Guild Wars 2

sirsquishy.8531:

Deathjester.9841:

Melchiorum.2745:

Hey guys,

OK, I have a little problem with GW2.
I have quite a beefy system with Intel 4770k overclocked to 4.4 GHz and GTX 780 Ti in SLI mode. I play on 1080p, however, the performance of the game isn’t great at all with FPS dipping to 50 in half-empty Black Citadel.

I have checked the CPU usage and saw a problem: it was running at 45-50%, so my GPU’s are just waiting for nothing while the CPU is slacking. Removing the overclock does nothing at all.

Can someone please let me know if that is normal and if it is just a poor optimization of the game or if my PC has something wrong with it?

Simple answer. Our current Direct X API is currently complete garbage and no matter how well you thread a game you are going to be dependent on 1 core when you are truly cpu bound and this only should happen in MMO’s and open world games. You are CPU bound because there are a ton of players in that zone.

As far as API? AMD Mantle fixes that. The new DirectX 12 will do the same, so will the new OpenGL.

Why don’t you see total adoption of Mantle? Market share (you own Nvidia GPU’s so it wouldn’t help you). I HOPE the new OpenGL takes over but if not, DirectX 12 will alleviate much of the cpu overhead in MMO’s. It is not ANET’s fault, ALL mmo’s have this problem and for what this game can actually put on screen as far as player count/effects? It is actually amazingly well optimized for our current API limitations.

You will see people argue that Crysis 3 is threaded perfectly and it IS well threaded. The difference? You are not getting the draw calls you are in Crysis that you are in an MMO with hundreds of players on screen. Decent threading on single player games can work up to a point on our current ancient, crappy MS API. In open world games and MMO’s it falls apart. Chris Roberts immediately adopted Mantle because he knew CPU overhead would be a major problem with Star Citizen and it would be an easy port to DX 12.

People love to say Guild Wars 2 is badly optimized but that is simply BS. All these newer MMO’s are limited by our API. Want a badly optimized game? You can’t even choose AC Unity. That is simply the devs pushing too much crap for our current API. The game was actually well threaded. A BAD port or optimization example? Far Cry 4. Mainly single threaded in a game that should have ran like butter with decent threading. Absolutely pathetic by Ubisoft.

TDLR. You are not going to see a MMO run at 60 FPS with tons of players on screen, unless that MMO was made a decade ago and you still need a kitten good PC to get 60 FPS in a LARGE raid or Ashran in WoW. Guild Wars 2 is much more ambitious than WoW.

I have never seen as many players on screen in WoW as I have in Guild Wars 2 and when I have? The server crashed (see Swifty and Stormwind). With this many players in SWTOR? The game was a slide show (see Ilum). Wildstar? You need a overclocked Haswell like we have to even get decent FPS in a large raid, let alone massive pvp.

You left out one big issue with the newer APIs.

Mantle only works on certain AMD GPUs (CGN next cores), and DirectX 12 will only work on Windows 10(not yet released).

If Anet (or anyone for that matter) were to add a new API (or Replace) they would be isolating out a large % of their user based, due to the hardware and software limitations.

While i would love to see an upgrade to DX9 done for GW2, I just can’t see them doing it anytime soon (with in 2-3 years) due to the above facts.

Windows 10 is a “free upgrade” from 7. Who knows with MS. Maybe they will try a sub fee or whatever. We will have to see the TOS first.

The new OpenGL would solve that problem. It will run on any OS including Windows.

http://www.gdconf.com/news/valve_debuts_the_next_generati.html

Johan from Dice/EA is going to be there as well as Unreal engine guys etc. AMD gave Mantle to the Kronos Group (OpenGL). Nvidia is part of the Kronos group and a partner.

Last I heard DX 12 supports Fermi on and GCN on (7000 series) on AMD and I imagine OpenGL will be the same deal. Add to this GW2 runs poorly on modern laptops let alone old ones. With a low level API it could run well on affordable laptops and expand the player base. Many people want to play and enjoy GW2. The problem is they do not have OC Haswell’s which you pretty much need to enjoy it in all it’s glory. They have 6300 FX’s, I3’s and low clocked laptop quad’s.

Melchiorum.2745:

Hey guys,

OK, I have a little problem with GW2.
I have quite a beefy system with Intel 4770k overclocked to 4.4 GHz and GTX 780 Ti in SLI mode. I play on 1080p, however, the performance of the game isn’t great at all with FPS dipping to 50 in half-empty Black Citadel.

I have checked the CPU usage and saw a problem: it was running at 45-50%, so my GPU’s are just waiting for nothing while the CPU is slacking. Removing the overclock does nothing at all.

Can someone please let me know if that is normal and if it is just a poor optimization of the game or if my PC has something wrong with it?

Simple answer. Our current Direct X API is currently complete garbage and no matter how well you thread a game you are going to be dependent on 1 core when you are truly cpu bound and this only should happen in MMO’s and open world games. You are CPU bound because there are a ton of players in that zone.

As far as API? AMD Mantle fixes that. The new DirectX 12 will do the same, so will the new OpenGL.

Why don’t you see total adoption of Mantle? Market share (you own Nvidia GPU’s so it wouldn’t help you). I HOPE the new OpenGL takes over but if not, DirectX 12 will alleviate much of the cpu overhead in MMO’s. It is not ANET’s fault, ALL mmo’s have this problem and for what this game can actually put on screen as far as player count/effects? It is actually amazingly well optimized for our current API limitations.

You will see people argue that Crysis 3 is threaded perfectly and it IS well threaded. The difference? You are not getting the draw calls you are in Crysis that you are in an MMO with hundreds of players on screen. Decent threading on single player games can work up to a point on our current ancient, crappy MS API. In open world games and MMO’s it falls apart. Chris Roberts immediately adopted Mantle because he knew CPU overhead would be a major problem with Star Citizen and it would be an easy port to DX 12.

People love to say Guild Wars 2 is badly optimized but that is simply BS. All these newer MMO’s are limited by our API. Want a badly optimized game? You can’t even choose AC Unity. That is simply the devs pushing too much crap for our current API. The game was actually well threaded. A BAD port or optimization example? Far Cry 4. Mainly single threaded in a game that should have ran like butter with decent threading. Absolutely pathetic by Ubisoft.

TDLR. You are not going to see a MMO run at 60 FPS with tons of players on screen, unless that MMO was made a decade ago and you still need a kitten good PC to get 60 FPS in a LARGE raid or Ashran in WoW. Guild Wars 2 is much more ambitious than WoW.

I have never seen as many players on screen in WoW as I have in Guild Wars 2 and when I have? The server crashed (see Swifty and Stormwind). With this many players in SWTOR? The game was a slide show (see Ilum). Wildstar? You need a overclocked Haswell like we have to even get decent FPS in a large raid, let alone massive pvp.

khani.4786:

Personally for the Bloodtide wurm and Teq I just drop my settings back to “best performance” and I haven’t crashed since. Everything else in the game (including massive wvw zergs) I put my settings back to Autodetect (max that my computer will run).

Yeah I did the same and didn’t crash. I am sure there is a fine line you can push with characters on screen, hi textures etc, but I really don’t feel like crashing/not crashing 100 times to find out. Maybe Anet can do that with their troubleshooting team and post a sticky for the event.

Basically people with high end computers that can run the game at a decent frame rate fine, maxed out, supersampled and even downsampled, even in large zergs crash here.

64 bit OS doesn’t matter (though I imagine people with 32 bit OS’s run into crashing much more often). Simply the client can’t handle max settings in MEGA events no matter what amount of ram/computing power you throw at it.

For those having issues it is not your PC. Simply turn down settings. If you find that fine line? Go ahead and post it. Would be nice it if was just set character limit to low, cus at least the game wouldn’t look like Nintendo 64 for that event. Character high textures requires a Map change to do and that really isn’t viable to turn off when you just head there and wait a hour or two just to do the event.

zdrtx.5920:

Hello, I’m just wondering if anyone else is thinking about how the new iMac Retina 5K might play Guild Wars 2. Does anyone have one yet?

I’m currently playing on a Macbook Pro (mac client), and I have to turn most graphics to Best Performance. If anyone gets a new iMac, I would love to know how it plays, especially in WvW.

Speculation is also welcome.

The 5 k screen will be good for photo work, viewing the internet, but the GPU can’t run anything near 5k except older DX 9 games. Apple claims 3.5 TFLOPS of GPU power, which puts it under a desktop 280x at 4 (so view 280x benchmarks and you are close). If you want a comparison to the exact same architecture, my R9 290 Tri-x has well over 5 TFLOPS of GPU power on it’s overclock. I can run Guild Wars 2 at a 3k downsample via AMD VSR (downsampling via Catalyst), but text/mouse cursor is too small to read on my 24 inch monitor (would prob be ok on a 27 inch) and I still can’t “max” the game. Granted you need less AA or no AA at high resolutions.

