Guild Wars 2

First, are we referring to the cheap ones (like the Princess Wand, Candy Cane Hammer, Slinghot, etc.) or the Winter weapons (with the snowflake effect)?

If it’s the former, yes there are lots of them on the Trading Post and they’re cheap. So what? It’s not like everyone will use them. The impression I’ve gotten is that they’re considered ugly or just not fitting for the aesthetics of most. Either way, having the ability to get them without needing the Trading Post is still a good thing for those who want to get them that way.

The Winter skins (the rare ones) still cost over 100 gold for the most part and are very limited. Being able to get those without relying on the Trading Post or Black Lion Tickets is still a good thing, if they’ve allowed for it (probably not.)

Remember when the Super Adventure Box came back with new skins, but none of the previous ones? That was a bad idea (among other things they did, but that’s not relevant here).

“But you can just buy them off the Trading Post!”

Not quite. There were the Tribulation Skins, which you couldn’t get that way, and the Super Backpack, (which was only available from Moto, not as a drop, and thus wasn’t sellable at all) which I wanted another of.

They did that with Halloween this year too. No Greatsaw, Grinning Shield, or Mad Memories, and a few other skins from the first time. Although they did give quite a few new ones, most if not all of them required Black Lion Tickets (or just buying it off the Trading Post), and the craftable weapons had the requirements for them ridiculously scaled up, making it impossible to do without grinding the Labyrinth and using the Trading Post to get what you needed. Or having the recipes from the first time. Halloween was quite a disappointment because of that, among other things.

So, no. Being able to obtain all the skins from last time is a good thing, since this event only happens around this time of year. All these arguments for exclusivity (because that’s what it really is) all sound like this: “I got this, now I don’t want anyone else to be able to get it!”

If you don’t want the skins, just ignore them.

Why were they reintroduced? Because Wintersday is back. It wouldn’t make sense not to.

Are you all referring to the cheap Wintersday skins (Princess Wand, Candy Cane Hammer, Toy Staff, Slingshot, etc.) or those other wooden ones that had the snowflake effect? (Winter skins)

Either way, it’s good that they’re all available again.

Thank you. Now those troll threads will hopefully stop happening.

Answer (to this thread title): No. No, no, no. Please no.

Answer(to the thread title): No thanks.

To me, it was this. And nothing else has topped that so far.

And this is why they should’ve stuck with waypoints.

That could work, if the tree’s physiology is enough like a regular tree. Still, injecting it directly into the heart directly probably works faster.

Besides, that makes the NPCs stupid, not us. They’re the ones who came up with the plan. :P

It only happens in the character select picture and in the face thumbnails for the Total Makeover Kit, but in them, my asura looks like she making a dopey smile with “deer in headlights” eyes. It’s somewhat disturbing. Anyone else notice it? Some of the other faces look like they’re a little more stretched in the thumbnails too, but this is the most noticeable one for me. Anyone else see it?

I don’t get it…

So, what’s the cheapest laptop then that can play it well?

Please define “playable frame rates”. 30 FPS? Higher than that?

Medium graphics will be fine. I have no delusions about a laptop handling high end graphic and seamless frame rate simultaneously.

I can go higher than 600$, but I want to be sure what I’m getting is good.

Does anyone know one that can handle Guild Wars 2 decently and is no higher than around 500$ in price? I’m not really sure about how all the different things like CPU and processors help with what, so I thought I’d ask here.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Meanwhile, a ranger hunting in Frostgorge Sound comes across this…

Touching it knocks you back, and the object itself reprimands you for doing that. Okay…

The Invasive Weed’s next plot, I’m guessing? Whatever.

It’s Dessa. But yes..even that weird happening with Dessa at the end was more interesting than anything that happened in the Thaumanova Fractal.

This topic is acceptable to me. I do not like the Invasive Weed.

So um….yeah..a complete letdown. Annoying gimmicks and puzzles, annoying and unnecessary amounts of enemies, the bosses aren’t anything memorable, besides the creepy looking final boss, and having Scarlet “Invasive Weed” Briar turn out to be behind this as well killed any interest I had in the Thaumanova Fractal. We learned nothing besides “Scarlet was here, oh and Dessa had some former krewemates that worked there. Too bad they’re dead.” Nothing worthwhile.

What’s especially annoying is that people who like doing Fractals have to get through this story instance in order to keep playing them, and people who don’t like Fractals but want to see the story are forced to be introduced to them in a very bad way. I actually have less interest in Fractals than I did previously…I didn’t think that was possible!

Sure, there are other things, like changes to Fractal levels, agony resist changes, and other stuff…but since I’m not playing Fractals anyway, that doesn’t matter to me as of right now, and not anytime in the near future.

There are new Gem Store armor skins…which are reskins of the Tier 3 Human Light Armor, and 2 karma armor sets…I think. Except they have a fiery glow now. Really, that’s it? Why not just adapt/redesign all the cultural armors so that all races could use them instead, or make new sets? Now it’s just reskins? Sigh….

