Guild Wars 2

There’s an awesome series of mesmer guides here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eZ0NNd7b60

Some of the earlier videos are a little outdated in terms of numbers, but it gives you more than enough information to decide whether it’s your thing or not.

Between the two options you listed, I’d consider the guardian to be more straightforward. If I had to pick from all the classes in the game, I’d recommend warrior as being easiest to learn.

It’s apparently a technical limitation that they didn’t have time to hammer out before the holiday. See this post.

I had no intention of causing controversy or derailing the thread. I simply wanted to know how I should respond to the question. I’ve been required to do this kind of thing for classes, so I try to help others out when I can.

In number 2, are you referring to gender or to biological sex? In your field, you need to be clear on these things.

I was able to make all the times for the Karka event, but I definitely liked the Wintersday approach more. The one-time events were great concepts, but in reality they ended up being massive lag-fests where a single player’s contribution was insignificant. Instanced activities may not have the exciting atmosphere of a huge zerg, but they do alleviate performance issues and make it feel like your actions in combat are actually meaningful to your team.

I think the progress bar is essential, as it’s a clear sign—sometimes the only sign—that an event is bugged. Otherwise, people would waste time fighting endless waves of enemies or waiting around for the capture that was never going to happen.

In a perfect world, there would be no bugged DEs to make this a concern. However, while there has been a ton of improvement, I don’t really see the game getting to a point where DEs never bug.

For what it’s worth, I found the Asuran storyline more entertaining. Humor is pretty much the only aspect of this game’s writing that shines, and the Asuran quests have more of it than any other race.

As far as racials go, I’d probably use the warrior elites over any of the racial elites. Prayer to Kormir could potentially be useful, since condition removal is a little hard to come by as a warrior. On the other hand, radiation field is interesting in that it provides a combo field, and pain inverter isn’t terrible in WvW.

The size thing is kind of a double-edged sword. Being small is great in WvW, but grinding for tiny gear you can barely see in PVE can get kind of depressing.

I too got the title achievement immediately after talking to Tixx for no apparent reason, having only 11 achievements at the time. I have since completed both Toypocalypse achievements, so it shouldn’t affect me either way, but it does seem like it might have been a bug.

At the time I spoke to Tixx, I had:

1. In the Spirit of Giving?
2. Buster of the Busted
3. Cold-Weather Friend
4. Ring in the Season
5. Become the Bells
6. Smash the Town
7. Sylvari Surprise
8. Disaster Derailed
9. Charitable Char
10. Help in Hoelbrak
11. Honorary Krewe Member

How to preview dyes in game:

1. Go to guildhead.com
2. Search for the dye you want to preview, or just type “dye” for a full list
3. In the upper right-hand corner of the item’s entry, there will be a button that says “Link.” Click that.
4. Copy and paste the code (including the brackets) into your chatbox in the game. If you don’t want others to see it, make sure you’re whispering yourself and not on /map or something.
5. Right click to preview as you would any linked item. You can preview multiple times until the appropriate section is colored. Yes, you can do this at the same time as you preview pieces of gear.

I’ll save you the trouble of looking up the item codes this time:
Midnight Ice Dye: [&AgEmUAAA]
Flame Legion Pauldrons: [&AgEZSAAA]

I know I’m probably in the minority, but I actually dislike the appearance of the greatswords. The effects are nice, but the “skybox” texture of the actual model looks out of place, like it was pulled from a game from ten years ago.

I have a sylvari, so I’m going for the focus. It matches my character better than the hammer or scepter would, and it’s fairly versatile.

It’s something I’d consider for my engineer, who could actually take advantage of the bonus every ten seconds, but not my guardian. Like others have said, we don’t have any short-cooldown heals that really take advantage of the Altruism bonuses. I’ll be keeping my water/monk/dwayna combo in my healing power set for now.

Another tip is to avoid killing Toxx for as long as possible (while keeping her out of the center, of course.) Have a couple people kite her while the rest of the team rebuilds their defenses.

I got the achievement on the third try. It can be done!

Magnets. Don’t ask me how those work, though.

Wow. I figured that stuff wasn’t accessible because they didn’t actually model it at all. It actually looks really cool.

Latorn.4209:

This is incredible, amazing, and should be Guild Wars 2’s box art.

I’m pretty sure the people who bought it would be expecting a very different type of game.

I think the story quests are a slightly more effective breadcrumb than he gives them credit for, if only because its function as a breadcrumb is pretty explicit. Other than that, I actually agree with him on pretty much everything. I also agree that it doesn’t make GW2 a bad game. Nothing is perfect.

