Guild Wars 2

Eh, I don’t have a problem with giving badges in the achievement chests, and this is coming from a guy who rarely plays WvW and had just about finished collecting his 500 badges when the AP chests started handing them out like candy.

I think it’s little bit extreme to suggest that 500 badges and 100 charged lodestones are the WvW/PvE equivalents. I don’t particularly enjoy WvW but I thought the badges were gross easy compared to the lodestones (yeah, unfortunately I also needed charged).

Uther, if you read Blurry’s thread you’ll see that I had posted a couple times in that thread (before I started this one) about how many weapons I’ve thrown in the forge with nothing to show. Some guys in that thread say it’s a numbers game, if you throw in enough weapons, you’ll get a precursor eventually. That’s true of course, but the problem is that many people have thrown in nearly the value of the precursor they’re after and have gotten nothing.
As someone who has been frustrated for a long time, but has gotten 3 precursors in a week almost right away after trying a different method, let me make a suggestion. Make a good bit of money first. Start buying 80 rares of your choice once you have like 200-300g. Set a limit for yourself of what your forge money is and leave the rest in your bank so you’re not broke if it doesn’t work out for you. Put in buy orders, don’t buy instantly. Sell back any exotics you get, which should even out over time to a fairily large number. Odds are after the first 100g or so you won’t have a precursor yet, but when your exotics sell you should have a large chunk of that back. The do it again. Don’t get upset and blow all your money because you don’t want to wait long enough for your exotics to sell before you have more rares to throw in.

Like I said, I got Dawn and Spark last weekend, and have been tossing rare hammers and staves into the forge all week hoping for one of their precursors. I tossed in around 1500 total but it took all week of doing that. All along I was working from the same stack of 150g I had allotted myself. If you just keep doing it, you should get one eventually. Yes, there is a big luck component but you’re really increasing your chances of getting lucky when you throw an endless stream of rares in.

Ever since I got Spark last weekend, I’ve been throwing in tons of rare hammers and staves, hoping for The Colossus or The Legend. Got Colossus today!

Those shown in the preview are not the only ones you get to choose from. You can choose from any Zenith weapon when you receive the 1000 AP chest.

OP, honestly I feel for you since you don’t like the aesthetic of the new stuff. You’re right, you now have no more reason to try to advance your AP than you did before this system was implemented, and that does suck.

But realistically, what do you expect them to do? There’s just no way they’d be able to make armor and weapon sets that appeal to everyone. Look at the current armor in the game. Is there any single set that is universally loved? I’d say no way, though there are certainly some that are preferred by large portions of the players, like Arah armor. I think that’s probably what they were trying to do with these sets.

Lots of people like scary fiery looking armor, so they did some pieces like that, even though we already have a fire set. For the people who don’t like that look, they tried to do something that is the exact opposite as well, very shiny, almost holy warrior-esque armor. I don’t like either one of them very much, but honestly, it looks to me like they were trying to appeal to as many players as possible in designing these sets, so I can’t very well be offended that they haven’t given me a set that really caters to my taste.

I think the last couple updates have been ready when I’ve come home from work on update day, so sometime between 12 and 5p Eastern. No guarantees of course, but that seems to be the pattern lately.

My understanding is that you won’t buy stuff, you’ll unlock stuff. If you have 4k achievement points, your account will have unlocked the rewards for all tiers up to and including the 4k rewards. You keep the points though, you don’t trade them for the rewards, you simply get access to the rewards. And as far as every point counting, those 300 extra points you have beyond 4k certainly do help you as they bring you closer to 5k and the 5k achievement tier rewards. Make sense?

Yeah, this is a hard situation. I recently got lucky with the forge, but I was in the same boat as you before that. I’m not trying to say you’re doing it wrong, but here are a couple of things I noticed that I had been doing that turned out to be not very helpful.

