Guild Wars 2

This is really more what I’d like to see, but hey I can dream:

1) Sword no longer roots you in place during the 1 chain (if this isn’t there I’ll /facedesk)
2) Shortbow 1 always bleeds.
3) Longbow does ~15% more damage across all skills.
4) Arrows from bows travel to the target ~50% faster.
5) Greatsword damage increased by ~15% across all skills.
6) Sigil of the Hunt now gives 20% movement speed bonus.
7) Pets can attack and move at the same time.
8) Pets F2 skills now activate instantly and will interrupt any current pet action.
9) Spirits can can no longer be damaged and active abilities trigger on the Rangers location.
10) Trapper’s Expertise has been removed and traps are 50% larger and ground targeted by default.
11) Trap Potency moved to Master level in Wilderness Survival.
12) Martial Mastery moved from Wilderness Survival to Skirmishing at the Master level.
13) New Grandmaster Skirmishing trait (not sure what, but need something there).
14) Main Hand Axe attack speed increased by 0.1 seconds on the #1 skill.
15) Master’s Bond only resets on pet or player death. Switching pets or entering water will no longer remove stacks.
16) Ummm…. assorted bug fixes and stuff. (?)

Edit: Thought of a #16) Damage on Harpoon gun 1 skill has been doubled (seriously less than 100 damage on a full power build is not okay, even tripled wouldn’t been outlandish).

Still want bug fixes too but to me those are a separate issue altogether.

It really depends what look you are going for. My suggestion is to go use the PvP locker to preview stuff. To get there click on the PvP menu (top left of the screen, right side of the list of buttons), the click “Go to the Mists” (or whatever it says). Once you’re through the tutorial area, you can just run through without doing the ‘hearts’ if you want, find the PvP bank/locker things.

Almost every skin in the entire game is in there and can be previewed. The names are different than in PvE but a google search (or asking here) will get you the corresponding PvE name pretty quickly. I know racial armor is not in the PvP locker, and I think a few other things but the vast majority is there to be previewed at your leisure. Weapons are there too obviously.

That’s what I did in my pursuit of a making my ranger look like he’s wearing armor made out of stuff he killed. There’s still no chest piece I really like but a few that are acceptable.

That’s how rangers used to be in BWE1 and BWE2. BWE3 the ranger got nerfed hard because there was a lot of QQ about rangers (there was more about warriors) and they got hit hard by the nerf bat (warriors didn’t).

We did get the 3 shout skills to give the ranger the same number of utilities as other classes for BWE3 though. (yay….)

This is good advice except cancelling auto-attack is finicky at the best of times. Escape will usually stop your auto but if you’re using a SB you already have 2-3 arrows in the air so you’re SoL on that and if you just used quickness you may have 5-6 arrows already in the air that you can’t cancel. Once you deselect it may reselect the target and go back to shooting as well which puts another 1-2 arrows in the air before you can cancel.

It also occurs that sometimes the game will switch your target because your old target goes off-screen (or just the edge of the screen) and then the game will auto acquire a new target which may be the daggerstorm thief.

I know there are options you can (de)select that alleviate some of these problems but they also create new problems when (de)selected.

The Scavenger Hunt.

Starts at person in the plazza (with the Durmand Priory, I think there’s a pumpkin over her head). You can google it and find a walkthrough easily or you can try to solve the riddles yourself.

That’s the number one thing I would do and the only thing guaranteed to get you a “Hey, I was there” item in the form of the 2 back-slot books.

If you can do it in the next 9 hours do the Mad King’s Dungeon in LA. Also go through a portal in Queensdale/Kessex/Gendarran and explore in there a bit (make sure to talk to the guy). Given the Clocktower a shot or three.

Sounds like we have roughly the same luck and have opened about the same number of bags. Although mine were mostly regular ToT bags (I have another 6k in the bank right now, fingers crossed).

I support this suggestion. It’s just nice to know if the RNG hates you persistence will pay off eventually. Arachnophobia is a good example. RNG hates me but I’ll make it one day!

I’m getting really sick of these threads honestly.

First, if someone asked me for help I’d probably do it. I always rez everyone (unless their naked in an obvious botting place), I even make detours to rez people and it seems like most people are the same so if you’re patient some random kind soul will rez you. Also, if I saw someone who was obviously trying to get the book I’d stop and help.

