Guild Wars 2

I despise PvP, and equally dislike people who say that I am missing out or somehow not playing the game properly if I do not PvP (there have been several times I have been told this).

However… the POI/Vistas/SPs in WvWvW can be quite fun to get, to the point of being about the best challenge in the game.

E.G from my own experience:
Getting all 4 area completions starting at lvl 8 and finishing at lvl 11 with my Ranger.
Joining in some epic swarms of players, 40-50 strong, and rolling over opponents even though I admit I did next to nothing.
Teaming up with a rival server player to defeat the Skritt King in one of the borderlands.
Finally getting to my final SP to MC my first character… to find an enemy player on it (the one on top of the cottage roof). He proceeded to fall off and couldn’t get back up to murder me before I capped it

So yeah, it can be a lot of fun.

NM it was me. Rebootie sorted it.

I guess its a local issue since noone else is discussing this but I am getting a 50-8 second lag with my sound. One of my guildmates says the same is happening to her.

Any ideas on what could be causing this?

Oh I should have said… Dragonbrand (US) server.

Josh Foreman.8250:

It’s a design aesthetic. A lot people want prestige items which means limiting them. You can limit items by making the amount of time/resources required to get them very large, or you can limit them having them in for a limited time only. We could make every item easy to attain and permanently available, but then we lose the prestige factor. If you don’t value the prestige factor, then no arguments are going to make you understand. It would be like arguing someone into liking heavy metal or kimchi. Personally, I don’t particularly value the prestige factor, but I understand that it is a HUGE motivating force that drives the engine of the economy.

Thing is, they are not prestige. A few days after the first few folks had enough bubbles to buy SAB skins, they were everywhere for sure but 2 days ago I did several meta events and I saw one person using an SAB GS, apart from myself who themed a character around them and 2 people wearing the pack. Its like the Mad King Thorn and Wintersday backpacks – both awesome but you rarely see them.

They’re a novelty, but don’t fit most character’s styles. I can fully agree with stopping them from being rare chest drops, but I beg you to reconsider removing them from Moto’s sales. There is nothing to lose if future players who are not yet even aware of SAB because they don’t have the game, have access to the full range of non-sellable Moto bought SAB skins.

Something so easy to get is not prestige, its just novelty, and novelty wears off.

Right, now I have read it, I agree with the OP. I didn’t mind teaming up to run Mad King Thorn’s mission on Hallowe’en, but my small guild struggles to get 8-10 players together for Guild Bounties. Trying to organise parties to hit a dungeon several times over the course of a month is highly unlikely to succeed. I am also a little concerned about it being a limited-time-only event due to being a British player on a US server.

And as we all know, PUG’ing dungeons almost always leads to pain.

I thought you mean The Hatchery and that norny place whatever its called.

I solo’d them both. Next time you need to be more specific.

The instance can be solo’d. You get boosted to lvl 80 and its pretty easy. I solo’d it with lvl 80 ranger, thief, warrior and lvl 60 elementalist.

Im sure I could solo it with my lvl 52 engineer.

I’m lucky, that never happened to me!

Haaaahahaha You would do this today, the day after I finished my 150…

I love you guys!

But yes, great move to reduce/remove the knockback. Many times I found half destroyed scopes with a full compliment of Moltens around it because people had given up.

I suck at JPs so I went the scope route.

Gotta admit, when Molten Alliance score, especially with a protector, it is a HUGE pain. I used my Ranger for most of them, made it easy.

Range + pet to take blowbacks = easy.

I will bribe pay whoever I need to, in proper money, to see a scouse sausage (or any other pork product) in a future world.

Zip to 7:10 for one of my most endearing memories of the SNES.

Elementalist: Norn, because of their nature worship.
Engineer: Charr, I mean just look at Black Citadel!
Guardian: Humans because of their do-goody self righteousness.
Mesmer: Humans, generally high-powered magic users, more than any other race
Necromancer: Humans, typical of them to play ‘god’(s!).
Ranger: Norn, Human or Sylvari, each has an element of living off the land and exploration.
Thief: Human, small and agile plus devious enough.
Warrior: Norn, Human and Charr all have cultures of might = right.

