Guild Wars 2

This what you mean for the MSI card?

MSI N660 Ti PE 2GD5/OC GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

1344 CUDA Cores
2GB 192-bit GDDR5
PCI Express 3.0 x16

I wont need bluetooth, but wifi is my backup internet connection. But looking at all the stuff for mobos, i dont know what any of that stuff means. I know that part of the label has some significance but i forgot which one is which. I know one is the socket, one is the form factor, How about something like these below, although i see an (O.C.) in there.

ASUS P8Z77-V LX Intel 7 Series Motherboard – ATX, Socket H2 (LGA1155), Intel Z77 Express, 2400MHz DDR3 (O.C.), SATA III (6Gb/s), RAID, 8-CH Audio, Gigabit LAN, USB 3.0, PCIe 3.0, CrossFireX Ready

ASUS P8Z77-V Intel 7 Series Motherboard – ATX, Socket H2 (LGA1155), Intel Z77 Express, 2400MHz DDR3 (O.C.), SATA III (6Gb/s), RAID, 8-CH Audio, Gigabit LAN, USB 3.0, PCIe 3.0, WiFi-N, SLI/CrossFireX

Also i think i found the Team Group RAM, it has the timing listed as 9-9-9-24
Team Vulcan 16GB (2 × 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)

sorry elegos, i didnt see your previous post before i hit submit. Reading it now.

Here is a revised list based on some input:

PLEASE DISREGARD THIS LIST-UPDATED LIST IS A FEW POSTS DOWN

Motherboard: ASUS SABERTOOTH Z77 Intel Series 7
CPU: changed to Intel Core i7-3770 Quad Core
CPU Cooler: Corsair Hydro H100 CPU Liquid Cooler
RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz 16GB
Video Card: changed to EVGA GeForce GTX 680
Sound Card: removed
Hard Drives: changed to Sandisk 240GB SSD SDSSDX-240G-G25
Optical Drive: Lite-On Internal Blu-Ray Burner
Case: Thermaltake Chaser MK-I Full Tower
Power Supply: Cooler Master Silent Pro M 850W

I wanted to limit my purchasing to tigerdirect and newegg. I wasnt able to find TeamWork RAM on either site. And i wanted to go with a quiet 500W or 650w PSU, but couldnt find the one recommended in this thread either.

The other thing was the cooling system. I wanted to try out water cooling, because of my room temps and i also run my PC’s for long hours. Do water cooling systems require a lot of constant attention, or can you hook them up, adjust the settings and forget about them?

Ash.5034:

Hi.

Looking at your specs…

1- You don’t say if you want to highly overclock it or not. If you aren’t, then you don’t need watercooling. The standard Intel Box Set CPU Fan works fine.

4.- If you want to save money… You could use a cheaper I5 processor and not lose much at all. Also, unless you want watch Bluray movies, a standard DVD drive is enough. Here is a good reference… http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106.html

Regarding #1 the temps in my room during winter/summer can get pretty warm though. It’s not always icy cold, i pay for cable/internet my part of the rent and someone else pays for the other utilities. So during the summer AC might not be running on some days. I dont usually run my PC on those kinds of days, i’m more of a nocturnal guy anyways.

Regarding #4, i wanted to go with ‘the best’ but i didnt want to get too carried away. I can afford an I7 over an I5 for example, but if i dont need a K cause i dont OC, then of course i wont get it. I also watch some blu-rays, reg dvd’s and streams.

elegos.3784:

Well, let’s start answering to our questions:

1. will you overclock?
2. do you want to work with audio directly?
3. do you want a liquid-cooling system which has to be maintained?

Starting from these two questions:
1. (n) take the CPU without the K (you spend less for exactly the same)
2. (n) take away the audio card, the mobo’s built-in one already has HD audio
3. (n) take a way more silent air-cooling system (Alpine Pro if (1) is no, something better like a CNPS 8800 Max if (1) is yes).

In any case – choose a different SSD drive, like the one I’ve suggested you and buy a 6xx series nVidia video card (possibly 660 GTX Ti or higher). I don’t have any experience with ATi cards, so I can’t suggest you those ones.

