Guild Wars 2

So I remember seeing these near the exits of the Breach, but now that I have actually collected my luminescence, I haven’t seen them. Does something need to happen to trigger it? Like all bosses in the Breach killed or something?

I do have it in my inventory, just can’t seem to locate the silly cloud to use it. I also remember that it was bugged at first, but people have been able to complete this, so I assume it’s been fixed?

Precursors only exist on the TP. Anet puts them up on dummy accounts to nourish hope in the masses and take money from fools. True fact.

A thought occurred to me from people mentioning Mawdry.

Craft a ‘booster’ that increases your chance to loot a precursor.

Make it a scavenger hunt like Mawdrey. Make it somewhat difficult and expensive (but not unattainable) and once you’ve crafted it, you keep it in your bag, or perhaps consume it to create a semi-permanent buff. A specific type of magic find that effects only precursor drops. Once a precursor drops, the buff is gone, or the item is deleted or broken. Possibly even make these boosts specific to a certain precursor, so that you can choose which one you want to drop and your chance at getting, say Dusk, is increased greatly or guaranteed when a precursor eventually drops. Once one drops, you can craft another booster if you like for another precursor.

This is specific to the precursor problem only, and not the general RNG roulette, but it could be workable. It doesn’t guarantee you a precursor, but the more effort you put into the game, the better your chances are for being rewarded.

Absolutely my first thought

This game needs tweaking. I love the idea but it was just no fun for me. Each time I tried it I zoned in as a courtier with other courtiers just afking around me. I have never gotten to play as villager. I think maybe half the time I was playing I even saw a villager. I know their job is to hide, but I was checking the hidey spots, porting around the maze for faster travel and just nothing. I ended up wandering around the maze setting traps and wondering what I was missing about this game.

OKay, I just read something in general that I thought was better served in this thread. There are PvP reward tracks, can there also be PvE reward tracks? I know this seems like what token system would be like, but maybe it’s more like a daily. Do a set amount of tasks and get credit towards a goal. Maybe collect trophies from around the world to hand in like with Nicholas Sandford. These both are essentially a token system, but it doesn’t feel like a straight up token reward. Maybe your reward is a point you can put into any reward track, like what we have with WvW ranks. Some are more expensive than others and will take longer.

Just spitballing here and haven’t thought through the possibilities and liabilities, but I liked the concept.

I have been following this, but it hasn’t effected me, so I didn’t bother to comment. Now I have a new guardian that I have to level through this system and I’m not looking forward to it. I’m not even going to talk about the WvW grub because almost everyone agrees that … what? Seriously?

What I am not liking is the map completes. I know they took out the higher level ones, but I don’t even like the lower level ones. I now feel like as I am leveling, I should really be doing those maps so I can get my traits. I can’t even remember what maps are used right now, but if I roll a Norn and want to level in Shiverpeaks, I don’t want to artificially move over to Kessex Hills instead of Snowden. Wasn’t part of the point of mentor system to make all maps viable? Why are they now herding us into a set route – because, face it, most people are going to play efficiently to level. Not the first time, true, but with alts, yeah.

If they want people to explore, give us a specific place to explore to find a trait unlock. Maybe an out of the way skill point or poi, but not the whole map. So I am not opposed to the idea behind the unlocks, but the implementation makes little sense to me.

I’d rather have flexibility and the ability to know I can grab a friend or 2 at most to unlock it whenever I want. No events, and especially no group events. I don’t mind that at Grandmaster, but when just plain leveling it seems too much a pain.

Yes, you can buy them. So what? You shouldn’t have to unless you want to. I like leveling, exploring and map completion, so I don’t hate that I have to unlock them on many maps and by doing a variety of activities. I do mind that I feel I am being railroaded into doing things in a set sequence (maps) and things I have to wait on (events) or other people to be kind (grub).

eta: actually, events are not the problem, it’s the variable nature of them. Looking at barefootstpes post above, I like the idea of tying traits to events thematically (engineers having events that blow stuff up, for example). Thinking about it, it would be kind of great to have a specific NPC you could talk to to kick off an event for your traits.

eta2: Oh gods – I forgot about the Dungeon story unlocks. : head desk : I don’t even have all the story unlocks on my main because it’s mostly useless.

