bay nor Bloodstone Fen require the story for completion.

I’m going to have to join in on the numerous complaints about the last instance’s boss fight, specifically:

1. having to redo ALL of that instance if you’re going after achievements; I am SO SICK of fighting those waves of mobs again and again to get to the boss

and

2. the Ice Beast itself. I got the first achievement by just afking the entire fight out of range of its charge attack and the falling rocks. I literally had to do nothing. Now I am working on the second achievement, “Slain the Beast quickly”. I’ve tried this four times now. How in the world do people avoid the trillion falling rocks? Even if I run and strafe, sometimes I get knocked down not once, but two or three times in a row, chipping valuable seconds off my time. I’m just about to ragequit that particular fight and call it a day. Playing this on a toon that does not have reliable pulls makes this fight a serious pain in the rear.

I will try to finish this achievement once I’m not about to put my fist through the screen, and then I’ll see about replayability on other toons.

Electro.4173:

Is it a male or female Asura?

Female, and as if the game was waiting for me to post here…after 34 levels of radio silence, so to speak, said female Asura has now uttered both “You’re dumb” and “I majored in pain” in the last half hour.

I don’t get it. I did futz around a bit with my settings in the graphics options ( setting a higher shader ) but that…can’t really have anything to do with it, can it?

Anyway – seems my problem is solved. O.o

I’m currently levelling an Asura Ele. I’ve noticed that this toon never utters any of the signature player chatter lines when entering combat, such as “You’re dumb. You’ll die, and you’ll leave a dumb corpse.”

Yes, I know about the option to disable Player Chatter. I’ve currently NOT disabled player chatter. My other Ele, male human, won’t shut up about his Nice gear! and whenever I make a Mesmer, they lovingly tell me how Invigorating! SoI is…but the combat lines? Not a peep. And yes, I am actually listening for it while doing map completion, so I spend a fair amount of time entering combat/in combat.

Am I missing something? Was this nerfed, or am I just unlucky? It feels like an age since I heard any Asura utter their infamous “You’re dumb…” line.

Zynt.5769:

Doggie.3184:

All my characters are male because I’m too manly to play with virtual barbies /flex

HazyDaisy.4107:

Even if you are actually female no one believes it when you say so, not even other females.

I wonder ~ do the RL females dress their human female chars differently than the RL males or do they run around with T3 racial/duelist/stripper armor too? Maybe that helps determine it a little if there’s a difference? ;o

But I have a hetero male friend who plays female characters in MMOs for the sole reason that he likes to pretend to be a female because it gets him help and free stuff easier. .-.

Do people really still fall for the “guy pretending to be girl in MMO to get free stuff” trick? I thought that’s why everyone just assumes every other player to be a guy in online games, because of the amount of guys that play female characters and pretend to be girls.

In some of the games I played, there was a running joke: G.I.R.L. Guy(s) In Real Life.

That being said: I am female, and I’ve been playing online games for a long time. The climate really is different now. Used to be that announcing anywhere you were female and proved it ( voice chat, pictures, etc ) would end in harassment, stalking, insults, and overly chivalrous endeavors from people you squadded with. And if you played ego shooters like CS…winning over someone as a female tended to be the opening of the floodgates of hell. I’ve witnessed male players congratulating another male player for beating them in a hey bro, good shot way, and then turning around 15 minutes later and unloading a torrent of insults on a female player who beat them.

Personally, I’ve always played a mix of male/female toons, if the game allowed it. Here on this game, I currently have 2 Human Females + 2 Human Males ( all siblings, with a full story behind them ), and I will be making an Asura soon. Haven’t decided yet if male or female. And as someone else already said, I’d love to make a Charr ( gender dependant on mood/temperature on the day I create it ), but their loping run really does make me seasick.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Annonrae.3681:

The trainer’s name should be Dagna. Here is another image I found of her:

He said in the opening post that she used to wear feathered armor and was replaced by Dagna, so it’s a different NPC he’s looking for or a picture of Dagna wearing the original armor from beta.

“All I can remember is that she was in fact wearing Feathered armor set, along with Ascalonian Performer headgear.
But I do need the colours from this NPC, since I am a fan of copying NPC-characters.
This NPC was replaced by Dagna, a newer NPC Norn Mesmer trainer, or she was replaced with a new armor back then.”

Aah, my bad. Got a little confused there: that barely-visible NPC in the upper corner of the picture looks more Human than Norn, so I got kind of focused on the Norn in the lower picture. My apologies!

