Guild Wars 2

As long as it’s permanent, so I can do it at my own pace I don’t mind how frequently it’s released.

But then I’m in a different situation to most of the people on this forum because I can’t devote a lot of time to the game and when I am playing I like to take my time with things so I don’t tend to burn through content faster than it can be created.

I’ve still got lots of LS2 achievements, loads of HoT stuff and even stuff from the base game that I’ve not done yet so both long breaks between expansions and short breaks between short bits of content are fine with me. I’ll always have something I can be doing while I wait.

Trice.4598:

Problem is, you have 500 persons trying to get in 1 organized Wurm run instead of trying to organize one themselves. Tequalt was like that 2-3 months ago, but now, I can join pretty much any overflow and kill it.

If only people were willing to listen and actually try when some people stand out and try to organize, instead of ignoring them and spam join in.

By the way, I’m not blaming you or anyone for this matter, it’s the community in general that has this idea that only 1-2 of the highly populated and organized guild can kill it.

Agreed.

I got really annoyed with this exact situation in the Pavillion during the Festival. So many times I was on maps where we had more than enough people actively fighting the bosses to split into 3 or 6 groups and get at least silver reward and most of these people knew for a fact that by bunching up into one giant zerg they were making it much harder and slower.

But they wouldn’t split up. Why?

Because they hadn’t been told that this was a designated ‘gold’ map and there weren’t 6 commander tags to hold their hands and tell them it was time to use the tactics they already knew how to do.

(At one point I actually tried telling people in between rounds that this was now a ‘gold’ map and they should go and stand next to the arena for the boss they wanted to fight, but all I got was “No, we got bronze last time” as if your first attempted determined what you would get forever.)

The important thing (I think) is that you need to buy 1 piece for each armour slot for each tier.

That seems to be the one that catches people out most often. They think they can do something like buying the light, medium and heavy Tier 1 sets – which add up to 18 pieces – and get the achievement that way. Or buy 3 T3 hats and no coats. But it doesn’t work and they end up wasting their money.

(You can mix and match, like buying T1 heavy coat and leggings and light hat, shoulders, gloves and boots then medium T2 and T3. But it has to be 1 piece for each slot from each tier.)

Actually the refugees haven’t just got there, they first began showing up about 1/2 way through F&F. At that time there was pretty much exactly what you’re asking for – fewer refugees and just a bit of grumbling instead of the out-right rebellion we’re seeing now, and fewer/smaller settlements still under construction.

The problem is a lot of people won’t have seen it. Even though I noticed a lot of references to refugees going to Southsun and wondered if they’d actually be there I doubt I’d have gone to see if it wasn’t for the fact that I only recently hit 80 and hadn’t been back since Lost Shores so I wondered what it was like.

Crafting and the Mystic Forge are two entirely seperate things.

Crafting uses raw materials at a crafting station to make items with a precictable, guarenteed result (unlike some games there is no risk of it failing). But you have to level it up before you can make the best items in the game.

Using the Mystic Forge simply means throwing items together to see what you get. It doesn’t require any practice or training up skills, you just open the menu and double click the items you want to throw in. The downside is that there are very few recipies with a guarenteed result, most are random.

The one for precursors is probably the most random of all. You throw in 4 weapons and you get 1 weapon back. The only guarentees are that the weapon you get back will be equal or higher rarity than the ones you put in, and that if all 4 are the same type you’ll get that type of weapon back (e.g. throw in 4 swords and you’ll get a sword).

Most people recommend using exotic weapons if you’re trying for a precursor because that at least narrows the possible results down to 1 tier. But you can still get any other exotic weapon, not just the named ones but things like ‘Rabid Soft Wood Shortbow’. The chance of getting a precursor is estimated to be about 0.79%. So while it can make you a lot of money if you get lucky you’re likely to lose a lot of gold trying.

Which is not to say don’t do it it. Just that you should only do it if you’re willing to gamble and can afford to lose. If you’re looking for a reliable way to make gold this is not it.

What I normally do when I come back to a game after a long time is keep my existing characters/save files but start a new one so I can get a reminder of the basics and/or any changes, then when I feel like I caught up switch back to the old one.

Healix.5819:

Invitations can be sent to offline players and until rejected, a pending invitation will stay under the guild panel, making you a pseudo member. Rather than being invited multiple times, I’m guessing you ignored it and upon logging in to a character not in a guild, the message would popup.

