Guild Wars 2

New content sounds fun and interesting. However, I am deeply disappointed that there was no mention of the Tengu coming out of isolation.

My only real complaint right now is against the “cosmetic skins locked behind RNG” system that ANet has been using. That said, it has been steadily improving every special event:

Flame & Frost: Cosmetic skins only available from gem store RNG. Not tradable.
Secret of Southsun: Cosmetic skins available from gem store and farming. Still locked behind RNG. Not tradable.
Dragon Bash: Cosmetic skins available from gem store and farming. Two separate tiers of RNG container available. Still locked behind RNG. Not tradable.

If ANet had either made the skins tradable OR made it so the gem store container bypassed the RNG, I’d have considered the Dragon Bash system perfect. (If they made both changes, I’d be ecstatic.)

A secondary, but more minor, complaint is about the temporary content. While I don’t mind events being for a limited time, I do feel that future players should be able to enjoy the Molten Facility or the Aetherblade Retreat even if they were late to the party. A device or location that allowed players to “relive” events the same way the Hall of Monuments did in EotN would be ideal. (And if players can still earn those limited time rewards from these, so much the better!)

Zoldyck.6241:

Game reflects a bit of reality of life. People are racist on different levels whether they know of it or not and this can be due to many different reasons (trauma, abuse, bad experience, fear, etc). You can’t just pretend racism doesn’t exist, it does and as long as there are people, it always will.

I don’t find it disturbing as we know it doesn’t really mean anything ingame.

Maybe so, but that doesn’t mean we should condone it or let it go without consequences. There will always be horrible things in life like theft, murder, war and starvation, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to put a stop to it regardless.

Hayashi has some good tips above.

On the other side of the coin (heh), the best advice I can offer is to watch your spending. I’ve seen people blow through their savings in just 5 minutes by buying lots of dyes, minis, runes or shiny new weapons. (Although by all means, if buying stuff like that makes you happy, go right ahead. Hoarding money will only make you happy if you’re like Scrooge McDuck. ) Even things like waypointing around all adds up after a while. If you only spend when you absolutely have to, you’ll soon see your bank balance start to increase.

Let other players be narcissistic if they want. Honestly, I couldn’t care less what they’re wearing/using/displaying unless they’re friends or guildies.

Personally I much prefer completing all the zones in a particular level band (1 – 15, 15 – 25 etc.) before moving on. Not only is this a great way to gain experience, but it’s also helpful for gathering up materials for crafting. Unless you’re extremely lucky or have multiple alts, you probably won’t be able to find enough materials in a single pass through a map.

The downside to this method is that you will outlevel the zone band very quickly, and you’ll probably need to upgrade your gear with level-appropriate items if you ever find yourself poking into high level zones for festivals or special events. (This isn’t hard though. Level 78 – 79 gear is entirely adequate for level 80 characters that aren’t looking to do dungeons and it can be purchased for a few silver each on the Trading Post.)

^ Yes, but if you hovered your mouse over the F&F weapon skins, it stated on those that they were a limited time only. The Aetherblade armor skins do not have any mention of “limited time” anywhere.

The Mariner Plaque scavenger hunt is a permanent addition to the game. As such, you don’t need to finish it during Dragon Bash; you can just wait until you reach level 80 and then complete it then.

I think the ideal solution would be to put in a ghost on each platform that, if talked to, transforms you into a ghost. While transformed, you have the Determined ability and are immune to all attacks, but it also disables all your skills. As a ghost, you also can’t open the Mistwrought Chest at the end. Exiting the transformation also teleports you back to the beginning of the JP.

This allows players who just want to get to the end of the JP for the achievement/cache to do so, but they also can’t hurt or hinder other players in any way.

The devs have stated that Magic Find only applies to loot directly dropped from monsters. It does not affect loot from chests, containers (such as Bags, Coffers etc.) or the Mystic Forge.

That said, we can’t rule out the possibility that the devs may be wrong. Yes, according to the design specifications, MF should not affect everything, but it’s possible that due to an unknown and extremely well-hidden bug, it DOES affect everything. Or maybe it does have an unintentional positive effect, but the effect is so miniscule that your average player will not see any appreciable benefit from it unless they open thousands upon thousands of chests/containers.

