Guild Wars 2

Also, it then means your hotkeys are out of order.

For instance, in an ideal world I want to bind skills 1 and 2 close to my index finger, and less often used skills closer to my little finger.

But if I go purely by how often they are used, the keybinds are all mixed up, like this (5 = most used, 1 = least used):

(5) – (4) (1) (2) (3)

You should be able to have the skill hotbar in the same order as the keys on your keyboard.

@lollie mods can make mistakes, misread things, or misclick and remove the wrong post by accident, particularly on a very busy forum. If you think a decision was incorrect, just sent a polite PM to the moderator involved.

Danikat.8537:

I wouldn’t say they’re agressive. Compared to some forums I wouldn’t even call them strict. But then yes they are stricter than some other forums.

As far as I know for most minor infractions there are no consequences other than the post getting deleted, so I just shrug it off and try to remember what they didn’t like for next time.

Exactly this.

Edit: if you have a big community, and let it run unchecked, then forums can become pretty nasty places to hang out. So for a game this size, with a focus on building community, the level of moderation seems appropriate.

Wait for prime time in your time zone, go to world selection screen and sort server list by population size. If you want short WvW queues , don’t mind about WvW ranking or prefer not to be in the Overflow server much then go to a medium population server. If you like a lot of action in WvW, and don’t mind queues, go to one of the high population ones.

Once upon a time, in the small village of Emoville, the most popular fruit was apples. Nearly everyone loved apples, because they were crunchy and crispy and they were eaten every day. One day, however, a pear seller wandered into the village square. People were intrigued, because the pear seller claimed her pears were totally different from apples and would just melt in your mouth when you bit into them.

Everyone tried the pears. Some of the villagers loved them, finding them succulent and juicy and delicious, and much nicer than apples.

But some people complained that the pears were no good because they weren’t as crispy and shiny as apples.

As a result the village divided into two camps – those who loved apples, and those who loved pears. They spent all day arguing over which was better. Apple lovers claimed pears were an inferior product, whereas pear lovers claimed that apple lovers just didn’t know how to eat pears properly in order to appreciate them.

True story.

I like the design – it’s full of visually interesting things. It feels like a hard-won area with the Pact slowly gaining ground inch by hard won inch.

I initially found it annoying that I couldn’t run anywhere without aggroing mobs and being pulled, knocked down and killed. But since then I’ve got better gear, learned how to run through it, so I don’t have that problem any more.

I think the mob spacing is too dense and the respawn too fast. But I did learn to adapt, and it was nice to be forced to cope with more difficulty, instead of the game being tailored to suit my lazy way of playing.

Edit: there is always something to do there. I usually go there with a purpose (e.g. finishing the storyline, completing a zone, harvesting mats) but I like how there are a lot of distractions and events that keep you busy. Even if some of them get a bit repetitive after a while.

Since when is 8 people a zerg?

I think your issue is mainly that you have been PvPing and not playing any of the PvE content. You then jumped straight into a max level zone without having learned the, um, dangers that environment presents.

The respawn on mobs is pretty insane and Orr can be a very annoying if you rush in without paying attention. I’d recommend you try lower level zones if all you are looking for is chilling out time with one hand on the keyboard. If all PvE zones were like that the game would be very boring for PvEers.

But think about it the other way around. If you were a high level PvE player who hasn’t PvPed – would you jump straight into WvW or sPvP and expect to faceroll instantly? Probably not…

I rebind A and D to strafing and turn using the mouse.

I also use an n52te, so all my movement is controlled by my thumb. This leaves my other fingers free for skill keybinds, weapon swapping etc, and means that strafing while using skills is easy.

If I need more keybinds than is available on the n52te, then I use key modifiers (Ctrl, Alt, Shift). The modifiers are bound to my mouse buttons 4, 5 and 6.

Game default settings are always very poorly thought out. I never use them.

The option to be bad or evil was deliberately not provided by Anet. Their story is about saving the world from evil. This would be more palatable if your character could sound less brainwashed into serving good.

Sadly, engaging story writing isn’t Anet’s strong point.

No, I don’t feel any pressure at all. I’ve bought the game already, there is no obligation on me whatsoever to support Anet by buying things in the cash shop.

I think the pressure is in the reverse direction – I’ve already shelled out for extra bank and character slots. I refuse to pay for black lion chest keys, however, despite the number of locked chests that are piling up in my inventory.

