Guild Wars 2

Radio Isotope great thread. Love the pic of your Asura firing his pistol. Here is a pic of my Asura mesmer firing her pistol and one with her sword:

Rils.7368:

The puzzles are the same. The only thing that’s changed is how you get to the jump off point for Troll’s End. It’s actually shorter to get to now. But entrance points for both Urmaug and Weyandt’s are exactly the same as before.

I was taking a new character around 100%‘ing LA the other day. I decided to do the jumping puzzles too but could not survive the jump down the toothy waterfall at Weyandt’s Revenge. I used to be able to regularly survive from 2 different spots. Tried those and a couple of new routes, even one that is supposed to have some success after this new bug, and died every time. Does anyone know a relatively reliable route down now?

Welcome to GW2. I love the artwork too and the music.

As far as race they all have the same hit points and the same power so fighting with one over the other gives no advantage. I will say that when your hero moves up close to an overhang or an obstruction at the side it is hard to see them ‘cause the screen graphics goes wonky. This occurs in jumping puzzles, reaching some vistas and combat in closed in places. For this reason if you choose one of the larger races (char and norn) I would go with the smallest female size. I like the looks of humans. I like the norn and the sylvari zones the best (but any race can go and play in any zones). Sylvari and Asura are the smallest and Asura is fun to play. I don’t like the way the char hop along.

Each race has their own dance. This video showing them may help you decide:
“Guild Wars 2 – All Dance Movesi”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk0xZqUuNNk!

Although most of these things have already been mentioned I will give my reasons for why GW2 is awesome:
1. no subscription fee
2. no competition for resource nodes or loot – which promotes cooperation with other players so the whole experience is very friendly
3. beautiful world and great music -exploring is fun and rewarding
4. experience is gained from just about every activity so there is more choice about how to play
5. active combat
6. skills tied to weapons used and a limited number of utility skills so choices must be made
7. limited number of traits chosen from a larger amount so there is build diversity
8. great choice in customization of a hero from race, profession, story elements, traits, weapons, skills, armor and looks.
9. useful wiki and forum
10. jumping puzzles, diving goggles and interesting little nooks to discover and explore
11. different games within a game – pve, wvw, pvp, dungeons, fractals, living story, mini games like winter’s day bell choir, etc

Thanks.

I decided to look at my other 2 non-level 80 characters to try to get an average time spent leveling and number of deaths.

My level 47 necro spent 56 1/2 hours and died 42 times. I probably used a leveling scroll or 2.

My level 43 engineer spent almost 39 hours (used one of those instant level 20 scrolls) and died 77 times.

From my mesmer stats I was going to estimate it takes 1 hour per level but with these stats included that is not so good an estimate. All my other characters have been at level 80 for awhile so can’t use their stats. Maybe the more a profession matches your style and you enjoy playing the faster you level. Necro and engineer (as well as thief) are my least favorite professions. Mesmer is my favorite.

Thanks. Is there a list of all the “/” commands? I know some are for emotes.

I’ve played 21 hours over that last 10 days on my new level 25 mesmer. 1 level was from a leveling scroll and 2 – 3 levels was from crafting using mats gathered mostly by other heroes.

She died 13 times, mostly because I played her like my level 80 mesmer, and from trying the new bugged version of the Weyandt’s Revenge jumping puzzle. Finally gave up on that. Couldn’t live past the initial jump down the toothy waterfall no matter where I jumped from.

I see threads where people state that they have played their hero for 6 hours (say) and are only at some level.

I started a new hero at the end of March, not sure exactly when. Is there any way I can find out when exactly I created it and how many hours I’ve played it?

If you are interested in jumping puzzles there are a few easy ones that don’t require you to kill anything and you don’t need to travel through zones that are above your level.

Here is the link on this site for jumping puzzles : http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Jumping_puzzle (to get there you could just go to the main page of this wiki and go down to Exploring the world, Map and then Jumping puzzles)

There is a list of all the jumping puzzles. Each one has its own page with info on how to get to it, a spoiler section that tells you exactly how to complete the puzzle and a map to show the location. Below the map is a link to youtube videos showing you how to. I especially like AyinMaiden’s videos.

The easy puzzles I would recommend are:
Urmaug’s Secret in Lion’s Arch
Shamans Rookery in Wayfarer Foothills
Under New Management in Southsun Cove

To get to these areas you will need to get to the Vigil Keep in Gendarren Fields. There are 2 ways. From a city, such as the Black Cidadel, go through the asura gate that says Lion’s Arch (since LA was attacked it currently takes you to the new hub in Vigil Keep). If you are not in a city then from anywhere click on the “crossed swords” at the top of your screen to go to the Heart of the Mists. Once there go through the asura gate that says Lion’s Arch.

