Guild Wars 2

I also crash whenever graphics are set higher.
set it to best performance, then increase the settings one-by-one and see what is actually needed. Most of the ‘high’ settings add nothing over medium or sometimes even low. I increased it to what it looks like in best performance but don’t have crashing. I have a feeling it’s the animation or environment that’s the culprit, and neither of those add anything noticeable when increased.

you have to realize that the people who come to “mac beta client tech support” have a few things going on: 1) they play gw2 on a mac, 2) they have or have had problems with it. I am someone who has had problems (sorta still do…) but is currently in “perfect” working order.
I quoted ‘perfect’ because it works as-is right now, but if I increase the graphics it crashes if I move more than 3 feet (I believe it’s some combination of animation or environment options).
My computer used to handle best appearance perfectly, but I can’t use it at that due to this bug. 2010 Mac Pro

I remember the part of the living story when scarlet kidnapping queen jennah and the bombs everywhere was supposed to be some huge plot twist that everyone was supposed to look forward to and get super excited over and etc.
I do not have high hopes because of this post.
an expansion to gw2 would include no less than: 15 new areas, 1 new elder dragon, 2 new dungeons, 10 new jumping puzzles, numerous new gear combinations and stats/boons/conditions.
to say it’s better than that… I do not think that means what they think that means. I’m expecting their list will technically be longer than mine but include things like: 30 new town outfits you can buy in the gem store, 18 living story missions you can play once, 3 more sets of infinite mining picks, …

I am one of those who buys blues/greens, salvages, then uses materials for crafting. I use so many for crafting I don’t even consider potentially selling just the material, so I compare buy order price of buy blue/green item vs. buy order price of material it salvages into.
items will fall into one of 3 categories: (percent of total given)
~30% = 100% profit per item (buy for 1s, gives 2s worth of materials)
~50% = 10% profit per item (buy for 5s, gives 5s50c worth of materials)
~20% = -50% profit per item (buy for 6s, gives 3s worth of materials)

If you have a collection of blues and greens you want to sell, I recommend selling all the ones in the last group. If you are lazy, I would also sell the ones in the middle group. If you have time or want luck, I would instead salvage all the ones in the middle group. I highly recommend salvaging all the ones in the first group.
It can be hard to figure out how much each item is potentially worth, however. for example: coats give almost twice as many materials as any other armor. also, there is a huge jump in the price of light armors between levels 46-63 (these can give linen). I have no recommendation for an easy way to determine how much an item will give you when salvaged besides getting a feel for what they give. A huge generalization: coats give ~3 materials, others give ~2 materials.

he wasn’t suggesting sending them the dreamer and hoping they send back 2500g. he was suggesting finding someone who wants to buy the dreamer but would rather pay 2700 instead of 2900, so you list it for 2700 knowing he will then buy it within minutes. oppose to listing for 2899 and hoping someone wants to buy it.

I’ll just end up wasting it on trying to get more gold.
I could go either way on if there should be a percent minimum undercut or not. on one hand, it sucks when you get undercut by an insignificant amount. on the other, it sucks when you get undercut by a significant amount. It seems the only way to solve it would be to be able to buy any item listed, not just the lowest, and to have it sort the listed items not by price, but rather by time they were listed. More people would hate that system.

being separate from pve/wvw is a big part of it.
but the “rush rush perfect strategy omg stop being a noob learn to play game over” is the biggest turnoff. I prefer slow setup, organize, prepare, execute. being thrown in head first and have to figure out what you’re doing after needing to do it is not for me.
more game types would be nice.
My ideal one would be where you build your own keep on your own time (have 10 turrets, 10 mercenaries, 10 siege, etc. that can be placed where you want on a landscape), then when you’re ready you join a game with others who’ve made their own keep, and you try to capture the others’ flags.
I tried pvp for a few hours. took me 4 games to realize there were capture points. I had gone into it thinking it’s one team vs. another; we are supposed to be killing each other. not exactly.

a lot of this sounds like that birthday math problem:
out of 30 students in a classroom, what is the probability that at least two of them have the same birthday?
it’s tricky for several reasons I won’t get into. most people would think it’s a 1 in 30 chance (3.33%). turns out it’s around 70% = highly likely.

