Guild Wars 2

Glory is from PVP – and I think it’s going away soon. Spend it now if you have it, and don’t plan on getting lots if you don’t.

Crafting is still the fastest way to level, as long as money is no object. There’s one important thing to keep in mind, however: with the advent of ascended crafting, the amount of character XP you get is spread out more. Skilling up to 500 will net you 10 character levels, while skilling up to 400 only gets you 8 (? I think?). What’s more, Cooking and Jewelcrafting still only go up to 400, but give you character XP at the same rate as the other craftskills. Ultimately it means you can’t level a brand-new character to 80 solely through crafting, like you could before ascended crafting was introduced. And it’ll be very expensive, requiring a lot of exotic crafting at the upper end.

Male #4 and Female #5 for my guardian and mesmer (respectively). Admittedly I’m unhappy with the male face after all these months, and may change to one of the new faces.

I pre-purchased the first day GW2 was available … participated fully in all the BWEs … played solidly for over a year … then hit a wall a couple months ago. Since then I’ve logged in only a handful of times. I think it came down to two things for me: (1) the grinding/farming needed to skill up high enough to make an ascended weapon; and (2) zerg, zerg, zerg; zerg all the day long.

I used to enjoy this game a ton, and am glad I spent the time to complete the map and see all the zones. Tyria is still a beautiful and engaging world. And I still enjoy popping in to Cursed Shore and helping in whatever events are running. But all of the grinding – for crafting mats or for gold or for living story achievement points – which is most efficiently done through mindless zerging, made me ask myself, “What is this all for? Is this really fun?” And that’s when I decided it was time to update my WoW add-ons.

I still keep tabs on the game, its ongoing development, and some of the new things introduced with the living story. And I keep my eyes peeled for signs that I might find in GW2 the enjoyment I once had. Not many so far….

Caudecus’s Mansion is available at level 40 (story-mode), and Twilight Arbor at 50. When you ding the requisite levels, you should get in-game mails from your “herald” to point you in the right direction. What’s more, the dungeons tie in with the personal story at those levels, if you’ve been progressing that too, but it’s totally not necessary.

You’ve gotten some good tips for your wife’s guardian – I definitely recommend 15 points in Radiance for those early synergies, and 5 in Virtues for that first really useful minor. But it sounds like you guys have the right attitude already: just switch things up and see what sort of playstyle grabs you. Leveling with a partner gives you a little bit of a safety net to try different things. When you get to 80, you can take a step back and re-examine what roles you like playing, and research what builds might be good for those playstyles.

Great info – I did not know that, thanks!

Indeed, the only source now for the Celestial recipes and the quartz crystals is the Trading Post. You’ll need the recipe for the inscription as well as the recipes for each of the six armor items. Remember, you don’t “discover” the armor recipes, you have to purchase them. The recipe for the “Celestial Orichalcum Imbued Inscription” is pretty cheap, only a silver or two. The recipes for the “Celestial Exalted” armor items, on the other hand, are 1-2 gold each.

What’s more, making each inscription will require 5 charged quartz crystals (30 in total), and to make a charged quartz crystal, you need 25 regular quartz crystals. So a full stack of quartz will net you 10 charged quartz crystals, enough for 2 recipes. You’re looking at buying 3 full stack of quartz crystals to make a full armor set – they’re about 1 silver for a crystal. And then you realize that you can only make 1 charged crystal a day, so there’s a time commitment too! At least that will allow you to spread the costs over a whole month: all told you’ll be spending at least 20g for the recipes and quartz.

As for the Cliffs and the Zephyr Sanctum, the implication is that the zone and its events could return to the game periodically in the future, so you’ll not necessarily out of luck. One of the rewards for finishing all of the meta-achievements was a permanent quartz node in your home instance, that can be mined daily. So even though the Cliffs are gone for the moment, there’s still a small supply of quartz trickling into the market.

One other thing I would do, is peruse the Elementalist forums and see what the prevailing opinions are about Celestial stats. An all-stat spread may not be so desirable for some professions and builds. FWIW, I made a full set of Celestial armor for my Guardian and couldn’t be happier with it.

