Guild Wars 2

You can run the game through Steam and use that framerate counter

My performance is about the same running with what’s in my sig except with a 2 GB 7850@1050 MHz on the core instead of the 280×. If anything, it’s a bit higher.

Everything maxed except reflections on Terrain+Sky, render sampling native, and character model limit to medium@1080P.

Solomon Darkfury.3729:

I render full zergs at max distance with minimal drop in FPS

Yeah, no. Not a chance. Unless you count 5 people as a zerg…

Being willing to pay for quality is a good first step, now you just need to be sure of what you’re buying. Most good stuff is better, but being expensive doesn’t necessarily make something good, especially with computer parts. $300 should be able to get you good quality stuff all around, so good luck shopping adn I hope you find stuff you like!

Highchu.3806:

It’s a shame to hear Razer quality has gone down. What happened exactly?

I’d say iffy QC, mostly, and some of their stuff is pretty cheaply made/not too robust; their mice often seem to have issues lasting more then a year and the headphones are pretty flimsy.

To be completely honest, the price is what stops me from recommending a lot of their stuff (read: keyboards). Besides their Tournament board (which actually seems to be all right pricewise, but I’d rather get a Noppoo Lolita Spyder for a bit less), you can get a board with higher quality/more features for the same price, especially in the Blackwidow Ultimate pricerange.

Highchu.3806:

Perhaps I’ll checkout the “TT Esports Poseidon Z” which seems close enough to the Anansi without all extra unnecessary gimmicks.

The Poseidon (linked to the exact deal I was talking about) is actually a mechanical keyboard, which is a huge step up from your rubberdome Anansi. It’s a pretty well built board, Kailh switches but priced appropriately and mine doesn’t have any issues.

It has clicky tactile keys, which may or may not be your cup of tea. They’re awesome to type on but can be annoying to people nearby. I’d recommend looking at this if you’re looking to spend a decent bit of money on a keyboard; it’ll help you make an informed decision.

Highchu.3806:

it seems As for the headest “Kingston HyperX Clouds”, how would you rate the comfort? I have a small-medium size head so I often come across the problem where they are either too loose or incredibly restricting and painful to wear for more than an hour or 2

I actually just mentioned them because they’re a decent set of headphones masquerading as a headset, but I do honestly have a pair. They’re pretty nice; they’re a bit heavy, but solidly built. I felt like they were pretty tight when I first got them (upgrading from a pair of Steelseries Siberia V2s), but I got used to the weight and they stretched somewhat pretty quickly. I’m 5’11, 160lb with an average sized head (I guess) and they’re comfortable; they can adjust to smaller heads, so I think you’d be all right.

I felt that the audio quality was a bit of a step down from my Siberias, but apparently these need to burn in a bit, so I was never able to do a direct comparison. I got them because I was about to buy Takstar Pro80s, but they didn’t offer 2 day shipping (which I needed at the time) and I would need a mic with the Pro80s anyways, so the HyperX headset was actually a cheaper option.

The head-fi buying guide is a good place to start when it comes to finding headphones; the site also has a lot of reviews on different headsets.

I sort of realized that I specifically recommended a couple of products that I own/use (not completely intentionally… the sale on the Poseidon Z really is a good price), so you might want to take my specific recommendations with a grain of salt. Do some research and make your decisions based on that instead of just listening to me/anyone on here or going to buy based on brand loyalty (unless you want to; that’s fine, but checking out other options is always a good idea).

Sorry for typing so much, I tend to ramble a bit… Basically, check out all of your options, since it’s the best way to get the most for you money. But if you want Razer stuff, just buy it if you like them; you can just generally do better for the same cash.

Argon.1563:

they’re totally worth the price. They’re top notch quality

I’m sorry to say, but that’s not quite right, especially for their keyboards. “Their” switches are lacking in quality and they charge a premium that would allow you to get actual Cherry switches for the same/a similar price.

Don’t buy Razer stuff is my recommendation, they’ve really gone downhill since the older stuff you’re using.

For a keyboard, buy a decent mech. You can get a TT Esports Poseidon Z for $56 shipped right from Best Buy; Razer’s keyboards are way too expensive for having Kailh switches, and have been reviewed commonly as feeling inconsistent. Their rubberdome boards are laughably overpriced, if you go rubberdome just buy something cheap from Logitech.

For a headset, get a separate mic+headphones or something like Kingston HyperX Clouds (which are rebranded Takstar Pro80s with an attached mic).

Mouse, go with whatever you want I guess. Again, Razer’s build quality is lacking these days but at least their mice are priced somewhat competitively on sale.

