Guild Wars 2

I’m with dsslive here, s/he is just a faster poster nor me. We have parallel timelines. The Pact Fleet destruction has just happened and is not known to the world as of yet; it “reactivates” once HoT launches. Meanwhile we’ve had LA workers hammering away for a year and a day (figure of speech, please don’t take me literally there), and now we are getting the in-game visuals on what has been going on.

LA’s rebuilding is in light of what Scarlet did, and then Mordremoth. I do wonder if there will be any seismic sensors and the like to help against foes that burrow up from the ground.

Katiekaboom.1980:

Donari, I am East Coast. I wasn’t saying anyone else is. I was only speaking for myself not everyone else that has ever played on NA server… Also what are you going on about “elections on different coasts”. I am not even in the USA and I used a time conversion so the times I am talking about are my time zone which means 11:30am testing is 7:30am for me and the latest will be at 3:30pm for me.

As others have pointed out, if you are on Eastern time, 11:30 am Pacific is 2:30 pm your time. Or are you on the east coast of Hawaii or something? You are not four hours earlier than Pacific, you are three hours later.

Oh, I’ve been scrolling. I did the stress test so I know where to look for it. I most definitely do not at this moment have either the email or the beta slot. I’m not tooooo worried, there’s still all day tomorrow for it to show up and I definitely have the portals. I even submitted a screenshot proving that in my ticket. Alas, my ticket response was basically “Yep, you’re subscribed to the newsletter, if you know someone who got their invite you should have yours a few hours later.” That was yesterday morning.

I’m glad some people will be testing Revenants along with the other things in the beta, since bugs with that profession certainly need to be found if they are to be corrected. I encourage those of you who do to take a few minutes at the start to choose traits beyond the default. In the stress test I nabbed the falling damage trait, since I always want one of those, and it turned out to have a pretty fun effect.

Yes, I have, almost obsessively. No beta slot. I would consider that invite enough, the email is superfluous.

I am puzzled as to why people who live in the US somehow think the east coast is hours behind the west rather than the other way around. Maybe the fact that I grew up on both coasts and have family in Pacific time while I’m Eastern helps … but haven’t you paid attention to presidential elections where the west coast complains about newscasters calling the election based on east coast results after the east coast polls close but the west coast has hours left to vote? Haven’t you noticed that live broadcasts from the west coast are sunlit when the east coast has had the sun down for hours? Haven’t you seen that the livestreams that begin at noon Pacific start later in the day for you?

Sunrise is in the east because the planet rotates in that direction, so the more east you are, the sooner you see the sun.

If you live east of ANet’s studios, you add time to your clock to figure out your relative hour.

As someone who’s used quite a bit of game time in the past couple of weeks running around grabbing skill challenges, I can say it takes a lot more than an hour especially if you have a lot of alts. I did one cycle of getting everyone to 65 challenges soon after they first announced and now am on my last alt to get to 100 challenges done.

Thankfully ANet already said this will be retroactive. They’ve provided a ton of advance notice so players can get ready. If doing the challenges is so painful that you want to put it off until the new system arrives, that’s your prerogative. But as the challenges will have to be done at some point I fail to see why it’s fair to strip away the unlocks from those who did them previously so they have to repeat it all while others only have to do them once.

Do you think everyone should be reset to level 1 as well, so that those who have not yet gained their 80th level can start out even with those who have?

Assuming my invite comes through (still missing it despite having two portals in my bank and the two in-game mails that came with them still in my mailbox) I intend to use a mesmer. I’m avoiding revenant because I want to focus on testing the event cycle as requested, and I can better do that with a profession I play a lot. I’m more likely to notice oddities that way.

So I’m not going for something super effective in PvE (though mesmer really is, and has the advantage of being able to mix well between long range and melee), I’m going for something that won’t get in the way of my looking at what I’m testing.

Nope. Mum’s the word on this week’s topic. Perhaps we’ll get some sort of teaser image tomorrow; it may be a US holiday but most businesses stay open for it and ANet will be getting ready for the Tuesday beta.

If I need 155, I’m 55 shy on most alts … so I hope you’re wrong there. I wasn’t going to rush, per se, I’ve just found the skill challenge collection to be a manageable piecemeal project to fill some game time.

