Guild Wars 2

Cornellious.1435:

Guardian.5142:

LOVE the analogy. Totally get that.

Maybe the problem isn’t the bar though. Its the same bar with the same drinks, but you literally went there for every chance you got, you ordered many of the same drinks over and over and the same folks came to hang out with you every day. Even the greatest things are bound to get old if you depend on them too much.

BUT THEN… you have bar hoppers. They keep it fresh by bouncing between MANY bars, enjoying each for its unique eccentricities and distinctive flavors… meeting many new people in many new areas and new interests/events to keep things interesting.

So.. my friend… its time for you to learn the nomadic lifestyle of the game hopper. Find a few that you can call “home” and bounce between them as each starts getting a little dry. Set goals in each of them and try not to focus on just one. GW2 is the casual gamers paradise… if for not all the hardcores trying to somehow make it their lives. Try not to depend too much on one and live the age old adage that ‘variety is the spice of life’

I go to many bars, but what I really want is to have some good reasons to come back to this one =).

I know, brother… I know.

VOLKON.1290:

mtpelion.4562:

Here is my standard response for any thread that contains the word “manifesto”:

Developers write manifestos because Developers are gamers. Because Developers are gamers, they want the same things we want.

Publishers bankroll games because games are profit engines. Because Publishers are interested in profit engines, they force Developers to disregard the manifestos if they think the ideas are too financially risky (i.e. not proven to be extremely profitable).

If you’re going to try and claim that the manifesto was somehow disregarded you should provide some sort of evidence backing it up. Arguing by assertion really isn’t good enough.

Truth is, GW2 is a casual game. If the TP could be reigned in, people wouldn’t have to grind so much and just casually play the game to get everything they want. Its the folks trying to make something more out of GW2 than what it is that are messing up the game.

Think for a moment about why folks complain in game. Progession is the biggest complaint, because we’ve all “arrived” at the coastline of the game and are weeping, for there are no more worlds to conquer. Anet threw in some “docks” so people could get a little further out into the ocean, but… without boats, nobody’s gaining much in the way of ground.

Second biggest complaint, too much grinding involved for gearing/studding out with the best of what IS available to work towards in game. What are we grinding? Mats and gold. We can do dungeons for only so long before you are really pushing up hard against the “grinding stone” and the game stops being fun. We can do events and WvW, but neither really pay out much.

Why does it take so much money to do things in game? The player dominated TP. Even commander tags are only 100G. Besides that, what else can you pay for in game that tops over 100G except maybe T3 sets? Nothing. It may cost karma or laurels, but nothing REALLY depends on lots of gold aside from what players have done to the market.

Imagine this. You add the total costs for your legendary and end up, precursor included around 500G, not including the farming you’ve done for mats. That is still MUCH more expensive than “just gearing up” and allows you to focus on a still target with a clear path to getting what you want. Crafting your ascended set? If all the mats were kept around or under one silver a piece, would you being grinding very much at all? Nope. You are able to get what you want and still enjoy the crap out of the game for the time you spend towards it without feeling like you are just endlessly grinding…. and you can step away for a time and return, not feeling like you have to grind a ton more for new content, but that you can ease into it, relax and play it for what it is… not for what you can turn it into if you gorge on it.

You want the above? Set time limits for buy/sell orders on the TP. Set the TP up to be used as a mat dump for some money, but not so easily cornered or controlled by players that folks have to grind themselves silly to do what they want to in game. It is, after all, just a game.

LOVE the analogy. Totally get that.

Maybe the problem isn’t the bar though. Its the same bar with the same drinks, but you literally went there for every chance you got, you ordered many of the same drinks over and over and the same folks came to hang out with you every day. Even the greatest things are bound to get old if you depend on them too much.

BUT THEN… you have bar hoppers. They keep it fresh by bouncing between MANY bars, enjoying each for its unique eccentricities and distinctive flavors… meeting many new people in many new areas and new interests/events to keep things interesting.

So.. my friend… its time for you to learn the nomadic lifestyle of the game hopper. Find a few that you can call “home” and bounce between them as each starts getting a little dry. Set goals in each of them and try not to focus on just one. GW2 is the casual gamers paradise… if for not all the hardcores trying to somehow make it their lives. Try not to depend too much on one and live the age old adage that ‘variety is the spice of life’

All of this can be solved with one small change.

Limit the time of buy and sell orders.

Noone’s going to keep putting Eternity up there at 3k if they have to pay “taxes” on reposting a sell order every three days to a week.. ALL of the big ticket items come down to realistic expectations with this one change because people are pricing their mats and weapons to move, not to stay there on the TP.

Those who want to play the TP, can play the short game and still win. Those who get precursors are still able to get a good chunk of money for them, but not for overwhelmingly high amounts of gold They also don’t NEED overwhelming amounts of gold to buy what they want, so it all shakes out.

It’ll involve a little more care being put into what prices you want to set for things, but you also don’t have stupidly high amounts of practcially worthless things on the TP either. People who want lots of stuff to sell need to buy bank tabs/collection expanders for the things they want to speculate with, so Anet wins too.

That. Fixes. Everything.

/thread

frans.8092:

Black Powder wins.
Kinda slow though in PvE.

^ this.

Sword/pistol + short bow.

Use the sigil to speed up… you waste more time walking than you do killing anyhow if you level up by completing maps.

@Scyril….. btw, the name isn’t an Archer reference is it? Not sure you’d need to roll a “spy” character… though…could be entertaining

My advice: Go to the mists. Do PvP or practice in the training area… get a feel for what works for you with a class. Avoid ALL PvE for the time being and just have fun in PvP. After a bit of doing that, you can make a PvE alt just to see the rest of the game.

