Guild Wars 2

Rivindor.7258:

What’s with the bunny ear hype? Is this a running joke on the forums about people wanting silly stuff or is the bunny ear hype real? I’m a bit confused. I can’t imagine it’d look too good on most characters unless there is some desire on roleplay servers to do a hugh hefner roleplay but even then how can anet make too much money off this(vocal) but I’m guessing small subsection of players?

If there is a legitimate demand, why would it be released on the anniversary sale versus say, Easter?

Haha I wonder about this as well, I think it’s nothing short of hideous. Putting bunny ears on even the most awesome looking armour combination just instantly makes it look like some tacky anime knockoff, kinda like the quaggan backpack really. Somebody call the fashion police. :P

Then again, I think more choice is always better so it should be available at least periodically, say during easter or something.

I actually like underwater stuff, it adds a feeling of mystery and enchantment that there’s all kinds of stuff to see there too, like ruins and coral and all that. Hey, I like exploring. :p

Usually in online RPG’s I’ve seen underwater combat be exactly like land combat but with added kind-of-swimming, here it actually feels completely different, like it should!

Ha, I have another little piece of advice! Now this might sound a bit odd and at times kinda stating the obvious. Still it might be a thing to consider, also for possible future buggy or less-awesome-than-usual releases:

Maybe send the playerbase a mail which basically states ‘whoops, we screwed up a bit here’, with a small attached token of appreciation. It doesn’t need to be anything special, just a small gesture. Perhaps something like 2 unidentified dyes, or a random mini egg, maybe 2-3 transmutation charges (though I think random stuff would be best). While this may not do anything at first glance, I think small gestures like this could potentially alleviate at least a portion of the frothing rage seen in map chat these days, and make players feel appreciated. I’m betting that even the most jaded doomsday prophet likes getting free stuff.

Now I’m not wanting to sound like I’m entitled to freebies (I’d give my stated examples away anyways, I have all regular dyes unlocked, and I’m not really interested in minis :P), but I think small things like this can do a whole lot for a more positive atmosphere all around.

A shame that the event kinda stumbled out of the gate, hopefully my thoughts below may be of some use:

This event sounded like it was primarily aimed at new players, so I think it would’ve been a good idea for the defeated enemies to reward two of the staple things you get from participating in events throughout the game: XP and karma.

While I’d love for some oldschool loot fest (that’s how even I managed to get gold back in the days :P), I understand that it’s not without its problems and min max people will likely be farming the most efficient enemies at the cost of everything else. So giving map based rewards is a good solution to that, however the tier system encourages people to play selfishly. Maybe a better idea to scrap the tiered rewards entirely, and give the entire map the same reward based on how well it performed, and thus encouraging better team play.

This might be an unpopular opinion, but what about disabling a zone’s waypoints during the course of an invasion event? Lorewise, it has already happened that Mordrem managed to disrupt waypoints here and there. Gamewise, it rules out the ‘need’ to waypoint all over the map and thus at the same time the associated high participation cost for new players. It also introduces a temporary inconvenience, which is a good thing…since invasions are bad! I think it will also spread out the map’s population better, encouraging smaller roaming groups as opposed to huge zergs. I’d say, even increase the chaos and the chance of zergs, by temporarily disabling commander icons, but I might get chased out with pitchforks. :P

I think the available rewards are mostly good. There’s a nice selection of skins, mini’s, and other old stuff. A few new things would’ve been nice though, for the completionists who already have everything (even though I really can’t fathom that haha). Some are completely out of place, such as that luck token. The reward costs are waaaaaaaay too high though, they seem completely unachievable for the majority of players (or at least I hope so lol) that doesn’t play 24/7. I think a good ratio for a limited time event, is being able to earn a medium cost reward in an evening of play, or a high cost reward in let’s say two evenings. That way most players that intend to participate have a shot at one of the prizes, but if you want the rarest stuff, you have to play a little more. Now I can be totally wrong on this, but I’m not a reward oriented player in the slightest and none of the fashion from this event is ‘must have’ for me. :P

Last but not least, crappy event or not, I think that some player reactions I’ve seen in map chat are completely overblown and bordering on the hysterical. I mean, I get it that people are disappointed, I prefer functioning events too, and I don’t have all the time in the world either. But I’ve seen so many temper tantrums and doomsday prophets in map chat repeating their chant on how much everything sucks, over and over and over, through multiple maps. At some points it was such a cacophony of tiresome bile and hatred repeated into eternity, that I wonder if those people even play games for enjoyment anymore. If something like bugged event rewards make people react like that, I wonder what happens if they want to like…go for a smoke and their lighter breaks. :P

Oh well! Hopefully my thoughts has been of some use.

