Guild Wars 2

Caelib.2497:

These are advertised as “Extremely efficient at gathering resources and uncovering rare components.” However, I have used many of these and found that they are almost no different that using the Orichalcum harvesting tools.

Either these are broken or should have their tool tip updated because they aren’t making any noticeable difference.

Does that mean they can actually harvest Orichalcum now? Back around launch I destroyed several BL tools because they didn’t work on T6 mats (I think it was actually T4 they quit working).

I can’t say I’ve used one in months but even on the low level stuff they worked for I never saw any benefit to them beyond not having to buy other tools (assuming you got them for free).

Three Pounds.2359:

I will never understand why people first write an essay about how big their yt channel is, how many decades they played whatever morpg and how many kittens they own.

Does it make your opinion more important? No.

Do you make any valid point that hasn’t been made hundreds of times before? No.

People who do this may agree with you. Unfortunately if they don’t a good chunk of people will be asking “And why should I care what you say? Who are you to think you’re so important?”

While it’s true pumping yourself up to try and make your opinion matter is a fallacy (appeal to accomplishment) it is none the less required on the internet to get a good chunk of the population to even pay attention to it. For a great many people appealing to authority is the only thing they know how to do so unless you can prove you are an ‘authority’ you don’t count.

I just skip over that stuff in posts like this because it doesn’t matter one bit to me, but I understand why it’s there. I’ve had to do it myself after posting something on a forum and being told “Obviously you’re new and have no idea what you’re talking about.” Then you get to spew out your “credentials” so people actually take you seriously and discussion can occur.

First thing I did was fill a bank tab with tools and half a tab with salvage kits.

Second thing I did was get 80 exotics for all my alts of almost every weapon they could equip.

Another solution which isn’t very profitable anymore (might be again in future) is get the exotics, transmute them with a white, salvage for superior sigil of karka slaying, sell it.

Lazy.2389:

Unfortunately all weapons are soulbound and my main is full exo in every set i need. If it was account bound at least I could use them to gear my alts.

The commendations are account bound the crates are soulbound for some weird reason though. So open the crates, bank the commendations, pick them up with alts and buy exotics.

You need 750 piles of crystalline dust to make the triforge pendant. Which is currently the only way anyone is going to get an ascended amulet (for another week or two anyway).

No.

I came in here expecting to /popcorn and read the massive debate…. Instead it’s a bunch of boring discussion about stuff I agree with…

Side note: I do think having something that tracked how many levels above 80 you’ve attained would be kind of neat, but really not sure it’s worth the time it would take to program (yes I know it would be very little, my point stands).

Joey.3928:

I have been reading some interesting threads on here relating to end game etc. I think we as mmo gamers EXPECT to be rewarded in some way for doing all these activities in game. Otherwise, what is the point of doing them? It is ironic how being too heavily rewarded for something you already enjoy doing can actually cause you to be less motivated and less rewarded.

I think we have been trained to expect this beast called ‘end game’ to be about tackling harder challenges, scoring more points, reaching higher levels, etc. That carrot on the stick scenario. With that we run the risk of being too focused on the gratification of positive feedback, and we lose the ability to enjoy an activity for its own sake.

What do you all think?

There’s actually a lot of research that shows that when people are extrinsically rewarded for something (getting rewards from an outside source) their intrinsic motivation/rewards diminishes (e.g. because it’s fun isn’t good enough anymore).

So yes, it basically is what you say. Many gamers have got to the point that “because it’s fun” isn’t good enough anymore because they have been over-rewarded with things like loot.

The timer on these events after someone turns in the remainder is actually based on how many people are doing it. I’ve seen timers from ~3 seconds to a full minute.

The best way to avoid this type of thing is always turn one in immediately, then collect more (events that don’t require killing for the turn-in item made not register participants picking stuff up). If enough people do that the game registers lots of people doing it and gives you plenty of time to go turn in after the goal is reached. The goal also gets bigger the more people doing it. When soloing these type of events ~10 of w/e item is often good enough but I’ve seen the same events need more like 50+ when more people are doing it.

BroScientist.9875:

What’s a bunny thumper?

In short, a hammer wielding ranger that just smashes your face in and knocks you around.
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Beast_master#Bunny_Thumper

I have to admit the lack of Bunny Thumpers has bugged me since back in beta. It just always seemed like it should be in the game since it was such a big thing in GW1 for so long.

Then again there’s a lot of things about a GW1 ranger I wish had transferred to GW2.

I think 1500 is a bit extreme unless the other achievements give way more laurels than I think they will once introduced.

