Guild Wars 2

The post says “tomorrow, April 16” so that is a bit confusing since today is the 14th, at least in ANet’s time zone.

As to when the patch hits, yes, usually it’s late morning server time. Except a couple of the really big patches have delayed many hours past that. Guess I’ll have to sneak upstairs to the computer to do some logging in before movie night with my husband (why oh why is Tuesday every game’s patch day?).

I don’t see it as pejorative or mocking, myself. “Cartoons” were originally very serious mockups for great paintings.* Sure, they came to mean light hearted animation, but even that is representational line drawings, when you think about it. “Comic books” is another term that can include very serious work, though some start calling it a “graphic novel” when they want to elevate it in the public eye. Frank Miller’s Dark Knight was a comic book. So was the XMen “God Loves, Man Kills.” (Yeah, I’m dating myself, I remember when those came out and people were agog that the medium supported such deeper darker stuff).

Our characters are animated representations of living beings. Those are cartoons. They just aren’t silly goofy things only for children.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartoon

Unfortunately there’s nothing quite like that in male medium armor. Well, there is the Vigil headband, and there is a coat with a fan of knives (but it’s for women — the male version is a belt chock full of pistols). For the torso there just isn’t anything close in any weight class, though male Aether light armor at least gives some metallic feel. No pointy toed male boots anywhere (an oversight!).

You might want to look at the Temple chestpiece, which at least gives you a neck scarf and a fringed coat skirt. I fear, however, you are not going to come up with anything that evokes the same feel as that picture.

Put them in your inventory, not on your hero panel, and talk to the black lion ticket trader. I’m pretty sure it’s the trader — I only had to do it once. Anyway, when you talk to the correct NPC while they are in your bags, you get offered the option to convert them to account bound.

It lasts a long time, too. 24 hours? Enough to significantly affect your leveling for a good while. And that’s play time, it goes on hold when you log out.

You haven’t done the whole map. The hearts are a tiny part of the map. You need to fully explore, do events, gather materials from nodes, craft stuff, everything. The hearts are vestigial sign posts for people in need of classic quest hubs.

If you look at the daily achieves and try to do 5 of them (you can do less, or more), you get a good xp bump for each one plus more for finishing the 5th one. Even low characters can do them. I tend to do them on whatever alt I’m leveling and generally get a lot of a level in a few minutes thanks to those.

Killing mobs that aren’t part of an event or a heart is probably the slowest possible xp source out there, btw. Use them to skill up weapons or to earn credit for other things, but do not expect to see your xp progress just because you killed ten centaurs.

Theundersigned.4761:

(^ That human is absolutely stunning.)

Yeah, you don’t have to be an Asura…but it sure is hard to be anyone else. I’ll tell you what’s impossible to make ugly: Sylvari…

Challenge accepted:

I try to do lore appropriate names myself (or at least names that sound lore appropriate even if there are hidden puns), but I imagine you could find something on this site of gaelic names for plants that would tickle your funnybone. I named a ‘vari thief Cularainne from it, a variant on the word for cucumber. She’s getting deleted some time due to my deciding not to level another thief but for now that particular name’s taken, sorry.

http://www.unc.edu/home/reddeer/gaelige/plants.html

Sometimes words aren’t worth the ulcers over them. As a young woman I frothed at the mouth over calling science fiction “sci fi.” Back then (1970’s/80’s) that was a term properly applied to Bat Durstons (SF soap operas with lasers and BEMs and no worthwhile story at all). By college I decided eh, whatever, stopped worrying about it, and was much happier.

Now of course Sci Fi is a commonly accepted term. Language changes, connotations change. “Toon” is at least easier to type fast than “char,” for me anyway. When I have time I type “character” as oddly that’s easier than the abbreviation, plus I always think someone means they’re playing a Charr.

Don’t sweat the small stuff. It evens your life out no end.

Others touched on this: You don’t need a “quick” way to 80. The game pours xp and levels on you like mana from above, as long as you’re doing all the activities. Once you’re 80 you’ll be doing pretty much the same things you did to get to 80 (some even complain about the lack of endgame). Sure you’ll have all your skills and better gear, so you’ll do better in WvW assuming you’ve learned how to use said skills and gear, but if you rush you’ll miss a lot of the fun along the way.