Actually…it looks like all the Norn Mesmer Trainers look the same. So:

The trainer’s name should be Dagna. Here is another image I found of her:

Kruhljak.2705:

Is this possible? I don’t want 40+ nameplates floating around obscuring stuff I want to see. I don’t see any option in the usual place, nor do I see any mention of it on the wiki, but I can hardly believe we’re forced to have this clutter whenever we’re in a squad. A 5-man party isn’t a big deal, but this is. To me, at least.

In the general options ( F11 ) under the content guide, there are some ticky boxes. One of them is “Show all Player Names”. Unticking that might take care of your problem?

I’m doing map completion, and right now, if you stand at a node in any of the starter areas and the 15-25 areas like Snowden Drifts, Kessex Hills etc., you’re almost guaranteed to see at least one bot in 5 minutes. I’ve been screenshotting them and noting down IPs and I have reported a few, but seriously, if I reported every single one I wouldn’t have time to play the game.

For open world, if you are not interested in raids and only maybe some dungeons, I wouldn’t even go Celestial, but full Berserker gear. Bolster your HP/toughness with adequate trinkets like Knights or Valkyries. If you must absolutely have some Healing Power and don’t fancy swapping out trinkets all the time, I’d suggest Zealot trinkets ( obtainable from Bloodstone Fen and Ember Bay ).

The thing is, you get a ton of HP and a nice-looking number in Healing Power with Celestial, but the sad reality is that you’re better off killing things fast in Tyria and even in HoT, rather than trying to outlast them. A dead mob can’t do crap to you and others. Also, ask yourself how often you will actually be supporting said others. If you’re an event hunter or run constant events/metas in the HoT maps, fine. But if you spend a lot of time solo, I don’t think that a lot of Healing Power is actually going to be of massive use to you if you’ll end up picking rather than bursting mobs to death.

You already have a pet to “hide behind” ( not being sarcastic: I do this a lot when I know I’m facing hard mobs/HPs/etc. ), so slotting a tank pet like a bear as a backup while keeping something like a Lynx, Panther or Tiger as your main can already take a lot of pressure off of you while you are soloing. Also, as a LB Ranger, you’re probably looking to kill from a distance, so stuff should ideally die before it even reaches you.

/two cents

Blacklist.6593:

Confirming Shaman’s Rookery. In game as I’m posting this, the cave is lit up like it has floodlights built into the walls.

Addendum: It’s not just the interior, but the exterior of that area/cell that suffers this lighting effect.

Can confirm this.

What are your screen settings, as in, Windowed, Windowed Fullscreen, Fullscreen? Try futzing around with that. I dimly remember reading about someone having random blackscreens and they fixed it by changing the window setting of the game itself, by going from Windowed Fullscreen to Fullscreen.

Meanma.5623:

Sartharina.3542:

But then nobody would wear medium armor at all!

I like them! This is the first game that lets me wear trench coats so I’m going all out on committing a crime against fashion.

It’s not really a crime against fashion…it’s more like a crime against in-game reality, insofar it applies. While I can see Rangers wearing trenchcoats, a thief wearing one just makes no sense to me. A big, swishy coat is the opposite of stealthy; if our armor actually gave off sounds like real clothes do, you’d hear that thief from a mile away while they’re trying to sneak up on you.

Charred, followed by some of the enameled dyes. If I had to pick, Charred would be it. It does wonders with textures, where other dyes leave those looking flat and liveless. See attached screenshot for example of full-Charred medium armor.

I’m going to wait and see before I decide what to do in terms of gear, if I do anything at all. Right now, I’m running ( open world, dungeons, fractals ) Berserker gear with Zealot trinkets, making me sit at roughly 600 Healing Power when I swap to Magi staff.

If the Healing Power I do have is not enough to produce adequate healing in the content I play – in other words, if the upcoming changes force me to hit like a wet ( or even wetter than now ) noodle in exchange for adequate healing – I’ll probably ditch the Druid line completely and take up BM or NM. I have no interest in playing a heal bot for group content. My current set-up works for me and is fun to play while providing enough support/buffs for other players. The moment it stops working is the moment I stop giving a crap about the other players. They can get their GotL stacks from someone else.

Video is private ( yes, I’m logged into YT, yes, I’m old enough to watch everything, etc ), so can’t see it? Just letting you know.

