Guild Wars 2

Wraistlin.6072:

Should just have another training dummy with a drop down menu to select a boss, then the dummy takes on its coded attacks and movements so you can train against it.

Everyone could do it on their own time before actually going into the raid.

To take it even further, why not add AI npcs to team up with you? It can train you how to take aggro from the team, how to heal, how to buff, etc. They already even exists in the pvp lobby. Just throwing in an idea.

I tried raids, cleared some of them but didn’t bother to continue running them. The issue of learning is real. I have a guild that do training runs, only limited slots and on a schedule. Sometimes I can join, sometimes I cannot. Managed to do the easy ones (VG, Gors, escort), but really never had the chance to learn other encounters since the training runs are always catered to the beginners (so it was always VG, Gors and escort).

Gave up on doing them, wasn’t really interested in the shiny, no time, and lastly, I personally didn’t find GW2’s raid design to be engaging. Personal opinion, don’t shoot.

However, player retention is a thing. Raids are catered to the very minority of the playerbase already, but, it’s a reality that players come and go. For the content to be sustainable, there should be an influx of new players trying it out and clearing them. Look what happened to WvW. It was a dying game mode after the last season hit. No new blood, no new content, same issues, etc. I don’t know the status now, but seems like the legendary backpack and the skirmishes brought some spark back.

Felahr.9830:

its A META. youre gonna get lots of phat loot. empty your packs. make your body ready. dont bring 3 bags of crap you dont need, TO A META. thats like doing SW and not bringing keys and shovels and extractors. part of playing the game is gearing appropriately for the event youre about to do. dont neglect prep and then whine about the consequences.

We already know that. I doubt anyone here tries to run a meta with 20 slots free and believes he/she can finish it without running into inventory cleaning.

What my post wants to address is that this is a thing that’s getting out of hand.

See, if a return player wants to see what’s new and jump right into things, play on a map, and decide to come back, inventory sorting and cleaning is one of the things too unattractive to do so they can as you say ‘prep’ for the new content.

Who knows how many key items a certain LS episode/map might give you.

Just came back to the game after months of break time. I played HOT then took a break when they started releasing LS3. The number one thing that hampered me from diving straight away to gaming is my inventory.

I realize that inventory management is really a task, specially now that:

• the LS are introducing maps every episode
• current events adding key items per release
• fractal changes add new currencies

Ever since they changed the loot table of mobs having a loot/junk drop to containers, I think it’s getting out of hand.

Take HOT for example. There are different containers for every type of mob, and they have different rarity too. eg. (I’m not in game so these are not name accurate, and not every container is listed)

• Saurian Cache (common, uncommon, exotic)
• Mushroom Cache
• Thorned Cache
• Vine Cache

Add these to the other loot boxes, specific map currencies, materials and collectibles, you’ll be salvaging your way until you reach the DS gate. (I’m exaggerating I know, but tell me this doesn’t happen to you even once.)

With the current events and LS3 you now have:

• key items (portal stones, detectors, whatnots)
• map collectibles/tradeables (again)
• new mats

Please don’t tell me selling and salvaging takes little time, I know it, you know it, everybody knows it, but it doesn’t mean the way it is now is okay.

So here are some ideas that I’m sitting on:

At LVL80 there are too many junk items

Common & Uncommon gear - they get salvaged or sold most of the time, can’t we change them to stackable salvage items (eg. unstable hide, etc.) if dropped in lvl 80 zones, or if the bags are opened by lvl 80 chars? I say level 80 because I believe they still have their uses while levelling.

Uncommon Runes & Sigils - IMO, they have no use now, rare sigils and runes are 1s-2s in TP, the only reason low levels can’t access them right away is because of level restriction. (Heck, I only use them to do mystic forge daily)

Map specific collectible/tradeables Chak eggs, blood rubies, petrified logs, reclaimed metal plates, sands, etc.

