Guild Wars 2

The Chronomancers have fast-forwarded time and gained access to new abilities in the future.

After not leaving the cage, she ended up disappearing completely on Henge of Denravi.

If you listen to the Sylvari NPC’s just northeast of the Hamlet of Annwen Waypoint. There are 2 Annwen Citizens talking. The male says the below phrases. Kind of eerie. What do you think?

“Do you get a weird vibe around the other races?”

“I don’t know, when I go near the Haven I start craving meat.”

LinseyMurdock.4165:

I am definitely working on the precursor scavenger hunt, but like others have said, things like this take time and I want to get it right. Not to mention, it’s not the only thing on my plate. Please do not expect to see the precursor scavenger hunt in the next patch. I may be awesome, but I am still only human and this is a fairly large amount of work to get done and done right. Please be patient!

I’m sure you’ve got great things planned with these scavenger hunts. I just wanted to throw a couple ideas in the hat if you haven’t thought of it already.

I would love to see these take us into some lower level areas all the way through high level areas and bring us to every small corner of Tyria. I would also love to see some of these spawn unique bosses or monsters to fight which could drop a component of these precursors.

I definitely saw it working much worse than before. Stun-locked me most of the time. As for the leap finisher, if I recall, it still works. Can someone confirm though, I wasn’t paying as much attention to that finisher?

I’ll be honest, I just want to use Tuna Morph one time…just once to see it and laugh.

I’ve had this bug happen to me once as well. My stickittenys are off for the record.

It happened to me in the Field of Ruin (near one of the Ogre camps. I was fighting an Ogre and one of his pets (griffon I think). I was hit with a knockback/knockdown, then my character was locked in place. I couldn’t move, but I could still attack with my weapon skills. Eventually I was hit with another knockback that seemed to reset the bug.

I dunno, maybe they changed it for devs to track it easier? At least you know someone from Anet has seen the post!

Reaver.9256:

No. They all seem pretty obvious to me to be honest. 1.yes 2. sounds like the same question as 1? 3. no 4. if not now eventually for sure.

1. Nothing has been said that indicates anything will be added ABOVE ascended. All comments from developers have stated that future content will be released with new ascended gear.

2. Agree this seems to be the same as question 1. I disagree with your answer on #1 however.

3. Again, nothing said by Arena Net supports your response. So far they have only stated that ascended gear will be added and future content will only reveal more ascended gear. They explicitly state that they are not pursuing a gear treadmill. Based on their communication so far, nothing has been said to indicate anything beyond ascended will be added. The forum is filled with concerns that this update will be the start of a gear treadmill, but so far ascended appears to be the cap.

4. Not yet known, but I agree with your answer on this one. So far we know that new resource nodes will be added. They’ve also mentioned complimentary ascended and legendary gear. Only time will tell, but I suspect they will add these methods of obtaining the gear.

I hope that clears things up a bit. There’s still very little known about how ascended gear will affect the game in the future. Only time will tell and we will know more after the updates are implemented. Also keep in mind that tomorrow’s patch is only going to be adding rings and back pieces for ascended gear.

Conner.4702:

Koega.8653:

To the players trying to communicate their feelings on these changes for the benefit of the game, keep this in mind. Many of the negative posts in these forums are doing far more damage to the community in this game, than the comments Anet has made on Ascended gear. No one outside of their organization really knows what they have planned and negative reactive outbursts/threats based on unconfirmed assumptions.

Sorry Anet has done all this damage to the community by themselves. They are the ones not communicating. No the Blog and that one post is not what I consider communicating. It’s PR crap, which is the same as lying in my eyes.

I actually commented that they needed to be more transparent and communicate better. Please read the whole post instead of picking out a small piece before making an assumption on my opinion.

I include my original comment right here from the same post:

“The communication could have been managed better I think, at least let the players know directly from the source before 3rd party companies create mass confusion and panic. I think transparency here would have snuffed out much of the fears (and transparency now would still help).”

I think perception is everything. I was at first disappointed with the announcement of the Ascended gear because I too was hoping to avoid the gear treadmill. After reading Linsey’s post several times and and now the director’s response, I feel differently about it.

Anet is not looking to add a gear treadmill…maybe only a gear stairmaster. I am giving them the benefit of the doubt that they’ve recognized a game is missing that last piece of progression in the game before the cap. Right now exotics are very easy to obtain. There are many avenues to obtain and in most cases, will not provide any sense of achievement. There has been no indication that they will create any tiers above Ascended. All of the negative comments in this thread are assuming that this is the start of an infinite cycle. These assumptions have snowballed into a mob mentality where one person says this is a treadmill and the end of the game, and people follow.

