Guild Wars 2

I followed Matt’s advice from https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/tech/Configuring-User-Account-Control-UAC/first#post3962
For some reason, i never thought it might be the issue. Been running WvW for 40 minutes with no spikes whatsoever, will update the thread after a few hours if the problem comes back.

My GameAdvisor says – http://pastebin.com/25q7NVyh

Right, another detail – tried both fullscreen 1280×1024 (what can i say, small screen is small) and windowed fullscreen, no difference.

…
I do not visit any shady sites (yes, porn included) or download anything from unreliable sources (never used torrents, been watching series online on tested and reliable sites, never downloaded and run an unknown app, etc). I know my way around the internet, so to speak.

Running the game on the lowest settings possible, with everything turned off/low, does not help. The spike, when it happens, seems a bit less severe (5fps rather than 2fps on medium), but it still happens. On medium-high settings, it makes the game run on a few fps less when it happens, but doesn’t seem to occur more often or stay on for longer.

I’ve been using CCleaner but never picked up anything GW2-related.

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I might have forgotten about something, as i’ve been fighting with it for months now and it’s rather tough to list it all just off top of my head. I don’t mind providing any extra info or running any utility software to test things if that might help. I also don’t mind being pointed out some obvious and easy solutions, but it’s very possible i’ve already tried them – while not tied to computers professionally, i would say i am pretty well-versed in the techkittenand certainly can google stuff myself.

Having exhausted all my ideas and nearly all of my patience, i am squeaking for help now.

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My specs:
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition s.AM3
Asus M4A88TD-M EVO/USB3 AMD880G s.AM3
Kingston HyperX 4×2GB DDR3-1600 Dual Chanel Kit Non-ECC CL9 KHX1600C9D3K2/4GX
ASUS GTS450 1024MB 128bit PCI-E DirectCu OC
Seagate ST31000528AS 1TB sATA II 32MB
be quiet! Straight Power E8-700W
Cooler Master Gladiator RC-600-KKN1-GP Black (yeah, because the case might matter)
Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit

The observable problem

Every now and then, roughly every 5~10 minutes for about 30~60 seconds, my game becomes nigh unplayable due to a sudden fps drop, going as low as 2fps. It started happening around one of the Queen’s Jubilee updates – before that, i could run the game on mid-high settings for hours and never run into any issues, even in big scale WvW (seasoned zerg commander here).
As far as PvE goes, i can use my sixth sense and dodge away during most fights, or pop some guardian utility to stay alive for a part of the problem’s duration, but i haven’t touched much of PvP or WvW because i become a rallybot anytime it happens; even if it’s 7fps rather than 2, it still is too low to reliably fight and stays on for long enough to kill me a few times and laugh about it.
The issue comes up at random times and seems completely unrelated to what’s going on on the screen – it happens in LA, it happens in WvW, in empty PvE zones, but then i can have a massive 30v30 zerg fight with no problems whatsoever. It seems unrelated to how long the game or the computer in general has been running – i start up my machine after 10h of being off in a cool room, log in, greet the guildies, and it happens two minutes later.
I noticed that when a ‘spike’ like that happens, and this is the term i will be using from now on, it’s not only my GW2 that is affected but the whole computer. Everything slows down as if running on very low fps – youtube starts to stutter, pages load very slow, even my cursor ‘jumps’ around, even if GW2 is running in background.
It only happens with GW2 live client – i’m one of those invited to test EotM and i can run the EotM client on high settings for hours just fine; i can run Starcraft 2 on highest settings for hours just fine, even in 3v3 big fights, and no spikes ever happen.

Digging into detail

Why ‘spikes’? I noticed that in normal, LA-idling-chatting environment, the GW2 process takes up to 60~65% of my CPU, with the overall CPU usage being around 67~70% tops; even in WvW, both the process and the overall usage are only a few % points higher. When a spike happens, the GW2 process’s usage goes up to about 75%, but the overall CPU usage spikes up to 99~100% for the duration.
As i said, and i’d like to repeat it, this issue only pops up with GW2 running, and only its live client. I was able to run the Edge of the Mists shard client for a few hours, on high details, with absolutely no spikes; i can run other games and never get anything similar to what i’ve described.

