Guild Wars 2

Vova.2640:

I am mostly a wvw players. I only ever so often do fractals or run a bit of SW……
So… can I buy gift of exploration for karma or something? ktnx.

I actually think you should be able to get it by playing WvW. But almost all the WvW players that have posted in here so far are so bitter, jaded or generally negative that they would rather suggest that I suffer, as they suffer. Instead of going: Sure! If you get that, maybe we can get Exploration in WvW.

(If you want to steal my suggestion for how, I’d make a reward track that unlocks PoIs, Vistas and WPs of each map per segment, with each zone being a track. Boom. You’re welcome.)

Also, look at the sheer amount of PvE stuff you can get in WvW via the reward tracks. ANet have set the precedent for everyone to get what they want, how they want, within reason. Let’s all play the stuff we actually like.

Sly.9518:

if you don’t like it tough, it’s how the game has been for 5 years,

I’m glad you said this, because it means I don’t feel the need to respond to your posts beyond this last one.

Luckily I’m appealing to more balanced sensibilities than some of this forums regulars.

Sly

Yeah PvE doesn’t have any exclusive items at all, none.

I didn’t say PvE doesn’t have exclusives – you’re inventing statements then arguing about them.

Also, you’re not fully understanding what it is I’m asking for. I’m asking for one ingredient to be available outwith WvW that isn’t walled off behind a massive, obtuse vendor time-gate. Something equivocal. It’s not a prestige item, after all, it’s just a small part of one.

You’re talking about items that are prestige items, demonstrating mastery (or at least successes) in their game modes. A Gift of Battle isn’t a prestige item that I can wear, equip – and even if I could, would it mean I was an proficient WvW player? No. It’s just a thing that goes into the mystic forge and, as you point out, because it’s so easy to get, doesn’t mean anything on its own.

Seera.5916:

And sometimes due to how things are prepared, they are unable to remove ingredients. Such as in a soup. Or anything that would need to be added well before the person who will eat it orders it.

True – but we both know that this particular request can be done with relative ease. So I’m not entirely sure what your point is.

Sly

If you want it faster than that then play the actual gamemode that is the intended path to acquire the GoB, which can be completed within 3-4 hrs if you optimize your time. Less than 8 if you don’t.

And what about all the PvE stuff that WvW players can get without doing PvE? By your logic, this should be removed? Or are we just ignoring that? Also, you haven’t read the multiple times where I state that I’ve already got the GoB before I even posted.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

-snip-

Don’t make these misunderstood assumptions about what I might or might not be open to, or conclusions that I can draw about the designers intent. My point that they’re irrelevant stands because of the position the request comes from.

As a gamer who appreciates the craft behind the medium, I can infer much from the changes made to the Gift of Battle’s acquisition. It’s interesting on a number of levels. That’s one side. The customer side of me isn’t interested – they want what they want.

Imagine ANet is a chef and I’m a regular customer. I enjoy much of the menu, but not all. I sometimes try a specific expensive dish, but it has an ingredient I don’t like. I try it anyway, but I still don’t like that single ingredient. Next time around, I order the same thing, because the dish otherwise is great. But I request the ingredient not be included (or changed). The gastronomer in me might appreciate the chef’s intent – the ingredient might bring some acidity or spice or texture to the dish. That, however, isn’t as important to me as my enjoyment of the dish, so I ask that they change it.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Right, you’re asking for it to be free of WvW. You still haven’t addressed why you think ANet keeps changing the requirements so that WvW is required.

ANet’s intent isn’t wholly relevant. A lot has changed within GW2 (including the availability of a lot of PvE-only items that you couldn’t get just by playing WvW) in order to better cater to the customer. Intentions, demands and priorities shift and change.

This is just a reasonable request by a customer, ANet can take it or leave it. I wanted to add to an existing sentiment (this has been complained about before), which is the kind of thing ANet try to be aware of.

A couple of themes keep cropping up, let me address those quickly.

1. Work for it.

I’m not asking for it to be free, I’m asking for it to be possible in a game mode I like. That it should require effort/time/etc. is a given, no matter the specific mode.

2. WvW players have to do PvE stuff

If they have the same problems with PvE as I have with WvW, then surely it is in their interests that this change happens while also encouraging continued inclusiveness of PvE-centric rewards into WvW. I think some of the people arguing for the Gift of Battle to stay WvW-only because of world completion are completely missing this. You, too, could play the game the way you like for the stuff you want.

