Guild Wars 2

phys.7689:

i think it was clear adventures was going to be closer to mini games than what you imagined.

Yeah, but was it clear that you would be stopped in all progression of your characters should you choose NOT to participate in them?

I’m not arguing against adventures existing. Clearly there are a lot of people who like them. I’m arguing against having the most fundamental aspect of character advancement (for level 80s) being locked behind them.

Niriel.5490:

To be honest, I don’t really understand everybody complaining about masteries being locked behind certain activities. You bought Heart of Thorns knowing that it would be this way, so if you don’t like …

This is false, as regards adventures. There was not even a hint that we would be forced into arcade games by buying HoT (if we wanted to take full advantage of the new capabilities).

Now, don’t get me wrong: I don’t mind adventures. It’s the fact that I’m forced to do them in order to progress in the completely unrelated game called Guild Wars 2.

45 years ago, I could hold my own in an arcade. But, those 45 extra years have slowed the old reflexes a bit. OK, a lot. There are some that are impossible for me to even get to silver, and only one or two where I have a chance to get gold.

They’re NOT Guild Wars. They would be OK in a once-a-year event, but it’s not OK to hide masteries behind them.

Azoqu.8917:

Daddicus.6128:

Not true. Just try a new thread asking “What’s the best gear stats for <profession>?” You’ll get berserk from at least half the people, even if you specify “don’t tell me about berserker gear”. I know; I’ve done it.

That is more because it is easier to get Berserker gear and is the only real choice if you don’t have HoT.

See what I mean?

Vayne.8563:

I agree that adventures should never have had mastery points locked behind them. However the occasional mastery point for a hard jumping puzzle would be okay as long as it was extraneous. That is there should be enough easier ways to get mastery points without playing arcade games.

Wow! A historic day: I agree with Vayne!

Seriously, this is very true. Arcade games are interesting, but the mastery system should be about mastering GW2, not mastering Donkey Kong knockoffs. I think it’s OK that they put some masteries behind them, but there are far too many. And, there aren’t enough other ones. One is effectively forced to master some arcade games in order to earn a mastery — a GW2 mastery.

Crinn.7864:

Daddicus.6128:

I asked why, if there was a target, weren’t there separate mastery tracks.

There is a separate mastery track for raids though.

Tracks, yes. But, the XP bar is for all of HoT. So, once you finish HoT XP for masteries, you start losing all XP earned in any HoT zone (which, sadly, includes LS3 zones).

Sly.9518:

Pvp and WvW don’t have Mastery Lines….. they don’t look it up, they have Reward Tracks not Mastery Lines and WvW has its own WvW Rank system which only provides selectable Upgrades quite different from Mastery Lines.

Also The reason PvE has Mastery Lines and the others don’t? They are different gamemodes, and Raids are still part of the PvE gamemode, its not separate in the slightest it’s just a portion of PvE so it uses the PvE Mastery Mechanic.

And before Spirit Shards were ever reward for maxing out level 80 Mastery Lines Raids had their Mastery Line already implemented.

And Raids have it’s own Mastery Line…. It literally only affects Raid Content has no affects outside of Raids…….

So yeah..

OK, that makes sense then. I assumed masteries worked in PvP/WvW. (Shows how much I play there, huh?)

You’re right.

Ashantara.8731:

Yes. It is called the LFG (Looking For Group) tool that should always be used to either find an event map or initiate one by taxiing people in.

Djinn.9245:

I see the OP being criticized because he doesn’t know how the DS meta works. Where is it explained in-game?

I absolutely agree with that kind of criticism.

The game, in general, is in no way self-explanatory. The fact that none of the events (especially Dragon’s Stand) is explained, is only one of the many things that cause newbies a severe headache (and understandably so). You do have to ask in order to learn, or else you are lost.

As for the LFG tool, took me a while myself to figure it out (I think it was updated since then to increase its usability).

This is a correct observation, but there’s a problem. Many people playing “mapping games” (games where the map is revealed over time) attract players specifically because of that facet.

And, that kind of player also wants to figure out the “rules” as well. It’s just an extension of the same play style.

