Guild Wars 2

Gailrin.1384:

Just a suggestion, a option to turn down particle effects of other players that would not affect you. Mainly just things like combo fields which can effect your weapon load-outs would be emphasized and other particle effects except for enemy spells would be much dimmer/flashy. That and mainly be able to have a transparency slider for both Ally/enemy AoEs like mentioned above.

Yes please.

It’s nice to still see your own effects and those that you could combo with – but the rest is just for looks. You don’t really need to know if the guy next to you is hitting the target with his attacks, you need to know that you are.

Not sure about PvP – since you’re going to be the target and you’d want to know that, obviously.

I built a desktop the week GW2 came out – originally it was also for WoW, but I um, have since unsubbed. Will certainly enjoy single-player games on it, too, though (I couldn’t play Skyrim very well on my laptop – will enjoy seeing how it works on here).

i5-3450
HD 6870
8Gb RAM

- get 60fps while questing and in smaller DEs. Haven’t played WvWvW. I haven’t noticed a framerate loss in bigger fights – I’m sure it’s there, but it’s never been enough to look choppy.

This is on all settings (except reflections) maxed out, including FXAA.

The machine cost me $550 to build, including monitor.

@Draghmar, there was another thread, if you weren’t in it, about the C2D – with your video card, your CPU is HUGELY bottlenecking you. Someone in that thread upgraded to an i5 on my suggestion and their performance has seen a HUGE increase.

You’ll need a new motherboard, and I’d double-check your PSU. If it’s in your budget, it is very cheap to upgrade to 8Gb DDR3 1600 RAM.

Your GPU has the potential to run this game very well – the CPU is a massive bottleneck that’s stopping that from happening.

Yes, names are game-wide.

However, you can have spaces in your name. So while maybe you can’t be “Tim”, you could try to be “Tim the Tiny”, “Tim Timmers”, et cetera.

Whit.2385:

Freyar, what level are you? If you’re a lower level, then just run an entire zone that you havent been to before? You get way more experience exploring then you would “grinding”. You should also be harvesting nodes you find along the way, they too give more xp than killing a mob.

Keep in mind this game was seemingly designed from the point of view of exploration and enjoying content as priorities. If you relax about it, sit back, not worry about leveling, etc, and enjoy the wandering, immersion, and exploration, the you will find the various achievements and so on to fly by, since you will be doing them automatically.

While I agree with your philosophy, trying to get it at a lower level takes the fun out of the game. While going through that zone, you can’t do anything fun – you can’t explore areas that look “bad” (tightly packed mobs, mobs you’ve never fought before who you might not know hit hard or what animations signal a strong attack), you can’t try to participate in a lot of skill challenges or group events / bosses – so you’re really just running through the zone avoiding everything.

I’d rather just wait until 80 than do that.

Leiloni.7951:

It needs to be changed to go across multiple sessions and while changing zones, instance, waypoints, etc. Just as long as I don’t die. I’m stuck at the first tier of that achievement as well and I don’t want to sit around for a few hours in one zone just for this. It just sounds like a broken achieve if it isn’t more reasonable for lower level players.

Perhaps making it scale with level would be reasonable. However, in the time of a month, you’re almost certainly going to level up if you play the game any at all.

Then what happens ? Does it just “add on” to the xp needed ? Seems like that would make it kind of futile, though do-able. If it’s “1/4” of a level, you’d hit it less than 1/4 into your next level.

However, this would make it ridiculously easy to attain during the first levels so there has to be some “starting point”, bare minimum of xp needed to get it.

I don’t know what the right answer is, but kind of sucks for lower level people, yes. I hardly ever die during PvE (when I do, it’s usually in a situation I know will be tough going in – so if I wanted the achievement, I’d avoid those things) and know I still won’t be seeing that achievement for a long time since I’m not rushing to level.

With the cheap cost of RAM, you can get 8Gb DDR3 1600 from a reliable brand for like, $40. If you’re going to run x64, might as well.

Hope you realise you’ll need a new motherboard for the i5. And if you get an Ivy Bridge, make sure it’s compatible (and not only with Sandy Bridge unless you flash BIOS).

And you’ll most likely need a new power supply. Or you’ll want one pretty soon when you go to upgrade that graphics card.

Yep – one thing to note is that the bar will start at “0” again, because it only takes into account the files you still need to download. So don’t worry if it looks like it’s starting over, it hasn’t !

