Guild Wars 2

Personally, I think it is time for them to go.

It seems that these trophies exist solely to polute the loot tables, and to force me to buy larger backpacks and/or clear out my inventory more often.

I’m talking about things like lockpicks which sell for, what, 3 copper each? I can’t salvage them. So I have 2 choices: 1) Either make them up a space in my inventory until I can sell them. Except especially for newer players each space in your bags is prime real estate. This wouldn’t be so bad except there are so many DIFFERENT trophies out there, meaning each type takes up its own space. What is the point of so many different types? 2) I could turn auto-loot off and just leave them behind (and this is what I do now), but this seems to make auto-loot pointless, and it certainly takes longer, especially when there’s a pile of corpses around after an event.

And it seems that the latest update has made this problem WORSE because of personal story rewards (unless I am missing something). Yeah, its really cool that at the end of each story segment I get these loot bags. And what is INSIDE each loot bag? A trophy! (and there was much rejoicing…) Add to this the fact that NONE of these enemies drop loot anymore, and it seems that I’m getting seriously ripped off in the story quests. I did a level 50 one last night that ended with a Champion. Even he didn’t drop a loot bag. Are story quests working as intended? Why would I kill 100 Risen to get no loot when I can go to Orr and get a ton more stuff?

Lastly, I THINK that this last update made some special trophies for collections. OK. Neat. Whatever. It still doesn’t make me feel better about the larger “trophy” problem. At least start calling it what it is – junk (which is IS called when you sell it).

But I am open to the possibility that there might be a greater purpose to this stuff. I’d just so much rather there be NOTHING on the corpse (for auto-loot purposes). Sorry to ramble. Thanks for reading.

Does the game at any point show characters how to sell unwanted gear to a merchant, or to use a salvage kit? If not, I wonder how many new players stop looting corpses because their bags are full.

Thanks. I’m also thinking about 6/6/? because of the new Runes of the Trapper. Those make a Trap Build with my Rampager’s gear look VERY tempting Stealth in WVW is just super fun

My Ranger runs in Exotic Rampager’s Gear in PVE, and generally has a crit rate between 60 and 70%. I use LB + Sword/Torch or LB + Greatsword (especially after the update).

My sigils on LB right now are Air and Tormenting. I forget what I use on the other two sets, but I’m sure one of them is Air.

I’ve been thinking for some time about trying Superior Runes of Perplexity, but they are expensive. But they would seem to work well in Rampager’s gear for a 6/2/0/0/6 setup, perhaps even better because I am Asura.

Here’s my theory: With LB4 and GS5 I have two interrupts, which could add stacks of confusion. Additionally, Pain Inverter could add some more stacks + retaliation (except enemies need to be close). And finally my “quickened” and souped up Reef Drake could drop another 5 stacks of confusion. This, in addition to the super fast attack speed of a quickened, bleed applying Rapid Fire, + River Drake’s powerful lightning attack, + stacks of Torment and occasional lightning bolt procs, should put out a good deal of damage. And if it didn’t work well I can use GS + 25% run speed to hopefully get away quickly.

Mainly I just want to find out if confusion is worth it in WVW exploration. I’ve only recently started WVW, and I know this setup lacks ANY defense, so it’s not good for large scale battles.

Your thoughts? Thanks.

P.S. Please be “kind” and constructive, as I’m still new to WVW like I said.

Hey all – OP here. I never meant for this thread to go in all the directions that it has. I just thought that ANet should know that even a younger player who has already leveled a character finds some of these changes “dumb”. We have not played a new character from 1-20 yet since the update, so I can’t comment on all those things that have been brought up.

What we are observing though, is that even if we use an item to jump straight to 20 (as he did with his Necro), he has 2 skill slots locked out that did not used to be. This is unacceptable to us. Also, as I mentioned, the Elite skill that he was so excited about getting at level 30 (as on his Warrior), he can’t get until 40 right now. So even after using the game’s “skip the first 20 levels” item, you’re still 20 levels away from an elite skill.

Having said that, I am happy to hear ANet say that some/all of these level-pushed skills are a mistake and will be corrected. My only concern now is how long that will take. In the meantime, the grind from level 20-40 will be a painful one, without that 1-15 XP bonus and without significant traits in those levels. And this is why my son and I will not make another “alt” until 20-40 is changed. It is NOT 1-20 that we are overly concerned about, but rather the grind that begins at 20.

