Guild Wars 2

Courtesy of my Google-uberness, from the 1928 Winter Olympics: “Two gold medals, no silver medals and three bronze medals were awarded in the men’s 500 metres speed skating event as a result of a two-way tie for first place and three-way tie for third place.”

There ya go.

Often in tournaments if there’s two teams at the top and two teams at the second tier, then they give two first place awards and two third place awards. At least, that’s how I would do it.

Keiel.7489:

A well played mesmer trumps all.

Okay, so as a new mesmer, how do I do that?

Hi Dawdler,

I’d love to hear more about your build and how you use it, etc. I’m also currently running GS/staff but domination instead of chaos, and curious about how to make more of it.

Okay I just spent a bunch of time reading up on various WvW builds. It seems mesmer is fine with roaming type activity, I just need to find a build that works well and that I have enough skill to actually use.

I’m not sure my “tanky mesmer” really is going to be effective.

Right now looking at the Blackwater build, though it’s so different from how I’ve played mesmer that it would take some getting used to.

I think I want to focus on WvW. In sPVP it seems changing builds is trivially simple so it’s easier to experiment there. Happy for any further direction.. though mesmer’s reputation as being a confusing profession continues to hold true.

Thanks. I did buy the PVT gear, and I have an insane HP pool now (something like 25k). My crit profile is indeed quite low. I haven’t really had much of a chance to try it out yet in PvE, and while I went into WvW briefly it was just in a stupid zerg where it doesn’t matter what you’re wearing, only how many people are on each side. In fact, I’m not sure where I am even going to find a role for myself in WvW with this character.

GuildWarsPlayer.5608:

Same here. I wanted to play an mmo where you could simply roam around and run into stuff to participate in, which is what GW2 claimed to be. It seems the content is set up for that kind of gameplay but no one is doing the content for the reasons you have made clear.

I’ve been doing it nearly every day I play since I started a month ago.

Some areas have fewer people, but they’re out there. Use map chat — tell people where you are, what you’re doing, what you’d like to do.

I knew that warrior was something different while leveling in PvE when I noticed that with other classes I constantly used dodge rolls to avoid being killed while with my warrior, I use it more on OFFENSE than defense, to get closer to mobs to kill them faster!

Might be different in PvP but in PvE, wow, warriors are insane.

I agree that most of the problem is the lack of cost for posting buy offers. If you had to cough up a non-refundable 5% to offer to buy something, the nonsense would mostly disappear.

Thanks, that is pretty much what I use it for.

I also discovered that the PVT gear is not nearly as expensive as I thought. In fact, I might be able to get it cheap enough that I can make back the $ on it by salvaging it if need be. So I’ll start with that and see how it goes.

insaneseagull, thanks but I think that build requires quite a bit more ability than I have at the moment.

Pyro, yes, I guess I’m looking for something well-balanced, to the extent possible. I’m not even really sure what I like best so far!

.. I’m refering to me here, not the in-game condition.

So I started playing about a month ago, and chose mesmer as my initial character. I knew it was not a simple profession for a newbie but the idea was so cool I had to give it a shot. It was tough to level up, as I was warned.. and when I got to level 80 I found it still pretty hard to figure out. It seemed slow, ponderous and hard to find a good niche for in WvW, not ideal for PvE either, and at the time sPvP was something I didn’t really think I was interested in. I ended up mostly shelving it to work on other chars.

Fast-forward to today, someone I know says he wants to duel and goof around in PvP, so I head there for the first time. I start on my new warrior and switch to my thief, and it’s more fun than I expected. Then I try the mesmer out and it is WICKED fun… throwing all those clones and illusions out there. I even ’morphed him into a moa, eliciting a response that would be against forum rules to post but that had me almost literally ROFLing.

I began falling in love with mesmer again, but I still really don’t know what I’m doing. And when I took the mesmer back into PvE and WvW, it still seemed to be lacking. I think part of that is that I really need proper armor and don’t have it yet, but I’m not sure what to get.