Sorry, man.

I’ve seen and reported gold sellers on my server and didn’t even think they might be hacked accounts.

I think everyone should take that into account and have it be another reason to report them – so the account can get banned so it can’t be abused further until the rightful owner can get it back.

What level are you ? I’ve heard that it’s much easier to attain at 80 – that it amounts to basically 1/4 of a level then.

Curious to know that it doesn’t count across characters and such. I’ll have to check that out.

Using the “Discovery” pane, I’ve levelled my cooking to exactly 100 last night – on a lv. 25 character.

I didn’t even look up recipes because I didn’t want to spoil it – I’m sure I could find more that way and level it up even faster.

I forget what my Jewelry is at, but I admittedly haven’t focused on it. I think it’s at least 75. So it’s really not that bad, especially for not even really trying. :-P

If you upgraded to an Ivy Bridge i5-3450, and supposing you have enough RAM to not bottleneck there, I would expect you to get around 60fps while questing on highest settings (unless you’re using a particularly high resolution).

I’ve done group events and every time I’ve checked the fps, it’s still around 50-60 in group fights. I still haven’t done WvWvW, but I’ll be curious to see how much of a drop I get there.

With a CPU upgrade, I would expect dramatic improvement.

However, there are issues with the nVidia cards right now – I’d ask other 560ti users what they’re getting with a better processor. I know the nVidia 6xx line is having big problems, but not sure about the 5xx.

But what’s the downside to having “too much” exp ? With level scaling, the people that wanted to stick around and enjoy a map will still do that anyway.

The only people being negatively effected by “too much” exp are people who want to be held back and forced to do things in the game that they didn’t really want to do (because otherwise there’s no reason to still do all those things – you can’t accidentally over-level and lock yourself out of being able to content at-level or anything).

If it’s for PvE or sPvP, it doesn’t matter. The former, it doesn’t matter if you’re “UP” or “OP”, and the latter you can just create and delete.

For WvWvW – you can buy the extra slots if it’s that important to you to always have what’s considered the most OP class.

Comparing the rate of class-balancing patches in other games, the cost of the character slots will still be lower than a monthly fee if you truly want to max out all 8 classes just for WvWvW.

The CPU being at 100% isn’t really anything to worry about. However, what you need to worry about is temperature.

If you have a temperature monitor, you can check this easily. If not, get one.

If you have only the stock Intel fan, you may want to upgrade.

I agree that you probably won’t be able to max out that resolution at your budget.

My monitor is only 1600×900 and I get ~60 on max settings with an HD 6870.

The 7770 is newer, but it’s still a less powerful card than some of the 6xxx and even 5xxx. Even if you have a PCIe 3.0 slot, you won’t see much, if any, difference between 2.0 and 3.0. Here’s an article : http://www.anandtech.com/show/5458/the-radeon-hd-7970-reprise-pcie-bandwidth-overclocking-and-msaa

You should get pretty decent performance from anything on the HD 6870 / GTX 560 and above level. Will you be able to totally max out and retain ~60fps – maybe not, but it should be decent and probably the best you can at your budget.

Also, before you buy anything, check your Power Supply (PSU). What is it right now ? If it’s not a high-quality PSU with enough wattage, you can fry your entire computer – and this might mean you’d be better off waiting until you can upgrade the PSU (since the card you have now has a lower power requirement than any you’re looking at). If it’s not 500W from a good brand, I’d wait.

I had the crashing problem for a day, but then I fixed it.

For me it was my router. For others it’s overclocking type software as mentioned, for some it’s a heat issue, and et cetera.

I feel like they have taken “lower-skill” into account. I come from many pause-and-play games, yet the “active” combat in GW2 is easy enough that even I, someone who hates FPS games (except DOOM), can pick it up with ease.

I haven’t had an issue playing solo. I’ve been in places 4 levels under-level as an engineer and still gotten Gold in events and been able to solo mobs without that much of a problem. I think part of the problem people may be having right now is that the game is very new – so people are clustered in the zones – you have the people slowing moving upward, and those that powered to 80, so the mid-levels aren’t getting much love. This “problem” (of not having others around to help you) should fix itself when things spread out a bit more.

There are all kinds of players, and no one game is going to appeal to all of them.

eladox.3457:

So there is nothing to do in this game unless you are a little girl dressing her dolls.