I can run games like Mass Effect at 5.2 K downsampled in Gedosato with 4k texture packs. That GPU might be able to run those games at 4k (which would look really good), but not Guild Wars 2. I can run a game like Shadows of Mordor at a locked 30 FPS at 4k but 60 is a pipe dream on a single GPU card.

You can PROBABLY do 1440p and maybe supersampling with some settings off or down.

The CPU? Good. The I7 option would be faster since it has a higher clock speed/turbo boost and you can’t OC the cpu in a Imac. You want a CPU as fast as you can get on single core performance for GW2 and that CPU is as good as it gets without overclocking and building your own machine or ordering an overclocked I5/I7. The Hyperthreading won’t help much for gaming until we are on new API’s (and would still require a new version of the game/port to that API) and the I5 would still be fine, but if you are going all out on an Apple product you might as well get the I7 which will get you a few more FPS in zergs. 4k gaming? Build you own. The dual GPU AMD could handle it as could 2 980’s. No single GPU card can. The next AMD series? Maybe 4 k. We have to wait and see how it performs.

5k screen is cool, but you will need TWO cards that are not even out yet to actually achieve decent FPS in new games and you can’t upgrade GPU’s in an IMAC. The only thing I can imagine the 5k screen being really cool in is Adobe photoshop or to watch 4k movies on.

Crash nowhere else in the game including giant zergs in WvW. Have run repair, have deleted dat file. 64 bit OS, 16 gigs, memory is not come close to being maxed out. No background processes hogging ram.

Is this client just incapable of running this event on a map with as many players there as possible at truly max settings? If so what settings do people run to avoid crashing here? Should I set character visible limit to low just for the event? Should I just turn everything to low?

I took off hi res character textures and now only crash about half the time. Everything else is maxed out with character limit on high. Is this simply too high a setting?

Also if the client simply can’t support the higher settings can Anet introduce something where you are put on to the same megaserver if you crash/lose connection for a few minutes? It is pretty ridiculous to wait a hour or so for the event, crash during the event and be unable to finish the event. It is even worse when you happen to have chosen a really low population server and the only way the event is done is on a server you are transferred to. When you log back in you are put back in the empty server.

I realize this is a 32 bit client and there are limits what you can do and maybe you were too ambitious with graphics settings, culling for events with this many people and effects there, and didn’t expect people to be able to run maxed out, but Anet really should address this.

^ Ping Google then. They will probably get ad revenue and love you for it.

If this isn’t the appropriate forum please move it mods. Just wanted to let people in on some deals for those looking for a WvW computer so they can have fun in that area of the game.

Note. People have successfully price matched these prices on the I7’s on Staples Online, so it is worth a shot. Microcenter. I7-4770k and MSI z87 -g41 Motherboard for 280 bucks. Chip alone is 249.99. Corsair modular CX600m power supply for 54.99. I5 Ivy Bridge K CPU 149.99, if you need to save a few bucks or are looking to upgrade from an I3 Ivy Bridge. Corsair 300R case for 48. This would give you a great starting point. Good air flow on that case, the PSU is very good and Haswell’s and ivy’s kill it in this game. You will have room for water cooling, a good air cooler, a big vid card for expansion. Coolermaster HAF 912 for case is also an option. I got it for 49,99 there last week. There is a MSI 7870ghz edition video card for 130 on newegg that would max this game at 1080p.

http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/60d31aa6#/60d31aa6/5

On a personal note I have the Z87 G-41 board. It works. It overclocks pretty well (you need a kitten good cooler to push the haswell’s anyways). It has stereo sound, but I use headphones. If you use a surround speaker setup I wouldn’t recommend it. It will do crossfire but not SLI, so if you are going ATI on video cards? It is fine. I went ATI this time around for Mantle. If Nvidia, might want to spring for a better board. Other then that all z87 boards are very close due to power phases not being as important on haswell’s. This board has 6 which is “ok”. It will easily do a 4.2 overclock on decent cooling. Past that is all silicon lottery luck and how much you can cool a Haswell.

Even the most expensive boards can barely outperform the cheapest z87 mini itx boards.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeuJAOVRoA0

Croq.3024:

yeah i have the latest drivers.

Deathjester, what version drivers you have? and how do you run your game? windowed full screen?

Fullscreen. I do know that many people have the left mouse button break on the g500 though (can probably google many problems people have with it). They came out with a newer g500 model because of it. I have been lucky so far with mine. Have the older model camo black and grey. Friend had the same mouse and his left mouse double clicked and did all kinds of crazy @#%$. He replaced it with the new model.

So that might be the issue. Go figure my last 2 razer mice didn’t last a year and this one has lasted like 2 and it is supposed to be a faulty model.

Free program (link is in this post), much better then the short “internet speed tests”. Choose a website to ping (you can use facebook or google or whatever, I chose Guild Wars 2) and set it to ping every 1.5 seconds (lowest you can go). If you see red lines in the graph at the BOTTOM, then your connection is flawed.

Don’t worry about the packet loss at the top graph. If the bottom is all black without gigantic, extended black spikes, in the time you would usually disconnect? Not your fault or your hardwares fault. I let the test run for 10 minutes or so, since my connection drops were within that time frame.

Also surfing the net will cause artificial “spikes” on the MS (your ping) black line during the test.

Download the standard version.
http://www.pingplotter.com/download.html

In my case the problem was my wireless router (linksys/cicso e900 which are notorious for connection drops, even on a ethernet line). Plugged my modem directly in and no more red lines and no more disconnects. Using a older non wireless router for the moment, until I can find a wireless one that isn’t junk or fix this things firmware, which has become an open source project they are so bad.

It isn’t Anet’s fault if you have a connection that is dropping. This game is more sensitive to lost packets, but that is also a plus, because in other games people use lag exploits to their advantage.

Xystus.3241:

Have you installed the latest Logitch Gaming Software? I have a G9 and have no issues.

^. Have same mouse. and no problems. Also use X mouse control (free program) that lets me change profiles for games or bind the keys to something the game accepts. I like using mouse scroll up and down for abilities and I put scroll up and down) maps/zooming in on characters on like the arrow keys. Some games hard bind scroll up and down and it drives me nuts.

Don.6510:

my amd cpu work fine with i get 40 – 70 fps at open world at max setting and in big groups i get 5-30 fps still at max setting

Yeah like I said at stock those will go to 25 lows on a 4770k which is much more playable if WvW is your thing. If WvW isn’t that important to you the AMD chip can do just fine. All the newer titles even the 6300FX chip should be pretty decent in and that chip can get by on a lesser motherboard, the 8350 likes the 990fx boards (I have no idea why companies bundle a cheap board with a 8350, because they just dont have the power phases for the higher clock rates). I don’t know about Elder Scrolls Online though. I have a feeling it will be as badly optimized as SWTOR.

AMD’s with an FX board like that ASUS are solid. You can push that chip to 4.5ghz quite safely with something like a hyper 212 evo, and you won’t be that far under a 4770k at stock in all the new titles/console ports.

http://www.bf4blog.com/battlefield-4-retail-gpu-cpu-benchmarks/

Everquest Next will prob be the next big MMO (I think Elder scrolls will fail), and that AMD will rock in it due to planetside 2 engine optimization for the Playstation 4.

For the record I don’t hate AMD at all. I am an old man (pvp’d in Ultima Online), and I have gone back and forth from AMD to Intel many times in my years. Even had a Cyrix chip at one time. Intel has had the edge for a few years though (Sandy Bridge is where the gap just got crazy, other then Wolfdale’s OC like mad), especially in MMO’s. I think it is fantastic that AMD forcing companies to optimize their games and it is great that they used their 8 cores on the next gen consoles. Mantle is also fantastic. We have needed a low level API for a long time. Direct X is horrible. I hope they push Nvidia to do the same or sign on.

AMD wants to bring mantle to linux and Mac OS. How awesome will that be. No more of M$ forcing OS upgrades by holding back Direct X on the older OS. So if you want to stick with AMD to support them, I am happy people are doing it. I just like WvW too much to use an AMD. Maybe if enough AMD CPU people buy this game, they can force anet’s hand and optimize the engine.

I am supporting AMD through video card’s, and I really hope Mantle takes off and all our games get optimized. Everyone wins in that scenario.

FreekHymn.3641:

I thank everyone for their time spent figuring this out.

