Guild Wars 2

It warns you that the XP is getting wasted, so it could just be going down the drain.

I’d recommend just biting the bullet and doing Torn from the Sky. Takes like 10 minutes and you can skip all the cutscenes.

So the thing about PvE is that basically anything is viable, especially with the new emphasis on group events in the HoT maps and the buffs on conditions. In fractals and dungeons it’s nice to have DPS, especially if you’re just out for quick runs. Didn’t get a chance to test out raids in the beta, so I’m not sure how different classes and if healing/utility builds will be more appreciated there.

It all depends on your build, tbh. You can build a beautiful thief that gives permablind but take it into the Dredge fractal and you’re useless. You can have a zerk warrior that cranks out 40k damage with the hundred blades, but the right enemy can oneshot you. They’re all viable in PvE, and so long as you know how to attack the enemy and not die (and you aren’t building, like, nomads armor or some nonsense like that) you’ll be accepted in the average pug. And in open world, anything goes.

I don’t have much to say on the elite specs for these guys but here’s my opinion on the base class

With Necros, vulnerability and bleeding stacking on necros can get INSANE and do truckloads of damage and some of the wells are nice for team play. Minions can be good, but they also tend to aggro things you don’t want aggroed and/or keep you in combat at the most inconvenient times, so be careful with them. Personally, not a fan, but maybe I just don’t like the playstyle. Thinking of trying out reaper to see if that’s any different.

Thieves are great if you don’t mind being a little squish. I don’t even have a full build on my thief yet and I can regularly crit for well over 9k. Great for certain fractals (and dungeons even though dungeons are “dead” now) because stealth. You can lay down a smoke field and shortbow some area stealth, plus shadow refuge. Stealth also comes in handy when running past mobs you just don’t want to deal with. Great dps, stealth is amazing, not much utility (except for blind), but everyone needs a dps class. They’re not really fun until you hit 80 though.

Guardian is a lot of fun. True, not as much DPS as some other classes, but lots of survivability and utility. Condition cleansing, area regen + aegis + burning, and if you are looking for a cheaper build, just use runes of the flame legion instead of scholar because your target is basically always on fire. You can still crank out quite a bit of damage and bonus you don’t die as quick once you learn to time your blinds and aegis. One of my favorite classes.

Warrior is pretty straightforward. Smack things with greatsword. Lots of DPS, buffs with banners, etc. A little bit of survivability, but the zerk meta, especially with warriors, means you’re super squish. But if you can learn to dodge and use your skills right you can be pretty valuable. Gameplay gets pretty dull though because it’s so straightforward.

My personal preference goes Guardian > Thief > Warrior > Necro

but like I said. All viable with right build, anything goes for open world, do some DPS for pugs

Daddicus.6128:

At Claw Island, there are many points where you can fight literally all day. But, if you look at the objective, you can see that you’re not supposed to be where you are. Go to the green star, just running past bad guys along the way. They don’t chase very far at all, and when you get to the star, there’s usually just a single mob.

Of course, there are several objectives, so you have to fight a half-dozen mobs, but that crowd in the middle only needs to be fought once.

This. The first time I went through, I spent a good 20 minutes killing mobs on the beach, thinking I had to clear everyone out before I could get to the NPC, but they just kept respawning. Just run past the mobs to the star and only kill the ones that follow you. The NPCs that trail you should keep the majority of them occupied.

To be fair, Claw Island is a pretty long instance, so you will be there for a while, but you do NOT have to kill everything. In fact, it’s impossible so don’t even try.

There are so many dragon stands maps it’s always easy to find one. Just use LFG.

The first time I went through (like day 2 or 3 after release) it was really buggy, especially since I died a couple times during the final fight so there were issues with mechanics, terrain not loading, the rift not working, and gliding not working. Spent about two hours in that instance before I gave up, partied with a friend to do it and finished it just fine. I’ve done it a couple times since then, much smoother. They seem to have added an interaction with the updrafts to help with gliding if that’s the problem. Also at the very last segment, sometimes if you activate the rift before all the adds are killed, it bugs and keeps the boss invulnerable.

There are bugs, but it definitely works. I would recommend partying up the first time through though.

So soldier armor, zerk weapon/trinkets is a good way to start? Possibly keeping the Signet of Judgement if I need the additional survivability? And I’m guessing the key to learning guardian is timing the blinds/reflects and keeping aegis up?

