Guild Wars 2

I know how you feel. I remember one year when they announced the anniversary sale in August I decided I’d buy a bank tab when they went on sale. I finally got it in January.

Bank tabs and character slots don’t go on sale often, probably because Anet knows people will buy them at full price (although some of us are stubborn and insist on waiting for a sale). Unfortunately that means you can’t count on them being discounted even if everything else is going on sale.

Finally got this. Getting out there was quite time consuming (I did it in normal mode) but actually getting the fish to the cat wasn’t too difficult once I cleared the path of enemies. The hardest part was reminding myself I could drop the fish and pick it up again as many times as I needed and therefore did not need to rush.

They’ve been doing a lot of short (often 24 hour) gem store sales recently. The Super Explosive Finisher might be one of those.

Squee.7829:

“Atheism by definition means belief that there is no god. "
Not true. Can be easy to confuse because of specific wording, but the exact definition is:
“Disbelief or lack of belief in the existence of God or gods.”

It’s not a belief in no god(s). It is a complete lack of belief entirely. Meaning their views are based solely on evidence and not faith. It seems like a small nitpick in wording, but the actual difference is huge.
Understanding this, you can easily say that the Asura are atheists. They acknowledge the human gods and make absolutely no claims that they do not exist, but only acknowledge them as powerful beings based on the fact that there is evidence for them. Not because of some ancient traditions or scriptures CLAIMING they exist with no concrete evidence to back it up, but because they find actual evidence.

Real world atheists themselves even seem to think that atheism is a strict adherence to the idea that there absolutely is no God and that is it, so it’s easy to get confused. But that’s not actually the case. That’s Anti-theism. Atheism just makes the claim that until proof of God(s) is found, there’s no point in going on pretending one exists.

Some real world atheists.

Atheists are a broad group (just like Christians, Muslims, Jews etc.) and just like any other large group of people they’re not all the same and won’t all agree. Just like some people will cherry pick aspects of their religion or stretch and twist it’s tenants to suit whatever they have already decided they want to believe and how they want to act some people will apply very different views and opinions to the label Atheist so they can apply it to themselves.

(The big difference is that with a few notable exceptions they don’t tend to expect anyone else to agree with them, there isn’t the same sense of a need for all Atheists to agree with each other, because they’re not supposed to be a cohesive group so much as people who are outside of the cohesive groups of the various religions.)

Atheism in fantasy generally takes two forms: Those who, like in real life, do not agree that there is any evidence any type of sentient higher power exists and those who acknowledge the existence of more powerful beings but do not worship them or consider them worthy of worship by others.

Atheism in Guild Wars is generally the second type. For example the asura acknowledge that the human gods and norn spirts exist, although there’s some debate over whether they’re living beings that live in the Mists rather than on Tyria or simply superstitious names given to natural forces by ignorant bookhahs (although when they’ve tried to test it the evidence seems to point to the former). But they see them as a part of the Eternal Alchemy in the same way everything else is – they’re not above or outside of it, they didn’t create it and don’t control it, they’re no more deserving of worship for their place in it than a storm or a drake or a rock.

And they don’t worship the Eternal Alchemy itself because they don’t attribute any kind of intelligence or awareness to it, or even consider it a single thing, it’s a series of processes that happen as a result of each other.

The charr go to what could almost be called the other extreme – they ceased to worship their former gods (the Titans) not because they don’t believe they exist but because they know for a fact they do (or did, it’s unclear whether any survived) and because they proved to be physical, possibly immortal but not invincible beings. And the found this out in a rather unfortunate way – when a bunch of punny humans inadvertently released them into Tyria and then slaughtered them all.

On an individual level I suspect it varies as much as in real life. I’m sure there are some humans who don’t believe their gods ever existed, who think they’re just stories made up to explain how the world works and tell people how to behave and others who accept that they once existed and may still be out in the Mists somewhere but who don’t worship them because they seem to have distanced themselves from humanity and don’t have anything to do with their lives any more.

Thanks for letting us know.

And for people who are unable to get past King Toad (or any other part) I’m sure there’s people in-game who would be willing to help you. It is a difficult fight on your own, and requires good timing, but with more people it gets easier.

