Guild Wars 2

I picked a soothing blue colour for my glow. It goes pretty well with my dark green hair-leaves.

I do agree that my female Sylvari’s sounds of pain do sound a little… odd. More like gasps of surprise than anything else. I’ve kind of gotten used to it though. Perhaps the Sylvari do not really feel pain in the same way that animals do, after all.

I would have preferred the Sylvari dance to be a bit more like the female Ritualist from GW1 (slow, sinuous, like tree branches swaying in the wind), but it’s fine as it is.

I wonder if Sylvari “juices” taste like nectar…

I would have thought that the fact ALL sylvari/sylvari relationships are technically incestous would have been more upsetting than same-gendered relationships. :P

Cuddlesworth.3187:

This. In fact, generally speaking, larger predators are more sneaky than their smaller counterparts, this because a long chase burns too many calories for a large heavy predator.

True. Large predators usually have adaptations or hunting styles that enable them to bring down prey with a minimum of effort. Lions hunt in packs so that no one predator has to expend too much energy. Tigers are ambush predators that attack from hiding and kill prey with a single bite to the neck. Sharks prefer to attack suddenly, take one huge bite out of their prey, then retreat and wait till it dies of blood loss before moving in to feed.

Although with polar bears, they generally feed on seals that are hiding in their burrows within the ice sheet. They listen carefully to hear the seals (usually young pups) moving around in their burrows, then use their strength to break down through the ice to grab them. (This is also why global warming is affecting the polar bears so badly. The melting ice means that they can no longer use this tactic of hunting.)

I kind of agree with the OP, but not so much in terms of attractiveness. My main beef is that the body shape of human females and Norn females is so similar. You can tell at a glance whether or not a particular male PC is human or Norn, but it’s not as easy to tell whether you’re looking at a particularly short Norn female, or a particularly tall human female. I’d rather that they’d made Norn females broader, with the same general proportions as the men. It looks really weird when you stand Norn men and women next to each other, especially when you stand human men and women next to each other and compare the two pairs.

Norn marriages are generally “between equals”, but not all Norn marriages are the same. There are a large number of Norn craftsmen, brewers, and even traders. For these households, I imagine their domestic life is much the same as a human family, except that they probably split chores and responsibilities evenly and don’t have distinct gender roles the way humans do.

My Norn is a ranger too. And yes, she’s also getting Eir’s armor. XD It’s probably the best-looking armor there is for a female Norn adventurer.

I know that it’s supposed to be “Yo-tun”, but I often forget it myself and pronounce it Jotun. >.>

I’m not really a fan of the Norn culture and history (seriously, we’re not all gluttonous, glory-seeking boozehounds… :P), but I do enjoy running around as a giant woman looking down at all these human, sylvari and asura scampering around her feet.

And putting arrows through the knees of unsuspecting bandits.

Yeah, I had some trouble with this on my female Norn and (especially) my max-sized male Charr. I think this would be fairly easy for ANet to fix, though; they just need to allow us to go into first person view, then we can aim the camera at our feet when jumping in tight spaces.

Charr acknowledge the existence of god-like beings such as the Six Human Gods; they just don’t believe them to be true “gods”, but simply powerful creatures that can be fought and killed, and therefore unworthy of worship. (And to be fair, Abaddon’s fate in Nightfall lends strength to their theory.) The arrival of the Dragons and the way that Jormag just slaughtered the spirits of Owl and potentially Ox and Wolverine probably does nothing to discourage their belief either.

To the impeccably erudite and neurologically distinguished Meccal,

I am a recent graduate of the College of Dynamics, working with PR&T Esoterics in the research and application of various ooze-related technologies for the benefit of all. However, one of the original krewe members (an ostentatious flamhead you may have heard of who insists on calling him “Dr Bleent”) has recently gone rogue and is attempting to commercialise our research in the form of imbibable ooze-derived fluids. Our krewe chief, Hrouda, is attempting to shut down his operations, but I must admit… Dr Bleent’s products DO seem to be selling well. And I COULD use some additional funding for some pet projects of mine… What should I do? Should I switch krewes?

Sincerely,
-name withheld-

Basically what Kesarai said. I find it more amusing that I often see posts where the writer has deliberately pre-written “kitten” into their post to pre-empt the filter. XD

^ I support this. We should not be forced to purchase a whole armor set just to get the runes on it! Make it similar to the way the Dungeon vendors sell the runes for their armor separately.

