Guild Wars 2

Majestic.1823:

I followed the steps and copied the file into the gw2 folder. Launched it and immediately it gave me the error reporting feedback form instead. Any advice?

Assuming you are on Win 7 (ignore if you are not) try making sure you’re up to date. Found out win 7 wasn’t updating for me, (problem with the latest reinstall I did) and once I had service pack 1 everything worked nicely.

Adding my voice to this, I guess. Disappointing to know there’s a bug blocking my chance to get the specialization weapon on my main.

EDIT: Win 7 was being a butt. solved the crash on start issue.

Running on intel core i5 6600k on a Asustek z170 pro gaming board with 16 gb of ddr4 dual channel ram and a geforce gtx 660 Ti. Just did a reinstall and rebuild prior to release of HoT.

64 bit cleint is running nicely off the bat, need to play some and see how it goes. Only real issue is map load in takes more time, and loading up things windows, icons, other stuff, seems to take longer. Maybe that’ll speed up in time. I’ll post further updates as I get into using it.

zaragoz.6351:

Have you considered running apothecary with healing bombs and EG. You won’t be demolishing people with your dps, but if you equip healing turret you will bring a water field, fire field, smoke field, and light field to the party as well as be healing everyone while doing it. Not to mention if you take backpack regenerator you will be hard as hell to kill just because of Regen. Hell atm you can even equip perplexity runes and pray for tornado to bust up enemy zergs :P
Its more of a support thing, but you will most surely be helping out your team.

I may try something like that. The timing of the bombs will be a pain to sort out, but it seems like it would give me something useful to do while not exposing me to massive retaliation. Thanks for the suggestion.

Kalan.9705:

Retaliation in wvw.
Lack of stability in wvw.
Kits falling behind power curve vs. ascended weapons.
Lack of utility on mainhand weapon based engineers – e.g. sd rifle needs every util slot to work making it quite 1 dimensional, equally P/P HGH condi needs every slot a potion and is still subpar to someone with 25 might stacks whilst being very 1 dimensional (plus HGH is ultra-annoying to run in any wvw lag).

After a year of engy main I’m finally caving and redirecting my playtime to a new class. Engy was never very well suited to ZvZ anyways and with the new changes even far less so. Worth considering alts, if you see well populated wvw.

I have alts to play, (ele, necro, etc.) but they interest me far less than the engi, and it hurts to walk away from a character that I really enjoyed playing for so long. I understand that we’re facing some serious issues, but I’m really looking for people’s experiments in finding ways to address those issues, rather than abandoning the class.

tl;dr Looking for some new builds for engi for running with a 20-40 man organized zerg.
I know it’s not what we’re best at, but engi is what I like to play, and that’s how my guild tends to run.

The wall’o’text explanation

I’m getting a little frustrated lately with my engineer. I love the class, but WvW, which is a big part of why I play, has become an increasingly frustrating experience. My guild typically runs as a 20-40 man zerg, routinely taking on bigger zergs. The general idea is to hit their tail and take them out, healing as we run. Basic stuff, but I feel like I’m having more and more trouble keeping up.

Part of the problem is the lack of stability. We don’t have a useful, sure stability that lasts long enough to be wort a kitten except for elixir X, and that takes away all our stuff.

Additionally, retaliation is becoming an ever worse problem. If I want to do plenty of damage to the other zerg balls I take flamethrower or grenades or piercing pistols, but that means I’m getting hit by absolute crap tons of retaliation every time I try to do anything.

I’ve played with a number of builds, and generally build for heavy tank, but it seems like I’m just dying more and more and I feel like I’m far less able to contribute to my team than I used to be. It’s really dampened my enthusiasm for playing the game, and left me feeling fairly depressed about the whole situation.

I’m trying to see if some fresh ideas can help me out, cause I keep coming back to the same few builds that work ok but leave me feeling either useless or dying incredibly fast. Does anyone have some good builds and advice for running with a zerg as an engi?

Many people in my guild have noticed it. Seems independent of settings, some people have highest performance set, some have lowest. In some case siege and build site fail to render. The biggest issue is aoe fields do not appear. Neither the rings nor the effects, though we are still being hit by the fields. Typically it seems to happen in fights of 50-60+. Biggest noticeable issue is 30-40 seconds after a fight we’re seeing all the actual particle effects going off, though not seeing the rings and they are not affecting anybody at that point.

This is a pretty major problem for us, it’s making it impossible to know where you can safely be in a fight, and basically turning wvw into a must zerg situation, just to ensure the problems hit both sides equally. I will try to get some screenshots to attach to this as I play, best I can easily catch is the after fight particle fields.

She got into the catnip.