Ah, that would be the problem then.

Put the Charged Quartz Crystals in your bank, make sure you have only the Uncharged version in your bags.

(You can have any other stuff you want with you, just not Charged Quartz Crystals.)

Actually they haven’t even released world 3 yet. (Unless you count the tiny preview you get at the end of World 2.)

I keep hoping they will be able to do it one day, but then I also keep hoping they’ll bring back Season 1 of the Living Story. Maybe someday they’ll be able to do it. Maybe some people are already working on it in bits and pieces (what my work calls ‘doing it off the side of your desk’) but it’s taking much longer than World 1 and 2 did because they can’t focus on it.

On the other hand…the preview for World 3 on the map shows a cavern almost entirely filled with water and one with lava everywhere, two things every platform/adventure gamer dreads. It doesn’t matter what game it is, the underwater level and the lava level (both are obligatory) are the bane of your existence.

(And then there’s people like me who play Ecco the Dolphin – an entire game of underwater levels where even playing as an aquatic animal you still have to breathe air!)

I’m not sure I want to see what SAB would do with those. Can you imagine Tribulation Mode?

Another thing that might be helpful to know is that equipment is very different in this game to WoW.

There are only 6 tiers: Common (white), Fine (blue), Masterwork (green), Rare (yellow), Exotic (orange) and Ascended (pink). Everything with the same level requirement and tier is equally good: a level 80 Exotic Sword you got from a random enemy in the open-world will have stats equal to one from a dungeon, or crafted by a player. Also so far we haven’t had a level cap increase and only 1 new tier so there’s a definite end to obtaining better equipment.

Everything up to exotic is easy to obtain from a variety of places. Ascended is harder/more expensive because it’s supposed to be a long-term goal but it only has slightly higher stats so it’s not required for anything except 2 end-game group areas (Fractals and the one raid). (There is also a 7th ‘tier’ called legendary, but those have identical stats to ascended, they just have much fancier skins and they’re intended as long-term goals, something to go for if you like how it looks, not something you’d ever need.)

As a result most players will assume if you’re level 80 you’re in exotic/ascended and won’t check (and there’s nothing like gear scores). (Although they may ask what build/stat combination you’re using.)

One other thing that can be confusing to some people coming from other games is that every item has two ‘set names’ – one for the stats and one for the skin and players will discuss both almost interchangably, but it sounds like WoW’s transmogrification system (especially since Legion) is pretty much identical so you might be fine with that.

My number 1 tip for new role-players (in any setting) would be to take note of how the NPCs speak. “Whereth does thou findeth yon weapon merchant?” would be incomprehensible nonsense to the NPCs in-game (as would actual middle English), so there’s no reason for players to speak like that just because they’re wearing tights and holding a sword.

Also personally I’d advocate avoiding both amnesia and ‘orphan adopted by another culture’ as backstories unless you’re really attached to the idea (and ideally can put your own twist on it). Tyria is a pretty cosmopolitan place, especially with all the asura gates. It’s not unusual to find members of other races in the cities and even our in smaller settlements, so there are lots of ways your character could have come into contact with other cultures and adopted their habits or modified their own, even if they themselves haven’t travelled much.

Also I agree completely about making sure it’s clear when you’re in character, and I’d say also consider whether the person you’re talking to is in character. Since there are no RP servers or even a dedicated RP channel you’re going to be sharing chat channels with non-RPers most of the time. Constantly interrupting someone who is trying to give a newbie instructions on fixing their graphics with “What is this menu you speak of?” “Sounds like asura nonsense to me.” “Why would anyone want to change how the world works?” etc. is likely to at best get you totally ignored and at worst annoy everyone involved.

Just in case anyone who cares isn’t already aware there is a new SAB mini – the Miniature Super Storm Wizard – which is obtained by buying the original Miniature Super Trio (the Spider, Bee Dog and Monkey) and combining them in the Mystic Forge with a Continue Coin.

I nearly missed it because at first glance I thought I had both Trios so I didn’t need to get them and the Storm Wizard doesn’t show up in the wardrobe or the mini tab of the Hero Panel until you’ve got it.

Don’t forget you can also buy them on the TP. They’re not cheap (some are extremely expensive) but it’s an option if you really want them.