Yep, no place for Asura. They really have a society and technology which is off the scale compared to the other 8 species. If they buttonhole themselves into a particular adventurer class, it is out of curiosity. In reality, Asura I consider Asura to be a complete class on their own.

You need a ‘back’ item.

Easiest way for you is to complete a lvl33 Personal Story mission and you can use the backpack on it.

^this

And this is why I bowed out when I did!

The birdie keeps flapping its wings through my face.

Please, with sugar on, can it face towards me so it doesn’t do this anymore?

Ah cheers. I dont mystic forge either.

Question:

Are obsidian shards purchased through Moto or with karma sellable? I ask because I do not craft and have no intention to do so, yet I have gazillions of unused skill points.

Aven.7295:

I would be happy, if it was just more astheticly pleaseing… i feel so lame useing a scepter. when i imagine a big plate warrior useing a magic scepter, i was hopeing for something a little more inspirational than little blue tenis balls and tiny magic fists

Oh heck, that made me laugh

Reminds me of…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ04mfAY2BU

But anyway, yeah the Sceptre pretty much sucks. My Guardian is only level 20 but all its kit is the same, and the damage doled out by the Sceptre falls WAY short of any other weapon I have.

I really don’t think having a shortbow to at least give us 900 range would do any harm.

So you pronounce John as “Jorn”? How odd.

Seems really darned wierd to me that I can conjure up a healing bow… but can’t USE a goshdarned bow!

Tolmos.8395:

IMO, that’s the incorrect definition of a god. A god is anything that people choose to worship. For all we know, Zeus may have been a real guy at some point, and his legend just grew out of control over time. It makes him no less of a god in his religion. There are modern religions that also revere living gods… in fact, one of those gods was born about 10 years ago or so, if I remember correctly. It was all over the news.

There is no definition to what is required to join the god club besides someone worshiping you. If someone, ANYONE, considers you a god, then you are by definition a god.

I’m not sure I entirely understand why a religion in game must be believable in order to be acceptable. Such a religion would define who your character is in some ways. If you don’t believe in that religion, then wouldn’t your character be an atheist in a very theistic world? That’s a pretty defining attribute, I’d say.

I, personally, see no reason why the game world should be required to work on a different ruleset to this one. There are religions that I don’t believe in at all in this world. I’d be perfectly ok with such unbelievable religions existing in the game world, too.

My point is, for something to be a God, it doesn’t have to be believable… it has to be unbelievable, using normal rules of logic. It has to be something that relies completely on faith, or at least leaves few enough hints about it’s true existence or form, for blind faith to fill in the gaps.

If something can be truly explained, can be mortalised or physically manifested, then it does not qualify as a God. Your example of Zeus would make him first a Hero, and then a Myth, once logically impossible acts were added to his legend, but he would never be a God. A God is something that cannot be explained, or quantified, using normal rules of logic. Our feeble human minds do not yet have the capacity to understand fully anything that has no beginning, no end and exists beyond the physical. They probably never will, but that is where Gods find their homes, outside the bounds of true understanding. For this reason, I could never consider anything which has a physical manifestation to be a God.

The group who worship ‘living gods’… well that touches on my extreme atheistic views so I will not go there!

I do not agree with your definition of a God. I can believe in the Celestial Teapot. It does not make this a God. I can believe truly and honestly in the existence of sunlight (in fact, I do!) but it does not make it a god. If anyone believes in me enough to make me comparable to a God… I would refer that person for therapy. It takes a LOT more than belief in a physical object or person to create a God.

I did not have a lot of time to type my last post (5am, getting ready for work!) so I’d like to expand a little on why religion in GW2 does not affect me. I will not go into my atheist views r/l, as they are very extreme and not fit for this discussion!

