Guild Wars 2

Dondarrion.2748:

nolij.4327:

maybe i didn’t make it clear, but i was suggesting that this subscription should be 100% optional. in other words, you can remain casual, and not have the game feel like a “second job”. even though that argument makes absolutely no sense because right now the only way to get gold is pay x amount of money for y amount of gold with absolutely no variable based on how much you play or how well you play soooooooooooooooooooo yea. it’s already even worse than a second job.

Which turns this whole suggestion into making GW2 a P2W game. If you got the money, you get the advantages.

No. Just no. No.
No to subscription.
No to this.

No.

Exactly! Thank you.

Don’t you think i tried MMO’s with “optional” subscription? It’s not really optional in any way, and casual players and those who can’t afford it are so behind everyone else that it’s not even worth playing.

Besides, what’s wrong with paying ANet for some in game gold if you want it?
Hard to farm gold? I’m “poor” ingame (100 gold or something), because i’m casual most of the time. The other day i got 20 gold in an hour or so by doing dungeons and selling loot. I would have gotten more if i hadn’t salvaged those rares for ecto. If i did it every day, i’d be able to buy a legendary in no time. This is an MMO after all, you can’t just expect to get something like in a single player game. You do have to put some hours in it.

I mean come on. Now you’re suggesting that we pay monthly subscription for the privilege of grinding the dungeons the same way we do now, just because you would get something you want a month sooner because the gold and loot would be better?

What???

What’s with all the. MAKE IT SUBSCRIPTION threads?
Can’t you apreciate the game that has so much to offer without them emptying your wallet each month?

The main factor in deciding wether to buy GW2 or not is that it had no subscription fees. And looking at all what i get for one time purchase i’m amazed and grateful to ANet that they chose this model… And i’m not the only one who thinks that. GW2 became popular partly because of this. Adding subscription fees would make the game dead. Not save it.

Some of us aren’t living in the countries where we can afford to play subscription. I don’t even have a computer that can run GW2 properly, but i’m having fun with it nonetheless. You don’t think i’d pay them some extra money if i had it? Most of the people would. The minority on the forums here are the ones that are complaining ybout nothing to do, and those are not the ones who bought the game and never gave out a single penny, rahter, the ones who did spend extra money and now they “have” the right to complain.

Want gold? Buy gems. Or work for your materials or whatever you want, there’s nothing preventing you from obtaining whatever ingame item you want except your lazyness. Want a shourtcut? Reach into your wallet and get gold from ANet. It’s that simple.

There’s nothing sacred about subscription fees and most games that had them became free2play.

The day this game gets a subscription fee is the day that me and half of the playerbase quits. It’s as simple as that.

I don’t want a second job, i want a game where i can unwind, and not fee obligated to play it just to get my money’s worth, which subscription does to games.

What if i can’t play it for a while for some reason? What if i am a casual player? This game doesn’t need to cater to only hardcore crowd, nor is it designed or intended this way.

Kohlteth.3715:

OMG I so Lol’d at this as before I left WoW there was a 56 page thread on their forums about why there were no bathrooms in WoW ( which devs replied to rather than why the servers are neglected and dead 90%)

Haha, well you know, they gotta have priorities as to which thread to reply to. :P

Azrael.4960:

Veprovina.4876:

Azrael.4960:

You go to maps like Frostgorge, Blazeridge, Orr and you see really quite small patrols for places that are the frontline combat zones. Worse still, they’re moving at a stroll. They’re not marching purposefully weapons in hand ready for any threat, they’re having a Sunday stroll!

That’s what players are there for! :P

But at least npc’s in GW2 do battle, have character and you have a sense that a war is going on. And when there’s a grand scale like story mission, there’s tons of them sometimes.

Unlike other games, in GW2 battles do feel grander when npc’s join the fray.

Don’t get me wrong, when push comes to shove the NPCs are right in the thick of it. However, on average the world doesn’t have the sense of urgency that it should have

Well i can’t argue with that. There is the lack of urgency… I mean, currently there’s a fun little festival for everyone to enjoy! War? Death? Meh, the dragons can wait, the next one shows up in 3 hours or so… :p

But not just in the world, in the story too…

I like the festival and all the game has to offer, but i get what you’re saying.

Hahaha, i almost fell down laughing at that image and the charr dinner!

Azrael.4960:

A home instance, without actually having a home. Do characters live on the street or do they really spend all their time roaming the world?

I like to picture the Charr living on the streets just sleeping anywhere.
Kinda like real cats, they don’t care much where they sleep. :P

They should add some sleeping charr in Black citadel randomly across the map. :P

Norn get drunk and sleep in the snow for example (as seen in some heart quests haha).

But really, if we’re going in such detail, where are the bathrooms?