But definitely don’t go Razer for headset/keyboard, you’re legitimately just throwing away money.

sirsquishy.8531:

This is because your CPU is a dual core i7. GW2 does not allow for the ‘high settings’ profile to be enabled on dual core CPUs anymore since High res character models cannot be selected unless you have a quad core CPU.

It should still be selectable since it’s a dual core with HT (unless I’m mistaken) so GW2 recognizes it as a quad core. I had no issues checking the box with my i3, which is also a dual core.

The old ones were much better, the new ones just flop everywhere and don’t look like wings at all. At least having stiff wings makes some sense.

An i7 won’t make any difference for GW2; unless you have other reasons for buying one you’d basically be throwing away money to get one.

What CPU do you have? That’s going to be more important, especially in big zerg fights.

DeadSurvivor.6157:

Hmmm, I Haven’t Tried Using A Program To Diagnose Performance And Graphic Issues … I Assumed It Was From The Multiple Patch Uploads From Last Week.

Why are you capitalizing every word?

Pretty much. That is a pretty solid argument as to why you should research stuff before buying, though.

In any case, it is still surprising that your performance went down significantly with that CPU, since it’s (presumably) about the same as what you had before.

loseridoit.2756:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113379

i would had recommend this and overclock it.

A G3258 would probably be a better buy

60/4 internet is still fantastic. You won’t have any issues in the slightest.

The minimum speed to play online is going to be like .5/.5 or something as long as you have low latency. I had 3/1 for years and it was perfectly fine unless I wanted to do anything that wasn’t gaming at the same time (like watching youtube videos/netflix).

Even if you had a first gen i5 (i5-750) that 6800k would have been a sidegrade/slight downgrade.

A G3258 should do pretty all right though; my brother has one at 4.6 GHz and it’s a solid little chip, especially since the CPU+mobo combo was only $100.

It means you’ve got some sort of temporary modifier having an effect on those stats

Felahr.9830:

building it myself isnt an option..

Building it yourself is the only option, especially if you’re looking to run high settings for world bosses/WvW. If you want the high settings in high traffic areas you’re going to need to be building with used parts. It’s still easily doable, though:

CPU+Mobo (3570k+mobo): $200
GPU (7950): $100
PSU (EVGA SuperNOVA 750W): $75
HDD (W/e): $50
Ram (CL9 1600 MHz): $50
Case (Corsair 200R or something): $50
Windows (/r/microsoftsoftwareswap): $15
Total: $540, so you’ve got room for a decent mechanical KB as well, a Noppoo Lolita Spider 87key with Blues or something

For a prebuilt, I guess you could go for something like:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA27Z2NU7371

And buy a PSU+GPU, a CX430 and used 7850 should work well I guess (Assuming the GPU will fit in the case and assuming it’ll take an ATX PSU).

I guess you could alternatively just wait for some sort of nice deal, but you’re really not getting your money’s worth by getting a prebuilt for $600. Why not build a computer?

Donari.5237:

CyberPower isn’t the only place to look. In another thread in this subforum I recommended them to someone looking for a laptop and another poster listed another site that might be better.

That’d be me. I’ve just heard quite a few bad things about Cyberpower’s (and iBuyPower’s) custom PCs over the years, so I tend to suggest ecollegePC instead. They may be fine now- I haven’t heard anything in a while- but meh.

I’d really suggest building your own PC OP, you can do quite a bit for $1000 if you already have peripherals; it really is just plugging stuff into the right slot and then plugging in the power to it.

If you want to go for a prebuilt still, go to ecollegePC>Intel Based Custom Builder at the top left>i5/i7 based and switch the options:
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690k ($204)
Heatsink/Fan: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO CPU Fan/Heatsink ($35)
Motherboard: MSI Z97 PC Mate ($44)
Memory: 8 GB (4 GBx2) DDR3 1600 MHz ($62)
Hard Drive: 1 TB Western Digital Black ($81)*
Power Supply: 780Watt EVGA SuperNOVA NEX750B ($45)
Case: Corsair Black Carbide Series 200R ($39)

For the GPU, you should buy an R9 290 ($240-250, at most, new, you should be able to get one on sale for like $220 or something, or a used 290x for $230-240) and install it yourself; this is legitimately incredibly easy. Even if you have little faith in yourself, watch a couple of YT videos, be careful, and you’ll be fine.

For the OS, get a copy of windows from /r/microsoftsoftwareswap and install it yourself; you can get a Windows 7/8 iso from Microsoft’s site for free, then use universal USB installer to set up a flash drive and install from that.

