Guild Wars 2

It’s all about the rewards in my opinion.

And you are entitled to it – nowhere will I at any point say otherwise. But, in my opinion, it’s all about the candidates. As crystal said, “I voted for Ellen primarily because she’s who my characters – the ones who cared at all – would have supported.”

While neither of them has a history in governance, both have shown an aptitude to lead – Kiel as a highly ranking officer of the Lionguard, and Gnashblade as CEO of the BLTC. And both have had dealings with the Captains’ Council in the course of their offices – Kiel is answerable to them, and Evon would have to work with them to establish his HQ in their city.

So their credentials are equal, when it comes to it. It then comes down to their character:

Ellen Kiel has proven herself a willing and able defender of Lion’s Arch, and has demonstrated loyalty to the city through her service. Three times now, she has worked with freelancing heroes (ahem) to deal with serious threats to the peace of the city and/or its citizens. As one of those heroes, my character is favorably disposed to her candidacy.

Evon Gnashblade…. I will admit, he’s had rather less screen time, but what we’ve been shown isn’t very flattering. His entire decision to court the Zephyrites came from eavesdropping on Magnus’s suggestion that Kiel go to them to prove her worth to the Council. His actions in his Candidate Trials show that he is willing to use stolen wealth to fund his campaign, and we clearly see what use he puts that wealth to – dropping a bit of coin into each of his “reminders” – yes, indeed: Evon Gnashblade is unabashedly resorting to bribery in his bid for the Council.

His character and tactics make him an aggressive and successful merchant tycoon, perhaps, but they do not make me look favorably on him taking on a role in running the city of Lion’s Arch.

Besides – if he took the seat, he couldn’t focus as much on his old job. He’d have to delegate a lot more to people without his… business acumen. With a rival Consortium hovering at the edges, this is not a good time for the BLTC to be anything less than its best.

THAT is why I voted the way I did. But if I were to vote for the rewards, and not the candidates, I would still vote for Ellen Kiel:

The minigames are the same for both of them; we’ll just skip to the ones that matter.

Fractals: The original Fall of Abaddon is a story we know a great deal about already. Big A handed out magic like candy. King Doric asked Dwayna to do something about it. The Bloodstone Pact did something about it. Abaddon was unhappy. He rose in revolt. He lost. He was locked away. As stated above, that is way too much to put into a Fractal, anyway, unless it revolves wholly around the godly battle. And what role would that put us in? Mortals who fought the Margonites of the Crystal Sea? Or would we be there, in the streets of Arah, as gods battled? Besides, why would a Charr take such an interest in a conflict of the human Gods? And on top of all of that, Abaddon has been dead for 250 years.

Thaumanova, now…. that has real potential. We know that the Inquest were doing something there, and it led to the meltdown. But what? If it has anything to do with their Dragon-related researches, it would certainly prove insightful in ways that would be relevant to the overarching threat of the Elder Dragons. Plus, a catastrophic meltdown is both extremely eventful and remarkably fast – perfect for a Fractal.

Ahh, Post Limit. My eternal foe.

On a few rare occasions, I have been “stuck” in combat mode – but this is usually because something else decided to attack me, usually that I didn’t see because I was starting to head away, and if I am in an area not quite spacious enough to cleanly break, it stays “hostile” even if it can’t reach where I am at.

Not sure if this is the case for you, just suggesting it as a possible explanation.

Oh, there’s a topic about this.

I’ve had it happen on multiple occasions with Norn racial transformations. On at least one of those occasions, I submitted a bug report (although the clone vanished before I finished and attached a screenshot, so only a text description is there).

There is nothing I can do to alter personal tastes, but let me at least try to put a few things in perspective.

First, the Charr Industrial Revolution. These people got fed up with their Fire Legion’s wanting to find “gods” and trying to be the supreme power among the legions that they eventually kicked the Flame Legion out entirely. Consider the kind of ideological standpoint this would require – the charr would take a dim view of gods and magic. So, what happens next? They use their own ingenuity. “Necessity is the mother of invention” – a race at war needed to find ways to fight that did not rely on the power-hungry Shaman Caste.

The invention of guns is eminently logical in this context. And, further mechanical discoveries would follow suit. (I do, however, agree that Anet might be pushing it too far, too fast. Those vehicles in the Citadel, for example, look very gratuitous.)

As for proliferation of things like guns to the other races. Again – they were at war with the humans. The soldiers at Ebonhawke were going to get their hands on firearms eventually. They’d take them apart, experiment until they find out how it works (and yes, that is as dangerous as it sounds, given the overall tech level of Tyria at the time), and eventually start making ones of their own. (And from there, it’s only a matter of time until other races get their hands on it, too.)

The Dredge are a rather different case. With the Dwarven race in decline, they found themselves free – in the homes of their former oppressors, the Stone Summit. And we KNOW that the Dwarves are at least somewhat mechanically inclined – or did you forget the Iron Forgeman, added to the game before it was even a year old? Tweaking them to a more mole-styled system of sonic weaponry is easily possible in the intervening centuries.

