Guild Wars 2

It’s not gamebreaking or anything, but a couple of times I’ve had it where the minimap on aspect arena ceases to function; instead it becomes a blurred (the way an undiscovered overworld area looks) generic map, though if I drag it it looks as if it’s an undiscovered/fogged version of the queensdale/divinity’s reach region (the icon for caudecus’s manor appears just off the edge).

I think this may be triggered by falling too many times, as it seems that the change occurred on respawning after a fall each time I’ve seen it happen (and I don’t think it’s ever happened after the first fall, though I didn’t count to be sure).

Again, obviously not gamebreaking or anything, though losing the ability to track crystal locations and statuses does put you at a disadvantage for the rest of the round.

All that was attached was two tokens to vote with; given how easy they are to get from the activities (or just buy them if you want) I wouldn’t worry too much about it.

Well, a safe bet is that events with a daily bonus chest (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bonus_chest#Bonus_Chest) are rather popular. There tend to be groups hopping around from one to the next.

Bjornen.5218:

If you are a thief, then I have some advices for you: First of all #5 skill of SB is your friend. You can move between mobs easily with this, and also you have caltrops to cripple mobs and make them slower. Finally, when you get to the SP, use Shadowrefuge and claim the Skill point without any risk. I’ve done this with all skill points, Orr included and you don’t need anyone, but is better with friends, as you can hide everyone and make them all take the skill point.

In most situations this is true, however the one he just mentioned is annoying because you can’t always just run past her (there’s a wall of vines that don’t go away I think until you kill her).

For starting as a human you’re probably in a good place, as Queensdale seems to be consistently the most populated zone. Don’t be afraid to ask anything in map chat.

Beyond that, just explore. Talk to scouts (spyglass icon) near you and listen to what they have to say. They’ll give you the lay of the land and point out nearby heart quests. Do those, do events that pop up near you, seek out all of the vistas and skill points and anything you can discover. You can try out crafting if you want to make some level 10 equipment or help gain an extra level or so, but you won’t be able to do too much very early on. You can always go up to divinity’s reach, go through the asura gate to lion’s arch, take another gate to another city and then go out to another starting (1-15) zone for one of the other races. In total there’s 5 zones with content at level 1-15, so if you hit a wall when leveling just go to one of the others (and if you get lost, again, mapchat is always an option, people are usually decent if not downright helpful).

Upgrading items in the forge is I guess the only way to do anything with skill points. Siege, fragments/cores/etc. Of course I have absolutely no idea which ones are profitable.

It usually seems to spawn like every 10 minutes, but I don’t know if maybe there’s a cooldown that triggers once shadow behemoth spawns or not.

You can’t usually do anything with the stuff you buy with karma. If you want to monetize/transfer karma, buy jewelry boxes from vendors in orr. You’ll get some karma back (drops, swigs, etc.) and get some valuable crafting materials. Not a bad way to move it over to a different character.

Engineer has more group utility (and is a pretty unique experience, I’d say). Ranger is much easier to play solo. Engineer is more interesting. Ranger is more relaxing. Don’t let anyone talk you out of doing either for any of those reasons, of course.

As long as you pay attention to whatever trait setup you decide to go with and don’t make any obviously wrong decisions (e.g. speccing for one-handed weapons via traits and then only using 2-handers), you should at least be viable with whatever you want to do. Maybe not optimized, but that’s not a big deal in most contexts. If you read through the trait lines you’ll see that there are some pretty clear paths being drawn in some of them, so just pay attention and decide on the build you’re interested in. As long as you’re willing to adapt your weapons to a given build and play style (or vice versa, if you’re just that attached to a given weapon) you can make just about anything work.

Well, make a list of all the zones with hearts, mouseover each zone (Excluding Orr since they don’t have them), write down what it says you have in each. Sounds silly but write it down just to be sure, it may help.

Once you’re in those zones talk to any scouts that still show up on your map if you can’t find the hearts themselves; if a scout is visible on the big map it means you haven’t even discovered a certain heart yet.

I think Engineers are pretty good about creating and using their own fields, one of hte more versatile classes in that respect IINM. Completely different experience from playing Guardian though (not in a bad way I’d say, but if it’s not what you’re looking for…)

See:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Field
and the various linked articles for the various types of finishers and things associated with each class.

AnnRann.4813:

Thanks for the replies. I was scared to spend any points till I found out for sure how it works. Now I will just get the things that sound the most important to my char first and play around with the traits and see what I like there.

