Guild Wars 2

The issue is that Pistol Whip has a short stun and some (slightly hard to time) evasion as a free part of the skill while 100 Blades has no control effects or defensive benefits.

My main is a PvE Thief that runs all Knight gear, using S/P, and constantly healing from my Venomous Aura shared buffs. As someone who “wasted” 10 pts into Critical Strikes for the trait that added 5% of my Precision into Vitality, I sit at a pathetic 11k health. From all of the things that I’ve experienced, the free evasion on Pistol Whip is noticeable and it really does save a considerable amount of damage. If ArenaNet did buff up Pistol Whip on the offensive side, then they’d likely nerf down its defensive side. All things considered, I’m happy with its general effectiveness since I don’t want ArenaNet to make it into a Thief version of 100 Blades.

Toughness is basically a % of flat damage reduction from any Physical attack, though it doesn’t help against Condition attacks. As a character who is constantly healing from Healing Shouts and getting condition removal through Superior Rune of the Soldier, a support Shout build is almost custom made for Toughness gear.

My Thief main runs Power / Precision / Toughness. I’m healing through crits (via Sigil of Blood & Omnomberry Pie) and life drain procs whenever I hit someone while I’m under a Venom buff. Even with my taking a “5% of your Precision into Vitality” trait (which is my only +Vitaility source), I’m sitting at a pathetic 11k hp. Yes, my melee attack of Pistol Whip does have some built-in inconsistent evasion that’s saving me incoming damage. However that’s not the point. The point is that I’m getting so much incoming healing that I can quickly heal up all of the incoming damage I take thanks to having 2.1k Toughness and Exotic armor.

If I can pull that off on 11k hp and some free evasion, then I’m guessing that you should be able to make a Healing Shout build work with Toughness.

End game? Up until the introduction of creeping gear progression that was introduced through the Fractal of Mists dungeon, there wasn’t any kind of gear progression system beyond getting Exotic gear and grinding for the specific weapon and armor skins that you wanted. Nor is there any kind of true raid progression, though some of the large Group Event dynamic events do easily reach raid level populations.

This game has always been marketed as having a “non-grinding” end game that also lacked dungeon flagging and raid progression. What does that mean in layman’s terms? Basically GW2 lacked a “traditional” MMO end game scene. It’s always been marketed like this over the years. If you read between the lines, your end game consisted of PvP (sPvP & WvW) and making countless alts. I’ve always felt that GW2 was marketed more towards “the climb” and not “the destination”.

The new dungeon that was opened up Saturday has taken the 1st step towards changing that. A new gear tier called Ascended was introduced and it introduced a very real gear check system through the introduction of their Agony damage dot system (which ticks off a % of max health per tick) and their Agony Resistance items. To make an Infusion that gives you the needed resistance, you have to do some mega grinding and cash / crafting farming. This new time sink is Phase #1.

Based on ArenaNet’s article from last weekend, Phase #2 will roll out mid December to introduce something else that will also grant Ascended loot for other gear slots. Wash, rinse, and repeat.

If you’re looking for a game that has a more traditional MMO scene, then GW2 is currently not the MMO for you. Having said that, things could radically change within the next 3 – 6 months based on what ArenaNet has done and said within the past week.

For the record, all of the people saying that Thief is hard to play in PvE at the lower levels aren’t giving the full picture. If you’re running an Off-Hand Pistol on a Thief, then soloing Standard and Veteran mobs of most types shouldn’t be an issue due to the AoE Blind field created by Pistol #5 (which constantly reapplies the buff to anything in that black cloud).

Your own Thief style is completely up to your weapons choices, trait choices, skill choices, and personal preference. My own Sword / Pistol character is basically a quasi-tank that will often lead the charge and will happily fight in the “stand your ground” horde of melee combatants who are beating up on an open world Champion mob. It’s possible to make a high damage mitigation build with low health that relies on constant self-healing to survive. Or you could go heavy health and no real damage mitigation. Stealth and mega burst could be your thing. Even a ranged condition dot spec is extremely viable.

The Thief class is whatever you want it to be.

Dee Jay.2460:

Well I use a 90 second CD Elite most of the time and the effect doesn’t trigger quite often. I’d wager it fails to trigger about 20% of the time while other times it won’t trigger until the end of the Elite skill.

Yeah, it doesn’t trigger right away. I start and finsh my 2 second cast timer on Basilisk Venom. Due to my trait spec, I immediately get x2 Might stacks. Then around 1 second after the Might is applied, my Lyssa proc buffs are applied. If you’re looking for instant results, then the Lyssa proc isn’t what you’re looking for. My needs were for the condition removal and the various buffs to keep me from being interrupted while I petrify the named mob, which Lyssa can do.