Wow… she has seen some serious ccrap…

Or she got into the catnip. :p

illyume.9630:

(May as well toss mine up here again, since last time I tried things were lost in forum pages acting silly :P)

Illyume – male engineer. I use the name a lot, and it didn’t seem too out of place. He’s a gladium, so he doesn’t get any nifty surname.

Ahnassi Silentpaw – female thief. I liked the reference too much to pass up on it. I’ve noticed quite a few ‘Paw’ warbands around, which makes me a little sad I picked that as her warband name, but eh…

Krisara Goretalon – female warrior. Part of the Talon warband: Moa ranchers, and in her opinion quite boring. She got the Gore part of her name on account of being one of the more ‘spirited’ of her group.

7/10 Cool enough, good story to support it.

8/10 Solid, fits well

8/10 Also good, works nicely.

I got five, figure I’ll stick with a few to keep this from getting too lengthy. Didn’t put much thought into backstory for any of them, just tried to think of something that was interesting and fit the general scheme.

Victus Painforge – My main, an Iron Legion Engineer. First name is a throwback to an old GW1 PvP warrior I made, Victus Carnage. Surname didn’t quite fit, so I looked for something more engineerish.

Tamnus Shadowfang – currently favored alt, an Ash Legion Thief

Brand Cinderfury – Third fav alt, still trying to figure out a playstyle I like for him. Blood Legion Ranger

MikeFerguson.8921:

Ireniicus.2167:

% of classes that on average play WvW

List top players re kills / to death ratio

I would love to show the percentage of particular classes that play in WvW at some point, but it isn’t part of our current plans.

Kill/Deaths ratio is something we would like to avoid having. We don’t want people changing the way they play because they would rather protect their KDR instead of helping their allies in the game. We want people playing and fighting, not worrying about deaths impacting their stats.

I’m glad you guys don’t have plans to show KDR. I’ve always felt like leaving it off does a lot to keep people more focused on teamwork and objectives instead of just the next kill.

Try switching to a different overflow. Some have a trebuchet being built west of Fort Mariner on the cliff overlooking the Claw Island Portage Waypoint. Some do not. People believe these have something to do with the event.

Eain.7825:

I fear power creep for two reasons:

1: WvW. Currently WvW auto levels you to 80, but your gear is whatever you have on. Even at top level you may not have equal gear to the guy you’re fighting. If the gear he has on is better than yours, and he has it because he’s got nothing to do other than game, while you have to hold down a job and take care off family, you’re not losing because he’s better at the game in terms of strategy and skill. You’re losing because you have something else going on in your life. PvP in WoW was like this. They had this insane resilience stat that gave you damage reduction versus other players. If you had it you could compete, without it you were toast. For an average player without a lot of time on their hands it took months to get a full set, and by that time they’d released another. I love WvW, but I have a job and family life. I want to feel like when I fight someone and lose to them in WvW it’s because they made better choices during the fight and were more skilled, not because they spent an extra 50 hours a week playing that I didn’t have.

2. In GW1, you hit max level, probably with a couple blue items. If you were enterprising and smart, you could get yourself a set of blues with the right stats on them (later yellows and greens) that would cover you for pretty much any build you cared to play within a few weeks at worst. If you paid attention to the various forums and the wiki you could see what skills you needed for various favored builds and get them in a week or two while getting your gear. And then you could play the game, every part of the game, however you wanted. That lasted through 3 expansions, and didn’t waver. Ding max level, get some stuff to fill out your build options, go play. Worst grind you had to do was going to get some skills you might not have. You could walk away for a while, come back, and within a span of a week or two you could play competently.

Contrast that to WoW: Ding max level, go grind regular dungeons for a full set of dungeon gear. Then go grind heroics for a full set of heroic gear. Then you can actually do the raids! Oh, but if you wan to do hard mode raids that have some of the cool story bits you have to grind raids for heroic raid gear. Oh and if you want to PvP you have to also grind for pvp gear. Each step in that chain could take a hundred hours or more. If you were lucky, you got a partial set of raid gear and pvp gear before the next content patch came out. If not well then you can add even more time before you’ll ever be able to play the newest content.

It was a system in which a new player would have to sinkittenerally hundreds of hours just to play the end game content, after they’d already sunk a hundred or so hours into hitting max level.

The problem is the people that seemed to enjoy this were the guys at the top that had nothing but time to play. For those of us with other commitments, it was an endless trudge through ever increasing gear levels so we could occasionally play a bit of the end game content before new stuff came out and the trudge began again.