The communication could have been managed better I think, at least let the players know directly from the source before 3rd party companies create mass confusion and panic. I think transparency here would have snuffed out much of the fears (and transparency now would still help).

So let’s recap the facts from the update:
- Ascended gear (better than exotic) will be slowly added to the game over several months
- Legendary gear will be scaled to be equal to Ascended
- The grind for legendaries will be adjusted so that precursors can be obtained from “scavenger hunts”
- Future content will bring more Ascended (same tier being introduced now) and Legendary gear
- Exotics will not be obsolete on 11/15 because only rings and back pieces are being introduced at this time. More Ascended gear will be slowly rolled out over time.
- Complimentary Ascended and Legendaries will be rolled out as new high level content is introduced

If you have loved this game so far, it doesn’t hurt to see what Anet has to offer here before making uneducated assumptions. If Ascended gear is the cap and there is not a gear treadmill moving forward, I personally am ok with that.

To the players trying to communicate their feelings on these changes for the benefit of the game, keep this in mind. Many of the negative posts in these forums are doing far more damage to the community in this game, than the comments Anet has made on Ascended gear. No one outside of their organization really knows what they have planned and negative reactive outbursts/threats based on unconfirmed assumptions.

They have read the public opinion here, they know everyone’s concerns. The development schedule is in place, they will not stop it. Try to see it as the introduction of the final tier, something that they recognize was missing from the original release. They have put together a great product so far, let’s trust they know what they’re doing. See what they bring to the table with the new update, then make your judgements and decisions. We are all passionate about the game, so let’s keep this thread positive, expressing our concerns, but trusting Anet will continue to provide quality content that does not stray too far from their original model.

I’m looking forward to this. Although I feel for those that worked hard against the RNG for their precursors, this scavenger hunt idea holds promise for me.

I think there’s a ton of potential, like maybe having to hunt unique bosses for components to craft the precursor. It would give me a reason to revisit all the corners of Tyria and make it feel somewhat like an adventure. Or even for those of you that played legend of zelda games, where you would have a unique quest chain for a rare weapon that forced you to travel all around the world to complete.

Yeah, you start off with just Fire/Water. A few levels in you’ll suddenly have Air. Then sometime after, you’ll get Earth. As Calle said, I think level 5 or 6 is the magic number.

At first I felt disappointed with the idea of a new tier of gear. Being a casual player, I was looking for a game that did not require grinding for gear progression just to participate in all of the content.

However, after sleeping on it and re-reading Linsey’s blog post, I am a little more open-minded about it.

I did find it a little strange that exotic was the cap for armor pieces, but that weapons had a level greater called legendary (agreed stats were the same). A little bit of gear progression is ok in my opinion, just as long as it doesn’t become the endless treadmill of always needing to upgrade your gear. After reading thoroughly through the post again, I feel that ANet has not strayed too far from their original promise. I’m trying to maintain the perspective that the “end-game” gear was just not in the game yet, and that this update will finally introduce it. The quote of "As we release more new end game content in the future, you’ll see more Infusions and Ascended item types being added to the game. " I am hoping is an indication that ascended will be the final cap for gear. It sounds like future end game content will still be capped at ascended gear (but that you would just swap out the infusions).

Here is at least what I am hoping will come with the ascended gear upgrades:
-Many visual options. I do not want to see everyone wearing the same sets of armor.
-Cap the progression. Some progression is ok, but I hope it does not become the perpetual grind many other MMO’s have become. This would exclude the casual player base.
-Have several methods of getting the gear. I think one driving factor of this change is to encourage more players to explore dungeons. While I too am looking for more motivation to complete dungeons, I would love to see some alternate ways of obtaining ascended gear. Not everything should be easily obtainable elsewhere, but maybe give us a few more options of getting some of the pieces (possibly to prepare better for the dungeon itself).

I am actually somewhat excited about the new way to obtain precursors. I think there is a lot of potential here (with the scavenger hunt idea). I would love to see a mechanic of having to search all areas of the world and hunt unique bosses for components to craft a precursor. It would give more players a reason to explore the beautiful world they have created.

I’m going to stay open minded and wait to see what ANet has put together before I make too many assumptions and judgements. They have put together an amazing product for us so far, so I will give them the benefit of the doubt that they will continue to provide us with the same great content they have in the past.