1) dont like to OC at all
2) if that’s the case i will drop the audio card too. Last time i built one it was a requirement, didnt know that it’s changed nowadays.
3) dont want to have to maintain the liquid cooling system. Quiet setup is a plus

ZaxanRazor.6235:

Drop down to a 650W PSU. It’s more than enough even if you want to SLI.

Cut out the sound card unless you do high-quality audio work.

Consider getting a newer generation card than the 580, especially if you want to cut down on heat. They run hot and use up more power for the same performance than the 680 or even an overclocked 670 model.

Get a better SSD – look up write speeds, the one you’re buying is really quite slow in comparison.

Keep the CPU cooler if you want – but don’t get the K model of the i7 if you’re not wanting to overclock it.

There are better cases than the Thermaltake, but it’s fine if you like the look of it.

Optical drive – Writable discs for Blu-Ray are expensive at the moment, and I don’t know how often you’ll use it. It might make more sense just to get a BR reader and get a writer when they’ve come down to more normal prices and the media doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.

I will def look at swapping out the card..I’m also looking at the Sandisk SSD right now. I want to keep the Blu-ray cause i use a 32" Samsung on my current PC and i watch dvd’s and netflix and stuff on there.

And i hate to do it but can you guys recommend a processor+mobo combo other then the K since i dont like to OC? Same with the RAM, i hear corsair was a good brand. But like everything else i’m out of the loop now on how to read ram speed and rating.

thanks for the replies so far

elegos.3784:

cosmatman: if you just took a list from that website and don’t know much about hardware… well, if I were you I’d read carefully my answer (and others’) and take a decision: spend a lot more for nothing more, or listen to whom may help you improve your system spending less? If you don’t understand something of my critics in the other reply, please ask.

The configuration the website you’ve linked have a great potential, still you won’t use it at all if you don’t know where to put the hands on – and some items, specially the SSDs and the audio card, are useless or even worse bad computer parts.

For instance: I like the ASUS mother boards, but why have you choosen that mobo? Just because the website told you to do so? If so, you’ll use it with the potential of a way cheaper mobo.

I didnt want to have people on the forum just make up an entire shopping list for me, i thought that would make me appear lazy. Since i haven’t been keeping up on brand names, and what parts are good/bad best i could do was google, copy, paste and ask for a critique.

ZaxanRazor.6235:

You can really save some money by cutting out some of the unnecessary stuff you have there – put it into a better SSD.

And the information on that site is.. It’s not made by an expert.

Such as? i would like to run the cooling since my room tends to run a little hotter then the rest of the house.

ZaxanRazor.6235:

So you ask for advice and then order everything anyway? OK..

Don’t buy anti-virus software.

Didnt think a lot of people would be up at this hour hehe. I’m actually still filling out my account info, and i am at the final checkout screen. But i stopped when i started getting more replies.

elegos,

Here is a link to the list on the how-to site i found it on.

http://www.build-gaming-computers.com/high-end-gaming-computer.html

Dont scroll too far down to the bottom, there’s a separate ‘extreme’ listing at the bottom.

DJRiful.3749:

I have no affiliation but go to Overclock.net, you get to find more answers.

Tyvm, i will check it out.

I was on tigerdirect yesterday and it didnt have the 580gtx card available at the time. But i checked it just now and looks like they have it in stock now. So i went ahead and ordered all the stuff on the list. I will also have to stop by best buy or something and pick up another copy of Windows 7 64 bit. Maybe some antivirus software as well?

Anything else you guys can think of that i might need to know? precision tools? anything minor?

I might SLI the 660ti right from the start of the build. Will i have to get a higher rated PS? or will 850w still work with the SLI?

Thanks Alpha

Hey everybody,

First off, sorry in advance to the moderators if this was in the wrong forum. I wasnt sure if it should here or in the general GW2 forum.

