Guild Wars 2

Some developer input would be nice. The description is annoyingly vague.

CobaltSixty.1542:

Wearing 6/6 Superior Runes of the Soldier does not give the “shouts remove conditions” bonus while underwater.

That’s because you ALSO need one of the runes on your underwater headpiece.

Exactly what does “disabled” mean in the trait description?

Hammer damage is increased by 25% when a foe is disabled. Reduces cooldown of hammer skills by 20%.

Knocked down?
Dazed?
Stunned?
Snared?
All of the above?

So this one’s a bit out there, and there are obviously numerous worries to consider when giving players any degree of control over banning of accounts.
But what if ArenaNet were to employ a volunteer force of players who were able to ban gold sellers immediately with an automatic screenshot and log included so as to prevent abuse?
If you made it similar to the /bug functionality, I could see this being very useful for you.
Heck, I’d volunteer immediately.
The first thing I do upon logging in or porting to LA is spend the next few minutes reporting gold sellers who are spamming map chat or my in-box.
If I could immediately ban them whilst knowing my own account is at risk if I abuse the functionality, I wouldn’t bat an eyelid. I know I’m honest, and having that rule there to keep me so would be fine by me.

The screenshot would have obvious functionality, displaying chat and email, and I would suggest that the log would include the last few things said by the accused player in map chat.

I’d just like to point out that hammer and rifle also have ranged cripples, with the hammer’s arguably being one of the best in the game due to its ability to cripple everyone in a cone in front of the warrior.
Just throwing that out there

Here’s my warrior, Beowulf Wyrmslayer, with his hammer and greatsword.
The armour, contrary to appearance, is all exotic Knight’s armour with Superior Runes of the Dolyak. The skin is the guild armour chest piece, with everything else being the “Banded” skin.
The hammer is a Knight’s hammer with a transmuted Krytan Warhammer skin.
The Greatsword is again Knight’s one, this time with a transmuted Hero’s Longsword skin.
I’m definitely not a fan of the overtly flashy arms & armours and prefer a much more subtle look.
Oh, and the predominant dye colour is Tarnished Silver.

Oh yeah, and I made close to 10,000 karma from doing those events last night in about 4 hours. Sure, I made a paltry amount of cash, but it’s a good, fun karma mine.
What I will say though is that massive zergs spoil it. If you’re going to tool around in Cursed Shore and want to keep it fun, keep your groups small and stay away from the big zergs.
This again highlights the massive problem with there only being one truly level 80 zone in the game. Over time, it’ll become over-saturated. We need more level 80 content very quickly.

We’ve been playing Malchor’s Leap and Cursed Shore as a guild group of 5 over the past couple of nights, and it is great fun that way, although still tiring after a while.
Last night especially with the majority of events fixed, it was fantastic fun pinballing from event to event, with shiny event symbols popping up on the map making us feel like indecisive magpies.
We even killed the Champion Risen Megalodon. As we started pulling it, an Asura guy stopped, and clearly baffled by our seeming insanity, asked “What are you guys doing?!”, to which I responded by pulling it near the shore, at which point we all shot at it from relative safety ‘til it was good and dead, whereupon I said "That’s what we’re doing".

For those not in the know, even with a very tough build featuring a full set of exotic Knight’s armour, lots of regen and over 23,000 HP, the Risen Megalodon can still take me down in two very quick chomps. He’s a bad kitten.
The scary thing was that even though I’d pulled him to the shoreline, occasionally he’d start to swim away, at which point I would have to dive in and poke him in the ribs to get his attention and pull him back.
Fun times.

At level 80, and having been there since a week after head start, I rarely have over 1 gold.
Here’s how my decision making process works:

WvWvW? Well, currently we’re up against a really tough server, and if I’m lucky, after 4 hours of play I may have made between 20-40 silver. That’s before factoring in repairs. Is it worth it for me to do WvWvW? Nope. Scratch that then.