Now, I believe someone said something like “so why are we still using swords and maces if we have guns?”. Well, let’s see. SURELY here on earth, guns replaced swords overnight, right? Oh, wait, NO. Swords were still in common use as late as the U.S. Civil War (although not so much after that; those who still adhered to the older styles had… trouble… when they charged cannon emplacements). Firearms had been seen in warfare outside of China since the 14th century. (I’m a bit fuzzy on when gunpowder was first used – as a weapon – in the land that invented it.) So we’re talking 450-500 years, here.

And as for the Asura and their magic/technology dichotomy: think, people! The Asura are more than “the magic race”. They believe that ALL EXISTENCE can be broken down into a formula. They are scientists and researchers in one of the purest definitions of those professions. They seek to understand the world. Magic is part of the world of Tyria, and so they wish to understand it. But if something new comes up – nonmagical, mechanized devices – well, IGNORING them would be ignoring part of the world they wish to understand. (And, of course, being Asura, they will want to start mixing the two.)

Then all this talk about holograms and lasers – we don’t ACTUALLY know these are wholly technological in the first place. Given they are made by asura, machines that can convert magical energy into, say, an illusion on a grand scale, or a focused beam of energy…. they would do things like that. (Probably the Synergeticists. If you ask me, anyway.) Besides, do I have to come and quote Clarke’s Third Law? This is just that, backwards.

Most settings that mix magic and technology like to keep them separate, on the principle that ACTUALLY mixing them is a Very Bad Idea™. Guild Wars 2 is one of the rare examples of meshing them without constant disasters resulting from the mix, and you want them to stop?

Again… if this is just not your taste in game, I won’t say anything against you about that. You have every right to your choices. I’m only saying that this isn’t really as far-fetched as you think.

As a LONG-time player of fantasy RPGs, I understand the appeal of the pure “high fantasy” themes. Fortunately, if I want to play games like that, I have plenty to choose from. Indeed, Guild Wars itself – the original one – is still there. Waiting for you to log in once more. I certainly didn’t leave it behind, even if it doesn’t get as much time now as it did then.

First, before anything else, I would like to say I love the addition. I’m not thrilled with the gold side of it, same as several others here, but everything else I’m perfectly happy with, and I suppose I can adapt even on the subject of gold.

That having been said, I agree with Matipzieu KyA’s concerns (page 4). Everyone here is in agreement that, for all other currencies, this is the best thing since sliced bread. It’s the matter of how they’re treating coin currency, itself, that has people divided.

Now, I read the posts on how it can’t be split to have multiple functionalities, that it is simply impossible without changing core mechanics that would lead to a domino effect of problems. BUT! I must wonder if THIS is possible:

Is it possible to keep Gold function the way it is now, across the board, NOT as an option but as a mandate…. without dropping anything else from the wallet?

In other words, can coin currency be taken back OUT OF the wallet (as a function) before this goes live? I would like to know the answer to this (regardless of what it may be).

P.S. Oh, and Elbegast? There are only 285 Rules. I looked up the #299 you cited, and it was apparently said by someone who couldn’t possibly have known anything about the Ferengi anyway.

Is there any official word on the status of Bank gold deposits? Will those of us just short of 200 gold be taunted by the removal of the Golden achievement, leaving those with that title to gloat?

IDEALLY, coin should NOT be shared in the wallet. It should remain character specific. The bank allows transfers easily enough, and it just breaks all common sense to have money be simultaneously carried by everyone.

Well, Breathers are considered part of your armor so logically Armorsmiths would make them and backpieces are in a jewelry slot so Jewelers should make those.

An Armorsmith can. Make a Level 20 Heavy aquabreather. Recipe’s sold in Diessa Lowlands.

ONLY one in the game. And Light and Medium people get nothing.

Personally, I’m less worried about being able to craft them, than I am about the fact there aren’t even Rare versions, much less Exotic, even at the highest levels.

I would buy an account bound 3-pack bundle for 2,000 gems. Even if it didn’t have special animations. (In fact, especially then; I think the pick is TOO showy. I’m OK with the sickle. Haven’t seen the axe in use.)

I’ve maxed all three consumable titles on GW1. (And gotten rank 1 on some alts.) I know how much clicking is involved. Neither my finger nor my mouse have broken.

I’m conceding bulk purchase because it IS something many games have. No reason to deny GW2. But bulk use? Do any other games have that, at all?

25%. I could get behind it if it were only a 25% return. Less, it wouldn’t be worth it. More, it really WOULD feel like only a “loan” of the armor. As easy as karma is to earn, even a 50% return would feel too generous.

Also, it should only apply to gear (not to consumables or materials or anything else), and transmutation would nullify the capability.

I can get behind the refund idea if it were done this way.