Second, it takes around 1 hour to get a level if you try. The event will have been going for 11 days. The first book required Gendarran Fields. That’s a 25 to 35 area. Level was a concern and you got to level 25-35 (let’s say 30) then you would only need around 20 levels (you can get by in a level 55 to 60 area at level 50) over 7 days (26th to the 1st) to get the 2nd book easily and alone. That’s 2 to 3 hours a day, it’s not that much.

I understand some people may not be able to do it for various reasons but most people who have had the game for a month or more should have no problem at all. One hour a day average for someone who bought the game on October 1st should be level 31 by the end of the month and easily get the first book (and the second wouldn’t be that hard if you just ask for help).

It’s just not a staggeringly difficult problem to overcome if you are actually motivated.

Just a friendly public service announcement.

On average regular ToT bags turn in to 2 to 2.5 candy corn. At least that’s what I averaged out to across about 15,000 to 20,000 bags.

Personalized ToT bags seem to be between 2.5 and 3 candy corn on average. Unfortunately my personal sample here is only around 2,000.

So if you want to stockpile a lot of Candy Corn you’re probably better off stockpiling ToT bags for storage reasons.

Ahhh, the sweet QQ of rich market controlling speculators.

This is a temporary influx. The market will reset itself post Halloween.

Other than desperately wanting some way to use the obscene amounts of corn, teeth, nougats, and skulls I have I’m quite happy (which should be obvious by the fact that I have obscene amounts I have nothing to do with after putting aside enough for crafting later).

This bug seems to happen if someone opens the gate at the start and then everyone leaves the instance.

Rangers can get by in Orr just fine solo. You have to pay attention but I solo the vet giants for farming when event aren’t up (lots of grubs).

As a previous posted mentioned the veteran risen abominations should be avoided though, as well as most champions (broodmother isn’t too bad).

As a result of getting the Greatsaw skin I actually decided to play around with greatsword on my 80. I’m still not completely sold on it but I’ve been having a lot of fun with this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQJARVjEV11xVSWoWCgli9CsfYS2DFd8xvgCW1A

The build is my general build. Events I use Viper and Flame traps and sometimes swap out SB for Axe/Horn or Torch (depends on the event). WvW I use Viper and Frost, I’m usually running around doing smaller operations away from the zergs though.

QZ gets swapped out if I want Signet of the Hunt to run faster but I find the leap on the GS is actually better than the Horn for getting around.

General play involves opening with the leap or SB as you will and then lots of jumping in and out constantly changing, but controlling the spacing of the fight. It’s very much a skirmishing build, lots of hit and run. I actually find it more rewarding to play this way than Axe/Horn + SB ever was. I’m not sure it’s more efficient but it’s more fun to me.

Edit: Weapons are all Pow/Pre/Crit, armor is Pow/Pre/Tough, and jewels are a mix of 3 Pow/Vit/Crit and 2 Pow/Pre/Crit. Sigils and Runes I haven’t really decided on yet mostly I just run Traveler’s runes because +5% move speed is nice.

What he said.
<.<
>.>
I have nothing to add but this is just a good post. GW1 was always about having a bajillion things to do and just doing what seemed fun. Oddly I played it primarily every September through November. Never missed a Halloween but regularly missed Wintersday (hopefully not this year).

Another satisfied player here.

- Clock Tower is the best thing ever! I’m an old school gamer and I like my achievements to be for achieving something challenging not “Reached Level 2! Good Job Timmy!”
- I actually had good luck (I guess) with the BLC/MKCs. I do think there should have been a Halloween related way to get keys though (hopefully it’s coming?).
- The Act 2 mini games are great fun.
- The festive visual changes of all kinds are superb. Anet’s art team is amazing.

My only complaint is that I seem to be broke from compulsively hoarding ToT bags…. I’ve opened ~20,000 and have 6,000+ in the bank. help me….?

I expect it to be mainly visual and the achievement for “Attend the Party.” It’s also likely we will get more ToT bags (probably personalized). Also very possible there will be a piece of town clothes, probably a hat, that will only be attainable to those who attended.

A little less likely would be something like everyone is sporadically and randomly transformed into a Halloween costume you can’t get out of forcing a huge costume brawl.

Two things I’d like to see is some way to get BLC keys as drops (unlikely) and something to spend corn, nougat, teeth, and skulls on that doesn’t also require 100g+ of normal materials. I want to use my Halloween currency to get Halloween stuff on Halloween (crazy right?)

If the survivor achievement worked I’d be right here with you complaining about the death counter. Since it’s bugged (still, wtf?) I can’t say I care about the death counter thing.

You can’t make up your own rules and then expect the world to care. Anet makes the game, you play it. Not the other way around. Besides, it’s your rule so you can make an exception.

