Guild Wars 2

Rimmy.9217:

It’s not a war, it’s a game. If it were a war, cheating/hacking and hiring spies and saboteurs would be totally okay.

I know it’s a game. That’s why I didn’t condone cheating/hacking and the hiring of spies/saboteurs. A game needs to preserve “fair play”, and the biggest objection to those tactics is that the victimised server basically has no ways to counter or fight back; reporting cheaters/hackers won’t stop them immediately, and by the time they get suspended/banned the damage has been done. The same goes for spies/saboteurs.

It’s also why I don’t really oppose a 2v1 situation IF the ganged-up server is more powerful than the other two. In a war, it’s only logical for the weaker combatants to team up to survive against the more powerful opponent, and depending on the server, they might even still be able to hold their ground against two opponents (if not necessarily win). But if it was the two stronger servers teaming up to stomp the weakest into oblivion, then that violates the “fair play” principle that exists for games.

One idea I suggested a while back was, if you are being absolutely dominated on a particular map (possibly based on your PPT score), you can hire an incredibly powerful NPC that will help you go out and cap back some objectives. How powerful? Think the Legendary Sand Giant from Dry Top-powerful. Massive AoE and CC abilities that can one-shot enemies, coupled with ridiculous amounts of health (the same as the Overgrown Grub in EBG) that means it would take 100+ players all attacking the Giant for at least 10 mins before they’d kill him. The Giant can also break down gates in 2 hits (4 hits for a reinforced gate), and if unopposed, can capture an enemy Keep all by himself (after which he sits in the Keep for another hour before despawning).

I do like the OP’s suggestion of having boons automatically shared with the entire party, regardless of where they are. However, I think this would probably require a huge coding overhaul and would probably be more bother than it was worth.

For the record, I have no issues with LoS or stacking, but I do support all weapons and playstyles being viable choices.

You’re in the Discovery Pane. Dye recipes are automatically learned as your Chef skill goes up; there’s no need to discover them.

You can get Ectos from salvaging them, like any other level 80 Rare. I salvaged 2 spare Shoulders after Echoes of the Past; got 5 Ecto out of them.

After finally getting all my Fangs, this is my success ratio:

- Copper Husk took 6 attempts before I finally got a Fang. (Rest were all Tendons)
- Iron Troll dropped his Fang on the first go.
- Platinum Thrasher dropped his Fang on the third go.
- I got the Silver/Gold Fang from the 3 bags given for the Teragriff achievement in “Tangled Paths”. 1 was a Fang, the other 2 were Tendons.

Given that Toxin Glands and Hearts can still drop from the remains, I think the % breakdown is probably as follows:

Tendon – 50%
Fang – 40%
Toxin – 9%
Heart – 1%

I know it doesn’t seem like it, but I’m pretty sure it’s just bad luck. I got a 2/4 yesterday, and a 1/4 the day before that.

One thing that might be affecting the drop rates is the level of the character you’re opening the chests on. I think the map scraps may only drop for level 80’s.

While DaveGan is technically correct in that WvW is a war and thus everything that can be done to achieve victory (outside of blatant cheating/hacking or hiring somebody on the enemy server to go spy/siege troll/waste supply) should be done, Filaha also has a point about not pushing it too far. If you just roflstomp the enemy server over and over, they’ll eventually stop showing up altogether, and then you’re just left with total map domination and nobody to play against. Is total victory worth the price of having a completely dead WvW match-up for the rest of the week? Or of possibly getting shunted up a tier and then YOU getting spawn camped for the rest of the week because the higher tier has 5 times your server numbers?

At the end of the day, WvW is still just a game. Going in too hard can lead to problems down the line for your own server.

That is a fair point. At the time of their last hibernation, all the world’s magic was concentrated close to Arah due to the Bloodstones, so it does make sense they’d have migrated there in the closing days of their last rise.

Still, from our travels in Elona and Cantha, the rest of the world is still a highly magical place, so I’m a bit puzzled as to why the Elder Dragons haven’t struck out for more distant realms with less “competition”.

Correction. “We do not have plans to introduce new tiers.” That doesn’t rule out it ever happening again.