My idle curiosity lies in the issue of whether getting the WvW challenges would be wasted effort. I really don’t enjoy WvW when I’m not there for the fight, any more than I enjoy walking down a city street at night wondering if a mugger is sizing me up. Adrenaline isn’t fun for me. So I’d hate to put myself through that only to learn that the current skill challenges in WvW don’t count because they’re getting removed and all hero points must come from the same pool available to everyone.

Leveling isn’t the tedious part for me, or wasn’t pre trait revamp. That’s why I have so many 80’s; I always had an alt cooking along until the change. I only have one alt made since the change (other than a name placeholder that likely shan’t be leveled). Which doesn’t mean I’d be as sanguine about a level rollback as I am about the rework of trait point acquisition!

I admit it’s been a little grindy working on skill challenges on my alts, especially the ones that leveled without a lot of map exploration (hi there, Mad King events). I have 2 at world completion, 11 at 100 challenges done per the map (could be a few more if they got some in DT/SW/etc), 1 in the upper 60’s that I’ll work on next, and a level 43 that will get them over time. Otoh I’ve gained waypoints, unfogged maps, and made sure all my alts can get to at least the start of the DT and SW zones so as to be ready to push further into HoT.

I have a lot of skill challenges available to boost them further, especially in Orr. One thing that has just occurred to me: the WvW maps are changing. Would it be wise to grit my teeth and go get the skill challenges from the current maps on my 13 alts that don’t have them? Or with those removed from the world when the maps change, will they no longer give credit towards Hero Points? Will the new WvW maps have hero challenges in them?

Using my site linked above, Verjagandr could loosely mean protecting spirits.

Zaklex.6308:

That makes sense, but we’re only there to test the stability of the systems, I doubt there will be an in-Beta bug reporting option, though I know people will still report them on the forums.

https://help.guildwars2.com/entries/91220997-Heart-of-Thorns-Beta-FAQ

What should I do if I find a bug during the beta test?

Please submit a bug report in-game. Here’s how:

Hit ESC or click the gear icon in the top left corner to bring up the Game Menu
Click “Support”
Click “Report a Bug”
From the first drop-down menu, select “Beta”_

(Followed by an image of the in-game bug reporting window).

I’d call them wards. They act very much like fantasy literature magic wards, being hidden magical markings that activate when an enemy trespasses.

As to “Dragonbane” I do like it better than “Dragonhunter.” It’s shorter, it sounds more dangerous, and it echos back to a favorite book of mine that came out long before that Batman movie: http://www.amazon.com/Dragonsbane-Barbara-Hambly/dp/0345349393

If we want a fanatic tinge, then someone sworn to end dragons and be their anathema has a lot more cachet than someone who just, y’know, goes out hunting in the jungle.

I still prefer Seeker or Warder (not Warden, that’s taken in game by a major armed force) more for what I’ve seen of the spec. The dragon-themed trap (ward) and armor still work for it (remember, the skins should be available to all your alts who wear heavy armor anyway). But in the context of this thread, I’ll agree that “Dragonbane” has a richer connotative texture than “Dragonhunter.”

I’m still hyped. I felt a bit let down this past week but that doesn’t mean I’m not totally psyched for the expansion and for all the goodies coming in advance of it.

Here’s the site I use: http://www.vikingsofbjornstad.com/Old_Norse_Dictionary_E2N.shtm

I look for words denoting what I want my norn’s name to mean, then I look for the most easy to pronounce for my English tongue, and I mush them together without worrying too much about specific meaning.

So I have a norn named Ylfa Aetlaveidr, roughly translated to she-wolf fated hunter, and I picked up these ideas for pet names, keeping them in Word since they won’t stick in game:

