Guild Wars 2

Some people really need to read at least official news from Anet before saying stuff like : ‘’but so far I haven’t heard a single word about how far this has come’’.

Exactly the same post appear over and over each weeks. So quick recap of the last year of news about this subject.

- Anet talk about a scavenger hunt for precusor and new legendary weapons (1 year ago)
- Anet talk about incoming new legendary weapons, new legendary items and crafting precusors in the second part of 2013 (6 months ago)
- Anet say that Precursor and legendary probably won’t be ready for 2013, and will probably be in 2014. (couple months ago)
- Anet say that from the 21st Janurary, there will be 4 Living Story update, and then a big feature update. (10 dec.)

One can speculate and say that Legendary will probably come at the end of March 2014, but its only speculation.

1) WvW rank account bound is coming. It was officially announce. Its will probably be introduce with the new WvW maps. When it gonna come? Maybe the 21st but its could be anywhere in the next 5 path. By the end of March we will certainly have it.
2) New Skills. Well I think we gonna have new skill on a regular basis now. I don’t say its gonna each 2 weeks, but by March 2014 i’m sure we gonna have 1 or 2 new skills per professions.
3 and 4) New weapons and weapon unlock for other profession . A lot of devs talked about it, but just as ‘’Hey its a good idea and we are thinking about it’‘. So don’t count of it for the next 4 update. Maybe in the first Feature update of March but here its only my opinion.
5) Commander Tag account bound : No information on that, but i agree. This would be nice.
6) Account bound dye : Same kitten .
7) Increase stats on Ascended : A lot of people would not like that and Anet don’t seem to have any intention of doing so. Hopefully.
8) That won’t probably happen. Some people would like that, other no.
9) Guild Halls : Some Dev say they want to create something like that, but that all.
10) Well eventually that would be nice.
11) This is an important tools for the dev. Like it or no its a concept that will last for a while if for the lifetime of the game.

This is not a game issue (well partially). If i play fractal, i prefer doing it with guildmate. I know what are their skill and what i should expect from them. I did level 30+ with 2 Mesmer, 1 Guardian (me), 1 Necromancer and 1 Elementalist without any problem. But were all Guildmate and good players. I wouldn’t risk going into high fractal with this kind of pug group because these are higher risk profession. Pug like lower risk profession, profession that are easy to play. And its normal. Know want to do 3 hours of fractal for nothing because some pug are just bad. At least if the pug have an easy profession like warrior, the risk is less.

Anyway, i don’t know about your experience with the LFG tools, but i rarely see any post that specifically ask for a profession or all zerker. Its happen, and these people have a right to ask. And you have a right to go see elsewhere. These post are not the majority and you can still make your own post that will fix your need. A lot of people run other profession and they will happily join your party.

What a bad idea. Running from LA to Arah one or two time with friends ok. But more than that its a pain.

Like i said yesterday, the Silk price peaked at 89 copper, fell to 79 copper and now go between 68 and 73 copper. Nothing is wrong with the silk price. The only problem is Light Armor recipe. For Armorsmith we need 25 Damask, for Leatherworking its 24 Damask, but for Tailoring its 36 Damask. They should rebalance the Damask/Elonian Leather numbers so its more similar to those of Armorsmith and Leatherworking.

Maybe you should read Anet news. Its not even an old new (10th dec).

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/living-world-2013-the-year-in-review/

The next update will be the 21st January. The next 4 2-weeks updates will be the end of the Living Story and after that. The 5th release of the years (after the end of the Living Story) will be quote ‘’he next round of major features will be bundled together into a large “feature only” release that will come after the first season of the Living World 2014 has finished’’.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Is it fair to say that regarding Ascended Gear we would like to see more ways to earn it and in terms of drop rates, a higher percentage chance of acquiring them through this method?

Chris

Absolutely. You already use several ways of getting ascended gear. Guild Commendation, Pristine, Fractal Relics, Laurel, Crafting, drops. But alway each of these method are only use for 1 type of ascended gear. I can’t use Pristine to get nothing but rings, Guild commendation only allow me to get Accessories, while you need to craft weapons and armor. This is part of big problem. You gate acquisition of new ascended gear, but after sometime not only this gate stop working you are now stuck with a lot of useless items. Rings were so hard to get at the beginning, you had to grind lower fractal level to get them before you go into higher level, but now most of use don’t know what to do with Pristine and rings drop. Same things with Guild Commendation. It took us a while to get accessories to gear 1, 2 maybe even 3 characters. But now guild that never stop doing mission are now stuck with a bunch of Guild Commendation with really limited use for them.

About the drop rate. When a group of 20-30 people are doing a World Boss, then 1 person should get a box of ascended gear. Usually this people link it in the map chat so everybody see that ya we can get ascended gear here it so awesome. And if each time you do a world boss you see 1 person link a box, then you begin to think. Ya maybe I’ll do World Boss on a daily basis. And 1 drop for every 20-30 people is not that big. It mean that you have to do about 20-30 World Boss to get 1 box.