So aside from currencies which are handled nicely by the wallet, we have these tradeables specific for different maps. While it is not a good idea to consolidate them as a single item (bad idea, players won’t play on other ‘harder’ maps), can’t we have a different tab for these items? Then these items can be segregated by the map they can be acquired. Like a tab for Dry Top, Silverwastes, etc.

I’m thinking of two ways:

• They add a single bag tab for each new map, it’s up to us to fill it up with our own slot bags and up to us to expand it with bag expansion gem slot.
  - OR -
• It’s a fixed inventory slots, meaning, we can’t add or delete the slots, the game just have to do it by adjusting itself according to the items that we have.

Bonus: It would be wonderful if these tabs are account bound (imagine, you can run events and not worry if you have keys or not.)

Takeaway: You cannot place items that are not map specific

Quest/Key items Levvi’s detector, Aurene’s portal stone, Lore books, etc.

This is quite easy to suggest since MMOs usually implement this when their game gets bigger. Please pretty please can we have a key items tab? I’m thinking that this should be a fixed tab, only the game can add stuff into it, and it can’t get full as well. I mean, why should the game punish the players for wanting to keep the lore books/diaries?

Update Material Storage Blade shards, Spinel cores, Feldspar core

Self explanatory. If it can be used for crafting, please have a slot for it in material storage.

EDIT:
Container boxes are getting out of hand

I believe the reason for having container boxes specific for mobs/map is so that the developers have an easier time updating the loot table, is it possible to move those mob/map specific items to their regular loot table outside of the container?

Also, why do we have so many different types of the same named container? eg. ‘Gilded Coffer’ can’t be stacked with another ‘Gilded Coffer’

—

For now I think that’s all for my suggestions to at least minimize inventory management in GW2. Would be happy to hear what some of you think.

While there’s still a legacy currency issue (karma, relics, tokens, etc.) that I want to talk about, I still can’t wrap my mind on any suggestions how to clean the up even for a bit.

I just remembered something regarding the QoL items such as the bank tabs. I do feel bad for the newer players about it. Even if we say that those are optional, it really hurts your playtime when you don’t even have a few of those upgrades. With all the salvaging and endless variety of loot containers, a new player will spend majority of his time doing inventory.

Before the revamped guild upgrades, players have the option of creating a bank guild for themselves and purchase influence to obtain additional tabs. I for one have 3 bank guilds with full storage upgrades. That’s additional 250 slots per guild. I don’t think new players have that option now. In order to level up your guild, you need upgrades and those are heavily gated by gold and mats—and the level req’t to get the most basic storage is level 10! Not to mention it requires favors too. How will you do guild missions on your own?

Anyway, I just feel bad for this whole thing when we talk about bank tabs. With the gem prices so high, it really hurts new players.

As much as I also hate the fact that the gem prices are rising, I don’t expect Anet to do something about it. They earn more from it.

Also, I even suspect that with all the reward changes they made and the content drought we’re experiencing, they’re now using the exchange rate as a reliable/primary gold sink. It doesn’t felt that way before, but now, it certainly does.

Why is everybody obsessed with healing power now? Imho, I say just scrap it all off.

I can only think of certain encounters (in pve anyways) which require constant healing. Mai Trin for example. You can tank her in 50 with water fields and a couple of blasts even while wearing zerkers.

For healing power to be viable, ALL future encounters will have a mechanic that is similar to that and I guess it will be pretty much a battle of attrition for you to take healing gears.

Not to mention, not all class have efficient healing ability to support groups. I for one do not want all future LFGs to be:

Need ele! Need guard! Need xx

This game revolves around active defenses. OP, you have played for a month, I’ve been playing for 2 years now, and you know what, I’m still finding new ways how to deal with certain situations with my main ele.

When I started, I was also intimidated by zerker gear, I started with knight + pvt, then when I got used to the class and the different encounters, I switched to zerkers. And you know what, what mattered when I changed gear was my situational awareness.