However, I do not feel it truly necessary. Considering the nature OF karma. You earn karma by deeds. It is a measure of your heroic reputation, or somesuch. You can’t really expect to become more heroic by selling back an armor set you personally requested in the first place. Think of the poor craftsmen! They toil to make this armor, and the moment you no longer need it, you want to sell it back, get back their hard-earned… intangible heroicness? You think that armor forged in your size can just be resold “off the rack”? That’s not heroic at all!

But if it were to actually be implemented, it should affect equipment ONLY, and only be a 25% return. That’s what I think.

Yes yes yes. Yes yes yes. Yes yes yes.

As a screen-capping fiend, I would REALLY like to be able to take first-person photo ops the way I used to in GW1. I could get some REALLY nice pictures if my FAT HEAD weren’t in the way. (Zooming out to minimize my screen space kills all the good angles, so don’t suggest that.)

I wouldn’t mind properly working chairs. However, what I REALLY want is to know HOW DID THEY DO THAT in the LotRO video?

I wouldn’t mind this, BUT it would mean tracking 40-odd names PER ranger character in the game, instead of just 2-4 names.

…. No. If they do it for the Outnumbered. then everyone ELSE will raise a fuss. Especially since 30 minutes is a fairly liberal immunity, there. In a standard, evenly-matched WvW battle, a LOT can happen in thirty minutes. (Imagine that, next week, you get pitted against a server that, itself, is Outnumbered by your own. And let’s say they take a very well-placed camp. And you can’t do a dang thing about it for half an hour?)

The situation is NOT perfect, for unequal matchups. But I do not see any fair way to address it.

In the end, you and the other teams are fighting over land. Whoever can bring the most people to bear will win, assuming they have any decent amount of skill. And in this way, it’s a lot like real life.

It IS possible to win against superior numbers – to a point. When you are officially Outnumbered, and the game is telling you so,…. yeah. As I said, when it gets that unequal, the situation, as it stands, is not ideal. The Outnumbered server stands nearly no chance, barring sheer luck. But I cannot think of any fair way to handle it.

ESPECIALLY when you consider there are three teams in a match.

If A and B are both Outnumbered by C, then is it fair to B if A gets 30 free minutes holding something they took from C? What if they took it from B, fair and square – do they still get the 30 minute lockout? After all, the Outnumbered effect is on them, isn’t it? Because of C’s presence? Or do we tweak the system so that the game recognizes we took it from someone we were not outclassed by, so there’s no time lockout — and then C sweeps in and eats it whole?

This… The fact that there are THREE teams… is why the solution won’t work. The game cannot track the varying degrees of comparative strengths between three servers, on a round by round basis, and even if it could, there is no good way to handle it.

- Racial Armor. You would no longer be able to wear that T3 Charr armor you had, when you become an Asura. And NO REFUNDS! Unless Cultural Armor can be salvaged or sold? Idunno.

- Racial Skills. That norn loved turning into a bear. Then he became a human, and found that those skill points went to waste, because he no longer has that skill.

- Personal Story. How will that Charr explain to his warband that he was a human noble with a missing sister? Would you want to have your personal story reset – after you’ve stormed Fort Trinity and have a foothold in Orr?

Race and Profession are immutable. Even in GW1, you could never change your primary profession. In GW2, your species is just as integral to the character, both for gameplay and for story.

I’ve only ever used the Garrison craft stations for their bank access, but there ARE reasons for a trading post to be useful (especially now that people buy and sell siege on it).

As for loiterers, they don’t actually NEED a craft station to loiter at. If they’re going to stand around in the garrison and take up space, they’ll do it. Maybe they’ll be at the siege merchant, where you can think they’re doing something useful. Maybe it will be at the repair. Maybe they’ll just stand on the waypoint itself.

The only REAL way to discourage loitering in WvW is to implement the same timeout clock used in sPvP, rather than the normal PvE wait. (It would also put an end to the plague of “corpse spies”. They don’t ALWAYS leave when I start telling jokes with the Mad King scepter.)

Although perhaps the sPvP timer is TOO limiting; some of the legitimate dead would take issue, certainly. (Especially in the JP.) 90 seconds is fine in fast-paced sPvP matches, but WvW tends to draw things out a bit more. Hmm. Five minutes? That sounds ideal to me. On the battlefields, any battle that lasts long enough for that to be an issue, you would have already been back faster simply by warping out and running back. And in the JP, well… nothing’s perfect. If people are in the area, they’ll get you within five minutes, but you can no longer wait very long for random passersby.

So, yeah. Change the timeout timer to 5 minutes in WvW, and it will do much more to stop loitering than merely removing services.

I… actually don’t see why not, at least insofar as purchase. Stack-splitting and crafting menus both already have a “quantity selection” installed. Just apply the same to purchase of stackable items. (Non-stackables stay one-per.)

