The greatsword does look more stylistically similar to the rest of the weapons now, but I kind of wish they had kept the old model. I was about to buy it for my charr when I noticed the change. Since I wanted it for the steampunk look specifically, I decided to go with cultural weapons instead.
If it’s anything like the last sale it will be really disappointing.
The last one had fine transmutation stones. Granted, that was the ONLY useful item on sale, but there was one.
What’s wrong with you people? It’s clearly this guy.
@Urthona you can play guardian as “pure” support, but it’s focused around keeping everyone causing burning 100% of the time, so you still do damage by doing nothing but support.
I can’t really get into why the build you mention isn’t particularly effective in group content without hijacking the thread, but I will invite anyone who’s curious to browse the guardian forums for a few minutes to read up on why it’s not. In any case, a burning build isn’t really the first thing that comes to mind when you mention “white mage.”
As a level 80 ele, I will strongly warn against making an ele based purely around healing and water attunement. The class isn’t meant to be a true healer, but a jack-of-all-trades that makes use of all four elements.
There is no devoted healing class in GW2- there are classes that are healing-capable, but none can outheal the damage dealt by a boss or even trash mobs in dungeons. Your best bet for defensive support would be a guardian, though they’re a heavy armor melee class.
I agree. However, I want to stress that you can’t really play a guardian as pure support either.
I only managed about 2-3 hours of FF11 before the crappiness of the console port interface made me ragequit forever, but if the white mage there is like other FF games, I would say that elementalist feels closer to me than guardian. Those are really your only two options with anything close to heavy support capability, so you might want to try one of each.
I’m not actually pushing for a change. There are plenty of MMOs with forced grouping, but not many that let you be a lone wolf when it comes to end game content. I’m at a stage in my life where I can’t really commit to a particular schedule or group of players, and the current design lets me keep gaming in a way that otherwise wouldn’t be possible.
I agree 100% that the negative results of that design are there, though, and if I were still able to raid actively I’d probably find another game.
I think the best part of GW2 is the large amount of ad-hoc cooperation between players. It’s something I’ve never before seen in an MMO setting. In most MMOs, you largely stay by yourself unless you’re forming a group to accomplish something. Random folk are often seen as nuisances to someone doing quests. People basically never randomly start working together without any coordination or without using the group mechanic.
That’s completely different in GW2 because it’s there’s no reason not to. You might not talk to anyone, but you’re actually interacting with other people far more than almost any other MMO.
True. Perhaps “cooperation” was the wrong word, and I should have used “coordination” or something.
The best part of GW2 is that it isn’t designed to force player cooperation. This is also the worst part of GW2. For better or for worse, it’s the design choice that sets the game apart. I try to appreciate it for what it is.
It doesn’t have to be class-specific to be class-appropriate. Right now, most of the medium armor looks like it was geared towards thieves, but very little is something you would expect an engineer to wear. Most of the high-level heavy armors have tattered tabards or skulls hanging off of them, which are great on warriors but kind of strange on a guardian. And in terms of light armor, there really could stand to be some more tattered or gothic necromancer options. There are some, but not many.
It would be nice if every class had some choices when it cam to sticking with their class theme. But there’s no reason they couldn’t keep all the armors open to everyone. Let people have a steampunk ranger or a gothic elementalist if they so desire. I’m sure there are plenty who do desire that but can’t have it since the options just aren’t there.
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It’s the medium WvW chest. I don’t actually own it and the lighting in Lion’s Arch is really different from the preview window, so it’s hard to be 100% certain on the dye. To me it looks closer to abyss than black. Midnight ice and midnight fire do have noticeable blue and red tints on that chest, so it’s probably not one of those.
There are three things I look for when choosing a class. Roughly in the order of my priorities, they are:
1. Support capability
2. Survivabilty
3. Stealth
I like to support, but it’s also important for me to be able to solo effectively and travel around the map easily. In exchange, I’m more than willing to give up DPS, range, and/or in-combat mobility, which don’t matter much to me either way.
In the rare games that have a stealthy, usually medium-armored healer (the WoW druid or SWTOR smuggler, for example) I go with that. In most cases, I end up having to give up stealth and end up playing a heavily-armored cleric or paladin type.
In GW2, none of the stealth classes excel at support, and the stealth mechanic kind of sucks for my purposes anyway. The guardian, unsurprisingly, fills my other requirements quite well. I’ve tried all the other classes, but in the end, the niche the guardian fills is the niche where I naturally fall.