If you’re dirt poor and starting from scratch (as I was with my 1st 80th about 2.5 weeks ago), my personal suggestion is to run around Malchior’s Leap. With the Plinx event in Cursed Shore only spawning around every 30 minutes and its usual farmers now farming the Fractal dungeons, you need to think outside the box. I’ve always prefered Malchior’s Leap due to the visual variety in scenery and the mob variety (which helps for filling out your Daily).

1) Did you know that Unidentified Dyes are currently selling for around 6-7 Silver? If you’re getting Dye drops, it doesn’t hurt to sell them for some extra income.

2) Did you know that your Daily rewarded Mystic Forge Coins tend to sell for 2.5-3.5 Silver? I found that it was more worth it to sell my Coins in a massive chunk and just buy the Exotic weapons I wanted. While you can use Coins to make the Mystic Forge starter Exotics, you won’t have control over which +Stats you’ll get.

3) Beyond that, harvest like an idiot. As a general rule, I use Mithral Picks & Axes for most of the zone and just switch to my Orichalcum Tools when I hit one of the appropriate nodes. While the massive amount of Wood nodes have their price currently devalued, Mithral Ore is still worth your time to farm. (Still farm and sell the Wood. Just don’t expect to get more than 13 Copper for it.) Then for the Gathering nodes, I just permanently use an Orichalcum Sickle since there are just so many nodes around. Once you’ve harvested your heart out, sell that stuff. The top end Wood sells for around 70-80 Copper each and the top end Ore sells for around 2.5 Silver. Even Omnomberries sell for around 2-2.5 Silver.

4) While you’re roaming around looking for harvesting nodes (which will usually spawn in specific areas that you’ll learn over time), kill everything in your path. With the increased drop rate in Yellow grade weapons, you can always sell those for around 17 Silver or you can gamble at tearing them apart for the rare Ectos (which I have terrible luck with). Once you’re starting to get more geared, you can just run past the mobs. However you’re in real danger from a 2v1 or 3v1 when you’re starting to gear out, so I tried to kill every mob individually to prevent them from ganging up on me.

5) Make sure to do any Dynamic Events along that way that you can solo. While you might lack the people to take over a god’s temple, there are still many events that you will be able to complete on your own or with someone else who’s in the area. The 1.8 Silver for each Gold completion will add up over time and it will continue to give you the chance at Yellow drops.

6) Otherwise just tear apart your Cloth and Leather drops for crafting components. If you’re desperate for cash, the top end Cloth material sells for around 3.5 Silver. I’d suggest just saving those two material categories unless you hit a financial emergency. Then just vendor sell the non-White gear drops for the Metal and Wood items.

EDIT

7) I almost forgot to bring up the Bones. While I wouldn’t sell the top end rare drop Bones, you’ll get plenty of high end Bone drops from the countless undead in that zone. Currently those Bones are selling for around 70-90 Copper. Since you’re getting them on a regular basis from just fighting your way through the zone, they’re a nice source of bonus income.

Sigh. ArenaNet is just bad about some things like that. For example, players can’t craft the Rabid (Cond / Prec / Tou) stats as an Exotic piece of jewelry. However to compensate people, I’m seeing these stats show up on some of the new Ascended stuff. Based on that prescedent, I’m expecting the Ascended grade Cleric items to probably be offered through Fractal Dungeon #2 in mid December (or maybe a content update after that).

Yes, it’s completely unfair. However one of the points of a gear grinding system is to create enforced time sinks, so forcing people to go back for Cleric gear at a later date would help to accomplish that goal.

Yeah, the 50 second recast timer isn’t in the Rune’s description and it really should be there for (Elite slot) Signet Warriors and the (Elite slot) Venom Thieves. As a Thief with a 36 second recast Elite for my group / zerg skills, it stinks that I only get the proc every 2nd time since it’s not worth it to waste 14 seconds waiting for the Lyssa proc to refresh. However I do like having another condition removal source and the rest of the benefits mostly fit what I’m looking for, so I’m currently using the Lyssa as well.

While the Wiki has it slotted in their Crit Proc column, the Sigil has always just read as a Hit Proc. So unless there were some kind of unofficial catches, which someone would have listed by now in the Wiki entry, it should still be on any hit. This is why there is a 10 second recast timer on the proc rate.

Ah. WvW… Just keep in mind that the AoE is relatively short ranged around you. If I’m fighting in a dungeon or against a champion mob, the ranged casters who are staying back will not receive my AoE buffs. This means that while your Venomous Aura abilities will greatly aid a zerg which is closely huddled together, you will be mostly worthless when people are spread out. (You’ll still keep yourself buffed, but you won’t get to do the true point of your character spec.)

I just answered this in the thread below yours. See the link below.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/players/Lack-of-quests/first#post803939

Mackdose.6504:

You don’t get to be mad at the hardcore for wanting to play with other hardcore people, that’s completely unreasonable.