Steps that failed

I opened the case, reseated everything, reapplied the thermal paste thingie on my CPU, dusted everything off, checked the cables. While my CPU does heat up a bit, it seems completely unrelated – (1) the CPU heats up more after two hours of Starcraft 2 on highest settings than ten minutes of GW2 on lowest, (2) i am getting spikes even after just starting my machine up. I highly doubt it’s a hardware issue, as it’s not persistent across other applications and does not seem strain/heat-related.
I never overclocked anything.

My next step was to format my C: drive and reinstall my system along with GW2. My current installation is from 01.11.13. It didn’t help – the same spikes started happening the very same day i reinstalled everything. Of course, i am updating my Windows and all my drivers regularly.

I defragmented the whole disk and all GW2 files manually using PowerDefragmenter. My gw2.dat file was in eight fragments, i was hopeful it might be the culprit, but nope. No fragmented data and yet the very same issue comes up.

I turned all automatic updates of everything i could find off, this includes Windows Update, even Google Chrome updater, thinking there might be some conflicts there. Nope.

I ran memtest. No problems. Also ran OCCT.

I set the swap file to a fixed min/max of 16384MB (double my physical RAM). I also played around with power supply settings in Windows, both putting min/max of all devices to 100% (so they run at full capacity all the time rather than alternate between idle/stress moments and, perhaps, not catch up in time), and setting max to 90% or lower. Nothing helped in GW2, but i did notice a performance boost in SC2 after setting my CPU to min/max of 100%.

I even turned the Windows Defender off, to no avail. Of course i got rid of any antivirus and any other residual software that might get in the way of the game (as of this Windows installation, i haven’t even installed any antivir, so it’s not a case of removing it incorrectly).

to be continued – ran out of single-post space…

Kenmei.7138:

You usually play the game for your fun, so you play with the style that gives you most enjoyable moments and not like “creator” was thinking you “should” play.

It’s for all games like this.

I agree – as long as it makes sense within the given frame (which does in this case) and doesn’t lead to griefing, kittening, or any other problems, but is actually enjoyable not just for you (which doesn’t in a number of cases).
It’s like going into sPvP and then kittening that people are capping spots instead of pew pewing at the orb, because this is what you consider fun. I, for one, prefer playing WvW as designed and as long as map control is the priority, i do not mind zerging, blobbing, hand holding, golem rushing, or even nightcapping, done by enemies as well. You won’t hear me whining about enemy guilds running organised 30man raids and murdering bigger zergs of my side, so please don’t whine when zerging happens either.

Benyyy.1352:

dikamilo.7519:

KingCraig.7651:

Would be really nice to fight INC or NNF on their own rather than have them both teaming up to outnumber us.

Would be really nice to fight Deso guilds instead of single massive big blob. Outnumber you ? lolz

This is the second time INC makes someone post screenshots in the forums. First Black with his posts here:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/wuv/matchups/Desolation-Far-shiverpeaks-Gunnar-s-Hold/page/2#post3194172

and now me.

Sorry for the quality of the printscreen but we were fighting NNF when all of the sudden our friends INC come to join the party… but I guess we are the ones who blob with 100 randoms.

Oh no. A server might be playing world vs world and its guilds sometimes dare to cooperate! The world is ending!

Schedule yourselves limited GvG if you want to play guild vs guild style. Go for some sPvP for 5v5. I wonder if/when people actually bother to read the format’s name and stop crying about opponents playing the game as it’s designed.

Everyone hates glass builds except for stubborn glass-builds users.

Dear [RiOT] mesmer from the dark room,
When you see a kodan army in the Obsidian Sanctum, peacefully waving and dancing your way, you do not knock them off a ledge in the dark room and then get away with it. I hope you have learned the lesson that while the kodan are peaceful, they will turn into ferocious charr, powerful norn, cunning asura and others to protect their pack.
We did /cry over your death, though.

