Guild Wars 2

I’m glad this thread is here. To me, exploiting is using third party programs to get an advantage over other players (speed hacking, etc.), not simply using what has been presented to me by the developers.

Unfortunately, in this game, something that I may think is a clever tactic to easily kill a boss, a shortcut to be found in a dungeon that allows you to complete it more efficiently, or craft something that nets a decent amount of money before the market adjusts can, and has, been considered exploiting.

An example of this would be the Snowflake fiasco back during the Holiday event. While I did not participate in this, if I had discovered this by accident while the market was in favor for it, I would have probably been banned as well not knowing that I wasn’t allowed to craft and salvage something in game for items or money.

I’m not psychic. I don’t know what is intended to be in the game and and what isn’t. I’m really trying not to be rude, but that’s the developer’s job. When I utilize everything presented to me in the game I have purchased, which has passed ANet’s QA/QC department and into the live environment, I find it disheartening that I feel like I have to question everything that I consider a clever tactic or a decent money-maker in fear of being banned for exploiting.

Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I think that they added the chests so that +% to gold food wouldn’t work upon looting the chests. Using Omnom’s used to be a semi-decent way to earn gold, particularly in the quicker dungeon runs (15-ish silver per boss in AC), which goes against their 100% Gem Store-based revenue design. Now that mobs drop a chest with gold in it, rather than drop gold themselves, this negates the increased boss gold you would have previously looted.

It’s my belief that ANet has a a predetermined maximum amount of money they feel that the players should be earning in the environment so that the players find the Gem Store looking more and more enticing. One of the instances that I base this theory on was the mass banning of players during the Xmas event who used no hacking/third party program/etc. and just mass-crafted/salvaged the Pristine Snowflakes to make a hefty gold profit.

/conspiracy

In Path 3 of Arah, our party had wiped (don’t ask) near the last WP before the final boss where you pick up the Risen Chicken. While we were all dead and ready to WP, we noticed that we were still stuck in combat and could not WP even though it was a full wipe.

We eventually figured out that it was the NPC who was in combat with a Risen Hunter’s pet. Unfortunately, the NPC decided not to fight back and the pet wasn’t even a silver, so we had to wait an excruciating amount of time whilst this bird beats the NPC down so that we can finally use the WP to start over.

While I understand the intent of the recent changes to WPs during combat, I sincerely hope that this mechanic that an in-combat NPC locks the whole party out of the WP isn’t working as intended, as all it does is waste everyone’s time.

If that can’t be changed, at least change the NPC’s mechanics so that they actually fight back when they’re being attacked. Smarter NPCs would most likely remove a lot of the irritating quirks about dungeons as a whole, such as NPCs immediately attacking nearby groups of mobs as soon as they rezzed… But this is a whole other topic.

Thanks!

That is a… unique view…

What fun! Thanks for this!

I like figuring out other songs on the bells as well. Classics such as, Mary Had a Little Lamb (lol) and the funny oriental diddy that everyone learns on black piano keys as a kid. I’ve also figured out a jerry-rigged version of Cosmo Canyon from FF7 lol. I’m wondering if there are any others who have had fun with playing whatever they can figure out with the notes given?

Happy Wintersday!

I would buy a makeover if human females got all of the face and hair options of the Norn females. The current selection for Human females are completely lame to me (Stop with the bangs and pigtails)! The conspiracy theorist of me says ANet has deliberately made humans less aesthetic (less options) as compared to other races just to get them to try out non-Human races. I have done this, and I enjoy/will enjoy them to each of their own qualities as I think appropriate (Charr Engi, Asura Guardian, Sylvari Neco, etc.)

In the meantime, I’m trying hard to just not make my main character not look like some version of Katy Perry or Anne Hathaway, but its very difficult if I also don’t want to look like a complete idiot.

I understand this is all personal opinion, but one fact remains constant… More options = a wider group of people who will spend money for those different options!

Thanks!

