Guild Wars 2

randomfightfan.4091:

from a pve perspective, if you go p/d, you are 100% useless

Sorry but I’ve done pretty much all high end PvE content with P/D + Shortbow in a Conditions + Support build and it works wonderfully. If there are too many red circles with very damaging effect (and this handicaps most weapon sets anyway) I can always switch to Shortbow and apply perma-weakness and keep triggering combo fields.

Enjoyluck.2618:

Short bow is thief’s best weapon of choose in my opinion.

While I agree that Shortbow is a wonderful weapon, a must have, and probably the best designed weapon we have (probably because all the skills are on the same weapon instead of varying depending on main and off-hand) I would say it’s our best secondary weapon but not main weapon. It has all the tools to complement any other weapon set you get as primary and don’t need specific traits to work (though Lotus Poison makes it awesome in support) but offensively except for Shotguning groups and choke points/bases or tagging enemies in events it isn’t the best weapon. But yeah, it’s a great weapon and I always take it as secondary as because of Initiative, except for on-swap Sigils we get litle benefit for swapping for spam attacks like other professions, so using the swap for all that complementary utility for when you need it on your secondary set is a good thing.

The pick was based on the Fused Weapons, the sickle in the Sclerite Weapons, and as far as we know the Axe will be related to the Dragon Festival.

Now the question is, will we get seasonal versions of each one (for example unbreakable picks with a different skin and effect than the molten one based on a new story)?

I passed on the molten pick because I don’t like fiery/lava too much, but I think I might get the Sickle (I’m still thinking about it… I don’t like a creepy eye touching what my character will eat… but after that he waters the food xD) and despite the cost needs a lot of time to optimize compared to buying orichalcum picks, the comodity of not buying them and being able to pick any node without thinking you’re wasting resources is cool.

Will we get opportunities to get more versions of this tools in the future? The game is very young after all so I guess it won’t be a one time only thing.

MLieBennett.9031:

Sclerite, Fervid, Icebrood, Risen, Branded, Destroyer.

Each matches up to a certain Dragon. =P
At least, thats my guess.

If with Fervid you mean Mordremoth, current theory (not confirmed and like most things related to him just speculation, but best candidate given current proof if the term even currently exist) seems to be Blighted, from the creatures in the Whychmire Swamp meta event :P

Ok I want to redirect anyone having problems with the traps to Paranormal Bear’s thread. I read his guide and tried it with a random group and you can get it for everyone in the group in under 5 minutes.

If I had knew before about it I think I would’ve never been mad at the traps thing and probably wouldn’t have posted this thread because it makes life super easy no matter what kind of problems you have hehe.

I still want to give feedback about color codes in the future, of course, but for this one that probably won’t change anyone experiencing problems with it go to that thread and either whisper him in game or read his guide (or watch the video he posted). It’s super easy to get with his way.

Color code problems or not, it’s super easy and even if with my daltonism I can’t clearly distinguish the color of each state, I can notice the state change from unhackable to hackable if I’m directly looking at them and with this method I can do it because I don’t have to be running around or avoiding anything so I can be in the same place spamming attacks and focusing my eyes on the mines (and only one player needs to focus on it anyway).

Paranormal Bear.2539:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/southsun/Doing-Canach-Lair-Exp-Speed-Runs/first#post2117282

I am doing 3 minute speed runs on NULL. My method literally beats Dulfy.net and it’s easy to follow.

Thank you for posting the guide, I already thanked you by whispers but I wanted to give feedback for the method here too. It works wonderfully.

I read the guide (now I see you posted a video too) and tried it with a random group and it was super easy and we got our traps achievement with no problems.

It doesn’t even need much coordination or a leader/tank, just someone taking the detector and jumping repeatedly over a deactivated mine (telling them in advance he will do it so they identify it xD) so everyone sees him and runs to him and return to the corner when the shield is gone. We all stayed in the corner bombarding him and when he got the shield one of us took the detector, wait for a trap to be available and jumped over it. Super easy method without need of nearly any coordination. Great!

I didn’t count the time but I think it was definitely under 5 minutes, probably around the 3 minutes mark. Tomorrow I will share it with all my Guild so all them can get the NULL and traps achievement (giving credit to you for the method of course, I won’t send them to you because some don’t speak english and I can take some of the pressure you have with so many runs for the community!). Once I show the other officials of my Guild we will be able to get the achievement for everyone there in no time.

You don’t have to worry for NULL pulling you to a trap with his fist because there is never a trap between both of you (he only pulled me the first time I tried because I pulled him and it was his first attack while he was going to the corner, but all 5 players can get the traps achievement at the same time).

This guy is doing an excellent job here for sharing good tricks for this kind of stuff and doing so many runs for everyone (when I whispered him to thank him he already had 69 lol).

I’m going to post in my daltonism thread directing it here

PopeUrban.2578:

I have no legs, the fact that my character has legs reminds me of my disability. Can you give me an ingame wheelchair option?

No, actually, i think I’ll just deal with it

Look, I understand you’re red-green colorblind. This very minor and not at all life altering disability is suffered by my father and brother. They think you’re being kind of silly. There are things which will be mildly inconvenient, with which you will have to deal in your life. This is one of those things.

I’m sorry for your problem, and yes it’s waaaaaaaaaaaa(1000*a)aaaaay more life changing than mine (in fact daltonism isn’t a dicapacity, you see as much as anyone, you only see more from some spectrum and less from others), but I don’t understand why bringing it makes much sense. It isn’t related at all here and both cases could have help instead of none.

Of course I will deal with it, I’ve been dealing with it in many different games with similar mechanics. I just wanted to give feedback.

While you have a real problem, as long as you can move your arms and use your eyes it really doesn’t affect you ingame (except real life issues for displacement to where your computer is and out of it if you need something at some point, or maybe the seeing your character using legs that you mentioned but I know of some full paralyzed people that in fact love it because it gives them the freedom they don’t have in real live, but that’s up to everyone’s way of thinking and I can understand why you would think that way). But it would be really rude if you asked for ramps in real life because your wheelchair can’t use stairs and someone told you “my skin can’t be touched by light and I can’t even go outside and I deal with it”.

