Guild Wars 2

Daecollo.9578:

Can you please lower them again?

Couldn’t agree more. Dailies are becoming more and more of a hamster wheel rather than something enjoyable.

This is not what I signed up for, really. Who asked for this change?

EDIT: thinking about it a bit more, you’ve made it just a bit more frustrating than it has to be. If you like tPvP, you need to leave that game type to get your dailies completed by doing unique other maps in sPvP (I think I’m using the right terms here).

It doesn’t allow for a quick spin, have fun, get in and get out. I’ve got a job, and limited time; you’ve changed the metrics here and made it much harder to successfully achieve the daily goals just by playing the game in the time I’ve got.

VOLKON.1290:

I’ve been looking to shake things up a little with my mesmer and have been looking with intrigue at sword/sword (I WvW a lot).

Grab an OH sword and go kill some fools with it My view is that it’s an overpowered weapon, I love it.

It shines best in smaller fights (for my play style…), and I find that I use it in smaller W3 skirmishes and xPvP. FWIW, I’m running an Osicat-inspired Hybrid build at the moment.

For W3, I reckon you’ll get the most love out of OH Sword or Pistol. Focus is good for roaming and yanking fools off walls, but fighting loves a good OH sword or pistol. I run MH Sword as well, S/S is quite the combination.

Xillllix.3485:

the ele is already getting destroyed and the first to die in pretty much every situation.

What?

Lexx.5780:

For the “evasion build” or as Lowell calls it, “Leaping Super Immortal Death Troll Legendary Unicorn Blossom” check out his (Lowell’s) guide on GW2Guru:

Lowell:

You will never be alone. If you get kicked from your team/guild, you just need to use your elite spell Thieves Guild, it’s an instant « summon-friend » button;
You will at least once go for a 30 acrobatics build, equip a shortbow that you will use to spam Disabling Shot use the utility spells Shadowstep and Roll for Initiative, the healing spell Withdraw and troll the hell out of people, being untouchable and yelling « HOHO, HAHA, HOHO » everytime you dodge something with 1 of your 102123912192 evades.

That’s just gold.

I’ve found in PvE (general world roaming) that it’s about 100% useless; mobs don’t live long enough for it to be useful, and when it comes up mobs will try and tear it limb from limb at the excusion of anything else (e.g. the Warrior on their face).

As Sarie’s said, it’s pretty neat for bosses, depending on the boss. In most situations, something else is better on your toolbar though.

In PvP, it’s quite the hilarious trick. I use it often; it’s one of my go-tos for when the tPvP match has, say, 5 Necromancers on the other team. Or Elementalists. People in xPvP are so conditioned to look for the Mesmer and ignore the illusions that he’ll just sit there stripping boons and conditions until you make him explode; his cooldown is pretty short too.

I like your guides Because I don’t cope well with the wall of text, is this the kind of thing you’re talking about:

Strife’s Affliction/Unholy Elementalist

PopeUrban.2578:

The up side is you have nearly infinite evades, can still kill everything but condi necros pretty efficiently, and are as much or more “pinball” than the famed D/D ele. It’s tricky, you have to know the attack animations of pretty much everything, but the payoff is worth it when you see it in action.

How is that you can read my mind through the Internet? This is exactly the kind of thing I want

Just an update: started a thief alt using D/D and it’s hilarious fun no idea what I’m doing other than clicking buttons but it’s good times

Thanks again for the helpful replies.

Carighan.6758:

Who lets you stay alive on the ground long enough to use that? O.o

This. +1 for great justice.

Also, #2 is the most broken skill out there – I’ve lost count of the number of times it puts me right back where I was.

I’ve got a whole mess of alts, and I’d say Mesmer downed state is neither good nor bad; it’s situational. But I cry a tear of pain every time I play my Warrior and use Vengeance. In my life, that skill has not automatically killed me after killing my enemy: three times.

So, compared to that, Mesmers are OP, sure

Brtiva.9721:

And some applause for you as well, seeking to learn rather than screaming “nerf!” Not a common thing in the forums, sadly.

Thanks. So far I’ve not found a lot that needs a nerf, it’s always a skills gap (at least at my level of play). I think I’ve found some situations where classes need a buff or a bit more build variety (seriously, how many D/D eles are there really?), but overall the game feels pretty good.

I also really like that – for the most part – map chat in tPvP is friendly and fun. Lots of “glhf” rather than “die in a carpet fire.” Makes a really nice change.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

The build is not what beat you, because everyone has access to that information, instead it’s the dedication and hard work of that thief. To make 4s seems like “nanosecond” to you is a sign of a brilliant thief indeed.Guides/first

QFT. The guy seemed like a wizard to me.

