Guild Wars 2

Congratulations on completing your novel! Wow, that must feel great – and you should definitely be proud!
I think you’ve told a great story – and I was realizing that as I was thinking about your characters at the end and how I like them better now than at the beginning (which is the whole point, anyway). They’ve been through a lot, but now as I think about them in their world, they seem “fuller;” wiser, more deserving of respect.
I loved the sylvari Niahm’s advice; a nice way to end the epilogue. Did that “cycle of noon casts the sharpest shadows” stuff come from in-game, or is that an original? It’s very good.

Thanks for pointing me towards Agghi’s journal! His anecdotes are delightful.

Again, thanks for all the time and work you put into writing this so that us readers could come along on the adventure with you!

Thank you for the list, Myrmidian. I can definitely understand the contrasts that you bring up, however…as much as I would like them to be real, I’m just not sure they would be.

Several of the “differences” rely on being teamed with (and against) competent players; this is a matchmaking issue, so assuming that matchmaking stays the same as it is now, we’d still get to enjoy the antics of those brave rank 1’s.

As far as people “coming and going,” this is a major issue in tournaments as well as hotjoin, sadly. Soloque wouldn’t be a direct fix for this.

There is one contrast you bring up that would make some difference, I believe:

Myrmidian Eudoros.4671:

3) Solo Que is intended to be a rated match system where people are actually playing to win instead of playing to farm.

Do we have any confirmation that soloque would be rated? I’ve seen posts that claim it would NOT be rated, so I’m not sure.

Can someone list for me the differences between “soloque” and 5v5 hotjoin?

Well I, and I’m sure many, appreciate you making this thread, Bacon. It sounds like you played a thief long enough to run into the source of the “l2p”, and that is: good players on OTHER classes.
All the thieves didn’t get together one day so they could come up with imaginary weaknesses for the thief. No, rather, it was other players, good players, who have showed us all the ways the thief can be shut down. So when we say “l2p,” it is not an ego trip, it is respect for those who have actually learned to play and are out there fighting the good fight and killing us every day.

Bumping, because this is shaping up to be a really good story!

I really admire your character writing – you’re juggling quite a few personalities there, and each one is so different. I’m honestly a bit shocked that I actually like each one of your characters here. Good work!

Ahh, such a relief to have the rescue mission underway! And successfully, too (or, sorta. I happened to like her woefully deceased “shy friend.” I suppose it’s GW2 tradition to off these pleasant people, though XD ).

And from the last chapter I wanted to mention: for (I’m assuming) side characters, the vigil group certainly are a charming bunch.

Also, there was one cut-scene I wanted to bring up: Now, I truly am a fan of the cut-scene. It cuts through the technicalities that a reader might not even care about, it lets everybody get on with the story, and lord knows it saves the writer some work. I use them whenever I can…maybe too much. One of my beta readers read my stuff recently and said something to the effect of: “Yeah, this is really great, you’re really good…um, so what happened from point A to point B here?” …..ugh. She was right though, so now I’m thinking I might actually do the unthinkable and edit. Shudder. ANYWAY, how this relates to you: I’m just really, really curious about what happens after the fight with the destroyers.
So maybe, possibly, if you’re bored one day and want to write a fill-in-the-gap short story…

OH! And I also wanted to comment on your art: It’s wonderful! I love how full of character it is!

Jenosavel.1756:

I ended up falling in love with his voice acting in the stories. It had just the right mix of childish enthusiasm and professional sincerity. There was a lot less of the sneering superiority I was used to. It felt out of place for an asura, but I liked it. And thus came to me the idea of little Agghi …

(possible spoiler, I guess. None of this backstory is directly touched on in Leaves and Embers, though you might want to get to know him naturally first)
... too honest and humble to make it far in asuran society (not to mention he has a girl's name). Turned down by every krewe for offending the colleges on his passing through them (quit one, flunked out of another), and finally finding a place for research within the Durmand Priory. If he's a bit too eager, it's only because he wants to make a name for himself and prove everyone else wrong.

Thank you for posting some of Agghi’s backstory! I’d be lying if I said Agghi wasn’t quickly becoming one of my favorites. Haha, I was wondering about his name. Someone’s parents were expecting something a little more on the female side, perhaps? And I absolutely agree with you about the voice acting; in fact, I think it’s the best one in-game, for the reasons you mention.
I’m really curious to see how Laurel’s hunt plays into everything, too. As always, thanks for writing!

I would consider the cost of not being able to use my favorite gap-closer to be be pretty high, actually.

