Guild Wars 2

SaltyDave.7346:

Also would be nice to see the choosen mailbird in our Homes in a birdcage or something.

The aforementioned Warrior keeping the cannonball in a birdcage…

LumAnth.5124:

They said it breaks immersion, in the past. Which is why they won’t add it

What breaks immersion for me is being in a crowd, not being able to see the person I am talking too, because I seem to be talking to the inside of the head of the person standing behind me.
>/

I agree it should wipe the area of players, participating or not.
Keep Map chat open and be aware of the conversation. If it sounds like things are going badly, zone until it is over.

Mezzing for a Living – A Personal Account

I am pretty predictable. When friends introduced me to Guild Wars, I looked at the classes and picked the one with the pretty outfit and the purple spell animations. Being my first actual MMORPG I didn’t know what to do with the Mesmer at all. I just ran into melee and hit things till they stopped moving.

Then the Searing happened and things got to a point that I wanted to delete and start over. It became a joke in my Guild that I spent more time lying on the ground than actively playing.
This went on till we got to Yak’s Bend, when someone finally explained that I had a role.
Call it what ever you like, “Chaos”, “Discord”, “Nightmare”, the Mesmer excelled at the art of trolling. What ever you are good at, your best skill, a good Mesmer could make it your albatross. Once realized, this didn’t just change my view of playing Guild Wars, but my style of gameplay across all genres. Being strategic about my skills, when and where to use them.
How to coordinate with others and my placement in a team.
After a few years and a few expansions, Guild Wars 2 went beta, and I jumped into a new Mesmer right away. I was worried as the professions were revealed, but happily enjoyed the trolling ANet rolled over us for the Mesmer. True to form.

Still, I became frustrated again. The elimination of clear roles for the professions made for slow going. This time, even my friends didn’t bother with it because it was very different from what it used to be. Messing around, I had a chance to try every weapon at my disposal before fixating on the Staff/Septer+Pistol combo. It was about Lornar’s Pass that I hit upon what made me fall in love all over again. Fighting Snow Trolls (the irony) with a scepter, I churned out a few clones, which up till then, I was using much the same way unskilled Rangers used pets. It destroyed my one clone, and accidentally sent the other running in and shattering with Cry of Frustration right before it started it’s knock down skill. Result: Dead Snow Troll.
The little lights came on and I took some time to shuffle my skills about, research the armor and weapon specs and made my own little shatter build.
Skills that allowed me to make an opponent think they were flightless birds, and teleporting my self and friends across great distances made me realize that the old role of support was in there, but it was also a new form of support in other offensive tactics if I wanted to go solo. My survivability went up as I learned what worked for my plastyle and I started to level quickly.
Even though I filled my other slots with other more popular professions, I always came back to my Mesmer. It’s not a class everyone will enjoy, and leveling can be slow in the beginning. There is tonnes of advice and tips here and all over the web on how to roll over the competition.

There has been a lot of talk about how much the Mesmer gets nerfed, maybe because I don’t think ANet expected the profession to be used as creatively as it is (or maybe I don’t pay attention to the other classes because survivability isn’t an issue for me with them). Now that they see the community is that creative, they seem to expect the changes are just something we’ll get used to. Shatters and Illusions are the bread and butter for me and constantly lessening the effectiveness, can relegates me to defensive support only. That would be great in Guild Wars, if you preferred that support role, but in Guild Wars 2, it gets you downed.

We have to hope devs see the Mesmer as we do: A sorcerer mages able to wield conditions and illusions as sword and board and not bards relegated to party support.

I don’t think the nodes are necessary unless you are a Jeweler, and even with that, Copper, Silver and Gold aren’t exotic tier materials.
Selling them on the TP is going to be pointless if enough people purchase them obviously.
The convenience makes no sense for me because I practically live at the LA Trader’s Forum. My guildies can meet me there and a lot of events get organized from that spot.

This is just my opinion. It may work well for some folks. =/

In-Game Crafting is a Sink that makes Crafting Players the a Broker, not the Seller.

I would hope that it would be possible to open up the process some to either make crafting more profitable or more enjoyable.

Some Thoughts:

• Tie Level of the Crafter to The Quality of the Items
A level 400 Weaponsmith has no need to craft a bronze sword, which is a shame, because their work should be better than a level 15 crafter. Allowing higher level crafters to put higher level upgrades on items to reflect their skill.