The beam it’s referring to is the one the Vinewrath fires out through the entrance when a lane first opens.

The best way to get it is to make sure you’re just behind the carrier when it breaks down the final vine wall to open the path to the Vinewrath, and you apply the buff from the Jade Maw Eye Lens just as the carrier breaks down the wall. I think the beam does a little bit of damage, most people try to avoid it but it’s nothing to worry about so just stand in the centre of the lane and let it hit you.

Once you’re inside the ‘arena’ fighting the boss in front of the Vinewrath it’s too late. But I think you can complete the achievement by going to another lane when it opens, even if it won’t let you go in. (So maybe start in the bottom lane so you get at least 2 more chances if you miss it the first time.)

Some other common problems, although I doubt these are affecting you since you’ve done all the other steps:

• You need a Quartz Crystal, not a Charged Quartz Crystal.
• You need to double click the Eye Lens so it gives you a buff before the beam hits you, just having it in your inventory is not enough.

zealex.9410:

or make the skin sellable in the tp for goldz ez

That would be a good solution IMO.

That way people who want to gamble, either for the sword, for another item or just for the sake of it, can do so. And if they don’t want the sword they can sell it, turning what would currently be a disappointing and useless drop for them into a load of gold (which they can use to buy something they do want) and make another player happy in the process by allowing them to get the sword.

Same profit for Anet (because someone still has to get the sword from a chest) but two more happy players for every currently useless sword. (And more activity on the TP which has additional benefits for them.)

Another lost sale here. If it was in the gem store I’d have bought it, but I refuse to gamble with real money so I won’t be getting it.

I actually have 4 black lion keys sitting in my bank from doing the level 10 and 40 story chapters, but I won’t even be using them because after the Mini Celestial Rooster was locked away in chests I feel like I have to keep them just in case something else I really want comes up.

It’s a horrible system that punishes players (both those who want it and can’t get it and those who do get it, don’t want it and can’t sell it) all in the hope that some of the first group will be desperate enough to throw away more money than they’d normally be willing to pay for a chance to own it.

Carighan.6758:

At this point I’m just about ready to admit defeat and pay 10€-12€/month if in turn all the skins and all will be achievable ingame somehow.

I mean I tried FF14 recently, and it definitely shows how their sub income gives them a lot more space to work with as developers. Which is a shame, because as an underlying framework, GW2 is worlds stronger.

Personally I much prefer this system. I get all the non-expansion content for free (if I somehow miss a chapter I can buy it with gold to gems) and I only have to pay if I want a specific skin or item. Overall, even including the cost of the game and the expansion I’ve spent far less than I would on a subscription and I don’t feel under pressure to play to make sure I’m getting my moneys worth. (I know that last bit is just my issue, but it really does bother me.)

The only problem is when they go and put an item I might want in the Black Lion Chests and make it account bound. I refuse to gamble with real money (especially for virtual items) so I’m restricted to keys I can get for free and that seriously limits my chances. It’s extremely frustrating to know that an item I’d be happy to pay for is locked away behind such a negative system. It’s actually put me off using any keys I do get – after the Celestial Rooster mini pet was locked away in Black Lion Chests I feel like I need to save them all in case something I really want comes up.

Even more frustrating is when I know people who got one they didn’t even want and now feel stuck with it – they know if only they were allowed to sell it they could make a lot of gold, making both them and the buyer very happy, but they can’t so they’re stuck with a sword they will probably never use and someone else is stuck missing out on it.

All on the off chance someone doesn’t understand the odds and actually spends the money to gamble for it.

Oops, totally missed that. I just saw ‘November’ and ‘x hours ago’ and didn’t realise it was an old thread.

You could try contacting Support and see if they can help you get it installed on your Mac, they’re usually pretty helpful, although it may take a few days to get a response.

But from what I’ve heard the Windows version is much better. The game was built for Windows then ported to Mac and I think that caused some issues.

(If for any reason you can’t get it working there either let us know and/or contact Support. As you said you should be able to play the game you’ve bought and it definitely should work, on both formats, so please don’t just give up on it.)