My Charr Warrior always carries his boomstick as his weapon swap for those situations where it’s inadvisable to get close, or when he needs to destroy pesky Bursting Brambles before bringing in the blades.

The best pet name I ever saw was a Pig named “Chauvinistic”.

I personally would love to give each of my pets names, but alas, the game prevents me from doing so. I still have a paper list of names that I keep beside my desk, however, and I faithfully rename my pets each time I swap them. Rangers running around with a “Juvenile XX” make me sad.

My current menagerie:

- Land #1: “Trixie” – Pink Moa
- Land #2: “Rime” – Ice Drake
- Water #1: “Braxis” – Armored Fish
- Water #2: “Zebes” – Rainbow Jellyfish

I personally want my Necromancer to be the “undead general” role. I miss the good old days back in Prophecies when my MM could steamroll anything with 40+ minions. XD But right now, I’d be happy if minions automatically regenerated health while out of combat (seriously, it’s super annoying going into battle when my Bone Fiend has only 1/10 health left and I have no way to kill it), and if there was a Death Magic Trait that allowed us to summon twice the normal number of minions when a skill is used.

Imagine it… Two Blood Fiends, two Bone Fiends, four Bone Minions, two Flesh Wurms, two Flesh Golems… Now THAT’S (bordering on) a proper Minion army!

Human domination of Tyria is certainly in decline (and is probably dead, with the Asura, Norn, Charr and Sylvari on the scene), but is the human race dying? I think not. There’s still a sizable population in Kryta, and aside from the centaurs, the largest threat to Kryta comes from its own internal corruption. If they can fix that (and the Human personal storyline and CM dungeon suggests they do), the humans will be free to once more turn their attention outwards and build a greater role for themselves in Tyria.

We also don’t know what the state of humanity is like in Cantha and Elona. I imagine they’d be pretty miserable over in Elona with Joko in charge (who’s probably demanding regular sacrifices and tribute from them so he can build his armies to battle Kralkatorrik’s minions), but if the Canthan Empire had grown powerful enough to evict all non-humans from the continent, it’s a safe bet that their military must be incredibly powerful. All it needs is for one Emperor to decide that Cantha must now rule the world. In fact, I have a sneaking suspicion that the Canthans will be the ENEMY in a Canthan expansion, with their armies arriving in Tyria and attempting to conquer the other races/nations. (Perhaps the Emperor has fallen under the sway of a Dragon, or even found a way to bend one to his bidding?)

Yeah, PTD is pretty weak as it currently stands. I’d increase the amount of healing the skill gives and either:

a) reduce the cooldown to 25s, or
b) change the skill so that it also heals allies around you.

Melissandre Du Ri, female Mesmer. She is the great-granddaughter of two of my GW1 characters (a male Ascalonian Warrior and a female Canthan Assassin) who settled down in Lion’s Arch after their adventures were over. She still belongs to her great-grandfather’s ancestral Ascalon family (House Ri) who founded a new noble house in Kryta as a reward for their part in helping place Queen Salma on the throne. Despite her heritage, she regards Kryta as her home and feels little kinship to her ancestral homelands.

I agree that Prayer to Dwayna and Prayer to Kormir badly need buffs. I’d increase the healing granted by Dwayna and either have it also grant you regeneration for X seconds OR heal all allies within a radius. Prayer to Kormir is alright in terms of effect, but it needs a cooldown buff, or it also needs to affect other allies.

I wouldn’t mind Prayer to Lyssa getting a small cooldown buff as well (10s would be perfect, in my opinion), but it might be abused in PvP settings.

I just head-canon’ed it for my Human Mesmer, who is the great-granddaughter of two of my GW1 heroes (a male Ascalonian Warrior, and a female Canthan Assassin). She identifies more with Ascalon than Cantha, however, given Kryta’s stronger ties to Ebonhawke than to Cantha’s isolationist stance, so I picked her heritage as Ascalonian when asked.

Not to mention that Cinnamon Apples need an intermediate ingredient from Cinnamon and something else, which you may not have discovered yet.