Wearing zerkers is unforgiving. With my ele some encounters are 1-hit down when you miss a dodge, forgot to cc, forgot to blind, or stuck channeling a skill, etc. This is why I’m more likely to join an experienced party rather than a zerker party.

By all means, create your own LFG, and for your sake, learn the encounter, specially in FOTM. Give it time and practice.

Know when to:
- Dodge
- Blind
- Reflect
- Aegis
- Protect
- Blast water and fire
- Remove defiance stacks for deep freeze
- Stability
- Cleanse
- And so on and so forth…

I for one enjoys an active game rather than sit and be a heal bot all the time.

I’ve been discussing HoT’s content with someone before, and I told him that I get the feeling that it isn’t close to what an xpac should be. Then our discussion ended with “well it will depend on the price”. And now look, I was right all along.

So far, here’s what I know we’re getting for sure:
1. New 1 zone, the vertical one. The way they emphasized a lot of times the verticality of this new zone makes me think that this is all we gonna get. A single zone with a lot of floors.
2. New Guild Halls – okay new one! excited about this.
3. New PVP Stronghold
4. New masteries
5. New/Sort of elite spec for each profession (good for you if the new elite works out for your class, if not sorry)
6. New/Sort of 1 weapon choice for each profession (some only get offhand, and tough luck if that new weapon is actually useful on your class)
7. New profession!!! Woot!
8. Replaced borderlands – I repeat, replaced. The new bl maps are supposed to replace the old one, so it means, technically, it’s not part of HoT. Don’t tell me old players who won’t buy the xpac won’t have access to wvw bls?
9. Reworked Normal Specialization – in short, re-worked trait system. Not included in HoT.

And now I believe that is all? How is that even on par with the content available in the base game? There were no mentions of new dungeons and fractal maps even.

It’s like they’ve thrown in the bonus base game to justify the $50 price tag.

@KaosNinja, thanks for that redirect but you know, I do research my stuff. What I’m asking is specific tips for specific instabilities and specific fractal.

For example, like the cliffside previously mention, when doing the arms, we usually stack on one side and don’t kill all the chanters in the other one so it won’t spawn unli-chanters. What I was asking was if there are other ways to do it when dealing with specific instabilities. Like the exploding one. I imagine that there’ll be a different tactic when dealing with those.

I have read the one in gw2dungeons, and it is indeed helpful, it is more general in a sense though, that’s why I’m asking here. If you have tips, feel free to share.

Hi everyone,

I’m currently in the process of levelling up my personal reward level, and while I can join my guildies running 49 everyday and increase my level in the process, I find that I will miss the chance to experience running the rest of the instabilities.

I know some of the instabilities are annoying and frustrating, and I’m just wondering if there’s a guide somewhere on how to survive/clear fractal X with instability X.

For example, I have read that cliffside is horrible in 39, and grawl with 33, and so on…

If there isn’t a guide, hope you guys can share some tips and experience! Thanks!

Hello everyone. I don’t know if this came up before, and if it did, can you guys point me to the right thread?

Anyway, I’m just wondering. We went through a lot of ritual just to get the mysterious cave open—because of all that forgotten magic thingie. But how come 20~ or so years ago, Wynne was able to enter the cave? Did she use forgotten magic or something? If so, how did she get it?

Thanks in advance!

Omgosh. Now that mats are dropping like rain in SW, people now complain about laurels.

I don’t get it, I read this reply in another thread, and I entirely agree. Isn’t this a simple case of opportunity cost? Going to cite wiki here:

“The opportunity cost of a choice is the value of the best alternative forgone… Assuming the best choice is made, it is the “cost” incurred by not enjoying the benefit that would be had by taking the second best choice available."

You made your choice of not logging in, you don’t expect to be back and just magically catch up with everyone right?

Sigh… I really tried. I really tried to like the megaserver. I kept an open mind about it and tried not to be so negative and actually play on it.