So, ANet can’t just explain things. They opted for the solution of the Wiki, instead. So, people do have to look things up, if they either can’t or don’t want to figure them out on their own. And, at the same time, the mappers are satisfied.

So, while I like the wiki method pretty well, there are others who wouldn’t play at all if the instruction manual covered everything as you went along. (Some hard-core mappers don’t even like the tutorial messages.)

Sly.9518:

Already did, your questions were "If there is a target audience and where is the Raid Mastery track both of which the answers are in the Snipped out quote you replied to. I even bolded most of it for you, to make identifying then relevant parts easy.

But again The target audience is players looking for a challenge through content that requires preparation, coordination and higher skill than anything else in game, and the Raids have their own Mastery track that can only be unlocked from killing raid bosses.

Again both of which were previously answered in my snipped reply, is there anything else?

But back on topic, There is already enough options to allow players not to groupnwith people using Dps meters if they so choose, there is no reason to remove dps meters since all they are is a tool that allows to more accurately identifyany deficiencies in a group, or would players want to go back to being kicked by any toxic players on a hunch or because they think someone is the reason or for having to low of AP or Two low of LI or any other non-meaningful reason.(ps dps meters show more things than just dps like Boon uptime and heals, so if your role isn’t just pure dps they have that info too)

I didn’t ask who the target audience was. I asked why, if there was a target, weren’t there separate mastery tracks. You partially answered this in your recent post, but if those are the reasons, then they really screwed up.

Another way to ask:

There are separate tracks for WvW and PvP, even though the differences are minor.

If they had used the same logic, there should be separate tracks for PvE and Raid. PvE and Raid are much further apart in game style than WvW and PvP are.

I have four mules (non-playing storage locations). I play the other thirteen characters each at least once or twice a week. It’s rare that I don’t get through all thirteen in a week.

I’m story-oriented and goal-oriented, though. Many of the characters were created because I want to play through all of the (original) storyline missions. I’m only “counting” it as played if I played it on my own character.

I also do dailies regularly, and so I need characters all over Tyria pretty regularly.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Because ANet did not plan Masteries with the idea that once all tracks had been maxed, XP would revert to a Spirit Shard reward on post-cap tick. They added that later, in response to player complaints, and once again either did not consider the ramifications for non-completionists, or because solutions that would either split Raid masteries from HOT ones — or allow XP to be allocated to a post-cap tick even if one had not finished all Mastery tracks were not trivial.

This technically answers the question, but is not a good reason. But, if true, perhaps they intend to correct the problem.

Sly.9518:

Daddicus.6128:

If there is a “target audience” for raids, then why don’t they have a separate mastery track?

Let’s take a look here.

…

Need anything more?

Yeah: Answer my question.

Cyninja.2954:

Use the lfg feature.

Doesn’t work unless you have a lot of patience.

Emmibolt.3928:

…help me understand

lately I have been seeing comments like ‘condi is stale’ ‘condi meta forced’ ‘boring’ ‘requires no skills/gimmicky’ ‘11111111111’ ‘condi condi condi(Cooonnnndiii)’ ‘condi meta needs to change’ etc etc etc…

But… But it did.

From zerk.

you all asked for this
you all BEGGED for this
you all cried, frothed at the mouth, and whined for the death of Power, Precision, and Ferocity.

You got exactly what you wanted. To the letter.
Why are you upset?

Not true. Just try a new thread asking “What’s the best gear stats for <profession>?” You’ll get berserk from at least half the people, even if you specify “don’t tell me about berserker gear”. I know; I’ve done it.

Report from a casual:

The map is back to the horrendous maps in the original HoT: impossible to navigate efficiently. Something has GOT to be done about multi-level maze-maps.

There needs to be much clearer identification of higher or lower (light green and light blue arrows look almost identical to me, a partial blue/yellow color-blind person). Maybe you could offer alternative colors (red and blue would make sense, or maybe let us choose from a palette).

Another possibility is moving the arrow from right to left when it’s up. Or, allow us to make the arrows larger (without changing the screen scope).