Necro-ing for the people who’ve already completed the Halloween instance but still want to farm with the maize balm.

Halloween is my favorite holiday and Guild Wars does a great job at giving the game the mood I like. Not sweet and precious kiddie Halloween, but an eerie, spooky grown-up vibe.

What I really wanted to say, however, is that this Halloween feels more rewarding than last year’s and I appreciate that. There are more ways to get frivolous goodies, which I am all about. My gems store purchases are mostly on the utilitarian side rather than the style/toy side. For instance, the magic carpet doesn’t appeal to me much when thinking about purchasing it over a gathering tool, but I would play with it as much as anyone else if I found it in my bags. It doesn’t mean I don’t like the style/toys, just that I tend to lean towards the practical.

I’m glad to see more ways of getting items that are just for the pure fun of it. The maize balm is a fun toy – yeah, you can farm with it, but that’s not how I use it. I loved the surprise I gave my friend when suddenly using it and candy corn appeared! I spent some time eating and passing out strawberry ghosts to strangers last night in LA because it was fun! I could make the treats anytime with the recipe, but I never think about it and I had a ton in my bag, so why not? I was hanging out in ghostly form with my brand new Hexed outfit and feeling pretty festive. Anything that gives us more toys to play with is a good thing.

And why did I have a ton of strawberries in my bag? The Lab is back! I loved it the first year, was disappointed last year, but now I get stuff again! Yay! Trick or treat bags are fun to open! Who knows, maybe this time I will get the colored gem. I know I could sell them for free gold, but it’s more fun opening them (to me). I did sell a stack the first night, but then kept wondering what was in those bags I sold and won’t do that anymore. (ask me in a week if I still feel this way)

Anyway – thank you for making this holiday more fun.

I like the idea of a crate too. You could just have the crate be tradable, but once you chose a specific skin it becomes account bound. That would allow a wider variety of skins to be available for that person who just really wants the speargun, but no one is posting that on the TP because ... Greatswords. Yeah, it would even out the prices between skins, but not such a bad thing in my eyes.

That doesn’t help the preview functionality though. Once the crate is opened it could spawn a private vendor with them all listed out to preview, but it doesn’t help people who don’t know what set they want in the first place. The trader could offer previews through a drill down menu, perhaps?

If it’s backed into the hut, good luck on seeing anything.

I had a commander pull him around a corner by where the door spawns just south of that. Same idea as the hut, I guess. Dunno why it’s better to pull him so far rather than confine him but it seemed to work better for our group. Maybe because people could actually see what was happening.

Lord Kuru.3685:

The real interesting thing this all tells us (whether or not the gem exchange was fiddled with) is that players no longer trust Anet at all.

Absolutely this. I am pleased that they are listening to us in relation to how we want to buy gems, but the price spike has me giving them the side-eye.

Peachy Keene.9215:

Jacobbs.9468:

Peachy Keene.9215:

There have been pretty much non-stop posts in this thread all day and yet the last “feedback” we got was 19 hours ago. Where are the devs?

Having lunch, duh!

I guess it’s taking a little longer than usual because they only wanted a couple of sandwiches but had to buy 400 of them.

Sorry to repost this, but by far the best post on this thread.

I too, really like this idea. However, like Roybe, I am skeptical of the openess of information we would receive. I understand that businesses make confidential decisions and that we don’t need to know every little thing, but even an attempt to communicate on some of the more visible changes would be a great thing,

In short, treat us like adults. We understand that the business needs and consumer needs don’t always mesh, but a conversation bringing us both a little closer to a solution tolerable to both sides would go a long way to build loyalty and trust.

Yeah – you were very close

Personally, I do the starter areas for Sylvari and Humans. I use the human warrior (google key farm and you should find many guides on the best way to do these), go into the city right after the tutorial and use the Lion’s Arch gate to access the Grove gate. I do a quick map complete for a free transmute stone and grab my gear from the bank. I only have level 5 gear because I’m fairly casual about my key farms and level 5 with runes is plenty to get you through.