Dear FSP and Deso players from the Desolation Borderlands’ jumping puzzle,
Bears are out of the hunting season now. They also certainly are not random prey coming straight from PvE, not knowing how to handle themselves. Kodan don’t bear weapons, that’s true, but they have powerful allies.
We did /cry over your deaths, though.

Surprising reset

Argus Thaal.3801:

Be nice if they had it to where Wxp was as you say “account wide” but have it so the points you spend aren’t. each point is spend on a character of your choosing that way it balances it out a bit. if not you have a person who has everything maxed and just has to make a new character to get all maxed again.

This very much.
Make wxp accumulation account-wide, make the wxp titles account-wide, but the accumulated trait points are spent per character.

Share your current locker progress!

Update: worked this time, after the daily reset. Just completed a new key and opened the vault.

Same issue here. Gonna try in 30min after the reset.

Arrr!                          

Organised by Commander Troy, folks gather up and have a stroll through PvE world bosses just as the daily reset kicks in.
To get aboard, hang out in our Lion’s Arch around midnight GMT and keep an eye out on the /m chat. During the run, be sure to join the commander’s squad for extra chat and giggles over the /d chat.

If you have any questions or would like to express your love about the event, contact the commander herself in-game – Saint Troy.9258

Think of it this way.

The only reason NOT to zerg in open world PvE in other MMOs is the player griefing and limited resources. Kill stealing. Player killing. Murdering people and shooing them away from a farming spot. Camping mobs and bosses on their respawn so that YOU and YOUR guild can get the loot, not someone else.
With the removal of that, with the approach that everyone gets loot as long as the target is tagged – and that’s easy to do – and with no open world PvP, there is absolutely no reason NOT to zerg around in open PvE. Yes, there are some events which scale well with a medium-sized zerg (like the Grenth’s temple), making them actually a kittenallenging, but they’re still doable and any challenge is alleviated if the zerg swells bigger or if some of its members leave, frustrated after two wipes.

In anyone’s sane mind, when people are set for rewards and getting the new content done as fast as possible, why players should NOT be zerging now?

On another note, i just got credit for pvp daily top stats in southsun survivor.

I got my Legend using 2x exotic Invader’s staff in the process, so i’m pretty positive about that. Since one of the patches ~1,5 months ago it has stopped working.

Still can’t forge Invader stuff.
Is that change intentional or a bug to be fixed back?

I still find it funny and sad that the pvp element of WvW is being siphoned out. Kill 10 players, you have 49 days to kill a total of 10 days – GG ANET. Way to encourage actual fighting there! Take 100 camps, kill 500 guards, PVD to victory! Anyone notice a theme?

WvW has never had PvP as the core of its design. We had known that ever since before the game’s release; it was never meant to be the ultimate PvP for the sake of PvP, and while it’s okay for players to focus on that aspect of the format, it will always be a bit delusional kind of focus. We’ll see what the Edge of the Mists and the Obsidian Sanctum redesign will bring.

If you want to beat the Zerg, you need to deny their power droning and force cheap units instead. Apply pressure asap to force zerglings out, which means wasted larvae. Snipe important tech structures – if you manage to take down their Pool and Lair/Hive somewhere in the midgame, that’s great.
Keep in mind that the Zerg is the reactive ‘play by ear’ race, meaning they should adapt to your tech choices and counter them; and they can do it, fast and effective. If you turn the roles, though, and poke them into teching for something or even wait for them to commit into a specific tech tree, you should be fine countering it with superior trades during engagements.

If that fails, you either need to blow up the infested planet or just type GG.

ljd.4658,
Sogradde’s initial “who would have thought” was sincere, not sarcastic. A lot of us had been expecting a tough beating in this matchup from the very get-go; we’re a server rising from t8, doing really well and generally stable atm, but it’s the first time we’ve faced a t1 opponent ever since the randomised matchups. Yet we managed to pull off a really strong reset, ticking highest, ninjaing SM and having a-plenty of good and really equal fights.

