Guild Wars 2

sazberryftw.3809:

No, as I have a feeling that everything we’re getting on the 17th was not created by the SAB Living Story team, but instead by the respective teams the content relates to.

Therefore I don’t consider these updates to be Living Story. I like it that way, SAB is time consuming enough to last a whole month.

I believe this is true. During the GW2 Living Story PAX panel, ANET stated that in addition to their Living Story teams, they now have a new team dedicated to boss encounters, both new and old. I believe we can expect to see frequent updates like this in between Living Story and Holiday events.

Let me try to help with baubles.

The only purple bauble location in World 1 that I know of is in Zone 2 in the room with the Queen Beedog. Climb up the tree and jump to the corner of the room. Dig there for a chest with the purple bauble. So that’s 50 bauble once per day.

It seems like you’ve made it to World 2 Zone 3. There are two yellow baubles worth 10 in the very beginning of the zone. One on a small hill above the hillbillies. The other can be found by scaling the first giant face and then jumping back onto a ledge. You should see it in view and jump some more to get it. Those baubles don’t require digging, so you can farm it by zoning out and back in.

World 1 skins are green and World 2 skins are yellow. World 3 and 4 will be red and purple respectively.

As far as I know, that’s all there is to the skin. Just something to distinct yourself from everyone else, allowing other people to know what you’ve accomplished from a glance.

I would definitely like to see more personal story added in relation to the main storyline. If ANET were in the works of doing so, which they most likely are, then I would think that their best opportunity to do so would be in the upcoming year. ANET has stated that once they established their “core” annual events they will be able to start work on larger projects.

When I think of projects larger in content then what we’ve seen so far, I think of new maps, new abilities, and personal story. We will probably see a rotation of content somewhat like this : annual event, living story, annual event, large content update, annual event, etc. ANET will probably alternate between small living story arcs and large content updates between their annual events, since they will have more resources and time to develop them.

My advice is to wait a bit before you do anything drastic. The livestream mentioned giving all current GW2 players +20% MF, but there may be some specific MF reimbursement to those with MF gear. This is just a possibility, but if it does happen they won’t be able to reimburse you if you delete your gear beforehand.

Also, if your current character does not need a new set of gear stats, then give it to an alt, since the items will be account-bound. This is the best I can do for an optimistic outcome for you. I hope it goes well.

Additional questions to be answered in case a Dev puts some input here:

Is there a min level requirement of the exotic salvaged to obtain this new T7 mat
or does it apply to all exotics? Do higher level exotics have higher chances or better
salvaging rates?

Just for the sake of completion, crafting is not the only source of ascended weapons. The live stream mentioned that it will possible, albeit rare, to obtain ascended weapons from any source that will drop ascended mats.

It may very well be possible to get your weapon just by doing those events, which currently include champion loot bags, WvW keep, tower, and camp takeovers, jumping puzzles, dungeons, and Orr temple events.

Astralporing.1957:

@BowmasterSol – it has been already mentioned that Celestial armor pieces will not get a stat change option. they will just get their MF removed.

Can I get a link for that? For some reason, my search bar doesn’t work anymore. The recent blog post says any gear with MF. The post I believe you are referencing was a dev’s response to whether or not Celestial would be buffed to which he/she stated no. That doesn’t mean new stat selection is also denied.

What I gathered from the recent live stream pertaining future Charged Quartz usage and time-gated mats:

Ascended weapon inscriptions will utilize the exotic weapon inscription of that specific stat combo. If true, charged quartz will solely be needed for celestial gear of both exotic and ascended nature.

ANET seems to have made a change in their time-gated mats. Instead of having the raw mat be sellable and the time-gated refined mat account bound, ANET switched it with the new T7. Aside from the T7 mats that can only be obtained by doing various game events, the time-gated refined T7 mat will be sellable/tradeable to players on the TP.

This is a lot better then the first implementation of time-gated mats. Before it didn’t matter how much quartz you bought, you would still be making charged quartz at the same rate as everyone else. Now players that want to obtain those time-gated mats immediately can do so through the TP, and players that don’t have the need to rush have an extra source of income.

I thought their solution of a transmutation splitter for transmuted legendaries was fairly clever. Hopefully the implementation works well.

