Guild Wars 2

So in general we can expect a return of about 2 Dust per Ecto, and that we should use Master/Mystic kits if available. Thanks for the research, everyone.

With a ratio like that, personally I’m expecting prices for C.Dust to stabilise around 10 – 12 silver, with occasional spikes to 15 silver.

Not that I’m aware of (and dulfy’s site doesn’t have any listed either). The fact that Zhaitaffy doesn’t have the crafting disciplines listed in its description suggests that it’s purely a Dragon Bash currency.

It was definitely needed. I admit the solution caught me by surprise, but in hindsight it’s a very clever one, as it will help keep Ecto demand stable to account for the increased amount of Rares flooding into the market from World Bosses.

orphanMosquito.5837:

They need to stop trying to manipulate the market and let it take its course. It was very evident that ecto was trending down and dust was trending up. So I sold ecto and farmed/forged dust. Now that work is wasted. Whats the point in trying to act smart in the game when all they do is screw it up.

As an entertainment company, ANet also needs to take into account the “fun” other players are having. Because Crystalline Dust is used in so many high level recipes (not to mention as ingredients for Legendaries and the Triforge), prohibitively expensive Dust prevents many players from being able to do what they want to do at high levels.

It’s not the first time that ANet has intervened when they felt prices were too high either, or when there was too much supply of a certain item. They increased drop rates of Vanilla, and reduced drops of Butter/Chocolate, for instance. There is always the chance to get burned when speculating/investing.

I feel your pain, Kaizz. I’m also someone who never has any luck with RNG either. It’s why I’ve foresworn off it entirely and just opted to save my money and buy only guaranteed stuff.

People have reported opening up to 2500 normal Coffers without a ticket.

People have also reported opening up to 150 Rich Dragon Coffers without a ticket.

The odds for getting a ticket from the Rich Coffers is definitely higher, but whether that’s enough to warrant dropping gems on them is a decision you’ll have to make yourself. (Personally I don’t think so, but you might feel differently.)

… MagiKarp, are you Australian, by any chance?

I question your belief that, if everybody had access to the same weapon skins, everybody would be using the same weapons. People like to feel unique; if everybody had a Legendary, you can bet all the gold on the TP that people would start using other weapons so that they can stand out from the crowd. With that in mind, it’s GOOD to have more cosmetic options that are easily available. That broadens the choices players have, and thus we’ll see people with a variety of looks instead of people just gravitating to whatever weapon people feel is the best indicator of their “status”.

I strongly suspect that many people with Legendaries only have them to show off how rich/awesome they are, not because they actually like the aesthetics of the weapon. If they did, then they wouldn’t be upset that many other people are also starting to get Legendaries, because the increasing number of Legendary owners means that they are no longer “exclusive”. In contrast, someone who got the Dreamer purely because they like shooting rainbow unicorns at everything is going to have a blast every time he pulls it out, regardless of whether or not ten other people nearby are doing the same thing.

As others have pointed out, Moa Racing is a cleverly disguised gold sink. Although it’s possible for you to come out ahead, like any form of gambling, the odds are weighted in such a fashion that you WILL lose money to it over time. The mini’s are just there as sweeteners to lure you into using it.

As an achievement hunter, I will probably drop some money on it here and there when I have spare silver just to get the 3 first placings, then stop.

Candy Corn likely got its own tab because it is used as an ingredient for crafting. Zhaitaffy isn’t.

The main issue here is that people were led to believe that Rich Dragon Coffers would have a significantly higher chance at dropping Dragon Jade tickets than normal Coffers. Judging by the stories being told here and elsewhere, that doesn’t seem to be the case. (Or if it is, the difference is miniscule, like an increase from a 0.5% chance to a 2% chance.)

Still at work, but I’m looking forward to giving Dragon Ball a try tonight when I get home. I’m just glad that there’s no more achievements that relies purely on luck like Crabtacular!