This is the most likely explanation.

Another, somewhat less likely, possibility is that someone on your friends or followers list is a member and really wants you to join, so every time they see you’re online they send you an invite. If that was the case I’d expect they’d have spoken to you about it before now, but if you’ve been rejecting the invites instead of just ignoring them that’s one possibility.

Never bought keys, never will. On the rare occasions I think about it I quickly run a character to level 10, get a free key and remind myself that the junk that comes from the chest is not worth buying.

As other people have already said if you want a specific item you’re better off buying it directly from the Trading Post.

Black Lion Chests/Keys are designed to appeal to people who like gambling. As other people have said it’s like scratch cards. They know the chance of getting anything good is tiny, they mainly buy them for the fun of it and consider anything they do get a bonus. Apparently it’s very successful, I’ve heard they’re the most profitable item in the gem store.

Zanshin.5379:

I once asked if maybe Anet needed a gambling license or something (because this is real money we’re talking about) but I don’t think I ever got an official answer, pointing to concrete laws or regulations.

I don’t have sources to hand but the way I’ve heard it is they don’t need one because of two important differences between Black Lion Chests and real-life gambling:

1) Gems are not a real currency. It’s stated in the EULA that they have zero real world value and cannot be re-sold, exchanged, refunded etc. etc. for real world money. Therefore you’re not gambling with real money, you’re giving away money to Anet and then gambling with a virtual currency for virtual items in a virtual world. (Technically you’re also not winning anything because the EULA also states that all in-game items remain Anets intellectual property.)

2) Unlike scratch cards, lotteries etc. you are guaranteed a prize, from a known list of possible prizes. You don’t know which one you’ll get or what the odds are but it’s enough. Which puts Black Lion Chests into the same category as those fairground games where you pay, hook a rubber duck with a magnet or whatever and turn it over to find out what your prize is.

You might not get what you want, and what you win might not even be worth the amount you paid but you get something for your money so it’s not gambling, doesn’t need a licence (at least in the UK or US, I can’t guarantee it’s the same world-wide) and under 18’s can participate.

Another lost sale here. If it was in the gem store I’d have bought it, but I refuse to gamble with real money so I won’t be getting it.

I actually have 4 black lion keys sitting in my bank from doing the level 10 and 40 story chapters, but I won’t even be using them because after the Mini Celestial Rooster was locked away in chests I feel like I have to keep them just in case something else I really want comes up.

It’s a horrible system that punishes players (both those who want it and can’t get it and those who do get it, don’t want it and can’t sell it) all in the hope that some of the first group will be desperate enough to throw away more money than they’d normally be willing to pay for a chance to own it.

Yes I do.

I don’t exactly go out of my way to do it but sometimes a particular character will catch my eye if they’ve done something unusual with their armor and sometimes if I’m waiting for something or other I’ll have a look just to see what people are wearing. Especially if they’re wearing bright or interesting colours, especially when I saw a huge male norn in bright pink town clothes and boxing gloves riding a broom stick.

I have to admit I still don’t know what most of the armor sets are though. I can recognise a few, the TA one is fairly distinctive, but a lot of them I couldn’t tell you what it’s called or where it’s from.

Edit: I should also mention that IMO caring about what your armor, or other peoples armor, looks like is totally separate to wanting to show off. If anything people who want to show off are less likely to care what it actually looks like because having a rare set will be more important. Whereas people who are interested in the looks are likely to do things like finally get a full set of exotics and then transmute it to look like mid-level crafted gear because the temple armor is so bulky.

Xenon.4537:

It’s important to note that Anet (like any game studio) hires a LOT of contract workers. These are artists and programmers who are hired for 4-8 months to work on one project. Most of the time when their contract is up, they leave Anet and take a contract somewhere else. This isn’t abnormal. They aren’t being fired. Their contract is simply a temporary job. Artists especially fall into this category. Anet’s actual employee count probably fluctuates a lot more than we know. It has never been precisely 300, and it wont stay at 400 for very long.

Unfortunately it seems to be even harder to convince people that coming to the end of a contract is not the same as being fired than to convince them that not all staff at a games studio are developers. I’m in that position right now – finished one contract last Friday, starting another one next Monday with the same organisation and even people I work with told me they were surprised I was “losing my job”. I just told them I wasn’t surprised because I knew when they hired me it was for 18 months.