TLDR: I have some concerns, but I will be open minded and give ANet the benefit of the doubt.

I would love this, just an “if combat_active <> ‘Y’ and weapon_swap = ‘Y’ then swap_weapons else do nothing” type of argument.

Not only would it be a huge quality of life change (saving time and frustration trying to dig through bags to find the right weapons you want), but it would also save you a couple slots in your bags for other stuff. Also, a much lower strain on my eyes

I’d support this for any single weapon classes (like the engineer).

I would be interested in the conjures to be merged into 1 ability. Keep the timer/charges, but the conjured weapon changes based on attunement. If you are fire, make it the axe. Switch to water, it becomes the bow. Air = hammer, and earth = shield. This would let you switch around attunements, but I don’t think it would be too overpowered because you still would have your same charges/timer.

I agree GS/Staff is not optimized as a glass cannon, but the OP’s question was if it is viable. My opinion is that it is. You’re just more of a balanced build with it than glass cannon. But OP, it sounds like you’re enjoying GS/Staff, so I say go with whatever build you’re having fun with. I personally enjoy the play style of GS/Staff as I feel I can mix it up more.

I would love to see a fishing system in the game. I like the idea of being able to fish up random items, like have some rare rings that could come up or something. One thing would be cool is a trophy collection system, where you have to fish in all zones to collect different types of fish to store for a title. They could expand it to quests/dynamic events too.

Another cool feature would be, if you fish in certain areas, you could fish up enemies or even a unique champion to fight.

Mine is 20/20/0/0/30. Using GS and staff to shatter. 20 in Precision gives you deceptive evasion which is awesome for making clones.

As someone mentioned earlier, the staff is great defensively, and greatsword is great offensively. It’s a versatile set up that lets you adapt very well to different types of situations. One thing that took me a bit to learn was that the greatsword is actually a better mid-range than long range weapon. Most of the time you will not be sitting back using auto attack. With illusionary elasticity (extra bounce), you’ll want to be close enough to get the bounce (for the extra bounces and might stacks). The burst damage from this is really nice.

For staff, keep yourself mid – close range. The strength of the staff is taking advantage of the winds of chaos bounces and when you throw down chaos storm, place it so that both you and your enemy is inside the circle. This gives you the best advantage to receiving the boons and will unlock the true strength of the staff. You’d be surprised how quickly the damage over time from staff close range (just out of melee range) is with the bounces.

Both posts are here. One from the dev talking about how it’s not gone for good, and another post from a dev saying it is.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/archive/halloween/Will-the-LA-Lion-Statue-come-back-or-something-new/first#post601067

Edit: Actually, the second dev said “gone for now” and as for it coming back “anything is possible”. So actually not necessarily gone for good.

Here are a couple links where developers have alluded to looking at nerfs for bunker eles. They have also acknowledged that damage output is low for eles as well (specifically D/D).

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Quick-update/page/3#post354773

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Quick-update/first#post347588

Edit: You may have to scroll down some on that first link to find the post. Looks like they’re looking closely and recognize that there may be some changes that need to be made. But at least it looks like they’re also looking to strengthen some of the weak areas as well.

Yeah, no luck here either. I tried looking at substitution ciphers with the word combos, but that won’t work, as there are too many inconsistencies that indicate it cannot be a substitution cipher.

I suspect they just programmed random numbers, but I still want to believe that there may be a hidden code here somewhere (the fun is in the hunt).

Maybe these were just the numbers on someone’s card on bingo night.

Only about level 28 on my ele, and I switch back and forth between staff and dagger/dagger cause I find them both equally fun. The following is a generic rotation. I tend to mix it up a lot though depending on situations (like throwing in air for blind, stun, and push-back). Sometimes I jump to water earlier if I need some health or to slow down the fight. For larger groups I tend to throw in meteor shower more when I get the chance.

For staff, my generic rotation (2 or less) would be:
Fire 3 > fire 2 > Arcane Wave (combo) > fire 4 > swap to earth >
Earth 2 > earth 5 > earth 4 > auto-attack until eruption to stack vulnerability >
Water 4 > water 2 > heal if necessary

Ah got it, must have missed it. Thanks!

So, not sure if I’m going crazy or not, but when the game released, I do not remember there being a bridge across the great collapse in the west side of Divinity’s Reach. Is this new? I sort of recall it was closed off but maybe I just missed it.

If this is new, then it’s interesting that the world is dynamically changing (i.e. the workers building are actually making progress and it won’t be a perpetual construction project). Anyone able to shed light on this?