I was logged in Lion’s Arch (Crystal Desert Overflow) from event start -15mins to event start +30mins and it went from waiting for construction to all of the sudden there’s a boat. It almost seems as if this whole retaking of Lion’s Arch was totally borked dev-side and someone from ANet said, “Quick, just throw the ship to the islands at the unwashed masses before they revolt!”

Then I read about other people talking about an Ancient Karka (the guy from yesterday who took a dip, I assume) and I’m thinking, “What did I miss?”

Thanks for the advice!

Also, I apologize for my use of the word, “kitten.” I did not intentionally use this word, rather the forum mechanics filtered certain words that I had typed in an effort to censor what they think society might find vulgar (at least, that is my theory).

<3

P.S. – I love kittens. We adopted a street-cat that was so malnourished that even at her 3-year-old full growth, she is still only 6 lbs and looks like a kitten.

Personally, I think anything you can do to help your server’s campaign should have a chance to reward badges. I believe that any events from keep sieges to DE PvE-ish events like the Centaurs/Skitts/Hyleks/Kraitt, etc. should reward badges.

When you think about, the amount of time it takes to get a full set of PvP gear based off of the current badge drop rate vs. the PvE exact-stat equvilent in Ascalonian Catacombs, the PvE way seems substantially quicker than trying to grind badges.

Personally, I have no idea why they have W3 rewards based off of PvP kills only. It makes no sense when put into the W3 (anything for the greater good of the realm) mentality.

I haven’t been a PvPer since the early ages of DAoC, as I feel like I’m, “too old for this kitten,” and just want to focus on my map completion. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to get all of the requirements needed for my map completion, simply because our server cannot control what territory remains for me. (Stuck at 98% Map Completion!)

In addition, when I take up a queue spot just to seek out POIs, Skill Points and Vistas, I feel like I’m hindering our already struggling server by taking up a queue spot that someone would use to actually W3.

I’m coming here because I know that people really want to win W3 on my server and I really don’t think my taking up a spot just to run around like a doofus, avoiding PvP like the plague while trying to get map complete while our server struggles just to compete, is the right answer. Don’t get me wrong… I am capable of helping with keep caps and other W3 events, and have done so on many occasions, but it’s just not fun for me. Since this is a game I have paid to play, I choose to avoid the things I don’t like, if I can.

My question is, “How can I do map completion as a PvEer with a non-dominating server?” Do I transfer servers to a winning one just to complete my map and then transfer back home? Sounds really lame to me, but if I have no other option…?

I would love some advice. Thanks a ton!

Hodgins won’t look for the second scepter. Just stands there. I am getting really tired of wasting my time on instances that bug out and can’t complete. Bug report, no fixes. Forum posts, no fixes.

Each time this happens, there’s no rewards. Just repairs. and a ton of wasted time trying to fix your bugs for you by killing off the NPC, trying to zone out and back in, ANYTHING we can try to fix your game for you.

How about we get to fixing these bugs that are GAME STOPPING and wasting your players’ time and money rather than spend worrying about patching crap like the unidentified dye drop rate?

Patching priorities are really jacked up.

Sorry about the tone, but I am sick and tired of this happening constantly. There’s no excuse for this nonsense this far into live.

Our group cannot progress where the door is supposed to open and you enlist the Warmaster’s help at the end. The door won’t open. We even tried to help fix your bug for you by killing both Tzark and the Warmaster to reset, but to no avail. As I’ve already responded to a post about Detha’s Path 2 often bugging and not progressing at the very end, this is pretty sad. This is just another 40 minutes of dungeon time completely wasted gaining nothing but repair bills for friends. This bugged aspect of the game completely wastes players’ time is making me more and more disgruntled.

Now, to help me not be so disgruntled…

I understand that games have bugs and I can only hope that they are being addressed. I would actually be ecstatic for a little customer service rather than deafening silence. If someone from ArenaNet responded to these issues, say that they are working on them, and awarded us the 40 dungeon tokens we’ve already earned before these dungeons keep bugging out, I wouldn’t feel this disgruntled towards them.