Haha, I played since the start and in comparison to others, I’ve never have much luck with drops either. I’ve only had regular 3-4 gold exotics drop, and when dyes still dropped, both a spare abyss and celestial (but they were ‘just’ 30 or so gold back then). I managed to get the Golden title only last month.

But! I fully expect my luck to be lousy, so I don’t gamble. I don’t use the Mystic Forge except for the improved salvage kits, and I don’t buy gamble dye packs. I salvage or sell my drops, which can accumulate rather nicely if you don’t pay heed to it all the time. I don’t like the legendaries anyway, so instead of pouring all my gold into trying to get one of those ‘ultimate accomplishments’, I buy character slots and fashion.

I may not have any legendary weapons, but instead I do have a huge wardrobe of skins and an whole (26 lol) bunch of characters to dress up and run around with, in just about every level range and every themed niche build I can think up – which probably contributes to the fact that I’ve never grown bored with this game yet despite playing from the start. Which to me is far more enjoyable than having am oversized sparklesword!

So screw luck, and make your own.

PopeUrban.2578:

I suggested a mastery a while back. Grant the other race’s racial skills through a mastery, and the final tier of any racial mastery buffs those skills to a power level similar to a class skill. Give the mastery some additional crafting recipies or armor at each tier so it’s still valuable to train your own race.

This way everyone has access to all of them so it’s not a mechanical hurdle, and it allows more pve build craziness without breaking PvP

I don’t think that would be a good solution, since it makes no sense in the setting.

Imagine a norn babbling about laser rifles, an asura turning into a bear, a sylvari shouting stuff about Ascalon, a human using seed turrets and a charr summoning avatars of human gods. That’s horrible! :P

Then again, no matter what, all my norn will always take the bearform elite…it just feels right!

My main is a Guardian, but absolutely not the ranged type, I like my knightly swords and shields. :p

But! I’m leveling another Guardian who will be a support DH with as many shouts as I can cram into the action bar (maybe a trap too), like a modern take on the…Paragon! I mean, shooting holy arrows instead of javelins and you can throw that Virtue of Justice! He looks like he stepped straight out of Elona, I have the fashion all planned out haha. Yes, I love themed characters.

Dikeido.8436:

AlliedKhajiit.2794:

As has already been stated, there’s ways to circumvent troll portals. Stop being a kittening zombie mindlessly spamming f everywhere to get your phr33 p1xel5, have some self awareness and wait for a portal to disappear or move to a different spot where you’re not underneath the portal and then press f, or use your mouse instead.

I think portal jokes are hilarious, and I’ve fallen prey of many of them, as well as being the predator. For the Megadestroyer, if you die in the lava then just WP back to the volcano, the WP is uncontested after you kill the world boss and it’s really not a big deal. Lighten up, learn to take a joke.

Are you new to GW2 ? If you are new or have just been hibernating for the last 3 years then listen up. People who defend this kind of trolling are in the same boat as those you use to defend the idea that if people don’t want to see profanity in the chat then they can just turn it off or grow a thicker skin. Well how that that story end huh ?
I’ll tell you how it end, it ended with the suspended/banned hammer falling down on people.

Oh, absolutely not, you’re just linking those things together because you apparently dislike them both. I think overt profanity and swearing at people in chat is tasteless and rude. Nasty behaviour has no place in games. But mesmer portals aren’t that, they’re just some harmless fun. And no, I’ve never done this myself. :p

It’s definitely trolling/not cool if it’s done to strangers on stuff like, an organised triple wurm run or to ‘sabotage’ pvp matches or something (if that’s a thing), but that’s not really what people are discussing here as far as I’ve seen.

From what I’ve seen, I can definitely recommend it. The jungle looks like a sprawling maze, the sense of scale with the airship wrecks up in the skies and all that, made me feel like a tiny ant. :p The enemies are challenging and the elite specs are fun to play. I suspected the gliding to be a bit tacky, but instead I found it works really well. The scenery is beautiful as always, and I really like the new area music. Also, the little personal story preview mission had good voice acting and dialogue, which for me as an appreciator of lore. atmosphere and setting, is a large selling point. It was spot on.

