Guild Wars 2

Hi! I’m returning to the game, and currently have the GW2 Installer downloading (like the very first initial thing). (I literally just got this MBA today)

It says it’s downloading file 497/501, and it’s been stuck here for a while. Is this supposed to take a long time? Or how long should I expect it to take from here? Isn’t there another actual client download that I have to do when I am able to log in to my account? (If so, how long does that one take?)

Hi! I’m hoping it’s alright for me to ask this here.

I’m buying a MacBook something (primarily for school/internet use but also for gw2 and 1-2 other games).

Will the difference in processor/graphics between the pro and the pro retina be noticeable enough to warrant the extra $100 + keeping files on externals?

Also, does anyone have experience playing gw with the game files on an external harddrive? Is it slower or does any part of it not work? If I were to buy a retina, I’d basically keep an external/flash drive plugged in all the time.

I may be re-rolling a character or two, but I was wondering if this feature still exists. Character names used to be reserved for 24 hours after a character was deleted. Used to be. I’ve had them since launch, technically, so I really want to keep the nice names.

I just logged into my client and before I could hit “PLAY” that message was in red above the news box. What causes this message to pop up, should I be concerned?

Obviously I’m changing my password, but I’m just a bit concerned!

My friend is rolling a warrior, and I’m going to set aside one character to level with her whenever she’s actually on.

I have one of each profession, so I was just wondering what one works best alongside a warrior? I think she will probably stick with sword/board, sword/sword or greatsword although maybe I could talk her into a rifle.

I reported the mail, but obviously I can’t delete it unless I take the 1 copper coin I got with it. Is it against the rules if I do so, or is it OK if I do?

Any idea what time ANet has been expanding the servers every? day? Is it 5pm PST with the WvW timer?

So the past couple days I’ve been attempting to catch a Shatterer fight (key word: attempting), but I obviously don’t want to sit around for an extended period of time waiting for him to spawn. Unfortunately yesterday I got close, but got distracted and ended up missing the fight by a few minutes. Sad panda.

I can’t be the only one with horrible luck, right? (this is where you say “right!”)

My suggestion is simply giving us the ability to select one meta or dynamic event to ‘follow.’ We’d then get alerts when the meta event chain updated, or when the DE was starting. When the event updated/started, we’d receive a mail saying so.

It wouldn’t break immersion for anyone who wouldn’t want their immersion broken. Limiting it to a maximum of one event at a time would prevent farming and abuse, and maybe it could be limited further by adding a “buffer” time between changes. So if you set it to a DE at 12:00 and it runs at 1:00, you have to wait until 2:00 or so to change it to a new DE.

Thoughts?

I posted a similar message on another, almost identical thread.

First, these gold spammers are getting banned. ANet is getting a ton of reports, tickets, feedback messages and the like so it may take slightly longer than some people would prefer, but they are being dealt with.

Second, people are making a huge deal about these when really they’re just annoying. They aren’t actually doing any harm to your account unless you happen to be silly enough to try and buy the gold from them.

Is it possible that the bots or whatever is being used to send out all these mails can somehow see a list of all online players on the game or in an area? That’s actually a kinda scary thought.

I think that people are worrying too much about this. It’s an annoying message that doesn’t actually do you any harm at all unless you are silly enough to follow the links and go through the process. Sure you might have some issues if you’re getting 10 mails and are expecting mail messages from legitimate players, but otherwise: it’s just mail.

A couple days ago someone pointed out on a map chat that ANet has filters that prevent (and maybe auto-report?) gold-spammers. Someone would have to confirm that, but I hope they are in place. The issue with that is sellers are tweaking the messages slightly (like turning a letter O into a 0 or something). That seems like something that could be fixed by adding specific parts of the messages to the filters, not the entire message.

Even though I think these mails and chats are just annoying and not actually harmful (therefore, they’re being made a huge deal), I do think they need to figure out a better way to handle them. Although RMT’s should stay at a low-ish priority compared to the things that are actually going wrong in the game that are interfering with gameplay more than just a mere annoyance.

Thrumdi.9216:

It has to be said.