True. For many years of my life, I’ve been a bleeding edge raider and I know all of the ups and downs that go with that. One of the byproducts is that the bleeding edge standard will always influence the casual standard, which is the only reason to monitor where the bleeding edge goal post is located.

GW2 wasn’t supposed to be about that. That was one of the main draws to the game. I’ve gotten tired of the constant gear chase and having developers target new content (open world and instanced) to their power level, which inherently discourages and excludes anyone who isn’t part of that player segment. (It has always put me in an akward place to have to tell my IRL friends that they don’t have the neccessary gear to successfully complete a dungeon because they’re basically a walking blood smear.) However GW2 has decided to switch mindsets and they’re now going down that path.

Since there are many things that I still think that GW2 gets right, I’ll continue playing. But if things play out like I’m expecting within the next 3 months, then I’ll have to seriously re-assess things.

1) More of your experience comes from Dynamic Events and not the Heart quests. If you ignored the DEs or were just unlucky to fall in between their spawn timers, then you’re going to be in a world of hurt.

2) Now that I’m leveling up Character #5 and don’t need to craft on him (since I’ve got the x8 crafting classes covered on my other characters), I’m finding it much harder to level. There is a rediculous amount of experience gain from crafting. It’s far more than you ever realize until you don’t use it.

3) To compensate for non-crafters, the blunt solution is to temporarily abandon your racial 1-15 zone. Go into your racial city and head over to that purple swirl symbol on your map, which is the Asuran Gate to the destination of Lion’s Arch. This will drop you out at the gate hub from all of the racial cities. Pick another race that sound interesting and enter their Asuran Gate. Once you zone into that racial city, leave it and run around their 1-15 zone. Once you’ve rack up some levels, you can return to your original 1-15 zone to complete it.

Loosifah.4739:

I just did the math on this one. Over a period of 98 hours(4 days) they would have had to have been logged in the whole time, and in a fractal every 30 minutes constantly to have enough tokens just to buy the backslot item. Not to mention the required gift to upgrade it.

Or they could have received a Vial drop and simply made one in the Mystic Forge. There are multiple ways to get everything and people will expect us to use them all.

No one has the Backpacks yet in any kind of large amount. The same goes for the Infusions. However we’re currently only 2 Days into the Ascended grinding world. People are grinding for Ring right now. Then as of mid December, Fractal #2 (or whatever they call it at that point) is supposed to introduce a 2nd wave of Ascended slots. Wash, rinse, and repeat.

By the time that December’s Fractal #2 comes out, people will expect that you have already grinded out your Ring slots, that you’ve made your own Backpack, and that you’ve made your own Infusions. The Infusion are Account Bound, so I’m guessing that the Backpacks will be the same way. Therefore you must grind and can’t use any of your saved up game currency to just buy them outright.

Then within 1 month after Fractal #2, those items will become the new standard. This dance won’t stop until ArenaNet pauses in the gear escalation game. However this will just allow more people to get Ascended out, which will make Ascended even more required to participate. It’s a self fullfilling prophecy.

Avatar.1923:

at least if they cofine it to the fractals…

But it can’t be confined and that’s the crux of the problem. Now that Ascended is available, it will quickly become the standard within the next few months. Lines like “speed clear of AC” will turn into “ulta speed clear of AC (must have Ascended)”. All of the WvW players will be forced to turn to Ascended to keep up with the Cold War styled arms race. Once Ascended become wide spread enough, then ArenaNet devs will be forced to take it into account for the design of future content (since it would otherwise be too easy for the Ascended players that they’re trying to apease).

Within the next 3 months, you MUST have Ascended or you’re going to be considered dead weight as an 80th character. If you just continue to make alts and abandon the character once you hit the level cap, then you won’t feel the change. However ArenaNet has currently made the Fractals the most cost effective way to loot farm. Unless they buff up the loot drops in the open world dynamic events, then people will ignore those at 80th. So with that in mind, it will become nearly impossible for people to even finish their Personal Story line since no one will want to wade through Cursed Shore events for a rush in Arah.

My S/P Venomous Aura character runs Power / Precision / Toughness. Based on my healing output, I can get away with a lower Vitality score and Precision grants me additional ways to heal by using x2 Superior Sigil of Blood & Omnomberry Pie.

Avatar.1923:

you guys are being elitist.

shame on GW2 for provoking that….

By general definition, a gear progression system is elitist. You take the most skilled and most geared people to tear through content in order to reach even better content. It’s a never ending loop that promotes exclusion as a means to the end.

I never wanted GW2 to get to this point. This was one of the reasons that I came to this MMO. However now that ArenaNet has flipped the switch, I seriously do want the ability to /Inspect the gear of other players since gear checks are now being impliments through the Agony dot system.

All of the AoE buffs have a cap of 5 targets. This lets a Venomous Aura soloing player buff our Thieves Guild pets. Or in a group situation, you’d be buffing other players and pets / NPCs as applicable.

