Guild Wars 2

Dahkeus.8243:

Yea, the balance patch will have a big effect on whether I start investing in gems again, but my hopes aren’t high.

I’m really hoping that ANet can eventually learn how to balance classes so that certain classes aren’t completely left out of the raid meta as well as to handle just how blatantly inferior some spells/abilities are (looking at you, Necro GS).

I think the balance shouldn’t be “no class completely left out,” but instead “no class is essential/required.” There’s a subtle difference, I’ll admit, but I think it’s also an important difference. One often overlooked when a change causes people to exclaim their class will no longer be wanted in raids, fractals, or whatever other content is the flavor of the complaint.

~EW

Kite.2510:

I’m talking about the big ones of course.
These enemies where and still is very annoying to deal with.

• They can’t be CC’ed.
• They hit like a truck.
• They CC you a ton.
• They have tons of skills that kill you if you get CC.
• They have retaliation.
• They evade 1/3 of the time.
• They are extremely tanky.
• And the worst of all, they have a second energy bar after you chip away the first.

They look like a vet, but fight like a champ.

Yup, I love ‘em for all those reasons. They’re the perfect mob to test builds against. Defiance bars would ruin that.

~EW

X T D.6458:

On the surface, one might think well whats wrong with making it easier for people to get what they want. Here is the issue, when everything becomes cheap and easy to get, players get bored because there is no desire or drive to do anything because there is no challenge and you feel as though you put no effort into achieving anything because you just rely on a broken mechanic to do anything.

Well, then there’s no problem since everything is not going down in price, nor becoming cheap and easy to get. Some things are, sure; most specifically the mats that can be farmed via AB. And because of that, wealth is being redistributed via the TP in a way that some aren’t used to. For that exact same reason many items that aren’t available through the AB/ML go up in price… namely those that require effort to obtain and/or a lot of gold to buy (supply hasn’t changed, but with more people with more old-gold money to buy than they’re used to means prices go up). So, don’t worry yourself about players getting bored with everything becoming cheap and easy to get ‘cause it’s not happening.

~EW

Nothing, yet. Maybe even nothing ever. Maybe something tomorrow.

I don’t think a TP price drop in a commodity, even ectos, means AB/ML is having a negative effect on the economy. What’s important with any mmo economy is that gold sinks balance with new gold generation (the TP is a gold sink). Commodity prices can jump up and down all they want so long as a balance is maintained between new gold and gold sinks. If all prices of all commodities skyrocket or drop, then that does demonstrate severe inflation/deflation, meaning that new/sink balance is outta whack. We’re not even close to that scenario. And, outside of that scenario I see no reason why ectos can’t be 20s or even less.

For my part, I don’t do AB/ML. It’s not about gold, economy, or whatever else. It’s about me not wishing to participate in something that rewards players who failed a map with the rewards of those that succeeded. I also think it breaks the spirit of the game to loot multiple times the rewards allocated to one event. But, that’s me, and I understand that others don’t have that issue.

~EW

For Regeneration to be very useful, there needs to be an investment in Healing Power, which many people don’t build for. So, even if it is in common use, I’m skeptical that it is applied as usefully as it could.

Regeneration is very powerful, though, when Healing Power is invested in a build. Since it stacks in duration, those people who use it in big groups but don’t use HP, just shoot themselves in the foot when more powerful Regen applied by others is waiting to finally get its ticks.

I don’t think that a boon being common is reason enough to change it. Especially as when, as I mentioned above, my doubts that it is being used effectively. Fury and swiftness are all really common to have up near-constantly (especially in large groups), does that mean they need to change?

I never assume I have any boon on me, unless I know I’m putting it on myself. That makes getting boons from other’s a pleasant surprise when I get them, instead of a disappointment in an unfulfilled expectation when it’s not there.

Regeneration is fine as-is, and a diamonds-became-glass reason isn’t good enough to change it.