In your mid 20s it’s a good idea to start saving them up so that you have 10 to spend as soon as you hit level 30 to unlock an elite skill (or 20 to unlock 2 elite skills, so that you can then go into the 2nd tier of elite skills which cost 30 each). Just because elites can be not-quite-game-changers and it’s a cool milestone to unlock your first elite skill. I can almost guarantee you’ll be unhappy with the first one you unlock the more you play, but that’s the beauty of it; by the time you get around to optimizing your build you’ll have everything unlocked anyways.

If you want a somewhat relaxed intro to the game, but still want to play support, go with Guardian. It is supremely useful at buffing allies. The only downside is there’s no way to be anything other than iffy at ranged combat, but it has excellent survivability and is an excellent support class.

I’m of the opinion that Ranger is a rather fun class to play (again, relaxed PvE exploration experience) but it has very little support utility (an AoE heal that is nice, a few ways to let pets help or buff allies, but that’s it). If you like ranged combat and can get into the pet mechanic it’s worth some time.

For straight-up healing you might want to look at elementalist (water attunement = lots of healing abilities for you and your allies). Engineers can also become excellent group healers (an AoE healing turret + a weapon kit with with a very powerful skill that can heal multiple allies). Engie is a somewhat unique experience and may be more than you want to bite off right now but its potential for group support via elixirs shouldn’t be overlooked.

LilMcGinley.3890:

cpg.7140:

If you really find no use for your karma, wait for one of the temples (or the gates of arah) to open in Orr. Buy orrian jewelry boxes with karma. Open them, you’ll get some junk, some valuable crafting materials, and a lot of smaller things of liquid karma. You won’t get all of your karma back that way, but you’ll get a decent percentage of it back in a form that you can transfer to a different character (say, one you want to buy temple armor with or whatever).

You don’t need to wait for one of them to open actually, head to Penitent Waypoint, all karma vendors in Orr sell those

Ooh, good call. Temple vendor just makes it more convenient to spend the karma on anything else that might catch your fancy at the time.

If you really find no use for your karma, wait for one of the temples (or the gates of arah) to open in Orr. Buy orrian jewelry boxes with karma. Open them, you’ll get some junk, some valuable crafting materials, and a lot of smaller things of liquid karma. You won’t get all of your karma back that way, but you’ll get a decent percentage of it back in a form that you can transfer to a different character (say, one you want to buy temple armor with or whatever).

You can walk down right next to it. Avoid the veteran windrider, go up right against the wall, and you can scramble up the side to get to the place of power.

sinzer.4018:

Sylvari engineer. The concept makes me laugh.

I know it might seem funny, but you can argue that Sylvari’s racial skills make the best use of the Engineer’s toolbelt. It’s actually a very good combination.

Ursan.7846:

Essence Snow.3194:

The amount of ants at a picnic is totally dependent on the ants and not on the people bringing sweets vs veggies……………….

Saying that it’s completely player driven is rather short sighted. Yes players are one controlling interest, but anet is another. They are both variables in the equation.

It is though, in a sense, because Anet has to produce things that cater to the player base. Anet can influence the ratio, but solely through the whims and tastes of the playerbase. Imagine if Anet held a 50% discount on karma boosters. I guarantee you it will not put even the smallest dent in the ratio.

The difference is that A.net could change the math that determines the ratio without telling anyone, if they so desired. Clearly they have to have the ability to create/destroy gems on the fly for conversions (because it can’t be possible for there to be 0 gems available for purchase at any given time, the way it might be for a normal item on the TP) so they have more power to influence that market compared to other items on the TP. Not saying they do, of course, just saying it’s less transparent.

lordkrall.7241:

Gasoline.2570:

What is this universe you live in? I chuckle everytime I see someone actually believing this.

And yet you have never actually provided any kind of proof that it is not the case.

Well, it can’t exactly be player “controlled,” since we don’t get to place buy or sell orders; the price is the price, take it or leave it. Of course that doesn’t mean it’s not based on supply and demand from the players though.

I may be misremembering, but I think if there’s ever money to be made in the forge it’s from some of the material promotion-type deals, not just randomly throwing in greens or whatever, and depending on the recipe it becomes a way to monetize skill points (though probably not at any huge profit).

Also keep in mind that you can substitute a mystic forge stone for one of the weapons/armor pieces/whatever you’re throwing in for the 4>1 forging. If you don’t have any other use for them then that changes the math a bit, though maybe still not in your favor… if you assume it takes 5 tries to get a rare out of a set of greens, then you only need 11 greens + 5 stones (since you can use the greens that come out of earlier runs in subsequent ones).