It’s not about things being how imagined, it’s about things being as stated. If someone tells you “look, you should really buy this thing I made. It’s like this this and this and you’re gonna love it” and you buy it. But then after some times he comes by and he replaces it with some crap quite different from what you bought. Wouldn’t you want to throw it in his face?

My copy of the game, back when i bought it, had orbs which were actually a bit more powerful due to extra health they provided on top of the all-stat boost. They were also much harder to neutralise for the weaker servers, making the strongest team not only stronger but also much safer on their lead.
Bloodlust is pretty easy to neutralise, compared to orbs. Bloodlust seems resistant to hacking, like the infamous orb-flying. Finally, bloodlust is much closer to what was in the game when i bought it, and what was advertised back in the day, providing extra incentive in the format; a big chunk of the playerbase had been asking ANet to reintroduce orbs, in one way or another, for a long time, and now that they’ve finally designed a much better yet similar system, egotistical pricks threaten to leave.

Except for extra points-per-stomp, bloodlust is not new. Unless you joined the game post-orb-removal, which might somehow explain your blindness and stubborness, but please do not play the ‘i bought a different game’ card because it only makes you look silly.
For months, we’d known orbs are coming back, or at least some kind of orb-like mechanics; we’d known it was in development and coming some day. Do not act surprised and caught out of nothing, simply having forgotten what was meant to be in the game since its beginning (but was removed due to hacking, flying and balance – but mainly in the ‘safety’ side of it, as in orbs being defended in t3 keeps being virtually untouchable for the weakest) and having ignored devs saying something along those lines will come back.

Sounds like i really need to discipline my chaps, then.

Oh no, people making use of their blueprints and towers they control! Not to mention aiding their allies in fights!
Set up a GvG if you want a numbers-even fight, there’s a-plenty of guilds on GH looking for it.

The latest patch did not help, just highlighting it’s still an issue.

Still, grinding 400~500 by crafting exotics is an error people are making by their own ignorance, there’s quite a bit you can get via refinement which is artificially free, in terms of gold, if you mine a bit and don’t rush it.

…except that the gw2crafts bot does not faciliate refining of the ascended materials from 450 onwards, which are time-gated but offer a steady income of crafting xp with absolutely NO additional cost, just do a dungeon, a world boss or some WvW and get those ascended basic mats for refinement.

The real cheapest way is:
Mining runs on all your lv80 toons to get ori and wood;
Refine those until 425;
Discover a few exotics until 450;
Do world bosses, dungeons, WvW, jumping puzzles… (aka – just play the kitten game);
Refine ascended materials.

Just an update – not fixed with the last patch.

Thanks o/
And if you meant to change badge/token exotics not to be forgeable, giving us a headsup would be nice, like with karma

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/Can-t-forge-Invader-exotic-items/first#post2763114
Same issue, and i forged Invaders Staves less than two weeks ago with great success.

Used my excess badges to get some Invaders Greatswords and they do not show up in the forge anymore. Used to be possible, just as with dungeon exotic rewards.
This was nowhere in the patch notes so i assume it is a bug, would appreciate seeing it fixed soon as i blew quite some badges on it :p

Kaleygh.1524:

Lion, FRS, Rage, MM are you really that insecure ?

I’m insecure as a tiny little purring kitten, but i have no idea what you’re trying to imply here.

@drkn.3429 The EB JP is not good, queue in primetime always even in the lowest server, plus is not the best terrain, even windmill has some problems.

It’s not about the JP being a good spot but about other spots becoming worse.
Borderlands will surely be affected by the new buffs, which pretty much invalidates the whole idea of an even GvG. Because of more stuff to do, especially for roamers and small groups, they will generally see more people, especially in the evenings in and around prime time, even if just because of the awesome novelty factor.
EB is pretty often full and if you wanted to get 15/20 people there, it would get pretty rough to get the last five, possibly getting stuck in queue. Besides, there’s no really decent spot in EB, anywhere on the map – nowhere secluded enough, unless far corners behind Speldan/Golanta/Umber, but even there you get some aggressive mobs and given the perma-threeway nature of EB, people might and will get their GvG fights interrupted pretty often.

