Guild Wars 2

I can’t use apostrophes in italics? I didn’t know

However, I’ve never gotten sub/super scripts to work. The literal examples from the more pasting and formatting options seem broken:

• The most common use of E[sub]3[/sub] is for fuel.
• Einstein is famous for his E=mc[sup]2[/sup].

Unfortunately, the forum code was maintained by a 3rd party provider who is no longer available. The only way for ANet to change or improve it is to replace the entire current system. Given that things work well enough, that seems like an unnecessary expense.

Congrats to the OP for making a killing in the market. I hope that they are able to repeat their success again. However, let’s not assume that they were dealing with bots.

Instead, they were likely playing chicken with many other short-term profiteers. There are tons of ways to keep track of whether we are getting outbid & some people follow them blindly, which makes it easier for folks like the OP to profit from the impatience of others.

Bots are unlikely to purchase only a stack or spend an extra 700g on said stack, without realizing it. However, speculators will sometimes see items rising quickly in price and attempt to buy low so they can sell high (just as the OP did).

• Primordus on Faith: After seeing Kasmeer fail to handle the unmasking of [spoiler redacted], an Elder Dragon writes a self-help book for the spiritually bereft.
• Principles of Fear: Be afraid, be very afraid.
• Popsicles or Fudgsicles: Jormag goes into the quiescently frozen confection business.
• Postscripts or Superscripts: Confusion over naming conventions leads Taimi to quit Dragons Watch Dragonswatch Dragon’s Watch and write about grammar.

People don’t actually have to join your guild — they just have to be in your party or squad and be outside the hall — when they enter, they’ll get a choice to enter your guild’s instance of the hall.

People do claim guild halls with as few as two people, although three is far easier imo. If you’re worried about having enough damage and control, aim for starting with at least five; nine is ideal.

I used to see calls in /map in AB or VB for help claiming, and I’ve joined more than a few. I’d recommend asking there, too.

Good luck.

Behellagh.1468:

NCSOFT owns ANet (indirectly through a holding company NCSOFT owns outright) but I believe, being NCSOFT’s first acquisition in NA and with former Blizzard “superstars”, ANet negotiated to keep the IP under their name so if NCSOFT every decides to sell off ANet, the IP will go with ANet.

At least that’s the scuttlebutt I heard over a decade ago.

It might have been an attempt to forestall being acquired by other companies, by making a merger less attractive. I’m not sure about the timeline, I think some steps happened more recently.

Samaelle.9301:

I’m not talking about all backpacks of course ! ^^
I understand that’d be way too much work.

Except to change even one backpack means changing them all — the system has to support the dye channel, which means retrofitting existing items, too.

Benjamin Arnold.3457:

See, what had happened was, I made a change to improve the avenger AI so they wouldn’t stomp the wrong people or screw over leaders, and it was working great! But some merge conflict or someone (maybe me) fat fingering a delete key caused a bug that made the AI always think no players were in range. The fix is going out with the next patch. My bad.

It’s probably too late to change it so that it prioritizes people representing the ANet employee guild (but only if they have caused a bug by fat-fingering a delete key).

Oh well, fixing it so it tries to stomp just one player character works, too.

The devs said they’d be releasing one of the gen 2 legendaries with each story. Separately, they said that the expansion was going to be released in roughly the same timing “cadence” as another Living World episode.

Putting that together, I’d expect it to take between one and two years to put out the remaining eight terrestrial weapons in the set.

Of course that assumes that nothing changes between now and then, so I agree with Rose: it’s safe to say there will be a new one on the 25th and nearly-safe to say another with the expac. After that, the new expansion is surely going to impact what sorts of skins we see going forward.

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Behellagh.1468:

kitten.4078:

Offair.2563:

OP please tell me what actions can you perform when dead beside pan your cam view and chat?

You’re comparing apples to oranges. Auto loot is not an action that a player performs, it’s something that happens automatically. As such, it should happen automatically regardless if you are dead or alive. What a player can or can’t do while dead is irrelevant.

To use your name … kitten. If you are down you aren’t doing anything that’s “automatic” other than breathing. You aren’t equipped with a loot magnet like Plants Vs Zombies.