Travelling under another passageway needs to be identified much more clearly. Right now, you have to go to the big map screen, and then change levels. This capability needs to be in the mini-map. Further, if you really want to do it right, find a way to show the other levels at the same time. Perhaps as dotted lines in colors that aren’t natural to the terrain. (NOTE: this distinction isn’t needed until the character has actually traversed the other location(s).)

Combat difficulty is overall not too bad, but there are places where the enemies respawn so quickly that it’s almost impossible to make it out alive. Same problem was in Bloodstone Fen, and (to a degree) in Lake Doric.

Edited to change “red and green” to “red and blue”. I realized red and green would cause problems for the much larger portion of color-blind people, who are red/green color-blind.

Sly.9518:

Again it is clear you were never the target audience for Raids, yet you want Raids to be changed because you don’t fit into the target audience, again you don’t have to group with the people running dps meters, you can even ask the group leader if they are even using Meters in the group before joining. Oh no but that’s logic.

If there is a “target audience” for raids, then why don’t they have a separate mastery track?

I just want to be able to go back later (to buy stuff from the Svanir heart guy). But, I experimented, and I got all three pieces in about 45 minutes, so I’m betting it’s not a long-term issue.

They do disappear, so that leans strongly in your direction. But, I’ll leave the question up in case someone has found a way (that isn’t an exploit, that is).

I’m with you.

But, I have a different solution: make the LFG screen have a checkbox for gear-checkers.

(Sorry, I didn’t read the whole thread, if someone already suggested this.)

Now THAT could work. It at least makes the problem a programming issue, vs. an impossible theory problem.

I’m in such a guild, but I haven’t taken advantage of it. Yet.

This character is a thief (DD) with assassin ascended armor. I’ll try some other characters and see what happens.

Thanks!

In the Bitterfrost Frontier, when you put on the Svanir disguise, you lose it when you exit the transformation. Is there any way to keep the three pieces, but drop out of the disguise?

It would be massively complex (despite statements above to the contrary). The problem is that the weapon system itself prevents easy changes.

Necros can use several weapons, eles a different set, etc. There’s a matrix of weapons that can be used by the various professions.

In order to add weapons, they would have to be balanced across all of the professions, as they are now. Thus, they would have to add at least three (which would still be terribly unbalanced) to even think about it.

Take a look at the chart about halfway down https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Weapon. Where would you insert a new weapon?

Just coming up with the types of weapons would be nearly impossible, unless they completely rebalance things. They shot themselves in the foot with the original design, and I can’t think of any way to extricate themselves, without totally re-creating the weapon system.

It’s not the dying that is freaking me out. It’s the instant downing, and from long range. And, the fact that stealth doesn’t work at all is a big problem, when I was planning on relying on stealth to escape enemies (I had three stealth skills, but none of them seemed to have any effect at all).

SlippyCheeze.5483:

Daddicus.6128:

The first rule of security is never run an application at higher privilege than it needs. But, we must run GW2 as an administrator, which is the worst possible security posture for any application.

3rd-party voice software must also be run as admin in order to be used with GW2.

Neither of those statements are even remotely true. Both GW2 and five different third party VoIP clients run perfectly happily and successfully without administrator privileges on my system, and I assure you I have done absolutely nothing to make that happen.

You’re right! That’s very new, but I like it. They finally listened.

Scratch my previous post, folks.

Well, I tried going into WvW, and I discovered that people are WAY better than I am (see my other thread). If a player so much as gets in range (i.e. when I can see the orange dot), I’m as good as dead unless I have friends around. Stealth doesn’t work at all, and humans seem to be able to do monstrous amounts of damage (1-hit downed, by most enemies).

I’m sure not happy that GoB is required. That experience was just awful, and I only got three ticks of the forty (I somehow managed to complete three of the dailies, although I only really understand why for one of them).

Yuck.

I’m new to WvW, and I’m doing something very wrongly. I get killed almost instantly whenever another player shows up. Someone just barely shows up on the radar, and before my stealth skill goes off (and WAY before he should be able to traverse that distance), I’m downed. Less than a second. Then, before I can get off my shadowstep skill, I’m dead.

