Guild Wars 2

AdelaisAer.4109:

I do like the Elementalist; I just find it far more difficult to play in GW2 than in GW1, but that’s just me.

It’s not just you: it’s working as intended. The recent patch notes make explicit ANet’s vision for the classes, and what defines the Elementalist according to those notes is the class’s “exceptional skill ceiling.”

rgrwng.4072:

Do the Sylvari just randomly pollinate, because they are plant-like? or do they bud, like some RL plants (the thing where the plant just grows a bud that eventually detaches from the main plant, and grows on it’s own)?

This is pretty fully detailed in the lore. Sylvari don’t reproduce in the normal sense at all: they are all “fruits” of the Pale Tree, who alone is the mother of all Sylvari on this continent.

As far as I know, it hasn’t been established whether every Sylvari has the potential to mature into a reproductive form themselves. We do know that the Pale Tree herself never had a humanoid form: she grew from a seed into a tree, and was just a tree for about two-hundred years before she started producing humanoid offshoots about twenty-five years ago (the oldest Sylvari known in Maguuma are only twenty-five).

We do know that because Sylvari don’t reproduce in their humanoid form, their romances are about emotional bonding, not procreation, and perhaps for this reason they are not usually very concerned either way with the gender of their partners.

We got ten seconds notice in WvW, sat waiting for two minutes for an overloaded LA to load, then immediately got booted from that too.

Zakiya.5310:

Blix.7691:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/news/Game-Update-Notes-December-14-2012/first#post999247

Engineer

The Engineer is a highly versatile class. While it doesn’t have the long range capabilities of the Ranger, or the melee capabilities of the Warrior or Guardian, they are comfortable at medium ranges in most fights. They have a lot of control, and use their boons to keep themselves (and allies) alive in a fight. They can use different kits based on the situation, but this extreme versatility comes at a cost in damage on their main hand weapons.

Now read the blurb for ele and tell me that engie didn’t just get screwed over a bit.

I thought the same thing, but I think the key to what ANet intends is the “exceptional skill ceiling” of the elementalist. Both classes have versatility, but the Engi will always be pretty good and pretty resilient, while the Ele will have more damage potential when all its abilities are working together in the hands of a skilled player, but be a lot more vulnerable when the synergy isn’t quite right.

Yes, and I was once stuck in a group that remained waiting at 4 members in Lion’s Arch for like a quarter hour (before I jumped ship in annoyance) because they would only accept a “healer” for the last spot.

Encountering dumb people in map chat doesn’t really say anything about the state of the game.

Okay, can’t get on at all. The universe is telling me to go do some housework.

well, now I just can’t get into borderlands at all

Seems like load times have gradually been getting longer and longer.

Sitting right now waiting for borderlands to load, and it’s been more than a minute. Lion’s Arch is much the same.

Honestly it may have been less, I was in the thick of a fight and didn’t even see the messages until I checked the chat window after being unceremoniously booted.

That we were going to get dumped out of WvW to Lion’s Arch?

Nice.

Medium armor is especially lacking. I have transmuted my ranger’s level 80 exotics that I was so excited about having made into level 20 armor, because at least it’s just drab rather than obnoxiously hideous.

(Whoever decided to inflict that bell-shaped skirt on every newly level 80 leatherworker was just flat-out cruel…)

I had been running the Ascalonian Catacombs all day with various groups. No real problems, but always a death or two, sometimes taking a long time to bring down Kholer, etc. This was various combinations of professions and levels.

Then I ran it with two Warriors and two Guardians, and me, a Ranger.

Smooth like buttah. One death (me) and hardly any time spent on the floor.

Partly it was the players – but a lot of the people I’d had way more trouble with earlier in the day had also been experienced players who knew the dungeon.

There’s no denying that these professions make certain kinds of content a LOT easier.

Hm, well that’s good to hear for a tangentially related reason: the legendary I’m going for is Kudzu, and since it seems like most people run shortbow – and that’s what I’m using myself – so I was a little afraid I was going to get locked into a suboptimal skill set by my legendary. Glad to know that’s not the case.

ok – but they’re still not useless if they’re separate bleeds that stack.

good to know.

I’m a good old tree-hugging hippie style ranger and I’m excited about my good old tree-hugging hippie style longbow.

Only thing is: I haven’t used a longbow in ages, always the short for condition damage. I’ll have to completely change up my build once I finally get kudzu, and I’m afraid I won’t know what to do with myself.

Is there any point to running both Sharpened Edges and Sigil of Earth? Does the percentage chance for bleed from the trait line add to the chance from the sigil?

Or do they overlap, making it totally pointless to use both the trait and the sigil at once?

I googled up this thread while trying to figure out whether a combination of Rabid gear and Knight’s jewelry would make for a viable semi-tanky condition build.

So … would it? I see that Knight’s gear for rangers got some love in this thread, but also some criticism.

My traits are all in Wilderness Survival and Skirmishing.

Is there any point to an off-tanky condition ranger, either in WvW or dungeons?

Nostromo.4126:

Aren’t there 2 or 3 zones to pick from between 60-80…?