ConntectToReality, this is a terrible idea. There is a reason why some dungeon path are never ran by most people. Its because they have terrible flaw. AC path 2 bug on a regular basis since the launch of the game. Its a shame because its one of my favorite path of the dungeon with the trap sequence. Once they fix if for good and for real (because they failed at fixing it about 10 times), then now people will run all 3 AC path.

SE Path 2 is just so freaking long. And not long fighting, you need to wait so long for a NPC to walk to the other side of the room, pick up a rock, then go back to the door to open it. And every time mobs appear the NPC run 30 feet forward, fight them with you and then go back 30 feet backward before restarting his slow walk to the rock. Don’t push people to complete bad content and bad design, just fix it and they will all come to play it.

SSalp.6423:

Thaddeus.4891:

This is really what Eternity should look from the beginning. But right now, they just can’t change the Eternity skin. Some people that already have Eternity love their skin. It may need some improvement (like Eternity lose some animation that Sunrise/Twilight have), but they just can’t change it all.

What they could do it make a new Legendary Greatsword that need Sunrise and Twilight. They could call it Infinity and they would only need to change a big the Eternity recipe in the Mystic Forge. Right now Eternity need 1 Sunrise, 1 Twilight, 5 Crystalline Dust and 10 Philosopher Stone. So ’’Infinity’’ could use Crystal over Philosopher Stone.

This would be fine as long as every eternity owner gets both twilight and sunrise back in exchange for their eternity. (any mabye those 5 dust too lol)

Why would they? They crafted Eternity to have Eternity and they would still have Eternity. Its would be a completely new Legendary. This is exactly why i propose that method. If you modify the appearance of Eternity with this new look, then now you need to allow people to get back their Sunrise/Twilight because you change completely what they bought in the first place. I find this new design way better, but this may not be the opinion of everybody. But if you make a totally new legendary out of this design, you don’t need to give back anything to the players that crafted Eternity since they still have the same Eternity they bought in the first place.

Why are you talking about 3silver per silk scrap? It was better to sell silk at the vendors and not on the TP before. The silk price peaked at 89 copper and now begin to fall (79 copper right now). I don’t think that silk will go higher that 1 silver ever. Especially since most people salvage greens and blue for luck, the input of Silk is large and steady.

This is really what Eternity should look from the beginning. But right now, they just can’t change the Eternity skin. Some people that already have Eternity love their skin. It may need some improvement (like Eternity lose some animation that Sunrise/Twilight have), but they just can’t change it all.

What they could do it make a new Legendary Greatsword that need Sunrise and Twilight. They could call it Infinity and they would only need to change a big the Eternity recipe in the Mystic Forge. Right now Eternity need 1 Sunrise, 1 Twilight, 5 Crystalline Dust and 10 Philosopher Stone. So ’’Infinity’’ could use Crystal over Philosopher Stone.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Hi,

To clarify I am looking forward to hearing the communities thoughts on speed of acquisition such as how long crafting time takes? or drop rates in fractals and other areas of the game etc.

I hope this adds some clarity.

Chris

Lets put aside if Ascended is good of not. The Acquisition of Ascended gear is really messy right now.
1) Unbalance between different play style. The game is suppose give every people the chance to play as they want. And frankly the game do that better that most other game out there. But for ascended gear, the good part of GW2 is just not present. You want a back item? Play fractal or paid a HUGE amount of money to craft one in the mystic forge. You want amulet? Accumulate laurel and well that it. You want Earings, well to Guild Mission or paid 3 times the cost in ectos and add some more laurel. You want weapons or armor? Well there you need to craft or go home. People need to be able to have access to ascended gear without being push in a specific content. I don’t talk about making ascended more easy to get, just to make more different ways to get it. Exotic armor can be craft, buy from dungeon, buy with karma, buy with money, get from loots, etc.
2) The price seem highly unbalance between pieces. Why an earring cost about 16 Gold and 40 Laurel, while an amulet cost 30 Laurel?? Maybe there is a good reason, but i don’t see it. The same thing go for ascended weapon and armor (and this is kinda link to my first point). To craft an ascended weapon/armor you need to level up crafting to 500 and then craft a piece. Its great if you want to do several character because the initial investment is spread across several piece of gear and weapons set. But the initial investment is really huge for a casual player that only want to gear 1 character over a long period of time. This system make ascended weapon/armor less costly to hardcore and more costly for casual. Crafting should allow those who want to craft several armor/weapon to make an economy of scale, but people that only want to gear 1 character should have an way to get them without a massive initial investment.

Assassin X.8573:

ive got my chest piece on day 1, and i need 100 more dragonite for pants for piece 2. then i just need 2,000 more dragonite to completed the rest of my armor and then when that is done, anet will introduce the legendary trinkets.

I have good news for you. Only the chest cost 500 dragonite ore. All the other pieces of ascended armor only need Lesser Vision Crystal (2 Dragonite Ingot not 5). Which mean you already have enough Dragonite ore for you 2nd and 3rd pieces of armor. And that you need 600 Dragonite ore to complete you full set.

Why run dungeon?

