Guild Wars 2

winterlove.6834:

doing the find holotapes has me running around but the story star disappeared wondering how to find it. I know for certain it should be somewhere in the HoT content but cant seem to find it anywhere. I know where it was but its gone bout to try a repair don’t kinpow how else to get it to appear. ok repair done nothing. I can see the stars in most lands leading me to auric basin but when I get there no star

the predators path

Ah, you must be looking for the last one.

There’s a nearly naked norn that will talk to you the first time you get close to him. He’ll tell you that he saw one of the creatures carry the disk away and up into a tree. You have to head for a nearby enemy camp (looks like they killed the original camp owners), and get up into a large hollow tree that’s part of the overhead of the camp. Jump off the very end of the inside, and catch an updraft to the upper outside of the fallen tree. There’s your disk.

BellatorDeus.2310:

One thing HoT gets you is the vertical dimension. I don’t believe any other MMO has done it as well. All MMOs give you the 2D experience — running a basically flat map. But in HoT you have to deal with massive differences in height — which is why gliding is required. There are many places you can’t get to until you travel to a high point and then glide across the map to the point you need to reach. I personally think this is a MMO breakthrough.

CoH had Super Jumping, full-on Flight, and mid-air combat. HoT does well enough for non-combat gliding, but… yeah. Hardly a breakthrough.

Still, I’d have to say that gliding IS one of the best parts of HoT, especially out in the main world. It’s just a pity that you have to gain and level it in the HoT zones.

Actually… I think it may get fixed a bit, but remain a 1-handed “broken” sword.

Remember the Sanguinary Blade, from the Priory storyline? And have you ever wondered why the dwarves made such a dangerous weapon? Well, I think they were trying to make ::points at Caladbolg:: that. They just didn’t know how to purify it.

The Priory also has Zhaitan’s tail, or at least the bones of his tail. They could use those to make a weapon as well, another sword or perhaps a staff. Once purified, both it and the Sanguinary Blade should be on par with what Caladbolg can do as far as defying the powers of another Elder Dragon.

First off, HoT was supposedly short on content because a lot of the development was on systems and background work for future use. So, to justify that, the next expansion is going to be ANet’s “put up or shut up” moment. If they can’t deliver big, then people will be asking “just what have we been paying you for?” Not just players, but NCSoft suits as well.

As to the plot, I think we’re going to see the races and orders split apart again some after the events of HoT. This is especially true of the orders. The expansion will be where all the various plot lines start to come together once again.

Demented Sheep.1642:

Ardid.7203:

new emotes will add to the experience of every GW2 player

Technically, in the sense that everyone will be able to use them but is it a worthwhile addition? How often do most players even use emotes beyond dance when they’re bored and waiting for something to happen? I would like to have more emotes but it’s very very very low on the priority list.

I think that brings up a good question of what emotes would be the most useful? Not only for players, but for the devs as well?

A “juggling kittens” emote might be entertaining, but it’s really not of much use to the devs. An emote of leaning against a wall, or counting stuff and marking it off on a clipboard, however, could be used by NPCs in a lot of places.

Some classes are just better at some Weapon Master stuff than others.

Mace? Use a Warrior. Shield? Guardians do AoE damage with one shield ability. And as Tman mentions, ambient creatures count for this. 1hp pigs, bunnies, chickens, deer, or what have you. Find some and wipe them out. Just… don’t go for the chickens in Ebonhawke.

In the main Tyria zones, yes.

In the HoT zones, each zone has a chain of events going on that makes a story of a sort, so you’ll have to deal with that. It may not make much sense if you’ve not done any of the personal/living story, but you can still just do events and go along with the flow without it.

When you get to Dry Top, you may feel a bit lost. There’s a path that the story shows you, that you’re supposed to follow to open up the zone past the town. Just look inside the buildings when you get to the town, and you’ll find a tunnel in one that leads to the rest of the zone.

Other than that, all you’ll miss out on are rewards that you can live without, and access to the shortcut asura gates in Fort Trinity.

