Guild Wars 2

Mugorn.2361:

Wow. Such great and thorough answers. Thanks so much UnbentMars, Thaddues and Belzebu.

You three really spell out HOT as exactly what I was hoping it would be. I’m going to be downloading it right after I finish typing this. And it’s great to know my exotic armor is good to go and I’ll slowly work toward Ascended. I have a lot of Laurels so I may go buy a ring or amulet right away.

Two more small questions
Do I need exotic water weapons? Meaning those stats only matter in water, right? I don’t carry my water weapon stats on land do I?

Final Question
Do you guys, being level 80, still do your dailes? I did them for the writs of experience for levelling, but are they worth it.

Many thanks for you answers. See you in game

Happy to help! Feel free to friend me in-game and if you have any questions just whisper me.

Something to note about ascended: it is unnecessary. If you do want it but don’t want to spend gold on it, the upcoming raids will have a good chance to drop armor boxes with ascended gear, and the devs (today) announced changes that will be made to fractals in December to make it so that they actually have a chance to drop ascended boxes again.

Ascended weapons are great to have but not necessary, though I do think that every level 80 should have exotic weapons at minimum (considering how cheap they are at least), but underwater content is pretty limited (i.e. nearly nonexistent) in HoT so that does not need to be your first priority. You do not carry your water weapon stats on land.

I do still do dailies, though since I only have 2 alts that are not yet at max level I don’t spend as much time on them as consistently. I do fractal dailies every day but not the regular group of dailies. They are worthwhile to do if you are leveling an alt or planning on it, and they can be quick sources of karma and some materials. Though honestly, you are going to want to spend a lot of time in HoT maps getting exp for HoT masteries (remember that you cannot farm exp for HoT masteries in Central Tyria and vice versa) so that will take precedence.

Let me know if you have any other questions, I hope this all helps!

Congratulations, this is the first comment I’ve seen that anyone wants more stuff gated behind crap tons of experience grinding.

This sentiment is not echoed by most people so I would not expect that more content be gated.

Anet has stated that they want to expand the story in raids, and with the first raid coming out in less than a week, there you go

Gern.2978:

I don’t know how you all are making all this gold you claim to be from doing events in HoT maps. That’s all I have done since I came back in order to get my masteries up, and I haven’t made even a fraction of the gold you all say you have. Do you have more specific advice for how to make gold off of these events?

How much of the stuff you get are you selling? Also, a very important part of this is that you do the events well on a map where other people do the events well. Look in the LFG for taxis to a high security level Verdant Brink and get your participation up to 200%. By the end of the night you’ll have gotten a crap ton of loot and a guaranteed exotic armor piece, but you have to succeed.

And before anyone says it, succeeding at the meta events is not hard, just try to ensure that you are organized. Be smart about it.

Hannelore.8153:

UnbentMars.9126:

Loosmaster.8263:

And this is why myself and guild members quit WvW. We now have to grind for buffs we already had and stripped away. Have fun with the new system.

Good for you, I hope you find somewhere you like better.

Why do people who don’t even play insist on coming to the forums and raining on everyone else’s parade?

And what I see here is someone defending the changes, raining on the “parade” of all those who got completely screwed with the new system.

Its not fun to lose absolutely everything you had for no reason, and if you aren’t someone who lost all of your hard work over the last few years from HoT, then you really should not be here and should not be discussing the subject. Its like popping into a school reunion for a school that you never went to.

Its okay to compliment things, but stick to complimenting things that are not directly and indescriminately bad for your fellow players.

When did I defend the changes? What part of anything I said (all of 2 short sentences) defended the problems that people are having? When did I compliment anything other than their decision to switch to a game they like better? Or did you miss the “Good for you” that I started with?

You’ve put a lot of words in my mouth, and I’m rather curious where you got them from.

In order:
1. Exotic gear will serve you just fine for everything. If you care about getting ascended gear (and fractals will give you some) then the priority is rings/amulet/accessories>Weapon(s)>backpiece>armor because armor only gives about a 2-5% bonus whereas weapons and the others give ~10% bonus to stats. There are tons of dynamic events in the level 80 zones (ESPECIALLY true in HoT maps, there is ALWAYS something going on)

2. Dungeons and fractals are tons of fun even though the dungeon community has shrunk because they nerfed the gold reward (though if the only reason you do something in a game is for monetary rewards then I think you are really missing out. Fractals are best in a guild group because you can chat and enjoy yourself, so I’d highly recommend them. There is an lfg finder, if you press Y in game you will find it and can choose the content that you look for a group in.

