Guild Wars 2

HAH! Joke’s on you, Thorn. This year all you’ll be able to see is a massive pile of indistinguishable wisps! :P

It’s since been turned into the Scarlet storyline, but I really do like my “Agent Provocateur” idea I originally proposed last year as a lead-up to a Canthan expansion. Here’s how it would have worked:

1. In Cantha, the current Emperor has completely subjugated the continent. Full of ambition, he now has goals to expand the Dragon Empire across the seas and conquer the continent of Tyria as well. While he prepares his armies for war, he sends several agents over to Tyria to make things easier for the invasion by destabilizing the ruling kingdoms however they can.

One of these agents decides to form the various renegade/evil factions into an alliance and goad them into launching potent attacks against the established governments. Her first success is with the Molten Alliance (though it was stopped through the player’s efforts), and she later also forms the Aetherblades (funded and backed by the Xunlai Banking guild, who she co-opts in the name of the Emperor) to act as her own personal army if needed. She tried to set things up so that Mai Trin became one of the Captain’s Council (and thus put herself in a position to start pulling strings in Lion’s Arch), but the players thwarted that plan too.

The Agent would have organised an alliance between the Inquest and Nightmare Court too, eventually culminating in a raid on Lion’s Arch between the Molten Alliance, the Inquest/Nightmare Court, and the Aetherblades in an attempt to seize the city. Once again, the players foil this attempt, although the true reason for why the Agent was trying to gain control of the city doesn’t become obvious till a few months later, when a massive invasion fleet from Cantha shows up and it becomes clear that the Agent had been trying to take control of Lion’s Arch so that the Emperor could use it as a beachhead to land his army and start his invasion.

2. This leads into the Canthan expansion, where the players first fight back the Emperor’s armies, then sail over to Cantha to begin a guerrilla campaign against the Emperor. (This is also where the Tengu would have become a playable race, as they’re eager to reclaim their homeland.)

3. As the expansion progresses, we discover that the Emperor possesses near-godlike power, drawn from an Elder Canthan Dragon that he has captured/subjugated using powerful magic. (Or perhaps the Emperor has fallen under the sway of the Elder Dragon and become its Champion.) Either way, it once again ties the storyline back to the Elder Dragons.

I originally thought Scarlet wouldn’t be involved in this (she had nothing to do with the Southsun events, as far as we know), but the theory about Scarlet somehow shoe-horning herself into the position of being one of the Krait’s returned prophets (made plausible by the fact that she seems to have “peered behind the veil” by looking directly at the Dream) makes a horrifying kind of sense.

Well, if the latest short story is accurate, Edrick certainly wasn’t one of them. :P He didn’t put up a fight against Thorn before getting shoved in the box!

Welcome to the crowd of 2012, where us veteran GW2 players learned that it was better to just buy the weapon skins outright than gamble on the chests.

After some reflection, I think that the reason why prices for the recipes (and the bag) are so high is that ANet is trying to clear the oversupply for festive materials. Their reasoning is probably that “only a small percentage of players will be able to make the Halloween skins, which promotes rarity, and other players can profit by selling candy/skulls/fangs/nougat”. And of course, since it all goes through the TP, it provides the added benefit of keeping the massive profits earned from Champ farming in check.

That isn’t to say that I think the prices ARE higher than they need to be. The recipes could probably be slashed to needing just 5 refined Halloween mats (based on the available supply on the TP), while the Halloween bags could be reduced to 5k Candy Corn (again, looking at the supply of CC on the TP. I think the cheaper price would be more than compensated for by more players deciding to get a 20 slot bag for cheaper, resulting in the same goal of wiping out the CC supply).

Agreed x 2. The Mad King needs a good pumpkin kicking.

While I kind of agree with the OP in principle, I think that the new achievement metas have been a vast improvement over what they were before. They don’t require tremendous amounts of grind, and having the metas completable via smaller daily tasks is a lot easier to do. (Carve 5 Pumpkins in one day is a lot more palatable than carve 100 Pumpkins over a month, even though technically the first would be a lot more.)