Except… isn’t that exactly what auto-loot is? It’s a magnet that grabs loot for you, even from within chests, with no input from the player.

The input is automatic; the game is still following the same actions as if you pressed [f], just as my pressing [shift-f] (my custom shortcut) is the same as you pressing [f].

You’re assuming you know how it’s coded underneath.

A little. It’s far easier to write code to trigger an existing mechanic than to write new code (more significantly, it’s a good way to avoid running into future errors because you have two distinct mechanics to do essentially the same job).

Plus we still have the option to press [f] (and have to when we die).

That’s not conclusive, of course, but it’s enough so that I think it’s fair to say it’s a moot point for this discussion. Whether or not we press a button, the game behaves as if we press a button to collect loot. Having things behave otherwise while defeated would be an exception.

(Mind you, ANet Consistency™ allows for that possibility; just seems very unlikely.)

This is another gaming issue for which there aren’t any great solutions. Just decent and mediocre ones, each of which offers some decent pros and requires trading off some icky side-effects.

• “No participation” is the system in place for the core game. It encourages people to tag and run, resulting in things like the Silverwastes RABI system.
• “Intense participation” is the system HoT has at launch. It forces people to tether to events for long periods, which is hardly “casual”
• “Keep participating” (pardon the pun) is the WvW system and requires you to keep finding eligible targets to avoid losing participation.
• “Mostly participate” is the current HoT system, in which you want to contribute to several successful events before you leave the map. It’s rewarding & time consuming, allowing some tag & run.

So sure, ANet hasn’t figured out the perfect balance to this, anymore than they’ve perfectly balanced “good loot” versus “economically useless loot” (or balanced storage or inventory management perfectly). It’s an inherently tricky problem and probably will never have a solution that’s beloved by all fans.

For you, I’d recommend any/all of the builds there. You’re an experienced veteran, so the qtfy & metabattle builds will work for open world solo, too, with minor adjustments depending on the content.

(I’m assuming you’re not asking for a build to solo fractals or the harder open world champs, since those are outside-the-meta niche builds. If you want that, I’d look for theory crafting on Reddit and/or in the mesmer forum. There are some really good mesmers who post in both.)

Khisanth.2948:

not being able to to use the TP does make it a lot more like playing at launch.

That was a horrible 10-14 days.

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Behellagh.1468:

kitten.4078:

Offair.2563:

OP please tell me what actions can you perform when dead beside pan your cam view and chat?

You’re comparing apples to oranges. Auto loot is not an action that a player performs, it’s something that happens automatically. As such, it should happen automatically regardless if you are dead or alive. What a player can or can’t do while dead is irrelevant.

To use your name … kitten. If you are down you aren’t doing anything that’s “automatic” other than breathing. You aren’t equipped with a loot magnet like Plants Vs Zombies.

Except… isn’t that exactly what auto-loot is? It’s a magnet that grabs loot for you, even from within chests, with no input from the player.

The input is automatic; the game is still following the same actions as if you pressed [f], just as my pressing [shift-f] (my custom shortcut) is the same as you pressing [f].

I’ve tested this a couple of times and my status is being saved. However, there are some things that have intermittently changed the status: using LFG to find a squad, joining a squad, or joining in someone’s personal story. (None of these things always result in Invisible changing to Visible, just often enough for it to be a reason to recheck.)

Savvy.3258:

Aquatic Ruins and Solid Oceans need to go away, pronto. By far the most boring fractals and no one wants to do them when they come up in rotation.

I love having those in the rotation. They are very rewarding for time spent & I still enjoy trying to reduce the times. They are also good introductions to Tier 4, because the mechanics are less involved.

Savvy.3258:

Having six dailies (including recommended) is rather silly as there are approximately a dozen fractals.

Most veterans don’t bother with the ‘recommended’ fractals, because they aren’t significantly more rewarding than picking a fractal that you enjoy more. Veterans don’t need usually need “just a few” more ordinary or pristine relics and veterans will tend to get a decent amount of ascended gear, without resorting to journal pages.

Savvy.3258:

Let’s face it, most people do fractals for the rewards and not the fun, after a while that is.

