Guild Wars 2

Yeah, Trib Mode’s (all party members must make it to the checkpoint before they can get warped) is so punishing that I wouldn’t dream of attempting it in a group unless the other guy(s) were equally experienced or extremely patient.

Group play is way more fun in Normal Mode, however. Infantile Mode is for getting achievements and exploring. (Although I wish dig sites still worked in them.)

Wait… Does that mean that we all secretly want to be Trahearne?? :O

Nice find! Perhaps it’ll be the location of an item upgrade in a subsequent SAB release?

Lane.3410

Then I would suggest they hire and/or designate someone to act as a bridge of communication between those devs and the fans.

I would actually wholeheartedly support this. I’d ask around and find out if a dev from that particular team was willing to be their spokesperson and respond to fan questions on the forum. If one can’t be found, then perhaps the responsibility could be given to a Community Liaison like what Gaile used to do (and still does, although just in the Account Issues sub-forum).

Thing is, I bet the executives would have a hard time bankrolling an employee position whose sole responsibility is to “network with fans on the forums and pass feedback/concerns to developers and responses from the devs to fans”.

Yeah, one frequent trend I’ve discovered with high latency is that the game frequently thinks there’s a delay between your actions. So if you jump from one platform to the next, while you’re flying through the air, the game thinks you’re actually still on the first platform, until a time when you land on the next platform, and then your console sends back data about your new position and the server goes “Oh, okay” and updates your position.

The problem this causes in SAB TM is that split second between where the game thinks you were and before your console sends back your new position data. This causes a lot of grief during running jumps, because although you’ve jumped prior to touching the spikes/lava/etc., the game is still locked on your “running” action before it receives your “jump” action, and extrapolates that you’ve run into a lethal area, firing back the “You’re dead!” message before it’s had a chance to receive your “jump” action.

Sometimes you can get around it, as Lianu suggested, by moving to the edge of the platform, jumping straight up and then moving yourself forward, so that the game registers the “jump” action first. This doesn’t work for all jumps, sadly (like that wretched jumping rock in the lava in W1Z2).

Well, replace “new players” with “new’ish players” then. Sure, a level 2 character fresh out of the prologue isn’t going to be able to buy anything, but a level 20 character should be able to buy, say, 5 – 10 Green Wood Logs/Copper Ore to supplement what she’s gathered for T1 crafting after exploring a 1-17 map.

Oh, so “Super Adventure Secret” and “Special Instruction” count towards the meta? I knew that “Baby’s Second Super Adventure” didn’t, and I was under the assumption those two wouldn’t count either seeing as how they’re technically in World 3, not World 2.

I personally doubt that Ascended jewelcrafting will need Copper Ore too. Not only does the description for Xunlai Electrum Ingots state it needs “Silver, Gold, Platinum and Mithrillium”, but I think ANet wants to avoid a situation where the value of T1 mats is pushed above the earning capability of new players, since Copper is required not only for Jewelry, but also for a large number of other crafting disciplines in the form of Bronze Ingots.

daimasei.4091:

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

There are some changes in the upcoming release to mitigate the severity of this problem. We’re also looking at making some long-term improvements to the Twisted Clockwork invasions.

I hope those changes are warranted ascended items or exclusive items upon success. Other way, no thank you. Nobody will waste 45 minutes for kittenty mats you can get in a 30 seconds JP or by beaten one of the 2 minutes piñatas we already have.

A guaranteed Exotic if you defeat Scarlet? I bet that would get a lot more people interested in completing the invasion as opposed to just farming Aetherblade Champs.

Where do you think I got the idea from? It’s not that far-fetched though. If you’ve ever watched a snake’s strike, they get power for their momentum by pulling back and using the muscles in their tail to thrust themselves forward. There’s no reason they couldn’t adjust their angle and use this muscle power to push themselves upwards in a jump.

I’ve seen some players around with Honors in Applied Jumping. That would imply that it IS possible to complete Master of Baubles World 2, unless they got it in the early days when it wasn’t bugged? (IF it is bugged now.)

Copestetic.5174:

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

KazNaka.4718:

Just remember: higher hp doesn’t necessarily = more challenging content

I agree. Unfortunately damage and defense scaling reaches a point where it no longer conveys a sense of progression and challenge. For example, once creatures start one-shotting every player, it doesn’t matter how much extra damage they do. We’re also looking into how to meaningfully extend the scalability of FOTM.

More attacks, less damage instead of 3 skills that are 1-hit KO’s?

