Guild Wars 2

Since I only used Meteor Shower before for attacking stationary objects, I’ll wait until I actually use it before coming to a verdict. On paper though, the idea that the meteors will now strike a target in the center more effectively sounds good.

Wait, new facial options have been introduced for Norns? O.o

Hurrah for stealth fixes!

While I am all for buying the skins you want directly from the cash shop, I also LOATHE the steampunk look and so will not be buying these new armor skins.

Yeah, I’m hoping that enough people go “WTF, ANet, I don’t want this recipe! I don’t even have a Chef! Let me sell it!” and ANet obliges and makes the recipe tradable.

decease.3215

if don’t see any how any mesmer will do less damage compare to their phantasm, even when they are fully trait toward phantasm.

I use Scepter/Pistol and Staff as my weapons on my Mesmer. Staff damage is decent (but still slow), but Scepter/Pistol is pathetic unless I’m up against an enemy that spams skills frequently. The bulk of my damage does indeed come from my Phantasms.

If you’re a Power-traited Mesmer wielding a Sword or Greatsword (as most Mesmers I see tend to be), of course your damage output is going to be way higher than your Phantasms.

I feel that the frequency of the camp attacks needs to be toned down. Currently it’s like as soon as the Karka Queen is down, you look at the meta-event and all 4 settlements are contested again. That’s just not right. It should remain clear for at least 15 – 20 mins (maybe half an hour) after the Queen event is over to at least give players a breather and savour their victory.

My Necro is loving her new buffs.

My Ranger is loving the Longbow buffs, since she used LB over SB, although I can understand why others would be upset over the changes. I’m disappointed at the damage nerfs to many pets, although I can understand ANet’s rationale in wanting to tone them down a little; in some cases, the pet can end up dealing double or more the damage of the Ranger, even without fully speccing into Beastmastery!

My Warrior will require re-traiting, although not majorly. Thanks for the free respec, ANet!

Phantasms got quite a severe nerf, although the buff to Signet of Illusions is welcome. I’ll need to play around with my Mesmer some more before giving a verdict.

As a Staff Elementalist who rarely used cantrips, it’s been nothing but buffs for me this patch.

While I agree that the nerf to Vengeful Images was unneeded (and is now largely useless since the Retaliation will likely expire before enemies really target the Phantasm), I disagree with your statement that Phantasms deal low damage. On my build, the bulk of my damage comes from my Phantasms (Phantasmal Duelist and Phantasmal Warlock, if you’re curious). They were actually quite sturdy between their Retaliation and Signet of Illusions, capable of surviving almost as long as Clones, although between their nerf to general health and loss of Retaliation, they’re a lot more fragile than before.

That seems to be what ANet is trying to go for with them, however; highly dangerous, but fragile targets that should be destroyed as a matter of importance, forcing players to choose between attacking the real Mesmer or taking time out to kill the Phantasms first.

Of course, the downside in PvE is that monsters target your Clones and Phantasms first over you as a general rule.

+1. I give people the benefit of the doubt and assume they think they’re being helpful, but JP’s are an entirely different ballpark to normal exploration/combat. If you run a character with a permanent speedboost, you’re probably used to the increased speed and can compensate for it when doing JP’s, but for other players, it can seriously mess with their spatial awareness and timing.

In short, don’t give Swiftness in JP’s unless the other guy requests it. If the player wants Swiftness for a particular section of the JP, odds are they’ll probably have a speed boosting skill slotted for just that reason.

If the Picks/Sickles are anything to go by, I imagine the axes will come in another week or two, near the end of the Sky Pirates content.

Male Charr shout “I feel… STRONG!” whenever they gain Might. The first two words are really soft compared to the third, so they’re easy to miss when you’re in a fight.

Svanir was able to cast spells even before his transformation into the Nornbear, suggesting that he was a spell-casting profession. Jora on the other hand was a Warrior, and thus things like magical power would have held little interest to her. Svanir was tempted by the power offered by Jormag and embraced it, but that was probably due more to a spellcaster’s love for more magic than any innate weakness on his gender’s part.

Did you drop more cash on Rich Dragon Coffers to get that recipe, Geo?

