Guild Wars 2

My norn is a warrior. I used the bear a few times while levelling, but prefer either either signet of rage or the battle standard depending on the situation.

Rangers to me mean an animal companion (often, not always), leather armour and most of all, mastery of the bow. The fact that thieves and warriors can also use some kind of bow undermines this somewhat, although of course this version of ranger can melee, which isn’t something I bother with often.

I preferred my GW1 ranger overall, although their damage in recent times wasn’t great either. The satisfaction of a well-timed interrupt was immense. That said, I hardly bothered with trapping in GW1 because of the slower cast time and I enjoy using them more here.

For me it was Tybalt first, Sieran second and Forgal last in order of preference. I tend to like the more wacky characters. Even so, I’d take Forgal over any of the members of DE and certainly over Trahearne. In general they did a good job on the Order mentors.

I also had this problem in the group I was in today. Detha entered the large room but nothing happened. We tried waypointing, running back etc but nothing seemed to trigger it. In case it isn’t happening everywhere, we were on Yak’s Bend.

What race are you playing? That might help you pin things down. The viking names would help name a Norn. Asura have short single names, ending in consonants for males and vowels for females. Charr names sometimes have a Roman influence with their first name but not always by any means. Their warband name is the first half of the surname and the second half often reflects the profession – hence Pyre Fierceshot was in the Fierce warband and was a ranger. Sylvari names tend towards the Celtic so try Irish or Welsh baby name websites.

I’m in a large guild which, because of the guild cap had to divide into a few guilds rather than keeping it to one. Inevitably with any game release you get a drop off in numbers by some players a month or two into the game. It’s hard for the leaders to consolidate numbers into fewer guilds without being able to see last activity levels. It seems odd that you can see details like class, level etc in the roster but this useful info is omitted.

I have genuinely found it useful if there’s a commander in my guild online when we’re doing a large scale event (I should add that I mostly PVE and am not a commander myself). Especially when there are latecomers who can then meet up quickly without any fuss. That said, I completely understand that if they are getting in the way of waypoints or nodes, it could be annoying. So everyone should be able to hide commander icons, whenever they want. That way everyone’s happy.

Auruan.2837:

I assume the Master of Whispers simply found himself some good folks to walk in his footsteps and then “vanished” to enjoy his last years elsewhere.

For some reason, I cannot shrug off the image of the old man lying in a hammock in an Elonian Hawaii-like settlement, in a flowery shirt, on a beach, sipping from a glass with a tiny umbrella in it.

Haha, that’s classic. I guess even necromancers reach a time in their life when they need to put aside the staff, the skulls, the necromantic tomes and the intrigue and relax a little.

I agree with the above. I would also suggest that area completion rewards are scaled to level. I find lower areas too easy and too unrewarding as level-appropriate drops seem very few and far between.

Conncept.7638:

ANet, please do not add underwater butterflydrow to the game, they are a terribly designed race… I have no idea what the guy who thought these up was on when he did, but never let him have any of it ever EVER again.

I laughed when I saw that comment. Butterflydrow is very fitting. OK, the skintone’s wrong but the white hair, leather/rubberwear and attitude fit the part. Plus I found a male version underwater the other day and he had pointy elf ears. Might as well have called him Drizzt and have done with it.

I like quaggan though. They don’t remind me of anything else in any other game, at least nothing I can think of right now. I have doubts about any underwater race spending extended time above land but if they can hang out by the fountain in my personal instance, at least they can say it isn’t a complete deal-breaker. It’s not like that poor whale in LA right now.

I’ve got a ranger and noticed a problem with the murellow. That makes a horrendous CLOMP CLOMP sound which is disproportionately loud compared with everything else. I can’t say I’ve noticed sound problems with any other pets, though (save for ele fire elementals which don’t belong to me).

Garenthal.1480:

It’d be pretty awkward to have the option to have one’s player character fall in love with a particular NPC only for hundreds of other players to end up going down the exact same route.

It wasn’t an issue in SW:TOR. Since all the romance conversations took place on the ship no-one else saw them anyway. ANet could go for a similar option by using the home instance. If anything immersion is easier with this game as the npcs are not companions who you see running around, many of them identical, all over the map.

