Depends on what qualifies as “good enough”. The game definitely prioritizes the processor. In fact, out of date graphics cards do pretty well. I was running a Radeon HD 5770 up until recently (two generations out, mid-low end card), and ran the game on medium/highish settings with, what I felt, was very acceptable frame rates (20-30) for such an old card.
My guess is that it will run the game acceptably well, with occasional hiccups in difficult areas depending on your settings. If you’re looking for for something to max out the game in all areas, you probably need a step up.
If you’d like to pretend WoW can make for a similar benchmark test to GW2, here’s the Tom’s Hardware gtx 650 benchmarks. Hopefully that helps. Also, remember, anytime you check out benchmark postings, take a close look at the game settings and the hardware for the rest of their test rig. It’ll undoubtedly be a little different from what you plan to use, which can create variations on the result.
The tooltips in this game are ridiculously confusing. Nor are they always consistent. It’s one of the most facepalm inducing problems in the game, as it would probably take a developer half a work day to standardize the whole gig. Anywho:
You can (almost) always treat the damage shown as the total damage dealt. For instance, if a skill says “Damage(x3): 33”, that means it hits 3 times for 11. Or 3 times for 9, 11, 13. Tooltips that don’t follow this rule are very rare.
As for condition damage, if the icon itself shows a number, such as the 3 next to your bleed icon, then the skill will apply 3 bleeds. The damage shown is still the total damage dealt.
What this means for you:
Your character’s bleed does roughly 5.5 damage per second, totaling 28 damage over 5 seconds. 3 applications of this 5 second bleed totals 84 damage over 5 seconds.
Your character’s Poison does roughly 10.3 damage per second. Each pulse of venom trap will apply a poison that does 31 damage over 3 seconds. We can presume that the trap pulses 3 times. Probably once per second over 3 seconds. Every time the trap pulses, whoever is in range takes 9 damage up front, and 31 poison damage over 3 seconds. If they stay in the trap for the full 3 pulses, then they will take 27 damage up front, and 93 poisons damage over 9 seconds.
Like I said, it’s ridiculous. But hopefully that helps.
Yeah, just realized I forgot to talk about that part:
As for burns and poisons, depending on the situation (and your outlook) they might get penalized, but they might also get a boost. Duration stacking removes the capacity for burn-spiking. Assume a situation with 4 sources of 2 second burns, where the dot can only last for, say, 3 seconds (before a condition removal skill is used, or some similar property). In this case it penalizes players for stacking 8 seconds of burn, thus wasting 5 seconds, regardless of the damage per second.
Yet thanks to that, preventing burn-spiking allows burns to deal much higher damage-per-tick than bleeds. This can create interesting situations where player A burns for 100 damage over 1 second, and player B— who has low condition damage, but high condition duration— burns for 200 damage over 4 seconds. Were they bleeds, you’d end up with 300 total damage. Since they stack duration, you end up with 500 total damage. Technically you’re ditching player B’s 200 damage, which is a loss. But the total benefit becomes a net positive.
There’s a whole complicated set of reasons as to why it works this way. Like previously mentioned, it allows the dots to use separate damage coefficients while withholding certain setups from insane spike burst. It ties in to the Combo system better: a player with high condition damage can trigger a high damage burn, then lay down a fire field to bolster the duration with their teammates projectile finishers. (Note that no combo produces bleed stacks.) And certain effects, like the Healing reduction from poison, are plain more useful if extended by duration than by intensity. And there are other nuanced reasons, blah blah.
Ultimately, it just works that way. Bleeds aren’t necessarily doing it wrong, they just need a more sophisticated way of dealing with mass stacking.
To the best of my understanding, yes, that’s how it works. Granted, to lose damage on bleeds it’s not necessary that bleed slots are overwritten by players with weaker condition damage. Imagine 2 players, who deal equal amounts of condition damage, and can each put out 16 stacks of bleeds with regular consistency. Put them together, and you’re 7 stacks over the limit, which means neither player can maximize their damage potential. Even if the system were to weed out lower damage dots, and only overwrite stacks if the new dot led to greater damage, it still gimps the fight because damage is lost either way.
This has, of course, led to common complaints about bleed stacking mechanics, since a large group in WvW or a Dynamic Event, or even a having a few bleed-heavy players in the same dungeon, can lead to over stacking. I haven’t kept up with the dev posts to see if they feel it requires a change. For now I assume the system is here to stay (though I’m open to information on the contrary).
1. I just wrote a post about it.
Can’t help you with 2, sorry.
A little clarification on Gummi’s post:
Intensity conditions (like bleed) keep track of each stacks own damage and duration. You can apply a 100 damage over 1 second bleed, and a 200 damage over 2 seconds bleed, and the mob will take 200 damage for one second, then 100 damage for one second. Intensity can reach up to 25 stacks, whereupon each additional stack will overwrite the oldest.
