Guild Wars 2

You know what ..i’ve got DMC3 on PS2 ..i might burn it into a ISO and play it on PCSX2 emulator just for fun lol. Cant stand the way my old PS2 looks on a big HD TV ..thankfully PCSX2 allows upscalling resolutions

@underdog

Indeed.

It’s sad that even I say that back when i was 12 or so, i was a better gamer. Simply becouse games nowerdays dont test your skill, and so you get lazy ..your performance drops etc. And the funny thing is ..i learned to game on the Atari and Genesis and other consols and home PC’s of the same period..BUT they were already considered old when i was playign them …im only 25 .. i should be saying .“im at the prime of my gaming ability” ..but im not ..becouse games today are just to easy. I can complete a normal Singleplayer game in a few days.. thats rediculus.
I even stumbled apon a report on Devil May Cry 3 a couple weeks ago ..back from when it wa released to us westerners. Apparently the Devs accidentily made the western version normal mode the equivilant to japans hard mode, causing players ot get pissedo f becousei t was to hard. I didnt even notice lol. I didnt find the game challenging till i went up on the difficulty after 1 play through.

And befor som1 else come along and says “tipical elitst hardcore jerk” or some such that usualy gets spouted .. I can count on 1 hand the number of games iv played in the past 6 months, thats by no means hardcore ..i play GW2 maybe 3 to 6 hours a day now ..tbh im getting a bit bored of GW2. My top character is lvl 80 using a exotic weapon and level 67 rare gear. By no means elitist or hardcore :P

What motivated me.

Enjoyment ..simple as.

Its been a while since iv done somthing in a game ..specialy a mmo… that was actually hard and took me many attempts to complete. Reminded me somwhat of the old Atari and Genesis days. Wish there were more times like that tbh

Hard mode is good. Hell compared to back in the day the clocktower was normal mode..possibly even easy mode.

>>>>>@Josh Foreman<<<<<

Dont feel bad in the least.
When you design somthing in a game, and then get angry frustraited people moaning that its to hard ..for what ever reason ..be it camera or crowds or what ever….thats the sign that you need to MAKE YOU NEXT CREATION HARDER >:)

A game designer is not doing his job right if people are not complaining its to hard. That means there are ALOT of game designers out there that r failing btw :P.

Im glad you wont be changing anything and im glad you said you will be making more like this. I do hope you keep your word. Easy has been done to death for the past 12 years or so..lets get back to normal..granted ‘normal’ will feel like ‘hard’ to those who learned to game over the past 12 years. .but thats their problem :P

Keep it up,casual gamers will moan ..but casual gamers were still casual back in the day, the harder games back then didnt bother them, its just part of todays mentality ..ignore it and move on

One final bit of advice.

OC your CPU when you get it, even though its an ivybridge, it still has unlocked potential that you can get at via OC’ing. On air cooling so long as you got a half good aftermarket cooler, you should be able to get to 4.3ghz with minimal voltage tweeks.

And yes. a modern intel CPU does give substantialy more FPS in GW2 when in heavy situations like large pve event, when in LA, and when in large WvWvW fights (50+ people)

Also have to mention that the 670 and the 7970 are only each others equivalent in terms of price. If you compare ATI and Nvidia by their cards ‘level’.

I.E
ATI top card to Nvidia top card
ATI 2nd Card to Nvida 2nd card
etc

You will find that the 7970 is ‘currently’ ATI’s top card, whilst the 670 is Nvida’s 3rd best card after the 680 and 690. Which if you look at the 2nd link that was provided, the 680 (Nvidia’s 2nd card) is roughly the same as ATI’s current 2nd card the 7950.

I also know that in other games the 7970 is about the same as the 680.. that leaves room for ATI’ suposed 7990 to try and compeat against Nvidias 690.

Anyway ..food for thought.

In all honesty i’ve always been Nvidia user. However i do accpet that ATI/AMD cards are cheaper and do perform really close to Nvidia’s cards.

However, from what iv seen:
Nvidia cards run great on almost ‘all’ games.
ATI/AMD card run great on ‘some’ games tailing Nvidia usualy, and excel and beat Nvidia on a ‘handfull’.

