Guild Wars 2

From experience, I HAVE noticed a lot more Rares dropping at 150+ MF compared to when I had 0%. I have 200% MF now, and these days it is EXTREMELY rare for me to not get at least one or two Rares per day from random mobs. Exotics are still few and far between (I get maybe one every one or two weeks, if I’m lucky), but in my experience at least, MF does make a noticeable difference.

The tricky part is, you need to boost your MF by at least 50% each time to notice a real difference. And even then, your playstyle needs to be one that takes advantage of MF. Since it only affects direct drops from mobs, you will get the most use out of MF if you are a farmer or a player who likes to murder everything he sees. You will not see much benefit from MF if you:

a ) do the World Boss/Champ trains, because your main source of loot comes from the bags they drop, which are NOT affected by MF.

b ) speedclear dungeons that involve a lot of skipping, because again, loot from chests and bags are not affected by MF. (It would be a different story if your group cleared all the mobs in the dungeon.)

c ) chest farm. As far as I can tell, the increased MF for Lost Bandit Chests in SW actually affects whether or not you get an additional Rare drop like a Carapace chest or a Sinister recipe book. It does NOT affect the loot you get from the Bandit Champ bag.

d ) play the Mystic Forge lottery.

Personally speaking, I’m loving the falling prices. I have my eye on a few goodies that I’m waiting to snap up once they get low enough.

But otherwise, yes, others have basically pointed out why prices are falling on many things.

Firstly, Silverwastes is a crazy lucrative farming pit. It pumps out dozens and dozens of greens, blues and even Rares. (And all that Bloodstone Dust and Empyreal Shards also get turned into more random loot via Mawdrey and the Star.) This has all contributed to the falling price of T5 mats like Silk, along with rarer commodities like Ectos. In turn, the falling prices means people are more willing to throw Rares into the Forge, which has also resulted in more Exotics (including Precursors).

With the announcement that new Legendaries are coming, along with the long-awaited Precursor scavenger hunt, speculators are panicking and dumping their Precursors in case the new Legendaries turn out to be way more awesome and nobody is interested in the “last year” Legendaries anymore. (Which, btw, is HIGHLY likely. Players have always, ALWAYS flocked to whatever is the newest shiny in a game. It remains popular until a new shiny comes out, at which time the cycle starts over.)

Now that it seems the LS is back on hiatus again, people are also trickling back out of Silverwastes and into other parts of the game, meaning that supply on various other rare things will go up again. They previously took a hit during Wintersday and the LS since player traffic flooded into those areas, but now the game population is spreading out again.

Finally, people usually start hoarding gold in anticipation of getting ready to buy the new stuff whenever a new release/expansion is out. This can also mean that people are dumping lots of stock, and also to clear inventory space.

My guesses:

Elementalist = Spellblade (probably gets Sword as their weapon. Focuses on increased combat with conjured weapons)
Engineer = Wrecker (gets Hammer. More tanky/melee DPS)
Guardian = ?
Mesmer = ? (gets Shield. Probably focuses more on support and buffing/defending allies)
Necromancer = Executioner (gets Greatsword. More melee skills revolving around imbuing the GS with necromantic energy)
Ranger = Druid (gets Staff. More support focused with magic and nature rituals)
Thief = Thug (gets Mace. Focuses on a lot of heavy hitting, incapacitating attacks, but slower attack speed)
Warrior = Dragoon (gets Pistol. Focuses on using guns while wearing heavy armor)

KryTiKaL.3125:

Actually it’s been entirely confirmed that Rytlock is the first Revenant and that he is going to be training new Revenants.

Considering we’re going to have thousands of new Revenants when HoT is released, Rytlock is the world’s best teacher.

Yes, I was wondering if someone else would pick up on this. If Rytlock could change profession completely, does that mean that profession switching is a new feature in HoT?

I’m also guessing that Dragoon/Musketeer or something similar is going to be the Warrior specialisation, who specialises in Rifles/Pistols and other firearms while still wearing heavy armor.

One collection per Precursor per account? I can get behind that.

Several interviews have stated that each profession is only getting one Specialisation with HoT, but more may be introduced in the future. (CJ hinted that further PC improvement is likely to be via Masteries and Specialisations.)

