Guild Wars 2

To be honest, I’m pretty disheartened by the lack of any response so far too. This likely means that they are not going to remove the functionality of the pick, and it’s here to stay.

On the (semi) bright side, they may possibly upgrade the other existing unlimited tools to have their own special functionality, like the Molten pick being able to harvest bonus Azurite crystals (with a rare chance for Orbs), the Consortium sickle harvesting Passion Fruit (Passiflora) etc.

I’m actually not sure that claim is correct, Smooth Penguin. With the exception of Rich Iron Veins, which do still give the 1 × 2 iron ore with strikes with the Watchwork Pick, I actually cannot remember ore nodes ever giving out more than 1 ore per strike. Wood nodes do in a 2 × 1 package, (and plant nodes give 1 × 2 of their vegetable), but ore nodes? Again, I can’t remember it ever happening.

mtpelion.4562:

If the Watchwork pick does not get bonus ores, then it is actually the WORST in slot pick. I’m at 1000 pick attempts without a single bonus ore so far. More testing tonight.

Note, I am not talking about bonus pick attempts, but bonus ores. As in, I swing my pick one time and one ore is added, then one more ore is added.

I might be wrong about this, but I don’t think ore nodes have ever given out bonus ores like that. Wood nodes do, but ore does not. The only ore node I can conclusively remember giving out 2 ores in a single strike are the Rich Iron Veins, and they seem to be a special case. (This makes them similar to plant nodes, which can give 2 × 1 ingredients in a single harvest.)

I have a feeling it will be an ingredient needed for r500 Jeweler, possibly for crafting Ascended jewels.

I have noticed that I seem to get a lot more Gossamer/Ancient/Ori from salvaging high level blues/greens with my Salvage-O-Matic than with my Mystic Salvage Kit, but then again, this is likely because I do way more salvaging with the Matic. (Plus I don’t get Rares THAT often.)

I can corroborate Khisanth’s data that the Watchwork Pick does not remove the ability to gain extra strikes on a node. The Watchwork Pick also still has chances to get bonus materials like gemstones from ore nodes. Whether it lessens the chance to get these is still unknown, but so far my personal experience is leaning towards “no”, as I have not noticed any significant decrease in the number of times these bonuses occur.

So if I’m right, and the Watchwork Pick basically has an extra benefit (sprockets) that no other picks have, one would be a fool to buy anything other than the Watchwork Pick when shopping for an unlimited pick when you consider current prices. (And that, ultimately, is what concerns me the most about this whole situation.)

Full immersion is never possible in a game with other human players around. But then again, that’s not what I play MMO’s for. If I want full immersion, I play single player RPGs.

While I still don’t see an issue with the Hellfire/Radiant armor set being the “ultimate” indicator of someone who’s spent years playing GW2, I do agree that putting the Boots in as a 12k option seems fair. If somebody doesn’t like one set or the other, they shouldn’t be forced to get the Helm/Shoulders/Arms of the other set before continuing the collection they DO like.

Lion’s Arch is in desperate need of air defences to fight off Scarlet.

A bird-race living right next to LA who will probably suffer major fallout if the city is attacked?

Hmmm…

To be fair, the amount of stuff you need to do in EotM if you’re there purely for the story is extremely minimal. The NPCs you need to talk to are right there as soon as you zone in, and you’re in an invulnerable zone where nobody can hurt you.

The only part that puts you at risk is going out to get the golem parts, and there’s a few ways to minimize the chances of anyone attacking you while you do it. (The Spirit of the Light buff, stealth, following a large zerg etc.)

Sounds good. Although I kind of liked being able to tell who among my allies was actually from Tarnished Coast and which were from different servers.

Hard content does not necessarily mean “you must have <X> numbers of players, or do not pass GO” though. I believe it’s possible for ANet to make tough, challenging content that’s just as accessible for a group of 10 as it is for a group of 100. (Or if an encounter does need a minimum number of players for a reason, then make it so that one or a handful of players can get the ball rolling so other players can see the event is up, and join in to help. They already have the architecture to do it with their dynamic scaling; it just needs encounters to be designed to take this into account.