The advantage that organized groups have in WvW is just too extreme vis-a-vis the unorganized casual player. If this persists, as the current lop-sided match-ups show, most casual players will stop showing up to WvW.

So ArenaNet has a choice:

1) Handicap servers that pull away in score and buff those who fall behind, or
2) Admit WvW is a hardcore game mode.

If you support 1), how would you even the playing field?

If you support 2) why do you think WvW should become a hardcore game mode?

Mechanics-wise, there isn’t a difference between an alliance and multiple zergs. Alliances have no “physical” presence in the game, they are simply organized by websites, voice servers. There’s literally no way to prevent or nerf alliances.

1) No. Servers that are “suffering” in WvW (as some people call it) need motivation to actually improve. If they just get a bunch of free buffs for failing, that could be considered motivation to fail until they get the buff, just to come fighting with more force. This would create a major unbalance.

2) WvW is a hardcore game mode. Let’s take two servers into consideration. I was on JQ at launch but moved to Henge for the WvW.

JQ is extremely unorganized and nobody seems to put much effort into WvW. Henge, however, is extremely organized and puts a ton of effort into WvW. While it may seem militaristic at times, it’s enjoyable and gets the job done. If you just skip through WvW and pick daisies (like a group of 25-30 people who spent twenty minutes organizing themselves), you’re not going to get anything done. It’s all about efficiency – which is also why you see smaller and more efficient groups wiping out much larger groups with a zerg mentality.

Bit late to this party, but I’m actually rather offended that ArenaNet would post something like this. Asking players to disrupt their communities is outrageous. Even just a short period of time into the game, communities have developed and server loyalty is starting to happen and solidify.

Queue times are not in any way, shape or form the players’ fault. It’s not our fault WvW is something fun to participate in.

It’s not our fault the servers have been expanded beyond any logical point. At this point, brand new servers should be added instead of just expanding existing ones. It dilutes communities, and allows for a lot of the free-loading in WvW that worsens these WvW queues.

It’s not our fault that there are only four maps. If there were more maps available to players, with 150 person capacities (or whatever it is currently), then people would be much, much happier. Plus I think GW2’s WvW would be much more attractive if there were eventually 10 maps as opposed to the four we have now… (note: 10 is simply an example)

It’s not our fault that WvW communities have become both diluted and concentrated at the same time. Every time the servers are expanded, more people who are genuinely interested in WvW flock to WvW-focused servers. At the exact same time, communities are diluted by the freeloaders who just want to win and not enjoy it at the same time. Again, servers need to be added, not expanded.

I really hope that people don’t listen to this post and stay on the servers they love and are comfortable on. I have never seen any other game have their staff come out and tell people to move – granted I haven’t seen many games on the same scale as GW2… but the point is still there.

I saw one of these near Stormbluff Isle, too. Did yours have a ranger pet equipped that would kind of fly towards nearby mobs?

The one I saw was clever. It would use the auto attack but use the other skills as soon as they would’ve come off CD, whether or not the mob was already dead or not. They were just farming skale – probably trying to get a bunch of vials of blood to sell…

So, some of my guild members are on a different server and I was wondering if I am currently able to run dungeons with them? If I’m not able to, will I ever be able to (is it coming with the guesting mechanic?)

If people blocked gold spammers, they wouldn’t be reported. Which means if the account(s) being used are hacked accounts, those accounts wouldn’t be sent back. Obviously there would still be people reporting, but I think this would encourage not reporting them in a way. Just report them as you see them.

And, as Snoring said, the URLs change slightly as they’re blocked… so it wouldn’t always work for long.

Teraphas.6210:

well remember you only earn influence when doing things with other guild members so just ask around you can find the people that don’t group with anyone

Incorrect, you earn influence no matter what you do. It’s about 2 influence per heart or Dynamic Event solo, and some amount I can’t remember for sPvP matches (I believe). You earn slightly more influence if you are grouped up doing events and such as a team. So unfortunately your suggestion doesn’t always work, except for maybe some guilds/situations.

Right now, we can’t really do much to encourage people to represent guilds to earn influence other than make guild rules and promote guild loyalty – and a few other things.