On my own Thief (which is a Venomous Aura build), there is a world of difference in the dps output of my Thieves Guild pets when I’m sharing my Venoms. It increases my own damage output through the extra Vulnerability stacks from Skale Venom. Then it also increases our collective dps output as we’re constantly triggering the Leeching Venoms trait.

EDIT

As a S/P melee focused Thief, I’m constantly buffing the other melee players around me. Especially on things like the undead priest champions in the Orr content, the melee players have reported noticeable dps and healing changes when they’re playing near me.

Tulisin.6945:

Wiser with Age.3714:

Between x2 Superior Sigil of Blood

Proc sigils share cooldowns. This isn’t a terrible idea because the Blood cooldown is so short, but you’re still not going to get double effectiveness.

In my book as a pseudo-tanking Thief, I’d much rather have a more consistent proc at 51% than I would have a 30% inconsistent proc and a kill count sigil that constantly resets any time that I get downed.

You are correct. There is no reason to hang out in Malchior’s Leap or Cursed Shore unless you’ve just hit 80th and are farming towards buying Exotics from the BLTC sellers. People can’t chain farm Plinx in Cursed Shore and they don’t want to farm the various god priests. The interested players don’t even have to set foot into the new karka hell that is the new open world zone.

All things considered, an established 80th character should only do instanced Fractals and let the rest of the game rot. For a game that was focused on open world Dynamic Events and the random interactions of non-grouped players, this is a severe shift from the initial focus of the game. Now like pretty much every other MMO, GW2 will have a Dyamic Event “climb” as Game #1 and an instanced grind fest in the Fractal dungeon for Game #2.

Tulisin.6945:

High crit rate and Omnomberry Pies seal the deal here if you want defensive overkill.

Yup! My own S/P & SB is a Venomous Aura build, which runs Power / Precision / Toughness. Between x2 Superior Sigil of Blood, Omnombery Pie, and my traited Leeching Venom procs, you can have some crazy healing while still doing respectable dps. (Just remove those Conditions ASAP because they will eat you alive. There’s a reason that I run a Superior Sigil of Purity on my SB.)

ArenaNet did state in one of their official posts this week that any item with the Legendary tag will automatically be upgraded in future gear cycles to remain equal to the current BiS (Best in Slot). Having said that, you might not like the base +Stats on your Legendary (which makes grinding for one a waste of time).

Also since ArenaNet did an accidental upgrade on the Legendary weapons last night (and later brought them back down since Ascended weapons aren’t out yet), we saw that Legendary items still lack an Infusion slot. Since you need Agony Resistance for the upcoming content in the future, lacking Agony Resistance as a basic trait and lacking an Infusion slot for Agony Resistance means that the Legendary items will still be inferior in any circumstance where ArenaNet is forcing Agony stacks on you.

Columba,

Infusion pieces to throw in the upgrade slots of Ascended gear can be made using rediculously expensive Mystic Forge recipes. There are some posts in the new Live Event sub-forum and the Crafting forum about the current recipes that people have discovered.

In theory, the new Ascended grade Backpacks will also be made in the Mystic Forge. Considering just how rediculous the requirements are to make a Blue grade Infusion, I shudder to think about what these new Ascended Backpacks will require.

Ascended Rings are supposed to drop in the new Fractal Dungeon #1. Further item slots should be dropping in Fractal Dungeon #2 when it comes out mid December.

A standard Critical Hit increases damage by +50%. In math term, you take your standard damage and multiply it by x1.50 (to represent that 50% increase). The gear and trait stat of +Crit Damage adds +.01% increase to the Critical Hit multiplier. In your example, having +30 Critical Damage means that your hits will do +80% more damage than usual. Therefore your math multplier will end up being x1.80 to your standard hit damage.

Mystic Forge currently has Infusion (upgrade slots on Ascended gear) and Back slot gear.

Beyond that, ArenaNet has stated that they’ll “eventually” be available from WvW (since Ascended will become required) and open world PvE. However they have no made any kind of statement about when or where this will be happening.

Here’s a link from another Triforged Pendant thread in this same forum. It links to a translated (from German) response on Reddit from ArenaNet.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/139a4j/official_post_ascended_items_on_german_forums/

Triforged will not get a buff, based on that information. ArenaNet let it provide superior bonuses in the early state of the game, but it looks like they’ll let it go obsolete when they make an Ascended version for the Neck slot. This may be in the mid December 2012 dungeon patch or in a later patch.

ArenaNet has only classifed the Ascended access in WvW and open world PvE as “eventually”. It’s really up to you to guess what that means.

If I had to guess, I’d say that it will be in mid December when Fractal Dungeon #2 will come out. People will (assumedly) need Agony Resistance to run that dungeon, but no one will want to run Fractal Dungeon #1 by that point. It makes the most logical sense to have each group of Ascended gear released x1 Dungeon after the dungeon grinders get them.

