Guild Wars 2

Axe just isn’t a PvP weapon. It is THE weapon for high level PvE though. To me, that puts axe in a good place.

My only suggestion for PvP would be to make axe #3 traited as a blast finisher so we had some access to stealth with it.

AoE is a limitation of the class I think by design. Condition damage builds are better at AoE than power though since your traps will hit harder and torch is crazy strong.

That said, sword and greatsword both cleave so if you just want to mix it up and tag mobs. That’s probably the way to go.

Oh ok. Yep I just verified. That will work! Thank you.

I was at the very first step of crafting Chuka and Champawat and I think I made an irrecoverable mistake? The NPC I spoke with gave me 2 Huntsman recipes, but the character I’m currently using is not a Huntsman. I double-clicked the recipes without realizing what they were.

Is my only option now to train this character in Huntsman too, or can I somehow reset the adventure so that I can obtain the recipes again and send them to the correct character? Is there a way to “transfer” my crafting knowledge from one character to another via a gem store item?

Any help appreciated :doh

I was so surprised to see this here! I also play Axe+Axe Beastmaster but with conditions. I have a weirdo build that uses Path of Scars to pull enemies into my traps then I use Whirling Defense to spread the conditions. This has so much synergy because the pull from Path of Scars activates Ancient Seeds and then as soon as the trap pops you automatically trigger the root and condition effect.

The bonus +250 Ferocity on the Honed Axes trait means you can wear Viper’s gear and still have Whirling Defense hit like a truck. It’s not optimal for raids, but it does work well with Vipers gear, so you’re just a trait/weapon swap away from our highest DPS build. I love the build for solo PvE.

Forgot to link the build

Jayne.9251:

NiloyBardhan.9170:

If WvW ever gets changed to megaserver style (Or EOTM style) I will kiss this gamemode goodbye (not that I have been doing WvW much lately anyway).

/Typo corrected

I’ll be right there with you. The whole idea of “team” will be destroyed.

Guilds will be upset when it takes five, six, seven different attempts to get entire raid on one map.

It’s just a bad idea.

I disagree. The problem that megaserver solves is finding a populated map at any time of day. The arguments you present here aren’t really problems with the megaserver, so much as problems with the way WvW is currently implemented.

The “team” aspect is only destroyed if no other permanent team is introduced to replace the server team. There are plenty of different factions that could be introduced that can replace servers. It doesn’t have to be the random red/green/blue from EotM either. You can have players choose to represent one of three factions instead of choosing a server when first creating an account. A megaserver on its own does not prevent the concept of a team or faction.

Also the map instance issue is not really a problem inherent to megaserver. In GW1 you could choose which instance of a particular map to join. This same sharding system is present in GW2, there just isn’t an interface for it. If ANet opened up an interface that allowed you to choose which map instance you wanted to play on, it would be much easier for guilds to get their whole team on a map.

I would embrace this change as I think empty maps hurt the game. Give me a megaserver and some other faction to represent, and I’d play a lot more WvW than I do now.

These are all such good suggestions. I agree that Staff #5 feels just a tick too short. It’s actually the same duration and cooldown as Whirling Defense, but because it looks and acts more like Guardian’s Wall of Reflection it feels like it should last that long too (10 seconds). 10 seconds is probably a bit long since Wall takes a utility slot, but I’d live to see what 8 seconds feels like or even 6.

I also agree on Staff #4. I like this skill in general, but it feels like it wants to be instant cast and the root is possibly bugged. I think it’s supposed to be 7 seconds of immobilize, but no player or mob that I remember has stayed rooted anywhere near that duration.

Staff is in an ok place. I think it needs just a bit of tuning to make it good.

Staff 2 is begging for something more, i.e. synergy with pet, condition application, or an added boon. I think fixing this alone would make it feel less “boring”.

Hey just a shout out. This is really good. I’ve been playing around since release trying to find a Druid build that could output good damage, while maintaining mobility, and good condi clear. This build does exactly that.

