Guild Wars 2

No thanks. IMO there is still plenty to do. Maybe I’m just lucky: the rewards are just an extra to me, not the reason to play. I don’t need more tiers of gear to have fun.

Engie is one of the most flexible and “do everything” professions out there. It is ideal for soloing PvE, not so good for specific party compositions on group play (“Jack of all trades, master of none” applies here.) Condi engie is well accepted in raids, but in PvE open world you don’t need to close yourself in any specific build. FT for tagging, Rifle for bursting, Pistol for burning, Nades for range, Moa for trolling, Gyros for easy stealth, Hammer for tanking, Turrets for no reason… the choices are plenty, none of them is bad.

Engie. Asura. She was my first, she is my main still today, although I have one 80 for every profession.

Rasimir.6239:

Ashantara.8731:

It has grown to a point where I would say this has become a major annoyance for old school players; “old” by the means of GW play time and players’ age, as IMO only youngsters can enjoy seeing a classic RPG being turned into a platformer (hint: this is still Guild Wars, not Donkey Kong).

At almost 50 years on earth, 4.5 years in Tyria, and with poor reflexes and coordination to begin with, I guess I do qualify under your definition of “old”, but still I love that after the (to me) boring flat maps of the previous episodes we finally get a vertical one again. I’m having a blast exploring the map and trying to find my way around. It does remind me of the computer rpgs I loved to play back in the 80s and 90s where you had to explore and map everything yourself (or wait for your game magazine of choice to print spoiler maps … but most of the time I had my games mapped way before spoiler maps were available)….

Fully agree with you, Rasimir. Draconis Mons is a map that requires you to truly explore and move around, not a flat sheet with some places painted over, and that is a good thing.

I haven’t completed it yet, but I did explored most of it yesterday in just a couple of hours, and I don’t even have the spidey mastery yet. The Burial Chamber was one of the first PoI I found, simply by walking around, searching caves and avoiding devourers, even before I had the 3 WPs maped. Later I died amost twelve times doing the diving googles, and ended flying around into quite a few new places, all the while finding the druid spirit guys, completing hearts and fighting champions.

I haven’t had so much fun since entering Verdant Brink for the first time!

For the record, I’m almost 40 years old, and I don’t like Donkey Kong. I do love GW2 “platforms”, though: for me they are simply amazingly fun, hundred of times better than any boring “classic” rpg. Maybe its because I just play around, completing objectives as they appear, instead of trying to get everything solved instantly?

Oh, I forgot the most important!
You cant survive without these:
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Emote

This approach was proposed by many players since the legendary armors were announced. They did not listen, and now Charr tails and Asura toes still clip like hell.

Ah, Asuran toes don’t count, then. They are not subtle or hard to notice.

IMO the current rewards are good for people that just port, and is nice that Mesmers and friends can help people to complete MPs, Pois and Dailys. However, I think JP should give better rewards to people who actually do them: they require time and skill, and are a lot harder than most world bosses that offer better gains for merely pressing 1111.

Fighting:
Don’t expect to kill everything at once. Pay atention to the mobs animations, learn to dodge in the right moment. In GW2 there isn’t a true trinity: every profession have tools to do damage, give support, enhance their movement and cure themselves. Not all are equally capable at all, but the idea is no one have to over-specialice if they don’t want to. GW2 has 2 kind of damage: Direct damage(power stat, influenced by precision and ferocity) is burst focused, good for killin thing fast, ideal for trash that die with one well placed hit; Condi damage (condition dmg stat influenced mainly by condi duration) is damage over time, so you apply it and then defend or escape, making it good to kill some bigger creatures and bosses. CC means “crowd control”, and refers to skills used to push, pull, interrupt and slowdown enemies. It is not that relevant in core tyria, but become increasingly important as you approach HoT zones, were foes can have a bar you have to break with CC to defeat them. It is also a very rewarding and hard to master style of gameplay: you have to know were and when to CC, to really control the creatures and to NOT mess with the play of the other payers (People hate when Rangers use Longbow 4 to push a mob outside a zone of damage without thinking).
Overall, dodging and boon sharing (how many people sharing boosts can become excedingly powerful thogheter) are the most important things you’ll need to learn while leveling.