But no, ever since the megaserver came, I noticed that I lost all sense of belonging. When I zone in to a map, the people I see are strangers. Gone are the days where I know the people who idle around a specific area, LA for example, in my server, there was this girl who just stands there 24/7 carrying a spikefruit (I won’t mention her name but I know a lot know her). While I don’t talk much in map and say chat, it gives a sense of familiarity when I know the people talking there.

Now there’s no place to see familiar faces other than wvw. I’m a wvw pug and I must say, it’s difficult now to discuss wvw matches outside the BLs because it doesn’t make any sense, outside wvw, you don’t belong to any server. Not to mention it’s quite difficult to call on your server to arms.

I tried to see the advantages, there are people now in mid level maps. However, that was the end to it. I thought that if there are more people then map completion wouldn’t be so boring. But no, what happened was, the people I usually bump in to are the people who will ignore you and just forge ahead. They won’t talk and won’t even ress you when you’re helping them fight something. When you ress them, they won’t even say thanks or whatever. It didn’t happen much back then when there was no megaserver, because you both know you’re in the same server, and most likely will see each other again whether in wvw, high level maps or world events.

Now, because of the anonymity brought by the MS, it’s like everyone has a free ticket to be a jerk.

I tried guesting to another server, if it will alleviate my frustrations. But nope, it doesn’t work. Guesting is pointless. Before, if I want to chill and RP, I’ll guest to TC. If I want to immerse myself, I’ll guest to low pop servers. But now? Sigh.

My suggestion, I would like to have the option to be in a megaserver or not. I played AION before, and they have this fast track server and the normal server. Aside from that, they even have channels in each zone that you can switch to. Is that possible here?

I really tried MS, but I guess it’s not for me. I know some like it, that’s why I wouldn’t suggest to remove it completely. Just an option for those of us who would like the server communities back.

Please ANET

I didn’t manage to defeat Liadri on my own, I had my husband pilot my character for that fight. Only that one! :P

Anyway, I used this build that I found, but this thread is from last year.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Mesmer-Build-for-Liadri

The distortions helps a lot but you have to time them perfectly as not all signets have instant casting time.

It was really hard dealing with the cosmic rift during phase 2, so we tried using scepter/focus & gs instead. And it worked! The autoattack from scepter made it easy for him to kite Liadri during phase 2, because he doesn’t need to adjust his range when changing weapons.

I used exotic PVT gear with rune of speed, then ascended knight trinkets.

P.S. My hubby doesn’t have a mes, so he was kinda limited in his knowledge during the fight. What he found really useful though is GS#5 for the visions, Mirror for heal, Mass Invisibility, and Blink. He had a hard time using GS#3 due to the casting time, so almost all of his DPS were coming from GS4, Focus5 and autoattack.

Goodluck!

Bread.7516:

Lalangamena.3694:

ladybutter.5280:

snip… I remember in AION whenever I tell my party I’m a DPS-spec Cleric, I get booted 85% of the time.

whenever I say that i am apothecary warrior or cleric elementalist I get booted 85% of the time.

btw, majority of the parties in LFG don’t care about your build.

^ When was the last time parties care what build you run in dungeons? With pugs, it’s usually this:

“Hello!”
“p1 right?”
“Thanks for the party! Bye”

No one is even stopping you from running zerk in WvW, just the usual ridicule of being a rally bait.

For Fractals, not sure, haven’t tried it.

I don’t understand why people are trying to push for the trinity mechanic.

There’s a lot of MMOs out there with the mechanic, is it really so bad to have a game for us who hates trinity?

Whoever said that there’s freedom in trinity, just to cite an example, I remember in AION whenever I tell my party I’m a DPS-spec Cleric, I get booted 85% of the time.

In the business world, there’s no such thing as impossible, just give workers lots of time and lots of money and assurance that they’ll earn more than what they spend on whatever it is you’re trying to make them do.

Anyone familiar with Bioware’s games? Mass Effect for example, their save file is filled with huge amount of variables which carry over to the next game. Sure there’s an editor but there are some variables in there that when you touch it, it’ll break some parts of the game.

