Guild Wars 2

Drew Blood.1586:

Can’t you say the bottom 5% or even 10% DPS dealers of those in the event area actually receive the reward for certain large zergy type events? You could then do a minimum requirement exception.

Any person that is AFK or leeching for an extended period of time would not get credit or reward for it.

The Knights, for example, have 50 people participating in the event. That would mean roughly the bottom 2-5 people don’t get the reward unless they hit a minimum requirement of damage to the knight.

I am not a coder. That doesn’t seem too difficult to accomplish though. They are already tracking damage dealt by people.

Problem with this is that even if you had an event where literally everyone was contributing, you would still have people at the bottom. They were there, they were playing, they were helping, yet they did less damage than others. There will always be people who are missing out, regardless. Which isn’t fair to those people, and ends up in very competitive and often nasty behaviour and reactions from players which is the sort of competitiveness ANet wanted to avoid – like getting rid of node stealing and kill stealing. They don’t want people rushing to deal the most damage etc.

Katastrofi.5816:

CrossedHorse.4261:

I doubt it. And we’ve just had an announcement saying blade shards will cease to drop as of 18th March. So farm or buy up what you need/want now.

Nope.

Wow – what a helpful response.

to the OP – yes, I made a mistake. Blade shards will continue to drop in game but there’s been no word about the power cores. I am erring on the safe side and not assuming they will keep dropping, so I would still suggest buying or farming for anything you want/need now while we know they’re available.

The change seemed to make things easier on my server as well. Each time I’ve tried it since the change we’ve been successful (overflow is a different story, but it always is). Does your server communicate in map chat during the events? Things can fail even with the full number of people simply because people don’t know what they’re doing – it isn’t always a number/scaling issue (though, not denying there have been events that do have issues with this). If, for instance, at the holo fight, people don’t realise that attacking the holograms without the correct attunement will kill you eventually and does no harm to the holos, then you will fail. Someone who can call out helpful advice in map chat is useful.

Healix.5819:

They need leaderboards for major events, detailing how much damage was dealt, how many people were revived, healing, etc. In Gw2, everyone is supposed to carry their own weight by being a hybrid, so making contribution based mostly on damage done is rather fair. Those who sacrifice survivability and succeed would be rewarded with having an easier time at securing contribution, whereas those who constantly die or do low damage would be at risk.

At the end, everyone is given a contribution score which is calculated by taking a percentage of the damage done, revives, etc. Leechers are going to have a very low contribution due to not really doing anything or just auto attacking, which in the current system is enough for full credit. Anyone not within a certain percentage of the average contribution shouldn’t get any rewards. To further discourage leeching, any player that doesn’t meet the contribution requirements, but was active the entire event (remained within the event radius and has tagged the event), should be given a penalty, much like the dishonorable debuff.

Measuring contribution could be difficult in fights like the Assault Knight fights, however. Any condition damage build will be doing far less damage (even having swapped some traits, weapons and utilities around – let’s face it, a Necro’s DPS will never match a Warrior’s, for example, no matter how you build them) despite maybe having been there contributing 100% effort throughout the whole fight. I still only ever get a silver medal at these events, despite having changed to a power build and only using conditions during the burn phases. I am restricted mostly to using skill 1 only on the staff, which severely limits my “contribution”, but it’s not something I can control like being AFK half the fight is. So, though what you suggest isn’t a bad idea in general, I think in practice it wouldn’t work.

I doubt it. And we’ve just had an announcement saying blade shards will cease to drop as of 18th March. So farm or buy up what you need/want now.

mtpelion.4562:

To be fair Frozencore, there are currently only two mechanics in play with the Knights that require any form of Player Skill and the majority of players so far have been unable to handle them despite receiving specific, friendly instructions from myself and others:

1. What the big orange circle means and When to Dodge it.
2. When to use conditions and when to not use conditions.

The only upside of DPS tests is that they tend to be “dummy proof” (assuming they are balanced for mid-range DPS).

This is true. And with the Marionette … well, some people never quite grasped the idea, and I say that leaving all leeway open for new players or people experiencing the event for the first time. We got an interesting fight, different mechanics, different stages and bosses that required different skills/abilities/tactics to kill. And people didn’t like it because they couldn’t do it.

Though, even there, DPS was an issue. I was on the 5th Warden with a party. We all knew exactly what to do, but we didn’t have enough DPS, so we wiped anyway, and even if we hadn’t, we were about to miss the timer. Meh.

