Guild Wars 2

In all honesty, Think Geek would probably be happy to do a team-up with you guys. I know I would love to buy tokens of my GW2 geekery.

How many members do you have and what are your guild-related HoT plans, if any?

Do you have guild-related HoT plans? Will you have a guild hall? If so, which one?

1. What servers are considered “unofficial Oceanic” servers?

Afaik, there are no unofficial Oceanic servers. There’s a kiwi in my guild and she’s on Yak’s Bend, I think. We also have an aussie and I think he’s on Darkhaven.

1b Do you have to join a guild?

You can run solo content and join PuGs for dungeon runs and be perfectly content. There’s no kill stealing— everyone gets credit for a kill. There’s no node stealing— so you need not compete to get to a node. You get XP for rezing someone, so it’s to your benefit to help others. It is common for people in a map to not-group and take on world bosses or champions. It’s all good.

That said, HoT expansion is making cool guild halls with some nice perks so joining one can give you access to some fun things. There are also many casual guilds that don’t require heavy time commitments, repping, or dues. You could even look for an RP guild if you’re into immersion.

2. I decided [on] “Engineer, or Mesmer”. Any thoughts there?

Engi and Mesmer are considered a couple of the most difficult classes to learn. Both are a lot of fun but if you’re struggling at all, check in with the profession sub-forums.

Engi is a lot to learn because each toolkit utility gives you a different set of weapon skills, so switching between them and learning combo fields is important. Mesmer is my personal favorite. People love portals, feedback reflects, and time warps. Mesmer typically doesn’t do a lot of burst damage, but their utilities are welcome among the majority of groups.

3. Does race make any difference?

Short answer: No. As an example, some people like to pair engi with charr or asura as the more “technical” races, but you’re certainly not limited to that. There are a few racial skills, but most people don’t even use them.

4. Any basics/tips that would be good to know before I plunge into the unknown?

The big one, IMO, is learn to dodge right away. A lot of survival in this game is avoiding damage. For the rest, I love to point to this thread: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/players/OMG-If-you-only-knew-this-tips-for-new-players/first

Welcome and good luck!

Hey, if you want to play that way as a personal challenge or something, nothing is stopping you.

I believe dungeons were built as ‘starter modes’ for group content. Moving forward, we have fractals and raids as more grown-up versions. I doubt dungeons will be altered, so take them for what they’re worth and enjoy them as you see fit.

No. All beta characters will be wiped before HoT goes live. Besides, BWE3 was the last before HoT drops and you can only make beta characters during a BWE.

They did preview the armor in an early Twitch stream about guild halls. It was hours long, so I’m not going to hunt down the section. IIRC, it was right around Points of Interest #23.

Trevor Boyer.6524:

… Exactly what will we need to obtain the Guild Halls? Will we need influence to spend? Are there any requirements? Any special items we need? …

100 gold is needed to mount the expedition to get your guild hall. The asura explorer will immediately run away with your money, but meet you at the entrance to your hall. You can try to take the hall as many times as you need until you get it.

Spend your influence and merits now. When HoT drops, you will still be able to spend these to speed up guild hall projects, but it won’t be worth as much as it is now. Influence and merits are basically going away. Favor will be the new thing.

We get hints of special items from some of the “PoI” and “Guild Chat” streams, especially the 4-part Guild Week bits:
Pt. 1: http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2/v/18363785
Pt. 2: http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2/v/18513195
Pt. 3: http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2/v/18658428
Pt. 4: http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2/v/18800907

Lots of info here, too: http://heartofthorns.guildwars2.com/game/guildhalls/

Good luck!

If you don’t mind logging into the old one once per day, it can collect daily login awards. Use the laurels to buy bags of T6 mats and send them to your new account to use or to sell.

Do it on an asura.

I went with a guild-pack of mesmers. I tried several times on a the shortest sylvari and kept hitting my toe on the final pipes. Two of my guildies (on asura) got it, first try. I switched to asura… and completed.

Another tip: it helps to have a group member IN the puddle you’re diving into. Having that reference point to aim for is good.