I’m not keen on pigs. I would find the idea of a fat little piggie running around with me amusing if it I ever found the forage useful, but I don’t.

Trahearne badly needed a Mad King joke… “Why is Trahearne so wooden? Because he’s a TREE!”

When I first encountered Trahearne, I hadn’t progressed as far in my storylines as some of the posters on here. I thought he was rather unmemorable, and the voice acting somewhat flat, but I didn’t quite understand why he seemed to be almost universally despised.

I understand now. It doesn’t really matter what happens during the story because he says everything in that monotone. His voice actually reminds me of Moss from the IT Crowd, but what works well when portraying a socially-awkward nerd doesn’t have quite the same effect when we’re looking at this guy who everyone in the game seems to look up to. You hear one early expression of mistrust because of his profession in Claw Island but after that, it’s all ‘I don’t trust (insert whatever plan here) but I trust Trahearne, so I’ll help’.

And we’re almost never rid of him. If he was a minor NPC I wouldn’t have taken much notice of the ineffective voice acting, but when he has the starring role plus he’s with us for most story missions, that’s as much of a problem as the limelight-stealing from the player character. I know some people disliked Kormir’s role in Nightfall because they felt she usurped the PC too, but at least we didn’t have her thrust down our throat for the entire plot.

Agreed, it’s utterly useless. Unfortunately I want Greater Marks, so I’m stuck with it and my toon’s annoying comments when it insta-dies.

Good idea. I would like this for my ranger at some time in the future.

Can’t complete the Life Stealing Minions renown heart in Hellion Forest. The displaced spirits do not go anywhere. There are no spirits attacking loggers which are all appearently dead on the ground. So there’s nothing to do and I can’t complete this area 100%.

The nearby dynamic event with Bria is also bugged as no sign of Bria anywhere. I tried going in the house via the back door and upstairs, but nothing there either.

Server – Yak’s Bend.

Eridani.8317:

And is it just me or did anyone else not get emails?

Check your spam folder, that’s where mine were. Odd as I’ve never had ANet emails go there before.

I redid the vista the other day on a ranger. I don’t mind that the dredge can potentially knock me off, since it keeps me on my toes and looking what their skills are. What I do mind is the fact that I can’t repay them in kind with a kickback since they seem to have an invisible wall in place that only applies to them. So I’m 100% with the OP on that. Let us knock them off too.

The starting area has some of the most epic music in the game. Beyond that I love their attitude. Their loyalty to their warband, their humour and their fierceness seems typical of charr. They are inventive but unlike the asura don’t waste time posturing about their inventions, which is probably why they are so effective. Yet they’re not all written the same and there’s room for goofiness with the likes of Tybalt and Dinky. Compared with the norn they seem more multifaceted.

I’m 48 and enjoying the game. 2 characters at 80 so far and levelling more. My husband of the same age is enjoying it too, though he can take it or leave it more. The only aspect I think they could improve on significantly is the personal story, which was too fragmented.

I picked up on the Bollywood feel when I first saw the Sylvari dance. I like it, personally.

I’m another one who would like this. It’s frustrating when you’ve just gone out of your way to reach someone and they waypoint. And when I’m downed it would be good to know that someone was near and on their way.

I rolled a Norn warrior and there are a ton of those, although mine is female and I’d say that combination is relatively rare. I also saw many Guardians.

I was able to complete this today after the patch, twice with different characters. Once on my own playing necro and once in a duo playing warrior. Trahearne dying didn’t appear to make a difference as he probably went down about 3 times when I was playing the necro. The NPCs in the cave actually followed me this time. However, I got a new bug with a repeated popup message of ‘that content has been disabled’.

Speaking of graves, there’s one for Kilroy Stonekin in the Granite Citadel.

EOTN was my favourite of the older games. Also I like running around snowscapes and playing tall female characters, and the shamanistic aspect of the lore interests me (even though that aspect is ignored for much of the story).

It seems I’ve got the same bug too. The NPCs in the cave won’t move. Trahearne is the only NPC who follows me in the cave after meeting the researchers, but the southern exit is blocked and nothing else happens. I would guess a cutscene is meant to happen here and it’s not triggering because there’s a bunch research team further back in the cave who need to be there. So now after a very long instance, my progress is blocked.

