Guild Wars 2

Desorbed.6394:

Cerpin.7839:

Welcome to MMO’s.

Haha. That’s actually why I quit WoW, I got very mad at how much of my limited time and effort had gone down the drain after all the expansions. Was maybe thinking GW2 would be different.

I agree and Ive created entire threads on this subject concerning GW2. We are being told by pro-ascended, pro-progression, pro-stat grind people, and arenanet, that this is not a gear grind, that they are releasing this stuff ever so slowly. And in a year, when we have all slots ascended…how much time between that point and a new xpac will we have? 3 months? 6? And then it resets, if and when they raise the level cap. Gotta do it all over, slowly over a 1-2 year span.

Im telling you, this is just a dumbed down version of a gear grind, and that it is no different than any other game.

Think of it this way:
-Each ascended slot that is released can be compared to a new raid/tier released in a game such as WoW. It takes almost as long to acquire the piece too, and the stat difference between the ascended piece you have vs the exotic you are replacing is about the same stat different in tiers in WoW.
-When a new XPAC is released in wow, levels are increased and gear is obsolete in hours. You dont think the same won’t happen here?

Arenanet didnt fool me with the “it will be released slowly and the stat difference is so minimal” line…I think of it as what I just stated above. Didnt fool me.

I got 99 problems but a karka ain’t one

Sabelle.2159:

ColinJohanson.2394:

To all the Karka in the place with style and grace.

You sir, your arrival has made my night. Lol.

What’s even better is that I often go about shouting these things on my Asura Mesmer. Her name? Mini Smalls.

Zacchary.6183:

Sabelle.2159:

Throw your claws in the aiyah, if you’s a true playah.

I herd u liek karkips?

Hmm.

Lol at this thread and lol at this pic.

Aeonblade.8709:

Antisceptic.9174:

Please give us legendary bows that belong in a world of combat and turmoil, not children’s cartoons and gardening channels.

This guy knows what’s up.

They like the dreamer…free advertising on the unicorns behind.

If I could change that to my guild symbol, or a symbol of my choosing…THAT would be hawt…

I think I know which one you are talking about…if its the same one, it was a pain and to be honest, I dont think I was able to do it without the help of passer-bys. I was just barely done clearing the path and beginning the commune when the next one spawned.

How about this: I am not an expert on elementalists, but I know they have some elementalist pets? Maybe? Use one of them to distract, and try to get the commune done.

Hi,
I’ve played on Stormbluff Isle for the first 5 months, Isle of Janthir for the next three months, and now Dragonbrand for a little under a month.

Stormbluff was very friendly back in the day, populated, and full. Probably an all around good server, semi -decent in WvW without being over-elitist maybe? Although I did hear that they tell anyone with a commander tag to turn it off with others are using it. IMO, I will use my commander tag whenever I want since I earned it(although I dont have it yet nor actively trying to acquire).

Isle of Janthir is where I found the group of players I am playing with now. Pretty friendly, cool WvW folks and rebounding…thus this will generate comradery. However, the server is suffering severe population issues, and from what I hear now it stems into PVE.

Dragonbrand has been decent so far. They take their WvW a bit too serious for their own good, but it shows results. PVE is good, tons of players all over. I haven’t had a problem. The group of players that I ment on IoJ…we moved to dragonbrand and guilded with another group of players. Been fun so far.

^^ IamALie speaks the truth. That is a great website to find groups. I usually find a group for any dungeon or fractal in minutes.

I only hope the tool that Arenanet is working on is something similar…and not just a “Hey type in your name and what you are looking to group for”. I want to be able to select, query, filter, etc. To arenanet: Don’t get cheap on me Dodson!

My wife would say that I would walk out of the house mis matching if it werent for her. Who says light blue shirt, navy blue pants, and black shoes/belt don’t match?

Anyways, maybe change the armor dye to match the shield a bit more? I don’t see many doing that, but it could look a little more uniform. If those are the gloves from flame and frost, and if you can’t make those match the rest of your armor, then try to make the rest of your armor match those.

I personally like simple color schemes, 1 or 2 main colors, sometimes varying it up with a 3 color but the 3rd is a different shade of the first two.

However, I have a question: The OP, and others like him, can only tag along while the southsun event is active this month, correct? I think this is a one month level boost for the monthly event. After the event is over at the end of the month, he wont be level-scaled up to 80. Correct?

