Guild Wars 2

the things you are asking for do not technically count as “Character Progression.” Rather they are largely things that add cosmetic appeal to the game, though at lower levels. The same effect could be achieved by allowing skins to be purchased at lower costs, or through more varied means than via the Trading Post. A concept that Anet appears to have considered in their latest update by including some new weapon skins on the Gem Store in addition to all the Armor Skins that are already there.

That said, in most Role Playing Games (I am not even going to limit this to just MMORPG’s because this phenomena has been occurring since the genre was invented), the best LOOKING gear, has always been End Game Gear.

In Dungeons and Dragons, the +5 Vorpal Longsword cost roughly 2,000,000 Gold Pieces. That means it costs approximately 1,900,000 more Gold than the value of the most expensive item you could buy in a city the size of Ancient Rome. At least according to D&D Logic. This was the kind of item that had to be found or made, because the players certainly weren’t going to be able to buy one off a random magic-mart.

Point is, the phenomena of “The best items always cost the most” or “The Best Items are only available to End Game Players,” is not new. It has been around since the conception of the genre.

jayvux.4128:

Just to add a bit more,
Also consider the fact that your addiction may conflict with you restricting your son from playing too much.
“How come you get to play more than me dad?!”- Son

Dun dun…DUNNN.

This can of course be countermanded by the ability of adults to restrict their own access if doing so is in the best interest of their children. At least that is what a responsible parent would do, I would hope.

If it were me and my own kid, and he were 10 years old or younger. I would of course restrict his access to FPS Games that are rated for adult audiences. Because games of that sort of graphic nature can be quite damaging to a child’s developing psyche. I would of course do the same thing when it comes to rated R or higher movies.

I would not however forbid my child from going to an Art Museum where nudes are on display because those type of images are artistic renderings of the human body and are not in my humble opinion harmful to a child.

That said, nothing in Guild Wars, with the possible exception of Zhaitan and some of the other undead entities, can truly be said to be graphic in nature. And even those are graphic in an artistic manner. And there is very little done in the way of mutilating corpses and stuff of that nature. So I would see no problem with letting a 10 year old play a game like this, so long as I was there to play it with them.

If however, I thought that they were playing too much, I would of course restrict the amount of time they are allowed to play the game. I would also do the same thing to myself so that they can’t complain that I get to play and they don’t.

For the record, I am a 30 year old.

IVIUIEI.9631:

My ideas were to have him play along with me on the weekend only. I have a second desktop that was use for movies only, its got a low end graphics card on it. But I’m not sure if Anet allows two account per ip. Gaming for him is only on the the weekends.

A guy at my church and his roomate play from the same apartment/house. So yes, I think they do allow the use of the same IP, so long as both games are registered to different accounts.

Thats a very nice hat

Where’d you get it?

Stooperdale it depends on how you define progression. The Living Story isn’t really designed to progress a specific character at all. Rather it is designed to progress the entire game world as a whole. That is what makes Guild Wars 2 different from other games, the entire Living World System is designed to allow the players as a group to alter the very world they are playing in as an entity. Where as in other games, no matter what the players do, the world generally remains more or less static. At least it does unless the game developers release a new content update or expansion that somehow drastically changes the game environment.

That isn’t necessary with the Living World. With the Living World, if the players defeat the end boss of a given Dynamic Event, that End Boss is effectively dead. At least until the Developers decide to recycle the event for some reason. Thats why the Living World is so different.

At least that was how I understood it to work. Correct me if I am wrong about this.

are you asking for more character progression (i.e. more levels, story content, and end game dungeons) or are you asking for ways to spend your in-game currency that you appear to be accumulating without having a reasonable outlet to spend it all? Because the two are not the same thing.

Protoavis.9107:

MrRuin.9740:

I’m curious about the argument people are making about “knowing your class and how to play”. Forget crafting and look at the other methods of ‘power-leveling’ in GW2. What exactly does running the champ train in Queensdale teach about your class, besides how to wp around quickly and press 1? What does a WvW karma train teach you about your class mechanics, besides how important it is to tag things for credit? What does most open world content teach you, since most of it is facerolled?
Its an empty argument IMO. None of the quicker ways to level teach you anything about mechanics, crafting included.

Even at “end game” what does doing dungeons teach you about playing your class, 99% of it involves

- run past all mobs
- stand on this ledge where mobs can’t hurt you but you can hurt them
- stack here and face tank boss, boss continually changes targets and no one is really at risk of dying
- everyone stack reflect

in all honesty, no one really needs to know how to “play their class” they just need to follow someone that know’s how to play.

And how does that happen if everyone follows your example and no one really learns how to play, thereby creating the effect where no one knows how to play well enough to create effective leaders for all these trains I keep hearing about?