Bassicaly i consider AMD a gamble, i prefer the assurance and usualy the better performance of Nvida and am willing to pay for it.

I will say this though, you mgiht be better of buying a cheap card (like a 560ti or ATI equivalent) and waiting on the Nvidia 700 series cards. They come out in Late Q1/Early Q2 next year. thats what im doing atleast, specialy since Crysis 3 is coming out in feburary ..i doubt a single 670 could hande that game on max if its as good as it sounds.

I agree to what most have said here .. however.

First before you buy anything. Check your CPU and GPU usuage whilst playing GW2.

If your GPU gets anwhere from 95-99% usuage, then yes a new GPU will help.

If it does NOT, then a new CPU would help more.

Which CPU?

Well a I5 2550k (not 2500k) would be a good choice, specialy for OC’ing.
If your not going to push OC much then a 3570k is a good choice.

They are both almost identical ..same stock speeds. .same cores and threads. However the 2550k Will be able to OC higher than the 3570K. Bassicaly if you plan to OC higher than 4.3ghz on Air cooling, get the 2550k. If you go water cooling, the 2550k is even better. It will go to 5ghz ..or very close. . the 3570k wont have a chance getting that high. If you aiming for 4.3ghz or lower.. get the 3570K it will run faster at those speeds than the 2550k at the same speed.(only very slightly ..but stil)

I would sugest checking with ur ISP.

As Rabbid stated ..you are getting packet loss relativly early on which does hint at an issue.

See what your ISP says, do what ever they sugest, then try again the trace route again.

I asumeyou actually mean lag and not low FPS.

In which case that info is showing a shockingly high packet loss near the end of its route.

Unfortunatly im no network wizard, but since its near the end of the route its likely close by or owned by Anet. In which case contacting them and opening a ticket is likely your best bet.

I think it will perform fine for what you have in mind.

Check this out. Its rather outdate now but still has the relivant coolers listed.

http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/thermaltake_frio_clp0564_cpu_cooler_review,9.html

turn all ingame sound level down to 0 except master and dialog. Wait for most ppl to go to bed ..record ..and ur sorted.

arrownin.3128:

Hold your phone up to the screen and put the volume up to full blast!

Great idea except that ..well ..i think you ate to much candy and got confused ..you see ..Sound comes out of speakers ..not screens :P

hehehe

Sry i couldnt help myself :P

Ok some honest feedback.

The Labyrinth:
Was ,well too bland in my opinion, the champions too easy ..loads of hp does not equal a challenge. I think you can spice those encounters up a bit by making them mini events. Bash away at the champion like this time around and at 75%/50%/25% it runs of and you gotta do some kind of event puzzle to get him to come back, like find pumkins and throw them at him to knock it down from a high safe area. .or somthing.

The Rumble event and Lunatic event:
Were .well ..pointless imo. Its a personal opinion but ..i found them boring ..there was no real end goal except beat the oposing team…thats not an event .Thats a mini sport like keg brawl. However these were put across as some kind of do or die event due ot the halloween nature :P Anyhoo..moving on.

The Clock Tower!!
…ohhhh the clock tower. .what a wonderfull event ..im not being sarcastic here… PLEASE! put more events in to the game as difficult ..infact no ..MORE difficult than that, honestly the easiness of games nowerdays bar a few exceptions has all but eliminated my faith in the gaming market for the past 12 or so years.. so a simple 1 time event like the clocktower is a welcome breath of old school air

The Mad King dungeon:
Was ..well. Again its like the few normal Gw2 dungeons iv played so far …takes a while ..‘can’ be killed a few times ..but not becouse its ‘difficult’.
Bosses ..and in this case the Mad King ..just had a huge amount of hp and 1 or 2 hard hitting or anoying skills. In this case the ranged 3x combo(usualy dodgable unless ur stamina starved) and the Scarcrow fear ..i dont think i could ever be scared enough to jump of the edge of a cliff ..but ok :P
As much as i REALLY loath the game im about to mention (and hate using it as a comparison) due what what its become.. WoW has much more complex boss fights ..now granted they are REALLY easy ..thats down to the leway and amount of dmg they do..a simple buff on the dmg and making said tactics alot less mistake freindly would make them difficult ..add that to GW2 alreayd has in bosses and the GW2 controls and you would be onto a nice combo. Currenlty though GW2 only manages to make bosses. .bosses..by giving them loads of HP..thats just plain lazy tbh :P ..Sorry ..but it is.