And one more thing I don’t understand, and this goes back to the postponing of trait points back in April, which I personally dislike even more than this latest “update”. Under the old system for traits, starting at level 10 you received 1 trait point per level that you could allocate to any of the various traits. Then they removed it so that you have to wait every 5 levels to get chunks of stats 50 at a time. Now, we’re told that they want each new level to come with its own rewards? Um, isn’t that what you had before the trait overhaul when we got another trait point at each level? So if you want players to look forwward to leveling, why not bring back the “one trait point every level” system you had before?

Again, thanks for listening.

Isn’t the point here that if the game is trying to be HELPFUL with these hints, that it should point this out as soon as it is available and not later?

Why can’t it be something like at 35 “You can wear rare armor now! Check out the Trading Post!”, and then at 39 “You can use rare weapons now!” (or however it works). If a new player is seriously relying on those in-game helps, then there are 4 levels there that they missed out on rare equipment. Not game-breaking of course, but it seems it could be better implemented.

Haven’t been able to play much since the update.

Are things like Fire Elemental, Great Wurm, and Shadow Behemoth still in the starting zones, or did they have to take those away?

I read somewhere that there are no more dynamic events in the 1-15 zones anymore, but that doesn’t sound right.

Thanks.

gryph.8734:

Let me put this into perspective for you, then:

World of Warcraft (vanilla) was released in November 2004. The first expansion came out in January 2007, over two years hence. Guild Wars 2 has only been out for a little over two years, and in that time they have had a relatively large amount of additional content that we paid NOTHING for. Just because you’d rather pay for a disc in the box doesn’t mean I, or even a majority, of GW2 players feel the same way.

And players like you keep the base game and don’t buy the expansions, then. I don’t understand why we can’t have BOTH “living world” and occasional expansions at the same time.

DonQuack.9025:

IIRC the game sorta flopped in China?

This is the link that I just read. Roughly 3.5 million more players, doubling the worldwide number of sales. This was as of July.

And Yes, I mean a box for sale at the store that will add a LOT of new content all at one time.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-07-10-guild-wars-2-is-a-big-hit-in-china

I may not understand economics very well, but it seems to me that if GW2 has just succeeded in getting hundreds of thousands of Chinese players, then their coffers are filling up now with new revenue. Congrats Anet.

Does this mean that we can expect a large, serious expansion in the next few months?

(As a former GW1 player, I’m not understanding the lack of expansions for this game, compared to others out there.)

Here’s hoping!

1) I am super happy to hear that not all these changes were intentional, and are being worked on. Thanks for letting us know.

2) I am shocked how many of these errors are not discovered in a “test server” environment before going live.

The company I work for never lets major updates like this go live without knowing in advance what is wrong. They release them on a test server first, where they duplicate ALL user experiences that they can think of, and see what happens. I’m left wondering if that happened in this case. Either 1) They didn’t know it would be this bad because they did not test the new system from levels 1-40, or 2) They knew it had all these problems but were not as forthcoming about them as they could have been. If they knew about the problems they could have told us about them even before it went live.

Mark Katzbach.9084:

fourhim.3584:

This accusation gets tossed around a lot – that certain people who post such high praise for Anet’s decisions might be rewarded in some way. I haven’t reached a decision on this yet, so I thought the best approach is just to come right out and ask.

Will someone at ANet please tell the rest of us if you reward certain people for their forum comments? If you could just issue a flat out denial then that might diminish the number of accusations, especially right now.

We do not pay players to post on the forums nor do we make use of shill or sock puppet accounts. Honestly, I’m surprised if anybody takes these accusations seriously.

Thank you very much for responding, and for the candid answer. I am glad to hear that.

This accusation gets tossed around a lot – that certain people who post such high praise for Anet’s decisions might be rewarded in some way. I haven’t reached a decision on this yet, so I thought the best approach is just to come right out and ask.

Will someone at ANet please tell the rest of us if you reward certain people for their forum comments? If you could just issue a flat out denial then that might diminish the number of accusations, especially right now.

Vayne, you’re talking about nodes, and I didn’t mention that at all, nor did my son. My son wants his Elite skill at level 30, because his previous character got it at 30. He also wants to play his story quest right now, or every couple levels, and not have to wait till 30.

I see your point that nodes are still there. But the Elite skill and Story quests CAN’T be used as they did before. Aren’t you comparing Apples to Oranges here?

So, you are complaining about all the people complaining?

I never thought that the playtesting of potential players on the other side of the world would affect my enjoyment of my favorite game in such a big way. I still have 4 characters/classes that I have not leveled to 80 yet, and now I have almost zero desire to do so, because it has been made so much harder but more importantly so BORING.