Might I recommend that until you acquire some agony resistance, try to stay in fractals that are within 5 levels of you. So if you are level 10, I would not venture beyond anything that is 15. If you are level 13, I would not venture beyond anything that is 18. That is a rule of thumb that many use.

You dont want to find yourself constantly downed, or being a burden to your group. I myself am fractal level 24. I wont go beyond 29(maybe 30, just because I am a stud with my thief :p and I know how and when to dodge). My experience will be much more enjoyable if I stay within a reasonable level range and not over due it, plus my group will appreciate me not going down every minute due to agony.

Hi,
First, welcome to the game.

It is possible to be underleveled when you have 100% zone completion and feel youve done a lot, or most of the dynamic events.

Some things you can do:
-Head to divinities reach, and craft a little bit. Since you might be low on materials and money, this may or may not be an option, but crafting in GW2 is a huge boost to XP, unlike other MMOs.
-Redo some dynamic events. They are not necessarily meant to be done just once and forgotten about. There are some fun ones. When I ran through that zone on a few characters, I did the event where you have to protect the water pipes from bandits several times. Also, during peak hours there are lots of level 80s running around Vale waypoint and Phinney waypoint doing the Troll and Oakheart champion dynamic events. Check those out, or ask in map chat if those events, or any events, are going on. People farm those two, for whatever reason, usually to get their dallies done.
-Head to divinities reach, use the Asuran portals and go to a different starter zone for a little bit. Get a few more levels, check out a new area. You will be downleveled to the level of the zone, so you wont steamroll over everything. I did this myself.

Have fun.

Vol.5241:

I really hope that they make the scavenger difficult and long enough that players will still think that the 600g or so to buy some precursors is a suitable alternative.

i.e. includes:
-10,000 WvW kills
-90 laurels
-50 guild commendations
-dungeon master
-50 SPvP Tourneys

+ a whole list of scavenger item requirements that can only be acquired through beating tough bosses, acquired at different times at the day, and through solo and team work.

No to guild commendations.
-Not everyone is in a guild.
-Not everyone wants to be in a guild
-Not everyone that is in a guild is in a large enough guild to acquire this.
-Not everyone that is in a large enough guild has the desire to do guild missions at all.
-Not every guild does guild missions, even if they can.

Absolute no to guild commendations. If I dont want to do guild missions, thats how I want to play…i.e. the whole theme of the game. So don’t force me to do that.

Colin: If I could make a suggestion: Let not this “quest” be to gather more materials than we already need to(fear it turning into a..grind), but a legendary, epic, long, DIFFICULT quest/story chain.

One where the last mission is some mechanically challenging fight that you must solo(no grouping)..not a tank and spank, don’t throw 100 adds at us. A fight that can take 10-15 minutes to solo, one that will cause many wipes and deaths. One that not everybody can do.

I garuntee, it’ll feel epic and legendary then.

@swordfish: Regarding the weather, if you got that information on the internet, it has to be true. They can’t put anything that isnt true on the internet.

:)

Tyrannus Blade.3408:

The worst part of many knock-backs and knock downs and stuns in PvE for me is simply the length of time one knock-back can have you down for. Some will knock you back then leave you stationary having a little kip on the floor for a good 5 seconds if you don’t have a stun-break off cooldown.

Agreed. Your dude is knocked flat on his kitten lays there for a second to collect his thoughts(he’s obviously tired of this crap too), slowly stands up, brushes his clothing off, picks up his sword, cracks his neck,—..etc etc

But video games cause violence…

kidding.

Paco.2675:

Thou hast brought thy shame upon thy virtuous of virtues! Be gone ye vile beast of an evil incarnation. Why hast Thou brought such news of the grave upon thy forums? The queen shall sunder thy foot and break ye back at the wall of absolute terror and evil of sentences. Be gone I say! Begone….

I enjoy this game too. Time for a beer.

I want to stomp on your fingers for typing that.

BTW, grab me a cold one too…

Oh its one of the things I hate in MMOs. Knock downs, knock backs, pull backs. Just stop it. I didnt sign up to go freakin airsurfing through Orr.

I would rather more damage to avoid or things like that. Being knocked down, is just plain annoying. And annoying doesn’t make me want to spend $$ in the gem store It DOES, however, make me toss my mouse into the abyss.

