Guild Wars 2

It could happen, but it’s hard to say. Someone can correct me if I’m mistaken, but I don’t remember them ever carrying over achievement progress like that. The Halloween and Wintersday achievements have always started fresh, even if they’re the exact same ones. (“Pumpkin Carver,” for instance, or “Ringing the Right Notes.”)

There’s a chance Anet will commit to this one, especially since you can unlock a collection that will almost certainly stay open on your account permanently, but we just don’t know. Unless Anet tells us otherwise, I’m assuming the worst. (That sounds bad, but that’s a good reason to tell us otherwise.)

Grim West.3194:

Don’t bother.

Anet will be selling the shoulders on the AH for next to nothing after everyone has spent their last gold on getting the achievement.

I dare them to deny it.

When have they done that in the past?

zaced.7948:

Minx.7521:

QUESTION: So the achievement to get shoulders WILL DEFINITELY get removed once wintersday is over?

from what it says ingame, yes. my guess is that the value of the achievement reached this year might carry over to wintersday next year. that’s the best case scenario, tho.

If we were explicitly told that, I might understand the cost, but that’s a mighty large assumption for the best case scenario. There just isn’t any reason to think that’ll happen, other than wishful thinking.

This 10k drink requirement is really bumming me out. I love Wintersday, and I love this skin, but I’m not spending all of the real-world holiday season running the jumping puzzle for it. (And I like the jumping puzzle!)

I’m still hoping the price will go down eventually, so I can buy drinks if I can’t earn them through presents, but I’m not paying 600+ gold for this skin. It’s just too much.

Minx.7521:

Redenaz.8631:

Thanks for the update!

What update :|

I mean this post, acknowledging the problem and letting us know that a fix is in the works. It’s not a definite timeline, but it sounds like it should be ready soon, not, say, in a week.

The bug is aggravating, but I really do appreciate communication about situations like this. For me, knowing that devs are aware of the problem and that they’re actively fixing it is enough to take the edge off. It changes my attitude from “Ugh, what are they doing/thinking?” to “Okay, stuff happens.”

Devildoc.6721:

well, if they take away the collection sometime and you can’t complete it next year or the year after, THEN you have a complaint but as it looks.. you’ll be able to complete this collection at your own pace, even if it takes years (just remember, you can get a present a day from your home instance.. might take thousands of days but you could eventually pull it off).

Unless Anet explicitly tells us otherwise, there’s no reason to assume the drinking title/achievement/Masterful Toast will be available next year, other than wishful thinking. There just isn’t a strong historical precedent to back that up.

Thanks for the update!

I’ve had some weirdness while trying to enter the JP as well. I’ll walk through the gate and get a full-world error, and a couple of times I’ve gone to the zone’s loading screen, only to be redirected to DR. (Including a switch to DR’s loading screen.)

Usually works out if I just keep trying to walk through the portal, but it is odd.

Dev post in the Bug/Support forum:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/Options-reset-every-time-I-log-in/page/2#post5859533

Thing is, I can farm gold whenever I want.

If I join a Secret Santa and my partner gives me $15-$20, I can still use the money, but it’s not a whole lot of fun.

If we didn’t have choir bells, and extremely affordable unbreakable choir bells for that matter, I would think free play serves a purpose. As it is, however, I think it mostly just slows down rounds for people who want to play the minigame.

I like the flame the way it is. It’s a little intense, but I’d be annoyed if they changed it after three years with the current look.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Remember…other previous Wintersday Collection Achievements were permanent. This one may be, as well. No need to rush.

It might not be, however. We don’t know, so people who want it have to assume they need to get it done before New Year, or mid-January.

Edit: I should elaborate. The collection might be open permanently once unlocked, but the Festival achievements, including the one that gives the Masterful Toast for 10k drinks, are probably going to go with the festival.

That number does seem awfully high.

Remember, though, that Wintersday has just started, and tons of people are rushing to get their drink on ASAP. Demand is super high, and supply has only just begun.

I don’t know what the final price will be, but I’m hoping it’ll be affordable by the end of the event.

edit4Thanathos: LIGHTNING SPEED, WHOOSH

EremiteAngel.9765:

because it struck me that if every future new elite spec granted a new weapon to each class, then all classes will have access to all weapons in no time.

A lot of people would consider that the goal, rather than something to be avoided. I have some sword skins that I really like (Fiery Dragon Sword, for example,) but can’t equip on my main because I play Elementalist. If a future elite spec simply gives me another set of Scepter skills, I don’t get access to a new set of skin options to choose from.

