Guild Wars 2

Laurelinde.4395:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Did you stay around to see the entire conversation? Evon, the great philanthropist that he is, came to an “arrangement” to do Hobo-tron’s upgrades for free.

You can always count on Evon.

Basically, he comes to the conclusion that if he kits out Heal-o-Tron and sends him in to save Lion’s Arch, he (Evon) will gain favour with the Captain’s Council. And nothing stops him giving Heal-o-Tron shoddy equipment that will fail and let him die, as long as Evon looks like he tried…

Yep, I rewatched the conversation again last night. Weird how I don’t remember the last bit involving the Captain’s Council. Maybe I got distracted or maybe the conversation bugged out at some point.

Anyway, yes, it seems that Evon IS going to outfit Heal-o-Tron with the upgrades he wanted. But of course, he’s not doing it out of altruistic motives. As Laurelinde points out, IF HoT succeeds in his mission and kills Scarlet/saves citizens, then Evon will look like a hero. If he fails, no skin off his own back.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Because there are many asura gates for people to use, Evon made the correct choice. And shutting it down prevented the people from running into the Dolyak convoy as they rushed through, thus preventing more injuries. Players must have equipment in order to fight back. Without it, we’d have no chance. As expected of a great leader like Evon to always be one step ahead of the enemy. I wouldn’t have been strong enough to make that same decision myself.

I see, I see. I think next time I’ll save Evon some legwork and just “procure” my equipment directly from the dolyaks instead of making them run to the Gates first, through fire and miasma and angry, ANGRY Aetherblades.

Yeah, I think that Hero-Tron is going to turn his new body into that mobile “miasma counter” he was talking about with the Lionguard healers. He will then provide players with an escort to the Breachmaker (most likely in an instance), where we can then confront Scarlet.

I always try and res downed people, UNLESS I see that the mob attacking them is almost dead, in which case I kill it so they can rally.

Dead players I will leave until it’s safe for me to res them, and except for certain “raid” encounters like Tequatl or the GJW, I’m fine with them just waiting patiently for a res after the combat is over.

^ Yeah, that was the thought I had too. It seems that both Raisin Face and Squooshed-Weird Face are both casualties of Scarlet’s attack.

^ I agree wholeheartedly, but it seems via their silence that ANet wants the Watchwork Pick to stay as it is. The only question now is whether they will make it “fair” for other unlimited tool users by upgrading the old tools to also provide additional benefits.

Nah. It’ll be like those old JRPG’s where your new party member mysteriously forgets their super-awesome skill as soon as they join your party. (“Oh hai there, Keiran Thackeray!”)

Caveth.3268:

Unfortunately, the personal storyline instances still take place AFTER Scarlet has invaded LA. It ruins any immersion in the story…

… BWAAAHAHAHAHAHA! Those screenshots are hilarious! XD

^ You stated the problem right there in that post. “Drive the Toxic Alliance out” means that a “Defend the Postern Ward Rally Point” event failed. To get the Postern Ward Protector achievement, the Toxic Alliance must NEVER capture the Rally Point throughout the entire 45 mins.

@Konig: Really? For me the two new POIs were the Breachmaker and a spot near the bend where the Moa Races were.

If the theories are true about Scarlet digging for Primordus (or maybe Mordremoth) beneath Lion’s Arch, then we could see a new Elder Dragon on the scene, one that would be a lot more active since it needs to carve out its territory on the surface.

Otherwise, some other ideas:

- Canthan Expansion. The Emperor of Cantha decides to invade Tyria with a MASSIVE army, backed up by unusually powerful soldiers that show signs of dragon energy. (Unknown to us, the Underwater Elder Dragon headed for Cantha, where it emerged in the Jade Sea after being drawn by the lingering energy of Shiro’s death scream.) After we repulse the initial invasion, we travel to Cantha to take the war to them.

- Elonian Expansion. The Crystal Desert gate near Ebonhawke is opened as the Pact marches forth to deal with Kralkatorrik. Along the way we run into Palawa Joko and his forces, who are also battling Kralkatorrik and the Branded. Following the death of Zhaitan, Palawa Joko has managed to add the Risen to his own forces with his powerful magic, but the exposure to Zhaitan’s magic eventually corrupts him too, causing him to lose control of his own mind and becomes a Risen Dragon Champion himself.

Mr Hammer is standing behind that very same tent where you found the Ghosts and Charr kids.

Critheann is also at the Vigil Keep refugee camp. She’s standing on the far side of the dirt road leading to the Keep proper, north of the main refugee camp, along with two other (presumably) merchants.

Note that the Lionguard conscripting Evon didn’t say anything about the threat until Evon said, “What if I just leave? Huh?” More than likely she was instructed to only pull that card if Evon proved to be uncooperative.

