Guild Wars 2

This. I bought 40 of the first boxes and 40 of the new boxes, and mostly got duplicates of minis I had already unlocked. Out of my 80 total boxes, I only got 1 skin of value and about 200 currency sprocket things; everything else was duplicates and junk. These boxes really feel like more of a waste of money and a gamble than the regular black lion chests do.

Bring back the Chaos Weapon Skins to the Black Lion Claim Ticket vendors.

Honestly, those unhappy with the price-point differences between the USA & EU are failing to understand or accept the long-existing institutions of currency exchanges and currency valuation differences; and how the global economy works. The Pound is worth more than the Euro (generally), the Euro is worth more than the US Dollar (generally), and the US Dollar is worth more than the Canadian Dollar (generally), et al. Right now, as I write this, $1 US is $0.85 Euro; so the $29.99 US price is $25.50 Euro; or the $29.99 Euro price is $35.27 US. For Canadians, $29.99 US is $38.37 Canadian. Canadians often do buy using US Dollars, and thus they have to pay currency conversion and exchange fees – however they still pay $38.37 Canadian for a $29.99 US item (unless of course they have US currency available to them) – where does the difference in price go? The Governments sometimes take conversion taxes and the banks always charge conversion fees; and sometimes brokers and other institutions may take a portion depending on how your local commercial and banking system is.

So while you, the non-US Consumer may seem to be paying more than $29.99 US – ArenaNet only receives $29.99 US from your purchase. It is your banks, payment processors, credit card companies, et al. that are keeping the price differences as fees and taxes. ArenaNet is not cheating you – your institutions and Governments are.

The price differences have little to do with VAT and US Sales Taxes; except that US & Canadian consumers often pay more than a listed prices after-the-fact. In the US/Canadian systems, it is the consumer that pays a tax to purchase something. In the European system, the VAT – erroneously described as “baked in to the cost of an item” -tax is actually paid by the Retailer or Seller; a portion of the profits or value of the item is paid as tax. European Sellers pay tax on value/profit – American/Canadian Consumers pay tax on purchase/ownership. Taxation affects American & Canadian consumers more greatly than European.

If Europeans were to be subjected to American Taxation systems, you might firstly be subjected to import/export Tariffs from Governments on all sides. You likely would NOT pay actual US or Canadian Sales Taxes; only Tariffs. If you were to pay US Sales Taxes – to over-simplify – some States require their local Taxation rates to be paid for online purchases and others require Taxation rates to be based upon the rates for where the retailer is physically located. So (as an example for where I live) you could either pay a 9.6% Sales Tax or you may pay whatever the Taxation rate is for where ArenaNet or DigitalRiver is physically located. I personally have to pay my local Sales Tax, and thus the basic expansion was $32.82 for me – about a 9.6% Sales Tax – one of the highest Taxation Rates in the USA.

Perhaps being provided the option to pay in US Dollars would provide the European consumer more transparency in the financial process. You yourself would be paying and seeing the currency exchange fees versus the current system where (is DigitalRiver the payment processor for European customers?) ArenaNet is paying the currency exchange fees. This might also give European consumers the power to shop-around for Banks and Credit Institutions that provide more favorable currency conversion rates and fees. However, though, this is not ArenaNet cheating you or duping you.

And yes, it is legal for a producer, retailer, seller, et al. to determine the valuation of their produce and to charge for that. If you as a consumer think that something is too expensive – it is your right to boycott or refuse patronage and purchase of said “over-priced” produce.

Just because the Euro is worth more than the Dollar does not mean an American good is worth less.

Just be glad you’re not trying to buy the game with Rubles or Pesos. Honestly.

CrystalSpire.7283:

To the Arena Net Team,
Now, I realize thematically, it doesn’t make sense to have sand related skills underwater

Thematically it does make sense to have sand (or mud) related skills underwater; as sand is a common aggregate found in most waterways. Underwater “sandstorms”, etc. do happen even. The lack of underwater abilities for this spec is a grievous oversight; in my opinion. I think it comes down to Ground Targeting and being underwater… They should just make it work finally or make it work like engi grenade kit.

Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere; however, many smaller guilds are very curious to know: When the new guild hall is released, will we have to abandon our Heart of Thorns guild hall and claim the new one, or will guilds be able to claim the Path of Fire guild hall in addition to the HoT one? Will we still only be able to have one total hall per guild, or will guilds now get two (HoT + PoF)?

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Bandlero.6312:

Even if it hasn’t been done before, they could do it (and I personally would love it.) Humans could start out in refugee camps outside of DR or in the ruins of DR. We have had refugees in GW2 before.

I agree that would be pretty cool.
Just not forever.

If it is then I’m definitely going to request a refund for the Royal Terrace Pass.

They would simply relocate the Royal Terrace just as they relocated all of the services of Lion’s Arch to Vigil Keep and gave us the Air Ship. The Royal Terrace could be moved to that walled town in South Queensdale or somewhere else suitable.