Help low level guild members in low level areas? Well, I’m in Orr, so it’s going to be a port back to LA from the Mists first, then probably at least a 2 silver charge to waypoint to them, or I can run to their location. Once they’ve completed an event I’ve helped them with, the cost of waypointing for them is so low they don’t even consider it a charge, yet again, even if it’s the nearest waypoint, I’m facing almost 2 silver to keep up with them. On top of that, most of the drops won’t be appropriate to my level, I certainly won’t be getting top tier crafting materials, and low level events don’t give as much karma or cash as Orrian ones.
Yeah, I’ll stay in Orr thanks.

Dungeons?
Ha. Ha. Ha. Don’t make me laugh.

So, Orr then?
Oh, there’s only one truly level 80 area and most of the events are broken, let alone which, fine crafting materials have such an absurdly low drop rate, I get maybe one of each per hour. If I’m lucky. Still, it’s my best option.

Guess I’m an Orrian-bound pauper and I should be happy with my lot.

I love this game, I really do, but the epic warrior hero who help saved the world from the elder dragon Zhaitan?
Yeah, you’ll see him grubbing around in Orr desperately eking out a living from selling trophy items dropped by zombies better off than he is.

My Charr engineer is “Mister Tiddles”.
I was very happy to get “Wildheart” in headstart for my Sylvari ranger. She has a warthog called Ozzy, an eagle called Johnny Come Lately, a murellow called Barry and a bear that alternates between Rasputin and Necessities.

A friend has an owl pet called Hooters and a raven called Quoth.
He also went for “Mister Tiddybombom” for his Charr, but it was taken

Raedwulf.3712:

Mungrul.9358:

Oh yeah, and with the whole pirate thing going on, why haven’t I seen a classic rapier, hmmmmm?
My Errol Flynn mesmer wants one soooooo bad.

Because, as your First Officer will tell you, rapiers would be a dead loss against all those blokes in Heavy armour…

That may be so, but how am I supposed to cut a dash and make the ladies swoon whilst wielding a zweihander the size of a small country? Possibly made out of one too judging by the appearance of most of the darned things…

Also, being a bit of a tanky kind of warrior, I frequently see people training mobs onto me on purpose.
Initially, when my build wasn’t quite as durable as it is now, I’d get intensely annoyed, but now I welcome the potential loot drops

All I can say is daaaaaawwwwwwww, want.
Also, if you haven’t seen it, this site’s 404 is adorable too:
Quaggan sad indeed

Raedwulf –
Aye, my First Officer and good friend is a reconstruction artist owning over 20 swords and assorted other weapons (including real warhammers of the single handed variety), and we always have a grumpy old men’s groan & moan about the “swords” in GW2, and while I have never swung one in my life, I trust my friend when he explains how they work

It’s just a suggestion for more realistic ones on high end weapons testpig. Transmutation is all well and good, but there is a distinct design deficiency in Dungeon weapons. There is room for more variety. Is that such a bad thing?

Exactly, although like I say, some florid engravings on the blade itself would be nice for decoration

Oh yeah, and with the whole pirate thing going on, why haven’t I seen a classic rapier, hmmmmm?
My Errol Flynn mesmer wants one soooooo bad.

This is particularly noticeable when considering greatswords.
Of the top level greatswords, I don’t think I’ve seen one that could ever see real-world, practical use. I know a lot of people like these skins, but to many of us out there, they’re ridiculous and absurd, with pointless spikes and bad design flaws. One particularly offensive trait of these giant cleavers are sword breaking notches on the cutting edge of the blade. Others have ridiculously small cutting edges thanks to over-zealous crenelations and switchbacks. Let alone which, hardly any of them look like you’d be able to swing them with even the smallest degree of control; they are virtually all ridiculously over-sized.

Oh, and your insistence at putting belt rings at the end of greatsword hilts?
Cute.

Even one of the better designs, the Highlander sword, has hand guards which would dig in to your wrists if you were to swing it in real life.

As it stands, upon close inspection, the only greatsword that could have a practical, working, real-life analog is the basic greatsword skin. There are no pointless notches or holes in the blade causing potentially fatal weakness, the crossguard would actually work, catching or deflecting blows away from the hands and wrists, and the blade is double-edged, allowing greater ease of use by doubling the available cutting edge area.
I’d like to see more practical designs along these lines, with embellishments for aesthetic value being along the lines of intricate detailing on the blade.