While I appreciate (and I’m sure others stumbling over this might) the attempt to offer help – thanks – but it’s not what I’m asking for. For myself, I did it before I even posted this (it took me maybe 6 hours with boosters, following a zerg).

Doing PvE within WvW is sort of still the same thing really but it requires months for what could be done in 1-2 sessions .The vendor method seems arbitrarily punitive, as if to disincline anyone from doing it that way, or as compensation for someone going through all that for other things.

I ask for there to be another method because I don’t want to do it again if I ever need another, and on behalf of those who don’t want to play WvW. None of the alternatives listed are even remotely equivocal to the time/effort/gates required via the WvW track, which doesn’t seem fair.

I did manage it in a few hours (with the aid of boosters) pretty much by following a zerg. My experience was negative throughout. Putting aside taste, since I know some people actually like it, the game could barely run even on minimum settings in these zerg fights. Playing with an FPS normally in the hundreds with every maxed to having it go full slideshow on the ugliest mode actually gave me a headache.

Ayrilana.1396:

Reward track progress can be gained by doing many of the WvW dailies which require no enemy player interaction. Killing a dolyak, taking camps, and so forth are really no different than PvE dailies since you’re fighting NPC’s.

That’s helpful, but it’s at best a workaround (and at worst a frustating no-go).

Hesacon.8735

Can we make it so wvw players don’t have to do the far more tedious world completion?

I understand where you’re coming from with this, but that’s not relevant to this suggestion and you’d be better served (if you’re genuinely asking for that) posting that in its own thread or in the threads about that. This shouldn’t be another pointless debate about which mode is better/worse, either.

Maethor.2810

I don’t like it either – but it’s better than having to do full WvW map completion, which is what it used to take to obtain.
As inconvenient as it is for us PvE only folks, it’s less fair for the people that do PvP/WvW only having to do map completion for those Gifts.
So until they do something that makes both sides happy I don’t see this changing.

If my memory serves that was only relevant for overall map completion. The old method for acquiring the Gift of Battle was 500 Badges of Honor and nothing else.

Maethor.2810

As inconvenient as it is for us PvE only folks, it’s less fair for the people that do PvP/WvW only having to do map completion for those Gifts.
So until they do something that makes both sides happy I don’t see this changing.

That is the issue of fairness regarding the exclusivity of rewards from one mode to the other, which is the basis on which this suggestion is ultimately predicated. So, by all means, I’d welcome that (and an extension of that to other items/rewards/gear).

The only way to get a Gift of Battle (required for Legendary crafting) is via a WvW reward track.

Please change this, preferably by adding an additional method that can be done by playing exclusively PvE content; be that fractals, open world, dailies, achievements, crafting, dungeons, world bosses – whatever works.

The Reaper elite shout “Chilled to the Bone!”

The Warrior shout “Fear me!”

The Dragonhunter’s virtue Shield of Courage

Are pretty good examples, too.

Game of Bones.8975:

entomology

You mean “etymology”.

Entomology is the study of insects.

FogLeg.9354:

What do you expect? Each expansion HAS to sell for some reason, and one of the reasons is that the new elite specs it gives access to are simply better then anything you can achieve without the expansion. (…snip)

While a certain degree of cynicism can be excused, I don’t agree.

The new elite specs aren’t better because they’re selling HoT (although this is subjective, I do agre that they are, overall, better) or PoF but because of their place in time.

The original specs are operating in a framework that is at best obsolescent and at worst irrelevant. They carry numerous hangovers, appendixes and design decisions based on the game at (and before) launch. While most have enjoyed substantial changes in almost every respect, the core design of each and their range of approaches are constrained by respecting these legacies and ensuring that those who enjoy or rely on them can continue to do so.

The elite specs are built on the game as it is now. This imparts a wealth of relevance by virtue of the contemporary concerns the designers are armed with when contemplating the game as it is today. All this explains why they’re better; they’re built atop the mistakes (corrected or discarded) and successes (elaborated on and shared) of the core specs.

Carried in the vortex of a chickenado.

Fart of Norns
Shart of Corns
Tart of Scones

vicious.5683:

Why do you need swimsuits when we have buttcapes?

Why do you need buttcapes when you have crotchflaps?