The huge popularity of xmog in WoW attests to the fact that many grown men love playing dress-up with their characters. :-P

Gear progression can be a rewarding experience – but it’s like how both cake and ice cream are delicious.

Not every game needs to be “ice cream”. A game can be cake instead and still be delicious.

They’re different and appeal to different people. And that’s okay.

Sky.7610:

Ceallach.8740:

Sky.7610:

JJ PornoGraphy.8435:

Expensive?? Are you sure??

59.99$ (in my case is 79.99$) is may look expensive if we count in one shot…..but if we just count that is air-time cost for half year……it’s 10$ per month….that still look expensive to you??

Unless you plan to stop play this game before reach half year. :P

Some F2P game….they cost our money more than 10$ per month.

Yes $10/month over a course of 8 months excluding the cost of gems is indeed expensive. Esp since this game lacks endgame content that revolves around gear, something worthwhile to work towards, the majority of players will not play any further once they reach lvl 80, so about 2months time.

And Skyrim costs $60 and isn’t even an MMO tied to servers and people pay that without even a hope of “end game raiding” because it’s the sort of game that appeals to them.

If you don’t like the kind of game, don’t spend money on it. Not all games that can be classed as “MMOs” have to offer the same kind of content, do the same things, and appeal to the same kind of people.

I feel that “gear progression” is worth much less than what GW2 offers. Gear progression is the illusion of content – it’s about as deep as Farmville.

Your comparing apples to orange. Skyrim is an RPG game, whereas gw2 is a MMORPG. They are different, I do not expect to play online on a single player fps do I?

Gear progression worth less? Do you have any idea why they are so sucessful and ironed hard into people’s mind as the correct progression path? Everyone can agree that gear A is better than gear B base on stats and is worth working towards but you cant say gear A is better than gear B beacuse it looks better even in the comestic sense simply beacuse everyone has a different artistic view, so that gear you worked so hard for may be seen as ugly in someone else’s opinion.

And I was pointing out that comparing GW2 to other MMOs is also apples to oranges – especially when those games may be barely “RPG” whereas GW2 is heavy on it. I feel GW2’s PvE is much better compared to a traditional RPG than an “MMO”. Many people have been wanting this. It will not appeal to all people, but that’s not the point – other MMOs don’t appeal to all people, either. GW2 is betting on this market – if you’re not part of it, that’s fine.

Yes, I do know why – people like to feel rewarded, so games have built in ways to make you feel rewarded to hook you in order to keep you playing and paying. It’s a psychological tactic on their part to extend the re-playablity of content – “adding content” without adding anything. I don’t think this is necessarily evil or wrong, and GW2 even does this to an extent (to get certain armours, you’ll need to do the dungeons multiple times). But, no, I don’t think it needs to be arbitrarily included in every game ever just because it might be an “MMO”. Games can be different games – that’s a good thing.

Many of the rewards in GW2 are tuned more to the RPG crowd, not the “progression” crowd. And that’s okay. If you’re the progression crowd – that’s fine – but that’s not what GW2 is offering and they never claimed to. I’m glad that there’s finally an MMO that feels satisfying as an actual RPG, not with “RPG” feeling like it just got slapped on because the game happened to have some words in it.

This really IS a game for people who like games like Skyrim and who are interested in playing a game like that with many other people. MMOs don’t need to be clones of the same model.

I think this just goes to show that aesthetics are somewhat subjective.

Caithe certainly isn’t ugly, but I have never thought she was the “most beautiful sylvari”. I think she’s fairly human-looking (which is appealing to some if that’s the direction you want to go), and when making a playable sylvari, I tend to stick to the more plant-like designs.

I also feel like this is saying you can’t date a woman because none of them are as beautiful as Marilyn Monroe or whoever. :-p

Sky.7610:

JJ PornoGraphy.8435:

Expensive?? Are you sure??

59.99$ (in my case is 79.99$) is may look expensive if we count in one shot…..but if we just count that is air-time cost for half year……it’s 10$ per month….that still look expensive to you??

Unless you plan to stop play this game before reach half year. :P

Some F2P game….they cost our money more than 10$ per month.

Yes $10/month over a course of 8 months excluding the cost of gems is indeed expensive. Esp since this game lacks endgame content that revolves around gear, something worthwhile to work towards, the majority of players will not play any further once they reach lvl 80, so about 2months time.