• Creator Customization
This is a little more complicated.
Currently we make all identical items according to recipes we learn. Adding the ability to also learn how to customize those items would add more uniqueness to any purchase made in the trading post. These could be something learned in a random encounter, quest awards, Black Lion Chest, or even purchased in the Gem Store.
Customizations like colors, effects and patterns. Nothing kitten drastic as replicating effects of Legendary and Ascended items, but something to add that lessens its chances of priced low due to and over abundance in the Trading Post, making the custom order feature a lot more practical.

• Tailor Specific – Allow Tailors to craft Town Clothes
I have posted before about the lack of town clothes choice in the game. Most that come from the Gem Store are more costumes than clothes. Town clothes were originally said to acquired via drops, but that never happened after beta. This is also where I think the customization mentioned above could work best if adding it to armor and weapons isn’t feasible.
The Cherry Blossom Shirt and Ornate Ruched Shirt being the same basic design, but different looking would be the best example of this.

While it is easy to say that this should best be left to Gem Store purchases, I can only think of the Flamekissed Light Armor Skin hoopla. Gem Store skins and items should be limited release, new and different from current content.

• Removing the “Soulbound on Acquire” on Some Items
While there are some items that are only available by going through Karma vendors if you purchase a recipe, I don’t see a reason for regular items to be subject to souldbind (e.g. Loaf of Bread).

• Allowing all Materials to Stack in Materials Tab.
This is probably the part that makes the least sense in crafting design. Crafting some items, like Dowels, Insignias and Ingredients leaves orphaned in inventory or your regular bank tab. It would be very helpful, even if useable on it’s own, that as long as these items are associated with crafting an item, for them to have a special place in our bank.

I usually just sell my golds and exotics I don’t want. I am poor and have toons to clothe. Salvaging blues and greens and then having an Artificer craft them into exotic 500 Essences of Luck is how I have gotten to 56% since account wide was released.

Going to running this build when I can afford to do so.
http://intothemists.com/guides/2449-healing_combow

I took a break from my mesmer main to level my ranger for a while. At 45 she was my next highest level after my level 80 main.
Last night came as a surprise, when she made me pay attention to a level 65 drop she received. She was able to equip it as she had leveled to 73 and I had barely noticed. (They grow up so quickly!)

While I have all weapons at my disposal, I am liking the ComBow the best. I have a lot of pets, except for:
Hawk
Carrion Devourer
Jungle Spider
Forest Spider
Salamander Drake
Cave Spider
White Raven
Rainbow Jellyfish
Black Widow

I am looking to build her for damage and support. The pets in the build are not static, I change them out for the task at hand often, but I have a new appreciation for spiders. Currently with the lower level version of this build, I have a pretty high survivability in PvE and able to switch to support when others show up by switching out my 7 and 0 skills.

I have to disagree with Asurans not suited to be rangers.
Seeing how they have experimented on all the animals in area, I could easily see some of them specializing in dealing with critters out of necessity.
The first non-hostile Charr in Guild Wars was Pyre Fierceshot. If you consider his historical significance., a ranger would be respectable for any Charr as well.

I was toying with these ideas when I had a good character name, but it suited a Sylvari, so I went with that.

Jahroots.6791:

Most of the emptier zones shouldn’t exist in the first place. For example; Sparkfly Fen, Mount Maelstrom and Brisban Wildlands are all essentially the same zone with very slight variations. The same applies across Shiverpeaks and Ascalon as well. There should have been way more distinction between zones, as well as an incentives to visit them.

They are similar because designers wanted to create natural looking changes to the environment.
Areas like Gendarran Fields start to get snowy as you go northeast at the foot of the Shiverpeaks, as does Diessa Plateau as you travel north from the Black Citadel. Wayfarer Foothills actually has a Temperate coniferous forest in it’s lowlands that becomes snowy as you enter the mountains and glaciers.
To me, this makes the landscape more alive.

The fix for deserted areas is addressed with Dailies, like “Veteran Krytan Killer”.
Want the daily? Go to a Krytan area and kill some Veterans. Low level players can do this in Queesdale. Higher level players can hit up Harathi Hinterlands or somewhere else in Kryta.
For those of us that like to get our own materials for crafting, they are tied to certain maps.
The maps aren’t boring or in need of tweaks. There is always a Living Story going on, usually tied with the newest armor, weapons and high end drops.
If everyone is doing that event, then who is in the zones playing?
Barely anyone
The Queens Gauntlet event zergs were crazy. Kessex Fields had no shortage of people during the Toxic Nightmare event.