Yes.

I went straight to Orr because I thought I was supposed to, and only discovered Fireheart and Frostgorge post-cap.

I’d been doing dungeons exclusively, and recently returned to Orr for the first time in a while.

I was struck – more than at my first visit, for some reason – by the beauty of the zone’s art direction.

Raehvyn.4530:

Maybe that means they’re going to fire the crazy moderation brigade and actually leave some breathing room in the forums.

Yes, the primary importance of this news is the effect it may have on forum drama.

But that’s true of almost any news, really.

Thanks – but for the second part of my question: is a Badge of Honor a “creature drop” when you receive it for a WvW kill?

If so, then it would be affected by magic find, right? Or not?

I ask because I’m crap at WvW, but I need 500 badges for my legendary.

Does the magic find stat affect what you get when salvaging? Should I pop an omnomberry bar before salvaging rares for ectos?

And what about in WvW? Will a high magic stat affect the drop rate of Badges of Honor?

All this thread is doing is reminding me how comparatively terrible the choices are for light and medium armor for male characters.

When I think of what a colossal dorkwad my poor mesmer looked in that very same winged armor set that is such a favorite among women …

And the skirts! So many skirts! My mesmer has been transmuting the same pair of pants onto every new skirt he finds (which are always inaccurately listed as “pants” in the item description) since he was in his teens.

My ranger would do the same thing, but the skirts that medium-armor professions get stuck with are part of their coats – so he has had no choice but to transmute the rawhide set to level 80 and beyond.

Why, ANet? Why do you want to force men to wear skirts? Maybe I’m not the most macho guy in the world, but come on!

I am actually getting to kind of like the ad hoc LA lfg channel.

It adds to the social aspect of the game that chatting and lfg happen by necessity in the same space. You have people to talk to while you’re waiting, and you’re encouraged to be a little bit friendlier than just a bare-bones “lfg ac”.

The only issue is when people are suppressed for chatting too often – this is the only “lfg” system you’ve given, let us use it! People should be banned only for spamming every few seconds, not for repeat requests over the course of a few minutes.

Guys, this is “player actions having an effect on the world” just like in the manifesto. This is them keeping their promise.

Not bug. Feature.

jamasont.4653:

2. No open world PvP …

How is WvW not open world PvP?

I’m on Devona’s Rest. All the waypoints in the Straits of Devastation were contested the entire time I was leveling there. Each death took me all the way back to Fort Trinity.

I’m not entirely complaining. I can tell you it felt like a genuine accomplishment when I succeeded in getting all the way across the zone to access Malchor’s Leap.

matenzo.9518:

How true are the following statements for you on a scale of 0 to 5?

To echo others:

1) 0 / 5
2) 0 / 5
3) 0 / 5
4) 0 / 5
5) 0 / 5

I like the new dungeon and the new map – but we don’t need something that big every month. Large expansions opening up more of Tyria a couple of times a year is what will keep me playing.

No need to release updates hastily! Polish before releasing, please! Test servers are your friend!

Tifa Lockheart Ex.9614:

Skritt play guild wars 2 to farm the shinies.
When the shinies drop less.
Skritt move elsewhere, Anet make skritt unhappy!

The problem with comparing loot-grinding players to Skritt is that Skritt get smarter when they gather together in large groups.

Whereas….

Sleestak.2604:

Man, the drama is just unreal sometimes.

Yes, especially since people have been getting lucky precursor drops from chests ever since release.

Different chests have different loot tables, but … the phenomenon of one guy grinding for hundreds of hours with magic-find gear and getting nothing, while some other dude gets Dawn out of his first level-80 chest is in no way new to this weekend’s event. It’s how the game has always worked.

Don’t know if this’ll get bundled into the main thread about Whiteside’s latest post, but I thought it was worth specifically calling out two bullet points. They are:

- Adding more variation to creatures, enhancing our open world scaling system, as well as evolving many events and experiences across Tyria.

- Fixing and improving existing content throughout the game, and better tying it into the overall sense of player progression within Guild Wars 2.

GW2’s best asset is its beautiful huge world, and the fact that much of it is obsoleted as you level as things stand currently is a real waste of resources.

Finding a way to have exploration throughout the map remain meaningful for long-term players will really, really help the game’s longevity, and I’m very pleased to see that some of the coming updates show that ANet knows that.

I’ve been saying since release that Champion mobs should drop loot at actual, not scaled level.

And I think having seasonal events focused on a particular zone (which Halloween did to some extent) would help too. Christmas in Hoelbrak! Valentine’s Day in the Grove! Back-to-school in Rata Sum! Each with its own cluster of temporary level 80 (or scaled) content encouraging players to revisit a low-level zone.

Anyway, whether these are the solutions chosen or not, I’m glad to see that the solutions are being looked for.

It is a curvy stick with a handle that is useful for its various sparkly emissions.

You can think of it as sort of like a wizard’s wand that has become flaccid.

I hope this information helps you.

Keysha.2815:

As I said, if we are unheard, we are silent.

