Guild Wars 2

I’m also a shouts fan. I usually like instant point-and-shoot magic over complicated ritual and set up, that’s been true of me through tabletop and LARP and much of my fantasy reading preference for decades. Shouts are simple and direct. You don’t need to worry about placement, picking up and putting down, what direction you’re facing, whether the AI will do what you want (in the case of minions), etc.

They did outright state in the stream that future elites will be mutually exclusive. The elite spec slot has gold trim around it, and elites can only go in that slot. My impression is that you won’t have the use of the special weapon unless you are spec’d to use it, though I can’t point to a particular statement regarding that. I know I believed it to be the case strongly enough that I posted concerns about inventory management if your spec weapon gets randomly shoved in your inventory when you undo the spec selection.

I wonder, will they have to release 9 new elites at a time every time they want to add any? In order to keep things “fair” in the eyes of the players? That seems a lot of work and a possible slow-down in the pace of getting new ones.

That’s true. I have 2 80’s at 100% completion, 12 80’s at less than 50%, and 1 42. Even my recent running around to get skill challenges done on alts (with corollary WP and PoI gathering on the way) hasn’t gotten anyone above 50%.

Anyway, all the professions have something fun about them. You don’t have to sink vast resources into an alt to get it in a useful playable position. Your warrior can be your main and any alts be pleasant diversions with the potential to develop into fully geared mains themselves if you discover you really like their gameplay.

sorudo.9054:

Donari.5237:

I would love such a stone. However, I imagine it would be as rare as the permanent hair kit, so even if they made it I’d never get one ><

it would be a gem store item, ofcouse you can get one…..

Well the hair kit is also a gem store item, in that it rarely drops out of Black Lion Chests for which the easiest source of keys is spending gems. It can’t be guaranteed to drop, and it costs thousands of gold on the TP when the most I’ve ever had at a time was over 400 gold. So nope, I don’t see any “of course” about it

I don’t see them making it directly purchasable for any sane amount of gems, because there goes any point to temporary transmutation charges.

On the topic of cosmetic changing items, I think it would be rather nice if the hair kits included skin color and glow color options. You’d still need a total makeover for size/build/pattern/gender/face changes, but if you change your hair and its color it’d be nice to have complementary color options for the rest of you.

Egad, don’t delete. Make something new to try, you can work on it in between using your warrior for stuff. Also at some point we’re going to get word on what the Warrior elite spec will be and you might find that reinvigorates your interest. Plus even the base game play will be changing up once the new trait/skill system goes live, probably in the next two months or so (my personal guess based on its current state, the need for beta testing, the fact that it’s coming before HoT, and my personal opinion that HoT most likely arrives in late August).

It might be only three weeks or so before you can solo it.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Personal-Story-Restoration-update/first

I do hope it’s this weekend. I’m on call for the following weekend to fly out to Texas if my parents need me to help them with a long drive, which will depend on my father’s medical condition at that time. On that trip I’d barely be able to access forums for reading and certainly couldn’t log in to any games.

I don’t think the next closed beta would include “all” specializations, though. There’s no NDA, so the cat would be well out of the bag on the remaining six. I wish I’d seen that news blog myself because right now even the 15th-17th part is hearsay.

Kosmo suggested this a year ago in https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/archive/bltc/Give-some-boosters-charges-instead-of-a-timer

S/he wanted a booster to make a set of charges that got used up each time you perform an action but don’t have a countdown timer on use. I somewhat like that, but here is what I was thinking of suggesting before I googled that old thread:

Set up a Hero Panel tab for boosters. Each booster bought or otherwise collected adds a charge (similar to the limited use Finishers). Make this account wide. Then whatever alt you’re on can use a booster; it still has the timer on it, can still be extended with the special item that does that, but is no longer an inventory space using item.

Cons: It’s still not easy to quickly access in the middle of action (maybe the long requested UI hotbar for consumables could be made?), and the enchanted powder would have to be worked in somehow.

I would love such a stone. However, I imagine it would be as rare as the permanent hair kit, so even if they made it I’d never get one ><

For those asking for Belinda’s GS and Rox’s Quiver, you may want to log in! They’re in the gem store according to today’s blog news post.

Actually I think skill unlocks will also be using Hero Points and what you unlock now won’t specifically transfer.

http://dulfy.net/2015/04/23/gw2-specializations-part-two-reward-tracks-and-elite-specializations/

“Skill and trait unlocking is transitioning into a new system. Profession reward tracks are packages of skills, traits, specializations, and items that will make up the new unlock system. Rather than completing specific content for specific unlocks, everything will be unlocked by spending Hero Points on these new reward tracks.”

