Guild Wars 2

I’ve actually been experiencing just the opposite. Been trying to do the Sanctum Scramble adventure, and keep failing because my glider refuses to open in time for me to make the jump. Always happens at different points on the way up too. Seems to have no problem opening exactly when I want it to everywhere else though

I’ve always thought the Ghastly Grinning Shield skin looked amazing. I never thought to get one when they were first released though. It wouldn’t get used anyway. But now that I see Revenants can use shields, I think it would be awesome to have one.

Unfortunately, there’s no chance I’ll ever be able to earn enough gold to get one, based on my work schedule. Heck, i’ve had the game since head start, and I haven’t even been able to craft my first legendary between trying to juggle work and all of the interspersed content releases, lol.

I don’t expect anyone to gift it to me. It’s far too expensive at this point. But it’s the one thing in-game that I’ve always regretted not getting when I had the chance.

From what I can see… Nothing was taken away. At all… The rewards unlocked through the masteries seem to be pertaining to an increase from the base rewards, in addition to adding the stuff required for the Legendary back piece to the drop tables.

Last time I checked, legendary fractal back piece is technically HoT content.

Test.8734:

Ok, this was… Very bad.

Incredibly bad, even.

ArenaNet has fallen in the same trap a lot of MMORPG developers fall into – they are putting the NPCs under the spotlight to the detriment of the player characters. This has always been an issue for ArenaNet – from people complaining that Prince Rurik was stealing the show in GW: Prophecies, then Mhenlo in GW: Factions, Kormir in Nightfall and later Traheanne in GW2. It would have been expected that ArenaNet would know better than to do an entire trailer – and something they’re calling such a big thing like the “launch trailer” – focusing exclusively on showing NPCs being “cool”. The message here is clear – Rytlock will be the next Traheanne, don’t expect your character to be the hero of the story.

It’s also sad to see how ArenaNet has lost one of their most unique aspects, the use of animated concept art for cinematics. The last time we saw this in full force was at the video right after character creation, but since the first time we saw it – the Guild Wars 2 Teaser Video - it was widely praised. I’m not surprised ArenaNet has mostly abandoned this format – one of the main artists responsible for it, Kekai Kotaki, has left the company. But it’s still a big symbol of how much ArenaNet has lost.

Mordemoth’s voice is also very cliché. He sounds like a Protoss – that effect they have added to his voice must be one of the most overused sound effects in games. It shows a huge lack of creativity.

I’m very disappointed in this trailer.

You seem to have forgotten about this.

Along with several other instances in-game over even just the past year. Including this.

Please tell me again how they’ve “strayed from their unique aspects, and stopped using cinematic concept art”…

On topic though. I found the trailer to be wonderful, if brief. I understand it’s going to be the primary advert played on streaming sites and elsewhere, so it has to stay short, but I’m a lore junkie, and pretty things make me smile :P

That being said… Where was Rox?!? Also, if Rytlock is supposed to be helping us search for Destiny’s Edge, where are they? If my snarky buddy Zojja truly goes MIA, I can’t promise that I won’t just torch the jungle while spear-heading a full scale search and rescue mission. You’ve all been warned! (Psst, bring marshmallows)

EDIT: To address your issue with the voice. It’s more than likely a form of layering, utilized as a preset filter. This allows the dev team to spend less time and money to make something that still sounds good. That being said… This type of layering is typically done to provide an audible recognition of sub-audible sound waves that produce vibrations so powerful you can feel them, despite not being able to hear them. Think of that guy driving past at 3 in the morning with subwoofers lining every part of his vehicle but the driver’s seat. Same thing. You can hear the underlying music producing it, but you can also FEEL the vibrations from the sub-audible frequencies being produced. The voice layering is trying to produce the same effect, and is, in fact, more pronounced when you have a surround sound set hooked up to your PC with a good sub. Hope the technical lesson helped you understand why it’s a technique commonly used in any non-live industry reliant on audio-visual acuity and depth; in order to better tell an engaging story and provide a sense of realism for their consumers, who typically use this entertainment medium as an escape from the toil of everyday life.

Just going through my music collection again, and stumbled across Fear Not This Night. Listening to the lyrics, and thinking about what part of Tyria it plays most prevalently in… With the confirmation of Mordremoth and his connection to the Sylvari, I think it may be the Pale Tree trying to reassure her children that even though they are the spawn of a dark force, they can rise above it. They shouldn’t fear themselves, or the darkness that tries to consume them. To lean on her for protection if they need to.

Makes me even more sad that she’s in the condition she is…

I’ve always found this song incredibly moving, and can’t help but listen to it every time I stumble across it.

Just saying… Someone mentioned that thief interrupts will be pointless with boss breaker bars in PvE. I gave a solution that thieves themselves can provide for the group, alongside the interrupts.