I’m not here because I think it was OP, I’m here because I thought it was awesome I’m pretty terribad at PvP – 30th percentile according to the leaderboards – but I think it’s a fun game, and I like learning how people do stuff. I figure over time I might get to the 31st percentile

Thanks for the link!

Thanks for the replies guys – I’m thinking it sounds like a D/D in terms of effects. I can’t comment on combat log as that’s yesterday’s news, but you’ve given me some great places to start.

Thanks again for the replies – one of the things that makes GW great is the helpful community. I’m still learning and get something new everyday

I was playing some tPvP yesterday, and had a mano e mano at a cap point with a thief.

That sounds like it was some sort of big fight, but let’s be honest: it was a bit more one-sided than that. The other player (thief) was zipping in and out of stealth, performing some eye-watering alpha strikes, and going back into stealth. It was like fighting a Jack Russell terrier, the kitten thing wouldn’t sit still and could only be targeted for about a nanosecond.

My first thought, during the spinning grey camera of death, was, “Huh. How about that.”

My second thought was, “Oh master, teach me. I must know how that is done.”

My current main is a Mesmer, which is a heap of fun, but I’d like to understand the mechanics that this thief was using, and – ah hah – replicate them. I really don’t grock thief at all – can anyone maybe point me at a spec/suggestions/tutorial videos that might show how this was done? I want to learn

Kordos.3629:

Obviously, the AE group rez is the reason to bring that elite skill; it’s an amazing ability. However, because you need to save the banner for that specific situation, you are basically denied all the other benefits (fury, might, etc.) because you cannot possibly risk wasting the banner just for those trivial qualities.

I’d like to understand more about this as well. I’m fairly new to the Warrior profession, and understanding the mechanics is something I’d like to do. The Elite banner doesn’t seem to be all that awesome, mostly because of either a) it’s cooldown or b) lack of services (depending on point of view).

Emberfoot.6847:

I just tried using a kit on my hair in an attempt to get my glow back, and nothing. I’ve put in a ticket but I’m really worried they think this is fixed.

Hm. I had an interesting experience last week: managed to makeover my Sylvari (who’s looking boss now, if I must say…), and had a brief panic attack. The initial makeover had NO GLOW.

I raised a ticket, fluffed about in game for a bit, alt-tabbed a couple times, and then the glow was back.

Yep, I know what you’re thinking: lighting or time of day, something like that. Prior to using the kit, I’d been standing in a location where my glow was visible; after it was gone.

I’m wondering if there’s some kind of effect similar to culling that needs to kick in? Does anyone know? That is, does glow load last, or take a long time to come in, or is it on some kind of cycle or timer?

I’m happy my Sylvari has a glow, and I’m gutted for people who don’t have a glow – but it’d be great if it was just some kind of internal timer.

I’m sorry if this is confusing, I don’t really understand the technology behind the game or what environmental factors effect glow.

loseridoit.2756:

Blizzard have a opengl renderer for their game engine.

Anet have to translate directx to opengl call which is a large overhead

That is useful information, but I don’t understand why you posted it in response to my message. I’m trying to describe outcomes – where I don’t mind if it’s emulated or native, but that the experience of the current client is not the same as the Windows experience (whereas, in my example, Blizzard’s is).

However they’ve solved the problem, it’s a “good” solution from my perspective. Your comment seems to indicate a technical challenge, which is probably significant, but doesn’t mean that the solution we’ve got now is a good one as a result (or the only one).

I’d vastly prefer a native client. I use the Cider client at a pinch, but the reality is that I Boot Camp to play the game a) with acceptable performance and b) at acceptable visual quality.

The current port is a poor cousin; it’s slow and crunchy (by comparison to the Windows version), and won’t take advantage of e.g. high textures (I have a gig of video memory, I’d like to use it thanks).

“native” client or whatever, my problem isn’t how the game is delivered, but the performance and features of what is delivered. If they managed to “fix” the current Cider port in some way to increase both performance and quality, I’d be happy with that. I just don’t think they can.

Diablo 3’s client is great, by comparison; I don’t know if that’s native or inside a wrapper, but the quality and speed is night and day compared to Guild Wars (it’s comparable to Windows, I never reboot to play D3).

