Guild Wars 2

ProxyDamage.9826:

“Double-click to add an additional bag slot to this character. Each character can have up to 8 bag slots”

“Double-click to add an additional bag slot to this character. Each character can have up to 8 bag slots”

“Double-click to add an additional bag slot to this character. Each character can have up to 8 bag slots”

“to this character”

“TO THIS CHARACTER”

“TO”
“THIS”
“CHARACTER”

Yeah man, if only they told you…

This made my day.

Something to keep in perspective, only those people with thousands of achievement points that are getting a retroactive achievement chest daily are the ones receiving stacks of badges. And if you look at the achievement leaderboards, only the upper 10% of players have gotten more than 8/10 chests.

Once the achievement chests are caught up, and under normal circumstance, the vast majority of players are only looking at maybe one achievement chest per month. Badges at that rate are much more reasonable and very useful for players in WvW that want to gear a new character, change the build on another, or pick up siege blueprints.

Consider the long term and how the system will work months down the line or for new players instead limiting your scope to the current condition based on very unique circumstances.

Afaik risen knights can be combined with any other masterwork rarity minis and it gives you another masterwork mini.

There was a bug where it could give you higher rarity minis and some people were taking advantage of it so that was patched out. Since the patch, im not sure if the mini you get from the forge is account bound or not.

You’ll just have to wait for someone that tried it post patch to chime in, or try it yourself.

I think they can be forged. To create a random one. Just have to find two other minis to toss in there with them.

Rewards in nature are meant for the "can"s, not "cannot"s. Otherwise there would be an NPC standing at the starting area handing out the end prize just for showing up and it wouldn’t be at the end of something that takes weeks of work for a dozen or more people to create.

Exotic items, achievement points, meta progress, what have you…its all a cookie for completing something. Portals circumvent the process of having to earn whatever reward was crafted for completion. They trivialize the challenge, the reward, the content, and the effort of the people that created it.

I hope Anet finds a way to eliminate the “technique”. Halloween didn’t see this problem because utilities were locked out and the fog kept players from re-starting, and Wintersday avoided it by having a teleporter at the end that sent players to an isolated piece of geometry. I’m sure as the creation process matures we will see less content that is designed to be challenging but ends up being bypassed with one utility skill.

I don’t understand why anyone is worried about what someone else has. Look at the awards, see which one you really want, and how many points you need to get there. Then start making progress. That’s all that should matter.

In GW1, when HoM launched, no one asked for an achievement reset or cried foul that some became easier or harder over time. Players didn’t make it a competition and try to take progress away from each other to improve their chances of being the first to 50/50. For the most part, the entire community just helped each other along so everyone could reach their goal.

Odds are someone will get it before you. Odds are you will also get it before a lot of other people. But that has no bearing either way.

There is no trophy for getting there first.

Why would you want to take away some arbitrary thing from someone else, that they may enjoy or feel they made a significant effort towards, just so you can feel like you have a chance to get it faster than a crowd of people that will never know or care? Just in general, that’s just a horribly flawed disposition.

brunobyof.3541:

now AP is turned into a currency …. #facepalm
Its like goint to work everyday and then you earn your salary as a “BONUS” or “Achievement”.

Has it been confirmed that achievements will be a currency or you will get unlocks based on achievement milestones? I’m not sure there is enough information to make any safe assumptions either way. We have precedence for two systems: HoM and Glory.

HoM used milestones. Glory tracks lifetime total earned to unlock vendors and that number is preserved regardless of what you do or do not spend at those glory vendors.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean they will use either. People might want to roll up their jump-to-conclusions mats for a little while longer.

This is a double edged sword. I like the idea of tying aesthetic rewards to achievement score. It’s a really nice incentive to check things off that list and a bonus for people that were doing that anyways for the joy of completion/content consumption/challenge. Over-all, an excellent addition.

But now Anet, and the typical forum users get to look forward to dozens upon dozens of QQ posts from people that think achievement skins mean they are “forced” to do dailies, PvP, WvW, and jumping puzzles, or will be permanently behind if they missed a LSE achievement. Because it’s not fair that other people that may have more time to spend playing and might be a little better at the game, or have more diverse playing habits, can get a fancy boot skin before them.

It actually looks like we are starting to see that already with some players thinking daily scores aren’t fair now.

I hope Anet has a nice public service announcement prepared for skin-vy induced rage posts that everyone can defer players to for self edification.

