Guild Wars 2

Here’s my ideas to make people interested in re-visiting Southsun Cove:

1. Sclerite weapons can now be crafted via new recipes that use Karka Shells. The recipes themselves are bought from the Consortium merchants for coin + Passionfruit.

2. The Champ Karka in the Karka Hive now gives a daily bonus chest. The various rare Southsun skins, such as the Consortium breathers and the Tiki mask, have a rare chance of dropping from this bonus chest. (These items also have a rare chance of dropping from the Champ Hive Defender at Camp Karka and the Karka Queen herself.)

3. The mini Karka and mini Karka Hatchlings are now very rare drops from killing Veteran or Champion Karkas.

I agree that, with the exception of the Exotic jewelry market, these are all good changes. Demand was constantly outpacing supply, resulting in prices just climbing ever higher. Now things have been brought back in balance, if likely only temporarily. I took advantage of the past week to stock up on all the Ambrite I’ll ever need, as well as picking up Bonetti’s Rapier for cheap, and crafting as much Silk Weaving Thread as I could afford.

I also don’t think the recent nerf to the Bandit chests will change things that much either. I suspect what we’ll see now is the chest farmers switching tactics from simply hanging around Amber 24/7 to instead moving in a circular rotation between the Forts, doing the events, opening all the chests, and then moving to the next Fort. By the time they come back around to the first Fort, the first chests will likely have respawned.

Wanze.8410:

Well, your sample size is too small. Besides that, the damage is already done.
Before people started mass forging it, crafted trinkets usually sold around 4g.
Their salvage value was also higher because besides ectos/dark matter/ori, you could also salvage exquisite jewels off of them, which brought you around 50-70s.
But those values are also down to 10-20s, thanks to the mass salvaging.

Really now? Interesting… I might have to go buy up some Exquisite jewels tonight then. (Again, for my future crafting needs, since I’m holding off on discovering any Exotic jewelry until r500 Jeweler is released.)

Day 3’s stolen cloth for me was:

- 3 x Cotton, 2 x Jute, 2 x Cotton.

Personally speaking? I dislike the Juggernaut because it looks like a giant thermometer, and not an actual warhammer. I also dislike Moot because it’s far too silly. Of the three, Frostfang is the only one I consider aesthetically pleasing.

DarcShriek.5829:

I was awarded Spark from killing a random Drake in Sparkfly Fen.

I got the Energizer from some random Centaur in Harathi Hinterlands. XD

By the time you have maxed out your dailies, I imagine you’ll be an experienced/skilled enough player that you can complete the Living Story achievements with relative ease. If they’re giving you trouble now, you may not have sufficient gear (Exotics and above) and a wide enough range of skills/weapons/traits to use the right build for the right situation. Once you’ve unlocked the Living Story, you can come back and re-try the achievements at any time, so don’t stress too much about getting them done now.

Well, one exception to that. If you see a listing for “Level 1 daily, Swamp rolled”, don’t join those. These groups are basically just doing one Fractal for the daily achievement. The expectation is that you know how to do Swamp and everybody will just leave after doing that 1 Fractal since the daily is complete.

Ogotl Priestess was super tough back when I fought her during the early days, although I haven’t tried fighting her again with my level 80’s now equipped with Exotics/Ascended. She was definitely soloable with a pet class though; there’s a safe spot behind the huts where you can retreat to heal up, relying on the pets to keep her from resetting.

Which I feel is the right way to go. I remember the anger and venom in map chat whenever people missed out on the top rewards back during the Battle of LA because people were farming for heirlooms etc. It’s best not to tie the best rewards to absolute tip top perfection that requires everybody on the map to be doing the same thing.

Anyway, it looks like ANet did think the Amber chest farm was too profitable and adjusted it. I expected as much anyway; it was too good to stay as it was.

I’m guessing they will be the next Black Lion weapon set.

The Warden Speargun has a similar “issue”. The one bought from the vendor uses the skin from the Warden Rifle, but there is another, unobtainable speargun skin that would be much more appropriate.