Man Slauterer.5984:

this is honestly unbelievable that they wouldnt credit us gw1 veterans who have stayed with them, fed them money and supported their cause, and then they sell the same skins that are end game, took tons of time to get, and then we put them in the hall of monuments which even lists and keeps track of which of the skins we have or haven’t received, which links that information to our account, and they dont even credit us for the same skin that we have and expect us to pay more money. NO. I support this game but dear lord this is too far.

Different game. How many other games bring out sequels where the fact you played the previous game is even recognised AT ALL? not many. So the fact you get the HoM stuff, which you worked for, is really nice of ANet. They didn’t have to do it, and they did. Enough with the “we made this game possible” axe people are holding over ANet’s head the whole time. you bought GW1, you supported GW1, and they gave you a wonderful GW1. You got some nice nod from the devs in GW2, and that should be it. It’s a different game, and it’s over a year in. They don’t owe you anything anymore because I highly doubt they’re still spending GW1 money on GW2 – that generates its own money through the cash shop.

I am not one for yelling the word “entitlement” at people on these forums. I dislike those arguments and try to stay away from it because it never gets anywhere. But really, this “I’m a GW1 fan, I deserve everything from GW1 in GW2 for free because it took me time to get in GW1” stuff is getting ridiculous. It’s at that point where I’m surprised nobody has made a thread saying that because they played GW1 and made GW2 possible (which is a little arrogant. I’m not denying obviously a sequel isn’t made without a prequel – but it wasn’t GW1 alone that made it actually happen) they should just be given the whole game and everything in it free.

Please note, this isn’t directed at you specifically, Man Slauterer … just all of these arguments are getting ridiculous.

At the moment, going into PvP just auto levels your character to 80 and unlocks all skills, weapons, traits etc. But only in PvP – this is to put everyone in PvP on a level playing field. If you went straight from character creation with a level 2 character to PvP, you’d be level 80. But if you left and went back with the same character to PvE, you’d be level 2 and have nothing unlocked again.

I understand (could be mistaken), that when they do finally complete their changes to PvP in the next month or so, that actual levelling will be possible via PvP. So you’ll still be level 80 for the purposes of PvP, but the XP you earn will go towards “real” levels for your character. So it would then be possible to level to 80 via PvP, just like in WvW, except you’d have the fun of being at level 80 power all the way up, unlike in WvW, which levels you up but doesn’t unlock anything extra like skills etc automatically.

So yes, it should be possible in the future. But it isn’t right now except using the method Belzebu describes above.

Both Necro and Mesmers have ranged abilities with staff (for both) and greatsword (for Mesmer), and scepters for mid-range on both.

Necros are tanky and have high vitality and death shroud. Mesmers obviously have their illusions/phantasms. Both classes have difficulties with mobility and disengaging from a fight that’s gone horribly wrong, but you can get a speed boost signet with Necro, which you can’t with Mesmer, leaving you reliant on focus skill 4. Don’t know whether that would bother you or not, but some people find it very annoying.

I would say generally, you have to know how the class works properly with Mesmer. Necros, while capable of great things if you do understand the class well, you can get away with more easily while you’re still working it out. But level 80 is a long way away, and you’ll know the class well enough by then, whichever one you choose.

Necros rock at condition damage, Mesmers do good condition damage, but better power than Necros, I think. Mesmers are incredibly powerful at 1v1, Necros are superb at aoe. So that might make a difference to you?

For me, it often just comes down to something really trivial to choose between what class I’m going to play. At the time I made my necro, the choice then was “do I prefer green spell animations or purple, well, everything?” At the time, I wanted the green, so I went with Necro, haha.

I’d go with asura or sylvari if you don’t want human or norn. Asuras are seriously cute, and they look great as eles. They also have great light armour options, whereas the charr light armour doesn’t work for me at all. I like the asura personal stories, better than the sylvari ones … I don’t like either starting zone for asura or sylvari though (not that that’s a problem, but it bugs me that I don’t want to play my race’s starting zone).

If I HAD to make a choice between asura or sylvari, I’d probably pick asura. This all comes down to the fact that that phrase the sylvari keep shouting out … “this rose has thorns, and here they are!” annoys me to the point where I have to grind my teeth every time I hear it, lol. the other reason I’d pick asura is because I have a lot of human characters, and their light armour is the same as sylvari’s (aside from cultural, of course) so I like to have something different to look at with the asura.

Elementalists can offer a lot of support to a group – you have access to a lot of water and fire (?) fields, blast finishers, can stack might and fury, can offer auras to the group, almost permanent swiftness, condi clear like crazy etc, etc. Of course, this isn’t straight away, but you’ll find that Elementalists are great for support as well as having massive burst damage.