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Tiny Doom.4380:

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Mikuchan.7261:

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Bandlero.6312:

Please for the love of sanity, destroy DR but DO NOT make us go through another city being rebuilt. Leave it destroyed!

You want one of the playable races without a capital city?
That is insane.

Even if it’s getting destroyed (there’s no guarantee of that, DR has been attacked before)
of course they’ll rebuild it. And they should, the devs can’t leave one race without a capital city, it wouldn’t make sense.

Not insane at all.
That’s how war works.

Never rebuilding what you lost, even when you win, is how war works?
Even if that was true (it isn’t) this isn’t real life. It’s a game.

Every race currently has a capital city, and it should stay that way.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against DR getting destroyed (even though I doubt it will happen). I’m just against never rebuilding it, that would be ridiculous.

When the frogloks kicked the trolls out of Grobb in EQ new troll players had to start in the Foreign Quarter of the Dark Elf city. When the trolls got it back new player frogloks had to start in a refugee camp in Rathe Mountains. That whole storyline took several years to play out and throughout there was always at least one playable race with no starting city of its own. Just saying there is precedent in the genre if not in this particular franchise…

I don’t see how something that happened in a different game has any bearing on what might happen in GW2. I mean I get what you are saying, it happened before in a game of the same genre, but EQ has a vastly different way of releasing new content and story. EQ is pumping out 29.99 to 39.99 dollar expansions like crazy, the kind of development I wish gw2 had.

Also this is a Living World S3 plot, which I doubt will take years to play out. The main plot of Guild Wars 2 is fighting the Elder Dragons, fighting White Mantle is a side plot. A very spectacular one I admit, but a side plot nonetheless.

Again I’m fine with it being destroyed, just not the “never rebuild it” part.

Even if it hasn’t been done before, they could do it (and I personally would love it.) Humans could start out in refugee camps outside of DR or in the ruins of DR. We have had refugees in GW2 before. The founders of DR & the White Mantle were refugees themselves resulting from the wars with the Charr – if I remember correctly. Humans as refugees has a place in GW.

I think fighting the White Mantle is NOT a side-plot. They are the main plot; they’ve been secretly trying to recapture power in DR all of these years. Harnessing the power of a dragon would help them fight their war against their enemies. Controlling a dragon would be the ultimate weapon in GW. Just as Sylvari were the “enemy” in HoT, Humans will be the “enemy” next.

Edit: Also to add, it is NOT unprecedented for a playable races’ home city to be destroyed and never rebuilt. The Ascalonians lost their home city to the Charr.

Please for the love of sanity, destroy DR but DO NOT make us go through another city being rebuilt. Leave it destroyed!

Shwyx.8190:

If you want to fix PVP then tackle issues like class stacking, duo queue abuse or punishment for afkers and toxic players. Just because this massive negative echo chamber called the forums (and ultimately made up of bronze-gold players thinking they deserve better) claims something is an issue doesn’t mean it actually is.

PVP is more active than ever and that’s a good thing.

Being in Gold or lower does not make a person’s perspective or opinion irrelevant or less than someone who is in Platinum or Legendary. And, neither is the expression of that person’s opinion de facto or by default “negative.” Just because your experience is different, does not mean your experience/opinion is fact or more truthful than others – it just means you’ve had a relatively better experience.

I think a few missed the point in my post. I’m not explicitly or solely “blaming” PvE’ers – in-fact, there are just as many PvP’ers disenamored and disillusioned with their perceived state of PvP, that are also only queuing to farm their PvE rewards and do not care about the impact of their (poor) performance on their teammates. Not all players who love PvE rewards are PvE’ers. The problem is not PvE’ers or PvP’ers, but the sort of player(s) that Care Bear Rewards brings into the mix.

Also, I did not say remove the rewards or incentive from PvP entirely – BUT to detach them from being earned only in Ranked and allow people to earn them in Unranked as well. The main and most important incentive for queuing in any Ranked activity should be your Rank, Rating, etc. That’s why you participate in Ranked – to get Ranked.

I play Ranked PvP to get Ranked. I want to see how I am Rated.

Personally, I’m Silver 3/Gold 1 – I am happy with my average-ness and I believe I am in the tier I belong in. I’m not a pro-esport, and do not aspire to be and do no claim to be. I do not claim to be good, and quite honestly, I may suck at PvP compared to other peoples standards. That’s okay with me. I enjoy the close matches that I am getting, win or lose. I do not mind PvE’ers queuing for PvP – if they are playing to the best of their ability and truly trying, I would rather lose with a PvE’er on my team than to be on a winning team or against a losing team with PvP’ers that don’t care and don’t try.

My experience under the new system has been generally (80%) positive. However, I have experienced in my tiers a few players stating in /team at the start of the match that “I don’t care if we win or lose, I’m just here to earn my new armor.” And they AFK or purposely play terribly to speed-up the losing match so they can grind the armor faster.