The Sanctum, while far from perfect, most likely will not be affected by the buff, has a pretty decent spot for GvG right at the entrance (even just as you drop down, but you can also just go down the stairs to the shallow waters down there, should be enough room; even if not, you can mesmer-port people anywhere quite easily), and while you need to bypass the EB queue to get there, you will not contribute to it with those of you who already got there, as they will free their spots as soon as they reach the keep. The old argument of ‘GvG gives nothing to the server and you are just wasting slots’ becomes moot, queues or not.
This or custom PvP arenas.

Amelia Knox.9362:

Devon here is the Feedback of most guild group running in wvw, Make the buff, selectable on/off so that Gvg can be viable in the future, without too much assle.
The new system(borderland bloodlust) must stop the Blob Meta that ruining wvw all around.
And Please listen to us that we’re asking a gvg arena, it will really help the game

Just GvG in the Obsidian Sanctum.
You avoid any orb buffs.
You are focused on keeping your EB keep, making GvG-oriented guilds ‘contribute more’ to the server points, and i’m sure you’ve heard that argument against you from time to time.
You do not ‘waste’ any slots on borderlands.

Remember that immobilise does not work.

See you on Gunnar’s Hold!

What is this about?
So the thing is that these goggles are a pain…the whole puzzle is very unforgiving, but the last bits are even more, you make a mistake, you die a horrible death flattening out like a pancake. So if you tried it and failed, or have not even tried yet but curious, or did it but want to help others come around Saturday, 24.08 at 7pm GMT+1.

Where is it?
‘Not So Secret is a jumping puzzle in Gendarran Fields with two routes. The first leads to the Not So Secret achievement and the other to a pair of Diving Goggles.’
Details on the wiki: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Not_So_Secret

What is planned?
There are two achievements here, the jumping puzzle (get the shiny chest) and the diving goggles, (hit the water*) needed to complete Dive Master. We will have a mesmer at your convenience at the chest for the first one and then a portal chain up to the goggles (bit more painful) so you only need to get into the retreat where the ship is (it isn’t trivial but shouldn’t be too bad, we can also guide you with that!) and from there just portal them up.
Now the tricky bit is that the dive itself isn’t as simple as you would think. There are several pipes on the way and while falling you need to avoid them, so people tend to die before they get the achievement. Hopefully with the portals you can try to hit that patch of water as many times as you have patience for!

How long does it take?
It can take 2 minutes and one try, it can take 2 hours and 50, it depends on your skill and luck. We are going to be there to help you for two hours (from 7 until 9pm GMT+1).

What do you need to do?
You need to log on/guest onto Gunnar’s Hold server on the day, zone to Gendarran Fields (Broadhollow Waypoint) and run towards the Second Aetherblade Site point of interest (see the map on the linked wiki article). Our guides should show you how to get in, then run to the tag (we will use /m to communicate so better keep your red chat ticked in!) and wait for the portal. Then get into your swimwear, dive and hope for the best:)

So if you miss any of those or need your No One Left Behind (‘Revive 1,000 players’) achievement or simply just int he mood to see masses of people jumping off a platform and die miserably while their scattered bodies lie around, this is your opportunity!

If you got questions or something isn’t clear whisper/mail Eili.2186 in the game or here for more information!

PS: Jumping puzzles are a pain when there is a mob trying to hop around so please take note: if you want to jump your way through please be so kind to choose another time as this event is about getting the achievements with the least pain possible.

*You need to hit the water while still wearing the goggles and your undies. This means you can’t bump into anything on the way down, because it results in you losing the goggles and getting your armour back on.