They are squishy. I am levelling one at the moment and I die to the oddest things I wasn’t even sure it was possible to die to from levelling my previous characters. But your Ranger and Necro can and will help out. The Necro is surprisingly tanky, and the Ranger has a pet to do a bit of tanking for you. The best thing you can do for your group is be the really mobile one. Rangers have lots of evades, and some mobility, but really that’s not their “thing”, and Necros don’t have mobility really.

I don’t know a whole lot about Mesmers. I think they can offer group support with a few very useful skills, but only those skills. Reflect is great, but then with Elementalist focus you have swirling winds. They do slightly different things, but you’ll save your party a ton of damage either way. Mesmers also have a group stealth, but I don’t know how much you want or need that for PvE – depends what you’re doing – and they have portals, which are useful for jumping puzzles. Aside from that, though, they lack mobility outside of combat, and I don’t feel they offer as much to group play as an Elementalist.

This is, of course, my personal opinion.

I’m pretty sure that only the leader of my main guild has access to the bank. Others can look at what’s in it but can’t withdraw anything.

The other guild I belong to never uses ours, so it’s not been a problem. Generally, as a rule of thumb however, I wouldn’t ever put anything into a public bank that I minded getting stolen, as it’s just temptation waiting to happen. It’s not fair, but it will probably happen sooner or later.

To be honest, the last three patches released and immediately bothered me. I’d play a day and get annoyed and stop playing. Then I’d return a week later, and find that things have been fixed, people are now clued up with what they’re doing, and I’d head in and have a great time. Each time I’ve been pleasantly surprised, and since the last three patches my friends list has practically trebled in length. I am a solo player, and have loved the way these patches have made me new friends.

Anyway, despite its issues, this latest patch has actually fulfilled most of my expectations. I am not getting any great drops, but really, when did people expect amazing drops to suddenly rain from the sky? They never have and never will, so expectations of that sort are waaaay down my list. I was dreading the holo fight as a guildie described it to me on the first day and it sounded awful. I actually really love it, chaotic as it can be. The knights are, well, not particularly interesting, but now that the 6 minute achievement is fixed, I have a new incentive to go and do them, and I have a lot of fun chatting with friends while the fight is going on – trying to type while getting my evade achiev was interesting.

I found the ending to be fine. I mean, sure, it’s infuriating that Braham cut Scarlet off before the “big reveal”, but I actually found it infuriating in a good way. Like the final kick in the gut from Scarlet, and she gets the last laugh. That was good, imo. I felt like I knew she was practically desperate to tell us her plans and lord it over us, and we just went “nah, sorry – you know what? We don’t care because we don’t care about you or your ego.” So for me, it worked.

It’s not on the character screen but there is something like that in the Hero panel. Under “Historical” in the achievements tab there’s a record of each of the LS achievements you fulfilled and the meta event progress.

I think that while I wouldn’t mind this being viewable from the character selection screen, it would clutter it up a bit for those who have participated a lot on the LS events, which is probably why it’s not there.

On a Necromancer ….

I managed to get this by running straight up to Scarlet, avoiding her grenade attacks, started to stomp then dodged out of it immediately just to one side. I didn’t dodge all the way to the side, just dodge forwards diagonally into the wall, which stops you accidentally dodging into the force field that knocks you back but allows you not to dodge too far away from her. This evaded her massive aoe push back attack.

Then I immediately dropped well of power (?) think it was this one … whichever well grants you 1 sec of stability. This won’t help you against Scarlet’s shield if she gets it up, or her knockback stun attack, but it does stop you being knocked back by the regular grenades she sometimes throws out which knock you down. Drop this well, and start the stomp immediately and there’s actually plenty of time to finish the stomp.

It’s not easy and the timing to get to that point is pretty ridiculous. I’ve managed it twice out of probably 30 tries. But it is still possible.

illutian.7630:

Gulesave.5073:

All three have the same mechanics.

Even if you don’t inflict conditions on crits, many players carelessly lay down combo fields around the knights, leading to most of the damage I personally take during these events.

Ah, then my suggestion would still work. As you would just run into one of the buff zones that already spawn. In order to be cleansed of conditions.

In the maps I was on, ppl used them as a condi clear zone anyway. When the came up, we went to them and everyone spammed their condi clear aoe skills on ppl, so we all got rid of them. That was a nice group play effort

Dalris Thane.6314:

snip

I absolutely agree. Which is why I say it’s all about practising the SAME fights again and again and again. Once you fight enough griffons, you know exactly how the griffons telegraph their attacks and exactly when to dodge and how much time you have to do it.

