Guild Wars 2

Lishtenbird.2814:

• Map completion in PvP area – complained about since release.
• Rank requirement for Gift of Battle.
• Jumping puzzles in PvP area.
• Mistforged weapons for WvW Tournaments.
• PvP backpack and the upcoming PvP armour skins.

All of those can be done solo. I know I’ve done them all without needing to be in a guild or join an organised group. Map completion is one I agree with however.

The jumping puzzle you can get solo there is rarely anyone looking to PvP there.

The rank requirement for Gift of Battle is very low and you’ll likely get it at the same time as getting the necessary badges.

The mistforged weapons are skins for WvW players, just as there are skins for PvP players, skins for dungeon runners and fractal runners. I have no issue whatsoever with any of those being exclusive for that content.

The backpiece from the living world is for living world content, not WvW, not PvP, not Dungeons, not FotM. Therefore it should require living world or open world content to do and not force players into any of the other types of content.

Lishtenbird.2814:

Pristine Fractal Relics are just yet another thing in the row, but this time it’s WvW crowd QQing about doing the “hard” content they “despise” for 5 (!) times at lowest level.

It’s not just 5 times though. The daily requires 4 fractals which depending on the group can take half an hour each or longer. They also require the group to stick around stay for all 4 fractals. So at a minimum it’s 20 times.

So far over two days I have collected 2 pristine relics and it required 7+ hours of running fractals.

Let’s run it down.

The first group we got through one fractal ok and then the group leader couldn’t get past the wind on the cliff fractal (and refused to be ported) so quit the group and tossed everyone back to Lion’s Arch.

The second group we got past 2 fractals which took over an hour and then the leader had to go, so back to Lion’s Arch again. I had now wasted 3 hours with nothing completed.

The third group was semi competent, but halfway through one of the guys who had been dying a lot wanted to go back to the lobby and repair his gear and despite me pointing out that the game was telling us it would reset out progress he kept insisting on it and me pressing the no option apparently didn’t work so back to the lobby we went and so another hour had been wasted. The group broke up after that.

Next I started my own group so that I could be sure that I stood a chance to get to the end. This went ok for 3 fractals and progress was made and then I get to the last fight vs. the Aetherblade captain and two people leave the group as the fight starts. The other two die from cannon fire and that leave me alive to solo the boss. Which I did, but it took a while. So yay one daily fractal done in a mere 5 hours and I have one relic of the five I needed.

After some sleep and food the dailies had reset so I tried again, grouping up for a level 6 fractal. Again when we got the fractal with the Aetherblade Captain 2 people left, but fortunately before the boss started so we got replacements, but even then I spent most of the fight ressing them because they kept dying to cannons. Every cannon phase 2-3 people would die. So after 7+ hours I now have 2 relics.

Assuming the next 3 dailies kitten, I’m looking at about 13 hours of effort running fractals for 1 tiny part of the creation of the back piece. That is excessive. Even if it went perfectly and I got it done in 10 hours, that’s still excessive. Forcing players to do 10+ hours of group PvE content which very few people playing this game enjoy to complete living world rewards is wrong.

I have no issue at all with requirement that require you to complete an event in the world or to do a jumping puzzle or even if it was 1,000 geodes cost that would still be fine with me. Casual PvE in this game is great, it’s small scale group PvE where the issues are because you have to rely on other people performing. I have the same issue with other games as well, any time you get forced into group PvE I tend to quit games because it just completely ceases to become fun any more.

Yes I will still do this, but I will complain the whole way and curse Arenanet’s decision to force this on their players.

Finally, lets go back to 2012 and recall this blog post. https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/is-it-fun-colin-johanson-on-how-arenanet-measures-success/

Is this fun?

No it’s kittening not fun

NovaanVerdiano.6174:

FRACTALS OF THE MISTS ARE LIVING WORLD CONTENT. Vexa’s Lab, the JP and whatever kind of stuff you had to do the upgrade the compenents aren’t.

