Guild Wars 2

The enemies in the Path of Fire preview felt well-tuned for me. If I was tackling anything one-on-one, it was simple and not difficult. However, I chose to up the difficulty by taking on groups (I particularly liked taking on Forged patrols solo!) in order to make it more interesting.

Overall, I think it is was an excellent preview in terms of difficulty. In addition, I found it incredibly refreshing to actually have the space and time to look and enjoy the beautiful map without having my face slapped by an enemy every 15 steps!

The new mobility that the Raptor mount provided was brilliant! I am an explorer in MMORPGs so having another method to aide in my exploration made me very happy!

I enjoyed the new map as well – a few throwbacks to the original game and the new enemy types were very fun to play against!

One criticism I had with the Bounty system – they’re not particularly friendly for small-group combat. The mobs hit incredibly hard and are quite tough for small groups. It felt like the event scaling was not quite there. It almost felt like I was fighting one of the legendary bandits in Queensdale, except it was a champion target.

Overall, I am very much looking forward to what lies ahead in Path of Fire!

Oddly, I am sad that Lazarus is gone and the Mursaat story finished. I absolutely adored them in the original Guild Wars but, seeing how the overarching plot of the original game was based around them, I can understand why we now have closure. Still, I cannot help but feel empty. I guess this is what it feels like to finally exact revenge – it really isn’t as satisfying as people claim.

Aside from that, this episode is dripping with beauty. From the environments to the reliquaries, I am absolutely tickled pink with the patch.

No more loot scaling inside the Labyrinth? I love you lads and lasses! Thank you!

I cannot wait to hop into the Lab. when I return home from work!

I’m pretty certain that ArenaNet will include some Halloween content with the launch of “Heart of Thorns”. They have a very pretty Lion’s Arch to show off now!

I feel your pain Purecura.1795 for I too deleted my original character, a L40 Charr Warrior. But alas as Mark has stated, that is how the system works. So we must show patience, you and I, for we shall receive our little birthday treat soon enough.

I’m struggling to wrap my head around this idea.

I run two different builds on my Guardian – pure Berserker and PTV with a heavy focus on Vitality and Toughness. I notice considerable differences in survivability between the two builds.

Why the thought “toughness/vitality doesn’t matter” exists is beyond me.

EDIT: the post above me – “A guardian, meanwhile, runs with 12k life pool” – um…what? A proper tank-spec. Guardian can get 25k HP with little problems. Not everything needs a Berserker group.

I’d be down with this.

I don’t play my Charr nearly as much as I’d like to ‘cos I just don’t like how different they are to the Charr I came to know, love and slaughter in Guild Wars.

ArenaNet please.

Thought I’d relog and check to see if /g if fixed, it isn’t. :’( I miss my /g chat sessions!

Ah, good to see I’m not the only one with this bizarre issue. I’m sure ArenaNet will have a fix for us soon.

To add to Zudet’s point, I highly doubt Rytlock Brimstone would make such a sacrifice. He’s a living legend, a proud warrior and, above all, he wants to see his homelands restored, something which a sacrifice of that nature would rob him of.

One thing that annoyed me: where the HELL is Rytlock?

For those complaining that I wasn’t specific enough with my opinions, let me clarify.

My guesstimate is that we’re coming up to 3/4 of the way through Season 2 and there are still flaws in the way ArenaNet are telling the story. My two main griping points are:

• Rytlock’s fate: this has been one of the most exciting parts of the entire living story (yes, I include all of Season 1 here). Why haven’t we had any follow-up? Did the incantation even work? Is Rytlock even alive?
• Spoiler Alert Memory Seeds: we were given four yet were only allowed to access 3 of the 4 associated memories? Why bother giving us four? To purposefully leave a completely unnecessary cliffhanger?

These points could’ve been addressed with longer, more in-depth episodes. Sure, Rytlock’s ark might take quite a bit more but the 4th memory could’ve easily been put into this release.

To conclude, I feel ArenaNet are needlessly shortening episodes to stretch out the story as much as possible, which is slowly starting to spoil things for me.

Evening Tyrians.

As much as I am enjoying the new living world storyline, I’m getting angrier and angrier at the length of the episodes – they’re getting shorter and shorter. I managed to finish this one in about 30 minutes of gameplay. No, I did not intentionally rush through. I read all the dialogue, listened to various NPC interactions and so on.