Just making sure I’m understanding this correctly, and thank you all for your input!

So just level capped my guardian and I’m thinking mainly running this guy in PvE dungeons and fractals. I know everyone’s gonna say go full zerk but as of now I’m not the best in combat and avoiding damage just yet, so I need a bit more survivability. I’d like to contribute to the damage output, and guardians have like no condition application (in comparison to my condi engi) so that’s probably not the greatest route to go down.

I was thinking along the lines of Valkyrie, Soldier’s, or Knight’s, but I’m not sure. I also could use some tips for runes, sigils, and trinkets.

Again, I’ll probably switch to full Berserker gear once I get better at combat, but right now I’d like to stay alive.

The combat for mordrem requires a lot more skill to fight than other mobs. You need to really pay attention to your positioning and move fast. The instanced content is definitely soloable, but the events in the Silverwastes are all group events, so not meant to be soloable (I don’t believe)

I do agree with some of your points, but I think you’ve been misinformed with some things.

With regards to gathering, that is actually allowed from the first level; it’s just pointed out at a certain level. I was able to gather from the get-go if I knew where to get gathering tools.

Although downed skills do have to be unlocked via levels, they have made it significantly easier to rally with the limited downed abilities. I had an alt at level 7 that was downed by four level 9 mobs, at half health or higher, so I only had the one downed skill. I was able to rally and get out fairly easily, though it did take some time. There was enough time to use the heal to keep my health up while I attacked them. I remember panicking on my first character and trying to read what all the skills did while at the same time fighting for my life. This is actually much simpler to learn and get used to, especially, I’d imagine, for someone new to MMOs.

However I do agree with your opinion of the skill challenges. I’d understand that they wouldn’t mark them out on the map (like vistas) until a certain level, but as an experienced player, I shouldn’t be locked out of a skill challenge if I know where one is. Especially the consumption ones or the communing ones.

Also a side note, the tooltip that pops up when the player is “informed” about the TP doesn’t actually mention selling items or buying items with gold. It just tells them about the gem store, which I think is silly.

well I do know that the whole Festival of the Four Winds was supposedly to raise funds to rebuild Lion’s Arch. So I’m also with ElZillcho in hoping that around halloween (maybe before the next LW chapter?) it’ll be fixed up

Yeah I believe you still can with the /block instruction

This is actually a really good idea. And if they keep the questions up for a decent amount of time (like you say, a month) it allows people who come on infrequently to give their input as well. And this way, Anet could show the playerbase the data they’re collecting and making their decisions off of.

GUYS THEY FIXED IT
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/updates/Game-Update-Notes-September-9-2014/first#post4392664

IT’S OFFICIAL

Oh okay thank you! A gaming website (I forget which one) said that what was already complete was the “first half of the season” and I was extremely concerned. Thanks for the clarification!

apparently the bug for /me has been fixed
I cannot confirm this right now, but it is circulating that the bug has been fixed

I thought they were just taking a break for the feature pack and to work out the bugs, but now people were saying that was a mid-season finale and that S2 is already halfway over. Is this true?? If so, why was S1 a year and a half long and this one is only going to be 8 episodes? I was actually enjoying the LW content…

I was excited about everything until I went in and saw the low-level system for myself. That was not very exciting.

I love the new achievements and the TP (though I’ve heard it’s still a little buggy) but the low-level changes really really hurt the game.

(part 2)

The Suggestions
-if key farming is the big issue here, this could simply be fixed by moving the BL key up to level 20 story rather than level 10. Or, alternatively, the BL key reward could be a level reward as opposed to a story reward. So once the character hits level 10, they get a BL key, and they get different rewards for the story.
-if new player difficulty is a problem, then things like the dodge-roll tutorial could be inserted. That way, it can be skipped by a veteran who is leveling an alt, but is useful for someone new exploring the world for the first time. There could be ones for doing combos (one of the mechanics that could really use a tutorial) or other mechanics that may need explaining. I remember in Queensdale there is a ‘combat training’ place where you fulfill the heart by practicing blocking and attacking NPCs. That’s a good way to do it. If a basic one (say, using multiple skills) is located near the area a new character starts, and is labeled by something similar to the dodge-roll tutorial or even a heart, it would be a great place to start that doesn’t level-lock abilities and limit combat.
-if level rewards is the problem, then it would be better to emphasize the ones currently available rather than restricting previously accessible ones. For example, a better explanation of how skill points and the 7-0 slots work would be nice. The new level pop-up window is nice, and can be utilized to explain skill points and traits. It could also be used to explain upgrades and trinkets, so say level 5 you get your ⁷ slot and it shows you, and if you want you can read a little blurb on how to use them or where to get them. Or at some level you get a small rune or sigil and it shows you how to use it to upgrade equipment. The current rewards need to be emphasized and explained better than they are currently, not locked away by levels