~EW

Kruhljak.2705:

Every salvage kit states that it has an “X% chance for rarer materials.” However, does anyone know what this suspicious claim actually means?

I used to think this applied to items that could yield a +1 mat from standard salvaging (for example Hardened Leather over Thick for L80 medium armor). But…

My recent ~4k salvagings using Mystic kits on L80 blue/green medium armors attests otherwise. That result was 9.25% chance to yield Hardened Leather over Thick, which just so happens to be pretty close to my earlier testing using Basic kits which came in at 8.25% over ~3.5k results. This smells like any kit may have the same, or similar, chance to get a +1 tier mat. My sample sizes are large enough to reveal the gulf between the 25% claim (if it even applies here) and actual results, if not showing total accuracy. I also broke results up into 500 unit batches (before combining them for a final number) to ensure there were no oddities. No batches exceeded 11.5% chance.

In addition, a small sample of about 120 exos salvaged over a several month span using Black Lion Kits which claim a 50% chance for rarer materials only produced 18% T6 mats from strictly L80 exotics. Higher than Mystic/Master’s, but nowhere near 50%. It’s unlikely a massive sample would make up such a huge difference. Especially as the presence of a large gap between the claimed chance and my actual numbers remains regardless of the kit.

So, in my experience, it seems safe to say the chance for rarer materials does not apply (or is not correctly applied) to simple salvaging of gear that has a chance to yield a +1 tier mat.

Is it possible that the % chance of rarer materials means a bonus % off the base chance? For example using round numbers, let’s say the base chance of getting a +1 tier mat is 8%, and you use a Mystic Salvage Kit that gives you a 25% chance at rarer materials… then it’s a 25% better chance off the base 8%… meaning you now have a 10% chance.

That’s the best reasoning I can come up with off the top of my head.

~EW

Cyanide

/15CharrOnADeadNorn’sChest

~EW

mauried.5608:

This thread has had 32025 people read it so far, but only 183 people have chosen to respond.
Thats 0.57%.
What does that tell you?

Everyone likes a show.

~EW

I’d choose new weapons if they’re unarmed/brawling weapons….

…I will forever want to punch dragons to death.

~EW

No hard numbers were given yesterday on how the balances will actually affect the classes. The way things will be balanced, it could be in your favor…. none of us know yet. On top of all that not all of the balance changes coming were mentioned.

Quit knee-jerk panicking over conclusions that can’t yet be made.

~EW

mauried.5608:

Why cant you get 100+ charged lodestones from playing the game?
Is there a hardware coded maximum limit per player?

You can, but just like any rare drops in large numbers it takes dedicated farming. Added to that: patience and time.

When I’ve farmed them, i get on average 1 per 15 min… after an hour I’ll have 3-5, and I’ll go do something else before DR kicks in too badly. Doing this 1/day you could conceivably get all 100 in about a month…

…way too much time investment for some folks… but imo if you’re making something called a “legendary” it should take a massive amount of work and time investment. Ymmv….

… but that’s just one means to get them by playing.

~EW

Razor.9872:

D:

But, I love Tangled Depths!

You and the OP better never meet, otherwise Tyria might end! O.O

~EW

Dang it! I wuz gonna take the day off to splurge in the Halloween festivities… but I have to throw a birthday party for our department’s director.

Not fair, Gaile!

~EW

I come here for the information, I stay here for the schadenfreude.

@Gaile, the balance/skill teams, & ANet generally: I look forward to seeing the actual changes wrought; good and bad. Especially those you didn’t mention.

~EW

Teratus.2859:

I strongly advise Vengeance be redesigned so that instead of instantly dying when it expires.. the Warrior falls back into a downed state and Vengeance goes on a long cooldown to balance it against overuse..

I like your idea.

Atm, I mostly bother with Vengeance in large group fights to reposition where I’ll die to be convenient for someone to rez me. Otherwise I pretend it’s not there…. either it doesn’t proc a rally, or I die before the initial cooldown finishes to use it.