Since the beta I knew I’d be a Thief playing Ash.

I plan to play all 5 races, but what I like about the Charr is their no-nonsense nature and humour. It’s a refreshing change after playing Norn or Human and the constant praise of those characters right from the beginning. The music is more dark and foreboding around the starting area and Black Citadel compared with the other races, and the constant reminders of the past add to the atmosphere too.

I don’t usually enjoy warrior cultures in games but the Charr are capable of cracking a joke or two in between the posturing. Maybe I wouldn’t enjoy Blood so much, but Ash is fine.

Plus the Charr have Dinky.

I am getting a long wait when pressing login. Some of the time I get to the Play button and the CC screen, but after I select a character and get the loading screen, the firewall/router error message will pop up. The same is happening to my husband. We’re in the UK playing on a US world.

I have a human necro in Durmand Priory and also play an alt alongside a friend with a norn ele in Durmand Priory, so he made different choices than me with quests when he could but there was still some repetition inevitably. As far as I can see the race makes no difference to the order storylines at all.

When there’s a height slider I usually max it out anyway. So both my human and Norn females are max height. I made an exception for my Asura though… I thought if they’re going to be short anyway, may as well go to the opposite extreme.

I have a Vigil Warrior. It feels fitting.

It’s the default underwear. I took my Norn diving and she has the brown laced bandeau top on.

I have a couple of characters in the 50-60s and I’ve been struggling to find enough DEs or ones that actually trigger. It’s not all about a lack but some are broken. Some of these are escort quests that don’t get moving at all (and it’s not due to dead NPCs, they are alive). Some are marked on the map but the waves of enemies never start attacking.

I’ve been busy filling out bug reports, but I wonder if some are not triggering due to lack of population. If that is part of the game design there’s a risk of ending up with a situation like Rift where depopulated areas/worlds were dull because few world events would trigger. I would rather fail an event because of too few players than not have it happen at all. That said, in earlier areas I have managed to complete some events alone or with just one or two others though through careful picking off of enemies, and it was more satisfying than one big zerg.

If there’s no concept of Hell in the lore I’d leave it out and Victoria doesn’t sound Celtic. Baby name sites can be quite helpful in this regard. With the Asura, female names are more likely to be 2 syllables and with a vowel on the end. So I’d shorten it to Bipp for a man. Norn have a shamanistic culture and revere animal spirits rather than human style gods, so calling someone a friar doesn’t seem fitting to me. I’d go for either a surname ending in sson for a Norn man or a title.

The only NPC that has ever rezzed me was the Durmand Priory guy Josir in the quest The Queen's Justice. I only remembered because I was so surprised it happened. The NPCs usually drop like flies so I usually am the one struggling to get them in action again.

BobbyStein.2315:

The chatter system that handles things like greets and combat VO needs some frequency tweaking. It’s relatively simple to do, and it’s on our radar for polish stuff.

Good to hear. Mostly, I’m not bothered by combat VO, but there’s one thing that drives me insane. It’s the comments from the necromancer when a minion dies. I know there’s more than one response and they were funny the first time, but anyone with Death magic in their build hears them with ridiculous frequency because of the quick-dying Jagged Horror. The Jagged Horror itself needs tweaking because it’s pointless at present, but I guess that will not be such a simple task as altering the VO frequency.

I’m not young either and I’ve found warrior surprisingly enjoyable in this game. I don’t feel squishy and the rifle and bow are viable for getting the fight started with decent range before delivering a sound beating in melee. I didn’t enjoy guardian as much I’m not really sure why – possibly it’s that I liked their ranged options less.

Sometimes it’s a matter not of the class but of the weapon though – Ranger I find quite relaxing with axe/torch and longbow, but if I go for sword/dagger and shortbow it then starts to feel more twitchy. So when you’re trying out alts it’s worth at least giving it a while to open up a few weapon options.

I disagree with the OP. Zone completion is entirely optional. I think the vistas are a great addition to the game and many of them do not require difficult jumps. Some look like they will be hard to access and in most of those, you eventually realise you’re approaching from the wrong angle. For those rare exceptions where you can’t figure it out, there’s always Youtube because someone else will have found it first.

