Guild Wars 2

MrForz.1953:

The problem is that Sorrow’s Embrace medium armors are utter crap compared to their heavy and light variants. Very difficult to do anything steampunkish. Only thing close I could ever do was a royal guard variant of it on a Dishonored style.

The best piece of the Sorrow’s Embrace set, IMHO, is the shoulders.

Terrahero.9358:

I wont make long lists that no dev will ever read or even take serious, but i will say this. I’d really like to see traits have more omni-purpose.
We’re a supposedly versatile, so much that we get hybrid-taxed for it, then we need traits to actually reflect this.

Right now traits are just tunnelvisioning on very few of our weapons at all. Grenadier, Juggernaut, Coated Bullets being some prime examples. Giving a (big) boost to only a single weapon/kit.

That doesnt motivate multi-weapon/kit use at all, its specializing. And that doesnt stroke well with being “versatile”, when we have some of the least versatile builds and our top builds are all highly dedicated to specializing for a single purpose.

This. Our traits should encourage our kit-swapping versatility, though also giving a reason to actually use gadgets.

I recommend mix-and-matching for steampunk. These are what the available medium armors look like on a charr:

http://www.gw2armorgallery.com/charr-medium.htm

Out of my own amusement, I decided to level up a bombing engineer built around Elixir-Infused Bombs. (I’m not done. Just started a few days ago.) From my experience, I definitely agree that the combo potential of the shield makes it a MUST HAVE weapon for any bomber due to the sheer number of fields created. I’ll admit that I’ve been mostly working with the assumption that I should go cleric for gear, but this guide has been a real eye-opener. I’ll certainly try your build out, since I have not yet begun really dedicating my equipment, since I’m not max level yet.

While I see the value of Ingenuity and Speedy Kits, my biggest worry about investing 10 points in Tools is that the 10% bonus to Crit Damage is absolutely wasted without any Precision. You may want to consider putting those 10 points in Alchemy instead. I have been working with a similar build, but I was leveling towards 20/0/30/20/0. I understand that 15K health is nothing to laugh at, especially with heavy armor, constant healing and condition removal options, but I liked the extra HP cushioning that Alchemy gave. Plus, going at least 10 Alchemy will give you a 10% bonus to boon duration, while is nice for the might combos (fire + blast) and regeneration. In terms of Alchemy traits, I found Protection Injection to be an incredibly useful tool, since bombs naturally expose you to melee damage and CC range far more and the trait gives readily available (5 sec cd) damage reduction (3 sec) when CC’ed.

If we are forced to tolerate cutscene dialogue, it would be nice if our character personality actually affected the dialogue text and voice inflections.

Perhaps they should create an explorable version of the Molten Facility?

The Gates Assassin.9827:

No. Never. There is so much utility to having this be ground targeted. This is a high skill high reward kit. The devs will never make this happen because it’s a bad idea. Just practice. Also, how the hell does your hand hurt doing this? It’s pushing keys! God forbid you have to write an essay in your life time.

That may be true for buttons 2-5, but for the basic button #1?

WyldKat.4712:

Genesis.8572:

Bless Coffee, O my soul.

Try blessing the asura with some of the coffee.

What do you think the Eternal Alchemy is all about if not coffee?

Truga.5897:

Variety and gatherer are a bloody nuisance in WvW.

Variety requires 13 different types, and these creatures tend to be collateral damage in most fights and wandering zergs anyway (e.g., mosquitoes, moas, panthers, griffons, raptors, dolyaks, guards, etc.). Gathering requires a grand total of 20 harvested materials (or generally seven mine/tree nodes).

Mayoken.9851:

What’s with this coffee crap lol.
I want caffeine

At least for me, it’s my exam and paper-writing season. Coffee takes on a heightened level of significance in my life.

Hickeroar.9734:

Usagi.4835:

Hickeroar.9734:

Usagi.4835:

WyldKat.4712:

What’s biscotti anyway? Toasted toast? I always thought someone found a way to sell stale but edible rock.

Biscotti is gross, that’s what it is.

It’s one of those things that is trying SO hard to be good, but just can’t quite manage.

I think it’s just dried out bread. You’re supposed to dip it in coffee or something?

Coffee is kind of gross as well, so it works.

How dare you insult the almighty coffee! Coffee is nearly as sacred as toast!!