Also, honestly, people who start all of this talk about “carrying your team”, etc. It takes a team to win or lose – regardless of how good you think you are. You, individually, do not make or break your team. You see, a good player, regardless of how “broken” the team making system is, would be able to adapt to, work with, and play with any team of any composition and together as a team you would win. A good player would be able to assist and elevate the lesser player to a level on par with them, and as a team, you could win. Stop blaming other people for your failure to work with the team you were given. If your team lost, maybe it was you that was unable to be a team-player or adapt to your circumstances. **Class balance issues are another matter.

Ignoring all of the other “issues” with Ranked PvP (arguments about the MMR, etc.), a big fix for Ranked PvP would be to disincentivize it. The only incentives for Ranked PvP should really be the rating you earn – and maybe a title. The only exclusive rewards earned from Ranked PvP should be items useful to, usable by/in, or centric to PvP. Why? A significant issue (problem) with Ranked PvP is that there are players, who would otherwise never played Ranked PvP, that queue up for Ranked solely because of/to grind the rewards offered via playing Ranked (ascended armor, minis, etc.)

Because of the PvE rewards earned via Ranked, we do have players that only play Ranked because they feel they must or want grind out and earn this new armor, or a back piece, or a mini, etc. They aren’t queuing for Ranked because of their love for PvP or the esteem they get from their rating – they’re only queuing to farm the latest PvE items. These are often the same players that really don’t care if they win or lose; or how their skill affects their team; or even if they idle through or manipulate a match. We need to remove these incentives – the rewards – from Ranked PvP to Unranked or All PvP.

The League Rewards are now only, really a limited-time rewards track. They don’t really need to be attached to Ranked anymore. They could be an achievement category completed in Ranked OR Unranked; or even a festival reward track. This would help alleviate the “playerbase” issues in Ranked PvP; disincentivize Ranked for players that would otherwise not queue for it.

Over 30 large blocks of snow and growing! Seriously, I actually love the blocks of snow we have this year to decorate the guild hall with. A big thank you to the developer behind them. I do wonder, how tall can we build before we hit an invisible ceiling?

Just to add my two cents, but I run a gaming setup with a left-handed keyboard & 12-button mouse. I have all of my skills bound to 1 to 5, shift-1 to 5, ctrl-1 to 5, etc. I can very rapidly cycle through all skills on a class using 3 fingers on my left hand pressing 1-5 and 1 finger on my mouse pressing shift/ctrl. Macroing in this game isn’t needed at all, just intelligent keybinding reducing the number of keystrokes down to five or seven keys total.

In my opinion and experience, Revs are very PvP viable. It’s not about meta though, but build, play-style, and skill. If your play-style/skill doesn’t mesh well with a build, then it’ll play poorly. I don’t run the meta – to be honest I don’t even know what it is. I run builds that I develop through lots of trial and error that work well with my play-style and skill. Even the latest “nerf” hasn’t hurt my build.

Perhaps I misunderstand the awarding of the daily key fragments for Mad King Says; however, I’ve done the event 4 times today and have only been granted 2 key fragments. The first time I did the event, I arrived late and was only able to get 10 stacks of the buff, thus earning 2 key fragments. The other 3 times I did the event, I got all 15/15 stacks of the buff, but was not awarded my 3rd key fragment.

Jim Hunter.6821:

Bandlero.6312:

Honestly, this thief build has so many hard counters, they’re almost a non-issue (aside from near perma-stealthing.) Any class with AoE, GTAoE, PBAoE, or channeled non-target DPS hard counters this thief. These thief builds are a non-issue outside of their excessive stealthing and the runes are a non-issue.

….. I feel like you don’t know what hard counter means

Or perhaps you don’t understand my usage of it. Hard counters are strategies or things that are in exact opposition or of prevention to something. For example: Flamethrower Engineer running condi cleanse and F5 anti-stealth; firstly this engineer can hit and damage said thief while thief is stealthed (#1 doesn’t require a target); can cleanse conditions negating the damage this thief could do; and can remove the thief’s stealth. I do run (I have multiple engineer alts) an engineer with a specific build similar to what I’ve described purposely to combat thieves that generally results in these specific types of thieves coming out of stealth in a downed state. Engineer is not the only class/build capable of this.

Honestly, this thief build has so many hard counters, they’re almost a non-issue (aside from near perma-stealthing.) Any class with AoE, GTAoE, PBAoE, or channeled non-target DPS hard counters this thief. These thief builds are a non-issue outside of their excessive stealthing and the runes are a non-issue.

The following Engineer skills have been missing from API:2/skills for quite some time: 14485, 14488, 14489, 14556, and 14490.

Missing is the skill for Healing Elixir (probably one of the above listed ids.) Also missing from the API is the Toolbelt skill for Scrapper Sneak Gyro.

The transform skills for Elixir X have always been missing the berserker mode skills and are missing the new slot #4 and 5 skills. And missing, for quite some time from the API, are the bundle skills for Grenade Kit, Tool Kit, Elixir Gun, and Bomb Kit.

