Guild Wars 2

I have a sneaking suspicion they will bring them back periodically. They can do this pretty easily by just creating new animations for the item. So while the infinite Molten Alliance pick axe will never be available again, the infinite Inquest mineral extractor could be sold down the line that effectively does the same thing, but does it with a different look. Plus, people move around and adopt different main characters sometimes. I have one character who has all the infinite stuff, but I’ve played him less of late and been gearing up another character. If I stick with him, I’d be inclined to get him the infinite stuff again as well. I’m sure I’m not alone and I’m sure that potential market will be addressed in the future.

I love the Magitech set. Here’s mine: http://imgur.com/TPgc7DH

Movement: WERSDF I hate WASD. Plus this lets me do the following
Weapon Skills 1-5
Heal: Q
Utility: TGV
Interact: A
Elite: Z
AOE Loot: X
Dodge: C (and I have double tap on too. Good keyboard and good typing makes both equally efficient, just situational)
Bags: B

So, if you put your hand there on ASDF, you’ll see that I can hit everything while keeping my hand centered, minimal finger motion to all skills. My only complaint is that on the keyboard (Razer green mechanical) the F1 – F4 keys are offset from the 1 key more than I’d like.

What if the reason Abaddon fell is because far in the future the Thaumanova reactor melted down and changed the past?

IT COULD BE THE SAME FRACTAL! :-)

Might be a better question for the relevant profession forums. I have an asura guardian who I enjoy playing, and I think the asuran cultural heavy armor looks really great on them (at least 2 and 3). However you’ll get that with warrior OR guardian, so… it’s really up to you. Study both professions and see what trips your trigger more.

Played it enough to get my 15 games. A few observations

1) Overall positive. It has a slow but relentless feel to it, enhanced by the drum heartbeat.
2) Gameplay — Bit confusing really to start. Opening the map to see areas of potential loot is pretty useful but didn’t discover that until several games in.
3) Evon’s opening monologue is a bit long-winded. Why did he get an explanatory monologue but Aspect Arena didn’t get one? Not that I want it to have one, but it’s a little weirdly one-sided.
4) Gameplay — Everyone complains about the head shot but honestly I found that the sword was a LOT more powerful. Leap, plus two slashes is a kill, plus no running out of ammunition? Priceless
5) Ghosts — No problem with ghosts or their abilities. Honestly, it’s nice to have at least a little something to do after you’re dead and hanging around. A bit of incentive to stay involved and not just afk.
6) Actual survival — Honestly, I found it a lot better to keep exiting a game and then starting a fresh one in the hopes of getting started on the boat. Cheap? Maybe. I was mainly just trying to get my 15 games in for the achievement, but I had top scorer on several games where I started on the boat. On the other hand, I imagine the other way to handle it is a queue where you have to wait for a game which could be offputting to players. Don’t know.
7) Outright bug — Sometimes starting a game puts you at the camp and you are a ghost. Possibly what happened is you spawned during the loading screen and someone killed you while your character was there but had no way of controlling it. Or it’s just a bug. Either way it was an instant AFK from me on that one. It might be worthwhile to give the players 10 seconds of invulnerability during a spawn if you’re not going to implement a queuing system so everyone starts at the same location. Or 5 seconds. The number isn’t the important part, the not starting the game as a ghost is the important part.
8) Weapon switching — Would be nice to have a way to toggle weapons. If there was one, I didn’t discover it. I’d be getting arrows while holding a dagger. Suppose I could have dropped the dagger, but supposedly I have both, using both would be sweet.

Anyhow, that’s my two copper’s worth. Overall, think Survival is better than Arena. I loved the hell out of Aspect Sprint, but Arena felt just slow and annoying. Survival is distinctly different and gets the edge in my opinion, though I think Sprint still beats them both for pacing and excitement. Maybe for bugs too, dunno ;-). But then I always was a sucker for Mario Kart, so maybe that one just appeals to me more anyhow.

We discussed this in guild not about karka but quaggan. Decided a group of quaggan was a “moist”.