It would be in a muuuuu(100000000*u)uuuuuch larger scale of rudeness than this case of ours of course and don’t get me wrong I’m not trying to put my problem in the same scale as yours, but you get the point here. Your problem won’t affect your gaming (or at least this specific part of gaming related to color codes), my problem (and others problem) does. So… why when I give feedback you come and say I’m in a wheelchair and I don’t complaint, deal with it? It’s feedback that would make life easier for a group of people if at least it’s considered in future updates, why are you trying to shut that feedback down exactly? It won’t affect you at all, so you wouldn’t have a problem with it, and it would affect positively a group of people.

That (helping people) sounds like a good thing IMO so no need at all of shutting it. I’m all in for helping people ingame and in real life with their problems, not only my problems and I would never try to shut their feedback to make life easier. If something makes life easier for someone I say go with it, no deal with it.

PS: I prefer the term daltonic over colorblind. We’re not really colorblind and I think that word is misleading (there exist real colorblind people that see in black and white). As I said it isn’t really a discapacity (it only becomes a minor problem against certain color codes that are very ingrained in society), we see as much as others, only that the array of pigments we can see is different (if the majority of the world were daltonic, the rest would the ones called colorblind/daltonic). All colors are composed from RGB, a daltonic simply gets more pigment information for some of them and less from others. We can see pure green and red and colors similar to them, but when colors are mixed and close to each other on the spectrum we frequently confuse them.

But in the other hand we can diferentiate colors that you would think are the same (blue tones in my case) because you can’t diferentiate those pigments (though color codes related to them aren’t used in society because most people aren’t daltonic). The same way there are color tests that a daltonic can’t see, there are color tests that only a daltonic can see. In fact because in my case I see more blue pigments, I see many blonde people (except very bright blondes) slightly green-haired despite I don’t spot as many green pigments, because my eye mixes the yellow of their hair with the blue pigments I can see.

In fact during wars daltonics were used in helicopters (but they couldn’t pilot them because someone had the idea of use red and green flags instead for example yellow and blue that works for everyone) to spot enemy bases because we’re inmune to most camouflages meant to trick a non-daltonic eye so in some cases not only it isn’t a dicapacity, but an advantage.

So in short, this isn’t even a real discapacity so of course you have a real problem and I don’t, but for gaming it may suppose a problem. Your father and brother think I’m being silly for giving this feedback? I’m sure they would be thankful if someone though in advance about their problem and made sure they would have the same experience than anyone else.

Arkengel RaF.9672:

Unfortunately the code is already in, It’s the same old recycled Banded,Conjurer and Rouge skins. Hurray for Southsun. -_-

Actually that would point to it as placeholders while the definitive skin not yet in the code to avoid dat mining.

Those sets are the Yellow armors for each class, not the Orange so I don’t think we’re geting those skins on an orange set.

Sleel.8365:

He keeps goin on about them not staying disarmed, well, use the right disarm hack, then they will. Till Canach rearms them.

Except they’re super buggy. I’m using the right hacks that’s not the problem as the icons are easily identified. I’ve been many times standing on a hacked trap, with Canach clearly standing on it next to me (no shield animation, no in the middle of a leap, clearly walking over it) without triggering it. It happened a lot on the bomb type trap close to the enter of Canach’s room. Both Canach and I were inmune to that specific trap.

And it’s nearly impossible to diferentiate the “can’t be hacked” from the “can be hacked” color states which makes good timing very difficult.

That combined with the bugs makes it really difficult.

Anyway the solution seems to be group dungeon but at least I want to give feedback about daltonics struggling with this kind of things.

Paranormal Bear.2539:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/southsun/Doing-Canach-Lair-Exp-Speed-Runs/first#post2117282

I am doing 3 minute speed runs on NULL. My method literally beats Dulfy.net and it’s easy to follow.

Send me an in-game mail msg that you are interested and I’ll invite you.

IGN: Master Saber

Did you invite me ingame? I was invited by a group for a speed run on canach while I was farming in other map, I didn’t understand what was happening as I didn’t know anyone in the group and wasn’t lfg at that moment so I left. I think it was your name but I’m not sure. If it was you thanks for the invite and sorry for leaving but I didn’t know about your post at that time. I’ve beaten the golem and with some luck (first time we had a mini wipe and I trigered a mine) if I’m lucky I’ll get the traps achievement in group mode and probably won’t return there but thanks for the offering anyway.

Zaxares.5419:

You can get the achievement in the group version of the dungeon too, so you may have better luck joining a group with a ranged character (like a Ranger with a longbow) and just sit at a safe distance plinking NULL while the others activate the mines.

A doubt about the group mode: To get the achievement, it’s only you who shouldn’t activate a trap, or if anyone on the group triggers one you fail yo get the achievement?

I think I might try that route if it’s only dependant on your own ability to avoid them, as a daltonic the solo mode is proving to be a nearly impossible challenge (specially since a lot of times it’s really buggy in combination with the daltonism problem).

While fighting Canach, if you teleport to evade his Leap Attack he changes direction mid-air and travels the 1200 distance you teleported and strikes you.

Is this working as intended? I think this shouldn’t happen, I clearly evade his leap with my teleport and suddenly he strikes me as soon as I appear on the target area.

I’m trying to get the traps achievement but it’s proving to be reaaaaaaaally hard because of my daltonism.

The problem is that the mines have color codes to show their state (not hackable, hackable, hacked), but those colors, because they’re on a semitransparent light and close to each other on the color spectrum, are very hard to identify as a daltonic (in fact I didn’t know about the color change until I read a guide for it and I already defeated Canach without knowing about it).

Defeating Canach isn’t really hard (just super tedious IMO but that’s a different topic), but I’m failing to get the traps achievement. Because sometimes the hack doesn’t work correctly (sometimes the mine isn’t hacked even if you used the skill, and I’ve even encountered that I hacked a mine, it didn’t affect me, but Canach didn’t trigger it either by clearly standing on it) and I can’t really tell by color if I hacked it correctly (the big spark doesn’t always appear and the small ones are hard to spot when you’re running in circles to try to make Canach step inside one) at the end one way or another I trigger one and I have to reset the fight.