They aren’t rewarding enough to do them just for the loot; they are rewarding enough to do them for fun. I’m sure some people do the dailies for just the reward, but I doubt very much if “most” do the scaled three for that reason; there’s just not that much reward.

There are certainly things that I’d like to see changed in fractals, but these aren’t anywhere near the top of my list.

RoseofGilead.8907:

Daddicus.6128:

Dawdler.8521:

Because… uhm… you’re dead…

Except you’re not; you’re defeated.

True. But you’re on the ground, unconscious. Even if you’re not dead, you’re still not likely to hop up and grab loot while in said unconscious state.

It’s also a distinction without meaning, for the purpose of discussing loot acquisition. ANet might not call the state “death”, perhaps to make it less scary, but it works the same way as death in other games: you cannot move, you cannot use skills, you cannot interact with objects (including loot, which requires some sort of interaction to pick-up, even though that can be automated).

Thus, while players are technically incorrect to refer to the “failed to rally from downed” state as “death,” the use of the word doesn’t steer people the wrong way for discussion purposes.

In the meantime, Rik, keep doing the WvW dailies and save your WvW Reward Track potions. When you finally unlock the TA track (or when it comes off the timer), you can use the potions to get a jumpstart on the track.

Good luck.

PS if you do ok in WvW, you should be able to small-party the story. I’ve done it duo and it’s even easier with three.

Vesuvius.9874:

Other than the teaser image, what other hints has ANET dropped to suggest that we’d be going to Cantha?

“What hints has ANet dropped to suggest we’d be going to Cantha”
fixed that for you

(The teaser image has been ruled out as a Cantha-specific hint.)

A friend of mine has been finishing up achievements late Pacific time and it’s spawned successfully each time (for whatever that’s worth).

@OP: for alternative names that pass the [kitten] filter, what about:

• Shatnerer
• Shafterer (because there’s even less loot to complain about)
• Sha’erer (although, per above, dude doesn’t share nearly enough)

From the Curated Issue Tracker

• Issue: Gendarran Fields: Not So Secret Jumping Puzzle: Launch pads will sometimes launch players too far.
• Status: Investigating = we are aware of the issue, but haven’t yet found a fix for it.

In other words, the pads are bugged (and unfortunately, have been for ages).

sorudo.9054:

RabbitUp.8294:

Rebound.3409:

It’s not about “finding the next game” …it’s about false advertisement. I understand him.

@op good part is this game doesn’t “tie” you to it…you can go on long breaks, come back and be as powerful as when you left it.

When and where was it advertised that gw2 is a game where individual choice affects the story? This is not a telltale game. And it’s an MMO on top of that, where thousands of players are sharing that story.

watch the early trailers, they actually said exactly that.

They were referring to the feature that’s already in the game: the open world changes depending on whether you are successful in driving off invaders, escorting NPCs, etc For example, towns in Kryta might be under human or centaur control, depending on whether you choose to help or not.

Now, of course that’s not the level of “personal choice” we get in single player games, but it’s a substantial change for compared to the traditional MMO RPG.

Evolseed.9104:

I would consider renaming the “Free Account” to “Starter Account” or “Trial Account” because that’s what it really is and not a classic version of GW2 at launch that many dedicated players would love to experience all over again!

I understand the point you want to make, but there isn’t a nimble way to express the idea: you can play for free, but it costs to unlock the game’s optional features.

Both suggestions in the original post are also fraught with the same sort of confusion you’ve ascribed to “free account”:

• These aren’t “starter accounts” because the entire original game can be played without spending a dollar (or euro or pound): you can level to 80, finish the personal story, even build one of the original legendaries.
• These aren’t “trial accounts” as the term is used in the industry (for similar reasons).

The main issue is that the industry standard for “starter” or “trial” or “limited edition” has always been much more restricted than the GW2 model. With a game that is “pay once; play for free,” the concept of a free account is different.

So ANet could call it this version “Free Restricted” versus “HoT Unrestricted,” but those don’t run trippingly off the tongue (i.e. it’s not particularly good marketing).

And finally, I think nearly reasonable consumers already understand that “Free” is never going to mean “everything”.