Dondarrion.2748:

My take on the Uncategorized Fractal is that, knowing the Asura as “geniuses” with a lot of experimental projects going on, the UF is just a failed attempt at creating Rata Sum. How many Asura projects have you seen gone the way they’re supposed to on the first atttempt?? To me it then seems likely the Uncategorized Fractal was an early attempt to establish the new capital

The Rata Project was a dream given form. A self contained city floating high over the wilds of Maguuma. A place of commerce, diplomacy, and science for a quarter million of the races of Tyria. A shining beacon in the sky… all alone in the night. This is the story of the last of the Rata stations. The year is 1326. The name of the place: Rata Sum.

Gravity is a harsh mistress.

I realize there was a thread in this forum. This post got “helpfully” moved here by a forum moderator. It was originally in the Bazaar forum. I figured we see this post all the time, but it would be nice to have it viewed by those who are paying attention to the events as well. So this thread can probably just retire in peace. The huge one is better anyhow.

Aesthetically inclined engineer speaking here. I’m very happy to see that there are more items that folks are really excited about, and it seems like once more the back slot is the bodypart of choice.

Engineers really need some alternative to the hobo-sack. I KNOW there are PVP concerns with silhouette and so forth. Yes, since we use kits so often, we have to be holding SOMEthing. However could we get the kits redesigned somehow so as not to interfere with backslot items so that we too can enjoy the goodness of having new content plastered to our shoulderblades. Even old content!

Please and thank you.

Discuss? Seems more like a troll unless you provide some support for your assertion that it has “been argueably [sic] the weakest class since the game’s release”. There have been many who have had great success with the profession in a variety of settings making your assertion more than a little speculative and inflammatory.

Thought I’d put up what I’m playing with and see if folks have feedback. This is for PvE, primarily dungeoneering and support.

Fundamentally 10/20/0/25/15
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-V;4cPVv0f6NQFx0;9;49J-OE4;007;256-5;9;7FgVLu

Rationale for choices:
Weapons: P/S — This feels the most comfortable. I find shield has a lot of general utility and pistol is a decent fall back weapon. I do carry a rifle with me but tend to stick with this pair.

Explosives: 10 for Incendiary Powder. The flamethrower is primarily a power/crit type of build. With the additional damage on burning, keeping burning up on a target is of great interest (moreso for that than the damage from burn).

Firearms: 20 for Fireforged Trigger and Juggernaut — and the precision helps here as well. Fairly obvious choices, though agreed that Juggernaut in group situations may be unnecessary. In that case, Precise Sights could be picked up.

Alchemy: 25 for Deadly Mixture and Energy Conversion Matrix primarily. The adept level trait I’ve been tweaking with but Protection Injection seems useful in a staying alive sort of way. Not really carrying elixirs much despite being in the Alchemy line so the reduced cooldown is of less usefulness.

Tools: 15 for Inertial Converter. This seemed like an interesting trait, especially with the EG’s stun break on the toolbelt. Picking up speedy kits (something I don’t usually have) was pretty nice.

Utilties: Healing Turret — water field is great group synergy for support. Flamethrower primary DPS. Elixir Gun for support options. Third utility slot last night I was varying between Elixir C for additional condition cleansing (no more 409) than could be provided with Super Elixir’s light field and shooting, and the Healing Turret’s capabilities and Elixir U for stunbreak and the tossed field reflect. I tinkered with Utility Goggles, but while the cooldown is better than Elixir U (and this was nice in the laser field fight against Frizz) it’s just not multiuse enough.

Anyhow, that’s my thinking. It seemed to work out alright last night. Admittedly it is not a max DPS build. Losing 10 points in Firearms did drop my crit rate below 50% (at 47%) so I will have to review my kit and see if there’s a way to pick it up. Getting the additional crit damage out of Tools though was VERY nice.

Additional constructive criticism welcome.

EDIT: Now wondering if it might be worth sacrificing ECM in Alchemy and Inertial Converter in Tools for Stabilized Armor in Inventions…

Agreed that box jumping is the most reliable method on this.

I believe we tested dodging through the wall and it does not work. Everyone was trying all their abilities, leaps, blinks, dodges, etc. The only option seemed to be complete avoidance.

Just to add feedback here where devs might see my two copper’s worth.