Yeah, feedback from initial testing seems to be that the chance for a Dragon Jade ticket from Rich Coffers is still fairly low. Fortunately for me, while I think the DJ weapons look fantastic, they don’t really fit the theme I’ve been aiming for with my characters, so I can sit this one out.

I’m still quite disappointed that this is the path ANet chose to go though. They were SO close to getting it right; have their RNG boxes, and provide guaranteed boxes for sale in the Gem Store. Jack up the price for the Rich Coffers to 1000 gems each if they must; I bet that you’d still have people lining up to pay it for the chance to skip the RNG. People were willing to pay $10 for costumes back in GW1, and I believe they’d be willing to do the same again for cool weapon skins.

While I’m not a mini collector, this was still a pleasant surprise. Thanks for the free mini pack, ANet. (And no, I have no plans to get the Holographic Risen Knight or the Icebrood Colossus. Were the other 3 minis not account bound, I’d probably have sold them. XD)

Moa Racing is here to stay permanently. However, the Helmed Moa mini will be around only for the duration of Dragon Bash (it will be replaced by an ordinary moa mini afterwards), so if you’re a mini collector, better start betting!

While I don’t like spawn camping any more than you guys do, I feel it’s worth pointing out that it’s the first day of the event, so EVERYBODY is busy trying to get their title and/or farming Coffers. Things should settle down in a day or two. The holographic mobs having such low health/not scaling to the number of players in the area is a quality of life improvement that ANet can certainly look at though.

I’d give it a week. Since they drop from Coffers and supplies of those will continue to grow as more people farm/do Dragon Ball, the supply can only increase as Dragon Bash goes on. Are Jorbreakers only used to earn the Holographic Wings? If so, I imagine their price will soon plummet as people realise it’s so much cheaper to buy the Wings outright on the TP.

Helping out the Lionguard/Consortium/Settlers at Point Pride, Point Lion, Kiel’s Outpost and Steampipe Steading could also be made into Hearts.

Ooooh, nice find! I personally hope it comes next month though. I’d like June to be able to focus on Dragon Bash + normal gaming.

Like most of the others above, I use a Mystic/Master Salvage Kit for Rares, and a BLSK for Exotics when I absolutely want the Sigil/Rune on it. Sometimes I will use a BLSK on a Rare too for the Rune/Sigil, but then again, I have a small stockpile of BLSK’s from opening BLC’s and I can afford the odd wasteful use.

I have no objection to CEO’s or similar high level executives getting paid well for what they do. I just feel that there is a certain point where the amount of remuneration starts to get excessive. Say you make $3,000,000 a year. Seriously, what on earth are you going to DO with that kind of money? Spend it on private jets? Buy cars as presents for your friends? There comes a point where people start spending money just because they have nothing better to do with it.

I had an idea once that Minis were actually like summonable allies that would help you fight in combat. Each mini has a different set of skills; some would snare, some would heal, and some just deal straight up damage. If a mini is “slain”, it goes back into your backpack and can’t be summoned again for a day. The player themselves is also “stricken with guilt” for sending poor Chauncey Von Snuffles III into the middle of a horde of Risen and can’t summon another mini for an hour.

I certainly will! I already have 4000 gems set aside for 5 Unlimited Axes for my 5 characters. (And yes, I spent 8000 gems on 5 Consortium Sickles and 5 Molten Picks too. I hope it helps send a message to ANet that making stuff like this is what sells, not more RNG crates.)

Caerulei.7159:

Getefix.9150:

the quest in gw1 where you nearly get married to a norn is called Prenuptial Disagreement, in the female version olaf olafson says “It is Norn custom that marriage can only happen between those of equal reputation. All your hard work has paid off! Now we can be wed, raise a dozen half-Norn children, and live in the mountains.”

however someone confirmed that norn and humans cannot interbreed

Yes, Jeff Grubb himself confirmed that interbreeding is impossible, he is also responsible for the Prenuptial Disagreement quest line. It was unexplored territory for Norn whether half-norn were possible, but Olaf was very eager to try his best! ;-)

Olrun’s quest version was funnier. “Shall I shave your back next?”