Did not help

Spec:
AMD Phenom II X4 955
ASUS GTS450 1024MB 128bit
Asus M4A88TD-M EVO/USB3 AMD880G
Kingston HyperX 2×2GB DDR3-1600 (x2 = 8gb)
Seagate ST31000528AS 1TB sATA II 32MB
Win 7, up-to-date

Issue:
At random times, at seemingly relatively fixed intervals (every 6~8 minutes), for about a minute or longer, i am having a huge FPS drop in GW2, from 90ish to 8~12.
Not only my game slows down, but the whole computer, even if the game is running in the background (minimised or not). This means that even my browsers and music players are having issues when GW2 decides to go on strike.
Running the task manager and observing the processes tab revealed that the game eats up to 99% of my CPU power when that happens, otherwise staying at ~30%.

It started happening only about a week ago, sometime around the Queen’s Jubilee update, or even after one of its subsequent patches. Hard to tell, but it’s a very new issue.

It happens regardless of my current in-game activity. I can have my toon parked at a secluded spot, doing nothing, with no effects flying around, and still have the GW2 app spike my CPU. It does not seem to occur more often during ‘stressful’ activities, like farming the Pavillion, big WvW fights or loads of effects stacked on a dungeon boss – it does occur during those times, the spike lasts for about a minute (a minute i can barely do anything responsive, though), then there’s everything fine for 6~8 minutes, then the spike occurs again. Heck, it even occurs while i’m in the login screen, if left for long enough.

I tried running the game without anything else in the background, including no browsers, no music, all extra processes turned off, but the problem would still occur.

It does not occur with GW2 off, whatever i am doing, and i can run other games just fine, even at highest possible settings (Starcraft 2, Fallout: New Vegas, Portal 2), even two of them simultaneously, with a lot of stuff going on in the background. I can also process videos in VirtualDub while playing SC2 on highest settings and nothing clogs up. The problem persists only with GW2.

Any advice, please?

Thanks for the link, offers a different point of view and more info in some directions =)

:)
Wondering what does it take to get an introductory thread like this one pinned, so that more newcomers can easily find it

You’re missing out on two things, though, if you win – and at least sometimes you do: the free/paid tournament items (as well as tokens and reagents from salvaging the free doubles) and champion achievement progression (as wins in tPvP contribute to Champion X, Champion Brawler and Conqueror, as well as tPvP kills contribute to both Slayer and Professional Assassin).

From what i’ve heard, there is something like ‘rank farm’ private arenas, but i have no idea how it works and if it’s worth it if you’re only after the rank/glory points.

I do agree on the rabbit/deer part – even if you want to get all skins available from those ranks, too, just buy 2-3 chests at once, open them, deposit, salvage, and check if you already can craft all the remaining items you are missing (aka check if you have enough rank tokens for it, as you’ll eventually get basic mats sooner or later).

There are actually quite some bugs both in the wiki tables and in the locker itself.
I will try to keep this post up-to-date with your submissions, and once we have gathered ‘a number’ of bugs and issues with the locker, i’ll send it over to ANet.

Deer:

• the Svanir and Etched weapons are the same, and both shouldn’t be on the wiki;
• most items are called ‘Svanir’ in the locker except for a handful – iirc 1h sword is called ‘Etched’ but is actually from the Svanir set;
• there is no ‘Svanir Short Bow’, but it’s a visual bug – there are two ‘Frozen Short Bows’ in the locker atm, and the left one is actually from the Svanir set;
• the Krait Longbow has Nightmare icon;
• the Apprentice set seems to be not craftable, but may drop from deer chests (silver seems to have highest chance) – i still lack shoes there;

With all that knowledge, you might still ponder how to best utilise your glory and not waste points on the way to filling your locker.
For the moment, i am sitting at all rabbit items, all deer items, some dolyak items and most tournament items (including some full sets).

The way i approach it is pretty simple.
I don’t forge anything until i hit every tenth rank, aka make transition from one rank to another. One the way through ten ranks, you get rank reward chests, meaning you will get 40~50 items of the respective rank by just playing and ranking up. Unless you really want some specific skin asap, there is no reason to forge or buy rank X items until you are already rank X+1.
Once you have changed your rank, buy 5 gold rank chests, 5 silver rank chests and 5 copper reward chests (unless you were really lucky with not getting too many doubles from rank-up chests and you don’t really need that many items/materials). Open them all, use the ‘deposit all’ option, and salvage everything there’s left. You should get a hefty number of Arcane materials and enough rank tokens to just craft all the remaining items you’ve missed from chests.