Some things to keep in mind:
- DPS melee > ranged, always. Risk vs Reward is the meta. Best to just accept it.
- Warriors are the most straight forward class, thus the more straightforward to learn and play. They make good starters to get into the game, but your playstyle may take you from it to something more like what you want. Regardless of what folks say, just play what you like.
- the QQ train has stops on every forum. Folks are kitten ed about some things and jealous of others. Play it yourself.
- The game isn’t a trinity game (no tanks/healers), but IS a duality game (damage/utility). Some classes have more direct dps/condi or more useful util than others for certain things. Learn what those limitations are and accept them. Play what works for you.
- PvE/WvW is completely separate from straight PvP (different gear, different paradigms, etc). One game doesn’t need the other…. If you are really into PvP, just do PvP for the time being. Living story adds fun extras, but you don’t “need” them. Just play how you like.

and finally – thief or ele -

Thief is unlike other classes in that its skills are initiative based, not cooldown based. You can actually just spam one move as long as you have the init. Makes them bursty, but still pretty straight forward. Most folks in PvE seem to pick weapon sets for one or two attacks and just use the others situationally anyways. I’m playing one up now in PvE and enjoying Sword/pistol and shortbow a lot.

Elementalist is unlike other classes because it has flavor and complexity in spades. For every one weapon/set you have four elements, each with their own attacks, although the weapon sets have certain themes (staff is defensive, daggers are short ranged). You’ll have more abilities and choices to keep up with, but more capability. I also don’t know of any other class with so many choices of combo fields and finishers, which if you take advantage of can be pretty amazing. They also can summon their own weapons, like lightning hammer, flame sword, ice bow…. All that complexity takes a lot of practice to get good with, but if you have the patience and skill. I’ll make one at some point.

I’d recommend thief between the two for new players, but its a playstyle/flavor choice between most every class. Although, if you want something between thief and ele, you could roll mesmer and be all manners of awesome. Just make sure your character looks great… you’ll be seeing a lot of you

Go norn or go home.

pro-tip – Ascalonian pants + certain tops allow your character to go “robe-less” and you can roll with that to make a less “wizardy” sort of character.

Other sets I’ve found look good on norn – Dry Bones, Order of Whispers

Make the character “yours”, regardless of what you choose. Mix and match, play with the dresser in the mists till you have it just right. Then hold your head high for being among the sexiest people on the planet.

The above posters nailed it with Zerker, but I’d add that Knights works too w/ zerk trinkets/weps, esp while you are learning content or pugging through groups.

Definitely recommend anything that speeds you up too. I roll centaur and use MoR heal and it just seems more fun to me. Try a few things and see what’s fun for you.

Its about time for one of these to come back round. Its not a huge leap to consider MH pistol, but considering thieves and engies have dual pistols, I don’t feel we absolutely NEED a MH pistol. A whip or deck of cards or dagger (throwing knives) that fits a direct damage build would be just as nice to me.

Sword works fine for 90% of the time. I didn’t originally think it, but forcing myself to use it, I got much better and started liking it. Still want a MH power build ranged option.

I think most of you have the right idea here. My question was to ask where the middle class was, to both determine how the TP market should be AND to get experience from many on how they believe the market IS through their using it. Your responses have done just that, but they also show there’s a growing gap where the middle class SHOULD be (not to mention a general lack of personal awareness to what/how others see the game as being).

To reassert my original point, gold in game should be set up in such a way that lazy folks don’t get much, normal players are rewarded well for their efforts in playing end game events/bosses/champs/etc and dedicated players who do more events are rewarded with the most gold. Your normal “median” players should be your middle class.

They should want to aim the content towards the bulk of their players to set them up for the middle class. Those who don’t see the need to do much in game can and will be poor. Remember, we’re using the ACTUAL GAME for the base here. You don’t need much money to just “complete the game” to 80 and gear up. In fact, you should be able to get one good solid character all geared out stat wise and possibly skinned with low end exotic and lower skins.

That is where the game ends being straightforward for a lot of people. If they continue doing what they did to level, gathering, farming mobs, completing maps… they won’t get very far compared to someone who has the inside secrets and plays the TP.

What we are seeing here, is folks turning the TP into a vertical endgame, where bigger numbers lead to higher gains. It promotes higher and higher values for items and gear in game that middle class people may want, but cannot afford by just “playing the game”. The folks who are willing to do whatever it takes to gain the money they want, are able to afford most of what they want and wonder why more folks aren’t willing to do the same.

This…is kinda whats happened to the American economy. Instead of asking, is this right or does this really work for most people, it becomes its own game, where folks are moving money and assets to make more money and assets, and the folks who are actually productive of those monies and assets who are “just playing the game” get poorer and poorer as the market trends higher and higher. Its the sign of an economy that is losing its middle class.

Can we get away from the word dishonest and chock it up to a difference of perspectives?

Seriously, its like you feel lied to by them. They aren’t fully wrong and you aren’t fully right. Just let it go

I LOVE and hate JPs. Instead of just reacting to another complaint thread, why don’t we just post our favorites!

All the ones in the 1-15 zones and 15-25 zones are fun and not too hard after you’ve done them a few times and know where to go.

Fawcetts Revenge (or whatever its called) is a fun goonies style one that takes a bit of challenge.
Visier’s Tower is pretty cool once you figure out where to start and which ledges take you to the next.
The pirate one in south LA is fun if your class can use a torch or has a legendary.
The quaggan one in south timberline with the baby quaggans can be MUCH easier if you angle the camera looking straight down. It might still take a bit.
The Frostgorge one can be “blitzed” once you know where you are going.

The holiday one… I have mixed feelings about. I think Quaggan side is easier given the way the peppermint sticks are steps up rather than over. Even so, I had hours of failure before I even got one completed run. Its worth training yourself to do these holiday JPs so you can do them easily for the dailies during the holidays and they are actually a lot of fun once you have them down.

I agree with the OP. I miss GW2 staples when I go to other games now. When I all knew of was WoW systems, I could do other wow clones and still be happy. Now I’m spoiled

That being said… I miss the trinity. I love healing and tanking. GW2 has a different system of DPS and Utility. Its a duality instead of a trinity. It can be messy, hard to track and includes a lot of player skill and reaction timing. While I’m not necessarily complaining about that, they haven’t balanced the classes to be good at both damage and utility, opting to make the damage weapon specific and the utility class specific. So we are still not “bringing the player, not the class” when optimizing gains are based on one class having the utility we need or one class being able to deal more damage.

That being said, GW2 is a step in the right direction when so many other MMOs are still climbing up on the shoulders of others.