Sort of like playing Skyrim for the first time and skipping to the final fight and feeling like you’ve got nothing left to do. Exploring the world is a lot of the point. Take your time, go off the beaten path, listen to the NPCs, keep that thrill of discovery going because there’s always something new to see.

edit: Note there is no leveling curve. The first 10 levels or so are relatively faster, but then it’s a flat rate. Once you know the game you can get a level an hour, be it the 34th or 80th.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/lwd/A-wish-Cutscenes-in-Living-Story/first#post3636460

Hopefully that links straight to Mr. Oswald’s comments last month about how they are working on changing cinematics in game.

I take no credit for this. A guildie did this at game start. But you don’t have to do Asura to participate in this thread:

I just heard one I keep forgetting but … it’s so cheesy.

“So then I says to her, I says, if you looked like Lyssa, I wouldn’t have to ask!” Some guy in DR. I might have the start of the line wrong.

My guild dungeon runs tend to be pretty free form. We’ll stack if we feel like it but it seems silly to bother in a lot of the Alpha fights. Last time I was in there we had a PuG along who kept trying to stack only to have the rest of us spread out. After the fight s/he said s/he enjoyed it much more that way even if it seemed to take longer.

Shining of the Skritt

I’ll agree with the not-boring contingent. It doesn’t have sparklers and rainbows and massive protrusions and whirling gears? EVEN BETTER. It looks real.

I’d rather not have the dev’s time wasted with unrealistic tackily overdone sfx helms …

… except it’s not wasted if players like it. Which many would on the nicely detailed practical helms as well. Stop with the “I don’t like it so no one can have it” arguments already!

I’ve already posted on how much I love the drum. Perhaps coincidentally I have zero RL musical skill or sense of rhythm. Sure, I can waltz — but I have to ask “is this a waltz?” when the music starts if I don’t already know the piece. At least I can hear music, I’m not tone deaf, phew.

Anyway, I love the drum so much it’s going to become part of my main’s RP, since the LA miasma stripped his throat and he can no longer sing or whistle melodically as he’s done for years. Who needs to be able to play a song on a drum, for that matter? They’re there for a beat. Percussion isn’t a song even if it most definitely is music.

I’d say the only really missing sound from the drum, given that they used a bodhran style instrument, is the shoooshshoohshooosh of sliding the beater around on the skin instead of striking it.

You’ll likely find more focused help in the Audio section. There are threads there chock full of discussion of the various instruments and musical scores for them, along with an agreed notation scheme.

I have zero musical talent and don’t know a darn thing about this Kingdom Hearts thing so I can’t help more directly, sorry.

I miss the Lion’s Shadow Inn woman that was repeatedly approached by an Asura researcher, and told the scientist “You’re wasting your time. Nothing ever happens in the suburbs.” Well, something did. I hope she lived.

And remember the Happy Woman of Divinity’s Reach? I don’t blame them for removing her (and <3 to the patch notes referring to her getting thicker walls in her house). Let’s just say a sound got looped and turned into a woman having a really good time.

Cheesy current lines? I’m leveling a male ‘vari and when he dings he’ll say “My destiny is taking root.” Sheesh.

Steam creature.

I’d say creatures plural but I don’t want to double up on an s ending.

Check the Black Lion thread, Dulfy posted about it there with a video (as she does for all new items in the store).

It really is the best instrument yet.

The minis are nice (my ranger can now have two ravens) but the drum … omg that drum is so worth it!

- 5 distinct sounds (two muted, two sharp, and a rim hit)
- 2 recordable loops that stay recorded as long as you don’t zone. Even if you drop the drum and pick it up again.
- a toggle to 5 preset jam rhythms plus 2 “solos” you can tap as you feel like it during the loop. If you toggle back, your own recorded sounds are still available.
- you can RUN. WHILE PLAYING. Get the beat going and run and jump along with rhythm! I didn’t test emoting while playing, I imagine that will stop the beat.
- Excellent animations. Even my facial expression got a serene concentration to it.

I don’t mind the persistence of all chat; sometimes I want the old RP stuff (it might be my old RP stuff that I’m working on screenshotting). Keeping guild persistent as well would be a mighty boon, though.

And a chat logger — being able to save long conversations that have points in them in need of remembering, that would be so marvelous.

And while we’re at it, customizable colors or at least, at the very least, converting emote text to something more legible than the dull grey horror of graphic design that (it) is (I’ve only been asking for that since BWE1).