I indeed think that a macbook pro isn’t the best gaming platform, but since I don’t have other options I will need to get used to this.

Yeah if you need it for school? Nothing you can do. Hackintosh laptops aren’t exactly easy to get running. All has to do with the on board network/sound card motherboards use. The gigabyte motherboards often use the same chips which is why tonymac recommends them.

Now if you are seeing much different performance on nearly identical machines, are you on different versions of Mac OS? That could be the issue. Also on a bright note, AMD mantle might be coming to Mac OS and linux, so Mac OS will be fine for gaming on a lot of the newer games (mass effect 4, Star wars battlefront, new dragon age). Everquest Next will be 8 core (same engine as planetside 2 that was just optimized) so even an i7 laptop chip should be good in that game.

Some other performance tips. As solarnova mentioned in another thread keep culling (chars visible under graphics option as high as you can go before your performance is unplayable, which would prob me medium or high for your chip), put the next setting at medium (textures on players). Set reflections to sky or off (there is water under the ground somehow that screws performance up). Set shadows off or lower. Those are prob the biggest hits. After I followed the advice in his thread I was playing at 1080p at very high fps (mostly due to the 4770k) on a GTX 260 216 core (which sucks). I took off AA and don’t have super sampling on but the graphics aren’t bad looking at all. Buying a 7870ghz edition on newegg, but I was blown away that a card that old could play very well in wvw at 1080p.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131851

That one will overclock very well. Same one they used on the infamous Tek Syndicate episode where he clocked to 5ghz.

That said? If you are buying a new chip and motherboard and live by a Microcenter, they might match the deal they had last week on black friday. Some got Staples online to price match the deal as well.

I7-4700k for 199.99 and an additional 30-40 bucks off the motherboard. I got a z87 MSI board and the chip for 280 with TAX.

The I7 will kill that chip in everything (including 8 core games and it will beat it at stock to the AMD’s 5ghz) on a cheaper board and is WAY faster in Guild Wars 2. It also uses a lot less power and you can get by on a cheaper power supply. Power phases don’t matter much on z87 (they still matter A LOT on amd boards) so the “budget z87 boards” are just as good once you get up to a cheap Asrock Extreme 4 or so. Even the cheap MSI board I got can get up to 4.7 if you hit the silicon lottery and it does crossfire. The asrock might give you 100 hz more (msi is missing one OC setting) and its another 20 bucks.

If you already have the chip though? This game is what it is. It doesn’t play nice with AMD’s. Just letting ya know. At 199, if they do the same deal on black friday (they mentioned they might on the microcenter facebook page) they did last week? You simply can’t pass up the 4770k. You can put ATI in the video card slots to make up for it, and add to that Mantle looks pretty kitten cool.

If this game isn’t your main focus? The AMD’s should be ok for the next gen of gaming. They aren’t going to beat an 4770k but the only thing that does is the hexa cores extreme chips, and those cost bank.

FreekHymn.3641:

This is a weird problem that has bothering me.

Me and my friends got Guild Wars 2 beta for the mac, I had 4GB RAM and my friends 16GB RAM.
My game had an excellent frame rate, no lag and so. My friends did have some lag at 10-20 frame rate max.
I now updated my macbook to 16GB RAM too and now I have the same problem, even when my game quality is set at the lowest.

Can this really be an issue with different RAM modules?

specifications :

Processor 2,2GHz Intel Core i7
Memory 16GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Graphics AMD Radeon HD 6750M 1024 MB

CPU clock to low. The gaming laptop that can play WvW in this game doesn’t exist or is so stupidly expensive that it is pointless and it wouldn’t be a mac.

Sell the macbook. Google tonymac. Buy a cheap laptop and install Mac OS. An old used laptop will run Snow leopard fast as hell. Build a desktop hackintosh. Profit.

Mac OS is like 19 to 29 bucks and Mavericks is free. Use your laptop to make the boot disc/installer from Mavericks on the apple store, and then sell the macbook to the next unsuspecting sucker who thinks that a “mac” isn’t an intel “pc” running Mac OS.

It is legal to install Mac OS. Apple has tried and failed to claim that it invented everything and had the right to control what OS could be installed on a one intel machine over another. They did however find some corrupt judge to agree to stopping the sale of preinstalled Mac OS machines in the US. Still legal in many countries in Europe.

Last step. Exchange the hundreds of dollars you saved (while gaming much faster) and exchange them for quarters and put them in a kiddie pull. Swim around in them and enjoy life.

Fixed my constant disconnections. What was the problem? Linksys wireless router. It would disconnect like clockwork every few minutes even on a direct ethernet connection.

This program is free and will show packet loss/disconnection. Download the standard version. Look at the bottom graph (not the top one. If you see RED lines in it, then you have packet loss. Let it go for about 10 minutes or longer if your disconnections are longer. Avoid surfing the net, as this will cause a artifical lag spike.

http://www.pingplotter.com/download.html

Now run the same test plugged directly into your computer (no router). If there is no red lines? You know what is wrong.

Standard “internet speed tests” did me no good, because they simply aren’t long enough.

It appears many of these routers just plain suck and there is a problem with firmware. Anyways hope it helps someone. Plugged in my old non wireless router and all is good.

About the only thing Direct x 11.1/2 does better then an older direct x is “tiling” and any of the new low level API’s being thrown around can do the same and mantle does. Making this game direct X 11 or .1/.2 wouldn’t help anyone who is already having performance problems. There is nothing magical about Windows 8 and direct x. It is just M$ selling snake oil and forcing you to buy their new vista.

Core optimization can be done but it is just a big project. See Planetside 2 and project o:mfg. The thing to remember with Planetside 2 is they would not have bothered if the game wasn’t coming to notebook AMD 8 core chips on the console. Computer players of the game are basically beta testing the console version. What does Anet gain from spending a ton on this project? Would they possibly optimize it when they release an expansion (more money)? Possibly. The direct x means jack as far as that.

Now a mantle or low level API? That would be a big performance increase to Guild Wars 2, but again they would have to rewrite everything to use the cores, so again it is a big project. Who would it make WvW playable for? AMD users and older Q Quads, I7-920’s. People with newer I7’s would be getting insane fps in games (which I would love on my 4770k).

Direct X though? Is garbage and has always been garbage. The reason is that it’s a high level API. It has to be compatible with everything out there. This is why you have needed overkill on a comptuer to get console like performance/efficiency/draw calls.

Anyone truly wanting a performance increase should be hoping direct x simply dies and that Nvidia makes their own mantle or signs on. People with integrated GPU’s can’t really run modern games anyways and all the gamers are suffering for it.

The caveat? You will have to buy a newer GPU, because a low level api can’t be a low level api if it has support for other graphics cards/tech. I would much rather but a 200 dollar video card that can max 1080p then a 400 dollar one though…In the end it comes down to money. What will the game companies make the most money catering to. What will the video card makers make the most money catering to.

The only silver lining is that all the console ports will be 8 core optimized. Computer games like mmo’s? Anyones guess. Everquest next uses the planetside 2 engine though, which most likely means 8 cores are going to be rocking in it.

SolarNova.1052:

IF ur GPU is maxed out now, then obviosly uping the CPU clock wont help much during such times that ur GPU is maxed, however it will still help out in busy area’s like LA and WvW where , for example, u can frequently expect to see FPS around the 30-40 zone in LA limited by the CPU. I will at this point mention its not that a CPu like 4770k or my own is to slow, its that GW2 is badly optimized and u need to brute force ur way through it using high Clock speeds.

I personaly use the Nocuta NT-H1 paste that comes with the NH-D14, its by no means the best, but for a stock compound that comes with a HS its very good. Between that and the best paste out there is only a few degrees. My temps hit about 83c when my CPU is put under full load (100% across all 6 cores /12 threads) on Prime95 , but ingame it barely hits 60c for the most part the fans are only running at 900-1000RPM out of its 1250 RPM max, even at max they are almost perfectly silent ..noctua fans may look like crap but they are the best.

Unparking ur cores ‘may’ help ..but tbh i dont think u will notice anything, it makes more of a difference on slower CPU’s. My cores are unparked, i don it a while back , didnt notice anything but left it like it anyway.

The Are’s RAM is fine, even the RipJaw series is fine, it was more a warning for if u were using Corsair RAM as they tend to have tall Heatsinks/fins.

Oh and 600W for a Haswell bassed rig is plenty, even with ur old GPU its fine.
A 600W PSU on a haswell rig could handle a 4770k + GTX 780ti …ur GTX 260 pulls at stock 180w at the most ..a 780ti pulls 250w.
A 4770k uses very little wattage ~90w at full load at stock.

