Guild Wars 2

If you have the time to read it you will get a quite comprehensive answer with multiple viewpoints by perusing this thread:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/cdi/CDI-Guilds-Guild-Halls/first

There’s no predicting that. I’ve played quite a few MMO’s over the years since a friend convinced me to give Dark Age of Camelot a go. What usually ended my time in a game was having all my friends move on to something else, or not having enough friends join it. The one exception was WoW, which I left even though I had many friends deeply involved in it because GW2 fit me so much better.

But tastes change. I thought I’d never stop LARPing (theatrical style) or sewing costumes. Then I missed one convention so I could celebrate my husband’s 50th birthday, and somehow never mustered the energy to return to it. I thought I’d never stop painting miniatures. But when I moved to a new house I never got around to setting up a painting station, and it’s been nigh on 14 years since I painted one. I thought I’d keep on doing weekly vintage dancing; then my arches went bad.

I thought I’d be in my job until I retired, but I left it a few years shy of that thanks to new management raising the stress levels unbearably.

So I imagine I’ll be playing GW2 and other MMO’s for a long time to come. I make no promises, however. It could become yet another hobby that fades away for me. Until then I intend to have tons of fun in it, though!

I am 49.

I asked Gaile that in the Questions thread. She said they’d start the info flow in early February. I imagine you can use the Dev Tracker to find the exact quote.

They don’t even save between land pets. You have a wolf and a raven? Great, the names stick. Deploy a bear for a fight? It’s a Juvenile Brown Bear and next time you activate the inactivated pet, it’s back to Juvenile as well.

I got one Ranger to 80 but never felt great joy in playing her. I’ve never been one for pet classes in any MMO. Still, I think the name loss was a notable factor in my lack of enjoyment as I could never really bond with a pet that kept going generic.

Random weird shorthand speak chatter can be found near the DR bank. Fuller sentences seem to prevail near the Rata Sum Accountancy WP.

I’m sure there’s more (TC has RP in the Ossan and Rurikton Districts of DR quite a bit), but those are the two spots where I notice general chatter. Otherwise I’m chatting in guild chat and on Mumble.

The Deluxe gives you a few QoL things, nothing game changing. There are only two “contents” you would have to pay more to access: The second season of the Living Story will require 200 gems per chapter to unlock and the gems will cost you your choice of cash or gold (except the current Chapter 8, which will be freely unlocked to you for logging in before it’s patched out), and the upcoming expansion, likely to be cash only.

Plenty of fun cosmetic things are in the gem store. None of them give you a game play advantage over other players, beyond some minimal time savings. As BammBamm said, buying inventory space is well worth it. Anything you can buy with gems you can buy with gold, though it will take quite a bit of gold to get enough gems. You also can buy gold with gems if you want to convert it the other direction.

You cannot at this time see the first season of Living Story, as it wasn’t designed with replay in mind. They would like to fix that but have not said it’s any kind of priority beyond a general wishlist.

Also don’t worry about unlocking Season Two right away. You’ll need to be 80 to play it anyway, so you may have more gold to spare by then.

Beta was three weekends over a couple of months, and a number of “stress test” weekends. As I recall we restarted our characters for each BWE but then got to keep them for the stress tests. The first BWE was in April 2012; launch was that August, and the announcement of the date came in … June?

I have a guildie who was there, and even showed up in several camera shots of the audience! She got to be up front so by the time she got out the tshirts were gone — but somehow after that she did score one. She is a very happy woman by all she’s posted about her PAX experiences.

I think she is now at the GW2 restaurant gathering

My goodness, that does work very well (and I usually listen to classical). Did you trim anything, or did all the lines and emphases just coincide perfectly with the visuals?

That depends on how proficient you are at combat and dodging, and how much you want to see all the extra bits (in one chapter you get into a large library jam packed with readable books, as well as plenty of random scattered artifacts to examine).

On one chapter’s end fight I was at it for close to an hour, armor completely broken, screaming at the boss (and I am normally a very calm person). But going back with two alts, I managed that fight much more quickly.

Generally it will go faster in a party. Are you on NA? I’m generally available mid-afternoons eastern time if you want a guide. If you just want the unlocks and don’t care to savor the extras, I can zip you through fairly fast with a few explanations of mechanics and my added firepower.

