Guild Wars 2

I was soloing fine until the king left the fight. Yep. He spawned a couple of scarecrows and went home.

Groups cant enter the Mad King instance together. If a group somehow makes it in, they end up in different instances.

On the plus side, I got the mad king down to 50% solo – but then he simply left the fight.

The great event is bugged, and unplayable.

Sigh.

This thread is depressing.

I don’t have the time, skill or inclination to master this puzzle… and guess what? It doesn’t matter in the slightest. I like this puzzle. I think it’s great.

There are loads of other things for me to do in this game – not least, working on WvW, which is a game of organization as much as reflexes.

Sure, the puzzle is tricky. And that is exactly as it should be.

To those who are looking to bring the world down to a lowest common denominator experience, who cannot abide a challenge. Please leave. Please, please, leave. There are other activities for you. Do them.

As for those who suggest that because some people are disabled, there should be no activities which challenge the fully-abled – really? Do you really mean this? Should we ban the Olympics also? I am delighted that the disabled enjoy GW2. I will happily do WvW and conquer worlds with anyone, anytime. But the suggestion that the game should offer no challenge beyond what the disabled can master is perverse. The same goes for those with bad internet connections, and difficult family lives.

I am blown away by any mentality that suggests ‘because I can’t do it, it shouldn’t exist’. Do you really see this as a viable philosophy? Pause a moment, and imagine a world where this principle applied.

I realise I am promoting this thread by writing in it, but it’s such an appalling suggestion that I felt moved to rant.

Is this thread really suggesting that Guardians are no use in WvW? Are you serious?

Guardians are game changers.

I am encouraged to see this.

It’s been sad to see Gunnars sink to permanent last place; but I have also had some of the most entertaining battles since the game was launched over the past week. Real skin of the teeth stuff.

There are plenty of dedicated groups which win battles through perseverance, even if our lack of overall number means we lose the wars.

The main challenge is a defeatist mentality. In EB today, for example, we were holding onto our last tower. The reinforced gate had about 15% to go, but it was holdable with enough of a push.

And then someone started announcing the tower was lost. That it was all over. On 15%! So people who could have rallied to a glorious skin of the teeth defense ate pizza and chilled instead.

The way to get Gunnars Back is to encourage a never give up til you are dead mentality. It can be done.

(PS Also, please don’t match us against any more with 24/7 servers… for all our do or die mentality, we simply cant compete with them.)

OK. Good. This game has me a little nervous as to what is considered exploiting or not…

Every time my guild takes a keep, we do a ‘sweep’ to remove any mesmers. This is now a ritual – part of the normal process of keep taking.

The reason, of course, is to stop mesmers hiding, then portaling in invaders onto the wall.

Simple question: is hiding and portaling people into a keep considered an exploit, or is it using a skill in a legitimate way? It is not taking advantage of any glitch – and is using a skill exactly as described: to transport people from one place to another. But it does bypass gates, which are obviously an integral part of WvW.

I am honestly unsure whether it is considered an exploit or not. Has there been a ruling on this?

I suspect the proportion of players who drop their cash on these keys is low.

The fact is, a rare drop is a rare drop. It should be rare. In subscription MMOs, you have to run a whole dungeon for a chance at a drop of less than 1%. This way, you get the chance at the drop for some real world cash – which, chances are, is a lesser investment than grinding a dungeon.

It’s the nature of aiming for rare drops. The low drop rate means a higher value for those drops that do get out there. Consider it a lottery where you win a big prize, or nothing. You are massively more likely to get nothing, even if you buy dozens of tickets.

The trick they missed, I feel, is giving out intermediate prizes. (The equivalent of the $10 prize). They could have upped that number of rewards without affecting the value of the uniques.

Broken on Gunnar’s Hold also.

This genuinely brought tears of laughter to my eyes. Late.. tired.. who knows – that is hilarious.

I really hope you never change this toon.

Something has gone wrong with the economy when everything green, blue and white is vendor trash – in as much as you can’t sell it for more than a vendor would pay you for it. In other words, most items in this game are worth less than scrap.

This makes crafting pointless before level 80 (and it probably remains pretty pointless at 80 also). It renders many other economic activities irrational.

I suspect some of the issue here is due to the lack of liquidity in the market. A-net is concerned about inflation. A worthy concern. But as a few central banks have come to realize, deflation is as pernicious as inflation. It can cripple economies, and lead people to save everything, spend nothing, and not engage in productive activity.

Far from improving, the situation seems to be getting worse. Greens were not worthless when we started playing – they have become so. Yellows are starting to lose relative value also. This is a slippery slope.

It is time for a-net to adopt a slightly looser monetary policy, and do something to get the wheels of industry turning.

