Guild Wars 2

Hi! Me and a friend are on Darkhaven NA, looking for a casual guild. Ideally, we’d like one where we can find groups to do WvW, PvP, PvX, some guild missions, occasional dungeons, and the like. We’re not looking for anyone serious enough to be doing raiding, or to require minimum time online (work and family obligations). It’d be nice to have a friendly group, where we can make some online friends, have people to chat with as we’re doing stuff.

Each of us have a few alts. Some are max level, some are working on it. We like to think that we’re pretty decent at what we do, but are also open to learning.

Overall, we’re pretty flexible, and would like to think that you are too! Please contact us here or in game if you think that we’d make a good match with your guild. Thank you!

It depends what kind of material the dye is going on. From http://www.dragonsworn.net/dyes/, it looks like it’s normal for it to look brownish, depending on the armour.

While I miss the preview, I imagine it’s better for Anet than the constant complaints and such from the surprisingly large number of people who can’t read and buy the wrong thing, and don’t figure out that their character can’t wear a certain thing until after they buy it.

I think it’s cute and christmasy. And I’m glad that as a winter holiday, we weren’t offered something slinky. The fur and bustles are great, and it looks freaking adorable on a female Charr.

I at no time said RNG is difficult. I asked about difficult alternatives.

mosspit, even if that’s not a suggestion you care to put in the suggestions forum, thank you for taking the question seriously. And I do see that as presenting a viable alternative that isn’t guaranteed, but should most of the time alleviate frustration over time.

More generally, although it also addresses something that Parthis wrote:
Linsey Murdock: “We designed the process of getting Legendary gear to be a long term goal, but players were ready to start on that path much sooner than we expected”
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/linsey-murdock-unveils-new-high-end-ascended-gear/

It really wouldn’t be so grindy if people didn’t have to have a legendary right now. You’d have to make an effort to do dungeons, WvW, karma, etc., but it’d be over time. There’d still be a luck component, and you wouldn’t be guaranteed to get anything. You’d have to spend more time in particular areas, but given the appeal of this game as something that’s not supposed to be a grind-fest, I wouldn’t blame Anet for thinking that the people attracted to that wouldn’t then go non-stop grinding to get a legendary in as little time as possible.

I’m seeing people saying that they’re not asking for it to be easier, and that they don’t feel entitled to a legendary. And while there are great suggestions for improving gameplay in general, I’m not seeing anything but asking for something guaranteed and/or easy.

As I’ve said, I don’t have a legendary. But I’d sure lose the desire to get one if it weren’t something pretty uncommon. As it is now (yes, I’m aware there will be changes<1>), legendaries are basically skins: no changes to stats on your weapon. Right now and before this point, it’s been something like “This is awesome. I have something that’s pretty frakking difficult to get, is in no way guaranteed to happen, and I’m pretty lucky to have gotten it.”

If something were to change where it become entirely a difficulty and skill thing, rather than time, money, RNG, that’d be cool too. Even if it meant that I ended up not being able to get it.

It’s like playing hockey recreationally. It’s fun to play, you have a good time with your team. It’d still be fun if an MVP trophy or two were given out. MVP trophies are likely to go to people who have innate skill, or who are pretty good, but also have lots of extra time to practise and play. Or somebody might have a streak of luck, combined with others’ bad luck, and get one. The MVP trophy doesn’t affect the gameplay at all. But it’s meaningless if everyone on the team can get one by following some steps. And it’s silly to whine if somebody has one on their shelf from playing when the opposing team was worse, and easier to look good playing against. Hey, in playing rec hockey, it’s not meant to be more fun for those who are unemployed and can practise all day. The MVP trophy is pretty and makes you feel good, but it doesn’t change anything really. So why should it be guaranteed to anyone?

Is anybody getting the point I’m making? Or is it not possible for anyone to have something rare and for now entirely, and in future almost entirely, cosmetic without being called a jerk elitist?

<1> Since we don’t know how much the changes will be, for one slot, is it reasonably going to make any difference? People are not trying to get these weapons because of a few points in stats, they’re going for bragging rights and skins. If you claim otherwise, I’m curious as to whether you considered working on one before that announcement.