How is this possible? One-hit downed, second hit dead, and all from a player way starting beyond what should be aggro range, and no chance to even kick off a skill.

On the rare occasions when I get my stealth skill off, it only lasts for less than a second (supposed to be three seconds), and even while in so-called stealth, the enemy can still damage me (usually downing me, as above).

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Why would you want ANet to work on something in which they have no expertise, when there are already several VoIP solutions out there, several of which are free to players. In particular, you can create discord channels on the fly.

The first rule of security is never run an application at higher privilege than it needs. But, we must run GW2 as an administrator, which is the worst possible security posture for any application.

3rd-party voice software must also be run as admin in order to be used with GW2.

Thus, now I have to have two apps running as admin, versus the ideal: never run ANY applications as admin. It’s a very bad idea to do that, so it follows that it’s twice as bad when you have to run two apps as admin.

Ashen.2907:

You do not have to PvP to get a GoB, though doing so can potentially increase the speed at which you make progress.

So, there are places where no other players can attack me, but I can still earn the GoB? How can I find these places? Or, is it just that the risks of getting attacked are lower?

Sly.9518:

You don’t have to fight other players… period.

I didn’t say I don’t want “to fight other players”. I said they can attack me while doing the JP.

Have they changed it to make other players not able to attack you during the JP?

I see all kinds of posts explaining how to get the GoB. However, I’ve seen zero reasons why it is required in the first place. Can someone please explain why a PvE player is required to play PvP? Aren’t we supposed to be able to play the game for fun?

Dawdler.8521:

So we want to get gift of battle by doing more PvE? Hmm… hmmmmmm…

You get 1 token daily by completing the Obsidian Sanctum puzzle and need 250 tokens to buy the gift.

Sounds better than 6 hours or so of casual WvW, right?

Except people can attack you during the JP. I’m not sure about the OP, but I’m not interested in combat with other players. Period.

Danikat.8537:

Alternatively if you’ve not played WvW before I strongly recommend using this as an opportunity to try.

I don’t play WvW because I did play, and found the population generally disgusting. But this was back when the mapping title included WvW maps.

Plus, raiding probably dragged off a number of the toxic players. So, maybe I’ll poke around a bit.

Wait: I have to play WvW to create any legendary weapon? I hope I’m reading that wrongly.

Thank you also, Danikat, Dawdler, and Curunen! I think I already covered your answers in the other posts, but I’m grateful you posted anyhow!

SlippyCheeze.5483:

Daddicus.6128:

I’m thinking about getting a legendary weapon. I read the wiki page (https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Legendary_weapon), but I have a couple questions.

First, it appears that it doesn’t matter what legendary I choose, I can later change the stats any time I want (outside combat). So, what are the differences or advantages of one over another?

Second, do the older generation legendary weapons allow use of the new stat combinations (like viper)?

It’s worth noting: you can’t change the type of legendary. So, forge a legendary staff, and only classes that can use a staff can wield it.

I’m sure that was obvious already, but just in case someone new reads this and is confused…

I’m glad you said it. I thought that was true, but I would have wanted to make sure before making one. Now, I know.

Thanks!

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

There are only three reasons to choose to make a legendary:

• For the prefix-choice.
• Because you like/love the way it looks.
• Because you can.

However, forging a legendary involves a ton of effort, so I recommend you be certain that one or more of the above is important to you. You might enjoying running a few miles every week, but you wouldn’t commit to a marathon unless you were really determined to manage 26+ miles.

There’s a fourth reason: getting the achievement for using one. And, this is my reason for asking.

How does it compare to Ad Infinitum? I earned one of those a while back (but, it didn’t trigger the achievement, which is for weapons).

Thanks!

Amaimon.7823:

(if it didn’t it would’ve been a legendary failure)

Thanks, Amaimon!

And, I really like that statement!!!

Lethalvriend.1723:

I think they should have made it possible for non-raiders to continue getting spirit shards after earning all non-raid masteries in HoT zones.

I agree. It will be a long time, if ever, that I do any raiding. So, I’ll be stuck.

However, there’s something of a saving grace for me: there’s no way I’ll ever complete all of the masteries anyhow, so this is all a moot point (to me).

