Guild Wars 2

Southsun karka farming.. really? The shell droprate is pitiful. Karka farming seems like a horrid way to try to get coin/hr, even with a few vials and blues tossed in with a couple shells

AnemoneMeer.7182:

But killsquads in places like Southsun can make steady cash by running Karka down in seconds. Again, not a solo affair, but you can pull in decent gold if you’ve got people buffing with swiftness for running betweeen karka. 5x axe/warhorn warriors is great for this. Powerful blood isn’t exactly cheap.

well then i’ve been doing it wrong xD

engineers are supposed to be jack of all trades, but they are usually just jack kitten

Aequitas.6402:

Yeah, these are things I’m missing too. Personally, I like watching other people do better than me, and so far I have to stick to cheesy YouTube videos that leave the shortcomings out and are set to Linkin Park/Metallica/Disturbed-music.

srs the music kills any potential enjoyment from most gw2 videos

Ive become a little suspicious/paranoid and usually relog between fractal runs. I don’t think there’s supposed to be DR in fractals, but it seems loot gets worse and worse if doing multiple runs

Mesmers are very versatile and have skills tailor made for specific parts of specific dungeons.

These include at the very least (including some already mentioned):
a) arcane thievery + signet of inspiration to steal major boons (ie 25 stacks of might) and give to your teammates
b) procs that give chaos armor within a field
c) reflection of projectiles from Feedback (does massive damage against certain boss/mob attacks). Reflection also from the iWarden phantasm that protects nearby allies
d) Time Warp to allow massive damage and conditions stacking for a short burst
e) mass invis (stealth) for whole party for 5 secs
f) shatter skills that cause Aoe confusion
g) crippling abilities caused by iBerserker and Temporal curtain
h) the Portal skill which can move an entire party well out of harms way and/or speed a party from A to B considerably faster

The key of course, as with any class, is to gain experience such that you know where and when to use the various skills and skill combos.. and to be aware of their cooldowns.

I don’t have a necro but great necros are always welcome in any group xD

lol yes i remember in orr a month or so ago I got invited to a DE party. The other 4 people in the party had names like asfsdafsdfad, dgdgdhkdgh, jkjhkjhjklk. I was like “omg bots are self-aware!!” it was silly and chilling at the same time

like all aspects of all fractals, certain tactics work better than others. Why do people keep expecting Anet to “fix-the-game” instead of paying their dues learning what tactics are required? Things do get harder at 10+ for most simply because they have to adjust to agony and they also cant just keyboardsmash their way though every part of every dungeon

Oh and

If you think that boss is hard at 11…. you might want to just stop doing that dungeon now….

this

Zenpo.5962:

It’s not that we didn’t know the strategy or weren’t capable.

I afraid I’m going to have to give up on fractals all together until they fix this. It is just way too aggravating and discouraging and no fun at all.

let’s hear your strategy and then perhaps we can help you

ATMAvatar.5749:

I would prefer they group the available fractals into three distinct groups based upon difficulty and/or length and ensure that you get one of each group during a run. Getting dredge, grawl, and cliffside all together really sucks when compared against the luck of getting underwater, swamp, and ascalon, if only because you’ll take twice as long (or longer!) on the former versus the latter.

not a bad idea

in general I like randomness, which is part of the appeal of fractals. RNG even to some extent. Predictable = boring, imo.

But the above would also combat the rampantness of fotm squads cycling through myriad ‘first’ fractal instances just to start with one of the fast ones, which can also get a bit silly

guardians not using their shield/reflection skills is what trips me out the most

engineers were nerfed due to their OPness (sarcasm) and qqing. But yet thieves remain permastealthed?

Groovy.6749:

what you want is to make an engineer specced in grenades.

absolutely

Malediktus.9250:

I dont see the issue. I am currently at fractals 33 with 0% AR and planning to continue without AR

just curious, but what profession are you?

kill stuff before it kills you. Best defense is a good offense. You can lead a horse to water, but..

ok some light armor classes might be better suited to avoiding damage rather than trying to tank it. Mesmers are a good example, at least for those who play them in this manner

Killing stuff quick (whether in wvw or pve) has it’s advantages and in-and-of-itself is a form of defense

