Guild Wars 2

I kind of like them.

Detha now fills traps faster.

But… she fills a trap for 50% and you get a wave of mobs. Then she goes to the next one very quickly and fills it for 50% for another wave of mobs. This is like that until the traps are all filled. It’s more like a “defend Detha” and less like a “kill every single mob”. All in all, it’s much faster so I guess the old records will fall. I don’t think there’s a way to stack now, but also the need to stack disappeared. So… time will tell.

OP, if you were on EU, I’d have gladly run all the stories with you, but alas.

In my “no-requirement” parties, I often see rangers or engis coming. And it’s a “no requirement” party. Well, even knowing that, I see people kicking the ranger or the engi. The ranger or the engi sometimes just said “hi”, but maybe that’s a bannable offense these days?

So no, DeathPanel, kicking for simply showing up in a dungeon as ranger or engi is a real thing. Unfortunately.

sazberryftw.3809:

“Ping gear and be meta” are usually people who don’t understand the game.

Sorry but no. I’m one of those “ping gear and be meta” and while I’m not a solo-class player (even though I can solo some paths) I don’t consider myself a guy that don’t understand the game. I want to relax and play to play, not play to win. I put myself under stress by forming the party but after that, it’s relax and smooth exactly as I wanted. Always. Yeah sometimes I don’t see the might stack hitting 25. It’s rarely under 15 though. Sometimes a guy dies. We kill the boss, we rev him, he says sorry, we continue, no one rage quits. It’s smooth, I don’t have to work like I’m doing AC P1 with 4 first-timers where I have to change class more than once (because I’m not solo material). Okay we lose a few minutes because of issues. I notice and just shut up about it or if the group seems open I speak about them.

In those groups, the only place where I always see at least two-three people noobing around is the husk room in CoE p2. Apart from that, I’ve yet to encounter a real issue in those groups. Oh yeah, when I don’t write “meta” — because I play with a friend that is zerker, but not “meta” — the only issue I face are people complaining about the fact that he’s not meta, so right-click / kick is easy.

When I’m getting that message, I know I’m still performing actions on the server and I’m not lagging on the server itself.

Additional facts:
- My PC is 4 years old with a 2 years old graphics card.
- I can play in WvW’s SM with all 3 zergs with my settings (lowest graphics option) and it’s still rendered between 50 and 60 fps.
- I can play in WvW’s SM without much issue regarding the movement of other players.
- When I’m in those fights, I get skill lag and that’s it.
- It’s in those fights I get the most my DCs.
- My ping to EU server is between 20 and 50 ms (according to Windows resource monitor).
- When I’m getting those disconnections, I’m still actively performing action on the game server and I’m not lagging there. For instance, I’m using a whirlwind wrath and the number keep growing up without them to get fixed at some value like it happens for the rare times i encounter network lags. Then before even half a second as passed, I’m dc with the reported message.
- Pings to US servers can take between 200ms and 500ms, sometimes more.

With this in mind, my guess is that every X times, the game client makes a home call to the login server, located in the US. When most of my resources are used to render those fights, that call ends up taking too long according to some definitions. The client detects it takes too long and decides to terminate my session even though I wasn’t lagging on the actual game server.

Conclusion on my side: my computer uses all its resources to deliver me the content but it cannot open (or reuse) a connection in time to the login server because it’s too busy serving me with the real content. So I think that the allowed time for a ping to the login server is too low (or the answer from the login server takes too long to formulate, but given I don’t read that many issues similar to mine, I discarded this idea).

Sometimes, I get disconnected from the game. As an excuse, I get the “cannot connect to the login server” message.

This happens mostly when I play in WvW, and in world bosses.

I play on the EU servers from Belgium with Belgacom as ISP.

I play online games without any issue. This is a summary of what I play online without issue:
- other games on console and on PC requiring a connection to the Internet.
- other games with more than 250 people at the same place requiring them to play together.
- other games published and/or hosted by NCSoft
- other games where I’m forced on American or Asian servers.