Obviously not everything is correctly tuned and events get stuck and such, but overall it feels like it’s gonna be an enjoyable expansion!

I found the sales rather boring so far, since I already had the things that I liked, such as Braham’s Shield. Some things have nice discount though!

I contemplated getting the katana, but it was a one day sale and I need more than a day to contemplate if already getting it for my level 23 Canthan character is worth it or not. And if the game is trying to rush me with one day nonsense, the answer will always be no. :p

I’m still holding on to my gems for a nice outfit or armour set I want.

On one hand I think mounts would be quite cool… for a week or two. Then, after the novelty wears off, the other side of the coin shows itself. You’ll visit a trader/vendor/popular NPC, and hey, a hundred dolyak riding norn with angel wings are stacked on top of it. Especially considering that some races are quite large, the visual clutter would be insane.

I’ve always thought that GW2 was really elegant looking, partly due to the absence of mounts that overlap everything. And as a special mention, I hope that even if mounts are added one day, something obnoxious like ‘charr motorcycles’ will never ever be a thing. :P

It’s never happened to me (yet!), but I giggled when I read the underwater port thing. How can people even call this harassment? I would be in stitches if I was the victim of a particularly creative one that led to me dying horribly. Portal pranks have been in every online game I’ve played that had them. I’ve never done stuff like this myself, but come on. Some people are just too easily offended or take everything way too seriously. I definitely agree that truly nasty behaviour from players should be reported without mercy, but an innocent joke like this doesn’t even come close to that. Besides, repair costs are free. :P

Malediktus.9250:

Gaebriel.3754:

I…am genuinely baffled on how anyone could ever be annoyed by something as minor as a notice on a loading screen. I mean, heaven forbid you’re going to the store and discover they ran out of milk haha. :P

It ruins the loading screen. Some people actually like looking at the loading screen art.

I’m a huge fan of all GW artwork, but I think that getting annoyed because of a beta notice on the loading screen is a bit over-dramatic. :p

Gallant is my all time favourite, followed by Chaos. Daydreamer weapons are also really pretty, too bad I didn’t play during the month they were available. I also like the Dwayna and Balthazar sets.

Many sets have some really nice weapons in them, though I’m generally not a fan of the really gaudy stuff.

I…am genuinely baffled on how anyone could ever be annoyed by something as minor as a notice on a loading screen. I mean, heaven forbid you’re going to the store and discover they ran out of milk haha. :P

Additional town clothing and casual clothing as outfits/cloths/tonics/whatever would be great. But I disagree on modern clothing, while no RPG seems to be able to completely avoid the gimmick items like random angel wings, bunny ears and quaggan backpacks, I’d prefer added fashion to be strictly in the spirit of the Guild Wars setting.

I like the improvements so far (love the updated arrows), though others above me specified that more in depth already. But one thing I shall repeat, since it really stands out to me:

I think that Pure of Sight should be either reworked, or moved into a major tier (where you can choose not to have it). That would make the Dragonhunter more versatile, since then you can also choose to build it for melee without having a useless talent (in that context). Players might want to take DH spec solely for the Virtues, in which case they’ll be punished for not taking the longbow, which is kinda odd.

Ha, my sense of direction is not that good either, and the place is a maze. But I love it because of that! For me, it makes the experience and atmosphere of getting lost in the vast untamed jungle so much cooler. I’m sure it’ll get better once you’ve explored a bit, though I’m not doing too much of that myself, I don’t want to spoil it. :P

Bwahaha everything is a ‘slap in the face!!!!111111’ these days. I don’t understand how people get bent out of shape and play the victim for even the smallest of things.

If it’s not a beta weekend start time, then it’s someone writing a huge essay on how the expansion should be free because (s)he bought the original 3 years back. People get a free outfit, and it’s a ‘slap in teh faec’ that it’s not an armour set. They announce raids, and it’s a slap in teh faaaace that this feature dares to exist since omg now it’s just like wow!!!1111. People feel insulted worked up way too easily these days. :P

As someone who enjoys both Guild Wars and Warcraft, I can say that they’re completely different games. Sure they’re both online RPG’s and thus share stuff like classes/professions, leveling, crafting and what not but I think the similarity kinda ends there.

