Guild Wars 2

Obsidian.1328:

The Charr of GW2 are rediculously different. They have these modern, steel-girded cities, advanced weapons of war, a finely-tuned army and social structure. They are marvels of modern engineering for goodness sake; 4-story tall motorcycles? What the heck is that? They went from communicating with grunts and rudimentary speech wearing loincloths in GW1 to being the champions of technology in GW2.

All in the span of 250 years…

That is some crazy-fast evolution.

To be fair, look at how far WE have come in 250 years. Back in the 17th century, most people still thought the world was flat, everybody got around on horses and wooden ships, it took 8 months to send a letter from Europe to South Africa, and medical treatments usually consisted of a good course of “bring out the leeches!”

Now, we have visited other planets, we have jet planes capable of flying several times faster than the speed of sound, we can send the entire contents of a library’s books in a single e-mail in less than an hour, and we can heal people by bombarding them with precisely calibrated amounts of radiation and are on the cusp of developing workable cybernetic limbs.

I do agree that it’s weird how the Charr have advanced so much while other races have more or less remained constant, however.

As for the Charr wreaking havoc across Ascalon, Kryta and Orr… I’m willing to lay most of the blame at the feet of the Shamans being goaded by the Titans (and behind them, Abaddon). Abaddon was the one who gave the Charr the Cauldron of Cataclysm that enabled them to cause the Searing, after all, and he was responsible for setting up the Jade Wind in Cantha as well, probably all failed efforts to bring about Nightfall earlier. Who’s to say that the average Charr was just caught up in the war and swept along, the same way many ordinary Germans were caught up in WWII’s Nazi movement?

kKagari.6804:

Mr Smith, regarding your response to point 4: A quick check on www.gw2spidy.com will indicate not only are most items sold at cheaper than the cost of crafting, even the ones that can ‘make a profit’ experience high risk to benefit ratio (I’m not sure if this is the exact economics term for it), i.e. You spend 3g crafting something for a chance to make 10s profit.

I get the feeling that crafting in GW2 was never intended to be something that would make the player profit. Rather, crafting is intended to serve two roles:

1. As a gold sink by removing materials/money/karma from the game by players levelling their crafting skills.

2. As a means for players to avoid having to buy equipment off the TP or relying on random drops by giving them the means to craft equipment they need themselves. (Granted, you’re still kind of reliant on luck to get Fine crafting materials for insignia and inscriptions though.)

I use crafting primarily for option 2. The knowledge that I can make what I need instead of having to rely on the vagaries of chance or the whims of another player is very empowering and provides me a great deal of personal satisfaction while playing.

I got the Exotic Mad King’s Slippers from the Clock Tower. Does that count? If not, then I only got Greens from the event.

Am I complaining though? Heck no! The event was still a lot of fun.

I just used some keys that I had saved up, and created some Mad King Chests with some spare boosters and tonics I had lying around. Got nothing valuable out of them, but I’m not out of pocket either.

Part 2:

Ascent to Madness:
I loved this dungeon! The fact that it can be attempted by just about anybody and still have a decent chance at completing it means that elitism is not (much) of a factor, and it also serves as a good dungeon to cut one’s teeth on if a player has never tried a dungeon before. I do wish that the first-time reward for completing it was per CHARACTER, however; I would have loved to get a 10 Slot ToT bag on each of my characters. I’m not sure why it was per Account. Perhaps this could be changed for next year’s Halloween.

Achievements:
While I wouldn’t have minded it being necessary to carve pumpkins and complete the Clock Tower as well to get the Emissary of the Mad King achievement, I’m content with it being the way it is, otherwise it would be too unfair on those who don’t have good platforming skills.

Rewards/Items:
I kind of wish the various Mad King armors were easier to get, but since they can already be sold on the TP, this doesn’t really need to change.

I’m more disquieted about the whole fiasco surrounding the Black Lion Chests and the Halloween skins. While I didn’t buy any keys or skins myself (as I wasn’t particularly fond of any of the Halloween skins), I’m very disappointed that they were tied to a RNG system. Yes, you can buy them on the Trading Post, and yes, they can drop from the Labyrinth, Mad King’s Chests and Ascent to Madness chests (very good move there, ANet), but these other options should have been there from the start and clearly communicated. Lots of people poured money into buying keys when they probably wouldn’t have had they known there were other ways to obtain the skins.