Duration conditions (like poison and burning) will not stack in damage, rather it will increase in durationo. You can apply a 100 damage over 1 second burn, and a 200 damage over 2 seconds burn, and the mob will take 100 damage each second for 3 seconds. Like intensity, a hard ceiling exists for the duration. You cannot, for instance, stack up to a minute or more of any duration. I’m not entirely certain where the limit runs, unfortunately. Somewhere around 20-25 seconds. Note that this is total current duration; technically you can repeatedly add 5 more seconds onto the timer without diminishing returns.
As for the overall damage? An important note: your character’s condition damage is always normalized for damage per 1 second. (Poison, Burn, and Bleed have different damage modifiers, mind you, so you aren’t doing the same amount of damage with each.) That means, every time you apply a burn, poison, or bleed, the damage output is your normalized damage multiplied by the length of time. So if you have 5 skills that each deal 1 second of poison damage, they will all deal exactly the same amount of poison damage. When you look at your skills and one says “700 damage burning” and the other says “400 damage burning”, you aren’t actually doing more damage per second with one over the other, you’re just applying a longer duration.
The trick is what happens when multiple players use dots. Remember that bleeds keep track of their own damage, so neither player affects the other. But both players contribute to the 25 stack limit, and having bleed-heavy characters fight the same mob can sometimes result in a dps loss when they overwrite each other’s stacks.
For burn and poison, however: presume player A and player B both use burn on a mob. Player A’s burn does 100 damage over 1 second. Player B’s burn does 50 damage over 1 second. The highest damage modifier takes control, and the burns add together, so that the mob takes 200 damage over 2 seconds. This means that if player A uses a burn for 100 damage over 1 second, and player B uses a burn for 200 damage over 4 seconds (50 damage/second), the mob will take 500 damage over 5 seconds (100 damage/second).
TL;DR: yes.
(edited by Pinder.5261)
Get a intel 3570k/2550k And OC to around 4.5ghz. This is the only way to stay abvoe 30 fps no matter what setitngs u use.
Right. I’m running an AMD Athlon II X4 3.0, and at this point it’s considered a pile of crap. But, paired up with a 7870, and all settings (except shadows) set to their highest, I run consistently at 30-40 fps except for, of course, high intensity WvW situations. But the rest of the game? Just dandy.
Solar isn’t wrong that an overclocked intel currently leads the curve, but that’s if you’re building a monster gaming rig. Not a computer, a rig. Seeing that you’re shooting for a budget gpu (I assume you meant GT630, not 6300), I take it you’re not about to pay top dollar for the setup, including cooling units capable of handling overclocked hardware. But correct me if I’m wrong there.
That said, more cores does not necessarily equate to more speed. Is it still in your interest to get an intel? Possibly. They are making good stuff right now. But it’s not like AMD has nothing to offer. Check out benchmarks, pay attention to clock speeds, think about your budget, pick whatever fits the best. If you aren’t pushing for top-dollar setups, you have a lot of options.
Developers have stated this is strictly forbidden. All key presses must operate 1:1 in terms of output.
Engineers and Elementalists are your best bet. Both have healing and support facilities which deal little or no damage. Engineer has more control abilities, while Elementalist has more escape and protection abilities.
It should be noted that support gets almost no recognition in gw2. Giving boons, healing, condition removal, etc. Unless something changed in a patch, none of it counts towards your participation in events. Reviving downed players counts, and dealing damage counts. But between the two, you’re not going to get a whole lot of recognition for playing a pure pacifist.
I always say go with whatever class seems really cool. Generic advice, I know. But frankly, I think a lot of people would be a lot happier if they stopped fussing over all the little details about combat strategy, intended roles, etc., and admit to themselves, “I really really like fireballs,” and thus decided to play Elementalist.
If you’ve ever seen a Profession and though to yourself, “that class just looks so awesome.” That’s the class for you. Play that class.
Engineer (mine is level 80): Higher skill ceiling, but lots of versatility to make up for it. If you like to juggle skill sets, you can load up your utilities with weapon kits and stance dance your merry little way to victory. If not, turrets give you most of the benefits of a pet class, without most of the annoying AI problems. There’s a larger number of skills to use either way, and if you don’t make the best of them then you’re shorting yourself on potential, and that turns a lot of people away from the class.
Thief (lvl 32): Excellent at a few particular things. Hit-and-run. Creatively combining skills to maximize burst. Using shadowsteps and stealth to disorient and misdirect opponents. If you’re okay being the polar opposite of a Jack of All Trades style class, whose entire concept of versatility is, “how can I kill the next hundred mobs each in a unique way,” then it’s good times. If you’re looking for anything outside of a squirrelly, squishy, damage dealer, probably not your bag.
Ranger (lvl 30): A bear pet pretty much nullifies the difficulty of any PvE encounter. To the point of boring. Like a thief, Rangers are all about the damage. Unlike either the thief or the engineer, Rangers don’t get very creative about how they do it. Bottom line: excellent survival at the cost of interesting moment-to-moment play.
Personally, I rarely see:
Warriors wearing anything except axes and a greatsword.
Rangers without a Shortbow.
Guardians with scepter and staff.
Thieves with swords.