As for USE of the items…. I don’t think it’s needed. If you want to drink 250 tankards of Raven’s Best all in an instant, then it should also apply an instant death, due to the alcohol poisoning. It should also remove all your armor, to simulate the most likely way you’d wake up in your inebriated state.

No. When it comes to item use, I can handle clicking. But bulk purchases, that would definitely be nice.

Mouse over the achievement tracker, it will actually show the “x/1000”. (Also, for Slayer deeds, it’s not very complicated anyway. 89% = 890-899 kills. If you absolutely have to know exactly, just do a mouseover.)

I COMPLETELY agree on your second point, though. Sorting by “absolute completion” is definitely needed. Heck, GW2 sorted titles by rank FIRST, then completion within the rank. Why should this, which actually has sorting options available, NOT include an option to do it that way?

Also, a toggle to move completed ones to the bottom, regardless of sort order, would be nice. Most people want to see what they NEED, not what they already did.

I agree. I don’t worry about it as much as those in larger, morea ctive guilds do, but it would still be a nice point of reference to have.

The thing is, it’s NOT “free experience”, as such.

It is, in essence, a “head start” item. It presumes you’re experienced at the game (you did, after all, earn 5,000 Achievement Points).

If they WERE to give it a flat gain for post-20s, I don’t think 19 would be the best level, anyway. 10 would probably be the best, in that case. (And, at high levels, would be MORE experience by far than the amount that took you from 2 to 20.)

But I think that the item, as it is now, serves the spirit of their intention.

Although… they SHOULD have something it could do (or be exchanged for), for people with no sub-20s and no desire to buy more slots. Perhaps an item that adds 20 free Skill Points (no levels)? This would even make it useful for people AT 80.

I loved that they put this scroll in the 5k achieve chest. I’d like to assume (and sure, its simply an assumption) that anyone with 5k achievement points or more has already gone through most of the low level maps on 2 or more characters.

This is the reasoning I have. As said above, the Lv20 scroll we do have is “bad enough” – but we can at least justify it in this context, that anyone with 5,000 achievement points is experienced at this game.

60s and 80s? NO. Absolutely, positively not. Horrible idea; it’s easy enough to gain levels anyway, and because of the scaling, the only REAL use of an insta-80 is to immediately jump into Fractals or WvW.

40? No, I still think that’s too high. It’s not as patently offensive as a 60 or 80 would be, however. But ideally, I would not want to see one higher than 30. 30 is the perfect mark for a “Veteran” status – you get your full skillbar AND access to the first dungeon.

The goal of the item is a head-start. Not a full free ride.

Adding things like Moa Racing as permanent was OK. Adding new things like the Aspect Arena and Southsun Survival is even better. But hearing about these new ones (haven’t had time to try them yet) has me wanting a return of the epic free-for-all from BWE3 (I think it was 3, anyway)….

Bring us Hunger Royale. I may know nothing about either of the source inspirations, but I do know this: I had so much fun in that event that it seems a shame not to let everyone in the game experience what we experienced then.

Ahh, good old Mark and Recall from Ultima VII. It’s like 1992 all over again. (cries that U7 is now old enough to drink)

But it has some issues.

JP abuse would be a big problem, here. Many people with these would just mark the ends of tricky puzzles.

There ought to be a limit. Maybe 5 if they’re soulbound, or 20 if account bound.

No passengers; people being able to warp groups to a JP ending would REALLY corner the market, to the point where its usefulness AS a convenience item would disappear.

Cannot be used in WvW. Completely ASIDE from the Obsidian Sanctum, people could mark locations inside strategic enemy locations. (Say, a whole guild marks Green Keep in the EB when their server is green, then takes advantage of that when they’re red or blue to launch a “back door attack”. And don’t even start me on Stonemist….)

All things considered, between the abuse potential and the existence of waypoints, I REALLY don’t see this happening.

It DOES make me think that they should make a “Home Instance Access” token or ability, to take a character directly inside their race’s home instance from anywhere. As the Home Instance becomes increasingly more useful, I could see this working – and the existence of the Hall of Monuments Portal Stone indicates that the framework for it exists. (And you can choose to either exit through the door, to the racial city, or take a “marked transport spot” that will put you where you were. But that transport spot only exists if you enter via Portal Stone – no leaving to hit services out in the city THEN coming back to where you were before. As I said, it’s for Home Instance-exclusive services. Which ARE increasing, slowly.)

The thing is, it’s not like there aren’t bank access points all over the place. Anywhere there is a Bank NPC or Crafting Station, you can access your bank.

Further, it would just be…. it would completely change the game dynamic. “Hi, I’m at the bottom of a dungeon and having trouble. Fortunately, I can pull all my best food items out of the ether itself, not to mention my spare armor set with stats more appropriate to this fight.” (Yes, people with bank consumables can do this already. No, I don’t agree with it there, either – at least in dungeons.)

