Guild Wars 2

They did not tell us we needed to reserve HPs for elites though. It was ‘you will have enough HPs at 80 to unlock everything’. So when I logged in and needed to redo my traits and skills I was not supposed to grab all of them back?

It is a bug.

Hmm, what about for open world events that use parties for specialized roles? I am thinking of teq where you have 4 parties for each of the defenses and sometimes one for an ERT party. Not only that but there are 6 turrets and some people want to join a party there too. If this would help bring you back after a disconnect I could see it becoming popular.

Yay! We get a Samhain this year after all!

SPNKr.6208:

As I said, you get HPs by doing the hero challenges, defeating a certain monster etc. If you only have 60+ HPs that means you probably only completed half of the world map; don’t forget that your core specialisations consumed some HPs too.

The other traits and skills used HPs we get from leveling and doing skill challenges, why should that not be the same for hero points?

No, I did not complete the world map. There is always something in a zone (vista, etc) that is a pain to get. I would rather be out there having fun then spending all my time repeatedly trying to do that one thing so I can be a snob with a star next to my name.

If world map completion is the only way to get HPs I may as well delete my characters, find another game, and give no more money to anet.

Then we will find out the location for these pets is someplace we might reach in several months using an entire large guild. We can only stay there by ourselves for a few minutes without dying. Oh, and there is a good chance the pet will not be there when you arrive.

A lot of stuff came back the past couple days that had previously been removed. WHich basically just teaches us that there is a good probability something removed will be back eventually but if you want to make SURE buy it now.

Nope, most of my 80s were there before HOT was even announced.

BTW, since we do not know how many points to hold out and what the ladders will be new 80s can not realistically hold out points as they level either.

So I am supposed to do the skill point challenges again? Strange, last I looked at the map they were shaded as already done. Yes, I spent all my old skill points before the hero point conversion: there was a lot of confusion going on and at one point it sounded like it was ‘use them or lose them’. I have tried doing some of the old things to unlock traits (defeat a certain monster, etc) again with new characters and it did nothing. Outside of advancing a level how am I supposed to get HP now?

With the standard ones we get 100% of what we need to unlock EVERY skill and trait for ‘free’ by getting to 80. Elites would add to what we have to spend in order to get their own skills and traits. They should be like the other tracks: full unlock at 80. Someone just rolling a character now could choose to buy elite skills/traits … but not existing 80s.

this!!!

I can see putting NPCs in a city at a random location to make it look like that area is crowded. I think everyone knows the bank and the TP will have plenty of players at them though so they are pretty useless there. What is more, because of the NPCs people have to bunch up where their F key will talk to the relevant person rather than greet a crowd-filling NPC.

For that matter, why is greet a higher priority than talk in the first place? I can think of plenty of times I needed to talk to an NPC in this game but not one where I needed to greet one of them.

I wonder if they have given much thought to how elites will play if you are nowhere near the HP to do a full unlock but many others are?

ZudetGambeous.9573:

We have 4 weeks until the launch of HoT! We were told there would be the following information revealed before launch:

#1: How much will elites cost to unlock traits, skills and skins? This is especially relevant to those of us who only have a few dozen HP per character and a LOT of characters. That is my only concern right now.

Yes, going through some of my characters the highest anyone had was 64. Most were in the 30 or 40 range. Why they have such a high HP requirement and why you need HPs to buy skins are two things I hope are wrong.

If you unlocked all of your traits by doing stuff before the change of course you will have plenty of HPs … you never needed skill points. If you spent skill points to catch up you are hosed, especially since they turned all your scrolls to spirit shards and removed them from the game, rather than replace them.

For example, I used to get a 3 pt scroll from Teq often. I do it almost every day. If they had not taken them out it would ‘only’ take me, what, a year and a half of grinding teq?

If I do old content it is in the normal course of events. I do not seek it out to grind my characters.

Marvin.2847:

I would be realy disappointet if i had to grind all those points for my reaper. I mainly play spvp but i also enjoy to play the story. I rly love the design of some elite-sp. but when i have to collect so many points by doing sth i dont like…. hmn. Mehh.
I guess i wouldnt give Pve a try again and stick to PvP.
Pls dont hide one of your biggest features behind a grind for Pve. Also keep in Mind, that for PvP players the grind is even bigger bec we dont have so many HP allready colected then most Pve-Players.

Welcome to the club. Because I burned through them when there was all the confusion over the HP/shard system (it seemed it was ‘use them or lose them’) I only have about 30 or 40 for each of my characters. No more getting a dozen points every other time I level like when I was on my way to 80 either. I am leveling my 8th 80 and am on track to have an 80 in each class when HOT drops.

Hey anet! Do this and I will have to grind all 8 of those characters and you took away scroll drops. Which means the slot for revenant will be the last one I buy for awhile. Way to go!