To address particular things from Parthis:
“There is no difficulty in the current system either…”
I didn’t say that the current was difficult, I was talking about replacing the current method with a difficult method to get it since everybody claims that they’re not asking for legendaries to be made easy.

Also, references to gold, grind, RNG were saying what people say they don’t want. Not that they’re special and wonderful. My point is, what to replace them with such that legendaries remain rare and special. (This is not addressed at those who feel that something cosmetic that does not affect game play should be everyone’s basic human right, and that nobody under any circumstances should be able to get something that you cannot get.)

For all of those saying that they’re not being entitled, and not asking for something easy, suggest something that is not guaranteed and easier. Or at least be honest and say “Yes, I feel that everybody is entitled to a legendary, and that it should be far easier to get.” At least then it’s clear where you stand.

Myst, you can preview all the gear available in the gem store. Just so you avoid future disasters.

Parthis.2091:

Neferteri.7342:

A genuine, curious question. What, within the bounds of GW2, would be challenging and a lot of effort, and not require much time? Such that a very small percentage of players would end up with legendaries? Because legendaries really shouldn’t be common, they need to be special. Something that sets one apart from the masses. Otherwise it really wouldn’t be legendary.

No game developer in the world designs content or goals specifically for “the hardcore”. The very idea that you are entitled to something more than another person in a game based purely on the fact that you have a lot more free time and are willing to grind repetitive content is really quite sad. You’re not entitled; you’ll just get it quicker. That’s fine. The problem is the RNG and the heavy ties to the ballooning economy.

Legendary is a word, nothing more. It’s there to distinguish tiers of stuff, not imply entitlement. You aren’t entitled to a legendary because you bill yourself as “hardcore”… I find this attitude really rather disturbing; you are not more important than other people as a result of your personal situation, and it’s in Anet’s interest to make the goals of their game open and achievable by all while staying true to their manifesto.

Software is malleable; whether you have a legendary or not, or believe you’re entitled to one or not based on how you categorise yourself is irrelevant; the current implementation is impenetrable to new players, players with less time, and people who are feeling the pain of RNG.

The ironic sense of entitlement works both ways my friend.

I don’t have any legendaries, and I don’t feel entitled to them. I am working on parts of it at the moment, and am not sure if I’ll end up with one. For all I know, I could play far less than you, and be way worse at the game. I’m not claiming hard-core status. You are assuming that.

If you feel that there should not ever be anything at all in the game which is super-rare to get and needs a lot of work, either by difficulty, or time, or luck, or anything, even if it doesn’t really do anything to change balance… Then they might as well just have it as a normal drop from mobs around Tyria.

So for clarity, you’re looking for a guaranteed way to get the legendary. Follow set steps, and a legendary comes out by playing the game and not doing anything very special. How is that not entitlement? You don’t want it to be a lot of time, nor gold, nor RNG, nor grind, but I don’t really see where the difficulty factor comes in.

I do like the idea of finding a way to make it preferable to actually play WvW properly. Incentives for dungeons is good too. Those are things that would be fantastic to address, for game-play in general.

But in the end, this looks like it is still about making legendaries easy to achieve.

Disclaimer: I do not have legendary or ascended gear yet, and still have a ways to go. This is not about me wanting to shut people out. This is about special and challenging gear not being something one can almost get by accident while playing the full range of the game.

If you are carefully tracking exactly how much xp you have before and after, I’d screenshot those stats in addition to the xp amount that pops up, because that would be a bug. Put that in the game bugs section of the forums.

The absolute amount of xp should differ. It’s based on a percentage of total xp for the level your character is, differing by what crafting level you’re at.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Experience

Not having damage meters and the like help contribute to this being a friendlier game than other MMOs, IMO. I thought I’d hate not having tools like a damage meter, but I really love the resulting atmosphere.

Turns out I’m not the only one who feels that way. Article: “How UI Mods Burn MMORPGs” http://goo.gl/0KUeS (When I load the page, it doesn’t work, but pressing reload again brings up the article) This talks specifically about damage meters, the effect on WoW, and then specifically mentions GW2 and SW:TOR.

(Also, while it’s lovely to think that people are using the data to improve and analyse their own performance, that’s not how it’s used most of the time in fact.)

Different people have different definitions of what they find fun, and that’s fine.