The fear I have is that in trying to please the people that say “there’s no better gear than this, I’m not going to play anymore” you’re just creating an endless, ugly loop. As soon as you put new gear in the game those players with way more time on their hands will grind it out in a few weeks, then demand more. And the rest of us, who still don’t have full exotic sets, who play the game without having a carrot dangled in front of us, are left even further behind. It also begins to put more and more new content designed for higher gear levels out of reach of average players, and keeps pushing the latest stuff further and further out of reach. It makes it harder for those of us that don’t have a lot of time to sink to play, and makes it harder for new players without massive amounts of time to sink to get into the game and play the newest, coolest looking content.

I don’t know that we’ll see eye to eye easily on this issue. I understand that you don’t feel like there’s anything to do but level new characters because you’ve already done pretty much everything. Comparatively, with one level 80, and a four others all under forty, I’ve barely scratched the surface. I hope you can at least understand why I look at your demand for power creep and ask why I should have to give way to your demands just because you don’t feel like you have reason to play anymore.

I do think the idea they’ve put out with ascended gear, if it’s released very slowly, is a decent compromise on the issue. To try and keep this constructive, do you feel like getting a couple pieces of new gear every couple of months would be enough to keep you playing the game? Do you think if Anet stopped at ascended gear once a full set was available you’d be happy, or do you think you’d want to see another tier start at that point?

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Chris Whiteside – Studio Design Director

Thank you for posting further information.

I won’t say I like it. To me, the whole idea of adding another tier reeks of a slow addition of the gear treadmill. I appreciate some people are have gotten legendaries and feel there’s a void at end game. I don’t think adding more gear will please them without alienating the core fanbase that loved gw1 for content progression rather than gear grind. My personal feeling is if you cater to the guys that are complaining about having no reason to play the game because there’s no progression you’re playing an endless fool’s game. Once they get the next tier they’ll just demand another. I don’t feel like these are the people that will stick to the game when another one with newer shinier stuff comes out. As soon as you stop spoon feeding them carrots to get them to play, they’ll leave.

Beyond that, this feels like a betrayal of the principle that skill and not stats or willingness to grind should be what wins, and that adding gear grind doesn’t add fun. Infusion was an amusing side note in GW1. Something that was hellishly easy for anybody to get, but basically not a big deal. I think people who bring up LOTRO and WoW history in this argument have a point. Gating content just adds grind before new players can enjoy content with their friends.

All that said… I’ll give this a chance.

GW1 was my first MMO. I was used to hitting max level quickly and knowing I could do whatever content was out there pretty much immediately. It was great to know leveling another character was relatively quick and again, I could pretty much do what I wanted when I hit the top. Trying out WAR, and playing WoW, was a hideous shock. The idea that max level just meant I got to grind the same content, over and over, for hundreds of hours praying for the drop I needed to complete my set before I could play the real end game sucked. Realizing I also had to grind my butt off in PvP the same way, and add another hundred hours to do the hard mode end game content was just one more kick in the teeth. And three months later, new content comes out, and all that work is just flushed down the toilet because a new tier has been released, and your old gear is pointless.

That’s why I look at the idea of adding a new tier with such disdain. I played GW1 because it was fun. I ground for the skins I wanted, not because I needed a specific piece to be able to play the next set of content, and not because I needed a stat boost to justify the time I put into the game. Seeing my character progress through titles and get cool looking armor was enough.

The idea of releasing ascended gear very slowly, as pieces rather than a set, is not perfect, but it’s a significantly less drastic gear progression. And so long as there are many varied ways to acquire most of the gear, worst case is you maybe have to only hold your nose and do something you don’t enjoy a little bit to keep up. It’s a compromise that I can see my self living with, even if it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

At the end of the day, I enjoy the game too much to let this decision drive me from playing, even if I feel it’s a bad direction to take the game.

I hope, a year from now or whenever the ascended set is complete, that Anet announces that their will be no further gear progression. I don’t know if that’s the case, and I don’t know what I’ll do if it’s not, but for the moment I’m willing to stick with the game, enjoy my time, and see how it all plays out.

MistaBrony.1432:

Hey Everyone!

Currently I am in a class for college called “Communication and Culture” at Georgia Tech, and for a group project for the class we chose to focus on the ways that Guild Wars 2 provides a unique social experience and how it does so. We are conducting research into the community and how they interact and how GW2 helps build a social community.

If some of you could take 10-15 minutes out of you day to fill out the following survey, it would really help us.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?fromEmail=true&formkey=dFFVYVNBN0dMLTZBZ1M1MEFuR2I0S0E6MQ

Thanks!

edit link works if you copy and paste. /edit

Also yeah, there’s just been an announcement that kind of has the community up in arms, so the data you get might not turn out as well.

Sdric.8526:

Disable Ascended gear for WvW!