Theoretically: Labyrinth chests (2 per day with, now, horrible drop rates).

Realistically: Trading Post.

They don’t have unique skins and the stat combo isn’t anything to write home about. I honestly wouldn’t bother. When I thought it was reasonable to get them I planned to farm them but with the chest nerf it just isn’t worth the effort/cost.

Some times it is THE strategy to use. I would be kind of annoyed with someone hiding from the start because if you can get the mob spawns out everyone’s life is a lot easier. If you’re one of the only ones left though, go hide.

There was a Dev post that has long since been buried by clock tower QQ that said that not all the areas are available. If you have:

Emissary: 3/5
Mad King’s World: 3/4
Attend the Party 0/1
(All others maxed)

You have done everything you can right now.

At least someone else understands the problem with “everyone gets a trophy.”

Honestly I’m disappointed with the reward for the Clock Tower. The only way for someone who beat it to prove it is to link the item in chat. It has no special skin. There is no special title. The achievement can’t be shown in any way.

Although, given that a lot of the rage over the Clock Tower seems to come from people who believe they need to do it for the Emissary title I can understand not having anything special. It’s just sad that people who actually accomplished something challenging get nothing really special/unique because those who can’t will cry foul.

Then again I grew up playing CoCo, NES, and SNES games and learned pretty quickly sometimes you just have to accept that you suck and will never beat whatever game. Back then we didn’t have forums to cry on or a way to demand devs give us our satisfaction. If we wanted the satisfaction of beating something, well we kitten well got better at it.

The Clock Tower will definitely be the thing I remember most fondly from this event. Followed closely by the scavenger hunt (which I did without google).

DemonNinja.1602:

NO DEVELOPER has stated that the event does not count towards the Mad King title… the thread linked had no official response.

Apparently the link opens the thread slightly below the Dev response. I’m sorry that it confused you.

Here it is again (remember, scroll up and look for the red):
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/halloween/Emissary-of-the-Mad-King-Can-t-count/first#post551370

If you’re going to try for them you need to cancel the open channeling the second you get the bags and keep moving. It is only a few ToT bags though and hardly worth risking it if you haven’t finished before.

On the other hand if you’ve finished before you might as well get them. ToT bags is the only thing waiting at the top anyway and you’re probably doing it for the fun challenge. A 3 chest run is kind of ‘hard mode’ I guess.

DemonNinja.1602:

No where as a developer stated it is not part of the Halloween title achievement.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/halloween/Emissary-of-the-Mad-King-Can-t-count/first#post551370

It’s on the first page, of the forum, marked with a little red talk bubble so you know Anet said something, and it’s the 6th post.

……………

P.S. I really like the Clock Tower. As an asuran ranger I’ve done it three times but stopped because I wanted to do other stuff and a few ToT bags really wasn’t worth it to me when I have ~6,000 in the bank.

You’re waiting because someone is still going from your group. Until everyone dies it won’t start over. If you watch the timer it goes up in small increments and when someone dies it jumps by about 4 times as much.

Infidel.8412:

So basically at this moment you should have 3 achievements. I think mad king’s world should be 3/4

This is exactly right. There’s still 1 zone of the Mad King’s Realm that we haven’t seen (Dev posted as much somewhere) and 3/5 for emissary.

Finishing Mad King’s World and Attend the Party are the only things you can’t do right now and those 2 will finish the 5/5 for emissary.

Again, Clock Tower and Pumpkins do not count towards the Emissary title.

zOFsky.5462:

1)Its profession dependent
Air attuned elemental with traits has speed bonus. Warrior dont have. Why some classes have advantage over others in here? Speed movement is very important here.
2)Waiting time.
If you do this thing for 1 hour, just to know, minimum 40 minutes you will spent waiting. Yes, it is a minimum, in reality it is more I guess. Standing still, doing nothing, watching this cinematic. Why waste our time so badly?
3)Another players (especially norns)
Huge models, they just blocking your view. Camera is horrible. Why did you make this group event? Well, I guess why, but couldnt you at least find better decision? match each race with each other, norns with norns, asuras with asuras?
And finally, its really a bit too hard. Yes, that is not a good reason, lets call it challenging. But its not fair at least, not equal for every player.

Now, after few hours of trying it just annoys me.

I did it on an Asuran Ranger with no speed buffs I’m aware of. I had my 10% sigil equipped before it started but don’t think it counts. I was also in the lead 90% of the time because I turned corners on the inside and found the most efficient route.