I’ve been thinking about building a new PC since TSW and GW2 came out. I havent built a custom PC since ‘97-98 though. So i am way out of the loop when it comes to what brand names are the best, and whats the most up to date hardware. Also I never did BIOS config from scratch, only installing an HDD, formatting it and installing my OS. I’ve installed a bunch of PC parts, but never a MOBO, processor, PS or all the cable work.

With all that out of the way, i’m not looking for the most inexpensive budget build. I want it to last for a few years. Since i am out of the loop, i ended up googling how-to build PC site and i just copied and pasted a shopping list.

PLEASE DISREGARD THIS LIST-UPDATED LIST IS A FEW POSTS DOWN

Motherboard: ASUS SABERTOOTH Z77 Intel Series 7 ($250)
CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K Quad Core ($320)
CPU Cooler: Corsair Hydro H100 CPU Liquid Cooler ($130)
RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz 16GB ($90)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 580 SuperClocked ($420)
Sound Card: ASUS Xonar DGX ($50)
Hard Drives: Crucial CT128M4SSD2 m4 2.5" 128GB ($105)
Optical Drive: Lite-On Internal Blu-Ray Burner ($75)
Case: Thermaltake Chaser MK-I Full Tower ($130)
Power Supply: Cooler Master Silent Pro M 850W ($115)

I’m assuming putting everything together will be pretty straightforward as long as i follow all the necessary precautions. But i just want to know if setting up the BIOS and SSD is also straightforward. Wiring should all be ready to plug in as well, and the PS and liquid cooler should not need any extra attention?

Back to the list, tigersdirect has all the parts available, except for the VC. If i’m not able to find that VC anywhere, can you guys recommend another card that has roughly the same performance? Budget just for the VC can be anywhere between 250-600 USD.

thanks!

Goose.9317:

So if the game is all about aesthetics why do they make it such a godkittenchore to make yourself look pretty? Why would I bother? I’m all for an aesthetics based game but it makes no sense for me to care enough to do the same dungeon 70 times. Like I said, I don’t have time. I CAN’T play the game how they want me to.

So you dont want to run a dungeon 70 times, then what do you want? you only want to run it 30 times before you get everything you want? how about 10 times? how about just once? how about none at all, and upon getting to 80 Anet mails you a full legendary set? do you want it to be a random drop?

Anytime gear is hard to get or has such a random chance to drop, the best thing you can do is stop thinking about it all the time. Focus on having fun while at the same time incrementally earning currency so you can buy your gear eventually. Unless of course the only reason you want that gear now now now is so you can be the first to have it as you AFK at the LA portals.

what kinda of professions you having trouble with? or what professions do you see doing this the most?

Haxtodamax

Oh, so I should craft jewelry too?

Even though you can switch back and forth between crafting skills once you get them leveled up a bit it will start to cost you to switch.

You only really need 2-4 weapons, but you need 6 pieces of armor and 5 pieces of jewelry. I you dont like switching craft professions back and forth, then IMO leatherworking and jewelcrafting are good to have for a ranger. Both of those crafts wont use materials from the other crafting profession. But if you were to take say huntsman and leatherworking you will see that you need more materials. Not stuff like ore, wood, or leather…but you will need more of the ingredients like weak blood, tiny claws, and bone fragments. Those are the hard to get ingredients, since ore/wood/leather you will get lots of if you hit nodes and salvage any gear you dont use.

I’ve found that my autoattack will still go off on my current target even if i click on something.

Another option if you need to cancel a cast and it is about to go off, is to turn away from the target. Your autoattack will still be on, so if you turn back towards the target you will start attacking again. But for those rare cases where you see a mob put up a reflect aura/shield turning away may be faster since you already have your hands on the WASD and your mouse.

All the suggestions in this thread work, you can just use the one that is best for your situation.

Cameirus.8407:

Its easy.

Get in the room, spread out, kill the adds in priority over the boss.

That way the aoe is spread out, the adds are dead so the really lethal aoe does not occur and not everyone gets hit my the bosses fire lines.

Boss actually has pretty low health, its just you have to clear adds to allow you time to dps rahter than constantly dodging aoe.