Of all the games I play, I never ever got disconnected. Yet, I experience it every single day with Guild Wars 2. Heck, when I get my disconnections to Guild Wars 2, I’m even connected on TS and on my private server located in California and I don’t disconnect from those at all at all. I check the logs and there is not even a slight disconnection done. When checking the logs, my sessions didn’t “resume” because they never dc’d in the first place. I monitor my connection using a simple C program that I wrote (so really basic, my read() would fail if I had any disconnection, even the smallest posible), I never ever got disconnected except when I stop the program or my computer.

So ArenaNet, you have a problem with your login mechanism. I don’t know which one. I suppose it takes too long to answer a request. I’m ready to help for a battery of tests to help you further, but don’t say it’s my connection because it’s not. I’m the only one using it (I’m paranoid on that level and it’s appropriately configured). I’ve monitored it for 2 months now, I made tests to ensure that my monitoring is okay. The error is on your side. Now whether it’s on the server (taking too long to respond) or the client (being too strict about the expected response time), I don’t know.

I’m ready to help finding the issue, but please don’t ignore this. I love GW2, but not being able to do a Tequatl, a Wurm or take SM is extremely annoying. Especially when it’s repeated every single day.

So please, help me.

I tested both the main and phalanx build in pugs. I strongly prefer the phalanx because it gives the party in general much more dmg. I insist on stacking though and if they don’t, I send them watch the loading screen. TBH, people feel the difference with a phalanx in the group (if no one else is might-stacking, ofc) and they actively play with that power they get. Otoh, when I run 6/4/0/4/0 and I carry people, they clearly see they’re at fault and tend to grumble. So for my own sake, when I pug, it’s phalanx.

Regarding the builds, I don’t see why some people prefer using 0/5/0/6/3 over 0/6/0/6/2. With the 0/5/0/6/3, are people using sigils of Battle? I keep the 0/6/0/6/2 with sigils of Strength + the dungeon-specific sigil and I’m doing very fine to keep my 25 stacks. Can someone explain the preference for 0/5/0/6/3?

When I’m in a party in an instance and there is an update, like 20 minutes ago and I disconnect like 5 minutes ago, my client updates and I cannot rejoin my party anymore in the instance (dungeon, fractal of the mists, personal story, etc.)

This happens as well when we want to switch characters instead of dc. We simply can’t. Also when the guy who disconnects is the opener, then the instance is destroyed after a certain amount of time because he can’t rejoin.

This must be fixed.

You asked me ingame, Enaretos and I said yes, but in the end I won’t make it. I would have loved though. Thanks anyways for organizing this, I love the initiative.

“luck” streaks are part of randomness.

If you have 1 chance in 1000 of X happening, after X happens, you still have 1 chance in 1000 of X happening.

Also, the one guy that tries again and again to have X happening will have more chances that X happens than the guy that makes 3-4 tries.

People just don’t understand how probabilities work and make kittenumption that the RNG is fair. RNG is random. Randomness is not fairness.

Theftwind.8976:

It is all dependent on the type of random number generator they are using and although they were going to have a CDI discussion on it they have never stated the type of rng. If it uses a “fixed” seed then it is highly possible to see results like you detail above. Just look up fixed seed random number generators for an explanation but in essence that type of generator will repeat patterns after a given number of returns. So if your “seed” number returns you one set of numbers before they start repeating and your friends “seed” number returns a different set he could very well get better loot then you and it has nothing to do with luck.

How to mix all concepts of RNG in one post.

1. If you had a RNG per player, the space required to keep the current state would be quite big. Usually, it’s 128 bits (16 bytes) but more complex can grow up to 1024 bits (128 bytes). You’d think it isn’t big, check the amount of variable you can actually set in this game. 1, they are very limited counted and 2, this number of bytes is rarely encountered in the game, except for names and values that the user sets up, which again is very limited.
2. Recreating the random object/seed everytime would take time and resources. It’s easier and faster to simply take one single instance for the whole game server.
3. The period of most easy and fast rngs is in the order of the billion of billion. Unlikely that player here has even gone over a single period. There are less than 60 million seconds since the launch of GW2. With 10 random numbers per second (let’s say in full combat mode) for 2 years, you’d be around 630 million number generations per player (again, full time player for 2 years, no sleep, no afk). That’s not even one seventh of 4 billion which is the lowest period of any usual random number generators.