Aguri.2896:

Ardid.7203:

I can’t imagine wich proffession would Death the Kid play in GW2.

Can’t tell if sarcasm cuz internet, but definitely thief. Gotta have those dual pistols Unfortunately he’d be screwed over by armor since 90% of it is asymmetrical.

My thought was dual pistol engi; he’s not very stealthy. Still screwed by asymmetrical armors. XD

And yes, I thought it was going to be about armor.

It sounds to me like mesmer is the way to go.

• Plenty of mobility— speed with clones and temporal tricks, portals and blinks — check. If you go Chronomancer, you get alacrity. Whee!
• Escape — torch stealth, veil, and decoy, for sure. If you go Chronomancer with HoT, there’s continuum shifting.
• Balance — mesmer is generally considered stronger in PvP and WvW, but far less so in PvE. That said, mesmer has a lot of utility in many aspects of PvE. Everyone loves to see portals, reflect bubbles, and time warp.
• Playstyle — mostly ranged. GS is primary. Most go sword/torch to pop in and out of melee, but you could go scepter/torch or scepter/pistol for more range.

Whichever you choose, enjoy and have fun!

When I first saw the data-mined info. (from that_shaman), there were no textures yet, so there were no previews available. I keep watching for updates.

Grimed.8356:

… I like playing a healer but I see that all can heal them self and the draw back of a healer class is they didn’t solo good so i will stay away from that. … The preview of the expansion lead me to believe there may be a need for a healer IE the Druid but don’t want to get in the rut again of waiting for a group and unable to solo decent will I wait. I did enjoy the nerco in EQ 1 but they din’t bring a lot to the group unless it was a raid.

Simplest to learn: warrior.

It does seem as though druid/healers will be useful in raids. However, you can’t play druid until you’ve hit L80 as a ranger and rangers don’t offer much support for group play. Now, if you plan to solo your way to L80 and then play ‘for real’, go for it.

Elementalist has a strong learning curve. It’s a glass cannon. It also has a lot of combo fields to learn. If you go staff (for example), with 4 elemental aspects that’s 20 weapon skills to learn— plus combos and utilities. It’s fun, but you should know what you’re in for. They do have water/heal supports, but are not really sustainable as pure healers.

Guardian may be a good one to try. They wear heavy, are strong in melee, can go mid-range, and have heal supports mixed with damage.

Necro is a lot of fun here, but they are often not welcome in dungeons as their dps is at the bottom of the pile. They are good in zergs and the newer maps, though, throwing out tons of condi damage and they can also be very supportive with a well build.

Whichever you choose, I hope you enjoy your time here. Good luck!

New faces and hair styles have been data-mined and are expected to drop with HoT’s release.

Raistlin.3210:

… first thing, is :
WAY to[o] many time sinks…

I think you’re off-base. Legendary and Ascended have the same stats. Of course they should be difficult to get. They are a big goal, not a ‘gimme’. There are several ways to get ascended: they drop from Tequatl and other bosses, they drop in PvP and fractals. Crafting is just the most reliable way of getting them and personally, my luck sucks so I really appreciate having a reliable way to get it.

Raistlin.3210:

…2nd thing
MOUNTS …

I’ll just leave this here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Mounts-merged

Raistlin.3210:

…3rd thing
3rd party addons…

OMG. NO to dps meters. Holy piles of kittens, NO. More friendly? ROFL

I’m ambivalent about UI add-ons, but in my experience, they are trouble. It hardly matters, though, since Anet has said they won’t support this.

Raistlin.3210:

…4th thing
more of a traditional dungeon trait for classes, ie tank, healer, dps…

What gets old is having a healer and constantly getting pestered to heal and only heal, not being able to play anything else because your group needs you to fill that role and nothing can happen without it — and since no one else wants to play healer… No, thanks. Been there, done that. Or on the other hand, waiting and waiting to get a healer… again, been there. Don’t want to go back.

GW2 offers you options when it comes to role. Granted, most people prefer to go dps but you aren’t stuck to a single role and you can do hybrid support. For the most part, each player is responsible for himself and I like that.