Do you mean in terms of stats or in terms of looks?

Stat-wise, legendaries and exotics are currently the same, and all are equally good as far as stat budget. Eventually there will be a new tier of gear, Ascended, and when that happens legendaries will be upgraded to match.

Like all the members of Destiny’s Edge (the characters depicted in that video), Eir is wearing her cultural T3. Since she’s a Norn ranger, she’s modelling Norn medium cultural T3, which can Norns (and only Norns) can purchase in Hoelbrak. Be forewarned: it costs a lot of gold.

The combination Trungalung suggested is really nice. For solo leveling, I’d probably combine that with 20 in the valor line for the flat toughness bonus, Purity (when you need it), and improved meditations. Honor is probably more beneficial for group play, with Selfless Daring, reduced cooldown on shouts, and a healing boost. Honor also has two-handed mastery, which is obviously really nice if you’re using a two handed weapon.

According to the wiki, it’s sold by the communist mole karma heart in Frostgorge Sound. (Groznev Waypoint)

For me, at least, playing from sheet music isn’t the same thing as hitting the “play” button on a stereo. I think it’s that way for a lot of people, or live music wouldn’t still be a thing.

Anyway, I was mainly pointing out that I already knew about LotRO and was looking for other options, if they exist. I don’t currently own a console, so stuff like Guitar Hero is out.

I’m really loving the bell choir. It made me realize how much I miss being able to perform music for other people, even in a small way. I’d love the unbreakable choir bell, but for the going price of the bell I could pretty much just buy another game.

I know LotRO has instruments, but if I recall correctly everyone just uses scripts for those, so they aren’t as much fun. Are there other options?

There was an exploit that allowed you to craft things and salvage them for way more than the cost of the mats. See this thread.

I like Swamp just because it’s hilarious. The traps, the bizarre fauna, the crazy Mossman, and no real explanation for any of it. The fact that it’s fast doesn’t hurt either.

I will not sleep tonight. Or ever again.

I am so giving light cultural T2 and the princess wand to my male sylvari. It would be a crime not to.

In general, no, a hammer probably wouldn’t out-damage a greatsword. However, the hammer provides a lot more CC. In situations where the CC would be more useful than burning things down directly (kiting hard-hitting mobs in a dungeon, for example), I’d rather use the hammer.

They’re crafted, but I don’t think you can just discover the recipe. It drops from presents, or you can buy it with Ugly items.

Sorry for the double post, but today I overheard a new line while I was up in Tixx’s workshop hunting for stray dolls. It’s not one of the instance-wide shouts. You have to actually be near him to hear it.

“Making toys for mucus-nosed spawn. . . . Every inventor’s dream.”

Yeah. He’s evil.

Anet also released the Christmas ones on SoundCloud.

Did you finish your starter zone and immediately move on to the 15+ area? If so, the problem is that you’re level 17. I had it happen with every single class. Basically, there’s just not enough content in that level range to keep you caught up with the difficulty of the zone. Do some crafting or head to a different starter zone to pad your level a bit.

If you’re still in the starter zones, I’m not sure what to tell you. A low-level warrior is a cakewalk compared to elementalist. What are you dying to, exactly?

I wouldn’t say the guardian is more flexible overall. They’re just flexible in different ways. The guardian has more support options, yes. The warrior, however, has a lot more going for it in terms of mobility and ranged attacks. Don’t get me wrong: a warrior can still support and a guardian can still be mobile, but they pay a higher price for it.

Both classes are useful and relatively easy to level. Which one is the most fun is subjective. In general, guardian is more defensive, while warrior is more offensive. Really, the best way to get a feel for what you like is to level both classes to 20 or so.

Stop, hammer time!

The thing is that this isn’t just some cosmetic thing or an existing piece of gear with slightly better stats. It is literally a new variation of gameplay that probably took a good chunk of programming. To shut that off to everyone but a lucky few, selected entirely by chance, just seems wrong.

I wouldn’t mind the fact that there were uber-rare instruments as long as everyone could get some kind of instrument.

I want this, so I can destroy it with the rest of the tiny things. MWAHAHAHA!

There was a stage where turrets and a a defense event triggered at the same time. There were also two turret phases. Finally, there were multiple times where the event “stop Toxx from rampaging” triggered on the interface, even though that never actually went on in the dungeon. Maybe some of those weren’t bugs, but it seems possible that they were unintended. (The last one definitely was.)

I mean, maybe it’s just the voice actor overdoing it, but Tixx really does sound creepy. Some of the lines almost imply that the character is getting a sexual thrill from inventing, which is not something you see from a benevolent Santa Claus figure. Also, there was a dev post awhile back that hinted that we might see a non-Asura Toymaker in the future.