My only real complaint is that I would like to see returning achievements that aren’t tied to story (such as Pumpkin Carving, or the Clocktower), in order to allow players who didn’t have the chance to complete them last year the chance to finish them again. I suspect that there are technical restrictions behind how achievements work that prevent them from doing this, however.

^ What he said. As I’ve posted in other threads, I’m enjoying the Bloody Prince story immensely, but the inability of newer players (or those who missed out last year) to complete achievements for things like Pumpkin Carving or the Clocktower, the non-return of popular Halloween skins, and the locking of new rewards (new skins, Halloween pails) behind high levels of grind have all contributed to a deepening sense of “do Living Story NOWNOWNOW or miss out forever” that’s been a real psychological drain on myself and, from forum posts, a lot of other players.

I work in a software company myself, so I’m well aware that there might be very sound and logical reasons for why ANet has done things the way they have. (Indeed, I’ve speculated on a number of them myself in other threads, and when viewed from a design perspective, they all make perfect sense.) I think that we, the community, would just like to have more dialogue and feedback from the devs about why things were done the way they are. Currently, with Martin’s post about increased moderation, there’s a real sense that ANet is bunkering down and getting defensive, which is contributing to the “us vs them” mentality.

I won’t absolve the player base of blame either. Some players have gotten VERY personal in their attacks, and I agree that the atmosphere on the forums has really taken a toxic turn in recent months. I think that both sides need to step back, take a deep breath, and engage again in an open, genuine and constructive conversation.

It’s lag. See my and null’s posts in the following thread for a way to counter it:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/bam/Mad-kings-tower-screwing-me-over/first#post3040480

And given that candy corn nodes out in the world seem to be greatly reduced, I think it’s safe to say that candy corn won’t really drop below the 15 – 20 copper mark. (It’s currently around 50 – 60c, I believe.)

^ And that’s why I am strongly against “zerg content”, because it means that as soon as players get bored/find someplace more profitable, they disappear and it becomes impossible for the players that remain to complete the content. In the closing days of the Crown Pavilion, it wasn’t uncommon to see the Legendary bosses in there remain alive for hours at a time because it just wasn’t possible to kill them with the meagre handful of players that remained while the zergs were off farming the Scarlet invasions.

Welcome to GW2, balrog. Enjoy your journey. Don’t get too disheartened by what the others say here. Yes, GW2 has its flaws (and people who know me will know I have no problems saying so), but so does every game. GW2 has a fantastic base to build on, and ANet deserves to be praised rightfully for the stuff they did right too.

jazzllanna.1278:

Someone had a guess that they may be in the dungeon that is released later. I could see that happening.

I also suspect they will come back, but not via the dungeon. My theory is that after this Halloween is over, when the new skins go up in price to 5/7/10 Black Lion tickets, the old Halloween skins will also become available for the same number of Black Lion tickets. It’d be win-win all around; players who don’t have the skin now have a long-term goal to work towards, players who spent loads of gems/gold on them don’t feel that their items are “devalued”, and ANet sees lots more people buying keys.

Time for a theory completely out of left field: Canach has escaped yet again, and has promised the Krait they can settle on Southsun Cove if they’ll help him slaughter the Consortium. (Plus, all the Consortium slaves you can capture!) The Krait agree, but want the blessings of the Oratuss/Witches before they launch their assault, so they are constructing massive sacrificial towers to conduct great ritual sacrifices before they embark on their invasion.

Yeah, an expansion would bypass the problem of the Personal Story neatly. Any new races that are added join in at a time where, canonically, Zhaitan has been defeated. Using the Tengu as an example, their low-level storyline might take place entirely within the Dominion of Winds, and then their higher-level storyline moves over to Cantha (assuming it’s a Cantha-based expansion) where it merges with the storyline used by the existing races.

I’d love to see the Krait as a playable race too, although I agree that the Krait themselves are far too “irredeemable” to play nicely with the other races. More than likely if this happened, we’d get another serpentoid race like the Naga or the Forgotten instead.