QoL
Your inventory will get full quite fast. You can Deposit Materials using an option in the little cog in the upper right corner of your Inventory. Those materials go to the material storage, in your bank, and WILL become full over time too, forcing you to sell, craft, delete or buy more bank space. Do not fall into the Diogenes syndrome. Do NOT prize items too much. Most of them are not as valuable as you think. If it says “this item only has value as part of a collection” is usually better to delete asap.
You’ll also need to learn how to salvage things: salvage kits are quite anoying, IMO, because them only stack to 25. So, as soon as you can get 3 Mystic Stones, combine them in the forge with Master, Journeyman and Fine salvaging kits to get Mystic Salvage Kits, which stack to 250. Also you can buy the cooper and silver feed salvage kits from the gemstore, but they aren’t good if you want to optimize every single copper cent you make in game (I have both because I don’t care, I prefer to pay for the comfort).
The R key let your toon run without pressing W all the time, which is handy when running though big maps, and a must when you zerg at WvW.
Pressing Escape you’ll get the option menu, and within the visual/graphic one there are settings to adjust your camera exactly like you want. I usually adjust it so it is over my toon and slightly to a side, so I always have the center of my screen clear to see the situation.
Asura and other short characters tend to be easier to use on Jumping Puzzles, because at some point the camera gets funky.

That’s all I can remember right now. The game is really complex and IMO, extremely beautiful and fun, and honestly, I think is above each and every single other MMORPG out there. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Of course, if you need any help and are in NA servers, don’t hesitate to contact me. I’ll help with anything I can.

SO, my advice:

Talk to people:
Ask for help, make questions in game. Most players will help you without any problem, the community is still warm and helpful, even if these forums are so salty. People with apple symbols over their heads are acting as Mentors. They are SPECTING YOU to ask them for support and guidance. People with commander badges are leading group efforts to do some big event (from killing bosses, completing metas to farming stuff) If you follow them you will find the larger groups of people on the map (the “zerg”) which could make your life way easier in some hostile environments. Once you hit HoT maps, ask someone with experience to explain what Taxi-ing is (It is very important there, but it will confuse you without need if I explain it now).
Try to get into a good Guild.

Leveling:
While leveling, try to keep your armor within 10 levels of your toon level. Dont forget to look at your Hero panel: learn your traits as you go unlocking them, and don’t diversify too much at the beggining (3 core traitlines completed are best than 6 half lines). Your main focus while leveling should be getting waypoints: they open all the travelling options you’ll need later, allowing you to travel from boss to boss, go with your guild to complete any mission in any point of the world, and move around during living story. Vistas, Jumping Puzzles, Events, Hero Points and simple node farming give you MUCH more experience points than just killing things.
Try to get access to a city hub as soon as possible (crafting stations, bank, trading posts and other useful features are easy to get there). Personally I reccomend Rata Sum, as the services are all very close and easy to navigate. Lion’s Arch will be important later because the Mystic Toile… Mystic Forge is there.

Crafts:
Try to craft things, so you can steadily level up your crafting disciplines, because they come in handy later (You’ll need 3 toons to have the more relevant crafts without buying extra craft slots: tailor, leatherworker and armorsmith make armor; weaponsmith, huntsman and artificer make weapons.) Cooking and jewelling are easy to level, but aren’t really needed in the endgame, so they could be seen as a lose of time and resources.

I’m sure Golemancer will make it eventually. Just not yet. And I think (I HOPE) the Holosmith could give them more room to maneuver, balance and fix things.

Gimli.9461:

Carighan.6758:

Now that I’ve seen them ingame, there’s one entirely unforgivable thing IMO:

• You again screwed up Charr and Asura.
• No tail flap/hole for Charr.
• No toes for Asura

What’s the problem with the Charr? I seriously think all 3 sets look best on the charr, because of the tail and because of how their upper bodies are much wider than their lower bodies. And because they are simply bigger race.