Just fix some “anti-human nature” measures to keep the market equitable would be nice. Adopting a bit more “choose your own adventure” appeal couldn’t hurt either… The living story, after having a few choice paths in the personal story, feels like a step in the wrong direction. There are plenty of ways to write good story that brings your choices back around to a similar place to rejoin the main storyline with everyone else.

That, and the ability to actually create your own story and surroundings in the world make for incredible endgame content.. Not much can top Improbable Island for that. http://www.improbableisland.com/home.php?

GuzziHero.2467:

ShiningSquirrel.3751:

The dedicated guilds for this have pretty much killed any chance of doing it unless you join them. It’s really not worth the time or effort to even bother. You can get much better loot much faster by just doing the other boss events.

Please do not blame the dedicated guilds. They are the only people doing it correctly. If you do not like or want the dedicated guilds, then form or join a guild that is large enough and does have the coordination to fight Tequatl correctly.

If you just want to run around effectively solo and ignore the mechanics whilst refusing to communicate with those doing the job right, you will fail each and every time. None of the dedicated guilds like TTS demand 100% repping. They are a response to the new difficulty and mechanics of Tequatl, it’s pretty much the only way that it can be done.

This is an MMO… you may actually come across other people every now and then and -gasp- you may even need to cooperate with them occasionally!

Agreed. I’d like very much to help out with said guild runs and will have to look these guys up on the web. I’m from Maguuma… We may or may not have a coordinated guild effort, but every prime time I try to show up at, noone’s there. Teq and I just sorta stare at each other awkward like until one of us breaks the silence with… “So….. how are things? Wife and kids are good? Nice day… not too warm…… yep……. So I was thi- awe crap” ::CRUNCH:: “…….good talk, then…… Cya next time!”

I like the world bosses and events that are simple enough to hotjoin and “pug” raid them, but a challenge like Teq has a place at the table too. I have only heard tell that the rewards seemed… lackluster, but… its nice to do a little serious raiding in this casual game…

Risingashes.8694:

Somethin Green.3482:

I trusted you to keep 3 promises*. Now I’m burned out, tired, with a bunch of gold I have no will to spend on anything at this point, just laying there reminding me of the time I’ve wasted.

Instead of blaming ANet it might be an idea to look at how you managed to waste the endless streams of gold that falls on people while playing.

I like that… endless steams of gold… nice imagery. One might call that a golden shower of sorts… but did they have the decency to call it rain? no.. no they didn’t….

Joking aside, the TP seems to be an honest measure of supply and demand, but the end game pricing of items follows the “casual lifers” who are willing to grind day and night for the highest numbers. To me that’s grinding…. that’s not playing the game.

Instead of downing others who don’t find the most lucrative things in game fun, try to keep in mind that its those players who play the tricks and garner massive amounts of gold that actually cause the costs to be so high. In essence, a game that actually COULD be a casual gamer’s paradise is damaged by the “casual lifers” who acquire vast wealth and then generally complain about the lack of progression (and things to spend their wealth on)…

As for “challenges”… its pve. Let’s try not to overstate the difficulty of scripted battles, especially when you do them every day. Would you really say after the 10th run of a explorable dungeon in 10 days with the same 4 folks that its really that hard? After the 30th run in a month are you struggling to do anything but stay awake? I have 10 times the respect for a top end pvper over a guy with tons of time who wants to min/max in what is really more or less an easy going game…. and to add insult to injury, the PVPers are just NOW getting set up for legendaries. They’ve rocked for how long with their only ePenis coming from giving people an impressive beatdown followed by a kitten ed awesome “finisher”. (shark and phoenix are just too kitten ed cool)

Risingashes.8694:

Guardian.5142:

Then, one night, after reading many folks having amazing luck with the TP, I decided to try mine. I dumped more than half my wealth into the TP, resulting in merely “The Bard”, which I sold and added the proceeds towards more TP fodder. I ended the night at about 150G with nothing to show for it.

Clarify. You got profit from flipping a precursor and then suddenly you’re down 300g?

Did your precursor market crash? Because if you still have an resalable asset that doesn’t count as an expense.

Guardian.5142:

Since then, I haven’t broken 200G and currently sit at about 4G, but again, I know why… I decided the legendaries are just not worth it at this point and went a different direction.

Do you hold the same attitude as the OP? That somehow you spending money is the games fault and a reason precursors should be cheaper? Is all the money gone or is it sitting on the trading post?

The bard sold for 80g… not sure what you were expecting as far as “profit” but that was a mite smaller than what I wanted, which is why I reinvested that into the TP. I could have worded that better… And then after feeling idiotic for dumping so much money, I bought other things, gems, etc just so I’d have “something” at the end of my day… and no, it didn’t help. :P I’ve gained back some and spent some. Just playing however I like now, not caring so much about getting the shiniest shinies.

And yes, in a way, I feel the OPs frustration. In my opinion, I feel like getting money in this game should be less about what sells the most on the TP and more about what you actually do to play the game. Not grinding… playing aka having fun! Grinding anything in this game is… I mean… I grinded in other games fine, but… this game…. I feel like Obi-wan shouting at Guild wars 2 immolating in lava… “YOU WERE THE CHOSEN ONE!!!!!” followed by a “YOU HAD ONE JOB!!!!! ONE JOB!!!” /sob

/sigh. oh well. Steam and Amazon sale downloads are finished… la la la.

Ultra Secret Leaked preview:

http://www.quickmeme.com/img/6b/6bf95cf805982781cd4551262ec7e9a2306b3067ec205ece9da20d57178f5a14.jpg

…comes with its own theme song. That’s about worth 800 gems….

+1 for optimism.

/15chars

Legendary skins? Glowing auras? skybox puddles? built-in “Mr. Coffee”?

whatever, I support this…

Dane Claibourne.1379:

Please remove the virtual tax. This isn’t the real world I come to GW2 to escape. There’s no need to justify a virtual tax in the name of realism.

Even the tax wasn’t there, buy/sell orders would be the same… close to a few copper in a lot of flooded markets. You might need less maths in the end though. Fricken hate maths even more then grammor and spellig.