And Skyrim costs $60 and isn’t even an MMO tied to servers and people pay that without even a hope of “end game raiding” because it’s the sort of game that appeals to them.

If you don’t like the kind of game, don’t spend money on it. Not all games that can be classed as “MMOs” have to offer the same kind of content, do the same things, and appeal to the same kind of people.

I feel that “gear progression” is worth much less than what GW2 offers. Gear progression is the illusion of content – it’s about as deep as Farmville.

tadpole.7596:

Varna.5162:

Grizzle.9872:

What’s so ridiculous?

Basically the game is running much worse on Nvidia GPUs than their AMD equivalent.

Also if you have high end Nvidia hardware such as 680GTX running in SLI expect performance to be WORSE then running a single card. There are also many reports of just bad performance on 600 series cards in the Low FPS thread. There are many issues at the moment with Nvidia cards.

That’s pretty bad seeing as I run an HD 6870 and the client won’t run 50% of the time and the other 50% the client crashes within 2 minutes of login.

Not sure this is an HD 6870 issue – I’ve never had a problem with mine and many people using it seem to be getting better results than the equivalent nVidia card.

There is an issue with a certain brand of routers – maybe check that out ?

Might be helpful to post system specs/dxdiag – this seems to be happening only to some people and it would probably be helpful to know your system to try to figure out where the problem is (if they haven’t already).

Ginrikuzuma.6872:

Aetheogh.9127:

Thought about reporting one guild that had a Tag of BOT in which I assumed that it meant guild was a botting type guild. Then decided not to after seeing the warning about getting banned if you post a false report. So not going to bother with it, since do not want account to be banned for reporting something that I believe to be a botting guild and it turns out it was not a botting guild…

Thx Anet for making things confusing.. you want players to help you with getting rid of botters, exploiters and cheaters and yet at same time you threaten your playerbase with account bannings if it turns out report is false…

that could be because maybe you are making the assumption they bot maybe BOT stands for something? It’s better to be certain of something and then report than to take a guess, report and indeed have made a false report. If that BOT guild is botting try to find out typical botting program things then report but to plain out assume it is bad.

Yeah… it could easily stand for something other than “botting”. Like “Brothers of Thorin” or whatever starts with a T. Unless they actually seemed to be botting, I wouldn’t jump to such conclusions over something that could very easily be innocent.

DABhand.2079:

Not everywhere has 4mb+ broadband connections, some are still on 1-2mb/s

I usually only get ~600kb/s, sometimes less if other people are using the internet, too.

The thing is… it doesn’t even take that long on that slow a connection. I open the client, watch the red line zip to 100% and play – it usually takes less than 3 minutes. That’s not really a big deal.

Sucks if you have even slower internet, but this is just how changeable on-line games work – the latest WoW patch was several Gb and their servers go down a good part of the day every Tuesday… so… yeah.

I think it’d be fun to have them even if they didn’t confer any speed boost – just pure vanity items.

Asura + Miniature Pony. It would be the best thing since Don Quixote.

I think the feeling of being vulnerable is important – not able to just cruise unrealistically through the world. I think this could be accomplished with mounts if done right.

An interesting thought would be giving mounts energy. I remember playing games like that, where you couldn’t just go full tilt everywhere all the time – you could push a bit, but then you’d have to re-charge. Forcing a flying mount to land when the animal is “tired” would make flying mounts less of a game-breaker since using them would require skill and planning and seems like you could do a version of jump-type puzzles for those.

I think it’s way too soon to add anything like flying mounts, but if this game lasts for years, I think they could find a way to make the concept into an interesting new mechanic that fits this game.

I’d probably refrain from logging in in Philly at this point. It might not set off alarms since people do travel the USA regularly – but if it’s just a week, better safe than sorry (to set off “hacked” alarms for your account and thus get added to the needs-to-be-unbanned queue).

I’d be curious to know what parameters they use, but knowing could lead to exploitation so perhaps better left unsaid.

And I just built a new desktop after having played on my laptop – I just re-downloaded the client (I tried to just transfer the folder, but either you can’t do that or something went wrong while copying because it didn’t work) and have had no issues.

