Guild Wars 2

Faaris.8013:

Rinn.2375:

Think about the dailies. There are some Orr lumberer, vista viewer, etc. You can do it rather quickly without paying any “teleport fee”.

The fee for teleportation is so low, it certainly is no pro argument for purchasing the VIP ticket. Porting only once and paying 2 silver gives me more value than porting twice without additional costs.

For some people it’s worth it.

I normally have about 20-30g on my account, and I know I can just use a waypoint and then gather 1-2 nodes and get back the full cost even if I teleported all the way across the world.

And yet I still prefer to use asura gates to get as near as I can and then run/waypoint part way and then run. The only exception is if time is a factor – like if I’ve just noticed the Dragon’s Stand meta is starting – then I’ll waypoint.

So for me having an area I can teleport to for free all the way down in the Crystal Desert is a big bonus. Sure I may not use it all the time, but if I want to go to the bank or something and then on to the desert it’s a good choice.

Like most companies Anet rarely announces what they’re not doing. But I think we can safely assume from the fact that they haven’t announced a hard copy and no one has been able to find one for sale anywhere (there have been several threads about this already) that they aren’t doing one.

With both the original release and HoT the physical release options and approved retailers were announced at the same time digital pre-purchase started (with HoT there was a delay of about a week before it was possible to pre-purchase from 3rd party retailers, but they still announced that it would be possible and listed retailers in the original announcement.)

If I remember correctly Anet has now taken over publishing from NCSoft, so maybe they decided producing boxed copies was too expensive for the benefits it provides.

Donari.5237:

I’d say the point is to put a big neon sign on “this is play acting, just part of the ritual, you aren’t actually getting swarmed by White Mantle.” It’s something you get in a lot of movies where a character is acting within the show; somehow the “acted” part comes out extra cheesy, or a villainous person has all sorts of I’m a villain tells, just to help the audience along.

I think this is accurate.

Anise and the others never properly explain what’s going on during the trials, which I assume is deliberate since the whole point is to psych you out (like many real-life initiation rituals) and a detailed explanation would ruin that.

That line keeps them in character, which a clear statement that it’s all play-acting would not do, but also serves to let the player know it’s just play-acting and they haven’t actually sent you back in time or got a bunch of White Mantle or whatever.

I know Anise is supposed to be somewhat mysterious (being both a mesmer and the head of what’s basically Kryta’s MI6) but I’m not sure why some people seem to think absolutely every single thing she ever says or does has to have some kind of sinister alternative meaning or intent behind it.

Action Camera and first person are two seperate things.

First person is simply when you zoom in all the way so the camera is in the same spot as your character and you can’t see them. You can use it in conjuction with Action Camera, but you can use the two separately as well.

Zoe.4830:

Davion Roth.6709:

Masteries, just like gliding in HoT.

Sorry, bit of a noob here XD, what are masteries?

Masteries are the post-level 80 progression system.

Functionally they’re similar to skills and traits – you train up a mastery by gaining XP (you can choose which of the available tracks to train first), then you spend Mastery Points, obtained from challenges around the world, to unlock the mastery.

The difference is that most masteries can’t be used in combat and they won’t make your character more powerful, they just give you more options. In Heart of Thorns the masteries do things like allow you to glide or use jumping mushrooms to move around and unlock new vendors and things around the jungle.

So apparently this is what I’m doing with the new hair styles.

It wasn’t what I was planning, I was just making a random revenant, then my husband said the hair looked like Missandei’s, then I realised the name was free…then realised by checking it via the character creator I’d inadvertently taken it for at least 24 hours. So then I had to delete the character and re-make her properly.

After some debate we went with mesmer as a profession, because she’s not a fighter but she is extremely good at manipulating people.

I assume it will be possible to glide in PoF maps. They added gliding to the base game so it’d be very odd to remove it from the new zones.

But yeah, you’ll need HoT to be able to glide and they’ve said you don’t need HoT to play the new expansion, so I assume there won’t be anywhere that needs gliding to access.