Then you have to go and do it all over again for a different mob.

To some people, this comes naturally. Some people have spent so many hours in game they soak this knowledge up without realising it like some kind of osmosis of reflex dodge action.

To others, like you and me, we learn the hard way. And this takes time and patience, and trial and error, and it can be frustrating. The first couple of times I fought the knights in this patch I was driving myself crazy seemingly unable to find the “thing” that got me the evade when I seemingly dodged at random at any point after the AOE appeared and what didn’t. It took me a few rages and a few rage quits (I’ll admit it, I lost my patience – the hour wait in between fights doesn’t help), but eventually I worked it out. Dodge the moment the AOE disappears. So it will come.

Also, with this particular fight, btw, it’s good if you’re going for the achievement, to join late. I know, it won’t help anyone else, but one time will be fine for you to do this. Only because it can be a LONG fight, and the longer you’re in it, the longer you have to be able to sustain you’re dodging. Once you have the pattern down, it’s not hard at all, but I went for it once and blinked at just the wrong time, taking my eye of the screen and forgot to dodge … yeah. So, join late (I am not sure, but I think if you leave early, you won’t get the achieve, so join late) and dodge at the right time.

Good luck.

Sorry, OP, for being off topic. Back on topic – RESPECT EACH OTHER. Rez if you can and if it’s safe. Never expect a rez, never demand one, and if you haven’t got one, look around and ask yourself why. If it’s not coming, just wp. Completing the event will more than cover the cost of the wp.

Dalris Thane.6314:

Thanks Anchoku. I will try some of the examples you gave. To put it in context = when I’m feeling “in the zone”, i.e. had a good day’s session, I do try the daily dodger, but I have trouble against the Ettins in Queensdale.

I have trouble against the Ettins… I know right?

I’ll totally admit, I have the PEBKAC problem. It’s not the hardware, but the brain.

I do have a better shot at dodging when it’s me, and the one mob.

But, to exaggerate, when it’s…

Oh my God, gotta keep up, run run run, ok it’s melee time, omg, red rings on the ground everywhere, people are scattering, going ranged, ok, I’m shooting, trying to shoot, CRAP, I clicked swap weapon twice, and I’m back to melee, there’s blue smoke everywhere, is that bad, wham, dead, what do you mean “How could you not dodge the huge boulder coming your way?” Ummm… what boulder? Who threw it? I didn’t even see the throw…

That’s what I’m working with here.

But when I talk to people, many comment on how “Everything is so telegraphed and easy, it’s like playing chess…” I don’t know what to say except, holy crap, must be nice to have reflexes like that, heh.

Anyways, hopefully soon, I’ll have Ettins down, then I can move up to the other examples you gave.

Sidebar = In the Knights fight, when I’m sucked in to their vortex, I frantically tap Dodge right after I notice I’ve been drawn in. My success rate is 50-50, heh. Forgettaboutit if I had to do a timed Dodge, at least with the “event panic” going on.

But thanks again for the examples, I’ll try them.

I know what you’re saying. Sometimes I’ll be in the middle of a fight and wonder where some massive hit came from.

But, actually, the knight’s fight is a perfect place to practise. So, stay at range, and when you see the huge AOE circle come up, wait. Leave your char on auto-attack (no conditions) and just watch the ground. When the mark disappears, dodge. The reason people don’t always get this dodge is because they try to dodge too early, while the marks are still up. If you always dodge as soon as it has disappeared (you get about a second to react, so if you are watching the ground, you can’t miss it), you will get the evade.

Trust me, I am not good at dodging either – I watch for telegraphs but even when I see them sometimes I get it wrong on the timing. It’s just practising with the same mobs over and over – fight enough griffons and you learn what they do. If you don’t fight many ettins, you don’t know how they work or how long you have to dodge etc. It’s a case of having done the SAME fights again and again.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

The real problem here, is an achievement that is only available for a limited time, but makes you dependent on the skill of other players to get.

Yes, though in this particular case, it’s not really a skill to know what to do. Even if you don’t know about the melee workaround to the cocoons, it’s not like there’s a trick to destroying the cocoon. You just attack it rather than the spider.

I just think people need to respect each other in both directions.