I think I may have missed this somewhere because surely I’m not the first to question this: Is transmuting no longer going to be a way to transfer runes and sigils? Currently if you have two items you want to merge, you can select skin, stats, and upgrade. But stones/crystals are going away in favor of charges, which apply to skins out of the “wardrobe.” So now if our new better gear could use the upgrade from the old item more than whatever’s on the new stuff … do we have to buy another of that upgrade to apply?

I believe this issue will be cured a week from tomorrow when all your skins go into the “wardrobe” and then you use a charge (3 stones, 1 crystal, 1/5 splitter) to apply it to the stat item.

Interesting point, though, will transmuting no longer be a way to transfer runes? I shall inquire in the Q&A thread.

I suggested this back in the dawn of the game. No idea if they saw the idea back then. Yes, it would make organization so much easier. People could assign tabs to alts, or label where the skins are, anything that fits in the character limit!

Skala.5903:

I have 3 suggestions concerning wardrobe system.

First, spvp was a good place to preview items in live environment, check possible clipping issues, or simply if animations with weapon/armor was to my liking, i wonder if it would be possible to retain this functionality in some part of the game, i was thinking home instance could be that place, you could invite people to check your item collection, if for example they didnt have the item that they wanted to preview.

Excellent point. It’s so nice to link items for others to see what it looks like on them in their colors. Will we have the ability to link skins from the Skinlocker? (Sorry, that’s a far more accurate name than Wardrobe).

I’ve actually had 4 dyes drop in the last few days while dungeoning and leveling an alt. They’ve felt extra precious. It’d be nice if they had a chance of being the specialty dyes, but as it is I have no need to open them since I’ve assembled all regular dyes spread across all my characters. I’m just reluctant to sell off this dying breed, especially given the vague chance the returned ones on the 15th will be account bound unless I can stack them with a tradeable one (as has happened with some skins).

/packrat

Aww, these are precious. I’d let my siblings watch if they weren’t mostly thousands of miles away and in their 40’s … but they wouldn’t come up with lines like those. Even my nephew and nieces are mid to late teens.

Endless Cat Tonic.

My first use of laurels.

Then a male tail would work better, it doesn’t have a lot of plumy fur on it!

I never managed to do Allods gunship play because the game paled on me in the early levels (can’t kill my interest faster in a game than giving me no storage space). So I don’t know how it worked.

But Khisanth is right, while ANet can do amazing things, ship movement isn’t one of them. It just flat out hurts to see poorly designed ships moving flatly through blue screen water … with their banners streaming aft … against the wind. The bone ships make no sense, why can’t they look more like something out of Pirates of the Caribbean? Airships are rock steady as well.

Plus we don’t even have general guild v. guild, and they’d have to rework the WvW maps from scratch to allow an aerial component. Maybe they could do an SPvP arena made as a ship battle? But first off that would strip individual weapon skills unless there was a boarding action, second a whole lot of players would never see it, and third it seems dead certain it would be on rails, not full 3D motion under control of the players moving the ships.

I don’t think it’ll work in this game any time soon, though a multiplayer game designed purely to be skyship battles with different players manning different stations no doubt would draw a good sized following.

I can’t say what peak hours are exactly. But I am on a lot in the afternoons and evenings (eastern US time zone) and always find people wherever I go in PvE. Right after game reset especially you’ll find folks heading for content, doing dailies, etc.

I generally crash by midnight my time at the latest, but I know the RP continues fast and furious for several hours thereafter. So let’s say you’ll have no problem finding more than enough people around from 2 pm Eastern to 2 am Eastern? And probably the other 12 hours as well, but I’m usually not playing then so I have no first hand knowledge of those times.

I believe they specifically said the armor weight restrictions would still apply, as textures go wonky when mixing weights.

Naz.2607:

Why is it a problem if u can just disable it if u don’t want to view it?

I think we need an RP chat before Server chat. This is so that people who are RPing do not flood both local and map chat.

This is another great idea!

I have an even better one! Because nice as it would be to have an RP channel, how much better would it be to have … wait for it .. custom chat channels. All viewable at once. Maybe even with … I’m drooling now … custom color settings. We could see multi guild chats at once! Have allied guild channels regardless of current rep! Set up a WvW crowd that doesn’t have to spam map or team! Get focused discussion groups!

