Guild Wars 2

You know…if it turns out that there are some new unique skins that drop from mobs/chests in this new area, I’ll have a good laugh considering how much complaining there is about a lack of skins available from non-gemstore means.

I don’t think the problem is as much that there aren’t enough skins available from gameplay, but there aren’t enough specific enemies that drop specific skins. I mean, I remember going into Sorrow’s Furnace in the first GW and farming certain bosses for a specific skin and it felt so much more rewarding when you got what you were looking for.

As it stands now, it feels like there’s no real aim for any farming and good item drops are just something that happen randomly with no rhyme or reason.

Oh yea, I totally forgot the personal story. Good stuff there as well. You can do all of it on your own up until the last part that involves Arah Story Mode as one of the last steps.

You’ll run into a part where you choose between one of three orders: Vigil, Priory, Whispers. I’d personally recommend Whispers for reasons I won’t spoiler here, but they all run a relatively similar route and there’s no real wrong choice with what you choose.

Swami.4691:

Thanks for all the input, guys, I really appreciate it. :] As soon as I get my system all set up I’ll be installing.

My only other question would be: How should I go about leveling? I’m not worried about “the fastest” method; more concerned about which way is most enjoyable.

For reference I just wanted to say I understand how heart quests work, so no need to break that down. I was just wondering if you guys prefer Skyrim-style open world exploration, or if you think I would get a better feel of the game by following the Personal Story.

Sorry if this is a stupid question, I just would like to know what’s the best way to experience the lore and better understand the game.

Thanks again guys, I’ll see you in game soon. :]

Just wander around and try anything that sounds fun to you. You get leveled by just about everything you do, so there’s no wrong way:

Heart quests – These are ok and the experience is decent.

Map exploration – This gives a pretty decent amount of experience for just getting waypoints and points of interest. Opening up waypoints will be useful later, particularly if you join a guild and do Guild Missions.

WvW – I would recommend waiting a bit before jumping in this. You get leveled up to 80, but you don’t have a large number of skills and traits to help you until later. If you do jump in without being 80, just try to find a big zerg group and stick with them.

sPvP – Your level doesn’t matter at all for this, although I believe you may not have all the skills/traits open at first. You don’t gain experience from doing sPvP, but Tomes of Knowledge are rewards which are frequently granted and these can be used to instantly level your character 1 level.

Dungeons – Finding a group for players below level 80 can be a bit tough since so much of the player base now focuses on just taking geared 80s for speed runs, but these can be a lot of fun. Your first dungeon gets unlocked at level 80 (Ascalon Catacombs – Story Mode) and this can be a nice way to get into some more engaging PvE combat if you find a good group. The LFG tool can help you find a pick-up-group, but I recommend joining a guild with new player-friendly people who enjoy running dungeons if you want to do this.

Good change. Strength runes were too good for too many builds.

If you’re wanting to try out GW2, this is probably one of the best times to start.

Wilco.1458:

If they implemented hotfixes balance would be much smoother. You reduce number on like two rune sets and fix incendiary powder and you get a brand new meta once again without any of the fuss of “we’ve been preparing this patch for 8 months.” It would also be interesting to see more game modes than capture point. Engi wins like 90% of battles fighting on a point, but much less so off one. But that’s much more work than simple number changes that can come every few weeks.

Agreed with both points. A few small changes could shake up the meta without needing a huge time investment from ANet.

Also, this game is definitely in dire need of a new game type. Conquest is stale and a new gametype could shake up build diversity more than any balance patch.

Are you talking about tanking in PvE or playing a tanky build in PvP (i.e. bunker)?

There are a few builds that are a bit on the powerful side, but overall, I think this is a relatively balanced game compared to the past. I wouldn’t be surprised if ANet took their time before doing a balance patch.

Personally, I’d rather see more PvP content like maps and game types than another balance patch.

Still waiting for Guild Halls…

Capes would be ok, but I don’t see that happening due to clipping issues.

Yea, they’re both fun, but in general, I’d say that if you prefer sneaky tactics, go Mesmer. If you prefer juggling of multiple abilities to adapt to a situation and utilize combo fields, go Ele.

There’s not really a bad choice, especially for early leveling. If performance is the big thing for you though, go with the stalker. Cats are one of the highest DPS pets in the game and it should be sturdy enough for solo leveling. The drake is a bit tankier and brings some good DPS as well, so it’s not a bad choice either.