Jesus christ, if you don’t like it, don’t do it, no one forces you.

They aren’t not living world content you kitten. They are for people who like grouped PvE. Living world should not be a requirement to do dungeons, or WvW, or PvP, or factals of the mist.

None of the last umpteen months of living world content requires this and now suddenly we are being forced into group PvE to do living world content.

Sorry but this requirement just makes me want to delete the game off my hard drive. It’s kittening stupid idea to force people into content they don’t want to do for living world content.

After completing fractal 2 of the second attempt the leader “had to go” and I’m back in Lion’s Arch again with another hour wasted.

Fractals of the Mist was the reason I stopped playing GW2 initially, it’s an insanely painful experience.

Well my first experience of FotM. Did first fractal ok apart from dying on the boss at the end but second one one player spent half an hour trying and failing to get past some gusts of wind. Eventually got past that then she lost the hammer or whatever we were supposed to have with us and rage quit. She apparently was the leader and kicked the whole group back to Lion’s Arch.

Time taken: 1 hour 15mins
Progress towards backpiece: Not a sausage

This is going to be painful…

Lishtenbird.2814:

Lasica.5068:

While I agree in principal, this is a living story reward not a FotM reward. People should not have to do FotM to get the final reward from the living story. This is a poor decision on ANet’s part and they should give us some alternatives for getting a mist stone.

What’s the difference between requiring to do jumping puzzles, mini dungeons, to get ascended mats from bosses/dungeons/temples, and FoTM? Ascended equipment is closely connected to Fractals – only it can receive agony infusions. With the same logic, you should never step out of Dry Top to get that reward, but you do.

All the examples you give can be done solo or as part of a zerg where you don’t really have to rely on other players much at all.

I would have no problem with FotM if it was a solo dungeon experience (similar to say the solo dungeons from Age of Conan or the Scenarios from The Secret World). But it’s not it requires you to fill a group, for that group to be semi competent and for them not to go afk or otherwise wreck the run. It’s an experience that I don’t particularly enjoy, and I imagine a lot of other people feel the same seeing how empty LFG for FotM is.

Trying to compare it to WvW and the mistforged weapons isn’t really a fair comparison because you can just jump in and attach yourself to a zerg and mostly afk your way to completing the rather easy achievements AND those weapons were specifically for WvW, so required WvW to get them.

Living world rewards should not require FotM, dungeons, PvP, or WvW to complete. They are living world rewards and we should be able to get them either solo or as part of the living world content. I have no issue with the jumping puzzles etc being part of it because they are still part of the world.

I went in appropriate clothing to help clear the Queen’s good name…

Lishtenbird.2814:

Sorry to burst your bubble – the original motto was that you do not have to grind again and again to get the best gear, which is still true. Whether you have a vine backpack or not makes zero impact on how fast your enemies die. These game’s endgame is cosmetics, and if you get rid of it, there will be no endgame anymore.

While I agree in principal, this is a living story reward not a FotM reward. People should not have to do FotM to get the final reward from the living story. This is a poor decision on ANet’s part and they should give us some alternatives for getting a mist stone.

Put it on the dry top vendor for 500 geodes, put it on the WvW vendor badge of honour.

That’s said I’ll probably try FotM. I went there once and don’t really have a desire to go there again because I’m not a fan of the toxic community that seems to frequent it. But if it’s the only choice I’ll do it but I still think it’s a very poor decision to place this requirement on a living story reward.

Couldn’t agree more. People who already do fractals already have an ascended backpiece. This should be something for everyone to get not just elitist Pvers.

khani.4786:

Yes, it is a grind. BUT If you look at the big picture it’s an ascended (infused) backpiece you get through doing the story.

It’s only ascended if you do fractals. People who do fractals already would have an ascended backpiece. People who don’t do them don’t do them for a reason.

The only hard part is when the leeching vine guy spawned along with the 3 tentacles. I died a couple of times there. The rest of the fight was not difficult.