The build is some sort of hybrid monstrosity that people here will probably think ill-advised. I had tried a few options but ended up coming back to GS/staff, because they are the two weapons I like most. I know one is mostly DD and one mostly conditions, and thus probably not ideal, but I just really like the combination.

Mostly a phantasm build I suppose. Traits are either 20/20/0/30/0 or 20/20/10/20/0 depending on my current tinker. It’s a pretty tanky, defensive build, not something I set out to do but it has high HP and good healing with restorative mantras and the mantras of pain and recovery. Despite this I often find myself CCed and/or slaughtered especially in WvW which is annoying.

I had some folks recommend PVT armor to me, which makes sense. But again the build seems to lean more defensive than offensive to begin with and I already have a lot of HP. Plus the PVT armor is crazy expensive… I could buy it but it would take a big bite out of my finances.

Anyway, any general recommendations or suggestions on what to do in terms of gear or build tweakage would be appreciated. I’m looking for more of a generalist than a specialist here, for the occasional dungeon or WvW or PvP encounter. In WvW, I’m much more interested in holding my own solo or in a small group (the ‘zerg’ doesn’t interest me much) though there the lack of easy passive mobility becomes an issue.

It’s past my bedtime so hopefully I didn’t mess up anything too badly there.

Astral Projections.7320:

He deliberately deleted more than one character, being well aware at that time he was losing the use of the items. He could have bought additional character slots and did not do so, preferring to delete high level characters with gem store items. He could have parked them at JPs or used them as mules or just let them sit. He didn’t care that much about the loss of the gem store items back then, not enough to let it affect his decision to delete.

And yes he has contacted support and was denied. He has a thread in Accounts Forum about it, is how I know.

Thanks for the backstory (assuming it’s correct). Most unfortunate. I asked because I saw in another thread someone complaining that they spent a bunch of gems on soulbound gathering tools that were now irrelevant and they were unhappy about it. An Arenanet CS rep jumped in and asked him/her to contact CS and I was very pleasantly surprised that they’d (by implication) refund gems in that circumstance. So I figured maybe it would apply to this individual as well.

Can’t comment on PvP but I’ll say this on PvE…

I’ve so far leveled a mesmer, thief and warrior. The first two, I had to be pretty careful with tackling mobs above my current level. The warrior? Yesterday I was running around at level 15 soloing level 22 and level 23 mobs, and even level 20+ veterans. Night and day difference.

Just had it going again, Friday evening, was going faster than usual, figured maybe we had a chance.

Then.. wha? There’s ANOTHER minion phase after the aetherblades? Good grief. We got maybe 40% through that. Presumably there’s even more after that one too.

Really would be nice if they could lower the number of mobs somewhat so there’s at least a reasonable shot of getting ’er done…

Imperatora.7654:

Sorry if I sound a little harsh, but you are basically asking the system to be dumbed down to your level because you can’t price items right.

No, actually I’m not. Sorry that you can’t understand the point I’m making but that is not it.

The stuff I am selling DOES move — as long as I play the same sorts of games as others do and get lucky. In the case of buying, that means every hour or two cancelling my bid and putting in a new one a few coppers higher. That’s dysfunctional.

I don’t mind stuff taking a while to sell. I DO mind stuff taking a while to sell because some guy listed the same item for 0.001% less money 5 seconds after I logged off for the night and then 10 other people did the same to him.

There’s a reason why nearly all bidding-type exchange systems use either a minimum increment or some other system to prevent the sort of behavior I’ve described here. And it’s not because you’re smarter than everyone else, but because everyone recognizes that not having minimum increments is a waste of everyone’s time.

No, this system does not encourage accurate pricing. Exactly the opposite. What happens is something like this…

Item’s lowest current price is, say 10g. I put in an offer for sale at 9.50.