Thanks again. Will be grabbing that cooler and a a vid card. Saves me 10 bucks on thermal paste.

Totally agree on the optimization. The -E chips at stock are killing it on newer games like BF4 and the 4700k is under them with a big gap to the quads. With no monthly fee though, I doubt they will optimize it until an expansion though, so we got to do what we got to do.

Even if they do optimize this game later on, the lower temps on a pulled back clock and silence are worth it and with all 8 threads and up humming, the heat is going to be higher then it is on 3-4 now. Might be why everyone is crashing on the BF4 forum. With optimization comes more heat, so it would make sense. I can’t imagine the stock fan and stock voltage on a I7 and up is good in a 8 thread game.

SolarNova.1052:

GW2 will always benefit more from CPU.

Deffinatly worth getting a aftermarket cooler, the stock ones are only ‘barely’ enough for the haswell chips.

For a 4770k, yes it would be good to have the core speed the same no matter how many cores are in use, specialy for GW2.
Water cooling ? ..well unless its a h100, its not worth it becouse u can get equaly good cooling from a cheaper top end air cooler than u can with the lower range AIO water coolers like the H60 and H80. You just need to make sure that if u do get a top end air cooler, that u have enough space inside ur case and check ur RAM height. And ofc if u get the H100 AIO water cooler, make sure u have space for the Dual 120mm rad.

Some top end air cooler are the Noctua NH-D14, and the Thermalright Silver Arrow, though im sure u could find other twin tower air coolers that come close.

Thank you for the response and advice. At .990 volts/stock I7 settings my high temps in gw2 before I went to sleep last night in town/events were mid 60’s C.,but my god is that stock fan bad at stock voltage. 15-20 degrees higher. Video card was running at 100 percent load holding me back and the stuttering is irritating as hell at 1080p (prob the 896 MB of Vram just isn’t good at this res). Gonna grab the video card next, and then that Noctua or the H100i you recommended. This OC GTX260 216 really puts out the heat and sucks the watts as well and I am on a 600 watt corsair so I think a 7870 using 1/3rd less wattage might be a good idea before pushing the OC.

I had no idea running all cores higher would be that big a fps increase. If this thing didn’t undervolt I would grab the Noctua or Water cooler before the video card, because high 70’s and sometimes 80’s in games is just silly. Will definitely be grabbing a better cooler though.

I got the coolermaster HAF 912 and it seems like air flow is decent and ram is Gskill Ares which is low profile. Should have enough room for the Noctua/H100i. Undervolting a “k” is just silly, but you are right, this stock fan is garbage.

Two more questions. I see a lot of differing opinions on cooling compound. Many say artic silver is now junk? You have a very nice OC and rig, and was wondering what thermal grease you recommend.

Also core unparking. Is this something I should do on the I7 Haswell or is this only for older chips/AMD’s. OS is Win 7 64 bit.

Loved WvW, but last I played I had a duo core and yeah…5 fps wasn’t fun.

Got a i7-4700k and a MB for $260 at microcenter. Downloading the game again.

Will this be enough at stock speeds to enjoy WvW, or will I need to OC it a bit. Can go 3.9-4ghz at stock volts but temps are pretty high on the stock fan, and this is really close to the turbo, so would all 4 cores at that speed help?

If I need a OC, could anyone recommend a good cooler? Chip seems like it isn’t a bad batch Got it at .990 volts at stock speeds, so would it be worth water cooling it?

I also have a GTX 260 216 core OC to about 280-285 speeds (don’t laugh now haha). Will this be ok at low settings in WvW? It is close to a vanilla GTX 460 in 3dmark and this game is direct x 9. Little short on money can’t decide if I should go video card or Water cooler, or maybe budget cooler, or is stock cpu fine? Found a MSI 7870ghz edition on newegg for 130 bucks with rebate. Thanks in advance.

Had settings set for WvW high fps and then I zoomed in on paint, so yeah the first screens look pretty bad lol.

Some higher res screens and yes this is a warrior/heavy armor.

The only thing I would even think of buffing is autoshot damage and it would be a very slight buff.

I absolutely wreck people with my rifle in WvW with GS for mobility.

Spvp? It is not good. Go axe shield/gs or a def melee team build.

I also go shield/axe/gs for farming. Put the “next chance will crit on weapon switch” on the shield or axe and enjoy critting every 5 seconds on eviscerate…permanently. I Spvp the gsword is just for mobility/aoe/mobility and to make people use defensive cooldowns, after which you eviscerate their face off.

Best weapon rune in the game for us and it is like 2 silver.

Are you trying to be a “tanky” rifle spec in WvW? Your are doing it wrong. Get scholar runes, go all beserking, take endure pain to escape with gsword from thieves/zergs, go 10 30 0 0 30 and take mobility talents. Get bullrush for one on ones (no you won’t beat exceptional people at some classes 1 v 1 with this spec, but they can’t hit level 80’s for 15 k from range either). Get the adrenaline talent that gives u a full bar, and depending on fights big or small, also use the adrenaline heal (I switch back and forth with the other heal that cures conditions). This gives you even more HEADSHOTS.

Also for those who want the bleed removed? That bleed gives us 10 percent more dmg with a gsword/rifle spec. You lose a whole 100 power to get it, but you gain crazy mobility. Add to that crit isn’t a bad stat and you just use power food instead of crit food.

If you want a tanky range class that does well in WvW this isn’t it. If you want to scream BOOM HEADSHOT like FPS doug? This is the class to do it with. If you aren’t quick on the keyboard with endure pain/gword escapes you will die a lot and this might not be the ranged class for you.

Spec right, learn to use escapes and emulate this guy when you play a rifle warrior in WvW.

Not every spec is going to be spvp viable. This isn’t just a issue with warriors. You play a warrior, you people need to stop whining like a mage.

There is no emotion. There is only peace.

SteepledHat.1345:

Most common misconception:
A legendary is supposed to be the capstone of guild wars 2. A player with a legendary is supposed to have demonstrated experience in WvW and PvE by completing the entire world map, diving into one of the games dungeons, and fighting it out in WvW for 500 badges of honor.

^None of the above is true now. So glad that you can just up and buy one.

And? How is this different then any other MMO? Accounts are sold, arena ratings are sold, and on and on and on.

You seem to be under the impression that someone who works 60 hours a week and spends money that they EARNED, is somehow working less for a item then you did. You also seem to be under the impression that everyone who used the gem store to help them get the legendary in less time (whether it be salvage kits or whatever) is a “rich kid”, or well off. Perhaps they work a crappy job or two, and they like to play a hour or so on this game a night, but they know they can never get a legendary without a little assistance.

Am I buying a legendary? Nope. Do I have a problem with people who do? Not at all.

If they have the money to buy a legendary, they most likely don’t have the time to sport it on their character 24/7 in Lion’s Arch or WvW, like some of the more hardcore players who are on this game ALL DAY.

In addition to that. Gem purchases keep this game having no monthly fee while still maintaining high bandwidth.

Guess what? I think it is silly that commander tags weren’t purchasable with WvW badges. But…I do understand why they did it. Server costs. Does it wreck my gameplay? Only if I follow one of the commanders whom I know has no clue. It isn’t like it is hard to see where the battles are going in WvW. I don’t need a blue dot leading me around.

Also the idea the legendary weapon is the be all, end all of GW2 is opinion. For others it might be earning a tpvp championship/ranking. For others a WvW ranking. For still others, it might be a non legendary weapon skin like Mjolnir.

If anything I have to give mad props to Arena Net’s Design Team. I never would have thought people would obsess this much over a weapon skin. I was wrong.

Accounts and items have been sold against the terms of service since Ultima Online. Deal with it. At least in this game those items don’t have superior stats, and add to that, the game has no monthly fee because of it.

Misconceptions.

1) They will be “best in slot”. This does not mean they will be better then anything else as far as stats. This simply means that they will always SHARE the top stats with other gear that is obtainable in the game elsewhere. They are the “best” in the sense that they are the rarest and usually the hardest weapons to get. They have unique animations that other weapons will never have.

2) Another huge misconception. The only place to get ascended gear that will compete with legendaries will be instances (current form).
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/13tuac/im_the_studio_design_director_on_guild_wars_2_ama/c778k0v

Directly from the Studio Design Director.

