I worked at harvesting the clusters. I still do not think the drop rate, at least for me, is all that great but it was doable with some effort farming Dry Top, Frostgorge, Malachor’s Leap, Cursed Shore and any other place with elder logs. (I made the rounds on any alt who had those maps which helped) It just took some time.
I made the back piece and now have a Cultivated Seed which says: “The first seed cultivated and produced by your own hand. To cultivate this specimen to be even better than the last, perhaps another type of magically infused clay pot is necessary.” This is making me wonder if we will still need to continue to collect foxfire clusters in addition to some other ingredients if we want the next level of this back piece.
….but I like that Taimi’s disability is a part of who she is, but isn’t the only thing that defines her as a character. snip
Agree with you here. I am disabled so I do understand a disability being part of you on a daily basis. You work with it or around it as you can. Taimi appears to be working with what she has available. She has a great (genius) mind and has chose to use that rather than dwelling on her condition. We also are not around her for long periods of time and we don’t really know much of her back story which is something I would love to find out about. I do find myself caught up in her enthusiasm which is infectious and she does have a good way of explaining things which few asurans seem to be able to do. I see no pity party here for her and actually really don’t notice she is disabled – I am focusing more on her personality and what she is than what she appears to be. She is a personality and a force of nature so to speak. I do say Kudos to ANet for creating characters who are not totally perfect. This one happens to be a physical imperfection. Other characters have their flaws and weaknesses as well.
Okay, Braham may not be the brains of the outfit and he may be a tad on the “bash first, smash later” side at times, but I’d argue that he’s the heart of the group and has grown as the story progressed. snip
I see Brahm as a big brother figure. His dad raised him right. Rox is sort of his surrogate mother – she worries after him, nags him and pushes him to the right path. I have never seem him as a big dumb goon who just bashes things. You see the youth and enthusiasm and eagerness. Like any youth he may not always make the right decisions and he definitely does not have enough life experience to understand his bio-mother but he may come to terms with that eventually as he gets to know her and her reasons for doing what she did. I would assume most other Norn mothers are more involved with their children than Eir was. I think she stayed out of his life on purpose and they will gain a common bond with what is coming, though I would not be surprised to find her sacrificing herself for Brahm at some point.
Okay, the hot asian—err canthan—femme fatale and the bubbly blonde bombshell are classic stereotypes. I’m not going to argue that. …snip…. I’ll give you the fact that they are unoriginal and stereotypical, but to say that they don’t have problems and they can’t grow as characters is off the mark. …snip…. One problem I have, is that Anet is rehashing the same storyline with Rox and Braham in Season 2, and, in my opinion, Rox doting on Braham and not wanting him to put himself in danger is being better executed because it isn’t mired by the same ultra-feminine/ultra-closed-off-loner stereotypes as Kas and Jory. snip
Yeah, definitely feeling the stereotype here. If anything this one has been the icky, ooey, gooey, lovey, dovey overdone stereotype. I do agree each has grown as individuals and while sorry to see Belinda die (I saw the red shirt as soon as she showed up, lol) I was happier seeing Kasmeer act on her own during this episode. She felt a lot less like Marjory’s appendage and a strong person in her own right. I also sort of got the sense that Marjory’s family may not be so accepting of Kasmeer. But Marjory also realized that the group did not need both of them gone at this point and it appears to be the first recognition from Marjory that Kasmeer is fully capable of operating without her. I definitely would like to see them grow out of a stereotype instead of rehashing over and over. I am enjoying the Rox/Braham relationship and would like to see it develop more as well.
I support this as well. I replayed on my alts mainly for rewards and to open up the areas as well as playing through on different professions to see how each one does. It would have been nice if the achieves open up account wide once the first avatar does the entire event so that not only do you get the LS progression but also a chance at fulfilling the achieves at the same time without having to finish then replay. I did the event 6 times (all of my avatars and have no plans on going back to replay again just to get the achieves.
Finally got all I needed. I started in Malachor’s Leap and grabbed a gathering banner (many thanks to those guilds who provided them!) ran the bit around the Melandru statue and then ran around the rest of the zone gathering and then went to Cursed Shore, gathered there and on to Frostgorge. Repeated on 2 other avatars that have made it to those maps. If I had the time I ran them all twice a day but also picked up events here and there as well since they were going on. You would think with all the other stuff that drops that folk like Svanir would have collected the clusters and they would drop from them as well…
I did go long periods of time with nothing (gathering boost didn’t help either) then it seemed to hit and I would get them every couple of trees. The last day I even got two clusters from the last tree I logged so that put me one over what I needed. It was a grind but doable. I also changed it up farming for geodes in Dry Top so I could buy the clay. Over all I also got a lot of good materials for crafting that I needed so I guess it was worth it. Hopefully the drop rate will improve as things move on. I suspect it would take forever to gather those clusters if you were doing it casually.
