Guild Wars 2

I spoke too soon. dropped again and major packet loss (>60%) in progress.

Looks like we’re back for now…

Lettuce prey.

I got dropped from the game and am seeing roughly 38% packet loss to GuildWars2.com right now.

My pings to other places, such as Google.com, are normal.

Hope this gets worked out soon.

+1 for hobosacks!

No, wait. I mean +1 for alternatives to hobosacks.

Yes, that’s it.

Excellent idea, and something I’ve been wanting since the dawn of time.

Wholeheartedly endorsed.

Shinzan.2908:

New wallpaper up, this one’s pretty cool. Thumbs up.

I dunno…. looks like a bunch of wavy lines.

Just kidding.

It is pretty cool.

Xenon.4537:

I’m really curious why she no longer works at Anet. O.o

It’s natural to be curious, but it is almost always best for stuff like that to be kept between employer and employee, so I wouldn’t hold my breath.

+1 for improved cursor visibility, or at least an option for it.

The Worst, Except For All The Others

Every time I go off to play other games, I am freshly reminded that Guild Wars 2 is the best game I’ve ever played.

Been playing off and on (mostly on) since Beta Weekend Event 2 (June 6-8, 2012) — a weekend which utterly and irreversibly ruined “traditional” MMOs for me forever (now two lifetime LOTRO subs lie forever dormant; curse you ArenaNet!).

After two years, I can say GW2 ain’t perfect, but the best way to appreciate it is to try everything else first.

Welcome to Tyria.

Take A Break!

I did, and tried various other things, including non-game fun, giving the Elder Scrolls Online a go* and generally just enjoying the rest of what life has to offer.

Now, about six months later, lured by the siren song of new content and, above all, content I can play and replay when I want to, rather than when ArenaNet dictates, I’m back and very much appreciating what GW2 has to offer.

It’s too early to say whether there’s enough to keep me logging in every day, or how long the new honeymoon will last, but there’s no doubt that with GW2, as with most things, absence makes the heart grow fonder.

And with the New Living World Order, time is no longer against us.

…

*ESO Verdict: I enjoyed it but canceled my subscription for now. It has strong potential but needs a LOT of work to be viable and justify a monthly outlay. I’m looking forward to improvements and plan to check back on their efforts later this year.

She will be missed, and she will be fine.

The way WvW maps are designed, the “falling” traits are amazingly useful, almost to the point of being mandatory if you’re running with commanders who take advantage of them (i.e., most of them, and if you follow them over a cliff without having the trait, be prepared to wait for a rez or find another way down).

Outside of PvP scenarios, they are rarely worthwhile but it seems somewhat misinformed to label them “useless wastes of space and coding”.

They have a use, even if you may not personally use them.

Tools Of The Trade

Gem Store “infinite” tools are an income generator for ArenaNet, and probably a pretty good source of revenue.

Thus I doubt they will want to do anything that would cut into that, not because they are evil or greedy, but because they have to cover their development and operating costs somehow, and that’s one of the things paying their bills.

That said, I wouldn’t mind if they did make them account-wide anyway.

It conveys a sense of “otherness”, openly mocks such archaic notions as “orthogonality”, “polish”, “composition”, “completion”, or “taste”, and really explores the studio space.

Now I’m going to have to go turn the filter off and see what map chat is like in megaserver mode. Maybe I’ll learn something.

Heck, being on Darkhaven, which is home to many Brazilian players, I have already learned that “HUEHUEHUE” in Portuguese means “HUEHUEHUE” in English.

I feel so cosmopolitan!

Azrael.4960:

Fresh skeletons can bleed marrow, that’s a morbid thought

Morbid, but moot. Just try shopping for fresh skeletons in this economy.

Storekeepers look at you like you’re crazy when you ask. That’s how bad things are!

Rust Never Sleeps

As others have pointed out, players who want death to mean more can always step up to the plate, take the initiative and put their money where their mouse is…

Guild Wars 2 – Iron man Challenge

Do you have what it takes? Only one way to find out.

…

(Well, two, actually. I never wanted to try anything like this in the first place. So I already know I don’t have what it takes.)