GW2 getting raids doesn’t make it like WoW, the feel of the combat is vastly different. Basically, a raid is nothing more than a term for a difficult dungeon for larger groups. It’s not some extra special thing nor the be all end all of ‘endgame’, it’s just another (optional) activity to do. From what I gathered in the interview, they’re aiming it to be more similar to those high level GW1 elite zones/missions instead.

In WoW, I enjoy raids but do them only once in a blue moon, mainly to them requiring so much stuff to even enter. Besides knowing how to play, you have to have raiding gear that’s good enough to do the latest one, a raiding guild, and be able to make set times every week (usually very often). Sometimes players aren’t even guaranteed of a ‘spot’ in the team, due to there being a weekly lockout and as far as I know, you can’t repeat runs forgoing loot to help out friends and guildies. From what I’ve heard so far, GW2 raids seek to at least eliminate a portion of those things, which is only a good thing really. To me it sounds like they’re still doing it GW style.

Here’s a few! :P

Technically also a character shot, but hey. :p

I hope that the tone of the story stays as good as the small preview I saw in the beta! Since release, they’ve seemed to slowly erode the silly elements in their storywriting, and the HoT beta preview mission was awesomely grim, gritty and serious, a good return to form I’d say! So if they continue in that line, I’m a very happy player.

I also like how every time I encountered a new enemy in the beta and expected to faceroll it, I got smacked for my insolence until I figured out how to defeat it! The new AI looked promising.

But most of all, I can’t wait to find out the mysteries of the jungle, and most of all about the Exalted. I’m SO curious about them!

Ah, this is the one I saw! Looks like two variants but shown with several random colours.

Even though I’d always want more armours, I think the amount we get is kinda on par with the ‘leveling armours’ I’m used to from other games’ expansion releases. So it’s what I expected! But I think they’ll probably add stuff afterwards with the living story as well, seeing how well received (as far as I’ve heard) the Carapace sets were.

Though I must admit that with the amount of mixing and dyeing you can do in this game, even a single added set adds lots of options, at least that’s how it’s been for me with the Carapace armours.

Some weeks back I’ve seen a few datamined sets as well, those looked really pretty and very true to the GW style, so no weird flashy lava armour stuff. I remember that one of the medium (no trenchcoat!) sets reminded me of a toned down version of GW1’s assassin armours. Toned down as in, one scythe-like blade at the lower arms instead of 20 on top of each other. :P

If I understood it correctly, it’ll be like this:

6 open world sets (2 heavy, 2 medium, 2 light).
3 guild sets (1 heavy, 1 medium, 1 light).
3 precursor sets (1 heavy, 1 medium, 1 light).
3 legendary sets (1 heavy, 1 medium, 1 light).

5 open world weapon sets.
2 guild weapon sets (those are the dark and light versions that were mentioned).

Then there’s mention of 3 legendary weapons, meaning 3 legendary precursors as well.
Unconfirmed: I recall that they mentioned in one of the interviews, that they were going to revamp the look of the existing precursors as well, to make them more in line with the legendaries. Not certain on that part though, since legendaries never interested me that much. :p

Also, there’s a mention of ‘60 additional item skins and miniatures’ that you can earn in the open world content. That last bit is a bit vague, but I suspect that to include backpacks and non set items (like those Lawless pieces.

Last but not least, there are 175 unlockable decorations for the guild halls.

Hopefully I’ve managed to scout out the fashion well enough!

Liewec.2896:

oversight or not, very few people have them, they’re relics from the old pvp material system, if you can’t see how they’re prestigious then the whole concept of MMO rewards might be lost on you lol.

Nope, I don’t think the concept of MMO rewards is lost on me, I just completely disagree with what you say. :p This set wasn’t a reward for anything, I did nothing special to earn it. Nothing wrong with actual prestige items, but this isn’t one of them.

Liewec.2896:

they’ve already said that they will pander to you folks by re-adding the pvp past rewards in the future…
because prestige means nothing to the devs apparently.

i’d hope its a long way away so our pvp prestige rewards can remain special for a little while longer, but i doubt it, it’s probably going to be vendor bought in HoT.

Lol, there’s nothing prestigious about those skins. I pvp once in a blue moon (I like it, but I just don’t always take time for it) and I was lucky enough to obtain some of those sets. It had nothing to do with me being super skilled or dedicated. These skins aren’t meant as pvp exclusives and were likely removed as an oversight during the wardrobe transition, hence why they were confirmed to be returning in the future.

This is so nice and welcoming, I’ve never seen a game where people do this.

