What is the lore behind the Jade Maw?
Is it an avatar of some evil god from GW1 or something exclusive to fractals?
I would love to see living world content based around the Jade boss. It reminds me of a mix between Cthulu (HP Lovecraft) and Tharzidun (World of Greyhawk)
It would be cool if Scarlet was unknowingly being used as a puppet by some ancient nameless evil. Would it be possible lorewise for the Jade Maw to be pulling the strings?
I have a full celestial set of armour on my guardian and I have no objection to having the time gate AND the bind on account removed from Celestial Armour/Trinkets.
I miss skinning mobs after I’ve killed them (Warcraft) and picking cotton from the bush (Age of Conan). Mining the remains of elementals was fun too.
To be honest, I would rather craft Ascended Armour than do a quest chain. I don’t mind crafting in GW2 I just wish it didn’t require so many materials per item. It was more enjoyable when 2 logs/ore refined into a log/bar. I understand the resources per refined was increased to clear stock but those of us that spend all of our time in WvW didn’t really have a massive stock in the first place.
it’s meant to be something to work for. Hopefully it takes 2-3 months to craft a full set.
This is where I am beginning to sour toward this content grind. I don’t play video games to Work I already work in real life, when I log
into GW2 I want to spend that time playing the game.
Total up how many hours you spend in GW2 doing tedious content (aka working) and put a $/hour value on it. It’s scary to think how much time/money is lost on grind.
Lets say all you want to do is WvW or run dungeons, to get the most out of it and enjoy it you need to slog your way through 80 levels, then farm countless hours of gold and materials to gear up. It may be fun the first time, but after 5 characters, I’ve had enough. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want my spare time to be spent doing things I don’t enjoy to reach a point where I can enjoy the game. Ascended trinkets were the beginning of the end for me, yet I still play, weapons arrived and I still reluctantly tow the line, 6 pieces of armour and I dare say I will be moving on to another title, Life is too short to waste 3000 hours working towards something you are supposed to enjoy.
Then do not get it? No one is forcing you to get them in any way. If you feel that you were forced/burdened because others are getting it, then it’s your problem. If your idea of ‘enjoying’ game is to get all the things that you want without hard work, this game will never sate you.
The idea behind Ascended was to bridge the gap between Exotic and Legendary. Exotic was quite scarce in the past, but sadly becoming way too common afterwards. If Ascended were so easy/accessible that almost everyone can get it, then what will people ask for next? In the end, what will happen?
Power creep.
Sometimes I wonder why it is so hard for some people to grasp this.
There was no gap between exotic and legendary in the first place. Legendary weapons were purely vanity items with exotic stats. Prior to ascended items being introduced to the game I was completely satisfied with this game, I had a full set of exotics for each character and for each of their builds, I was free to WvW without needing to grind moe gear and if I wanted something that looked cool, I would put the effort into getting it for vanity purposes. I bought this game because it was marketed as anti-power creep, with Legendaries being the only real grind We now have power creep and it’s hiding behind a massive grind that forces you into a single character with a single build. It is not me that is having trouble understanding, I understand, I don’t like it and I am voicing my opinion to arenanet that I don’t like it. This was the right game for me as it was advertised, I would like it to stay that way but the future is looking bleak.
(edited by Elthurien.8356)
TLTQ:STUFF
To be honest, I completely agree with what you are saying. However, I don’t think they are going to change their direction. This game would be the best game ever made if drop rates were increased to reduce time to farm/craft/gear up. I wouldn’t worry too much though, the way the game is headed at the moment, will mean I spend nothing. I only support what I like, and I don’t like the direction now.
Personally I’ve had a gutfull of Undead after Orr, and I’m not a huge fan of Water combat so I would rather see the maps expand to the North West and cover Magus Falls, Maguuma Wastes, Isles of Janthir and the Woodland Cascades. If Crystal Desert wasn’t full of Undead It would definitely be first choice, and I’d love to see what happened to Sea of Sorrows region but I’m tired of the water combat.