The funny part is some of them are on contract too, some for less time than I was.

You’re going to get a lot of different answers to that, and I’d say that’s because it depends on what you like to do and how you like to do it.

I’ve been playing since launch, so almost 2 years. I play almost every day and haven’t taken any long breaks and I feel like there’s still a lot of stuff for me to do in this game. That’s because I want to do a bit of everything and I take my time doing it. My idea of exploring a map involves not only getting all the points required for official 100% completion but also finding any jumping puzzles and mini dungeons, talking to all the NPCs and generally exploring all the nooks and crannies and whatever I can find.

I also want to do all the paths on all the dungeons at least once each, max all the crafting professions, play through all the personal story missions and all the living story releases, make at least 1 legendary weapon….I do WvW and I’ve just started trying PvP as well but it’s hard to have goals for those modes because you can see everything fairly quickly but can’t ever really say you’ve completed it.

Other people played for a few weeks or months and then got bored because they had completed everything they were interested in and nothing else like it was expected.

But even if that happens the good thing about this game is that because it has no subscription and they’re not regularly releasing new equipment tiers or increasing the level cap there’s no harm in leaving for a while and coming back when something interests you or you feel like it’s worth giving it another go. You don’t have to pay for a month only to find you got bored again in a few hours and you won’t come back to find you’re way behind everyone else and unable to do any of the new content.

Gaile Gray.6029:

It is not a GM island.

To be fair that is exactly what you’d say if it was a secret GM island.

I’ve had almost the opposite experience of ESO. I got it as soon as I heard they were dropping the subscription and I’ve been really enjoying it.

Maybe it helps that my expectations were lower than many peoples seem to have been. I’m not really an MMO player, I don’t do playing just 1 game at a time so I wasn’t looking for something to top GW2 and become my new sole hobby, I just like the idea of the Elder Scrolls world with other people in it. Maybe it also helps that it only cost me £12 because I got it before everyone bumped their prices back up for the ’"re-release".

On the other hand a combination of playing that and discussing other MMOs with friends did inspire me to make this thread about things GW2 players take for granted that other games don’t do.

It may not be perfect (no game is) but this is definitely one of my all-time favourites.

Funnily enough I just realised that as long as the screenshots are taken on the character select screen my elementalist qualifies.

In-game she uses the Bifrost and Suncatcher backpack and of course she glows (purple), but you can’t see any of that on the selection screen.

A lot of dyes are like that – particularly the shiny/glossy ones. They’re affected by the material they’re applied to and the ambient lighting.

But in general Celestial is brighter than White and Permafrost is brighter than Celestial. In some lighting they’re almost indistinguishable, in others white looks almost grey and Permafrost is still bright white.

My main character is a ranger who wields the Dreamer and is currently wearing the Holographic Shattered Dragon Wings. (Make of that what you will.)

Since the latest patch I’ve noticed some changes with these items. The wings are hidden by default (and cannot be turned back on) in certain areas, like Toypocalypse and the Wintersday jumping puzzle. And the Dreamer seems to make the screaming horse noise much less frequently, especially when other people are around.

Has anyone else noticed this, or similar effects with other items? Does anyone know if it’s a bug, or is it a deliberate attempt to make items some players find annoying a bit less annoying?

I’m not complaining at all. I love how my character looks but I’m well aware some people don’t like these things, and I will sometimes do things like turn the wings off (and hide my mini pet) if I’m in a dungeon or something. I’m just genuinely curious about whether this is a deliberate change.

Can I just say even though I’m lucky enough not to suffer from it I find it extremely insulting that people would throw around a term like OCD for anyone who wants to collect a set of items. (And I don’t even know where to begin with someone using ADD, I can only assume they got the wrong abbreviation.)

It’s things like this which make it so hard for people who do actually suffer from these disorders to get the help they need, or even to get some basic understanding and tolerance from other people.

When you reduce a serious mental condition to the same level as any behaviour you personally find even slightly unusual you are contributing to the social attitudes that make people judge anyone who actually has this condition and say rediculous things like “Well if you don’t like being mentally ill why don’t you just stop?” and leave sufferers feeling misunderstood, belittled and as if they can’t even tell anyone they have a problem, let alone seek help for it.

