Guild Wars 2

re: Synopsis is use cc on some crystals and show up 30 minutes early? – Not quite:

Show up early
Look for organization.
Know your hard and soft CC skills.
Listen for call outs to use CC, and be prepared to use CC on the Shatterer and healing crystal break bars.(head to launch pads when directed)
Use the launch pads(if you have HoT) and glide, especially for break bars.(Glider bombs have good CC & DPS)

tl;dr – Find an organized map and follow the commander’s/leader’s instructions.

I agree with Demented Sheep. You should try to get to the map earlier. Stand with the group near the WP and look for tags while reading map and local chat. If it looks like the map is organized, stay. If it does not look like the map is organized, then you have time to try and get to another (better organized) map.

If you don’t mind spending more time on it, do it with a group of 5. If you want to go in and have a decent chance of success in 1 try, take a group of 7 to 9.(so it won’t scale up) Our (tiny) guild formed an alliance with another tiny guild, and claimed with a group of 9,(for our) then with a group of 8.(for theirs) With those numbers it was a fun fight, and doable in 1 try.
You may want to form alliances with one or more small guilds anyway, to have help doing guild events.(Though easy bounties and treks are doable with a very small number, guild events are determined by RNG. And you may not always have any options that are good for a very small group..)
And yeah, it stinks that Anet made it this way. I know I wouldn’t mind a smaller guild hall that could only support a guild max size of 20 or so and be cheaper. And guild events should always offer options for very small groups. I don’t see why there’s RNG involved. Why can’t we just choose what we want? The different difficulties offer different reward levels. So why can’t a small guild choose the easy options which are better suited for a small number of people?

What Eldrin is saying is that he doesn’t think that a tier of gear (Legendary armor) should be locked behind raids. Legendary weapons aren’t, so why should Legendary armor be?

re: proposed option “in game moderators” – While this would be a good option in certain extreme situations, I think that this approach is problematic for a couple of reasons. I think that a 3rd party may not always be the best judge of whether one player is offending another. Just from typed chat, it might be hard for a 3rd party to tell what’s really going on. The moderators would have to be up on regional etiquette, and I think that’s not feasible in a game that serves so many regions. Also, there are examples of in game moderators shamelessly abusing their power in other games. This has been brought up in previous threads similar to this one.

Let me tell you what I think is a good option, but first let me tell you why. Imagine someone is being a jerk in map chat, and everyone blocks them without responding. Or, they’re being a jerk in local or whisper, and everyone that can see their chat blocks them without responding. Instantly, that jerk is rendered powerless. They can’t get a rise out of anyone, because no one will respond, or even sees their chat any more. Can you imagine how punishing that would be to that type of person? Now you add a second option, report. So if everyone would report people whose behavior they judged to be worth reporting, can you imagine how effective that would be? A strong consensus would result in certain and strong punishment. A weak consensus would result in lesser punishment or perhaps none if there is little consensus. This would also be especially effective for [monetary solicitors] – if everyone blocked them (never mind even reporting them) then they would be ineffective, and [monetary solicitor] spam would stop.(let that sink in)
So my solution is for more people( ideally everyone) to block and report, without responding. Power remains in player control, we decide who and what gets blocked and reported. I think this would be more effective than a 3rd party moderator. The problem is, we need a strong majority of people to participate.

So I don’t know that there’s a good, real world solution available. Hopefully someone has a better idea.

re: The block list is only so long… – I have not yet found this to be true.(And I block a lot of people. Even for having vulgar or offensive names.) Did you know that you can manually type an account name into the block list? I do that with account names for players that seem like real jerks on the forums. That’s how hard core I am about blocking, and I still haven’t reached the limit of the block list. If you’ve really reached the limit of the block list, please let me know, as I will have to engage in some block list management at some point.(probably soon)

re: There’s a Skritt that runs around the inner areas of Tarir talking about how shiny it is. – I wonder if that skritt got moved to Tarir some time after that video, and was never in the guild hall at release? Or maybe there’s another?

We’ve been trying to find the video, also. But we haven’t had any luck yet.