Problem 2: “OK, now that I’ve gotten all my cool and useful stuff out of the bank, I see that we got attacked, I’m now a corpse, and my team is yelling at me for standing around like a putz when the fight was going on.”

AS IT STANDS, we already have the ability to remotely deposit materials straight to the bank from anywhere, allowing us to keep looting longer. And the only thing we’d need materials for anyway is crafting – where you have bank access right there.

Further, the gem store consumables are not the ONLY way to get remote access to the bank or to crafting stations – guild services of this nature were added a while back.

As for the complaints you leveled at the Gem Store and Arenanet…

NOTHING the Gem Store sells is necessary. In fact, I oppose the Boosters on principle (I will only ever use the freebies the game threw at me, and I hardly ever even do THAT), and have never personally used any of the remote-access items. And everything else in the store is pure fluff. So, no – you are NOT forced to buy these things.

As for Arenanet and the debate on them needing any money: This game was made by hundreds of people. Seriously, ever seen the credits list? It was also made by using lots of computers over five years. The building they worked in also had expenses. Perhaps the revenues from the game sales will cover all the money they sunk into making the game…. but they need to be able to keep paying their workers and maintaining their building and equipment, if they want to expand upon the base game.

This game DOES NOT make you pay $15 every month just to keep playing. You buy it, and you can play, forever, without spending another penny. Indeed, you can even use in-game gold to get Gems for use at the Gem Store; it’s not like you have to use real money even then.

So you have to walk to the nearest bank or crafting access point. Big deal. What, do you want us to put all the dungeon entrances in Lion’s Arch, so you don’t have to walk across Dredgehaunt Cliffs, or Frostgorge Sound, or ALL OF ORR?

…. oh. I DO agree with your comment on PvP armor/the PvP locker. At least, either do that, or let us store multiples. (Minis can stack in the Collectibles bank, even though they can’t outside of it; can’t the PvP locker do the same?)

The rest of your points I don’t really have any opinion one way or the other, except the last – it takes no real effort to just destroy the items as they come.

That second picture (and the left third of the first) look more in the province of Town Clothes than armor (and would be a really nice addition, at that – take heed, Gem Store people!). But I could totally get behind the rest of those; one of them actually reminds me of Rogue’s Armor for GW1 mesmers.

Regarding the earlier comment about Gladiator Armor – it’s supposed to show more; people came to the Colosseum to see blood, after all. The armor protects just enough of the areas required to keep someone fighting (more a focus on their limbs than their vitals), and leaves the rest open because everyone came to see people cutting each other open.

More skins IS always good – for all armor classes, races, and genders. Both in the more revealing AND more concealing options – more choices for more people’s tastes, you know? I, myself, am hoping for something “knightly, yet ornate” for the heavy classes; I was a big fan of Elite Templar Armor in GW1, as well as the original Knight’s Armor. Plus, I agree with all the people saying we need more choices in Medium skins! (Especially for engineers; most of them look too Ronger-y or Thief-y.)

Another case of that. I was not killed nor downed during any part of it, others in the group have stated they got the achievement, I got Silver reward, the large chest, a rare, but the achievement is still blank.

Server is Henge of Denravi.

ponders Celestial Radiant Armor of Divinity Yeah, that’d be 100% gratuitous.

As they say, the jack of all trades IS master of none – the stat variety is tempting, but not practical in most cases. (Doesn’t stop me from wanting an ascended amulet with Celestial stats. But that’s because it’s an AWESOME amulet, more than its stats.)

Anyway. To the original topic at hand: between the nodes in the Bazaar, the awards from Sanctum Sprint, the contents of suppl crates or whatewver they’re called, and all the Kite Supplies on the overworld, you can get a lot of quartz

Second: The permanent node in the home instance may only be usable once daily, but it has a chance at rare results of “5 Quartz” or “1 Charged Quartz” – I have personally gotten both to happen (I got 3 quartz and a charged the first night I had the item, and 8 quartz the second time). Getting a Charged Quartz from the node is in addition to manually charging one up for that day!

At times, there IS an unspoken truce. These tend to be temporary, but they happen. However, they also cannot be enforced, AND a great many skills that CAN help in the puzzle can also become accidental attacks, leading to a colossal misunderstanding. (Never use a Warrior’s Leap when an enemy player is in range; it will redirect because a target is in range. Torch skills in the dark room can also inflict damage.)

However, not everyone who fights in the OS is griefing. The reward chest at the end gives siege blueprints, for free, two per customer per day. It is NOT unreasonable to assume that they do not want you to get free siege plans that can be used against them in the future.

As long as the puzzle awards plans – or Badges, which can be traded for plans – then players have every right to stop each other from getting them.

That said, two things:

The insistence on putting Living World things in the Obsidian Sanctum is getting to be a problem. It’s mixing large amounts of PvPers and PvEers in the same map. Further, it can be a problem if a server is denied access due to not having their keep. (Not the case for my server, but one of the ones I’m paired with has been pushed OFF THE MAP by the other server with us.)