~EW

Artaz.3819:

Interesting, I never did the Leadership Runes version. I prefer Battle Standard over a Signet Mastery/Signet of Rage build (which also locks you into Arms trait line) to provide some group support since banner has single-handedly won close zerg fights. Plus Banner gives boons too. And Durability does provide Protection boon for cover (even if only on hit). I landed on a Defense/Discipline/Berserker build because I love me some Adrenaline/F2 spam but it leaves options for non-essential traits and can handle different weapon setups too.

I got out of the habit of using banners in WvW because either I’d too frequently get out of range, or the casting/carrying became a liability. So these days I rarely even think of them for any WvW build… a PvE build, though, I think Battle Standard would be really good.

I rather like the arms trait line for my build, tbh. Since I’m using Wanderer’s, my crit chance is otherwise shot. But, with Signet mastery + fury I hold on to a ~40% crit chance most of the time with the occasional ~50% peaks. Even w/o any ferocity, it still synergizes with Rending Strikes and any on-crit sigils that catch my fancy to try out. Dual Wielding is also a nice perk of the line since I’m using offhand axe… but the warhorn you’ve got going might be better, and if I were to do that it’d give the freedom to drop Signet of Rage and take Burst Precision over Dual Wielding. Atm my trait selection is Arms/Defense/Tactics.

Artaz.3819:

I guess if Durability Runes get nerfed, I would probably use Leadership Runes but then have to swap some Commander gear for Wanderer to make up for the Vitality difference. All personal preference at that point. Rune of Defender (supplement with Shield also becomes an interesting rune choice alternative if Signet Mastery build to me)

Rune of the Herald would also be worth considering. I still prefer Rune of the Revenant only because it gives more resistance… meaning it takes less boon duration to keep myself in perma-resistance. As it stands, I find I can barely keep resistance up all the time at 60% duration, and comfortably at 80%.

Artaz.3819:

I’d never use Vigilant, I don’t see a need for condition duration since any burn/bleed damage is just bonus (seems minor in outcome or does no/little damage) so it’s either Commander or Wanderer. Food + Utility + Exotic trinkets with Platinum Doubloons to make up the difference to get to 100%.

Lol, I started with Vigilant because it was the cheapest/easiest thing for me to put together to otherwise test the other stuff going in the build. It worked okay with Berserker mace/mace or mace/warhorn, but there is a reason I’m moving onto Wanderers…. Like you I didn’t think the condi-duration from vigilant was good for burn/bleed… but possibly for the non-damaging condis that we can inflict. The one thing that Vigilant has over the others is Toughness as a primary stat… increasing AC by roughly 250ish as I recall. I’m choosing Wanderer’s over Commander’s mostly to have the vitality make up a bit of the toughness loss. If I weren’t running signet mastery, I’d definitely use Commander’s.

Artaz.3819:

Overall, having perma-resistance boon makes it a tougher than normal to take down WvW build – no doubt about that. Downside, is it’s also expensive to run and to make the gear for it to work. And no matter what you do, if you get corrupt spam/zerg pinned, you’re dead but that goes with every class and build.

And, you’ve shown me even more versatility in the build possibilities than I saw previously… thank you for that.

~EW

Djinn.9245:

Donari.5237:

Crafting the precursor offers two things: a guarantee you will get it, and the ability to incrementally progress towards it.

Saving up gold does the same thing

Exactly. No difference,

No difference in the result (obtaining a precursor), but a difference in the means (what you do to incrementally get that precursor).

juno.1840:

EphemeralWallaby.7643:

Marthew.6140:

What exactly is the point of making one?

The satisfaction that you obtained the eventual legendary from start-to-finish on your own. When the sense of accomplishment after putting in the work makes the owning of it feel all the more special.

I generally agree, although I would also say that farming up the gold to buy a precursor on the TP is still “putting in the work” — in other words, no need to belittle those who take a different, yet viable, path to the same result.