At the same time there are also many more people that seem to think the same way.
Walking away would also mean walking away from the invested time so far and walking away from an amazing guild. So I prefer to bring this problem to the attention. We did have some suggest with bringing the temporary content stuff to there attention it seems looking at the last few patches. and ‘we’ also got the expansion back on the table where it first was off the table. So I will give this a try. I came to GW2 hoping to play it for years, I don’t like MMO hopping. This is the second MMORPG in my life I really invested time in so I won’t walk away that easily.
Besides maybe some gem-buyers also hate the negative side-effects bud did not see them as related. If I was to convince only one of them that would be a win I think.
What exactly is it about gem-buying that you are against?
- Do you not like Living World?
I can understand this, as I’m not a huge fan of it myself. - Do you not like RNG Gimmicks like skin tokens hiding inside Black Lion Chests?
I can understand this, I hate Black Lion Chests and have only ever bought keys for them once. When I realised what a complete waste of money they are I never purchased them again. - Do you not like people converting gems to gold?
This is where the majority of my money goes, because I don’t have time to waste farming resources in PvE when I spend so much time in WvW.
I’m just curious why you are on a crusade to convince people that the gem store is some evil force destroying the game. I can agree that some of the features in the gem store are gambler traps, I cannot stand that kind of thing and refuse to support it. However, converting gems to gold I see no problem with whatsoever, the economy of the game is still quite stable all things considered, and skill is still a large factor in whether you can kill or be killed so there isn’t really any pay to win factor.
Ascended gear is still gated even for people that want to buy gems and convert to gold. You can buy certain materials to craft an ascended weapon, but you still require several hundred dragonite bars, empyrial stars, bloodstone bricks and Augur’s Stones all require you to actually play the game, which has been the main gate blocking me from crafting my ascended weapons. So even gold buyers like myself aren’t handed everything on a silver platter.
If there was an option 12 months ago for me to purchase purely the WvW portion of the game and everything in that purchase would set me up to have a full geared level 80 of each profession, then I wouldn’t be spending so much money in the gem store. In fact the only money I probably would have spent would have been on transmute stones and skins. This however, was not and is not an option. Don’t blame people like me for ruining the game, blame the people that made the features possible in the first place.
Who did here that should be in the expansion? It sure wasn’t me.
Huh?
If you would not pay for gems (well and people like you) but would pay expansions then you didn’t need to pay money to not having to be wasting your valuable time doing the things I don’t enjoy.
But because you do other people have to. Or they get bored with the game.
Funny enough the time-gated content is part of that tactic you help to create as it is part of the “getting people to log in” and then hoping they will buy stuff. So basically you helped to destroy the game for yourself and for us. But it’s good to read you did stop spending money now.
Just in the future be sure you can better spend it on expansions or if you don’t mind a clock over your head.
You’re living in a fantasy if you think Arena.Net had any intention of having a limited gem store and relying on paid expansions, GW2 was designed around the Gem Store, so me (and people like me) not spending money in the gem store would have quit the game long ago when we were forced to craft or do PvE for any exotic gear beside Invaders.
If GW2 launched without the gem stores option to convert gems-gold, they would have lost a hell of a lot of revenue, revenue that is used to create things like Living World every 2 weeks, constant additions of art (it takes a lot of resources and time to design, create and implement a set of weapon skins), hiring more employees, upgrading and adding new tech, creating new and improved systems for the game and countless other things that most people are unaware of.
I am quite happy to pay to help make this game a great game. I don’t expect special treatment for spending as much as I do, because I’m aware that a decent portion what I spend goes back into the game, whether it’s through paying somebodies wage, additional art assets, new maps, new content, or even additional tech upgrades.