Thanks!

I also feel like this event was not fun. It was 10 minutes past “hmm let’s see if this fun” to 5 minutes of “not fun at all” to 5 minutes of “really?” before I left. I gave up after about 20 minutes of not having fun, as I’m no masochist. My biggest complaint is not being able to see where my character was in relation to the terrain due to all of the surrounding people.

Either its just me, which doesn’t appear so judging by these posts, or clearly some sadist developers/designers are just sitting there laughing at us. I also understand that a few people are able to do this no problem and make it more challenging for themselves, but they are clearly not the majority. To me, this event goes into the same category as traps in dungeons. Annoying and irritating is not the same as challenging.

Please make all waypoints work for 0 copper for the following reasons:

1. The casual or less than casual players won’t feel like they are being nickel-and-dimed to death. (At level 80, I’ve found that I struggle just to upgrade to all exotic gear, so 2 silver here and 4 silver there really add up.)

2. It penalizes the player for taking time out of their current task to travel to a different zone in order to help friends.

3. It can be minimized by going to the Heart of the Mists, then to Lion’s Arch, then to the closest respective main city, then to the waypoint. When there is no monthly fee, I feel that there should not be a timesink to travel to avoid gold costs, especially when it’s to help friends.

To be clear, I will not purchase Gems with real life money to convert to gold in order to offset these travel costs, so there is no monetary gain/loss to AreanaNet for this issue from me personally. As spending real life money on this is not worth it to me and ArenaNet still does not gain revenue from this inconvenience from me, it may or may not be the straw that eventually breaks the camel’s back, as it were. Whether there are other casual to less than casual players here who feel that this is nothing more than a feeling of being nickel-and-dimed to death, I don’t know.

Thanks for reading!

I just wanted to report that I am having a hell of a time trying to hit these Graveling Burrows with my sword skills, “Mind Stab” and “Blurred Frenzy.” I can’t seem to find the magic spot to attack these mounds without getting a “Miss” every time. I’ve tried changing positions, standing on the mound in various spots, and I even tried landing my Phantasmal Warden on the Burrow and standing exactly where the Warden is and still Missing all of my attacks while the Warden hits. Very strange.

This is especially frustrating as these mounds are typically “DPS race” encounters and I’ve found that Blurred Frenzy does some decent AoE DPS on the both the mound and the mobs that spawn from it and would really like to contribute more to my party than a ton of “Misses.”

Thanks!

I was in these groups and I wanted to add that this is very frustrating and a complete waste of our time. This is especially frustrating since all of the rewards got moved to the completion of the instance. We get through all of the dungeon to the final part and are unable to complete, which results in not receiving rewards we already earned (Ascalonian Tears, silver for repairs) on the previous encounters. The last two times I ran this path, she bugged on both. To be honest, I can’t believe these fundamental DE mechanics that relate to other broken DE’s don’t work this long after release.

As a follow-up to this… I’ve been experimenting and switched from Staff + Scepter/Focus to GS + Sword/Pistol and found that the number of mobs I am able to loot has increased substantially and I have not had a problem getting golds in every event in which I participate.

While Staff + Scepter/Focus is my preferred play style, I believe I’ll have to settle with a different weapon set to get a reasonable amount of credit for kills in a group setting. I’d much rather do that than switch classes as I absolutely love Mesmer.

I am going to give GS + Sword/Focus a shot today.

It appears that I was using Into the Void wrong? Would that explain why if there were four mobs spread out and I drop the curtain in the middle of them, they basically all fly in an ‘X’ and land just as scattered as they were, but in different spots?

Also, I had considered trying out Pistol again, and will give it a shot. I’ll hate losing Temporal Curtain!