Azrael.4960:

You go to maps like Frostgorge, Blazeridge, Orr and you see really quite small patrols for places that are the frontline combat zones. Worse still, they’re moving at a stroll. They’re not marching purposefully weapons in hand ready for any threat, they’re having a Sunday stroll!

That’s what players are there for! :P

But at least npc’s in GW2 do battle, have character and you have a sense that a war is going on. And when there’s a grand scale like story mission, there’s tons of them sometimes.

Unlike other games, in GW2 battles do feel grander when npc’s join the fray.

Andiela.3759:

Pff more npcs?
Have you played sylvari? Seriously my home instance is not private at all. I have public showers in there with some random NPCs that i dont know. Training dummies, where young sylvari are learning to fight. And the nodes randomly stared growing in middle of passage so many times i have issues pass them without collision.
To be honest i saved Tyria and im still living in the same flat since i was young sappling. And you know Pale tree is nearby so its almost the same as living with you mother.
Seriously have you seen Caithes home? Even its really small she has private bath there with awesome waterfall!
I deserve better place. :P

Hahaha! The same is with Charr characters!
But the carr are characterised as such, always in a pack (warband), never alone, so their home instance kinda fits the theme. It’s a training camp where they all live. The whole citadel is a war barracks camp thing.

Don’t know about other races though. :P

Galen Grey.4709:

Thing with forces of nature is the story itself demands ambiguity. Imagine if you’re an ant living peacefully in your ant hill when one day you see this massive giant with his huge weapon made of metal and wood. You’re there helpless watching as with one swing 1/2 your home is destroyed and hundreds of your friends are killed in an instant.

The antagonist, the human isnt going to explain his actions to you or any other ant. He’s well aware you’re there and that s/he is destroying your home but you’re nothing but insects to him/her. He doesnt care for you to understand his actions because s/he is not doing what s/he’s doing because of you. You just happen to be there between him/her and his/her plans. If you survive long enough and stick around you might find out all the destruction happened because the human wanted a pool in his garden.

Same with the dragons. The dragons have their agenda which as far as we can tell is a sort of balance mechanism to keep magic in check and prevent it from growing too much. For them we’re something that stands in the way of their plans. insects that need to be consumed and / or swept away to make room for a new beginning. Why would they explain themselves to us?

That’s the best description dragons and how dragons relate to the people of Tyria i’ve read so far!

This probably happens because PvP is competitive and when someone doesn’t know what they’re doing, others rage.

PvE in GW2 is designed to be truly cooperative and you don’t rage because someone mined the node you were trying to or stole your kill. Play some MMO’s that don’t have this and see what names you’ll be called. Play MMO’s with player killing (open PvP, everyone can kill everyone) and see what that’s like! GW2 spoiled me in this regard and i can’t go back to those games and communities. :P

Dungeons… Totally different story. Designed to be cooperative yet people join random groups that clearly state “everyone welcome” or something (meaning, you don’t have to be pro at a particular dungeon to join), then insult everyone for being noobs and calling them names, demanding that everyone caters to them and that everyone knows how to speedrun a particular dungeon.

Seriously, this needs to stop (in every aspect of the game), but as others have pointed out, this is the internet, we are anonymous and you won’t see them insulting a person on the street irl when said person can very easily connect his/her fist to their face.

Internet being laggy and all it’s kinda hard to connect fists to faces over long distances so the ragers feel safe and overcompensate for their lack of bravado in real life trough MMO’s and PvP…

There’s a report function for use of profanity so you know, use it! There’s a block function too! I never had to block another player (except for bots), but you know, if somoene really bothers you, don’t hesitate to block them…

Pandaman.4758:

Repair NPC’s/stations: 800 gems/$10
Trading Post: 800 gems/$10
Bank: 800 gems/$10
General Goods Merchant: 800 gems/$10
Mystic Forge: 800 gems/$10
Crafting stations: 6400 gems/$80 (800 gems/$10 each station)
Guild Bank, Activity, Laurel Merchant, Weapon/Armor NPC: 4000gems/$50 (800 gems/$10 each)

That feeling as Anet rolls naked in a mountain of hundred dollar bills: Priceless.

There are some things money can’t buy. For everything else there’s Mastercard.

I would totally not buy any of that since there’s all that just a waypoint away in the black citadel… And it wouldn’t at all make my home instance any more convenient or “feel mine”…

But i do get the joke.

Pimp my home instance! I like the idea!
I don’t want it to look differently, i want all the charr there and looking all steampunk and the way it does…

I just want the little things to add to make it really mine.

I don’t think it’s a weak story or weak antagonists, but i feel they didn’t want the focus to be on the antagonists, rather on the Tyrians coming together to fight to survive and how they do it, how each has his/her view on things and such. Just look at some npc dialogue in the world, add to that the story missions’ characters and events, and in the end, you, the player.

