Guild Wars 2

Generally speaking, if you are expressing an opinion, it IS a biased view, biased in how you feel about it. Since other people can have a YMMV moment, therefore, you really should take the BIASed part of your thread title out of the title; my opinion would be just as biased because, like you, it’s my opinion.

bobsort.4097:

Morfedel.4165:

I never had a problem soloing the story all the way except the very last mission. I’m not seeing the problem.

Would you please elaborate more on this? What is your ping, latency, computer hardware, class, armor, weapons, skill configuration?

My ping is about 400 in great days and 560 in normal days and sometimes raises to 700. on 700 Core maps are still playable but not HoT or maps stories.

I have an I3 5th gen computer with 16gb RAM and Nvidia GTS-450 graphic card which gives me about 50 FPS in most core maps and drops below 30 in all HoT maps except lake Doric (may be because of amount of faces that are visible in LoD vertically?)

I have trouble in VB map with frogs on my guardian with exotic gear, I can’t even drop those frogs HP to half before I die.

I have same trouble with my warrior again in exotic gear killing rolling thingies.

I have trouble with my ranger in full ascended to do story steps of Flash point and one path ends. but not even slight trouble solo vet mobs in VB even two or 3 of them.

I have trouble in Tangled depth on my Necro in exotic but no trouble solo holding the camps in VB.

I have trouble with pocket raptors on all my toons except engineer that has no trouble torching them down and that same engineer can’t stand hammer hit of mordemorth guardians and mesmers.

Your claim is very subjective.

If your computer isn’t having serious lag problems, and you cant solo most of that content, then the question about my computer is a nonissue, the issue is either the skill of the player, their build, level, gear, etc.

If your computer is lagging, nothing you can do about it except upgrade the computer.

Point being, there was complaining in here that HoT is nothing but group events, as the title of the thread itself expresses, and I was pointing out that, all other factors being equal, that is not the case. So, no, it isn’t at all subjective, with the sole exception of what computer you are using, but that has nothing to do with the content and difficulty level of HoT.

I loved the new maps. I found them innovative and refreshing. But to each their own.

I never had a problem soloing the story all the way except the very last mission. I’m not seeing the problem.

I was thinking that was probably it. I’m going to have to go look back at the old version of the skills though so I can properly sort through my thoughts in evaluating what these changes mean.

Unless someone else has already done that and can spare me the mental exercises? LOL

ThomasC.1056:

From what I’ve seen, the count recharge starts the moment you uses the first charge.

For example, if you have 2 ammos with 30s CD : you fire the 1st one, and the 30s CD begins immediatly in the background.
If you fire the 2nd one, you’ll see the CD animation with the remaining time to get the 1st ammo back.

I checked the wiki, but it doesn’t state it. Does count recharge start the moment you use the first charge, or only after you use all of them?

Thanks in advance!

ah, so I misunderstood that. I thought it meant you didnt even get the core game.

Ayrilana.1396:

Morfedel.4165:

So, a friend of mine and I were talking about the fact that PoF is going to be stand alone, and with 5 zones.

So that means a newcomer could start with a level 1 in PoF. If that happens, that means at least some of the zones have to be dedicated to sub-80 characters. And if THAT happens, just how much will be so, meaning how much will be less appealing to the veterans of the game?

It was an interesting conversation we had. What are your thoughts?

All of those are level 80 zones.

And level 1 as well? Remember, they said this was a standalone that newcomers could play in too.

and level 1 zones as well? Remember, they said this was a stand alone and that newcomers could come play in it too.

Ayrilana.1396:

Morfedel.4165:

So, a friend of mine and I were talking about the fact that PoF is going to be stand alone, and with 5 zones.

So that means a newcomer could start with a level 1 in PoF. If that happens, that means at least some of the zones have to be dedicated to sub-80 characters. And if THAT happens, just how much will be so, meaning how much will be less appealing to the veterans of the game?

It was an interesting conversation we had. What are your thoughts?

All of those are level 80 zones.

So, a friend of mine and I were talking about the fact that PoF is going to be stand alone, and with 5 zones.

So that means a newcomer could start with a level 1 in PoF. If that happens, that means at least some of the zones have to be dedicated to sub-80 characters. And if THAT happens, just how much will be so, meaning how much will be less appealing to the veterans of the game?