I’m also reminded of the Monty Hall problem…

statistics can be fun!

my Dreamer sold 2750g. I was undercut twice before it sold, both by about 100g
looks like someone listed 2 of them at 2600 like 4 hours after mine sold. nicccccce. now now it’s down to 2500. yikes.
looking at spidy records, it looks like OP was undercut for a total of 3 hours then his sold 14 hours later. a happy ending.

instead of a “promotions” page, I’d really like a “what has changed since the last time I looked here” page to be what you see when you go to the gem store.
They had been advertising that royal terrace 2-week junk for weeks. then it gets changed to permanent for a day. I am not surprised I didn’t realize a word or two had changed in that ad.

Zaxares.5419:

That’s named dropped armor though. I’m looking for confirmation that dungeon armor with non-craftable stats (like AC gear with Soldier’s stats) do give the insignia when salvaged.

they do.
look closely at the gear stats and make sure you’re getting the right ones. each dungeon merchant has 3 stat types, and I’m pretty sure all the names are the same.

Wanze.8410:

Mystic.5934:

some real-world examples:
https://tradingpost-live.ncplatform.net/search?text=&type=0&rarity=5&levelmin=0&levelmax=80
(you need to go to https://tradingpost-live.ncplatform.net/authenticate first)
sort by price, start at ones with sell listings:
1) Cleric’s Exalted Masque 70s (NO insignia)
2) Berserker’s Duelist Mask of Strength 74s (YES insignia)
…
34) Giver’s Draconic Coat 77s (NO insignia)
35) Giver’s Emblazoned Helm 77s (NO insignia)
36) Carrion Pit Fighter Gauntlets of the Afflicted 77s (YES insignia)
…
76) Magi’s Exalted mantle 78s (NO insignia)
79) Magi’s Draconic Boots 78s (NO insignia)
98) Magi’s Emblazoned Gloves 78s (NO insignia)
100) Magi’s Draconic Helm 78s (NO insignia)
110) Magi’s Exalted Gloves 78s (NO insignia)

so, yeah. the first many magi’s items would not give insignia

ACTUALLY
I added the search term “Magi’s” and it returned 18 items; all crafted. apparently there are no exotics with “Magi’s” prefix that can drop in the wild.
there are no named armor sets with magi stats either… is the only source of magi insignia from dungeon armor? (dungeons with magi armor: AC, TA, HotW)

I should point out that most of those others in the top-100 list probably would give a profit if salvaged – just not magi’s. BLSK is about 1g per use + 77s to buy item, 61% chance of getting insignia = if you get 2.9g back from selling everything salvaging gives you you break even. insignia sells for maybe 3.2g + ectos sell for around 61s = 3.2g after tax = 30s profit. of course, this depends entirely on the sale price of the insignia

Neither Berserker (nr. 2) nor Carrion (nr.36) Insignias (or Incriptions) are salvageable from any kind of gear as Zerker and Carrion are craftable.

sorry, my bad. wasn’t paying enough attention to that part of what I was saying.

That defense infusion slot is another main benefit to ascended armor.
sure, you get +2 stats to the item, but the infusions can have +5 stat and +1% dmg vs. wvw guards and such. that bumps it to +7 stats higher than exotic (plus more dmg to guards). on all 6 armors, that’s a +54 stat difference for med armor without infusion; +84 stat difference for med armor with infusion.
that’s half the stats a Plate of Orrian Streak Frittes gives you right there.

apparently you even used to be able to search for armor of a certain weight, but that was removed very early on.

my guess is people expect prices to bounce back down, and they have their buy orders sitting there at 8c when that happens.