Sylvari are certainly civilized. However, I would argue that most of their culture and technology is adapted from humans and other races. Therefore, in my mind they are part of Tyrian civilization, not a civilization unto themselves.
I sometimes spam my health down, but it’s never deliberate handicapping. Sometimes I keep playing to finish whatever melody I’m playing during the downtime. Sometimes I spam arpeggios or scales or something because I’m bored and I know it won’t matter anyway. Sometimes I’m distracted and don’t notice that the song is starting. Because of the way the healing mechanics works, you have to miss a bunch in a row (not just over the course of the entire game) to die. I’m good at bell choir, so the only times I ever miss a bunch in a row are due to lag spikes, not actual mistakes.
If there was no healing mechanic, then I’d probably deliberately handicap myself for the challenge. I’m sure some probably do. It’s just not why I let my health drop.
If it clips in the preview, it will clip outside the preview. That’s pretty much universal. I’ve seen other people on the forums with the same issue, and it apparently has to do with choice of head shape. The cultural helm, despite being designed specifically for charr, just isn’t made for muzzles that wide.
It’s possible that Anet will fix the issue in the future. They already adjusted the shoulders. For now, though, you’ll either have to use a different helmet or buy a makeover.
My favorite so far is “Roarst Burnburner.” (To those who haven’t tried the link yet, no, most of the generated names aren’t nearly that absurd.)
You can create mild drug or sexual references with this if the RNG stars align just right, so be wary if you’re at work.
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It’s not just blue, it’s transluscent. It’s exactly the same model as the guardian’s spirit bow. Whether that’s worth it to you to craft is subjective, but I ’ve seen quite a few people with the Foefire weapons.
Cats, even large cats like cougars, don’t necessarily sound low-pitched and growly. Some are outright embarrassing for animals of that size. Examples:
http://youtu.be/pHZm52nvBB4?t=30s
Even housecats have a huge range, if you think about it. While this game has many, many inconsistencies in terms of voice acting, I think this one is pretty easily justified.
I am so glad I have learned this. Now, does this apply only to the guardian, or for everyone next to the shield? Also, would it be good, in situations where projectiles rule, to bring along wall of Reflection and throw it up right after, or would it be smarter to have a shout or something?
It applies to everyone. If you have more than one guardian, you can stack, set up a rotation and have almost constant protection for the entire party.
And yes, in fights where it’s worth bringing SotA I always bring WoR as well, since they serve the same function. It’s usually wise to drop WoR first, though, since it has a shorter cooldown and actually reflects attacks rather than absorbs them.
Spirit shield is very, very, very powerful in fractals.
I’ll be honest, I’ve never used spirit weapons unless I was goofing around in low-level areas. Could you go into detail how the shield works in fractals. Like, does it raise your toughness, or help you block more? I’m curious >_> anything to make fractals easier will catch my attention.
Shield of the Avenger absorbs projectiles. This includes not only the typical autoattacks we normally think of as projectiles but also the harpy knockback, the green bolts in Old Tom, the Raving Asuras orbs, the Legendary Imbued Shaman’s arrows, the lava grubs. . . The list goes on.
You’re grasping at straws. If you want realism, then Human female characters shouldn’t be allowed to wear heavy armor and fight in melee in the first place, since they’re physically unsuited. Or, maybe, Anet should cut our damage in half?
Again, bring on the spiked codpiece and I’ll be fine with the bikini from hell. Something tells me that most (not all, but most) of the people who want the change reverted wouldn’t take to the other alteration so readily.
Imarion, I feel as though you should be forewarned that platforming is required for endgame. If you want ascended gear, you are going to have to run fractals with platforming more difficult than any vista.
It makes me sad too, since I thought platforming would be more optional than it was when I bought the game. I’ve been able to complete all the “mandatory” bits so far, but it’s definitely not my favorite thing to do.
I know Traehearne is everyone’s favorite, but hey, his explanation actually makes sense here. Traehearne is a necromancer because his life goal was to fight Zhaitan. When you’ve spent your whole life studying how the dead are raised, it stands to reason that you’d learn a few tricks.
All sylvari fight the undead in one way or another, according to your personal story, so it stands to reason that Traehearne isn’t the only one with a “know thy enemy” thing going on.
The same way they can be justified for any profession, my friend – curiosity.
Read Ghosts of Ascalon sometime, it gives a Very Fun example of a curious Sylvari Necromancer (More entertaining by far than Trahearne,I’d say.)
And okay, maybe some are just creepy.
Finding 30 jumping puzzles is not too hard.
What if you’ve already done all the puzzles?
