Guild Wars 2

It might have just been one case of unlucky timing. I’ve fought the Oozes in the large cave only once, and while they did pull everybody to them once and downed two of us, the rest managed to dodge back out and recover. I was on my Ranger at the time, and I think I activated Rampage as One after that, but it’s also likely that my extreme range with the Longbow also kept me safe. (My pet, however, wasn’t so fortunate. XD)

@Danikat: The F&F finale lasts for 5 days though (from May 12th – May 16th). I think that’s a fair enough period of time for one to go into an instance and watch some cutscenes. If you happen to be away from your computer for the whole week, that’s unfortunate, but I think that ANet has given us a generous amount of time for what sounds like a short epilogue to wrap up the story.

Your guess is as good as mine. It does FEEL exploity to me, but I can see where you’re coming from, which is why I mentioned it as a possible option. If one wants to play it completely safe and not use it, they can. If one wants to use it, they also can. Just don’t abuse those who choose not to use it.

Heh, my male Charr Warrior is so big that his horns don’t even fit on the screen. XD

The F&F finale was stated to be mostly conversations and cutscenes, so I wouldn’t get your hopes up. I did enjoy the epic battle against the Ancient Karka, but the horrendous lag and culling meant that I could barely see what was going on, let alone participate. I also won’t miss the “one-time, one-day only” nature of the finale. It’s much too rough on people who don’t happen to be in the favoured timezone.

You need to pick one boss and focus on him. The other boss heals back up to 100% health once Phase 2 starts, so there’s no point in trying to take both down at the same time.

That said, whenever one boss reaches 75%, 50% and 25% health, the other boss gets a special buff of 50 stacks of “Enraged”. This makes him deal double damage, so it’s crucial that someone in your party keeps an eye on the second boss and attacks him to knock off the stacks. (Each hit on the boss removes 1 stack of Enraged.) Most parties I’ve seen fail is because they neglected to do this, and the other boss downs a couple of people with his supercharged attacks, and it all goes downhill from there.

It’s really up to your party as to which boss you choose to kill first. I personally prefer killing the Berserker first, as the Firestorm is rather easy in Phase 2. The Berserker gets a new flame shockwave attack in Phase 2 that deals a ton of damage, and can easily one-shot players with it. He also gets more frequent normal shockwaves that make it quite difficult to jump/dodge all of them.

Finally, there is an alternate method of fighting the Berserker. His shockwaves don’t start at his feet, but a little distance out. This means if you’re standing directly underneath him in his red target circle, you won’t get hit by his shockwaves (although his normal attacks will still hit you). If you’re really having trouble, you can try using this tactic to take down the Berserker, but I don’t really recommend it as it could be deemed as an exploit. Use it at your own risk.

Flissy.4093:

Not to mention I got my Obsidian Shards for my Kamohoali’i Kotaki while I was there – why would someone actually buy those things when you can make so much money getting them this way?

Heh, yeah. That’s my plan for when I eventually embark on my Legendary quest. Forget buying them straight up from the Temple vendors; just slug down a couple of million karma, then invest it all into Orrian Boxes. I figure I’ll get back enough Obsidian Shards and then some, plus a bunch of extra loot on the side.

Galtrix.7369:

I’m going purely off of Perfect World’s other games for my opinion on Neverwinter. If they know how to balance classes in 15 games, then I think they can do it one more time.

I haven’t been following Neverwinter, but as a long-time tabletop D&D player I’m intrigued by this claim. I say this because D&D has a long-standing tradition of having HORRENDOUSLY imbalanced classes. You have a few classes that are decent (Barbarian, Ranger), classes that are underpowered but still fun for their roles (Rogue, Bard), and classes that become Gods-of-the-Multiverse once they reach high enough level (Wizard, 3.X Cleric, and Fighters if specced properly).

I agree that Scepter needs a buff, although considering I still use it as my primary weapon alongside Staff, it isn’t that bad. I feel it could be made a viable weapon with just two tweaks:

1. Speed up the attack speed of skill #1 so it is on par with the Necro’s scepter auto-attacks. The fact that the Mesmer scepter throws out projectiles which must travel to their target should prevent it from being too OP, and it also really fixates the Scepter as the Mesmer’s “clone generation” weapon.

I wouldn’t object to Ether Clone also causing Confusion as per its original description, but it may be too powerful with an increased attack speed.