But just like in core Tyria there will probably be several places it makes things easier. (And maybe some places where it’s disabled.)

I would be very surprised if they don’t do exactly what they did with gliders – everyone has full access to the functionality through the mastery system and then different skins/styles go in the gem store.

Aren’t Anet doing their own publishing now? Maybe they looked at the cost of getting boxed copies made and decided the money would be better spent elsewhere? (Like on other forms of advertising which are more likely to be effective.)

Normally I’m very much in favour of disc/boxed copies of games, but that’s mainly because I like to be able to go back to them whenever I want, whether that’s months or years or decades after release. If I uninstall it I want to be able to get it back without relying on the publisher choosing to keep it available. (Likewise I don’t like Steam and these other dressed up DRM systems that require you to seek permission from the publisher to load a game you’ve bought.)

But with an MMO that’s pointless – the game isn’t on the disc, it’s on the servers. If the servers shut down it doesn’t matter how many boxes or discs you’ve got, you can’t play it. So I don’t see the use in having a physical copy.

As one of the people with arachnophobia I’m really happy they considered this.

Yes there are already quite a few spiders in the game but on the whole they’re in specific locations. You get to know where they are and then can avoid them or psych your self up to deal with it. There’s definitely been times when I’ve put off doing a heart, or gone the long way around an area, because I know it involves spiders and I just didn’t want to deal with them at that time. (And times I’ve moved away from the TP or bank or something else I was using because someone with a spider pet, especially the black widow which is the worst for me, was right beside me.)

But also there is a huge difference between fighting a spider enemy, who may only be on screen for a few seconds and your character sitting on top of a spider (which would have to be several times bigger than most spiders in this game). Especially because it sounds like the way mounts are set up you’re going to be required to use them in certain areas, and probably for extended periods of time.

When I do have to fight them I use ranged weapons and stay as far away as possible, and I’m careful to keep the camera fully zoomed out and angled so it’s high up. I also use tab targeting and place ground-targeted skills off to one side because as stupid as I’m sure it sounds putting the cursor over them is too much like touching them. Nothing like that would work with a mount.

I’ve resigned myself to the fact that giant spiders in fantasy are inevitable (thanks Tolkien) just like I’m resigned to the fact that I cannot avoid seeing them in real life. But that doesn’t mean I want a massive spider under my character, in the middle of the screen, for long periods of time.

Having said all that…I Love the OP’s suggestion of an option to hide them. There was a mod for Dragon Age Origins that changed all the spiders into dogs – they still functioned exactly the same, but they looked and sounded like dogs which I, and apparently many other people, found much easier to deal with. If they could do something like that in this game I’d be all for it.

Fluffball.8307:

I mean almost everyone is slightly squirmish around spiders unless you’re a biologist,

These two aren’t mutually exclusive. Plenty of biologists are scared of spiders, myself included. Others are afraid of snakes, dogs, centipedes, fish, and all sorts of other animals. Fortunately ‘biologist’ is like ‘teacher’ or ‘mechanic’ – in practice you specialise in an area of biology so avoiding species you don’t like isn’t usually a problem.

Alin.2468:

In my opinion Royal Terrace pass beats every other pass currently in game, because it has the shortest distance between TP – bank – mystic forge. Royal Terrace has the least amount of walking between those 3 points.

Besides, Royal Terrace was released in GW2 core game, not HoT or PoF, and is located in Divinity Reach, providing a chance to meet more people than other locations.

Compared to other special passes it does not offer features like low gravity, but it gets the job done fast and efficient.

See I’m thinking the opposite. One of the advantages of these areas to me is a free ‘waypoint’ to a location on the map. Even if it’s not my final destination it can get me closer and therefore save some money on waypoint fees (especially if it gets me close enough to run the rest of the way).

Therefore the Royal Terrace is redundant because it’s in a city I can already reach fairly quickly from anywhere in the world (via WvW or PvP). But one all the way down in Elona will give me a free teleport to the new maps which would otherwise be one of the most remote regions.