I’m curious as to how frequently the recipe drops from Rich Coffers. If it’s a decent enough chance, I might drop some of my spare gems on it (just because having that ONE unknown recipe on my Chef will drive me bonkers). I’ll wait a few days to see what the data is like.

Well, there we go. (They should have mentioned it on the main F&F page though.)

Do the new Aetherblade armor skins have a similar message in the gem store?

I was going to suggest guesting to a popular server, then I remembered you can’t WvW for a guest server…

Oh gods, that bug is still there?

The description didn’t say they were limited time only, although the Rox/Braham skins apparently didn’t say limited time either, and they disappeared after a while.

… Well, fie on you, ANet! >:(

Ah, really? I seem to recall the Rox/Braham weapons being mentioned as limited time only, but I could be mistaken.

The recipe is account bound? Crud. Well, guess I’ll be opening any Dragon Coffers I get from now on instead of selling them. (On the bright side, I might finally get a ticket!)

If the recipe calls for Zhaitaffy though, then I’d like ANet to put in a bank collectible slot for them as well.

Well, the Sky Pirates of Tyria page has stated that the caches will only be around from June 25th to July 9th. I’m forming a JP group with some of my guildies this weekend to reach/knock off these for the achievement.

They haven’t said that the Aetherblade armor skins are “limited time only”, so I’m inclined to believe they will be a permanent addition to the gem store.

I honestly don’t see the problem with opening up all of the Home Districts to roleplayers. I mean, we already suspend our disbelief to some extent when we walk up to our green Personal Story icons in the Open World to enter an instance. Why can’t we just do the same thing for the Home Districts?

“Would you like to enter your Personal Home District?”

“No.”

Continue on inside and commence the roleplaying.

Khisanth.2948:

remorselessx.5213:

Ye cof is good for beginners, and also they are going to nerf it soon as some ppl were saying last week.

When selling and flipping gems i think there is a 30% penalty .

Maybe, maybe not. They seem to be too busy not working on dungeons. Besides they do need something pumping gold into the economy to keep up with the sinks! Lack of gold in the economy isn’t really good for ANet.

It’s actually the other way around. Too MUCH gold in the economy isn’t good for the game as a whole. (For a good example, take a look at the sorry state of the Diablo III economy right now.) Don’t forget that players are constantly earning money just by going out and killing monsters and vendoring the loot. A LOT of gold is pumped into the economy every day, and the sinks are all that’s keeping GW2 from turning into D3.

If COF1 were to be nerfed, and if (somehow) the market doesn’t correct itself to account for a drastically lower purchasing power, then you can bet that ANet would intervene by upping drop rates of super expensive materials (like they did for Vanilla Beans and more recently with Crystalline Dust).

Strange… I’m on Tarnished Coast, playing from Australia, and I usually have no problems running into other players. Things are definitely quieter during my evenings (which is when the US is asleep), but there’s usually still about 10 – 20 people scattered across any map I’m in. I mostly go solo though, so unless there’s a Group Event or a Champion I’m having trouble with, it doesn’t bother me that the map is quiet.

Looking forward to the Ranger and Necro buffs. A bit concerned about how the changes to Warrior traits will affect whether or not I need to re-trait him, but I’ll see. Everything else is kinda meh.

Personal experience has shown me that the people who scream about how “X is unacceptable! I am quitting!” rarely, if ever, quit. The people who are truly upset enough about something to quit will usually do so quietly, without fuss. You will never know they were gone unless you notice that they’ve stopped posting/showing up in the game. Only ANet knows for certain whether or not the introduction of Ascended items caused that kind of backlash, since they have access to player numbers.

Personally speaking, I still hate the way Ascended items was introduced, and I dislike the way it feels divorced from the standard equipment tiers. If Ascended items had been in the game from the start, as a T7 set, I imagine nobody would have any problems with it.

Someone on the first page mentioned it already, but I believe the main reason why Ascended items have been largely accepted is because they truly are not required to do the vast majority of the game’s content. They are mandatory only for Fractals, and even then, only if you’re venturing into high-level Fractals. For everything else, you can do well with Exotics, Rares, or even Masterwork items. People realised that Ascended items are TRULY optional, and the fact that you can pick up Ascended trinkets with Laurels or Guild Commendations hasn’t hurt either.