Yeah, based on the Shacknews interview, we can expect no new races with HoT. Still doesn’t rule them out down the line though. Now that we’ve got our “3 professions of each armor class” ratio, further development will most likely be with new Specialisations and new races.

To add to the other questions people have already asked:

Q: Will Chef and Jeweler be raised to 500 with HoT?

Q: Will HoT bring about any changes to the NPE, and in particular, the Personal Story? Large chunks of the Personal Story got removed in the NPE, especially from the Orrian chapters, and Leah Hoyer has stated that our concerns about the lost lore and the resultant plot holes it has created is on the agenda. Will we see the return of these missing chapters with the HoT release?

Honestly, the Stronghold PvP mode sounds an awful lot like a MOBA-style game.

Seera.5916:

Zaxares.5419:

From Gaile’s comment, I read the following:

As it stands at the moment, selling on the LFG tool is not forbidden, but it is very frowned upon. (Probably the same stance ANet has on dungeon selling.) From a game design perspective, this is probably more urgent since if players start bypassing the TP to sell on grey markets, it will result in one of the game’s major gold sinks being neutered, as well as result in increased requests to Support to deal with scammers.

Thus, while this means that those currently selling their wares aren’t reportable, but action may need to be taken in the very near future if people start doing it more and more often, to the point where they start to clog up the LFG tool.

ANet doesn’t frown on dungeon run selling at all. As long as it isn’t an exploited run. They’ve said in other threads that it’s fine to do.

They do however not give money back if you get scammed. But if there is evidence that the seller scammed you, then the seller will be punished.

Actually, if you read between the lines, they very much do not approve of dungeon selling. It’s not illegal, but also not something they really support or condone. Their core stance (and one I agree with) is that to get the rewards, players should actually do the content. Paying someone to run you through the content is “not how the game was meant to be played”. ANet won’t punish players for doing it, but it’s also why, if you get scammed, you’re on your own.

Something else you can try now. Just save up all those Writs of Experience from the PvE dailies, then consume 20 of them in one go. I’m not sure if this works, but if it does, that’s the surefire way to get it.

Yeah, that was before I saw the “account wide” bit. That tells me it’s probably something like Fractal levels or WvW rank, and we’ll probably be able to master everything if we do everything in the expansion.

There’s nothing wrong with bringing Rangers (or any profession, really) into Fractals. All that matters is that you have decent gear (ideally Exotics+, but anything Masterwork and above will do), and that you know what to do in the different Fractals. If you’re completely new to Fractals, then I recommend visiting the Dungeons/Fractals forum and ask for a teacher. There are several forum vets there who are happy to show you the ropes.

My vote’s on Trident and possibly the Spear as well.

Yes, I will almost assuredly buy HoT, unless ANet announces something which I consider absolutely deal-breaking in the coming weeks. (Hard to do, as the only two deal-breakers I can currently think of would be either a switch to subscription, or the introduction of a gear-treadmill.)

Really? Because every single Dueling server that I’ve popped my head into usually will have a spectator cap a point so that people will get rewards at the end. Or one side just finishes off their downed foe just before the timer is over so they have 5 points and get the victory.

EotM is actually super fun when people actually try to hold and defend territory. The reason it has turned into a ktrain lovefest is due to the core problem that has plagued WvW since the beginning; there is no real reward, other than satisfaction, for defending.

Anyway, I am quite excited to see what the new Borderlands brings. I wonder if it’ll be on a all server rotation each week, or whether each server gets a different Borderlands. (e.g. Blue gets the new one, Red and Green get the old ones. Next week it’s Green and Red with the new one, Blue on the old one. Third week it’s Green and Blue on new, Red on old.)

While I do think that Ascended and cosmetic gear in GW2 is grindier than it needs to be, at the end of the day, I agree that they’re not essential (Exotics will do just fine, unless you’re doing high level Fractals), so I can live with the current state of the GW2 economy.

The most crucial thing to me regarding the NPE is whether or not they are re-introducing the story steps that were cut, as my characters are currently stuck and unable to progress with the Personal Story for fear of never being able to see previous game content should they bring them back.

From Gaile’s comment, I read the following:

As it stands at the moment, selling on the LFG tool is not forbidden, but it is very frowned upon. (Probably the same stance ANet has on dungeon selling.) From a game design perspective, this is probably more urgent since if players start bypassing the TP to sell on grey markets, it will result in one of the game’s major gold sinks being neutered, as well as result in increased requests to Support to deal with scammers.