That said, please be kind to everyone else and if you join a group to do something you don’t know anything about, please ask for an explanation rather than just running around and potentially messing up the group (it happens alot and most people are happy to explain)

3. Season 2 is an expansion of your personal story following Season 1 (which is currently unavailable for any player). I do recommend getting it as it will help you understand everything leading into HoT, but I recommend looking up information about what occurred in Season 1 so you aren’t completely lost by Season 2. It is basically a single-player campaign with some good loot rewards. Season two will not give you access to maps that you did not already have access to, and the same is true for events.

4. Each map gives its own rewards, and map completion gives a bunch of rewards, some of which are necessary for legendary weapons. Additionally, map completion is very useful for when you are trying to get certain items, achievements, or do guild missions. Jumping puzzles are not necessary to complete the maps unless you have to do one in order to get to a Point of Interest, Vista, or Hero Point.

5. HoT is like the original maps on crack. There are always events going on in different places across the maps, the events lead up to bigger events, and the exploration is a bit difficult but very interesting and engaging with a lot more variety and stuff to do. The dynamic events are, in my opinion, the best designed ones yet in the game and are a lot of fun (as well as repeatable without getting boring).
The mobs are more difficult that Central Tyria mobs, but that means you get a better challenge. I recommend gear with the Soldier prefix (power, vitality, and toughness) or anything else that helps you survive rather than just do damage like gear with the Berserker prefix. There tend to be a fair number of people around so you can group up but you won’t find much that you can’t do alone as well.
The Elite Specializations have been a ton of fun for me, very unique in playstyle and I am super pleased with them. For the guardian, using the Elite Specialization does not require you to use a bow (though I like the way the bow works for it) and you can use the abilities you get from Dragonhunter while still using other weapons. The journey required to get the skills will take you all over the HoT maps in terms of exploration but is not too hard to get (you may fail to get to a certain one once or twice but that’s okay), and it is very worthwhile. For reference, you will need a total of 250 Hero Points to completely unlock the Elite Specialization, but each Hero Point in HoT maps is woth 10.

My personal recommendations: getting the masteries required to fully explore the jungle takes time. It may seem like a long and daunting task but it’s really not that bad if you just throw on some exp boosters and do the events and you’ll get a fair amount of EXP. As always, if you need help with something ask in map chat or join a guild that has helpful people in it.

Aldath.1275:

DresdenAllblack.1249:

What Mars said.

Hmmm, how many tomes should I be getting on a week?

Per week, if you do every fractal daily every day, approximately 21 (just from fractals). Factor in daily login reward chest will give you anywhere from 1 per week to a max of 10 depending on where you are in it, and if you then spend time in PvP you can get some more.

Additionally, doing the dailies gets some more tomes and a smattering of exp writs that give 10% of a level, and if you have any of the level 20 boosts you would only need 60 tomes for a new character.

Butter.3024:

when will this go live?

Only indication they gave is December

I feel sympathy towards your experience (though the comment insinuating that I finally get to have the experience of not knowing what to do is incorrect considering I’ve played since launch and have been an MMO player for the better part of a decade).

If you’ve got the map figured out, have you considered organizing it yourself? In your own words, everyone else is waiting on someone else to organize so (in the immortal words of Will I. Am) be the change you want to see.

If you managed to succeed after coming back to it, I fail to understand the point of your complaints at all because you obviously followed a near-exact line of actions to what I did and then won/got your loot.

Remember when Teq was first updated? Remember how long it took people to kill him, but now people just show up and effectively just zerg it down? This content has been out two weeks. If you know how to do it, try explaining it to everyone else to spread the knowledge rather than complaining about how everyone else was unhelpful (again, Will I. Am has the answers).

To your final point, I offered to explain it.

Also, to your original point, you could have made a thread either explaining the meta event or asking someone else to but instead you chose to complain about Anet (who is not responsible for how their players behave) so my empathy is not very high

Awaltir.5302:

UnbentMars.9126:

Sola.7250:

Ascended Armor was top tier, I’ve created 2 full sets (1 Hv, 1 Lt) through crafting and farming but, now there’s all this talk of Legendary Armor, I’d hate to see the cost of that!!!

Ascended gear has the same stats as legendary gear so the only real change between the two is the ability to switch stats at any time.

They are also making the legendary armor have collection stuff, so the actual gold cost will be mitigated by things that won’t require gold, but we will see

If it will be as mitigated as prec craft i would rather buy pre for armor.

