Guild Wars 2

You double click the left mouse button on it when you have both the key and the locked chest in your inventory.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Black_Lion_Chest

Also, what “key” symbol are you talking about having dragged the key to?

The key will not get destroyed unless you agree to its destruction by hitting the “yes, destroy it” button on the the pop-up destroy confirmation box that immediately comes up upon trying to destroy something.

3,000 gold would be about 100 kits.
(3,000 gold buys about 25,000 gems @ 120 gold per 1,000 / 250 gems per kit)

3,700 gold would get about 123ish single-use hair kits.
About 30,833 gems at the exchange of 120 gold for 1,000 gems (roughly what it was yesterday when I checked).

edit
Unless I completely screwed that math up. Which I may have.

Players sometimes encounter a stalled download, though normally with only a single file remaining.

I would recommend exiting the launcher window and opening the game again to reactivate the download where it left off.

This is usually a problem that us players must correct on our own.
There are many possible causes for a non-functional BLTP, but the most common solution is to make sure the game is set to run as administrator and to clear the GW2 Game Cache files.

First: Run As Admin

• Close your game completely.
• Right-click your GW2 game shortcut and click on “Properties”.
• On the “Compatibility” tab, check/enable the box at the bottom for your game to “Run As Administrator”.
• Hit OK after making sure this setting is enabled.

Then: Clear the game cache
In addition to ‘Running As Administrator’ helping with many issues other than just the TP, most TP-specific issues are primarily related to some temporary GW2 files where removing them will allow them to be recreated and the TP to function properly again.

The quickest way to clear the GW2 Cache is to:

1. Ensure your game is still completely closed.
2. Hold your “Windows Key” and press “F” to open Windows Search on your computer.
3. Search for “gw2cache” (without the quotations)
4. It will find a folder called “gw2cache-{bunch-of-letters-and-numbers}” at:
   “C:\Users\YourComputerUserName\AppData\Local\Temp”
5. Delete this “gw2cache-{bunch-of-letters-and-numbers}” folder that is shown in the results.
6. Load up your game normally and your TP should now function properly.

If your search for “gw2cache” does not produce the folder I mentioned, then you will need to enable hidden files and folders in order to delete this cache folder.

Make hidden files visible and clear the game cache

1. Close your game completely.
2. Browse your My Computer to: “C:\Users\YourComputerUserName”
3. Then in the window menus, click on “Tools” then “Folder Options…”
4. In the window that pops up, click the “View” tab
5. Select to “Show hidden files, folders and drives” and click ‘OK’ (attached image #1)
6. You should now see a folder in your file listing called “AppData”, open this folder
7. Inside that folder open the “Local” folder
8. Inside that folder open the “Temp” folder
9. You should now see a folder called “gw2cache-{bunch-of-letters-and-numbers}”. Delete this gw2cache folder.
10. Load up your game normally and see if the issue is fixed.

—note—
By “window menus” I mean up at the top of the window where it says “File Edit View Tools Help”. If that bar does not display in your window for you along the top, then click the drop-down arrow next to the word “Organize” and then click on “Layout” and select “Menu bar” to enable showing of the menus (attached image #2).

Another way to do Steps 3, 4 and 5 to make hidden folders visible is:

• Click your Start menu and then open Control Panel
• In your Control Panel, if items are sorted by “Category” then select “Appearance and Personalization” on the right side, then in the second bottom area under “Folder Options” click on “Show hidden files and folders”. This will open the same options dialogue box shown in attached image #1.
• Otherwise, if Control Panel is sorted by Icons, simply click on “Folder Options” from the list to bring up the options dialogue box shown in attached image #1.

What that “sigils of the same type” message means is, you cannot have both a major force and a superior force on the same weapon and get the increased damage from both. It should say of the same “grade” or “rarity” instead of “type”.