My advice would be to start off with just familiarising yourself with the game again. A lot has changed since you left and you’ve probably forgotten some stuff too. It might be worth making a new character (keep the ones you’ve got though) to play through from the start and get reintroduced to all the mechanics.

As for what you can do everything that was in the game before is still here and you can still play it. You may have to buy the remainder of Season 2 from the gem store if you didn’t unlock them and want to finish it, but each chapter is only 200 gems and there’s a bundle deal too (and don’t forget you can get gems with gold). Season 3 is currently running, but you need HoT to play it so there’s no need to buy it yet.

I don’t know anything about what builds are currently popular but I’ve only got the elite specilisation from HoT unlocked on 1 of my characters and even then I don’t really use it, and I haven’t had trouble completing any part of the game.

Eddbopkins.2630:

why are the new weapons/skins buyable? what happened to an adventure to get the cool new weapons/skins? what has MMOs become? i want to go on an adventure, i want to kill a boss to get a claim ticket or a peace of the mob to take back to some npc or something more then just take my gold and have a chance to get cool things…..this way is not for me.

You do kill bosses (or regular enemies) or complete activities in the game to get ‘claim tickets’ – that’s exactly how gold, karma, dungeon tokens, WvW badges and the numerous other tokens which can be used to get equipment and skins work. And there are hundreds of weapon and armour skins available through those methods.

Other items come directly from achievements, from crafting them (with stuff collected from enemies and the environment) or as drops. And just like GW1 and most other MMOs you also have the option of trading your drops for others by selling what you got to another player through the TP and then buying what someone else got, which dramatically increases the chances of getting some of the rarest drops.

You even have the option of buying gem store skins with gold earned by playing the game, something which as far as I’m aware very few other games offer.

Zoltreez.6435:

you guys didn’t heard about all the OLD and NEW mmo’s that can be played while updating right ?

you guys don’t play many mmo-s I bet

You mean games like GW2? (And GW1.)

You only need to download the essential files (the ones the game needs to run at all) to be able to log in and play, then it will continue to update in the background, prioritising files as needed – for example if you enter a new map it will stop whatever it was doing and download that map 1st, then go back to other stuff.

There’s even a marker on the update bar which says “playable” to show you the point at which you’ll be able to login. Or you can login as soon as it starts updating and it will load the game as soon as it gets to that point.

It’s only really noticeable with big updates (or in my case when I recently had to re-download the entire game after messing with my hard drive). Small updates are often either all essential files or all non-essential files so the ‘playable’ marker doesn’t appear.

But if you’re on a private computer and you trust all the other people with access to it you can just save your username and password and click the button to run the game automatically and then all you need to do is double-click the shortcut and the game will run the launcher, log you in and launch the game as soon as it can with no further input from you.

It might even be 600 and the font just makes the top of the 6 look like the top of a 4.

This is a common problem with the font/size used to list former prices. The worst is anything which costs 800 gems, that looks like 000 down to 620 or whatever the new price is.

As a GW1 player (still active) I really like seeing these.

Admittedly the Elemental Sword somehow flew under my radar, I didn’t know about it until I saw people saying it was originally in GW1 but I was very happy with the Storm Bow and especially the full set of chaos weapons. And of course the Fiery Dragon Sword. (Sadly the Draconic scythe isn’t likely to make an appearance.)

I’m surprised you’ve missed all the forum topics asking them to bring back everything from individual weapons and armour skins to hard mode, elite missions and Cantha/Elona. A lot of players really enjoyed (and continue to enjoy) GW1 and want to see their favourite parts make the transition to GW2 as well.

This is one of the rare times I wish GW2 allowed 3rd party add-ons.

My other MMO has numerous add-ons which mute one or more things players find annoying, and then it’s simple – if it annoys you then you install the add-on and never hear it again, if not you don’t install it. And it doesn’t take up any of the developers time or add a bloated menu with check boxes/sliders for every effect anyone might ever have been annoyed with.

Wondrouswall.7169:

Gaile Gray.6029:

This isn’t a “vote” situation, per se, but input is appreciated and we’ll be reading!

Upon re-reading this: Why do I get the feeling this thread is another ruse? You guys (Anet) have a track record for asking for player feedback on a suggestion, when in truth, the proposed “solution” is already in-the-works and will be implemented anyway – regardless of feedback.

