Guild Wars 2

Yeah. As much as I normally support ANet, I have to say the number of bugs caused by this feature patch is particularly egregious. >.>

IMO, the “break” till November is badly needed to fix up the bugs and address player concerns over changes in the way the NPE and the Personal Story is structured.

Yeah, I had the same bug on my Ranger trying to learn the Hylek Maintenance Oil recipe. It worked normally once I exited WvW. It seems it’s one of those weird restrictions, like how you can’t consume Essences of Luck in the Heart of the Mists.

Yeah, I really do feel that removing the complexity of starter zones has resulted in it feeling a lot more… lifeless.

1. Merchants and traders are missing, lending towns and trading hubs a more empty feel. (Lion’s Arch havens. Supposed to be safe places for trade to be conducted. Has no traders??)

2. The lack of bundle items means that advancing Hearts is generally limited to “killing” stuff, which reduces personal RP options of choosing more peaceful methods of completion. One of the most standout things about GW2 at launch was “You mean instead of killing 10 rats, I can choose to water crops or feed cows instead? Cool!” It felt DIFFERENT. The options are still there in later maps, but I really feel that it should be introduced early to show that GW2 is something different.

3. The lockout system for Skill Points results in a lot of NPCs just standing there and you have no idea what to do with these people. What does the symbol over their head mean? Why can’t I do anything with him/her? Is it bugged?

Streamlining the new player experience is all well and good, but don’t forget to allow players to learn at their own pace, ANet. There’s no reason why the gifted kid has to be held back when he’s clearly bored of doing basic arithmetic.

The Consortium and the Legions are the ones eyeing off his technology. :/ Surprisingly Evon doesn’t seem to have much interest in it besides selling backpacks and miniatures.

Yes yes! We need a feasting hall and hot spas in the Citadel so that us hard working WvW defenders (and roleplayers) can go there to unwind after a battle.

Key farming is not an exploit, but I think it’s obvious they want to subtly discourage it so as to encourage more people to buy keys instead.

I do my best to help that situation by, if I get autobalanced, just staying on the losing team and YOLO’ing it. I get the winner’s reward either way, so I don’t care too much if I just run ahead and get stomped repeatedly. (In fact, speeding up the process is probably more helpful all around.)

What would you say is the drop rate of the Tequatl spoon? Word seems to be that it’s fairly common, but not a guaranteed drop.

I’ve got 5 mains, and I’m working towards 100% map completion on all of them. Don’t think I could manage as many as you have though.

Fractals and dungeons are actually also a nice way to get these. I grabbed a lot of the T3 junk items (feels so weird typing that!) by doing a Fractals run and a couple of dungeons over the weekend.

We do know for a fact that there are hidden GMs in the game that can pop into a map or instance to check that “things are legal”. (We even have screenshots of a GM entering a 5-man dungeon instance as a 6th player, something that wouldn’t normally be possible.)

We just need a way to contact these GMs or post a notice that somebody is being a siege troll, and the GM shows up within 5 mins and quietly shadows the troll to verify guilt before laying down the banhammer.

Despite everything else that EotM is, one can’t argue that it’s a great way to ensure the map is always populated. I know that server pride is a touchy subject around here, but I’m almost 100% certain that in time, as the game ages, we’ll see colour vs colour get introduced to the main WvW maps as well.

My suggestion to make both sides happy.

You currently get 2 Gifts of Exploration for Map Completion. Split Map Completion so there is now “Map Completion: Tyria” and “Map Completion: The Mists”. Completing map exploration for PvE gets you 1 Gift of Exploration. Completing map exploration for WvW gets you another 1 Gift of Exploration.

Problem solved. Those who don’t want to WvW for their Legendary don’t have to do so. Those who don’t want to PvE for their Legendary can stick to WvW/PvP.

I was also surprised that the Tournament requirements this time around were so… quick.

I’m not complaining too much, since that means I now have more time to do the PvE stuff I normally prefer doing, although I do wonder how this will affect the final participation metrics after the Tourney is over.

Reflects, retaliation, stunlocks, or just get in close and run circles around the Ranger. Getting behind him will seriously mess up with his targeting and cancels stuff like Rapid Fire early. The latter is what really tends to get me if I’m on my Ranger and I’m fighting an experienced Warrior or Thief.

Unfortunately it still hasn’t fixed the issue of 4v5 or Autobalance Wars. :/

Yeah, I’m keeping my fingers crossed too. :/

Ash is another dark grey dye you can try, but I think it’ll be insufficiently dark for your purposes.

Uh, correct me if I’m wrong, but couldn’t you progress in the Personal Story regardless of what level you were anyway? You could attempt to do PS steps higher than your actual level if you unlocked them, but it would be rough.

Boars will sometimes drop Fur, but it’s mixed in with Hooves, so they’re not an optimal farming target. I concur that Grawl are the best targets for Fur.