Or are you assuming that the only people that really need to learn how to play are the people who already know how to play and therefore no one else should even bother attempting to learn how to play because there is no point?

Both situations are stupid and ineffective at fostering a growing community.

they need a more inventive censor. And ironically I did have a space inbetween the words, somehow that space appears to have been ignored by the censor. Does it do that often?

I also appear to have lost a response that I edited in on my last post for some reason.

Suffice to say, I define Class / Race / Proficiency (Crafting) the way that it is defined in Dungeons and Dragons, because that was the very first actual Role Playing Game ever created. Until Dungeons and Dragons defines these things differently in all of its versions, I will continue to define them the way that the majority of versions of Dungeons and Dragons defines it, and not the way that Anet or another gaming company deigns to define it on their own whim. Simply because the intellectual concept belongs to TSR who is owned by Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro. Not by anyone else.

Protoavis.9107:

An Siorai Tharian.4516:

Crafting to be capable of understanding that particular mechanikittenil they are forced to, because most MMO’s do not have that type of a mechanic.

If you’ve come from WoW or a WoW clone that makes sense, to an extent, but many mmo’s that came out a year or so below GW2 had some degree of active combat, eg the dodge mechanic of gw2 isn’t that different from DCUO block mechanic which isn’t that different from Age of Conan, etc they all boil doing to watching out for telegraphed attacks and mitigating that damage through reflex action rather than a skill.

WTH happened to my post, that is supposed to say “Mechanic” followed by “until” not “mechanikittenil” what the heck is a Mechanikittenil?

The first Massively Multiplayer Roleplaying Game I ever played, was Final Fantasy XI. That game is anything, EXCEPT a World of Warcraft Clone. Rather it is the first installement of the Massively Mutliplayer versions of the entire Final Fantasy Franchise. That in and of itself earned it some respect, seeing as how the Final Fantasy Franchise is WAY WAY more popular than World of Warcraft in a lot of ways.

That said, power leveling of any sort in that game was next to impossible until the Abyssea Expansions, which weren’t released until EIGHT years after the original release of the game. The reason for this is because if you tried to party with a character whose level was more than a few (read 2 or 3) levels higher than yours, then your experience point rewards from monsters would be nerfed so hard as to make it pointless. In otherwords in that game the only way to power level effectively, was to have a high level White Mage, or other healing spec class sitting outside the party, performing healing on the party, while the party goes to town on the local flaura and fauna.

Unfortunately, the side effect of power leveling in that game, was that you would end up having level 75 characters dressed in level 10 armor, and somehow unable to get the level 75 armor because they are woefully under geared and under financed thanks to having spent all their money to finance their power leveling.

The same kinds of things happened in the next MMORPG I played, Perfect World, which was essentially a WoW clone, even if it was an Asian WoW clone. There they actually promoted power leveling by having items that multiplied the amount of experience you got from kills by as much as 12 times the normal rate. Which is of course understandable to an extent considering that the maximum level in that game was at the time 105, and it took over 2 billion total experience points to reach it, and most mobs even in end game content only dropped around 100 experience points at any given time without the XP Boosters. But the same aftereffects of power leveling in that game arose, people were too high level, with too low finances, and couldn’t afford the end game gear to make up the difference in stats.

Same problem appears in multiple games. The effort Guild Wars makes to try and change that, by having Crafting Award Experience Points, where most other games do not, is admirable, but ultimately problematic in its own right. Because crafting to level robs people of the skill to play properly. Even if it does give them the ability to craft their own end game gear. It also apparently costs a lot of money to do. So basically, you have to spend a crap ton of money to get to end game levels, where you have to spend an even larger sum of money to get end game gear, where you then have to spend an even larger amount of time, learning how to play.

Yeah, I don’t see any problem whatsoever /sarcasm.

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I will also add that a Public Beta is essentially the last stage of development for a game. And nothing else. Yes, it also generally doubles as a major source of advertisement, but its primary purpose is that of letting the developers know what the public at large thinks of the game, as well as having the public at large have access to the game so that they can find any and all bugs that the developers themselves did not find in the first place.

If it were purely a marketing tool, then a public beta would not be public. It would be accessible only to media outlets and thus a closed beta.

Additionally, it should be noted that Game Developers are just as much humans as the rest of us. What sets them apart from us however, is that we do not own the license to modify this game, they do. As such they are permitted to at any time change their mind about any design decision they had previously made, and change how it operates within the game, for any kitten reason that they want. They don’t even have to justify their reasons for doing this. THEY OWN THE GAME, NOT US! All we own are copies of the game.

