Guild Wars 2

Perhaps they’re Discoverable-only recipes that needs Halloween-specific ingredients?

Thanks for the pictures, ster!

The scythe looks too “flimsy” for my tastes, but I think it will make a lot of Necromancers who are going for the Grim Reaper look very happy.

I also noticed the “SY!” split with some trepidation. Not so much for myself, because I came from GW1 and am used to split skills, but because it may be ANet conceding that despite their efforts not to split skills for GW2 because of the increased work it meant for them, they’re going to have to end up doing it anyway.

And this is why I’m kinda glad that I’m still at work. At least by the time I get home, most of the initial rush will have died down. Now to check the Wiki religiously to see what the new quests/content are!

Huh… Is that how people are playing the game? I mostly just use my left hand for WASD movement, dodging, interacting, and use my mouse to click on skills to activate them. (I press C to target the nearest enemy, and Tab to cycle through enemies for targeting.)

I’m with robinsiebler and Gummy on this. Until Guesting is implemented, I vote to keep the free server transfers to prevent people being prevented from playing with friends across different guilds/servers.

I also hope that ANet can find a way to allow access to guild services/bonuses across different servers too. I understand why server bonuses can’t be applied to people on different servers, but surely if I belong to a guild on a different server, I should be able to access their guild stash and their benefits, right? Otherwise what’s the point of me accumulating this influence that they can never use?

I think the current Daily Achievements are fine as they are. They’re not terribly difficult to complete, and you should be able to complete it by just playing normally in a zone. (I have heard that getting kill varieties is quite difficult in Orr, due to the over-abundance of Risen, so maybe ANet needs to look at that.)

I believe items bought from the gem store are delivered via your Mail instantly. Make sure you have space available in your mailbox. Once you’ve deleted some excess messages, you may see it show up.

If ANet were to create a gem store item that gives a permanent 50% (for a lesser version) or 100% (for a greater version) discount on all Waypoint travels, I would BUY IT IN A HEARTBEAT.

Sorry, can’t really help you. Like Secrets in the Swamp, it seems to be on a very rare timer. All I can suggest is keep an eye out for it and quickly rush over there the moment somebody announces in Map Chat that the event is up.

Going forward though, I believe ANet needs to speed up the recharge timer for these meta events. Frozen Maw occurs a bit too rapidly IMO (about once every 20 – 30 mins, I think), but about once every hour or two should be fine.

It helps to have multiple alts that you’re all leveling through the starter zones at the same time, and only ONE Tailor out of all of them who gets all the Jute scraps.

Godslayer.1203:

I will reply to this thread on Oct. 22nd.

<Insert “I see what you did there” picture meme>

Lucky! My best lucky streak was 5 in a row.

Excited for the update and waiting semi-patiently. I’m not going to get any work done today when I’m compulsively checking these forums every minute for the latest news. :P

Hey, I’m already at work and will be for another 6 hours. If the event were to be delayed by SEVEN hours so I can get home just in time for it to start, that would be fine by me! Just goes to show that one man’s frustrating delay is another man’s boon.

I can see where you’re coming from, Darth Danny, but remember that by the time these [Master] quests were introduced for GW1 Halloween, the game had already been out for FIVE years. That’s plenty of time for players to have leveled a character to 20 (and more than likely multiple characters), completed all the campaigns and probably got a good deal of high-level equipment and skins to boot. And even then, the Master Halloween quests didn’t offer anything in terms of extra rewards other than XP and additional ToT bags.

GW2 has been out less than 2 months at this time. It’s safe to assume that the vast majority of players do not have a level 80 character, and may not even have really ventured past the starting areas if they’re serious altoholics and have multiple characters on the go at once. I’m all for including “high-level content”, but it should be on the level of WvW or Keg Brawl where you can still participate in a meaningful (and fun!) way regardless of how you’ve chosen to play the game so far.

I believe ANet once stated that the vast majority of accounts the gold sellers use are hacked/stolen accounts. This is usually accomplished by installing keyloggers on your computer when you visit their site to buy gold. They then sell you the gold after you’ve paid the money, and then a few days later, after they’ve had time to narrow down and pinpoint which of your passwords belong to your e-mail and GW2 account, they log on to your account, change your password, liquidate all your assets, then steal back any gold still remaining on your account to sell to another hapless victim within the same day.