Crab Toss was permanent wasn’t it? I’m pretty sure its still there. Also I heard somewhere that Dragonball was going to be sticking around, but I could be confusing that with Moa Racing. One or the other or both is permanent.

I was asked to share this exchange…

me: Next month has update that introduces player housing, achievement rewards, a jumping puzzle where you fly and new pvp map.
C: I might have a house? Or is it guild house?
me: your house.
C: I want a norn house!
me: the first thing you can add to it is a quartz crystal node by finishing July’s event meta achievement.
C: I want a mounted head. No self respecting norn would have a house without some trophy animal hanging in it.
me: And new movement skills. Go fast skills for traveling. I think. Thats what it sounds like.
C: Does it say anything about taxidermy house decor?
I have a theme going here. ^^_
me: im sure there will be a head of some sort you can get eventually.
You might be able to get yourself a drake head.
C: Yaaaahhhh
C: And plaques. I need plaques to chronicle my deeds. Since I can’t have a hall of monuments. Tell them! Tell the forums!!
C: You know once I have a house I’ll never leave it.
Especially if I can put stuff in it.
me: I think you have to play the game to earn things to put in your house.
C: Figures.
me: Like, you may need to complete the Drake slayer achievement to get the Drake head. So you’ll have to go out and get them.
C: I can slay me some drakes.

There you have it. She has been logging on less and less for the last few months, because dungeons and puzzles weren’t her thing. But this update has reinvigorated interest. …I hope you end up having wall mounted drake heads.

We have been getting a lot of instanced PvP mini games. Keg brawl, Crab toss and Dragon ball. But those are all instanced and spread out. Out of sight out of mind so to speak.

Personally, I would like to see more in town content. Like Costume brawl and Moa racing. Its neat to see people in the towns gathered in different areas doing different activities. Carnival like games where you can watch players, cheer them on or heckle them would be great.

The best implementation of a bar brawl I think I have seen was in DDO. There was a pit in the center of a bar. If you jumped in, then you entered combat and it was just a free for all. If you died in the pit, then you respawned at the top and could jump back in or watch the other people go at it. Everyone in town could get involved one way or another because it wasn’t instanced.

I hope they have limited edition minis for birthdays again. Those get really valuable and can be fun to hunt down. I fondly remember the great present swap when EoTn came around and we were given a mini monument.

Mad Moxxi’s Underdome, now open for business in sPvP. Killtacular 600 point limit, max team sizes and short respawn timer. All within the limits to keep earning glory.

Streaming is encouraged. Everyone is welcome. No password or reserved spot required to get your kill on!

You have two large guilds that are content to camp the jumping puzzle. I know everyone does that but this is the craziest I have ever seen. [Kome] and [Alba] have a zerg large enough to take Stonemist are locking down two rooms.

They are waving at smaller groups from DB and FA to make them think its cool to continue and then knocking them off edges for fall kills when they get close. The equivalent of waving a white flag or sign of truce, then shooting your enemy when they come to shake hands.

Meanwhile, your sever is down over 100 points per tick, and doesn’t control a third of its own borderlands.

My feelings aren’t hurt, ill come back later. But you guys need to get your priorities in order. Embarrassing your server to troll a few people in a jumping puzzle isn’t a good look.

You should all abstract yourselves from the situation and look at it conceptually. Anet has given you an optional task and time limit to complete a thing. If you do, then you get 5-15 arbitrary points added to your score.

Players with the disposition of “do not do time-restricted skill-based achievements in the future” have somehow come to the conclusion that they should be given achievement points and have to do as little as possible to earn them. If that doesn’t sound preposterous then look up the word achievement. These time-restricted, skill-based achievements are actually the only honest achievements we have. They are the only ones that say “How good are you at the game? How fast can you adapt to a new challenge? You have two weeks to prove it.” And if a player can manage to do it as designed, that is an achievement.

They are not for content tourists. They are there for the extra challenge. Time limits add pressure. Skill demonstrates personal level of game mastery. Time limited skill challenges are executing a certain level of game mastery under pressure. If someone can’t do it, then they just weren’t good enough. And that is ok, in games as is in life, no one is expected to be able to achieve everything. If a person puts that on themselves, then they are setting unrealistic goals. Maybe they will get better and be able to manage the next one that comes around.

lekyii.9856:

I hope that they make the raids hard, and with good rewards, and no RNG box Kitten

The safe money is that there will be a chest, and random stuff from the chest, with the dungeon unique items being on the lower end of the drop rate.