Venom-share thief + Ice Drake Venom & Devourer Venom = Insta-gib on any breaker bar. Use x/P and you have interrupts as well. Tack on condition damage with Skale Venom on D/D with Poison application trait, and you’ve got a thief that can destroy breaker bar, slow healing, get off 20 stacks of torment, with 20 stacks of vuln every time Skale Venom’s CD is up, AND be able to stealth your group.

Not sure about you, but that sounds like a winner to me. Toss in Basilisk Venom as your elite and you can even swap out Devourer Venom for Spider Venom for additional healing denial, and damage. Grab Leeching Venoms for self-healing and Might stacking while you’re at it.

Oh… and did I mention that you’ll simultaneously be a healer? Throw up Skelk Venom, and all of a sudden your allies are getting healed with their next few attacks. Shared venoms grow with the YOUR stats, not the stats of the people they get shared to, so throw in some Healing Power on your gear, and suddenly your allies all stack on you whenever they start getting low during the fight.

Thief is everything BUT a zero. We are all raiding HEROES!!! Throw your hands in the air like you just don’t care, because even if all of the above mentioned in my post weren’t true, thief is still all kinds of fun to play.

EDIT: Had a thought after posting. Since venoms only share up to 5 targets, that’s all the more reason to bring along 2 THIEVES!!! MUAHAHAHAHA. Coming soon. ALL THIEF RAIDING GROUPS!

Back Pieces are considered armor by the game engine. They get damaged, and eventually break. This doesn’t happen with trinkets or accessories. Armor is typically only crafted by armor crafting disciplines (armorsmith, tailor, leatherworker).

If the puzzle pieces don’t fit, don’t try to force them. No back item should be added to anything but the armor crafting disciplines unless it’s something discipline specific (like the actual crafting-discipline specific back pieces). Crafting a stove to put on your back fits a chef far more than it does a tailor, for example.

What doesn’t make sense is for an artificer/chef/jeweler/etc. to craft a large, metal protective piece that offers no innate magical properties.

On the topic of large, metal protective pieces though, I wouldn’t mind being able to craft custom cod-pieces. Sometimes the cloth diaper on certain armor sets just ruins the overall aesthetic for me. Wouldn’t mind being able to cover it up.

I’ve found that I’m having a good deal more fun playing a non-traditional (sounds weird since it’s not even released yet) Revenant. I’m running the traditional Shiro line, but also running Ventari.

I’ve opted to NOT use dual swords, but instead staff and hammer, staff being my primary dps weapon. It offers me condi-cleanse and blocks for the odd occasion that I can’t dodge, and still gives me good dps with AA and skill 2. When channeling Impossible Odds, I can melt pretty much everything in seconds flat (typically before I run out of energy). I save skill 5 for 2 situations. I use it to engage from a distance (can also use Shiro’s utility skill 8 to shadowstep in if you want), and to single out an enemy. Using skill 5 will drag a single enemy with me, interrupting them in the process, and push other enemies out of the way.

If I’m going up against something that will 1-shot up close, then I switch to hammer, and start range-smashing.

Hope this provides some help in dealing with the new mobs. I find them fun. I had to go into the Rev, see what worked, and what didn’t. This is what I came up with to provide both survivability and damage simultaneously. It’s also the first character I’ve ever ran 100% zerker gear on and actually enjoyed playing.

Beta tests are about finding those bugs which you talked about, and reporting them to the devs so that they can be fixed before release.

Very few people actually play a beta thinking it’s a representation of the final product. At least for me, I expect a buggy, unfinished product when I go into a beta. That’s how I can help ensure that the game is smooth and polished at release.

Granted… Not everything will get caught, but it helps. Bugs will exist no matter how much you test something, because in a limited time span, it’s impossible to test and retest every aspect of everything until a bug shows up and the cause is found.

Beta tests also help with balance. It was feedback from the previous revenant stress test that pushed the tipping point for weapon swap, and boosting numbers across the board.

Whether people should have to pay to do a beta is another discussion altogether, but I’m just addressing the point you made about lost progress and bugs

EDIT: Case and point is the WoW Wrath of the Lich King beta I did all those years ago. It was a soggy mess. I ended up putting in over 500 bug reports in the time I spent playing it though, and 90% of those I saw get fixed before release. The other 10% were minor things that did eventually end up getting fixed shortly after release.