Take a tip from Europe – austerity is not working. Times to open those coffers and stimulate economic growth.

McDili.1549:

I don’t understand why people are having trouble keeping up with their level, I am actually way ahead of myself in Armorsmithing to the point where it actually frustrates me to carry around a set I can’t wear for a little while.

I do agree though that crafting requires so many resources that buying gear on the Trading Post is simply more efficient.

Where did you get all the annoying blue mats from? Did you buy them?

I tend to agree. The way the market is at the moment, I see no reason to craft.

Mats are too expensive, products are too cheap.

I expect this will change over time, however.

But I have found crafting a disappointment… I simply have not been able to keep up with my level. Too many mats are needed.

Effusion – are you sure?

So, basically, the 3x for Mind Wrack works entirely differently to, for example, the 8x for illusionary duellist?

I am looking at my combat log, and it doesn’t seem to be that… its just that I get a lot of crits, so it sometimes looks that way.

In another thread, I realized that I had completely misunderstood what was meant by 3x: XXX damage…

I had assumed the XXX damage was inflicted three times in a row – when in fact, the XXX number is the total damage, and you need to divide by three to establish what each individual hit does.

This made me realise that hitting people with a one clone mind wrack gave you much more bang for your buck than hitting them with a three clone mind wrack.

On the other hand, because of crits, the amount of damage does not always work out that way. A three clone mind wrack might show the figures: 500, 500, 250, for example. (I am assuming that the first two clones crit, and the third didn’t.) I haven’t done the math, but there may be some calculation, depending on crit chance, which favours more clones.

With this in mind, I have a couple of questions:

1) Is it always the case that you get more damage per clone if you shatter one at a time? Or is there some reason with crits etc that might make a 3x mind wrack a good investment?

2) Do clones get the same crit chance as the base player?

3) With other shatters (F2-4), is it also fair to say that, on the whole, you get better value/clone when shattering one clone at a time? The daze, for example, seems to be 1 sec no matter how many are shattered.

4) What strategies do people use to jack up mind wrack damage to the max?

Thanks!

Wow – the more I look through the implications of this, the more I realize how much it changes the way I understood things.

So, for example, I now realize it does more damage to shatter illusions 1 by 1… rather than 3 at a time. (I was assuming the 3x: xxx number meant 3 applications of that number, not that number divided by 3.)

Doh – this requires a rethink!

Shortening the recharge of shatter skills now suddenly seems much more useful.

I wonder how many people have been misled by this…

Well, this all makes a big difference, thanks.

I was assuming each number that flashed was separate damage.

OK – The swordsman totally holds his own.

Thanks Mnemon and Gibon.

Mnemon.1854:

Not sure if this is factored into your observations, but the damage numbers you see on the Duellist’s attack are cumulative, i.e. the total damage is equal to the final number.

O-o… if this is true that does make a difference.

Are you sure? I assumed each number was a separate bit of damage… in the tooltip it even says xxx (x8)

Thanks for pointing this out.

Ribos.8350:

At least it’s not a necro staff.

…but that’s really all I’ve got for the sound issue.

What’s wrong with the necro staff?

cesmode.4257:

I’ve wondered the same thing. Im new to the class so I probably am just misinformed, but illusions do no damage, and certain phantasms do way more than others, duelist being one of them. Agreed sir.

Illusions refers to both clones and phantasms. Clones look like you (except for no offhand), but do little damage – are easy to spawn and are confusing to enemies.

Phantasms don’t look like you, have a little more health, and do damage. When you pump out a random mix of clones and phantasms, it seems to give you two phantasms and one clone.

But yes, the original question still stands – I understand different flavours of phantasm, but the disparity between these two is so large it doesn’t make obvious sense to me. Is there an advantage to the swordsman I am unaware of?

I am a little unclear why some phantasms appear to be so much better than others. The duellist (offhand pistol), for example, does about twice the amount of damage than the swordsman (offhand sword). Even though the swordsman is a melee, meaning its in more danger of getting killed, and less likely to connect.

This does not makes immediate sense to me. Am I missing something? Is there a logic behind this?

EDIT: It seems this question was based upon a misreading of damage figures. (see below). I assumed each number was an individual hit – whereas it is actually adding up cumulatively. Swordsman is higher damage than duellist, which makes sense .

While I use dual swords as my primary weapon, I find the greatsword to be very useful to switch to at range – or throwing in a mirror blade and an extra phantasm.

My one complaint is the endless pew pew pew sound.
a) it’s a big giveaway – it tells everyone you are a mesmer
b) after several thousand pew pew pews, it is becoming pretty irritating

From what I can tell, it’s the most intrusive weapon sound in the game.

Is there any reason they made it so?
Is there any chance they will change it?