Zumy.6318:

No matter what you aim for, you never use the 10 times recipe.

I’m facepalming a bit, to be honest.

The 1 Clover recipe is good for minimizing your “risk”, but if you’re in a situation where you honestly don’t mind getting Clovers OR T6 mats (you’re farming for both), then the 10 Clover recipe is just as fine with the added benefit of less mouse-clicks.

EDIT: Actually, I just realised that you could get “trash” materials too, like Hardened Leather and the like, so ignore the above. The 1 Clover recipe is indeed better.

As Gator said, when you add them all together, it does make a noticeable difference. If your goal in a game is to make sure you’re decked out with the most powerful gear that game can provide, Ascended gear is the way to go.

That said, Ascended gear isn’t required for anything other than Fractals 20+. You can get by with just Exotics (or even Rares or Masterworks) for anything else. So, if you’re not a hardcore Fractals runner or all that bothered about stats, feel free to spend your Laurels on something else. Personally? I find exchanging my Laurels for 10 Unid’ed dyes or the Heavy Crafting Bags to be quite profitable.

This is why my plan at level 80 is as follows:

1. After buying any desired Temple armor with karma, convert all excess karma to Orrian Jewelry Boxes for coin, chances at Lodestones and Obsidian.
2. Use excess Obsidian/Ecto in Mystic Clover recipes for T6 mats.
3. Store the mats for use in an eventual Legendary, or sell the unneeded ones.

This way, I don’t have to rage every time the Mystic Clover recipe gives me T6 mats, and the Clovers will slowly build up over time.

Sage Leaf? I seem to get a ton of them from harvesting Young Herbs in Kessex Hills. I’m almost at a full stack after running through the map on all 5 of my alts.

Yeah, I like the health per second ones too. On my Warrior, when combined with Healing Signet and Adrenal Health, that’s a crazy amount of health gain you’re getting every second. Bonus points if you can throw Regeneration on yourself too!

As Electro said, the reason is because there are far more things requiring Orichalcum than there are requiring Ancient Wood. The former is used for Weaponsmithing, Armorsmithing, Huntsman and Jeweler. The latter is used for Weaponsmithing, Huntsman and Artificer, and of the three, only Artificer uses it in any great amount.

loquacious.2915:

bravoart.5308:

I didn’t call anyone bad, although I believe the exploiter’s morals are bad. Did everyone exploit? Probably not, but then you managed to ignore the third portion of that sentence mentioning CoF. If you haven’t exploited or flipped or run CoF, you don’t have enough money to bother talking about. This event only shows that. If you have 50g to toss as a single mini without blinking an eye, you’re obviously part of the problem.

What is wrong with flipping? Also, the “tone” of your statement by including flippers and COF runners with exploiters implicitly calls them bad.

Flipping isn’t anywhere near as bad as exploiting (top of the scale) and speed running (moderate concern, helps pump excessive amounts of gold into the economy, although it’s as much a symptom of a greater problem as a problem in itself), but it’s debatable whether or not flippers actually add any value to the economy by themselves.

Unpredictability.4086:

And now, because I put this off till the last day, I can’t even get “Joined The Crab Toss” or a SINGLE crab achievement.

While I agree that Crab Toss should be extended to account for the fact that the achievements are currently bugged, leaving anything till the last day is a TERRIBLE idea. Get things done as early as you can, whether it’s gaming or taxes.

I love Crab Toss and would like to see it stay, but I also understand it’s a contentious activity and won’t be too upset if it goes.

I do agree that the achievement progress being bugged for so long necessitates an extension to the activity though. It’s not fair to the people who are trying to get the achievement otherwise.

Moa Racing is a cleverly disguised gold sink. The Mini Moa Racer is just the sweetener to entice people into using it. (The Racer is only available for the duration of the Dragon Bash too, so if you’re a die-hard mini collector, you’ll have to pony up the gold.)

