Guild Wars 2

Just to clarify I do not like that these are in gem store RNG boxes. I think that’s a horrible way to make any item available, new or old, especially when the drops are account bound.

But having spent 5 years arguing that point, both with Anet and with players who complain that they wasted $150 on them and have to spend more to keep trying then act like it’s some great mystery why companies release these things, I just don’t have the energy to do it any more. I can literally run through the whole topic in my head – what I’d post, what other players would post, the fact that Anet would totally ignore it – and know that in the end nothing will change. So I’ve given up.

It hasn’t changed how I feel about them, I have never and will never spend any money (even gold converted to gems) on these things. But I’ve given up arguing that they shouldn’t exist.

As long as there’s idiots convinced they’re so special that the laws of probability do not apply to them and willing to throw their money at the screen to prove it developers are going to keep giving them the opportunity to do so.

But to me that’s a separate issue. I don’t like gambling boxes regardless of what’s in them. But I also don’t have a problem with new players being able to get the same stuff I have, regardless of how I got it or how they got it.

For example when the mini Llama was introduced I entered the Tournament of Legends to try and get one. I had never played PvP before but I was lucky enough to have 4 friends from my (officially inactive at this point) guild crazy enough to sign up with me, we practiced for a week and then it was the tournament. We got through the first round on a pure fluke – the other team didn’t show up. We were absolutely decimated in the 2nd round but I didn’t care – I was literally dancing around the room because I was so happy I’d got my llama.

A week later a friend told me he’d got a code for one at some event and would give it to me for free. A few months later I saw a mention in the patch notes that Anet was going to give PvPers something to do with ‘all those mini llamas you keep getting. Now there’s about 15 different llamas, many of which I’ll probably never be able to get, and the original is considered the boring one that ‘everyone’ has.

And you know what? I don’t care. It doesn’t change the great memories I have of doing that, the gratitude I feel that my friends were willing to be humiliated alongside me for something so silly or the great story I have. I still love using my mini llama, even if everyone assumes I just got it from grinding a reward track.

Vavume.8065:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

. I’m also happy to see people get a chance to to check out the VIP areas for ‘free’.

I insta deleted it, I do not appreciate them trying to coax me into buying something and calling it a birthday present…

Tiger Ashante.1792:

Amazing 5th birthday rewards, thank you for everything you do, you guys are 2nd to none.

They are 2nd to Blizzard.

Just out of curiosity do you also delete any Black Lion Keys and chests that drop and refuse to get any of the gem store items that are put up for free?

Because it’s the exact same idea there.

Alternatively you could have used your free gift, safe in the knowledge that the marketing strategy will not work on you and therefore you lose nothing by taking advantage of the offer.

The price was probably kept low because people were holding off in case the 5th birthday gift included that dye. Now that it has been revealed to not contain that dye, people are more willing to buy/invest in it.

You purchased, and having read the disclaimer stating Gems arrive in 72 hours, and you mistrust the disclaimer, and thus, ArenaNet?

Good news! If you politely contact the CS Team, they may be able to assist you with missed Gem Store offerings.

Good luck.

You already have a flying mount. It’s called a glider.

I’m indifferent to it honestly.

I’m one of the people who rarely uses waypoints – I may use one to get to the right map but then I’ll run from there. But I’m also one of the people who has been reminding people from day 1 that they’ve always had that option and if they feel waypoints are ruining their immersion or causing them to miss out in some way they can simply not use them.

I do think it’s a valid point that all of the maps we’ve gotten since HoT are very small and so don’t need many waypoints (in Bloodstone Fen for example the only one I use is the one on the airship because you can glide from there to everywhere else).

But I also think it’s a design decision to make the maps feel more challenging by forcing you to actually travel across them instead of entering right by your destination. And of course an opportunity to introduce alternatives in the form of masteries and in Siren’s Landing the shrines which are a throw-back to how it was done in GW1.