ATMAvatar.5749:

An Siorai Tharian.4516:

Then can you honestly expect that player to know the first thing about how to actually play their chosen class when they get their first character or for that matter ANY character to level 80, and proceed to leave the confines of the crafting district in whatever their starting city was and attempt to join a Fractals Run or whatever the End Game Content of choice that they choose to undertake happens to be?

Why not? The professions aren’t that hard to get a basic handle on, and story dungeons/the early levels of fractals are cake. You can’t go 15 minutes in LA without a guild invite, so they can even cut their teeth with guildmates.

Okay…

A.) A Profession (aka Proficiency) is a Crafting Skill, like Artifice.

B.) A Class, is what your character actually does in Combat, i.e. a Guardian.

C.) A Race is the species of the Character which can augment the characters abilities in combat to some extent.

Get those terms right. They were defined this way long before Guild Wars was even conceived of. Heck, they were defined this way long before Massively Multiplayer Roleplaying Games were even dreamt about.

These terms defined in this way, have their origin in the Pencil and Paper Role Playing Game known as Dungeons and Dragons First Edition! Said game was first published in 1974, long before Video Games developed an online presence of any sort, much less a massively multiplayer presence. So please adhere to the definitions held by all RPG’s. Even Guild Wars in its attempts to break away from conventions has not defied the traditional definitions of the Class/Race/Proficiency trinity, even though they tried to do away with the other trinity inherent in Role Playing Games.

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As for your assertion that the Classes aren’t all that hard to get a basic handle on. Sure, maybe not. That doesn’t change the fact that if you want an advanced knowledge of how the class works on an indepth level, your going to need to level it from the ground up, in a combat friendly environment. Preferably against both Player and A.I. opponents. Theory alone will not suffice. Nor will simply a few weeks of practice.

I know from personal experience that I did not understand the dodge mechanikittenil I had gone through a little over 80 levels. I haven’t actually leveled any one character up to level 70 yet, but between 2 characters that I leveled to 33 and 35 each, and another that is in it’s early 20’s, I have a little over 80 cumulative levels worth of experience at my disposal, and it took almost all of them for me to completely comprehend how to use the dodge mechanic to its fullest capabilities. I would not expect a person who has leveled all of their characters exclusively through Crafting to be capable of understanding that particular mechanikittenil they are forced to, because most MMO’s do not have that type of a mechanic.

Yenn.9185:

This is GW2, not that just some other MMOs. One of the features advertised by this game, and the reason some players bought it including myself, is that I don’t have to do things I don’t enjoy. Yes, this is different from other MMOs and that’s one of its selling point.

Let’s not even get into the debate that I’m a “noob” for a powerleveling thru crafting. That could turn ugly fast.

Fine I won’t get into that argument.

However, I will say that if a person came to this game for the explicit reason that they did not have to go out and fight monsters in order to reach max level, because there is a perfectly viable alternative way to reach max level in the form of crafting. And all they have to do is spend X amount of real money in order to accomplish it.

And they do that with every single character that they ever make. Then can you honestly expect that player to know the first thing about how to actually play their chosen class when they get their first character or for that matter ANY character to level 80, and proceed to leave the confines of the crafting district in whatever their starting city was and attempt to join a Fractals Run or whatever the End Game Content of choice that they choose to undertake happens to be?

Please note that for the effort of this discussion, PvP does not count as actually learning to play your character because different rules apply to how your character reacts to things in PvP versus the rules that apply in PvE. Same is true of WvW vs. PvE. Different rules apply no matter what is happening when you are using a Player to fight another Player and then attempt to use that same Player to fight an Artificially Intelligent Opponent.

For one thing, the reaction time of an A.I. is much higher than a human behind a keyboard can pull off. Which is why A.I. Mesmers and Rangers in Guild Wars 1 were so kitten ed good at interrupting their targets, where as Human Mesmers and Rangers had to have godly reflexes to pull off anything quite so good.

Yenn.9185:

Togashi Jack.9531:

I don’t know, this might be a foreign concept for some people but you might want to consider leveling to 80 by a means that is not exclusively crafting, such as… well… playing the game?

“Play how you want”, buddy. Not everyone wanna level a character traditional way when it’s more time and cost efficient to just craft. Not to mention it’s boring as hell to go out in the open world. WvW karma train makes it less painful though.

Actually, the phrase “Play how you want” is not meant to be interpreted as “Go sit in a corner and craft your way to max level.”

In fact most MMO’s don’t even award the player experience to level their character up when doing crafting, so count yourself lucky that this game does. They didn’t have to implement the EXP reward for crafting. You could just have a crafting grind where the only rewards are money made on high end items (which is in turn limited by costs incurred in making the item) and the actual items you need for your character.