Can this be changed so it’s a bit more daltonic friendly? :S

Stealth doesn’t make him regenerate. It takes a lot of time (and you almost running next to where Kiel is) for that as he will target you and run as soon as you’re out of stealth.

In fact Stealth is one of the best ways to make him step on a trap:

Once you enter Stealth, he stays on place, which makes very easy to push him into a mine with time to take the correct angle. You can also stealth and wait for him at the other side of a mine that you hacked and he inmediately will run in that direction when Stealth wears off.

Arganthium.5638:

I actually just checked out the math for this on my thief Excel worksheet (which I just managed to get a lot of work done on… Thank goodness for that -.-)… I was actually really surprised to find out the damage deficiencies that rabid has compared to carrion. Actually, it’s completely ridiculous, unless you have unrealistically high crit damage %.

Of course, there’s the vitality versus toughness debate too, which complicates things a bit more, but I’d have to maintain that carrion is actually far superior to rabid. Interesting.

Yes Precission without tons of Critical Damage is really inferior to Power. If you do the derivate for distributing 1000 atribute points (not how the game works but it gives a good idea) between Power and Precission without CD, the result is that you have to TAKE points from Precission (which means a very small percentage of hits that will refenerate your opponents health bar) and give them to Power in adition to the 1000 you’re distributing to reach maximum possible damage.

That’s how poor Precission is for damage compared to Power. Even with the max CD you can get in the game, Power is still really superior (and you consumed 2 atribute slots to get that maxed CD and Precission).

Of course you can always take the three atributes (Power+Precission+Critical Damage) because in this game killing fast is usually really effective, but when you have to choose between Power and Precission always go for Power. There are very few cases where you will find Precission useful by itself, specific builds that have a huge lot of useful on crit effects, but there aren’t too many of those builds and even then if you go for them, in most cases you should complement your Precission with Power and CD to capitalize the investment.

On the Vitality versus Toughness part of Carrion versus Rabid, while Toughness is very effective on prolongated fights as the amount you heal is protected too, Vitality is the better stat to resist damage before applying heals. I think both atributes are useful, but with alread +300 Tough from SA and the Thief being low tier HP (which means the same amount of HP increase will suppose a bigger percentage increase for him that for a Warrior) the Vitality bonus is completly fine.

Necromancer is the only case where at first Toughness is better to resist damage than Vitality (and that’s because HP tiers are waaaaaaay better than Armor Tiers). In fact Necromancer is IMO the real target of Rabid Equipment, given how they benefit more from Toughness and most builds where Precission and Conditions is a decent idea belong to them.

The best advice I can give you against a Mesmer (and against some cases of multiple turrets Engineer) is switch to your Shortbow. Spam some auto-atacks and Cluster Bombs while constantly moving to avoid the shatters. If you have Thieves Guild, summon your buddies to even the numbers.

I don’t like Backstab builds too much personally, but as others said, you should focus on getting targets not expecting you and get your free kill. And even in duels against ready opponents a D/P build is really good, it’s one of the most used builds when showing duels videos in youtube.

Arale.4207:

As a phantasm mesmer, the typical glassy gank thief is easy bags for me, but have you tried a P/D Rabid Thief? Out of all the thief builds I’ve faced, that one gives me the most trouble by FAR. Good direct damage, great condition damage, and fairly tough. Seeing such a thief in action played by a good player was rather awe inspiring.

I think you meant Carrion instead of Rabid? Rabid is pure mathematical garbage on a condition Thief (and on most classes except very specific builds). The total damage (direct+condition) on Carrion even if you’re getting Sigils to bleed on crits (and in other professions traits for the same effect) is faaaaaaaar superior to Rabid. And defensively with Thief being low tier HP it’s good too specially to resist ocasinal bursts when they CC you.

About dervishes, the problem with them is unlike Guardians/Old Monks where you can say that the power can be drawn from faith on anything, including your warband for the Charr (and probably the glorious taste of ale for Norn :P), the Dervish was a VERY religious centric profession.

I think the most we can (/will if more are added in the future) get from old dervishes is in Human Racial Skills as all of them are god-centric (I hope in the future there is at least an Elite for each god, they said in not so early phases of development that each race would have 6 elite skills but given the low number of profession Elites I can see why they went for less).

As Drax said, giving a Scythe (or even a Battleaxe and have some of them have a Scythe skin) to specific professions could be the closest it gets to the feeling of old dervishes (pick a human of said profession for the racial skills and try to pick the closest skin to a hood you can get for better representation if this happens).

I also agree with Drax in that it’s possible that Ritualists end up as an expansion of necromancers. I’ve said many times that the 8 professions we have with their mechanics and options, if you add some weapons or utility families can cover nearly any stereotype (for example give Ranger a Staff, and with a Nature Magic trait line, already existing skills summoning lightning and springs, close bond to animals as a profession mechanic, etc… and you have a Druid without needing to create a whole profession for that with the balancing issues that comes with that). So absorbing the old Ritualist into the Necromancer might do the trick here too.

It’s true that some of what made the Ritualist unique in his approach to magic would be lost, but we don’t know how much of the old ways of Ritualistis has survived in Cantha after all what happened (or maybe it’s the only way now for them with all the isolation and purity obsession).

A nice way to make them return could be something that, I think Konig, proposed when I explained my theory of the 8 professions covering most holes. That an Agression user in Heavy Armor sharing some things like life leeching with a Necromancer like Thieves and Mesmers (theorically Denial users) share Stealth and other things could cover holes other professions don’t.

Now that I think it, it might be cool to have binded spirits like bloodsong doing the leeching. Maybe with all the isolationist aproach Ritualists are now even creepier and have become some sort of purity elite heavy guard running around with chained spirits binded to their will… I don’t know, I think I’m starting to go a bit too much off-topic and theorycrafter in this case… but you get the idea. At least the main way the profession works would have to change as the Engineer already covers the Turret based profession.

About Assassin and Paragons, they’re mostly absorbed in existing professions. If anything the Thief coul get an Utility Skills Family based on martial arts (with the return of Palm Strike for example) or maybe even a “Way of…” family as there were many Sin skills with that name that worked similarly enough to have a GW2 family, but most things (and popular skill names) from the Sin are already on the Thief. And a shouts Guardian with a Staff (with an auto-attack animation and range close to using a Spear) is already similar enough to the Paragon.