I’ve always felt that guild systems in MMOs were far too restrictive, because it forces you to become part of one single community. IRL people are part of a variety of social circles relating to work, family, close friends, friends you share hobbies with, neighbours etc.

Traditional guild set ups in most MMOs can’t emulate that properly. GW2’s system isn’t perfect but it’s better than a lot of others because it recognises that you can belong to more than one group.

It’s up to guilds to decide what kind of players they want to have joining, and whether they try to enforce representation or not, and it’s up to players to decide what kind of guild they want to join. The tools are there for you.

Edit: I haven’t looked very closely at the guild ranking system, but is it possible to restrict access to bonuses based on membership?

4 females, 2 males

The two most played characters are both female.

I always use names with a bell theme. Female characters are always called ‘Campana’ and male characters ‘Carillon.’

My norn warrior is Campana the Sverd (Sverd being the closest I can come to the old norse word for ‘sword’.)

My human elementalist is called Campana the Arcane.

My charr ranger is Carillon Naedre (naedre being an Old English word for adder).

I’m not an addict. I can stop any time I like.

My reward is the sparkly sound effects and twinkly gold bars on my screen that occur after every step I take in the world. I wish I had something like that at work.

Sometimes I even get a bouncing chest and it lets me look at a picture of a heap of gold!

All that stupid Karma and gold and stuff is just an extra bonus.

Yes, the OP is correct. However, reading between the lines of what the developers were saying, I pretty much expected that the game would turn out the way it actually has.

DusK.3849:

A game can still have a branching storyline and still arrive at the same conclusion. From point A on, your goal is to kill a dragon. How you get there is what defines the storyline as “branching”. You’re attempting to pigeon-hole the term into what you think it is, despite the fact that it’s not solely limited to that.

I think many of us find the personal storylines a bit meaningless. There are some good bits, but there are a lot of really bad bits. It’s good that you get different kinds of choices to suit your playstyle e.g. Option A: rush in waving your sword and screaming DIE SCUM, Option B; lure the enemy into exposing themselves, but it doesn’t have quite the same effect as making some kind of moral choice which has some lasting effect on your character. For instance:

I don’t think it’s unreasonable to demand consequences to our decisions that decide more than just what kind of mobs we have to attack in the next personal story instance. Edit: just to belabour this point, it would been better to give every class in the game the exact same storyline right from the start, and allow them to make choices that affected the course of the story in a meaningful way, than what we have at the moment.

Game stories as a whole are usually pretty terrible, but I don’t see why I shouldn’t keep asking for the same standard of storytelling from a game that I might find in a really good fantasy novel. Bioware can do it, and even Funcom have managed to pull off some fantastic dialogue in TSW, so it’s such a shame the Anet didn’t come up to scratch on this one.

With respect to the DEs, they make more of a difference in the later zones than in the earlier ones, particularly the ones where it leads up to a dragon showing up. It can feel a little annoying and repetitive to defend a waypoint heroically and then find it being zerged by Risen again 10 minutes later. I suspect you will have to spend a lot of time in a zone doing the same events over and over again to notice any narrative differences.

I would love to see cumulative player actions gradually steering servers in a slightly different direction. However, I think I’m being overly optimistic about this.

If you make legendaries have better stats, then you need to make them as easy to get as exotics are now because people would be required to get them and everyone would be grinding for them. Or quitting the game because it’s too boring to grind for that sh… er, kitten.

At the moment you are intended to have max stat gear with a small amount of effort after level 80.

If you gave legendaries the best stats then you would need to remove one of the previous tiers of gear from the game, probably the current exotic set, and then…

…you’d just be back to the situation we have now, which is 5 tiers of gear, but with more grinding.

It’s not just elementalist. I’ve even had difficulty with personal story missions on my warrior – for some of them it feels like the level lists are completely screwed up.

I can’t count the number of times my NPC allies decide at the beginning of an instance tha the best way to progress is to stand around and try to tank the enemy AoE. In a great many of my personal story missions I ended up having to kill all the enemy mobs solo while surrounded by a sea of sad little ‘revive’ tags.

Since the mobs there hit like a truck, and there is usually a whole gang of them to defeat, this involved me running back and forth and kiting desperately with about 10% health the entire time while the NPCs I was trying to pull and kill one by one yo-yo-ed back and forth in varying states of invulnerability.

This happened a lot.

