Guild Wars 2

^ No, those are gone. LAST year the vendors did sell the frames, but they’ve removed them for this year.

Yep, I love the 6 week time period for this. Plenty of time for everyone to get through the content at their own pace and complete the meta doing what they like doing. Hopefully the final phase of Scarlet’s story arc will use a similar structure! (Lots of stuff to do, but also a lot of time to do it in.)

For anyone who’s dying to the “wind” during the snowflake portion, that’s not actually wind gusts knocking you off. That animation (with the freezing sound) plays whenever you’ve fallen off the JP and get ported back to the start. I suspect that it’s a case of lag where your client thinks you’re safe, but the server thinks you’ve run off the edge and fallen into the void, and so ports you back.

Not much advice I can really offer for that except to exit and rejoin an instance with hopefully better ping.

And that’s why I’m waiting till week 4 or 5 of Wintersday before buying any recipes I might still need. Supply will just keep pouring in over the event. (Already got 2 Grenth recipes just from opening Gifts. Need 1 more Grenth and 3 Dwayna’s.)

Perhaps a system where the longer a DE goes without having been completed, the more XP, karma and coin it rewards?

At the same time, introduce DR on Champs and events so players don’t just in one map and farm the same Champs/events all the time. As an example, when you first kill a Champion, you get a guaranteed Exotic loot bag. The next time, it’s either an Exotic loot bag, or one that’s scaled to the level of the map. For attempts 3 and 4, it’s always a scaled bag. Attempts 5+ give no reward at all.

This should encourage players to move around the world killing different Champions. Combined with uncompleted events giving more rewards the longer they go without completion, it should spur more people to start doing events in previously quiet maps.

A similar mechanic could also be used for Elites and Veterans. Elites always give a scaled loot bag (until DR hits after they’ve been killed 5+ times), while Veterans always give a standard loot bag (e.g. Heavy Miner’s Bag) until DR hits.

Lucyfer’s right about one thing though. After being spoiled by the TP in GW2, I wonder how on earth ANet never saw fit to include one in GW1.

As much as I embrace the peace between Charr and humans, I have to admit that the OP’s suggestions are prudent. It’s why even modern day allies spy on each other. As someone once said (unfortunately I can’t remember who it was), “They may be our allies now, but we can’t count on them being our allies forever.”

Really? Huh. The middle path is the Snowman path, and I use it all the time. There’s a couple of jumps where you can take shortcuts, making it the quickest path for me.

The Quaggan route? I’ve done the JP on all 3 paths and the Quaggan route seems to be slightly longer than the other two.

I used Blinding Surge on my Vekk. His brilliance blinds all!

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

Zaxares.5419:

No, it is not fair. I should get at least 50 gold when I sell my 100 gems!

ewwwww.

i think, the gem stores needs to have a lot more shinies.
that people will buy.

and i mean a lot more.

such that the gold to gem rates increases ridiculously.
since people will convert gold to gems more to spend on the gem store.

when it costs about 60 gold to buy 100gems then perhaps
100 gems can be converted into 50 gold?

i dunno.

Hehe, if it ever DID get to such a crazy exchange rate, I think it would be a sign that something was seriously wrong with the GW2 economy. It would mean that players have accumulated such vast quantities of gold that it is outstripping the ability of the gold sinks to hold them in check.

It is for those who spend real cash on the gems only. It’s ANet’s way of thanking players who contribute real money to them. You might feel it’s unfair, but one group of players is paying for ANet’s ongoing staff wages and other expenses, the other isn’t.

? I thought the chest that spawns after defeating the Karka Queen (and all world bosses) is once per character per day, but the bonus chest (the one that spawns in the bottom-right corner) is once per account per day?

I can see the OP’s point of view, but I agree that Camps need to stay relatively easy to capture so that small roaming groups (2-5) can still capture objectives without needing to resort to siege or large zergs. If you absolutely want to keep a Camp under your control, have someone sentry it just as they do Towers. Give advance warning when you see enemy groups possibly heading to Camps, and put a call out for defenders to come protect it.

Last weekend I was doing more mapping in the Borderlands, and there was one player who was sitting in North camp all the time. Whenever it seemed that the Camp was in danger of being attacked, they put out a call for defenders, and about 5 – 10 of us would show up and beat the stuffing out of the hapless attackers.

I think the idea of having the water breather be its own separate armor slot that’s applied in addition to your helmet armor slot is an interesting one. Would not oppose seeing that changed.

No, it is not fair. I should get at least 50 gold when I sell my 100 gems!

Activities is a good way to get karma, especially the shorter ones like Sanctum Sprint or Crab Toss. You get 600 for a loss, and 1000 for a win.

Doing Tequatl is also a good way to get karma, provided you can get into a good overflow. A successful kill gives you 10,000 karma, not counting the karma you get from the events during it.