A blog post went up recently. Here is the quote from the blog, which I believe pertains to both affixes:

“Traveler’s drops will be replaced with the Dire Stat Combo (Condition Damage, Toughness, Vitality) "

Does the 300% MF cap apply just to the account-bound MF or does it represent the highest MF a character can obtain, including buffs and boosts? I am assuming it just pertains to the account-bound essence of luck MF, but it would be nice to know for certain.

Avatara.1042:

Stop comparing Celestial to other prefixes.

Let’s compare the Celestial prefix gear to the other, since your argument for getting a full refund heavily revolves on it.

Crafting a Celestial insignia differs from other exotic insignias in that instead of x5 T6 mat, which may be about a gold or more, it requires x5 Charged Quartz. x5 Charged
Quartz requires 5 skill points and 25 quartz to make, assuming you didn’t get a free Charged Quartz from mining your personal node at any point. A majority of players would have a large stock of quartz from the month long bazaar, making this no cost to them. However, if you ran out and only got the minimum 3 quartz from your personal node then you would need to pay for 2 quartz out of pocket that day. Quartz is around 1 silver a piece if you need to buy it. Compared to the cost of the other T6 mats for other crafted gear, this is very cheap.

I can see that skill points may be valuable for certain players, but with the new champion boxes getting skill points has gotten increasingly easier. This part of the recipe has also become fairly cheap to the player now.

A difference for this gear is using gold to buy the recipes if you didn’t get them from the event, as opposed to using karma. Considering the amount of money a player saved from not using T6 mats then this cost is somewhat negated.

The only other difference lies within the limit of making one charged quartz a day. The task itself is something even a low level character can do without difficulty. Granted that you are not able to craft a full set of Celestial gear on the spot. Not every player will be aiming for a full set anyway, but I can see some time loss here.

ANET will be making the celestial gear account-bound. This will allow you to give it to an alt if you happen to have all the preferred gear sets for the original character. You will also be given the choice of stats it may become. Whether the gear will become sellable after selecting the new stat is unknown, but you may be able to sell it back to regain the money back for the other materials needed to craft that gear besides the insignia.

ANET will be replacing one exotic for another of your choice. This is at close to a full refund that we will ever see in the game in relation to gear. I understand that there was some game time lost that can’t be refunded back but ANET seems to be trying to meet players half-way with the limited tech and resources given to them. Their solution may not fully satisfy your needs, but this is a fair as they can get.

My opinion on Celestial gear this upcoming patch:

I am perfectly fine with Celestial not being improved stat-wise. Since MF is being removed from all gear as an item stat, the Celestial prefix will be working as intended. I am fairly certain that Celestial was buffed stat-wise months ago as well, so ANET has already gone over its balance.

However, I understand that when people choose gear stats they develop a cost/benefit ratio in their heads to ultimately help them choose. The +MF stat may have been that little bit to convince players to use Celestial, and with that stat being removed I can see the frustration.

Although players knew MF would be removed eventually, they did not know when and precisely how it would be implemented until fairly recently. I think that players that own Celestial equipment should be given the choice of choosing a new stat or the “new” Celestial prefix. This will keep it consistent with other MF gear being given this option, and not have players stuck with a prefix they are unhappy with.

My argument against the scrolls as they are now is that they will very rarely aid the character that is celebrating the birthday. The scroll will most likely be given to an alt.

“Happy Birthday Timmy. Here is a bike with training wheels.”
“Thanks Dad, but I’m 25 and I already drive a motorcycle.”
“Oh well. Give it to your son. Happy Birthday!”

Had a similar experience, thought karma consumables are the biggest offender when it comes to spam clicking. Please make it possible to convert karma items into higher tiers through, probably as a fixed recipe via mystic forge. This will save time and space.

Thank you for the free stuff Anet. Here is my opinion on the gifts as I experienced it.

-Since we’re supposed to be playing the game one person per account and since minis are account bound, giving away the same mini feels redundant. In GW1, duplicates were okay since you would trade for something you didn’t have.

