Guild Wars 2

In dungeons, most of the time I run a 0/0/30/30/10 AH build with Knight’s GS and armor, Berserker trinkets. For tough stuff, sometimes I swap in some Soldier’s stats gear or trinkets, but usually I go with Knight’s.

I often use staff as my second weapon, with a sigil of energy. I use it primarily for Empower, and to maybe get an extra dodge roll in when I swap to it.

Up until now, I have been using a rare quality Magi’s staff (P/V/H). I’d like to upgrade it, but I’m in a quandary about which one to get. I’ve read somewhere that Healing Power on a single piece of gear is kind of a waste — that it needs to be stacked to make much difference. True? Untrue? Maybe I should go Knight’s on the staff, too? Maybe something else? Any suggestions?

Thanks

wedo.3049:

…but its failed the 30 ppl that play spvp …

Last count, there were only 29.

Zosk.5609:

Also, nobody believes you when you say you love sitting in the same spot doing the same thing all day. Sorry…

They didn’t do this out of spite, or just to punish bots…

1. It is a ‘catch-all’ for problems with the game when people find ways to farm loot more efficiently than others, which is bound to happen in a game this size. It prevents any one exploit from being exploited too much.

2. Also despite your claim you love doing this…they know that players will have more fun and play longer if they do a variety of things. But, if you give them extra carrots they will do the same thing over and over…. and declare the game boring (even if it is unfairly!). Thus, DR short circuits this issue as well by taking away the extra carrots….

Sorry, but some players do love to farm. In many games I’ve played, I sometimes enjoy doing a bit of mindless farming while I chat with guildies on TS/Vent/Mumble, or perhaps while returning phone calls, or even watching TV. It’s something I can do, in game, without having to be 100% on my “A game.” It’s a fun way to play casually, and in the right game, can be profitable.

As to what’s fun and what’s not, that should be my decision, and not the devs. I don’t need game designers (or anyone else, for that matter) to dictate to me what “fun” is. I can figure that out on my own. I don’t mean to come across as prickly or defensive, but I see that rationale used a lot, not just in this game, but in several I’ve played.

Given the way ANet personnel watch TP prices, and supply and demand for things like precursors, ectos, T6 mats, etc., it’s hard to believe they don’t have deeper motives for DR than just funneling players toward “fun gameplay.” I don’t claim to fully know what factors went into designing DR the way it is, but I imagine controlling “the game economy” to be a “not-insignificant” factor.

DR has minimal to no effect on botters, who farm by teleporting underground to resource nodes, and selling what they harvest. Since DR does not affect resource node harvest, it’s of no consequence to people who bot. DR, as it is implemented presently, is far more effective for preventing regular players from farming.

The only workaround I’ve found for DR in open-world PVE is to switch characters, though even that sometimes doesn’t seem too effective. If I quit playing for several days altogether, it sometimes seems to reset, though.

As to dungeon DR, either I’ve never experienced it, or my DR is somehow switched on permanently. I’ve never looted anything of any consequence in a dungeon; mostly just blues and occasional greens. So it’s hard to say. Dungeon running, for me, is really about collecting tokens and making a little cash.

As to the question of MF accelerating DR, I can’t say — I’ve never used MF in this game.

A box, probably empty, but has a .001% chance to contain a Porous Bone.

LinkR.6190:

Diablo was sort of.. pun not intended here, “unique” in its use of the word. In MMOs however, it is widely accepted as the meaning of an item that you may only equip one of. While personally I think it is rather obvious, I can see how it might come off as something of a surprise to people without an extensive history of MMO background. There should really be a warning prompt when purchasing unique items in the same way some games warn you the item will bind to your character when purchased.

dobran.8104:

They should mention it in a tooltip or such :/

They did. The word “unique” within the tooltip. It’s a lame excuse, but there was a warning given, albeit a rather subtle one.

I’ll cross my fingers for you. Hope you can find a resolution.
Protip: don’t be too aggressive for them to fix it. Don’t spam reports if you get impatient like some people do. That will only slow the process down and likely just put you back at the bottom of the queue.