The legendary armor precursors (an entiure ascended set) will be given to you upon compeltion of the precursor collection

LOL xD did you just happen to see it or were you looking for it?

Inc “my OCD is acting up” comment

harold.3526:

WE WANT THE CHANGES NOW!!!!! \o/\o/\o/\o/\o/

I assume you also mean you want buggy and untested edits to content that was just recently fixed (and still having a few issues)? Good luck

Jack.1469:

UnbentMars.9126:

For a numerical reference, I’ve made some 400 gold (not including the 900 from a precursor that dropped and sold well) from selling just mats and stuff that dropped in fractals and I’ve only been playing an hour to 2 hours a day since release. I recommend doing Verdant Brink or Dragon Stand (Dragon Stand is nice and linear with a large number of champs)

What fractal lvls do you do?

I’ve done 1-35 and a smattering between 35 and 80 (I’m working on completing all of them for the achievements and loot boxes) and I’ve done all the dailies except the Master level ones about 8 or 9 times.

In rereading my post, I realize it was misleading: I’ve gotten 400 gold from fractals AND doing HoT maps.

That said, get your fractal mastery level up to tier 3 and then go over to the island. There’s an NPC that you can use to upgrade fractal infusions for approximately 60% of the cost of doing it through Artificer crafting. I’ve made (my best guess at least) 150 some gold (net, not gross) on top of the 400g by buying +1 agony infusions in bulk, upgrading them to +9 or +10 and then selling them on the TP.

@Tearthy

My apologies, then I misunderstood what you were getting at. I have to disagree with your thoughts (though both of us can only state opinion rather than fact) of the efficacy of the Elite Specializations; I am having a blast with all of them so far and I am finding them to be just as effective (if not more so) at countering various content, but part of GW2 is that you can change your specialization quickly and for free so if I find myself in a situation where my Elite Spec is not working well I can come back with a better plan and succeed after modifying my playstyle. For me, that’s what GW2 PVE has always been about, changing my approach to fit the circumstance.

To your point about changing the core way a profession plays: I don’t remember them saying that, but they have for a large number of professions. Daredevil and Berserker are vastly different from earlier iterations of thief and warrior respectively, and the ES that I’m finding the least functionally different from the original is Chronomancer from Mesmer; the Chrono’s abilities being additional utilizations (more imaginative as well) of earlier tools.

I dislike Tangled Depths as well, but I have yet to see anyone who does, and even if DS is similar to old content I think it is done rather well and the last boss in it is a unique and great experience to GW2. Verdant Brink and Auric Basin are unique in GW2 (Verdant because of the nature of the map-wide meta rather than smaller scale stuff and Auric because of the coordinated requirements/variety of events and victory requirements). To be fair, most of GW2 is about repeating content as is the case for any MMO, just finding new ways to do it.

I’m excited for raids, and to be honest I’m very pleased with the meta events in HoT because they add so much endgame content that requires engagement in order to fully succeed rather than the 1zerg “endgame” content in Orr on the original release

spoj.9672:

No chance of it being implemented before december? Or at least portions of the changes. Seems like quite a long wait. :P

Probably not. They have their hands full with the first 3 raid wings, and I’d rather that Anet take a little longer to make these fixes than do it in a slapdash manner. Actually, this will be a good time period to save up encryption boxes and spend stabilizing matrixes on keys while they still give 2

I recommend you all go read the newest post on the Fractal forum by the devs. Changes ahoy!

Opt.3714:

I’m aware that I can buy keys outright. In the current system, salvaging rings is more efficient (on average) than that, and I’m wondering if that will still be true in the new system.

I doubt it, I think buying the keys outright is looking like it will be more efficient.

My recommendation is to organize it yourself. Every map I’ve been on has had a large number of people milling around/exploring because they don’t know how to start the event. I just tag up and start telling people to do things in map chat and then we get organized pretty quick.

Opt.3714:

Balance, Ascended drops, and XP: Sounds awesome! Can’t wait for these changes to go out

Regarding the Stabilizing Matrix change (1 key instead of 2,) is salvaging an Ascended ring still going to be an efficient way of acquiring extra Matrices to buy keys with? I’m concerned that it will be a net loss with the high (and excessive, imo) 1g cost of an Ascended Salvage kit.

Just use fractal relics to buy the keys, they are inexpensive and have been worth it so far (especially so with the liquid rewards getting a boost)

This looks like a very good compromise between the demands of the players and the changes y’all already made to Fractals. Anet, thank you for considering the feedback you received but also not just throwing your hands up in the air and saying ‘kitten it’!