-I agree that the experience scroll is best off being +20 levels. Going from 1 to 20 isn’t that greater of a time difference then going from 60-80. If all other characters are above 20 like mine are, then the scroll is of no current use as is. I also think it is a bit weird that the birthday character’s gift is most probably going to be used for some alt that isn’t celebrating a birthday yet.

-The booster is nice but does not make a great impact on its own. If we are celebrating the character’s special day, then I suggest increasing the percentage to something big like 300%. You would actually feel the boosts greatly and get that special awesome feeling for the whole day.

I do agree that the fights utilize different tactics. This is what I find to be the fun part about them though. When a player gets stuck on a fight because he/she is weak in that area, then it should encourage the player to plan. The memorable fights weren’t the easiest, but the ones that really pushed me and the understanding of my profession.

I would be in favor of changes that smooth out the experience rather then simply lower the difficulty :
1) better telegraphing for big attacks
2) further zoomed out camera/ better camera that doesn’t bug
3) make the 2nd floor higher to make FPS drop from zergs underneath less an issue
4) remove the need to be rezzed after failing a fight, keeping the armor penalty.

Perhaps they can make all magic find gear have a 100% chance of being salvaged into magic find consumables. The amount and type of consumable would be based on the rarity/level of the item. Maybe even have the exotic and ascended gear give permanent account-wide magic find consumables.

The stats on the gear are what make your crafts level bound. If you really want the skin of the things you make, then you have two choices: use a transmutation stone to reskin gear at your current level or reach the level requirement. That is probably the most constructive a response you’ll get. I’d also recommend “looking before you leap.”
Good luck!

While having the crab, all those extra seconds commanders get from the confusion adds up to their win most of the time. Please fix.

I saw that stuffed Quaggan toy in LA and the new JP. For some reason, the very poor craftsmanship and how blatantly “fake” the quaggan toy was made it all the more appealing. I would seriously wish to own one of these actual size in real life.

Yes. I experienced a great heart-break when I loaded the launcher one day and the beautiful GW2 launcher set with the awesome music and shifting images got removed. You don’t understand how many times I had the launcher just be on for the sake of it being AMAZING. The launcher we have now feels more like a BETA launcher then an actual post-launch one.

I love bestiaries in any game period. Good suggestion. Maybe even add some “collect them all” achievements and items associated with it.

I would agree with this addition into the game. I would even do a quest chain, pay gold/karma to an NPC, or /beg in game to get one if need be.

Hahaha. And hear I thought it was just my character being a Norn.

On one hand, I can understand where you are coming from but on the other everyone that got all titles from 35+ Hom points knew they would only receive a title. GWAMM was all about the title and the prestige a person took on while wearing it. I think that a more constructive solution would be to make titles more apparent in general but give GWAMM titles a bit of flair so you really stand out from the crowd.

Any kind of item reward or quality of life reward doesn’t make sense to me at this point.

My constructive criticism on the Lost Shores Event.

• When you do large invasions with a high player population like you did in LA, then reduce the max amount of players then normally allowed. This may give a nice buffer into lag issues and make the event more enjoyable. I would even recommend a server(s) solely dedicated for the creation of holiday overflow zones.

*Be more mindful of the overflow’s tendency to start on as a clean slate. The Ancient Karka event was interacting with the “establishment of Southsun” chain from Phase 2, adding unnecessary NPCs and mobs, further causing more lag and instability issues. There were also issues of the Ancient Karka repeating on overflows and people exploiting overflows to get chest rewards on alts when the alts didn’t do the event themselves.

*Extend one-time only events to last a week with each phase lasting a couple days. If you really really want to make the last phase only viewable once per character, then make it instanced or lock characters that have completed it out. This can allow you to run the final phase for 1-2 days while still giving that sense of happening once per character.

*The new zone was beautiful but the amount of DE was lacking for a level 80 zone after the establishment events took place. This place wasn’t as enjoyable to just run around and kill things like the Mad King’s Labyrinth was either, since the drop rate was rather low.

*Ancient Karka event was “too long.” This is in regard to the repetitive nature of certain phases (reinforcements). Players don’t mind spending 2 to 3 hours on an event chain as long as it stimulates their brain. Killing waves of one enemy type for 20-30 minutes then doing the exact same thing 15 minutes later is taxing. An epic fight isn’t due to it’s length or a boss’s HP pool, but due to the mechanics. Apply the clever balance of Fractal puzzle/difficulty/encounters/coordination to DEs and champion boss encounters.

