Guild Wars 2

SoPP.7034:

15/Quaggan’s

How do target yourself?

/why oh why can we not display our own nameplate/guild/title yet!? This is the only MMO I’ve ever played that doesn’t allow this simple feature. What good’s my title if I can never see it?

Dude, the anticipation is killing me! I literally check back to this thread like 4 times a day hoping to hear something!

I was super pumped, but now I find myself hoping my listing checks out as sufficiently “not sketchy.” I know that because I bought 2 stacks of 250, I ended up buying an extra 129 skins on top of the 371 I needed to break 5g, which could have thinned the market a little, allowing my relistings to sell more quickly; but those 129 ultimately proved insignificant because at least 200 of the giant stack of 4.1k skins that were listed after mine at 2.30s were also bought up.

That said, I know that if I had counted my entire accidental set of 500 skins as part of this contest instead of just the first 371, the average cost of each skin would have gone up a little, which would have lowered my ROI a little, assuming they all sold at the same price. I can’t know by how much because I just never relisted those 129 skins, but it would probably fall pretty darn close to ficitiousacct’s 67.7

But factor in the fact that ficitious’s investment ultimately did prove to be superior, even if he played it a bit safe with his sell listing, and I suppose he would deserve to win too.

Also, major kudos to some of the other investors for decidedly not cheating when it would have been (apparently) super easy to. It looked Inril could have bought up just a measly 50g worth of ornate watchwork boxes, for example, and given himself the win. It would essentially amount to spending 50g to buy a freaking awesome real life sword.

There were a couple other cases where it looked like this was possible without spending an exorbitant amount of money (less than 100g), but honor has prevailed! Again, mad props!

It looks like this contest has been one big gold sink for Anet so far lol. Almost none of our investments paid off, and we all had to pay the 15% transaction fee.

Even mine was pure luck it seems, as it turned out to be a poor investment so far, even if my sell listings sold for a modest ROI of 69.88%, because the price has since dipped back down to where it was before the patch. I think the only people who bought my relistings must have been other investors who gobbled them up before the patch. Since the patch, people have just been relisting them at a rate much higher than the demand.

And after the quick success of my Toy Sword Skins, I invested in 4,000 Bell Focus Skins. That’s looking like a full 40g down the drain :/

fictitiousacct.1782:

Wow, looks like i could have sold them for 4s each. O_o;

[(Listed selling price)(Qty sold) – (Total Purchase Price)] / (Total Purchase Price) x 100%
[(2.75s)(305) – (5g20c)] / (5g20c) x 100% = 67.7%

But it could have been 143.9% if I sold it at 4s each.

haha, you were my benchmark for what I wanted my ROI to get over. That’s why I sold my item with an ROI of 69.88% if it went through.

I looked through every entry on here and broke them down into 3 categories: those I thought were reasonable, those I thought were far fetched but possible, if unlikely, and those I thought were just crazy. Wanting to play it safe, I only wanted to come up with an ROI for my item that surpassed all the “reasonable” entries, as I saw them.

I’m really crossing my fingers right now that none of the more adventurous rune/sigil investments come through!

Edited my post to add screenshots showing all my items sold for an ROI of 69.88%.

Well here are my images and my spreadsheet. You can determine whether or not they’re valid.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/FPD4tUb.jpg[/img]
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UcDa_SExJQHzh6siKubN5brrfInOn1c-nuApDKHHN6Q/edit?usp=sharing
[img]http://i.imgur.com/hhID4Cq.png[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/R8MzXyn.png[/img]

For the first image, read the prices from bottom to top in each individual section to correspond to my spreadsheet. Also, zooming out a bit on your browser probably helps (usually ctrl+minus).

Item: Toy Sword Skin
Total Purchase Amount: 5g00s12c
Quantity: 371
Sell Price 2s29c
ROI 69.88%

Edit to ask how you directly link images on these boards, since the [img] html tags offered in the formatting options apparently do not do the trick.

Post Patch Edit: Looks like my items already sold (last night before the patch even hit). Screenshots are below.

Part of me wishes I was a little more daring with my price, but I was faced with a stone wall of 4,000+ toy sword skins already listed for 2.3 silver. I DO believe they will get bought up in time, but I wasn’t certain all 4k of those would get burned through in just these next 3 days.

As for the number I settled on, I was pleased with my prospective ROI of 69.88%. I looked over every single poster’s listings and categorized them as either “reasonable,” “far fetched,” or “crazy.” I ignored everything I considered to be far fetched or crazy, as I was unwilling to take similar risks. I mean, they very well may end up paying off – particularly those of runes or sigils, as nobody knew what the changes were going to be, making them complete wildcards – but I just wanted to play it safe.

I didn’t quite go with the one dollar Price is Right bid, but I did look at each of the 4 listings I deemed reasonable and wanted to come up with an ROI above those. Thus my benchmark to surpass was fictitiousacct’s 67.68% ROI.

Anyway, here are my 2 “items sold” pages that show my 371 toy sword skins selling:

http://i.imgur.com/LFKVW5m.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/1elKOMF.jpg

Good luck to everyone else!