1) Because i will only craft 1 ascended armor, maybe 2 in the really really long run. Frr all my other character need exotic armor.
2) For Gold. Its a really nice way to make gold. Especially if you do it with some friend and speed run through it.
3) I want some piece of dungeon armor because of their looks.
4) You may want a gift of a dungeon for a legendary
5) You may want to get CoF, HotW and CoE token to buy rare gear and salvage them for ectos
6) You may want to have fun.
7) You may want to do each path at least once, or help guildmate/friend to complete each path at least once.

Its really not the best way to do it, but its an easy way. These mobs go underground and if they knockback people they become evade everything for most of the fight and do quit a bit of dmg. The best way would be to stack and melt them, but most group won’t have enough dps or will dodge all of their attack so for a pug this strategy will pretty much lead to a wipe. Its not the best method, but its a safest and easiest for a pug group.

I don’t think 1 more utility skill would be a good idea. But thing that would help build diversity:

1) Option to switch weapon skill. So you can specialize your weapon to fit the need of a particular build.
2) More Elite options. Because some like Mesmer and Warrior have awesome elite that work almost everywhere. But other have more limited option.
3) Revamp the trait system. Because right if you want to be a well/vampiric Necromancer you have like 8 good trait and 6 of them are in the same trait line. Or if you want to be a AH guardian you need to choose waste 2 major trait on some of the worst trait of the guardian. And since stats are linked to a specific line trait some build are better if the trait are in the same line as the good stats, while other build are handicap by less useful stats.

Several good idea in this thread. The new reward system for dungeon, that Anet implement a couple month ago did good things and bad things. It push people into more diversity in the dungeon they run each day, since now really give you a small gain to do the same dungeon twice in the same day. This is good, but also its even more skipping than before. Before, i wanted to kill Kholer, and i even ask to kill all silver mobs because with my Gold % bonus (amulet, food, etc) its was worth it. But now, every single trash mobs that i can skill i do. And every boss that i could skip i skip. Its a shame, because i liked to kill kholer. He was hard the first time, but after a couple of try its really not that bad. The problem is that they need to implement several change at the same time or leave the dungeon as they are now. If they force us to kill everything, but don’t diminish the number of useless trash mobs, then people will only stop doing dungeon and this would be one of the worst possible situation for the game.A dungeon run should not a more than 30min per path (exept for Arah) if you have a normal group (not a organized group or a noob group, but a normal group of people that know the dungeon).

I would first prefer to have option to switch skill on current weapons so you are not stuck with a fix 5 skill on a particular weapons. That said, new weapon are always welcome, but they need to fix for the current profession (unless they bring a new 9th eventually) and with the balance of the game.

- 2h axe : will probably only work with Guardian and Warrior
- Scythe : will work for Necromancer, but don’t know with other class. Anyway, this won’t really work since they is already a staff that look like a Scythe, so i think this weapon will never be in GW2.
- Crossbow : Right now it would probably be use by Ranger, Warrior, Thief (with engineer too would be nice). Profession that already use bow so the crossbow won’t bring that much. A arrows throwing 2 hand weapon. I think that 1 hand mini crossbow (a bit like in Diablo 3), would be better, since they bring something a bit different. This weapon would fix nicely to the Thief, Engineer and Necromancer.
- The whip : This would only fit for the Ranger in my opinion. But you can be creative and make a magical whip for the Mesmer. Maybe the Thief and Necromancer
- Fist/Claw : This would only fix for a Monk/Ninja profession that don’t exist right now or the thief. I think its not the best option out there. So its a no for me.
- Flail : Too similar to a mace? Main hand Guardian and Warrior that don’t bring that more new content. Its not bad, but better option exist.
- Battle Staff : For thief and Ranger? That could be a nice acrobatic weapon for the thief that for sure. But its a thief, not a ninja. I’m not sure on that one.

I would like to add Polearms to the suggestion. That would work nicely for the Guardian, Warrior, but also for the ranger and Necromancer
Also some kind of throwing weapons. Like Javelin, Knives, Shuriken, etc. Not all of them, but maybe 1. That could be nice as off hand weapons for a hybrid melee/close range weapon combo for like the thief.

Also, don’t forget about existing weapon that could be use by other profession. Like the Greatsword for the Elementalist

Yep this method will mainly help the casual player, but also several other king of players.

1) A casual that play on occasion but never check the daily because he found that boring, will be able in the course of the week to complete some of the weekly and get some laurel, while in the daily he never play enough or with enough diversity to get 5 daily each time he play.
2) A casual player that play only in the week end, will be able to get max Laurel in the same game time as a casual that play only 1-2 hours per day.
3) A more hardcore player won’t be punish if he skip a couple of days because or work, school or social activities. He will be able to collect all of his laurel latter on that week.
4) A completionist will be able to play all week as he wish and then take a couple of hours in the week end to complete all Achievement he didn’t complete naturally during the week.

Edit: @ TriggerSad you are also right. If they implement weekly, some people could ask for montly only or yearly. So where is the end of it. I thing there is a balance to reach. A balance that won’t be like by everybody. I think that daily is a bit too short period of time. Most people only have a couple hours after work/school to play and each time you have something else to do after your day, well you miss the daily. On the other end, yearly is just ridiculous in my opinion. That why like others i think that weekly and monthly are a good middle ground. Its not perfer for everyone, but i think it a good thing for most people.