But I don’t think they will (or at least, not for many more years). Ascended is working well as a huge mat/time/gold sink, and after the backlash from Ascended’s initial introduction, I think it would be much, much worse if ANet introduced a higher one after all the time and money thousands of players have sunk into Ascended gear.

I’ve found that Crests drop thick and fast now if you’re doing them “the right way”. Even after buying that extra Glove chest, I’m almost back up to another spare 1000 Crests.

I hate those kinds of players as much as anyone else (if you think your team sucks that much, just leave the match altogether!), but this would be quite hard to police. If somebody gets into a rage-shouting match in the middle of a fight because the other player managed to goad him into it, is that player really afking? It’s one thing if the player outright stated that they’re not fighting anymore because “team sucks/X class is so OP/Skyhammer sucks”, but it can be quite difficult to tell in other scenarios.

One question that comes to mind after seeing that map. If Tyria is so vast, why are all the 6 Elder Dragons all concentrated into a tiny little corner of the world? How come there’s no Elder Dragon in Elona? Or Cantha? Or Gwen Yeh or Not Real? :P

Healix.5819:

The trail their charge leaves blocks projectiles.

So THAT’S why my ranged shots at Teragriffs sometimes seem to do nothing. Good to know.

I’ve suggested in the past that I’d love to see a full Toxic Armor set get released.

“Hero of the People”, “Fine Wining” and “Brewmaster” are the 3 offenders most in need of an answer, Gaile. PixelPumpkin’s post sums up what we know about the collections and their issues quite nicely.

I also thought that maybe those 3 collections got pulled for some reason since the “Collectible” tag disappeared for many items previously listed as being part of the collections.

As others have said, Exotic gear is designed to be (relatively) easy to acquire so that you can take part in end-game (level 80) content without too much trouble. Your first 80 may need some work to get all Exotics, but your alts can benefit from karma, Laurels, etc. to gear up fairly easily.

For the players who like to grind for BiS gear, Ascended gear is available. Beyond that, the game has a staggering variety of skins and appearances to suit your tastes; find whichever one appeals to you and go for it.

Thank you, Gaile. It’s good to know that our concerns have been heard, and that plans ARE in the works to address this.

I’d echo Konig’s request though; we’d like to know how exactly these problems will be addressed. Will it be by reconfiguring the Personal Story so that the missing segments of the “My Greatest Fear” and “Invasion of Orr” chapters are once again available? Or will it simply be by further removing any lingering references to the cut steps? Because the second option, while still a “solution”, is obviously not one that we want to see happen.

In any case though, thank you SO much for your time and effort in getting us this information.

LadyRhonwyn.2501:

The day after I finished Frenzy (bought Rage on the TP, it was cheap, nobody wants underwater weapons), I threw in some random rares in the Forge. And got the precursor with the skin I wanted ever since I saw it in the PvP locker: the Hunter. I got it earlier this year, and I only found out last week there’s another exotic that shares its skin…

Which Exotic shares skins with the Hunter? I was under the impression that it was the sole Precursor that didn’t have a shared skin.

Sizer.5632:

Dont think blocks work, arcane shield didnt either. Still its pretty easy on an ele, mist form + obsidian flesh + lightning flash, plus fgs, and make sure to hotkey look behind, and you can go almost the full time without getting hit (with some luck). But thank god the achievement is only 1 key, its such a boring and annoying area that I doubt many people will ever want to enter it again.

Nope, blocks do not work. I can confirm that on my Sw/Sh Warrior. XD Only evades and invulnerability skills will protect you from the Wolves.

Nah, I think that purplish haze is just the ambient purple lighting in the Labyrinth itself (especially noticeable once you rescue Kasmeer and she creates her light glow).

Manasa Devi.7958:

Yep, I’m in the same boat. I have crests coming out of my ears, but I just know that as soon as I spend them on glove boxes, they’ll start dropping for me. I can’t seem to get lucky with fang extraction either, so I’m in no hurry yet to get the other two gloves anyway.

