Guild Wars 2

Don’t understand Anet’s logic if the new revamp pvp reward system isn’t ready…. why remove chest/glory from the existing system and kitten it more?

This is a compilation of FAQ in the tech support forum. This is a work-in-progress. If you have additional questions with solutions post in this thread and I will incorporate them in the list.

Part 1: Asking Questions
—Part 1.1 Basic troubleshooting
—Part 1.2 Providing troubleshoot information

Part 2: Hardware Recommendations
—Part 2.1: Minimum System Requirements.
—Part 2.2: Determining what hardware to get.
—Part 2.3: Popular Hardware Components

Part 3: Game Installation/Patch
—Part 3.1 How big is Guild Wars 2?
—Part 3.2 How can I backup Guild Wars 2?
—Part 3.3 Download failed! Please check connection
—Part 3.4 Installer closes
—Part 3.5 Stuck at 0% KB/s
—Part 3.6 Shader Model 3.0 Hardware Msg
—Part 3.7 Download fails at second to last file
—Part 3.8 Fatal Error: Fatal disk-error
—Part 3.9 Bought gw2 digital copy. Can I resume download later?
—Part 3.10 GW2 launches, but I can’t load game.
—Part 3.11 Bought the GW2 DVD, but it still requires over 75k file to be downloaded?
—Part 3.12 gw2setup client download 10308 kb and stops, won’t install.
—Part 3.13 Client is downloading very slow.
—Part 3.14 Fatal error (3): Failed to commit memory from the OS (code 1455)
—Part 3.15 Disk-error (1450) on read

Part 4: FPS Performance
—Part 4.1 Why is my FPS low?
—Part 4.2 What is CPU/GPU Bottlenecking?
—Part 4.3 Bottleneck Misconception
—Part 4.4 GW2 is very CPU-Bound, so how do I fix it?
—Part 4.5 I upgrade to a better GPU but why is my FPS low?
—Part 4.6 I play other games fine then why is GW2 performance so bad?
—Part 4.7 FPS drop with contact list or UI window open?
—Part 4.8 Why is AMD performance bad with GW2 and not optimized like INTEL?
—Part 4.9 What kind of system would run GW2 with good FPS?
—Part 4.10 FPS drop with recent patch?
—Part 4.11 Performance is horrible, why are the developer not fixing this!!!??
—Part 4.12 Stutter and FPS drop when turning camera
—Part 4.13 Why do i get low FPS in WvWvW or Cities?

Part 5: Crashes
—Part 5.1 General Crash Troubleshooting
—Part 5.2 Out of Memory Crash
—Part 5.3 Computer/Laptop shuts down while playing
—Part 5.4 Crashing in FOTM
—Part 5.5 c0000005 crash
—Part 5.6 Assertion: A file was corrupted in the archive. “MainCli.cpp”

Part 6: Error Codes
—Part 6.1 Error code lists
—Part 6.2 Error code 7

Part 7: Others
—Part 7.1 Bright white artifact/textures glitch
—Part 7.2 No game audio
—Part 7.3 Black screen
—Part 7.4 Network Lag & high ping times
—Part 7.5 Missing Mouse Cursor
—Part 7.6 Wierd beeping sounds
—Part 7.7 Tile lines on floor
—Part 7.8 Odd foreign characters in-game texts
—Part 7.9 How do I check my ping/latency time? Is there an in-game command?

1. Hats, hats and more hats.
2. Make the hats wearable in-combat
3. Let the community submit hat designs like TF2 (maybe award them some $$$ for it)

Do these and all our complaints about PVP bugs, in balance and etc will all be forgotten.

bring back skyhammer to teamq too.

For ~90% of the PVP population (non leaderboard players) this new match making was good and made games more fun. Hopefully because they are enjoying it more the playerbase as a whole will expand…

However, in the meantime, for remaining veterans… games are cringe worthy. It’s like a basketball game with a mix of highschool and kindergarden players.

also if you press alt+f4 while autorunning it heals your for 10k HP

~January 2014 dev said I believe. To be safe lets just assume Dec 2014

if its been 2yrs then its no longer a bug, but a feature.

working as intended

Give some kind of extra bonus for playing soloq/teamq during certain parts of the day?

This can be used to encourage players during off hours to join and reduce queue times. It can also be used to consolidate prime time players down to a more narrow window of play time so matchmaking is more even.

If enough people play, maybe introduce back the 8-team 3 round tPVP matches during certain happy hours.

The PVP community was basically a secluded nitch group of players. The flood gate was opened and PVE people came in to try. Its like LeBron James being forced to play with a middle school team/match.

infantrydiv.1620:

In addition, I think giving the option to 1 team to resign if they are more than 200 points behind is completely reasonable.