The Deluxe upgrades for both the base game and HoT are still available in the gem store (note: if you already have the Deluxe Edition of HoT you won’t see it listed, but it’s there for other people). They’ve already said there will be a Deluxe Upgrade for PoF too, so these items will be available after release.

Whether the pass will be sold separately is another matter. I had assumed it would be, but the only other Deluxe edition item which is in the gem store is the banker golem. (And character slots, but those were in the gem store first so I’m not counting them.)

So I suppose it’s possible this pass will be exclusive to people who own the Deluxe edition. But that will be everyone who owns it – it won’t matter if you pre-purchased it on day 1 or bought it 2 years later with gems you bought with gold – you’ll get the exact same items and functionality.

JustTrogdor.7892:

Danikat.8537:

Minor correction – the other permanent passes have cost 1000 gems each.

But yeah, if it’s literally the only thing in the Deluxe Edition you want then you’re better off buying the normal edition and getting either this pass or another one from the gem store.

Again I wonder if the new pass will remain exclusive to those with Deluxe/Ultimate or if they will sell it a separate item later. I have the Royal Terrace pass but it seems the newer passes have been adding more features to them so my poor old RT pass has been falling behind in features. So if it is exclusive to the upgrade packages it will be more interesting to me. I like less crowed “special” places.

What do the newer areas have that the Royal Terrace doesn’t? I haven’t got any of them but I was under the impression they all had the same services and it was only the appearance of the area and the location on the world map that was different.

I know some people are adamant that one is better but it’s usually for highly personal reasons like the tailoring station is nearer the TP and they buy more materials when crafting light armour than anything else so that makes it better for them.

If I remember correctly everyone got the update for the HoT beta as well – you just couldn’t access the map unless you’d pre-purchased it.

I’m pretty sure there’s only actually 1 version of the game and everyone has all of the same files on their computer. This is why you don’t need to log out and update your game when buying Living Story chapters, expansions or things like the Mistlock Sanctuary pass.

I think all it meant was that usually when they act out this scene Anise pretends to be Shadow and has to run away to warn the rest of the Shining Blade and Livia gets to be Kiera and do the dramatic death scene.

This time Anise wanted the ‘fun’ part and gave the fairly dull task of running off ‘stage’ to Livia for a change.

Alin.2468:

Egg Shennn.6240:

DeShadowWolf.6854:

Presumably it is a teleport to a little area in the expansion with bank, TP, crafting, etc all close together. Many of these already exist in the game (Royal Terrace, Havoc’s Heir, Mistlock Sanctuary, Lava Lounge, Noble’s Folly).

Yes, presumably it is, but I’d like to have some actual facts before I decide to spend the extra $25 US for that bonus.

Don’t spend $25 just for this. Such items costs 800 gems. That is should cost you $12.5 on full price.

Minor correction – the other permanent passes have cost 1000 gems each.

But yeah, if it’s literally the only thing in the Deluxe Edition you want then you’re better off buying the normal edition and getting either this pass or another one from the gem store.

It’s definitely worth putting the sliders back to the middle if you want to preview the new faces. (Remember unless you click to confirm the changes and have a total makeover kit nothing will be saved.)

When I first previewed them they all looked a bit weird, then I remembered I’d put several sliders (most notably eye angle) right to one extreme on my human character to get the look I wanted. I think it looks great with the face I used, but it looks really weird with others. Putting the sliders back to the middle made a huge difference.

Considering the boost is intended for new players, and this forum used to get a regular stream of topics asking how to restore the deluxe/heroic edition items after players deleted the character that had them I think it’s a sensible decision.

Although it is annoying if you just want to free up the slot. But then you’ve probably got (or know how to get) 80+ Tomes of Knowledge so you could just use the boost on an existing character and if you ever want another one use Tomes to level them.

I have to admit if it wasn’t for the Lily of the Elon Permanent Pass I don’t know I’d be considering either the Deluxe or the Ultimate.

I won’t say no to another character slot or max level boost but I don’t need them since 9 permanent characters – one of each profession – is ideal for me and I have a 10th slot for extras, and I actually like levelling them naturally. I’ll probably use the boost on an existing character for the items. The total-makeover kit I’ll probably find a use for and I may use the outfit.