You’re forced to create a new character just to do the monthly…
It doesn’t matter if you’ve completed the map or done the puzzles on a character before. If you go near it, it counts. Check for yourself if you don’t believe me.
Actually doing 30 puzzles would be kind of ridiculous for a monthly, but I have to agree with the majority that just walking up to them isn’t that bad. It’s annoying since unlike most of the other stuff, it’s not something anyone, even JP-enthousiasts, would be doing in the course of normal gameplay. It should be doable by everyone, though.
As for the other names races (mostly the water species): I don’t think so. I’d assume to ‘not dry out’ them would have to be close to water all the time. Imagine a bar like stamina, just worse.
Just like we have aquabreathers instead of a breath bar for underwater combat, I’m sure they’d come up with some way to gloss over the problem with water-dwellers. However, since the idea of an entirely or mostly underwater starting zone is really unappealing to me, I won’t be sad if they never include one. Unless it’s quaggans. I’d still put up with that for quaggans.
What? They hold breast, not dig into it.
If the wearer holds completely still. Even the game’s physics acknowledge breast movement. With that amount of support, or lack thereof, there will be lots of edges and pointy bits digging into her flesh when she moves at a brisk walk. I don’t even want to think of what might happen during a dodge roll.
I want to stress that I’m not looking for uber-realistic armor or for everyone to be in burkas. I actually think the concept of the grasping hand is pretty hilarious, in a juvenile kind of way. I do think female armor that makes people who have had actual breasts cringe (and you’ll notice I’m not even the first one to bring that up) is a bad thing and should keep the non-cringeworthy redesign.
Unless I’ve gotten confused and I’m actually playing the Hellraiser MMO, in which case, yeah, they should change it back.
what is the third sword cause legendary wise there is only Sunrise and Twilight
Eternity, which is made by combining Sunrise and Twilight.
As for the OP, while I think it’s a bit silly to say “Stop making GS skins!”—I’d like to see new skins for everyone—I agree that there are currently a lot of weapons that could use some love. For example, maces and torches haven’t had any holiday skins yet, for example, not even in the cash shop. I understand if there are slightly more options for popular weapons, but it seems silly to neglect some entirely. With the current lack of flashy mace skins, I’m sure a ton of mace users would have bought a wintery one, myself included.
For the feel of totems, engineer turrets are the closest you’re going to get.
For the theme of drawing from elemental forces, elementalist. (The combat feels nothing alike though.)
For close/mid-range caster that focuses heavily on buffs and has a little healing, try guardian.
I’m torn. There are a lot of things I really like that I feel are worth supporting. A non-mana based combat system. Gender-neutral armor on some races. Portrayal of same-sex relationships. . . not even Bioware had the guts to do that.
On the other hand, there are some really negative things. There is no excuse not to have a LFG tool in 2012. And the fact that the game’s ultimate goal (a legendary) is just gold-farming rather than skill-based content really puts me off. And to top it off, they then discourage the required farming by putting in DR!
I’m glad I don’t actually have to decide right now, because it would be tough. I have a feeling things will be clearer one way or the other once it’s actually time for an expansion.
Good to hear. While I understand that Anet has to protect itself legally, I doubt any litigation is going to arise from your username. lol
For me, the beta model is basically saying “It is okay to force women (and only women) to be in pain if it makes them pleasing for me to look at.”
It’s not the skimpiness that bothers me. I seriously wouldn’t be bothered if the breast was completely bare or there was just a pasty or something. I’m bothered by the fact that there are pointy metal claws digging into a breast in a way that has to be painful. (It also defies physics, but it wouldn’t be the first armor in the game to do that.)
I mean, even if the male version had a painfully spiked codpiece or something, I guess I could write it off as some kind of bizarre but non-sexist masochist set, but that’s not the case.
Bringing the same three weapons to every single fight is only gimping yourself, no matter your class. The fact that they’re all melee only hurts more. Are you really willing to drag down yourself (and ultimately your team) just so you can show off some shiny graphics that no one’s going to pay attention to in the middle of a boss fight anyway?
Ignoring that: greatsword and shield are useful for both classes in dungeons. The sword is good single-target DPS for the guardian, although its AOE capabilities are lacking. With the warrior one-handed sword you frequently run into the cap on bleed stacking in a group environment. There’s also the issue that that none of the other weapons really work well with condition damage, which is what the warrior sword is all about. I mean, you could do it, but especially in PVE, you wouldn’t really gain anything from using a sword/GS over axe/GS in a non-condition build, since the GS has your mobility covered.
So in the end, I think those weapons probably synergize a little better with the guardian. You’d also have a little more built-in defense, allowing you to be pure melee more often.