I’ll be interested to see the numbers after the updates, is there a timeline for when these changes will be implemented?

EDIT: I missed the December line in the original post, sorry!

SamTheGuardian.2938:

famfamfam.9137:

To be fair, you spent the first 5 minutes complaining in map chat and mis-understanding how megaservers worked. If you want to do the event, you need to politely discuss the best way to get into a good run with people who have the knowledge. You can’t expect to get into a successful Dragon Stand run any more than you could expect to turn up to Teq exactly when he spawns and automatically be in a good map.

So… You believe a player coming into the Dragon Stand map for the first time (as I was this morning) should know all this?!? I’m assuming you were the person who was the only other person on the map instance I landed in after getting booted from the first map for no reason (bug). On the first map instance I was in I was told 10 minutes in advance that the event was about to start. I DID ask the community for help and was hanging out. I ask “how does this work” and was told “just wait and you’ll see”. Me “do I need to be in party”. Map chat community “No, you’re good”.

The game developer has a responsibility to inform the player what is going on. The community does not hold this responsibility. Regardless, both failed in this case. As once booted I returned to an instance only to find myself completely alone, only save for you (one person who was not doing the meta event). Explain how this is good design?

I think by raising that question (“is this good design”) the community has actually given ArenaNet motivation to make a lot of positive change in the game.

You can say “you should research the event in forums or elsewhere on the internet before trying it” and you’re never going to get me to agree to that, because it’s just WRONG. That should not be a requirement.

I knew about what time the reset would happen and that’s all I wanted to know. I tried to get on-line early for this event and still was locked out less five minutes after reset. Do you think that’s acceptable? And what to do in an instance that has no population? Story chapter content I guess, but nor much else because you’re all alone and obviously your instance will not be able to complete the meta event even though it is active on the map you’re on.

A better design would at the very least provide more cues to the user who finds themselves locked out a instance what’s happened and would also kill the meta event on the less populated maps and offer alternative dynamic events. That way if you miss maps where the meta is occurring at least you can do something on the Dragon Stand map instead of run around in a sad lonely instance imaging what things would be like if you had a group big enough to do it.

Having not completed it, it’s hard to make recommendations but it seems the DS meta would be be served as a 10 man instance using the new squad interface instead of being a map meta that we have to wait for a reset on otherwise be completely locked out of. Being an instance would also assist those getting booted late in the game (at least I was kicked out early).

As implemented it seems like a really rotten design.

The game developer does NOT have a responsibility to hold your hand and explain every little thing. If you seriously expect to be able to know everything about what to do the moment you walk into a map then that’s a pretty boring game.

First time I walked into Dragon Stand I walked forward until I found some mobs while chatting with people in map chat. We got crushed by a legendary mob and then wiped by the dragon, then we got back up, compared notes, and proceeded to complete all the events up to the Dragon’s Mouth before we couldn’t figure out what to do there. Then we wiped, then we compared notes again, and then the next day we beat it.

Learn by playing, and if that’s too hard for you go to Queensdale and do the event chains there because if Dragon’s Stand is too hard to understand then I have nothing but pity for you.

If you still can’t figure something out, ask people in map chat. There’s plenty of people who have figured out how to make things work and are more than happy to tell you. For your complaint about the “wait and see” responses you got, it’s because even the slightest amount of attention paid to the queues (or, for example, reading the event descriptions) I find it shocking that you can’t figure out what to do.

If you are still having problems, reply to this and say “I don’t understand what to do in Dragon’s Stand. Can you explain what to do for the Meta Event?” and I would be happy to explain it to you.

Countess Anise. In LS2 when you are at the diplomats gathering in The Grove Canach guesses something (I won’t spoil it) that infuriates her and she tells him to stop talking. What he guesses could mean any number of things but there is a ton of information in her story that we have yet to see

Fractal dailies will get you a lot of infusions that you can sell, and doing event chains in Verdant Brink drops a crapload of materials and salvageable gear. I’ve made 400 gold since release (not including a precursor that dropped and I sold for 900g) playing 1-2 hours day on average.

Verdant Brink or Dragon Stand event are way more fun than dungeon-running and grinding anyway, and on top of that you’ll get a ton of EXP for your masteries if you throw on a birthday and exp booster

Tomes of Knowledge. I recommend doing fractal dailies on a max level (you get 3 or so per day that way) or, if you are PvP inclined, sPvP reward tracks (though you won’t get as many).