I’d spend the Crests. While the Glove chests CAN drop from Lost Bandit Chests and the Greater Nightmare Pod, the drop rate is low enough that it feels as rare as getting an Exotic drop. If more Glove chests drop for you, you can always salvage them for Ectos.

I bought one Glove chest over the weekend. That brings me to 2/3. I should have the third by the end of this week by doing PvP.

Faolain was wearing the TA Light armor in TA Story, but her hairstyle and glow does seem to match.

The flavour text for Caithe’s Blossom is a quote from one of Caithe’s lines in TA Story. In fact, all the dungeon collection trinkets bear a quote taken from the villain in the Story Mode:

Adelbern’s Burden – “You will join my kingdom! You, and all the world of the living!”
DeLana’s Coin Purse – “Fools! You’ve let her slip her bonds!”
Kudu’s Phasing Matrix – “You realise I have an army of golems on my side.”

etc. etc.

I did notice that, yes! Nice that we can at least make use of our “on kill” equipment and traits now.

Are you in Heart of the Mists? There is a funny issue where you can’t learn recipes or use some items in HotM.

As Talon has said, it’s not against the rules to setup a guild like this, and they do not forbid “gentleman’s agreements” between different players who want to trade items outside of the TP. However, if something goes wrong, they will not take action to give players the items/money they are owed. (Although they will ban scammers.)

It basically comes down to “trust”. If you intend to be the final arbiter of trades (e.g. all guild members can deposit into the guild bank, but only you can withdraw gold/items to send to the respective players), then somebody not holding up to their end of the bargain is not an issue. Of course, the question then is whether these random guild members can trust YOU; other games are rife with examples of players who setup long-established trading guilds or consortiums, some of them running for years on end, before the leader suddenly goes rogue, steals everything, and then blocks everybody. (EVE Online is notorious for this.) I’m not saying that this is your long-term intention, but this is a risk that anybody who uses your trading guild needs to be aware of.

The other factor is time. If you intend on being the final arbiter, there will eventually be times where you simply cannot be online to facilitate trades. Do these other players have to wait until you’re on? What if you’re never online at a time they are? (This is important, because the buyer or seller might change their mind and want to cancel the transaction.) If the guild becomes popular enough, this could result in a huge backlog, and eventually players might decide the lack of fees is just not worth the lost time in waiting. (And judging by the TP’s behaviour, there are a LOT of players who want instant gratification, price be kitten ed.) If you eventually branch out and hire trusted officers to arbitrate in your stead, then you’re also opening additional points of risk for the guild; any one of those officers could eventually go rogue. (Or they get hacked and the hackers break into the guild bank and steal everything.)

So again, while all of this is “legal”, the risks and complexities involved means that I’ll stick with the TP for my trading. Other players are free to make their own decision after they are educated about the risks.

It sounds like you guys are experiencing burnout. That’s normal for any game, especially MMOs. Just put GW2 down and go play/do something else for a while. As long as you remember to log in every 2 weeks for the LS unlock, you’re not really missing out on anything.

1. Harvest all my Home Instance nodes
2. Place my daily buy orders for various mats I need for Ascended crafting
3. Do my daily time-gated crafting
4. Do my PvP/WvW dailies (this usually covers all of the other dailies too)
5. Do the Living Story/continue my mapping progression

On weekends I will also do Guild Missions, some World Bosses, some dungeon runs, and one Fractals run.

That’s what Hotjoin/Practice will be for. For the PvE players who are just there to dabble/muck around with friends/do dailies and reward tracks. They can stay there and not bother the “real PvP’ers”.

Some of these PvE players might then decide that, “Hey, I actually LIKE PvP”, and think about stepping up. That’s where the “Play” mode comes in. But we need Hotjoin/Practice to be the kiddy pool/recruiting ground first, just like how the big sports leagues will recruit from promising candidates in high schools and colleges.

Oh, right. Yeah, I would love having SAB become permanent content that just gets expanded on every so often. Throw in a new Super/King Toad/Storm Wizard weapon collection, and you’d have lots of players in there on a daily basis, I’m sure.

Iseewhatyoudidthere.meme

Nah, this is only for bugged/missing skins. Bugged collections should get their own separate thread.

“Walls just get in the way.”