More fun opportunities to make bunches of money would be nice. I do already have the whole “work” and “job” thing in RL to sate my need to feel productive… anything after that’s gravy… heart-desintegratingly delicious gravy.

Calae.1738:

Some people are playing just to get gold; like a high score in pacman. I can assure you that gold in GW2 has an intrinsic value of zero.

Everything in GW2 is property of Arenanet. You own nothing.

The hot new business model in today’s games is making them grindy. So much so that some people would be willing to pay real money to reduce the time it takes to grind.

Imagine that. Make your game suck so bad and so boring that you give your players a convenience option in exchange for money.

…and it works.

To thee I say ahem

LALALALALALALALALALALALALA I CAN"T HEAR YOU LAALALALALALALALALA

bah, who’m I kidding.. ::runs whimpering to his bed to fill his pillow with tears::

Seriously though, thats the whole human nature thing I went to mentioning before… the real trick then is making it so that folks don’t THINK you’re kitten them in the butt when you are, indeed, shamelessly busy kitten them in the butt. If you play the game normally and feel this incessant kitten creep up on you, that… that actually might be your problem… or you might need a different computer chair.

or…medical attention. (kitten you taco bell)

Essence Snow.3194:

Too much of the game is based on the trading post. It focuses the game around gold acquisition vs adventuring. Imo it is the worst aspect of the game.

I tend to agree. I would also agree that games basing their economies off Real World™ economics are probably asking for trouble, given the fact so many folks IRL have tried to regulate the “human nature” out of their economies end up either stifling people’s abilities to use it as intended or succumbing to its deliciously forbidden natural fruit flavor.

super rich: 100000g+
rich : 10000g-100000g
middle : 1000g-10000g
poor: 0-1000g

oohkay…. by that comparison most of the American middle class are multi-millionaires. Don’t think we’re quite there yet… but…. If lets say… 80% of each server populations had about 5000g total earned over their time played, I would probably be more inclined to agree with you. That’s… not even close… at least from what I can tell on my server. You can blame folks for laziness or being casual or whatever, but… its just a game. A casual gamer will never make what a casual lifer will, but in a game with very little vertical progression, should the gap be quite this big?

This^^
Also, @OP: I think you severely underestimate the amount of gold some people have.

You are probably correct about my underestimation, but in the same right, a handful of people owning 90% of the wealth in game wouldn’t “bump up” the middle class, which is defined more by a sated “middle ground”, where folks are able to have more than enough for most things without having everything they ever wanted. If your middle class is just the ‘median earners’ and its only twice the number of people as the super rich, that isn’t exactly “thriving”.

Here’s a good example of where we could be headed with the TP in game:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/10974978/

I know I know… its Blizzard, but they kinda have a point, no?

I read the OP and finally felt like Twilight was within my grasp…. then I read the date and my heart shriveled up a little. I’m not saying I’m the Grinch… but I would totally ransack and pillage the “whoville” town of precursors and finish the day grinning ear to ear as I slowly sip and enjoy a freshly brewed mug of precursor hoarder tears… Incinerator can probably brew a mean cup of tears, mind you…. not that I’d know…

Oh… and Jon… the thread-necros are fondling the skeletons of your unfulfilled promises again… You need to do a little obvious market manipulation to agro the paranoid so folks will leave dead threads like this where they belong… in the crustiest depths of Tyrias worm-ridden bowels.

Same time tomorrow? *punches time clock, grabs hat"… another day in paradise…

Its been said that the evidence of a thriving economy is a healthy middle class.

So where do you think the socioeconomic levels in our gaming population are?

Something like this?

0-75g – poor
76-500g – middle class
501g+ rich

I realize there are some generalizations and oversimplifications being made here given terms like “poor” IRL are used to describe folks barely making ends meet, but even folks considered “rich” can live paycheck to paycheck. For the sake of the gaming world, lets consider poor as being barely able to afford exotics, middle class to be able to get everything they need and a few really nice things and the rich being able to afford the best things in game. For material purposes, because most folks gauge wealth beyond liquid assets, we can say property poor have few assets, middle class have a good mix of most things and property rich have to buy collection expanders, bank slots and mule character bag slots to hold all their assets.

Right now, I’m money poor and property middle, but I had some fun purchases and general disagreements with Zoromos on the definition of what a reasonable return on investment is.

From the feedback I’ve read in game and seen online, a lot of folks seem poor due to a general lack of, what they consider, a fun/rewarding endgame (aka – the level of effort required to make money outstrips their tolerance for grinding content to earn it). A smaller group of “middles” seem to have a good amount of time to invest in the game every day and know a few of the tricks to making it big (win some lose some). The tiny group of wealthy seem to either have the most time in game to do things, the most friends willing to do those things with (that require groups, like dungeons) and have used their wealth to make more wealth, taking advantage of most every trick in game they can get away with.

Does this seem about right to you, or would you draw the lines differently? Would you draw these lines about the same in WoW (PvE endgame with many varied group and solo options for money making), or would you consider this closer to EvE (resembling a real world market-so focus on where the money is and shutup)? Do you think someone playing PvP or WvW all day should have the same gains as a dungeon runner? Do you believe that Anet should take a different approach to money making in game so that more people can afford more things while playing end game focused content, or do you believe this will just lower the value of currency and cause inflation?

Oh and I enjoy a good flame war as much as the next guy, but lets please keep this economical… be frugal with your hate and don’t waste it here. (note: There’s a guy three threads down that posted something personally revealing about your mom and then kicked a box of kittens…. and I don’t think he’s your dad. You might want to see to that…)

Thunderbrew.7034:

Post should read: “Feed your kitten and post your gold so the
hackers know which accounts to go for first.”

That’s like living in the ghetto and putting a sign in your front yard
that you just bought a 65 inch plasma TV, your not home, and the doors
are unlocked.

I live in the ghetto and you’re pretty close… its the leftover BOX left by the garbage cans that works as the sign to “come rob me!”. The rest… kitten.. my neighbors had their doors nearly kicked in with the whole family home having dinner. The whole concept of safety… its kind of a lie

Sitting at 5g because I’ve been lazy with my mains and mostly just farming keys. Tops I had was 490g? Most of that came from Scarlet invasions prior to the nerf. The Scarlet events were how I always envisioned running champ trains. I can pop in, hit a few 50 minute events that started on the hour and make plenty of money for time invested. Shame they killed that.