The one I wish I could swap out is the name change contract. I spent a lot of time thinking up names for my characters and I’d never want to change them. Well, maybe in the highly unlikely event that whoever beat me to the name Xixxi deletes them I might change Xexxi to that, since it was my original idea. But after 4 years I’ve gotten used to that.

I wonder if this is even possible. I know Anet have said before some things can’t be reset at all (for example they apparently can’t remove skins from the wardrobe) and others cause serious problems when they’ve tried, like resetting your personal story progress.

But I don’t think it’s a big deal for most people because most of the masteries get more situation-specific and limited in their use as they go along.

I’m still missing the last 2 tiers of Itzel and Nuhoch Lore and the whole Raid line and it’s not been a problem for me at all. I think the only high-tier mastery I really felt like I needed was Advanced Gliding because the indefinite gliding makes a huge difference to how you can use the ability. All the others, once you’ve got the first 2, maybe 3 tiers, it’s not a big deal whether you unlock it or not.

Chadramar.8156:

I don’t see how this could be charr-biased when the trailer is full of human history and human characters. Whether or not it will be satisfying for human PCs is another question — HoT was sylvari-focused but left a lot of unanswered issues for them at the same time, and the game’s general track-record of acknowledging different races is not good in general.

The human focus in the trailer could be simply because they’re pushing the nostalgia angle of going back to a GW1 location and that game was entirely human focused because they were the only playable race.

Personally I’m hoping they make use of the existing ability to include race-specific dialogue and give you a slightly different version of the story based on your characters race. Obviously the actual instances and events will be the same, but it would be nice to see a human character struggling with the concept of a god turned villain while a charr would maybe be more concerned about the implications of them actually existing at all, and asura or sylvari wants to ask everyone lots of questions about how exactly this all works and test the boundaries of the gods power…and a norn would probably just see them as another kind of Spirit of the Wild, something to be respected for it’s power but absolutely to be stopped if it’s endangering Tyria.

Raven.1524:

Tanner Blackfeather.6509:

The only difference between Deluxe and Ultimate is 4000 gems.

I believe the difference is actually:

Deluxe: identity repair + character slot + perma pass = around 35$ so you would be paying 20$ for the game

Ultimate: (deluxepack = 35$) + (4000 gems = around 55$) = 90$

So buying the ultimate pack is like buying gems without paying for the expansion.

I think there’s a few different ways to interpret it, depending on which parts of the package interest you.

The way I see it buying the Ultimate Edition for £70 gets me 4000 gems at normal price (£42.50) and then the remaining £27.50 is what I’m paying for the expansion.

Since the alternative is to pay £26 for the expansion and I was literally just thinking the other day that I’d like one of those Royal Terrace type areas in the expansion zone I’ll buy that one, which would normally cost 1000 gems or £10.60 the Ultimate Edition looks like a pretty good deal.

But this only works because I buy gems with real money anyway, so sooner or later I’d spend that £42.50 either way and because I can trust myself not to spend it all in one go and then buy more gems for the stuff I’d normally get.

jediwolf.8724:

Just bought the deluxe. Registered it. Got all the pre order stuff but no gems.
When do they get deposited in my account

As it said when you bought it the gems take up to 72 hours to be added to your account.

This is because when they first did this promotion with HoT they had a problem with people using stolen cards to buy the Ultimate Edition, converting the gems to gold and selling the gold or transferring it to other accounts before the purchase was validated (or rather rejected) by the bank.

This way they can do the check first.

There’s a section on this forum where you can find adverts from various guilds, or post your own: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/community/lookingfor

Alternatively you can ask in game. It’s probably best to go to a city if you’re looking for a general purpose guild, or if you want one that does specific types of content go there (e.g. ask in WvW for a WvW guild).

A longer-term but potentially more effective strategy is to chat to people you’re playing with, get into squads for meta-events and WvW, PvP teams, dungeon groups, whatever you’re interested in and see if any of them can recommend a good guild for you.