@HiSaZul (Quote function broken): I really, REALLY like that idea of yours! Allow the Necromancer to summon more than one minion of a particular type, but doing so reserves a certain amount of their Life Force bar. This could allow dedicated MM’s who don’t like the Death Shroud to summon a small army of minions, but at the cost of losing out on their additional DS abilities and an extra health pool for when things get serious.

While I agree that most of the GW2 minions look rather underwhelming (with the Bone Minions and the Flesh Wurm being exceptions), I’m still loving being a MM. Being followed around by a gaggle of dead things just makes the little necromancer boy in me giggle.

My main gripe with the build is that minions are still underwhelming when compared to other Necromancer builds (even more so when compared to professions like Warrior or Guardian). Minions are extremely squishy and don’t deal a lot of damage; I understand that the main benefit of minions is meant to come from their linked skill, but come on, let us command an ARMY, ANet! Otherwise we’re no better than glorified Rangers. :P

Things I would do to make a MM more fun:

1. Increase the base health of minions by 25% and their base damage by 10%.
2. Allow minions to regenerate their health in between battles.
3. Remove the innate health degen from Jagged Horrors. (Currently I’m hearing reports of Jagged Horrors dying before they even reach their target. That’s not terribly useful…)
4. Add a new Grandmaster Death Magic trait (“Order of Undeath”?) that doubles the number of minions summoned with each minion summoning skill. So you could have 2 Blood Fiends, 2 Bone Fiends, 4 Bone Minions, 2 Flesh Wurms/Shadow Fiends and 2 Flesh Golems following you around.
5. Bone Fiends have a 25% chance to cause 1 stack of Bleeding with each of their attacks.
6. Shadow Fiends have a 25% chance to cause Blind with each of their attacks. Their Haunt special ability now inflicts Blind to its main target and all enemies adjacent to that target.
7. Flesh Wurms have a 25% chance to cause 1 stack of Poison with each of their attacks.
8. Flesh Golems have a 25% chance to knock down a foe for 1s with each of their attacks.

I use Scepter/Pistol as my main weapon set in PvE. It’s fantastic for dealing with single foes (especially against Veterans or tough single foes like ettins), but it’s not the fastest killer and so can leave you overwhelmed if you get attacked by multiple foes. I carry a Staff as my second weapon set for that purpose; drop Chaos Storm at your feet, cast Mirror Images to gain 2 Clones, Phase Retreat to gain a third Clone, then Mind Wrack for a nice AoE spike while everybody’s still bleeding/poisoned/confused in my disco ball.

I’m from Australia too, but I wouldn’t worry too much about it, my fellow ANZACs. Chances are the event Colin’s talking about will be a 24 hour repeating event similar to Mad King Thorn’s visits for GW1. ANet’s done these special events for over 7 years now; they know how to work these things so that all players will have a chance to see them.

You should come to Tarnished Coast, the RP server. People are very social and chatty there.

Sometimes I don’t respond to people thanking me because I’m too busy chatting in Guild chat, so don’t take it personally. There’s only so much typing my fingers can do.

Nerelith.7360:

Anet needs to bann anyone caught purchasing Gold from Gold sellers. No suspensions..Just ban them, and make it known. THEN this will become a dis-incentive for others that also buy but were not caught.

I’m pretty sure ANet already does this. They banned people in GW1 for buying gold, and I’m sure they’re doing the same now.

I sold my small stash of BLC’s for 30c each when the price started to spike two days ago. Considering they were only worth 2 – 3c a week ago, I consider the profit “good enough” and moved on.

There are a large number of runes (and sigils) that can only be obtained by salvaging them from armor/drops. For example, all runes relating to a race’s capital city (e.g. Black Citadel, Grove, Rata Sum) cannot be crafted. Tier 3 Cultural armors come with a Superior version of the rune already installed, but lesser versions must be salvaged from drops.

In addition, there are also runes/sigils which can be only obtained by trading them for tokens from Dungeon Vendors. These runes are account-bound on acquire, I believe, so you won’t see them on the TP either.

Unfortunately I made my Sylvari before learning that their names have Irish/Gaelic influences. Still, I think “Ishyal” sounds soft/planty enough that it shouldn’t stand out from other Sylvari names. I kept her name to just one word as per keeping with the lore of most Sylvari having only a single name.

Red Jay.2516:

My point is: revere whatever spirit you want, as long as you are okay with other norns not taking you seriously.