Supported. I’d like to see Sup Rune prices more normalised too. The weird thing is that in the early days, it WAS actually possible to throw Sup Runes/Sigils into the Forge. I’m not sure why this was changed.

In the meantime, having dungeon runes being account bound instead of soulbound would be a fantastic QoL improvement too.

A Permanent Extractor is something I’d buy too, but I shudder to think of how expensive it would be. >.>

The particular carrot on that day was the Bank/Bag slots being on sale.

I hadn’t considered the possibility of the Mr Sparkles offer being a possible cause for the gem price fall, actually, but that makes sense. I’m still waiting for the conversion rate to climb again.

The Extractor is there purely for people to pull off their expensive (+8 and higher) infusions. Anything else (runes/sigils/jewels) is simply not worth it.

That said, I think it would be nice to be able to obtain these items via, say, Black Lion chests or maybe via an expensive MF recipe. (I’d like something to do with my stack of Mystic Forge stones… Maybe 3 Mystic Salvage Kits + 5 Mystic Forge Stones = 1 Upgrade Extractor?)

JosieMach has the answer. The Extractor is there purely for people to pull off their expensive (+8 and higher) infusions. Anything else (runes/sigils/jewels) is simply not worth it.

So in that respect, it’s working as intended. It’s just that sales of this item will be incredibly low.

DigitalKirin.9714:

Zaxares.5419:

Maybe we should form a coalition of dungeon/Fractal players who prefer to kill rather than skip?

Funny enough, someone did try to make a guild that did that (I think they called it Kill All Things [KAT] or something), and invited all the people who wanted to run dungeons without skips. When last I heard, they said that it was a complete failure.

However, despite this, I would say that if you really want to do dungeons without skips, finding a guild/group of like minded individuals is probably the best way. The second best way is to make sure your lfg description states your intention to kill everything very specifically.

That’s a shame, although there’s a large number of reasons why it might have failed. Different timezones, different players wanting to do different dungeons/Fractals, or players just wanting to do other stuff like WvW/mapping/RP what-have-you. Not to mention that with guilds that are formed for a specific purpose, you won’t get 100% representation as people generally prefer to hang out with their friends. (I only rep TTS during Tequatl events, for instance.)

I do put up ads for killing runs sometimes though. “LFM Fractals Level 9 Slayerthon! Put down your skipping tools, pick up your killing tools!”

^ If that’s true, it would explain a lot of the world’s economic woes! O.o

Do you happen to know if you can transfer an Ascended item’s infusion as well when transmuting?

I dunno. I DO agree with Herr that WvW-only players should not be forced to do PvE content to get Ascended gear if they want to remain at the top of their game. Being able to purchase Ascended gear with Badges SHOULD be included, in my opinion.

That said, isn’t it possible to accumulate the mats needed for Ascended doing only WvW? Dragonite/Empyreal/Bloodstone can all be acquired in WvW, and all necessary materials harvested. I think the only item that can’t be acquired in WvW is Obsidian Shards, unless there’s a WvW vendor that sells it that I’m not aware of.

Khisanth.2948

open http://pastie.org/pastes/8557345/text , ctrl+a, ctrl+c
Click Edit button on http://dragons.udba.org/
Click on the text box in the edit window, ctrl+v
Click on Import

Many thanks! It’s a neat system.

Now if only it had text to voice so I could hear “Karka Queen is up” instead of having to alt-tab to the webpage to see what World Boss just became active. XD

Talk to the kid standing near the Mystic Forge in Lion’s Arch. All the Wintersday activity NPCs have peppermint icons above their heads.

Yeah. They should have still allowed us to get the Toy Frames by picking which production you wanted at the start, and then you get Magic Glue/Stuffing + Cogs once a day.

Most likely the devs think that having Ascended Boon Duration stats might be OP. Or that, like Crit damage, it won’t be increased by bumping it up to Ascended, and so players might think it’s worthless and thus there’s no point in putting it in.

AFAIK, Smaller gifts give smaller amounts of the Wintersday tokens (socks, sweaters etc.) and they also drop snowflakes of different tiers (Small gifts will drop Tiny and Glittering Snowflakes, for example). I’m not sure what the odds of getting things like the Grenth/Dwayna recipes are like from smaller gifts, or even if they drop at all.

I will agree with you about one thing, Dutchdevil. I do agree that people should be able to play whatever game mode they most enjoy and receive rewards comparable with what people playing other game modes are getting. (Sometimes this requires buffing rewards from unpopular modes, and sometimes it’s nerfing rewards from overpopular modes.)

That said, that applies to sPvP as well. As Meglobob pointed out, sPvP players basically got nothing ever since the game was released. Since Glory is being removed as a currency, and rewards will use gold going forward, sPvP players need to be brought up to speed with the rest of the player base so they can remain on an even playing field. Wanting there to be equal rewards across all game modes, but not wanting sPvP players to be appropriately rewarded to remain competitive with PvE players, is a double standard.