The wait time is worse when you fail. The closer you get to the end each time the less time you spend waiting. If you’re waiting a lot it’s because you failed and someone is still going. When everyone dies a new round starts almost immediately. In short, you are given a time out for sucking at it.

I did spend my fair share of time thinking “Sorry all you norn and charr. I’m sure you’re great people but… Please go die.”

Ask a friend with a high level character to help you? A single level 80 could clear it out and get you to them.

Clock Tower achievement doesn’t count towards the title. It is completely independent. Don’t do it and you miss out on 10 Achievement points. That’s it. Nothing more, nothing less.

Ten achievement points. Hardly worth fussing over.

Three words: Better.

In your picture it kind of looks like an open crows beak or something like that.

I would have expected them to match up but I think it looks pretty neat as it is now.

I would guess 12 o’clock. Now whether that is midnight or noon PDT… /shrug

I would just keep an eye on the forums though. Anet is usually pretty good at posting “It’s up.” GW2Guru also usually has a post up slightly before or after Anet does.

I would love a solid answer from Anet though.

Katreyn.4218:

I think my character is the number one cause of diabetes in the young future of Tyria. All I want is the Superior Rune recipe lol. I have given them so much candy.

I’ve had better luck getting recipes from regular ToT bags than the personalized ones from the kids. The personalized give a lot more skulls, nougats, and fangs though.

If it’s like GW1 some will be the same, some will be different.

Odds are the horns from the gem shop (the free one) will not be available next year but there will be a different one in its place.

I’m not really sure where I fall on all this because I saw the Arachnophobia and thought “Yay a non-my-little-pony-esque bow for my ranger!”

The recipe was extremely easy to get, in fact you could buy the halloween items you need right now for less than 2 gold.

Making the thing after getting the recipe will take some time, but I’m alright with that. It gives me something to work towards. The only way I won’t ever get it is if I don’t play and/or do the things that get me what I need.

I do think it’s silly that there is absolutely no chance of me ever using that bow during Halloween until next year because I just can’t get that many of those materials in a week. I’m going to probably use it year round though so I’m thinking of it as a new skin and not a Halloween skin.

Have you noticed it says “Made In Tyria” on the bottom where a real one might said “Made In China/Taiwan”?

I saw that today during a costume brawl when I got knocked out, made me laugh.

Both major and superior come from recipes you learn (as in double click the inventory item). I got both of those recipes from normal trick or treat bags.

- The ranger getting consistently nerfed throughout betas, okay I can deal with that.
- Rangers getting promised a utility skill overhaul and 3 missing utilities and getting nothing but the 3 shouts and spirit nerfs, disappointed.
- 2.5 months of nothing but nerfs a minor tweaks, sure… whatever. It’s not getting worse.
- Shortbow nerf to fix a mechanically insignificant visual bug no one saw… Frustrated.

At this point I I was feeling like “Okay, they have a plan. They can’t leave an entire profession this borked for long.”

- Big patch happens and the words “Ranger” and “Bow” are nowhere in the entirety of the patch notes…

I’m pretty thoroughly exasperated with the ranger. Specific problems are well documented. Anet even pointed one out, Shortbow is all about 1 spam. Unfortunately even though it is apparently ‘not fun to 1 spam’ it’s still the only viable thing to do with a shortbow post nerf.

Yup, no special skins for weapons the average ranger uses (bows and axe) and no class fixes/balances/mention of rangers actually being a thing that should be talked about…

I was looking forward to getting back in for the event with my ranger tonight. Maybe tomorrow this ranger will remember GW2 is a thing, in spite of GW2 forgetting rangers are a thing.

There’s too many problems with a ranger condition build that people seem to consistently ignore.

1) Shortbow only bleeds on flanking. This is fine in lower level PvE where enemies actually care about your pet. Once you get to Orr the AI seems to actually understand you get an advantage hitting them in the back and they are NOT okay with it.

2) Traps are necessary for a condition damage build to really shine. That means 30 points in Skirmishing which prevents you from ever really maximizing your conditions which requires wilderness survival and marksman.

3) Bleed/Burning/Poison caps. This is a huge deal. Especially running 2 rangers that should both be able to maintain near 100% burning uptime in a condition build alone. That means with 2 people you have too much burning and it’s just wasted DPS.

I used a condition build right up to around level 75 and then switched to power/precision/Crit% and haven’t looked back. Shortbow can easily get up to ~400 regular hits and ~800 crits which at a fire rate of 2.2 attacks per second is pretty freaking awesome. I still use traps but mostly for the utility they bring (e.g. CC, AoE tagging, poison to hurt healing).

