Guild Wars 2

If they come, the shards come in batches of 2-3 or 10. I usually don’t run with a huge zerg, but the amount of shards you get is decent enough for me (forgot exact numbers, I haven’t done this in a while, but I also haven’t shopped for shards with the karma merchant since the Silverwastes map exists). Plus, you always get a champ bag from the chests, which in my opinion makes it totally worth it (my own horrible luck with loot from champ bags notwithstanding; other people get precursors, I drown in greens…). Plus, you’ll get karma as well from any events that happen along the way, so if you do have bad luck with the chests, you can still buy the rest from the karma merchant.

Question is, will it help at all? Rule of thumb with GW2 is, if your GPU isn’t absolute garbage and you don’t get decent results, check your CPU. And from personal experience with that particular CPU, I doubt a new video card will help that much, let alone make the difference between 30 and 60 FPS. It always depends on the individual system, but 60 FPS sounds really optimistic to me.

OP, is it possible for you to borrow a video card like the one Rawr suggested and test it in your system? To see if it even makes a difference?

The chests in Silverwastes need bandit lockpicks to unlock. You get those for bandit crests (which you get for events) from NPCs in the forts.
To actually unearth the chests, you’ll need shovels (which you can’t buy, only get from events). Maybe the commander has a bunch, or they ask the train to each bring a few. Either way, once one player “dug up” the chest, everyone with a lockpick can loot it.

Did you check your temperatures, before starting to play and when the FPS go down? Might be a heat issue, if your laptop can handle up to 70 FPS and then drops to 15 later. It’s possible your CPU is throttling to prevent overheating, causing the FPS to drop so low.

Don’t sweat it, just post the info when you get it.

Well, of course a GW2 serial won’t help you with GW1 if the accounst aren’t linked (which they need to be since last December). You’ll need to submit a ticket for GW1; this forum is solely for GW2.
(Support via Services -> Support -> original GW)

kokiman.2364:

Wow 800$ for that rig.. what a rip-off.

I wasn’t gonna say it like that, but since you mentioned it… yeah, not a good deal. However, OP got it somewhere else, including a monitor, and depending on how old the PC is, it’s not that bad.
Today, though, I wouldn’t even so much as look at it for that price.

That said, personally, I wouldn’t waste money on upgrading this thing, but rather save up some cash for a new PC and sell this one for a little bit extra.

Are those 15-20 FPS consistent? Or does it vary depending on how many players are in an area? You could turn your graphics options way down and see if it helps at all.
Your laptop is a little bit above the requirements for GW2, but not super-great (if I got the right laptop model; there are several with that number, and it would be helpful to give your specs directly instead of having us google them). Might be you’re stuck with those FPS. If they’re consistent, though, the game should still be playable.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/support/Can-Chinese-players-get-onto-an-NA-EU-server

Are you playing on an NA or EU server? If so, your friend can buy an NA or EU version and play with you on one of those servers, or she can get a Chinese client and play without you on a Chinese server. It is not possible to play with a Chinese client on an NA or EU server; you have to buy an international version, but you won’t have the game in Chinese. The clients are so different, it is not possible to combine these two options.

Your issue isn’t so much the video card as it’s the CPU (at least if you don’t insist on playing everything with the highest settings). 30 FPS with that PC are pretty normal. Besides, with a 100$ limit and a 400W power supply, you wouldn’t get a great card, either. Certainly not for BF4. You might want to adjust your expectations or your budget.

Karma skins were the first thing I got after the wardrobe system was introduced. Fashion, fashion everywhere^^

Davey.7029:

I heard some people buy low level gloves with karma, throw them into the Mystic Forge and salvage the results for linen. I have no idea where they get the gloves though.

I didn’t see that bit before; it’s a karma merchant just southwest of Lion’s Arch. A charr who’s helping quaggan herd crabs.

It’s taken me about eight hours to download the original client with a connection about twice as fast as yours. Now the client is 8GB larger. Do the math. It’ll be a while.

Sorry. This must suck

Okay, here’s the thing: You won’t get those fragments in bulk. You can get them like everyone else, or you don’t.
Most fragments at once you’ll get in dungeons, and if you don’t want to do that, your only option is collecting a handful at a time. “Efficient” chests, where you get 20 or more at a time, simply don’t exist.
One last option might be PvP, but that also takes time.