Been in many matches where the game difference was more than 200, and a comeback win was achieved.

Justin ODell.9517:

Better quality can mean what ever you want. E.g. only one or two warriors at most.

If you have an opinion on what a good match should look like, please share it.

I play on both NA and EU. EU queue is a bit faster than NA. However, I am already waiting 5+ minutes for a match now. During offpeak or non-prime hours it will be 10-20min wait or longer.

The higher up on the leaderboard you are the more likely you will sit this long for a match. The system seems to try it’s best to find a matchup but eventually gives up and gives you much lower ranked players after a set amount of time or whatever people are available.

I’ve watch twitch stream of people queuing and see them getting into matches before I do even though I queued before them while watching their previous match.

Don’t think you can improve the wait time unless leaderboard is fixed. The top 1000 is filled with inactive players or people just sitting on their positions with occasional games to reset any decay.

or just play kegbrawl

Skyhammer is AWESOME!

This map promotes & requires an entirely different gameplay which is the key problem for most people that dislike it. They go in applying the same build, strategy and fighting patterns assuming its all that is needed. For most profession just changing the weapon or a few utilities is enough, but many refuse. On top of doing regular damage, positioning now become important for your survival and also your opportunity to kill.

Alexios.2896:

I wreck this warrior in the room and he bolts out. I get on the cannon then next thing I know I’m falling.

Using the canon isn’t risk free. You need to watch your back and not be tunnel vision trying to shoot the cannon. Position the canon camera angle so you can see when they are about to enter the cannon room. Exiting the cannon room to reset and come back is a strategy, and you got outplayed.

Dee Jay.2460:

I’m sorry I have no knockbacks or fears on my class but instead Shadowsteps that are constantly bugging out due to the holes in the floor.

This map has nothing to offer me.

A thief is really hard to knock off if they use their abilities correctly.

-Stealth, stand on glass panel, scorpian wire pull, dodge off
-Use steal f1 ability to port back if you get knocked or feared off, or shadow trap or shadowstep or sword 2.
-Use steal f1 to remove stability or sword3 skill and gain stability/fear ability
-Blind them to prevent being knocked back and wasting their CD

Reading through this will answer most hardware FPS related issues. Post reply here if you have one that should be added.

Q1: Why is my FPS so low?

Q2: I meet the Minimum System Requirements, but my FPS is still low?

Q3: I exceed the Minimum System Requirements, but my FPS is still low!

Q4: What is cpu/gpu bottlenecking

Q5: How do you check for CPU/GPU usage?

Q6: FPS low or stuttering with 100% GPU usage?

Q7: My total CPU usage/load never reach even close to 100%. Why is FPS & GPU usage is low?

Q8: My cores never ever come close to 100%, but my FPS & GPU usage is still low.

Q9: So my CPU is bottlenecking what now?

Q10: I have a FAST graphic card, it plays other games on high settings with good FPS except in GW2 I get low FPS

Q11: Performance is horrible, why are the developer not fixing this!!!

Q12: I upgraded from YYY graphic card to a better ZZZ card, but my fps doesn’t increase.

Q13: Rotating or turning camera lowers FPS.

Q14: My fps drops when opening contact list or UI windows.

Q15: Why is AMD performance bad with the game? Is it not optimized as much as INTEL?

Q16: So what kind of system do I need to run GW2 well?

Q17: My FPS was fine before the most recent patch. Why is it now low?

Q18: My system crashes or restarts randomly or whenever I enter a certain area?

edit: list was getting too long, re-organized into links of smaller segments for easier reading.

I LOVE SKYHAMMER!!!!!

This is why:

• Seeing people whine, rage, rant, qq and pout to disguise their inability to play/adapt after dying over and over because they stand on the edge asking to die or knocked.
• You can carry so hard because of # of people above.
• So troll
• Different play style, requires map awareness to another level.
• You can roll over those meta builds people regard to as OP etc.

Part 3: Game Installation/Patch

Part 3.1 How big is Guild Wars 2?

• Fully Installed ~15GB

Part 3.2 How can I backup Guild Wars 2?

• Just copy the entire Guild Wars 2 folder where you installed it to your backup source. The default installation path is C:\Program Files (x86)\Guild Wars 2
• GW2.dat is the important file. It contains all the game files compressed into a large 15GB file.
• It is a good idea to have a backup copy in case GW2 gets corrupted via a patch for HD failure.