Thus, while this means that those currently selling their wares aren’t reportable, but action may need to be taken in the very near future if people start doing it more and more often, to the point where they start to clog up the LFG tool.

Thanks for the new info, Colin.

While I did enjoy the concept of “adventuring to gain traits”, I do agree that it was a bit complicated and unwieldy, with a lot of traits forcing you to go into game modes you may not enjoy, or were at inappropriate levels compared to the level you were first eligible for the trait.

I would like to see a more streamlined process where completing certain game content instead rewards you with Trait Unlock points. (Not to be confused with Trait points.) You can then spend these points on whatever traits suit your fancy, allowing you to do content you like, and learn traits that you like.

For example, say that a PvE player completes Flame Temple Tombs and earns 1 Trait Unlock point. He can then spend that on a Minor Trait, or he could save it up for a Master Trait when he collects 3 Trait Unlock Points. At the same time, a WvW player captures 3 Towers and also earns 1 Trait Unlock point. He could also spend that on a Minor Trait, or save it up.

Trait Unlock points stack, regardless of how they are obtained in the game. This allows a player to dabble in multiple game modes, or simply stick to the one they like.

Finally, as an alternative to earning these points, players can still purchase new traits outright from trainers for gold+skill points.

I feel that this would result in a flexible system that would suit everybody.

My guess is that we’ll see festival content return as filler until HoT is released. (My estimate is that it’ll be 4 – 6 months away.) That gives us time for SAB, Dragon Bash and/or the Crown Pavilion. I’d have listed the Labyrinthine Cliffs too, but the Zephyrites don’t seem to be in any position to do trading at the moment.

Well, ANet surprised me. I was sure they’d introduce new races before a new profession, but what do you know… Anyway, the Revenant class looks interesting (seems like a blend of Ritualist+Dervish+heavy armor), and there’s always hope for the Tengu again sometime down the line.

Well, that at least explains why the Shaman always seemed to be much easier when I was bringing my MM Necro for Fractals. XD

Technically, it IS match manipulation, but I don’t think it’s as big an issue as you’re making it out to be.

Firstly, Hotjoin rewards are capped at 2 tiers a day. So no matter how efficient their custom arena farming is, it won’t be as fast as somebody who grinds out Unranked/Ranked all day. I think (not 100% certain) that you can still gain rank points even after the 2-tier cap, but any veteran PvP’er knows that rank is merely a measure of how much PvP you’ve played, not an indicator of actual skill. The world’s WORST player, who does nothing but spam autoattack and has a record of 0 wins and infinity losses, will eventually get to Dragon rank if they keep at it long enough.

Secondly, the players paid for their own custom arena, so they’re entitled to do whatever they want in it (as long as it doesn’t involve outright hacks or exploits). Technically, players running duel servers, guild training servers etc. are all also in breach of not “playing PvP the way it was intended”, but you’d see a massive outcry if ANet cracked down on these.

Honestly, the way Colin described it makes Stronghold sound a bit like a MOBA-inspired PvP mode. I’ll just wait for more information before taking a stance on it.

I support it in theory, but it would be very hard to police, and somewhat open to abuse too. What’s to stop angry players from mass reporting some poor newbie who stumbled into Unranked and is doing all the classic mistakes like double-capping, zerging, or getting into pointless fights while all 3 points are capped? Without some form of chat confirmation, it can be very difficult to prove whether somebody is match manipulating or just a bad player.

Really? O.o I’ll need to pay more attention to the shield in future. I could have sworn it took down multiple ticks. So skills like Barrage, Rapid Fire etc. all also only take off one stack?

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. The problem is that the subset of players who enjoy the basic premise behind Obsidian Sanctum is very, very small. The typical player who loves doing JP’s (that is, they’ll do them every single day) also hates getting attacked while they’re doing it. Meanwhile, the typical PvP’er also hates being in fights where there isn’t a fair playing field (for a good example, see the widespread hate for Skyhammer against players who had builds specifically designed to punt people to their deaths), and trying to dislodge somebody who is set up in a good location with traps and more definitely falls into that category.