I started play GW1 with friends when it was still a babe. When it was released, I was proud to be a part of it. We had our guild, we helped each other and lots of fun.
GW2 came along and we jumped in feet first.
After a month, none of my friends were about. They moved full time WoW players. They liked the Trinity and that sort of gameplay and GW2 became a novelty.

I do like both games. I certainly have more vested in my GW1 characters and heroes. It makes some moments in GW2 more somber, like finding Gwen’s grave, The Henge of Denravi, or the old Lion’s Arch.
People have said it is a different game, and this is true.

“It’s still the same old story
A fight for love and glory
A case of do or die
The world will always welcome lovers
As time goes by "

I originally had a dislike of Rangers when bots of them would zerg areas so badly they were unplayable. I don’t anymore and have one of my own. I do understand that having a pet as a buddy can be fun in PvE, in a group, it’s an albatross that can cause headache.

Piogre.2164:

The snowflakes are a piece of cake, as is the snowball run at the end. The gift boxes are another story- I spent multiple activity timers in a row standing on the platform before it and just watching, and could find no discernible pattern, except that it would always entirely self-destruct with too many people on it. It’s 50% rng and 50% relying on the intelligence of the people behind you to not overload to section (read: NOT a skill based segment).

This segment alone turned me off from coming back to the puzzle after my first completion. I did the clock tower daily, usually in a single try each day, and grinded all six levels of tribulation mode daily for about a week when it was out. I don’t rely on Mesmer portals- often enough, I make them. But I can’t bother myself to return to this puzzle even for the wintersday dailies. Kitten that.

This.
There is no pattern that I can see.
Some presents seem to be set lower than others in the same row, and they can snag in place as the presents around you pop.
Some people can go though and presents will pop in their wake, leaving unpassable Swiss cheese for anyone after them.
While this has become a painful obstacle to deal with, it’s even more painful to watch players who skillfully made it through the rest of the puzzle, failing to get past, This.

tolunart.2095:

mtpelion.4562:

Donari.5237:

Go to your Hero panel. Click the little top hat icon at the top. You will see a different outfit. You can hotkey set a toggle to go between armor and town clothes. The town clothes can’t be used in combat and tend to be more citified cloth outfits. Occasionally you can get more via the gem store so as to expand your wardrobe.

I’ve been playing since launch and never noticed those before…
So they can’t be used in combat and have a very limited selection? Why not just make them armor skins and dump this concept?

Town clothes are also used for costume brawl.

It’s a shame that players that have been here since launch don’t know about town clothes, and what we do have is for costume brawl.
At beta, there was talk of town clothes being random drops.
Seeing the clothes the NPCs had made me a bit hopeful.

Couldn’t we just have that? Some of the clothes the NPCs have are great, and I wouldn’t mind seeing them on our toons sometime in the near future. The shirts that came out were strangely lonely with no bottoms or shoes to go with them except for the riding pants and boots.

I missed this puzzle last year and from the way it used to be, I can see it could be frustrating. I have my own set of issues:

The Present Gauntlet – I can understand that I can be a klutz and fail a jump here and there. But with the Presents, sometimes I feel like I could have saved time and just jumped from the platform to restart at the beginning. They are less of an obstacle and more detour back to the start.

Random Restart – I make it to the Present Gauntlet and a gust of wind blows across the platform and sends me back to the start.

What

The

Hell.

Another time I was at the starting platform and the wind sent me back 2 steps when I was about to jump on the first platform.

The winds are horrible trolls.

The Chest – I open it after completing the puzzle for only the second time. I got the Wintersday achievement and nothing out the chest.
For this I am not sure if this was by design or not, but I was hoping to get something at the end.

sobe.4157:

I hate to say this, but I wouldn’t upgrade any specific part of that… I would start from scratch. I know it’s not what you may want to hear, but it’s not worth upgrading IMO.

As far as PCI-E 2.0 and 3.0, there is no big difference in the 2 aside from 3.0 doubling the amount of bandwidth. Meaning 2.0 and 3.0 CARDS, are fully compatible with both 2.0 and 3.0 slots and interchangeable.

That is what I was hopping.
And yes, I didn’t want to upgrade the whole thing from scratch yet. Hope to get at least 5 years service total out of it.