Here are my questions for ArenaNet, that I fear will never be answered.

1) If playtesting in a certain part of the world that is new to MMOs revealed such major differences in what they want, why couldn’t a simpler version of the game (i.e. “Guild Wars Basic”) be created to satisfy that crowd?

2) If the game was going to be changed in such a major way for “veteran” players who still wanted to level “alts”, why are we not allowed to begin those alts around level 40 instead?

3) I’m assuming that the “thousands” of new playtesters who requested this type of game were playing the game FOR FREE? If so, how do you know that those people will actually pay to purchase the game?

4) If the changes you implement cause hundreds of thousands of new players then GREAT. At that point I will concede that it was successful. Will this mean then, that with all the revenues from those new game sales, that we can expect a full expansion with a lot of new content in the next few months?

5) If instead your marketing plan backfires (and I hope that it doesn’t – seriously), and you see that you are NOT getting the new purchases you anticipated, AND you are losing veteran players, how long will it take for you to change the game back to the way it was?

Thanks for listening, and for giving us these forums to express our concerns.

…who thought the game was too hard?

1) First of all, I realize that new players don’t use forums, so that makes it less likely., 2) The new Chinese players, who I would most like to hear from, probably do not speak my native language of English, 3) New players might be “afraid” to honestly state their opinions right now because of some things being said in the forums (and admitedly some of them from me).

But I am sincere in my desire to hear from the newer players, and NOT so I can change their mind. Arenanet has stated that these changes are to make the game easier for new players. They must have received some feedback requesting changes like these. So my main question for these newer players, now that you have seen the changes, is Do you like the game better now and will you KEEP playing the game?

I am personally EXCITED about new players, because more people makes for a richer online experience. And I’m looking forward to helping the new players along the way. I’m just personally concerned that the recent changes made the leveling experience HARDER for new players rather than easier. But I may be missing something.

So please be brave enough to indroduce yourself if you are a new player and prefer the new system to the old one. Tell us what you like about it. If we can just see “proof” that these changes were good for the game I think it will help to calm a lot of us, including myself, down. Thanks, and welcome to Guild Wars 2!

My son started leveling his Charr warrior from 1-80 on the “old” system at age TEN. You cannot make the case that this game has too hard before. Players too dumb to figure this game will not be drawn to play this type of game in the first place, especially since it costs them money.

And for those of you saying to “calm down” because its not that big a deal, will you still be saying that a year from now when most of the Veteran players are gone and all that is left is level 80 Chinese players that don’t know there is a “dodge” function?

WHY, as a family who has raised 5 characters to level 8o under the old system, would we make an alt now?

1) Now if I go down early on I am dead. Less likely that other players will help me. Go back to the nearest waypoint and run all the way back and try again. Actually, how much will new players enjoy this process?
2) I can’t quick-swap weapons until a much higher level now. So to switch from melee to ranged now requires me to go into the hero screen every time. How is this better, and how was it too hard before?
3) Utility skills. My last slot comes at level 35 now? I thought you were trying to make the game EASIER for new players, not harder. The fewer slots we have, the harder the game content is. Same thing with Elites being pushed to 40.
4) You have Dungeons starting at level 30, but characters can’t get a full skill bar till 40. I thought you wanted Veterans to help out newer players? Why would we enter a Dungeon with a bunch of players who don’teven have full skill bars?
5) Reviewing what they already did earlier this year with Traits, again lower level characters are weaker, which seriously slows the leveling process. You also have less diversity at lower levels, since every Warrior pre-60 looks pretty much the same.
6) Weapon skills unlocking at higher levels. Frankly, certain classes NEED those highr level weapon skills unlocked in order to survive at lower level content.

So with all of this said, here is my second set of questions:

1) Is this all because of the new Chinese market? If I as an American need my game play experience “dumbed down” because of new Chinese players, then it shows how much you appreciate those of us who have played for over a year now.
2) Are Chinese players unable to understand the things that the rest of us did when we learned the game? I thought they were some of the smartest people on the planet?
3) There’s little chnace this is any player’s FIRST MMO experience. Why? Because they had to pay $30-$40 to play this game! Isn’t it most likely that these people have already tried several free to play MMOs out there, and thus they understand more than you are giving them credit for?
4) What’s the real fear of “losing” new players? They BOUGHT the game. Because of this investment, they are MORE likely to learn the game as originally written, not less. There are all sorts of FTP games out there that I dropped after one hour, because I had nothing invested in it. That is not the case here.
5) Why could you not make the Chinese servers function differently, or have “Veteran” alt leveling options, etc? Have a tutorial version and a “normal” version? Was there any talk about this?
6) Will you make something available to veteran players to allow us to jump immediately to level 40?