I’m withholding my enthusiasm until I see how much it ultimately costs. Looking at you, Nightfury.

It does look really neat, though, so I’m hoping it won’t include any components that cost an arm and a leg.

Alex.8630:

ok , last question , i know guys u tell me they are both good but i’m not scared of elem , i kill them easy , why ? ( when i’m with engineer )

They both can be good. I don’t have statistics to back up the idea that Ele is a more popular class than Engi, but it wouldn’t surprise me. Popular classes are likely to have a lot of unskilled players using them, and that doesn’t tell you anything about their peak power level. (Rangers, for example.)

Don’t worry so much about which one is stronger. Even if you get a straight answer, that answer could change later on due to new strategies, balance patches, etc. Find the one that appeals to you and play it.

akalpurakh.9306:

Of course someone from Arena Net responds to a topic about gold… while ignoring every other important thread. Lovely!

This topic has a very straightforward answer, one that can practically be quoted directly out of the company policy. There isn’t much danger of being misinterpreted, or people expecting a drawn-out debate about the current state of the game, what’s best for it, etc. It’s a simple answer.

I know it’s frustrating that the easy questions tend to get answers, while the more complex ones don’t, but surely that’s not a surprise? At least this suggests devs are reading posts, even if they’re not answering the topics you really want answered.

This suggestion reminds me of the Portal Scrolls they introduced at Halloween. They sounded awesome until I did the math and realized it was significantly cheaper (and more flexible) to just bite the bullet and waypoint everywhere on the slightest whim than to make a scroll for it.

I had a similar experience with Batwing Brew. Even before the price skyrocketed, it would still be thousands of times cheaper just to carry around a stack of single-use brews (.0006g/each) than to pay 100g for an endless one, and I LOVE endless tonics.

What I’m saying is, they could do infinite-use food, but it would likely cost an arm and a leg. You’d probably get more use out of it than, say, Batwing Brew, because you’d always be using it, but that means more demand, and making more items (other foods) obsolete.

What is the “right” way?

Serious question.

Raistlin.3210:

the amount of Time, or even RL money to make a legendary is disgusting mainly because its not a stat upgrade, its just a skin
i dont understand why there will be no more upgrades, and as much fun is the game is to play …this could be the thing that kills it

whats worse is the game’s only “upgrades” are purely cosmetic
and there isnt much to choose from btw
its just depressing
this game has TONS of potential but i fear A-net is blind to it

some suggestions i would offer up would be
1. make legendary items a upgrade to ascended gear (a sizable upgrade)

I actually really like the legendary weapons are mostly just a cosmetic upgrade. They also have stat-switching, which is a great feature, but I can make a 50g ascended weapon without falling behind someone with a 3000g legendary.

Since I’ve been able to equip my main for significantly less than it would cost to buy a legendary, that frees me up to equip my alts, convert gold to gems, FILL MY POCKETS WITH ENDLESS TONICS, and all kinds of other things I enjoy doing. I might make a legendary eventually, but there’s very little pressure to do so.

Demand for legendary weapons is still enormous, even without a stat advantage.

Regardless of whose home instance it is, you can only get home instance things once per day. Otherwise, you’d see great chains of people going through each other’s home instances, tanking the value of anything you can gather from an instance node.

I really dislike the new fireball design. I’m sympathetic to the desire to reduce visual clutter, but this isn’t a good solution.

I know it’s just a visual nerf, but they don’t feel powerful anymore. I’m squinting to see them, and it’s really disappointing. Maybe it’ll cut down on visual clutter, but it’s hard to care about that when I’m roaming around Verdant Brink on my own and my fireballs are teeny-tiny even compared to my other auto-attacks.

Fireball has been my go-to auto-attack for over three years now, and it’s really disappointing to have it changed on me like this. Please change it back, or make a “reduce visual noise” toggle in the game options.

These fire needles are so small and move so fast that, frankly, I can barely see them. They’re not bullets.

Dulfy has an excellent guide to obtaining all the Auric Weapons.

If you didn’t select a weapon, and don’t want to play through with alts, you can get more of them from a PvP reward track or by crafting. See the guide for more info.

Edit: Just noticed how old most of the posts in this thread are. Still, the guide is good information if you’re interested in Auric weapons.

Alas, I filled up my ele with these a couple months ago. I got a Traveler armor piece from the Dry Top / Southsun map completion bonus, and couldn’t believe how much the price had dropped.

I’m a little tempted to pick these up for other characters now. The stats aren’t the best fit for everyone, but I usually don’t play my alts for truly difficult content, and that 25% speed boost is great. Cheaper than Superior Rune of Speed, too.

