Guild Wars 2

I agree. It would be a simple matter to have the story/dungeon instances be permanently available via personalised instances or a “Historian” NPC (he could even be your herald!)

So stuff like the periscopes littering the landscape, or Aetherblades guarding the probes would be gone, but you could still do the Aetherblade Retreat dungeon, or the Molten Facility, by gathering up a group, talking to an NPC and entering your own instance. If the Personal Story is basically frozen in time and constantly available, why can’t the Living Story do the same?

For things like the Tower of Nightmares and the Marionette Battle, they could be converted into special guild missions. For example, the Priory is conducting research on the Marionette to unearth more data. If a guild starts the mission, the Marionette reactivates and the guild has 30 minutes to bring it down. (Other players can freely join in once the guild mission is active, same as other guild missions.)

Blinding the Visions also works for stopping them from killing you (it makes their explosion miss). Aside from that, note that only Evades and Invulnerable skills will save you from them; the Vision’s explosion will go right through blocks and skills like Endure Pain.

For all the above reasons, a Thief is the easiest class to get 8 Orbs on. Stealth skills will make all the Visions (and Liadri) pause to give you time to grab and throw orbs. Ranged conditions (plus traits like Caltrops) let you kite Liadri around while crippling/bleeding her to death.

That was pretty good, Cormac. Even with Scarlet in there, which is saying something.

Hmm, that’s strange. I used my Metabolic Primer I got from my S2 chest for my Liadri fight, and it worked fine. (It’s still working fine, with 10 hours remaining.)

Her armored carapace probably needs to be tweaked a bit so that she’s completely immune to all damage at 50 stacks (like Mai’s shield), but as people throw eggs she starts taking damage. Currently she takes a small amount of damage even with full stacks, so with a large enough zerg you can still kill her without throwing any eggs at all.

You have my sympathies, but chances are you won’t be getting a refund. I strongly recommend doing what you said you’re going to do though; never buy anything outside of a sale. It’s what I do now!

Unless you’re like me and you like having your crafters know ALL the recipes. (Learned all three, but no way am I actually crafting the items at current prices.)

Hehe, I’m actually closing in on completing the Crab Toss and Southsun Survival achievements. I only need 15 more Crab Toss wins, and 140 more Survival games played. I’m pretty good at Crab Toss, and the Survival one is just a matter of time, so I’m not concerned with it.

But the Keg Brawl ones need you to coordinate/cooperate with your team members, which is just about impossible in random teams. That’s what frustrates me a little; it’s the only Activity where you can’t work towards the achievements based on your own personal skill.

I do miss our on-hit special abilities like Barbs, Mark of Pain, the Order skills etc. They’d translate really well (probably TOO well, with zergs) into GW2 play.

I also miss our punish skills like Spiteful Spirit, Price of Failure etc. They’d provide a powerful counter to burst builds in PvP/WvW.

You don’t need a recipe to craft those. Just stick the proper components in the Discovery window.

Too bad we can’t switch places, OP. :P I’d love to find an achievement farming game like that. I always end up in proper matches.

It’s not actually speaking in Map Chat that makes you a target of the gold sellers. What’s actually happening is that the gold sellers position their bots near popular zone in points, like the Minister’s WP in DR (everybody goes there to bank), the Heart of the Mists (everybody zones in in the exact same spot), and previously in Vigil Keep (everybody leaving WvW or PvP would zone in in the same spot). The bots then have a script that clicks on that precise zone in spot, nabs your character/account name by clicking on the X/Y coordinates of your portrait, and starts to whisper.

This is also why you don’t seem to get targeted as much in the new LA, since there are three crafting/banking hotspots (some of which have waypoints that are more or less equi-distant) and the bots don’t really know which one to go for.

Flissy.4093:

Do note I’m not necessarily degrading people playing in whatever build they want, they are more than free to do so, but I cannot fathom how anybody would find groups like that even remotely fun.

The entire tone of your post basically implies it though. :P

To the OP: I run Sw/Sh in PvE too, and I find it lots of fun. You don’t really need the blocks that Shield Stance gives you (outside of soloing some Champions), but the interrupt Shield Bash provides can be useful from time to time. I’ve never been kicked from dungeon runs, even “Exp only” ones. (All the same, if you’re not running “meta builds”, do yourself a favor and don’t join the “Zerk only meta speed clear” groups. They won’t like you, and you won’t like them. Just save yourself the grief and drama that will probably ensue if you try joining them.)