Alt+Left click and then drag to a new slot in your bag (alt clicking by itself wont do anything)

For a numerical reference, I’ve made some 400 gold (not including the 900 from a precursor that dropped and sold well) from selling just mats and stuff that dropped in fractals and I’ve only been playing an hour to 2 hours a day since release. I recommend doing Verdant Brink or Dragon Stand (Dragon Stand is nice and linear with a large number of champs)

You’ve stated both that Anet keeps changing everything and that nothing new has been added. Besides, a whole lot of us are really enjoying the new content (I like the HoT maps better than any other map in the game with the exception of Tangled Depths).

Elite Specializations aren’t supposed to change how enemies behave, they change how you do and they are so vastly different from previous options available (e.g. a Reaper is just about the polar opposite of a traditional Necromancer) that I don’t see how you could be upset with the variety. Another piece of new content that has dramatically altered the game and increased the variety of playstyles. Keep in mind that the Elite Specializations aren’t supposed to be more powerful than the original ones, they are supposed to be alternates.

And finally, if you are bored, either find something new to do in GW2 or go do something else. It’s really that simple.

Do events in HoT maps. You get so many materials and gear to salvage and sell that it will fall out of your ears in a heartbeat.

Gold drops have not been nerfed, just shifted to different sources. Instead of complaining about an old source, find the new ones.

An interesting challenge. I would have thought that you would say that you can only be norn and you can do the personal stories that take place in the Shiverpeaks (since those only go up to level 20 or so, higher if you choose Durmand Priory

PVT is actually not that bad. Might stacking and permanent fury are your best friend and those combined with the survivability that PVT herald offers and you are doing pretty well

You are not taking into the account that you can use shiro’s heal skill then immediately get a second heal after switching to your alternate legend. Shiro’s skill is great where it is, especially when you can pair it with personal quickness and heal a large amount very quickly.

Loosmaster.8263:

And this is why myself and guild members quit WvW. We now have to grind for buffs we already had and stripped away. Have fun with the new system.

Good for you, I hope you find somewhere you like better.

Why do people who don’t even play insist on coming to the forums and raining on everyone else’s parade?

SlyDevil.3952:

morrolan.9608:

You’re from DnT don’t you know what masteries are required? The info in those links is vague.

We don’t have the devs stop by our voice comms server and tell us about upcoming releases.

It was stated that you would need to jump off a boss platform and use gliding to avoid a one shot mechanic(2nd or 3rd boss, maybe not even this wing). We know there are mushrooms in the vale guardian area for movement speed boosts/attack speed boosts.

Yes, that boss is in a video they released (I believe they said it was the last boss of the first wing). For it you will need gliding level 1 and 2 since you need updrafts in order to get back on the platform.

I don’t know about the mushrooms but it wouldn’t surprise me.

nightwulf.1986:

It’s possible that the completion rate (elapsed completion time/successive completions) for Fractals post-HOT is something Anet is gathering data on before throwing ascended back into the reward system at the same rate as before. Think about it, if Ascended were rewarded now at the same rates as before for 40-50+ range fractals, the effect would be a significant increase in the amount of fractal gear being awarded for comparatively easier fractal runs. Fractals are very, very accessible right now. And it wouldn’t be out of the question to run multiple high level fractals in succession for significantly higher gains than before. I don’t think that would be an intended outcome of the fractal change.

I feel like what we should be asking is:
Do we like the reward system now?
Do we like consistent guaranteed rewards at the end of every fractal (fractal encryptions, agony resistance)?
Do we want ascended drop rates that are greater, less than, equal to before?
*on the “less than”option, some players do believe that balance of rewards should be based on a number of factors including difficulty, and therefore may opt to lower the reward of certain content if it seems to pay out significantly more than the effort put in.

Personally, I’m not sure how they could justify increasing fractal drop rates to what they were before in the 40-50 range given how much quicker and easier they are now. They may increase it for the much higher levels based on the timetables some people have claimed for completion. But, I’m sure Anet is listening to the complaints but also has some internal metric on player Ascended gear acquisition rates that they are trying to balance out.

I think a great follow-up question to that is not just internal, but external. How many options does Anet want people to have access to Ascended gear in? If Anet only wants X amount of ascended pieces entering players bags each, for example, week, how does the Fractals chance balance with the raids chances?

To all the people who don’t want the timer and to all the people who do want a timer to ensure that you cant nomad/afk a fight:

A good compromise would be to have some mechanic (like mob spawns or a DoT effect) that increases in damage over time so that you have a soft cap rather than a hard enrage timer. This opens the door to a variety of challenge matches, including but not limited to:

Kill the boss after surviving x amount of time without the boss falling under 50% health (to really build up that DoT or mob spawns)
Kill the boss without killing any additional mobs (gotta kill it fast)
Kill x number of mobs within x number of seconds (have to tank a high number of mobs until you build up enough)

I think this would pair very well with the Challenge Mote mechanics we’ve started seeing in fractals.