For comparison, I’ll post my laptop and desktop

PC/Laptop: PC
CPU: i5-3450
GPU: HD 6870
RAM: 8GB DDR3 1600
Resolution : 1600×900
FPS: Steady ~60 on highest settings, including FXAA and post-processing on high (exception : terrain & sky only). Goes down to ~50 in crowded areas (ran into Lion’s Arch to test). I haven’t done WvWvW – I’m sure there will be some drop there and will probably dial-down the settings.

With all respect, the human eye doesn’t see in fps. There have been studies with human subjects identifying objects shown for less than 1/200 of a second. In simplistic terms, the eyes care more about contrast and where contrast and change occur – they’re not taking just taking still pictures and refreshing them. This is why micro-stuttering can be highly annoying and distracting – your eye is thrown off by the difference. Whereas a movie with a constant 24fps and natural motion blur is still going to be perceived as “smooth”.

People have always said things like, “the human eye can’t see more than 15 fps” or “24 fps” or “30” or now “60”. I think we’re doing a disservice to our eyes to try to compare their ability to perceive change to fps.

PC/Laptop: Laptop
CPU: A8-3520M
GPU: Radeon HD 6620G (integrated graphics)
RAM: 8GB DDR3 1333
Resolution : 1366×768
FPS: 25-30 on auto-detect, which only turns animations to medium, everything else low. 15 on “Best Appearance” – this was tested just standing in Rata Sum.

I’ve noticed that the vast majority of issues right now are hitting people with nVidia cards. Hopefully there is some solution.

I’m assuming the OP has this processor : http://www.amazon.com/ADX255OCK23GM-AMD-Athlon-Dual-core-Processor/dp/B00636TPFG

It fits the limited description and makes sense with having only 2Gb RAM. :P By this, I wouldn’t be surprised if the OP is running a 34-bit system, too (thus more than 4Gb RAM will not help in their current bind unless they can get 64-bit).

OP, if it’s something else, let us know, more details will help.

I might be wrong, since the OP didn’t give specifics, but if the computer is that old, putting new RAM and GPU in it won’t really do much for performance since the weak CPU will still drag it down.

If I was, or is, a CPU that is more up to modern games, I would agree with upgrading the CPU last – but I have the impression this is a system that isn’t worth pumping money into, but overhauling, or starting to do so as budget permits.

I have heard in another thread that this is intentionally absent from the game.

I love helping others. I’m that person that runs over to rez random people or tries to get them out of a tough spot.

However, in GW2 “healing” is largely the responsibility of the individual. It’s good to have “group benefit” skills, but healing is something a person can and should manage themselves through use of dodging and their own skills.

Support is certainly useful, but not so much as direct healing. Adding boons and removing conditions is useful and can help someone out. Abilities that “heal” are a bonus, and my experience is that they help people a little bit, but not as much as that person using their own skills can help themselves.

Better not to try to push toward a “healer” build – which doesn’t really exist in this game (and isn’t supposed to), but more a “helper” build, but still being able to carry your own “weight” in the fight.

I do think more than damage done should matter in participation level, however – but it seems it would be incredibly complicated to lay out the criteria. Perhaps worthwhile, but it would take some time to implement.

Mendorian.7042:

@Ceallach:
Upgrading from 32 to 64bit is only legal on full retail versions of Windows. OEM versions that came with PCs or were bought seperate (which most people have) only hold the license for either 32 or 64bit

Also, given his setup, I’d advise to consider upgrades in the order of RAM, GPU, CPU, with CPU essentially meaning a new PC.

I considered that, but I felt like I was already writing a wall of text and didn’t want to overwhelm them. :P

@OP, if you want to build a new system to max out GW2, you’re looking at $450-700 depending on if you can re-use a Windows license or not and if you need a new monitor, et cetera.

I recently built myself a new desktop on a budget, and including monitor (haven’t had a desktop for years and wasn’t going to hook it up to a CRT) it came to about $550 and it maxes out GW2 at 60fps. I’ve “made” this computer on other sites, and even if I were to have to buy a new Win7 license, it was still on average $400-600 more expensive to have someone else build it. I’m just pointing this out since I’m guessing you’re on a budget.

If you just want to run it decently and have room to upgrade, you can do that for $275-375 depending on if you are able to re-use your Windows license. The $275 is a rough estimate based on you re-using your GPU and HDD for now, add $100 for something like the 6770 or 7700.