But maybe Im missing the point of this thread. I play games to break from reality. Wife, kid, home, maintanance of said home, career…run of the mill.

Im happy with things. Its how I wanted them, and I did them in specific order.

But when talking about enjoyment vs the need to fill some progression void, see my comments above.

Its not early. 12:48PM on the east coast of the wonderful country of the U S of A.
I just had soup and salad, with cheetos(crunchy) for lunch.

Returning to topic: I suppose, however, even taking in the sights and enjoying certain aspects gets stale after a while. You feel that innate need to progress in some way. I wish, in this game, the progression was cosmetic rather than statistic. But I digress.

As stated, I have 5 chars max level. Thief, necro, warrior, mesmer, guardian

I geared 3 in full exotics/ascended. Thief, necro, warrior

I designated the Thief as my main to tackle high end fractals and any new content that comes about.

I designated the necromancer as my “farmer” as he has a full set of magic find. I use him to grind out mats.

I designated the warrior as my dungeon runner, however…shouldnt I sub in my necro here? He does have a high MF. It would make sense. Two birds with one stone…enjoy the dungeon and get as much mats as possible. <— Thats the mentality I need to break.

I dont know the recipe, but the the mystic toilet isnt called a toilet for no reason.

Try throwing in 130+ rare shortbows, trying to get a precursor.
Granted I got a half dozen exotics…but not the kitten precursor.

Zommmarados(whatever his name is), be kind to me tonight.

I’ll take note from this thread.

Let me point out that if you are a new gamer, or new to this type of game, most people use the generic WASD setup. Google it.

W for forward
A for straff left
D for straff right
S for backpedal.

Also, people buy gaming pads that have a ton of keys within reach of all fingers, so you dont need to move often.

This is a personal question.

Kidding.

Im an oddball here:

Mouse 1 + 2 = move forward
Mouse 5(side button) = auto run

Z = Straff left
X = Straff right
Space = Jump
Alt = backpedal(although I dont think you can assign alt in this game?)

1-6 are defaulted.
7 = Q
8 = W
9 = E
10 = 10

I use the mouse only for aiming and moving forward.
The rest is done with the left hand…lefty I call him.

Oh, sweet. I didnt know flame and frost POIs were included in that achievement…
Hrmz.
I dont even have the achievement yet..slowly gathering some materials and all, hoping for a precursor drop. Leaning towards shortbow, but might switch mains to my mesmer for the staff…oh decisions.

Good luck my friend.

TheProphetOmega.3596:

Its easy my friend, Its from a song by Royksopp called “What else is there” maybe it means that cavemen where in fear and awe by the awesome destructive powers of storms, and some wise kitten crackers found it funny or uplifting to be associated by that play of meanings, so I took some poetic license and add it to my sig, cause the monsters in this game feel I am a storm whenever I wield my mighty hammer, I also asked one skritt what did he feel about my farts, and the skritt told me it was like the rumbling of a storm!

Now you’re speaking in riddles?

Speak common.

It started off as a serman, and ended like a statement…When I began reading it, I felt like I was in church.

But Amen brotha. I know the feeling. Even though I went into the game with aspirations of exploration, leveling alts, and eventually slowly grinding for a legendary…additions to the game somehow augmented my mindset. Now it is about gear. About efficiency. Just today, i was thinking: I have 5 characters at 80, 3 I play the most, 1 has a full gearset of magic find. Why would I play any other character? I want the highest drop rate. I KNOW that it is beneath one’s self to think that way, but its juts the way the human mind, my mind, works. I see that carrot and I go for it in the most time efficient way possible.

I am trying to work on this. I would love nothing than to just forget about grinding for mats or the rare chance of a precursor, and just..go swimming out to that island, see if theres a cave I havent been to yet. Maybe a DE I havent experienced yet. Maybe one of those portals to a mini dungeon. Or a chest at the end of the rainbow?

Yes, we are all conditioned for progression in some fashion. It is VERY hard to just sit back and enjoy the game(sights, sounds, quirky conversations between NPCs). We can thank WoW, its predecessors and successors for conditioning us like this.

Forever broken, I suppose.

I see. Well that stinks. Why stay away from asian style themes? Who cares? Does it offend people? I hope not.