Guys this are the stats of the original codes datamined a couple of months ago. On gw2 DB they put slightly better stats. (Like 1 or 2 pts more).

http://www.gw2db.com/items/armor/leggings

Don’t know if it’s the truth. Gonna have to wait and see in game info to be sure.

‘’On top of this, you’ll also see new legendary weapons and new types of legendary gear in 2013.’’ This is from the Lookin Ahead GW2 in 2013. So yest they plan on new legendary weapons too.

But as others already said, Anet latter added that Legendary and precusor will probably be in 2014.

I’m waiting to see what exactly ascended armor will be. If its exactly the same as the codes that was data-mined a while ago or if it will be modified on the 10th.

The codes give us a preview of a ascended armor :
- Without any infusion slot.
- With a total of +36 points of stats for the whole armor sets (this include major and 2 minor stats).
- A look neither bad nor good.

If they stay the same, i have no intention to go for it in the near future. A lot of stuff will come before that. I won’t say i will never craft them, but it won’t be an active objective.

If the 10th update change at least 1 of the three characteristic of the armor (Infusion, Stats, Looks) i will probably look more into it.

I will explain how to use the wiki table. The first column is the Agony Resistance, the next column are the range of difficulty. From level 10 to 19 the Agony is the same, from 20 to 29 the agony is the same, etc.

The % number inside the table is the damage per tick per second. Its a % of your total hp pool, meaning that it doesn’t change anything that you have 11k hp or 30k hp. Overall, low number hp combine with good healing is the best defense against Agony attack. It doesn’t mean that everybody should go for low vitality and high healing power (because its not a good idea), but against agony specifically ya it would be a good idea.

Normal agony attack during fractal last for 3 second and can stack. I don’t know if there is a limit of stack, but usually you won’t see more that 2-3 stack at some specific boss. For example, the Mossman in the swamp fractal give you agony with a axe that can bounce several time on you giving you stack each time it hit you. But don’t worry, multiple stack are not that common in most of the fractals.

At each fractal final boss (Jade Maw, Mai Trin and Molten Duo) you gonna have some special agony attack that fill the entire room (you cannot do nothing against it except take the dmg and have enough AR). This attack have only 1 stack and last for 9 second.

Now like you said if you have 12% dmg per tick per second the big 9 second attack will take out 108% of your hp pool. That don’t mean that you will die since you can heal yourself. You have a 9 second window to heal you. If you have already low hp and you healing skill is on cooldown, then you gonna down. So you need to make sure you are ready for the big attack (if you don’t have enough AR to have 1% dmg per tick per second).

So what level of AR i need to do certain fractal level? Obviously if you can bring the Agony dmg to 1% then its the best. But if you want to know the minimum you need.
With 6% dmg per tick per second normal agony attack with damage you of 18%, 36% with 2 stack of agony. The big attack form boss, will take out 54%. You will be conformable for all the fractals. The only place you gonna have some difficulty could be the Molten Duo. This boss give you a big 9 second Agony, then follow up with different source of 3seconds agony from both bosses. Just be cautious at the beginning while your life or healing skill get back to normal and you will be fine.

With 12% dmg per tick. You gonna need to dodge most of the agony attack or you will down rather quickly in some fractal (i’m looking at you Volcano). Each normal agony attack will take 36% of your Hp and for 2 stack it will be 72%. Most of the Agony attack is simple to dodge and you should learn to do so rapidly, so even if the number are getting bigger, Agony should not be an issue here for skilled player. The problem again its for the Molten Duo. Here you gonna die if your not really good, and you certainly be death for all the fight if its the first time you do it. With the other new final boss Mai Trin, you also begin to have some problem. Huge barrage of agony aoe will down you in a position where you cannot be revive by the other before you die. If you have swiftness and your group is organized, you will still be fine, but the learning process gonna be hard.

Overall if you usually have a hard time to dodge and don’t think you are particularly good at fractal. Then make sure you have these level of AR before going into a level.
Level 10-19 : 10 AR (don’t go higher than 19 if you enter in this category)

If you know a bit about the Agony Attack and are able to doge some of them at least. Or you consider yourself as a average players that want to go into fractal for the first time. Then use these level of AR as minimum.
Level 10-19 : 5 AR
Level 20-29 : 20 AR
Level 30-39 : 35 AR
Level 40-49 : 50 AR
Level 50 : 65 AR

You can still have less AR than that if you want. All fractal except final bosses don’t really need AR since you can dodge, blind, block, etc ALL OF THEM. For the Jade Maw you need at least 1 people in your group to have enough AR, but this will take sometime for him to rez everybody. For the Molten Duo have at least 3 people with enough AR, but this begin to be a bit stupid since some people will be useless for pretty much all the fight.

MrKahwk is not bias at all lol.