In short, it might not be a great term to use, but it beats the alternatives.

Menadena.7482:

Interesting we are supposed to be forming a new gang but for most of the season the only constant besides us has been Taimi.

First, the PC only recently finished inviting people to the new group. Second, Even the Scooby Gang split up frequently, to get things done.

I don’t particularly like the way that part of the story is being told (especially Braham’s refusal — I can accept that he’s bitter, but the dialogue was clunky rather than realistically awkward). However, it’s consistent with how people put together small groups. It takes time to organize.

zionophir.6845:

whats the purpose of selling a black wing and a white wing then if you can dye them?

The reason that they sell both is because they can’t be dyed. If they could have created dyeable back items in the first place, then they wouldn’t have originally sold them with specific colors.

I think the idea is that elite specs are a major feature of expansions so tying the weapon choice to the spec is important. Also, every available weapon skill has to be balanced against every other; the more new weapons, the harder it gets to balance.

I can see why people want more options for the base class (or even the base class with new elite specs unlocked). That doesn’t mean it’s good for the game’s long-term health.

Huck.1405:

Nice patch Anet, I’m not surprised at all. FUBAR is the norm.

This has nothing to do with the patch or with ANet directly. Hackers (or trolls) are attacking internet backbone services and throttling traffic.

There’s no “gear treadmill” in the same way there is in other games — there one max level for all characters and ANet has stated that they plan to leave that in place. Content, even end game, is tweaked for exotic which is easily acquired. There’s one additional tier, Ascended, with slightly higher stats (some people feel they need to use it, even though it’s not true, except perhaps in speed runs and organized WvW… and not always then).

Progression in expansions is through adding new profession ‘specializations’ (adding different skills, a new weapon, and new traits) and via masteries (adding additional abilities, such as gliding or moving faster in cities).

zealex.9410:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Some of the plot threads might get closed before the 25th. Some will get closed on the 25th. But there’s going to be an extended period between LS3.6 and the release of the expac for ANet to introduce new events, possibly remove existing ones (or tweak them), and resolve some of the story lines.

I also think it’s healthy for good MMOs to keep some mysteries alive.

Theres a difference with a mystery and an unfinished questline.

Sure and that’s almost entirely a matter of opinion. I’m perfectly content to see some things in an MMO take years to unfold — the main stories shouldn’t (PS, LS), but I’d rather they took their time closing the side stories rather than rush an explanation that doesn’t fulfill the expectations set in the opener.

One of the devs said that they are working on a fix. I don’t remember if it was here in the forums or on Reddit though. Apparently, they intended the Avengers to be less lethal, not non-lethal.

Some of the plot threads might get closed before the 25th. Some will get closed on the 25th. But there’s going to be an extended period between LS3.6 and the release of the expac for ANet to introduce new events, possibly remove existing ones (or tweak them), and resolve some of the story lines.

I also think it’s healthy for good MMOs to keep some mysteries alive.

Ashantara.8731:

Seriously, I am beginning to feel like some of the devs are getting a kick out of doing exactly the opposite of what their clientele is asking for on the forums.

For instance, I have been among those criticizing the increase of futuristic weapon and armor designs. So, what did they do? Come up with this “gem” (see attachment).

Lots of people like futuristic weapon & armor designs, which fit into the game’s existing aesthetics (asuran cultural armor, aetherblades, magitech). In particular, the College of Dynamics is known for its golems and this exoskeletal design bears similarities to golems.

So feel free to jump off the bandwagon of support this outfit is getting, because you personally prefer something else. But please avoid misrepresenting the motivations of the developers because you don’t like the skins.

Ashantara.8731:

I know a close friend of mine would consider returning to GW2 for a look into the next expac if it really turned out to be Cantha. Personally, I still find this type of creating a fake hype by publishing fake leaks sort of poor advertisement.

You think that ANet intentionally published fake information? Or you think they allowed someone else to post fake details? Or you think they are so Machiavellian that they created fake data for someone to discover and publish on their own?