I don’t see the different body-shape of the Krait being a significant hurdle to the art direction too. Their upper-body remains the same as humanoids, and instead of having leggings and boots, they could have waist and tail armor.

To be fair, the devs HAVE said that repeat cancelling finishers to progress the achievement was not intended, and will be fixed in a patch. I HIGHLY doubt that anybody who used that trick will face sanction over it, but I don’t blame people for not wanting to risk it.

^ Definitely inside the Labyrinth. New doors spawn about once every 4 – 5 mins, and they are ALWAYS events. In the open world, about half the doors are Treat doors that just disappear after giving a ToT Bag, and there’s only a partial chance that if it’s a Trick door, it actually spawns an event. (More likely it just spawns one normal enemy, and after you kill it, the door functions as a portal into the Mad Realm.)

For me personally, I’m definitely enjoying the Bloody Prince story. The banter between him and Thorn in the Labyrinth is absolutely hilarious. XD And throwing rolls of Toilet Paper at Edrick just cracked me up. The new Labyrinth bosses, while still in need of some improvement, are at least new and engaging. I wasn’t that big a fan of Lunatic Inquisition last year, but after some experience with Southsun Survival, I’m now appreciating the Inquisition more.

However, it does seem like the unique rewards for Halloween 2013 have been either scaled back (Clocktower gloves are once per account now instead of once per character), are not returning (chainsaws, Grinning Ghost shield etc.) or been priced so high (new MF recipes) that it feels a bit like ANet is “holding back the good stuff”. Couple that with the fact that newer players (or those who missed out last year) can’t complete the achievements/titles for things like the Clocktower and Pumpkin Carving and it all leaves a rather sour taste in the mouth for what should have been a fun-filled month. It just reinforces the “get it NOW or you’ll miss out forever” feeling we’ve been having lately, and it’s getting very tiresome.

It’s not so much a bug as it is lag. The “tell”, as you’ve figured out, is seeing whether the gears that burst out of the wall at the start flow smoothly, or hang in mid air/suddenly appear in front of you.

If you’re in a laggy instance, it’s still possible to get into the window at the top by jumping about 1 – 2 seconds early (basically, jump to the tower when the face BEFORE the window passes by you).

They’re both wretched, evil little monsters who deserve to grapple with each other for all eternity. And I’m more than happy to lock them away in the Mad Realm to do just that.

I had an experience with this last night too. (Maybe I was in the same overflow you were in, Beorn!) The first time I entered the Labyrinth, the Lich was up and I joined the zerg in beating him down. Pretty standard Champ Zerg tactics; just spam all your most powerful attacks and heal when necessary. I think there was maybe 40 – 50 players in this zerg.

For some reason I didn’t get the achievement for beating him, so I stuck around till his next spawn. This time there was about 20 – 30 players, but we ran into the same issue as Beorn where the Lich would just outheal all the damage we could throw at him. Having everybody stand back at range seemed to make no difference too. It was as if he was AoE lifestealing even when he hadn’t used his skill, and when there was nobody within range.

We eventually just de-aggroed and went on to other doors, then came back again 5 mins later when a Commander arrived and gathered up the zerg at the Lich again. Once again, it was about 40 – 50 players, and while I could use the Lich healing himself now and again, it wasn’t enough to overwhelm the sheer amount of damage we were dealing.

So there’s two possibilities now:

a) There’s a bug where the Lich is stealing way more health than he should be, from players that are dead/downed too.

b) The Lich is unbalanced because you need at least 40 – 50 players to take him down, running the risk of turning him into another Tequatl where players don’t even bother trying if there isn’t enough people. I really don’t think that the bosses in the Labyrinth should be on the scale of Tequatl, considering it’s a festival area and their rewards are way, WAY less than what Tequatl gives out.

The Mad Moon Shield, the Crossing, and Arachnophobia can all still be crafted. The material requirements to craft them are the same as last year’s, but the MF recipe to get the RECIPES to craft those three items have been changed (and are much, MUCH more expensive to get).

