Guild Wars 2

Here’s my go.

Dany Dragonmother, Rhaegal, and what’s left of her Khalasar.

So I realised that before we do this, I want to get different shoulders and re-dye my armour – I will need a few more days for screenshots & such Please feel free to push me back in the queue if someone else is faster, I wouldn’t want to delay anything for other people.

We also found the first ones by stumbling upon them… then we had so much fun that we looked up the list in the wiki and other guides. They can be tremendous fun, and come in various degrees of difficulty.

I thought the same, just yesterday.

Wow, that’s wonderful.

This is the post that I’ve wanted to write for a long time.

Anyway… I feel fractals should be added to the list.

Agony.3542:

It really depends on what you want to do.
For leveling? Damage, damage, and even more damage. Just trait into domination and dueling- A real “shatter build” will only work with at least 50 skillpoints, for both illusionary persona (30pt illusion) as well as deceptive evasion (20 pt dueling). I would recommend to use Sword as mainhand and either Pistol or Sword as offhand, since these phantasms really hurt and have a low cd. You can go 10 into domination for +15% phantasm damage, then 20 into dueling for fury for phantasms and -20% sword cd.
Use Armor with power and precision, there is no point in beeing “tanky” in PvE, use dodgerolls, sword#2 and other mechanics (like the f4 shatter) for staying alive.
Once on high level you should get 20 points in inspiration and trait Wardens feedback, in terms of PvE reflections are a mesmers most powerful weapon.
Stay away from scepter. Gs/Staff should only be used when you can’t go melee (or a short cd teleport with Staff#2)

That confirms some of my mesmer feelings so far and is definitely very helpful!

I will check out the other posts when I’m closer to level 80.

Thanks, people

What ingredients are those?

The ingredients that Kasmeer has:
- celebrity status
- noble background
- a popular hairstyle
- no development (she literally hasn’t moved an inch since she was introduced to the game.)

The ingredients that Kiel has:
- a job, leading a team
- fighting skills
- responsibility
- somewhat of a social conscience / rogue attitude
- an active role in two Southsun stories, some character development

I don’t know, I don’t get the obsession over Kasmeer for what she is, but there is currently nothing in the game (not even in the NPC dialogues as far as I can see) that suggests that Kasmeer deserves to ever be considered for an elite team of dragon fighters, alongside Rox and Braham. Ellen Kiel might not be the most interesting person, and her character development wasn’t nearly as fleshed out as Rox’ and Braham’s, but: she got some.

There is of course a possibility that Kasmeer will get some character development in the future, and I can see that is what people hope for. But as of right now, that’s speculation and wishful thinking, based on… what?

I feel both Southsun and Orr could and should have heart quests.

Southsun already has some amazing views, and I do with they came with vista points

Kasmeer has yet to do anything other than stand around in a bikini and gossip before I will take her into consideration for anything.

Hi!

I’ve just started my first mesmer character, and reading the descriptions of various skills has left me confused.

What are the inherent differences between clones, phantasms, illusions, etc.? Most of my copies seem to function purely as diversions (unless you explode them), and others, such as the duelist, do damage. I haven’t worked out the pattern yet.

I assume that “Shatter build” means creating as many doppelgangers as possible and trait your character in a way they do the most damage when shattered?

What are some reasonable alternatives to that? Does it make sense to play a mesmer at all if I’m not too keen on the whole doppelganger thing?

I find that greatsword is the most fun to use, but I think greatswords look silly on my character so I’m trying to get comfortable with sword/pistol + staff. (Scepter/focus didn’t do it for me.)

I’m aware my questions are on the lowest level. Sorry for that I’m very grateful for any advice to get me started. Not looking to become a mesmer expert at this point, just something vaguely playable for the levels from 20-40.

My first profession (and still main character) was engineer and I managed fine. I took my time getting to know all the skills and took it slow. Don’t worry about dungeons and PvP now – your first goal is to explore low level maps, admire the landscape, take part in dynamic events and survive. You can do that with any class.

There’s nothing wrong with picking the one class that you feel “speaks” to you (same for the race).