It’s hard to answer your question because other than the 2 examples in your first post you’ve not really told us anything about why you dislike the game, and if we tried to talk about the whole game in general terms that’s a very broad question.

But I’m one of the people who has been playing since launch, not taken any breaks and still loves the game so I’ll try to give you some insight into why. Let me start by saying that even though I’ve been playing for almost 3 years (1,051 days to be exact) I’ve “only” played for 2,417 hours and some of that is afk.

I like that I can play this game at my own pace (in my case that’s slowly). I can take breaks as and when I want to without worrying about wasting money on a subscription or getting too far behind other players. On a related note I also like that the progression is relatively quick. It’s possible to get to level 80 and get a full set of exotics very quickly and there’s relatively little progression after that. Which means I can focus on what I want to do instead of what I have to do to get to the stuff I want.

As for what I like doing in my case it’s mostly PvE. I like exploring the maps (even ones I’ve gotten 100% on, I still find new things), doing the story, and just playing with my guilds and randoms I meet. I also like doing some of the achievements and collecting mini pets, which sometimes pushes me to do new things (I even entered a PvP tournament to get the mini llama).

But at the same time this has never been the only game I play, and far from my only hobby. I’ve never expected it to occupy me all the time and I think that helps a lot.

cymn.7384:

Danikat.8537:

Having said that it would be nice if at least some people (particularly children) did react to them as I doubt everyone will have seen sylvari.

They already did that!
In Amnoon city’s streets, there is a Priory sylvari walking around. Behind him, you can find 2 kids being obviously curious and following him, asking themselves what he is. (“Are those leafs under his armor?” or something along those lines). So at least the children don’t really know about the sylvari.

Oh cool! I missed that, but then I don’t think I spent much time in Amnoon as I was busy falling off cliffs exploring the desert and trying out the raptors jump ability during the beta.

1) There is no need to get HoT until you get to level 80. You might want to get it before completing everything in the base game because it includes mastery tracks that have to be trained by getting experience points in the base game, so any experience you get from level 80 onwards can contribute to those.

There’s no cap on total experience points you can get, but you don’t seem keen on grind and this reduces the risk that you’ll have to repeat content to get them.

2) You’d have everything except Season 2 of the Living Story, which is a kind of introduction to Heart of Thorns. You can play the expansion without it but the story will make more sense if you’ve done it. It can be purchased in-game for 200 gems per episode or there’s a complete pack for 20% less. (You’ve also missed Season 1 but that was temporary so it’s not available any more, unfortunately.)

All the other in-game purchases are novelty or convenience items (like outfits for your character or extra inventory space), no actual content.

3) Any class can work solo and there’s a lot of debate on which are best/easiest to play/can complete maps fastest etc. My advice is to go with one you find fun because you’re hopefully going to be spending a lot of time playing them.

4) I don’t think anyone could tell you exactly in hours as it depends a lot on how you play. I think it took me around 100 hours the first time but I spent a huge amount of time doing things that didn’t contribute at all to levelling up or were terribly inefficient (like spending 2 hours trying to complete 1 jumping puzzle).

One thing I can say for sure is it’d be impossible to complete everything in the core game without reaching level 80. I think even if you just explored the open-world maps you’d hit 80 before you finished. Add in the story, possibly dungeons, crafting, gathering materials and all the other things that give XP and you really don’t need to worry. My most recent level 80 has just 33% map completion and has done at least 1 full map after reaching max level.

Also just so you’re aware grinding kills is never a sensible option in this game. It’s actually actively discouraged – kill too many enemies in the same small area and you’ll stop getting XP or items. When people talk about grinding in this game they’re usually referring to things like running dungeons or doing huge map-wide event chains in places like The Silverwastes multiple times in a row. Grinding in the conventional sense just doesn’t happen.

It works this way with any item. Green stats are better than what you have in that slot at the moment, white are the same and red are worse.

But bear in mind that doesn’t necessarily mean any item with green text is better than what you’ve got on, because it only compares the numbers for each individual stat. If you’ve got an amulet which doesn’t have a Toughness bonus any amulet which does will show the toughness stat in green, meaning it’s higher than what you’ve got now. But unless you want higher toughness that amulet could actually be worse for you because you’ll be losing out on a stat you do want.