OP had a very good question.
sad that Vol burst that bubble.
looking at spidy for the past month, it looks like 10 Eternities that were listed as sell listings were taken off the TP. Most likely these represent 10 sales of Eternity, but it’s possible the lister took it off themself. buy orders looks like 6 were fulfilled, though it’s much more likely those were just people placing a buy order then canceling it a few minutes later.
yes, legendariers do sell if prices fairly.
:*( I just checked the status of my Dreamer for sale. looks like 2 people have undercut me since I listed it 2 days ago, and both have sold quickly. mine will take longer to sell.

some real-world examples:
https://tradingpost-live.ncplatform.net/search?text=&type=0&rarity=5&levelmin=0&levelmax=80
(you need to go to https://tradingpost-live.ncplatform.net/authenticate first)
sort by price, start at ones with sell listings:
1) Cleric’s Exalted Masque 70s (NO insignia)
2) Berserker’s Duelist Mask of Strength 74s (YES insignia)
…
34) Giver’s Draconic Coat 77s (NO insignia)
35) Giver’s Emblazoned Helm 77s (NO insignia)
36) Carrion Pit Fighter Gauntlets of the Afflicted 77s (YES insignia)
…
76) Magi’s Exalted mantle 78s (NO insignia)
79) Magi’s Draconic Boots 78s (NO insignia)
98) Magi’s Emblazoned Gloves 78s (NO insignia)
100) Magi’s Draconic Helm 78s (NO insignia)
110) Magi’s Exalted Gloves 78s (NO insignia)

so, yeah. the first many magi’s items would not give insignia

ACTUALLY
I added the search term “Magi’s” and it returned 18 items; all crafted. apparently there are no exotics with “Magi’s” prefix that can drop in the wild.
there are no named armor sets with magi stats either… is the only source of magi insignia from dungeon armor? (dungeons with magi armor: AC, TA, HotW)

I should point out that most of those others in the top-100 list probably would give a profit if salvaged – just not magi’s. BLSK is about 1g per use + 77s to buy item, 61% chance of getting insignia = if you get 2.9g back from selling everything salvaging gives you you break even. insignia sells for maybe 3.2g + ectos sell for around 61s = 3.2g after tax = 30s profit. of course, this depends entirely on the sale price of the insignia

that’s why they made them soulbound when they first came out. they only changed them to account bound when people complained.
that said, it would be nice to buy 1 pick and use it on 8 alts. cheaper, too.

months ago, my guild farmed the dredge fractal for a few hours (we would leave and remake after killing the ones in the tank). made about 5g/hour each just in bags. level 10 vs. 20 gave about the same – 20 gave more bags but took longer.
dredge is neutral to me. long, sometimes noobs will make it fail but don’t have to restart from that far back, but high rewards.
cliffside is my dreaded one. easy to fail especially with noobs, failure results in a huge restart, very few rewards.

inscription / insignia do NOT have the same drop rates as their stated ‘rarer’ materials.
with MSK, you have a 42.35% chance of getting it
with BLSK, you have a 61.21% chance of getting it
I personally tested these with over 400 exotics each

Shaman’s and Magi armor that didn’t give insignia… only thing that comes to mind is it was crafted. a simple way to tell if it was crafted: crafted has no socket. So If you were salvaging “Shaman’s Emblazoned Coat” = no insignia. If you were salvaging “Shaman’s Acolyte Coat of the Dolyak” = chance at insignia.
Out of 21 salvages with BLSK, the chance of getting 0 is low enough that it’s out of the question (.00000023% = 1 in 433,395,730)
Another simple way to tell which should and shouldn’t give insignia: “Draconic”, “Emblazoned”, “Exalted” are all the exotic crafted armors and do not give insignia.

There are several exotic weapons that don’t give inscriptions even though they should:
Guild Defender, King’s Remembrance, The Ugly Stick, Poyaqui’s Noggin, Occultist Flame, Scepter of the Highborn, Defiant Blaze, Faithful, Monsoon, Dire Pearl.
I’m not 100% sure, but out of 10 salvages each (5 with each kit), I got 0, so I’m pretty sure and don’t want to keep testing = 0.0559%

And a few exotic weapons that should give inscriptions but I haven’t tested due to cost:
Azureflame, Courage, Feathers of Dwayna, Jormag’s Breath, Komalie’s Sacrificial Blade, Kryta’s Salvation, Melandru’s Gaze, Genesis, Eye of Rodgort, Glint’s Scale, Lidless Eye, Squeedily Spooch, Titans’ Vengance, Arachnophobia

of course, if the order does go through, you are one happy camper.
I believe Creed Bratton said something about always betting on million-to-one odds, because every once in a while you’ll turn $1 into $1,000,000.

it’s on the list of things I want the TP to be able to do.