I wouldn’t be opposed to the new maps having more waypoints, but I also wouldn’t miss them if they weren’t there and in most cases I’m unlikely to even notice that they’re not, I’ll have a point I typically enter each map and I’ll learn my way from there to everywhere else and then keep doing that.

You don’t need to deactivate the Avast add-on — it is super good and saves you a lot of trouble!

What you need to do is this:

1. Press the Windows key
2. search for “Programs and Features”
3. find “Avast Free Antivirus”, right-click and select “Change”
4. select “Modify”
5. uncheck “SafeZone Browser” and “SafePrize browser extension”, but leave “Security browser extension” checked (!)

It will uninstall the annoying add-ons but will leave your browser security add-on intact. That add-on is very helpful to identify fishy websites and keep your system save from harm.

Edit: I am attaching a screenshot so you see which extensions should be left unchecked at installation (some are useless as they only work when you buy a professional edition of Avast; also, for a system cleanup, use CCleaner).

rchu.8945:

SuinegTsol.1729:

Hi,

I’m doing ds events for some time now to get this rune. By now I’m at about 150 crystalline ores.
Aint 600 ores a very very very little bit to much for sth like a runeset? If it’s a recipe ok, but for runes…
Apart from “farming” the hot-story, where you get 40 in the end, the only way by now is to open pods at dragons stand map. Apart from ~6, they only spawn after map event is completed. This means you need to wait up to one hour to get on a map doing events/ got enought time to start new map, then need about one to 1.5 hours to hopefully finish (seen so many fails last days) it. Now you got a 15min race to find and open all pods. Without a ton of luck this leads to 40 to 50 ores.
So all in all you need to do 15 times the story with different characters, or do 13 times success on ds meta event (without dc!!!). For ds thats best case two days without break dc or fail doing this event. Just for runes…
If they just were buyable, but….

so everything must be easy and less time consuming? I wanted the whole set of auric weapons, instead of farming AB meta events, I use one of my extra character slot, created few 80’s to run the HOT story to chapter 8 to get the ones I’m missing.

Sorry, zero sympathy for this type of whining.

There’s a huge difference between grinding long term, goal oriented gear and non-essential collections and cosmetic items…. and insane grind for upgrade components that have basically zero portability once used.

No one get to complain about legendary gear (or ascended gear for that matter) or collection skins being too grindy because they’re meant to be long term goals. But we’re talking about a rune set… one that you will never get back once you use it on ascended gear unless you drop a fortune on extractors from the gemstore.

I’m the first person to tell people to kitten and stop complaining about things being grindy, but they’re right about these runes. And I don’t even want or need them.

starlinvf.1358:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Panda.1967:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Panda.1967:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Except since Outfits are a different weight than either Heavy, Medium, or Light, they could not be mixed with Heavy, Medium or Light Armor. That leaves…well, Outfits.

So not true… the weights have no baring on what can and can’t be mixed. All the weights affect is how the physics engine interacts with the mesh. A light cloth armor would be weighted to be very flowy and float a bit in motion while heavy plate armor would be more rigid and direct in motion. Weights very well can be mixed, in fact they are mixed on various outfits (and even some armors). Weights also translate to what parts of the armor mesh moves with what bone-nodes in the model skeleton rigging. All of which is to be perfectly honest, universal across all armor classes. The only thing that ANet differentiates between with weights on armor classes is the physics interactions, but that’s due to aesthetics. Afterall heavy armor shouldn’t just look like heavy armor, it should move like it too.

When I said outfits are less restrictive on weights, I really meant just that. They are free to design outfits for whatever material weight they wish with no restriction based on the armor class. This fact wouldn’t change.

Infact, there are several armor parts in the game already that can be used across all armor classes. These parts have identical weights across all armor classes. They do not interact with the physics engine any differently on a light armor class than they do on a heavy armor class. They do not interact with the skeleton any differently either. Weight really is the least important barrier in this entire debate. So unimportant that it (forgive the pun) holds no weight.