I think it’s unlikely.

The idea of the free version is to let players who aren’t sure if they want to buy the game try it out so they can make an informed decision (aka hopefully get hooked and decide to buy it). There’s no incentive for Anet to add HoT to the free version.

Did you check all the way along the list? The new ones for humans were added at the end of the list instead of the beginning, which threw me at first.

Admittedly I haven’t checked charr myself because my charr character is in the middle of Orr and I don’t want to bring him back to town just to look at hair.

The problem is you’re trying to gauge the condition of the entire in-game economy using just one item. That doesn’t work because things which affect that one item may not affect anything else.

Edit: If you look at the gold to gem exchange rate itself, rather than the cost of one random item in real-money it is actually fairly stable: http://www.gw2spidy.com/gem

There are regular spikes in August when the anniversary sale happens and sometimes at other times of the year (presumably linked to other gem store sales) but otherwise it’s fairly stable over time.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Character slots, bag slots, and copper-fed kits have been discounted more than once. I defy anyone to show evidence that these have ever sold poorly.

Discounts are offered for a variety of reason: to celebrate a festival or anniversary, to encourage people to spend RL currency on gems, to maintain a gold:gem ratio sufficient to compete with gold sellers, and to encourage people to open up the gem store and see what else they might drop some gems on.

There are plenty of reasons why it might be worth ANet’s time to add additional colors of backpacks or divert resources from new skins to make back items dyeable. We don’t need to invent reasons by claiming facts not in evidence.

I’d also add – to appeal to people like me who sort-of, maybe like an item but not quite enough to justify paying full price.

All my bank tabs, character slots and shared inventory slots were bought during sales because I didn’t think they were worth full price (and in the case of shared inventory slots also using a mix of gold and real money to bring the RL price down further) and after debating over whether I actually wanted the monk outfit or not for months I finally got it because they reduced the price and it made it seem more worthwhile.

If you’re debating buying something and then the price is reduced it has a double effect – it costs less so there’s less ‘risk’ for the same reward, and it’s only for a short time so you need to get on and make your mind up. It certainly doesn’t convince everyone but I’m sure Anet have gotten more than a few additional sales that way.

It’s an interesting theory. The problem with it is we’ve already seen 3 of the Mistward weapons in-game (in the HoT beta when they were given to Revenants) and they don’t really look similar to their Abaddon counterparts.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Mistbreaker.jpg
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Mistcleaver.jpg
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Mistrender.jpg

Edit: Abaddon had a face in GW1. In fact that and a pair of hands is all he had. I think they definitely should make a backpack to go with the ones for the other gods, although if it was just his face that would be creepy as hell.

Isn’t that just part of the Squad UI? Meaning it will appear any time you’re in a squad with people.

I’d be very surprised if they don’t release a discount pack for Season 3. I assume they’ve had to wait until all the episodes were released because it saves constantly updating it as new episodes are released. (And because it’d be pretty annoying if you bought the bundle, then missed another episode and had to buy it at full price.)

I also think it’d be a good idea for them to do a kind of “GW2 Complete Edition” at some point. Or maybe “The story so far”. Something with the base game, HoT and Seasons 2 and 3 all in one bundle.

I think it’d help counter some of the periodic shock and indignation from new and returning players when they find out they have to buy all this stuff separately. If I’m looking at a new game and I see some sort of bundle edition it makes it pretty obvious other versions are going to only have some of that and I should find out which one/s I want before buying.

I’m confused at the idea of the story being inaccessible to a casual player. The story is probably some of the most casual friendly content there is, since it’s all designed to be played solo and each instance usually only takes 20-30 minutes once you know what to do (maybe less if you’re not reading all the dialogue, exploring etc.) so you don’t need to commit to a long play session to be able to do it.

Yes Season 3 does require HoT masteries, but that’s because it’s designed to be done after the HoT story so I don’t think that’s an unreasonable expectation (no more than HoT story requiring you to be level 80 because you’re supposed to do the personal story first).