Can you give some examples of times when Anet asked for feedback on a change, most players said they did not want it and Anet did it anyway?

I like to try and (very informally) keep track of how they respond to player feedback so it’d be helpful to know but I’m drawing a blank on any examples (maybe because I’m pretty tired today).

The best way to farm mystic coins is just to make sure you log in every day you can. And make sure to do the Mystic Forge daily whenever it comes up.

(I like it when these topics come up though because it reminds me to sell the ones I have piling up.)

It’s called a robe. It’s a fairly standard form of clothing, especially in fantasy.

I hope Anet brings it back/the new one is allowed to keep going.

I find it very helpful because when I’m away from home (as I often am) I can use it to keep an eye on what’s in the gem store so I know if it’s worth making a special effort to log in if I can, or to stop waiting for a particular item because I’ve missed it if I can’t.

On at least one occasion I’ve gotten home at about 11pm and logged in before going to bed to buy something because that thread let me know it’d be gone by the next morning.

For the people suggesting a weapon/legendary weapon effects slider or mute button: Have you considered that this would affect all weapons, or all legendary weapons equally? Including your own?

Does that make it less desirable to you?

Rauderi.8706:

My biggest problem with Dreamer has always been the frequency. An internal cooldown of 5-10 seconds or only triggering it on non-autoattack skills would greatly reduce the annoyance.

Possibly as a suggestion, see if it sticks, fire off a pony once per cooldown, change the pitch off the irritating whinny (make it lower), and on shots during the cooldown, make it a mellow sprinkling while firing pixie dust. Seems apropos.

Whilst I’m indifferent to the sound it makes I’d be extremely disappointed if they replaced most of the Dreamer’s projectiles. To me that is the defining feature of the weapon and it’s hard enough to see them clearly already, if the unicorns were reduced to an occasional ‘surprise’ effect that would ruin the weapon for me.

Keesh.5689:

Going to sound odd but is a simple solution to this problem be we unlock two skins of the same look meaning if we wish to have a normal weapon sound we could skin the normal sounding one over the legendary sound one? Also could be a solution for people who dislike footsteps or something ? Allows different people to both eat their cake….. I actually skin my predator just for reason the sound of it gets irritating after a while. Love the look or it though.

That wouldn’t really work, since a lot of the people who complain about these weapons (particularly the Dreamer) aren’t using it themselves, they’re just annoying by other people using it within their hearing.

So this wouldn’t help them at all, and may lead to some of the…less civil individuals putting undue pressure on the user to swap to the other skin.

I think it depends on what the new sounds are. Is it possible to get any more detail on that? Maybe hear it (as a youtube video or something)?

The Dreamer is my favourite legendary and main weapon but I’m actually largely indifferent to the sound it makes. It’s not why I like it, but it also doesn’t bother me, so I wouldn’t mind it being changed, but that does depend on what the new sound is.

For what it’s worth I prefered the old sound which was ‘slower’ and ‘deeper’, it sounded more like a horse neighing than the current one and was less shrill which seems to be the main complaint about the current one.

I’ve only ever gotten rings from WvW rank chests, but I know they can come from a lot of places. I think they can come from most places exotic equipment can drop, but they’re much rarer (and exotic drops are pretty rare).

I’d really like to be able to combine the different ‘eaters’. I have 5 or 6 of them and while I do use them occasionally it’s annoying that they take up so much bank space.

It would help to say which region you’re in, since it’s impossible to meet up in-game with people who are in the other region.

I have mixed feelings on it but overall I think I prefer the old system.

I think the big benefit of the new system is that it allows for better integration of dialogue and actions. You can see what a character is doing and what’s happening around them while they’re speaking so when they react to something you actually see it. Whereas under the old system all you saw was two people standing against a generic backdrop talking calmly to each other. Sometimes that just didn’t make sense – a character would say something like “Oh no! What’s that?!” and I’d have no clue what they were talking about because all I saw was them standing there. But it also interfered with my immersion – because I was looking at two people calmly exchanging lines I found that when I had the sound on it was impossible to forget I was listening to actors in a studio calmly reading their lines and it made any issues with the dialogue glaringly obvious.