DrDivine.5378:

May I ask, let’s say I have completed and made the first backpiece already, what is required to upgrade it? How do I make it?

http://dulfy.net/2014/08/13/gw2-cultivated-vine-backpiece-guide/

They should be cheaper with a T6 Dry Top. Use LFG to find one. There is one going on right now that needs more people.

The only two noblewoman I can recall in close proximity to each other were the two ministers under the bridge and one of them was mainly interested in Lord Faren and apparently had a calender of him.

Either I missed something or this is another tiresome rant about Kasmeer and Marjory.

It looks extremely dubious to me. The only way to tell for sure would be to look at the e-mail source and see where the links actually go (or hover your mouse over that link and see where it goes, and I can almost guarantee it won’t be where it claims it does).

Edit: The only time you should get an e-mail asking to verify an e-mail address is if you are on a webpage that says it has just sent you an e-mail to verify your e-mail address and I assume that isn’t the case here.

If it’s your first time there you have to claim the skill point first.
If it’s your first time there and you also have 25+ quartz shards then you have to claim the skill point and then make a charged quartz thingy first.
I know when I went there I had to use it 3 times before it did what it was supposed to.

Here it is in English (just happened to be nearby on my ranger)

Missing chests that I know spawn in these approximate locations

Two in the quicksand
[5216.2999267578125, 16314.88003540039]
[5471.959899902344, 16287.049987792968]

One at the back of the mine
[5447.609924316406, 15928.790008544921]

On top of the mesa near the tent
[5239.789978027344, 16421.829986572265]

Behind the pulsing vine below the entrance waypoint
[5506.739990234375, 16720.089965820312]

Up at the top of the broken sail near chest 13
[5267.6099853515625, 16594.86996459961]

There are two up the top of the crash site near where Serene spawns. Hard to pinpoint those on this map though. One is on the way up shortly after the lightning jump but along past the mithril node and the other spawns right behind Serene’s location.

Two spawn on top of the ledges above chest 34
[5110.219985961914, 16744.439971923828]
[5131.959991455078, 16757.479949951172]
(very hard to pinpoint again because its a 3 dimensional map

Two spawns not shown near the frog cave. One is inside the cave, the other on the first ledge along from it (near where burgler sometimes spawns)
[4889.339996337891, 16656.609954833984]
[4904.1300048828125, 16545.309967041015]

One inside the Salamader cave
[5068.470001220703, 16459.219970703125]

One to the right of the entrance of Cornered instance but on a ledge above. You need jump crystal from across the other side to get there. Again hard to pin point due to now showing all the ledges.
[4931.079986572266, 16464.439971923828]

One overlooking the quicksand
[5147.5999755859375, 16307.04997253418]

One inside Explorer’s cave (at the back)
[5011.0899658203125, 16361.829971313476]

One at back of Centaur village
[5118.909942626953, 16239.519973754882]

Two near entrance to Centaur village
[4938.039978027344, 16257.779968261718]
[4992.8299560546875, 16280.38996887207]

One on top of some ledges near the start of the canyon.
[4882.389953613281, 15962.999961853027]

One up near skill point
[4374.559928894043, 15764.739967346191]

One on top of this rock in Oasis. Use jump crystal hidden in grass behind the rock to get up there.
[4202.389945983887, 16012.559959411621]

One on top of this rock ledge (jump to get there). There was also a lost coin up here.
[3918.909942626953, 16134.299949645996]

One here near the crash site #2
[4658.909934997559, 16371.689964294433]

There could be others but they’re the only ones I really notice as missing.

Nilkemia.8507:

Plus, since you only get one Pile of Phantasmal Residue (from either Rox or the end reward box for clearing the story the first time around), you can only make one.

No you can get more than one. I got a second one off Rox when I spoke to her when I was doing the achievements in that instance.

