Guild Wars 2

If you have HoT you can exchange the +5 Versatile Infusion you buy for a +7 Versatile Infusion by teleporting to the vendor on the new island they added with the expansion.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dessa's_Krewe#vendor3

Versatile Infusions fit into either the defensive or offensive slots on rings, accessories, amulet, back item, armour and weapons.

The agony infusions that you drop in the fractals don’t fit into these slots, they fit into slots on infused rings and back items and also attuned rings.

Infused rings drop from fractal chests or you can infuse rings and back items in the Mystic Forge.
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Infused_equipment

Another slot can also be added to rings by attuning them in the Mystic Forge.
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Attuned_equipment

Artificers can combine the (non versatile) Agony Infusions (the ones you drop) to make higher resistance infusions.
eg: a +1 Agony Infusion added to another +1 Agony Infusion with a Thermocatalytic Reagent makes a +2 Agony Infusion.
a +2 Agony Infusion added to another +2 Agony Infusion with a Thermocatalytic Reagent makes a +3 Agony Infusion etc.
The Thermocatalytic Reagent can be bought from a master craftsman.

You can remove Agony Infusions from your gear using an Infusion Extraction Device which you can buy from the same merchant that you get the +7 versatile infusions from (if you have HoT), which makes it easier to add AR to your gear as you progress through the fractal levels.

This thread in the bug report forum seems to link the health bar dissapearance with the nameplate bug being fixed:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/Health-Bars-Gone

I don’t have advanced gliding and I’m incredibly bad at jumping. Put that together with a 15 minute time gate and even after watching videos on youtube I failed to get the electric wyvern.

I managed to get the tiger after watching this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRwbOd2dV7s
but I’ve decided to do without the electric wyvern for now – it doesn’t seem to be a very useful ranger pet by all accounts anyway.

I have no intention of playing DS again just for the pet – I just don’t have enough fun doing the content to spend that amount of time on it.

If Anet decide to stop gating the electric wyvern behind a really tedious event and a timer then I might wander into DS and give it another go, until then the content just isn’t fun enough for me to bother with it.

I just soloed all the story dungeons last week on a lvl 80 vanilla ranger. It helps if you’re stubborn and you have lots of time, but they can be soloed even if they weren’t intended to be played alone.

There are reference videos on youtube of people soloing the story modes. Also http://gw2dungeons.net/ has good info and tips for all GW2 dungeon modes.

I agree though that it would be great if the story and also explorable dungeons were reworked to be more solo friendly. I’ve been soloing TA up for the blooms but I’ve just found out that CoE isn’t solo-able by design and I think that’s a shame.

I just tested this on my level 10 keyfarmer (no story at all or proofs of heroics etc).
I went through Metrica Province > Brisban Wildlands > Silverwastes (as Raizen said above) and straight through the portal and into Verdant Brink.

I’m not sure why the portal isn’t working for you.

I think that you only have to do the Story Journal entry Prologue: Rally to Maguuma once per account? You can definately get to Verdant Brink from a portal in Silverwastes after that.

I did the Rally to Maguuma episode on my Ranger and Mesmer before I found the portal – all my other characters have just gone through the portal in Silverwastes to get to the HoT maps and none of them have done any of the story at all.

I may have already unlocked their specialization skill trees with proofs of heroics from WvW though.

Yes you can buy a physical copy and add the serial code it contains to your account. Here are the instructions:
https://help.guildwars2.com/entries/27658488-Activating-Serial-Codes

You don’t even have to update your game using the physical discs if you have been playing the core game because HOT will already be up to date.

Yahtzee, if you are somewhere other than the US then the trouble may not be at your end at all. There are lots of people with lag/rubberbanding atm, see this thread for info:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/support/Latency-Lag-for-EU-Players-merged

To save you reading through 18 pages; there doesn’t seem to be a fix just yet but they are working on it.