Two things I would like to see:

1.Player generated content — endless and takes a great burden off of the dev.
2.The world of Tyria lives up to the hype that arenanet made, in terms of DEs impacting the world around you. I remember hearing:

’You can choose to defend that camp against centaurs or not, either choice has an impact on the surrounding area"
-I thought this meant that if I decide to let the camp fall, the NPCs disappear, the hearts disappear and we have to retake the camp. Sure, this type of scenario is present in some areas of the game. I figured it would be all. For example, Kessex hills, defending that bridge. Ive defended that bridge from centaurs repairing it dozens of times. If we failed to do it, would the centaurs build the bridge? If so, what impact does that have on the zone?

“you could level through an area once, and then again on a different character and have a completely different experience”.
—simply not true. I run through the same dynamic events each time through a zone. I’ll do the same hearts, and eventually stumble across the same dynamic events that I’ve done on a previous character, 2 months prior.

My point is, our decisions do not dictate the world around us, and I was kind of hoping for that. In rift, if we do not stop invasions, enemy NPCs roam wild in hordes killing friendly NPCs and quest givers. They then create whats called “footholds” where a bunch of them hangout at once they have taken the town over. When these hordes are roaming, they are roaming randomly. They do not seem to be pathed.

THAT is what I want in GW2. THAT would make the world so lively.

Just a thought, I remember a while back they added a waypoint to the bottom tip of Cursed Shore. You get that?

I agree with this topic. Daggers are a bit lack luster. Incinerators are not a little bit out of reach but a lot Especially two of them. Some more mystic forge recipes and skins would be nice..some more daggers, some more staves and bows. There are so many focii…whats the deal with that?

What the heck is this thread about? I see it popping up all the time, its 6 months old…seems lore related. Shouldnt it be in the Lore forums?

Whats it about? I dont have time to read 6 months of posts, and I didnt play GW1, so who is Cantha?

GreenNekoHaunt.8527:

Fractals can take more than 35 minutes. I never got out of a 20+ run in less than 2 hours 30 minutes.

Bad groups then. I think Im at level 25 or something..somewheres in the 20s. They still don’t take that long for me. Normally, most groups will reroll the first map for swamp and get that first one done in under 10 minutes. The last fractal I ran was swamp, cliffside, and colossus. Probably no more than 1 hour 15 minutes or so to complete.

Naturally I would say a healer, but since this game has none of them…at last none dedicated.

Are you planning on playing with someone, I assume?

Maybe a guardian for control/boon/support? Maybe an elementalist or mesmer for the same?

Hi, there are two types of dungeons.

Fractals and regular(story and explorable) dungeons.

A full fractal run is comprised of 3 fractal maps each. They take anywhere from 20 minutes to 30 or 35 each. If you are running on an “even numbered” fractal(level 2,4,6,8,etc) you get a bonus one that can take 15-20 minutes.

Dungeon runs depend on the dungeon. COF path 1 takes 15 minutes for most groups. Arah(forgot which path) takes 1.5 hrs.

Yeah, Karma isn’t great for buying gear. If you like the skins you can purchase from the God sets, go for it. But I spend my karma on orrian jewel boxes in Orr.

-junk to sell that can total up to 2-3 gold if enough junk comes out
-rare balthazar minipet
-chance at obsidian shards
-chance at lodestones
-more liquid karma to consume and to buy more boxes.

I actually find this karma sink gratifying, but there should be more uses for it…

Crafting is great to help level… for once in an MMO you gain meaningful XP.

I would like to point out that not too long ago, Colin mentioned moving away from MF gear. He says its poor design to make players stat for magic find on their gear to be able to get the most drops. Diablo 3 eventually did the same with their paragon system, and in that blog/thread I had suggested GW2 do something similar.

Might want to give the necromancer a look. I run a dagger/warhorn build(melee). Life siphons on crits. Ability #2 is actual life siphon. The wells I put down life siphon. And you can spec into a trait where your life transfer heals allies as well.

The armor itself is soulboud. The tokens you used to purchase, are account bound. Maybe that is where your confusion was?