“It is absolutely not intended that Ascended will make a discernible difference in WvW. However it is the certainly the perception. Again however we would have much preferred to have released Ascended Gear across the whole of the game than in one area.
Players in WvW will be able to acquire Ascended items within that area of the game soon.”
Chris

3) I need a legendary to compete in WvW.
Legendaries were never meant to be a gear advantage. They are not even a time saving advantage (you will most likely get a full ascended set in a fraction of the time it would take you to get a legendary). Guildwars was designed to be about SKILL and not GEAR. This is called a horizontal gear grind. You are acquiring a very rare (due to the time invested) weapon skin when you get a legendary, that will always be upgraded to be equal with the gear people can get from instances and WvW. Nothing more, nothing less.

This should clear up some of the complaining about legendaries and “best in slot” discussions.

You are not hurt in any way as far as pve progression or PvP stats, if you don’t have a legendary. If you want a legendary? The only person holding you back is you. It is going to take lots and lots of time and luck. If you are in a rush to get it, and are frustrated by how daunting a task it is? You are doing it wrong. Just because some people play 16 hours a day, doesn’t mean that you won’t eventually get a legendary as well. Asking it to be easier to obtain only hurts the game by ticking off the hardcore crowd, and making the legendary worth less (due to rarity) in the players mind.

Myself? I will hold off a long time upgrading my Hunter to the Predator. It was a heck of a grind getting that and Visions of the Mist. Maybe I will never finish the Legendary grind, but I am not going to covet my neighbor’s possessions in a game…. They either earned it, or they spent RL money on it, due to time constraints. They had to earn that money in RL, so it wasn’t “free”.

Chill out and either farm it or don’t. Break up the grind with some spvp or WvW, or an alt.

Snoring Sleepwalker.9073:

About a month ago, ANET ran an AMA on reddit. They said this:

It is absolutely not intended that Ascended will make a discernible difference in WvW. However it is the certainly the perception. Again however we would have much preferred to have released Ascended Gear across the whole of the game than in one area.

Players in WvW will be able to acquire Ascended items within that area of the game soon.

“Soon”. That’s the last we heard about that. Still, ANET agrees with you.

Very happy to hear this. I wish they would post this on their “ascended armor page” or sticky this. It isn’t like I am a player who barely plays. I have a precursor rifle, I will have vision of the mists tomorrow (not a big fan of the legendary gsword animations). I just really like this game and the freedom it currently allows. Want to craft your armor? Go ahead. Instances? Go ahead. Farm solo? Go ahead. I was very worried ascended might break what makes this game really great. I am not falling behind in any area of the game currently if I feel like doing something. It feels much less like a job the other mmo’s, and is the first MMO I have truly enjoyed since Ultima Online.

After doing all this farming (for weapon skins), I finally felt like I could finally enjoy the game and WvW a lot more. Another gear grind, and one that might require instance runs x 1000? That sucked the wind right out of my sails.

Doing that grind in WvW? Would be a blast. Hopefully they create a new currency/badge in WvW though. Using the same badges as siege equipment could screw up things. As long as I can get equal gear in something I actually consider fun though? I will be a happy player.

This game was sold as a horizontal gear grind. It was lauded in magazines and on websites for this purpose. Many of us bought the game based on this premise, and it was the ONLY reason we left the game we were currently playing (and you all know what game that was). We looked past the lack of polish and the glitches, which is present in every new MMO, due to this selling point.

When Ascended gear required you to run instances, this game became a gear grind. When you add more ascended armor pieces/weapons, it becomes even more of a gear grind.

You have WvW going 24/7. You expect realms and players to spend all their time doing it, to stay on top and then you introduce a stat differential, that is only obtainable by doing an ABSURD amount of PVE content/instances.

Ascended gear should be obtainable from WvW and should have the same BASE STATS as instance ascended gear. We would care less about the “resist” or PVE bonuses.

Otherwise the name of this game should be changed to Raid Wars 2. Requiring people to do instances is NOT going to get more players to do them. It is just going to lose you subscribers. Also take into consideration that many people love this game because they can play an alt char with no penalty. Time constraints/jobs and RL issues will cut into the fun they can have in this game.

If this is about paying for server costs? There are plenty of other ways to achieve this. I do not see one thing on the gem store that I am interested in buying. Introduce WvW hat skins or something (like TF2).

Why would anyone ever buy town skins? 1) the whole reason we even farm for a legendary or a cool looking armor piece is so we can show it off in town or in WvW. Why would we even wear a town outfit? How would the game be broken if you let people where sunglasses or bunny ears in WvW? All you would be doing is making a TON of cash, and not ticking off a player base who joined the game, thinking there wouldn’t be tiers of gear.

Make the Ascended pieces plain looking for WvW and raise the price of fine trasmutation kits (these are WAY too low, for what they do for the player). Just like players are required to do some instances for a legendary (which has no advantage in stats), they may participate more in raids for “cooler looking ascended gear”.

There are so many creative things you can do, rather then force people into a playstyle/minigame that they do NOT want to do in the first place.

Please take this into consideration. I absolutely love this game, but if it becomes a pve/gear grind? I will just end up going back to the game where I raided with players for years (even if it was more of a business, and more about realm firsts then friendship).

Renegade.6325:

Ascended back piece took me a week and 0g to earn. I just did it. If that is an indication of the effort to earn ascended items, im very happy.

So you did a week of instances (I would rather be shot), when the whole reason we bought this game was so we didn’t have to do instances?

If we are required to run instances to get all our ascended? I am gone. This game was touted as “skill matters”. Ascended should be available from WvW and easily craftable or it should have pve stats only. If they go the WvW route (I think it is stupid to create a tier 2 gear set when this game is just getting off it’s feet) it should take the same amount of time to get them. If not? Something is very wrong with this game.

They might as well name it “dungeon wars 2”.

How to ruin GW2.

1. Sell a product as a game where gear doesn’t matter, so that people buy it and have fun playing it doing shocker pvp. We even had the audacity in this game to have enough time to play an ALT and not have to worry about gear. Guess that is down the toilet!

2. Pull a 180 and make Gear matter and have PvP affected by PVE that no one even does in this game. I would love to see the stats comparing how many players do WvW, compared to how many do Fractals. I would bet it is 100 to 1…I will never set foot in a raid in this game. It was the whole reason I left WoW. I got sick of raiding and the elitist, theorycrafting clowns who did it, and I was the main freakin tank for these people.

3. Lose all your customers back to WoW, since it is the same thing, except you get more of a gear edge, so that you can clownstomp people even harder.

I have no desire to ever hear people calling other people “bads” again, and comparing gear and stats, even when I was not the one being critiqued. The only thing that brought me joy in GW2 was blowing these kids up when they attempted to enter WvW.

Guess it is time to camp the WvW jumping puzzles, until this patch comes out…I will get my moneys worth one way or another. Because if and when they force me to raid or to farm stupid amounts of gold just to have equal stats? I am going back to WoW. At least that company didn’t lie to me when they sold me their product…

The Blue Ace.2850:

Malediktus.9250:

Legendaries wont be best in slot, only highest tier.
So the current lvl 80 legendaries wont be best in slot anymore when the lvl cap gets raised.

If they did that, me and every current legendary owner would quit the game,
thats like getting a 1st place gold trophy and the last place guy giving the judges £30 to announce a tie for 1st place for you and the loser, sharing your trophy.

The issue of lodestones is what needs to be sorted, we need more places to get them instead of being forced to do Orr Temples and Fractals.

Is your legendary better then any exotic now? No. It has a different weapon skin. This game was SOLD as a game with a horizontal gear grind. To change that to appease a few people who want better stats then everyone else? Then Anet is guilty of false advertising.

Most people bought this game because it was touted as not being a “job” and we heard the term “skill matters” a few thousand times. Most of us are already ticked off at the small difference (in stats) with ascended gems. If they add any more stat advantages? Prepare to see a mass exodus. If I am going to play a game with stat advantages, that requires a STUPID amount of play time to get? I will go play a game where I can have stupidly, unfair stat advantages and where progression and hard modes are rewarded over gold/money.

Whoever thought up ascended weapons at Anet and added anything other then “resist” to dungeon mobs should be fired. All they had to do was make mobs in the new instances cast “frost spells” etc, and then put frost resist on the ascended gear.

I laid out countless ways in which they could make MORE money and not tick off the entire playerbase. As it is? Any addition to base stats should be removed from ascended rings. Players were never promised a stat advantage in this game. This game was sold as a horizontal gear grind, where"skill" is rewarded.

They might as well change that sales pitch to, “we are no different then any other MMO, but play this game anyways”.

If you think you are entitled to something that this game NEVER promised, and is the OPPOSITE of what we were told when we were sold the game? You are simply being delusional. You threaten to quit, but you won’t. We on the other hand will. You have real life money/insane amounts of time tied up in this game. For us? This was a nice change from Pandaria. If it becomes like that game? Why not go back? Or better yet? Quit these endless stat gear grinds all together and tell these companies what they can do with their greed, and lack of creativity in getting our money.