I feel that the chance of getting a random precursor is a nice reward for an event that required time investment on a specific day/time that will not happen again. Very few of the precursors are the actual limiting factors for most of the playerbase that is trying to make a legendary. If someone got awarded with 100 lodestones or full stacks of T6 mats, then I think that would be reason for concern.

I just think that the new infusion gear is playing a role here. They need stacks of T6 mats to forge and create them. Anet has added a new use for T6 mats so naturally there is going to be a higher demand.

I believe that all quiver backslot items have offensive infusion slots while the book backslot items have defensive infusion slots, so there will be pairs that share the same stats but different infusion.

As it stands right now, we would need a lot more experience with how Anet handles one-time events to give proper judgement. The only example we’ve seen is the Act 3 Mad King cinematic, and I would agree that their wording could have been better to avoid frustration. However, from what we’ve seen with that “one-time” event is that it got played for the rest of Act3 without the cinematic feel. Players were still able to witness it. The only difference was just not being the first to witness it in cinematic cutscene.

We’ll have to look at the upcoming one-time event and see how Anet works this in. I’m speculating that the “one-time only” part will be arriving at the island in it’s paradise happy fun time form before something awful occurs, which will be event based. When the weekend is over, the zone will persist but perhaps happy fun time paradise will no longer be an option for the island anymore… or it will have the same DE take place to retake the island every now and then. In this manner, players will still be able to experience the event after and they only miss out on being the first to undergo it. Most likely this event will have some sort of cutscene showing whatever emerges from the depths and this would be one-time only. Just my thoughts on what might happen that would classify the event as “one time” but can still be experienced later.

I appreciate the good back and forth responses. Just wanted to be clear that I’m not saying it doesn’t happen and that there aren’t people who are that willing. I just simply don’t see a reason to posters bring this up when they want to make their own legendary.

Everyone knows their own stance on gold sellers and willingness to use their services just like people know whether or not they would do other things that aren’t sanctioned. I know many ways in real life to obtain money illegally and go buy a lot of expensive things I don’t need. However, I know I’m not willing to make those choices, so I earn my money the normal way.

The one point I wanted to make in response to posts that just bring up “this guy got it with cash =>gold” is that it still doesn’t effect how a player will go about obtaining theirs. I bet there are some people living the high life from their illegal trades in the world, but that doesn’t change how I would approach obtaining things I want. Players that buy from gold farmers and succeed in doing so won’t change the way a player wants to obtain their items. At most it only makes the possibility tempting.

I know it went a little away from the main topic of giving advice with my replies to your replies. Funny how that goes, talking about apples and then onto oranges. I just simply don’t want posts of mine being misinterpreted or missing the point I intended to put but obviously failed in doing.

@Loswaith- I can understand seeing a level difference feels like you’re leaving your friends behind, but that just seems to be a conscience decision every player makes. We all do things for our friends. A lot of gamers intentionally don’t play a specific character or the game entirely just to keep from “leaving their friends in the dust.” If people really wish to get dedicated to being the same level with their friends, then they would need to be more aware of their exp gain from all sources.

Besides the numerical difference in terms of level, exactly how much different is it really to play with a friend simply because you are 10 levels higher? I find friends get more upset when you do things without them that involve party members rather then just being more leveled.

I’m working on the assumption that you’re looking for an in-game gold source to obtain your legendary. So somebody spent a good amount of real cash to get an item just to be one of the first to get it. People who go after “game firsts” do so to the extreme. Unless you’ve got the money to do the same, the possibility of obtaining your mats via gold sellers doesn’t change your situation at all nor does it for the majority of the playerbase.

SteepledHat.1345:

Delolith.9645:

Like ANet said…the legendary won’t happen by itself due to time spent. You have to aim for it.

Or buy 80% of it from a gold seller or with gems.

I can think of SO MANY other ways to spend real life cash then doing this. There aren’t that many people playing this game willing or capable to spend that much money to do the $ =>gold even from unauthorized means, which involves high risk and possible banning. I bet people willing to give gold sellers that much money end up being robbed anyway.

