Guild Wars 2

I know everyone will say, “but I want to get where I want to go right now. I don’t want to take part in the freakin’ gate virus.” For those who think like that you can use your Anti-Gatevirus Vaccine and it the virus will never affect you, but you won’t be able to participate in the insanity.

The Setup
The asura gates have been infected with a virus. They mostly work like normal, but until there is a cure the gates have a chance to whisk you off to an insane world. This world is an instance where the laws of physics do not work correctly. You’re skills become mixed up between all professions, land may be up and sky down, you may have to swim through the air, weapons may switch skills sets, spawns are never the same, animals may have strange powers, (remember the killer bunny and powerful rats). Know one could predict what might happen.

Go or No Go
If you can recognize that you did not arrive at the location you were looking for you can turn around and walk back through and leave the madness. Or you could choose to adventure through the madness and look for an insane reward when you fight your way to your intended destination.

A Break from Reality
This is a world trapped somewhere between gates. Nothing is every the same and everything is wrong. Sometimes it’s good to get a break from reality, even if it is only virtual reality. Hmmm. Maybe after all the gates are fixed, there is still one gate left that is quarantined and could not be shut down. It may still take you to the mad world or deposit you nearly anywhere. It is always a risk at best. It is marked with warnings telling travelers that entering the gate could cause them to go insane. Many adventurers know the risk and still take the chance, because of the possible rewards, or maybe they are already insane.

Would you risk the rewards?
Are you crazy enough to try something where every time you would have to relearn everything you know on the fly to survive? What would an adventure through the madness have to offer? What could happen in this world? Who is really behind this?

Maybe it could be disabled only in towns.

I was very satisfied when they allowed previews on the Trading Post it was very much needed. Kudos for that! I have a feeling that additional changes to dye mode might show up at some point, but if or when or what the change may be is impossible to determine. It would be cool to get some type of nod acknowledging a suggestion is being considered, but there is a lot of stuff for them to do and they seem to get to things eventually. Thanks for paying attention to Anet. I look forward to seeing how you improve the dye system.

I know this is a seemingly trivial matter, but I would spend more time and have more fun colorizing my characters if the dye mode were even this much more user friendly

This is a simple way to live up to the “we want the game to be fun” mantra.

What’d ya say “A”?

In dye mode, the current method requires clicking to preview the color, then back to the palette if you don’t like it on a specific section, then back and forth and back and forth.

My suggestion is to make the color preview happen on “rollover” so that you can preview the color on any section first and then click to keep.

I think it would be more intuitive and user friendly.

Thanks guys for the additional links and information. Very helpful.

Even though there are threads devoted to this topic, I thought that a reminder in a general forum couldn’t hurt either. I know that I don’t always go looking for that info regularly and sometimes get complacent myself. I had noticed over the past few weeks that I was getting increased phishing attempts and thought that I would share that as a heads up.

I will edit the post and remove the links. Thanks for the suggestion.

I don’t know if this is happening to others, but I have been getting more and more emails phishing for my GW2 account info. Just wanted to share this to show what they look like.

Example one is kind of obvious. The sending email was, “ArenaNet <support@guildwar2.com>” with a subject line that reads, “Guild Waes 2 Account Support”. Notice the poor grammar in the message marked with arrows.

Example two looks very official. It’s hard to tell this is a phish. (My account however has not be suspended for any reason. I am too conscious about just having fun and playing the game. I don’t buy any third party stuff and am actually quite boring, unless they think I’m spamming by sending my friends items, like Onmonberry Ghosts and Bars through in-game mail.) Anyway, it came from the same sending email as the previous one, “ArenaNet <support@guildwar2.com>” with a subject line that reads, “GuildWars2 Account Will Be Shut Down”. There are some grammar issues here marked with arrows.

Please note that both of these have a link for you to click on. I did not click these and deleted the messages.

There are other attempts happening too. Please don’t get caught off guard. Put vigilance in your skill bar.

I hope Anet would verify that these are phishing attempts. It would be nice to know for certain and could help us avoid confusion. Even though I am aware and do not provide my account information to anyone else, it is still disconcerting to get these types of emails. Some of them make me do a double take.