I just realized something I didn’t see before: The statue on the far right is Kekai’s concept art for a wing/fin-less Largos to show her back armor:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/thumb/c/c3/Female_Largos_without_Wings_concept_art.jpg/454px-Female_Largos_without_Wings_concept_art.jpg

It has the exact same shape, look at the hair and you can see the same pointy part (not sure if an ear or part of the hair).

Some others (I think all of them) are reutilizations from other known concept art (for example there is the first Logan shown in one of the earliest trailers for the game) but I didn’t reaize before that one was a Largos concept art (without the fins it’s hard to spot if you don’t have that specific drawing in your mind).

EDIT: Ok I searched for them and all of them match different art pieces by Kekai:

The one on the left is the Statue of Dwayna (with modified wings, but you can see the rest is the same, the hair pattern, the face, the clothes): http://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/5/56/Dwayna_god_statue_concept_art.jpg

The other big one is one of Lyssa’s sisters (I was thinking about Eir at first but you can clearly see it’s taken from this one): http://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/a/ae/Lyssa_god_statue_concept_art.jpg

The frontal one with the horned helmet is from Balthazar’s statue: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/5/5b/Balthazar_god_statue_concept_art.jpg

The figure on his left is Logan Thackerey taken from this art: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/8/85/Logan_03_concept_art_%28Knight_Errant%29.jpg

And between Logan and Balthazar is this Norn dude seen here: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:The_Descent_concept_art.jpg (this is the one I had to look for the most, but I had that specific concept art in mind and I knew it was from there). Like many of the statues it’s missing an arm but you can clearly identify the sapes of the armor and axe and even the lights of the leg.

Then there is the wing-less Largos I already mentioned.

This loading screen is basically a landscape Kekai did meshing different art pieces he already had. A-Net probably though it was cool (is there some piece from Kekai that isn’t cool? So one containing multiple of his art pieces would be even better!) and used it for a loading screen, but I don’t think it has any relevance to the area and the lore of the game at all.

To add to the list, ask Luxon, a human nomadic group of canthans without fabrics and proper industry. They were master engineers for their time, frequently using enormous cannons mounted over giant beasts and their ships able to navigate over the Jade sea were masterpieces of engineering too.

I wanted my main character to be descendant of my GW1 main character. I liked the profession (I played Assassin in GW1) and I went for it.

Also I think that Guild Wars humans are the best humans out of any MMO. The fact that they had all GW1 as the exclusive playable race helped a lot to stablish tons of lore about them. They’re closer to what Elves are in other MMOs: The race that had times of glory and was related to divinity but now is desperatly fighting for the small territory they have left.

WereDragon.6083:

Simple, Charr make about as much sense as orc rogues in warcraft, big and bulky doesn’t make quick and sneaky.

Except they have an entire Legion dedicated to be sneaky… and you know, felines tend to be good at that. Even if they’re too big, you can always get the brawler bio option as there are many different approachs to Thief.

WereDragon.6083:

The chia pet people who. ((As per popular rumors)) Are the offspring of the yet unnamed and unseen forest dragon. A popular rumor being the pale tree is actually the forest dragon has been circulating for a bit… And of course “More violets, less violence….”

You should go to the lore forums. This topic has been brought thousands of times and all of them all evidence indicates the contrary, that te pale tree is not related to any elder dragon and the sylvari aren’t dragon minions (for example as proven by the Inquest, dragon minions can be corrupted by the power of other dragons, Sylvari can’t be corrupted at all by dragons, they die before being corrupted). There is a lot of proof and examples against the Pale Tree and the Sylvari being related to Elder Dragons.

In PvP you can really mess up with opponents and make them lose precious seconds to finish you that your team can take to have an advantage. With good timing you can make them miss at least 2 finisher banners.

In PvE that’s a different story. In group PvE you can always teleport out of the big red circles to your allies feet, a clear signal that you want to be resurrected and that you’re doing the favor of exiting the big red circles so your resurrectors are safe while ressing you.

In solo PvE you can get out of the red circles but you can’t capitalize on the stealth skill as PvE was changed so mobs don’t lose agro (they did before, which made the downed stealth really useful). Right now the best advice would be to try to have downed fodders by leaving a target at low health, or simply to don’t dye and use as many scapes as you can if you think you might get downed. I usually go for this latter option as it’s easier than keeping always one target at low health.

That said it shouldn’t be really hard to keep yourself alive, always try to identify if you’re going to jump into a sucide fight and in that case don’t do it.

draxynnic.3719:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Also keep in mind something far more important: skills in GW1 were not always used to show the enemies’ profession in lore. That is to say – charr monks didn’t pray to the Five Gods, despite the lore behind monks being that they got their powers from the gods. Same with dervishes and the like. As such, the assassins, dervishes, ritualists, and paragons seen in Tyria during WiK/EotN were not actually those professions, but they were, visually, akin to those professions to the point where they could be mistaken for the two.

Humans believed that the power of the monks came from the gods (or some did, anyway – the more academic among them had to have realised that monk magic was surely Preservation and no more or less related to the gods than any of the others). Remember that monk magic was the basis for guardians now, though, and belief in the gods is not required for belief in guardians, just belief in something. Charr monks in GW1 were almost certainly the same as human monks, except the faith of human monks was in the gods, while that of charr monks was in the Titans or their warband and legion.

A clearer example is in nonsapient magical creatures such as drakes – for instance, the Krytan river drakes in GW1 are probably the same as the lightning-breathing river drakes rangers can tame in GW2 (ignoring the silliness of some drake types behaving differently as monsters than they do as pets – ANet really should do something about that).

In the case of Ritualists… I’d regard it as a pretty clear-cut case that the profession started to spread outside Cantha, but between 1080AE and the GW2 present it fell out of favour again. Some elements may have been absorbed into professions such as the guardian and necromancer, but on the whole the profession seems to have largely died out.