I did enjoy the scavenger hunt aspect of it as well. That was a nice change of pace.
RNG is very sucky on this one. My warrior managed nearly 16 ranging over Dry Top, Malachor, Cursed Shore and Frostgorge the first two days. Since then it has been 4 or less a day even trying with alts. Boosters seem to have little to no effect that I could see. I saw someone say in chat in Dry Top that the cacti were also giving them but have never seen them. Nor have I ever seen one in Ancient wood. Only in the elder wood. I don’t mind working for them but this seems on the pointless side working so hard for so few. At least allow the RNG give you a minimum of 4 a day over so much farming. Give more as a special reward occasionally…
I have gotten two unidentified fossils just by drops over the last 10 days and I was out of town for 4 of those days. Definitely RNG and I was totally surprised each time I got one. Then it was a grind to try to get the geodes for the recipes I wanted.
Another issue is you also need the Nomad Orichalcum Recipe in addition to the Recipe for the particular weapon desired and you need to know which fossil matches up to that recipe in order to get that as well. No way to tell other than going to some third party place like the wiki or Dulfy to find out. In game it is impossible. At least with the recipe there should be a hint when looking at it to figure out which insect you need as well as letting you know you need to have that inscription to make it.
Better question: are settlements set up on nexi because they can draw magic better from them, or do nexi form on settlements because of the confluence of magic there?
Interesting what you say about settlements and ley lines. Definitely there is the large hub in Lion’s Arch because Taimi says so (and Scarlet’s focus on drilling there). That may be the largest and an area that I would love to see. Possibly there is a mutual attraction and that explains why the various populations settled where they did. It also seems the asurans in developing their gate technology have theorized but were never able to really prove the relationship until now. And maybe some of the other legends of the various races are attributable to this relationship. As you said, a lens of cultural perception….
I just finished the books and really enjoyed them. Hubby is reading them now. They are great background for the overall story.
I do think Dougal will play into the later episode(s). He is one of the very few with actual experience and fairly extensive knowledge of the Ascalon ghosts. He most likely knows something useful to the team. Who knows, maybe Destiny’s Edge will reform as well, though I think it would take Queen Jenna releasing Logan from his vow of loyalty or her death before that would really happen.
Second character to do Episode 2, but that character’s first time. I got two achievements completed – “Mess with the Bull” and “Fire for Effect”.
Is this a new thing or a bug?
I got those two as well on my second character doing Episode 2. I did not get any of the other achieves though, and I know I completed “No Tricks” like I was suppose to.
I know “On Swift Wings” is definitely bugged and will be fixed with the next patch on the 29th. I will try to replay on the other character who has completed after the patch and see if I can get the “No Tricks” then.
The one I did get, definitely RNG. I was harvesting a cactus and was able to hit it 4 times and thank goodness it was during a dust storm because I also had some keys so I ran and found a locked box and opened it right away and got the unidentified fossil and some goggles. I doubt that will happen again but it was nice lady luck was kind. Now I got to save up for the recipe (had spent most of my geodes on keys) and hope the server gets to level 4 at some point… but that’s a whole nother story…
The wonky camera angles also make the 15 second crystals difficult to use. I got the LLama one by sheer luck because I just kept moving. The crystal timer does not allow one to maneuver the camera quick enough to line things up well. Folks have been complaining about the horrible camera views since the game started. Fix that and I suspect the 15 seconds on the crystal won’t matter as much.
Taimi suffers from a huge case of “teen invincibility syndrome”. We’ve all see it, heck the majority of us probably have been through that phase, the believe we can do stupid stuff and not get hurt/killed or in trouble.
I used to live in the north suburbs of Chicago, and there’s a road called Sheridan Road which follows the curves of Lake Michigan. It’s a popular place for teenagers to go at night and take the turns at the highest speed they can manage. I can’t tell you how many accidents and tickets come out of that one stretch of road, just because of teen invincibility syndrome. That’s Taimi to a tee, and it doesn’t help that she is intelligent and thinks that’s all she needs. She doesn’t understand yet the difference between knowledge and experience.
Very interesting you say this. It reminded me of an article I had read in National Geographic about the teenage brain. It explains a lot even if it doesn’t make one feel any better about teen behavior…
Teens often value reward over risk and may do risky things in order to achieve that reward. I see Taimi as doing just that. She acknowledges there is a risk but finds the ultimate reward worth taking that risk. I will be interested in following her story as I find her a very interesting character. Asurans have a big ego and she is no different.