I would love to buy things off the gem shop. The problem? It is all garbage. Town skins? I am never in town. I am in WvW. When I am in town I have culling/lag issues (like everyone else. I leave as soon as my queue is up, or I just teleport to Cursed Shore and farm a bit of gold. The armor skins on the cash shop. Horrid.

Let me wear top gun sun-glasses in WvW? I just might spring real money for that. Force me to buy things with stats, or make this game a job like other mmo’s? I will take my money elsewhere.

The entire reason me and many others bought this game is because it promised a horizontal gear grind.

If and when a gem purchase is required or legendaries have superior stats to crafted/karma gear?

This game becomes Pandaria light. The only thing they have promised is that Legendaries will be upgraded to ascended. If ascended weapons/gear are not easily affordable then this game becomes a job and I might as well play a game with a monthly fee.

WvW is going 24/7. There isn’t enough time in a day to be on a top WvW realm and farm all the crap needed for a legendary. The entire point of GW2 is that the “gear grind” was skins. When they introduced ascended items, even just the rings/back piece, I was absolutely floored. I don’t care if it is plus 10 power. That is a stat advantage and belongs nowhere in this game.

The idea of a new tier of stat gear is stupid anyways, unless it is PVE ONLY (resisting dmg of instance mobs).

Anet could make a silly amount of money just releasing a weapon that looked like a lightsaber (see Teebu’s blazing longsword) on their ahouse, or skins that didn’t look horrible, or hats that were wearable in WvW (see TF2).

There is absolutely no reason whatsoever to create a stat differential in this game. If and when they do? People will leave. Why? Because if they are going to be forced to pve/grind endlessly, then they will do so in a game where that kind of stuff is celebrated with “world firsts”, and where pve guilds are sponsored.

When I hear the developers say things like ascended is a gap between normal and legendary? Then I become very worried about the future of this game. It is doing quite well now and seems to be on the upswing. All it would take is one idiotic move by the development team to kill it though. See Ilum in SWTOR for a good example.

There are plenty of other ways to make more money for bandwidth costs. Fine Transmutation stones are severely UNDER PRICED. They could raise the price to 1000 gems for 5 and people would pay it gladly. Add to that? All the cooler stuff (sunglasses) can’t be worn in WvW. So why would I ever buy them? Lion’s arch is a lag fest (as are most capital cities in any mmo), where people have major culling issues. What is the point of getting “cool town gear” if I can’t even show it off?

Overclock the I5, especially if it is a K series (they are MEANT to be overclocked). The 660 TI you have is bottlenecked until you approach 4 ghz.

No MMO game engine can render highest quality shadows at 60 fps with a few hundred players on the screen. People are simply asking the impossible.

Turning down shadows/reflections will also help. Shadows are very hard to render when there are a few hundred players/abilities/siege animations going on.

With an OC and shadows down you should be at 30ish in large battles.

Lorana.2468:

i was under the impression people dont want them easy, they just want a 100% surefire way of obtaining one.

you could throw 4 items into the forge and get your precursor
you could also throw in 5 million and not get it.
this isnt a good system at all, i’d rather kill 10,000 of X enemy because atleast then i know after every kill i progress towards it and not just praying for luck to go my way.

There is a surefire way of obtaining one. It is called the auction house.

You can kill 10,000 cursed shore mobs and get one, or you can take a chance at getting it for less then the auction house on the mystic forge. No one is forcing you to use the mystic forge.

Or you could do events/instances and farm everything else you need (the other mats cost more then the ahouse precursor). By the time you have everything else? You may get one to drop. If not? You are over half done.

For the people who say “the auction house precursor is too expensive”? You have no idea how much the legendary costs and how much time is required AFTER you get the precursor. You aren’t getting a legendary anytime soon unless you are a HARDCORE player. That is why it is LEGENDARY.

Do you have this kind of time and dedication? No? Then you can buy it off the ahouse. Can’t afford it? Then skip it all together. Legendaries aren’t meant to be seen on every character. They are supposed to be something you see rarely.

As I said before. Most of the people crying would never farm all the other mats anyways. They stick their whole gold supply in the mystic forge (probably under 50 gold), and then go ballistic when they get nothing back. When you gamble, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, but the house mostly wins.

If and when I finish my legendary rifle, there is no way I am getting the legendary greatsword (either of them). 1) they are too expensive/require too much time for me to do the grind twice. 2) I don’t like the way they look, and think they are over the top. Funny thing? Everyone else loves them. Then again those are probably anime fans, and I don’t like anime. Does that mean I am supposed to rage over people having 2 legendaries? If they are willing to devote that kind of time/money to multiple legendaries? More power to them. Doesn’t hurt my gameplay one bit.

Nappychappy.7046:

Deathjester.9841:

“B2P/F2P same thing, it’s gated by USD.”

You have no idea what you are talking about. This game is not pay to win.

I didn’t say pay to win.

I said gated buy USD, and it is.

A horizontal gear grind is not “gating”. If you want to see “gating” try playing EA’s MMO, where they lock you out of ACTION BARS (LAWL).

You do not need to pay a cent after purchase to compete in any phase of this game. RM purchases lessen the horizontal (cosmetic) gear grind.

You have two choices. A) hardcore grinding offset that grind with money.

You seem to be under the delusion that servers are free to run. They aren’t. If things like legendaries were easy to obtain then they would have to get money from something else, like “stat bonuses”. This is what other f2p MMO’s do and it is why they fail. Gear doesn’t matter in GW2. The downside to that is that they have to pay for the servers in other ways. Anet’s solution is nothing sort of brilliant.

If they remove things like hard to get legendaries? They would have to do things like stat items, pay for play instance runs, tokens for WvW etc.

If you want a legendary? Stop whining on the forum and start farming, OR buy the precursor with RM.

If you think you are hampered or gated in pve/pvp because you don’t have a pixel? I just have to laugh. That might be the most insane thing I have read on these forums and that is saying a lot…

Oglaf.1074:

Face it, most of the players crying about Legendaries being made “too easy” are the ones who hit the jackpot during the Karka event and made their Legendary dirty cheap, and now when the situation is FUBAR they don’t want Anet making it easier for everyone else to get one.

Based on what? I am a player who got it from the mystic forge. In fact none of the people I know got it from the karka event. We all just WvW/spvp/farm gold in cursed shore. We all got it from the forge and it was in the 100-200 gold range.

When we talk about people who have spent 500 gold. Did they already have a precursor? Was this their second one? We have no idea what the formula is that anet uses. Maybe the second one is a pain to get to hamper gold sellers. Who knows. What I do know is every single person with a precursor on my realm has got it in the 100-200 gold range. Add to that if everyone is going for the same legendary (look at me over the top greatswords), that drop may be limited compared to other precursors.

“B2P/F2P same thing, it’s gated by USD.”

You have no idea what you are talking about. This game is not pay to win. This game has hard to get weapons with fancy skins and not stats. Add to that, you don’t have to farm PVE endlessly to compete in WvW, and you don’t have to even level to compete in spvp.

Want to know why they have stuff like legendaries? Because of server costs. You know…the same reason the other big mmo charges 15 bucks a month. IF you want to get hosed by RNG, charged 15 a month with more server downtime, and be forced to farm pve to compete in pvp (stupid trinkets with human racial), then go ahead and do that. I am happy saying goodbye to the grind. I wanted a precursor, I farmed my butt off to get it, and now I have it. What can I do now? Blow people up in WvW and have FUN in an MMO, the majority of the time I play. Something I cannot do in other games.

Oglaf.1074:

See, the loose thread that unravels your entire theory is T6 materials are plentiful in comparison to stuff like Lodestones and Precursors. There’s always going to be a competitive market for sellers of T6 materials. The price might go up a few silvers, but it’ll never get as bad as Precursors or Charged Lodestones, mark my words.

IF that happened, then you have an even bigger problem. A ticked off hardcore playerbase. You know…the players who support this game on the gem store. The players you can’t afford to alienate.

Face it, most of the players here crying just want something for nothing. Until you have spent at LEAST 100 gold in the mystic forge trying to get a legendary precursor? You shouldn’t even be able to post about legendaries. If you got one to drop in pve? Grats you hit the lotto.

If you are using rares? You are taking a gigantic chance at risk/reward. If you are using exotics and aren’t buying them with buy orders? You are just plain stupid. It would have cost me 70 extra silver on each exotic I used if I paid the regular ahouse price.

