Guild Wars 2

No sir, I don’t like it.

Edit: So, what would make me like it better:

1) Allow me to trade any amount of gems or gold I have for the other. These fixed amounts make for nice examples, but there should be an option to type in exactly what you want to exchange. The interface can round for me and notify me it is doing so.

2) Bring the graph back but make it clearer and better than it was. I time my gem sales carefully to hit peak exchange rates. By removing the graph, you have removed an important tool for maximizing my return on the dollars I give you.

That’s pretty much it. Let me specify any amount. Bring back the graph. The rest can stay as far as I’m concerned.

You want to keep it simple for the nooblings? Then create an Advanced tab or button that allows me to specify exact amounts of gems or gold I wish to gain or part with, and bring back the graph in the Advanced interface.

Them’s my suggestions.

I decided to create a new character last night, and took my time playing from lvl 1 to 7 or 8. I really like the changes you made to the new player experience. I like almost everything about it, and I think it’s really helpful to the new player.

As a new player, not too long after launch, I felt a little lost. I was a little bit intrigued by the fact that I was a little fellow in a big world and had to figure it all out on my own, but mostly I found the learning process frustrating.

I think the changes you made strike a good balance between throwing lots of what the world of GuildWars 2 has to offer at a new player immediately, and being overly hand-holding.

Others may disagree (they always do) but I wanted to say “Good Job” to the folks who designed these changes.

I can certainly agree with that. Pretty much all of the interviews I’ve seen (at least recently, and dating further back I think), whether official anet broadcasts or other dev interviews, have been sloppy. Were I running a game company like this, nobody would be allowed to say anything without going through specific training on how to position things properly to avoid the kerfuffle we’ve seen.

Yes… share what the development process is like… help players understand how long it takes to go from idea to release. Yes… share a bit about how the company is organized and what the overall very high level priority roadmap looks like. Yes… share your excitement for ideas, and Yes… make it clear what your position is in the company and what you do and don’t have influence over. No… don’t guess and No… don’t shrug and say “that would be nice, but” and then share your narrow perspective based on your one small piece of the overall development puzzle. Because, every anet employee is the VOICE OF ANET, and the company doesn’t seem to understand that this is exactly the net effect. One dev shrugs and shows a lack of enthusiasm for an idea, and suddenly anet as a whole is viewed by many as against the idea and people conclude it’s never going to happen. Is that a correct view? NO. Not at all. But it’s what happens, and it’s what anet needs to stop feeding, IMO.

Cool. Alright. You’ve convinced me.

Should I delete the file, trigger a fresh crash, and send the file? I’ve run for several days without crashing and don’t know if the crashes have been pushed out of the log.

I’d be willing to provide it to ArenaNet.

Yup. I have the currently-shipping iMac model, with maxed RAM and the highest graphics chipset available.

I’m pretty patient while companies get their act together. I know things take time in organizations. But… I’m sick of the Mac client crashing all the time. Any time there are around 50 people in the same general space, I’m very likely to have a crash. Turning down graphics settings seems to help lessen the effect, but not always.

I play this game for WvW and big open world living story events, both of which are highly susceptible to this problem. I also play it for world exploration and the prettiness of it all, which is diminished by tuning my graphics down.

For my part, no more gem purchases until the situation improves. I don’t expect this to make a big difference to you, anet; I can’t make you get your act together and move corporate mountains to respect your Mac-using customers… but I haven’t SEEN you do anything other than provide little snippets of hope that some good news is on the way. I’m tired of the false hope, and since I have no control over your internal disfunction around serving your customers better, my own spending on this game is something I WILL control, and until I have a playable client: not another dime from me.

Qae, I’ll give it a shot. Considering what you said about being tanky and supportive, but deemphasizing damage, here’s what I have found works for me:

Zerker Sword & Warhorn
Why? Warhorn 4 and 5 can be traited to clear conditions nicely. Warhorn 5 has a blast finisher that has obvious advantages for giving might and regen when fields are dropped.

In zergs, I run Hammer because it’s more or less a requirement of my guild. I absolutely hate the hammer in smaller roaming groups.

I run dual shouts in my slots (FGJ and SIO). These are traited for healing and provide good group support and help keep me up and moving, along with my healing signet.

I like balanced stance as my third slot, but i think you have some room to match your style here. I run in a zerg and usually need the stability.

I alternate between Soldier’s armor and a 3/3 or 4/2 mix of Solder’s and Zerker depending on how squishy I’m feeling. I use Soldier runes for tankiness and because it gives another condi clear. I’m using Cavalier trinkets and rings. This gives me, unbuffed, over 25k hp 1950+ toughness and great survivability and party support.

For traits, I have settled on 0/0/30/30/10 with dogged march and inspiring shouts to keep moving, cleansing ire for condi clear and Defy Pain. Lung capacity, Quick breathing, and Vigorous Shouts are support and healing traits.

I have found this build to work well for me, as I remain alive much longer in a big group. I have less experience in small roaming groups. I’m sure others could help with that.

Thad… I see this a lot, and always appreciate the idea. I just never remember the idea when I create my characters!

For WvW, what you can do is look on the map for a a blue commander tag moving around the map. That’s another player who is okay leading a group of players around to take objectives. Get there. Try to follow and stay alive. If they advertise teamspeak or similar, get on it and listen. You’ll pick up on stuff fast. If they are running around just taking camps and towers, you’ll get quick XP and plenty of armor and weapon drops at an appropriate level to replace what you have.

I felt this way for a while. Some areas are ghost towns. Once I found that my server has a team speak server shared between all the guilds, things became a lot more fun. I also discovered that I can rep one guild that focuses on WvW and another guild that focuses on PVE depending on what I want to do and usually have people to run around with doing something.