Thanks. I hope this is helpful.

tolunart: Sounds like the thief could be your main.

Thx Grok. Cool! I did not know about that. Time to make some now I guess.

Already did that. What’s your main? Any story behind it?

Name:
Ghostly Farmboy – Necromancer
This was a carry over name from the original Guild Wars based on the Ghostly NPC’s where the character was an alt. I created it there as a farmer but in gw it was a ritualist using spirits.

The Look:
I tried to mimic my character’s look after the name Ghostly. I wanted to mimic the Ghostly npc look, but I wasn’t able to get the greenish thing to work right. I had to just go with as white a character as possible. White hair, wraith mask leaving the face normal but makes the character have white eyes with no pupils. I use the heritage light armor from the Hall of Monuments making the character look like it is from the past adding to the ghostly appearance. I am only using the white dye and haven’t tried the celestial yet. It would be awesome if there was a tonic that would give transparency to a character’s appearance. I would probably horde as many of those as I could.

Adventure:
In Guild Wars 2, Farmboy was my first character and went through Beta into the game. I enjoy the versatility of the Necromancer in PVE and don’t play much in PVP other than hanging out in the battlegrounds now and then. I mostly use a minion build when soloing to take advantage of the alternate target fodder and use the Signet of the Locust for it’s constant speed buff. In dungeons I switch over to a condition build and usually keep the Flesh Golem.

Most everyone in my guild now has a ghostly necro alt trying to mimic that look just for fun. It is funny to see a bunch of ghostly looking necros running across the terrain with a millions minions trailing along. It’s a ghostly army. Don’t know why the Ascalonians ghosts still attack us though.

Thanks to everyone who has shared their personal playing styles. I have really enjoyed reading them. I hope you keep enjoying the game in your own personal style. Please add more styles and comments. Thanks to everyone who is finding this thread to be a refreshing pause on the highway of monsters and mayhem.

More possibilities:

Methodical Item Tracker Farmer
I keep track of everything in the Black Lion Trading Company. How much is mithril going for today? What should I farm next? Karka Shells, Ghost Peppers? What’s hot, what’s not?

Dragon Slayer & Monster Slayer
If there is a dragon showing up anywhere that’s where you’ll find me. Trolls and Swamp monsters too. It doesn’t matter. I want to kill the biggest and baddest monsters out there. They give better loot right?

Dynamic Hero
I roam the world of Tyria looking for things I can do to help out those in need. From the Maelstrom to the Forge, from the jungles to the wastelands, I’ll be out the fighting for those who can’t help themselves. It also gets me some good loot too.

Add some more!

Ultimately, a game is still, just a game.
Nothing more nothing less.
Unless its not.
In which case,
If its not a game,
Then it isn’t.
This brings us
To only one conclusion.
Ultimately, a game is still, just a game.

%^#}%@@$

It has been interesting to read, since i started this thread, how everyone’s different personalities of gaming fall into somewhat similar categories. I haven’t seen anyone who is really a Greedy Auction Banker or a The Consummate Crafter. Are there some others out there who live life as The Great Gatherer or who make little white creatures go poof as in The Mighty Wanna Be Warrior or even The Underwater Custom type who loves fighting like aqua man.

I decided that I am also a solo social gamer. I wander around doing solo things while blabbing with friends on Skype.

Enjoying the sights. I think that may be one of the reason I like exploring. I love the landscapes.

I enjoy the game, however, my real life will not allow me to play the game constantly. I can only get in the game for few hours a week. Because of this I cannot get through the achievements in the time allowed or be available for the one time mega events. This is very frustrating.

I tried to complete Frost and Flame content and was thwarted at the end by a bug in the dungeon that kicked out my party on the second attempt after we defeated the insane boss fight. We couldn’t destroy the facility after that and therefore did not get credit. Spending a couple of hours playing the game was fun, but I didn’t have time to try it again. After a few days later when I came back to try again it was gone. I only had a couple of achievements left. The time was much too short for me.

Because of this, I have no interest in trying to play this new content. I don’t want to start something that I cannot finish, due to the deadline oriented content. I like the game, I play when I can and will keep playing, but I also feel cheated out of the new content experience because of this.

I’m just trying to get that pointy thing out of my back.