C’mon ArenaNet.
How about stepping away from the big box o’ spikes for a while and going for something clean, practical and minimalist?
You have just started supporting Mac clients after all ;P

I have mixed feelings about it.
It galls me that there’s only one truly level 80 map in the game, Cursed Shore.
When first arriving in Orr, you will not be prepared for what you face. Enemy placement in Orr is far more dense than anywhere else in the game, and they hit a lot harder, especially underwater.
While you may be fighting numerous different types of Risen, they are all Risen, and you’ll not have much luck getting your daily kill variety in Orrian areas.
Travel costs while travelling in Orr are extortionate, but there are already numerous threads about waypoint costs at 80.
Lots of outposts are continually contested, making travel even harder.

However, now I’m going back there to kill things and harvest, not complete the map, even with the dull, depressing atmosphere, I enjoy tooling around there. As you gradually build up your exotic gear, things become easier, even fun.

But we could really, really use another dedicated level 80 area.
And ArenaNet REALLY need to fix the scripting for the various broken skill points and dynamic events.

No, you can’t runeblade. Only a certain selection are available. You will not be able to buy a recipe for Power/Vitality/Toughness insignias for example.

“Gaining adrenaline!” also triggers when you in fact LOSE a level of adrenaline.

Oh yeah,
“Aaah! Monsters!”
“Eek! Ghosts!”

You said it yourself Laufey, you’re not level 80. This really isn’t a problem until you get to Orr.

I would agree, but it’s a temporary measure. I’m sure ArenaNet would much rather fix these problems so that they never occur in the first place.

My current level 80 is a warrior, and he’s VERY good for PvE, especially in Orrian areas. Difference being, he’s a hammer warrior. I’ve specced 20 Strength, 20 Defence and 30 Tactics. Pulling points out of Discipline was a hard decision to make, but with Great Fortitude & Distracting Strikes traited in Strength, Cull the Weak & Merciless Hammer traited in Defence and Inspiring Banners, Lung Capacity (for “Shake it off!”) & Inspiring Battle Standard traited in Tactics, I have fantastic durability, both on my own (especially with Healing Signet alongside the trait the adds regeneration based on adrenaline level) and in groups thanks to the banners.
Exotic Knight’s armour and weapons help too, although I could use some more vitality. Still, it’s fun tanking risen giants on my own, or tanking 3-4 Risen and not seeing my health decrease
Rune-wise, I’m currently using a full set of Superior Runes of Dwayna, which is nice in a group situation, but I’m aiming for Fighter or Dolyak.

The thing to remember with hammer is that every third auto-attack is PBAoE

The best I’ve found so far has been the level 80 green from the karma vendor at Gavbeorn’s waypoint in Cursed Shore. I’d be interested to hear about better ones.

Still, my point is that 40 silver to change disiplines is far too punitive.
Don’t get hooked on the cookery part.

Straw man, I did know. It’s just a poor decision I have no way of reversing, and as I haven’t found cookery to be worth the time, monetary and material expenditure, I will now be ignoring it rather than spending silver to switch to a discipline I stand no chance of making back the cost of swapping to.

Clickable hyperlinks would be nice too.

There’s another similar behaviour perpetrated by players, especially in the Orrian areas.
Thankfully, it’s not a problem for me any more as I’ve done all the skill points, but before I had them, this annoyed me even more than training.
It’s kind of inverse training.
You’re fighting a hard fight, attempting to clear the mobs around a “Commune” style skill point, when some git sneaks in, communes with the skill point while you’re distracting the mobs, possibly training other mobs on to you to boot, then proceeds to exit area post-haste after claiming the skill point without even stopping to help you.
Oh the expletives that escaped my mouth when that happened to me. Numerous times.

These days, if I see someone looking to approach one of these types of skill points, I go out of my way to provide a distraction, and players are often thankful. But if I see someone trying to screw over someone else by doing this? Yeah, I’ll train ’em.