Scepter&Focus Elementalists.
Engineers.
Pretty much everything else is covered. Though, frankly, you can shortcut all of this and just play an Asura, or Charr. That will immediately make you an uncommon sight, regardless of profession or weapons.
As someone who just hit level 80 on their engineer, and by having flamethrower on my utility bar for a majority of the time: don’t let Awesome talk you out of it. The damage, in conjunction with the proper stats, keeps up just fine, and the utilities it provides (a pushback and AoE blind) constantly come in handy. The lack of Juggernaut at low levels doesn’t make the flamethrower bad, either. It’s just that Juggernaut makes the kit that much better. The same way that Coated Bullets (pistols pierce), Grenadier (extra grenades thrown), and Rifled Turret Barrels (+15% turret damage) make their abilities a whole lot better; doesn’t mean you should avoid the weapons/skills prior to accessing those traits.
If you’re looking at the strict top end, munchkin stacking, min/max game, then maybe the Flamethrower falls behind. But few places in the game necessitate this extreme level of min/maxing, and leveling is by far one of the least demanding. If you like it, use it. Don’t let people tell you you’re wrong.
Looks an awful lot like the medium armor from Caudecus’ Manor..
It’s possible that some of the game’s right-click functions are currently flummoxed. For instance, you can’t preview armor types your character doesn’t use at the moment, either. Have you reported/checked on this in the Bugs forum? It’s likely listed there, if it’s a bug.
You are very welcome.
Very quickly, I forgot to mention two things about Dynamic Events which you should know. First, the events aren’t always singular. Many times they’re actually part of a larger chain, and you’ll get to play a series of events if you stick around for it. So don’t run off too quickly. Second, if you see an npc with a sunburst sort of symbol above their head, talking to them will start up a Dynamic Event.
Anyway, I’m glad the post helped. Enjoy the game!
I follow this list top-down every time I play, so far it hasn’t failed me.
Renown Hearts:
Use these like a connect-the-dots system for map completion. Head to your nearest one, and bounce to the next when you’re done. Biofringe explained all the rest about them.
Dynamic Events:
When you see an orange circle on your map, or an orange info box pops up on the top right of your screen, that’s a dynamic event. These are the bread and butter of your gw2 experience. Think of them like quests that aren’t always available. Joining in on a dynamic event will reward you with a big burst of exp, so it’s always in your interest to get in on the action, even if the event is a little out of your way.
If an npc runs up to you and shouts, “Hey, we need your help!” Speak with them and they’ll point you in the direction of a nearby Dynamic Event.
Daily Achievement:
If you open your achievements page, you’ll notice the top achievement set is your Daily achievement. Treat this like daily task to complete. You’ll have four objectives: # of kills, variety of kills, events completed, and resources mined. Each daily cheev you complete will reward some bonus exp, and completing all the dailies rewards you with both experience and a chest with some goodies.
This will give you a little more incentive to stray from the path to find events, farm nodes, and explore uncharted areas. Speaking of farming resource nodes, always keep resource gathering tools handy, as you’ll get a couple percent of your total level bar every time you farm a node.
Map Completion:
Finally, try to fully explore and complete the objectives on every map. That means, visit all the points of interests, see the vistas, get the skill challenges, and complete the renown hearts. You’ll get a big experience boost, as well as a chest of goodies, every time you complete a map.
Something to consider: the PvE environment will get a significant difficulty spike at 10-20, especially if you’re a new player. Outside of certain outliers (such as a Ranger with a Bear), this will happen to every class. Some more than others, granted, but the mobs get a good bit tougher for everyone.
So don’t worry, it isn’t you, and it isn’t the warrior. It’s just how the game goes. If you enjoy the Warrior, just push through it and you’ll catch up to the curve in no time.
1.
Contrary to popular opinion, not all spells can be avoided by dodge. The list is small, but it exists. First, you have perimeter triggered spells, which will produce an effect just by crossing their outer barrier. Elementalist’s Static Field- which stuns when you touch the edge of the aoe- is one such spell. Attempting to dodge through will still result in getting stunned. Second, you cannot dodge through movement-blocking barriers, such as a Guardian’s Line of Warding. Third, some NPC attacks with a knockdown/knockback will still hit you, even if you’ve dodged. Though I know of no player abilities where this applies.
Furthermore, you, as a character, can prevent yourself from dodging by using certain abilities. Most commonly: abilities with a leap or jump-kick style animation. Warrior’s Kick and Ranger’s 1hand sword basic attack chain, among other skills, will cause this to happen. Simply explained by saying, “you’re already in the air, how do you expect to dodge roll from there?”.
2.
Weapons, by and large, will be useful regardless of your situation. There exist moments where it’s easier to play with a certain weapon (such as choosing to use a ranged weapon rather than melee against some dungeon bosses), but no weapon will fail a situation outright.
That said, there are two aspects you will want to consider: flavor, and stat compatibility. Flavor just means whether or not you like the weapon. While you definitely want to switch it up and try out new combos, don’t use a weapon because it feels like you must do so.