This worked, and by the way… purchasing gems worked for me today as well.

I don’t know about if it is better. Not been playing long enough. But… I just bought Windows 7 Pro 64bit and I’ll be bootcamping up my iMac 27" (late 2013) this weekend.

Been wanting to learn windows. Might need a new job some day and that job will likely NOT involve Macs.

iMac 27" Late 2013
10.9
GW2 version 1.0.009112
I’m having mouse spinny camera issues. I had installed the Logitech Gaming Software (hence uninstalled) on the same day the patch came out. Version 8.50.113

Consider my system profiler report sent.

THANKS for the engagement!

Skyhi, I’ve been able to correct the warp speed camera spinning thing by fiddling with my resolution and/or going from full screen to windowed and back. That fixes it temporarily. I hope this helps you. I’m —-→ <—— this close to buying Windows 7 and boot camping my Mac so I can play a fully functional game client. Sad thing is, I don’t know anything about windows. Haven’t tried doing anything serious with Windows since Win95, and I use a Mac at work. So… this will be an adventure!

BEINGHUMAN: I’ve been having the same problem, but I assumed it was connected with my decision to install the Logitech Gaming Software to support the G602 mouse I got today. After install, tilting camera angle up or down spins wildly.

Fixed that by killing the GW folder in Application Support, but now the tgUpdate error hits me every time.

So maybe it isn’t this stupid mouse software after all?

So the Logitech gaming mouses do work on a Mac?

I was just looking at the website this evening and seeing Windows as the system requirements. Wasn’t sure if specific software was required to handle the additional buttons.

How do you like the mouse?

I’m a converted WoW veteran. I’m enjoying this game a lot. Great art. Interesting combat mechanics. Generally having a lot of fun. Ferguson’s Crossing. Lvl 47 Warrior, Lvl 16 Ele. Really just getting started. It’s been interesting figuring all this stuff out and being a newbie. I’m wondering what I’m missing, and looking for pointers to helpful websites or fun/interesting aspects of the game I haven’t discovered.

I’ve been:

• leveling by completing hearts, nearby events, and personal story.
• keeping my gear current through karma purchases from heart vendors, and mystic forging soul bound items
• mostly salvaging items, collecting stuff for later crafting, and increasing my magic find
• sometimes going to other same-level or lowel-level maps when I run out of hearts, to get level-appropriate for the next map.
• trying different weapons combos and trait lines, and exploring the how to best use the combat system to my advantage while soloing. This is probably the most interesting and challenging part of the game to me… really learning to play my profession.
• map completion
• randomly follow the occasional large group of players around, zerging whatever champ they are after until my computer crashes from all the crazy spells flying around on the screen (MacBeta client isn’t, perhaps, fully ready for prime time).
• Dailies, when they overlap my other level activities
• representing a guild, although aside from guild chat, I’m not very clear what the benefit is of representing a guild vs. going guildless.

Some things I’m still unclear on:

• I mostly avoid the TP because I’m not sure what’s valuable enough to sell, and not sure what types of items are worth buying when leveling. Not sure if selling a weapon for 2s is better than salvaging and collecting crafting materials for the future.
• WvW … is … frankly, confusing. Big map, have trouble finding the action. When I do it, I wander around a lot, maybe checking my map for a “commander” or “squad leader” or whatever it’s called and try to join whatever zerg might be happening. Beyond that, I don’t think my world is doing super well in WvW and I’m not sure how best to contribute.
• I know you can get XP from crafting, but I have always avoided crafting in games like this until I’m level capped. Am I missing something fun/helpful/significant by holding off?
• I’m not sure what world events and other things are lvl 80 activities. Tower of Nightmares.. is that all lvl 80? Fractals? Is CM the only dungeon I can run at lvl 47? Is CM worthwhile? Are PUGs as much a nightmare in this game as they sometimes are elsewhere?

Am I missing anything interesting? Any pointers?

Loclay

What I like about GW2 as a former career WoW player:

Partial list:

• I can play for an hour, make noticeable progress, then stop.
• I don’t have to park myself at an inn. I can just pick up where I left off. It makes things more fun.
• I don’t have to manage 30 quests or collect drops for quest givers. You just run around, interesting events happen, you go, participate, get credit.
• The art is better. The art is significantly better. It’s a pretty game and less cartoony.
• Travel is significantly easier, making the game more fun.
• Inventory management is significantly easier, making the game more fun.
• The leveling curve is quite different, making the game more fun.
• The system of classes and weapons-based skills is significantly more fun, and can provide a much more varied play style. I’m far from end-game with any character, but there does not seem to be a single correct way to play.
• The personal story feature is engaging, interesting, and breaks up the game play.
• The system of leveling you down to the zone you are in means more fun. The world is your oyster.
• The UI is not customizable, which means I don’t spend hours upon hours (upon hours) making it just right. Instead I play the game.
• The world is not as huge, and is therefore more interesting. There’s nothing more depressing that old world WoW zones with vast expanses of nothing going on.
• Banks and currency are shared between characters. Less hassle. To some degree it seems your put your time in once, and benefit down the road with other characters you level.
• Profession/class system is much more interesting. No more locking yourself in to tanking/healing/DPS. Again, more fun.
• Frankly, I don’t miss the Alliance vs. Horde business. Not at all.
• I find other players in this game significantly more enjoyable than I did for most of my many years in WoW.

Having said all this, I still find a number of things about this game confusing. I’m still pretty new with it, but overall I find it enjoyable, flexible, and not so tedious as my previous gaming experience.

I played WoW for many years from very near the beginning when raids were 40-man. I quit in horror during guild meltdown, then returned for expansions, then quit, then returned. Then quit again. I got GW2 when it first came out and played for a short time. Then I went back to WoW for 2 months and quit (for good this time).