End result, neither group enjoys their time there, and the place is gradually abandoned. It’s not the fault of the OS-fans; they’re doing exactly what the creator of OS intended the place to be. But they also have to realise that their enjoyment comes at the expense of other players who are in OS to do something else, and so until something is done to ensure the other types of players can do what they came to do without hassle, OS will continue to be abandoned.

Sadly, I doubt that Sinister stats (or Nomad’s) will be added to those chests. They are “exclusive” content to Dry Top and Silverwastes, and are probably intended as a hook to keep players playing in those areas.

Keeper’s stats is a possibility though, unless ANet decides to reintroduce it at some point down the line.

Necro’s Life Transfer also works to get a lot of hits in on the Shaman’s shield.

Supported. Sadly I didn’t get into dungeons until late in the game, so I never got to play TAFU myself. Would love to have seen it in its original state.

The Aetherpath should be split off to form it’s own “elite path” that is accessed by speaking to the NPC outside the dungeon entrance.

I’m pretty certain that only one node can be added to your account, and that attempting to use the 2nd will give you a “you already have that content unlocked” error. However, I would not waste the potential money testing it. Just sell the 2nd one on the TP.

Dreamer Sylvari can probably be allowed to serve in their current roles (barring extremely sensitive ones) until it can be proven they are trustworthy. For safety’s sake, it’s best not to send them on any missions against Mordremoth until the PCs discover whatever deus ex machina device it is that will protect Sylvari from Mordremoth. (My guess is that it’s going to be Ascension, or something involving Glint’s egg.)

All Soundless Sylvari will need to be quarantined in the Grove and carefully watched over by the Wardens. While Mordremoth is awake, the Pale Tree may also need to forbid any Sylvari from going Soundless for their own good. Unfortunate, but it’s for their own good.

Nightmare Sylvari can be slain on sight as they always have been. :P

I’m also quite certain that those glowing beings we find in the golden city are Mursaat. They probably just got a “facelift” to make them seem more like the angelic beings Saul D’Alessio originally described them as.

I’m unsure of how to feel about allying with them. The Mursaat have always been a self-centered race that saw others as nothing more than tools or obstacles. On the other hand, there could always be outliers, and the three we see could be such. Just as we would not condemn all the Sylvari to death for being dragon minions (well, most of us wouldn’t, anyway ), we can’t condemn all Mursaat for the actions of the majority.

My only fear is that these Mastery points are limited in such a way that we have to choose between either being more potent in battle, or getting deeper looks at lore. I don’t think ANet will go down this path, but you never know.

I didn’t mean to imply that the swords were created BY the Gods, but the swords might have been created by Orrian mages who used divine magic in their creation, rather than the stock standard magic that most other spellcasters use. It might explain why Magdaer and Sohothin are so incredibly powerful as compared to most other magical items, along with other extremely powerful artifacts from Orr such as the Scepter of Orr.

Agreed, very interesting idea. And it ties in to my own pet theory that the Sylvari (or more accurately, the Pale Tree’s race) were actually an ancient species on Tyria from the days of Giganticus Lupicus that were conquered by Mordremoth and assimilated into his armies. This makes them “dragon minions” in the sense that their continued survival is due to Mordremoth breeding them in the same way that cows, pigs or other domesticated lifestock are bred to feed and serve humanity, but they are still their own distinct species in their own right, and if freed from Mordremoth’s control, they can choose their own path and their own destiny.

I also expect that that backpack skin will be a gemstore skin one day.

@Zen: This may be a crucial bit of info. WHEN exactly did you complete the Gates of Maguuma Mastery? Was it recently? Or did you complete it way back when it was first released?

While I do agree that Rytlock was unnecessarily tough on Rox (the PC calls him out on it, even if your PC is a Charr), I looked at it more as an example of the kind of value system Charr have. In their militaristic society, completing the objective is the most important thing. No matter the cost, no matter the casualties. Failure is worse than death to them. Rox wanted to join a warband that often, due to the nature of war, has to make some extremely tough decisions, and Rytlock was only treating Rox as she would be expected to behave should she join them.

But on a personal level, I suspect Rytlock is secretly glad Rox made the choice she did. He probably knew that she didn’t really fit in with the Stone warband, but he couldn’t bring himself to outright deny her entrance.

