Guild Wars 2

I just returned to GW2 today after having been away from home for Christmas with family. I logged into one of my alts to do the daily and found, as soon as I logged in, that there were people chatting in /map (to my surprise) in Caledon Forest. I don’t remember about what, but the conversation made obvious their newness to the game, and so I began to wonder if the population has really picked-up in the last few days.

I haven’t been on since the 23rd or 22nd, but I have no idea how many people received this game for Christmas, and was wondering who on the forums had or if any others had noticed a recent increase in server population. I play on Sorrow’s Furnace, if that’s relevant at all.

Kyosji.8961:

Now you’re thinking with portals! Um, where are these portal guns you speak of?

Achievement is a lie.

Why does this thread keep coming up? Can we sticky it or something? It’s getting pretty tiresome to see its cycle of comments (they’re the same generic ones) on the board every week or so.

LuckyThirteen.4576:

Maybe it would help if we tried to list, for every class, one thing that that class does better than any other class in the game.

Such a listing could help me, in any case.

Okay, that’s not too hard.

Necromancers: Conditions and Control (with a staff build)
Rangers: Ranged damage, believe it or not. (Their longbow skill 1 suffers from being too close to an enemy)
Elementalists: Versatility and/or Healing, Burning damage (No other class has a full set dedicated to healing and could play a reliable healer, nor do as much burning damage)
Guardians: Buffs and regeneration. They’re walking bacta tanks that still are capable of taking damage and dealing some out.
Warriors: Dealing damage outright. They have the least amount of support skills (to my knowledge), but a fair amount of strengthening buffs.
Engineers: Customizable. Tool belt allows a lot of choices in how you want to play.
Mesmer: … Not sure. Haven’t played this class much.
Thief: Most mobile class I would say, and doesn’t have cool downs (works off iniative).

LuckyThirteen.4576:

MethodicMockingbird.6520:

LuckyThirteen.4576:

So I have been playing since launch, and have mostly been enjoying the game, but I’m beginning to get really bothered.

So currently I roll an Engineer, and the biggest thing I’m forced to ask myself every time I log in is: What is the actual advantage to playing and engineer?

This isn’t a question of viability, mind, I know full well that an engineer can be used effectively, but the real question is, outside of flavor, why would you?

There seems to be a profound issue with the idea of classes in general in this game. If the idea is that there are no healers or tanks or objective focused classes, then their is as a result only one real role that any class can fill in this game. Every class has to be able to survive and deal damage. Anything else is just fluff.

The idea of balancing 8 classes in performing the exact same duties in different ways makes my head spin. But that’s essentially what GW2 is trying to do.

In short: In a game where there is essentially only a single role to fulfill in a party, then the class that best fills this one role is the best.

Its not a question of whether or not other classes are viable, just that, given a player of equal skill, a number of classes are simply better.

Essentially I guess what I;m asking here is, if there are no specific class roles in GW2, then what is the actual point of having individual classes?

I’m not even asking these questions rhetorically, I am genuinely at a loss here.

I think one of the answers you’re looking for is variety. ANet can’t have us all playing Warriors, can they (which, by the by, is the class I think you’re referring to as the best, if specced correctly; maybe guardians, but they’re slower)?

I suppose if you want a reason to play your engineer (and its why I play mine), then justify playing it because it’s got the best set of gun skills (IMO), the best variability, and as such, the most customization out of all classes except for, maybe, the Warrior or Elementalist when it comes to weapon skills.

I understand variety, I really do. But is variety really enough to justify using a class that would seem to be just flat out inferior.

I mean, I may like engineers style, but when its damage/survivabillity are actually worse than that of another class, what is the actual point to playing an engineer.

A beetle may have character, but its unlikely to overtake a formula 1 racecar, is basically what Im saying.

What you’re referring to now is mostly the developers’ imbalancing of the classes. Ask just about any non-Warrior and they’ll probably say the most OP class is Warrior because of the lack of nerfs it’s been given. Engineer, on the other hand, just recently received a nerf to the grenade kit, which was a staple of many players’ builds (mine included, though my engineer is at a low level so the loss was minimal).