Agreed! I like the ground targeting above water, but under the waves unless you take the fight to the sea floor, you can’t use Arcane Wave at all.

Yeah, I like having a complete recipe list. (To a point. I generally don’t bother hunting for recipes that can be discovered or Forged at any time.) And yes, I’m missing the Dragon Starcake recipe too. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it’ll make a comeback during Dragon Bash next year.

Didn’t know that the finished inscriptions/insignia dropped directly from the Karka Queen though. Maybe I might just buy the insignia directly if it’s cheaper than crafting it myself. (Still want to get the recipes though.)

I don’t approve of dungeon selling (I think it goes against the spirit of the game), but the behaviour of the others is also pretty low. (Except maybe the first guy. After all, he’s doing the work himself to beat the final boss, yes?)

To each of the situations, I just say “/report and let Support sort it out”.

Horizontal Progression

Overall I think horizontal progression with regards to having luxury skins and Legendaries is in a pretty good state. Cost-wise most cosmetic items are at a good threshold, and the move to make previously exclusive weapons permanently available via the Black Lion Weapon Tickets was a much appreciated change. However, I would like to see less RNG when it comes to earning certain rewards such as Fractal weapons. The system you guys used for the Super Adventure Box was perfect, in my opinion; you had three routes of obtaining the look you wanted:

1. You can get lucky with a drop by playing the content repeatedly.

2. You can earn tokens and trade it in for an account-bound version of the skin you want.

3. You can buy the skin you want from the Trading Post from a lucky player from option 1. (This also has the added benefit of player 1 getting a bonus windfall if they happen to get a drop they don’t want. Both players end up happy!)

I would also like to see more love for alts by streamlining the way that expensive or exclusive skins can be made available to a player’s entire account as opposed to keeping them locked on one character. I know that in future, PvP and PvE skins are being merged together so that skins earned in one mode are usable in the other. Does this mean we can expect a PvE wardrobe? At the risk of self-promoting, I’m going to repost a suggestion I made a while ago about how such a PvE wardrobe could work:

1. Skins which are earned via AP’s or the completion of meta achievements (such as the Fervid Censer or the Slickpack) go into one tab. These skins can be withdrawn from the wardrobe as many times as you want for free, similar to the way Zenith skins work now. (For convenience, put the HoM reward skins in here too.)

2. All other PvE skins must be unlocked by putting an existing copy of it into the PvE wardrobe. Both weapons and armors can be unlocked in the wardrobe this way. Once unlocked, you can generate additional one-time use copies of the skin by paying either Transmutation Stones (creates a version that works for any item up to level 79), or Transmutation Crystals (can be used for all levels). These skin copies are account bound, so they can’t be sold.

This allows players to gradually build up a wardrobe of skins they like to use, and don’t have to waste inventory/bank space holding multiple sets of armor or weapons. At the same time, ANet also gets to keep its lucrative transmutation market, since you still need Stones/Crystals to generate additional skin copies.

Hi Chris. Thanks again for taking the time to discuss and take feedback from the community regarding current content and future development!

Ascended Equipment

Looking solely at Ascended gear by itself, I think you guys have done a good job in striking the balance between making it a lengthy/expensive goal to achieve, but not putting it out of reach of most players. (The way you’ve designed it to increase demand for previously unwanted lower tier materials was a stroke of genius!) Most importantly, the bonus that Ascended offers over Exotic is not great enough that Ascended becomes a must-have for players; GW2’s endgame has, and should always be, designed around players in Exotic gear. As such, Ascended equipment primarily exists only for players who desire BiS, and enjoy taking the time and energy to work towards that goal. For everyone else, Exotics will more than suffice.

I look forward to seeing what r500 Jeweler and Chef will bring. As someone who enjoys the process of crafting, I really hope that r500 Jeweler will allow me to craft my own Ascended trinkets.

Vertical Progression

I’m a bit wary of introducing any more vertical progression into the game. The slight increase from Exotics to Ascended is one thing, but introducing vertical progression with things like Ascended runes/sigils or ever-increasing infusions should be treated with extreme caution, because that CAN lead to a gear treadmill in a different form.

The other possible route, vertical progression via new (and possibly expensive) skills, is also not without risk. I was a bit surprised at the new healing skills requiring 25 skill points to unlock; all the new healing skills are balanced with their existing counterparts, yet are vastly more difficult to obtain. If this trend continues with other utility or elite skills, we could get into a situation where popular meta-builds require multiple 25-point skills, forcing newer players out of high-end content because they can’t run the “required” build for their profession. I would have preferred having them cost just 5 skill points, in line with the most expensive utility skills.