Additionally, adding something similar to Mistlock Instabilities would be great as an extra challenge with an extra reward for completing with one or more. Thoughts?

Zerikin.1593:

UnbentMars.9126:

Sola.7250:

Ascended Armor was top tier, I’ve created 2 full sets (1 Hv, 1 Lt) through crafting and farming but, now there’s all this talk of Legendary Armor, I’d hate to see the cost of that!!!

Ascended gear has the same stats as legendary gear so the only real change between the two is the ability to switch stats at any time.

They are also making the legendary armor have collection stuff, so the actual gold cost will be mitigated by things that won’t require gold, but we will see

Right, just like the new precursor crafting did for the existing legendaries… oh wait.

Did what, relieve some of the gold cost in exchange for time needing to be spent on them? Yes, that is what they did

morrolan.9608:

UnbentMars.9126:

morrolan.9608:

UnbentMars.9126:

To be honest, even if drop rates are slightly under what individuals think they should be, we need to be supportive of Anets first attempt at a raid. The most important reason being that they are less likely to make more if the only thing people do is complain and I for one want more. Even if their first attempt is not as good as people think it could be, I’m glad they are trying.

I’m supportive of the raids. I’m glad they are implementing them and am trying to organise a guild group. But they need feedback on them. Not that I think they’ll change the rewards unless the number of people doing raids is very low. If its only 3 bosses it makes the chance of ascended even worse. My feedback to arenanet is that the chance should be increased to have parity with raid rewards in other games. Yes I know we get a full set of ascended after completing the first 3 raid wings but how long will that take?

Woah we get a full set of ascended after clearing the first 3 wings? I didn’t see that but I hope it’s true…do you have a link? .

This is the sentence from the article: " Completion of this first collection will span the first three raid wings. Once completed, it will award a set of ascended precursor armor and unlock the next stages of the journey."

Reading it again though it doesn’t state the collection will be complete when doing the first 3 raid wings once so I’m probably wrong there. It will probably take multiple times.

Ah, when I read it I must have skipped ascended because I thought it was exotic like the weapon precursors. It is a collection but I imagine a fair amount of that collection will be outside the raids, and a fair amount will be inside the raids. Good news though, there is a way to get a guaranteed ascended set at least.

I am in a larger guild (some 300 people, 80-120 are active representers) but we have a number of members who are in 5-10 person guilds for their main guilds. They join us for a lot of our missions and we share some resources/help them out when they ask for it, so I recommend befriending people in a larger guild who are willing to help out, specifically for clearing the Guild Hall and missions

Thank you! The forums are just chock full of these “i need it NOW” whiners and it’s nice to see someone who understands that these things are supposed to take time and are meant to be a journey the Guild takes together. For the first upgrade my guild was a little taken aback at the silky sand cost for making the mugs, but we split into temas to farm in the Silverwastes and some of the PvP tracks and got it in an hour or two (and had some great conversations and fun while doing it).

The Instant Gratification mentality that pervades the forums is going to be the death of GW2 someday. Whatever happened to enjoying the journey?

Fay.2357:

UnbentMars.9126:

Fay.2357:

spoj.9672:

Phantasms dont die anymore so yeah.

Obviously, but that doesn’t make my rough math wrong. You won’t have 3 swordsmen up 100% of the time because there’s ramp up time on summoning them, and that sacrifices higher party alacrity uptime which almost definitely outweighs the higher dps of swordsman over avenger.

Additionally, my point still stands. Even in an absolutely perfect scenario for chrono with 3 swordsmen 100% of the time and an absolutely ludicrous personal dps value, you’re still doing dps that makes you look like a little kid compared to engineer.

Then you obviously aren’t playing a mesmer right. A chronomancer can do a kitten ton of personal damage and alacrity affects them just as much as the rest of the group (more actually since there’s a trait to double the duration of self-applied alacrity)

Unfortunately, you’re totally wrong. Alacrity has almost no effect at all on Mesmer dps, because Mesmer dps is non-cooldown reliant. Once phantasms are up, our highest dps is to simply autoattack (technically I think blurred frenzy is like 1% higher, but burning it as much as possible will make you lose more dps when you have to dodge instead of just using BF). This is affected by quickness obviously, but not alacrity at all.