What kind of gamer are you?
Not everyone is obsessive, right?

Some possibilities could be:

Speed Demon:
I finish all content as quickly as I can then I start watching for more content determined to be the first to finish. Once complete I can tell other players what to expect ahead. I revel in my knowledge of the game and love to share it.

Explorer: I locate every inch of the map and find every crevasse, nook and cranny. If something is missing I become obsessed until I find it. I don’t care how much it costs. I am only satisfied when everything and I mean everything is located. The exploring extends to dungeons, crafting and achievements too.

Power-monger:
My goal is to gain the best gear in the game, armor, weapons and whatever I need to crush every opponent and control everything. If I don’t have the absolute best stuff out there I find a way to get it no matter what.

Add some more.

Part of my interest is in what percentage of and how many types might exist. I’m sure we must fall into categories that Anet has somewhere, more than just PVP-PVE. I am curious how they decide to make content for the different types and if they use percentages. Maybe a poll would be better. It would still be interesting to see where each person places themselves if honest about it.

I am: Explorer.

Not much different than dredge or scritt or centaurs. At least they wouldn’t just being going over to knock on the door.

Would you try for some enemy kills, cause no one’s inside the walls now. Is that PVE?

Not often, just once in a blue moon would be enough. Shake things up. Can’t just stand there and click the button on your treb over and over. That’s a fun pvp thing to do.

What would happen in WvW if there was a huge threat that showed up every now and forced all factions to deal with it.

For lack of a better idea right now, let’s say it was in Eternal Battlegrounds and was a huge insect swarm that came up from underground and ran everyone out of their comfy castles, then wandered around till they were all destroyed.

Hmmm. The best laid plans . . .

Rawstrawberry …

It wouldn’t be so bad, not being able to complete the achievements because I can’t put the time in, but when I am unable to because of bugs and errors, that’s different. Our entire group spent a lot of time doing the molten dungeon only to have it kick us all after we finally killed the bosses. No rewards either. Then the date thing, I took time to plan the whole achievement cycle to fit within my schedule based on the date they gave us. I was doing well and going to be done early, then the dungeon issue and the wrong date cut me short of redoing it. More loss of rewards. I was almost done. Just give us a way to re-coop our time investment. That’s all I ask.

I was defeated in Victory.

I decided to start working on the Living Story achievements from the start. Now I am not a player who can spend lots of time on the game every day. I can get on an play a couple nights a week at the most due to other obligations. Travel, work etc. Sometimes I am able to get a weekend and that is fun. I really enjoy the game, but I have to plan out my time carefully to reach my personal goals.

I only had to complete the Molten facility dungeon the follow ups to get earn all the achievements for the Flame and Frost. I had a group together before and we lost again the bosses during our first run. Last week we were able to do another run and I knew I would not be able to get back to it again so we worked carefully to make sure we were ready. We went through the dungeon to the Bosses very nicely and succeeded in defeating them this time. Then the game kicked us all out at the end of the boss fight and didn’t let us complete the dungeon. I groaned. I was not only not going to get the rewards for the dungeon, but I was not going to be able to return to the game in time to do it again. I was also going to miss the achievements.

I’m thinking there must be a better way to allow those of us who can’t be in the game 24/7 to be able to complete these types of achievements. Otherwise I am going to be so frustrated with the game that I won’t even try to work on them. This time a bug stopped me. If I hadn’t been able to get past that fight I wouldn’t have a problem. I would have just failed. A bug stopped my progress and even though I won the fight I lost. Defeated in Victory.

How about a server that lets you play around in the past for a couple of months? You guys have better brains than me, can you figure something out? This is not the first time it has happened or I wouldn’t even write about it. This is just the most recent. I know, start a campaign that lets us defeat all the bugs.

What if there was a tag, flag or dot or something that appeared whenever a dev viewed a posting, whether they commented or not. Just a simple sign that it had been seen. Needless to say some would get mad that no one looked at their post and they didnt get a red star.

So maybe a marker to appease the masses: they all get a marker, eventually, and everyone is happy except the conspiracy theorists who belive no one looked at anything. Who cares if they didn’t actually look at it or not. The perceived value that it was looked at would work as good as the real thing, it happens all the time in real life. But that would be deceptive.