Question:

I forgot to take my initial screenshot of the total, as I had to buy more than 250 of my item to get over 5g, and I hastily moved on to the next stack. I also ended up buying another stack of 250 (because these are items I decided I wanted to invest in anyway). The 500 total probably puts them slightly over 7.5g. Can I just post screenshots of my “items I’ve bought” page accompanied by a spreadsheet that adds up the first X items until the 5g total is reached? (Believe me, this is way more work than I wanted to do too…)

Elbegast.6970:

Malchior.5042:

Elbegast.6970:

@Josh Foreman
Three attempts are my limit. If I can’t kill a new boss in three attempts, I turn my focus to preventing others from completing the content. A single player with a proper strategy can shut down an entire group on Tequatl, Marionette and Wurm. Going by your example I could simply state that I am forcing those players to become better by making their event far more difficult than need be. It’s a win for everyone, right?

Elbegast, Leave this game. Now.

It is not designed for such blatant selfishness and disregard for community involvement, interaction, and teamwork.

Then why do the mechanics, in an event designed for 100+ players, allow for a single player to foil the attempt? Answer me that.

Players like myself aren’t the problem. The mechanics that give players like myself the power to do what we do are what needs to be addressed.

It’s not the stabber’s fault. It’s the bloody knife’s fault! Send it to prison…or the junk yard or something.

Seriously, as far as MMOs go, GW2’s a shining gem as far as cooperation versus competition in the open world goes. It has been virtually impossible for players to troll each other compared to any other MMO out there. You are deflecting your own personal issues onto a game that has far less significant issues in what can only be presumed to be yet another attempt to troll.

I haven’t experienced disconnects, but I’ve had a solid .3 sec skill lag since the patch, no matter what zone I’m in. I could be standing in an empty area of the Grove and my abilities take longer than usual to activate. It’s very noticeable, considering how fluid GW2’s combat usually feels.

The OP needs to be edited to knock a zero off that 1500g number. Each recipe only costs 10 HQ fangs/skulls/nougats. It’s still a lot, but 150g is nowhere near 1500g.

Savoy.6824:

Thank god all you get for beating her is a mini and some chievo points. They could have done something stupid like stick a cool weapon skin behind it.

Do you really think that 100% of players should have access to every single weapon/armor skin in the game? One of the major complaints people have about GW2 is that the most significant rewards (armor and weapons) don’t show off player accomplishments – partially because there are so few legit challenges to be overcome in GW2, and partially because none of those challenges offer unique rewards that might actually separate some players from the pack.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Scott McGough.6897:

Glad you enjoyed the story—thanks very much!

As for Rox’s, she’s unusually superstitious for a charr (or anyone else, really). A lot of soldiers are superstitious, but Rox was ahead of the curve before she survived the accident that killed her warband. Since she survived on almost pure luck (she was out of the mine when the disaster happened), she’s become even moreso.

Cheers, and thanks again,

I understand her belief in her trinkets, but what’s up with the spitting? O.o?

I think he (the writer) was just trying to make up a physical ritual that could be associated with certain superstitions. I agree it came off as bizarre and jarring and overall felt a bit forced.

KarateKid.5648:

Fiontar.4695:

…Speaking of special currency, now we don’t just need special currency to get nice skins, we need that currency AND gold!…

This one concerned me when I read this thread yesterday, but now I have a different concern. Farming vets in a group and sneaking up on the various chests, I see gold will be no problem for those interested in the vendor loot, skins, etc. I’m not concerned about that anymore.

Where I am concerned is if few people spend all that gold… inflation is now definitely a potential from this event.

All that negative said – I find the vet farming a ton of fun. I’m sure if you check back in a few days, I will have grown bored of it, but the legendary fights aren’t nearly as fun to me as the massive number of respawning vets.

As for Fiontar’s quote, it’s basically just all gold, as the current “special currency” is tradeable. Tacking 200 sprockets onto the purchase basically increases the gold cost by 1.6 at current prices. If he was mad about the patch-by-patch currencies – which was really an aside to his primary post – he need not be this time around. This patch’s skins are the most casual accessible to date, only costing a few hours worth of gold. Of course, on the flip side, accessibility diminishes the intrinsic value of a skin. So there’s that.

Concerning the zerg farming, I personally hate the mechanic and find it really hard to see what people who supposedly enjoy it actually enjoy about it. As another poster said, trying to pry this answer out of someone is like pulling teeth. Every single zerg, no matter the context of the event, feels exactly the same to me. It’s like I’m just rolling around practicing my rotation against a bunch of target dummies while spamming my loot key. I’ve consistently found that the more players involved, the less involved GW2’s combat becomes. 1-3 players feels like the sweet spot to me as far as tactics, mechanics, reaction and satisfaction go. As you add more players from there, it just continues to go downhill until you eventually reach the quota on chaos and spam.

Murderous Clown.9723:

I had been thinking how to word my response for a while. Thanks for putting it better than I probably would have done Homitu.

The only thing I’ll add is that the Skritt burglar and Modus Sceleris are very much blink and you’ll miss it events. If a whole chain was added I believe far more people would notice (and appreciate) it.

Thank you for the compliment It’s always an honor when someone actually bothers to read one of my too-lengthy posts!

I think the Skritt burglars are their own interesting entities. It’s completely random whether or not you encounter them. I only just encountered my very first one last night, ironically, and I spend a considerable amount of time in the open world. So I finally got one of those two achievements, my last two in the explorers category. Who knows how long until the next one, another 6 months maybe??

If you do notice it and participate in it, though, I’d say it’s a fairly unique and memorable experience. Nothing amazing, but memorable. Combined with the achievement and loot bags, it’s something players definitely talk about in map/guild chat the first time they experience them.