A really good fight where proper execution means its fun and doable, but messing round on the bridge and ignorign adds results in a wipefest. We need more of these boses not less.

(and use dodge, and cds to get past bridge if people are stackign there)

It’s easy IF everybody follows the plan. We’re talking about a world boss here, where random people from all over come together to try and kill him. It’s not like a guild run where you discuss boss strats beforehand, hand out assignments and tell people where they are gonna stand. I’m ok with the AOE fire on the ground, but it needs to be tuned down just a bit. But IMO if it is a 1 shot kill, then there should be fewer of them. If they make it so that it no longer one shots or stuns you, then i would be ok with there being lots of them.

Another thing too is it’s a world boss in a starter area, and you dont really want to make a lot of newbies who have never dealt with hard boss mechanics nerd rage. I’ve dealt with this kind of stuff before, and i know how to adjust. But lot’s of new or people who have never raided before will go in guns blazing and get smacked down. And lot of times they wont change their approach and they get smacked down again. Eventually they end up just loitering on the bridge unknowingly making things harder for everybody else.

But having said that, my advice for people having trouble on any fight where there is a lot of aoe or things to avoid. Focus on survival first…if you find yourself dying a lot then just go into the fight and dodge AOE/red circles while you autoattack. Once you are more confident in dodging aoe, then start adding other spells into your rotation.

i did it a day or two ago on another toon as well, we also had 10-15 people but it was no problem.

But when i did it just now it was just me for the first 20-30 seconds, and then 1 other player jumped in. Once the other player showed up, the next wave spawned too many ghosts and they took out the last tent very quickly.

Did this quest just no with only myself defending, got completely overrun with ghosts. Upon arriving at the camp from the previous quest to set 4 charges in a cemetary, 1 of the 2 tents was already gone. When another player joined in, next wave spawned a lot of ghosts. There were i think 6-8 ghosts that spawned, and this was just on one side.

I know its just a minor quest in the starter areas, not sure how much the devs care about this.

I’m slightly red/green color blind and the range indicators are sometimes hard for me to see too. Would be nice if the whole icon for the spell just faded out or turned red itself instead of the little line underneath it.

If the goal you set for yourself is to get this armor set for 40k karma, and that weapon for 20k karma it might start to feel like a grind.

However if your goal is simply to have fun, meet interesting people and so on then it doesnt feel like a grind. Your gear will come in time, but just focus on having fun instead of ‘omg i must have that piece of gear right nao’. Even when i did a lot of PVP in WoW, i just focused on having fun. I didnt watch my honor or arena points after every match. Sometimes i would just look and see that i had earned enough honor/points and that i could have bought a new piece of gear several days ago.

BFNK.6748:

Wortermelon – what you are talking about is called denial of free speech, you know that, right? Following the same logic – no one should ever discuss any negative topics (such as murder), since someone might decide to go out and start killing people. Lets not talk about anything other than candy and rainbows!

We’re not talking about some serious IRL issue here, it’s not about freedom of speech or anything like that.

On most forums it’s against the forum ToS to post about exploits. You dont go on the forums and say “i think i found an exploit, you just do this and that and this happens…what do you guys think? is it an exploit?” I know we are talking about bots in this thread, and i used exploits as an example, but there’s not a lot of gray area with exploits which is why i am talking about it. You dont post procedures on how to do what may be a potential exploit for everyone to see. Best way to handle that is to open a petition, state your concerns with the possible exploit and let the devs handle it.

If you see a bot you report it, if the botter is still there after a few days report it again and/or ask for an update.

Probably because suspected botting is supposed to be reported so that devs can investigate it? not so people on the forums can discuss it.

Twaddlefish.6537:

No.

On ranged topic, warriors have rifles and guardians have gap closing skills as well as scepter and staff.

I said in the last part of the message that it was to make a point. I wasnt asking for warriors to be given a gap closer, it was an example.

When playing a warrior you dont ask for ‘caster’ type or magic based spell like teleport, you ask for an ability that is physical based like a charge where you run towards your target. Another example is you dont say ‘hey i think elementalists should be able to carry shields’ instead you say that elementalists need a spell or boon that increases their armor the same way a warriors shield would.