So with map complete done and gear sitting in my bag for when I hit level 5, I do the starter area hearts and pick up any events that are running. When I get Morgan’s Spiral done, I port back to Queensdale and do those til I hit 10, then run as normal.

Like I said, I do this casually when I have some free time or while watching TV, etc. Sometimes I do a Rata Sum map clear too (those two seem to be easiest, but I may be wrong on that.) I’m not looking to sell skins or make a profit, so I am fine with the time it takes. I just like opening the chests and * maybe * getting something fun.

Another tip, the reward bags you get from the personal story can be put in the bank and opened by a higher level character. Some of the rewards are fixed (crafting materials), but any gear you loot will scale to that toon. I’ve even gotten a few rares from it.

What makes me sad/angry/frustrated is that their change worked. The UI looks good, so I buy that change being a move towards simplification, but the specific increments are a blatant way to force people to spend more gold on gems than they normally would. The more people who buy gems with gold means more favorable rates for the people who buy gems to sell for gold, giving them more incentive to buy gems. It’s market manipulation, even if it is still nominally being driven by the players themselves. That spike is glaringly obvious and insulting.

This destroys how I buy gems. I like to buy them a little at a time with a percentage of my total gold each day. Sometimes I would buy larger chunks if the exchange rate was good, but mainly just a few gold at a time. I wouldn’t mind if the lowest increment was less than 400, but when I look at that 80 gold price tag for 400 Gems, I realize I don’t want that thing I thought I wanted anymore. 10 or 20 gold I would drop at a time to bank up – maybe a little more, but not 80. New players are screwed.

Look for taxis. I have jumped in and out of the lab several times tonight and haven’t had a problem finding one. Several empty maps existing shouldn’t happen, but at least we have this band-aid.

Ensign.2189:

The problem GW2 has is that loot is extraordinarily homogeneous outside the exceptionally rare precursor drop. People do not find usable loot. You do not use anything that you find, and nothing is an upgrade. What you instead find are piles upon piles of trash loot, which you salvage down to piles of components – which turn into the actually desirable loot at a very, very low frequency.

There is nothing in between. Exotics are cheap and easy; precursors are enormously rare. Everything that’s not a precursor is garbage to be recycled. Players miss out on the high points between the low points of finding something rare and cool, because none of that exists; everything is garbage.

I think you’re asking entirely the wrong question.

I entirely agree with this post. I understand that really cool toys and outfits are the bread and butter of the gemshop. I accept that. However, there is very little outside the gem shop that is fun.

Here’s an example – the ambrite weapon skins. Nothing about obtaining them is related to skill or the gem shop. You can’t buy keys, or insects – you farm that and hope you get lucky. Even something like that – a weapon skin that still takes a ton of farming to get geodes for recipes, etc is relegated to the extremely crappy RNG. If you’d throw us a bone every once in a while, people wouldn’t get as frustrated. For several weeks now I have looked at the Zephyrite keys in my bag and think ‘maybe I should farm a bit and see if I get lucky’, then realize it’s horribly boring with no payout and decide hell no. It’s all or nothing and no sense of working towards anything good.

We can look at the new collections as well. I was excited at first and was determined to farm the specific champs that dropped certain things and see how far I could get. I think we know how that ends. I’ve given up on collecting – if I get something, fine, but I know it’s not something I can actively work towards and refuse to shell out all the gold it would take to complete. A few items? Sure, I would pay for a few, but knowing that I won’t even get close through normal play is demoralizing. You can only get faked out by a blue Ulgoth’s tail so many times. Couldn’t we at least forge a crappy tail into an upgrade? Then at least I know I have a path to get it. I don’t care if it takes 5000 hoofs and stacks of leather and dust to upgrade it – at least I know it’s in my reach eventually.

New rewards?

