Guild Wars 2

You paid for the core game. Future content may or may not be charged for at the discretion of developer/publisher. I imagine there is further info in the EULA which you signed and agreed to.

Season 2 technically is free to everyone since gems can be bought with gold, obtained via gameplay. It is not comparable to a sub at all.

Always a success in th evening. Hit and miss during the afternoon.

Thats the results for me recently

Expac incoming!!

Joke

Highly intrigued by what the contents will be though!! Thanks for the heads up Gaile, comms like these head off the mass posts about patch times!

No not heavy grind for the karma weapons. The armour is debatable since it is purchased with gold

Both WoW and Galaxies were a diff era and generation and also subbed. They didn’t need extra outfits in a cash store to make money.

I understand your sentiments over the gradual curve – I can’t bear a single alt out of the starter instance w/o putting on some decent looking skins I have unlocked first – but all the info has now been laid out before you. GW2’s progression has largely been around cosmetics since launch. That means a gradual curve of skins whilst you level, to wide and wonderful variety at level 80.

Personally I find the choice and customisation spectacular versus most MMO’s albeit a tiny select few (none of which have been listed in this thread)

Anet break up for Christmas for the entirety of mid-late December – I believe on a split shift system (judging by comments made from a few devs on the forums this past Xmas). There is no way they will have an expansion released with anything short of a full crew on hand to celebrate, tweet and monitor for bugs and urgent fixes.

SilentKnight.4612:

Recent releases for advertised skin sets you mean?

A lot of the recent releases have been gem store only yes. That is simply because it is easier to generate them for there whilst they make the expansion. It doesn’t detract from the sheer volume in the game.

When you get to level 80, a lot of the game for many is about cosmetics hence why it is more stacked towards level 80, especially conisdering the speed and ease of levelling in GW2.

First character can feel rather drab in comparison, but when you see what you can unlock, then it changes everything. Also, what you unlock is account wide, so you can make alts look pretty spectacular when levelling.

If you go to your starter city, you should be able to locate vendors who sell skins for either gold (armour) or karma (weapons) for your level.

As for money bait, no. There are a few gem store options, but the number is miniscule versus what is in the game. It is in no way stacked in the gem store’s favour. It is just that recent releases have been gem store only so its had some bad rep recently.

Also, if you to a bank and select the tab of wardrobe storage, you can see and preview everything. Dulfy is easier for locating where a skin comes from though.

Most of the skins are on level 80 gear. Once unlocked they can be re-skinned onto gear at any level.

Getting weapons/armour or skins can be from the folloiwng sources in game;

- Karma or gold vendors throughout cities. Especially cultural for your race, in 3 different tiers (and can be unlocked earlier)
- Vendors for your order – priory/whispers/vigil
- champion loot boxes (weapons only)
- exchangeable for dungeon tokens in Lions Arch
- Crafting – including Legendary, Ascended, Grawl, Krait, Jormag, Hylek
- Unlocked via story or achievements
- bought from the auction house
- other karma vendors (eg pirate themed at the end of a jumping puzzle in Lions Arch)
- very rare boss rewards at Tequatl and Evolved Jungle Worm (open world massive boss battles)
- achievement points

There are thousands of skins in this game which aren’t on the Gem Store. You can see a gallery of them at Dulfy.Com should you wish to see more.

It’s been confirmed as not being worked on, but they are aware of it as a request and a useful feature. I think there are further threads in HoT subforum on this.

Albadaran.1283:

Thanathos.2063:

What items should that be? I’d like to know that.

I don’t think that it will treated equally, because S2 is permanent, so there’s no need to wrap something up for laurels if there’s another way to get it.

These:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Laurel_Merchant#Living_World_Season_1_Rewards

Randulf: I don’t know, played season 2 occasionally, so I was wondering if the complete list will be for sale at the laurel vendor for laurels and some gold, like in the season 1 list.

The season 1 items existed because they were no longer in game and obtainable. ANet decided to add what is a rather fair system to obtain these items for those who missed season 1, using Laurels.