So, for example, i didn’t spend any glory on chests or item tokens during r1~r9. I only bought the salvage kits as i kept getting doubles from rank-up chests.
As soon as i hit r10 and turned into a bambi, i had about 10k unspent glory which i used up to buy rabkittenests. I opened them all, deposited all items, salvaged doubles, deposited materials.
Then i took a look at my locker, took a look at the wiki table, and noted down all items i am still missing from the rabbit rank. It is enough to just open Notepad, write ‘peacemaker’ and note down all peacemaker items you are missing below; repeat for all available sets of the rabbit rank.
Using the wiki table and its links, i counted how many Arcane materials and rabbit tokens i need to craft it all. If you have enough rank tokens but you’re missing Arcane materials, do not worry – you will keep getting Arcane mats on the way, just keep notes on what you still need to craft. If you are missing rank tokens but have all Arcane mats, buy some extra copper chests, deposit all, salvage doubles – until you have enough tokens.
Withdraw the needed item tokens from your locker (as you probably got some with all that salvaging) and buy the remaining item tokens with glory.
Proceed to the forge.
Forge.

And that’s it!

As far as tournament items go, from both free and paid tournament ranks, i advise not to craft any of them, unless you simply want to get another set of a given skin to outfit your toon while keeping the other in the locker.
That is because once you have learned the maps, got a bit familiar with your toon and your build, and started feeling confident enough in the format having played some hot joins, i suggest to hop into tPvP play and focus on that side of PvP, ignoring hot joins altogether. Keep in mind that you can join a tournament solo, without a premade team.
This way you will both gain glory to advance in your ranks and keep getting tournament reward chests – with every won tPvP match. Given how it works now, there is next to no reason to play hot joins atm once you know the maps and practiced with your toon a bit (which should happen about r5-r6, if not earlier).
After a while, you will get a lot of doubles from tournament chests, fueling your Arcane materials and item tokens for forging of rank items once you’ve hit another tenth rank.

Finally, there are also special skins which can go into the locker once you have transformed them into PvP versions.
This includes all weapon and armor skins (from Hellfire and Radiant, to gemstore skins, to Arachnophobia, to old Consortium Breathers), all of Hall of Monuments items, and a wide variety of backpiece items.

Enjoy filling your locker =)

So, you’ve played some PvP, ranked up, opened some chests and salvaged some items; you’ve taken a look at your PvP locker and you started pondering how to fill all those slots up with actual items. I can assure you that getting all items within the ranks available for you is not a problem at all, provided you regularly play some PvP to keep glory flowing and ranking up.

The first thing to understand is that items are broken down into ranks, and within ranks, into tiers, as mentioned earlier. So within the rabbit rank there are two light armor sets – Country (common) and Embroidered (uncommon). If you want a Magician or Devout set, you need to rank up to deer first – no way to get them as a bunny.
Besides the rank tiers, from bunny to dragon, there are also two ‘tournament ranks’ of items. This is because you can get those items from the tournament reward chests (the chests you get for winning a 5v5 tPvP match, or a rated match – that’s the same thing now), and they may salvage into tournament tokens. For the moment, there is also split into ‘free’ and ‘paid’ tournament ranks, reflected in two different tournament token types. tPvP used to be split the same way, with Tournament Tickets required to participate in paid tournaments, but that’s no longer the case, and nowadays you will be getting both paid and free tournament items from the same tournament reward chest.
Sometimes, especially with tournament and high-rank tiers, there may be more armor or weapon sets falling into the same item tier, aka two rare armor sets within one rank. For example, within the free tournament rank, both Wizard and Armageddon sets are considered as rare, and in turn use the same recipes to be crafted, meaning you may need to keep forging the same thing over and over and keep getting a Wizard chestpiece while you’re aiming for the Armageddon one. Such pairs do not happen that often and most items have their own set and sure recipes with 100% chance.