If you can re-use your current case, knock $50 off. If your computer was pre-built, you may not be able to, you will need room for decent cable management and pre-built systems for home use seem to just cram everything in there willy-nilly, sacrificing airflow for a sleek exterior.

I’m not a fan of /follow, but think it could work if there was a command to “break” it.

If you’re being /follow-ed by an AFK player or someone just trying to annoy or harass you, you need to be able to break their /follow.

However, I think this would become too complicated. Perhaps if you “ignored” a person they could never follow you – but even combining those two systems I feel is making things a big complex and mangled to implement.

You’d also have to have the /follow broken for combat – or it would allow someone to have a free ride and break the well-done system they worked so hard to put in place.

My Asura Engineer is my favourite so far, but I also like my Norn Gaurdian and think I’ll stick with that, also – it’s fun to be a giant lady running around, hitting things, and making great use of the “Ferocity” dialogue options.

I think they would do well to add “collecting” aspects beyond recipes and minis, the latter being something you just buy which doesn’t really add playtime.

In Pokemon, most people didn’t consider stopping after beating the elite for even on Red and Blue because, dude, there were so many more pokemon to go back and collect and that would keep you busy long enough for them to come out with another game.

Same goes with games like Morrowind – you can finish the “main story” but still enjoy the world and find stuff to do to entertain yourself for dozens of hours.

These simple, sometimes silly things really add value and playtime to a game.

For <$100 a 6770 would be a pretty good value. You can find the GTX 560 and HD 6870 for pretty low prices, too, if you do some digging.

One thing you must consider is that with this upgrade, you MUST make sure you have a high-quality 80+ certified power supply of 500W or greater. If you do not, you can ruin your entire computer and it can even light on fire. Not trying to scare you, I’ve seen it happen. My dad’s old computer had a faulty PSU and his entire desk became electrified.

Unfortunately, if you upgrade just the GPU, you will be bottlenecked at your CPU, especially in WvWvW type situations. You will not be able to use the card to the fullest of its potential.

Also, what are the specs on your card ? There’s the 5550 and 5570 and they have different versions with DDR2/3/5 et cetera. If your card is one of the newer ones, you’re almost certainly bottlenecking as it is and probably are not getting max performance out of this card. So upgrading wouldn’t give you any noticeable difference because you wouldn’t be able to use any more of the potential of the new card.

It would be wiser to save your money and upgrade the motherboard and CPU. You will see a great upgrade in performance for the same or only slightly more investment.

Ideas : i3-2120 + a cost-effective H61 or B75 board. The i3 will run you about $125, though you can get it for less if you live near a Micro Center. The board can be from $40 to $60.

For a cheaper route, you could get a G630 ($70) + H61 or B75 board. This would be pretty much the same price as upgrading to the HD 6770 and you’d actually see remarkable improvement this way (if your RAM doesn’t then bottleneck).

The G630 is a great budget processor and is compatible with the LGA 1155 boards – meaning you can upgrade to an i5 or i7 in the future when your performance is lagging and those chips are not “new” any more and come down in price.

You will want more RAM – but don’t worry, you can get 8Gb 1600 RAM from a reliable brand for only $40. If you are running a 34-bit system, upgrading your motherboard and processor is a great time to switch to x64. You can do so using your current install key and it’s completely legal.

Make sure your power supply can handle the upgrade. I am repeating this because it is very important – if it cannot, you whole system can be fried.

Also, what is your CPU ?

And here is a handy-dandy guide to “which GPU is more powerful” : http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

Hi !

Are these pre-made computers ? You say you don’t know much about computers, so I would guess this is the case, yes ?

Build #1 has slow RAM – you want DDR3 1600, not 1333. I don’t know why they’d put 1333 with an i7. The GPU is not the best, either – you should ideally drop the CPU to an i5 and up the GPU.

1. is the best one you have listed, in my opinion – but it depends on how much they want to charge you for it. It has more RAM than you need, but at least the GPU is good and you’re not paying for more CPU than you need.

1. This is okay. If it’s more expensive than #2, definitely don’t get it. The CPU is better, but the GPU is slightly weaker. #2 would still be my first choice. You ask if the GPU is bad, the GPU is solid – when the “bugs” are worked out, you should expect 60fps + from that card. However, it seems they are running a bit buggy right now, but it might be an end-user issue.

1. slightly weaker GPU than #2, more CPU than you need. Would upgrade to 8Gb RAM.