My ele was my first character, and I got her to 80 before really spending time on anything else. To be honest, I didn’t use her full potential, and stuck with a staff during leveling, and almost always fire. I rarely died, once I learned to move around more. Now, I’m still not at a point where I change attunements very often, but do sometimes, and play mostly D/D, switching to staff when I’m coming up on an enemy that I know I don’t want to be in melee range for.

Spending time on other professions seems to help with my elementalist play-style. It also helps when a random person comes to you and says “Holy cow, you do a lot of damage in PvE. I’m going to roll an ele.” (paraphrased) If you’re frustrated, spend time with another profession, but give ele chances whenever you learn something new. And take advantage of sPvP to try out different trait builds and skill abilities.

There may be some apparent disadvantages compared to other classes, but I wouldn’t describe them as “weak.”

The letters for the heart quests don’t count as proper mail, but they do disappear on their own after some time.

Yes.

I’m fairly low, but would love to gain a fractal level while helping a group at a level lower than me.

GW2 is great for having players who help other players, and for example, down-leveling encourages that. The current Fractal set-up means that not only are people not getting anything for doing a lower level, but they also have just missed out on moving up. You fall behind a level each time, so there are disincentives to helping others.

It’s been a while, but when I went to learn cooking, I’m pretty sure the trainer warned me that it was a more expensive and inconvenient craft to level.

That said, in game, type in /wiki [name of ingredient], and you’ll be told exactly where to get it. Much like weaponsmiths have to go to particular areas to get the appropriate ore.

I found artificing to be the easiest and cheapest profession to level up. This was due to discovery and potions. There are so many types of potions, and while you have to buy water, that’s cheap. Make sure you haven’t been selling off other collectibles, such as JC and cooking mats, as those are used. As well as some ores and bars, I think.

Note: Almost all of the potions will need to be vendored, and are not worth selling on the TP. Potions is fast for leveling (combined with weapons), but will likely not return the most gold.

Also try putting in buy orders for the accessories, rather than buying at the listing price. You may have to wait longer, but if you’re finding the prices too expensive, it’s your best bet. Other than leveling JC.

Blue and a lot of the green ones can be bought for just over vendor prices, in a lot of cases. If you’re looking for rares or better, it will probably cost you.

If you finish up your personal story, you’ll get a better back piece than the white-quality one you get early on.

dybryd, if you’d prefer not to spend the time on normal WvW, you can always do the jumping puzzles on the maps. You can get 15 badges from each puzzle on each map every day. And do it on multiple characters.

I don’t know about everyone else, but I seem to get it most quickly from WvWvW. Also, make sure to do your daily quest every day.

I love the suggestion, and think it’d go a ways to making people realise that PvP and WvW are connected. That is, doing some WvW is not an unreasonable part of the monthly quest, as it directly affects your PvP experience. And that those who wish to play WvW are helping out those who prefer to do events and farm and such.

The possible downside is that Anet would have to deal with so much complaining every time somebody didn’t get 2 items from a gather, or if they thought drop rates had been nerfed as the increased MF didn’t give them guaranteed rare and exotic drops.

Also, on the single icon idea, it wouldn’t even need to give details, it would just say what was affected, and to see the WvW (B) window for details.

Well, for example, there’s at least one little hidden quest in Charr-land where you can get a piece of town gear. I can’t believe that that’s the only place like that. You may just have to talk to more characters and find hidden areas!

Don’t most (if not all) professions have an option to spec to protect against attacks that do more than x% damage to their total life pool?

Players are already barred from WvW winning benefits after transfers. I believe for the next two WvW resets.

Alongside this suggestion, I would like to suggest a partnered feature, where a person could set in their options to automatically decline duels. One of the more annoying parts of WoW, for example, were people constantly sending duel requests, even if you declined.

Were that to be implemented, then I agree, there doesn’t need to be a limit to where duels take place. Other than not in dungeons, and perhaps not in WvW, so as to lessen confusion.

As long as it were something that were not on by default, or very easy to figure how to turn off, this could be good. (And not identifying the player by mousing over a dot, so they don’t get bothered.)

Do you mean like the elementalist lightning strike to targeted enemy when switch to Air, for example?