The real problem I see here isn’t that money is too hard to come by… it just requires a level of dedication, networking, intelligence and skill put towards playing the game that is not normally required of games like this. That, and you actually have to have 4 other people playing at the same time you do, that actually want to run 10 dungeons back to back every day.

In WoW, I raided, pugged dungeons, farmed mats and did 3 million daily quests to gain money and aside from the raiding, I picked my own hours and could do the rest solo. I made a small fortune. In SWTOR, I pugged dungeons, farmed mats, leveled up characters and did dailies. I had plenty of money when I needed it. In GW2, I… try to keep dungeons in guild so I’m not completely disappointed 50% of the time, raiding world bosses/metas/champs/events don’t honestly give enough for the time invested and there’s (essentially) one daily quest with pretty basic rewards. You CAN mat farm, banking on the prices of the more valuable mats and you CAN farm certain mobs for certain T6 mats…. but where I have the opportunity to acquire thousands in other games, having enough money for anything I want, I make tens to hundreds of gold in GW2, with my goals focused on the things costing thousands. I don’t specifically consider that bad playership, but I already have a job…and a wife…. and I play games to escape our broken world and misguided love of capitalism :P

So try not to hate or look down on the folks that don’t make money in game. Its a VERY different sort of game that, by its creators intentions, ISN’T supposed to experience vertical “creep”, but due to its market, it totally does.

I understand what you mean. I was in a similar cycle, although I can explain where my money and time went. I was making and equipping alts and playing the TP. :P After a good bit of scrapping things together, I was sitting just over 60G, when Scarlet began invading. Within a couple weeks I was up to 400G and quite proud of myself. I, too, dared to dream that I might be able to afford a precursor at some point and was pretty close to The Hunter. Then I read something about the precursors dropping in price due to new legendaries and decided to hold off getting anything. Why pay 500 when it might be half that next month? Honestly, I wasn’t the only one thinking they’d do something prior to Christmas. 20/20 hindsight and all that.

Then, one night, after reading many folks having amazing luck with the TP, I decided to try mine. I dumped more than half my wealth into the TP, resulting in merely “The Bard”, which I sold and added the proceeds towards more TP fodder. I ended the night at about 150G with nothing to show for it.

Since then, I haven’t broken 200G and currently sit at about 4G, but again, I know why… I decided the legendaries are just not worth it at this point and went a different direction.

I found myself looking at non-legendary options and really enjoying the look- something simpler but creative. Eventually, I came to cobble together a very unique look that suited me and snagged some fairly unique weapon skins that suited that look. Now, I preview legendaries only to feel happy that I made the right decision. I don’t need shiny for the sake of shiny. I need something that fits me.

I’m still planning at some point to get a legendary (possibly one of the new ones), but I’m not stressing myself out “trying” for one anymore. I’m enjoying my look for what it is and playing dungeons, collecting mats and trying to keep my goals balanced and reasonable. If you turn the game into “all about the legendary”, you may snag that shiny weapon, but if you burn out and kill the game for yourself, it won’t matter much in the long run.

Take a break. Play something else for a while and when the time is right, come back. Refresh yourself and when you return, try to keep your goals about “playing the game” the way you want to, not just for the sake of acquiring something that may or may not seem worth it in the long run. Cheers!

/edit – btw, running 10+ dungeons a day gives you 10+G (at minimum). If you need money and mats, that’s probably the fastest reliable way. Now that I’m happy with the way my character looks, I can relax and do things at my pace (more like 3 or 4 dungeons a day at most :P)

I am, by no means, a good thief. That said, my success with Sword/Pistol should tell you its worth trying. I can face tank anything melee with black powder (#5). Time it right on vets, etc and it will take time, but you should win. I’ve tried with other sets and the others might be stronger, but I’ll take easy for leveling purposes. I range with SB for flavor. P/P might be stronger, but I like the options on SB.

I’ll let someone else post proper traits. I’ve been running 0/20/0/20/0 so far, but I’m only level 50. I’m just focusing on things that just make my usual leveling issues less problematic (mostly time savers and stuff).

There are a few other threads in here with leveling advice that I have greatly benefited from. They are worth a search through the forums to find.

Human T3 and Assassins
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Assassin's_armor
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/PvP_Assassin_armor

Lyssa’s Mirror (GW2 guru)
http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/55096-show-off-your-thief/

Asurans
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1f0zu7/asura_thieves_can_you_look_good/

Just a thought I wanted to jot down…

Archon – Tank mage

Theme – Grey Warriors who move towards balance (not specifically justice) and karma, rewarding the good deeds of others as well as penalizing those who cause inequities in the world. They follow the fighting theme of Jujitsu (or Judo) and use the aggressors force against them, where the asian fighting style is replaced with a stylized “magical manipulation and telekinesis”.

Its basically a tank-mage that equips heavy armor and can wield main hand foci and torches, or dual wield scepters or maces. Traits focus on sharing and strengthening boons cast on you from other sources, redirecting damage and sharing the burden of conditions with those who attack you. Active skills involve shadow capture (root yourself AND them), blocking and using the strengths of your enemies against them. Also, you can “tether” yourself to someone (for a short duration) snaring you both and sharing the total of all damage inflicted and healing done by them (with the downside of taking 20% more damage from any other source).

-#1 of each weapon is an auto attack (power based)
-#2 of each weapon is a block and counter
-#3 of each weapon is a combined MH/OH attack like a thief.
-#4 of each OH is an escape
-#5 of each OH is an auto attack (condi based)

Overall metas
Power based – Foci and Mace combos
Condi based – scepter/torch combos
Bunker based – multiplying boons and redirecting damage.

While power or conditions may be how you outrightly cause damage, this class would play very defensively and reactively, depending on who or what you came across. Failure to connect with any skill as it is designed will punish the caster. Use a block command without blocking someone during the duration and you get a weakness condition cast on you. Set up to block ranged attacks, but instead are hit by melee causes a daze on you. Think of it kinda like the npc that makes you test the experimental staff in the Asuran starting zone. You start out looking awesome, but if the skill you were setting up doesn’t connect, you end up burned.