Ascended Gear, as well as the announced item progression, cuts of casual gamers and working/Studying people from competitive WvW.

Unless you don’t/can’t >waste< your time to grind this gear each month, you’re cut of the endgame content.
The kind of endgame content which was announced to be grind-free, standing above all other MMOs.
—————————————————————————————-

If Ascended Gear stays PvE-only most people won’t have a problem with that.
Maybe even accept it as a motivation.

But: As soon as it becomes a must have for WvW, it splitts the playerbase.

Agreed, I could still see myself playing if this didn’t have an effect on WvW, even if it does turn into a grind. But if I have to grind just to reach parity with somebody else in my favored form of PvP, then it’s over.

It’d be just like WAR, or WoW’s asinine resilience stat. An artificial separation between those that have the time to grind and those that don’t, and one that gets constantly worse as the game gets older.

To those saying it’s just a a measly 15 point difference on that one ring, how big will that be if they expand this to a full set of ascended gear? 100-200 over someone with exotics it a significant difference, one that will certainly turn the tide in an otherwise evenly matched battle.

I really hope that when it all comes out the ascended gear balances against exotics with a full superior rune set, or the stat bonus over exotics only applies in the fractal dungeon, or something. Cause as it stands I’d be basically done with this game if it turns into another time wasting grind just to keep pace with opponents in WvW. Hopefully Anet will address those concerns somehow.

Teva.2807:

Why is everyone freaking out and acting like this is “God 1 hit everything” gear? its only 8 more stat points, 3% magic find, and You cannot even apply a talisman/rune to it. Not to mention that the stats are ONLY power/prec/magic find. Also, it has similarities to legendaries. And yes, legendaries ARE better than exotics, even though it isnt by much. So basically, this gear is only good for dungeons since there is agony condition.

Legendary weapons aren’t better than exotics if you actually check the stats on the wiki or the numerous other sites.

Also, the fear is that since the ring and back pieces they proposed are better and they have indicated they want to do more of this, a full set of ascended gear could provide a significant stat advantage over exotic gear, thus requiring a grind to get the new stuff. Now, if losing the rune slot and sigil slot on other stuff balances that out, and the infusions only help against certain enemies that’s not a big deal, but we don’t have any of those details yet. In their absence, people are raising their concern that Anet is going back on it’s ideals of not having a gear grind in GW2.

pregnable.1954:

I do not like ascended gear because I do not want to have to farm new WvW gear every balance update AND tier update.

Let WvW use pvp gear or put a fork in ascended gear… or both…

This is one thing I’m really concerned about. I could still see myself playing despite this change if I didn’t have to worry that WvW would be affected, but If I have to be concerned about regearing all the time it really kills the whole deal for me.

Kromica.2831:

Levetty.1279:

Kromica.2831:

Levetty.1279:

Remember that one that started collapsing because of that easily farmed event in the Mad Kings Zone? The even that resulted in an emergency fix where they nerfed the chest to the point it was no longer worth doing the event?

Wonder how everybody is going to feel when they can’t sell their exotics because of all the new ascended armour coming in over the next few content updates. To forget peoples reaction to it that easily you would think it hadn’t happened only last month.

There are 2 pieces coming out a ring and a back , and they are only useful in the new dungeon that will probably give exos for the higher rewards so its really no big deal.

Please read the blog post.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en-gb/news/linsey-murdock-unveils-new-high-end-ascended-gear/

They will have higher stats then Exotics, eventually you will be able to wear full Ascended.

This will kill the exotic market and probably take the high tier crafting material with it.

They have higher stats because you can not add runes or gems to them , without this they would be worse than exotics.

See now I was going to get a bit ragey and mention that the ascended ring you see in the blog post clearly has 15 more stat points than the exotic jewled ring next to it, but you raise a tremendously interesting point. If the infusion slot replaces the upgrade slot, that may mean the eventual Ascended armor (and maybe weapons) that come out may not have rune (or sigil) slots. If that’s the case, its very possible the stat increase evens out or even loses out in a 1:1 comparison with an exotic armor (or weapon) set with full superior runes (or sigils), except for having the infusion slot.

Ok… going back to revise my posts. thank you for pointing this out, it may be that this is not the problem I felt it was, though that’s obviously based on assumptions.

edit

Somebody made a point that made me think. If this progresses to eventual ascended armor and that armor can’t take runes it might not be that big a deal for me. Depending on the boost to stats that armor has over exotics and the function of infusions, the actual stat difference between a player in full exotics with superior runes and sigils and a player in a full ascended set might not be significant. Of course if ascended armor can take runes, or the stats are too much above exotics, then it’s all out the window. I really hope that Anet devs come out and explain this proposal more fully to the community so we can what their ideas are. I want to hold out hope that this isn’t the beginning of the kind of gear grind that I so hated in WoW and other MMOs, but right now there’s not much to hold on to.