On a side note, all of this stuff would be so much more shareable if we could link achievements we’ve earned or otherwise show them off to others.

Jamais vu.5284:

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

[…]

Homitu.7216:

Finally, even when players do find this hidden content, unfortunately, you’re probably not going to hear about it. Once again, I empathize with you as a developer. You must want so badly to indulge in the satisfaction of hearing players rave about their discoveries – which, I assure you, do happen – but you can’t hear what is said in in-game chat, or over a VOIP, or in personal PMs like AIM, which is where the majority of these moments occur.

You’re putting only the best bits into the spotlight. Most which he meant was little DEs, not some sprawling mini-dungeons. You won’t “rave” on VOIP or write PMs about a little DE that you might not even know wasn’t there before.
That’s what he’s addressing. And I agree with him. Untargeted, sporadic inclusion of DEs is a waste of resources. It doesn’t generate anything, not publicity, not customer satisfaction, nothing.

Yeah, I put the best bit in the spotlight precisely because I thought that mini-dungeon was the very best in the game. If the most awesome secret addition didn’t generate a buzz (and it was truly buzz worthy), then Anet will never get that “reaction” AnthonyOrdon seemed to be looking for, which was the point I was trying to make.

It should be noted, however, that just because the Dredgehaunt mini dungeon was the pinnacle of all the hidden gems doesn’t mean it was the only really amazing secret update. There were literally dozens of the best jumping puzzles and mini-dungeons in the game that were added post-release. So much so that I actually suspect many of them were ready for release, but were “saved” for a “major update” shortly after release. Either way, we’re not just talking about minor dynamic events here or there. They put some really great stuff in, and I think they were looking for a chain of major reactions from the community, but, for all the reasons I detailed in my dual-post, they just would never have gotten that kind of reaction.

I agree about the events though, and to that end, I somewhat (though not entirely) disagree with Fiontar. I think they could add literally 500 new events (which would be a metric crapton of development work) spread throughout every zone in the world, and players would barely notice at first, and then barely care afterward. It would cause enough curiosity to roam around for a few weeks and revisit several zones, but it would essentially still feel like the same game. Not only that, but the overall amount of content in the game wouldn’t change. The amount of “stuff” to do in the open world would remain almost exactly the same. A huge update like this might invigorate players’ desires to go back out and explore the open world again for a few weeks, but after that they’d be as done with it as they were before the update.

Honestly, every time I revisit an old zone, I inevitably encounter several events I hadn’t seen before. Such is the nature of dynamic events. They could have added them in recently, I’d never know – and again no praise would be given to Anet. Given this fact, I still think the game is young enough that Anet would be a little mistaken to substantially revamp current zones. Deleting parts of permanent content so soon just strikes me as bad design. It’s way too early for WoW’s Cataclysm expansion to hit Tyria.

I’m not all warm and fuzzy about the current temporary content either; I have many praises and complaints about the updates in general. These are just my thoughts on this specific part of this subject.

Continued from above… 5000 character limit = not forums for me

To provide an anecdote, when I found the Dredgehaunt Cliffs mini dungeon back in February, I freaking went out and told every single person I knew about it. I must have brought 10 people there on at 7 different trips, and none of them had ever been there before. It was mind-blowing the first time I figured out how to open the door and get in, and everyone I brought seemed to feel the same way. But because all of our excitement basically occurred in in-game chat, there’s really no way you guys would know just how satisfied we all were by the dungeon.

I know that, based on some of Colin Johannson’s statements before and after the release of GW2, you guys were really excited to see how fans would react to all your secret hidden updates that you gradually toss in here and there, but, unfortunately, I just don’t think you’ll ever get the public reaction you’d like. Unless it’s something mind-blowing like the Dredgehaunt mini-dungeon, and someone posts about it on Reddit, and it makes the front page and blows up from there, you’re kind of out of luck in the gratification department – and that does suck for you guys. But know that these hidden gems are appreciated by a great many players, once they find them. At least every reaction I’ve heard has been overwhelmingly positive. GW2’s open world and insane variety of gameplay that can occur there is the best thing it has going for it. Please don’t ignore it!

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

Thanks for the feedback everyone and please keep it coming. Personally, I find that one of the hardest parts of being a desginer on GW2 Live is coming to terms with the fact that not every update will please every player. We do our best to deliver appealing content with enough variety to keep as many people as satisfied as possible. And If there’s one thing we can do consistently, it’s improving the experience of said content each time. I think we made some great strides with the Jubilee. I think we have a lot of room to keep growing. But our team isn’t done yet. We’ve got some exciting things coming later this month. Things you’ve never seen in this game before.

But in the mean time, please keep telling us what you’re thinking. We are listening. Not only to what you’re saying but also to what you’re not. The very first living world team actually did the thing some of you have called for. Some 40 or so permanent events were added around the game in our very first content update. They were met with little interest or fanfare. Granted, Halloween may have stolen the show. But those events are still in the game today. I’ve seen very little reaction to them, however, positive or negative. Despite this, there are many events I would still like to add. Many zones and bosses I would love to revisit. As we get better at the living world, I strongly suspect we’ll have room to get around to them as well. Assuming that’s what our players really want. You are all the second half of the collaborative process, so thanks for helping!

I think you may have the mistaken perception that the hidden added content wasn’t received well or at all for a few reasons.