So I still won’t buy my missing utilities unless I really need them for immediate game play.

Not only that but LS2 was free to those playing the game. It only gained a charge for those who didn’t log in during the free release window. It may well be included in HoT, too, that seems within ANet’s style. (And what do you “win” from LS, anyway? Some skins and some achievement points, as well as an understanding of the story. Nothing that makes you game-mechanics stronger than other players).

It’s “phishing” as in a corny way to spell “fishing.” They’re sending out hooks and hoping you’ll nibble. If you don’t follow their links, there’s nothing they can do (short of hacking ANet/NCSoft’s records). The in game ones are laughable because you can’t click their links. Only laboriously type them into a browser yourself, which you really should know better than to do.

Learn to spot the signs. Poor grammar, not from a valid source, no basis for the threatened action … it will help you with more than games. I got a computer-voiced phone message a week or two ago telling me this was the IRS’s final attempt to reach me to let me know they’re going to sue me, I should call a certain phone number to get more information. I laughed and filled out the IRS fraud web page on them.

As I understand it the rate is not set by ANet but by how many people spend cash on gems to then turn into gold. The supply of gems comes from that. If less gems are bought by cash and converted to gold (as opposed to simply buying gem store items), there are less available even as the demand goes up when people want to buy popular items.

Veteran players have lots of in-game gold sources. They generally don’t need to buy gold with gems. That’s the extent of the “catering,” again, as I understand the system. I am not an economist or a TP player!

Storage space is a good reason to eat ‘em up. I just figure I can eat them any time I like, but I can’t un-eat them. Plus if I have them converted to skill points on my alts I might feel tempted to buy skills I don’t have yet, and that would be a waste. All my main PvE alts have all their skills open as it is. Further, seeing the stacks gives me a better idea of how many for sure extra points I have as compared to totting them up across 15 alts and wondering which came from scrolls and which from skill challenges/leveling.

But yeah, they’re gonna turn into the new currency whether they are in scroll form or used for an alt. It might not be as unwise as I suggested to nom ’em up.

They said it on the overview live stream, and also in the related blog I believe.

- Skill challenges (the blue chevrons scattered across world zones) will be replaced by Hero challenges (same thing, different name) and will give Hero Points rather than Skill Points.

- Hero Points will be finite. They will be retroactively rewarded according to character level and number of Skill Challenge unlocks. Skill points currently gained by other methods will not translate. Currently purchases/acquired traits will not translate; you will spend your stash of Hero Points in the new system.

- Excess skill points (beyond those from leveling and skill challenges) and unused scrolls as of the change will become a new wallet-held currency that can be spent on Mystic Forge items. I think they’ve implied that the scrolls will still drop in some form, but will become the currency instead of a consumable skill point.

- If you have a level 80 with 65 skill challenges complete you will be in the ballpark for full unlock of all core specializations. You will need more skill challenges to collect the Elite Specialization line. Based on the preview of the system, that’s … 35 or 40 more done? I’m working on getting one of each profession to at least 100 skill challenges and will tweak that as we get more hard info.

- This will happen before HoT’s release. The exact timing is not yet known.

- Consuming your skill scrolls now seems unwise (assuming they cannot be used to buy anything but MF mats anyway … there might be some other use I don’t know of that will vanish come the change). Unless you absolutely need a trait to use between now and whenever this goes live, you’ll lose the investment, or it will just become excess anyway.

Expansions have to have stuff you don’t just get for free, or why would anyone buy them? They also have to have enough new stuff to warrant being a new box sale. Imo HoT is big enough to so warrant.

Thus from my perspective, complaining that HoT is PtW is akin to saying the original game is PtW because you have to buy a copy of it to play and you can’t win without playing.

In all the years I used to read Marvel Comics, I don’t recall anyone ever complaining that banshees must be female despite the original lore of the word. So even now I don’t think it’ll bother me much to have it become a gender equal term here. “Valkyrie” bothers me for the Guardian elite, though — likely because it’s such a common adjective used for strong, lovely women in modern English that the female connotations are much stronger.