I mean, I can understand his reluctance. Disaster or not, most people would not be happy if their business or bank account just got plundered by the government, but after all his fancy speeches about wanting to do good for Lion’s Arch and how he’s a “Charr of the people”, you’d think Evon would be more willing to step up for his home city.

Sinbold.8723:

Evon is going to help Heal-o-Tron upgrade itself at his own cost. Heal-o-Tron is “free-lance” right now, having paid its debt, so Evon isn’t helping it because he has to. He sees potential return on the investment.

I don’t think that’s actually true. Evon was at least curious about the idea until HoT said it didn’t have any money, at which point Evon told it to shove off. HoT then tries begging, explaining in more detail what he wanted, to which Evon says “So you want something that can take it, but not dish it out?” When HoT says yes to this, Evon goes, “Heh, good luck.” I interpret that to mean “Good luck finding something like that”, or “Good luck getting it.” There wasn’t any sign that Evon was giving anything to HoT at all.

Of course, it’s kind of a given that we’re soon going to see Hero-Tron in action, but I get the feeling that it’s just going to swipe the chassis from Evon when he’s not looking. :P

Did he actually end up giving Heal-o-Tron anything? The impression I got from the last bit of conversation was something like:

Evon: “So… You want a chassis that can take it, but not dish it out?”
HoT: “Affirmative.”
Evon: “Heh, good luck.”

I didn’t hear anything in that conversation that implied Evon actually DID give HoT anything. His last comment read more to me like, “Shyeah right, good luck getting that from me.”

That would be Maeva. (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Maeva)

She’s part of the Durmand Priory storyline, and she’s constructed a magical defense system in her house (which appears to have activated). I was rather pleased with ANet for remembering about that.

You need some players to be “bait” that run ahead of the NPCs. Guardians/Warriors are best for this thanks to their innate toughness. Whenever you see a new group of enemies spawn in, run right into the middle of them to grab their aggro, then run off to one side so that any missile attacks/AoE’s don’t get dropped in the NPC’s path. This should allow the NPCs to run by unmolested while you’ve got their attention.

The bulk of the “killsquad” follows behind the NPCs, but you don’t really need to kill all the enemies. You just need to kill a few to make sure you get credit, and then stay close so you can help the NPCs as needed.

Of course, support characters like Water Eles/Rangers with Healing Spring should be shadowing the NPCs at all times and using heals/buffs on them whenever available.

Nice story, ubershaun. XD Funnily enough, I ALSO got Dredge fractal last night. Everybody in my party went, “Oh man…”

And to make matters worse, we also got the Bomb path. -_-

Still, at least Rabsovich went down pretty smoothly. The Warrior in my party decided to YOLO charge right into the fray, but surprisingly we managed to deal quite comfortably with Rabs and his mobs at the same time.

Eh, I don’t care what other people are wearing. If you’re wearing it and you like how it looks on you, that’s great! But for me, I’m just concerned with whether I like what my characters are wearing. Whether you’re wearing Arah gear or Ascended gear or Ascended gear that’s transmuted to look like starter armor, it doesn’t matter at all to me.

The Zodiac armors aren’t to my taste, but I think that they are graphically very impressive, and should stay as they are.

They could try going the Steam route; make stuff cheaper the longer it has been since its original release by way of “weekend sales”. Steam sells a LOT of games to people who never finish them; they bought the game only because it was “on sale”.

At the end of the day, you still make the same money from selling gems (you might even see gem purchases go up because people scramble to “take advantage” of the sale, thus depleting gems from the pool), but people get the impression that they’ve “saved money”. It’s a very clever psychological trick.

Crise.9401:

So with that in mind the activity NPC being unique to airship seems like an oversight. If people make noise about it it will certainly get fixed.

I wouldn’t take that as guaranteed. People were making lots of noise about the Watchwork Pick too, and ANet has never issued any clarifications about it.

There’s several ways to make good money in this game, but all of them require some time investment or extensive research.

1. Dungeon speed clears – Find a dungeon that you can complete relatively quickly and easily. Common paths include CoF P1, AC P1 or P3, TA Up etc. Experienced groups can clear these paths in 15 mins or less, and each awards 1+ gold per day.

Pros: Good payout. Get tokens as well as gold that can be exchanged for Exotic weapons that can be further salvaged for Ectos, Dark Matter and expensive inscriptions/insignias.

Cons: Unless you run with a regular group, the composition of your dungeon group can vary widely. You will also need to run “meta builds” to do these speed clears, which you may find to be unenjoyable.

2. Farming – The key here is to identify which commodities are in high demand and sell well, and then target your farming at these items. For example, Iron usually sells well (and is currently in a price spike due to the new backpiece), and there are a few locations in the world where you can find an abundance of iron ore nodes to harvest. Just visiting these locations on 3 – 4 characters can reap a huge reward. Repeat this every hour when the nodes respawn to rake in the money.