ScribeTheMad.7614:

Sylvari, already have a name picked out that only fits a Sylvari, but I keep finding human looks that are acceptable.
I can’t think of any decent human names though, so I really need them to open up Sylvari before I find a human I really want to keep :/
I hate naming humans >.<

Human First Names:

Female:
Amarantha
Baylie
Catibrie
Diranna
Evelynn
Faelyn
Graylinn
Helia
Indri
Jacei
Kithrel (Truly, cross-gender, but I needed something to put here)
Lana
Mayve
Nanya
Opel
Pollie
(I dare you to come up with an even remotely feminine Q name)
Reith
Synthri
Terra
Ulmria
Valla
(There are no X names…. I refuse them all!)
Yvie
Zoulna

Male:
Anton
Berric
Corin
Devrin
Echlin
Foust (Love this name)
Garric
Hans (Hate this name)
Ikarin
Jorin
Kolvin
Lannic
Merrik
Norrin
Okrin
Preth
(Q’s are hard, mm’kay)
Rathni
Seni
Terrance
Ubrik
Varik
Warren
Xythor (I had to come up with SOMEthing… alright?)
Yvan
Zoltan

Human Last Names:

Cross-Gender:

Pick any modern first name, and add “son” to the end for something generic
(Mathison, Jameson, Davison, Orison, etc. (You get the idea))

Some of the first-names listed above can also double as last names if you get creative enough.

EDIT: My personal recommendations… Amarantha Graylinn and Foust Kolvin

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Ok. I’ve found this that makes it sound like the Mastery system is character based in progression and not account based.

That quote says it’s pretty much the same as WvW. Which tells me, coupled with all the other links provided here, that masteries will indeed be account-bound.

It’s both a weekend, and a holiday weekend at that. It’s not uncommon for gaming companies to slow their news releases and communications altogether on holiday weeks. Couple that with the fact that they don’t even work weekends, and you end up with no news.

Last week was the big patch, and the week before that we got a deluge of information of guild halls. It’s literally only been 2 weeks since we’ve gotten new information. Be patient. It’ll come when it’ll come.

I remember a time when info was being released for the original release of GW2, and we had a 2 MONTH gap in information. (Between the pre-purchase start and release-date announcement i believe). Then it’s like we opened a giant present and got everything at once. It seriously felt like Christmas day for me.

All I’m trying to say is, be patient. Sometimes it’s truly worth the wait.

You could always just do what i do. My mouse has 2 side buttons. One of them is my push-to-talk for TS, the other is bound as auto-run. I find it incredibly convenient being abls to toggle my run and camera from the same hand, freeing up my other for the 1-9 keys

While not exactly what you’re asking for, it is by far the best solution I’ve found. Hope this helps!

Just to be on the safe side, try moving them to your backpack and trying. If that doesn’t work, I’m out of ideas :/

Correct me if I’m wrong… but those look like invisible bags you’re using for every bag slot. Anything stored in them won’t show up for vendors, trading post, or guild banks (if I’m remembering correctly, been awhile since I’ve looked)

Personally, I die the least on my thief, but I’ve got her built to constantly be regaining health in combat. Sometimes it isn’t the class, but rather how creative you want to get with their build

“The Nightmare Before Wintersday”

I’m on to you, Tim Burton
glares

You appear to have an exclamation point fetish….

On a more serious note, however, this point of power really is special. It’s special in the fact that once this meta is removed, nobody else will be able to attain it. That, in its very definition, is special. It is unique, and limited-time. I’m sure if you have an un-opened collector’s edition copy of an old game (Let’s just use Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time as an example) just sitting in your house, it is very special to you, and yet it provides less function for you than this obelisk shard does.

Even if the item in question holds no monetary value, it still holds sentimental value. You’ll be able to tell stories about it to your friends and family every time you start to reminisce on times past.

Scarlet can do all of this, because she has…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_DqV1xdf-Y

I’m surprised nobody’s brought this up yet…. The underwater vista for the lake shows that whole central area… You get to see the krait structures and the slave cages. There ARE vines wrapping around those structures, but those have been there from release.

As reference, see: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Lair_of_the_Seawitch.jpg

That image was added in 2012, so unless the devs have been planning Scarlet and her involvement with the krait blood witch for a full year in advance, I doubt the vines have any relation to her. Granted, I’m not ruling out her involvement, but I AM saying that nothing currently in the game gives away anything beyond the fact that:

1:) The central area of the lake is blocked off.
2:) The krait have been harvesting materials, and forcing their slaves to construct something.
3:) We know that something to be an obelisk due to the relation between the preview image and the concept art, as well as the leaked screenshot.
4:) This is somehow related to the Blood Witch.

It is my speculation that the Blood Witch is finally dead, and the krait of the area are constructing the obelisk as a way to signify her passing, and in doing so are going to, not only harness her power by using the obelisk to capture it and distribute it amongst their higher ranks, but also that they’re attracting some unwanted attention.

Due to the proximity of the Kessex Hills area to the coastline, I’ve always theorized that there was a hidden cave system linking it to the ocean, and that the krait were using it for passage, but were concealing it from non-krait. Perhaps the distribution of magic is drawing a Leviathon from the coast in towards the source (aka, the obelisk), and will show itself in the hidden passages (which may be a part of an underwater path in [what I personally believe will be] a new dungeon).