I come back an hour later, and someone else has the item at 9.49.99. He’s essentially selling for the same price as me, but will get the first sale when someone comes to the TP and says “give me one at the lowest current price”.

I can then try to relist at 9.25. And guess what will happen? Someone else will jump in with one at 9.24.99. Ad nauseum.

People who actually try to list at legitimately lower increments get penalized. Snipers get rewarded.

You think that makes for a healthy exchange system? I disagree.

And bringing up ectos shows you really aren’t grasping the problem at all. It’s not an issue with high-volume items with low spreads. It’s an issue with low-volume items with high spreads.

I’m no saint, of course — I use the system myself as well. I just think it would be better for all if people who want to undercut an offer had to actually do it rather than skipping to the front of the line essentially for free.

I love how this thread is current at the same time as another one lamenting how few people there are in mid-level areas.

Pandemoniac.4739:

I think you’re missing my point. The prices are all essentially the same, so if there is more demand than the supply being put on the market, all of those essentially the same price items will sell. If there is more supply than demand, only a portion of those essentially the same price items will sell and the price should be dropping.

They’re all the same, but those who jump in later will sell their items sooner, sometimes MUCH sooner, than those who listed earlier. And because the increment is so small as to be meaningless, there is no way to combat this other than being willing to sell for far less or buy for far more.

Pandemoniac.4739:

There might be something to the idea that the price should drop in slightly larger chunks, but I think it’s better to err on the side of more granularity than introduce an artificial price bias.

There is no “artificial price bias”. If you see an item listed for 9g 50s, you can also list it for 9g 50s. You just can’t list it for 9g 49s 99c.

All functional exchange systems have rules to prevent that sort of nonsense. Either in the form of minimum increments, or through more complex systems that allow automatic increases in bid or sell prices. I suggested the increments because they are simple to implement in a system like GW2’s.

You guys are missing the point, which is that the ability to undercut by an insignificant amount simply leads to noise in the marketplace, and a system that, in effect, awards people for being later to offer at a particular price than earlier.

If I offer an item for sale at 7g 43s 99c and someone else offers it at 7g 43s 98c, we are essentially offering it at the same price, but the second seller will go before mine. If 20 other people later jump in at 7g 43s 97c, 7g 43s 96c, etc., my item could sit for days before it moves — even though it’s essentially the same price. The same happens with purchases.

This is why markets generally have mimimum increments.

spoj.9672:

Thats my favourite audio phrase. Leave it how it is!

Having an option to turn it off for those who don’t like it would hurt you somehow? Sheesh.

Unwanted constantly-repeated sensory stimulus is a form of torture. And no, choosing between having to listen to this noise or turning off all chat is not sufficient.

To be honest, I’m the one feeling agonized, tormented and pained whenever I’m on my mesmer. I use this mantra a lot because it’s very good, but it’s also REALLY ANNOYING to have to listen to this shout 10 zillion times an hour.

There’s another signet that gives random boons that I won’t even use because I got so tired of hearing the same endless blather.

Please, PLEASE put a long cooldown on these repetitive shouts or allow us to turn them off? Thanks.

Sure. It was the MOG music service player. I am going to send them a few words on this as well.

(Reminds me of this scene from one of the Game of Thrones books. Spoilers redacted.)

—

“Who will open for this pair?”

“Three hundred,” bid a matron on an antique palanquin. “Four,” called a monstrously fat Yunkishman from the litter where he sprawled like a leviathan.
…
“And one,” said a crone in a violet tokar. The auctioneer gave her a sour look but did not disallow the bid.
…
“Four-fifty,” came the bid. “Four-eighty.”

“Five hundred.”
…
“Eight hundred.”

“And fifty.”

“And one.”
…
“One thousand,” bid the grotesque fat man.

“And one.” The crone again.

As a new player, I’ve mostly been impressed with how the TP is implemented. It works pretty well to let people get the gear they want and get rid of stuff they don’t. I like the option of either optimizing my return or achieving “instant gratification”.