The season 2 items are all still obtainable.;

From memory;

- all ascended trinkets, for Nomad and Sinister stats, carapace armour and luminescent armour are from achievements. These are the only Season 2 story specific items. Using laurels would invalidate the challenges involved.
- Mawdrey backpiece is a treasure hunt/crafting activity
- Fossilised Weapons are obtained by gaming in Dry Top and using tokens/exhanges
- Sinister insignias are via crests in Silverwastes
- Tonics and minis from crests in Silverwastes or rare bosses in Dry Top
- new Eternal Sands focus skin and Sinister Blowtorch. Both from Silverwastes

Basically there is no reason to invalidate the zones by adding them in as laurel exchanges. There are legitimate and reasonable ways to obtain all items outside of festivals that have been released since Season 2 began.

There are however items from Season 1 missing. I think they should be added to the vendor.

The bl ones are the ones that annoy me. I dont mind rng on dyes, thats fine. Its rng on top of rng that i have issue with. If you buy them from the store or get the from a bl chest, you have a small chance of getting the exclusive. Then an even smaller chance of one you want.

If i buy say the lions arch dye pack from the gem store, i would expect it to be fairer to have a guaranteed chance of one of the new types, but it be a random one. Getting a blue from a gem store pack feels like a gamble too far.

Wallace MacBix.2089:

Randulf.7614:

The solution is to find another use for essences. Maybe a luck eater like mawdrey.

I really like that idea, but please after a dragonite ore eater.

Agreed!!!

Its account bound to reduce the grind. People will reach the cap earlier than intended, but most players are prob sitting on 100-150 if i took a guess. Imagine that spread across toons and it would be very low on each toon and a horrible grind if soulbound.

The solution is to find another use for essences. Maybe a luck eater like mawdrey.

The NPE exists because Anet accumulated a lot of feedback on their original system and original progression and players apparently did find it overwhelming and confusing.

Its difficult to comment directly on this since we do not have access to that info, however I have encountered many players who simply didnt get GW2 and genuinely did find it confusing. The intentions behind the change were at least sound.

The problem with the NPE now is that hundreds of thousands ppl clearly had no issue with it simply shown by those playing , who stuck with the game. There were things that needed addressing, unfortunately for many players, problems that didnt need a fix got one anyway. That really has become the core of the controversy.

Will this NPE stay? Highly unlikely. They’ve mentioned already work on reverting some things and NPEs in mmos constantly change. Either before HoT or released with, id be confident in seeing changes again.

Is the NPE an unmitigated disaster? Of course not, its pure hyperbole to suggest otherwise. Is it better than the launch version? Subjectively speaking, no it isnt imo.

Lazaar.9123:

The feature was added in because of people complaining when they accidentally deleted an important item.

This. It was an extra safeguard for important items getting lost and probably saves support a lot of time on a very small number of items trying to be claimed back after accidental deletion.

It’s a miniscule price to pay really.

Oxidia.8103:

Randulf.7614:

The key thing is your gf enjoys it. That’s more important really than its effectiveness

Tee hee

rofl…yeah ok…whoops!

Snow.2048:

Discipline I is the warrior

Thanks. Seem to have overlooked that particular one somehow

Which is the might on block with a Warrior? I know the Guardian trait

ZBoss.5610:

So for the non-soloable quests I have a question then. If I have unlocked that episode, but my buddy has not can you tag along with me even though he won’t get any credit or rewards other than XP (if he even gets that)?

Im fairly certain someone w/o access can enter someone elses instance yes, just minus the rewards.

Aren’t they available from Silverwastes/Dry Top vendors or via achievements already though?

What S2 items have vanished?

Snow.2048:

Thanks Randulf, tbh I don’t even consider the bubble a feature, never seen it at work, it was the knock back that made me happy she had my back when I got myself into some mess while roaming…

If it helps, my buddy with sword shield was a pug zerg commander, and he was pretty tanky. Not optimal but he spent hours on his roman look. Shields definitely have some pretty awesome skins

Personally I think the shields have prob the best range of looks in the game. Brahams Shield, The Tower Shield, the Jade Shield, Flameseeker, Mad Moon, just to name some of my favs.