I may be getting my hopes up, and needlessly speculating, but in reality, half the fun of getting an in-game preview of the next patch is the speculation it creates, and I won’t be upset if I’m wrong. I just hope we get something as equally awe inspiring

Mickey Frogeater.1470:

ThiBash.5634:

frostyraziel.1854:

You guys are forgetting that the Mad King is not evil, he just likes to have fun. Remember that he helped us stop Dhuum and Joko at one point.

Have you read his history? He’s not a good guy. The main reason why he ‘helped’ stop Joko was because he disliked him more than Joko disliked Turai.

Dare I mention that he didn’t stop Joko but instead aggravated him.

There’s a reason the Guild Wars interviews(nemely http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/11/11/costume-design-and-hints-of-whats-to-come-massivelys-intervie/) say that the Lunatic Court’s attempts to bring Mad King Thorn back to Tyria “may be attracting the attention of someone else who would like to return to Tyria”.

Palawa Joko doesn’t WANT to come back… He’s been back for 250 years. He came back in Nightfall. I’m guessing that the someone else that they mentioned was either the Bloody Prince, or someone more along the lines of Vizier Khilbron. Either way, it makes for interesting story implications.

Considering Prince Edrick’s style, I’m going to guess that he shows up as a permanent LS villain. A Joker type if you will…. Scarlet will fall in love with him, and obey his every command, truly making her the Harley Quinn of GW2.

Bash the Dragon!!!!

Remember everyone. It’s not each other we should be fighting. Instead, bash the dragon. Take your frustrations out on his rotted hide!

I was referencing way back in the day when raids like Naxxramas (the first version) were still a thing.

But still. The whole overflows thing? That won’t be a big issue once the people that don’t like this type of content stop coming. When it boils down to 80 or so people. THEN it will really be able to be played as (hopefully) intended.

I would appreciate an invite. I’d like the chance to see how the fight looks with a good amount of organization.

Unlike most of the posts on here since the patch hit, I’m not going to complain about the difficulty of Tequatl now. Instead, I’m going to tell you how I view this update.

Tequatl was once an open-world “boss”. However, he has turned into something that I haven’t seen in an MMO for quite some time. He’s now an open-world RAID. Back in the GOOD days of WoW, there were several open-world raids. They were spectacular, and a thrill to participate in. They were challenging, and it took both skill and coordination to kill them. Granted, I don’t want to see any of the concepts of modern day WoW introduced in this game. That would be terrible. However… Some of the classic bits of content that made the game good? I’m okay with that.

That being said… It seems like most of the people complaining are upset that they can no longer treat him the same way as with every other world “boss”. Even after the buffs, Jormag and Shatterer are still essentially “point and shoot” bosses. I’m fine with 90% of the open-world bosses being this way. Especially the ones in lower level areas. However, I personally think that Jormag and Shatterer should be brought up to the level that Tequatl is now at. Leave Tequatl’s difficulty where it is. Keep the challenge there for those of us that want it. Leave the better loot tied to him. Leave the rest of the open-world “bosses” the way they are for those that can’t appreciate the feeling of accomplishing what so many people have called impossible.

And before you say I’m “elitist” or “lucky”. It’s been 5 years since I’ve been in a raid (5 years WoW-sober, and going strong!), so I’m a bit rusty on the “don’t stand in the way of the giant wall of death” maneuvering, but I’m getting back into the swing of things.

Also… I’m on Northern Shiverpeaks. Many of you will say that I’ll never get to see him die unless I guest over to a larger server, but I’ve got faith that, once the people that are tired of the event move back to the easier content, I’ll see the others on my server that appreciate the challenge as much as I do band together to form an unstoppable force of ultimate “Tequatl killitude”. All it takes on my part, is a continued effort to learn the fight a bit better in the face of constant failure and death, and the patience to wait for everyone that needs to do so, to band together to make sure he dies.

Those of you that are with me, throw your hands in the air for challenging content!

I’m on Northern Shiverpeaks

Having the same issue. I was able to pick up the items I put in a buy-order for before bed last night, but I can’t post any new buy-orders or post my spoils for resale. I’m holding out hope that it will be resolved soon.

I’m experiencing the same issue.

After I get dropped, if I try to re-enter the dungeon, it even goes so far as to stick me in a different instance from the rest of my group, so that if they go back to Dessa’s Lab I’m no longer with them unless they back all the way to LA. This has caused numerous headaches for my guild tonight.

I would LOVE to experience Fractals since I’ve heard so many positive things. However, I’ve been in 3 different fractals, and made it to the final boss of each, yet have only been able to claim the chest from 1 of these fights because of an unfortunate disconnect. The first disconnect was from my end, the second was a server hiccup