Palador.2170:

Enrif.7359:

4 maps over 3 levels (ground,middle,top) so 12 maps, without counting guild halls and maybe a city like area? Not bad

Just to be clear, where does it say that the 4 maps does not include the guild hall maps? We will have to fight in them to claim them, after all, and the video for them did show someone flying in one of them.

For what I’ve seen on the HoT site, the 4 open world maps were listed along the PvE stuff in the ‘Into the Jungle’ (or something) chapter.

There’s a different chapter for the guild hall stuff, which lists the 2 different areas for them.

Then, in the WvW chapter the desert borderlands is mentioned.

So while it’s not mentioned explicitly, from how it’s presented I think it’s safe to assume that the 4 maps are the regular maps.

Gaebriel.3754:

Ooh I like it! Though it doesn’t scream paladin to me (I’m a paladin connoisseur hahaha).

After just receiving it, I must correct myself: it does have a paladin/guardian feel to it!

I love love love the stained glass details. Looove! The helm is not really to my taste, but still looks nice and fits the set well. I also like how it’s fancy looking, but also very regular GW style plate and not over the top. As always, I applaud your art design! <3 **

**Well to be fair, except the Scallywag armour. I think someone took some hits from the bong with that. Or licked a hallucinogenic jungle toad (or frog). :P

Ooh I like it! Though it doesn’t scream paladin to me (I’m a paladin connoisseur hahaha).

I must say that with the free expensive dye, the finisher (which might actually be my favourite!) and now the new outfit, they’ve definitely done well in the gifts department this week!

I just checked out the Heart of Thorns page, and found the following fashion info!
Dunno if I interpreted it correctly, but this is what’s listed under various pages:

From the open world you can get two new armour sets for each weight class, so six armour sets in total. Also five weapon sets, I assume that means five new models of each possible weapon.

From guild halls, you can get an armour set for each weight class so three in total, as well as two complete weapon sets, depending on the hall you choose.

From raids there’s legendary armour, which seems to be one for each weight as well. Then there’s also precursor armour mentioned, so I think that’s another three sets in total.

Then there’s backpacks too, a legendary one from PvP and fractals each.

Correct me if I’m wrong!

Haha, I really don’t get how people are angry about a game they played for three years now being free for new players to discover. I played since the headstart three years ago, and got my money’s worth out of it maaaany times over. I’ll gladly share that experience with new players, so what if it’s free? Didn’t invalidate my purchase in the slightest, and with the restrictions in place I don’t think it’ll inconvenience me either. The more the merrier I’d say!

Happy birthday! Now this is a birthday gift! I love customizing characters and I’ve gawked over some of those expensive dyes for ages, now it’s freeeeeee!

‘omg welfare epix!!!11111’

Bwhahaha I truly cannot see the problem here. Or hey, perhaps I’m bedazzled by these fabulous free colours and too busy prancing around like a fabulous rainbow unicorn to see the deep seriousness of this horrible, horrible nice gift situation.

Happy birthday!

I never really understood the big deal about legendaries, most are way too over the top for me. I’m much more curious to see the normal weapons and armour they’ll add!

Though in any case, if I was interested in legendaries I would definitely prefer a smaller but more fleshed out number, with lore and all that, over a large quantity of random sparkleweapons. Therefor I hope they’ll do a mace and pistol first, since that disco ball and joker pistol really could use an alternative that looks like it actually belongs in the setting.

I loved what I saw of the story in the beta, the character interactions felt so more realistic and appropriate to the situation, gave a sense of urgency and despair. To me it really feels that the presentation of the story has slowly been rising ever since the latter part of LS1, I haven’t cringed in quite a while. I love GW lore (from both games), though felt the personal/living story representation was often lacking at the start. Also loved the tension between the various characters, and especially the suspicion and venom towards the sylvari, the sarcastic ‘sir’ in the dialogue, etc.

Also I liked how right at the start, the player character yells after Braham when he starts running off. Finally the player reacts at stupidity, much love for that. I don’t mind stupid or impulsive characters in the slightest, but it’s really detrimental to the atmosphere of a story when such behaviour is passed off as entirely normal.

Taimi during the LS2 had something similar, she does something stupid, runs off and nearly gets herself killed as a consequence, that’s the stuff I like to see.