When design direction starts taking advantage of me (Ascended Crafting) and time-gating things to coerce me into buying more and more gems-gold, that is when I stop buying gems. I don’t give a kitten about paying for expansions, if those expansions increase level cap or add more vertical progression or power creep to the game.
I keep all the email receipts so I can manage how much I put into this game. Last check was quite substantially higher than a subscription MMO. To put it into perspective, I have payed for about 15 years worth of subscription since launch. Out of that time I have been afk for around a total of 4 months. I don’t mind though, the money I spend on gems and gems-gold means I can spend more of my game time doing the things I enjoy, not wasting my valuable time doing the things I don’t enjoy.
The only problem is when aspects of the game become time gated. Laurels and time-gated Transmutations for crafting means much of my time is now spent doing daily chores, gathering, daily achievements, charging stones, transmuting ascended wood and metal. Since these features have crept into the game, I cannot use money to avoid the grind, I need to use time, unfortunately time is more valuable to me. I spend 2-3 hours in GW2 on weekdays and around 6-8 hours a day on weekends doing WvW. I do not want to spend that time farming, gathering or refining for bind on account gear and since it is now time gated, I no longer have to spend money on it either. ANet is losing quite a lot of money from me and others like me since time gating was introduced.
Elthurien you simply play the wrong genre than
MMORPG´s was like this since beginning and even first rpg games 25 years ago you needed time for lvling or crafting or whatever
you should trie some single player games or shooters
seriously
I’m playing (or working more often than not) the game that was advertised. I was completely satisfied with what the game offered when Exotic was the gear cap and Legendaries were the final long term goal. I’m no stranger to MMOs or RPGs in general, I’ve played RPGs starting from Pen and Paper Roleplaying games right through to the current generation MMOs, so telling me that MMOs are not for me is just kitten absurd. MMOs were like this at the beginning, but Guild Wars 2 was marketed as a deviation from the norm. As we progress and new content is added, it is no longer the game it was advertised to be, but just another MMORPG with the same gear grind, except in this case the grind is much higher than most MMORPGs.
For the record, I already play shooters AND single player games, AND I do adhoc testing for singleplayer games and MMOs. If I wanted to work, I expect to get payed for working, when I want to play a game, I expect to be able to PLAY the game, not waste 2-3 hours a day farming, doing daily transmutations, daily achievements before I even get a chance to get out into WvW and PLAY the game.
If you like working, get a kitten job. Stop introducing work into games.
I would gladly pay Arenanet $100 to have an account full of level 80s of each class in maximum gear that upgrades with each new tier just so I can play the game instead of grinding through countless hours of bullkitten for the opportunity.
it’s meant to be something to work for. Hopefully it takes 2-3 months to craft a full set.
This is where I am beginning to sour toward this content grind. I don’t play video games to Work I already work in real life, when I log into GW2 I want to spend that time playing the game.
Total up how many hours you spend in GW2 doing tedious content (aka working) and put a $/hour value on it. It’s scary to think how much time/money is lost on grind.
Lets say all you want to do is WvW or run dungeons, to get the most out of it and enjoy it you need to slog your way through 80 levels, then farm countless hours of gold and materials to gear up. It may be fun the first time, but after 5 characters, I’ve had enough. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want my spare time to be spent doing things I don’t enjoy to reach a point where I can enjoy the game. Ascended trinkets were the beginning of the end for me, yet I still play, weapons arrived and I still reluctantly tow the line, 6 pieces of armour and I dare say I will be moving on to another title, Life is too short to waste 3000 hours working towards something you are supposed to enjoy.
Yes
I like the new lakes section of the map
Yes
I like the bloodlust buff, HOWEVER I don’t believe it should stack.
I would have preferred it if each home borderland only gave the bloodlust boon to the home server. If there were four buffs, one for each borderland and a fourth for holding Stonemist castle, but you could only ever get two stacks at once, your home borderland and that of Stonemist.
What in the world is happening in this thread?