Once at the Keep there will be asura gates to all the cities and other places. To get to Wayfarer Foothills go through the gate to Hoelbrak. To get to Southsun Cove go down from the Vigil Keep toward the refugee camp. Although Southsun is level 80 there are no mobs on the isle where the jumping puzzle is. To get to Lion’s Arch since you are such a low level I would recommend taking the balloon at the refugee camp to go to Lornar’s Pass and run for the asura gate to LA avoiding the wolves there. Once in LA there are no longer any mobs there.

Good Luck.

Whatever race you play you will come out of the initial sequence at level 2 or 3 with just enough money to buy the copper gathering tools and the lowest salvage kit. Buy those things from a merchant vendor (marked on the map and mini map by coins).

Everything in GW2 gives you experience – killing things, gathering, crafting, acquiring POIs, WPs, vistas, skill points and performing heart quests. Doing all those things in a zone will give you 100% completion of that zone and an XP bonus. Accomplishing dynamic quests gives nice XP. If you are dying too easily at first, 100% your capital city then come back to your starting zone. After doing a heart quest look at your pack, deposit collectables, decide what to keep and what to sell and what to salvage. Access the Black Lion Trading Post by clicking on the lion icon at the top . Go to the selling tab and check out those items you want to sell. Compare what you would get by selling to a vendor to what you can get on the TP (trading post). Sell those things that you get more including the trading commission. Then go to the heart quest giver and sell junk and anything else you want to sell. Learn all your weapon skills by swapping to new weapons when they drop. Keep the highest level weapons that you can by buying and/or crafting to add to those gotten from drops.

100% map completion of a zone gives experience bonus. In the process gather from every node you find. Use any XP boosts. For a sylvari complete the grove and caledon forest. Then move onto other zones.

If you are going to sell your drops sell on the Black Lion TP mostly but check to see if trading commission reduces your profit more than just selling to a vender. Also salvaging may be more profitable ’cause the materials can be used in crafting.

If this is your first character you won’t have any crafting materials from your other characters or any money. But as soon as you can pick 2 crafting disciplines and refine all materials gathered. Crafting does level a character very fast.

Actually the reset is at midnight GMT, when the new day starts.

Did you get the one in the Chantry of Secrets?

neelith.5613:

AdaephonDelat – did you bind F1-F4 somewhere else on keyboard?

I think I might be lazy with attunements cause functional keys on my keyboard are two times smaller then normal ones and it’s hard to click them. I was thinking about rebinding them somewhere else and give my Ele a shot.

I like both elementalist and mesmer, mesmer being my favorite.

I have the same problem with function keys so have switched things around:

z is my swap weapon because I use ` in my various voice programs
x, c, v and b are my F1 – F 4
“g” is my dodge because v replaces F3 (although I use double tap s, q, w and e to dodge)

I’m on a Mac so my mouse does not have the same functionality of the Windows mouse or I might have set up my keys differently.

100% map completion is all on one character. Getting the various exploration achievements (like Shiverpeaks, Orr, etc) is from all characters. To get those achievements every zone of a region must be visited by one or more of your characters. There are some zones that do not contain a WP, POI, Vista, SP or Heart so you may not visit them by doing the 100% map completion.

Skins allow the look of armor or weapons to be changed without changing the stats on the item.

Server reset is at the start of the new day, midnight GMT. For me on EDT it’s GMT -4, 8 PM (it was at 7PM before we went on daylight saving).

I got the big head thing last night after the new day/month switch over and didn’t know what was going on. I quit the game and restarted my computer. Then when I started the game back the bid heads were gone. Just checked – no big heads.

Jack Francis.1906:

Well, I feel pretty dumb right now. I swore that this whole thing was a terrible mistake, but after so many of you pushed that I must be missing hearts in PvE, I did a thorough inventory of every single region…

…and promptly found that I had completely missed the Fields of Ruin in Ascalon. Not a WP, not a PoI, not a Vista, not a heart had been done.

Thanks guys. This resolves my mystery.

In case you didn’t know: A fast, cheap way to Fields of Ruin is through an Asura gate in the Rurikton district of Divinities Reach.

My human elementalist, Amber Everglow:

Arah armor would look perfect for a necromancer. Good luck getting it.