It is your story, you did choose which fraction’s point of view on how to deal with the issue to support thus changing the world (if so slightly) for you. How YOU deal with it. And you are presented with choices now and then to determine how you would deal with the current situation, dragons being the blurry fog on some distant horizon while the story focuses on the characters who have to deal with the threat.

Are the dragons a threat? I think that’s the whole point, to make that very blurry…

My only problem with the story toward the end is that they keep adding new characters that all die heroic deaths in the same mission and then all act like it’s a tragedy and that I the player should feel something… Feel what? I just met them!

What’s surprising is how well they characterised them in those few lines of dialoge you can have with them (in cutscenes and talking to them during story)…

So you see, the dragons are, while pretty threatening and not at all 2 dimensional or cartoony but actually very complex (if you read into the story deeper), not the focus of the overall story… The little people are.

I leveled to 80 off of looted gear and some bought stuff from TP in my 70+ levels… By then you get enough karma to buy tier 3 cultural weapons which are ok until you can find something better, and those don’t cost gold.

The point is. You really shouldn’t worry about gear until you hit lvl 80. Then do dungeons or something to gear yourself or search online for options. This game isn’t packed with loot, but if you want loot, you can do world boss events like Frozen maw and stuff. Those give a chest at the end that gives (mostly ok) loot according to your level, so if you’re still not 80 you might find something useful there.

But really, dungeons are full of loot and chests so, do one every now and then and you’ll be fine.

Exactly. If this happened rarely i wouldn’t care, but it’s really interfering with mesmer gameplay.

Well if i can’t use it at maximum distance that i’m supposed to be using it (Illusionary leap), then what’s the point? It’s the skill that quickly gets me to where i need to be, and as you said, whats the point if i have to move closer. :/

Yeah, changing the pathing could potentially lead to exploits, but blink has a maximum range too, i’ts not like you can get everywhere with it. :P But i do understand why they made it like that.

Well, some network improvements turned out to be. How is limiting bandwidth usage and making it lower an improvement? Maybe for them (if we’re talking about their end of the bandwidth usage), but it’s not working for us at all…

Right now i avoid all teleport skills. I’m sick of dying from them and having to stop to look where i ended up. :/ The only one i use is Illusionary leap since if that one fails, no big harm done. Others, not so much…

Come on ArenaNet! Please fix this and make it better!

Yeah, i need a plan, since i’m also not that rich. 75 gold is not much. I can waste all that in a second if i wanted to. I better set up my daily routine for crafting and gathering so i don’t spend so much gold on it.

Lunacy Solacio.6514:

[edited to make it short]

That’s an interesting observation! But what you’re describing doesn’t really happen to me.

Take Ilusionary Leap for example. I can see the clone stop just next to me, or halfway to where it’s supposed to go. i can swap with it and end up where it was, but it’s not near the mob i sent it to obviously… I dont get “lagged back”…

But the lag part may be connected to the recent update to megaservers maybe?

Today i did some boss blitz at Crown Pavilion. We were on a slope leading to the boss arena, and none (NONE) of the teleportation skills worked. iLeap actually put the clone behind me!

I think the problem is much more than just lag. And i don’t lag much in this game.

Maybe they should redesign those skills to bypass the pathing part since they are teleports. Maybe not for iLeap, because that does require a path for the clone to follow, but for blink and phase retreat, not to mention downed clone, the path should have no effect on the skill.

And again, they used to work great before.
I don’t know about other mesmers, but i rely on them heavily, and i would like to be able to use them without fear they would bug out.

I made the original thread here:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Blink-troubles/first#post4069524

But i thought i’d repot it in this thread too since i would consider this bugs…

All the Mesmer teleportation skills don’t work most of the time and feel severely broken.

Blink doesn’t work at all for me. It may work on a 100% flat terrain, but if there’s a bump on the road from where you are to where you want to teleport it usually teleports you to where you’re standing, or not the full distance. It doesn’t work on inclines like stairs or ascending terrain at all. The skill only seems to work on 100% flat terrain, and that’s not always.

It never works thorugh obstacles like fences in the world and across gaps but i guess that’s how it should be (which is weird, considering it’s a teleport). Maybe it’s a feature to prevent exploits or something, but still i thought i’d mention it, and i think it should be able to work like that, but that’s besides the point.

Phase retreat works most of the time, but more often than not it acts the same as Blink. If there’s a bump in the path of the teleport, it won’t go all the way and sometimes it doesn’t work at all and you teleport to where you were originally standing.

Ilussionary leap‘s distance seems to be shortened lately, and even if i use it well within the maximim distance, the clone never appears, but the skill still goes to cooldown (without eve activating the second part of the skill – Swap). Either that, or it acts like the other teleport skills, stops at any bump in the terrain, and doesn’t work on stairs and inclining terrain.

Feigned surge oddly works OK, but that’s an aquatic skill and it’s probably becasuse there’s no terrain there so the engine doesn’t register anything as a different leveled terrain.