:: perks up ears ::

The dungeon was fun and something different to do. I remember people being upset that skins could be looted from the chest and people who had played black lion key lotto for those skins were upset (and rightly so). The loot was very generous by today’s standards – adjust the loot table and I don’t see a problem with it. If it’s too short or whatever you didn’t like about it – don’t do it.

Same with Reaper’s Rumble – don’t like it, don’t do it. But some people did love it and the content is there, gathering dust, so why not give us more variety? If they like the concept of limited time content, then at least put them in a rotation so it’s not the same every year, but we could look forward to the year when it does come back.

John Smith.4610:

The idea is to discuss RNG as a concept inside of games and reward systems. I think more discussion will lead to better understanding of the problems current systems may have, and the pros and cons of other possible systems.

The RNG in this game just feels bad. The high of getting a good drop is severely outweighed when compared to the overwhelming meh of getting the same old crap again and again. That is assuming you do get a good drop. A drop you or someone actually wants and not just a random exotic that you can’t use, has crap stats and you end up forging or salvaging … again.

It feels like wasted time. I’d love it if I felt I was working towards something rather than having everything I do be a crap shoot that doesn’t matter in the long run. If I knew I was at least earning tokens or that my misses were counting towards a streak-breaker, then I would feel more compelled to put in the work. As it is, I can take large breaks from the game because, whatever – it’s just the same old grind no matter when I do it. I know this game isn’t meant to be grindy, etc, but you do want player-retention, and having a grind is a part of that equation. I don’t see how you can separate the two, really. I mean, I don’t do world bosses anymore because they are new, exciting and fun anymore – it’s because of the loot. And when the loot isn’t there … why am I playing again?

Don’t get me wrong – the bosses are awesome and I loved them when I first encountered them, and I don’t hate them now. It’s just that in lieu of anything else to do, this is as good as anything. But it’s not good, so … meh. It feels bad.

Yes, some Halloween is better than no Halloween. And I do love me some Halloween. I’ve got my toons decked out in homemade Halloween gear too. The necro starting masks look fantastic for this – the skull mask on my pale green sylvari looks very creepy.

Plus with the guild bank mergers, I will finally be able to clear the 3k candy corn that was sitting forgotten in a personal guild bank I forgot to empty before switching servers way back when.

I would totally support a recount type feature on training dummies. Anything else, however is a no go. Yes, recount can be a good tool for learning – in theory. In reality, it’s mainly used in all the negative ways already outlined in this thread. GW2 is a different game than that and I would like to see it stay that way.

Also worth repeating – DPS isn’t the end all, be all stat. A recount that could analyse uptime for boons/conditions/healing etc would be fantastic as well

I would appreciate an invite as well. (NA server). Thank you all for being so helpful.

Story Mode Dungeons
– Make them soloable
– Have NPCs teach you the layout
– Unlock explorable account wide

why – With the emphasis on the NPE, I feel this is a great fit right now. I have been playing since launch and have done exactly one story mode dungeon. That was Arah and that was for personal story completion. I’ve done several dungeons (not all), and all others on explorable.

If it was rebalanced for a single player, then the lore and layout of the dungeon can be explored by each person at their own pace. The NPC can make conversation about the dungeon and what you can expect, hints and help with puzzles, etc. I have run several dungeons and relied on others or the internet to know what to expect beforehand so I am not ‘that guy’. I never felt I got to enjoy a dungeon as a new experience and get that sense of discovery.

When I first started playing, I had a few friends in a small guild and it was very hard to get a full group on to do a run. Yeah, I know – get a better guild, lfg, etc. That’s great, but it’s a little intimidating to some people, or too much effort or whatever. I am essentially a solo player who sometimes likes to run around with friends. Point is, I play the way I like and always thought getting a story group together was not really worth it at the time and then I forgot about it and moved on. Once I hit 80, it seemed everyone wanting a group expected you to know what to do, so once again, I deferred and didn’t run dungeons. I missed a large chunk of the leveling experience and personal story because it was locked behind a wall.