I think it’s fine the way it is. As most could admit, myself included, it is encouraging to see responses from time to time, though, personally, I have never received one on any of my suggestions. That is ok though, I have enjoyed the community responses, whether flaming or supportive.

Thank you both for responding. My thinking in this direction was to have an instance which you or a team, dungeon like I guess, where nothing is ever the same. I’m just getting tired of repeating events after finishing the game.

With regard to lore, this could become a realm of chaos. Where even typical physics could be even be skewed. In another similar post I started a while back, one person suggested that an asuran krewe could be taking chaos readings in an effort to understand what is taking place. Maybe the mad king created the realm of chaos for some reason.

Anyway, it could be a break from the same old routine, especially when you wanted to do something different. It would be there as something different every day. I’d be there fighting a lot, just to fight in a new map every day. It would be its own reward for me.

I was wondering if it were possible to have a map area that would randomly generate spawn points, creature types, creature levels and even terrain? Is that even possible. I would love to walk into an area where everything is always different every time you enter.

Would it be a good idea to offer a simple option to customize the basic weapon looks while crafting other than choosing a Berserker Insignia for instance. What if when you have crafted an item, say a sword, and it gave you a screen similar to transmuting where you have three blades, three handles and three hilts to choose from, for looks only of course. You could do this with different weapons, maybe even armor too.

If you were making a Carrion staff there would be three Carrion items options for the head, the handle and the wrapping. Nothing would change the items stats, but you could be able to mix and match and have a number of possibilities.

It would be better than having to tell your customers, “I’m sorry sir, but I only know how to make it just this one way. No, I can’t make the wrap look different, I don’t know how. I’m sorry sir, but you can have it in any color you want as long as it is gray.”

Ah, the old days of looking for axe hafts and sword hilts. To be able to do that again.

Trade xp for Karma or other things or many things?

But what changed for me was that the game became repetitive and there was no longer a sense of anxiousness about entering a new area, cause I’d already done it, basic maps, fractals, wvw, dynamic events, map completion, dungeons, etc.

Exploring new areas when they open new map conten helps. It gives you back the sense of the new, but you explore once and now it’s the same again. Creatures are always in the same place, they are always the same size, they do the same thing they did the first time. I would like to have at least one good sized map that is random, so that I won’t know what I’ll find there. It would feel new every time I entered.

Maybe they can’t do it because of technical reasons, but someone will do it soon, I hope it’s done in GW2. I started a thread Realm of Chaos, but only a few seem interested. I think they are missing why the game seems to change so much. For me it is the loss of seeing anything new. How many times will you beat up on the Giant Wasp, Jormag, or any of the repeating events before you get bored. It becomes extremely repetitive.

I like using skills, facing down creatires and exploring the new. I dont care about having the biggest stick, its what I can do with it that is the most fun. One random map area could help that tremendously, one area where everything is new every time.

Do you know the feeling of going into a map for the first time and not knowing what to expect? It gets your adrenaline up, makes you pay attention to what is going on and forces you to play from instinct.

Add a map region, an instance or something, where the creatures, their spawn point, their levels and many other things about the map would be vastly different every time a group entered. Even the terrain could be different if you wanted, or maybe i find my character swimming in air having to use underwater skills and only able to walk under water and use ground skills.

Chaos is what I would like to see. I opened a topic on this in suggestions format call A Random Map: Realm of Chaos. I hope someone sees it and finds it interesting enough to think about.

I wouldn’t care if there were no rewards or point to it myself. I would just like to have a place that is different every time I go.

Maybe it’s not possible with hardware and software to date, but I would love someone to tell me why it can’t be done, because sometime soon in the future someone will make this happen. It will change everything.

At a point like that, maybe it could make a random choice after a countdown.

I would like to see them add a random map where creatures, creature levels, spawn points and many other things happen in a random way where you don’t know what to expect. I started a thread recently about a Realm of Chaos, but only a couple of people responded. But that is what I would like to see. Break the monotony!

There have been a lot of talk about changes to the dye system. It seems there are a lot of folks interested in this. I would like to keep the topic open for a little longer.