My chosen weapon is the Staff, and I only tend to swap between Fire and Water in most battles. I bring utility skills like Arcane Wave and Arcane Blast to trigger combos, then use Flame Burst, Lava Font and Fireball to dish out high damage packets while triggering combos. Usually this tactic massacres any normal mobs that dare approach me. If enemies are still alive after the initial barrage, use Burning Retreat, swap to Water, throw up Geyser and Healing Rain and use Arcane Wave/Blast to heal yourself via combo if necessary, then kite the enemy for a bit (I use Ether Renewal as my healing skill, so I sometimes throw it up while I’m kiting if necessary) until Fire Attunement recharges, then swap back and resume the initial barrage.

If things really go fubar, swap to Air, use Gust to push your enemy away if he’s chasing your kitten, and pop Windborne Speed to get out of there. I barely ever use Earth since it lacks the high damage of Fire. It’s good for crippling and kiting enemies, but when I’m playing on my own it can’t kill enemies fast enough.

The only time I struggle with this tactic is if there are one or more Veterans in the group (and usually this means I aggro’ed poorly), since killing a Veteran takes me long enough that there’s a good chance the first Veteran will respawn before I kill the second.

It may be that “shod” or some part of those four letters is an insulting term in some obscure language that made it into the filters from GW1 days.

I wouldn’t be surprised if +MF worked similarly to the double chance events in GW1; that the boost is so miniscule that you probably would never notice it. 3 × 0.1% is still only 0.3%. :P

I actually wouldn’t mind seeing this implemented for all classes. You can have up to four different weapon sets, but only two can be hot-swapped while in combat (Elementalists and Engineers are still restricted to one set in combat.) As a Warrior who’s torn for choice between Sword+Shield, Hammer, Greatsword and Rifle, I’d love for there to be a way to have more weapon sets to choose from when switching between PvE and WvW.

I don’t think [Group Event] bosses should be scaled down, since they are intended to be fought by a group of players. However, the difficulty of certain bosses in DE’s needs to be looked at, because it can be quite inconsistent.

For example, in Lake Adora in Plains of Ashford, there’s a Champion Ghost boss named Grazden that’s supposedly a Group Event challenge, yet Grazden himself dies even quicker than a Veteran. On the reverse side, the Veteran Chaos Beast in the Anthill in Metrica Province hits like a Group Event Champion boss, downing characters in just 2 or 3 hits.

Other bosses may need to be tweaked as well. The infamous Krait Witch in Caledon Forest kills players in 2 or 3 hits, easily crushing groups of players unless you zerg her with 6+ players at the same time. I feel that Xolotl, the other nearby Group Event Champion boss in the area, is a better example of a boss that is powerful and can’t be solo’ed, but is challenging without being frustrating when you face her with a small group of 3 – 4 players.

The way GW2 seems to recognise contribution is quite random. Like you guys, I’ve been in DE’s where I’ve been throwing in healing fields and reviving downed people, only to get Bronze or Silver at the end, and other DE’s where I came in at the last minute, cast Confusing Images on the boss 3 seconds before he died, and gotten Gold.

Does not compute!

Although I don’t craft dyes on my Chef (precisely because of the way the RNG works with crafted dyes, and because I get unidentified dye drops often enough that I’m unlocking a good range of colours through normal play), I agree that crafted dyes should give a guaranteed Common, Uncommon or Rare dye depending on the tier they are crafted. This would help ameliorate high prices for in-demand dyes on the TP, as well as increase demand and prices for various low-tier cooking materials (which let’s face it, are mostly tanking on the TP apart from certain materials like Vanilla).

To get other players into your story instance, invite them to join your party. But be warned, as Avan pointed out, inviting too high players may result in enemies being horribly over-leveled compared to you. (I believe they cap out at +2 levels for the recommended quest level.)

Otherwise, you can try overwhelming the skale’s regeneration with multiple conditions. The burst skill for a sword inflicts quite a lot of Bleeding, for instance, and if you can supplement this with Poison or Burning from a friend, it should be enough to keep the boss from regenerating.

This already exists in the game. Just use your HoM Portal Stone when you need to go AFK. It takes you to the HoM where you’re completely safe from harm, and when you use it again it takes you back to where you were.

Most conversations I’ve observed with Charr NPCs seem to indicate that they’re extremely territorial, but that they’re willing to relax this attitude if the other person is perceived as being part of their “warband”. Plebians and other non-Charr who settle in Charr lands are officially treated as being part of the Charr legion, so most Charr accept it without protest. (There are some “racist” Charr NPCs in the Black Citadel though; one in particular hangs out near the tanks.) Another reason for this acceptance may also be the fact that since Charr social structure is militaristic in nature, Charr lower down the hierarchy are simply conditioned to believe that “you don’t argue with the brass”, and just follow their lead, with perhaps a little grumbling along the way.