If this is what it’s going to be like, I’d prefer longer development times and less frequent episodes so we can actually get an episode that takes longer than half an hour to complete.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Mid doesn’t necessarily mean ‘middle’. There may be more than one ‘mid-season’ break. I mean, how else to label a break that happens amid/during the Season?

I would expect a break about this time because of the Anniversary coming at the end of this month.

And, yes, Fall isn’t far off…about 6 weeks away (in the Northern Hemisphere, anyway).

Who knows, save ArenaNet what their all-encompassing plans are? I’m sure we will find out sooner or later. =)

This is the kind of attitude I like.

You, Sir, get +1 internet for today!

I’d prefer not to have Forgal return. I’d actually prefer to have something for my home instance, something like a picture or a story. Something physical to remember them by, to honour them.

I’m rambling…oh well. I miss the Warmaster :’( Rest in pepperonis.

Time to buck the trend.

I quite like Trahearne. His almost-clinical personality and approach to everything that he does is a refreshing change from the typical bubbly characters like Caithe or Eir.

Why do I rope Eir in with the “bubbly” crew? Her personality in Guild Wars 2 is so different from the Eir I know from Edge of Destiny. Yes, she lost a lot (not a spoiler, you all know this from your personal stories) but she’s taken a very un-Norn-like approach to remedying the mistakes of the past.

To be honest, a mid-season break is needed.

A “Living Story” model is very difficult conceptually. The amount of work and imagination that goes into it is both stressful and complicated. The ArenaNet staff have to constantly be at their AAA best to ensure that their audience (have to have an audience to tell a story) remains interested in their storyline.

Additionally, ArenaNet have been quoted* saying that they have other plans besides the Living Story in 2014. So, in order for those plans to come to fruition, more development time needs to be allocated for this, something which a mid-season break is perfect for.

To conclude, ArenaNet are taking this game in the right direction. The playerbase simply needs to look beyond the ends of their noses and check out the bigger picture.

Source: * Eurogamer’s article on Guild Wars 2, January 2014

DISCLAIMER: The views outlined in this post are the personal opinions of the author. All facts provided are taken from sources involving interviews with members of the ArenaNet team.

CureForLiving.5360:

But unfortunately have been somewhat tight lipped about what these other plans might be. Would be nice if they could tell us, just to keep the hope alive.

You’re hoping that a company that refused to reveal a single tidbit about this game during its development cycle (which spanned many years) would all-of-a-sudden perform a u-turn and suddenly start spilling their ideas and plans? A little naive, don’t you think?

Regarding the topic, there is plenty of content in Guild Wars 2. I’ve been playing since Headstart (stress test + BWE beforehand) and I have yet to get bored with the world. The game is only ever as good as you make it. So use your imagination and immerse yourself into the beautiful world the ArenaNet developers have been kind enough to give us.

There is only one thing I am sad about – where’s my cute kitty cat Rytlock? :’(

I absolutely love the new take on Lion’s Arch Lament. A wonderful piece of music.

What a stonking trailer! Totally pumped for this season’s LS.

It’ll be a treat to return to the Maguuma Jungle of old. I miss the desertified sections of the Maguuma from Guild Wars.

Whilst I did love the massive amount of content in Guild Wars, I’m really enjoying the Living Story approach to Guild Wars 2 so, for now, I am against expansion packs.

Greetings once again fellow Tyrians.

I know that it is generally frowned upon to reply to your own thread that has not received a reply. Nonetheless I’ve had a few ideas for alternatives methods for obtaining a Bank & Trading Post NPC in the home instance.

As we all already know, ArenaNet have handed out specific gathering nodes as Living World event rewards, an example being the Candy Corn Node. So, perhaps having a themed NPC being given as a reward might be a nice idea? By themed I mean something that fits in with the theme of the event from which the NPC was awarded.

Alternatively, the NPCs could be obtained via in-game gold hiring, similar to the general goods merchant and personal warehouse NPCs for housing in Aion?

Let me know what you all think.

Iason Evan.3806:

Go to the “Armorers” next to the Black Lion Merchants on a character. If you threw th hat away on all your characters, you won’t have access to it though. Have to unlock it for your use on your account on a character that still has it.

Could you clarify “Armorers” for me? I’m not sure which ones you mean.

I have been doing a number of things:

• Exploring the world at a leisurely pace, working towards my first and possibly only legendary, The Flameseeker Prophecies.
• Making gold, via Orr farming & dungeons.
• Roleplaying – one of favourite past times in Guild Wars 2 is fighting alongside fellow Seraph NPCs in my Seraph Captain’s armour set. Another would be Belcher’s Bluff! I am Scottish after all!