At the end of the day, if you have a MF set, what’s the harm in throwing it on when you open coffers? However, I don’t feel we should be claiming it as fact unless there’s incontrovertible proof from hundreds of players that it does have a noticeable effect.

I made a suggestion for this some time ago. Change it so that 100 Jorbreakers = 1 Dragon Jade Ticket. Sadly, it didn’t seem very popular and it’s vanished into obscurity.

We can hope that it’ll make an appearance with the (speculated) Canthan expansion.

Kain the Reaver.5794:

One of my favs is when the charr male finds a new area. Two comments
1) “I need to explore ALL of THIS…”
2) “look at the view…”

Both not so bad on paper. But spoken with a creepy “pervert” voice, and they sound
So dirty you can’t help but think ‘did he just say what I think he said?’

Add “I need some SPACE!” to that collection. Sounds a bit like a guy who just wants to be “left alone for a little while”.

There’s another Kodan in Snowden Drifts near Lost Child’s Waypoint who also has some very cutting remarks for you if you’re a Charr.

Fingers crossed that Ascended backpieces also get included for WvW when Ascended weapons/armor make their debut then.

SpyderArachnid.5619:

You seem to have forgotten the PvP players. While it is all fine for PvE, that stat difference is very major to them.

Ah yes, I did forget about PvP. Still, all ANet would need to do is buff up the gear in sPvP to Ascended tier by default. WvW is a bit more tricky, but you could include Ascended gear purchasable with Badges of Honor, so WvW players also have something to work towards besides WvW masteries.

I believe it’s just RNG. I’ve had good Ecto returns from the last 10 or so Rares.

Yes, the stat difference for 12 Ascended vs 12 Exotics is quite significant, but again, this isn’t a problem if you really don’t need Ascended gear to get through the majority of the game’s content. My level 80 characters are still running around with level 79 Masterwork gear (for a variety of reasons), and yet I still did pretty well in the Aetherblade dungeon when compared to other players.

If, however, ANet structured future content so that Ascended becomes the new Exotic, I’d have a problem with it.

Agreed with you on the second point. We should not need a stack of Ectos/Mist Essence/Crystals to make ONE Ascended item from an Exotic, for instance.

Free waypoints.

Well, that’s just based off the icon the data-miners on Reddit have found. We have no idea what kind of special animation it plays when used. Maybe it summons holographic golems to chop the tree down?

ANet has said that Ascended armor and weapons are coming. I personally don’t mind having them there as something for the “gear grinders” to work towards, as long as:

1. They are not required to do end-game content. Currently Ascended gear is only essential for Fractals 20+. You can get by with Exotics, Rares, or even Masterwork gear for the rest of the game. If ANet maintains this stance going forward with Ascended weapons/armor, I see no problem with it.

2. There is a way to upgrade level 80 Exotic gear to Ascended status. My personal suggestion would be to do this via the Mystic Forge, by introducing recipes where you put an Exotic item, Mist Essence, Crystals/Stones and Ectos/Obsidian into the Forge, and the Forge spits back an Ascended copy of the same item. Make Mist Essence tradable and acquirable from Laurels, and you now have a way for everybody to upgrade their gear to Ascended tier.

We already kinda know. It’s called the “Chop-it-all” Axe, supposedly made by the Consortium, and it resembles the Glyphic/Peacemaker tech used by Asura cultural weapons.

It IS faster, by about 1/4 of a second. (I and a guildy tested this on a plant node, with me using the sickle and him using the normal version.) There is also less of an aftercast effect than using normal sickles, which means the guy with the Cons. Sickle can run off almost immediately afterwards.

If anything, I’d expect the Aetherblade weapons to be released as limited time skins closer to the end of the Sky Pirates event.

“Somebody call sanitation. I have some stains that need removing.”

Frizz just has to rub it in, doesn’t he? :P

I just don’t understand why the recipes are account-bound. :/ Not everybody who buys these chests will:

a) Have a Chef

b) Are even interested in crafting

And even if they meet both criteria, what happens if they end up with 2 recipes or more? It just makes more logical sense to allow these players to sell the recipes to those who do want them.