While Charr would get their monk power from different ways than humans did, I think Konig got a point in that some professions and skills were used more for in-game purposses to show certain abilities and mechanics than for the lore behind them. For what we know Ritualists outside Cantha might be just shamans and necromancers with certain abilities and the best ways to represent them ingame without adding a new array of skills was to use the already existing Ritualist ones. Just like monsters were given professions while we know they really didn’t train on any profession but it was the best way to represent what they could do.

For example Charr could use Dwayna’s Kiss and I’m sure this was purely for the mechanics of the skill and not because the Charr would pray to Dwayna:

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Charr_Prophet

You really can’t compare both, they aren’t really on the same category. One was a feature added to the game by its own, the other was a small part of a different update to the game.

While I think some might like the crab tossing game (I don’t like it much, it can be fun… but not for long imo) I think what really made most people want to get away from it was the achievements. Specially the Crabbtacular achievement (and in some cases the champion achievement as it can be really hard to get if you’re not too much into the game). Combine players not really liking the mini-game with the most annoying achievement to date and you got bad feedback.

SAB was beautifully done. The achievements list was good and the experience really enjoyable while offering some good rewards including new skins and access to certain items so the time you spent on it could still give you something you were looking for. I really can’t wait for it to return with more chapters, and maybe even more rewards after players asking for more SUPER skins for all the other weapons (a pistol or rifle based on the super skins design would look great IMO). It was really incredible that they did such a great job with something that was their April’s Fools. A-Net is well known for always offering a better April’s Fool every year and that was a great adition.

toafarmer.8401:

wth crabtacular has to do with rng?

I think rng (random number generation) isn’t esactly what the OP meant but luck based/random chance instead (to be fair rng is used too many times for random around forums).

Take a look on the other Crabtaccular thread and read all players arguments about how this is based on random dumb luck. It’s an achievement that isn’t related to your skill. You need your opponents to be dumb enough to all die at the same time and there are a lot of factors involved, including different strategies (someone might be running in circles looking for items instead of following the mass of players for example), or that someone isn’t afk, or even intentionally trying to make you fail in your achievement (yep, there are players mean enough for that).

If anything all those players dying together should get an achievement for that instead because it was based on their skill (or lack of it or team coordination to help another player get it), not on the skill of the player getting the achievement. Sure, there are some strategies that might help with it, but all of them require that most of your opponents don’t know how to dodge/rush and the ones that know, all of them at the same time have wasted their rush and their stamina and weren’t looking for items around the map.

I was lucky enough to literally find a 1 vs 1 situation and that’s how I got it. It was all luck, I was trying hard to get it and suddenly I found a 1 vs 1 fight (and even then I needed some time to get him killed while I held the crab as the big karkas appear after some minutes and the small ones go for the grabber at first).

Before that I tried to organize a group so we all could help each other but not all of them were listening, and even with some other players contributing for it none of us could get it because there are too many factors.

Diaspro.8529:

I want to thank all people in Aurora Glade who cooperated to get the achievement this morning!

As far as I know everyone from any server is mixed for the achievement. I’m from Baruch’s Bay (Spain’s server) and everyone is speaking in english in the mini-game. So I think those thanks might go to kind people around the world :P

Gotejjeken.1267:

Problem is, if they change it now, those who do have it will be cheated. It wouldn’t be fair for one person to have to run around for an unspecified amount of time until they can get the Karka to roll over everyone, and another player to just wait until the match ends and grab the crab.

Those two scenarios are not even remotely comparable.

Sincerely I wouldn’t mind it. I got mine and I know it was because I was extremely lucky to find a 1 vs 1 situation. I even felt bad because I didn’t gift the other guy the achievement and when I thought about it it was too late as others appeared. If someone would’ve asked me cooperation to get it I would’ve gladly helped (I even tried to organize one group for that but was impossible as you need everyone paying attention).

This was luck based. If they change it I won’t mind it. I could even “feel better about myself” for getting it before needing a change, but honestly I know this wasn’t about my skill so for me they could even gift the achievement to everyone.

I had a thread sugesting to make it so that when the timer rachs zero everyone is knocked down except the guy holding the crab at the end of the match, that would be a fair change without changing what you have to do to get the achievement, just making it more probable and at least once per round. Everyone would still have plenty of time to get the chest reward as the knock down is very short.

Honestly I’m seeing it just as himself justifying how own actions to the point he’s delusional enough to actually believe that he’s a hero. But I think it’s all a mean to get his revenge rather than really caring about them. Acting like their saviour is more part of the plan than the real objective.

In fact exercising control over someone and “letting him live because it’s what you wished to do” is a common trait for what I’m describing, to feel the power of someone knowing he lives because you let him live many times is more satisfying for this kind of crazed minds than killing him. He could also use him in the future, knowing that he can give him all the information he wants if he threats him so killing him is wasting an asset.

And I really don’t buy that “he was just acting this time, he really isn’t that nasty when he’s not in that specific scene”. He abandoned the scene carrying the bloody bag with him with clear intentions on continuing with that beheaviour.That guy is completly nuts right now. I don’t know what happened to him since the last time we saw him, but it really hurted his mind. I’m not saying he’s evil, I’m saying he’s crazy in a very dangerous way, he is delusional, he thinks he’s some sort of hero of the people when everything he’s doing is looking for his personal revenge and endangers everyone in his way.

I don’t know what sigil you wasted your gold in, but you can always get a second dagger with a “on swap this effect happens” sigil for what it’s worth. If you prefer that sigil type you bought on both sets then yeah, S/- would do the trick.

Nah, what you should be asking is why is a Consortium product on the Black Lion’s offers list? Isn’t the Consortium trying to compete with BL?

@OP the Thief can excel at PvE. It’s just there are a lot of Thieves that try to go sneaky backstabers in Dungeons where the rules are way different. That population of players create the impression that the Thief is horrible in PvE so the word spreads.

I can tell you that the Thief can do perfectly fine in PvE. It may not be the best profession, some professions are OP there, but you can have a lot of success with a Thief.

Evilek.5690:

99% PvE and want to play Thief ? Thief is horrible PvE class.

What build/playstyle do you use? I’ve always had tons of success with my support oriented main Thief and I’m usually the one reviving teamates instead of dying. Not to mention 100% Map Completion with a Thief is easy mode as you can get all those skill points protected by champions in Orr with a Shadow Refuge so a Thief is a good choice for Gifts of Exploration.