I’ve been finding it easier to get into a T4 or better map lately. I log in and I’m in one almost every time now with no effort required on my part. The few times it’s not T4 I use LFG to find a T4 or better map.

A lot of people are doing this fight easily by exploiting a pile of rocks in the room that makes them immune to the hammer attack, the orbs, and the fear wards and just standing there and ranging the boss and the menders and completely ignoring the mechanics of the fight.

I didn’t know about this when I did it so did it the hard way, but with a power based build and gear it wasn’t overly difficult anyway. On my mesmer I used sword + focus / greatsword which is still my favourite for general pve content and that seemed to work well.

Anmida.4058:

The material requirements get more amusing by the update. Come on, Anet. 50 gold of materials for a decoration. Naw…

You are doing it wrong. I’ve made roughly 170g on the materials so far and I’m not one of these hardcore farmers who have been hitting trees so much they were mistaken for bots and who probably have made a lot more.

3 clay pots = approx 90g profit
9 foxfire clusters = approx 50g profit (I kept the other 48 I’ve farmed)
2 plate of food = approx 30g profit (I’ve decided to keep the rest for myself or it would be more)

It’s a 2 week release and it takes 7 days to make the item. Getting it on day one makes you no more special than someone who gets it on day 14.

Phoenixlin.8624:

I’ve already said that “we don’t know the problem and its solution”; however, this game is 2 years old and it still has the same event bug. I can understand that it is not an easy fix. But, come on, there is no such bug that you can’t fix in 2 years.

Yet almost all MMOs have quest bugs that don’t get fixed and many of them are subscription game and have longer development cycles.

For example, World of Warcraft had a bugged quest in Ashara that was never fixed and ended up getting removed from the game in the Cataclysm update. There were also other buggy quests that persisted for years prior to the revamp. And every single content release for that game over the past few years has required a week of patches before the major and sometimes gamebreaking bugs were ironed out and this is despite significant testing for months prior to the release.

It is almost impossible to iron out every bug in the game prior to a content release because you just can’t cover every eventuality. You might test an event with every class imaginable, but what if one particular ranger pet causes the bug. You now have to test every event with every ranger pet to iron out the problem. But what if it’s that ranger pet when interacting with a mesmer’s timewarp while someone is casting meteor storm on top of a thief wearing the shadow assassin outfit while she is dancing that is causing the problem.

The point is you can spend months testing something but still not be able to account for all the possible issues that might occur.

The current thoughts in map chat tonight was that they were banned for their health, all that farming with no breaks can’t be healthy.

Based on all the comments I’ve read so far there seems to be a number of constants to getting picked out as a bot.

1) Farming for extended periods (10hrs+ in some cases)
2) Selling the clusters instead of using them yourself
3) Farming every node on the map or multiple maps

Now I know I’ve spent a fair amount of time chopping trees today, logging in my alts multiple times and taking my main around a couple of maps in Orr twice (but not farming everything just what I could find) and I have farmed up 39 clusters so far.

I haven’t sold them though. I’ve also taken long breaks during the day and I’ve also spent two hours in a T5 dry top collecting geodes and opening chests.

So I haven’t been banned, but a lot of other people seem to have been.

It can be tough if you have the wrong build. I went in there with my WvW build and after 10 minutes or so realised it was a waste of time so I restarted the instance with my dungeon build and blitzed through it. I only saw two menders I think.

It was never going to work anyway. He wasn’t the rightful king.

Nilkemia.8507:

Eh? It worked fine for me, and aside from a vet that ran away after half health, the enemies weren’t problematic.

That vet is designed to work that way (to make the achievement harder). He becomes attackable again halfway to the exit, so you have to stop him there and kill him.

Agree 100%, got disconnected during the part in Frostgorge and when I log back in the whole event is over.

My legendary feat is apparently running to a point on a map and clicking on some random piece of ice. Why? No idea, I’ve missed that whole part of the story.

Part 5, the legions need Mordrem samples to study is the part not working for me.