I was quite surprised that the craftable Halloween weapons were so hard to get. They’re practically mini-Legendaries in their own right! It’s good that players can craft them year-round, however. It gives people who really like those skins something to work towards, and since they can drop from the Ascent to Madness chests, I think they’re sitting at a fair point as far as rarity is concerned.

Overall, I thought the entire event was fantastic! There was lots to do, and various activities to satisfy a wide range of players. There were some things that could have been done better, especially with letting players know where to go and how to start (but this was fixed shortly into the event with the Mails); I trust ANet will learn from them and do them better next year though. I look forward to seeing what you have planned for Wintersday!

My feedback on the Halloween event:

Artwork/Scenery:
I was quite impressed with the quality of the decorations for Halloween. Little touches like the lights being bats, the intricate pumpkin carvings, and especially the Trick or Treating kids (I want to huggle those costumed Quaggans! ) really made the event. The Reaper’s Rumble and the Clock Tower were visually stunning too.

Minigames:
I didn’t spend much time in either Reaper’s Rumble or Lunatic Inquisition, but they were a lot of fun. I do feel that the rewards for participating (along with other minigames like Keg Brawl) need to be buffed however, with more XP, karma, or even Glory or coin being given out for wins/losses. Currently it feels that playing these minigames is not as rewarding as standard PvE play (let alone farming), which is not the kind of feeling you want to have during an in-game festival.

Scavenger Hunt:
This was one of my favourite activities during the festival. I loved the lore provided as part of the quest, although I think choosing to place several of the ghosts in mid-high level areas was a poor decision as it made it unduly difficult for lower-level characters, effectively penalising them if they choose to adopt a playstyle where they play multiple alts instead of just focusing on one main character. Fortunately, it’s possible to still get to all the ghosts with the help of other players, and I was quite impressed with the general helpfulness and courtesy shown by other players in assisting weaker characters to get to these locations.

One part of the Scavenger Hunt which had a lot of promise were the hidden locations which give out pToT’s. I thought this was a brilliant move, and it’s a shame that the ones in Lion’s Arch had to be removed due to people farming them. Fix them so they can only be activated once per character, and bring them back for next year.

Clock Tower:
Ahh, the Clock Tower. Has anything else caused such division and partisanship in the GW community before? Speaking for myself, I absolutely loved the Clock Tower. It was extremely challenging to start off with, but as you got better and better with practice it filled you with a great sense of pride to keep on going while watching others fall by the wayside. And when you finally make it to the top and find the chest? Well, few things in gaming have filled me with that sense of accomplishment in a long time. The Clock Tower easily ranks as one of my favourite things from the Halloween event.

That said, I can understand how it would be extremely difficult for some players who have not had experience in platform gaming before. While I don’t believe the Tower should be drastically lowered in difficulty, I think it wouldn’t be amiss to give players a bit more time in running the puzzle. That little pause at the beginning while waiting for the gears/rubble to blow out of the Tower is about 2 – 3 seconds that could help give players a bit more breathing room, and give more experienced players more of a cushion to grab the chests going up the tower. It would also allow players to spread out a bit more during the run so that they’re not forced to huddle in a tight zerg and thus make it more difficult for smaller characters to see themselves.

After Josh Foreman’s (in)famous quote about only expecting 5% of players to make it to the top, I’m very curious to know how many people did manage to complete the Tower.

GW1 had a number of special, multi-week long events:

1. Halloween
2. Wintersday (Christmas/New Year, also occurs in July as “Wintersday in July”)
3. Canthan New Year (Chinese Lunar New Year)
4. Dragon Festival (no real world counterpart, occurs around June)
5. Birthday Celebration (occurs in May for GW1. For GW2, it would be around end of August)

In addition, they also had smaller festivals that typically only last a day or two:

1. April Fool’s Day
2. Talk like a Pirate Day
3. Sweet Treats Weekend (coincides with Easter)
4. Special Treats Weekend (coincides with Thanksgiving)
5. Lucky Weekend (coincides with St. Patrick’s Day)

The Ascent to Madness dungeon is one of the 4 locations you need to visit to complete the Mad King’s Realm achievement track. However, I’m not sure if you need to beat the dungeon or just visit it, so you may still be in the clear, OP. If your Mad Realm exploration reads 4/4, you’re good.

