Guild Wars 2

This problem is likely not due to Guild Wars 2

I was playing GW2 minutes ago and wanted to play some WvW, but had to get the new build first. Closed my client to download it, but got the message “This app can’t run on your PC. To find a version for your PC, check with the software publisher”. This message is complete kitten, and I’m hoping someone here has some experience with it on Windows 10, as I’ve never seen it before. A quick google tells me that many people have problems with Windows 10 Smart Screen, but I have never had that active (and it is not currently active) because I don’t click scary links. Another suggestion I found was 3rd party software that is “totally legit”, but I don’t trust that. If anyone has experience with this, please let me know!

For the record, I haven’t experienced anyone “lose hacking” or whatever people are calling it in any of my games, only people calling other people “lose hacker” (or whatever) when they play incredibly poorly.

Hey friends!

Let me start by saying that I’m a gw2 PvE hero. I dabble in WvW and PvP, but usually only for dailies or to switch things up a bit. I am by no means a good PvP player, although I do find that I’ll often rank surprisingly high/do very well within a single match (high score, kills, objectives, damage that sort of thing). Before HoT my experience in PvP was solely as a bunker guardian (my old main), and I’d do fairly well just button mashing a meta bunker build lol. With HoT my Revenant has been my new main, and so naturally (and especially with PvP leagues going on) I’ll just hop in a PvP match to get my daily on Revenant. This slow ladder progression by only doing dailies means I just tiered up in Amber today lol. Now on to today’s experience.

So today I queue up and get a match on that snow map with the buffs like tranquility or whatever. No one talks at the start, fine lol I’ll just take a bad route toward far point so I can take home if no one decides to go. No one goes home, so I head home. A warrior then decides he wants to go home, which tells me that I’m better than him, so I let him and I resume heading far. By this point, two members of my team were at mid and a mesmer had also run to the far point. He was in a 2v1 against a ranger and a thief on far point, but not doing too poorly. I hop in with my Revenant running S/A and Staff. I use sword 3 on the ranger, get immob after while ranger dodges and moves away (lol) so I axe 4 to him, swap to staff and use staff 5. This combo in addition to the mesmer being there downs the enemy ranger pretty quick. We kill the ranger, finish off the thief, cap far and life is good. The ranger keeps throwing his body at the mesmer and I at far point, as well as other members of the enemy team (we had triple cap), and after killing this ranger two or three times, he starts messaging me calling me things like “lose hacker” and a stream of other not cool things. Like, what? Is this what PvP is right now? People purposely losing to get low mmr matches, and then babies using that as an excuse to suck? Like dude, press V or something, or 6, give yourself a fighting chance.

I’m finding PvP enjoyable right now, probably because I’m not too invested into it like some people, but I’m really not enjoying the PvP community. This is just my experience though, I mean no offense to other people here or toward ArenaNet (that’s right, I don’t even blame you for all the easily foreseen and preventable issues with PvP right now, I’m still enjoying it a little, kinda).

1) How is damage calculated from power? The wiki says that at level 80 all professions have 1000 base power, and adding 1000 more power would double your damage, but are there diminishing returns?

I ask about diminishing returns because:

2) When comparing the Superior Sigil of Bloodlust (power) and Superior Sigil of Cruelty (ferocity), it seems odd that bloodlust would out dps cruelty at max stacks (assuming high crit chance, I would agree that power should be better for non-crit builds). The 250 power would correlate to a 25% base damage increase (see wiki info above) that is then multiplied by your existing crit multiplier. On the other hand, the wiki states that at level 80, 15 points of ferocity corresponds to a 1% increased crit multiplier. So 250 ferocity would only result in a 16.667% increase in critical multiplier. Even if you assume 100% critical strike chance, how does it make sense that power would always out-scale ferocity?

3) Berserker is the current meta, giving power/precision/ferocity, but has anyone done calculations about max theoretical dps? (regarding gear, not classes) Could a certain threshold of precision/ferocity (Berserker/Assassins) out dps full Berserker?

Interested to hear thoughts on this

You’re right, of course. I just wish there was more communication, it’d go a long way to keeping a loyal player base. A guy can dream lol

Doesn’t make sense to me. It’s a great game, sure. It’s odd how little this company let’s the community in on ideas in the development pipeline, definitely. But why no guild halls? I wondered it at launch and it just doesn’t make sense.

I agree that the living story was a mistake. I think a lot of people here are spot on in many of the problems with living story. Two-week updates, and even the new monthly updates are cool in that there is always a stream of new content, but the stream seems pretty fickle to me.

Personally, I would much prefer a full expansion release rather than the watered down content living story provides. I’m sure a vast majority of guild wars 2 players would gladly pay for an expansion. Sure, we all have our issues with the game, things we want added or fixed, but we’re still here because we love it. An expansion would make it feel like experiencing the game again for the first time, that feeling was great.

Living Story cannot provide that feeling. Just my two cents.

The problem with Elite content is that Guild Wars 2 has been developed to target a wider audience than its predecessor, to entice the casual gamer, and you would expect reward to compensate difficulty or a large time sink. This is a problem because if greater rewards are offered to people who can actually accomplish something difficult, a majority of the player base would be upset that they feel at a disadvantage in not being able to obtain these rewards. Also, they would complain about their frustration in trying to accomplish this “impossibly” (for them) difficult content.