Verdict : Get #2 ! If these are pre-built, #2 is your best option. However, you could make it a bit better if you built it yourself, but this should play GW2 great regardless.

One thing is, if you do not plan on overclocking, a lot of money is going toward parts that you can overclock when you don’t need them. They are good systems, but if you’ve got a budget, that’s an area you could cut down cost.

I don’t know about GW2 running better on nVidia. I’ve seen tons of people having trouble with higher-end nVidia cards, yet I’m running great with an HD 6870.

Nayru.3947:

Getting average 8-11fps with very good internet connection (Lowest settings)

Unfortunately, it looks like you only have the HD Graphics with the i3 540. This is well below the minimum requirements and what would be expected for the 540’s Intel HD trying to run GW2 at 1920×1080. Sorry.

There is hope ! If this is a desktop and you have at least one open PCIe 2.0 slot, all you need to do is add in a decent GPU and you will see dramatic improvement. Your processor should be able to run the game decently if you get a more powerful graphics card.

However, before upgrading the GPU, do make sure you have a good enough power supply to handle whatever you put in there, or it can ruin the whole machine.

If you start a thread here or on a tech forum, there are many people who can tell you if your PSU can support an upgrade or what you’d need to get to be able to.

I like that level scaling makes it so I don’t feel punished for clearing an area or doing something else. I can go do WvWvW and not come back to an area that will be total faceroll upon leveling up a few times.

I’m going slowly – I’ve been playing since 3-day headstart and my highest is only lv 20-ish.

I helped take down the Fire Elemental in Metrica Province – it was a spontaneous “raid” with 20+ people.

What I’ve been saying is that this game shouldn’t necessarily be compared to “other MMOs” – it’s more like a “real” RPG like Skyrim, but with other PCs in the world.

Had to squint at that case. I would avoid it. there is no room behind the motherboard to route your cables, they will end up really clogging up and overheating your system. When you build, definitely look up cable management – it is important to keeping your system well-cooled. It doesn’t have much of a front air intake and no top exhaust, either.

Check this out to learn more about air cooling : http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cooling-airflow-heatsink,3053.html

There is also water cooling.

You’ll need to think about your overclocking goals, and if your case doesn’t come with fans (or only one fan like that one), you’ll need a few more. Check out the air cooling schemes in the link above.

It seems like GW2 has an issue with nVidia or vice versa.

I have an HD 6870 and it’s not seeing 100% load and running highest settings (only reflections are turned down to “terrain and sky only”) at a steady 60fps even in group fights. I’m sure I’ll see some drop on WvWvW, but haven’t tried there yet.

Hi there !

You build idea looks pretty good. I would however trade that 500 Gb HDD for a 1Tb one. You can get one for around the same price, or very little difference. I don’t know what you use your computer for, but these days with people getting movies and games on-line from iTunes / et cetera, you will eat up space very quickly !

I’ve already used 300Gb of a 1Tb drive and the computer is barely a week old ! (and I’m not torrenting, that was mostly just my old stuff + GW2 and the like).

You can drop to 8Gb RAM without any worry. You really don’t need the 16. Looking at my RAM usage right now – I have tons of internet tabs open, GW2 is actually running (was going to do WvWvW, but got a phone call), iTunes, and a bunch of other stuff and it’s only about ~4Gb being used. I wouldn’t worry about RAM unless like others have said, you need to do a TON of heavy lifting while playing.

I’m very happy with my HAF 912 case. It was $50 USD so something less than 50 pounds, I’d imagine ? You’d need to upgrade the cooling if you’re going to overclock. Speaking of, you will need to put that in your budget as well – I see you do mention overclocking. You will most definitely need an aftermarket CPU cooler.

I would not get that power supply. It’s not even rated for 80+ efficiency. I used the Antec Neo Eco 520W and am pleased with the quality, but if you’re going to overclock, you may be looking at needing more than 500W to give you wiggle-room. Check your 12v rails – how many amps do you get on them as opposed to how much you’ll need to draw – and single or multiple rails ? If you’re overclocking an expensive system, the LAST thing you want is a crappy PSU. It can destroy everything hooked up to it. This is your most important component. With your system, I’d expect to pay at least double what you have listed now for the PSU. I paid $60USD for a good one, and that was about baseline for a decent no-frills 500W.