Alpine Wolf Issulfr (Ice Wolf)
Armor Fish Herklaedi (Armor)
Arctodus Rifa (Rip)
Black Bear Blarbitr (Black Biting)
-Black Moa Hrafn (Raven)
-Black Widow Spider Ekkja (Widow)
Blue Jellyfish Reki (Jetsam)
Blue Moa Fjordpiner (guess!)
Boar Galti (Wild Boar)
Brown Bear Grimmr (Grim)
Carrion Devourer Eyrrdrepa (Spit Strike)
Cave Spider Helliretta (Cave Eight)
Eagle Ari (Eagle)
Fern Hound Lauf (Leaf)
Forest Spider Elketta (Tree Eight)
Hawk Sverdlopt (Sword Sky)
Hyena Hlatr (Laughter)
Ice Drake Seinnfrost (Slow Frost)
Jaguar Grannr (Slender)
Jungle Spider Eitretta (Poison Eight)
Jungle Stalker Kelda (Spot)
Krytan Drakehound Storrhundr (Huge Hound)
Lashtail Devourer Dundi (Whir)
Lynx Villieldr (Wildfire)
Marsh Drake Myrr (Bog/Swamp)
Murellow Bani (Slayer)
Owl Vedr (Wind)
Pig Vandrflesk (Bad Bacon)
Pink Moa Astfugl (Love Bird)
Polar Bear Duna (Resounding)
Raven Blekkrblindr (Black Blinder)
Red Jellyfish
Red Moa Dreyri (Blood)
-Reef Drake Rif (Reef)
River Drake Groenna (Green River)
Salamander Drake Garganleggr (Snake Leg)
Shark Fiskr (Fish)
Siamoth Flatrnef (Flat Nose)
Snow Leopard Isskelda (Ice Spot)
Warthog Griss (Piglet)
Whiptail Devourer Otti (Fear/Dread)
White Moa Gellirkala (Yeller Become Cold)
-White Raven Litlauss (Pale)
Wolf Valdr (Wolf)

Indeed, it’s not a server stability test, it’s a test to make sure the events don’t break. Or to figure out why they do.

I think it’s unlikely, as they’d want to do a blog on it before we got our hands on it. Otoh they could surprise us and let it come out via streamers and posters.

I think I’ll be playing a mesmer. I know them quite well so I’ll have a better feel for any problems with the event cycle being tested.

Participants will be able to use a revenant—or any of the existing eight professions would suggest to me that none of the elites will be available, as they are not yet existing professions.

Drumble.4865:

Syviren.7086:

@Donari

Not that the times are “Pacific Time”. I am in CENTRAL Time. That means the last test is 5:30pm to 730pm

I think you’re adjusting the wrong way. 7:30pm Pacific is 9:30pm Central.

This. It goes Pacific +1 to Mountain +1 to Central +1 to Eastern.

The whole maps would have to be reworked from the ground up. There are false fronts, floating things that look solidly placed from the angles we can get to, map edges, etc. A dev has outright stated that gliding in Pact Tyria would “break the map.”

It’s not happening short of something akin to WoW’s Cataclysm (WoW had the same issues in the vanilla maps).

Syviren.7086:

well I’m in central time. The last test is from 5:30-7:30pm. I have work till after that. Kinda bumps us 9-5 people out completely. Just seems like a poor time to do it. Could have added another block on later.

I think you have misread. Check the blog.

11:30 a.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7) to 1:30 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7)
3:30 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7) to 5:30 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7)
7:30 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7) to 9:30 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7)

There is in fact “another block on later.”

I still have not got the email. This doesn’t concern me since they already said the email isn’t required if one has a portal, which I do.

I’m just wondering if any of you who have gotten the email have got a beta slot in your character creation screen yet. If so, then I shall be a tad concerned as I do not at this point have that either and for the stress test it showed up well in advance.

I’m actually curious as well. I’m sure I have enough space but only because I have deleted games from my main drive. It’s an SSD and right now I have 57.1 GB free of 223 GB. My secondary drive, well, 900 GB free of 931, but I have WoW on that and have noticed a slower load time as a result so I’m not putting a must-play game on it. I suppose I could move all my screenshots over to that drive, that might be where most of my GB are going. If I get the Witcher, which depends on being convinced I can remap the controls away from WASD, then my space gets reduced even more.

Anyway, using an SSD is exactly why people might run out of space and have to consider the size of the expansion.

Were I a betting woman I’d wager it certainly can. A lot of systems got major overhauls from one beta weekend to the next in 2012, so I expect they’ll be able to do a lot in the next three months on what is, while large, not as big as the original launched game.

So far I haven’t, though I have two portals and just shifted them from bank to bags and back, and still have the in-game pair of mails that came with them, and linked them in gchat.

I’m sure it’s just coming in waves, and you don’t need the email to get in anyway.