…Thats the way loot in loot games work. It is really amazing though how those BLTP chests have made everyone jump on the RNG hate wagon. Despite the fact it has always been and will always be a core game mechanic.

Borderlands, Torchlight, The Witcher, Diablo, Every MMO Ever, Destiny, The Division…on and on and on. The game you came from probably had RNG loot, the game you will move on to eventually will have RNG loot, the game you are playing on the side probably has RNG loot. Overcome an obstacle, kill a boss, interact with something shiny and hope you get something cool.

From some of your comments, it as if you think Anet invented this mechanic and it offends all of your delicate sensibilities.

GonzoNeo.4965:

Ok for housing and guild house.

No for raids, they are taking away the things that made GW1 a great game and use many WoW things.

After kill many small guilds with Guild Missions they are planning kill more with raids ?

The original GW had “raids” so to speak. The Deep and Urgoz. They were just dungeons that were a little harder than normal dungeons and allowed for parties of twelve instead of eight. The rewards were a nice faction boost and possibly a dungeon specific weapon skin.

Also, though it’s sort of a stretch, Factions had raid type missions. Multiple parties (up to 16 players) in an instance that had to work together to complete the goals.

It would be neat for GW2 to have something similar.

Astralporing.1957:

AcidicVision.5498:

CobaltSixty.1542:

How could you have 2 of the shiniest shiny? Which one is the shiniest?

Best answer.

Most of the ascended stuff is tied directly to a very specific thing in the lore. You can’t have two because two shouldn’t exist.

[cut]

…yep, definitely unique, one-of-a-kind. Two of any of those should never exist.

In case you are confused about the word “Most”, which you quoted for me, http://vlc.polyu.edu.hk/academicwriter/argument/qualifying.htm
Or plainly, knowing and conceding to the point there are some exceptions specifically to avoid generalizing that “all” Ascended items qualify and discourage posts like yours.

Now if we apply the spirit of the post, which is pretty clear…

Half of the items you listed that are the exception are exceedingly rare, so a character would still not likely have two of them. Like the skull of an extinct species, signets that havent been used for over two centuries, arrowheads used by an ancient hero that the Charr would probably take quick claim, or tokens from enemies that the majority of Tyria only ever heard about.

I figured I would have to make this post before the end of the day. Thanks for getting it out of the way quick for me.

Housing has always been on the docket for those that followed production for years pre-release. Our home districts were supposed to be evolving areas that showed our accomplishments, trophies, special NPCs and vendors. And we were supposed to be able to have guests into our home district to show off.

Seems like they are finally getting around to that stuff.

Geotherma.2395:

Spoiler, look away….

Im really interested in whats going on there. Doesn’t that side of the map tie into an area that the Tengu are guarding and refer to as their new “home”? I wonder if the Aetherblade area is going to double as the Tengu capital or it the Dominion of the winds went the way of Cantha.

CobaltSixty.1542:

How could you have 2 of the shiniest shiny? Which one is the shiniest?

Best answer.

Most of the ascended stuff is tied directly to a very specific thing in the lore. You can’t have two because two shouldn’t exist. Conceptually it makes perfect sense. Mechanically it breaks suspension of disbelief when you still see the item in the vendor after you have bought one.

A thing to keep in mind when you wonder “why” about something is that the game extends beyond your spread-sheet perception of your characters. Items or events may tie into the worlds lore, history, current events, well known NPCs, or accomplishments. There are communities in the game besides the min-maxers. And they appreciate small touches like not being able to have two Urns of Altheas Ashes or two of the same ornate necklace that the same person bought for Jenna.

Note: Altheas Ashes may be a bad example because there was a scam the first month of so of GW launch where players were trying to sell other players fraudulent ashes so they could avoid a difficult low level quest. But you get the point.

Aeolus.3615:

This game is getting so bad yet Anet can distract players with snowman finishers in PvP and WvW…..

I think its getting really good. Most of the changes that have come along I would have loved to have a launch.

• Better loot from champs
• Better rewards at the end of dungeons
• Level appropriate rewards in any zone (had a lvl 80 exotic drop from Blood Witch)
• AOE Loot
• Living story is a neat interaction with the games world once story is done
• Preview in TP
• WvW personal progression
• New PvP maps

List goes on and on, but those are some of my favorites. Yes the game has some hiccups still (instance closing when party leader leaves), what game doesn’t? But if you consider how much has been added and improved just as the game is coming up on its 1st birthday, and how much we know is coming, it’s pretty amazing.