1) Hoping for a precursor drop in open world, dungeon chests or world boss event chests.
We’ve all heard that this can happen, but it seems to me that it’s just so rare and there’s nothing you can do to increase your chances other than keep doing these things for eternity. Worth a try I guess, but I’d not get my hopes up.

2) Playing the forge impulsively and rushing your attempts
I spent a few months failing at forge attempts after having read about someone’s good luck. I’d decide I had a good chance, I go buy 100-200g worth of rare or exotics and I’d lose them all and have zero to show for it. I’ve found that a more sustainable way is to use rares only, put in buy orders for everything and be patient. Your orders will be filled and you’ll have plenty to throw in, just not immediately. Do not throw in any exotics at all, sell them all on the TP and you’ll make a fair portion of your money back so you can buy more rares. I’ve read that for some people this process is nearly self-sustaining, that is, they can cover all their costs by selling back exotics so they’re not losing any gold. That has not been my experience, I do lose some gold, but you get many, many more attempts than when you just impulse buy a ton of stuff and throw it all in. And of course, this forge game is all about the number of attempts you make. I switched from the impulse mode to the patient mode recently and I’ve spent less money, made many more attempts, and gotten 2 precursors so far.

Good luck to you, OP.

Thanks guys!

Because Blurryz is my hero, I followed his example again and sold Dawn, even though I really wanted to keep it, and I used the gold to try to forge more precursors. Got Spark this afternoon!

So, I’m pretty happy right now.

I did not dance, but Zomorros was kind to me anyway! I literally gasped out loud because I had already thrown a bunch in and was kinda just going through the motions when it popped out. Thanks for the good luck wishes, this was all you guys I guess.

Posting a thread beforehand worked for Blurry, it had better work for me! I’m spending the night tossing rare level 80 greatswords into the forge, I’ll update with the happy news as soon as soon as I have it!

akamon.2769:

okay, OP, i gotta hand it to you. i went home, feeling “inspired”, purchased 12 exotic GS’s and threw ‘em in 4 at a time. why 12? i figured, third time’s the charm right?

first forge, Skybringer. sweet! i’ve always wanted this. sort of.

second forge, sth sth Pearl sth sth. aww.

third forge. dun dun dun dun.. DAWN.

:DD

12?! 12?!?!?!?!

I can’t tell you how many exotics I’ve lost to the forge trying for Dawn, and you try 3 times and get it? Congrats you horrible, smelly person!

Vol.5241:

You made me try my luck and I threw 120g at the forge last night (after throwing 700g since release and getting nothing)

ended up with Dusk.

Gonna try for Colossus tonight.

Welcome to the rich club

I should also note I got my precursor from forging the exotics I got back

Congrats, Vol! And Blurz as well, on Dusk and the 2nd Spark. I’ve wasted another 100g myself since this thread started, nothing to show for it.

tfwzyko.3516:

i always enjoy the kids screaming “WHY SHOULD YOU GET A FREE LEGENDARY I DIDN’T NO FAIR”

The funny thing is, many of us who don’t have a legendary yet would not be getting the precursor free. Many, including myself, have spent hundreds of gold trying for our precursors, and played 2000 hours worth of content hoping for a random drop. We’ve done our due diligence with gold spent and time played just like the rest, we’ve just been very unlucky.

OP, I do think achievement points for a precursor is a nice idea, but I think you’re assuming that we will be trading points for rewards, when in fact the wording suggests that rewards will be unlocked when set point tiers are reached.

This has implications for unlocking precursors. For example, if you reach 8k points and a precursor unlocks, how does it work? Do all of them become available? One of them? One of your choice? What if you want another legendary? Wait until 16k points to select another precursor?

Like I said, it’s a cool idea, but I have to agree with TooBz and say that in my opinion this is not likely to happen.

Morrigan.2809:

I am your polar opposite and you scare me. :P
Gratz!!