You can tell that some people have never had any difficulty jumping, and just cannot comprehend our point of view. Additionally, some of them are unwilling to accept another point of view. And some of them just come here to be argumentative. These are people we cannot reach, or convince to consider our point of view. They are not receptive, and we should not waste our time(and thread space) responding to them.
We need to respectfully, make our issues known in a clear, concise manner, for the people who are willing to consider another point of view.(hopefully the Anet dev staff) Anything else is a waste of time and effort, and is just cluttering up the thread.
Totally agree with you here on the subject. People will be what they will be. Discussion should be directed at providing useful comments and offering ideas to the devs.
While I am not a fan of jumping puzzles, they have challenged me and the ones I managed to succeed at I am very proud of doing. I have great difficulty doing sustained timed jumping so I just don’t do those. I will never get Spekk’s Laboratory. I do what content I can do.
I am not saying dumb down things but I would like to see alternate routes be available for those who may not want or be able to leap vertically in a timed manner. The devs could get quite creative in creating a convoluted route, or puzzles to be solved to have a different way to reach the top. Those who love the jumping challenge would have their jumps, the puzzle solvers would have theirs. It doesn’t have to be for every jumping puzzle.
As a warrior you can get a stance which gives stability, you can use Shake It Off to get back on your feet after being knocked down. Endurance regen signet allows you to dodge twice (essentially making you get hit just once every time he does his pattern). You can also use your shield to block two of his hits. I heard from others that you can avoid it by jumping but I have no idea if that’s actually true. He also appears to be immume to certain ranged dmg, that is probably why your mesmer copies didn’t do damage.
Jumping does work. I avoided that part with both my Warrior and Guardian. As long as they are timed right you should be good. I got nailed when I slipped up (I have a hard time focusing for longer battles) and it got me. I may switch to a shield for additional and see if that works.
Dulfy has a video that shows an alternative way of getting to the top from the left side debris vs. using the aspect on the right. There is a dicey leap to the large beam at the top which you may need a speed boost for and you need to look closely to see where to launch from. I kept missing until I aimed towards the end of the beam. (I am hoping practice makes it better, lol) From there you can work your way up without any crystals to the last crystal and use that to get to the top. The last bit is not easy for me but at least there are two ways of getting up to the last crystal. If I can figure out that last bit, I will feel a lot better about this particular puzzle though the diving platform will still be nada for me since I cannot get up there fast enough using the aspect. If I can hit the hay I will figure this will be good enough for me…
I just watched Guild Wars 2 – Points of Interest: Episode 2, which is about the first chapter of Living Story Season2. http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2/c/4590714 Near the end(shortly after the 32 minute mark) they bring up a twitter question phrased in exactly the same wording as my original thread which was merged into this one “Why is Living Story Season 2 only for people who can jump?” They then explain that they’re exploring new game play avenues, and that “joy of movement” is a big theme for this release, and that “verticality” is a big part of it. and that being able to scale cliffs and explore should be fun for us. They want Dry Top to be very unique, and “verticality” fits very well with the Zephyrite theme. But they never really address the question(“Why is Living Story Season 2 only for people who can jump?”) IMO. I don’t know that they really understood that the person was asking why they were doing something that could exclude people who can’t jump from the new content. That they would be inducing hardships and difficulties for part of their player base.
I agree with you there. I really like the areas I am able to scale in Dry Top, I have enjoyed figuring ways to get on top of things and have managed to make my way to some surprising areas. The jumping puzzle on the other hand definitely induces a bit a hardship, let alone the diving platform which is impossible without a mesmer. I have managed to get to the top maybe 2 times in what feels like 1000 tries – very frustrating. My issue is being able to keep focused and go fast enough to make it to the top (disability related issue for me).
The other issue is the the abysmal camera views and angles. By the time I can get a view on where I want to go, the timer runs out and I am stuck. No joy of movement there….
Also once you die, if no one is around to rezz you, there is a long and involved trek back up to reenact the same failure. It would be nice to have an alternate route if you did not want to do the jumping puzzle more than once. It could be a more lengthy route or one you had to puzzle through a bit to get to where you could make your way up.
I do want to thank the folk who take the time to rezz others and the wonderful mesmers who have helped so many get up there and to the diving platform. These folk show what true community is about.
If you got the lockpicks all you have to do is run around and hold CTL to spot the chests. Then you have to get to them. Not really that hard. I got some very nice recipes out of those chests.
I’ve got a few recipes, but nothing notable so far. Though, I have got plenty of Emp Frags which, is what I’ve been needing badly since I don’t run dungeons. The other loot I get from them is good enough to keep me running around doing the events.