From what i read Sierras want either a Guardian or a Warrior to be a commander and Fractals. Now this is what I will recommend you : Have 1 character for PvE and 1 for WvW. You can either keep your thief for Fractal (really useful profession) or WvW and then choose a Warrior or Guardian for the other game mode. Why use 2 characters? Well, the build, gear and playstyle are different in both. You probably gonna want to get beserker gear in PvE and Soldier gear in WvW. Trait will be different too. But also the weapons, skills and how you use them. You could also take two set of everything and change trait and skill each time you switch game mode, but well you see the problem. You can still choose one profession and one build for everything but this is not the best idea. A full healing Guardian/Warrior will be perfect in a Zerg, but will make Fractal so much longer by lack of dps (even impossible in higher fractal since there is some DPS bottleneck like in Volcano). The same thing with a Zerker Guardian/Warrior in the middle of a zerg will be vaporize.

Anyway both profession are good. Here some point to compare the two professions.
- Warrior PvE : Offensive Boons, higher DPS, really good in melee but less in range, high health pool make you strong against burst damage, but less good heal make you a bit more vulnerable in longer fight.
- Guardian PvE : Defensive Boons, Reflect (especially good in fractal), better in range but less in melee. Vulnerable against burst dps, but healing/boons/virtues give you better survivability in the long run.

- Warrior vs Guardian WvW : They can both have huge survivability. Most thing i said about them for PvE are still there for WvW except for the Burst DPS vs Long run survivability, which kinda change in WvW. Since you don’t necessarly focus on DPS like in PvE, you can fix issue for both profession (like healing shout for Warrior or Shout remove condition for Guardian, just exemple). Btw Warrior Banner is probably one of the best Elite skill for WvW, both to drastically change a fight or to revive the Lord when you defend a Keep.

To MrKahwk : I never had difficulty with condition on my Guardian and almost never use any condition removal on it (including the signet that remove condition each 10 sec). I see condition attack like normal attack. With normal attack you need to dodge, evade, blind, block, invulnerable to not lose hp. Well do the same thing with condition. You don’t have a second chance with normal attack. Once you got hit, you lose hp, so why don’t have the same attitude toward condition attack. Avoid behing hit by condition attack like you do with normal attack and you should diminish a lot the number of condition you usually have on you.

BTW the codes for ascended armor were datamined a while ago. In these version the ascended armor have a upgrade slot like all exotic armor, but do not have any Infusion slot.

Of course these codes are a couple months old and a lot of work had been done on them since. So they probably changed them a lot since then.

To Wallace MacBix

1) We can’t assume that. In the codes datamined for the ascended armor we don’t see any infusion slot on them, only a upgrade slot like on exotic armor (for runes). Of course its only a preview that players were not suppose to see and it could be changed by the time ascended armor will be available. But still we can’t assume that we gonna have a easy +30 AR in the future.

2) Its not 30 days per +10. Its 2 months per +10 and only if you do 2 fractal per days each days. This mean that to get 70 AR you will need to do 2 fractal per day for more that 6 months or buy AR on the TP. I’m a hardcore player and I have a hard time to do 2 fractal per day. This is a stupid grind. Especially if you can’t reused your AR that you already had put in your equipment.

On crystal desert we have a Zerg 24/7 in Frostgorge sound. I think that like Saturday morning there is only a couple of person, but rest of the time you can expect 10 to 25 people.

In theory you are right but in reality a lot of things advantage the Power build over the condition build.

1) A group will never negate your DPS with a power build. With several condition damage build, you will eventually negate each other DPS because they will stack until they reach the maximum. Even power build will put some condition on the target, condition that will be negate by a condition player, dropping the overall dps even whith only 1 or 2 condition player.
2) Damage over-time is bad against low hp ennemies. You need some time to build up condition on your target in order to reach your max DPS. Power build will kill most mobs before a condition player will reach his max dps. This player will also lose of alot of dmg, since the mobs will still have a lot of condition at the moment of his death and these condition will be wasted.
3) Power and condition attack can be negate before you get hit : Block, invulnerability, blind, etc. But only condition attack can be negate after getting hit by hit with condition removal.

Its all nice that you can reach your max DPS with a condition build and still be able to have defensive stats. But in the end Power build is more powerful that a Condition build. Condition build need a lot of work to be on a equal ground with power build.

I finished it with my first character. My second character became my Main so i now with him i’m at Arah waiting on a 5th Guildmate to reach it so we can do a Guild party to complete the story (second time for me, first time for the others). I completed 1 try for each racial mission and vigil/priory/whisper order, and that’s all. He was a pain for my Second Character and most of these quest were just boring. TBH this is the case with most MMO so this is not a big deal. Still there is no reason for giving us boring quest to do, SWTOR quest were super engaging.

Forkada.8376:

this thred is trololo? Or joke? New Fractal are so easy……….. im at 36 lvl 0 wipes and do it wis pugs only.

Ya its easy. Actually the new Fractal are easier than before. But you also used to need skill to go through most of the Agony attacks. Now, you need enough AR to receive 1% or 6% dmg max or you gonna have a hard time at the two new boss. But with this amount of AR, then all the other Agony attack of the fractal are simply useless and do almost no dmg since they last less time and are less frequent.

Wiki was right before the update. So you needed 60 AR to get 1% dmg per tick per second. But apparently, now you only need 55 AR to get the same result. Didn’t tried it myself, but several people on the forum claim that.