A lot of discussion in this thread about making armor equal across all professions. But i see no mention of skills and abilities that increase survivability for light and medium armor wearers. Just because your armor says light, versus a warrior’s heavy doesnt mean his survivability is better then yours. You also need to look at spell, abilities and traits. If a light armor wearing profession is lacking survivability then that survivability needs to be buffed through their spells, not through their armor.

Light armor wearers are usually your magic users. In lore they are often seen as not being strong enough to carry a suit of plate armor. So they use spells to increase their survivability. Magic armor, slows, snares, teleport, invisibility, ice block, magic bubbles. a bright flash of light coming from the end of their staff…pretty much anything magic based. Now take a non magic using warrior who for whatever lore reason, doesnt use magic. They rely on strength to be able to wear heavy armor and carry shields. They rely on non magic means to survive…dodge, parry, soak it up, take it in the face or hold up that big old shield to take the hit.

I’m not even an RP type player, and i dont really care about lore all to much. But you need to think about the basic profession mechanic before asking for a buff to it. If a warrior needs a gap closer that isnt tied to a weapon skill you dont say “ohh just give them a teleport”. Instead you need to say “give them a charge ability”. I know they have one already but was just using it to get the point across.

typical rotation for my D/D thief goes something like this:

-DB (when i start to burn up some initiative)
-autoattack until lotus strike (for the poison proc)
-DB
-autoattack until LS again

If i am low on endurance sometimes i will throw in a C&D > backstab since i am traited to gain 2 initiative when i stealth, so C&D only actually costs me 4 init if i stealth.

I played a WoW rogue as my main for several years, did a fair amount of raiding too. The resource mechanics are a little similar with regen rates being a little different. One of the things you had to do as a rogue was to keep enough resource available for ‘emergency moves’ like an interrupt. But more importantly you didnt want to let your resource cap out and reach full, because that is wasted dps. So i usually dont let my initiative empty out completely and i also dont let it sit full if i’m dps mode. I may do 2 full autoattack cycles (for 2 lotus strikes) between death blossoms instead of 1 autoattack cycle.

Hehe Asura smiles crack me up, all my Asura are female and here are some of my favorite animations

-any staff user, cast a spell and just let it idle watch their face as they twirl the staff. They start twirling it then look at the staff and go : D

-engineer w/ pistol hit poison bolt volley #2 key and watch their face. I think thief with pistol only mainhand #3 attack has the same facial expression.

-thief with double pistol hit #3 attack, slighty different facial expression then the previous one.

Razamis.1062:

I agree it is not good.

GW2 follows a mentality of “make everything easy for everyone and let everyone have everything with little to no effort”

The result?

Nothing you get really matters.

Look sometimes something being hard earned and taking a lot of time is a VERY good thing. Human psychology 101.

GW2 is already getting old and its only a bit over 2 weeks old. Yeah, back to WoW for my guild, this game will not be the long term MMO we were hoping for.

Did they make it easy or did they just make certain tasks not take a long time?

Lets compare WoW to GW2

-Smelt 250 bars of ore in WoW and GW2, compare the times

-go to Booty Bay (Stranglethorn Bay in case it turns it to kitten text) and fly to Zul Aman. How long did that take?

-add up all the time you ever spent running from the quest area to the quest giver. Compare that to the amount of time you spend running between quest giver and quest area in GW2.

-When the item you are crafting turns gray, tell me how in WoW you would proceed to keep leveling up your crafting skill. Now tell me how you do it in GW2.

The point i’m getting at is there arent that many time sinks in GW2. Fewer time sinks means more time spent playing the game.

Nkrisc.7408:

Diva.4706:

What I am asking for is a “local” reset time that is not in prime-time. I understand that some people play at odd hours, but most people will play in the evening hours. A reset anywhere between midnight and 4AM local, seems fair. An 8PM reset is not a good time.

A better solution is daily achievements simply do not reset, but instead can only be completed once per 24 hours and do not accumulate credit once completed for another 24 hours.