So I can take any explanation, but this one.

I would not recomment using Valkyrie armor, but instead use Zealot. Zealot has the advantage to give better heals to compensate the missed dodges and gives the full amount of critical hits procs that a berserker has. If you want training wheels, take some that help you get the final impact of your future complete build. Zealot do that IMO. Valkyrie is like taking Soldier’s in regards to critical procs.

My full recommendation is the following:
- Berserker trinkets
- Berserker weapons
- Zealot’s armor
- Ruby orbs (cheap, given your armor is temporary) / Scholar runes (ideal)

I was happy before the megaserver, I could go and solo the champ 3 times in a row in underpopulated servers to train myself and evaluate my performance. Now I have to kill it with dozens of people. I honestly killed it way faster solo in the past than we all do in group now… I did than for a couple of months, but I don’t play this champ anymore now, The fun has gone along with my server.

Looking Ahead: Guild Wars 2 in 2013

As always, the content above is subject to change as we test and iterate on these systems.

It looks to me like people only ever read what they want.

If you want to avoid the “math geeks”, disallow rerolling and open the points.

But you give the numbers 48 hours before start, so there will be math geeks no matter what. We all have good estimates of the difficulty and time of fractals at scale 50. It’s not because you run those daily that those who don’t are completely clueless.

Also, since exploiting is allowed, I don’t understand the refusal for gem store items, be it bank access or boosters or toys.

Impale.2503:

Fror.2163:

Impale.2503:

The Final Point spreadsheet for every fractal will be published 48 Hours before the tournament, and each registered team will be notified ingame.

Could you elaborate a bit on this, give a dummy example of a sheet?

Is it something like this:
First fractal – Swampland: 1 point
First fractal – Aquatic Ruins: 2 points
First fractal – Urban Battleground: 4 points
Second fractal – Urban Battleground: 3 points

Is this what you mean?

Impale.2503:

The Final Point spreadsheet for every fractal will be published 48 Hours before the tournament, and each registered team will be notified ingame.

I ask for example (not extract) and you answer with nothing. If on one hand you make interesting tourneys, on the other hand, the communication is lacking.

Heltzer.2435:

pure glass phalanx warrior

Is this real? The build with mandatory +3k life says it’s the pure glass cannon? ^^

Impale.2503:

The Final Point spreadsheet for every fractal will be published 48 Hours before the tournament, and each registered team will be notified ingame.

Could you elaborate a bit on this, give a dummy example of a sheet?

Is it something like this:
First fractal – Swampland: 1 point
First fractal – Aquatic Ruins: 2 points
First fractal – Urban Battleground: 4 points
Second fractal – Urban Battleground: 3 points

Is this what you mean?

Impale.2503:

You can’t use gem store items.

Define those items. If you want to say “no boost”, just say so.

This so broad that it’s entirely possible that you disqualify someone for having a skin or salvaging using the Copper-Fed Salvage-o-Matic (as you well know, the inventory is often full after a fractal). I personally would consider those disqualifications unacceptable. Saying “just don’t use those” is also problematic as it’s being fastidious over non gameplay things.

Also, some other team could be fussy and swear they opened a boost with a key they got ingame. So the used item doesn’t technically come from the gem store.

I stopped playing GW2 earlier around 20h (my time), now I restart the game it’s 23h. I look at the lfg and I can’t join any party because “you have joined too many parties recently”.

This is just plain wrong. Fix it. Also, how long does this restriction apply?

Zephyron.7081:

~~ snip ~~

looks like someone just hit 1000 SP. Congrats on that dude! You want a legendary for that? Oh wait, yes you want. I’m soon hitting 2k SP, can I get 2 legendaries please?

Purple Miku.7032:

Stand in the dead center of his red circle and you won’t take damage from anything other than his weird purple laser attack (if he’s targeting you). If you aren’t in the exact spot, you will die.

That’s the only reason why I want a circle for my character too: finding the exact spot in some fights, like this one.

maxinion.8396:

Very few people do CM2 […], as they’re annoying and slow.