I’m surprised this is new to people. It’s something I’ve been doing since the game started, and in other games before that (although in Dragon Age it was tab). Like anything else once I worked out keybindings that worked for me it’s not an issue.

I did this on Saturday and it took a lot of practice. Like Charrbeque my mild dyslexia didn’t help (both with the notes and because I mess up my left and right so having read a guide I managed to go into the spike room first and then had to go back).

But I also found the whistle difficult to get used to. Mainly because the first note takes so much longer than the others. If you just press the buttons in order you’ll miss a few notes. You have to press the first one, wait for the castbar to finish and then press the others.

The other thing I didn’t realise is you can move in-between. Which is important here because the clouds will dissapear. So you can for example do: 3, jump to cloud, 32, move to cloud, 33, move to cloud, 1 and it will work the same as if you’d stayed in one place for the whole song.

Doam.8305:

Everyone is correct however ignoring a basic issue

This is Arenanet but it’s not the same company that made GW1 or rather the same staff and you can’t expect GW1 style quality from GW2. Expansions or DLC both methods are perfectly fine when done properly.

People ask for another method when their not satisfied but if a company can’t satisfy your desires with one method they typically won’t do much better with another. The DLC was unfulfilling people wanted larger maps tehy wanted Cantha and Elona so they asked for an expansion to add many new skills, gear, areas, and mechanics.

However they couldn’t handle that and even the fix came months after the launch even SAB felt like a bone to hold people over instead of a gift. I don’t think they will do well with either method. We don’t even have any info on the summer patch are they holding it for Legion release or more game events maybe some big esports announcement.

Until we know more about this next quarterly patch I remain skeptical but people will continue crying for either method because they seek something that could be possible with a better companion but they have to remember what we’ve seen these last four years and what to expect. If we were ever satisfied no one would be asking for either.

It is your opinion that HoT didn’t meet your personal expectations. Please don’t presume to speak for the rest of us.

In answer to your other question the best and worst thing about high population servers is that there are always a lot of people around. Whether that’s good or bad varies depending on what you’re doing.

It means even relatively empty maps will always have at least a few people around so you’re never on your own and can usually find people to help with anything. But it also means for popular content or anything new you will be pushed into an overflow and may not be able to get onto the main map.

I’m on Desolation which has a very high population (both officially on the server list and in reality) and normally I love it and wouldn’t want to switch at all. But the only way I could do the Invasion events back in August was by guesting to other servers. WvW also has a very long queue at peak times.

But in general I definitely prefer being on a high population server.

I’m pretty sure they don’t change, it’s just that different outfits change how they look.

If you’re female you can get the exact same effect in real life. (And if you’re male ask a woman about it.)

For example I’m a B cup and right now when I’m wearing an unwired, unpadded bra and a loose black t-shirt with a high neckline (it’s a ‘unisex’ band shirt, which basically means it’s a shapeless bag with sleeves) I look very flat chested. But if I went and changed into a decent bra and a shaped V-neck top I can make myself look like a C cup.

I can absolutely guarantee it’s not that the clothes are changing the actual size of my breasts*, it’s just creating that illusion by changing the position slightly and putting more emphasis on them. There are limits to how effective it is, but done right you can make them look at least one cup size bigger or smaller.

*Disclaimer – there are padded bras which will do this, by adding a layer of material over your boobs. But they’re an exception and not what I’m talking about here.

The same happens with my characters in game. I avoid putting certain armors on my norn because she’s already got the biggest model (both body in general and breasts) and in some of them she just looks ridiculous. At the other extreme my sylvari uses the skinniest, most flat chested model and every so often I’ll put new armor on her and go ‘woah, she has boobs!’. The actual model doesn’t appear to change, it is just that it’s a different style that makes them stand out more.

I’m not going to do an itemised list of responses because it will be almost exactly like Vaynes. But I will say I’ve been playing this game since launch, at least a few hours every day (unless I’m not at home) and I’ve done almost nothing but PvE. I love it and I have a great time doing it.

I think the big difference is before GW2 I had mainly played GW1 and single-player RPGs, not other MMOs. So that’s the basis of my expectations for a game – something where the focus is on the storyline and experiencing the content and character progression and loot are just mechanics to help that along.

If I get a shiny new sword from a dungeon that’s better than my old one then great, fights will be slightly easier now. If not then it doesn’t matter, I got to play through the dungeon and I’ll be able to play through the next one without needing that sword.