If you go down during a fight, hopefully someone will be there to rez you before you are fully defeated. Do your best to tag a mob/add with low health and steal a revive, or spam your healing if you’re out of damage range of any other mobs. That is, help yourself as well. Only expect someone to help you if it’s safe for them to do so – no point you both going down.

If you are in combat and you see someone go down, rez if safe to do so. It takes all of 2 seconds, then you are both back in combat and contributing. Once you are rezzed, dodge out of any damage that might be coming, heal up and get back to the fight.

Now, if you end up fully defeated, sure, hang around a few seconds and see if someone comes to rez. It might be safe, and three or four ppl may stick around to help rez you and that’s totally fine. Just say thanks to them and be on your way.

DON’T keep screaming “REZ” at people. They KNOW you’re there, probably they’re busy. If it’s dangerous to rez, you can’t ask them to do that knowing all that will happen is they’ll end up dead too. Nobody’s helping anyone that way.

If you see someone down who hasn’t immediately way pointed, DON’T scream “WP” at them. It’s just rude, and all it encourages is them not way pointing just to spite you. A polite request that if people are downed and there’s a wp nearby, perhaps they might do so is fine. If it’s not safe to rez them, leave them. If it is, rez them if you want. They really aren’t scaling the fight up so much that it makes all that much difference. If they insist on staying where they are, then let them. Someone will rez them soon enough or they’ll have to eat the wp fee at some point anyway.

It’s really quite simple.

I agree, this is such a simple, easy achievement and yet I can’t get it because nobody seems to get how the cocoons work. Someone gets cocooned, fine, drop a cripple or chill on the spider and focus down the cocoon. Easy. Apparently not. But oh well, at least you don’t need this achievement to get the meta.

What I do find odd is that it is very clear in the achievements page how to get this achievement – stop the spider getting to the cocoons. We’ve had achievements in the past which weren’t so crystal clear, but this you really can’t say that you don’t know what the objective is.

ThiBash.5634:

Yeah, I’ve been looking for that (and the Ellen Kiel dialogue too). Would you mind sharing the location please?

I haven’t seen the dialogue on the Breachmaker, but the Ellen Kiel dialogue happens during the 15 minute wind-up stage of the Knight’s Assault event at the Red Knight.

While I consider myself lucky to be able to say that my server is actually pretty good at getting into and completing the holo fight etc, and I do not seem to have many of the problems other people do (despite playing a mostly condi specced Necro), I do think it is a shame that there are several things that contribute to the failure of these events that are beyond a player’s individual control and that will result in that player being unable to experience the end of the Living Story arc, which is something they may have been following for months now.

However, they can still experience the final confrontation with Scarlett and not miss out on the ending itself, by using the backdoor portal at Diverse Ledges wp (which is a nice concession for ANet to make, imo). You don’t even need a backpack beyond the fine rarity level, which is something that I suspect is pretty easily reached now for most players?

I don’t think it did, as I still get some scraps drop. Maybe it decreased the rate at which they drop, though I seem to notice a decrease every time we have a new set of weapon skins out, lol (probably imagined).

Lilith Ajit.6173:

CrossedHorse.4261:

Lilith Ajit.6173:

Guys, the Kasmeer staff is in the store. Don’t forget to grab it!

Missed it. SO annoyed with myself, lol. Sigh.

And I even made a post for it ! Poor you. Maybe for the anniversary sale!

Lol, yeah, I’m keeping my fingers crossed. Typical the two days I don’t play the game throw up stuff I was actually waiting for! Oh well, the Tormented staff does nicely for now!

I am on AG – not a particularly highly populated server compared to some, but they get through consistently enough if you manage to not be on overflow. People also tend to be good a listening to what others are telling them (so newcomers are quick to understand about picking up the attunement buff etc), and there’s usually a good commander in the holo event to get the timing done for the final phase.

Lilith Ajit.6173:

Guys, the Kasmeer staff is in the store. Don’t forget to grab it!

Missed it. SO annoyed with myself, lol. Sigh.

Sounds like you’d like Ranger. The short bow and long bow are both good ranged options (short bow for conditions) and offer elements of aoe damage like skill 5 with the long bow and good single target damage. Short bow is mid-range and does less DPS, but shoots faster, so using your pet to keep the enemy at range will still get them killed nice and quick. Rangers have good survivability (if you’d not stated that I might have suggested Ele on staff), lots of evades and also can do a lot of damage in melee as well should you ever get bored of ranged combat.

The other option is Necro for survivability and range. Staff, aside from skill 1, is all aoe damage, and it does a significant amount. Scepter allows you mid-range combat and skill 2 is a cripple and good for kiting. Daggers are actually allow you some range on a Necro, though from the sounds of it, it’s probably still too close to melee than what you’re looking for.