I disagree. CM2 is kind of being rediscovered by lots of people at the moment, and pugs are becoming better and better at this path. What was the nail on its coffin in the past is not a nuisance anymore, people can take barrels and drop them simultaneously now and the hallway of boredom with the cannons is skippable. The path in itself is rather long, yes, but slow? I don’t think so as there are energic fights and mechanics (but not both together). The only “boring” part is the boss that now people want to afk by bugging in the tree, but whatever, this boss is still meleeable with good condition removals timings.

Thank you Arcturus for all your insights! I happen to have several playsets of the rune of Strength, so I will more than likely give your build a try!

Exactly, you had to transmute, you now still have to transmute. Just salvage them, you can get some mats, ectos and globs of dark matter in the process. I don’t see anything wrong here.

Hey, let’s make our characters sellable on the TP!

Atoss.1056:

I think after retal hits you, you won’t be above 90% health so runes effect goes away.

What runes do you suggest then? Anything good in line? I also thought that my runes weren’t optimal because I often get downed (but given the large number of people I hit, I rally rather quickly) or below that 90% threshold.

Atoss.1056:

You have no condi cleanse either so if you get targeted it will end fast with 11k hp. Not to mention random thief or any other sneaky guy.

Those are the risks, but given the pleasure to see in 2 seconds a dozen people in downed state, I don’t mind them. I think that good positioning gives me an edge on that level and positioning is the main thing on which I work.

I love dropping huge aoes on enemy zergs. Sorry, I just do. So I play a zerker elementalist with my staff and get lots of bags and wxp and whatever WvW gives.

I’m very cautious so I stay mostly isolated to avoid getting any attention, far from our zerg and always keep an eye on the enemy zerg. Despite my squishiness, I’d say my survivability is okay, only actually dying to huge aoe mobs and overwhelming zergs (and guys who initiate a pvp me, of course).

My problem at the moment is that I don’t feel like my build is optimized. Here is it : http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQFAWnMISLD2zAWOAfEGgAQCHIyAplyU7NA-TlRBwAX3fU+dT9H86AW8AAAcBAMrEkUAlrMC-w

Is there anything I could improve?

I never ever kicked anyone in assassin’s gear instead of zerker. “Zerker only” is quite broad in itself and tend to mean “dps gear” (rampager, zerker, assassin). Other people can disagree though.

Ogre runes are also dps-oriented runes so I don’t mind, for as long, naturally, as your dogs don’t aggro everything. Normally they don’t, but the Golemancer runes are also dps oriented and their spawns are pretty annoying, don’t bring those.

maha.7902:

so not only were you somehow bestowed with the knowledge of how paths were intended to be played, but this knowledge also revealed to you that playing with friends was unintended

seems legit

If you want to troll, please go somewhere else. You know what I meant. If you want to actually contribute on topic though, you’re welcome to do so, even more as your experience makes your advice more valuable!

maha.7902:

I play those nearly entirely in the way they are intended to notice anything wrong (I even never play Seer path at all).

What does this even mean?

Pugging, no skip except for trash mob, no exploit.

But your experience would maybe be valuable for this topic, especially in Arah. You’re welcome to contribute!

In an ideal world, we’d have that. But we are not in such an ideal world

This post is reserved for future use.

Crucible of Eternity

General

• Spire is way too slow to come to the control room, even if we clean the way. Time-wise, this is the most frustrating NPC from a mile.
• Her cynical monologues are becoming more and more boring the more you hear them. Please add some variety.

Submarine path

• Once the golem room is over she again takes her time to come to the second alpha room and show the option to help or kill the Inquest.
• She often dies as well. Making her revive automatically by going in the corner sometimes work but when it does, it bugs the instance.
• Spire aggroes Bjarn way too much.
• Spire aggroes Alpha (3rd encounter) way too much.

Teleporter path

• Spire aggroes Alpha (2nd encounter) way too much.
• Spire sometimes aggroes golem in the husk room.
• Spire aggroes Alpha (3rd encounter) way too much.

