Guild Wars 2

zealex.9410:

I wonder how does it make sense for him to be balthazar. I know it was a theory but whats the basis behind it?

I think you hit the nail on the head as to why some people are backlashing against what had the potential to be a really cool plot twist: it just came so far out of left field that Lazarus could have just as easily been revealed as Palawa Joko, Shiro Tagachi, or Professor Yakkington.

Actually, when the illusion first started to melt away, I thought for sure it was Vizier Khelbron (the Lich Lord from GW1: Prophecies). And in those few seconds, my mind started excitedly racing through several possibilities as to why and how he came back — and they all made sense (at least as much sense as a theory developed in 2.5 seconds can make). Then Kazmeer shouted “Balthazar!”, and my reaction changed to “Wh… wait… huh???”

There’s plot twists… and then there’s pulling the handbrake and power sliding the plot 270 degrees in another direction then racing off into the middle of a cornfield while screaming “bet ya didn’t see that one coming!”

I like both systems. The older style was nice for extended dialog during a break in the action, when the focus should be on what’s being said rather than what’s happening (and allow the option to skip through it). The new system is more immersive, and allows for dialog during the action — fighting and talking at the same time, or “hey look at that” type comments while moving through the environment.

I think they both have their uses, and I’d like to see the older system still used when we have longer narratives.

That reminds me of the irukandji from Cantha in GW1:
https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Irukandji

(ZOMG! Cantha content confirmed!)

It would have made more sense if Revenants start at 80 and go through a unique (and VERY abbreviated) personal story where its established that you were another profession, went all through the personal/living world story… but died during the fight with the Shadow Dragon at the end of LS2. You went to the Mists, met Rytlock, and are now helping him find a way to get back to Tyria. You’re quickly introduced to your new Revenant profession/skills along the way, establishing Rytlock was the first Revenant — and he’s now teaching you. You find a way out of the Mists, and Rytlock says something like, “Not sure where this will take us or if we’ll even end up in the same place. See ya on the other side… maybe.” And you’re dropped into the Silverwastes, ready to begin Prologue: Rally to Maguuma.

But that would have required more development work, in an expansion that already felt like it could have used more development work in many other areas.

If you’re any other profession, the whole deal with Rytlock’s “new magic” fits in to the story just fine. If you’re a revenant… you’ll just have to accept that you really were the first, but Rylock had a better PR department.

Yes, if you use the level boost you can still play through the story from the beginning. If this is your first character, though, don’t use the level 80 boost. Play through the game normally so you learn the game systems and mechanics, and enjoy the journey. Use the level 80 boost when you’re already familiar with the game and just want to take a new character straight into the high-level content.

I really do miss the team-oriented approach of Guild Wars, and I really wish ArenaNet would have continued developing it in parallel with Guild Wars 2. They each have a very distinct game-play style, and I enjoy both of them for different reasons. Even if they never added new professions or skills, I would have liked to see the Guild Wars Beyond updates continue so we could get new challenges and stories — including cross-over lore between the two games.

Sure, the graphics do look dated when you go back to some of the original maps. But Eye of the North had some pretty good looking areas in The Tarnished Coast and the charr homelands: http://atyrianodyssey.com/gw/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/sacnoth-valley_entry.jpg

If they brought the texture in the original areas up to that level and maybe gave the character models an overhaul, it could still pass as a decent looking game nowadays.

Start by reading this wiki article which gives a very brief summary of the lore from the first game.

Then read The Movement of the World, which gives some background on the current state of the major races and the conflict with the elder dragons.

Those two articles should be enough to give you at least some general context for most of the events happening in the game. Although I’d recommend going a step further and also reading these short articles about each of the five races — which talk about some of their key organizations and persons of note:

The Line of Duty

The Legions of the Charr

A Spirit of Legend

That Old College Try

Dream and Nightmare

If you’re REALLY wanting to dive in to the deep end of the lore, you could also read about some of the NPC races who you will encounter frequently throughout the story:

Grawl
Krait
Quaggan
Jotun
Kodan
Skritt

Even without going into all the races, that should be enough to get you through the first personal story campaign (up through the defeat of Zhaitan).

When you begin the Living World part of your personal story, unfortunately the first season is no longer playable in game because it was largely a series of “live” events which happened out in the open world. You can read a summary of what happened here: Living World Season 1 Summary.

I’d recommend digging a little deeper into Scarlet Briar, since her actions during Season 1 had a lot to do with what happens in the Heart of Thorns expansion.