Humanity in our world has used religion for pretty much as long as they have been able to think. Religion has many purposes, partly to explain things that cannot be explained by other means (why the sun rises, why the tides ebb and flow etc), partly to galvanise and form community structures and partly for one group to dominate others. The strong dominate the weak, the clever dominate the strong – this is a theme that has been prevalent in religion since there has been religion.

This is where my ‘issue’, if it is that, with religion in GW begins.

The 6 ‘Gods’ are not gods at all. If they have or had any real physical presence, they are physical, perhaps superphysical, but they are not Gods. Gods are completely supernatural, not bound by laws of physics. Their works may be physical, but they themselves are beyond what we would call structurally defined.

In the words of William S. Burroughs: “Consider the impasse of a One-God Universe. He is all-knowing and all-powerful. He cannot go anywhere since he is already everywhere. He cannot do anything since the act of doing pre-supposes opposition. His universe is irrevocably thermodynamic, having no friction by definition.”

I would strongly hesitate at calling anything that can be opposed, defeated, or that would be able to withdraw it’s very essence from the things that it creates, a God. For if, in GW lore, the 6 Gods are meant to have withdrawn, then surely their ‘works’ would also? If the works remain in place, or were present before the Gods appeared then they are not works of God. Hence the term God is completely inappropriate in this instance.

So no, I have no problem with religion in GW2. Because, the religion present (at least in the human line) is not based upon a supernatural deity which I would struggle to believe in or support, but upon superphysical manifestations which are not Gods at all.

As a pretty militant atheist, who believes religious buildings should have an 18+ age restriction, it would slightly irk me that my human characters have to choose a god… but the concept is so glossed over (mentioned in only a few comments in Story mode) that it is a completely ignorable issue.

I choose to ignore it.

The other point that I would make is that for humans, at least, religion would be particularly strong since their race has had a real battering in recent times, so many people would need something to fall back on for personal strength and for community values. Religion fits the bill.

Don’t get me wrong… I can handle the mobs. I can handle the scopes. I wouldnt have 3 level 80s if I could not handle some level of technical challenge. It is the combination.

Scope has 1500 range and fires every 4 seconds. I can only dodge twice in that time since it takes ~6 seconds to charge a dodge.

Mobs are tough, but beatable. Even at level 8, I could probably beat them with decent gear.

But if you don’t get the scope down fast enough, it keeps you far enough away from the mobs that you cannot fight them. You take a swipe or two, you’re flattened. But if you back off to outside the scope range, they go all kitten and walk away.

I am English, and I pronounce it Clorr.

Then again, you Americans cannot spell or say Aluminium correctly, and I cringe when you say Jargwarr to pronounce Jaguar. It is Jag-you-are :p

Scope blasts ignore cover. I tried that already.

I could bring in an lvl 80 Ranger or Warrior and stomp them, but thats not the point.

Could be because I am in the UK on a US server, but it is dead as the Dodo.

See part of me thinks, what if I was a new player, got the game for my birthday or something… then faced something like that.

Those scopes have what, 1500 range? I know it is further than my Ranger can fire. But the scope isn’t the problem on its own. I dont want to roll over everything. It is the mechanic that you need to be close to fight the MA, but you cannot be close because of the scope.

Try finding people in 1-15 zones, unless its for Shadow Behemoth or Jungle Wurm?

Been in there 3 hours, saw one other player.

So you have a Veteran and several ads, and a Scope. You get close enough to attack the scope, you aggro the mobs, meaning you have to move out of the range of the scope to fight them.

You move out of the ridiculous long range of the scope (try this with a Guardian, no range at all) and the mobs reset and stroll away from you as their health bars refill. It wouldn’t be so bad if these things were not in some of the lowest level areas of the game. As it is, it is a stupid mechanic/layout.

Plus, in some locations, they are interfering with dynamic events and reknown heart events.

Utterly ridiculous.

I am on 44 chests + 1 full completion.

2x Shield, Scepter, Staff, Broadsword, Sword found so far

Funny, I get the same using Dagger/Dagger thief. Little lady jumps about so much I get nauseous.