Both work. Just make sure you bring both a melee weapon in addition to your bow for dungeons/Fractals, as there will be situations where you’ll want to be up close with your party, not staying back at a distance.

I’d love to see Polymock make a return, with miniatures being used as Polymock pieces.

OK, good. At least you’ve ruled out heat/old video cards as a possible reason. The last 3 times I had crashes while playing games, it always turned out to be a failing video card.

I do know what the OP is talking about, and we actually got a taste of this during 2012 Halloween and Wintersday. Festival stuff dropped like rain; it felt like we were essentially being given goodies because “it’s a festival! Enjoy!”. Players who liked the candy and snowflakes could either save them for their own use, or sell them to other players who wanted them.

By the time Dragon Bash rolled around though, the reward system had changed from having oodles of free goodies that were fun/useful in and of themselves, to requiring them in massive amounts to buy the “real rewards”. (Jorbreakers, and later Candy Corn Cobs.) It changed the feeling of the festival from a “giveaway spree” to a “massive grind”, and I do feel that it’s ruined the carefree, happy atmosphere the festivals used to have.

Huh, really? Maybe I should consider picking them up then…

Now that you mention it, what are the professions of the known Firstborns?

Trahearne – Necromancer
Caithe – Thief
Faolain – Mesmer
Riannoc – Guardian?
Aife – Warrior?
Niamh – Guardian?

Kahedins – ?
Dagonet – ?
Malomedies – ?

Whatever your decision, congrats to you for your crazy awesome luck.

^ Basically that. If you’re going with 2 Bloodlust sigils, put one on a land weapon set (that you’ll never unequip), and one on an underwater set.

Time to pay a visit to his Rattiness tonight then. XD

Skritt King?? O.o Where? Is he in the sewers?

Yeah. NONE of ANet’s testers ever managed to beat Liadri in her original incarnation. With her new graphical changes, I’ll be generous and say that 5% of players have managed to beat her in-game, including some who did it using the lifesteal method (and probable exploit). The majority of players still do not have the gear or skill to compete.

I’m also pleased that the Festival is staying till July 1st. More time for casual players to complete their achievements, more time for me to bash my head against Liadri for that blasted 8 orbs achievement, and more time to farm Quartz Crystals.

One other thing to check is your computer’s heat. Install a program like SpeedFan and see what temperature your video card gets to before it crashes. If the game is crashing when it exceeds a certain temperature (e.g. 70 degrees Celsius), then it may be a sign that your video card is dying.

I agree that the drop rate on this is stupidly low. What’s more, it’s not even the final item; you still need to shell out about 20+ gold to make the backpiece, which is ACCOUNT BOUND. It’s not like people can craft it and then sell it to flood the market.

MOSTLY permanent, they said.

I do think that a Monthly release schedule would be much better than bi-weekly though.

The Crown Pavilion and the Labyrinthine Cliffs will be here until July 1st. You have plenty of time to get your rewards.

Also, the reward NPC is at the docks of Labyrinthine Cliffs as well. The only difference is that she does not sell the Sovereign weapon skins.

Don’t all of the Ascended book backpieces have the same armor skin? (Their icons are different, but their skin on your character when equipped is the same?)

Or am I misinterpreting what’s the issue here?

It’s China. If they want it, they’ll take it. :P

Heck, they even pirated Disneyland!

It’s a reward that’s also absolutely useless unless you like doing the Gauntlet though. It’d be a bit like doing the Blitz, but as a reward, it gives you soulbound karma gear that you can’t salvage or sell. It’s not the stats or weight you need? Tough luck.

Unfortunately that poll is still not quite specific enough. I think that Light and Heavy armor have enough skimpy options and we could use more non-skimpy armors for females, but it’s the reverse problem for Medium armors. Medium armors for females tend to be ugly variations of trenchcoats, with only the rare exception

You can run MM builds in dungeons and Fractals just fine too. Just make sure you’re familiar with places where minions would be less than detrimental, and swap out skills/kill off minions before starting those fights.

In some cases, minions actually make certain fights laughably easy. The Thaumanova boss, for instance, because he spends all his time glaring angrily at your minions (who can’t fall through the floor), leaving you and the rest of your party to attack him with impunity.