(I just don’t get Superior Rune of Speed. If I have a constant 25% speed boost, do I really care about increased Swiftness duration?)

ArchonWing.9480:

It would have been nice if changing personality would change your character’s tone of voice and stuff they said.

But that ship has sailed.

That would have been super awesome, and super expensive. Sad face.

I think that’s probably why personality stats got the boot. Unless you really commit to them as a major mechanic (unlocking access to different things based on personality, for instance,) it’s not worth writing even more dialog branches, either to set your personality or respond to it. Too much cost, too little payoff.

That sounds cheap, but given the choice between adding a bunch of meaningless branches to a dialog tree, and just going over one or two branches with more polish, I’d rather have the more polished one.

Good? That is an amazing character.

COMING SOON:
SUPER ADVENTURE BOX: FIGHT THE RAINBOW

I’m sure the artists who do Black Lion Weapons will make working on the Scribe crafting discipline a top-priority.

While you can make all kinds of arguments about what gets prioritized, I don’t see Black Lion weapons as part of that equation. I assume each set of Black Lion weapons makes enough money to cover their own development costs, (so they wouldn’t be taking away from other priorities if they’re self-funding.) It’s relatively easy to keep pumping them out because they don’t require economic planning, difficulty/grind balancing, or even a lot of bug checking, compared to most other things you could add.

Legendary weapons are a waaaay more involved process. They can have significant economic impact, they require a lot more development to create the scavenger hunt for precursors, and if the old precursor hunts are any indication, there’s a lot of room for bugs that need to be dealt with. Comparing Black Lion weapons to legendary weapons is like comparing buying a cake to baking one.

Some places have dramatically different lighting than others. The PvP lobby is probably the most extreme, but you can see the same effect elsewhere. Orr and the Halloween labyrinth also have that “washed out” look.

Love it or hate it, it’s a stylistic choice. Some areas are warm and colorful, while others are cold and dead-looking.

Kraggy.4169:

What makes you think GW2 won’t be the same as WOW, Rift and most others in which PUG leaders demand to know your Gearscore (if such a mechanic exists), or else your AP total, demand certain achievements, etc?

Of course GW2’s raiding ‘scene’ will degenerate in exactly the same way, because many raiders are of the same mentality no matter which game they’re playing.

Dungeons had the same issue with gear checks, and the solution is the same: Play with people who play the way you do. People complained about dungeon speedrunners the same way for years, and the answer was always to start your own, more relaxed group.

No telling if unprepared PUGs will be able to do raids yet, but even the worst case scenario (in terms of gear checks) doesn’t seem any worse than dungeons, which have been tolerable if you recognize that people want different experiences.

Huh, I didn’t realize you could still get in there. The Bloody Prince is sealed in that coffin, and, as Electro says, several Halloween story instances took place in that area.

Bit of both. You still earn spirit shards, and you earn them the same way as everyone else. That might be less frequently than you earned Skill Points under the old system, depending on how you played and RNG, but everyone is equally affected by that.

You don’t have a use for XP now, however, same as everyone else between the introduction of spirit shards and the release of HoT. There’s no hidden currency. People who max out their masteries will be in the same position. (Although that could take a while, CoE farm aside.)

I’m not sure I’d consider it a hard push to upgrade, because it was like that for everyone for months and months, but I do think it’s a little lame that XP can sometimes be worthless, to anyone.

Unless you were planning on pugging raids and they’re screening pugs, I’m not sure what the problem is. If you don’t like how these people play, don’t play with them.

It’s, uh, magic ice.

I don’t mean to judge your fashion sense, but pulling your hair both behind your head and in front of your face is a pretty dumb look. Like pigtails turned 90 degrees.

I’m sorry.

If you choose the Chest of Ascended Materials at the end of a 30-day daily login reward cycle, you’ll always get a Vision Crystal. You’ll still need Lesser Vision Crystals for 5/6 armor pieces, but they take fewer materials anyway, and you can still use Vision Crystals for weapons and chest armor.

Daddicus.6128:

Redenaz.8631:

Just don’t go to the HoT maps? You’ll still have Central Tyria masteries, but you can just ignore those if you’re not interested in them.

There is no way to just turn off HoT, but it sounds like your complaint is mostly that you don’t like the maps, which are easily avoided.

It’s mostly masteries and so-called elite specializations that I want to turn off. But, I would also like to undo the dungeon changes. I didn’t farm dungeons, but I also didn’t finish them all. With the nerf, I’ll never be able to find a group to do all the explorable modes of the dungeons.