And second, what happened to YOU, TC? Getting nailed just as you were leaving the dome? That is totally griefing. Not all OS PvP is griefing, but dang, that’s too obvious not to be. They’re doing it for kicks.

Personally I feel that patches should freeze the trading of related items for a few days. Give people a chance to see the change and adjust,

HOW is it supposed to change and adjust if trading is frozen? The changes in prices are because supply and demand are fluctuating, something that the game determines based on how many people want to buy (demand) or sell (supply).

And that’s not even the big problem. The BIG problem is that it means, for two days, people who could really use some Ectos or Dust won’t be able to buy them. Just because OTHER people want to keep profiting.

Tempted as I was to buy the on sale character slot, I am saving what few gems I have left for the Dragon Bash (just in case there’s anything nice to buy).

As someone else who buys his gems with cash, I ration myself carefully. I have “X” money to spend on gems. I will get those gems, and make them last. (I usually go monthly, but have changed it from “beginning of month” to “when the Living Story theme changes”. Always good to see the new goods when deciding how much of my mad money goes to GW2.) On VERY rare occasion, I spend gold on gems, usually because I’m slightly short of a purchase (say I have 450 gems and something costs 600).

I have no problem with spending money on GW2, because I want to support the game. I like the game. Plus, I don’t go crazy on the store. As I said, I set myself a limit, and if it runs out, so be it.

Anyway. Character slots will go on sale again eventually. I spent all my Southsun gems and had nothing for last weekend, but eventually, I will have gems at the right time.

I want more legacy armor skins, myself. GW1 had an amazing amount of armor skins, and we could really use more than the few we have.

However, we definitely need more casual wear, too. But, I would prefer wider variety. Three hoodies at once, four vests next time, it’s a bit of an oversaturation. We need more types, not so many multiples of the same types.

Why does this remind me of the people offering to tell players how to get ten free Zaishen Keys, at the cost of two of them? (Some players went as high as five!)

That got SO rampant at one point that I made it a point to holler the “secret” on All chat every time I saw that “offer”.

Anyway. That being said, I agree that if you found a prime spot to farm, you’re probably not the only one, and it’s on guides somewhere.

But akittens core, what you ask is PROBABLY not illegal by the EULA, presuming the transactions are small enough that you don’t trigger any warning flags on whatever they use to monitor excessive gold transactions. Borderline unethical, but not illegal. Probably.

Of course, you won’t be able to stop others from sharing the information further, either for free or for their own profit. Eventually, it WILL become common enough that the information will be worthless. Assuming it’s not already a common farm.

And of course it happened when I had no gems. Ah, well. It will happen again, and I will be ready. (Besides, I still have 4 non-80s to deal with.)

And marnick? Love your sig. One of the best pearls of wisdom in the industry.

Personally, that’s a big gripe I have with these boards. Kittens should NOT be associated with such foul language. I oughtta call the K.S.P.C.A. on you forum censors! (The K stands for “Kryta”.) Why not chickens? Certainly they deserve such a fowl association.

Then you spend. If you must have them, you pay the extra cost. (But don’t think of it as buying the same items twice. Think of it as buying the three minis, and buying the raw materials for the special mini.)

But for most people? No need to spend extra. What do the minis do for you? They’re a vanity item. And while I have plenty, there are several exclusives that I have consciously decided were not worth the extra effort and/or expense involved.

In the end, it’s up to each person. And “real collectors” WILL spend as much as they have to to finish a collection. Consider people who collect real life collectibles (for example, trading cards – how many packs must one open to get those last few rare cards?). Yet, these people still shell out for them.

As long as the gem store sticks to “nonessentials” like it’s been doing, I’ve got no beef with it. I’ve spent more than I expected to in such a short time, but that’s my choice. And, thus far, the prices seem fair enough to me. Anything I think that’s not true for? I won’t buy. (I didn’t buy the permanent tools, for example. Might have if they had the enhanced gather bonus, but didn’t feel they were worth ten bucks each when buying new Orichalcum tools is dirt cheap.)

Well, after southsun i’m starting to hate them even more. First they release incomplete bug fixes (rage), second they work like a casino (more rage), third they keep releasing items on the BLTP and make sales to keep the gold to gem ratio high without letting it settle (Furious). From this you can see how the game is heading only one direction: make a lot of money before our players leave.

Except… nothing…. NOTHING in the gem store is ever necessary. Nothing in those Coffers… is ever necessary. All the “RNG” items, both in this and past events, have always been cosmetic.

Aside from a small binge on F&F dye packs, I’ve never taken big gambles with my Gems. I got two five-packs of the Halloween boxes (since they didn’t have an ingame version), and maybe three or four five-packs of BL Keys (only when on sale), in all the time since release. I HAVE bought minipet packs, four times so far, but that’s because odds are still in favor of getting ones I need; when that stops being the case, I’ll move to the TP.