Yeah, I feel the same way. I’m sure that Blurryz is right and that some people spend 50g then give up, but I’ve spent much more than that on exotics that I pay ~85s each for, and rares as well, and I’ve gotten nada.

I know RNG is RNG, and we see it everywhere in the game. The dragon coffers, for example, there were people who opened over 6000 regular coffers to get 1 weapon ticket, and there were people who opened less than 5 to get one. The difference between that scenario and this one is that Blurz seems like one of the lucky ones that got a ticket in less than 5 boxes, but several times in a row, and then got even more tickets with a few hundred more attempts.

At this point I’m seriously considering sending you 300g and letting you MF Dawn for me, Blurz =P

So Blurryz, this has all be with 80 rares, right? And are you always using specific weapons types to get the pre you’re after, or are you throwing in random 80 rares?

Wow, thanks for the compliment, Morrigan =)

Dhar.6392:

I abandoned the game for 6 months for many reasons but my top list.

1. Fractals. When this started up- it was Wow and every other MMO I have ever played all over again. I don’t have the time to grind endlessly. Legendary Weapons being difficult I can accept given my circumstances. Fractal progression… that was my breaking point.

(I have not completed a single Fractal yet… I think I know where the entrance is…)

Perhaps it would interest you to know that the items with ascended stats that you get from fractals are also available for purchase by laurels from the daily achievement and guild commendations from guild missions (which are fun).

I have done a few fractals (like 10), they were actually fun. I have full ascended accessories, rings and amulet, just not the backpiece, which has low stats anyhow.

Your ‘breaking point’ wasn’t really at all what you assumed it would be. I don’t mean to be rude, but you should have at least tried the content or stuck around to see how it affected the game before ditching because of it.

Thank you for the comments and compliments, guys!

Dark Marrek.3180:

its not just luck , there is a method to using the mystic forge without wasting 100s of gold . Find someone willing to explain it and you will be much more successful in getting precursors.

Really? There’s a method to using the mystic forge to get 4 precursors in 4 days while spending a little over 200 gold?

I agree that there are ways to spend wisely and be choosy about what you throw in, but this is nonsense. It’s huge, huge, huge luck.

thanks! /15char

First one is after she’s just woken up in the morning, second one is after hair and make up.

Will you make babies with me?

Tentative final version! Thanks for the comments/suggestions!

zBluRrYz.1347:

UPDATE: Just got Dawn after buying 180g of Greatswords!

Blurryz!!!!!! I’ve been trying for Dawn since launch. Nothing. I have no other legendaries, Sunrise will be my first and I can’t get Dawn.

Before I was happy for you, now it’s just getting ridiculous.

Congrats! =D

Updates:
- Lots of repainting around certain armor/skin boundaries to get rid of jaggies, still a bit of that left to do like the arm and the leg. The side of her tummy is most noticeably different and is much improved, I think.
- I spent some time reshading her face to make her features pop a bit more without changing them.
- General armor clean up, removed stray pixels and such.
- Cut her out from the background of the original screenshot, still haven’t decided what I’m doing for the final background.

Thanks, Coco! Her name is a reference to Asha Greyjoy’s character in the Song of Ice and Fire books. She’s kinda meh in the HBO show, but in the books she’s a total badkitten. Good idea for the armor reflections, I’ll keep it in mind.

I’ve started touching up the armor/skin boundaries, I’ll post another update probably later tonight.

Another interesting idea, thanks! It would be doable I think, I do have a fair amount of experience with photoshop/photomanipulation ( http://ondraedan.deviantart.com/ ) so I think I could handle it technically, the tricky part will be finding the balance in getting the reflections to look good, as the armor in this case doesn’t exactly have a polished mirror finish so detailed reflection would look out of place. I’ll make a note of it though and give it a shot.

Thanks Malafide! I agree about cleaning up the jaggies for sure, but I’m kind of dreading it, because it’s gonna be really tedious. As far as the face goes, I see what you’re saying and I may make some slight changes, but I really want her to look just like she does in game. It’s a good suggestion though, I will probably play around with some subtle changes after work today and see how it goes.