Probably a sample of what variables in the save file looks like: http://pastebin.com/zv8mxcxs

It’s the same with GW2. Variables. Conditions. I don’t know if the way the variables are laid out are structured to be easily editable even by them.

So yeah. Easy.

What I’ve read so far:

Option 1: Changing race resets personal story but will retain the AP you acquired from it since technically, you did achieve it.

Problem: P2W. Refer to Watchwork mining pick and T3 Flamekissed Light Armor issues.

Option 1.1: Reset PS, revert all APs acquired.

Problem: AP chests. If the deductions of all APs made your AP fall short of the chest cap—sure, Anet could just program it so you won’t receive the AP chest again, but then again, is it that easy? Refer to Season 1 WvW rewards.

Option 2: Wipe story, replace it with a random/set choices.

Problem: Not everyone who wants a race change don’t care for the PS. Some will want to race change because they DO care for their characters. They might be annoyed by the race and their story and just wants to change it.

Problem 2: The last quest of the PS is the deciding factor which order you’re joining. Now, order choice is also reflected in your account — you gain badges in the login screen. I’m not sure if there are APs involved, but I think there are so it’s back again to the AP thing.

Option 3. Wipe everything, including soulbound items.

Problem: Ohhh I wonder how many people will be engraged.. saying stuff like.. “I paid for race change with my gems! I paid for my cultural armors! I’m entitled to have it because I paid for it!” And so on.. and on and on…

Other problems:
Programming cost – the PS is all about variables, and more importantly, these variables are tied to rewards, if there are no rewards, maybe it’s still possible to have a race change. But with rewards involved, there’s a high risk of upsetting the player base if the programming isn’t carefully done. Careful, meticulous programming = time = cost. How much would the players willing to pay to compensate? Also, for how long until they break even?

Economic cost – Character slots. Surely, it could have an impact?

PR cost – Damage control for whatever goes wrong.

Oh well, since a lot of people says everything is simple maybe it is and I’m just not seeing it.

moiraine.2753:

ladybutter.5280:

Sigh.

Since everyone’s just going on and on about wiping, resetting, back to 0, you lose all your items, you’ll still have your AP, why don’t we just all ask for a level 80 tome from the gem store? That’s basically it anyways.

I won’t mind at all Blizzard are adding such boost in WoW.
In GW2 we already have boost to lvl20 and also books from pvp already.

I actually wouldn’t mind as well—since levelling an alt to 80 is boring for me specially if it’s race I’ve played before. However, I don’t think it’ll be wise to add it to the gemstore. It’s clearly p2w, I somehow see that as an AP chest reward instead. Maybe at 15k+?

Sigh.

Since everyone’s just going on and on about wiping, resetting, back to 0, you lose all your items, you’ll still have your AP, why don’t we just all ask for a level 80 tome from the gem store? That’s basically it anyways.

I’m not quite sure. LA is quite loud, but other maps are really really empty. It’s really boring to map complete alone so sometimes I randomly greet the Map I’m on and see if someone replies. If someone replies to me, it’s usually more enjoyable.

On the other hand, there’ll be endless WTS/WTB posts that I’ll probably turn it off. :/

Morte de Angelis.7986:

Easy way to do it.

Race Change equal anything related to that char wiped.
Achievements stay that same because you still ACHIEVED them.
Anything in the wallet stays because its account bound.
Anything AND I MEAN ANYTHING on the character at the time of race change = gone.

You got that T3 Cultural and want a Race Change? Tough your gona lose it.
You got full ascended? Put it in the back it’ll be safe there.

You don’t need to give these players all these refunds for this and that and reductions here and there. Just make it the same as a Total Makeover kit but with a race change option with everything in the Inventory wiped. Clean. Completely. Erased. After the race change is complete the player will receive the starter 20 slot bag soul bound to that character. The personal story will give you random choices based on the background you have provided (if you really want to go that far). Or alternatively just not include it at all. The chances are if they want a race change they don’t care much about the story missions to begin with and just make their “personal story” start from the mission they are on.