I like this game, I really do. But this “Living Story” doesn’t work. It’s time for it to stop. The holiday stuff can and should keep going and be improved upon, but the Living Story…and Scarlet Briar..both need to go away.

It’s time for an expansion. Something for the Crystal Desert, the Tarnished Coast, the Maguuma Wastes, the Blood Legion Homelands, the Far Shiverpeaks. There are 5 other dragons and their minions still out there. What happened to that? What about the other mysteries and lore that remain unresolved to this day? I’m not even talking about Cantha and Elona here. Tyria itself still has so much you could explore. And yet, nearly a year has been wasted on the “Living Story”. I’m sick of trying to care, only to be let down every time.

Stop it. Stop with Scarlet. Stop with the Living Story. Give us some actually good content….Heh..as if. Who am I kidding?

After getting out, there’s some more dialogue with Dessa and Kiel. Kiel wants to take Dessa with her for questioning, but Dessa leaves..then reappears, without remembering anything of the Thaumanova Fractal she just sent us to….interesting?

Oh, and there’s a boss. Apparently the energies turned into a final boss to fight on these holo-platforms above the reactor core. Why? Who knows. Just kill it.

It shoots beams at you and can make the platforms disappear temporarily (and eventually can get rid of them permanently when at low health). Obviously, falling off is instant death. Aside from that cheap gimmick, it doesn’t take too long to kill.

After you win, you’re in a white room of limbo in between fractals, I guess. Get the chest and get out. Sigh.

NO Nonono NO NO!

Why..just why..really? I read all the joking that she’d be here, but I really thought that was all joking…I did not think that the writers would actually be that predictable at this point.

Haven’t they realized by now that most of us (at least on the forums, anyway) utterly despise this character? Give it up. You can’t make us like her or care about what she’s up to anymore. She had her chance and wasted it every time. We’re sick of her. Find whatever retcon singularity she popped out of and throw her back in.

The sad thing is, we don’t really learn anything besides “she was there”. We don’t know if she started the experiment, sabotaged it, or anything. She was just there for it. She’s apparently learned about some network of magical channels but so what? I don’t care anymore.

Another story with potential ruined. The Invasive Weed was here.

There was also a cooling rod in the room with the ooze, which is apparently needed to get through the super heated radiation of death room to the last collider. But since we only needed to shut down 2 colliders, that last one’s unnecessary.

Although, I suppose you could solo the instance, you’d have to just skip the repulsor puzzle, somehow beat Subject 6 all by yourself, then use the cooling rod to get through the death chamber…provided there wasn’t another stupid puzzle to open that. Who knows…

Anyway, now to go get the sample and…I know that voice..no..no..noo…NO NO NO NO NO NO!

Moving on a ways from the annoying puzzle, we find a giant ooze named Subject 6. It spews out AoE, summons blue oozes that heal it, and has a shield stance with an explosive counter if you hit it during that. Another annoying gimmicky boss fight. Yay.

Another very annoying thing with this instance is that there are no waypoints or checkpoints in the level, meaning that if you died, you couldn’t respawn. They fixed this a few hours later..except it only respawns you back at the start if the whole party is defeated. So if too many die and can’t be revived (say, in the repulsor puzzle), the remaining members have to die, or the defeated members have to go back to the character select and get back in.

Sigh…how do you even overlook something like that? Really…

Oh, and I didn’t mention this earlier, but apparently Dessa had two previous krewemates working there who are now dead. It would’ve been nice if they were alive somewhere and we could rescue/talk to them, maybe learn something about the disaster or what was going on to lead up to it, but no…just dead NPCs with names. Whatever.

Ok…one disconnect later, and I returned, with a party this time, ready to do this right. Turns out there were two panels in the repulsor lab, the one I found was to deactivate the forcefield leading to another one that you must also use at the same time to lower the field so someone can use the big wall console…I think. Hooray for stupid puzzles.

Afterwards, there’s a button inside past that console to teleport out of the lab.

So, into the repulsor lab. Things get explained okay…thankfully there are safety shields to guard against these repulsors that they put in a mini-labyrinth for some reason…Except they didn’t bother to mention that the console to disable the field around the collider is in another spot…and is timed, apparently.

Killed some veteran skritt, then Dessa says that the core’s too hot to get a sample. I need to disable two colliders before continuing.

And now for something annoying: these unstable portals. They pull you to them as they open near you, also spawning a few veterans around them as well. It’s not fun trying to get around here, fighting enemies with annoying amounts of health and trying to get where I need to go only to get suddenly yanked into a party of veterans, or into the “chaos lava” below.

Stealthing and skipping away from that first unstable portal, we can overhear a conversation between a pair of Inquest.

Disguised as an Inquest…better that than Flame Legion.

So Kiel made good on her Fractal promise. Good for her. No new mail this time, you just have to know to go there.

Kiel’s kind of a jerk here to Dessa.

Oh, and she’s apparently leaving for a while…and she just walks right out a portal in front of us while we watch her do so. Then we fight the boss, inject the antitoxin, and it’s done…all that’s left is to finish the meta achievement and never return.

I think this video sums it up better than me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZU8h-9nyHU

“Here, let me recap everything I’ve been behind like you should care!”