Gear, like armor and weapons, are mostly scaled to your actual level. As a level 80, the bulk of your loot drops will still be scaled to your level, with only a small proportion of them being area dependent.

However, stuff like loot bags (e.g. Small Supply Bag) and salvage items (e.g. Frayed Garment) will still be map appropriate, so you can get Linen from those.

Another roundabout way to get Linen is to buy karma armor from merchants in the appropriate level zone, and throw 4 of them into the Mystic Forge. This will give you back one similarly levelled armor that can be salvaged for Linen.

Chris Whiteside did mention over in the Communication thread on the General forum that they are aware of the negative feedback surrounding these changes, and we may actually see some more changes made.

That’s PERFECT! I can see no flaws with that system whatsoever!

On a related note, I’d actually love to see a one-time reward of a Fractal Weapon Box for completing Fractal Frequenter.

I’m sure I’ve made some people wince with my 18.5k AP Warrior who’s using Sword+Shield and Rifle in a dungeon.

Maybe yes, maybe no. Perhaps ANet looks at the figures, sees it didn’t sell well, and decides to improve it and see if it sells more. Or maybe they’ll write it off as a bad product and never bring it back. It could go either way.

Personally speaking, I’d go with the improvement route.

1. Increase the price to 1000 gems. (Maybe even more. See below.)
2. Increase the per use fee to 3 silver (3 copper → 3 silver)
3. The SFSoM now functions as an unlimited use Black Lion Salvage Kit.

And in the future? We can get a Gold-Fed Salvage-o-Matic. 3 gold per use, functions as an unlimited Upgrade Extractor.

Yeah, supply dried up quickly since they apparently only drop from Ooze champ boxes, and those are hard to find.

Thanks for the tip too, Infamous. I’ll probably do the same once I get my Fractals personal reward level higher.

Surprisingly, prices for the Exotics needed for the collections (both the Champ Bag one and the Treasure Hunter one) are already starting to fall. I thought they’d stay higher for at least another month or two. Not complaining though, as I still have a bunch I need to get.

pdavis.8031:

Also try to use those tokens for beserker stat duneon armor, as there is a chance at getting the insignia as well.

Err, did you mean a different stat? Berserker stat insignia can’t be salvaged as it is a craftable insignia.

As the others have said, you have two main options here.

1. If you just want the gear for WvW and intend on using it long-term, you can just buy lvl 80 Soldier’s stat gear from the Armor Master. Soldier’s is one of the stats they offer. This will cost you some gold and Badges of Honor.

WARNING: There is no way to salvage gear that has been bought with Badges of Honor. This means you need to be careful when placing runes into the armor set, because you won’t be able to get them back (unless you use the very, VERY expensive Upgrade Extractor).

2. Buy the insignia off the TP, or salvage it yourself by salvaging Exotic dungeon gear. (Ascalon Catacombs and Sorrow’s Embrace both offer Soldier’s gear as an option.) Salvaging is not guaranteed, however, so if you want the insignia faster, buying it is the quicker option.

This should be given back to Bjarni though. Celery Stalks are a r25 cooking ingredient. It doesn’t make much sense for it to finally show up in a level 25 – 35 map, when the player is likely to have no further need of the food.

The potato node farm in Metrica Province is unchanged. The one in Wayfarer Foothills got moved from the Jotun kenning up to near the Lionguard outpost.

I noticed that the Lettuce node farm in Queensdale also vanished, but perhaps it’s moved elsewhere in the same map. Did anybody spot it?

With the new Krait/Hylek/Ogre recipes, I feel there’s actually now a stronger case for learned recipes to be account wide. If you happen to learn one of these recipes from the collection on the wrong character, you’re permanently stuck. The recipes are account bound, so you can’t buy them from the TP, and you only ever get ONE of the recipes per account lifetime thanks to it being a collection reward. You’re now stuck with that particular character; you will need to level them to 400 crafting, and you can’t ever delete that character or you’ll permanently lose access to that recipe.

Mobs in low-levelled maps were always a nerfed version of their true power. (Enemies don’t poison, knockback, etc.) The update just kind of made it “official”.

That’s precisely the reason they were introduced, no doubt. It’s a way for veteran players with more gold than they know what to do with to spend it on for little things to showcase their uniqueness.

For my part, I’m slowly collecting the items as and when I have the opportunity to do so.

Alright. So if we give the guys with full collections the benefit of the doubt, that likely means that there is a Fractal Weapon collection, but it’s currently not enabled for whatever reason. That wouldn’t surprise me. I fully expect ANet to release additional collections over the next year(s) as more hooks to keep people playing.

Personally speaking, I wouldn’t mind there being a Fractal Weapon collection, but if there is going to be one, then we need a much more reliable way of acquiring them. (Either we can purchase them with normal/Pristine Relics, or you get a Fractal Weapon Box for completing high level Fractals.)