The actual “type” restriction is mainly in regards to the stat stacking sigils like accuracy to where you can only gain stacks of a single stat. This means you cannot have an accuracy sigil and a bloodlust sigil on a single weapon and gain stacks for both of those stats upon killing something. If you do have an accuracy and a bloodlust sigil on one weapon, only the dominant/top sigil slot on the weapon will grant the stack and the other is basically wasted.

Also, having two sigils of the actual same type (“name”) does not work. Like having two major sigils of accuracy is basically wasting an upgrade slot since only one of the two will actually function.

NathanH.1465:

That trailer looks promising. But I’m not getting any hopes up, I mean it wouldn’t be the first time we got a great trailer followed by a somewhat disappointing release.

StinVec.3621:

<snip>

Is it a joke?
- At first glance it is a little humorous and you start to chuckle at the absurdity of it.
- Then it really starts to sink in as you visualize it and you start to think…
- “Nah, They wouldn’t do that…would they?”
- Then it hits you that it really isn’t that funny.
- And as your chuckle begins to trail off, you realize that you can actually see this happening.
- Then you find yourself staring at your screen with a single thought pounding in your mind…
- “They might actually do this…”

…

No, the asure will probably discover a ‘fix’ so that the waypoints can’t be used by the vines anymore. Anet will probable require you to go each seperate waypoint and interact with it to fix it. After your finished fixing the last waypoint Trahearne shows up and take credit for fixing all the waypoints . :/

Seriously, Trahearnes life mission was to purify Orr, if he even dares to step one foot outside of Orr, then lets just say that The next story part will involve me as the villain XD

I was reading your reply with the serious kind of speculation it started out with, and I was like “yeah, well, maybe they will do somethi…” – then you smacked me in the head with a big plate of Trahearne out of nowhere and I burst out laughing!

Good post, Nathan, very good post. Thank you, I really needed that.

skullmount.1758:

StinVec.3621:

KarateKid.5648:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/s2/What-is-that-Vine-doing-to-the-WP/4174935

Just sayin…

Indeed. I can see it now:

• Vines spread via waypoint system
• Waypoint system gets taken offline (permanently?) to stop the spread of the vines
• Players must travel everywhere by foot

• New convenience only Gem Store item!
  • Mobile Waypoint Device! 1,000 gems (costs 10 silver per use)
• New cosmetic only Gem Store items!
  • New Mount Designs!
    “Why travel on foot when you can traverse the landscapes in style on your own personal llama, bicycle or wheeled cart?!”
    - Same functionality as the Witch’s Broom and Sonic Tunneling Tool – does not provide any movement speed bonuses.

(I know this is a joke but…)
I’d almost definitely leave the game if they removed the waypoints. Its one of the main reasons why I prefer the GW series of other MMOs. Soo much wasted time while running to places.

Is it a joke?
- At first glance it is a little humorous and you start to chuckle at the absurdity of it.
- Then it really starts to sink in as you visualize it and you start to think…
- “Nah, They wouldn’t do that…would they?”
- Then it hits you that it really isn’t that funny.
- And as your chuckle begins to trail off, you realize that you can actually see this happening.
- Then you find yourself staring at your screen with a single thought pounding in your mind…
- “They might actually do this…”

…

KarateKid.5648:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/s2/What-is-that-Vine-doing-to-the-WP/4174935

Just sayin…

Indeed. I can see it now:

• Vines spread via waypoint system
• Waypoint system gets taken offline (permanently?) to stop the spread of the vines
• Players must travel everywhere by foot

• New convenience only Gem Store item!
  • Mobile Waypoint Device! 1,000 gems (costs 10 silver per use)
• New cosmetic only Gem Store items!
  • New Mount Designs!
    “Why travel on foot when you can traverse the landscapes in style on your own personal llama, bicycle or wheeled cart?!”
    - Same functionality as the Enchanted Broom and Sonic Tunneling Tool – does not provide any movement speed bonuses.

Cakemeister.5792:

I’ll probably pick this up because I could use some of those new boost enchantment powders.