Sure, the world might feel a little quieter if you’re not already in a sub-group that likes to chat, and I can see that as a serious downside to newcomers. But it would solve so many problems with the current chat system — and a zone wide RP channel would lead to confusion. Why am I hearing those two thieves plan a heist in Rurikton when I’m mourning my dead in the Grenth tombs? It would be the zone-wide /say we started with

I do remember them posting the splitters would be removed, but my assumption was that would happen April 15. It wasn’t trumpeted by any means, either.

There’s a thread in game bugs on this, I believe. Devs are looking into it and one posted a suggested jump spot. Me, I’ve always jumped as the vista video shows, starting on that tooth and jumping far forward between the waterfalls slightly to the left of the gap between them. My Asura almost never dies doing that. My thief …. he’s not the most agile of men he claims to be, to judge by that jump.

When they were first noticed some people speculated they’d be coming as the spring pets.

This is true. But since the OP is east coast as am I, I figured s/he wouldn’t mind a local time reference. I see your point, though, it’s not set when it’s convenient for ANet (though it works out that way), it’s based off an international constant. I’m just very used to east coast/west coast time differences due to how my family is spread out.

M Steel, what helm is your human male in? I swear he looks straight out of Holy Grail, in a good way. Though now I want coconuts as a combat toy … Also that is a gorgeous composite portrait you put together.

I thought the dev post implied yes, if you do the monthly before the 15th then you can do it again after — it was a pleasant surprise to realize it only needs 2 things. So 10 dungeons and 4 dailies, boom.

Servers aren’t on time zones, the reset is on Pacific time except it doesn’t change with daylight savings, so it’s always the same time in places that don’t change the clocks.

I’m also east coast US. Right now reset is 8 pm every evening. Next fall it will go to 7 pm and remain thus until the clocks hop again.

Did you head to the new one in the middle of the LA Bay? Where the drill was?

I could see this. Even better, maybe we could choose when to pick the name. TESO does this, though I leave the name to last just to make sure I don’t accidentally create the character before I’m ready. Sometimes I’m just fiddling with creation and the look I get suggests a name, sometimes the name is already definite (like if I am making my main’s sister, as I have done).

The flexibility would be nice! I know I canceled my norn engineer on the first attempt when the name Altrag Splitstack had been taken. I didn’t even keep my usual full screen set of slider settings. Then later I tried again, using Altdragg, and happily was able to get it that way … but putting in the name first would have guaranteed I wasn’t wasting my creative time.

Precision, Vitality, and anything else if there must be a third. I love those two stats and they’re (almost?) never together on one piece.

Searching found bugs with people choosing Ben Tenstrikes so I think perhaps there is more than one PS called Reconaissance? This one starts with Meet the Preceptors at the Agora in LA.

I just did the first part of Claw Island. Emerging from that I was already in LA and the next part was to help the Whispers defend LA so I went for it.

Before the attack on LA I would generally do this PS in such an order that I fought the krait by the children last. With the rubble changing the paths, I have to get to them 2nd or 3rd because I can’t get up to the Canal Ward bridge within the instance area without going past the old tailoring section.

I’ve done that twice, and both times the kids keep cowering after I kill all the mobs and won’t move nor will Trahearne comment that I’ve cleared the area. The first time I went on and cleared the bridge and the mystic plaza and Trahearne said just one area left so I returned to the kids, no dice. This time I cleared the plaza, then bank, then tailor, and got the same bug and gave up.

Hmm, a spinoff question: If it takes Friends into account, will it also look at Blocked and factor in your desire NOT to be near those people?

Yes, as I posted a few hours back before the thread merge, this strikes me as the perfect day to get reference screenshots for portraits. The expanded head size is showing eye color, blended skin tones, the works. The detail didn’t go low rez.

… Now I might have to spend time getting profiles as well as fronts/three quarter views.

First, this should be in that thread. Second, it’s been the weekend and whatever response they make probably needs a lot of serious discussion amongst themselves first. Third, today is April Fools and they’d be idiots to post anything about it today. Fourth, since the change isn’t coming until the 15th, they have time to work on a fix (if one is possible) and present it to us once they know it will work.

I’m kittened off too, while I’ve bought -some- gems I’ve spent far less this last week than I would have. I’ve gotten paranoid about the store for the first time ever and had my previously solid faith in the devs doing the level best they can to provide fun to us fairly severely shaken.

However, I don’t think it’s time to cry foul on them for failure to speak to us on the issue. Not yet.