^ I like this idea.

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Word on Dulfy.net is that once you’ve unlocked each Ascended trinket via the Collections, you can actually purchase additional copies of those trinkets from the Collections vendor (something Youngblood) in LA for Laurels + gold.

Just an FYI for people who might like particular copies of the trinkets.

Is that with the Burrow targeted or untargeted?

This has been posted before in the Bugs and General Forum, but I figured I’d also mention it here so the right devs can notice it.

Basically, since the 9/9 Feature Pack, the Copper-Fed (and I presume the Silver-Fed too) Salvage-o-Matics have a new bug where they start to say their lines when you salvage items, then immediately get cut off, resulting in you never being able to hear what they’re saying.

Hasn’t this bug been fixed now?

Yeah, I know this is meant to be a “world boss” style event now, but it just feels majorly out of place and overlevelled. As others have mentioned, it’s so much easier just to let the centaurs capture the town and then retake it afterwards.

While revisiting the starter maps last night to seek out various treasures and junk, I came across the Skritt Burglar chest and started his event. However, while beating him up during the chase, I noticed that I couldn’t loot any of the loot bags he throws out when his health falls to different percentages. After I killed him, the final big loot stash could be looted, but the ones leading up to it were still unlootable.

This bug was confirmed in both Queensdale and Metrica Province.

Has anyone else noticed this bug? And does it still work properly in higher level maps? I suspect it might be linked to the new “bundle items cannot work in starter zones” restriction. (IMO, a really stupid change that should be reverted.)

On a possibly related bug, anyone else also notice that chests are now all labelled “Unknown”?

1. Albion Chronicler in Wayfarer Foothills has lost his “Green Beans in Bulk” item. He is the only karma vendor for this ingredient. (It sometimes drops very rarely from Tiny Icy Bags, but this is not a reliable way of getting them.)

2. Eda in Queensdale has lost her “Apples in Bulk”, as previously mentioned. She has also lost her Eda’s Apple Pie recipe.

3. Bjarni in Wayfarer Foothills has lost his “Celery in Bulk” item. This isn’t too bad as Milton Book in Gendarran Fields still sells them, but I feel Celery needs to be added back to Bjarni as Celery is only a r25 cooking ingredient (used for level 5 – 10 food). It feels a bit odd that the most reliable source of it would only be found in a level 25-35 map.

He has also lost his “Bjarni’s Rabbit Food” recipe.

Did not notice any missing bulk items from Metrica Province last night. I’ll be visiting Plains of Ashford and Caledon Forest tonight so will update this post tomorrow if I notice anything missing.

I had a similar idea:

Blue – The Borderlands/EBG “Home” Commander. This Commander basically stays in this map 24/7 and is responsible for responding to threats against Keeps/Towers and launching assaults against enemy structures when opportunity allows.

Red – Roaming “Assault” Commander. This Commander moves from map to map as necessary. Their job is to launch attacks in enemy Borderlands and EBG, either to capture structures or to serve as a decoy to pull off heat from the Home Commanders.

Yellow – Militia Commander. This Commander is for those who are newer/more casual WvW players. Like the Assault Commander, they’ll bring the militia to wherever it’s needed most, providing greater numbers, but with less pressure. If no urgent action is needed, they’ll roam around capturing camps and paper Keeps/Towers, focusing on softer targets. They function both as support for the previous two Commanders, and as a more casual “zerg” for newer players to learn in.

Purple – Guild Commanders. These Commanders are usually on the map for their own guild purposes (which may be any of the above). Havoc groups may also use this tag if no Guild groups are around.

We in T1 are eagerly awaiting you guys.

They altered the way XP is gained at earlier levels, and nobody really knows how it seems to work now. There are reports of people only gaining 1 or 2 levels from crafting from 0 – 400 Chef, for example, but is that only true because they’re currently at newbie levels? Or something else?

We really need some concrete information from ANet about the way the rules work now.

While I don’t really approve of the Autobalance Wars, you guys are aware that if you’re autobalanced over, you will still get the winning credit + rewards +achievement progress even if you didn’t volunteer, right?

So if you get autobalanced over, just shrug and YOLO it. You’ll get winner’s credit no matter what.

This was confirmed to be a bug by the devs. Hopefully it’ll get fixed soon.

I am willing to endure more rinse-repeating if it results in playable Tengu and Kodan. (I would rather not see playable Largos, but I’ll tolerate them for the first two.)

Prior to the NPE patch going live, all of my characters were at the start of what I now presume is Chapter 7 (meet Trahearne in Concordia to witness the start of the Pact). From what I’ve heard, this is the story step that should include Apatia and the related story steps.

I go through the PS very slowly (basically only when it shows up in the Daily), but I’ll report back on my findings once I’ve actually been through it.