When accessing API:2/characters for Mesmer characters, I have noticed that the Backstory ids being provided are actually incorrect. The backstory (answer) ids being provided for Mesmers (esp. the final id which is the profession answer/question) is actually the answer/question for Revenants. I have seen this error for two different Mesmers on two different accounts, and both get the answer/question for Revenant “Blindfold” instead of the correct Mesmer profession answer/question.

Maybe it is just coincidence, but over my years playing PvP, I have noticed than when I add someone to my block/ignore list, I seem to never get matched with or against them ever again.

I can’t speak for other developers who use the API, but I would not be surprised if most first reference API:2/achievements/categories to first get the achievements Ids, instead of getting the achievements Ids from API:2/account/achievements first. The difference between the two, especially against API keys from older accounts, is that there are 7+ achievements that will not show up in API:2/achievements/categories achievements array.

The way I develop, I reference API:2/account/achievements first and resolve all pertinent data against the API:2/achievements/, API:2/achievements/categories, etc. The order of operation does make a difference; bottom-up versus top-down.

Zenith.7301:

When will you stop this obnoxious crap. Stop making separate rules for armor. You either stick with revealing for both or covered for both.

This is getting really tiresome. I expect this out of some Korean grindfest.

Not you, a western company.

Just saying, but NCSoft is the publisher.

I do vaguely remember reading years back that when it was first decided to remove some achievements from complete-ability, that one achievement had been completely removed except for its points that counted toward total AP; I would assume that is the achievement that is missing all of its details except id and what was earned.

All of the orphaned achievements do have their categories available (from API:2/achievements/categories), they’re just not in the achievements arrays on those respective categories. All of these categories are also “historical,” which makes it odd they are not – now – in their categories (perhaps in the past their exclusion was necessary, but surely not now, now that it is all historical.)

On a side note – this is only visible from API data and not visible in-game – there is a “typo” on the item description for each of the items relating to the bladed back item – the opening <c=@flavor> tags on those items are lacking their closing </c> tag and instead have a <c> tag; the / is missing. Only those of us that work with the API data are likely to ever see that typo/error.

I missed 427. I have also noticed there are at least 6 orphaned achievements that have no Achievement Categories containing them. These achievements are historical (some are very historical), and are (sorry I don’t have the ids on-hand atm) named: “Get on the Good List”, “Queen’s Gauntlet Chamber”, “Aftermath Emergency Response”, “Hobby Tinkerer”, “Mist Explorer”, and “Boss Week: Here Be Dragons!”.

Also, there appears to be 1 historical achievement that is lacking an Achievement Category and it is also lacking a name, description, etc. (basically everything); except that this achievement does have an id and an icon (which looks like a leaf.)

Not all items served by API:2/account/achievements have their “id” resolvable against API:2/achievements “id”.

So far I have found the following “id” missing from API:2/achievements:
2811

API:2/items is missing the following items: 20206 and 42601

These items are provided by API:2/minis as the item_id from which the minis can be obtained and should be resolvable against API:2/items. The minis ids are 12 (for 20206) and 31 (for 42601).

Danikat.8537:

I don’t think either Korean or Japanese is in the game at all.

It’s only possible to use Chinese characters on the Chinese servers (although they used to occasionally show up due to bugs), but since the game hasn’t been officially released in either Korea or Japan and those languages aren’t officially supported it seems unlikely Anet would have included them.

Actually Korean IS in the game I believe, or it is at least supported by the API server. (https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/API:2) “Valid languages are en, es, de, fr, ko and zh.”

ko is Korean and zh is Chinese. Perhaps the fact that the API server supports returning localized data in Korean is that GW2 is about to have a release in Korea? Obviously the Chinese is to support the Chinese playerbase.

Name: Fergusons Crossing Invader [WvW]
Gameplay Mode(s): PvX; all; with focus on WvW and PvP. Roleplayers are welcome, but we are not a primarily roleplaying guild and do not enforce/require roleplaying or rulesets. Roleplaying is up to the individual members, and not all members are roleplayers. Guild chat is not a roleplaying channel.
Home World: Ferguson’s Crossing (required only for guild WvW participation.) Other servers accepted for PvP and PvE participation and content.
Active Times: 24/7 dependent on members. Activities done when sufficient members are online and available.
Contact to Join: SkarletRaven.2346
Representation Requirement: Only when participating in guild missions and activities.
Primary Language: English
Guild Hall: Lost Precipice
Donation Requirements: We do not solicit or require donations from our members.

If you have any questions please feel free to ask, or to join, send a whisper in-game to our join contact listed above. We are a very open, accommodating guild to all-players of all skill/character levels, play-styles, and play times; we only ask that players be mature and respectable and respectful to each other. We are an old guild, but a smaller guild, and our members are veteran Guild Wars 2 players who play the game to have fun and play together.

I’ve read this entire thread, I’ve seen AFK farmers (I personally disagree with it and do not partake in the activity), and I guess I don’t understand why there is a big misunderstanding.