I’d say this is more a case of “That’s YOUR mind at work, not mine.”

I think Trahearne might have gone down much better with the audience if this scenario had played out at the end of the Personal Story:

After slaying Zhaitan, Trahearne has an epiphany about why he dreams about the reclamation of Orr, and with Caladbolg in hand, he understands how he is going to do it. Using Caladbolg’s magic, he “roots” himself in Orr, effectively transforming himself into a new Pale Tree sapling. This is his destiny, to make Orr green and living again by essentially planting himself into the land and reclaiming it through his own life. His final act is to promote the player to Marshall of the Pact, and while Trahearne can still be spoken to via his avatar, for all intents and purposes he is “out of the game”.

You’ve got the general gist of it. Statics are builders and architects; they tend to stick with tried-and-true methodologies, but they also tend to produce most of the goods the Asura trade with other races.

Dynamics are the researchers and inventors. They explore new uses for existing technologies, experiment with new devices, and occasionally come up with some astounding new gadget. (They also tend to have a lot of failed experiments.)

Synergetics tend to be very high level or quasi-theoretical/philosophical researchers. If Statics are electrical engineers, and Dynamics are discrete mathematicians, then Synergetics would be quantum physicists. The kind of stuff Synergetics asura work on rarely, if ever, have any practical effects on day-to-day life, but when they make a breakthrough, it could change the very way the Asura see the world.

Which is why my Asura Elementalist is Synergetics.

Mystic Forge recipe:

Mini Rytlock + Mini Logan + Mini Jennah + Bottle of Elonian Wine = ???

Since the Festival end date is now fixed at July 1st, I’m hoping that we’ll see this addressed before it goes away.

My three preferred solutions (I’d be happy with any one of the three):

1. Increase the drop rate of the Chaos of Lyssa recipe to 2% from a Gauntlet Chance, and 10% from beating Liadri.

2. Allow people to trade 250 Gauntlet tickets for a recipe.

3. Allow people to trade a Favor of the Festival for a recipe.

Prices do seem high, but the earning power of most players has gone up considerably as well. For instance, just running around in a low level map harvesting all Copper and Iron you come across can net you a huge return for those cheap copper/iron mining picks. Completing your Daily can also earn you 1g every single day by trading your Laurel for a Heavy Crafting Bag.

That was quite a well thought-out and reasoned argument, OP, so kudos to you for that.

That said, while I do agree with you on the “skill” and “wealth” prestige items, I disagree on the “I was there” prestige items. I am firmly against the idea of preventing players from being able to acquire a “look” they want simply because they weren’t there at the time. What if they were busy with exams? Or were deployed overseas? Or hospitalised for a long period of time? It seems unfair to say to someone “you can’t have this” just because they weren’t present due to circumstances beyond their control.

The way I see it, if a player is willing to put in the work and effort to get something, they should be entitled to get the reward that other players did, regardless of when they made the attempt.

On the plus side, we do have 6 weeks to get all the achievements, so you’ve got plenty of time.

I will save a stack for the next time the Gauntlet returns, but yeah, I wish there was a way you could sell/redeem them too.

Something like “trade 250 tickets for a Chaos of Lyssa recipe”, maybe?

If somebody could pull that off, they have my absolute respect.

Actually, I have another idea. ANet, let me trade my Favor of the Festival for a Chaos of Lyssa recipe!

I’m spending mine on Obsidian and T6 mats. Already got all the Living Story rewards save for the Zephyrite Helms, whose look I don’t really care for.

^ Same. But I’m willing to give ANet the benefit of the doubt and see if they’ve improved their delivery since Season 1.

Now to keep my fingers crossed and hope they do something about the Chaos of Lyssa recipe drop rate…

From what I’ve heard, it’s only about a 5% total increase in stats for a full set of Ascended armor. The general consensus is that it’s something you can do without unless you intend on doing high level Fractals or really, really like having BiS gear.

Ascended weapons do a base 10% more damage than Exotic weapons though, so getting one for your primary weapons as a long term goal is a good idea. (Although bear in mind Exotic weapons are more than sufficient to do every single content in the game, so it’s not a must-have either.)

She tastes like rainbows!

That’s actually the Seraph Spear (T3 Human Cultural weapon). It can be purchased by anyone, although it can only be used underwater.

You can also get a gold-coloured version of the same weapon from Caudecus’ Manor dungeon tokens.