Bless Coffee, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless its holy name.
Bless Coffee, O my soul,
and do not forget all its benefits—
which forgives all your iniquity,
which heals all your diseases,
which redeems your life from the Monday pits,
which crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
which satisfies you with good as long as you live
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
Coffee works caffeination
and energy for all who are fatigued.
It made known its beans to Moses,
its effects to the people of Israel.
Coffee is aromatic and delicious,
slow to drink and abounding in steadfast flavor.
Coffee will not always taste fresh,
nor will it keep its hotness forever.
It does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities.
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
so great is its steadfast flavor towards those who taste it;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far it removes our sleepiness from us.
As a parent has compassion for their children after a morning cup,
so Coffee has compassion for those who taste it.
For it knows how we were made;
it remembers that we are dust.
As for gamers, their days are like grass;
they flourish like a flower of the field;
for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,
and its place knows it no more.
But the steadfast flavor of Coffee is from everlasting to everlasting
on those who taste it,
and its righteousness to students’ students,
to those who keep its covenant
and remember to do its commandments.
Coffee has established its throne in the kitchens,
and its kingdom rules over all.
Bless Coffee, O you its addicts,
you caffeinated ones who do its bidding,
obedient to its drunken taste.
Bless Coffee, all its grounds,
its baristas that do its will.
Bless Coffee, all its works,
in all places of its dominion.
Bless Coffee, O my soul.

FrankieBonez.8361:

Of course you knew, you’re just being a kitten about it. You already fought the version of Dragonbrand that was supposed to move up to T2. Did Dragonbrand ever stop fighting even when TC/FA visited T3? Nope, we were out there fighting back the hordes of TC/FA who were clearly waaaay to big for T3.

That same Dragonbrand – without the transfers – was poised to move up to T2 against BOTH of the servers that destroyed T3. You know exactly what was going to happen – Dragonbrand would fight our hardest and work with what we had – but eventually get destroyed and swap places with either Mag or Kain week after week because of the huge population disparity between the T2 and T3 servers.

It’s not hard to deduce what was going to happen when TC/FA has already seen what Dragonbrand was all bout before the transfers. We were clearly too small for T2 when ONE T2 server came down to T3.

I have to agree. If anyone was actually paying attention to WvW trends the past few months, Dragonbrand moving up to T2 seemed inevitable.

Fort Aspenwood has some of the most skilled fighters and guilds I have faced in WvW. I have tremendous amount of respect to the discipline of the “troops” they field. If you or your guild are considering moving to a server that loves good fights, then I would recommend Fort Aspenwood. Help keep Tier 2 competitive.

Usagi.4835:

So if tactics = portal bombs and strategic play = knowing when to use portal bombs, for instance, how could we be lacking in either of those fields? You can’t have one without the other.

Tactics would involve both portal bombs and when and where to use them. Strategy pertains more to the plan used to achieve an objective, with tactics being the concrete methods used to materialize a strategy.

I love Tier 2. We get to play some of the best worlds with and against some of the greatest people and guilds. Keep up the great work, Tier 2 worlds!

Grackleflint.4956:

I get that Signet’s are a form of magic and Engineers don’t use magic, but as many of us have suggested—give Gadgets a passive buff and active use. This would bring Gadgets up to a level where people would use them and would give us static stat boosts to bring us up to par with every other class since they all have access to Signets.

This is a great idea and would actually get engineers to even consider taking gadgets.

Perhaps the #2 should involve dropping mines (or some other gadget) and #3 be a temporary healing turret.

Vash.9183:

What the? Role-playing server for the win? haha, that’s awesome. I didn’t know Tarnished Coast was this populated (not talking about the WvWvW population in particular).

I have been on TC since the first 5 minutes of launch. TC has definitely been one of the most populated servers since launch in a large part to being the fan-designated US roleplaying server as well as a heavily populated PvE playerbase. It gives Tarnished Coast a particularly distinguished server flavor and character.

Hickeroar.9734:

What’s crazy about T1 is that is feels like every week sees a new winner up there. It’s very weird.

It’s almost like T2.

Here are some general suggestions for ArenaNet that I have on how to possibly to improve aspects of the personal story in the future:

1. More biography options: People love customizing their characters. It’s a vanity people enjoy that allows for a more individualized character. There should probably be more added in the future for the particular races that expands the replay value of races.