I’d like to see a bit more emphasis brought back on interrupts. Give “tougher” enemies skills that reduce damage or heal, but with a window of opportunity for interrupts. This then requires players to properly observe the boss’s actions, and keep a skill in reserve for when they start to pull out their healing. (Anybody remember Glint’s Crystal Hibernation skill from GW1? Imagine giving a boss like Tequatl that skill where if he’s not interrupted, all attacks against him will HEAL instead of harming him, causing the zerg to basically undo all the damage they just did for the last 5 mins if they don’t pay attention.)

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

I’ll be the source. The invasions are sticking around until the Scarlet storyline is complete. Telling you exactly when it will end would probably spoil a lot of stuff. You can at least count on them regularly occurring through the end of this year.

“Die die die. Die die die, die die.”

;)

Gene Archer.8560:

Crazy thing is, this IS the standard that they should be living up to. There is no excuse for the horrible lack of communication that is Anet’s standard.

Not everybody is comfortable with discussing their work with other people (especially if said “other people” can be rude, aggressive or downright hostile. You’ve seen how the fans on the forum can get. ), and if a developer is shy or introverted, they shouldn’t be made to get up front and talk about their work if they don’t want to.

On the other side of the coin, the execs might also want their employees designing/coding rather than talking on the forums, even if it’s to gather feedback. There’s also the risk that employees (who are people too) get their blood angried up and say something on the forums that could be extremely damaging to the company. You saw Josh’s initial reply to our complaints about SAB 2; he was a bit defensive (understandably so. I’d be defensive too if it was my pride and joy being criticised), but he kept it fairly professional. Can you imagine what would happen if the employee had really taken the criticism personally and posted a hate-filled tirade as a response?

I’m not saying that I approve of ANet’s stance in the matter, but I do understand why they’ve done what they did.

TheMaskedParadigm.3629:

Brutal Arts.6307:

RIP in peace Josh. I’ll remember you as fondly as I do Habib Loew and Robert Houdra.

Wait what?

Robert Hrouda resigned (or was let go, according to some sources) from ANet a few weeks ago. He was a content designer and was quite chatty on the Ranger forums, leading to some players there to view him as the “Ranger liaison” dev.

Don’t really know about Habib Loew. I’m not familiar with the name.

I’m sure you’ll be fine. Just be there to help guide her and let her know that it’s important not to let yourself get dragged down to their level. That it’s important, and even admirable, to remain a good and polite person online. Not too much different from guiding her through SAB, really. Just navigating a different set of obstacles.

Finally got around to watching that video too. Your daughter is super cute. XD I’d be a very proud parent if my kid could do SAB at age 3 too. Tribulation Mode might be too much for her though; that portion in W1Z1 with lots of jumping rocks might give her nightmares.

Dustfinger.9510:

Like the cases we see in lore. Boons at alters – good. Spirit empowerment to punch out another one of Jormags teeth – bad. Wolf Spirit being your personal errand boy and body guard – bad.

Heh, reminds me of the days when I used to freeform RP on IRC. Oh, the sheer hilarity of what some players will take one-upping their character’s power levels to… XD

Also, what server are you on? The more populated servers like Tarnished Coast or Jade Quarry have plenty of players even in the low-level zones, but you may find more empty servers to be like ghost towns depending on whether you’re playing during peak periods.

Euphemia.7240:

We had two elementary school boys over the other day and she was owning them in Sonic Unleashed, calling them noobs and all.

Now, now… As funny as I’m sure that would have been to see, don’t forget to educate her in how to be a good, gracious gamer in victory too!

This area can be hell if you have bad latency like me. However, I got past it using a strategy similar to Adamantium’s advice. Keep moving during the first portion; don’t stop because lag will make the rocks get you! You can stop for a rest at the left part of the slope covered by spikes.

From here, you can do a dodge jump to get up to the platform without doing two jumps, but if you can’t make it, you can also get by by jumping onto the first platform, then immediately dodging into the wall to evade the rock’s slam. Without pausing, jump onto the second platform, and then dodge into the little alcove with the second rock to evade its attack.

Now jump to the trees and you can rest there and let your heart rate return to normal. I’d kill the monkey first to make sure he doesn’t knock you off though. You can attack him from the second tree below his platform. (Your main weapon actually has quite a high Z-axis attack range!)