Aerlen is not referring to the difficulty of the mission, but the emphasis on all the jumping and gliding. (in our opinion, misplaced in a Fantasy CRPG) As well as the fact that there are issues with the updrafts in the last fight – if you walk into them, you can deploy your glider, if you jump into them, it bugs and you insta-die. And get stuck in a box able to do nothing but watch until the party wipes or until the end of the fight. We didn’t buy a platform jumper game, we bought a Fantasy CRPG. We expect the emphasis to be on fighting, not acrobatics.

re: remove mastery points and other “must have” content from JPs – Yes, I am very much in favor of nothing being gated behind JPs. They should be for fun and JP-related achievements only. (if you want to eliminate all methods of “cheesing” them)

re: it seems now that it was a waste of time – To some of us JPs have always seemed like a waste of time. Why is there so much focus on jumping in a Fantasy CRPG? Fine, put it in, but make it optional. Just for fun, for those who enjoy that sort of thing.

re: Why would you think that John Smith et al haven’t already considered all of the high supply|low demand items? – (respectfully) Because those problems still persist? Or because they exist in the first place? IMO, scribing was both poorly conceived and poorly implemented. Where was John Smith to say “Hey there, making one personal crafting discipline several times more expensive than all the others probably won’t work well. Why don’t we cut those costs or make it a guild discipline, rather than a personal one?” I think that would have been in line with his job responsibilities. In any case someone should have caught and fixed that glaring mistake before it shipped.
A personal crafting discipline costing several times more than the others? How can that possibly work? And why wasn’t it implemented as a guild craft, rather than a character based one? It is of no use for individual characters, only guilds. Plus, it can create “scribe mercenaries” who get leveled up by a guild(with guild funds) then leave the guild and hire out their services to anyone. So yes, I think that there was some lack of consideration there. (Sorry, not trying to sound ranty. But I can’t see how such an obvious oversight got released in the first place.)

re: +1 and +1 again for shared recipes. Makes no sense for them to be character-based. – How does it make sense for a character to suddenly have knowledge that he/she did not learn? Also, some players use crafting to level alts. If recipes were account wide, this would not be possible.

There are many people who can’t jump well or at all, or don’t like it. Some of us have mobility issues, some of us have internet connection issues, and some if us just don’t like it.(or some combination of those three)
And I think it’s pretty unfair to gate stuff behind jumping puzzles in a Fantasy CRPG. If this was a platform jumping game, I’d be off base, but it’s not – it’s a Fantasy CRPG.
I think that if Mesmer portals are allowed,(and they should be) that gliding should also be allowed.
But you know what I want even more? A non-jumping option. To me Fantasy CRPGs are about fighting. My wish would be that for every jumping puzzle there would be a corresponding mini-dungeon, that completion of would award you whatever the JP would give you. So that those of us who can’t jump, could fight our way through and achieve whatever the goal is, without having to cheese a JP by asking for help, or gliding. We could just take door 2, the mini-dungeon instead.
But the more practical (if less complete solution) is to allow gliding. It doesn’t take anything away from anyone. People who want to do it the hard way still can. People who need a different way to get the achievement have a possibly better solution. Win – win.

You might see if this guy is still doing make overs:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/players/Stylist-Service-Order-your-Look/first

Now the criticism.

Why did it take 3+ years to implement a simple solution for an issue which was obvious from day 1? Yes, there was a workaround – buy more expensive bags. Many of us that had problems with this in the beginning have already gone through the extra expense to get invisible bags. But the fact that they did actually implement a fix means that they do consider it a problem.(Now they do. More on that below.)

Why did it take a celebrity rant to get a fix? Are multitudes of non-celebrity players not important? Are celebrites of a privileged status that they shouldn’t have to buy more expensive bags than “little people”?

Why don’t they show such care with other fixes? Consume all has been an issue for as long as compact has. It has been a feature needed (and asked for) since launch. Anet finally implemented a solution for this, shortly before the compact solution. But they had the poor judgement to place the “consume all” and “destroy” buttons next to each other. The obvious placement of these would be on opposite sides of the “use” button, creating a buffer against mis-clicks. This is simply UI 101, protect the user against mis-clicks.(I’m not even a UI developer, and I know this) Yes, there’s a confirm, but why slow things down? If you mis-click “destroy” you get a confirmation that you have to answer to dismiss. If you mis-click “use”, it doesn’t derail the process as much. UI 101 – keep the user experience fluid and efficient. So why wasn’t this fix handled with the same care as “compact”?

Sincere thanks to ArenaNet for the solution to “the compact button issue”. It was well thought out, and well implemented. In a way that it really has no down side. It’s a good solution that works well, and no one can take that away from them.

re: penalty box – From what I’ve read, it looks like you’re supposed to wipe to get everyone back. But of course, seeing what happens when you die, the people left don’t dare die for fear of everyone being in the penalty box and the fight being lost. And to make it even better the updraft/gilder mechanic is weird/bugged at that point so there’s a much better chance of players dying.(and getting stuffed in the penalty box) It’s the perfect end for an expansion filled with glitchy, buggy, grindy, gimmicky, B.S. that isn’t fun.