Sigil of Force adds percentage damage, and there are similar ones for different types of monsters. Only Sigil of Perception increases crit % (precision).

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sigil

You can’t change realms whenever you feel like it. Only once a week. Meaning once once before WvWvW resets.

A genuine, curious question. What, within the bounds of GW2, would be challenging and a lot of effort, and not require much time? Such that a very small percentage of players would end up with legendaries? Because legendaries really shouldn’t be common, they need to be special. Something that sets one apart from the masses. Otherwise it really wouldn’t be legendary.

For those who feel that legendaries need to be achievable by everybody, what if something else cool were added that needed a lot of time, resources, gold, and luck? Is it considered unreasonable to have something special and very rare that is not achievable by the lowest, or even average common denominator?

I’m very interested in the first question, in part because extra challenges are fun, and it feels good to achieve something that not many can. Not just because of the end result of the legendary itself.

As for comparing the difficulty of obtaining a legendary before to now, well, that’s akin to saying “I don’t have it, and therefore nobody else should be allowed to have it,” or the same applied in an opposite way, where someone else has it, therefore you are entitled to have it in exactly the same terms. The issue, as I see it is that ignoring those who already have them, what are the barriers now (not relatively, but absolutely) to getting an legendary, and if it’s not obtainable for anyone to get one any more, how can the situation be improved without destroying the challenges available in game, without removing the TP, and without making legendaries something that are commonly seen?

Edited to add: Related to this, curious as to which of the following scenarios that players would accept more, based on a premise that a particular object is meant to stay very rare:
- getting the object takes a lot of time, where that includes getting your gold, however you do that
- getting the object is based on challenges, where there is a possibility that if your skill isn’t quite at the level required, you may have to accept that you may never, ever get it, no matter how much time you put into it
- getting the object is based entirely on luck, where the completed object is a random drop, with an very low drop rate.

I’m fine with different crafting specialities not being able to make all exactly the same thing. It’s part of them being different crafts. Making something similar, but not quite the same.

I was there yesterday, got about the same drop rate as during the opening weekend. Unless Anet said something in patch notes, the rate should be unchanged. Even a long string of bad luck doesn’t mean that you won’t do better later!

It’s not much, but the official wiki has some history, and some links at the bottom to a little more about them.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Asura

There’s also http://www.gw2armorgallery.com/

I think it’s around level 77 for the personal story. Somewhere around there, anyway.

The use of the word “kitten” as a replacement in these forums is one of the amusing pros I use as an example when convincing friends to play the game.

jazzllanna, you were likely told to do the jumping puzzles every day in WvW because of the badges, not necessarily the loot.

Or fewer people are identifying the dyes they get as drops, because of the prices.

No. But you will be able to get gem cards in the future. Another alternative is to go to the drug store, buy one of those pre-paid credit cards (they come in various denominations, possibly as low as $10 or $20). Register it online, and use it to purchase the gems.

https://en.support.guildwars2.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/9175/~/guild-wars-2-gems

Can I purchase gems for someone else?

At the present time, you can purchase Guild Wars 2 gems only for your own account. When you make a purchase through our in-game store, the gems will be placed on your account and you can access them through the Black Lion Trading Company interface. In the future, however, you will be able to purchase Gem Cards through our retail partners and then can give the card to someone else as a gift.

Keep in mind too, even if you had a bunch of Black Lion Salvage Kits, it’d be silly to use them for everything. While I don’t have huge amounts of gold in game, I’m not hurting for it either. Yet basic kits are adequate for whites, blues, and greens. Unless a rune in them is really worth a lot of gold. Even for rares above level 68 and exotics, master kits give you a good chance of getting your runes back, and decent chance with salvage mats.

The fact that by dumb luck, I got some kits, doesn’t mean that it’s an entitlement. If it’s really that important to have 100% chance of salvaging a rune, and having better chances of rare salvage mats, spend some gold. Drops are random chances. Nobody has a “right” to get them as drops. Not me, not anybody else. Map completion gives you a better chance, but is no guarantee.

They are not “pay to win” unless spending gold in game is “pay to win.” (If that is your view, what you need is a game with no vendors, no auction type house, and no ability to trade with others.)