Isn’t it far, far more likely that ANet has no control over people decided to break non-disclosure agreements and that people are reading too much into a single design of a single vessel (that is actually similar to several models already at use in the game)?

bloodtide coast loading screen

The boat was datamined ages ago; it could be a zephyrite vessel rather than anything to do with Cantha

As far as I know, only one player character actor changed (Charr, male). Some of the others took feedback from ANet (which largely came from us players) about how they sounded… and they’ve had time to learn more about the game. I’m still not a big fan of the human female voice, but I like it much, much better in LS3 than I did previously.

I agree with you that the changes for the female charr seem for the worse. I’d describe it as if the actor doesn’t seem “present” in the same story as everyone else. Unfortunately, that’s a common hazard for voice actors, since they literally are not in the same room/same time as their fellow actors.

More specifically:

• Human: no changes. Personally I like the female better; I don’t notice a difference for the male
• Norn: male is ok, the female… well, I cringed so much during the personal story that I needed spinal surgery, and I’m probably not giving her a fair chance for LS3 (I still can’t stand the voice)
• Charr: new male actor (some people like him better, some not; I’m ambivlaent). Female… I don’t like her as much, but it’s not a major difference for me.
• Asura: no change. Just as good as before.
• Sylvai: no change, although the female voice isn’t as strong, imo.

hramrach.6501:

worked for me. not sure if it was the change to the shortcut or if they fixed it in the meantime ;-)

Part of it is outside ANet’s control. So some people, unfortunately, will just have to wait for the situation to resolve itself.

Remember to remove the shortcut once we find out that all is well. (At some point, the specific numbers won’t work, but leaving them out should always work, except in extreme situations like we have today.)

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Con-error-can-t-log-in-check-here/6643813

There’s a couple of issues, but it boils down to your computer having trouble finding ANet’s computers. The link above offers a work-around that has helped most people using it, but it’s no guarantee.

Thanks for posting this. Fortunately, things might be resolved already for most of us.

From Chris Cleary

We believe the issue has been fixed, however due to some DNS servers taking longer to update than others, some may still be running into issues. Hopefully this is resolved for everyone soon.

Posted about 3 hrs ago (4 am Pacific, 7 am Easter, 12 pm UTC, 9 pm SYD)

From Chris Cleary

We believe the issue has been fixed, however due to some DNS servers taking longer to update than others, some may still be running into issues. Hopefully this is resolved for everyone soon.

Posted about 3 hrs ago (4 am Pacific, 7 am Easter, 12 pm UTC, 9 pm SYD)

DoN.8196:

i find it weird to use they for a single person
random guy 1: where’s bob
random guy 2:they over there

You wouldn’t for that example, since bob is a male. It’s for when the gender isn’t specifiable.

All grammar rules are weird, though, until you are used to them. Why do so many languages assign a gender to inanimate objects? (And for that matter, why doesn’t English?) And why should we assign the male gender when we don’t actually know?

English doesn’t do well with ambiguity, so until or unless someone comes up with a good solution that every grammarian and non-grammarian can live with, we’re stuck with choosing the lesser of evils: he, it, he/she, s/he, or, they; my preference is they, because it’s easily understood and remains ambiguous rather than indecisive or overly-specific. But, yeah, it’s a little weird, too.

Djinn.9245:

So you understand the difference: “I don’t like pickles on my hamburger” vs. “I demand that you remove all pickles from all hamburgers”.

That’s a reasonable distinction.

However, I understood the OP to be saying, “I hate being forced to eat hamburgers or pickles,” which doesn’t seem to be an accurate assessment when it comes to having a meal, GW2 style.

(Be right back — I’m hungry now. Remind me to avoid threads with food metaphors in the future.)

Oh, I apologize. I forgot that there’s been this longstanding discussion (argument?) on the wiki about whether any information about build size should be included. Some people think it should be, for folks like the OP who are on a bandwidth budget. Some think it shouldn’t be, because it’s inherently inaccurate (for reasons stated above).

I didn’t stop to check if the numbers were still there or not, so again, my apologies for confusing y’all.

Some folks usually do put up a number on reddit, for what it’s worth.

Chasind.3128:

TL-DR, designers seem out of touch with GW2 aesthetic. More practical outfits, no more cheaply sci-fi tech ones.