Oh wow thanks Rasimir for clearing that up! I wondered how the heck I managed to fill Forgotten lore level 1, but this explains that mystery too. I’m also with Red Queen that I’d prefer it if the default behavior was to fill up the next tier of your current track.

When you’ve filled up your XP bar for a specific mastery, what happens to any additional XP you earn before you train it? Is it lost?

I had a situation yesterday where gliding 2 was maxed out, but I didn’t realize it. I kept on doing events that would have netted XP, but because I hadn’t spent my mastery points to train it, there was nowhere for this XP to “go”. What happens in that situation?

If it was offered, would you give Druid and the CAF mechanics to Guardians in trade for the Dragonhunter specialization?

I kinda think I would if Dragonhunter traps were “Glyphs” and could be ground targeted. Just a thought.

I played Druid in PvE for about 3 hours on Friday, in Stronghold PvP for about 3 hours Saturday, and then another 2 hours on Sunday in Stronghold PvP.

My TLDR: is that while I didn’t mind the support role in general, Druid feels disjointed from the rest of the ranger class. It felt like playing two completely different classes at the same time.

There has been so much feedback in this thread about changes to traits and skills that I won’t go into great detail, but here are my highlights:

I agree – The CAF mechanic is odd in that you have to heal…in order to heal some more
I agree – Staff and CAF needed more variety in support options beyond just types of heals
I agree – Losing all of your CAF energy when leaving the form feels limiting
I agree – It’s too hard to build CAF energy when not using staff
I agree – Druid traits should provide more synergy with the pet and other ranger mechanics
I agree – That staff 4 needs a boost/longer duration
I agree – That staff 3 animation should end upon reaching the destination

Edit: Shiren’s post below could count as my own.

I would add that specifically in the first story instance, the mounted mordem guard took too much damage in his “nearly invulnerable” state. If I hadn’t played previous Beta weekends, I would probably not have noticed this state.

It was quite abrupt when Rytlock showed up to save us this BWE as we were doing fine and his appearance didn’t seem necessary. It was much more dramatic in previous BWEs when you really weren’t doing much damage to the guard and weren’t sure how you were going to kill him.

I’d vote for the Guard to be totally invulnerable until Rytlock shows up, but as it stands he at least should be much harder to kill while mounted.

I’m really enjoying this debate, lol. I would caution Laggo not to wade too far into personal attack territory (which you’ve been pretty good about so far, but there were a couple of close calls). SirMoogie you’ve done a nice job with your side.

I’m pretty divided. I do feel that “story mode” raids/dungeons could have potential, but recognize Laggo’s point about development resources. They are finite.

If I had to choose, I guess I’m in favor of epic story content introduced in raids. I’m not a “raider” nor have I ever been, but to me, it sort of cheapens a major boss encounter if it’s not dripping with narrative, and set at the highest difficulty levels.

I wonder about spectator mode? Maybe a raid could allow a few people to attach to it as spectators? This tech is already partially in the game with PvP. How would non-raiders feel about experiencing the story as part of the group, but not taking an active role in the fight?

That’s a pretty good catch if that is the case.

I thought the Druid overall was pretty cool. I really liked the 1200 yard mist teleport skill with the blast finisher. I thought the new Celestial Avatar mechanic was fine. Druid thematically fits the ranger class so even if the mechanic is different, I don’t see a problem with that.

My biggest concern is that Druid healing won’t have a role. I accept and understand that you may not want to choose Druid for soloing world content, but in PvP or Raids…if healing doesn’t play a big role there, then I’m not sure what else Druid brings.

In PvP it’d be nice, but do you want to sacrifice one person on a 5 man team to just do team support? I’m just not convinced yet that this will be the case.

So…either I guess I’d like to see Druid more diversified or to please explain a little more about how content is changing so that healing and mitigation will play a more active role.

Thanks!

origin.1496:

Mmmmm. Where’s their pet? Unless that hulking mass in the background is something, I spy no pet in their art.

Gahh. Druids will have pets. There’s really no question. There’s one here: https://youtu.be/IOUk2y0K2m8?t=2m38s

So many traits (i.e. not just Beastmastery) have utility for pets. So many weapon skills have bonuses for pets. So many utility skills rely on pets.