On my old game, I loved to at least try to hold contests and parties for my guildies. Sometimes we’d have crafting fairs and hold a contest the week before to see who could send in the most items, and we’d hand out prizes to whoever donated the most. While I plan on doing this as my guild over here grows, I’d like to do this for influence, too. It’d be a simple contest to see who earned the most influence over a set period of time.

It’d also be nice from a non-contest/fun point of view. If a member (especially in a full or just large guild) is earning little to no influence, or not representing the guild very often, the leader could then see that and kick them out.

Maybe this could also open doors to a server or game-wide influence contest or achievement? Daily/weekly/monthly/yearly?

The problem with them not adding guesting yet is that until that feature is added the populations will absolutely not stabilize. As long as free transfers are available, people will use and abuse that feature and will be server-hopping for various reasons. There are the obvious reasons: just indecisive people like me. There are the more rare reasons, like WvW spies and freeloaders, etc. Okay so maybe the WvW followers aren’t a rare reason, but you get my point!

Chessrook.8643:

Personally I think Cantha will be first, and the reason is thus…

There are four Elder Dragons currently: Jormag, Zhaitan, Kralkatorik, and Primordius. Jormag guards the Northern Shiverpeaks. Kral guards Elona (Alongside Palawa Joko) from Tyria. Primordus is deep underground. And Zhaitan severed all sea travel and contact with Cantha.

Consider the fact that of these four dragons, the last one is the one we have known we were going to fight and kill. Sea travel will open up. Travel to Elona and northwards is still cut off, but we can now reach Cantha. In addition with all the development given to the Tengu and the rumors that they will be the next race, I feel certain that Cantha will be the next expansion.

Perhaps now that Zhaitan isn’t there to block up the sea travel, we’ll have to deal with Bubbles on the way there or something. Maybe we’ll get some quick-travel to Cantha with the Tengu, then from there we’ll befriend the Canthans after however many years (250?) of not having contact with them. Then after we’re BFF’s with them and are aware of what’s going on, perhaps a certain extremely huge theory

will have to be resolved. From there, maybe we’ll have to fight Bubbles/DSD afterwards?

I would really like this… I hear some people claiming they can pop a queue in 15 minutes, but others say they often wait for hours on end.

Killthehealersffs.8940:

It was a bit silly 30 ppl following it .

Simply : Split the exp among the players
400 exp0 ppl =13 exp

And for the botters – solo players = players gets a debuff each time when they succefully escord the dolyak
-10% exp – stacks up to 100% last 6 hours

Edit: U can loose the debuff , if u help to kill 100-200 players

Just… drawing attention back to this!

Garrand.1483:

I never understood yak farming since you got more xp, karma, gold, and entertainment out of raiding enemy yaks and camps constantly. If they want to waste their time escorting yaks purely for character advancement then let them die to the small groups that are constantly raiding. If you wanted to advance your character this was a terrible way to do it.

That’s the thing that I think everyone is stumped by, at least part of the reasoning. True, there are better ways to advance characters. The problem was this was exploiting: people were abusing the system. Often a lot of the people who were using this exploit were using bots and such – which is not OK by itself. Even the people who weren’t using bots/etc were still exploiting and not entering WvW for the PvP. I think ArenaNet did a great thing by doing this, as it’s preserving the PvP of WvW.

The problem with allowing players to sit and farm yaks all day is that it dilutes the actual purpose of World vs World. WvW is there for people to fight each other and capture keeps, not sit and walk all day doing nothing. Small groups are not constantly raiding yak herders, and the bots might be able to auto-attack their way through a smallish group.

You’re right, it’s a terrible way to advance a character except for the lazier players who don’t want to do anything else or who might not be confident in doing anything else.

I think they’re still waiting for server pops to balance out, but I could be wrong. My guess would be they’ll start the two-week matches when guesting comes out.

Personally I think the two-week matches are going to be too long. I’d much rather see them only be one week long.

So I’m in the mood to run CM but I don’t know how long it’ll take to complete story mode! Any ranges/guesstimates? How long does explorable mode usually run?

I actually agree with this. I’m running on a laptop, so I feel your pain a million times over. I hate running low graphics but in WvW I just have to.