However this whole process has made me rather cynical on the matter, so I really don’t have a lot of personal faith in ArenaNet acting in this kind of rational and coherent manner. We’ll have to wait and see.

But… This zone has a character with the prefix of “Mad”, who fires cows out of a ballista and thinks aloud about adjusting for things like the “bovine wind resistence”. Then one of our Skill Point fights (the fighting Chef below the tower) sings a funny song about how he likes meat. We’ve even got Meatober fest, which is a hybrid of Oktober Fest and a massive barbeque.

There is so much style in this zone that I usually go out of my way to go there. If you don’t like it, then so be it. I understand getting tired of wading through ghosts. But there is so much flavor in that zone’s design that I can’t help loving it.

Thirsty.2875:

Wiser with Age..

Full sets of Ascended gear is coming that won’t be stopped no matter how much people agree or disagree with it. It is time to accept that fact and move on, it is another tier of gear they felt needed to be added after exotics. I am not agreeing or disagreeing with this decision.

I completely agree that these changes are coming, regardless of what the player base does. As a non-subscription model, it’s hard to make ArenaNet pay for the consequences of any change that they make to the game. My fundamental issue is that this was the only MMO on the entire market who ran a counter-design philosophy and heavily marketed themselves as such. By flipping around 180 degrees in less than 3 months in an appeal to keep players who weren’t part of their original target audience (at least based on their advertising), ArenaNet has proven to be like every other MMO designer in the past decade.

There are still a lot of things that I like about GW2. It’s not even the power creep by itself that I object to, though that is part of it. This game was marketed as more of a casual game for part time players due to IRL obligations, part time players who played this on the side of their main MMO, and people who loved WvW / PvP. Now ArenaNet is changing their game’s structure towards a new demographic. If they did this at the 6 month or 12 month mark, then I would be much more understanding. However changing it this close means that they either completely mis-read their demographics or that they have always intended to go down their route and had simply deceived everyone into buying their product. Both of these scenerios say very poor things about the potential future of GW2.

Sometimes things which are different just don’t do very well with the general public. Case in point, Funcom’s new game called The Secret World. I love the lore of that game and still might get into it once they finish their rumored transition to Free to Play. Funcom failed because they tried to do something too different and too time consuming (quest wise) for a subscription basis. As an example, The Game Station did a podcast with Felicia Day and she mentioned that she spent 2 hours learning how to do Morse Code to complete a quest. She loved that level of involvement and had a blast, but felt that this kind of quest structure was a poor choice for a subscription MMO since you’re normally expecting more combat and xp for your time investment.

Even with Funcom’s TSW probably going F2P, they haven’t made any drastic changes to the game and are still trying to produce new content. I really respect that and I hope that they carve their own cult following niche after the F2P switch. The only reason that I initially avoided that game is that I wanted to get away from the whole trinity role system.

lachste.3091:

PvE The only way I see it functioning at all anyways is if you pop points into deadly arts for the might stacks, and use sword/pistol for the evasion on pistol whip. Your damage will suffer compared to DD, but you can pop venoms mid strike for self heal. It works ok with short bow as well for aoe.

Ah. Well that is basically my Venomous Aura build, so it makes sense that I’m not seeing a difference in my game performance. I’m sorry to hear that the Condition builds are getting hosed by this change. Venomous Aura is a huge investment already, so it’s especially harsh to pidgeon hole those players into even more specific builds.

Thirsty.2875:

Everyone wins… am I wrong?

Yes, you are wrong. Ascended will now become needed to have the best performance in WvW. If ArenaNet really plans on making a full set of Ascended gear (as they’ve stated in their blog post) and plan on “eventually” making it available through WvW and open world PvE options, then it’s a safe assumption that Ascended will become the new gear standard that content will be designed around (instead of Exotic). This will end up causing a slow ripple effect that will force a gear progression treadmill onto the entire game, which is something that ArenaNet has always mocked in other games.

Ex-raiders like myself who came here after seeing much of ArenaNet’s philosophy are unhappy. This game was advertised as being more about making alts and the climb to the level cap. It was never about the end game scene, regardless of some last minute panicked statements from ArenaNet that were issued shortly before launch. Now ArenaNet has flipped things and has decided to cater to the ex-WoW (and insert various other MMOs) crowd. This group of people is historically fickle and has caused every new MMO to be changed to meet their needs. Yet this crowd is never pleased with the revised version of the new MMO, so they leave it and jump onto the next new MMO while the existing MMO has to deal with the loss of the MMO jumpers (because their jumping is inevitable) and the loss of much of their hardcore devoted fan base (who were angered that their beloved MMO was mutated by the devs to meet the needs of the MMO jumpers).