Celestial Rooster glider, because BUKAWK

Hammer, Mace & Shield core guard. Eternal protection, situational reflect, aegis up the wazoo and heaps of stability, carried more pugs through fractals than I can count.

Can I just say how sorry I am. I know it’s tough losing friends. Have lost some too. His memory is important. Stuff like this makes me cherish this community.

Lady Draco.6294:

I’m hoping to see the angry chest and witch hat for a certain wizard i just created. (I know halloween just had both of them but I didnt get to buy them then)

What is everyone else watching for?

New hair styles and faces, it’s been a long time.

tolunart.2095:

There’s no game-related reason to make a Legendary weapon in the first place, it’s got the same stats as an exotic weapon that is much, much cheaper and easier to get.

Players can change the stats on a Legendary weapon freely, on the fly, without items, mystic forging or crafting. That’s a unique attribute.

Also they’re equal to ascended weapons, not exotics.

Daishi.6027:

loseridoit.2756:

mesmer?

all the good mesmer traits are unlocked really late in the game

^

^

Khailyn.6248:

I feel dagger necro or greatsword warrior either would fill what you are looking for. very high health pools and good burst damage.

Yep.

It confirms that all is right in the world to see a 500 AP Warrior running around Tyria, with 5 signets and a greatsword on his back.

Lucentfir.7430:

dace.8019:

ANet: Hey, let’s fix those under used aspects of Guardian.
Me: Wait, you’re going to do something about Spirit Weapons?
ANet: Haha, no.

Still, I liked the changes, generally, especially to virtues whose CDs have been ridiculously too high for 4 years.

if I recall recently from a Dev post they said they wanted to do something with Spirit Weapons but they don’t have the resources or the tech atm to do so?

Doesn’t cost that much to drag them to the recycle bin.

Really happy with these buffs. Personally, I’ve really enjoyed zerker Reaper with all the shouts and was already using everything that got buffed anyway, but it feels substantially more consistent now. Hooray!

ANet: Hey, let’s fix those under used aspects of Guardian.
Me: Wait, you’re going to do something about Spirit Weapons?
ANet: Haha, no.

Still, I liked the changes, generally, especially to virtues whose CDs have been ridiculously too high for 4 years.

Kalavier.1097:

Those banners are also brightly glowing even in the persons hand. IIRC, the banners ingame do not share that aspect.

In the image, you can see that all the banners that you can identify are Battle Standards (the Warrior Elite banner). It has a number of flashy effects when it is cast, but most prominent is a glowing image on the ground beneath it.

The in-game skill reasonably reflects the art. In both cases the banner falls from the sky and have a similarly coloured glow/light-effect. It also glows in the hand when picked up.

This video has a number of casts of the Battle Standard, depicting the effect from several angles and ranges, and when carried.

Coming in late, but regarding banners (and possibly Warriors & Magic) I always found this concept art interesting.

It’s fairly clear in showing summoned banners falling from skyward into waiting hands.

draxynnic.3719:

If you view the Scarlet’s War cinematic, the Pact Commander is shown as a female norn (I think) wearing scanty armour – I think it might be heavy, but I haven’t identified the specific pieces – it could also be light.

It’s the Norn cultural Heavy T3.

Vegeta.2563:

dace.8019:

If you have some FPS concerns prompting this question, you might consider a CPU upgrade, depending on what you have currently. Anything between an i5 3570k to the current i7 top tiers will run GW2 well. AMD or older CPUs may struggle.

Still can’t find a PC that can run at least 60 FPS max graphics during Frozen Shaman world boss

Problem is with the client, not the PC. But that’s splitting hairs, what you say is true for that and a bunch of other situations.

If you have some FPS concerns prompting this question, you might consider a CPU upgrade, depending on what you have currently. Anything between an i5 3570k to the current i7 top tiers will run GW2 well. AMD or older CPUs may struggle.

The maps you mention are well designed if you spend a lot of time there. That’s the line ANet are struggling to walk at the moment. They want you to spend a lot of time in these places mastering them – but for those not willing to invest that much time they become daunting labyrinths. Special mention goes out to the map in TD which needs work.

This was one of the more glaring omissions from the NPE feature patch. +1

If you hate doors you should absolutely get into WvW.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

the old system …only offered the appearance of greater diversity. It had fewer useful traits, more situations in which there was a must-have trait, and lots and lots of combination of traits/skills that made no sense.