There will be pets! You’re just setting yourself up for disappointment if you don’t like the pet mechanic and think it will change in HoT.

Man, that proposed timeline had me in tears I was laughing so hard. Lol, the “Break!” after Engineer and the “Release!” after Druid. I’m still chuckling. Poor Druids

Seriously though, all of this waiting has at least shown me I am going to play Druid for better or worse. I was never this eager for any other specialization. I guess my heart is set on Druid so I’ll just have to make the most of whatever we get. Ya!

Chaba.5410:

gavyne, how is it possible for the game to promote the fights, increase the willingness of players to perform a long siege, without nerfing defense too much and turning into a ktrain?

One idea might be to automate the siege. This means players can choose to stay and defend the machines from other players (fights) or they can leave the machines and go seek fights elsewhere without giving up all progress.

I see Josh at the end discuss how he basically implemented this whole event on his own time as part of the marketing team just to try and add something new into WvW, and this is the reaction he gets.

I’m just really disappointed in the playerbase.

Any interface in-game for it?

This is my ultra casual roaming PVE build that feels most similar to me to LB/GS pre-patch:

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=VL;4wEFu-g2gDV-0;9-8b;1YZb;0238036147;9;1vhrTvhrTm-Fz0-gG;3HbH6IbI6JbJ62o-Gs1kW

Our signets are nice. They can cure conditions, make us invuln, and give us a rampage mechanic. Adding the Brutish Seals trait makes them even better by adding an extra 3 Might when activated.

If I use Mighty Roar on my stalker pet, pop all my signets, and swap pets to trigger Call of the Wild and Zephyr’s Speed, that’s 18 stacks of Might without much effort and you get 3 seconds of quickness on top of it. Most things don’t live long enough to get through that.

It’s an easy build to use, and puts out high consistent damage with some huge spikes. It’s also fairly survivable with LB #3, and the signet actives.

MDG does need a rework. It’s a silly trait atm. If you take Brutish Seals you get 3 stacks of might for 15 seconds.

If I’m at 50% health, I gain more by popping a couple of signets and getting 6 stacks of might instantly then I would slowly gaining 1 might per second. Plus I can use Quick Draw to boot? No question.

It’s a little disappointing that this trait gets introduced AFTER the big revamp where presumably things won’t be reworked for a while. I’d like to see a vid of a dev using this trait how they thought it should be used.

From a spectator point of view, I had more fun watching Stronghold than I have watching Conquest. The objective was more clear, and it was easier to tell what the “big” moments were, even without a knowledge of GW2 combat mechanics.

I don’t know if this makes Stronghold better, but I do think it’s good to have around.

cranked.3812:

Wanze.8410:

Spartyr.6795:

That’s pretty weak. There was no confirmation dialogue or anything indicating I was just about to ruin a unique currency and there was no way of going back.

Fractals were pretty fun and I don’t mind running them again, but still…

Start reading tooltips:

Double-click to convert to 15 Fractal Relics.

And why click “use” if you want to deposit it?

Seriously. This ^^

Any currency that is able to be deposited automatically goes into your wallet already, so why are you trying to double click it? I feel like this is a good example of why anet felt they needed to create the NPE. No one reads anything or understands simple game mechanics like account wallets.

This is an insulting reply. You act like all of these currencies and items are straightforward when they are anything but.

I’m also collecting Foxfire clusters. These stay in my bag and can’t be deposited even though I can tell almost no difference between them and other gems that go into my materials storage?

I also found a “Fractal Spoon” on this run. After trying to deposit this, I have to Google to find out this is part of something called Collections and I have to randomly go talk to an NPC just to get it out of my backpack? I mean really?

Also I see Fractal relics in my wallet. I’m thinking, “Ok these regular ones are in my wallet, I must be missing something with the Pristine ones. It’s not like Foxfires or the Spoon collection makes any sense. Let me just do a search in my materials just to check. Oh ok, you can’t search your materials. Well, good thing they’re organized so well. Oh well, now I see Quartz crystals and Charged Quartz crystals aren’t anywhere near each other? Yeah, ok maybe they aren’t well organized. Ok well maybe I missed something somewhere, I mean, these Pristine Fractal Relics should go somewhere, right?”