As for skipping trash mobs… HA! You cannot tell me that this doesn’t happen in other games, ’cause it does. People will find the easiest way to get through content and get the good stuff.

Raistlin.3210:

…Honorable mentions: …

I think you’re way off on these:

• Mesmer doesn’t need a nerf, IMO.
• PvP balance is a tough, tetchy thing. They’re always adjusting and probably always will be.
• There are exclusive boss drops. They do not drop often. They are not ‘gimmes’.
• The store usually updates at least monthly, although admittedly, the lead-up to HoT was lacking.
• We (the players) suspect they cannot put everything on the store at once; they rotate. There has been a lot of discussion about this, but general consensus is that making items scarce or unavailable encourages buying rather than discourages it.

tl;dr: I’m all for listening to player suggestions, but turning GW2 into another WoW clone will not fly here. This game isn’t perfect, but you’re barking up trees with no squirrels or cats, just leaves.

Data-mining has revealed new hairstyles and faces are coming. There weren’t any textures, so no previews are available.

Many people agree.

I told my guildies that for the first day, I will be playing Halloween… on my elites, but I will leave the new maps alone for at least a day while Anet works out some bugs.

Please be more specific about when and where you’re hearing it. Which class are you playing? Are you in a particular zone when you hear it?

Try putting away your pet or mini-pet to tell whether the sound changes. Play with the various volume controls to try to isolate the sound. Good luck!

I like this idea a lot! +1

You’ve probably done something to flip the keyboard’s language. (Assuming you use Windows…) Next to your clock in the bottom right of your computer toolbar there should be “ENG”. If it isn’t, click Windows key + Spacebar and it should switch.

1. The Black Lion trader you used was a consumable, temporary thing.

2. When you purchase things via Black Lion trading, you must go to a BL trader to acquire your stuff. Look for the golden balance-scales icon. There’s one in every city and most starter zones.

3. Without knowing exactly what you were looking at, I’d guess you saw a pistol SKIN— which can be used by anyone and can have ‘starter’ default stats. Some are very expensive.

4. Weapon sigils and armor runes can give you damage boosts. So can food and other consumables, like sharpening stones and maintenance oil.

I recommend spending some of your gems on a watchwork mining pick. It is account bound, will gather any type of mining node, and it will drop watchwork sprockets which sell well. Other unlimited gather tools are nice if you plan to craft or gather, but only the watchwork has bonus drops.

Just to confirm: I did a key run today (as well as one last week). It has definitely reset.

I think you may have been looking for this: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer

Or even specifically this: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/Beta-Weekend-Scrapper-Feedback-Thread/first

Cheers.

I agree. So do many others…

There was another thread about the airship parts event: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/hot/Ordinance-Crew-bomb-event-takes-too-long/first#post5567125

Yesterday, I did this event with two guildies and one other person. It took us about 20 min. to collect enough stuff to make the NPC happy. That’s grindy. Please make this scale better.

My asura, being all gremlin-like.

IMO, it’s not worth switching armor. Some tests with cleric armor proved you only get about +100 health per heal skill over full ‘zerk. Heal power is still not a very useful stat to have, so unless something major changes, I won’t worry about it. If something does change, you can always collect legendary armors to switch stats per situation.

The character slot will only be for those who prepurchase as well. So, only those who buy prior to Oct. 23 get it.

I don’t see the problem. The recipe says it’s account bound. You had fair warning. Those inscriptions are optional. You chose to make them. Hope you have a bunch of alts to use them.

I can’t see how this has anything to do with CA, either. All GW2 players play by the same rules, afaik.

I agree with Silvatar; this game’s focus isn’t really “endgame”. It’s about the journey. That journey doesn’t involve a lot of hand-holding and pointy arrows that lead you to the next thing, either. I think the folks who’re happiest with this game set themselves goals to attain. GW2 doesn’t really do that for you, but it will offer many options for goal objectives— achievement chasing, collections, legendaries, fashion, mini-pets, world exploration, etc.