Sorry if you took my words as belittling someone, that was not my intent. I honestly have no pony in this race… I see buying a precursor with gold earned by other means, MF gambling for one, crafting one, and buying one using a credit card all equally viable and appropriate to whatever means the player prefers.

~EW

Marthew.6140:

I wasn’t aware there was a lot of satisfaction in throwing gold away.. To each their own.. by all means spend a ton more gold then you need to.

I can easily turn your sentiment back on you by saying that “I wasn’t aware there was a lot of satisfaction in taking shortcuts to obtain something you consider ‘THE end game stuff to strive for.’” You say, “to each their own,” but your statements betray your negative bias.

Carrion.8249:

The devs have never stated that crafting a precursor would be cheaper/faster/easier than buying it on the trading post. They implemented precursor crafting only to give the players a different way of getting one.

Exactly.

~EW

Marthew.6140:

What exactly is the point of making one?

The satisfaction that you obtained the eventual legendary from start-to-finish on your own. When the sense of accomplishment after putting in the work makes the owning of it feel all the more special.

Also, legendary weapons are not “THE end game stuff to strive for.” They are just one of many possible end game goals/treadmills a person can pursue.

~EW

Astralporing.1957:

Even relatively casual players could easily earn over 100g per day then.
…and a median active player didn’t manage to earn 3 gold. In a whole week.

Somehow i don’t think it has changed that much, and so i am 99% certain that even the efficiency data is significantly above the real one.

I’d bet that it has. Even the new (since then) 2g dailies should have shot that up a bit. Add on top of that mat price increases that came with ascended and HoT stats, even those not specifically farming mats make more from the mats they do come across and sell.

However, I do agree with you on the efficiency data.

~EW

(given my gambling skills, you’re probably right and it wouldn’t be a good idea for me to place too much on my bet. )

Djinn.9245:

General Health.9678:

Aldath.1275:

Hello guys. I got HoT on pre release, but didn’t start playing until recently with my new Daredevil.

Seems a bit unfair to blame anet for you not playing in the zones earlier.

This is a strawman – no new player is allowed to get these collections?

You’re the one who just made a strawman. The OP is not a new player, nor a new owner of HoT. GH’s comment incorporates that fact, and is specifically directed towards the OP. Generalizing his point to encompass all new players to argue a point clearly not made by GH = strawman.

Back on topic: While HoT has its flaws, it also does things different than the rest of GW2… change from the status quo is good. Those flaws that do exist, while not likely to completely be addressed, are also not likely to be repeated. The successful changes are going to be built on in future content. The change also means that there are going to be things that don’t mesh well with players who are otherwise satisfied with the core game. These concerns have been addressed in many other threads/posts… and it’s always important to keep in mind that just because you don’t like something, it doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing… it just means it’s a bad thing for you.

If you are like me, a solely solo player (which is what it sounds like), then there are going to be many things you will not be able to do on your own timetable… it becomes a matter of keeping an eye out for those sporadic times when what you need to do (like a mastery/heropoint train) are being actively pursued by the map , and hop into them the moment you see them. Likewise, when you find yourself solo in events that obviously require a group your choice becomes to challenge yourself and see what you can make of it, or go somewhere else… That is part of the expectation one should have when going solo, especially in HoT.

HoT maps want players to come together and work together on something larger than most can do purely solo…. this is obviously more easily organized and accomplished with guilds (especially larger guilds). All the events are still done…. but just not all the time because of the organization/participation required. Prime-time playing (when possible) and regularly looking for squads that are doing what you can’t solo are how you efficiently check such things off your to-do list.

HoT expects players to organize meta-event completion by at least partially using the squads and taxi tools. While I can see how this rankles some players, and can be an inconvenience, it think it also has its virtues.

edit: HoT at the very least it changes what it means to be a solo player. But, not much more than what we got used to with World Bosses and other such events in the game… it’s just on a larger scale.