Otherwise I’d be thrilled with this because of my problem with precursors as they are now. The short-hand is simply that without the TP you may NEVER get one, with the TP you have to make money faster than the price goes up or you are actually getting further away from your goal every day not closer. It would be nice to actually be able to make guaranteed progress towards the goal of getting precursors.

The long (more detailed) version of my problem with precursors is here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/The-problem-with-Precursors-imho/first#post1344795

Healix.5819:

Assuming you were not guesting on your last login, your home server is Anvil Rock. The only way to check while offline is by getting someone else to look.

WvW rank 17, http://mos.millenium.org/matchups#NA

Just fyi, he probably added you to his friends list to find that out. Nothing bad.

It’s funny how Anet patches the game in a way that seemed to be aimed at making T6 mats more accessible and/or cheaper. Yet the end result is they all end up costing the same or more than before the patch.

Would I have played and enjoyed the game? Yes, from 0-100% map completion the first time I didn’t care about levels or loot. I played because it was fun to explore and experience the world and I got $60 worth of fun out of it.

Would I continue playing now? Probably not except WvW but I don’t play that for loot (Wait what? There’s ‘loot’ in WvW? j/k…. kind of).

It’s probably the single best kitten profanity filter I’ve every kittening seen in my entire kittened life. It makes all the kittening, moaning, and raging threads so much funnier to read.

Obviously this is a hot topic, and has been since launch, but it seems to me the problem really comes down to a feeling of progression.

I’m not the most ‘hardcore’ player by any stretch of the imagination but I’m not really a ‘casual’ player either. I’ve been slowly working towards my legendaries (yes plural) since launch and mostly enjoying it. Badges, T6 mats, Lodestones, other crafting materials, clovers, map completion, skill points, dungeon tokens, karma, and anything else I’m forgetting. None of that really bugs me (though some share similar problems outline below). Precursors do.

Almost every single aspect of any legendary weapon is based largely on time. If you invest the time, you’ll get it. If you engage in the appropriate activity you WILL get what you’re after. It’s guaranteed. You slowly but surely will make progress in an obvious way (e.g. Do the EB JP and you get 10-20 badges). You can clearly see if/when you are closer to your goal.

Precursors are different. Ignoring buying from the TP for a moment. I could spend thousands of hours and thousands of gold and literally be no closer to getting a precursor than I was when the game launched. Thus is the nature of RNG. It doesn’t matter how many combines I do in the mystic toilet. It’s all or nothing. If I dump 1000 exotics into the mystic toilet and don’t get a precursor I didn’t make ANY progress. If anything I lost progress. I went backwards and am now farther from my goal because I lost all that money.

Obviously there is the option to buy from the TP, but that actually doesn’t help many players. The reason is the ever-inflating prices. For many players the price of precursors is actually increasing at a rate which is greater than the rate they make money. If I make 5 gold in a day but the price of a precursor goes up by 10 gold today then I’m effectively further away from getting a precursor than I was yesterday. Since the beginning of October the price of Dusk (a popular example) has increased by ~500 gold (~200 to ~700). I’m willing to bet the vast majority of players who want a Dusk have less than 500 gold to their name which means they were ‘closer’ to getting a Dusk in October than they are now.

tl;dr The problem with precursors is that when chasing after a precursor players are far more likely to feel likely they are stagnant or slowly sliding backwards rather than making progress. This is because of a combination of RNG (no guarantee) and inflating prices (moving the goal posts). All other aspects of a legendary the goal posts remain relatively fixed and progress is guaranteed with time and effort because there are obvious activities which guarantee the desired outcome in a relatively fixed amount of time.

DancinPuppeh.8421:

Arsenic Touch.7960:

Doesn’t scale at all, it’s a set value. Plus switching or entering water or dying resets the counter. Just one of many examples of how lackluster our talents are.

The first 5 points promote pet switching, yet one of the first traits promotes keeping your pet the same, makes no sense. Then again it makes no sense to put trap traits in the skirmishing line either.

Yea I was wondering the same thing about the switching xD. Ah well, I see this as kind of good news as I get 10 new traits to spend in something else :P

I’m relatively certain is does scale by level so it will be more than +3 per stack later. Regardless, Master’s Bond is an amazing trait for leveling purposes (no other use for it). The biggest benefit of 10 in BM while leveling though is the +100 stats the trait line gives. At low levels +100 is pretty huge.

Edit: the wiki says “Each stack grants power, precision, toughness and vitality equal to 10% of the pet’s level”
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Master%27s_Bond

The saddest thing about all this (imho) is the fact that the OP is not any closer to getting a precursor than he was before. Those 440 tries literally did him no good at all. If anything he’s further away than he was because now he’s broke.