It’s proven that negativity has a way of sticking around in human memory far better than positivity, however:

There are many extremely helpful, detailed, encouraging, and informative posts on the thief forum. I have seen paragraph-filled posts where players have spent time and effort to pour out their thoughts. It’s a disservice to these players to go around calling the thief forums “full of trolls.”

I’m not trying to argue with you, but I would like to remind people that some negativity does not erase the work of the many civil players here.

It’s true that not all people have the same gaming preferences, but here’s my story, and it’s what I would tell anyone who likes games the way I do:

Take a look at so many console games: the controls are designed to be intuitive, you usually have a myriad of actions you can perform at lighting fast speed. Reflexes and timing are key. The only cooldown periods you have is the time it takes you to decide what skill to use. You are in control, not a timer.

Computer games (to me): jumping was a step in the right direction; dodging was a step in the right direction. The initiative system that is unique to the thief in this game was a step in the right direction.

Honestly, when I was first introduced to this game, I had no intention of playing it. “Oh great, another press-button-red-numbers-pop-up game. Thanks, but I think I hear my chess board calling.” Someone else let me fool around with the character slots on their account, and I accidentally made a thief. Now, I’m hooked :P

Again, not everybody likes to play the way I do. But I harbor a secret fantasy: a week in spvp where no class has any cooldowns on their skills. I know the way the game is designed now, it would be broken. But it would also chaotic, hilarious, fast-paced FUN.

And that’s why you should play a thief.

RoRo.8270:

I didn’t quite understand why the matcher didn’t match the premades against each other…

Because a pve guild against a pvp guild is not a pretty match up. And how would a system differentiate between the two? Only by looking a the rankings of the individuals on each team.

Empathetic gives a good example. Also, remember that matchmaking is based on a hidden rating, which is based on tournaments only. A rank 1 who’s never played a tournament before will have the same rating as a rank 40 who’s never played a tournament before. To the mmr’s mind, they are equal.

Ultravalefor.5038:

I love my male asura to pieces, Cyrus “Blindknives”, the blind gunslinger. Being able to reduce the eyes in the char creator to the point of non-existence is pretty awesome.

Well that’s unique…and surprisingly cute!

After simply playing tournaments for a while, I’ve come to the same conclusion: more than one thief on a team just isn’t that great.

It hit home for me one night – I was playing on a good team with another thief. I watched him, and he was great; dealing damage yet staying alive for insane amounts of time. And then there was me, doing my part. We did everything right, but even when we won it was… frustrating.

Your party may have had similar experiences, even if they weren’t able to tell you exactly why.

No, no I do NOT have a moment. Nobody has a moment for you! We’re all out of moments here; precious or otherwise.

Him and the “CITIZENS” guy were probably friends back in consortium training.

d/d eles are so OP, they’ll be fine.

XD Sorry, I couldn’t resist. Still here; still very much enjoying the read! It’s so fun that all this is going on in my favorite map – I can picture everything perfectly. And Agghi is great. All the work you must have put into this story really shows, great job!

A dead player can still call a target. Just a nice, helpful little thing to do for your team as you wait for the respawn.

Luthan.5236:

Well, they removed Spirit Watch because some people did not like it and whined. But there are other people that like Spirit Watch but don’t like Kyhlo. So it would only be fair also to remove Kyhlo.

Wait, they removed Spirit Watch?! And they….they kept this fdsjflkajdf;slsfjdsklfjs map KYHLO?!!!!!

I think I need to go throw something. Preferably a hissy fit.

All players should have the option to see stealthed enemies the same way you can see the outline of stealthed allies. If you toggle on the “see stealth” option, a large diaper icon appears next to your name. Eventually, after seeing stealthed enemies do the same things over and over again, you can realize what the rest of us have known all along and toggle off the “see stealth” option, which will remove the diaper icon. Everybody’s happy. Seriously.

^Not serious.

The human uses the term “skritt-brained idiots.”
The skritt is offended, hence the passive-aggressive undertones.

Bas.7406:

That would work. We need a good starting squad and then about 1 to 2 guys who are waiting in the wings in case someone is out.

We have only two to three confirmed thief players. Nettle wants to coach ;p, so that knocks us down to two, but if he can get a coach he will play. Signups will be open up until the event starts, and the thieves have to play their first game. Which I will push until last if we are having trouble locating a player.

If there is a sub, just notify me, and I will do a quick conference with the other coaches (all coaches will be on my mumble), and if they say go for it, than we will allow the sub.

In that case, you can add me to the list of possible subs.

IGN: Aize Knowitall
Day Available: Thursday
Recording Capability: None
NA or EU: NA

Since you mentioned substitutes: what would be your stance on adding thief players online at the time to this tournament? Obviously not ideal; but would it be preferable to not being able to run a thief team at all?