2. Change Illusionary Counter/Counterspell so that it inflicts 3 stacks of Confusion on a hit in addition to its current functionality.

So THAT explains why sometimes my Clones/Phantasms can take several hits from enemies, and other times they die like they’re made out of balloons!

It really depends on your server and what time you’re playing at. I play on Tarnished Coast, one of the most populated servers, and during “prime time” there’s easily at least 30+ players on any map, even the mid-level ones. Even during evenings Australia-time (which is when I normally play), there’s typically still at least 10 or so players on these same maps. It’s quieter, but if you put out a call for help in the map, you’ll usually get 1 or 2 responses, which is all you need for tougher spots.

I don’t doubt that less populated servers will have less players, so try and get into a High (or even Full) server if you can.

The trouble is that for human civilisation to be at its prime, it would also have to be at its most stable, most secure, and most prosperous. (And in other words… boring.) Such a glorious time of human civilisation would also have meant there would have been little need for adventurers or heroes. There would be no threat to rise up against, no great enemy to challenge and defeat. It just wouldn’t make for a very exciting game where everybody is a baker, shopkeeper or town guardsman, whose most exciting part of his day is arresting unruly drunks at the tavern.

Well, us roleplayers would probably still find it fun, but I’m sure many other GW2 players didn’t buy the game to play Second Life, Guild Wars-edition.

I levelled up all 5 of my characters at the same time. I now have 5 level 80’s, and I actually thought they levelled up TOO fast. :P I ended up having to equip everybody with level 79 Masterwork gear because they’re not at the stage yet when I’m ready to kit everybody out in Rares/Exotics.

As others have said, the Sigil of Battle is a superb choice for Elementalists because of their frequent attunement swapping. Throw in some runes/gear that boost boon duration and you can get a tremendous amount of mileage from it. For other professions though, you’re normally better off with a Sigil of Force/Bloodlust. (Or both, if you wield two weapons.)

They may have the Collectors remain around for a week after the F&F event is over, to allow people to turn in any audio logs they still have.

Hamfast.8719:

And using Vengeance with my Warrior (combined with the Sweet Revenge trait to avoid automatic death when Vengeance runs out) is nothing short of an adrenaline rush every time.

The other day in the Molten Facility dungeon, we were all defeated except for one Warrior. The Molten Berserker was on a sliver of health when the Warrior got downed, and we all groaned in dismay because we expected him to die and we would have to reset. But then! Warrior used Vengeance, charged the Berserker, and started laying into him. We all held our breaths. Will he? Won’t he?

He did. He killed the Berserker, everybody ressed, and we proceeded to wipe the floor with the Firestorm. We all congratulated the Warrior for saving the day.

I wouldn’t invest that heavily in it. Sentinel items don’t seem to be very popular, judging by the reactions I got to a thread I posted in the F&F forum about keeping them around permanently. Berserker gear continues to remain the king of popularity, so while Azurite gems may rise in price over time, the demand just won’t be high enough to make a good profit on them. Not enough to outweigh the potential risk anyway, in my opinion.

Personally, I bought enough Azurite Crystals to be able to craft every single kind of Mithril Azurite jewelry (just to satisfy my completionist impulses), while I have enough Azurite Orbs from daily runs of the dungeon for Orichalcum Azurite jewelry. That’s enough for my needs, and I won’t be buying any more.

If the other backpack skins are anything to go by, the new Quaggan and Charr backpacks will be permanent, but the Sonic Tunnelling Tool will probably be a limited time thing.

I mostly merch Blues and Greens because their inherent value is higher than salvaging them for materials. To that end, they’re actually a valuable portion of how I make my money during normal gameplay.

I also bought up a bunch of level 79 Blues and Greens recently to use as stop-gap gear for my characters, so there IS a market for them at times. Of course, I did get most of it at 1c above vendor price. XD

My personal theory is that the “holiday resort” the Consortium is trying to set up on Southsun is only a front; it’s cover for the REAL reason they’re there, which is still unknown (but I suspect has something to do with the Karka).

Sentinel inscriptions/insignia and gear are specific to the Molten Facility; they drop from the boss chest, and can be salvaged off Sentinel gear found in the same dungeon. There are no recipes for crafting Sentinel gear.