I think it’s definitely worth it.

Firstly starting a new character is a good way to get back into the game and remember the way everything works. But also levelling up is relatively quick in this game, so there’s no sense in sticking with a character you’re not enjoying just because they’re level 80.

And if you do get bored with it there’s always the boost, or Tomes of Knowledge.

Maybe Tranton used a Total Makeover Kit while you were gone?

I didn’t notice his appearance changing but I decided to trust Tranton and the Priory. Mostly because of past experience, I have a good track record with the Priory (3 of my characters are even members, although my main, who did this bit, is Whispers). Meanwhile I can’t remember having anything to do with the Consortium that didn’t start with them trying to profit from poorly understood magic and end with me cleaning up their mess.

Plus a bit of genre-savvy. As a general rule if you start a quest to help a researcher and then get contacted by some shady merchant offering an alternative deal the first choice is the ‘right’ one and the second will at best make you more money while everyone will hate you and at worst will ruin everything.

Also the guy is literally selling snake oil.

I spent what I suspect is a higher than average amount of time in-game looking at other peoples characters (I even have a folder for screenshots of ones I really like) and I get the impression that most people are genuinely trying to make their character look good.

But of course ‘good’ is subjective. 3 of my guild leaders like to make their characters as shiny as possible. But even then there’s variation, one goes for sparkles on top of an otherwise normal costume, one goes for all-out shiny (I think if she could she’d look like the ley line anomaly) and one is genuinely going for over-the-top obnoxious because he finds it amusing.

But there’s plenty of people who go the other way too and make their characters not just dark but like some kind of darkness wraith (often involving the Phantom Hood).

And people who try to make their characters blend in with the world. Sometimes to the point where I mistake them for NPCs.

I’d post examples but I’m never sure how people feel about someone else posting their character on the forum. So as an alternative check out this topic: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Post-a-pic-of-your-character-only-if-your-armor-is-mix-n-match/page/52#post6720644

Edit: But by request is one of the aforementioned guild leaders. Can you guess which one?

Not mine, but a friend of mine is in the process of building one, you can see the start of it in the screenshot below.

I didn’t even realise until I saw this that you could place decorations in the air.

In PvP and WvW you’ll be level 80 no matter what your PvE level is.

As for how long it takes my first character took me about 7 months and about 200 hours. If it takes longer than that I’ll be amazed. Most people can do it in well under 100 hours, even less if you use tomes of knowledge to speed it up.

But for your first character I recommend taking your time. The game doesn’t really change at level 80 so you’re not missing anything and its a good opportunity to explore and learn the game.

Is the computer clean? As in the actual physical components inside the case.

I had a similar problem a few years ago. To begin with it was only playing up when I played GW2 and I’m still not sure if it’s because I was playing that more than other games and for longer in a single session or if it’s because the game itself was somehow more demanding. But over time I started to get similar problems in other games too.

Long story short the root of the problem was dust coating some components (particularly the CPU) and causing them to overheat and had I known that earlier it could have been fixed with a careful cleaning.

I now realise this is a common problem and it’s important to keep the inside of a PC clean. But that was the first time I’d had a PC that was actually mine. Before then I’d used old (often virtually obsolete) PCs my dad had gotten cheap and the advice I was given was a) never open the case or poke around inside it because you will break something, and b) when a PC stops working you get rid of it and buy a new one because it will cost just as much to repair it.

I’ve since learned quite a bit about both building and maintaining PCs, that even though graphics cards are expensive they’re still cheaper than an entire machine and that my dad does not actually know as much as he thinks he does about computers.

By the way you’ll probably find (if you haven’t already) a big crowd of people and a lot of weird and crazy things going on in one corner of the asura city.

Don’t worry about it, it’s just an extended April Fools joke in the form of an instanced “mini” game. Try it out, it’s fun.

Merging is a good idea before you’ve started.

There’s been quite a few times when me and 2 or 3 guild members form a party then use the LFG tool to fill the empty spaces, then see another group looking to do the same thing, also with 2-3 people. The ability to merge the parties saves a lot of hassle in that situation because otherwise everyone from one group would have to leave and individually join the other one.

But I agree that if the merged party would have too many people in then it shouldn’t let you merge the groups, and if one/both groups are already part-way through the instance it should either not let you merge or ask which group should move to the other groups location.