Any progress on a fix? Here in New Zealand it’s been broken for, like, forever

Looking at Brad’s post, and my experiences of no gain on one ATi MBP and a crash error on a Mac mini with an ATi, it’s clear why it’s disabled I love that the settings are there to play with – outstanding – and suggest we push the envelope further

Chobiko.9182:

If your computer goes too hot it will actually automatically go to sleep as a panic measure. Don’t panic yourself when this happens, it’s just a safety measure. Instead try to make sure you are in a cool room and that the air ducts by the hinge aren’t covered.

My MBP has recently started doing this – about 20 minutes of Guild Wars and it sleeps itself. Only been doing it about a week, maybe 2 – I’ve dropped it in for service. The vents aren’t covered, and in my view a laptop shouldn’t do this when you’re running in normal operation (that is, not modified).

If it did it once in a blue moon, that might be understandable – but it’s every time. Very frustrating. The room is climate controlled to 19 Celsius, hardly tropical. I suspect some kind of fault, perhaps the fans are not keeping up anymore (it runs very loud).

As an aside, I’ve taken to running on my Mac mini whilst the MBP is in the shop – that thing plays GW2 fine (within about 5fps of the MBP’s performance, which is super odd considering the spec disparity between the two). It’s also mostly silent, the fans spin up a little but not much. I think this has to do with your comment about components being packed in to the notebooks – the mini (despite being, ahem, mini) probably has much more room to breathe.

It’s possible it’s disabled by default because some systems don’t support it – just tried it on a Mac mini I’ve got here, and GW bombs out on launch with an error.

My take is that the MTD3D setting is set to 0 for max compatibility, and that if your system supports what it’s trying to do then you should milk it

Sweet, good to know I’m not alone It’s not a major issue, slightly bizarre more than anything. I hope it’s on their bugs list.

Does yours look like this? A picture often speaks a thousand words

Doesn’t make any difference for me… 2011 MBP (i7, 4GB RAM, 6770).

Hi guys -

I don’t know if this is a general issue or a Mac client issue, or unique to me – sorry. I can’t easily test the Windows client to see if it’s a thing there.

After a recent client update, my Mesmer’s weapons are not despawning when the illusions or phantasms are destroyed. You can see in the screenshots these ghostly weapons remaining after the phantasms holding them are gone.

It can happen mid-combat, it’s not an end-of-combat only type issue.

I did a quick skim on the forums but I couldn’t find anything that looked like this – so I’m guessing that I may be the first with a unique and special bug..?

I get this too when using my Macbook Pro’s in-built display.

I don’t get this when using an external display over HDMI. I’d guess it’s a colour profile issue of some kind. It’s a giant PITA though, the colours are super-wrong.

You can actually have fun with it – pop GW2 in a window, and then make it the foreground app. Blue tint! Then select something else – blue tint gone (even the GW2 frame you can still see). Deeply, deeply broken.

I reckon that would be super useful.

It’s possible they haven’t done it because they are collecting information – that they don’t really know what good looks like (or should look like) just yet. Still, a bit of comms either way would go a long way.

Todd.8162:

Actually, there are at least two: DVI and Display Port. I don’t know why people want to use HDMI when other connectivity methods have been around and proven for years.

I get that you don’t see a reason, and I can’t really help you with your thought process, but I can suggest that there are legitimate reasons you might have missed. Here’s a few examples:
1. Your monitor has no DVI port.
2. Your monitor has no DisplayPort.
3. Your monitor does have an HDMI port.

HDMI is as ubiquitous as DVI. It has the advantage of carrying an audio channel, as well as Ethernet, audio back, and a bunch of other cool things well outside the remit of DVI.

If you’ve got your Mac connected to a home theatre setup for playing games, then you’ll probably be wired in with HDMI, and not a DVI connection in sight.

So maybe that will help you understand why saying, “Oh, just use DVI,” is not universally helpful.

Todd.8162:

Or maybe you were trying to be funny about something else, unrelated to the topic and not contributing to a solution?

Oh it was totally related to the topic (note above) – that you presuppose that everyone’s willing to change their setup to have DVI because that’s the standard you prefer.

Seriously: if it was as easy as swapping cables, it’d be kitten fix and unworthy of posting in here. Your assumption that it’s that easy and that we’re all morons is kind of where I was going with my subtle attempt at irony.

On a helpful note, I’ve logged this with ANet – they’ve said they’ve passed the bug up stream. That is, there is no fix, it’s a problem that needs resolution. No comment on what that fix will be, or if they’ll even fix it, but they acknowledged the problem.

I’ve got a machine very similar to bkonkle and similar performance experiences. Bootcamp is significantly faster/smoother/better looking than the Mac Beta.