It was an interesting conversation we had. What are your thoughts?

Well, I’m not sure what the problem is, but the patch seems to have fixed it.

For that matter I also did a player versus player for 3 hours yesterday before the update and had no problems.

abomally.2694:

Most likely it’s a failing power supply or the computer is overheating.

I doubt it, it’s only happening in this one instance. Only when my character is appearing in the game world.No other program is doing it, and for that matter if I’m sitting there at the log in screen or character select it doesn’t do it either. It can sit there for hours and it’s just fine.

Just tried updating graphics drivers, didn’t help

You’re lucky, my whole computer is shutting down. And no, no third party products

Since the new ls has gone live, as soon as on be of my characters appears in the game world after I select one and click to, play, load screen, world appears, character appears… and my computer just turns off.

Was just fine before.

francescoG.1069:

It was a truly disastrous year for the balance of mesmer.
A year ago, alacrity was weakened.
One year ago came the build chronophantasma shatter, since then it has not been possible to create an alternative build.
I stopped playing months ago, forgive me if you can, but if you played the mesmer 2 years ago you can not settle for a lower class to make portal, alacrity and quickness.
I waited for the build was to carry chronophantasma shatter a year to see if it changed something and this was the reward of my patience: alacrity on reavenant.
I waited too long, we are in 2017 and now there are other mmrpg.
it is time to uninstall

That alacrity on the revenant is using the tablet; not exactly a competitive alternative, I dont think centaur revenant is really going to be a thing, so I think we are good.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Aren’t they made by Chronomancers? Looks like a bug….?

yes, and most likely yes.

Vayne.8563:

Time to try some new tactics. There are usually advantages and disadvantages to all balance patches. This one sounds like it’s disadvantaged you.

True. I’m very disappointed in this aspect, but the point of this was I wanted to know just how intentional this was; they talked about how this was a buff, without mentioning that nerf that came along with it, so I just wanted to know how intentional this stealth interaction was.

CntrlAltDefeat.1465:

All attacks break cloak. Rules are only rules when they apply to everyone.

Of course they do, but summoning phantasms wasnt originally an attack. Thats the point.

Yes, but they also didnt leave it up all that long. They really should leave it up several days imho.

R O C.6574:

Can we have one please? It’ll be fun, I promise.

I’ve been thinking about that for a long time. I think a glider PVP map – or for that matter, a high glider wvw map – would be awesome.

Unfortunately it would leave out non-HoT players, which might be an issue, so I won’t hold my breath.

Aitadis.8269:

that’s nothing compared to earlier!

LOL watch out, the space-time continuum is about to collapse!!!!

Retnab.4123:

Hey all, I’ve been playing the game on and off since shortly after the original launch and haven’t really played since a month or so after HoT came out. I don’t do any PvP, WvW, Raids, or Fractals (although I’m interested in trying the latter two when I feel like I’m skilled enough) and keep it strictly PvE (used to love Dungeons before the $ nerf, that hurt). My question for you all today: what’s good to use? My build preference before I left last time was Scepter/Pistol main, with Sword/Shield for versing little groups (like those stupid pocket raptors). I enjoy shatter builds mostly, and I like the feel of Scepter mostly (I used to run Focus offhand for in Dungeons, but…). Considering all of this, does anyone have any suggestions for what I could use that’s good in PvE with an eye to Fractals and maybe Raids?

The build I’ve been using is this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQRAra8encfCtfilfCmpBEgiFVjqOZn2qFtLSjogMAKgiD-TxRGABArEBQVKGS5FAKBpQ7AZ6AGRdFA-e

To reiterate, you can use a wide variety of builds as long as you arent doing the highest end content, or high level pvp stuff. Other than that, you can make very many builds effective.

Retnab.4123:

Oh :/ So support is really Mesmer’s only role nowadays? Are there any decent Scepter damage builds or should I just go for a different class for damage/soloability?

For the most difficult pve content, basically Raids, yes. But for everything else, there are multiple viable builds. It really depends on what you are doing. PVE, RAIDS, Fractals, WVW, PVP? What do you enjoy most?