The Queensdale train is also an easy way to fulfill some daily or monthly achievements such as group events, champions and even events. If you do not want to take on a champion or group event solo there is usually someone else doing the Q train. Even if you don’t mind soloing those you still have to find them. With the Q train you know where they are.

I’m not sure but could you use the invisible packs?

There are 3 main play areas in GW2 – PvE, PvP and WvW.

In PvE you take your character around different parts of the map fighting NPC enemies. Every other player running around there is an ally. Different areas of the big map are geared for different levels. As a higher level character you are leveled down to fit the area so that you still get experience, etc and the enemies are not completely easy. That way friends at different levels can play together and have fun.

In PvP your character is level up to 80, if not already there, and you fight other players. In PvP you fight other players in 2 teams or in 1v1 areans. You do not take your PvE armor and weapons. In WvW 3 servers fight to control points on several maps. These points may be castles, towers, supply depots, etc. The fight lasts for 2 weeks. Everyone is leveled up to 80, if not already there (recommended) but you wear your PvE armor and weapons (the higher the level of those the better).

PvE has a wide variety of stuff to do – map completion, jumping puzzles, personal story, gathering and crafting, just plain exploring, killing bosses, living story content and dungeons.

Hope you have fun.

As far as race there is looks to consider as well as race skills (which are mostly inferior to the profession skills) and size. The larger the size of your character the harder to see it’s position in many jumping puzzles and reaching some vistas. That can also be a problem with close-quarters combat.

Edit to explain: It seems counter intuitive but the camera goes all wonky when your character bumps into a obstacle like a wall or ceiling. So the larger the character the more this is a problem.

I don’t remember how I accessed Ulukk’s Hunger. It may have been via personal story. Forsaken Halls (which is in the NE corner of Dredgehaunt Cliffs) is accessed from Wyrmblood Lake. I think I did personal story to get that one and got the Ulukk’s Hunger at the same time. It’s been awhile.

The one I was missing was the Lair of the Coil in the SE corner of Timberline Falls. My sister was missing Tribulation Caverns behind the veteran at Tribulation Rift vista in Dredgehaunt.

Sorry you wasted the laurels and ectos. Thanks for the warning though.

Good recommendation from wolfpaq and CrossedHorse – to play with a friend. Voice helps. My sister and I play for hours at a time using home phones on speaker (I get free unlimited long distance calls because I get phone as part of my cable). Many guilds and/or servers have voice. But even without voice it’s nice to group up with someone when you are first learning a map and your profession.

Tom Gore.4035:

I believe the Chantry of Secrets is also part of Maguuman Explorer and it has a PoI

Chantry is part of Bloodtide Coast which is part of Kryta.

I recently got this achievement by googling for maguuma explorer and found several lists of often missed areas. The 3 I was missing were: Aurora’s Remains (south along western edge) in Brisban Wildlands, and Cubular Fells (NW corner) and Magmatic Conjury (west near southern edge) in Mount Maelstrom. There are a couple in Metrica Province that are often missed: Calx’s Hideout (SE corner) and The Serpentwind (north and west of Calx’s Hideout).

I’m a casual player that started playing GW2 in Sept ‘12. Before it I played a rogue and a sorcerer in Diablo – D 3 so choose a ranger and then an elementalist here. I got comfortable with them although I wouldn’t say I was good. Then tried mesmer and it is my favorite. Since then I have at least one of each profession. I didn’t think I would like a heavy metal class but I have fun with both the warrior and the guardian. It took me awhile to learn to move more and to dodge and now combat is so much more fun in all professions. 3 professions I like to trait to take advantage of dodges – mesmer, thief and engineer. In the beginning with each profession I just played intuitively, never really learning or taking advantage of its special traits, skills or f 1-4 abilities. (Heck I just tried Firery Great Sword with my elementalist and I’ve had her since the beginning.) Now that I have read up and tried different builds I play each of them better. Some I’m still not that competent with though.

I echo learning to move and dodge as #1. Then read up about the profession you are currently working with in the forums here and watch videos.

P.S. It’s equally frustrating going the opposite way. Tried WoW for the first time recently and am so tired of getting something like “Can’t cast that while your moving.”

Just replaced my lower stat armor for my human warrior, Bruce Robinson, with the draconic armor he crafted:

My norn guardian, Jan Elkjar, is my newest level 80 character. I’m just starting to get his look together. Got the norn cultural pants to try to pull his mismatched pieces together:

I like the robe look. Don’t like the look of the crafted exalted armor for human females so bought the priory hood, top and pants to transmute the look. Kept the original look for gloves, boots and shoulders (hidden now). Here is my mesmer, Katherine Swinford, in her new armor:

I looked through this last page and some fantastic pictures.