I can sympathize with both sides here.

On one hand, it’s no fun being excluded from groups based on experience or lack there of. Everyone had to go through growing pains at some point and they either probably had someone leading the group, checked the wiki or watched a video on how to do something. Some folks just seem to get off on acting superior, while they can, over a sub-set of players that haven’t had the time to get into the content yet. If you have super-l33t-mad-dungeon-skillz, odds are another player with patience and persistence helped you get there. So pay it forward.

On the other, sometimes you just want to go through with a good group and have a nice smooth, well executed run that doesn’t take a break before every unique encounter so the group leader can give the first timers an explanation. And then the subsequent resets and wipes while unfamiliar members are figuring everything out. Despite what some would like to think, that does take time and can make a run twice as long, or longer, than it should take.

To those having trouble finding a group:

• Use Gw2lfg until the in game tool is released (it is coming)
• Actively look for a guild that enjoys learning and running new content
• If you see a lot of people in /m LFG, don’t be afraid to start your own
• Learning a dungeon, be open to advice and take criticism with a grain of salt.
• Don’t rage quit if you started the instance. Your team will blast you for it in /m (or even on GW2Lfg), making grouping later difficult.
• Having Vent/Mumble/TS and a mic is always helpful, but seldom required.

To those experienced with the new stuff:

• If you aren’t pressed for time, mix a new person into your group here and there. It’s easy for four familiar players to carry one while they figure everything out and doesn’t take much time.
• If you take a spot that opened in a group in progress, ask why the person before you ducked out and explain how to keep that from happening.
• Be patient with new players. Someone was patient with you. If it wasn’t this dungeon then it was Fractals, or Lupi, or Alpha, or a jumping puzzle. At some point your noob-ness irritated someone and they chose to educate instead of lambaste you over it.

Feel free to add…

Valondon.8635:

Guns and Giblets.9308:

Korrigan.4837:

No offense meant, but the question doesn’t make much sense, since the game is 100% free once you purchased it. You can reinstall it anytime and have a look yourself.
So since there’s no point in asking that question – why do people ask it? Attention craving?

It’s faster than reinstalling. It’s also faster than reading the notes and then trying all those areas about which he is asking.

A better question is why people care that it was asked. It’s not like a lot of people visit these forums and decide whether the game is worth playing based on what some strangers say—if that’s the underlying concern with these kinds of threads. From what I’ve read about the social habits of gamers, most judge games on their own and by word of mouth from friends.

People who impute the worst of motives to those who even ask whether the game is worth playing again take their enjoyment of a game too seriously and are the kinds of people who prevent it from growing through constructive criticism.

Hit the nail on the head.

You would think that. But look at the community you are asking for a valuable opinion from. Its a gaming forum. So you will have two flavors of replies; the vocal minority that takes every opportunity possible to insult the game, its elements, or its fans and the enthusiast that really enjoys the product and comes here to engage other enthusiasts.

Any posts with actual critical analysis, or constructive criticism are few and far between. So when you ask something as broad as “Is this game worth coming back to?” the replies you can expect will either be fans selling you on new content and changes, or dissatisfied players replying negatively as a way to try to get more attention directed at a subject they don’t like (which is the wrong way to go about providing feedback).

The real kicker of it is that the people that complain the loudest are the ones that play the most. I did an experiment not too long and added players that said they were quitting, that the game wasn’t worth playing, or just generally seemed to be trying their best in the forums to paint the game in the worst light possible, to my friends list to follow. General outcome…

Nearly all of them were on daily or bi-daily for multiple hour sessions and doing anything from Fractals and explo dungeons to WvW and sPvP. Two I caught actively in LA recruiting for their 400+ member guild. It was a lot of activity coming from a lot of players that seemed to devote a portion of their day to convincing other people the game is bad.

The question its self comes into question because of the subjectivity of it. Maybe it wasn’t the OPs intent, but this could easily come off as flame bait. In which case some people may just want to know if an honest conversation is even welcome or if the OPs predisposition means its just an invitation for people to dog pile on features he mentioned he didn’t like.

Getting feedback on the forums might be faster than downloading the client, or updating it if it’s been a while. But it doesn’t matter how much data you get or how fast it comes when the majority of it is either self-serving or outright unreliable. Some things are just worth checking out for yourself.