The trouble I had with Trahearne wasn’t the character itself or that he stole the glory, I never felt he really did that. It was more that he seemed completely unfitting and uninspirational as a leader. It seemed highly unlikely and really shoehorned in, that all those experienced soldiers that served under him somehow accepted this zero confidence/shy/brooding/withdrawn but somehow all knowing guy. He would’ve been so much better in a scholar/advisor role. Maybe it was due to his unemotional voice lines, but he just seemed to have no charisma to fulfill a leadership role, and yet somehow he did and no one questioned it. Though I found this was already improved on quite a bit, in his Silverwaste cameo. So I have hope for the future.

But yeah, storywriting adds so much to the atmosphere and my enjoyment of GW2, so I’m really happy that it has improved so much. While all the inconspicuous background lore from talking NPC’s and such was always of a good standard, some wacky NPC’s in the past (such as Tybalt …really, the Whispers mentor should’ve been an Elonian human :P – or that cringeworthy sylvari mentor from Priory storyline with her happy yay battle is fun anime attitude) brought the atmosphere down for me. But I waffle as always, loving what I’m seeing recently so keep it up! <3

Oh it wasn’t the voice acting that bothered me on that bit, that was good. It was just the line itself, I thought it was odd that with the whole fleet in smoking ruins all around you, your character brushes it off it as ‘oh, it’s just a setback’, it kills the (otherwise excellent) atmosphere a bit. The rest of the line was perfectly appropriate, it’s just that little part that could’ve better been left out. :P

I love how the graphics always look as good ingame as in the trailers/cutscenes/artwork.

I have to say, great work on the story dialogue! I lovelovelove how there was not a single sign of emotionless lines or inappropriate happy-go-lucky anime characters (yay let’s go to battle squeee / let’s solve everything with apples goofy laugh) stuff that plagued some of the original personal story sections. This story instance really brings back some of the grit of the GW setting which is great. <3

I hope this sets the tone for the whole expansion, since then I’m one very happy player.

It made the whole atmosphere so much more engaging and serious, the despair and near hopelessness of the situation, the resulting tension between the characters was very well presented. Also loved the distrust for the Sylvari, consequences like this are great to see. It simply felt alive, the character interactions seemed very real.

One of the only gripes I originally had with GW2 is that sometimes personal story missions had cringeworthy characters or dialogue that didn’t confer any sense of danger or urgency, especially notcieable since the non-story dialogue and lore for like talking to NPC’s throughout the world was usually of high standard. I think the latter parts of LS1 and then LS2 showed great improvements in this, and I’m glad to see the trend continues. Also loved that my character was speaking, and actually with conviction. I would’ve immediately bought the expansion based on all this, were it not that I already preordered. :P

P.S. There was a single line that was kinda bad though, at a certain point the player character says something like. ‘Bla bla bla, we suffered a major setback, but shall not be defeated.’ I’d suggest to leave out the ‘major setback’ part of that line, since well…it sounds unintentionally hilarious with the complete Pact fleet in smoking ruins in the background. The rest of the sentence was good though. Yeah I know it’s nitpicky, but hey it’s a beta. :P

Yeah, they have super strong attacks but definitely weaknesses as well, which is good. Learn how to deal with them and adapt your strategies, that’s half the fun of it.

Haha I died in so many embarassing ways, it was awesome! I thought I could faceroll that raptor swarm when coming out of the cave, but they almost annihilated me! Granted I was trying out the revenant that time so my skill might be lacking here. :P But this is a really good improvement on the enemy combat, I actually had to make choices who to take out first, where to position, play defensively etc. Some enemies in particular are truly fearsome, love it!

Yeah I was blown away as well! It looks amazing, love the devastation of the starting point, and it all has a massive sense of scale. I really felt like an ant with all the passages and twists and turns. And that Itzel tribe treetop village with the rickety bridges is a thing of beauty. <3

Personally I would never ever spend gems on one of the unlimited harvesting tools/salvage kits. Occasionally restocking on regular ones when passing by an outpost never inconvenienced me, but so many gems for such a slight convenience isn’t worth it to me. Since I’d also have to move them around all the time, depending on which character I wanted to play, to me that’s far more annoying than restocking kits when emptying my inventory.

I love creating characters, so my biased advice would be a character slot, since it gives you like… a Whole New Character to customize and play. For me that’s way more enjoyment gotten from my gems.

Bank slots is always a good one, I’ve never bought regular inventory slots though, they’re for one character only and you can get quite some bag space with the regular slots.