*WD Caviar blues are slow, correct? Someone help me here, I don’t have time to look it up, but I feel like they’re supposed to be media drives or something

This should all come out to be ~$1000. If you need to go cheaper, drop the GPU to a 280/280x (if you don’t mind buying one of these used, you should be able to get a 280x for like $130-135 shipped; I got mine for $120 shipped), which will save enough to work it out.

Then, save your money for a decent monitor+mechanical keyboard and you should be good to go for a few years.

Feirlista Xv.1425:

One of the most common ones are you running to many apps that need an Internet connection. Are you streaming music or watching YouTube. Are you downloading anything while playing do you have any bit torrent apps running in the background.

That should cause lag for his brother, too.

Feirlista Xv.1425:

This would cause his brother to have issues, too, unless they specifically Are you using Skype, this craptasic app that is known to cause lag in games, if you need voice coms for gaming use the app design for gaming like TeamSpeak or Ventrilo.

Using Skype with games is perfectly fine.

OP, do you have your router configured to limit the connection speed available to each of you individually?

Donari.5237:

Then go to someplace like CyberPower and spec out exactly the same build and compare the price.

If you do this, do not go to CyberPower and do not go to iBuyPower. Use ecollegepc.com instead, or even better use pcpartpicker and build the thing yourself. Something equivalent to my computer can be had for like $550-600 if you pick up some used parts.

That being said, if you really do need a laptop, don’t waste your money on Alienware or Razer. I’m not up to date on the laptop market right now but Asus, Lenovo, or some other brand is most likely going to have a much better computer for your dollar.

ades.1386:

but if you absoluty must use a laptop be warned alienware does not like gw2.

That’s going to depend on what you get. There are Alienware computers out there that will handle GW2 just fine, you just need to make sure you buy a good one.

Loli Ruri.8307:

muslumgurseks.4951:

:) With that logic all the hardware on the market for competitive gamers is a lie? 0,033 of a second does make a difference. Besides im not critisizing your idea of limiting frames to reduce heat im critisizing limiting it to 30. He could limit it to 60, which is most probably his display’s refresh rate, so all the excess computing power that’s used to render anything above that point where he cant perceive is not turning heat.

Well in-game does have that already built-in 30 fps limit. It works just fine imo. You won’t gain much more with more frames imo. Also more expensive hardware, more frames, more or less heat, really it’s a matter of, to each their own poison, so the saying goes.

30 FPS is far from fine, it looks and feels incredibly stuttery. Even 60 sometimes doesn’t feel smooth enough. But running at 60 FPS is an experience enhancement that can’t be overlooked

You only need 8 GB of ram these days and an i7 is a waste of money for gaming. Your best bet is generally the current i5-k CPU (4690k atm), 8 GB of ram, then the best GPU you can squeeze into your budget, probably a 970 or 290x or something after dropping the CPU down a couple models and halving the ram.

Control.8154:

I’m a sponsored player with access to an infinite amount of competitive peripherals including mice and keyboards. It is not my mouse. It is a bug.

Cool story. It’s still your mouse or something on your end.

I just want a complete free for all arena. It doesn’t mater if you’re in the same party or anything, anyone inside the ring is fair game.

Behellagh.1468:

Haswell is roughly 10-15% faster per clock than Ivy Bridge. Running OC then it’s unlikely you can get that much better performance.

Especially since you can usually get a couple more .1 GHz out of an IB CPU

It’s going to rely on the CPU a lot more then it’s going to rely on the GPU. Either of those cards would have no issues maxing the game in any situation, but you’re still going to see framerate drops because of your CPU.

LameFox.6349:

Moreso than ‘moral and biological imperatives’?

That was just the first bit I got to. It was clear that the rest wasn’t worth wasting my time on.

Dyvim.8293:

Marriage equality as a term is about as accurate and meaningful as climate change. The left realized global warming was a loser, so they had to change it…except that the climate always changes and has historically been both warmer and colder before man came on the scene.

This right here pretty much invalidates anything else you’re saying in my eyes

obal.3218:

We only looked at optimal stuff. Dekeyz had a lot on her plate with this patch so I didn’t want to bug her. It’s probably around 10% overall in a rotation.

Honestly, that’s really not too bad, at least for pug groups. Thanks greatly!

Miku.6297:

Fermi.2409:

So how, exactly, are builds OP just because they’re the meta?

Generally speaking, if something is the best, the most desireable, etc it’s most likely that way because it’s more powerful then other options. (OP vs brokenly OP is debatable of course)

Just because something is the best option doesn’t make it overpowered. That’s a ridiculous thought.