My MMO goals are completely different from the OP’s, so I don’t find the level downscaling an issue – rather the reverse. I think levels are a very boring, formulaic method of progression in any case, so reducing the effect they have on the game is a good thing in my opinion. I once tried to level up some alts in GW1 and trying to get a group of your own level for some of the story missions on the starter island in Factions was literally impossible – those areas were crowded with bored level 20s offering to do all the content for you. I hated that.

The lack of a secondary profession in GW2, and the more restrictive skill load outs are a bit disappointing, and I don’t really like class-based systems anyway. Having said that, I think simplifying the system is better for PvP balance.

Overall, I think Anet have taken GW1 and turned it into a proper MMO instead of a a bunch of teenage infested chat channels with instances tacked on. There are lots of things I like about GW2 – dodging, fast-paced combat, beautiful areas that feel really alive, lack of quests, level scaling, not too many skill keybinds, no holy trinity, and so on.

There are a few mechanics I don’t like – for instance, why did they add Fear? It’s one of the stupidest forms of CC because instead of limiting your character’s options by imposing a penalty (such as stun, knock down, cripple) it’s actively taking control of your character and making it do something you didn’t tell it to. I disapprove.

Also, Anet have got this idea that the only ‘real’ pvp is arena style pvp, and therefore WvW is set up to cater for PvEers rather than somewhere you go to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women.

I’ve always felt that reviews of MMORPGs were a bit pointless, since I’ve never seen a reviewer with the same requirements in a game that I have. And, as you say, and they can’t possibly spend enough time playing it to really understand what it will be like as a long-term hobby.

The only way to do that is to play it yourself for a few months.

I was really impressed to see this feature during the beta weekends – much better than a forum poll because many players never visit or post on the forums.

I think if Anet wanted to canvas player opinions about certain things this would be the best way to do it.

Oh, sorry should have read the OP more closely.

Yes, I find on my warrior that I’m just using greatsword and longbow for PvE (as in general map completion and DEs). However, in places where you need more than just sheer dps I find myself trying out other weapons more (dungeons, pvp). Even then, there are some weapons I just haven’t bothered equipping, except to unlock those skills in the first place.

If you’re having difficulty with getting money then here is my advice.

Do Dynamic Events and renown hearts, harvest ore nodes and sell that on the TP.

Dungeons in story mode will give you 25s but if you end up in a group that dies a lot your repair bill will wipe out your profits.

Also, don’t use waypoints, and try not to die too much. Don’t buy gear just equip yourself with drops (or karma gear) because you will replace all your stuff in a few levels anyway.

Agreed. I just completed story mode Arah last night, and once we got past the power core nonsense I was both surprised and impressed by the way it played out. It felt really epic and exciting.

Right up until we got to kill Zhaitan. I would have tabbed out at that point and gone to make a cup of tea, but I couldn’t get my cannon to auto attack :s

There is a lot less choice than in GW1. However, there is still more choice than in most other mainstream MMOs where you basically get to choose between 3 trait trees. In GW2 you have 5 trait trees and then all your different weapon load outs on top of that.

Actually, I like Malchor’s Leap and Fields of Gold on Orr – they’re not pretty but they’re full of fascinating remains, and really atmospheric.

I also like the ruins that were cities in GW1 (the remains of old Lion’s Arch in the harbour, Droknar’s Forge etc).

Posting my agreement that waypoint costs should scale with zone not level, and that travel to Lion’s Arch should be free in order to remove the constant stream of people using WvW/HotM as a quick travel route.

1. Sandbox (game play driven by player goals and actions)
2. Mechanics to create co-operation, conflict and regular interaction between players
3. Grind for resources dressed up in a fun activities

AnthonyZdravko.2051:

4) – Friend login notification. (I have no way of knowing when a friend logs in unless I check my friends list regularly or they PM me when they log on).

They have this, sort of. If you turn on the game messages filter you get a message whenever a contact on your friend list logs on. Of course, you then get spammed with other messages every time you loot or craft something.

DusK.3849:

They’re not, though. Look at the OP’s post. He went to Queensdale, then Kessex, completely ignoring other regions in his level that are only a few portals away.

I keep making this point and no-one seems to read it: we do not wish to do other low level zones because this will spoil it when we play other characters. It should not be required to explore other zones with your main in order to be high enough level to move onto the next zone.

Having said that, I’ve not had a problem because I just go back and find more dynamic events until I have high enough level to move onto the next area. It’s just a little disconcerting to finish in a zone and then find you have to hang around for a little while longer.