A Heart Grown Fonder

I’ve been playing ESO for the past few months. There’s a lot I like about it, but it needs a lot of work, so I let my sub expire and was taking a game break.

Then I heard about the Story Journal and had to come check it out along with all the other changes ArenaNet has made since I left, and lo! they are legion, well-crafted and splendorous to behold.

Next thing I knew I was back in the game puttering around. With modest effort I finished off my first daily in a long time, and found myself rather enjoying being “back”.

I’ve already played the hell out of the existing content (since BWE2), so I’ll need more to keep me interested, but based on what I’m hearing from Colin and the gang, I have a good feeling about Season Two, and plan to be here for it.

I think I would have been bored to tears if I hadn’t taken a break, so my heart is with you, players who’ve stayed here.

But I must say, coming back after a few months away really makes me appreciate that — various and sundry concerns and irritants notwithstanding — GW2 is still a pretty awesome game, and only getting better.

Fyrebrand.4859:

So, what was the solution? Target those who are already struggling, and hassle them by wasting their time or taking their gold.

Winning is not enough.

Others must lose!

Scarlet’s Web

How about having it create a portal you and whoever you’re grouped with can use to enter a random dungeon filled with remnants of Scarlet’s Alliance?

Each dungeon would feature the Molten Alliance, Aetherblades and/or Toxic Alliance. Depending on the setup, it might just be one type, or more than one — though now that Scarlet is dead, they might be fighting each other, which would add some interesting possibilities.

The Twisted Watchwork Portal Device would only allow access to such a dungeon once every game day, but the dungeon would offer unique bosses and rewards not available elsewhere.

The dungeons themselves could use retooled maps from the Season One Living World releases.

Fafnir.5124:

can you really quote him with a movie quote?

Just did.

Besides, everyone knows Arnold Vosloo is the real Imhotep, not some impostor who stole the name 4700 years ago.

“Death is only the beginning.”

— Imhotep

Fun?

This isn’t about fun. It’s a game.

Astralporing.1957:

Be glad you did not run into exploding Champion Risen Chickens.

Only the pluckiest players can defeat them!

First death = Account permanently deleted.

Also, the character creation screen is a free-for-all PvP zone, meaning you could be ganked even before you choose your race or gender.

Anything less is for “noobs”.

I’ve been taking a break from GW2 and gaming in general, but when I heard about this, I had to come check it out.

PERMANENT replayable Living Story content?

ArenaNet DID Listen! They did! They did!

Add me to the list: I love you, ArenaNet.

First Things First

I don’t care what the reason is, when I’m handicapped while doing a jumping puzzle or trying to fight and survive in a tight interior space, all I care about is being able to see.

I don’t want excuses, or developers telling me what I should or should not be looking at.

Just give me a first-person option.

Chasing The Banners Of Acheron

Running the Pavlov Train in Queensdale was as much a curse for the people doing it as for anyone else.

I understand the compulsion and spent plenty of time running the Queensdale circuit myself, but it was never healthy for players or the game economy and my only complaint about them shutting it down is that they didn’t do it months sooner.

If the rest of the game isn’t worth playing, the champ trains are a waste of time anyway.

I’ve looked through the release notes and release page, but can’t seem to find it.

I know the tradition is for these things to last about a month, but does anyone know of and can link to an official statement on this?

Kasmeer may not be your friend, but she’s my friend, and that’s all that matters to the Hero of Lion’s Arch who, when all seemed lost, selflessly ignored the plights of hundreds of poor Lion’s Archlings to rummage through debris piles and grab enough heirlooms to earn my Selfless Potion and thus forevermore memorialize my selflessness with a golden halo.

Kuh-BRAHAM!

Even The Lord of the Rings didn’t go full Shyamalan.

You never go full Shyamalan!

+1 for a brilliant, funny and engaging critique.

Perhaps they can credit duplicate skin purchases toward the number of transmutation charges in the new wardrobe system.

That seems reasonable to me.

Sorry Mark, but that’s just way too straightforward to stoke conspiracy theories.

Just let us zoom out more. It won’t break the game in either PvE or PvP.