AFK farming (common knowledge and interpretation of employee posts) is an EXPLOIT. It is exploiting or using a game mechanic – whether the mechanic is working as intended or is bugged – in a manner in which it was not intended to be used (by the developers) to gain an advantage (either personally or over other players) in the game.

Regardless if auto-looting is bugged (preventing you from being AFK) or working as intended, a player utilizing it to AFK farm is a player that IS exploiting a game mechanic to their advantage.

Regardless of ctrl+right-click auto-usage of abilities being designed and intended for the ease of players playing the game, a player utilizing it in a manner other than its intended design – which is for players to have 1 ability that we do not have to constantly press a button to activate while we are at the keyboard – such as using auto-cast to automatically heal or attack while you are AFK IS exploiting a game mechanic to your advantage.

Honestly, the whole matter is an issue of exploits. AFK farmers are exploiting the game mechanics of auto-looting. They are exploiting the game mechanics of auto-casting. They are exploiting the mechanics of pets auto-attacking and auto-defending. They are exploiting the mechanics of gaining rewards based solely upon their pet’s unattended interaction with the game environment. Honestly, we could get nit-picking and get into every exploit and sub-exploit that is happening; it is a simple case of players exploiting game mechanics, mechanics that are either bugged or being used in a manner not intended to be used, to their advantage.

Last time I read the ToS (admittedly a while ago) exploits were bannable offenses. I guess that’s why I don’t get why there’s all the confusion; outside of employees not being blunt and straight-talking in their responses.

This has been happening for over 6 months that I’ve seen. Regardless of which payment option you select (credit/debit card, BillMeLater, etc.) while purchasing gems via PayPal, you will (90%+) most of the time get redirected to a failed transaction page. However, the transaction has in-fact NOT failed, and 15-60 minutes later you will receive your gems. When buying via PayPal, WAIT at least 1 hour before trying to buy gems again, or you WILL get multiple transactions.

I believe the issue is in Anet’s incorrect implementation of the PayPal API.

I am really curious to look at the newly released Chinese version of the game, and I was wondering if an Anet/NCSoft employee could tell us if our CD Key would work for the Chinese version of the game.

The Chinese version only costs about $14, so buying a new key for over there wouldn’t be so bad. You can download the client for free too at http://gw2.kongzhong.com/download.html

So many of the advertisements for that version of the game show a lot of stuff we don’t have in our version of the game (new content, etc.) It would be neat to look at and compare the versions.

Had the same issue today on April 01, 2014. Bill Me Later transactions through Paypal are failing to process. I’ve used it extensively over the last year of the game to buy gems.

Though Bill Me Later is a PayPal service, it’s not available for every transaction or merchant (I’ve seen many cases where you can’t use it when you think you could, and many cases where you can use it and you’d think you couldn’t.) I’ve never had problems with the service and have had good experiences with it.

It’s possible Anet/Guild Wars 2 has lost its eligibility or approval for Bill Me Later transactions temporarily and that PayPal is rejecting them. Maybe some idiot did a charge back on their gem purchase? Enough chargebacks will cause any credit provider/vendor to reject a merchant.

I would agree that the events API should be providing a bit more useful information than it currently does (i.e. current timed elapsed/total time until failure for time sensitive events, etc.); however, I believe showing the percent health remaining on a dragon/champion could/would be exploitable by certain sub sects of players. Definitely though, more details do need to be provided about all events.

Azzer.8137:

I would love a healing skill that gives up protection for 5 seconds on a 25 second cooldown, nothing really new but i would love it still.

However your idea of LF into health sounds quite intriguing (sp?) But how should it work?, I see 2 ideas, 1: Losing LF constantly and get healing from it like regeneration or heal yourself depending on how much life force you have.

Healing in Deathshroud would be something awesome as well though.

Well of Blood does give you protection on a 20 second cooldown – when traited for it. Also, when using a good set of runes (like run of the grove) and the right traits, you can get over 45 seconds of protection via 4 wells.

Khisanth.2948:

Bandlero.6312:

I wrote some code out in .Net to test this on my own against the recipe API. Using threading (with multiple web requests each on their own thread; concurrently), I was able to download the entire ~7.7k recipes + recipe details + output item details + ingredient details (about 30,800 requests to the API) in about 30 minutes. It was just some code I quickly hammered out, but I could probably clean it to shave it down to 20 minutes.

On what kind of connection?

If I use my home connection the full recipes + output items + ingredients takes around 40 minutes but on my web host it takes around 18m. Exact same code.

Looking at the data I have it should only be 15,738 requests. Where is your extra 15k coming from?

For my testing, I used the recipes API (grabbing that file is 1 request), then grabbed the details for each recipe (about 7.7k requests), grabbed the output item details (another ~7.7k requests), then grabbed the ingredient details for each recipe – each recipe has on average 3 ingredients for an additional ~15k to 23k requests. This test did not take into account caching already “known” data and was just a brute force test of the speed/time to download data from this API (i.e. like if this was a first time downloading from the API).

My connection is a dedicated business DSL with a 45 Mbps down / 10 Mbps up.