After reading the blog post, I have to say I’m terribly disappointed that they’ve chosen to go this direction.

A year from now when people that choose to grind for it are in all ascended gear, what’s the next carrot you offer them? Another tier that’s higher with even better stats? Where does that end?

I like WvW. Will ascended gear’s better stats count in that? A year from now am I going to find myself at a distinct stat based disadvantage against somebody with all ascended gear in WvW because I don’t want to spend my time grinding for it?

If I’m out farming for crafting material and loot am I going to be at a disadvantage in tagging mobs against somebody that’s doing extra damage from the stats bonuses they get from a full set of ascended gear?

It’d be one thing if these higher stats were limited to just the fractal dungeon. If they are I’ll be hugely relieved and happy. So far based on what information they’ve provided, it appears they will just be a better version of exotics, and there’s nothing to suggest that it won’t lead to the same gear grind that I loathed in so many MMOs.

It’s not what Anet promised during development, it’s not the kind of mechanic that I enjoy, and it’s incredibly saddening to see a game I have so far deeply enjoyed take this kind of turn.

I won’t quit, but if this kind of thing sticks I doubt I’ll be playing for as long as I’d though I would be, and I certainly won’t be devoting the time, money and energy I’d intended to leveling up other characters.

I’d be happy to see something like this, if ascended gear’s extra stat bonuses will matter outside the fractal dungeon. Especially if it matters in WvW. Like the old quest for infusion in GW1.

bamono.7098:

Ok cool. I was afraid there was some glaring problem I couldn’t see.

The rage is because many of us loved GW1 and hated other MMOs because they introduced systems like this. In GW1 you had one top level of gear. It never went higher. The only reason to grind was because you wanted a specific look for your character.

It meant that once you hit top level you could participate in anything in the game without having to go out and grind for specific gear just so you wouldn’t get pummeled. There was a always a cheap, effective option that ensure you had the same stats as the other guys, in PvP or PvE. It’s what they promised us over the years of developing GW2. That’s what they promised with the manifesto in April. that’s what they promised over and over in interviews and blogs and videos.

The fear that I have, that I feel is shared by others like me, is that this is just the start. This weekend they’re releasing ascended rings and backpieces and say they want to do more. They say it’s to appease people that want a meaningful progression at max level. So a year from now after there are 6 or 8 or 10 of these content updates and people have ascended items in every slot, what’s the next carrot? Another tier above that? Another gimmick mechanic that requires you to first hit rares or exotics, then hit ascended, then hit the next tier?

The problem is this kind of thing doesn’t really have an end point. It just keeps building and leaving those who are new to the game or who don’t enjoy specific parts of it in the dust behind those that demand some stat based progression in order to continue playing.

The other problem is I love WvW, even with all it’s problems. I don’t know how ascended gear will be treated in WvW, I freely admit that. So far, gear in WvW is a free for all. So now, if I don’t want to go through fractal of the mists, I’m missing a ring and backpiece that add about +5 points on three stats. The problem is a year from now, if I still don’t do the new content that gives ascended items, how far am I down against somebody in full ascended gear? +60 stat points, +100? If they add a tier above ascended how far am I down then? So if ascended gear isn’t somehow downgraded in WvW, a year from now if I’m up against somebody in full ascended gear, they have a distinct advantage over me. No, it’s not a lot, but it is there, and it’s significant. Now instead of playing the content I want, I have to go grind for ascended gear, and whatever comes after it.

Or look at PvE. If you’re out farming for materials or loot, your contribution to the death of a mob is determined by damage. If you’re running with a group of full ascended gear players and you’re in mixed rares and exotics, how much harder is it for you to do enough damage to “tag” the mob so you get loot before the other guys with better stats and higher damage kill it?

It’d be one thing if the higher stats of ascended gear only applied to this new fractal dungeon. And it very well may, and if it does I will be ecstatic. But going off the way gear works right now, I have to assume it does apply elsewhere. That means I have to grind for it. And a year from now I have to grind for something new. And if I have a friend join the game a year from now they have to grind through ascended to the new level above that to be equal with everyone else.

Honestly, I really, really, really, was hugely excited for GW2. I love this game right now, with all the flaws and issues. I hope as the full details of ascended gear are revealed that I will be proven wrong. That there will be a quick, relativley easy way to get ascended gear as needed, or that it will only matter in this new dungeon and not in the rest of the game. Even if It’s exactly as bad as I fear, I’ll probably still play for a while. But I doubt I’ll be spending the time and energy to level several other characters up, and I doubt I’ll continue as the gear grind goes further. That not only disappoints me, it kind of pisses me off.