I’d rather have invisible horns than physically-impossible clipping, personally. I definitely agree that there should be options for those who want to keep their horns visible, but I think they should also have a few helmets for those of who find the clipping more immersion-breaking. There’s a decent mix of both right now, in my opinion.
It kinda feels like Mesmer and Necro are similar, with many of their abilities doing bad things to the enemy at the same time as doing good things for the team. However, Mesmer feels a bit more… hectic and random, wheras Necromancer feels more solid and steady. Do you think this is a good assessment of the differences bewteen them?
I think it would be inaccurate to say they were similar in terms of playstyle. Other than the fact that they both have summons, they’re really not. Their class mechanics (shatters vs. death shroud) function very differently. They focus on different sets of conditions. Their summons behave differently. And if aesthetics matter to you at all, you can’t get more different.
In the sense that a mesmer condition build relies on applying conditions somewhat randomly, I guess you could say that the mesmer is more “random”, but I certainly wouldn’t hold that up as the main difference.
I feel as though every single person would choose a fourth utility skill over the elite. I cannot think of a build where an elite would not be more useful than another utility slot.
I’m not sure I’d rather see elites effectively removed from the game, because while the elites aren’t necessarily the most useful things in all scenarios, they are more fun. It’s kind of nice having a slot that’s just for fun.
The white stag is a common figure in legend, as was the trope of receiving a reward upon capturing it. I always assumed that line was more of an allusion to these legends than an actual boon in game. And common sense dictates that they would have made all paths more or less equal in terms of the reward.
As a roleplayer (although not in this game), I feel obligated to point out that using tells or party chat is both common sense and common courtesy. This game has a T rating, and the content is actually extremely tame for a T rating. Expecting everyone who plays it to be okay with mature topics is unreasonable. They are considered “mature” or “touchy” topics by society in general for a reason, whether you are personally bothered or not.
I also feel obligated to point out that GW2 is a horrible platform for roleplaying anyway. There are so many other things hindering your experience that focusing on this one is laughable.
And I know that it has become popular to whine, cry, and kick your feet when you are offended in this day and age…like when you hear something on the radio that you find offensive and decide to try and get them thrown off the air.
But, and bare with me here…there’s this thing people used to have called ‘common sense’. And what you do when you don’t like something is you ignore it or go where you don’t have to hear/see it. In the radio example that would be to simply change the station. In the game it’s for you to go where the RPers aren’t. Usually they are in taverns and such, so…don’t hang out at a tavern. Problem solved.
I don’t know why we’ve gotten to this point in our lives, but you do not have the right to not be offended. Arenanet, however, can choose to run things that way if they wish. And if they do, then they’ll suffer the consequences of such oppressive, PC-friendly garbage.
Here’s the thing: I’m not offended by these topics. I have good reason to believe I’m actually far more desensitized to them than most people. And I recognize that. There are plenty of venues online and even offline to roleplay my angsty character concept with a depraved past. Why should I insist on using a game that bills itself as family friendly for that? To do so would be hurting both myself (because I’d be restricted by the TOS or risk infractions) and members of the community (who bought the game specifically because it was family-friendly.)
You had the option to read the TOS before you bought the game. If you have an issue with the notion of political correctness, then you probably shouldn’t have supported a company who enforces it. People who create media aim for certain ratings because that’s what sells.
As a roleplayer (although not in this game), I feel obligated to point out that using tells or party chat is both common sense and common courtesy. This game has a T rating, and the content is actually extremely tame for a T rating. Expecting everyone who plays it to be okay with mature topics is unreasonable. They are considered “mature” or “touchy” topics by society in general for a reason, whether you are personally bothered or not.
I also feel obligated to point out that GW2 is a horrible platform for roleplaying anyway. There are so many other things hindering your experience that focusing on this one is laughable.
Finally, for all those who insists that the focus of an RPG is supposed to be fleshing out your character’s actions and backstory, I’ll invite you to go play through an old-school D&D adventure, (e.g., The Tomb of Horrors) and tell me what genre of game that is.
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I think it’s fairly obvious, especially since we were talking about what proportion of players can do it, that the people saying it’s easy (and the ones saying it’s difficult) were talking about average players, not people with exceptional circumstances. There are a lot of factors that could make it impossible for one particular person (a friend of mine with only one hand would have a lot of trouble for example) but those are rare anomalies, not a factor in whether it’s reasonable to expect most people to do the puzzle.