Skins. Like, lots and lots of skins. Dulfy (I think) has a list of all the skins you can get for karma (some instead of another kind of currency) to fill your wardrobe.
Other than that, yeah, the Orrian chest thing, and some collections need karma items (the koutalophile, for example).

“Once we’re confident that the streaming client is providing the right experience to players, we’ll turn it on as the default option for everybody.”

It’s gonna be the default for everyone once it’s out of beta.
Meh. I understand lots of people will probably like it, but I’d rather have a popup ask me whether I want to switch than making me. But whatever, if this doesn’t mess with the client I already have installed, I’ll take the “switch back” option; at least it exists and doesn’t require screwing around with guides to avoid the streaming feature.

And don’t I still have to get into the game and manually tell it which zones to load, if I want something other than starting zones after reinstalling the game? I’m a little confused how this is supposed to work. It’s a cool feature for a new character (for the record, I liked the feature in SWTOR – until it started with the reorganising shenanigan), but how is it going to work with a level 80 that I want to take to Orr, but is parked in Mount Maelstrom?

Was prepared to roll my eyes.
Giggled instead.
Thank you, OP^^

Edit: The punnery is strong in this thread…

I sure hope it works better than that SWTOR abomination.
“Reorganising data” my backside T_T

It irks me that it’s going to be the default. Why not let new players choose upon installation, and players who already have the client installed can switch over if they want to? I sure won’t keep it as my default. Of course, I do have a fast connection, but why force players to switch, and then switch back?

If it’s only the skins and they don’t mind getting “crappy” stats, there’s still the chance to get ascended weapon chests from guild missions and fractals, if that’s something they do enjoy.
Other than that, one kind of ascended skin drops from Tequatl – the weapons of the Sunless. Those skins are pretty rad, especially for necromancers or darker themed characters in general.

AnotherNinja.8534:

I’ve been doing Silver Wastes for about a week made over 100g, enough ascended mats to make every item and then some. Although I delete all the ascended mats I get, but it’s still a good way to farm.

Out of curiosity, how many hours did you play during that time? I do Silverwastes when I don’t have anything better to do, but either I’m very unlucky with my loot, or it’s just not enough time to get anywhere near 100g/week.

Max “safe” temperature for your CPU is usually somewhere around 80°C/175°F, but normally, it should be somewhere around 30°C/85°F. I’ve got a Xeon very similar in performance to your CPU, and I usually get ~30°C, 50°C max when I run a heavily modded Skyrim for several hours (that’s with a watercooler, so not sure how that translates to a stock cooler; probably a little higher, but I never even unpacked that thing, so I’m not sure).

If you want to check for yourself, “i5 4690k maximum/acceptable temperature” should get you what you’re looking for.

Edit: Yeah, the profanity filter goes overboard sometimes. It’s not the literature, it’s the last letter of “basic” plus the first three letters of “literature” combined that made it kick in^^

Trolls, probably. It’s a little finicky, though, and sometimes keeps normal players from joining different groups too quickly.

Whether or not you transfer with gems of by deleting all your characters doesn’t matter. Full is full. Servers get “cleared up” when people leave them, either transferring or deleting their accounts, or getting banned (I think). You could camp the transfer screen and try to get an open spot, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
When you play, you add one character to the server, no matter if that character is new or comes from your old server. And if there is no more room for your character, deleting won’t help.
Also, if it’s not WvW you’re after, you can still play with your friends as long as you’re in the same region (EU or NA). If you don’t get sorted into the same megaserver, group with them and join them.

Good luck getting a spot, though.

Edit: Ninja’d by JustTrogdor…

If you’re not overclocking, the cooler that came with the CPU should be quite enough. The thermal paste that was on it should also suffice, but maybe you wiggled the cooler around a bit while putting the PC together and created gaps? Taking the cooler and reapplying the thermal paste can’t hurt, in any case.