As for the heart “quests” in most non HoT zones, you don’t have to do them. But I would suggest doing them anyway for EXP and to unlock the heart person as a merchant. It’s good EXP, and you usually clear them if you do any events in the area anyway.

Edit: Actually, if you get HoT, you’ll need to run the very first mission of HoT’s story at least once. That gets you into the first HoT zone, and unlocks the Mastery system. But it’s a fairly straightforward mission, and you can ignore them after that if you really want to.

Avarice.2791:

@Palador

And… What makes you think they’re exclusively working on new raid wings?

They’re not. We all know that.

However, they’ve stated that we’ll not see LS3 until after the third and final wing of the raid is released. That’s the SOONEST we’ll see it, mind you, by their own words.

And the “common sense” is that bored people don’t keep playing the same old game. They tend to move on and find something more interesting to do. I’m sure you’d agree with that, right? If not, then they’d never need to make any new content for anyone.

Right now, it’s the non-raiding players that are bored, because the only recent content has been raids. And the next upcoming content, again by ANet’s own words, is raids.

I’m just saying, I didn’t say I’d quit the game when they added in keg brawl. That mini-game offers a nifty title. I didn’t rage because I had no kegbrawl team and I didn’t claim that I was going to quit the game and that all Anet is doing is catering to the hardcore kegbrawl players. Where’s my free title???

This isn’t about rage quitting, it’s about quitting because the game’s no longer fun. People do that all the time, no matter how they define fun. When they stop having fun, players tend to leave.

I’m not trying to start an argument with you, really. Nor am I trying to demand that the raids be removed. I just wanted to point out that you were getting into a no-win argument there, one you may not have seen for what it was.

Avarice.2791:

Tumult.2578:

Wait another month or two, till many more players have left and ask again.

It will be more popular then, with fewer responses.

So where are you getting the facts from this claim? Does it make you mad when Anet tries to cater to more types of gamers than you? Are you like “man I love this game but I can’t stand that other players are having fun in content I have no wish to access.”

Actually, I’d say this one is common sense.

Casual players have had no new content lately. Those that don’t consider HoT to be casual have gone for over a year without new content aimed at them. It’s only natural to assume they’re getting bored and more likely to move on than the raiders are. And as the casuals leave faster than the raiders, the raids will appeal to a greater percentage of the population.

Now, if you want to disagree with him, that’s fine. But realize that what you’re saying is that the raiders are the ones leaving faster, despite the raid content released for them, and it’s the casuals that are the loyal customers. Which would basically destroy any reason ANet has to continue on with making raids, as they’d be throwing good effort after bad.

Best advice? Use an empty slot to start a new character, and play away.

It’s seriously the best way to learn the basics again, some of which have changed.

Sansorin Winterwind.5891:

So ppl only play the specialized classes in pvp now?

Not everyone, no. But when you look at the people that are serious about PvP and winning, you’ll find many if not most of them are.

Were raids in GW2 a bad idea?

Well, I’d say ‘yes’, but I’d also say that they had to try them at some point. ANet is very focused on trying new things in GW2. Sooner or later the question of raids would have to happen.

I fully expect the second full raid (not wing) to be the last we’ll see of raids in this game. IF ANet decides to deliver on more “hard core” content after that point, I’m sure they’ll have some new idea to go with. Of course, they may just abandon that idea entirely. The fact is, there’s only so far they can go with “better loot” without starting a gear treadmill. And without that better loot, I don’t see most raiders bothering with it.

With all that said, I still think bringing in raids was a bad idea. It was going to happen, and it has happened. So, let’s just get it over with and move on.

Until you hit level 80, the only thing you’re missing in PvE and WvW is access to Revenant. The rest of it is level 80+ stuff.

Now in PvP, you get the elite specs unlocked if you own HoT, and only if you own it. And yes, some will say that not having the elite specs IS a downside, and that they’re still stronger in PvP than the base classes. If winning in PvP matters a lot to you, you’ll want HoT.