It’s a little troubling that someone could spend that much time and money attempting to get a precursor and actually end up further away than when they started, but such is the nature of RNG.

Amurond.4590:

Bump.

So some people have 4 laurels.

I have done the daily every day for weeks, maybe months now.

Yet I have 3 laurels.

Why were the people who did the daily after the initial patch rewarded with a laurel but those of us who did it prior to the patch were not?

Isn’t it the exact same argument for why the January monthly did not reward laurels.

This makes no sense whatsoever, and is completely unfair.

I generally agree with you on principle. I’m one of those with 4 laurels but I don’t think I ‘deserve’ to have one more than others for any good reason. You aren’t even going to care long-term.

The fact is a single Laurel will be totally inconsequential in the long run. I can see how right now it’s a big deal and will still matter for a month or two. but whenever they add laurels for other achievements (they said somewhere this was the plan long-term and they would be given retroactively) not having a single Laurel from a daily just won’t matter anymore. Plus, everyone is going to miss a daily here or there because life happens.

On the bright side, now you won’t be tempted to be the guinea pig… errr… first to try out the equipment boxes. You can read about what’s in them a day before you can get one.

While I agree with everything you say the ‘ridicule’ thing kind of bugs me.

If people are making fun of you during jade maw it’s either:
1) They are just frustrated and it’s just a way to vent some steam and not meant seriously. Don’t take it personally because it’s not really aimed at you.
or
2) They are stupid enough to actually think it’s your fault in some way. In which case, well… They are stupid and you might reconsider grouping with them in the future.

I’ve complained about my stupid pet during jade maw before. A suggestion is make sure your pet has a name. The reason is because it gives your pet an identity and then it’s much easier for people to complain about “Stupid Pickles” or “Jeez, Jade Maw hates Pickles.”

I know it seems silly but it is actually good for the group’s moral if there is a pet they can make fun of. If you pick some names it can also lead to various jokes. Let’s face it, Jade Maw is boring anyway so anything that can give people something to do and/or laugh at is great.

Until recently I ran the exact same 0/30/30/0/10 spec and decided to try something new. Now I run:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQJARVjEVB29VKWo2Bi+hJ9eke13ePjR5/MGqDXQA

I use full cleric (weapons, armor, and trinkets). Shortbow is switched for axe/horn occasionally, the trait in WS is switched sometimes too (but I like being able to jump from high places).

I went cleric (my armor is actually Zho’s set, it’s cheaper and has the same stats) because full apothecary is ridiculously expensive and I’m not even remotely convinced that condition damage is better than power unless you are running traps (even then, only maybe). I actually main Greatsword and the shortbow is situational/utility more than anything. The utilities do get switched around on occasion, like I don’t run SotH in fractals and if conditions are a non-issue I swap out Signet of Renewal but Signet of the Wild stays. I tend to swap in Frost Trap (I love Chill), Guard, Search and Rescue, QZ, and/or Muddy Terrain depending on the situation. Though obviously use your discretion to decide what would be useful for w/e encounter.

This build has served me perfectly fine running around Orr though it is inferior for mob tagging compared to a trap build during DEs though GS is good for AoE (longbow Barrage might help some).

In Fractals 10 I was able to face-tank everything without any problems with zero AR, obviously using shortbow when melee just isn’t an option. No Dungeon experience with the build yet but I can’t foresee much problem.

In WvW I mostly roam around and cap camps and neutrals which this spec works great for. I can just face tank an entire camp solo standing in my Healing Spring so my drakes can use their F2 on everything. In group fights I tend to play “Hey! Hey Guys! Look I’m a ranger in your face… Free Badges right?” Since I’m incredibly tanky I can often get people to over-extend. Alternatively I swoop in on weak targets and/or runners and use 4 and 5 (on both GS and Shortbow) to lock them down, send my drake after them and F2 them the second they go down and/or “pet swap stomp” then run back out (counterattack is really good for retreating). Obviously there’s also well placed Healing Springs.

Keep/tower defense you stand inside the doors and madly swing your GS inside your healing spring. You can also get your drakes to F2 through the doors if you hit it just after pet swapping (not sure why, they have no target).

tl;dr I, like you, got sick of trapping and wanted to try something new. A 0/0/15/25/30 build with full cleric’s has worked wonders for me in all areas of the game so far.

Related to this, we’re also a little screwed against Shades on the Grenth event in Orr. Your pet can never do damage to shades, ever.