This would be an easier solution then having it reset according to every persons local time.

-The hardest solution will have the best effect

-The easiest solution may end up repeatedly inconveniencing the same group of players based on their time of play

-The ‘compromise’ solution may inconvenience those that only play a few hours every day

The compromise solution would still be easy to implement, you just have to give dailies a timer of their own. But i dont think it should be a true 24 hour timer. For those people that play for example 2 hours every day at the same time, the 24 hour timer might force them to wait a few minutes for certain things. The wait would come as a result of them doing things a little to fast in some places. One day it might take them 20 minutes to accomplish a task, but the next day it might only take them 15 minutes. And when that happens they have to wait 5 minutes while the timer runs out. To not inconvenience these types of players a daily reset timer of say 20-22 hours might best.

Drakkon.4782:

The Great Al.2546:

remix.9856:

If the heart proves challenging/annoying just skip it and move on

Simple

No, it’s not ‘simple’ when you are trying for 100% completion. And FYI, I have already completed the above hearts so this is not for my own benefit.

Would prefer constructive posts only, please.

Seems to me that (s)he provided constructive criticism, but it wasn’t what you wanted to hear. You probably want to have people who agree with you post, but constructive criticism isn’t always just from those who agree with one another.

“Just dont do it” isnt helpful advice…

There is a good reason to do 100% completion in every map, and its not just for the achievment. In the starter zones, you get level 14 masterwork armor and weapons as a reward.

I havent played my warrior in a few days, but here is the weapon setup i use.

Primary swap slot = always greatsword

Secondary swap slot depends on situation:
Mace/Sword – max defense for if i get a boss focused on me. The #2 key is mace block with a 10 sec CD, #5 is also a block with a 15 sec CD.

Axe/Axe for when i need a little more AOE

Rifle – for fights that are not melee friendly

I dont think i’m gonna click on that since it may contain a bunch of sites with keyloggers.

Same thing happens to me a lot of times. I like to click and hold left mouse button/LMB because it allows me to move and pan around. In GW2 you can also hold RMB and use it to pan around and it wont target anything under the cursor. Only problem is if you use RMB to pan around, you have to stay stationary. If you are strafing and you RMB pan left/right you end up changing the direction of your strafe as you look around.

notebene.3190:

Not that I have any right to any information, but this is the first time I’ve seen it talked about so much in a game (at least, the kind of games I like to play, which are mostly MMOs these days), and I was curious as to whether this is about something that is drastically different compared to other games in the same genre, or is this more of a thing like ‘physics’, where you were exposed to it somewhere else, perhaps outside the genre, and are hoping it’s included here?

I like to play rather close to my character. Usually where they like to put the camera behind you is pretty much where I like it. Some games I move it in a bit more. Rarely do I move it out. I like it when my character is mostly there in the screen, I don’t particularly like to play like I’m moving one piece around in an RTS.

I’ve never gotten sick, playing that close, but I suppose some people might.

So that I’m on the same page as everyone talking about this (in many threads and sites), is this something that has ‘always’ been a problem in MMOs and people are being more vocal about it now? Is it a new gaming feature people want included? Is it a situation where they implemented FoV drastically different than other games in the same genre? If so, which other games in the genre seem to have it right (I still have some active subs and lifetimes, I can go look at those for comparison)?

I’m just curious, thanks.

Most MMO’s have a max zoom setting, WoW, SWTOR i think LOTRO had a max zoom setting too. It helps because it gives you more situational awareness. Me personally i like to play with a top down view, as if i’m 50 feet above and behind my character. Some games like The Secret World have a narrow FOV and short zoom, and i think the devs say they did it for immersion reasons.

Another thing i dont like about the narrow FOV is my screen is packed full of clickable items. I could be fighting a boss, but if i have to move and pan around i end up clicking something else and i have to retarget the boss. Holding the RMB does not select whatever is by the cursor, but holding RMB and panning left/right also causes you to change the direction of your strafe. I want to be able to strafe left or right while panning around, but i need to find an empty spot on the screen before i can click and hold LMB. Holding LMB and moving the mouse left and right only pans the camera. With my FOV as crowded as it is, i always end accidentally untargetting the boss.