Otherwise, I’d say to take your time, and find it on sale somewhere. Don’t pay full price for it before you need it. Rev alone isn’t worth it.

I believe that when a company shows that it can deliver good product, it’s okay to pre-order it.

Yesterday, I pre-ordered (Pokemon) Sun and Moon. I have no doubt this is a good choice.

I very much doubt I’ll do the same with the next GW2 expansion.

Let’s not be too hard on the guy, please.

If he’d been fired for GW2’s current state, I’m sure they’d be making some big news about a “new direction” or whatever with him leaving. So, not fired.

And it was part of his job to be the big face on the front of the hype train. Which means that he takes every failure and roadblock in the teeth. Being a public face and having to spout PR BS during that can be tough. (I’m sure Gaile agrees, even if she can’t say so.) When you reach a point where you’re about to post what you REALLY think on some things, it may be time to move on.

Yes, I’m sure there will be changes. But they won’t be right away. The path is set for at least the rest of this year. We might see minor changes from his replacement before the end of the year, but it’s more likely that we won’t see any real impact until 2017.

I for one wish him and his family the best of luck. Just… you know… far away from GW2. I may not hate the guy, I don’t even know him, but the public image he presented was annoying as kitten and I’m glad it’s gone.

Deedrick.4372:

Maybe anet should have a gem store option, where you can pay to disable it for x hours. Then we would see who really had a problem with it.

Only if we gate access to the raids in the same way. Then we’ll see who really wants them.

Asumita.2174:

lol hold on, just being sarcastic here. I’m one of those “casuals” locked out of the ascended trinkets I need. I find it asinine that many raid guilds do ascended gear/build checks (trinkets and weapons) but some of those trinkets are locked behind the raid. So if I want them, I need to re-spec my gear and play a build I don’t like. Kinda goes against the manifesto of the game… “GW2 doesn’t fall into the traps of traditional MMORPGs. It doesn’t suck your life away and force you onto a grinding treadmill; it doesn’t make you spend hours preparing to have fun rather than just having fun…”

Ah, sorry. I caught some raid-elitism from an unexpected direction recently, and it has me a bit upset. ANet hiding possibly important plot behind the raids was just icing on the cake. I may be a tad bit sensitive on the subject at the moment.

Asumita.2174:

It’s a privilege that only people that do successful raids have access to. What’s the point in doing raids if it there isn’t something material that separates hardcores vs casuals?

The point of it being fun? Of raiders saying they wanted a challenge? And denying that it’s all just for the big loot?

But please, let’s hear more about the “privilege” that the elite should have. Other than access to Legendary armor and the only content we’ve seen in months, that is. Tell us more of why this should be just for the raiders.

TexZero.7910:

They’ve said it’s coming with the next living story update.

So July/Aug. As it was predicted to be at the end of Q3

In other words, don’t hold your breath.

Trise.2865:

“WTF? Caithe is evil?” She did something bad and you want to know why.

To be fair, she’s always been evil. You just didn’t have it rubbed in your face until then. Before that, it was always evil in your favor.

I got upset the moment I saw the new raid weapons and mini, because they imply the same thing. Then I realized, I don’t care. Anything in the raids is made for raiders. The people that will get to see the raids all the way through to the end and get all the plot details are in the minority. If they want to make a plot important, raids is the WRONG way to do it.

For the majority of players, those events basically never happen. They can be and should be ignored. And if they think this is a good way to lead into LS3, ANet needs to rethink their plans because there’s no way people are going to sit around and listen to a bunch of raiders brag about their playing just to gather scraps of plot. And if people wanted to just read a story, they wouldn’t be playing an interactive video game.

The game is like an anime, and the raids are those movies that take place at specific points in the story, but don’t actually fit into the story. Fans of DBZ or Bleach will know what I mean.

One of the main parts of any legendary is the skin. No skin? Shouldn’t have a legendary version.

DeadlyDohnut.7052:

You have the entire main game for free, all the features with a few less starting bags. and your getting bent over an advertisement.

Free players can’t post on the GW2 forums. This is someone that paid for GW2.