Gems are the equivalent of a variable amount of gold, but with a choice to buy them for RL cash. And as Eyelusion says, you also have a chance to get the kits as a drop (indirectly through key drops) or for map completion. I’ve gotten 4 of those kits without spending cash or gold, and that’s a random chance. If I wanted them badly, much like spending more for the next highest level of salvage kit, I could spend still more gold to attain the Black Lion salvage kit.

Mine are a bright blue, I think it was called River. It’s visibly very blue even during the day. Maybe it’s to do with eye size?

For those citing studies about when men and women want in their male and female video game characters, and saying both want “pretty” female characters, could you provide sources? I’m interested in whether age was taken into account, and what age ranges the study subjects were in.

Because I’ve also heard citations for studies (which I need to also track down) where women into their 30s and up don’t necessarily consider tiny waist to be important in attractiveness, as long as there’s a differential in proportions.

From anecdotal experience, most people who I know are playing are in their 30s and 40s, and the women playing this or other games prefer fantasy women characters who are on the wider side (whether they are in RL or not), and give the impression that they can really kick kitten Most of us are to varying degrees, disgusted that boots with heels are even an option offered for barbarian giants who run around and can fight anything. Attractive is nice, but for a fantasy giant warrior, that can include more scarring. Since one of the conversations you hear around Hoelbrak is between two male Norn talking, and one is concerned that if he fights with his wife, she might beat him up, the extent of sexual dimorphism seems somewhat ridiculous. They’re a different species, they’re not human, but the idea that men need that mass of muscle and women of the same species have at their most muscular and biggest, so much less, is incredibly inconsistent. If it’s a concern that a huge muscular man thinks it’s a real option that his wife would beat the crap out of him.

It’s about choice. If someone wants their super skinny human, but taller, the option is there. Why not have options for more variation into plainness and scarring, and more variety in builds? As pointed out, it’s a fantasy game. To be more immersed into fantasy, some people would like to build a character that fits a fighting woman mental view without stretching the imagination to breaking.

Perhaps an explicit reminder pop-up or hint when an account is started, saying that any terms not understood in a tooltip should be checked with /wiki? I appreciate finding things out myself, and not being hand-held through everything, but a one-time reminder like that shouldn’t bother even the hardest-core DIYers. And since it was apparently a new addition, another hint indicator about what the term unique means in the context of the game. (But they don’t have that for soulbound, or the types of soulbound, and account-bound. So it seems inconsistent. How do new players figure out what that means? I’d assumed people look up unfamiliar terms.)

I can understand why ANet would think they’d shouldn’t have to say more, but I’ve seen several people in this and other games think that “unique” isn’t meant quite so literally when it comes to a video game, especially if it looks like you can acquire more than one. And simply not allowing you to have more than one in your bags causes its own set of problems, as seen with WoW needing to move from “unique” to “unique-equipped” over time, for example.

I’ve noticed a trend in other platforms and social media, too, of people claiming they were trolling after they’re called out as being wrong. Logun and others have shown their class, by continuing to be so polite and helpful in the face of rudeness.

Practically speaking, I imagine that restricting how many gems could be bought with gold, without restricting how many could be bought with RL money at the same time, would be one of the worst PR things that ANet could do. Right now, when people claim that they are “forced” to spend real money, there’s always the counter that you can get gems with gold. Restricting amounts actually does force people to spend RL money, particularly if they want to get a deluxe game upgrade, and a few other big price items in a month. Imagine getting the game upgrade, and then finding out that you’d either have to wait a full month to get a makeover kit, or have to spend money for it. You’d get a lot of annoyed people.

Think of those of us who have to read through all the complaints! :p

I was actually really surprised that storage for the passion fruit, karka shells, and passion flowers wasn’t added with the mini-expansion. I’m okay with having to deal with my storage myself if I want to gather up holiday materials, but for permanent addition of crafting materials to the game, space should be added to the collection tab.

AlexLCC, you may want to check the crafting section of the official wiki.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Crafting

Thank you, nottsgman!

Gah. I’d not joined a second guild in this game before, so went to the character I was going to bring over, stood down from current guild, left guild, and joined The Legion of Honour. And soon realised that I’d accidentally left my main guild on all characters. So panicked, and left this guild too. Which I didn’t mean to do.