I also don’t have an added Beta slot in my character select. Again, waves! (Though perhaps no one has that yet).

I would say not.

" Participants will be able to use a revenant—or any of the existing eight professions" implies only those that already exist, which the elites technically do not yet.

And surrounding that line, “The upcoming closed beta will help us test the stability of our new PvE outpost-event content structure. Participants will … play a small amount of expansion story content, followed by two beta versions of outposts and their corresponding adventures in part of the Verdant Brink map. An early, partially completed version of the day/night cycle meta-event experience from Verdant Brink will also be available.” Which suggests to me the goal is to work on the Verdant Brink event cycle rather than to get profession feedback.

I’m pretty sure the open betas will be weekends. At least they were back in 2012. I just wish they’d elected to do this closed one on any day but Tuesday, though I know no matter what day they pick it would be a day someone couldn’t make it.

So many years ago I gave my husband an XMas present: “One night a week, I’ll do things with you and I won’t get on the computer.” Back then Tuesday was the day to choose, as WoW patches made Tuesdays unplayable and I had no recurring RP or raids that night … weeks later a friend began Tuesday Night Story Nights both Alliance and Horde, and I was sad. And now of course I’m always wishing I could really savor new GW2 builds but I have to leave for the grocery store and dinner and a movie and TV … Still there are worse reasons to be yanked out of game

No email for me yet but I have the portal so I’m sure it’s coming. I must wail and gnash my teeth and tear my hair, though, as I generally can’t be at the computer after 2:30 pm Pacific on Tuesdays ><

I should manage the first session. I will definitely miss the middle session. Perhaps I can beg off of the full movie watching night to join the third.

It’s hard to tell someone else how to organize, same as it’s hard to tell someone else what shorthand to use in taking notes in class (or during trial). Where you put things and where you expect to find them will be individual.

That said, I suggest you keep things organized by “type.” Consumables, salvage kits, spare weapons, costume gear, toys, etc. Keep in mind that new items in inventory will go to the first open slot in your bags, unless you have a bag that sorts by type, in which case they’ll go to the first space in that bag if it has any. Keep your inventory sized consistently so you will always know whether something is on the left or right side.

I keep an invisible bag at the bottom for things I absolutely don’t want to lose. Then in the bags above it I keep deeper storage items that I don’t get at all the time. If I have an alt with a lot of costume armor, I sort that out by head/shoulders/legs, skimpiest to most coverage in each category. I make sure to pack all the lower bags fully so new items won’t mix in with items I’m keeping.

Higher up, where I’ll see it without scrolling down, I keep a line of unequipped weapons that are the best I have of that weapon type. On the right side near the top I’ll have salvage kits. Somewhere in that vicinity I’ll line up consumables. I keep my backpack and the next bags as empty as I can so I can always see new items at a glance. There is a feature that makes new ones light up but it was so overwhelming I disabled it and haven’t checked since to see if they dimmed it to usable levels. I do enable the colored border for rarity so when I salvage I can zoom along the items and not mis-click something that will toggle off the kit.

When I have a bit of down time (eg after Labyrinth or between fractals) I might shift things around in the top bags, moving rares to a clump, things I want to bank to another clump, things to TP to a clump, etc. Essentially I’m always moving items around in my bags to keep them in category groups, and I always put a certain category in a certain location.

On my most played alts, even with a lot of 20 slot bags mostly full, I can generally find any item I am looking for without using the search feature or spending time eyeball-searching. I even know what items I have, thanks to manually moving them around at need which refreshes my memory.

I hope that helps you come up with your own system.

It began a few minutes ago. So far they’re just talking about how auto-upgrades work, via a powerpoint page.

Also you can walk out on the rocks, stand over a gap, and logout to character select. When you log back in you should be in the water below the rocks. This could take a couple of tries to find the right spot.

This mini is now in the gem store, for 7 days.

In initial game design they didn’t even want to have levels, but alpha testers felt adrift without it. So they put in levels but didn’t make them take progressively longer to get, and used downscaling to help keep lower level maps relevant.

Don’t worry that you’ll hit the cap too soon. You’re exploring and enjoying, and there will still be plenty of that to do after 80. Plus you have room for at least four more alts to level up and try out.