So personally I am rolling every class as a charr, because that legendary tail is something out of this world

I see the tail working well on heavy. On medium it looks awful. On light haven’t checked. Asura toes aren’t properly made on medium or light.

All the events the HoT maps are part of the story too. Rushing through the instanced chapters is not the best way to enjoy the story. That being said, the story DO lacks strenght. It could have been much, much, much better.

HoT may have been rushed, but the maps are still better than most maps on any MMORPG. I think they can make better, but sometimes I doubt they have the will and ability to avoid “koreanizing” the game…

Miltek.2104:

To be worse based on Leakozaurus (guy who posted Ele and Guard skillbars) Holosmith isn’t even close to be completed. Previous itaration of Engineer’s elite spec was scrapped few weeks ago (doesn’t this sound like Scrapper, and his heat and fuel mechanics?). Holosmith is still owrk in progress.

Oh, boy, NOT AGAIN!

Someone ask about the trenchcoat fixation please.

Holosmith sounds better to me than Holomancer because it sounds less arcane, more techie. More techie is more engie!

I hate Quip, so don’t ask me.

This sounds better and better every post. And no… I’m not being sarcastic. I actually love JPs!

Taimi is the one that first comes to my head, simply because shes been quite relevant lately, and I love her dialogues. But there are a lot of good characters, not always being correctly used… Most Asura I find extremely annoying and funny at the same time. The necro lines are great, th engie ones too… Elli & Zott story is as great as is tragic.
Snarl and Galina are a great charr couple, also, funny, tender and fierce. Good backstories, there.

I know is not going to be very popular, but I like the couple of Quaggans in verdant Brink, Baroosh and Shashoo: they have the character development everyone else lacks…

Do you really think they can balance a 33%(or more) speed boost ITEM in such a way it doesn’t affect speed related traits, runes, skills and sigils? Do you really think the item speed boost will NOT become mandatory once it make permaswiftness builds, scape skills and swiftness sharing obsolete?

Gliding barely affect speed. While you feel to move faster, that is only true when the slopes are steep enough (Some other players have made the measurement). However Gliding has already made all the “falling” traits obsolete, useless. These were really situational traits. Speed traits aren’t situational. They are a basic part of half the game (The game is not just combat. Is exploration too).

I’m literally praying they don’t mess everything up just to sell mounts. And I’m not a religious man.

Sooloo.1364:

Love when people say it’s not hard. Ive been in there since the update and I cannot find how to get up top. Call me stupid all you like but im certainly not the only person that cant navigate this hell. I thought they learned after TD that most people wont play this type of map.

We don’t have any hard data. Maybe they learned after TD that most people DO play this type of map.

For my side, I’m happy to get a HoT style map again, although I still have to truly explore it to give a proper opinion.

I don’t think HoT maps were easy to navigate (mostly due to a bad minimap, but still). They were hard to navigate and SO MUCH FUN. I love a good maze, lots of situations to face, places to discover and challenges to solve. Hope this map delivers.

Is it a sword? It looked like a sword or a dagger to me, but I’m not sure.

Ashantara.8731:

Yes, because the HoT maps weren’t “complete garbage” in terms of their structure, which turned many casual players off (many quit playing GW2 altogether because of the maps’ complex, initially confusing layouts and the need for mastery leveling in order to get everywhere).

So… Just because you don’t know how to dodge a few chill/freeze attacks doesn’t make the map garbage. Revisiting Bitterfrost Frontier for farming while having a bit of a challenge there is fine with me.

Totally disagree. IMO Bitterfrost don’t get even closer to the ankles of marvels like Verdant Brink. I can like a good ice theme, but Bitterfrost is simply boring.

wolfyrik.2017:

Holograms? I’m calling it, new class utlity will be third set of utterly worthless AI.

That’s my fear, too. I hope they instead make it more like armors, barriers, limb extensions and the like.

Real or not mounts still remain a risk for many aspects of the game. If they truly implement them, I really hope they do it with extreme caution and without breaking other things.