I only learned about the scarecrows causing Fear on death by reading the Wiki. Since then I’m careful only to kill the scarecrows if nobody’s within their radius, or if the party is in a position where the Fear won’t send them off the edge (too far away or there are fences around the cliff).

My Sylvari is a Necromancer. Who’s also of the Cycle of the Dawn. She’s this cute, chirpy little thing that insists on treating her summoned minions like cherished pets, and claims that undead are just as alive as living creatures, only in a different form.

“When an animal dies, its body decays, and becomes a part of the grass. But the spirit of the animal lives on, becoming part of the spirit of the grass. So you see, when I call my friends, I’m just letting that spirit run around again in a body it used to have!”

Her only objection to the Risen is the fact that the Risen try to kill everything else. She firmly believes that if Zhaitan is taken out of the picture, the Risen will be free to find their own path, and possibly find a way to peacefully integrate with the other races of Tyria.

Rizzy.8293:

i think its cute

Thia.4891:

In my head, my female human mesmer is the descendant of my Ascaloian female warrior and Talhkora.

Uhhh… You sure Koss wasn’t just hiding in the closet somewhere?

>.>

<.<

I have a male Charr warrior. And yes, he’s max-size, using the brawniest build available to me. XD There are definitely way more male Charr characters on my server (Tarnished Coast) than female ones, but I see a few around now and again. I love it how ANet made it so you could look at the tail to tell instantly if a Charr was male or female. You can tell male/female humans and Sylvari apart by their general stance (and it’s freaking obvious whether it’s a male or female Norn), but Asura? Unless they’re sporting an obvious female hairstyle it’s usually darn difficult for me to tell unless they speak.

While underwater, Charr swim in a dog-paddle style. XD

I have friends who are GW1 veterans who refuse to play Charr characters because of the Searing. Too much bad blood, they say. It’s kind of like your grandpa who fought in the Second World War who’s totally racist towards Japanese, even those who were born after the war was long over. You know it’s wrong, but you can understand why he feels that way.

Smodur the Unflinching does indeed currently possess the Claw of the Khan-Ur (a gift to him from Queen Jennah to seal the peace treaty between their two races), but we don’t currently know what are his plans for it. He hasn’t tried to claim the title of Khan-Ur for himself, probably because he knows that the Imperators of the Blood and Ash Legions will certainly contest him for the title if he attempts it, which runs the risk of plunging the Charr back into civil war, which is something he cannot afford to do while they are still fighting against the ghosts and the Flame Legion.

I think it’s more likely that Smodur will simply keep the Claw in safe-keeping until a time when the Flame Legion has been completely subdued/destroyed before deciding what to do with it. Simply having it in his possession grants him a great amount of prestige and political clout, which he can use to consolidate his power base even without claiming the title of Khan-Ur.

Considering their size, their rapid movements (watch how energetic an Asura looks while running, jumping and otherwise moving around), and their greater than normal intelligence, Asura probably eat quite an astounding amount of food. All of that activity requires a LOT of energy. (It sounds contradictory, but the larger a creature is, the less it typically needs to eat as a proportion of its body mass. A creature like a mouse needs to eat almost its own body weight in food every day!)

As such, it wouldn’t surprise me if Asura needed to eat as much (if not more) than an average human per day. The only food sources with that abundance underground would have been fungi and insects/worms. Since coming to the surface, however, I imagine Asura would have branched out and adopted a more varied diet. There’s one Asuran NPC in Rata Sum who talks about moving to Lion’s Arch and opening a bakery, for instance.

The only reason I’m interested in them is because they’re a free/relatively cheap level 80 Exotic armor that I can slap a skin I like over instead of having to craft/buy my own Exotic set.

Mad King Thorn randomly picks one player to be his target when he tells people to Cower/Salute etc. I’ve had it happen to me twice out of 6 or so runs.