Scepter – 1200 range (telekinetic thwacks)
Focus – 900 range (creates and shoots balls of light)
Torch – 900 range (fire whip animations)
Maces – melee range (judging strikes)

Agreed and /signed

Less dialogue as well, unless its going to “fit” the senario. The painted look lends itself to a visual storytelling that sparks imaginations and curiosities… in other words, you paint the story… let our minds fill in the words.

My favorite to see in game so far is Chewy Charbaka.

The whole “getting sucked into the story” thing is new as of a couple patches ago. Not really a big fan of it myself and I totally see how you’d feel just coming in at the end.

I’m not sure I’d call it a punishment, but I’d avoid taking your other characters there now (as each one will get sucked into the story). That’s the only zone right now doing it. The rest are open.

To be honest, I think they should let the LS be “above” the game and reflect whats going on in each zone, but not to where folks are forced into it. I’d prefer an LS storyteller that I can talk to and participate in all previous LS content… but that’s me :P

The trick to leveling in this game is different than any others. if you are more PVE oriented do this:

Finish your starting zone map for your race. Head to Lion’s arch through the asura gate in your capital. Then do all the starting zones for each race. Hit every heart, POI, vista, Skill point and gate.

Basically “complete” the maps. Because you are “leveled down” in the starting zones, you keep leveling up like normal, even though its starter content. You end up late 20s at the end of doing all of the starter zones (or higher, I forget). Then start on the 15-25 maps and so on.

Completing maps may become a bit like grinding, but for me, its “exploring”. I’m introducing my character to the rigors of this world… /shrug I STILL do this with all my characters when I make a new one. Come back to the personal story stages when you want to (and after you a well geared) and that xp advancement is still there for you later on. You could literally hit 80 by completing all the lower level maps and not get to the 65-75 maps at all.

BTW – keep in mind the way classes play at 10 and 80 are completely different in some cases. Engineers start off with pistols or rifles and end up flame throwers and grenaders. Thieves gain a lot from traits, but much of the “depth” of its gameplay comes from knowing how all of the traits and skills work together to achieve more AND a skilled thief will absolutely NOT make the class look boring… ESPECIALLY in PVP. That’s probably true for most classes, but if straightforward isn’t your game, stay away from warrior.

If you want to see how impressive a class can be, youtube is your friend:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-sp223bITg

Marsares.2053:

3x Ascended
2x Whisper Blade
1x Hood of Grenth

… think I made ugly Ascended armour look cool. :_)

And that is the point of all this creative mixing and matching. You take what the game gives you and you make it your own. Good on you for going after this challenge.

You did pretty well with it too. When I think about what makes the mesmer awesome, I think about deception and giving folks the “wrong impression” as part of the main class “theme”. When I see the Grenth hood, I think necro. When I see the dual swords I think thief/warrior. When your enemy finally prevails in a hard fought battle only to see you burst into a cloud of butterflies, a sword through their back will remind them never to trust a mesmer.

Well done.

Not bad at all… dig the darker look w/ Grenth hood. I agree that its very thief-like, but the whisperblades keep it looking more ethereal and mesmery.

Are you going for the backpiece too?

IndigoSundown.5419:

ShiningSquirrel.3751:

Nah, it’s much simpler then that. Scarlet had the hots for Logan, but he spurned her the queen. She’s just getting even.

OK, so she’s crazy…

I like my story better

but yeah… she’s a loon.

CETheLucid.3964:

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

The Canthan district used to be there. As you may already know, Divinity’s Reach is divided into several districts, some of them assigned to refugees from the other continents.

The Canthan District however was removed at the last minute before release because Arenanet got complaints about it from asian countries. So they removed it and created the large hole.

Who in their right mind would compla—nvm. Forgot. People.

^ this. If the world would be better if we humans weren’t on it, then we’re doing something wrong and should collectively admit it… Won’t happen, but that’s a different story..

They haven’t fully revealed Scarlet’s intentions, but, from what little I can figure, she went out of her way to kitten off the humans and then dragged them and everyone who helps them into a war of attrition fighting guerrilla warfare, luring allied armies against strongholds and pitting them against “axis” forces only to slip away at the end, having achieved whatever success she desired (generally something she used their combined talents to create). Each time, she brings forces together that compliment one another, who believe by working together and with her that they may achieve superiority, but in the end, its all smoke and mirrors and when the pain train comes, she’s left the station and disappeared with her prize.

She’s tied to the dragons in some way, and its been theorized that she’s trying to tap the “ley lines” of dragon energy to either revive or strengthen a dragon (probably the next dragon we are going to fight a campaign against in game. In truth, she herself may BE a dragon. The name Scarlet makes me think Primordius, but… that’s all just my theory based on what I’ve seen. It gives her motive and means and explains most of her actions. She WATCHED us take Zaitan down… She knows she needs the airships to counter the remaining air fleets from the final Z-day attack (hence, the aetherblades). With a far more exhaustible supply of troops (destroyers?) than Zaitan, she’d have to play it smart, make alliances herself and exhaust the allied armies using critical strikes to both further her destructive plans and keep herself defended or out of view entirely. And, a sylvari (Treehearne) led the final attack on the Z-man with the pale tree’s support, so her choice of a sylvari form could be an association from that. All just walking through theory, but fun to think about.

If I was writing this, I’d want a “HOLY KITTEN” moment to hook folks in, where if they looked back over the whole story, it would all suddenly make sense. It would require months of “details” for us to see, but overlook because they either aren’t important, or aren’t tied to anything of particular meaning. Then, we’d go on a final “chase” to capture her and back her against a wall, but that would be a part of her plan, and our ambush of her becomes a downright massacre of our own forces as she reveals her true goal and possibly her true form. Bonus points if she kills off some of the “good characters” where only the hero (us) can rise up and carry the torch forward to end the very direct threat of a dragon and her minions.

but that’s just me.

Fair winds and safe travels. Don’t count Anet out forever. I left for a bit to do SWTOR and Wow for a few months each. I came back because I had already done everything I wanted to do in those worlds and started wanting more of the things that make GW2 stand out. When you get to the point you’re raiding in WoW and keep doubletapping movement keys to dodge or can’t find the right skill on 15 bars… and you’d kinda like that 15 bucks a month back… For better or worse, you can always come back here.