I will take my chances with what coffers I manage to farm. I will NOT buy coffers from the Gem Store. I WILL enjoy the game.

Arenanet is not forcing us to spend money. I DO buy gems, more than I probably should, but almost always for NON-random things. And I am fully aware that they are things I want, not things I need.

Anyone who thinks they are being FORCED to spend gems needs to re-evaluate their spending habits. Maybe ask themselves if they really, truly need whatever item they are RNG-ing for.

GW2 does not run a bad cash shop. There are games out there where you cannot be anywhere NEAR optimum setup without things sold in cash shops. There are even games out there where you need to spend cash JUST TO ACCESS SOME OF THE CONTENT.

GW2’s Gem Store does not do either of those thing. It’s not like we had to pay Gems to get to Southsun Cove when they added it. It’s not like we need to pay Gems for Exotic or Ascended equipment. (People CAN get exotics through the Gems-To-Gold exchange, true, but they can ALSO earn gold in-game. It’s not hard, even for people who don’t do crazy farms every day.)

Is Arenanet trying to make money? Well, YES. They are a company. They need to pay their employees, they need to pay upkeep/maintenance on their building and stuff, and yes, they probably would like a profit margin, since it will be good seed money to MAKE MORE GAMES WITH. Or make more things for this game. (You didn’t think the developers slaved away at computers for months on end all for free, did you?) But while Arenanet is trying to make money, it is NOT doing so in any heavy-handed way. It’s not forcing us to buy anything. Nothing the Gem Store sells confers actual advantages to in-game performance. And THAT is why the Gem Store is not bad.

Crash is in effect. With Ectoplasm salvageable to Crystalline Dust, it is now easier to get the Dust (salvage your ectos; range of 1-5 dust each, average seems to be 2, based on another thread), AND the price of Dust should therefore continue to fall; with the fix being just today, it will probably take a day or two, minimum, to stabilize.

Arenanet is very sorry for all the inconvenience it caused to people who were selling Crystalline Dust for profit. It was thoughtless of them to make a rare item easier to get for people who do not spend hours a day in Orr, without considering the fact that Dust-selling is the only way to earn good gold in this game.

That having been said, the others are correct when they say this can AND DOES happen in real life. The price of a commodity can rise drastically if its source suffers some sort of disaster (natural or otherwise) that brings production to a near or complete halt. Conversely, the discovery of a new source of a rare good can drop its price greatly – and the discovery of something that does the same thing, but better, can cause the old good to become nearly worthless. All in a very short time period.

And this doesn’t even have to be a result of supply and demand. This CAN be artificially induced – governments have passed legislatures regulating upper limits to which prices can be made, if a market for a necessary item becomes so competitive that consumers cannot pay the prices being asked. (Profitmongering on food stores during a famine, for example.)

As these are completely fictitious items bought with fictitious currency*, trying to make prices based on the rises and falls of such a market sounds very much like speculative venturing to me, and that has proven twice that it is perfectly capable of falling very fast. In recent(-ish) years, we had the “dot-com crash”, where people learned the hard way that investing into Internet business ventures is NOT a “sure thing”. But more famously, the entire stock market had the famous crash of 1929, which crippled the global economy for years afterward. (Yes, global: crashes hit both the U.S. market AND the European markets at nearly the same time, and the combined effects shook the financial world.) Similar to the modern, online crash, the people of the 1920s were firm in the belief that the high values in the stock market were a “sure thing”, and that they would only continue to rise, and rise, and rise.

• (Never mind the fact that the fictitious currency can be indirectly bought with real currency; the GW2 economy is not, itself, based on real currency, but on in-game gold, because that gold cannot be turned BACK into real money, ever.)

Fundamentally, this is not one whit different from people who play the Trading Post. It’s more of a speculative commodities market than a stock exchange, but the fundamental principles are the same for both (especially since these commodities are not “real”).

Arenanet has said from the beginning that they have someone whose JOB is to keep an eye on the game’s economy. If they feel that an item is becoming too highly priced for its in-game purpose (or too low!), they will introduce measures to adjust it. As things go, I think that it’s better they introduce it with a method like “ectos salvage for dust now” than to simply change the numbers directly (OK, everyone, half price on all Crystalline Dust entries).

Addendum: I sent a bug report to Arenanet explaining what happened, so hopefully that should resolve it. But I would still like to know if there are any better channels I can go through, in case this does not work.

PROBLEM! – I got the mail about mine, but had an overflowing inbox (13/10) – and after asking about that oddity on chat, I checked my mail again, and the overflowed messages WERE GONE. Including that one. (Also purged were my “intro to Dragon Bash” automail, and the free doll from the Gem Store, which I purchased before realizing I had mail already.)

I tried zoning, AND relogging, and that message has VANISHED. So, I need to know – what support line is there for a problem like this?