I don’t get the “penalty box”, either. We went in to that fight with a party of four. Two of us got put into the penalty box and had to wait out the rest of the fight, just watching and unable to help. Why not just say there’s no rez possible? But more importantly, why do something like that in the first place? Who would think that’s fun? Who would think that’s even a reasonable thing to do in a boss fight?

re: I didn’t see anyone taking off the armor to get this one. – If I was going to take off all my armor at a WB event, to avoid rude comments I would put on an outfit. So there may be people doing this, but you can’t see it.

Thank you for the tl;dw. The translation to text is much appreciated.

Yeah, there’s no way to adjust or correct this. And yes, it was intentional. They also nerfed wells and Dragon Hunter traps. There’s already a merged thread about this. 18 pages, and no reply from Anet yet. Please leave a comment there, and help us keep it alive.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Visual-nerfs-Merged/first

Dirtclaw and Skalefound are both bugged. So when you first launch the trek, and everyone is checking the list for places that they’re familiar with, also check for those two locations. If anyone sees either of them in the list, you abort and get a new list. No, this is not something we should have to do. But it’s something we can do while waiting for a fix that may not come soon.(or at all)

Instead of calling out in map and doing the claim with PUGs, I ‘d put up a notice here and form an alliance with another small guild. Because even after the claim, you still need to do guild missions for the favor.
It’s what my small guild did. And we met some nice, helpful people. We helped them claim, they helped us claim. Now we’re helping each other with missions. It’s a win-win.(plus you can meet nice people)

Meanwhile Anet says (not here of course) “We want to answer your questions, about creature design.” O.o Seriously?!? Why not answer questions we want answered? Or that need to be answered?

Like “Why can’t Anet have GW2 automatically down-shift graphics at world bosses, and in WvW zergs when they can’t be properly seen anyway?”
or
“Why can’t Anet comment on what current plans are for resolving the ‘visual nose issue’?”, or at least give us some hope that the pointless nerfs on individual skills will not continue.

Last night there was a group very determined to accomplish the break-bar related achievements.(Yay!) But they maintained that pulling everyone out of combat, and having them wait at the launch pads was actually offset by the massive DPS spike of the bombing runs and resulted in a net DPS gain over staying on the battle field and fighting Shatterer. Someone actually said that each glider bomb is the equivalent of 3 knockbacks? These players maintained that it’s better for all players to do bombing runs rather than have some stay and fight, and that everyone doing bombing runs is, in fact, currently the only way to get the break-bar achievements.
Is there any truth to this? Can anyone provide any evidence?
I don’t mind people getting the Shatterer achievements(that’s what they’re for – to be achieved) but pulling everyone off the battlefield in favor of bombing runs doesn’t sound like a good strategy. (Though I can see it being a better strategy when the break bars are de-bugged and scaling is adjusted)
I certainly don’t want to see The New (and actually improved) Shatterer turned into a champ and achievement fail-farm. I am not asking for anything to be nerfed – to me this is a player problem, rather than an Anet problem. I got 6 achievements in 10 runs, without actually focusing on achievements – just trying to win the event.
And if gliding runs are in fact a DPS gain,(can anyone verify this?) then maybe that’s the way to go – but we’ll be dropping into a Branded mosh-pit, and having to WP back constantly.(if no one is there on the battle field, fighting)
Once again, I’m not against players getting the Shatterer achievements, but I don’t want to see this devolve into fail-farming.(not that I want anything nerfed, ever)
This is a really FUN fight now, and I don’t want to see it ruined.

Sorry to hear that WvW missions seem to be a poor choice for small guilds. I think that everyone should be able to achieve what they want in this game in their preferred game mode. However, Treks are absolutely doable with 4 people and a good guide.(dulfy.net has one) You might also try cooperating with other small guilds – there are nice people out there who also need help. Like your guild, ours is close, and has been together a long time. And we were reluctant to enlist the help of strangers. Little Leota’s guild helped us claim our guild hall, (thanks again ROFL) and we helped them claim theirs. They’re nice people who have been very helpful. And we’re going to pool our efforts for guild missions. So you might try to enlist outside help in guild missions. If you don’t work well with a certain group, remember them and don’t work with them again. I don’t really think that it’s fair to small guilds. But that’s how Anet has made this all work, and they don’t seem inclined to change it. You might put up an ad in the players helping players forum, or just announce in map chat that you have a guild event going on.