Similar methods to this involve parking level 20-30 characters at the end of jumping puzzles for the chance at a Silver Doubloon (which sells for 1g+), or farming dynamic events that spawn lots of enemies which drop the desired kind of loot. Note that the last method is subject to a mechanic called “Diminishing Returns” in which slain foes will drop less and less loot until they stop dropping it altogether, so my advice is to alternate your farming with harvesting.

Pros: Very simple way of earning money.

Cons: You will need to have multiple characters for this method to really pay off.

3. TP Trading – This method has the biggest payoffs, but also requires the most forethought and planning. You basically need to have a good understanding of the way the game works, and buy goods in anticipation of rising demand in the future. As an example, we know that Ascended Jewelcrafting is coming in the future. It would therefore be wise to buy up some stacks of things like Silver Ore and Gold Ore in preparation for when the patch hits.

There are also smaller markets within the TP where you can buy raw materials for relatively cheap and create more valuable end products for sale. However, prices are constantly changing and fluctuating, so what brings profit one day may not do so the next. You have to be constantly watching the market and adjusting your crafting/forging to compensate.

Pros: Very high potential profit. Trading can be done from anywhere in the game.

Cons: A LOT of research is required, which you may not find very enjoyable. TP trading is also fairly time consuming; it’s not unheard of for “TP barons” to spend hours just placing buy and sell orders. You may not find this to be a fun way to spend your gaming time.

Sounds like too much risk/hassle for me to ever get involved personally. But it would be nice if I could sell my excess Gifts of Battle/Exploration.

There may be a bit of a last minute price dip when ANet makes the chests available again (for people who still have cyphers to turn in), but yeah, don’t expect prices to get any lower for some time.

Yes, but note that the Quiver only has the recipe that uses the Vials of Mist Essence. It did not get an equivalent recipe that uses Bloodstone Dust (unlike the other Ascended backpieces).

Henge of Denravi is one of the less populated servers (your server may be listed as “Very High”, but that count is based on accounts registered there, not necessarily active accounts), so you’ll probably find very few people on your home server.

Try guesting to one of the more populated servers like Blackgate or Tarnished Coast (if you’re on US servers). You’ll find a lot more fellow players there.

LA will be back. Count on it.

On a somewhat related note, what are the thoughts of players who bought the Royal Terrace pass now that the Captain’s Airship is introduced? From what I hear, the Airship has two additional NPCs (Black Lion Weapon merchant and the Daily Activity, although it apparently lacks a trait resetter), but the biggest benefit is probably how it can be accessed from any PvE map by just double-clicking the Pass. Are you still happy with your Royal Terrace pass? If not, have you bought or are you considering buying the Airship Pass as well?

I’m glad that the bug is finally fixed, but yeah, I echo the requests that more staff should be allocated to a true “bug fixing” team. There’s dozens of little annoying bugs in the game ranging from broken events to uncompletable achievements that, while not game breaking, is rather frustrating and takes away from the gaming experience.

Apparently you can only get the AP the very first time you get it.

I’m certain that you do not need to be present at all the Defend events to get credit, as I’ve gotten the Postern Ward one when I zoned in with just 10 mins to go and defended at one event.

So basically, the criteria for the Defend achievements seem to be this:

1. Your map must succeed at every single Defend event for a particular location (Postern Ward, Fort Mariner etc.)

2. You do not need to gain credit for each single Defend event that occurs during the entire evacuation cycle, but you must be present for at least one.

There’s some annoying bugs, to be sure, but overall, I DO like this update. It feels suitably apocalyptic, and I love all the little ambient dialogue with all the NPCs from Lion’s Arch.

I think most people are still unaware/confused about how the mechanics work. They don’t seem to realise that everybody in the map gains rewards whenever we hit 500/1000 etc. citizens saved, and that the REALLY sweet loot comes when we start hitting the high numbers.

We just need to educate people and get the word out, much like people explaining what to do for the Marionette fight. We need posts up explaining what’s the best order to tackle events, put together teams to escort civilians, and have some people going around and rescuing citizens.

Basically, we need to organise ourselves, just like a real disaster.

Nah, that was Captain Shudd, not Evon. She’s the one in charge of the Asura gates.

As much as I enjoy watching Evon squirm during all of this (seriously, Evon, you’re the RICHEST merchant in all of Tyria, and you’re selling me almost the exact same stuff that I can get at any other merchant in Tyria?), I won’t apportion blame to him that he isn’t responsible for.