One thing that is currently possible: heavy / medium / light for each level tier have different names. “reinforced” = heavy, “leather” = medium, “pirate” I think is medium, “scale” = heavy, etc. Then there’s the crafted ones like Exalted, Emblazoned, etc.

when you click ‘Remove’, the gold is placed in your ‘items to be picked up’ tab – you have to go pick it up to get it into your wallet.

I thought I heard that upgrade extractor can’t be used on infusions. that would likely be the only place you want to use it atm.
the listable item on the TP has the rune in it. can’t list any modified items.
Black Lion Salvage Kit was probably your best choice.

are you saying the UI is difficult or getting the right ingredients is difficult?

I played Diablo 2 and Diablo 3.
GW2 is NOT a grindfest. grinding would be: defeat shadow behemoth 10 times a day because Final Rest has the potential to have the highest stats of any staff in the game, and every time you get one you get random stats, and you’re hoping for rolling (a) the exact 3 stats you want and (b) max on all 3.

an “unsalvageable” title would be AWESOME. right below their “unique” title and “account bound” and “soulbound on acquire”.
I tried to retrieve my traveler runes from radiant gloves the other day… yeah. figured it was still worth it to use a T crystal.

which worlds? I know that you can’t join dungeons made by EU players if you are in NA and visa versa.

if in a golem, couldn’t you wp then walk through a gate? or just wp then relogin?

I believe in sPvP all of your stats are from your amulet. you can buy new amulets with different stat combos for free from one of the glory vendors. armor is purely cosmetic.

Skill Points are unlimited, but you don’t have many in low levels. Take a look at your skills and buy the ones you want. no need to save them.
Traits you can also assign freely as you get them. Use the training manuals to increase how many points you can assign to each part. Talk to your profession’s trainer to reset your trait points for a very small cost. when they are reset, you just get them all back and can re-assign them to any character build you want.

go with the karmic infusion!
karma is harder to get than gold and mf (you have luck for that one), and the infusion will affect every source except potions.

I still can’t believe how hard it is to catch these people. just have some sort of “if position is more than 1000 units away from previous location 1 second ago and you are not near a wp, flag as potential hacker.” then reduce that distance under certain conditions, such as in a golem or crippled, and increase under others, such as using RTL.

apps can be legal. it’s all in what they do.
sure, it’s possible to write an app that will make buy orders for you. I’d consider that against the rules (as 1 click = 10,000 buy orders)
however, an app could just give you a list of items, how much they currently cost, what you can get out of them by salvaging, how much the salvaged material would sell for, then order it by (sell-cost). it’s just giving you information. so 1 click = 0 actions. later, you place buy orders yourself.
here’s an example of a similar list: http://www.gw2spidy.com/crafting/3

I thought linen was just fine-weave cotton?
nope, wiki says you’re right.
wonder what I was thinking of…

not only do I pop the big gift, grab present, run, but I also stun break and cloak so I’m not even put in combat – can’t have that present (singular, mind you, I rarely get more than one) taking too much time.
yeah, the mobs seem to never drop anything.

multi-threading; as in using multiple CPU cores at the same time? I’m pretty sure it does – at least I remember all of them being active when I checked. Can’t exactly remember specifically checking, but I’ll do that tonight and get back to you!

which areas? some are more popular than others. every level range has several areas for those levels. maybe try another area if one is deserted?
for level 12, Queensdale comes to mind as a very populous place. with metrica being 2nd. and Caledon 3rd.