Completely +1. I’d love to be able to queue for all four maps, and I wish there would be more maps available. Although I don’t think we need more PvE in WvW. I think we just need more maps with more keeps and stuff to capture. Perhaps some maps could have smaller capacities like what we have now, and some maps could have up to 200-250-300 people or so each for larger fights.

Norn are obviously keen on hunting. They don’t really often live in Hoelbrak, they live scattered through the Shiverpeaks, so they have to provide for themselves. How do you think they do that? Hunting and gathering.

Neither one? There are three, not two!

You can’t use racial elites in sPvP, although I can see how it may be a problem in WvW. But honestly hitting 1 whenever you’re in range isn’t too horrible and if you’re going to be using those skills instead of another elite, that’s something you’ll have to deal with.

So I might be transferring servers but the only thing stopping me from doing so is the queue times – which I’ve heard are horrifying and very long. The server I’m on now supposedly has five-hour queues, but I’ve gotten in in 15-60 minutes.

Has there been any word from ArenaNet about possibly expanding or improving the WvW capacity/queues? With the way they’re expanding overall server capacities it seems like they should!

Malakree.5912:

Is there really no other way? No bug I can abuse to not have to go to WvW while getting this achieve?

It’s a WvW achievement, there obviously isn’t another way to get it. You can’t get WvW kills in PvE, and you aren’t supposed to. WvW achivements have to be earned in WvW.

Are you sure you’re actually representing your guild?

Open up the Guild panel and look at the icon next to your name that says if you are online or offline. If there’s a gray dash through it, you aren’t representing your guild, so you can’t do anything with it. It’s been bugging out for people for a few days, well the entire Guild panel has been.

Irakaz.8964:

Yeah Im not really sure how survivor is calculated. It was stuck on 35K for me and I didn’t die, but I didn’t go up either. Whether I did personal story/crafting/general roaming.

I was under the impression that the figure was from a time I died and forgot, but I counted from when I logged on and I levelled several times without death and still it didn’t improve.

Then I went to AC . . . so yeah :p

It records the furthest you’ve gotten without dying. So if your personal best was 35k exp without a death, and you died… it’ll record that and that will stay on your Achievements panel. It’s kind of annoying…

Fay.2735:

I don’t mind the idea of multiple guilds it’s just that there should be some sort of restriction between swapping between them.

Like I said in an earlier post, if your guild is that concerned about people not wearing your colors, make it a rule that people either can’t represent/join other guilds, or make it a limit like “x number of hours per y amount of time.”

Yes, you can keep your name. Guilds aren’t specific to a server, you can invite anyone from any server (US or EU, doesn’t matter) and they can join. Influence and purchased bonuses are server-specific (except maybe the emblem), so your influence will not carry over.

This isn’t League of Legends, so I don’t think this should happen. Guild Wars 2 is it’s very own game, and if people are going to be coming over to it they need to be aware that their play-style might have to stick back at their old game. What does a player’s mouse have to do with your suggestion or moving around? Use one hand on your mouse, and your other you can have on your keyboard…

Alad QB.8904:

Don’t you need 150 trait points to unlock all traits? How is it possible to have them all unlocked?

BTW, is there a way to change your mind and reallocate all trait and skill points?

Thanks.

You might be thinking about skill point. You can only have up to 70 trait points (since you start getting them at level 10). Skill points are unlimited.

Guild Wars 2 was designed to be an actual social MMO, to encourage people to play together and play with their friends. Being able to represent multiple guilds allows people to have a separate guild for just friends and family, and be in a hardcore PvP or WvW guild, and maybe join that cute crafting guild for some help figuring out how to craft well. I think that it’s not silly, it’s genius.

The fact that this allowed guilds to be account-wide (not character-specific – and it might’ve been the other way around) prevents a LOT of drama. People can’t join on alts and cause a bunch of trouble and spy around because they are recognized by their username. So it’s useful, and helpful.

What do you really see wrong with being able to join multiple guilds?

Masterpyro.4310:

Same, most of our people weren’t even repping us by default for a few days, so that was wasted influence. On top of that there is guild loyalty. Whos to stop someone from taking everything from the guild bank and putting it into another guilds bank? Sure theres a log, but the least ANet would do about that is ban the scammer, I doubt they’d take the time to reverse the damage as well.