Additionally, I only see people able to complete it battling those who can’t by demanding better rewards, because we all know only too well from experience that there’s probably no way they could come up with adequate rewards on the first iteration.

On a side note, I am totally in support of more difficult content with corresponding rewards. Originally I thought that’s what they were going for with Fractals of the Mists, but…we all know how that turned out.

@Ammorth.3604: I’ve noticed a lot of people thinking they need a thief, but my group of buddies have actually never used a thief in fractals, we like our mains so we stick with them lol. I’m sure you could solo the bombs with any class, but I personally do it on my guardian just fine.

Edit: there were two "actually"’s

Continued from my previous post:

If the Dredge fractal is nerfed one way or another, then I have no further comments, except my disappointment. However, if the other fractals were to be buffed, and possibly make fractals difficult, here are my suggestions to the community:

These suggestions are made assuming that you either have difficulty with the current content, or future content makes it difficult for experienced players

1) Humble yourself. This game is easy, but it’s okay to have content where a mistake can kill you. When this occurs, instead of thinking there is a problem with the game because you can faceroll everything else, start by examining your own strategy of gameplay.

2) Examine your own strategy of gameplay. If you can handle the majority of high level fractals easily, but consistently have difficulty with particular fights or objectives (Dredge!), or fractals are just downright difficult for you as a whole, then there is ALWAYS SOMETHING you can do to improve. I stick to the philosophy “You can’t do any dps when you’re dead”. My suggestion is to first research the boss or objective you have difficulty with (youtube is great, but a specific post on forums as to the strategy for a particular part is good, too). When you have done that, examine your build. It is OKAY if you can’t do fractals 100% zerker glass cannon. If you are dying at all, I suggest you build super tanky. Once you build as tanky as possible, then you can gradually experiment with more dps in a wide variety of ways on every class. Just remember: If you die, you are gimping your team, so the first objective should be not to die. DPS is always secondary to that fact. This point is so long because it’s easily the most important. One caveat: you could also be dying because other people die first, which just makes it difficult because sometimes you want to res, and there are also less targets for whatever killed that person. If you are not the one that’s always dying, add other people who don’t die to your friends list! You’d be surprised how big of an impact this makes on clear speed and difficulty.

3) Reread point #2 about eight more times.

I’ve read through most of the posts here, and I must say, there are a couple good suggestions (if you can sift through all the QQ posts). Here are my thoughts on fractals: (using warren.5497’s structure idea! (sorta) :P haha)

Intro:

Let’s face it, we all love this game. We’ve poured hundreds of hours in (I’m at 1400+ with several weeks/months breaks at a time along the way), and so we’re all invested in the game’s success and positive development. I know some people just don’t get that and live to complain about every little thing that isn’t just right, but when you look at things like this, you have to step back and realize that we’ve got a great game here, guys.

That being said, my following thoughts are my opinions regarding fractals. I usually play with PUG groups for dailies, and play with my buddies when we’re all on. My buddies and I are really good at fractals (we met when we realized we were all trying to push to lvl 50+ before the 1/18/13 patch that put a hard cap at 50 last year) and since fractals sucked after that, we just farmed together to get legendaries and such. Now the fun begins again though, and here’s why:

Overall Thoughts:

While I love it and have a lot of fun playing, I think that Guild Wars 2 is an incredibly easy game. Originally, I thought that fractals would fill that ‘niche’ roll for players who wanted a challenge, and I think they fulfill this goal to an extent.
Anything that makes this game more difficult is fantastic in my book. Now, there should obviously be a balance as to difficulty/reward, and in that respect there’s a lot of room for improvement, but that brings me to thoughts on the current state.

Thoughts on current state & suggestions for future state:

Fractured! was a fantastic update for fractals as a whole. The instabilities add difficulty (the data mined ones also look fantastic!!). I also loved the addition of boss fight rotations instead of just the maw. This is actually what I thought would be part of fractals originally when they first came out, and always thought it would be a great addition. The rewards were only marginally improved; the tonic is cool, I guess, and I like the idea of ascended weapons dropping (I think I saw that?).

You never really needed agony resist at all, so I like the instability that makes AR actually halfway necessary. Just wanted to throw this comment in here lol.

Now as for the fractals themselves. I agree that the Dredge fractal is longer and more difficult for most groups than the other fractals.

In that sense, I have a couple suggestions for ANet:

1) All fractals should be of relatively similar length/difficulty to avoid so much hate toward one aspect of a great dungeon. As such, a decision should be made to either shorten the Dredge fractal, make it easier, OR Increase the length and/or difficulty of the other fractals.

2) Depending on the design decision from #1, make it clear to the community one way or the other. Fractals are intended to fill the niche roll of higher level difficult content that does not currently exist in Guild Wars 2, or it does not. Either way, a definitive statement should be made.
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I haven’t read too many posts here, but here’s how I see this Magic Find Issue.
(TL;DR at the bottom, sorry for the wall of text)

Personally, I feel as though my time is wasted if I’m not running full magic find. And I mean FULL magic find. Magic find on all exotic armor and weapons with Rune of the Traveler and Sigil of Luck (both superior), ascended mf back piece, and ascended trinkets/rings and amulet with mf infusion. On top of that, I’ll keep up 40% mf from food (sometimes 30% to toy around with the rumor that the extra 40% doesn’t actually apply when you have boons, which is a totally legitimate concern given ANet’s track record) and the laurel booster, as well as the occasional 50% from bonfire/mf booster or whatever else I can get my hands on.