One problem with it though is the lack of minimum increments, which leads to micro-sniping that wastes everyone’s time. You decide you want a sword, so you put in an offer for 50 silver, and then six hours later you haven’t gotten your sword, so you look at the item and find a bunch of offers for 50s1c, 50s2c, etc. So you have to cancel your offer and try again.

Same happens with selling.

This is annoying because these aren’t really higher bids for all intents and purposes, they are basically saying “me too, oh, and by the way, me FIRST”. It also provides a huge advantage to people who “play” the TP over those who want to actually use it to exchange items. I admit that I play the TP a bit myself (I find it fun) but even so I’d prefer there were minimum increments, which would cut down on some of the silliness and also force people to think more carefully about what they’re really willing to pay for an item.

You should still be able to say “me too” and match an existing high bid or low offer, but to go higher or lower you should need to have a difference of say, 5%.

Yep, all that.

This sort of stuff gets under my skin because it’s a perfect example of great content not being fully utilized because it lacks very simple tweaking that a developer could likely accomplish in an hour or two at most. Even just changing the “45” to “60” would help a lot.

Fortunately it’s still a lot of fun and the XP and gear rewards are pretty decent.

Last night we had what should have been a great opportunity, an invasion in Lornar’s Pass (a relatively low level so lots of people could participate) at prime time in the eastern US. We got 1/3 of the way through the aetherblade wave.

Ashley, thanks very much for the speedy response.

That didn’t work, unfortunately. But after it didn’t, I was able to trace it down to another poorly-behaved application that was interfering with GW2 for some reason.

Thanks for the reply. They are at the defaults, Left-Ctrl and Left-Alt. I’m baffled. :/

The “don’t nerf this class, buff that class” thing is one of the oldest canards in gaming.

There is no difference at all. It makes no matter in PvP, and if they buff weak classes to match stronger classes, that just means they also have to buff PvE.

Can’t figure it out.. I’ve tried restoring keyboard defaults, restarting, etc. Must be something simple, any ideas? Thanks.

PopeUrban.2578:

The intended use of downed 3 is to sneak attack with downed 1, which makes it a much stronger attack and adds poison.

Which is great except for the small problem that by the time I can use 3, I’m usually already dead.

The point isn’t that warriors are superior to all other classes in all respects. It is that, compared to other classes, they have far more positives and far fewer negatives, at least in my experience.

The “nerfs” I’ve seen proposed appear to be minimal. I think Arenanet is worried about upsetting the huge % of people playing warriors right now, and perhaps with good cause. But the longer they delay dealing with this, the harder it will be to deal with it.

Diogo, that’s a great, sane explanation to my post-that-was-basically-a-rant and I appreciate it.

I’ve read about the “nerf” that’s incoming and it seems rather minor to me. I don’t even see as much complaining in the warrior forum as I do about nerfs being made to other classes that really need nerfing a lot less from what I can tell.

And yes, most of my experience is in PvE, but I routinely see warriors dominating WvW play as well, and my guess is they are no slouch in PvP either.

After playing various classes for a couple of weeks now, all I can say is that I Don’t Get It. Seems like all of the classes have strengths and weaknesses — except for warriors.

High DPS? Check.
Tons of weapon options? Check.
Good CC options? Check.
High armor? Check.
High HP? Check.
High mobility? Check.
Great healing and regen? Check.
Very useful downed abilities? Check.

Surely Arenanet must be aware of this by now. Why don’t they fix it? Serious question, I’m really confused because most other aspects of the game seem fairly well balanced.

Maybe there are downsides to warriors I just haven’t found yet. But the only one I can see is feeling cheesy even playing one because they’re so insanely overpowered compared to most other classes.

Imagi, thanks for the history, it’s a bit less irritating at least knowing it once was useful and it’s just now out of date.