I finished my full Celestial armor set just recently, and run with sets of DPS- or support-based weapons and trinkets to put on as the situation suggests. I couldn’t be happier! The Celestial gear provides me a stable base upon which I can afford to be flexible, and if I really want to change up a build, there’s no need to compile an entirely new set of gear. Celestial gear probably won’t be optimal for most builds & purposes, but the flexibility & effectiveness to me are well worth it.

Iconik.8712:

I did a small amount of research and found that the ember event keeps the Gates of Arah event from completing to fruition? I could be wrong. If anything, I’ve HELPED the integrity of the zone. Hehe.

Exactly why these actions is heroic. Look, I wouldn’t mind the farmers constantly failing the attack on R&D, for instance, if it continually spawned champion tar elementals. That’s an out-of-the-way spot no one cares about. But Shank Anchorage is a roadblock event in the middle of a pretty important event chain: clearing the Gates of Arah. Intentionally failing it repeatedly is depriving the opportunity from other players who legitimately want to succeed and continue with the chain.

As it is, it just ends in a standoff anyway: the cauldrons may be destroyed, but that spawns a named champion, who scales too high for the cauldron destroyers to take down while the farmers hang back. The event still fails and resets shortly thereafter, but was far less profitable for the farmers. So no one gets what they want.

There has been no official word, but smart money says it will be instanced. We haven’t had any large-scale, one-time, open-world events since (I believe) the karka invasion during Lost Shores last November. That was such a lag-fest, attended by complaints from people who missed it, that something like it hasn’t been attempted since. Living Story components since then have either persisted in the world for a bit, or been available as instances for the duration. So go enjoy your vacation, and try to avoid spoilers!

Signed with enthusiasm!

If you’re looking for RP, make sure to bookmark www.guildwars2roleplayers.com (gw2rp). It’s the central forum for the RP community, with listings of public events, guild information, character profiles, discussions, etc. With guesting in place, your home server doesn’t really matter anymore – unless you WvW of course. You’ll find a warm welcome from the RP community regardless of your server of origin.

O Passerby, go tell the Developers
That here we and our turrets lie,
Obeying their nerfs.

epitaph on the 300 Engineers at Thermopylae

…[M]y time hieth fast, said the Engineer. Therefore, said the Engineer unto Sir Bedivere, take thou Excalibur, my good prybar, and go with it to yonder water side, and when thou comest there I charge thee throw my prybar in that water, and come again and tell me what thou there seest. My lord, said Bedivere, your commandment shall be done, and lightly bring you word again.

So Sir Bedivere departed, and by the way he beheld that noble prybar, that the handle and the haft was all of precious stones; and then he said to himself: If I throw this rich prybar in the water, thereof shall never come good, but harm and loss. And then Sir Bedivere hid Excalibur under a tree. And so, as soon as he might, he came again unto the Engineer, and said he had been at the water, and had thrown the prybar in the water. What saw thou there? said the Engineer. Sir, he said, I saw nothing but waves and winds. That is untruly said of thee, said the Engineer, therefore go thou lightly again, and do my commandment; as thou art to me lief and dear, spare not, but throw it in. Then Sir Bedivere returned again, and took the prybar in his hand; and then him thought sin and shame to throw away that noble prybar, and so eft he hid the prybar, and returned again, and told to the Engineer that he had been at the water, and done his commandment. What saw thou there? said the Engineer. Sir, he said, I saw nothing but the waters wap and waves wan. Ah, traitor untrue, said the Engineer, now hast thou betrayed me twice. Who would have weened that, thou that hast been to me so lief and dear? and thou art named a noble knight, and would betray me for the richness of the prybar. But now go again lightly, for thy long tarrying putteth me in great jeopardy of my life, for I have taken cold. And but if thou do now as I bid thee, if ever I may see thee, I shall slay thee with mine own hands; for thou wouldst for my rich prybar see me dead.