And finaly
Rewards:
Well ..it would be nice ot have some :P lol
I cant help but feel a small sense of Korean Grinder in the kind of drop rates and rng currently present in loot tables :P
Now i do play Korean mmo’s of and on, they r fun, and grinding is part of it..if u dont like it u dont play them ..BUT ..when a western mmo comes out ..that looks feels and by all intent and purposes is totaly Western ..you dont expect to have Eastern style grinding required to get anywhere in terms of loot. I know its no where near as bad (or good if u like it) as most Korean MMO rng drop rates. .but its still worse than what most western mmo’s r like. I cant help but think its down to you cash shop Anet ..make it hard to make gold ..make it hard to get lot ..and you make people buy ingame gold with RL money so they can buy their gear..thats just plain wrong, and is just a masked P2W style mmo…they inevitably end up falling flat on their face.

Anyway that concludes my wallo’text. ..i mean Feedback

The Noctua NH-D14 would be as good if not better than the H80 tbh. But i supose that costs more than $90 in America ? not to mention the fact its HUGE ..and would requir some research to make sure the pc case could fit it and the RAM is short enough.

I think a title for completing X amount of times would be good ..1 completion is easy. 100 ..that would take a while since even those of us who can do it relativly easily now, would fail every now and then.

What would the title be ..dunno tbh ..somthing that indicate that we dont WHINE LIKE CRAZY! when somthing that even hints at being hard comes along

Who ever said the i7 920 at 3.6ghz wont bottleneck in GW2 WvWvW is lieing or is going by theory.

Even the most powerfull cpu out.. the 3960X ..at 5ghz. .cant run a proper WvWvW battle with 70+ people at 60fps. The games engine isnt optimized enough.

the best results iv seen is 45fps. And thats with a cpu like my own ..3930k with OC anywhere from 4.6ghz to 4.8ghz. A 2500k 2700k and 3570k OC’d to around the same could get the same amount of FPS. But a 920 at 3.6ghz ..not a chance.

FYI usuage doenst need ot be 100 to be bottlenecked. .GW2 uses 2 to 3 main threads for its performance. .meaning you will NEVER see 100% usage if you have more than a 4 threaded cpu, however the threads that are used will be bottlenecked ..for example my 3930k has 12 threads. .once my usuage reaches around 25% , its bottlenecked ..and that is how it work ingame ..FPS is susualy fine till usuage hit 25% then fps drops.

My mouse is rather old and in need of a replacment tbh..which ill be getting next year but…probably a Cyborg RAT MMO7 (by MadCatz)

Logitech G5,
I got the side buttons (2 to be exact) set for auto run, and dodge. No problems since launch.

Indeed 30fps is ‘normal’ for this game.

its likely your 295 GTX is maxing out ..try lower graphics settings when you see 30 FPS to see if the FPS increases, if it does.. then its your GPU slowing you down.. if it doesnt. .then its likely your CPU is slowing you down.

Short answere No.

however Anet does say they are working to reduce perfomance issues. The problem is that requirs reworking the game engine ..which is no easy task. So it will take a while.

I think its highly unlikly they will ever get performance to be good with their current advertised minimum specs.

i hate to tell you this after you already pruchased GW2. but.

You computer will strugle.

The minimum requirments are woefully inaccurate, and even the recommended are ‘ambitious’ at best.

Your best bet is to just try it. if it doesnt work to an acceptable level then Anet shouldnt have a problem refunding you the money as the performance issue is very well known.

Just to give you an idea. 2gb isnt enough ..you need 4gb minimum in all honesty. secondly a 4 core 4 thread CPU at 3ghz is really the minimum you need and it has ot be Intel and up to date (so a old Core 2 Extreme 4core CPU wont do well). And finaly atleast a last generation ’gaming GPU. So a 560ti is a good bet ..you can push it and get a 460 ..but you wont have a chance at runing on high settings and deffinatly not on ultra.