The moa really shines in a group more than solo, but it won’t really hold you back much if you choose it.

reecelox.1957:

Hi I started playing the game about 2 weeks back and I wanted to play a Guardian from the start as I play paladin’s/clerics in other games but I have a thing about playing classes that every 1 plays so I did not make 1 up and because some people I know says that every 1 has/plays a Guardian. Dose this bother any 1 or is it just me being silly. If some 1 could change my main I will be very thankful

thanks

Ignore guardian hipsters. Play the class you enjoy,

style.6173:

As long as the flag carrier has its own skill bar. Right now spirit watch is way too unbalanced since some classes are naturally better carriers.

Yea, agreed with this, but the map would also need to be larger or at least longer. Running the orb on Spirit Watch is a really short travel with tons of Line of Sight.

ANet: Take a page from WoW’s book with Warsong Gulch.

Vasco.8072:

What classes would you like them to be implemented in the future between the following ?

1
Tamer : light armor , takes advantage of the beasts that fight in his place, he mostly defensive spells to cure his beasts .

2
Bard: light armor , playing musical instruments to give boons and conditions

3
Blood Mage : light armor : Inflicts damage to itself to its enemies to inflict more

4
Summoner : light armor , can summon more creatures to fight for him ( there is already the necromancer but the summoner would be targeted more on creatures )

5
Doppelganger : medium armor , similar to the ranger but instead of domesticating animals it takes the form

6
Duelist : medium armor , his style is made of parades and countermoves

7
Warlock : medium armor , a cross between a magician and a warrior

8
Berserker : heavy armor , he fights with fury and therefore relies entirely on the attack and it is unstoppable , use only 2 weapons in the hands and has a poor defense

9
Magician combat : heavy armor , like the Elementalist but sacrifices his attack power for defense

1 – Tamer is too much like a Ranger.

2 – Bard would be awesome, but I don’t see it happening. The one bard character in the game is a punchline and all characters have access to play musics with the gemstore items.

3 – Blood mage is too much like a necro, which already has access to these mechanics, even if they aren’t heavily utilized.

4 – Summoner is too similar to necro.

5 – Doppelganger could work, but that’s kind of a weird name for a shapeshifter.

6 – Duelist would never work with a heavy emphasis on countermoves and if there wasn’t enough emphasis on this, then there’s not enough difference from other classes that have counterattacks.

7 – Warlock sounds like a D/X ele or necro with medium armor. If you moved to have more of a melee focus, then it’s a Guardian with medium armor.

8 – Berserker sounds like a warrior…or a nerfed version of a warrior.

9 – Magician sounds like a bunker ele.

Sorry to shoot everything down, but I don’t see a viable, fully fleshed profession coming from any of these.

I’ve been enjoying the Two Handed DPS build posted in Silven’s sticky lately.

It’s definitely not a 1v1 build and condi builds can still own you, even with all the condi removal, but it’s really solid for team fights since you have good dps and lots of support.

It may not be the absolute best build for most teams out there, but it’s a nice change of pace from bunker or meditation builds.

PvE, PvP, WvW?

Yes, but we’ve been begging for this since release and there’s still no sign of the devs giving in. It’s a shame that ArenaNet won’t bring this back.

With the current state of PvP, I don’t see what ANet has to lose.

Pop a bunch of tomes of knowledge.

If you don’t have tomes, then level all crafting professions.

If you don’t have the gold for that, then craft as much as you can and then follow EotM zergs.

If you want something more fun than that, do sPvP and learn your class, then use the tomes to level.

Also, running around the world opening up waypoints is a relatively fast way to level which also opens up the map for you later.

I’ll bump threads suggesting player housing with my support every time I see one…

…but I don’t think it’ll do any good. =/

Ugh, no. 8v8 was terrible. Fights were just giant AoE zerg-fests.

Yea, I’ll eat my keyboard if they actually come out with something substantial like a new race.

Did you complete the meta achievement? If yes, you get rewards. If no, then you get none.

Focus heavy on one point, abandon the point you control and either win the fight quickly by outnumbering them and move to the second point, or push gradually in that fight and send a roamer to the other point to either decap or go for winning the 1 v 1.