Variety works better when all other things remain equal, like choosing between two identical cars of differing color.

LuckyThirteen.4576:

So I have been playing since launch, and have mostly been enjoying the game, but I’m beginning to get really bothered.

So currently I roll an Engineer, and the biggest thing I’m forced to ask myself every time I log in is: What is the actual advantage to playing and engineer?

This isn’t a question of viability, mind, I know full well that an engineer can be used effectively, but the real question is, outside of flavor, why would you?

There seems to be a profound issue with the idea of classes in general in this game. If the idea is that there are no healers or tanks or objective focused classes, then their is as a result only one real role that any class can fill in this game. Every class has to be able to survive and deal damage. Anything else is just fluff.

The idea of balancing 8 classes in performing the exact same duties in different ways makes my head spin. But that’s essentially what GW2 is trying to do.

In short: In a game where there is essentially only a single role to fulfill in a party, then the class that best fills this one role is the best.

Its not a question of whether or not other classes are viable, just that, given a player of equal skill, a number of classes are simply better.

Essentially I guess what I;m asking here is, if there are no specific class roles in GW2, then what is the actual point of having individual classes?

I’m not even asking these questions rhetorically, I am genuinely at a loss here.

I think one of the answers you’re looking for is variety. ANet can’t have us all playing Warriors, can they (which, by the by, is the class I think you’re referring to as the best, if specced correctly; maybe guardians, but they’re slower)?

I suppose if you want a reason to play your engineer (and its why I play mine), then justify playing it because it’s got the best set of gun skills (IMO), the best variability, and as such, the most customization out of all classes except for, maybe, the Warrior or Elementalist when it comes to weapon skills.

These are just a few pics of one of my MANY Sylvari. I think the females are so elegant and graceful.

Her name is Flora Rue and she’s just a baby Thief right now (lvl 6).

Looks like bot-pest-control is earning its pay.

That video made me realize how much better of a computer I need… and how much more fun this game would be with one.

I think the real problem here is that ANET doesn’t test their content properly enough, or does and decides to release it in a broken state anyway, much to the chagrin and overall disgust of the playerbase. This is the second event that I’ve been around for (out of less than two months of logged play time – TWO MONTHS) that has seen hotfixes to deliver content by mail to every account in the game. There’s something wrong with that. There are several somethings wrong with it, in fact.

Players received an incorrect amount of cogs during this event due to ANET’s irrational portioning of rewards throughout the overly long and drawn-out Winsterday, which led to them instituting a fix (that, itself, was broken), and then a fix for the fix, when the simplest course of action would’ve been to follow Occam’s Razor (essentially, making no unneccesary assumptions, or, to fit this scenario, making nothing more complicated than it needed to be).

They could’ve had a long event as they wanted and allowed characters the reward (whatever it may have been) after completing all of the dungeons, rather than rewarding them in a piecemeal manner to sate their “Mini Madness” bit-by-bit.

The result created more inflation in the economy, more grinding for materials like stuffing and glue, and situations like this one that could’ve easily been prevented with better thought and planning.

Ath.2531:

What if all the porous bones you vendored away were worth 1g tomorrow and you just missed your chance to be a millionaire?

I’ve never had any, so I wouldn’t be upset. I also kind of missed the jokeyness of the question.

Dahkeus.8243:

MethodicMockingbird.6520:

Dahkeus.8243:

So, I just got married yesterday, but my wife and I have been playing Guild Wars together since launch.

We love PvP. Sadly, we’ve been sticking primarily to PvE because we’re casual players and unless we were to get into serious tournament groups, doing any sort of sPvP is a frustrating mess since the game constantly either puts us in different games or pits us against each other when we join in together.

The really sad part is that with Wintersday, we can’t play the Snowball game together. There is no “Join in” feature and there is no “join as a group” feature either. There are so many games going at once that it’s practically impossible to end up together when we queue and even if we did, we’d likely end up on opposite teams.