[Yes, this is built on a lot of assumptions. I’m assuming that ascended gear will work like other gear and the higher stats will count everywhere but spvp. That’s based on the way things work so far.

I’m assuming that a year from now people that choose to grind will be in full ascended gear and it will make a significant difference compared to those that are not. That may not be the case, but it certainly looks that way.

I’m assuming the same people that wanted this kind of gear progression will demand more of the same once they have full ascended gear. I don’t think that’s unreasonable.]

Nothing new in the world of business, but still extremely disappointing. I suppose at this point I either hope they retract the change due to people’s concerns or that the actual implementation of the system A) isn’t as bad as people think it could be and doesn’t lead them into creating the terrible gear grind treadmill that I and many others find so appallingly bad.

No, I’m not happy with it as detailed in the blog. I hope as we learn more that changes, but I feel like what we know now points to the beginning of the kind of gear grind that I’ve always hated, and thought GW2 wasn’t going to have.

I have two sets of exotic armor for rifle and pistol builds, exotic rifle, two exotic pistols, one exotic shield, just got exotic guild back piece. Rare amulets, trinkets, and rings.

I still play my engineer extensively, and was looking forward to this update with it’s thirty bullet points for engineers and new content. I was also looking forward to leveling and equipping my 4 other characters and seeing how they would change.

Now I’m just extremely disappointed to see the possibility of gear grind and power creep being brought into the game.

killcannon.2576:

They will have stat bonuses, otherwise there wouldn’t be offensive/ defensive/ omni modifiers

I don’t think so. I’d guess offensive/defensive/omni probably just gives:

extreme damage bonus against karka with small agony mitigation.

extreme agony mitigation with little karka damage bonus.

Moderate agony mitigation and moderate damage bonus versus karka.

It does beg the question, what happens when we all have ascended gear in our slots and those that want this kind of grind demand yet another carrot to continue playing the game? It’s very disheartening IMHO to see Anet abandon the core principle that grind should be for cosmetics alone, and that skill, not stats should determine the winners.

I’m terribly disappointed by this news, and frustrated by the relative lack of communication and details from Anet in the face of the backlash. Linsey’s blog post was helpful, but seems to confirm the worst of what I feared from this update.

I don’t know exactly how we get the ascended items, and I hope that when the update comes out the system for getting them somehow relieves my concerns. At this point, however; it looks like the beginning of the same power creep and item grind that I found so incredibly distasteful in WoW and other MMOs.

I loved GW1 because I knew when I hit max level and got items with the stats that I wanted I wouldn’t have to grind for something better a year down the road unless I wanted a special skin. That was a huge selling point of GW2 for me, and a large number of my friends. This update seems to throw that away.

I have to say after reading the blog I’m fairly disappointed. Count me as one of the people that loved the lack of gear grind in GW1 and was happy to hear it would continue in GW2.

Yes the stat differences are relatively minor, but my question is how does this end? Do we get a new set of gear to grind for with every content update? After I’ve filled out all my slots with ascended are you going to add a new tier above that?

It’d be one thing if the stats were the same and the infusion slot was the only difference. In fact, that’d be totally fine. Or if EVERY piece was craftable. But making this the next level up, making parts of it drop only in a super hard dungeon, that’s a total betrayal of your golden rules.

I’ll keep playing but I sort of doubt it will last as long as I thought it would.

I’ll wait to see what it actually is before I hit the panic button. Hopefully it’s just a misunderstanding or poorly explained concept and not real power creep. If it is I guess we’ll just have to protest it vehemently and hope to get Anet to return to it’s original vision.

Josh Foreman.8250:

When I made this map I was HOPING that people who aren’t into jumping would do exactly this.

Please know there are many that did. I gave it a shot for about 10 tries, decided it just wasn’t happening for me, and happily went on to do other things. I’m glad you’re still going to make hard jumping puzzles, please don’t be discouraged because some people received this one poorly. There are many of us who are totally fine with having things in the game we can’t master, and are willing to walk away.

I think the only way you might have redone this is to put in a tiered set of achievements for this part, where reaching the first chest got you the first tier and was enough to finish off the event achievement, but where getting to the top got you the top tier and something extra.

Charr cubs got all mine. Especially the candy day one. That was just too cute.

Tanqueray.4837:

Apparently posting

" It was great..

for people who are 6-10. I logged into LA awaiting a full-on battle and got ‘Simon Says’.

Hardly an ‘ultimate event’ – really hope I missed something, or I won’t even log in for future events."

Receives an infraction for detraction from debate. I disagree, because to my mind a large part of the event was childish, whereas Halloween (All Hallow’s Eve) is anything but.