I believe that while they did change it (unless it’s bugged), they said that you’ll still have to do SOME damage to make it realize you’re part of the event, and what you do after that will count. If you were only healing, buffing, and/or rezzing, then it didn’t know to count you.

Well, there’s a staff and a mini with his name on them. Perhaps looking at the staff, mini, and the other weapons introduced into the game with this patch will give you some hints.

Personally, I don’t even know the plot (if there is one) behind the first part of the raid, and I can look at these things and make some interesting guesses about the guy.

I wouldn’t call it a fail, but it is flawed.

I think the best thing to do right now would be to remove the Mastery Points required to unlock/learn Masteries. Yes, that means that many people will avoid the content that used to have the MPs behind it. But, there’s a reason they’re wanting to avoid that content, and they shouldn’t feel pressured into it.

If it was mine to do over, I would have skipped on the MPs, and had some of the Masteries set up so that story goals gave you the first level of it, with later levels needing to be earned. Finish the first part of the story? Scout should hand you a glider, unlocking Gliding Basics. Saved the froggies? “Here, let me show you how to use this mushroom to get up to our village.” Helped the Exalted? They give you a book to help translate their writings into something you can understand. And so on.

That would go for Central Tyria, too. Finish the personal story, and you unlock the Pact Mastery. Read a scattered series of books on old legends, and you unlock the Legendary Crafting Mastery.

A Mastery should NEVER become a barrier to part of the central story of the game. Instead, Mastery lines should flow from the story, so you have reason to know of them and then have the option to pursue them further.

Oh yes, sounds! There’s the expected creak of straining woodwork, and when you start or maneuver, there’s the clicking of the wench used to adjust the ropes on it. You don’t physically do that with your hands, though. Just the sound effect, no animation to it.

For those that are wondering, both stripe colors can be chosen, the colors of the framework can not.

Dying it Celestial/Celestial shows only VERY faint stripes still, nearly no baked-in color on the wing stripes. So, it appears it will take colors pretty well. As long as the light brown of the woodwork frame isn’t a problem for you, that is.

I have so many characters these would be perfect for, and no complete tickets. ::cries::
((Also, I’m bottomed out for gold, so I can’t buy from the TP at the moment.))

Behellagh.1468:

There has to be a unique reward tied to doing raids to encourage repeated raiding and that’s pieces toward crafting the armor precursors.

Shouldn’t the reward be… you know… the FUN of doing the raid?

I know, I know. It’s easier to say something like that than it is to design something everyone would find fun. Still, I worry that it’s designed backwards, rewards first and fun second (or third, or fifth, or whatever.)

Avarice.2791:

-Start sarcasm- Guys, guys… Anet specifically designed this bug for the OP. Let him go back to challenging himself in a turn based RPG. -End Sarcasm-

Seriously though, thousands of people have been able to do this. How long are you going to blame the game?

Hey, remember that baby karka hunt in the revamped Lion’s Arch? And how some people were saying it was broken, but others said they were doing it with no problem?

Turns out that IF you were playing an Engineer, AND had a kit in your skill bar (not using, just in your skill bar), the karka hunting gun would disappear if you went underwater (which you had to in order to reach a couple of targets).

Just think about that for a minute. And then, read the patch notes going a ways back, and look at all the problems they patched that you never encountered even if you used the skill/trait in question. Some bugs simply pop up for reasons that are VERY hard to pin down, and often very obscure. 1000 successes doesn’t mean it’s flawless, it just means that nobody’s won the bad luck lotto yet.

It’s not fair to assume it’s OP’s fault just because others have had no problem with it. It’s entirely possible that they’re triggering a rare bug. Unlikely, yes, but possible.

DGraves.3720:

Why would anyone want to endure leveling up an Engineer only to find the most ridiculous rotations for mediocore output?

Because Flamethrower!

Who cares if it’s the best damage or not? It’s an effing FLAME THROWER! It’s fun!

(And I suggest you keep the old character, and start over with a new one. Once you’re back into the feel of the game, then you might jump back to the old character.)