Now, why did I mention that I feel my time is wasted if I’m playing the game without that? Simple: I like to use my time efficiently, to an extent, and feel that magic find is a very good and easy way to do this.

I’ve logged over 1300 hours in game since launch (taking some extended breaks along the way), and so have no grounds to be disappointed with this game, I love it. But, were I to give an example where ANet has just utterly dropped the ball, it’s in difficulty. Maybe I’m just really good at this game lol or maybe you’re supposed to be able to just utterly faceroll every single bit of content, but I’d like to hope otherwise. I do think this game is ridiculously easy, and most of my enjoyment came in experiencing it, exploring the world and dungeons, and some good ’ole WvW and PvP mixed in. Now, having it so easy makes it incredibly fun for the casual player, and to them the content may also seem endless and at times challenging (this also makes the game very marketable to a large audience, which may be a good bussiness model). But this magic find issue raises a bigger issue from more experienced or “hardcore” gamers.

There is already almost NO content for the experienced or “hardcore” gamer in Guild Wars 2. Fractals came close to achieving a little oasis in the sea of stupidly easy content, but I think even that has shifted hugely from its original ‘as advertised’ model to accommodate the casual gamer. As such, those experienced gamers that really do enjoy the game turn to one thing – getting awesome gear.

I think the reasoning behind the removal of MF gear lies in the fact that SO MANY people use it! Maybe you personally (reader) don’t, and maybe there are other people like you who ask “What’s the point of Magic Find when you can have gear with good stats?”. Well, I think that for each person who asks that question, there are thousands more who ask “Why wouldn’t I use Magic Find gear when the game is so easy?”

And there you have it. I think Magic Find is being removed on gear because ANet wants to promote build diversity. But here’s my input on the matter, and I hope a dev sees this:
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Rather than removing (or otherwise drastically reducing) a player’s ability to farm for gold/items and thus cooler gear (which is already difficult in this game for a number of reasons) in order to promote build diversity (the alternative to MF gear would be gear with actual stats), what I’d like to see is some truly difficult content that REQUIRES gear with actual stats, and REQUIRES players to actually care about their build, and so on. Now I realize the problem with this. Difficult content means that there would have to be rewards worth the effort required to complete this content, and then more casual players (probably a majority) would explode in anguish about not being able to acquire these rewards. But I think that’s the point, it should be HARD to get the best skins in the game (not best weapons or armor, because heaven forbid feeling like you have to grind or be good to get the best gear).
*

TL;DR (basically)

So, those are my thoughts on the situation. Those of you worried about purchasing exotic/ascended Magic Find gear, I highly doubt you have anything to worry about with this change as far as your investments go, ANet tries their best to make everyone happy so I’m sure there will be some sort of suitable compensation. But therein lays my closing statement to ANet: Don’t try to make everyone happy. Have content in the game that not everyone will do because of difficulty. It’s what adds the dynamic of prestige to items, rather than just playing the game a long time or having a lot of real world money to blow. Thanks, if you’ve read this far.

EDIT: just wanted to add that I am in no way trying to shame those who enjoy using real world money in games, it’s totally legitimate if that’s what you choose to do. I just prefer the account bound system for some items to show their prestige (in a way, a loose example might be Fractal skins).

None of us have seen it before, but thanks for the heads up!

After the ninja build you guys threw on tonight, I was in a PvP Tournament when each member of my party systematically got a “returning player to lobby in: [timer]” message, and everyone was returned to the heart of the mists. It appears that many others are experiencing similar issues.

If this was intentional, please give an eta on when the problem will be resolved, if this was not intentional, I hope this brings light to the situation.

EDIT: We are now sitting in heart of the mists, and the tournament ready popup appears. Upon clicking “Go Now”, nothing happens, and the message pops up again after a couple minutes.

My friend and I both have the same problem. Initially, these were soulbound, I believe, but were later changed to be tradeable. If anything can be done or said as to why neither of our tonics can be sold on the TP, please let me know.

(both were originally obtained on our accounts, they were not bought off the TP, and neither has the option to be sold on the TP)

Thanks!

It’s definitely easier solo. I did not enjoy doing this with randoms, but it was a blast with guildies! But as for rewards, there’s the possibility they’ll add more as more worlds open up maybe?

Fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. Just finished up through World 2 Zone 1 preview, and I was totally blown away! You guys are really hitting on all cylinders on this one, and that commercial you made for it!?? Oh my goodness lol, too much. I look forward to completing the remaining worlds you have in wait for us!

Please let me know if there is any information on this elsewhere, but I couldn’t find a post on it.

It appears that there are a few incorrect tooltips for the items offered by the Guild Commendations Trader. The most notable being the Guild Heroes Banner.

The current tooltip says that it gives +5% boost to gold earned from monster kills for 30 minutes.

Because these cost 1 more commendation than the Guild Gold from Kills Banner, I thought there was something wrong, and it appears that I am correct.