Additionally most MMO’s only let you level 1 or 2 crafts to maximum crafting level, this game apparently lets you level ALL of them, and then for a fee, switch between them as you wish. That is another advantage to crafting in this game that didn’t have to be there.

Point is, this game has it good. Even if crafting experience is nerfed… you really should be playing your character in open world so that you know what you are doing when you actually get to level 80 and start doing end game content. That way you don’t get kicked out of a Fractal or High Level Dungeon for being a noob.

Please note, I don’t use the term Noob lightly. I personally only use it to refer to people who willfully remain ignorant of how their class functions in the actual games content by doing stupid things like leveling their character to 80 by crafting instead of by spending time actually out fighting monsters.

Astral Projections.7320:

It feels like you are addicted?

I suggest you contact support (or maybe a mental health professional) if you ever get the urge to snort the game off the computer screen or mainline the game thru the power cord.

dude, that is in bad form. Addictions to Video Games are a serious issue in this day and age. People have lost their jobs because they couldn’t stop playing their preferred MMO, even when they were on the clock at work.

In fact people have fallen over sick from playing a given video game for too many consecutive hours without stopping to rest. One particular noteworthy example of this case was when the Linkshell (Guild) known as Beyond the Limitation, who had previously spent 18 hours straight fighting some of FFXI’s other High Notorious Monsters (Mega Bosses), went out and sought to tackle the newest (at that time) Mega Boss known as Pandemonium Warden. What set that Boss apart from all the previous ones, is that at the time the level cap of the game was 75, the boss was higher level than that level cap, and the boss had over 20 different forms that you had to fight.

They didn’t even get to the point where they could claim victory at the point where the 18 hour marker had come and past, and the boss was still alive and they hadn’t even progressed past the majority of the fight yet. At this point they had to forfeit the fight because people were literally getting physically ill because of how much time the fight was taking.

So please do not make light of addictions to video games. They are real, and people will spend more time playing these games than is actually healthy for them.

ThiBash.5634:

As you can tell, I like the system as it is now…which is also why I still don’t get why Ascended gear had to be implemented.

Ascended Gear was implemented (if I am correct on this) for those of us without a spare 520 USD to drop on the Gem to Gold Conversion system so that we would have enough to buy a Legendary Weapon. They are essentially the Poor Man’s Legendary Weapons. They allow people to have the ability to compete on an even footing with those people who own Legendary Weapons in events such as World Vs. World, or High Level Fractals and Dungeons, without actually having to spend the massive amounts of money needed in order to buy a Legendary Weapon.

Unlike popular opinion, when compared to a person wielding a Legendary Weapon (especially in a WvW scenario) a simple Exotic Weapon is just not going to cut it.

guys, guys, guys.

World Of Warcraft has as of this year, over 7 MILLION subscribers still active (according to mmodata.blogspot.com. And that game has been in existence for nine full years.

Unlike Guild Wars 2, World of Warcraft has not got nearly as advanced graphics, voice acting, or any of the other advanced features that this game has. Additionally World of Warcraft has been coming out with story content almost continuously since its release in an effort to keep its subscribers happy.

Guild Wars 2 does not have subscribers in the way that World of Warcraft does. As such they are not as dependent on making their viewers happy the same way as Blizzard is. That said, unlike World of Warcraft who is probably slowly running out of ideas for new content, Guild Wars has a CRAP TON of stuff already available to it that we haven’t even seen yet.

1. We have as of now only defeated ONE out of SIX Elder Dragons. Two of them we aren’t even sure actually exist as more than just hear say. That is Five Full Scale Updates right there. Each with a possibility of a level cap increase and or new weapons and skills.
2. Elona is cut off from Tyria thanks to Palawa Joko. We will probably need to go in and deal with that issue as well. Probably even to the point of dealing with the Margonites a second time.
3. Cantha is cut off from Tyria, and possibly under the sway of yet another evil Emperor. Heck Shiro might have returned again somehow for all we know. Being dead already he has some advantages on the immortality deal.
4. There are at least SIX missing Gods to figure out at least for the Humans. The Norn have their Spirits to figure out. And the Asura have the whole Eternal Alchemy thing to figure out. Then the Sylvari still seem to have unresolved issues with the Nightmare Court. Not to mention the Charr’s issues with the Flame Legion. Those unresolved issues could be yet another content update.

Truth be told we have a whole lot we can still do in this game that has yet to be released.

yLoon.5289:

OP Is like wanna get the LionHeart on Disc 1 in FFVIII.

It’s been done. Really time consuming and ultimately pointless, but still possible.