A Biostar MB with AMD A6 Quad Core APU.
With the board having the PCI-2.0, I would hope in makes more sense to get a card that meets the criteria.

Not quite ready to completely upgrade this rig yet.

I built the rig on 2012, and even though it isn’t that old, I just realized that the PCI slot isn’t compatible so moving on to this instead.
Since I am saving some on the price, use it to upgrade RAM from 4 to 8.

Currently running this and upgrading to this.

Trying to run high quality in at least most normal PvE situations and medium in towns.

I find it funnier that the lion statue has only been back a short while and it already seems to getting warped again.

You folks are awesome.
I can easily switch out weapons and losing a illusion with some micro management to Mind Wrack at the appropriate time.
I’ll have time to try this tonight.

I just left a party on the end battle because of “adds” from my illusions.
Am I to assume “adds” refers to either stacks or difficulty?
My build is condition based, as is my armor, weapon and skill set and it has served me well.
I generally use illusions offensively, but they make for a good defensive line when allies need cover.
Weapons are Staff/Scepter and Pistol.

I would very much like to do this on a limited budget. Just buying a new set of gear for a level 80 is going to be a problem.

When I was in, boss fell through the floor. Could not hit him, but bouncing off the gears he threw was uncomfortable.

OP here.
I actually made the topic to draw connection with VA’s work.
I could have just as likely pointed out Harley Quinn in connection with Scarlet, but the new LS title won me over.

These antics amuse me anyway. You guys are awesome.

I get what TC is talking about.
My spouse and I have different playing styles. I have a roister of characters of different races ad classes, but focused one character to 80.
He has all male humans of different classes, but the farthest he gotten is 35.

What you can do is use the in game events to work on certain characters, (one of the Dailies is “Shiverpeak Killer”, so focus your Norn Ranger that day.)
The other way to look at it is that one level 80 character will make it a lot easier to level your other characters.
Use your 80 as a workhorse. They can gather lots of materials for crafting that can be used across your account. They can also find armor and weapons as drops that you can pass on. Higher level characters also can earn more coin in battle and events.
The last way, requires a little creativity. While the personal story is always there, you could invest a little personality into your characters that will make you want to spend more time with them. Plan out goals or builds that make it fun.

There is no magical bullet, but these are just my observations.

Scarlet is an okay villain.
She seems to exist to cause comic book style mischief and ants to your picnic.
Then you take the attempted kidnapping of the Queen and invasions into account as well as the fact she has multiple factions enlisted as her minions, one has to wonder if she is more than what she appears to be right now. She can’t be completely mad if she is able to convince so many to go all in with her plans.
Even when OP points out Nagato, you don’t know initially that his motivations are selfless, we only know of Scarlet’s madness.
She saw something of her people’s destiny and if this plan of hers turns out to be more than just meddling in our plans, it could make for a good story and viable villain for us all.

As piracy goes, the classical type anyway, the captain is elected for their cunning and tactics as a figurehead. With Scarlet being willing to sacrifice so many while cutting and running, not to mention the losses.
Aetherblades resemble the modern pirate more.

We have our Guild leader plagued by this as well as many of the senior officers. Now our only new player. In a guild of over 20 we only have 3 players actively on because of this.

Come on. ANet…

<—- My main character.

She is a descendant of my GW1 Mesmer main, Ayanna Jumiyu.

Imperios.2543:

Yal Keter

6 out of 10
I like it and wonder if it referenced or just a fun and creative.

I have a female Necro named Kappow.

Alkaholic.3875:

Give me Rox’s hair and I’ll roll a charr…

This a 1000 times.

A long while back, I read the Chanur series by C.J. Cherryh.
Revisiting the story gave me the idea of the type of female I would hope my Charr lady to be. A lot of swagger and guile. It’s worth the read if you have the time…

Oh, ANet. Charr need some earrings. =P

I am a female player.
I have a character of each race and each profession. All are female except one male Asuran.
My lady Charr, Mala Searsoul, is a Guardian.
For my husband, he has made all human males, and one Norn because of Norn males have a hairstyle that he wanted for the character.

I think that first, people will go with what is familiar. It’s comfortable and when it comes to enjoying ourselves, no one wants to feel awkward.
For those of us that played GW1, the Charr are a sore point. I like the idea that there was a different faction that attacked humanity, but when you go to the Charr homelands, formerly Humanity’s Homeland, there are ghosts bent on revenge trying to reclaim their home. The music, imagery and ruins make it solemn and bittersweet.
Lastly, Charr society and the industrial war machine will not appeal to everyone.