This is why the new trait system is superior. Let the old one stay dead.

Lambent.6375:

(sidenote: why have all my ss been coming out blurry and low quality recently?)

You could try saving your screenshots as .bmp , you need to append a command line argument to your GW2 shortcut.

Right click the shortcut → Properties → Target Area → go to the end of the text in there, after the quotes, add a space, then put -bmp

eg. …\Guild Wars 2\Gw2.exe" -bmp

Here’s the wiki page about it.

John Smith.4610:

It’s me.

BRB equipping my Sword of Confirmation Bias and my Shield of Anecdotes.

Goodbye, you whimsical paradox o/

Endless Soul.5178:

On a side note, I never realized that the Legendary Archdiviner wears something resembling a Margonite Mask. Interesting.

He doesn’t. It’s (up until now) just a hood.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

dace.8019:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Kek is a carryover from WoW. The two opposing sides in that game can’t speak to each other. Kek is lol translated from hoarde as seen by alliance, iirc.

That is, a hoarde player will type lol in chat and an alliance player sees kek in the hordes player’s chat.

Which is, in turn, a nod to StarCraft’s Korean players, in which “kekeke” is a sort of “hahaha”.

Possibly, but I would assume it’s just a coincidence. I’ve never seen a sentence and its translation written out but I doubt Blizzard put a lot of effort in it. It’s more likely the consonants are shifted over by one (k instead of L) and the vowels are also shifted over by some number.

Maybe someone who plays WoW can comment if it’s shifted over or not?

They’re not switched over, or displaced. It’s a cipher.

The “kekeke” is only really used by S. Koreans in online games, and it started in SC. There’s a key in korean keyboards that generates “ke”, and it became a sort of mocking laugh, often directed toward western players.

When you realise “lol” translates into “kek” and you’re aware of the above, particularly the language divide but the well known expression of laughter, coupled with the knowledge that Blizzard pay very close attention to their communites/online and their games are full of these kind of references, it seems an unlikely coincidence.

That said I’m unaware of any statement from Blizzard on the matter.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Kek is a carryover from WoW. The two opposing sides in that game can’t speak to each other. Kek is lol translated from hoarde as seen by alliance, iirc.

That is, a hoarde player will type lol in chat and an alliance player sees kek in the hordes player’s chat.

Which is, in turn, a nod to StarCraft’s Korean players, in which “kekeke” is a sort of “hahaha”.

If anyone wants to test it themselves, attack a golem without targeting it, after the second hit on the hammer lands turn around and plant the symbol on the ground without hitting anything. Press 1 as soon as it’s planted but keep moving, you’ll place a second symbol down outside the first so that you can observe both ticking for their full duration.

Fix it!

Physics makes everything better.

Salvage them with the Ascended Salvage Kit . Even if you sell the mats it will give you more gold than it costs.

You can have 2 symbols of the same type running concurrently.

Tested it just now to be sure.

Shrimpkin.4851:

And yet again my poor Ranger is forgotten.

laughs

cries

:(

It rubs the neglect on the skin, or it gets the hose again.

Besides the sound, I thought the fact that it’s the same player animation for all 8 skills was a bit lazy.

https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.cdkeys.com

I’ve used them for a bunch of stuff (gem cards, expansions, games) and never had an issue.

What’s your PSU? It’s important to know before you can even contemplate a GPU.

A new GPU is the priority, however a good i5/i7 would be beneficial too.

Something to think about: Normally when choosing a GPU, you go for the most powerful one that you can afford*. However, Nvidia’s new Pascal series of GPUs will be out soon and AMD’s new series looks to be interesting as well, they represent a marked improvement over previous series’. It might be prudent to buy a mid-range GPU for the meantime, then upgrade that to one of the new series GPUs in the next couple of months.

*It’s a little more complicated than that. Unless you’re upgrading your whole system yearly, I believe it’s wisest to buy with a view to upgrading your GPU in ~2 years, so buying the top-range GPU can be an unnecessary money sink. You should also factor in your display (if you’re only using 1080p, you don’t need the top-of-the-range GPU either) as well.

Hope it’s something to address the prevalence of the taxi system players have adopted. It’s making the best of a flawed system but it has some unfortunate drawbacks.