I like it, personally this way.
I got an ascended recipe from one of those chests so pretty happy overall.
I’m actually not too grumpy over it myself. Considering pretty much every drop in GW1 was a collectible trophy that some collector took somewhere…. yeah, GW2 aint got nuthin on that. I had a 2nd account just packed with all those things, cause you never knew when they might be needed for something.
Oh geez, don’t remind me.
What I want to know is why the hell the Zephyrites are so interested in geodes? Is there some canon explanation for this, or just a generic “Ooh, shiny! Collecting rocks is certain to help us in our time of crisis!” spiel?
If you got the lockpicks all you have to do is run around and hold CTL to spot the chests. Then you have to get to them. Not really that hard. I got some very nice recipes out of those chests.
I went up the right side of the bamboo and hit my forward key as I went up aiming at where the verticals and horizontal meet. Once you get to the next crystal I turned and faced outward and jumped straight up and managed to catch the big piece going upward. You can do that from either of the top two horizontal bamboo pieces, though if you are the top one, move to the far left before turning and jumping up to catch the beam. Otherwise if you are on the top bamboo go to the far left, face the cliff and jump up to it. Then you need to carefully hop on to the big bamboo piece. I am not so good that I can get this every time but it has made it easier when I have managed to get every jump right all the way up.
The upper part has been hugely hit or miss (more misses, sadly) getting to the top but last time I was successful I used the last crystal to get to one of the horizontal beams sticking out from the verticals nearest to the cliff and then turned, faced the cliff and made the last jump. If I go from another outer direction I always seem to miss and fall.
What I find most frustrating is the long, long trip back up from the waypoint. I ‘get’ why the crystals are shorter term because they are basically fractured and separated from what it is the Zephyrites do to them so maybe they are not as powerful.
I have yet to get up to the diving platform without someone portaling me up and then I jump and promptly die so that may be yet another diving achieve I pass by.
Do you think the quicksand is part of the ley line? I noticed it went into the cliff and continues through the Inquest facility. Possibly Aerin was trying to bring down the ship near the ley line for some reason or it runs towards the Pale Tree which he may have been trying to get to.
“We’re happy to announce that the first episode of Living World Season 2 will kick off on July 1! The Festival of the Four Winds will continue until that date, so enjoy the festivities while they last!”
If you have played this game any length of time you know you better cash in your whatevers before that patch comes. That news item, by the way, shows as you are logging in so there is little excuse for not having checked it. If you don’t check those links as you are logging on, maybe you should…
Yes, it would be nice to have a ‘grace period’ but then folk would be asking for extra time for this that and the other. Overall it is ANet’s call. I am truly sorry for those who may have missed cashing in but life can be full of missed opportunities. I have had one or two missed opportunities in the game myself. Sucky but there you go… This is just one of many you encounter through life.
I pretty much ranged him but it took a bit before I realized when he put up the shield I had to get the aspect and go at him to take it down when he was on the platform where the ramp went up to. Once I realized that, it was dodging the bomb attacks and ranging him until he went down. It was not easy but it is doable. I did not jump to the other platforms at all. When I got knocked down I ran back avoiding the fighting below the best I could and got back on the ramp. I do admit I got knocked down quite a bit but my encouragement was that I saw I was making some inroads on his health as I went….
Just for the record. A dev once said on this forum on a question if vendors of a festival would stay for another week that that’s how they did it before so it’s how we could expect it in that festival as well (it was some time ago with another festival).
So since then I expect that to be the case.
I did not forget to spend any tokens I waited till the festival was over (what I knew would be today) so I knew how many tokens I would end up with and could then decide what to buy with it.
I usually don’t have many tokens so I have no idea what happened those other times but I do know that usually they are there for a while after an event.
Anyway, if they are nowhere I expect Anet simply to have forgotten it and we might see them in the next patch being added. That happened before as well.
I think THIS may have been the link where they said event would continue until Season 2 kicked off July 1. Basically you had until the patch took place.
I would like ANet to give an answer, though, whether the tokens will be any good in the future so at least folk can make decisions on keeping or throwing away such things.
Periodically the doors to the Inquest base open and an event spawns to rescue Zephyrites. No one was around so I just ran in and dodged the golems and inquest to get the POI in there and ran out… There are some barriers that you need to take down to get further in but you will need a group to do that…
I found one in the quicksand just inside the fence area. If you walk on the safe side of the fence you can spot it, jump in, grab and jump out…. Make sure you have a key though, lol. Another I found way in the back of the mine but did not have a key at the time.