I’m saddened that we won’t get to see the kind of rapid-fire, back-and-forth dialogues that we had with Josh anymore, but I can understand the complicated office politics and company-consumer diplomacy that goes into these things. I really do hope that Josh will continue to post here (even if his posts have to be “vetted”), because getting that kind of response and interaction with a developer was outstanding; it really gave us the feeling that our concerns and feedback was being listened to. In our discussions with Josh, we could understand where he was coming from, modify our own ideas and position as a result, and come to a conclusion to the satisfaction of all.

Sure, it’s not something all the devs may like to do/be capable of doing, and I can see why other developers might worry that this is the standard they must now live up to, but silencing open discussion between players and the developers is not the way to do it.

For what it’s worth, Josh, I still love SAB. The new difficulty of W2 is more than I was expecting (and perhaps it could be toned down in future SAB releases), and I think the reduced rewards definitely contributed to the lower numbers this time around, but I can see what a labour of love it has been for you and your team, and I think I speak for all of us when I say that we appreciate your work and everything that you’ve done. Don’t give up on SAB, and tell Lord Vanquish that we’re still coming for him!

Yeeeep. I know exactly what you mean. For me, the massive lag started on Sunday and lasted for about 3 days. Like you, the lag only occurred in SAB and Activities; running around in town or the open world was completely fine.

From that I concluded that the connection between Australia and whichever server was hosting those two activities was broken. There was a thread on the Bugs forum on the weekend that noticed a jump in latency between the Paris and Washington nodes, so that might be the cause if you’re playing in Europe. Guesting to a low-pop server doesn’t help (I tried). There’s not much we can do except hope and pray that it improves.

WyldKat.4712:

Draknar.5748:

The fact that there are guides available at this point showing how to do Tribulation mode with zero deaths, there really is no more point to argue whether this coin is P2W or not.

I SEE there are “zero death” guides.

Executing them is the fun part.
ACHOO Darn.
My leg itches. Darn.
Cat foul! Darn.
Mom! Darn.
blink Darn.

You forgot the “Latency says you’re standing in lava/spikes/pits when your screen shows you standing on safe ground!” Darn.

Lynne.8416:

Malediktus.9250:

Currently all champions are to weak, in frostgorge sound all champions die quicker than you can do enough damage to get loot of them. I suggest either making them more powerful or randomizing their respawn time, so people cant camp them.

The only problems I have with your suggestion: 1) People on a low population server, or a same level character/s come across a champion on their own.
2) too difficult, then people won’t even try to kill them.

The only reason why people are “camped out” is due to the current ease of champions. If you make a champion too difficult then the general population may not play them, which is what happened in the past as champion drops were not worth the effort.

Agreed. But I think the main problem is people camping/farming Champions in the first place. Getting better loot for killing Champions is great, but if the reward is such that it’s the only thing people are doing by a large margin, then it needs to be looked at.

Personally I’d implement diminishing returns on Champions so that each time you kill a particular Champion, the loot bags he drops is of a lower and lower quality until about the 3rd – 4th kill, he doesn’t drop any loot at all. This encourages people to move on to different parts of the world (if they want to keep Champion farming), and not just sit on top of a particular Champion spawn spot (like poor Captain Jayne in Gendarran Fields), or just run the Frostgorge champ train for several hours.

I’d personally like to see Tengu (Tengu Thief), Skritt (Engineer) and Naga (Krait-like beings who have just recently arrived from Cantha, as part of the Canthan expansion. Unlike the Krait, the Naga actually used to live peacefully alongside humans and Tengu, until the Jade Wind destroyed their traditional homes and forced them to turn to raiding to survive. Naga could “jump” by coiling their tail up and using it in a spring-like leap).

However, Skritt is extremely unlikely due to their status as both a minor race that takes part in the Personal Story, as well as their unusual intelligence mechanism.

Largos and Kodan have potential, but I think Largos is probably down the ladder as it would mean giving them an underwater capital, and most players loathe underwater combat/activities as it is. Plus, I seem to recall it being said that the Largos cannot survive for too long away from the water, which would make it strange to have one running about mainly on land.

I wouldn’t mind seeing Kodan as a playable race, but I think they share too much game aesthetics with Norn (big, physically powerful, arctic dwelling beings) for them to really stand out on their own.

Character slots are on sale?? Dammit, I’m stuck at work. Better remember to buy one when I get back.

Oh, don’t worry. I don’t really use the TP as a money-making venture except for selling excess mats or lucky drops. When I salvage stuff, it is usually for my personal use only. I was just asking out of curiosity in case I wanted to make a Sentinel’s/Settler’s weapon in the future without buying the inscription from the Guild Vendor or the Southsun merchant.