Something could be meta because it’s OP, but not the other way around.

It’s not fun if you just chase the meta

Speak for yourself, I enjoy contributing as much as I can

So how, exactly, are builds OP just because they’re the meta?

You only really need like a 260x or a 750ti to max the game, maybe even something below those. You can pick up used 7950s for ~$100 so that’s what I’d personally aim for (and was actually planning on getting), but even a used 2 GB 6950 for like $60 would be a good buy.

Windows 8 really isn’t that hard. Honestly, I find it to be much, much better then Windows 7 these days. 8.1 is a small step backwards but it still beats 7.

If you’re springing for a Surface Pro 3 you’re not really getting the greatest value for your dollar for gaming, though. Like, at all. You’re paying for the form factor. Even though it’s portable, it’s not as easily used as a conventional laptop while on the go, and even if it runs the game it won’t be too well.

Without even doing any research, a Lenovo Y50 for $850 is a much, much better bang for your buck machine. If all you want to play is GW2, a Y40-80 would do more then fine as well. I’m not recommending you buy either of those, it wouldn’t surprise me if there are better deals available, but they’re just examples of how badly the SP3 is outclassed for gaming at its price point.

obal.3218:

Sword is bad now. It was at most 2% better. If you went 6 into zeal it was nearly identical to Mace. Sword lost the 10% dps multiplier. Mace gained 10% more damage for most of it’s duration. It also would apply to offhands used with it while in the symbol. It is better given all that.

Have you calculated the % difference at all? As good as it is I’m just really not liking mace, so for average pugs I might be tempted to just swap out to Sword even though it’s worse.

Also, I got Zap as a drop a while ago so I’ve been wanting Bolt…

I usually saw 5-8 on my 100/100 connection and it’s still about the same

Torgaard.1864:

I just wonder if this might have been one of the more brilliant and masterfully done patches in an MMO for a long time. ANet might’ve managed to actually do it: to actually turn it all around. To undo the damage done by a flaw in their mechanics and gear stats (ie the whole Berserker Gear goofiness).

What’s this now? Not only was there never a flaw, but how would it have been corrected?

Stormwolf.8567:

Don’t be facetious – you know exactly what he means. Prior to mixing up Consecrated Ground with Master of Consecrations placing a wall was a 1 click job and it placed precisely where you were standing, oriented exactly at 90 degrees to your character. Now you have to double click it. Now the default behaviour is Consecrated Ground style – click to trigger and click again to place – which is less intuitive and takes fractionally longer – sometimes you just want the wall here, now – like when you’re about to get feathered by a roaming ranger death squad…

Mostly it’s about practice but it does take a bit of getting used to and a ‘one click option’ would be nice

Switch to fast targeting with range indicators and just hover the mouse over the UI somewhere. Bam, original functionality restored.

What are the specs on the old computer you had? If it’s any good your best bet will be a reformat of the hard drive (to satisfy your mother) and a reinstall of Windows on that. Buying a laptop for this game would work all right, but it may not be the best way to spend your money. That being said, if you can find something like a used Lenovo Y510P (with the quad core i7 and a 750M or 755M) for like $500 it’d be a pretty decent pick up.

I have no idea what laptop prices are like these days so I’m going to pass on any other recommendation

Eulolia.2467:

I have the Asus. It’s a graphic design monitor (i.e. its main purpose is colour accuracy) but the response isn’t too bad for games. I assume there must be something better out by now though, because that monitor came out in 2011.

The LG has the TN panel not because it’s using cheaper components but because TN has the best response times for gaming, making it the obvious choice if you want to play first person shooters or anything like that.

I haven’t looked at the specific monitor mentioned (is it 144 Hz?) but IPS panels are fine for gaming these days. The lag difference is small enough to be negligible.

I’d personally get an IPS label monitor unless I were to play loads of competitive FPS ganes, in which case I’d go 144 Hz.

Honestly is annoying how floppy the wings are. They seem like there are no muscles in them at all…

Kalifas.3465:

Consoles can do 1080p at 30fps though.

On the minority of games. GW2 would not be one of them. Their CPUs are far too weak for it

Looks like I’m still going to pass. A character slot doesn’t make the expac look like a better deal for $50 at all, especially since they’re worth like $5 at the most in my eyes and I bought gems with gold for another character slot ages ago anyways.

That mobo is ATX, which means that it requires a case that supports a full ATX motherboard- basically a mid or full tower. I’d personally get a Fractal Design R5 or a Corsair 450D or something along those lines; as long as it lists “ATX” in its form factor compatibility list it’ll be fine.