So, while we don’t have too much to speculate, we at least have a beautiful image and a, in my opinion, very cool name to begin with.

Lets make some air castles about the Holosmith.
I supose they will take some hints from Scarlet and Elli work!

PS: The leak contains quite a bunch of spoilers, and has made its way to Massively.
It seems really legit to me, and really beautiful.

While I think mounts having a speed boost would be bad for the game balance… I’m hoping they can fix it somehow.

Overall all those leaked material seems very legit, and surprisingly good. Even the spec names make more sense than the last batch. The art looks beautiful, (yes, even the mounts).

tekfan.3179:

I just saw a legendary armor showcase on youtube.
For everyone playing an Asura:
Light armor: Nude toes clipping through the shoe
Medium armor: Nude toes clipping through the shoe, but at least the upper side of the toes is protected by a plate when you draw your weapon
Heavy armor: The only armor where I didn’t see clipping toes, due to asura-adapted boots. Give that designer a raise!

Feedback for Arenanet: Once again clipping toes for a whole race…on the legendary armor set…which took quite long…which is in the brightest spotlight to see each error…while your designers whine about how hard the clipping-issue was. I don’t even know which words to use for this. Among others “QA-failure” comes to mind.
Just scale the shoes a bit wider so they encompass the toes, or even better: Just add a small spike on each side to cover the toes, use the same material as the main-material of the shoe and map it to a fitting dye-channel.

I must agree with you, Tekfan. It is really dissapointing to see.

I wouldn’t complain about this if there werent at least 5 boots in the game that do work correctly with asuran toes. So it is possible to do it right. They simply aren’t giving it the time/priority at all.

Maybe it’s Canach, and he deceived us all along.

Maybe is Canach, and he deceived us all along.

So you want a medium armor that is not a trench coat: Well, here it is (NOT!).
So trollish. I’ll be laughing if the asuran boots werent showing the toes anyway, making me cry.

zealex.9410:

i dont understand whats so bad about mounts?

My point here is not about mounts being bad. My point is mounts aren’t widely accepted.

Here is my proud summary about the subject.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Suggestion-Mounts-in-GW2/first#post6352809

PS: I DO think they would be bad for the game IF they have an speed boost. But that’s not the theme here.

Also, considering the Norn culture, Braham situation of being “left behind as a child” by one parent to become a legend must be quite common. Baing raised with an absent mother or father must be very normal for them. Why is Braham taking it so hard?

Luckyly, all I have repeated is an extra Copper Feed Salvage device.

Animation cancelling is also used for movement, by cancelling the endings on some skills, like Jump Shot with engie.

Prize Novel = Skill.
Ferrari = Exclusivity.
Prize Novel =/= Ferrari

SakuraJD.4720:

Scrapper: Grenades – maybe when using Juggernaut, you could change them to be an orb of liquid metal(and perhaps if this isnt already a thing, add in a projectile effect for any bolts or projectiles from other skills while wielding Juggernaut.).

Can we please add some legendary effect to Engie OUTSIDE of Grenade Kit? Like…. on Flame Blast?, or Orbital Strike, or Rocket Boots, or any were else???

So, it seems to happen every 6 months

Nice to know.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

If community request since 2012 are the requirement for features in the next expansion (which surely already has been finalized), then housing, mounts, Open World PvP and a plethora of other things must be included, as well.

Jus’ saying….

AFAIK Build Templates seems to be the only one of those without vocal detractors. Maybe housing too?
Mounts are despised by a very vehement group, through good arguments, insulting shouts and horse beating gifs; and I’m sure I don’t have to point the classic reaction to proposals of Open World PvP…

Taking on account the actual situation of GW2 players, Lazarus is probably Froggy.

ButterPeanut.9746:

Making heavy ASAP simply due to the fact that what I personally find valuable is exclusivity. Only other legendary I own is the pvp backpiece.

Exclusivity is the only reasonable explanation for Raids. It’s also the saddest.

You missed the FT effect on your Streamlined kits version. Just saying.