This package has nothing to do with boost enchantment powders unless you are considering the very remote possibility that one (or more) may drop from the 15 chests the keys would open.

If you want the powders then you should probably pick them up on their own as you will be sure to get exactly as many as you want instead of possibly none at all with this package. They would also cost practically nothing (or barely a few gems worth of gold) due to 1 powder costing 10s! No reason to drop 1000 gems on this package for 15 attempts at powders when you can spend 2g 50s and get 25 of them instantly.

I must admit, including the full sets that the used armors came from for comparison really does seem to add to the effect of the mix-n-match set and make them look even more awesome than it does without the comparison images!

Thank you for your posts, Konig Des Todes (your two latest and all others prior)!
I tried to put my frustration and utter disgust at his response into the appropriate words, but I could not.
However, your posts managed it magnificently!
Thank you for your past dedication to the lore and your engaging and intriguing discussions. I’ve truly enjoyed reading your words and thank you for frequently giving me quite a lot to think about.

Lohre.9031:

Has anyone else noticed something strange behind her bookshelf thing? It looks like a tunnel.

Someone posted (I can’t find the post anymore found it) about how the house hadn’t fully loaded up for them when they approached it and they saw a cave behind the bookshelf. Also mentioned speculation on Taimi finding the cave, disappearing, and then our going in search after her. Seems like a possibility as to what may come.

Suggestions go in the most appropriate sub-forum that your suggestion is relevant to.
An item for the gem store? > BLTC Discussion sub-forum.
Something about a dungeon? > Dungeons sub-forum.
etc.
If you can’t find a really good fit, post it to the General Discussion sub-forum.

Might like to include [Suggestion] or [Sug] in your thread title. It isn’t required, but it does help to let ANet (and other people around here) know that it is a suggestion thread.

Omar Aschi Popp.7496:

I would like some side-by-side comparison of a full set of x armor and the mix-match version. Some of these while looking awesome, look like they are part of a set anyway(maybe you’re that good at matching).

Many people really are just that good at coming up with real nice combinations of armor. Many times the armors look “better” in the mixed appearance a player posts than they do with the individual armor sets they came from.

Sites like Argos-Soft already have images of the full armor sets and most posters here are kind enough to follow the encouraged and appreciated behavior of including the names of the sets that the pieces are a part of.

If posters were to include images of the full sets for each individual item used in the mixed images then they could be unnecessarily including 6 or more additional images, one for each piece of armor used in the mixed appearance, that can already be found on armor sites like the one I mentioned.

If you see an appearance you really like, but the poster did not include the names of the sets the armors came from, quoting their post and asking what the names of the armors are is usually quickly followed by that poster (or someone else) responding with the names of the armors used. We’re a really friendly and helpful community.

Celestina.2894:

So I just noticed in the trailer, that base that gets destroyed is the pact base in timberline falls.

Oh, please no…not Timberline Falls!
Turned the beautiful Kessex Hills into a wasteland that still drives me away. I really hope they do not destroy/muck up my favorite of favorite zones!

:\ I wish they would put more effort into opening up new areas instead of insisting on “altering” (read: destroying) the beautiful ones we’ve come to love.

Celestina.2894:

StinVec.3621:

Wow…it’s the exact same giant.
How…disappointing.

My exact thoughts when I see a female human.

flees

haha
Good point. :P

Thanks, skullmount.

Wow…it’s the exact same giant.
How…disappointing.

• Tecktonic
• Melbourne Shuffle

The name “Asura” has been around for a very, very long time and has been used by other games for various characters and by authors for various elements within their stories before ArenaNet decided to use that name for a species in the Guild Wars universe.

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

It is strange, though, that there seems to be quite a bit of GW2 influence on the character designs displayed in that trailer; skritt, grawl, tengu, a bit of kodan. Even some of the sounds seem to be identical (not just similar) to some used in GW2 (bear/arctodus noises for one). Might look into this a bit more.