In general, very good work on Aetherblade Retreat. The first difficult fight I REALLY like. There’s a good mix of dodging, strategy, and killing. The first group I went in on, we wiped several times before coming up with a strat that worked well enough for everyone. The second group I went in on, we did it with only one wipe. I ended up finishing that fight as one of the only two people on their feet and very nearly got the “don’t get hit” achievement. Even with the potential for the instakill, just keeping a couple of stun breaks ready deals with this beautifully.

The Mai Lin fight — this one is a different story. I actually like the main phase of it with her and the stacks. Really no problem with that. The dodging phase makes me rage at myself so hard. The first time I went in I had ZERO problems finding places to stand, dodging, etc. The second time we wiped over and over and over again, and very nearly every fusillade I died. I could find spot after spot after spot but finally I would run out of energy and get nailed. I cannot tell if there’s a strategy to the fusillade or not.
There is DEFINITELY a couple patterns, occasionally it’ll do a grid, or a + or something like that. Then there’s the random phase and I swear it focuses on someone. I think that’s why in the first group I had no problems — someone else was getting the pain and I wasn’t. Second time through I was getting dumped on more often than not. I wish that phase felt like more strategy than dumb luck with aoe placements.

And yes, I’m shuffling when I can and sidestepping, conserving endurance for the moments when I need it. I’m talking about moments when there is NO place to run — and yes that happens.

I will admit I enjoy the hearty “screw you!” to the Molten Facility people who would stand in the corner and avoid every red ring without even having to MOVE. I just would like perhaps a shorter fusillade phase and a few more gaps in the rings. Then I’d declare the place about perfect.

EDIT: Also from a reddit conversation, the high gloss floor in a light color and the red rings have extremely low contrast, especially with a few of the lighting angles. More distinction would be welcome here. Would be good to get your art department and your encounter department to coordinate a bit and find some aethetically pleasing and environment appropriate flooring that also let the red rings of doom stand out clearly. Additionally with so much overlapping, it’d be nice if there was some sort of decay visual on the rings. That is to say, there is a point after the ring is down and the cannon has fired where the ground is technically safe, but the ring persists. I think it might help to know when the duration is at 50%, 75% (and 100% being of course when the ring is gone.) Just a thought.

I like the Aetherblade medium armor quite a lot — except for the hat. If I purchase a full armor skin from the gem store, do I get 6 individual skins to apply to each piece of armor as I see fit, or do I get a full body conversion?

Two best FT-centric examples I can think of are nakoda’s FT/Rifle PvP control build, and Phineas Poe’s overall PvE examination of FT/EG. While traits have shifted around a bit, the principles of each ought to remain the same. I don’t have links handy, but if you can find their posts (and they are frequent posters) they have links to their respective essays in the signature line.

EDIT: Found them.

Nakoda’s FT/Rifle Essay

Phineas Poe’s FT/EG Essay

Mif.3471:

Come to think of it, this new dev trend of putting stun breakers on Tool Belt skills makes Inertial Converter (15 points in Tools) much more powerful.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Inertial_Converter

Indeed… I’m thinking there might be a good PVE support/dps FT/EG build with something like 10/20/0/20/20 but it will take getting home and tinkering a bit to see what it all shakes out to.

In my mind, the adjustment to Napalm Specialist, while technically a buff, isn’t exactly anything to write home about. Burn duration even before without Napalm Specialist wasn’t difficult to maintain.

Yes. I’ll have to dig around to see if I can find a developer source on it, but it seemed to me like they’d said the Aetherblade pirate technology was Inquest sourced somewhere along the line.

Some might have said the Inquest have gone too far when they destroyed the archives of past projects in order to hide their industrial espionage…

Some might have said the Inquest have gone too far when they moved the souls of mortal sentients into golems…

Some might have said the Inquest have gone too far when they attempted to create their own Risen entities…

But at the very least, all of this seemed to be Inquest internals.

Now they are giving the bookahs flying machines, hidden mountains, and alternative lightning technologies!

Some of the prior exploits seems to be pushing the limits of the Eternal Alchemy and (possibly) poor judgement, but spreading the technology without council approval seems like it’s a step too far to me.

On a personal note, anyone else really find they single out Inquest targets more than others in mixed groups, just from a racial point of view? :-)

I’ve got three, two males, one female. I like them both for their own charms. Ryuujin captured the spirit perfectly on the things they said. I’ve mainly played the two males but that’s more due to the classes I chose than the character. Elementalist is hard for me to get started.