First, as you said, it was part of the Halloween update and most of it was barely mentioned in the patch notes (which is cool; hidden = amazing when, as a player, you stumble upon it randomly in the world for the first time, but, as a developer, you have to realize that this lack of direction is going to lead to a lack of discovery for quite some time for the majority of the population). Because there was so much more going on with the Halloween patches, which were released periodically over the course of the final ten days of October, everyone was completely wrapped up in that content and didn’t even realize other stuff was added, which again, I know was your intent – you wanted the stuff to be hidden surprises.

Second, the game was still new at the time. Brand new. Many players were still leveling their first characters. Others who were on their second or third characters, were still trying new zones for the first time. If they encountered any of these new mini dungeons or puzzles, they would have had no idea that they were added in a patch and were not present at release. There would have been no specific reason for players to shout out “OMG these hidden updates from Anet have been amazing!” I know as I’ve gradually uncovered many of the hidden dungeons and puzzles (between, say, January and August), I’ve looked them up online to see what people have said about them, and I’m constantly shocked to see that it was “added in”, usually during the October update. Without googling it, I would have assumed it had been in the game since release.

Third, this content truly was hidden. I had 100% complted many of these zones several times and still didn’t find nearly 40% of all jumping puzzles or the majority of things labeled “mini dungeons.” Again, this is a great thing because it makes finding them feel all the more rewarding; but once again, as a developer, you must realize and live with the fact that this will result in minimal recognition by the community, unless huge quantities of player were suddenly made aware of an awesome secret dungeon at once. It’s a give and take on your part. Also, I didn’t find many of the hidden puzzles naturally; I didn’t experience them at all until some of the recent living story achievements guided me to them, and then again after the achievement point rewards were implemented, which caused me to go hunting for more points, some of the easiest of which (and most fun) was to systematically go through the “explorer” and “jumping puzzle” tabs. Hidden = the average person doesn’t find them.

Finally, even when players do find this hidden content, unfortunately, you’re probably not going to hear about it. Once again, I empathize with you as a developer. You must want so badly to indulge in the satisfaction of hearing players rave about their discoveries – which, I assure you, do happen – but you can’t hear what is said in in-game chat, or over a VOIP, or in personal PMs like AIM, which is where the majority of these moments occur.

Continued below…

Greetings all ye prospective guilds,

I’m an MMO player with about a decade of experience now (began with FFXI in 2003), and I’m looking for an active guild so I can continue to enjoy the awesome GW2 experience! While I generally enjoy a smaller, more intimate guild setting, I think I’m looking for something a bit bigger now – though certainly not one of those chaotically large guilds with hundreds of players. The reason I’m searching for a change is because each of the few small guilds I’ve been in since release have basically all dwindled down to nothing. We can get into more detail in PMs if you wish to know more.

What I’m looking for:

A strong PvE focus – While I’m totally down to sPvP and Wv3 from time to time, my main focus in GW2 has been PvE. I’d like people to run dungeons, living story content, jumping puzzles, or even just map completion with. I’m in GW2 for the adventure, and adventures are always more fun with other people!

Good players – In past games, I’ve generally rolled with the “hardcore” crowd. You know, competing for server first progression, BIS gear, the works. While no such PvE scene exists in GW2, I’d still like to find a guild who is used to running Arah explorable and high levels of Fractals. All that said, I am much more “play time casual” now, not having quite as much time to dedicate to MMOs as I used to.

Guild Content – Rushes/bounties/puzzles/etc.

Fun – When it comes down to it, that’s what this game is about. Guild hosted events are a huge plus. I’ve never really RPed before, but I’m not opposed to trying.

I’m really just looking for active, good players to continue to play with because, well, I find myself losing interest in the game when I’m forced to constantly play alone when all my current guildies no longer log on. I stopped playing for a few months once because of this, and I don’t want that to happen again.

If you think your guild matches my search criteria, and if you think I might be a good fit for your guild, feel free to respond to this post, PM me in game, or send me in game mail!

Thanks,

Homitu

On the other hand, imagine all the rage that would come from players if all of the climactic moments were soloable. I daresay it would cause several times the complaints in this thread.

It’s just another example of not being able to please everyone. Developers just need to acknowledge such circumstances, put on their thick skin and ignore most complaints like this.

Heimlich.3065:

I’m sure they’ll change the tooltips to reflect current behavior (eventually).

That is the WORST! And without further explanation, it always makes players feel short-changed. Surely developers have to recognize the mood this creates? I feel like with an extra 2 hours work, I could create some awesome patch notes that players would actually feel good about. I wish I was a part of a game development team sometimes :/

Link to original thread, not that there was much discussion before it was closed: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Whatever-happened-to-the-beta-PM-sound-effect/first#post683624

In short, I’m wondering what happened to the /say and /whisper (it might have also been used for guild chat as well, I can’t remember) sound effect that was present in the GW2 betas.

My first thread was closed simply because the mod thought my question had been answered, but I don’t believe it was. To clarify, I do currently hear a sound effect when I receive whispers, but it’s definitely not the same one from beta, which can be heard in this video at minute 5:55 when the player says “grats”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8X3JSg9t2pY&t=5m54s

So I guess I now have a new question: is this the sound effect you guys currently hear when people talk around your or whisper you?

If not, I would ask devs at least for an in game option to enable/disable it.