What the OP is actually doing is essentially the same as trying to win FFVII with Aerith still alive. Technically only people who really care about the aesthetics of the game (as well as who are willing to shell out for a GameShark) are capable of this achievement.

Truth be told, casuals shouldn’t need to spend huge fortunes for the best looking skins in the game. Afterall that’s why ascended weapons, and exotic weapons exist in the game. They are cheap alternatives to the truly expensive Legendary Weapons. And add to that the fact that the Ascended Weapons technically have the same stat spreads as the Legendary Weapons and you are looking at a problem where the Legendary Weapons are truly only necessary for people who are absolutely relentless in having the best gear in the game without understanding that the best gear is going to set them back hundreds of dollars in real money (whether they actually spend real money, or it is just the equivalent of real money that they are set back by).

Point is, if you let this game eat away a small fortune in gold, then you are playing the game wrong. The only reason that I can think of that the Legendary Weapons even exist in the game is in order to hold up the tradition of having truly awesome but impractical weapons in the game that was present in Guild Wars 1. The Destroyer Weapons from Guild Wars 1 come to mind as the best example of this.

And truth be told, I am in no way going to spend 1,000 to 3,000 gold or the equivalent in raw materials on purchasing a Legendary Weapon when I can get the same exact stats and just as good an appearance on an Ascended Weapon for a crap ton less money!

Guardian is among other things, the spiritual successor to the Monk, Paragon, and to a lesser extent the Ritualist. It is in effect the world of Guild Wars’ answer to the Trope known only as The Paladin. Unlike the namesake of the Trope, the Guardian does not get it’s powers from a divine source, as is evidenced by the fact that the Char can become Guardian’s. However they do have powers typically associated with the divine. Nor do they need to be absolutely Lawful Good in their behavior towards the world, though their in-game archetype representation in the form of Logan Thackery would beg to differ.

All told I have found that the Guardian is by and large one of my favorite classes to play both from a perspective of flavor, and from a perspective of game mechanics, falling somewhere around my other favorite class of Ranger.

Norn Cultural Armor Tier 3
Body Type Top Left
Skin Color: probably Light 14
Tattoo’s First Screen Bottom Right
Tattoo Color: Tattoo Traditional
Hair first screen bottom right
Hair Color: Campfire
Accessory Color: Deep Maple
Eye Color: probably Medium Green

Sliders are difficult to explain so I won’t try, but that should get you really close to the appearance of Eir Stegalkin.

About 11 months ago this was posted in this quote was posted in this sub forum:

applecup.3047:

I just want to get out of the way that I love Guild Wars 2, and while there are flaws it is still a wonderful game.

However.

I am Welsh, and a Welsh speaker, and interacting with the Sylvari in any way is at times painful. While I admire the work that must have gone into the game, there are plenty of instances where it feels like while some effort has been made to give the Sylvari a celtic flavour, not quite enough research was done – names and words are mispronounced, misspelt, and misused, which for those of us who understand the language puts a damper on the experience.

A few examples of what I mean:

• See original post for rest of the post in question *

I am here to refute this post somewhat. I doubt very much whether I will get an open response from the person who posted this topic, but I am hoping to open up some dialogue with other people and possibly explain some of why I don’t think that the mispronounciations (from a Welsh Perspective) are necessarily all that bad. So without further adieu, lets get started.

The first two words that he cites in his bullet points are probably accurate. But, when you get a bunch of professional actors and actresses together, all of whom are given a script, none of whom are very likely to know the native language of the Welsh, and several of whom probably aren’t even aware that there is a native language of the Welsh other than English. Chances are very very high that you are going to get mispronounced words all over the place.

With regards to the third bullet point, I noticed that several people in the previous thread on this topic were constantly agreeing with their Original Poster that Apple Castle made no sense. Well, unfortunately it does make sense, especially when you consider that Arthurian Legend plays a very large chunk in the design aesthetics of the Sylvari.

Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote of a place he referred to in his earliest of writings as Insula Pomorum, which is a latin phrase that basically means “Isle of Apples” or if Google Translate is to be believed, “Island Fruits.” The location in question goes by a couple of different names as well, the most common of which used in modern English is of course Avalon.

Now, as it happens, many ancient sites in Southern Brittainy (as it was known in Roman times) were actually the homes of Roman Fortications. The location of Avalon should be no different. Many people suspect that Glastonbury was the location of Avalon. While there is no direct evidence of a permanent settlement of Romans at the Tor of Glastonbury, there is evidence of Romans visiting there on occasion.

So please tell me again, why is it that Apple Castle doesn’t make sense in regards to Arthurian Legend? Add to that the plant based nature of the sylvari, their society, and their architecture and there is even more reason why a castle made of magically sculpted apple trees would make sense to some extent.