Only other thing I can think of would be if you changed your in-game language last time you played then it would need to download the files for that language now that you launched your game again.

Did you already download the main patch last week? If so, and if you have not logged in really since that time, then you likely only have 50-80mb to download for the minor fixes they have released since then.

Is your download more than that size already?

“A” is not always accurate due to the Primer frequently bugging.

If you hop over to the bugs forum you will see that it is frequently reported that any food consumed after the initial food will have its standard duration and that only the initial consumed food after activating the Primer will have the duration of the Primer.

So if you consume a different food after the initial food that adopts the Primer duration, don’t be surprised to encounter the bug where:

• The new food has its standard duration
• The Primer remains active, but any remaining time on it is wasted

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

more 24 hours birthday boosters would be nice.

maybe give us 2 sets of 24 hours birthday boosters since it would be our 2nd birthday?

The old birthday boosters still state in the item info that it gives a boost to karma gained when it does not and was apparently not supposed to.

Since they cannot even fix the info on the booster from the first birthday gift in all this time, I’m not really expecting anything special or different to have been thrown together for the second birthday gift – expect more Queen Jennahs to sit worthlessly in a stack in our collections tab.

Then again, I barely used the stuff from the first birthday gift due to lack of usefulness. We could get absolutely nothing for the 2nd birthday and it would be as useful to me as the first birthday present…and I’d be fine with that.

I honestly expected the changes to the Hero Panel to include all dyes on the dye tab to where any dye can be previewed.

Locked dyes would be grayed out and a message would appear stating that the player would need to purchase/unlock locked dyes to then be able to apply the changes were there to be a locked dye in use on the preview.

Could then Right-click > Buy on trading post on the locked dyes.

Why it wasn’t released this way I cannot even begin to guess as it seems quite logical to have done it when they made the changes to the Hero Panel Appearance/Dye tabs.

You need to run your game as admin so it has write access to the file that it needs to keep re-downloading.

If it cannot write to the file it will download the new one each time you start your game until you run it as admin so it can overwrite the file with the updated version.

Run As Admin

• Close your game completely.
• Right-click your GW2 game shortcut and click on “Properties”.
• On the “Compatibility” tab, check/enable the box at the bottom for your game to “Run As Administrator”.
• Hit OK after making sure this setting is enabled.
• Re-launch your game and see if the issue persists.
  It will likely need to do one final download to update the file properly. Any future launches should not have to download the file again.

As long as the character they are bound to has the necessary crafting level to create the combined item, yes.

Binding them prior to combining makes no difference on the end product. The end product will become account bound/soulbound on use after combining them and will have selectable stats.

Mask of the Wanderer ’s price re-evaluated and adjusted down to a more reasonable 150-250 gems instead of the outrageously obscene 500 gem price tag for what it is.

I’ve not seen a bug report thread on this, but it has happened so much that I’m sure devs must be aware of this by now (and even likely have had it happen to them).

I’ve not encountered this issue happening to myself, but ever since Megaserver was introduced I have seen people spawn in dead upon their logging in.

I don’t know if this has something to do with them being placed into a different Megaserver instance than they logged out in and that is causing some kind of placement or de-syncing issue or what, but every 2-3 minutes a dead person appears near the Accountancy Waypoint and it was usually followed by a “Huh? I just logged in how did I die?!” statement.

People have just accepted it happening constantly and immediately hit to respawn at the Accountancy Waypoint nearby to their corpse. However, it has happened so much since Megaserver was introduced that it had kind of become a game to see if people can revive the person before they respawned.

Since this has gone on for so long, many people have long since just ignored the corpses nearby to them since they assume they will just respawn due to it happening so frequently. Though there are others who will initiate the revive if the corpse happens to ‘drop’ within interaction range. Then again, others accidentally start reviving while trying to interact with the bank/merchant/TP NPCs and either revive until the player is alive again or the player respawns, or they intentionally break off reviving to interact with the desired NPC since the player has likely learned to just respawn when this happens to them.