The way I see it it’s a lower cost alternative to the Moa races, with less fanfare.

It’s, what, 20% chance of getting the next level up in rarity? I guess you can do the math assuming it’ll take 5 times as many tries with masterworks to get a rare out and see which costs more.

Check Divinity’s Reach, if only because that’s one you can’t figure out from the mouseover. Otherwise make a list, mouseover one by one, and see what comes out.

New POI in Divinity’s Reach Eastern Commons and south central Gendarran Fields (part of the “not so secret” jumping puzzle)
New waypoints for the guild puzzles in NW Brisban Wildlands, NW Snowden Drifts, SW Plains of Ashford
You probably already have the POIs from Flame and Frost but if not they’re in NE Wayfarer Foothills and SW Diessa Plateau

Southsun still doesn’t count.

If you mean “been there, done that” for 100% world completion: The title itself is account-wide and can be used on any character, whether they have 100% world completion or not. The golden badge thingy that goes next to your name for other players to see applies only to character(s) that did the world completion. You have to do it all on at least one character to unlock initially, no 20%x5 or whatever way you want to try to split it.

If you’re talking about the other explorer achievements (orr explorer, shiverpeaks explorer, etc) those are account wide so you can only do them once, and I believe you need to do a given one completely with one character but I’m not positive (very little reason not to either way, as there are only a handful of areas you’ll miss if you’re going for 100% world completion on a given character).

Tail of the Serpent and/or Lair of the Coil in SE Timberline Falls? Both are easy to miss since they look like they could reasonably be outside the map…

You get gloves at 3000, shoulders at 6000, headpiece at 9000… IINM those are the only ones that are known at this point. And it seems like it’s only those two sets that are available (with no variation for light/heavy/medium armor).

Sea of elon on the south border of straits of devastation, on the eastern side of the water (south of the mainland), nothing in it but it counts.

Cursed shore, the artesian waters (accessed from the water just north of Melandru) sort of in the middle of everything, again nothing there but it counts (this is where “the source of orr” takes place but you might not have gotten to that yet).

Those two are always safe bets.

Chantry of Secrets, via Bloodtide Coast. You have to enter it and get the POI inside.

Assuming that’s the only one you could be missing. Divinity’s Reach doesn’t show right on the big map so the mouseover isn’t useful, so it’s worth checking that one again too I guess.

1.) It’s more for true level 80 players but you can level there if you want. It’s probably a decent way to get experience, karma, coin, loot (loot seems better than average PvE drops) but with the big caveat that you’ll be weaker than a true 80 so only go if you can insulate yourself in a big group.

2.) I’ve always been fine doing it this way. If you really find you’re hurting or just can’t seem to find a given weapon that suits your level (or want to beef up a particular stat) you can find non-80 gear for cheap on the trading post. But I think just about anyone can get to level 80 living off of drops and quest rewards.

3.) A good guild should be able to give you advice, give you people to play with, help you with quests that are troubling you, etc. Just ask and make sure they’re friendly to lower level players. Worst case scenario is you join, find out there’s nothing there for you, and leave to look for something else. Up to you of course but there’s probably no downside.

4.) You can collect the materials for the most part, but it’ll take time. Probably better to just collect what you can, sell it, then buy what you need (place buy orders and be patient if you can) whenever you want to craft. For me I ended up doing basically all of my crafting at once way after I had reached 80, because crafting isn’t exactly important. Maybe do a bit here and there if you’re looking for some quick experience. Up to you. But getting a craft to 400 is going to end up being expensive no matter what.

5.) All dungeons basically require 5 players. There are 8 normal dungeons, plus fractals of the mists (which has 8 sort of “scenes,” if you will, that are smaller than a real dungeon; you do them 3 at a time to advance an experience level, plus an extra 9th one that comes every even experience level). If you get good at them and have a group to run them with you can farm them for special tokens to buy good max level equipment, and the potential for earning coin is very good as well. There are also open world mini-dungeons that are more just there to be discovered (explorer achievements), those can mostly be soloed but there’s no great rewards or anything.