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

You can only select an elite specialization in the third slot, which unlocks at lvl 71.
So as long as you are lvl 71+ and have 175 hero points you are good to go.

Although if you spent all your skill points before the HP/skills/traits/spirit shards mess that nobody was too communicative about you are puppied. My 80s average about 40 HP.

Finally!

I could give a toss about the new regions and doubt I will spend much time there. I am more interested in elites and what will happen with guilds.

I burned through almost all of the scrolls I had on useless skills and such awhile ago because we could not get a good answer from anet about what would happen. There was a danger the scrolls would go poof with nothing to replace them.

AFAIK the training only listed the # of HP you needed to train everything when they switched over. So how do we know how many we need?

Considering we are only talking one trait line and a handful of skills that seems steep. Having the skins be for HP (rather than from some other means) is odd too.

250? ouch!

Having used a scroll to skip them now awhile later I went back to do the easy bits in the starter areas since I am still leveling this character (percentage-wise it does not really matter where I get them done). Between hearts I will map chat some basic tip or other. Sometimes people will party with me, other times they will just run with me from place to place (I wear my tag and tell them how to find me on the map) but usually they just message me any questions.

It is a great way of mentoring as you can help an entire zone at once while still being available for individual questions and do your own thing. It can slow you down if you are trying to power level through. Anyone else have any good ideas that they have found?

nekretaal.6485:

Menadena.7482:

I would LOVE to see the axe get a better range. I plan on running a reaper with GS and axe/dagger.

I would feel naked without a good ranged weapon though.

Axe with a better range isn’t a good ranged weapon.

It’s still the worst weapon in the game.

I did not say it was a good weapon, just that it is ranged better than a melee weapon.

Part of why I want a stronger axe is I am running a Jory homage build. She is axe/dagger and GS.

I always sigh when people are shocked at 40+ year-olds using actual gasp computers. Especially playing games, we are supposed to be using MS office and getting our kids to tell us why our email broke right? I bought my first computer and learned how to program it before high school. Ok, not so uncommon now, but try before the mac even existed.

Is it all too hard to believe that I might actually be playing games now? Get off my lawn.

vpy.6183:

I am very new to this game.
TBH my total playtime in this game is about 30-40 mins.
My elementalist level 4 human.
I have been told that staff elementalist has high dmg..but I am not sure when i will be able to get this specialization ?.
Can someone tell me at what level I will get this spec on my elementalist profession ?

As others have said, the obvious thing is to first buy a staff.

Over time different levels will allow you to have more stuff: different attunements, more weapons skills, rare and exotic weapons …. you can look up what and when with /wiki level rewards. When you start the game you will have the fire attunement, which is a great place to start as it will deal the most damage.

Kaelith.2645:

With the upcoming release of El Capitan I was wondering if there might be support for the new Metal API hardware acceleration. It would be nice if the Mac side of the game saw some increased playability in terms of graphics performance. Granted the client is still in beta, it seems like a great time to take advantage of new technology (so long as it doesn’t require a massive amount of re-coding).

The term ‘beta’ is just PR. A beta does not last this long. All signs point to them never giving us a real client.

What windows game companies do to say they ‘support’ OSX is to run the windows client under a cider wrapper. By calling it a beta they can just blame any problems on the fact that it was not ready for prime time and should not have been used in the first place.

It is a good chunk of why game players scoff at the game playing abilities of macs. I always run on macs that would blow the doors off of what the typical PC player is using at the time. Not custom gaming rigs (by definition they can be anything) but by no means are they slouches.

As to support for any mac technology? That is not up to anet really, it is the company that distributes cider.

lordkrall.7241:

Wait, so the whole complaints is about having to wait 20-30 seconds between sending mails..? Really?

Really? You actually think it is a good idea?

I run parties and events daily. I kittening HATE this kirttened kittening kitten. It is really kittened up. I do not have to deal with it in other games. Kitten. Kitten. Kitten. Goldsellers and spammers can get around it so it only hinders real players who are gasp actively playing the game.

I keep hitting the various limits.

Want to send an item (like a useful potion) to everyone in your party? limit

Want to run an event? limit

Want to sell a bunch of salvaged mats/dropped stuff? limit

Yes, I vary things in all 3 places. It may work for some people but for me.

Look at what you are carrying. Do you REALLY need all of it or can some of it go in the bank? I carry all possible weapons for that profession, some misc stuff (boosters and various junk), salvage tools, whatever I need in the places I expect to encounter. My characters average 30 items each that they have with them at a given point in time.