Ironically, it’s BECAUSE of players camping the puzzle that Obsidian Sanctum died. The reason is because the kind of player who enjoys doing JP’s every single day is usually not the same kind of person who enjoys PvP (or at least, not at the same time). I love JP’s, and back before EotM was introduced, I used to do OS every single night for the Badges, but I always hated it when there was another hostile player in there, because that meant that my 5 min run could turn into a 30 min slugfest. If they were cheap enough to camp at a spot where it would be almost impossible to dislodge them (at the top of the well, in the dark room, or at the top of the arena, for example), then I’d just go do something else. I have better ways to spend my time than give some camping griefer enjoyment.

When I’m in OS, I’m there to do the JP, not to fight. I enjoy a good fight on occasion, but that’s what the Arena or sPvP is for.

I guess I’ll see what the reward for “Play” is like before deciding whether or not to give it a go.

New blood in any game mode is always vital for a game’s long-term survival. All games will eventually suffer from player attrition as old players get bored, move on to different games, or get called away by real life. When that happens, it’s crucial that there are newer players who can step up to fill the ranks.

As such, I agree that it’s very important not to turn away PvE players who are thinking about stepping into PvP. The vast majority of them (like me) will never be good enough to compete professionally or at the elite level, but we create activity that will keep the game mode going, and some people will eventually want to improve themselves or step up to the next level.

Totally agreed. While I agree that these skins should be unique to Fractals and be somewhat rare to preserve their prestige (for those who care about such things), the high amount of RNG needed to obtain the precise skin you want is really not ideal for keeping players happy long-term. My suggestions would be:

1. You get a Fractal Weapon Box as a one-time reward for completing Fractal Frequenter (500 Fractals completed). This is retroactive.

2. You can now trade Pristine Fractal Relics for a Fractal skin of your choice. You can either trade 250 Pristine Relics for one, or 50 Pristine Relics + another existing skin (in case you were lucky enough to get a skin that you don’t want.)

I’m open to tweaking of the above numbers to suit player feedback on whether this is too hard/too easy.

3. Fractal Weapon Boxes are now a possible rare drop from the end of Fractal Level 50.

“Help us, Gaile Gray! You’re our only hope!”

This thread may help if you or the relevant teams need a reference too, Gaile.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/My-Greatest-Fear-Plotline/page/9#post4574066

But in a nutshell, the NPE changes cut out a lot of the “My Greatest Fear” and the invasion of Orr storylines. We’d like to know if there’s any plans to reintroduce these missing steps, since it not only removes one of the most personally meaningful chapters of the Personal Story, but it also causes some plot holes in later steps where our PC expresses regret over the death of an NPC (whom we never met), miss out on discovering some intriguing lore tidbits (like the Krait Blue Orb which apparently can grant protection against dragon corruption, a HUGE deal from a lore perspective) and are immediate friends with characters like Sayeh al’Rajihd despite never having met her before.

(From a technical perspective, I’ve heard that the removal of these steps also makes it impossible to complete one of the “Hero” achievements, since it requires you to complete a now inaccessible PS step.)

Master of Sun should stop being so zerker and get some Toughness/Vit gear, obviously.

I think that the Zephyrites will survive, although they will not return to their level of prominence or self-sufficiency for many years. One of the existing Masters (probably Lightning) will be promoted to the new Master of Peace, and then the missing roles will get filled by promotions from below.

I will be sad if this means we don’t see the return of the Bazaar for some time though. I loved that map.

I don’t think Logan was saying that Kasmeer was in trouble. Just that Anise always does things with a greater goal in mind, and that the aid she’s providing to Kasmeer now may come with hidden costs or debts down the line. Basically, it was just a warning from one friend to another that Kasmeer should go into this with both eyes open.

I think that Anise can be trusted to always do what’s best for Kryta, but that might very well mean sacrificing some individuals along the way.

I desperately want an answer on whether ANet is aware about the discontent about the gutted Chapter 7 & 8 of the Personal Story (I’m sure they MUST be), and what are their plans, if any, to do something about it.