I got 2 computers in the house that are used for gaming.. the one im my sig, and my old one which i passed to my father.
Its a Intel C2E QX6850 3.7ghz (OC) cpu, 6gb DDR2 800 RAM, and a OC 460 GPU.
It goes down to 10 FPS in LA with the current halloween patch(main Gw2 city) before hand it was around 15 FPS, and usualy hovers around 20-30 FPS in light PVE on medium/high settings at 1920×1080 res. BIG pve events and WvWvW see FPS drop again down to as low as 10fps ..high’s of 20.
The GPU is rarely maxed out showing that even a C2E QX6850 3.7ghz OC is bottlenecking the system.

Not sure if you can do this on ur laptop but.
Check nvidia control panel ..go to Adjust desktop color scheme.

Set Digital color format
Change it from RGB to YCbCr444

I do this and find that colors are much more ‘solid’ ..not washed out ..blacks are black ..whites are white ..etc.
Oh and YES it does affect games not just your desktop.

if that doesnt work .try adjusting the digital color vibrance and/or contrast.

I got this during the ‘one time event’ in the middle of LA when the Madking 1st broke through. Had people around me being culled even though my FPS was easily 35-45 which means there was no reason to cull anything ..maybe if i droped to 15 or 20 fps then it could start culling. But i want that option myself.. I want control of the cull distance.

120hz Monitors r for >NON< mmorpgs (i..e FPS, RTS, racing, Action games, etc) ….where you need those higher fps limits for super smooth and super fast responses. .like for example battlefield 3 ..higher framerates are a godsend when playing multiplayer.

MMORPG’s only really benifit from higher resolutions ..NOT 120hz ..becouse bassicaly ..you dont NEED those super fast framerates.
However making everything look REALLY crisp ..is always nice ..MMORPG’s are all about the world ..so the better it looks ..the better the immersion.

So bassicaly

MMORPG = Super HD 1600p
‘Most’ other Genre = 120hz

i’ll personaly be changing from a single 60hz 42" Plasma TV to ether:
a) Single 30-40" 1600/1440p 120hz
or
b) 3x 20-30" 1600/1440p 120hz

But like i said ..atm you cant get both 120hz native and 1600p or 1440p. So ill have ot wait.
ofcourse if im lucky some company may bring out option c:

C) Single ‘Curved’ Screen,Super Widescreen, Super HD, 7680 × 1600, 120hz, 2ms or less, Gaming Monitor :P

but thats highly unlikly anytime soon.

Here is my personal opinion.

1) I cant stand ghosting/shadowing .which LCD/LED/IPS monitors can suffer from.. so the quiker the response time the less likelyhood of ghosting. You can get 2 monitors with 2ms resposne time and have a difference in ghosting amounts, but in generaly ..the quiker the better.

2) 120mhz is GREAT …IF…. you play alot of non MMORPG games. MMO’s dont really need 120mhz ..not even in pvp ..since ‘skill’ and response isnt the main decider ..gear ..class …skills ..spec ..rng ..etc ..are usualy the highest modifiers of the licklyhood of wining.loosing.

3) Super HD is better than 120mhz ..specialy for non PVP. And specialy if you can sustain 50-60 fps ALL the time (GW thats not possible in WvWvW .buts thats not due to the GPU so high res is fine). So a 1440p and 1600p single screen would be great for GW2 imo..3 of them even better.

Unfortunalty from my research you can NOT get both 120hz AND 1440p or 1600p mintors atm. And if you can its likely they are not very big ..even the 60hz1600p/1440p monitors out now are only 30".

Anyway .food for thought.

Unfortunatly when it comes to issues like this its down to software (normaly). Trouble shooting is the only way to fix it and its long winded.

Make sure all programs except Windows and GW2 are running ..see if that helps. Try completly removing all display drivers and re installing. (unlikely but you could try..)reinstalling GW2.
Finaly after all other possiblities are expended ..you could do a complete system format, that deffinatly remove any possiblity that its a problem with your software. bassicaly start from fresh with windows + drivers + G2 and nothing else. If it still does it.. then its possibly a bug with GW2 ..or a simple hardware incompatability issue.