Bear in mind as well that Colin has confirmed the Wings merchant will remain year-round (in order to soak up supplies of Zhaitaffy remaining after the event), which means that additional wings could still come onto the market by people buying up loads of cheap Zhaitaffy and creating the Wings via Jorbreakers. So basically, depending on how much Zhaitaffy is on the market after Dragon Bash is over, we could be looking at low prices for the Wings until next year’s Dragon Bash.

Copper used to sell for around 20c in the early months of GW2. It then plummeted to below 10, and has now recovered somewhat. Prices for Copper are likely to remain fairly strong considering you need Copper for T1 Jewelry as well.

Iron was lagging at 10c or less for a while, but it’s made a remarkable recovery in the last few months. Why? I’ve yet to determine.

Most likely it will be an armor skin box similar to the way the other armor skins on the Gem Store work.

Don’t forget to /bow and /dance before Zommoros to beg for his blessing!

Marjory’s very cute, but I’m more attracted to Kasmeer.

I’m a bit concerned about this too from the point of view of players who do not have the higher level maps unlocked. Most of the JP’s are located in fairly high level maps, and it’s not likely they’ll be able to reach there in time before the event is over.

And let’s not even mention the players who LOATHE jumping puzzles too. I’m bracing myself for the howls of outrage when news of this gets out.

Yeah, that’s the thread I created, and from reading Andy’s post and screenshots, I believe it’s the same bug we’re talking about. In my case, the Charr soldiers from the north were missing altogether, and there’s no event inside Foulbear Kraal itself, making the meta-event impossible to complete.

As a counterpoint to the thread title, the day Guild Wars 2 turns into a gear treadmill is the day I leave Guild Wars 2.

Ranger with Bear pet and “Guard!” is great for having your pet distract a Champion while you harvest the Rich Vein behind it.

I suspect you will be able to redeem the tickets at any time from the Lionguard Weapon vendors at the BLTP in Lion’s Arch. (Those same vendors are still accepting tickets for Fused and Sclerite weapons too.) ANet’s probably built them to future proof upcoming weapon skins. However, don’t take my word for it, and let’s hope we get some official confirmation.

If nothing else, I’m loving the fact that Bone Fiend and Shadow Fiend now regenerate outside of combat. Now if only the Blood Fiend and Bone Minions regenerated too… (I can always blow them up and replace them though, so it’s not a big deal.)

Are we absolutely sure that they change size, and that it’s not an optical illusion? I remember a similar discussion took place back in GW1 around the bust size for female Ritualists, and when one player actually used a ruler to measure the bust sizes for two different armor sets (one of which made her bust look much bigger), it turned out that the busts were actually the exact same size.

I made my Asura a male, because I like his voice set slightly better than the female one. It’s the perfect blend of wit (“Such synergy!”) and snarkiness (“And now… to destroy you!”).

However, the general sound effects made by female Asura are a lot cuter than the male versions.

Linguistically Inept.6583:

-marjory wouldve probably taken note if the hand that grabbed her had been furry and clawed

And for similar reasons, we can rule out Mister E being an Asura (too small to grab a human and hold a blade to her throat), a Norn (Marjory would know at once because their build is so much bigger than a human’s) or a Sylvari (planty appendages). That leaves him as being human.

Karizee.8076:

You can sell something without incurring the listing fee if you find the highest bid attractive. Just list it for 1c higher than the vendor price of the item.

This will automatically sell it to the highest bidder. You would receive the amount of the highest bid less the 10% transaction fee and occur no 5% list fee.

Hmmm… This I did not know. Thanks for sharing that tip.

To avoid that, price your item appropriately. Halfway between the lowest seller and the highest buyer is always a good starting point. (These days I go for the 3/4 mark between LS and HB.) Very few people will undercut you because they’re not willing to lose the listing fee (as you are), and even if they do, the TP flippers will notice that the price for Kudzu has fallen by a significant margin and will rush to snap up all the Kudzu’s at similar prices (including yours). Either way, your Kudzu will end up selling, which is far better than leaving it at a higher price and missing out on the sale altogether.