Pretty, now if only they could make some nice looking light armour.

Stormie.1284:

Don’t wanna spoil it for you yet but if you look closely in the area, you’ll find Strikka there.

Oh gods… I just went and looked. That’s so sad.

Brother Grimm.5176:

You can also get the recipes from dry top chests (I’m guessing that’s where they are coming from as I have a few and have certainly never bought any). Not sure if the Insription, Insignia, Jewel ones drop from chests, but the armor pieces and weapon ones do.

They are not the ambrite weapons. They are weapons/armour with nomad stats but no special skins associated with them. You can buy them off the trading post too, very cheaply now.

The Inscription/Insignia/Jewel recipes are only purchasable from the vendor.

Tiger Ashante.1792:

Ok, tyvm for responding so quickly but you have raised 1 more question, where do i get these weapon recipes? As stated above, I have not seen them on any of the merchants in Dry Top. Or as i’ve asked above, do they only show up during tier4/5?

Thanks again.

You can see what the merchants stock at higher tiers by looking at the tabs below the main one.

In the case of these recipes you need a T4 map to buy them. They are 400 geodes/recipes at T4, but the price drops to 350 geodes/recipe at T5.

There are 16 weapon recipes (one for each weapon type)
There are 16 different insects you can trade the fossils for (one for each weapon type)
There are also 3 different inscriptions for the various crafting professions.

So to make the greatsword for example you will need.
1) The recipe for Scorpiones (400/350 geode cost and a T4/T5 map)
2) A fossil to trade for the Ambrite Fossilized Devourer
3) The recipe for Nomad’s Orichalcum Imbued Inscription (50 geodes and a T2+ map)
4) The normal mats for a greatsword (hilt + blade)

I think the easiest option would be to just make them tradable to other players, although personally I haven’t had too much trouble getting them and will be able to make all 16 of the weapons for the skins, I know other players who have had to open 100+ chests just for 1 fossil.

Arctinus.7824:

My friend and I discovered this the second day of E2. Well, he discovered it actually, I just followed him up there. xD

I’m wondering of that vine infested cave is going to reveal some kind of passage to another map or something, maybe towards Magus Falls. I mean, if they intended to add only Dry Top, why set up a whole tab called ’’Region’’ under achievements. :P

The cave with the vines is on the very edge of the map and they all seem to come from one point (a tunnel or passage). Given the location I’m guessing this will be the passage into the next map or zone or it will be a story instance starting point.

When this was originally posted on Reddit it was described as the last area of the dry top map which is a possibility as it seems to seal off an area that is identical in size to Southsun Cove.

Check LFG, there is a T4+ instance being organised atm. Doubt we’ll get T5 straight away but will work on it.

Leablo.2651:

It happens only in full instances. Completely self-defeating for Anet to have created the megaserver system only to bump up participation requirements so high that it excludes the lower tier (mega)servers from succeeding and forces us to “guest” once again. We are now back to square one.

The actual numbers of players needed aren’t that high to reach T5, probably less than 25, but you need people who are all communicating and working towards that goal OR you need a full map because most maps are full of people doing other events, or afking or zerging around scaling events, and so on.

Uhaen.9876:

Two t5s in a row tonight; certainly far from unpossible.

That same map is now struggling to get past T3 though. And it’s the best map around at the moment.

Mada.5319:

Captain Vanguard should check these out:
http://meanttobehappy.com/10-ways-you-too-can-stop-being-so-easily-offended/
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/stop-being-offended-today-3-cures-for-everything-that-irritates-you.html

This is also worth a watch… if only for laughs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHMoDt3nSHs

Take it on a wild magical journey.

It’s about 1 fossil per 20 chests on average, maybe even less. You can open 10 chests per sandstorm if that’s all you focus on so you should get one fossil every couple of hours, which coincidentally is about how long it takes to get enough geodes for 1 recipe.