Overall a very interesting list, although I would do different changes almost everywhere.

I agree with Coro on the Streamlined Kits changes being detrimental to diversity.
I disagree with Coro on the Blast finisher on Rocket Boots. IMO the blast should be on Rocket Kick, so Rocket Boots can be 100% movement skill.

Personal Battering Ram – Now has cone-shaped attack radius, allowing to hit multiple enemies with it. Reduced cooldown to 18 seconds.

I simply LOVE this.

Lazarus is Doctor Strange?
That almost make sense…

Rauderi.8706:

Bitterfrost Frontier
Obnoxious to travel through because the leyline structure is borked. Chill enemies everywhere, some that deliberately force losing the one mastery-thing you get from the map. (Seriously, torches should prevent freezing by default.) I’ve said ghatkittenit more from traveling there than I have in some jumping puzzles. A bunch of useless item chaff and a story zone that serves no other purpose than to be a daily nuisance. If not for the berry farm for unbound magic and loot chests, it’d be a total failure.
D-

Completely agree with the comments. I would change the evaluation, though. Does F- exists?

Heavy: Passable.
Medium: Unatractive. (Boots and gauntlets look good, though.)
Light: Repulsive. (Muzzle-face AND circus-tent rear? Come on!)

Verdant Brink
Auric Basin
Tangled Depths
Silverwastes
All the rest

I think I’ll try to get the boots, and maybe the gauntlets. They seem very useable for my engie.

Randulf.7614:

mtpelion.4562:

Mysteries that remain a mystery for too long become “pointless things we no longer care about”.

Other than the few times you redo map completion, nothing draws you there to remind you that a mystery is present, thus it isn’t a mystery any longer, just background art.

That can be valid in many cases, however this is not one of them, since 10 years on, players are still looking up and talking, wondering and speculating at its mysteries.

We get back to that topic from time to time, no doubt. But wondering and speculating? That’s in the past.

If this post can work as a basic example, you will find we invested more time arguing about IF Anet is going to or should do something with the tower than wondering or speculating about it. I have some suggestions for Anet about the tower, but I don’t really have speculations anymore: it is just a nice looking place I would like they use for something, wich I never think about while I’m playing, because I know they will NOT use for anything. It is abandoned.

Aaron Ansari.1604:

Ardid.7203:

An world that lets you put in it centaurs, humans with wings, talking bears and giant ants with tentacles without any reasoning behind except “god made them that way” is fundamentally different from a “big bang” that set a bunch of basic rules that must be fulfilled by every aspect of the universe.

And that’s where we’re disagreeing. Providing basic rules that result in those same forms isn’t fundamentally different than letting a god make them, it just kicks the can back a couple steps to provide a somewhat different flavor. It is fundamentally different from a setting that just doesn’t have tentacle ants, but at that point you’re not talking science vs. mythology. You’ve moved up to realism vs. fantasy.

No, when you create a world IT IS fundamentally different if there are basic rules governing it or not. They do change everything (Just compare Harry Potter with The Last Air Bender). I have NEVER been talking about mythology vs science. These are stories: I’m talking about (meta)physical constants vs arbitrary authoral preferences, about internal verisimilitude vs “a wizard did it”.

The Greyhawk.9107:

Well, I’ve said my piece on this, as works of fiction its all subjective anyway. We’ve all gone a bit too far down the rabbit hole as it is, too.

Actually, there’s something I did want to mention to you, Ardid. At the top of the thread you state that in-universe permanent sex changes exist, and the fact is that this isn’t quite true. The one NPC in LA, the aid worker, uses mesmer illusions to take on a female appearance. So Tyria doesn’t have actual sex changes (magical or surgical) to the best of our knowledge. Unless your referring to the Total Makeover Kit, but your going to have a very difficult time trying to argue that those are an actual in-universe lore item and not a mere convenience game-mechanics item.

I excuse myself for my prior, too rushed comment. You are right, we have no certainity that the LA NPC has permanently changed. However, the discussion about the permanence of the mesmer magic’s effects is still ongoing.