/mytwocents

~EW

Harak.8397:

Let yourselves be inspired by the Charr in the middle with the bandoliere. ( I mean you own that particular piece of art anyway ) A chest piece that’s mostly just a harness for ammunition. ( Something that would let fur patterns/skin show through.

Check out the Scallywag Chest for males; it might help satisfy you in this regard: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Scallywag_armor

~EW

Hesacon.8735:

Charr have fleas.

Only the Flame Legion. The rest of us tend to be very attentive to hygiene.

Just like how only the Nightmare Court have aphids and slugs.

~EW

Artaz.3819:

Finally, since you are running a perma-resistance setup, the only way to get there is Berserker Stance, Healing Signet and Durability Runes (not required but very good for base overlap) plus heavy boon duration gear and typically traited with Last Stand. Berserker Stance pulses every 3s so any use during that time is quickly replaced with the next tick < 3s later.

Actually the build I’m currently running is slightly different: Wanderer’s gear (was Vigilant; either works), Healing Sig, Bers Stance, and Revenant Runes. I also replaced all the trinket jewels with Plat doubloons. Signet Mastery means I can use Sig of Rage every time it’s up for near-perma swift/might/fury, which fits in nicely with the padding boons you recommend. Other padding comes from Axe 4, 4GJ, Spiked Armor, and Last Stand.

I had dismissed Dogged March because of the lack of HP, but your argument for it makes sense. Thanx for that!

~EW

Do you move while you’re in combat, or mostly stay in one place?

Do you use keybinds, or click your skills?

Standing still and clicking skills can make combat noticeably more difficult. Constant movement makes enemies hit less often, and using keybinds means you can react better to what you’re seeing the enemies do.

Oh, and just in case, do you play in 1st or 3rd person? (I know it’s not likely you’re playing in 1st, but that can do it, too.)

~EW

If there were a back piece that had 9 tails, we could cosplay as Naruto!

(j/k, don’t hate me)

~EW

Amaimon.7823:

Hesacon.8735:

Amaimon.7823:

Destiny’s Edge, and now the Dragon’s Watch is a non-profit organization. Only costs made in the war against the elder dragons can be deducted. Personal costs and quality of life costs are at the cost of the commander of the Dragon’s Watch.

I collect a second paycheck from being commander of the Pact and a third for my role in the ongoing Mists War. Between these three sources I think I can afford a modest home on the upper west side of Lion’s Arch overlooking the bay.

you’re not commander of the pact anymore, remember. You’re unemployed, working nonprofit for DW

Job-O-Tron’s got your back…. for 500 gems in the gemstore.

Hesacon.8735:

I’m sylvari, I still haven’t fully recovered from my ordeals. I don’t know what’s real anymore.

Come join us Charr at Meatoberfest. If you like, you can sit on the side until you’re no longer feeling tossed. The ranch sauce is real, I assure you.

~EW

To be able to salvage Temple armor for any runes applied to it.

Personally, I don’t care if that’s the only thing that can be salvaged from them, but it’d be nice to at least get runes back.

~EW

Choppy.4183:

Buy a cheap rune from the TP, apply it, and then try to salvage. Iirc, you can’t salvage wvw armor for mats or anything else, but you can salvage stuff you apply to it after the fact.

Might be the same with karma armor.

I just gave that a go, and it still didn’t work. Sorry, Choppy, but it seems that temple armor is still a black-hole for runes.

~EW

edit: @OP: Put in a support ticket for your account name. Your serial number should not be showing on the forums. It happens to some new players occasionally, and it can be fixed.

EphemeralWallaby.7643:

Choppy.4183:

Iirc, you can salvage them out now. You can certainly salvage runes you’ve added to wvw armor, as of several months ago, and I believe the same is true for karma armor.

I had not heard about that change. I’ll give it a test tonight… I really hope you’re right!