Did you get the “Aurora’s Remnant” or whatever it was called, in the SW coorner of Brisban Wildlands? I know that it’s another map label with NO “mapping points” in it. (It’s also got a very nice homage to the Aurora Glade mission from GW1, which it is the last segment of, geographically).

Ah! You do read this! Well, your setup worked. grin

Yeah, but I’ve dealt with mesmers before, who were merely… effective. They aggravate people, because that’s what mesmers DO, and they usually make it out of fights when they are overpowered. But they don’t impress me.

This was a cut above that, and as someone who loves the class concept and so seldom sees it enacted so amazingly well, I felt I had to give the person their due. Like I said, that particular mesmer elevated it to an art form.

And besides, this one didn’t immediately withdraw, even given the odds – this player had effectively kept a few of us busy for something like 3-5 minutes, and only turned to thoughts of escape when a couple more of ours joined in.

Never killed any of us, either, but I had begun to suspect that wasn’t the person’s intention halfway through the fight – I was worrying that the length of the battle was going to distract us from executing our own plans, then figured that might just have been the point.

To the sylvari mesmer (rank: Recruit) in [Aegis], North Shiverpeaks, fighting in the Henge of Denravi Borderland: this Henge warrior salutes you.

That was the most splendid display of how a mesmer should be played that I have seen, in all the time this game has been out. With 5-6 of us on you, alone, you still managed to avoid getting killed. It was aggravating to the extreme – and in the end, that emotion is the key to knowing you are facing a true mesmer.

I simply had to congratulate you. It’s possibly my favorite class, even if I’m not half so skilled at it as that, and seeing a true artist at work made me want to offer congratulations, in the only neutral venue I could find. (Hopefully you read this, or someone who knows you does.)

I JUST got the Slingshot, having had 6/7 before, and…. 6/7 after. I lack only Breath at this point.

My last purchase before the slingshot was the purse, which took me from 5 to 6. If the heart does NOT count, then I don’t know why I have had this score. I have (now):

Stick, Sling, Bomb, Whip, Candle, 9 Potions, X, Shovel, X, X.
And: 4 Hearts, expanded Purse.

I was not ACTUALLY paying attention to what got me points until I got the Bomb (4 to 5). So my last two points were the Bomb and the Purse, and getting the sling got me… nothing?

It’s like asking why a set of armor costs 75,000 gold, and requires 120 Globs of Ectoplasm and 120 Obsidian Shards, in addition to standard materials (400 of a common, and 32 of a rare, differing by profession)… and have the exact same stats as a set that costs 5,000 gold and standard materials.

SOME people buy it because they like the look… but most buy it because it is expensive. (For bonus bling points, buy 5 Black Dyes and look REALLY ugly!)

At least some of the T3 culturals do look great. Very few Obbi sets did, in my opinion.

You keep using that word…. I do not think this joke has been overdone enough.

As for Mega Man – the guy who made it left the company. However, I don’t see any reason not to make references.

P.S. to the person spinning this Mega-M.O.X. theory: How does G.O.X. fit into this scheme?

To put into perspective norn have been in their current location longer than Lion’s Arch and Divinity’s Reach have been in existence.

Divinity’s Reach, maybe, but LA’s been around for over 1300 years. (Doric’s summer residence was there, making it technically older than Kryta itself, as the kingdom was founded about three centuries later.)

As for the “exile” theme, we can’t say it’s ONLY the Norn. The Asura were “exiled” first, when Primordus drove them to the surface (a process which started with the events of the Great Destroyer, and continued up until Primordus itself woke up some 42 years later).

And norn DON’T dwell on the past. They put great store in it – they revere those who came before and what they did – but they LIVE in the present. Their original homelands, from which they were driven, ARE part of their cultural identity. They want to reclaim it. But while they are exiles, they don’t indulge in “exile mentality”. They live their lives in their new situation, waiting for the time when they CAN return.

That is the difference between them and, say, the Charr – whose displacement was a driving force for them, engaging in a war of reclamation that began the moment they were driven out, fluctuating in intensity as the situation changed (wall up, wall down, foefire), but they wanted their home back, and weren’t going to wait.

As for our other exiles – the Asura – they seem to have adapted to surface life over the past 250 years, and integrated into the multiracial surface society. I’m not entirely sure how many of them would want to go back below even once it becomes possible.

But that’s Charr and Asura. And these are Norn, who do want their home back, but know that now is not the time. So, for now, they make sure each generation remembers, but live their lives as normal until the time comes.

I call them “easy as pie riddles” and expected better from Raven.

But I think they’re just called “riddles”. Plain and simple. They’re basically textbook examples of what riddles are.

If they ARE “finding their rank”, then surely they can find it again. If a good server gets dropped because of a “comparatively low” showing, surely it will rise again with no trouble.

GW1 reset its guild rankings periodically, why consider this any different?