At that point, you should be able to play through Season 2 with enough background context to understand who’s who and what’s going on. Season 2 starts making more references to the original Guild Wars (mostly just the first campaign: Prophecies), so you may want to read The Storyline of Prophecies to get some context around events and people from the past who are mentioned. Season 3 also has a lot of references back to Prophecies.

And one final suggestion: if you see something happening in-game that you don’t understand (a dynamic event, a renown heart task, etc.) try talking to some of the NPCs in the area. While Guild Wars 2 doesn’t require you to follow the traditional MMO quest style of “talk to quest giver, kill foozels/collect gizmos, return to quest giver for reward” – you CAN still do that to get more context about what’s going on in the area and why in the world you just received a random task to collect harpy pheromones for some strange asura off in the distance.

Here’s all the ways to acquire the Teleport to Friend item:
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Teleport_to_Friend

As an alternative, if you’re with a friendly mesmer, they have a skill that can create a portal between two locations (within a limited range):
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Portal_Entre

Starting a guild can be difficult even in the best of times. Starting with no one but yourself, in a game that’s already pretty well saturated with established guilds, can be particularly challenging.

Rather than trying to build up a guild from ground zero, I would recommend first building up your own network of friends you enjoy playing with. Once you’ve found a core group of players that you mesh well with, ask if they’d like to start a guild with you. Starting a guild with a group you already get along with is much easier than pulling a bunch of random people together and trying to build a guild while also building relationships with one another. Especially when building a special-interest guild like you are (Christian, or at least “family friendly”), you want to make sure all your founding members have a consistent vibe, rather than pulling in a gaggle of strangers and hoping for some kind of consistency to materialize. Speaking from personal experience: some kind of consistency WILL materialize… but it might not be the consistency you were hoping for.

You may also want to consider joining an established guild, if you are not already part of one, and working your way into an officer position. While its possible for a guild to simply fly by the seat of their pants and have fun, most successful guilds have at least some behind-the-scenes logistics that keep them running smoothly. Even negative guild experiences can at least give you an idea of what you don’t want to do. (Just don’t fall into the trap of thinking that if you do the opposite of a guild leader you don’t like, that will make you a good guild leader. It’s not quite that black and white.)

Running your own guild can be fun, rewarding, stressful and exhausting all at the same time. Good luck!

From my own casual observations:

Charr Mesmer
Female charr, in general
Norn Revenant
Sylvari Engineer (although I did start to see more after Scarlett)
Asura Ranger or Warrior

That’s not to say that I never see these combos, but they’re definitely less common than your stereotypical Charr Warrior, Norn Ranger, etc.

It’s all relative. If an elementalist throws on some Valkyrie or Marauder gear when going solo through the Heart of Maguuma, I see nothing wrong with that. If a warrior is running full Nomad gear in Ascalon Catacombs to ensure they never get downed… yeah, they should probably consider pushing the envelope a little more.

I didn’t find the mechanics themselves overly difficult, even playing solo. My biggest frustration with the fight was that it took place in such a small, claustrophobic room where I felt like I was fighting with the camera as much as the boss himself. Having my situational awareness and visual range restricted in that way didn’t make the fight feel more challenging — it just felt frustrating. Sort of like making a marathon “more challenging” by tying the runners’ shoe laces together.

A fight in a confined space should be designed as a simple tank-n-spank. The Caudecus fight should have taken place in a larger area. Even if our movement space was restricted, there should have been a wider perimeter so we could zoom and pan the camera around more easily.

There was a time when ArenaNet used to call out people who would post on Reddit claiming to be the “innocent victim” of a false suspension. Someone would claim “I just got a 1 week suspension… I’ve never said anything bad in chat… other players are just griefing me… ArenaNet just bans people who get multiple reports, without investigating anything!” Then someone from ArenaNet would come along and post the chat log from that person in all its uncensored glory and retort with “THIS is what got you suspended. Questions?”

It was hilarious to see people get shut down like that, and it showed that ArenaNet does indeed investigate and take action on those verbal abuse reports.

Keep in mind that ArenaNet usually starts people out with a 1 – 3 day suspension at first (they might even get just a warning before that), and it may take up to a week or more between when you submit your report and when they have a chance to act on it.

I’m pretty sure they do take action. But their actions on specific incidents aren’t always immediate or visible to us.