The frame rate issues might be related to the heat problem and disappear if you can fix that. And your HDD should only affect your loading screens, not the frame rate. Mobo looks fine, too, and 8GB of RAM are also plenty. Whether or not your new cooler will be enough for overclocking (which… wait, I don’t think you can, with this mobo? Not entirely sure, better check with an expert there) depends on the cooler; my brother is happy with his non-water cooler, I’m happy with my water cooler. Both get very acceptable temperatures.

Are you sure all those components are in working order? Nothing’s broken?

If your friends who hate crafting are willing to spring some gold, http://www.gw2crafts.net/ has fast guides for reaching 500 in any crafting discipline in very little time. It’s relatively expensive (depending on the gold you have, anyway), but they’ll be able to get their ascended gear with the least amount of effort.

So advertise your dungeon runs as speedruns to get a group that clears it in “a timely manner”?

If I had a dollar for every time someone complained about getting the “wrong” people in lfg while not properly advertising their group, I could buy myself that Porsche I want in at least two different colours…

Edit: World boss chests have fragments, too, as well as open world and jumping puzzle chests.

Joshua, the OP can advertise their guild any way they want as long as they don’t breach the ToS. Just because you feel uncomfortable seeing an ad for a gay-friendly guild doesn’t mean everyone does (or anyone should; what century are we living in, again?). I’ve seen ads for women-only guilds – essentially a safe space for those who are sick and tired of being harrassed etc. simply because they are women and (insert shocked gasp here) playing a video game. There’s nothing bad about this; our server has a couple Turkish guilds floating around, for anyone who wants a Turkish-speaking guild, but wants to keep playing on a German server. So what? Doesn’t hurt me, and it seems like there are enough people out there who want to play that way. I’d appreciate a German-speaking guild, too, if I were to ever move across the pond and play on an NA server. What’s it to you?
Besides, how is “being welcoming to gay people” treating them differently? Isn’t that literally how you should treat any player, guildie or not? I fail to see how this is giving preferential treatment… Unless you’re a kitten to everyone else, which OP doesn’t seem to be.
The message you are sending is “I don’t hate gay people but I’d rather they don’t band together to avoid being harrassed and tell others that, too”. Really? Maybe that’s not your intent, but that’s what it sounds like to me.
In an ideal world, emphasising that one’s guild is gay-friendly (or anything/one-friendly) should not be neccessary because every guild would be. As it is, clarifying that the guild is a safe space and nobody has to hide or fear harrassment and insults might help people find a guild who would’ve otherwise been too scared too try.

As for the nitwits insulting you in mapchat, OP, if I’d tell you my exact opinion I’d end up with a litter of kittens, but you’re not in the wrong here. If they bother you, block them and maybe report them, depending on what’s been said exactly. And then keep expanding your guild.

Well, I sometimes just need 50 or 100 more gems to buy something, and it would be silly to buy 800 for cash instead when I don’t know when I’ll be “needing” them next. I’m pretty sure plenty of people do that, too.

That, or I just forget about the item coming, and then it’s Saturday night and two hours until the sale expires and I don’t have a Paysafe card handy.

It’s time gated, a month or 28 days or something like that, I think.

Level 71? That’s pretty random and would thoroughly confuse me if that were the case. Usually, stuff like that can be used on the newest of characters.

If you found the personal story so boring, why did you play it at all…? oO

And for those complaining about horrible PUG experiences: Make your own groups. It’s not that hard. Just write “first time personal story, all cutscenes, no speedrun” in the description and you’re good.
You don’t have to join zerker only speedclear teams. Of course you’ll get yelled at when you do that and then insist on watching every cutscene. Likewise, anyone joining your group and expecting a speedrun will probably get told to find another group as well.
A lot of the “problems” with PUGs are non-issues – or would be, if people remembered how to communicate. And actually do it. Before heading into the dungeon.

Gem shop stuff is cosmetic and not tied to your character’s level.

Known bug with the humanoid races. Dying that part of your armour a darker colour might “fix” it.

Word of advice: Let your friend post this for you, silly as it sounds. Using someone else’s account is against ToS and can get you both banned.

That aside, you can try and contact customer support via email or this very website, too.