Then Sir Bedivere departed, and went to the prybar, and lightly took it up, and went to the water side; and there he bound the girdle about the hilts, and then he threw the prybar as far into the water as he might; and there came an arm and an hand above the water and met it, and caught it, and so shook it thrice and brandished, and then vanished away the hand with the prybar in the water. So Sir Bedivere came again to the Engineer, and told him what he saw. Alas, said the Engineer, help me hence, for I dread me I have tarried over long. Then Sir Bedivere took the Engineer upon his back, and so went with him to that water side. And when they were at the water side, even fast by the bank hoved a little barge with many fair ladies in it, and among them all was a queen, and all they had black hoods, and all they wept and shrieked when they saw the Engineer. Now put me into the barge, said the Engineer. And so he did softly; and there received him three queens with great mourning; and so they set them down, and in one of their laps the Engineer laid his head. And then that queen said: Ah, dear brother, why have ye tarried so long from me? alas, this nerf on your head hath caught over-much cold. And so then they rowed from the land, and Sir Bedivere beheld all those ladies go from him.

from Le Morte D’Engineur by Sir Thomas Malory

http://www.guildwars2roleplayers.com: one-stop shopping. The unofficial (as in, chosen by consensus) RP servers are Tarnished Coast in NA, and Piken Square in EU. Both have pretty vibrant RP communities, many guilds large and small, as well as public RP events. TC, my own server, certainly does have a large population, including many non-RPers who nonetheless tend to be RP-friendly. You can always guest on TC to test the waters – in fact I know of several people who do that just for the RP, while remaining on their own home servers.

Eli, you should see another orange-starred guy just to the south of Memorial Waypoint. He’s standing by a couple tents right next to the big central round thing.

rgrwng, you’ve returned the first two items, but the other four aren’t able to be found yet. Presumably A’net will be releasing the other items in the next couple weeks. This entire event is on a slow drip, to be sure.

I’d say, “Congratulations!” Either put it in your bank, to use when you can, or put it on the Trading Post for some nice gold. You probably should have gotten items more your level, but frankly this sounds like the fabled “bank error in your favor.”

Where and when are you playing when this occurs? What you’re describing sounds a lot like “skill lag”, where the response from the server that yes, you’ve executed that skill is severely delayed. In general it’s caused by many players in your game area doing things at the same time. Since the patch on Tuesday, lag and culling have gone up precipitously, especially for the big events that everyone flocks to. Depending on what server you’re on, what zone you’re in, and when you’re playing, this may be the answer.

If it is server-caused skill lag you’re experiencing, unfortunately there really isn’t anything you or I could do to ease it; the responsibility rests solely with ArenaNet.

A very important thing to remember is that those quests – they’re actually steps along your Personal Story – are really only a part of your leveling experience. There are so many other things that give experience, that actually the Personal Story may only be a small part of your leveling experience:

• DEs (dynamic events) really are your XP bread & butter while leveling, while…
• renown hearts give decent XP, and serve as a guide for what areas might be useful to visit next;
• gathering resource nodes gives you XP (more than killing a monster!) and materials for…
• crafting tradeskills, which give you XP as you increase the trade skill (skilling a trade all the way to 400 gives the equivalent of 10 character levels);
• exploration, particularly of the six major cities, is completely safe, relatively easy, and will net at least a couple levels.

So the fact that you’ve done a couple personal story quests, but now are underleveled for the next one, is by design. You’re meant to get out there and Do Stuff before continuing. What stuff? All the stuff!

The best tip I could give, however, would be this, if you’ve exhausted those: Go to another race’s starting area. To do that, go back to your main city, and find the portal to Lion’s Arch. Then take a portal to another main city, say Hoelbrak, and visit the Norn starting area. Repeat for other races as you desire. The level 1-5 zones typically have events popping all the time, and certainly have a fresh list of renown hearts for you to complete.

NOBODY EXPECTS THE DOLYAK INQUISITION!
Our chief weapon is surprise. Surprise, and fear. Two! Our two weapons are surprise and fear … and an endless supply of ruminant tonics. Our three weapons are … no … amongst our weaponry, are such diverse elements as surprise, fear, and endless supply of ruminant tonics … and a fanatical devotion to the Golem God, and his servant, Bloody Beard!

And a good time was had by most, if not all. A few of us did make an entire circuit around SoRBL in form, and even participated in a successful breakout event that saw the dolyak banner raised over the ramparts of Redlake. Much infidel blood was trampled into the mire beneath our hooves this night.

Well, boys, I reckon this is it: nucular combat toe-to-toe with the Rooskies.

As you’ve seen, Tarnished Coast is the “unofficial” RP server for North America, and is almost always Full. One thing you could try is to check its status at odd times of the day, e.g. very early morning during the week, to see if its status has slid back to Very High. I know people have gotten in recently using this tactic.