The Tower Shield makes for some very classic, well armoured looking characters

Guardians can be really ace to play. I enjoy my mace/shield with GS or staff Guardian hugely, although the hammer was so much fun to level with. Plus he looks pretty cool!

It’s not broken Snow, it’s just that as uses go it’s not overly effective compared to other skills. The bubble doesn’t really last long enough to have any real use as a group mechanic either. It needs a bit of buffing. It’s been tweaked before, but so slight as to be neglibile (I think CD was reduced by 5econds)

The key thing is your gf enjoys it. That’s more important really than its effectiveness

Guardian shields sadly are poor due to skills 5 being nearly useless. I use it because I like shields and I love the shield skins.

As for Warrior, there are viable builds out there. I use mace/shield for reflects on the shields and interrupts. It’s not an optimal build or a dps build, but I enjoy it thoroughly and he is very brick like for our few guild instance runs.

Worth browsing the profession forums, I’ve seen people show off their builds for shields in there.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/players/Forum-s-search-feature-doesn-t-work-A-tip/4612877

Until they decide to basically do a new forum (v low priority Vs the game itself), it is how it is I’m afraid

phys.7689:

probably pretty low, a fairly large % of currently active players probably havent even gone to fractal 10

Waves his hand in the air

The game is named for its lore http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/The_Guild_Wars

As for Guild Vs Guild, that’s a requested feature from GW1 that they have stated currently have no plans to add to the game since they already have wvw and spvp to manage. However, a new spvp is coming in the expansion which will have some Guild Vs Guild options

I think Wanze is prob closest. There is no way of figuring it out, but instances/dungeons etc are usually done by a low proportion of a community compared to other areas of a game. Skins aren’t particularly forthcoming, so yeah under 5% sounds right to me.

Just the new zones

I have 15k ap. I barely dungeon, wvw or pvp. I would have no idea of “accepted tactics” of a pug or a skilled dungeon group.

Ap has no direct bearing on skill. I can personally atest to that!

..

Wait…I think I just insulted myself…..

They also go on to say some much more interesting things about the fight. About positioning and the less static nature of the boss VS the “set piece” ones like Shatterer.

That’s much more important since it’s a big jump for them in the game and sets the example for future bosses and hopefully reworks

Not at all concerned. This technique is extremely common in mmo’s, poss to make workload easier for development teams. Having a World Boss appear in diff locations sounds pretty good to me anyway.

We also have other bosses – like that Mordrem and his corrupted pet thing. So there will be scope for more variety.

Not reading anything bad into this at all. The proof will be in the gameplay though. It’s shooting wildly in the dark at this point either way.

It’s just streamers showing off the demo. As said above, I don’t think it’s an info reveal – even the streamer is saying he wont be going into detail on the Revenant.

Character speech in real time sequences I see

You missed a streamer singing.

bet you are gutted

He is however just creating his Revenant as I type

Tachyon.5897:

Ele’s Mist Form when downed. You get three seconds to move to different place, and the enemies you’re trying to get away from just follow you anyway. It’s useless.

The idea is to get to an ally quicker for rezzing ather than to get our of ham’s way.

In reality…an ally goes to rez the ele and then the ele hits mist form and the rezzer facepalms

:D

Brother Dulfite.5793:

Randulf.7614:

What do you mean by political? I certainly wouldn’t welcome backstabbing/spying etc…not in a video game like this. It has no place. I’m also not understanding where the politics was a thing in GW1. We had factions, but that was just a means to a rep, rather than anythng else. It wouldn’t make sense in this game.

Can you elaborate some? I’ve asked around and ppl from GW1 I know are scratching their head somewhat at GW1 being described as political.

Not sure what you meant by “rep” but the people that lead the faction farming guilds in Cantha were highly politically active. I myself was a member, officer, guild leader, and co guild leader of various guilds that were extremely strong in the faction scene and I can’t tell you the number of times I heard about/was personally involved in/was impacted by sabotages (people working their way up to officer then kicking entire guild when the leader is offline), spying missions (to get member list, take screenshots of guild/alliance chat), and a whole bunch of other stuff. It was a BLAST. I HATE that for some reason many people think like you and say this has no place in this game when there were and maybe still are a GOOD amount of us that MISS that aspect of gw1.