6.) Nothing is a must do, just whatever’s fun. World exploration (100% each zone) is generally a pretty efficient way to level, and higher level zones reward you with valuable crafting materials and equipment for completing them. Grinding the same thing over and over doesn’t tend to work that well. Try to do the daily and monthly achievements if you can (laurels can be saved up to buy useful equipment, karma can be nice, and achievement rewards now are nothing to sneeze at). Living story is nice to experience and some of the higher levels give out legitimately useful equipment. Big world events tend to be farmed by lots of players at once and are definitely cool to experience (gw2stuff.com has some timers that a lot of people follow), and at higher levels you’re guaranteed good rewards for each one.

Both times I’ve seen it done (recently at least) has been right after a new build, so I’m guessing that makes it easier to start again? Just something to keep in mind since they seem to come up rather frequently now, if one happens while you’re on I’d jump over and check…

Farming mobs for kite fortunes is the way to go, I think. You have a rare chance to get as many kitten scraps (or even a golden scrap) out of them. Baskets are a waste of wp fees unless you really want the quartz.

If you want the backpiece you can try running sanctum sprint a bunch, as it’s sometimes found in that chest.

RunDougRun.4691:

cpg.7140:

RunDougRun.4691:

Thanks for all of the tips and suggestions….
I just got to the 1st big city and haven’t done anything except wonder around!!!

I just don’t want to miss anything. I read on the forum that content changes every few weeks and doesn’t come back…..

Is that true???

Living story content does come and go every 2 weeks – 1 month, depending. The bazaar of the four winds stuff won’t be here come next month, something else (presumably) will be in place by then. So at least take the time to get a taste of it now and decide whether it’s worth focusing on. You can get there from lion’s arch (macha’s landing, the docks on the north side of the water; there’s a sail icon that will take you there). You don’t have to be level 80 to do any of it, really (you can’t use some of the special crafting recipes until you get to 80, if you wanted to do that, but you can obtain them now).

So should I go for the special monthly quests? Right now, I’m finding all of the waypoints lol!!!!

I’m coming so late into this game, that I don’t want content do disappear, thats why I’m trying to establish a “To-do” list…..Although, there seems like a ton of stuff!!!!

I’m sure I will get a feel for it over the next week or so!!!
I’m just going crazy for now lol!

Check out the bazaar of the four winds stuff. Put that at the top of your to-do list, and then just cross it out if you find you hate it or whatever. That’s the stuff you risk missing out on. There are guides online (dulfy.net) so read through them in your spare time if you want, to get a better feel for it.

If achievements are your thing you have 15 days or whatever left to do the monthly achievements (if you have a lot of time to play and spend a lot of time in, say, Queensdale, you might be able to get it done; but if it’s more work than fun then I wouldn’t bother).

Everything else will still be there when you come back to it. But above all do the things you enjoy, and don’t feel like you have to plow through a given set of stuff; take breaks, explore, refresh yourself, whatever.

Grenade engineer is good for uber-range AOE (1500 range with grenadier trait, applies conditions, can be used to create a poison field, and no line of sight required). Plus it’s ridiculously overpowered underwater, which is a nice little fringe benefit. Also if jumping puzzles are your thing I think rifles can still be used as a sort of cheap way through some of them (jump shot). There are some other useful team-based roles Engineers can fill as well (elixir gun is good for support/healing, you can create water and smoke field with turrets, etc).

That said, I’ve put waaay more time into my engineer than my necro, so I can’t exactly paint a full picture here…

Ranger is kind of a nice selfish choice; it’s a pretty relaxed PvE exploration experience, collecting pets is kind of fun, it’s good for tagging enemies in events and such. I love it for farming and doing my daily world events. It’s not exactly great for teamwork though, if that’s your thing (though it has it’s uses in WvW).

Mesmer and Ele have a great deal more support potential, but they’re also more difficult to solo. That said, once you get comfortable with them I think they’re more interesting to play around with (Mesmer especially) so maybe you prefer that type of experience.

RunDougRun.4691:

Thanks for all of the tips and suggestions….
I just got to the 1st big city and haven’t done anything except wonder around!!!

I just don’t want to miss anything. I read on the forum that content changes every few weeks and doesn’t come back…..

Is that true???

Living story content does come and go every 2 weeks – 1 month, depending. The bazaar of the four winds stuff won’t be here come next month, something else (presumably) will be in place by then. So at least take the time to get a taste of it now and decide whether it’s worth focusing on. You can get there from lion’s arch (macha’s landing, the docks on the north side of the water; there’s a sail icon that will take you there). You don’t have to be level 80 to do any of it, really (you can’t use some of the special crafting recipes until you get to 80, if you wanted to do that, but you can obtain them now).