I think outfits and/or unique weapons are also great purchases if you like the look of them. Especially since outfits are account bound, and the weapons/armours unlock in your wardrobe, meaning you can use them more than once (though after the first use it costs transmute charges).

But in any case, there’s probably a sale soon with the anniversary, so I’d recommend holding on to them and playing around a bit first, explore and level some characters to see what you like most. Unless you’re seeing something that looks awesome, in which case buy it at once. :P

I won’t advise buying gold with gems, gold is quite a bit easier to acquire these days, especially since low level mats sell for a lot!

I’ve played this game since the headstart, and I’ve never been bored with it yet! If I was, I would just log off and do something else lol. But I don’t play on a daily basis or anything. I love making and leveling characters in this game, and I mean lovelovelove. :p Since I love the setting, lore, art/character/armour/world design I have tons of fun wandering through zones and completing them, since they nailed the atmosphere and for me that’s a big part in if I enjoy a game.

I never focus on the rewards (unless it’s fashion!), so I do dailies only when I don’t forget them, which is maybe half of the time. I’m not in the least bit interested in one of the legendaries, though the shield may tempt me – but I never use the Mystic Forge so I’ll probably never see a precursor drop. :p Despite having played since the start, I have like 10 gold to my name haha. But! What I use my gold for, is not fresh materials to flush through the mystic toilet, but character slots! My Guardian is my undisputable main, but I have um…well 26 chars in total haha, I think 9 or so at max level (and a lot around 20-30). I just love designing awesome looking characters that fit the GW setting and lore. I’m one of those sad people that uses some transmute stones around level 20-30ish to make the perfect look and then level as far as I can, trying not to change their armour until as close to max as I can, then remake the same ‘primary’ set at max level with exotics, now also with matching weapons. All my characters have different builds and weapon sets suited to their theme. So if I wanted to play a warrior this evening, I could choose between the ‘stereotypical’ male Norn scarred veteran wielding axe/shield or 2h hammer, female Norn bear shaman wielding dual axes and 2h hammer, male Elonian wanderer looking like a mysterious desert prince wielding dual swords or longbow, female Canthan noblewoman wielding sword/shield or 2h sword, or male Charr Blood Legionnaire wielding 2h sword or rifle. First 2 are 80, the others between 21-40. So yeah, this keeps me from getting bored ever haha. I also don’t speedrun, don’t use optimal builds (though I definitely know how to make/play them if I somehow reallyreally wanted that) and focus on the atmosphere and enjoyment instead of the loot or goals (there is no loot :p).

Genesis.8572:

Gaebriel.3754:

I’d like to see a future Guardian elite spec that utilizes the now-removed Tomes. In a reworked non-clunky way and this time not as elite skills but as Engineer-type kits.

The animations were fantastic and it really suited the Guardian theme!

The Cleric!

Not sure about the new weapon though. We have all the scholarly-associated weapons already: i.e. focus, staff, and scepter. And clerics in RPGs are traditionally associated with bludgeoning weapons: mace and hammer.

Maybe if ArenaNet introduced the ‘wand’ as a new weapon type?

Yeah, the only current unavailable weapon that would make sense on the Guardian is Warhorn. I’d be totally okay with elite specs adding something else than a weapon, especially for classes that have a wide selection available already.

I’d like to see a future Guardian elite spec that utilizes the now-removed Tomes. In a reworked non-clunky way and this time not as elite skills but as Engineer-type kits.

The animations were fantastic and it really suited the Guardian theme!

Here’s my female Norn Mesmer. I like my characters to fit seamlessly into the world, so I went for a savage/shamanistic look, using fur and rough leather looking dyes and items.

Yeah it definitely looks even prettier now!
Though for me it wasn’t a huuuge difference, probably because I already play with supersampling on, but it’s a really good improvement still. I noticed that the ‘Ascalon light effect’ that makes metal stuff look extra shiny, now also appears in places like Divinity’s Reach which is great.

What I found even more amazing, is how after today it not only looks better but character control feels more responsive and camera movement feels super super smooth.

Now my pc runs GW2 perfectly and I never had troubles with fps, but sometimes especially with huge events character control and camera movement felt a bit sluggish for lack of a better word, not an fps thing but more as if the game needed to pick up the pace or something.

I dunno what they did but this patch completely eliminated that, it’s super consistent and smooth as butter now. The extra responsive ‘feel’ of the character movement (I noticed it especially with jumping) and camera makes it so much more of a joy to play, so have my love. <3