I actually noticed this last night while grouping with three friends. I’m a Staff/Scepter+Focus Mesmer and I had noticed that I was hardly getting any mobs to loot. I was getting Silvers in Events when I was there from the beginning dropping Chaos Storm, spamming Chaos Wind, and dropping my Phantasmal Warden as much as I could. Everyone else in my group (my husband included) got Golds and substantially more mobs that they were able to loot.

Everyone else last night thought it was weird as well. I just thought I was bugged or something. I didn’t realize that my conditional damage may be so slow and sustained as to not be able to land a tag on the mobs before they are killed.

I’ve tried the the Temporal Curtain/Into the Void tactic and found it very unreliable. Sometimes the curtain just zigzags the mobs everywhere from one end of the length of the curtain to the other, not really pulling in any set direction and often the mobs completely bypass my Warden.

As far as Illusionary Leap goes, that is in the Sword line and I really want to stay ranged, which is why I use Scepter.

I just wanted to start off with saying that I LOVE my class and my preferred play style is Staff swapping with Scepter and Focus.

I’ve noticed that my Phantasmal Warden’s techno club glowstick dance of DPS is melee ranged, but she won’t move to melee range of the mob if the mob moves. I can summon her on a mob and when she begins twirling, I’ve seen the mob just take two steps back out of her range after one or two hits from the Warden. Then, instead of moving closer to the mob after her dance, my Warden just stands there for another seven or so seconds and then begins another twirl.

I guess I wasn’t too concerned with this issue before this week’s patch, as previously she would begin another dance a second or two after the first and I had a decent chance of being able to drag the mob back over to my Warden and pick up on the DPS I had just missed out on by the mob simply taking a few steps back. At this point, seven seconds is a long time to keep a mob by my Warden waiting for her to begin dancing again.

Is the Phantasmal Warden supposed to act like a stationary turret with a long cooldown with a short attack range or is she supposed to be following the mobs around? If it is working as intended, I will be very disappointed as I feel like I am far less effective with my preferred weapon sets/playstyle and I believe this could be helped if my Warden would just follow her target around.

Thanks for your help!

Could anyone please tell me the name of the below Light armor set and how to acquire it?

Thanks!

Great, thanks! I wanted them mostly to transmute my current armor, so this is just as good as having the pattern as far as I’m concerned. I still find it odd that the Karma merchant doesn’t sell the entire set.

Thanks again!

I had considered that and I still couldn’t find any vendors via Googles that provided the remaining patterns. I can’t tell if I’m just missing it or it’s just not yet available. I’d hate to manually go check all golden heart Karma vendors for something that may or may not exist.

I was able to locate the patterns for the Devout Shoes, Garb, Gloves and Leggings off of a Karma vendor in Diessa Plateau, but cannot find the Mantle (Shoulders) or Helm. They’re shown on the official Wiki, and I’ve searched all over the Intertubes, but I cannot find them for the life of me. If someone could please help me out, I would really appreciate it.

Below is the image from the official Wiki.

Source of Orr (80)

I’m currently a level 70 player and I basically LOVE the game so far… except dungeons.

I hate, HATE the two dungeons that I’ve done so far (AC and CM). Let me correct, I ran CM story three or so times before today and liked it, but now I hate it as much as I hate CM explorer and AC. I have not done any dungeons beyond that as I want to make sure I have an ample lotion supply.

Are the other dungeons higher than CM like what CM story used to be? By this, I mean not horribly irritating, but a smooth run with a pug (one or two deaths) with good rewards or should I write off dungeons altogether? I hope its the first option as this is an MMO and I hate that every time I formally group up with people, its the most horrible experience I have in this game. Horrible as in chain knockdowns, swarming veteran+ packs, crap loot, crap experience and multiple repairs. This is NOT fun and is basically the opposite of what CM story was before today.

Could someone please let me know the later dungeons get better or please let me know what I can do to make it better? I’ve tried groups with different class combinations, gear stat combinations (swapping damage for toughness/vitality/heals, etc.) but all with the same, indescribably irritating result.

Thank you!