Deception should create a clone and conceal you while you’re teleported away from the mess. It doesn’t do that. It often puts you right where you were, or even worse, toward the enemy you targeted. It acts very erratic.

And off topic (not a teleportation skill) Illusionary Warden (focus phantasm) sometimes doesn’t show up yet the skill goes on cooldown.

I realize the rules state i should report 1 skill or something, but those are all just 1 type of skill (a teleport skill) with the same issue, so i listed them all and explained the issue as well as i could.

Those skills were tested on almost every map, and the pattern is the same. They’re severely broken.

Mesmers’ signature skills don’t work and since mesmers are very fragile in combat, not being able to rely on our mobility in the battlefield is a big downside.

I hope someone gets those issues the attention they deserve and fix them as soon as it’s possible. I know Anet is very busy, but Mesmers coolest and most important skills are at this point unusable and unreliable. I hope someone can fix them.

Thank you for reading! And if someone wants to post something, there’s a link at the top of this post to a separate thread concerning this issue!

This thread sure is informative!

Actually more informative than the wiki. I learned more about ascended here than i did when getting lost in the wiki looking up ascendeds and links to everything related to them. :P

It’s cool that they’re no longer soulbound. I know that i’ll apreciate this when i make some gear, as i’m not known to be a particularly rich person when it comes to any mmo i play, so not needing to make more than one (say) greatsword is a big plus for me!

I’m also kind of a person that doesn’t mind the grind for materials and whatever i need.
I mean, i used to play Dekaron back when it took 6 months of grinding the same 2 maps to get to level 30. And that is a game with a lvl cap of 150 or something. :P

Guild Wars 2 is nothing compared to that!

I’m also kind of a crit kitten when it comes to the characters i play, so any stat boos however slight is a good thing. Even if i have to use transmutation charges to change how the armor or a weapon looks. :P

And i’m in no hurry so i can work at this goal as long as i need.

Well i think it’s kinda sad what happened to this cass’ signature skills…

We’re fragile enough as it is and need to be constantly on the move and “tricking” every mob/person we engage in battle and now we also have to worry if our teleports will work.

Sadly, at least for me (and i see i’m not the only one), most of the time, they don’t. It’s gotten so bad that i just stopped using them. The only one that kinda works ok is Phase retreat, but since i don’t use a staff anymore all i’m left with is blink and that horrid downed monstrosity that always gets me kiled.

And i want to use it. It’s a cool skill with so much wasted potential and lately really REALLY broken…

Maybe if enough people complain in this thread someone will sticky it and Anet will see the problem. I don’t know what else to do, but i’d like to see Blink and other teleportation skills improve.

EDIT: This may be off topic but it’s about teleporation skills.
I noticed that Illusionary leap often doesn’t work. No clone appears and the skill just goes to cooldown. And since no clone appeared i can’t teleport to the target (or rather swap positions with tat clone). And yes, i’m sure i was well within the range limit for that (which btw seemed to be significantly shortened than it used to be).

This happens with the focus phantasm too, the Phantasmal warden. I’m within range and it just doesn’t show up. Skill goes to cooldown and nothing happens.

Phantasmal duelist seems to work fine so that’s why i switched to pistol. Idk about torch, maybe someone that uses it could shed some light into how it works…

Anyway, it seems to me that all of the teleportation skills are broken to some degree… And some of the non teleportation ones too… I can’t rely on anything now which really bugs me a lot…

So, the general consensus seems to be that ascended stuff is optional. Nice if you can make it, and doesn’t matter if you can’t.

I have to say, this thread has been enlightening. I can’t remember when i saw someone doing dungeons with me trough LFG that didn’t have a legendary weapon or an ascended set. So i though, “hey, everyone has that, wtf, it’s mandatory”…

But if it really isn’t that big of a deal, then i’ll just make it my long term goal… I mean loooong term… There’s still a hell of a lot in the game that i didn’t do and are planning on doing.

I will craft it eventually but now i’m in no hurry to do so.

Thx for replying everyone!

Well, you all make a pretty convincing pro and con arguments.

According to this: http://www.gw2crafts.net/tailor_400.html
tailoring is not so expensive to get to 500… About the materials and stuff, idk, but the leveling itself is cheap (compared to other professions).

Now, i assume that, if i want a weapon, i need to craft it myself and level weaponsmith (for swords and greatswords) form 0-500? That seems a little extreme… There’s no other way? I need to craft all ascended gear i wish to use myself?
I guess i can level up my alts with other crafting professions and then make them with those? I mean, it’s soulbound on use so i can make it with any character then transfer it in the bank…

As for the gear.