On one hand, it does catch up those who’ve joined/started midway through this. On the other hand it’s also very annoying to hear her ramble on over what is otherwise a nice looking cut-scene.

Did I mention she’s ugly? Seriously…even the “ugly faces” in Sylvari character creation have some measure of beauty to them. Not this weed.

Fight through some Twisted waves, then some Aetherblade waves, and finally some Molten waves. Along the way, Kasmeer got pricked by a thorn. Some seem to think that may imply something bad will happen to her. Hopefully not, though.

Finally, we get to the main chamber, and a few more Toxics who deliver a not so great welcome. Then….she comes in.

So apparently Scarlet (and the Nightmare faction with her) have convinced the krait that they’re incarnating one of their true prophets inside the tower. I guess that works.

Story? Well….

In the Nightmare chambers (the first one you go into) Kasmeer and Marjory talk about the hallucinations. Kasmeer suggests that Scarlet is exerting some influence once the toxins have weakened our defenses, making us see specific hallucinations like Aetherblades, Molten Alliance, and other characters see people they know as well.

Rox sees Rytlock.

Braham claims he can see Eir out the corner of his eye, and thinks she’s spying on him. As if, Braham.

Marjory sees Mendel..sigh.

Kasmeer sees her (dead?) father.

Afterwards, once you get to the top chamber..you find that even though the Priory got the antitoxin ready for injection, they didn’t get to use it. So you have to finish what they started.

Pictured: Bad enemy layout. Seriously, how am I supposed to fight all that in the toxic stuff? Might as well run…although, depending on how many dodges/stunbreaks/stability you have at the time, that will fail a lot as well. As shown here..

The third floor has the toxic debuff constantly on, save for some “safe spots” where there are air purifiers that the Toxic forces didn’t destroy, thankfully. Not sure why they didn’t but…(shrug)

So, let’s see…mines, gated events, annoying amount of enemies, no travel golem straight to the top if you got there at least…pretty much another zerg-fest to get the meta and then stay away. It’s a shame, in concept, the tower was yet another good idea, just not done so well…. the tower also looks nice on the inside, for a toxic haven of evil.

2nd floor is pretty much like the first floor, but with spiders and spider webs. So it’s worse, basically.

One of the few good parts (gameplay-wise) is the Nightmare Chambers, where you can get some dialogue between some of the Living Story characters, as well as some dialogue from the Invasive Weed referring to your second storyline choice (provided you completed it).

Depending on your race, order, and how much personal story you’ve completed, you can end up fighting hallucinations of your respective Destiny’s Edge mentor, your order mentor…and a certain character reviled by most.

Stand and fight? No, better to run most of the time. Usually you’ll just draw more enemies to you in the process of fighting, then their conditions/AoE become too much for you to handle.

And it gets worse if you’re in a spot where a gating group event can spawn (and it does), meaning even more enemies come at you, or you’re stuck with little room to move, in order to avoid getting their attention. This applies to the minefields as well.

Oh, and when you die, you’ll have to restart at the waypoint at the very start, repair your armor, and start over/pay the travel golems, then try to get back to where you were. Ugh.

And the worst idea: “Gated” events forcing you to complete them before you can move on. Always being group events. Never again.

Despite the enemy below being a veteran, it’s actually closer to elite strength. On top of that, it has ranged non projectile attacks and constantly whittles your health away with the “spore field” and hallucination minions that spawn as well.

And depending on the scaling, it can be a champion instead, making it near impossible without a mini-zerg.

Annoying amounts of veterans and elites, as well as mortars and mines. If anyone gets downed in the minefield, it’s almost never worth the trouble to revive them, as any revivers must avoid any nearby enemies and the constantly respawning mines.

Without swiftness, you have to dodge every time just to be sure you won’t be hit, as well as stunbreakers to get back up if you are hit, otherwise you can get ping-ponged to death.

Bad idea.

Why not just destroy the air filters so we can’t get in? Or do they not care at all? Maybe they’re really bored and want us to get in…meh.

Only one waypoint, and travel golems that cost more than waypoints to go between levels. None for the top, though. Wouldn’t want it to be too convenient. Not so good idea.

Better yet, let us stow our pets in battle/change the pet system so we can use them in some other way besides being a glorified summon you can never be rid of.

Necromancers at least have the option to not use/rely on minions.

I didn’t yawn, but I don’t really care. Then again, I’m not a fractal runner, so…(shrugs)

Aetherblade Retreat and Molten Facility really should’ve had their own entrances outside of Fractals of the Mists. Unless we’re getting the option to choose them independently of the random rotation, I won’t care enough to see them again.

Thaumanova might be interesting….but the Invasive Weed had better not be part of that, or it’ll just annoy me. Also, it should also be independent of the random rotation. I remember how annoying it was to re-start over and over just to get the Cliffside Fractal for that kite that was somehow halfway through the level (Bit of advice: Never do that again).

Whenever I try making this armor using the wiki recipe, I get Light Armageddon armor instead. So, is it changed or is this more annoying RNG at work again?