re: Small guilds have to work so much harder for materials – Here’s a little bit of personal experience. I’m a member of a 98 member guild and 6 member guild. In the 98 person guild, about 25 to 30 people are active and 4 regularly donate materials. In the 6 person guild, 4 are active and 4 donate materials. And I’ve heard similar stories – large guilds are impersonal and many members don’t feel invested in the guild and don’t donate. So only the few, core members of the guild donate.

re: Small guilds can’t expand their guilds as easily larger guilds. – No they can’t, but it’s not that bad. My 98 member guild is currently at lvl 37, with almost all their upgrades unlocked, a little more than 3 months after HoT shipped. My 6 member guild has unlocked the merchant, anvil, Tavern, Mine, and Workshop after only 8 days. So we have merchant, armor repair, guild bank, and personal bank. All of the critically important things, IMO. After a little more than 1 week. Yes we saved up mats and gold ahead of time, but everyone who wants a guild hall should be doing that. The dumb thing was that we weren’t doing guild missions ahead of time. Or we’d be further along than we are.
So small guilds can do it. No, I don’t think it’s fair. But it has proved to be doable.
I would have no objection to small guild halls for small guilds – that can’t be expanded beyond a certain number of members without paying the difference in expense. This would keep small guild halls from being exploited by large guilds. I don’t think it’s that hard a thing, but Anet didn’t allow us that option.

Just learned something new, relevant to this – It looks like some of your guild’s old upgrades are preserved, including guild armorer, and weapon smith. So if you had a guild armorer before, it isn’t as long a process. You’ll still have to unlock the Tavern, Mine, Capacity 1, and the Market to get it, though. It’s a lot of grinding materials, but just a few guild missions worth of favor.

There are things we can do to help ourselves while waiting for Anet to solve this problem:
Try the 64 bit client(if you have 64 bit windows)
Restart your PC before a Wold Boss, major event, story chapter, etc…
Join a party or squad so you can reconnect to the same map.
Yes, we shouldn’t have to do things like this, for so long a time. But they’re things that we can do without having to rely on Anet.

Congratulations on getting your guild hall. Nice of them to defer your offered payment. No way for players to close topics, I think. It’ll fall off the front page and get buried, eventually. Or you could you request that it be closed.

The Shatterer break bar seems too strong. Maybe as people get better organized this will be less of an issue?
Glider deployment is definitely being affected by lag.(caused by the high number of people present) In 7 fights so far, I’ve only gotten the glider to deploy in 2 of them. (yet it works properly minutes after, when most of the people have left) This needs to be worked on, but may be fixed by what they’re doing to help the Australia glider/lag issue.

re: I was hoping there might be a mastery point involved – Yes, that would have been very nice. Maybe because it isn’t a level 80 event? Or because they’re afraid of making it toxic and overly competitive?

I find it both amusing and sad, the numerous people who have (in this thread and the other) basically said “I sat there spamming 1 like I always do, and it didn’t really seem different to me.”
?!?
So you sit there, making no real effort, and not really contributing.(like always) And you expect the event to seem different and better? Hmmm.

Well I’m here to tell ya. There are people that organize and do the pre-events – while you sit there waiting and bored.(and maybe complaining about the pre’s taking so long)
And there people that spam buffs and boons, and use CC when required, and heal people and rez people, and use unique event mechanics and accomplish objectives within the event.
– While you sit there spamming 1, bored out of your skull, and wondering why the heck Anet can’t make better events that are fun. And wondering why the boss is taking forever to die.
But don’t worry-
We will always be there to carry you.
And seriously – stop wondering why the events are so dull and boring, when you can’t even be bothered to make a proper effort.

I have enjoyed the new Shatterer each time. I have always found plenty to do. And I have found it fun and rewarding. And I’m not alone. Why don’t you join us in making a proper effort? Or at least quit wondering why you’re so bored and the event is taking forever.

I imagine that gliding made this an issue that Anet felt they had to address. And did you look at the 3rd patch notes for 2016-01-26.? Skills from other classes got blocked from being used in mid-air. I would think that means they all have/cause the issue.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/updates/Game-Update-Notes-January-26-2016/first#post5948778

The wiki entry for most personal story chapters includes dialog. If you need the name of the previous story, you can look up the story you’re currently in and there’s a place in the wiki entry(upper right) where is says "Preceded by: [Story Name], and “Followed by: [Story name]” So you can get the name of the chapter you want and look up the dialog.

Thank you Allisondellue, for bringing up the fact the the Treasurer donation window will stay open no matter how far you go from the Treasurer.(within the guild hall) But you still need a scribing station to get bank access. (The scribing stationcomes with Workshop 1, right?)