In Conclusion
-the new system makes Guild Wars too grind-heavy and requires too much effort for little reward, since full gameplay cannot even begin until level 10. Rather than trying to make previously easily accessible things (i.e. weapon skills, personal story) into rewards, try emphasizing the rewards that currently exist. There is a way to make it easier on new players without also discouraging veteran players.

This patch was a mixed bag, especially with regards to the low-level zones and leveling experiences that were drastically changed, which is really what I want to address here.

The Good
-Initially I found the dodge-roll tutorial a little silly, but then I remembered the only reason I knew how to dodge-roll was because a friend had already taught me. I think it’s a simple, unobtrusive way of teaching the mechanic.
-The new compass is clever and actually rather cool. I do think it has gone a bit too far in pointing out POIs as well as hearts and the storyline, and I think it would also be nice if it could be toggled on and off as well, but in general, a neat little feature.
-Level- pop-up window is also nice. It nicely introduces the rewards chest/trait/etc feature at an early level and explains the perks of the next level rather than having it just show up without any player interaction.

The Not-So-Good
-The level-locked weapon skills. I ran a new character through a tutorial to see how it was, and it was frustrating only being able to spam ¹ throughout the entire thing. Perhaps it might not have been so bad if it was one weapon skill slot per level, but having the ⁵ slot unlocked at level 10 and the ⁷ slot at level 13 looks to be quite grind-heavy. It makes low-level combat tedious, since you cannot really experiment with even your basic skills until level 10.
-the level-locked story. I understand this might have been an attempt to discourage keyfarming, but in the process, it hurt the story experience. When I began playing, I was not a big gameplay person and was rather drawn in by the story, and that’s what got me past the first few levels until I started to understand gameplay enough to enjoy it as well as the story. It was also a mini-goal, so if I was frustrated by the area I was in, I would continue so I could get to the next story instance. However, 10 levels to get to the first real bit of story seems a bit steep. Plus, it makes every 10 levels seem like a big grind, especially for story-driven players. Four levels was a large grind to get from instance to instance, but ten seems insurmountable.
-the combination of all the changes If you had changed one feature of the low-level zones and kept one the same, this might have been an alright patch. However, the combination of making low-level combat more tedious with limited skills, restricting story progression, and even changing hearts (I’ve heard of the infamous cow heart) removes both the fun combat aspect and the story aspect from low-level player experience. If all players receive for the first ten levels of hard work is the ability to finally use their weapons to their full extent, then it’s not going to be easy keeping people around past the first few levels.

The Summary
-new players may have a nicer walkthrough on basic mechanics, but the early gameplay itself suffers because of it.
-veteran players must now go through a tedious grind if they make new characters and have no way of truly utilizing their prior experience and knowledge to make their level progression easier because everything is level-locked (and the locks are steep).

(continued)

I really enjoyed this chapter of Living World. I’ve been enjoying the previous chapters as well but this is hands down my favorite of all the ones so far. Lots of fun dialogue to listen to, rewards for people who go looking for more story/dialogue/etc, challenging and FUN fights, events that got me riled up, and definitely had me excited at the end for the next chapter (though I know that one’s gonna be a long time coming).

Well done, devs. Keep doing what you’re doing because this stuff is gold. I eagerly await the return of LW.

that poor couple needs to stop adventuring.

I agree with most of OP’s points. However I did like the dragon, and I was glad that it actually looked like the dragon from the sylvari Dream.

I didn’t like having to give up Taimi’s device, but as someone pointed out, it is probably in character for the Commander to value the presence of an asuran representative at the summit over credit for an invention, which we can always deal with later.