I swear I must be the only one NOT happy about the density change. I just can’t farm as well as I used to because no matter how hard I try I can’t pull more than 4-5 mobs at a time in 90% of the zone.

I used to AoE farm 5-10 mobs at a time between DEs.

Edit: No complaints about the rest of the changes though. They are all good changes.

I would fully support this. I love my minipets but I just can’t be bothered to constantly remember to find it in my inventory and double click it.

The equipment slot idea actually occurred to me as I was reading your post and then got to the end and saw you suggested the same. So obviously I think the suggestion is a good one.

Electro.4173:

Beardmonger.4692:

One question though: do you actually SEE your drake using Chomp? Because whenever I’ve used my drake, he either never uses it or the life steal is so small that it’s not noticeable.

Chomp’s tooltip doesn’t actually list any healing at all. The description says it heals, but the tooltip lists nothing but damage. Its possible its being used, but either the description is wrong and its not supposed to heal, or the healing is missing from the skill (which is reflected correctly by the tooltip).

Hopefully its the latter and it gets fixed, because Chomp seems pretty useless if it doesn’t heal. It doesn’t do much more damage than a basic hit.

Yeah I can’t honestly say I saw it being used. I just kind of assumed it was but between Natural Healing, Signet of the Wild, and almost 100% up-time on regeneration there’s always a lot of green numbers flying around and I’m usually far more focused on other things to care what the numbers are exactly.

If it doesn’t heal though chomp is pretty useless. It doesn’t really change my opinion on Drakes though. I still feel they are in a pretty good place now that Tail Swipe works. Though if chomp is broken and/or useless that should be fixed just on principle.

It used to be 10%, it is now 25%, the tiny icon hasn’t been updated. The skill description on the actual skill is correct though.

Before people go crazy it should be pointed out this is rather obviously an exploit. I doubt it’s a ‘banable’ exploit, but it’s an exploit none the less.

This also isn’t much different than entering/exiting water and/or breaking the surface of the water to force your pet to reset, F2 skills included. It’s an exploit too, but it’s an exploit that I (and others) reported back in BWE2, and BWE3, and just after launch, and then I gave up caring.

Basically anything, including some boss mechanics, that make your pet/ability bar to disappear will reset your pet completely.

You could try adjusting your clock to GMT or PST and see what happens. Alternatively I think the daily is:

Veteran kills
Events
Crafting
Gathering
Dodging

I could be wrong on those though.

But you can/will complete your daily if you do the required things from what I gather even if the tracking on your end is broken.

Phoenixfudge.5290:

I think that most of these guys that claim they can make a boatload of money in 15 mins exaggerate much.

This should really be the take away here. It’s really not any different than people who claim they do their daily fractal runs (Jade Maw included) in 20-30 minutes. The fractal runs in 20-30 minutes is obviously false because it’s simply not possible due to run speed and various boss mechanics that simply prevent you from being able to accomplish those times.

TP profit exaggerations are harder to dismiss but rest assured that for the average person with only ~100g trying to start turning a profit making 30-50g in 15 minutes of work is really not plausible (patches do throw things up the air a bit).

I’ve also noticed an incredible amount of people who “claim” to be making huge profits just outright failing at math and not accounting for the 15% TP fees. Just take what people say about their “1337 5k177z” in any aspect of the game with a grain of salt.

So I decided since drakes actually work now I’d play around with them a bit. Since the patch yesterday I’ve used them in WvW, Orr farming, and Fractals (fotm 10 is the highest I used them). I don’t do sPvP (yet?) so I have absolutely no comment on that and none of this should be taken as referring to sPvP though some stuff may crossover that’s for you to decide.

I was running a full cleric’s 0/0/15/25/30 build and mainly using Greatsword.

General Stuff
First and foremost, we now have a almost on-demand blast finisher. Drakes seem to prioritize Tail Swipe above all other attacks so on pet swap they will use tail swipe almost immediately with quickness. This is primarily useful if you are already in melee range obviously. This is pretty significant if you use it well and/or are running Healing Spring.

They are obviously a rather tanky pet but they have pretty good dps output as well. Their survivability is roughly on par with Canines though they lack the CC they make up for it (a bit) with Chomp. I didn’t have much problem with my drakes going “splat”.

F2 abilities are… iffy to hit with but they have definite uses once you learn how/when to use them. That said, the Ice Drake 5 second Chill is wonderful, combined with Frost Trap (and a blast finisher for AoE Ice Armor) you can get some good up-time on chill. The burning, poison, and confusion options are of questionable value in many situations for obvious reasons. River Drake’s Lightning Breath is also dubious since it really requires multiple targets to really shine. Fortunately they are all really high damage regardless so it’s good either way.