GW1 used the word “unique” differently.

Sadly, dailies are pretty much all I do anymore. I log in, do my daily, log off. My thought is that if the game gets interesting/fun again, I will have some laurels saved up.

The simplest, and most logical fix? Remove the “unique” feature altogether. Seriously, do they really think it would be game breaking for a player to have two rings/earrings with the same upgrade — of a few measly stat points each?

/boggle

EvilParfait.7538:

But don’t say, “It’s all friendlists fault because they can see where you are and add you without your consent.”

I don’t think anyone here is suggesting that the blame lies on ANet. I see this thread as a request for a couple of simple changes to the friend list functionality that would make the game a less “stalker-friendly” place.

nekitten234:

Spiral Architect.6540:

The insensitivity in this thread is staggering. Stalkers DO use whatever means they can to “keep tabs” on people, including monitoring game log-ins through friend lists.

To those of you who feel the OP is just being “paranoid,” if you ever got stalked, you’d change your tune — in a hurry.

“Sensitive” thing being what? QQing and asking welfare <something> to help you … or just deal with it — there are few good tips about that in this thread.

Sorry for the ranty answers, but all that talk about being “sensitive” is just dumbing down of the general population (male and female alike) into drones who ends up expecting that their problems must be solved by the “higher powers” without even trying to do anything about it.

And, in case that’s not clear — if one I know (or me) gets into trouble like that … well, enough is to say that would be stalker will be dealt with one way or another — real “sensitive” persons help others not QQ and standing by waiting for someone else to go and help them. And, no I’m not aggressive type going around trying to pick fights, but sometime ignoring and turning away is not a solution but main problem …

I’m not sure how you got all that from my post, to be honest. QQ’ing? Welfare? All I’m suggesting is that:

1) the current UI is making it too easy for players to be tracked — even by people they don’t want to be tracked by.

2) The suggestion that some players might not feel safe because of #1 seems to be engendering a lot of negative reaction.

I described that negative reaction as “insensitive.” Why? Because if you, or someone you care about, were victimized by stalking behavior, you might have a different attitude. But not being able (or willing) to see that this could potentially be a problem for some people, strikes me as rather callous and insensitive.

Mirta.5029:

Spiral Architect.6540:

The insensitivity in this thread is staggering. Stalkers DO use whatever means they can to “keep tabs” on people, including monitoring game log-ins through friend lists.

To those of you who feel the OP is just being “paranoid,” if you ever got stalked, you’d change your tune — in a hurry.

I would change my account -_-

And that would most likely do the trick. But what of the person who has multiple 80’s on their account, with exotics/ascended, lots of achievements, etc.? Isn’t it a better solution for ANet to tweak their UI a bit, and include the option to appear offline to those on the “blocked” list? And to provide a way to log in “invisible?”

It seems obvious to me.

Edit: oops, sorry — cross-posted with Tolmos.

The insensitivity in this thread is staggering. Stalkers DO use whatever means they can to “keep tabs” on people, including monitoring game log-ins through friend lists.

To those of you who feel the OP is just being “paranoid,” if you ever got stalked, you’d change your tune — in a hurry.

Tolmos.8395:

ZenonSeth.5739:

What I’m talking about is the harassment not of you per-se, but that of your digital character in a virtual world where the person stalking you has absolutely no means of obtaining your personal information (or they shouldn’t if ANet has done their job which I believe they have), or harming you (or your character) in any way.

Who cares about your character? They can see that you are on GW2 and effectively know exactly what you are doing at that moment. That also gives them a pretty solid guess of where your current physical location is at.

A girl who plays GW2 with a violent ex-bf who plays GW2 and is stalking her and trying to catch her when she is home will likely be getting a knock on the door not long after she logs on. The only option atm is for her to just not log on, losing yet 1 more thing in her life she enjoys because the current system favors the stalker.