I mean, sure, people will insult a woman by calling her a “banshee” to suggest she’s being far too strident, but it’s just not as pervasive a term.

http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20070519032953/marveldatabase/images/5/5b/Sean_Cassidy_(Earth-616)_012.jpg

They do it so they have something in the computer that lets them accept money from people. Not filling in required fields borks programs something fierce. So they make a guess for something they think will be later than the actual release and plug it in to make the software behave.

CodeHavoc.7926:

Solori.6025:

Well if it’s gonna be a PoI, prepare for the most lackluster preview, with no trait reveal.
Cause thanks ruby

Also.

We have a dragonhunter.
Now we get the Dragon Slayer

I kinda want another host that isn’t Ruby, she’s monotone, enthusiastic and dry. But yeah, “Chronomancer! Whoo! Dragonhunter! Yeah! Necro…..meh, lets go for a ten minute troll stream!”

I <3 Ruby. She’s friendly, keeps the conversation going without awkward pauses, and I would never characterize her as monotone just because she doesn’t do crowd-revving calls to action. That’s not her role. She’s there to guide the guests along, to monitor chat questions for things to pass on to the guests, and to help the guests speak more naturally even if they aren’t comfortable with the camera. She also has to be alert to any possible leaks of info that isn’t cleared for release. But in all that her love of the game and of the people she works with comes through loud and clear. She’s doing a fine job.

Valky.2574:

I will laugh so much if this ends up killing the class as in every one goes to play a new class i my self will be deleting my 80 guard if the name don’t change since it wont make any since to my Sylvari at all

And yes Names matter allot to some ppl that have to make some since with the toon they are playing / Race and this name Destroys any one playing Sylvari Guard

Actually I have to disagree there. Assuming our characters are saved from Mordremoth’s influence by the Pale Tree, sylvari guardians might well be the ones for whom it makes the most sense to dedicate themselves to killing everything associated with Mordremoth. The dragon is a direct threat to the integrity of a sylvari’s mind, a subversion of all s/he holds holy. Each and every Dreamer could receive a new Wyld Hunt to eradicate grandpa before he eats them whole.

I still like Seeker as more broadly applicable and flexible in interpretation, however.

Namewise, hmm, the concept art seems to incorporate a lot of thorns — the green is just the profession color but still, very jungly — so what HoT-focused concept might fit?

Given that they avoided “Paragon” for Guardian, I think they might avoid “Ritualist” here — that was a GW1 class, right?

Ah, well, if it must be spent on GW2-related activities, I think a trip to Seattle and buying a nice dinner for every ANet employee would be in order. Hopefully I’d get a tour or something. New computer equipment for me would be nice, and a good supply of gems to do whatever I want with gems for a while.

I might be able to fund a few years of employment for my artist friend who wants to work there, too.

I don’t think we need a Gaile answer on that. Check the FAQ.
————————
What happens to all the items/gold/karma I get during the beta test? Will I get to play my beta character when the expansion comes out?

Your beta activity (including character development, account-based development, and currencies) won’t impact your live Guild Wars 2 account. Your beta progress will be saved for the duration of the stress test, but all beta characters and beta account progress may be deleted at the end of the test period.

Yes. They will fill out the ranks with invites to newsletter subscribers, the same method used to get all the beta stress testers for the first round.

I’ve done only enough to get 3 HoM points so far, and it’s involved blindly following guildies and shooting what they’re fighting. But I’ve garnered the impression that at some point you’ll want Ranger as a class (possibly ok to make it a secondary class) so you can get pets because leveling pets is one way to get an HoM point or two.

I believe a dev said in the long thread about Sylvari hair that dandelion fluff has too high a polygon count. I could be wrong about who said it, and maybe it was just someone quoting a dev. You may want to google for that thread to see all the great art concepts players have provided, though. (It used to be in the Sylvari forum section, but we no longer have racial forums).

Broom.2561:

Ah yes… the newsletter. The one I unsubbed from because you kept sending me guides on how to play Guild Wars 2… when I’ve been in game since closed beta. However much I’d like to be in the HoT beta (and I DID try for over 40 hours in the Silverwastes and Dry top) I REALLY don’t want to start all that up again.

Huh? I’ve been subbed to the email since 12-21-2013 or sooner (that’s my first email from that source) and the emails have been notices of events. There is one email from 6-25-14 “Some Tips on Combat in Guild Wars 2” but that is the only “guide” email.

Here’s the grand total of newsletter emails from December 2013 to now:

Do you ask why male authors write female characters in their novels? (Or vice versa). Do you question David Weber’s sexuality because his main protagonist, Honor Harrington, is a strong woman? Is there a problem with how Lois McMaster Bujold handles the various Vorkosigan men?