Additionally, I’m rather curious as to where you’re getting all this massive personal damage from. Mesmer sword auto is by far the worst melee dps auto in the game, not even considering that most classes have substantial dps boosts from cooldown skills as well. I certainly hope you’re not trying to imply the use of shatters for sustained dps…

Other fun things to note: the trait increases personal alacrity duration by a factor of 1.5, not doubling it. Additionally, playing properly as a chrono means that you and the rest of your party will have 100% uptime on alacrity, so that trait only makes it easier for you to maintain it anyway.

Chronomancer can make great use of shatter builds with the trait that makes it so you get your phantasms back after you shatter them. And Alacrity is most useful for Wells (which give you the ability to cast alacrity even more frequently) and your phantasms skills.

For example: 3 phantasms up, blow all 3 on Continuum and drop all your wells on the same spot, then shatter all 3 phantasms. Then trigger continuum to get all your well CDs back and drop them again. Each of those will give you alacrity and you will have your phantasms, wells, and continuum shatter back in no time for you to rinse an repeat. Mobs melt to this for me, and in groups its even better because of constant alacrity support.

My experience thus far has been that chronomancers are even better at shatter builds than original mesmers while being great dps enablers in groups (much better than before even) and still having great sustained damage. I love my chronomancer and the only reason i don’t play him more is because I’m enjoying the playstyle of the Revenant

EDIT: and shattering phantasms gives alacrity itself so even more of it, though at this point you may find yourself never running out so that doesn’t necessarily add a huge amount

From the videos they released, levels 1 and 2 of gliding are necessary (and those are very easy to acquire, just spend an hour with an xp booster doing event trains in verdant brink) and I would wager that having level 1 itzel mastery for the shroom jump will be useful.

They announced that a new line of masteries (Rift Traveler I think it’s called) will become available with the launch of the 1st raid and I believe that will be extremely useful but not necessary. Their original statements were that you could do fine in raids without masteries as long as at least a few members had certain ones and that looks to be the case. Additionally, the bosses will drop items that give a large amount of experience (>10% of your current mastery bar) that will have doubled amounts of experience for whatever raid wing is the most current, so leveling masteries will become even faster.

Even so, grinding for masteries is really easy and people think about it the wrong way. Just do events like you normally would with exp boosters and a birthday gift booster on and they’ll level very quickly on their own.

Fay.2357:

spoj.9672:

Phantasms dont die anymore so yeah.

Obviously, but that doesn’t make my rough math wrong. You won’t have 3 swordsmen up 100% of the time because there’s ramp up time on summoning them, and that sacrifices higher party alacrity uptime which almost definitely outweighs the higher dps of swordsman over avenger.

Additionally, my point still stands. Even in an absolutely perfect scenario for chrono with 3 swordsmen 100% of the time and an absolutely ludicrous personal dps value, you’re still doing dps that makes you look like a little kid compared to engineer.

Then you obviously aren’t playing a mesmer right. A chronomancer can do a kitten ton of personal damage and alacrity affects them just as much as the rest of the group (more actually since there’s a trait to double the duration of self-applied alacrity)

I’d rather have delayed content than no content at all, and I’d rather have delayed content than more bugged and unplayable content. I’m glad Anet delayed them (they stated as much) to help ensure that their release is smoother. A company as small as Anet does not have the resources to focus on too many things at once and I’ve seen it posted on the forums a thousand times “Anet overextended itself, they should have released _ things one at a time and gotten rid of the bugs instead of all at once.”

Honestly, you people can’t be pleased no matter what and Anet has learned the lesson that so many other developers do: you can’t please everyone so you should do what makes sense to you and ignore most of the complaints

Besides the semantic arguments about whether to call it a fractal or a raid, I think this would be a great idea. It gives newbies a way to experience the LS1 that they missed and oldies a way to relive it, as well as some use for those character models that haven’t been added anywhere in the game. Additionally, some new fractals would be very welcome.

BlankHearts.8216:

Now that I think about it, Glint does have that regeneration facet I could use. So I could stick with Shiro/Glint since that is revenants main DPS combination, but I could also use it as support through regen.

What would be some good runes for that and what kind of stat combination would I be looking for?

For personal dps, scholar. For group support, Water and Monk both have boon duration and that might stack can be pretty awesome since you can double your own boon duration by yourself. If anyone could figure out how to make Runes of the Herald, the would be best because they give a ton of boon duration. But again, that’s for groups. Solo you are pretty much always better off with scholar.

timmyf.1490:

UnbentMars.9126:

timmyf.1490:

UnbentMars.9126:

raids which have been stated to have a 15% chance drop rate for an ascended box per boss (so ~2 group members will get ascended loot per boss per week). Even at it’s height, fractals were nowhere near that rate.