Haha, yeah, I was wondering how many other people noticed that the colours of the 4 Forts matched the colours of the 4 Commander tags. XD

Heh. Those high scoring servers should get bumped up to T1 every so often. We’ll teach them humility.

The most obvious solution would be to turn base WvW into a RvBvG system like EotM does, although that would definitely upset players for whom server pride is a big issue.

Has this change actually gone in? I ask because over the weekend I capped a few Camps while getting my Daily dolyak kills, and I noticed the white swords still popped up on the Camp while I was doing it.

Or is the white swords only visible to YOU if you’re the one attacking it?

Next week, on Living Story… Mordrem come to WvW!

Use the LFG tool and look for “org SW taxi” and posts like that.

1. If it stealths you, you drop the orb.

2. If it makes you invulnerable, you drop the orb. (Note that I have not tested whether Endure Pain or Signet of Stone makes you drop the orb, since conditions still work on you.)

3. If the skill teleports you, you drop the orb. (Note that leap skills are not teleports.)

Same here. Once I get autobalanced (I always volunteer whenever the prompt comes up), I just yolo it and do my best.

I really do think that the people leaving or going back to Spectate when they get autobalanced is because they don’t realise that if you get autobalanced, you get the winner’s reward even if you didn’t volunteer. I didn’t realise that myself for a long time until somebody in this forum pointed it out to me.

I’ve had some people say rude things in /say before (I’m assuming that “gf” doesn’t mean “good fun”), but no whispers before. Then again, I only play Hotjoin and I don’t take things seriously. If somebody’s talking trash, I just let them babble on and focus on playing. After all, if they’re typing, they’re not killing or capping. :P

Some pieces of equipment can’t be salvaged. This includes items that were given to you as level-up rewards, and items purchased with karma or Badges of Honor. Some of these items still have a merchant value and can be sold for coins. Otherwise, you can also throw 4 of them into the Mystic Forge to get back a new item that can be salvaged or sold.

If that still doesn’t work, then you can simply Destroy the item.

I think Rytlock’s onto a good plan there!

It’s worth noting that if the PC is a Mesmer, he or she actually knows about the existence of the Collective (irrelevant of race) if you talk about it to Braham. So while knowledge of the Mesmer Collective may not be common knowledge, it seems that all Mesmers have at least heard of it.

Thanks! I’ll have to see if I can’t take a pot shot at him tonight. XD

That one’s easier because if you fall off the scaffolding, you’re still close enough that the Champ doesn’t reset. It also means you have a great deal more mobility since you can jump into the water to escape AoE and melee enemies etc.

Making JOT affected by the instrument volume slider is one solution.

Another solution would be simply to make it so that the lines JOT says is broadcast only to the player wearing the backpack. (This already happens for certain lines. For example, the line a player sometimes says when finding a Rare item is not broadcast to anyone except the player himself.)

I wonder if we can maybe get Leah’s (the new Creative Director at ANet) attention on this topic. I think she might be the best person to get feedback and a statement on what is their stance on this.

Well, it can’t be salvaged, but apparently it can be Forged. No idea what the output is though.

Wanze.8410:

Which would make crafting the more expensive runes/sigils not profitable anymore, completely destroying demand for the crafting mats in the process, which probably is the main reason, why they wont reintroduce this feature.

Well, that might not necessarily be the case, Wanze. All they’d need to do is restrict it so that the Sup runes/sigils spit out by the Forge do not include those runes/sigils that are learned from specific recipes. As it is, I think players already do not craft stuff like Runes of the Guardian (needs Charged Lodestones) because that same rune can be acquired from dumping Major runes into the Forge.

I’m HOPING that a permanent BLSK item is introduced. (Of course, it could have drastic consequences on the upgrade market, so I’m not sure it ever will be.)

@meklin: I might end up doing that one day. I will need to salvage a lot of Ectos to build up enough Crystalline Dust for my Ascended crafting.