Stat compatibility means you’re boosting the strengths of each weapon. If you stack a lot of Condition Damage, but no Power, it doesn’t benefit you to use a weapon that doesn’t apply conditions. Similarly, if you stack a lot of Precision (crit chance) and on-crit proc talents/gear, it doesn’t benefit you to use a slow weapon since that reduces the quantity of crit-procs per minute you’ll produce. Also, these particulars will become pretty obvious with a little time and investigation, so don’t over stress the issue. By level 30-40 you should have it pretty well figured out, and it isn’t critical to survival until then.
3.
There’s plenty of support builds to be had, but not all methods of support are completely useful. Look at it this way: Damage output over time is the baseline currency for usefulness in a group. If you cannot add to the damage output, then you aren’t useful to the group. To play a successful support build— which is to say, to successfully play a build with reduced damage output— you have to make up your loss by boosting the party’s overall damage.
There’s three primary ways to effectively provide support: buffing, controlling, and healing. Buffers provide consistent Boons to the group. Due to the nature of boons, this is the only support type which can directly improve your teammate’s damage output. Controllers impede the enemy’s ability to act or to focus on certain players, either by crowd control or by physical interference (like tanking, when possible). Disabled enemies pose a smaller threat, allowing your teammates greater freedom of action, and thus damage. Healers, well, heal. Condition removal also counts, as you can consider it a form of preventative healing. Similarly, Reviving downed players fits in this category, too. Healers allow your party to concentrate on damage output, rather than survival tactics.
Mind you, most professions and builds are not cut simply into these categories. Mesmers, for instance, can provide a combination of condition removal and buffing. Furthermore, the system works on a gradient. You can equip a single AoE condition removal spell and provide a very large benefit to the group, without needing to go all-out support.
Hope that helps.
In general it’s exaggerated. The engineer does have a few draw-backs and definately some less useful skills but I think a big part of the problem is actually that it’s one of the more complicated professions and takes a lot of adaptability and planning to be effective.
A lot of players will confuse underpowered with complication, exactly as this quote points out. Engineers are designed to presuppose the inclusion of double the utility skills (the tool belt) if not another weapon kit altogether. Elementalist, having four weapon bars, and the potential for conjured weapons on top, deal with much of the same issue.
Ultimately, neither class is sufficiently utilized until you play with all the available skills. contrast that to most other classes who only need to juggle the standard set of skills to function properly. Engineer has more opportunity to be weak, just due to the larger amount of skills to juggle. But when played properly they’re just as capable as any other class.
Mind you, I haven’t done the math, and I’m no expert on the topic, so with that said:
I see an immediate problem with announcing any sort of golden ratio for armor/toughness, largely because they’re only part of the total equation. If we’re talking about survival rates within a vacuum then, sure, you can maximize survival at a certain ratio. But that doesn’t take into account a lot of other mitigation factors such as healing, condition removal, endurance regeneration, blocking, blinds, and control abilities.
If you want to maximize your character’s survival, you have to gauge how the most applicable of these factors will blend together. For instance, skill sets with multiple applications of healing generally benefit more from high armor than high health pools. But high-armor, low-hp builds also necessitate multiple condition removals to not get wrecked by dot stacking… et cetera.
It’s probably not that “10:1 vit:armor” is bad in concept. As a launching pad, it’s likely a good place for a lot of people to start testing. But you shouldn’t consider it definitive in any way.
Maybe the armor is uniq for this npc, was checking all the medium and light armors, and none looks like this.
It’s fairly common as far as NPC armor goes. Off the top of my head I can think of 4 or 5 human npcs who wear that getup.
Oh PS. Soylent Green is already in use…. and obviously not flagged…
Such is life. You were unfortunate enough to cross the wrong movie fan, it seems.
At this stage in the game players have inundated the Trading Post with low and mid level gear. Nearly any Blue quality item will sell for the vendor price. This means you can pick up a full set of gear, with weapons, for less than five silver. You’ll pay it back just by taking your next couple blue drops to the vendor. Granted, higher quality gear and upgrade components will run you a little more. But it’s still a screaming deal.
If you desire (especially since you’re on a guardian) you can keep yourself relatively up to date with a mixture of drops, personal story rewards, and karma purchases. On the other hand, a trip to the Trading Post will cost you pocket change for a full upgrade. Neither way is strictly better.
Personally, I’ve picked up a new set at the Trading Post every 10 levels, starting at level 40, with no significant financial drawback.
I’m not certain Soylent Green is considered public domain. Even if it is, someone at Anet may have decided it’s in their best interest to follow through the change based on copyright infringement nonetheless.
On that note, misspellings do not circumvent copyright issues with character naming. Never have, never will. Granted, should a legal proceeding result from the name (extremely unlikely), spelling may be more important. But as far as name policing goes within games, companies rarely care if you tweaked the spelling.