Kristen Perry did the pre-release redesign of the sylvari. I’m not sure if she did all the animation rigging. But she was the Character Art Lead at the time and is credited as the one responsible for the “appearance of the sylvari”. So I would assume she at least worked with the riggers to guide them on animation articulations/movements, provided mock-up sketches for the animations, etc.

http://www.merekatcreations.com/

Lake Doric has existed as an incomplete and inaccessible — yet still “real” — map since release. What I suspect happened is that the Chinese developers intended to create a DR portal scroll, but made a typo on the map ID. And now every player in China has a gizmo that lets them enter an unfinished map.

That map has been in the data files since the beginning, so I wouldn’t necessarily assume this means it’s being actively worked on again. It could be – but those screen shots don’t look any different than the data mined views of the map I’ve seen. (Search YouTube for “WoodenPotatoes Lake Doric” if you want a fly-through tour using data mined assets and a third-party map viewer.)

Since you’re running three monitors, make sure your Render Sample is set to Native and not Super Sample. Super Sample doubles your display resolution. And since you’re running three displays that would mean you’re rendering at SIX TIMES the native resolution. That will make even a 980TI scream for mercy.

Also, try setting Shadow Quality to Medium and disabling Ambient Occlusion. Shadows and AO will have a noticeable performance impact — which will be exponentially larger on a multi-monitor setup.

You mentioned being able to run at ultra settings in other games, but keep in mind GW2 has a much more demanding graphics engine than LOTRO and LOL. LOTRO is almost ten years old now. It still looks pretty darn good, considering its age — but its graphics engine was designed for GPUs from almost a decade ago. LOL was designed to run on lower-spec systems and it is rendered from a “top down” perspective, unlike GW2 which renders scenes “off into the horizon” — which is MUCH more graphically intensive (i.e. showing 50 feet around your character is not anywhere near as demanding as showing the mountains 10 miles away).

I suspect the biggest issue is that you’re trying to drive three displays off a single GTX980TI. That’s a very solid card, but even it has its limits — especially when driving multiple displays with all the eye-candy enabled.

Its version 1.0.0.1.

Right-click gw2-64.exe, select Properties, select Details. Check the “Product version” field.

I’ve been using the left-handed Death Adder for over two years now. I really like the feel since it is one of the few gaming mice that is TRULY left-handed and not just ambidextrous. Regardless of whether you’re using the left- or right-handed version, the mouse is contoured nicely, and the side buttons are sufficiently large enough to be easily reachable for a variety of hand sizes.

Razer’s mapping software (Synapse) is easy enough to use, but it feels like it’s trying to be too sophisticated for its own good. It’s very insistent that you let it sync your profiles to the cloud and allow it auto-update the mouse drivers (you can turn this off, though). The drivers can take up to 30 seconds to re-initialize whenever I reboot (it seems to be a bit faster now that I’ve turned off the cloud sync feature). And sometimes the mouse seems to get mixed up about which profile is loaded (sometimes the driver is showing my “Desktop” profile is loaded, but the mouse buttons are still acting like my “Guild Wars 2” profile is loaded). So, the mapping software can get a little squirrelly sometimes.

The quality of construction has also left me a bit dissatisfied. On the first Death Adder I purchased, after about a year the scroll wheel started to feel like it was “falling in” to the mouse and wasn’t scrolling smoothly. I chalked it up to bad luck (or perhaps overly aggressive clicking – since I use the middle button as my [F] key in GW2) and bought a replacement since I really liked the feel of the mouse (and not being able to find any decent left-handed alternatives). Sure enough, about a year later my replacement has also started to have scroll wheel problems. Not quite as bad as the first one – there’s just a little jitter in the scrolling; every so often as I’m scrolling down it will jitter back up a little. Annoying when it happens, but not enough to make me replace the mouse. I also have a Razer Lycosa keyboard. I always felt it was a bit of a luxury item and not quite worth the price, but I bought it as a “spoil me” gift after getting a nice bonus at work so I could have a matching keyboard and mouse set. After about 18 months, it’s also started to have some quality issues – with the key backlighting randomly flickering on and off. So my overall impression of Razer peripherals has been: great design, but quality issues over the long-term.

When its time for a new mouse, I’ll probably look to another manufacturer.

Safire.9143:

but its about a game content, leveling was the most funny and entertaining aspect of this game

That’s your opinion. Granted, I agree with you that the leveling content IS very fun. But other players feel the most fun and entertaining aspect of the game is getting to play the latest content with their friends. These players were previously using crafting or Heart of the Mists to power-level themselves to 80 and skipping the majority of the leveling content anyway (and racing through the little bit they did play as fast as possible). So, what’s really lost here?