Remember Vizunah Square from Factions? That was an example of mass content done well, IMO. It was much more fun seeing other players on the other team and combining your forces to take down Shiro’s Afflicted, but if you were playing at some odd hour in the dead of night and nobody else was around, you still got computer-controlled henchmen that could do the job.

Both playstyles are supported = all players are happy. This is what ANet should strive for, not inadvertently dividing the player base by creating different content that’s designed for “casuals” and “hardcores”.

I have yet to run a tracert (didn’t know how. Will do so tonight), but I’ve been experiencing the same issues as others here. I’ve been having this problem on and off since last Friday, and it seems to be linked to the number of players in your immediate vicinity. For example, this morning I zoned into Lornar’s Pass to wait for the Marionette. During this time, I ran around near the lake getting kills for Bloodlust. No lag whatsoever.

Then, I head to the lanes to prepare, and as soon as I reach the area where other players start to be displayed, the lag starts (and I should point out that it’s not a FPS drop. Players are rubberbanding all over the place, there’s 5s+ skill lag, etc.) It gets progressively worse as more and more people zone in, until you get to the stage where you’re just praying you don’t get disconnected.

Then, once the event is over and people start to leave, the problem once again alleviates until it’s gone.

This same issue happens in any map with a large amount of players, including LA, EotM etc. It’s like the servers are getting choked with too much data transfer or something.

I’ve been having this problem on and off since last Friday. It seems to be linked to the number of players in your immediate vicinity. For example, this morning I zoned into Lornar’s Pass to wait for the Marionette. During this time, I ran around near the lake getting kills for Bloodlust. No lag whatsoever.

Then, I head to the lanes to prepare, and as soon as I reach the area where other players start to be displayed, the lag starts (and I should point out that it’s not a FPS drop. Players are rubberbanding all over the place, there’s 5s+ skill lag, etc.) It gets progressively worse as more and more people zone in, until you get to the stage where you’re just praying you don’t get disconnected.

Then, once the event is over and people start to leave, the problem once again alleviates until it’s gone.

This same issue happens in any map with a large amount of players, including LA, EotM, activities etc. It’s like the servers are getting choked with too much data transfer or something.

dulfy, I trust you’ll be putting together an achievement guide for Edge of the Mists, as usual?

It’s Lazarus the Dire! At long last, the Mursaat are coming back!

Although… What would he want with the magical ley lines underneath Lion’s Arch?

If your colour wins in EotM, all servers belonging to the winning colour gets a 400 (so I’ve heard) supply drop in their Borderland Citadel.

That’s apparently about it as far as “rewards” go.

Aaron Ansari.1604:

I have. Didn’t get anything that acknowledged my order.

Bleh. Guess I’ll be doing the story instance on my Priory Elementalist then.

The account-wide WXP change was meant to go in with this update originally though. (Got pulled for an unspecified reason. Probably technical bugs.)

O.o

Yeah, forget dolphins! I want a Veteran Karka as a Ranger pet! XD F2 skill = Karka Death Roll.

Hang on, so the ravens aren’t summoned if you use Lich Form as your elite? That kinda sucks if it does; I’m making a Mad King rune armor set as my “Power” set, with Lich Form as my elite.

So how much exactly is the supply drop in the Citadel worth? (And do people think it’ll actually be enough to swing the tide of battle in Borderlands?)

While I’m not a fan of the new change, I’ll just point out that there’s a couple of ways you can get to rank 30 relatively painlessly.

1. Join the “PvDoor Karma Train”, which is a term for a large zerg of your server’s players that just goes to a poorly defended Borderlands and smashes apart any puny defense in its path to cap large objectives like Towers or Keeps. This nets you a good amount of XP, karma and WXP, and then the train moves on, leaving the newly captured keep/tower all but undefended so the enemy can capture it again. Then, 10 mins later, you come back and start the cycle all over again.

You can quite easily gain 3 – 4 World Ranks in a few hours doing this.

2. If you’re absolutely dead set against any form of WvW, you can also just use Laurels and purchase the Liquid XP items from the WvW Laurel Merchant. You need 2 Laurels + 50 Badges of Honor, but you can use the Badges from your Achievement Chests for this.