This is what it took to really settle in to my main character:
1. Remake constantly until finding a face/hair that I like.
2. Play until 10, repeat step 1 to make another character (or three).
3. Return to original character. Remake a few times to find a face/hair that I like.
4. Play until 15, repeat step 3 with another alt (or three).
5. Return to original character, generally happy with face. Take her into sPvP.
6. Take all alts into sPvP for brief trials, discard those I did poorly with.
7. Return to original character, level to 30. Run AC story mode.
8. Take all surviving alts to level 30, run AC. Discard least enjoyable.
9. Take all surviving alts to WvW and sPvP, discard those I did poorly with.
10. Get a talk from a friend about how long I’m taking; he wants to run dungeons together.
11. Play Sylvari Engineer.
It’s important to note that “discard” does not mean “delete”. I just stopped leveling those alts.
It’s a convoluted system, and I’m well behind the curve in terms of levels and gear (not that I really care). But on the plus side, I now have a couple level 30’s that I’m decently familiar with, and I can return to playing them if I get bored without having to agonize through the 1-15 stretch. But the nice thing is that I don’t get that urge very often any more. I really, truly love my Sylvengie. Gave her a back story and everything.
So the simple answer is: Play a lot, don’t delete your characters, eventually just pick one and deal with it. You’ll feel happier with the decision than you realize.
I’m fairly certain that’s actually a town clothes set, not an achievable armor. My evidence being that I haven’t seen every other human female (PC) running around in the armor yet.
I’ve always felt that starting off wearing human-made clothes (cloth, leather, metal), rather than being born wrapped in leaves and vines and twigs, felt downright bizarre. Inconsistency is a misnomer.
To be accurate, I suppose you aren’t born wearing those clothes. But you dream wearing those clothes, and you immediately don them again after birth, so the effect is largely the same (are sylvari really born right beside a giant pile of human clothes? “Welcome to life, here’s your generic human short-skirt and bra-top.”)
Where are all the natural armors? Why do we come into the world surrounded by Sylvari wrapped up in plant growth, then get harried out on our way wearing chainmail? If no other place, I certainly expected to emerge from the pale tree wearing truly sylvan clothes.
Thanks^ and I mean after I learn how to play and my favorite way to play.
Learning how to play, much less your favorite way to play, is not a quick discovery. At least, not for everyone. The game will feel very different for your character every ten levels or so, and what seems awesome at one part may not feel as awesome in five levels. Don’t let this get you down. But don’t corner yourself into playing a class/zone/quest/weaponset you don’t enjoy, either. It often helps to take a break and try something new when you hit a bump: go pvp, make a new character, or explore a new zone.
According to the GW2 wiki, these effects do indeed stack with the jug. Granted, this could have been changed at some point to revoke the effect without the Wiki updating.
Corollary question, while we’re on the topic: Does the karma received by the Jug scale down to your level? IE: Drinking a jug at level 10 = 45 karma, and at level 80 = 4500?
with no upward progression once you get endgame and no planned progression beyond that as far as I know.
The developers have publicly stated that the game will include level cap raises and gear progression. They just want to handle it cautiously.
Sylvari – Because I’m a hippy.
Asura – Because they turned out way more awesome than I expected.
Human – Because… eh, why not?
Did not play Norn – Because their voices make me want to tear off my ears.
Did not play Charr – Because watching their necks makes my neck hurt.
I don’t naturally gravitate towards evil alignment. I play lawful good. Neutral if I have an itch for something really out there. But the nightmare court charms me, they weaken my knees. I think, because they appeal to some rational truth about the way I approach the world. Centaur, bandit, Inquest, Flame Legion, Svanir, pirate, or any other of the names on this very, very long list? Kill them. On sight. And if possible, with a bit of flair.
As I am inclined to destroy (also inclined to feel pride, even joy, on the quality of my destruction) I feel immediately separate from those who lionize safety and salvation. I am ruthless and dangerous, a nest of brambles, a thorn upon the flesh. Good or bad, I am the Sylvari with the gun. And though I champion causes, cities, people; though I have no interest in the dragons’ relentless finality; though I want to see the world survive; I aid by reaping blood and sowing graves.
While neither sadist nor torturer, and considered a savior by many, perhaps… perhaps, I am still Nightmare.
(edited by Pinder.5261)
I’m surprised that the hearts have not distracted me more, since I can barely stand things like nameplates. But, like the rest of the UI, I’d probably be happy to see them disappear. Or get shoved onto the wayside or into an innocuous corner.
@Oglaf: I think he was referring to SolarNova’s comment.
I’m sorry. I didn’t realize this was such a sensitive issue.
The idea of a battle-hardened Charr and a youthful, naive Sylvari as a couple just seemed sweet to me somehow.
The idea of a naive Sylvari and battle-hardened anything doesn’t make sense to me as a romantic interest. I always come back to the conversation between the asura and sylvari guarding the gate in the Grove, where the sylvari keeps asking about the Golem’s mother. The sheer childishness of the race somehow barriers the idea of a feasible relationship with more roughened persons.
Yeah, the LFG tool is a real sore spot in the game right now. It’s in your Contacts menu, on one of the tabs. But all it does is list you as lfg in whatever zone you occupy, yet no where else. Very lackluster, reportedly getting a face lift next patch.