On the wiki, the effect of the Guild Heroes Banner is given as: +10% Karma, +15% Magic Find, +15% Experience from kills, +10% Gold from kills, +10% Movement Speed and +15% Gathering Chance for (time is unspecified, but I would guess 30 minutes)

Additionally, I have the question, what is the point of the Guild Gold from Kills Banner? If banners do NOT stack, the +5% gold from this banner pales in comparison to the Guild Gold and Magic Find Banner, which offers +10% boost to gold, and +15% magic find for the same amount of time (30 min) for the same exact price. Perhaps the tooltip on the Guild Gold from Kills Banner is incorrect as well? +25% gold seems to be what you guys were going for, while it says 5%.

This is how WvW should have been from the start: Epic.

First, I want to say bravo with the two instances added for the fire and frost thing, it was much more interesting than the pitiful displays in the last two patches.

I’m one of those guys that have been here since closed beta, and am now at the point where I’ve played 1200+ hours. On my guardian lol. I’ve done everything I’ve wanted to in the game, pretty much (especially after the 1/28 patch wiped out hopes of progression in FotM). Each month, I read the patch notes to see if anything worth doing was added, and much to my pleasure, this month was the first. No more culling, and WvW progression. Wow. I just blasted through about 7 hours of WvW, and it was a blast!

I did glance over a few posts on this forum, though, and of course it’s impossible to make everyone happy. The main issue I’m seeing, however, is that servers are just mass zerging and fast capping to maximize wxp. I’m actually a little curious, if this is the problem, why is ANYONE crying?? lol maybe it’s different because I’m on Jade Quarry, and all day today we had a great commander everyone was following, but mass zerging (behind one coordinating commander) seems to be the best way to play WvW period. Organization, speed, power, reaction time, everything is easier. People are compelled to stick with the commander, too, because they gain wxp waaaay faster!

Now, some people complain, saying “but but but all WvW is becoming is all three servers running around with a mass zerg avoiding each other, capping and back capping points for wxp”, to which I say: lol you’re doing it wrong. If this is happening to you, grab yourself a commander pin, and take over. There are a few key points you should realize:

1) WvW is boring. It’s the same old dance to the same old tune day in and day out.

2) The new patch has everyone up in a hizzy over this world xp. WvW server populations will be high for a week or two, or at least until people realize that the bonuses aren’t so incredible — at least, compared to how long they take to get.

3) While everyone is all up in a hizzy over world xp, a good commander will notice that for a couple weeks, people want one thing: world xp. Boy, that was hard. You’ll see zergs doing events, even (such as warg/wurm/centaur/skritt). But it also brings one key point: EVERYONE wants to zerg. This is a commander’s dream.

4) If you’re still having trouble seeing where this is going, here it is: WvW is the same as before, except now there’s an incentive for everyone to actually unite together behind one or two good commanders.

Now, the reason I would say “lol you’re doing it wrong” if you are zerging around capping/back capping for exp while avoiding zergs is for one reason: you WANT to clash with other zergs! You can gain an easy 2k+ Wxp if you play well during a zerg clash. News flash: this is the fastest way of gaining Wxp. Now running around the world willy nilly it’ll probably be hard to run into another zerg by sheer chance. That’s where old WvW play comes in. Defend those towers and keeps! The choke points are crazy good for racking up hundreds of kills!

I dunno if I really have to go into more detail, but the way I see it, this is the best thing ANet could have done to help WvW. What a notion, people wanting to play it lol. Once the hype has passed, I think you’ll see the out manned buff popping up once in a while (also, awesome job there), and things more or less returning to normal. But to you who come to these forums to cry about how a welcome change of pace is ‘breaking’ WvW, lol. Just, lol.

Not to mention, each and every battle is now like the final clash in Braveheart. Removing culling is the most wonderful breath of fresh air this game has seen since Wintersday (which was more or less alright, as far as patches go for me). Just epic, epic battles

I may actually play this game again for a few weeks, who knows? :P

To the OP: Great thread, constructive criticism is always welcome on these forums.

In my time running FotM, I also felt the same anxiety, and I applaud your determination in pursuing your desired fractal weapons. I was actually really lucky in getting all the fractal weapons (and then some) that I was interested in, but I didn’t get my final and favorite piece, the fractal greatsword, until well after getting 500/500 fractal frequenter. Your first solution seems very good, and could even be higher than you suggested, but the light at the end of the tunnel is completely necessary, while degrading its value is not.

EDIT: lol just noticed your most recent post. I feel the same way. I’ve done everything I want to in this game. The only reason I kept playing was to progress in FotM, but they took that away with the 1/28 patch, soooooooo XD lol

lol at threads like this. Nothing about this game is difficult. If you are unable to complete something, such as the shaman fractal, ask for help — not a nerf. The problem with asking for a nerf is that they might ACTUALLY nerf it!! lol. I’ve stopped playing this game because ANet attempts to cater to everyone, but really only waters it down for the masses (which is great from a business perspective, I suppose). Don’t get me wrong, my 1200 hours in the game were great, but you guys should be careful about what you wish for.

TL;DR: Use these forums to ask for help, not nerfs. Feedback is good, but begging for nerfs is never good.