But the problems I have with the new system are worse. I often have to play with the sound off because my PC is in the main room of the house and it’s often too noisy to hear (and most of the time I can’t wear headphones because I can’t be cut off from what’s going on). Which means if someone is behind me, too far in front or otherwise off camera when they’re speaking the first I know of it is when I notice the chat box is moving and it’s not guild chat. Even worse I read quiet slowly, so it’s highly unlikely I’ll get through an entire dialogue box in the time it’s on-screen.

Between the two I basically have to wait until a ‘scene’ has finished and I’m done fighting (if necessary) then stop everything while I scroll the chat box back up and re-read the conversation. Then I can resume playing. It’s even more of a break in the action for me than the old cut scenes.

In some games that problem is solved by adding the option that conversations (and the associated action) will pause until you press a button to say you’re ready to proceed to the next bit, but I don’t think that’s practical in a multiplayer game.

What I’d prefer is a mix of the two – full action cut scenes where we see the characters moving around, stuff happening etc. but it’s a cut scene, the camera is always in the right position to hear/see what people are saying and what’s going on and you’re not having to move and fight while you listen to it. But my understanding is those have to be unskippable because otherwise it causes weird bugs with characters not being in the right places. I suspect the number of people who want to skip all dialogue outnumber people who find the new dialogue impossible to follow so it’s pretty unlikely to change.

Welcome to the game!

Yes the game is still stable or growing. Anet don’t give us exact data on how many people are playing but you’ll find other people wherever you go in the game. Also development is very much on-going – Anet are currently in the process of releasing new story “episodes” and maps for level 80 characters and there’s a new expansion being developed.

If you have any questions about the game feel free to ask here or in-game, or check out the Wiki (link at the top of the page) which has lots of information assembled by players.

But for now my advice would just be to take it slow. There is no need to rush to the maximum level because the game doesn’t change drastically when you get there and the game is set up to keep lower level maps occupied so you won’t be alone while you’re leveling. And there’s a huge amount of stuff to see and do at lower levels, taking the time to see it means you’ll have a much better idea of what there is to do when you get to level 80.

In case you weren’t already aware: they haven’t raised the level cap or introduced new equipment tiers so you’re not dying because your previously max level character is too low level. So the only catching up you need to do is reminding yourself how the game works.

I switch between games a lot, often going back to a game I haven’t played for months or years and I have a pretty good memory for ‘useless’ information like the controls and plot of every game I’ve ever played. (I recently replayed an old point and click game I’d played a a child, 20 or so years ago, after finding it on GOG and was disappointed to find I still remembered the solutions to most of the puzzles and was able to breeze through it in a few evenings.)

Even so I often find dropping into a saved game/existing character on a game I’ve not played for years overwhelming.

So my solution, and my recommendation to you, is to start over. Keep your existing character but make a new one and focus on them for a while – playing through the game from the beginning will not only give you a more forgiving environment to re-learn the game but also introduce you to all the things set up specifically to help new players learn to play. Some of these existed when you quit like the introduction taking you through dynamic events and a ‘world boss’ fight, some are new, like pop-ups when you level up introducing different mechanics.

Whenever you feel ready you can switch back to your level 80 and you’ll likely have a much better grasp of not only how to play them but also what to do with them.

I’d also recommend holding off on buying HoT until you think you can handle the level 80 zones as the entire expansion is aimed at people who have played everything else already and so it’s intentionally more difficult.

Did you submit a bug report in-game? That’s got a much better chance of being seen by the right people than a post on the forum on a Saturday morning.

Also I’m not completely sure but I think it’s only oozes which are not part of an event which will drop it.

Some people find it fun. What other reason is there to have anything in a game?

I’m not sure what you mean about creating a lot of noise in the rest of the world either. SAB is completely self-contained, if you don’t go to Rata Sum and walk into the box you will never see any of it. So it’s less disturbing to the rest of the world than other festivals like Wintersday and Halloween that change at least some of the main maps.

If there’s going to be any extra security I’d prefer it to be on the whole account rather than just 1 portion of 1 currency. If they get into your account and take everything and delete your characters I can’t see that knowing part of your gold is safe is going to be much reassurance.