I suspect this is the decoder ring Red was referring to. Description doesn’t seem to help too much.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Order_of_Whispers_Decoder_Ring_A1

I tried some random testing to see if there were any noticeable patterns that would help identify these as a being encoded with a cipher. So far no luck. I’d be interested to see if these are in fact a hidden message (even just a phrase as a joke would be cool). Hope someone can dig up some more clues or would be nice if Anet could confirm if there’s nothing to find (to save us time haha).

I think it’s working as intended. The reflection walls should reflect the full effect of the ability. So if the attack generates a clone, then create a clone for them. Same concept applies to conditions. I think it adds a dynamic level of play and forces you to react differently when you see those reflection bubbles and abilities pop up.

On a side note, I wonder if they are still limited to 3 illusions? Cause they don’t have the container icons that show how many illusions they can have. Would be interesting to see.

Something else I found interesting, Most of the asura gates seem to point to their destinations. I looked at my map and the new asura gate in Lion’s Arch seems to point towards the shore area east of Mount Maelstrom and the Crucible of Eternity. This would be really far from the Sea of Sorrows, but it’s definitely an interesting placement of the Gate.

Oh man, if mind stab was a blast finisher, that would be epic. I would actually use it regularly instead of just to knock a regen boon off something.

Also, I believe iWarden is also a whirl finisher. He tosses out confounding bolts when in an ethereal field.

I would at least love a tooltip feature that you could mouse hover over the illusion icon and it gave the name of the illusion (i.e. clone, illusionary berserker, etc)

Sorry if I’ve missed a post or anything on this, but what area is the sign located?

Edit: Found it in another post that these can be seen in Lion’s Arch.

Just started working on this yesterday, but so far looks like you just need to put the 6 piles of X dust into discovery and you can get the recipe.

I think it really depends how you like to play. I personally use Staff / GS (sometimes Scepter/Focus). I think a common misconception with the greatsword is that many think it’s only a long range weapon. When you’re auto-attacking, then yes range is better with greatsword because of the scale in damage, but when you are wanting to burst with mirror blade, mid-close range is better (especially with illusionary elasticity for the extra bounce).

As a side comment, staff is a mid-close ranged weapon. Mid-ranged until you drop a chaos storm, then I jump right in close range (usually barely out of melee range from my foe) to gain the benefits of all the boons that thing tosses out. Plus with illusionary elasticity, you’re getting an extra bounce on your winds of chaos.

@OP For me, rather than clicking the box and dragging up, I’ve been clicking and dragging the arrow. Seems to work a little smoother for me. But I agree with the difficulties of this new system.

Not sure yet how I feel about it. So far it’s been manageable, just took me a bit to get used to.

Can anyone else besides me picture a giant Christmas tree in Lion’s Arch in the place where the Lion used to be?

The Griffon Egg Omelet comes from a karma vendor (Hylek) after a dynamic event where you guard him as he steals griffon eggs.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Griffon_Egg_Omelet

How about raindeer slippers for Wintersday?

I gotta say though, the clock tower was amazing to me. It was really difficult, but it brought back nostalgia of video games from my childhood. The days where games were released as is and were never changed and you would spend countless hours trying to beat certain parts. Then when you finally beat it, it felt amazing. There were no achievements for these and often times there were no trophies or rewards.

I think this concept really drives a strong sense of accomplishment that you rarely see in games these days. It’s that feeling where, even with no reward, just beating it is rewarding in itself. I hope Mr. Foreman lets his imagination go without limitation in future jumping puzzles. I like the idea of having easier ones that anyone can enjoy, but also having really challenging ones like this. I hope to see the clock tower again next year as well as maybe any new additions they come up with.

I did see the Shadow Behemoth 2 nights ago. Unfortunately, I do not know if anything triggered the first meta events. When I walked up, the first part of the chain (closing undead portals around the swamp) was already active.

It’s an AoE ability much like any other class AoE (although technically it’s a curtain), only it pulls nearby foes towards its center (or across it if they’re close).

Maybe they’re trying to anticipate an increase in value after the Halloween event ends? Still though, it’d be pretty risky for just the major rune.

Not sure if you’re asking the OP or responding to mine, but for me my gear makes up for some toughness and vitality.

Pretty much what TheRabbit said. To add clarity on the recipe question, while the recipes won’t be available (to my knowledge), the recipes you already obtained will still be active. So you can still make your spicy pumpkin cookies and whatnot.

This is almost identical to what I use.