Valondon.8635:

-Acidic Vision – Is the LFG tool confirmed?

The strings for it and some interface stuff was found in the dat file when someone data-mined the last content patch (the same one that leaked the aetherblade skins). It has not been officially announced but it exists in the game. We just don’t have access to it yet. Probably still in internal testing.

RoRo.8270:

Free to play? I guess I was dreaming when I paid money for this game then

You knew what I meant, but I hope you feel better now that you got that out of your system for the day.

Its free to play. You own it. There is no gear treadmill that you have to worry about falling so far behind on that it would be impossible to catch up. There is not content that you are locked out of because you missed the last month or two of updates.

These forums, are still MMO forums. If players used the opinions in them to determine if they were going to play the game, no MMO in PC gaming history would have made it more than six months.

Best advice is to check the website and see if the events this month look like they would strike your fancy, and then log in to see whats going on in the game. If you aren’t digging it, that’s ok. Maybe some of the changes later down the road will catch your interest a little more (I have some friends that log in for the events here and there, but are waiting specifically for the LFG tool to be implemented before they really get back into it).

Thats the beauty of an ever evolving game with no sub, that doesn’t knock players who decide to take a break down the vertical progression hill. You can drop in to check out the scene anytime you want and still be able to jump into whatever is going on.

I hope Colin is able to laugh at himself a little bit, because when I seen this I absolutely lost it.

People move a lot in software. That’s part of the job expectation. Companies tend to hire what they need to have a “full” staff for normal operation. When more work comes in than is typical, like extra contracts are scored, a company may tend to hire contractors instead of new full-time employees. Contractors stick around for a year and then either get their contract renewed, are offered a full-time position if one is open, or they move on. This is to avoid lay-offs in the lull between contracts.

That company culture ends up with the people on the top (Department heads, senior engineers, lead designers) sticking where they are comfortable since there are fewer of those positions available and there is a certain amount of risk in moving to a new studio. That leaves people lower on the ladder with no where to go. A programmer might go from SE1 to SE2 within a company, but is never going to make senior unless another senior leaves, which they are less unlikely to do.

At that point, once you have gone as far as you can in a company, the only other option is to update your resume and look for somewhere that has a higher potential for growth. Developers also have specialties they don’t necessary get to work in all the time. Someone that has a passion for AI might end up working on feature development. If a comparable position opens up elsewhere that lets them focus on developing AI, they are likely to migrate.

Thats your game (or sim) development insight for the day.

http://goo.gl/Bl9ja

Congrats.

Same thing happened to me. First time I used MF, I threw in four rare daggers from Fractals and got Spark. Sold it to buy the Lover SB, finish T3 armor set and buy miscellaneous other things needed to make the Dreamer.

Im Mudbone.1437:

IMO you have this partially correct, the new content being worked on is for other NCsoft titles like Wildstar not GW2, some to pay bills, most to the NCsoft cut. RNG boxes are the spawn of satan/NCsoft.

Anet has teams working on large content expansions that were 6 months to a year out as of April. Stuff we haven’t seen, heard about, or could even begin to speculate on other than it might involve the next big dragon.

Who do you suppose is paying for the salary and resources to support a team that is working on content that far out, as well as the RD workshop that experiments with new concepts, some of which we see (SAB) and some we don’t?

I think some people that don’t understand the business side of things or software development in general watched a speculative video on youtube and have giant misconception of how things work.

That aside, finally non-rng event skins. And armor sets at that. I think i’ll need to buy two of each set after months of spending nothing on mystery chests, to show support for the decision.

Progression

• What GW2 is was well defined before the start of the game. There is a gear/progression plateau and personal progression past that point is aesthetic (titles, armor and weapon skins) as it was in GW. So the entire first bit of the post about personal evolution immediately tells me the OP didn’t understand the game he was playing to begin with.

Then there is the bit about grinding.

• This one again illustrates a misunderstanding of the game. There are three ways to accomplish the daily. WvW, PvE, PvP. Also, WvW and PvE count towards one monthly and PvP has its own. Add to that that you can pick and choose which categories you complete, allowing you to plot a daily that can be finished in little to no time by doing whatever activity you prefer (dungeons, map completion, exploration, tournaments, hot join PvP, roaming or zerging in WvW).