I know this is a large change, but I so very much wish that this is how it was implemented from the beginning. I never understood the decision to gate the last step of the personal story – a solo experience – behind a 5-man gate. And don’t get me started on unlocking it for each alt.

Buttons are big and the slider hit box is small. You even said it’s only sticky if you’re selling multiple items – that is kinda the point. By definition, selling max is multiple items.

Does anyone actually use the slider for anything other than max or min? Two large buttons and the quantity field are more than enough. The actual slider bar is too fiddly.

Behellagh.1468:

Click within a slider’s (thing you drag) width the right end of the slider bar. It’s only sticky if you are buying or selling multiples of the same item, along with the price.

Isn’t this the complaint though? It’s like saying “I know you work outside a lot and it’s raining, but the rain is not a problem. You only get wet when you go outside”

I agree with OP. The max box was nice and the new slider is a step back.

That did work – thank you!

I am attempting to transfer servers. The gems show up in my account wallet, but when I attempt to transfer, it hasn’t updated to the new total I have and tells me I don’t have enough. How long does this usually take to update and sync?

I like this video. You can tell he’s passionate about the game – he states that he loves it several times, but is just too frustrated right now to care. I don’t have any leveling alts that are affected by the gating, but I can sympathize.

What draws me to this game is the amazing world and freedom I had to do whatever I felt like. It was so much fun to stumble onto a hidden area or explore a cave and – oh by the way – you’re getting experience for killing that spider for the farmer’s wife even if you haven’t talked to her yet or even know where she is.

I loved finding new weapons because it was exciting to level them up and discover new skills! (well, maybe not as exciting on my ele, but that’s a different thing :p). Trying out the different combos of off-hand and new weapons – it was fun. Now I pick up a greatsword and magically know how to use it. (I leveled an alt to 10 just to see what was up) That and the guide kind of kill that sense of exploration that really hooked me hard. I know you can turn off the guide, but the game didn’t tell me that – the forum did.

These changes just feel like it’s changing the feel of the game, and not in a good way.

I know this has all been said before, but I’m commenting because I really like this guy’s video and hope that maybe it can get across to the devs what a lot of us are trying to say.

I leveled a character to about 13. I noticed that when I tried to interact with some of the skill points, I was unable to. I think the last time I tried one it was at level 9 maybe? For example, the orchid bloom near the spiral JP in Caledon tells me to come back later. I missed 4 skill points in the natural flow of my leveling that I will have to come back and get. It’s very inconvenient and I would imagine confusing for a new player who doesn’t understand what that blue chevron is supposed to do. There is no explanation except ‘come back later’ or ‘not now’. I strongly dislike it.

I still had POIs pop before I officially ‘learned’ about them, but I didn’t check to see if I could interact with the vistas before I ‘learned’ them. I honestly don’t understand why that is a thing. There was a vista that I forgot about because it wasn’t on my map yet, luckily it was close when I did level enough to see them, but again – it seems like a break in the flow making me go back for no apparent reason.

Another annoyance was my pet. i was a ranger and for the first few levels there is zero control of your pet. The pet bar was not available so I could not see his health bar or name him. When it does appear, the special attack (F2) is locked until level 13. Seriously? If you give us the bar, why not give us all of it?

I understand that it was well communicated, but I don’t follow the updates religiously. I missed it too, and am disappointed. Not mad, just disappointed. I understand that they want to restrict the time window for special events, but a weekend day would have been nice, as that’s when I usually play.

To add insult to injury, I am one point away from unlocking the sweet friend achievement and I thought the mad king would get me there. OK, nope, so what’s the daily? Oh crap, it’s the clock tower. Guess I wait another day.

Wow, someone needs a nap.

That I did not know. Thank you

Interesting. I’ve been having crazy lag spikes and DCs this week too, but not guildmates. I thought it was just me. (well, obviously it could still be, but at least I am not alone :p)

Yeah, the tiering is kind of deceiving, but I learned to check how many tiers there are after being fooled a couple of times. I do appreciate the extra experience, but I don’t actually like it either. I would at least like to be able to view the absolute total rather than just seeing the amount to finish the current tier.