It won’t be fast, but if you don’t do WvW anyway, it’s not like you’ll be spending your Badges on anything else.

I’m at just over 13k. Thing is, GW2 has only been out for about 1.5 years now. If this trend keeps up, I’ll hit the Greaves at about the end of 2014. If GW2 has a lifespan of about 5 years, I’ll have accumulated both full sets of Radiant and Hellfire armor. Seems like a fair way to show that someone’s been a dedicated player of the game since release.

Hmm… Has anyone done the story instance as a Whispers member then? Curious if they get any unique dialogue too.

I’d actually support a system where you can choose to apply Agony and other Fractal instabilities to dungeons, effectively making it “Hard Mode”. Functionally, the dungeons remain the same, but you get increased rewards from the daily chests such as double/triple the number of gold/tokens, higher chances for Exotics/Ascended chests etc.

EDIT: To clarify, the instabilities would be randomly chosen. There are 3 different pools of instabilities (Low, Medium, Hard), and you choose which pool is applied to the dungeon. You get 1 – 3 random instabilities that are progressively applied the deeper you go into the dungeon, so players don’t just “re-roll” at the start until they get an easier instability.

It does, although it doesn’t necessarily give you the ones you want. A Tailor might get Cloth or Leather, for example.

JustTrogdor.7892:

They can nuke it into the ground for all I care because I have the infinite Royal Terrace pass.

I go to WvW Borderlands!

They are permanent, and their price will go up after 4 weeks. (To what figure, we don’t know, but my guess is that it’ll be 5 tickets.)

Neat finds, everyone! Thanks for all your hard work cataloguing this for the future.

Just one question. Is the story instance in the Dead End once per character or once per account? I’m hoping it’s the former, with slight variations on dialogue depending on your character (loved that in the Origins of Madness story instance).

Oh my… -cringe-

Good thing I’d already purchased 4 Gifts of Battle back when AP chests were introduced and before the wallet was released, so I had to buy something with all the Badges piling up in my bank.

Dungeons ARE tough. There’s no question about it. However, they’re also doable by experienced, well-geared groups who know how to coordinate with each other and deal with the (usually) special mechanics of bosses. Almost every dungeon tends to have one mechanic that, when the appropriate counter is provided, makes it fairly simple. In AC, it’s Stability and Conjured weaponry. In CM, it’s reflect skills. In TA, it’s condition removal and multi-hit ranged weaponry.

Basically, once you know what to expect, and adjust your build to compensate for it accordingly, they’re not THAT hard.

I knew this was coming, and while I don’t mind skipping, I can understand why ANet would do this.

I think they should just make it so the dredge don’t respawn after being killed. That would make massacring every blasted mole an acceptable (and profitable) strategy rather than players trying to skip difficult sections.

Around the $300 – $400 figure, all of it on permanent upgrades/items plus some gifts for my girlfriend. Mostly don’t regret it, although the recent Watchwork Pick debacle has soured me on the gem store somewhat. :P

^ Follow what Electro said. Save up and buy one of the new sellable skins, stack it with your account bound one, and both will become tradable. Now sell both skins.

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at this thread. XD

Lord Kuru.3685:

Obtena.7952:

GW2 is funded by gemstore. If they want funding, they need to intro stuff people want in gemstore. That stuff will always be better, improved and more interesting items than the previous ones because this will be the only thing that ensures consistent sales over time.

Do you think Anet will eventually have to sell finishers that can stomp people faster than normal finishers?

Don’t laugh. It COULD happen. The Consortium sickle, for example, actually harvests about 1/4 of a second faster than a normal sickle. There may very well be a finisher in future that was also a split-second faster than a normal baseline finisher. 1/4 second could mean a LOT in a PvP environment.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

DominationCreation.5703:

I really don’t think it’s permanent given the fact that Kasmeer and Delaqua are both very determined to stop her plans for the past 4 game updates. This is probably a sum up for a big event leading to the once in for all finale

Scarlet x Jory x Kasmeer triangle. The new Living Story would be epic beyond words.

-twitch-

If that happens, there will be the mother of all Red Weddings.