Thief is very underrated at support and I would rank him as one of the bests in the game at that role.

A Thief walking into red circles to backstab mobs won’t survive in PvE unless his timing is perfect but there are many ways to excel at PvE as a Thief without getting yourself killed all the time.

If you’re having a bad time with any build you try, at least you can always switch to Shortbow, start triggering combo fields (best finisher in the whole game) and if you got at least 15 points in DA (many efficent builds have it) apply Weakness permanently to all enemies in the figth (Weakness is very underrated and helps a huge lot). This way you don’t have to worry too much about surviving as you don’t need to cross enemy lines.

Starscream.6498:

It might as well have just been a charade to frighten Blingg.

Carryng everywhere a bag with amputated heads doesn’t sound like a charade…

Granted those heads belonged to thugs sent to kill him, but carrying heads leaving a trail of blood as trophies to threat people isn’t a common trait on people with a clear mind.

I… I really can’t understand how so many people think Canach is a good guy and want to side with him…

I will re-post what I said in the Lore section on a forum about Canach:

He might be targeting the Consortium and Noll, but I don’t think helping the refugees is a priority in his agenda. I don’t think he cares at all for them, they’re just collateral damage in the Consortium thing so they could become an asset in his favor if he can get support from some of them, but his acts are clearly endangering everyone in the area.
He’s out for revenge and spite against the Consortium. I don’t think he’s a hero, the way he acted with Blingg in that story fragment revealed many traits of a psychotic perturbated crazy mind (the moving in shadows while maintaining a conversation, the whispering in the ear, the constant use of fire everytime he wanted to show something, the showing of head trophies to threat Blingg and then carry them away with him…). What he does against the Consortium may or may not be justified (they’re trying to kill him too after all) but he’s endangering the refugees too in the process to get his revenge. He just doesn’t care about anyone but himself.
He may not be a villian, but he isn’t a hero. He is crazy and he needs urgent help from an expert before he kills everyone in that isle.

Elbegast.6970:

CAbbage + spiNACH = CANACH

I admit it, I laughed here xD

Narcemus.1348:

I don’t think anyone thinks of Canach as a hero

Take a look around the Southsun forums. You will be surprised how many of them want to side with him and think he’s a good guy.

He might be targeting the Consortium and Noll, but I don’t think helping the refugees is a priority in his agenda. I don’t think he cares at all for them, they’re just collateral damage in the Consortium thing so they could become an asset in his favor if he can get support from some of them, but his acts are clearly endangering everyone in the area.

He’s out for revenge and spite against the Consortium. I don’t think he’s a hero, the way he acted with Blingg in that story fragment revealed many traits of a psychotic perturbated crazy mind (the moving in shadows while maintaining a conversation, the whispering in the ear, the constant use of fire everytime he wanted to show something, the showing of head trophies to threat Blingg and then carry them away with him…). What he does against the Consortium may or may not be justified (they’re trying to kill him too after all) but he’s endangering the refugees too in the process to get his revenge. He just doesn’t care about anyone but himself.

He may not be a villian, but he isn’t a hero. He is crazy and he needs urgent help from an expert before he kills everyone in that isle.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Canach is riling up the animals is his attempt to getting them to attack the Consortium – it’s not a bright idea, but his target is Noll and the Consortium there, not the refugees.

It’s one of the bits of lore never mentioned or hinted at (yet) in-game.

That’s mentioned in-game: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Henrika

Henrika: I supposed I had this coming after what I’ve done.

Player: You sound repentant.

Henrika: I am. I was lied to…lies I wanted to believe, mind you, but they were very convincing. I only wanted to hurt the Consortium and get all the settlers out from under that goblin Noll’s thumb.

Player: Who convinced you?

Henrika: That sylvari, Canach. He gave me the means to turn beasts into rampant threats so we could use them against the Consortium. He’s trouble, that one.

Setun.4368:

Lokheit.7943:

Judging by your screenshot you spend a lot of time in WvW but close to zero time in PvP.

WvW experience is far from a good measurement of how good a profession is. Most opponents there won’t match your equipment and will be easy kills and many run around following instructions or the closest event/zerg without a clue of what to really do and the Thief is expert at exploiting less skilled players. Most outnumbered videos are against that kind of player that you find all the time in WvW.

WvW is just as good a measurement as spvp. Bads are gonna bad, regardless of what pvp mode you prefer. I’ve encountered tons of players that really knew their class inside and out in WvW, especially in the upper tiers (T1-T3). Hell, full guild vs guild events in WvW are awesome to watch as one downed person can make or break the encounters. Devs tend to gravitate towards more to spvp only because it’s a much smaller combat environment, which makes data gathering easier for them on classes.

I’m not saying there aren’t elite players in WvW. There are many of course, many famous names. And of course there are unskilled players in PvP, you see many everyday.

What I’m saying is that all those videos of thieves dominating a group of 6 players that cause everyone to come crying to the forums for nerfs can only happen in WvW as the variation of challenge other players will present is way bigger due to bad equipment being a factor. Aditionally for what I’ve observed, unskilled PvP players quickly abandone the mode because they simply don’t find it fun or don’t like it while unskilled WvW players usually continue to play because they can help zergs and their guilds by adding numbers.

In PvP even unskilled players get the equipment they want and even if they don’t know what to pick it’s maxed equipment. All those videos of outnumbered thief aren’t possible against a group of equally skilled and equiped players. They will curbstomp the Thief in a matter of seconds. Even a skilled player with equal equipment can stomp him if he knows what he’s doin.

In WvW from my experience the density of easy encounters when roaming is way bigger than in PvP so that’s why I’m saying PvP is a best measurement unless somehow the OP finds exclusively 100% lvl80 all exotic gear players all the time in WvW.

We have enough people crying without even trying to know what’s happening (playing a Thief for a bit to know the tricks helps a huge lot there, you end up predicting him even if he’s invisible, at least I do and I know many others too). We don’t need someone starting a troll post asking for a nerf to his own profession, specially when that profession is far from being the most powerful one.