2 observations:

1) I find that having one or two classes that provide strong group sustain, regardless of class, can be tremendously useful in dungeons. It’s when everyone is left to only rely on their own utility heal that groups get worn down and die a lot. Support elementalists can fulfill this role as good (or arguably better) than anyone. I play a 0/0/10/30/30 ele, and I find groups often love me. Once the players you’re playing with learn to not step out of the circles from your water fields, you actually become a very effective healer. As I’m sure others have mentioned, combos through your water fields are of utmost importance. You can perform 3 blast finishers yourself, and you should be getting other players to perform their own combos through them. Position them so rangers/thieves are firing projectiles through them. Toss them on melee who are performing leaps and whirls, etc.

2) Your observation that damage is appreciated is apt. The best groups I’ve been in have had tremendous dps. You really notice it when you’re playing with players who can dish out the damage.

The difference with the named armor is its appearance from the crafted stuff. Note, however, that all of the named armor of a particular armor class has the same appearance. I’m at work or I’d provide a link to screenshots. The names are usually references to GW1 characters. I personally don’t like either the light level 80 crafted exotic set or the named stuff, so I go after particular dungeon peices and other transmuted pieces, usually some cultural armor.

Baladir.2736:

Homitu.7216:

…….I don’t know what more to say other than the class is seriously not the problem. Some classes are just more intuitive to some players. Warrior might just make sense to you. Ele makes sense to me. I have an 80 of both as well, and I personally find it significantly easier to sustain and survive on my ele, although that’s probably because my ele is support specced. ……..

That struck a chord when I read that. I have always played casters in every game and they always wear light armor. The tactics are very similar across all the different variations of the class as is the terminology, “glass cannon” for example.

For players who are not familar with fantasy light armor wearing casters ie. wizards, mages, sorcerers etc. , the Elementalist as GW2 implements the profession must be a big shock, especially with PvP and the entirely new level of difficulty and playstyle that involves. But, still, there appear to be more players than I would have expected having issues.

In all fairness, this has to be the hardest profession to play well, in all the different venues of the game, that I have ever played.

See, I don’t think it’s as simple as being in a mage mindset versus warrior mindset. I mean, traditionally that means casting spells from a distance using mana versus powerhouse melee attacks. I think you have to throw those archetype preconceptions out the window in GW2. You can play ele in GW2, for all intents and purposes, as if it were a physical warrior type class in another game, right up in the enemy’s face. What changes, because this is GW not any of your traditional games, is you have to execute your combos properly and learn how to avoid damage, be it through blind rotations, dodging, kiting or timing dazes.

When I said that ele “just makes sense to me” (as I suspected warrior just kind of clicked for the OP), I was talking about GW2’s ele with all of its specific ways to avoid damage and all of the attunement swapping. Now I do suspect that some past gaming experiences could have prepared me for the various mechanics of the GW2 elementalist, but I can’t be sure. Maybe switching forms for years as a druid in WoW or playing Nidalee as my main champion in LoL for years made attunement swapping feel more natural to me. Maybe Vindictus and Dragon’s Nest prepared me for mobile combat and damage avoidance.

When I say the elementalist in GW2 just makes sense to me, I mean that to me, it actually feels like the easiest class to play effectively. It just makes sense!

Darx.9842:

Theres a good chance you’ll see this so I’m going to say it.

Legendaries need to be less about money and more about an epic journey. An awesome difficult event or solo/group instance to obtain a precursor or gift would be alot more fun than what we got.

But it’s good to know you guys are listening and are planning to make changes.

Thank you!

Exactly this, and this is something that can be said about many rewards in the game. Right now, one of my biggest issues, and perhaps one of the larger reasons for loss of motivation for myself and others is that every reward indicates nothing more than financial wealth. Nothing represents a significant accomplishment in any particular area; and no reward has a lasting memory of an epic journey associated with it.

It’s essentially free if you have the mats farmed and if you buy insignias/inscriptions at a good price on the TP. At least that was my experience with the 4 characters I leveled, taking 2 professions on each of them as I leveled. If anything, I’d say I might have sunk a little under 1g for each character (so 50s per profession net loss).

If you were to just buy absolutely everything, I’d guess around 4-5g. If you sell the yellows you make from 375-400 instead of using them, you can make back a solid 50s profit.

1) You obtain leather by salvaging leather armor you find (which you should currently do for most blue/white gear you find—greens tend to be more profitable if you just vendor them or if they happen to be going for a decent price on the trading post.) It’s all a function of gold though. For example, if you can vendor a pair of leather gloves for 60 copper, or you can salvage those same gloves for 1 or 2 leather scraps, which sell for 12c each on the TP, you’re better of vendoring them and buying 5 leather from the trading post. If you can’t find the leather, just set out farming/playing the game naturally with a money making goal, and once you achieve that, use the money to buy the leather you need.

2) You level crafting by discovering recipes. When you discover a new recipe, you’re level will shoot up significantly, sometimes 3 or 4 levels at a time. Each recipe for the professions you chose will require 1 insignia/inscription and 2 gear components, all of which you learn how to craft naturally when you reach a new tier (levels 75, 150, 225, 300). You make insignias/inscriptions by using the 6 fine materials you gain by killing mobs, the things like vials of blood, fangs or bones. You make the components by using the materials associated with your craft (leather, ore or cloth).

For a super quick summary, each crafting tier basically goes as follows:

*For the first 25 levels, craft as much leather as you can and make all the insignias/inscriptions and armor/weapon components you anticipate needing. You’ll eventually get a feel for how many you’ll need with experience. This can usually get you 21-22 levels. Get your last 3 levels by discovering 3-4 pieces of gear using the components you made.