You might want to relook at the skins in the game originally. Asura cultural armor is sci-fi tech, for example.

McKenna Berdrow.2759:

The reset times are as follows:
…

Which of these were reduced and by how much?

SkyShroud.2865:

@Sublimatio.6981
Edit: Incase people forgotten, dungeon was nerfed in favor of raid.

Actually, that was once true; it’s not true anymore — if people do 8 unique paths often, the current rewards are slightly better than before, due to the increased token amounts; the liquid gold amounts are marginally less.

The facts noted in the rest of the post were largely correct: FotM40 done slowly is already more lucrative than best case Dungeon Frequenter; FotM40/quick is much better and FotM/Optimal is one of the most lucrative farms in the game.

Farming, by its very nature, is repetitive and boring for a lot of people, so it’s not the only consideration. I do T4 fractals because it’s fun, there’s a lot of variety, and I can continue to challenge myself by trying different builds/strategies. That’s definitely absent from FotM/40 farming (one size fits all…it’s the only size, too). Dungeons, for me, aren’t any better because they are largely trivial with a good team and tedious with a bad one.

In one of two of the AMAs they’ve done on Reddit; I don’t remember them making the same comment here, though.

ArchonWing.9480:

It is a personal subject of annoyance regarding the specifics of language. The biggest example would be of the uncertain pronoun. Like I would write, “If a person saw a hundred dollar on the floor, [he] [she] [it] [they] would pick it up.” But they is grammatically incorrect.

‘they’ is not grammatically incorrect, even less so in the 21st century. It’s just never been popular among anyone, especially not English teachers. I use it exclusively, in preference to he/she.

It’s not a great choice, however, because there’s a lot of resistance to it. However, resistance in grammar is ultimately futile. Newspapers have long won the fight to misuse “may” (“The president may veto the bill”), even though it would be grammatically more appropriate to write “might” — the president always has permission to veto; they only choose to exercise it sometimes.

Sorry for the digression — I don’t oppose anyone choosing to stick with he/she; I just don’t think it’s appropriate to say it’s the only acceptable, gender neutral option available.

The FotM L40 farm is worth (at current TP prices) ~1.5 gold per run. The most efficient teams can complete 21 rounds in ~33 minutes, so it works out to just under 30 gold in half an hour. At 5 min/round, that would drop to 9g in the same 30 minutes

The quickest dungeon runs end up with roughly 100 tokens, half dozen blues & greens for roughly 10-20s, silver bonus of 35-100 depending on path, and an extra 100 tokens & 5 gold for every 8 paths. Most tokens can be converted to gold at roughly 50s/100 tokens (Arah tokens convert at 1g/100). Adding it up, eight dungeons would be worth around 14-20 gold (20 for Arah & AC & TA/aether, 14 for skipping those). At 10 minutes/dungeon (which has to include travel time), that’s roughly 6-7g in 30 minutes.

You should open all the login bonus packages as you get them

Yes, they are huge boosts for new players & there’s sometimes decent benefit in opening them sooner rather than later. You won’t miss anything by taking advantage of them.

Eventually, you’ll find specific uses for specific items and might (or might not) want to save particular containers. Wait until you find those special uses before worrying about it.

The sole except is that you have to choose the reward from Day 28. That’s a while from now, so you have time to ask about it later. As a rule of thumb, for new players, I strongly recommend the laurel reward — login bonuses are the only way to build up this currency. so for the first month or six, it’s the most useful option in my opinion.

Welcome to Tyria.

• The Emperor’s New Clothes
• Killer Queen

• The first is a story about how a shrewd clothing manufacturer marketed “invisible” apparel, to sell to a (male) dictator, while toadies applauded the waste of resources as high fashion. In other words, a tribute to wasting money pursuing exotic skins.
• The latter is a song by glamrock band, Queen, about, well, according to its composer, about whatever you want it to be about. Although Mr Mercury was imagining a high-class call girl, poetically suggesting that even (or especially) the rich can kitten themselves out.

There’s no particular reason why ANet couldn’t also add Childlike Empress or On His Majesty’s Secret Service as titles. On the other hand, no reason that they should, either.