I wouldn’t say they are public per se. I think of these /emote conversations as private, no matter where they take place. Think of it as having a conversation with a group of friends at a restaurant/bar; sure, the conversation is taking place in public, but would you want some random stranger to just cut in? Some people welcome it, others don’t.

I think your best bet would be to look for RP-oriented guilds, to be honest, or to at least ask ( whisper ) one of the participants in these public RPs if it’s okay to join in, possibly with the hint that you are actively looking for other RPers.

I did the JP on the day of release, with a combination of Mesmer portals and TPTFs…got the achievement, not the chest, and was so happy to be done with that forever. Then I realized that all of the Mursaat tokens I still need are inside the JP. That’s an achievement I’ll never finish now. I’m not going to subject myself to this kind of torture.

Ayrilana.1396:

I didn’t think of HTTYD until people started attempting to make a connection between the two. I still don’t see a connection other than there being a dragon. There are plenty of movies with dragons.

Put a picture of Toothless next to a picture of Aurene. The similarities are obvious: big eyes, wide mouth, same head shape. I’ve only ever seen part of HTTYD and the usual online stuff of Toothless, but that’s the first thing that popped into my mind when Aurene popped out of her egg.

DeWolfe.2174:

Cecilia.5179:

I’d like to see people we care about die.

How about NO! What kinda of warped mind wants to see death? Really poor request…

The kind of “warped mind” that can make a clear distinction between reality and an MMO game? Preferring a darker storyline in a game/book/movie doesn’t make you a sociopath IRL.

For me, the game’s stories are a weird mix of slapstick humour, characters I’m supposed to care about but really don’t because I’ve formed no attachments to any of them, questionable choices, a goody-two-shoe commander ( as in, my toon ), and a lore that is full of surprisingly dark elements that are continuously hinted at/mentioned but never really come to the fore.

I enjoy playing the game, even the instances/PS, but for immersive, gripping storylines, I look elsewhere.

mrauls.6519:

Did anyone else have a WTF moment when Marjory spoke her mind?

If memory serves, in LS3 S01 we officially declined the position of Pact Commander when it was offered to us – we still retain the title, more or less, but I for one am not sure what we’re actually commanding, if we command anything at all. The members of our guild aren’t soldiers ( Rytlock and Rox aside, but they don’t strike me as typical, order-following soldiers, either – see Rytlock’s current problems with the Citadel ).

We as the player seem to have been saddled with the position of guild spokesperson, a go-to-face if you will, but to me that does not imply that our guild members must do everything we say: Dragon’s Watch is not a military structure with someone at the top giving the orders. The wiki states that all current members are founding members, not our underlings.

To get to the point: nope, I didn’t have any WTF moment whatsoever when one of the members of Dragon’s Watch decided to speak their mind. We can debate whether or not it’s out of character for Marjory to do so, but she certainly has the right to do so, and we do not have the right to tell her not to. We’re not Marjory’s commanding officer, and she’s not a soldier. At the most, we can advise her that her decision to try to ‘monitor’ Lazarus is stupid/dangerous. What she does in the end is still up to her.

( Personally, that whole sequence was one big WTF moment for me, though in a different way. Lazarus absorbed a whole Bloodstone’s worth of power. What’s Jory gonna do if he decides to do away with her? Nothing, that’s what. )

Because many games enforce PVP at a certain level of progression. GW2 does not. If it did, I wouldn’t be playing it.

Red Rover.9810:

After playing several hours tonight in both open world PvE and fractals I honestly can’t tell much of a difference. Rise is still good when you have Blood Magic (Vampiric) and Death Magic (toughness per minion, condi transfer, poison explosion on death). However, I am curious about how the minion nerfs feel in a Viper Horror condi build (Curses/DM/Reaper), where you don’t have Blood Magic, since I have been gathering gear to switch to that build for higher fractals.

I am playing a Viper Horror condi build, and after doing my general flax/chest gathering in VB and TD, my daily TA solo, as well as playing through the first chapter of LWS3 and doing map completion in Bloodstone Fen, all of which took about, say, 5 hours of being hip-deep in mobs…

I can’t tell any difference at all, and I am someone who relies on pets/minions a lot to soak damage while the conditions to their thing. I’ve no idea if/how this nerf will affect raids, as I don’t raid, but my general impression so far is “there was a nerf?”.

There are two main ways to turn the HoT maps into gold, in my opinion.