Gendarran Fields and Fields of Ruin is where I go to farm Soft Wood Logs.

Teq-y, I love you… But you know we’re still gonna beat you up for your lunch mon-, er, Ascended loot boxes, right?

As the waypoint is still accessible and the area is not tied to any Hearts or skill points, they’ve probably deemed it a low priority fix. Which is a shame, because I’d really like to see the dynamic event it presumably links to. (I imagine it’s supposed to be the next event after you escort the Pack Mossheart there.)

I like having a spare character slot to make throwaway characters for PvP and the like. I recently used mine to create a mule, so I’ve been waiting for them to go on sale again so I can have another spare slot again.

She probably heard that Mr Sparkles was available at Gamescon, speculated that it would also be available at PAX, and then either made sure to get to the booth on that day, or arranged a friend to pick one up for her.

I salute her dedication in getting Mr Sparkles, although I still think that he should be put up for sale on the Gem Store. (Maybe not right away, as I’m fine with the con-go’ers having some time to enjoy their exclusivity, but maybe he can show up 3 – 6 months down the line.)

Gasoline.2570:

Time and time again they have shown they don’t intervene..

They intervened with Vanilla Beans. They intervened again with Crystalline Dust. The key here was that supply of the items was so low that it was interferring with the ability of many players to craft/make the things they needed.

The reason why they haven’t intervened with Precursors so far is likely because Legendaries are intended to be items that only a small amount of the player base would obtain. (And even that’s not likely the case, as John’s data suggests that at least one of each Legendary is being created every single day.) But the moment that a player is able to intentionally set up a road block on the way to a Legendary and charge other players fees to pass, I’m certain that ANet would step in.

As an Oceanic player, I’ll start by saying that without the ICC, I’d probably have ragequit on TM long before now. (Or even normal mode. Rapids + latency is a recipe for disaster.) The amount of times that I died due to the game thinking I was standing in lava/acid/spikes when I was clearly on safe ground… well, I stopped counting around lost life 50.

The funny part is, I’m using the ICC for exploring new zones, and STILL using normal Continue Coins for TM. The reason why is because using 5 Continue Coins gives you 25 lives, which means less trips back to Moto.

Seven Star Stalker.1740:

They could’ve easily solved this by making it free for attendees and selling it at the gem store. If you were there, you don’t have to pay for it. If you weren’t, so long as you can cough up the $$$ it’s yours. Anet makes no losses.

^ That’s the approach I would have taken too. It’s the most fair and reasonable approach.

And yeah, if ANet had given out a special Legendary skin for Eternity at a convention, I wonder if the outrage here would be even higher, seeing as how most players don’t care about minis, but DO care about unique skins.

John Smith has posted here several times with the data to show that no one individual has been capable of manipulating Precursor prices. It’s not outside the realms of possibility (and it could certainly happen to some other rare items that don’t cost near the amount the more valuable Precursors do), but someone would need very deep pockets AND a lot of time spent monitoring the TP to pull it off.

Moreover, I think that if ANet were to notice that somebody was trying to corner the market, and were succeeding in doing so, they’d take steps to intervene. I don’t think they’d want the playerbase to think that a few ultra-rich individuals were managing to control the market, as it would very damaging to trust in the TP.

@RagingDragon: What about Sentinel’s and Settler’s inscriptions? Is it possible to salvage those from Exotics?

And I’m presuming that you can’t salvage any inscriptions from Rares and below? Even if they’re the non-craftable types?

Also plays all the time when you’re fighting the Maw Shaman.

If you were around at the time, it was also the boss music for the final bosses in the Molten Facility dungeon. “Oh, we’re so dead.”

I wonder what the Ebonhawke citizenry think about Logan considering his heritage, yet he spends all of his time in Kryta protecting a Queen whom they do not consider their own.

You’re becoming bitter, Konig!

Personally, I’m leaning towards the theory that Elder Dragons can, and have, been killed and replaced in the past, similar to the way that the Gods can be slain and their mantles taken up by another. It may be that Tequatl is assuming Zhaitan’s mantle after his creator’s death, or perhaps Zhaitan’s consciousness has simply transferred into the most powerful of his minions after his death, which might make the task of killing an Elder Dragon truly impossible unless one were to somehow exterminate every single last Risen in the world in the process.