As for locking the maps behind the story I think it’s a good system personally. As other people have said they obviously wanted the maps to be included with the story and this communicates it very clearly. It also means they can make the maps totally unconnected to the main world so people who don’t have access will never stumble across them and get confused that they can’t go in, while people who do have access have a clear way of getting there.

Once your character completes HoT you get a mail which starts a short ‘quest’/collection that addresses this and a couple of other sylvari-related things that were left open at the end of the main HoT story.

I have to admit I was surprised she wasn’t recovering/almost fully recovered by the start of the HoT storyline, but that’s because I was mainly focused on the (lack of) physical damage to the actual tree and didn’t realise at the time one of Mordremoth’s domains is the mind and it was more of a psychic attack, which explains why her avatar seemed more badly affected than she did. (Well, that and I’m not sure how easy it would be to change the actual tree or how often players actually look at it.)

I suppose they wanted her out of action before the revelation about the sylvari so she couldn’t answer our questions or help us track/fight Mordremoth.

As other people have said they have sales for all types of gem store cosmetics. Armor and outfits are probably the two most common to have sales and both of those seem to sell well (in spite of the people who refuse to buy one or the other, or both.)

I wouldn’t mind being able to dye backpacks but it’s pretty rare it puts me off buying one if I like it. (But then I have 9 characters with a different colour scheme and style on each, between them I can find someone to wear any item I like.)

I was a bit disappointed with it, but then I’m one of those weird people who really enjoys jumping puzzles and in particular the puzzle aspect – trying to figure out where to go and how to get there.

With this one there were 3, maybe 4 places where the path wasn’t clear or it looked at first like there might be 2 different ways you could go, other than that it was always fairly obvious which way you were heading (especially since it was always upwards, the only variant was up and left or up and right and for long sections it simply spiraled around the tower).

It’s nice that there were no timed sections or bits where you were under attack, but it’s definitely not one of the more interesting puzzles for me.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

It’s a interesting idea but you’d have one dye set for all since the game doesn’t remember the dye combos per item. I expect that would annoy a lot of people once they realize it.

I don’t know, it’s the same with outfits and people still use different outfits on the same character.

I know some people will change the dyes each time, but I also know others will settle for a dye scheme that looks ok on all their outfits. They could do the same with gliders.

I think it’d actually be less of a problem with gliders because not all of them can be dyed. I have 8 gliders, only 3 of them are dyable and 1 of those is the basic glider which only shows the first dye channel and the 2nd is the ugly wool glider which looks ugly no matter what you do. (The 3rd is the raven spirit, which I tend to pick vivid colours for, which may exacerbate the problem of the ugly glider…but it is supposed to be ugly, so that’s ok.)

Well I’m not quite older than the internet but I am old enough to remember it being a ridiculous pipe-dream a few universities wanted to set up with clearly minimal applications beyond saving them a bit of money on postage when they wanted to share documents.

I don’t think I ever encountered this type of puzzle outside of video games. Same with the Tower of Hanoi, and that one with the fox, chicken and bag of grain you have to get across the river (or the 1001 variants) and most other things I now get to encounter in training workshops where they act like it’s some kind of revelation that will change your life once you “really” understand it. Telling them it was in some silly game about fighting goblins 15 years ago really kills their enthusiasm.

I’m not sure which video you’re referring to, since there’s at least 11 different walkthroughs for this chapter already, but if one said you need perfect timing to get up to the White Mantle hideout then I suggest finding a different one because that’s definitely not the case.

But alternatively try this:
1) Jump on the first bouncing mushroom you come to. That will send you north and you’ll land right by another mushroom.
2) Jump on that one and then mash the jump button until your glider opens. When it does turn left and glide across to the waterfall.
3) Land on the ledge next to a 3rd mushroom. Jump on it.
4) That will take you up to a big ledge with a spider and beyond it a plank leading up to a pipe. Run up the plank, around the pipe and up another plank.
5) On your right, at the back of the ledge is another plank leading up onto the flat section of the pipe. Go up there and then into the cave.

I wouldn’t use it myself (I have a specific glider for each character), but it would be a nice feature.