*For the next 25 levels, you discover a bunch of blue gear. For armor, it’s usually best to discover everything except chest and leg pieces. So make one set of components for helm, shoulders, arms and feet for each of the inscriptions you have. Discovering 12-15 pieces will usually get you through the these 25 levels.

*For the last 25 levels in a tier, you make green gear. These insignias/inscriptions usually have a lot more mats go into them. It can often be cheaper to place buy orders for the insignias themselves on the TP. You usually only need to discover 8 these items to get to cover your 25 levels. So you can make yourself a full set of gear using your desired inscription and then discover one or 2 remaining pieces.

I loved that sound! It was perfectly subtle so that it wasn’t obtrusive or obnoxious, but it always alerted me when I got a whisper in game (which I tend to keep in a different chat tab). I humbly request that Anet bring it back or at least offer an option to turn it on/off.

Whatever they eventually do (and some measures will need to be taken at some point down the road, however far, to maintain control over player population throughout all zones), it will be imporant that they strike a delicate player population balance. I almost fear overcrowding even more than zone emptiness. The zergs of dozens of players at every event usually totally destroy all otherwise entertaining combat mechanics. Gameplay is reduced to a button mash fest.

The Sylvari stories of homosexual love in turmoil are really no different than the heterosexual stories of love in turmoil in GW2. The style is consistently hyperdramatic. As for the Sylvari, nothing felt forced about it to me. I love the naive innocence of the race and their inhibitions in expressing themselves. Perhaps that quality is what makes their expressions seem more forward to the OP.

I’ve always thought it was silly that eles didn’t have this trait when every other class did as well. I can’t come up with a reason why this would be an actual design decision. This trait doesn’t really factor into the balancing conversation at all. It’s more of a situational quality of life option.

I would seriously look at your skill order and execution before looking for a magical build that will save you. I would suggest that you should easily be able to take out 2 level 77 mobs with zero trait points spent if you execute properly. It won’t even be a fight for your life either. It should be rather easy.

With a staff, you should be able to kite any and every melee mob without ever getting hit. If you’re facing something that charges/knockdowns, use a utility skill that grants stability. If you’re facing ranged, simply drop churning earth and lava font underneath them, time a projectile reflect, and drop water fields beneath yourself, all while auto attacking in between.

With a S/D, you can rotate between 2 (or 3 with a signet) blinds and 2 knockdowns. Once again, you can get away without ever getting hit in many cases. And this has nothing to do with build.

I don’t know what more to say other than the class is seriously not the problem. Some classes are just more intuitive to some players. Warrior might just make sense to you. Ele makes sense to me. I have an 80 of both as well, and I personally find it significantly easier to sustain and survive on my ele, although that’s probably because my ele is support specced. I run power/toughness/healing gear. Traits are 0/0/10/30/30. I can fairly frequently maintain protection (-33% damage taken) between swapping attunements (earth), the trait that grants armor of earth when dropping below a certain HP, the heal that grants a boon based on attunement (fire-might, water-regen, earth-7 seconds of protection, air-swiftness) and the utility skill that grants stability and protection on activate. Don’t underestimate protection for any class. 33 damage reduction is like the most powerful Shield Wall in WoW. Combined with toughness on my gear, I feel like I can take an absolute beating…and then I can heal it all back up in an instant!

But that’s beside the point. My spec isn’t optimal for effectively slaying hordes of enemies as my damage is a bit subpar, but the principle remains true. Regardless of spec, look at your skill usage first and foremost.

Gomoratoad.9867:

I think it’s just an unchangeable thing (never saw an option for it), meant to add a bit of color variation. It seems to act differently depending on hairstyle, too – one of my characters has blue hair that fades to green at the tips, but the fade color changes based on the chosen hair color. One of the other hairstyles always has brown tips though, regardless of hair color.

Ok, thanks. Those were all the same observations I made too. I chose the hairstyle I did because it most closely resembled fire. A variety of hair colors for that hairstyle seem to completely change the color of the hair, including the tips. But the colors I wanted to use, any of the shades of golden yellowish orange, all seem to leave pink tips, which look completely awkward in the color scheme I was going for. It looks great at nighttime with the blazing glow I chose, which seems to temporarily override the pink.

Forcing you to have pink highlights for only a couple hair color choices for that one particular hairstyle seems so bizarre to me that I’m wondering if it’s a bug.

Lenrt.6102:

Some parts of a sylvari’s body glow in the dark. When you choosing the skin colour there is a second set of colours which set the glow. There is an option to switch to day/night during char creation (the icon is a light bulb), use it to preview the glow.

My glow was set to banana, a bright yellow. (I mentioned and accounted for glow in my OP :p)

Weird little bug I encountered. While chopping an Orrian sapling with an orichalcum logging axe, I decided to swap out my Orichalcum mining pick for a mithril mining pick in preparation for mining a nearby mithril ore node. Immediately upon the swap, one of my mithril picks was consumed (went down from 100 to 99—actually saw the number decrease) and even yielding a ruined log instead of an ancient log.

So the game actually confused a mining pick for a logging axe briefly and used the wrong tool. Interestingly, this only occurred during my second swing. The first swing used the orichalcum logging axe, the second the false mithril pick, and the third, without interrupting my harvesting, used an axe again and yielded an ancient log.