This. ^^

Telling people to “ignore them” or to “get over it” is at least pretty insensitive, and potentially even dangerous. Online stalking, even in MMO’s, is a very real problem. With a few minor tweaks, ANet could do a lot to make their virtual world a safer place to hang out.

Majora.6028:

You people are overly dramatic and ridiculous. Don’t go around being rude to everyone, and you won’t have to worry about anyone “stalking” you, as you put it.

I’ve got well over 1300 hours in this, and I’ve yet to have someone watching me, and the second I come online send me a mail and harass me.

Why would I want to log in “offline”? I’m online, get over it.

Online stalking, in mmo’s and otherwise, is very real, and should not be dismissed or minimized; it’s not “overly dramatic,” nor is it “ridiculous.” If it ever happened to you, I imagine you’d understand.

Stalking is definitely griefing, and IMO, ANet should make a few tweaks to the UI here.

I logged on today with 100 laurels, did my daily, and got one more. Currently at 101.

Vayne.8563:

As far as I know, Champions are programmed to drop blue or higher.

Yes, this is what Colin Johansen said when he posted his “loot update” on 2/18, here:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Update-on-Loot-Drops-Investigation

The problem with this, in my view, though, is that it’s a boring, uninspired, unimaginative way to handle loot. A guaranteed blue? Really? That doesn’t make a champ very enticing to fight. A chance at a unique weapon skin — even a small chance — does make a champ very enticing to fight. If champ mobs had a slight chance to drop something really cool, that could not be found anywhere else but from killing a champ mob, people would not avoid them the way they do now.

Ideas for unique champ mob drops? Weapon/armor skins, mini-pets, town clothes, musical instruments, everlasting tonics, novelty mounts (with no speed boost), or — gasp — a named exotic item that can’t be found anywhere else. And that’s just a few ideas.

And to prevent champ mob farming? Make them spawn randomly.

At release, Orr was doable, but completely annoying. Then, they nerfed it, and it got a lot more tolerable. Once we got used to that, they ramped it up again with all the champ mobs running around in the DE’s. As a result, Orr is annoying again.

It’s entirely possible to make challenging, difficult, fun content without relying on cheap, lazy, annoying mechanics like stuns, snares, knockdowns, and absurd mob health pools. Perhaps someday…

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

Diviner.7405:

In order to increase you chances of succeeding, you have to make sure everyone that doing it completely understand what the heck is going on. Communication is key.

This is the correct answer. Guild content is about coordination. If you truly work together, you don’t need nearly as many people to complete this content.

Coordination is good, but it has limited value in dealing with poorly implemented content. See the posts above regarding Sottz and Komali, for example.

As others have said, re-roll.

In the long run, it’s good to have a stable of 80’s of different professions available to play. That way, when the profession you’re currently playing gets nerfed (and it will), you’ve got others to fall back on.

I’ve used this strategy with good success in several games, but nowhere has it been as worthwhile as with GW2.

The best place to farm? Not in Tyria.

morrolan.9608:

I dunno why they just don’t put them in the gem shop either. Its made for that type of thing.

Because they make FAR more money by making it a gamble.

Regarding dungeon difficulty, I’d have to agree with the OP, in regard to the “stupid, senseless way [dungeons are] made difficult”. For example, fighting a mob with a challenging mechanics or AI is, in my opinion, interesting and fun. Fighting a mob (or groups of mobs) that repeatedly knock down, immobilize, and/or leash players just feels cheap. When I’ve burned all my stability skill cooldowns, and I still can’t get up off the floor to fight, it isn’t all that hard or difficult, it’s just frustrating. Getting one-shot into downed state and knocked across the room into a red AoE circle where I can’t rez myself and neither can anyone one else isn’t difficult. It’s just frustrating. And there’s far too much of that style of mechanic in GW2 dungeons, in my opinion.

In other games, I regularly played hard modes of dungeons, and liked them. It’s good fun to get the “A game” on, and go take on a real challenge. From time to time, though, I like to run more relaxed, less challenging dungeons, and that’s also fun. I think GW2 could benefit a lot from having a couple of tiers of difficulty in dungeons, with scaling rewards. I doubt I’m alone in that opinion.