As for race, none is “easier” to play than the others. But there are three things I’d consider:

• The personal story (we get a small roleplaying game within the MMO). I haven’t played through any of the Asura stories yet, but my friends say that some of the Asura and Charr stories are amongst the most fun ones. The human and Norn ones are nothing overly special. I haven’t tried Sylvari.
• While Human and Norn characters have “normal” walk and run animations, the run animations differ significantly for Asura and Charr (and to a lesser degree, Sylvari). I have met players who LOVE to watch their Charr run, I personally don’t like the way they run at all. Keep in mind that you will be staring at your character’s back for many hours.
• You have to develop some degree of jumping skills to get to some locations in the game, for example vistas. There are also jumping puzzles (and achievements that you can only unlock if you master jumping). It is said that jumping is easier on smaller characters, like Asura and short humans, and harder for Charr and Norn.

I would like to add my name to the list. Is it okay if I post screenshots and such, or should I wait until it is my turn

I’d like that, too ^^

I’d pay for that.

Well, you can get your dailies and monthlies on your main and then finish them on your alt, who will get the XP and the karma.

You can send other levelling rewards such as black lion kits, karma items, transmutation stones etc. to your alts (or from your alt to your main). I send food, potions and gear from my main to my alts already.

Gold is account-bound so while your main starts out with pocket money, your alt starts out with gold in the bank. And stacks of crafting materials that you’ve collected on your main.

So, I don’t know, I’ve recently started two alts, and the have large bags, gold, and a bunch of other neat stuff available to them that my main didn’t have at the time – and that really makes a difference. I honestly don’t think that we need any more than that.

PS: I come from a game where characters’ inventories were strictly separated and every new character truly started over from scratch. So maybe that’s why I’m not blind to all the bonuses we already get for alts in GW2.

PPS: a wording thing – achievements as such are account-bound anyway, I don’t think the game cares which character you used to play through a specific fractal or get weapon mastery or whatever.)

Point is, we all (or many of us, anyway) came out of this event with stacks and stacks of karka shells, thinking we’d be able to exchange them for something cool. Now we can exchange them for something that leaves most players feeling a bit “meh”… and there’s a hefty gold price ontop of it.

I think players expected the merchant that comes up after they defeat the main boss to carry some sort of reward – either something new, or at least a special deal on items.

I’ll pass – neither the skins nor the stats are worth 2 gold / item for me, even without karka shells. I’m better off getting exotics off the TP.

Source please?

………….

Judging by other threads in this forum, it seems to be more than ok.

I really like your portrait. How much gold were you thinking?

Wayland.3528:

This. I was ‘blessed’ with a ticket from a random crate drop. I have no desire for the ticket and no method to get it to someone who really cares about them. Account bound is lame.

My boyfriend was lucky and got both a Molten skin drop and a Sclerite one. He felt bad because neither dropped for me (although I play more). He says he would’ve given me his Sclerite ticket to make up for it if he could.

The reverse happened to us with the SAB – I got two skin drops, a greatsword one which I sold and a scepter one which I gave to him (as none of the skins ever dropped for him). And that worked for us.

I am aware of the concept of dodging :P Some players made it through the settlement, but many others didn’t; we were among them.

For me the issue was this – I partook in the pre-events, ridding several settlements of mobs. So from my point of view, I was already a participant.

I took “the usual path” from Kiel’s to Driftglass, and the wall of karka in the settlement took me by complete surprise. There is no path that leads around the mega-mob if you run from Kiel’s or Pearl Islet (which is what my boyfriend did). Running from Captain’s Retreat really seems to be the only option, and that’ll only work at the beginning of the fight; the Karka Queen didn’t last long enough for me to make it on my first try.

So doing all the pre-events and then missing out on the actual event & reward due to lying face down in the mud is pretty lame, especially when you have to wait 2 hours (or so everybody assumed – no one knew for sure) for the event to respawn. (We’re in Europe so it was already pretty late in the evening, too.)

Strorm.4987:

Jennah is mostly fine as she is. She just needs some shoes.

It’s her party and she’ll go barefoot if she wants to…

… I’d be barefoot if I was a queen.