Play the character that fits the concept. Sometimes gender is a factor in that (my Thief’s egotistical but oh-so-charming ladies-man mien goes very much with his maleness; his elder sister, the responsible stay-at-home one, she has to be female because a lot of the Thief’s life history comes from decisions his parents made in their desire for a male heir. And my human guardian is male because he was originally developed as a love interest for another guildie’s male character). Sometimes it’s irrelevant (my street rat warrior happens to be female but that is a minimal factor in her view of the world or physical capabilities; in fact I could flex most of my double handful of RP alts to work as either gender with minimal tweaks).

For context, I’m a straight woman who finds the female form more aesthetically pleasing to draw and inhabit, though I’ve seen some jaw dropping art with male subjects. But I don’t leave half the world out when it comes to enjoying characters and their stories.

All we’ve seen is Colin smiling with glee in interviews and saying he thinks people will really love the halls and all the other things that go with them, but he’s not able to give any details.

We know we get another Elite Spec blog this week on Thursday, and it’s been strongly suggested that the specs will then get a break the following week for other topics. So maybe a week from Thursday we could have Guild Hall info, though there are of course quite a few other subjects also awaiting reveals and discussion.

OtakuDFifty.2965:

In terms of matching the specialization’s actions and relationship to law and order, “Warden” is the most fitting. I wouldn’t have anything against “Dragon Warden” either.

I’m partial to “Warder” rather than “Warden.” It gets around the problem of naming a profession after a racial law keeping force, and is a bit more active. Plus, the “traps” the Elite Spec drops could easily be called “wards” instead. That moves them more into the magical area of connotation, given the long standing fantasy literature tradition of spellcasters laying down magical signs that trigger alarms, traps, etc. This could mollify those who don’t want to feel like they’re playing tweaked Rangers. And imo it flows much better from the concept of a Guardian.

I get my context from RP. The world provides the setting, the props, and the lore. My characters live within the parameters provided but come to the events and world-changing stories from their own perspective. I even pick which zones to focus on for leveling based on what motivates the alt.

And then I can go into RP sessions that fully reference the game world but use it as a springboard to tell ongoing tales of adventure, romance, comedy, and tragedy. Sometimes even horror, though that’s not my personal preferred genre.

I ate out with the inlaws on Friday while my mom-in-law was in town, so I’m covered! Well, you bet I’m calling my mom today once it’s late enough to allow for the time difference. She’s going through a lot right now because of my dad’s medical condition

In game, hmm, maybe it’s a day to fling roses at everyone … just in case they’re a mom, y’know?

IndigoSundown.5419:

Palindrome.8904:

Previously stated by ANet that it is one only. Options:

A) 3 core specs.
B) 1 elite and 2 core specs.

Thanks, I missed that.

Yeah, they pointed out that there is a nifty gold border around the Elite Spec, showing that only an Elite Spec can go in that slot, and an Elite Spec cannot go in a non-gold slot. So future Elites will be mutually exclusive.

Alastar.4351:

I Really hope that in the future they’re gonna change the way to unlock your traits again

The Risen Priests are no problem but the Risen High Wizard takes forever to respawn or I’m doing something wrong which I can’t seem to figure out :S

Good news, they are. A complete traits revamp is coming before HoT. It’s been the subject of live streams and forum threads.

All you need to do to be ready is make sure the character you want the traits on is a) level 80 and b) has completed at least 65 skill chevrons in the open world. (65 is the current projection, it could change). When the new system goes live, you will have enough Hero Points (as Skill Challenges are turning into) to unlock everything for all the core specializations (the new name for trait lines).

Enjoy!

You may want to suggest this in https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Suggestions-Gemstore-Items/page/43#content — be advised that pretty much every discontinued gemstore item, including these glasses, has already been requested in that thread. A number of them have occasionally returned as well, such as Marjory and Kasmeer’s weapons and Rox’s Quiver.

You should be able to combine them in your personal bank just by dragging them on top of the bank stack. It won’t auto-stack if you double click to transfer them.

For the guild bank, the best guess I’ve seen in the years of people asking for this feature is that it avoids bugs from multiple guild members fiddling with the stacks at the same time.