2. More meaningful choices: People like knowing that their choices have actual effects on the game world and on their personal story. When choices are illusory or equal in insignificance, people become detached to the story. Effects of choices made should reverberate beyond the 10 level chunk of missions.

3. Greater variety within the Order missions: Even if you play the three different Orders with three different characters, there’s not a tremendous amount of replay value. If you pick the Priory, you will be partnered with Sieran, who dies at Claw Island. If you pick Whispers, you will be partnered with Tybalt, who dies at Claw Island. If you pick the Vigil, you will be partnered with Forgal, who dies at Claw Island. There’s no real variety or significant choice in the Order missions. It would be nice if we were given the option of a wider berth of choices for our partnered character, each with their own particular fate (other than just death), that was actually dependent on our choices. The racial missions felt better constructed. I try rushing through the Order missions, ESPECIALLY the terrible racial sympathy missions, as quickly as possible.

4. A dynamic home instance: Despite early claims, the personal story had a minimal effect on my home instances. The NPCs with whom I journeyed neither recognize nor acknowledge me as appropriate for my background. (E.g., Andrew and Petra of the human commoner story will treat you as if you had the ‘commoner’ background, even if you picked ‘noble’ or ‘street rat.’) Overall, there was minimal change on anything in my home instance apart from the occasional idle and hard to locate NPC. ArenaNet said that the home instance was something to show people the accomplishments of your story. I’m still not what I can show anyone. Furthermore, the world at large is filled with dynamic events. According to ArenaNet, these dynamic events, and downscaling, give us a reason to revisit these zones. But what reason do we have to revisit our home instance? Suggestion: What if the home instance contained its own set of dynamic events that would change based upon your biography and personal story choices? These dynamic events, just like in the open world, would have an effect on the home instance environment and NPCs.

5. Replay missions sans reward: Players should be given to replay particular personal story missions albeit without the final reward. This would give players a chance to relive their story (either by themselves or with others) and do what they enjoy (even at max level). Final rewards do not need to be attached for completion once you have done it at least once.

6. Profession quests: In order to actually explore some of the lore of the world, it perhaps would have been nice if ArenaNet also added ten levels to explore the profession that the player chose, whether tied to their race of choice or to a wider international organization/scenario.

Q: How do you reconcile your design philosophy of making the engineer a versatile and flexible combatant with the engineer talent trees that force deep specialization to even achieve a modicum of effectiveness in an exceptionally limited and inflexible playstyle?

Why will FA and KN be favored in this match? TC PvE/RP map completionists and fairweather players.

TIMMEH.8106:

holy god is everyone an Olympic athlete, ya’ll are outstanding at running.

Is map mobility not a valued skilled in WvW?

NoobieOne.4167:

Last night in KNBL was awesome, 2 three way battles not 30 minutes from each other at hills. First time we broke through North Gate and BT broke through west and TC retreated to lord room AoEing the passage so nobody can get through, BT then set up a treb on the inner wall to hit us and we eventually fell back to try to make a push elsewhere. Second time we broke though the west gate and BT broke through the north following up with us setting up a treb to hit them. Exact mirror situation.

I was there for that. Thanks KN and FA for making that an epic battle! (Also, thanks for the lovely loot bags. We may have lost the keep, but not before we withdrew out taxes.)

I am glad that Tarnished Coast is in Tier 2 where we belong. The fights have been incredibly fun the past few weeks regardless of the score.

ninjambo.3784:

Oh kitten You guys brought 50 people and killed 30 people who were caught off gaurd. Nice!

So it’s only worth bragging about when FA guilds do the same?

Someone recently proposed having dedicated sub-forums to particular tiers. If it meant not having to be drowned by the redundant T8 threads, I would be all for it.

I want to give a shout out to the incredible FA guilds RET and PRO for being such challenging and rewarding opponents in FABL. In my time today, there were way too many fun fights to name. You really are determined to hold down FABL.

This would be potentially beneficial in allowing focus on more WvW-related discussions while the tiers could have their own tier-related discussions that would not necessarily be cluttered in megathreads.

This is a good CoC for any server.

Tearofsoul.9843:

Thanks for all the loot bags, RPers

Funny thing. WvWers drop loot bags just as readily as RPers.