Sigh. I don’t have any idea where the easy part came from.

Achievements cannot stay the same because it’s borderline p2w. You can change race just to get AP points – whether or not it’s a significant amount. You see the topic in the GD forum complaining about a mining pick that gives you a mere 20% chance for sprockets that you won’t use? Were you there during the T3 flamekissed light armor fiasco? A lot of people don’t like something that is p2w in GW2. Period.

As for the wipe thing, people generally don’t like wipes. If you’ve been playing gw2 for quite awhile, you’ll know that gem store buyers are really really vocal. Wiping for a race change? Anet will just anger the player base for releasing such a ridiculous service. People will just endlessly demand for their items to remain, etc. How about the PR cost for that?

Olba.5376:

What you cannot fix is the achievement point reward chests, as those contain consumables. Let’s say the race change removes all associated achievements. Well, you will also lose the points. The result? Well, some people will have their points go from above a certain cap to below it. The problem? The contents of the chests are gone, used up. You cannot take those away.

This too. ^

Race change will touch a lot of stuff, I’ll just enumerate what I have in mind.

Personal Story & their respective achievements:

- Anet could simply reset all achievements related to the personal story but that would include Arah story. I doubt everyone will be happy resetting everything.

- Resetting isn’t a simple matter too, they have to deduct the # of AP etc. While it seems so simple, I really doubt it is.

- Changing race will leave you to start everything all over again – including the choices you make in the character creation.

- That’s not all, what about the rewards? I don’t pay attention much to the PS rewards but I think it varies for every race and every path? You already got those rewards, so they have to program it that you won’t receive it again.

T3 armors and their respective AP – AP deductions, etc. same as above.

That’s a lot of variables to take into consideration. Now, the question is, HOW MUCH would you pay for a race change ticket to make it worth it for Anet?

Personally, I cannot call the map completion achievement solely as a PvE achievement. It represents the game as a whole—it even gives you the title “Been there, Done That”.

I think that by obtaining that achievement means you’ve been to every part of every game mode of the game—and that includes WvW. Even if it includes sPvP maps, I wouldn’t mind. It would sure motivate me to try sPvP since I’m quite afraid of it.

Vayne.8563:

If Colin says: In most games there’s this boring grind to get to the fun stuff, then when he mentions grind a few seconds later, he’s talking about that grind. The boring grind to get to the fun stuff. He’s not talking about gear or end game. He’s talking about the boring grind to get to the fun stuff.

You don’t have to be an editor to understand this. You shouldn’t have to be an editor. The ONLY people who say it means otherwise are people taking it out of context.

The more you post about it, the more obvious the truth becomes. Feel free to keep going.

I read the whole thread, and I’m with Vayne with this. And I’m actually surprised why people keep on nitpicking on that grind thing.

I played a couple of grinding MMOs before where you literally have to spend at least 3+ hours in a single spot with a cash shop exp booster just to get 10% of the experience you need to level up. And it isn’t optional too. You HAVE to grind because there’s NO other content available for you other than leveling up.

And there’s the grind-slash-farm. I think majority of the MMOs out there requires you to grind your kitten off so you could farm enough gold just to experience the ‘end-game’ content.

GW2 is really different by not being that kind of MMO. You don’t do that kind of grind, there are a lot of things you can do just by playing casually. In that context, don’t you think the grind statement in the manifesto has already been fulfilled?

Hello there Neko! Thanks so much for this guide. I’m new to the game, and I haven’t played GW1. The gameplay of GW2 is really different from the usual MMOs so sometimes I find it a bit overwhelming and this guide really helps a lot.

Anyway, I would to try the beginner build you mentioned but I’m still leveling so I’m not sure which trait should I up first. Can I have some insights on this?

Thanks in advance!