Yeah. If you really, REALLY need it now, then save up and buy it. If not, or if you can live without it, then just wait and see. Who knows, ANet just might include a new way of getting Giant Eyes one day down the line. Look at Charged Lodestones, for example. It used to be where Giant Eyes are now, yet even with the new Collections and items using Lodestones, prices have lowered. (Thanks to a combination of Champ Bags and Dust Mites having a relatively high drop rate of Lodestones.)

Immobulus is on my “wish-list”, but I don’t need it THAT urgently. It’s one of those things that I’ll buy if I’ve already achieved my other aesthetic goals and I have nothing more to spend my money on.

That’s why I just buy for my own personal use and stay out of the speculation business. I got my Maize Balm recipe for about 1g during Halloween, just for my own completion, and never looked at it again. In my opinion, regretting opportunities you missed is a surefire way to make your life miserable.

I bought it immediately when it came out. Sure, it’ll never pay for itself, but I like having that extra source of cloth and the idea of my mule just wandering over each day and stealing clothes off some poor merchant’s rack is hilarious. XD

As far as actual mechanics, the item appears to work like this:

The rack gives you 3 random items, drawn from the following pool:

- 1 – 3 Jute Scraps
- 1 – 3 Wool Scraps
- 1 – 3 Cotton Scraps

My first two days of “harvesting” got me the following results:

- 1 x Jute Scraps, 3 x Cotton Scraps, 2 x Jute Scraps
- 1 x Jute Scraps, 3 x Jute Scraps, 2 x Jute Scraps

So judging from that, it may be possible to get 3 × 3 × 3 Wool, or 3 x Cotton, 2 x Wool, 1 x Jute too.

I have a feeling the imbued blade won’t ever be available to players (except maybe as part of a LS episode, similar to how Sylvari players could wield Caladbolg at one part in their PS.) You’d have people who paid gems for the blade up in arms over paying money for something that looks “sub-par”. (Case in point, see the Flamekissed Armor controversy.)

The raw salvage item prices tend to be a bit wonky, yeah. But with the bags it’s a bit more understandable. Some bags can give back mats that are worth far more than the value of the bag itself. (Small Miner’s Bags, for example, can drop Silver Doubloons, which are worth over 1g each.) Of course, this is an RNG gamble, so people selling the bags are simply getting paid for passing the risk to someone else.

I have 13 Experience Scrolls, as well as I have 115 (and growing) Tomes of Experience. Not to mention almost 500 Scrolls of Knowledge. Any new character I might create at this point would be leveled to 80 within a minute of creation. I have no need for the XP infusion.

But the Karmic and Gilded infusion are worth it, depending on what you need more.

I’m certain that all this Bloodstone Dust must be primarily fake. :P With all the Bloodstone Dust players are getting, we’d probably have enough to reconstruct the 5 actual Bloodstones dozens of times over by now!

Yeah, I almost made that mistake when buying the recipes for the Charged Ambrite jewelry (not the jewel) on the weekend. XD

I have mine setup in the opposite direction! It’s:

Starter Backpack
Fractal Exotic
Fractal Rare
Fractal Masterwork
Equipment Bag
Craftsman’s Bag
Oiled Bag
Invisible Bag

I keep all my gear stored in the Invisible Bag. Due to the way the sorting system works, I organised the bags in that order so that Exotics/Rares/Masterworks fill their appropriate bags first, while Blues and Whites go into the Equipment bag (overflows end up in my Starter bag).

Test your skills against the Champion Krait Witches in Timberline Falls and Mount Maelstrom. I have never, ever been able to solo them, despite my best efforts.

For the record, I have successfully solo’ed Kol Skullsmasher with a Mesmer, Ranger, Ele, Warrior and Necro. But despite trying all of them against the Witches, none of them have succeeded. :/

The Champ Risen Abomination (this one can be solo’ed using a cheese method though. Haven’t managed to solo him legitimately) and the Champ Risen Spider in Sparkfly Fen are also good champs to test your skills against. Oh! And the Champ Risen Pirate in Bloodtide Coast too.