I think it’s also very much a matter of familiarity breeding contempt.
The decision to only have voice actor determined by race and sex instead of further splitting them into race, sex and class results in very homogeneous performances with a lot of repetition. A human thief should sound different to a human warrior or guardian.

This also spreads confusion to general gameplay, with character barks from other players sounding identical to your character’s voice, resulting in confusion when they announce a condition contrary to your situation. This is made worse by the odd bug that occasionally plays back the barks of those nearby as if they were issued by your character.

I know that voice actors cost money, but extending the cast in these circumstances would really help. As it stands, it sounds cheap and generic.

I haven’t done it since the first time I did it, but it’s very easy to mistakenly make someone else in the guild leader; it just does it immediately without asking for confirmation!

Right click another guild member in the roster and make them leader.

Yeah, if that’s Asuran feet, it ain’t very tall is it?

Handy to know, but still preventative.

Why?
I mistakenly levelled cooking on a character that already had 2 crafting disciplines.
The last time I decided to change discipline from Chef back to Armour Smith (again at 400), it cost me 40 silver, an increase from the last time I changed discipline.
This is enough to dissuade me from ever going back to cooking.
I’m also curious to know, is 40 silver the top price for changing discipline, or does it keep increasing?
Anyway, as I said in the title, from now on I won’t be doing any more cooking and will be selling all ingredients in order to make up for my cash shortfalls thanks to all of the ridiculous money sinks.

I fully support this and have mentioned it numerous times. Restricting means of acquisition for certain armour types seems to go against everything ArenaNet stand for.

It’s another economy control mechanism.
People are using server transfers to farm orichalcum veins and ancient Orrian saplings.
They find one, mine it, then transfer to another server, mine it again, repeat ad nauseum.

I’m not sure what WvWvW exploit they could be talking about unless they’re referring to explorers who, like myself, swap worlds to access skillpoints, POIs and waypoints currently held by an enemy world.
I freely admit, I used this myself to get my 100% explored.
But I’m guessing there’s something more serious than that being abused to prompt this move on ArenaNet’s behalf.

Works on my hammer, but it is dependent on critical hits so higher precision in your build helps.

And remember, players and mobs aren’t invincible while invisible. I think that’s a common mistake people make.
So if you think you know where someone’s going while invisible, keep swinging / casting.

This does give me a thought; how about “Ring-Doughnut AoE” for some bosses?
What do I mean?
Well, an AoE attack where there’s a safe zone near the boss, then the danger zone displayed by a ring-doughnut shaped AoE indicator far out and affecting those standing at range.
That would be a nice change
As it stands, all PBAoE for bosses punishes those who are in close, ie, melee classes.

Those vendors become active after completing the various Temple events, which appear on your map as the large, light blue temple icons.
You have to defeat a world boss before the vendors become active, although as they’re so popular, it’s often very likely that the event has already been completed and you’ll have immediate access to the vendor without having to do the event.

In Straits of Devastation, the temple is “Cathedral of Glorious Victory”.
In Malchor’s Leap you have “Cathedral of Eternal Radiance” and “Cathedral of Zephyrs”.
Finally, in Cursed Shore you have “Cathedral of Silence” and “Cathedral of Verdance”.

Here are links to the armours available at the various vendors:
Armageddon Armor of Balthazar, Cathedral of Glorious Victory, Straits of Devastation
Rubicon Armor of Lyssa, Cathedral of Eternal Radiance, Malchor’s Leap
Arcon Armor of Dwayna, Cathedral of Zephyrs, Malchor’s Leap
Aurora Armor of Melandru, Cathedral of Verdance, Cursed Shore
Mortal Armor of Grenth, Cathedral of Silence, Cursed Shore

I hope that proves comprehensive and useful

Doing a quick check of the wiki pages and the vendors for Straits of Devastation, Malchor’s Leap and Cursed Shore, it looks like none of them do armour with Knight’s stats, being Power/Precision/Toughness.
I have a full set I’ve crafted, which is what I’d recommend you do.
What I’m really after is Power/Vitality/Toughness armour, which can’t be crafted. You can get 5 pieces from the Orrian vendors, but still no helmet.
The only way to get that helmet is via WvWvW currently that I’m aware of.