Sithaco.4673:

Zaxares.5419:

Vahkris.6847:

Maybe…or perhaps it’s just a reference to how societies in wartime would reduce huge threats to more ridiculous levels in order to remove fear and raise morale. It’s hard to be afraid of something when you’re laughing at it.

“REDICULOUS!”

Was that a Harry Potter reference by any chance??

Only took 10 days, but someone finally got it.

Got 3 Crates just from wandering around and killing Southsun mobs. Just crafting materials from them. Fortunately, I wasn’t keen on any of the Sclerite weapons.

Well, as I said, perhaps GW2 really isn’t for you then. It’s not a dig at you or your style of play; everybody enjoys games in a different manner. But if what you enjoy is logging in and constantly completing new and different content, a subscription game or multiple F2P games are probably what you need rather than a single B2P game like GW2 (which by nature of its economic model, simply can’t pump out new content that quickly).

Southsun can be a rude shock on your first visit, but like any other area, the key is to observe your enemies, then adapt your approach to win. The three most tricky foes in Southsun are:

1. Karka.

Young Karka have a dangerous spit attack that they like to use right off the bat. Reflection skills can turn this attack right back upon them (with satisfying effects), but failing that, you can also use block skills, pets/minions to tank the damage, or just dodge once or twice to mitigate it.

Veteran Karka are tough beasties that are difficult to solo. They are unique in that they possess TWO health bars. During the first, you can see their carapace getting melted off as you deal damage to them. You need to deplete their second health bar before they are killed. You can solo them with the right builds, but usually it’s better to avoid them unless you’re in a group. Note that there are also 2 different types of Veteran Karka, egg layers and spitters. Egg layers spawn lots of Karka Hatchlings that suicide you to death; AoE damage is crucial to destroy the eggs before they hatch. The spitters vomit poisonous acid everywhere and have a dangerous rolling attack that can down players in a single hit if you have low health/armor. In both cases, Veteran Karkas are best dealt with at range.

2. Reef Drakes.

These nasty creatures use Confusion. Lots and lots of it. Nearly every single one of their skills will apply one stack of Confusion, and it can rapidly stack up. Their most dangerous skill is called “Retreat”, where the Reef Drake backpedals a short distance, leaving an AoE circle on the ground which inflicts raw damage AND a stack of Confusion each second. Staying in this circle is almost certain death, so dodge out of it as soon as you see it. Unfortunately, they also have a screech attack which pulls you to the Drake and then stuns you for 2 seconds. If they pull you into their Retreat field, you’re almost certain to go down.

For these reasons, engage Reef Drakes at range, and don’t try fighting more than one at the same time. Having clones/pets/minions to help distract the Reef Drake will help immensely.

3. Reef Riders

I only mention these guys because they have abnormally high amounts of health compared to other Southsun monsters. As such, taking on two or three of them at once can be extremely dangerous unless your damage output is high. They also steal boons on their attacks, so ease off on any boon-granting skills unless you like seeing a Reef Rider with your Fury, Retaliation and 10 stacks of Might. (They only steal one boon at a time though.)

I see where you’re coming from, OP, but I guess I don’t really see it as a problem. GW2 IS meant to be a casual’s game. It is not really for the players who join, master the game’s mechanics in a few weeks, soar to the heights of PvE mastery with Legendaries, titles and what not, and then feel that there’s nothing left to do. There’s plenty to do; you just blazed through it too quickly.

For me, I’m having fun getting my 5 characters through the game at a sleepy Dolyak’s pace. I’ve played since launch date. All of my characters are level 80, yet aside from Southsun Cove, the highest level map I’ve visited is Fields of Ruin. My characters are wearing a mishmash of Masterworks and the odd Rare. I’ve yet to do a single dungeon (aside from Living Story ones), I haven’t tried WvW, and I’m pretty sure I’d get my rear handed to me in PvP. Yet I’m still eagerly logging in every night to continue my adventures, because there’s still so much left to do.