So, I’ve been seeing this all over the heart of the mists

bearshaman.3421:

Morfedel.4165:

What I found interesting is the auto attacks now built in phantasms. Which means that now, if you are casting phantasms while cloaked like in pvp or wvw, which I do, you are now going to break your cloak by casting them.

EDIT: Unless of course the attack comes from the phantasm instead of you? Working, can’t test it yet.

It comes from the phantasm. No idea if it breaks stealth.

No it doesnt, just went and checked, the attack comes from you, thus breaking stealth if it hits.

EDIT: luckily the pMage attack is radius 240 and pWarlock attack is range 600, so you might be able to avoid those breaking stealth. the pDuelist is range 1200 though, so….

it isnt really reveal oh phantasm cast, its reveal when the attack generated by casting phantasm that reveals you. For example, pMage generates an PBAoE effect; if you arent near a foe you dont get revealed.

It DOES cause a problem though, for mesmers like myself who liked to cast phantasms under cloak. It means the pDuelist and pWarlock will almost certainly reveal you, and the pMage if you are near any foes.

They’ve also said they plan on doing this with more phantasms. What this means is our ability to cast phantasms under cloak are most likely going to be disappearing completely in most cases.

So, one of my tactics, in pvp and wvw at least, has been to cloak, evade backwards and cast some phantasms while repositioning before my stealth expires.

These new initial attacks when casting a phantasm comes from the character, this means that you can no longer cast phantasms while in cloak without potentially breaking your cloak early. And from what I saw a dev say, they plan on adding initial attacks to more phantasms over time.

I honestly thought that being able to use some skills, such as phantasms, in cloak, was intentional. Was this done intentionally to break cloaks if you cast a phantasm? This seems a significant nerf in exchange for a weak buff, ESPECIALLY for pMage, lying right next door to a stealth skill.

So was this intentional?

Gaile Gray.6029:

We’ll be making a game update on Wednesday, February 22 that will include skill balancing. Members of our skills and balance team will be on the official forums for a while after the build goes live to discuss those changes with you.

To take part, please join the new thread we’ll post after the build goes live. For our players who participate on the French, German, or Spanish forums, we will provide a list of highlights from the conversation by the end of the week.

The auto attack for phantasm casting seems really bad, unless the attack comes from the phantasm itself, as now I won’t be able to stay cloaked while casting a phantasm.

What I found interesting is the auto attacks now built in phantasms. Which means that now, if you are casting phantasms while cloaked like in pvp or wvw, which I do, you are now going to break your cloak by casting them.

EDIT: Unless of course the attack comes from the phantasm instead of you? Working, can’t test it yet.

Slowpokeking.8720:

Morfedel.4165:

how is an unexpected snowstorm their fault?

They didn’t give us any ETA and said we would be able to get it today. It’s more reasonable to give some ETA and make the “tomorrow” statement earlier, at least hint for the possibility.

And maybe they THOUGHT they could get it out today. Again, this isn’t some evil machiavellian plot. It is possible they had all the best intentions and worked their butt off and finally had to admit they were wrong. That happens too.

Regardless, they clearly tried their best. These things happen. It doesn’t entitle people to get gifts because of it. And no one will get one.

I dismissed the queue after accepting it, which is what I ALWAYS did, to clear the screen after accepting. Never done anything different. And it always worked, until now.

Slowpokeking.8720:

electricwater.1572:

Lol, stop being that pathetic and expecting handouts. Man, people are getting really entitled these days.

They didn’t release the patch because of the circumstances they had no control over (the weather). And according to them they are trying their best to fix the situation asap.

The whole thing is just hilarious. People throwing tantrums because a game patch was late. You have so little going on in your lives that a late patch is the source of a big drama? People seriously take days off work for this? And it’s okay if they do, but that was their decision to do so, not Anet’s. Therefore, they are fully responsible for it and Anet owes them nothing. No free gems, no precursors, nothing. You are already getting a fresh LS3 episode free of charge and they’re doing their best to ship it to you asap.

TL;DR – stop being a whiny brat and acting like it’s the end of the world. No, you don’t deserve any free stuff for it and you will get LS3 episode when it’s ready.

It’s still their fault, they couldn’t give out any date and let ppl wait for nothing till the last minute.

We don’t ask for money or real things, it’s just some gems or BLC tickets, it cost them NOTHING, they just need to do something in their program.

how is an unexpected snowstorm their fault?