That…sounds horrible though. Isn’t that considered griefing?

Take back Ascalon. For Gwen.

What do you mean by political? I certainly wouldn’t welcome backstabbing/spying etc…not in a video game like this. It has no place. I’m also not understanding where the politics was a thing in GW1. We had factions, but that was just a means to a rep, rather than anythng else. It wouldn’t make sense in this game.

Can you elaborate some? I’ve asked around and ppl from GW1 I know are scratching their head somewhat at GW1 being described as political.

I avoid betas since I prefer the “new” feeling of release. However, it’s good to see the ball rolling on this already.

Saint.5647:

I’ve actually got a couple looks that fall into this category. They’re all on GW2 Style so you can make them yourselves if you are interested in the looks. Shameless plug I know Both of the Asura are themed within GW2’s “magitech” scheme.

Asura Engineer
Asura Thief

My Guardian is actually one I have not seen a similar look for before I posted. He’s themed in a “post apocalyptic” scheme. The idea was to mix worn and old looking armor pieces with newer and more futuristic looking pieces to create the effect that these pieces were found or upgraded over time.

Human Guardian

Your human Guardian is my favourite in this thread. Reminds me of Dune. You just need a Sandworm!

Sube Dai.8496:

This is my space marine.

Not sold on the colours so any suggestions welcome!

You’re right about the colours…but if Tyria gets invaded by Tyranids….I’m on your team!!

I doubt you will find anyone to argue that point. But, it is nearly 3 years on. The best we can hope for is a rework within the same fight. Whether that will happen is highly doubtful. Maybe after we go up against Mordy, they will have learned enough about ED fights to inspire them to re-work it a little

I think that ship has sailed. Maybe they could tinker with the fight and make it more involving, but no leave him (presumed) dead. We can always replay the dungeon for new rewards as well if they did that.
Besides..he’d have to go knocking on he door of the Priory for his tail first!

There are so many more things that game has to use for protaganists, that bringing a villain we already defeated back, would only delay future encounters. I doubt many want Zhaitan again before Jormag or Kralk or even Palawa Joko if we ever go to Elona

The toxic spider queen came with season 1. Her mechanics are designed with a group in mind since you need to work together to keep ppl out of the cocoons.

As said already, some are, some aren’t depending on personal skill. Group Events especially are designed to bring ppl together and many champs post-launch were added with new mechanics – something which was highly requested by the community.

Is the game still solo friendly? Yes absolutely, Zhaitan aside, all of the personal story and Season 2 are completable solo. That said, expect the content to be more challenging as you move through the living story. You will also find new zones like Silverwastes to cater for groups working together.

If we get a raid, the logical assumption is Mordremoth. If that is coming in HoT, I would expect that to be a surprise and kept under wraps. Otherwise raids and/or Mordy will be LS content.

That’s my guess anyway

Asking them say it wont be coming on April 1st when they haven’t said it seems a weird question to me. It certainly will wont be their fault if there is outrage. They have made no commitment – and it didn’t return last April 1st, so there is little precedent except its launch. I’d much prefer something new and unexpected again this year than SAB – and I want SAB to return!

I absolutely agree it should just sit in the game and happily be there for those wanting to play it. There is no reason that I can see why that shouldn’t be the case. Maybe our new pve forum specialist can relay this to the devs so there can be a response as to why it isn’t a permanent part of their game?

Bit of a shame. I had it down for a dead cert either before expac or with. Its one QoL feature i thought would be considered essential, esp with new and challenging content.

yanipheonu.5798:

A special shout out to Ele’s Tornado. Fun to be a tornado, useless in practice.

It is however great at sending annoying mordrem away from npcs at forts and also away from carriers.

Im told ppl use it in pvp a lot tho? I dont pvp so cant back up its usefulness there