Definitely going to drop by Kessex Hills this weekend to check things out.

The Lich could possibly also be looked at. I’ve only fought him twice, but unless there’s some special mechanic to his fight that I’m missing, the only conceivable way of overpowering his lifestealing is to have SO many players that he simply can’t keep up with the damage. I really don’t want him to turn into another Tequatl where if there aren’t enough players in the server/overflow, people just give up on trying to fight him because it’s not possible to defeat him.

An example of the above would be the graves of Gwen, Nicholas “the Traveller” Sandford, Professor Yakkington, and Nola Sheppard in Ebonhawke, all of whom were famous NPCs the player encountered in their travels. (And in Gwen’s case, a Hero that accompanied them on their adventures.)

I couldn’t agree more. Yet another reason why so far this year’s Halloween has not lived up to what it was last year.

Nope. It is not possible. Despite a certain Norn in GW1 suggesting otherwise.

There is a slim, slim chance that they may become available for purchase from the BL Weapon Vendors if/when the current Halloween skins get bumped up to 5-7 tickets, but don’t pin your hopes on it. If you really want those skins, you most likely have to suck it up and buy them from the TP.

To be fair, they can’t make it TOO cheap or it’d crash the market for 20 slot bags. (Although it’s worth noting that basically everybody used Fractal Relics to get their 20 slot bags anyway…) Still, I’d rather that the 20 slot bags were made easier to get (say, 1000 – 5000 candy corn, which is a hefty amount, but still doable), and then restricted to one per character (if 5000) or account (1000).

While I do agree that the amounts needed are too high, I think it’s fairly obvious that ANet is counting on players buying the mats from other players. Maybe they have data that suggests that there WILL be enough fangs/skulls/nougat floating around by the end of the event for a handful of super-dedicated players to get it, or maybe their intent is to drive more traffic through the TP to soak up more gold from the economy.

That isn’t to say I agree with the numbers, of course. I think that prices for the new skins (and the Pail) could be slashed by 10 (or 100!) to make it less grindy for the average player.

Nope. If you want to bypass the RNG altogether, your only option is to purchase the skins directly off the TP. And, as I mentioned above, do it now, before the Halloween event is over.

I’m not a TP high-roller like Vol or Wanze, but in my opinion prices for Set 1 minis will rise, but not by a huge margin. They can still be created by forging other minis together (even Set 2 minis, apparently), so supply will never dry up entirely. This makes them not very good as a long-term money maker, although they may be good as short-term investments by buying now and then selling after a period of a few months.

I got the Hunter off some unknown enemy in Ascalonian Catacombs (Story Mode, no less!) a few months ago. I can assure you that they can indeed drop from random mobs. The chance is just crazily low, the equivalent of winning the GW2 lottery.

^ And that’s why I’m not particularly driven to max out my MF score. Whatever I get from salvaging blues and greens will suffice for my purposes.

ASSUMING this rumor is correct… Having something to do with all this excess Bloodstone Dust is all well and good, but what about us players who aren’t going for Ascended weapons? Will we be able to sell them to players who do?

I totally support your position, OP. (Even though I’m not a mini collector myself.) That said, Set 1 minis can apparently still be obtained via the Mystic Forge, and can still be sold on the TP, if you need to complete your collection, it can still be done.

It’s lag, as null says. I haven’t done the Clocktower again so far this year, but last year, one good way to tell if you were lagging was to observe the gears at the start when they burst out of the wall. If they flowed out in one smooth motion, you’re good. However, if they seem to freeze in mid-air or suddenly appear in front of you, you’re lagging and you will need to jump about 1 – 2 seconds earlier than the lightning strike at the top in order to make it into the window.

I actually wouldn’t mind a Snowflake node. Trouble is, there’s 6 different types of snowflakes, and I may not necessarily want the T6 one all the time.