Unfortunately, that definitely won’t be an option. You don’t have to use masteries or elite specs if you don’t want them (I’m not on my Ele, even though I unlocked all of Tempest!) but other players are going to continue using them. There’s just no way to change that without splitting the entire world into “HoT” or “Not HoT,” and that would be a very bad idea for Anet.

I don’t know how the changes have affected groups that run the same dungeons over and over again, but I did all of the dungeons with casual PUGs right before launch, and it was obvious none of us were in it for the gold. I think the only one I ever had real difficulty filling up a party for was Arah, which is long and difficult for a casual group. Try posting in the LFG tool and you might be surprised.

What do you enjoy doing?

That’s more important that what is the most profitable thing to be doing. If you like world bosses, fight world bosses. If you’re level 80, you can try running events in Dry Top, Silverwastes, or any of the Heart of Thorns maps to see if you enjoy any of them in particular. You can try out other classes, or get into World vs. World or PvP. If you really enjoyed dungeons, you can keep running ones you like, or try them all for the Dungeon Master title. Or you can try Fractals, which are similar to dungeons. If you enjoyed the storyline and want to keep playing your main (instead of creating an alt,) you can pick up Season 2 in the gem store, or go straight into Heart of Thorns. If you like exploring new maps, go for World Completion.

Some things will always pay out more efficiently than others, but what you’ll find the most enjoyable is a very personal question. If you’re not sure, experiment a bit until you find something you want to keep doing.

(Just speaking for me, I’ve had fun with basically all of those things, except PvP and WvW, which don’t especially interest me, but are other players’ bread and butter.)

Just don’t go to the HoT maps? You’ll still have Central Tyria masteries, but you can just ignore those if you’re not interested in them.

There is no way to just turn off HoT, but it sounds like your complaint is mostly that you don’t like the maps, which are easily avoided.

I see why you’d want the waypoints, and possibly even the karma vendors, but what do you want the rest to be transferable for?

I liked the personality stats, but right now they don’t do anything, and the rare occasions where you can influence your personality (mostly in story instances) are just an artifact from the old system.

At the same time, they never did very much, so I see why they took them out. They always felt like something that was created earlier during development, but lost importance over time, until they didn’t mean anything. Anet is always talking about how they love iteration, so I’m not surprised they cut this system if they decided it wasn’t doing anything, and wasn’t worth developing further.

It shouldn’t push you into a full map, but at the least it should either teleport you (so your friend can join you) or leave you where you are without using your item. You can argue a case for either of those, but the current result isn’t what anyone wants or expects to happen.

I think it’s lame that they work like this. I wish they’d check if the map was full before moving you, then giving you the option to stay or go once it determines if you can get into the map or not.

I get why they work the way they do. You teleport to your friend’s location, and if the map is full, they can just join your copy of the map. There’s no promise that the teleport will take you into their instance, and if it’s full, it shouldn’t do that. It makes perfect sense on paper.

Edit: It sounds like they don’t move you at all if you can’t get into the map, rather than sending you to another instance of the map? Okay, that’s just dumb. If it’s going to use a charge, it should at least send you to another map, so your friend can join you in the new map. [/edit]

I don’t think people think of it like that, however, and they’re disappointed when it doesn’t work out in map-critical circumstances. Disappointed customers aren’t a good thing, regardless of what the customer’s expectations were.

Here, the OP is meaning the general variety of what people play. That could be what people play competitively, optimally, or in general, but I don’t think the suggestion really changes meaning regardless of what scope you’re looking at.

There’s plenty of debate about what the meta is, whether it matters, or whether it’s actually out of balance, and I don’t really have an opinion on that, since I don’t min/max or play competitively. (I agree that “meta” gets thrown around an awful lot, especially in ways that are either confused or confusing. It’s an easy concept to grasp in theory, but a harder concept to actually work with.)

I really like racial skills, because I think they’re interesting, and I’ve spent a lot of time using certain ones. (Hounds of Balthazar, Radiation Field, Golem Suit, Norn Transformations…)

I think I would dislike them if they were much stronger, however. Even in PvE, I think it would be lame for any race to have an advantage, so that leaves them being weak. If they’re going to introduce new skills, I think it seems wasteful to make them racial skills. (I feel the same way about racial armor. I love racial armor, but I also have mixed feelings about how it limits who can use what skins.)

The idea of unlocking racial skills for cross-race use is interesting. It changes the concept of what racial skills are in the game, but the concept it pretty flawed, for reasons stated above, so change might not be bad.