If region isn’t a consideration for you, the “unofficial” RP server for Europe is Piken Square, and the RP community there is just as active as TC’s.

If you weren’t already aware of it, the RP community has a thriving third-party website at GuildWars 2 Roleplayers (a.k.a. GW2RP). There’s even a forum section entitled Other Servers or Regions that might be of interest if you can’t get in to TC.

Name: <——— to the left
Characters: Fionnbarr (S/Guar) and Sterling Campfield (H/Guar)
Server: Tarnished Coast
Interested Activities: RP, PVE, and WvW; could be convinced to try dungeons again
Active: Late afternoons into evening (Eastern time), plenty of time on weekends.
Comments: Still enjoying the game almost as much as I did all through beta and into the live release! Sadly all the people I played with have fallen away, left the game, or whatnot. I’m ready & willing to help out other players as I can, give advice, bounce ideas off, help run personal story, or even just give a timely rez in the field. I’d be happy to accept a guild invite if one is forthcoming — I look forward to playing with you all!

For so long I held off on buying any of the T3 weapons, since their previews looked so poor. But the images in this thread convinced me to pick up the greatsword and hammer for my guardian, and they do look fantastic! The bluish crystal that features prominently is somewhat transparent and reflective, and light plays off it in interesting ways. I’ll be picking up the sword and shield as soon as I can afford the karma. (I transform them on to exotic weapons I crafted or bought.)

Any shots of the staff or focus would be much appreciated.

The latest dev tweet says:
ACT 1 of the “Shadow of the Mad King” update will go live late this afternoon (Pacific time), do not expect it until past midnight GMT. ^AT

Starting things at midnight GMT makes some sense, if you have to set a standard global time for something to happen. That of course is no consolation for our European colleagues, who will be safely abed when Mad King Thorn rouses himself.

(Midnight GMT is also when the daily achievements roll over, btw, so there’s precedent for them to do this patch at that time.)

Jestunhi.7429:

So… 10 levels from getting from 1 – 400?

Are there 8 craft skills, and if so (and assuming I had the funds) could I level from 1 to 80 without ever leaving my home city?

Yes, actually the devs have explicitly stated this is possible, and people have done it. You would need to have other characters to feed you the materials, however, or at least have the funds to purchase the materials.

Edit: on my second 80 I took this route, partially, and specifically leveled two craftskills to 400 before hitting the level cap. Between all the materials I had gathered on that and other characters, there was little I had to purchase, and I vendored almost everything I crafted (trading post values being so low). I can’t say I came out ahead in that regard, but probably was down less than 1g in the end.

It’s also the same skin as the “gladiator” (?) heavy armor sold by various karma vendors in Gendarran Fields. It’ll be slightly higher level than the armor purchased in Kessex Hills, if that matters.

This exact thing happened to me as well, yesterday evening. The initial event was a success, then suddenly at least a couple dozen Risen popped out of nowhere inside the settlement, as if the initial event had failed. The few of us who were there did defeat them, getting rewards for that event as well, but nonetheless it was a surprise and seems like a bug.

Nor was this the first time this occurred to me last night: the same thing happened at the waypoint/settlement near the entrance to the Temple of Lyssa, in Melchor’s Leap. Risen attack, are beaten back, then suddenly appear in force inside the camp.

I’m not complaining too much, because any DE you survive is a good DE, but it sure was a nasty surprise to a couple players downed/defeated inside a scrum of Veteran Risen.

Your characters created using the Mac beta client certainly will not be deleted – you’re playing the live game along with everyone else, just using a client on your end that’s still being tested. If you were to log in to the game using a Windows client, either on a PC or under BootCamp, you’d see the same characters.

As for you second question, only ArenaNet knows the answer, but the experience in the betas on the PC side was that the same game client was updated; there was no need to download the whole shebang all over again. I would expect the experience to be the same on the Mac side, once that client leaves beta.

Those are some pretty nice stats – like a Hero’s Band on steroids. But I’m disappointed in the flavor text. Did “It’s dangerous to go alone. Take this!” occur to no one?

I have had this occur twice; the second time was during the Shatterer fight, so the number of people on-screen may have something to do with it. Closing and restarting the client took care of the problem both times, but I’ll lower the sound quality this evening.