Scaling up only occurs in rare areas like WvW, sPvP and the Mad King’s Labyrinth/dungeon. You may get more valuable loot from chests and enemies on occasion, but for the most part it will still be appropriate to your level. When I was running around the Mad King’s Labyrinth with a level 30-something character, most loot I got was still around level 26 – 30, although the chests and Champion enemies sometimes gave me level 45 equipment (which I couldn’t even use because it was so high above my level).

Trying to fight enemies higher than you is a losing proposition. Any enemy higher than you by 5 levels or more can basically one-shot you, and enemies that are too high above your level take so little damage that you can’t even hope to tag enemies that are involved in fights with higher-level players, because the damage you contribute is so little compared to the mob’s HP total that the game decides you didn’t contribute at all in the fight, and thus gives you no loot.

Long story short, just stick to areas appropriate for your level.

Server: Tarnished Coast.

I’ve only seen the Shadow Behemoth once myself too. People often say that the Secrets event chain triggers only once every 3 hours, but I’m convinced there must be an additional trigger to the Secrets event chain beyond simply the passage of time. I once stood around in Queensdale around the swamp for well over 5 hours and the quest still did not start.

Going from other meta-chains, like Wychmire Swamp in Caledon Forest or Frozen Maw in Wayfarer Hills, it’s very likely that there’s a particular NPC we need to talk to in order to start the chain. (For example, Wychmire Swamp only triggers about once every 2 or 3 hours, but is started by talking to Gamarien at Falias Thorpe.) That NPC, in turn, may need another quest to be complete before he’ll offer his quest (Scholar Brogun, for instance, won’t start his quest chain until you defend Tor the Tall’s homestead from the grawl.)

Does anyone who’s done Shadow Behemoth recently remember if there was any particular NPC giving a victory speech or somesuch after the event was over? That might help us narrow it down.

If not, we need to do a wider sweep around Godslost Swamp and the surrounding regions looking for named NPCs that don’t seem to be doing anything. More than likely, one of them is the trigger. (I very much doubt it is the Necromancer in the middle of the swamp, as I’ve visited him multiple times without success.) It’s not unheard of for NPCs to travel a considerable distance from their original starting point, so we may need to look as far away as Beetletun or Claypool.

It’s also possible that the NPC that triggers the Secrets meta-event only shows up when one of the surrounding areas is under Seraph or (more unlikely) Centaur control. Keep an eye out for any NPCs in Heartwood Pass and Holdland Camp that are talking about the swamp.

Really? Only ONE giant in the entire game? Here’s hoping that the expansions include more giants then or that achievement’s going to be a kitten to complete.

Loreclaw Expanse? If so, yes, that’s always been there.

I don’t believe there have been any new jumping puzzles added to the starter zones (although there have been a number of Diving Goggles added!)

My planned (Tengu) Thief will go dual Daggers and dual Pistols just for the style.

I’d like to have the Story missions be replayable too. If nothing else, it’s a great way to let friends or guildies see what they missed out on by picking a different background without having to create a whole new character.

Obviously they can’t give out the story rewards again, but I think one could still receive a small reward of XP, karma and gold, similar to doing a Dynamic Event, with diminishing returns to stop people farming short, easy storyline missions.

Cultural armor is sold for gold. Karma armor is bought from various Heart vendors after you have completed their tasks. (The most expensive Karma armor is bought in Orr. I believe each piece of armor costs a staggering 43,000 karma!)

Anytime your character gets “defeated” (that is, when you have been downed and then suffer enough additional damage to be killed) through combat, one of your armor pieces is damaged. When all of your armor is damaged and you get defeated again, one armor piece is then “broken”, meaning it no longer grants defensive benefits.

Note that deaths via falling do not damage your armor, so you can fall to your death multiple times in jumping puzzles without worrying.

I’m OK with the way the dye system works right now, but I would support a move to making dyes account-wide as well.

Huh… Thanks for bringing this to my attention. While I don’t intend to craft any of the Halloween items myself (don’t like the look), I AM something of a recipe completionist, so if the recipes are going for that cheap, I’m going to pick one of each up for my crafters.

They all got NOTHING from me. Ya hear that, ya stinkin’ kids?! NOTHING!!! deposits his 5+ stacks of Candy Corn in his vault, cackling madly

This would depend entirely on whether or not the Mad King Chest recipes continue to be valid after Halloween is over. If it is, then I would sell the Greatsaw NOW, and wait to buy the others. As time goes by, more and more skins will enter the market, and you can expect to see prices tumble accordingly. As such, the smart thing would be to take your profits now while the prices are still high.