@Nero I disagree with your stance on staff and shattering. While I would agree that sword+pistol will grant you greater burst, the staff makes up for that in survivability and utility. It really just depends on your play style. The staff is capable of creating illusions just as quickly (slightly longer CD on the phantasm, but you should be swapping before this happens). The staff for me is more of a mid-close range weapon. With the auto-traited for the extra bounce and your clones tossing out winds of chaos between shatters, you’re stacking a significant amount of vulnerability and condition damage with burning and bleeding. The added utility from chaos storm and chaos armor mitigates damage while weakening your foe. I also feel that staff gives more utility to your team in group fights.

So while I respect the sheer power of sword / pistol, I still prefer staff to my personal play style.

I would love it if they did both. Maybe for the lore stuff like the scavenger hunt and books they can change it to something new and give new rewards. I would like them to keep some things like the clock tower (maybe add another jumping puzzle to accompany it). Possibly add or keep the existing minigames, and maybe upgrade/keep the labyrinth. I would like to see pumpkin carving stay for those that need the achievement but also add something else similar to it for everyone else (like maybe trick or treat random doors throughout tyria for a title…not the haunted doors, but actual doors to existing buildings).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Challenge
“A challenge is a general term referring to things that are imbued with a sense of difficulty and victory.”

But in all seriousness I agree with the OP, the clock tower is a challenge, and a very difficult one at that. But it’s for an achievement, not everyone gets the trophy. Only those that can complete/achieve it get it. It is not game breaking, there is no advantage to be gained from it over any other player. It’s not even worth that many achievement points. It does not stop your progress to the main title.

I find it refreshing to find a video game that is not afraid to put content out that is difficult to accomplish, something I have not experienced since I played FFXI. And it is completely optional.

I did both mad memories books on my level 11. Took me about 2 hours to get both books.

I loved it. For me, it brought nostalgia of my childhood with the mario style platform jumping. I just wish there was a title to go along with this. Something like “Lunatic Leaper” or “The princess was in another clock tower” or something.

Ah yes, I envy Anise. After being so proud of my level 80 Mesmer, I created a Necromancer alt and went down this personal story line. Anise put my mesmer to shame when she instantly created her phantasm army.

I use GS / Staff all the time now. I switch back and forth with GS / Scepter + Focus. As far as synergy between GS/Staff, they work nicely together. But it depends on how you play. I run a 20/20/0/0/30 build and focus mostly on shatters. My gear is somewhat balanced (although heavy on the Power/Condition damage side), currently using superior runes of Balthazar.

There are several reasons I love the GS / Staff combo.

Illusion Generation: Both weapons generate illusions very quickly, these power my shatters (especially with deceptive evasion trait). Scepter is actually pretty slow with clone generation due to the auto-attack chain.

Illusionary Elasticity: Both weapons benefit from the extra bounces.

Adaptability: Greatsword is a great ranged weapon and hits very hard, while staff is a great defensive weapon with pretty strong offensive capabilities. The styles of both allow me to adapt to various situations. There’s a lot of versatility here.

This build has great survivability and great power. The secret to this build is when you are bursting. Please note, the following is just an example of a rotation, this is subject to change based on situations you encounter:

I usually open with greatsword mirror blade in mid-range (for the bounces). Toss out berserker, then dodge to close range for a mind wrack shatter immediately after the berserker completes it’s rotation. With illusionary persona and deceptive evasion traited, this is a 4 illusion shatter. Swap to staff, drop chaos storm then phase retreat for the bubble and use the 2 clone utility skill (forgot the name). Let your bouncing winds of chaos and your clones chaos stack some conditions, then run in and use cry of frustration shatter (again, 4 illusion shatter). I drop a feedback or null field, phase retreat again, drop warlock, and swap back to greatsword. Rinse, repeat, and adapt if needed.

Also as a side note, I think confusion is greatly underestimated in PvE. I look at it as supplemental damage. I have seen stacks cause 1-2k+ damage on confusion damage, all while I continue to DPS. Of course do not focus your entire build strictly on confusion but don’t rule it out completely.

I have done all content on my level 11 (now 13) necromancer. For the mad memories, I ran to each zone and usually there was a group of players there willing to assist. Even found a guy running a group of low levels around. Admittedly, the crypt was the hardest one to find assistance for, but that I got a guild mate to help out with it.

Not all content in this Halloween event is designed for every person. There is plenty of content to go around, but some come easier to those who have achieved a higher level. If you are level 2 you can still explore pretty much any of the content.