Sectioning out outfits allows them to continue to focus on making outfits rather than armor as it’s still the simpler option, while simultaneously appeasing the playerbase as a whole. Players who enjoy outfits still get their outfits, players who want more armors to mix-n-match can now mix-n-match with outfit parts. Everyone wins.

Odd, I can’t mix any Heavy Armor with Light or Medium. I guess the Devs were mistaken when they stated Outfits were another weight, and couldn’t be mixed…not to mention the problem with the different dye channels.

I’m sure the Devs will consider your feedback, and give it the attention it deserves.

That is not how weights work. I explained in my post how they function. I’ve worked with model weights for projects before. They have no baring on what can and cant be used together. The reason you can’t mix armors of different classes is because of an arbitrary restriction put in place by ANet in the games coding itself to create class identities. A restriction that no one here is arguing to be removed either.

Armors would remain untouched.
Outfits would STILL BE outfits.

The only change would be that instead of 1 outfit slot, you would have 6 slots to mix-n-match with. If you want to mix armor classes then thats a whole different argument and could be accomplished with just a few changes to the code.

ANet said mixing and matching isn’t something that can be easily done. They described the different weight classes as having fundamentally incompatible components.

Source

….there are some fundamental incompatible things between weight classes. (part of how we set up every armor to allow many dye channels and styles per piece). There really is no way at this point over six years since we started development to make absolutely everything work together….

That was a total cop out explanation on the Dev’s part, because it implies either incompetence in engine architecture or incompetence in their programmers. The only way this would be an irrevocable truth is if everything in the engine was bespoke… which has been shown to be true in some areas, but not in others. However, the Engine is now doing a laundry list of things previous claimed to be “impossible” due to engine limitations; and have been constantly experimenting with new game logic to support new mechanics, all in the interest of improving content.

The Skins aren’t the problem, its how shader properties are linked to items (which all point to material properties in that quote) . All of which can be ignored, since Outfits have already proven to get around this problem by bypassing the legacy code in question.

Dev says one thing. Random forum person who has no access to code and no knowledge of the problems says it’s not true.

Who to believe?

It’s a mystery.

Thanks so much for the lovely gifts. =)

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/path-of-fire/
Scroll down to “Explore and Play” header for the new GH Promo video.

They have said a guild may only have one GH. There’s nothing preventing you from having an alternate guild and getting some folks to help you take a new GH, though.

The reason these legendaries require HoT is because they are the HoT Legendaries. They promised us a full cluster of legendaries with HoT and so they are all intrinsically tied to HoT. Until they’ve finished the set no Legendaries should be tied to PoF

Worlds don’t matter for PvE because GW2 uses a megaserver system that merges players from all servers in the same region, NA or EU, in PvE. Server now only matters for WvW.

Why this is a bad idea:

1. The Cost: People who lose a name due to this suggested change and who come back to the game get angry. Maybe they deal with it. Maybe they submit a ticket (CSR costs). Maybe they write angry forum posts or badmouth the game elsewhere (bad publicity). Also, anyone whose name was dropped has to go through the annoyance of renaming, whether the name(s) they used were sought after or not. More annoyance leads to more upset, more complaints, and more bad publicity.
2. The Benefit: for each sought-after name, one (and one only) player will get that name. Anyone else who wants that name will be upset or angry. Some of them will blame ANet because the way ANet implemented the feature (the timing was disadvantageous to their schedule). For every sought-after name there will be dozens if not thousands of names lost that no one wanted.

The cost in public relations alone far outweighs the potential benefit.

Sure. As long as the released name has the appendage ‘On-Loan-Cuz-I-Could-Not-Come-Up-With-My-Own-Name’, and is given back to the original owner upon return.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/support/Requesting-a-Taken-Name/first#post4248872

Gaile Gray.6029:

We do not take character or display or guild names away from valid accounts. Someone may step away and return to the game later, so the names must stay in place.