Will this cause GW2 to implode? Hard to say. It certainly raises some red flags and has made me start to seriously look at other MMOs. If you’re going to introduce gear progression, then man up and say it from the very start. I have little patience or faith in companies or people who are too spineless to say what they really mean, which means that they’ll hit you with a bait and switch scenerio at a later point.

Also we have Smoke Screen, which falls under the Deception family and has saved my kitten many times. (I’m happy that the wall’s height just got increased.) Deception is just a powerful skill line that modifies combat without doing massive amount of control effects, which means that other classes don’t inherently complains about those skills.

Warrior is inherently the more offensively oriented fighter and Guardian is inherently the more defensively oriented. That doesn’t mean that you can’t have a very good “tanky” Warrior or a decent “bursty” Guardian. This just indicate the general flow of how the class was structured. As on example, Warrior’s have a much higher Health (aka HP) pool and Guardians have access to a buff that reduces incoming damage by 33%. It’s an Apples to Oranges issue of how they choose to resolve the same problems.

Necromancers have been on the relatively weaker side since the Condition damage dot caps hurt them much more in the large Dynamic Event boss fights and their pet line isn’t the best. Also that class had a lot of bugs when the game went live. ArenaNet made on sweep of changes previously and another large sweep yesterday. I have no idea about how yesterday’s patch will affect the Necro’s standings.

Thord.2017:

Does anyone know why Influence/Upgrades are server bound?

From what I understand, some mega guilds span multiple servers. For example, the Operation Union thread in this forum is about such a guild. People join the guild for networking opportunities and will sometimes transfer back and forth between the guild’s multiple server hubs (which are effectively like different branches of a corporation that are located in different countries). In theory, this could promote further interaction between multiple servers as people communicate and aid their guildies on the other server.

However in actually practice, it’s basically just a barrier designed to penalize guilds for jumping ship. For the WvW junkies (or anyone who just loves WvW server bonuses for their PvE), it’s a big deal to be on a consistently winning WvW server. Since the fortunes of servers in the WvW area are in constant flux, people will normally flee to the currently winning server as an individual players. This guild upgrade barrier helps to prevent entire guilds from fleeing servers, which further upsets a server’s WvW status and sends it into a negative feedback loop.

No matter how people like to sugar coat it, this is yet another area where ArenaNet’s WvW needs trump the needs of PvE. Now since PvE servers reap the benefits of their WvW status, I can see ArenaNet’s reasoning. However it doesn’t mean that I have to particularly like it.

supergica.8652:

So glad to see it. Why have something a bit more challenging that makes you actually think when you can have just another generic HP pinata? Stupidity > skill

I had no issue with ArenaNet doing a Copy & Paste to put the Elemental fight room sequence into another zone as it already was. If you dropped it in a 60+ zone, then people should have enough knowledge and experience to fight this thing properly. The dev who designed this fight even admitted on the Beta forums that he liked the fight’s design, but realized in hindsight that it was poorly placed as a starter zone boss.

Starter zone boss events should be fun fights that encourage cooperation and teach new players a bit about how to fight a mega boss (in preparation for things like the dragons in later zones). The original version of the Fire Elemental didn’t do that. It taught people to ignore their fellow players and leave them for dead since you’d die if you tried to save them in the combat area. Also since it was realistically deemed as “too hard”, people avoided this fight at all costs and we effectively being deprived a zone boss for the Asura starter zone.

Yeah, I ran on my Venomous Aura character that focuses on Power as one of my major +Stats. While the patch notes had originally excited me, I honestly couldn’t see any difference from before the patch or after the patch. Neither the bonus damage from Leeching Venoms or the healing amount increased to a noticeable extent.

Leeching Venoms: This trait now scales based on the thief’s Power.

Wow! Now that is a major change for all Thief builds. I wonder if the extra damage is scaling on Power while the healing is still based on Healing. Or is the damage staying the same and the healing is now based on Power? Did they change the .2 multiplier (which was normally applied to our +Healing value), or are we now going to heal for much more? Interesting questions. I’m going to have to pay attention and see how these changes feel. As a Venomous Aura spec, I think that I just got a serious boost in the effectiveness department.

All things considered assuming no previous gear investment in either route? Precision, by a mile. While the game isn’t the most clear, what you’re referencing is the comparison of Precision (aka +Crit Chance) with +Crit Damage.

A standard Critical basically multiplies your standard damage by 1.50 (to represent a +50% damage increase). Without any kind of Precision or buffs (like Fury or the T1 Discipline trait), your natural Crit Chance will be something low around 2-4% of the time. To increase the base chance of a Critical, people use Precision (which only increases your Crit Chance and doesn’t affect your Crit Damage).

Now once you’ve got your Crit Chance rate at a level that you find acceptable, then you can start to slide in some +Crit Damage into the mix. Yet at the same time, you always need to push your Crit Chance as high as possible. I’d always take a guaranteed and predictable 50% Crit Chance rate at a 1.50 damage multiplier over some like a 20% Crit Chance rate with a 2.50 damage multiplier. Those mega damage spikes in the 2nd scenerio might look impressive, but they will only happen rarely and may not even come when you need them too.