Here’s a thread with some suggestions for you: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Thief-forums-are-depressing-and-a-question/first#post1732948

If you’re building specifically to counter D/P? I’d say it’s the same for us as it is for any other class: bring your CC.
S/P gives you two stuns/dazes, add in Devourer and Basilisk venom and you’ve got four. You’ve got blinding powder too, so predict his bursts to just sit in your blind field and there’s not much he can do to you. Just some ideas.

Vonhelsing.8769:

Anyone has experience with venomshare builds?

I have some, and I find it fun. Now with S/D, this build will melt a guardian like nothing else. It’s ironic, because I spent the first half of my thief career avoiding guardians…

Bas, if I could reliably commit to a time, I would be there. :P
As it is, I think it’s major fun that you’re hosting these events – hope you get some more sign ups!

I think this thread is missing some basics.

Men and women are different. Men and women have different fantasies. Women objectify and dehumanize men all the time; no clothes involved. Watch twilight, read a dime romance novel; the men in these are perfect gentlemen, sensitive to the every need of their beloved and willing to drop everything for her, right up until they turn into bestial badboys who wear black leather and ride motorcycles into the sunset- then it’s back to being overly sensitive and great with kids.
The problem is, it’s not easy to implement the female fantasy in a game like this; whereas making some hot female pixels and striping her clothes off for the guys isn’t hard at all.
Is it objectifying and dehumanizing to the gender as a whole? Yasureyoubetcha. So the real debate is whether people should want to do this in a game or not.
So while you guys debate over that, I’ll leave a link to this thread here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Logan-Thackeray-Joke-Thread/first
And I’ll claim that I have no idea why anyone would make fun of Logan Thackeray’s character.

WyldKat.4712:

PearlGore.7419:

Take a look, we dodge to much. After this is nerfed I expect our medium armor to be removed as well.

I’m sure no one wants to see naked thief.

Mmm…

Rename the profession: call it “The Streaker.”

Puts a whole new spin on the “invisibility is our only defense!” mantra.

Uh, perspective works both ways, you know? I main a thief, but I wanted to learn more about the elementalist, so I made one (adorable little thing too, I might add) and got through the story intro, then headed straight into the mists. I didn’t bother changing any of the traits around, I took a scepter and a dagger and then read all of my skill descriptions in the hopes of remembering one or two of them in battle, then I jumped into hotjoin. I went through the next several matches pressing skills 5-1 (in that order), changing attunements, then pressing 5-1 all over again. An absolutely dumb way to play, but I was amazed at how unkillable I was compared to the thief. I had no idea that you could mist form and then heal…if I had known that, I would have abused it sooo much. At any rate, I think that your claim that the elementalist is weak is an exaggeration. If you’ve put time into it and you enjoy the playstyle, then don’t give it up.

After reading the book, Snaff is my favorite GW2 character by far…it’s hard to believe he’s not even in-game! I think your fan art is wonderful; you shouldn’t be shy about posting it. I especially love that this is not just a flat portrait, but it tells a part of the story and has a lot of character.

Starting out can be rough; and yes, it does get better as you level up (and become more accustomed to playing with a thief mindset as well).
Here’s a thread with some really good suggestions for you:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Thief-forums-are-depressing-and-a-question/first#post1732948

Travlane.5948:

If you were to make a dream team of a 100 man zerg i might add in 3-4 thieves for venom share and have them sit in back and tell them not to die.

You don’t have to wait for the dream team zerg – make a venom share thief and jump into one of these “10/10 DEATHMATCH” custom arenas. It’s fantastic.

With the removal of hotjoins, and the rumored world-hunger-ending solo que split, this will only get worse.

I don’t wish to take dailys out, however. But I, too, am seeing a decline in the aptitude of tournament players, and I would like to find a way to prevent it.

Mif.3471:

Your argument is invalid because: What does a Engineer do in real life?

They build concrete canoes.

Your team found a repair kit! Use it to repair your trebuchet!

“wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww”

Classic.

Elmuerto.9840:

PW is now call Waving In the Air – and is a form of Tai Chi. It was usable with 100% quickness (although admittedly a tiny bit OP) but to have an ability only made useful with a second ability is not great. Now even with 50% quickness passers by wave back with confused looks on their faces and continue on their way as you’re rooted to the spot in serene enlightenment.

Not only is this funny, but it is a completely apt assessment of what is happening.
So, count me in with those calling for the channeling to be quicker; or not rooted, or something.