Ayrilana.1396:

You don’t not miss out on your event reward if you respawn. Only if you leave the map. I don’t see how people still get confused by this.

Well, I can tell you that I missed out on my reward last night because I couldn’t even take part in the event. On my way from Kiel’s to Driftglass I was slaughtered. The Queen’s helth bar went down fast, and no player could have raised me in the middle of an ocean of karkas. I WP’ed to Captain’s Retreat (the best option, as you don’t have to pass through the Driftglass Settlement, which will be a wall of karka) but didn’t make it back in time to even get a hit on the Karka Queen. So, no reward, but not for lack of trying.

The same happened to my boyfriend – twice.

We looked around a bit on other servers and finally guested somewhere where the event was going, ran from Captain’s Retreat, managed to take part in the Karak Queen killing, and got our achievements. (This was our third try.)

So yes, dying on the way to the event, in a spot where raising just isn’t going to happen, and with no viable waypoints close, can indeed mean that you miss out on rewards.

You’re welcome I only found it after I read your thread as well.

You were asking for a breath of fresh air for high level characters that are done with exploring – and that is exactly what we get with the Living Story updates.

I still think your main issue is that the level number isn’t going up and that somehow gives you the feeling that you no longer achieve anything. But it is just a number. Who case whether it says “80” or “200” on your character sheet, it makes zero difference if the rest of the game is the same.

But, but, but… We just got several weeks worth of new content on a level 80 map, complete with new events, mobs, items, boss fights and story instances… ?

What difference would that make?

At level 80, you still level up – every so often all of your hitpoints are healed mid-battle when you do and you get a skill point. The only difference is that the little number doesn’t go up anymore.

If they added new levels and the new cap was, say level 100, people would blast through the new levels in a matter of a few hours anyway. If new content was released (1 or 2 new maps) people would have these completed in a matter of days. We burn through content.

These monthlies come naturally:
- dailies x 4 – 4 days
- 100 events – first week
- 100 veterans – first week

And then I have the choice for monthly number 4 between
- jumping puzzles
- fractal runs
- and salvaging

I usually just run around and do some of the easier jumping puzzles n a couple of hours which is a fairly quick affair for my boyfriend and myself, plus you end up getting chests (not amazing, but a nice bonus). If you absolutely hate jumping puzzles though… fractals?

The fractal runs needed for monthlies is also fairly quick, especially at low fractal leveles. I’ve only just started doing fractals, and 2 or 3 nights of fractals should do the trick. That’s only 3 fractal runs, and you don’t even have to complete the third run. If you never ever want to do fractals though… AND you hate jumping puzzles… salvaging.

And this is without even taking WvW into consideration at all.

So, salvaging, even though it is the easiest task ever, is only #6 (out of 4) on my personal list – all while always being on my to-do list as I salvage a lot through normal play. When it feels less of a hassle to run dungeons or jumping puzzles, then I think the number of salvages needed is too high.

I salvage almost all the stuff I pick up, but I’m done with the other monthlies long before hitting 500 salvages.

Then maybe I shouldn’t have said anything

Okay, I love all of these and would have real trouble deciding which one to choose. Amazing.

Love the mohawk and the middle-left one.

I’d appreciate some more Asura hairstyles, but if we get any, I’d want them to be distinctly Asuran-style (sort of… “aztech” inspired).

Most female Asuras I meet use the same hairstyle (the buns with bows), it is so much better than the other hair styles. Maybe more variety would fix that.

Re-reading the announcement, I think that the guaranteed weapon skin ticket is wishful thinking. I read that the Rich Dragon Coffer has a chance to contain a ticket while the normal Dragon Coffer has a very low chance of containing a weapon ticket.

But maybe I am too pessimistic.

For the record: if the rich dragon coffers have guaranteed weapon tickets, I’d be guaranteed to buy between 5 and 7 of them for various characters of mine.

Katz.5143:

There is no reason for it to not be permanent. They should keep adding mini games into the game. Please anet, just leave it in the game.

This ^

Players who don’t like crab toss can easily ignore it.
Players who do like crab toss find their game enriched by it.