I suppose if you are a mf min-maxer, then yea the mf stats on the backpiece should keep pace with other backpieces (with orb) currently available

a good point indeed

Yea if a level 2 player (with no mains to feed rings off of) is getting hit with level 20 agony AND is truly a level 2 player with only 1 run of fotm experience between all of his characters… he/she better be a really good friend of yours to want to bring along xD

we dont know how agony will apply on the lower level players yet. I would assume agony will be the same level as the instance level for all. But then again, Anet stated that the lower level player will get the lower-level loot tables, so I don’t think we know yet on the agony.

you will get some shards at higher level fotms and can decomp them for the mats needed to upgrade rings. Just be patient xD

Eventually you will need more than the 20 pristines to have the option of trading for future Ascended gear additions.

imo they balanced this out fairly well for now

I suppose the big question is how will agony affect the lower level player. If, in the given example, a level 1 is brought along on a fotm 21 run and hit with level 21-appropriate agony, I’m not sure how many groups will want that level 1 along (unless it is an alt fed some rings as mentioned) for that reason alone.

I’d imagine most scenarios will involve a ‘tier group’ ala 2 lvl 21s, 2 level 23s, and a level 25 are all willing to do a level 25. That alone will make finding groups much faster than currently, and is a good thing!

this is excellent! Now if you are running 25-29 (or something within a similar range), it will be a lot easier to find a group, and AR range will be reasonable

Will fotm (and thus gw2lg.com xD) be split between Odd v Evens? ie im guessing the odds may not want to run Maw?

Koga.7215:

my question is, what else are you going to use that gold to do?

anything but pointlessly throwing it into the wind

I think the fact that it costs 250 ectos to put +5 agony resistance on a backpiece should tell you something

Those who claim they make 5-10g in a couple hours consistently are either a) way overestimating, b) hiding the fact that they have used the cash shop (ie gem exchange).. or both

lack of monetary reward for stuff like open world champions, dragons, or even Orr DEs all point to f2p.. and the trend continues with each “update”

agree, i wish there was a level ‘pooling’ system in place. This has been suggested before, though not sure where in the suggestions forum it is (if even there). Whether it’s a 3 level range withing a 10x tier, a 5 level range within that tier, or 10 level range… it would speed things up factorily

One problem is if some are on odd levels and others on even, then everyone will have to do Maw. “Obstacle” moreso than “problem” perhaps. Whether on the players’ end or developer’s end

Do we know if agony only gets increased at 10,20,30 etc or if there are shades at every level?

Sina.9208:

LemurTron.9261:

2) Is there a tangible ROI on it at present? Or are people that do it just doing it either because ‘they can’ and/or expect the extra back piece ARs to be necessary when future ascended pieces are introduced?

Perhaps some professions “require” more AR at higher levels (40+) than others as well?

The difference is there. On lvl 3x Maw with 25 agony resistance u will get downed and with 30 if u heal yourself you can survive without being downed, thus you can start rezzing right away. This is very significant if everyone but you dies and if u get the skull while downed u cannot do anything about it..

I see. Hmm, I wonder what percentage of players are running with AR 25 at fotm 30 vs ones with AR 30+?

Per this link http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Agony, I wouldn’t think AR 25 would be an instadown at Maw, but then again I don’t know how many ticks he’s throwing..

marnick.4305:

Yes it was difficult. That’s why it was fun. That’s why it’s an achievement.

I actually looked forward to doing this again on an alt, knowing that it actually provides a challenge

Akame.1073:

Play whatever class you enjoy the most , all are fine & all have something to offer to the group. CBA to say what or why , as you might find a way to use an ability in a totally different way than me or any other player , tbh the game alows you to do some incredible things, but sadly most ppl are still in the mentality of the trinity. If you like & you are having fun with, play it. This is a game its meant to be fun not a chore & whatever class you play you re bound to find someone with the attitude "oh not a …. (random class name) ". Just have fun , its that simple.

^^

A good player will always be welcome, regardless of professions. Every single profession can bring something to a dungeon party, especially in particular parts of particular dungeons. Just have fun and.. in the process you will learn what your necro has to offer and when to use certain skills.. and then you will become a good player welcome in any party xD

laharl.8435:

1) Ascended is supposed to a tier above Exotic, something like the armor equivalent of Legendaries (when they get buffed). In that light, the expense makes sense.

The expense doesn’t make sense presently, though. You can obtain the stat benefit from the rings and backpiece without dropping 250 ectos.

laharl.8435:

2) A tangible ROI will be subjective. But every +5 AR makes a noticeable difference. +30 AR isn’t enough for the higher level fractal runners.

i’ve seen a mesmer do fotm 49 with only 15 AR. Granted:
a) he is awesome
and
b) his party works very well together and the sum is greater than its parts

But blanket statements don’t always apply as far as x AR needed for x level xD

weird, I could have sworn i saw a bump to Jormag rewards mentioned in patch notes somewhere recently. Just searched the News and Announcements forum for “Jormag” and “dragon” and couldn’t find anything pertinent..