Slowpokeking.8720:

Batelle.1680:

Like, how can you be so into MMOs that you are planning your life around them yet not realize that planning your life around an MMO on patch day is a terrible kittening idea?

Anet doesn’t owe you anything. A planned release date for a patch is not a binding contract, and there is nothing held within the update that will be lessened because you get it tomorrow and not today.

They need to make their players happy, it’s how business works. They promised to release it in time but couldn’t do so. Why shouldn’t they give us some stuff? It doesn’t cost them anything.

It wasnt their fault. And MOST people understand that.

FireCrescent.6512:

Nihevil.8024:

Well obviously, should have just said that earlier today.

Yup.

Had my entire day ruined sitting around waiting for any info at all, now my entire week is off schedule. If you have a problem or messed up at least admit to it so people can move on with their days/lives thanks.

They have been saying that all day. Way to pay attention.

brobofrodo.8964:

Was it that hard to say this earlier? You’ve really wasted so much of peoples time and energy by not saying this earlier.

Way to be a jerk. Like this was something they did on purpose? They had no control over the weather, and CLEARLY they thought maybe they COULD get it out today. It’s not like they sat in their chairs twirling their mustaches going, “Let’s make people waste time ON PURPOSE!!! BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!”

Seriously, the level of selfish entitlement of some people.

Zaron.3270:

I’m glad I used 8 hours of PTO (paid time off) to play the new raid wing today.

And what, they had control over the weather? Jesus, man, get real.

Mike O Brien.4613:

Hi all,

Sadly we’re not going to be able to launch the new episode “The Head of the Snake” on its intended release date today.

We were hit hard by the Seattle area storm and resulting power outage. We’ve been working to bring everything back online as quickly as possible, but after a series of setbacks, it’s become clear that it won’t be today.

Please accept our apology. We’re going to keep at it through the night and hope to be able to launch tomorrow, but obviously we can’t promise anything.

Mo

Mike;

While we all want the release as soon as possible, don’t kill yourselves trying to get it out, especially if the roads are treacherous. Work hard, but work smart, and dont work through the night! Get some sleep, for God’s sake! It’s better to do it right than do it fast, and with snow in your area, driving without being asleep at the wheel is always the smart thing to do.

Unless you have cots at the office, in that case, get to it!!!

James

Since ranked ended, I’ve gotten dishonor twice. Both times, I was in queue, it started a match, and suddenly it said I abandoned queue and I would have to re enter, and each time I was given dishonor and had to wait. First time I’m not sure how many minutes… two maybe? Second time, 6 minutes.

I did nothing, just sitting in queue and started to enter a match.

Harper.4173:

FlOwMaKeRs.8623:

I have 4 months playing guild wars 2 and I think I can make an opinion of it.

I’ll be honest, I never had an experience in MMO like Guild Wars 2 (PVE Content – Living World), is just beautiful.

But there are other things that upset me a lot, including WvW & PVP. I will not talk about it, everyone knows whats poppin.

All I want to talk here is about the Specializations. In this game you’re forced to use 1 meta build in different modes, YOU don’t have the freedom to create your own BUILD, They’re gonna scold you if you don’t have that " Bored Meta Build " unlike the Guild Wars (Original & others MMO’s) you could run soooo many crazy build’s and be successful but in Guild Wars 2 you have (1 class = 1 build) and then a massive amount of useless traits and skills.

You can have 3 specializations available in your build and then only 5 skills on your bar, really? is that enough for you?.. is just boring to use the same 3 traitlines on a class and the same weapon for 4+ MONTHS. You can’t customize your primary weapon skills with your secondary, or vice versa. You can’t edit your traits and skills as you want. Everything is like in “automatic” just click here & click there, there you got, done.

I’m sorry, but I think this game is very simple to me.

Sadly the game wasn’t like this initially.
During its early times – in concepts and alphas the game had a much more complex attribute system. Even at launch the trait system allowed for more combinations.
The short of it is this – the more complicated building your character is the more bad players playing ineffective builds and generally being bad you’re going to have.

Anet wants people to enjoy the game easily – to pick it up and play it without needing to theorycraft ( or even think – in most cases) because that means MORE people can play it – and that means MORE money.