So I right-click and see an option I don’t see on any other item I have in my inventory – “use”. I think, ok I don’t know what this does, but maybe it stores these things somewhere, and then…poof! That’s it. No dialogue. No confirmation. Just gone with no way back.

Now I come here and have to listen to people defend this system? I mean really? How about we get some consistency between materials, currencies, collections, and random crap that gets stuck in your backpack.

That’s pretty weak. There was no confirmation dialogue or anything indicating I was just about to ruin a unique currency and there was no way of going back.

Fractals were pretty fun and I don’t mind running them again, but still…

I’m trying to create the Mawdrey backpiece and just finished my first fractal. I received a “Pristine Fractal Relic” as part of a bonus chest, which is required to make Mawdrey.

I was trying to figure out how to deposit this into my wallet or collection as I thought it was a currency of some kind and I accidentally converted it into 15 regular fractal relics?

Is there any way to change it back, or am I just stuck?

Thank you for all of these comments and offers! It was unexpected! I will add all of you who offered to my contacts list and maybe reach out this weekend.

Also, thanks for reminding me about the different Fractal levels. I forgot that probably the speed-runners stick to the higher tiers? I’m guessing if we stick to the lower levels, we should run into players similar to ourselves. I don’t mind taking a while, I just didn’t want to ruin anyone else’s fun.

Again, thanks!

Hi all my wife and I have been playing since release, but we haven’t ever done Fractals and have only ever run a couple of Story mode dungeons.

We’re trying to craft the Mawdrey back piece, but it requires Fractal relics (which I guess you have to run Fractals for?) Our gear, builds etc. are probably not “optimal”, but we do okay. Do you guys have any advice on how to find others like us to group with?

I’m trying to be considerate and not slow people down who are interested in “speed-runs” or whatever, but we do need to obtain the relics.

Ah ok. I didn’t see a chest, and might have already grabbed the coin. Thanks, I thought maybe it was something more.

As you’re leaving Uplands Oasis, just before you get to the vine bridge to cross over into the Unswept Uplands, if you make a right (Northwest corner), there is a wind crystal hidden inside of a bush.

Has anyone been able to figure out what this is for? I’ve been unable to really access anything using it, but ANet seems to place these very purposefully so I feel like there’s some reason for it being there.

Yeah that’s a good point. Do you know how far up the pipe filtering would have to happen for bandwidth to not be an issue?

Like if you filtered traffic at the gateway of the datacenter is that enough, or would the ISP need to be involved, or does it go all the way back to a major backbone provider?

This is really for fellow techies and not necessarily a help seeking topic. I’m just kind of brainstorming so if it’s in the wrong section I apologize, but it felt appropriate.

What if the game client had an optional input field for entering a secure token? The token is just a string, a random series of characters, and this token would be unique to a user and emailed to each user during a DDOS attack.

By default this field would not be required, but in the event of a large scale attack, it would be flagged on. A different server would handle all requests and check if this token exists, and do the database lookup to match the unique token to an active user account.

Any attempt to connect to the game that did not result in a token match would not even be handled by the auth server, those that did match get forwarded on.

You could even change the name of the input field occasionally when the client updates to make it harder to spoof, and limit the database lookups on your token server.

Anyone have any thoughts on if this would work?

I think Game of Thrones has ruined me. I just can’t get down with the whole perfect set of “good guys” fighting the universal “bad guys”. There’s good and bad in everyone.

At least in the original Destiny’s Edge it sounds like Logan may have betrayed his team and cost someone their life. This creates some realistic, tangible drama around the characters.

This new group is too perfect and not edgy enough. I also agree with the comment that it feels like you are not the hero at all. I’m barely involved except when Margery calls me “boss” every once in a while. For whatever reason, I don’t feel like when they say “boss” or “commander” or whatever that they’re talking about me. I feel like I’m listening to them refer to someone else…? Not sure how to fix it, but I’ve not felt this way in other games.