So EotM has no POI/vistas/SP’s etc.? If so, that’s a bit disappointing, but I’m also a bit relieved I don’t have more WvW mapping to do. Win-win either way.

“EverythingXen.1835: Technically and aesthetically they look freaking awesome!

Thematically I wont be using any of them."

+1. XD I’m impressed by the detail and style of these weapons, but sadly they don’t suit the aesthetic themes I’m going for on my characters, so I’m passing on them.

Although, if anybody’s got a pink/red Heart-styled female Guardian that’s going to use these weapons, send me screenshots!

I like Kasmeer and Marjory, and hope they find happiness together. (Although I shall forever nurse a grudge against Marjory for stealing Kasmeer from me!)

Turning it into a Guild Mission (Guild Puzzle or Guild Challenge) gets my vote!

I think that Rytlock will officially welcome Rox into the Stone warband, and then put her on “reconnaissance” duties that allow her to keep adventuring with Braham and the others. After all, Rytlock and the other members of his warband rarely do anything together anymore, according to Logan’s dialogue; they are all high-ranking officers of the Legions, and their responsibilities means they wouldn’t have the time to personally see to every incident themselves.

Didn’t ANet say at one point that they acknowledged that the requirements for the WvW achievements were excessive and were planning on toning them down?

Wanze.8410

If the droprate of Giant Eyes isnt high enough for you, just go out in the world and try to find the Inquest Asurans that drop Bags of Laboratory Material, which currently has 37 buy orders sitting at over 1.5g (11g lowest seller), then buy giant eyes from the profit.

-checks gw2tp- O.o

What the heck? Why are people paying that much for those bags? I can’t think of anything that drops from a T3 lootbag that’s worth so much…

Maybe, but is that the kind of behaviour ANet wants to encourage in their game? I’d say no; stuff like players not being able to deny each other harvesting nodes, not being able to see the names of enemy players in WvW, or shutting down the Match-Up forums because it got “too toxic” all tell me so. They want to see robust and spirited competition, yes, but they also want it to remain a “gentleman’s game”. Out and out griefing for its own sake is something they frown on in general.

I echo the suggestions of upgrading yourself with Masterwork gear till you reach 80, although I’d only do it every 10 levels or so. When you reach that point, buy level 80 Exotics, or level 80 Rares if you’re really strapped for cash. Those will allow you to do just about any content in the game without issues.

Crafting your own gear is fun, but it’s also incredibly expensive, so it should be something you do only if you enjoy crafting. (Although, it’s worth noting that Ascended armor and weapons can only be acquired through crafting, or very, very rare drops, so if you like working for Best-in-Slot equipment, then advancing crafting is something you should work on while levelling.)

“You heard Grast-”
“You heard Grast-”
“You-”
“You-”
“You heard Grast, hold the line! Send the intruders to Grenth!”

I still hardly find PUGs willing to fight him.

But the big prize still has to go to:

“What? What? Yes? What? The Legion calls. What? Out with it? Yes? The Legion calls.”

With her backup singers of “Always be loyal to your krewe” and “May Lyssa aid you”.

Maybe. I can see where you’re coming from, but I’m always reminded of this one time where we had one skilled player who planted himself near the enemy goalkeeper, was stealing kegs from the enemy and then immediately throwing them out of the Arena. Considering we were already winning at the time, it seemed less like a valid defensive tactic and more like somebody just rubbing it in by refusing to let the enemy team score at all.

I’ve only ever seen the number of kegs on the field go up to 5 before, and that was when the game bugged and the match kept on going even after the timer expired. New kegs are not added to the field unless an existing keg is turned in or thrown out of the field.

I’ve been experiencing bursts of terrible lag followed by Err7 disconnects since the weekend. I’m convinced it’s something on the GW2 server side as the rest of my Internet/Steam etc. works perfectly fine. What’s more, sometimes I’ll log in and get a completely smooth run, but then zone into certain maps/activities and then start experiencing lag, which disappears as soon as I move to a different map.

I’m uncertain as to whether the cause is more attacks on the GW2 login servers (unlikely, for it to be sustained for so long), a faulty server(s) failing, or something else.