So please, please…please, please, please, let us play together. We both love this game, but it’s sad and frustrating to no end that this social game puts so many barriers to letting us play together.

Not to go off-topic, or anything, but, if you got married yesterday shouldn’t you be on your honeymoon doing other things with your wife?

I’m not trying to tell you what to do, don’t take it the wrong way. Maybe try clicking join at the same time like the other poster suggested?

We had a mini honeymoon last night, but we’re waiting until Jan 6th to go on the full honeymoon since the holidays are in the way. We have a week in Ireland planned. =D

Well that sounds like a blast. I’ve always wanted to travel there, as it seems to be beautiful and my ancestry hails from there.

Outro.8136:

Entropy is the tendency for all matter and energy to degrade into an ideal inert state.

Noted, hence the asking for a contextual definition.

You are a god in a sexy red suit.

But I do have one question, and it’s kind of an uninformed one.

What does Entropy refer to in this context?

Dahkeus.8243:

So, I just got married yesterday, but my wife and I have been playing Guild Wars together since launch.

We love PvP. Sadly, we’ve been sticking primarily to PvE because we’re casual players and unless we were to get into serious tournament groups, doing any sort of sPvP is a frustrating mess since the game constantly either puts us in different games or pits us against each other when we join in together.

The really sad part is that with Wintersday, we can’t play the Snowball game together. There is no “Join in” feature and there is no “join as a group” feature either. There are so many games going at once that it’s practically impossible to end up together when we queue and even if we did, we’d likely end up on opposite teams.

So please, please…please, please, please, let us play together. We both love this game, but it’s sad and frustrating to no end that this social game puts so many barriers to letting us play together.

Not to go off-topic, or anything, but, if you got married yesterday shouldn’t you be on your honeymoon doing other things with your wife?

I’m not trying to tell you what to do, don’t take it the wrong way. Maybe try clicking join at the same time like the other poster suggested?

IV Endu.8920:

Well that’s awkward. I received the rewards twice on my account.

The mailed rewards? Everybody got atleast one mail, like with the Karka event.

Linguistically Inept.6583:

why reduce the dolyaks from 5 to 1? thats no longer an achievement
why do we get the holiday titles without having to complete all holiday achievements?

imo, achievements shouldnt be something everyone can get… i suck at pvp, i hadnt even tried the snowball fight and i got the title (then i went and played the snowball fight -for completionism- and found it quite enjoyable), if someone cant complete the jumping puzzle; they should not get the holiday title (sure it would suck for those with physical conditions preventing them from being able to achieve it; but then again… why would they be playing a game that requires a certain amount of manual dexterity?)

just my opinion; id love to hear what others think

My personal opinion on this is that the achievement was easy enough to complete as it was; I got it on my second try without much effort, but I read a lot of posts from people having harder times. It doesn’t bother me, it just makes my “Apprentice Toymaker” title more common, which is not that big of a deal.

Is this right? What are they fixing with such a large patch? All I found in announcements was a few Wintersday adjustments and nothing so substantial to warrant such a large file size.

Edit: Patch finished updating and starting installing at 51K, and while, in retrospect it seems like a reasonable size, my patcher doesn’t always accurately list the patch sizes (i.e., it’ll say the patch is 8k kb, when in reality it ends up downloading 60 or so mb). Can someone explain this to me, because I don’t think my conversions are off enough to make 8,000 kb= ~ 60 mb.

Mors Subita.5802:

MethodicMockingbird.6520:

Mors Subita.5802:

Well, to my appearance it looks like the peronalized gifts you get scale with points….. I got a LOT more of them when I started using the weapon and racking up points.

Honestly, OP, if you’re using the Toypocalypse as a way to farm gifts then you’re doing it wrong. It takes too long and the cost (time, effort, skill) to reward (gifts- that’s it) ratio is not very favorable over other activities.

I didn’t say I was using them to farm gifts, I said that the points do have an effect…
And even if they didn’t change the number of gifts you got, they would still have a psychological effect. People are ignoring the actual mechanics of the event in favor of racking up points… and since you can’t take in a premade group, you do not have the option of going in with like-minded people.