To add to the OP’s commentary on signposting attacks, I feel ArenaNet could do worse than take a leaf from Valve’s handbook and consider adding visual and audio cues to the environment, prior to and during boss encounters that nudge players in the right direction regarding what strategies to use during the fight. At the moment, if you’re trying to do things without looking at a how-to guide, there is very little to let you know how you should be approaching a boss battle or even normal dungeon mobs, and this results in death-run after death-run as players try to understand what they should be doing. With the cost of repairs at level 80, this becomes incredibly discouraging very quickly. I for one can vouch that it has driven me away from even considering playing dungeons any more.

Also, Gwen Stefani and No Doubt have been known to be quite litigious regarding use of their names and resemblances in video games without seeking their permission.

Yeah ravinhood, you’re applying your experiences with other MMOs that focus on gear grind to Guild Wars 2.
That is never what the franchise has been about.
In the first Guild Wars, for all three major campaigns, I could guarantee that as soon as I hit 20 and got to where it was available, I could afford a full suit of top level gear with maximum stats.
ArenaNet led us to believe that GW2 would be the same; it’s not, especially as one type of armour, that with Power/Vitality/Toughness bonuses, isn’t even craftable and only available through intensive grind.

Hint: When a mob stealths, even though you don’t see the hits registering, you are still hitting them if you swing your weapon. I use this tactic all the time, and I inevitably have the mobs drop out of stealth only to die immediately.

Risen farmers.
“Hahahahaha, a spade, what does he think he’s going to do with that?”
SPANG!
Flat on my butt every time :E

Actually, I don’t mind them too much now, but when I first got to Orr they were the bane of my existence.

What I really hate is that I can’t get my daily kill variety in Orrian areas .

I think it’s a ten percent chance when using main hand weapon skills (1-3) and a 10% chance when using the offhand ones (4-5).
This would allow for mixing effects such Rage and Water which offers a 30% chance to heal allies.
Your axe with the Rage rune would trigger quickness on skills 1-3, your shield with the Water rune would trigger the heal on skills 4-5.

…but the associated repair costs and lack of incoming loot to cover those costs is actively preventing me from doing so.

For dungeons, I would like my guild and I to learn them without looking up how-to guides, but at the end of the night, everyone gets increasingly frustrated as repair bills eat into their wallets and they inevitably leave the dungeon with less than they entered with, even on a successful run.

It’s also generating resentment of the game and your fellow players as frustration builds and people start comparing their experiences to those in other games, or start blaming others for ruining their experience.

The same thing happens in WvWvW when you’re on the losing team.
Repairs end up eating into your money and it gets to a stage where you can’t afford to play any more, so you just simply don’t.

That’s two end-game activities I am currently locked out of participating in unless I do as other callous individuals suggest and farm (read: grind) to cover my costs.

I would add waypoint costs to this too, but there’s already a bif enough thread about this.

Fix the fun ANet.

Firstly, and this is the big one, why are we not allowed to craft armour with power, vitality and toughness bonuses when these armours are available through other means?
I won’t speculate here as to why, but it is highly irritating that I am spending time and money crafting armour that doesn’t really have the stats I want as a warrior.
As it stands, I’m contemplating lugging two sets of armour into dungeons to cope with differing scenarios; ones where DoT is prevalent and others where physical damage mitigation is of prime importance.
Stop this silliness ANet.
This derails your philosophy of maximum statistic equipment being readily available, with the grind being for aesthetic options.

More related to warrior, can someone explain why on Earth anyone would use Vengeance without having the Sweet Revenge trait?
This skill is completely useless without it.
I would suggest making the revive function of the Sweet Revenge trait a default behaviour of Vengeance, and then making the trait offer limited invulnerability upon activating Vengeance, or reducing the time it takes to become available upon becoming downed.

I think a lot of the people calling advocates of free travel extremists probably never played GW1 and are coming from MMOs where they have developed a kind of Stockholm syndrome, where they’re happy with any glinting morsel dangled in front of their faces by their captors.