2 types of players: savers and spenders. savers save gold for when they want something in the future. spenders will collect just enough gold until they have what they need to buy what they set out to get. the spenders are the ones who complain that precursors are too pricey – because it takes them months to save enough to buy one. savers will wake up one morning after those same months of saving and say ‘oh look, I have enough for a precursor, let’s make a legendary’
I’m actually more jealous of people with 3+ million karma. karma is much harder to get (currently) than gold. It’s basically the reason I can’t make and sell legendaries every other week.

they are not even prices as a convenience item. it is literally cheaper to convert those same gems to gold then buy whatever stat item you need. same with upgrade extractor. what they are good for is to have in case you screw up transmuting a legendary, or something similar.

that sale ended the 23rd? O.o I just exchanged presents with a friend on the 25th and got the discount. I made use of it, but my friends don’t need those kits as much as I do, so I was limited with how many I could buy

edit: “From now through December 31, every time you purchase an item as a gift for a friend or guildmate, you’ll be given the option to purchase the same item for yourself at 40% off the current price”
it’s not over yet!

honestly, I’m not sure which I want more: an explanation for why this is here, or it to be fixed.
it truly is one of those wtf-were-they-thinking-I-must-know-so-I-can-mock things.

6,500g + about 3,000g invested

method: an hour of TP Wars 2 each day for 100-300g profit, then play the game for fun. Also, when you have enough non-purchasables to make your legendary; sell it. almost every single legendary gives around 200-500g profit if sold instead of used. don’t buy every new thing that comes out in the gem store. re-outfitting your character is just gold that can’t be invested.

a couple better ways Anet could handle kicking someone from a party:
- can’t be done while in an instance
- kicking them also resets your instance progress
- when you kick someone, the recording of the last half hour of your experience is subjected to administrative review and if the kick was clearly uncalled for, you are banned for a week.
- when someone is kicked, they are moved to an instance that is identical to the one you kicked from. They can then recruit 4 more people and finish it off from there. potential problem: a guild repeats the final boss to something for rewards. solution to that problem: can’t get rewards more than once from any instance that was duplicated in this way (if you got them in the first instance, you can’t in any subsequent ones).

as far as I know, there is no way to return gifts. possibly with a support ticket, but that’s kinda invasive. best to just ask your friend if they have it. or, if you want to be a bit sneaky, tell them you want to get them someone but that you need a screenshot of everything they have so you can be sure you don’t get them someone they already have.

just a splitter should give you 2 items – one with your look and the other with your stats. just store the stat ones and use the look ones.

or, what is likely cheaper: buy a 2nd set of the look you want for your other gear set. splitters cost an arm and an ear each!

if they put BLSK on sale, I’d buy 500 of them.
I’m aware it was recently on sale. no one told me!

crazy conspiracy time: They added this as an anti-bot feature, but it was actually suggested by someone who wanted a way to make his bot have the upper hand on real players (in that his bot could be programmed to wait long enough to not get this, and thus list thousands of times more items on the TP than a human)

find the best insignia or inscription for the price. that is likely the best profit to be had from your situation.
wait… which tokens? if it’s cof, there are no armors or weapons that give inscriptions or insignia. (all the others have one or more of the necessary stat types)
I think I found that BLSK gives more profit if the inscription/insignia is worth more than 5g (it has higher return rates, but costs more) – unless you get them for free, in which case you should use them.

salvaging rares for ectos is 2nd on my list of profitability from dungeon tokens. basically, go this route if you can’t get a inscription/insignia worth more than 4g from any of the exotics.

MF fodder is plan ‘C’ for me. I’m not a fan of gambling. It’s not a bad return, just not as guaranteed.

I noticed zero performance difference between bootcamp and mac beta client.
At first, there was also zero problems with best appearance settings.
however, starting around June, I have been plagued with crashing problems. usually setting to lower graphics fixes it. also the TP sometimes doesn’t work and need to re-login to make it work. But I feel like the bootcamp version had the same problem, so that wouldn’t be mac-only.
honestly, I’m ok with zero communication (though I can see how others would be comforted by it). But just listen to us and fix reported problems. The worst is to have known issues for a year and nothing is done about it.

try reducing graphics settings to best performance. If that eliminates the problem, increase one setting at a time until you find the one that breaks it, then keep that one lower.
that’s what solved my crash-on-doing-anything problem/

edit: I don’t have the same computer as volbogt (I’m on a Mac Pro with a Radeon HD 5870). Just saying it’s probably not limited to that computer.