Is there an option for this that I’m missing in Sylvari character creation? My male guardian seems to have purple/pink highlights at the tips no matter what hair color I choose. The main chunks of hair change color, but not the tips. The tips also do not seem to correspond with skin color, skin pattern color or glow color, none of which are pink/purple.

If these highlights are simply an unchangeable part of your chosen hairstyle, then so be it. I just want to be sure before I proceed with this character.

Ansatz.6498:

Wow, this thread is a bit ridiculous. Heaven forbid that achievements are actually achievements. Josh the Clock Tower is awesome! I want to see more challenging stuff as part of seasonal events. The easy stuff is fun (Mad King says, scavenger hunt, etc) but there should be something there for those of us who want a challenge to make the seasonal stuff more memorable.

I was not able to finish the Clock Tower during the event, but that is okay. Sometimes being successful at something just takes a lot of practice. If you can’t manage it before the end of the Halloween event, just admit that it is beyond you for now and try again next year. The idea that everything should be achievable by everyone is just bizarre.

The only legitimate complaint is that there were too many people in each Clock Tower instance. It was fun to do it with other people because you could chat and such, but it should have been limited to 5-10 people. It would be less fun doing it on my own, I would think, but having too many people did make it hard to see (although.. most people didn’t make it too far).

Also, they should make it clear which achievements are needed for titles, but that is not really directly a problem with the jump puzzle.

I think it was limited to 10ish people. At least I did it numerous times on different characters and was never grouped with more than 10 or so others. If not then, then definitely no more than 12. I agree that that part was frustrating in the very beginning when you were just starting to learn the early jumps, but once you get past the first 20 seconds, the other players are all but negligible.

I agree with everything else you said. Achievements cease to be achievements at all if everyone can get all of them. I already think far too many achievements are diminished in this way. Then again, we have no way of linking our achievements to other players or no way of being inspected, so it’s kind of all pointless anyway.

Josh Foreman.8250:

Aurelian Omenkind.2470:

Tried 4 or 5 times, then said “nope, I’m’a farm some more candy corns.” Been happy since.

When I made this map I was HOPING that people who aren’t into jumping would do exactly this. They’d see a fun Halloween looking environment, maybe get to the first chest and snag a goodie, then be on their merry way. I see now it was a mistake to make the hardest jumping challenge in the game part of an in-your-face update like a holiday event. I’m not going to stop making difficult stuff like this, they just won’t be so prominent in the future. I honestly hate making people upset and have a very high level of empathy. So it’s been hard hearing all the people that are so angry, frustrated and sad because of something I’ve made. But it’s just another lesson learned.

If not a part of a holiday event, when would you consider to be an appropriate time to add challenging puzzles like this one?

I actually felt that the Clock Tower’s role as a prominent event would have been diminished if it were less challenging. If everyone could go in there and clear it within 15 minutes, it would have been a minimal addition as far as content is concerned. It certainly wouldn’t have been as memorable for both those who completed it and those who did not.

It’s just silly that every item GW2 has players pursue is tied directly to gold and, usually, the mystic forge. Done this way, no item represents anything other than your wealth. It has no meaning. So the halloween event basically = go to Orr and grind DEs to get as much money as possible (or insert any other efficient gold farming technique here).

Please please please give us actual content that we must participate in to earn specific items/titles/skins/vanity whatever (for holiday events and otherwise). At the moment, the only gear set that has any significance whatsoever is the Arah armor, because it’s the only set that comes from a specific source that not absolutely everyone can farm effortlessly.

I totally agree with the observation that if there is a universal token system, armor currently associated with a specific dungeon ceases to represent the particular accomplishment of having cleared that dungeon’s explorable modes several times. On the other hand, for most dungeons this doesn’t mean much. The difficulty of many explorables is somewhat interchangeable. If nothing else, at least one explorable wing in each dungeon tends to be pretty “farmable” (although less so after the DR.) So, with the exception of Arah, wearing gear from a particular dungeon doesn’t exactly come across as an indicator of an impressive accomplishment. And Arah armor does signify a legitimate accomplishment, the way it should be.

I would extend this complaint to the game’s other means of acquiring gear, especially through the mystic forge. In a game without a statistical gear tredmill, a design philosophy I wholeheartedly agree with, I believe players would still be immensely interested in pursuing and showing off their gear if the skins signified a unique special accomplishment. Regardless of stats, gear can still be the status symbol that people crave in MMOs. However, this requires 3 thngs: a) that unique looks can only be obtained through one specific means, b) that the means of obtaining them is extremely difficult and/or time consuming, and c) that other players are aware of where the gear comes from and what it means to own that gear.

I think GW2 does fine with A, at least as far as the dungeon sets. The rest of the unique gear, especially with weapons, pretty much falls into one huge Mystic Forge category, which doesn’t signify anything at all. Anything from the mystic forge is almost worthless as a status symbol. Concerning point B, far too few skins signify skill-based accomplishments in my opinion. Almost everything is just a matter of time, money and persistence, especially everything in the mystic forge, including the legendaries. This makes most of that gear far far less desireable for many players. It doesn’t signify anything except wealth. The mystic forge is also problematic concerning point C because it basically turns out that all the cool items come from the same location. Awareness of where gear comes from ceases to mean anything at all. It all just signifies the same thing: wealth.