And to the person (sorry I forgot the name as I write this) that replied to my thought about searching items by name – yea you would still potentially receive a large amount of items to have to iterate through; however, it would still be a much smaller subset of data, more quicker, and more efficient than the current method of having to search through all 7.7k recipes (and the outputs, etc.) or 30k+ items to locate each item with “rabid.” Even 200 items with “rabid” is less than having to iterate through the entire recipes and its structure or the items.

If the APIs functioned a lot more like the Trading Post does in game, that would be the improvement. We should have URL parameters on the APIs that allow for things such as, “?item_name=rabid”, “?item_level=80”, “?item_rarity=legendary”, “?item_type=armor”, etc.; that allows us to retrieve only a subset of the data instead of having to iterate through the entire collection. Honestly, I’m assuming there’s an SQL database driving the back-end of the API, so handling these sorts of requests would minimal additional load on the servers. SELECT * FROM [Items] WHERE [Name] LIKE ‘rabid’.

I don’t know, perhaps my degree in ISE/DBA is making me over-think this, but a system like this is exactly what I’m trained/educated to analyze and fix.

When specced/geared correctly, I would argue that Well of Blood surpasses CC in effectiveness and quality; in WvW, sPvP, and PvE. It’s not just traits that have to be selected correctly, but also your gear and runes. On my necro, I can easily heal for 10k+ with Well of Blood.

First off, you do need 30 points into Blood Magic; selectables II, VIII, and XII. Recharge on your Well of Blood is equal to CC then, and it’s almost equal to CC in healing at that point. Ignoring the misnomers about +healing not working for necros (it does work), the more +healing you stack, the better the Well of Blood/Blood Magic heals. The next trick is 10 points into Death Magic (I run 25) and selecting Ritual of Protection (IV). At that point, with a 33% reduction in damage taken when you cast Well of Blood, it surpasses CC in terms of healing (and utility imo.)

Now if you add in the correct runes into your gear, you can make Well of Blood vastly better than CC (i.e. runes that boost boon/protection duration for RoP, runes that grant boons on heal, etc.)

Honestly, when I drop 3 wells with my spec/gearing, I become basically immune to melee damage from up to 5 enemies for a good solid 15 seconds. Wells wear off, pop deathshroud, last 15 more seconds, wells are off CD again, drop wells, rinse repeat. In a 1v1, 1v2, or even 1v3 fight, you can basically be near un-killable. Run 4 wells and it just improves.

Totally does depend on exactly how you’re specced/geared. Play-style can have an effect as well.

Dr Ishmael.9685:

Bandlero.6312:

There’s no real single item search outside of knowing the recipe/item ids (i.e. no request by name (like the guild API supports), by crafting profession, etc.)

Requesting by name wouldn’t make sense for items, because item names are not unique and you could get any number of items returned. Guild names must be unique, so you know requesting a guild name will return exactly 1 guild (or 0 if it doesn’t exist).

Yea, for single items and names to work each item would have to have a unique name.

What I meant by requesting by name is that you could pass a parameter (for example) like Rabid, and have the API return to you a subset of the items containing Rabid in the name. Instead of serving the entire list of items and recursively going through items.json and item_details.json just to locate items with Rabid.

We definitely need more support for additional optional parameters to pass to the API.

HackworthGW.8251:

smiley.1438:

Lazarus.9716:

Right now as I’m testing it takes almost 20 minutes to download full item detail for the ~30k items in the game.

Wait WHAT? Only 20 minutes? A full update takes us about 20 hours (for all 4 languages of course at ~2-3 seconds per request, wiki check and recipe update not included)
I still think, the most important feature would be an API which provides a list of the changed items/events/recipes since the last patch, so that we can safely do incremental rather than full updates after updates where we don’t exactly know what has changed.

I’ve been starting a tool of my own (in .net), and right now I’m getting ~300 item_details/minute with a naive implementation, synchronous from 1 machine, using 5-6 kB/s down, 1 kB/s up. That’s just under 100 minutes for the full item set per language, or 6.5 hours for 4 languages. Unless flood control sets in at some point, getting the item_details should not be very time-consuming with let’s say 10 parallel tasks, ~40 minutes.

By the way, “1 big download with changes since the last patch” would be useful, but not to everyone. Let’s say someone misses the first patch for example, a stand-alone app that updates manually, or if 2 patches with item changes happened very close to each other (same day or so); or if you are just starting out populating your local database; or you simply want a fresh local database for whatever reason. In those cases, a big download with simply the current state of all items would be best.

I wrote some code out in .Net to test this on my own against the recipe API. Using threading (with multiple web requests each on their own thread; concurrently), I was able to download the entire ~7.7k recipes + recipe details + output item details + ingredient details (about 30,800 requests to the API) in about 30 minutes. It was just some code I quickly hammered out, but I could probably clean it to shave it down to 20 minutes.