Part 3.3 Download failed! Please check connection (see thread)

• Disable UAC
• Disable Antivirus/Malware tools
• Run as Admin
• Change default ISP DNS to google or opendns or namebench
• Open router ports
• Check firewall settings on router
• Disable router SPI feature.
• Winsock reset
• Run game advisor and look at the trace route.

Part 3.4 Installer closes (see thread)

• Make sure Windows is updated
• Make sure Video drivers updated
• Make sure your system meets the requirements (See Part 2)

Part 3.5 Stuck at 0% KB/s (see thread)

• Same steps at Part 3.3
• Check file/folder permissions
• Try -timeout command (See thread)
• Computers that don’t meet the system requirements can also see this behavior.

Part 3.6 Shader Model 3.0 Hardware Msg

• Your graphic card is out of date and not meeting system requirements. (See Part 2.1)

Part 3.7 Download fails at second to last file (see thread)

• Change default ISP DNS to google or opendns or namebench
• Try running GW2 in compatibly mode

Part 3.8 Fatal Error: Fatal disk-error

• do a chkdsk to see if your HD is corrupted or damaged.

Part 3.9 Bought gw2 digital copy. Can I resume download later?

• Yes. It will resume later if you exit the client and open again later. The % progress might not update immediately, but as long as your GW2.dat file is still growing in size then its still resuming.

Part 3.10 GW2 launches, but I can’t load game. (see thread)

• Delete local.dat file

Part 3.11 Bought the GW2 DVD, but it still requires over 75k file to be downloaded?

• The DVD is the copy from initial launch, since then there has been many patches/updates. 75K files to download is normal. A full game installation is about 225k files.

Part 3.12 gw2setup client download 10308 kb and stops, won’t install. (see thread)

• Update video drivers, windows OS & directx (see Part 1.1 for instruction)
• It won’t install if system is below minimum requirement or missing dependancies. Sometimes it gives no msg or warning and just exits.
• try steps in Part 3.3 above

Part 3.13 Client is downloading very slow.

• Make sure your internet bandwidth is working properly. Test it with sites like speedtest.net
• Your local ISP might be using a local cache of the files or routing to a congested CDN. Try using an alternative DNS.
• Change default ISP DNS to google or opendns
• Namebench is another way to determine the best DNS to use.

Part 3.14 Fatal error (3): Failed to commit memory from the OS (code 1455)

• Means there is not enough ram or pagefile setup to run GW2. Free up more ram, buy more ram, or increase pagefile size.

Part 3.15 Disk-error (1450) on read

• Free up hard drive space. (See thread)

Oblivion.8307:

XselectX.9026:

Tbh this guys sounds like a hotjoin hero based off the claim that he made about having the second most tournis played NA thats is not possible to calculate. the ladder does not tell you how many tournis played/won befor the ladder came out and i was rank 40 by the time ladder even came out. Another suggestion to marvin 300+ per champ means nothing at all but that uve wanted to get the title for every class in the game aka hotjoin hero and 300 games is kitten and means nothing. try 1-2 classes its good to know all classes but not good play all so much see as you needed that time to correctly learn your main. once you have 1500+ tournis then u have effectively learned that class.

you’re an idiot.

+1

Your GPU is running at 1x PCI-E, should be 16. Did you install the card in a 16x slot or check bios settings.

DoYourBestBear.6810:

There will be rewards for PvP soon.

Soon……

1. Open client, see update downloading
2. Yay, goes to check update notes
3. Oh, its all PVE stuff.

If only every update had just one small PVP change it would addup alot over time.

I think all maps should be removed and replaced with only skyhammer.

I LOVE SKYHAMMER.

Best MAP 2013.

Looks like a lot of ‘out of memory’ errors caused by 32bit limitation of the OS which upgrading to 64bit would solve. If you can’t upgrade try the /3gb switch method

Everything would be fixed if they allowed all hats wearable in-combat!

oh.. more hats plz!

I’m only still playing cuz they gave me a quaggan finisher! soooo kawaaaiiii

I’m sure Anet wants to do many of those suggestions, but pretty sure they are constrained by resources. Their priorities are elsewhere probably in PVE/WvW realm.

Be cool if new players have to play a game against BOTS and win.

Can we buy hats yet? I just want hats like TF2

Part 1: Before Asking Questions

Part 1.1 Basic troubleshooting

• Disable/Configure Antivirus/Firewall
• Disable UAC
• Run as Admin
• Delete Local.dat and/or gw2.tmp
• Clear GW2 from window’s temp directory
• Update Windows to lastest service pack and patch.
• Update/Repair DirectX
• Run windows in clean boot mode
• run -repair and/or -image command
• update graphic drivers directly from manufacturer website.
• Defrag hard drive if not using SSD
• Disable SPI on router and open ports 80, 433, 6112, 6000
• View Game advisor results or -diag command

Part 1.2 Providing troubleshoot information
Before asking questions please read the FAQ and try searching the forum.