Mesmers do not own confusion. Have you ever heard of engineers? These runes are not an attack on mesmers. Yes, these runes give whoever uses them a good source of confusion ( including mesmers…). I think this is a good thing because they open up a lot of new and interesting condition builds.
erm confusion is the core condition for mesmer. we have very little other conditions and so far only engi and mesmers could viably stack it.our traitline and scepter for exampe have a lot to do with confusion. now every class can stack it better then mesmers with 1 rune! then anet pleast give me a permastalthrune, perma binding root rune, perma knockdown rune, permastun rune and a necrowell rune.
a glamesmer has thoughness of around 1.6k and our power was 900, and condition dmg was 1.7k. thats what we gave up for being able to stack confusion. mesmers really dont have other conditions to viably stack. now every other class that has interrupts gets free 25 stacks next to being able to deal decent dps dmg! i mean wtf!
Bleeding is the core condition for Thieves, I don’t see any Thieves complaining that there is a sigil that grants 60% chance on crit to cause bleeding damage. I’m glad they’re bringing out runes and sigils that break the monotony. Confusions were never exclusive to Mesmers, I’ve been able to stack confusion with an Engineer since forever.
I pumped 30 rare hammers + Forge stones into the toilet yesterday and came out the other side with a chaos gun. Not bad turn around for about 8g worth of rare hammers.
Now whether to sell it or make Quip….
If you love your engie then Quip it out!
I’m seriously considering selling it and holding the gold aside for when crafting is increased to 500. I’ve got the gift of exploration and battle, 100 icy runes and 50 clovers but I’m only sitting on around 5-70 of the T6 trophies and dust required for the other gifts. If 500 crafting is due by the end of the year (idk when it is due) then I’m gonna need the gold and the trophies
I pumped 30 rare hammers + Forge stones into the toilet yesterday and came out the other side with a chaos gun. Not bad turn around for about 8g worth of rare hammers.
Now whether to sell it or make Quip….
(edited by Elthurien.8356)
I just don’t like Defiance stacks, they remove the trinity but then punish tactical gameplay. Seems like poor design there
The thing with defiance is that it seems it was introduced to stop us keeping bosses stunned. However, i think it was done in a very bad way. It would be better if you gain stacks each CC used and it reduces the effectiveness while being on a timer for them to disappear. This would make CC more useful without resulting in perma-stunning bosses.
Yeah I understand why, I just think it could have been done better. Rather than having defiant stacks, allow the first CC to work and add immuniy after the fact for a specific duration. You could also add diminishing returns on the subsequent attacks of the same type if the immunity wasn’t enough. That way you can interrupt when it is required but chaining CC will be inneffective.
If this were the case then maybe the developers could actually give bosses something worth interrupting too
I have mixed feelings regarding the trinity, I enjoy GW2 combat but I do miss healer/tank style gameplay on occasion. I think it would be fun if there was a dungeon (or Raid)that let two players “tank” and “off tank” in a Golem, and a couple of players can equip a wrench or Asuran ranged repair gun (like a welder). It could still be done without changing the way the game works.
I just don’t like Defiance stacks, they remove the trinity but then punish tactical gameplay. Seems like poor design there
My first main character is an 80 Thief so when I’m playing one of my other characters whether it’s a Guard, Engi or Ranger and I die to a Thief I know exactly why I die and what I could have done to avoid it. Most of the time I just shrug my shoulders and take a different path to catch up to my team. I rarely bother wasting my time on thieves in WvW, it’s not worth the effort when I could be doing something useful for my server
Do you go out of your way to punish bad players in WvW?
When you see these things do you tend to focus the player to make them learn?:
1. Full Signet Thief/Warrior
2. Lich Form On Necro
3. Uplevled Ranger/Engi
4. Stumbling across a roamer doing PvE
5. Scepter Wielding Guardian
6. Level 30 or below food (I.E. Increase burning duration 5% food) Oils 3/1% Boost.
I tend to focus a few of these types of players, but normally running with commander and sticking close to group so I cant even though I want to kill all of the above.