Gaiscioch will never leave SoR. If you’re seeing GSCH on other servers, they are guesting or a different guild.

notebene.3190:

Also keep in mind that ‘some’ days that “Boss Week: Here Be Dragons!” quest is ‘only’ if you participate in Teq, and some days it says “Teq or any world boss”.

So it’s possible when you were counting, you did, say ‘SB’ on a day that quest was a ‘Teq only’ and thought it had counted, but it didn’t that day.

That was probably it. With this achievement, there really isn’t a clue which part you’re stuck at.

I don’t do daily’s and don’t know much about them so that probably doesn’t help either

I’ve done all the Living world quests associated with it, but I’m suck at 8/9 for completion. It mentions doing dailies, but what dailies?

I read the “Hunt the Dragon” quest it says to participate in Tequatl or other world event, but I’ve killed Tequatl, Shatterer, and lost to Tequatl 3-4 times, and no completion…

Am I missing something to complete this event?

Hi there, the two video links appear to go to the same video. Was that intended?

What livestream? What time, where is it?

Crimson Riddles.3892:

Azure.8412:

Crimson Riddles.3892:

covenn.7165:

This needs to be locked already and we aren’t even 12 hours into the match. Week in and out with the same nonsense.

I think JQ/TC/SoR would be a nice fun weekly match up discussion.

Anything with SoR in it will kill the match up discussion. You can thank TW/IRON forum trolls for that one.

Just because you hate SoR doesn’t mean the SoR trolls are the only ones ruining the discussion. There are quite a fair few of BG trolls as well, like seen in the last few pages.

First off I don’t “hate” anyone on SoR or on this game.

The is just an observation that I’ve noticed the passed few weeks of being active on here. Sure there are a few BG trolls, but SoR takes gold when it comes to these official forums.

I would re-read these last three pages. BG isn’t a server it’s a cesspool.

I am a huge fan of watching PvP videos. I used to watch WoW arenas a lot, and loved spectator mode in TF2. I almost like watching streams and videos more than playing!

From a fan perspective, I thought it might be helpful to know that I I really don’t like watching the SPvP in GW2. I can’t understand the battles. The spell effects overwhelm the gameplay.

It’s hard to see when teams make good use of combo fields, or like what effect that even has on the match. From playing the game, I know there is a lot going on, but from a spectator point of view it’s just not interesting. It’s a chaotic frenzy.

When a rogue in WoW does a key blind on a target, it is very visible with a distinct animation. In GW2 when some performs a key blind, it looks like any other condition. I can’t even tell that a player missed in that scenario. Just too many subtle conditions with tiny icons, and flashy spell effects that kind of blend together.

I think for GW2 PvP to succeed on another level they will need to address this. If a fan can’t really learn or follow along, they aren’t going to watch, and without fan support there’s no positive word of mouth, and limited growth.

Esoteric.5490:

So, forum warriors, what if I told you all of the reasons that you love SoR are the same reasons that I love Blackgate, the same reasons I have been there since launch, and the same reasons that I and my guild come out to fight every day? What if I told you that we take donations from guildies in order to help guilds who can’t get all their players over? What if I told you that yes, we absolutely play more hours to offset our coverage because we care about handing off good maps and helping out our other time zones? What if I told you that this is a game and the character assassination of Blackgate is pretty old hat?

Come on guys, grow up a little. The week might be lost, it might not. You can hate Blackgate all you want, but at the end of the day we are just as resilient as you. We’ve been to Tier 4 and battled back. Guilds have moved here for our community and helped us rise through the ranks. How is that any different from your server? I understand the notion of trash talking opponents, but flat out wishing the death of the only servers that give you competition is pretty lame. Maybe we should make a god tier where you can run around in your maps all by yourself while JQ, BG, and DB enjoy a friendly, competitive match since you are so out of our league?