It’s basically the same strategy as what hockey teams do when they’re behind: Pull your goalie and focus heavy on offense.

Yamsandjams.3267:

Nabuko Darayon.9645:

Well this skill would be cool, but wasn’t it Mesmer’s skill to begin with?

It is a mesmer skill, but you could take two classes and thus use this skill on an ele to do something like double meteor shower.

If they did reintroduce this skill, it would surely go to the mesmer instead of the elementalist (although echo is already in the game, it’s just never used).

Yea, it’s a mesmer skill, but there’s still Glyph of Renewal. Too bad they already used that name for a GW2 skill though.

Just have a ranger in your group who is smart with their use of Healing Spring. You can blast that field to give plenty of healing without having to sacrifice your own DPS.

Great…another thread where someone tries a new class for a few hours in a 1v1 and starts making large sweeping judgments about it’s strength and validity.

Par for the course in these forums though, I guess.

Evan Lesh.3295:

Sounds like you should try the ‘Play Now’ button. It prioritizes servers that are just starting a map, has playable space, and is the same server other people will hop into when they use ‘Play Now’ so that they’re usually never empty and/or fill up quickly.

That’s what I use and I encounter the same situation as the OP. Games start off with low populations and it’s not uncommon for me to be popped into an empty or near empty arena. Players on losing teams early, players from the winning side get autobalanced onto the losing team, those autobalanced players then leave, and by the time the losing team gets a full or equal roster, they’re waaaaaaaaaaaaaay behind on points.

This makes playing with friends a nightmare. If you join up with a guildmate or two for some casual games, one of you inevitably gets auto balanced onto the opposite team. This is even worse when you want to play some games with your loved ones…

Don’t get me wrong team PvP is fun, but it’s not always a good solution for PvPing with friends.

My advice: completely scrap the hotjoin system. The bandaid fixes haven’t fixed anything. Just copy WoW’s unrated battleground queue system.

I haven’t been terribly active in PvP in a while and I’m not top of leaderboards, nor do I run in tournaments, but I would recommend checking out Dante’s build list:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/23vbkh/tpvp_build_list_up_to_date_builds_as_of_the_april/

He follows high level PvP builds pretty closely and while it’s only as up to date as of 4/24, I don’t think there has been much of anything that’s really changed to out date this (no major balance patches).

So…because someone else is a jerk or is bad in PvP, it’s ok to be a jerk in response?

Hmm…can’t say I agree with that one, bud.

Meluna.1764:

Are all instruments played with the same controls?

Mostly, but not completely, lol.

Most instruments have 1 key = 1 note and the last 2 skills move up or down a scale, but some like the lute have a section that do chords.

The drum is also very different. Pressing the same key will continue with the same style of rhythm, but won’t play the same exact note each time. Also, the drum has some ‘loop record’ keys that will allow you to play a beat and have it repeat.

Personally, I think this is one of the better metas we’ve seen.

I like seeing Eles around, even when they are tough to beat since they put up a much more diverse fight than something like a spirit ranger of hambow war.

scerevisiae.1972:

The tedium that has been introduced by reducing trait point acquisition is so much worse than the previous system – i struggle to find any enthusiasm for grinding out 5 levels just to see any improvement – i hate it.

The only tedium I’ve encountered with alts is clicking all the tomes of knowledge that this game throws at me.

People are getting bored and Ranger is something new and different for people that passed it up before. That’s my theory. =P

Adry.7512:

Hey, lets give it another shot, they have come closer and closer to perfecting their craft.

i see a bright future and no i am not a fanboy, never been. Either way, i think this game will become better than most of us expect it to become.

I haven’t quit, but there’s less motivation for me to play now than there has ever been. =/

GW2, at its core, is a beautiful game, but it’s been a long, long time since the devs have really acted like they give a care about it.

And right now, getting everything up and running for China is probably taking any effort they have left to give.

Yea, I used to spend gems on a regular basis for things like armor skins, permanent gathering tools, etc. I’ve played since beta, so I don’t know how much I’ve spent total, but it probably averages to about $10-20 a month up until the last month or two when I stopped.

I haven’t bought anything in a while largely because it doesn’t seem like there has been much engaging content added.

I.e. I only invest in the game when I feel like the game is investing in me too.