(Also it raises the probability of getting a random button for mini pets, which I’d love to have.)

Fluffball.8307:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

In short, it’s nice that this is easy for you; your brain is built to solve puzzles like this.

I don’t think my brain is, I just grew up with these kinds of puzzles. We did stuff instead of screwing around on facebook for 14 hours straight. I’m sure the devs that made this played these games as little kids as well.

If someone suffered with this, it was probably a good learning experience for their brain.

I think the point Illconcieved was making is that some people can’t learn things like this. It’s a learning disability (or rather one aspect of a few different ones).

Telling them they’ll learn if they just keep doing it is…well it’s like telling a blind kid that if only they’d spend more time trying to look at things eventually they’ll be able to see.

P.S. It’s also generally not a good idea to assume you know how old someone else is or what their childhood was like unless you actually know them. A lot of people online (particularly on MMO forums) are older than many other people assume. If I remember correctly the average age for MMO players is in the mid 30s. Oldest player I know of is 94.

For the mushrooms I think the best approach would be to find a video on youtube and copy it – watch them do 1 mushroom, pause it and use the same one, watch the 2nd, do it yourself and so on.

Also remember that you can activate your glider after using a mushroom. If you know where you want to go (whether that’s your final goal or simply a higher ledge with a mushroom/path up) you can use a mushroom to boost you into the air and then glide to your destination instead of hoping to find a mushroom that will drop you there.

Are you talking about the Precocious Aurene instance in A Crack in the Ice?

If so then the new skill only activates at certain times, and is the only way you can do significant damage to the boss (because the idea is you’re training Aurene to fight, so she needs to attack, you’re just telling her when).

You need to wait for the white circle to appear on the ground, then stand in it and use the shout skill. At other times you should focus on avoiding their attacks so they don’t heal.

There’s a more detailed walkthrough on the Wiki, the wording isn’t great but it might help: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Precocious_Aurene

Which story steps are you finding impossible, and why? We may well be able to help you through them.

Alternatively if you can tell us which region you’re in (NA or EU) someone could join you in game to help you directly.

I was told elementalists would be getting swords in HoT too though. To the point of people telling me Anet had “unofficially confirmed” that was the case. Then of course they got warhorns instead.

It’s possible they changed their minds over time, it’s also possible someone made it up. Either way I wouldn’t trust rumours. Or at least I wouldn’t make any plans about which weapons to get, or get really excited about what’s going to happen until it’s official.

If you’re only interested in the rewards and don’t care about the story then no, there’s no reason to finish it.

I think the only unique reward is a Pact Weapon chest, but the weapons themselves are tradable, so if you wanted one (or more) and didn’t want to complete the story you could just buy them.

I’m not sure where to begin listing all the changes, I think it would actually be easier to list things that haven’t changed. I agree with Randulf that the best approach would be to start a new character, don’t use the level 80 boost and just play through the game normally, you’ll learn it as you’re going along.

But if you come across anything that doesn’t make sense you can always ask here or in-game. Or check the Wiki, there’s a lot of good information on there.

If they actually make it so that you can return to exactly where you were before – like you can if you visit the Heart of the Mists, WvW or your guild hall, that would actually get me to buy one of these passes.

That’s the main thing that’s put me off getting them before.

There is nothing like that in GW2.

There is a ‘Lifetime Survivor’ title but you only need to get 500,000 XP without dying, and importantly can’t log out or change maps either, so it’s a one-time thing rather than a long-term goal like Survivor in GW1. It also doesn’t give a title.

(If you want to go for it the easiest way is probably to stock up on crafting materials and then level crafting with boosters running. Alternatively I got it in one afternoon wandering around the south edge of Frostgorge Sound killing the yellow-named animals, gathering and doing a few safe events.)

Verdant Brink (and the other HoT zones) are designed for people who have completed the base game, so it’s intentionally harder because they’re expecting everyone who goes there to be familiar with their profession and the game mechanics.

If you’re new to the game I strongly recommend you focus on the ‘core’ Tyria maps first and leave the expansion until you can confidently handle any other area of the game.