I just looked up KING’s droprate research. I’m seeing 4.2% weapon, 11.9% armor, 11.7% skin.

Now, you can definitely argue that a Fractal 50 takes a lot longer than a raid boss – or at least once people figure all them out and start farming them – but let’s not be misleading about the droprates in Fractals.

I thought Anet had said 15%, but 4.2% and 11.9% are significantly higher than anywhere else in the game so my point still stands. That said, how did he do his droprate research? May I see the link?

EDIT: I thought you were talking about raids, but KING’s research is for fractals. If the 15% is for raids, my point still stands in that raids have the highest drop chance in the game up until now.

FRACTALS had 4.2/11.9%. That means FRACTALS had 16%. If raids have 15%, that’d basically be in line with old Fractals.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18IHVJao5j85KOp6lBTOgO8qs4VYD3Xty-jKPZo8o-Q4/pubhtml#

Edit: haha that ninja edit!

Percentages don’t work in a cumulative manner like that, so no, fractals did not have a 16% chance.

timmyf.1490:

UnbentMars.9126:

raids which have been stated to have a 15% chance drop rate for an ascended box per boss (so ~2 group members will get ascended loot per boss per week). Even at it’s height, fractals were nowhere near that rate.

I just looked up KING’s droprate research. I’m seeing 4.2% weapon, 11.9% armor, 11.7% skin.

Now, you can definitely argue that a Fractal 50 takes a lot longer than a raid boss – or at least once people figure all them out and start farming them – but let’s not be misleading about the droprates in Fractals.

I thought Anet had said 15%, but 4.2% and 11.9% are significantly higher than anywhere else in the game so my point still stands. That said, how did he do his droprate research? May I see the link?

EDIT: I thought you were talking about raids, but KING’s research is for fractals. If the 15% is for raids, my point still stands in that raids have the highest drop chance in the game up until now.

SirMoogie.9263:

UnbentMars.9126:

I don’t know about pushing into certain roles since no one is making anyone utilize the specializations, but they definitely added a ton of new options for each profession as to how they play their role

Push is probably too strong of a word, provide more tools for one role over another would have been a better way of phrasing it.

That I definitely agree with. For example, I don’t even use the longbow on my dragonhunter, but wading into melee with my greatsword and traps makes for a devastating combo, in the same way that I don’t use the shield for my Herald but the might and fury buffs from Glint’s legendary stance as phenomenal for using a sword/axe combo

Sola.7250:

Ascended Armor was top tier, I’ve created 2 full sets (1 Hv, 1 Lt) through crafting and farming but, now there’s all this talk of Legendary Armor, I’d hate to see the cost of that!!!

Ascended gear has the same stats as legendary gear so the only real change between the two is the ability to switch stats at any time.

They are also making the legendary armor have collection stuff, so the actual gold cost will be mitigated by things that won’t require gold, but we will see

Harny.6012:

harold.3526:

because they don’t care about dungeons anymore, they will not fix any dungeons, they will not develop new dungeons, they will not spend money in dungeons, they want to discourage dungeons.

Isn’t a BIG part of their incentive the fact that “Arah can’t give more gold than raids”?

Exactly. A lot of people seem to be pretending that there’s been support or additional resources given to dungeons prior to now when we haven’t gotten a new dungeon or serious updates to old dungeons in years. Besides, if dungeons gave more rewards than raids these same people would be complaining that the raids arent worth doing and that it’s a travesty that the hardest, newest content doesn’t give better rewards that what is basically the oldest content.

SirMoogie.9263:

Fay.2357:

Chrono. You already do low damage and are primarily there for quickness/alacrity, which means your raid sacrifices less damage from you than from any other class. Additionally, boss control makes it easier to correctly place your well combo for team buffing.

I think Arena Net intended the specilizations to push professions into certian roles. It’s not that they can’t be used for other things, but it’s clear Chrono has upped mesmer control and durability options in a very mesmer-esque way (e.g., a mesmer doesn’t survive a hit by mitigating damage completely, they take it and warp time backwards to when they had full health). The gear you get as a chrono in collections also tends towards PvT stats.

Daredevil also seems to be along these lines, but I’m not sure how successful they were with that.

I don’t know about pushing into certain roles since no one is making anyone utilize the specializations, but they definitely added a ton of new options for each profession as to how they play their role