How does one stick to a single character, exactly…? oO

I admit I played at least half of my hours with my main elementalist and my main necromancer, but I have at least one character for each profession, plus three rangers, two necros and two eles… in short, I’m an altoholic

Class differences aside, I have them either for convenience (second necro is a condimancer, while the first one is a power necro, and I don’t have to constantly switch builds and gear), or because they were spawned from my very first character’s backstory. No joke. All but two of my alts are somehow, in my mind, connected to my first elementalist. It just… happens.

I mostly play them for fun, and they don’t have any special gear. One ranger has Kudzu, and my first elementalist has ascended gear with agony infusions for fractals, but that’s about it. Most characters don’t have a special purpose, aside maybe from my second ele whom I mostly play in PvP.

Difference in performance? Maybe. Will you notice it? Also maybe. Could be the i7 performs better when you’re in huge zerg vs. zerg fights, but I have a CPU similar to the i5 and that works just fine, even with lost of characters in the area.
It probably depends on whether or not you want to pay 100$ extra for what might just amount to a small boost in performance (though it probably won’t hurt). Then again, with that GPU, somehow I don’t think that’s a huge issue…

It’s a known bug, it seems to happen pretty randomly, and sometimes, a transformation tonic can fix this.

Making a legendary is pricey, and like Zention said, you won’t get out of farming gold for this one.

Depending on whether or not you still need karma for obsidian shards, you can also farm Edge of the Mists for champ bags and karma. At least until you have enough karma, then Silverwastes is better and more fun.

For an additonal 5-10 gold each day, farm rich ore nodes, particularly iron and platinum. There are a few that are always in the same spot (maps can be found on Google), and usually surrounded by another couple of normal nodes. Takes little time and effort for a decent amount of gold.

And sorry, I need my lodestones for making my own shiny toys XD

Edit: Oh, any if you happen to have a lot of karma left over after buying the shards, convert it into linen and sell that for some extra cash (buy crab grabbing gloves just south of Lion’s Arch, toss four of them into the forge for a salvagable pair, get linen, profit).

Side note: Since the OP already has a level 80 character, they will see the vistas and POIs just fine with new toons. As soon as one character on your account has a high enough level, that restriction is removed from all characters.

Confusing as hell when you play with a brand new player, try to show them a vista and they claim they can’t see it while you can’t figure out why -.-

If everything that, according to some player or another, “should” be free were free, the game would not exist anymore. Or there’d be a monthly fee, take your pick.

Changing your appearance every other day is a convenience and a luxury. While leveling to 80 and doing map completion, you easily get enough charges to reskin your entire armour at least twice. Beyond that, you need to work for it, or be patient until you get more charges by playing normally.
Anyone who thinks they need to reskin every single piece of armour, all the time, regardless of level, is free to do so and buy charges for that purpose. But it is not vital to play the game, just to look fabulous. Therefore, anything beyond a bare minimum of charges needs to be bought in the shop or earned via map completion and/or PvP. This game has to generate a profit somehow. That the skins from the shop come with a free “charge” for the first use is already generous enough.

If you feel this pressing need to look amazing on every level, not just 80, may I suggest investing in an outfit or two? They are free to turn on and off, and you don’t need to waste charges on low-level gear that goes back to the vendor a few hours after buying it.

You get +45 power. You “unlock” the extra power with each new tier, but it doesn’t multiply.

Precursor? Buy it on the TP. It’s the only really reliable way.

As for the temple, that doesn’t work anymore with megaservers. Your best bet is to swing by that zone every now and then and see if it’s unlocked. Or go farm Silverwastes, if obsidian shards are what you’re after. Bonus for lots of champ bags which also have a chance of dropping your precursor. Or a precursor, which you then can sell to buy the one you want. You get the picture.

Andraus.3874:

No you can’t get a helm yet. If you would have chosen a helm then you wouldn’t be able to get shoulder gear yet. I am unsure of the level that you get it but it’s definitly after level 10. I’m thinking it’s closer to 15 or 20.

Say what now? oO Since when? I can’t find anything on the wiki on this, and I don’t remember noticing this restriction before. I’m confused now.

Never mind. I just remembered. Still, why does OP seem to have a helmet in their inventory already?

Tim.6450:

Red Queen.7915:

+1

Especially for norn – let them show off those tats! Maybe new dungeon armour? “Honor of the Waves – Freeze your butt off in style!”