Here is my human elementalist, Amber Everglow, in her new armor skins:

Duke Blackrose.4981:

My new edit of an earlier look. Uses very cheap skin parts and weapons in combination to provide a simple, coherent Assassin-esque look. My biggest issue with the old set was that the Priory coat didn’t look good from the back, but the Winged shoulders do a lot to alleviate that; the only other shoulder that can do the job as well would be AC shoulders.

Love the look.

Defora.3694:

My ele got new look.

Love the look. What armor is that?

I have 5 level 80s – ranger, elementalist, mesmer, warrior, and thief, a level 67 guardian, level 37 engineer, level 35 necromancer and another mesmer level 41. My favorite is mesmer. There are so many fun ways to play a mesmer I decided to start a 2nd one so wouldn’t have to keep changing trait lines and equipment. I couldn’t wait for my second one to reach 40 so I could get the dodge creates a clone trait.

I didn’t think I would enjoy a heavy metal class but had fun with my warrior and am really enjoying my guardian. My least favorite so far is engineer and thief.

One of the fastest ways to level up is via crafting but that doesn’t contribute to learning how to play the profession.

Thanks Belzebu. I use that title only on the one that actually got the map completion but since I can’t see it I never realized there was a star too.

What does the star by a hero’s name mean?

The wiki http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Crafting has some very useful info. Each tier has 3 levels of 25 points. When I am in the beginning of each tier I refine the materials I will need for the whole tier when I am low enough to get some crafting XP for it. Then I make the components I will need for the whole tier (so I can get XP for it), then the few insignias or inscriptions I will need for the first level. Then in the discovery panel I combine those insignia/inscriptions with the components until I reach the next level. Then make the insignias/inscriptions for the second level and go to discovery panel. Then repeat for the master level of the tier. How many components to make depends on if you use a crafting bonus or not. If I don’t have enough materials I get them before I start. That way I get crafting XP for refining mats, building components and for discovering finished pieces.

Some ways to level up without fighting:

gathering plants, wood and ore – you will need this stuff for crafting

crafting gives you XP for leveling – the faster you level up your crafting level the faster you get XP for leveling your character. Pick 2 crafts for your character. I would recommend the 2 needed for equipping yourself with armor and weapons. The best way to level up in crafting is through exploring recipes. Read up on crafting first to optimize the time and materials you need to spend. Crafting is one of the fastest, if not the fastest, way to level up.

100% an area to get a nice XP bonus. Try Divinity’s Reach first and get every vista, WP and POI. Then go for Lion’s Arch. If you are still not high enough 100% the other races’ cities.

Another picture:

Katherine Swinford, level 80 mesmer:

Here is my level 80 Norn Ranger – Aurora Wildborn (I tried to choose her colors so she would blend into most any landscape she would be hunting in):

Thank you very much.

I may not have worded that correctly.

I want to be able to send a portion of money as a tip or a few pieces of some fine crafting material to a friend or to have one character take only a few of some booster from my bank but don’t know how to separate it out of the big bunch. Can it be done? If so how?

Thanks.

I’ve got level 80 ranger, elementalist, mesmer and warrior.

I’ve also got a level 73 thief, level 41 guardian, level 23 engineer and a level 19 necro.

Mesmer is my favorite. Only problem is I wish I could carry 3 weapon sets – love the GS, staff and the sword/*.

The light color may be some tint of green. My ranger has mint frost (rare dye) and olive silk (common dye) as some of the dyes in her coat.

As others have mentioned try different professions. Try different weapons. I started out with a ranger. Longbow is great but really enjoy swapping to the greatsword for mele. Next I tried an elementalist. And although I enjoy both of those I find the mesmer to be the most fun. Also have been having fun with my guardian smashing things with his hammer.

When I first started I couldn’t jump to save my life. Now I’m only a little better, but I really like going for the vistas and jumping puzzles.

Also you might consider teaming up with another person. My sister and I often play together. Since we have unlimited free long distance with our cable we call and leave our phones on speaker while we play.

Sararfull,
My sister and I got help from another player and their friend this afternoon and got 100% of Cursed Shores. We ended up guesting to Tarnished Coast for the Graven Cay skill point. Just got my last POI – Chantry of Secrets- and now have 100% of map. My sister will probably not be online this evening at midnight (our time) but if I am I’ll look out for you. I am also interested in trying fractals and/or dungeons for the first time.