In all honesty ..you should know (if your a gamer) that minimum requirments should be ignored. use recommended as minimum (as in you can run it .thought not well).

The advertised requirments are always set low for marketing purposes.

It could posisbly be a compatabilty issue. Old cards ..new board.
IIrc those cards were out when PCI-e v1.0 and 1.1 were mainly in use.

A GPU upgrade will increase your FPS ..no doubt. BUT as others have stated, the I3 processor you got will quikly be the next bottleneck. However since you only just got it, getting a new GPU is still a fine idea.

if you get a 560.. make sure its a 560ti ..the ti is much betetr than the standard 560. getting a factory OC’d 560ti is also a good idea. They are wicked cards and can handle GW2 perfectly fine ..up to a point. As you can see in my sig i use a 560ti, i wont be upgrading till the 700 series of Geforce cards come out next year.

Ok BIG problem here m8.

you REALLY should NOT use a game to test stability of a OC. You have no idea how dangerous that is, not testing a OC properly could cause it to overheat when it is taxed.

What you need to do is download a program called Prime95. Once you have a OC sorted. .like the 4ghz one. Run Prime95 on a custom blend test (set RAM usage to 2gig under the amount you have) for 12 hours for maximum assurance on stability. 6hours for ‘fair’ assurance.
Whilst that is running make sure you have a temperature monitoring program running. Keep an eye on temps for the 1st hour. Aslong as they dont go over 75c or 80c depending on ur preference, you can then leave the program runnign for the required time.

If the program shows ANY erros, your OC is unstable, if the computer BSOD’s (blue screen of death), your OC is HIGHLY unstable. If it completes the test without any issues you can then (if you so chose) try to lower the voltages for even better temperatures.

note errors and/or BSOD’s usualy mean you dont have enough voltage goign to the cpu. Increasing in 0.005 or 0.010 increments is advised.

Your using an internal GPU ..which is highly not recommended for gaming. it’s likely this a an issue caused by said internal GPU. How to fix it ..well tbh i dontk now ..its likely a driver issue. have you tried different drivers versions ? I know you said you have them up to date ..but have you tried older drivers?

The 5670 is a little worse than a nvidia 9800M GT ..which is an OLD laptop card. I think you should most definatly update your GPU specialy since the rest of your rig is pritty much up to date baring a simple cpu OC which i also sugest you do to get the most out of it.

Use the website below to compare GPU performance
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

AIDA 64 is brilliant BUT i highly recommend Prime95 ..it stresses harder and is free ..unlike Aida 64.

Secondly ..i wouldnt start of a t4.2ghz The ivybridge processors have a tendancy to suddenly burst in to flames (not literaly) once they hit their threshold.

personaly i would run Prime95 for an hour at stock settings ..check temps ..then depending on what happens at stock ..i would kick it up 100mhz at a time ..increasing voltage as neccesery till itstarts getting close to 75 or80c depending on how safe you want to play it.
The 3570k turbos up to 3.8ghz anyway..so make sure its runnign at 3.8ghz when you test stock temps. Then move to 3.9ghz ..then 4ghz ..etc

You would have to go to an Intel CPu for good GW2 WvW performance. .problem is that means a new motherboard for you. Since its a laptop..cpu upgrades are rare ..cpu+ motherboard dman near impossible.

You will need to buy a new laptop. Even better idea would be to buy a desktop.

Ignor minimum requirments on all games. Always take recommended as the minimum. Even then take it with a pinch of salt becouse chances are you wont get great performance…specialy in the case of GW2

the i5 3320 is a 3.3ghz when in Turbo is it not ? Its also only 2 core. .but it has hyperthreading so its got 4 threads which is the minimum you need for GW2 in all honesty.

In which case the spec Delta has posted should be fine. Im no expert on Laptop Graphics cards, and i was going by High or above settings in terms of the 570m and 670m. However if you ok with those medium settings then from the looks of those fps in LA, a 640m would be acceptable.

You need a dedicated graphics card. You also need 3ghz minimum with intel cpu.
Somthing along the lines of a 570m or 670m graphics

Done it about 5 times. All vendor trash ..no exotics ..no rares ..nothing of value.