Perhaps it is not a question of difficulty or the amount of content, but simply a matter of pacing yourself.

And this is why I would NEVER go outside the TP for trading, unless it was a trusted friend. Your friend has my sympathies, but the TP exists precisely to protect players from scammers like what you described. If you ever trade outside the TP, you are doing so at your own risk.

I echo mercury’s advice though. Report the scammer and there is a good chance they will get punished/banned for it, although it won’t get your friend her goods back.

I like the current animation (as well as the size of the special effects), although I agree that it’s more like a scythe than a sickle.

I don’t know if we are at equilibrium right now. The exchange rate is still slowly moving upwards. It spikes whenever new gem store items are announced, then subsides, but never quite back to the level it was previously.

Low level mats seem to be risen fairly substantially in the last few weeks. Last night I sold a stack of Iron Ore for about 23 copper each. Prior to the Southsun event, I remember the price was fairly stable around 10 – 12 copper. The rise surprised me, but I’m not going to argue with more profit. XD

I seem to recall hearing Faren call Jory a “he” in one of his conversations with Kasmeer, but I could be mistaken. It’s definitely a plausible theory, in any case.

I get them quite a bit from loot bags from Bandits, Dredge and (to a lesser extent) Centaurs and Skritt in the 15 – 30 level range. Look for Small or Light bags.

Yep, there are two chests in Privateer’s Anchorage. One spawns after the Champion Shark (who I affectionately nickname “Jaws”) is defeated, and another is W of there, guarded by the 2 Veteran Sharks that Darx mentions. The latter chest is always there, but it’s missed by a lot of people.

That said, I have noticed that Jaws doesn’t always drop loot himself. He did when I killed him last night (just a Large Scale), but not on two previous occasions.

To the OP: The players in that match had no right to trash talk you. If what they said to you was abusive enough, report them for it.

That said, if it’s obvious that a match is full of players who are cooperating to get their achievements, why not just leave the match and find another one? That’s what I do, and this is speaking as someone who’s earned all the Crab Toss achievements legitimately and goes in there almost daily for the Daily requirement. It’ll be faster and more efficient just to find a regular match, since cooperative matches like the one you came across are in the minority.

I find their worst skill is their “Retreat” skill, which generates a field on the ground that inflicts multiple stacks on Confusion on you (along with raw damage) in quick succession. Staying in this field is more or less guaranteed death, even if you don’t use any skills.

They will sometimes follow this with a shriek attack that pulls you to them AND stuns you for about 2 seconds. If you happen to be stuck in the field from above while this happens, you’re going down.

Basically, forum policy does not allow the “naming and shaming” of individual players, no matter whether they are guilty or not. It’s to protect innocent people from “slander” campaigns, because it might always turn out that the guy really IS innocent, or the OP accidentally wrote the wrong name etc.

If you suspect somebody of hacking, cheating or just being abusive, report them in-game and let the Support staff take it from there.

And for the record, if I ran into that speed hacker in Crab Toss, I’d sure as hell have reported his kitten too.

Pavees.7281:

Zaxares.5419:

Good question… Then again, judging by the conversation between the asura and charr in Lion’s Arch, apparently the Asura Gates have trouble sending large amounts of non-living matter through (enough that they charge extra for it). If the Consortium is a stickler for keeping expenses down as most corporations are, perhaps Noll requested an Asura Gate transport, only to get turned down by the accountants who pointedly remind him that the Southsun Resort project is already WAAAAY over budget.

I find that line of thinking to be weak at best(not yours but the reason for using a boat over an instant teleportation device) because the consortium is aware of how dangerous things are and are aware that the contracts easily means more money then some portal fees.

You underestimate the short-sightedness of bean counters in large corporations.

It’s also possible that Kiel volunteered the services of a Lionguard ship to bring the contracts back for free. Again, for companies to whom the bottom line means everything, “free” always trumps any other consideration.