If your guild is that concerned about people not representing enough, make it a guild rule that says “If you don’t represent [this much] every [amount of time] you will be removed from the guild.” If your guild is too casual to have a website or some way to make a charter or code of conduct, it’s too casual to be concerned about members representing.

A guild leader can set very specific permissions on the guild bank. They can set what ranks can withdraw from what type of bank (stash, trove or cave), and what ranks can deposit into what type of bank. So if people are going in and stealing stuff, have your leader change the permissions so items can only be deposited and not withdrawn. It’s really quite easy, and quite secure if the guild leader can be on the ball about things like that.

I believe there was at least one interview or something where a Dev said they might be adding this in the future into the gem store.

I personally prefer the shortbow just because I can actually put out more damage just because of the firing speed. That alone is an upgrade from the raw damage from the longbow, plus I might get the occasional bleed in. I can control where I am in combat (3) and control their movements with 4 and 5, as well as traps. So if you run shortbow, take the time to get skill points for at least the basic and fire traps for if you have to kite.

But, if you want more control and AoE, longbow’s the way to go. I personally use longbow in WvW simply for the range and Barrage’s AoE – which can clear out a large circle of players very quickly. For WvW I find myself alternating between longbow and shortbow mainly, with axe/warhorn or torch. If I’m fighting on top of a keep, I’ll equip my longbow. If I’m going to be jumping down to get in everything, I’ll throw my shortbow on so I can stack bleeds on anyone I’m chasing (and skill 5 would also knock them down for a second or two).

In PvE, I usually just stick with the shortbow with axe/warhorn or axe/torch just because I can always kite and throw down my traps if it gets close.

I doubt it’s because they’re bad. I can do a lot on my necro, from being mobile to capping or helping fight. Necros have some nice control (staff AOE to herd people around, scepter/dagger AOE cripple, utilities etc). I think they’re just uncommon, as not everyone is very good with their mechanics. I also notice that not all necros use the Deathshroud skill to its full capacity, which is a shame!

I usually sPvP on my necro or my thief, although I’m starting to get the hang of my Mesmer. Whenever I’m fighting a mesmer, I actually find I easy to identify clones – since they are far squishier than the actual character I switch targets when I see myself doing extreme amounts of damage with basic attacks. Watching where they’re moving helps identify as well, although it does require quick thinking in combat.

Overall I like the profession! I’ll probably end up running a condition build or a phantasm build based off this forum ^_

YouTube video of BETA
You’re definitely not the only male Charr Mesmer. xD

Scroll a bit, saves clutter and it’ll probably answer your question quicker.

“Is there a way to change your guild tag?”

I really hope they add this, too. For videos and screenshots. If I want to take an awesome underwater shot, my character’s head is usually in the way or in the shot. If I want to take an awesome shot of a dynamic event and not look tacky with my character front and center, I have to risk life and limb (literally) and /sleep and zoom and all that.

They’ve kind of been following the “our fans are our advertisements” method (I think they’ve even said that), but it makes it hard for us to take epic screenshots to convince people to play!!

I think since it’s regeneration, it’d be based on their regeneration stat. Direct “heals” would be based on yours. I think?

If you spend some time killing mobs for Vials of Weak Blood (and other vials of blood) you can earn a good sum of cash because people don’t usually want to go farm those. The skale by the fishermen right in Shaemoor near Divinity’s Reach drop a lot of vials!

Some people are playing the trading post: buying low, selling high. Some people are buying high and just selling higher at good times. I know some people are exchanging their coins for gems, buying minipets, then selling them. People can’t resist cute things… Well usually.

You had to create your character with the reserved name either during the headstart or by the end of the public launch day on the 28th.

Blog post!

When this happened to me, I tried to get my friends into overflow. Otherwise they should be able to right click on your portrait in the Party panel and hit “Join in Overflow” and that might work.

I’ve had issues getting in the same dungeon, too. That was just a matter of people joining before everyone was in the group (the first four in the group entered before one person was invited).