When everyone runs fast, no one runs fast.

Yea, this would be great, but ANet doesn’t seem to care about guild housing or player housing. Fortunately, I got access to Landmark beta. =P

Why do I still log on? Guild mates. Outside of that, Landmark is more fun for me right now, even though it’s still in very early stages of development.

Tachii.3506:

I’ll try it out, but I doubt it’s quicker considering Dagger auto/2HS has pretty high DPS. Unless deadeye happen to have lower HP than hammerfall or something. I’d imagine the bomb placements could also cause some random deaths at one point or another.

EDIT: Tested, about the same amount of time. Didn’t use Haste considering it has a 60sec CD.

Use haste. It’s better than a small precision boost considering the short duration of the fight, even if you don’t get to use it every time. Realistically though, I rarely find that there’s an arena open without a wait thanks to megaservers, which makes Haste even better.

As for bomb placements: As long as you don’t just hit Steal without looking, you shouldn’t have any issues.

Jordo.5913:

I ported in on the question being asked to an anet dev saying “So, what is going to be in this patch tomorrow?” (sorry, no screenshots)

his reply was “Fun stuff”

i had no idea there was even going to be a patch….and is this “fun stuff” for the festival?

Hear that?

…it’s the sound of my expectations from GW2 updates lowering.

Tachii.3506:

I main as thief.

6/6/0/0/2
III, IX, IV
I, X, XI
V

Against Hammerfell.
Dagger/pistol.
Strength Runes. <— Scholar Runes will do more damage.
Open with basilisk + #3 -> Steal -> Autoattack -> Shadowshot for blind -> Autoattack -> Shadowshot to maintain blind -> Heartseeker once below 25% HP.

On average I kill him in 13-16 seconds. 4 Gambits except for Squemish and Crowd Favourite.

PS: I run 4 signets, malice, power, precision, and initiative passive only.

How fast are other classes?

Here’s a faster one for your thief:

5/6/0/0/3
Sword/Pistol
Take all the DPS boosting traits for a S/P build
Heal: Signet of Malice
Utility: Assassin’s Signet, Haste, Infiltrator’s Signet
Elite: If doing it once, use Thieves Guild, but if you’re farming it, use Basilisk.

Gear is pure berserker, etc.

Go against Deadeye Dunwell.
Take the following Cantrips for bonus: Exhausted, Frailty, and Hamstring. Squeamish is doable, but not recommended.

Strat is simple: Infiltrator’s Strike to port to him, cast Haste, then spam Pistol Whip. If he ports away, just use steal or Inf Signet. Just make sure he’s not standing on a bomb when you do so.

This is about as fast as WoodenPotato’s strat with an ele, but I haven’t timed it to compare.

The megaserver sounded great in concept when it was first released…

…but so far my experience is that the extra population doesn’t really help much and actually causes more problems:

- Guild missions often become a pain on maps when separate groups end up on different copies of the map.

- Events such as the Crown Pavilion are even worse when you try to do them with a guild group since servers often become full, preventing your friends from joining you.

- The effect on the Queen’s Gauntlet was also that you had to wait longer to get an arena each time.

Yea, I’m sure that the number of player hours in WvW that a server has makes a huge difference in outcome, as does the % of players that go in for non-competitive reasons (gathering, jumping puzzles, achievement check list, random skirmishes away from objectives, etc.).

But I’m sure the small hardcore WvW population prefers to think that WvW is really something that’s won by strategy and skill. =P

VOLTCIEAGE.3029:

Sry its tournament and there must be winners and awards .

Considering how large the player base is for each “team”, it’s hard for me to take any winner or loser seriously. WvW is a fun place to fart around on…but it’s not a serious competitive environment to me, even if there are some people who try to treat it like one.

There are just too many people on the map that are there just to knock out an achievement list, farm some materials, do a jumping puzzle, fight meaningless 1 v 1s in the middle of nowhere, etc. for this to be considered any real measure of competitive prowess.

BootyWarrior.5243:

NONE, no chest after completed meta weeks ago.

Yup…I WAS going to get the hammer…so much for that. =/

Holland.9351:

To give them a break: They would have to store 44 names for each ranger in the game. Now they only have to store 2 names, which is already 2 more than any other class.