I actually saw a Norn character running around the other day named “Wurm Shaman XXX”. I thought that was totally awesome.

Spirit of Salmon also seems reasonable for a Norn spirit. Many cultures have always admired the salmon’s determination in heading back up river to its ancestral spawning grounds every year, and it could be a spirit that exemplifies determination and family. Failing that, there could also be the Spirit of Drake (Ice Drakes), which exemplify hardiness and raw ferocity.

I would prefer dyes to be account-wide rather than character-specific, but I’m largely OK with the system as it is now. I move specific colours onto characters that I’m aiming for, and just use whatever other dyes I find on the character that finds them. (If all characters have the same dye unlocked, I sell it on the TP or give it away to guildies.)

32 and loving it. I’m on Tarnished Coast, and the roleplaying community there is one of the best I’ve seen in any MMO. Great place to hang out and tell stories with others in between heading out to adventure!

The Order armors are there as a (relatively) cheap way for players to access level 80 exotic armor. All other Exotic armors are obtained purely for their aesthetic value, and have been given a high price so as to give players a goal to strive for. If you like an armor’s look, go for it! If you don’t, you can spend your money/karma/time somewhere else. Everything at level 80 is basically a fashion choice.

To the OP… You got Secrets in the Swamp to spawn?! That quest is so ridiculously hard to catch that I’ve pretty much given up on ever seeing it more than once.

Warrior is also a good choice if you’re just after simplicity. Just whack on signets (Healing Signet, Signet of Might, Signet of Accuracy, Dolyak Signet, Signet of Rage) in slots 6 – 0 and never look at that portion of your bar again.

I believe that +MF only applies to getting rares/exotics from drops, but I haven’t tested it with dyes.

That’s also a possible solution. I think the main “problem” being felt by most players is that they keep getting more and more BLC’s, and can’t do anything with them because they don’t want to buy keys (not to mention that with the exception of a few items like the Permanent Bank Express and the BL Salvage Kit, very few items from BLC’s are actually worth the price). The chests just feel like a constant “Please buy our keys!” ad in your face. If the drop rate of chests was toned down, that would also help the issue. (I’d still prefer a more reliable way to get key drops though.)

I think GW2 has a decent enough range of attractive armor between skimpy (and I believe the males have some skimpy looking armor too) and protective. I’m all for more options, as long as there are options for both sides of the playerbase.

While I don’t deny that the keys are an obvious (and fair) way for ANet to earn some money, I do believe they should make the keys a little easier to obtain. I think that giving out one BLK for the Daily Completion (and maybe 5 – 10 for the Monthly Completion) would be enough to give players more of a feeling like they’re not being pressured into buying keys, without affecting the supply of keys unduly. On a typical playing day, I will usually earn anywhere from 3 – 5 BLC’s; one key a day isn’t going to put a huge dent in my steadily-growing stockpile. (Although admittedly I sold all of my BLC’s recently when the price spiked due to the Halloween announcement.)

Yep, what Astraea said. Whenever you cancel a bid or sale on the TP, the items/coin is refunded to the Pick Up section of the Trading Post.

I usually price my items halfway between the lowest seller and the higher buyer. Whether it’s somebody buying my item to flip, or somebody who just desperately needs my rune/wood planks/ingredients NOW doesn’t really matter to me. I’d rather be out in the world exploring and battling to quibble over the difference. More coin is nice, but time is money too!

Tarvok is right. The main problem is that there are far too many crafters when compared to buyers, and since just about anything that can be crafted can also be found by adventuring in the world, that just depresses the market further.

Keep in mind that in most MMOs, crafting is NEVER intended to be a source of profit for the player. Rather, it is simply another money sink designed to take away excess income from players. For me, I engage in crafting because I like the feeling of being able to make something for myself and not have to rely on somebody else selling it to me. (Other reasons for getting involved in crafting are to access unique armor skins as well as to work towards getting a Legendary weapon.) But from the start I held no illusions that I would ever be able to MAKE money by crafting.

The only ways to make money on the TP are by selling materials or by flipping, and you basically need to watch the TP like a real-life stock market if you want to do the latter.

So basically, you’d like HM for GW2? I can’t say I really agree with that idea. Some of the less populated servers are apparently already dying as people move to more populated servers (or servers that consistently win WvW). Splitting the player base further would not be a productive move, in my opinion.