Tiresias.6473:

This is not your old-school MMO. Those hearts on the map? They are just there to get you out exploring the world — to drive you towards dynamic events, crafting nodes, skill challenges, and other locations where you will find other players.

This game is supposed to be an adventure, not a grind.

If you rush heart to heart and treat zone completion like the destination instead of part of the journey then — yes — you will miss out on a lot of great content as you fly through the zone two levels faster than you should.

If you don’t bother to explore the major cities AND craft AND PvP AND STILL refuse to go to other zones then yes, you may find yourself getting behind on the content.

The people who find themselves underlevelled aren’t rushing around trying to level up as fast as they can. I certainly wasn’t.

I did the content I wanted to at the pace I wanted to. I spent a lot of time exploring the zones I was playing in, or going back to areas I’d already completed all the hearts for just in order to get crafting materials.

So I don’t agree that people who are underlevelled are somehow ‘playing the game wrong’. I actually think there are so many things to do that give xp that Anet had trouble balancing the amount you gain from different activities in a way that suits every playstyle.

I’m not really a casual gamer, and so far I’ve been putting way more time into GW2 than I should. But I did intend to play it casually…

So my thoughts are – I don’t think dungeons are intended for casual players. Dynamic events, vistas, WvW, map completion – I think that’s what Anet thought would be a goal for casuals because it’s something you can do solo or with a couple of friends and without needing an organised group.

Dungeons are for people who want to farm shards or whatever it is you need for legendary gear which doesn’t really seem like a casual play style to me.

Proeliator.8740:

Oh man I’m starting to sound like a complete fan boy but the number of useless threads in these forums is getting out of control. We already level extremely fast. There are so many things you can do to gain xp it’s crazy.

This isn’t really a useless thread. Being underlevelled is happening to a lot of people even though they are doing all the content the game throws at them, including crafting.

One issue I think with crafting is that people often get delayed levelling it up due to lack of materials. I’ve spent days getting only 1 or 2 crafting levels, then suddenly hit a plateau where I’ve got a whole bunch of stored materials and manage to complete 50 crafting levels in one go.

Tiresias.6473:

Go to other zones that are appropriate for your level and see the content there. That is why those zones exist.

This may be what Anet intended. However, I disagree that this should be necessary. Some of us want to leave those areas blank so when we play on alts we’ve got a new area to experience, instead of repeating content we’ve done before.

But an easier solutions is to run back through the area you just completed and do dynamic events.

Rokien.6405:

ok lets look at gw1, you could pretty much do everything on one character in gw1.

Except changen your main class of course. Changing your secondary profession doesn’t really count imo although it was a very nice feature.

I had the same problem as the OP – completing all hearts, doing any dynamic events I came across, keeping up to date with my story, crafting, gathering every node I saw etc didn’t provide enough xp to move on to the next area.

You either have to move to a different racial area (which I didn’t want to do because I want to leave content I haven’t played for my alts), play some WvW or run around and just keep doing more dynamic events until you level up.

I don’t think this counts as griefing. Since the puzzle is in a WvW area it’s a legitimate point of control in PvP, even if it doesn’t actually contribute to winning the map.

I agree the solution is to remove puzzle points from PvP areas if they count towards a PvE goal.

Anet think of WvW as “soft” PvP for PvE players and have done everything in their power to make it a non-griefable, non-trash talking area. Maybe they thought it would be fun to give it more PvE attractions – but I don’t see a reason to put puzzles there at all.

I prefer games where you don’t have to pick a class, and it’s one of my least favourite features of GW2. I much prefer being able to spec into specific weapons skills instead.

However, levelling is fairly easy in this game, and each character you play is intended to be have its own personalised storyline (even if it does become very similar towards the end). So I suspect that Anet felt that removing a reason to have alts would reduce the amount of content per player.

I’m not going to be able to help you, but someone else might be able to if you post a bit more info.

What is the actual speed of your connection?
In what game areas does this latency occur, how often?
What is the error code you get?
Are you able to try doing a traceroute? I’m not sure what the IP for the servers is but someone else might be able to tell you, or perhaps you could ask support for that

It depends a lot on what you do. I expect silver per hour rates vary a lot, but here are a list of activities that can give you an idea:

• For in game events lasting, say, 5-10 mins at level 80 you are getting about 2 silver
• Blue and green gear that drops at level 80 sells for between 1 and 2 silver to vendors (although sometimes you can sell this on the trading post for more, so it’s worth checking).
• For Ascalonian Catacombs (the only dungeon I’ve actually done) you get about 25s at the end. I would imagine it’s more for the higher level dungeons, and people are running speed clears for these already.
• Low level mats such as copper ore and jute scraps sell for about 0.2-0.3 silver each (last time I looked).