The story mode is the new Reactor Fractal. It was only there to make sure everyone could see it the first time they entered fractal. So you gonna be able to do this achievement when you want it won’t disappear.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mystic_Forge/Equipment#Backpieces

It only work for :
- Quiver of Swif Flight
- Book of Secrets
- Bowyer’s Delight
- Sights Be True
- Endless Quiver
- Koss on Koss
- Simon’s History of Ascalon
- Tome of Rubicon

Its the same recipe as show on the wiki, but replace the vial with bloodstone dust (i think its 250 each, but not sure)

Konu.1826:

Cynz.9437:

anyone know how much AR you need for lv 40+?

55 ar is enough to take 1%/tick. If you are planning to do level 40 you need either that or close to that coupled with coordination to maintain more or less constant group heals.

At 40-49, with 55 AR its 6% HP lost per second, not 1%

if you dont have 55 AR you gonna a hard time with the two new boss.

My guild have the same problem now. We used to bring people with low amount of AR on them in level 30+ once they learn how to do fractal and dodge pretty much all AR (except Jade). I even used to ask them to not put AR right away on their gear so they can fully learn how to dodge all agony possible so they don’t really on AR. We had a small group of people with 0 or 5 AR able to do the Dredge Miner or the Grawl Shaman without dying once. But now, we can’t bring them with us anymore. They gonna have to get their stuff from low level by their own and not by doing high level fractal with us. Its now really hard for High Level players to introduce new people to fractal and enlarge even more the separation between high and low fractal player.

No cranked i DON’T WANT them to make it easier at all. Hell, i even found them a bit less difficult that it was. Some of my best memories of Fractal was when we had max 30 AR and level 40+ Agony just kicked our kitten pushing us to be perfect and dodge everything possible because 1 single errors could lead to a party wipe. But this is the difference. We needed skill and not only gear. Some of my guildmate did 10 or 20 fractals and were doing level between 30 and 48 with us. They were just fine, they had learn who to do fractal and how to dodge agony and they learned it the hard way in these level no almost no AR. This pushed them to be better player. I’m not talking about the difficulty. I’m talking about Agony that just can’t be dodge. Before it was only 2 wave of that at the Jade Maw, where you could easily rez people since we always had between 2 and 4 people with enough AR anyway. Some of these guildmates would eventually get their stuff ascended with full AR. But now they have to do this in low level either by their own or if we go with them and give up on our own progression. Others are skilled players that can dodge the agony, but don’t play enough to get ascended gear for a long long time. Usually we could still bring them in level 30+ but now we can’t. And i repeat, i’m talking about guildmate that are good enough in the game to dodge pretty much all the Agony and learn how to do fractal like everyone else in our group. We didn’t brought guildmates that were poor and couldn’t dodge with a clearic gear on them. These guys were welcome to all the guild activities except level 30+ fractal.

Hi.

First of all, I can’t consider myself a casual. I have a legendary with a second one in progress, 7 Character level 80 in exotic or ascended, 3 Weapons professions at 500, etc

I also love fractal and find that in general the last update was awesome. Love the 3 new fractal (even if 2 of them are deja vue), the boss new boss fight are more fun compare to Jade Maw and the instability are really nice (even if i found some of them lazy design).

That said there is my problem. In my guild we are only 4 with high level of Agony Resistance. 3 with 55 and one with 45 AR. The rest of the guild have between 0 and 15 AR. Some of them play for a while, but don’t give a kitten about AR and Ascended gear, others are new players, others are too casual for that, and others just simply didn’t do fractal up until now. Since most of us in the guild are friends in real life or became friend with GW2 or in another game in the past we always prefer to play with people from the guild and only take pugs if we can’t fill a party by our own. He never had problem to do level 30 or 40 even with people without any AR. We showed them a how fractal work with 3-4 level 10, then trained them in 3-4 level 26 and they were ready to come with us in higher level. They had the skill and knowledge to do just find. Hell i even ask our guildmate to postpone as much as they can the moment they gonna put Agony Resistance in their gear. Why? So they can learn how to dodge it. And it worked. Most of them rarely down from AR even with no resistance at all in level 30+. The only thing we had to keep in mind was to have 1 or 2 with a good amount of AR so they could rez the others at Jade Maw. With the new fractal update more guildmate wanted to join us in our quest to reach level 50 (AGAIN) even some that never played fractal before. We were thrill to show them and bring them asap to higher level were the fun and challenge begin. We did level 30 and 31 with no problem (with only 2 of us having more that 15 AR). Yesterday we did level 32 with a similar group (2 55 AR, 1 45 AR, 1 15 AR and 1 0 AR). Everything went just fine in Swamp, Molten Facility and Aetherblades. But then we go for the Beserk and Firestorm Boss. Two of us down immediately before of Agony so we rez them (we were expecting that no prob). But then they down right after. We rapidly understood that Agony was everywhere. In all attacks but also when you just walk next to the boss with no apparent reason. We had to complete the boss with only 3 or us. Nobody else online in the guild had enough AR to help us out so we finally had to replace the 2 with low AR with some friend from another guild. So now we simply can’t bring people with not enough AR to higher fractal level because this Boss can appear in any of our run (the fight itself i love). People that have the skill to usually go in higher fractal. People that can dodge, block, reflect, etc anything that fractal had to throw at us now can’t do any higher fractal because in this fight you will have Agony whatever you do or whatever your skill as a player are. Now what are our options?