As someone who loves the difficulty presented by a variety of situations in GW2, I have to agree that the respawn rates are severely overtuned at the moment. It doesn’t even seem to be tuned based on location and certainly doesn’t take player population into account. Whether you are solo or with a group of 30, whether it’s a scenic crystal cave in a starting zone or a duanting enemy fortress in Orr, respawn timers seem to be right around 1 minute across the board. In many cases, this doesn’t equate to difficulty—just frustration. There is nothing tactical about your advancement through a cave. You can’t strategically pull target groups of mobs and make your way through. You can pull 1 pack, move forward, then by time you’re half way through the next group of 2 or 3, the first group has completely respawned.

It’s like every area is tuned to have a small zerg coming through to constantly keep the enemies at bay. I assumed it was just overtuning during beta for a while to be on the safe side, but it hasn’t changed at all.

Same thing as many of the other posters. We ran 2 different wings of explorable TA. The Deadly Bloom breakdown was as follows:

Player 1: 60 + 60 = 120
Player 2: 45 + 30 = 75
Player 3: 45 + 30 = 75
Player 4: 45 + 30 = 75
Player 5: 30 + 15 = 45

I can confirm it was the first dungeon run in at least a 30 hour period for 4 of us. It just didn’t make any sense.

I agree with pretty much everything the OP said. The 3 major dragon lieutenant fights I’ve encountered, the Shatterer, Tequatl and the Claw of Jormag, were certainly visually stunning. The moments definitely felt dramatic and epic. But then you get to the gameplay and find out that they’re the biggest pushovers ever. Not only is it impossible to lose to any of them, but it’s also impossible to mess up any of the smaller mechanics within the fight such as knocking out a wall, clearing adds, destroying ice crystals. When I can alt+tab for 40% of the fight to chat on facebook knowing we’re going to win, I won’t die and I will still get gold, the whole encounter’s “kittenness” becomes greatly diminished. It just doesn’t feel fun.

I’ve resorted to hiding the UI with ctrl+shift+h during these fights and just playing the role of virtual photographer, documenting the “epic” struggle for the Tyrian archives.

I understand limiting mindless mob farming, as it a) is not the way the game is intended to be played, b) it encourages players to participate in the farming if they wish to remain economically competitive, and c) it opens the door for bots. But dynamic events are the way the game is intended to be played; players should be encouraged, not discouraged, to participate in them; and they’re not bot friendly.

What is one to do in Orr when they hit this cap? Go afk for 20 minutes? Are events not the intended end zone gameplay? There’s literally nothing else to do in those zones.

Just for reference, I have an 80 elementalist, which I primarily play with a vitality/healing/condition damage support build for frequent dungeon runs. I wanted to mess around with a strong crit stacking build but didn’t want to constantly respec my ele, so I decided to level a new character and experiment with precision/crit throughout.

I chose a warrior.

I put my first 10 points into the precision tree and took the Deep Strike trait, which grants 40 precision for every unused signet. I tossed on 3 signet utility skills, including one that improved precision. I crafted a full set of precision gear. To my delight, at level 30, I have a little over 100% crit chance. When I’m fighting at my level, I mow enemies down so satisfyingly fast.

Here’s the interesting problem I found: when I scale down to lower level content, my crit chance drops dramatically. 4 levels down, for example, and it drops all the way to 66%. As expected, the dps decrease is very noticeable. As such, it actually becomes much much more difficult to kill lower level enemies than enemies at my own level. This struck me as incredibly odd. I’m basically wondering whether it’s intended or a bug.

I can’t imagine this is intended as this actually makes lower level content harder than higher level content. In fact, I would have been stronger in that very same zone 5 levels ago than I am now. I’ve essentially become weaker and less effective at the same content.

Note, I’m not complaining since it’s fun, but if it’s a bug, I’ll report it. Also note, I understand the curve on crit chance as you level. The same amount of precision won’t be as effective at higher levels as it is at my current level. My issue has nothing to do with this though.

Thanks for any input!

Lonami.2987:

==Personal story forgetting about you==

For those who played GW1, this section can be summarized easily: Trahearne, the new Kormir.

I haven’t played the entire personal story, due to a bug, but I’ve started to see reactions to certain stuff. For example, characters from previous parts of the personal storyline you meet again after a while. And not only they don’t remember you, but they praise lore characters for saving them, when it was you who saved them.

Wait, what?

This is insulting. To start with, when you didn’t meet them before, they should praise “anonymous heroes”, to leave it open for those who did meet them. For those who met them, they should praise them.

The personal story model should respect these not-so-small details, in my opinion. I haven’t suffered it myself yet, but I know I will due to what I’ve chosen. It’s not hard to imagine the faces of other players when those they helped get amnesia and praise a lazy dude who did nothing to save them.

Please, some small fixes on this would be nice. It’s totally immersion breaking, and it can be fixed easily, following the same methods I described on the first section, “Personal Story and the open world”.

…

Spoiler warnings ahead

I agreed with a lot of what you said, but concerning this bit, I almost couldn’t disagree more. I felt exactly the opposite, that I was being endlessly praised as THE hero when I was just one of many who had a hand in helping out. I also didn’t quite buy my character’s ascension up the chain of command during each respective story arc. I was appointed as a Durmand Priory magister, max rank within the organization, after completing just two full missions. What?

Soon after, as the story reaches its macro scope, I’m suddenly the glue that connects all three organizations. I become the freaking commander in the assault on Zhaitan. Me, a Sylvari who was just born last week! I simply couldn’t buy it. I still felt like I was a novice Sylvari, nevermind a novice Priory member or citizen of Tyria.