People comparing the thief downed abilities to that of warriors makes me wonder if I’m playing the same game. 2 seconds of stealth is comparable to 15 seconds to fight as if not even downed and with a chance of fully rallying? Or with a trait, 100% chance of rallying? In what universe?

Why is it that warriors seem to get the best of everything in this game with pretty much no downsides? I don’t get it.

This is not even a first world problem. It’s an “I wish I lived in an imaginary universe where software never has bugs” problem.

Annoying is awesome! But perma-stealth is going away.

I’m really not sure how to set up a high-regen thief, any tips? Thanks.

The very first thing I noticed when I started playing GW2 was the incredibly competent way updates were handled. The game I used to play, every new update or patch required hours of downtime. And then I start playing this one, and it just lets me keep playing for up to an hour and then I just switch to the patched version at my leisure? I was shocked.

Once again, people will complain about ANYTHING.

I love this little event. Chaos descends on a zone, lots of running around, tons of champions and mobs and loot and XP.

But the overall event always fails. I’ve never seen past the Aetherblades.

I realize this is a holdover from an older LS entry, and most people must consider it old hat. Any chance we could get the timer increased to maybe 60m so we can actually complete it? I’ve tried a half dozen times or so now and we haven’t come close even once..

They’re awful.

I’m level 65 on my first thief so maybe I’m missing something, but on the whole I find them all but useless. The first is just the usual do damage, the fourth is the standard heal, and the other two do nothing more than delay my death by 1 to 2 seconds.

That’s actually a reason to make a high-offense deadly asura. I love contrasts. I made a cute little asura guardian on that premise but maybe warrior would be better.

Is it better to intimidate in WvW as a warrior or trick people into thinking you’re easy pickings when you’re not?

Contiguous.1345:

I wish I had a copper penny for every time someone has run away from my big,scary, brightly coloured, support-build Norn.

Are you joking or being serious? Sorry, I’m too newbie to be sure.

Thanks for the replies! I’ll try those out. Other ideas also much appreciated.

Thanks for the build link GOSU. I’ll try to watch the video but I likely am not experienced enough to make much sense of it.

Funny because my thief is the smallest possible asura and my warrior is the largest possible norn. I was thinking of WvW with the former but not the latter.

Both are female though and my guess is male norn are seen as more menacing.

I was actually wondering if I should go asura for the warrior too, but I guess with a warrior the name of the game isn’t evading notice as it is with a thief.

I also don’t get why Arenanet doesn’t adjust the rewards for dynamic events. Do I really care about getting 2.5 silver for 15 minutes of helping out some NPCs? No, I do not. I do it for the XP and for the fun (I just did one that literally had me LOLing. The writing of some of them is awesome. )

Multiply the gold rewards by 5 and put in a further bonus for ones that haven’t been done in a while, like there is for killing mobs. You’ll see a LOT more people exploring rather than engaging in mindless champ farming.

Thanks.

Any particular suggestions? I’m not really sure even exactly what to search for.

Interesting point about the mesmer, thanks.

My thief is the smallest possible asura with medium brown skin and grayish mottles, and armor with brown tones. She actually does “blend into the shadows” pretty darned well most of the time, but I wondered about that text box…

I’m a new player, dabbled enough in WvW to know I love the idea and that zerg-running is not for me. I want to make a high mobility, high survivability character to run around solo, harrassing and annoying the enemy and reporting information to my team.

I’m building a thief to try to this from a stealthy approach but also was recommended to try a warrior, since, well, they seem to be better at everything these days, lol. I assume here the goal is to be a bull in a china shop, just a bull that’s hard to put down.

Never played a warrior above level 20. Can anyone give me a build recommendation, ideally a link to a specific build showing traits, skills and gear like that ones on intothemists.com? Thanks.

Centaur runes would help except I’d have to spam my heal ability every 15 seconds, and it gets old fast. The thief is far more mobile in every way.

Jayne, youtube videos don’t show gear, traits, etc. But I’ll look around and maybe ask on the warrior forum.