1. Gathering. Flax sells well; so do flax fibres, which drop from it, and linseed oil, which is made from flax. Mussels sell reasonably well in large quantities; what sells really well are the Freshwater pearls they ( rarely ) drop. Equally as rare are Maguuma lilies, which drop from jungle plants.

There are two flax farms that I know of, and several hotspots for mussels: find these spots and send one or two toons there daily to gather, make linseed oil ( from flax ), sell mussels, sell fibres, profit. For the lilies, just hit every “Jungle Plant” you see. It takes some dedication and you will not suddenly have hoards of gold within hours, but you can make a pretty penny.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Flax
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Jungle_Plants
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sd0gmOjbYNM ( I picked the first vid I could find )
http://degeneracygw2.tumblr.com/post/133882663279/verdant-brink-mussel-farm-map-courtesy-of ( again, picked first thing that came up after googling )

If these do not suffice, google: gw2 flax farm, gw2 mussel farm

2. The SW principle. It’s the old ‘open bags, salvage, sell/sell rares and/or exotics’ principle. In an earlier update they increased the loot from participating in HoT meta events. Opinions on this may vary, as regular participation in meta events should ideally take place in a map that you enjoy and know how to get around on: for me, personally, Verdant Brink and Auric Basin are the maps I enjoy most, with Dragon Stand ranging behind. I can and have done the meta in Tangled Depths, but that map annoys me, so I tend to steer clear of it unless I absolutely need the map currency for a recipe or collectible.

In order to successfully participate in the meta, you’ll want to be familiar with the maps, and you’ll want some masteries. I’m not sure how much use guides will be there, as each player has a different level of comfort when it comes to navigating HoT. Again, personal opinion, the HoT masteries ( https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mastery ) that helped me the most to move around the maps were Nuhoch Wallows, Itzel Poison Lore, and fully unlocked Gliding. I would prioritize Gliding over Wallows, and Wallows over Poison Lore.

Guides on where/how to get mastery points:
http://dulfy.net/2015/10/30/gw2-verdant-brinks-mastery-insights-and-strongboxes-guide/
http://dulfy.net/2015/10/31/gw2-auric-basin-mastery-insights-and-strongboxes-guide/
http://dulfy.net/2015/11/01/gw2-tangled-depths-mastery-insights-and-strongboxes-guide/
http://dulfy.net/2015/11/02/gw2-dragons-stand-hero-points-and-strongboxes-guide/

On to the meta events.

Participating in any meta event on any HoT map should net you: loot ( lots of bags ) and/or map currency and/or keys to unlock the map-specific loot nodes after or even before meta.

Loot is self-explanatory; if you’ve done SW, you know what to do with loot bags. Map currencies in HoT work the same way as Geodes and Bandit crests. Collect, spend at vendor for collectibles, recipes, keys. Just like in the Silverwastes, each HoT map has one or several map currency vendors:

Itzel Mastery Vendor @ Shipwreck Peak WP in Verdant Brink – airship parts
Exalted Mastery Vendor @ Forgotten City WP in Auric Basin – aurillium
Nuhoch Mastery Vendor @ Order of Whispers Camp WP in Tangled Depths – Ley Line Crystal
Whispers Keeper @ Pact Base Camp WP in Dragon Stand – Crystalline Ore

Keys in the HoT map work like Bandit Skeleton Key and Zephyrite Lockpicks. Note that the Verdant Brink keys, Pact Crowbars, are currently the only keys that cannot be bought from any vendor; generally though, I find that even semi-regular participation in meta events gives me more pact crowbars than I know what to do with. YMMW.

The only thing that changed about Verdant Brink is that they removed the participation for the day cycle, but you still do events to strengthen the outposts and work toward the night cycle. Auric Basin works much the same: do events to power up pylons at the respective north/east/south/west outposts to work toward Octovine. Tangled Depths, the same: work toward Chak Gerent. Dragon Stand is an exception in so far that it requires a concentrated effort of three lanes, south, mid, and north, to work your way toward Modremoth.

In the beginning, I found it easiest to just pick an outpost in VB, AB, or TD, and do the events there until I was familiar with them. Hopping around madly on a map and participating in events all over the place is just going to be confuzzling, especially if you find that map hard to navigate or haven’t unlocked all the waypoints yet.