I used to get the same playing an old PS2 game called Primal.

Well, yes. But the main part of the idea is to have it so you don’t feel alone in the world while preventing the repetitive RK completing.

Charr talk about Warbands, Asura have Krewes, Norn have tribes (I guess) etc. This would allow you to build such a squad.

Good point on the 4+ renditions. They could or could not be visible anyway, since I don’t know if the game coding would allow them to be visible or not.

Lets say, a limit of 2 on the Retinue?

The original idea was being able to switch at any point, but yes I had thought about switching at waypoints only. Or maybe even have waypoints at entry/exits portals of map areas be designated as Hubs or Camps, which would be the only place Main/Retinue were switchable.

Part of this concept could of course be averted, by simply going back to the chara select screen and select your Retinue character. So, I guess the Retinue characters would have to be locked from that screen, or would travel to the nearest ‘Camp’.

Part of what made me think of this is, I used to play a game on ZX Spectrum which allowed switching between characters. Transformers on ZX Spectrum allowed you to switch at certain hub points. Yet, a game created nearly 30 years later does not? Seems odd to me!

No, this would gain reduced rate XP/money and WP unlocking only. Thats all.

Weapon skills would still have to be unlocked by each character individually. Skill points and Trait points would be unlocked at their normal character level rates only. THis is why open world Skill Points would NOT be unlocked as the Main completes them. Only the things they get from normal character levelling up would appear.

If at a waypoint, yes you could ‘hot switch’ Main and Retinue… but as this is PvE only, where is the harm? If you can see one, please tell me.

Thanks for your input/criticism.

Edit:
This is intended to be a device to prevent the repetitive completion of RKs, and unlocking WPs only, plus giving a SMALL amount of Exp levelling. That’s all this is about.

I have the wierdest ideas while brushing my teeth.

What follows is not in Suggestions because it is not a serious suggestion, just a concept I would like advice/criticism on. It is also a concept that I feel would further set GW2 apart from other MMOs.

Those of us with several alts know the story. You make a new character and you grind all of the POIs, Vistas, WPs, SPs, RKs in each area and it gets same-ish and dull. Character levelling is boring. Also, this should give the feeling that your characters are working as a team, a warband or whatever, rather than alone.

This is the idea. You can choose (note: choose, this would be a UI’d optional mode) to put some or all of your alts in ‘Retinue’, that is Retainers for your main character. Of course you could change your main character using Retinue also.

This would/could bring some or all of the following benefits:

1. Follow me: Wherever your main goes, your Retinue follows. You go to Diessa, you change Main, and your character changes to the second, while the former Main goes to Retinue. Thus you can carry some/all of your party with you at all times for (reasonably) quick switching.

2. Graded levelling: The Retinue would level up Exp and money as the Main does, but at 25% of the rate of the Main. The Retinue would unlock Waypoints, and complete Reknown Hearts just as the Main does, but would NOT unlock Skill Points, POIs or Vistas. See note below.

3. Drops: Appear for the Main only. Your Retinue gets nothing to prevent farming of valuable goods. All the Retinue gets while selected is the 25% Exp and money.

4. Visible Retinue: If the Retinue is visible, then they would appear to follow and use their basic attack #1, but will do, and receive no damage. This is for appearances only. For game coding reasons, they may not be visible at all in Story mode, and would definitely not be visible at all in WvWvW or PvP. Sorry folks, this is PvE only where they can have no game-changing ability.

Note: While the Retinue would complete Reknown Hearts and unlock Waypoints and they would be marked upon their map as such, Vistas, Skill Points and POIs would NOT be completed unless the character was physically selected upon reaching it. This would prevent you from being able to map or world complete on the Main, change to Retinue, BAM you suddenly have a Gift of Exploration! While your Retinue gets some levelling from kills and RK completion, this is not a replacement for actual MC, just a way to ‘kickstart’ their development.