Of course, there’s always the bottleneck of the internet itself, and I do wonder at what point Anet’s servers will perceive a massive amount of near-instantaneous traffic as a DDOS attack. I would assume that over 1,000 API requests per minute isn’t appreciated by them anyhow, and it’s not code I’d be willing to use again (even infrequently.)

Honestly, in the current implementations, the recipe/item APIs are bad imo. There’s no real single item search outside of knowing the recipe/item ids (i.e. no request by name (like the guild API supports), by crafting profession, etc.) Inefficient and lack of serving data in a meaningful and useful manner. This is why I’ve yet to release my Recipe/Item related tools to my application’s users. I won’t force a large download on them to their computers (containing the entire recipe/item data that might need to be frequently re-downloaded/updated), and neither do I wish to host a synced database on my own servers to do what the API is supposed to be doing.

Really, it’s poor design (be it the over 7.7k recipes in the recipe list or 30k+ items in the item list) to serve just a list of ids that then necessitate making individual requests for each individual item’s/recipe’s details (that then each might also necessitate requesting multiple sub-items.)

wish.1027:

Bandlero.6312:

Not that it matters, but I’d bet you’re that thief from SF

Ohsnap, someone remembers me. What did I do that you remember me? It was either solo 10 people or die miserably, cause I dont do anything else.

oooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhh
I saw your sig

“[WvW] [LAL] That Sylvari Commander Necro
FC”

I killed you like 6 times, no wonder you remember me.

You killed me once tonight – in a 2v1 match with the thief from KOR. You actually ran from me 6 times tonight. I only remember you cause you’re actually a well specced/played thief imo, and you had some people complaining about you in map chat every time you went for Rogue’s.

Pocachubbz.1928:

Dovgan.8605:

Pocachubbz.1928:

I ran into 3 FCs outside RQ/WC. one ele .. one mesmer .. and one ranger..

I killed the ele.. and the mesmer and ranger runs into WC ..

come on….. its 3 v 1…

Technically 2 v1 at that point. Now the next 2 questions are very important. What class do you play and were any of the 3 up leveled? If you either play a thief or these guys were up leveled, bravo for them for either A not wasting their time or B not dying to an 80 if they are not.

Non of them were uplvled and yes I play thief. Your telling me an elementalist, a ranger and a mesmer from FC can’t kill a thief whose playing aggressively to kill them. Class doesn’t even really matter, it depends on how well you play your class. Not what class you play. I c. Wheres all that skill and strategy that you were talking about.

3 FC vs 1 GoM and FC run’s away.

clap clap clap clap clap such good skills…

Not that it matters, but I’d bet you’re that thief from SF or KOR. We’ve been more focused this morning/tonight on getting camps upgraded, etc. If you got ran from, it’s because a fight with you was less important than other tasks.

GoM really took it to heart tonight: if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. But honestly, after losing their alpha and omega golems, 4 trebs, 2+ catapults, and getting wiped in the lord’s room at lowlands (all while we on FC had the outmanned buff), they still kept trying…. even PvWall after we were able to keep a steady stream of supply to the keep and kept repairs going and siege rebuilt.

I hope you guys enjoyed the fight as much as we did tonight. I commend the creativity of your early tactics such as using the omega golem’s #4 to attack the wall. But in the end, it was our tactics, cooperation, and coordination that beat your superior numbers.

Don’t forget, if you’re well specced and/or lifesteal specced, #3 in downed state is a massive boost. #3 is a well, which lifestealing well traits et al. do work with. In a downed v. downed fight, my necro always wins, even when I start at a disadvantage.

I find it amazing that people are complaining about eles doing this, when it’s also necros that can do this as well. My necro has 40k HP and I always pop out of the gate, drop 4 wells on the enemy rams (15 seconds of invulnerability basically), kill the rams and a few enemies, and if they manage to start dropping my HP, I pop F1 and walk back in the door – no self rezzing required, usually, either. Consider how much HP a 40k HP necro really has when you have to deplete his normal pool, death shroud pool, and damage through non-stop heals and life stealing.

There are many classes that have the ability to (intelligently) evade being stomped. This is part off the risk involved in trying to capture objectives. If all you’re doing is dropping rams and not utilizing all of the other siege and classes/skills available to you, then this can and will (and should) happen to you. Especially when you’re trying to 2-5 man capture an objective; all it takes is 1 good player to defend sans-arrow carts.

GW2 Command allows you to view the current status, track scores, and rankings of Guild Wars 2 World versus World (WvW), events, maps, items, recipes, and more without having to log into the game or visit a website; all from your Windows desktop.

For computers running Windows 7/8 (and those with/supporting .NET Framework 4.5)

http://gw2command.davidbandler.com

This application is released stable and fully usable, with Beta features included – additional functionality added regularly – with automatic updates.

Some key implemented features:
For a full list of currently implemented features and updates, please visit the above link for GW2 Command.

The ability to preset your home world/server and guild to customize the program.

WvW Map; tracking and displaying the status of objectives in near real-time (your internet latency determines real-time accuracy of objective information such as Righteous Indignation in addition to a minimal (5 seconds; or you time you chose) refresh timer.)