Here are some options that were bouncing around in my head and I’m glad to get them out:

Dye Versions: The small bottle is soulbound, while the large bottle is account bound and much rarer?

or

Number of Uses: This dye has three uses which would mean that it can be soul bound to three characters or more or less, variable?

or

Dye Upgrades: When double clicking to apply it might ask if you want to make it account bound. At that point one could choose to bind it to your account for an amount Laurels or Karma or something?

or

add more suggestions:

Create a paintball arena where dyes are the ammunition for your paintball gun.

An in game app that allows you to create graphetti on walls using your newly acquired spray can which just happens to need dyes to work.

Balloon dye bombs can now be crafted by the one of the professions.

What else?

I guess one could start collecting the common ones and continue to spend time, which we have way too much of anyway, throwing them into the forge. Hours and hours of additional fun.

How about this. Anet could create some special items, ala a spray can or gun, a paint ball gun or paint balloon bombs, whereby we could use the dyes as ammo and to make graphetti on walls and walkways, have paintball fights or toss paint bombs on passers by from heights in the cities!

I’ll bet common dyes might be a little more popular then.

I was hoping that more players would have an interest in doing a map that changed every time you entered it. Personally I’m getting tired of, for instance, gather apples, kill spiders, kill the boss, wait, gather apples, kill spiders, kill boss, gather apples, kill spiders, kill boss, on and on…

If there was one map that randomized even just the types of creatures and where they spawned it would alleviate the monotony of the repetition.

There are several similar threads out there about this. Where to post?

Making dyes account bound would mean that the common dyes would become junk. Every character in you account would have them in no time.

Something I might have an interest in would be to have an upgrade system for the most expensive and rarer dyes. When you double click to apply it could give you an option to make it account bound for a certain amont of laurels or karma or something like that. Maybe you could alternatively by a certain number of character uses even, like for some many laurels you can have two uses.

Some possible options.

Two dye versions: The small bottle is soulbound, while the large bottle is account bound and much rarer.

Uses: This dye has three uses which would mean that it can be soul bound to three characters.

Upgrade: When double clicking to apply it might ask if you want to make it account bound. At that point one could choose to bind it to your account for an amount Laurels or Karma or something.

Imagine if you will, a realm of chaos. A map the size of Kessex Hillls (or larger or smaller if you must) where nothing ever spawns in the same place. Where creatures are changing types and sizes every time you visit. A place where even the land and sea are in constant flux. Imagine if you will a world where you can fight and explore to your hearts content and never find repetition. For every traveler to this realm will never cease to be amazed at the possibilities. It may only be an instance in time (if it must be) but if you dare to create it you will find that many adventurers will be found fighting and exploring the Realm of Chaos in the Guild Wars 2 zone!

I could see this working as a way to offer a new place for explorers which would seem like fresh content without the need to create something new every time. It creates itself in a manner of speaking. Personally, I would enjoy something like this without additional rewards after playing repetitive events over and over. Just getting to see something new each time would be a huge reward in itself.

But if there must be rewards another option might be exploring the entire map whether by stealth and avoidance or by clearing it or by completing some type of event like you suggested. I would welcome the chaos.

Surely this is possible.

Third. Can I third a motion? Uh. Me too. What they said.

I was thinking the other day, I know, yes it did hurt.

Do you know the feeling of going into a map for the first time and not knowing what to expect? It gets your adrenaline up, makes you pay attention to what is going on and forces you to play from instinct.

Anyway, I was wondering if there was a way to make a random map. The reason is that all the regular game maps cycle the same things over and over and over. Is there a way to have a map that would be random with regard to spawns and terrain where nothing is really the same anytime you entered?

Setup. Let’s say the Mad King set up a portal to, a Realm of Chaos, a map of randomness.

It wouldn’t matter if Harpy was flying under water or sharks were swimming in the air, in a Realm of Chaos it wouldn’t matter. It’s chaos and there doesn’t have to be a point. It would be one place in Guild Wars 2 that you would never know what to expect.

Extreme example: A group gathers and gets ready to go into the Realm of Chaos knowing that they have no idea what to expect. They are armed to the teeth and ready for anything. When then enter they find all white rabbits. In a random spawn it could happen, although not likely. The next day they enter and find that every creature is a champion Grawl, very unlikely even in chaos, but a possible spawn situation.