Baa.4582:

Just lost lots of respect for kaineng. If a mesmer doesn’t even try to hide that he’s glitching into a tower, fine that’s just 1 loser. The problem is when the whole zerg takes the portal: do none of them even think about how the mesmer got in when we’ve had the tower for a whole day? That whole zerg is guilty.

Report it, but don’t complain about it here. Furthermore, it’s a bit problematic to view an entire server negatively on account of a single zerg’s actions. (Sometimes in group-think, questions of how or why are left to the wayside for mob-mentality solidarity.)

I am enjoying my fights with KN and FA, much like the ones I had with BG. I’m slowly improving my fighting skills within PvP, as it has never before had much appeal to me until WvW. I learn a lot from running with skilled commanders and guilds, but I learn tremendously from facing opposing skilled individuals and guilds. There are some exceptionally skilled guilds on KN and FA, and watching them in action – even with me on the receiving end – can be a thing of beauty to behold. I only hope to improve to the point that watching me fight is a thing of beauty as well for the skilled players among KN and FA.

Welcome aboard.

I really wish I could be in WvW tonight to fight two of my beloved server opponents, but alas, I can’t. I hope that my fellow Zombie Toasters receive sufficient loot bag offerings from FA and KG tonight. I promise to make up for it tomorrow.

Iris Ng.9845:

Well, we Kaineng can always step back to let TC and FA settle your lovers’ quarrel. As much as I hate to be a third wheel, I look forward to great fights between three servers and a wonderful matchup thread ahead.

Hugs to both FA and TC,

The hate between FA and TC is mostly unidirectional, with FA having an axe to grind against TC and our yak parades.

I am looking forward to this match. We missed you, KA and FA. There’s a lot of great potential for fun and epic fights.

TheFug.5278:

It’s hard to be the funny pal when you have 60 people inside of their battleground basically camping their spawn. That’s just no fun for anyone.

Considering how we complained when SoR did it to us, we should be discouraging spawn camping within TC. People can rationalize it as a “viable strategy” all they want, but it’s still in poor taste.

While I’m glad that we are Green so that many of our native Toasters could finally achieve map completion, that has come at a price. I for one am annoyed by the increased queue times and the fairweather WvWers. I want to play with the ones from the past month or so in T2, with whom I faced SoR, BG, KG, and FA.

Thanks to those on other servers for the many kind words about TC. We love you too. (Many of these other people are our ‘adversaries’ in Tier 2.)

Fundamentally, our success as a server has not derived from a desire to win for the sake of winning WvW, but is an outcome of our shared pursuit of having fun as a community. Our server is very friendly to those new to WvW. Many WvW TC veterans and dedicated WvW guilds are more than willing to help teach strategies and tactics to new players or PuGs. Dedicated WvW guilds in Oceanic/Asian/EU regions stand to make a significant contribution to the TC war effort. Other servers will thank you too.

I suppose we do need more guilds in these timezones, but I doubt there would be too many to switch over now that free transfers are over.

Psynch.4087:

Not sure if we’re talking about the same thing. I’m saying that centaurs were there first, and then Human settlers came and drove them out.

From Wiki page on Centaurs: “…hostilities with humans began in 300 AE when Kryta was settled by Elonian humans.”

That implies that centaurs were living on the land prior to Human settlement.

But it says nothing about who initiated the hostilities, only that 300 AE was the time when hostilities between the two races began.

Charr became inventors because their society’s rejection of magical dependency required engineering and industrialism to be competitive. This does not make charr smarter than the humans or asura. Humans and asuran intelligence is typically more geared towards magical scholasticism. The personal story makes it clear that the flying zeppelins were designed by a combined effort of asura, charr, AND human engineering.

Past few weeks, a number of SoR citizens kept telling us Toasters how thankful we should be that we were fighting SoR, since they were a self-professed honorable and respectful folk, instead of BG. They made prophetic proclamations of what it would be like. So far, I can’t help but scratch my head at all that now. Things may change, but both BG and FA members participating in this thread have been highly respectful and have been fun fighting on the battlefield. There are bad eggs on every world’s population, particularly on the battlefield, but it has been far better than it was.

A toast to Blackgate! A toast to Fort Aspenwood! A toast to Toast! And a toast to the Flame Ram!