I got lucky. Tarnished Coast has been consistently dominating our competition in WvW in the last few weeks, so when I went to Obsidian Sanctum to get the cache, it was almost entirely TC in there. We did see some invaders in the dark room, but it seems they were just trying to get the cache too. We never exchanged words, but there was an unspoken truce between all of us and nobody attacked anyone else.

Vespertilionidae.5018:

The recipe is account bound and can’t be traded/sold. I think that makes it a ‘pay in gems only’ item and even then not a guaranteed one. As a cooking recipe collector this is somewhat disappointing.

Yeah, I’m in the same boat. While the Starcake boost is nice, it’s far too expensive for me to use on a regular basis. I just want to add the recipe to my collection so my Master Chef can continue to cook EVERYTHING.

I just deleted them after getting the achievement. It’s a shame they’re Soulbound, else I could have sold or merched them. :P

This method is definitely an exploit, but it’s still something to consider for people who are utterly frustrated with the achievement, or who should have gotten it legally but for whatever reason they didn’t due to a bug (or they avoided Horrik’s attacks, only for the party to mess up and die at Mai/Horrik’s final phase. In that case, I would consider the player to have earned the achievement rightfully).

This achievement is mostly based on luck anyway. If you just happened to be the unlucky one when you got trapped in a zone with no way out AND Horrik was the one targeting you, no achievement. Whereas someone else could be a horrible dodger, get downed in the first phase against Mai/Horrik, stayed dead throughout the entire fight because nobody had a chance to res him, and then he gets the achievement at the end through no effort of his own.

This thread should answer your question:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/skypirates/PERSONAL-SPACE-what-needs-to-be-done/page/2#post2313085

And yeah, the wording was very ambiguous, and it wasn’t until a dev confirmed the exact requirements in that thread that people understood what was really needed to get the achievement.

Congratulations, Esplen. I’m still trying for Unfriendly Skies and Personal Space myself.

For Personal Space, one good strategy my team has been using is as follows:

Everybody pick a corner to stand (5th person who doesn’t need/want the achievement can stand in the center, where there’s a higher risk of getting hit). Each cannoneer (Horrik, Mai and the two Thumpers) randomly pick one separate target to attack, meaning that one person will always go untargeted. If everybody is spread out across the room, the barrages are fairly light per person and it should be fairly simple to just sidestep out of the way of the AoE circles. Block and invulnerability skills can also help in giving some breathing space. You can also dodge out of the way if things are tight, but do your best not to dodge into another person’s area, since that increases the risk of multiple barrages firing into that area and thus giving both of you no safe places to stand.

Since you only need to avoid getting hit by Horrik, you may still qualify for the achievement even if you get hit by the circles, so keep your fingers crossed.

Right, keep an eye on Horrik then. This makes it difficult, but not impossible. I think I’ll be trying for this achievement again on my Sword/Shield warrior. Block + Leap and 2 dodges plus plenty of regen should be enough to keep me alive and away from Horrik’s attacks during the barrage phases.

Thanks for the clarification, Mark.

Now, the question is, how do we differentiate between Horrik’s attacks and those from the other cannons? Most of the AoE’s appear to create fire circles on the ground. I take it those aren’t Horrik’s? (And even so, how are we supposed to know which circles belong to Horrik until they land?)

Kaaboose.3897:

Guys, I had a thought. I got this after my first go and I can CONFIRM I got hit by cannons during the cannon phase, And I’m also FAIRLY certqain I got hit by the blue stuff as I was kiting mai into it… But I DID manage to dodge every single one of horrics PYSICAL attacks with the cannon. You know the one? Where he physically hits you with the cannon. MAYBE that is what you need to avoid for the achivement. It would make sense wouldn’t it? PERSONAL SPACE? Makes sesne to me, are the people who are claiming they dodge all his cannon attacks sure they never got hit by that?

Good theory, Kaaboose, but in my last run, as a Mesmer I basically stayed well away from Horrik the entire time. Got hit by plenty of AoE’s and during the barrages, but if your theory was correct, I should have still got the achievement at the end. That didn’t happen, so I think we can rule that out.