I would love to see an in-game guide to where you can find the Karma bulk food sold by various vendors. I’m thinking an NPC by the cooking station in LA that reminds you where to find these items. I understand and actually like the discovery process for this, so perhaps you have to unlock each item. Or maybe they give you a vague hint on where to look, but once it’s unlocked, they can tell you it’s Officer So and So and where to find them (maybe provide a link to nearest waypoint?) I just don’t like that if I am looking for a specific item, I have to go outside the game to find the vendor I want.

Awesome.6120:

Send them a mail so you don’t need cross your fingers that your play times align.

Duh, yeah. Thanks.

Awesome! Like I said, I do have a few friends on that server still, but they are not very active. I just have to wait and hope they show up when I am on.

Another question – If I were to invite someone else to be in the guild from my homeserver, would they then be able to access that vault? Should work, right?

ugh – ok. That is crappy, but whatever. Thanks for the responses. Completely not clear. I guess I don’t get the logic of not being able to access a guild vault while guesting. I get not being able to access it while not on that world, but … yeah. I just don’t get it.

I had a personal guild vault on my original server. I transferred this last week to play with more active friends before the free transfers ended. After I did so, I realized I left items in my guild vault. I figured that once guesting came in, I could just guest back to my original server and access the vault again. So I just remembered to try this and I can’t access the guild bank on my original server. I made sure that I tried it while representing that guild, and even made sure it was the same toon that created it just in case, but nothing. Does anyone know if this is intended or a bug?

Just an observation, but while I was leveling in Gendarran Fields, I made sure to hit Nebo Terrace before logging out because – hey, easy rez. Lots of dead NPCs. I used this area to finish up my heals before logging out the last time it was needed. There was no one around. Today when I go there to quest, I see several players and zero dead NPCs. We would all congregate on them when they did appear.

I guess I’d like Anet’s stated purpose of the dailies to be clarified, because if they are supposed to be gotten through normal play, I think it’s obvious that they are changing the way people play. Several people are going out of their way to rez in certain places, find a mob they can dodge, craft useless copper, etc. None of these are hard, and mostly can be gotten through normal play, but lots of people aren’t doing it that way.

I rather like the new dailies, but it’s obviously changing people’s behaviors. I don’t know if that was intended by Anet, or they missed the mark a little. There isn’t an agreement on how it’s supposed to work (reward for doing extra, or just for playing) in this thread, so it’s hard to say if they are successful or not.

The point is not that it’s hard, but it take conscious effort from some people due to their playing style. They are not playing incorrectly, they may dodge early or they may prefer to kite (me). Evades do happen, but if something gets that close to me, then I have done something wrong. Yes, dodge is fun and a great combat mechanic. I don’t dodge because I don’t know how, it’s just not my preferred playstyle. I think this will be less of an issue when we can choose which ones to complete, but for right now having to do it is not natural for me. On my thief it comes automatically, on my engi with elixir gun, not so much.

My engi kites with cripples and jump backs rather than dodges. I had to go out of my way to play differently to get all my dodges in.

I’ve opened lots of gifts (don’t know how many – maybe 3-400) and not seen any stuffing or glue. About 5 weapons skins, bells and recipes, but never stuffing or glue. So yeah – you’re not particularly unlucky, it’s just really rare. TOO rare, I think.

Oh – and I wasn’t crazy about the weapons. Felt really clunky.

I didn’t realize that the gifts appeared at first. It’s not obvious and never has a pug I’ve been in said anything like ‘present here’. Maybe making the present drop where Toxx dies would make it easier for people to remember and realize it’s even there.

This is a fun mini game – I like it. but I will repeat what others have said – too long, no groups and no chest at end or otherwise appropriate loot. So yes, I am one of those that think the carrot is not big enough. I will play it again and have fun, but I much preferred the way the Mad King event worked. You could jump in and out as your time allowed and not screw anyone else over. I also liked the farmable aspect of it. It was nice to have an alternative and still get drops of reg items and holiday rewards.