I see nothing gained by removing it. Diversity is a good thing.

I’ve had a proper bad luck streak yesterday with BL kits. But not when I tried the masterwork ones. /shrug

The Jade Axe looks amazing.

I wasn’t super interested in the Molten or Sclerite skins (I simply don’t play any characters right now who dig the styles) soI wasn’t too disappointed that I didn’t get any. Those jade skins though? Based on the axe and shield, I think I have capacity for half a dozen such weapons between some of my characters.

Here’s hoping the the pistols will look as awesome as the axe.

I took my sweet time exploring maps, generally ignoring the fact that I was “overleveled” for a specific map, and had no problems whatsoever.

Your stats are leveled down to your surroundings, but your gear isn’t (asf ar as I know), so if you’re in a level 1-15 map and you use white gear, that’s totally okay. The gear doesn’t get worse with your stats getting better. Also, you will gain access to skills and traits, so staying in low level zones becomes a little* easier even when you continue to wear the same old low-level stuff.

*but not so much that it will ruin your experience

Secondly, the rewards are adjusted to your actual level, that means a level 80 character will get more XP and karma out of on event than a level 15 doing the same event. The absolute numbers will be different, but the relative numbers will be similar, meaning that doing events in a lower level envorinment is profitable. I believe that some of the mob drops are also adjusted with your level, so a higher level character will find better stuff. (This does not affect crafting materials – a level 1-5 map won’t drop tier 6 crafting materials and neither will the nodes that you can gather materials from.)

I adventure in low level maps with my level 80 all. the. time.

I don’t think you have any reason to worry. Take all the time you need to explore the maps, and don’t stress out about gear or rewards – it’ll be fine. GW2 is designed that way.

Noince.7364:

The lack of reaction does mean they don’t take it serious. So many replies and view in this thread with people concerned.

From personal experience: the lack of reaction can mean a lage number of different things.

The reason some threads get an immediate reply is because they are easy to reply to.

In this case (bouncing skill) I assume the lack of reaction is due to

• the internal discussion about whether or how to solve is being ongoing – companies don’t usually involve the user base in ongoing internal discussions.
• a possible solution being put on the roadmap for a future patch, in which case they are likely to not make their plans known to the user base, so that they have the option to change these plans if other things get in the way
• and most likely, the problem was given a lower priority than other issues (culling, DC issues, achievements not triggering, problems with timed content, changes that they are already committed to, and various game-breakers) and we will just have to wait.

Silence is not the same as “no”; it is not the same as “we didn’t read it” or “we don’t care”.

Hey,

I don’t have speakers right now, but I think this thread is perfect for you:
Bash the Dragon!

draxynnic.3719:

If it does get done as a kit, I’d imaging the actual portal to be the toolbelt skill. As a gadget, I’d imagine the toolbelt skill to be some sort of emergency teleport skill.

I would sign up for that.

But man, I would love a portal gun kit.

I don’t see the Skritt becoming a “full” playable race either – too much work to retro-fit them into the existing GW, what’s with all the existing armours having to be re-modelled to fit a skritt, and so on.

It would, however, be tremendous fun.

Skritt personal story? I don’t even know where to begin. So many awesome possibilities.

Check out this thread on the Tarnished Coast forums: ROLL SKRITT, YES?

It’s become convention that races ending in “-an” or “-on” get the plural after the example oh “human → humans” while everything else has a good chances of being the same in singular and plural. This sounds slightly more exotic to our ears. (“This race is so exotic, we don’t even know how to form a plural!”)

This is the fashion right now in fantasy. That wasn’t always the case.

Traditional examples from Tolkien: Tolkien put a great deal of thinking into what the plurals of the race names should be and coined elves, dwarves (as opposed to the grammatically correct “dwarfs”) (although rumour has it he first wanted to used the anicent version, “dwarrows”), orcs, hobbits… Tolkien only used the more exotic sounding singular=plural formula to either create additional mystery (e.g. the Dúnedain), additional threat (e.g. the Nazgûl, the Uruk-Hai) or additional strange-ness (as in “from far away”) (e.g. the Haradrim).