And speaking of rewards, dungeon rewards are just pretty dismal. Yeah, I know it’s not just about the loot, but seriously — vendor trash (blues) for boss rewards? Meh. But I guess that’s where the game developers want it to be, as it’s pretty much a reflection of loot in general in this game. It’s pretty uninspiring.

So, we’ve got frustrating, tedious dungeon mechanics, plus poor loot. Is it any wonder that people run CoF1 over and over again, and stay away from so many other dungeons and paths?

I don’t think it’s too late for GW2, but it’s going to take some design overhaul to retain players.

Nope. I don’t want one.

I like my plain ol’ weapons. They get the job done just fine.

Not wanting a legendary saves me from a lot of grind + RNG silliness.

His mailbox might be too full?

IIRC, there’s a limit to how many pieces of mail you have showing. If he deletes a few, it will probably show up.

Euryon.9248:

In 878 hours, my highest ever gold total has been 21 in the bank, because I’m constantly having to spend it to buy rare or exotic gear for my L80 alts.

It’s been about the same for me. I heard someone in voice chat the other night say they were contemplating buying a second commander tag. I can’t imagine even one.

Vayne.8563:

I get one or two a week. Got a decent exotic named bow day before yesterday. Usually they’re just the regular unnamed exotics though.

OP, how often do you get rares?

since the “loot fix” of a few weeks ago, I probably get one rare per day, not including what I get from world event chests. Prior to that, I got perhaps one rare every two weeks.

asperbianca.3196:

I would be more inclined to buy town clothes if:

- It didn’t take inventory space to store unused town clothing

This. It’s been mentioned a few times elsewhere, but they could probably sell a LOT more fluff, if they gave us a way to store it. A town clothes locker would be a good start.

A group of guildies and I were running some dungeons last night, and got to talking about exotic drop rates. Pretty much the experience everyone (except me) has had is that they get about 1-3 exotic drops per week. Sometimes none, sometimes one or two, even multiples in a given day. But about 1-3 per week.

What’s my experience? I’ve had one exotic drop for me since release. One. It was a level 78 berserker amulet, and it dropped from the chest at the end of one of the Wintersday instances. That’s it. I’ve gotten exotics from higher-end zone completion rewards, but I’m not counting those. Everyone gets those, just for completing the zone. I’m only counting random drops, chest drops, world event boss chests, etc. Anyway, when I relayed my drop rate experience to my guildies, they were shocked.

I’ve got 3 level 80’s and a few alts in the mid-30’s. I run world events regularly, I do dungeons, lots of DE’s etc. So it’s not that I’ve been playing since release but just hanging around LA. I’ve gotten out there a lot. Just only that one exotic drop.

So, I’m curious, GW2-ers, what is your experience with the frequency of exotic drops?

Before people chime in here and label this thread as “just another whiny loot post,” I enjoy this game for lots of reasons, and I’m not a “it’s all about the loot” player. Sure, I’d love to get better drops, but it doesn’t ruin the game for me.

I’m just curious.

Google G.I.F.T. (Greater Internet Kittenwad Theory) for a quasi-sociological take on what the OP is about.

I’ve had only one drop, ever. That was from the chest at the end of one of the Wintersday instances. And I play a lot.

I have never gotten daily credit for DE vets, even if I solo them. I have a couple of spots for non-DE vets that I go hit.

No. The only benefit to players of a level cap increase would be extra trait points to play with — and that would just create more profession balancing headaches. There are enough problems with balance as the game stands now.

Add to that the obsolescence of current gear, and having to start over with a vertical grind, and it ends up just being a big PITA to players.

So, no.

I don’t RP either, but the last 3 MMO’s I’ve played, I ended up on RP servers. In my experience, the communities on RP servers tend to be more mature, helpful, and cooperative.

Rez.2578:

Spiral Architect.6540:

Rez.2578:

<snip> …or20/25/15/0/10 with all the adrenaline traits.