This is all from memory so if people want to correct some of this, feel free.

No, because it’s not part of the GW2 design and approach.

Legendary weapons are all about better skins, whereas the best stats in the game are designed to be easier to achieve so that people aren’t grinding for gear for a long time.

You grind to look prettier instead

I wish we saw more posts like the OP’s on this forum.

What keeps me playing so far… I want to:

• explore all the areas – I’m curious to see what that 40-50% of the map I haven’t been to yet is like
• finish the personal story for both my main characters
• get my crafting to 400 on my two main characters
• finish getting exotic gear for my two main characters
• try out some more alts to get a flavour of some of the other classes
• keeping playing WvW a couple of times a week for fun
• keep playing sPvP a couple of times a week, practice my PvP skills and unlock pretty armour rewards
• see what happens with the dynamic events – will the story evolve?

I don’t really know where the game is going to go in the future. There are three main things I am hoping for:

• That there will be fierce competition in WvW, with organised guilds co-ordinating and focusing their efforts so that we get epic group territorial fights
• That Anet will keep developing and evolving the dynamic PvE events so that they gradually unfold as a campaign against the elder dragons. It would be great if different trends unfold across different servers depending on player actions, but I’m probably being a bit too optimistic about this.
• That the game world will expand with new areas in future (e.g. rest of Tyria, Elona, Cantha)

Is the game really required to make melee and ranged the same level of difficulty in all areas?

In general PvE (not dungeons) it is easy to play melee e.g. as a warrior I can just rush at stuff and start whacking away with Hundred Blades. It doesn’t require a lot of thought and strategy, but it is fun.

I haven’t done a lot of dungeons but in the ones I did I just turned myself into a ranged class by equipping a longbow. Problem solved!

When I got to level 80 I found I was paying out a lot in repair bills, so I started playing a lot more carefully. I now die a lot less than I used to. I’m spending probably less than 2s per day on repairs, so 15s per day does seem a little high.

I’m not disagreeing with you over waypoint and repair costs being very high, but you could definitely help yourself by cutting that repair bill down.

Really? I’ve only come across one bug that prevented me from completing anything, and aside from the few minor glitches the game has been very smooth for me. The worst issue was the trading post at the beginning but that seems mostly sorted now.

We’re arguing because we think CC timers are a lame mechanic. It’s what devs do when they’ve kittened up their skill system so badly they don’t know how else to fix it.

I play warrior in WvW and sPvP and the only time I get shut down completely is when I get focus fired by a whole group of people. That’s the bit you have to try and avoid.

Anet have already stated that they wouldn’t have pvp servers. As far as they’re concerrned, WvW is open PvP. They’ve gone to a lot of effort to remove opportunities for griefing, and put in a lot of things to promote co-operative play and a good server community.

Doesn’t leave any room for open world pvp, I’m afraid.

Are you a warrior? NPCs that are immune to burning are not immune to fire damage so your sword would probably have been ok. I’ve killed Embers and Destroyers with my longbow. All the warrior longbow attacks do damage other than burning damage, except for the burst skill.

If you’re not a warrior then ignore me :P

redacted by moderator, as the quoted text has been moderated

My advice is never have high expectations of a newly released MMO, and not to go around expecting some intangible new gameplay that you haven’t experienced before :P

Instead it’s better to read up on something specific that will be available and say to yourself “when I reach end game I’m going to do [x] until I get bored of it.”

If you do this you will rarely be disappointed. Sometimes you will even be pleasantly surprised.

Anet are offering what they originally promised. If you don’t like crafting, exploring or grinding for pretty gear, and you find the sPvP repetitive, then it sounds like there isn’t much in this game to interest you.

DirtyHoudini.2917:

At 80 there is nothing to do, and the people who are defending the “end-game” clearly haven’t even gotten to 80 yet. The people who get 80 are the ones finding the problems while the casual player who isn’t 80 yet hasn’t even come across them.

I’ve been level 80 for a week and have been logging in every night with plenty of things to do.