In regards to the name Gweithwyr, that was probably a botched attempt on their part to reference Guinevere.

Also he specifically singled out Cymraeg (Welsh) and Gailge (Irish)… why only those two? There are other live Celtic Diaspora Languages, Brezhoneg (Breton) is still spoken in Brittany (north shores of France), Gàidlig is still spoken in Scotland, Kernewek is still spoken in Cornwall, and Gaelg is still spoken on the Isle of Man. And thats not even getting into the dead branches of the language. So why single only those two out as being so far above the others? The Sylvari are based on Celtic Myth and Legend with a special interest in Arthurian Legend. There is as much of the other Celtic Nations in them as there is of Ireland and Wales. He shouldn’t have excluded any of the nations.

It should be noted that the word apple when translated into Brezhoneg, which would be what was spoken in and around the area of the Glastonbury Tor at the time Arthur was born, is actually spelled Aval, not Afal.

would you prefer I call the Asura a bunch of Dork’s or Geeks?

(technical definitions follow):

Nerd means a stupid person according to the older definitions
Geek is another word for a stupid person…
Dork however originally referred to a males genitalia.

They all have since been co-opted by popular culture to refer to highly intellectual people or people who are involved in alternative forms of entertainment such as video games, role playing games, and trading card games.

Either way, all three terms in their new meanings as they have been co-opted by popular culture would technically be applicable to the Asura.

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Being vastly superior to other races isn’t the same as being a nerd

You realize the introductory sequence for the Asura race has this quote in it:

“I am Asura, I personify Genius”

That, is the very definition of being a Nerd on all accounts.

SoPP, I assume you mean “As a stereotype, a ranger that runs only a signet build using only Shortbow/Longbow and who has no idea of other weapon sets would be my definition of a bad ranger”?

I currently working on a Longbow/Greatsword build with my Ranger that uses the slotskills; Healing Spring, Quickening Zephyr, Signet of the Wild, Signet of Stone, and either the Elites Rampage as One, Entangle, or Take Root depending on the situation I find myself in.

I would be using a 30/20/20/0/0 Traits Build with the following Trait Abilities:

Marksmanship: I; Steady Focus, X; Eagle Eye, XI; Signet of the Beastmaster
Skrimishing: II; Sharpened Edges, X; Quick Draw
Wilderness Survival: IV; Vigorous Renewal, VIII; Oakheart Salve

That is after discussing staying with Ranger with my Guild and listening to all of your opinions. Now, I am unsure if a Signet Build using Longbow and Greatsword is optimal, but it is the style of combat that I feel most comfortable with atm. I also feel that I am comfortable enough with the Ranger that if the need arises I could comfortably switch to a different weapon set and slot skill set up if I wanted to at a later date and given some time to practice with it, could probably do fairly well. But while leveling I figure that this build is probably the build that I will feel the most comfortable with.

Any thoughts?

Hello everyone,

I am still fairly new to Guild Wars 2. I have a level 29 Sylvari Ranger, a level 15 Asura Engineer, and a level 33 Charr Guardian. I enjoy all 3 of them. That said, I am looking to take a character to 80 (I haven’t got a level 80 character as of yet). The problem is, I can’t decide what type of character I want that to be.

I keep hearing a lot of people complaining that Ranger is all sorts of terribad in end game content and PvP/WvW. However at the moment my Ranger is becoming easily my favorite character due to the ranged component.

What I want is a character that excels at ranged combat, but which isn’t all that horrible at end game content, PvP, or WvW. A character who would be welcome in Dungeons and Fractals. But who can do solo PvE just as easily.

If that makes any kind of sense? Truth be told I am unsure whether what I want even really exists in the game.

Any suggestions would be welcome.

in my opinion all of these changes are good, some of them may even make some builds that were previously unplayable, viable again.

The question then, is whether the Gods predate, and or created the Elder Dragons. Or whether the Elder Dragons themselves are possibly even of the order of power magnitude equaling the Gods themselves.

In fact in many ways I would liken the Elder Dragons to the Elder Gods of the Cthulu Mythos, and the Human Gods (Dwayna, Melandru, etc…) as being of a lesser power level than the Elder Dragons, and thus anything they create would be inherently capable of being corrupted by the Dragons. At least that is my interpretation.

In fact it could be argued that the Nightmare Court, or Scarlet’s Minions are the Dragon Corrupted versions of the Sylvari as both are not existing in the way I would consider that the Sylvari were intended to exist.

I haven’t completed the story with Malyck as of yet. But as near as I can tell from what I have done of his story. He is not a Sylvari who was born of the Pale Tree as we know it. And Caithe’s reaction to his existence seems to indicate that she does not believe him to be a member of their branch of Sylvari at all to begin with.