Beldin.5498:

Sparrow.8423:

To everyone arguing whether WoW, Arch Age or Aion had hang gliders first… does it really matter? If they made a game with mechanics that were based solely on being NEW instead of fun, generally likeable or just good… yikes! What a disaster that would be!

There was btw. also another MMO, that flopped badly, that had gliders before.
People also called it the world biggest wander simulation .. however i can’t
even remember its name.

Might have been Dark and Light? I vaguely remember flying in that game. In the few seconds between disconnects, anyway. There were many solid reasons for that game to flop.

That doesn’t mean gliding = flopping. I’m very interested in how ANet will set it up and I expect players will find fun things to do with it. Like, if you can cancel the glider while in the air … those who love to leap off Rata Sum may find new lemming heights. Can you glide in formation?

I’d say my one worry is if mastery points are scarce enough that you can’t master all the mastery lines you really want. Having to choose character-bound things, all well and good. If there are three Specializations, I can make three of a profession to try them all out. But they specifically said Mastery is account bound, so I’d hate to have to choose between gliding, learning languages, combat, and crafting. (I don’t mind having to choose at the start, and set priorities, but I don’t want to be permanently frozen out of content due to choosing other content).

You would need the more recent achievements if you want the Luminescent version of Carapace armor, as you get ascended trinkets needed for the collection only via achievements. You should be able to get all the Carapace armor from the Silverwastes vendors, for 1000 crests each; doing the story gets you quite a few of those pieces just by sending alts through the story. (Note: the Carapace chest piece only comes from fighting the Vinewrath in Silverwastes, and it is RNG each time whether you get the boxes you need after the first one).

Also some of the earlier chapters give you items needed for the Mawdrey backpiece that eats Bloodstone Dust, though I’ve heard they are also available for laurels, maybe?

You’ll miss a lot of story, of course, and achievement points from the achieves even on the chapters that predate Carapace.

Lazaar.9123:

There isn’t much reason to go to Cantha or Elona right now, as five of the six dragons are focused around or nearby our current playing area, and the deep sea dragon isn’t a threat right now.

Edit: Really? Filter censored the number five?

I believe it censored it when preceded by “as.” Since people will use numbers instead of letters to try to avoid filters.

I don’t have any vested interest in Cantha or Elona. I’ve barely seen the latter, never the former, in my sporadic GW1 forays in search of HoM points. Still it seems to me that one day we should have more of the world available, should have a more global sense of things. Maybe that’s just the modern Terran in me talking, unaccustomed to mindsets that look no further than the next village. Even so, I feel the more rich and complex the world is, the more intricate the politics and disparate the cultures, the more fun it will be to explore.

So far they’ve nicely released a lot of music on their SoundCloud. Since they now have in-house composers they might be much more able to release CD’s via their shop.

If, that is, the recent thread asking for merchandising ideas indicates a willingness to do physical merchandise at last.

As I recall (I could be misremembering), GW2’s launch was announced 2 months in advance, somewhere around the second Beta Weekend. That gives a hint of a window in which ANet feels confident enough something is ready to actually give a specific date.

Wild thought: Perhaps they could add a new race via Living Story one day, after people have settled into HoT. ANet doesn’t have to do things just like everyone else, after all. Why not put something normally saved to sell expansions into freely delivered content when they feel it’s ready?

It’s a daydream, anyway.

Jade Arkadian.9280:

This is just pure speculation but I don’t think specialization will necessarily grant the use of a new weapon to a class.

Maybe some classes will have specializations that involves a different use of a weapon that they actually have use, such a warrior using its longbow in a ranger-like way, or a thief using P/P to spread multi-target conditions such as confusion and torment.

The “Specialization” paragraph in the new HoT site states unequivocally that you get a weapon not previously available to your profession. I can’t quote directly as only the first line will highlight for some reason but it’s at https://heartofthorns.guildwars2.com/en#section-specializations

I really hope there are at least two choices per profession, though I’m ok with the choice being final once made (as long as it is clear in game when making the decision that you can’t go back). That will add so much more variety to the game as well as a sense of uniqueness to the players.

edit: Interesting thought, Jokubas. They could indeed add more specializations later to fit various themes! In which case I would not be fine with irrevocable choices, since as new choice becomes available, players already vested in certain alts should have access to those choices.