Ashantara.8731:

Danikat.8537:

If you’re concerned that it might not be obvious what the problem is (e.g. if it’s in a language other than English) you can always take a screenshot and submit a Support ticket so you can explain the problem.

That would be an additional amount of work I am not willing to undertake, because when I once reported players in that complicated manner (including screenshots and time stamps etc.) on a different matter (namely abuse of the kick function), support didn’t do anything about it (at least that’s what they basically told me in their response).

You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to. I just included it because I know some people are reluctant to use the in-game report option because they’re concerned that the problem won’t be obvious and Anet may dismiss it as a fake/spam report or a mistake or something.

Of course it’s not necessary all the time, but I know of someone who found a player with a name that in English was fine – it was just a nonsense made up word but in another language (Portuguese I believe) it was extremely offensive – as in you could be fired for saying it at work, would never be allowed on TV kind of thing.

They didn’t want to just right click and report because since Portuguese isn’t a supported language it’s a pretty safe bet no one at Anet speaks it and wouldn’t be familiar with swear words and things, so they send in a support ticket so they could explain the problem.

You also should also consider if what you’re selling is a high or low volume item. If you’re selling elder wood and have 1000 sellers cheaper than you, you’re items will still sell quickly, whereas if there are 1000 cheaper sellers for your precursor, but prepared to wait a while.

You’ll find these people in all online communities; GW2 isn’t special. Block them in-game, ban them from your Discord channels, and move on.

Note: There’s a tl;dr version in Illconceived Was Na’s post below.

As you might know there are two new hungry cats, both in WvW. One requires a Can of Spicy Meat Chili and the other requires the Gift of Battle. Both sell mini versions of themselves for 100 WvW Skirmish Claim Tickets each.

For someone who hadn’t played WvW in years (and never played it much at all) obtaining all of that seemed like a daunting task. Then I got started and found I’d completed most of it in 3 evenings, or approximately 6 hours total. (I just need another 100 Claim Tickets.)

If anyone’s interested here’s my guide to getting the Gift of Battle (and the other stuff along the way) for WvW newbies.

Things to know before you start

It doesn’t matter which world you’re on
Leaderboard position has very little to do with your individual rewards so there’s no need to change servers. (I did all of this on Desolation, which is about ½ way up the leaderboard and was often in 3rd place in the skirmish.)

On a related note don’t worry about your worlds score, or potential points, or the difference between a match and a skirmish. The score does have a slight effect on how quickly you gain Claim tickets, but not enough to worry about it.

You will die, and die often
But waypoints and repairs are free so the only problem is having to run back. Do not wait around for people to revive you, there isn’t time. (Unless they’re right next to you and there’s no enemies nearby.)

It’s best to play at peak time & for a few hours at a time
Progress in WvW reward tracks is like HoT meta events – you build it up by doing stuff and then it decays gradually when you’re inactive and resets if you leave the map, so it’s better to play for as long as you can at once than to do a little bit at a time. Peak time is best simply because there will be more people online and so more activity.

WvW often involves waiting, but that’s ok
You’ll wait for a group to form, wait for the group to move off, wait for siege to be built, wait for siege to destroy walls, wait while you claim points, wait for the enemy to arrive, wait for the enemy to leave, wait for people to clear their bags/go to the toilet/get on the same group chat…and sometimes (at least if you’re not on the group chat) it won’t be clear why you’re waiting.

Sometimes you’ll also spend what seems like ages heading towards an objective only to abandon it and go somewhere else because plans have changed.

But that’s ok. As I said WvW participation for the reward track builds up and decays slowly over time, so you’re not really losing anything by waiting and it’s an important part of playing tactically, which will allow you to achieve more in the long-run.

Getting set up

WvW uses the same equipment as PvE, but you can set different traits and skills. I won’t suggest builds because I haven’t got a clue what to recommend, but the option to have a unique WvW setup is there if you want it.