Right now, I have a 30 Elementalist and 20 Necro that I frankly have no interest in leveling anymore. Thanks.

This game is so beautiful that I’d like to be able to view these repeatedly. I think it could be a good recruiting tool too. Actually I wish this was feature in the game, so that as you unlock them you could view them anytime afterward, from your hero screen.

Thanks.

There may be a third group, which I am in. I am a casual player and I just want more beautiful places to see, scary monsters to kill, etc. I could care less if I get any “stuff” while doing so. I just want to explore the game and marvel at the beautiful zones they create. This is why we have been so excited (my son and I) with Dry Top. I hope more stuff like that keeps coming. But I’m probably in the minority

Well, I sold all my materials of value and I feel like a rich man now I have over 170 gold now, which should be ample to put all my characters, and the 4 we are still leveling, into full exotic gear at 80. Not to mention that they will acquire more stuff to sell along their way to 80, and beyond. I didn’t even look at trading gems for gold when I realized how much we had.

Thanks for the great advice. As a lesson to other new players out there, BANK all those materials, even if you’re never going to craft anything. When you get to level 80 those stacks will definitely come in handy when you “cash them in”.

I acutally did some WVW last night with my Ranger. It was actually pretty neat (even though I died once). I look forward to doing that some more, but I have a LOT to learn. For example, I couldn’t figure out why, after beating all the Veterans outside the gate and on the walls, I still could not enter the enemy position. I couldn’t damage the gate. Do I need a siege engine of some type for that?

And I also looked at those Ascended trinkets that were mentioned. Even on the trinkets, I am NOT impressed with the stat increases. My armor is exotic, but my trinkets are still rares, so I was expecting a big difference. But the jump from Rare to Ascended was something like 10 in the minor stats and 20 on the main (including the jewel on the rare of course). And when I looked at the “infusions” they add FOUR more of one stat. Am I seeing that right – only FOUR?! Anyway, I was pretty underwhelmed at the Ascended “accessory” gear I looked at, especially since I don’t think those affect my appearance in any way.

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

It takes roughly 250gold to craft to 500. Crafting the ascended item(s) themselves does not cost nearly as much. I have leveled Huntsman, Leatherworker, Artificer and Weaponsmithing all to 500 and it is very costly to do so even if you follow guides. Unfortunately I think your best bet is either to farm like crazy or to whip out the ’ol credit card and buy some gems to convert to gold. If you do the latter option however, I suggest buying your son a few nice items just for a treat, like a kite and some minis or something (:

Actually, we do have some gems left over from having to buy my son’s new character slot. I’ve never heard of being able to convert gems into gold. Where/how is this done? Thanks.

(BTW my son’s reward from his dad when he got his Charr Warrior to 80 recently was a full set of Exotic Armor, Sigil and Weapons. He was elated.)

Thanks for those great suggestions guys. I had forgotten all about our Laurels, and I think we have around 200 now, so that might be an option for Accessories that I had not thought about.

I’m at about 80% World Completion on my Ranger now, and another goal is to get her to 100%. This would require some WVW time I think. Can you guys recommend me to some good links about what exactly I should be doing to get WVW exploration? I’m generally not interested in fighting other players, but it (sadly) seems this is needed for this achievment Like I said, if I am going to try WVW, I’d like to do my research first. I am on Tarnished Coast, if that makes a difference. Thanks again for all your help.

We just crossed 3000 achievment points recently. My 12 year old son has a 80 Warrior and is leveling a Necro now, and I have 4 level 80 characters myself (Ranger, Guardian, Necro, Engineer). We enjoyed the new Living World/Dry Top stuff for a while (although we miss the old Lion’s Arch). Most of my nights now are spent in Orr or Southsun, following the “Commanders” around the map to get more stuff that I can either salvage or sell on the AH. I may occasionally level my Mesmer and Elementalist also. I think, after getting exotic weapons and armor for my Ranger recently, we have 25 gold left. I don’t do Dungeons, Fractals, PVP or WVW. I found myself dying too often in Dungeons and Fractals. I MIGHT want to try WVW at some point, more for exploration than for any other reason.