Most spawns would just be a random placement and creature type including random levels. . This would be fun to me, because I would enjoy just seeing what came up next. It would be a nice change of pace from repeating dungeons and events over and over.

I don’t know if if it would be possible serverwise, but I think I would enjoy at least one area that is never the same.

Just a thought. I’m going to get some pain medication now.

SOLVED (I must admit I was not as methodical as I thought I was prior to this post)

I started the most recent part of this post and have to agree with morphemass, even though I don’t understand why the explorer achievement would give me a completed value when it was not complete.

I also agree with FalconDance (the heart and poi was in the same map, but not together, I thought the same thing) and Jornophelanthas, that it seems the best method is to meticulously check each map. Thank you for your honest, helpful though humbling (ouch my ego) comments.

I found my two missing pieces, by doing the following. I went to each area from west to east and worked my way throught the zones. (I zoned in to a waypoint that was near a gate so I could get two with one jump when possible) I marked each zone off a list that I printed out to make sure I didn’t miss something, sucked it up and spent the silver, screen capped each cut screen (though I didn’t really need to, it was just to keep me focused) compared that with each of the zone map stats and moved through each area, city, wvw map, chantry of secrets, etc.

I found my two missing parts in Fireheart Rise.

(Please post where you found your final pieces to this puzzle if this post helped you. It would be nice to hear about more successes.)

Conclusion: This will work, but it takes a bit of silver and a little time, while saving the frustration of searching again and again. (Systematic/Methodical) But it did work for me.

I am still disappointed that my explorer achievement stats told me that I had completed the zones when I had not really done so.

Hang in there and you will get this!
Good Luck, fellow explorers!

I have a similar issue. I have completed all areas for achievement.

Krytan Explorer 175/175, Completed;
Orr Explorer 60/60, Completed;
Maguuma Explorer 166/166, Completed;
Shiverpeak Explorer 174/174, Completed;
Ascalon Explorer 176/176, Completed.
I have completed all WvW maps.
I have Chantry of Secrets POI.

The World Completion bar reads: 99%.
Hearts: 300/301
Waypoints: 507/507
POI: 718/719
Skills: 202/202
Vistas: 266/266

With all completed, there is still one heart and one poi that didn’t get counted.
I have spent a lot of silver checking the maps more than three times.

I’m very frustrated at this point. If anyone has additional helpful ideas I would check them out.

GW1 cartography was hard, but finding points that the map and achievements say I already have is kinda … impossible unless I go back and do every one of them again. Yikes.

Some friends and I created a set of Necromancer characters that use the Ghostly name like the Ghostly Hero of old. We wanted to create the look of those characters but I don’t think that is possible, so we colored the characters as white as possible hair, skin garb to make them seem as ghost like as possible. Now we have a Ghostly Necro Gang that is fun to run around with. Because we couldn’t create the exact look we wanted it got me thinking that it might be fun if there were some specialty dyes that would make a character semi-transparent or have some type of animated effect like leaving wispy ghost trails and such. Continuing with that thought it might be cool if there were specialty dyes that did different things like that just for fun especially with Halloween around the corner. Not like a tonic that changes your form, but something that created some special effect on your character. They could sell them in the gem store, they could be time limited or not. This could just be a ridiculously stupid idea, but it’s too late now. It’s out there.

I have been here twice today and there is nothing here to get a skill point from. This is the only point I have left to do on this map. Red, top center battlegrounds map, Borlis Pass world.

I like it. A neutral monster that shows up, maybe it is because someone triggered it unknowingly in a WvW dungeon some random event that irritated the thing, it shows up and bashes gates, walls, players, whatever, indiscriminately and forces all sides to fight together or it would continue to ravage the map. Maybe even the npc creatures would take off because they don’t want nothing to do with it while its there, or maybe they even join in to stop it. Nah. It’s too epic. The servers would crash and burn. They could do something with the dragons and allow WvW to affect the regular game world more in some huge world event. Hmm.

I am on that server also and the Skill Challenge: Defeat Centurion Micka Thickblood is nowhere to be seen.