These are just a few of many things I do to pass the time in Guild Wars 2. It is a beautifully made game and it makes taking things slowly much more rewarding.

Greetings people of Tyria.

After running my end-of-gameplay-session ritual, mining the gathering nodes in my home instance (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Sprocket Generator, Quartz Crystal Formation & Raw Candy Corn), for a while now, I stumbled across an idea that would be nice to have as an option to buy one-time in the Gem Store.

Behold, the [Bank] & [Trading Post] NPCs in the home instance suggestion!

I quite like the idea of having a home instance that can be customised in subtle ways, such as the resource nodes, and I feel that having these two NPCs available in the instance would make it feel a bit more…homey.

Let me know what you think everyone. Any & all constructive feedback/criticism is appreciated. Please note that I do appreciate the fact that we have NPCs for them already in the main capital cities. This is more of personalisation of the home instance suggestion.

Greetings Tyrians.

I am slowly working towards my first legendary, The Flameseeker Prophecies, but I am struggling with gold.

I know there are a ton of videos on YouTube regarding gold making in Guild Wars 2, though sadly a lot of them are sorely outdated & I am unwilling to spend massive amounts of IRL cash just to obtain a legendary. I’d rather earn it properly via in-game methods alone.

So, suggestions? Should I join the Frostgorge Sound train for hours? Or perhaps I should hop on the world event boss train to farm gold as well as some ascended materials?

Methods that I currently know for making gold:

- Orr Temple events
- Farming & selling hi-tier materials
- Farming Heavy Moldy Bags

Any suggestions or advice is very much appreciated. I will be keeping an eye on this thread & replying where appropriate.

Kind regards,

Donutdude

Wow, loving the feedback I’ve received thus far.

@Sirsquishy, Avelos & Kharr: Thanks for the information provided. I’ll definitely be looking into those components to see how they fit my price range.

@ArmoredVehicle: I cannot 100% remember the issue but, from memory, I keep getting a graphical driver error, with the card re-booting the display drivers. It claims that the drivers cannot speak to the gfx card properly. Normally, this would be fixed by a simple driver removal & reinstall, however this hasn’t worked, leading me to believe it’s a bad build.

What d’you think? Also, I’ll read up on the 3GB Switch for XP – thanks for the suggestion there

Hello Tyrians.

I am looking to upgrade my computer from the following setup:

Motherboard: ASUS M4A78LT-M LE
CPU: AMD Athlon II x4 640 @ 3.01 Ghz
RAM: 4Gb Corsair DDR3 @ 669.6Mhz
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 @ 2Gb
Drives: 128Gb SanDisk SSD, 1TB Seagate Barracuda SATA @ 6Gb/s

Currently, I can run Guild Wars 2 @ medium settings with FXAA enabled. I am, however, having out-of-memory (OOM) errors when playing in areas of high activity, for example the Shadow Behemoth fight, unless I switch my settings to “Best Performance”. This is due to still using Windows XP 32bit. I do have Win7 64-bit but I am having troubles with the graphics card there (probably a bad build – using an old 320Gb SATA whilst I try to fix it).

So, what I’m aiming for:

- High (if possible ultra) settings across the board with at least 30 FPS. Anything higher is a bonus.
- Stable game client that does not crash when in hi-intensity battles.

Finally, the price I’m willing to spend: Absolute max: £1000 (due to already having my GTX 660, which I will transplant into the new box.) Not looking for more than 8Gb of RAM so you can go a bit mad regarding a mobbie, chip & any cooling required (note: I’m not looking to OC unless I have to).

Thanks in advance guys and girls. I will be keeping an eye on this thread throughout the week to see what you all have to say.

Kind regards,

Donutdude.

Afternoon folks.

I’ve been incredibly underwhelmed by how inactive my megaserver appears to be (my HW is Blacktide). So, I ask you this: which worlds are part of the most active megaservers? I want a good, active megaserver so I can get the most out of Living World events.

Thanks in advance.

Afternoon folks.

Anyone got any theories for the recent spike in price and demand for Minor Sigils of Speed? There’re less than 30 on TP at the moment and their current price is 90s.

What’s going on here?

True but a Moderator told me to post it here so I did.

Can’t disobey them. That would be bad. And it’s bad to be bad.