I guess i will make it a long term goal or something since it takes long to make and i’m not doing anything in the game right now where such gear would matter (however slightly), like fractals or WvW… Plus, the gear looks really ugly to me, especially for a charr armor (but then again, most charr armors are kinda ugly and clip into themselves)…

That and i’ll need lots of gold for that judging by the responses.

So, with that in mind, i guess my current goal is to get tons of gold. :P Then after that i’ll think about crafting ascendeds…

I know right? I’m glad i’m not the only one seeing that.

And i even forgot about the downed clone. That’s how much i don’t use it! It never gets me away! It’s been known to even teleport me in the middle of enemies i was trying to get away from…

Or, my favorite, i’m facing forward, and on the edge of an AOE, i use that clone thing to teleport backwards, away from the AOE, then i either end up, in the middle of it, or where i was.

This bugs me a lot. I used to love those skills and rely on them to stay mobile. And i loved the idea of a mesmer teleporting around the battlefield (be it PvE or PvP or WvW), using clones to conceal himself and such… And it used to work perfectly! I was really getting into the role of an illusionist trickster mesmers are supposed to be.

That immersion kinda falls flat when you teleport to the exact spot you’re standing on.

Can’t we petition ArenaNet to fix this or something? I’d even go as far as asking them to make it work across gaps and obstacles.

A fence is in your way? Blink across it! :P
But i’d be happy if they just make it work normally.

Is it just me or did blink used to work better?
Now it seems that, if it’s a slight bump in the road from you and where you want to go, it registers like you are trying to blink across a gap and blinks you to where you’re standing…

Same with phase retreat, the staff skill… Sometimes it just doesn’t work and that’s my favorite skill! I don’t use staff anymore but still…

I mean, i’m glad they fixed it. I used to blink myself into scenery and phase retreat into a wall all the time and get stuck, but now it’s like blink is kinda broken and doesn’t do what it’s supposed to most of the time. Not all the time, but enough to get annoying…

Also, i would love it if they enabled blink to go across gaps. It would actually make the class true to itself. I mean, it’s a teleport! Come on! If you can’t teleport to another platform or a gap in some jumping puzzles, it’s not a teleport worth having. :P

But that’s beside the point and i know it won’t happen because it might cause exploits or something.

But anyway, anyone else having problems with blink?

Hi!

I’m thinking of crafting myself a set of ascended light armor. I’m a mesmer (currently berserker build, but that might change if i get bored and want something different).

Currently i have a full flame legion set of armor, and i was wondering if ascended armor is way better or just slightly better… I mean, is it worth it?

And how much gold would that cost when all is said and done? I already know i need to put about 50 gold into tailoring to get it to lvl 500, and not to mention other materials that i actually need to craft the armor, get recipes and such… I have a feeling it’s a hefty sum…

Also, how much better are the weapons compared to the exotic ones?
And how would i get one? I can’t craft it myself since i don’t have the weapon crafting profession. I use swords and greatswords, and i can’t craft that. I can craft staffs with artificing and a focus, but not much else i could use. Not to mention, getting artificing to 500 costs a hell of a lot! So how would i go about acquiring ascended weapons?

I mostly do dungeons, some WvW and Eotm, and general PvE. I haven’t tried fractals yet, but i’m in no hurry to do so.

So, is it worth it? Is the defense from ascended light armor so much better than the exotic light armor? And is the damage form an ascended weapon so much better than the exotic one? Does it justify the cost? And what is the cost exactly?

Oops… Sorry about that…

So, as long as i don’t click on this i’m good?
I enabled account verification each time i play, so that’s an added extra. It doesn’t work as it should, but i will get an email if someone tries to log in to my account besides me…

I’ll run a scan today, who knows…

How else can i make sure my account is secure? What did you mean by that?

I got this email the other day…

“Guild Wars 2 Account Will Be Shut Down Inform

We are sorry to inform you that your login account “YAHOO ACCOUNT EMAIL” will be shut down or partially limited within 72 hours due to currency transactions or abnormal login. If you want to remove restrictions, please click the following link to validate:
*email*EDITED OUT*email*.
Please keep in mind that Guild Wars 2 is a global game with hundreds of thousands of players. This means that standards of behavior must be upheld. For your convenience, you can obtain more information about our rules at the address listed below.
*email*EDITED OUT*email*
Guild Wars 2 Account Support Team"

The email that this got sent to is not the one i registered Guild Wars 2 with… I use another email for GW2…

Still… Should i be worried? I’m not stupid and i’m not clicking any links from this stuff, but still, i wonder how they (whoever this is) got my email…

It’s currently in my spam folder, but i wonder, is this random or does someone know i play GW2 and how? I don’t get any other spam for countless MMO’s that i don’t play, yet i get this…

Wtf?

Avelos.6798:

My 2900XT has a backplate too so I have to basically take off everything.