Thanks for the information, doenerfritze. From all accounts, this is a very unpredictable achievement, and it may be possibly bugged.

One possibility that comes to mind is that during the cannon barrage phases, only one of the circles is being fired by Horrik. Getting hit by the other circles doesn’t count. Of course, the trouble is that there’s no way to tell which circle belongs to Horrik and which doesn’t. :/

Will be kinda hard if you’re trying to avoid the AoE circles to get the achievement though. :P

Just an update. I misread the patch notes and thought it said Phantasms in PvE got their health DECREASED by 270%. It was actually INCREASED by 270%. Someone in the Mesmer forums crunched the numbers and came to the conclusion that Phantasms in PvE are tougher than before when traited and with SoI, while they are slightly weaker in PvP. That renders about half of my original post invalid. XD

And I guess if you look at it that way, I am running a hybrid build. My strategy is to open with some Clones (Mirror Image) to draw fire, summon Phantasmal Duelist, fight until I can summon a second Duelist, then swap to Staff, summon Phantasmal Warlock, then use those in combination with Winds of Chaos/Chaos Storm as my main damage dealers. (When they run low on health, shatter them all with Diversion, pop Mirror Image again, and repeat.)

Scepter is mainly used as a Clone-generating filler for situations where my Phantasms die too quickly and I need something to distract the enemy until they recharge.

Scepter has also had a stealth buff where it summons TWO Clones on the third attack, not one, meaning it’s the undisputed weapon of choice for someone who runs a Shatter build. This could be a bug though.

Overall I’m pretty happy with the changes brought by the patch. The only thing that I felt was unneeded was the Ranger pet damage nerf, although I can sort of understand the reasoning behind ANet’s thinking. (Doesn’t mean I agree with it though.)

ANet is working on guild halls, although there’s no timeline for when it’ll be done. I like the idea of being able to contribute harvested materials to construct new upgrades for the guild hall though; could serve as a good way to soak up stocks of unwanted material (I’m looking at you, Silk Scraps and Thick Leather!) by using them to upgrade armor for guild hall guards, for instance.

They may come towards the end of the Sky Pirates content. The Rox/Braham weapons didn’t become available till near the end of the arc, after all.

Day Trooper.3605:

^Ugh. I was hoping that if the group dies and the fight begins again – that you could try for achievement again in the same run. Otherwise, I can easily see peeps chasing this achievement bailing runs upon laser hits.

The Southsun dungeon achievement like this was great as you could get it during the solo story mode. qq.

I agree that the Southsun dungeon was much more ideally set up to get this achievement, but odds are you’ll need to run the dungeon several times to get the other skill-based achievements anyway, so keep trying.

Pretty certain you must get it the very first time, unless you yourself did not die to the lasers (got mashed by a golem, maybe). If you get hit by a laser even once during the dungeon you fail the achievement.

While I do think what Deimos and Yasashiku did was rather crass (if I saw there was an unofficial truce going on, I wouldn’t ruin it just for my own enjoyment), it is part of the risk of going into a PvP zone.

Personally I think ANet erred in putting a PvE achievement in a PvP zone, and hopefully they won’t repeat that mistake in future. Still, unless you’re a completionist like me, you don’t need to complete Obsidian Sanctum to get enough achievements for Mini Horrik.

Shield Bash + Final Thrust if you’re having trouble getting enemies to sit still for the hit.

Don’t forget to throw on a health gain food for even more regeneration goodness!

Can we beg ANet to make it an intended change?

Hang on… Phantasm health in PvE got INCREASED? O.o For some reason I read the patch notes and saw it as “decreased”, and I got all sad that my build got nerfed.

Just re-read the patch notes and it DOES say “increased”. I am now a happy Mesmer.

Is it really?? If true… Well, that changes my entire perspective that this update has largely been a nerf for Mesmers who focus on Clones/Phantasms for their playstyle. Scepter would truly be the weapon for those who are focused on Shatter-spam for damage/mitigations.

Woah… Arcane Shield is now a stunbreaker? O.o Right, that’s it. You’re off the bar, Glyph of Storms! Imma pop Arcane Shield whenever I use Ether Renewal for the extra LOLs too. XD