I think the article on the quarterly update summarizes the purpose quite well:

“The base game leveling experience is still a lot of fun, but sometimes as a player, you want to see the new stuff now while still playing through the older stuff at your own pace.”

The intention is not to invalidate all the leveling content. Quite the opposite, the intent is to remove the pressure for a new player to blow through it as fast as possible just so they can catch up with their friends. With the booster, they get the best of both worlds – they can start playing the new content with their friends, and they can take their time playing through all the classic content.

And leveling to 80 in itself isn’t much of an achievement. If someone wants any of the REAL achievements, or get World Completion, or gather crafting materials, or get some of the rare event-specific rewards, or work on collection, or build a legendary, etc. – they’re going to have to go play through the world content.

And as others have pointed out, the booster is only good for ONE character. Any other characters they make will have to be leveled up through “traditional” methods.

My pricing strategy for each expansion (assuming they are of the scope mentioned in the OP) would be:

For existing players who just need the current expansion:

• $29.99 – Standard Expansion. Unlocks the current expansion. Does NOT include the core game or any previous expansions.

• $49.99 – Deluxe Expansion. Unlocks the current expansion. Also includes an exclusive outfit, mini and title themed to the expansion’s region, and a stack of 10 experience boosters. Does NOT include the core game or any previous expansions.

For new players or those who need to catch up with previous expansions:

• $59.99 – Complete Edition. Includes the Standard Edition of the current expansion, as well as the core game and all previous expansions.

• $79.99 – Deluxe Complete Edition. Includes the Deluxe Edition of the current expansion, as well as access to the core game and all previous expansions.

For those who want to kick in a little more to support ArenaNet, even beyond the Deluxe Edition:

• Purchase the Deluxe Expansion, Complete Edition or Deluxe-Complete Edition and receive a ONE TIME special offer to also buy 4,000 gems for $39.99 – a $10 savings. Discount only applies if gems are purchased at the same time as the expansion.

And for situations where you just need a single previous expansion:

• Any previous expansion may be purchased for $19.99 each.

In the original Guild Wars we had three “chapters” or campaigns: Prophecies, Factions and Nightfall. Each could be played as a standalone game, or they could be linked together into one massive game world where characters could travel back and forth between each campaign.

So, here’s a wild thought. Why not have Super Adventure Box use the same model?

Develop it as a standalone game – with its own dedicated development team (i.e. not people borrowed from the core GW2 team), and use the campaign model where it can be linked to the core game so your GW2 characters can travel into the SAB “campaign”.

There would be some development synergies since SAB would be running on the GW2 engine, so they wouldn’t have to develop an entire game from the ground up. And it could take advantage of using the same account management system, patching system, gem store system, tech support, web resources, sales and marketing, etc. This would allow the SAB team to be fairly lean.

Release the game as a full buy-to-play product. Since we already have access to Worlds 1 and 2 they could be the “shareware demo” (going with the retro gaming theme). Then release maybe 6 or so more worlds (or fewer worlds, but with more than 3 zones in each) as the retail product for $15 – $20. If you don’t already own GW2, you can play SAB standalone – your character is restricted to the SAB lobby zone and you cannot use the exit portals to Rata Sum. If you do own GW2, the Super Adventure Box “campaign” is linked to your account and your Tyrian characters can freely enter and leave.

I don’t have access to official player metrics, of course, but from my personal observations it sure seems like SAB is pretty popular, and developing it as a true spin-off product could be viable.

(EDIT: Totally missed that someone already posted a thread with this idea. Great minds think alike, it seems. ).

While doing Crucible of Eternity, I got hit with a knock-back at the exact instant I used my warrior’s Whirlwind Attack in the same direction. I went spinning off THROUGH THE WALL, out of the dungeon, and then found myself in the open air free-falling. As icing on the cake, I must have scored a critical hit as this happened because as I went spinning off into oblivion my warrior yells out “Whoa – that’s gotta hurt!”

I was laughing so hard, I’m surprised I had the wherewithal to take a screenshot.

Simple solution:

1. Use /ignore with ruthless abandon.
2. Head over to guildwars2roleplayers.com and find a better group to associate with.

If you’re going to do that, add the broomstick too!

A couple years ago I posted a suggestion to allow players to purchase an item/service that works similar to Private Arenas — except that instead of creating a PvP arena, it would create a copy of a PvE map just for you and whoever you want to allow in.