I’ll throw my two copper in.

1) Demmi Beetlestone is still with the Whispers last I checked. I visited with her frequently after the rescue because I thought it was an interesting situation. She was always found at the Whispers base and working as a data analyst.

While I would believe she could be the whisper of information, I don’t think she is the person behind prodding the character along. At the very least in The Last Straw the voice is deep. I’m sure there is asuran technology that could do voice changes, but the feel (along with the general film noir take) is quite masculine. But like I said, he could very easily be someone who knows Demmi and be trusted by her sufficiently to relay intelligence she’s privy to in her work as an analyst.

2) I think people are getting WAY too spun up about the E portion of this. The mails have been signed by Mr. E. Mister – E. Mystery. Too cute by half. I think is just as probable that E means nothing as it means anything.

3) Sadly I have no real feel for who it could be at all, so it’ll be fascinating to find out — if we do! There’s no reason that this couldn’t be strung out over several more story segments as the player character becomes a useful cats paw for someone who prefers to stay in the shadows while benevolently (?) working to sabotage more chaotic forces in the world.

Oh whups. It’s been a really long week. :-(

This may be of use to folks:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Probability_measure

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bit_error_rate

I use the crafted Rascal coat transmuted onto some exotic crafted armor with pitch dye, mahogany dye, and starry night dye for the neck scarf. Sorry no photo at the moment, though if you go to the Engineer forum and look at the steampunk thread on the page I have a shot there.

It’s a good set of options. I don’t know that I like all the medium armor, but it might provide some cool mix and match options.

The shield is seriously hot.
The pistol is likewise pretty great.
The rifle I thought was kind of dumb, unless maybe you’re a charr. it’s just a big cannon if it’s the same one I saw last night being linked in guild chat.

The same trick works in Caudecus Manor on some of the paths where there are enemies in the bedrooms and you can safely destroy them without even pulling aggro by spraying through the wall.

I think it’s probably a good sanity check.

I’m really disappointed in them on this one. I thought perhaps they would have learned from SAB and the increased outrage over the Fused and Sclerite weapons.

I dunno if I “[found] their appearance, voices and lore boring/annoying” I probably wouldn’t bother. Seriously, you’re going to be looking at them for 80 levels and countless personal story quests, etc.

All our proffered reasons aside, many if not all of those are based on the lore, the appearance, the animations, and the voices. If they are boring to you, don’t subject yourself to it!

So many people seem to think because they CAN do a thing means they SHOULD do a thing even when they’re saying outloud why they don’t want to, and there’s no overwhelming reason why they should!

Agreed on Midnight Fire. It does a really nice job on leather much of the time. In my picture above I used Mahogany though because it had a slightly more red lustre to it whereas I’ve tried Midnight Fire on the sidepanels of the leather duster and it ended up too brown.

For the metal bits on the goggles I used Antique Bronze and Brass dyes with a Mahogany strap. I like the way it came out. I’ve also used Pewter and Silver Lead to good effect on the goggles.

I can’t speak for Phineas here, but with respect to the justification of Fast-Acting elixirs, this would be my take.

1) It falls under the “able to be flexible” traits with the build, so can and should be adjusted based on the situation.

2) What else would you take? The options are:
a) Invigorating Speed — Not too shabby, but requires a source of swiftness to trigger and the FT/EG build does not take Speedy Kits, so swiftness is more likely to come in from an external and thus unreliable source. Maybe useful in some circumstances.
b) Acidic Coating — Really underwhelming. While you’re more likely to be struck in FT kit than Grenades, it’s only 20% chance, and 5 seconds out of 10 seems pretty bad.
c) Self-Regulating Defenses — Might be useful in PvP where Elixir S is frequently used, but not so much in PvE content, might actually be more of a liability there situationally since it’s automatic.
d) Blood-Injection — A damage related trait, but it’s condition damage and FT’s forte is not condition damage.
e) Protection Injection — Could be situationally useful in a high stun environment.

Out of all those Invigorating Speed and Protection Injection seem the most situationally viable while even only using one elixir, Fast Acting Elixirs is something that can be counted on 100% of the time and we have some very GOOD elixirs.