Oglaf.1074:

Deathjester.9841:

This game isn’t about stats. It is about skins. That alone should make most players ECSTATIC. Instead people are on here whining over someone having a weapon that they can’t easily get, that functions exactly the same as a 2 gold epic they bought off the ahouse.

Then why are you crying over T6 materials?

Just because you were lucky with Precursors you don’t want other people to get them. I doubt we’d hear you moan about this if you didn’t have one.

I’m not crying about t6 mat costs. I am pointing out what happens when a single item is in high demand. Are observations crying now?

I was lucky with my precursor? If by lucky you mean I spent more then I would buying it off the ahouse when I started the grind? Then yeah I am lucky. Most of the people you see crying about the mystic forge A) use rares instead of exotics (which you can buy for cheap on buy orders), have spent well under 100 gold.

The people expecting to get a 200-400 gold item for 20 gold are delusional. The people spending 150-200 gold in the mystic forge? Usually get their precursor and aren’t complaining anymore.

Of the 5 or 6 people I know who went the mystic forge route, only 1 got their precursor for well under 100 gold and used rares. The others were in the 100-200 gold range.

Half the people on this board are lying, and others point to old videos with people using rares. Add to that many of the people who sell gold/items are glad to let you think that it is impossible to get a precursor in the mystic forge.

Are you really naive enough to think these people are selling these items at a loss?

I remember someone complaining that he used 28 exotics and didn’t get it. Really? 28 whole exotics? I bought exotic rifles for 1.30 to 1.40 gold with buy orders. This is a MINIMAL investment. Unless you are going all in (at least 100-200 gold) I wouldn’t even bother with the mystic forge, and you could always farm twice as long and go the “safe route”.

Prices on mats needed for the legendary will SKYROCKET. Why? Demand. You may end up paying MORE then you would now and all you will have to show for it is a very ugly precursor (most are horrid). See Mjolnir and charged lodestones. The cost of this item puts a legendary to shame due to the demand of one item. Now take this demand and multiply it by a good amount.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mjolnir

Careful what you wish for. Do you really want to sport a precursor for a year of hardcore farming? Something that looks like this?

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dusk

The system is fine the way it is. You don’t have everyone rushing for one mat atm, and you can farm money and get the legendary in a reasonable amount of time.

If they cut the mats needed down, due to inflation? Then you just tick off the hardcore player base, and the people who keep this game free (no monthly fee) due to gem purchases.

I don’t have a legendary yet, thought I do have a precursor (and talking to people on my realm I appeared to spend more then most of them in the mystic forge getting it). If I am going to work towards it though? I want it to be rare. Otherwise, what’s the point? I don’t do dungeons in this game, but it doesn’t make me mad at the people whom have pve specific skins. They put in the work for them and they deserve them.

Stop crying. It is a weapon skin. The stats are nothing. In fact the stats are WORSE for many classes then a 3 gold exotic. They will be updated to ascended. Big whoop. Do you really think anet isn’t going to have ascended crafting gear, or that it won’t be a side-grade?

This game isn’t about stats. It is about skins. That alone should make most players ECSTATIC. Instead people are on here whining over someone having a weapon that they can’t easily get, that functions exactly the same as a 2 gold epic they bought off the ahouse.

SolarNova.1052:

Fair enough ..but alot of system can manage 30+ fps just standing in WvW , or with small 10 man fights. Im talking 50 to 100+ man battles.
I garuante u cant manage 30+ fps in those kinds of battles (which r the normal size of battles on most populated servers), if u can.. then please by all means hit up a videa of it becouse u will make me and alot of people very ..i repeat VERY..happy if u can tell us how u managed it

I manage 15-20’s (still very playable with vsync) on my OC e8400 in LARGE fights (devona’s rest). Culling was an issue until I set CPU priority to high in the task manager for gw2.exe (I just changed the shortcut to always do this). Now my culling is at a minimum and the game plays fantastic. The difference between regular priority and high priority in the task manager was like night and day for the duo core. Other chips? Prob won’t help so much.

Taking off aero/running minimal things in ram of course helps.

Video card is a overclocked to hell and back GTX 260 216 core and a sata 1 raptor (my other raptor blew up, so i am down to 1) HD.

30 plus fps in large battles? Yeah that isn’t happening without a Sandy/Ivy Bridge. This e8400 just refuses to die my friend lol. Best chip EVER as far as remaining somewhat relevant for YEARS.

I will probably build a i7 5ghz dream machine soon for myself, but the e8400 still chugs along just fine, and this is the first mmo/game where I actually found myself wanting to actually upgrade, since it actually will use those extra cores.

I agree as far as new machines though. I5 2500k’s can be had as cheap as 140 bucks (microcenter). Anything lower then that is a complete waste as far as a new build.

Do you want a legendary? Then you need some crafting skills (google the one you want). Do you want to use rares to try and make your legendary precursor in the mystic forge? Get that profession as you can save a small amount of money making the rares over buying them (usually). Do you want a specific mystic forge unique weapon that requires a certain weapon skill? Get that profession.

Professions aren’t a good way to make money in this game. They instead help you level faster/level an alt.

As far as WHY the exotic’s are expensive to make? Many of those mats/parts are used in higher end weapon skinsand other items in the mystic forge (unique recipes).

Why do people sell them at a loss? They probably made them when the armor was cheaper to make. Mat prices seem to go up often depending on supply and demand.

You need at least a duo core at over 3 ghz or so to not bottleneck the video card that you currently have, and to get “ok” framerates in WvW.

If you can overclock to that speed I would. The motherboard you have could probably upgrade to a q9400 (quad). The problem? Those still run like 200 bucks and are much, much slower in games then a i5-2500k and that is IF you can get a decent overclock on it. You can get a i5-2500k for 140 bucks at microcenter.

You will need a new motherboard and new ram (get 8 gigs of cheap 1600mhz). Total cost would be under 300, if you can keep your old case, HD/DVR rom etc. I would get a Gigabyte board. They are affordable and usually oc well.

If you have more money you can spring for an I7 (quad with hyperthreading). Many articles can be found on Tom’s Hardware etc.

The only thing faster in this (and just about every game) then a I5 k series is an I7.

There are many tutorials/guides on how to install a motherboard/cpu/fan. It is pretty much idiot proof after watching a few youtube videos.

For me? I would much rather spend 300 and get pretty much the fastest computer needed for any game, then spend 200 for an outdated Quad, an outdated front side bus, and ram that is half the speed.

You COULD get a I3 (would require same ram/mb that a new i5 would), but like I said, you can find deals on the i5-2500k that are close in price and the difference between a locked i3 and an unlocked i5-k series is night and day.

SSD, 560ti graphics card? All those are luxury items in an MMO (higher shadow settings and faster load time). The video card you have is fine. You just need something decent to run it with.

CPU performance in most mmo’s.

Overclocked K series Sandybridge/Ivy Bridge> Stock Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge > Overclocked newer AMD’s > OC Old Intel Quad’s/certain Duo cores> Older AMD Quad’s/duocore> a toaster.

I am not a Intel “fanboy” (love AMD card’s), but their CPU’s have been garbage in MMO’s (cpu bound) for quite some time now. This is where someone argues that they play FPS games fine. Those are GPU bound. Apples to oranges. The only AMD cpu I would currently buy resides in a laptop, and that wouldn’t be used for gaming, and even then I would go with an intel, because I can make that 300 dollar laptop a hackintosh and tick off people who spent 1500 bucks on an Apple product.

I take it you have an Exxx. CPUID will tell you (free) and will also tell you MB make.

You can…

A) Overclock. This depends on board make/ram/heat-voltage, luck of the draw on the Duo Core. My e8400 plays this game flawelessly at 3.8 ghz in WvW. I did have to disable aero, and set CPU priority to high on gw2.exe in the taskmanager to get WvW to work well in large battles though.

B) Replace the chip with a higher Exxx or Qxxx IF you can find a friend who has one sitting around. Buying one? Usually pointless as they are as much as new Sandybridges/Ivy Bridge.

C) Replace MB/Ram/CPU with an I5/I7. The video card would be fine at medium to high settings in WvW without shadows/reflections.

Cost me around probably around 120 gold (the Hunter).

Used mainly exotics. Put in orders and bought the vera/axiquoti for 1.30-1.40ish each.

I used rares at first but after about 30 gold or so of rares and very little exotics, I switched to exotics.

I crafted it in the overflow, if that helps anyone. I would always wait to leave the overflow, because I thought it might not be craftable there. It is. So don’t worry about that.

Most of the people I see complaining are using rares. You MIGHT get lucky with rares, and you might even “make a profit” in the short run. You can also lose big time with rares.