Engineers also allow for good mid-range (or long-range if you use a rifle) damage and survivability (I’d say straight up it’s not as good as Ranger or Necro, but that’s mostly personal experience with each of the classes speaking). Equip a grenade kit and you’re doing a lot of damage and applying conditions at range, and have pistols or rifle as your weapons.

Warriors have ranged options as well, as you can use longbow or rifle. Both have good DPS, but I would say to play a ranged Warrior (if you only range), you’d not get the most out of that class, so I wouldn’t recommend it simply because it could become boring for you. But if you insist on survivability, then Warrior is very tanky in that regard.

I would go Necro (I always go Necro, lol). PvP is great for condition damage builds, and Necros can apply so many conditions it’s almost silly. They also have great condition removal (not as good as, say, Eles, but it’s up there) and they have control, sustain etc, depending on set up. They aren’t the most powerful, but in PvP you don’t necessarily need it if you can build for conditions. It’s probably the only area of the game where condition really does the damage you want it to. Death Shroud is also very powerful when used correctly and is a source of extra sustain so you can be very tanky. It is, however, very difficult to disengage from a fight with a Necro, so if you commit you really have to go for it.

Necros are sort of the exact opposite to Guardians. Guardians apply boons like crazy, Necros apply conditions – and they have a great well that converts conditions on you into boons, and another well that converts boons on an enemy to conditions (if you like wells and you are facing off against a Guardian).

Rangers are pretty strong in PvP right now. Spirits make you very hard to kill and allow high DPS, and you can also really lay out condition damage if you want to. You have access to a lot of evades and of course, if you know how to use it properly, your pet.

Warriors are, well, Warriors, lol. I don’t have a ton of experience on the Warrior class, so I can’t really cite too many pros and cons. We all know about the DPS damage on a Warrior, but you can also build for condition if you want, or healing on your shouts. You’ll be fairly tanky if you don’t run full Berserker, and you have good mobility. That’s pretty much all I can offer for that class, however.

Can’t go wrong with a staff. For my second weapon set I use scepter/dagger, though dagger/dagger is also good and you can build for a lot of sustain. If you want to WvW then you have a lot of control with this set up, and can hold any bridge you like against 2-4 players.

I think we’ll get a node in our home instance like with every other new crafting material/currency LS thing we get. Can’t decide if that’s good or kittentill there will be plenty of people who won’t get the node if it’s a meta achievement for a LS arc or whatever. Frankly, I still think they should be tradeable, but it would be interesting to see what ANet have in store. The fact they aren’t tradeable now implies to me that you’re going to need an awful lot of them to make the ascended back pieces coloured.

melimoo.3249:

i want to play either elementalist or thief but dont know which. i have a level 25 elementalist and have just created a thief to try but not sure which to main

I’d suggest getting them both to 30 at least if you can bear it (shouldn’t take too long) and seeing how you feel about them both then. Also, try taking them to the Mists and testing them out at level 80.

Make sure you unlock every weapon combo you can, which you can do relatively quickly – very quickly with the thief, takes a little longer with the elementalist as you have more skills to unlock per weapon. Sometimes ppl find they can’t stand, say, a dagger/dagger ele, but they love a scepter/dagger or scepter/focus or staff ele. So test them all out.

Forzani.2584:

Different pressure points does make sense.

I also like the idea of foot controls. There has got to be something like that isn’t there? That would completely solve the problem I am having.

Mouse+keyboard+foot control=win

I definitely suggest you try it. I got the tip from someone else while playing FPS games, where control over your mouse is absolutely key. Shifting the pressure to the heel of your hand rather than the fingers has made a huge difference to me.

I am pretty sure you can have foot controls – I’ve definitely heard of something like that because there are people with no hands who play computer games with their feet. Whether they can be combined with mouse and keyboard as well … well, it would be interesting!

Sorry, you have created so many threads on the same topic, it’s difficult to know which one to reply to. I have left a more detailed answer on another thread, so will not repeat myself here. Could I suggest, just for increasing the chances of a response and for having information all in one place, you choose one thread and request a mod delete the others, or perhaps merge all of them into one?

Both are pretty squishy at early levels.