Let’s cut the crap here. There have been good fights, but the persistent chest thumping is pretty disgusting. Go ahead and try and hold me responsible for chest thumping. Go through my post history. You will find none. Maybe you could all follow my example and say, “good game, good fights, /salute” instead of posting about wanting to get +600 and having no comprehension of how unhealthy that really is for the game.

Well said. Chest beating on any side is poor form.

I think people just like drama, and the forum arguing provides that. Not everyone is this way.

pot.6805:

Doomdesire.9365:

In related news….

The “JQ BEAST” has awakened in order to prevent BG from taking first place. Coupled with the burnout by BG due to pushing hard over the weekend into monday, this resulted in nothing less of expected results and JQ establishing a large lead by tuesday evening.

In other news, anyone want to 1v1?

Since when is 10k a large lead in t1? I seem to recall JQ being ahead by 40k at the same time last week. I know SoR has never been in the position to even be a threat to JQ so you may not understand.

In conversation with JQ, still finds way to insult SoR.

Stay classy fella.

Mance.5640:

Welp, all we heard last week was how SoR was #1 this #1 that, won 90% of some time zone… Last night you did hold some ppt for a couple hours during NA prime though, good job holding off that SF yak assault but,

Myth busted.

With BG gaining a nice chunk of troops, and SoR NA’s performance it looks like JQ might finally be able to fight TC soon.

Or you know, you could man up off the gravy train, and drop to T2 to fight them right now.

Ljiona.9142:

I love how people think that when they follow 30-40 other people around, it isn’t a zerg. When someone else does it, holy zerg batman!

It’s not the size of the zerg that matters; it’s how you use it.

Raven Paradox.1860:

jojojoon.8607:

1) JQ, you guys have better coverage than us. We only have NA coverage. It’s not fair.
OCX and AFS , two large wvw guilds, transfer to SOR to add to an already strong off peak coverage (Most of SBI oceanic/asian guilds transferred to SOR).

2) JQ, you guys have a better SEA coverage than us. It’s not fair.
-On a Saturday, it was JQ zerg vs SOR zerg towards the end of SEA time zone. SOR zerg got wiped repeatedly.

3) JQ, you guys have FOO. FOO should not participate in the match this week. It’s not fair.
-uhhhh.. what?

There is a common theme I’ve noticed about Blackgate and JQ. Both know absolutely nothing of SoR.

Everytime I’ve ran with Fear/TW/Hire/Choo, I hardly see wipes, and I follow their commanders daily. I’ve wiped JQ a hell of a lot more times than I’ve seen any of SoR get wiped. So, I’d like to see some decent evidence of you wiping SoR zergs.

Secondly, I was on during the SEA timezone all of last night. We had a zerg of 20. We were map hopping to try to save stuff, but we were losing things left and right because JQ simply PvDoors, and queues up every map while SOR would have to quadrople the size of their online forces to fill up just one map. So, the whole “large guilds stacking on our server” is a flawed argument.

Third, as an NA player that works graveyard so I can play whenever I want on weekends, I’ve hardly ran into this FOO guild. Not entirely sure who they are, but I see a lot of people talk about them and I have a feeling they were the ones PvDooring last night.

All I know is JQ is an overly stacked server that “Wins” based on PvDoor and consistently runs even from zergs that are 1/3 the size of their zerg. If you actually had as much skill as you guys had talk, you’d actually go to a server where you need to compete against players rather than doors instead of hiding behind the masses.

Dang, it is true that JQ players are like Laker fans. Full of crap, big egos, know nothing about the game, and don’t know the difference between an actual win and a dishonorable one.

Tell us how you really feel, lol.

tertle.4621:

This is not looking good for us. Congrats to those in sor/bg who just finished world completion!

What a cool screenshot! That’s what T1 should be about!

Oresh.4729:

Zen.8497:

Darkjoy.3092:

I will be patiently waiting for SOR to make a run for 1st. Good luck!

We always do! We also know that wishful thinking is one thing, and reality another…

didnt sor claim they play for the fight and not for the win? such contradiction in this thread with bg now claiming they have been the underdog since they came back in t1…

We each make our own realities.