There have been zero twists in the game’s plot so far, so I won’t be surprised if it really is just Toxx being evil. However, Tixx seems kinda sketchy either way.

Lordphantomhive.1256:

Ursan.7846:

Guys, the most important thing is…IT’S COMPLETELY OPTIONAL. There’s 16 achievements that contribute to a total of 12 you need for the title.

There only 14 achievements actually. The two in the monthly don’t count if you included those in.

Yes, they do. Link to Dev confirmation.

Shimapanda.5793:

Urthona.3198:

I’m guessing it’s a technical limitation. The female armors are mapped for breasts.

Not really the case for Charr though. Charr don’t have breasts.

Exactly, which means that the female armor would not work on them. It’d be stretched to the point of being unusable. (The triangular body shape as opposed to the human female hourglass figure doesn’t help either.)

raizoo.6510:

I realize there are people who don’t know/care about the lore and don’t see a problem with female Charr wearing dresses. But also remember that there are people who enjoy the lore and like trying to stay in-character.

I don’t understand why female Charr [and I guess Asura?] can’t at least have a choice between the two.

I’m guessing it’s a technical limitation. The female armors are mapped for breasts.

I rolled a female Charr specifically because they use the male armor skins. I agree that the male costume would be more suitable, if only because the tail makes it look ridiculous.

Hufflepuffer.4201:

I kept getting 0 as well until I understood how the game works

As other posters have mentioned, you have to wait until the note is in the center blue circle… basically you play the note when it’s on top of your character and not before.

I kept playing the notes when it entered the white wooden platform on which you stand, which is WRONG and I scored 0 every time

I repeat: the timing thing is simply not true for every person with every latency on every graphics setting. I have experienced different “sweet spots” at different times of day. Generally, if I wait until a note is completely in the blue, I will not get credit for it. I was getting zeros until I figured that out. Now, barring lag spikes, I always score above 590.

Keep hitting notes until you get one you don’t miss, and then aim for that distance. That distance will PROBABLY be within the blue circle, but it may not be.

Thank you for warning others that the rewards for Tixx are affected by DR. I wouldn’t have guessed that they were. Hopefully, you’ll get reimbursed.

You only need 12 out of the 16 total achievements. (The bottom two monthly ones count as well.) You do not have to PVP at all to get the meta achievement.

What can you possibly be using that many keybinds for? I also have a Naga, and I don’t think I’d be able to come up with bindings for my number keys if I wanted to. There’s just not much to bind in this game.

Anyway, some tips from someone who’s gotten a perfect score on occassion:

• Play like a piano, one finger per key. There are only eight keys, so unless you have an ergonomic keyboard that prohibits this, you should never have to waste time repositioning your fingers.
• Avoid the upper part as you’re learning. It’s the most difficult. Lower vs. middle is kind of a wash, with lower having it easier on “Fear Not this Night” but middle being simpler on the one before that (“Flight of the Infinarium”? I forget what it’s called.)
• Don’t blindly hit the notes in the blue circle because that’s what everyone is telling you to do. It seems to vary with lag. During prime time last night I was hitting notes just as they entered the white. Experiment to get the right timing for you. This might take a few rounds.

Personally, I love this mini-game, and I hope they bring it back in future events. I can’t do the jumping puzzles, so it’s nice to have a side activity I can enjoy.

plasmacutter.2709:

Currently heavy armors have many skimpy and non-skimpy options for females but significantly less for males

what game are you playing? I count 1 armor set compared to medium which has at least 3.

Skimpiness is relative, but the coverage of all of these female heavy armors would at the very least violate the average office dress code: pit fighter, named, barbaric, gladiator, Arah, all three order sets, all three Sylvari cultural sets, and Norn t2 and t3. Assuming, of course, you are one of the three races where female skins are actually different.

Overall, I consider it a good mix, although I wish the was a least one more practical order or cultural armor option for my Sylvari.

It’s medium, not light.

Deathly Avian Pauldrons (from Halloween)
Pirate Hat
“Named” chest (from the various random exotic drops)
Priory Gloves and Boots

I think she may be pantsless.

You literally wouldn’t be able to enter the dungeon without clicking the “enter” button on that window. Also, I feel as though Toxx is probably one of the more soloable bosses for those who are so inclined.

You don’t need full discovery for 100% map completion. I still have about 6 undiscovered areas, according to the achievements, but I have my gold star. I would try the Chantry of Secrets thing.