Of course, if the recipe STOPS working after Halloween, then you can expect to see the opposite, with prices shooting up and probably peaking before Wintersday, when public interest will switch to the new skins, and Halloween skins will probably fall and settle until next year’s Halloween rolls around again.

So, it’s a gamble. Do you think the recipes will continue working? Or stop? It’s a 50-50 chance. Place your bet.

It’s pretty easy to get this title if you have a large guild. Get as many of them together in an area, and everybody drinks a tonic. (Or somebody with a Witch/Mad King costume just puts down a Cauldron/table.) Then everybody takes turns attacking all their friends who are grouped up in a nice, tight bunch for maximum point scoring with AoE attacks.

You can easily max out the title within 30 mins with enough people.

Yep. Latency is a big factor when it comes to making that final jump. What’s more, that guy who whispered you might also have been lagging and when he made the jump, the game thought he was too SLOW.

For me, the key indicator is right at the start when the gears/rubble explode out of the Tower after the brief pause. If the gears flow out from the Tower smoothly, you should be good. If they seem to freeze in mid-air for a split second or just appear suddenly, however, then you’re better off quitting the server and finding another Overflow. You might still be able to make the final jump (I did it once), but it’s exceedingly difficult and will probably just result in frustration.

I don’t really bother too much with titles. Why put so much effort into achieving something that 99% of all players are never going to notice unless they click on you (and that’s usually because you’re in WvW and they’re trying to kill you)?

The most reliable way I know of to earn money is to buy one of each gathering tool and while you’re playing normally, harvest EVERYTHING you see. At low levels, Copper tools are incredibly cheap (costing 0.24 copper per use), but the mats you gain from harvesting can net you many times that. For example, last I checked Copper Ore was still selling for around 15c each. That means for each use of a Copper Mining Pick, you are earning almost 14 copper. Sell it all on the Trading Post once you get to a stack, and that nets you a 37 silver, 50 copper profit (minus taxes). Not bad for something that only cost you 24 copper in the first place!

I was fortunate in that I wasn’t the target of any anger when I was doing the Tower on my Norn (who’s a slightly taller than average female) and Charr (who IS a max-size brute), but nonetheless, I did still remove my armor to make it easier for the other players. It doesn’t hurt me to help them out, after all.

You can probably go ahead and report the guy for scamming, but it wouldn’t help you get the promised item or your money back.

Oh, I didn’t see your post. That is a potential bug. It should be 4 achievements complete if everything is done except the Party. Hopefully ANet replies back soon. :/

Snoflake: “Come to Australia. Play with our rubbish pings (tunnelling services don’t help). We’re already borked with this puzzle just from lag alone. When you only have a couple of seconds to react and those seconds are swallowed up in the ping, you have zero room for error and you fail – over and over and over and over and over and over….”

I’m from Australia too, and I beat the Clock Tower. It’s doable. However, you ARE right in that lag makes a big difference. The easiest way to tell is by watching the gears/rubble that explode out of the Tower after the pause at the start. If the gears move out smoothly, you’re good. If the gears seem to freeze for a split second or just appear suddenly, then you’re better off quitting the instance and trying another server. You CAN still beat the puzzle, but the final jump will be very hard to judge because you won’t know for certain when the window is actually open.

I have to admit I ended up loving the Tower as well. Sure, it’s frustrating in the beginning, but as you get better and better the runs become smoother and smoother, until you can flawlessly make the jumps at the start even if your character is hidden in the middle of a huge ball of naked flesh. (Ewww…) It gives you a strange sense of satisfaction to see others fall one by one (and I’ve made the odd mistake too, even after completing the Tower multiple times, so sometimes I’m on the receiving end!) and watch yourself keep going.

On the other side, you can tell how many players are still going when you’re in the lobby. Every time a player falls, you can see the timer jump forward a notch. If you’re one of these people, you spend the time commiserating with your fellows (/cry) or cheering on the people who are still going.

“The tower and the pumpkin carving dont count towards the title.”

^ That.