The instance owner could control who can enter the map, and set parameters such as setting the day/night cycle and weather, disabling all enemies and/or all events (which would also disable resource nodes, POIs, vistas, loot chests, etc. – to avoid exploiting), being able kick off events on demand (but significantly reducing rewards when doing so – again, to prevent exploiting), and so on.

Basically, let players rent private instances of PvE zones — whether it be for roleplaying or any other purpose — and give them some degree of customizing those instances to their taste.

Now I’ll admit that a lot of thought would need to go into this to ensure it couldn’t be used for exploits or provide material benefit. But from a technical standpoint, it sure seems like GW2’s server tech could support it. And if ArenaNet charged a reasonable price I bet a good number of people would jump at the chance to buy a 1 day / 1 week / 1 month pass that provides such an ability.

Maybe there’s some critical flaw in that idea, but I think it could be a rather bold move that would really set GW2 apart from other mainstream MMORPGs. And I think it would be something GW2 could actually pull off quite well because of how its server tech is designed.

Try resetting your in-game Sound options (ESC > Options > Sound Options > Restore Default).

First off, I don’t consider “difficult” to be a bad thing. Also, I don’t expect that my character should be a one-man army — if an encounter is intended for multiple players, not being able to solo it does not mean that it’s too difficult.

With that said, I consider content to be difficult for two reasons:

1. I have trouble finding a solution to the problem.
2. I know what the solution is, but I lack the skill to pull it off.

It can be a fine-line sometimes, but I’m generally okay with difficult content as long as I feel like I have a reasonable sporting chance to discover the right tactics and/or improve my playing skill to beat the challenge over time.

Where it becomes frustrating is when I feel like I’ve hit the limits of my physical and mental abilities, and I’m still no closer to a solution. If I can at least see some progress – however minor – I feel like there’s some hope. But when I find myself saying “this is getting boring, and I’m no better off than when I first started” – that’s when it crosses the line into frustrating.

KestrelGirl.9267:

I may report the account if it becomes clear it’s a fake. I added whoever it is. Just in case.

LOL – now watch as some junior CS rep gets your ticket and bans Gaile’s personal account.

(Short answer: Doing World Completion is FAR faster, easier and more fun than farming the rather large premium you’ll pay for a completed weapon. And it gives you TWO Gifts of Exploration, so you’ve got a start on your second weapon too.)

Flat out buying the finished weapon just seems anti-climactic to me. Arthur didn’t buy Excalibur from the Camelot Qwik-E-Mart, right?

I just crafted my first legendary a few nights ago (Sunrise). I’ve been playing since launch, so yeah it took me a while. But that’s because I decided early on that while crafting a legendary was something I would be interested in eventually doing, it would not be something I would explicitly focus on. Specifically, I was not going to play with the sole intent of “grinding out my legendary” – because I knew that would turn the game into a chore. Instead, I decided that the legendary would “happen when it happens.” It would be a by-product of playing, and not my REASON for playing.

But while I wasn’t going out of my way to build the weapon, I was also keeping the requirements in the back of mind. Basically, take advantage of every opportunity you see to gather crafting materials, coin and karma.

The hardest part was, of course, the precursor. Admittedly, I got mine from sheer blind luck. I was playing through the event chains in Auric Basin and got my precursor out one of the random rewards bags. It wasn’t until I got the precursor that I hunkered down and actually got serious about completing the weapon. And, honestly, I don’t think I would have considered making a Legendary if I hadn’t gotten the precursor as a random drop – even though at one point I had enough money to buy one.

For me, World Completion is something I would have done regardless of whether there was any kind of reward at the end (“the journey is the reward”). It really doesn’t take that long and it isn’t all that hard. I did my first World Completion way before I was anywhere close to even considering a Legendary.

There’s 25 explorable zones, 6 cities and the Chantry of Secrets. So, set a goal of exploring one zone every day or two and you can finish quite comfortably in less than two months.

And don’t just race through it. While completing each zone, take the time to play through any dynamic events you come across, gather all the material nodes you see and salvaging everything that can be broken down. By taking your time in each zone, you’ll be earning the experience, coin, karma and materials you’ll need.

And please forgive me for sounding cheesy here, but… ENJOY the journey! Talk to the task/heart NPCs (did you know they actually have dialog that gives context to all the tasks you’re doing?). Watch the vista cinematics and enjoy the view. Stop in a few scenic places that aren’t vistas and just pan your camera around. Take a few selfies. If you see some place that catches your interest, go explore it – even if there’s no point of interest there. There are MANY interesting places that aren’t official POIs. If you’re not having fun, YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG. Guild Wars 2 may have some faults, but The World of Tyria is a pretty fun place to explore if you take the time to stop and smell the Red Iris Flowers along the way. And by taking your time, you’ll not only have more fun, you’ll also find – by the journey’s end – that you’re a lot closer to having everything you need for your Legendary than if you just rushed through to World Completion. That’s kind of the whole point of a Legendary. It’s not the goal of your journey; it’s a symbol of all you’ve done on your journey.