Then let us zoom in more to First-Person View so Charr and Norns can finally do jumping puzzles.

I can understand some of their reluctance on each of these things, but leaving the situation as it is for so long (don’t even get me started on “zoom jitter” or “camera pumping”) is frankly scandalous for a game of this popularity and caliber.

Given all the GW1-related threads that appear in the GW2 forums, many of which criticize GW2 for not being more like GW1, as well as the fact that GW1 is still an active title, I doubt it’s even possible for ArenaNet to forget about GW1 players.

I can understand the sense of nostalgia, and appreciate that Tormented Weapons have a special place in GW1, but caution against allowing that to develop into a sense of entitlement or bitterness when expectations are not met.

“To a dark place this line of thought will carry us. Great care we must take.” — Master Yoda

The mechanic probably wouldn’t be so bad if the game was better designed for it.

As things stand, adapting to these sorts of contrivances is inherently clumsy and serves more to highlight weaknesses in the gameplay scheme than offer actual challenges to player skill.

And is it really “fun”?

I don’t think so.

Players Of The World, Unite!

The proposition Shinzan has raised is not a new one. Free markets and their effects have been criticized and lamented for centuries.

For all its many pages, much of the argumentation in this thread seems to revisit this age-old debate without really resolving it.

And so, dear comrades, I ask in the more classical rhetorical sense: Should our guiding economic light be The Wealth of Nations or Das Kapital?

The masses await our collective decree — though in the end, only the bourgeoisie (aka the developers, as well as a flipper-full of shadowy Quaggan plutarchs) hold the true power in the Guild Wars 2 economy.

Scarlet’s “do” is enough of trademark that it was used as the icon for the cyphers used to open the special chest in her Lornar’s Pass lair. Sylvari wearing this style would definitely be making a statement.

It would be quite ironic if “the Scarlet” went viral as a hairstyle. Imagine walking into the Grove and seeing it everywhere!

This could be the start of something big.

ShibVicious.9681:

So Rikimaru months ago (before it was “common knowledge”), suggests that Scarlet is going to awaken a dragon, and because all of you guys about 3 weeks ago decided “it’s obviously a dragon” your going to hate on him. Seems legit.

If you never visited the Lore & Story forum or googled “GW2 Scarlet Mordremoth”, you could certainly convince yourself of that.

One in a million? That speculation dates back to “What Scarlet Saw” and the forums are full of threads and posts making basically the same predictions — and, as pointed out above, none of this has actually been validated yet.

If it makes you feel validated to brag about it, though, by all means, brag away.

It’s a typo. It’s actually “Gift of Whine”.

It can be found in abundance right here in the forums.

I just love how this content brings the community together.

lordhelmos.7623:

Ranger with passive bleeds, kills self yay

Don’t forget Guardians: Virtue of Justice can’t be turned off, so they end up burning themselves every five attacks. But they can shout moral support from the sidelines, so it’s all good.

And yeah, Warrior+Longbow autoattack only is the ticket. Just stand in the circles and pew-pew with everyone else.

Firing squad boss fights for the win!

Just roll a warrior.

/thread

First off, a belated welcome to GW2!

Despite the fact that game forums tend to be magnets for discontent (including mine), and having played since beta can make any game seem a bit stale after a while, I still consider GW2 the best game I’ve ever played.

And I still resent the fact that I can’t bring myself to play most other MMOs after playing it (we’ll see how ESO works out — I’m preordered, but I know I’ll be back).

GW2 ain’t perfect, but even after a year and a half, there’s still much more to love than to hate, and it’s always a treat to see someone share my enthusiasm for this awesome masterpiece of gamecraft.

Pie Flavor.1647:

so what kind of fallacy is it exactly? ad hominem? strawman argument? reductio ad absurdum?

“No true Scotsman” is one of my favorites, so maybe we could find a way to work it in?

It looks like the consensus answer to the topic question is “no”.

The perfect condition build:

1. Roll a Warrior.
2. Trait for power and greatsword.
3. Profit!!!

Wait… is GW2 dying, or is someone trying to kill it?

I don’t follow. Should we be dialing 9-1-1?