The first dungeon is Ascalonian Catacombs, in the Charr entry level area. Story mode begins at level 30, explorable mode at 35. To get a group you’ll need to shout for members in either Lion’s Arch (decent chance to find people) or in the zone that the dungeon occupies (sub-optimal chance to find people). I won’t lie, it’s a pain, and sometimes you just won’t find enough interested people. But the dungeons are certainly worth a try, so I encourage you to persevere.
You still haven’t tried dungeons yet, either story or explorable mode. They aren’t perfect, but they’re a change of pace from the routine level grind, which can certainly help.
Have you tried going into zones which are two or three levels above yours? Perhaps you’ll have more fun when the fights take a bit more effort to win.
Also, you didn’t mention the personal story. If you haven’t tried it yet, it’s always worth a shot. The experience rounds up, so you’ll still get a significant benefit from catching up on the story (aka, it won’t waste your time).
I’d disagree about the thief. While you can scrape by with standard hack-n-slashing, you’ll have to learn a few complicated dances to truly make the class shine. Easy to play, difficult to master sort of situation. And in that regard can be very fun to play for the whole leveling span and beyond.
The game itself will have a fair learning curve. I often found myself bouncing between alts at low levels, largely thanks to sudden difficulty spikes (a personal problem, to be sure), and soon realized that coming back to one profession after playing another for some time had drastically improved my competence with the first. Don’t let someone steer you away from a profession that interests you just because of their experience with learning curves. The game will get tough now and then, regardless of your profession. And then it gets better, because you get better.
As for Mesmer skills (not a primary profession for me, but I do know a bit about them): you’re correct about the illusions. They’re quintessentially an expendable pets class, and many (but not all) of their core mechanics revolve around this structure. While I’m not entirely certain what you mean by “psychic abilities”, as that can be construed in many ways (an illusion, after all, is an effect of the psyche, is it not?), technically Mesmers still feel like a psychic class— they addle and confuse, misdirect and debilitate, entrance and empower— but ultimately you don’t spend a lot of time with the mechanics of psychic combat. Much of the nitty gritty combat structure comes from shaping and using Ethereal energy, and feels largely like an external, rather than internal or mental, force. It doesn’t make them feel un-psychic. Merely, not wholly psychic.
Hopefully that helps a bit.
Correct me if I’ve misinterpreted you, but I’ve found that smaller UI’s rarely help. If nothing else, they only result in more squinting.
A better question is why are there so many request to buy items for 1c when the TP will not allow you to post it for less than it can be vendor’d for.
Hopeful entrepreneurs who figure that someone might be gullible enough, or whose mouse may slip (this has happened to me before) and click the wrong sale, so that they may re-sell for a substantial profit. Probably not honest entrepreneurs either (ie, maybe bots), as I don’t expect an honest player to presume buying 237 pairs of lvl 13 pants will make a viable business strategy.
Much like the sale point, with high-demand-low-supply items, you’ll see far more rational offers on a single purchase, and far less “1 buyer wants 237 for 1 copper each”.
It’s also entirely possible that every player who makes a reasonable purchase offer gets sold to almost immediately, and you’re left looking at the 1 copper buyers.
1. The available supply of common items on the Trading Post far outweighs player demand for each item.
2. To compete for sales, players undercut each other’s prices.
3. The trading post prohibits postings at or below the vendor’s purchase price.
4. Players continue to undercut prices until that bottom limit, despite the additional tax.
Basic marketplace structure, what you’re seeing is entirely an issue of Supply and Demand. Items in massive supply (pretty much any item up to level 50) are reduced to the bottom line. Items in moderate supply (quantities of 5-15) commonly sell for the vendor price + TP tax loss. High-demand and low supply items still sell for substantially more than the vendor purchase price.
My eyes have a conflict of interest. On one hand, I want to focus solely on the center of the screen for all the action and beauty. On the other hand, I feel compelled to maximize usage of the combat UI (primarily skill buttons), and ultimately watch the UI more often than the screen. I don’t need to watch the skills. After more than sixty levels I know them like I know my own beard. So as often as possible I turn off the UI altogether. It’s a wonderful and uncluttered experience, and I love when I can get away with it. But I can’t often get away with it, because I lack some critical information. Namely: Health bars, and their associated info.
A minimalist setting for the UI would look wonderful. Display only the Target’s bar; the party health and status effects; and my personal health, endurance, and status effects. As for the rest (skills, chat, heart/event progress, minimap, etc), only have them pop up if I position the mouse in their respective corner of the screen so that I can see them when necessary.
Just made a thread about this, but in short: creating separate difficulty tiers WILL NOT SOLVE ANYTHING. Difficulty is not the problem. Structure is the problem. Some players just cannot adapt to this structure of jumping puzzle.
For these players, the solution is the option for a different type of puzzle. Not an easier puzzle, just a different type. One that doesn’t involve survival timers. Or racing against disappearing platforms.