Ah. Then yeah… Way more screws than mine.
Be sure to pack a variety of screwdrivers, some of them (at least on my GPU) were pretty small…

I have a tiny screwdriver which i use for my glasses and some guitar parts.
The screws on the heatsink plate were even smaller. It was too big for them lol. :P

Avelos.6798:

I should check out that old Radeon HD 2900 XT I have and see if I can separate the heatsink from the PCB. So many screws…

I only had 4 to unscrew to remove the heatsink from the chip.
I couldn’t get the protective top off from the heatsink though. I couldn’t find such a small screwdriver… If i could i would probably clean it better, but meh, if it works, it’s fine, and i’m happy with the temperatures.

Hahah, well it’s amazing what a bit of thermal paste and an air compressor can do. Mine was really full of dust, despite the fact that i clean it once a month. No wonder computers get slow with all that crap piling up in there. Add to that the age of the hardware, buggy drivers and yeah… Artifacts on screen.

I actually kinda enjoyed tinkering with the hardware. It was fun, and i’m really glad i got rid of that “Nvidia driver has stopped working” bug. It was driving me crazy.

Again, thank you all for your help! I really appreciate it!

Well, i made it! Cleaned the fan, heatsink, the rest of the thermal paste, applied a new coat, and the computer booted up. Yay i didn’t mess it up! :P
I didn’t go overboard with the new layer or paste, i applied a medium thin layer. I read that if you put too much that it’s not good.

I ran the tests on idle and under load (about an hour of Lion’s Arch, and zerg), and the results are in the attachment.

I’m quite happy. Not as low as it could be, but it’s better than before. I’ll try downclocking it later on, that should prolong it’s life some more, and when i downclock it the temperatures should drop further too.

I haven’t noticed any artifacts since that last time, and with the new drivers, all the driver crash problems are gone! So i think the heat and the drivers were causing the problems, as there was virtually no thermal paste left on the GPU, and what little there was, didn’t look all that good. Probably worn with age.

So i think this is it. I can’t say for sure until i play for hours like the last time this happened, but it’s certainly better than before and the artifacts shouldn’t return.

Thank you all for your help!

Yeah, the drivers do seem better at cleaning themselves, but idk, call me paranoid. :P
I just had to do it.
I would have just updated it, but last time that didn’t work and the bug was still there, still driver stopped responding etc…

So why not. The drivers did leave a lot of crap behind upon uninstall. Maybe the new installer cleans that first, then installs new ones, but i can’t be sure. It says “clean install” but hey… Paranoid. :P
Also, probably some of the registry keys were causing the issue, or maybe the driver version.

Don’t know for sure, but whatever it was, it’s gone now.

Now i just need to revitalize my GFX card with new paste, and clean it.
Hopefully i’ll get good results in the end.

I already got some tutorials bookmarked for applying thermal paste, so i’ll check them out before i do anything.

sirsquishy.8531:

So I dont know if your card comes like that out of the box (Cards BIOS Setting from the Vendor). But if you are still having heating issues, your Fan checks out, you have no Gaps between the Nvidia Chip and the Heatsink. then You might wanna run reference Clock speeds.

It came like that, i never overclocked it myself…
I finally got that thermal paste, so tomorrow i’m doing the cleaning, and i’ll disassemble the heatsink and apply a new thermal paste layer on.

If that doesn’t help a lot, i’ll use some program to downclock it to the default settings.
I’ll post the results when i finish and test it.

Thank you all for all your help!
Keep your fingers crossed!

EDIT:
Also, i did a clean install of the new drivers. And i really mean clean. I removed all the Nvidia leftovers manually, all the folders and registry keys, and just to make i went for the overkill. When i installed the new drivers, i checked the “clean installation” box, because, nvidia apparently can do that now, and that’s supposed to remove all the leftovers, but i don’t trust that much… :P

I’m happy to report that (for now, i don’t wanna jinx it), the annoying, “Nvidia driver has stopped working” bug is gone!
Finally!

Ok, i must say i’ve never hear of baking a graphic card. o.O
That’s a new one. :P
Thanks for the tip, but i’m not gonna stick it in the oven just yet, because, as you said, if anything goes wrong, i could fry it for good, and i don’t have enough saved for a new one.

But i downloaded GPU-Z as suggested, played Guild Wars 2 for about an hour or two, and set it to tell me max readings (not current ones, but what the maximum was at any point).

The results are in the attachment.
Is this too high?
And this wasn’t even with any excessive gameplay, i did 2 story quests and ran around the map doing vistas. There were no players around as it’s the time every normal person sleeps so… Yeah… :P

The fan was spinning loud, but not as loud as when there’s an event and a bunch of players show up, and the whole screen lights up with skill effects, so i suspect the GFX gets hotter then.

Tomorrow i’m getting some thermal paste, and i’ll apply it. Can’t hurt…

So… Is heat the problem here?