Re-posted here as per a Moderator’s suggestion:

Evening all.

I just attended my first Shadow Behemoth after the implementation of the new megaservers & I have to say I’m absolutely disgusted with player attitude nowadays.

Almost 95% of the raid just sat there spamming skill 1 during the portals phase instead of helping kill the portals. The worst part: it’s considered “normal” now. I’m sorry, since when did Guild Wars 2 turn into easy-mode World of Warcraft?

I so wish ArenaNet would punish the leechers somehow. Not contributing to a major part of an event should not be tolerated. It’s as bad as the leechers that used to suck the life out of Competitive Missions & Alliance Battles in Guild Wars.

Evening all.

I just attended my first Shadow Behemoth after the implementation of the new megaservers & I have to say I’m absolutely disgusted with player attitude nowadays.

Almost 95% of the raid just sat there spamming skill 1 during the portals phase instead of helping kill the portals. The worst part: it’s considered “normal” now. I’m sorry, since when did Guild Wars 2 turn into easy-mode World of Warcraft?

I so wish ArenaNet would punish the leechers somehow. Not contributing to a major part of an event should not be tolerated. It’s as bad as the leechers that used to suck the life out of Competitive Missions & Alliance Battles in Guild Wars

Greetings & salutations Tyrians!

Welcome to the guild recruitment page of the Empyrean Eagles!

EE is a guild founded over 250 years ago during the days of Guild Wars & has now decided to make its move over into the world of Guild Wars 2. Back then, it was a family-run guild home only to 3 guild members with one goal in mind – to have fun & enjoy the world of Tyria. Sadly, however, only one member plays Guild Wars 2 at this time due to life complications but we hope to all make the jump to the game soon!

This core philosophy has not changed, however our recruitment has. We have now decided to open our doors to the community, though let us say one thing – it will not be as simple as asking “Hey! Can I join?”

There are two concepts that the Eagles value over anything else: trust & loyalty. We believe that a guild is more than just a group of people. It is a group of friends that know each other well & work well together.

So, on that note, let’s dive into how you can become a member:

1.) We must know you: Add us to your friend list & ask for a party! We do everything from simple hang outs in low level areas helping low levels to running end-game content in Arah & dungeons. World vs World is not something the guild actively plays at this time.

That’s it! Yes, only one requirement! Getting to know a player and building friendship is what guarantees trust & loyalty.

We look forward to accepting any and all potential players.

Kind regards,

Empyrean Eagles

HotHit.6783:

If they add a subscription fee, I demand a refund. I bought this game under the pretence I could leave and come back whenever I wanted, no strings attached except that the Anet servers had to still be going.

I do understand however, that while a game for an offline handheld costs the company nothing to allow me to continue playing, GW2 has to at least pay to keep an online server going. A buy once and forget about it system isn’t going to cut it. Buy once and have some cool things to get if you throw more money their way? That’s perfectly reasonable and allows me to throw MORE money than the subscription fee at them.

But like I just said. If the gates of hell get frozen open and Guildwars 2 becomes subscribe or die, I’ll choose die and long for something to fill the void. Which will probably be League of Legends.

I wouldn’t worry.

Guild Wars, a 9 years old MMORPG, is still going and that game is still B2P only with NSA. Expect Guild Wars 2 to have the exact same story.

Dean Calaway.9718:

Read my post again.

A new player doesn’t know where these champions are, they’ll like complete the map without ever seeing the train.

A new player CAN’T kill a champion.

On the slim chance a new player comes across the train while killing a champion, guess what? They score a kill, and get rewards.

No rewards, no train, new player stumbles across a champ & asks for help, NO ONE can be bother, he moves on doing something else.

The train is not “toxic” for new players, it’s “toxic” for trolls.

The original post by the OP shows he just likes to antagonize the train and he does so willingly on purpose, this “unfriendly for new players” is just a half kitten excuse for his behaviour.

Whilst I agree with you to an extent, I won’t change my opinion on the QD train.

Sure, new players will probably not kill a champion solo. However, I do not think having certain champions zerged my hi-leveled players is a positive thing for a newbie to see – I know I certainly wouldn’t like to see it.

The idea of a “train” robs the game of the “dynamic” part to the events. They’re meant to be opportunistic targets to kill, not specifically-timed mobs to be farmed.

Pifil.5193:

So you ran this counter train with the specific purpose of disrupting the main train?