• Fractal rewards not grinding by way of the daily chest. The first run of an even numbered Fractal over 10 a day essentially counts as two runs. Keep in mind you are doing this for rings. Either drops or pristine relics to choose a ring. So you are guaranteed to get the ring you want after 10 runs, assuming you aren’t already swimming in rings for your main and alts by then. Those 10 runs can be done in your own time. Once a week, twice a week, a lvl thirty, twenty and ten done in one day. There are 20 permutations of Fractals if I recall, so ten of the same run concurrently is very unlikely. Now, is this “grindable”? Yes. Do you have to grind? No. Fact of the matter is ten runs of 1/9th of a dungeon to get a best in slot item of your choosing, on top of random other best in slot items and relics for a best in slot back-piece or bags that would otherwise cost 11+ gold, that can be done at your whimsy without concern of being locked out of other content for not having that item, is an amazing system. Exercise some control over yourself and your have-to-have-it-now attitude and you avoid it becoming repetitive and tedious.

• Guild content. You can’t grind guild missions. This boils down simply to that aforementioned have-to-have-it-now as fast and with as little effort and commitment as possible attitude. In the same breath that the OP claims there is no personal evolution or progression after ascended, he accuses a non-grindable by design system of being grindy and taking time in game to achieve. There are a possible six commendations to earn per week and every activity you do to earn them is totally different. The ascended item requires 12. So it’s another BIS item earned at a minimum of two weeks, or six weeks if you just do Guild Bounties, which will still be different each time.

Point of all that is that claiming there is no personal evolution or content after you have all BIS equipment, and then saying BIS equipment takes too much time to get between too little content (20 variations of Fractals, Fractal daily, PvP dailies, PvE/WvW dailies, PvP Monthly, WvW Monthly, Badges of Honor, Guild Bounties/Rushes/Challenges/Puzzles), is a counter intuitive statement. The activities you can pursue to make progress towards ascended gear can encompass just about everything in the game. Making it easier to get would mean reaching the plateau quicker, which would mean you would be dissatisfied with personal progression unless they added a new tier of gear and then…you have every other MMO ever with a vertical gear climb. Which is whhhhyyy (to bring this around full circle)…progression after you reach the gear plateau is based on aesthetics.

This is already lengthy and its late but I wont go into the economy or storage space and the absolute nerve of a company trying to make money to pay their employees and keep their game running while also offering a way for people to get the same stuff without spending another cent after box sale. Other than to mention that you get five free inventory tabs and max bags are 20 slots, giving each character a possible 100 slots of storage on them without buying tabs.

I am on DB and the server is far from empty. Although it does seem like much more of an East coast US pop. The server seems the busiest from from 5pm – 2am EST during weekdays and 11am – 3am EST weekends.

I’ve been on the server since launch and i’ve never really heard of us having a high Aussie or European population. There are three unofficial-official oceanic servers. Sea of Sorrows being the most popular I think. You may want to research into those a bit and consider a transfer.

Hickeroar.9734:

Know what causes connectivity issues?

Patches.

Well, I guess all software should be 100% perfect, with 100% uptime then and if something is ever found that could impact users it shouldn’t be fixed. No good reason to take services down to add features either.

Glad we came to that conclusion. Ill let you email every online service and every software studio in existence to give them the good news.

The Sea of Sorrows is an old old book. I think it has been through three authors and two major re-writes now as well as delays and publisher issues. One consistent bit is that it is a prequel to GW2 of sorts that goes down about the time Orr rises and Zhaitan wakes up (The order of all three books is backwards chronologically).

Anything is possible I guess, but since this book was conceptualized and in editing before the Aetherblades were a twinkle in Anet’s eyes, I wouldn’t expect them or the inquest to be linked to it at all.

Some peeps were setting the mouse click to auto and dropping more than humanly possible. Hundreds of instances being spawned was causing people to lag, lock up and in some cases disconnect.

Bugs that cause connectivity issues are usually fast patched.

Maybe venoms aren’t too hot in WvW, I wouldn’t know as I don’t WvW often. But a lot of people seriously underestimate their value in sPvP. I run venoms mainly and average between 220-300 points a match consistently. I will be happy to post some score board screen shots if anyone wants to cry BS, but you will be proven wrong.

From a strictly DPS perspective, vemons are about the worst route a thief can take. But as far as team play and utility, there is something to be said about microing vemons to lock down three opponents.

Its a beautiful thing to see a two or three enemies rolling towards a capture point that you can just stop dead in tracks and turn into kittencats while a team-mate steam rolls them. IMO that’s more valuable to the team than focusing down one target and then waiting for my burst to be ready again.