Same way I doubt anyone takes arachnophobia into consideration when discussing how difficult a champion is, even though it’s much harder for me to fight a giant spider because I’m very likely to panic if it comes close to my character. For most people it’s not an issue so it’s not relevant to a discussion of typical difficulty.
That said have you tried turning the graphics down? I can’t check right now but I think one of the things it does is shorten the distance you can see, so the ground might not show and it’ll look like you’re just a little way above a white surface.
Yeah, turning the graphics down helps with the height issue a bit, but the motion sickness is obviously still a factor. Anything that requires that much camera movement will be. (I’ve thrown up during IMAX movies, so yeah…it really doesn’t take much for me.)
And heh. . . I remember my husband using a mod for another game that turned all the spider models in a raid instance into puppies, so I guess that issue is common enough to warrant such a thing.
Condition builds are viable with both classes. However, a condition build is currently the optimal build for a necro, while mesmers are better off shattering.
Both classes summon things. Generally, the mesmer’s summons are a bit more disposable, and therefore they summon more often. Whether that’s good or not is a matter of personal preference. As I understand it, a necro build that focuses entirely on strong minions is less viable in the end game, but the same could be said for mesmer to a degree.
Both classes support mainly through buffs and debuffs. Neither are as solid at pure support as a guardian or elementalist. The mesmer is probably better at buffing, but the necro is better at debuffing. The mesmer also has some options to reflect damage, which can be useful.
My personal favorite is water field + blast finisher for an area heal. It can really turn the tide when everyone’s low. With the classes you and your friend have, this is most easily accomplished with your elementalist laying down a water field with the staff and your friend’s guardian using the hammer’s Mighty Blow skill.
Another okay combo that’s a little easier for you to pull off is a blast finisher in a fire field for three stacks of area might. The guardian and elementalist should be able to pull that off all by themselves, but any of your classes has ways to take advantage of the guardian’s fire fields.
I love the guardian, but light fields are kind of meh in PVE. Condition removal isn’t as important, and retaliation isn’t very useful in fights that are actually challenging since those are the fights where you want to avoid getting hit at all.
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In certain fights, Unscathed Contender is basically a flat 20% damage increase, which is actually really good for a minor trait. Yeah, it’s situational, but there are other decent options in Virtues 10 to use the rest of the time.
Unless you never touch your traits in between fights (in which case, it’s your fault you’re not taking advantage of the system) then calling the trait worthless is misleading.
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Jumping puzzles give me motion sickness so if you add a need to hurry I just can’t do it.
This is one of my main problems. Winter Wonderland isn’t nearly as bad as the Clocktower in terms of inducing motion sickness, but it’s still a factor. I’m also terrified of heights, which doesn’t help.
I use my mouse for movement and I have a decent framerate. It’s just that looking at the thing literally makes me sick. I know the problem is rare, so I’m not really asking to be accommodated by the designers or anything. I’m just pointing out to those insisting that it’s easy that for some people, the motion-sickness aspect really factors into the difficulty.
I’m not even bothered by the amount of gold they cost, really. It’s just that it’s almost pure gold farming. Why can’t I make a legendary by actually playing the game? Require 500 tokens from each dungeon or something in place of some of the mats.
“Take heed! I haven’t taken leave of my senses!”
But I’m about to if you don’t shut up, lady. She’s the only NPC that truly annoys me to the point of anger. Please, add at least, like 5 seconds of delay. Please.
As Errant Venture stated, it’s going to vary with individual armors, but I would try Glory, Grape, and Evening Wine.
Agreed. I also which I could see whether I’ve unlocked story mode on a particular character without actually walking to the dungeon and writing it down somewhere. Really, I don’t see why the unlock can’t be account-wide in the first place, since it’s not meant to be super-challenging or a scaling difficulty like fractals.
Citadel of Flame. It’s one of the more popular dungeons, partially because it has Berserker gear, partially because it’s easy. You shouldn’t have problems finding a group.
If all three of you are leveling together, then yes, you have L2P issues. An experienced team of three probably wouldn’t be dying at all. That said, you’re new. You’re expected to have L2P issues!
This forums gets posts like this at least once a day, so I recommend just browsing back a few pages and looking at similar threads. It will be faster than waiting for everyone to type the same thing…again. Also, check out this thread if you haven’t already for a bunch of helpful tips.
For class advice, I would point you all to your individual class forums. There’s actually a stickied guardian guide that should give you all the basics.
According to the wiki, the roll heals for 129 + 1 * Healing Power. (Whether that’s up to date, I don’t know.)
30 points in Honor gives 300 healing power, hence 429 healing with no healing gear.