Each of the jumping puzzles counts, although I don’t think the jumping puzzle meta counts.

It could be that you weren’t actually in the top 3 in the race, if someone ahead of you left and made it look like you were in the top 3, though I don’t know if it’s known to bug out or anything.

Frequent sprinter doesn’t count because it’s not really a achievement, I guess (not worth any points, endlessly repeatable), it’s just a way to facilitate a bonus chest. Fan favorite counts though.

The white names do indeed only become visible when that area of the map is unfogged/discovered. It’s a great way to go through a checklist to compare what you have with what’s listed on wiki (or whatever); you don’t need to match map area to map area, just area name to a list of names.

EDIT: Should clarify, if you mean zone as in explorable zone (the map itself, like “wayfarer foothills”) then no, those names are always visible, obviously; the areas within that zone, like “svanir’s dome,” are only visible once you’ve discovered them.

Once you get into the open world, talk to scouts (NPCs with spyglass icons on the map) any time you see their icon (and any time it’s in an area you’re leveled enough for, obviously). Listen to them talk if you want (a little immersion and info on the “why’s” of the area") or don’t, but what’s important is that they’ll direct you to the nearby renown hearts (yellow hearts) that you can complete. They’re basically all there is in terms of in-game guides for what to do, outside of the personal story (the green text/indicator).

Diverse Trader is the achievement for speaking to the 5 traders (who take crafting materials and give you supply boxes); they’re right next to the vendor who gives you skins for fortune scraps, east of the lower level waypoint.

He shouldn’t ever catch up to you, but I think he’d get pretty close because of the way the leveling curve runs (early levels are quicker and then it becomes sort of constant)

I can’t comment on what you’re missing, but I’m 99% sure don’t need either, as both were added after the achievement was created.

That said, tribulation caverns isn’t that hard to get (the scaffolding to get there isn’t that bad), and you don’t have to do the entire puzzle, just enter it. Though the puzzle itself isn’t all that bad either if you just run through it and don’t fight til the end, but that’s your call.

IINM I was missing either tail of the serpent or lair of the coil, both caves in the SE portion of timberline falls. Neither of them have anything for map completion so they’re easy to skip.

Gumby.1708:

So they basically should screw over the guys that were forced to buy it at the time because it was advertised as limited content ?

I dont think this will happen and really really hope this will not happen.

How is that screwing them over (assuming the price is the same)? The earlier you buy it, the better return you get on it as an investment, so how does that in any way hurt them?

I can’t be certain that this has it covered, but this (and similar) timer site seems to check for just about everything: http://gw2.thelazy.net/events.html

It’s not exactly in an easy-to-list format though. I’m sure there are better ones out there.

While I would appreciate it aesthetically, I would think they’d need to put more balance into underwater combat before they could really go all-in on it like this. Granted, a big part of the issue may be the amount of time spent learning the various classes underwater vs. on land, but it still strikes me as a serious issue. Some classes are easy mode, some are all but useless.

1.) Gems can buy anything in the gem store (lion head on the top menu); almost entirely it’s cosmetic stuff, though there are experience boosters, regeneration boosters, that sort of thing that will give you a slight edge (IMO not one worth paying for). You can also convert gems to gold based on whatever the current market rate is, and that is how you would go about spending real cash to get the really good gear (convert then buy exotics or whatever from the trading post). Granted, it’s probably not worth doing this until you get to level 80 [if ever], but it’s your money.

2.) sPvP (crossed sword icon on the top menu bar) is 5vs5 or 8vs8(?) I think. I don’t know too much, I never do it, but it’s there. But they’re not deathmatch, they’re conquest unfortunately.

3.) Fractals [of the Mists] is a dungeon that was added in November, accessed from lion’s arch (Asura gate on the southern shore). Basically it randomly takes you to 3 out of a possible 7 short scenarios each time you do it. It’s a 5 man thing.

4.) Engineers can use rifles, pistols, shields, and harpoon guns. That means they can use The Predator, Quip, The Flameseeker Prophecies, and Frenzy (respectively).

I’ve gotten all of mine out of kite fortunes, which I’ve gotten as random drops (basically wherever I was getting dragon coffers, though these feel a little rarer). It didn’t take me long to get a golden fortune either.

Check the ocean at the south end of straits of devastation, below where the mainland ends. There’s nothing there to collect for map completion but there is a named area that counts for “explorer.”

Glob of ectoplasm. Sells for like 18-19s on trading post.

Yes, one’s you’re “owed” will be given out one day at a time.