Front door path

• Spire aggroes Alpha (2nd encounter) way too much.
• Spire aggroes Alpha (3rd encounter) way too much.

The Ruined City of Arah

I play those nearly entirely in the way they are intended to notice anything wrong (I even never play Seer path at all).

Fractals of the Mist

• Urban battlegrounds
  • The NPCs horde often dies without reason. We used to have them helping us, then they were carrying us, now they are mostly invisible. ArenaNet better find a middle ground where it’s both playable and enoyable.
• Molten Furnace Fractal
  • Bram uses his shield anytime for nothing. Just remove him that shield.
• Aetherblade Fractal
  • Kiel can die way too easily and we can progress up to the final part with her dead. When we notice she’s dead, we have to go back to the start of the fractal to revive her.
• Captain Mai Trin Boss Fractal
  • Nothing to say, Kiel acts ok.
• Molten Boss Fractal
  • Again, Bram uses his shield for no reason, pushing the bosses to unintended places, possibly bugging the fractal if he pushes the Molten Firestorm too far in the “whirlpool” and we’re all using melee weapons. Going out of combat is then nearly impossible and requires great luck.

Conclusion

All this to show that the NPCs have some serious bugs and often are the main cause why we need to restart an instance.

If you have any other bug/annoyance to report especially for the paths I haven’t covered, write them below I’ll add them here.

I just wanted to list all the dungeons and see what can be improved NPC-wise:

NPCs in general

• We should be able to command to NPCs like “stay here”, “follow us close” or “skip” (as in “don’t speak your 100-times heard monologue”.
• NPCs all can run at light speed, so it shouldn’t be a problem for them to catch up with us much easier.

Ascalonian Catacombs

General

• Hodgins, Detha & Tzark at start really take their time to come to Priory Camp before we finally can make a path choice.

Hodgins

• Hodgins dies too often on the stairs towards the Archive of the Resting. Workarounds are easy, but if we all make it down, we shouldn’t have to use trick to get Hodgins do what he has to do.
• On the way to “help Hodgins loacte the second scepter”, he can skip the trigger by teleporting in the room where the WP appears if too many mobs aggro him. Doing this forces us to go back to the previous hall and run with him again.
• When the 5 scepter pieces are quickly recovered, Hodgins takes his time to allow the activation of the waypoint. This should go much quicker.
• If a guy comes out from the 5 scepter-pieces room before Hodgins was “activated” using the stairs, Hodgins is unmanageable and requires us to kill the mobs that follow the player. Hodgins is a scholar and should leave the fight to us.
• When going to the safe spot, hodgins again aggroes all the mobs and has a hard time staying with us.

Detha

• At the trap room, Detha should activate when we’re all there, we shouldn’t have to speak with her to “make her follow us”.
• At the trap room, Detha can bug out and not activate the trigger at all.
• On the way to the ghost eater room, Detha often aggroes all the mobs and she loses her aggro way too slow, making some parties bug out. She then has to die to properly reset and having her killed is a pain.
• Detha always tries to solo the Ghost Eater. This again is a loss of time. It’s good for us as she’s then dead and we can proceed as it pleases us. It still need to be improved.

Tzark / Grast

• Tzark has a hard time losing aggro in the first burrows room if we skip.
• Tzark sometimes bug after the 2nd burrows room if all party members port very quickly to the newly-appeared WP. This issue is not recoverable and should be fixed.
• As Hodgins in path 1, Tzark and Grast should stick with us and not aggro the various mobs on the way to the boss.
• On the boss, Tzark and Grast shouldn’t aggro the boss. They barely deal any damage, and we can get a hard time aggroing the boss as we intend.
• Half of the time when near a wall, Grast misses his shield while being with us, and not dead.

Caudecus Manor

Strangely, I have nothing to say against any of the NPC there.

Twilight Arbor

Nothing to say.

Sorrow’s Embrace

Fergg

Nothing to say

Rasolov

• The NPC is way too slow to retrieve his ore. Getting past this in a pug is hell.

I too rarely play this path to have anything else to add.

Koptev

• “No, no, no! We should go to the armory!” This is why I disable audio in SE.