I’m not surprised you received positive comments, lots of people who play MMOs seem to like this kind of “griefing” especially when they have some kind of objection to whatever activity is being disrupted.

I didn’t do it intentionally to begin with. I was leveling an alt. character and I happened to run across the Oakheart. A few low-level characters were around so we all decided to kill it.

The train arrived, flamed us MASSIVELY for it then continued on their way. It was then that I decided to purposefully antagonise the main train because, at the end of the day, that kind of behaviour is something I won’t tolerate.

Yes, you can make the argument that I’m as bad as they are but at least I was simply playing the game for fun without any sense of entitlement. The train, on the other hand, believes that every train champion is THEIRS and theirs alone, something that really gets under my skin.

ArenaNet’s core philosophy is “no subscription”-based games. This will never happen I’m afraid.

Besides, I disagree with all of your points:

1.) Silence on state of the game: care to explain this further?
2.) Bugs/fixes: every bug I’ve reported has been fixed. Care to explain this further?
3.) No expansion: the game has barely been around long enough to require one. Living Story is progressing really well at the moment and I’m psyched for Season 2. Care to explain why Guild Wars 2 actually needs an expansion?
4.) Subscription = right to whine: B2P/F2P/Subscription-based games all have one thing in common: – none of them give you anymore right to complain/whine than the other.

Finally, Guild Wars 2 is a wonderfully amazing game, even moreso with the introduction of Megaserver technology. I have been having amazing fun in the Harathi Hinterlands of late, smashing hordes of Centaurs to pieces with my fellow players. ’Tis been a real blast.

My passion for the world of Tyria has been re-ignited recently and I fail to see why people seem so angry at ArenaNet at the moment.

I think there is enough diversity within the world of Tyria at the moment.

Give it another year, maybe two, then we can start thinking of new classes. Remember this: Guild Wars only started out with 6 professions compared to the 8 of Guild Wars 2.

Yargesh.4965:

They are very strict about things that interact with the client. This looks like it only deals with how you connect to the internet/server which may be a grey zone thing but from the little I read I don’t thing ANET can do anything about it.

They can – they can prohibit its use.

I play Aion on the European servers, which is run by Gameforge. They recently released a statement saying that using WTFast is a bannable offence due to “IP masking”. Essentially, it makes your connection look suspicious, as though you have something to hide e.g. 3rd party software and/or botting.

Therefore, I still believe that what I said in my 1st reply would be the best course of action in this case – get some information from Support.

It’d be better to file a support ticket regarding this topic.

I remember during my Far Shiverpeaks days that I would run a “counter-train” to the main train. I received a lot of positive comments and even gold via mail!

Surprised that your friend received so much negativity. ’Tis a little disappointing.

I have to agree with the Queensdale train though. It should not be allowed. Frostgorge Sound train makes a lot more gold + exotics so they should simply stick to that.

To Dean Calaway.9718: The OP’s argument concerns new players coming to Queensdale as a Human, not as a hi-level player looking for champion kills.

Interesting theory.

We’ll simply have to wait & see.

To be fair, I’d rather not have a dedicated expansion at the moment.

Mordremoth has been revealed in Season 1 of the Living Story, meaning we have a new antagonist to focus on in Season 2. Releasing an expansion pack right after revealing something as big as an Elder Dragon would seem a little silly.

Yes, I’m aching to explore Cantha, the Crystal Desert & encounter Jormag or Kralkatorrik but I’d rather wait until Mordremoth has been destroyed.

Seras.5702:

What’s a WH?

Seriously? …

Getefix.9150:

you know? i heard the captains council were going to allow more adventurers to join the lionguard, you know, to help with the clean up/helping in general for lions arch

then kiel came along (must have thought that we’d take all her credit or something) and shut down the idea

Darn that Kiel! Gnashblade for life

Let’s try and get back on-topic. More opinions folks! Let us know what you think!

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

They haven’t lost their purpose . . . they’re just waiting for the opportune moment, you see. Either that or they’ll follow my memo and turn to anti-Asura tactics.

Haha! Leave the poor Asura alone! They’re cute and brilliant!

Mint Rubber.6543:

To be honest, as a human I’d like to join the Ebon Vanguard.

That Ebon Vanguard would be an interesting organisation to join, however they have lost their main purpose, which was to fight the Charr, after Queen Jenna’s truce came into effect.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Also wonder why anyone would want to work for the Peacekeepers instead of letting Rata Sum explode in a puff of experimental magic.

I’ve got to admit that does sound like fun.