Edit: And by “for norn” I don’t mean cultural armour. I mean, I’d be fine with that, but I#d rather such armour be accessible to all races.

When you speak of norn do you talk about a certain clothing (like fur based clothing) or just the race? Also at the moment I think cultural armor for something like this would be inadvised since it is a problem for all races. If it were something more common like a special platemail (with the flag/symbol of their nation) yes that could/should cultural.

I mean that I’d like this armour (the stuff that shows off a bit of skin) for my norn characters because I hate hiding their tattoos, but I’d rather have it not be cultural, so it’s available to any character. I was just afraid someone might misinterpret (mission accomplished, or not^^) this as me wanting this armour specifically for norn, and norn only, when I meant that I like the idea of jungle themed armour for all races/characters, but I would personally get it primarily for my norn.

@Kentaine: For me, it’s not so much the fact that skimpy armour exists that is a problem, it’s the gross imbalance between female skimpy armour and male skimpy armour, as well as the way it is used to present female characters. I feel like few people realise that there is a difference between “Abolish all skimpiness!” and “Stop forcing skimpy on anything with boobs just because you can and even when it makes no sense!”. It’s not the bikini that I hate, it’s the way it’s often put on a character just because when logically, the character would not wear it.
In Gw2, it would make sense for both male and female norn to wear very little, both because they don’t need it and because they’d do it to show off how brave and fearless they are. But when I see stuff like Grasping dead armour, I just facepalm because I get the feeling that the female version looks the way it does simply because someone yelled “Boobs!” at the designer.
(Side note: Notice how female asura, who have no visible breasts (and thus aren’t visually coded as “female”), never get the skimpy treatment or are even “allowed” to wear the male versions, even when that means their chest is bare? That’s what I mean.)

No, it doesn’t. No matter your story choice, you can always wear helmets and shoulders – an entire armour set. You don’t restrict yourself to only wearing shoulders by picking shoulders in character creation.

It seems like you simply don’t have a suitable helmet in your inventory. You can always go buy one, though; white helmets are a few copper at the most for your level and available pretty much everywhere from armour vendors.

That would make it possible to have a bag of holding inventory.

What’s so wrong with area looting, anyway? It’s already pretty mindless.

Doggie.3184:

Red Queen.7915:

Doggie.3184:

Celtic Lady.3729:

I’m sure they’ll add metal Speedos for every armor weight with the new expansion, so no worries.

Well it’s a jungle out there so Loincloths and chest pieces that are just bone and teeth necklaces would be most viable.

Dude. Have you ever been in the woods in just your pants? Not fun. Everything there is out to get you! >:-D
Though I have to admit, something like that would be cool. In any case, my norn could finally show off their tattoos.

Lazaar.9123:

There’s always that one person that has to start a gender/feminism argument.

And that’s bad because…?

I’ve been in the woods without pants or shirt. It’s fun.

Hm. Your woods seem way cooler than what we have here. Insects everywhere, and when you happen to touch a plant, chances are it’s burning nettles ._.

Wolfe.9850:

Honestly I agree that in general if the female version is revealing the male version should be equally so! Gender equality man! Besides its a known fact that Norn aren’t exactly modest and yet there’s not a whole lot of terribly revealing outfits for them to wear!

This! …both of this, actually. If we’re going by some semblance of in-universe realism here, norn should be dropping like flies from heatstroke as soon as they go anywhere south of Timberline Falls… ô.O

Tim.6450:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Let’s get this thread back on topic.

We want speedos and skirts for male characters. Make it so Anet!

You also forgot chest armor that displays the abs and/or chest.

+1

Especially for norn – let them show off those tats! Maybe new dungeon armour? “Honor of the Waves – Freeze your butt off in style!”

Edit: And by “for norn” I don’t mean cultural armour. I mean, I’d be fine with that, but I#d rather such armour be accessible to all races.

Do you have a heavy helmet that matches your level? You should be able to equip a helmet, but only if your class can wear it and it’s not above your level, so you might need to check the helmet you’re trying to equip.
Alternately, go to hero panel → equipment and right-click your helmet slot to see if you even have a helmet you can equip.

Zera Allimatti.2541:

Red Queen.7915:

If you want to see boobs, just own it, but don’t pretend it’s “for a good reason”.