Having said all of that, I’d like to get more Exotic gear for my other level 80 characters, and there IS a way that I could get enough gold to do it. We have been sending all of our materials to the bank over the year or so we have had the game, and I see we have several “stacks” in our bank that would sell on the AH for several gold. My only hesitation is that there is “Ascended” gear out there, tempting me (or at least a weapon or two). But I have no idea if I’m even close to having enough materials to craft one. I know that on most characters I have not leveled crafting AT ALL. It just doesn’t interest me.

Sorry for the long explanation, but I thought it would help you advise me if you knew more about our playstyle. Do you think that after playing for 14 months or so, having 3000 achievment points, etc, that we have anywhere close to enough “stuff” for even ONE Ascended weapon? I’m thinking the answer is probably “No”, which makes me think we are better off right now selling what we have in the bank and putting all our level 80 guys in Exotic gear. What would be your advice? Thanks for any constructive feedback you can offer.

Last night I tried 4/4/0/0/6 with good success. Regular enemies (Risen in Orr and Karkas, Riders and Drakes in Southsun) went down really fast using only a Greatsword.

4/4 gives me the versatility I want, being able to pull out the longbow on the fly for “big” PVE battles where I’m best staying back.

With Spotter on I can keep my crit percentage at 71%, and with Might stacks I actually have MORE power than I did with my previous setup. Greatsword has Sigil of Air and Sigil of Strength.

I have the Lynx in the Pet # 1 spot, and River Drake in the # 2. I put away the Pet, and charge in with GS 3. At this point my Lynx appears right next to me with 3 seconds of Quickness AND Opening Strike, and I get 3-4 stacks of Might right away along with 3 seconds of quickness. I can fire off a couple traps at my feet really fast if I want to (though not really needed). As I’m getting more stacks of might, myself and my pet are adding stacks of bleeding. If I switch in the Drake now, he gives me 3 more stacks of might, AND we both get another 3 seconds of quickness, AND he usually cleaves immediately. By the end of the brief fight I’m usually already at 10 stacks of might, and the pet has acquired some as well.

I’m also enjoying Greatsword a lot as a defensive weapon, and it’s about to get even better with this next update. Thanks very much for your help.

(Traits in the above scenario are Steady Focus, Spotter, Sharpened Edges, Companion’s Might, Mighty Swap, Rending Attacks, and Zephyr’s Speed. The key thing to remember is to deactivate your pet before each battle.)

What would you recommend for PVE as Beastmaster? Currently I am running 6/6/2/0/0 in Rampager’s (using traps). I don’t have the money to change gear. I am at a base 71% crit chance.

I have a Longbow with Air and Torment, a Greatsword with Air/Fire.

I’d like to try 30 in Beastmastery just to see what its like, but I’m really going to miss the loss of some other things.

Because I need the crit chance for the weapons I was thinking 2/6/0/0/6? But then I would miss out on Spotter and Eagle Eye and Read the Wind, 200 power, 20% condition duration, Attacks of Opportunity, etc.

Would the benefits from having a “superbuff” pet outweigh these losses, in your opinion? If I do try it out, which pets would you recommend? Again, this would be for PVE. Thanks.

I had read online that this combo works, so I tried it on my Asura 80 Ranger last night.

First of all, when I hovered over the technobabble skill it still said 3 seconds. Then I attacked an enemy and actually counted, and it seemed to still be three seconds.

Did they “nerf” this combo recently, or am I doing something wrong? Thanks.

The guild that recruited me a couple months back apparently has 49 members, but due to health problems of some members it seems to be dying. I appreciate their help, and still count them as friends, but I’d like a more active guild.

I have three level 80 characters (Engineer, Ranger, Necro), and my 78 Guardian might hit 80 tonight. I have not tried PVP or WvW yet, and I’m at maybe 75% map completion on my highest character. I have only run the first dungeon in the game, and only twice. My 12 year old son also plays, and he has a 48 Warrior.

I am looking for a large, active guild that is “family friendly”, meaning that the chat does not devolve into adult language and constant sexual innuendo. I’d rather be upfront about this from the start. I’m also still very “newish”, so I have a lot to learn, but I read forum advice a lot, and I have no problem doing as told when in a group.

I am on the Tarnished Coast server, and I generally play for at least 2 hours most nights of the week, EST.

Thanks for considering my request.

If that is the case then maybe Shadow Behemoth can decide to move to Ashford Plains for a change in scenery? (The only starting area that didn’t get a world boss) Being in that Queensdale swamp for so long can’t be good for his allergies

Isn’t this supposed to work on the same schedule as the non-overflow counterpart?