EDIT: I forgot to mention, i didn’t reinstall drivers yet, haven’t gotten arount to it.
When i do a “clean” install, what does that mean? Do i just uninstall drivers and install new ones or what?

Ok, thank you all.
I’ll download the latest drivers, do a clean install, see what happens and, I’ll download GPU-Z and check the temperatures.

I can’t do it now, so it’ll have to wait till later today, but i’ll post the results.
Also, replacing the paste wouldn’t hurt, so i’ll do that too at some point.

Yeah, i think it’s a good idea to start saving money now…
The GPU is definitely a bottleneck, sure, but it serves its purpose. I just want to squeeze some more life out of it before it dies. At least until i have for another one.

And i’m pretty tidy as far as computer hygiene goes. I hate opening up my cousins computer after god knows how long to se dead spiders and all sorts of bugs, webs adn dust in the case. Then I have to clean it of course. Ugh… Once a month cleaning it is.
o.O

Can you recomend some software that i could change the GPU clock with? Or is it a bios thing?

About Linux… Well, it’s free and doesn’t seem to mess up my computer the way windows does lately. It was opposite before. Linux bugged out, and windows, even if it was full of errors kept working, so meh… To each his own. I just use it because it’s preferable to windows now for everyday stuff. I boot into windows when i want to play games, or do some video editing, cryengine 3 editor and such. Programs that don’t work on linux.

Also, for the reference, i attached 2 sound files.
One is the fans on Linux, and the other are the fans on Windows…

When you listen to the windows sound, at about half duration it starts going really crazy…

This is on idle. :/
WTF is wrong with my windows instalation???

Linux fans:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kupak8wawo6prpt/Linux_fan.mp3

Windows fans (they start going batkitten halfway through the sound so hear to the end):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/c53tqcpn1rbin6n/Windows_fan.mp3

Thank you for replies!

My system specs (sorry, i should have posted this first):

AMD Phenom II x6 1090t 3.2Ghz
nVidia GeForce 9600 GT 512 MB (it’s factory overclocked edition, XFX Alpha dog edition or something)
8 GB RAM

I don’t know how overclocked is it, but this is the first time it happened.
I didn’t measure the temperature of the graphic card, i’m not even sure there’s a thermometer on it or how to do it (what software, etc.), but i clean my computer with an air compressor once a month, or once every two months, so there shouldn’t be a lot of dust on it.

Guild Wars 2 isn’t crashing at all, the game still works after this appears, but it looks like that. The artefacts remain in the game and after i exit, in Windows 7 untill i reboot my computer.

The fan sounds like a hair dryer on adrenaline mixed with speed. o.O
But that’s how it always sounded, and i’m not sure if it’s the CPU or GPU fan.
And the funny thing is, only in Windows.
In Linux all the fans are quiet and work great, no grinding sounds, no noise. When i start something more demanding i can hear the fan speed up, but in windows, the fans spin like crazy even if the system is idle, and it’s really really loud. That’s one of the reasons why i installed linux in the first place. Something’s not right with Windows i guess.

I checked the Task manager, and everything i could think of, but i couldn’t find any program or process that would cause the processor or GPU to do that. The system is idle and the fans go crazy. When it’s under load (like games and such), the fans are still crazy…

The GPU is old, i know, and yes, it might be dying. I hope not, because i have no money for a new one, but that thought crossed my mind as well.

I could try downlcloacking it, but i’m not sure how to do that.
Also, what is TIM? Thermal paste or something? That’s what i gathered from the context… If so, yeah, that’s a good idea, i never changed the paste on the GPU, but now would be a good time to check that.

One thing i should mention is that Windows behaves weird.
I have no idea why this is happening, i searched the net, but i couldn’t find a fix for it.
Whenever the mouse is idle for about half a minute, and i move it, i get the “Graphics driver has become unresponive and has restarted” error. The screen flickers, Aero is gone, then black, and everything back to normal again.
I managed to add some registry things to prevent the message, and increased the time in which windows thinks the drivers are unresponsive (which should fix it according to their official forums), but the screen still flickers and all, i just don’t get the message telling me that the driver has crashed.
And that’s the second (among many) reasons i got Linux to dual boot.
Alas, Guild Wars 2 doesn’t run well on linux under wine and i can’t play it there, so i need windows (cough make a linux native client hint hint / cough).

Some applications that are currentily using the driver crash because of that, but some just stutter.

Some examples of what happens if i leave the mouse idle for too long:
- Video playback on VLC stops at a frame while the sound continues and i have to restart it.
- Youtube videos go black and need to be reloaded
- Video editing software crashes
-And last, Guild Wars 2 just freezes for a bit, then returns to normal, but never crashes.

Last thing to mention is that the artifacts don’t appear because of the mouse/unresponsive driver thing. They just appear at random, after a few hours, or an hour. There’s no pattern i could reckognize.