I already do own it. I already said I like the female aesthetic and skimpy outfits and find nothing wrong with them in the context of the game. I am not ashamed of it. I LIKE BOOBS, both real and pixelated. Anyone who doesn’t like that I like boobs can blow me.

Expression stops being expression when people say it is no longer expression, as you have just done. Don’t roll your eyes to it or dismiss it as fan service, because doing so is what makes it degrading in the first place.

Skimpy outfits in games were only considered obscene when people started labeling it as such. Like profanity, it is only such when it is deemed as such. When I was a kid the word stupid was considered an obscenity (it may or may not have been a cultural thing), but now stupid is not considered a vulgarity. In the old days, the word gay was not considered a vulgarity (it meant and still means happy). Now saying gay is associated with homophobia because some homosexuals chose to take offense to the term. Much like kitten, kitten, kitten, etc are only offensive because some people choose to take offense to it.

So, back to the skimpy armor: don’t treat it as a bad thing and it won’t be.

Now the profanity filter makes it seem like you find juvenile cats offensive… oO

Anyways. There are a few things I’d like to say to this.

1) You operate under the assumption that people choose to be offended, or feel uncomfortable, or feel degraded. That isn’t so. If your definition of fanservice means that what’s essentially a representation of me and my identity is used as eye candy, damsel and plot device and nothing else, I both am hurt by this notion and thus choose to be offended by it. I can’t turn this off, I think it’s wrong, and I will keep asking this: If the roles were reversed, if male characters were only there as tools to tell the stories of female characters and represented as such, would you be okay with that?

2) You switch cause and effect around. I do not label things and make them become that label – I see something that is already there and put a name to it. Your argument “skimpy armour is only obscene because you say so” is like saying “the n-word is only a slur because you make it one”. It is never the target of such a thing who makes it bad, it is the one wielding it as a weapon (however unwittingly).

We can stop treating skimpy amour as a bad thing when it stops being a bad thing. As it is, skimpy (female) armour almost never makes sense in context; it is used either as a marketing tool (though why anyone would assume this would influence someone’s decision to buy a game if it literally has nothing to do with the other 99% of the game is beyond me) or it is there because somewhere along the way, “sexy” became the default for any female representation in media (mostly in video games and comics, but films and TV do this, too), and any female character needs a good reason not to be sexy. It has a connotation, a mass of stereotypes attached to it, which are what make it “bad”, especially if it’s only there to have it in the game.
If skimpy armour is no longer used in the way it is now, if it stops being largely female-exclusive and becomes just another way of dressing up a character and nothing more, then we will stop having this discussion. As it is, I’m afraid there’s still need to talk, and be aware of the connotation and effect of skimpy armour.

Lazaar.9123:

Red Queen.7915:

And that’s bad because…?

Because it’s actually not on topic. And it creates a heated debate for no real good reason. There are other places to discuss such things.

It is very much on topic. It wouldn’t be, in an ideal world where sexy vs. not sexy is a matter of personal taste and nothing more. But as long as video games use (usually female) sexy characters just because someone thinks there must be something sexy in a game (a.k.a. the sole reason Quiet exists), asking for more skimp armour in a game where there already is skimpy galore carries a certain connotation that can (and should) be addresses in the context the demand was made in.
And it is certainly possible to have a debate that is not heated, only most times, I see people throwing bullkitten arguments around in favour of skimpy armour (“but for female characters only, please, because seeing male characters in thongs makes me uncomfortable”), and yes, that makes me angry. Which is my right, since I have more stake in this debate than a male participant. I try not to let this show, though, so I do believe it is good and important to have this discussion in this context.

Jesus, now that was kinda offtopic…

Doggie.3184:

Celtic Lady.3729:

I’m sure they’ll add metal Speedos for every armor weight with the new expansion, so no worries.

Well it’s a jungle out there so Loincloths and chest pieces that are just bone and teeth necklaces would be most viable.

Dude. Have you ever been in the woods in just your pants? Not fun. Everything there is out to get you! >:-D
Though I have to admit, something like that would be cool. In any case, my norn could finally show off their tattoos.

Lazaar.9123:

There’s always that one person that has to start a gender/feminism argument.

And that’s bad because…?