Considering that combining a Blue+ item with a Soulbound item still transfers the Soulbound tag to the combined item, I’d say that you’re pretty much stuck until they start to make White grade back slots. Though come to think of it, wasn’t the 30’s Back piece from your Personal Story rewards a White grade piece? If it is, then that trick might work.

While I’ve never tried it myself, people have reported that it is theoretically possible (though some people have claimed that they tried it and it didn’t work).

1) Find a White grade drop for Medium: Head slot. Get this as a game drop or buy it off the BLTC.

2) Get a Basic Transmutation Stone (which can easily be obtained from clearing a map in a starting city).

3) Create Thief #2 on your account and choose the Hood armor piece.

4) After completing the starting instance, take your Thief #2 and use the Transmutation Stone to combine your Hood with the White armor piece. Select the Hood graphic, the White game stats, and the White upgrade slot. (Please note that you normally can’t combine armor pieces that you can’t currently equip. So you’d need to find a low level White armor piece and you’d probably have to gain a few levels on your Thief #2)

5) At this point, you should have a Hood graphic on a tradeable item (since a known bug with White items lets them override the Soul Bound requirement when combining gear). Place it in your Bank.

6) Log in with Thief #1. Take the Hood piece out of the bank. Then use a 2nd Transmutation Stone to make the Hood graphic to the head piece that you want to use.

If you want an empty server, you can always join us in Fergusson’s Crossing. There aren’t 100 people hordes farming the Plinx event in Orr. We actually have to work to succeed on event like Balthazar in Orr. There are no WvW que times (which means that using WvW to reach Lion’s Arch is always a free way to travel). However we’re also currently ranked last in WvW because our large WvW guilds jumped ship for servers that were already winning.

I like the people in FC and I like that we’re a lighter population server since it means that people will naturally see each other more often. While some people will always prefer the over crowded mega servers, FC always remains a viable choice for character transfers.

Any of the +% Damage traits play by the same rules. They only buff Physical damage and not Condition damage. This applies to every class in the game. For better or worse, that’s how it is.

All things considered, the 25 pt trait in Deadly Arts actually make sense. That tree is about pure damage and about the Venom powers. Since only x1 of the Venom powers even does Condition Damage, it’s not surprising that this minor trait is found in Deadly Arts and not Trickery.

Jetser.2486:

So first everyone complains there is nothing to do at 80 (except Legendaries)

Then we get something to do at 80, which by the looks of it, is not giving a noticeable advantage (like you can tell if someone is wearing rares or exotics), but is something more to work towards for those who want to.

And people still get mad.. I don’t get it.

1) It was the end gamers who were in Mad Group #1. They wanted a grinding / raiding system of gear progression, which was clearly not part of ArenaNet’s manifesto. Thus massive complaining ensued while the rest of the players rolled their eyes.

2) Now people who got into GW2 to escape the eternal gear progression treadmill are angry and have formed Mad Group #2. These were people who understood that Exotic gear pieces would be the cap for the near future (or longer) and only gear graphics would be ground for.

The issue is that Mad Group #1 is mostly comprised of the usual crowd that floats from MMO to MMO looking for the next big thing. They are often ex-WoW players and they throw their weight around to get MMO developers to change parts of their MMO’s core design to make the game closer to WoW. Inevitably these people in Mad Group #1 are still not satisfied with the MMO that they helped to warp, so they abandon it for the next big thing.

At the same time, Mad Group #2 is filled with people who were interested in that specific MMO due to the specific features that it was going to offer. In front of their very eyes, these players watch the devs disregard many of their MMO’s specific ideas and innovations as they attempt to appease Mad Group #1. This angers the loyal customers and helps to turn them into Mad Group #2.

MMO developers have been constantly repeating these mistakes over the past decade. Each MMO bends over backwards to try to cater to the fickle Mad Group #1 of floating players. To date, each MMO has failed to substancially woo them into staying. Then the developers have only their original “fanboy” players left, who no longer want anything to do with the MMO since it’s not what they initially paid for and also because they no longer trust the developers. This causes much of the Mad Group #2 to leave the MMO, which helps to finish the job of making that MMO implode. Wash, rinse, and repeat for infinity.

The way that GW2 was described, I always got the impression that their game was more about “the climb” to the level cap and not about the “end game” scene. It appeared to be a game for people who loved exploring, visual expression through your gear choices, and for those who love to make countless alts.

ArenaNet threw out some kind of last minute statement about how they were going to include an end game scene as a way of placating and suckering people into buying their product. I wasn’t surprised to see that GW2 didn’t start with an end game cycle, since I felt ArenaNet had always been relatively up front about it.