Anet is there anything else besides the chest and the drops from the mad king himself in the instance ???

Becouse if there isnt ..then ..well ..whats the point ? No achievment ..rewards suck.

I had to solo the kitten thing as a guardian becouse of the bugs when trying to group ..took for ever .died a good handfull of times. Having next to no money i was wearing level 70 armor ..had an 80 GS ..and thats it ..Just a GS lol. Took a long a*s time :P

Was hoping for somthing good ..its the mad king afterall ..but ..nothing ..just crap thats gotta be vendored for next to nothing.

I wont bother putting more pics up but.

I run a 42" plasma TV ..and this makes GW2 look much butter. It looks less flat and more 3D like.

Infact with a big screen you could go further imo. But this works fine for now

No offense but thats not a walkthrough.. thats just another 1 of loads of vids of completing it.

if it was a walkthrough it would be slowed down ,,paused in places ..with commentary telling people what to look out for ..and giving tips etc.

Anyway GJ completling it , welcome to the club

Already posted here but.

I have now also done it on my Warrior Human male 1st try

And just for kicks ..done it on a lvl 4 Asura necro on 3rd try.

Completed it in total about 15 times.

I just went in again with my lvl 4 asura just to prove to those threads saying asura have it hardest.

Done it on 3rd attempt. There were even 7 male norn/char in the group

1st time only today gotta get back in the swing of it :P

I just went onto my lvl 4 Asura (with smallest body buld)

joined a group in the clock tower ..there were about 7 Male norn and char.

Took 3 tries.

So ..no more whinning if your asura ..perfectly doable

Once you complete it 1 time ..you will find it easier the next. and then easier the next ..and so on.

1st time i done it , it took me a good number of attempts ..maybe 20ish.
2nd time around, about 8 i belve it was
3rd time 5
4th time 2
5th time done it 1st try
6th 1 try
7th 2 tries
8th 2 tires
9th 2 tries
10th 1 try
11th 1 try
So keep it up and you will eventually be able to farm it (for the ToT bags)

Be at ease Efaicia ..i can confirm that its becouse YOU failed

other people have done it in the exact same circumstances as you. So keep trying

@ Account

Watch this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eCzRcwXJE8

nuf said

You know alot of comments(not only in this thread) mention how this JP was designed for a minority of highly skilled people aka ‘elitists’. Which not only isnt true it also points out one thing that many ‘normal’ people seem to completly miss(or dont wish to hear or accept).

The standard of skill in the ‘average’ MMORPG player is considerably lower than that of say 12 or so years ago and even by todays low standards is still lower than people who dont tend to play MMORPG’s much if atall and instead play singleplayer games and/or ‘proper’ multiplayer PVP games.

It is a FACT that MMORPG’s tend to be much easier to play than many other genres of games. So when people start b*tching about somthing being hard in an MMORPG, these so called ‘elitists’ can only sit back and laugh becouse you obviosly have no clue what ‘hard’ is for what ever reason ..be it ..camera ..crowds ..layout..speed..etc etc.

So stop whining and go try some more till you complete it >.<

Dacooli ..there are some ..you included it seems ..who are having some odd performance issues tbh. I remember trying to help out in one of ur posts and nothing we tried seemed to help. There is obviosly somthing causing your issue. But others have run the game fine with the 680 and the 2500k. The only possible thing i can think of off the top of my head is that your FPS difference in WvW vs mine could just be down to those 400mhz difference in CPU clock speed. “shrugs”

Anyway im just basing my advice of the ‘average’ performance. there will always be those times when thigns just go wrong.

This site has good comparisons on ‘overall’ performance on each card.

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

I would go with the 560ti imo. Though i’ve always stuck to Nvida so i guess im bias :P

EDIT: bassicaly anyhing above 3160 points on that site is good for GW2 on Max settings native sampling ..with FPS betwen 45 and 60 when the CPU can keep up.
Anything above 4200 points should be able to max GW2 out and ‘possibly’ super sampling and not drop below 60fps unless the CPU is bottlenecked (like WvWvW)

yes that also happens Krag ..good point