Was it mentioned elsewhere or am i completely hallucinating that the community’s expectation of better loot from Jormag/dragons was somehow imminent?

Relative to getting to +25, the jump to +30 seems extreme with the 250 ecto cost. I’m curious as to:
1) why this is so expensive? like.. couldn’t they just have made it 50 or so
2) Is there a tangible ROI on it at present? Or are people that do it just doing it either because ‘they can’ and/or expect the extra back piece ARs to be necessary when future ascended pieces are introduced?

Perhaps some professions “require” more AR at higher levels (40+) than others as well?

yeah man ive never know anyone personally who got a precursor from jormag. It (the chance) is so slim that you should at least have decent rare/exotic drops to entice you to come spend (now even more) time

Kindread.9481:

I think they should impliment a “Thumbs Up” rating that you can give people. Once you reach X# of Thumbs Up you are granted either a PvE icon, or a PvP icon. You should only be able to give someone a Thumbs Up if you are grouped, to prevent people from randomly decreasing your Thumbs Up points pool just beacuse they woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

I have yet to run into a “Commander” that was actually leading. I have grouped with a few in dungeons and its the exact same. As Porky said, the Commander icon does not mean anything except that person had 100 gold … and is now likely broke.

The peer-review rating idea is a good one.

The only way to see who is a good commander or not is to run with them a couple times and make a list (as I did, lol). The main reason i chose my guild was because I followed a certain commander around whenever i could, and the rest on the server paled in comparison in several areas:
1) politeness
2) communication (curt but on point). Doesn’t rely solely on voice chat which is great for many of us with kids/etc that cant run voice often
3) awareness of map (always seems to know what’s going on at every node and adapts instruction accordingly)
4) wins! Knows how to avoid ambushes and has basic Sun Tzu type strategic sense
5) isn’t cheap. Will throw down coin for siege, upgrades, food occasionally, golems.. whatever.

When you run with a great commander, WvW is sooo much fun. That’s why i went to his guild, since wanted to be around “the best”

As far as I’m concerned, most other commanders do some or all of the following and thus… suck:
1) type in ALL CAPS. we have one on our server. ALL CAPS ALL THE TIME. Sorry dude, you been blocked
2) lead into ambushes. Ask for a scout next time..
3) Dont setup any siege, even on a wall assault. Really, you spent 100g for a comander tag but wont cough up for some flame rams or even a catapult? How long do you expect your followers to dance around the gate?

So I pretty much know the 1-3 commanders i like to follow on my server, by order of preference. If none of them are on, I’ll go do something else xD

Shiren.9532:

“This was to ensure that world loot drops were not a significantly worse way of acquiring rare and exotic items than crafting and running dungeons.”

Does anyone feel like there is absolutely no way this is even remotely close? No-one sees world drops even remotely close the dungeons or crafting reliability. Not only do you choose the skins and stats of crafted and dungeon gear, you also know you will get something. World drops are still terribad and champions are still ignored.

agree wholeheartedly

Avan.1540:

Re #2: The number of mobs is the same, the number of mobs that drop loot is less; the mini ice eles no longer drop loot.

Re #3: That is apparently a bug.

noted, ty

Absolutely, they do listen to the community and respond in some situations. Imo they did a great job listening re: fractals and providing means to get rings without rng. Mesmers got some love after getting neutered. (hopefully engis will get some love next x)

So for that, definitely – thanks Anet!

I had thought Jormag was going to give ‘better rewards’. Thus the intent would be to make the event more desirable for people, and entice people to come and come more often.

Instead, this was my experience yesterday:
1) the NPCs help less, thus the fight takes longer
2) the number of mobs that drop loot was lessened, thus.. less loot from mobs
3) perhaps the most annoying thing — the corrupted Ice Wall shield no longer appears when “tab-targeting”. Why on earth would this have been changed?
4) The chest loot was the worst i’ve ever received. Ever. All blues, no greens or yellows. Small sample size? Absolutely. But still a kick to the face as this was perhaps my 20’th or 25’th jormag kill, with about the same MF, whether in a group or not. First time ever never getting even a green.