Good hunting!

There are several ways to make money.

- Farming nodes – find a good mineral map online for your server.
- Jumping puzzles – pick a few rewarding ones and learn to do them in your sleep.
- Dungeon runs – make some friends or gather your guildies for quick dungeon runs
- TP flipping – buy low, sell high. Some folks don’t even play the actual game anymore :P
– Black Iron Key farming – hope you like the starting personal story quests… alot. Hardcore defender of Shaemoor, kittenes. Centaurs and Bandits still rue the day.
– Zergs/trains – queensdale, frostgorge… possibly lots of others depending on how populous your server is. Grinding, but if you only have a short while to get into something or know you’ll be in and out/pulled away at a moments notice, then trains work well.
- World Boss farming – There’s a “addon” for following which WBs are up and when for your server. Need to find the name…
- Mystic Toilet – I’ll only put this here as an option for the daring who have money to lose. I put 300G into rares and exotics to put into the MT and…. I only got The Bard. Some folks put 50G in and got Dusk so I figured I’d try. Afterwards, most folks hear that I put 300G worth into the MT and they say "You ONLY put 300G? I didn’t understand then just how much so that this is the game of odds… and its not that I didn’t do the right thing, its that I didn’t do it enough times to even out the tragic losses of a fickle RNG. Had I put 1000G or 2000G, my results would have been significantly better at getting high selling precursors, but since I was trying to make my own legendary, I only shot for as much as I felt willing to spare. Apparently, that ain’t the way to go.
- Living story content – I only put THIS here because of the “original” scarlet invasions. Literally every hour you had her attack an area and folks would spend days out there popping the loot pinatas. I went from 60G to 240G in the times I could sneak on to play during that event before its eventual nerf. And none of us can forget that the South Sun event (way back when) rewarded some folks with precursors. You may not agree with stuff like this, but when opportunity knocks, you’re either logging in to open that door or… really wishing you had been. /shrug. Is what it is.

I’m no where near as hardcore as I once was in gaming, but folks have told me speed running 12 dungeons and 20 jumping puzzles alone lead to solid profits (up to 50g average) and can be done daily. If you get a good group of regulars, its easier to do with the same folks. I haven’t tested this, being a filthy casual these days. Even had a guildy remark that he got 600G in two weeks doing the above every day.

Lets face it, getting any REAL money in this game takes knowing the tricks and hitting the sweet spots. You can just play the daily and be all casual, but unless you really test the RNG constantly, your profit won’t be consistently greater.

Think of it this way, every time you kill a mob, you’re playing the lottery and the odds are GREAT that you’ll get “a little something”, but TINY that you’ll get something “amazing”. So…

Play the lottery 10 times, you have 10 chances to hit it big and a .001% chance of something awesome. Not a great chance.
Play the lottery 1000 times, your odds of getting something of value improve.
Play the lottery 100,000 times, your odds… are MUCH MUCH better of hitting it big.

So…. TLDR – do more in the game and you’ll be randomly rewarded for your efforts, but if you have the time, skills and friends, JPs and Dungeons daily are the ticket. Unless you just REALLY enjoy farming BL keys doing the starting quests. That is a speculative market though, buying when they are cheap (1 ticket) and selling them months later when folks have to pay 5 or more tickets for them. For more steady rewards now, just do a lot of trains, dungeons and jps. (and level up that magic find!)

Mantra of Resto with Centaur runes.

I’m cheap, but I’m speedy.

I have fewer “OH kitten” moments after a lot of practice (and constantly hitting heal for group swiftness). Before that, I preferred mirror (or whatever the reflect heal is).

You may want to level with GS and Sword/Sword with a power build if you really just started out and then swap later. Just thinking its probably faster…

Gutek.1534:

Not too sure, does this look very evil?

Not bad… not bad.. Kick a few boxes of orphan kitties and we’ll call it close enough.

Saturn.6591:

Guardian.5142:

May you all have a very unfortunate day.

Did you just wish us all a day with lots of bad luck? o.o

~throws potatoes at you~

Oh, and I don’t have any evil-looking characters, because I don’t have any evil characters. And yes, I’ve got one of every character class.

FlamingFoxx.1305:

Nevermind that there have been(and usually are) multiple Friday the 13th’s each year…

Iirc, I’ve once read that the 13th of a month is most likely to fall on a friday, thus the most common date for a friday is the 13th.

Edit: Did anyone notice the awesomeness of wednesday’s date (11.12.13)? ^^

Potatoes… I suppose my scrub stew could use a few more…

No bad characters? anyone? Do we all play this game to be the good guy? What about the “grey” wardens? the ones who darken themselves to achieve victory for the innocent? Noone? C’mon folks, Abyss dye wouldn’t be 35-freaking-G if you painted your lusty T3s Celestial all the kitten ed time. Its getting harder and harder for a bad guy to “darken” anything at those prices…

Seriously, its not like you fine folks live out your days peacably avoiding conflict or only killing the “bad guys” like me (which, you know, I get that). You also go out of your way to break into the dens and homes of other people and creatures (or undead, I don’t judge). You decimate and pillage from all who stand in your way, targeting those from whom you can pluck the greatest valuables from their cold dead hands… You reap and sell, clawing apart each other over land and wealth all so you can achieve greater status and glory.

This day… may have just turned against me…

You might also want to bookmark these too, as they’ll help you keep straight which thing does what, even when its not in front of you in game.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Main_Page – Quick Reference

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/ – Spec/Skill calculator (its set to PvP gear, but the skills/specs/runes/etc all work to build out your char.

Actually, that’s a good thing, misterDEAN.

Elementists are fun if you like flashy magiks. think Wow Mages, but not as “spec cast” into one weaponset/one element. You essentially get 4 actionbars of 5 elemental attacks per weapon, so 20 things to click with a cooldown between swaps. You can also summon elemental weapons with charges, like lightning hammer and flame sword. Elemental pets… yeah… you can do a TON, but you need to know what every little thing your class CAN do in case you need to do it situationally. That’s 20 attacks/skills per weapon set. Also, learn what a combo field is and practice that kitten. HUGE benefits.