Run the dungeon 5 times now. Only inscriptions and recipes to show for my effort. I would like the Jetpack myself for my Charr Warrior (just imagine, a giant Charr kitty flying around going “WAHOOOO!” At least, in my mind), but I won’t be that upset if I don’t get it, and I’m certainly not going to spend the 150 gold it would take to buy it on the AH. I’ll continue to try my luck once each day until the dungeon goes away though.

Personally I think ANet should have taken a page from the SAB and created account bound versions of the Jetpack (and maybe the Mini too) that you could obtain by trading in tokens earned from the Molten Facility, while leaving Rare skinned versions in the chest that are tradable on the AH.

Yep, I’m pretty sure that each item is only picked up once per account. Despite having drunk the 3 Jugs on Friday, and doing several runs on Sat/Sun, the items never respawned.

Oh well. 13,500 karma still isn’t bad.

Huzzah for Shield Stance!

Glad you like them. Personally though, they absolutely don’t fit the theme I have for my characters, so while I’ll still use them to save on the cost of crafting an Exotic glove one day, I’ll be transmuting them to a more pleasing appearance.

It’s also possible that the market is also exhausted (i.e. everybody who wanted a SAB skin has already got one). During the month of April, the demand for SAB skins was fueled purely by speculators thinking the price will rise after it closes. Ergo, the speculators were buying in anticipation of a market that in actuality no longer exists. There will still be the occasional trickle of demand from new players who came late to the party, but whether those new players will generate enough demand to sustain the high prices remains to be seen.

Shadowlancer.7102:

@ XgoroX.6920

Yeah but look at it this way, how can you make something cool out of it?

The molten pick made sense now, but how do you make an unlimited Axe swing and Sickle cut, awesome enough to make money out of it with the use of gem shop?

Sickle: A Sylvari creation. Plant-like “hands” grow up out of the ground and pick all the fruit/leaves off the plant node, without harming the actual plant.

Axe: Asuran magi-tech. A holographic golem assistant (resembling the hovering golems) is summoned by the Axe which helps cut through the sapling, generating geometric-shaped particle effects as it does so.

jspencer.3021:

WAY too hard, and seeing an entire thread of “no way, it’s soooo easy, make it harder!” just makes it worse. I was in my third attempt at the dungeon tonight, exact same story as the first two: make it through the dungeon just fine, then die a hundred times at the bosses (who freaking COMPLETELY HEAL every time you wipe?? seriously? here wound, have some salt!) and had to eventually give up. All five of us were dodging, rezzing, doing damage, being aware of the “25% health” gimmick, etc.; at one point we got one of the bosses down to a sliver of health, all wiped, and had to start over from scratch with them having full health again. I’m sorry, but that’s just NOT fun, it’s maddening.

Ignore the people saying it’s an “easy” dungeon. According to my guildies who are experienced dungeon runners, the Molten Facility IS a lot more simple than most dungeons, but all of the difficulty is found in the final boss fight. The people who are saying it’s easy and it should be made tougher are players who more than likely have all Exotic (maybe even Ascended) gear. If you’re more of a casual player (like me), who doesn’t have all that, it will be a lot more challenging.

Expect to die at least a few times against the final boss if you’re in a PUG. Sometimes you’ll just get unlucky and find yourself in a position where you can’t escape the bosses’ attacks. Last night, I got into a hilarious situation where I dodged out of the Firestorm’s AoE right into another of his AoE’s (which I hadn’t seen behind me), and then when I dodged right, I landed into yet another AoE which had just spawned, downing me. And then the Berserker, who had shadow-stepped to another player nearby, did his triple stomp attack which killed me before someone could res me.

Don’t give up though. All it takes is just that bit of luck for things to swing your way. My recommended strategy would be:

1. Kill the Berserker first. The Firestorm is much easier in Phase 2 than the Berserker is.

2. Assign somebody to keep plinking the Firestorm to remove his stacks of Enraged (they make him deal double damage, which can be lethal for anyone who lands in one of his AoE’s). This is an ideal role for an upscaled player or one who doesn’t have the gear to stand toe to toe with the Berserker. Once the Enraged stacks are gone, switch back to the Berserker to help out, but this player’s primary role is to remove Enraged from the Firestorm (and to res downed players).

3. Should go without saying, but res downed players as fast as you can. If you have AoE healing/defensive skills, toss one on the downed player before helping, as you will probably get targeted by one of the bosses while ressing. If a player is defeated, try to lead the bosses away so that another player can res them. (The same player in Role #2 mentioned above is ideal for this, because by this point they’ve likely generated much lower threat than the other players and aren’t so likely to be targeted.)