Level makes no difference at all if you play according to the points I hit on above. But I did mention that I had pugged to level 53, and I believe I was able to get 4 lvl 50+ Shaman runs in before the 1/28 patch (we had rushed before the patch just in case they messed with fractals too much). Post patch, Shaman and Swamp are the two fractals we roll for, as they are the fastest, and that’s on fractal scale 48 and 38 every day, and 28 if time permits.

EDIT: I did mention above that I haven’t played since the 1/28 patch, but that’s more of a general figure. I played for about two weeks afterward until I got bored of the game, and have now been playing sporadically after the last patch (only for guild missions). I’m sure there’s plenty for most players to do in this game, but aside from paid PvP tournaments, I’ve done it all.

It isn’t a skill, it’s a technique. Before the Maw agony is applied, you have one or two members of the party die. Res them to 99%, trigger agony, res on receiving agony (small window). Done.

lol just glanced over this thread a bit. There is nothing hardcore about any of the dungeons in this game. If you need another person, let me know.

I believe all the old res tricks (ranger res, 99 res) still work for the 40’s, haven’t played since a little after the 1/28 patch though. You will not be able to complete any even fractals level 50+, as they added a mechanic to the maw agony that applies the agony even on res.

I believe the added agony from amulets and accessories, giving a max of 45 at the moment, will allow you to legitimately complete level 40 fractals (without res tricks), but 50+ will still remain utterly inaccessible until more content is added.

Not going to lie, I only read the title of this thread. On that, however, if a developer reads this, please ignore this thread as well as others like it. In stead, there should be threads saying that all the fractals need a buff.

I haven’t played since the 1/28 patch that destroyed the idea of progression in the fractals of the mists, but before the patch I pugged up to level 53. Fractals were actually pretty awesome because once you were at the higher levels, you could count on other pugs being at least competent, if not the outright best players you’ll meet in the game. You would add the members of a successful pug group to your friends list to allow for faster grouping for dailies and progression, and get to know some new people pretty well. Shame all that was lost, but back on topic.

Personally, I believe that fractals should not be a walk in the park. That’s what the other dungeons in the game are for. Story mode is there to hold your hand, and explorable mode is the training wheels. I see fractals as a place where ANet shouldn’t be holding your hand, and should remove the training wheels, and start you down a hill. Some will fall off their bike, but many find a way to adapt, find their balance, and ride on. If you can see the analogy, you might understand why many groups I played with in the higher level fractals actually chose to roll for Shaman. To be on the safe side, the reason is this: The Shaman fractal is the fastest and easiest to complete as it was intended to be played (except perhaps Bloomhunger on swamp if you are able to get the whisps on the first try).

Our goal was speed, challenge, and fun. All three were accomplished (pre 1/28, as fractals lost all of that afterward).

Now, my suggestion for you would be to examine your strategy and approach to this fractal if you are having difficulty. I assume your main difficulty is in the final boss, so let’s focus on that. First, establish your given: If you do not take damage, you will inevitably win. Therefore, you must examine how you take damage, and counteract it. There are 5 ways to take damage in the boss room.

1.) Burning: If you stand still, you will take constant burning damage. Solution: Don’t stand still.

2.) Lava: The island is surrounded by lava, as well as being peppered with small lava pits. Solution: Be aware of your position, and know your next move. Mistakes happen, but try to see the lava pits before you dodge roll into them. You should not have trouble avoiding the lava lake surrounding the island.

3.) Melee AoE Flame Blast: The Shaman will, at times, use a powerful AoE Flame Blast against Melee attackers. Solution: Always stay ranged, with only one exception (next point).

4.) Slug adds: At each 25% life increment, Slug adds will spawn while the Shaman is in his bubble. These can be troublesome, especially when the bubble should always be first priority. Solution: Projectile defenses. Since the Slugs only have a projectile attack, any shield/line/spell that can block, reflect or absorb projectiles completely negates all damage that the Slugs deal. Every single class in the game possesses skills of this nature.

5.) Agony: This is usually the hardest obstacle to overcome, as at higher levels, it will one shot you. Agony is applied if you are hit by the arrow attack the Shaman uses. Solution: Dodge. All agony damage is completely negated if you can recognize the boss’s animation before it fires an arrow and you are able to dodge it. If you have difficulty with this, simply realize that this arrow is a projectile, and that every single class in the game possesses skills that can completely negate projectile damage by blocking, reflecting, or absorbing projectiles.

Beyond that, the Shaman fractal should be very fast, and with some practice (that’s right, it may take some effort), should become a fun challenge that you look forward to.

Hope this helps some of you, and hopefully I’ll see some of you in the fractals if they ever get around to making it fun again!

(If you found me overly cynical toward the 1/28 patch and the current state of the fractals, I apologize, but I did really use to enjoy them before they became just another daily :P)

1) Fractals of the Mists don’t count toward your monthly achievement.

2) Burning is only applied while standing still, or if you have aggro from the boss. in case 1, simply keep moving to avoid damage. In case 2, simply dodge to avoid damage.

In your defense, the Shaman is, in my opinion, the most difficult PvE boss encounter in the game, especially at higher fractal difficulties. Being able to complete it is solely based on the party’s skill, however. I can tell you that it is still completely possible to beat post 1/28 patch, as my group completed it on level 48 while doing dailies the other day.