All HoT meta maps are on timers: http://dulfy.net/2015/11/09/gw2-hot-maps-timer-famme/

LFG is going to be your friend. Use it to find squads that are taxiing into maps where the meta is underway. Pick an outpost or area, find other players, and then do what they do. I could link guides, but I think actually doing the meta helps you more than reading about doing the meta. Poke around and familiarize yourself with the maps. Don’t be afraid to die – horribly, in some cases. Actually, going into the HoT maps with an attitude of “hey, I’ll probably bite the dust at least once” takes a lot of frustration out of them. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, either. There will be kittens, but there will also be players who help you.

Be prepared to fail events, too. The nifty thing about the Hot maps – the exception is Dragon Stand – being on a timer is that the meta WILL happen. The trick is to find a map with enough players to make it happen successfully.

Last thing: multi-loot. There is currently some squabbling about whether or not multi-looting is intended gameplay, but that aside…

Check LFG for “multi-loot” or “multi-map” for Auric Basin. Multi-loot/multi-map squads tend to look like this:

Main Group 1 – Lobby
Sub-Group 2 – Map 1
Sub-Group 3 – Map 2
Sub-Group 4 – Map 3
etc.

If you’ve done SW, or joined squads in general, you know how clicking on a player and selecting “Join in ______” works. Just as you’d join players in a different instance of the Silverwastes map to find one where there are enough players to do the events, in Auric Basin you do the Octovine event on your map, and then join other players in their map. It’s basically a lot of players doing the same event, but on different maps. In the end, you map-hop and loot in as many successfully completed Octovine maps as possible.

I’ve seen multi-map squads with 8+ subgroups. So I join, for example, sub-group 2 on Map 1. I do the meta. I loot. Then I click on a player in sub-group 3 and join them in Map 2, if they have announced in squad chat that they have completed Octovine. I loot again. Then I join sub-group 4 and hop into Map 3, and loot again. The idea behind multi-loot is to get a ton of loot from different instances of the same map, but only doing the meta once, in your map.

/wall of text

This thread might be helpful:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/hot/Can-t-make-auric-weapons-with-new-stats

I’m not a raider, but I’m still gonna yell at you…kinda.

Your first suggestion would cover the needs of the lore hounds by giving them story mode, and it would allow players just curious about raids to poke their noses in without getting nuked from orbit by the first mob they come across. Like I said, I don’t raid, and I’ve relied on nice people to open done raid wings for me to poke around in at my leisure, so your first suggestion is something I’d like to see implemented.

The second suggestion is something I can’t quite wrap my head around. Since when is nerfing anything into the ground ever a good idea? Also, where do you draw that line that says content is no longer relevant – and to whom? Let’s say a raid instance comes out this month…when should it be nerfed? In a year? Half a year? What about the new players coming into the game? Or the people who’ve played for a while, and who might not, for whatever reason, have had the time or inclination to go into that raid when it was relevant? I don’t raid now, but who knows, I might change my mind, and if I do, I’d want the full experience even if that includes having my posterior handed to me by mob/boss mechanics.

In my opinion, ‘old’ content should always be available to new players, and also to veterans who didn’t play it when it was ‘relevant’. This is one of my main gripes with GW2: I started playing last year and I am seriously peeved that I only get a nerfed LS1 in the form of a few cut scenes and a bunch of items purchasable through Laurels – and let’s not forget the items/titles (?) I can’t get at all, unless I purchase them for a lot of gold from the TP.

So, TL;DR: Option one – yes, please. With cherries on top. Option two…no thanks.

/two cents

I can confirm that this has been going on since longer than yesterday’s update, because I completed that zone on an alt last week and basically squinted my way through the quest in that house.

Mea.5491:

I maxed an Ele/Tempest with Tomes and Proof of Heroics just to get the Tempest’s Loop skin for my Necro and then deleted the Ele because I’m not fond of the playstyle. x)

What is the weirdest thing you’ve ever done to get an item?

I tome’d and craft-levelled all professions to 80 to unlock all their special skins, ran each one through HoT for the Hero Points to unlock the weapon collections, and then deleted everyone but my Necro, Ranger, and Mesmer.

I tome’d and craft-levelled a Sylvari to 80 to get that one achievement in the HoT story that requires a Sylvari to finish, and deleted the character 10 minutes after I got the achievement.

Also – not an item, but I levelled a Mesmer to 80 just for jumping puzzles. Later I found out I actually like the playstyle, so it’s become my sort-of-secondary main.

http://symbolcodes.tlt.psu.edu/accents/codealt.html

I’m pretty sure that not all of them work in the game, but the Umlaute and circumflexes should.