I strongly recommend some type of speedboost however as it makes it much easier to keep up with a commander. (I find Signet of the Hunts passive 25% boost is fine.)

I also recommend unlocking WvW gliding as soon as possible. To do this open the WvW menu and select the last tab – Ranks and Abilities and scroll all the way down to the bottom. You need 3 World Ability Points to unlock gliding and you get those from gaining XP in WvW so you may need to play a bit before you get it, but it’s worth getting as soon as you can.

Also don’t forget to select the Gift of Battle reward track (3rd tab down). There’s no point working towards a reward you don’t even want.

Starting

When you open the WvW menu you have 5 maps to choose from – Eternal Battlegrounds, 1 Desert Borderlands, 2 Alpine Borderlands and Obsidian Sanctum. Ignore that last one – it’s a jumping puzzle. But you can choose any of the others. Lots of people prefer certain ones, but any is fine. I recommend picking one without a queue if you can just because it’s easier to get in. (I also recommend the desert borderland, for reasons I’ll explain below.)

You’ll start off in your team’s home base, which is completely safe from enemies and has a bunch of NPCs offering different services. This is a good time to sort your build out, and check out the map.

The WvW map
At first it’s really confusing, there’s loads of coloured lines and symbols, some of them are moving, and it will probably just look like a mess. Basically symbols are control points and the colour shows who controls them. The lines show the area controlled by that point – important because you can only glide in areas your team controls.

There are 4 main kinds of control points: Keeps, Towers, Camps and Ruins.

• Keeps are the hardest to take over – they have several layers of defences and are the most likely to be defended, they need a big group.
• Towers only have 1 layer of defences, but still need siege to get in.
• Camps have no walls, just a few guards so they can be taken solo.
• Ruins are undefended and often unclaimed because they’re not as useful ownership decays over time.
  There’s also Stonemist Castle in the middle of Eternal Battlegrounds, Shrines in desert borderlands and Sentries on all the maps.

The Match Overview tab on the WvW menu will show you what each team controls on each map. It may seem like a map where your team is winning is best, but that just means you have fewer objectives to take over and getting participation credit will be harder. I find maps where you’re ‘losing’ are often best.

TheGrimm.5624:

Champ trains were eliminated since they created toxic environments.

Wrong. Champ trains are alive and well, in both CS and FGS. Champ trains were eliminated in starter zones, because excessive farming isn’t something you want to promote to new players. That’s something for the vets. The decision has nothing to do with the supposed “toxic environment”. If you decide to solo a champ on a champ train map, prepare to get flamed, even now. Rightfully so, if I may add.

TheGrimm.5624:

DPS meters in the same light create a toxic environment on their own more often than not.

Wrong. All the examples of supposed toxic behaviour created by dps meters are actually phenomena that have been in the game for ages. Except now they have some valid objective reason. Remove the dps meters, the toxicity will be just the same, except assigned to random other metrics, like AP or mastery level. Again, tools do not create toxicity, players do. And believe me, players are very creative in it. No matter what you do, they’ll find ways to be toxic.

I am a 60 year old grandma with arthritic hands. I am also the 2nd worst player in the game, grandpa is the worst, and we LOVE HoT. We found the base game a bit boring so we left for a while then came back to HoT. We love the challenge and the additions like gliding, bouncing mushrooms, and ley lines. Challenge is fun….easy is boring.

Being able to buy transmutation charges please.
+1 that food idea that was posted.
I would love to be ability to buy mosman at his hut after bloom so I can fight him (you can bring his pack of wolfs too)

They seem a little small for Charrs. Are they minis? And how are you able to have three active at the same time?

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

ANet said that there will be more to the Rifts. I’m expecting that to continue after PoF. Like the, erm, current Current Events, I expect it will be in Core Tyria, not HoT or PoF zones.

Yeah, I suspect what they’re actually doing is bundling and making the previous Current Events available and then working on a new set for the new xpac. Basically a bit of AP house cleaning before bringing in the new stuff.