It’s funny, I saw your original post in the crafting forum that stated you’d be trying for The Lover that evening and I was interested to see how you did. Then I see in the main discussion forums like the next day that you got it on try #1. Dirtbag! =P And now Spark in less than 60g. Congrats, sir! Definitely the craziest MF experience I’ve ever heard.

First, I have to just say that all the fantastic art being posted here is really inspiring. Alas, I has no talent in the drawing/painting department. So, I thought I’d try taking screenshots to use as the foundation, then retouch and add some detailing to improve the quality and hopefully to elevate it from a simple screencap to something more reminiscent of a 3d render. It seems it will take some time, so I figured I’d start a thread to track my progress in case anyone is interested in trying something similar.

First up: my warrior, The Kraken Queen.
The left side of the image is the cropped, raw screenshot and the right is my current progress.

I’m really interested to hear any thoughts on the progress so far as well as any ideas you guys might have for how to improve other aspects of the image, i.e. what landscape/castle/cave in Tyria should be screencapped for use as the background, etc. =)

best,
-Face

MORE UPDATES BELOW =D

Hi, Fiontar. I saw your post in the other thread as well and I do agree with you to some degree that many female armors in this game seem to go out of the way to show as little skin as possible. I’m not sure I agree with your bib issue, though. You’ve said repeatedly that the new light and medium skins have ‘de-feminizing bibs’ that you can’t get past. I don’t think these tops fit into the same mold as those other armor sets that work extra hard to hide skin. This armor has a very specific aesthetic and in my opinion, it’s been achieved well. I guess my question is, when you say that you don’t like these de-feminizing bibs, are you really just saying that you want to see some cleavage?

JustTrogdor.7892:

darkace.8925:

Facepunch.5710:

I’ll second this, thanks for the update, ANet!

If that’s an engineer, you win best in show. That would be a fantastic look for an engineer.

I think it’s the light armor set. On a side note every time I see the name Facepunch I giggle for a second for some reason.

Yeah, it’s the light set and that’s my ele. And right back at ya, Trogdor the Burninator.

I’ll second this, thanks for the update, ANet!

Ricky, I’m curious. Do you think asking questions is okay, or will your response to any question asked simply be ‘find out the answer on your own?’

Raiman.5761:

cost would be similar to T3 Cultural armor or close to it depending on current exchange rate.

Have you seen the price for the new armor skins? TP has been down so I haven’t, but I’d assume it’s between 500-800 gems per set based on past pricing on similar items. If it is 800 gems per set, then it would be about 25 gold for one set. T3 cultural sets cost 119 gold per set. They would have to sell these sets for almost 4000 gems to make the two comparable.

OP: It will cost you between 15-25 gold for one set of the Aetherblade armor skins, assuming they are priced comparably to other armor skin sets.

ShoeMoney.5249:

Grimstar.6931:

This is just sad. Really, really, really, sad. You have effectively spent well over $3000 for weapon skins. You should have just posted the video. Now that you have admitted to basically buying your legendaries, this is not going to be a thread of envy, but of pity.

Obviously I care LOL.

Its simply a worth of time. I am fortunate enough that my time is much more valuable then grinding to get legandaries.

Its a lot cheaper then bottle service at a nice club for 10 people and I get to keep something.

Not everyone here is 16 without a job.

Exactly this. If you want something and decide to work for it, you are going to be trading your time for it. If your time is worth more to you than the cash price of buying the end product outright, why not do it?

I’m jealous, Shoe. I’m a biology phd student so my time and money are sadly restricted, and it will probably be a couple of years before I rack up enough gold to get my first legendary. If I could spare the cash, I’d probably do what you’ve done.