Also if someone does get into your account you can contact Support to get it back and then they’ll reset it to a time before it was hacked so you get everything back.

It sounds like the existing two-factor authentication system does what you want, except it protects your whole account. The way it works is any time you login from a new IP address you get a code sent either to your phone, email, or to a Google Authenticator on the PC and you have to put that code in to be able to log into the account.

Since hackers won’t have your phone, access to your email account or the authenticator on your PC they won’t be able to get the code and so can’t login.

It also means you’re notified any time someone tries to login to your account, so you know that they have your email address and password and are trying to get in, which means you can change the password to stop them even trying.

(Also if you’ve been hacked in every game you’ve ever played it sounds like your password isn’t as good as you think it is. Do you by any chance use the same email and password in other places, especially other games? Or on 3rd party sites like fan forums associated with a game? Those tend to have much weaker security than the games themselves, especially because it’s reliant on the admin keeping it updated and not everyone who decides to make a forum knows how to do that or remembers to do it regularly.)

Going for one lots of your characters can use is a safe bet, but I’d also recommend narrowing it down to characters you actually want an ascended weapon for.

I have all 9 professions and most weapons are about even in the number of professions which can use them, so technically most the choices were equally good for me. But I don’t play all my characters evenly, so I only considered the characters who regularly play level 80 content and so will get more use from ascended weapons. Which lead to me choosing a sword and a dagger.

Black Lion Chests are basically gambling, more akin to a lucky dip than roulette but still gambling. That means the odds are always going to be in the house’s favour.

The only reason to buy keys is if you enjoy gambling for in-game items. If you want something specific you’re always better off buying it directly. Whether that’s a weapon skin or a dye or an infinite bank access contract.

(Which is why it really sucks when they release something that’s only available in the chests and is account bound.)

I imagine my characters do all of that when I’m logged out. After all that’s when I sleep, eat, shower etc. so why wouldn’t they?

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Ayrilana.1396:

Everyone that grinded SAB last year for the skins should be prepared to have nothing to do but the dailies.

Exactly.

Similarly, everyone that hates JPs should expect to have nothing at all to do during the festival. (That isn’t meant as a complaint; I just wanted to make it clear that the reason World 3 probably will never happen has to do with the limited appeal of SAB — it’s super popular, but only among a certain subset of players. Heck, ANet didn’t do much more for Wintersday or Halloween, which have even broader appeal.)

Minor correction: everyone that hates JPs should expect to have nothing new to do during the festival.

Everything else in the game will still be there, and unlike many festivals SAB is completely self-contained so it won’t affect any of the existing maps. Which means people who aren’t interested can just carry on playing as if there isn’t a festival.

I play both ESO and GW2 on the same PC, with similar graphics settings and other than the art style I’m not really sure what the difference in the graphics is. Maybe if I knew more about what DX11 does I’d be able to spot the differences, but to me it just seems like they use different styles, with ESO being more realistic while GW2 looks more ‘painted’.

Menadena.7482:

I do not think we need to go to new continents. Just give us full-fledged areas again. Not these LS3 throwaway ones.

What’s the difference between an “LS3 throwaway area” and a “full-fledged” area? What does a full-fledged one have that the LS3 ones don’t?

Technically Morrowind isn’t a continent, it’s a province on the continent of Tamriel and most of it was already in ESO. What they’re getting is the island of Vvardenfell which is just off the coast of the mainland and tiny in comparison to a continent (especially when so much of it is inaccessible due to the active volcano, crazed vampire lord and assorted curses).

I wish ESO was getting a new continent, I’d love to be able to see Akavir or Atmora…but that’s a topic for another forum.

Secondly just because 1 game does a thing doesn’t mean all the rest must copy them immediately.

Thirdly we probably will get to see Elona and/or Cantha one day (hopefully both) but Anet seems to want to fill in the map of Tyria (the continent) first. They’ve started doing that with HoT and the Living Story and the hints we’ve got so far suggest that in the next expansion we’ll be going into the far north, some of which we saw in GW1 and some we’ve never seen before.