So the game was made easier and easier and easier until we have what we have now.

I will agree with this; it’s the one thing I really disliked how they made the trait system more dumbed down and less flexible.

FlOwMaKeRs.8623:

I have 4 months playing guild wars 2 and I think I can make an opinion of it.

I’ll be honest, I never had an experience in MMO like Guild Wars 2 (PVE Content – Living World), is just beautiful.

But there are other things that upset me a lot, including WvW & PVP. I will not talk about it, everyone knows whats poppin.

All I want to talk here is about the Specializations. In this game you’re forced to use 1 meta build in different modes, YOU don’t have the freedom to create your own BUILD, They’re gonna scold you if you don’t have that " Bored Meta Build " unlike the Guild Wars (Original & others MMO’s) you could run soooo many crazy build’s and be successful but in Guild Wars 2 you have (1 class = 1 build) and then a massive amount of useless traits and skills.

funny , I’ve never been forced to use a meta build. I’ve been playing since beta, and I’ve only used meta builds during raids. Thats it. So who is making you play meta builds?

You can have 3 specializations available in your build and then only 5 skills on your bar, really? is that enough for you?.. is just boring to use the same 3 traitlines on a class and the same weapon for 4+ MONTHS. You can’t customize your primary weapon skills with your secondary, or vice versa. You can’t edit your traits and skills as you want. Everything is like in “automatic” just click here & click there, there you got, done.

I’m sorry, but I think this game is very simple to me.

Well, you are wrong here. Yes, you CAN use different weapons, different skills, different traits.

It isn’t as flexible as it was before the release of HoT, but it isn’t like its utterly restricted to one trait choice each.

You know, unless you are falling into that stupid “I can only play meta” crap trap.

Seriously, no one is making you play meta. That’s your choice to do that. I play whatever I feel like, and I do just fine with it.

Just FYI, I love jumping puzzles, but I’m not happy about the super hard ones. I’ve never been able to finish Mad King’s Clock Tower or Winter Wonderland and have given up. I’ve finished the rest, but Skipping Stones drove me to the edge of madness. I was actually ok though with the aetherblade one.

Why? Its all about those moving parts. Those three adding moving parts and a race against the clock for two of them was agonizing.

The aetherblade one was very hard, but nothing moving so dramatically that it was comparable even to skipping stones.

So here’s hoping no moving parts to this one!!!

Moyayuki.3619:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Everyone has favorites among the maps. In some ways, Dragon’s Stand is the easiest, since there’s time to complete it after finishing the meta.

What I wish is that ANet had included a transition zone, between Silverwastes and VB, without a meta, without important gifts requiring zone completion. That would give people a chance to figure out how to get around the different levels, learn gliding without also worrying about dealing with the new foes.

Put another way, I don’t think that VB is ‘hard’ so much as it is the zone that requires learning the most new techniques to navigate.

Yeah, this is more or less what I was trying to get at. It seems to require a lot of things to get absolutely everything. Even Silverwastes, which comes right before VB, doesn’t require the same amount of “tricks” to explore as VB does. I think my general complaint about HoT is that there wasn’t much of a good transition between core Tyria and HoT. Sure, HoT gets less frustrating with time and practice, but it still was jarring for a long time in the beginning.

VB is really easy to get through… once you have the right masteries unlocked and once you know where/how to go. That’s the two tricks, once you have them it’s a breeze. I can get anywhere, any time, now.

However, I had to find out – someone showed me one way to get into the canopy during the daylight hours, and I found a second on my own. After that, I simply needed updrafts, bouncing mushrooms, and maybe bouncing mushrooms (and even that may not be necessary); lean techniques helps too and may be necessary for parts of it.

That being said, AB doesn’t have the canopy issue VB has, and much of it is landbound, without being as convoluted as TD is, so much of AB is more easily accessible – minus a few points

akaCryptic.2389:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFU9dBq4PH4

It seems to me that there aren’t any niche trick videos about revenant but mostly build guides. I tried to keep it short by exluding things that you would just figure out from reading the tooltip. Hope you find this helpful!

I highly doubt that’s working as intended. I wonder how long before they come around and nerf that?

EDIT: I’m referring to the switching legends via right clicking to keep the buffs up, trick #1.