Why are FA people on this thread already decreeing a blowout against FA? From what I can tell, FA is remaining highly competitive with TC and BG, though they would probably fair better if they did target BG more.

Although the match-up is still young, I have had a tremendous amount of fun today against BG and FA. (It’s incredible how much a worthy third server contributes to the fun and balance of power in WvW.) I fought entirely in EB today, including the three-way battle(s) for the TC Valley Keep, the Tale of Two FA Tower Trebs, and the numerous Danelon Exchanges. There have been incredibly tough fights against both BG and FA, but they were also fun. Let’s hope that all three servers can end this week just as classy as we have begun it.

For the Toast!

The elimination of swords on the map would make smaller scouts and scouting parties more important as well as players manning the towers and keeps.

Johje Holan.4607:

Problem with making the maps bigger is that I know people who think the maps are big enough or too big. They don’t like having to run far.

So how about this. Make one/some of the maps bigger and more spread out. That way you could choose which size map you want to play on.

ANet can always add more waypoints to the map to cut down on the running in the bigger map.

Vekthor.8914:

Flamethrowers don’t work underwater (for reasons not difficult to deduce)

I find it ridiculous. If fire-attuned elementalists get special underwater fire-based skills, what is so far fetched about the flamethrower being converted into a similar device for underwater usage?

To expand on one of your points: The NPCs you interacted with during your prior missions forget who you are when you revisit them in the home instance. It lacks any sense of being “home” or a testament to your personal story.

My human noble character received the same chat text as my human commoner character from a NPC who features in the human commoner storyline, asking me when I would be coming back again and how he enjoyed seeing me despite having never seen my character before.

My charr character’s shaman father has nothing to say to my character whenever my character found him.

There’s a great deal of community pride on TC, which is indebted, in part, to its origins as the designated roleplaying community. Although most on TC do not roleplay, the roleplaying community has contributed a unique brand of local flavor to the server and the character it has developed. TC boasts of its eccentric character. TC’s community does not define itself solely by any ambitions in WvW, but its larger composition. Its bizarre eclectic mix of RP, PvE, PvP, and WvW has made TC a stable high population server filled with (mostly) friendly people. Win or lose in WvW, TC is about trying to have fun.

TheFug.5278:

Let’s give a little perspective on the situation.

A few months ago back when I was on CD, we were fighting TC. We were beating them by a lot, so we camped them. We put up tents, got out the marshmallows, strapped our food into containers and hung them from the trees (because bears are kitten) and we sang kitten ba yah outside of their spawn for a few days.

A few weeks later TC came back and this time the tables were turned, and within a few days they were the ones lighting the fires, breaking out the smores and I’m pretty sure that I saw atleast one camper wearing a forever lazy, which goes against all camper etiquette (shame on you).

Now TC is getting camped by SoR, and the forum warriors are out en masse because they have nothing better to do.

I was not a part of that, as I was not WvWing at that time. I do not condone spawn camping regardless of the circumstances.

I would like to applaud SBI for actually successfully besieging one of SoR’s fortified towers in their core EB territory. I don’t know how long they held it, but I was glad to see them take the offensive to SoR. I’ve been somewhat frustrated by the mostly turtle-shelling defensive game that TC has done. It tends to be predictable for SoR.

I definitely feel as if the commanders and guilds of TC are improving through our perserverence.

Indo.8629:

I thought you guys were out for good fights? You’re not going to get that in a low tier. Unless you just want blowout fights like you were getting in T3.

We’re out for competitively-even fights that make for fun fights. We’ll belong where we are meant to belong.

Pvp.2758:

Complaining on the forum does too.

Then SoR should never complain about BG or TC on the forums.

Virgil Kemp.7056:

Your tears make us stronger.

Tell us more about respect and class. It takes a lot of these things to cry about being beaten at a video game.

Too bad we have not given you any of our tears then. I guess Blackgate feeding off your tears is what propelled them to the top tier.

Doomdesire.9365:

I surely do, we were farming badges left and right at your spawn. It’s a tactic, and we were bored. Using another exit would have solved this.

So you normally troll when you’re bored? Saying that you have a longer track record of this practice is not helping your case any.

My bet is that TC would probably do it if they were controlling the map as well.

Except when TC shortly controlled the map during the blackout, it didn’t happen at all.