Orr Farming/General PvE
This is, imho, the place where drakes really shine. The AoE on Tail Swipe makes them significantly better than other pets for DEs and mass pulling. Hitting with F2s is pretty easy if you aren’t jumping all over the place so the mobs are staying still and/or you move them into position. Greatsword is likely the only weapon where this is really feasible since all other weapons pretty much encourage or require you to bounce all over the place (1h sword could work as well).

Drakes are my new favourite pet for General PvE.

WvW
I mostly solo-roam and cap camps and such but I’ve engaged in a decent amount of zerg fighting too.

I found drakes better for solo camp capping for the same reasons as general PvE. They have AoE attacks and it basically IS PvE. The Blast finisher for the extra heal is also really nice. However, I think Canines/birds/felines are still superior in any sort of 1v1 engagement or a situation where you are really trying to kill one thing specifically.

The F2 abilities have a rather interesting use in zerg engagements though. I found if someone goes down you should immediately send your drake over to use F2 on the downed person. Hilarity ensues.

Fractals (scale 10)
Here I found Drakes to be extremely useful. They are adequately tanky, good DPS, AoE for trash pulls, F2 works just fine on (most) bosses, and the Blast finisher is just beautiful. I was frequently using pet swap for the blast finisher to heal my group which may not be a huge heal but I’m sure it was appreciated.

I obviously had some issues with pet survivability on some bosses but that really isn’t drake specific and if anything they fared better than some alternatives. I did have my Ice Drake solo one of the veteran Grawls to save the citizens while myself and my group worked on the shaman (we got the bonus chest). So I’d say that was useful.

Conclusion
Drakes have a definite use now. Especially in AoE situations and group play (like dungeons and fractals). Mostly it all comes down to Tail Swipe being awesome and partially controllable with pet swapping.

I’m in no way saying Drakes are better than other pets but I definitely think they have their uses and moments to shine, just like all the other pets.

I’d be interested to hear other people’s experience with drakes now that they work. Also if anyone has found any particularly noteworthy uses of the blast finisher.

Nurse.1085:

Agadar.4931:

Different teams, Bro.

Yeah, there is only a total of 2 people working on Class Balances between all 8 professions. Words straight from a Dev’s mouth. :’[

They later elaborated on this and there is actually more than 2 people that work on class balance. It was something like 2 dedicated people a significant number of other people that help/consult for various areas of the game.

Those 2 people are more like the people ‘in charge’ of class balancing, as in the ‘bosses’ or the final decision makers.

Spirits with the double HP trait only had ~5k health prepatch. ~6.25k really isn’t going to make a lick of difference to anything.

Mitigation (toughness) beats sponge (vitality) every time.

It’s better to take less damage because it indirectly makes your healing better.

Forzani.2584:

Interesting. A couple of questions though since I am fairly new and still learning.

1. Rally of a mob ? So if you are downed, and kill an NPC with pet before the enemy stomps you, you will rally and revive ?

2. Richochet will hit my target, then the NPC, then the target again as compared to the target only one time if alone ?

3. Most things i have been trying to fine tune is to target Thiefs. I am not sure if adding nPCs help my cause, especially since many times Thiefs strategy is to add NPCs to the mix because they can stealth and lose aggro. I will test it more, but I can’t see an NPC being hit by my axe ever changing targets back to the enemy.

4. NPCs causing the enemy targeting problems may be true, but if it comes down to a targeting contest…I lose. I have a very hard time with it during the heat of a battle.

1) Yes

2) Ricochet will hit up to 3 times but only if more than one target is available. If there’s only one target it hits once. If 2 are available it will hit your primary target (call it X) then bounce to the other target (call it Y) then back to X. So X will get hit twice and Y once. If 3 targets are available it might got X → Y → Z or it might go X → Y → X depending on proximity and possibly other stuff. I’ve never quite figured out exactly how it picks targets in 3+ enemy situations.

3) That is a fair point. Extra mob aggro tends to work best against mesmers and elementalists I’ve found. Enlisting a bunch of random mobs to bust clones and phantasms for you is fun but dangerous.

4) Might not be worth it for you then. I admit I still have targeting issues as well. Often caused by right-clicking…

The Reef Drake is the only new pet since launch. No way to know what the future holds but the fact that there will be no new zones for at least a few months makes me doubtful there will be new pets in the near future.

Forzani.2584:

Tried Axe/WH for the day. Damage is fine, and like you said, probably better than SB. The problem is in WvW I ended up getting NPC adds into my fights because of the AOE.