It’s great there’s a “native” Mac client, as I don’t need to reboot – good for a quick fix – but my view is that it’s not really comparable to the Windows experience.

An application in a window can cover the Mac menu bar – at least, Diablo 3 manages this just fine. It has “fullscreen” mode with the notorious 1080p bug, but it also supports fullscreen-in-a-window. In this mode it appears to be fullscreen, but isn’t – but it overlays all other screen items.

I’d hazard that Blizzard do not have sorcerers working for them, so there is probably a technological, rather than magical, solution to this

Currently I’m running in a window, but it looks a bit nasty. The two most palatable solutions to this are probably to either:
1. Allow fullscreen-in-a-window like D3, or
2. Allow custom resolutions for running in a window (…or simply have the windowed resolutions take into account the doc and menu bar).

Todd.8162:

Connect your monitor using something other than HDMI? Examples: DVI, Display Port …

/sigh

There’s always one.

Just so we’re clear on the total message I got from support, I’ve included it below. I’ve highlighted the small portion that relates to my request (which doesn’t get close to solving the problem). Note their recommended steps for a diagnostic file, which are different to those described in the forum here and kind of my point. Note that as indicated, I’d supplied a system information file, using the instructions in the forum here (pinned at the top).

Hello,

Thank you for contacting NCsoft Technical Support.

I apologize for the delay in our response; we have an unusually high ticket volume which we are working through as quickly as possible.

Please be sure the resolution of your display in OS X is also set to the correct resolution of 1920×1080 as well.

If you are still needing further assistance please provide me with the following information about your computer.

Depending on which version of Mac OS X (10.7 or 10.8) you are using will determine which steps you will need to take to generate the System Profile

To generate the system profile for computers on Mac OS X 10.7 and earlier, please follow the steps below:

1. Click the Apple on the Finder Menu Bar

2. Click on “About This Mac”

3. Click on “More Info” and then on “System Report”

4. In the Finder Menu Bar Click on “File” and then “Export as Text”.

5. You will see a dropdown appear requesting where to save the file. You can name the file anything you like next to where it says “Export As”, then next to the “Where” field, please choose your desktop as your save location. Keep the File Format as “Rich Text Format” and select “Save”.

6. Attach this file to your ticket when you reply.

To generate the system profile for computers on Mac OS X 10.8, please use the following steps to generate your system report:

NOTE — With the update to Mountain Lion 10.8, the ability to save your system specifications to a text file has been disabled. Because of this, you will need to use a free 3rd party application called “MachineProfile” which is available from the Mac App Store.

To install this program and save your system profile please follow the instructions below:

1. Open the Mac App Store which can be found in your Applications folder.

2. Search for and download “MachineProfile”

3. Open “MachineProfile” and give it just a minute to recognize your devices.

4. Select “File” and then “Save as PDF” from the Finder Menu Bar.

5. A box will dropdown with options on where you want to save the file. Please choose either the desktop or your doccuments folder as your save location so the file will be easy to locate and select “Save”.

Attach the file to your ticket with your reply.

Please update your incident at the provided link and attach the file you created. If you need assistance attaching a report to the ticket please follow the instructions in the following Knowledge Base article:

Title: Attaching a File
Answer Link: http://help.ncsoft.com/cgi-bin/ncsoft.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=5887

Once we receive it, we will have a much better understanding of what may be causing the issue.

Regards,
XYZ
NCsoft Technical Support

Whether there’s a workaround is not really the problem is it? Having instructions that say to do something different is unhelpful.

The help desk could have, as an example, have used your description there against the file I’d already supplied.

I’ve tried to log this to support to get a ticket raised, and the support tech’s response was this:

“Please be sure the resolution of your display in OS X is also set to the correct resolution of 1920×1080 as well.”

I have nothing good to say about that response, it reminds me a bit of this:
http://americanmajority.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/not-my-job1.jpg

FlamingFoxx.1305:

I think you will get used to it after a day or two, same way people can easily adjust to inverted camera movements etc.

QFT. After playing for a week or so, I’m sort of used to it. I still have the odd brain function failure with it but it’s ok.

MLieBennett.9031:

Look below the skill Leap, before using it.
If you see a Red Bar, you are out of range and will waste it. If its Black (ie Not there), then it is in Range and likely will spawn that clone.

I have the problem when the UI clearly shows that I’m in range. This isn’t really a user error problem, it’s a game’s-not-spawning-the-clone problem.