~EW

I just bought a piece of Armageddon armor from the temple merchant in the Cathedral of Zephyrs, and I’m unable to salvage it.

~EW

Meridian.4983:

how long until we see someone RP a human pretending to be a charr with those ears?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: all humans secretly wish they were Charr.

As far as the RP goes, they look nothing like Charr ears, so I doubt you’ll see it. Even if you do, so what? Different strokes for different folks…. we all have our ways of finding fun.

~EW

I’ve missed this every year, so I’m excited to finally be able to give it a go.

~EW

ArchonWing.9480:

Oh, so it was a thing in Guild Wars 1 too. Then, what are people uppity about anyways?

This is the internet…. does there need to be any other reason? o.O

~EW

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

EphemeralWallaby.7643:

I’ve started using mine for a weekly key-farm. 1 scroll + 45min = 1 key + 11 bags of loot…. I think that’s a decent trade-off.

What sort of key farm are you doing that takes 45 min? Even Wooden Potatoes video explaining how to run the key farm in under 16 minutes lasts only 24 minutes. What are you doing with your other 20 minutes?

(I don’t mean to suggest there’s anything wrong with taking your time. I am more curious as to whether you’re doing something that’s more interesting than the typical farm and might influence me to change how I run it.)

Honestly, I don’t know why it takes me that long. I’m doing what I understand is the quicker way to do it: Warrior, human, commoner, ineffable berserk gear, skip the dialogue, utilize waypoints and my home-port stone… It has been getting quicker each time I do it.

It just might be that it’s one of the first things I do Sunday mornings, and I’m just not caffeinated enough yet, lol.

~EW

Choppy.4183:

Iirc, you can salvage them out now. You can certainly salvage runes you’ve added to wvw armor, as of several months ago, and I believe the same is true for karma armor.

I had not heard about that change. I’ll give it a test tonight… I really hope you’re right!

~EW

I’ve started using mine for a weekly key-farm. 1 scroll + 45min = 1 key + 11 bags of loot…. I think that’s a decent trade-off.

(Once I burn through all my scrolls, I’ll then turn to my stacks of tomes. )

Toasa.1236:

You can trade 20 of them for 1 tome. (Myani)

You’re thinking Writs of Experience, which can be traded 20:1 for a tome. Experience scrolls are what automatically boost a character to lvl 20/30/40.

~EW

Fwiw I’ve found the sword both fun and very effective in PvE with celestial gear. I think it shines best as a hybrid weapon… not a condi or (of course) power, but hybrid. One of my most effective weapon swaps in this vein was sw/sw + sw/torch…. stacking 3 different conditions, plus having a block, leap, and condi-clear is a very versatile skill-set…. again, in PvE (especially HoT).

I can see why it wouldn’t be very effective in PvP/WvW. I don’t see why a weapon needs or should be ideal in every game mode. Yeah, it’d be nice, but I don’t think it’s necessary or important that it be so.

~EW

edit: PS: necro scepter is superior to sword for single-target and ranged. Warrior 1-h sword is superior to scepter for multi-target in melee. The moment there are 2 enemies that can be closed in on, the sword has superior condi over the Necro scepter.

Also, don’t put expensive runes in Temple karma armor. You won’t be able to get them back should you need to.

Go with the cheap option for runes until you can afford/craft normal armor.

~EW

On those rare occasions I even look at the chat box, if something is written in a language I don’t know then I ignore it and move on. If I can’t read it, whatever is being communicated doesn’t concern me…. just like the majority of what’s typed in English.

~EW

edit: FYI OP deleted their post… my post below was the first response, and not the OP.

Not sure if it’d help, but atm I’m working on a 100% resistance up-time build, and I’ve been rather happy with the results. However, I’ve not yet tested it in WvW (as I’m still trying to make sure I’ve worked out the major kinks), even though that’s my intended goal for it….