And even on the chance they do get such a weapon this way and assuming Anet doesn’t closely monitor high gold transactions or income gain from those making legendaries, the impact on the player base isn’t that much. Someone spending a couple thousand dollars to get a weapon skin to me is just ludicrous. Skins mostly appeals to the user anyway. One can only ooo and ahh at someone else’s gear skins before getting bored.

My advice to the OP is not to go this route for any part of the legendary. There are some decent farming guides out there but you’ll be working on the skin for a while.

This is just the current market value. All the very expensive lodestone have their relative dragon counterpart. Once new content gets added to add more zones, mobs, and dungeons for the respective turfs of these remaining dragons, then we’ll start seeing more supply and lower prices.

If you want the item now, you’ll be spending a lot more time and gold. It’s the trade-off for being the very few to craft these weapons due to their expensive nature. Your other option is to accumulate gold so that when these items due drop in price you get more lodestone for your gold later on but that also comes at the trade-off of obtaining the item when it’s more readily available to the playerbase.

I don’t see anything wrong design wise with how lodestones are at the moment. The trade-offs seem fair.

I’m trying to figure out where I stand on this. I can understand the OP’s view, since I also played a lot of GW1. I also enjoyed the flow of doing dungeons/elite missions, solo farming, and getting gemstones/desired weapon skins to trader for ectos or armbraces to gain wealth. However, that to me felt like another trading game which is also prevalent in GW2 in a different manner via the trading post. With this in place, now everyone can compete against each other in trading for better or worse in terms of easy profit and duping desperate players.

The reason why profit gain from loot drop was high in GW1 was due to the player base’s high demand of a rare or hard to obtain item that was desirable or used to make something desirable. These items didn’t sell much to vendors and salvaged for next to nothing, but players over time stabilized a certain price range they tagged onto them.

Now that I look at GW2, there aren’t too many rare drops that are in high demand. Dropped gear is usually turned into MF fodder or salvaged into ectos. Lodestones and cores currently have too few sources to be obtained efficiently. I’m sure as more content is added there will eventually be more rare drops that are desired and items like lodestones will have more areas/mobs to obtain them.

Things I would like to see in regards to the first-generation legendaries:
-Scale up or add particles effects to certain legendaries that need some more love.
-a new method of obtaining the precursors in addition to the current system. The new
system should require the same estimated amount of time/gold but give more a sense of definite progression. The current system is more of an “all or nothing” gamble, which is fine. This would make the process appear more player-friendly.
-Account bound precursors given a new method was implemented in addition to the original and a minority of players controlling a precursor market.

Things I would like to see in regards to second generation legendaries:
-Precursor models should have unique skins as well.
-Precursors be obtained through difficult PVE instanced missions or difficult combat related achievement check list that needs to be met to obtain specific material to craft them. Perhaps a combination of both that yields new crafting material each with both being Account bound. The idea is to reward PVE combat skill mastery as an element of mastery currently missing in the first generation Legendary recipe.
-A short clip showcasing each new legendary to prevent disappointment, even providing that the new batch of legendary weapons have good amount of particle effects or move-able parts. Perhaps even a temporary version that lasts 1 minute would be great to implement.

This seems like it would go against Anet’s design philosophy. They want everyone who puts the time and effort on their one character to be able to obtain their legendary. I’m not saying that Anet hasn’t allowed the possibility of alts helping with the completion. I’m just saying that as it stands now a player on one character can craft two legendary weapons without using an alt, which is at the very least one new weapon set.

Utilizing a method like this would force players to level multiple alts and depending on the number of these shards needed might force them to purchase gems. It would also influence number of players power crafting to 80.

I understand you wanted more of a yes/no but I felt like it’s better to add constructive feedback. I don’t mind a system in which you gain pieces like this, but they need to be acquired in another manner then suggested.

I think that players already have enough to go on to predict what will be coming in GW2’s future based on their philosophy, dev posts, and what we’ve seen so far. Granted they don’t give out specifics and timelines, but I’m good to get what comes when it does.