Too each their own, but vemons shouldn’t be discounted because they aren’t the flavor of the month. Which is currently S/D 3 boon ripping.

All that said. I like the Torment option and it will be fun to see what kind of things people come up with. Like stacking torment on an orb runner in Spirit Watch, or Necros stacking Torment, popping epidemic and then chain fearing.

Looks like the Aetherblades caught onto our plan to wrangle the representatives and had the witness croaked in route.

http://goo.gl/vWsUW

DanteZero.9736:

The book is a nice touch, though I wouldn’t mind being able to open it similar to the dungeon books back in GW1. Something along the lines of being able to select a cutscene to watch would be nice.

Also, Charizard and Pikachu on the cover? (I’m sure it’s not the case, but to me, it looks like the two are on the cover.)

I was expecting it to be like the bonus mission pack books and would let you jump in and play the instanced stuff again or choose and watch cutscenes on demand.

I was sort of disappointed that it just auto-played the cutscene and there was no way to cancel out of it.

But I still have hopes that it will evolve into more of a BMP type item

So monocle being a rare item drop from the end of a dungeon differs from any other MMO ever that had random item drops at end of a dungeon hooooooow exactly?

Id like to point the OP to the Lincoln Cast. Its a fan made GW2 podcast (usually) from the Giantbomb community.

Josh Foreman has been a guest on the show a few times and given some insights as to how GW2 teams work.

The gist of it is there is a live team that is made up of several mini teams. Each of them is working on living story content or content additions that are months out. On top of that is another team that is working on major content additions that are a year or more out (my guess would be expansion level stuff, like the next chapter in the elder dragon story).

Finally, and what I think is the neatest, is that a makeshift special purpose team gets thrown together and works in the lab on experimental, entirely new, outside of the box stuff and when it is finished, the team splits and members go back to their original teams.

Super Adventure box came from one of those special purpose teams and who knows what they have in the pipes now.

So Dragon Bash was the work of a micro team in the living story department. It was most likely in production during the Flame and Frost chapter and latest Lost Shores stuff. When Aetherblades starts and Dragon Bash is over, the DB team will start on something we will see in a few months.

Its worth listening to. Anet has some really neat development processes and the creative leeway teams get is refreshing. The experimental team is incredible. Its similar to the “eat your own dog food” concept. Take these tools and systems you made and create something nuts with them that people would enjoy that is a total departure from what is done currently. Im not sure how many people realize, but that sort of creative freedom and budget for experimentation is something much MUCH rarer in game development that you would think.

Podcast page: http://selfconfessedcynic.podbean.com/

I think it’s Dougal Keane. He was the thief and smuggler in Ghosts of Ascalon and used to be in LA near the training area. He is mysteriously not there anymore and with his background there could very well be a reason he cant come to Lion’s Arch or intervene. He is also the sort of character that would have been associated with Majory.

Our character is also not familiar with Keane but his former position in the Lion Guard would make him familiar with us.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dougal_Keane

Edit: Nvm, I found Keane. He is still in LA but not where I remembered him being. kitten . I thought I was on to something.

My bet is on Ree. I think she is involved in that Laws of the Night relaunch so her mind already has to be in a slightly darker themed – super characterized personalities sort of place.

http://goo.gl/vo02V

Amazing. Absolutely amazing. I had a smile on my face the whole time. This is the new bar for cut scene narrative and Majory has to be my new favorite NPC. I really hope she sticks around after the event.

We know Josh is the awesome Puzzle and SAB guy, do we get a specific dev to credit this gem to?

Some people seem to forget that the dailies are achievements. They are supposed to take some minute effort or consideration to complete. If you got them just too-ra-looing around, it wouldn’t be much of an achievement.

There is the opinion you should get them through “normal” play. Well there could be hundreds of different ideas as to what “normal” play would entail and there is just no way to please everyone.

The fact you have a list, of which you can choose five items that fit into or around what you like to do, is more flexible a way to obtain an achievement than most other games offer.

As far as laurels, there are around 40 available per month. That you can get from mix and matching PvP, WvW and PvE daily and monthly achievements. As long as you aren’t snobby about being anti-specific-game-mode, then there is plenty of room to diversify your content without grinding and repeating the same thing over and over.

Equipment:
- Just over 40 laurels per month is enough to get an ascended amulet and infusion of your choice.