As for a good class… that depends upon your playstyle. Tanky? Warrior. Glass cannon? Elementalist. Simple to learn? Warrior, again. Considered difficult? Engineer.
Melee or ranged? Soloist or group-friendly? I like Red Queen’s suggestion just to try a few classes. Get the feel of the game and how each plays before you choose a “main”.

Welcome! I hope you enjoy the game.

Haory.4958:

I have only game, and if I dont buy HOT can i use elite specs for my characters?

No. Elite specs (and Rev class) are only available to those who purchase HoT.

1. Chronomancer – I think many don’t rate it higher because they don’t play it much.
2. Reaper
3. Herald
4. Druid – here’s hoping it plays up to expectations.
5. Scrapper – I will have to see how this one plays and how effective gyros really are.
6. Daredevil – it was choppy in BWE2. Hoping to see big improvements.
7. Tempest – I like the concept but it’s not useful to a glass cannon, IMO.
8. Berserker – I probably won’t use it, but it’s better than 9.

9. Dragonhunter – I agree with LucosTheDutch; I hate the name, the utilities, the passive virtues, the non-synergistic traits, the heavy-handed winged concepts that mean nothing paired with the name, and the ranger copy-paste of the whole thing. I would have liked to see guardian given something more like the druid elite or the herald elite. This just stinks.

As far as I can tell, guildies are now yellow dots.

I’d say give the engi a chance. When you get to 80, you can go Scrapper elite and use hammer, giving you the more-melee option you want. Also, work with the bomb or flamethrower kits as those are more melee based. (Flamethrower is loads of fun!)

For another option, try guardian. Guardian has plenty of melee and can do med-range with scepter or staff. In the elite spec, they are getting longbow and traps … so maybe that will fill the gap you feel lacking on your ranger?

Frankly, thief and mesmer are both dodge-heavy and on the squishy side. Mesmer doesn’t have the big burst damage of thief but offers different utilities, like portaling and clone distractions. I’d never tell someone not to try it, but from the sounds of it, I think you’d be happier with something more durable.

I would love to see more armor options, too. Cold weather options would be awesome. So would trousers. Small symmetrical shoulders for heavy armor would be a dream come true.

As for Cantha-styled armors… I would love to see more of this. We have a couple of outfits (ancestral and imperial) but kimono would be fantastic too. Samurai style armor— even better!

There’s a terrific stickied thread in the Players Helping Players forum of Tips for players.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/players/OMG-If-you-only-knew-this-tips-for-new-players/first

For more easter eggs, reddit has a long-running thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1u7uof/easter_eggs_in_guild_wars_2/

Enjoy!

1. Options → wrench tab → UI section → check box “show skill recharge”

BrettM.9062:

I hope the guild information comes soon. As leader of a small guild, I need to know whether and how much influence I should be spending on unlocks (some of which take a week to complete) and how much to hold back. If they give us this information at the last second, it will be too late for me to do anything with it.

There is a lot of info. on the HoT guild halls page: http://heartofthorns.guildwars2.com/game/guildhalls/

I recommend reading: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/rethinking-guilds/ for upcoming changes to guild currencies. Namely, influence is going bye-bye. You can either make sure you get your unlocks now for guild hall prizes when HoT releases or save your influence to speed crafting of the new guild hall stuff.

Kern.5094:

…My question is where should i start and what should i focus on before the expansion comes out. I see they have living world season 2 for sale, is this something worth picking up?…

Welcome back!

Hang onto your gear sets. We haven’t yet had any hands-on time with the druid or raids, so it’s difficult to say yet what gear will be most efficient for druid. It’s probably good to have a mix for testing.

Since you’re interested in story, I would recommend picking up LS2 while it’s on sale. There’s quite a bit to do and it will give you access to carapace/luminescent armors and crafting pieces for Mawdrey— which is (eventually) an ascended backpiece and a bloodstone dust eater.

If you haven’t done it yet, I also recommend you visit Turl Sharptooth in the Commodore Quarter of LA and do the quest to kill little karkas. Completion grants you Princess, which is a dragonite ore eater.