3) In some situations, EG can be switched out for a second elixir if you’re not anticipating needing to control an environment. Elixir B is a good choice for damage. Thus, Fact Acting Elixirs helps again.

I think that’s basically the justification, but there might be some nuance to it that I’m not aware of.

I am an engineer because I am an engineer. Quite literally.

I (largely) don’t miss, at least within range. And, I’ve never had trouble with not missing in particular, so it’s a bit difficult to debug this. I’ve always got pretty strict camera control going when in a fight, and circle strafing is second nature. There are instances where the enemy hitbox and I don’t really agree on where it ought to be (particularly large objects like dragons are an issue), and there is the rare occasions when terrain incline causes a miss, but all of this is easily fixable and adaptable. It’s quite unlike trying to control camera and ground reticule and character movement all simultaneously as with the grenade kit, which is one reason I tend to favor flamethrower.

It may help to be very aware of how the target aiming works and use that to your advantage. I VERY frequently will have something targeted at max range, and then circle strafe around that point until I get other enemies in the cone as well. You can tab (or click — I find clicking to be pretty inaccurate) target through enemies until you find one at a distance and angle you like and away you go.

Hope that helps a bit. I think FT targeting is largely working and fine (though grenade aficionados tell me that grenade targeting is largely working and fine, so I suppose it’s all very subjective on everyone’s part :-)).

I was kind of iffy on the Asura cultural gear but I think you may have sold me on the mix with the color choices you made. That looks really nice. Though I think that’s a mix of Tier 2 and 3 isn’t it? The Tier 1 is the one with the really weird “spiked hat” I think.

Be sure to check out some of the crafted skins. I liked the Rascal stuff for shoulders and chest. Haven’t found good gloves I like though, so those are still COF.

This is for an asura joining the Durmand Priory. In the final conversation with Zojja, the scene text says “I’ll be checking in with you at the Durmand Priory” (or something to that effect). What the audio actually says is “I’ll be checking in with you at the Vigil.”

No idea how difficult this might be to correct. I’d hope you’ve got the right audio clip from Ms. Day in the recording studio and it’d just take replacing it into the story.

Yeah, I don’t think this is a solution. Better would be to make pure dps with no staying power be a liability in some situations. Then it is a deliberate choice that has consequences.

Well there are different theories on how this should play out. Way back in the misty mists of mistdom (i.e. WoW Vanilla and Burning Crusade) it wasn’t really a big deal to skip packs. However they were skipped judiciously. I’m thinking primarily of mainly the BC dungeons. Slave Pens… no one deliberately pulled all those groups in the big room leading up to the shaman (it’s been so long I’m forgetting the names of the species). There was a little careful dodging around pats and bingo bango you were onto the next pull that couldn’t be dodged.

The same was true for lots of dungeons in Auchindoun and the Tempest Keep ones. You made some choices about what to pull and fight. It did end up being MOST of the packs but frequently there was something to skip and it was skipped. No big deal. Blizzard’s philosophy with this changed more dramatically through Wrath and I was pretty much out by Cataclysm but I saw all the heroic fights in those launch dungeons. It was very linear, you pulled and fought, pulled and fought. There was no clever usage of the terrain or understanding patrol patterns.

However there’s still one thing different. If you screwed up and you pulled, you had to fight. The leashing that goes on in dungeons in GW2 is really crazy and that’s what permits the large-scale skipping. The fights on the bridge in CoF? In an old WoW style dungeon, those could NEVER be skipped. You would pull all that crap to the next event and wipe.

Honestly I LIKE a LITTLE skipping. I like being able to judiciously choose a path through a dungeon, a careful pull here, a careful pull there and hey we created a sneaky little path that our band of intrepid adventurers can use to get to the objective. I can’t say I like the whole sale CoF skipping. Molten Facility was pretty good, but you did pull everything.

I don’t know what the solution is. My opinion would be to extend the leashes on everything and then bump up the trash loot a bit. Maybe put in some ways some things could be skipped carefully and skillfully.

At least as far as I understand it, there are rarely surnames, but Phragg does definitely fit the male pattern. And with X million people all making names on accounts, it does make it very hard to get 4-5 characters, with a double letter and not conflict with something already chosen. So 8/10 :-).