Hey guys! Now that we’ve all had some time to let the content sink in, how about we get some screenshots posted? If you’ve got a sec, snap a picture of yourself doing whatever you’ve been doing the most since the Dragon Bash update went live. Show off your Dragon’s Jade weapon skins, helm, wings, dragonball prowess, whatever! If you haven’t gotten what you’re after yet, you can alsways take a picture of yourself /cry’ing =D

I myself have been spending an unreasonable amount of time farming hologram projectors in Timberline Falls.

I had to open ~1700 to get 3 tickets, which is how many I wanted. I’ll be selling the rest of my coffers to the rest of you, good luck everyone!

To sum up, Isotope, the Rich Coffers don’t seem to be the way to go. Getting lucky or unlucky aside, it seems that the sheer number of regular Coffers you can open for the price of Rich Coffers more than makes up for the lower drop rate. A few people have opened a couple thousand regulars and got 1 ticket or no ticket. Likewise, a few have gotten tickets after opening less than 50. There are extremes at both ends for the Rich Coffers also, but it seems to me that your chances are better if you’re willing to spend around 50g on tons of regular Coffers than if you’d spent the same on Rich.

My own anecdotal experience is that I opened about 260 regular Coffers to get my first ticket. That was lucky. Since I am hoping to get at least two tickets total, I’d anticipate opening at least 500-1000 more for my second.

That thread was merged from separate threads about each of the different coffer types, if you start another thread, the mods will likely delete it or merge it into that one, so best to just post in that one if you’d like an answer. There are many posts in that thread already about rich coffers results, you just have to slog through all 10 pages to find them unfortunately.

RedCobra.7693:

kitten thats some fine analytical skills, you should be a lawyer :P

lol thanks, I guess. As I said, I wasn’t trying to overanalyze or nitpick about his wording, I just read stuff under the assumption that the author has taken care to word things according to the points he’s trying to communicate, and when I reply, it will be according to the points that were communicated, that’s all.

I’m not a lawyer =) I’m not going to mention my job because I have done that in games/forums in the past and I’ve been flamed like mad by people who think I’m lying, so I guess it must be a pretty cool job =P

Zelyhn.8069:

Everything I say is “only my opinion” and should only be considered as such. This is obvious enough that I do not have to mention it every sentence I hope.

No, you don’t have to state it in every sentence, but you should state it at least the first time you make an assertion about the community.

From your OP:

People do not want to see or be aware of the fact that some players can be more skilled than them (no boasting, just statement of skill).

^ This is stated as if it is a fact, not something you believe to be true or have a feeling about.

Zelyhn.8069:

It is also the same on the forums.

^ Stated as fact.

Zelyhn.8069:

I believe this is not benefiting the game in itself because it promotes stale and boring gameplay additions rather than diverse and challenging content.

^ Here is where you open up discussion by stating your opinion on the facts you’ve presented.

Zelyhn.8069:

With all due respect, why the discrimination?

^ Here is where you ask for others’ opinions. Asking ‘Why the discrimination?’ is not the same as asking ‘Do you feel there is any discrimination?’

Again, I’m not trying to nitpick, but you began by making statements about the community and then asking why we as a community behave that way, not whether we as the community have seen these types of behaviors or attitudes toward skilled players.

captaincrash.6528:

They finally make armour sets, and people bash them for not making them in the style that they wanted.

I agree that ‘bashing’ is unjustified, but considering it’s been 10+ months since launch and this is the first and only new armor set introduced, you’ve gotta understand if people express a bit of disappointment if it’s not to their taste, so long as their statements acknowledge that it’s their opinion and they don’t try to make it into an objective declaration like ‘THESE ARE SO UGLY THE END.’

I like the new sets, but I do understand there is some frustration for those who don’t.

Zelyhn.8069:

the vast majority of the player base feels bad if they hear about the skill of an other player (again I am not talking about boasting..).

Really? The vast majority feels bad when they hear about the skill of another player? What do you have to back up this claim? A survey of GW2 players indicating a majority feel this way? Or is it just a feeling you have from a few personal experiences?