As for a PSU, I would recommend the one I have or something similar. Mine’s only semimodular, but you’ll need all of the nonmodular cables anyways. You just want something high quality. I’d go with 750+ Watts just in case you go CF/SLI again in the future.

As for a cooler, an H100i would be a good pick. For fans, a couple of quiet but high airflow 120MM fans would be a nice boost, I really don’t know what to suggest specifically but a total of 3-4 120MM case fans will get you into a nice place.

Kalifas.3465:

Unfortunately, the emulators are nowhere close to as good native controller support.

I guess it’s a good thing that Windows natively supports both Xbox 360 and Xbox One controllers, then.

Although why you would want to play an MMO with a controller is beyond me

The only thing I’d like to see happen with the UI is having that awful jagged black border around the screen removed. It just makes things look so unclean.

It’s 78, actually. 2>3, 3>4, 4>5, 5>6, 6>7, 7>8, 8>9, and 9>10 total 8, then 10 per group of 10 levels up to 80.

This assumes that you do the starter instance to get to level 2. If you just use the tomes in the instance it’s 79 tomes.

Clean out your PC, make sure the CPU fan is working correctly, reapply thermal paste if needed. 75C shouldn’t be enough to cause issues, though, that seems pretty low.

dace.8019:

Load temps just under 100 C

You’re right that a lot of it is preference, but let’s not spread lies. You’re only sitting just under 100C if you buy a reference card and you’d have to be a pretty big fool to do that. Nonreference cards will sit in the 70-80 range depending on what you get, which is entirely reasonable.

dace.8019:

and a 25% louder fan noise are not, however, non-issues.

Fan noise is going to depend quite a bit on your setup, though. My 280x is probably sort of loud but I can’t hear it at all.

dace.8019:

Neither is the older architecture (the 970 enjoys the newest Maxwell tech).

How does that matter at all? That just brings about things like performance/heat, it’s not something to really buy a card on.

dace.8019:

The OP will likely be happy with either but I firmly believe that only cost concerns (or a strong opinion on either nVidia or AMD) is enough to actually suggest the 290x over the 970. There is a reason AMD moved to sharply undercut the 970.

AMD priced the 290x to offer the best price:performance, like they usually do. The price gap is so big (a 970 is going to cost ~25% more then a 290x, depending on what card you pick up) that it’s not “only cost concerns” that would bring about a 290x purchase; it’s a much better value for your dollar, even if you have the money to blow.

Offair.2563:

If i remember correctly, the monthly JP achievement was all about finding the entrance to complete. But yeah would be a nice addition to the daily system and surely a nice incentive to do them again. +1 to this idea.

No, the old monthly JP required you to reach the end to count.

I really like this idea, though. JPs are some of my favorite things in the game

Asmodal.6489:

Now we look at an expansion that will feature as far as we no:

*know

Asmodal.6489:

- a new class with 60+ skills
- Specialisation mechanic (to be increased in the future)
- 9 new specialisation with 11 new skills each (99)
- 9 new traitlines with 12 traits each (108)
- New weapon and armor skins for each specialisation

- a map that is designed to hold the content of 3
- 7 new Masteries with several new abilities (flying being one of them)
- Precursor crafting
- guild halls concept
- 2 guild hall maps (probably to be increased in the future)
- 2 new crafting professions
- new guild armor and weapons
- GvG Arena including a leaderboard
- Dueling
- Housing + Customisation
- Guild Action perks for WvWvW

Asmodal.6489:

- Complete overhaul of the influence system catering to smaller and bigger guilds alike

Which is free

Asmodal.6489:

- (challenging group content)

I’ll believe it when I see it. They haven’t shown anything about this to support their claim.

Asmodal.6489:

- new PVP mode stronghold

Asmodal.6489:

- new WvWvW area complete overhaul of the mechanics

Which is free

Asmodal.6489:

- new siege equipment

Asmodal.6489:

On the way to this expansion they are overhauling the complete core specialisations system including
yes this should be considered as part of HoT since it sets up the future direction and woul have been obsolete if there was no HoT

No that’s not part of HoT in the slightest. The new system is 100% free; the new specializations are HoT.

Asmodal.6489:

And what people are crying for is basically :

- I want 6 more maps
- I want 6 dungeons
- I want a free character slot

God forbid people ask for content worth their $50. Dear lord. Most of that list is just features, not content, and what content there is does not seem to be all that large/expensive, especially compared to something like FFXIV, which gives you more content for less.