Elementalist soloing a fractal boss (consider them 5-man hardmodes that keep getting harder the more you do them) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jWc5nKLejU

Mesmers are fun if you like petbombs, temp pet attackers (one per target, so if it dies, so do they)… oh, and they look as awesome as you do. (the pink butterflies grow on you). It plays differently than any other class I’ve played except one… The Theurgist? (from DAoC). The one where you cast elemental spell-pets that ran over and attacked your enemies for a duration and then died. GW2 really expands on that idea and sorta went more “mentalist” with it.

GS mesmer w/ twilight – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL96RhYohqI

Necros are the condition kings/queens. They do have some life-draining skills, but mostly its about condition addition and condition manipulation. Think affliction lock from WoW, except its got a “death shroud” state that acts as a buffer life bar in emergencies, so there’s some added cushion if someone jumps you. Fear, targetting wells/marks to lay curses on the ground that affect people that step on them. Pets are fun too, in fact you can roll minion master, but the pet AI is sorta “meh” and you don’t get active controls for them all.

Necro being BA with incinerator. – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFYgZcj2iZg

OH… and before you give up on thief – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN-imkQMcKw

Troll Youtube for some great vids with legendary weapons and folks that know what they’re doin!

I’m sure others have suggested this, but…

I would like there to be a slot in our inventory where we can install ANY legendary weapon, so that we gain the “aura” and footfall effects of the legendary on any toon, regardless of what they can equip.

So, you’re playing engineer and legendaries don’t do anything for you in kits. So, you can put your Quip or Predator in the “Aura” box and it allows your character’s footfalls and “combat activated effects” to play as if you have the weapon equipped.

So, you’re playing thief and you miss the Sunrise or Twilight you were using on your warrior before. Bring it on over and equip it in your thief’s “Aura” box and enjoy the combat activation “glow” and skybox footfalls while swapping to any weapon you want to.

You may also want to use this “aura” slot later on for further aura or footfall effects, should you decide to make other legendary items (weapons or otherwise) that give these effects. This might solve the issue of folks who have no current use for legendaries, but would really like in on the fun. It also allows folks that love the footfalls on a legendary they can’t equip as that class to still be able to use it for those effects not actually tied to the physical weapon.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Additions? Subtractions? Fractions?

1. Living story – paradigm. Needs fixing. Such as to say: after you finish your personal story and destroy Zaitan, all previous LS events should be open to you to participate in on your own time. They should be available at least once on every character and selectable (so we can skip things we’re not interested in). think: Casual game.
2. Living story – content. Needs better stories, script writing, character development and overall improved storytelling. Ask yourself, why should I want to do this content? If your result looks like it would be part of the Bleach main story arc, good game. If it looks like its turning into a Bleach filler episode… eh… pass.
3. Gem store – fill the mall with TONS of things and rotate around stock on a monthly basis (but don’t take things off permanently). So Dreamthistle logging axe is out for this month, but bring back Molten Alliance pickax, then next month that goes away and put in a permanent harvest scythe for a month, and so on. And keep them 800 square gems the few few rounds and then have them go for less. Sell individual pieces of GEM only armor sets and we’ll buy more of them. You can also take from those sales which pieces are lacking overall and fill demands where they exist.
4. Pet system choice – have a choice between tamed pet and castable nature element (for instance summonable bee swarm DoT, that doesn’t have the special attack, but gives good solid sustained dps. )
5. Housing systems – do eet! Everyone else has great ideas for that.
6. Underwater zones – I want a reason to have a legendary underwater weapon besides the adminration of the other folks farming in Southsun.
7. More “atmosphere” altering gear, that gives our eyes, aura or footfalls a unique effect (for instance via a Legendary back piece.) Keep it lore friendly, but just.. stylish.. kinda like Necro starting “face paint”. Also, if its a backslot, folks like engie’s with kits can still enjoy the effects while kit swapping.

Hearte.6852:

Unfortunately I have lost nearly all interest in FotM with the addition of the infinite infusion treadmill. The sad part is I really enjoy doing Fractals. For the most part, it’s really well-designed and balanced.

However, agony shouldn’t even exist. It’s a cheap way to gate content and provide yet another treadmill. With endless infusions, it’s literally infinite.

This morning, I crafted a +5 Power stat infusion for quite a bit of gold. Immediately after, someone linked a datamined +7 Power stat infusion. I realize that datamined info isn’t always accurate, but this seems like another upcoming addition to the infusion treadmill. This time, instead of agony resistance, we get more stats to work for. I was already tempted to give up on higher levels of FotM and just purchase the WvW +5 stat infusions, but after seeing this, I just sighed. Yes, I like to min/max, but I thought it wouldn’t be endless in GW2, especially for someone with alts. For those with alts, we already have an insane amount of min/maxing to do, not including endless infusions.

I understand and I feel for ya. Anet decided to roll this way, so we gotta roll with it. Besides… fractals were meant to be like the arcade games of yore… they kept going… till you died. This is the same principle. There’s no credits screen at level 100. There’s no “You have arrived” moment to end all “You have arrived” moments. To me, its the wrong game genre for that.

I actually think the new agony system fits that paradigm pretty well. We’ll see in time if it really does what its supposed to do, but in the end, fractals are what they are.

And if, heaven forbid, they add levels 81-100 for the main game and new playable races, etc… we’ll both have to do this all over again. Its honestly best to set your expectations at a level they (ANET) can meet or achieve or you’ll always be disappointed.

daimasei.4091:

Isn’t Friday the 13th considered an unlucky day? Because I got 3 exotics in the mystic forge and a soldier inscription and that’s actually a very good thing.

Bad luck for the hare means dinner for the wolf. Its all perspective really…

Case in point:
::cattleprods G E O with a steady electrical stream full of essential vitamins, minerals and spasm inducing “fun”.::

I’m having a wonderful day. Carry on

Its the most wonderful time….of the year!
(revs chain sword)

Post a screenshot if have a ‘bad guy’ themed character celebrating the 13th!

May you all have a very unfortunate day.