That said… Come on, Evon. You KNEW that LA was going to be attacked. Yet you didn’t seem to have taken any other additional precautions about it. You didn’t hire any additional guards for your caravans (I had to save your dolyaks for you), didn’t have an evacuation plan for your employees (you abandoned them to die in the burning ruins of the BLTC building), and you didn’t bother stockpiling medical supplies and other goods that would be in high demand during an emergency (and you call yourself a merchant…)

On a somewhat related note, what are the thoughts of players who bought the Royal Terrace pass now that the Captain’s Airship is introduced? From what I hear, the Airship has two additional NPCs (Black Lion Weapon merchant and the Daily Activity, although it apparently lacks a trait resetter), but the biggest benefit is probably how it can be accessed from any PvE map.

Didn’t Evon reject Heal-o-Tron’s request for an improved chassis? He was at least open to the idea until Heal-o-Tron admitted he had no money, after which Evon told him to shove off.

A businessman to the end, Evon.

It depends on the time of day. As an Australian playing on a US servers, there’s never any queues when I play during my night times.

They are endless??

OK, I HAVE to get the Selfless potion now.

Yep, I found him as well. However…

ANet, you REALLY missed out on a golden opportunity for him to say, “By Odgen’s Hammer, what a saving!” when you talk to him.

Realistically speaking? The unfortunate fact is that children are the worst affected by any poison gas attack. Not just because they’re more vulnerable, but because of their smaller stature, they’re usually closer to the ground, which is where heavier poisonous gases tend to settle, meaning they breathe in more of it than adults do.

The NPC dialogues at the camp suggest that most of the adults succumbed to the gas even after evacuation, so yeah, odds are not good for the children.

I feel there’s room for compromise.

First, there should be a Historian NPC in your Home Instance, or maybe a Living Story NPC in the appropriate zone, where if you talk to them, you can replay instanced content like Braham’s attempt to retake Cragstead, or the Aetherblade Retreat dungeon (along with the appropriate rewards). This lets people who came late to the party to experience the important parts of what they missed firsthand, and also lets people who enjoyed the content replay it if that’s what they like to do.

Content that affects the actual open world, such as Toxic Offshoots, Molten Periscopes etc. shouldn’t return, but they should leave behind evidence of their presence so the open world doesn’t feel forever static and unchanging. (Although personally I don’t mind that.)

Finally, some of the “zerg content” such as the Tower of Nightmares or the Marionette Battle could be reworked into special Guild Missions that must be completed within 30 mins (or 1 hour). This allows large guilds to gather up their members (recruiting more in LA if they want), and launch the content basically on demand.

I feel that this setup would allow ANet to preserve some of their excellent work and let players continue to enjoy it, but also infuse the world with a changing landscape over time.

LA will rise again.

I mean, could you really see Mad King Thorn telling his jokes in Vigil’s Keep? It just wouldn’t be the same.

They should have put in an achievement like “2000 citizens PERSONALLY rescued”. THEN they’ll care about the civilians.

This is why I ALWAYS use up my “keys” before the update goes away. >.<

That said, I’m glad that the chests are coming back, because it really was a poor move on ANet’s part to have the Lair remain, but the chests being no longer accessible. (I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume it was unintentional, but I have to say that my goodwill/patience is being stretched rather thin of late.)

For any achievements under the Living Story category:

As FlamingFoxx said, always operate under the assumption that you only have two weeks. Generally for events that last for longer than that (e.g. Wintersday, WvW Season 1) you can assume that the achievements will hang around for longer, but even so, if you’re an achievement hunter like me, I strongly urge you to get into the habit of completing all the achievements within 2 weeks.

For any achievements NOT under the Living Story category:

This you can safely assume will be around forever. This includes stuff like the Triple Trouble, Edge of the Mists (non-LS) and Fractured.

That’s what I’d like to know too. Hopefully this fix has meant that all the potions are fixed (if they all run off the same “boost” script, it’s possible that fixing one has fixed all of them).

I got credit on a Tarnished Coast overflow. It seems that to ensure you get credit for the achievement/event, make sure you:

1. Kill at least one or two mobs linked to the event (i.e. the ones that spawn in the moas’ path, NOT the random ones scattered around the map)

2. Be present from start to finish (i.e. don’t show up late, make sure you’re there at the “finish line”)

3. Healing/buffing the moas may help (since the moas are pretty fragile, you’ll want to be doing this anyway)

4. Make sure that ALL 7 survive. It’s possible that one got killed but was not accounted for in the chaos. (In my run, the mini moa almost died, but luckily I threw on Healing Spring in time to save him. Since he’s smaller than the others, it’s easier to lose track of him.)

I did get a Mini Caithe somewhat recently from the BLC’s, but I cannot say with certainty whether it was before or after the 21st patch.

In any case, I have no clue whether or not the new minis replace Caithe/Scarlet.

Tsk. I hate being stuck at work and not being able to take advantage of these things. gw2tp is reporting that Iron Ingots are back down to about 8 or 9 silver.

Is the Air Ship only available in LA or can it be accessed from anywhere in the world?