Part of the fun of the Clocktower is the fact that it IS a race. However, this did open it up to griefing last year when players would use the biggest, fattest characters and use the bulkiest armor on top of that to make it harder for smaller characters to see what they were doing. They’ve addressed that issue now, which is a good thing.

For what it’s worth, this has precedence in the Holographic Dragon Wings, where it was far, FAR easier just to buy them off the TP than farm 100 Jorbreakers. :P

Yeah. It’s why I’m undecided on whether that’s a good or bad thing. :/ On the one hand I prefer not to see candy corn nodes just littering the landscape, but on the other hand, with prices for Halloween items so crazily high this year, we really need loads of candy corn sources in order to keep prices to a reasonable level.

While it’s disappointing the old skins didn’t come back, in hindsight it was almost certain this was what would happen. Once word gets around that whenever new skins are released, the cheapest time to get them is when they’re first released (thanks to the 1 BLC ticket scheme), ANet can expect to see a lot more key purchases. It’s simply the best financial decision they can make.

I still wouldn’t rule out the old Halloween skins from ever returning (they might make a return if/when the price for Halloween weapons gets bumped up to 5 – 7 tickets and remain year-round), but the obvious advice is that whoever wants the new Halloween skins should get them NOW.

Because Batman is obviously not a Necromancer. :P

As someone who fully completed the Shadow of Mad King meta-event last year, I’m also disappointed that achievements for the Clocktower, Pumpkin Carving etc. haven’t come back. Not that I expected to be able to do them again, but I would like newer players who didn’t get the chance last year to have the opportunity to get them again. I really don’t like having this gulf between older and newer players where newer players can never catch up; it tends to foster resentment and division rather than a feeling of “specialness”.

I’d like to give ANet the benefit of the doubt and presume that they couldn’t bring back part of the Shadow of the Mad King achievements without essentially repeating the achievements (and thus allowing veteran players like myself to earn points for Clocktower etc. again, which might bring up a new set of complaints), but I’m really not sure anymore. :/

15,000 Candy Corn?? O.o

… Welp, guess that means I’m just gonna sell my leftover 1000 Candy Corn from last year then. No way am I gonna get that many even over a month. >.>

Ouch. I really sympathise with all of you who got caught out by the early departure of the Twilight Assault meta. As far as I know there was no indication that the TA meta would depart after just two weeks, so I believe you guys are fully justified in feeling shortchanged by this. Hopefully ANet can bring it back till the end of October. They’ve been improving in a lot of areas with regards to the Living Story, but their communication about deadlines and disappearing rewards still needs work.

At least we have confirmation on the release page that Blood and Madness is sticking around till 11 November, and all rewards and achievements are completable till then.

Playable Krait pls thnx!

-shrug- I can see the points from both sides, and all I can say on the issue is “does it really matter”? As long as the person is question is having fun doing what they do, let them! They have no right to dictate to you how you should play, and you have no right to dictate to them how they should play.

For the record, I gather most of my own mats (especially as I’m crafting as I go. I’m currently up to T4 crafting, and my characters are now running around in the level 40 – 50 maps, so it ties in well), but do buy up any shortfall that I require.

I’m now sitting at about 85% MF (usually 95% thanks to guild bonuses), and I have noticed a small increase in the amount of Rares that are dropping. It’s roughly on par with the drop rate I was getting on Southsun during the 200% MF bonus.

Whether or not having players running around at a permanent 400%+ MF will have a large scale impact on the game and the economy is still up in the air. As some of us are fond of saying, 3 times 0.01% is still only 0.03%. It mostly depends on just how rare things like Exotics and other ultra-rare drops are. The drop-rate of Rares themselves isn’t such a big issue since most players are just tearing them apart for Ectos anyway, and the market for Ectos is big enough to absorb an increase in supply.

@Avelos: Yeah, those players have been salvaging Ectos. It’s not uncommon to get 2 – 3 Rare Essences of Luck from a single Ecto.

Yep. Artificers have a HUGE leg up on the other crafting professions (other than Chef and Jeweler) in that they can craft potions, giving them a ton of discovery XP for relatively small material costs.