When asking for help or questions provide the following:

• Detailed description of your problem. Provide error codes, screenshots and/or logs.
• Steps taken in attempt to troubleshoot the problem.
• Detailed system specifications or better yet the log generated from game advisor.

http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/-cele

Part 2: Hardware Recommendations

Part 2.1: Minimum System Requirements.
Official Minimum System Requirements by Anet

• Don’t expect good gaming performance when looking at minimum system requirements. These are the bare min to run the game.
• The RAM requirement is not total system ram, but actually “FREE” available ram.
• CPU (Processor) or GPU (graphic) Model numbers can be misleading. Higher numbers does not always mean better. To get an idea of where your current model rank among over the min requirements look at these charts. CPU and GPU

Part 2.2: Determining what hardware to get.
There are no official recommended system requirements for GW2. So here is a rough guide line of what to expect.

>> CPU Chart <<
Get the best CPU on that chart you can afford. GW2 is very CPU-Bound, meaning performance is heavily reliant on CPU power. This chart applies to both desktop and laptop. (Laptop CPU will have “M” suffix in their model name. “QM” stand for quadcore mobile. )

Score of

• 750 :Minimum requirement (Enough just to do simple questing in PVE)
• 1250 :Decent (Enough to do some Instances/sPVP)
• 2000 :Excellent (Optimal to do everything, including large events/WvWvW)

>> GPU Chart <<
Get the best GPU on that chart you can afford. Don’t get too powerful of a GPU the extra performance will be lost due to CPU-bottleneck(see Part 4.2). A general rule of thumb is to get a GPU that is prices closely to the cost of the CPU you own. (Laptop GPU will have “M” suffix in their model name.)

Score of

• 350+ :Minimum, lowest graphic settings
• 1000+ : low/medium
• 1500+ : medium/high
• 2500+ : high
• 3500+ : Max setting

Part 2.3: Popular Hardware Components
CPU: Intel 2500K, 3570K, 3770K, | AMD 8320, 8120
GPU: GTX 560ti/660ti/670/680, Radeon 6970, 7870,7950,7970

Look at this >>thread<< to see what other people are using in their system & their FPS results. Go add/post your own results to the list.

Here is an example of a complete build that is able to handle everything GW2 throws at it and keep 30+ FPS at all times. Most important component is the CPU and then next is the GPU, everything else is whatever fits you.

Part 4: FPS Performance
This section will be a downsize summarization of this thread created previously regarding FPS performance.

Part 4.1 Why is my FPS low?

• Your system might not meet the minimum requirements. (See Part 2.1)
• Update your drivers directly from the manufacturer’s website. (Instructions here)
• Check your CPU/GPU for temperatures using tools like HwINFO, Process Explorer, MSI After Burner (formerly rivatuner) , GPU-Z, CPU-Z . Blow out dust and check fans if it is too hot (e.g over 70C)
• Make sure your GPU is using the correct PCI-E bus speed. Should be x16 for most.
• Check your CPU utilization and for background task/process stealing cycles.
• Disable Vertical Sync, if you can’t get consistent 60FPS+ or try windowed fullscreen mode.
• Check your ATI Catalyst/Nvidia Control panel settings (instruction)
• You have a CPU or GPU bottleneck (See Part 4.2 below)
• CPU with Hyperthread, check for core parking.
• Lower resolution/settings if your GPU is the bottleneck
• Lower “shadows” and “reflection” settings if your CPU is bottleneck, these two settings are the biggest CPU hoggers and will affect FPS greatly, or upgrade/overclock the CPU.

Part 4.2 What is CPU/GPU Bottlenecking?

• CPU bottleneck occurs when the CPU is too slow and unable to provide the GPU with adequate instructions. When this happens the GPU will have low %usage, while the CPU will be maxed out.
• There is a general misconception that the GPU or graphic card is what determines the FPS performance. What most people don’t realize is that the CPU is just as important. FPS = CPU + GPU.
• Often people would buy powerful GPU and pair it with a weak CPU and start to wonder why their FPS doesn’t change.
• Conversely the GPU can be the bottleneck when it can’t handle the data given by the CPU. You will see GPU usage at 99%-100%.

Part 4.3 Bottleneck Misconception

My CPU can’t be bottlenecked. It’s usage is not 100%

• This occurs in system with Multi-core CPU. GW2 main thread will operate on one core maxing it out, while the other core waits on it. GW2 effectively only use 2-3 cores to it’s potential on system with Quad core or higher. Because of this you will never see 100% usage.