They said they’d originally planned to reveal it before Scrapper. (Remember the pause in reveals? Yeah, then.) They said it wasn’t quite done in time, so they revealed it last. Something had to be last.

eNeRgOo.5463:

… But Malyck was called the Harbinger, and you could buy “Harbinger of Mordremoth” outfit in the gem store, so I bet he’ll be one of the bad guys…. <sighs>. It is so complicated!

First, it was the Nightmare Court that called Malyck “the harbinger” because if another Pale Tree was known to exist, without the teachings of Ventari, then that would be proof to the Nightmare Court that sylvari in general didn’t need to pay attention to Ventari’s teachings.

A harbinger, by definition, is a type of foreshadowing. I don’t think the armor had anything to do with Malyck, since the Nightmare Court nick-named him in hopes of seeing great change to sylvari people. Rather, the armor foreshadows confrontation with Mordremoth.

Now, speculation… It was intimated that Ventari’s teachings and the Pale Tree protected her children from Mordremoth’s influence. Some believe the Nightmare Court themselves will not immediately succomb to Mordremoth because of their intense free will. Malyck seemed like a good guy, but what about his siblings? After all, the Pale Tree had some bad seeds. I hope we see Malyck’s Tree in the future, or at least another Tree. Whether other Trees and their people become Mordy’s or keep themselves free remains to be seen. Either way, I think it would be interesting.

Mirta.5029:

…So we’re assuming that everyone mains a different race, one out of five races is getting exclusive treatment. Meaning 20% of the audience is being favoured. …

Exclusivity in my eyes is a bad thing. …

This, I feel, is the root of your problem. First, every paid player (thus, every HoT player) gets enough character slots to play at least one of each race. So, everyone is perfectly capable of creating a sylvari. Anet is not “excluding” 80% of their audience. The ones being “excluded” are those who choose not to play sylvari. Keyword there, CHOOSE.

Second, exclusivity is not inherently bad. I understand that you don’t like it. However, there are plenty of players who do. Saying “I don’t like it, so it’s bad for everyone and needs to stop” isn’t a great way to make a point; there are those on both sides of the issue who won’t be convinced.

GW2 is open to a variety of playstyles, builds, races, classes, appearances, personal stories, order stories, and further choices in gameplay options! Personally, I can’t imagine playing the same character all the time any more than I could face eating plain oatmeal for breakfast every day of the year. Embrace difference!

reapex.8546:

Kumion.7580:

These town clothes pants didn’t have buttflaps! So sad they’re gone. ;_;

town clothes are still around with the tonics

They’re still gone as stand-alone pants. Using the tonic essentially puts you in an outfit that disappears if you gate or stub your toe.

1. Warrior (Berserker) So much meh
2. Guardian (DragonHunter) Not for me
3. Revenant (Herald) All the boons!

4. Ranger (Druid) I don’t know
5. Thief (Daredevil) Cleaner animations please
6. Engineer (Scrapper) Flying mech pets

7. Necromancer (Reaper) Mwhaha the chills!
8. Elementalist (Tempest) Overcharged for spec
9. Mesmer (Chronomancer) FTW

They said they’re making a “Seasonal Change”. That implies they’re putting away the summer gear until next summer. They’ll be getting out the fall stuff right now.

No need to pronounce doomsday. They didn’t say the items are leaving forever. I’d like to also point out that they said they won’t be making any NEW armor skins in the gem shop. That doesn’t mean they won’t keep rotating the old armor skins.

Thank you clarifying and good luck with your research!

It would be nice to use display name in guild chat.

Superfrick, I also take time to research a name according to the character’s in-game culture and traits. Guildies cannot pronounce the names and can’t easily find me for groups, though. XD

Not sure what you’re asking for in 11 and 13. “What percentage of time do you devote to online multiplayer for the above game?”

I took that to mean ‘how much game time was spent within your primary game playing with other players’. When it was repeated for 13, now I’m wondering if you meant ‘What percentage of overall daily game time do you devote to your primary/secondary game’.

Please clarify?