If the ghost is already visible, that just means that another player was here just before you and spawned the ghost. You don’t miss out on anything if that happens; in fact, you saved yourself a Candy Corn!

Just wait… I bet you one day ANet will make a title to go with drinking tonics, make tonics tradeable in the same update, and then packrats like me who are saving up all our tonics will make a killing.

The one-time event turned out to be exactly what I thought it would be. I woke up at a ridiculously early hour (4.30 am) just so I could be there for it.

Was it worth it? In my opinion, yes. It definitely was.

I could have watched it on Youtube afterwards and not missed anything, but what you DON’T get is the building sense of anticipation, the excitement buzzing among the crowd as the hour approaches, and the mad rush of people towards the portal, all eager to be the first to challenge the Mad King himself. That’s an experience you could never, ever get from a simple video recording.

Of course ANet would make it so that anybody could access the dungeon 24/7 after MK’s initial appearance. It would be ridiculous for them to make it otherwise. I’m glad that it’s available for everybody now. All in all, aside from the ugly timing for me and other folks in Asia/Oceania, I think ANet handled this whole situation absolutely beautifully.

XiaMae.9874:

I agree, I was silently annoyed that some players would continuously say “charr die”, etc., before EVERY round, and I’m surprised those Charrs and Norns would always stay quiet. It’s just rude.

We Charr and Norn have thick skins.

Account.9832:

It was actually there before the puzzle went online in GW2.

Yeah, but the download link wasn’t the first time I visited it last week. Thanks for the heads-up!

I consider it too dangerous to loot for a measly 4 or 5 ToT’s. I just bypass it each time. As the Charr back in the lobby says, “If you eat all the apples in the orchard, you’ll never be able to make apple pie.”

Human Female Mesmer – COMPLETE
Norn Female Ranger (slightly larger than average size) – COMPLETE
Asura Male Elementalist – COMPLETE
Charr Male Warrior (max size) – COMPLETE, but it was an absolute kitten to do.
Sylvari Female Necromancer – COMPLETE

No speed boosts were used for any of them. My Mesmer was the first to attempt it, and it took me well over an hour before I finally learned all of the tricks for the puzzle and where to shave off a precious few seconds here and there. After that though, it’s basically become muscle memory and I can make it to the end almost every single time.

abstieg.1782:

For people having trouble seeing, your character remains in the middle of your screen. It’s not (all that) important to be able to physically see your character. Know where your center of mass is. It’s harder but doable.

Agreed. It’s definitely annoying the first few times you’re attempting it, but after a while it becomes almost like muscle memory and you can make the first few jumps even while completely obscured. All of the platforms in the beginning are fairly large so there’s a pretty good margin of error. Later the platforms start becoming smaller and thinner, but the ranks are usually thinned out by then so it’s no longer an issue.

It’s also worth mentioning that Charr have their own problems when doing this JP. It’s much, MUCH harder to judge distances as a Charr due to their awkward four-pose jumping animation. (Tip: Your hind legs are always the “safe spot”. Aim with those.) Despite completing my other four characters relatively easily, it took me more than an hour to beat it on my Charr.

Krag: “I had this bug once too, if you just can’t jump through the window (and trust me I tried 4 or 5 times), simply leave this puzzle and go in another.
It seems that the clock tower can be desynch’d and the final jump is not doable.
A good way to check if it’s desynch’d is to check the animation of the starting explosion, the walls parts will move weirdly before going into position.”

Yep, that was exactly the problem, and I fixed it the same way. To everybody attempting the jump, observe the blow-out gears after that little pause near the start. If it all happens smoothly, you’re good to go. If, however, the gear/rubble seem to freeze in mid-air for a split second, or appear suddenly, then your latency to this particular server is too high and it will make the final jump nearly impossible to complete. I suggest exiting and finding another Overflow server.

You’re meant to jump at the clock tower after the window breaks (and you only get one window of opportunity. If you try waiting for the tower to come around a second time to jump through, the goo will reach you first), but if you have a high ping to the server, the server thinks the window has broken a good second or two BEFORE you actually see the animation. Thus, by the time you make the jump, you’re too late.

It’s still possible to make it into the window by jumping early, but this is very hard to guess. I made it by watching an Asura jump early and then quickly following him, even though the window was only just breaking as I made the jump.