It looks like you might have a month or two before it’s worth worrying about. So, keep an eye out for it on sale somewhere, and try to get it for less than the normal price.

If anyone wants to find the rulebook, it’s hidden but it’s out there.

It’s actually hidden inside another book, called “Buttery Wholesomeness”, put out by someone called “Black Dog Games”. Then (unless someone removed it from that copy, which can happen), look inside for a book called “Freebase”. This is the rules and systems book for “Outside”. It’s rumored to be a Dev artifact left over from Alpha/Beta testing, with some possible exploits in it, so don’t share it around too much.

Gaile Gray.6029:

TL;dr: The messaging is poor and we can’t change it, I wish with all my heart that we could, but we’re stuck with those auto-messages at this time. We do our best to write personal and very clear messaging in the body, though.

“At this time”? I guess that brings up an important question, if there’s any chance of replacing the forum software at any point in the relatively near future? It’s one of those things you guys REALLY need to fix, sometime.

Normally I’d have more to say, and likely be somewhat bitter in the process, but it seems I’ve a need to rethink a few things. This thread sent me back through my private messages to review the infraction messages I’ve gotten in the past, and now I realize that only a couple of them actually had points on them. The use of the term “Infracted” lead me to think they all had. It’s luck that I saved them all, or I’d have likely continued to believe that.

Gaile Gray.6029:

I don’t often get into moderation policies,

Perhaps it’s time you start doing so. I mean, if you’re not dealing with this, then who is?

Add me to the list of those that want the titles to be simply a cosmetic thing. It should not become another equipment slot.

Personally, I think we need MORE Titles that sound like something interesting.

In City of Heroes, you could set any badge you gained as a title. Some badges were across your entire account, but a lot were individual to each character. And there were a LOT of them, so you had a lot of interesting sounding choices to use. It became another part of your costume/outfit.

The exploration badges were like GW2’s points of interest, just with a title and small backstory as to why that location was important. If you had the badge, you could read that, it was usually just a couple of lines long. But just check out this list here and see if you can’t find a few badges/titles that would fit even any of your GW2 characters.

I like titles. We need more of them. Interesting sounding ones, please. It gives us something minor but fun to track down and collect.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

New motto proposed for ANet by the OP.

If at first you don’t succeed, give up. You’ll never make it.

That’s not really a new motto at ANet. They’ve given up and abandoned a lot of things already.

Loosmaster.8263:

Palador.2170:

Loosmaster.8263:

I’d like to know why Conditions completely ignore Toughness.

That’s the advantage of Conditions, to counterbalance the fact that they do their damage more slowly.

Eh, that doesn’t fly in WvW Condi Bombs, lol. And don’t bring up Condi clearing either when it can immediately be reapplied.

Yeah, the counterbalancing can use some re-balancing. I won’t argue that. But, in theory, what I stated is the reason.

Taimi reveals that she’s discovered Mordremoth’s weakness, and it’s not what we used. No, he’s just stunned, so we have to work fast. His real weakness is an exotic poison, the very one Scarlet Briar was working to develop. The final form of it doesn’t kill, it changes the way magic is absorbed and stored. In a person or animal, injecting it might result in some minor magical oddities, such as a new or altered ability. (Like, for example, knowing when someone is lying.)

The altered magic is toxic to Mordy. Spray the jungle with it, and it will reject him until he’s back down into his original, draconic form. Then we just need to take something compatible with him, say something made from the Pale Tree, infuse it with the poison, and drive it through his heart.

…. yeah, I know. But we can dream, right?

Loosmaster.8263:

I’d like to know why Conditions completely ignore Toughness.

That’s the advantage of Conditions, to counterbalance the fact that they do their damage more slowly.

Mintyfreshsmell.1568:

What?! LOL “keeping the imbalances?” Wow I’m just shocked. Did you not read what I said. Seriously?

I read it, and kind of agree with it. Just stated my agreement oddly, I guess.