As a Warrior, I’m already more or less unkillable in most scenarios, so I wanted somebody who could support me at range. That left either Euryale or Reeva, and since Euryale’s personality description didn’t really strike my fancy, I picked Reeva instead. I admit she’s a little lacklustre at points, but the way she’s just so excited for you when you become Legionnaire or her fear when it’s down to just the two of you after the prologue makes me want to pick her up and cuddle her.

I’m curious about Dinky now after all the comments here though. I might have to pay more attention to his Wiki page.

I find it hard to think of anybody BUT Engineers or Warriors belonging to the Iron Legion, and the latter only because they can use rifles as their weapon. The Charr are never shown using magic-powered devices in any of their war machines (except maybe the Ghostblast batteries, but we really don’t have enough information about how they work), and the only spellcasters we ever see are our warband members, the occasional Ash Legion necromancer and Flame Legion Shamans.

My Charr Warrior, Krushak Doomblade, can best be described as a sort of ruthless but shrewd general in the veins of Genghis Khan or Napolean. (His personality breakdown is something like 80% Ferocity, 15% Diplomatic, and 5% Charm. I can’t help but flirt back with Reeva and some female NPCs. XD) His enemies fear him for his savage, merciless behaviour in combat, but he inspires great loyalty and respect from his friends and warband for his refusal to let them take risks he would not take himself and for the way he can lead them to victory even against overwhelming odds.

Krushak is something of a racial supremacist in that he believes the Charr to be a superior race, destined to conquer and subjugate the other races in a kind of institutionalised semi-slavery. At the same time, he abhors abuse and cruelty for its own sake, decrying the excesses of the Flame Legion’s conquest of Ascalon. All races, he believes, can become an integral and valued part of the great Charr war machine. Yes, the Charr will be at the top of the heap, but actively seeking the destruction of other races is foolishness. Why destroy, when you can conquer, assimilate and utilise instead?

Above all though, Krushak is a pragmatist. He does not hesitate to change his mind or tactics if he sees something isn’t working or if it would provide less benefit than the resources expended in achieving it. He actually privately opposes the ongoing war against the Ascalonian ghosts, seeing it as a waste of manpower and resources that could be better spent directed towards the war against the Dragons. The ghosts aren’t going anywhere; they can always come back to the ghosts when the Dragons are defeated or when they have a surefire solution to putting the ghosts to rest once and for all.

Lifelike.5862:

I think there’s a charr cub somewhere in black citadel who hints at having two fathers. He says something along the lines of “I miss Daddy.” and a nearby male charr says “I know, son, he’ll be back soon”. The older charr could be calling the cub ‘son’ as an affectionate term though, so it doesn’t necessarily mean anything, but I guess that’s up for interpretation.

I remember that conversation! I thought it odd at the time that they sounded so much like a typical family unit when I was under the impression that Charr parents basically give off their cub to the fahrar as soon as it is weaned. However, if you talk to the Cubminder outside of the Black Citadel in Plains of Ashford, her dialogue seems to suggest that Charr parents do raise their children (either together or separately) for a few years after they are born, before the cubs are sent to the fahrar.

Then again, it’s also entirely possible that in the 250 years since EotN, more and more Charr have become exposed to alternate methods of companionship and child-rearing and some might choose to abandon the fahrar-system altogether, particularly gladiums who leave/renounce Charr society as a whole and go to live among other races.

AuldWolf.7598:

Did anyone like Gwen?

I did.

She appeals to the Protector in me, who remembers the innocent little girl she was in Pre-Searing, and who is deeply saddened by the experiences she’s endured that turned her into the person she is in EotN. Yes, she’s almost psychopathic in her hatred of the Charr, but given what happened to Ascalon during the Searing and the years of slavery she endured since, can you really blame her?

I cannot, however, forgive ANet for making her marry Keiran. Gwen is MINE, you Balthazar-blasted grawl-spawn who can’t even keep his awesome PvE Ranger skills after he becomes a Hero! :P

Back on the original topic though, I admire the Charr’s emphasis on self-reliance and dogged determination. While I’m not a fan of steampunk (keep your guns out of my fantasy!), I believe ANet has done a good job in not letting it become overwhelming in the game. However, it wasn’t until I rolled up a Charr character and heard these words:

“I am a Charr.