I’ve not seen random corpses spawn elsewhere in Rata Sum, so it seems to be limited to only happening within the immediate commerce block at the Accountancy Waypoint.

Summary:

• Issue – Players logging in dead
• Location – Rata Sum (commerce area at the Accountancy Waypoint)
• Issue Started – When Megaserver was introduced

Ah, I see. I did not understand.
‘Spacebar’ is the default key for ‘Jump’ and not ‘Shift’, so I thought you were looking for a resolution to a soft-binding issue.

I agree with you that the hard-binding of ‘Shift’ for those other, specific functions should be fully reconfigurable, as well as other hard-bound keys for specific functions.

Drawing on your map should be whatever key you want it to be, not what they want you to be forced to use. If someone wants to hold ‘P’, ‘F8’ (or even Mouse3) to begin drawing on the map then they should be able to change that key to what they want no matter what their reasoning may be for wanting to change it.

Another example:
Placing a personal marker on your map requires holding ‘Left Alt’ when placing it, but of the two ‘Alt’ keys I want it to be ‘Right Alt’. The wiki just says “ALT”, but it is actually hard-bound and limited to only ‘Left Alt’, not either/or.

I don’t even use most of those ‘features’ (marker, drawing, many others) anymore because I cannot customize the key used for them. Many games I cannot even play more than a minute before uninstalling and returning/destroying them because they lack some or all customizable key bindings that I wish to reconfigure so I can function efficiently and actually enjoy the game.

Every function should be able to have its key customizable and there is no valid and truthful justification for them to not be.

I currently have “shift” bound to be my jump key. You should have no problem binding it to other actions. Which utility skill slot are you attempting to bind it to that it will not accept it properly?

There is no way to remove it (and other undesired buffs) and we are forced to wait it out until the timer expires.

It had been requested several months ago for a way to cancel/remove buffs, but we had gotten no comment from ANet on the matter so we have no clue if they even know that it is an ongoing issue or if they intend to ever offer the requested option.

What class and gender are you?
That can play a role in what audio you are hearing and help narrow it down.

So far the only thing I can think of that comes close to sounding like that is:
“Body heat, diminished!”
Which is usually after getting ‘chilled’.

Not sure if you are aware of it or not, but zone boss chests are only able to be looted once per daily reset by individual characters. So it is once per day, per character.

If you already looted that boss chest with that character after yesterday’s reset, then it will not be lootable again by that character until after tonight’s daily reset. You can still go defeat the boss and loot the chest on each of your other characters (if you have any) prior to tonight’s reset, and then all can loot it again after tonight’s reset.

So for each zone boss:

• Boss chest: Once per day, per character
• Bonus pop-up chest: Once per day, per account (on a character level 39+)
  (you didn’t mention anything about the bonus chest, just giving additional information)

If there is then it is not on these official forums as petitions are against the rules that players agree to abide by when making their account.

Also, outfits are 700 gems. Just clarifying that. Still very overpriced in my book, considering the amount of negatives and limitations outnumber its positives and benefits.

And to you.

However, you may want to edit your post and include something GW2 related to discuss before your thread gets deleted for not being related to GW2 at all.

Maybe ask if anyone is meeting up today at Meatoberfest (at the Village of Butcher’s Block on the Diessa Plateau) to buy fireworks from the NPC there and set them all off in-game and have a party?

A cookout, fireworks and water balloon fights that range all over the outpost…sounds like a good time! People should come and go as the please, but try to stop by and stay for at least a little while.

Sturmvogel.3491:

Thanks suggestions, tried switching from personal to account-wide achievements, and back again, but that didn’t work either. (not sure how to disable/re-enable the displaying of the rewards?)