Let me put it like this. Rock vs Paper is imbalanced, and always will be. You know that. I know that. ANet… is furiously trying to balance it, while keeping the game fair for scissors. At least, that’s how it looks to me.

Honestly, at this point I’d accept a fringe jacket and bellbottoms for light armor, as long as they looked the same on male and female. (Actually, I’d like that for a druid, too.)

rhapsody.3615:

Yeah, that way we can all just find the place that grants the most xp and farm it. Then we can all come here and complain about how grindy the game is and that all the maps are empty.

/end sarcasm

People already do that, even while Mastery Points are in the system.

And to be clear, any place that offers a major advantage on Mastery EXP should be looked at and brought into line for risk/time/reward. I think that’s true with or without the Mastery System. When there’s an obvious “best way” to gain any reward it creates farms and a push towards grinding.

Mintyfreshsmell.1568:

Guildwars 2 allows for a massive amount of stat customization that is almost unheard in mmos, thus making it almost impossible to balance.

As someone that played CoH, I actually find the stat customization in GW2 to be pretty shallow. It took this comment of yours to make me think back to older games like EQ and SWG to realize you might be right. It’s a depressing realization.

Anyway…. In CoH, the devs pretty much gave up on balanced PvP. They reached a point of mostly leaving it as it was, and letting people find what fun they could. And I think that’s what should (but not will) happen here.

When you have one character built for “I kill things quickly” and another built for “I survive massive damage”, or “I control everything” vs “I can’t be controlled”, then you’re going to have problems. You might be able to balance it when there’s only one way to do each, but when there’s multiple ways, you’re going to have someone’s build wind up unable to perform. The best you can hope for is keeping the imbalances as a whole somewhat balanced.

While I don’t want to say I agree with the first post, I do think it’s actually close to a good point. ANet doesn’t seem to get much “bang” out of its development work.

Yes, I realize that a lot of LS seasons 1&2 was trying new things, and a lot of HoT was supposed to be creating systems that will allow for growth later, but… It’s been 3 1/2 years, now. If they can’t start to really deliver on the content, then they’re never going to. At least, now as they are now.

Manasa Devi.7958:

People should realize that the answer to many of their complaints are in the name of the system: “Mastery”.

Except that a lot of the points are locked behind things that have nothing to do with what you’re attempting to “master”. I mean, I sure don’t see the connection between burning vines with a flamethrower or shooting targets with a bow and arrows and learning to mine a rare mineral.

Honestly, I think the Mastery System would be much improved if they just got rid of the Mastery Points entirely. You’d still need to earn EXP to fill the bars, but you’d not be running into walls of content you dislike or can’t do.

Now hold on a minute, though. I think Kamedin may have the start of a good idea here.

Imagine if the energy released during the death of Mordremoth caused a new Mordremoth champion to arise. Mord is the dragon of Mind as well, so let’s say the new one uses that, instead of just plants.

This new champion decides to deal with the forces arrayed against it in a new way. It doesn’t twist and warp them. It doesn’t bend them to its will. It just … makes them happy.

It starts something akin to a cult or religion, and lets it slowly spread. It never denies what it is, and that the end goal is transformation of the world and absorption of magic. But, it says, why not help it and have an enjoyable outcome? A world wide garden, instead of endless fields of ice, crystals, or fire. If people are working with it, there’s no need for any fighting or killing, and it can make them happy. Through bringing minds together, it can bring world peace. It can create a paradise, if people are just willing to be happy with it.

And here we stand, the “Heroes” of Tyria ready to cut it down and burn it to ash. Why? Because we know better.

….. right?

No.

WoW is the 800 lb (362.874 kg) Gorilla. When it puts out an expansion, LOTS of players will jump over to try it out, remembering their enjoyable days in that game. Putting out anything big in another game at that time is asking for bad numbers.

Now, a couple months after a WoW expansion hits, you start to see people bored with it, or unhappy for other reasons. THAT is when you send out something big in another game, so that those people will jump over. And, as they may still be talking with their refound WoW friends, they might sell them on jumping over as well.