Fast combat with dodging
Skritt
NPC’s say some really funny things

Anet have always referred to WvW as PvE. The additions that have been made to WvW have generally been PvE in nature.

WvW is heading more towards PvE than RvR mechanics because Anet are trying to encourage the PvE population to participate in WvW more actively.

I think as far as Anet are concerned EotM is a WvW success story as there are always many players there so it’s likely that is the direction that WvW will continue to go in.

I key farm on an Asura in Rata Sum, EotM and Metrica Province, speed isn’t my main priority – an average run takes me between an hour to an hour and 20 minutes depending on events done and gathering stops etc, but it costs me nothing and I make a profit from every run this way.

After the tutorial I swap my gear out from my bank as Palador suggested above and then I go into the PvP lobby where you are able to slot 2 weapons and get weapon swap – weapon swap then remains when you go back into PvE. I use staff/greatsword if I’m on a guardian but anything you enjoy is good. It just gives you more options early on.

It takes me about 5 minutes to run a route around Rata Sum before I start for a Transmutation Charge – this also gets me to just over level 3 then I refine the low level mats I made on the last key run (jute, green wood etc) to level 4 which opens up Symbol of Swiftness on the staff.

There are a few low level foods that are available to either buy or craft – you can use karma to buy Rice Balls (as rice in bulk) from a Master Chef at a cooking station for another power boost. There are other low level foods that boost other things if you prefer. Food isn’t really necessary though. After a few runs you end up with various boosters from opening Black Lion Chests anyway.

I often level in EotM – this is actually a bit slower than if I ran through Metrica Province doing events and hearts but I personally enjoy EotM more (large fights on a level 4 can be really fun) you also get: WXP, World Ranks, (white) Champion Bags, a small amount of karma, various drops to salvage/sell and a chest every time you rank up.

In Metrica Province I gather mats as I’m passing them and kill Moas and Raptors for Slabs of Poultry Meat – you can then sell the mats or craft them.

Get skill points on the way if you can – you can use them to buy Philosopher’s Stones, Siege Masters Guides or Crystals from Miyani at the Mystic Forge. I get 3 or 4 skill points per run in Metrica Province depending how far out of my way I feel like going.

Put all the bags you make from the Personal Story and EotM into your bank and then open them with a higher level character if you have one – the loot in the bags is the same level as the character that opens them.

There is a good speed guide on youtube by wooden potatoes that’s worth a look but speed comes with a cost. It comes down to time vs money

^This.

After 2 years of wvw not getting much attention and becoming the stale, dry crust of an experience it is now I was a little bit cynical when the op stated: ‘We want to fight by your side, experience the ups and downs, have fun and learn together with you how to make a better WvW experience.’

But then on page 5 it turned into ‘We’d like your Adopt-A-Dev video footage’ for a ‘cool project’ and it all became a lot clearer.

Forget promotional videos, breathe some life back into wvw… Without putting any more unwanted pve into it please – this forum is full of many great suggestions made by the wvw community on how to do this.

To get a more realistic idea of what wvw is like for many people – go undercover pug, no guilds, no anet tags just a part of the unwashed pug masses. Although zerging around in a blob of guardians and warriors probably won’t make an interesting promotional video.

Last week I PvD’d a new ele in EotM from lvl 2-71 – this took me 4 days and I received over 2000 Badges of Honor and made countless champion bags and ascended mats. She also made it to the rank of Knight in this time.

EotM is 99% PvE – at one point the zerg I was in and the opposing zerg saw each other and ran in opposite directions so as not to interrupt their karma training.

It wasn’t unusual to see someone in chat saying our keep was being attacked and to get the reply that no one cares we are farming.

EotM has been slightly better since the tournament started as there are occasional fights in there now – I think this is because some of us are in EotM’s while waiting in the enormous queues for WvW.

TLDR: You get better WvW rewards and rank up faster by doing PvE than by doing actual WvW

Art is subjective.