Just a bit of feedback on submitting a ticket with support (https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/mac/Submitting-a-Support-Ticket-for-the-Mac-Beta-Client/first#post179003). I’ve tried this recently, and some points of note:

1. The support desk require a plain text system information file, which (under Mountain Lion) needs installation of additional software to produce.
2. The support desk’s suggestion (in terms of trying to track down why resolutions are not correctly displayed) was to ask if my monitor was set to that resolution. Really? That’s the best you’ve got?

I’d suggest that – whilst you guys are no doubt super busy with support calls – you’re actually increasing call load for yourselves by double-handling tickets and asking people really dumb questions. I’d make the suggestion in the first instance that the thread on submitting support tickets is updated to show the new process for submitting support information for Mountain Lion customers, and secondly that your support desk take the time to read the submitted support query so the customer doesn’t have to ask the same question again.

I’ve had audio sort of drop out in cut scenes – it’s like it’s having issues rendering a (nonexistent) centre channel or something. I only hear about 2/3 of the spoken dialogue under the Mac client.

Getting about the same performance as Bootcamp under Windows, give or take. 2011 MBP 15" i7, 1GB 6770.

I’d say Windows is better, marginally – the real deal is Windows/Bootcamp runs at higher details and higher resolution at about the same frame rate.

Heh, I’d prefer to keep screenshots as PNG. JPG is lossy.

Bombul.2506:

Most skills will activate even when out of range. That is one of the things I really like about this game.

Agreed I think the only pesky thing is inconsistency in application of that.

Here’s an example.

The swordsman, as we’re discussing, seems highly painful and fiddly, right? Going in or out of range seems to make him upset. However, using the duellist (pistol offhand) seems to work fine if you enter range by the time he’s cast. Same behaviour for the berserker.

I think, anyway. It’s possible this is all just UI inconsistencies and I’m actually in or out of range correctly when it works or doesn’t, and it’s just not apparent – but whatever, it’s confusing. I’d like the ability to start cranking out skills and manage my own distance – IMO, the skill should “work” if the target is at the right range at the end of the cast time.

That’s a sweet suggestion, thanks for the link. I’ve enabled Fn-support for now, but if it annoys me I’ll grab the app.

As a slight follow-up, I’ve discovered the menus work really well with natural scrolling (because it’s like every other windowed app in OS X). So maybe the answer is I just need to HTFU and get used to scrolling “the wrong way” to zoom the map and visual field in and out.

I love you guys. Not only is the game amazing, I don’t have to reboot into Windows anymore. Beta? It’s rock solid.

Is there a way of making the game reverse mouse scrolling?

I’ve got OS X setup for natural scrolling, which is super nice. But with that enabled, the game’s scrolling functions are all the wrong way around and it makes me feel like I’m about to have a brain bleed.

Perhaps this one could be popped in the wish-list bag along with function key support? When the client has focus, function keys and mouse scrolling behaviour is changed?

There’s a common OS X “feature” whereby HDMI connected monitors will present to the OS a bunch of resolutions. If you’ve got say 1080p (1920×1080), the monitors usually present 1080i before 1080p – so when the app requests a resolution, it grabs the first 1920×1080 res and the game runs interlaced (yuck).

I don’t know of any games that don’t have this problem – Diablo 3 and StarCraft II both have it – but those games have a workaround. The workaround is windowed mode but full screen – so it overlays everything else.

At the moment the workaround is to run it windowed, but at a sub-optimal resolution (because “windowed” at 1920×1080 runs off the bottom edge of the screen).

I can see a few possible workarounds…
1. Windowed to maximum available resolution minus the dock and menu bar;
2. Windowed at full screen;
3. Fix the app so it grabs 1080p over 1080i as a preference.

I’d like this as well, but for a different reason – I can’t run full screen because of the rather notorious OS X 1080i/1080p selection bug. At the moment I’m running it in 1600×900 which isn’t the greatest.

I’d settle for some way of forcing 1080p in fullscreen…

I’ve got it working, but I run in windowed mode. Does that fix it?

This sounds like a great idea. Temporarily overmapping the function keys would make it work.

My main’s a Mesmer, and I don’t shatter much, but on my Elementalist alt (where I switch attunements by the moment) this is a game killer.

EDIT: On the mouse zoom, you can uncheck the option “Mac Beta: Use scrolling gestures to change direction” and your mouse wheel will work as normal.

I’ve had it not work even when in range. No illusion is spawned, and teleport on the key is not available.

It might be that the mob briefly moves out of range at the exact moment of cast – I suspect that moving out of range at any time during and up to the point of delivery means the illusion is not spawned. It’s freakin’ annoying.