Last night I tried to go to, of course, Queensdale to fight the Shadow Behemoth. I ended up in overflow again, and he never popped, even though it was happening in the non-overflow (and Yes we took care of the prerequisites in overflow.)

It was of course very frustrating for all of us that an area with a world boss would be directing us to overflow and not allow us to fight it. Queesndale just seems to have WAY too much going on in it at one time – Starting area for most numerous race + champ train + popular place for dailies/monthlies + a world boss.

Anyway, just curious if this is “working as intended”?

Sorry if this a dumb question. I’ve just recently been to Orr for the very first time with my 80 Engineer. Moving around there is a serious pain, and I’m curious as to why.

1) Geography. Putting aside the waypoints for now, just running/climbing to them is annoying. There were multiple times where my marker is directly next to the WP on the map, but there’s a giant gate, or a wall, or a mountain/cliff of some kind stopping me from getting there. In other words, these maps don’t seem to have near as many routes in and out of locations as others do. Why is this?

2) The waypoints themselves. Having finally acquired them all in the three “Orr” zones last night, it seems that every other one is “contested” (this on Tarnished Coast server). Maybe its closer to a third of them, but still. Why have waypoints at all if they are contested most of the time? One of my favorite things about this game was how easy it was to get to where you wanted to go. But not anymore. Are there so many that are contested because a champion is hanging around that no one wants to kill? If they can’t actually teleport close enough to kill it, AND if they die trying to beat it and then have to make the long run back from an uncontested waypoint, the game is actually DISCOURAGING players from trying to take these waypoints back. I just really don’t get the reasoning behind contested waypoints for PVE.

So I have understandably mixed fellings about “Orr”, as a new player. I was looking forward so much to getting there and seeing it, but I am disappointed. Don’t even get me started on three straight zones of nothing but Risen enemies. I hated Dredge after Dredgehaunt Cliffs. I doubt it will take me very long to tire of Risen now. I like the “looks” of the zones. They do look appropriately sparse and devastated. But right now these other issues are a big turn off for me.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on why the game does this.

That’s a good point. I went with Cleric’s to do more healing, especially in a group event, and also because 5% of Healing gets added to Power anyway. But I do come away with less health than Soldier’s of course.

I just realized from the wiki that the Rampage Elite grants 20 secs of Stability while in that form. I never bought Elixir X, but am considering it now. But I’m not that impressed with the damage figures given on the Wiki. Would they actually be higher than what is listed, given that it apparently increases power and vitality? I’ll have to try it out tonight.

I tried out my new (and admitedly boring) bomb healing Engineer last night (I’m PVE only). He’s my most durable character, in full Cleric’s Gear, and 20/0/30/20/0 right now. I have dual pistols with Force + Bloodlust sigils. I run with Healing Turret (which I pretty much never need), Bomb Kit, Elixir B, Rocket Shoes (or whatever they’re called), and the Elite Turret drop.

I saw that the World Boss in Harathi was on his way, so I went there to try it out. Somehow I got all 3 of the Warbeast champions on me at one time, and that’s when I realized how much I miss STABILITY! They bounced me all over the place. Once one of them was done, then the next one bounced me. I could have done a better job of dodging I guess, but the attacks are hard to read in a swarm of monsters/people like that. So I felt like I was in a Pinball machine for most of the fight.

Ironically, they couldn’t kill me because of the rate of healing, which is about to go up even more I think. And the other players appreciated the healing and me keeping the warbeasts off of them, but I sure did wish there was a way to stop being tossed about like a doll.

Has ANET considered more sources of stability for Engineers besides the 4 secs from Toss Elixir B? That’s a long time to wait for more stability when you’re in a fight like that.

I think the way in which the train DOES affect others’ enjoyment of the game is that other regular events and group events in other zones have almost zero participation, even on higher populated servers. So “we” feel that we are missing some of the social aspect of the game by these players being enticed away to do the trains. It is certainly within their “rights” to do that, but to act like this is some solo experience is being naive. They intended group events to be done by other players in the area, and they also wanted a game that would encourage players helping other players. In my case, I have come across certain skill challenges that I cannot defeat no matter what I do, meaning that sometimes I can’t even complete a map without help from someone else. When I ask for help in map chat and only hear crickets, and yet I am on a high population server, is doesn’t feel like an MMO anymore.