Whether or not the points give you any material benefit, the fact of the matter is that the point system as currently implemented not only doesn’t support the game model, but actively hinders it.

Edit: and had you read through my original post, I think it is pretty clear that the problem I have is that people are too busy racking up points to actually play the event as it was intended. I tried 6-8 times and didn’t find a single group that was actually stacking defense to try and keep their dolyaks alive.

I know you didn’t say that you were using the activity to farm gifts, I was just inferring it from your posts. And while I do agree that the points don’t really serve much (useful) purpose as currently utilized, I don’t think that they always hinder gameplay. That’s just a generalization, like rationalizing that every X of Y is Z, or works like Z because of K, when, in reality, only a sample of X of Y really work like Z because of K and you just happen to be there to observe it. If you weren’t there to observe it, you wouldn’t be making this point, would you?

Mors Subita.5802:

Well, to my appearance it looks like the peronalized gifts you get scale with points….. I got a LOT more of them when I started using the weapon and racking up points.

Honestly, OP, if you’re using the Toypocalypse as a way to farm gifts then you’re doing it wrong. It takes too long and the cost (time, effort, skill) to reward (gifts- that’s it) ratio is not very favorable over other activities.

coatesy.4592:

hey all, anybody had this before not to sure what iv missed out on or received this for..

it was a mail with an unlocked black lions chest in.

i did report some botter’s the other day you think its a thank you for doing that?

see attached.

I got one of those too. Not sure what it was for, but I’m not complaining.

krixis.9538:

they spawn every time u kill toxx

Thanks, but a dev told us that here
https://forumen.guildwars2.com/forum/game/wintersday/Toypocalypse/first#post1050492

Feycat.4370:

MethodicMockingbird.6520:

Asytra.8172:

Wrinn.1802:

Yup, you just need a descent group.

So then why can’t we just bring in our group of friends… you know.. from our Guilds…in this Guild Wars game?

Feh… Between this, Keg Brawl, the other holiday minigames, and sPVP I’m getting fed up with this forced PUG grouping mentality.

What’s next, forced PUG dungeons?

We have those; they’re called Fractals.

No they’re not, I’ve never done Fractals with a PuG. You aren’t automatically ripped out of your group and placed in a PuG with Fractals, but you are with this.

I beg to differ. If you want to advance at all in your Fractal line and aren’t in a very large guild or two (or have extensive friend networks), then every group is going to be a PuG because of the different Fractal levels making it unlikely that many people you know will be at your level (unless you know a lot of people).

Asytra.8172:

Wrinn.1802:

Yup, you just need a descent group.

So then why can’t we just bring in our group of friends… you know.. from our Guilds…in this Guild Wars game?

Feh… Between this, Keg Brawl, the other holiday minigames, and sPVP I’m getting fed up with this forced PUG grouping mentality.

What’s next, forced PUG dungeons?

We have those; they’re called Fractals.

Otherwise, it’s just a wasted hour with a reward of a couple of gifts that usually result in ugly clothing.

For the record, I saw the presents once while running about during the chaos, but I was too busy building defenses to go over and check it out. One time I did, actually, but it despawned a second before I got to it.

Why not just reward us at the end of the activity like you do in the other toy-themed events, with a notice-box?

I just did it on my second try. It’s really not that hard.

JoniSusi.1678:

Contibuting. While I was Transmuting my gear i accidentally turned my camera around and… Oh god…

I laughed way too hard at that.

Veltoss.9135:

Raebfle.5914:

If you put your Snowman, Golem and Infinarium (All acquired from the Wintersday Box in the BLTC Gem Store) with 50 magical stuffing,. you get the Baby Quaggan Mini I believe.

Different minis than what the OP is talking about, though. I’m saying this mostly so no one gets confused and goes throwing their toys in the forge..

Sorry if I wasn’t clear enough, but I meant the ones that you craft with the cogs and stuffing.

Maximillian Greil.1965:

Toy tixx is already in the game.