I’m happy with either personally. I’d love to see Elona with GW2 graphics, I think it’d look amazing (although I’m not sure what state it’d be in now). But just like I want to go to Akavir because it’s somewhere Elder Scrolls games have never shown I’d also like to go to all the places around Tyria we’ve never been able to go before. Like up into the heart of the Charr homelands, or the Isle of Janthir or east beyond Ascalon or even just all the little bits and pieces like that strip in the Shiverpeaks where the maps don’t join up.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Danikat.8537:

kurfu.5623:

Does that mean that female characters would be able to run around with exposed nipples?

I’m pretty sure female characters don’t actually have nipples. Designers don’t tend to waste time adding features to character models they are not allowed to show.

That would come under the “can’t just copy across the existing skins because the models are different shapes” category of reasons this wouldn’t be a quick change to make – they’d have to modify some of the armour sets for various reasons.

There was a preview bug a while back. I don’t have a picture to show it (and couldn’t show it on the forum if I did) but the human female was anatomically correct.

Heh, that’s surprising. Especially since I’ve seen a similar screenshot of a male character and their anatomy was definitely lacking.

But my main point still stands – they’d have to modify the armour slightly because even without a nipple I doubt they’d be allowed to show the female character’s chests fully exposed.

Amaimon.7823:

Danikat.8537:

kurfu.5623:

Does that mean that female characters would be able to run around with exposed nipples?

I’m pretty sure female characters don’t actually have nipples. Designers don’t tend to waste time adding features to character models they are not allowed to show.

That would come under the “can’t just copy across the existing skins because the models are different shapes” category of reasons this wouldn’t be a quick change to make – they’d have to modify some of the armour sets for various reasons.

I think Charr have nipples, but they are covered by fur, so they can show bare chests.
Asura are a .. unique.. thingy. They can also show bare chests, without a nipple. And to be honest, considering their evolutionary line and how close they are to amphibious ancestors, I don’t think they really have nipples at all (even if this were a mature game)

Actually most real-life animals don’t have nipples (because they don’t produce milk for their young), so technically it’s us mammals who are weird. And even then some mammals just excrete milk onto the skin (but that might be only the monotremes who are especially weird). And they nipples aren’t always on the chest either – bats for example have their nipples in their ‘armpit’ – directly below the shoulder joint where the wing joins the body.

I think you’re right about both the charr and the asura – charr are like real-world cats in that their don’t have breasts and their nipples are hidden by their fur. We don’t know much about early asuran life stages but it seems likely they don’t breastfeed their progeny.

Then there’s the sylvari who cannot reproduce at all. Presumably the Pale Tree can, although that might require another living tree of the same species, and she may not want to. But the Pale Tree modeled them on humans so their appearance is mostly the same.

When did they change whales? My oldest screenshot is of a humpback whale I found during one of the first betas after pre-purchase and that’s friendly, so I thought they’d always been friendly.

If I remember correctly people have complained about every single April Fool’s Day joke Anet have ever done – plane arms, bobble heads, SAB, swapping the size of mini pets and players in towns in GW1, fake patch notes, the whole Commander thing (both complaining that it was fake because they wanted it and complaining that they’d even joke about it being real)…

Still it’s a step up from my other MMO where people complain about them doing literally anything for April Fools because they say it’s not part of the games lore…even though it is.

kurfu.5623:

Does that mean that female characters would be able to run around with exposed nipples?

I’m pretty sure female characters don’t actually have nipples. Designers don’t tend to waste time adding features to character models they are not allowed to show.

That would come under the “can’t just copy across the existing skins because the models are different shapes” category of reasons this wouldn’t be a quick change to make – they’d have to modify some of the armour sets for various reasons.

I’m pretty certain the story does not ever auto-complete, no matter what level your character is. I often play the story on characters who are way above the recommended level, including doing the entire thing on a level 80 character and I’ve never seen it skip a step for any reason.

(The one exception was the weird situation a few years ago where they re-ordered the level 70 and 80 story steps, then put them back in the original order, which meant some characters missed some steps, but that didn’t affect anything until after Claw Island.)

But there’s always the chance it’s a new bug.

Can you tell us which story step your character is on now? And which one/s completed without you playing them?