I do like that WH frees up a slot for me so I can add QZ instead of SotH

Actually with some practice you can abuse the NPC adds. A single NPC can increase your damage against your actual target because of the bounce your target gets hit twice.

Another tactic which works if you run a tanky build (I run full clerics) is to intentionally aggro everything you can against squishier targets like thieves. Neutral NPCs can and will aggro on to the other guy and the added pressure can really mess them up. If you can catch the mobs and the player in an AoE snare like Frost Trap they will often drop aggro on you and go after the guy they can hit easily.

It can also mess up their targeting and I’ve also gotten a lot of rallies off those random mobs I aggroed because my pet can usually finish them off easily (30 in BM), though the other guy can get a rally too if he’s smart. You do have to learn what you can handle obviously as well as how to control mobs a bit.

I do agree though that sometimes it’s a really big problem. I’ve learned how to make it work to my advantage or avoid the problems most of the time though.

I play a ranger with full Cleric’s and I hate to say it but I can kind of understand why Cleric’s and Apothecary at least aren’t ascended.

Every bit that toughness and healing power increases pushes classes like ranger and guardian closer to the “unkillable” state. Or what I like to refer to as “The Warden Problem.” (This is a LOTRO reference so if you get it you can skip the next paragraph).

The Warden in LOTRO was a self-healing tank and with the right gear/build could basically solo everything because the ability to heal was greater than the enemies ability to damage you. When I played LOTRO years ago as a Warden I consistently did “Group Quests” without even realizing they were group quests because I could just steamroll through it. I was basically unkillable (assuming I didn’t mess up my rotations) and had enough DPS to kill things in reasonable time.

Inevitably the combination of Toughness and Healing Power will hit that breaking point eventually. Some arguments could even be made it can be hit as is with exotic gear with the right class/build for a 1v1 engagement in WvW. (though 1v1 in WvW isn’t exactly worth balancing around)

Picking up the ‘celestial’ items (all stats) is the only source of ANY healing power on Ascended gear. However, you take a rather large hit to healing power doing that. Roughly between a 61% (amulet, 50 instead of 126) to 63% loss to healing (rings 39 instead of the 103) if it was a primary stat and a 43% loss to secondary stats if the current itemization trend holds for a full ascended set.

Stat losses like that to the major stats kills a significant number of viable builds that don’t have the available stat distributions in Ascended form.

hharry.1967:

Done fotm lvl 20. Not a single rare in the whole 4 fractals, not even in the jade maw final chest, and had omnom 100% of the time.
I mean it took us 2 hours to do the run maybe more and it was a complete waste, this kind of RNG is dumb, there should be some guaranted drop.

I’m sure you got something useful. You might not have got an exotic or rare but I bet you got some T6 crafting mats. Did you ever stop to think that 2 T6 fine mats are generally worth around the same amount as a rare item you would just sell or salvage anyway.

I’m willing to bet if you sold everything you got in your 2 hour run you could buy a couple of rares without a problem if they are so important to you.

Reasons I’ll probably get rings through Laurels
1) I seldom have enough time in a solid chunk to run fractals without going afk which is unfair to the group so I don’t go.
2) I don’t even really like fractals anyway.
3) NO RNG!!! I can get the rings I want/need.

Agadar.4931:

Throw it all in beast mastery and have your pet butcher everything for you.

Leveling is probably the one thing rangers are actually good at, and it’s all thanks to the pet.

Make sure your pet has a higher toughness than you, though. From my experience, NPC’s tend to prioritize the enemy with the highest toughness.

I second all of this. Canines a great dps pet with high toughness and can pretty much solo things for you while you run around gathering or kill something else.

I’ve been experimenting with drakes today since they actually work now and they’re pretty good for AoE slaughtering if you run a Greatsword and some tanky stats (healing power and toughness) so you can just stand in one spot (take Healing Spring).

Personally I currently run a 0/0/15/25/30 build with all cleric’s gear (healing/toughness/power). Build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQJARVjEV91JWCWo2Bi+hJ9ekeA0ePjR5fA (pick your pets and the blank trait in BM to suit)

If I was to level a new ranger I’d probably prioritize traits as follows:
1) 10 in BM
2) 5 in Wilderness Survival
3) 5 more in BM (15 total) (probably take master’s bond at first and Mighty Swap later)
4) 5 more in WS (10 total, I have a bad habit of jumping off high places so Soften the Fall is nice for getting around easier)
4) 15 in Nature magic (longer regen and shared boons) (level 50 here)
5) 5 more in BM
6) w/e until level 60

Post level 60:
1) start with 30 in BM, 10 in WS and 10 in NM
2) 5 more in NM
3) 5 more in WS
4) 10 more in NM (second trait being Nature’s Protection)

That’s just me though. Someone will undoubtedly come along and explain why that’s bad and you should focus on all damage while leveling so it’s faster and/or give you a ‘better’ tanky build (e.g. 0/0/30/10/30 or 0/0/20/20/30 or some other variation on 0/0///*)

Reloading.3260:

I don’t see the problem with this achievement? I got it through normal gameplay, farming de’s, gathering, dungeons, fractals. You mean that you never try and dodge attacks or aren’t successful enough times a day to get this achievement?