Even if that answer is “we’re not going to revert or re-include the missing steps”, then at least we have some solid information to make a decision on whether to proceed with the PS or continue to wait.

Oh, we’re still here, and we do still want SAB back. But ANet have said already that, while they fully intend on revisiting SAB in the future, it is not currently on the cards. I highly doubt it would come back during Wintersday as since that means we already have a “festival” style event going.

I dunno about you, but I see a HUGE variety in the backpieces people wear. I do see the Fractals backpiece often, yes, (along with the Dwayna backpiece. That one seems to be much more popular than the other God backpieces), but I also see some wearing the crafter backpieces, some wearing the wings, a lot of Sylvari use the Fervid Censer (mine does!)/Southsun Rose/Mawdrey, a lot of “warrior” types tend to wear the Spinal Blades, and the Zephyrite Backpack seems to be very popular (especially in WvW, for some reason I can’t fathom).

Ark Bladesteele.2943:

Zaxares.5419:

I’ve actually noticed that Foxfire drops seem to be much higher in the Silverwastes than elsewhere. I have a funny feeling that it’s due to the “Perseverance” buff; somehow, the MF bonus is applying to the chance to get rare items from nodes in the Silverwastes. I’ve also noticed I seem to get much more Prickly Pears and Crystals/Orbs too. (Sadly this bonus does not seem to extend to my Watchwork Pick’s sprocket rate.)

Oddly, although MF is not supposed to affect gathering, I’ve seen more Foxfire Clusters from SW than the usual spots in Orr. Could be placebo, but perhaps not — Perseverance and MF do affect chests in SW. There’s no hard data to tell us otherwise, though.

Yeah. The really interesting bit of data is how the supply of Foxfire has spiked immensely whenever the new LS chapters came out (i.e. a huge flood of people into Silverwastes). It happened immediately after Nov 4, and then supply/demand stabilised, presumably as players dispersed again after they’d gotten their Tendons/achievements. And then it rocketed off again after the 18th.

RNG still plays a role; last night I only got 2 Foxfires from a harvesting run across all of SW. The night before, it was 5. But that’s still notably more than what I get doing a harvesting run in, say, Southsun Cove, which has a roughly similar amount of T5 and 6 wood nodes. (There, I typically only manage 1 – 2, sometimes 3 if I’m lucky.)

Add me to the list of people who loves underwater combat/exploration. I also hope that underwater combat gets a revamp some day.

Dark Matter can be indirectly turned into gold by crafting Ascended inscriptions/insignia and selling those. (Purchase the Deldrimor/Damask etc. needed.)

Yeah, the RNG is annoying. Some people will get lucky early, while others will just get Tendons over and over. (Or back in the first week, I got all the Tendons on my first go while some players kept on getting the Toxic Glands.)

I’m trying my luck anyway since the cost of an Experimental Extractor is less than the Crests it costs me to buy, but if this system is going to be maintained going forward as more body parts become available, then I’ll just wait and buy the guaranteed Extractors two weeks later. (I do think that the guaranteed versions should be available immediately, to be honest. It’s obviously a ploy to keep us playing longer, but it feels manipulative. :P)

I know it’s been mentioned a few times now, but yeah, Armor Repairs were made completely free a while back, Mad Queen. The only cost you incur in the Labyrinth is the WP fee if you die. This CAN be a gold sink, but after a while you learn what are the “good paths” in there that take you past several plant buffs and allow you to grab at least 3 – 5 Lesser Pods, the value of which should more than equal the cost of the WP. It’s also fun to keep track of the wolves on the minimap and then adjust your path through the Labyrinth to stay ahead of them. (Just like Pacman!)

I agree that it won’t be for everyone, but I just thought I’d point out that the Labyrinth activity can be fun for some players if you understand the approach the devs were going for.

My guess is that he didn’t kill the golem first and it escaped behind the wall. The golem should be your priority target; you can mop up the remaining Inquest easily enough afterwards.

Hmm, are you absolutely sure about that? I’m not certain about skills like shouts being able to be heard by the enemy team, but I know for a fact that I’ve sometimes heard the random voice barks given off by an enemy jumping or activating a skill and that cued me in to the fact that an attack was coming.