I have a low-level Charr thief and yes, I chose Ash Legion.

If you hate your voice that much, definitely reroll. Her storyline will change but her voice won’t. I like the voice fine on my warrior.

Also you don’t have to play your racial starting area at all save for any personal storylines you have there. You can go through the Asura gate in your main city that takes you to Lion’s Arch. From there you can go to any other main city and do the renown hearts and dynamic events.

I haven’t played yet past the early 50s so I haven’t seen any follow-up. It sounds like there’s some disagreement with whether she turns up later or not – maybe it depends on other options? I still think there should have been some kind of integration of her into the story while you’re on your order storyline, though. Even a mail would have felt slightly more satisfying than it just being dropped for ages. It’s just a detail, but then this game in general is quite rich in detail in many other areas. It seems odd that they dropped the ball more on the personal stories.

I played Charr Ash Legion in beta and overall, preferred that early storyline to some of the other race options. The difference is that you’re not treated as the all-conquering hero right from the start (Norn storylines are by far the worst for this). With the Charr it feels like there’s less stilted dialogue and more humour. I suspect the same will apply to Asura, but I haven’t played through much of those yet.

I enjoyed the Durmand priory quests up to 50 because they felt like they had some genuine continuity, and they also had a memorable NPC accompanying you on your quests.

Baddestchica.2348:

My son told me that there was a feature in GW1 where a player could marry a player.
Is that true?
How did that work?
And will we be able to do that in GW2?
My husband and I play together and thought that sounded cool.

I wonder if your son is thinking of the plot in GW1 where you play matchmaker to two NPCs who eventually become the ancestors of a well known NPC in GW2. That features a wedding scene.

Weird, I played human commoner and have no recollection of it. I could have just found it forgettable I suppose…

Falcon Night.4653:

I never realized that a game could bring out such emotions in a gamer. And this is the one thing that I feel is somewhat lacking in GW2. There is simply very little “feeling,” in this game for the world around you, the NPCs you are supposed to be helping and the world you are supposed to be defending.

I think part of the lack of connection in this game is a side-effect of the branching storyline. Characters are picked up and then dropped because you’ve moved onto another branch. You don’t get enough time investment with most of them to see any development at all.

I don’t think you have to have romance to feel a stronger connection, although it can be a nice addition if done well. Didn’t play ME3, but in Dragon Age 2 my favourite NPCs were Aveline and Varric. Neither were romanceable but they were developed enough and given time enough to feel like good buddies. The game itself had flaws but they did a reasonable job of getting you to feel a connection to at least some of the characters. By contrast, in this game Logan calls me ‘friend’ but it doesn’t feel like there’s any reason why we would be friends after seeing him during a few scant missions.

A dev hinted there might be romance in future in one of the past beta forums and if I remember clearly, it might be based in the home instance. I think that would be best because of the disjointed nature of the branching storyline. You could have more of a sense of continuity that way and it might make the home instance feel more like home, which is lacking at present.

SaintHax.2647:

The broken “redo at checkpoint” doesn’t help. When they teleport me to the beginning, and my NPC allies are up ahead getting killed, and there’s no armor repair to help with the damage I’m taking— it’s real hard. I had to exploit A.I. to get past a mission too.

Yes, another problem with that is when you have a particularly difficult enemy to get past that you’re not supposed to take down alone, and when you retry from checkpoint the enemy is now in between you and your dead allies. I had that with a dredge mining suit that I couldn’t kill quick enough before it summoned more dredge, so I had to keep dealing with adds on my own. And there was my supposed ‘help’ lying on the ground at the other end of a tunnel. It’s yet another case where the combination of terrain plus squishy NPCs sometimes doesn’t help. Sometimes you can use the terrain to your advantage with these stories, but it was a huge detriment there. Overall I’ve done okay with the stories and wouldn’t like to see the difficulty level taken down too low, but nearly all of the exceptions had terrain/confinement problems.

I’ve never noticed any mail having voiceover.

@Irishbrewed – remember they often give you money, so at least open them to take it!

You can buy exclusive level 80 armour at each of the order headquarters. Apart from that you’ll get personal story rewards as usual.