You might want to consider using one of the games core mechanics a little more often.

^^^ This

If this daily achievement is giving you problems you might consider learning to play.

As an aside, I got this just mashing 1 with my ranger greatsword. As long as the word “Evade” pops up it counts.

Well, I’m betting a lot of people lost a LOT of money on these. A lot of people are also probably now stuck with thousands of these post-patch because of buy-orders.

Personally I dumped about 7k of these at 97 copper immediately after the patch. I bought them for ~50 copper though so I’m happy but I imagine whoever I dumped them on isn’t.

I just bought full sets of level 80 exotic weapons for all my alts (7 of them)… even my level 4 engineer has level 80 exotic weapons now.

I’m the opposite, I hope they ARE gone. I stopped using my greatsaw because it just got too annoying listening to it “BZZZZzzz…. BZZZZzzzz…. BZZZzzzZZZ…”

The patch notes were released before the servers actually went down. Someone who read quickly would have had time to buy a bunch before they were kicked.

People in WvW actually get some advanced warning about patches because they get kicked to LA a few minutes before the 3 minute warning for people in general PvE.

Nothing suspicious here.

TsukasaHiiragi.9730:

Unspecified.9142:

There is exactly TWO (major) problem with fractals currently.

1) People believe they need to be able to do them successfully.
and
2) There is gear that is not merely cosmetic and (currently) not available elsewhere which promotes the idea they need to be able to complete the fractals at high levels.

Fractals is, and should remain, focused on providing something for players who WANT to do an extremely challenging instanced PvE activity that requires a solid group with good coordination.

The complaint about not being able to complete fractals 20+ with a PuG is silly. It’s not meant for PuGs. That’s really all there is to it.

Actually, your wrong ~ it was. Everything in this game was/is and always has been created for the casual players. I think the problem is here, especially it seems to me there is just alot of newer posters who haven’t been around here since the very start, and in fact way ‘before’ launch.

The casual player makes up way more of the playerbase than the current hardcore players, the problem is ~ most of the current playerbase who hasn’t quit are the hardcore/elitist base who want a much more controlled game (in their favor)

This is one of the major reasons I have problems with elitist players, they tend to ruin MMos in general – often using entitlement against players, when its really the opposite – its more like, I have this (insert item/title/shiny) and you don’t… so its more like egoism. The problem is in the MMo world, there just isn’t enough of humble players, whether its a casual or a hardcore player.

First, if you want I can probably dig up posts on GW2Guru I made from like 2 years ago (edit also was in BWE1 and perordered about 5 minutes after preorders went live…). I could also post a /age on my GW1 account showing I’ve been playing that for 5+ years. (Yay internet cred… but apparently this garbage matters to some)

Speaking of GW1, there’s a LOT of content in that game which is NOT for the casual folks. Anet never compromised on the difficulty of things like UW, FoW, DoA, or Slaver’s Exile. Yes the changes to heroes had some effects on those but that was to compensate for a dwindling player-base not casuals.

There is every reason to believe Anet intends there to be things in the game some people just can’t do, and their fine with that. Clocktower is a wonderful example. They intended only 5% of people to be able to complete it. Sure a holiday event probably wasn’t the best time for it, but it still speaks volumes about their intentions.

Everyone can try it and has the right to experience it, but that doesn’t give you the right to finish it.

The very nature of the fractals design SCREAMS not for casuals. It keeps getting harder. It doesn’t matter what they do, eventually everyone is going to hit that wall they can’t get past. If that’s fractals 20, well that’s your wall. If it’s fractals 50, that’s your wall.

There is nothing wrong with people having special titles or shinies to show off their achievements as long as there is no power gap. Which is why I said the problem is the lack of ascended items in the rest of the game, nothing else.

For WvW I also roam around on my own just capping camps, road points (w/e they are called, I honestly don’t know) and neutrals. I find axe/horn is often better for camps because it has un-traited AoE potential, but SB works just fine obviously. I’ve used axe/horn with the same builds and it works quite well. I hate dagger and axe off-hand though (others seem to like them so… meh).