I’ll only go out of my way to kill them when I’m PvE farming on my up-leveled Engi/Ranger, Full signet Thief or Warrior, scepter wielding guardian or lich form necro while buffing myself with cheeseburgers and level one tuning crystals.
This is the build I use when running with the ranged pack of a zerg.
- Soldier Armor with Superior Rune of the Pack (+165 pow; +100 pre) or Divinity Runes for +60 to all stats and 12% Crit damage.
- Soldier Weapons with Bloodlust and Generosity on the Pistols, Fire (or Restoration) on the Shortbow
- Ascended Berserker Trinkets (Precision and Vitality Infusions)
- Ascended Soldier backpack (Vitality Infusion)
- I use Lemongrass Poultry for the bonus Vitality and +200 power when low on health
- Potent sharpening stones for additional power.
- Infiltrator’s Signet, Roll for Initiative, Quick Recovery and Opportunist for high Initiative regeneration focus to ensure you always have initiative for whatever the commander calls for.
- Pistol focused traits for ricochet, pistol mastery and combo critical chance.
- Vigorous recovery works really well with withdraw, giving vigor and an additional evade/escape/breaker every 15 seconds in addition to Roll for Initiatives evade/escape/breaker.
This build puts out moderate damage with the option to focus fire on enemy commanders with dual pistols for either unload or headshot (which can ricochet to nearby enemies). Shortbow is reserved for CGC/CB for area weakness, CB for water fields when the commander calls for it and if everything goes to custard, chain disabling shot, withdraw, roll for initiative and infiltrator arrow to get as far away as possible when a retreat is called or if the ranged squad is taking too much fire.
This build still enables relatively good health (17.5k) and Armor (almost 2.4k) while still maintaining a 40% crit chance and 2.4k power and almost 70% crit damage not including the bloodlust stacks or might stacking from a zerg.
(edited by Elthurien.8356)
The only thing that impresses me is that people will go to great lengths to do boring grinding to get one. I’m sure some people find it fun, but to me grinding 250 trophies of each kind is the killer. I’ve gotten the precursor, the clovers, the gifts but the trophies are just too rare IMO and I refuse to grind
I wouldn’t say I’m impressed but more confounded for the lengths that people go to in order to acquire them.
(edited by Elthurien.8356)
In order to promote the other dungeons besides CoF I would like to suggest a daily dungeon achievement that rewards bonus tokens and loot bag for a random dungeon each day.
This would be hilarious.
Roaming Thief sees a friendly zerg coming his way…
“Hey Guys! Where you headed?….guys? …GUYS!?…Aaaarrghwrblwrbowrbl”
Bolt, it’s so much cooler. Seriously Moot? it’s a freaking disco ball.
I’m working on the Moot specifically so I can bring me some Disco back one thumping beat at a time.
Wheres Indo when you need an inspirational speech?
He’s gone to get a drink he said he’d brb.
More trait points and more trait tiers is power creep. Screw that.
Additional traits, maybe even additional trait lines would be nice though.
+1
I’m all for additional traits and more lines. I don’t want more trait points though, we would have to go through another complete balance overhaul.
I think Guardian would suit what you are after.
I was playing Rift: Planes of Telara after mistakenly thinking it was going to have RvR content. Saw a forum post about GW2s WvW and a leaked map of Eternal Battlegrounds and had been following it ever since. I did play a little of the original Guild Wars and thought how cool it would be to finally get to play a Norn and Charr.
Both characters are rather forgettable in my opinion. I’m playing both sides just to maintain the status quo. I don’t care one-way or the other which one wins the election, I don’t even know/care what will happen when one of them wins, I hear something about a new fractal and some reduced costs to waypoints or trading post and it really doesn’t affect me in the slightest so I don’t care about the outcome. The rewards/benefits for one side winning aren’t clearly defined unless you dig for them and I have no interest in digging for them so I just continue to play the game how I always have.