I’ll assume this post also gets deleted in a few minutes.

The simon says portion actually ties back to guild wars 1 fairly well. I thought it was cool, though I hope they do more with it during the party. Feel free to check out the guild wars 1 wiki for more of the story on that if you want.

I enjoyed the event. Never got into the rumble, I think it was just too busy cause I kept getting some wierd connection error. Ended up giving up on the clock tower cause it was too hard for me to sort out, but I had some fun trying. Didn’t get any special skins but got materials enough to make them if I ever farm the CoE tokens for it. Tried some costumer brawling but never got he hang of it. Gave like… a ton of candy to the charr cubs that were dressed up, those were totally adorable. Had fun doing the labyrinth and ascent and trying the lunatic court, even though I got slaughtered :p.

I kinda wish the labyrinth had been a bit bigger and had more to do, but overall I think the whole thing was pretty awesome and I enjoyed it immensely, and I got a decent back piece out of it if I want to replace the story one I got earlier. Very cool fun event that definitely makes me want to see what else Anet can come up with.

They did give you a fairly big heads up that the dungeon was closing. I doesn’t hurt to ask, but I don’t think they’re going to change things unless you have a good reason you didn’t take the opportunity to do the dungeon while it was there.

I would like to hear Anet’s thoughts on turtling just in terms of whether they like it as is or think it needs to be changed in some way.

Ran into it once so far against a group at the garrison who did it remarkably well, turned what should have been a fairly even fight into a much more lopsided one for our side, though we wore them down eventually.

It would seem to require a decent degree of coordination, so it’s not like it’s an easy win button for engagements, but it does seem to give a lot of benefits with few pitfalls. Hopefully they’ll speak up about it at some point.

uh, at least for the quest, the highest level area you have to go into is sparkyfly fen, that’s like, a 55-65 area. It’s not top level. The big act three event is autoscaling, and the clocktower at least is totally independent of your level. There is a lot to do for people that haven’t hit 80 yet.

Uh… as they said here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/news/Costume-Brawl-for-All

“Costume Brawl is a fun thing to do when you need a break from all that hero-ing you’ve been doing.”

It’s for fun dude. That thing that you’re supposed to have when you play games.

O.o

Uh… it seems like you’re putting a needless level of insanity on yourself with your personal permadeath rule, honestly. I guess the best thing you can do is follow what other people have said, but maybe you ought to try dealing with whatever is going on in your head as well.

It is weird that you can get exact same skin as T3 charr cultural from fireheart rise vendors for so much less. I always wondered if there were equivalents for the other races.

Arkimedes.1259:

I love P/P (with a mix of + condition/precision/toughness/vitality/power) for WvW. I can pretty much win any 1v1 with certainty (including vs the other engineers I see, which are all rifle or grenade builds). I can take camps solo, and it’s great for zerging. Mid range burst/mid term aoe is fantastic, and 1v3s are possible if they’re noobs and clump up.

Can you share your build please? I’m always trying out new dual pistol builds, I have yet to find one that I like for WvW.

You could take empowering adrenaline for a damage boost, or exploit weakness for extra control on fleeing opponents instead.

Or you could dump the ten points somewhere else.

Much like others have said:

Make sure you have level appropriate gear, try changing over to the rifle, which has better range and control, try using grenades which have better damage and range, try traiting and gearing for extra toughness and vitality.

I’d like to see the delay removed as well, it would certainly make it more viablee for speeding travel that way too.

On the flipside, it’s still useful against enemies, just use charge shot on them then jumpshot to them. Unless they clear the stun from charge shot they’re stuck long enough to drop on them. Alternatively with melee, wait for them to close then use blunderbuss and jumpshot to open range up on them.

Also ruffles, lol.

Basic Rifle/Grenade WvW skirmish and PvE Build

Decent all around. Not the fastest, hardest hitting, or tankiest, but it does decently for most anything you want to do.

Simple build based off the typical grenadier build

Rifle along with elixir H, Elixir B, Elixir R, Grenade kit, and Supply Crate.

Traits: 30/20/0/20/0

Take Incendiary Powder, Short Fuse, and Grenadier in Explosives. Remix Short Fuse with Explosive Powder if you want better spike and less dps. Change Incendiary Powder with Shrapnel if you want to bleed instead of burn, Empowering Adrenaline if you dodge a lot, or Exploit Weakness if you want to chase people down easier.

Take Rifled Barrels and Go For the Eyes in Marksman. Or mix with Precise Sites for vulnerability, Rifle Mod for a damage increase, or Knee Shot for more control.