Im not sure if this one is part of the achievement, but check out the Southsun dive. You get a southsun achievement for it, but it may also have been added to the dive master. Put on goggles, dive into lava..and yes you die

I agree with mystic. Just google some builds. There are a lot of good ones for each class, and even tweak them to fit your playstyle. People that do those zerker party + mesmer CoF path 1 runs…yah, you can complete it in..13 minutes. I’ll do it in 15-20, with a hodgepodge of classes and still get the same out of it. Only difference is, Im not an kitten

Hi,
Im sure the other posts have answered your questions, but I’ll throw in my two cents.

1) What is the best class for a beginner to GW2 (not MMOs, just this one in particular). I was thinking Warrior or Elementalist, and probably a Norn race since turning into bears and stuff seems cool.
—There is none. I think the warrior is probably the most OP when running with greatsword. But I had an easy time with all of them. I’ve leveled 5 to 80, 3 are decked in exotic/ascended gear. Warriors are most common I think and heavily sought for CoF runs(a dungeon), just because its a quick run for farming…but kitten on that. I play what I want to play and bring the class I want to…

2) How do builds work here? In SWTOR, it was a tree that went upwards with skills both passive and active, and there were 3 different branches. Is it like that?
—I love the build system in the game. You have trait lines..like 5 of them I think? Spend points there as you see fit, but in doing so you have to be aware of what weapons you are using. Some trait lines might be heavier on, for example, greatsword where another might be heavier on shield/mace combi(for more of a tanky build). Food for thought. Also need to keep in mind what stats you are stacking, and what you need more of. Most of these comments are for max level anyways.

3) I’m familiar with the general key bindings, but can they be remapped in any way? I.E. can replace number 1 with say, B? Also I noticed only 10 hot keys? How does that work exactly?
-You can rebind. I think I rebound the 7 ability slot to E. You only receive 10 abilities. The first 5 are specific to your weapon set, the last are of your choice. You have many choices and each choice further determines your playstyle. For example, my nercromancer runs a vampire build. Stacking precision(crit chance) and toughness. On crits I gain HP. When using Wells(an AOE dot combo field), I siphon life from the mobs. I siphon life using #2 ability on dagger..the build is based around life siphons and HP regens. Interesting eh? And the weapon choices, trait choices, stat choices, and utility slots(6-10) all make the difference in determining that build.

4) Lastly, how does currency work? In SWTOR we had credits as gold or whatever it is here, and commendations for things such as planetary comms, PvP comms, and higher level Operations/Raids comms.
—IMO, theres WAY too many currencies in this game and Ive often compared, and complained, that it is becoming like SWTOR. That game had a lot. Lets see: Gold, Karma(spent on god gear(like..PVP stuff, meh OK skins) and spent on a variety of other things, Laurels(from dailys spent on ascended gear(top tier) and other things including vanity items, dungeon tokens(for dungeon sets and weapons), skill points(used to buy things when crafting legendary), commendations(from guild missions..buys a variety of things, gear and vanity), Fractal relics/pristine fractal relics(used to buy ascended rings), gems(to purchase things from gem store)..I think that covers a lot of them

I hope this helps a bit, and welcome. BTW, what server?

I lol’d

min number of chars.

Hi, I’ll try to answer your questions.

-You can view all of the dungeon sets and dungeon weapons in Lions Arch. Select the waypoint all the way near the bottom, near the Laurel Vendor…its a bit north of the WvW portals, I think called Mariners waypoint or something like that. Theres vendors there where you can check out all of the exotic armor and exotic weapons to be purchased from each dungeon’s currency. You can also go into the Mists, go to the bank thing, and view a whole slew of armor ranging from crummy blue type of skins to really good ones.

-The weapons will have the three of the base stat, and then the upgrade slot(sigil, rune, whichever one it is). Change that out as you see fit..whatever fits your build.

-Crafting while leveling was enormously helpful. Yes, it is expensive, but for once in an MMO you get loads of XP from it…loads. I think if you level two up to 400, you can obtain 10 levels that way. Cooking, while the most expensive, gives you the most XP. I would say every 5 levels or so, level up crafting to whatever level you are currently at(if you are lvl 70 now, lvl it to where youre making lvl 70 gear). You can then equip what you make so you dont feel that it was a waste. Concerning the cost of making, yes expensive. I was aided by the fact that I was leveling two at a time(in total 5 to 80). So I had a decent supply of materials all the way through, but I had to buy from the TP on ocassion.

And your English is fine.

I hope this helps.
And welcome.