So I guess the bigger, and harder, question is:

What would ANET have to do to the least populated zones to get other players to actually want to go there and help other players out?

hihey.1075:

Do you really think that NEW players would be able to kill a champ in Queensdale champ train?

If there were enough new players, yes they could. Why would they not be able to? Are you saying they are deliberately designed to be too strong for several level 15 characters to take down?

I’m still new, but I have used the Queensdale “train” several times already. Despite what you might think by me saying that, I am AGAINST the addictive nature of the train.

When I started the game I believed that Champions would only provide their loot chest to a character once per day. I had no reason to think that other than it made common sense to me. I was shocked to see that this was not the case. If the game could somehow be changed so that each character would only receive a reward in XP and loot only once per day per character, it would HOPEFULLY spread these higher level characters around to other zones. In other words, you get to ride the train one time. Log in different characters if you want and repeat, but eventually that train will not yield anything to you, and you’ll need to go elsewhere.

The positive (in my opinion) effects of this would be:

1) Champions would be more difficult (more worthy of the title of “champion”) because a) Less characters are fighting it, and b) Many of those characters are of similar maximum level to the champion. In other words, the fights would feel more “epic” instead of a 30 second firework show.

2) Characters would hopefully be spread around the other zones more evenly. I realize that many would migrate to other places with easy loot/xp, but not all of them. This should have the effect of making other zones and events more populated, making them easier to complete. I share the frustration of the OP being in a beautiful zone in the mid 40s, but no one is around to help out. When that happens it seems to take the “Massive” out of MMO, when so many zones are ghost towns, because so many characters in that level range are in Queensdale riding the train.

And there are likely other benefits I have not foreseen as well.

(P.S. I also don’t think these Champions should count for as many dailies as they do. If you time it right you can maybe get group event + champion + event + another one, all from the train. This seems to further encourage trains, IMO.)

Does the game give you credit if you go around supporting and reviving other characters during these fights, or do you only get credit for damage that you do to the boss? And when I say “give you credit”, I mean helping you to earn a gold rating so that you can get chest rewards.

I was thinking this during the battle with the fire elemental in Metrica last night. Something about that particular one is just lethal to me. Whether I try melee or ranged I usually down 2 or more times, and its also the one where I see the most “corpses” of other players (I haven’t done many other world bosses outside the starting zones yet though).

1 – I feel bad for other players who have to stop attacking to give me and others a rez, if the game is “penalizing” them in some way for doing so (although I certainly appreciate the help!)

2 – If I ever get good enough to survive these things myself, I’d hate to have to choose between helping other players and getting a reward, so I’m hoping that the game somehow “knows” about players helping players during these encounters.

Thanks for your input.

I have an 80 Necro, 80 Ranger, 80 Engineer, 62 Guardian and 35 Warrior.

Yes, leveling Engineer was a pain (to 60 at least), but the rest were/are pretty easy.

I picked Mesmer next because I figured that the clones would keep the enemy off of me a good deal of the time. So far that is NOT the case, so I’m wondering if I’m doing something wrong.

I’m level 26 right now, with 10 in the Power line and 6 in the Precision line (10/6/0/0/0 right now). I have a sigil of blood lust on all my weapons right now, and just bought a set of “strong” Masterwork gear at 26, which is + power/precision. My crit chance is between 40 and 50% at any given time. I use Greatsword at range and Sword/Sword for melee.

I think the biggest problem that I have with these illusions and phantasms is that they only work on ONE enemy before they go away. The weird thing about this is that I find solitary Veterans now an easier fight than 3 trash enemies! On Veterans I can keep a couple phantasms up for the whole fight, and the enemy goes down easily (if not quickly).

But against a group of 3 trash guys, it goes like this: Attack one enemy at range and send a clone after it. His 2 friends join in and start heading toward me or perhaps the clone. Clone dies very fast, and now enemies are headed twowards me while my clone ability is on cooldown. Summon Phantasm. Phantasm shows up and takes down the enemy I am targeting, and then disappears. Now that ability is also on cooldown. Meanwhile the third enemy is beating on me pretty much unopposed. No, I don’t usually die, but I frequently have to use my heal skill (which is also incredibly weak) in these trash fights, and I’m not used to doing this with other classes. The other frustrating thing about the clones is that they duplicate the weapon set I am using, so for the greatsword #2 skill, for example, it just puts a second clone far away from the enemy. Given the choice between the two of us, perhaps since I am doing most of the damage, the enemy often ignores the clone and comes after me anyway. Is this how it is supposed to work? I even downed a couple times in low level story quests! As for the “escape” moves like Decoy, yes it is fun, but it seems to have a very long cooldown for just 3 secs of stealth.