Citadel of Flame

Ferrah

• Really takes her time to open the gate in P1.

Magg

• Magg can bug before defusing the bombs. Then he does nothing and force us to end the dungeon at that point.
• When retrieving the magmacyte, Magg dies easily and we often have to use a workaround to get him to his next point. The workaround is now the usual way to run it, so new players don’t even know why this is done: they just teleport to the entrance by habit.

Rhiannon

Nothing to say, this path is quite reliable NPC-wise from my own experience.

Honor of the Waves

Nothing to say NPC-wise for p1.

I too rarely play P2+P3 to notice anything wrong.

I have the monocle for heavy, I don’t have it unlocked for medium & light.

proviticus.4183:

Fror.2163:

So you prefer to bank your armor because you want to keep your runes that all in all cost 40g, which is recovered about 1-2 times in a day only by playing the game?

If you know the runes you wanna use, just buy them and apply them. That’ll be less costy than anything else.

I wanna play whatever game you play! 40-80 gold per day? Awesome!

(unless you’re just playing the tradepost, that’s no fun for me)

Dungeons, nearly all of them, sell all you get, you get that amount of money.

So you prefer to bank your armor because you want to keep your runes that all in all cost 40g, which is recovered about 1-2 times in a day only by playing the game?

If you know the runes you wanna use, just buy them and apply them. That’ll be less costy than anything else.

Korossive.7085:

(… and who runs ac p2 anyway?)

hmmm… everybody, since it’s an easy path?

DnT should definitely compete even if they organize this tourney. Their group composition should be like two rangers, a necromancer, an engineer and a mesmer.

Achievements are a joke. It’s only a measure of fulfilling the game as intenteded by ArenaNet. I’m baffled about the number of guys with 20k+ cheevos (as of now) who insult me for a single imaginary bad move when I see them auto-attacking with their guardian staff or their shout heal warrior.

The guy who last year was the first at 250k kills in WvW had only 2.5k cheevos while the top of the chart was around 15k. AP means nothing meaningful. Until people understand that, water will have flown under the bridges.

Romo.3709:

On top of that I completely agree that the merchant price is laughable. Being the highest tier of a ring item it should definitely have much higher vendor value that it does right now.

Maybe the merchants give so little because they also have lots of those rings and don’t especially want more! :o

C’mon… it’s not hard. Just keep 1 guy on the middle trap trigger and have the 4 others dps the champ. That is, assuming you’re in a pug party.

Or if you’re in a zerker party, 2 guys on the champ and the rest can afk on the trap triggers.

I levelled all my alts through playing dungeons (and the last ones through both playing and buying dungeons). Why do you want this levelling method to disappear?

Heck, I even carried some groups while I was level 40-50 and the rest was 60+…

If there’s one thing to do, it’s most certainly not rise the level requirement. Lowering it would be my best guess!

Lishtenbird.2814:

Fror.2163:

All your actions since the launch of the game have been to move soulbound from account bound.

Wow, seriously? Legendaries are account-bound, and account-bound ascended was the best part of the 15 April patch as it finally lets me move armour across alts. As for “cheap” armour… well, looks like your alts do not want to wear second-hand rags.

You quoted a typo. I just fixed it. Thanks for showing it

All your actions since the launch of the game have been to move from soulbound to account bound.

Come on, you just have one last step to do: remove soulbound entirely from the game.

There is just no point in keeping any soulbound stuff anymore.

This happens too often. It’s been a week that those reports started, no fix in line? Guess CoE needs a solid buff then.

Hey, what’s the best use for my tome of knowledge to get money out of them? I got more than 1k of those and they’re piling up for nothing in my bank. If I ever want to spend skill points, what I get from the game is already largely enough so those tomes are really taking space I could use better.

Any idea?

I’m not saying it is not doable. I’ve soloed half of AC story like that with my guardian, only moving where it couldn’t be done otherwise solo (like to transport the stone to open the gate towards the fire room, doing this with several people is possible).

I’m only giving a challenge. If no one does it, I’m ok with it, but I’d prefer to see it happening. Also, I might increase the reward.