3. There is an alternate strategy where everybody just clusters inside the Berserker’s target circle and just melee’s him, because his shockwaves start outside of this circle, but this is something of an exploit, so I do not recommend using it.

I like to think that my Sylvari has sweet… “juices”. XD

Huh… My Sylvari (who has a brown “skin” tone with green highlights, deep green hair, and a rich blue glow) has white underwear. Maybe it’s random? Or it changes depending on your skin colour?

Atlas.9704:

Now when you say ‘loving a Charr’ do I need a barf bag and a censor bar for my mind’s eye? lol I’m just asking because the Internet has jaded me with certain phrases.

No comment… but I’d keep that censor bar and barf bag close at hand.

What did the old running style look like? Anyone have any videos of that?

I actually wouldn’t be surprised if humans DID eat Charr too after the Searing. Have you seen the sorry state the land was in back then? There’s no way one could grow crops there, and aside from the rare Moa, the only animals around appear to be Devourers (blech), Wind Riders (must taste like jellyfish), and Hydras (good luck trying to hunt those for food on a regular basis!). With such a limited supply of food, I think the Ascalonians probably did eat the bodies of slain Charr from time to time.

I wonder what Charr tastes like… Part beef, part cat?

I miss it when Frostbite would auto-res himself like he did in Rox’s instance. :/

Curo.2483

Ugh it’s all coming too fast! I could hardly afford the mining pick, let alone all 3 of these things! I sure hope they re-release them in the future.

Considering how well the Molten Picks sold, I think ANet would be silly not to re-release them again in the future. They may not come in the same form though (i.e. they may be unlimited picks, but without the fiery animation when mining).

One thing you can try is orienting your camera to look down at your feet. You can move right up to the very edge of the wood plank (and even a bit over it) before jumping. This is usually what I do if I have to run the puzzle and there aren’t any Mesmer porters.

^ Actually, from a real life protection standpoint, that armor would be laughably ineffective. It exposes a large portion of the upper torso and the upper thighs, both of which are areas where a deep enough wound could prove fatal.

But I agree that this is a game, and if players want heavy armor that still shows skin and curves while providing the same protection as a full suit of plate mail, so be it. I just want both the chainmail bikini AND the full plate mail suit in there, and let players decide which they want to wear.

Honestly, I think that GW2 has done quite a good job of providing a wide range of armor appearances that cater to both sides. There are some VERY revealing outfits, it’s true, but there are also options that look realistic from an armor standpoint. If need be, mix and match your armor pieces to get the exact look you want. That’s what Transmutation stones are for.

I’ll certainly be stocking up on gems for the Unbreakable Axe/Sickle. From those items, we can conclude that a return to Southsun Cove is in order, and ANet has plans for the Dragon Festival coming up soon.

Calae.1738:

Carrots and Slabs of Poultry meat have more than doubled in price recently. Rosemary Sprig is starting to climb. Interestingly Bowl of Herbed Poultry Stock is currently selling for less than the materials to make it.

So that’s why Carrots have jumped to a crazy 20+c price… Why all this interest in the Lemongrass dish though? What’s it being used for?

Data mining on Reddit shows that unlimited logging axes and sickles are in the pipeline. The Sickle will likely come with the next Living Story set in Southsun Cove. The Axe is a bit more vague.

So start stocking up on gems, people! Prices will likely spike again in the future!

You haven’t seen the ingredients for the Garlic Kale Sautee, I take it.

In any case, these new dishes appear to be designed to suck out low-level (and some high-level) ingredients from the economy. Finally, we have a use for Clams!

Stacking inside the Berserker’s target circle might be an exploit though. Use it at your own risk.

Some of us also like mixing and matching our armor/weapon stats for a more well-rounded statbase. Anything that provides more flexibility is a good thing in that regard. Personally I’m not likely to create a set purely with Sentinel’s gear, but I may use one or two insignias/inscriptions.

Ohhh… Thanks for the explanation, Matthew. I guess it doesn’t make a difference as all of my characters are level 80.