A million dollars really isn’t that much these days. It’s nothing to sneeze at but it won’t set you up for life, though perhaps it could be the seed of investments that do let you keep a comfortable standard of living. (I am much aware of such things now that my husband’s nearing retirement and I’ve stopped working; we keep going over and over our resources and trying to predict how far our lifestyle will drop when he leaves work).

Still it would be enough to allow a bit of splurging. The thing is I already buy all the gem shop items that appeal to me. Lawless, Toxic, Minis, those I have neglected and likely wouldn’t collect just because I had spare cash. So I doubt much would change game-wise if I suddenly had another million dollars. Maybe I’d go all out on vet spending for my 13 year old cat who has a serious heart condition … those ultrasounds are expensive.

It’s a much requested but not implemented feature. You can hide/show the headpiece with an outfit, but you can’t choose the headpiece.

I have a character who lost an eye to friendly fire in the attack on LA. Most outfits show two whole eyes. Sigh. Anyway, you’re not missing anything, it’s really not possible at this time.

Yep, and he made a thread to discuss it. https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Tome-Change-ideas/first

He said, as best I saw in the scrolling chat, that these are changes they are considering but are very much in flux. His thread asks for feedback and ideas.

Well, the announcement blog in the news section, reachable via the tab at the top of this page or via the launcher newsfeed, said:

“Tomorrow, players can tune in to this week’s episode of Ready Up, where Karl McLain joins host Josh Davis to show off the skills, mechanics, and gameplay of the dragonhunter elite specialization.”

All the Friday streams are focusing tightly on the material of that week’s blogs, not giving surprise extra info. Check on Thursday afternoon to see what the next one will cover (though we know from this one that it will be pretty much a repeat of today’s, only with next week’s highlighted spec).

I will miss my pretty floating book. It had a lot of fun effects on the 1-5 keys, too. But Light of Deliverance has always been my main reason to deploy the tome (the aoe blind is also fun), so as long as that effect remains I suppose I can deal with the less cool effects of just emitting light from my body.

While I have no need for the trinity I have always enjoyed playing healers/support in other games, so that channeled 5 second full heal to the whole party has satisfied that nagging itch in my heart. I could call out on Mumble “big heal near Briara” and get a chorus of thanks. I’d like to keep that.

You don’t have to do EoTM. There’s a whole world full of xp-granting things out there. If nothing else, you can visit a lot of skill challenges to get ready for the trait change.

1) The email will come when they announce beta scheduling. It will come to the email address where you receive the newsletter. If you do not yet receive the newsletter, you should sign up and hope the signup works (there is no confirmation).

2) The beta will take place sometime after right now. We won’t know when until the email in (1) goes out.

How so? It went through all the stuff DH has, trait by trait, showed what each skill looks like in action, and demonstrated how combining the skills and traits leads to shredding the Svanir NPC. It’s exactly what they said it would be.

That did make it look like a visual feast, and needing a bit more skill, foresight, and reflexes than base Guardian while still looking like Guardian light/fire.

Twitch chat had Mr. Peters discussing the idea of vastly changing the Tome elites. I was getting motion sick from how fast the chat scrolled so I didn’t catch details and would like those clarified.

I love the glowing book animation and would hate to lose that to turn the elite into a signet or shout. Also I caught a glimpse of how the healing one turns into a passive aoe heal plus an active effect? So we don’t get a full set of replacement 1-5 skills? I think that might remove some of the flavor from the elite.

If there’s a dedicated thread about the Tome changes I’d love a link.

Yep, they’re in the countdown to start now. 2.5 minutes to go.

Well hmm, as I reread it through lawyer-vision, I could see them saying you must find a unique Portal for each closed test.

Either way is fine by me, I enjoyed my time in SW and liked having a targeted goal for gameplay.

I don’t think you’ll be able to equip it on him. Since beta alts have no impact on your account, and are wiped when the beta’s done, you likely won’t have bank access to pick it up. We didn’t in the stress test, anyway.

But yes, expect to lose anything you create/gain in beta other than your screenshots

But not just Borderlands, they give more info on how beta invites will work:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/announcing-the-wvw-desert-borderlands-stress-tests/

Of interest is the comment that those who get a portal are invited to tests plural. Typo, or is this a thing we don’t have to grind out again for a later test?

Exact quote:
“Secondly, our Heart of Thorns PvE closed beta events are open to players who have found a portal to the Heart of Maguuma in-game or may have been selected by signing up for the Guild Wars 2 newsletter.”

58 minutes from now. Top of the next hour.