Sylvari or Human for me. Not that I won’t play the other races — I just find myself having more fun with the RP and gameplay of those two. I can’t channel Asura-speak on a regular basis, much though I love their animations, and Norn feel too slow running and Charr too bulky in tight camera places.

I’ll make a final decision once I know the lore of how the profession’s getting introduced, however. Possibly I’ll make more than one Revenant, so as to match the lore and to have a fun avatar.

Mysticjedi.6053:

-Can we have a current level 80 character switch professions to a Revenant? (This would be awesome!)

I’d hazard not, as the lead in to announcing the Revenant was something along the lines of “But what if I’m new to the game and I still want to play something new that no one else has?” I got the sense that all the Revenants would start fresh.

The FAQ says yes, there will be a boxed version available in stores.

Budman.2934:

Lord Trejgon.2809:

aquanaughty.5781:

..ok..I just purchased a second copy/acct of gw2 and activated it…all is well…purchased gems through the gem store/ BLT for my new characters…all is well….now I try to exchange gems for gold to spend in the store…and it says “this feature is disabled, pls come back later”….is it me, or something wrong at Anet? Or just a temporary down thing?

last time I checked eula multiaccs where forbiden and permabannable…..

Who in there right mind would ban someone for buying another copy of your game?

No one. Multiple accounts are just fine. Playing them simultaneously with one key press doing actions for both, now that’s bannable. Likely the source of Lord Treigon’s confusion.

I’m absolutely buying it. I may not buy the box, mostly because I can get the digital version the moment it’s released but physical copies always make me wait, or at least have to go to a store and get them.

Now, if ANet sets it up like Blizzard did with MoP and lets Amazon ship it to arrive the day before, so I can install and have it ready to activate, cool. (Possibly a bad example because I never actually installed MoP until WoD was announced …).

Um … they’ve been working on this for two years or more. It’s not because the LS “failed,” which it didn’t, they’ve been constantly enhancing it.

Feel free to wallow in your negative views. I’ll stay in my happy place.

They did say they had told us about every major feature in HoT. Playable Tengu would count as that. So I wager no new race, Tengu or otherwise.

My bet is on the 3rd Anniversary as well.

In another thread Gaile stated we’d start getting the flow of information “in early February,” so inside of 2 weeks?

Psientist.6437:

I wasn’t able to watch the announcements, did they confirm that HoT includes the story of defeating Mordermoth?

They did not. They told us the beginning of what we’ll find, not the climax. So we know we’ll be going into a set of jungle zones, and there will be many new things in there, but in the lead up story review Colin noted that the Pact and many of the various race’s forces loaded up on the ships and got destroyed. So we are now without our armies. He said the rest of us are what remain to fight. (Since around 40K people watched this, that’s a darn good army size … )

There were no comments on any Personal Story changes. They did say they want to make the game even more social, make you happy to see another player arrive because things will only get better; that might preclude instancing the players away.

This may stray into the realm of spoilers, but those of us with RP’d sylvaris would love to know something of the expected effect. Do we have a Dream shield? What does Mordremoth’s attempt to suborn us feel like? (Obviously nothing stops someone from RPing falling to the dragon if they want to, but those who don’t want to should have some explanation ready).

Just a couple of general guidelines would help keep the RP canon. It seems we’ll have a few months of story freeze right now but the RP plots will be chugging right along!

All of a sudden? They’ve been working on it for years. The LS has been extra stuff, aimed at leading the story towards the expansion.

I get this from various dev postings and the comments in the last Points of Interest.

Q: Will one eventually be able to attain all masteries, or will there be a need to choose which ones to pursue and which to lock out?

As they are account wide, I’d hope they are all available.

Another question, will spending Mastery points require choosing, or will we eventually be able to Master all the mastery lines?

If I have to choose between gliding, crafting, and combat masteries, I might weep. Choice tends to paralyze me!

I wonder if they’ll introduce masteries to other maps and areas. So we know about Jungle Masteries, yes, but why not Dungeon Masteries, Kryta Masteries, etc?

They did say there would be Masteries for crafting.

Gaile, are you able to say when some answers will be forthcoming? Like, “this week we’ll start answering your questions,” as opposed to “in the time before the expansion, we’ll answer all your questions.” After all, we could be a year away from HoT.