I think video games are art.

Duchamp created ‘Fountain’ almost 100 years ago and I love that it’s still being used as an example of what art isn’t or shouldn’t be. I think it’s one of the funniest ever two fingers up at the elitists that populate the art world <3.

Thank you for your answer
This is the only time I have crafted a rare item and received a common item.
Now I know better than to waste time and effort on this gold sink, lesson learnt.

I crafted a Unidentified Gray Dye (Rare), when opened it contained a Common Gray Dye (Green Tint) not a rare dye.
I hope this is a bug and not intended.

Thank you for making my pop gun pop.
I’ve been laughing a lot in WvW today because of it.

Or someone who doesn’t care about the market or profit, isn’t greedy and wants fellow players to be able to get their gear at a more reasonable price?

They are the peacemaker bows – tier 3 asura cultural weapons. You can get them from Tredd in Rata Sum for 63.000 karma. It is possible to preview them both and their particle effects before buying them and the short bow is… shorter than the long bow :P
Hope this helps.

Search for ‘spineguard’ on the TP without using any of the search filters

So so funny, thank you for posting this

I mainly WvW but late last night I went to Southsun Cove for a look around. Happily, Greatsword and Feedback killed the Young Karka quite nicely.

Then I blew the dust off my scepter just to see what would happen.

I put Warden out to start (more for timing than anything else) and hit Confusing Images just as the karka started to spit = dead karka in 3 seconds flat

I’ve never seen a lvl 80 mob die so fast.

The love for my scepter has been rekindled, later on I’m taking it out to dinner and then maybe to see a show :P

If you upgrade your Aqua Breather with another Rune of the Centaur the 6th rune skill should work underwater as the breather replaces your headgear/helm when you’re underwater.

This is the build I’m using atm. It gives me a good balance of dps, hp and support abilities.

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mzmz0mzMzMbnroMMbLoGp0GVcaMaVR

I have Ruby Orbs instead of runes on my armour and I use Beryl masterwork jewelry so far. All are very inexpensive and work well. I may upgrade the jewelry to exotic but masterwork is working fine so far.

My armour and weapons are all beserker but the jewelry and the inspiration trait line brings my hp up to 20,202.

I personally prefer the vitality trait to toughness as along with the focus skills reflecting projectiles I also get phantasms granting regeneration to allies – phantasms do actually stay alive long enough to do this in some situations.

I swap out my utilities all the time depending on the situation. I often use timewarp but mass invisibility not only gets my team into good fighting positions but can also give them enough time to get out the way of an enemy zerg – I also cast this when I revive people as it makes us less of a target.

Pantasmal Warden reflects projectiles and also aoe removes conditions when you put a Temporal Curtain on top of it.

By habit I dodge a lot and never stand still which helps me to stay out of the red circles and makes lots of easily killed clones that cause confusion, and of course I use Phantasmal Berserker to kill arrow carts and other siege.

I’m not a glass cannon but I generally stay alive and I’m able to revive my allies while also doing a decent amount of dps.

Best commentary ever.
Gave me a good giggle.
Thank you

You get it using Arah dungeon tokens (exploration mode). Then exchange the tokens with a vendor in Lions arch near the WvW asura gates for the axe.

I have a lvl 80 necro and I changed from minion master to conditionmancer at around lvl 35-40 because of all the same reasons that you stated.

I do use Gordon the flesh golem but he has meat for brains and so I don’t count on him helping me out during a fight. Unfortunately, he does aggro mobs I don’t want to fight which can get me killed in places with a fast spawn rate like Orr. I tend to mainly use him as a tank (when he does join in) and also his stun skill can be very useful.

Sometimes his stun skill will even wake him up enough for him to fight the mob with me – if that doesn’t work I kite around and try to get him in between the mob and me to see if that gets him fighting.

On a positive side conditionmancers are wonderful crowd controllers and incredibly fun to play in WvWvW