I am kind of in love with the deep-level wrongness of this statement.

It was such a foolish thing to do.

This is not 2004: there are many, many MMOs on the market. In this environment, every game in the genre has to be a niche game if it wants longevity.

Defining your customer base with a very specific design philosophy is smart. Betraying that philosophy two months after release isn’t just cynical (although it’s that too), it’s dumb.

The players who like the same old thing have many other games to choose from. They can and will move on whether you cater to them or not. The players who prefer what sets your game apart from the rest (or used to), would have been a solid, long-term customer base. Now, maybe not.

MorceluLebeau.5109:

… I would then come back to the GW2 forums, read the civilized and constructive posts and how everyone was for the most part happy with the game. It was great …

What forums were you reading? These ones have been full of the normal grumblefest all along.

I agree with the players who oppose power creep and the introduction of a gear grind, but they are simply the ones complining now – prior to the introduction of ascended gear, we had complaints from people demanding gear progression.

Yes, yes it should.

At max level – which should be quick to reach – you should have basic stats comparable to any other player. This should be true in any game with any element of competition between players – whether it’s competition through parallel achievement as in PvE, or direct head-to-head competition as in PvP.

Achievement at max level should be on the level of prestige goods, public renown, and collective benefits for the player’s guild or server.

Nefar.8135:

So tired of the ‘entitlement’ comments. It’s like I’m listening to faux news Republican propaganda machine.

ZOMG

I don’t know why politics would ever enter this discussion, but I am raging so hard at this nonsense.

The idea that “everyone’s a winner, so if you don’t get the same medal as everyone else you should scream until you get one” somehow represents the aspirations of the progressive movement is both idiotic and offensive.

This also happened to me. I was able to enter and leave the island until I chanced on an overflow where the event was still going on and complete the event after all.

I enjoyed it too.

Someone fighting right next to me and my guildie got the Hunter – and the Predator is the legendary my guildie really wants. He was dying.

But yeah, come on, who’s going to actually complain about this? The event was great.

just keep logging back out and in or leave the island and return again

I got a disconnect RIGHT before the end and I was raging, but then I just ported in and out of the island for a little bit until I found an overflow where they were still fighting.

Shaky start on Friday, but that last questline kicked kitten.

(It kicked the kitten lovingly, because kittens are soft.)

Hopefully this can be done on the fly. We all just spent silver to waypoint out to Kessex Hills, and the creatures died literally as they spawned to our zerg.

More veterans, bigger waves, hopefully this can be adjusted live during the event

“graduating kitten laude”

hee hee hee

Sorry to make a whole thread for one question, but I didn’t see this confirmed on the wiki: is it really the case, as I’ve heard, that while you can have many characters get 100% world completion, only the first one will receive Gifts of Exploration as a reward?

Basically, are legendaries limited to 2 per account? Or can you get a couple for every character who gets world completion?

Aw, until now, my Mesmer was the only one I’d seen who’d transmuted the starting Harlequin skin through all his levels — I thought that was just my thing

My guy is creepier cause he’s a big ol’ norn, though!

Ruby Red.4019:

There is in fact every reason to think they will….
[quotes description of various infusion types]

I think there’s every reason to expect proliferation of new upgrades like these, which is fine. That doesn’t necessarily mean escalation: if new upgrades are kept situational and focused on a specific, different area of content (the way this set of upgrades is really useful only in the fractals), then you can add new mechanics and gear types til the cows come home without unbalancing the core game or obsoleting existing content.

I was part of the group worrying that the introduction of a new gear tier representing the beginning of a treadmill, so I kind of wanted to counteract that worry with a note that the desgin of the new Fractal dungeon sounds pretty cool to me (measuring your progress and tailoring the experience to your party) and that the Agony mechanic sounds like the right kind of horizontal progression: a way to provide measurable achievement that doesn’t unbalance or make obsolete the game’s existing content.

A couple of people have said that Agony is similar to a mechanic that was tried and failed in LotRO. Yeah, the mechanics are similar, but the reason that Gloom/Radiance caused a problem for that game was not the mechanic itself, but the fact that it then became yet another stat to be arbitrarily inflated in subsequent expansions – the initial version of the mechanic in Mines of Moria worked fine.

So, unless subsequent expansions end requiring more and more and more infusions (and there’s no reason to think they will), I see no reason to worry about the Agony mechanic. What would make more sense would be for subsequent expansions to each have their own “flavor” of infusion, so that the mechanic measures progress for that specific content rather than becoming the new benchmark for the entire game.

I don’t blame the voice actor – the dialogue given to Trahearne is some of the corniest in the game – on par with the tosh you hear in the human origin stories.

ANet has explicitly said that they have introduced this mechanic to provide gear progression. It’s not progression if it ends either: the next marginal stat upgrade will come with the next content update, and so on moving forward.

Power creep works as a self-reinforcing spiral — it’s not going to end once it starts. Basically, ANet is saying “We were wrong, a treadmill grind is the only way to keep an MMO limping along for more than three months, too bad to anyone who bought into our ~manifesto~.”