It’s the Red Servitor Golem from the hall of monuments if you played GW1

I did not know that. Still, it could be something else.

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

I just wanted to “pop” in and say that I understand how important this is to you all, and I agree that the slingshot sounds really cool when it’s fired. Unfortunately, the root of the issue is not just a mere oversight but rather a technical issue that has to do with the differences between these two weapon types. When we discovered the issue we made the determination that it was better to have the pop gun without the pop sound than not have it all.

In this case, I’m sure we want to solve this problem for other cases in the future so I would say chances are very good that this will be fixed. I just can’t say exactly when it will be fixed though. It probably won’t happen before the holiday is over.

I’m confused by this. What exactly is the “technical issue” that disabled the Pop Gun Skin from allowing a ‘POP’ sound? There are other rifles that have sound effects, surely this must not be all that different from those skins.

Please!

Unspecified.9142:

MethodicMockingbird.6520:

I’m thinking maybe Toy Toxx?

This is highly unlikely.

Given the fact that every single mini has a spot in the collectibles tab and there is no mini there that it isn’t known exactly how to get it I wouldn’t dare risk putting these minis in the forge.

It’s almost guaranteed to be just the usual 4 mini recipe that gives some random mini back with a chance at a higher rarity. Since these ones are Masterwork and cost ~7.5g because of gem prices you’d be gambling away 30g with the best possible return being a rare mini worth ~7.5g at best on the TP.

Raebfle.5914:

If you put your Snowman, Golem and Infinarium (All acquired from the Wintersday Box in the BLTC Gem Store) with 50 magical stuffing,. you get the Baby Quaggan Mini I believe.

This is mostly correct. You just need any 3 minis from those 3. It could be 3 snowmen, or 3 golems, or 2 golems and an infinarium. Just has to be 3 minis of those ones. The Toy minis from Tixx dungeons don’t work.

While I realize all of this, that doesn’t keep me from hoping that there might be some super secret, unknown mini without a tab waiting to be discovered.

VOLKON.1290:

Do we know for a fact that there will be no additional materials once Tixx gets to L.A.? All they’ve said is that for the five days you’ll get enough mats to make two minis… they haven’t said anything about after the five days however.

This is a possibility too, and I think a logical one due to the fact that we will all have (atleast) 250 of one of the materials leftover (if you made minis).

I’m thinking maybe Toy Toxx?

^ Topic

Just noticed I could put my Toy Golem in the Forge and wondered what would happen if you put the others in there.

Shadowsong.1560:

Look at this post: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wintersday/Endless-Wintersday-Tonics-Thread

I don’t want to have to buy more materials. I want to be able to do something with what I’ve got.

After finishing the event in Rata Sum I picked the Magical Glue (I couldn’t remember which I had picked last), and now I have enough to make the Golem, I’ve already made the griffon, and have 250 drops of Glue leftover. What do I use it for? And why do I have it? Is this a design flaw?

Styxx.8501:

To me, logic dictates I sacrifice one of the two pets I can get this time around, to put the other 4 tonics in and get a combo tonic.

If you’re lucky. I wouldn’t be surprised if it gave you back one of the ones you put in.

Um… doesn’t this make sense, in retrospect? Four slots, five minis, you get the Tonic of the mini you didn’t put in. Not that hard to put the pieces together.

“Wintersday went splat. Giant clanker lied to us.”

Wintersday went splat, indeed.

Anyone else noticed that shadows stay in one spot when a character, for example, dances?

Horrorscope.7632:

MethodicMockingbird.6520:

Horrorscope.7632:

MethodicMockingbird.6520:

Gehenna.3625:

But at least a lottery is called a lottery.

This game was not advertised as rng2win.

A rose by any other name is still the same.

But that isn’t the meaning of what is being said.

How is it not? He said that “atleast a lottery is called a lottery.”

Hence my quote.

Because he added another line and the meaning is affected by that. This is all a symptom of the change in loot progression, if it didn’t matter statistically, I bet there would be less of a concern about drops. The lottery posts odds, we have and will never have the odds tables for drop loots in game. One is transparent, the other closely guarded and mysterious, that is another difference.