Caring isn’t a choice between “Care about everything or care about nothing.” There are a lot of causes to care about, and if you want to see an alternative cause supported, make a thread for it. Simply saying “What about this terrible thing?” is not a complete opinion about whether this is a good idea or not.

I don’t personally mind the occasional overlap between the game and the real world, but Anet doesn’t usually get into that. They occasionally promote Pink Day in LA, and that’s about it. Whenever a business decides to get into charitable fundraising, there are real costs associated with that, and if you tie that into the Internet Grumble Machine, and a product people often use as an escape, and you’re setting yourself up for some extra hassle. There are perfectly valid reasons to want this added to the game, and perfectly valid reasons to keep it out.

I mostly just wanted to comment on all the people saying “What about ____?” What about _? If you think Anet should support more causes, say so. If you think they shouldn’t support any causes, say so.

(Of course, if you want to give to charity, you don’t have to wait for a company to help you. You won’t get a skin for it, but you will be helping people.)

I’m wary about adding another stat, particularly one that overlaps so heavily with others.

See, I’m not sure it would change the meta in a meaningful way. It’s basically another DPS stat, like Power or Precision. The highest DPS builds will still be the highest with Agility, so people will just figure out what gives them more bang for their buck between power/agility/precision/ferocity and that will be the new Zerker. Condition builds, tank builds, and support builds will either ignore the new stat, or fall behind if they can’t use it effectively, but it’s hard to picture the other stats benefiting from it more than a pure power build would.

Improving how support stats scale, like Healing Power, might improve their usefulness, but actually getting people to diversify can depend on how mechanics are actually used. High-toughness enemies (Husks for example,) make Condition Damage more useful, while sustained, difficult-to-dodge AoE damage (see: fire wyverns,) makes it more difficult for glass cannons.

If you’re looking to craft ascended armor, the Wiki page is a good place to start. You can get ascended armor as ultra-rare drops from certain content (some bosses, high-level fractals, etc.) but generally you’ll have to craft it yourself. Crafting requires you to level one of the armor disciplines (Tailor, Leatherworker, Armorsmith) to 500.

The wiki page has a full list of materials you’ll need. You can’t buy Vision Crystal or the ingredients for it (Spirit Shards, Dragonite Ore, Bloodstone Dust, Empyreal Fragements, Obsidian Shards), and you’ll need to salvage exotics to obtain Globs of Dark Matter.

The main hurdle for most people, however coming up with enough Bolts of Damask, Elonian Leather Squares, and maybe Deldrimor Steel Ingots. You can buy or craft these, and while crafting will save you a lot of gold, you’re limited gated crafting one each per day. (That’s one Damask, one Elonian Leather, and one Deldrimor Steel. Since you need 36 Damask/36 Leather for Light/Medium armor, it can take 36 days. Heavy armor only requires 25 Damask, so it can be done in 25 days.)

Hope that helps! I’m not sure what the gold costs are, since Heart of Thorns really rocked the boat there, but hopefully that’s enough to get you started.

Pretty sure Just a Flesh Wound is being sarcastic.

I don’t mind that they made Night Fury so difficult or so expensive, but I would rather they didn’t do that for Wintersday. That kind of thing is fine occasionally, but it can be a real buzzkill.

I’ve always liked Trahearne. He’s always been a controversial character thanks to his role in the storyline, but I always thought he was cool, and I always felt like my character was his peer, like we were leading the Pact and facing Zhaitan together. Cleansing Orr was his primary objective, and killing Zhaitan was mine.

Tybalt probably beats him, though. I enjoyed the Order of Whispers storyline the most, and Tybalt is funny, sincere, and sad all at the same time.

Of the Season 2 characters, Taimi and Canach are both excellent.

Spoiler for HoT:

I hope they don’t do massive overhauls to the other cities. I really like the new Lion’s Arch, and I really loved the Escape from / Battle for Lion’s Arch episodes…but I also liked the old LA, too, and the city was a dump for over a year while we waited for it to be rebuilt.

If they’re going to develop something on that large a scale, I would rather it be something really new, instead of burning down something that’s already good and replacing it. (Besides, I think that would lose a lot of impact the second time around.)

I would like to see some events take place in other cities. Divinity’s Reach has gotten some extra love between the Crown Pavilion and Wintersday, for example. The capitals are such great—but empty—maps that I would love more reasons to visit them.

NPCs rarely did this in the launch game, but they’ve been a lot better about it since Living Story Season 2. They’re occasionally inconsistent about it, possibly as a balance thing since the storyline NPCs are so hard to kill, but they’ve definitely improved.