Interesting. Are you thinking something like this?:

Strength 20 (V, IX)
Arms 25 (V, X)
Defense 15 (I)
Tactics 0
Discipline 10 (II)

Yeah but Discipline (V) and never use burst abilities so you always have max Adrenaline. Also Defense VI if your group uses Scale Venom for 100% weakness on bosses.

I respecced to this build last night. I’ve been running some dungeons and DE’s with it, and for an inexpensive build, it’s pretty sweet. Ruby orbs are cheap, so for a new 80 warrior, this is a good way to go.

Rez.2578:

<snip> …or20/25/15/0/10 with all the adrenaline traits.

Interesting. Are you thinking something like this?:

Strength 20 (V, IX)
Arms 25 (V, X)
Defense 15 (I)
Tactics 0
Discipline 10 (II)

cdsmith.1072:

Jason King.2647:

Hey everyone, I’m here to help clear up some of the confusion on this issue!

First, our apologies for the inaccurate response: your system clock does not affect your loot drops (sorry, conspiracy theorists). We’ve corrected this information for future responses.

If you’re not receiving loot from a champ/vet, it’s most likely because you’re not getting kill credit. We’re currently working on some improvements to this so that it will be easier to get rewards when you kill a creature.

Thank you for bringing this up!

This is exactly what I thought was happening. There were HUGE problems with kill credit for daily events at the start of GW2. Then we had big problems with getting experience from kills in a group. The loot drops issue is just another ‘credit’ issue. Somehow people are not getting credit for the kill or the assist so no loot.

It can be clearly seen when they have the kill 5 Veterans daily event. It usually takes me killing 15 to 20 veterans (many of the SOLO!) before I get credit for 5. Even on those 5 I only get a drop once or twice.

I know the idea is to keep people from leaching off of others but the way it is done now is punishing people that are playing. It is a hard line to balance but I am sure they will get it fixed eventually.

I wish I shared your optimism. Remember this, from the “Share your data about perceived drop behavior” thread?:

ColinJohanson.2394:

Just wanted to give a quick update on this topic. We’ve completed verifying every update from the november release, and there were zero changes to anything what so ever that would have negatively affected loot in any way/shape/form. We can officially confirm this as an X-files level conspiracy at this point.

We’re in the midst of evaluating every loot table in the game and running massive random roll evaluations table by table, as well as evaluating every system game wide that causes a player to qualify for items to determine if any issues exist in those systems from launch.

Will update again when we have another round of concrete information.

Whenever there are loot or DR issues brought up in these forums, they are met wth either silence or dismissiveness.

I’m not sure the folks at ANet have any inkling of what happens in their game.

tolunart.2095:

I can’t get dodge to increment, it seems to happen at random but doesn’t register when I actually try to dodge in combat. So if it shows up as a requirement for the daily, I know that I won’t be able to complete it.

Roll a thief. Go swimming, and learn all your spear skills. Skill #5, Shadow Assault, evades on attack. Use that skill to kill aquatic mobs, and you’ll finish your dodge daily in a few minutes.

Name: The Nerfbat
Type: 2H mace
Skin: a large, “nerf orange” baseball bat. When struck with it, players get a dark cloud graphic over their heads, with a thunderstorm graphic, plus the permanent loss of a useful skill or effect.

Sorry, this is a “dev only” weapon.

Name: The De-Arr
Type: One-handed sword
Skin: Classic longsword
Effect: A simple bluish glowing effect that stops glowing as soon as a player’s DR kicks in; at that point the sword turns jet black.
Reason: Because that would be about the most useful legendary skin in the game.

Just killed 2 champs and about a dozen vets in Orr. No loot at all on the champs. About 75% of the vets had loot: 1 green, a few blues, mostly porous bones.

Thanks for the replies, everyone. I’ve decided to eventually finish leveling it, but only after my alts get the crafting done that they need.

Well, heck. That’s kind of disappointing. When I played WoW, my tailor/enchanter was a good moneymaker for me — same thing when I played Rift (outfitter/runecrafter).