Filaha.1678:

Lastly, you’re incorrect about how it will “literally cost you nothing” on two levels. On the first level, lockpicks cost you money to buy if you don’t get it on with one of your free lockpicks from doing the story. Additionally, in order to farm enough geodes without taking weeks, you’ll have to use waypoints to get to other events, costing you that fee as well. On the second level, time is money. Time spent farming geodes could have been spent more efficiently farming materials or items or gold in other places. You have to make a choice between more efficient farming elsewhere or getting the skins.

Just to comment on this, as someone who now has most of the skins. It will cost you on average two hours time to get each of the recipes (and probably a few insects as well along the way). You can easily get 200+ geodes an hour with the right route just from events.

As for waypoint costs… well if you can’t afford around 3s an hour for waypointing then you are doing something wrong and the only reason to waypoint at all is to tag the chickenado event during the sandstorm.

The tier of the map doesn’t matter. You can also get them in any chest on the map.

It’s simple RNG. I have 6 so far, but I haven’t got a single one today despite opening probably 50 chests.

Katai.6240:

The noble angle has a lot of plot bunnies, and I definitely think that would be a more interesting read. Kas’s identity as a noble (or former noble) has far more weight than the gender of her lover. There has been little to no ado made about it since their introduction, and I doubt there’s any reason to make a big deal out of it now.

Actually Kas’ former noble status has been bought up quite a lot. It was mentioned in the Aftermarth to season one where Marjory made a point to tell Belinda that Kas was “one of us now” and no longer a noble. Then it was mentioned again in the first part of living story season 2 so it’s obviously an issue for their mother. The question is, why?

Getting to T5 is possible on almost any map if you want it. This link has all the timers.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2auf8b/updated_dry_top_events_timer_with_positions_and/ciz558n

Just post them in map chat 1 minute before the events start and enough people will generally do the events and you should get to T4.

Then once you have reach T4 taxi in people looking for a T4 or better map and you’ll have a good shot at T5 and you’ll have commanders tagging up and everyone working together.

Of course, people will leave after getting to T5 and you’ll probably drop back down to T4 after one or two T5 runs, but you can taxi more people in and repeat the process until you get back to T5 and overall you should get more T5 than T4 runs.

One person posting upcoming events is all that is really needed. The rest usually takes care of itself.

M Steel.2574:

Wait a minute, did Bloomanoo and Peneloopee die at Fort Salma, because that would make me sad.

They are not shown as dead. The last we see of them they are going back inside the house there. The house is outside the fort proper which is where most of the damage is, so I’m guessing still alive at this stage.

Cyan.6904:

If I remember correctly there was some dialogue between Jory and the PC in episode 1 about this matter. It seems momma Delaqua has some serious issues with nobility.

You are correct, here is the dialogue in question (you only get this if you are a human noble).

Belinda “You better not forget a single detail. And watch out for Marjie, okay? Don’t tell my other sisters, but she’s always been my favorite.”

You “One day, I hope to meet the rest of your family.”

Belinda “Maybe. My family isn’t the friendliest towards nobles. It’s nothing personal, I assure you. But.. my mother… she’s still holding onto a very old grudge.”

It’s about 1 per 25 keys used. I have found 2 so far.

Well there you go, you save 2s.

I do agree with you however. I know on my alts, spending geodes to by salvaging kits is annoying as if I leave the map I also lose my T4-5 instance and there is so much loot I always run out of salvaging kits.

Charak.9761:

3 @ tower
2 @ other cave that you cant enter
1 @ green star before going to cave
1 @ the small in between of the rock and mountain

so 7, just did it solo

I believe there is more than 7.

3 at the tower just outside the cave where the caravan leader is (one up in the tower)
2 in the cave west of fort
1 in water just north-west of the fort
2 south towards where the instance start is
1 miner on the eastern side
2 vigil soldiers higher up above the miner
1 asura with 3 golems
1 more asura to the far north on the eastern back
There may be others just north of the fort, but I never saw that area during out attempts