The quoted OP makes a remark that he or she would stick around and play more if they knew what was coming in order to “prepare” for it. I don’t understand how one would prepare for upcoming content in a game with horizontal progression, especially when the new content would most likely add elements that are independent from ones already introducing. We wouldn’t be needing to do X dungeon or get X item to gain access to the new content, because we just will get access.

That perspective feels more in line with vertical progression game, specifically ones with sub fees. Whenever a player loses interest in the current content there is nothing to lose when you stop playing for awhile, and you can always pick up when new content is added. Anet doesn’t need to give too much info on future updates in order to maintain a large concurrency.

A majority of accessories you’ll get access to in the game that are actually useful will be crafted by you or other players. Those are not soulbound.

However, szar is right in that accessories found as drops (which isn’t too often and are normally inferior) and accessories gained from RNG mystic forge are soulbound on pick up.

I have the same opinions as other posters above me. I really love this game and how I still have lots of things that personally interest me that I have yet to complete. However, I tend to go through periods of playing the game intensely and periods where I go play something else for awhile.

I suggest that you go play another game or do another activity for a bit before coming back into the game. The non-progression style design of this game once you hit 80 means that everything that can be considered “end-game goals” is always available. Logging in and playing day in and day out won’t get you access to new content like a progression-based game but will only get you closer to whatever goal(s) you were working towards.

Long term goals aside, if you need new things to keep your interest then play during new content patches. Content patch up on the 15th with the new zone persisting after the weekend event. That should be something new for you, but until then don’t burn yourself out. =)

The game was advertised such that players can do anything in this game and still earn decent experience. Since this is one of Anet’s core philosophies for the design of this game, I highly doubt this will change. This is in addition to the argument that there is only going to be an incredibly small minority preferring to grind out levels from traditional means.

The way the November Lost Shore update is going it’s more likely that tentacled sea monsters are going to have stuffed quaggan for Thanksgiving. =(

Superior Sigil of Kormir- You no longer need to tag mobs other players kill to obtain chance at loot. You also always earn Gold Medal for any DE simply by being nearby.

Sorry, I couldn’t resist. >< Back on topic, I think that the Swiftness on Kill sigil is enough. I think it works on critters too. There is also Bowl of Seaweed Salad that grants a 60% chance on kill to give swiftness. I’m unsure if these two durations stack, but if they do then that’s more then enough swiftness in conjunction with class skills. I really do wish that as a mesmer the curtain swiftness stacked with other sources.

On Dungeon Token Farm-

I can see the issue here. On one hand I can understand the need to DR speed runs, but on the other I really don’t see why DR should effect players that have chosen to use their time solely on the one dungeon. I see the reason for DR on repeat runs of the same path, but would like to see a change in that the DR on repeat runs is removed as long as you complete all four paths. This would allow players to focus on a single dungeon while also preventing the situation of needing to solely do one path repeatedly.

On Karma Farm-

This has gotten a lot better. 4.5k for dailies or more with karma boosting buffs. Players can get a piece in around 8 to 10 days solely from the karma jugs and karma from the DE needed for the daily. Karma has been added to dungeons as well, making it nice if the player has a dungeon run as a typical thing they enjoy doing.

“Allows up to 4 listings of same type with quantities of up to 1000.”

The way I interpret the functionality of the item is that it allows a player to have buy/sell listings of up to 1000 four times for the same type. Just based on the text alone that is all it says it does. The description makes me feel like this is just a quality of life addition for players that trade on the market often and in large quantities. Any limiting upon normal players that don’t have this item on either the number of buy/sell orders per item type or the quantity is just mere speculation based on assumptions.

I’m hoping that this item has been re-purposed to be a consumable trait reset. The cost for the item is 5s, which is only a little bit more then the respec cost at your trainer. This would be very helpful in middle of dungeon runs if no amount of Major Trait selections and weapon set changes improved your effectiveness to the team.

I honestly doubt eggnog will be craftable. This can be an alcoholic beverage and all alcoholic beverages are currently bought from NPCs. The Halloween cooking recipes used stuff like cookie dough, balls of dough, baker’s wet/dry, etc in combination with Candy Corn. I imagine that Peppermint or Candy Canes will be the comparable new crafting mat for cooking.