Only some of them did, though. Just as only some of the dredge Moletariate decided to join the Molten Alliance. The members of the Molten Alliance can probably be considered to be “heretical” breakaways from the more orthodox factions.

It could be Risen tissue extracted from Tequatl or normal Risen, and modified by a Necromancer to be (mostly) safe for use.

As a fellow altoholic, I completely sympathise with the OP’s situation. The way GW2 is designed makes it quite alt-unfriendly, and I’ve basically come to the conclusion that fully equipping all of my 5 characters with Ascended/Legendary gear is a pipe dream. (For all I know I’ll have moved on to another game by then!) The only consolation is that Ascended gear is pretty much only there for players who like grinding their hearts out for BiS equipment; the endgame was, and still is, designed around level 80’s with Exotics. Ascended gear is not a necessity for endgame play, unless you’re planning on farming high-end Fractals. (Of course, if ANet makes Ascended gear required for future end-game content, there’ll be a lot of disgruntled players around…)

Ninjas in popular culture have been around for a long, long time. Way before Naruto came upon the scene (which I will grant has really brought a lot of tropes about ninjas into the mainstream).

Ninja stars (shuriken, as they’re properly called) were an actual weapon used by real-life ninja. They are actually not designed to be lethal most of the time, used instead as devices to blind or distract foes by throwing them while closing in for a more lethal strike. However, it was not unheard of for shuriken or other throwing weapons to be coated in poison and used for assassination.

The trope of “ninja vanish”, leaving behind a wooden log or facisimile of the ninja also predates Naruto. My first encounter with it was in the Japanese fighting game “Samurai Shodown”, which first debuted in 1993. (Read up about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samurai_Shodown) It was a move used by two characters in the roster: Hanzo Hattori, and Galford, both of whom were ninjas. However, I’m sure that the idea of it probably existed before Samurai Shodown.

Done W1Z1 and Z2 in TM so far. My biggest gripe with TM so far is how much of it relies upon you having good latency. If you happen to be located in Oceania or some other remote location, places like the jumping rock chasm in W1Z1 or the lava jumping rock in W1Z2 will have you tearing your hair out, because the game frequently knocks you around even though you’re clearly out of range of the rocks, or kills you in lava even though you’re standing on a safe spot.

Still, I persevere, and I’m sure I’ll get through it eventually.

Does anyone happen to know exact counts of Baby’s achievements at each stage? For instance, I’ve completed W2Z1 and am at 10/33. I’m not sure if that’s correct or whether I’m possibly missing one point. (Then again, I do know that Zones 2 and 3 are much longer than Rapids, so they might have more points.

I would like confirmation of this from the devs as well. While it would seem obvious that Tequatl’s new mechanics, rewards and achievements are here to stay permanently, I’m not making assumptions about anything that falls under the Living Story banner anymore. XD

TDWIG.9712

They actually have quite a simple fighting mechanic that’s easy to combat. wait for them to lunge>sidestep/dodge,>hit twice,>wait for them to lunge.. repeat. You could also: wait for them to lunge->dodge,->whip,->kill.

It’s trickier if you have latency like I do, but I generally deal with them by circle-strafing while auto-attacking. Works like a charm as long as you have enough room to move.

Charr could absolutely be rangers. We know for a fact that the Blood Legion makes more use of warbeasts than any other legion (probably because Iron Legion has their tanks and Ash Legion prefer subtlety, so pets might ruin that), so Rangers could easily find a place there as beast tamers or animal handlers. Rangers also make good frontline scouts, which are useful to any Legion, but more so for Ash Legion given their emphasis on stealth and reconnaissance.

LadyRhonwyn.2501:

You should have 250 baubles easily after finishing zone 1, 2 and 3 in world 1 in normal mode. In zone 3 you can buy the first purse extender. As a matter of fact, I got 720 baubles yesterday after cleaning zone 1 and 2 and two dig spots in zone 3 (yeay for the second purse extender!) and then another 450 (or so) after finishing zone 3. Would have been 500 if I had gotten a key to the second chest…

We need a thread to share dig site locations. Especially for World 2!

Yeah, I didn’t know that the skins could be obtained via the Gauntlet farm. My apologies if I sounded snarky in my original reply.

As to whether they’ll become tradable or not, it could go either way. Since the Gauntlet and Pavilion is stated to be returning content, we could see the skins become available again the next time they come back. If so, ANet could keep them account bound because they want players to spent Watchwork tokens buying them to soak up the supply from the economy.