Brand is only a vague guide to PSUs – they’re made by many differnet companies under many different brands. Even Rosewill has a line of decent PSUs made by Super Flower, when most the rest of theirs aren’t worth looking at. This is something you really need to research and Google reviews for each PSU you consider.

I’d also save a chunk of money and get an i5 unless you have a situation where you’d really be using an i7 – which isn’t in video games. You can still get an overclockable i5.

I have an i5 right now – it’s not taxed in GW2 and I’m getting 60fps. I’m not even overclocking. I have the HD 6870 – and I get a solid 60fps in the world, even in group fights. I doubt that will hold up in WvWvW – but we’ll see soon. And in a situation with 30+ players in the same area, I’m expecting to see a drop in performance no matter what the system.

If you are going to overclock and will need an after market cooler – you’ll probably need to get a less expensive GPU.

One idea is get a 560/570/et cetera for now – you’ll see 60fps in world, no problem – and get another one when you have the budget and CrossFireX. Along with this, I might suggest dropping that monitor and getting a 60Hz (is there a reason you want a 120Hz one ?) one and planning on going to three when you have CrossFireX. Just an idea – it will give you a great experience now and you’ll have time to build it into an even more awesome one with a few simple upgrades that you can do as you save up for them.

Be aware that with CrossFireX, you’ll of course need a higher-wattage PSU. Just take a look at what the card suggests, the higher-end ones typically will tell you what you need for XFire, too.

I hope they roll out a “barbershop” type feature that would take care of this – change hair colour/style and/or accessory colour.

I’m happy with what I picked, myself, but I can see how others would find this very useful and I’m betting many would be happy to visit the gem store for it.

Our router has been on 24/7 for several years. :B

You should be able to set up security options if that’s a concern you have. You can also lock children’s computer / all computers from accessing it during certain times if that’s a problem.

I’ve had some frustration with getting the game going, but there are a lot of things going on and I can’t hold it against them.

I don’t think they were terribly in the wrong to not anticipate every problem that could crop up. And without a monthly fee, I understand that they likely do not have the financial power to hire as many people as they “need” right now. If Blizzard is raking in over 100 million dollars a month, every month and still can’t manage to answer some tickets for days…

I don’t think it’s feasible for ANet to do live support at this point.

I do feel this “prioritise” business is a bit of a false hope. If 10k had a problem and then all “properly prioritised” their tickets, you’re still in the same spot in line – though it’s of course good to put you ahead of the people whose problems aren’t game-breaking.

I would rather just see an expansion, and I think they’d make more money that way.

Think about it – someone plays GW2 and has fun, but they stop playing. This isn’t hurting ANet that much because they’re not losing a subscription.

But if they enjoyed themselves, left without hard feelings, and hear about a new expansion adding more content, I can see people coming back for that in a cycle. There’s no subscription fee, so I can see people being able to rightfully approach it like buying the Skyrim expansion, for example. It’s something they enjoyed and no subscription to make them feel obligated to play or like they’re wasting money if they spend their time between different things.

It would drum up more press to have a big release, getting those people’s attention, too.

I can see micro-updates working, too – and I’d be happy to see that. But the concern is always that they’re spending too much time on that and not the “next big expansion”, that being the thing that typically gets people really excited and is more likely to draw in new players.

I think once the game smooths out, the gem store will do well. I’m creating my 5th character tonight, and though I’m not sure all of those are staying, I’m sure I’ll end up buying more slots eventually. I don’t feel like it’s unfair. 5 slots seems pretty reasonable for no subscription to help them with maintenance.

I left a sub-based game for GW2, so I plan on applying that $15/mo I was paying to this game.

I’d buy it for vanity reasons if my Norn ends up being one of the characters I continue playing with.

I really like Asura Tier 2 medium for my engineer.

^ It was an older Belkin N150 Wireless N Router. I already had the latest firmware, too. Since, I’ve seen that it has horrible reviews for dropping connections, but I’ve never had trouble with it before – previously I’d only had issues when my ISP was.

Networking isn’t my thing, but they’re both “N 150”, so perhaps there is an issue with these, or at least older ones ?

I’m not sure GW2 was my only problem, I’ve recently changed our router password since I was getting some unidentifiable clients that seemed to correspond with bandwidth loss. It got so bad I was transferring bits per second – which I think is why I was having outrageous lag in GW2 + disconnects.

I really have no idea what’s going on.