Best of luck of the future.

A dev response to this issue would be great.

Quam, that’s a nice video, and illustrates the point perfectly. The Imbued Shaman is (in my opinion) the most difficult PvE encounter in the game. Unskilled players are literally incapable of completing it (at higher difficulty scales). But, as the video shows, there is always a way for skilled players to overcome that obstacle. That’s the kind of endgame PvE experience that Guild Wars 2 completely lacks, especially post 1/28 update. Personally, if the devs never intend to have a continuing PvE endgame experience, I would have much preferred being told that, rather than playing under false pretense. Don’t get me wrong, I love this game (over 1000 hours played), but Fractals of the Mists was the only PvE element that even came close to providing challenging endgame content, and now it’s just like every other dungeon. It’s a simple, daily routine.

No, Stigma, I think you missed Merit’s point. You’re both actually saying the exact same thing lol. Skill is what we want to be the method of the progression, and items is what ANet is making it.

@DancingPenguins.9875 Source? Your comment can be a conclusion derived from their actions, but I would rather hear it from a dev.

Also, shame on them. Fractals were great before the patch.

@DancingPenguins.9875 Ziazis was essentially providing confirmation that Kurr’s argument was invalid.

Well put, Merit.

@Kurr.4179 The agony damage isn’t the problem. Every boss starts hitting pretty hard at level 40+. The difference is that with every other boss, the agony is avoidable, not just a wall that you either can or cannot pass. As others have stated, this makes FotM now an equipment check rather than a skill check.

@Pinch.4273 I actually specifically mentioned my discontent with the Jade Maw mechanics, and I think you’re confusing the issue a bit. Sure, the dungeon has many bugs and exploits by which you can progress in an unintended fashion. Many, many players have used these exploits, however, it doesn’t detract from the feeling of accomplishment in achieving a higher level. And although you’re correct in that it decreases their challenge, I think we can all agree that as far as PvE content goes, Fractals of the Mists were by far the most difficult. Skilled players don’t need exploits to progress, but humans naturally follow the path of least resistance – it’s faster or easier. That isn’t my complaint, though. ANet can fix all the bugs and exploits they want, ‘increasing’ difficulty per say, but a skilled group of players will always be able outperform the content until such point that it really does become too difficult. They fixed a lot of bugs in the last update, as I soon found out myself. My run on level 54 that I described above took a little longer. Just a little. Rabsovich made the dredge more challenging to complete, as you could no longer just pull him out and kill him to get him out of the way. But as I mentioned earlier, the Fractals themselves aren’t the problem. An unavoidable wall of insta-death at the Jade Maw, however, does not coincide with what I thought ANet was going for with Fractals of the Mists when they implemented the dungeon. There is no longer progression, it’s another “complete this path for its daily and you’re done” dungeon. That’s what I really don’t like.

(Most of that actually is not directed specifically at you, as you agree in many ways, your posts just got me on one train of thought and I digressed lol)

@Jzl.8715, You are completely correct. The agony mechanic on the Jade Maw should not be a hard cap on progression, especially when fractals are advertised as “infinite”. If they intended to have a cap, they should cap it, not make it impossible to progress. I think that a change to the Jade Maw should be made so that in some way, just as the fractals that came before it, skill relative to the difficulty scale plays a part.

@Merit.2479, Haha xD yeah, I was a little irritated we wasted all that time (and res orbs), so I thought I’d post on here in the off chance a dev might see it and be inspired to fix the Maw. Good run otherwise, though ^-^

I don’t believe protection has an effect, although even if it did, it would only essentially mitigate 3.333 ticks over the course of all 10. ~7 ticks is still more than enough to blast through any heals or other tricks.

@Andulvar.4265 Just too much agony, we were able to keep him alive for a few seconds, though.

@Firegoth.6427 Renewed focus can only mitigate agony if activated before you receive the condition, and only for its duration. The same is true for Mist Form, which we did try, having the guardians heal with Light of Deliverance and even attempted using Signet of Mercy.

I gotta say, I’m surprised that Fractals of the Mists doesn’t live up to its name. When they were first ushered in, it was with the grandeur of a new dungeon with infinite levels that would increase in difficulty and reward. That’s ‘infinite’ as in ‘not finite’ as in, as was my impression, progression is limited by skill as fractal difficulty increased. Unfortunately, with the 1/28 update, this is not the case. The Fractals aren’t even the problem, believe it or not, it’s the boss mechanics on The Jade Maw.

Despite the hearsay about it being impossible to get level 50+ dailies, I got a group of friends together to try just that – post 1/28 patch. We made our attempt on difficulty scale 54. Like [almost] every other group that makes it to the Maw on level 40+, we elected one among us to be resurrected just as the agony is applied. Agony at level 54 is intense, so the window to resurrect was, of course, very small.