Elementalist requires a higher level of skill to play well than any other profession in the game, imo. The attunements you cycle through, rather than switching weapons, gives you access to 20 weapon skills at any one time (cooldowns permitting) and you should be familiar with them all and switch between them frequently to get the most out of the class. Elementalists are capable of very high DPS bursts, can cleanse conditions better than most of the other professions and can, when played well, out heal almost any other profession as well, but, as I mentioned, they are squishy, so you need all of that. They are extremely mobile, and if you want a very active profession, the elementalist is a good choice.

At the moment, in terms of PvP, elementalists have fallen out of the meta, but there are still very skilled players owning others on their elementalists, so if you become a skilled player, don’t let that put you off.

Thieves are also pretty squishy, but have access to stealth which, depending on who you ask, is an interesting mechanic – and if you ever play WvW or PvP, guaranteed to make people rage against you, lol. They have a unique aspect of initiative, rather than cooldowns on their weapons skills, so you can spam various attacks very quickly, which can make them powerful, but you do need to monitor your initiative levels carefully. They don’t have access to many weapon sets, so you may find this limiting, but their weapons synergise well between main hand and off hand sets, actually changing the skill #3 depending on what you have equipped. They are capable of extremely, extremely high DPS against an individual target, but can be easily overwhelmed by groups. Elementalists have access to a lot of crowd control skills, which makes groups easier to deal with.

I am not an expert on either, but both are interesting choices .. very different from your initial two of Ranger and Warrior, lol! If you are sticking to PvE, then Warrior and Ranger will allow you to level and progress through the maps very quickly, whereas you will probably be slower with Elementalist and Thief, particularly at first, but PvE allows you time to build your skills. If you are heading straight into PvP, then you will have more of a buffer with Ranger/Warrior to get to grips with the system.

Did everything you listed sell? It’s possible a couple of items didn’t and so you are missing the profit from these while still having paid the listing fees. Hopefully if you check back later you’ll have made the money back.

Anyone who buys almost anything on the TP is buying into the system where it is possible to flip prices etc. There isn’t strictly anything wrong with that – if people genuinely think this is a moral issue, then I hope they also don’t buy anything irl from supermarkets or any store where a third party middle-man is involved in the purchase of the products. It is very hard to do.

Now, on a certain scale it is of course possible to abuse the system. Maybe some people have. But they are certainly fewer than people think or we’d have either everyone with thousands upon thousands of gold, or everyone with no gold at all. That hasn’t happened. The solution to a few abusing the system (if that is indeed happening), however, isn’t to close down the way the market runs, as it is a very successful operation most of the time. Preventing anyone from selling an item twice etc, only harms everyone.

To the OP, my best friend’s brother (who is also a good friend) has early-onset MS as well, and so to a limited extent, I have seen what you have to put up with daily. Your post was truly beautiful, and I am so glad you can relate to Taimi – when I first saw her and heard about her condition I immediately thought of my friend. It’s a wonderful thing that a video game has such an inspiring character in it. I wish you all the best, and admire your attitude.

Re the pregnant lady – that story saddened me so much to read about. I am so sorry you experienced that, and I hope that sort of thing will not happen to you again. There can little understanding in this world for the plight of others, but I am heartened to see this has not blinded you to the goodness of people.

There is a limited number of citizens you can encourage at any one time. If everyone were running around rescuing citizens, there would still only be a few players actively reaching them and encouraging them. That is why the escort events and the defend events are also there, but each of these events still only requires a very small number of people to succeed, and indeed too many people scales the event to the point where success is less likely. So really, a maximum of people can contribute at any particular time.

Therefore, 10-20 ppl going afk in the map doesn’t actually affect the success of reaching 1200 citizens as much as it might seem initially. I frequently run to all the places I know citizens are, only to find there aren’t any as someone else got there first. I’m not going to simply stand around and wait for them to respawn (and, ironically, that would get me accused of being afk), so I leave and do something else – that is no different to what an afk-er would do, only he/she hasn’t had to run all the way there in the first place.

I do agree that I don’t quite understand the point of going afk in LA at the moment – the rewards are hardly worth it, and you’d probably get more loot just running around a map somewhere killing trash mobs. But I don’t think they contribute any more to the success or failure of tier 5 than someone else running around with a zerg or dying and refusing to way point or running around collecting heirlooms.

Lol, it really does sound like something out of the Sims. I keep expecting the citizens to wave and respond “shoo flee?”

I have a Naga Razr, and I’ve actually found that by changing the way I grip the mouse, so that most of the weight is in the right hand side of the main pad of my hand, I have much greater control over movement of the mouse, and can easily hold down the right mouse button, while clicking the scroll wheel for dodge and also leaving my thumb completely free for pressing buttons down the side for skills.