How cool! I made name-grabs for all my five launch babies right away, but then played a bit on my main before creating the others for real. So four of them are at 999 days, but Donari is at 1000, woo!

Titus.4285:

@Shiren: just to clarify what I meant with reconstruction of old LA’s fountain. I didn’t mean that I wanted to raise old LA. Its ruins are submerged under water, and there they should remain.

Huh. I was actually thinking about that in regards to the thread asking what we’d like to see the new city look like. I had thought it might be neat if with all this lifting power provided by the airships and all the building out of platforms and docks that maybe the old plaza could be raised. It could sit on a little Tyrian-made island ("man"made doesn’t work here) as a memorial to the original city. (Note I have barely played GW1 and thus have no particular personal attachment as to its lands and customs).

Though I don’t know what happens to stone and marble submerged in salt water for centuries when it’s suddenly exposed to air and sun again.

I said it a couple of years ago, I’ll say it now, we need a sticky titled “Your Missing Spot for World Completion is the Chantry of Secrets.”

However, there are two different world completions. One gives you two Gifts of Exploration; that is the one involving wp’s, poi’s, vistas, etc, and it is the one you get percentage tracked on your map and character selection page. The other is an explorer achievement, and it involves unlocking all the white-named map areas whether or not they have anything giving credit to the Gifts.

I continue to be rather disappointed in today’s blogs. I am admittedly not a WvWer even though I’ve had a few fun times doing it.

I do feel the LA stuff is special, and big, and fun. I spent hours on Tuesday running around to see the changes. But Rubi said there was something cool coming that needed a whole stream, so she wasn’t referring to LA. The stream is going to be about WvW and Dragonhunter SPvP. Are the changes of interest? Sure. Are they likely to change the core play of WvW? Maybe, I never learned the strategy enough to form an opinion on whether they will have such an impact. Are they so impactful as to weigh as strongly as a specialization? Not in my view. They seem more a refinement than anything.

If this had been the new borderlands in depth, sure — but we already got that.

Normally I’m on the rah-rah-this-is-cool team, or at least feel they’re giving us fun reveals even when they aren’t in my area of interest. Heck, I read and watched a ton about Stronghold, yet my one and only Stronghold match was literally my first SPvP match ever and I’ve played since head start. This week … this week the hype happened for me, I was sure it was going to be really big, something to top the LA reveal. There is even an NPC in LA talking about a guild-related structure, so it seemed a fine week to tell us plans for guild halls. So yeah, I’m disappointed it’s a WvW keep upgrade tweak.

Morfedel.4165:

2. We had a guy in our keep once who was angry because he was “left to die” by the zerg, started spending all the supply in the keep to build rams. Nothing we could do to stop him. Now, he can’t ruin our day like he did before.

At first I thought they were removing supply entirely, and I got confused as to why there would still be a Supply Master line. But they’re just taking away the need for supply to upgrade fortifications. So as I understand it the supply will still be needed to build siege. Thus someone could still waste it on building siege in ridiculously useless locations. Right?

/blinks
Longbows are too thin? Egad. And here I’ve been upset by how many of them are huge clunky things that I can’t imagine lifting one-armed to rapidly fire arrows from. Not to mention they don’t look like they could flex worth a darn, which is fairly important in archery.

I love the Daydreamer Longbow. It will definitely be one of the three Daydreamer skins I get. I just have to decide on the other two before I commit my tickets >< I get so paralyzed by choice, sometimes.

Layout
It’s mostly more convenient now than it was before, with the TP much closer to most crafting areas, and multiple areas to go to. Plus some places don’t require running huge detours to get to from the nearest WP (Old LA made heading up to the Crow’s Nest take quite a while). The city planners have the ability to start mostly from scratch, they should consider such things. I’ve lived in planned communities and cities and in ones that grew up on old cattle paths, and I find myself vastly in favor of planned wide avenues and good transport.

Aesthetic
I love love love that concept art of the sweeping stone building with overflowing greenery. There should indeed be plants everywhere, spilling down walls, lining streets. There should be parkland. But there also should be walls and streets and enough buildings to support the populace. Make me believe tens of thousands of people live here.

Size
Build up all around the bay. Give us districts, taverns, marketplaces. This is the trade hub of the known world. Make it bigger than DR. Old LA in canon held 40K people but in game it looked like a small resort with quaint cottages here and there.