Always put 5 points in Beastmastery. Always. More is fine, never less.

- Swap the trap and survival skill traits. Traps go in Wilderness Survival and Survival skills go in Skirmishing.

I don’t care if Survival not being in Wilderness Survival seems silly. It would make a lot of builds significantly more viable.

I still haven’t gotten around to getting the skins I want exactly but this is what I’m using for now.

I think I heard somewhere that the CoE and Mystic bows are the same, if not then that’s 2 different ones with lightning effects. I know for a fact that the Mystic bows have lightning effects at least.

Well it’s true there isn’t much else of use in Skirmishing for major traits but the 30% crit damage is really a big deal for some builds. Unfortunately not a trap build.

It just feels wrong having the trap traits in that line. There’s no synergy really and it ends up feeling confused.

I love this game. I love my 80 ranger. I love traps on my ranger (I wish I could use all 4 of them!). I hate traiting for traps.

As far as I’m concerned traps need both Trapper’s Expertise and Trap Potency. Both are just incredibly awesome. Trapper’s Expertise is mostly making them bigger but the GTAoE is nice too. Trap Potency it’s the double condition duration that matters, not so much the CD reduction but that’s nice. I have no problem getting these traits or them being traits. My problem is the trait line they are in.

Traps benefit poorly from critical hits. Frost Trap doesn’t even do damage so it can’t crit. Spike Trap does 3 stacks of bleeding that last 10 seconds when traited. It also immobilizes for ~2 seconds (I think the Trapper’s Expertise is required for the immobilize but it doesn’t say anything anywhere, it just does) and cripples for 4 seconds.

Flame Trap benefits hugely from condition damage and duration. Even on a full power/precision/crit% build the up to 6 seconds of burning does more damage than the actual damage part of the trap. Viper’s Nest is a bit better with the power/crit build since poison doesn’t do tons of damage but the damage pulses do (Flame Trap does more because of burning). I don’t know about you but if I’m bringing Viper’s nest I want the poison to prevent healing so condition duration is what I care about.

It doesn’t matter which trap it is condition damage and condition duration are what you want. But to make them useable you need 30 trait points in Precision and Crit%.

Why?

Wilderness Survival and Marksmanship are condition damage and condition duration, respectively. Either line the trait traps would just feel like they make the most sense. As it is you’d need 90 trait points to really “Trait for traps.”

Sorry, but this is just a little thing that really irritates me about my ranger. I love my traps but every build I do where I put 30 in skirmishing just to get 2 traits for traps I end up at the same question:

“Do I go full condition to really use my traps and waste the 30% critical damage; or do I go power to use the precision and critical damage but not really make full use of the traps I traited for?”

Step 1: Pick the stat you want most.
Step 2: Pick the stat you want second most.
Step 3: Pick the stat you want third most.
Step 4: Find the armor with that stat distribution.

It really is that simple. Although I think there are a few combinations you can’t find and you might be stuck with your second or third choice stat being the ‘primary’.

Good choices are:
Pow/Pre/Tough
Pre/Cond/Tough
Pow/Pre/Crit%
Pow/Tough/Vit
Pow/Cond/Pre

There’s also no reason all your items have to be the same. I run Pow/Pre/Crit% on jewelry and weapons and Tough/Pow/Pre on armor pieces.

Edit: Some stat combinations require karma. Others are crafted and Pow/Tough/Vit is WvW (I think exclusively?). The other part of the gear hunt (for me anyway) is getting the right stats on the right skin with T-stones.

Yup, the best part is it usually says “Obstructed” for me instead of “Missed” which can be confusing when trying to resolve the issue.

Farming in Orr on an 80 ranger is pretty simple if you spec right. Damage is quite high single target and AoE if you play smart (piercing arrows requires some setup and maneuvering to really shine).

The group utility is… debatable. The best thing a ranger can bring to groups is really control not so much buffs or support. There is some buffs and support but it’s really not great, it’s just what we have. For control well used traps (Frost Trap in particular) can be very beneficial to a group but I wouldn’t go so far as to say rangers are an outstanding control profession.

I like my 80 ranger for soloing around in PvE and WvW but in a dungeon or other 5+ group setting I don’t always feel very useful.

1) Short Bow + Piercing Arrow. Just do it and learn to line up shots and aim at the guy in the back.
2) Zephyr’s Speed (5 TP in BM) if you don’t have it and abuse it, you’re doing it wrong.
3) Traps are awesome.
4) Condition damage or critical damage, pick one and run with it.