Paroxinite.9652:

Well have to wait and see I guess…

I was told in general chat a day or so ago that +power, +condition type sigils dont stack. I didnt feel like testing it out for myself, but I think your original post pretty much confirms that.

Rookieevo.1276:

I am tired of the events to be honest and it kind of ruins the experience when you complete an event to then return 5 minutes later to see the same event being played out again. The other problem I have with events is that I play pretty late at night when there are hardly any people online so most of the events I see can’t be completed because they are impossible to do solo. I am level 36 or something and I tend to just run right through most events because I find them boring I only ever stop if I see something new like a boss attacking a small town, I find them interesting especially when I am trying to kill it by myself..

Whats wrong with seeing an event starting right as you finish it? are you OCD like me and feel compelled to participate again? hehehe

But seriously, i would much rather see the same event start up right away then see 5-10 people standing around doing nothing or waiting because they missed out on the event. Events scale too depending on the number of people in the area. Every event i’ve done solo up to level 30 has been manageable. For example an event will have 2 mobs coming at me, when someone comes in to join 4 mobs will now appear. But this could also be a profession thing, where some profs/weapons are a lot more OP then others.

Agemnon.4608:

Tailoring because I get extra bag space. Oh, you mean class:

What Rizbo said…in GW2 “Profession” is ranger, thief, guardian etc. Craft is tailoring, armorsmithing and so on. Same thing when we say boon instead of buff and condition instead of debuff/dot.

Regarding the OP i dont play what is best, i play what i enjoy. I dont really enjoy playing Mesmer, Necro or Ranger. I kinda like the Eng, Thief and Guardian though.

Bigtimmbo.8409:

There is no taunt, so why would you spec for a tank type spec?

Im still new to this game, so im just wondering and trying to understand it all. Im sure Im not the only one with these questions.

You just answered your own question. Why would you spec for a tank type spec? it’s because there is no taunt. No set aggro table, means that anybody could be the tank. You either need to be able to kite/dodge or your need to be able to take hits and self heal.

Detahmaio.2014:

The word exploit like it’s a bad thing in reality it’s not.
Exploit:
1. Make full use of and derive benefit from (a resource)
2. Use (a situation or person) in an unfair or selfish way
3. Benefit unfairly from the work of (someone), typically by overworking or underpaying them
The people who do that are exploiting the ability to max their pet out and afk kill stuff. I’m sure it’s intended because they have aggressive/passive and defensive stances for the pet.

I dont think that fits the term people commonly associate with ‘exploit’. Usually when people say exploit in gaming terms its because they are using a normal game mechanic in a way not intended by developers. The IRL definition of exploit may mean ‘to take advantage of’ something, but we are talking about it in the context of gaming. We need to be able to tell the difference between legit use of the game, exploiting the game mechanics and botting. Normal use is just normal use, it doesnt have to be called ‘exploit, but intended’ vs ‘exploit, but not intended’.

You can exploit a game mechanic and not be a bot. You can be a bot but still not be exploiting a game mechanic. And it is up to the developer to determine if something a player does is considered an exploit or normal use of game mechanics. We need to know the difference between all this because the fix for each one is different. You fix an exploit by changing game mechanics so that people wont be able to do it anymore. You fix exploits usually by banning people, blocking them with programs like punkbuster, or you make it harder for people to use bot software in the actual program/game.

baldsh.3896:

If the person is not at the keyboard, then yes, I believe it may be construed as botting.

A Bot is a program that automates something that normally requires player interaction.

If this person is just AFK then it could be considered an exploit. And exploit is when somebody takes advantage of a game mechanic in a way the developer did not intend. Did Anet intend for players to be able to earn XP by standing in the exact same spot for hours while a pet does all the killing? i doubt it.

EVE online has separate gold spammer report feature and block player. In EVE when you right click their name and hit ‘report as gold spammer’ it sends a report to CCP/devs/whoever and it also blocks that person. If someone is just being annoying then of course you can just block them.