There’s (surprisingly) been a lot of hate around this episode, but I liked it a lot. This is hands down my favorite episode. I was pleased that the boss fights were not extraordinarily frustrating and actually a bit fun, and that I wasn’t the only one who died multiple times to the final boss and finally exit to the grove with only half a suit of armor left on me.

Well done, great job ANet. Looking forward to the next episode in the fall.

Yeah there are a LOT of voice actors they’d have to bring in, and there’s a surprising amount of dialogue. Believe it or not, people have other things to do than sit around and wait for ANet to ask for their help again.

If you all are going to complain about how “disappointing” this free content is, then stop playing and pray for an expansion.

Meanwhile I’m gonna enjoy all the free stuff I’m getting because I had a lot of fun in this last episode.

wow I actually like this theory. May I ask what inspired it?

They’re supposed to be hard.

They’re supposed to be a challenge.

Scrribble here’s your Norn Guardian!

P sure Elli’s still alive….at least last time I checked.

They usually only happen in cities. Plus this way you get to go exploring more and figure stuff out on your own rather than just watching the minimap.

I personally don’t think Trahearne should be killed off. I rather liked his character, but it would also be super confusing for people new to GW to finish off their personal story and realize oh Trahearne’s actually dead. Plus, I feel his character wasn’t written as well as it could have been, and this is a chance to fix that, since their writing has improved leaps and bounds since S1.

I don’t think he should die, but if he does, he should get a chance to flesh out his character first.

it’s because you see the Pale Tree in the vision so you want to go see what the Tree knows.

If the Dragon were to corrupt you, why wouldn’t he just corrupt you entirely? You’re in charge, after all, and he could make you a puppet to mislead everyone.

Roybe.5896:

Lorewise, this game has always been about the path to hell being lined with good intentions. GW1 Every storyline dealt with this theme and ended up with us having been the instrument of our own doom by taking the ‘noble’ path instead of the overarching view that the survival of the whole is more important than the sum of its inhabitants.

This is a very elegant way of putting it.

Basically by killing Zhaitan we kittened ourselves over.

Ah alright, thanks for the clarification. I didn’t know so much about the human gods and the fall of Abaddon, so I didn’t know he’d been completely destroyed after being thrown into the Realm of Torment. Thanks!

BrunoBRS.5178:

it’s not zhaitan. it would completely defeat the purpose of the cutscene, which is about mordremoth and the pale tree, if it was zhaitan staring back at us in the end.

You don’t know it’s all about Mordremoth. The orbs seem to light up in the order the dragons awoke, except for Zhaitan/Mordremoth. If we make it so the orb that crashed into the center was Zhaitan and the other is Mordremoth, then they light up in the correct order. Plus, if you go around and read stuff in Scarlet’s room and talk to the Pale Tree, there’s a bunch more content and dialogue about the fact that the dragons are a part of the natural balance of the world in the same way huge forest fires are part of the balance of nature. So if we look at the cutscene again and consider the crashing orb to be Zhaitan, we might say that everything was in balance (when all orbs were in orbit), but when we killed Zhaitan (orb crashing), it disrupted the balance of things. I read an interesting theory that all the dragons balance each other out (Primordius/Jormag = fire/ice, bubbles/Kralkatorrik = sea/dessert, Mordremoth/Zhaitan = life/death) so once Zhaitan died, Mordremoth was no longer balanced out as Zhaitan’s magic leaks back out into Tyria and the mists. So basically by killing Zhaitan, we messed up the entire balance of the world.

It’s not said anywhere that the cutscene is about Mordremoth, so we can’t really assume that it is just because he’s awake.

Lord Hammer Hand.4815:

just follow the order when each dragon awakens and the eternal alchemy cutscene will make sence. players so focus on it being modremoth coz of we know thats what scarlet saw, maybe scarlet saw the same thing as we did and she realize that theres a 6th dragon and she intended to awaken it to continue the cycle of the eternal alchemy. or maybe the dark green orb going to the center means power returning back to tyria when zaitan died? or did he really died?

Yes, Zhaitan is dead. The devs (and your story journal) confirm that Zhaitan is dead. Very dead.

this subject has been beaten to death.

there are like five million threads on this.

VOLKON.1290:

Not sure if I’d want it now… it didn’t do her a whole lot of good.

^this

No I’ve been getting that impression, too. I mean she basically worships the ground Scarlet walks on, she mentions in Ep 1 that she thinks she and Scarlet are connected somehow, and she just throws herself into Omadd’s machine without a second thought.