If this is true, then it would seem to indicate that the Sylvari as a species may not originate from this Pale Tree. In fact it may indicate that the current crop of Sylvari may not even be the very first crop of Sylvari to exist on Tyria. This plaque does present some interesting possibilities. However assuming the plaque in question was written as part of the original game, and not part of the Eye of the North Expansion, or later expansions, then it is probably safe to assume that this plaque very likely has exactly nothing to do with the Sylvari race, and probably more to do with the Druids or another group of people associated with revering nature.

Dustfinger.9510:

An Siorai Tharian.4516:

As far as I am aware they have not attempted to have romantic dealings with any of the other species as of the moment. Whose to say what would happen if they did.

While I’m a fan of lore possibilities, A-net has chimed in that no two different playable species are capable of reproduction. So there will be no half norn/half sylvari, or half human/half charr, etc.

that seems stupid, especially in the case of the Human and Norn species who are almost identical in every regard except for size and the Norn’s inherent ability to transform into animals…

Additionally it has been stated that the Sylvari do have the necessary naughty bits to have sexual intercourse in both directions. What makes them different from other races is that it remains unclear (because it has yet to actually happen) whether the Sylvari have the necessary organs to reproduce or not. Any given animal or species can have sexual organs necessary to have sexual intercourse while also being infertile. Such circumstances happens in our own species here on Earth afterall, there are humans who for whatever reason cannot conceive children.

The fact that they haven’t bred successfully with each other up until now, does not indicate that they are incapable of breeding successfully with other species on the planet. Whose to say that if they were to have relations with a Treant type creature (as unlikely as that is to happen) that they wouldn’t have an offspring. And whose to say that their biology is completely incompatible with humans, or norn. They certainly look compatible.

The fact is that as of now, they have only (to my knowledge) attempted to have relationships with each other (other Sylvari). As far as I am aware they have not attempted to have romantic dealings with any of the other species as of the moment. Whose to say what would happen if they did.

Also, the concept of the “Wyld Hunt” is not that completely Alien to humans. At least not here on Earth. Here on Earth, the concept of the Wyld Hunt has it’s origins in ancient Celtic Mythology where the Sidhe practiced it almost constantly. And for that matter so did the Ancient Celts. So it is not that unusual.

As for how I approach the Sylvari. I see them for what they are. A species of plant creatures that are heavily influenced by the concepts that are usually associated with the Aes Sidhe (the Good Sylvari) and Unseelie Sidhe (the Nightmare Court). All of them however are heavily influenced by the Sidhe of Ancient Britain. Which is why the Sylvari are easily my favorite race.

Chadramar.8156:

If anything, I wish they looked — and were written as — MORE alien and inhuman, because making them human-cute severely diminishes their uniqueness and the simple fact that they are very much NOT human. That is why I use the branch-face for my guardian and the branch-“hair” for my elementalist, and clearly non-human coloration for both.

They aren’t supposed to be inhuman-aliens. Well, Perhaps Malyck could have been written that way if the writers and developers had really thought his story line and differences from the other sylvari through far enough. But the thing that makes the Sylvari interesting is that they were modeled by the Pale Tree after humans and other humanoid species (the Norn). If you want inhuman-aliens, then look no further than the Asura or the Charr, because both of them qualify. And if you want truly inhuman-abominations, then your playing the wrong game. You should be playing Call of the Cthulu instead.

Plus the entire Sylvari Culture is steeped in Arthurian and Celtic Romanticism.

I have encountered two NPC’s near the Watchful Source Waypoint in the Brisban Wildlands Map near Zinder Slope. One of these NPC’s Thermaine has me confused. His voice actor sounds like one of three possible famous voice actors… Sir Christopher Lee, Sir Sean Connery, or John Rhys-Davies. All three of whom have similar voices. Unfortunately I would think all three of them would require top-line casting in this game but this Thermaine fellow is not even listed on IMDB, so I have no idea who his actual voice actor happens to be.

I was wondering if any of you happen to know who his Voice Actor happens to be?

Skady.5916:

An Siorai Tharian.4516:

I fail to understand this… are you guys complaining because pets die to fast in Player vs. Environment? Because that hasn’t been my experience (granted the most AoE spamming I have seen on my Ranger atm is the Frost Maw Boss as I am only level 19, but still).