The ability to start and stop autmatic updates of data from GW2. The ability to manually update data from GW2 on demand. (For those with less than ideal internet connections.)

Point bar (like what’s seen in the game) to show you the balance of power/points for each point-tick in addition to showing each world’s score for the match you’re viewing.

Full display of each objective’s information, including: Righteous Indignation status, world owner, claiming guild, point value, etc.

Configurable alerts on objectives to be notified via sound, computer voice, or taskbar messages when the owner of an objective changes, a specificed world captures the objective, when Righteous Indignation ends on the objective, your guild claims the objective, and more.

Configurable logging to track objective history events such as when the objective has been captured, who captured the objective, righteous indignation status, and more. The log data is saved in XML format and contains attributes/elements which promote sorting and parsing of this data (i.e. by match, date, specific server, etc.)

PvE – Dynamic Event tracking. Receive configurable alerts (computer generated voice, taskbar popup, etc.) when the status of a specified Dynamic Event has changed. View the statuses, names, and locations of Dynamic Events. View the current state of all Dynamic Events for each world.

September 2013: Guild emblems implemented across the application.

Supports Logitech Gaming Series LCD Displays and Devices. See the status of WvW, events, and more on your keyboard’s LCD and more. * Requires Logitech Gaming series devices and the Logitech Gaming Software.

Next implemented features:
For a full list of planned features and updates, please visit the above link for GW2 Command.

Program Author: Bandlero.6312

By “precursor and better” I mean the relative value of loot (not the color coding/ranking Anet gives to them.) Some items (like skins or stuff that sells for $$) is what I mean by “better.” The most rare of drops. I know Anet claims MF doesn’t affect chests, but from what I’m seeing – it is (or maybe that character of mine – and no other character of mine – is really lucky with RNG.) How many times do they tell us something is this way or that (or fixed) when it turns out not to be as stated.

And to the person asking about the gear I use, full exotic set of Explorer’s/Opal for armor/weapons/trinkets/etc with the superior MF runes and Sup. Sigil of Luck. Also, The Golden Lotus for my Amulet.

I’ve personally done a lot of testing on drop rates (wvw, chests, pve, etc) using a character I have geared/booned to have over 400-500% magic find. I’ve found – at that percentage of MF – that rares (yellow) have a 10-20% chance to drop, exotics (orange) have a 0-10% chance to drop, and precursors and greater have about a 1% chance to drop. I provide a range because of the RNG system, and RNG really relies on a large statistical pool (i.e. rares drop 20% out of 10,000 or more drops, but if you look at 100 drops, you’re more likely to see a rare drop 10% of the time.) Precursors and greater items really do have a very low drop-rate, and you’d need to farm an area for over 1,000 drops to se consistent drops – Now enters diminishing returns…

Honestly though, if you want to have better luck on the chests, you need to put on your MF gear before you open them. I always equip my MF gear before opening any chests (BL, SS, etc) and every time I’ve done that, I get minis, skins, etc.

Dead horse beaten. Move on to a new topic or server pls. Thx. kbai.

Darek.1836:

I have been using the name “Moobs” on gw for most (6 of of my characters and because some people who disliked my guild and reported me for no reason, yesterday I was prompted to change all of the character names.
Characters were these: Mr Moobs, Andromooba, Xr Moobs, Moobs the Viscous, Hundred Moobs
If someone would have actually been offended I might accept this forced name change. However since in 6 months and literally not a single sole I’ve run with (I’m a commander and popular person in WvW) has ever been upset with name, I don’t think this is fair at all. Since I reported this as a Ticket and to no surprise, the reply was that they stuck by the decision (as always, I do read these forums). So I’m here ro ask you and hopefully gf a response by ANet, is there really anything offensive with this name? Keep in mind with what I said, NO ONE was EVER upset with this name.

You mention your guild name and say people might be offended by that – but you don’t share that on here. Let the public jury decide if your guild name “Reich” (with the tag [SS]) is offensive. If that’s not offensive, then why would anyone have a problem with you? Why would people report your character name Moobs (which can mean “Man Boobs”) as offensive if it’s your guild name that is offensive and not your character name?

If the guy was streaming porn and you linked to his stream – you linked to porn. And potentially commited a crime where you live by providing porn to minors. Be lucky they only banned you and didn’t refer you to law enforcement like some companies do.

If you truly believe someone is in danger or a threat to themself, the correct course of action is to contact your local law enforcement. Provide them with as much detailed information as possible, including (but not limited to) the name and information of the person you are concerned about. Law enforcement takes these matters seriously, and will respond immediately. How they will do so – if you live in a location different than the person you believe to be in danger – is your local law enforcement will immediately contact the local law enforcement for the person in danger. That agency will then visit the individual to check on their wellfare and safety (and if they need to due to incomplete information, locate that person as well.) Law enforcement is able to and will contact Anet for information about this person if needed – so you don’t need to worry about contacting Anet. Anet will respond better/quicker to law enforcement not a concerned fellow player.