What made the idea of playing a female Charr appealing for me was exploring the part of the society we were not able to see in GW1. A race not bound by gender roles, but strength of character. Character designers that made a excellent decision not to make overly sexual dimorphic pin-up gals of the female Charr, but recognizable subtle differences. The sort of differences Charr would notice, but other races would overlook.
Another favorite reason based on what I have heard from NPC children.
The kids behind the Trader’s Forum in Lion’s Arch. A random conversation on the Labyrinthine Cliffs between a soldier and child. A cub in Smokestead asked my Sylvari if she tasted like meat or a plant.
I also think at some point, Charr players have had or have a cat in their home that may be serving as a inspiration.

I have some issues with my opinion on armor and the other minor details, but I like Mala and all the other creative folks that don the guise of female Charr when they play.

Danikat.8537:

It’s their character, as long as it’s not against the EULA they can name them whatever they want.

Mine vary hugely depending on my plans for the character and my mood at the time. I haven’t yet ressurected Mys Terii from GW1

I usually give my characters serious, lore-friendly names, because that is my playstyle.
My husband even moreso. I even have a naming scheme for my ranger pets based on varieties of Nightshade. I didn’t want to bring back my old GW1 characters, but one of their descendants was fine.
As to goofy names, I can always appreciate that creative player that brings some humor in with a name or appearance that is off the wall or unexpected.

While I do craft, after a few events and some SAB, the Ascended materials maxed their stacks.
Really ANet? A stack of 18 on a new, supposedly rare material.
There really isn’t a way to get rid of these. I can’t share with my guildmates or friends that could actually use them.

I see there could be a possible idea about making them account bound now and removing it later to keep them from imploding the prices on the TP, since everyone will have tons of them. Folks sell them at vendors instead, and sink the glut.
Just guessing about them at too early in the moring.

Blissified.8369:

• Sell different voice replacementns* i want atleast 5 different voices that i can replace my human male character with, yeah i know this doesn’t add much but it can give MUCH NEEDED MORE CUSTOMIZATION

This. Everyday.
My prissy mesmer and brutish pirate sound the same.
It’s strange to hear and would like the variety.

Bank space is limited and this is an issue for lots of people with event exclusive items and gear.
With the universal wallet, I would hope they would make/add event items to it as well.
A reintroduction of a festival hat/costumer would nice or an option to have micro storage for costumes (put the Fancy Winter Outfit back in single box to store away.)

I would venture to say that the entire Guild Wars storyline has been following some matriarchal undertone.
The original Guild Wars, from King Adelbern's and Prince Rurik defeat at the hands of the Charr to the to Gwen's establishment of Kryta as what would become the new homeland for humankind, women have come out from under the usual shadow cast by male counterparts.
As for Logan’s ineptitude, this also could be a build to an actual relationship with Queen Jennah. It seems to mirror Keiran Thackeray’s courtship of Gwen enough to make it very romantic, if only in a comedic way right now.

I was looking to see if this was a bug.. Fighting in a mob, I realized that most weren’t players, they were all the Mesmer clones and phantasms.
Even more of a problem is that ALL other players look that way currently, regardless of armor. A generic, look based on armor type.
I don’t seem to have an issue, but I am sure that everyone sees me in the same
Back items and weapons seem unaffected, but I think because Mesmers make clones of themselves as other players see them, it’s more obvious to them.

Maybe it’s done for the event to reduce lag?

I currently use a Logitech Keyboard feature to highlight all interactive items and characters/enemies.
I don’t see why you would need to spam it outside of battle, so it shouldn’t be an issue.
This is my opinion however.

RebelYell.7132:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btB5DL5qZ6E

Ha! Another Touhou Battle theme.
This one is for my Human Mesmer main.

http://www.youtube.com/v/Bs_DBuLtNZc&hl

A male friend that explained that if you have a choice, considering the camera at your back all the time, whose posterior would you want to look at as you spend all that time with a character? Some burly guy or some curvy female backside?

I am not for the burly type, but I get it.
For me, as a woman, I am a little ashamed because this time around, I haven’t created a male character as I did with GW1. I had a lot of character ideas I made that connected my characters from the first game to this one and a few I wanted to make in other races. They turned out to be female in the end.

Its easy to think if someone is going to make an avatar, they should make it look like themselves, but since we don’t have to be, some folks imagination will trump that logic.