I guess in GW2, it’s not even worthwhile to skill up to make and sell bags?

Warning: crafting noob content below.

As I was leveling my mesmer, I also leveled tailoring to about 225-ish. I didn’t go any further with it because the price of fine mats was steeper than I could easily afford. So I ended up finishing leveling via Personal Story and zone completion.

So, now I have a half-finished tailor, and I’m wondering if it’s worthwhile for me to finish leveling to 400? or not? Of course, I realize “worthwhile” is a highly subjective term, but I wonder what others out there think about the matter? Is there anything that high-level tailoring is going to do for me that make it desirable?

I’m already geared in exotics, and happy with the skins I have, etc.

Thanks for any input.

Not trying to be negative here, but I would prefer they eliminate MF altogether, eliminate DR, and fix the drop rates. Simple is often best.

Thomassassinate.9370:

Warrior pro. Lots of weapons slightly more damage con can die alot easier than a guardian otherwise its just a guardian.

Mesmer interesting class but very boring to play least in my opinion. Greatsword is totally boring on a mesmer especially.

That’s one opinion. I have an 80 warrior and an 80 mesmer, and I find the mesmer to be way more interesting to play. Different strokes.

Iruwen.3164:

Make Signet of Inspiration give only Swiftness and Vigor out of combat, problem solved.

^

This right here. Every profession needs something like this, IMO.

I hope raids are never implemented in this game. Raids are divisive and exclusive, and are the perfect breeding ground for drama in guilds. I’ve seen raiding (and the elitist attitudes it creates) tear guilds apart, and turn friends against one another, across multiple games.

And when you get down to it, raiding success is all too often due to learning the choreography — “when the boss does X, everyone run to this corner; when the boss does Y, get behind this pillar.” Bleh…

I would FAR rather see more interesting and diverse open world content.

Although it’s not a huge issue, I wish we were able to move the skills around.

I’d like to be able to put similar skills on the same keybind across all weapon types, and across all characters.

For example: all gap closers go on one keybind, defensive cooldowns on another, etc.

That would be a big help, IMO.

Sylv.5324:

It’s just really frustrating. In my personal experience, most people in this game are nice. They’re nice for holiday dungeons, nice in chat (usually), nice at events, nice in Orr, etc.

But as soon as you get into a dungeon, creeps start arglebargling over everything. I haven’t gotten to do most because I am in a small guild. I have tried some large guilds but there is always some drama type looking to start a fight.

I don’t like dungeons, not because of the mechanics, but because of the folks playing. If I want a legendary, I have to do dungeons. But invariably, the formerly nice friend rages if you fall behind, or he rages if you can’t do massive AOE damage, or he rages over this or that. And that is NOT FUN.

Anet, why did you lock content behind dungeons? Why aren’t there alternate paths for guilds who can’t get steady groups? Pugs are horrible. They’re part of why I quit WoW.

GW1 let us do dungeons. I love GW2 but I miss GW1 so hard right now. I just want my tokens, but I am not up to being yelled at for hours (or yelled around if whoever is screaming or sniping at whatever) because players can’t be nice when playing the stuff you’ve created.

Please go back to giving us alternate ways of getting nice things. I understand that some players get angry when you allow smaller groups of folks alternate ways of doing things, but I don’t want to be yelled at for being slow, new to a dungeon, or because my roomate had to help suddenly clean my quad sweetie’s wound!

^
This. I don’t run dungeons in MMO’s anymore, because it’s just not fun, for all the reasons stated above. And, yeah, in every thread like this one, people chime and and say, “Join a guild…” I’m in a guild, but that doesn’t really help much. Guilds splinter into cliques, guildies get tired of revisiting old material, people move on, etc.

If we had either a) henchmen, or b) scaling of content to group size, I’d run dungeons again – solo. But it’s just not worth it as it is now. My 80 characters aren’t much fun to play, with the current system. So I’ll just level alts until that gets too boring and repetitive, then move on to the next game.

Attended briefly, R/L got in the way, so had to leave. No loot. No email.