Little did we know, there was actually no hope for us at all. After the first agony strike (which is unavoidable, and in no way related to skill), we were all instantly killed, the 99 res plan foiled. No problem, Plan B. Resurrection Orbs. Nope, can’t do that, either. No problem, Plan C. Seeing as how we had four guardians and an elementalist, surely we could devise a strategy involving the correct timing of the guardians’ Signets of Mercy or Lights of Deliverance in combination with the elementalist Mist Form, you know, think outside the box? Nope, can’t do that, either. No problem, Plan D. A combination of Plans C and D! Nope, can’t do that, either. Plan E. Surely the agony doesn’t kill you so fast that you can’t just res one person a little at a time as the rest of the party strips, jumps, and resses as they die a terrible death? Well no, that might have been a dumb idea anyway. Now, one thing we didn’t try is pulling mobs to the edge and using them to rally as you die again and again, but that idea also shows little promise.

Am I venting? Yes. I loved fractals because it was the only place in the game (except sPvP) where true talent could be found in other players – where skill, above all else, is what players relied on. It was a place to meet the best players in the game, new friends as you faced difficult obstacles, and share new ideas about builds and how to overcome those obstacles. But no more.

Progression in the Fractals of the Mists has been halted (unless you find a player at a higher level and enter odd scale fractals). Daily achievements are now limited to those levels under 50 (I was able to complete level 48 for its daily chest).

Now some may argue that there are new amulets, more agony resistance, armors may come soon adding even more, and weapons in the future! You are correct. The 50’s tier daily may one day be attainable, but the problem will remain. We can only add so much agony resistance. At some point, there will be a new wall that cannot be passed.

Devs, if you read this, please help. I loved fractals. I loved progressing. It was fun.

I understand the discontent of players like the OP, but here are my two cents to the contrary, and I hope you can all take this to heart. The problem can be summed up in a few short points:

1) Players generally do not understand progression. They want the best, max stat gear quickly and easily because they feel that while those items exist, they are at a disadvantage. This is not the case. Item tier progression is intended to not only reward the player for time played, skill (ehhh, sort of), etc, but also to scale along with game content. Pay special attention to scaling with game content, that is an important concept.

2) Expanding upon the first point, the discontent fostered by players’ misunderstanding leads to one thing: pressure on the dev team to fix something that isn’t broken. In most cases, ANet is able to just turn a blind eye to silly complaints, and rightly so. But I want to caution you on this topic (as it is a new and volatile one), because the responses they receive from this initial wave of ascended items will shape their implementation of future items.

Solution to your discontent: Take a step back, and think. What is the purpose of ascended gear at this time? Marginal stat increases (to bridge the gap between exotic and legendary), and agony resist (needed purely for Fractals of the Mists dungeon).

Because this gear gives no advantage in PvP, and very very very minimal advantage in WvW (your skill as a player will play a much more crucial role), and that current content is really very easy if you understand profession design and play content at intended level requirement, then stat increases can be neglected. With that understood, then the purpose of ascended gear can be argued to be for the Fractals of the Mists dungeon.

The interesting thing about Fractals of the Mists is that it actually CAN be challenging content! Yay! But if ascended gear is designed for progression in Fractals of the Mists, you’ll need to get that in order to progress, right? Wrong. Playing in FotM, you will, of course, find ascended rings. These come in normal and (infused) versions. But, agony comes into play after level 10, you’ll need all the agony resist you can get right away so you don’t need to worry about it, right? Wrong, again. If you’ll notice, there’s even a progression for rings as to normal and infused versions. You simply don’t need an infused ring until you’re above level 20, and even then it’s not a big deal. Ahhhh but then you try out level 30, and the agony is just having it’s way with you. Gotta make sure you have at least 2 infused rings now, right? Absolutely correct. But you’ll notice that by game design, you may already have 2 infused rings! Great! Now there is only one item that can be ascended and infused. The back piece. But wait, all this time you’ve been playing FotM, by now you’re swimming in gold and ectos, buy the remaining ectos you need – boom, no problem. Progression. You don’t need the items until you NEED the items.

As a testament to the progression in Fractals of the Mists, I am currently at fractal difficulty scale 47. Using ONLY gold and items looted in FotM, I have: acquired my commander tome (100g), created my back piece via mystic forge (70g for ectos as per OP’s comment + cost of t6 mats), and then some. Maybe you should be more concerned about how easy it is to attain ascended gear, rather than how difficult it is.

OP, I understand your frustration, but as others have stated, Fractals of the Mists is currently the only place in the game where one might find difficult content. Lower level fractals are actually more difficult because players are generally less skilled. That’s right – it takes skill to progress in Fractals. My suggestion to you would be to keep yourself from getting frustrated. It’s when groups are negative and frustration arises that people make mistakes, and you can’t finish a run.

As for shaman being too difficult at lvl 11+, let me put your worries to rest by explaining why you are incorrect. I’m currently at level 41 fractals myself, and am forced to find pug groups in order to progress (had computer problems for a few weeks and my friends passed me up). I can tell you right now that at level 40+ you will have much greater fears that just Shaman. Such as the ridiculous Maw agony (instant death), but even that is passable with any group makeup if you are clever (it actually is not that difficult). I, and many many others, am living proof that the shaman is, in fact, not that difficult at level 11+.