My apologies, it seems the character/account displaying is what I was referring to. I thought it was a different toggle wording as it has been a while since I’ve been to the GW1 HoM.

Now that you toggled it to character view and back to account-wide view, you should revisit Kimmes the Historian in the GW2 HoM for it to update the rewards and achievements.

WOW…

Just… wow…

Well, this is another example that verifies that new armors are not sufficiently previewed on the non-human species in the game to look for clipping and appearance issues. And this one is quite the obvious in-your-face issue that may finally lead to their addressing the horrible issues with armor and male sylvari. Hope they also fix the scaling of gloves, shoulders and boots finally so I can once again have a male sylvari that won’t look absolutely ridiculous.

And yes, sales are likely to increase strongly after this becomes widely known. And if/when it does get fixed there will be a lot of threads and support requests wanting a refund since the appearance of the armor/outfit was changed after it was purchased. “Wow” is all I can really think right now.

If you can, in GW1 go to the Hall of Monuments and disable displaying of rewards, then re-enable displaying of the rewards. Then go into GW2 and see if it updates your GW1 HoM achievements.

This should correct the missing title if your GW2 HoM achievements are not currently showing it as having been achieved.

Supporting this report also as it did not count toward my monthly puzzle jumper either.

thefinnster.7105:

prety sure there are extra recipes available at lvl 3

Ah. I didn’t notice. That is quite unfortunate for players for them to have designed it that way, especially considering the recipes are account bound and cannot be acquired from other content or other players/TP.

If you are referencing the shields and icons for your pvp rank, legendary owner and orders you’ve joined, you can hit the arrows to the left or right of it to see them.

If you are aware of this and your request is for the screen to remember what panel you leave it on and when you return to the character select screen it will be on the panel you left it on, then I agree with and support that request.

There are many areas where I wish the game would remember settings of what we last had it set to (especially window positioning like the bank).

thefinnster.7105:

[…]
“…after a few more days this zone will be dead for the most part there will never ever be enough traffic going through this zone to get lvl 3-4 witch essentially puts most of those rewards out of reach for almost everyone.”

My understanding of it is that the items are the same no matter which tier of favor the zone is at, it is just that the higher the tier the less costly the items are to purchase. So the rewards are not out of reach for anyone, even if the zone is completely empty besides yourself, it would just require more of the ‘currency’ to purchase the items at lower tiers.

However, my understanding may not be accurate, it is just how I currently understand it be.

Aligra Mace.7902:

are they discoverd for alle armor classes or only for its own?

Sadly, only the one weight class of the items you opt to unlock actually get unlocked.

So, despite the skins being identical across all three weights (just like the Monocle), you would need to unlock each weight individually. If you unlock the light armor versions, the medium and heavy will still remain locked until you choose to unlock those individually as well.

Danikat.8537:

I suspect the two easiest ways to get this achievement are:

1) Get lucky. Just happen to be in the right place at the right time so you’re there when the event happens.

Or

2) Wait until there’s less people on the map and the chest locations have been mapped. At the moment it seems like as soon as the skritt burglar chest appears someone activates it, tons of people mob the event and it’s all over very quickly, then you have to wait for it to reappear.

But the map is permanent and later on there will be less people there so it will just be a matter of checking the chest locations, finding the right one and activating it yourself. That’s how I’ve done all the other skritt burglar achievements. (In this case I got lucky, he ran right past me.)

I was (1).
I suddenly saw a mob of players chasing a skritt below me and the event notification popped up. I was like, ‘holy crap, there’s a skritt burglar on this map’. I dropped down and immediately got transformed before I could even really attack it at all, reverted to normal and helped take it down. Didn’t even notice that I got an achievement at that time due to all the stuff all over the right side of my screen stretching down behind my minimap. It wasn’t until some hours later when I took a peek at the new achievements for Dry Top that I found out that there even was an achievement for that and that I had already gotten it.

So your (1) fits my completion of that achievement to a T.