When your current Mastery bar is maxed it should switch to another. When they’re all maxed, it should award a Mastery Point. (IMO)

Has there been any change to scribing being far too expensive? Didn’t see this in the patch notes.

Central Tyria is now Legacy content. Be happy we got a Shatterer re-work. Since the siege collection fix, the Shatterer pre’s haven’t needed to be messed with.(except maybe a little better scaling for large number on escort)

re: Why launch pads? – To promote gliding in Central Tyria, which is to promote HoT, of course!

It’s a fun fight with a large number of players now. And that was the goal. People who want harder content can go do raids, Tequatl, or Triple Trouble.
(also, they might have let us win that first one)

re: I still have no idea what most bosses look like/OPTIONS, WE NEED OPTIONS kitten – Have you posted on the Visual Nerfs[merged] thread?
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Visual-nerfs-Merged

Posted about Noon Eastern:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/updates/Game-Update-Notes-January-26-2016

We need a check box to “Hide wings and other gem store visual clutter”. Or at the very least a check box to move wings off of people’s backs and hang them under their noses like giant feathery mustaches.

Well, the patch notes for 2016-01-26 don’t mention any further visual nerfs(Yay!) but they also don’t mention any reversal of the current nerfs.

They were posted about Noon Eastern:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/updates/Game-Update-Notes-January-26-2016

There are players who love compact and use it all the time. And there are players who despise compact, and think it has no purpose but to mess up their inventory. I think the ideal solution is to allow players to enable/disable compact at their option.

re: So it’s ANet’s fault that your internet disconnected you? & A game should never be held liable for a user’s internet connection problems. – No, an internet game should be tolerant of internet connection problems. Which are a fact of life, on the internet. Anet just recently acknowledged the glider deployment issue that players have in Australia(because of the lag) and they’re working on a solution. This is the right thing to do – compensate for internet issues.

You might try to work (EU) or -EU in at the end of your subject, so that people know what region you’re in without having to read the thread.
I’m in NA, and anyone I know that could help you is also. So that isn’t helpful.
It’s great that you’ve adapted to find ways to earn favor with such a small number of people. That’s the hardest part, IMO.
This guy is also looking for help, but hasn’t yet specified what region he’s in:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/players/Halls-and-Mats-For-Guild-With-1-3-Members/5941834

People also need to know what region you’re in (EU/NA) to know if they can help you. Your time zone and hours that you’re available to play are helpful.
DragonesssCG points out that you can cooperate with other guilds to earn favor:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/players/request-help-with-guild-hall-unlock/5944069
And if you’re in EU also, you might be able to help each other.

I use Siberia Raw Prism, Steel Series 61410. They’re about $60 US. They’re large and the ear cups cover your ears, but they’re very comfortable. They’re USB only, so they’ll take up one of your USB connections. The sound is great for gaming, good for music. I’ve used them with GW2 and Team Speak, and they work very well. The mic is not a boom mic, it’s just a little nub sticking off of the left ear cup. So you don’t have to worry about it getting out of position, and and having to move it around to get it back to where it picks up your voice again.(which was a pain with my previous headset)

It’s essential to know the region (NA/EU) you’re in. And it would be helpful to know your time zone, and the days/hours you’re available, so people can try to match up schedules.
Optimally, you should have a group of 8 or 9 people, communicating via voice chat.(I’d install and get used to Team Speak, if you don’t use it already.)
For Gilded Hollow, you’ll need at least 1 person in the group to have Exalted Mastery level 1, and some way to portal people who don’t have it. Gliding and Mushroom Jumping are very helpful, but not required.
For groups larger than 5, someone can tag up and form a squad. The squad commander doesn’t have to be a member of the claiming guild, but a member of the claiming guild must start the instance.
The problem is, you’re going to need to do guild missions to get favor. You can convert your current influence to favor, and that will get you started. But you’ll need to earn favor to continue to upgrade. You can get the merchant and armor repair anvil for 50 gold & 50 favor, and your storage will be grandfathered in. But you’ll probably have to do some guild missions(with at least 3 to 5 people) to earn favor to upgrade further. You’ll get a lot of functionality having guild storage, armor repair and merchant easily accessible. You just have to judge how much more you want, and how difficult it will be to obtain with a tiny guild.
Dulfy’s guide has a lot of helpful information: http://dulfy.net/2015/10/23/gw2-guild-hall-claiming-and-upgrade-guide/
And the wiki page will help you see what you need to do, and how much it will cost for given upgrades:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Guild_upgrade