…Maybe carry a set of equipment for that build for such condi-bomb occasions? So, when you run into a zerg like that (and die), you swap out equipment and traits before running back into the fray?

Since I haven’t given my build a good WvW test, I can’t fully endorse it’d work for all the non-condi stuff one must face… but a Resistance build might be an option to explore….

~EW

sephiroth.4217:

Which one is not working properly?

Whichever one is won’t be the one people want.

~EW

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Points to glider skins——> Glider skins

I think ANet has decided those are the gw2 versions of mounts.

Now if only updrafts were added to non-HoT Tyria.

~EW

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Im a bit confused. How is creating 5 sets of labor-intensive armor, instead of 3 sets of labor-intensive armor solving the problem?

Remember, Cultural Armor needed 5 sets x 3 weights, thus 15 sets. Or were you thinking the playerbase would prefer these sets to be one style fits all? I don’t know, maybe they would. The Devs would still need to create more 5 race-specific armor sets, rather than 3 weight-specific sets.

I’ve given this concept some thought a while ago, and here’s what I came up with.

On one hand a set of armor could be made for each gender, race, and type making 30 armor sets total that (should) fit perfectly on each character.

Or, on the other hand 30 armor sets could be made (10 for each type), and then tweaked to fit the gender and race wearing it.

Both options make 30 armor sets available…. the first option means that you don’t get any choice what that is, because it’s already tied to your character’s gender/race/type… but it’ll fit perfectly. The second option means that extra development time is needed so that the armors are stretched somewhat appropriately no matter who’s wearing it…. but you have 10 armors to choose from instead of 1.

Even if they don’t all fit well, I think I’d rather have more choices than less.

~EW

When I’m adventuring I ignore the prompt. Most of the time the option eventually goes away.

When I’m farming I welcome the prompt with open inventory arms.

~EW

On Topic: It’d be interesting to see how it’d need to be reworked to stack in intensity… It would definitely change my approach on many of my healing builds.

Off Topic: Y’all’re wrong thinkin’ regen is bad. No healing taken alone is sufficient, and any decent healing build requires stacking healing from multiple sources. Taken alone regen provides more health/sec than many other heals, PLUS it has the added benefit of being a HoT so you can set-and-forget. Automated heal > Activated heal.

~EW

Neurik.1624:

Can permanent resource harvesting tools be used from a shared slot or do they need to be equipped and then returned to the shared slots for use on alts?

You have to equip them from your shared inventory slots. The fastest way to do this is to equip your characters with normal harvesting tools (of the highest quality they can use), and when you log in a character open up your inventory and double-click on the permanent tools…. they’ll swap out with the tools equipped on your character.

Then, before you log out your character, double click on their normal tools in the shared inventory slots, and they’ll swap out again.

It takes a bit of adjusting to, but it becomes second nature pretty quickly.

~EW

Djinn.9245:

The issue isn’t whether you should get XP/shards after you hit 80. The issue is that some players do and some players don’t.

Yet all players can if they’re willing to invest a finite amount of time and effort to do so. No one is suffering exclusion save the exclusion they choose to inflict on themselves.

If you want something bad enough, you find a way. If you don’t, then you find excuses.

~EW

kdaddy.5431:

…snip…other then simply making a goofy build for fun.

Sometimes fun is what matters more in electronic entertainment than having the mathematically best build.

~EW

I’d prefer a MF recipe that takes 1 merchant express, bank express, tp express, and some mystic stones, and gives me an all-in-one express that when I use it lets me choose what express it’ll be…. condensing my expresses into one stack instead of 3.

~EW

Repair npc wages are subsidized by Zommoros now as part of his court-mandated civil service, but he’s not not going to pay money for nothing (his empire is built on the reverse: everyone pays him and they get nothing back)… so removing the repair npcs would cause a huge unemployment spike in Tyria.

(Everyone saw what happened to Job-O-Tron, and most of them don’t want to seek new employment as a glider skin.)

~EW