The best solution, next time Anet releases an instanced jumping puzzle, is to provide two options: a race-against-the-timer reflex-oriented puzzle; and an each-jump-is-a-small-puzzle-so-take-your-time, decision making puzzle. Both of them can be difficult, because difficulty is not the issue. You just have to provide a separation of pace.
There.
The Big Solution!
Like many players have already said, we need two separate jumping puzzles. The common suggestion is to split by difficulty, but this won’t work. We can already see this by comparing Clocktower to Wintersday. They’re the same structure of puzzle, and therefore come packaged with similar problems. In order to alleviate the complaints that both puzzles have received, we need separate puzzle structures.
Cognitive and Reflexive Puzzles:
Jumping puzzles generally fall into two categories: Cognitive, where the player must adapt to timing, placement, and sequencing on a platform-by-platform basis; and Reflexive, where the player must adapt their speed, efficiency, and reaction on the scale of the entire puzzle. Holiday events should include one of each type. It isn’t about dividing the level of challenge- both puzzles should feel challenging- rather it’s about dividing the method of play.
A Cognitive puzzle gives slower, laggier, more easy going players a safe haven. Since the challenge revolves around the decision making quality of each jump, rather than the efficiency of the full run, most of the aforementioned barriers to entry would get removed. Loading times, slow reflexes, and disabilities can all successfully complete this type of puzzle without major frustration. On the downside, like any puzzle, once you’ve figured out the solution, running the course again provides much less stimulation. But a well designed puzzle can bring players back nonetheless.
A Reflexive puzzle provides a place for players to enjoy competition, camaraderie, and mastery. Players can race, put each other up to challenges, and try to best personal records. The barrier to access is high, and the (emotional) reward at the end is high. And players will likely have a great time re-running the course the next day, which largely increases the puzzle’s longevity. Reflexive jumping puzzles are also a great place to add in extra mini-chests along the way.
Of course, to successfully implement the division, both puzzles need to share give the same rewards. For that matter, the rewards should be tied, so running both puzzles won’t give two rewards. The style you choose must remain a personal preference. But with both of these structures in place, you’ll have most of the players covered in some way.
TL;DR? Separate puzzles by style, not by difficulty.
Community:
It doesn’t get much discussion, but one of the large problems with the holiday jumping puzzles are precisely what starting as a group could provide, but doesn’t: a sense that you’re tackling the puzzle (or racing it) as a community. In general, you can divide the group into two categories: those players who are going to struggle and fall early (most players), and those players who are going to finish and get out without looking back. What’s the point of starting as a group if you always end up solo less than halfway into the puzzle?
The previously mentioned benefits of a group largely depend on having players who are willing to run most of the puzzle even after they’ve finished it once. The Clocktower had an excellent design for this: place retrievable chests throughout the jumping puzzle. Players who felt confident enough to run the whole course successfully could re-run with the extra prize of getting these bonus chests. This provided many latent benefits: challenge seekers had an optional difficulty increase, players were motivated to run the puzzle more than once (all the while acting as unwitting guides for newbies, and as racing partners for competitive players), and the course retained more players at later stages. Jumping puzzles, like every other aspect of the game, benefit from the sense of community, and we currently aren’t meeting that sensation.
The Survival Timer:
Another common sore spot. The problem is not strictly that a timer exists, but that it seems to disproportionately affect players. Those who have trouble with it find the timer to be a complete barrier to access. Those who don’t are so entirely unaffected that the timer might as well not be there in the first place. A middle ground rarely seems to occur.
In actuality, the Frostbite timer (and similarly, the melting snowflakes) does less to promote challenge and more to create a sensation of peril, whether or not that peril actually exist. The fundamental effect is that it forces the puzzle to take the shape of a speed run and reflex test. This is not necessarily bad. It’s just one method of approaching design in a jumping puzzle. For many players it’s quite enjoyable to have this extra pressure, just for the thrill. The problem, unfortunately, is that you cannot effectively choose a difficulty curve with this system.
There are ways to alleviate the pressure without removing the timer entirely. An inclusion of safe zones which would heal, rather than damage players (or, in the case of the Clocktower’s design: floors where the ghastly tide ebbs or stalls) would give players time to catch their breath and set their nerves in order without removing the timer as a whole. These areas would also make excellent places for checkpoints (as previously discussed) to occur. This can allow the puzzle to incorporate more fully realized phases. It might even allow the developers to make several types of survival timer in each puzzle, the novelty of which may overcome the difficulty of the timer.
Ultimately, two choices exist: include a survival timer, or do not. And that will ultimately affect whether or not you’re playing a reflex oriented jumping puzzle. Which transitions us to the solution:
All right, after closely following the feedback thread I’m prepared to make a definitive post on the subject. Thus far the arguments have pivoted on the difficulty and resulting restrictions (or lack thereof) in playing the puzzle, and while this is a fair platform for making argument, it doesn’t bring the topic to any solution. I have a solution, but in order have it make total sense, I need to detail how the common arguments build towards a larger realization. This is a long post, but try to stick with me. I’ll propose solutions to small problems along the way, and I promise I’m going somewhere useful.