Righto, onto the recipes!

The basic recipe formula is:
[item token] + [rank token] + [tX Arcane material] + [5 Arcane Powder]

This means that if you want a Peacemaker’s Greatsword, you will need:
greatsword token + rabbit token + 1 Arcane Crystal + 5 Arcane Powder

That’s it! And it’s one of those 100% recipes, so you are sure to get the GS you wanted.

Seems easy enough, but how should you know what rank tokens and what tier of Arcane materials do you need?
Well, the wiki comes to the rescue again – click here for a really neat table with all PvP rewards, sorted by rank. Click on any link there to get specific recipes.

Congratulations!
Aided by the gw2wiki, you have just mastered PvP crafting!

I know quite a number of people is getting into the format now, and i know most of them do not really understand how PvP crafting works. Well, not entirely, at least. Heck, i had problems grasping the whole system at the beginning – but now that i understand it, it’s all crystal clear. Allow me to shed some light on it for you.

Please keep in mind this guide is aimed at the format newcomers and people who never really bothered about their locker and skins, but started recently and… let’s say they don’t really know how to operate there.
If you have any tips or corrections, reply below!

First of all, let’s take a look at the available materials and recipes. Contrary to PvE, there’s only a handful of materials, and all the crafting takes place at the mystic forge, limiting it to four ingredients per item only, with no refinement necessary on the way.

There are only four basic materials used in PvP:

• Arcane Powder – the most common material and the one used in all recipes;
• Arcane Orb – common material, ‘tier1’, used to craft common items;
• Arcane Crystal – uncommon material, ‘tier2’, used to craft uncommon items;
• Arcane Sliver – rare material, ‘tier3’, used to craft rare items.

The mentioned ‘rarity’ of items is based on roughly how often do they drop from PvP reward chests, and what level of chest do you need to get them (copper, silver or gold). Don’t bother about that much for now.

A bit more ‘specialised’ materials are item tokens and rank tokens.
An item token is the ‘base’ of your crafting, denoting what kind of item you are forging. Want a new hammer skin? You will need a hammer token. Want to craft that cool looking armor set? You will need armor tokens, one for each part, keeping the light/medium/heavy division in mind.
The final material type is the rank token. Items are associated with PvP ranks, starting from rabbit and deer, through dolyak, wolf and tiger, up to bear, shark phoenix and dragon. If you want to craft something from the range of rabbit items, you will need a rabbit token; if you want to get that sweet skin from within the wolf rank, you will need a wolf token.

The basic way of getting all those materials is pretty simple – salvaging. You will need PvP salvage kits, 100 glory each, bought at any glory vendor at the Heart of the Mists. 15 uses.
Most often, you will get Arcane Powder; sometimes you will get another Arcane material based on the salvaged item’s rarity (in other words, what would be used to craft it). From time to time, although generally less often, you will get respective rank and item tokens.
Keep in mind that you can buy all item tokens with glory, 200 glory each, at any glory vendor.
You can also transmute Arcane materials, one into another, using PvP Arcane Converter (1k glory at any vendor). For a neat table of converting, click here for the wiki article.

If you salvage all your doubles, aka all items you’re getting that you already have deposited in your locker, you shouldn’t have much problems with the Arcane materials. Item tokens can be bought with glory. If anything, it’s the rank tokens that might be the blocking issue, forcing you to waste glory on copper reward chests and salvaging most of the items you got just to get extra rank tokens (for example, having salvaged all items from 10 copper reward rabkittenests, aka about 45ish items, i got 10 rabbit tokens total, for the cost of 1k glory, but it’s really all down to luck).

Finally, there are also Consumable Tokens, allowing you to craft consumables using PvP materials. Those tokens can be bought with glory, 200 each. They allow you to craft finishers (meh), PvP Glory Boosters (meh), and Unidentified Dyes (yay! although it’s their PvP version – account bound).
For a neat table of recipes, click here.