But, none of my CPU cores are fully loaded

• What you are seeing in task manager is an average over time of the core’s usage. Threads work in short micro burst. So the core can be 100% loaded but appear to be less. Also, the OS will dynamically bounce thread work load around to different cores.
• To get a better measure, you need to look at the per-thread CPU usage using tools like ProcessExplorer
• GW2 actually uses about 50 threads, and uses every core. However, GW2 only has 3 threads that puts a large load on the CPU. One of those thread will be at a % just under 100/#core. (e.g 25% for quadcore) Most likely that thread is the main game loop coordinating everything.
• Example: Quad core system. Each core should handle 25% cpu usage. There will be a GW2 thread on a core which has usage of near 25%, this is your bottlenecking thread holding everything down. http://i.imgur.com/L0Pom.png
• Alternatively, you can test by disabling one of your CPU core. The result will be zero impact on FPS assuming you have 3+ cores, because GW2 only effectively have 3 threads actually using CPU load.

Part 4.4 GW2 is very CPU-Bound, so how do I fix it?

GW2 was built on a heavily modified GW1 engine and is not fully optimized as people would hoped it be. The game currently is very CPU-bound and rely heavily on single-thread performance. There are only two options to go about.

1. Wait for Anet to optimized their code to utilize multi-core more effeciently
2. Get a better CPU or overclock to conpensate.

Currently, WvWvW is the most demanding part of GW2. In heavy battles FPS for most people will tank considerably. ATM, people with overclocked Core i5 2nd gen to 4.4ghz+ will still get FPS that drops to 30. Even the best consumer cpu on the market overclocked isn’t able to get steady 60fps.

more debate
http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/37607-attack-vs-precision/#entry1464490

• Mini map that actually shows a player dead. It shows player down, but when they actually die its like they are still alive again.

• Different color pings on the map

We need more AI. Anet should simplify it more by condensing all skills down to one button called “attack”. This will spice PVP up and bring more casual player in. The population will explode and esport will be born. A few years later they can start giving players a second button hence introducing back the skill factor.

GW2 is very CPU intensive, but your HD 4350 is also a very low end GPU so that doesn’t help much. (Its about the same as a HD3000 integrated gpu which is the minimum spec) GW2 newer and more graphically demanding than WoW.

See Part 4 of this thread to understand more on FPS performance

The game file isn’t stored in one location, but spread out through multiple CDN.

Could be the one assigned near you based on your location/connection is slower. You could try alternate DNS (see Part 3.13 here)

But, 300kb/s – 4Mb/s is actually kind of good.

Minions size need to be bigger like lich form sized.

omino.4302:

I quit playing around September because of the terrible fps checking in now and again in the hope of some optimization only to be disappointed. No expansions for me, not when it runs like it does atm anyway

Almost every single one of your post history is about complaining the same thing repeatedly. You need to fix your system.

You have a Intel i5-3570 CPU, one of the top consumer CPU, and get only 8-14FPS. While other people with the same CPU gets 40-60+fps.

I train daily by killing 1,000 test golems in the mist then run laps around the mist for an hour.

SP1 should work fine. I have it on multiple desktop and GW2 runs.

You didn’t post any system spec or game advisor, so can’t see much more, but try changing different in-game graphic settings, and playing with driver settings/profiles.

As last resort, try re-installing windows from a clean start and see if that works.

A L T + F 4

How can spvp be RIP if it never was alive?

1. Skyhammer
2. Skyhammer
3. Skyhammer
4. Skyhammer
5. Skyhammer
6. Khylo

I like skyhammer cuz I find it entertaining watching people flip and rage because they haven’t adapted to the map or actually refuse to in solo-q. They should add it back to Team arena!

I like Khylo cuz treb hits are so satisfying. Look at the #’s flying.

1. hats
2. more hats
3. hats wearable in combat
4. community driven designed hats
5. again more hats
6. profit!

we need more glass panels in skyhammer to make it better

See Part 5.5 here

Lordrosicky.5813:

Why not just put this in the patch notes today:

- Healing signet passive heal reduced by 5%

Is it really so hard to do?

Cuz there is a chance they will accidentally make it increase by 50% instead of reduce 5%. Too risky atm!

Scheduled for 2017 from what i heard.

1- Make HoTM F2P
2- I think Justin got transfered to customer support department reading the /reports
3- Real soloq & real team only q with real MMR and real decay.

Part 6: Error Codes

Part 6.1 Error code lists

• http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Error_code

Part 6.2 Error code 7 (See Thread)

• Numerous source for the cause, see this thread.