I do wish you would start getting XP again once you have progressed to the point where you can’t earn a mastery due to missing mastery points (vs. XP). It seems a shame to be wasting all those XP.

I’m thinking about getting a legendary weapon. I read the wiki page (https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Legendary_weapon), but I have a couple questions.

First, it appears that it doesn’t matter what legendary I choose, I can later change the stats any time I want (outside combat). So, what are the differences or advantages of one over another?

Second, do the older generation legendary weapons allow use of the new stat combinations (like viper)?

You will get spirit shards in central Tyria once you’ve completed the masteries for central Tyria.

I don’t know if you lose that ability once you open up the Raid track. Previous posters think you do lose it. I’ll defer to that wisdom. However, I’m getting shards in central Tyria even though I’ve never darkened the door to raids. I’m not done with HoT masteries yet, so I can’t speak to that.

I would say that starting HoT without completing LS2 would be the biggest spoiler in the game. I highly recommend finishing LS2 before starting HoT.

NOTE: I’m a very serious casual, and I live for the stories. (I’m 15 characters away from completing all of the core Tyria storyline missions on one account. Without re-using character slots. Some would call that masochism.) So, take the above with a grain of salt.

For mastery points, you also need either many adventures having received silver or gold, or the LS3 maps.

For hero points, it depends on how much of the central Tyria map completion you have done. See https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Hero_point. Leveling to 80 gets you all of the non-elite skills and traits.

The Elite costs 250 hero points. You get 200 for map completion in core Tyria. So, you need 50 more in HoT maps once you have map completion. If you’re short of map completion, you need correspondingly more HPs in HoT maps.

Remember that 10 HPs are granted in HoT maps for each HP location. But, many of them are much harder to obtain.

RoseofGilead.8907:

All recipes are learned for your entire account now. So, while you have to buy/get a recipe for each individual piece, you only have to learn each recipe once per account.

Goodness, I had no idea!

OP, ignore my whole later post. It’s useless now.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

You’ve forgotten: inscriptions & insignias and all other purchased recipes only have to be purchased once — they are unlocked for the account now.

I was thinking the high-end ones, like viper, sinister, and others like that. The ones you have to buy the recipe from some NPC, or the ones where you have to earn the recipe somehow.

You’re quite right on all the ones below level-80 rares, though.

All of them. However, if I had it to do over again, I would do all of my armor crafting on one character, and all weapon crafting on another. That way, the inscriptions and insignias only have to be purchased once each.

I would use a third character for Jeweler and Chef. (And Scribing, but don’t do that until you are rich enough to afford it, and in a guild where it makes sense.)

What I ACTUALLY did (vs. what I WOULD do, above) is have my first eight characters each have one primary crafting discipline. That character is my go-to character for that specific crafting. So, eight characters, eight crafting disciplines. (Later, I added two more to each, but those eight are the ones who get all the unique recipes, each in their “master” discipline.) So, my necro is my tailor, and it is he who I go to whenever I need to craft any high-end light armor. Similarly, my ranger is my huntsman, and I go to her for the high-end huntsman-crafting weapons.

I had one of each profession, but the crafting discipline wasn’t chosen because of that, except very loosely. I just wanted eight crafters, and coincidentally eight professions. (It was sheer luck that my 9th character happened to be a revenant AND got the new scribing discipline.)

Zok.4956:

It would be more convenient if they could be used when they are in a shared-slot.

True, but I am already doing that with salvage things, and I go through them A LOT! So much so that I finally bought the infinite salvage kits.

So, I’m thinking even ANet will profit from this idea. But, it has to be somewhat expensive. If they were too cheap, it would undercut their other sales of some items.

I just reported my opening post, and asked them to move it.

Yeah, it’s there now. I wrote it up once I figured it out.

I figured it out. There’s an “Add to Collection” menu item when you right click them.

I have now crafted all five pieces of the doll for Aurene. However, none of those five has been noticed by the achievement/collection pane.

Will all six of the entries show up when I double-click one of them? I hate to combine them all if they need to be recognized beforehand.