Senario.2038:

I will point to ele since it is the most recent nerfs to come out of this “balance around 1 gamemode” type balancing. Dagger Dagger is blatantly too strong in PvP, nobody is arguing this. However it is only a niche build in both WvW and PvE where staff dominates BOTH styles of gameplay. Nerfing the build in general rather than nerfing it within a specific mode has adverse effects on all builds across all gamemodes. Dagger Dagger was largely not an issue in PvE obviously and in World v World the hard CC of Staff Ele was a lot more useful for the group than a Dagger Dagger build unless you were in a very small roaming group. For your average player they will not understand why something is nerfed based on one competitive game mode in a game with 3 game modes. This is not good for the playerbase as discontent leads to quitting. Now, the nerf may be absolutely necessary in PvP but how do you explain to WvW and PvE that now a build that was only meh in those modes is now even more meh and they must play Staff to be effective.

Having seperate balances for gamemodes solves this problem as you can change balance without adversely affecting playerbases who do not participate nor care to participate in one of the 3 gamemodes.

You can argue “but you can already play what you want” though the problem is that now the group suffers because of one person’s want to play a certain style. This is absolutely devastating in World v World where going down is hard punished with multiple rallies for the enemy guild.

Exactly. A new player comes in, plays a D/D elementalist in PVE because it works for them (not everyone goes for the most optimized stats, some look for what is fun). Suddenly it gets reduced because it was too powerful in PVP … a mode they do not care about. This happens every few months. Eventually they leave because they can never count on something that was their fave one day will work the same way the next … and have nothing to do how they play the game.

In a never-ending quest for balance a skill is constantly being nerfed somewhere. It may be desired in one mode but affects the other 2 that did not need the balance. Then it needs to be balanced again because now things in the other modes are out of balance. Usually it is pvp they are balancing around, but now we are seeing this happen elsewhere.

Why not have different levels of nerfs/buffs for each mode? Some things need serious work, true, so have those changes be to all 3. If something needs to be balanced in one mode though, but the other 2 are fine, why not just keep the changes to that mode?

I will ask this in the general game forum as the meta idea (3 skill balances in each mode) applies to all professions.

I would love to see axe more powerful. It will be my main ranged weapon once reaper comes out. A range of 900 is not great (I would love to see 1200) but it is better than it was before.

Like I said, I was not just talking about the icebow. Maybe I should have clarified that they continually try to balance whatever mode of the game and the other 2 modes suffer for it. Usually the one they balance on is pvp. If they want to balance all 3 modes have weapons operate with different stats in all 3 …. it would make the problem MUCH easier.

I, for one, do not use ice bow all the time anyway. They (and the others) are great in boss fights to conjure weapons for the zerg though.

mods: this is not about just the ice bow so please do not merge it, it is a MUCH more meta question

Why do those of us who could give a kitten about pvp and play pve are the ones who are forced to lose out all the time to make pvpers happy? It makes no sense to me.

What is next anet? Deciding having 4 attunements should not be allowed? Making dagger off-hand only?

If they want to nerf things in a never-ending futile quest to balance all the professions make it so it only applies to pvp. Leave pve out of it. They are making us second class citizens when they do this.

What is the whole point of banning it? What is to stop someone from getting out a quill pen and parchment so they can decree what is the ‘best’ build for a profession? This is the equivalent of wanting to ban word processors because you do not like a certain book.

I would LOVE to see the axe get a better range. I plan on running a reaper with GS and axe/dagger. I would feel naked without a good ranged weapon though. The range on an axe is pitiful. It is a little better on the dagger but it has other problems, like a huge recharge time on the primary skill.

Falcon.8713:

Axe -> 900 range / Scepter : less casting time on all skills & it’s fine

THIS!

I plan on running my elite with axe/dagger and a GS …. which means my only ranged weapon is the axe. I would LOVE the full 1200 the staff gets but am willing to compromise since it is only 1-handed.

When possible, in any class, I prefer a ranged weapon and a melee weapon. My faves are GS/LB for my ranger and warrior. That way I get some attacks in while running up to the event/getting the lay of the land and change to the melee weapon if it is a feasible option when I get there.

What I can never stand is how to get underwater if you move around using a keyboard instead of a mouse. I always am using a keyboard and if I am not jumping in from someplace high I have to stop and grab my mouse to get underwater. If I am being fired on or am trying to get somewhere fast that short immersion breakage is beyond frustrating!

Bomber.3872:

DaikonSamurai.6714:

Any group of people who will exclude you over a handful of digital currency were never your friends in the first place. Edit: under me, I would have put up an sarcasm sign if I would have found one…

The guild system is changing drastically with Guild Halls so if possible wait to see if that changes the situation, but if you are forced to choose I would stick with my IRL friends if I were in your shoes.

Guilds are not for friends. For friends you have the friendlist. Guilds are for people to get together for a common goal.

But yes, I hope for the guild change with HoT too. Alot if what has been anounced is effectively to remove the current system problems. If we really can represent 5 guilds at the same time, and guild currencie is only ganied with guildmissions and raids and that the overall guildschat works, well then the guild system is pretty close to be perfect.