In this world of constant conflict, I am the deadliest weapon of all."

That I knew I was going to enjoy playing a Charr.

Name: Krushak Doomblade. (Doom is the warband name, but he bears no relation to to Vaatlaw Doomtooth or Pyre Fierceshot.)
Legion: Blood.
Rank: Centurion, detached.
Duty: Adjutant to Rytlock Brimstone and embedded liaison with the Vigil.

I always wanted a harsh, guttural name for my male Charr, so after rolling a few syllables off my tongue to see which one sounded the best, I ended up with Krushak (pronounced “Crew-shark”). I knew I was going to make him into a sword and shield user, and since he was of the Blood Legion, he lives to bring “doom” to his enemies, so “Doomblade” became his surname.

Unfortunately, that could be abused by random trolls reporting innocent people chatting in towns, making them be automatically blocked even though the report is false.

As a roleplayer, personally I wouldn’t like to see a character named “Black Afro Mesmer” running around in my server (the same way I wouldn’t want to see somebody named “Xx Dethslayr Xx” or “Captain Jack Sparrow”), but I agree that it’s not offensive in and of itself, so you’re within your rights to keep that name. Dispute the name change, and hopefully the CSR will relent.

My Asura Elementalist is named “Ploop the Didactic”. (I was trying to get just plain old “Ploop”, but somebody had already taken the name during BWE. He’s also pretty tired of bookahs calling him “Poop”. )

Ploop’s life-long dream is to write “Ploop’s Grande Bestiary – A comprehensive encyclopedic guide to the flora and fauna of Greater Tyria”. He will then lobby the Arcane Council to have it included as compulsory reading for the educational curriculum of progeny.

“My name will be famous as an indelible mark in the brains of all future asura! Mwaahahahaha!” – Ploop the Didactic, when quizzed by his friends about his reasons behind his ambition.

I’ll add my vote of support to including a Black Lion Key for completing the Daily Achievement along with the existing rewards. I can typically get 3 or 4 BLC’s just from one day’s play, so a single BLK per day is unlikely to make a serious dent in ANet’s income source from keys purchased from the Gem Store.

I actually agree with the above. Why not make it so that completing all of the dungeons once in Explore mode rewards you with one Precursor weapon of your choice? (You can limit this to once per character to prevent farming.)

Other ideas might be that completing all of the jumping puzzles, or completing achievements like “The Emperor’s New Wardrobe”, all contribute one item towards getting a Legendary.

BillFreist.1527:

Utcua the Griefing Frog will be fixed in the upcoming Halloween build, which will also include a boat load of other bug fixes on top of the fun new content .

I motion that Utcua be officially re-named in the game to “Utcua the Griefing Frog”.

Andocair.2918:

That’s why I never started playing an asura engie. Asuras and charr like steampunk don’t fit. As do the backpacks imo. A simple aesthetics overhaul could fix this however. Those asura style magitech pistols and rifles look awesome. So why not have engineer turrets and backpacks in an similar style as well?

Yeeeeep. That’s why I went with Elementalist instead of Engineer for my asura too.

Antzone.4938:

Male Asura Elementalist
when attuning to
-Earth “Rocks and stones will break your bones”
-Air “Severe weather warning”

Elementalists have three separate lines for when they switch Attunements. These are the ones I know of (and can remember):

Fire:
- “Fire!”
- “I have ignition!”

Water:
- “Water!”
- “Cleansing will now begin!”

Air:
- “Air!”
- “Now you will feel my turbulence!”
- “Severe weather warning!”

Earth:
- “Earth!”
- “Rocks and stones will break your bones!”

On a more general note, I love the lines my male Ele spouts when he gets Chilled (“Body heat diminished!”) and when he suffers from Bleeding (“I’m hemorrhaging!”) and when he’s Crippled (“I’m incapacitated!”). Plus, he also lets out this really hilarious scream when you try to walk while Crippled.

How DARE you even suggest hiding those glorious symbols of Asuran Sex Appeal under those crude, bulky helmets? Do not listen to these bookah apologists, my brothers and sisters! Display your ears to the world proudly! Hold them up high! \0.0/