At what distance will you be placing your monitor? If you have a small desk and want to place your monitor an arm’s length away, 24 – 27" might be just fine. Large desk with the monitor a couple feet back — 32 – 36" may be more appropriate.

Ultimately, you want to be able to comfortably see the screen with minimal eye movement. Very large screens seem immersive at first, but if you’re having to do a lot of eye and head movement to see everything from one edge to the other then you’re going to get fatigued a lot faster.

Well if the .exe is still being deleted from there, I would start to suspect your anti-virus is falsely flagging it.

Just for kicks, try creating a C:\Games folder and installing there. C:\Program Files is a protected folder, and Windows places some special rules around what can be done by and to programs in that location.

gw2.exe and gw2.dat are the only two files that you really need to copy (if they still exist). There’s a few others, but they’re small enough that you can just let the game re-download them.

If you need to re-download gw2.exe from ArenaNet, right-click on the download link on the webpage and select Save As (or Save Target As, depending on your browser). And then save it someplace like C:\Games\Guild Wars 2.

(If you want everything to be installed “the right way” – first go into Control Panel and uninstall your existing copy of the game. That will clear any any Registry entries that are pointing to your game being in the \temp folder, as well as clearing any flags saying that the game is already installed — which should let you properly choose an install location next time. This isn’t completely necessary except for us Digital OCD types who like our systems set up just right. )

My two personal favorites are the Draconic (exotic crafted) and Vigil sets.

The Vigil set has a very classic Roman/Spartan soldier look. The Draconic set definitely fits the “exotic” label, but without going too over-the-top (I’m not a big fan of having flames, ice, lightning, rainbows or disco laser lights on my gear).

I’ll admit, initially I was not very excited about Heart of Thorns. But I now realize that for the first few days I was “swimming against the current”, so to speak. I was trying to ignore or avoid everything that was going on around me and just do my own thing. And that was a very frustrating experience. Eventually, I learned to jump into whatever events were happening at the time and ride them through the zone – and then things suddenly became much more enjoyable. For example, rather than trying to go all Rambo and solo my way to each hero point all on my own, I would jump into events that were taking place near hero points. Inevitably, when the event completed a good portion of the folks doing the event would head over to any nearby hero points and knock them out together. Once I started to get a feel for each map and had the major waypoints unlocked, I found it much easier to strike out on my own and explore. There are still some places that are too difficult for me to solo, but I like that. The world feels dangerous (as it should).

What is your favorite part in the HoT Personal Story?

(No spoilers below)

I just liked that my character was so actively involved, and finally regained his voice. I also liked how my character would engage in dialog with other characters while he was running around and sometimes even while fighting. I prefer that style a lot more than the static cut-scenes.

What Specialization have you tried so far? Which is your favorite? What one will you try next?

I’ve unlocked berserker on my warrior, and am greatly enjoying the feel of this specialization. In PvE, I can keep berserk mode going almost continuously – and I feel like I’m shredding through anything that comes at me.

The next one I’ll try will either be Tempest or Dragon Hunter. They both look very fun.

What is your favorite event or map in HoT?

Auric Basin is my favorite map. I think it’s the easiest map to navigate, and the easiest to casually explore. And the Exalted are just super cool.

Are there any other areas you are excited by? PvP? Fractals? WvW? Guild Halls? Masteries? Raids?

I’m currently working on unlocking all the precursor crafting masteries. Once I have them unlocked, I’m going to create a new character and try to work building a precursor into all the other world completion activities I do with him, so that acquiring a precursor feels a bit more like it’s part of his journey rather than something that’s done after the fact. Most of the material acquisition will be subsidized by my other characters, but I think I should be able to work all the achievement tasks into his adventures – which will hopefully make it feel more like an epic quest, rather than a checklist of random stuff to do. (We’ll see how that turns out.)

What are you most looking forward to now?