Einlanzer.1627:

Lokheit.7943:

I’ve always said that what P/P really needs is a rework to Body Shot that is perfectly viable over Unload in specific situations and builds and that also synergizes with Black Powder (be it in combo form, or by being effective at close range so you ise BP to cover the assault loke with melee sets).

Sorry, but this is objectively wrong. Not that your idea is a bad one necessarily, just the argument that Body Shot is ‘the problem’. While it may not be amazing, it is not the core issue screwing up P/P. The problem, instead, is actually a design issue centering on Vital Shot and Unload.

The explanation for what I said is that one of the big problems with P/P is that is 333333333 with zero utility and versatility and the very very ocasinal #4 to interrupt a glowing healing target. By making #2 usable AND synergize with #5 suddenly you’re extended the versatility of the set as now you can go either 3 spam, 2 with 5 or a healthy combination of both depending on the situation and still having that situational 4 for important interrupts. You will be able to spend initiative in any skill instead of 333333.

You’re right that Vital Shot synergizes poorly with the main source of damage. The problem here is the day where Stealth Attacks were added (just for the sake of not having Backstab on the main weapon bar). I really hated that day as I knew most builds would NEED stealth to focus on those stealth attack when stealth was supposed to be more suplementary instead of a NEED (the main problem with WvW stealth traps is not that you can’t defend, it’s that you waste your whole build). Because those stealth attacks and pistol receiving a multibleed, the main attack that used to be Body Shot (which as auto-attack with 1 vuln per hit synergized with Unload) was changed to Vital Shot to apply Bleed to have synergy on P/D builds.

Right now because everything was designed with those Stealth Attacks in mind, Vital Shot synergizes with one set, and acts as scale cap with the other (like the main attack on rifle for Warriors do). So we’re really not getting rid of it unless a revamp is done and stealth attacks disappear (a silly concept IMO as stealth is not a Thief exclusive mechanic, and still others don’t have stealth attacks and it forces 80% of competitive buils around them).

This is why IMO the best thing is to make Body Shot viable and synergize with BP so you want to use everything.

As I said something simple as adding short Weakness to Unload would be more than enough for it and it would have ton of utility for group play (Weakness is very underrated and protects everyone a huge load), no need of big changes or making it a cone attack.

Initiative is a hard thing to deal with when balancing. As you can spam things you have to be careful so you don’t make something that when spammed is too exploitable, but sometimes an specific concept is pure garbage when it has to be toned down to avoid spamming.

Something I’ve posted several times is to change it so it has some synergy with Black Powder in P/P to make that set viable, and in the process could be useful for P/D sets. I will link one of those times as I’ve written it many times and it’s a bit long.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Change-body-shot/first#post2009008

Judging by your screenshot you spend a lot of time in WvW but close to zero time in PvP.

WvW experience is far from a good measurement of how good a profession is. Most opponents there won’t match your equipment and will be easy kills and many run around following instructions or the closest event/zerg without a clue of what to really do and the Thief is expert at exploiting less skilled players. Most outnumbered videos are against that kind of player that you find all the time in WvW.

We’re far from a “please nerf me this is boring” situation. There are some specific points that might need it (I’m all in for applying revealed even if you don’t attack for example, in exchange of our 3 seconds revealed instead of 4 for all enviroments) but there are also many things that need boosts as this is the less versatile profession which makes it the most predictable.

I’ve always said that what P/P really needs is a rework to Body Shot that is perfectly viable over Unload in specific situations and builds and that also synergizes with Black Powder (be it in combo form, or by being effective at close range so you ise BP to cover the assault loke with melee sets).

Once that’s done the set will be more versatile instead of 33333 with no space for utility.

My favorite ideas as I’ve said other times would be to make Body Shot a spread attack x5 with 1vuln per hit (there are precedents of similar skills with only 6 seconds cooldown which is a great equivalent for 3 ini when you compare ini costs to cooldowns on similar skills) that at very close range (nearly melee so all projectiles will hit) does better damage/initiative than unload (unload would still have better total damage, but BS casting time is shorter so going melee increases your damage over time in comparison) at the cost of exposing yourself to melee range (so you invest initiative on Black Powder to cover you), or change it for a combo (my idea is a melee range push without interrupt that counts as either blast finisher in your position or as leap finisher with a jump back, and as you only push targets on melee range you can’t abuse it to control an opponent movement at range) so P/P can be built for zerkers and carrions like D/D. This last one if my favorite one as I like condition builds on the Thief and it would synergize with the main attack which in zerker gear is weak.

As opposed to what others said, I think Unload wouldn’t need big changes with something like that. IMO the best adition to make it worth the 5 initiative would be a 0, 5 seconds Weakness per bullet and leave the damage and movility as it is right now. This way it has defensive utiliyy and you are protecting your team if you keep shooting while also reducting opponent evades (what really kills unload).

Body Shot is really that bad and because initiative lets you choose, you can ignore it. You will do better saving ini for other things. Maybe in some world event… but even then it isn’t that big of a vuln applier compared to specialist builds from other professions and as there is a cap of 25 and in those situations the cap is quickly reached you won’t do anything with it.

Just ignore it until they revamp that useless skill. Specially in a P/D setup.

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

Medium armor in general needs a huge asethtics buff. Too many coats! There’s only a few that actually look like armor and not clothes.

The post wasn’t about the visual quality, it was about the Rare drop skin being different than whakitten was supposed to be (and I find the one it should be cool, I want at least the shoulders for one of my characters).

This is really cool because I love farming Skelks everywhere around the world

Thanks for the video guide, I will try this!

This is something most people know, that the Medium Armor Rare drop isn’t what should be. It’s named Pirate (like the green and blue drop) and have the Rogue skin (a low-mid level areas cheap Karma Set). The only piece that matchs the real armor set is the mask (while still named Pirate) which indicates that the full set is supposed to be the one attached at the end of this post.

The only way to obtain it (and I think you can’t even complete the set) is through Personal Story.

I think this should’ve been fixed looooooong time ago, Heavy and Light armors have their Rare set correct and it’s good to see armors of more visual quality the rarer they are. Having this set with the same skin of a very cheap karma armor instead of the one it should be (which IMO is cooler) feels wrong.