-Do the daily rank 10 fractal run here and there and you’ll likely get another ring from the daily chest or maw chest. At the least you’ll get a pristine relic, 10 of those trades for an ascended ring of your choice. OR you can get one from WvW with 250 commendations.

- Join a guild that does guild events. You can get a max of 12 merits per week which trade in for an accessory.

“But I dont like PvP…I dont like WvW…I dont like Fractals…I dont want to PvE…I dont want to play in a guild” … oh get over yourselves. The methods and content are there. You play the game to earn the stuff. It’s really juvenile to blame the game for not throwing you the things you want fast enough when you as a player voluntarily ignore half of the paths to that goal.

And if you want achievements, like dailies, and the rewards that come with them, then earn it. This isn’t little league. You don’t get a trophy just for showing up.

@Frotee, wouldn’t work. They would continue to leech with hopes they end up on a team that will tick them wins. Same thing used to happen in GW with arenas and faction battles until they added dishonor system.

Even if you made the achievement require kills, folks would jump in, get a kill or two and then go afk for the rest of the match.

They could re-implement an engine side dishonor system to use in these types of events, but that is subject to abuse in small team games. People would falsely flag other players that do or say something they don’t like because it would be funny to get someone booted and put in time-out.

Or they could just allow pre-arranged teams, which would open up ways to let players boost matches.

Needless to say, any player side systems to prevent leechers just wouldn’t work. There would need to be some sort of server side, real time player monitoring that analyzes behavior for leeches and bots. I think that would be a pretty big effort for PvP mini games.

I don’t understand. The thing said gems purchased between dates X and Y were eligible. You didn’t purchase gems before X and Y. Therefore no free goodies.

Anet set restrictions, you didn’t fall within them. I don’t see this as your fault or their’s. Just the circumstances of this situation.

What is more interesting is the consumer mindset you have that leads you to believe because you did something once, a long time ago, you should be entitled to something else even though you fall outside of the restriction. And is that mindset limited to games or digital goods? Because no other promotion or give-away works that way (example: bring in receipt if you purchased X before Y get J for free of 20% off K).

Honestly your rant comes off as a little Veruca Salt-y since the restrictions of the promotion were clear and you didn’t meet them, but also because the spirit of the promotion was “Thank you for your CONTINUED support”. Its right there in the mail they send you that comes with the minis. You haven’t CONTINUED to support them post-launch through gem purchases. You supported them pre-launch. Which is great and all. A lot of people did. But Pre and Continued aren’t the same thing.

For supporting them Pre launch you received a three day headstart. For buying the deluxe edition you got an elite skill, a mini and some consumables. You received your perks in full. But if you want to get stuff for continuing to support the game, then you should continue to support it instead of shouting “Hey! Hey! Remember me? I gave you a few bucks 11 months ago before the actual launch date. That means I should get all the stuff to!”

Better be careful. If Kiel sees you, she’ll blow you up real good.

Teevell.1684:

Okay, but you have to use real money, not gold. I look forward to seeing all the overcharge fees on your checking account.

Life has blessed me such that I doubt that will be an issue. If anything i’ll cancel my Xbox One preorder. I am really disliking the cut of Don Mattrick’s jib anyways.

I am going to buy a rich coffer for every anti coffer-RNG post in the event forums. So, vote with your wallet instead of making forum posts that Anet is just going to merge together and ignore because despite what a ton of you say they are still making a fortune on them.

Honestly, I hate RNG chests. But they are not nearly as annoying as the posts that flood the sub-topics every event. So from this point forward, every anti-RNG topic is going to directly support RNG. At the end of the event i’ll post a screen of how many coffers were purchased due to kittening about coffers.

You understand you had a month to do this right? I can understand your frustration after doing it for 5-10 hours straight but…you did that to yourself man.

Also yes…yes we killed a dragon. We killed Zhaitan. It was kind of a big deal. Also the Shatterer, Jormag, Tequatl, and Plague Bringer. And the Dragon Festival is about bashing the rest of them.

And as opposed to freaking out over what is random to get…why not give some mention to the things you can get. Meta achievement this event gives you the Shatterer wings. Every event has had neat stuff you were guaranteed to get by participating.

Complaining about how rare a rare item is is sort of silly don’t you think? Not everything has to be the CoF equivalent of event items ("Oh, well it’s fancy and unique because it’s dungeon armor, but EVERYONE has it).