My husband plays nothing but human males. He has 7 last count, 2 warriors and I can’t for the life of me understand why.
I have one character for every race, each playing a different profession. They are all female, which I haven’t deviated from but plan too.

First, think of what we call Charr, Asuran and Sylvari on the forums, “Toons”, brings to mind that these races are “Furry” intoning grief and the negative myths associated it.
The Syilvari are somewhat more playable because they are recognizably humanoid, but are too quirky for some, and Norn though still humanoid with a propensity to go bestial if you want to, or never want to.
Second, is imagination. Not everyone can see themselves as anything other than what’s in the mirror. There are players that will only play humans of the same gender with their name or nickname cause that is all they know.
Third is, believe it or not, sex appeal.
The physical difference of gender is very subtle, and I personally like that design. A female Charr isn’t Felicia from Darkstalkers. She is only considered beautiful to a male Charr, even if she has a husky voice and scars across her face.
Fourth is the lore and culture.
Charr are a nation driven by war, and if you played the first Guild Wars, you may even not like the Charr just because of that and what happened to Gwen! The culture also seems strict.
Asurans are haughty know-it-alls. Their culture and dialogue seems detached and cool compared to say, Norn “Beer, Brawl and Bear” warmth.
There are some players that will welcome this as a creative challenge, but most want to just play a game.
Last is the difficulty of the design of the game vs. these races.
Whether it be the armor or camera angles, people still want to visually find something to like about a character they are going to spend hundreds of hours with. Clipping and uninspired armor selections don’t make it easy to like them.

I love all the designs of the races. The diversity is a testament to the creativity of the designers and writers. Ambitious enough to hope the players would step outside their comfort zone and try something completely different from the traditional RPG races.

It could take some getting used too.

1g.
I count all the money I have across all characters and still have one gold.
I maintain armor and weapons to level. I don’t care about what they look like as they just need to provide the protection and damage.

No. At least not now.
Stationary platforms are hard enough for Norn and Charr characters without having to any confusion. Change/Fix the way the camera is positioned and moving platforms could add new level of fun to puzzles.

The censoring on the forums is more insane than in-game.

“kitten” A baby cat/rabbit
“kittenakke” A Japanese mushroom
“oh for kitten’s sake" Really bad words

Why kitten? Why not just “#$@#%!” everything, or censored/black box. Why not have a filter that sorts words so a sentence can still have coherence:
“I don’t believe this garbage”
“What the heck/hell?”
(But heck and hell are okay words for the filter…)

The filter system is lazy and oversensitive. Checking to see what smattering of syllables spliced together make naughty words from all over the world when there are players having far more problems with the game itself.

This thread is pretty cool.

My favorite is the unleashing the Champion Troll in Clayent Falls at the same time the Harpy and Bandit event is going on.
Total chaos of the clash of baddies and bots getting wiped is hilarious, and then the players swoop in and save the day.

It always feels like I am looking over my character’s shoulder, instead of through their eyes, like a horrible tour guide. The camera flies in for close-ups in battle if I against the wall. I don’t see enemies, and just rely on auto target to know if I am hitting them.
This has actually robbed me of fighting enemies strategically in closed environments, because I can’t know if my AoE is doing any damage or missing them completely.
Should the difference between defeating one enemy come down to how may camera angle is skewed?

They have a slider to control the x axis for the camera, why not add a y axis one too. Max height a little above a character’s head and Minimum at character’s feet. Giving us more ways to view the world could only help.

Having played the first Guild Wars, I understand what people mean when they say it’s difficult to acquire wealth.
I have a perma-Presearing character that has 35 Platinum all from low level drops and doing a decent amount of farming and questing on a fairly regular basis.
In another game, I can expect to make enough in 2 months to have double the amount for the bi-monthly special items (costing 125,000 in-game currency) they release, just playing casually.

For now, Guild Wars 2, as beautiful as this game is and as much as I like to play, it requires more grind than most are able to manage.
If I want to consider using gems to trade for gold, I consider how many hours , real work hours at my job I have to work to pay for pittance of gold gems currently exchange to.
I don’t know if it’s the gold sellers or botting or lack of creative vision to foresee that this was coming, but the economy is far to dependent on sinks to support it.
For me, there is no balance. I would rather give my support and buy gems because I am truly impressed by a quality game, than to make up for the lack of it in dealing with real breakage in the economy.