Don’t get me wrong. I like the profession. It is very unique and I like the attacks of both of these weapon sets. But it seems to lack good AOE damage or control, so groups of enemies seem difficult for some reason. And like I said I was under the impression that the illusions stay with you the whole fight and not just until their target is dead. I got spoiled by doing Necro and Ranger first I guess

Thanks for your advice on how I can take less damage and handle larger groups of enemies.

This game has worked flawlessly on my system for months now, and ever since the last 2 updates I get serious lag and then get booted every few minutes. Anyone know what might be wrong?

Hi guys,
I got a character to level 60 last night, equipped with most of the stuff I wanted, and now I’m broke. I also have 3 level 80s, but I stopped them once I hit 80. I don’t have any character who has more than 65% of the world explored yet, and the highest area I have been in is Iron Marches. I only do PVE by the way.

What is the easiest way to “farm” or make money so I can equip these characters better? I just hit 50% magic find last night, so rares are stil pretty scarce. I was thinking about wood or other “gathering” items?

Please advise. Thanks for your help.

I have 3 80s right now, soon to be 4: Necro, Engineer, Ranger and Guardian. I would like the next one I level to be a Mesmer (tried Warrior at first but its boring, IMO.) On all 4 of these I used Signets or Swiftness to achieve +25% run speed or more while I leveled them.

Unfortunately I became quite addicted to getting around so quickly. Is the Focus 4 skill the best way to get faster run speed on a leveling mesmer (I see it gives 12 secs)? I wasn’t thinking of boosting boon duration on this character, although if I go 20 points in Inspiration I could reduce the Focus recharge to 20 secs instead of 25.

Any other advice on how I can get around quicker? I am only level 10 right now

I have been storing these in the bank ever since I started playing a few months back, and now have 200+ in various denominations. I always assumed it had something to do with crafting (which I don’t do yet), but the wiki says it has to do with “Magic Find” instead?

1) Are the effects temporary, or permanent?
2) Are the effects for all characters on the account, or only the character that consumes it?
3) Based on the answers to 1 and 2, should I just consume all of them as soon as I get them?

Thanks for your help!

I’m level 38 now and am looking forward to buying my first “rare” weapon at 39, and I looked on the TP to preview what they look like. Since I am PVE only, I usually run in Berzerker-type gear. At level 39 these are called “Strong” weapons.

But sadly, the “Strong” rare sword, greatsword, etc look just like my “fine” quality level 20-something versions. I guess I just expected a change for a rarer version.

I’m still realtively new, but is there a way around this? Or do I jsut have to choose between “looks” and the stats that I want?

Thanks for your help.

Oops yes I meant swiftness. Although I wouldn’t mind perma-quickness either

Thanks for the help.

Still leveling my Guardian (level 34 right now), and had some questions.

I want this one to have long boon durations (perma quickness is my first goal, since I am exploring right now). I know the main way to get this is with runes and the virtues line. Are there others?

Also:

1) Does my percentage increase in boon durations only affect the ones I cast on myself, or do they also become extended for those in my group I cast them on? For example, if I have + 50% boon duration and I cast swiftness on our group, do we all have it for 50% longer or only myself?

2) Does my boon duration gear have any effect on boons cast on me by others? If so, how exactly does this work?

Thanks for your help.

Thank you for this. As a newish Guardian (level 34 now), I had some questions.

I had intended this to be a high crit chance build with Sword/Torch and Greatsword, but after trying out Focus I see why it is so valuable. I was doing some story quests last night and with 2 blocks and 3 blinding attacks + aegis I almost never took damage, and that was without dodging!

My question is regarding which is better between +10% to burning foes and + 15% crit chance (slightly more since it would mean + 50 precision also).

I’m debating between 0/30/0/10/30 and 10/25/0/10/25. I have the 10 there in both because I use shouts a lot. If I went all crit chance I might try Assassin’s gear, but if I gave up some crit chance to focus more on power and + 10 % to burning foes, I’d go Berzerker. The only reason I’m hesitant is because I don’t know how often I could keep an enemy burning.

Thanks for the advice.

I would really like a 1 handed throwing hammer to be added. I think of Thor as a good Guardian type of character. The ability to throw a 1 handed hammer that would come back and/or recreate itself would be cool. I personally think longbow is better for warrior. I’d be open to seeing them bring in crossbows though.

Ahh, that makes more sense. Thank you.