I have three:
Male Engineer: Laika Drum (created before I knew more about Asura)
Female Elementalist: Tryxxi
Male Guardian: Defender Tekks

It’s worth noting that Zojja suffers a bit from the same thing that Trahearn does — it makes a LOT more sense if you come from that race when you first meet them. For everyone else, you get introduced to her at the Let’s Get the Band Back Together event during the personal storyline and yes, that’s not one of her shining social moments.

However, she plays an integral role in every asura personal storyline, since they all start with your character’s entry into the Snaff Savant science fair. I found her to be funny, smart, encouraging, and resourceful during the dozen or so quests you do at the beginning before things start to angle off towards the Orders. Of course you never get a second chance for a first impression, but if you keep your mind open to asura thinking patterns, I suspect she’ll become a more sympathetic character to you.

Well, I stand corrected, slightly. I think the placebo effect is mainly appropriate when the person doesn’t know they’re under the effect. This is why it is used as the control for experiments. Both groups in a study believe they’re getting the real deal, while some portion are receiving a neutral, non-affective regimen. Hence, when I was pointing this out, my main point is that everyone knows that one is not faster than the other.

However, to be technically correct (the best kind of correct) while there is the definition regarding controls in experiments, there is a larger definition that is just the general psychological experience where something feels in a certain way when there’s no rational explanation for it actually being true (or something to that effect). So, apologies offered.

Alilinke.7690:

Here’s a Charr selling Asura plushies

By Ogden’s Hammer, what savings!

This one I think :-) https://dviw3bl0enbyw.cloudfront.net/uploads/forum_attachment/file/75994/cute.jpg

Oliver.4017:

Asura sizes have no advantage. Infact everything is the same between all races. I hear a lot of complaints with jumping Puzzles being easier with Asura than Norns, but in reality its just a psychological thing.

While it’s true the hitboxes and animations and all are the same for skills, it is demonstrably not true that jumping puzzles are easier on a norn for the simple reason that while the model, speed, jumping height, etc are all normalized, the CAMERA is significantly different.

Yes you can get used to it, and I do pretty well on my charr on jumping puzzles, but there is a distinct advantage to not having your character model clip through rocks, beams, tree limbs, and so forth.

There is potentially some slight disadvantage as well. Since the model is so close to the centerline in height and width, it is very easy to forget that the box model for some surfaces extends WELL past the graphical visible edge. You do get used to this on larger models because you have to get used to it (i.e. norns standing completely off of a platform yet not falling, etc). In a few occasions, I’ve had to remind myself on the asura to run well past the visible edge before triggering a jump for particularly long hauls.

That little delay after overcharge before the field establishes has gotten to me as well. I’ve had to remind myself not to be in such a hurry and do “heal, heal” quickly, then pause, then explode. In large group situations (world events) it’s even more important to watch the timing because of skill lag.

Scepter is generally slow, and staff is actually a mid to close field weapon as it improves dramatically the more bounces you get.

While the phantasm bladestorm warriors damage may seem low, remember it also bestows cripple and gives the mob another unit to target. Follow that up with a sword throw which delivers a clone. Then fire up your laser beams and go to town. In my experience the mob frequently stays at range, which maximizes your beam attack. If it runs at you, you’ve got a knockback on 5 and can recripple, reclone, and laser some more.

It’s basically sort of a single target complete package.

Staff is really good too though. I also like sword/focus or sword/pistol.

I have been migrating slowly. I find the quick self heal on F1 to be awkward to hit in the heat of the moment. Doing the healing turret + overcharge + explode though helps train my fingers to get to F1. Too often in medkit, I forget it’s a KIT and hit my heal button, don’t get the heal (because it’s on F1), realize I’m in the kit, and then frantically try to hit 123, remember to also hit F1, then switch back to whatever I was actually trying to do when I started and it makes me feel terribly awkward. And then sometimes forget it’s a kit and then I start dispensing things when I try to use abilities and wonder why things aren’t exploding.

But it’s probably the best self heal. I just get pretzel fingered trying to use it.

I don’t imagine I win any adorable contests, but I do strive for a certain level of cool :-). Here’s my engineer, Laika Drum. (Wish I’d known more about asura naming conventions when I started, but oh well, what are you going to do in a game with 3 million other people picking names.)