ANET should make to where if someone runs by a downed character or while in an event and not rez EVERYONE in rez range should instantly get a one-shot death(not just downed). {:þ
Or maybe they could have a bad karma mechanic that reduces their magic find, xp and gold find chance whenever they refuse to help people. (I’m kidding by the way)
I don’t think I have ever ignored somebody in a downed state in this game. Unless it was in a specifically dangerous scenario where eliminating the threat is a higher priority than reviving the downed.
Bought the Energizer on the TP for 30g about 6 months ago
So far I have:
- Gift of Battle
- Gift of Explorer
- 50 Mystic clovers
- 250 Globs of Ectoplasm
- Between 5-50 of each T6 trophy (Nowhere near the required amount for the Gifts)
- The Energizer
I don’t even want the Mace to be honest, but no matter how hard I try or how much I sink in to the Mystic Toilet I can’t get a Thief Precursor. I can use it on my Guardian but I wonder whether it’s worth the effort.
There’s no point precasting IS into steal? You’re better off just casting IS for the 600 teleport and then precast PW into steal/shadowstep/infiltrators signet. This makes you cover a bigger distance and let’s you hit PW faster and more reliable.
I agree with this. Use iStrike first as 9 times out of 10 the target will blow their stun breaker/condition removal to break the immobilise. Once they do this you can follow up with a precast PW & Steal/iSignet or shadowstep to queue the primary attack. In most cases the target will have blown their CC breaker on the iStrike and will be vulnerable to the pistol whip stun.
I bought one 5 stack of keys and got one scrap from it. That was enough warning for me to leave that RNG crap the hell alone.
Those who live in the past don’t necessarily know more than those that live in the present.
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
Most senior developers remember the past quite well which is why MMOs are beginning to learn from past mistakes. They are also making new mistakes which the new generation of developers as well as senior developers can learn from and not repeat or refine and improve from.
I still think GW2 is currently the best PC game on the market (that’s right I said best game, not just best MMO), sure it has a few issues, some things I don’t particularly like and other things I believe could be done better but I still think it is the best game available at this moment in time.
Ricochet makes this set acceptable but it would definitely be an improvement if it were 100% chance to ricochet.
Body shot is pretty good considering other professions can only apply 4 stacks of vulnerability with a skill (warrior mace#4 or Axe #2).
Unload is brilliant damage when combined with ricochet giving a chance to do 8k damage and spread some of it to nearby enemies. It’s nowhere near as good as Ranger rapid fire though and suffers from the same retaliation problem as any multi-hit attack.
Shadow Strike is in a much better place since torment was added and is actually quite good for non-condition builds as well. The dagger attack crits for about 3.5k in berserker gear.
Sneak attack also does pretty good damage and stacks a few bleeds up.
I’m currently toying around with a berserker p/p & p/d build which is quite good. Not as bursty as backstab, but I stay at ranged for the most part. When I get engaged in melee I c&d, sneak attack, shadow strike and press on from ranged.
Remember you can steal mid pistol whip to make up for being rooted. Also you can move while it’s activating. Get those two actions down and it’s hard to not hit them with the whole flurry.
Infiltrator signet also works if your steal is on cooldown. Typically I will lead with inf strike, wait for them to use stun break and/or dodge, then preload pistol whip and use either steal or inf signet to close the distance.
Does TW GvG anymore? Whispered their leader a few times this week (no reply) and challenged on gw2gvg.com
Indo is off playing some D&D with natives in the Amazon.
No way, Indo’s just gone AFK to get a drink, he’ll brb.
I’m going to tell it like it is;
One’s perspective on gold acquisition is directly tied to the price of items in the game, and how far one is from having that much gold (one’s personal rate of income)—and that’s exactly how it is in the real world—no brainer, but just think about this for a moment; There are lots of different people out there doing different things.