@toafarmer: Supposedly the pages/letters can be collected multiple times, although when I went in the dungeon for my 2nd run last night, they still hadn’t respawned despite it being more than 24 hours since my first run. However, I hadn’t drank any of the 3 Jugs of Karma I’d received for them yet. I’ll do a 3rd run of the dungeon tonight and see whether they’ve respawned.

lordkrall.7241:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1djssi/upcoming_gemstore_items/

“Unbreakable! Permanent Harvest Sickle! Invented to survive the Southsun seas, this tool has unlimited charges and the same efficiency as an Orichalcum Harvest Sickle. Available for a limited time only.”

There are also some lines most likely from the coming story further down.

I see there’s one for Axes too. Time to stock up on more gems. XD I was also pleased at the mention of the Dragon Festival. I guess we’ll see it make an appearance this year in GW2!

This dungeon was my very first “real” dungeon, so it was quite a step up from what I was used to. Still, if you have someone in the party who knows what to do, provides directions, and doesn’t berate you if you make mistakes, you’ll pick up what to do quite quickly and usually find your niche fairly quickly.

For players who are scaled up or, like me, are level 80 but are still using sub-par gear, you’re best off providing support from the rear with ranged weapons or healing/buff skills. Don’t let this get to you; ANet obviously wants all players to be able to participate in this dungeon, or they wouldn’t have put in upscaling. You have every right to be there as players who are fully geared in Exotics are; you just need to know your capabilities and what is the best way you can contribute. If that happens to be plinking enemies from a distance with a longbow/rifle and ressing people, so be it. (In fact, it’s extremely helpful to have one guy who does nothing but focus on ressing people who get downed!)

I can understand the viewpoint of people who would like this dungeon to be soloable; I was one of those players who ran around doing everything with 8 Heroes in GW1 too. But ANet is aiming for a different kind of experience, and dungeons like this one are a good way of gently nudging players to try something they normally wouldn’t touch. Give the Molten Facility a few go’s, and if it just reinforces your belief that dungeons aren’t for you, you can bow out.

Tarnished Coast server.

Wayfarer Foothills – Audio log collector is missing. No map icon.
Snowden Drifts – Audio log collector is present with map icon.

I don’t know about the status of the collectors in Plains of Ashford, Diessa Plateau or Iron Marches.

My Sylvari is a Dawn bloom. She’s also a Necromancer. She’s frequently puzzled as to why people don’t like talking to her when she’s tailed by a gaggle of rotting flesh/bone followers. XD

Plants likely do not feel pain in the same way we do, but I think it’s safe to say that they are aware of their environment and can, to some extent, recognise threats. There was a famous experiment where a species of pest beetle was released into an enclosure. The tree in the enclosure released some kind of pain/distress pheromone, which resulted in all trees in nearby enclosures preparing defenses against that specific type of pest beetle, even though no beetles had been introduced into their enclosures and they therefore shouldn’t have had any way of knowing there was a threat.

Plants also do not appreciate being eaten, and many plant species have evolved various defenses to discourage browsing. In that sense, even if plants do not feel pain as we do, if we want to treat all life as humanely as possible, we should also include plants in our considerations. If we had a human who was born without the ability to feel pain or communicate, we still wouldn’t go poking needles into him just for our amusement. (Well, I wouldn’t, at any rate.)

My GW1 Ascalonian Warrior never forgave the Charr for the Searing and he would have gladly challenged Pyre Fierceshot to a fight to the death and run him through as soon as their temporary alliance was over. But at the same time, he recognised that Ascalon was lost, and the proper course of action would be to help Rurik evacuate the survivors and help them start a new life.

My GW2 Human Noble Mesmer, who’s the great-granddaughter of my Warrior, still remembers the stories her grandmother told her about her great-grandfather’s experiences in the Searing. She heard about the atrocities the Flame Legion, and the Charr at large, perpetuated upon the Ascalonians. So she still regards modern Charr with a hint of suspicion and prejudice, but at the same time, they’re just stories to her. She hasn’t experienced it personally, and it doesn’t resonate with her the same way it would have to her grandparents, the same way she knows that her noble House is a legacy of Ascalon, yet her home and homeland is in Kryta. She feels concern about the war against the Centaurs than some distant, insurgent campaign against the Charr.

Then she joined the Vigil, where she got paired up with a fierce, yet honorable, Charr Centurion as her partner. And she learned that whatever the Charr may have did in the past, she can’t blame modern Charr for the actions of their ancestors.

And now she occasionally prays to her great-grandfather to forgive her for loving a Charr.