Likewise, as the Retinue’s Exp gain is at a lower rate than the Main’s, you change to Retinue in Arah and you might only be level 30 or so. Time to go back and get those POIs, Vistas and SPs!

Is this a good enough suggestion to put forwards? Would you support/agree with such a mode? Can you see any holes in the concept that my coffee deprived brain hasn’t spotted?

Criticism welcome. Thanks for reading.

All my skins have come solo.

23 chests, 2 skins. Aint I lucky

Siphaed.9235:

Tropes are still Charr are not Orc like at all. Orcs are dumb brutes that charge into battle with sticks, rocks, and the crudest of things to beat the enemy to a pulp. The Charr, they’re part of a massive war machine; they even create massive war machines. They craft steel and bronze and other metals together to create their style in the world. They have giant metal cities, NOT dirt and stick cities that Orcs live in.

Enter: The Warhammer Ork.

http://www.ifelix.net/gamingblog/wp-content/gargant020708.jpg

“Un da red wuns go fasta cos da boss says so”

Hell, even the vehicles in Black Citadel and some other places just SCREAM Ork.

For me, the races are too similar to the roleplaying game "BattleLords Of The 23rd Century.

Human = Humans.
Norn – Genhumans.
Charr = Cizerack.
Asura = Mutzachan.
Sylvari = Chatilian Empath (aka Broccoli-heads).

This is why I play (almost) all humans. Though 1-Up on Ooze being a playable race.

I am not complaining about how tough dungeons are. I expect them to be hard, I want them to challenge me.

This is just a question, what level of character is considered dungeon-ready? I ask because even in the lower level dungeons (Caudaceus’, Twilight, Sorrow’s), whenever I see a party member go down a lot more than everyone else, I always ask what gear they have.

Almost 100% of the time the answer comes back “Mostly green, some yellow”.

Now you expect those who have lower level characters to struggle more, but these are 80’s being floor mopped, often before they can be of any value to the party. I have taken an lvl 70 Elementalist and an lvl 75 Ranger, both with rares, into CoF and have been able to do three fifths of bleep-all to help, other than rezzing and the occasional vuln inflict.

So, for me, I would consider no less than an lvl 80 with all rare/exotic to be worth taking into a lvl 60+ dungeon, and would consider no less than lvl 70 with rare in the lower level dungeons.

Opinions?

1UP!

fifteen characters

Eh? One of my characters reached 250 and it just started a new stack…

Well my warrior, theif and ranger all have exotic weapons that I love for them, so no interest in getting gear for them. That leaves my engineer who can only use the backpack.

But I’m gonna play the hell out of this anyway just because it’s fun!

I haven’t even experienced the box yet, but seeing the ‘advert’ and battling the chest creatures has given me enough of a taste to say… this is awesome

Please make it permanent!

BST (British Summer Time) :p

Actually, since the clocks went forwards, and it says log in from 11pm, meaning BST… the server still runs on GMT.

I was using combos and putting down conditions, never could get a decent damage burst over 1000 damage total. Couldn’t withstand damage either.

Got bored of being weak, and a liability, and deleted it at lvl 72. A total waste of my time.

One is in Diessa, right by the North entrance to Black Citadel.

How I got recruited to a great friendly guild:

Guild asks for a player to make up a party for Sorrow’s Embrace. I say that I’ve never done one before but if theyre patient, I’ll join.

Halfway through the dungeon, I’m asked if I want to join their guild. Of course, I accept, and never want to leave it.

Moral of the story: show a player that if they join they will get interaction, will be respected and will not be left out on their own, only there to make up the numbers. Be sociable, THEN recruit, or you will get viewed as warmly as the guys who knock on your door while you’re having dinner offering you double glazed windows. Just as you’d slam the door on them, people you whisper will slam the door on you.

And this is why the Cuddlekitten warband was disbanded. I guess they didn’t want the genes spreading.

She looks ridiculous.

Addicted but then with my broken brain, I get addicted to the stupidest things.

Ranger is FAR easier to play.

3×80s, and I still cannot play Elementalists because they are frustratingly weak.