Take Fast Acting Elixirs and Cleansing Formula 409 in Alchemy. Remix Fast Acting Elixirs with Self Regulating Defenses for an emergency Elixir S at 25% to save your bacon.

Difference is mainly that I run this with a different mix of gear. 3 Knight’s armor pieces, 2 Arcon, 2 Aurora, Knight’s amulet and rings, Beryl earrings of the valkyrie, & a berserker’s rifle. 5 soldiers superior runes and a soldiers crest along with a sigil of rage on the rifle and whatever backpack fits your needs.

This equipment does cut your damage and crit chance, but the upshot is survivability. You get about 21000 hp out of exotics along with 3200 armor. It’s enough to escape a thief and turn the fight around if you dodge when they start to hit you, and enough to survive a group focusing you down with some support.

Use the rifle when dueling or trying to pick off targets from a group, use the grenades to spam on large groups or zergs, or when you need crazy range. Use your elixirs to clear conditions.

Toolbelt Elixir H and B tosses provide additional clears and random buffs (66% chance of utter disappointment)

Toolbelt elixir R provides a helpful res (assuming certain thieves don’t teleport out of them.) [aside: google chrome’s dictionary has the word “telephoner” but not the word “teleport”.]

Grenade Toolbelt provides a helpful spike of damage that can go up to 5K easily enough.

Alternatively switch Elixir H for the Med Kit and put 10 in Alchemy and 10 in tools. You lose 1000 HP and cleansing Formula 409 but gain Speedy Kits and some crit damage. There’s an extra chunk of time to in this one necessary switch to Med Kit and use Antidote to clear conditions, but you can just switch Elixir B out for Elixir C if you want, and take swiftness from Speedy Kits and Med Kit Drop Stimulant.

Biggest reason I stick with alchemy is I feel like the med kit’s too clunky, and it seems like every time I really need the stimulant or antidote and I’m in a group some other jerk picks it up before I do.

Braxxis.7062:

The big issue with the event and people being unsure of where to go or what to do is Anet’s continued use of Reddit and Facebook to host Q&A’s and posting information about the game.

There is an official website with forums, there is an official wiki. Use your official sites already instead of expecting your player base to go to reddit and facebook. This is the same issue people were having when you were posting information about parts of the game being down on reddit instead of here. You rectified that one, now fix this.

I mean come on, the wiki’s Featured Article has been the Hall of Monuments since…I can’t remember it ever being anything else. Use your official sites. Not Facebook or Reddit or Twitter or whatever else.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/events/halloween-2012/ They sent you and email with this link. Official enough for you?

jackal.5768:

complaints…

Sorry to snip this but I didn’t want to spam the forum with everything you said again.

First of all Anet did post plenty of basic info in official places

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/events/halloween-2012/

They sent you an email with that link, posted it on twitter, facebook, and probably a dozen other places. If you read the blurb for act one it would tell you “The scholars of the Durmand Priory are concerned by odd energy fluctuations and eerie Halloween phenomena. Help them delve into the history and mystery of the Mad King in a series of all-new events.”. When you got to lion’s arch did you not notice the enormous orange event circle in the central plaza? Did it not make you curious that some NPCs (like the asura pictured in the act one blurb) had big orange pumpkins over their heads?

A big focus of this game is exploration and discovery. I understand if you’re not hooked into the community that it might be a bit frustrating to not have all the details handed to you, but Anet really did provide a lot of the basic information to you. I don’t think they failed to communicate at all.

As for the rest… I can understand if the costume brawl stuff is not to your taste, that’s pretty much just a fun diversion to make the costumes more appealing. And yeah, the cauldron jumping bit can get a little crazy with a lot of people. But overall I think you’re really blowing this out of proportion.

Have the ever addressed why guesting isn’t implemented, what the priority is for getting it implemented, etc? It seems like that’s what’s keeping free server transfers open, but I don’t recall seeing anything where they actually said "guesting is busted, it’s number x on the priority list. It’d be nice at least to know what’s going on and that they’re working on it.

Blue square with white wrench icon indicates a consumable buff that doesn’t come from food. Items like tuning crystals, sharpening stone, and maintenance oils can provide these buffs. They can be crafted by Artificers, Weaponsmiths, and Hunstmen crafters, respectively. I believe some artificer potions also provide bonuses under the white wrench icon. They are intended to stack with the white apple on blue background icon, most of which come from food items created by cooks.

Please ask around on your server or check the wiki before considering something an exploit.

Agreed, I’d love to see the enemies in game respond to a zerg with smarter tactics and not just numbers. It can be frustrating to try and coordinate well enough to defeat a tough fight with a zerg, but when you do it’s pretty amazingly rewarding. Great example is the risen priest of melandru fight in ruined shore.