The result?
a) the fight takes longer than it used to
b) the total loot rewards for the event are less than they were before
c) the Ice wall was made annoying for no discernible reason whatsoever

All i can conclude is that since Jormag now takes longer to do and gives less rewards, that the intent was actually to drive people away from it. And just to insure this would happen, the event added additional annoyances..

If the above conclusions are false, the burden of proof is to demonstrate otherwise xD. I would truly like to know how the recent changes to Jormag are intended to encourage people to do the event more often, if ever again.

is now even less desirable to do than prior to the last patch. Surely this was not the intent??

Shini.7542:

If you get a thief he can solo the bomb door without getting a hit mostly. 2-3 bombs per running in. For the other door: full dmg on the door and as soon as the mobs spawn – shadow refuge which lasts long enough for the rest of the door.
Well, if you didn’t got a thief (can’t happen to me :p) you need to care about the adds at both doors. Mesmers can help as well with stealth.

For ice frac:
You can ignore the vets at first 20 lvls but if you get higher, kill all you have aggro. Its not only their AoE that hurts, the single attack isn’t that weak as well esp if you got 4 or more mobs (higher number of respawn at higher lvls). It’s more safe to kill all of them. Depending on the party HP and the amount of mobs you can skip the 3rd respawn at 25% HP of the crystal left.
Sticking together is better here, as said the dmg rises and it happens more often that sometimes is downed. Also reflect/absorb walls work this way better. Pulling mobs together via guardian/mesmer helps a lot as well (better AoE usage)

nice re: the thief

For the ice elemental, does a new wave of mobs come at 75%, 50% and 25% of ice crystal health (in tandem to the snowblind teleport)?

I’m assuming your advice to kill all the mobs is because those that are ‘behind’ the crystal initially might end up joining the fight after a new wave of mobs appears and the party looks to gather near a fire after the snowblind teleport? They do start to hit hard..

laharl.8435:

Ok, we tried a little different approach to the Ice Elemental last night and it ended up being my easiest fight versus him yet. We still stayed together. Basically we had two guys dedicated to fighting vets when they were aggro’d while the other 3 of us kept on the Ice Elemental. There were no deaths and only one knockdown. This was only one battle so it could’ve just been an anomaly, but I’ll try it again when it comes up.

that makes a lot of sense

Shini.7542:

Only “safe” way to test this would be to record like 1000 dailys at lv24 and another 1000 for lv26 and calculate the percentages. Gl on this.

My christmas wish is for the OP to do precisely this xD. Then again you may not be “qualified” to give him this advice

cinemapaula.8673:

I enjoy underwater. So, I give a kitten. XD

same xD

When the mother-of-all-dragons emerges from a trench in the Sea of Sorrows and we are sent to intercept her before she reaches air (at which point she procreates exponentially, like Gremlins-in-reverse)… You will care* too!

*if the loot is worth it

AliceJutta.3824:

I thoroughly enjoyed leveling Mesmer.

Same! And actually found it extremely easy.

A lot easier than my first character (engi) was….

For one, there’s hardly a single situation you cannot escape from.. Decoy alone should make leveling a piece of cake..

So easy in fact the achievement for “no deaths for xK exp” randomly popped up once day. Guess i had never been able to do that with an engi xD

In the 20s im only about 50/50 with my mesmer getting back alive. Even with portal, invis, speed bump, decoy, and a couple distortion shatters, I get chomped sometimes before getting pack through portal, depending on how many aggro followers. Though my build is pure dps too.

Anyway, i hear ya. That situation is doable and works ‘ok’, I just wonder if the 1-2 dedicated runner bit might speed things up overall. Not really a big deal just looking for optimum method

I doubt the 30% nerf will stick. I’m guessing they will end up dialing it back to 10-20% and when they do, people will feel better.

meaning:
1) If they went straight to %10-20 nerf, the engi community would be as upset as now, or close. And it would just sit there, festering, forever.
2) By going to 30 and then dialing it back to %10-20 later, it will leave a warm-fuzzy in some engis, thinking that Anet ‘really hears’ them and washes away the bad taste of the nerf.

The result is the same (10-20%), but playing bad cop/good cop puts out a better vibe than just a straight nerf.. and it ends the ‘situation’ on a positive note.

Ofc i could easily be wrong, time will tell xD

Wethospu.6437:

LemurTron.9261:

Wethospu.6437:

On bomb-run all just grab one bomb, plant and run back. Wait a bit. Repeat.