Hi,
I have not played GW1 so I have no idea what youre talking about with that. But I have tried all of the classes, got 5 of them to 80 and decked out 3 in exotics/ascended gear. Around 1000 hours played.

Thief— You know this one. Steals, stealths, get in do your damage and get the hell out. Go in, drop some caltrops(dots), spam blossom, dodge out. Or sit at range and pound away with unload(pistols). Or for huge spike damage, stealth and backstab. Had no problems leveling this one.

Guardian— Tanky/Healy/Support/Boon class. Even though there is no trinity, this guy would be the one to fill any role. In my opinion, he can’t dish it out like a warrior, but every group likes a guardian.

Warrior— Probably the most OP class. Very powerful, very solo friendly. Fun wielding two axes…fast combat. Or great sword, and spam thousand blades for huge damage. But there are tons of warriors out there…tons.

Mesmer—Most unique class/archetype Ive seen in an MMO. Drops illusions of himself(clones that do no damage but get attention of mobs and completely kitten me off in WvW..you cant tell the difference). Sometimes utilizes confusion(a condition where if you have this applied to you and try to do damage, you take the damage instead..and it stacks). Phantasms, similar to clones but do damage. Portals, purple laser beams from greatswords. Or using a staff to throw out a ton of conditions…I can take on a dozen mobs when using a staff. Pains to fight in PVE, and very useful in PVE. I love mesmers in my dungeon groups and Im seriously considering changing this to my main.

Necromancer— Another interesting class. Mine is specced as a vampire build(semi popular)…relies on high HP/toughness and high lifesteal/life siphon. Or minion master..imagine traveling around with something like 4 or 5 minions all pounding away at the target.

Ranger— In my opinion, the most dull class in the game. I do not see this class as anything but your typical hunter/pet class. I probably won’t level one.

Elementalist— A popular class. A popular spec is dagger/dagger or dagger/focus. The rotation for this build is pretty interesting, lengthy, and got repetitive for me. Swimming through 3 or 4 attunements, dropping different combo fields and then combo blasting out of them for might stacks is a cool idea..but it just got repetitive for me. Other people love it and they are awsome in WvW. You can be pure dps or more of a support/healy build.

Engineer— I am intrigued about this class, but typically shy away from the more…gizmo and gadgety archetypes. This guy can drop supply crates, heal you up, throws grenades(theres a spec for it), shoot a flame thrower(like Drake from aliens!), or spew out green slime…very interesting class. To me, very confusion with the amount of abilities you have to choose from.

I think that covers it. Those are just really brief, very lamen snippits of what each class is about…in psuedo explanation(no details, just speaking plainly here).

I hope this helps, and welcome to GW2.

Build your toon however you want. Im guessing you found this group on gw2lfg.com? I see so many speed run zerker party + mesmer posts..the site has lost its luster a little.

In any case, who cares what they think. I COF farm on my necro vampire build. No I dont kill nearly as fast as a zerker warrior or anything like that. But in a pinch, I could take a punch that they probably cant, and still be on my feet. On this character, my contribution is the following:

-Tanky. At times, I have “hate”, as this game calls it.
-I dont go down easily. Beneficial, my group does not need to spend time rezzing me.
-Combo fields/life steal combo fields(two of them I believe).
-AOE condition removal.

I think thats pretty decent. The day that dungeon runs force me to go complete zerker, is the day i stop playing..(I say this a lot in many different aspects, but this one is as true). I want to play and build my toon however I like to. For my necro, its a life steal/vampire build. For my warrior, it is a glass cannon build, but I am using Knights gear. For my thief, glass cannon build, full zerker set…P/P.

I play how I want and so should you.

Map complete…lots of skill points to be had.

I think GW2 cash shop has been executed perfectly. They could use a few more skins, infact a lot more. But with regard to what types of things they put in there, its great. I have felt absolutely no need to buy anything. I do because I want to, and because I want to support the game.

Im Mudbone.1437:

With all everyone is going through to obtain the oh-so hard to obtain legendary, just think about the Thief who prefers/likes dagger/dagger must go through to get 2 Incinerators.

My main is a thief

I switch between p/p, p/d, d/d builds. But I always run with a shortbow for travel, for AOE, and for range(when Im running d/d). I use it probably half of the time. So I decided to go after dreamer, although incinerator is nice.