My purpose for posting is not to brag (41 may seem high, but I assure you there are many who can trump that), or to insinuate that you are a less skilled player. I simply urge you and anyone else who has difficulty in Fractals of the Mist to realize that having difficulty is it’s purpose! Right now, FotM is the only place in GW2 that skilled players can find a challenge (other that WvW or sPvP, it is honestly a very easy game). Furthermore, I urge you to never give up if progressing in any aspect of the game is something you want to do. The problem with such a great company as ArenaNet is that they try to keep everyone happy, which is a problem when people ask for a fix to something that isn’t broken. In about a month, you may also find all your worries put to rest with the changes coming to FotM. Just a few things to keep in mind, and good luck ingame.

This thread is beginning to get off topic from the OP’s original question.

To the OP: I don’t believe they’ll add the sort of reset you have in mind, as right now Fractals of the Mists offers a unique sense of progression that comes in achieving a higher level. Also, there are only so many hours in a week, and so limiting the number of fractals you can do would defeat the purpose of its infinite nature.

To the forum goers taking William’s time: Play fractals. All of the questions William addressed WILL be answered if you take the time to play fractals, and you’ll actually be more knowledgeable about it because you will have discovered it yourself.

To forum goers concerned with finding groups: www.gw2lfg.com. Guilds (especially helpful for lower levels, although there is also a FotM guild for levels 20+)

@Iehova.9518: Great points, and agree on points 1-4. Your concern with ascended back pieces stems from a desire to acquire ascended gear quickly. This should not be the case. As is, doing each daily and progressing to levels 30+ (where the need for a back piece actually arises) will yield the required fractal relics, ie. you get a free back piece when you need it. Getting a back piece with gold seems a bit pricey, but by the time you attain lvl 30+ fractals, you will have easily acquired enough ectos, and plenty of gold to buy the t6 mats you need (assuming that you wear mf armor as far as you can (reasonably), this was 29 for me, and that you salvage rares/exotics, and sell whites/blues/greens). If you try to rush the process and buy a back piece before you need it, yes, it will seem as though it is too expensive.

@Groovy.6749 and Treplos.5182: Fractal difficulty scales are infinite, but you will find that while there is unavoidable agony, you will only be able to progress as far as your agony resist allows. The current limit is probably around 40 (with only rings and back pieces) for most players, although with luck and a few hardcores, I could definitely see ~50 being a possibility. This will not increase until more ascended items, and thus more agony resist, are added to the game (such as amulets, accessories, and armor).

Finally, if a Dev reads through this, I just want to throw out a reminder about D/C’s in FotM. They are very frustrating, especially at higher levels, no matter who it happens to in a group. The problem isn’t that FotM is more susceptible to disconnecting (although if it is, you’ve got some work ahead of you lol), the problem is that players are unable to rejoin the party after a D/C. As far as FotM development priorities, finding a solution to this should take precedence.

Updated website, still working on getting guild members signed up there, but feel free to check it out!

You can choose any server right now so that you can play and we can add you to our guild, and then you’ll have the option to change servers (if you would like to) at any time if Jade Quarry ever had more slots

Hey there! New players are exactly what we’re looking for, and we have a lot of people who can answer any questions about the game that you may have as you go, so don’t worry about being new. Just be sure to Whisper myself or one of the officers above, or sign up on our website (so we know your character name), and we’ll be sure to get you in!

We generally play on Jade Quarry Server, and if you choose another, I believe it is still free to change servers. However, it is not necessary to be on the same server to be a part of and have fun with the guild!

Also, we have members playing around the world, so you don’t need to worry about timezones, just play when you can! (Although most members are US players, I believe)

It really is an amazing game, and I hope you enjoy it!

Welcome! Templars Of Legend [Lgnd] is a new guild looking for friendly and active members! We are a Jade Quarry guild that specializes in everything Guild Wars 2; whether it PvE, PvP, WvW, Dungeon runs, Crafting, Exploring, Leveling or anything else, within the ranks of Templars of Legend is where to do it! We are openly recruiting new members, and contact information for an invite is listed below. We have a guild Vent server, and please feel free to check out our web page!

Guild Leader: Arrathorn
Officers: Tyraels Bra (that’s bra as in the slang term for brother..lol..)
Hanatai

Myself, or either of the officers can be contacted at any time, preferably via mail (if offline) or pm for invite. You can also sign on and register at our guild website here:

http://www.templarsoflegend.shivtr.com

We look forward to seeing you within the ranks of Templars of Legend soon!!!

the Mizcatonixes.3501:

Sounds like you’r after Destroyer Lodestones, some 30 or so of them.

Thanks! 30 Destroyer Lodestones seems to do it!

Thanks for the reply, but unfortunately that’s a negative. While globs of ectoplasm do show up in the discovery panel and are used in creating the inscription for this sword, they are not the 4th component required in the discovery panel. I just checked.

I’ll be saving those components until I find out what the 4th component is so that I can try it out!

Alright, so I was crafting a little today and got up to 400. First thing I wanted to do was make 2 exotic greatswords. So, I got 2 each of the ori greatsword components, and 2 Explorer’s Ori Imbued Inscriptions (Exotic). In the discover panel, I added one each of the three components, creating one exotic greatsword (pearl or some such, whatever it was lol). To my surprise, the remaining three components remained in the discovery panel. Upon adding all three, you can see the message: “1 Possible unknown recipe! Add more compatible ingredients!” So after fervently searching the interwebs for an answer, I come here to ask: What is the 4th component of the Ori Greatsword?? Thanks in advance for any help =)