- We can simply stop playing with our own guildmate so we can pug our way to level 50. This will let down a lot of our guildmate because we will not have enough time to also help them to go higher.
- We can also help them to do lower fractal level so they can get their infused rings and back items. But that punish a bit those of us that already have the AR and wanted to go higher in fractal. People that don’t play enough will also be left behind as we bring some of our guildmate to higher level of AR. Take the train now because we won’t do low level fractal that ad vitam aeternam.

And now i’m not even talking about those we don’t want to go all the way ascended. Rings/Back Items are easy to get if you do fractal, Amulet with laurel is a joke now, we do Guild Missions so for those we come with us earring will be easy to acquire. But what about Weapons and soon Armor? That is freaking costly for casual. I didn’t mind about that because they were optional. In our guild, ascended was even optional in high level fractal. But now a lot of our guildmate are gonna be left behind.

Well Phantasm Mesmer with Sword/Pistol and Sword/Sword is on of the best DPS build in the moment its perfect for you. The warrior can do that too, but its not the best build in PvE. My friend still use Dual Sword on his warrior Atl just to have play dual sword some time.

Guys we already had information about that. If you didn’t read it, then its on you. The Scavenger hunt is a really really old new. They talked about that, when it was only a idea in a brainstorm.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/looking-ahead-guild-wars-2-in-2013/

In July they talked about a future way to craft precursors thats gonna need a lot of the new ascended material.

But about 1 or 2 months ago Colin Johanson said : ’’As mentioned at the end of the blog, as always things are subject to change as test and prepare various systems. Most of the stuff covered in the blog you’ve already seen implemented, or steps towards being implemented, however the precursor building (and corresponding additional legendary items) is the one highest at risk to not make it this year.

It is still something we absolutely plan to do!’’

So its probably gonna happen in the first half of 2014 and not the end of 2013 like it was originally plan.

Some of them are really nice. They add difficulty, fun are new challenge. Like the Mossman Stalk you, or the lightning strike (if you can dodge it, if not then its just stupid), playing favorite, last laugh, etc.

Some are lazy. They only buff thing up or negate things on your side. They don’t bring new gameplay, they just make it harder. Like Fleeting Precision, Lethargic, etc.

Some are just bad idea. Like Broken Mirrors, Barbaric, Fitness, Doctor Death, etc.

But some of them i just don’t understand what is going to happen.
-Ill and Chill : what are those unintended effects ?
- Double and Single Tag Team : Do we really gonna have to do the fractal with only 4 or 3 people fighting?
- Tenderfoot : I hope you can do something to stop it, like moving or going on something, because if not it just enter in the lazy category. A conditions on you and that is all.
- Stay Aloft : SERIOUSLY. Not all the fractal have spot that you can go them so i suppose some object will appear so you can step on them. Or what you need to jump for the whole fractal?
- Reaper : That could be funny for a short time. I hope that a animation of the reaper just go after you and you have to run the hell out of there before it touch you. If its only a instant death random then its one of the worst idea ever.
- Tremors : ??? Do you have a epileptic seizure on the ground or its like in the movie and a worm monster attack you from underground?

At level 30.

Swamp : Saw nothing different.

Ascalon : The NPC react way better. They stick near you and engage more rapidly the mob in the streets. This is also good for the boss since they attack him rapidly and don’t wait anymore that we melee him a bit before joining the fight. Also at level 30 the Agony attack of the boss didn’t seem to affect the NPC or it affect them way less than before. We killed him in like 20 sec with a lot of help from the NPC. Overall it was more easy with the NPC reacting more quickly, but i fear a bit for higher level if the NPC just LEEROY in the Arena at the end. We were able to pull the first group, kill a second but then the NPC charged. Maybe it was a bad manoeuver on our part, i’m not sure. Gonna have to test a bit more.

Drege : Well everyone know by now. A bunch of Dredge at the spawn point, not a big deal just one more fight in the path. And you can’t die on you button anymore. This can be annoying for pugs but still you can do it with pretty much any combination of profession (but a thief always help). In a couple of weeks I’m sure that most of pugs will have learn how to do this part legit so it won’t be a problem anymore.

Jade Maw : Didn’t see anything different.

Its pretty easy once you get it. Common guys work a little, its not that hard. We took about 30 min to figure it out and it was a fun 30 min. That said, they really need to put a bit more information to help new people in fractal. Also, why use a broken waypoint system, when the actual fractal use the same system of checkpoint as the rest of fractal and it work just fine. Anyway, this new fractal was just awesome. A bit of team play, a bit of jokes (did you see what are your skill in the hot room. Vomit of run in panic LOL), and one of the best fractal boss. I really liked this new fractal.