Interrupting is only useful for stopping channeled skills, because if that happens, the skill goes into its full cooldown. If a skill is interrupted during the activation phase, the skill goes on cooldown for 4 or 5 seconds, and then is available again.

I do think a change needs to be made so that any interrupted skill, regardless of when the interrupt lands, puts the skill onto its full cooldown.

I’d have preferred to stay out of this debate entirely, but based on your closing post in the other thread, Gaile, where you said that macros which do not grant a gameplay advantage are allowed (a fair enough stance, IMO), I have a question.

Does this mean that players who use such macros for minigames such as the Bell Choir during Wintersday are breaking the rules and should be reported? (It is, after all, a competitive activity, and the Gifts awarded at the end are given out based on personal score.) And if so, wouldn’t it be rather hard to tell? I have legitimately managed to get perfect scores once or twice, and I’d hate to think I’d run the risk of getting reported because some other player thinks I cheated to get it.

“Boing! Boing! Boing! Boing! Boing! Boing! Boing! Boing! Boing! Boing! Boing! Boing!”

…

“Your grawl impression is really coming along.”

Basically, here’s how Silver and Gold work.

1. The two Teragriff Bosses appear to use identical mechanics. They both use their Charge attack to run in circles along the tunnel, sending players flying if they don’t have stability and dealing lots of damage. I believe (but can’t confirm, as I’ve only fought them once, and Silver died very soon after I joined the fight) that Silver and Gold move in opposite directions to each other.

2. The bosses are much faster than the players, so if players just try to chase them around, they will never catch up. Instead, what you need to do is move OPPOSITE to the direction the bosses are travelling in. Wait until the boss arrives at a Bubble, then quickly kill the bubble to pop it. This temporarily disables the boss’s Charge attack, during which time you can DPS it down. If the boss runs off, continue in the opposite direction, set yourself up at the next Bubble while waiting for the boss to come around again, and repeat.

Where exactly is this Mysterious Aggressive Skritt? I’ve never seen him.

I’m pretty certain that each Fort checks independently for its Legendary spawn, but I’m unsure if there is a base requirement for all Forts having been under Pact control at least once before Legendaries will start spawning at all.

Nobody really seems to know what are the precise mechanics behind getting the Legendaries to spawn, but the following is my working theory:

1. The Fort must be under Pact control. This much is given. People are claiming that the Fort must be at defense level 3 before Legendaries will start spawning, but I am unsure that this is actually true. (Getting it to level 3 certainly won’t hurt though.)

2. The supply level of the Forts is irrelevant to the spawn. I have seen Legendaries spawn at Forts at both level 2 and 3.

3. The Legendary spawns MAY be linked to the number of people in the vicinity of a particular Fort. I say this because when I was in an Amber farm map, I saw the Executioner spawn at Amber no less than 3 times within the space of an hour. Each time there was at least a good 30+ players there. In contrast, most of the other Forts were barely staffed.

The very first Legendary I fought was the Annihilator, but because it spawned before I actually arrived at the Fort, I can’t say for certain how many players were there beforehand.

Yeah, I liked the hints everywhere that the White Mantle had a significant presence in the Silverwastes.

Although I’m still baffled as to why the Nightmare Court and Inquest would have been working with them.

Still playing through the episode (up to Caithe’s Recon now), but I like very much what I’m seeing so far. Going around and talking to all the NPCs at the Pact camp was great atmosphere building, as well as giving us a chance to catch up again with Destiny’s Edge and Trahearne. I also loved the little bits of personalisation in the dialogue (being able to put that “Soldier” in his place as a Charr was SO satisfying).

I do think the Fort Salma instance seemed a bit out of place though. I mean, how come Marjory and Kasmeer just show up out of nowhere just when you need them? Didn’t you already send them to the Priory to research? I did like the story told purely through Marjory’s animations and expressions though; that was very well done.