The Rich
‘Pro’ Trade Post flippers
Hardcore dungeon speed runners
Real-world wealthy gem buyers
One-time (or more) lucky RNG winners of high-priced itemsThe Middle-to-low income class
Everyone elseIf you’re not in The Rich category of gamer, you will always “have to work quite a lot for [your] gold”. There is no way around this, not here in GW2 nor in the real world.
And finally, and this is an important concept—even if there was some ‘magical’ way for you to get more gold (as a “middle-to-low income class” gamer) the same would apply to everyone else as well, and prices for everything would naturally increase accordingly, and so you and everyone else would be in no different a situation.
So you need to decide where you want to be. If that ain’t in The Rich category, you’ll just need to be satisfied with your lot.
This is exactly right and even though I’m not in the rich category, I’m relatively satisfied with where I am.
I just got this on my Ranger last night. I love it
Ok, let me rephrase your initial statement so that it is actually true.
It is too hard to earn gold in this game if you do not do dungeons (cof p1) or world bosses. The fastest ways to make money in this game are too easy and require no skill. I enjoy aspects of the game that require more player skill such as tpvp, wvw and fotm but these are all incredibly unrewarding and I am left broke, while others are lazily making thousands of gold farming cof p1.
Now this is a valid complaint, not that you can only (lol) make a few gold an hour farming cof p1 compared to the elistist (lol) groups that can make a lot more.
This is the only issue I have. Being WvW, FotM and other dungeons just aren’t as profitible as CoF1 or World Bosses. I’ve made a lot of money in this game but I tend to spend it just as quick as I earn it. That’s no ones fault but my own. I want to spend all of my time in WvW but I can’t, I literally need to go out and do PvE and dungeons or convert gems to gold in order to maintain the status quo.
Tried it and still do it on the odd occasion. When I do play sPvP I generally cycle through each map once and by that time I’ve become bored of it and go back to WvE and PvE. Why don’t I like it?
- It’s all too much of the same.
- It’s only conquest or conquest with a slightly different gimmick.
- It’s always the same professions and builds.
- It has no impact on anything outside of sPvP (and I don’t really want it to either)
A commander book is a power tool nothing more nothing less. Some people are good at using power tools to get a job done, while others are more than likely going to hurt themselves or others while they figure out how to use it. Just because you have a tool, doesn’t mean you know how to use it.
Currently thiefs don’t really bring anything in WvW then just annoying people who insist on killing them rather then just moving on.
Pvt shortbow thieves disagree with you.
Thieves are very useful outside of roaming, it is instantly noticable when a good commander calls for blast finishers and there are no shortbow thieves present.
Most of my gear is acquired naturally through playig the game either through WvW, Temple/Karma or Crafting. Occasionally I’ll get enough dungeon tokens to buy a piece of dungeon gear but Dungeons tend to take up too much of my time finding a group when I’d rather just be out doing open world events or WvW. As much as I dislike Ascended gear, the reasoning behind it is primarily due to it limiting how I am able to play my characters. I like that exotics aren’t typically hard to acquire because I can own several sets tailored to various builds.
With ascended gear, I will be locked into one set of gear/build for a prolonged period of time which is where my problem lies. I like being able to switch to condition , direct damge, healing or tanky gear, spend a few silver on resetting my traits and doing something different if my current build is feeling stale. Once Ascended Armour comes into the game I will be unable to do this for several months or even years depending on how long it takes to get several sets of Ascended gear for each of my characters. Once that becomes too much of an issue is when I will be seriously considering whether to log in or find another home.
Depends what you mean by Oceanic. If you Asian then yeah China is. I wouldn’t want to go to an Oceanic/SEA server though, plenty of us are happy fighting the good fight on the US servers.
So how much real money does one need to spend to get one weapon skin? I don’t mind spending money on gems but there is a fine line between buying skins and funnelling money into a slot machine-like chance at winning nothing.