Axe definitely lacks some of the control and mobility the SB provides (horn 5 does help a bit here). It also does worse single target damage but is better in crowds (better than itself, not necessarily shortbow), situations with 2 targets it will outdamage shortbow on a single target though.

As far as anti-thief goes the benefit of axe/horn over shortbow is that the damage is much more heavily loaded onto single skill activations. If you hit a thief at point-blank with Split Blade you get 5 stacks of bleeding NOW so if they stealth you got it all off. Same thing with the birds on horn. You just have to catch them for a second and it all hits unless they LoS.

I tend to actually switch back and forth between SB and Axe/Horn based on what I feel like using that day. Generally I prefer SB for the disengage that 3 provides. Just being able to push 3 and either close the distance or create distance depending on GS or SB just suits me better. Also, Poison.

There is exactly TWO (major) problem with fractals currently.

1) People believe they need to be able to do them successfully.
and
2) There is gear that is not merely cosmetic and (currently) not available elsewhere which promotes the idea they need to be able to complete the fractals at high levels.

Fractals is, and should remain, focused on providing something for players who WANT to do an extremely challenging instanced PvE activity that requires a solid group with good coordination.

The complaint about not being able to complete fractals 20+ with a PuG is silly. It’s not meant for PuGs. That’s really all there is to it.

The only reason I even consider these types of complaints remotely valid is because it’s (currently) the only source of ascended rings. Once that changes then anyone complaining it’s too hard just needs to accept they aren’t good enough (or their group isn’t). Let the hardcore PvErs have their thing. Let them have some unique and awesome skins for it. Just don’t reward them with better stats (except AR of course).

I haven’t got past Fractals 4 because it’s not my thing. So no, I’m not some elitist jerk. I just understand some people really love the fractals as is and it means a lot to them that it exists, as is. The game is for everyone and there should be something for everyone.

I do want to be able to get full ascended gear playing MY game though. I also think those who love fractals should be able to get full ascended gear playing their game. Same with WvW, Dungeons, and open world PvE. (edit: there should be unique skins for each source of ascended gear though)

Esrever.8613:

Anet wants you to just boost everyday for a year to get it.

I assume you are trying to suggest Anet wants you to use boosts bought with gems to get these titles thereby implying they set it up as a cash grab.

Which boost would help you get these titles any quicker than someone without boosts?

Edit:
@OP I hope they change those numbers because as it stands they are completely unrealistic and there’s no reason to even try for them.

So far TESO has really grabbed my attention in a meaningful way. I really don’t care what brand label they slap on it only that it’s a good game. It’s becoming far too common for companies to slap some brand label on a product just to make sales even though the product doesn’t measure up to the brand it purports to represent (e.g. recent Final Fantasy games).

Calling it “The Elder Scrolls” isn’t going to make me buy it. After Skyrim it actually makes me want to avoid it like the plague. That’s right I said avoid it. Skyrim is quite frankly a terrible game if you want anything resembling depth, diversity of play, balance, or engaging combat. All things I care about in an MMO.

As has been mentioned Bethesda has a habit of releasing less-than-functional products. They are on my “won’t buy new” list because I don’t expect anything they release to be good for 6 months to a year after launch. Mods are also a huge part of what makes an elder scrolls game great and I can’t see them having heavy mod support for an MMO.

All that aside, GW2 will likely never be uninstalled from my computer. The same way GW1 has been on my computer for the last 6 years, and still is. I’ve played GW1 every single year a bit here and a bit there. Sometimes I wouldn’t play for months but I always came back to it. I expect GW2 to be the same. I might not play for a month or two and then I’ll play it for a month or two.

Without a sub, a massive treadmill to fall behind on, or an absolute REQUIREMENT to have a good solid guild of active players to actually play and progress through the new content (always raids…), there’s nothing stopping me from coming back in a couple months and just doing whatever I want.

tl;dr GW2 has no ‘make or break point’ for me. I will most likely always come back to it. TESO is definitely not going to make me quit GW2 because I’m highly skeptical it will actually be any good.

Sorean.5379:

@Unspecified

Why Drakes are broken? Broken as in OP or broken because some skill just don’t work?
I’m glad I don’t like them,they are clumsy and have 0 cool looking factor. :P

Drakes currently don’t use any attacks other than their auto-attack. No blast finisher, no bite to self heal. I meant broken as in buggy broken obviously. If they actually used their skills they might be better but it’s hard to say.

Their F2 abilities also have some serious issues hitting but that can be overcome in various ways.