It’s about time this get fixed and I’m sure it’s as easy as changing some words in the code for Rare Drop Medium Armor so it has the correct skin, the skin is in the game so it seems to be a problem of the drop finding a path to a different skin when “Rare Tier” condition is met.

There are other Medium sets missing, particularly the Karma equivalent to Heavy Plate and Stately (supposedly this one: http://argos-soft.net/GW2ArmorGallery/index.php?weight=2&race=2&color=10&sex=0&armorSet=highwaymani) and the Headpiece of the Karma equivalent to Dark Armor and Tactical armor (though that one is available in WvW at least, but it should be available with the rest of the karma set: http://argos-soft.net/GW2ArmorGallery/index.php?weight=2&race=2&color=10&sex=0&armorSet=markyi).

This really looks like the variables corresponding to the Medium Armor category got mixed at some point in development and now some of them point to the wrong skins or simply aren’t there. Knowing which ones are missing this should be easy to spot and fix and it has been quite a long time now.

I was going to start a thread about this but found this thread on research so I’m bumping this.

While Kasmeer armor has been in the mouth of many users, I think we’re forgetting about this part of Kiel’s armor.

I was recently looking at one image of Kiel and suddenly spotted her shoulder armor.

While most of the armor looks like what most Lionguard wear (Heavy Plate armor, and her gauntlets are from one of the crafted set), I looked at her shoulders and though to myself it would look cool one one of my characters. Then I jumped to look what set that was because I didn’t remember it when I researched for my favorite armor combinations and turns out it’s new armor.

My personal opinion is that A-Net is already modelling the new wave of armors that will come with the first expansion, and they’re using finished models for these new characters (same way they’re using new faces and hairstyles that will probably come with expansions) to tease us and make us want them more

Minos.3450:

Lokheit.7943:

Let’s remember that Asura first killed and experimented with Sylvari the first time they met (though I think that was an Inquest so all theories about that rogue Largos might be possible at the same time).

Nah, he (Malomedies, one of the firstborns) was indeed experimented on but wasn’t killed. He’s still alive, you can find him in the Grove.
And I don’t remember being said it was the inquest who did the experiments. Most Asuras don’t disregard mistreating other species they consider as ‘inferior’ (like how they experiment on skritts or ettins whithout their consent) and not only Inquest’s.

Wasn’t he taken with other sylvari? Maybe I’m wrong but I think he had others with him at that point and asuras biopsed them. Not sure right now.

It’s the breath. Rangers can tame them and their f2 skill is a confussion applying breath.

Thanks for answering Scott. That would explain some of the changes, and I guess as there isn’t a “rude and scarred” face option for Sylvari that was the closest thing.

I still would’ve liked him looking a bit closer to his original self as this change was too big (specially the face and sking color, I could understand him cutting his hair), but I guess that’s ok as probably he wasn’t going to be used so much when he was originally designed (maybe I’m wrong with that part?) so he was designed without his new role in mind. Salma got a great change in GW1 when she became relevant for example, so as long as Canach doesn’t change again and this is taken carefully with future NPCs it’s ok I think.

And I guess the change in skin tone can be atributed to how much he likes playing with fire judging by how he always points to things with fire for drama hehe.

Gabby.3205:

Oh good, thank you Scott McGough. I am glad that you guys didn’t just think that we would forget about Canach’s old look xD
That back story made me want to help him even more. I seriously hope that we don’t end up having to kill him.

It made me consider him a higher priority threat to be honest. I’m not a big fan of severing heads and sending them in bags so better finish him before. Of course Noll is villanious too as he’s sending grunts to kill him, but Canach isn’t good either, they’re both bad guys trying to get the upperhand from a situation. Canach is playing hero of the weak but I think this is out of spite and revenge and he probably has his own agenda here. The way he acts during the conversation with Blingg (moving in shadows during a conversation, whispering on his ear, setting fires to show things, sending bags with severed heads, showing a weapon to threat with taking his head too…) is closer to crazy psychotic than Robin Hood like hero of the weak.

In fact there was a post on reddit with data about comming releases (some of them already in the game) and among other things there was a Southsun related sickle and a logging axe still not related to any event.

That 5pts trait fits more in the Acrobatics tree (the evade tree). And more as a XI-XII range trait, maybe even VII-X range, but as a 5pts trait everyone would always spend those 5 pts on that tree and then continue with their build.

SA tree doesn’t need a revamp, if anything the other trees need a boost to be more affordable. Maybe there are some specific SA traits that might need a change but that’s all.

I know this isn’t about Stealth being OP but it sounds like you want to completly remove Stealth from every trait. SA is the Stealth trait line, for non stealth builds to be viable the way to go is to boost the other trees, not to completly remove stealth playstyles.

Also as others said some of them are really OP (with and without your explanations about how they aren’t OP) for the tier your putting them. Anyway as I said there is zero need for a revamp and I don’t think we will see an overhaul on that tree (not to mention that some would be hard to implement, always try to compare existing examples of mechanics when creating new concepts).

Doomdesire.9365:

Basically what the others have said for the runes/sigils

But for weapons, use giver’s weapons. 10% bleed duration as a stat for it, and almost nobody knows about it.

Problem with that is that with the setups mentioned you can already get 75% and only multiples of 25 will work for most bleeds. Aditionally Givers doesn’t add to Condition Damage AND wastes a second atribute line in precission, which is garbage for condition builds.

I see Giver more as a complementary for Berserkers/Valks using some non-damaging conditions to weaken and snare his target.

Take into account that human gods are not the sort of “world creators” gods. They’re powerful entities with huge loads of power, but not everything happened because of them. Dragons in fact were there before the arrival of the gods so that theory wouldn’t be possible. They’re described as forces of nature, and they aren’t friendly to each other so I doubt they’re part of the same original dragon.

My personal theory is that they’re a bit like FF7 weapons (the name of a type of powerful creature), the world response to a threat. They are forces of nature that consume magic, and it’s very possible that they’re Tyria’s way to balance the amount of magic in the world before it becomes too dangerous. If the bloodstones didn’t exist I would even say that killing them might be dangerous to the world in the very long term.