I probably haven’t explained the grip very well, but basically shift the pressure away from your fingers to your palm (or the pads under the knuckles of your fist if that makes more sense). Not only can you accomplish more with the mouse, you actually gain much better movement control overall.

I will say that it’s taken me a good 4-5 times of rolling a Warrior before I decided that I would try and take a char to 80, and 1-2 with a Ranger. But I have come round to the feeling that a Warrior is a good char to have to hand, should you need one … more useful than Ranger, at any rate.

But, definitely try both as you may suddenly find beyond all expectations you don’t even like either and want to roll a Mesmer! Mostly go with what you find fun and what you can see playing for a long time. Yes, you can always roll other chars, but it’s good to play with some sense of investment in your char, so if you can’t stand one, play another and maybe come back later (like I say, rolled 4-5 Warriors and deleted them all before I decided I was enjoying it).

I’ve noticed this. I equipped it for the first time during the Marionette events when I thought it would be useful to have a res skill to hand, but it never seemed to work on anyone.

I did wonder the same as you, whether it had a time limit or something I wasn’t quite getting. It distinctly says “downed” on the tooltip, rather than dead or defeated, so I presume they have to be “fighting to survive”, but other than that, guidance would be helpful!

I’ve not tried it on NPC’s, though presumably, they’d be dead, rather than downed …

Once this event is over those prices will climb right back up again. Just look at housing in the real market, lol.

The market, though it currently has more people with particular items looking to make a quick profit, is hardly saturated. And those items will be bought, some people will save money, but these items are not regular open world drops. Sooner or later they will climb in price again, I can guarantee it.

I’m casual, I don’t flip the TP, I don’t have much money … but no way do I want this.

I think it’s fine as it is – I can buy and sell what I want, when I want, if I have enough money, and I’m more than happy to work for the money and save up if it’s an expensive item. Items that are purely convenience for the game are not expensive – it’s only rare items that I don’t really need that cost anything (such is life – real and in-game, so what’s different?)

Contrary to what some argue, I don’t believe that flippers push prices up – what sells sells at what price it’s going provided there are people willing to pay. The items I see at ridiculous prices are all “nice to haves” not “need to haves”, and there are so many “nice to haves” going cheap or available as rewards in-game that even my multiple characters cannot possibly equip them all. I can only imagine when some things get to the prices they do, it’s flippers flipping each other and nobody else, in which case, all the luck to them.

I don’t consider myself unusually punished because I play casually or spend less hours in game than others – not by the TP anyway. There are different aspects to this game that the TP doesn’t touch on that need sorting out in that regard, and I’d much rather start there.

To be honest, my computer used to handle zergs on highest settings no problem. Queen’s Jubilee? Farmed for hours straight with no hiccup. Since the EOTM patch, and maybe just before then, but this is the most accurate time I can link to, I’ve had frame rate like putty and random DCs constantly. It’s really frustrating, but I’ve checked out my PC and the problem doesn’t appear to be at my end.

You don’t have to start an alt, just another crafting discipline. You keep the progress on any you have to “discard” to start a new one. It’s a bit of a pain and it’s not cheap, but you wouldn’t need to start an alt for it.

Actually, this achievement is the one time you really want to be on a more or less empty overflow, or at least one where the majority of people are focused on rescuing civilians rather than the miasma events. Each miasma event can be successful with just a small handful of people, so you can swing round them all, kill enough mobs at each to register and still have all of them be successful.

Any server or overflow that has a massive zerg running around it will probably mean at least one event fails, unless of course you see the zerg isn’t focusing on miasma events.

When are people noticing these people being AFK? I only ask because just before the end of the whole event, people obviously WP to the nearest exit and wait until they get the signal to evacuate. Some people get there early, it seems, having accomplished all they think they can that particular round. So they’re not AFK, and they have contributed. Are people going to vote to auto-ban these people now? That seems extreme.

A little context is useful in this situation. But unfortunately, just reporting people who seem AFK doesn’t allow context to be relevant.

I know how you feel! I make so many characters because I’m always stuck for which to stick to. But really, the only way to work these things out is to test them yourself

Generally, if you had the patience, I’d recommend testing both to at least level 30, as you’ll be more familiar with how they (and you) play and will have unlocked a decent amount of skills/weapons etc to test out. This is, I find, a bit more telling than going into the Heart of the Mists, just because you won’t unlock everything (like you do in the PvP area) for a while on your character. So it’s good to test it with limitations.

But I hope you have fun, whichever profession you decide on!