I’m looking forward to seeing where the story goes, especially with what we were shown in the final cut-scene, and what new lands we’ll get to explore next. I’m also looking forward to exploring the jungle more thoroughly now that I’ve finished the story. I passed through many areas very quickly since I was initially focused on following the story. I know there’s many events and activities that I missed the first time through, and entire sections of some maps that I haven’t even uncovered yet. If the Living Story doesn’t pick up until January, I think I’ll still have plenty to keep me busy until then.

If you read the news post about the changes (https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/get-readycamera-changes-are-coming/), every new option is at least an on/off toggle and many of them are slider controls.

While these updates have been a long time coming, nonetheless they’re well thought out, obviously based upon player feedback, offer lots of control/customization to the player and most importantly – they’re all optional.

I think the gameplay programmers deserve a tip of the hat for how they’re implementing these features — they listed to what people were asking for and presented a solution with a wide range of options which met most people’s desires, including the option to disable each feature entirely for those who felt everything was fine before.

A quick and easy way to partially address this would be to allow the flames themselves to be dyed on the fire armor sets. So you could have blue or white flames that would look kind of frost/cold based.

A more complex idea (aside from just making a frost-themed armor, of course) would be to have some armor sets where you could change the elemental effect of the armor (flames, frost, air zephyrs, dust cloud, that butterfly/flower mesmer aura, some sort of shadow effect, etc).

By the way, the word you’re looking for is “motif”… not “motive”. ;-)

The thing I liked about GW1’s death penalty system is that you started getting a fairly small penalty from your first defeat that wasn’t enough to seriously hamper you, and could be worked off fairly quickly, but was enough to make you pause and consider what you were doing. Compare that to GW2’s system where you have absolutely no penalties until you’ve been defeated 6 times.

Now, I don’t want some masochistic death penalty system where you’re afraid to try anything even remotely dangerous or team up with strangers because a single death results in a 45 minute corpse run and losing all the experience you gained for the day. But on the flip side, I feel like the current system – with its virtually non-existent death penalties – allows for too much “bang your head against the wall” game-play (i.e. you’re immune to headaches, so just keep rushing in with reckless abandon and banging your head against the wall until it finally breaks, rather than stopping to consider which tool would be most effective so you can avoid getting a headache).

The GW1 death penalty system was really effective because it gradually ramped up in severity, but you could easily remove the penalty by recovering from a mistake and PLAYING WELL. That’s what a death penalty is supposed to do – give an incentive to play well. GW2’s death penalty system only seems to give a minor inconvenience for playing extremely horribly.

I also miss morale boosts. That was like the opposite of a death penalty – more like a survival bonus.

TL;DR: bring back the GW1 death penalty / morale boost system. It was cool.

Trying to rally while solo and under fire is pretty much a fruitless endeavor, unless your foe is within an inch of his life too and you manage to pull off last second kill.

I can relate. When I was trying to rally in that mission, with the boss constantly interrupting me, Rox yelled, “try using this…” and threw the Sacred Flame right on top of me. Meanwhile Braham yells “Boooooss!” and casts his protection bubble all the way on the other side of the area. Thanks guys, that really helped. :-P Get your behinds down here and rally me, you fools!

I’m actually hoping that IS a major issue during the campaign, and we aren’t given a cop out reason like “they got better” or “they’re strong willed”.

As in the real world, some people are more resistant to temptation than others, and the events and circumstances of someone’s life can have a great influence on how susceptible they are to straying off the path. I would think each sylvari will probably hear the call of Mordremoth. How each of them responds says a lot about their character.

I’m not sure if this has been asked before, but is there any information available about how large the continent of Tyria is? In-game, Lion’s Arch is a brisk 10 minute jog from Divinity’s Reach. But I’m sure that in the “real” world of Tyria (GW2 novels), it’s assumed to be much farther away (and people probably run A LOT slower).

Just as a point of reference, would a trip on foot from DR to LA take hours? Days? Weeks?

If I’m traveling from Rata Sum to the Grove, is that something I’d pack a daysack for? Or would I need to requisition a dolyak or pack mule to carry my supplies?

Has anything been said about what the in-game world’s scale is supposed to be? (i.e. 10 minutes of running in-game would be equivalent to 50 miles, or something like that?)

Remember that you can just buy gems directly in-game, and they’re immediately added to your account. Unless you have an issue with the payment methods available, that’s the easiest way.