Difficulty:
Nearly all the arguments about the holiday jumping puzzles boil down to two categories: the puzzle feels either too easy, or too difficult. And of course, the common topics consist largely of extremes. For some a barrier to entry exists, for others the puzzle couldn’t provide sustained enjoyment.
The “Barrier to Entry” side suggests that for some reason (hardware limitations, lag, disorientation, or disability) they can barely attempt the puzzle in the first place, much less finish it. They fault numerous reasons, but namely the puzzle timers. Often by the time they can begin the puzzle, they’re already too far behind to successfully keep up.
The “Lack of Enjoyment” side finds that the puzzle was too easily solvable, making the event feel not at all like an actual puzzle. They feel that puzzles should naturally provide difficult-to-surmount challenges, as this both extends the struggle (ie: enjoyment) and increases the celebration upon completion. They feel their overall enjoyment has been directly impacted by “barrier” group’s retaliation against the Clock Tower.
It’s important to note that neither side is wrong here. What some consider a limitation (ex: slow computer) means nothing to others. Please try to take the other side’s worries into account. Furthermore, we’re looking at two different play style groups who have very distinct concerns about how to best enjoy the game. Like comparing Apples to Oranges: neither is wrong, but it doesn’t work for the camps to tell one another that they chose the wrong incentive to play. So the overall solution has to fit both types of play. Keep that in mind.
The First Ten Seconds:
The most critical problems all occur within the first 10 seconds of the puzzle. This includes the waiting room, the loading screen, and starting as a group.
The loading screen is a difficult situation with a potentially simple fix. Those players with low-end machines (which is fine, not all of us have the luxury cash to upgrade) often have load timers that override the initiation of the puzzle. The most simple fix is to extend the time between the load and the initiation. It isn’t elegant, but it works.
The Waiting Room is the least entertaining part of these puzzles. When you’re bad at the puzzle, you spend a horrendous amount of time waiting to try again. And when other players in your group are good, this only extends the delay. The snowball fight is a helpful addition, but by no means a solution. This situation isn’t easily solved unless you want to ditch the survival timer. But it could certainly help to stagger starting timers. Setting up a checkpoint system is one way to achieve this. If all surviving jumpers have reached the halfway mark, start up the puzzle for those in waiting. Viola! You’ve cut the waiting room in half.
Starting as a herd detracts from the overall visibility. In normal game play, visibility is a major priority. In jumping puzzles it’s nearly essential, but only if every player needs to jump on exactly the same block. An elegant solution would be to provide multiple platform paths for the first 10 jumps. This lets players fan out and keep a clear view of their destination, without impacting the group start. The Clocktower used this system to a small degree, and it added quite a bit of diversity to the beginning.
Why not get rid of the group start altogether? Lets take a look at some of the benefits a waiting room and group start provide: On the side of challenge, starting as a group turns the puzzle into a race. It provides a sense of competition, and a little camaraderie and encouragement to boot. For many players, it’s much more fun to have someone else there in the experience with you, even if you don’t directly interact. On the other hand, you can use the wait and the group to learn how to overcome particularly difficult obstacles. Watching the players ahead of you can reveal tactics and solutions you may not have thought about before. The group becomes a communal tutor. And if all else fails, you can ask for help in the waiting room.
Why complain? Free goods!
But yeah… /bug.
Why? Why do they have to please everybody? I don’t like sPvP, so I don’t play sPvP, so I will never get sPvP rewards. Check my former posts and see if there’s any of mine in the sPvP subforum asking Anet to hand the rewards to me.
But if you were to visit the sPvP forum you’d notice that the players there consider it highly important for player skill tiers (aka, difficulty) to remain separate. Casual PvPers wish to play only with casuals; tryhards with tryhards; and professionals with professionals. And Arenanet does their best to accommodate those requests: providing hotjoin for casuals, tournaments for the tryhards, and official buy-in tournaments for players who consider themselves professionals.
This separation does not make the game worse. It allows players to experience content that is more consistently in line with both their capabilities and their recreational wants/needs.
Why should a holiday event jumping puzzle accommodate players any differently? Obviously we have a natural division of player skill, and that will effectively create a division of wants/needs. We aren’t talking about players who hate jumping puzzles and yet, for some absurd reason, have forced themselves upon the wintersday event. These are people who want to enjoy a jumping puzzle, but feel prohibited. All of us here like bananas (to pull from your analogy), but some of us like our bananas green, and some of us like them just before they’ve browned.
Very little damage can come from providing two tiers of jumping puzzle, and allowing players to naturally divide themselves between the two. For those with prohibitive situations- old computer, poor internet, even physical disabilities- an easy tier allows them to enjoy the content. For those who truly enjoy challenges, a difficult tier allows them to exercise their abilities, and to boast with friends about their successes. Neither player needs to put up with a jumping puzzle that doesn’t suit their play.
So, as always, ask yourself: Where is the harm?
(edited by Pinder.5261)