Future Events
Yes please. The trade hub of the world is also a target. NoxInfernus has a neat idea there with the Ebonhawke model, though game play convenience should trump events that shut down portions of the city if those portions contain the only place to do something (eg crafting stations, I’m looking at you, Mabon Market in Caledon).

I’d love events to hit other cities, and other cities to notice events that happen outside their walls. NPC gossip should alter when something big happens, it’s not like news takes a long time to propagate through the Asura gates.

I actually find myself agreeing for once (as to the overhype, not as to the middle finger part). Now, the changes to WvW might be game changing for WvW players, and the WvW forum is sounding off pro and con on them. So to a good hunk of players this is in fact important news.

But it’s not super huge don’t-miss-it we-gotta-do-a-whole-stream-on-it important, not when those comments were made to PoI viewers with a demonstrated interest in PvE. This should have been billed as a change of pace, looking at other areas of the game, intriguing for ReadyUp! followers sort of thing.

If they have it in the bag, it’s in the pipeline and we’ll get it. Those hidden karka babies could be a hint as to something. All I (and a few others) am saying is that we can’t stop the presses and get a brand new thing whipped up if it wasn’t already planned before this thread requested it. I include recycled content in that because they still have to mesh it in with other things, make sure it doesn’t cause game breaking bugs when juxtaposed with the current build, and spend dev time inserting relevant NPC’s, scenery, and instances.

I’m not disagreeing that an event would have been nice. I’m just saying that at this point asking for one won’t get us one that hasn’t already been in the pipeline a while.

RP is the main thing, but I did start out making one of each profession. Though I had double 80’s in some before getting my first 80 in others.

Thief Human — main for new game stuff, main for RP, I use him for SW so he carries the chest keys and shovels. 500 LW, 400 Chef.
Mesmer First Asura-- shelved for now. Never got much RP and Asura don’t seem to click for me. When monthly JPs were a thing she was my JP alt.
Mesmer Second Human— main for fractals and dungeons, she has lots of RP right now.
Mesmer Third Sylvari— RP and he is my LS secondary (I keep Thief, Mesmer, Guardian up to date for working on achieves).
Necromancer First Human — mostly shelved, mostly pure RP due to bag space limits. She’s my light armor clothes horse and has a ton of costume armors. 500 Tailor.
Necromancer Second Sylvari — RP
Necromancer Third Asura — Shelved, made him to see another racial PS line.
Warrior First Human — RP. 500 Armorsmith, 500 Weaponsmith.
Warrior Second Sylvari — Shelved, just wanted sylvari heavy armor.
Guardian First Sylvari — RP, Fractals/Dungeons with friends who don’t mind low dps. 500 Artificer, 500 Jeweler
Guardian Second Human — RP, LS achieves.
Engineer Norn — mild RP, 500 Huntsman, mostly shelved. Made so I’d have an 80 Eng.
Ranger Norn — Shelved. Made so I’d have an 80 Ranger.
Elementalist First Charr — Shelved. Made at launch, then I learned Ele isn’t my thing and her warband guild disbanded.
Elementalist Second Human — RP. Only level 42. Made to a guildie’s design as an RP nemesis. He should get his comeuppance soonish, after which I’ll have to do name/makeover and turn him into another RP alt once I have an idea for one.

If you look, they have moved it to the Blues now, along with the change to outfit dye channel access.

Keep in mind that you can be in five guilds, so you don’t have to leave one to start one unless the one you’re in requires 100% rep or you are already in five.

Well, you are a sylvari. Why not go to the place where you exited your Dream and see if that nice sylvari is still handing out armor and weapons like he used to do for new saplings?

To prevent spoilers, simply make the post-battle Claw Island inaccessible to those who have not gone through the story. It needn’t even be instanced, exactly. The portal to get there could be sealed off just as the Fort Trinity ones are for those not yet far enough in the PS to use them. Then the flavor text you see around each memorial could be triggered by which PS steps you did on the alt viewing them.

zenleto.6179:

What’s this survey? I saw it mentioned yesterday as well.

It’s the link in the Naming Poll part of the blog at https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/lions-arch-construction-nears-completion-new-player-poll-announced/

Isn’t there an option to change it to the simple version where the numbers get smooshed into one figure?