Guild Wars 2

The only problem I have with this is, if the increases include only stat changes, the only appropriate increases in dungeon difficulty will also be basically stat changes. As long as leveling your weapon (for lack of a better term) doesn’t require you to demonstrate any specific skills, the game can’t assume that you’re necessarily a “better” player based on weapon level, just that you’ve done more. So it can’t throw anything truly harder at you, only things that are tougher to kill. At which point it just becomes a set of arbitrary numbers, no?

That said, I like the concept (and I’m sure I’m oversimplifying your idea for the sake of my point, for which I apologize). There is certainly room to take it new, interesting directions. Maybe have higher level skills (via leveled weapons or whatever) that are mostly for fun but that new enemy mechanics can be built around; things that will make people say “that’s cool, I want to work towards that” but never be needed by anyone who doesn’t want them. Or maybe have things that level when you demonstrate certain player skills (i.e. demonstrate that you’re good at dodging, good at stealthing, good at whatever) and, once you’ve unlocked those, have enemies that are built around that in your dungeon example.

I don’t know where the sweet spot is, but you could take it in some interesting directions, that’s for sure.

Plant with a flamethrower is definitely a sight to behold.

That said, Sylvari make awesome engineers because their racial skills are all pretty useful.

I agree with this for the most part. I’d amend it to say that they should decide where they want the most people to congregate, and tweak it such that that is the most profitable (and CS is a valid answer to that; having a ton of people available to take Promenade of the Gods is always nice).

I think “solo” might be too extreme, but making them scale a bit from, say, 3-5 players would go a long way towards helping people get into at least story mode more quickly. Having to kill a hour (and spam /map) looking for the last person or two to do an unpopular story mode dungeon is just a waste of time, especially if the dungeon itself already takes a long time. Of course a dungeon finder would make many of these issues moot, but I have no idea which is more likely to be implemented and either would help.

I do some crafting early just from whatever mats I can find, to cut down on the low-level grinding (not enough build flexibility early on for it to be worth it). After that it’s exploration all the way, but don’t sprint through the exploration; take the time and get a taste for the different DE chains in various areas.

If you’re following your personal story, the story takes you to new zones at a high enough rate for natural exploring to be a valid leveling tactic, in my experience.

Plus, for the higher level zones the 100% rewards are pretty valuable.

Oh, forgot to mention this earlier. If you care about the explorer achievements (e.g. “Orr explorer” etc.) then be very thorough when you’re 100%ing each area. I can’t tell you how tedious it is to go through each map one by one and compare it to, say, the wiki comparing names of places you’ve unlocked to find what you’re still missing. There are named areas that have no POI’s etc. so you can 100% an area without totally unfogging it.

Mouse for me. Bonus is that it freezes your cursor in place, which if you use a targeted skill (e.g. grenades for an engineer) as long as you remember where your cursor was you have very consistent targeting.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Meta_event

Has basically all of the big chains sorted by map.

Currently, the only way to do it is to turn the turret in short bursts (assuming you use the tank at all).

That’s normal enemy behavior. If nobody is in the area of the enemy for even a short period of time, it’ll recover all of its health. I believe, with the fire ele, you can have someone stay close enough to keep it from healing but still far enough not to be mobbed by embers (I think even standing before the bridge is enough to keep it from resetting).

From the wiki:

“Damage done = (weapon damage) * Power * (skill-specific coefficient) / (target’s Armor)”

Armor in this case = Defense + Toughness

So, if you have some actual numbers to plug in (and know how that’s going to work in terms of increased toughness vs. increased vitality; +1 vitality = +10 health IINM) you could do a comparison there.

Of course the other thing to remember is that’s just direct damage. Condition damage ignores armor (wiki has a table: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Damage)

Again, if you have numbers to work with try them out and see what you come up with.

From the wiki:

“Expected damage = Base damage * (1 + (0.50 + (Critical Damage / 100)) * Critical Chance)”

I think it’s different because 0 critical damage stat still gives you 150% base damage as crits.

(EDIT: nvm, misread, that should be total damage output)

I’d prioritize WvW over map completion, all else being equal (i.e. if your server is way behind in your WvW matchup then it won’t be much fun so you might want to wait).

Part of it is that WvW maps count for map completion, so the sooner you get comfortable there the better. Part of it is that WvW kills are part of the monthly achievement; you can finish exploring at any time, but you’ve only got 2 more weeks to get the monthly in if you have any desire to do so (and for 45000+ karma, why not?).

I think any build that can survive in Orr is probably viable enough in WvW if you’re not alone. You won’t be the best but you’ll be good enough for getting your feet wet. And the more you play, the better you’ll be able to figure out where your weaknesses are and what you’ll want to change.

But yes, above all have fun. Don’t rush through something and miss what you might end up enjoying the most.

I’ll say this though: map completion, other than perhaps getting hung up in WvW, shouldn’t end up taking you too long. If you’re good at playing the way you’re built now then the lower level zones aren’t challenging. There are only a handful of points that are difficult to get to or find, and most renown hearts are easy to grind through in one way or another without taking much time.

Personal suggestion? Give yourself enough time to do any other, non map completion events in a given area before moving on. Meta events (or just any interesting DE’s), jumping puzzles, mini-dungeons if you have people you can work with, etc. Just going to an area and doing nothing but the bare minimum to get 100% is probably going to feel like a chore, so don’t let yourself get trapped into the “get it over with” thinking. Obviously it’s up to you whether any of the extra content is worth it or just another waste of time, but give yourself the chance to check it all out if you can.

Also, personally I wouldn’t worry as much about the money/farming aspect of it, at least not if it takes a major investment to set up. If you can get what you need without too much trouble then hey, why not? But otherwise optimized farming in Orr or the like is probably more efficient.

Don’t confuse off-hand with secondary weapon sets. Scepters are main-hand only, shields are off-hand only. You could run sword/shield as one set and scepter/focus (or torch, or another shield) as the other set. You’d only get the stats/effects of which ever set is active at the time, though.

But yes, in my (somewhat limited) Guardian experience it is nice to have a scepter available for ranged attack in one of my weapon sets.

Same on Devona’s Rest. Spiral has been dead for about 3-4 days straight now. Doubly annoying because it cuts off two jumping puzzles.

The biggest problem for me on this part was that the collision detection between the player and the tank is very finicky. Getting close enough to take control of the tank’s weapon would often times mean being pushed back by the tank itself because you were physically halfway inside the object and I guess were colliding with it in an unstable way.

That, and the turret rotation behavior (whereby if you’re turning the turret while you break a connection with the tank, e.g. when hit by a giant’s boulder, the turret will keep turning without you) is quite annoying. The boulders/risen being able to break your connection with the tank makes sense as a mechanic for that mission, but the turret’s continued rotation afterwards seems like a bug, and only serves to waste time as you have to re-aim the turret every time if you’re not quick/careful. Ended up having to turn it in short pulses just because I knew I was going to get knocked back before I could fire.