There are more examples, but you get the picture.
Sorry for the long post, but i needed to explain the situation.

I really hope my GPU isn’t dying.

See the attachmnet for the explanation please…

This doesn’t happen always, but it did happen after a few hours of gameplay, and it happened twice last time i played.
What’s causing this?

When i exit the game, the artefacts are on windows desktop too.
A reboot fixes it, and no other games and applications caused this so far, everything else works good.

So far i only experienced this in GW2 and only after a few hours of gameplay.

mercury ranique.2170:

Mia’s wig. Trash it (not even worth selling on the TP imo).

Well i could sell it for 1 copper, but no one’s buying it. :P

But yeah… You’re right. No sense in holding that.
Baubles, cogs and a mini mold. I’ll hold on to those. I already trashed the tickets, and i’ll trash the wig.

SolarNova.1052:

it will do ‘ok’.

What do you mean “ok”? I have an ancient GFX card which does “ok”…
That rig should do great!

I mean… I think, around 25-30 FPS is ok… maybe you think that’s crap and that 60 FPS is “ok”, but what’s great then? 120 fps which you can’t get to nicely show without a 1000$ monitor? Screen tearing will happen, and vsync will just drop your FPS to your monitor’s refresh rate which is around 60 for most monitors.

If it’s around 60 FPS, which he should be getting with that computer, that’s great in my book…

I do agree with custom built computers though… I built mine myself (minus the GFX card. I used my old one cause it was way out of my budget). You definitely get more out of your money if you just buy every individual piece yourself, but some people just don’t like to do that or know how to…

You can pretty much mess your configuration up if you don’t know what you are doing. Bottlenecking the system and all… Pre build computers are just a faster way to get there. :P

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Running_the_game

Short answer: Yes, obviously…

I have a GeForce 9600 gt with 512 MB, and it runs just fine. I get about 25-30 FPS with high settings in world areas and 10-15 FPS less in cities.
Sometimes your internet connection can cause graphic lag, so there’s that…
And bad drivers, etc…

Just don’t expect high framerates in cities, WvW or such… In any MMO, where’s a lot of players, there’s lag, and framerate drops…

Also, don’t blame me if something isn’t working as you expect, but all in all, that machine should run GW2 with no problems, and with a nice FPS at high settings…

Guild Wars 2 installs some parts on the main partition regardless of what other partition you choose as the primary GW2 folder.

I haven’t encountered this issue, but maybe it’s telling you that your main partition (C: drive) doesn’t have enough space for that, so you’re not even getting to the part where you choose the folder for install…

You know… Like, it could be checking disk space first, before the part where you choose where to install it, and if the C: partition doesn’t have enough, it will tell you.

How much free space do you have on your SSD?

Yeah, it does seem pretty common. Maybe i’ll get rid of that too. No point in selling it on TP since no one’s buying it.

Then again. This time it was common so maybe next time it’ll be a rare drop. :P

Well, i decided to save baubles and cogs/toy frame.
I’m still not sure about the mya’s wig, but i destroyed the tickets because i got like, 7 of them, and it’s not worth keeping them around for such a small amout.

I have 350 cogs and close to that number of baubles so i’ll keep them, but others, meh….

It’s good to know those events are going to be repeated each season. They’re always fun to participate in.

@gamemaster

Hahaha! This brightened up my day!
Thanks!

Batdogi.7142:

Veprovina.4876:

…
EDIT:
Also, how exactly does one install a mac client on linux? And use it without wine?

I’m not certain, but there is the darling project. I wasn’t aware it was far enough along to support mac games though. Last I heard it was for command line programs.

http://darling.dolezel.info/en/Darling;jsessionid=13xg9rb3o7sjprpzzmyiuutn

Thank you. I’ll check it out.
From what i breezed thorugh in the wiki, it doesn’t seem to be finished enough to run something like this.

I guess i’ll have to wait for wine to add multi threading support, or maybe run some overclocking type programs that speed the processor up…

The obvious, albeit a pricey thing would be to buy a new graphic card, but i’m not that into spending a lot of money for the one game i play. :/

Ok i know about the cogs, so if they’re coming back i’m saving them. After all, Winter is coming. :P

Baubles too, if i can use them, why not, i like the 8 bit dungeon. The boss was a bit too hard, but oh well…

Now idk about the tickets… I didn’t seem to have any problems getting them and i had no ide what they’re for so meh. :P

Thank you for your replies!

Mastermavrick.2439:

You can also 100% explore each map you go to. You get xp for every zone/poi/heart/vista you do and a reward chest once said map is 100% nvm the dynamics you run into.

This ^^^^

You’ll get used to it.
You don’t need to find any npc’s or anything, just go around and play.
When you complete a heart, you might want to find the heart npc. They sometimes have something useful to sell, but very rarely, so don’t bother yourself with this just yet.