Do we even have loot tables in this game? I don’t think we do, beyond the standard:

..% white item
..% blue item
..% green item
..% yellow item
..% orange item (etc.)
..% crafting material

And so on and so forth.

We don’t have any set loot tables that distinguish what mob drops what armor piece or weapon, so giving out odds for that wouldn’t really accomplish much, would it?

Gehenna.3625:

MethodicMockingbird.6520:

Horrorscope.7632:

MethodicMockingbird.6520:

Gehenna.3625:

But at least a lottery is called a lottery.

This game was not advertised as rng2win.

A rose by any other name is still the same.

But that isn’t the meaning of what is being said.

How is it not? He said that “atleast a lottery is called a lottery.”

Hence my quote.

Yes, when you play the lottery you know what to expect.

When you play GW2, apparently it’s not what I thought they advertised. I thought it wouldn’t be grindy and would be story driven because that’s what they said in the manifesto. This is not the game they advertised in my view. RNG as a major player in endgame gear progression, vertical or horizontal is not what I saw in the ads for this game, but here it is.

I don’t see being lucky in the fountain or spending a ton of cash in the TP as a legendary feat or achievement. Therefore even the name legendary weapon is incorrect.

I can understand the game not being what you expected, but that doesn’t change it from being what it what ever was. Everyone has different expectations and none of them are correct, not even the creators of the games’.

As for knowing what to expect when you play the lottery? No, you don’t. The lottery changes every time you play it due to the varying amount of people vieing for the pot; the odds are never static so you are never truly informed of what your odds are (beyond infinitesimally low).

Horrorscope.7632:

MethodicMockingbird.6520:

Gehenna.3625:

But at least a lottery is called a lottery.

This game was not advertised as rng2win.

A rose by any other name is still the same.

But that isn’t the meaning of what is being said.

How is it not? He said that “atleast a lottery is called a lottery.”

Hence my quote.

Horrorscope.7632:

MethodicMockingbird.6520:

Their “client” is any player with a wallet (all of them). They’re in it for the moolah, and doing what they can to make us pay them for their hard work (or lack thereof, etc). RNG sucks, but it does in RL too. I’ve never heard about people complaining that the odds of winning the lottery are too low, even though they constantly, consistently dump wads of cash into it and gain (often) nothing in return. Such is the roll of the dice.

Lottery you know the odds, understand it’s a utterly hopeless long shot, one dollar for millions in return and REAL money. Totally different than a game imo, much different. Tons of games do RNG, but it’s a small list of RNG, that list from top to bottom, the goods are close in value and not usually something worth 1 cp to something worth 400gp. This game is like the entire loot table is open for roll on every drop. Except that one dungeon where it has things the other 99.999% of the game doesn’t have.

I’m not debating the fact that the RNG in this game is terrible; I never was. I’m simply saying that expecting randomness to be anything but random is foolish and a waste of time.

Gehenna.3625:

MethodicMockingbird.6520:

Their “client” is any player with a wallet (all of them). They’re in it for the moolah, and doing what they can to make us pay them for their hard work (or lack thereof, etc). RNG sucks, but it does in RL too. I’ve never heard about people complaining that the odds of winning the lottery are too low, even though they constantly, consistently dump wads of cash into it and gain (often) nothing in return. Such is the roll of the dice.

But at least a lottery is called a lottery.

This game was not advertised as rng2win.

A rose by any other name is still the same.

Their “client” is any player with a wallet (all of them). They’re in it for the moolah, and doing what they can to make us pay them for their hard work (or lack thereof, etc). RNG sucks, but it does in RL too. I’ve never heard about people complaining that the odds of winning the lottery are too low, even though they constantly, consistently dump wads of cash into it and gain (often) nothing in return. Such is the roll of the dice.

Well, they didn’t fix THIS bug.

eisberg.2379:

Get faster internets =P

I haz much landz.

Same for mine