I’ve noticed the Orchestra plays music at some times, but not at others. It may be linked to the in-game clock; I suspect it only plays music during the “day”.

I imagine the smaller crystals would have either been washed away or buried under erosion as time went on. Larger crystals might have been carted off by curious Asura or the Priory for study. The truly large crystals like the ones in Plains of Ashford that were too big to move were simply left there.

I have a theory that our “Personal Nemesis” is actually tied into the coming Canthan expansion. (Assuming the expansion IS about Cantha.)

The background is that, after hundreds of years of isolationism, a new Emperor has come to power in Cantha. This one is outwards-looking, but not in a beneficent way. Rather, he’s a human supremacist who recalls tales of the other human kingdoms across the sea and decides it’s time to bring them into the fold of the glorious Dragon Empire. While he builds and prepares his armies for the coming war, he has sent agent provocateurs across the sea to sow discord and internal strife to make things easier for the conquest.

One of these agents has come to Tyria. After assessing the situation, this “silver-tongued” agent has decided to weaken the existing nations by manipulating rogue factions into attacking them. Thus, she encouraged the Flame Legion and Dredge to form the Molten Alliance with the intention of weakening the Norn and Charr, and she’s now encouraged the Aetherblades to try to make a bid for power on the Captain’s Council in order to control one of the foremost trading empires on the continent and possibly worsen relations with Divinity’s Reach. (She didn’t have any input on Southsun Cove, deeming such a “holiday resort” to be of no interest to her Emperor.)

Her ultimate goal is to keep the existing nations harried and weakened so that when the Canthan armies arrive, they’ll have an easier time at conquest.

The Canthan expansion will thus probably start with a Living Story event lasting several months where we fight off advance scouts from the Canthan army attempting to gain footholds on Tyria. It will culminate in a massive invasion of Lion’s Arch where we have to repel waves of attacks. During this time, we combat our Personal Nemesis, but she escapes and flees back to Cantha.

Once the event is over, the players are then ready to head to Cantha to put an end to the Emperor’s warmongering by becoming guerilla agents themselves. The Tengu, seeing this as a chance to reclaim their ancestral homelands, end their own isolationism and become a playable race. (My personal hoped-for second playable race, the Naga, may become available upon reaching Cantha’s shores.)

Ultimately we discover that the Emperor himself is a puppet of the Elder Dragons (a 7th Elder Dragon based in Cantha), possibly even a Dragon’s Champion, which ties the entire story back into the war against the Elder Dragons.

Alternatively, we could turn the story on its head and make it so the Emperor has somehow managed to subdue and imprison the Celestial Elder Dragon, siphoning off its power to grant him unimaginable personal power. The players must defeat him and free the Celestial Elder Dragon, gaining a powerful ally and patron for the war against the other Elder Dragons.

The husks might possibly have been buried underground via silt deposited by regular flooding, and they’ve only been revealed/excavated in recent years. The fact that they’re below the level of the Denravi fountain (which was at ground level and surrounded by earth in GW1) could support that theory.

Morrag.7239:

or make a recipe that we can craft trough farming resources or hard obtainable resources. Like legendary. But our farm must be reasonable. That we know what we will get in the end. With boxes and unknown results of RNG is painful.

Personally, my favourite approach was the tokens (account bound) + drops (tradeable) system we saw for Super Adventure Box. However, my suggestions above were made from the point of view that I doubt ANet will drop the RNG entirely because they need it to fuel purchases in their gem store. (Which I don’t begrudge them for. They are a business and need to generate income somehow. They just need to find the sweet spot between paying the bills and creating disgruntled customers.)

I would actually be happy with the Dragon Bash RNG system if they just made one of two tweaks:

1. Rich Dragon Coffers have a guaranteed Jade Ticket. Tickets remain account bound. ANet can increase the price of Rich Coffers to 1000 gems (or more) if they wish.

2. Jade Tickets (and all previous weapon tickets) are tradeable on the TP. Let the market decide how much they’re willing to pay for one. Demand for Rich Coffers is likely to remain fairly stable due to players hoping to get a ticket and “strike it rich”.

Either one of the above two solutions added to the current system would make it work. We just need a way to bypass the RNG so that those players who are extremely unlucky can still get a ticket.