Centaurs is also a word that has been around forever.

It seems a lot more formulaic in modern fantasy/SF, singular = plural is almost the default. Examples from Star Trek:

• Klingon → Klingons
  Romulan → Romulans
  Bajoran → Bajorans, but
• Ferengi → Ferengi
  Borg → Borg
  Ocampa → Ocampa
• Exceptions:
  Kazon → Kazon, for some reason, even though it ends in -on
  Gorn → Gorns (although I assume that if the Gorns had appeared in the Trek of this century (as opposed to 1966), the plural would be “Gorn”)

Other modern examples outside of Star Trek: the Dothraki, the Bravoosi (GRRM also does the “exotic = from far away” thing); the Jedi and Sith, but the Cylons.

Interestingly, the plurals of various races of Defiance are pretty mixed and break this loose rule – but they do have a conlang expert working on the show. It is safe to assume that he put a lot of thought into such issues; my guess is that this is intentional. David J. Peterson is on twitter, I could ask him.

TL;RD: plural = singular has become increasingly popular over the least few decades and is the fashion in fantasy writing right now.

That’s a good point about the Dredge. I completely forgot about them.

Now I feel compelled to add Centaurs to the list.

The Dragon Bash Song is fun.

1. Will it be made available for download, like the SAB soundtrack?

2. Will it be played by bands in the game? That would be even more fun!

CyberManX.4817:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Then, as announced several times, he closed up shop.

When was it announced that the SAB vendor would be no longer selling items? There was no mention that in any of the patch notes.

From the SAB forums: Will Moto be removed when SAB is gone?

Grayson.2375:

Hi, I am still holding on to some Bubbles as i do not know which weapon to get in future. Will the Reward Npc Moto be removed from the game when SAB is gone or should be remain for reward exchange?

Thx in Adv!!

Josh Foreman:

He’ll still be selling stuff for two weeks after SAB closes for maintenance.

Moto will be back as a vendor when the SAB re-opens, but it is very likely that he will be selling different items/skins from before. So if you have your heart set on for example the scepter skin, you will have to buy it from the TP (or wait for the SAB to return and then see whether you’re lucky and it can be bought with baubles again, but if not, the TP price of the item will probably go up a bit.)

Bubi.7942:

More of a hope than an expectation:

It would be great to run into some of the known NPCs at random.

For instance:
I would like to meet Braham drinking in one corner of LA, and have a keg of ale with him. Depending on your previous achievments (like, do you have the volunteer title) the conversation could trigger a cutscene where he greets you, then drink together.

And I don’t mean he (or any NPCs) should be an essential part of the story, just standing there, celebrating like any other citizen/visitor.

I do hope for things like this, but I fear I won’t be seeing any of this anytime soon.

That would be nice

I’m not overly excited about Dragon Bash, myself – I find actual world events (F&F; Southsun stuff) inherently more exciting than festivities. No real reason, I just do.

That being said, I find 1 month a little long for “just” a festival, so I have hopes that something goes terribly wrong and the whole thing turns out to be something more than just a party.

I declare June 6 official “Thank Your Dolyak Day”.

Activities:

• Pat a Dolyak on the nose and say “Thank you, Dolyak”
• Walk a mile in your dolyak’s shoes: visit Traveling Merchant Orthun and acquire Dolyak Tincture
• Or do an escort mission at least.

Please spread the word. The dolyaks or Tyria deserve some recognition… even though few of them reach the epic eliteness of the Consortium Dolyak.

Hebee.8460:

http://www.gw2db.com/items/2316-skeleton-key-s

“Opens rare and unusual chests. Needed to unlock treasures from treasure maps.”

No clue on where to use, but interesting wording. Maybe a hidden area?

But another thing on that GW2DB site, its listed under the “Trophies” category, among other trophies are items to throw into the Mystic Forge, so it could be used in a MF recipe. (all speculation at this point from me at work :P )

There doesn’t seem to be any info on the wiki – NOW I am intrigued. What is it, what is it? 9_9

That would have been ideal, if only cosmetic. But sometimes those trivial things really make the difference.

Didn’t we get an in-game letter?