As far as the difficulty goes, ANet also needs to consider the needs of the solo players, the ones who don’t run around with friends or guildmates. (Reasons for this could be varied, ranging from timezone issues, a desire to play in a particular style, or perhaps they just don’t feel comfortable with the social obligations of playing in a group.) It’s my opinion that one should be able to solo anything one encounters in PvE except for Champions, Group Events and Dungeons, which are all designed as challenges to be taken on by multiple players.

Congratulations. Although I personally do not like the appearance of any of the Greatsword legendaries, I respect the amount of time and effort that went into this. Enjoy your Eternity.

I find it simpler to just dedicate one crafting skill to each character, and have that character only ever purchase recipes relating to that crafting skill. Of course, this method will not work for you if you don’t have a severe case of alt-itis like I do.

It depends largely on the required level of the item. Items from level 1 – 19 will salvage into Jute, with the higher level/priced items giving more Jutes. (Generally, chestpieces and leggings will give more scraps than gloves/headgear/boots too.)

Items from level 20 onwards will start to salvage into Tier 2 mats like Wool, although on rare occasions you may still get Jute from them.

In most cases, I salvage any whites and blues for the materials for use in crafting, and either sell green items (because they’re worth more in coin than you can get from selling the mats) or if they have a pricey rune on them, salvage it with a Fine/BL salvage kit, then sell the rune.

Yeah, you can make it back fairly easily if you’re adventuring in appropriate level areas. But if you go back to a starter zone, the WP travel costs don’t get cheaper, if I remember correctly.

I actually hope ANet will create a Gem Store item like a “Asura Frequent Traveller Orb” that reduces WP travel costs by 50%, and maybe a greater version that makes it 100% free. I’m willing to be that item would result in a LOT of gems being bought.

Well, unless ANet improve the rate at which BL keys drop, I guess I’m going to be selling my stockpile of BLC’s in my bank! No doubt I’ll rebuild this stockpile before long after Halloween is over.

The disparity between the supply of Chests and Keys is really out of hand though. My suggestion would be to include a BLK as part of the Daily reward, and perhaps 10 Keys as part of the Monthly reward. That way, players can at least get some more mileage out of their chests, but the supply of chests is still high enough that there will still be people buying keys from the Gem Store.

Only people in your immediate vicinity will see your emote in their chat window. For example, if you were in Divinity’s Reach and /sit inside the Busted Flagon, only people in the Busted Flagon and a short distance around the inn would see it. Somebody at the Bank/Trading Post, or somebody at the Shrine to Kormir in the north, wouldn’t see your emote in their chat window.

Ronah.2869:

I haven’t made this thread for me, but I just made a list of things people ask for in this forum. I won’t buy the things I suggested because its not my style but I don’t mind to make life easier for those who want it easier.

I can’t say I’ve actually seen people asking to simply buy completion for the game’s aspects… But let’s throw it out there and see.

Who here would buy any of the gem store items that unlocks progress instantly? If you would buy it, post below and state which one you would buy and why. (Lack of gaming time, don’t want to re-level an alt etc.) Everyone else, please do not attack these posters. This is simply to see if there IS such an interest, and to understand the motivations behind it.

One other solution is to make Story mode more worthwhile for people to revisit. Perhaps award a small amount of Dungeon tokens for beating the Story mode like, say, 10 – 20. This should be easy enough to apply retroactively too; simply give anybody who has the Explore mode unlocked the appropriate number of tokens for that dungeon.

Dear Meccal,

I write to you today in the hopes of resolving a long-standing argument between myself and my husband (It’s MATE, woman!) husband, who is a Charr. He insists that the Charr were perfectly within their rights to use the Searing against Ascalon, seeing as how it was their land to begin with and the Ascalonians were “illegal squatters” who had stolen their land through deceit and murder. I contend that no war, no matter the underlying causes, could have justified using something as horrendous like the Searing on thousands of innocent people. (And the Foefire is a “different story”. Right, love?) This is my letter, Fluffykins. (YOU KNOW I HATE IT WHEN YOU CALL ME THAT!)

Ahem. Please help us resolve this one thorny issue in an otherwise blissful relationship, Master Meccal! Was the Searing a justified military act or not?

Sincerely,
Angry in Ascalon.

Servers were reset today, so please oh PLEASE stay alive on Tarnished Coast until I can get home, Utcua!