But if you really want to do Verdant Brink now here’s a few tips:
1) Don’t try to move in straight lines. It’s probably the most complicated map to navigate (some people say Tangled Depths is worse, but I’m not convinced) – you often have to go around your target location to get to it, or go up a level and glide/drop down, or go under it and climb up, or a mix of them all. It’s much better to take your time and simply explore – follow a path and see where it takes you – rather than setting off with a precise goal in mind and expecting to get there directly.

2) Many of the enemies have specific mechanics that you need to use when fighting them. For example Pocket Raptors are individually weak but there’s a lot of them and they hit hard, so AoE is a good way to fight them (takes them all down quicker than trying to kill each one individually) and if you can immobilise them too that will help a lot. Whereas Stoneheads are tough and hit hard when they charge but move slowly, so your priority should be to dodge their attacks and then keep chipping away at them in between. Smokescales can avoid almost all direct damage so AoE or applying conditions is your best bet to fight them. And so on.

Some of this the game will tell you (via the buffs on the enemies), some you need to learn by fighting them and watching what happens, and to do that you need experience with the games mechanics.

3) You need a good build. I’m guessing you used the level 80 boost so you’re using the default exotics it gave you and possibly the default skills too. Those are ok, but it’s well worth experimenting with other options to find what works best for you.

4) Verdant Brink is much easier to navigate once you can use gliding, especially once you’ve got updrafts and ideally Advanced Gliding. But to do that you need to get XP in the HoT maps and mastery points, so you’ll have to spend a while doing whatever you can reach while collecting XP and mastery points to train it up and more easily access the rest of the map.

I think you’ve got the right attitude – you don’t want to make a legendary and then never use it, so it needs to be a weapon type you’re going to use a lot and a legendary you like and aren’t going to get tired of using.

But no one else can really tell you which one that is because it’s personal opinion.

My first one was The Dreamer and I’ve never regretted it. I only have 2 characters who can use it, and one of them never would (black and white charr thief, it looks terrible on him) but the other is my main and a ranger who uses shortbow most of the time, so that’s fine. And I love the weapon itself, I’ve had it for years and still get distracted watching the unicorns flying out.

My 2nd was a more ‘sensible’ choice – Bifrost, which is perfect for my elementalist (who mainly uses staff) and can be used by most of my other characters too, and will look good on most of them.

But for other people those would be terrible choices, and their ‘perfect’ legendaries would be terrible for me. A lot of people told me I should absolutely start with one of the greatswords since my main is a ranger, but I can’t remember the last time I used a greatsword on her, it must have been years ago.

Edit: Also if you’re basing your decision on the new elite specs being included in the next expansion I very, very strongly recommend you wait until they’ve actually been announced before choosing.

Before HoT people repeatedly told me the elementalist was going to get sword as a new weapon. I was told it had been ‘confirmed’ by Anet and it didn’t matter if I couldn’t find anything on the official website – it was going to happen. Obviously it didn’t.

The only info we’ve had so far is “leaks” which may be completely made up or years out of date – even if it was what they were planning at the time they may have changed their minds since. You don’t want to commit to something as big as a legendary based on unconfirmed rumours.

Tongku.5326:

this game has no sub, however, without spending at least some cash to upgrade your account, especially inventory, bank tabs and collection expansion slots, its not very pleasant to play.

I disagree.

I’ve been playing since launch, I’ve got 9 permanent characters and a 10th slot for random extras and I’ve never bought any extra inventory bags or collection expanders. I do have 5 bank tabs (total, so I’ve bought 4) but even that seems a bit excessive to me. I’ve currently got 55 spaces free and at least 20 items I’m keeping just because I’ve got the space so I may as well.

As an alternative if you’re not going to be playing 5 characters you can use any free slots to make a mule to store items – even with just the starter backpack that’s 20 slots (2/3 of a bank tab) and it’s completely free.

(Although in this case the OP didn’t mention not wanting to spend any money, just not wanting to spend $180 a year – typical subscription cost – for permission to log into a game they may not have much time to play.)