Guilds can not be both? I rep the large guild I am in most of the time, but one of my others is a small group of people who know each other elsewhere on the net.

You could say we are a social group, but we are there to help out anyone else in our group if they need someone. Even while repping another guild we can call up that other guild’s list and message a name we recognize and ask if they want to do a dungeon or whatever.

Bomber.3872:

Guild Upgrades cost influence. Influence is only earned by members that represent the guild 100%. Everyone who doesn’t represent 100% is just abusing the work of others and has to be kicked. Sadly anet does support such toxic behavior with their 5 guild system.

So if I represent 80% I do not earn any influence for a guild? Never heard that before.

Anyway, I do not mind a guild organized around something asking people to rep them while doing it. Not requiring it 100% of the time of jumping down people’s throats if they switch to another guild for 5 minutes to do something.

A guild that requires 100% rep is just desperate for influence. End of story. A guild should make it so you WANT to represent them. Tell me it is 100% or the door and I will say seeya. I guess 0% rep from my not being there is better than partial representation?

I am hoping it will be good. Last year I joined during the event. So I was still working out game mechanics and where things were. Plus I only had a low level character so some of the events that were more pvp were a lesson in how fast I could die.

gaborkaldy.3210:

My vote goes to: Charrs in Light Armor
…and my Necro is also a Sylvari.

Am I the only one who plans on having a character of each race in each armor class? Which means, after instaleveling a revenant, I have either a light armored charr or a light armored norn up next.

I just LOVE how the planning of my characters works. My revenant will be a sylvari.

As to royalties, I really have no idea what is standard in voice acting or related fields. I would follow whatever that standard is. As to artists getting paid every time a song is played on the radio, actually, they do (yes, it is a complex process), at least in the US which is where anet is.

Remember it is not just the LS that gets affected whenever the artistic talent walks. Pretty much any change involves multiple areas: voice, fx, writing, etc. I know how we all LOVE static content. What if in the rush to get HOT out the door a Halloween event has not been completed yet?

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Pretty much what Tapioca and Aaron said.

Sylvari characters have a good reason to trust her, as you get to know her well – as well if not more due to shared Wyld Hunt than the other races’ can trust their respective mentor – and you do get a good deal of interaction with her in TA (and, less so, Honor of the Waves and Aetherpath).

Caithe’s actions has largely been a case of ‘act before explaining’ but it’s always been with good intent – maybe not good outcome, however. So while it’s hard to trust her upfront actions, it’s easy to trust her intentions.

My first character was a sylvari. Even though I have created all other races since then she would have to do something REALLY egregious (destroying the entire planet level of bad) for me to not think of her as a good person.

Gaile Gray.6029:

The funny thing is when you say it in public: “I’m pretty kittened off about that!” and your friends give you the strangest looks.

I use it in a thread about GW2 on another forum that has a guild here. I never get called on it because everyone knows where it came from but I know I would get odd looks from anyone just browsing around who did not know what I was doing.

For example, http://www.sluniverse.com/php/vb/gaming/72150-guild-wars-2-official-thread-73.html#post2172988

Raedwulf.3712:

But what about "kitten " or “bloody”? I guess I’ll find out whether they get censored when I hit “post”. But my actual question is… (Yes, there was a point to this! ) How many of you actually type “kitten”?

I usually type out joking variations of it: kitty-cat, puppy, or some species of cat.

Various terms seem to have different meanings in different cultures. For example, in the US “bloody” is considered a minor expression of annoyance. My friends from the UK tend to have the vapors when I use that term … my understanding is it is a BIT stronger over there.

Automatic censors are strange, as has been noted on here several times. In second life they implemented it inworld and got a LOT of complaints. Suddenly a person who made models of small birds found himself censored because one species is named t …. kitty.

An even more bizarre happening is automatic routines that substitute words. One of those right-wing “religious” orgs (focus on the family maybe?) decided to implement a filter on their website to change “gay” to “homosexual”. Then they ran a story that involved a person whose last name was Gay.

I (well, almost every player most likely) would LOVE this! My ele sometimes runs with a staff, sometimes with d/d. Various other changes to suit the situation as well. Right now I just keep to one or the other (and the same for traits, skills, and even what I am wearing) because it is usually to much of a pain and I know I will forget something.

Right now you can not use them at all once you reach level 20. If you will be rolling more characters,fine, but if not …

Dradiin.8935:

Standing around in a fort AFK looking through my bags is not something i approve of and i choose not to do this, there are others trying hard to complete events, and generally the map is full, if i am AFK sorting my bags while the map is full i am taking that map spot to do nothing important.

So teleport to LA or wherever and do it there. For that matter, just take the gate into Brisban.