KarateKid.5648:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

I like the chests. Keys are easy to come by ( I have found ~20 so far) …

how? in 2 nights I’ve seen ONE lockpick.

I also like them.

I had gotten like 8 keys simply by doing the story and getting the rewards from that. The achievements give a lot of keys as well, though I’ve not really done much of those so far.

Then you can also trade in all those geodes at the vendor to buy more if you like. Remember to go through all of your piles of sand to get more geodes also.

JakeG.9620:

I also don’t know how to get the spectacles and scarf. Are they supposed to drop in Dry Top? I’ve been there for hours and nothing :/ I do have a lot of sand piles now xd

Pretty sure they only drop from the uncovered chests during a sandstorm that you need keys to open. That is the only place I have looted it from so far.

This is at the bottom of the first page.

“Analysts who prepared this report are registered as research analysts in Korea but not in any other jurisdiction, including the U.S. PLEASE SEE ANALYST CERTIFICATIONS AND IMPORTANT DISCLOSURES & DISCLAIMERS IN APPENDIX 1 AT THE END OF REPORT. "

I have no idea what it is you are trying to point out that supports your questioning the existence or non-existence of an expansion.

Can you elaborate a bit more and say what it is you are talking about?

edit
Nevermind, others did it for you while I was posting.

Yep. I spent quite a bit of time sitting there watching and appreciating that little touch. Really made the existence of waypoints to be more than a simple game mechanic and really seems to be acknowledgement of them within the game world as being a thing like having been set up hastily with a non-permanence feel to them, and hence the faulty or insufficient power being supplied to them that causes the flickering. My thoughts on it anyway.

The only other time I recall seeing an in-game acknowledgement of their existence is an event in Harathi Hinterlands where you help a mother and daughter find the missing husband (or son, can’t recall) – after you find out what has become of him, they wander up the hill and step directly under the floating waypoint and disappear…as if they used the waypoint to travel. This got me to thinking long ago that one should have to travel to a waypoint to have access the network to travel to another waypoint. No more of this ‘waypoint from anywhere to anywhere at any time’ behavior, that players would actually need to interact with a waypoint to utilize them to travel to another unlocked waypoint.

PartyPanda.1960:

Can I unlock the spectacles and scarf’s skin and still use them to craft the mantle, or not?

Yes.

Supposedly skins with lower tiered versions (appearance progression) automatically unlock the lower versions when they are unlocked.

Ex.
Unlock Eternity and it also unlocks Twilight and Sunrise as those two weapons are used to craft Eternity.
Or crafting the advanced spinal blade would automatically unlock the lesser versions of the back skin.

I didn’t want to risk their (ANet) possibly not thinking of this and accounting for and applying this behavior to the new helm, so I manually unlocked both the mask and the goggles prior to combining them for the Mantle item…just to be safe and save any kind of potential frustration. I then unlocked the combined skin by choosing “Unlock Skin” so it would be account bound. Since you can select stats for it, it is basically an account bound level 80 exotic helm. Will certainly be useful to already have one on hand for later on instead of needing to pick up a new one from the TP (which is actually a lot more expensive right now than crafting this one, and prices are likely to drop on these two helms as supply increases).

Also, I understand that there are definitions of the word “mantle” to where it is used to describe a cloak or veil of some kind to clothe or cover something (as the mask and goggles covers the face), though that usage is generally meant as ‘resting atop’ as the shoulders rest atop the torso. But in an MMORPG (as with most other areas), “Mantle” really only has a single definition in regards to an item – shoulder armor.

Quite misleading and confusing. At first I thought combining the two helms created a shoulder armor item, which was all kinds of weird, but didn’t really surprise me all that much if that was actually how it worked.

Very poor choice when deciding on a name for this item, ANet.
(Apparently there are one or two other helms in the game with “mantle” in their names. Who names these things? Are they aware of the history of the word “mantle” in RPGs and what they have always been and that GW2 is an RPG?)