" i got tranq"

X_X

Devata.6589:

“bad players are bad.” and again somebody who claims they are all bad players. Basically of the 20+ people there are in that first video only! everybody is a bad player. And all the players in the other video’s are also all bad. So basically thief’s have some special magic find ability to only run into bad players?

This particular brand of magic is called video editing. It is decidedly OP.

Sprawl.3891:

Kitcat.1739:

Oh my….
My “guild drama” senses are tingling!

im in your guild :p

You should know: overall, I’m pretty happy with us. At any rate, I’m taking these leaderboard ranks with a grain of salt. I play with my guys enough to know who my favorites are to team with, and that doesn’t necessarily correlate to the leaderboard anyway.

ahuba.6430:

maybe im just really really blind but i just see the old rank/name/character/wins/losses/win%/world tabs.
oh wait, im not in a guild, is that it?

I think you found the problem, then.
This is a fun development- I haven’t felt this informed since I last logged into Facebook.

When you log into the leaderboards, you now have the option to filter by guild. This will bring up the pvp ranks of all the members of a guild that you are a part of.

Oh my….
My “guild drama” senses are tingling!

Honest question: wouldn’t a soloque tourny just be the new 5v5 hotjoin? Since tournaments have become more popular recently, I think we all can say that we’ve seen some…“brave” rank 1-5’s participating. I love new players, but I wouldn’t want tournaments (soloque or otherwise) to become as easy as hotjoin. So what measures would we put in place to prevent this?

fadeaway.2807:

I like to queue with 1 friend.
Which queue do I go to?

You and I don’t matter, fadeaway. Anyone who dares to bring more than one person with them is automatically a 5 man premade with teamspeak looking to roflstomp those poor poor solo queue-rs.

Sorry for the snark, I’ve spent too much time on these forums today.

tapsumbong.6470:

I solo queue all day when I play, and after each map I spam something along the lines of r25 engi lf tpvp with voice comms.

I have still not had a single invite to any organizd group, asides from maybe 1 or 2 people who weren’t using voice comms, so please stop making out like it’s so easy to find 4 others all the time. Maybe when you hit rank 35+ it’s easier, but when you are lower than r30 you may find yourself with no choice but solo queue if you want any kind of decent game.

And asides for learning new classes, Spvp is not an option, it plays like a different game compared to Tpvp.

I have never seen a team come together through the HoTM map chat, so I imagine if that is your primary method of lfg for tournies, it would be very frustrating indeed.

There is a happy medium between a hardcore team and a pug team, however, if you’re willing to try: When you’re in a match, take note of the players you’re impressed with (whether they be your team OR the other team), and invite them to party. Pick up more players along the way – eventually, you’ll have a fairly reliable group together. You may have to be patient, but I can vouch that this has worked really well for my group/groups.
If you have fun with these people, ask to add them to your friends list and hit ‘em up anytime you want to tourny. Be patient; be friendly -they don’t call it “building” a team for nothing! Who knows? Maybe this way you’ll be able to create that voice comm dream team you’ve always wanted.
See you in battle!

It’s worth bearing in mind that:

Premade = 5 man group that plays together 5 nights a week with teamspeak
Premade = 2 friends who know each other in real life and like to play tournies together, +3 random pugs
Premade = 5 man team whose only relation to each other is that they happen to be in the same guild, never played together before
Premade = 3 friends who often play together showing the ropes to a guildie who’s never tournied before, +1 random pug

I could go on, but you get the idea. There’s a reason “premades” don’t like to be lumped together, and for most people, it has nothing to do with “elitism.” This is also why I am more in favor of an individual rating system (like the one we supposedly have now), rather than a straight split.

Yes, stealth will drop a target. Clones won’t, but clones+stealth will (and there is a move that does this). You’ll have to re-apply your target after they come out of stealth (which is why most people won’t bother targeting a thief But definitely target the mesmer if you can).

Maybe. But remember, some people are using that time to try to strategize; so it’s not all just people being lazy. In fact – personally, I’d rather have longer than 2 minutes.

Drezzz.5019:

I like the camera differences, It makes people act more like asura. Like the dungeon vendors in Lions Arch all the other races stand in front of the tables when talking to vendors, asura players naturally tend to stand on the tables

Huh, you’re right! I’d never thought of that; that’s so cute!

It is an admittedly tough thing to deal with though in pvp of any kind. My camera is constantly getting stuck in the tight corners. And I would never zoom in; ever.

Yes, it’s a thing, and it’s probably most common in certain British accents. The phenomenon is often referred to as the “intrusive r.” http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=128897

Watch “Man vs Wild” as Bear Grylls treks through the inhospitable wilds of “Alarbama.”