They really need to give us the ability to remove a AR infusion. For a 10 it will take between 2 and 4 month to get. This is not so bad, but for your three item its between 6 and 12 months. I don’t think i’m happy with a years of fractal being wasted. I don’t thinks it gonna be a problem in the near future. I mean with the Ascended armor we should be able to get 85 AR without having to craft a AR of more than +5. This mean that we could be able to reach level 60. But if we ever get back to level 80 we would need between 110 and 130 AR. Meaning that we would need about 3 +14 or even 320. For most people, getting there will take FOREVER, unless at higher level you get more +10 AR and less +1.

?? Do you really need to farm them. I have like 100 Bricks and 3000 pile of dust still in my bank. This is like sand at the beach, its everywhere.

Dredge is not difficult, its just long. It took a bit of time to found out a new strategy and frankly its the same old strategy when people didn’t die on the button. For Ele, Ranger, Guardian, Warrior and thief its super easy to stay on the Button by themselves while 2 other player protect the guys at the switch. And if the guys is at the switch is a theif/mesmer, then its even easier. A lot of ways to do this with different combination of profession. And btw heavies are not the best for that. They don’t work on the button because of a bit of armor, but because of skills like the Shield bloc, endure pain, Renewed Focus, etc.

I changed a lot with my build over time. I experimented a lot they them too.

My engineer never really changed over time, because well i love too much my Grenade. But i went through Full Berserker Gear, then Rampager when the grenade 1 nerft arrived, then i’m currently changing to Radid because now my Engineer is used only in WvW. During this period i also changed a lot my utility skill, using bomb, elixir, elixir gun, etc depending on the time. My trait changed a lot during this time too, i experiment almost all trait combination i could for Grenade build.

For my guardian this was worst. I started the game as a Cleric healing beast, then went into a AH build, continue my journey by changing my trinket to berserker and my gear to Knight and keep in a Anchor build, then switched my trait to DPS oriented and replacing some knight by berserker gear.

These are my two main so there are the one i put the more effort into, but i have 6 others character and i experimented a lot with them. As long as you are in rare or exotic you can easily change your build. Exotic are really not hard to get. But your right that after you made your full ascended gear, you just don’t want to change your gear. You can still move your skills and trait or even your weapons(1 ascended weapons once you have your crafting to 500 is that costly), but changing a full set of ascended gear (especially with the ascended armor coming) is not something you want to do even once.

Paul.4081:

Meglobob.8620:

One point I have never understood about heavy vs medium/light armour debate.

Heavy classes get a small armour advantage, its a clear advantage that warriors/guardians get.

So what small advantage do the other 6 classes get to even this out?

No one has ever said AFAIK and I have never been able to figure any advantage with other classes skills/traits/stats that equal that small armour advantage out.

I’m curious to know the answer to this is too

There some of these advantage to the other 6 classes.
Elementalist : They have the best utility skill to stay alive, a lot of condition removal, 100% vigor, access to a lot of defensive boons like protection, regen, etc.
Thief : They are some pretty nice block that they can spam while attacking if they are traited, everytime they are in danger they can stealth, lose agro and continue to attack.
Necromancer : They have no problem with condition, they have access to a lot of blind and weakness, they have a lot of hp and a whole second bar of hp (if traited dearthshroud give them awesome survivability)
Engineer : Like Elementalist, engineer have access to a lot of skill with their kits and toolbelt. If used correctly you can get a lot out of all the combe field/finisher you have. Huge amount of heal form water field/blast, or a huge amount of stealth with smoke field/blast.
Rangers : I don’t really play my ranger and i’m not a fan so i’ll give this one to someone else but I have 100% Vigor during fight.

Well i don’t play my Elementalist in Fractal and i don’t play a lot with the staff so i’m really not a expert. But i used to play in high level fractal with a good elementalist. (But he stopped playing now so its been a while since the last time i play with him).

Anyway, he made the Shaman really more easy. With his staff, he use Water skill 4 to slow down the shaman in his shield so only 1 or 2 people could burst his shield down easy while the rest of us DPS the elemental. Meteor shower was a good burst to drop elemental health and for the rest of the fight he was keeping the elemental group and away from us by using his cc. Frozen Ground in water, Gust and Static Field in air, and skill 4 and 5 in Earth. By the time he went through all of his cc, usually they are all dead and nobody died. At one point he was the last alive, 3 of us where dead and 1 down. He rush to him, rez him in mist form, let the other one deaggro with a spy kit and he kept the boss on him at the other side of the room while the other one rez the whole team. With my guardian i can do that if I have 1 person alive with me, but rezzing a downed guys before doing that, this is was awesome.

Again this is not really the profession, but the player behind it. Longbow Ranger seem to receive a lot of hate in fractal, but on of the best fractal player i know is a longbow ranger. At shaman he use his elite skill to root the boss when in his shield, then i use my Shield to protect his roots, giving us way enough time to kill all the elemental while the boss don’t move. In the mean time he was able to rapid fire, switch to shortbow and finish the boss’ shield by his own.

You get a bonus of Karma when you do fractal of lower level than your personnal reward level. The amount of Karma depend on your level and the level you are completing, but it can be as high as 9 500.