If you’re only going to have 2 hours max per week to play, then you’re just going to have to accept that your goals will need to be fairly modest. But that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the game. My advice would be to completely forget about best-in-slot gear or a legendary weapon. If you’re going to be playing so little, then you just need to enjoy the game for the sake of the game. However, world completion could still be an achievable goal. It will take a while, but its something you could still make noticeable progress on even with only a couple hours per week. Pick a zone, and just start working your way through it. Even if you can only play for 30 – 60 minutes at a time, you can knock out some hearts, skill challenges, vistas and points of interest, and complete any dynamic events you run across along the way. The nice part of world completion is that its very easy to stop right where you are and pick up again later at the same spot.

Just about everything you do will in some way contribute to your progress toward a legendary. But you need a vast amount of crafting materials, gold, karma and some other very rare items. A legendary is a pretty high goal, even for someone who plays a lot. At only 2 hours per week… well, like I said, I think you need to keep realistic goals that are in-line with the time you have available. And trying for something as lofty as a legendary, on only two hours per week, is probably going to only lead to frustration and burn out because your progress will be so slow that it will feel like you’re not even moving (or even going backwards as you spend your resources on more immediate needs). Maybe set an ascended weapon as your long-term goal. Same stats as a legendary, but much more realistically obtainable.

Kudos for keeping your priorities straight. :-)

The pendulum seems to have swung to the other side now. I never felt that Trahearne was hogging the spotlight to begin with. But now it feels like I am hogging the spotlight. But I know that some other people want this.

This is where ArenaNet should really embrace the “RP” part of the MMORPG. Bring back the personality mechanics for our character, and allow us to pick slightly different dialog options which express and build upon that personality. If a player consistently picks the more “self-focused” dialog options, then your team should respond to you in that way (“You were AMAZING out there, boss!”). But if a player is consistently picking dialog that heaps praises on others, then your team should have a slightly different response to you (“You’ve guided us well, boss! We couldn’t have done it without you!”).

It doesn’t need to be completely separate dialog paths — just subtle differences in a few lines which emphasize your character’s personality and how other characters perceive you.

Largos hail from the Unending Ocean and the deep seas. We’ve only seen a handful of them currently, and they are very secretive and isolated.

Since it looks like we’re going deeper into the Maguma to fight Mordramoth now, we’re going in the opposite direction of where you’d expect to find Largos. Thematically, introducing Largos as a playable race at this point would be odd. If they ever introduced them as a playable race, putting them in the expansion where we go under the sea to fight Bubbles/Stevie would fit right in. It would also be an easy story transition to have the Largos personal story follow a different path which leads right into the current fight with the deep sea dragon (giving Largos players a lore-appropriate way to jump past all the “forming the Pact” story of the other races, and straight in to the current content).

Those wings having major clipping issues with back pieces and even some chest and shoulder armors would also be a problem. But they could have player Largos characters keep their wings folded back when a back piece is visible.

Largos would be an odd addition now, but at some point I think they’d actually fit in very well.

It largely depends on how you define and measure “the best,” but two possibilities would be unlocking every achievement and/or having the highest possible fractal level. Both of those would lead me to give a nod of respect and acknowledge someone as being one of “the best” PvE players in terms of overall game-play skills.

You should probably have a look at this:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Crafting

Also keep in mind that the different in survivability between exotic and ascended armor isn’t that much. Sure it does make some difference, but if you’re having survivability issues then crafting a set of ascended armor is probably not going to give you the solution you’re looking for (and it’s EXTREMELY expensive). Before you get your hopes up too much, you may want to simply try another set of exotic armor with a different stat combo (something with more defense and/or vitality).

Lodius.5392:

4.You cannot program an “auto-clicker” macro that, for instance, opens chests while you play elsewhere

I believe “while you play elsewhere” is the key phase here. I’ve programmed my Razer Lycosa keyboard so that one of its macro keys will repeatedly click (with a 0.5 second delay between clicks) while I hold it down. I can’t do anything else while I’m doing this – I’m just standing in place holding down a key so I don’t wear out my mouse button (and my mouse finger!) prematurely. The macro stops as soon as I lift my finger off the key or take any other action.

The only “advantage” I see this giving me is not getting carpel tunnel syndrome. Hopefully this is an advantage which ArenaNet is willing to permit.

“Ducking” could be an interesting mechanic. It could be done in place, but the downside is that it wouldn’t avoid everything that a full dodge roll does.

Colin Johanson could show up a each player’s front door dressed in a pink quaggan suit to deliver a singing/tap-dancing telegram about not trusting messages that are marked as being from other players. There would still be some people who would say “but this one says ‘ArenaNet’ in the subject… and it says I won 5,000 gems. Seems legit.”

It exists in both states simultaneously, effectively making it the Tyrian version of the Schrodinger’s Cat Paradox.