I stopped reading here. Level your character, enter any dungeon or Tequatl fight and come back talk to me how pets amazingly survive any fight

Um… unless Tequatl or the bosses in every single dungeon (even the low level ones) can somehow one shot a Ranger’s Pet with any random attack much less an AoE that in almost every case (with the exception of Grenade style attacks) does damage over time instead of damage in one large lump sum. Then you should be more than capable of using the Pet Swap Mechanic to save your pet when it gets down to 25% health from dying. If you time it right, then you will have a short cooldown on your Pet Swap Mechanic, your original pet will have its hit points completely reset on the bench, and your new pet will automatically attack the target you are attacking. You can then proceed to do the same thing over again when this new pet hits 25% health.

The only time (at least in my experience) that the pet swap feature has an extended cooldown is when the pet actually dies. But if your doing the pet swap at 25% health, that shouldn’t happen.

tigirius.9014:

Yeah they took something that was already nerfed and nerfed it some more, traps. Traps are the ranger equiv of the Engineer Grenade kit now back when the explosive radius was about the size of a fart from a midget. LOL hehe sigh sniffles…..I need a tissue.

Pets omg pets. not only did turrets not get a drop of the 71% health in PVE but ranger pets did and it didn’t make a single bit of difference predictibly! Seriously Anet 90% AOE immunity. It’s the only way unless you’ll be giving pets the Champion Boss level of hitpoints and the resists the bosses have to CC and burst damage.

I fail to understand this… are you guys complaining because pets die to fast in Player vs. Environment? Because that hasn’t been my experience (granted the most AoE spamming I have seen on my Ranger atm is the Frost Maw Boss as I am only level 19, but still). Point is you can swap pets the same way you can swap weapons. When one is getting low on HP, swap it out. That way the original pets hit points reset and you aren’t stuck with the obscene swap cooldown you get when a pet actually dies out right. Once the next pet starts getting low, swap that one as well. Keep doing that and you won’t run out of pet up time if you play it smart.

That is really the best way to go when it comes to PvE. If your complaint is that you are being face rolled in PvP or WvW because the pet and traps are being nerfed… well yeah. I could have told you that all the way back in Guild Wars ONE. Ranger was sub optimal in Guild Wars One in almost every PvP scenario with the exception of Zaishen Battles where you are basically fighting a party of NPC’s and the best strategy is to have a Trap Ranger set up traps and then carpet bomb them with an Elementalists Meteor spell. But that strategy really doesn’t work on human players because the human intellect will stay out of range of the traps, and move out of the blast radius of the Meteor in the direction you don’t want them to move in.

Pets don’t work in general against human players either because they will ignore the pet and go straight for the actual player instead. That means that Ranger is not the best option to be PvP’ing or WvW’ing with. So unless your complaints are solely related to how Ranger performs in PvE, Dungeons, and Fractals, your point is kind of invalid for this kind of discussion because other human players are just too smart for you to stand a chance against with conventional ranger tactics.

As for Pets dying to out and out AoE. Learn to swap them before they die and you should be better off.

Burnfall.9573:

Why Insult and Humiliate the Op english grammar?

As a result,

Your post Does Not Deserve to be read.

(follow the post here>> trashcan)

I could barely understand anything that Scoobaniec.9561 said due to the fact that his skills with the English language are so atrocious. If you managed to follow it, all the more power to you. But some people prefer to at least be able to read legible (even if it isn’t grammatically correct) english. What Scoobaniec wrote came across as being written by someone who is barely literate, as such not really worth my time to consider.

zamalek.2154:

Invictus.1503:

I really hope English is not your first language as your grammar is atrocious. If it is a second language though, completely understandable.

• though; completely understandable.

Conversational/txt English is perfect for forums like these. That argument is completely off-topic. Moving back on to the topic.

I am sorry but NO. Conversational Text as you call it, or LEET (1337) speak as most people refer to it is not proper English and is as such not permissible in any format where you have access to a fully functional keyboard with the entire Qwerty layout or a similar layout. Heck it isn’t even really passable on modern day Smart Phones any more due to the fully functional keyboards that exist on those phones now. So really there is no excuse for writing in such a manner unless you are suffering from actually being barely literate yourself or you are not a native English speaker. Both of which are valid explanations for not having a firm grasp on the English language and proper spelling and grammar. Anything else is simply being lazy.

guys, really, this game has seen 18 Content Updates. Now Content Updates are not necessarily full scale Expansion Packs. But when one takes into account the fact that this game is largely a Free To Play game with a Cash Shop, one has to understand that Content Updates are generally how the large majority of Expansions are going to be handled. Other Online Games utilizing the free to play model use the exact same Content Update System as opposed to straight Expansion Pack Releases because it is cheaper to produce several smaller content updates over the course of several months as opposed to a single large scale expansion pack. This is especially true in games that utilize the kind of voice acting that this game utilizes (though I personally only know of only one other MMORPG that utilizes voice acting in it).