If I am getting 1 exotic in 40 rare rifles (and that happens)? That means I just spent 11-12 gold and got zero rolls at a precursor. I can have two rolls for half that price with exotics.

Rares might work for you, but I find exotics to be much better and a heck of a lot less time consuming.

It breathes fire and shoots laserbeams (no other gun does this). What more do you want?

It also has BY FAR the best precursor animation in the game. There is something to be said for simplicity. Add to that? I absolutely HATE the legendary greatsword animations. They are annoying while playing. I don’t need my whole screen covered with over the top blade trails, so that I can’t even see what I am hitting.

If I had a engineer I would definitely upgrade to the predator and I think it is the best looking legendary in the game. It fits the class like a glove. For my warrior/sniper? I will stick with the precursor.

No one is FORCING you to use the legendary. You couldn’t pay me to use the legendary swords and they are the most sought after legendaries in the game. As others have stated in this thread, they LIKE the predator. I like it to. I just like the Precursor more for my class.

Try running the gw2.exe at high priority in the task manager. Did wonders for my duo core.

As far as the console stuff? This is perhaps the best mmo game engine I have ever seen as far as using multiple cores.

On most mmo’s my e8400 at 3.8ghz blew away quads, and the only thing that beat it was a sandybridge.

max shadows/reflections? MMO’s always run like crap with these on max. This isn’t a fps game you can run at 100 fps. Would you rather have them make the game look like crap just so you have a higher fps number?

Guess what? The next gen MMO? Will probably run alot better on the I7. Are you going to be mad about that as well?

SLI optimization sometimes takes YEARS to implement well in almost every MMO. Why? Because they aren’t going to go all out coding the game for a computer that makes up .0000001 percent of their playerbase.

Hell, in “the other big mmo” SLI was SLOWER for YEARS then a single card.

A celeron is a budget Duo Core. It has 1 mb of cache (low/cheap cache is why some intel’s like a e8400 were leaps and bounds better then AMD’s duo cores and quads and Intel celerons).

As far as WvW? My e8400 Duo Core,with my system completely optimized (aero off, and nothing else running in memory) allows me to play WvW at a “playable” state in large battles. It is not fantastic, but bearable. This is with 6 times the cache as the celeron and a clock speed of 3.8 ghz, and a GTX 260 216, OC to GTX 460 stock speeds. I also have to set GW2.exe to HIGH cpu priority in the task manager to make the game playable in 100 v 100 battles.

Now if you don’t plan on WvW’ing? A GPU upgrade might let you play everything but WvW at an “ok” FPS with LOW settings, and you might need a CPU OC to even do that.

I would personally start saving for a new rig if you want to play WvW. It isn’t worth buying an old e8400/quad, because they are almost as much as a new I5/i7, IF you can even find them and IF your board can take them and an OC (ram also matters in the OC).

Depends on the CPU. A GTX 260 216 core when OC’d is almost the same speed as a stock gtx 460 in a Direct X 9 game.

A GTX 460 that overclocks really well (MSI made a really good one if you can still find it, 460 Hawk) will see a big improvement over the GTX 260 IF your CPU is not bottle necking it. This is why you see such a large discrepancy in benchmarks. The OC’s are far apart, and people are probably referring to a STOCK GTX 460.

About the CPU. If you are running a 3 ghz older chip or slower? You may not see much improvement at all as you will be bottlenecked. If you have a Sandy Bridge or an older quad that you can oc to mid 3 ghz or higher? You may see a big improvement.

As far as video cards, the rule of thumb is the second number means the most. The GTX 260 is not a bad direct x card at all at a 1600x res. It will be faster in games then later series (first number) even a couple generations apart. The 460 has the same value (the 6). It overclocks much higher though and is direct x 10/11, which should see a performance increase in many games. GW2 currently is Direct X 9, but may add support for 10/11 at a later time, in which case the 460 will pull farther ahead.

Warrior/Sniper

My old system now plays WvW, even in very large fights well. Here are some things that helped and might help you.

System. E8400 Duo Core at 3.8ghz, 4 gigs of ddr800, sata 1 raptor, GTX 260.

Thing that made the biggest difference and took me from 3 fps in large WvW fights to 15. It also GREATLY helped culling. Before I would have to wait up to 30 seconds to even see enemy players and even teammates, and now it works perfectly.

Press Ctrl Alt Delete (task manager). Right click on the gw2.exe process. Set priority to HIGH. Give it a minute or so to work. IF this helps greatly, you can then go to your GW2.exe shortcut and edit it.

Right click it. Properties, and put this in the target line (this is the default install directory, change accordingly).
C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /c start “runhigh” /high “C:\Program Files (x86)\Guild Wars 2\Gw2.exe”

The game will now always load with priority set to high. The icon will change (from the GW2 icon to a command prompt), but you can change it back.

Other things. Disable Aero in Windows. This is a huge performance hit to older systems. Yes Windows will no longer be “pretty”. This will however net you 5-10 fps depending on your system.

Processes running in ram. You want as little as you can get. There are many online guides to disable aero and to streamline windows 7. Google these terms.

CCleaner, malwarebytes. Download both. Set both to only update when you tell them to, and to not run at startup. Both are free. Both are fantastic. Other then a firewall this is all you really need to protect your computer.

I hope this helps you, and that you can enjoy this truly wonderful game. I went from not enjoying largescale WvW at all, to having a blast. This game engine is NOT bad. The fact that I can now see 100 players on my screen, with explosions and siege equipment everywhere and STILL get playable fps with a DUO CORE, is very impressive.

Other common sense things. Shadows/reflections/high res char textures usually kill performance in any mmo. Textures quality is also something to look at. Just because you can perform well in pve/killing mobs, does not mean that the same settings will run well in WvW where 100’s of players are being rendered.

You can also use a 4.x version of skype with some tweaking (it will autoupdate if you don’t do some things), and set compatibility mode off (for some reason win 7 automatically puts this on). My older version of skype uses 40 k memory MAX, while the new version could spike into the 100’s. This might not sound like a lot but when you have 4 gigs of ram or less? This can hurt performance quite a bit.

This guide will not give you a I5/I7. It might help you play the game and actually enjoy WvW though, until you can save up for one.

Vistal.2906:

Exploit is a exploit. People get sick and tired of Servers who brag and exploit, so i guess we will see tons more coming from servers who are against it. Isnt the saying a EYE for a EYE? Well guess what ? DR has a bunch .. not a few like 2-3 more like 15+ who been exploiting for 2 weeks now. Guess its the other servers turn to exploit right back.

You are very evian-naive, if you think that we aren’t seeing it being done by the other two servers. It doesn’t take a genius to google/youtube search what program people are using and recognize it.

It does however take a truly pitiful person to actually use that program. I saw tons of lag switchers in “that other mmo”, and speedhacking, terrain hacking, you name it. This isn’t unique to GW2. This is a “people problem”. When people like you join them? It becomes an even bigger problem.

Me and my friend Creotine literally LAUGH at all the exploiting we see in MMO’s nowadays. Guess what? It is that much more satisfying when I get a BOOM HEADSHOT crit with my sniper rifle.

Don’t join them. Pity them, report them, LAUGH at them. They are in every game. They eventually get banned and go play another game.

The most hilarious (to me at least), are the ones who will use one part of a hack. Like, say “a camera mod” that allows you to do unintended things, and then these hypocrites cry about people who use “worse hacks”. Let me be honest with you…I haven’t attacked one tower in the last few weeks without being hit by an arrow cart that could only hit me with the “mod”. If you want to talk exploits? Report every player on your team who places an arrowcart when they have no visual (without the mod) of what they are firing at. They are cheating plain and simple. There are no “little white cheats”. Once you cross that line? You already lost the game. If they banned every freakin loser who used that stupid camera mod? Half of all three of our servers would be empty. Do I wish to join them? Nope. I pity them. Deep down inside they know they are pathetic. Deep down inside they know they can never truly win a game they cheat at.

-Thane Krios, Welcome to the Jungle-GNR-DR

In some rare cases a cpu upgrade might be worth it. Most of the time? You are better off saving for a new machine. About the only OLD machine capable of decent FPS (and far from great) is a highly OC intel Duo Core. My e8400 at 3.8 ghz gets perfect fps in everything except WvW and even that is playable and I had to streamline Win 7 and take off aero and everything running in the background to get playable WvW performance.

There are a few older AMD’s that were decent for gaming, that could be overclocked and had decent onboard cache. The problem? You have to A)have a motherboard that can support it (and the overclock), find the chip for a cheap price.

Also the system requirements on almost all games are a joke. It means the game will run, it doesn’t mean it will run well.