Donari.5237:

You get the beam by standing near the bloodstone spike. But you move excruciatingly slowly unless you use the special action to counter the magic.

Use the counter magic immediately, then run to get on the other side of the thing before it expires.

I soloed everything in the actual story, and the only things I didn’t solo in the area was the clearly unsoloable events, such as the jade armors. The only problem I had in the entire LS was the very first encounter of the last episode of the story, but aside from that, easy peasy.

There were a few tight moments here and there, and getting through BF with the hoards of white mantle has resulted in a few deaths, but generally nothing I couldn’t handle.

Don’t know what to tell ya, but yes, it can well be soloed aside from those few events.

So, I found this so ironic. I started playing Dragon Age Inquisition a few weeks ago, to take a break from GW2, and then the LS episode came out.

In DAI, I’m encountering templars taking Red Lyrium which is corrupting them, turning them into abominations. In the GW2 LS, I’m encountering white mantle infected with red bloodstone, which is corrupting them and making them crazy, plus red bloodstone stuff everywhere in the BF landscape, and red lyrium cropping up everywhere in DAI.

In DAI, there are rifts opening up disgorging demons. In GW2 LS, there are rifts opening up disgorging displaced creatures.

Red Lyrium. Red Bloodstone. Rifts in both. I swear I am having serious deja vu no matter which game I’m playing now. If they update DAI with hang gliding or the LS with a war table, I’ll be flabbergasted.

But romance options for characters in GW2 might be fun

Morale of the story: Red Earthy Stuff = Evil.

Not a criticism, I just found it amusing. Carry on.

MasterKaon.4027:

Vayne.8563:

Okay but, in each of those cases, you have to level each character seperately. HoT, on the other hand, you level your masteries one single time and you’re done. Once you unlock gliding on one character, all your characters have gliding.

Nor is HoT particularly linear. While you don’t have the options to have five starter zones, you don’t have to level each character differently.

I played HoT a lot like I played the core worlds. Even from the first waypoint in HoT, there are two directions you can go, leading to two different outposts, with two different event chains.

Some people just level their masteries via raids. Some people play open world stuff. If you have a lot of characters, you can even level by doing the story over and over again. Adventures give a ton of experience.

If you’re seeing HoT as linear, I assure you it’s not. It’s like anything else, you have to run through zones to get to the next zone, but even taht’s not 100%. For example if you have the AB guild hall, you can get into AB without ever setting foot into VB.

In hindsight, you are somewhat correct. With experience it’s easy to see the paths and options HoT presented to a fresh player, despite how limited they were. However this was all but drowned by a tidal wave of negative reinforcement for trying to do anything BUT those couple of options, either by constantly pointing to the mastery page in the most obnoxious fashion or outright killing the player with no warning and then pointing to the mastery page anyways.

HoT stopped being about things I could do and became about everything i couldn’t do and the mastery system wasn’t about unlocking cool abilities to open up the world, but about removing unnecessary barriers to actually playing the game. Luckilly once completed, those masteries stay on my account forever and I never have to bother with it ever again, which is one of the only reasons I sat through it.

I understand your complaint, but I kinda have to disagree with your reasoning. See, much of the effort in getting masteries is quite organic; you need to level to get experience, so that experience was going to a mastery, just one you select to level first; then you needed to get mastery points, which many of them in the beginning could be found all over the map in the same way that hero points were.

So really, I don’t see the problem. The one complaint I have is that at the later levels it starts getting harder to get the mastery points.

Yeah, I played WoW a total of one day, and never went back. Too much like the MMOs that came before; sure, it may have done a BETTER job of doing what those others did, but still…. I played Everquest until my eyes bled, and got burned out on it, played some others that were basically clones and, for all intents, WoW might as well have been the same game (better technology but essentially same play experience.)

It’s why I love GW1 and GW2 SOOO much! Its so different than any other MMO I played. It IS kinda getting a little stale, but I’ve been playing it with only one short break since beta (I skipped out for a bit during the aetherblade stuff and the dragon festival of the time… ah well…)

I imagine there will come a time for me to leave, but that will depend on either my hitting max burnout, or another game comes out that finally offers more, in a style I like. That hasn’t happened since beta Guild Wars 1, much less GW2.