It would also be nice for gold spam block/regular block to be account wide.

Even if there are no damage meter mods, and even if Anet doesnt allow them you can still kinda put something together. I just hope your build isnt heavy on conditions :P

Go to your combat log tab, make sure time stamps are turned on. Find a combat dummy or something, do a full skill rotation or figure out a short dps cycle. Add up the damage from the combat log and divide by however long the cycle was. If you dont mind adding up all the numbers and the combat dummy has infinite health you could dps for a full minute then divide by 60. But obviously you have more numbers to add. So this is why you want to keep your cycle as short as possible just for figuring out your dps.

Thieves are the only profession that has a resource pool and no CD’s. For them you can probably dps over the course of 15 seconds +/- and add up the damage done, and divide by how long you were attacking for to get your per second numbers.

Also, i tried to copy text from the combat log and chat log but it didnt work. Feel free to try yourself in case i messed up.

EDIT: but do keep in mind that there is no trinity in this game. So everyone is their own tank and their own healer in addition to dps. Make sure to put equal focus on your own survival abilities and not just dps.

Crazylegsmurphy.6430:

In many ways I wish it was required that you visit the heart to activate the story portion. For example, say I enter a new area with a heart. I’m not psychic, and so while I still have the option of killing creatures and gathering the items, it has no context unless I talk to the heart NPC.

snip

The difference between this and say WoW, is that I’m not required to accept the quest, but as in the real world, if I want to understand why I’m doing what I’m doing, I need to talk to the person with the information.

I dunno, I just think that there should be a middle ground somehow. When I’m not required to talk to anyone, and I just get an email thanking me for my help, I feel disconnected from the story. There must be some way to merge the hub concept, with the heart concept, yet keep players on task if thats what they desire, but also give them the freedom to quest without being tied down to hubs.

GW2 heart system is the middle ground

It is no longer mandatory for you to talk to the quest giver, it is now optional. You have the option to still talk to the heart giver to get the whole back story. Or you can just get into the heart area and start getting to work.

WoW you had to talk to the quest giver to start and finish, only recently did they add quests that you could pick up, or that would update at the mission site. I think SWTOR all had start and finish missions at the mission giver, The Secret World lets you start missions at a mission giver and finish it in the field, and you can also pick up missions scattered about the place.

Hierofan.2415:

If you want something more immersive, first talk to the character next to the heart. He/she will tell you what the event is about and why it is taking place. Then as you receive your gold medal, do not rush away in pride, but hang around listening at the npc’s dialogues and you will discover something else is about to happen.
The medal is not the end of the story…

I actually like the GW2’s heart system and events scattered about. You still have the option to talk to the actual heart NPC or you can just start doing the objectives when you get in the heart area. Other games had you doing a lot of running back and forth between quest giver and the mission area. It seems like GW2 tries to cut out unnecessary time sinks. We dont have mounts or taxis, but you can take a Asura gate anywhere you want. You dont have to run a lot back and forth between mission location and mission giver.

And like Heirofan mentioned when one event is complete dont immediately run away to do something else. Events can sometimes be chained together.

I’m finding that with the low FoV/low zoom setting and the large number of people you sometimes get in a group event that it becomes very easy to accidentally unselect your current target. If i have to pan my camera around to look for hazards etc, if i click on anything at all whether it is somebody close or that space way off in the distance that looked empty but actually had a mob or critter it will retarget that,

When i have the option to zoom way out, i use a top down view. This usually gives me a better idea of distance and i can easily spot open areas that i can use to click to hold and pan around.

When i was fighting some NPC’s one of them put a blind effect on me. It blacked out the edges of my screen like someone mentioned, but the NPC’s also disappeared from the screen briefly (cool effect i might add). I’m willing to bet that you get the same effect when you are doing pvp.

The jump puzzles most people talk about are the ones that reward a chest at the end. I know most, maybe all zones have them. If you are Asura or if you are in Metrica Province, the Asura starting area, if you go to Cuatl Waypoint look up to see the jump puzzle there.