I’m sure some systems are still under development (guild halls had a lot of line art in the trailer) and final answers cannot be provided, but it would be oh so nice to know when we can start learning more.

https://help.guildwars2.com/entries/105801626-General-Guild-Wars-2-Heart-of-Thorns-Questions

Nothing announced about payment methods as of yet.

They’ve promised to give us details and answer all our questions between now and launch. Colin actually said ALL our questions.

I would presume and hope spoilers as to story aren’t included, but mechanics should get a good amount of revealing. I almost want to go to PAX East now …

I don’t see gliding getting added to old maps that weren’t built with that in mind. A lot of terrain features are “false fronts” meant to be seen only from certain angles.

So maybe gliding only works in the thicker hot moist jungle air?

Though it would be amusing to at least see crashed gliders in other regions courtesy of Priory scholars trying to make them work.

They had playable demo versions of GW2 at cons something like a year before launch. The first Beta weekend was about 4 months before launch. Hopefully we’ll get a little less lead time this go-round

The FAQ states there will be early-access beta but no details yet.

They didn’t talk about dungeons/fractals other than the “new bosses” snippet in the trailer. Only one area was mentioned, but one with immense verticality consisting of the Floor, the Roots, and the Canopy.

FAQ about expansion at https://help.guildwars2.com/entries/105801626-General-Guild-Wars-2-Heart-of-Thorns-Questions

Expansion home page at https://heartofthorns.guildwars2.com/en#section-home

It will be paid. https://help.guildwars2.com/entries/105801626-General-Guild-Wars-2-Heart-of-Thorns-Questions

They did say there would be Masteries for crafting.

Just posted by a PAX mod, the stream will be recorded and available at http://www.twitch.tv/pax/profile

For those who can’t watch live.

Omg I have so many Twitch windows open. I WILL see it start. Then mute/close the extraneous channel.

Bumping this to help those looking for the Twitch links. 20 minutes to the pre-show!

Anyandrell.6238:

Peter Jackson is making a GW2 movie in several releases:

- Heart of Thorns 1: An Unexpected Dragon (2016)
- Heart of Thorns 2: The Desolation of Mordremoth (2017)
- Heart of Thorns 3: The Battle of Five Races (2018)
- Heart of Thorns 4: The Fellowship of Thorns (2019)
- Heart of Thorns 5: The Two Pale Trees (2020)
- Heart of Thorns 6: The Return of Rytlock (2021)

I love this! It reminds me of wondering if the next Apes movies we get will be Early Morning of Planet of the Apes, Brunchtime of Planet of the Apes, etc.

I get a full stack of both empyreal and dragonite pretty much every other day thanks to doing the SW events from start to finish (Pact Prep, Breach, Vinewrath, Labyrinth). I’ve capped out my 1500 empyreal in my bank and use my Star of Gratitude each time I get a full stack of it.

I think I do at most 3 breaches in a day, sometimes just one. The ascended mats are choking my bank regardless. I’ve had to delete stacks.

Oh right, that’s one of my posts that wouldn’t go through on that day when the forums were all “this area is not yet available.” I took a similar screenshot and posited that maaaaybe the tool tip is saying you can’t forge higher Blades if all you’ve done is transmute a Blades skin onto some other statted backpack? Except if so, that’s rather duh.

I’ve never dared change the appearance on the Blades to check.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

My slyvari is already fully converted to serve the dragon!

Not fully. She needs red eyes! Get her to a Hair Kit!

Solus.3926:

So, where is this Itch link everyone is going on about ?

The Twitch link is included in ANet’s blog post https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/this-weekend-guild-wars-2-at-pax-south-an-unprecedented-sale-and-double-xp-for-all/

Hence the “see all the dialogue options” part.

I consider the OP to be an honest person, as I decided to send 4 gold to help out and said in the message I hoped they would return anything they got beyond 4 gold from people (whether to me or to others). Moments later, the gold was returned! So OP must have been made whole

I would guess you never gave money to the drunken quaggan in Dry Top or donated to Ho-Ho-Tron? If a specific money amount is listed as an option, you will be spending that money.

I’m sorry you lost some coin but putting up yet another dialogue are-you-sure box to click when trying to quickly do something would be much more intrusive to most players.

I like this plan! Except I intend to have both my monitors covered in browser windows, with the Twitch feed on my main monitor for easy viewing. Thus I won’t be able to have GW2 open.

Those who go a’dancing, I hope someone makes a video.