I mean I love Taimi; she’s my favorite out of Destiny’s Edge 2.0 but she’s kind of teetering on the edge of obsession and insanity here and I’m kinda worried she’s gonna take a lone trip down to the machine on her own and jump in while no one’s watching.

okay so I just found something in the GW2 wiki about prophecies

Details
The fallen god Abaddon will return to the world. See Guild Wars Wiki for more detail.
Validity
With the help of his prophet, Varesh Ossa, Abaddon came close to returning to the world, but was stopped when heroes entered the Realm of Torment and defeated him there. His death led to the Ascension of Kormir.
Fulfilled?
Never came to pass.

Wasn’t there a mention of Varesh Ossa in this new update somewhere? And seeing all the theories going around about the connection with the cutscene and the Realm of Torment, and Zhaitan’s death causing magic to leak through the mists, could this finally be coming to pass?

My own theory is this.
- Primordious opposite is Jormag. (fire vs ice)
- Kralkatorrik opposite is “Bubbles”. (desert vs sea)
- Zhaitan opposite is Mordremoth. (death vs life)
The death of Zhaitan throws everything out of natural order, thus it became necessary to wake up Mordremoth ahead of schedule. Only Mordremoth can naturally absorb the power and essence of Zhaitan, perhaps even restoring Orr in the process. Then filled with magical power, Mordremoth goes back to hibernation.
However, the corruption seems to be overwhelming Mordremoth and nothing is going as expected. So who knows what will happen next. I believe that the vines are the result of the clash of Mordremoth’s and Zhaitan’s power battling for domination.

I didn’t realize this. I really like this theory.

I really like these new mobs because they require you to actually think about your positioning and the way you need to go about attacking them. Sure, took a little bit to get used to and gosh the flanking from those wolves hurt if you get caught out of position, but it requires more skill to take them on than just button mashing and zerk gear.

Of all the couples who deserve to be happy in this game, please stop traumatizing those two.

Soooo Lots of people saying the left green orb is Mordremoth, and the right green orb is Zhaitan, and then getting all up in arms about the awakening order being wrong…and I don’t know if there’s a topic about this yet but what if they’re reversed? So the one that crashes into the center is actually Zhaitan dying? Then the order works out fine, and maybe it’s a deliberate bluff by the devs?

Thoughts? Or links to forum where people have already discussed this?

Hey just wanted to update you guys, I’m sorry for the slow progress. I’ve had a sudden influx of work and I’ve had no time to draw the past couple days. I’ll hopefully get the first done by the weekend, and get started on the second soon after! Thanks for your patience!

I’m assuming it’s just because Kasmeer assumes the Pale Tree is some queen, not just like mom to a bunch of kids.

I also like the theories Kaiyanwan brought up. Those seem legit and plausible.

I thought this was great. Keep it up! I look forward to more

yeah if you talk to the first one you run across, they talk about how they’ve been watching and saw the Zephyrites crash and basically explain themselves.

If you want to know background info, you can look for it and you will find it. But some people are just after map completion/achievements, so they don’t really care why the centaurs are there, so you don’t have to know if you don’t want to.

I’ve had the same issue with the lightning crystal. I assumed it was the lag (everywhere else in Tyria I’m fine but in Dry Top I have a solid 3 second lag) but when I’m standing perfectly still and holding my mouse steady to use the crystal, it either drops me halfway or takes me waaaaay too far. It’s basically a roll of the dice to whether I land in the vicinity of my target or not.

I remember seeing one before, back when the waypoints affected were only in Brisban Wildlands, but now that tendrils have popped up in LA and Timberline Falls, I’d like to see an updated map, if anyone has one.

Or do they just photosynthesize like normal plants?

I just talked with someone from Monoprice, and yes their drivers are compatible with Windows 8!

And my Sylvari glows yellow! I’m afraid I don’t have any great pics of her glowing, but I’ll attach what I have! (These pictures are with her wearing her shoulders and armguards. You can include them if you really want to)

I agree that Monoprice is a great tablet option! Very cheap, and, as someone who has experience using both Wacom and Monoprice, I’d definitely go with Monoprice. Same quality, like a quarter of the price.

(also if you still want someone to draw, my sylvari engineer is always open~)