However ArenaNet is now looking to go the completely other way and focus on turning GW2 into an end game scene that has grinding gear progression. I really question whether they fully understand what they’re starting.

StormcrowX.9236:

I don’t know which is sadder, that some people fail to recognize a troll post or that some people are actually serious about this.

I don’t want GW2 to go to this kind of place. Gear progression treadmills are insidious and all consuming. They warp both the game’s difficulty structure and the atmosphere of the player base.

Having said that, I am dead serious about wanting /inspect if ArenaNet really ends up opening this Pandora’s Box of scorched earth tactics. If we’re going to a gear treadmill system, then you can’t do it half way. Exclusion and elitism goes hand in hand with this system since they are required for weeding out players who use sub-par gear, which then prevents you from completing new content.

I really don’t have the IRL time to invest in a gear progression grind at this point in my life. The odds of me fading away from GW2 are rather good if this is the direction that they are going. Yet if I do stay, I’ll end up reverting to my old MMO raider persona (which is filled with a toned down elitest streak). If I’m really going to waste hours of my life that I should probably spend else where, then expect to get a great return on my time investment and will have little patience for dead weight players.

Antitheist.5306:

Why does everyone seem so quick to assume that ANet wants to piss of their players?

Because pretty much EVERY new MMO that has come out within the last 5 -7 years (if not longer) have all tried to copy WoW’s mechanics in the end. These various developer groups have all kinds of innovative ideas, but then up partially changing them during Beta due to the complaints of the “I’m tired of WoW” crowd because the new game isn’t close enough to WoW to suit their tastes. So as a reactionary measure, the devs disregard their original ideas and principles and alter their MMO to be more like WoW. However the “I’m tired of WoW” crowd never ends up being satisfied with this mutated MMO, so they return back to WoW. This leaves the MMO developers with a game that doesn’t match their original vision, an original player base that is hacked off that the devs changed their promised MMO in order to court the WoW crowd, and a group of flakey WoW players who will inevitably try to leave WoW by corrupting the next MMO (which will once again fail to meet their personal WoW standards). Rinse and repeat for every new MMO, which slowly implodes.

That’s what everyone is seeing ArenaNet do to GW2. I’d say that the writing is on the wall. Every MMO in recent memory has tried this game and they have all failed to court both the WoW crowd and their initial customer base. My hope was that with all of the Korean money behind GW2, ArenaNet would have a chance to forge their own path. Instead it looks like they’re going to convert into the WoW wanna’ be syndrome.

[quote=716039;Antitheist.5306:]

Gear Score is too inaccurate because it give a numerical value based on a gear piece’s Color Grade and it didn’t take gear effectiveness into consideration. Having said that, I have no issue with players being able to peak at each other’s gear using /inspect (under the assumption that the Fractual gear really is going into the scorched earth realm of gear progression).

Let’s be clear. I came to GW2 due to the lack of gear progression. For too many years, I’ve been a mid end MMO raider and know how to play that game. While I don’t want to return to those days, the Fractal dungeons will require us to /inspect our fellow players to verify that they’re in full Exotics as a base line. EQ2 let us do secret inspections all of the time without the other player knowing. If GW2 is going down the same path, then we need a way to sift out the weak links. (Yes, this will lead to the standard MMO exclusion system. However that’s part of the gear progression game and you can’t do things only half way in a system like that.)

Ayrilana.1396:

I haven’t tempted this personally but I’m under the impression that it just doubles how much you get with each kill until you hit the max of 25.

You’re thinking of the kill stack Sigils. As you stated, you are correct that there is a cap of x25 stacks (no matter how many kill stack Sigils you might use).

The OP was talking about % chance proc Sigils, which is a different subject that I have already answered in the above post.

1) Proc sigils share the same cool down. However you can stack multiple copies of the same proc sigil to increase the proc rate (instead of causing multiple procs).

2) The GW2 Wiki calls the stacking system to be multiplicative. Basically you take your failure % and use it as a multiplier against the base proc chance of the 2nd sigil. You then add this reduced proc % value to the original sigil’s proc % value for a combined total.

Example #1
You have a Superior Sigil of Water with a 30% proc chance. This means that Proc #1 has a failure rate of 70%. You then multiply the starting Proc #2 value of 30% by .7 (to represent the failure rate). This reduces the proc rate of Proc #2 down to 21%. Finally you add the value for Proc #1 (30%) and Proc #2 (21%) for an adjusted total of 51% proc chance for your Sigil of Water.

Example #2
You have a Superior Sigil of Purity with a 60% proc chance. This means that Proc #1 has a failure rate of 40%. You then multiply the starting Proc #2 value of 60% by .4 (to represent the failure rate). This reduces the proc rate of Proc #2 down to 24%. Finally you add the value for Proc #1 (60%) and Proc #2 (24%) for an adjusted total of 84% proc chance for your Sigil of Purity.