Zelyhn.8069:

No one should ever feel bad because some people are more skilled at doing anything. But in GW2 they do, and they will resent good players for (intentionally or not) fostering this feeling.

I agree, but again you’re making a blanket statement. I’m really not trying to be nitpicky or hostile at all, but I do have a big problem with completely unfounded statements presented as facts.

Zelyhn.8069:

Facepunch.5710:

RedCobra.7693:

…id say that 100% of the praise i have recieved from being skilled has never come from me telling someone, its because they either instanced with me and wanted to add me or dueled me in wvw

This comment in conjunction with my own experiences in game (not saying I’m skilled, I mean when I play with people who are clearly more skilled than I) reinforces my opinion that there isn’t rampant “talent hate” in this community.

If I’m in Arah and my group nearly wipes on Lupi in P3, but we have one guy who stays up, handles Lupi’s aggro, and gets someone else up and we recover, I recognize that he needed skill to do that and I appreciate him for it.

Same in WvW when following a skilled commander.

I just don’t see where this idea that people dislike skilled players comes from, so it’s easiest to assume that your experiences are coming from players picking up on an attitude from you that you are more skilled than they are. You may not have that attitude, and I may be wrong. But in that case please explain what your experiences are that led you to post this, because the points you’ve made so far don’t resonate with me at all.

Why should players feel bad about the fact that some players are better than them?

Feel bad about themselves you mean? Where have you seen this in the game? Guildies or friends getting down on themselves when they make mistakes? Of course there will be some self-deprecation, possibly jokingly, possibly serious, when someone doesn’t perform well. I don’t see this as specific to GW2’s community. I also don’t see it as even close to the way you’ve framed this thread as “The hate for talent.”

RedCobra.7693:

…id say that 100% of the praise i have recieved from being skilled has never come from me telling someone, its because they either instanced with me and wanted to add me or dueled me in wvw

This comment in conjunction with my own experiences in game (not saying I’m skilled, I mean when I play with people who are clearly more skilled than I) reinforces my opinion that there isn’t rampant “talent hate” in this community.

If I’m in Arah and my group nearly wipes on Lupi in P3, but we have one guy who stays up, handles Lupi’s aggro, and gets someone else up and we recover, I recognize that he needed skill to do that and I appreciate him for it.

Same in WvW when following a skilled commander.

I just don’t see where this idea that people dislike skilled players comes from, so it’s easiest to assume that your experiences are coming from players picking up on an attitude from you that you are more skilled than they are. You may not have that attitude, and I may be wrong. But in that case please explain what your experiences are that led you to post this, because the points you’ve made so far don’t resonate with me at all.

SmudgerUK.4715:

Enragedly, which is an anagram of Legendary is how I usually end up throwing things into the mystic forge after multiple failed attempts at a precursor.

ROFL, not sure that’s a word, but I like it all the same.

OP: My wife also has much better RNG luck than I. Of course, I understand it’s random, and one person doesn’t actually have better luck than another with RNG, but she gets BLSK with her daily reward pretty much at least once a week. She is consistently lucky and has stacks of the things, and I HAS NONES.

I don’t see any basis for your assertion that this community doesn’t like skilled players.

1) As you have said, your example of going to LA and saying “I’m a good player,” doesn’t really get at what you’re trying to communicate here, because you can’t differentiate between the ridicule you’ll receive as a result of your perceived pompous attitude and that you’ll receive because people believe you, but dislike you simply for being good.
2) Your other example is that in other games, players watch skilled players’ videos to learn to be better themselves. We do that here also, have you ever been to the profession-specific forums? It’s all builds and videos put there to inspire and teach those interested.

You implied above that RedCobra is the only one who understands you. I understand you fine, I just don’t see any support (in my experiences playing this game) for your position. Do you have any additional points to make to convince us?