On a related note, I know that ANet has not ruled out increasing the level cap in future. I am not against a level cap increase, but I strongly urge against re-balancing loot and equipment to keep pace with a higher level, because that would, again, create a gear treadmill. Instead, what we could have is a system where players can continue to gain levels past level 80, but all it does is give players more trait points to allocate (and only within PvE), allowing them to create even more powerful and diverse builds for future “elite” PvE content. Players who are higher than level 80 get downscaled back to 80 in WvW and sPvP.

I also support TC as a choice. Blackgate may have a larger population, but there’s something for everyone in Tarnished Coast!

Don’t knock it till you try it!

At the very least they could make them account bound. >.> It’s really annoying to get Superior Runes on a character that can’t use them, but that I could use on another. (I’ve resorted to only running AC on my Elementalist, for example.)

So they finally managed to crack the 8c Thick Leather mega-wall. I’m impressed! XD

I don’t think that will be a problem, Behellagh. My guess is that far, far fewer players bought the Collection Expander than those who bought extra bank/bag slots. We saw a MASSIVE jump in gold – gem prices when that went on sale, but the price didn’t move up at all when the Collection Expander was released. (In fact, it’s even gone down since then!) I expect that most players don’t deem it useful enough to be worth the gems, and of course, casual players aren’t likely to buy it in the first place, which is where the bulk of the supply comes from.

ANet has announced that PvP and PvE skins are getting merged together, so that a skin unlocked in one mode will be usable in the other. I and a few others think that this might mean the introduction of a skin wardrobe that’s usable in PvE as well.

^ This sounds similar to my strategy. Basically, there are two groups; Elemental tanks and Ooze guides.

1. Elemental tanks (usually Guardians/Warriors or some other class with good sustain) go in first, one on each side. They aggro up the Elementals and pull them to the far door. Third player (usually Elementalist, support Engineer etc.) now goes over and uses his skills to help keep them alive. DO NOT KILL THE ELEMENTALS YET.

2. Ooze guides now go in, one on each side. They get the buff, and start leading the oozes to the door.

3. Elemental tanks now start killing the elementals, with support from the 3rd player. They should be able to kill the elementals when the oozes get to halfway through the fire paths. There is now enough time for the oozes to reach the door unhindered before the elementals respawn.

Maybe we should form a coalition of dungeon/Fractal players who prefer to kill rather than skip?

I generally prefer to kill enemies rather than skip them, for the following two reasons:

1. More chances for loot! Why let your MF% go to waste? I once got the Hunter off some random mob in AC Story; who knows what loot that spiderling or bandit or dredge you’re running past is carrying?

2. Skipping IS faster, but only if everybody knows what to do AND doesn’t screw up. And there’s usually always one guy who falls at the final Jade Maw jump, falls behind the stealth train in CM etc. and now they have problems catching up to the rest of the group, who has to wait for him. This often ends up taking MORE time than it would to just clear the enemies out, and then everybody can move to the next section in safety.

Now, there ARE places where it makes more sense to skip than fight. Sureshot Seamus in CM P1 is a good example; he doesn’t give any loot or XP when you beat him, so why waste time fighting him? (Unless someone is doing the path for the first time and wants to see the cutscene, then I’ll fight.) Anywhere where enemies do not give loot/XP is a candidate for skipping, but again, if clearing out the path makes it easier for the party as a whole to get through, why not kill them?

Khisanth.2948:

Do I hang around? No.
I use gw2stuff.com plus http://dragons.udba.org/ for the audio alert. I don’t use the overlay since the last time I looked at that it doesn’t work with fullscreen mode.

I’ve made some adjustments/additions so I can see the status of some of the other events without having to run over. For example if the two events that block the Shadow Behemoth’s pre or the status of the camps for Karka Queen.

That second website looks very promising (audio alerts would be neat), but it doesn’t have Karka Queen on it?

… If Evon Gnashblade allies with Scarlet, then I demand we loot the Black Lion Trading Company when the dust settles and everybody gets 5 Black Lion tickets.

Keep in mind that it’s likely supply on the TP didn’t rise beyond that 3 million mark because once Silk hit 8c each, players realised they’d earn more money just merching Silk stacks to a vendor than putting it on the TP. There was likely a lot more Silk supply in the game than what was being shown on the TP.

I’m wishing I had bought more stacks of Silk than I did. XD I didn’t expect it to go THIS high though.

On the consumer side though, if you’ll just be patient, Silk prices will more than likely fall back to a much more reasonable level in the coming months. Prices are sky-high right now because everybody is rushing to craft their Ascended armor. In a month or two, when people have done that, supply of Silk will most likely outpace demand again. (Right now it’s about balanced, so it’s unlikely to go any higher.)

Enjoyluck.2618:

85 copper now per pice

Oh my… I never thought I’d see this day. O.o

EDIT: Even Thick Leather has finally broken through the 8 copper mark!