That usually doesn’t work, meaning at least someone dies, usually more than one. And then they’re surrounded by adds. At least from my experience

Then they die and we finish it up.

yeah thats usually what happens.. a wipe once the door is blown and the adds stop respawning. But those adds respawn indefinitely (dont they?) prior to the door blowing up, so looking for a less-wipish strategy. Or one where 5 players takes on the final mobs rather than 1-3, which takes a little longer, if a wipe isn’t ‘needed’

basically a zero-death plan would be ideal xD, ala the freeze door tactic

the idea of “underflow” servers sounds appealing, such that pools of lower lvl’d characters would be able to interact with others more on the less populated maps

Wethospu.6437:

On bomb-run all just grab one bomb, plant and run back. Wait a bit. Repeat.

That usually doesn’t work, meaning at least someone dies, usually more than one. And then they’re surrounded by adds. At least from my experience

laharl.8435:

New adds spawn at 50% on the door freezing version? I’ve only had that version once getting to level 21 and doing numerous tier 20 dailies. I’d like to better understand what you’re saying as to deal with that one when it comes up.

yep, there seems to be a trigger such that at 50% of door ‘hp’ and again when door is destroyed, that a fresh wave of dredge spawns on top of you.

I didn’t realize this until last night and it made things alot easier.. At 50% (or you can just as easily tell by the popup of adds) and again at zero %, just run back down the ramp (or just fight them there) and the mobs are a lot easier to deal with. Thankfully they dont respawn on other than these two triggers, so it makes things more manageable.

And thank you for the input on the other fractal parts As for the bomb part, do a couple of the “non-runners” head up to the door to take aggro and bring those mobs back down the stairs, so that the 1-2 bomb runners don’t have to deal with aggro while by the door?

mesmer can get 4 secs of stealth from elite skill with long cooldown. These sounds like bots as described

I’m not sure how ash legion kits make other characters look on screen

nelopp.6140:

No story progress, no interesting event = no people
They should keep the champion Karka event repeating like dragon event.
The DE is boring and lack of diversities.

this ^^

if you port down to the SW waypoint (nearest waypoint to get to rich ori), the DE (gather karka eggs) is always stagnant. I wonder if Anet has done any metrics to see how often that DE gets completed in a week…. The other DEs seem equally ignored.

people just gather some resources and try to avoid the champ karka as best they can. Sometimes a kind soul will lead the champ karka down the ramp a bit to give some of the less “avoidant” professions a better shot at the rich ori.

That’s my take on South Sun. Karka shell droprate seems under or around 10% from the youth karkas.. and it takes 1K of them to get an earring piece so.. that’s a lot of grinding for an earring that was given away to everyone for free.. unless 8s per karka shell is worth the time grinding karkas at 10%ish drop rate? meh

Anet should spend a little time making South Sun worth visiting again, chain the DEs and give them better rewards. Rethink the purpose of the champ karka and give people a reason to kill it rather than avoid it. Atm South Sun seems very beta-ish

Dredge Fractal / Frost gun door:
Last night someone in our PUG told us to halt freezing the door and deal with the adds at 50% door health (an easy trigger to remember since that’s when all the adds popup), before resuming going to work on the door. This worked remarkably perfectly and there were no wipes as a result.

Dredge Fractal / Bomb door:
What’s the best strategy here? Seems like we usually just take turns kamikaze-ing the door with bombs, using up whatever our skills are that keep us alive long enough to light the fuses before dying. Usually the team takes out the ‘stair’ mob group first so that 3-4 bomb runners have success on their first sortie, before that stair mob group respawns.

What’s the best way to handle this part of Dredge with respect to the mob respawnings?

Svanir Elemental Crystal fight: Veteran adds — to kill or not to kill?
This seems to cause a consensus split every time a group gets to this part, some saying “ignore the adds”, some saying " kill the adds xD". Some group members will also call to “stick together” while others will say “spread out”.

related Qs:
I’m guessing you should kill the Vet adds that are shooting at your team.. and ignore the ones behind the crystal that haven’t aggroed anyone yet?

Does another wave of vet adds spawn every time the group gets teleported into snowblindness?

Should the group all stick to one fire pit (and have all eggs in one basket) or split up into 2 (or more) fires, so that some of the vet adds dont even need to be bothered with?

Thanks!

http://gw2lfg.com/

should be able to find one fairly fast. once in the group, click on the leaders name and choose ‘join in overflow’ as you all need to launch from the same one