If you can come up with a solution for them without having to store 44 names for each Ranger in the game, then I’m sure they would be glad to hear it.

If they can store the visual appearance with every customization slider setting, hair color, armor set, armor color, current pets, current equipped weapons, current achievements, original story/personality setting, etc. for every single player in the game, then I don’t see why they can’t contain a simple string value (name) for each pet, especially considering that most rangers don’t have each of the 44 available pets.

chronus.1326:

Dafomen.7892:

Stevizard.4926:

Sorry guys, but any customer-centered business must care about what causes customers to quit buying (or playing) their product.

[…]

Sincerely,
Stevizard

+1

When I was working for another MMO running studio, that company was ignorant for insights light these.
They basically didnt care about what anyone said if he wasnt a high paid suit, where most of them hadnt even a clue about the product itself, but had some fancy job titles and nice boards in theirs offices with some monetization statistics on it.

Trying to explain or convince them to listen to what their customers had to say even it wasnt a lawsuit was, despite all the internal and external smoke screen PR (where most of the revenue vanished in to anyway), like talking to a brick wall.
It was really weird because to me it seemed most of them just didnt want to understand whats going on, because they would have to step ‘out of line’.
They preferred to stay in their office ‘doing their job’, watching the ship sink and grabbing on what they can get.
I dont know, but thats the impression I got. And I saw the numbers, every working day.

Well, the best description about what happened next would be….a crash landing with many casualties beginning of course on the “lower end”….poor buggers.

If a company reaches a certain size, loosing touch with the basics is its biggest treat.

Anet seems to have reached that tipping point somewhere in between GW and GW2 with an integrated accelerator it seems.

To be fair, I probably should swap Anet with NCsoft.

Basically the same thing can be read at the Glassdoor page of ArenaNet too, which is what makes me so indifferent.

I’ve never seen a company come out of this. The world is changing. Customers are more self-aware, the smoke screens are becoming smaller and smaller relative to the size of the internet. There isn’t really enough money out there to lie so effectively anymore. For a while, maybe, but its becoming increasingly inefficient. Maybe that’s why a lot of companies just don’t care anymore and just want to grab as much money as they can while they still can. Nobody actually wants to provide a service anymore. It’s too much of a hassle.

I read lately a quote from somewhere, I don’t know what it was. It was that the first company which comes out and starts behaving like a normal person will become incredibly rich and well received.

Customers are growing tired of BS.
They see the BS better, and that sight isn’t going anywhere. And their mouths are not as open yet as they could be, but their wallets are closing sooner.

The first person who realizes that and gambles on honesty becomes incredibly rich.

First dev who comes here and says “You know what? You are right. Here’s what’s going on in the company now:” and lay out everything will be revered by the community and everyone will fight for him. The gamer community would kickstarter fund a guy like that up to buying up the entire company. And that’s probably not even a joke.

Yea, I think you can really see the decline of GW2 in the way the devs respond (or don’t respond) to the community nowadays.

Before launch and during early development, so much of the communication surrounding the game was about how they had focused on new and progressive concepts that were in response to what players wanted: Remove the gear treadmill; allow players to play with their friends, regardless of level; make the open world interesting and worth exploring; etc.

As it stands now, you don’t really see much desire from the devs to do anything progressive or in response to players’ desires. Don’t get me wrong, there are still devs who are still genuinely interested in the community, but this has become less frequent and I really get the feeling that it’s largely due to them not being able to make a difference in the company to make the changes people get excited about.

For now, I’m really watching EQN and EQN Landmark closely. This is partly because of the games themselves, but also because the devs are still very invested in the community and are so excited in making something special. I won’t be terribly surprised if the passion fades after release, similar to how it did for GW2, but for now I am still hoping it won’t and I’m willing to invest in a game people are passionate about, even if it means having to start over and spending less time on what I really want to see prosper: GW2.

I’m generally not a fan of “farewell” threads, but this one seems really productive, so I’ll comment:

The OP makes a lot of good points. I’m not leaving GW2, particularly since I’m grouped with a great guild of people, but a lot of the things the OP listed are things that have caused me to become more distant with the game.

There’s a lot of things that GW2 does right, but the game’s become pretty stagnant and it still misses some mechanics that foster really meaningful group content that both challenges and has roles to be filled which feel like they make a difference.