Raising the level cap COULD be done, provided that the top tier of equipment still remained the same. For example, say that the level cap was raised to 90, but past level 80, getting additional levels only gives you additional trait points, which are only active in PvE. (If you go into WvW or PvP, you get downscaled back to 80, so there would be no issues with rebalancing there.)

In addition to XTD’s excellent answer, siege trolls will also sometimes deliberately destroy their own server’s siege golems that are parked in Keeps/Citadels, usually by piloting the golem and then making the golem jump off a very high cliff.

I’m hopeful it’s an expansion (or an expansion’s worth of content), but if it isn’t, I’m not upset. It might mean I finally have time to get started on my backlog of other games.

A long time back I made a suggestion as to how Necromancers could maybe “reserve” portions of their Death Shroud bar in order to summon additional minions. For example, say a Necromancer has a small army of minions out:

- 1 Blood Fiend
– 1 Bone Fiend
– 2 Bone Minions
– 1 Flesh Wurm
– 1 Flesh Golem

He could summon an additional Blood Fiend by reserving 25% of his Death Shroud bar, leaving him with 75% of the normal duration. His army is now:

- 2 Blood Fiends
– 1 Bone Fiend
– 2 Bone Minions
– 1 Flesh Wurm
– 1 Flesh Golem

Next, he wants more explodey minions and chooses to summon another 2 Bone Minions, leaving him with 50% of his Death Shroud bar. His army is now:

- 2 Blood Fiends
– 1 Bone Fiend
– 4 Bone Minions
– 1 Flesh Wurm
– 1 Flesh Golem

He could continue in this fashion twice more, perhaps having up to 4 Blood Fiends out, or summoning an extra Bone Fiend and Flesh Wurm. (Flesh Golems may only be summoned once. I think having 5 Flesh Golems out would make them basically be able to perma-KD any opponent in the game.) However, if he summoned 4 more minions above his normal limit, he basically can’t even enter Death Shroud at all (his bar is completely reserved, leaving him at 0%).

I think this would be a fair trade off, considering that MM Necromancers usually don’t want to enter DS (aside from judicious use of Fear and maybe Tainted Shackles) because it prevents them from using minion skills and/or healing from Vampiric Master.

On a related note, I’d also like it if the Jagged Horrors got their own unique minion skin. I’d love to see the old “spikey bone” critters running around and poking enemies (causing the Bleeding), rather than them just being slightly smaller versions of the Bone Minions.

Yes. Aside from the limited customisation options, I think the biggest thing holding the Kodan back as a playable race is that, thematically, they are too similar to Norn. Both races are big, physically powerful arctic dwelling beings. Each of the races fills a fantasy trope (with a few unique twists that makes them unique to Tyria), and the Norn and Kodan would fill the same space.

I wouldn’t mind playable Kodan in the slightest (would make a Kodan Guardian!), but I think the odds are against them.

I didn’t really have much problem with Ore. I have several “farms” that I go to when I need to gather lots of Iron or Platinum.

Wood was much harder, especially Soft Wood due to the requirement of 4 logs instead of 3. I’ve finished accumulating all the Soft Wood I need now for my Ascended crafting, but it was the biggest bottleneck.

Cloth is by far the hardest to acquire. I’m still accumulating all the Damask I need. Silk thankfully has become a lot cheaper thanks to the Silverwastes throwing out level 80 blues/greens like rain (which has flooded the market with supply). For the other cloth tiers, I got it through a combination of farming events, buying up cheap armors for salvage, and more recently by sending my Champ bags to a lower-level alt for opening. (Opening Champ bags on a lower level alt still has the same chances for the Exotic weapons, but any blue or green gear you get is linked to the alt’s level, meaning you can salvage them for Wool/Cotton/Linen.)

I also have the Basic Cloth Rack in my Home Instance, so that does give me a small amount of Wool or Cotton every day.

ANet will probably re-release them sometime down the track. As to when that is, nobody knows.

You mean you don’t collect them all to become an Honorary Skritt?

I completed the collection because:

1. An Ascended chest will save me a lot of money in my climb to Ascended armor for my Light armor wearers.

2. “Light in the Darkness” is an awesome title.

3. The sweet, sweet AP.

4. I enjoy ticking things off a list to do.

Anyway, I do agree that the Coat Boxes should be made available for purchase for Bandit Crests too. I suspect that ANet will include them when they release the guaranteed extractors for Kidneys/Eyes.